The record-union., 1899-08-16
DEMOCRATS GATHER
AT DES MONIES.
The State Convention Was One of
the Attractions,
Then William Jennings Bryan Was on the
Program for Speech.

rIendS or the various candidates
for Governor OF Iowa Put in a
Day of Hard Work Among the
Delegates, but the Name of the
Winner as Yet Appears to be in
the Dark.
DES MONIES Qa.). Aug. 15.-This
city is full of Democrats tonight who
came from all parts of the State to
attend the Democratic State conven-
ton and hear William ]. Bryan, Gem
eral j. B. Weaver and others speak.
Two great meetings were held this ev-
ening, the main one at the Auditorium,
where Hon. William j. Bryan spoke to
5000 people, and the other at the
Tabernacle, where General Weaver
spoke for an hour until Mr.. Bryan came
from the first meeting. The Democratic
convention meets tomorrow morning.
The friends of the various candidates
for the nomination fqr Governor have
been hard at work all day, and to-
night the winner cannot be told.
Cato Sells. who will be temporary
Chairman, and will deliver the main
convention speech, is the candidate OF
the conservative element, and Rev. 5.
II. Bashor of Waterloo the candidate of
the radical silver element. In case the
convention is unable. to choose between
them on the first few ballots there is
a talk of former Congressman Fred
White as a compromise. The names OF
NJ j. Wade of Iowa City and Mayor
Baker of Davenport may also be con-
sidered
For Lieutenant Governor B. P. Hoist
of Boone and Ed K. Stall of Mount
Pleasant are mentioned and Hoist is
also mentioned as a candidate for Su-
perintendent of Public Instruction. The
action of the convention on the plat
form and nominations depends entirely
on which wing of the party, radical or
conservative, is in control.
Colonel Bryan spoke for two hours at
the Auditorium tonight to an audience
of 4,500 people. The house was crowd
ed, and the audience. which included
practically all the delegates to the
Democratic convention to be held to-
morrow, took every opportunity to ap-
plaud Mr. Bryan took up the silver
situation saying that prosperity did
not set in until six months after the
election, when the Klondike gold mines
began to be heard from. THE Repub-
leans who claim that times are better
because the balance of trade is in IA
vor of the United States, give away
their own position he said, and ad-
NIT that the Democratic view of the
quantitative character of money is cor
rect"
The 6,500000 Democratic voters of
the Democratic party in 1896 were for
silver. The 100000 Republican voters
were for a platform which called for
international bmetallism. Only the
Palmer and Buckner voters were for
the gold standard-less than 1 per cent,
yet now the Iowa Republican platform
goes a step farther. and is mainly for
gold alone Moreover. the Republicans
threaten to retire the greenback,
though they have never been before the
people on that issue.
The speaker next went after the
trusts, but said that if the Democratic
party neglected the silver question to
attend to the trusts, it would rightly
forfeit the confidence of the people.
The money trust is the biggest trust of
ALL He was glad the travelling men
were fighting the industrial trust now,
but sorry they had not seen the logic
of events in 1896, and helped to fight
the money trust. The men who make
trust speeches and applaud them are
bankers. A new danger for the trusts
has just been developed. When trust
gets control of all the factories in a
given line and the hands in one factory
ba will hot
and make it's goods at the other. When
the workmen at that place are starved
to the point of working for any wages
offered that factory will be reopened
and a lockout to reduce wages will be
inaugurated at another factory
Mr.. Bryan closed his speech by a
lengthy discussion of Imperialism. The
difference, he said. between a republic
and an empire is this: "a republic
needs an army of $4,000 for 10000, 900
people. An empire needs four times as
large an army when 1000O,000 popula-
ton is added. This suits the young
men who get fat jobs in the army, but
not the people who pay the $1,000 a
year needed to maintain each soldier in
the Philippines
Mr. Bryan gave figures to show that
England and other nations do not col
onize rapidly, and said that with twen-
ty people to the square mile in Amer
lea. and sixty to the mile in the Phil
ippines, there is no opportunity there.
Even if we succeed in killing off all the
natives, you cannot get young Ameri-
cans to go there-they prefer to live in
Iowa and Nebraska. The profit will
not equal the cost. and the profit will
not go to the right people, but to in
vestment syndicates. Even if any man
is willing to trade for pottage and does
not have a taste for birthright, he had
better investigate the pottage. AS the
Tagals are largely Christian and our
native allies are largely Mohammedan,
we ought to ask the Sultan to help us
to subdue the Christian insurgents
"This Government ought to make q
declaration of intentions toward the
Philippines as it did toward Cuba. The
President ought to have done so, or if
he did not have the power, should have
asked Congress for 1t. Now, he might
call a special session to ask for the
power. Cleveland called special ses-
sion to repeal the Sherman Act, and
Mckinley called one. A special session
now would cost much money, but not
nearly so much as the continuance of
the war;
Directly is Not Lame.