The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-09-18
WHAT A DIFFERENCE.
THE SPEECHES OF BRYAN AND
ROOSEVELT ON LABOR DAY.

A Demagogic Partisan Appeal for the
Labor Vote, and IA Strong and Sen
sible Non-Partisan Grafton, Backed
by Past Performance.
Especial Correspondence
Chicago. ILL.,, Sept. 4.
The demonstration in Chicago on La
Dor Day was one of the greatest of the
kind that has ever been seen any.
where. The event was of national sig
niticance because of the addresses thai
Were made by Governor Roosevelt oi
New York and by Mr.. Bryan. Great
pains We're taken by the labor leaders
to make the observance of the day non
! partisan. Representatives of both par
ties We're invited TO speak. but il was
expected, not that they would conduct
joint political debate. but that they
would avoid partisanship for the day
and make addresses suitable to the oc-
casion.
Very instructive is the difference be
( tween the addresses of Mr. Bryan and
Mr.. Roosevelt. | presume you viii
have in this issue of your paper eX-
tracts from both speeches, and your
readers may verify my statements
from the text.
MIR. Roosevelt's speech was an ora
ton such as he might deliver before
any great body of intelligent fellow
citiZens-such an address. for instance
with allowance for the difference in
the aims and purposes of the organiZa-
tions, as he might have delivered he
for the American Bar Association or
the National Medical Congress. There
was not a word of politics, in the parti-
san sense, in the whole speech. The
keynote of il may be found in the fol
lowing paragraph:
ha s1p INA tful In of hon no
litical life in this great republic is that
each man shall in deed and not mere
ly in word be treated strictly on his
worth as IA man; that each shall do full
justice to his fellow, and in return
shall exact full justice from him. Each
group of men has its special interests:
and yet the higher. the broader and
deeper interests are those which apply
to all men alike, for the spirit of broth
erhood in American citizenship. when
rightly understood and rightly applied,
is more important than nught else. Let
us scrupulously regard the special in
terest of the wage-worler, the farmer,
the manufacturer and the merchants,
giving to each man his due and also
seeing that he does not wrong his fel-
| lows; but let us ever keep clearly be
fore our minds the great fact that
| where the deepest chords are touched.
| tne interest OF all are allke ana must
be guarded alike
Mr.. Bryan began his speech some
what in the same vein and on the same
plane. but before he had gone more
! than half way through. he could not re-
sist the temptation to take advantage
of the occasion for partisan campaign
speech. He took occasion to denounce
the trusts-with the implication, OF
course, that his party stands with the
laboring men against the trusts. He
declaimed ut length on the dangers OF
Imperialism. made the usual quotation
from Abraham Lincoln, and denounced
the Porto Rican bill passed by the last
Congress. In fact. read between the
lines. the speech was simply bid for
the labor vote-the Implication every
where was: Elect me president. and
all the evils which | denounce shall
be remedied by me and my party"
That was one great difference be
| tween the speeches of the two candi-
dates; but there was another difference
even more radical, and even more i'm
| portant when II comes to deciding
which of these two candidates is the
better entitled TO mems votes. When
Mr.. Roosevelt says that the state has
| the right to suppress sweat-shops and
to pass and enforce factory inspection
| laws. he speaks from eXperience-he
| has himself done more than any other
one man in New York state to sup
press the sweat-shops and to enforce
the factory inspection law. When he
says that the great need is that per
formance shall square with the prom
| Use of good work, the laboring men
| know. and every other man knows,
that Mr. Roosevelt himself made his
performance square with his promise
| every time He went to the Legisla-
| ture with the idea of helping along Ger
| tain reforms. and he did help theu
! along He took the office of police
commissioner in New York with the
idea that the laws on the statute book
should be enforced. and he had them
enforced He thought. and had said,
that efficiency, and not political pull,
should be the test to determine II po-
liceman's advancement, and before the
! end of his term the police force of
| New York was on new basis, and ev-
| cry officer on the force knew that he
would have square deal" and that
! if he did his duty. no political pull
would upset him or advance inferior
| and inefficient men over his head. Mr..
Roosevelt helped to get the navy ready
| for the war with Spain; he organized
a regiment and led it at the battle of
| San Juan hill. and later, when he
| thought there was need for criticism,
he criticised. and got the troops moved
away from Santiago when they needed
| to be moved: as governor. he has seen
to 1t that things were done right in the
| state administration.
In Mr. Bryan's case, words have new
er been backed by deeds. He has al
ways been II taiker. not n doer. II he
ever helped to frame n legislative en-
actment, it was the Wilson bill-that
measure which was so complete n sur
render of the free-trade principles for
which Mr.. Bryan has stood, and of
| which Mr.. Cleveland was then the