The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-04-03
JEFFERSON DAY ORATORY
a NAL AUDIENCE DRINKS III ~
AT MASONIC HALL.
The Young Democrat Made n Brave
Effort to Draw n
Taggart's Brief stay.

The Jefferson day exercises at Masonic
Hall. last night. despite the time and en-
ergy expended by the young Democracy of
the city 10 make the meeting a success,
were but poorly attended. more than half
Of the seats in the hall being unOccupied.
The programme, aside from the musical
selections OF the Montani Orchestra. con-
sisted of a number of predetermined ora
tons delivered in an enthusiastic manner
by the speakers representing the young De-
mocracy, and in a perfunctory way and
with less enthusiasm by John w. Kern
and Henry Warrum, who spoke in behalf
Of the old guard.
Mayor Taggart was introduced as the
chairman Of the meeting. but after briefly
cOngratulating the young Democrats on
the success of the meeting which, he de-
clared, had only been made possible
through their 'tireIess and unremittins eff
forts" the mayor gracefully withdrew in
favor of one of the younger Democrats
and departed to a more cOngenial environ
ment. Before leaving. however, he sue
ceeded in instilling a little enthusiasm into
the meeting by reading a telegram from
Chicago. conveying the intelligence that
Harrison had been reelected by $1,000 plu-
rality.
The first speaker was Claude Bowers,
who delivered a prepared grafton with such
rapidity that his hearers were utterly I'M
able, at times. to follow him i'm his lights
of rhetorical efforts. The general impress
sion conveyed, however, was that there
had been a sad departure from not only a
political but an economical standpoint
since the days of Jefferson. Jefferson, he
declared, had made it possible for the
common man to become noble by virtue of
MS brain and muscle, but during the last
forty years of Republican dominancy a
moneyed aristocracy had been developed.
WnlcH no longer recognized the rights of
the laboring man, but used him only as a
means TO more American dollars. The solu-
tion or the difficulty devolved upon the
young man, and the young men of to-day
said.
WARRUM'S GLOOMY PICTURE.
Henry Warrum was next introduced. and
after the applause had subsidized spoke in
terestingly of the political. social and in
dustrial conditions of to-day as compared
with the principles enunciated by Jeffer-
son. Thomas Jefferson and the statesmen
or his day, Mr.. Warrum said, dealt very
largely with the political rights and the
liberty of the individual. but since that
time there had been a very radical change.
In the day OF Jefferson the power of wealth,
said Mr.. Warrum. was nothing more than
a question of philosophical speculation,
but to-day the power of wealth is the ques-
ton of the hour. 1.-The power of wealth
has grown most portentOus." said he. 1.-The
leaders find themselves entangled I'm some
gigantic corporation and are strangely
silent: two-thirds of the liberty loving press
teachers are affected, lawyers have be-
come tainted and even the government is
dominated and our courts OverShadOwed
by these all powerful aggregations of CAPT.
tai. The solution, however. is in the hands
OF the American people. Not by bloodshed
nor force, but by the peaceful application
OF Jeffersonian principles to the political
as well as the economical and social condi-
lions that obtain"
Frank +. Baker. another of the young
orators. made a plea for the young man.
who, he said, had been continually thrust
in the background. HE Is trying TO break
into the party of Jefferson with a Jimmy"
said Mr.. Baker. land should no longer be
kept from the committee and the stump"
John W.. Kern spoke of the great need
the Democratic party had for young men,
saying they were needed in the convention,
in the council, on the stump and at the
polls. Never in the history of this coun-
try" said Mr.. Kern, has the young man
been as much needed as now. We are in
the age OF cOmmercialism, and the spirit
of money getting is ruling the world. 1t
is tearing and swapping heart strings and
running and desolating homes. 1t sees the
overthrow OF liberty duu SONtTuiHtut anu IL
unmoved. The flag of the Union is to its
eye only a symbol of barter and trade. The
time was in America when in a contest be-
tween liberty and deSpOtism the voice OF
liberty could not be hushed, but ii is differ
ent now, for money is king and holds the
reins with a powerful hand The Ameri-
can people were responsible for the present
condition. he said, and it rested with them
TO change them.
Russell Vaught, a student in the Indian
apolis Law School. made a brief address,
and by way of variation Richard Coleman,
after much persuasion. recited a pathetic
poem entitled jackson Day"