Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-07-26
Mr.. BRYAN at Augusta.

Mr.. Bryan has come and gone. 1t is
which greeted him was a distinct dis
appointment to his political friends
and managers. There was a COMPARE
lively small attendance from out of
town, Notwithstanding the fact that
the day was not a specially propitious
one for the haymakers. There was
no occasion for the projected overflow
meeting. City hall was able to ac-
commodate all who came to hear the
great Democratic leader This was
well filled-about third of the au-
dience were ladies, and the voters pres
ent were fairly well divided among
the members of the two political par
ties.
Mr.. Bryan is unquestionably pleas
ing public speaker. He has a good
presence, an easy delivery, and voice
of exceptional strength and flexibility.
He possesses the ability to phrase him.
diction, and must be fairly recognized
as one of the most foremost orators of
his party.
Those who listened to him, yester-
day, in expectation of hearing any
thing new were doomed to disappoint-
ment. His address was simply repe-
tition of the political heresies that
have been made familiar to the Aineri-
can people in two national campaigns.
While he has. the faculty of presenting
them with a degree of plausibility that
is not possessed by many of his party
leaders, it is not likely that thoughtful
citizens-in the present era of unex-
ampled prosperity the country is en-
soying under Republican rule-will for
get the facts of history, or be misled by
mere flowers of rhetoric
Mr.. Bryans address was devoted to
four familiar subjects, viz. the tariff,
the trusts, the money question and
Imperialism.
1t seems strange in these prosperous
days, when our country is outstripping
the civilized nations of the earth, in
the growth and volume of its export
trade. when its goods are being sold
in every quarter of the inhabitable
globe-when our mills and factories.
working in m NY instances with day
and night Sits are months behind
in their o.Cers; when labor is better
employed and at better wages than
ever before in the country's history;
when positions are everywhere seek
ing men, and not. as was the case
where seeking places--to hear a leader
of any political party advocate a re-
turn to the policy which, when the
Democratic party was last in power.
a period sufficiently recent to be fresh
in the memory of every American
citizen of voting age. was responsible
our country. 1t was a policy which
stopped the wheels of industry, threw
thousands of men out of employment,
contracted our great home market
by everywhere curtailing the earning
and purchasing power of the masses,
and erected public soup houses in the
shadow of silent faetories-factories
which, today, under Republican rule.
are iresounding with the hum of pro-
ductive enterprise.
Under the Wilson tariff law, passed
by the Democratic party when last
it was in power. business failures
throughout the country Increased SO
per cent. The trade reports of Dun
and Bradstreet showed that business
liabilities, which during the last year
of President Harrison's administration
amounted to s114.ooo.ooo, rose in 1898,
the first year of Democratic rule, to