The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-04-24
VIM. j. BRYAN IN MISSOURI.
He Made n Speech Entitled ga
Country Editor to Country Edi-
tors"-SenatOr Stone Spoke and
Said the Papers Had unde Him.

Kansas City, No. April 2O.-United
States Senator w. ]. Stone, addressing
the annual convention of the Missouri
democratic association today, made an
elaborate explanation of his onnec
ton with Baking Powder legislation
and enforcement of the state food laws,
and bitterly denounced the daily news
papers of the state, which. he declared,
lac "hounded" him outrageously.
William J. Bryan lac been ANNOUNCE
ed as the principal speaker of the aft
ternoon. He was received enthusiastic
cally and spoke as:
tors" He declared that throughout the
country he found deep and growing dis
satisfaction among the republican vot-
ers with the policy of the national adj
m~inistration and exhorted his hearers
mot to make the democratic party so
much like the republican party that it
would be easy for republicans to get
into it, But to keep It different in or
der that in time of stress the people
would turn to the democracy for deliv-
rance Praising the state of Missouri
for it's prosecution of the packing houS-
es, he said:
"The federal government seems to be
afraid to enforce the criminal law. and
prefers the use of injunctions."
Mr.. Bryan spoke with earnestness of
the hostility of most of the large pa
pers to the democratic party and said
that some of the professed democratic
papers of the east, did more harm in
four years Of apologizing for the DEM
ocratic platform h they could undo
I four mounths Of a campaign when they
supported the ticket"
He closed with a reference to the Mis-
souri, legislature scandals and called
for the punishment of every offending
official.
Congressman-elect C. NJ. Hitchcock,
of Omaha, spoke briefly, and then Sen
ator Stone was introduced and at once
took up the bribery investigation. The
senator, who labored under intense ex-
| element, protested against the perse-
secution to which he had been subject
ed by the "scavengers of the press"
who had used ~"assassins methods" He
shouted:
Before my God, 1 fear them not; I
laugh in their faces and spit upon
them"
Senator Stone declared that he had
no part in the passage of the anti-alum
law of 1899 and did lot know for nearly
a year hat it had been enacted. AS a
private attorney he had assisted in the
enforcement of the state pure food laws
and in 1901 when it was proposed to re-
peal the anti-alum law, he wrote an
argument against repeal, but he did not
visit Jefferson City.
81 swear to you / never spoke nor
wrote to n member of either house
Of the Legislature concerning this mat
ter, but what I have told you,' he de-
clared. +.
He said he hoped every guilty mar
woul be uncovered. In closing his
address Senator Stone said:
Il hope God will wither my hand.
palsy my tongue and burn my heart in
the flames of hell, before 1 will inten-
tionally dishonor any position to which
the people Of Missouri assign me-"
Kansas City, Mo-, April 2O.-William
J. Bryan, Senators Stone and Cockrell
and Congressman-elect 9. II. Hitch
cock, of Omaha, were the principal
speakers tonight at a banquet given by
the Jackson county democratic club to
the democratic newspaper men Of Mis-
souri,. A letter Of regret from w. r.
Hearst was read in which the trust
Cif11a tion UaC discussed