The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-04-13
The POPULIST'S RAMPANT
A Tremendous Meeting in Cooper
Union in New York Where the
People Shout for PopuIism
WATSON MAKES GREAT SPEECH
The Hall Crowded, Adjacent Streets
Crowded, Indoor Meetings and
Outdoor Meetings

tropolis This evening it filled historic
Cooper Union and the adjacent streets
with cheering human tide that prom
Uses to sweep on and engulf the city
hall in this falls municipal election.
Inside and overflow meetings were
held. They were under the auspices
of the Municipal Ownership league
and were called to order by Congress
man William Randolph Hearst, the
founder and president of that Organi-
zation. Mr.. Hearst was given an ova-
tion that lasted several minutes, after
which in a neat speech he introduced
the young philanthropist, ]. G. Stokes,
as the chairman of the inside meeting.
Justice Samuel Seabury presented
resolutions demanding immediate mu-
,nicipal ownership, which were adopt
ed with a shout. Short speeches were
made by Clarence ] .Sheam, Judge
Palmieri and others, chief among
whom were Judge Edward F. Dunno,
who has just led the municipal owner
ship hosts to victory in Chicago, and
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, the populist
chieftain of Georgia.
1t will be recalled that in recent
interview in the New York World Mr.
Watson outlined the plan of campaign
for city ownership which is now TAX
ing form.
Mr. Watson's speech Immediately
followed that of Judge Dunno. The
fiery Georgian was greeted by Dixie"
and cheers as hearty and lOng-con-
tinued as met him in 1904. He sound
ed this keynote of public ownership
through the right of eminent domain.
s'Not long ago. said Mr. Watson,
1--WE American people hailed the re-
turn of the heroes of the Spanish
American war-hailed them with pride
and 10Y as they came home from San
tiago, San Juan and Manila Bay.
Their triumph had made for liberty,
but it was liberty for a foreign land.
They had lifted higher the standards
of civilization, but it was for other
people than ours.
Tonight, we welcome a soldier who
comes to us from another battlefield,
flushed with victory which in it's
consequences may be rated by the his
torian as more important than those
won by Sampson, Schley, Dewey, Shat
ter, Wheeler and Roosevelt.
Chicago, the triumph was a gain for
liberty-liberty for ourselves. The
cause of civilization was advanced,
and it was civilization for the folks
here at home.
"AIl honor to Judge Edward F..
Dunno. In the memory of the Ameri-
can people his name will long be asso-
ciated with the first signal triumph of
the principles of public ownership of
public utilities.
'sAnd there is another who deserves
special mention here tonight-an I'M
assuming, modest man-nOt mere
talk factory, not man whose purpose
finds it's only life in words, to die away
with the echo of those words, but a
man who for dozen years has in
trepidly championed the cause OF the
people, and who at Chicago was in the
thick of the fight.
at would be rank injustice not to
say that the whole country owes rec
ognition and applause to w. R. Hearst.
s"The great God of nature rolled
from the hollow of His hand the earth
and all it contains--the land, the sea,
the lake. the gulf, the river and the
bay; and the human family was put
here to live and multiply.
For reasons of state, society has
permitted the division of the soil into
private holdings and homes, just as it
regulates the relations between the
man and the wife.
"Our civilization has built itself
upon the home and the marriage tie,
u wisely, necessarily.
'But while the state has allowed the
soil to be cut up into homes, farms,
gardens, mill-sites, there has never
been a time when those things which
were essentially public in their nature
and their use were not kept for the
Dsnefit of the public.
'Kings might grant monopolies- land
did grant them-but no king ever
dared to stretch his sceptre across the
sea.
sThe story books do, indeed, tell us
that the courtiers of an absolute mon
arch once flattered him with the as
surance that he could control the
ocean, but when King Canute stretched