Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-22
BRYAN HAS SPRUNG
ANOTHER NEW IDEA
That Is to Say, He Claims Pa
ternity for It.
| FEREDAL TAX ON MONOPOLY
Bureau of Corporations May Have
Beaten Him to It.
TAKES A SHOT AT NEWSPAPERS
Says Their Columns Are for Sale,
If Not All, at Least Many-Does
Not Particularize.
TAKES A SHOT AT NEWSPAPERS

NEW YORK, October 22-William Jen-
nings Bryan, speaking before an enor-
nous aud ence in Cooper Union last
night, enunciated one doctrine new to
Bryanism, reiterated all his well-known
views and received an ovation such as
Cooper Union audiences have gained a
reputation for rendering
On the expression Mr.. Bryan used in
Richmond that the columns of many Of
the metropolitan journals were for sale
to the highest bidder tie Nebraskan gen
eralized and qualified last night, but
! failed to specify, though he had an
nounced over his own signature that he
would 60 into the matter thoroughly in
this speech.
Mr. Bryan, after dwelling at some
| length on the evils of Capitalization, ex-
| actly as he did here in the spring. advo-
Gated the federal licensing of corpora
! tons seeking to control p per cent OF the
! iting of the business that such corpora
lions might do to so per cent Of the total
business in that commodity. This idea
is new to Organism, though the idea OF
| federal license, never before advocated
| in the same speech in which centraliZa-
| ton of power over corporations has been
| attacked, was put forward two years ago
by the bureau Of corporations in Wash
| ington.
Mr.. Bryan spoke for two hours and ten
minutes. The hall was damned almost to
suffocation. and before the Nebraskan
| started to speak it was necessary to close
| some Of the doors. so great was the
crowd that still sought to gain entrance.
| The chief speaker of the evening was
| vigorously applauded when he was intro
duced, and throughout his entire speech
the audience gave c.ose attention. At the
| end many climbed up on the platform to
shake the speakers hand, and he left the
hall surrounded by a mob.
| Mr.. Bryan devoted his opening remarks
to 1.-The common people" and one by one
took into his definition of the phrase the
| farmer, the laborer, the doctor the law
yer, mott of the merchants, and those OF
many other walks Of life. In speaking OF
| 1.-The cornfield'' lawyers, who framed the
Oklahoma constitution, Mr.. Bryan praised
that document highly. calling 1t the best
constitution in this country. not except
| Ing the Constitution of the United States"
His View Of New York Press.
| Passing on from the lawyers and the
others, Mr.. Bryan said:
II would put in the newspaper men.
too; not all Of them. but some. I would
not put them all In for two reasons. The
first reason Is that cannot find out
who they are. 1t is one of the great
calamities Of our times that SO many of
| our great metropolitan journals are owned
| by people whose names are not known.
| 1t Is a great calamity that many Of our
metropolitan papers are run, not as news
paper enterprises. but as adjuncts to ex-
| plotting enterprises. 1t is one of our great
| calamities that some, not all, of our pa
pers are owned by men who hire brilliant
editors to chloroform their readers while
they pick the pockets Of those readers.
| Great applause)
when l made a similar statement IN
Richmond the other day, I was quoted
as saying 'alr of the metropolitan pa
pers. Any one who has followed what
I have said and written will know that
the kind. One OF your papers here has
asked for particulars and proofs. l shall
| not attempt to offer proof, because no one
| Is required to prove self-evident truth.
There is another reason, and that Is that
I have a larger work to do than to enter
into a personal controversy. have re-
| ceived proof that satisfies me that 1t Is the
| ONCE Of some of the papers to deceive the
public, while the public Is being exploited
| by the owners Of the paper.
| Qualities a Little.
II said that the columns OF many OF the
metropolitan papers were for sale to the
| highest bidder Perhaps I should have
qualified that statement for the highest
bidder indicates that there are at least
two bidders. AS a matter Of fact there
has always been predatory wealth on the
one side and the public on the other. and
this has come to be SO well recognized
that it Is a help to a man to have these
papers in opposition to him; when to have
Mr.. Bryan then proceeded to praise the
small country papers which had name
back Of them" He passed on from this
to say that nine-tenths Of the republicans
Iy,SA ayn1
swung into his talk on Jeffersonian de-
mocracy and Hamiltonian repubIicanism,
touching on the popular election of sena-
tors and taking the chance to say that
he was glad Roosevelt had recognized the
futility Of the Hamiltonian plan in say
ing, when last elected. that this would be
his second term and that he would not
accept another.
Then, following identically the same
course as when last in the city. he turned
to the question of GENERALIZATION Of power
and roundly abused it, mentioning the
South Carolina matter and the advantages
of local self-government. Federal RENE
dies for corporation abuses. he said.
| should be added to, and not substituted
for state remedies. In this connection he
mentioned the matter Of the San Fran
ciscan schools and the admittance Of
japanese to them. He touched on cam
paign contributions, and mentioned the
Roosevelt Hartman incident of the cam
pdlSH VI 1OVfp ucCidilHS lHdt Oil COHtilOu-
lions above a certain small minimum
should be recorded In a book open to the
public, before. and not after, the cleo
| ton. From this he turned to corporations
generally, and then to trusts, voicing his
| well-known sentiments over again.
1t was in this latter connection that he
| brought up the licensing Of corporations
| seeking to control quarter of the output
Of any one thing. He did not go very
| deeply into this matter, but asked:
will you discourage any Of the indus
| tries of this country If you limit the sales
Of a corporation to half the people in the
| United States?'
Has Been Misquoted.
| Next Mr.. Bryan tackled the railroad
question, and again said he had been mis-
quoted in his Madison Square Garden
speech of over a year ago. The people
were not ready for government owner
ship, but they were ready for govern
ment supervision, and he was for the i'm
mediate appraisal of the railroad proper
ties. He declared that there were two
parties to be protected. the stakeholder
| and the patron, and 1t was necessary to
squeeze out the water and rate stocks or
the value Of the actual property owned
by the company. Honest wealth, he said
he had never attacked, and he would
champion tin fact, the democratic
party would champion it-if ever 1t were
attacked.
| For Tariff Revision Now.