Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-02-22

New York City.-William J. Bryan
brought all his invective into play
to tell what he thinks of the New
York Stock Exchange and to de-
nounce lawyers who stand behind
corporations who violate the law and
tell them how to do it with safety"
Addressing the Civic Forum, in
Carnegie Hall, he praised President
Roosevelt, and described the Clear
ing House certificates issued through
out the country to relieve the money
stringency as "no-cent dollars"
He branded the Stock Exchange as
worse than Monte Carlo. He declared
it's members use loaded dice and prac-
tice every form of gambling and
swindling known. He asserted that
the Exchange turned out more en-
bezzlers than Fagin's school turned
out thieves, and wound up his denun-
citation by the utteTance:
1T is a mystery to me why the
eighty million people Of this country
do not rise in their indignation and
drive these gamblers into honesty or
out of the country"
Cheers that reverberated for two
minutes through the auditorium
greeted this sentiment, and they were
followed by thunderous outbursts
when Mr.. Bryan attacked the monop-
olists who reap rewards by cornering
the necessities of life"
1T is time" he said, "that the
masks of respectability be torn from
these monopolies, and they be re-
vealed in all their ugliness and ghast-
liness."
The subject assigned to Mr.. Bryan
was Thou Shalt Not Steal" and he
talked on the topic for two hours.
MIR. Bryan's Address.
Mr.. Bryan said In part:
"To steal or to commit larceny
may he defined as the wrongful TAX
ing of anothers property. Law
writers have divided larceny into two
classes-petit larceny and grand lar
ceny--the former term being used
when the property stolen is of little
value, and the latter when the value
is greater. There In a tendency in
modern times to divide grand larceny
into two classes, so that now we are
inclined to think Of larceny as petit
larceny, grand larceny and glorious
larceny. BY glorious larceny do not
refer to the policy which nations
have indulged in of taking the prop
erty of other nations by force--an act
that is sometimes described as not
only innocent, but even patriotic:
refer, rather. to that tendency, quite
discernible at the present day, to re-
gard stealing upon a large scale as
less reprehensible than stealing upon
a small scale. II man picks your
pocket, or enters your house in the
dark, or accosts you upon the high
way and takes from you few dol
lars, you regard him as vulgar
thief. No one can have respect for
such a person, and the punishments
of the law are in such cases swift
and sure, IL the offender is caught.
Even in the case OF grand larceny,
II the amount taken is not very great,
the thief finds it difficult to escape.
for he has no influential friends and
he cannot hire skillful lawyers to
present technicalities in his defense.
IL, however, he steals a large sum,
1t becomes quite a different matter,
and the sum may be so large that we
overlook the mans rascality In our
amazement at the genius which he
has displayed. AS rule, the man
who steals a million dollars has
better chance of escape than the man
who steals a thousand. So true Is
this that it has been suggested that
we amend the commandment to read,
Thou shalt not steal on small
scale We should attempt to eulti-
vate public opinion which will re-
move the distinction between grand
larceny and glorious larceny and In
sure the enforcement OF tn. criminal
law against all offenders alike, re-
gardless of the amount stolen and
regardless Of the social business, or
political position Of the thief"
Mr.. Bryan's peroration was devoted
to the Stock Exchange.