The Greeley tribune., 1912-02-29

atinR II all this was going on out
.,da and We were not making pro-
eress In this country along the same
iines. and l now propose TO teii YOU
that our country IL leading the way
in triumphs of democracy as wen
as In intelligence and In morals. !.
has been an astonishing perloo
through which We have been pass
ing these last few years and ! won
der IL you fully appreciate the IRE
mendous development, at least ol
the manifestation OF the democratic
spirit in this nation and or course
YOU know when l speak OF demo
cratic spirit l have no reference 10
any party. l will show you IN
few moments how much larger the
democratic spirit is than any party
has ever been in this country.
Let me take the first and most
important victory for democracy IN
recent times. 1t is the successtui
effort to elect senators by dlrec,
vote of the people. | say successful
effort. for this resolution has now
passed the senate and the mouse
and is in conference and l cannot
doubt that before congress adJourhs
they will find some way of agreeing
upon phraeology that VIII en-
able them to pass that resolution
through both houses and thus give
the people the election OF senators
by the people when it is ratified d!
the states as it is, | believe
But now as we stand at the emu
of this fight let us look back ana
see what an interesting struggle IL
has been. The fight began so FAR as
congress is concerned. about tweh'!
years ago. Resolutions had peeh
introduced before that. but 1t was
nearly twenty years ago when the
tirst resolution passed the house at
Washington and the democratic
party was in control of congress.
Now If this were proper place
/ might brag a little about the
party. Now 1 am par
tisan. it is my party-ho" the
democratic party led the way ana
passed through the house for the |
first time the election resolution to
submit to the vote of the people the |
election of senators, but If after
Dragging about it ii there are any
populists in the house they might
get up and say. ten years before the
congress put 1t in the
house they put it in their platform,
if you admit that the
populists are eight years ahead OF
US on that proposition. l will not
only admit that, but go further and
admit that there has not been
oopulist platform written for seven
years that has not declared for cleo
Nf nj tho | 4
Die. Haven't | said all l ought to
Drag about it l will haveto tell
hem that ten years before the pop
lists put it in their platform the
put it in their plat
orm. | did not know that until
hree months ago. had been CIV
ng the populists credit for leading
he way. A prohibitionist repri-
handed me and sent me copy Of
he prohibition platform of 49,
nd showed me that they had 1t in
heir platform twelve years before
he populists. And l don't blame
he prohibitionists II they ieel lit
le stuck up about beating the pop
lists. But II the prohibitionists
get too boastful about it will tell
them that about four years before
hey put it in their platform the
'epublican president recommended
t in a message to congress. zap
,lause.) Now are there any re-
'ublicans here? (Applause.) Are
,o. yoa . little E1oud now? The
asst year after the populists had
'eaten the democrats. eight years,
he prohibitionists had beaten the
,opulists twelve years and are not
'ou little proud that a republican
president beat the prohibitionists
our years? But If you brag too
much tlaughter) l will have to re-
mind that you tried to impeach the |
president who did it. daughter
and applause.) 1t was Andrew
Johnson and he barely escaped i'm
peachment.
What l am pleased with is not SO
much as to which party began, what
gratifies me is that we are all to-
gether now and that you can call
the roll and nine-tenths of the peo-
pie of all parties believe in the cleo
tion Of senator's by direct vote of
the people. Cloud applause Do
you know what that means? 1t
means that In this country the
democratic spirit Is overwhelming
because there has not been In all
these years sound argument made
against the election OF senators by
the psople; there have been two
arguments made and made honest
ly. but those were not sound.
Cne was the aristocratic argu-
ment. that the people have not
sense enough to elect a senator;
that they just have barely sense
enough to elect the legislature
tlaughter) and then go to sleep.
But that is not made much now.
And the other argument is the old
chestnut that you cannot trust a
body elected by the people to pro-
tect property rights, therefore to
put property rights above human
rights you must have somebody
that the people cannot control.
Now these arguments have beer
made honestly by men who believed
In these things. but they are moi
common today