The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-07-19
SIGNS OF THE TIMES,
ADDRESS BY BRYAN
From Saturdays Daily.

peared at the gates of the chautau-
qua grounds at the conclusion of a
most delightful performance of the
Boston Lyrics. Mr.. Bryan drew
forth again the applause he had re-
ceived on so may former occasions
when he was campaigning the coun'
try for the presidency. The fact
that he had been advertised to
. speak at the chautauqua drew an
overwhelming crowd.
Mr.. Bryan had chosen for his
subject, 1.-The Signs of the Times
Preceding his address, the Boston
Lyrics entertained the crowd for
perhaps half and hour until the ar
rival of the speaker. An entertain,
ment of songs, readings, monologues,
humorous skits, cornet and from
bone selections followed each other
in rapid succession. The audience
surely received treat yesterday
afternoon.
Mr.. c. E. Wise introduced the
speaker in a few words. He said
that the speaker of the afternoon
has been a national figure for more
than sixteen years and during that
time has preached the gospel of equal
rights to all and special privileges
to none. I'VE love him for the
enemies he has made" quoted the
speaker.
Mr.. Bryan Speaks.
In prefacing his main talk, Mr.
Bryan gave brief accounts of the
two great political conventions held
at Chicago and Baltimore. He did
this on receiving a unanimous vote
to suspend the rules, thus requir'
ing two-thirds consent. AS stated
in the Free Press yesterday, he said
that he came to the convention as
a newspaper man, on his promise
that he would not say anything
worse about the two candidates in
the limelight at the Chicago conven-
ton, than these two selfSame candi.
dates had said about each other.
He was given a seat at the end
of the row in the press box, with
only a railing between him and the
delegates. Here, he had an excel
lent opportunity to view the dele
gates and at pauses during the con.
vention, to have communion with
them. He smilingly stated that
nearly one-half of the delegates, had
personally promised to vote for him.
if Roosevelt was nominated and the
other half promised to vote for
him if Taft was nominated, so that
he stood good chances of actually
getting the nomination himself, much
easier than it would have been at
Baltimore.
The republican convention began
like a tragedy and ended like a
comedy.
AS soon as it was learned that
nothing could stop the steam roller
everyone went on with the business
in a formal way, but the steam roll
err exceeded the speed limit. He
then decribed the trouble over the
seventy-five contested delegates, the
story Of which need not to be re-
peated here, for it has gone down
in the pages of history. These dele
gates were sufficient in number to
turn the convention either to Taft
or Roosevelt. One criticism he had
to offer, and that was the fault in
allowing the old committees to or.
ganize the new convention. AS
would be brought out in his speech,
many changes occur in the course
of fifty years, and what committees
of four years ago think should be
done, people of the modern day will
disagree.
Reforms He Suggested.
One reform that he suggested,
was that national committeeman
should be elected by a direct vote
of the people and that these COM
mitteemen shall commence to serve
able the new committee to form
the new organizations, and thus pre-
vent what occurred at Chicago, and
Baltimore.
tremendous changes have taken
place in the last four years, so |
Ihio ooJCSI IOSSoH udo oSlf0u
its purpose and that the people will
learn from it. Some one has stated
that the American people sleep un-
til the eleventh hour, but when they
do wake up, they do more in the
next hour than any other people can
do in year.
But they had a difficulty at Chi
cago that We did not have to meet
at Baltimore At Chicago a number
of committeeman represented with
full power to act in that committee,
constituted largely an imaginary
one. Many of them represented
merely paper mache organizations.
They could take these men from the
south and change the character of
the convention and could use them
to determine the platform of the
party / hope they will find some
way to adjust our representation. l
do not mean to be understood as
saying that we democrats would
not have done the same thing under
the same conditions
However, the convention at Bal
timore was a serious matter with
me; while | looked on the tragedy
at Chicago, l did so as though |
were in a theatre without fear that
the actors being killed were men,