The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-20
C0MM0NER NEVER MORE EARNEST
 THAN NOW STUMPINC FOR WILSON
 AND THE SUCCESS OF DEMOCRACY
His Two Primary Propositions.


 His Two Primary Propositions. MT. Bryan's speech begins usually with these two propositions:
 Should the government be turned back to the reactionaries whose com duct was so odious that it caused more than half the Republicans to repudt- ate their party in 1911? If not MT. Wilson should be reelected with a Democratic Senate and House to SUD- port him. Gecond: Should the Presi- dent be rebuked for keeping the coun- try out of war with Mexico and Flu rope, or should he be commended by vote that will re-elect him and give him Democratic Senate and House to support him."
 From these premises MT. Bryan de- velops an argument on domestic ques- tions at first, pointing out that MT. 1 Wilson record, for example, on Wo- man suffrage is much better than that of Mr. Hughes; for the President went to New Jersey and voted for suffrage, while MT. Hughes didn't even go to
 New York when the issue was sub
 mitted to the electorite last year. Mir. Bryan speaks of the tariff, the income tax law, the currency law, the Hu i Credits law, the Anti Trust laws, the Fact creating a Trade Commission, the Shipping bill, the Child Labor law, the Philippines bill, the Peace Commission treaties, and the Eignt-Hour law. And on the last two especially does he get
 an overwhelming response.
 | When before,'' he goes on did any party, in so short a time, present and
 complete so remarkable a program for
 the advancement of the nations well fare? Is it possible that a party which has thus justified public confidence can be rebuked by the people to whose interests it has dedicated itself?'
 All this may sound on reading like
 the usual campaign drool. but the poo
 pie by their every manifestation show
 that they believe it implicitly. And when MT. Bryan touches the subject cf Mexico or the war in Europe, there is no question that he has his audi ence almost iunanimously agreeing with him. He tells how the President inherited the Mexican mess from Mir. Taft, justifies the refusal to recognize
 the ed-hAnded assassin, Huerta, g
 and comments the administration for
 declining to intervene in Mexico. He
 drives home his point that interven-
 ton would benefit alone the specula-
 tors and investors when he asks his
 audiences if they want to give the
 blood of their sons and relatives to
 make good the financial losses of men
 who preferred to go outside the United
 States to invest their capital insteA d
 of inside. There is no disputing that
 with the average man MT. Bryan
 makes a. ten-strike every time. Mr. Hughes's speeches about the pr6tec-
 ton of American rights and the fact
 that underlying all our diplomacy
 must be the basic principle of the use
 of force may stir enthusiasm, but it is
 hardly comparable to the shouts and demonstrations of approval given to fthe plain talk of MT. Bryan.
 l PePorafion "Gets,' the Crowd
 The peace issue is paramount in the
 West Not alone Mr. Bryan, but ev- cry other Democratic orator, rarely fails to draw an outburst of genuine applause as he paints the horrors oi
 the European war, the battles at Yer
 dun and on the Somme, and tells oi
 the hardships on the women at home llwho toll while the vitality of a na. Ition is each day sapped on the battle field. Obviously the Democratic side
 of the argument about foreign policy is the easier, the more dramatic, fo1 the orator to handle, and one can be
 forgiven the suspicion that if the cards were reversed the Republican orators would work the gag not less effectively. MA
 But it is MT. Bryan's peroration that t''gets" the crowd. In it is a spirit o1 generosity which comes all the more conUncingly from the man who broke 4 with the President a year ago. Here
 is what MT. Bryan says to every au-
 dience that he addresses-severa. times a day for seven days a week: Il "And who; if not the President o1
 the United States, is entitled to be mediator when the time for mediation
 comes? Some American Prestden1
 will surely have that honor Surely
 the country Wiu not turn down the President who has borne the burde1 and carried the responsibility of neu.
 traaity, and give the incomparablt
 honor of being mediator to one who
 has had no part in the work done ] and who merely finds fault with tn, President without outlining any polic1
 or propoan$ any course to be, pur Isued" MT. Bryan talks that way becaus, he ance1e1y believes every word of it He wants Ar. Wilson to have tha
 honoe not alone because of the re
 ward to the man for whom today h, |, has the, highest respect. but becaus he wants especially to see 1t added t, , fhe record of Democratic achievement , in American history. MT. Bryan i
 fundamentally more interested in tn welfare of the Democratic party tha1
 in any person in it. He may hay lthought at one time, not long afte The left the Cabinet, that the Presi : dent was on the wrong track, that b. |, the advocacy of large measures of pre- paredness and the shaking of the bi stick. the Administration was drift ing into war, MT, Bryan did not wan the Democratic party to be wa
 party. Nothing. delighted him nor than the turn of events which gay the Democratic party the cry that the had maintained peace. It enable him to forget, for the moment, if no : forgive, the large expenditures fo 5 preparedness, for the peace polio 9 was closest to his heart. 3 Yet if anything was needed to mak ] MT. Bryan realize his duty, 1t was tn l performances at the last Chicag l Convention and the campaign argu ! ments of. M. Hughes. The Republi : can candidate helped to solidify Demo : cratic ranks. The Eight-Hour bi v pleased the Commoner immensel, 5 The Democratic party-his party
 was again on the side of the masse s in big fight for human rights an , international peace in foreign polio . and for the betterment of the co4nmo