Weekly journal-miner., 1916-09-20


 had not cast his ballot He did not explain why the president as a friend of suffrage had never urged the pas sage of the suffrage amendment, but declared that if suffrage was made a party issue and the support of the women thrown towards Hughes for declaring himself for suffrage, the Democrats would probably be forced to retaliate by opposing the amend ment.
 Bryan caused the audience to roar with laughter when, in referring to prohibition he said: q am glad that the time has come when a man does not have to get drunk to stand high in the Democratic party and when Republican cannot say he can tell Democrat by the way he walks"
 Bryan reviewed the legislation pass ed by the Democratic administration, giving clear and interesting resume of the conditions that had brought about such legislation and the condi- tions that would result. He said that the achievements of the party during the last few years read more like a list of campaign promises than of things actually accomplished. He re- fcrred to the Democratic tariff as a thing that had released the nation from thraldom of fear" and played more upon the amount of money it had put into the treasury than on its effects on the industries of the nation
 In his criticism of Hughes for op- posing the eight-hour law recently passed for railroad men, Bryan charg- ed that Hughes, when governor of New York, had vetoed a two-cent railroad law because he thought the matter ought to be investigated. Wig orously clapping his hands together, Bryan declared that had Hughes been president he would have decided the strike controversy in favor of the rail oads and not in favor of the employees. This, he qualified, was reasonable to assume His only reason for assum- ing this, however, was Hughes action on the two-cent measure.
 The ex-secretary of States explana- ton of the administration part in the Mexican trouble was confined mostly to a denunciation of Huerta as a traitor with bloodstained hands and the declaration that the Ameri- cans whose lives and property had been lost in Mexico had gone into Mexico and taken a chance on mak- ing big profits out of their invest ments and that they, therefore, should have accepted the reign of terror in Mexico as one of the chances in the game and should not have expected their country 10 come to their aid.
 The presidents policy in questions resulting from the European war was defended by Bryan on the ground i that after the war was over the Unit ! ed States would be in position to l act as a mediator and to father a movement for worldwide peace, which would never be broken. No l reference was made to the Lusitania . outrage by the speaker, for when Bryan came to the point of his ad- dress where the war in Europe was | considered he launched forth into a brilliant plea for peace.
 This was the closing and crowning part of the address. Bryan was heard . on his favorite subject and at his best | He rccited the horrors of war, told of . the number of men killed, wounded . and captured and of the expense Eu- rope was undergoing to maintain the war. He expoundcd principles on peace for which he attempted to give credit to the Democratic party and President Wilson but which were rec ognized only as those principles for which he has always stood. He clos cd his address with the plea that when the war was over some man should . be chosen to act as mediator be- tween the world powers and that no other man was better fitted or dc served the honor more than President Wilson.
 The speech was enjoyed by every one. Ii was not a Democratic speech but Bryan speech, of the kind that has made him famous throughout the world. The principles were Bryan principles and, in spite of the fact that the speaker modcstly tried to shift credit for them to the Democrats, they were recognized as such. C r~N