The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-07-16
BRYAN'S LECTURE

Colonel Bryan addressed an audi
ence that did not quite fill the
grandstand, and he sounded a key
note of the common people in way
that emphasizes the appellation of
the Great Commoner. He talked of
some of the human things of earth,
and Of the weaknesses of both Of the
old political parties. He confessed
that there is insincerity in both par
ties, and that the good men of both
parties find the others milestone
about their necks.
He said that every person in CIV
ilized country like ours is indebted
to the generations that have gone
before, for being born of good stock,
as compared with the condition of
the greaser, whose ancestry endows
him with nothing. The American
boy or girl is indebted oothers for
his environment and education while
growing up, as compared to the
greaser child, for whom nothing is
provided in the way of education
or safeguards.
The better educated, the better
trained, the better provided the boy
is, the more he owes to his country
and to society. But in actual prac-
tice, when greed and corruption is
hauled into court to answer for its
wrongs against the people, it invari-
ably has the hired service of the
best brains that our best institutions
of learning can afford. In those
cases the man who owes much to
society by reason of his extended
preparation, not only does the least
for society but does the most against
it by using his skill to defeat the
will of the people to prevent their
obtaining their rights.
We have our own government and
each one of us has the right of par
ticipating in government because
thousands of men have poured out
their life blood upon the battle
fields to purchase that right. In ac-
tual practice we do not exercise the
right to the full extent, but only
80 per cent go to vote on important
questions when we are aroused, and
the percentage drops, as low as 20
per cent voting. People owe it to
themselves and to society to vote
and to use their talents and skill in
voting, but they do not do it. So
long as people shirk the basic duties
of citizenship and leave it to others
to do, just so long will wrongs creep
in.
Colonel Bryan went down the line
for two hours teaching the simple
things and duties of citizenship, a
great teacher saying and doing effec-
tive things He illustrated it from
the moment he stepped out Of the
auto that carried him to the grounds.
The speakers stand, a decorated
truck, had been placed at some dis
tance from the audience, and he
asked that it be brought up close.
In order to do this, some lumber had
to be removed from where it had
been placed to form seats in case
there was very large audience, and
he directed which lumber should be
moved, and helps move it,
and seemed as much at home
in doing SO as if he had been a
laborer in a lumber camp.
While waiting for the truck, he
looked over the audience and shout
ed, SIS Hi Cherry here?' And the
audience laughed and applauded.
Many of them remembered that in
1897 Hi Cherry was chief in COM
mand of party that took Mr.. and
Mrs Bryan and the children thru
the Yellowstone park. The stories
that Mr.. Cherry used to tell about
the commonness of the Great Com
moner the gentle touch with his
fellow man, were not few. On one
occasion the coach got stuck in the
mud and Mr.. Bryan pulled off shoes
and stockings, rolled up his pants
and waded in with poles and pry-
block, and worked like an old farm
er prying the wheels out of the
muck.
In his address Colonel Bryan re-
ferred to his trip thru the Snake
river Wiley in 1897, and of the rev.
elation of the changes wrought since
that time by man and nature coop
Grating. He went thru from Sho-
shone to Shoshone falls with I. B.
Perrine, and it was all a desert.
Since that time it has been subdued,
or partly subdued, and the annual
harvest is worth forty millions Of
dollars. Things like this prove the
value of water when coupled with
land 1t shows that people never
get the right estimate of the value
of water when they merely study
it's value in a political convention.
Further on, when discussing the
liquor question, he said there is no
OBJECTION to beer and wine. The OBJ
lection is to the alcohol 1T con-
tains. Any man can get all the
alcohol he wants to, only he must
take enough water with it so it will
not hurt him. The chemists and sci
entists have. fixed that limit at one
half Of One per cent In other words