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|
Mr. Bryan retired from the hall of the House
at the end of the 52nd Congress, leaving the above as his last
official utterance, in the Record.
Pledged to the platforms and creed of his party,
before his constituents, the country and Congress, in behalf of
"the unlimited coinage of silver," he had to go over and surrender
to the bankers, the bondholders and lords of Wall Street and
Europe, or else stand up boldly for his oft repeated and well
matured convictions. But others had faltered, whose great fame
rested upon a course diametrically opposed to, their present
coerced position. But our young statesman had the courage and
sagacity to adopt the inverted motto, "Better serve in
heaven than reign in hell."
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481 |
The last platform pledges us to the use of
both metals as standard money and to the free coinage of both
metals at a fixed ratio. Does anyone believe that Mr. Cleveland
could have been elected President upon a platform declaring in
favor of the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law? Can we go
back to our people and tell them that, after denouncing for
twenty years the crime of 1873, we have at last accepted it as
a blessing? Shall bimetallism receive its death blow in the
House of its friends, and in the very hall where innumerable
vows have been registered in its defense? What faith can be
placed in platforms if their pledges can be violated with
impunity? Is it right to rise above the power which created us?
Is it patriotic to refuse that legislation
32
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|
483 |
The above collated sentences from his silver
speech of August 16, 1893, illustrate the unpleasant position in
which the Democratic party found itself in the extra session of
1893; which in the Senate threatened a disruption of the
party.
During the delivery of this most remarkable
speech, occupying three hours, and covering every material point
necessary to indicate the policy of unlimited coinage of silver,"
the hall of the House--the capacious galleries--approaching
corridors, retiring rooms and lobbies--with every doorway and
entrance, were packed to the last point of endurance, amid a
silence, so profound, that it emphasized the thunder-bursts of
applause. The spirit of the audience may be inferred from the
manner in which its enthusiasm punctuated such passages as the
following:
484 |
|
|
485 |
There had been the silence of curiosity; can
he arise again to the Summit on which he stood two years ago, when
unheralded as Pallas from the brain of Jove, he burst upon the
House full armed?--the silence of affection; he must not fail--the
silence of Silver Party pride; he pioneers our cause--the silence
of Republican anxiety; will the earthquake rend the mountain?--the
silence of protesting Democrats; voiced by a Tammany, Wall Street,
oracle, "My God! a damaging speech! and must be answered."
And now came the silence of sadness at
486 |
|
He was called a demagogue and his followers a mob, but the immortal Jefferson dared to follow the best promptings of his heart. He placed man above matter, humanity above property, and, spurning the bribes of wealth and power, pleaded the cause of the common people. It was this devotion to their interests which made his party invincible while he lived and will make his name revered while history endures. And what message comes to us from the Hermitage? When a crisis like the present arose and the national banks of his day sought to control the politics of the Nation, God raised up an Andrew Jackson, who had the
|
487 |
courage to grapple with that great enemy, and by overthrowing it, he made himself the, idol of the people and reinstated the Democratic party in public confidence. What will the, decision be to-day? The Democratic party has won the greatest success in its history. Standing upon this victory-crowned summit, will it turn its face to the rising or the setting suit? Will it choose blessings or cursings--life or death--which? Which? [Prolonged applause on the floor and in the galleries, and cries of "Vote!" "Vote!"]
Two months and a half from the delivery of the above speech, when it was under discussion again in the House, he proved its Republican features, and its violation of the Democratic platform, exclaiming:
The gentlemen who favor this bill may follow the leadership of Senator Sherman and call it Democratic; but until he is converted to true principles of finance I shall not follow him, nor will I apply to his financial policy the name of Democracy or honesty. [Applause.]
The last words uttered in the House, before the final vote on Senate amendments, were by the member from Nebraska.
You may think that you have buried the cause of bimetallisin; you may congratulate yourselves that you have laid the free coinage of silver away in a sepulchre, newly made since the election, and before the door rolled the veto stone. But, sirs, if our cause is just, as I believe it is, your labor has been in vain; no tomb was ever made so strong that it could imprison a righteous cause. Silver will yet lay aside its grave clothes and its shroud. It will yet rise and in the rising and its reign will bless mankind. [Applause.]
And thus ended one of the most memorable debates in the history of Congress.
On the 13th day of January, 1894, in the
first regular session of the 53rd Congress, Mr. Bryan appeared
before the House in a night session, to defend the Wilson bill,
framed for purposes of revenue, with incidental protection.
Having won his congressional spurs in a
previous congress, upon the theory of tariff duties in general,
he now had an oppor-
488 |
|
tunity of defending their application in a revised system of
tariff reform. Before arising to speak, when the last possible
spectator had been crowded within the walls, and the clamor was
still for admission, and members' families and ladies with
escorts were admitted to the floor of the House and the orator
granted unlimited time, it was a revelation of that sublime
confidence that crowns the victor in advance of the
contest.
Gracefully thanking the House for unusual
courtesy, and acknowledging inspiration from so many ladies,
for three hours he reigned supreme, to his comrades' delight
and admiration of opponents.
Every attack that ingenuity could devise and
personal interest enforce against the bill, had to be met and
parried, while such an audience as man seldom addresses
demanded that facts and theories, opinions and statistics
should be so woven and embellished that the most frantic
outbursts of applause should be conceded a failure in meeting
the demand and, discharging the delightful obligation.
The last deduction drawn, the last fallacy
exposed, and now came a refutation of the charge of favoritism
toward the South.
Texas has more sheep than any Northern
State and yet her members are willing to give free wool to
the manufacturers of Massachusetts. All the cotton is raised
in the southern states, and yet the members from the South
are willing to give free cotton to the manufacturers of New
England.
The South and West can vote for this bill
because, while it gives protection to the Northeastern
States, it makes the tax less burdensome than it is now.
History is repeating itself. A generation ago New England
helped to free the black slaves of the South, and to-day the
Southern people rejoice that it was accomplished.
[Cheers and applause.] The time has come when the
Southern people are helping to free the white slaves of the
North; and in the fulness of time New England will rejoice
that it is accomplished. [Great applause.] Thomas
Jefferson, although a Virginian, favored emancipation, and
yet that sentiment, born in the South, ripened and developed
in the North until it came down and conquered the land from
which it sprung.
The idea of commercial freedom had its
birthplace in the
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489 |
North, but it has spread over the states of the South
and the West, and it will come back from these great
sections and conquer the land in which it had its birth.
[Applause.] Let us not stir anew the dying embers of
civil strife. I did not live through those days. It was not
my good fortune to be permitted to show my loyalty to the
Union or my devotion to a State; and there are over all the
South young men who have grown to manhood since the war; and
they and their fathers rejoice to-day in the results of the
war, achieved against their objection. These men do not
deserve your scorn; they do not merit your contempt. They
are ready to fight side by side with you, shoulder to
shoulder, in making this the most glorious nation that the
world has even seen. [Loud applause.] I have no
doubt of the loyalty of the South, and I honor the
sentiments so eloquently expressed the other day by the
gentlemen from Georgia [Mr. Black] when he spoke in
praise of the flag which he once disowned.
These gentlemen from the South, sir, who
speak for union and fraternal love, and the men from the
North who echo their sentiments, reflect the wishes of the
people of, this country far more accurately than the
political volcanoes which break into active eruption every
two years. [Loud applause.] I welcome these sons of
the South, and gladly join them in every work which has for
its object equality, freedom, and justice. And I rejoice
that the people of these once estranged sections are
prepared to celebrate the complete reunion of North and
South so beautifully described by the poetess when she says:
"'Together,' shouts Niagara, his thunder-toned decree;
'Together,' echo back the waves upon the Mexic sea;
'Together,' sing the sylvan hills where old Atlantic roars;
'Together,' boom the breakers on the wild Pacific shores;
'Together,' cry the people, and 'together' it shall be,
An everlasting charter-bond forever for the free;
Of Liberty the signet-seal, the one eternal sign,
Be those united emblems--the Palmetto and the Pine."
[Loud and long continued applause.]
It fell to the lot of Mr. Bryan to close the debate, on an amendment to the Wilson bill, in behalf of an income tax of 2 per cent on incomes of more than $4,000; in doing which he answered all prominent objections, claiming that stockholders in corporations should not be allowed to limit liabilities beyond those attaching to individuals, and that their interests demand-
490 |
|
ing the protection of the courts should be responsible for
taxes; that a New York woman living in a cheap boarding house
having a $3,000,000 income was paying less indirect tax than a
laboring man spending his income of $500 in family support;
that such tax was no more inquisitorial than state taxes, and
would not make the perjurer, but might find him out.
He handled without gloves the puerile
argument that wealthy men would flee from the country.
MR.
BRYAN: In a letter which appeared in
the New York World on the 7th of this month, Ward
McAllister, the leader of the "Four Hundred," enters a very
emphatic protest against the income tax. [Derisive
laughter.] Here is an extract:
"In New York City and Brooklyn the local
taxation is ridiculously high, in spite of the virtuous
protest to the contrary by the officials in authority. Add
to this high local taxation an income tax of 2 per cent on
every income exceeding $4,000, and many of our best people
will be driven out of the country. An impression seems to
exist in the minds of our great Democratic Solons in
Congress that a rich man would give up all his wealth for
the privilege of living in this country. A very short period
of income taxation would show these gentlemen their mistake.
The custom is growing from year to year for rich men to go
abroad and live, where expenses for the necessaries and
luxuries of life are not nearly so high as they are in this
country.
The United States, in spite of their much
boasted natural resources, could not maintain such a strain
for any considerable length of time."
[Laughter.]
But whither will these people fly? If
their tastes are English, "quite English, you know," and
they stop in London, they will find a tax of more than 2 per
cent assessed upon incomes; if they seek a place of refuge
in Prussia, they will find in income tax of 4 per cent; if
they search for seclusion among the mountains of
Switzerland, they will find an income tax of 8 per cent; if
they seek repose under the sunny skies of Italy, they will
find an income tax of more than 12 per cent; if they take up
their abode in Austria, they will find a tax of 20 per cent.
I repeat, Whither will they fly? [Applause.]
Are there really any such people in this
country? Of all the mean men I have ever known, I have never
known one so mean that I would be willing to say of him that
his patriotism was less than 2 per cent deep. [Laughter
and applause.]
There is not a man whom I would charge
with being will
|
491 |
ing to expatriate himself rather than contribute from
his abundance to the support of the Government that,
protects him.
If "some of our best people" prefer to
leave the country rather than pay a tax of 2 per cent, God
pity the worst. [Laughter.]
If we have people who value free
government so little that they prefer to live under
monarchial institutions, even without an income tax, rather
than live under the stars and stripes and pay a 2 per cent
tax, we can better afford to lose them and their fortunes
than risk the contaminating influence of their presence.
[Applause.]
I will not attempt to characterize such
persons. If Mr. McAllister is a true prophet, if we are to
lose some of our "best people" by the imposition of an
income tax, let them depart, and as they leave without
regret the land of their birth, let them go with the poet's
curse ringing in their cars:
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
'This is my own, my NATIVE LAND!'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concent'red all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung."
[Loud and long-continued applause.]
When the Secretary of the Treasury was proposing the sale of $50,000,000 bonds in order to procure that amount of gold for a reserve fund and current expenses, Mr. Bryan urged the coinage of $55,000,000 of Silver bullion, already paid for and stored away in the vaults of the treasury. He Showed how adroitly bankers and brokers could drain the gold reserve by presenting treasury notes and taking out gold, and then returning the same gold and exchanging it for bonds, leaving the treasury not one farthing increased in gold, but owing ail additional interest-bearing debt. Said he:
492 |
|
If you do not want to give them this money, then let it go forth that this Congress, or those who are opposing this bill are in favor of confining a growing country to the present volume of currency, which must mean an appreciating dollar and falling prices, increasing debt, increasing suffering and the piling up of the wealth of this country in the hands of the few more rapidly than it has been done heretofore. If you are ready to say that, let us go out and fight the battle before the people. Let us leave it to them to determine the question. But, sirs, you cannot excuse yourselves for not giving the people this money unless you are prepared to show them how you can furnish them a better money with which to do their business. [Applause.]
Of the other discussions, in which he took
a prominent part during the 53rd Congress, was one upon the
character of money in general--a constitutional currency in
particular--a home currency expanding with every demand of
trade-free from the manipulations of bankers and brokers, and
responsive to every legal tender demand.
Upon a bill to punish gambling, by boards of
trade, in the produce of the country, he paid a beautiful
compliment to his immediate neighbors and home.
MR.
BRYAN: I care not whether the purpose
of the gambler is to help or not. If the gentleman could
prove that the effect of gambling was to take the cost of
handling and transportation out of the pocket of somebody
other than the producer and consumer, then he might justify
gambling by showing that it is wise for us to promote laws
which enable gamblers to take from the people who are
willing to gamble and give the benefit of their losses to
the producer and consumer alike.
But, Mr. Chairman, I am not going to
assume that the gambler simply makes his money out of the
people who buy for speculation. I am going to assume, upon
evidence satisfactory to me, that these gamblers increase or
decrease to some extent the price of the products speculated
in, increasing it to the man who buys or decreasing it to
the man who sells. No citizen has a natural right to injure
any other citizen; and the Government should neither enable
nor permit him to do so. Therefore, no man has a right to
lessen the value of another man's property, and the law
should not give to a man, or protect him in, the exercise of
such a right.
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493 |
My district is perhaps an average
district; about half of my constituents live in cities or
towns, and about half are engaged in agriculture. I have in
my district the second largest city in the State, Lincoln,
the State's capital--a city of 60,000 inhabitants. My home
is in that city, and I have no hesitation in declaring that
it is one of the most beautiful and prosperous cities of its
size in the United States. The people who live in cities
will, if gambling in farm products reduces the price of such
produce, be the beneficiaries to that extent. But, sir, I do
not come here to lower the price of what my city
constituents have to buy, by enabling grain gamblers to take
it from the pockets of those who raise farm products. My
city constituents do not ask that of me, and I would not
assist them in so unjust an act if they did ask it.
As I said, about half of my constituents
live on farms, and they labor in a veritable Garden of Eden,
for we have in the First Nebraska district as beautiful and
fertile farm lands as the sun turns his face upon in all his
course. I deny that it is just to the farmers of my district
that gamblers should be permitted to bet on the price of
their products to their injury after they have prepared
their crops for the market. When the farmer has taken the
chances of rain and drouth, when he has taken the chances
which must come to the farmer as they scarcely come to
anybody else; when he has escaped the grasshopper and the
chinch bug and the rain and the hail and the dry winds, I
insist that he shall not then be left to the mercy of a gang
of speculators, who, for their own gain, will take out of
him as much of the remainder as they can possibly get.
There is no difference in the moral
character of the transaction between the action of the
burglar who goes to a man's house at night and takes from
him a part of that which he receives for his wheat, and the
action of the gambler who goes on the board of trade, and,
by betting on the price of the product, brings down that
price and takes that much from the farmer's income.
Having introduced an amendment to the
constitution for the election of U. S. Senators by popular vote
of the people, he became its persistent and powerful
advocate.
As the first session of the 53rd Congress was
nearing its close, he concluded a memorial address in honor of
his late colleague, George W. Houk, of Ohio, as follows:
Mr. Speaker, I shall not believe that even now his light
494 |
|
is extinguished. If the Father deigns to touch with
divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried
acorn, and make it to burst forth from its prison walls,
will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, who
was made in the image of his Creator? If He stoops to give
to the rosebush, whose withered blossoms float upon the
breeze, the assurance of another springtime, will He
withhold the sweet words of hope from the sons of men when
the frosts of winter come? If matter, mute and inanimate,
though changed by the forces of Nature into a multitude. of
forms, can never die, will the imperial spirit of man suffer
annihilation, after it has paid a brief visit, like a royal
guest to this tenement of clay?
Rather let us believe that He who, in His
apparent prodigality, wastes not the raindrop, the blade of
grass, or the evening's sighing zephyr, but makes them all
to carry out His eternal plans, has given immortality to the
mortal, and gathered to Himself the generous spirit, of our
friend.
Instead of mourning, let us look up and
address him in the words of the poet;
Thy day has come, not gone;
Thy sun has risen, not set;
Thy life is now beyond
The reach of death or change,
Not ended--but began.
O, noble soul! O, gentle heart! Hail, and farewell."
Such was the rapidity of his advance as a
profound political debator and captivating orator, that in a
little over two years from his first appearance in the House of
Representatives his speeches were read in every state of the
Union, while upon a variety of themes he had charmed audiences
in many cities, among which were New York, Chicago, Denver,
Omaha, and Washington.
In the same brief space of time he had risen
from the ranks to the leadership of the Nebraska Democracy, and
was their candidate for U. S. Senator.
In the last session of the fifty-third Congress, Mr. Bryan offered an amendment to an inter-state commerce law, by which he hoped to modify in future such decisions as that of Judge Brewer of the United States Court, in which he decided that the
|
495 |
railroad rate law of Nebraska was constitutional, but the rates were not reasonable.
I want to insert on the second page of
the bill, in line, 38, these words:
"And in determining the reasonableness of
rates the Commission shall allow profits only on the cost of
reproducing the roads and rolling stock at the present time,
regardless of the original cost. regardless of the amount of
indebtedness, and regardless of the amount of capital stock
issued, whether real or fictitious."
I have no doubt that this will cause a
smile on the face of some of the representatives of the
railroad interests, but yet, sir, that is the basis upon
which profits are calculated in the private occupations of
the country.
And I am simply asking that you apply to
railroad companies the same principle that must be applied
to every man, woman, and child who goes into business, but
who is not fortunate enough to have a monopoly of the
business.
The subject of the currency being before
the House, December 22, 1894, which he had so elaborately
argued in former sessions, was handled "without fear, affection
or favor," under the mottoes: "I was derided as a maniac by the
tribe of bank mongers, who were seeking to filch from the
public their swindling and barren gains."--Thomas Jefferson.
"So persecuted they the prophets which were before
you."--Matthew v:12.
The introductory sentences were equally
emphatic. Mr. Bryan said:
Mr. Chairman, I desire, in the first
place, to call attention to the extraordinary circumstances
which surround the presentation of this measure. This is the
closing session of the Fifty-third Congress, and nearly half
of the members of the House will retire in about two months.
Yet the President of the United State has asked this
Congress to pass a bill which changes the entire character
of our paper money.
I doubt if you will find a parallel in the
last twenty-five years. I doubt if you will find such a
repudiation of the theory of democratic government. Why do
we have platforms? It is in order that the people who vote,
knowing the policies to be pursued, may express themselves
on those policies, and select such agents as will carry out
their pur-
496 |
|
poses. If that is the purpose of platforms, if we
believe that what power we have really comes from the
people, and if we believe that they are competent to govern
themselves, what excuse can be given for proposing so
important a change in the monetary policy of the country,
without ever having submitted the question for public
consideration!
Has any President ever proposed before to
annihilate the greenbacks? Has any party ever declared for
it? Have any campaign speakers ever presented that issue to
the American people? And yet after an election, one of the
most extraordinary elections ever held in the United States,
after a political defeat without precedent, the defeated
party in control of Congress is asked, before it retires, to
please turn over the issue of all paper currency to the
banks. More than that, the Banking and Currency Committee at
once takes up the question and certain people are invited to
come and be heard.
More than carrying out the spirit of his exordium, while contesting with ten of his colleagues, who occupied half his time with questions and interruptions, he came to his conclusion, in the style of intrepidity defiant.
If the President is determined to make
our financial bondage still more oppressive than it now is,
let him carry out his purpose with the aid of a Republican
Congress. If we can not relieve the people, we can at least
refuse to be responsible for further wrong doing.
We are told that the President will not
approve any bill which carries out the pledge of the last
national platform in favor of the coinage of gold and silver
without discrimination against either metal or charge for
mintage, but is that any reason why we should join him in
making the restoration of silver more difficult for the
Administration which shall succeed his? It is useless to
shut our eyes to the division in the Democratic party. We
who favor the restoration of silver deplore the division as
much as our opponents, but who is to blame? Did not the
President ignore the silver Democrats in making up his
Cabinet? Has he not ignored them in the distribution of
patronage? Has he not refused to counsel with or consider
those Democrats who stand by the traditions of the party?
Did he not press through Congress with all the power at his
command the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law, in
spite of the earnest protest of nearly half the Democratic
members of the two Houses? And did he not join with the
Re-
|
497 |
publicans to defeat the seigniorage bill, which was
supported by more than two-thirds of the Democratic
party!
Did he not oppose the income tax, which a
large majority of the Democratic party favored? Has he not
in fact joined with the Democrats of the Northeast time and
again to defeat the wishes of the Democrats of the South and
West? We desire harmony, but we can not purchase it at a
sacrifice of principle. We desire to live on friendly terms
with Mr. Cleveland and our Eastern brethren, but we can not
betray our people or trample upon their welfare in order to
do so. If the party is rent in twain let the responsibility
rest upon the President and his followers, for no other
Democratic President ever tried to fasten a gold standard
upon the country or to surrender to the banks the control of
our paper currency. Let the light go on. If this bill is
defeated the people will profit by the discussion it has
aroused. I have confidence in the honesty, intelligence, and
patriotism of the American people, and I have no doubt that
their ultimate decision will be right. [Loud
applause.]
February 1, 1895, Mr. Bryan said:
Mr. Chairman, I shall avail myself of
the brief time allowed and run over the principal points to
which I desire to call attention, and then put in the
Record some extracts from the Pattison report which I
shall not have time to read. This bill affects mainly two
classes of people, namely, those who have been guilty of
defrauding the Government in the management of the roads and
those who for the next fifty years will pay the rates
charged by these roads for transportation, and, as a bill
should describe the purposes embodied in it, I think the
title of this bill ought to be made to read as follows: "A
bill to so amend the eighth commandment that it will read,
'Thou shalt not steal on a small scale,' to visit the
iniquities of the fathers upon the children of somebody else
unto the third and fourth generations, and for no other
purpose." [Laughter.]
For one generation the patrons of the
roads have suffered from extortion, and the pending measure
would extend the injustice for two more generations and at
the same time condone the crimes of those who have been in
charge of the roads. In behalf of the inhabitants of the
transmississippi region I appeal to you to foreclose these
liens, squeeze the water out of the stock, reduce the roads
to a business basis, and allow the Western States to secure
reasonable rates for their citizens. [Applause.]
33
498 |
|
A bill being before the House to authorize the issue of gold bonds and retire United States notes, Mr. Bryan unfurled his standard bearing the defiant inscription: "Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."--Daniel iii:18.
Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Maine will not come out and say that he wants to destroy the greenbacks, but he wants to keep them idle in the treasury so that some future Congress can destroy them if it wants to do so. If those greenbacks are good, why not pay them out for the expenses of the Government? They are there in the treasury. We have enough of them. We do not need to issue bonds for the payment of our expenses. We have greenbacks enough in the treasury now to pay any deficit that can possibly occur until the receipts of the Government equal its expenditures, according to the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury.
He offered an amendment as a summing up of his views. It reads as follows:
Provided, That nothing herein shall be
construed as surrendering the right of the Government of the
United States to pay all coin bonds outstanding in gold or
silver coin at the option of the Government, as declared by
the following joint resolution, adopted in 187S by the
Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America, to-wit:
"That all the bonds of the United States
issued or authorized to be issued under the said act of
Congress hereinbefore recited are payable, principal and
interest, at the option of the Government of the United
States, in silver dollars of the coinage of the United
States, containing 412% grains each of standard silver; and
that to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a legal
tender in payment of said bonds, principal and interest, is
not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of
the rights of the public creditor."
During his official career, no occasion more appropriate for the utterance of immortal truth could have occurred than memorial services for a distinguished son of North Carolina.
Mr. Speaker, there are things in this life more valuable than money. The wise man said three thousand years ago,
|
499 |
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." We struggle, we. sacrifice, and we toil in order to leave to our children a fortune; but I believe that Senator Vance has left to his widow and to his children a greater, a more valuable heritage than he could possibly have left had he given to them all the money which one man ever accumulated in this world. When he left to them a name untarnished, when he left to them a reputation such as he earned and bore, he left to them that which no wealth can purchase and that which no one who possesses it would part with for money. I am not skilled in the use of obituary adjectives, and did not rise to give a review of his life, but I beg to place on record my tribute of profound respect for a public servant who at the close of his career was able to say to the people for whom be toiled, "I have lived in your presence for a lifetime; I have received all my honors at your hands; I stand before you without fear that anyone can charge against me an official wrong." I say, to such a man I pay my tribute of respect,
Ever alert and ready for work, the last week of his congressional. life found him appealing in behalf of arbitration between carriers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees.
Society cannot afford to allow the
employer and the employees to fight out their differences
even if they both desire to do so, and certainly neither
desires to do so. Courts of justice are established to
settle disputes, to construe contracts, and to award
damages. Commissions are established to fix transportation
rates and for various other purposes. Courts and commissions
are simply arbitration boards instituted by society for its
own protection and for the economical adjustment of personal
difficulties. This bill seeks to extend the principle of
arbitration to disputes between common carriers and their
employees in regard to "Wages, hours of labor, and
conditions of employment." I am in hearty sympathy with the
purpose of the bill and shall gladly support it.
There is no more danger of the abandonment
of arbitration after a fair trial than there is of our going
from the court of justice back to the wager of battle.
Arbitration is in the line of progress and, like the
adoption of the Australian ballot, is an indication, if not
proof positive, that civilization is advancing, and that
each new generation pitches its camp on higher ground.
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On the last day of the session, just before the Speaker's gavel was to make its final stroke, on Mr. Bryan's motion, the bill was taken up, "to admit free of duty antitoxine," the diphtheria cure of Germany, discovered by inoculating the horse with diphtheria virus. The bill was attacked in a strain of irony and wit by Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, and replied to and parried by Mr. Bryan.
MR.
BRYAN: Mr. Speaker, I am not willing
that my friend from Iowa (Mr. Henderson) shall surpass me in
compliments. He attempted to give expression to his
affection when I first came here. I loved him "when he was
still," but as I became better acquainted with him my
affection increased rapidly, and the opportunities for
manifesting it were so very infrequent that I had to love
him when he talked or I could not get a chance to love him
at all. He has not been as happy to-night as usual; perhaps
I ought not to say "happy," because he is always happy when
he is talking, but he was not as felicitous as usual. The
gentleman stated in the beginning that be had received a
pile of information on this subject, but that he had not
read it. His word is good here; he need not have made his
speech in order to satisfy us that he had not read the
information received. We would have accepted his statement
as proof without the additional evidence afforded by his
speech.
My friend says that he does not want to
inflict this injury upon our horses. Why, my dear friend (if
he will allow me to address him in that way), we want
antitoxine admitted free so that we can make the "pauper"
horses of the old country bleed and thus save our own
horses.
The gentleman speaks of doing something to
restore perpetual youth. When he has the gentleman from
Maine in the chair, with a Republican goldbug Congress and a
silver Senate, he will not want perpetual youth.
[Laughter.] He will want death just as soon as it
can come.
But we are to decide to-night whether we
think more of the infant industry of this country, which is
suffering from diphtheria, than of the pauper horse abroad.
Those members who vote "no" on this proposition are in favor
of the foreign horse; those who vote for the proposition are
in favor of our children.
Thus he rode out of the House and out of office, with the passed bill as a trophy.
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