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of silver bullion. It means that we will widen the difference between the coinage and bullion value of silver, and raise a greater obstacle in the way of bimetallism. It means to increase by billions of dollars the debts of our people. It means a reduction in the price of our wheat and our cotton. You have garbled the platform of the Democratic party. You have taken up one clause of it and refuse to give us a fulfillment of the other and more important clause, which demands that gold and silver shall be coined on equal terms without charge for mintage.
   Mr. Speaker, this can not be done. A man who murders another shortens by a few brief years the life of a human being; but he who votes to increase the burden of debts upon the people of the United States assumes a graver responsibility. [Loud applause.] If we who represent them consent to rob our people, the cotton-growers of the South and the wheat-growers of the West, we will be criminals whose guilt can not be measured by words, for we will bring distress and disaster to our people. In many cases such a vote would simply be a summons to the sheriff to take possession of their property. [Loud applause.]
   THE SPEAKER: The time of the gentleman has expired.

 

EXTRA SESSION FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS.

   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."

   Mr. Speaker--The President of the United States, in the discharge of his duty as he sees it, has sent to Congress a message calling attention to the present financial situation, and recommending the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law as the only means of securing immediate relief. Some


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outside of this hall have insisted that the President's recommendation imposes upon Democratic members an obligation, as it were, to carry out his wishes, and over-zealous friends have even suggested that opposition to his views might subject the hardy dissenter to administrative displeasure. They do the President great injustice who presume that he would forget for a moment the independence of the two branches of Congress. He would not be worthy of our admiration or even respect if he demanded a homage which would violate the primary principles of free representative government.
   Let his own language rebuke those who would disregard their pledges to their own people in order to display a false fealty. In the message which he sent to Congress in December, 1885, he said, in words which may well be our guide in this great crisis: "The zealous watchfulness of our constituencies, great and small, supplements their suffrages, and before the tribunal they establish every public servant should be judged." Among the many grand truths expressed felicitously by the President during his public career none show a truer conception of official duty or describe with more clearness the body from which the member receives his authority and to which he owes his responsibility.
   I have read with care the message sent to us last week, and have considered it in the light of every reasonable construction of which it is capable. If I am able to understand its language it points to the burial of silver, with no promise of resurrection. Its reasoning is in the direction of a single standard. It leads irresistibly to universal gold monometallism--to a realm over whose door is written: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!" Before that door I stop, appalled.

SHALL PLEDGES BE REPUDIATED?

   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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in favor of gold and silver which a majority of the people have. always demanded? Is it necessary to betray all parties in order to treat this subject in a "nonpartisan"
   The President has recommended unconditional repeal. It is not sufficient to say that he is honest--so were the mothers, who, with misguided zeal, threw their children into the Gauges. The question is not "Is he honest?" but "Is he right?" He won the confidence of the toilers of this country because he taught that "public office is a public trust," and because he convinced them of his courage and his sincerity. But are they willing to say, in the language of Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him"? Whence comes this irresistible demand for unconditional repeal? Are not the representatives here as near to the people and as apt to know their wishes? Whence comes the demand? Not from the workshop and the farm, not from the workingmen of this country, who create its wealth in time of peace and protect its flag in time of war, but from the middle-men, from what are termed the "business interests," and largely from that class which can force Congress to let it issue money at it pecuniary profit to itself if silver is abandoned. The President has been deceived. He can no more judge the wishes of the great mass of our people by the expressions of these men than he can measure the ocean's silent depths by the. foam upon its waves.

THE MASSES OPPOSE UNCONDITIONAL REPEAL.
   Mr. Powderly, who spoke at Chicago a few days ago in favor of the free coinage of silver at the present ratio and against the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law, voiced the sentiment of more laboring men than have ever addressed the President or this House in favor of repeal. Go among the agricultural classes; go among the poor, whose little is as precious to them as the rich man's fortune is to him, and whose families are as dear, and you will not find the haste to destroy the issue of money or the unfriendliness to silver which is manifested in money centers.
   This question can not be settled by typewritten recommendations and suggestions made by boards of trade and sent broadcast over the United States. It can only be settled by the great mass of the voters of this country who stand like the Rock of Gibraltar for the use of both gold and silver. [Applause.]
   There are thousands, yes, tens of thousands, aye, even millions, who have not yet "bowed the knee to Baal." Let the President take courage. Muelbach relates an incident


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in the life of the great military hero of France. At Marengo the Man of Destiny, sad and disheartened, thought the battle lost. He called to a drummer boy and ordered him to beat it retreat. the lad replied:
   "Sir, I do not know how. Dessaix has never taught me retreat, but I can beat a charge. Oh, I can beat a charge that would make the dead fall into line! I beat that charge at the Bridge of Lodi; I beat it at Mount Tabor; I beat it at the Pyramids; Oh, may I beat it here?"
   The charge was ordered, the battle won, and Marengo was added to the victories of Napoleon. Oh, let our gallant leader draw inspiration from the street gamin of Paris. In the face of an enemy proud and confident the president has wavered. Engaged in the battle royal between the. "money power and the common people" he has ordered a retreat. Let him not be dismayed.
   He has won greater victories than Napoleon, for he. is a warrior who has conquered without a sword. He restored fidelity in the public service; he converted Democratic hope into realization; he took up the banner of tariff reform and carried it to triumph. Let him continue that greater fight for "the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution," to which three national platforms have pledged him.
   Let this command be given, and the air will resound with the tramp of men scarred in a score of battles for the people's rights. Let this command be given and this Marengo will be our glory and not our shame. [Applause on the floor and in the galleries.]

   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:

   The poor man is called a socialist if he believes that the wealth of the rich should be divided among the poor, but


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the rich man is called a financier if he devises a plan by which the pittance of the poor can be converted to his use. [Laughter and applause.]
   The poor man who takes property by force is called a thief, but the creditor who can by legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of sound currency. [Laughter and applause.] The man who wants the people to destroy the Government is an anarchist, but the man who wants the Government to destroy the people is a patriot. [Applause.]
   The man who has $10,000 in money becomes worth $20,000 in reality when prices fall one-half. Shall we assume that the money-lenders of this and other countries ignore the advantage which an appreciated currency gives to them and desire it simply for the benefit of the poor man and the laborer? What refining influence is there in their business which purges away the dross of selfishness and makes pure and patriotic only their motives? [Laughter.] Has some new dispensation reversed the parable and left Lazarus in torment while Dives is borne aloft in Abraham's bosom? [Laughter.]
   Sirs, what will be the answer of the people whom you represent, who are wedded to the "gold and silver coinage of the Constitution," if you vote for unconditional repeal and return to tell them that you were commended for the readiness with which you obeyed every order, but that Congress has decreed that one-half of the people's metallic money shall be destroyed? [Applause.]
   They demand unconditional surrender, do they? Why, sirs, we are the ones to grant terms. Standing by the pledges of all the parties in this country, backed by the history of a hundred years, sustained by the most sacred interests of humanity itself, we demand an unconditional surrender of the principle of gold monometallism as the first condition of peace. [Applause.] You demand surrender! Aye, sirs, you may cry "Peace, peace," but there is no peace. Just so long as there are people here who would chain this country to a single gold standard, there is war--eternal war; and it might just as well be known now! [Loud applause on the Democratic side.] I have said that we stand by the pledges of all platforms. Let me quote them:

BOND OR FREE.
   Suppose we try bringing her to terms by action. Let me appeal to your patriotism. Shall we make our laws dependent upon England's action and thus allow her to


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legislate for us upon the most important of all questions? Shall we confess our inability to enact monetary laws? Are we an English colony or an independent people? If the use of gold alone is to make us slaves, let us use both metals and be free. If there be some living along the eastern coast better acquainted with the beauties of the Alps than with the grandeur of the Rockies, more accustomed to the sunny skies of Italy than to the invigorating breezes of the Mississippi Valley--who are not willing to trust their fortunes and their destinies to American citizens, let them learn that the people living between the Alleghanies to the Golden Gate are not afraid to cast their all upon the Republic and rise or fall with it. [Loud applause.]
   One hundred and seventeen years ago the liberty bell gave notice to a waiting and expectant people that independence had been declared. There may be doubting, trembling ones among us now, but, sirs, I do not overestimate it when I say that out of twelve millions of voters, more than ten millions are waiting, anxiously waiting, for the signal which shall announce the financial independence of the United States. [Applause.] This Congress cannot more surely win the approval of a grateful people than by declaring that this Nation, the grandest which the world has ever seen, has the right and the ability to legislate for its own people on every subject, regardless of the wishes, the entreaties, or the threats of foreign powers. [Applause.]

CONCLUSION.

   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


THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.
   Well has it been said by the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Vest] that we have come to the parting of the ways. Today the Democratic party stands between two great forces, each inviting its support. On the one side stand the corporate interests of the Nation, its moneyed institutions, its


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aggregations of wealth and capital, imperious, immunities. They can subscribe magnificently to campaign funds; they can strike down opposition with their all-pervading influence, and, to those who fawn and flatter, bring ease and plenty. They demand that the Democratic party shall become their agent to execute their merciless decrees.
   On the other side stands that unnumbered throng which gave it name to the Democratic party and for which it has assumed to speak. Work-worn and dust-begrimed, they make their sad appeal. They hear of average wealth increased on every side and feel the inequality of its distribution. They see an over-production of everything desired because of the underproduction of the ability to buy. They can not pay for loyalty except with their suffrages, and can only punish betrayal with their condemnation. Although the ones who most deserve the fostering care of Government, their cries for help too often beat in vain against the outer wall, while others less deserving find ready access to legislative balls.
   This army, vast and daily vaster growing, begs the party to be its champion in the present conflict. It cannot press its claims mid sounds of revelry. Its phalanxes do not form in grand parade, nor has it gaudy banners floating on the breeze. Its battle hymn is "Home, Sweet Home," its war cry "Equality before the law." To the Democratic party between these two irreconcilable forces, uncertain to which side to turn, and conscious that upon its choice its fate depends come the words of Israel's second lawgiver: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." What will the answer be? Let me invoke the memory of him whose dust made sacred the soil of Monticello when be joined

"The dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule
Our spirits from their urns."

   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


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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!"]


HOUSE BILL WITH SENATE AMENDMENTS.

   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.


REVISED TARIFF.

   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-


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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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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.]


INCOME TAX.

   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-


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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


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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.]


SILVER COINAGE OF FIFTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS.

   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:


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   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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   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


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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.


LAST SESSION OF FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS.

   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


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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.


CURRENCY.

   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-


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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-


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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.]


PACIFIC RAILROAD.

   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.]
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GOLD BONDS.

   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."


MEMORIAL SENTIMENTS.

   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,


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"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,


ARBITRATION.

   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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ANTITOXINE.

   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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