Cedar Rapids, IA Speech, 1896-10-08

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Thursday, October 8, 1896 at 4:05pm
Athletic Park, Cedar Rapids, IA

Source: SPEECH AT CEDAR RAPIDS, Mr. Bryan Dwells on Criticisms of [[illegible]] , Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Friday, October 9, 1896

"The three parties which agreed upon my nomination made the money question of first importance and our opponents will concede that the settlement of the money question overreaches all the questions. And yet our opponents, not satisfied to fight the battle on the money question, have attempted the bringing in of other issues. They have even gone so far as to declare that in expressing a desire for an income tax we were not showing proper respect for the supreme court, which declared the last income tax unconstitutional. We believe we have a right to express a hope that a future court will undo what the present court has done. And in expressing that desire, we were not subjecting ourselves to any just criticism. Let me show what has been said in regard to that decision and then I will tell you the name of the anarchist who said it. Here is what someone said: 'The practical effect of the decision today is to give certain kinds of property the position of favoritism and advantage inconsistent with the fundamental principles of our social organization and to invest them with power and influence that may be perilous to that portion of the American people upon whom rests the largest part of the burdens of government and who ought not to be subject to the nomination of aggregate wealth any more than the property of the country should be at the mercy of the lawless.'

What man was it, do you suppose, who said that the people ought not to be subject to the domination of aggregate wealth? What anarchist do you suppose? A Republican judge of the supreme court, and his name is Harland. Nothing in our platform is more severe than that."