There was a first class attendance of Fourth ward voters at G. A. R. hall last night, the occasion bight the speech delivered by G. M. Lambertson before the Fourth ward republican club. The ward has maintained an organization through success and defeat and it boasts of a membership containing some of the most prominent politicians and orators of the state. Mr. Lambertson launched into his subject in this wise: Republican Success Assured.
"We are going to win this campaign. Neither enemies within nor foes without can prevent. We have but to keep close in the saddle and give the horse his head, and victory is ours. We will ride through like a force of nature, calm and irresistible. We ratify the nominations tonight—we will ratify the election in November.
"Despite the clarion notes of Congressman Bryan, the drummer boy of Napoleon has beaten a retreat and the backs of the enemy are towards us. The drummer boy is not at Jena this time, but at Waterloo. We fight no longer an army, but a disorganized mass. They lack the cohesive power of organized resistance. The democratic cohorts which so splendidly swept the field two years ago are running to cover in every state. Their leaders, who then deceived and deluded the country with the battle cry, 'Down with the trusts and monopoly,' now confess that the most odious monopoly and monstrous trust the world has ever seen has the democratic party by the throat. These same leaders, surrendering to 'the communism of pelf,' cast themselves into the lap of the Delilah, the sugar trust, which levies tribute on every sugar bowl in the land.
"There is no need for republicans to coin epithets this year. The democrats have hunted them out for us and pasted them over all the democratic measures. We can't say anything worse of democracy than it says of itself. It has exhausted the dictionary in self-accusation and self-vituperation. Where can we find stronger terms than perfidy, dishonor, treason to stigmatize the laws of the last congress? This year the democrats are not playing the part of the Pharisee on the corners of the street, lauding themselves. They are the penitent gentiles at the confessional, crying out 'Have mercy on us miserable sinners.'
"The democrats are feeling so badly over this infant that was so long a borning [sic] and which has been christened Wilson bill and nicknamed Gorman-Brice bill, and which they almost strangled in its cradle, that it seems cruel to join in the chorus of democratic denunciation. It's all chorus this year, and we all—democrats, republicans and populists alike—join in the refrain, 'Down with the Wilson bill.'
"Two years ago the McKinley bill was doing its own talking. Now the Wilson bill is doing its own talking—because no one will talk for it. Which do you prefer—the Wilson bill, condemned by its author, condemned by the president, condemned by its framers, who are afraid to face the people with it, and praised only by British journals, or do you prefer the bill that protects American interests, American homes and American labor, and which carried our country forward with a bound to unexampled prosperity.
"The whig party died of an unsuccessful attempt to swallow the fugitive slave law, and a similar fate may follow the attempt of the democratic party to swallow the Wilson bill in 1894.
"Mr. Bryan seems to be in issue in this campaign. I speak of him personally because neither the term democrat or populist seems to quite fit him. He considers himself too big for either label. He seems to be running with both the hare and the hounds. There are times doubtless when he thinks 'How happy I would be with either, were t'other dear charmer away.'
"I am reminded of a story of Cicero Tiberius, a Roman knight, was once looking about for a seat in the theatre, when Cicero said, 'I would receive you here if I had room,' to which Tiberius replied, 'I am surprised you have not room, as you usually sit on two stools.' The trouble with Mr. Bryan, and I say it in all kindness, is that he is attempting to sit on two stools and he is not quite broad and dexterous enough to do it. His task is rendered more difficult now that he is a journalist. As a politician he might have evaded taking sides, but a newspaper, if it amounts to anything, must make a choice. In Omaha the World-Herald will be for Boyd for congress. What will the populist nominee, Clem Deaver say then? Editor Bryan has come to the fork of the road much sooner than Congressman Bryan would have reached it. It is a wonder that democrats follow Bryan. When Bryan ran for congress two years ago, did anyone ever hear him mention Cleveland's name, the ablest man in the democratic party, or any member of the democratic ticket? Could you tell whether he was for Morton or Van Wyok for governor? What good word did he ever say for any man on the democratic ticket? Suppose that the democratic convention nominate a ticket this fall and indorses Bryan's candidacy for the senate, will Mr. Bryan support openly on the stump the democratic nominees or will he continue to represent the character in Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' of Mr. Facing Both Ways.
"Why should the people of this state follow Mr. Bryan? Four years ago and two years ago Mr. Bryan denounced the McKinley bill. He read letter after letter and telegram after telegram to show the demoralization of trade and commerce caused by the passage of the McKinley bill. His hot trade against the doctrine of protection was cheered to the echo by his eager followers and when in impassioned eloquence he predicted the dawn of a brighter day with the coming of free trade with all the world the plaudits of his ardent admirers assailed the skies. When I compare the present depression, the most acute and widespread in the history of the nation, with the dream of prosperity painted by this false prophet I realize that the 'old prophets told the truth, but the new prophets are all liars.'
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William G. Thomas
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