KSKV A Uim araaa mark aara naaiia that rour aubaaria tiaa la a jraar ka kind and that rour aapar will ba rtop Barf aalaaa grit autkaa aajnaml. H r. rfTf V POX. XXIX, MOUNT AIRY, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1009 NO. 42 The Grounds of Democratic Hope Elector' Speech, 1909, Delivered by J05IAH WILLIAM BAILEY In the Electoral College, Senate Chamber, Raleigh, ' N. C, January It, 1909. We stand in the shadow of a j barons at its foot compelled him. great defeat; and seeing that it Charles II. gave the great re is the fourth in unbroken sue- forms of modern England, but cession, it becomes us here as re- the ghost of Cromwell guided presentatives of a great and his- ( his pen. toric party, whose records abound ; In such terms, sirs, I interpret with the evidences of illustrious servica to our Republic and to civilization, a party which to-dav commands the suffrages of 6,500 000 American citizens, and whose destiny no man dare measure; it becomes us to look about us, to reckon with our peculiar situ tion, to take counsel concerning the condition of our country with a view to proposing a program in keeping with our record of a mm I 1 service; and so, it possiDie, to reasonably answer the cry inar ticulate in millions of Pemocra tiohearts throughout the Repub lic "Watchman, what the night?" That we can reasonably give back to them the answer, "Be of good cheer, the morning Com eth," I have in the high hopes of my own heart the best assur ance, and these hopes have I set out to communicate to you. ... .V tand, I. say. in the shadow of a great defeat of four of them in unbroken, succession. But we stand, and as we stand our hearts bear witness that nev er in the history of our country was there so much for good Democrats to fight for; never had we a higher call to battle than now, -itnd never were we more ready to greet the call to battle with a cheer. So far from being broken, or overwhelmed, our party is more numerous, more united, more determined, and more devoted to its stand ards than at any time in its eventful history and its causes were never so dear to the hearts of the people or so neces sary to the welfare of our Re public. y?t Good causes never die. Right and justice are immortal. It is ordained in the destiny of our race that these shall be attained unto in the rule of the people. And therefore is it true that De mocracy is immortal. The history of progiess is are cord of defeats. A thousand battles go against the standards of Right: but every defeat marks a step in the long, triumphant forward march of civilization. Joseph is sold into Egypt, but he rises at length to save his fath er's house. Socrates drinks the hemlock, but his philosphy gui des the ages; Jesus is nailed to the cross, but the instrument of his death is now the life of the race. Carlyle hits the idea in one of his great paragraphs. Says he: "Upwards of a century must elapse, and still the bleed ing fight of freedom be 'fought, who bo is noblest perishing in the van; and the Moloch of Ini quity must have his sacrifices and the Michael of Justice his martvrs." But our American poet has put it in more popular phrase: "Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne: But that scaffold sways t he future, And behind the dim unknown, SUndeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above His own." King John gave the Magna Char from the throne; but the our present condition. We have been defeated, but our faith in our cause abides, and our cause rides on in triumph. We are cast down, but not forsaken, and we know that so long as we cleave to our cause, we shall have naught to fear. We would serve our Republic in triumph, but biding that hour, we know that we have served it more worthily and more efficiently in defeat than our triumphant op ponents have served it in victory; and we are not the men to refuse to serve so long as that can be sakl no matter who gets into the places of honor, reward and power. I have just made a bold state ment, namely, that the Demo cratic Party has served our Re public more worthily and more effectually in defeat than the Republicans have served it in victory. Let me either make it good or withdraw it. What is the record of the Democratic Party? Do your minds revert to those early days when our party swath ed the new-born Republic in its swaddling clothes those great principles which are its armor to-day;-when it rocked the new Republic in the Cradle of Liberty under Jefferson and Madison, Jackson and Monroe? They were great days, and are not tc be forgotten. But they were the days of victory; and great as were our party's achiev ments then, I venture to show that the achievements of the Democratic Party these fifty years of defeat have been no less great. Review for a moment these fifty years since the great war. What are the outstanding achiev ements of this great period in our history? First of them all is Restoration of the South-within herself and in her relation to the Republic. And who restored the South? Did the carpet-bagger; did the fire eater; did the Forakers and the Lodge Bills, did Stevens and Re construction? Did the Republi can Party? Why, si) s, it has not yet so much as gotten itself "restored" in the South! It has remained for the belated "Mr. Taft to discover that such an achievement was on foot; an(5"ie has set himself about it with il the ardor of a sole discoverer! There is but one answer to these questions the Democratic Party restored the South to herself and to the Republic. It was the Democratic Pai ty that drove the despoilers from this temple and rebuilt the fallen State. And yet, we are told that the Demo cratic Party is not constructive. I answer that this one particular reconstruction is the greatest achievement of any party in any time and an evidence of states manship beyond all doubting. And how signally did the Repub licans fall at it! Again, what is the policy throughout our Republic to-day with regard to the negro citizen? ! I Is it the Republican Party's poli I cy whatever that may be i whether social equality, the ex jaltation of ignorance over inteli ; gence, or whatsoever shape it j may take running the gaunt of : folly with blunder? Is it the Re- publican Party's policy in Spring i field, III., the home of its founder Lincoln? It is the Republican Party's policy in Philadelphia or Boston? The world knows the answer. The Democratic Party is the on ly party in our history that has had a postive and unvarying poli cy on the race problem in its poli tical aspects, and today it looks a broad and perceives that wher ever that problem ha3 become in tense there the Democratic Par ty's policy has been adopted re gardless altogether of sectional lines. So we have given to the Republic not only a restored ! South, but also the one policy of safety in respect to the race question. These two achievements out rank at every point any others since the great war. But I have not done by no means. Of late the Republican Party has boasted of the single gold standard and our national finan cial policy. Need I remind them that when their leader, McKinley was preaching bimetallism, our leader, Cleveland, was holding the tiller of the ship of State true to that gold standard, and we Democrats can now honor his memory for the unswerving courage with which, single-handed and alone, with no party to suppor '!!:im, he fought this rru3fidrat)Ie tattle'1 f Again, what is the other out standing feature of Americar. political history since the great war? It is the controlling of the public service corporations in the interest of the people and the warfare on monoplies. And who brought this great cause to the front? Who urged it on? Who forced it upon a reluctant Re publican Congress? There is but one answer. Not the Republi cans, for when they were them selves owned and controlled by these same institutions, when they had not one notable man who would lift his voice against them, the great voice of Bryan was heard in our land and mil lions rallied to his standard. Who seriously thinks that with out him this cause could have come forward, who dreams that but for him and his militant hosts President Roosevelt could have hammered the Republican Congress into even the slight de gree of support that it has given this great cause? And, as if to give the Demo cratic Party the completest pos sible approval, at the present hour the Republican Party is trying to get the consent of its owners, the protected interests, to enact a tariff for revenue on ly! I assert that I have spoke only the words of soberness and truth. Let me review the record. Since the gat war our Republic has made five great political advances: Restoration of the tive statesmanship by an opposi tion party. And so, sirs in the light of triumphs like these we can face defeat with stout hearts, and we can go onward with these tro phies in our hands indifferent to the minor and insignificant re wards of mere office. If they taunt us with our exile, let us answer them with these immor tal triumphs. And if our own hearts seem to fail us. or our fellows would faint in the long, long battle, let us cheer them with these great rewards of the struggle. We are more than conquerors! Our party is su perior to defeat, because its cause knows no defeat! For my part, I rejoice in the act that the Democratic Party is different from any other in American history in that it can withstand defeat It has seen perhaps an hundred political par ties rise andall. Its oldest rival is only half a century old, its youngest is dying of old age in its thirteenth year. But the Democratic Party goes serenlv on. It is the only party in America whose life is cotem- poraneous with that of the Republic it was ordained to pro tect and nourish. It sprang from the same great brain that the Declaration of Independence sprang from. It wa3 founded by him who laid the enduring foundations of our Republic Thomas Jefferson. It has with stood all the vicissitudes of our national fortune. It has endur ed defeats that would have scat tered any other political party toTfte" ftur'nifsftHsuhafiFrsRt rarefy -tfcr-fc& uVuujf this to give of our best in thought and devotion to it, We understand why the Demo cratic Party was kept out of power the first thirty years fol lowing the great war. It was the logical consequence of that war and the assassination of Lincoln. But these forces have now for years been far spent How shall we account, then, for our unbroken series of defeats since 1896? It would be no mys tery if our policies had been re jected, but they have been large ly adopted, as I have shown. I think I can account for this poli tical paradox of the progress of a party's cause notwithstanding the party's defeat The body politic in our Repub lic has undergone a great trans formation within the last thirty years, and as a consequence, we have had a new and difficult fac tor to deal with. Under the fostering care of the Republican Party politics has become a com mercial asset, as a consequence in every campaign of late, we have heard nothing of the great principles of popular government but much of full dinner pails, empty dinner pails, panics and prosperity, wages and prices. The increased sensitiveness of the business element to the pos sible effects of political change being no other than that same dread of change which is the foundation of thrones has. b?en the determining factor in American politics these last twenty years. Mark Hanna was the prophet of this order. It was he who raised the triumph- istered upon victories that would have intoxicated a less substan tial organization. In victory and defeat, in peace and war, in prosperity and adversity, it has maintained its onward course; and to-day it stands forth more united, more numerous, more as sured of its mission and more militant than at any hour since the great days when Andrew Jackson led it. We can account for a fact like this in no ordinary philosophy. But we must account for it. Wherein is the element of per sistence so forceful in the Dem ocratic Party? How do we ac count for its survial? How do we explain its life in view of the pail, and by bo doing crushed in defeat that Knight Errant of mankind, who spoke not of things so sordid, but rather of the Crown of Thorns, the Cross of Gold and the Cause of Man kind. This tronsformation accounts for the extensive political con fusion of the last sixteen years. It has required so long for the new factor in politics to work out its effects. It first frighten ed the people with the dread of of the tariff the taxing power of change. It then misled the peo-1 our Republic is farmed out to ple-those who conceived of them as surely as was tiat of politics as a moans of privilege! Rome in the days of Matthew deceiving the people into think-! the Publican. time-serving policies, the privi leged classes spread abroad the lie that it was dangerous, a menace, etc., and a fearing peo ple believed it But they will not always be deceived. When it is asked. What shall the Demo crats do now? I answer. Let them abide their time against the hour when the Republican Party proceeds to make good with the people and the privileg ed. Each has its promises. It has given hostages to each. With one or the other it must break faith, and in either alterna tive it will be impaled unto its utter undoing. And in the mean time, it will dawn upon the com mercial classes in America that only that party may be trusted which guides the Ship of State by the Pole Star of Equal Rights to all, Special Privileges to none. The last campaign will be notable in our American history because it has defined the issue about which vaguely now for years past and very clearly now for years to come the battle for the life of the American Repub- lie must be fought It is just a year since President Roosevelt in a message to Congress declared that the predatory classes are in conspiracy to own, control, and use this Republic for their own peculiar enrichment regardless of rights, regardless of justice and regardless of laws. Who knows so well as he that they have taken charge of his party that their hope is in his party? To whom did they contribute in 1904 and 1908? And who was apologizing for their contribu- This is the issue: and the line of battle will be drawn about the tariff, about the financial system, about public service cor porations, about monopolies, and fundamentally, about the control of our finances, the control of prices, the control of taxes and the control of our political par ties. It is the struggle for the people against the privileged the predatory. The predatory are already in control. By means ing that the people's interest was identical with the interests passing of so many of its rivals? ! of the privileged, But it remain- forming of a race (1) The South. (2) The policy. (3) The fixing of the gold standard. (4) The controlling of the pub lic service corporations. (5) The reforming of the tar iff (now proposed). And in every one of them the Democratic Party has had an in comparably larger part than the Republican Party. I challenge any man in any party or in any land, to show an equally brilliant There is but one explanation. The Democratic Party is not an idea or opportunist party; it is not a party Df expediency; nor is it a party of leaders or organiza tion. Its foundations lie deeper. the Democratic Party lives in j by these privileged great and immortal principles and the Democratic and it draws its life anew year i feated, but purged of all taint of by year from the hearts of the control by the classes in the in people. It3 causes may vary, j terest of privilege, I sky that the its leaders may change, but its defeated are rather to be con ed for the recent campaign to clear the air; and the clearing away of this confusion is worth all it has cost. And as we stand to-day, the Republican Party in victory but pledged to and owned interests, Party de- foundation Equal Rights to all Special Privileges to none will endure when the idea and oppor tunist parties, as abolition or of green-backs, or full dinner pails, are known no more in the earth forever. So long as men shall seek freedom; so long as equality shall move the hearts of men; so long as liberty is the lode-star of gratulated than the victorious. The Democratic Party never was and never will be inimical to business interests. Because it refused to sink our Republic to the interests of the privileged, because it declined to make poli tics a business asset, because it spurned those who would make merchandise of patriotism, be- 11 i manKina; bo long as tne dream j cause it was true to mankind of self-government leads on the : rather than to any interests race; bo long as God means that j whatever, because it held fast to men shall learn to govern them selves, each in the interest of all and all in the interest of each, so long may we fight on, assured of the truth of the words of the great Vance "Democracy is immortal and cannot die! So much for the past, and so ' much for defeat Our , hearts now turn to the present the f u-' ture and victory. We have every 1 reason to believe in the destiny of the Democratic Party, and great principles rather than to The Democratic Party comes on the scene in this hour like a ship cleared for action. Defeat and high endeavor have cleansed her for those who would have used her. She is the mjghty free instrument ready and fit for the strong arm of the awakened giant. He will arouse, and he will strike, never fear. For the people will not suffer their gov ernment to be taken from them. To such an end has our party been kept; to fit it for such a mission has it been sent into the wilderness. Thank God it re turns cleansed "Fair as the moon, bright as the sun. and more terrible than an army with banners!" We have but to hold our organ ization to this high course, main taining in its individual leader ship, locally as well as nationally men who are worthy of our cause and whose ability and character command the confidence of the people, and triumph is assured. Continued to page 3. Sweet Potato Slips It matters not where you live, you can raise Sweet tatoes from my famous Blips. Yours truly, Po- - - ar f " i and beneficent record of construe- every obligation in a time h'kJ JOHN A. YOUNG, Greensboro, N. C.

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