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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #63298 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63298)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Democracy, by Walter Vrooman
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The New Democracy
- A handbook for Democratic speakers and workers
-
-Author: Walter Vrooman
-
-Release Date: September 26, 2020 [EBook #63298]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW DEMOCRACY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Carlos Colón, The Library of Congress and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
-available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Transcriber's Notes:
-
- Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by
- =equal signs=.
-
- Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase.
-
- Blank pages have been eliminated.
-
- Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
- original.
-
-
-
-
- THE
- NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-
-
-
- _A Handbook for Democratic Speakers
- and Workers._
-
-
- An Outline of the Methods of the National Volunteers of
- Democracy and of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau.
-
-
-
- BY
- WALTER VROOMAN.
-
-
-
-
- Price: Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 25 cents.
-
-
-
-
- Copyright
- BY WALTER VROOMAN,
- Wainwright Building,
- ST. LOUIS, MO.
-
-
-
- Witt Printing Co.
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-Upon the close of the 1896 national campaign, it was decided at an
-informal conference of several of the leaders of the Democratic
-party, to establish a bureau of speakers for the continuous
-propaganda of Democratic principles by new and young men, while the
-acknowledged leaders of the party were busy in the Senate and House of
-Representatives. In December, 1896, headquarters were opened at St.
-Louis.
-
-Several hundred speakers soon became attached to this bureau, and it
-was decided to form a permanent organization, that would bring together
-not only the speakers but all the workers of the party. The outcome of
-this has been the organization of the National Volunteers of Democracy,
-with the Speakers' Bureau and Training School as a special department.
-Each volunteer is expected to assist in forming regular Democratic
-clubs, except where for special reasons it is found advisable to
-organize Silver or Populist clubs, and also to build up and strengthen
-clubs now in existence.
-
-Heretofore, the handbooks for Democratic speakers and workers, have
-been so stuffed with statistics and figures as to burden and confuse
-the minds of their readers, consequently there is a demand for
-something simpler, for something that will give a bird's eye view of
-the political situation, with suggestions as to best methods of work
-and speech.
-
-It is to supply such a handbook to Democratic speakers and workers, and
-to outline the plans of the Democratic Volunteers, that this little
-book has been written.
-
-
-St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1897.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-INTRODUCTORY.
-
-
-The New Democracy is the Old Democracy. It is likewise the only
-Democracy, and in July, 1896, after years of suppression, it became the
-Regular Democracy.
-
-The Democracy taught by Jefferson and Jackson is the Democracy of
-Bryan, Stone and the Chicago platform. But the victory at Chicago of
-true Democracy over the counterfeit that for years fraudulently used
-its name was not however a finality; it was a beginning, and what was
-there accomplished nationally is yet to be accomplished locally in
-many states and cities. We have not only to push on to new and local
-victories after taking the central citadel, but what is of greater
-importance, must hold the positions already taken.
-
-It was said that at the Chicago Convention we not only "raised the
-dead" but "cast out devils." We must remember, however, that there are
-other devils, which in many places still possess the party locally, and
-the miracle of casting them out can only be performed by the power that
-comes of unselfish patriotism.
-
-It is noble to fight for a righteous cause, but it is glorious to WIN
-in a righteous fight. The exposure of Republican lies, the betrayal
-of their every promise made prior to the last general election, the
-perfidy back of their pre-election threats, have made Democratic
-victory reasonably certain in 1900. When the country has been cursed
-four years more by the infamous gold standard and monopoly rule, the
-majority of the people will favor a radical change. WE CAN BE DEFEATED
-ONLY IN ONE WAY. Let us repeat this. There is but one possible way by
-which the producing classes can be defeated at the polls in 1900; that
-is by the same old trick used by tyrants in all ages, the placing of
-their own lieutenants as the leaders of the people.
-
-The plutocrats fully appreciate this. They know that the people, weary
-of Republican misrule, will vote another party into power, hence their
-only salvation is to guide and control. They can do this in but one
-way, by having the opposing army officered by generals of their own
-choosing. It makes no difference how big the army, if the enemy chooses
-its officers, it is doomed.
-
-This was the trick by which monopoly defeated Democracy in several
-states during the recent campaign. The forces of the people were
-hastily organized. The recruits were strangers to one another. By a
-bold move on the part of plutocracy, backed by ample corruption funds,
-the willing tools of the money power were in many places made leaders
-of the very army formed to destroy the money power. As a consequence,
-we, the people, CAST the votes, while in many places the gold standard
-representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties COUNTED them;
-and incidentally failed to count MANY.
-
-In 1900 the people may poll any number of votes, but, if we fail to
-stamp out such traitors as David Bennett Hill, Calvin S. Brice, Wm.
-C. Whitney and John G. Carlisle, who use the Democratic name only to
-defeat Democratic principles, and who claim friendship for the poor
-man only to add his product to the fortunes of the rich; unless we
-expel these conspirators and hypocrites from the Democratic party, with
-all their abbettors and partners in fraud, we will be defeated in spite
-of our overwhelming advantage in numbers.
-
-Democracy now means the people against the organized money power. It
-is simply insanity for us to prepare for battle and select as drill
-masters, men whose salaries are paid by the very money power against
-which we fight.
-
-Suppose a million American soldier boys were to march with flying flags
-and beating drums, against an invading army of Cossacks and Turks,
-and that by some trick the wily Czar and Sultan should secure the
-appointment of Russian and Turkish officers over our troops. Should
-we be surprised if thousands of our brave boys were led headlong into
-ditches and slaughtered like rats in a trap and our magnificent army
-cut in pieces by half as many European king worshippers?
-
-We should not be surprised. And no man who knows anything about
-war could have been surprised when such fate befell the magnificent
-army of raw recruits led last year by Bryan against the invasion
-of the European moneyed despots. We were cut to pieces, ambushed,
-scattered and defeated solely by the treachery of subordinate leaders
-whom our great champion and the people trusted, who, by sympathies,
-self-interest and custom, were bound to the very money power that we
-were fighting to overthrow. And now the very men who sold out the
-people, who defeated the cause of American independence and fastened
-upon our nation the rule of the European money power for four more
-years--these same men, led by that adept in low cunning, that master
-of political knavery and arch enemy of popular rights, David Bennett
-Hill, are trying to get a foothold again in the party they have just
-defeated, are again trying to gain the confidence of the millions whose
-liberties they sold, and whose children they are now trying to betray
-into perpetual slavery.
-
-Some may say that it is impossible for these conspirators ever again
-to get a hold on the Democratic party. Such over-confidence is always
-a fatal weakness in war. When we know that the only possible way
-for plutocracy to continue to rule our country is by corrupting the
-Democratic party and placing its own agents in Democracy's counsels,
-and that the united money power of the world, will during the next
-four years (aided by the best talent that can be bought by unlimited
-funds), attempt to man Democracy's army with plutocracy's hirelings.
-Our business is not to lull ourselves into a false belief of security,
-but to work by day and watch by night to defeat the enemy. It is not
-for us to proudly boast that there is no danger, for there is danger,
-GRAVE DANGER, SOLEMN AND AWFUL DANGER, THAT WITH AN UNLIMITED USE OF
-MONEY AND THE PURCHASE OF THE BEST POLITICAL GENIUS AND CUNNING OF OUR
-COUNTRY BY MONOPOLY, WE MAY AGAIN BE BETRAYED ON THE EVE OF BATTLE.
-
-When the outcome of our struggle is a world to be gained or lost,
-civilization to go forward or be derailed, all that is dear to us, all
-that is most sacred in life saved to us or snatched from us, we cannot
-be too alert, too eager, or too anxious; cannot prepare or organize
-too thoroughly for the primaries that are to decide the leadership and
-control of Democracy in the contest of 1900. We should, each of us,
-swear in the name of God and man, that all the power and influence we
-possess shall be earnestly exerted from now until 1900 in ridding our
-party of these parasites who are in it only to destroy it. We should
-bitterly oppose the selection of any man for election judge, precinct
-captain, ward committeeman, city committeeman, county committeeman,
-state committeeman, national committeeman, or any other place of trust
-in our party, who is known to be in sympathy with, or friendly to, the
-gold standard, or to any one of the giant trusts now helping destroy
-our Republic.
-
-If we would destroy the trusts, we must be led only by known enemies
-of the trusts. If we would be victorious in this conflict against
-plutocracy, we must follow only leaders whose records prove clearly
-that they are absolutely free from entangling alliances with plutocracy.
-
-Some say we must harmonize all elements. We cannot harmonize the
-interests of the man who steals and the man who is stolen from, any
-more than we can harmonize fire and water. We only weaken our cause by
-trying to get the men against whom we are fighting to join us.
-
-Some one exclaims we must have the gold Democrats with us, or we are
-lost. THERE CAN BE NO SUCH THING AS A GOLD DEMOCRAT. The Democratic
-party stands for the abolition of the gold standard and every other
-monopoly by means of which scheming monopolies rob the public. A
-gold Democrat is as much an impossibility as a round square, white
-lamp-black or a red-hot icicle. The plutocrats who left the Democratic
-party and enlisted under the banner of Mark Hanna, will never join us
-except for the purpose of defeating our plans. They will never work for
-the success of the Democratic banner, unless they themselves carry that
-banner, and lead us, its followers, into their own traps, wherein we
-shall be despoiled. For the vote of every traitor and deserter, gained
-by such cowardly attempts at compromise, we shall lose a hundred loyal
-votes through sheer despair.
-
-We do not need the gold bugs. If they are honest in their professed
-change of heart, they will vote for honest, fearless candidates as
-well as for those of the milk and water brand, or who have no definite
-programme except their secret pledges to moneyed constituents. If they
-have not experienced a change of heart, we do not want them, for it is
-better that they remain open enemies than that they become professed
-friends, seeking an opportunity again to betray us.
-
-We do not object to receiving in the ranks the man who comes back to
-the Democratic party and says: "I deserted you, but I wish now to
-return to the fold; I was a traitor during the last campaign, but I am
-willing to vote with you hereafter." But the manhood, the self-respect,
-the enthusiasm of Democracy do object and register a vigorous protest
-to permitting these deserters to assume places of responsibility with
-power to sell the people out again.
-
-No one objects to the gold-bugs returning to our fold any more than we
-should to the blind regaining their sight or to sinners desiring to
-wash away their sins, but we do object to these sinners returning at
-the price of giving our party organization over into their hands.
-
-
-A PERTINENT ILLUSTRATION.
-
-An ominous example of the methods being used to capture Democracy by
-the money power was afforded by the lawless militarism brought into
-play by the gold bugs at the recent municipal Democratic convention
-of St. Louis, when, their fraud being discovered, and legitimately
-defeated by the people at the primaries and at the convention, they
-appealed to the last resort of despotism everywhere, the force of arms.
-
-For many years a clique of unscrupulous politicians controlled St.
-Louis Democratic conventions. Early in the April campaign, Mr.
-Hugh Brady, for many years Chairman of the Democratic City Central
-Committee, stated in an interview published in the St. Louis papers
-that a clique of "machine" politicians had "fixed the machine" to
-nominate Mr. Edwin Harrison for Mayor. The street railway managers,
-who last fall knifed Bryan and the Chicago platform, came to the front
-as Mr. Harrison's supporters. Mr. C. C. Maffitt, who bolted the party
-last fall, headed his delegation, and in several other wards the
-Harrison delegations were led by gold boltocrats. The "machine" was for
-Harrison, and Hugh Brady declared the "machine" could nominate any man
-it wanted.
-
-The men who supported Mr. Lee Meriwether for Mayor were all aggressive
-Bryan Democrats and opposed not only the gold standard, but also
-opposed street car domination in city affairs. They appealed from the
-"machine" to the people. They pointed out how the leading supporters
-of the "machine" candidate were gold boltocrats and street railway
-managers, who use their political influence to escape paying hundreds
-of thousands of dollars of taxes legally due the City Treasury. They
-insisted that franchises to monopolize the public's streets ought to
-be sold, not given away, to private corporations. And on this platform
-they secured enough delegates to control the convention.
-
-On the morning following the primary election, even the Republic,
-the organ of the "machine," admitted that Mr. Harrison had but 134
-delegates, while the opposition had 153[1].
-
- [1] See Republic, March 20, 1897.
-
-When the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison united in supporting Mr.
-Meriwether, it was apparent that nothing short of fraud and force could
-prevent the defeat of the machine. Accordingly, Mr. Ed Devoy, Chairman
-of the Central Committee, called the convention to order and hurriedly
-announced as its governing officers Messrs. Lutz, Barrett and Wand, the
-three campaign managers of the "machine" candidate.
-
-Scarcely was the announcement made when ex-Governor Norman J. Colman
-rose and protested against the attempt to muzzle the convention, and
-nominated for chairman Mr. Sterling P. Bond. Upon Devoy's refusing
-to put this motion, one of the delegates, R. T. Brownrigg, made the
-motion which was duly seconded, and Gov. Colman put the question to
-the convention and it was carried by a majority of the delegates. In
-a similar way secretaries and sergeants-at-arms were elected, the
-convention refusing to accept the slate prepared by the machine.
-
-After the committees had been appointed and reported, nominations for
-Mayor were made, and on the second ballot Lee Meriwether received 155
-votes, eleven more than a majority of all the delegates elected, and he
-was accordingly declared the nominee of the Democratic party.
-
-Thereupon ensued a scene more worthy of Russia than of the American
-Republic. Foiled in the attempt to carry the primaries; foiled again in
-the effort to force their own tools upon the convention as governing
-officers, the gold men and the street railway managers who were present
-on the floor of the convention, played their last card in the game to
-defeat the candidate pledged to make them pay their taxes, and ordered
-their servant, Devoy, to do by force what he had failed to do by fraud.
-A Board of Police Commissioners lent themselves to this shameful
-assault upon American liberty, and ordered three hundred armed police
-to drive from the hall the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison. Sterling
-P. Bond, John J. Fitzwilliam and W. A. Brandenburger, the duly elected
-chairman and secretaries of the convention, were brutally assaulted by
-the police. Mr. Bond was carted away to jail in a patrol wagon. Mr.
-Meriwether, who had been called on to address the convention after his
-nomination for Mayor, was thrown from the platform by two policemen,
-and, in company with a majority of the delegates, was forcibly expelled
-from the hall.
-
-Since the 9th of November, 1799, when Napoleon's grenadiers drove
-the French deputies out of their convention hall at the point of the
-bayonet, history affords no parallel to this outrage by the St. Louis
-boltocratic politicians.
-
-That in claiming a convention has no right to elect its own presiding
-officers the gold boltocrats were utterly wrong in custom as well
-as equity, will be seen by recalling the manner in which last year
-the Chicago Convention refused to accept Senator Hill, the National
-Democratic Committee's suggestion for chairman, and instead elected
-Daniel, a silver Senator from Virginia.
-
-Although the St. Louis papers subsequently supported Mr. Harrison,
-whose nomination was only accomplished by the illegal use of three
-hundred police, those same papers did not hesitate to say, the morning
-after the convention, that the action of the machine was illegal and
-tyrannical:[2]
-
- [2] Witness the following extracts:
-
- Police Commissioner Bannerman in Globe-Democrat, March 22,
- 1897:
-
- "The trouble was all started by Ed. Devoy refusing to allow
- Bond's name to go before the convention as chairman. The
- whole thing was a scheme on his (Devoy's) part to split the
- convention. Of course it was wrong to send Judge Bond to the
- Four Courts in a patrol wagon."
-
- Republic editorial, March 21, 1897:
-
- "Committee Chairman Devoy made a mistake in surrendering the
- gave before the delegates had elected a temporary chairman.
- A convention holds within itself the right to choose its
- temporary officers."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 31, 1897:
-
- "The blundering began with Chairman Devoy. It was his duty to
- recognize any delegate who desired to move a substitute for
- the committee's report. Devoy failed in his duty and furnished
- provocation for all that subsequently occurred."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 22, 1897:
-
- "Dr. Lutz had no right to a place on the platform until he was
- chosen temporary chairman by a vote of the convention. He had
- no more right than any casual visitor to himself take the vote
- of the convention on himself as temporary chairman. The plain
- fact is that the whole of these preliminary proceedings were
- in every particular irregular, unparliamentary and void."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 23, 1897:
-
- "The delegates who asserted their right to choose their
- temporary officers were within their right in doing so, and in
- fact only did their duty. THE RIGHT IS SACRED."
-
- Globe-Democrat, March 23, 1897:
-
- "The attitude of Assistant Chief Kiely is regarded as
- having been strained in the interest of the Harrison crowd
- and significant of the Police Commissioners' domination in
- Democratic politics."
-
-
-A WARNING FOR THE FUTURE.
-
-Might never makes right. The candidate whose nomination rests not upon
-ballots but upon the clubs and guns of three hundred policemen, cannot
-be the rightful nominee of Democracy, which means people's rule, not
-police rule. When appeal was made from the outrage of the corrupt
-political machine, the Court of Appeals decided that the matter was
-beyond its jurisdiction, that no Court has the power to review the
-action of the Election Commissioners, even though they certify to the
-nomination of a candidate without a shadow of right to such nomination.
-
-Had the Court consented to examine the evidence and gone into the
-merits of the case, it could not but have decided that the rightful
-nominee for Mayor was Mr. Meriwether, who had the affidavits of a
-majority of the delegates showing that they had supported him in the
-convention.
-
-This high-handed attempt of the gold boltocrats to tyrannize over the
-convention resulted in Democracy's defeat. But despite the stinging
-rebuke administered by an outraged people, the machine is again
-endeavoring to fasten itself upon the Democratic party of St. Louis.
-
-The same tactics, and even more desperate and lawless ones, will be
-used by the gold plutocrats throughout our country. The people must be
-prepared to meet them.
-
-What are the best methods of preparation? It is to give some
-suggestions as to methods, and to increase, the vigilance of the
-patriotic Democrats and friends of humanity in whose hands it may fall
-that this little volume has been written.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-HOW TO BEGIN WORK.
-
-
-The immediate purpose of the Democratic Volunteers is to organize and
-carry on in the most effective way the campaign for 1900. They seek
-to build up and foster the Democracy of Jefferson, Jackson, Bryan and
-the Chicago platform by seeing, first, that the common people remain
-in control of the Democratic party; and, second, that the Democratic
-party, representing the common people, gets control of the country
-in 1900. It is further hoped that the Volunteers thus organized and
-trained, will become a permanent force in the history of our Nation;
-a power in the guidance of the forces behind the nation's progress;
-a means of uniting the best intelligence of our race with that faith
-and deep religious purpose which permeate the common people, and of
-expediting the conscious co-operation of individuals with those giant
-forces that are slowly but surely destroying the old, and building
-up the new civilization. Our plan appeals principally to young men.
-Our methods are new, at least to this generation, and as we believe
-that the great battle in which we are engaged must be led by the most
-vigorous, active and courageous amongst us, we depend principally upon
-young men for leadership and work.
-
-Knowing that our principles are eternal, and that in proclaiming them
-we have the support of the great common people of posterity, and of
-God, the Volunteers are expected to assume, upon all occasions, an
-attitude of absolute confidence.
-
-We are to utilize every force and every means that perception can
-discover or ingenuity devise for the forwarding of our movement. We
-are to proceed, not only by usual, but by unusual methods, taking
-possession of resources never before thought of in political campaigns
-or religious crusades. Our principles are to be declared both in public
-and in private, and propagated methodically and persistently in every
-existing institution, organization or association of men and women.
-
-The church is the center of activity for many. This class can be
-reached best by having our truths come to them through the channel
-by which they usually receive their opinion and ideals, namely, the
-church. There are other hundreds of thousands whose lives center about
-the liquor saloons. To reach these our speakers must go to the saloons.
-In many agricultural communities, it is customary to hold meetings
-in school houses, while in good weather, picnics, barbecues and all
-day gatherings take place in the woods. To these various customs our
-speakers must adapt themselves. In some sections the camp-meeting lasts
-for a week or two, in great tents, or in special woodland resorts,
-permanently constructed and kept for that purpose. Our Volunteers will
-find here opportunities for effective work.
-
-But for reasons of economy, the greater part of our work will be done
-outdoors. Plutocracy can afford to hire a dozen halls where one drawing
-speaker can be secured. Our movement has a dozen speakers to every hall
-we can afford to hire. We will consider first, therefore, methods of
-outdoor speaking.
-
-
-OUTDOOR MEETINGS.
-
-The easiest, the most economical, the most fruitful of the Volunteer
-speaker's work, will consist of unadvertised outdoor meetings. There is
-probably not a city, village, or town in America in which a man with
-a strong voice, mounting some emergency platform and calling out that
-he has something important to say, cannot, in a short time, attract a
-considerable crowd. If his message be direct, condensed, sincere and
-well delivered, he can hold the crowd in any except the most inclement
-weather. Coming as a surprise does not lessen the effect, if the words
-are well directed. People who could not be induced to enter a hall to
-hear a lecture, people who, if the meeting had been advertised, would
-purposely remain away, will stop and listen to an outdoor speaker; they
-will be interested, and may even be converted if the truths are well
-presented.
-
-Of course, many passersby will listen only for a few minutes and
-proceed on their way. An outdoor crowd is always a changing one, but
-this merely necessitates a special outdoor method of treatment.
-Indoors, an address is expected to be continuous; one point must lead
-up to another; a line of thought must be followed so as to produce
-interest cumulative to the end. Outdoor speaking, on the other hand,
-must be made up of short, concise points, each complete in itself, so
-that no person can listen for a single minute without getting something
-to carry away with him. Anecdotes should be freely interspersed, but in
-condensed form.
-
-As the audience is compelled to stand, often on damp ground, and
-in chilly or excessively hot weather, it is necessary that outdoor
-speaking should never, under any circumstances, take upon itself the
-qualities of a pedagogical lecture. On the other hand, it must be made
-up of illustrations, word pictures, and pungent assertion of those
-fundamental truths known to be most essential.
-
-
-HOW TO ARRANGE SUCH MEETINGS.
-
-The speaker arrives in a strange town, having entered afoot, by horse,
-or by rail. If he have friends in the town, his work will, of course,
-be less difficult, and it will be comparatively easy to procure a
-horse and carriage (or a wagon).
-
-The vehicle secured, let him drive to the principal street, stop at
-the corner selected as the meeting-place, and, standing on the seat,
-let him announce (his voice pitched high, but not strained, dwelling
-for at least two seconds upon each word) that a meeting will be held
-in a few minutes at which "the people will be told how our country can
-be freed from the curse of Hannaism and monopoly" (or some similar
-striking expression). Then proceeding to the next corner let him repeat
-the announcement, and so over the village, or, if it be a city, over as
-large a section as he can conveniently cover. By making a dozen or more
-of these announcements he can always gather about him the nucleus of an
-audience.
-
-If unable to secure a vehicle he may go afoot, carrying a chair to
-serve him as a speaker's platform. As efficient work can be done in
-this way as in any other.
-
-In addressing the five or the fifty men, women and boys who compose
-this audience, it is requisite that he should begin in the same high
-key and the same deliberate manner and tone in which he made his
-announcements, addressing himself not to the few in front of him,
-but to the listeners in front of their stores half a block away.
-After speaking thus for five minutes, more or less, and arousing the
-enthusiasm and interest of distant listeners, he should suddenly turn
-his eyes and attention from all who are more than fifty feet away, and
-proceed in his natural tone of voice. Very often persons standing in
-front of stores and shops, lining the streets for two or three squares,
-when the speaker changes and lowers his tone and directs his remarks
-to his immediate audience, will come near to hear, if possible, the
-completion of some interesting point.
-
-In large cities where there is much noise from street cars and wagons,
-this work is more laborious, and from start to finish the speech will
-require all the energy the speaker possesses to keep his crowd together
-and to increase its number. But in smaller places, or in quieter
-neighborhoods of large places, after the first announcements, outdoor
-speaking can be reduced to a very moderate exercise. The average man,
-after a month's practice, can speak outdoors two or three hours a day,
-divided into three or four speeches, without any great fatigue, and
-keep it up the year round, resting only upon days so rainy, stormy or
-bitter cold, that men will not, for any inducement, stand outdoors.
-
-
-PRE-ARRANGED APPLAUSE ONE-HALF OF ORATORY.
-
-If friends can secure the free service of a drum corps, a brass band,
-or a quartette of singers, to help draw the people together, the
-speaker's work will, of course, be greatly lessened, and much will
-be done toward saving the voice and energies otherwise necessarily
-expended in attracting an audience. He will thus be enabled to
-concentrate all his powers, convincing and teaching his hearers.
-
-But in the absence of drums or music, there is nothing so helpful
-to the speaker in getting a crowd and in holding it after it has
-congregated, than a little skilfully pre-arranged applause. If several
-men, helped by a dozen boys, take their places around the speaker,
-and from the start take off their hats and cheer lustily about every
-three sentences, not only does the noise attract attention and draw
-listeners, but it impresses deeply those who are present, so that
-each word of the speaker has its effectiveness multiplied. A few men,
-starting off in this way (if the speaker is bright and forcible), will
-be joined by half the audience, and, in outdoor speaking, generous
-applause doubles the effect of oratory. It not only adds weight to the
-speech, but it strengthens and cheers the speaker, stimulating him to
-his highest efficiency. It infuses new blood into his veins and new
-breath into his lungs. It quickens his heart beats and helps clear his
-voice. It at once establishes a rapport between the talker and the
-talked-to, and converts what might otherwise be a number of isolated
-units into a sort of organism, the vital principle of which is one
-central enthusiasm voiced by the speaker.
-
-To convince the friends of the movement of the necessity for loud
-cheering from the start by pre-arranged, conscious effort, is often
-quite difficult, although it is important. Much tact and skill are
-required to select a dozen young men before the meeting, and train them
-in a few minutes so that they will follow the cue of the man who is to
-lead the applause and cheer when he gives the word.
-
-A very important point, where young boys are concerned, is to stop
-their cheering when the leader stops. Unless you have a confederate
-of tact and personality there is danger that the boys, once started
-yelling, will enjoy it so hugely that they will keep it up in a
-disorderly way, and injure the meeting much more than they help it.
-But properly drilled, a dozen young boys are worth almost as much as a
-drum corps. Under proper leadership, they will stop instantly at the
-pre-arranged signal, and enjoy the military precision. Ten minutes
-training by an experienced man will suffice to complete their education
-in this regard.
-
-
-REPETITION NECESSARY.
-
-The outdoor campaigner should never fear repetition. The average
-outdoor listener is not averse to hearing something that he has heard
-before, but is averse to anything dull, statistical or requiring
-laborious mental effort. In fact, from the standpoint of economy, three
-or five addresses made on the same street corner for three or five
-successive days, will accomplish much more for the cause than the same
-number of addresses delivered each one in a different town or locality.
-The apostle of the New Democracy, traveling from place to place, should
-stop at least two or three days in each village, even if he has only
-one speech and must repeat it over with variations each time. If he is
-resourceful and has a few anecdotes and illustrations for each day, it
-will pay him to stay a week in each town, as it takes two or three days
-for new hearers to become familiar with his objects, aims and attitude
-of thought. The writer has often found that more real, direct converts
-are made to the people's cause on the sixth or seventh day in a town,
-than during all of the previous days combined.
-
-Thought is like seed. Whatever be the soil, like all vegetable life,
-it must undergo three stages, planting, developing and fruit bearing.
-With the majority each stage of development requires a season; one
-speaker sows, another waters, and another gathers the ripe fruit. But a
-brain adjacent to an empty stomach, idle arms or a bankrupt business,
-offers a more fertile soil for new ideas, and there are some such minds
-in every town wherein all these processes can be carried on under the
-tutelage of one man; some such persons in despair at the beginning of
-the week, who can, by the close of the week, be brought to the light,
-their gloom dispelled, and a nobler civilization ever after clearly
-pictured before their eyes, the object of their life's endeavor. There
-are many persons who, by one series of meetings, are actually converted
-from ignorant participants in existing injustice to active workers for
-the true state yet to be. The whole tenor and ideals of their lives are
-transformed by knowledge vitalized by faith.
-
-When a week's meetings are contemplated in country towns, experience
-suggests that the best time to start is on Monday and that the meetings
-all week should lead up to one or two grand demonstrations on Sunday,
-when the largest crowd of the week can be gotten together, and when,
-by the aid of a Scripture lesson, a prayer and a couple of patriotic
-songs, the enthusiasm can be carried highest.[3]
-
- [3] Special suggestions for Sunday work see chapter IX.
-
-
-LITERATURE THE BASIS OF THE MOVEMENT.
-
-No outdoor meeting can fill its mission nor make use of half its
-opportunities, without the sale of literature, which enlarges and
-completes the points touched on by the speaker. The object of an
-outdoor speech is to interest, to stir the emotions of men, dispel
-their lethargy and despair, plant in them hope and faith, and prepare
-them to think out, read out and study out the great National problem.
-The attention of men, that is, the real, serious concentration of their
-minds upon great things, is so rare that when you once have it the
-opportunity should be utilized fully. Those who are interested by the
-outdoor speech should be urged to develop that interest into knowledge,
-conviction and action. This can only be done by inducing them to read
-some book or pamphlet, explaining in detail the points suggested by you
-and backing up your assertions by careful arguments. Ten pamphlets, or
-books, sold at a meeting where men's hearts have been opened and their
-prejudices melted by enthusiasm, are worth more to the cause than ten
-thousand books and circulars distributed from door to door. The sale
-of ten small ten-cent pamphlets at a meeting is at least half the value
-of the meeting. In this movement one chicken raised is worth more than
-a whole brood hatched; one fighting rooster is worth three dozen eggs.
-One campaigner, armed with facts and possessing contagious faith in our
-creed, necessarily becomes a permanent, creative force in the community
-in which he lives.
-
-Literature is one element in the production of such centers of power,
-not literature scattered wildly, but literature placed carefully in
-the hands of those who have been prepared by the personal appeal of
-a sincere advocate to see and understand the points enunciated. So
-bountiful has free literature become and so ocean-like is the flood
-upon political subjects, that it is difficult to get men to open a
-pamphlet on political or social subjects when distributed to them in
-their normal condition. But first arouse them by a stirring address,
-and they will willingly study what otherwise they could not be induced
-to consider even superficially.
-
-Not only should the speaker try to sell as many books and pamphlets as
-possible at the meetings, but he should try to leave in every community
-or section of a great city covered by him, some worker who will get a
-stock of such literature and continue its sale until another impulse is
-given the movement by the visit of another Volunteer.
-
-
-ADVERTISED OUTDOOR MEETINGS.
-
-Very often a little coterie of enthusiasts will think that with the
-aid of a few handbills they can get a great crowd of their stupefied,
-over-worked and discouraged fellow beings to give up their other
-engagements and walk to some out-of-the-way place or corner of the town
-to listen to their speaker. Our friendly promoters do not know that
-to the eye of the multitude the bills suggest only an uninteresting
-harangue or the visionary proclamations of a dreamer that in no way
-concern them. The result is that very often instead of a thousand
-greeting the speaker, all eager for information and ready for a change
-of heart, as anticipated, there are a dozen or so already familiar
-with his teachings and sharing his opinion on all important subjects
-and half as many idle curiosity seekers without influence in the
-community. The speaker is discouraged and the ardent reformers are
-chilled to the bone and despairingly admit to each other that the
-citizens of their particular community are more perverse and hardened
-against new ideas and reforms than the residents of any other locality
-under the sun.
-
-If, instead of the preparation for an out-of-the-way meeting and the
-laborious provision of seats for people who never came, a few circulars
-announcing the meeting and containing two or three gems of thought had
-been distributed and the speaker had mounted a wagon or box in the
-center of town as heretofore suggested, the meeting would probably have
-been a success.
-
-Except on occasions of great excitement, when men are drawn together
-by some celebrated orator, or on holidays, when they expect, under any
-circumstances, to leave their homes and work and betake themselves with
-their families to the woods and fields, it is important to hold outdoor
-meetings where an audience can be gathered largely from passersby.
-
-
-THE NEWSPAPER.
-
-A speaker talks to one hundred, one thousand or more hearers, but
-by proper co-operation on the part of the press his words are often
-carried to tens of thousands more. Where the press is not absolutely
-united for the purpose of maliciously misrepresenting or suppressing
-the speaker's words, at least half of his work consists in the silent
-appeal to auditors he never sees, those who read his words as reported
-in the papers. A few suggestions may, in this connection, be found of
-value.
-
-First, have printed, typewritten, or copied by hand, all the
-essential points of your speech, ready to be handed to the newspaper
-representative. Properly prepared manuscript, written on one side of
-the paper only, will often be published in full. It may be thrown into
-the waste basket. But any paper will publish more of a man's speech, if
-he has neatly prepared his manuscript beforehand than otherwise.
-
-Next, get personally acquainted with each editor, entering into a
-pleasant conversation with him and trying to make him your personal
-friend. By this means a Volunteer can often use the press of the
-opposite party to propagate his views. The original purpose of a
-newspaper was to give news, and very often, even in these degenerate
-days, the instinct of a newspaper man to give news, if encouraged and
-stimulated a little, will become strong enough temporarily to overcome
-his prejudice, and possibly overcome his appreciation of the plate
-matter supplied by Mr. Hanna's agents free of charge. He may even give
-a column or a half-column, describing the meeting of the New Democracy,
-quoting freely the words of the speaker.
-
-In dealing with Democratic, Populist and other friendly papers, there
-is a secondary opportunity for useful work. It is to show the editors
-how they can force the plate matter and ready-print establishments
-to furnish news concerning the Democratic Volunteers to all their
-customers, by simply demanding information on that subject. Even
-request the editor to write a letter, telling of the intense interest
-of his constituents in the Volunteers, and urging that his ready-print
-matter contain something weekly from the Volunteer's National office.
-A sufficient number of such letters cannot fail to have the desired
-effect. Let every Volunteer aim to secure the co-operation of a few
-editors, and the work is done. The ready-print establishments that
-remain stubborn should lose their patronage.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-SPEECHES AND MEETINGS.
-
-
-The Volunteers are organized, not to do the easy things that have been
-done in the past and are now being very satisfactorily done by others,
-but rather to do what others have left, and are leaving, undone. In
-communities where the New Democracy is strong and the people are
-already in the habit of gathering periodically and during political
-campaigns nightly, it requires no organization of Volunteers to
-provide men to instruct and amuse them to their entire satisfaction.
-Our work is to do what others have not done and cannot do; to gather
-crowds where others have failed; to create interest where there is
-no interest; to make friends where we have no friends, and, WHERE WE
-ARE ALREADY STRONG AND DOMINANT IN A COMMUNITY, TO TEACH OUR FRIENDS
-AND BROTHERS TO SO SYSTEMATIZE THEIR EFFORTS AND ENTHUSIASM AS TO
-BE MOST USEFUL IN EDUCATING AND GAINING THE SUPPORT OF LESS ADVANCED
-COMMUNITIES ELSEWHERE.
-
-In arranging indoor meetings, it is essential, in order that our work
-may be fruitful, to get out other than what is known as "the same old
-crowd." There are a few people of both parties in every community who
-are always interested in politics, and who attend nearly all party
-meetings. On such, ammunition is largely wasted. A speaker should never
-be satisfied to address a small crowd, the majority of whom are already
-in accord with his principles. His object should be to bring in new
-men, to get in fresh blood. The motto of each of us should be, "I came
-not to bring the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
-
-To secure the attendance of the non-political class, it is, therefore,
-expedient, in addition to the regular speeches, to provide some form
-of entertainment, such as vocal and instrumental music, a dramatic
-rendition, or a children's performance.
-
-When an audience is assembled particularly to enjoy the entertainment
-and incidentally from curiosity to see and hear the strange speaker,
-it is well for the speech to be built from materials furnished by
-the local performers. If children have participated, there is no
-happier way to begin than by telling how enjoyable were their songs
-and recitations, how thrilling the thoughts born of their happy faces
-and hearts throbbing with youthful hopes. The speaker might tell
-how, looking into their bright eyes, his thoughts turned toward the
-future, where he saw the obstacles against which these children will
-have to contend, the difficulties they will meet in getting started
-in life, the unfair advantages over them possessed by the children of
-special privilege. By taking the children who participate as a text and
-riveting the attention of the audience upon them instead of considering
-the rights of men in general, he can gain at once, not only the
-attention, but the sympathy and the very hearts of those who listen.
-
-If the entertainment is a musical one, the speaker might begin by
-describing the state of mind produced by the sweet harmonies just
-listened to. By recalling the difference between the discord produced
-by ten men tuning their musical instruments and the harmony resulting
-when they play the same instruments together, he has an illustration
-applicable in several ways: suggesting the harmony and orderliness
-of the state that we are fighting for, the economy of concert in our
-political methods, and numerous other points, which, if given in a
-conversational way, will arrest the attention of even the women and the
-children. Let him then proceed with simple axiomatic truths that can be
-grasped by every hearer, abundantly illustrated, and the crowd will be
-induced to attend future meetings.
-
-There are a thousand cues given and illustrations suggested by
-a preliminary entertainment that can be made the gateway to the
-sympathies, affections and intelligence of those who listen. Convince
-the audience that the questions treated are neither abstract nor
-incomprehensible, but simple and tangible, and concern their personal
-welfare and the future of their families, and self-interest will impel
-them to listen to specific arguments backed by facts and figures.
-
-The Volunteer who aspires to attract vast audiences and transplant
-the hopes and thoughts that flourish in his own mind to the fertile
-soil of other minds, must first learn that the passion to instruct,
-though a noble instinct, must be curbed ruthlessly, else instead of an
-orator the "would-be" will find himself a bore. The passion to impart
-knowledge, like the other human passions, when given free rein to
-exercise itself unrestrained, defeats its own ends and at last destroys
-itself.
-
-How many old speakers we know who long ago looked forward, as hundreds
-of young men now look forward, to becoming orators, with power to sway
-the multitudes, to guide and lead them to higher things. But instead of
-orators we call them fossils. Instead of attracting they repel. They
-begin whenever permitted and never stop until so commanded. They are
-brought out and used in emergencies when no one else can be obtained,
-but never otherwise. They are common hacks. Why is this? Not always
-because such men do not possess ability. Some of them have followed the
-world's greatest thinkers throughout their intricate reasonings and
-profound solutions of life's most serious problems. But at the very
-start they conceived wrong notions concerning the function of a public
-speaker, an erroneous impression as to the utility and object of a
-speech or popular address.
-
-We have often noticed that superior minds are overlooked on popular
-occasions and some man with less capacity and knowledge, far less
-endowed with mental treasures, is called upon to do the honors of
-the occasion. Why? Because he has the faculty of addressing himself
-directly to the listeners and of adapting himself to their frame of
-mind.
-
-
-TEN COMMANDMENTS.
-
-To those who would become speakers and avoid the mistakes that cause
-the majority of failures, the following rules will be found valuable:
-
-1. Do not try to tell all you know at any one time.
-
-2. Do not try to appear deep, learned or poetical.
-
-3. Do not try to prove every statement you make.
-
-4. Use statistics sparingly.
-
-5. Address yourself, not to the kind of men and women you would have
-made had you been the Creator, but to the actual men and women who have
-been created, who fill your halls and make up your audiences.
-
-6. Make your talk personal and apply every point to the wants, woes and
-sentiments of your listeners.
-
-7. Never regret the half hour or the hour occupied by the music,
-recitations, drama, or other entertainment preceding your speech.
-
-8. Do not manifest impatience at the time consumed in short talks by
-local speakers.
-
-9. Remember that generally all the good that it is possible for you to
-accomplish if your audience by preliminary exercises is brought into
-rapport and sympathy with you, can be accomplished in half an hour.
-If you can get the complete attention of your audience for half an
-hour, they will have sufficient matter to fully occupy their thoughts
-the rest of the day and night, and not only this, if your talk is
-interesting and they go away hungry instead of satiated, they will
-gladly attend the next meeting.
-
-10. Be satisfied if you interest your hearers and be not greedy
-to instruct. For those really interested by oratory will instruct
-themselves by means of literature which is the only source of real
-instruction. Oratory should win sentiment and stir interest; literature
-performs the work of education. The speech fulfils its mission if it
-persuades men to read aright.
-
-
-ENTERTAINMENT.
-
-A meeting that is half entertainment or if illustrations, anecdotes
-and stories be included under the head of entertainment, a meeting
-that is nine-tenths entertainment and one-tenth direct statement
-of fact and reasoning therefrom, is of far more value than a three
-hours' bombardment with facts, figures, arguments and the soundest
-reasoning, directed by a master. The average human mind, as God made
-it and as our present unsocial life has unmade it, will become wearied
-by such an effort and leave the meeting with the firm resolve not to
-attend another. Such meetings cannot be held often and do not win the
-sympathies and co-operation of men nearly so much as a meeting planned
-and arranged on the basis of adaptation to the capacities of the
-average listener and his multiform emotions and mental wants. This is
-the secret of the success of the popular churches. They do not try to
-teach the people too much. They do not strain that organ, very weak in
-the average human mind, known as the logical faculty.
-
-Far more progress can be made in any community by instituting a
-successful series of meetings, wherein serious reasoning occupies a
-minor portion of the time, the rest filled in by entertainment, than
-can be gained by meetings that furnish a perfect mine of wealth in the
-way of food for thought and intellectual feasting for the few who have
-the power to appreciate such things.[4]
-
- [4] Of course the most effective methods of presenting our
- cause can only be hinted at in a text-book. A month or several
- months of personal training is requisite to give the student
- a real understanding of the difference between the old method
- and the new. It is, therefore, urged that as many of the
- younger speakers as possible attend and take direct, personal
- instruction from the Faculty of the Volunteers' School in St.
- Louis.
-
-
-LIFE IS SHORT.
-
-The length of the man's speech should be measured, not by his own
-physical endurance nor the time that his breath lasts, not by the
-amount that he has to say nor even by the capacity of his audience
-to listen or to remain in the room, but in every case it should be
-measured by the capacity of his hearers to enjoy.
-
-Most political meetings are too long. Very often two or three speakers
-are engaged, each harboring the erroneous opinion that duty requires
-him to talk an hour. Now, any speaker who cannot say something good,
-useful and inspiring in fifteen minutes, is incapable of saying
-anything good, useful or inspiring at all.
-
-Except in times of great excitement or in out-of-the-way country
-districts where meetings are few and the hearers, like savages in a
-forest, must gorge themselves when they have a chance, the speaking
-should never, on any occasion, last more than an hour and a half.
-
-Where there are three speakers, not only should each be limited to
-half an hour but the chair should be filled by a man with pluck and
-personality sufficiently great to tap the speaker on the shoulder when
-his time is up.
-
-I have seen more hoggishness displayed at political meetings than ever
-at a dinner table. The man who sits down at a table and eats everything
-in sight before his friends arrive, is a gentleman compared with the
-fellow who occupies the time of his colleagues at a public meeting;
-because, if by one man's greed all the food on the table is eaten,
-other food can be obtained, but when some oratorical hog monopolizes
-the opportunity of his fellow-speakers, he takes from his colleagues
-what can never be replaced.
-
-Our volunteers will accomplish a great work for humanity indeed if one
-of their number succeeds in inventing a method to stiffen the backbones
-of presiding officers sufficiently to enable them to sit down on that
-species of "bore" who push themselves to the front, ask to speak first
-by pledging to quit at a specified time and then talk on until the
-audience begins to disperse. Few people appreciate the great loss
-caused to a party or movement by the vacillating weakness of presiding
-officers and the greedy instincts of men who like to be heard and, in
-order to satisfy this instinct, "hog everything in sight."
-
-One mission of the volunteer speaker is to teach etiquette to the
-political speakers of our own party and when "Ex-Governor So-and-So"
-and "Prosecuting Attorney Other-man" and "Judge Dry-Bones" and
-"Ex-Judge Old Fogy" and "The Honorables" and "The Colonels" and "The
-Generals" and the bulldozing youthful speakers assume to occupy time
-not intended for them, to take the chairman by the arm and stand by his
-side until he redeems the pledge made before the meeting and stops the
-mouth of the insolent fellow who has not sense enough to regard the
-rights of his fellow-workers.
-
-
-AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION.
-
-If a prominent man, known to be long-winded and lacking in this one
-requisite of a gentleman, is present and it is uncertain that the
-presiding officer has the courage necessary to call him down at the
-right time, our voluble celebrity should be told that the position of
-honor being the last on the program, it has been POSITIVELY given to
-him. Thus the other speakers will have a chance to plant a few ideas
-in the minds of their auditors before they are hopelessly wearied.
-Although the last speaker may injure the general effect of the
-meeting by his prolonged and drawn-out harangue, the self-assertive
-and independent ones among the listeners can, at least, leave the room
-when they get fatigued, without missing the opportunity of listening to
-those whom they came to hear. This point is purposely emphasized, and
-strong language not inadvertently used.
-
-Where more than one speaker participates, there is nothing more
-essential for a successful meeting than that each speaker be limited in
-time by a pre-arranged plan, and that each be forced by the presiding
-officer strictly to observe that limit.
-
-
-MORE THAN TWO MILLION MEMBERS.
-
-The success of the Christian Endeavor movement in the Protestant
-churches is due almost solely to their method. The Christian Endeavor
-Societies have no new message to the world; they advocate no reforms;
-they do not add anything to the teaching of the church; do not even
-take it back to any of those sublime truths of the past largely ignored
-and forgotten by the modern church. But there is one simple reform in
-the method of carrying on religious meetings to which the Christian
-Endeavor Societies owe their success, and by means of which alone they
-have gained more than two million members in little more than a decade.
-This great and valuable secret is their system of two or three minute
-addresses, and their requiring participation in the meeting by every
-member.
-
-Some of us are familiar with the old time Protestant prayer-meetings,
-composed of five or six old men, from ten to thirty middle-aged and old
-women, with a scattering boy or girl forced to attend by parents. The
-prayers were long. The talks were dry. The presence of a young man or
-woman was always a surprise.
-
-The Christian Endeavor Society with the same theology, the same
-message, the same hymns, not even having a new impulse, a new moral
-ideal, or a new hope for the betterment of the world, but merely by
-requiring each member to say a few words and requiring that they say
-no more than a few words, has succeeded in joining together over two
-million young people into a prayer meeting society. Young people and
-prayer meetings! Always before suspicious of each other! Presto
-change! Two million young people organize in fifteen years to attend
-prayer meeting. The explanation of this miracle is ENFORCED BREVITY.
-
-Short speeches, the extinction of bores, and the participation in each
-meeting in some way by every listener are so far as method goes the
-essentials for a great popular movement.
-
-Good manners that have been taught to most of the world as regards
-eating and drinking have begun to be introduced into the world of
-meetings, religious and political, and when we see a feature, a little
-reform of this kind, building up in a few years one of the largest and
-most formidable religious organizations in the way of numbers that the
-world has ever seen, the organizers and workers of the new Democracy
-should profit thereby and at least learn the lesson, "Don't bore the
-people." It were better that the long-winded talker were a Republican
-or that he were thrown into the sea than that he should be allowed to
-destroy our meetings by his prolonged and learned discourses. Flee from
-the long-winded man, or else turn on him and make him sit down when
-his time is up. Or do with him as you do with the man who displays
-swinish proclivities when you invite him to dinner, DON'T INVITE HIM
-AGAIN.
-
-
-THE BUREAU OF VOLUNTEER SPEAKERS.
-
-A community feels that it needs to be awakened, and desires to arrange
-a series of meetings.[5] How can suitable speakers be had? So often
-a mistake is made. A speaker goes off on a tangent; he carries his
-hearers into a labyrinth of statistics and details, from which he
-cannot extricate them; he makes one "break" that alienates more votes
-than his whole speech wins, or in other ways proves himself incapable
-of accomplishing good for the community that he visits.
-
- [5] Advertising methods: Tickets afford the best method of
- advertising meetings of all kinds. It is a personal, definite
- invitation, and the surest "crowd-gatherer." In large cities
- it may be necessary to issue from fifty thousand to one
- hundred thousand, and have them carefully distributed, in
- order to get out two thousand persons. In smaller places the
- percentage of waste is not so great. Get the co-operation of
- the press, if possible, but do not rely upon it. To the last
- moment there is always danger of its deserting to the money
- power, as the latter can bring almost irresistible pressure to
- bear upon it. Print on every ticket a short list of the best
- books, i. e., Lloyd's "Wealth against Commonwealth," Ely's
- "Socialism and Social Reform," "Ten Men of Money Island,"
- "Coin's Financial School," etc.
-
-Heretofore such a man, by bulldozing prominent politicians into giving
-him letters of recommendation, might impose himself on one community
-after another, and continue for years to injure the party. By proper
-co-operation of the party with the Bureau of Volunteers Speakers, this
-evil, in a large measure, can be avoided, because this Bureau does not
-send a man to speak until it is thoroughly acquainted, not only with
-his character, but his capacities and judgment, and knows his method
-of argument and what he is to advocate. When young and comparatively
-inexperienced speakers are sent out, it is known beforehand what is to
-be said, as their speeches are prepared and rehearsed in advance. They
-must know what they have to say, and not trust to inspiration, which
-often results in perspiration for the speaker, and exasperation for the
-hearers.
-
-Every speaker sent out will present the great fundamental truths of our
-movement and not waste time in arguing details, which only supplies our
-enemies with new weapons to use against us. His speech beforehand has
-been pruned and criticised; the dead branches lopped off; the twigs and
-vines cleared from the trunk of the tree, and he is prepared to do only
-such work as will make converts and deepen the convictions of those
-already with us.
-
-There exists no other Bureau or Headquarters in America, through which
-Democratic organizations can obtain at all times the best talent, and
-never fail to get a man who will strengthen their local organization.
-
-Again, when meetings are held regularly in a town and a work of
-systematic education is carried on, it often happens that one speaker
-following another repeats over again the same statistics, the same
-arguments and even the same stories heard before, thereby tiring the
-audience. But when a community is supplied regularly by the National
-Bureau, each speaker takes up a different phase of the great problem,
-recapitulating only the few fundamental truths on which our movement
-rests. Each presents also something new, bright and spicy of his
-own. By this arrangement every community can enjoy the benefits of a
-succession of good speakers every month or week during the whole four
-years, and escape the persecution of those unteachable bores, who think
-themselves speakers. The crowds at these regular periodical meetings
-will increase, because each time they will hear something just as good
-as the last time, with added special features, the result of individual
-genius.
-
-At present, when a speaker is wanted, anybody is invited who happens to
-be available, his abilities being measured by his own recommendation,
-or by letters bulldozed from prominent men, who, for reasons of
-political prudence dared not offend so energetic a fellow. A community
-in this way may secure a good speech occasionally, but often the
-speaker is a positive injury to the cause. One poor speech in a series
-does more to lessen the general interest and reduce the size of the
-crowds thereafter, than can be overcome by half a dozen good speeches.
-
-Of course, where the local Democracy can secure the services of some
-one of our national leaders, no bureau mediation is needed, but our
-national leaders are few and the work before us limitless, therefore
-the service of the Volunteers' Bureau in training, equipping and
-guaranteeing a large number of new speakers who can be secured at any
-time, by any community, at a moderate expense, is meeting with hearty
-response by Democratic clubs generally.
-
-The best way to make a strong club anywhere is to institute a series of
-meetings, all the year round, and, by having at least one able speaker
-each time, never to disappoint the audience.
-
-Let each town and village establish a lecture course at once, and place
-itself in communication with the Volunteers' Bureau. The more numerous
-and closer together such villages and towns are, the smaller will be
-the expense to each community and the easier will it be to make up
-regular circuits for speakers.
-
-
-THE CO-OPERATION OF CONSTITUENTS NECESSARY.
-
-Although every speaker sent out is guaranteed to do effective work,
-the leaders of each community are urgently requested to report to
-headquarters at once, the success or short-comings of each speaker
-and meeting. Without such co-operation, the Bureau cannot keep that
-oversight of its hundreds of speakers necessary to raise the standard
-of work to the highest efficiency. It is assuredly the duty of local
-workers to give straight-forward reports to headquarters, of the
-short-comings and "breaks" on the part of the representatives of our
-Bureau, who represent our party and for whom our party is responsible
-as well as to report the benefits resulting from each meeting. The
-fact should also be emphasized that each representative of the Bureau
-receives a letter of recognition and instruction once a month from
-headquarters, and his standing with the Bureau should be judged solely
-by such letters or by direct correspondence. We must be able, when any
-speaker fails on his part to fulfill our requirements, to cease our
-connection with, and our responsibility for him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-METHODS OF TRAVEL.
-
-
-For those very respectable speakers of the old school who go to a town
-only when sent for and speak only at meetings properly advertised and
-pre-arranged, who are blessed with a goodly supply of that eminently
-obstructive article, the chief burden on every popular movement,
-commonly called dignity, there is no advice needed as to methods of
-travel. For such well regulated exponents of bimetallism and reform
-about the only advice that can be given is "be sure that your car fare
-is sent to you before boarding the train."
-
-But to another class of speakers, those who make up the rank and file
-of Democracy's Volunteers, those whose purpose and power of will are
-such that no obstacles, no stumbling blocks, no hardships can embitter
-or delay, those in whom the fire of enthusiasm for humanity has burned
-up their dignity and who in starting out do not ask whether they have
-means to go respectably and comfortably and quickly or not, but one
-question presents itself, namely, "Can I get to my destination in time
-to deliver my message?" The methods used by such will be various.
-
-When we have the money to buy railway tickets and when cars go at the
-proper hour, we will travel by rail. Otherwise we will drive when we
-can conveniently secure a horse and vehicle, or we will gladly mount
-the saddle or a wheel. But when car tickets, carriages, saddle horses
-and bicycles are alike impossible, the man fighting for principle will
-rise superior to his dignity and dependence upon small comforts and
-taking a bundle of literature and a small bag will, before starting,
-ask himself only, "Are my shoes good?"
-
-
-EXPERIENCE FAVORS TRAVELING TWO BY TWO.
-
-The early Christian disciples went out preaching the gospel by twos.
-Throughout history and in the experience of those living, it has
-been found that the will and intensity of purpose of the average man
-is better preserved and that he more easily overcomes obstacles,
-troubles and disappointments if in traveling among strangers he has
-companionship. Therefore although, at times the Volunteers may travel
-as individuals, lonely and homesick, still, wherever it is practicable,
-we advise our speakers to travel by twos. It is much easier to walk
-five, ten, twenty, or even forty miles in a day, from one town to
-another with a companion. Not only is loneliness overcome, but two
-speaker and workers have more than twice the influence upon a community
-that either would exert separately. Besides it is safer, and, in case
-of sickness or accident, there is some one to go for help or to "tell
-the story."
-
-
-AFTER ENROLLING.
-
-Two young Volunteers start out for a month's campaign in the cause of
-American liberty. We have no money, the extent of our capital being
-a bundle of Democratic literature, an appointment from the Bureau of
-Volunteer Speakers and a good pair of shoes each. We start at seven
-o'clock in the morning from town "A." It is twenty miles to "B" where
-we wish to speak at night. We walk six miles by nine o'clock and are
-then overtaken by a farm wagon in which we are allowed to ride eight
-miles, when it leaves our road. We give the driver a pamphlet, thanks
-and a blessing and we part. It is now eleven o'clock and we walk six
-miles further when at one o'clock we reach our destination.
-
-In ten minutes we have found a friendly Democrat who, after looking at
-our letters, shakes our hands, takes us to his house and provides food.
-After resting a couple of hours after dinner, we make an outdoor talk
-as suggested in Chapter three, and announce a night meeting.
-
-If those who profess the name Democracy in this village are
-overburdened with sham dignity and devotion to what is old and
-inefficient and refuse to recognize or aid the appointed speakers
-of the people's cause, we must be ready to rely on other resources.
-Our afternoon collection may amount to ten cents or it may reach
-fifty cents or a dollar. The crowd may, however, refuse to contribute
-anything. We may sell literature sufficient to supply our wants, or the
-gold standard and the trusts may have caused such a scarcity of cash
-that we cannot sell anything. We may be compelled to get our supper and
-maybe breakfast by trading a pamphlet to a grocer for crackers and
-cheese. After speaking in the afternoon and evening if we should meet
-with no success or recognition, expediency would suggest that we shake
-the dust from the soles of our feet and proceed on our journey toward a
-more friendly community, while the oppressor prepares the way for the
-work of education later.
-
-In some places friends will supply car tickets; in others they will
-procure a carriage or wagon and deliver us to the next town. From
-other villages or towns we may have to proceed as we started and as
-the apostles used to travel, walking along the dusty road, the frozen
-ground or through mud or snow. This method of travel is not only now
-practiced by many of our speakers, but can and will become the method
-of thousands more. It is a thoroughly practicable and sensible method
-of teaching truth against great odds and adds to the force of the
-speakers' message by proving him sincere.
-
-That this plan of campaigning is altogether feasible the writer can
-personally attest from actual experience. Years ago, as a mere boy, I
-became intensely interested in the principles of the New Democracy and
-starting without money, without friends or any organized assistance,
-impelled merely by enthusiasm for humanity and hatred of that tyranny
-through which my race and family had suffered, I traversed in this way
-every county in the State of Kansas, circulating thousands of pamphlets
-in which were pointed out the way to a nobler civilization. While still
-a boy I also walked or rode with friends through Missouri, Illinois,
-Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I was often interfered with
-by persons disposed to disagree, but at every village and town and city
-through which I passed, I stood up in the open street in a carriage, on
-a dry-goods box or a chair and proclaimed my faith that the poor people
-need not suffer as they do if they would but unite in behalf of their
-own interests and use the ballot against oppression and tyranny.
-
-Very often I was without money, and I then discovered that my early
-study of hygiene could be turned to good account. I found that the
-great capitalists, aided by Edward Atkinson and the soup house
-reformers, in trying to devise a diet for the poor that might enable
-them to work for less wages, though failing in this, had at least given
-me a pointer. I found that their bill of fare lacked but one ingredient
-to make it very endurable, and that was enthusiasm and youthful hope
-and fire. I added this ingredient and was independent of the world.
-
-
-HYGIENE AS A WAR MEASURE.
-
-Those Volunteers who intend not only to try to speak for the cause
-during the next four years, but have determined to fight for the
-continuation of our Republic in spite of all obstacles, should learn
-how independent the body really can be of what are usually termed the
-necessaries of life.
-
-As an invalid child I attended a course of lectures delivered by one
-Dr. O'Leary. This distinguished gentleman, with the theatre stage,
-which he used as his platform covered over with polished skeletons,
-manikins, human heads in chloroform and colored pictures of the various
-parts of the human frame, impressed my young mind deeply. At that time,
-I remember I had been "given up" by my parents and the doctor, as a
-child who could not possibly be raised. I was accustomed to thoughts
-of death and for years constantly expected a visit from the dreaded
-monster. No memory is more distinctly engraven on my mind than the
-nights when, with eager eyes fastened on this wonderful man and his
-mysterious skulls and manikins, my heart throbbing, my face aglow, I
-listened in rapt attention, that possibly I might catch some secret
-that would help me defeat death and add strength to my frail body
-sufficient to do battle with life's hardships.
-
-After describing a boy who died at about my own age because his nervous
-system had been deprived of the proper life-giving elements which had
-been taken from his food by modern processes, the Professor took up
-a handful of wheat letting it fall repeatedly through his fingers,
-stating that each grain of wheat contains in it all of the elements
-required to sustain human life. He said that civilization, by taking
-away the outside, the most nutritious part of the wheat, had struck a
-blow at the physical development of our race. He declared that man can
-live for years on whole wheat requiring no other article of diet, and
-that the outside of the wheat especially, now thrown aside as bran
-and fed to the cattle, contains the elements of bone and nerve fibre,
-that, while the lady who eats only the choicest white bread, made
-of the finest flour, has to substitute gold for parts of her teeth,
-the teeth of the cattle that eat the bran are perfect. He gave as an
-illustration the march of Caesar and his legions through Gallia, when
-Caesar's soldiers often for weeks at a time were without provisions and
-were compelled to feed on whole wheat alone which they would snatch
-in handfuls from the fields as they marched, thresh in the palms of
-their hands and grind with their molars. The crushing of the hard wheat
-grain gave the teeth exercise while the crushed bran and surface of the
-grain supplied those elements required in the construction of bone and
-teeth. "At the present time, nineteen centuries after," so this doctor
-said, "there are numerous skulls of these same soldiers of the great
-Caesar to be seen in the London Museum and as a result of their wheat
-mastication, every tooth is as sound in these skulls, as whole and free
-from decay as when heathen Rome was Mistress of the World and Caesar
-was King."
-
-
-A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
-
-Whether this astounding statement of the learned doctor has any basis
-of truth or not I do not know, but that the lesson he sought to impress
-by it is true, my own experience can attest. During a period of several
-years, with another young enthusiast, I subsisted on a diet of bread
-and apples except when these could not be had, when we repaired the
-waste of our bodies by eating whole wheat, a bag of which we constantly
-carried with us for "emergencies." Often we have subsisted on whole
-wheat and clear water alone for several days, and even a week at a
-time. During these periods we did not notice that we lost flesh. Of
-course we had very little to lose, but our vigor and the intensity of
-our enthusiasm and faith in our powers, all of which depend largely
-upon the amount of nutriment carried from the stomach to the brain, and
-various nerve centers, were not in the least diminished. Later on we
-found that when convenient, we could obtain more nourishment from the
-wheat with less chewing by having it boiled, but when boiled, we could
-not carry with us a week's rations without fatigue, and boiled wheat
-will become sour in the summer time while whole dry wheat will keep for
-years, and, like feminine beauty, remain ever fresh. It is the most
-condensed form of digestible food known to man.
-
-Of course where men have dissipated and their powers of digestion have
-been undermined by intoxicating liquor, tobacco, or the habitual use
-of highly spiced and over-prepared foods, any coming down to a natural
-diet like this is a severe hardship. But for a young man with firm
-faith and good health, NOT TO BE IMPEDED IN HIS DESIRE TO BECOME AN
-ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE GREATEST MOVEMENT OF HISTORY BY THE MERE FACT
-THAT HE HAS NO MONEY WITH WHICH TO PAY CAR FARE AND BUY GOOD FOOD AND
-CLOTHES, the suggestions here given will be found helpful. I would
-not advise others to do, what I have not done or am not willing to do
-myself. The fact is, however, that any young man, in good health, and
-formed of the right kind of "dust," can travel, without any money from
-one end of the country to the other speaking daily, and accomplish
-much for our cause, even if he does not meet more than one true
-friend in a thousand miles. But the comforts and vices and follies of
-civilization he must be able to do without.
-
-This austere and ascetic mode of life is not commended for its own
-sake. The suggestion is merely thrown out as one possible way of
-beginning work, so that no young man in good health can claim that he
-would have done wonders for the cause had he not been prohibited by
-poverty. No such excuse exists. Healthy single men can live and thrive
-if buoyed up by hope and faith and manly purpose, and travel the world
-over on a quarter of the wages of a day laborer.
-
-
-NOT CIVIL BUT MILITARY.
-
-To those persons who may possibly criticise these suggestions as
-tending to encourage a lower standing of living, thereby indirectly
-aiding in the lowering of wages, I will simply say that I am not giving
-suggestions for methods of civil life but only military suggestions to
-be acted upon in time of war. The battle is now on. No conflict of the
-past ever appealed more strongly to the sublime qualities in human
-nature than the present war of the people against the united plutocracy
-of all countries. It is therefore appropriate and timely to give any
-and all suggestions that may be of value to those bearing the brunt of
-the people's battle.
-
-Can it be urged against the half starved Cuban patriots that because
-they have learned how to subsist through months on roots and berries,
-and sugar cane their habits are likely to lower the standard of living
-in Cuba? In answer the smallest boy would say that the Cubans eat
-berries this year in order to eat watermelons next year, that they
-chew slippery elm and sheep sorrel to-day in order to have roast beef,
-oysters and plum pudding to-morrow. They are now eating the food of
-the animals and sleeping in the open fields with the beasts and dying,
-as the cattle die, by order of a butcher, that their countrymen and
-their children and their children's children hereafter may live as free
-men, enjoying the heritage of a free Cuba and all the varied gifts of
-civilization.
-
-Did our forefathers of the Revolutionary War lower the standard
-of living and decrease wages or injure the cause of labor or of
-trade-unionism, because, in fighting for country they were willing
-to go without shoes, staining with blood from their wounded feet the
-projecting icy rocks that gashed them as they marched against the
-British? Oh, no! Our forefathers went without shoes that we might have
-them. They went hungry and cold and gave up their individual comforts
-and lives, that we, their descendants and fellow-countrymen, might have
-greater comforts, increased liberties and life more abundant.
-
-
-GENERAL MARION.
-
-When General Francis Marion with his brave soldier boys was lying in
-at Snows Island on the Pedee River, North Carolina, preparing to make
-another one of his surprising and brilliant raids on the enemy, an
-officer from the British post at Georgetown was dispatched to visit
-him to treat for an exchange of prisoners. The blooming Britisher was
-blindfolded and carried by a circuitous route into camp. The bargain
-arranged, he accepted an invitation to dine. The meal was served on
-pieces of bark and consisted entirely of roasted potatoes of which
-General Marion ate heartily, requesting his guest to profit by his
-example, repeating the old adage that "Hunger is the best sauce." "But
-surely, General, this cannot be your ordinary fare" said the well fed
-adversary. "Yes it is," replied Marion, "For months at a time my men
-have lived on roasted potatoes, and we are especially fortunate on this
-occasion to be able to provide a double allowance to set before so
-honorable a guest." The young foreigner was so overcome with admiration
-for the brave patriots fighting for their country in such a spirit that
-on his return to Georgetown he retired from the service, declaring
-his conviction that men who could with such cheerfulness, endure the
-privations of such a life, could never be subdued.
-
-The blooming Britisher was right. The God of William Tell, of Cromwell,
-of Washington and Marion, of Garrison and Lincoln, of Moses and of
-Bryan, never has and never will permit such enthusiasm and faith and
-patriotism to go unrewarded. Men with purpose so intense, whose flame
-of patriotism burns so brightly as to consume their love of comfort
-and dependence upon external things, can never be subdued by hired
-Hessians nor the combined forces of opulence, ease and greed.
-
-Going out in such a spirit, demanding three full square meals each
-day for every human being born into the world, yet to obtain this end
-willing ourselves to live like Marion's band on roasted potatoes, like
-the Cuban patriots on sugar cane and berries, or on graham bread and
-apples, or to ease our hunger if necessary by grinding with our teeth
-dry whole wheat, we will in the name of God and humanity take this
-country and rescue our world from those who now make of it a living
-hell.
-
-This unconquerable, independent spirit that rises above physical
-conditions, social limitations, comforts and luxuries, is and always
-has been the conquering spirit of the world, always the sure omen of
-victory.
-
-If Marion and his band could rise superior to physical appetites in
-fighting for thirteen little colonies away off from the great centers
-of civilization; if the followers of Gomez and the immortal Maceo can
-march over perilous mountains and through deadly marshes, suffering
-continually for want of food and drink, and for years swing with almost
-supernatural skill their deadly machetes against the brutal hordes of
-Spain, in order to free one little West India isle, then surely we,
-who see the brutal arm of a united world plutocracy striking down and
-destroying all that has been bought so dearly by Washington, Marion,
-and Lincoln, about to enslave the world's home and refuge of freedom
-for a hundred years, we should not be unwilling to make any sacrifice,
-take any risks, perform any drudgery.
-
-In defending our country we decide the destiny of the human race.
-We fight to make seventy millions of people free and eventually to
-free the world. Ours is the most sublime, the most terrific, the most
-inspiring of all historic struggles.
-
-In fighting we will take the advice and learn what we can from any
-source however humble. We will listen to the hygienist, the vegetarian,
-even to the soup house reformer, if their words will help free us from
-those chains of poverty that paralyze the arm of the ordinary slave
-and make him impotent to strike back against his oppressors.
-
-The man who, because he earns his bread by labor, is looked down upon
-by the companions of his youth and, because of his helplessness and
-his clothes, is fenced out of respectable society, such a man requires
-condensed and highly spiced food. He craves wine and beer and whiskey
-and every condiment and stimulant that can raise his spirits, depressed
-by failure, disappointment and the slow plodding life that offers no
-advancement. Continual drudgery, without opportunity for promotion,
-engulfs man in a gloom uncheered by a ray of hope.
-
-The reformer, the friend of labor, the idealist, the true Christian
-believe that such victims should not only have the best food and drink,
-better clothes and better homes, but that they and their children
-should also have a chance to rise, should never be debarred from
-opportunities for advancement or for utilizing any talent or genius
-before discovered or that may hereafter be discovered, that might lift
-them to a plane of distinction and honor.
-
-We believe in luxury; so much so that we believe every poor man's
-family should have an opportunity to enjoy all those healthful and
-normal luxuries which invention and progress have placed within the
-reach of men. But the greatest of all luxuries, that which is more
-appetizing than pepper or salt or cinnamon or garlic, that which is
-more stimulating than beer or whiskey or even champagne, and which must
-precede in the hearts of the masses the procurement of all these other
-and lesser luxuries, is that divinest gift of Heaven--hope. Give a man
-all the other luxuries that the world affords, and take away hope, and
-his blood thickens, his eye becomes dull, his color heavy and his pulse
-irregular. But allow him only dry bread in the open air and sunlight
-by a flowing brook, and give him hope, and his eye flashes, his heart
-throbs quicken, his face flushes, his muscles harden and all his
-physical and mental powers are ready for instant application.
-
-We, the Volunteers of the New Democracy, have an abundant supply of
-this stimulant more powerful than any liquor, more appetizing than any
-condiment, more soothing than any narcotic, giving power and increased
-facility without reaction. We have hope. We have faith. We have
-purpose. We have absolute knowledge that our cause is just. We know
-that we shall win. We cannot be suppressed. We cannot be put down. The
-world is ours. WE ARE INVINCIBLE.
-
-
-NO RAILWAY PASSES.
-
-In starting out to destroy plutocracy, the first thing the average
-weakling does is to approach some senatorial or congressional tool of
-the very plutocracy that he thinks he is opposing, and ask him to beg
-plutocracy for a weapon to fight it with, free of charge. In other
-words, in opposing the trusts and monopolies, among which the railroad
-monopoly is one of the most tyrannical and corrupt, he asks for a free
-railway pass.
-
-The railroad pass is the most corrupting instrument in American
-politics to-day. It buys for a small price our congressmen and
-senators, our county and state committees of both the Democratic and
-Republican parties, our bosses in both parties, our editors, Democratic
-and Republican, our preachers, Democratic, Republican and Prohibition,
-and many of our Democratic lecturers and speakers. Even many of our
-labor leaders make themselves impotent in this great struggle by
-accepting railroad passes. Our labor statisticians, from the National
-office in Washington to the smallest State branch, aid in smothering
-facts and giving life to fiction in order to ride on railroad passes.
-
-Our speakers, in accepting the gage of battle laid down by plutocracy
-in the late campaign, must neither ask nor accept favors of our
-enemies. We must defy them. Rather than ride on railroad passes we
-should walk.
-
-We should learn from that venerable Cuban patriot, Maximo Gomez,
-who, when offered a sop by the brutal despotism against which he
-was fighting, although it was presented to him by those two eminent
-yet despicable toadies of European tyranny, Messrs. Cleveland and
-Olney, refused point blank to consider their degrading propositions
-and answered: "We do not accept favors of Spain. We hate Spain. Our
-business is not to ask favors but to fight."
-
-
-DEFY THE RAILROADS.
-
-During the late campaign the railroad corporations united not only to
-aid in continuing the gold standard by the use of corporation funds but
-in robbing our people of a free ballot by the most treasonable acts
-of coercion and intimidation. There is not a giant stock jobber, tax
-dodger, labor skinner or other law protected thief in the country who
-has stolen more than one million dollars from widows and orphans and
-other unsuspecting investors, who has not been aided and abetted in his
-nefarious schemes by the railroad corporations. There is not a single
-monopoly nor trust that preys upon legitimate trade and commerce but
-has been fostered in its unnatural growth by railroad discrimination.
-There has not been a single reform advocated for the benefit of the
-common people during the last thirty years, but has been fought
-bitterly by the railway officials.
-
-We cannot destroy plutocracy, we cannot fight the trusts, we cannot
-fight the gold standard unless we are willing to defy the railroads.
-
-If, during our coming Congressional campaign, the railroads continue
-their habit of monarchical coercion and intimidation, depriving
-American citizens of their right to a free ballot, we must be
-sufficiently intelligent and determined to co-operate with the enraged
-and long-suffering people who will then be forced to declare for
-government ownership of all public highways thus destroying, at a
-single blow, this most dangerous and tyrannical form of plutocratic
-despotism.
-
-We cannot afford to ask for railway passes. If we cannot pay our fare
-and cannot secure a horse, WE MUST WALK.
-
-
-BRYAN WAGONS.
-
-Before describing our method of fitting up and sending out Bryan
-wagons, something should be said about the use of the word "Bryan," and
-of Mr. Byran's request that his name should not be used by clubs and
-organizations.
-
-The word Bryan no longer belongs to any one man. It has become the
-common property of all who love liberty. The word Bryan became the cry
-of exultation at the birth of the New Democracy. At this most momentous
-historic event of the present century when an ideal was grasped from
-the upper realm of books, of hope, of morality and religion, brought
-down to the world of fact and embodied in flesh and blood; when what
-before was a dream, a philosophy, an aspiration, suddenly allied itself
-with physical agencies and created a political power that surprised
-the world, the one cry into which the long oppressed millions breathed
-their joy, their hope, their hate, their devotion to their fellows,
-their defiance of their enemies was the magic word, Bryan! Bryan! As
-this one word was repeated and cheered and cried aloud to express both
-hope and anger, promise and defiance, it became sacred. It flitted from
-the possession of the single human mite whom it had pleased God to
-appoint as the herald of the new dispensation, and became the common
-heritage of humanity.
-
-At the Chicago Convention one citizen lost his name, but the world
-found it and the word Bryan became the battle cry of all who fight for
-freedom or strive for justice.
-
-As this individual citizen of Nebraska cannot by any act or blunder in
-the future, efface the mark that he has made upon history's scroll nor
-smother the fire of enthusiasm his eloquence has lighted nor imprison
-again in his single breast the wondrous truths breathed out of it that
-now fill the whole world, so neither shall he rob us of the one magic
-word, once his own, NOW OURS, which, wherever uttered, kindles lethargy
-and inertia into enthusiasm and fills the abode of gloom with the light
-of hope.
-
-The people need a key-note, a battle cry, one single word that
-expresses all they believe and feel and hope. We have such a word. It
-is BRYAN. We intend to keep it and utter it wherever and whenever it
-will cheer us or help our cause. And if again one individual citizen's
-modesty prompts him to interfere with our rights, our only answer will
-be: "Hands off, honored sir," or, in the immortal words of Pennoyer of
-Oregon, "You tend to your business and we, the people, will tend to
-ours."
-
-
-BEST WAY TO START.
-
-Where one or two or three persons are willing to start on a trip from
-town to town, and, with the co-operation of their friends, can secure
-a large covered wagon and two horses with a supply of condensed food,
-we would commend this as the most economical and efficient method
-of campaigning as it affords not only means of transportation, but
-supplies a dwelling house to the occupants, and at the same time,
-by the proper application of paint to the covered wagon, the wagon
-itself and the horses may become living missionaries, continuous and
-convincing speeches in themselves, by their presence protesting against
-the continuation of existing political barbarism. If at the top of the
-cover is painted in large letters, the words, "Bryan wagon," every
-child, every woman in the farthest country district, every passerby,
-whatever be his race, religion or education, will know instantly that
-this wagon, now passing through the country, is one of the army of
-wagons being used in the work preparatory to the decisive battle of
-modern times to be fought in 1900. A few well-chosen sentences painted
-on the wagon and American flags at the top, will make it serve as the
-best possible advertisement for meetings.
-
-
-MAKE YOUR ENEMIES ADVERTISE YOU.
-
-The moment this wagon arrives in town every gossip, every old woman,
-every street gamin, every enemy of Democracy is converted at once into
-an advertising medium for the propaganda of our cause. The wagon, the
-horses, the dried beef, the apples, the whole wheat, the literature and
-everything that the wagon contains become subjects for conversation
-in the village. The Bryan wagon is the center of interest and the
-Volunteers who live in it are objects of curiosity. By meeting time the
-people are prepared to listen with open eyes and open mouths, drinking
-in every word of the speaker's message.
-
-Its work done, the wagon moves on to the next town but the sight of it
-is a powerful aid to the memory of every inhabitant of the village.
-Each will recall time and time again the character of the speakers
-and the words and prophecies that they uttered, so that when the next
-speaker, traveling on his shoe leather or maybe in a palace car wearing
-silk hat and patent leather shoes, arrives and tells the people how
-they can free themselves from the money power, they will remember the
-wagon and the men who lived and traveled in it and spoke from it.
-
-It is well to have the wagon so constructed that, when the time for
-meeting arrives, by removing the top it can be used as a speaker's
-platform and the announcements made from the front seat as it is driven
-from corner to corner.
-
-
-FORWARD, MARCH.
-
-Let a thousand such wagons be started out at once and kept on the road
-for four years visiting every country school district every village
-from Maine to New Mexico and from Texas to Oregon, each carrying an
-abundant supply of literature.
-
-Let every Democrat patronize the Volunteers liberally, purchase from
-each a quantity of literature for distribution and sale and throw in a
-piece of silver as the hat is passed around. When possible supply them
-with substantial and well-cooked meals so that they can better stand
-their heroic diet when they find no friends.
-
-Start the hat agoing at once in each community, and let the town or the
-county that purchases a Bryan wagon put the name of such county, town
-or village on the cover. Let counties in Colorado, Arkansas and Texas
-fit out such wagons and start them toward the heathen territory of
-Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland.
-
-
-ABOLISH NAKEDNESS AT HOME BEFORE GOING ABROAD.
-
-Let the money heretofore sent by our religious friends to teach the
-naked savages of foreign islands to be ashamed of their nakedness and
-to desire clothes, be applied now to the conversion of America to the
-conviction that every citizen of our own country who wants clothes
-should have a chance to earn them. If America is destroyed by that
-arch-devil worship, gold idolatry, if our Republic goes down amid the
-horrors of a violent revolution and military despotism, following in
-the footsteps of Rome and Greece and Egypt, what will result from
-our missions in foreign lands? They will become relics of the past
-because no possible teaching can then convince the poor heathen that
-our religion is a saving power. When the very country from which
-the missionaries come is the helpless victim of greed, avarice and
-organized crime, how are other races to be tempted to follow our
-example? Let us rather turn our missionary money for the next four
-years, ALL OF IT, into the coffers of the New Democracy, and start our
-wagons toward the doubtful states from every Democratic and Populist
-stronghold. Let the more civilized people of Missouri, Kansas and
-Nebraska, where the creed of progress has reached the greatest altitude
-in earth's history, share their increased physical, intellectual and
-moral development with the less progressive and more barbarous states
-that fringe the ocean uniting us with decaying Europe.
-
-Such friendly action will not only be rewarded by the satisfaction that
-always follows a righteous act, but the givers will be blessed of God.
-Nothing that a man can do, or a woman, or a child, will accomplish more
-good in this world or gain greater reward in the land of the hereafter,
-than the giving of their dollars and dimes and pennies for the starting
-of Bryan wagons. In this way the western and southern centers of
-thought and unselfish patriotism may uplift and educate those states
-where greed, political corruption and the infamies of Hannaism still
-hold undisputed sway.
-
-Let the churches of the Western states hold entertainments, let
-suppers, masked balls, ice cream socials, cider picnics and barbecues
-be held by the good women of every village and the proceeds devoted to
-the equipment of "Bryan wagons." And after they are started out, each
-well provisioned with literature, blankets and food, and containing
-two good speakers and workers, the good women who raised the money to
-start them should continue their benign activities and proceed at once
-to raise a fund to keep on hand, so that when our missionaries send
-tidings of persecution, accident or neglect, they can be answered at
-once by a generous remittance.
-
-In order to insure the permanency of the venture, and that the wagon
-and horses may continue to serve the cause even if the men traveling
-with them desert their posts, a bill of sale or transfer of the wagon
-and horses should be sent to our National headquarters or to our state
-officers on the day of departure. The friends of the organization would
-then be communicated with in advance wherever the wagon went, and in
-case either one or both the speakers tired or deserted, the vacancies
-would be filled at once from headquarters, and in the meantime the
-horses and wagon would be cared for.
-
-
-OUTDOOR MUSIC.
-
-There can be no greater aid to the success of a "Bryan wagon" than for
-the volunteers to carry with them and be able to play a banjo, guitar,
-violin, or small organ. Music is one of the world's forces and as rare
-music, like all rare things, is a very small part of the whole, it
-is not necessary that our music be of that sort. If we have the best
-arguments, we can afford to let the other side have the best music.
-But we must not, for this reason, give up music altogether. Therefore
-a man who is proficient in any musical instrument that can be played
-out doors, is a valuable acquisition to a Bryan wagon. But by far the
-most popular and most effective music in the world, if well rendered,
-is the exercise of the human voice in song.[6] To open a meeting with
-music always strikes a sympathetic chord with the people. It aids and
-strengthens every word that follows. If our speakers do not know how to
-sing when they start out, they should practice singing our songs until
-they do know. This should be part of the young speaker's education.
-
- [6] A volume of songs, prepared for our volunteer work, and
- for all sorts of Democratic meetings, will be ready shortly,
- and can be obtained of our National Bureau or from any of our
- volunteers.
-
-
-STEREOPTICON PICTURES.
-
-Another advantage of the "Bryan wagon" is that it can carry a certain
-amount of baggage the "shoe leather traveler" cannot possibly take
-with him. For those who do not possess an unusual oratorical talent, a
-small stereopticon or magic lantern with views picturing the principles
-of the New Democracy in effective colors, will prove a valuable
-aid. Reform stereopticon views have been produced in great variety,
-and the method of enlisting the eye wherever possible to strengthen
-the impressions made through the ear is sound policy. In securing
-collections for the payment of expenses, the average citizen is more
-likely to give his nickel or dime towards the support of the travelers
-if he has heard a dime's worth of music or seen a dime's worth of
-comic and interesting pictures in addition to instruction gotten
-through the medium of the speaker's voice.
-
-
-BICYCLES AND DEMOCRACY.
-
-Where a man doesn't care to walk, and where it is inconvenient or
-distasteful to travel by means of the "Bryan wagon," that most modern
-and popular conveyance, the bicycle, should not be despised as a means
-of disseminating truth. The bicycle is one of the revolutionary factors
-of our age. It is the enemy of tobacco, liquor and all other vices that
-arise from abnormal desires created by a sedentary life. It is the
-friend of health, strength, red cheeks and clear heads. Where there are
-good roads it is an excellent means of travel, and a strong wheelman
-can easily speak every night at a different town by using the wheel,
-and still have plenty of time to advertise each outdoor meeting.
-
-A bicycle, too, is an excellent companion to a Bryan wagon, because
-while the wagon is slowly moving from one village to another, the
-wheelman can be scouring along the side roads distributing small
-circulars to the scattered countrymen, telling them of the meeting
-in the next town the coming day or night. In fact, one of the most
-important truths for every friend of the New Democracy to learn while
-very young, is that our enemy, plutocracy, utilizes every invention
-and element of civilization for the perpetuation of its power. In
-opposing plutocracy we cannot be narrow, prejudiced, superstitious, nor
-allow preconceived ideas as to dignity, custom, personal appearance or
-respectability, to interfere with our free motion and our energetic
-conflict.
-
-We fight with every weapon that by any honorable means can be secured.
-We travel by every means that will emancipate us from the limitations
-of time, space and poverty. We accept as allies every friend who
-will aid in impressing upon our fellow mortals the solemnity of the
-opportunity that confronts them and the malignity of the enemy that is
-destroying our common race and country.
-
-Grasp every force in earth, in sea, in air, which by ingenuity, wisdom,
-persistence, or heroism can be utilized in lessening human pain or
-adding to human joy; which can be of service in forwarding these grand
-principles that will, by one social and political transition, abolish
-the primary sources of human misery.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-SALOON MEETINGS.
-
-
-A young man, of splendid physique, of bright and formidable eye, the
-very picture of strength and courage, who became an admirer of Mr.
-Bryan during the late campaign, and, after careful and extensive
-reading forsook the Republican party, embraced the New Democracy and
-enlisted the week following the election as a Volunteer Speaker and
-worker. He is an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association
-and of the Christian Endeavor Society.
-
-The first meeting he was asked to attend was held over a saloon. This
-image of youthful power and courage walked through the bar-room of the
-saloon with a disparaging air, sat down at a table beside the writer,
-answered a few questions in a gloomy and dissatisfied manner and said
-diplomatically that he had an engagement at another end of the city
-and could not remain. He had promised to help arrange another meeting
-a few blocks away and the next day partly fulfilled that promise by
-carrying a bundle of circulars from the printing office to two men who
-were to distribute them. He then suddenly dropped out of sight and has
-never, so far as the movement is concerned, shown up since.
-
-It has been learned that to a fellow churchman he remarked that he had
-been attracted by the high and noble ideals of Mr. Bryan, had expected
-to work for the cause, but that his attendance at a meeting in a
-saloon was so offensive to him that he lost all heart and had given up
-participation in the movement in consequence.
-
-This man is only the type of a considerable class who would like to
-have their fellow beings clean but would never help wash them, who
-would dearly love to have them good but are too narrow to help save
-them; who admire the poetry of patriotism but who cowardly shrink from
-those sterner duties of which patriotism consists.
-
-Think of a follower of Jesus Christ refusing to preach patriotism to
-men because they are gathered in or over a saloon, after having been
-denied the opportunity of meeting in a church or even a church yard.
-If Jesus Christ had been so squeamish and "gentlemanly" as to have
-confined his services to the respectable people, the early church would
-have died before it was born. In no age has there been sufficient
-vitality in the classes that call themselves respectable to give
-permanent form to any social or religious movement. Those who wish to
-do great things only in a respectable manner never do great things. A
-man cannot at the same time be both great and respectable.
-
-In order to be respectable, he must stifle genius and cover with the
-ashes of artificiality all the deepest passions of the soul. He must
-destroy his individuality and trim his sympathies as he does his beard,
-like the barbarous Northmen when they entered Rome.
-
-Love for humanity that can be checked or dissipated by inartistic
-surroundings, contact with vice or the coarse companionship of
-intemperate men is not love at all, it is a mere fad, a fitful remnant
-of a religious instinct long since eaten out from within.
-
-Imagine a mother talking about how she loves to have her baby clean
-and sweet and wholesome, and then picture her refusing to undergo the
-hardship required in making her child sweet and clean and wholesome.
-Such a mother would be no mother at all, unless, perchance, a
-stepmother or mother-in-law.
-
-The young man referred to is a typical specimen of a sniveling,
-impracticable and worthless counterfeit of religion, the only function
-of which is to emasculate and weaken our youth. It serves to ease their
-consciences and displace the instincts that prompt to goodness. For
-courageous self-sacrifice, it substitutes the mumbling of prayers;
-instead of active, righteous contact with the world it demands the
-attendance at meetings in which love is expressed toward a phantasy
-millions of miles up into the stars, while the Living God of Heaven and
-earth is forgotten, and where imprecation, denunciation and charges of
-wickedness are dealt out to those manly and courageous persons who lift
-out a helping hand to the poor instead of praying for them and who
-fight to make this world and this life heavenly instead of paying their
-debts to their fellow creatures with mansions in the skies.
-
-The refusal of this young man who, according to his own statement,
-believed that the future welfare of the Nation depended upon the
-triumph of the principles represented by Mr. Bryan, to assist in
-spreading those principles in saloon meetings, means that his religious
-and social training had unfitted him to do any great or noble thing,
-unless in conformity with his Sunday-school manufactured tastes as to
-nicety and elegance.
-
-The young man sees the giant tree, injustice, and offers to assist in
-cutting it down but, when we hand him an ax, refuses to take off his
-coat and returns it saying that his little hatchet at home has a blue
-ribbon around it and that he won't cut with any other.
-
-He sings "Rescue the Perishing" at the Christian Endeavor meeting, a
-pretty girl with pink cheeks and cherry lips on each side. The cheeks
-and lips and song are so pleasing, he thinks he will go further and
-help rescue the perishing. After careful study he is satisfied that
-people are perishing for want of his friendly services and the services
-of others like himself. Yet, when he is assigned a place to work, he
-abruptly leaves his post of duty and goes back to prayer meeting,
-because, poor boy, no carpet is on the floor, no angel pictures grace
-the wall, and the tobacco smoke about him is offensive.
-
-Innocent creature! Let him continue to sing his hymns and say his
-prayers surrounded by pretty girls In the Christian Endeavor meeting
-and pretty boys who should have been born girls, while the great forces
-of reform fight the battles of the living God, conquer evil, destroy
-injustice and lift up the fallen. We can do without him and without his
-kind.
-
-Not that we want to. We do not. We need all possible help. We will
-not judge harshly all those who now are given over to such innocent
-amusements. For the delicate white hand, the girlish student face, the
-timid mamma's boy, taken from the prayer meeting and the Christian
-Endeavor Society, once taught to see the great truths of social
-salvation and human progress, does not always retreat in holy horror
-when confronted with conflict and the smoke of battle. On the other
-hand, such timid, singing, praying boys often become National heroes.
-Before manhood is discovered by the growth of hair on the face, manly
-character sometimes reaches maturity, with qualities developed, not
-only superior to tobacco smoke at a saloon meeting, and the naughty
-cuss words of the fellows who drink there, but to the smoke of powder
-and the thunder of cannon.
-
-Do not overlook nor belittle soft men, but ignore only those who stay
-soft after you have tried the hardening process. For where one heart
-may be formed of milk and water, the liquid state of another may be
-that of molten steel, and may only require the cooling process of an
-outdoor breeze to make it withstand the continuous persecution and
-conflict of years.
-
-There is no unholy place where men should not go who are fired by
-a passion for justice. It is a fact that one of the centers of the
-social life of the great cities of America and of Europe is the liquor
-saloon. How much we may deplore this fact or the evil results that we
-see flowing from it, is entirely another question. The fact remains in
-spite of our deploring, our shocked ideals or our sympathies wrung by
-the desolation and death caused by it, that the center of the social
-life of our great cities, the place where society meets, (not that
-floating, top-heavy buoy that calls itself society, but real society,
-the people) is the liquor saloon.
-
-At present it is managed in America, not with any reference whatever to
-its social function, but merely for the private profit of individuals.
-In order to increase their private profits and to defend their special
-interests, the men who manage these saloons, as a general rule, abuse
-their powers and add inconceivably to the horrors of the vice of
-intemperence trying, by unnatural and vicious methods, to increase
-their gain.
-
-Not only this, but as the saloon is the center of the social life of
-our American cities, the proprietors of saloons and the manufacturers
-of liquors, who have associated their interests, have a terrible
-and unnatural advantage in controlling the political power of the
-people with whom they come in contact. They do not have to go where
-the people are because the saloon keeper, in the natural and usual
-performance of his business, is already in the midst of the people. He
-always has a crowd. He is the greatest preacher of modern times. He
-does not have to invent new methods for REACHING THE MASSES. He does
-not have to scratch his bald head and say, "O, Lord! why are my sheep
-deserting me?" The saloon keeper always has a congregation, always
-a choir, is always surrounded by men in need of a friend, and, like
-other members of the human family having a strange mixture of greed
-and sympathy, cruelty and fellow-feeling, he exercises his charitable
-instincts and lends a material helping hand to the members of his
-congregation quite as often as do the five thousand and twenty thousand
-dollar a year ministers who preach not to men drinking, but often to
-men who have already drunk their fill.
-
-The saloon keeper preacher, however, lacks one advantage possessed by
-his more fortunate compeer of the church pulpit, for, where a member
-of the saloon congregation has a perfect right to answer back and
-correct misstatements, slanders and unjust vituperation, the friend
-of the common people who happens into the fashionable city church
-service must bite his lips and remain silent while the name of Jesus,
-the revolutionist, the poor man's friend, is used to strengthen vile
-calumny against His brave modern apostles who are fighting to realize
-practically in government the principles represented by the cross.
-
-Therefore, one of the most promising fields for the social reformer,
-for the man who drinks beer and the man who drinks water, for the man
-who smokes cigars and the man who washes his teeth before every meal
-with charcoal powder and lives on vegetables, is the liquor saloon. It
-is always open and you can go in without buying. You can take a seat
-free of charge and you can talk. You have as much right to talk as
-the bartender, and even if opposed to your principles, good business
-judgment, if no other motive, prompts the average saloon keeper to be
-tolerant. He cannot afford to drive away any large percentage of his
-customers. You have a right, and even in the Republican saloons you
-can get permission to declare the gospel of monopoly's downfall in the
-back room, in the hall upstairs or in the main saloon, once a week,
-without paying anything for heat, light or hall rent. These are already
-furnished for the people who now go there. You do not need to advertise
-the meeting, for there is always a crowd about the saloon. After you
-have held two or three meetings they will grow in size and draw the
-frequenters from other resorts.
-
-The average saloon crowd is as open to conviction and as ready to be
-taught concerning the moralizing of government and the establishment of
-justice in the world as the average church congregation, and they will
-treat you as civilly and listen as attentively even though every man
-present disagrees with you.
-
-Let the hundreds of saloons throughout our great cities be selected
-as a mission field for the new gospel of manliness and brotherhood.
-Christ went among publicans and wine-bibbers. We can afford to go among
-wine-bibbers, even when they are Republicans. Our crowd may be small
-at times but the kind of work that moves the world and builds up
-civilization is work that is regular and continuous.
-
-Let the Volunteers organize by twos, and the one, two or three evenings
-a week that they can give to the cause, let those who choose this
-work go to a saloon and tell the fellows there that under a proper
-social system, each one of them can afford to have a home as sociable
-and homelike and comfortable as a saloon; that, after they declare
-their independence of the party whip, and, instead of obeying parties,
-command them to do their bidding, they can soon have such opportunities
-that they won't have to drink to forget their troubles, because they
-will have no troubles; that they won't have to drink in order to
-imagine that they are happy, because they will have real happiness;
-that after the gold standard and monopoly are overthrown, there will be
-a hundred different pleasures and opportunities opened to them, that
-these will produce intoxication just as delicious as that produced
-by wine and beer, and that every poor man who wants to drink will be
-allowed to drink, not slops and refuse, but the same fluids that now
-give the gout and dropsy to die millionaire.
-
-The way to get up a saloon meeting is to see the proprietor, tell him
-you are a Democrat, not a fraudulent, makebelieve hypocrite, using
-the Democratic name to defeat Democratic principles, not an agent of
-the gold bugs trying to corrupt the Democratic party, not an attorney
-for monopoly attempting to pervert the Democratic organization to
-help millionaires rob Democratic voters, but that you are a real
-dyed-in-the-wool, anti-monopoly, Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, Bryan
-Democrat, standing with all fours on the Chicago platform, the enemy of
-its enemies, the foe of its traducers, and the opponent, uncompromising
-and implacable of every man who upholds the infamous British Rothschild
-gold standard of money. Tell him that you would like to talk to his
-customers and a few others in his place every week, and show them how,
-by united political action in the Democratic party, they can be made
-just as happy as if they were drunk seven days each week.
-
-He will let you come, and if you talk straight from the shoulder, you
-will have a larger crowd at the second meeting than at the first. If
-you keep the work up a year continuously, you will not only have your
-name enrolled in the book of heroes, kept by the Democratic leaders,
-but also in the book kept by the Divinity who guides the Nations. You
-will be rewarded in this world for your sacrificing labor if you live
-until the people crush monopoly, and if not, you will at least have
-that consciousness of duty done which knows no time nor space.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-THE HEROIC AND PROSAIC.
-
-
-Heroism and the spirit of martyrdom and of self-sacrifice are
-historical factors as real, as tangible and as much a part of human
-nature as greed or hunger. The young Volunteers who forsake home,
-business and personal ambition to help save our Nation from the money
-power, starting in the name of humanity astride bicycles, horseback,
-afoot and in Bryan wagons, preaching the new gospel of glad tidings
-without money and without price, eating whole wheat, dry bread and
-apples, with a square meal only now and then to remind them of the good
-times coming, are not impelled by any strange or new force in society.
-They are not the disciples of a new cult or ism, the latest off-shot
-from the great tree of life. They are not a new product of civilization
-but on the other hand they are the real conservative and belong to the
-true nobility of the human race, that brotherhood of heroes, patriots
-and martyrs of all ages and nations, as old as the human family itself.
-
-On the other hand, the essentially NEW PRODUCT of our civilization is
-the man who does not believe in heroism, who has stifled the nobler
-instincts with which nature originally endowed him, and fills his
-whole mind's horizon with the one image of gold. Those in whose minds
-avarice has devoured all other instincts and desires to the point of
-moral insanity, are the only strange or new off-shoots. They alone
-are the special and characteristic product of our particular period,
-distinguished above all else by its complete surrender to the one
-passion--greed. The real cranks and monstrosities are not those who are
-in line with historic humanity, but rather those who have crucified
-their humanity on "a cross of gold" in accord with a temporary social
-perversion.
-
-
-HEROISM AND SOMETHING MORE.
-
-Some say it is the weakness of our movement that we depend too much
-on heroism and patriotism and other of the weaker instincts and
-uncertain qualities of human nature and therefore the movement must
-fail. Successful movements appeal to the more substantial motives and
-instincts, such as cupidity, sectional pride, etc.
-
-While it is true that we appeal first of all to the patriotism of our
-citizens, to the heroic in man and to those deep religious and moral
-sentiments of which heroism and patriotism are the highest product, and
-while it is true that we regard these sentiments when fully drawn out
-and properly applied, and during great occasions of National peril, as
-being stronger than cupidity, sectional pride, or even regard for life,
-and that the exercise of these qualities by vast bodies of men have
-repeatedly, during each century throughout the history of our race,
-saved the dominance of the Caucasian race and all those principles and
-institutions that give value to the modern world, and, while we intend
-during the four years to come, preparatory to the greatest crisis of
-history, to continue to appeal first and foremost and all the time to
-patriotism and heroism, love of justice and fellow feeling, still, we
-intend to utilize every force and every means that will aid in bringing
-about the better world for which we hope.
-
-We recognize that while in a moment of enthusiastic ardor, a man will
-give his life for a principle, and that during hours of deep religious
-fervor, brought about by the preaching of gifted orators, people
-renounce their old ways of living and often divide up their property
-with the church and the poor, that such occasions are comparatively
-rare, while every man born of woman desires food about three times a
-day, that he desires clothing and suffers for the want of it during
-every one of his sleeping and waking hours, that during a large portion
-of his life intense feelings and regard are turned toward some woman,
-and that nearly all men are at nearly all times vain, not in any bad
-sense, but that they desire the respect and the confidence of their
-fellow men, and when opportunity offers, strive to be conspicuous and
-influential, and desire to be feared and loved and admired for unusual
-qualities, possessions or acts.
-
-Therefore, to make our movement completely and wholly successful,
-we appeal first to patriotism and heroism, the noblest and highest
-qualities produced by centuries of religious and moral training, but
-secondarily we appeal to men's ambition, their love of gain, their
-desire to eat, to be clothed, to marry, to become influential, their
-vanity, their imagination, their love of activity and all the qualities
-that they possess.
-
-It does not lessen a soldier's courage for him to know that if
-victorious in battle he is to be promoted, or that if a city is taken
-or a country conquered, he is to have a plantation where he can rest
-in peace when his gray hairs come with his children healthy and happy
-about him. There is no need to dissect with the surgeon's knife of
-close analysis the motives and minds of men in order to separate every
-little vanity from the noble and unselfish impulses with which it is
-interwoven, nor to cut away and lay apart from the strong patriotic
-desire to serve one's country, every little individual and personal
-hope that in the event one's country is served and saved, those who
-bear the brunt of the battle will be especially favored and secure
-first recognition in the universal enjoyment consequent upon such
-victory. By taking human nature as we find it with its admixture of the
-heroic and prosaic, its mingling of selfish and altruistic aims, we
-seek to make every impulse serve the cause of humanity by contributing
-to the one end--triumphant Democracy.
-
-
-THE ROLL OF HONOR.
-
-The most important feature of the Democratic Volunteers' organization,
-is the honor roll, on which is recorded the work done by each
-Volunteer. To all faithful workers are issued semi-annually
-certificates of honor, and to those who perform services of unusual
-merit special medals and other awards of recognition.
-
-One copy of the honor roll is kept by the National leaders in a
-safe-deposit in St. Louis, and a duplicate copy by the great leader of
-Democracy at his home.
-
-By this system, each worker knows that everything he does is recorded
-at headquarters, and is kept there for all future time for reference
-by our national leaders, when they wish, either in asking for services
-or bestowing favors, to find the real, deserving, fighting material
-in our party. Each worker knows, also, that it is the end of the
-unjust custom, whereby one or two loud-mouthed adventurers, who have
-done nothing but who claim all, in the hour of victory cast aside the
-unselfish workers, whose years of patient labor gained the victory.
-With an account kept of the sacrifices made, the clubs organized, the
-members secured by each party worker in our country, there can be no
-more climbing into favor on the shoulders of others, but, instead,
-each man stands on his own bottom, reaping the fruit and recognition
-of his own work, and is assigned to leadership as the result of the
-exercise of his own genius and talents. At present, every Congressman,
-Governor or President elected to office, is punished sufficiently to
-offset all the pleasures and satisfactions of having been successful
-by the impossible task of trying to disentangle the various claims of
-the men who helped elect him. But no such discordant scramble need ever
-recur, for the Volunteers will, in the future, keep an exact history
-of the service rendered by every party worker, and, in Congressional
-parlance, each fellow will know exactly "where he is at." The system is
-as carefully thought out and perfected as that of any standing army.
-
-The roll of honor appeals to the strongest instincts in man, which
-have been utilized in every successful social or religious movement
-since the dawn of history. If he is vain, it appeals to his vanity.
-If heroic, it stimulates his heroism. If ambitious, he sees the way
-to get place and position is to merit them by faithful work and that
-they cannot be had by cheating the rightful owners out of the fruits of
-their victories, to which he has not contributed.
-
-In the Catholic Church and in many other institutions through all the
-centuries, as among the followers of Napolean and Caesar, men have
-often given up their lives for a medal or a bit of ribbon. For such
-rewards England to-day gets almost as much service as from her vast
-pay-roll.
-
-By proper organization, vanity can be made to offset cupidity. It
-is as strong an instinct, and we have the means of satisfying it.
-To-day the name of England's Queen cannot inspire as great enthusiasm
-in the majority of the English speaking race, as does the name of
-William Jennings Bryan. The enthusiasm now aroused has sufficient
-force to accomplish all our ends. What we need is simply to harness
-this Niagara, organize this power, and apply it systematically and
-continuously. It can be done. It is being done. Never in the history of
-our country has the year following a great political campaign been the
-scene of such a rejuvenation of the defeated party as has taken place
-since our late repulse.
-
-As every plant must shoot down two roots for sustenance, before
-putting forth a new twig, so we have decided to plant the roots of
-our organization prolifically throughout the Southern and Western
-states, where our cause is strong, thereby securing the support for
-a continuous and aggressive campaign before sending our Volunteers
-into the doubtful states and those still given over to the idolatrous
-worship of the golden calf.
-
-Each congressional district in the Southern and Western states can
-be made by contributions of one cent, five cents, ten cents at a
-time, collected by the Volunteer Speakers, to support permanently one
-organizer in Republican territory.
-
-There are many different ways to work. One is by educating and
-agitating and by advancing our principles indoors and outdoors upon
-every possible occasion by public speeches. Another is to go to
-work quietly, and, by personal man-to-man solicitation, to organize
-regular ward or precinct clubs in one's own town or county. This is
-the first thing to be done, where no regular Democratic club exists
-independent of boodling bosses. But, anyhow, get five true and tried
-workers enlisted and forward their names to headquarters. They will
-then receive monthly instructions for carrying on and enlarging the
-work. When a club is already formed, the Volunteer is to build it up
-by increasing its membership and educating its members, and defeating,
-as club officers, any man who is known to apologize for the existence
-of any monopoly whatever. After this try to establish a league of
-the clubs in the county, city or state, known to be formed on right
-principles.
-
-In the centuries to come, there will be no prouder title to boast of,
-no higher family honor, no more distinctive mark of aristocracy, than
-this record in black and white that one's forefather belonged to the
-band of patriots who, through four years of persecution and struggle,
-succeeded in driving from American soil, that last representative of
-historic tyranny, organized plutocracy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-PRACTICAL POLITICS.
-
-
-In a cause as holy as ours, false modesty is as unwise as false
-dignity. When we realize that money represents human effort, that it
-gives multiplied power either in war or peace and that the possession
-of money, with its accompanying power to an almost unlimited extent,
-is enjoyed by our enemies, it is well for us to admit at the start
-that we, every Volunteer of us, must make constant efforts wherever
-speaking or working, to raise funds, on however small a scale, for the
-great work before us. One humble but time-honored method, which has
-proved useful in every popular movement, recorded in history, is that
-of "taking up a collection." People may laugh at it and the collections
-be small but we must not be deterred by ridicule nor discouraged by the
-apparent insignificance of the returns. This is the only way to give
-all the people systematically and persistently a chance to contribute
-according to ability to the cause that means liberty and the opening
-of opportunity to them. Therefore, let no speaker listen to advice from
-the timid and over-modest, who shrink from the sneers and taunts of
-the over-nice, but at every meeting let them pass around the hat after
-the manner of our forefathers. We must also remember that in every
-audience, however small, there may be some penitent Croesus awake to
-existing evils but as yet with no clear vision of a remedy, with power
-and will to help but lacking knowledge as to where such help should be
-given. Sudden conversions are not unknown where the message of truth is
-delivered with sincerity and simplicity. There are thousands of rich
-men at this moment who, if properly appealed to, would give liberally
-to the cause that to them seemed likely to promote the general welfare.
-There are many human hearts now waiting, like the Pool of Bethesda, for
-the angel's touch, which shall "trouble" their calm and transform them
-into sources of healing for the woes of humanity. No speaker knows but
-he may be the one destined to open up these closed fountains of power.
-The heights and depths of human nature lie beyond our ordinary vision.
-A man's power of response to an appeal in behalf of those who suffer is
-not always graven on his forehead, so that "he that runneth may read."
-In any audience there may be some listener, apparently indifferent, in
-whom all the preliminary processes of conversion have already taken
-place, and who needs only the warm breath of an atmosphere charged with
-unselfish enthusiasm to complete the work of regeneration. Such cases
-are on record. Within a few years, the gift of a million dollars was
-received by the promoters of a reform movement in New York, not from an
-habitual contributor to such enterprises, but from a sudden convert,
-a man ordinarily cold and indifferent to humanitarian movements, and
-before unresponsive to his brothers' needs. Perhaps it was not the need
-that previously had failed to stir his heart, but only the methods of
-helping that had not satisfied his mind. There are rich men and women
-to-day, honestly desirous of bringing about better social conditions
-and willing to make sacrifices to that end, but who, so far, have found
-none of the methods suggested practicable. To such we may appeal with
-certainty of response, thereby being furnished with the sinews of war
-by those who owe their wealth to the very system we oppose.
-
-And why not? Because a man has been thrown into a brutal and wasteful
-contest and has come victorious from the struggle is no reason why
-he should wish his children and humanity at large to be forced into
-another of the same kind. Such a man well knows that he, too, in spite
-of apparent success, is also a victim. He sees the possibilities of
-life under a better social system--the order, the beauty, the harmony,
-the possible development of higher faculties and extinction of those
-that link him with the brutes. All this he sees, and even while
-scrambling with the rest for possession of the booty, he would hail
-with joy any change that promised to relieve his children from a like
-sad necessity.
-
-Starve fifty Sunday school teachers for a week, lock them in a cage
-together, throw in a roast of beef, a plum pudding, a pitcher of soup,
-a plate of pickles and a pot of beans, at the same time telling each
-to get what he can, as no more will be furnished for a month; and a
-swinish scramble will at once ensue, in which two thirds of the food
-will be wasted, and in the end one man will have a pocket full of plum
-pudding, another a handful of pickles, and the strongest the roast beef
-to himself in a corner.
-
-Let it be understood that he who gets the roast beef is no worse than
-the others, nor will he, because of his success, NECESSARILY favor
-an indefinite continuation of such brutal scrambling. The difference
-between him and the least successful is a difference in strength, NOT
-NECESSARILY A DIFFERENCE IN AIM. To-day, most men are actuated by the
-same spirit. To desire success and a share of life's gifts is right
-and normal. It is the political system under which we live that has
-transformed this natural and healthy impulse into a devilish desire to
-absorb not only all wealth but all opportunities.
-
-To remedy this radical evil, it is not enough to change individuals;
-we must change the system. It is, of course, to be expected that the
-impulse to change our present barbarous monopolistic methods will
-come from those who have failed in the scramble for riches. For the
-possession of wealth naturally tends to promote in the minds of those
-who possess it, a certain degree of satisfaction with the methods
-by which it has been acquired and a tendency to oppose any change.
-A spirit of toadyism and fear of social ostracism also induces many
-to sacrifice their highest ideals. Great fortunes often destroy the
-independence which it might be supposed they would secure to their
-possessors; yet, in spite of the temptations of wealth and the
-unwritten, but none the less rigidly enforced mandates of a heartless
-society, not a few are ready to make the required sacrifices in order
-to advance the interests of our common humanity.
-
-To such partially awakened minds, it ought not to be difficult to show
-that the times are ripe for a solution of existing problems other than
-that offered by charitable associations. For eighteen centuries the
-Good Samaritan has been the working model of the church and society,
-yet the number of the wounded and robbed on the world's highway has so
-increased that the gigantic systems of modern charity are inadequate
-to meet the increasing demands upon them. Why? The answer is clear. No
-very keen intelligence is required to see that one very important duty
-has been neglected by the Good Samaritans of all times. Occupied with
-caring for the wounded, they have neglected to hunt down the thieves,
-who have accordingly increased in numbers and boldness. It is time for
-us to leave effects and study causes, to organize at once to hunt down
-the thieves, for, when these are routed, there will be fewer victims
-on whom to exercise charity. Why plan educational and charitable
-institutions in the slums when the causes that produce the slums are
-left untouched? Why add another to the five hundred churches of a great
-city, when the influence of the money power makes the preaching of
-the real gospel well nigh impossible,[7] thus largely destroying the
-usefulness of those already built? Instead of new homes of charity,
-let us organize to end the need for charity. Instead of building one
-new school, the true educator will ally himself with those forces that
-seek, through public action, to place education within the reach of
-all. Instead of building a new church, the devout Christian or Jew will
-divide his substance with the party that aims to make possible the
-application of the principles of religion to the everyday affairs of
-life and to all social institutions.
-
- [7] A letter lies before me now from a talented and earnest
- young minister of the Episcopal church, in which the writer
- despairingly declares that he dare not preach the social and
- economic doctrines of Christ, lest he bring ruin upon his wife
- and children. "The money-power," he declares, "has control of
- the church and Christ's ministers must either trim their sails
- to catch the wind of its favor or suffer temporal shipwreck.
- It is easy to say that the Christian should be ready to meet
- any martyrdom, but it is equally true that it is not from
- within the bosom of the church that such trials should come."
-
-Never was there a cause that appealed more strongly than ours to a
-man's generous instincts. In the middle ages all Europe was fired by
-the idea of wresting the Holy Sepulchre from infidel hands; to-day
-Greek and Cuban patriots are laying everything upon their country's
-altar for the sake of national honor and freedom. Our cause is nobler,
-larger than any of these. Not Christ's tomb, but the race He died
-to redeem; not an insignificant nation, but humanity is through us
-pleading to be rescued and restored to liberty. Our appeal is not to a
-class, a church or a nation; it is to MEN for MAN.
-
-ONE DOLLAR GIVEN TO OUR CAUSE WILL ACCOMPLISH MORE FOR THE ALLEVIATION
-OF HUMAN SUFFERING, FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE CIVILIZATION, THAN
-FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS SPENT FOR ANY COLLEGE, CHARITY OR CHURCH. As
-hundreds of poor men have sacrificed all they possessed, given up home
-and the comforts of family life, to travel from town to town urging
-the principles of the New Democracy; so will there be rich men, who,
-feeling their RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANITY TO BE MORE BINDING than any ties
-uniting them with a selfish class, will also give up the larger part of
-what they have and lay it on the altar of their country.
-
-Those who feel the divine impulse to give to this movement will give
-double by giving promptly, and will have the added personal joy of
-seeing some of the results of their generosity. Not all the results,
-because each dollar given to this cause starts a train of consequences
-for the happiness of men and for the peace of society that will
-continue as long as this old earth is inhabited by mortals. The effect
-of every penny, given by the smallest child or the poorest servant
-girl, may produce results for good that will be felt by mankind through
-all the generations to come.
-
-It is not unreasonable for us to ask for constantly, and to expect
-to receive a single donation of a million dollars sometime during
-the coming four years. Such donations have many times been given to
-causes less holy than ours, and in emergencies not to be compared to
-it in importance. We can in reason hope for several gifts of not less
-than twenty-five thousand dollars each, and many of not less than one
-thousand dollars, and thousands of lesser gifts proportionate to the
-purses of the poor who will regard it not as a duty, but as a privilege
-to thus co-operate with God. Such amounts have been subscribed to a
-single college and to a single religious denomination within the memory
-of the youngest reader. Can we not rationally expect that even more
-will be given to the movement which is to multiply many times the
-usefulness of all colleges and churches?
-
-But do not trim your sails nor adapt your arguments to the rich, in
-order to secure donations, but speak bravely and fearlessly in behalf
-of justice and the rights of the people, and, if special selfish
-interests are thereby alienated, unselfish interests will be drawn to
-us.
-
-Although generous help may be expected from those who have been
-enriched by the very system that we seek to destroy, nevertheless it
-is a fact that, as a class, the rich are satisfied with the system
-of injustice that has given them their riches, and, as a class, will
-oppose now, as they have opposed during all history, every reform or
-change that promises improvement to the masses. Therefore the bulk of
-the money to be raised for the people's cause must probably be given by
-the people themselves according to their means.
-
-We should for this reason not only call for donations and pass around
-the hat at meetings when the people are enthusiastic, but, in forming
-clubs in every township throughout our country, we should try to induce
-each to appoint its most active and popular man as Treasurer, and
-especially to instruct him to collect every week or month, a regular
-subscription, HOWEVER SMALL, from every friend of our movement in his
-community. In this way, we can establish a system similar to "Peter's
-Pence," and the missionary contributions of the Protestant churches,
-and raise a fund during the coming four years that will be a wonder to
-ourselves and a menace to our enemies.
-
-It may be asked, if the Volunteer Speakers work without pay, many of
-them living on heroic diet and traveling on foot, what need of money?
-To this it may be replied that the legitimate and honest uses for money
-in promoting any cause are too many to enumerate. The field is large
-and workers of many kinds are needed. Though many of our speakers will
-travel and work continuously without compensation and the vast majority
-will give their time without any reward even for their expenses, still,
-to utilize properly the Volunteer work of the thousands who are willing
-to make such sacrifices, it is very desirable that we have at least one
-paid organizer in each Congressional District, and, if possible, in
-each county one who will receive a moderate salary and who will be held
-responsible for all the routine work required in his territory. The
-Volunteer workers and speakers in any locality can be made many times
-as effective, if there is some one man responsible to the national
-office for the methodical arrangement of the work and the systematic
-utilization of their services. It is also highly desirable that every
-Volunteer be given a bountiful supply of the very best literature on
-economic subjects. Money is also needed for our central school for
-Volunteer Speakers in St. Louis, where those with hearts afire to speak
-for Democracy can come, and within one, two or three months, be trained
-and equipped with a practical knowledge of the details of the work in
-which they wish to engage.
-
-But it is folly to enlarge further upon the need of money. Every person
-who appreciates the nature of our struggle knows that everything we do
-can be done more effectively with additional funds.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-FUNDAMENTALS.
-
-
-To educate the people, the first essential is that the educators know
-exactly what they wish to teach and the ultimate purpose of such
-teaching.
-
-In the previous chapters are outlined methods of reaching and
-persuading people. More important, however, than any manner of
-speaking, traveling, advertising or gaining an audience is it that our
-speakers never lose sight of the few great basic principles of our
-movement, and that they keep these central truths steadily before the
-eyes and minds of the people.
-
-The principal danger to be overcome in every popular movement is that
-in the adaptation of the central truth of the movement to local and
-temporary requirements, the truth itself may be lost in a multitude of
-petty intricacies.
-
-In the beginnings of the great religions when they spread irresistibly
-over the world, their teachers held firmly to a few great salient
-truths. But the influence of every religion waned when its ministers,
-forgetting its real object, gave themselves up to details of
-worship and church government. This is also the history of nearly
-every Christian denomination. In their vigor and youth, they dwelt
-principally upon the great primary themes. When these were forgotten or
-neglected, the movements themselves lost their power.
-
-The weakness of the people's movement to-day is that our leaders
-abandon too often the center of the stream, drawn away by the side
-currents and little eddies. The intricacies of finance, statistics and
-details of administration, often absorb their whole attention. Those
-who would guide the crowd to a higher civilization forget the object
-of their endeavors, the crowd forgets; then medley and Babel. Instead
-of marching toward the goal, the multitude halt by the wayside, and go
-to arguing over the incidents of the journey. The compass, governed
-by fixed and universal laws, that acts regardless of the turns in the
-road, no longer directs them. They are at the mercy of the local, the
-incidental and temporary. When they give up the main road to wander
-off in bypaths, unity and progress cease; division, disorder and
-disintegration begin.
-
-The silver question, the question as to the power of the Supreme Court
-Justices, the railway question, are all merely incidental to the one
-great fundamental conflict that has been waged for centuries, the
-conflict of the general welfare resting on right against the special
-interests that thrive by wrong, of liberty against tyranny; the people
-against plutocracy. This conflict should be kept in the forefront by
-every Volunteer, who should urge continuously and repeatedly upon his
-hearers the few great simple truths of Democracy, holding these out in
-bold relief, like mountains above the rolling slopes and projecting
-crags that lead up to them, keeping the popular mind centered on the
-goal of their efforts, the North Star, as it were, of progress.
-
-Revolutions and special evolutions are brought about in human affairs,
-NOT SO MUCH BY THE DISSEMINATION OF A GREAT MULTITUDE OF IDEAS, AS BY
-THE CONCENTRATION OF A MULTITUDE OF MINDS UPON A SINGLE IDEA. This
-single idea, however, cannot be of a local or temporary nature. It
-must, on the other hand, be comprehensive and of sufficient import
-to stir the very souls of the masses. A mere question of currency,
-transportation or judicial powers, however important, even if
-absolutely requisite to further progress, is not capable of producing
-the universal enthusiasm required to institute any fundamental
-innovation. The truths on which the popular mind is to be focused,
-must be self-evident, general, and their application not limited
-to a short time or a special locality. With the people's attention
-fixed upon a great moral truth universally applicable, their faces
-all turned toward, their eyes fixed on one star of deliverance, it
-is easy to convince them that to realize their goal no sacrifice
-can be too great. Men are prepared to act intelligently concerning
-currency, transportation or other incidental reforms when their
-enthusiasm and purpose are fully aroused and their attention is fixed
-upon universal laws about which there can be no doubt, hesitancy or
-confusion. Absorbed in great things, the petty causes of strife and
-dissension disappear. We can gain unity only when, leaving details to
-tried leaders, the people concentrate their attention on those simple
-realities, self-evident and capable of being understood by all, the
-attainment of which forces the righteous settlement of details and of
-all questions dependent and incidental.
-
-
-THE WORLD BIG; GOD GOOD; MAN ALONE RESPONSIBLE.
-
-The first such central truth, self-evident to every man, to be
-proclaimed tirelessly by the Volunteers, is that the earth is large
-enough and rich enough to supply all the good things of life to every
-human being born on it. Urge that especially since the triumphs of
-modern science is it possible for man to satisfy every natural craving,
-every healthy desire, every reasonable hope and dream, without any man
-being compelled to sacrifice another human being to his purpose.
-
-The great and the humblest mind alike can see this truth. It stands
-out an impregnable tower of strength above all minor and subsidiary
-questions. It is unanswerable, incontravertible and DYNAMICALLY
-IRRESISTIBLE. The earth is large enough and rich enough and human
-energy sufficient to produce in abundance everything required to supply
-every natural, healthful human desire. This means that the world, now
-made hell by human greed abetted by ignorance and prejudice, might just
-as well be heaven. The misery caused by poverty, tyranny and neglect,
-can be displaced by happiness, plenty and liberty for all.
-
-Following this and demonstrable from it by the eternal laws of Logic
-is the conclusion that the one primary and all-important duty of every
-man seeing it is to do all he can, after providing for his simplest
-physical wants, to help systematize and civilize human effort and
-overcome prejudice so as to obtain this result.
-
-The immediate effect of the practical acceptance of this one
-self-evident truth is almost inconceivable. Once convince men that
-their sufferings are unnecessary, that science has placed in their
-hands all the power and materials needed which rightly applied will
-give to all men the satisfaction of all their normal desires, and you
-at once transform the world.
-
-The most formidable obstacle in the way of further progress is not
-that men are insufficiently versed in political economy or lacking
-in intelligence, but it is that the people are without hope. Popular
-effort has so often been thwarted by selfish cunning, great moral
-enthusiasms dissipated by the science and superior organization of
-tyranny, that men have lost heart.
-
-Despair is the chief opponent of progress. Our greatest need is hope.
-The people must have faith that something can be done.
-
-The majority of men know of public measures that would be beneficial if
-an upward step were possible, but they are overwhelmed by a multitude
-of incidental obstacles and petty disappointments that cloud their
-small horizons and shut off from sight the great universal and historic
-forces that are slowly but surely working out their destinies.
-
-Convince men that our country is large enough and rich enough to give
-them all an opportunity to work and earn sufficient to support their
-families and educate their children properly, convince them that their
-present poverty and sufferings are wholly the result of social crimes,
-and, if they can believe that this change is actually to be brought
-about, you change the whole base of their operations and revolutionize
-their attitude of mind. They are then ready to co-operate with those
-bold thinkers who have studied out the details of social progress.
-
-Our speakers cannot dwell too long upon, cannot repeat too often, this
-one all-important, fundamental truth, the basis of all right political
-thought and action, namely, that the world is all right, nature
-is lavish, God Almighty is generous, and that human invention has
-multiplied many times the gifts that God originally gave to man, and
-now the human family might just as well sit down amid merry-making to
-the great feast steaming before us, prepared through ages of endeavor,
-but for a miserable dog in the manger.
-
-Proclaim everywhere that organized greed is this dog. Teach that the
-highest patriotism consists in striking it, that the only martyrs are
-those devoured by it, that to kill it is the sublime mission of this
-generation.
-
-Do not try to teach many things, but urge with all the passion of your
-being at all times and in all places, the self-evident and fundamental
-truth that our world contains everything required to make men happy. If
-want exists, it is the result of crime. Those who profit by this crime
-try to convince us that nothing can be done to prevent it. Our work is
-to create hope and courage and let the people know that this crime can
-be stopped, the criminals caught and punished, and the purposes of God
-and nature be permitted to proceed unmolested. Tell the people they can
-put an end to their sufferings, that misery results from human, not
-from natural causes, and that it need not be. Teach and preach and cry
-aloud this one fact. Repeat it indoors and out, with all the fire and
-intensity within you. Each convert will become a center, and our cause
-will spread irresistibly.
-
-Therefore, Volunteers, do not weary your hearers with statistics and
-historical or legal minutiae; do not cram them with detailed arguments
-relating to questions of a local or temporary nature; do not confuse
-them by trying to explain all the intricacies of a financial system
-soon to perish from off the earth. Rather even let the sophistries
-of an opponent go unanswered. But concentrate all your energies upon
-helping turn the attention of the people away from petty and vexing
-intricacies to these few great central truths, which, if once clearly
-seen, make all else plain.
-
-The man who comprehends fully the truth that our world, since the
-discoveries of modern science, is capable of giving every human being
-all the good things of life, that as civilization is now blessed and
-glorious to some so it can be made to all--such a man will forsake all
-small purposes at once and devote himself thereafter to the realization
-of his ideal. Nothing else in the world can compare to this work in
-importance. When he learns that there is but one great party that
-stands for progress, he will immediately ally himself with that party.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-THE CHURCH AS A FIELD.
-
-
-Though in large cities the shelter admitted to be the most accessible
-to the poor, who wish to discuss methods for improving their condition,
-is the corner saloon, yet in country districts it will be found that
-the churches still cling to many of their ancient virtues and will be
-found open and hospitable to every traveler who has a suggestion to
-make for the good of the community.
-
-Whatever a speaker's prejudices may be against any church or against
-all churches, when he consecrates his life to the cause of humanity
-through the Democratic party, he must suppress such prejudices and
-regard all buildings as existing for use. And a true Volunteer is
-always certain that the highest use that can be made of any building in
-the world is to have taught in it the truths of human brotherhood and
-progress as embodied in the New Democracy.
-
-In securing a church building for purposes of instruction, it is best
-not to mention the name of our movement. The name that we have adopted
-being an old name and used by various people for various purposes has
-been used upon numerous occasions by bad people for bad purposes. Even
-the word politics, which, in reality, means the science and art of
-government, has come to mean, in the minds of many, a mere personal
-contest for gain and position. The sacred banner of Democracy has
-often been dragged into these degrading brawls and the principles
-designated by the banner and name lost sight of. For these reasons and
-on account of the limitations of the average human judgment, it is well
-in dealing with church committees to discard all political names and
-to ask only for permission to speak in behalf of human brotherhood,
-social improvement or methods of helping the poor. The fact that human
-brotherhood can only be realized by men through the establishment of
-Democratic principles need not be told the committee, but had better
-be reserved for the audience. The fact that justice is a mere dream,
-intangible and unreal, unless, by political action on the part of the
-many, the few who profit by injustice are deprived of their privileges
-(or, in other words, until the Democratic program is carried out),
-makes it eminently proper that church buildings be opened to our
-speakers as often as possible. Of course, when the churches of a town
-are controlled by scribes and Pharisees, as they were when Paul was
-a volunteer speaker some centuries ago, unless some other building
-can be had, we must follow Paul's example and make our rostrum in the
-open street or field; but where the church buildings are controlled
-by Christians instead of gold worshippers, by sincere men who desire
-justice and brotherhood and to help the poor, then, however different
-our prejudices, our personal likings or our superstitions may be, we
-should grasp our newly acquainted brothers by the hand and arrange with
-them for meetings in the church for the examination of methods whereby
-religion can be made practicable and applied to human affairs.
-
-To the charitable who are really to be found here and there in the
-village and agricultural churches, we must make plain that no amount
-of teaching or preaching, applied internally or externally, can ever
-benefit the poor, until organized society recognizes men's rights,
-women's rights and children's rights as equal to money rights.
-Buildings owned by Catholics, the different Protestant denominations,
-by Jews, both reform and orthodox, and by free-thinking societies,
-can all be secured for the promulgation of these moral truths, if our
-workers will divest themselves of prejudices and don a tactful address.
-The success of this plan lies altogether in the judgment, personality
-and breadth of mind of the Volunteer who attempts the task.
-
-When you approach the trustee of a Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic
-or a Jewish church, remember that the building, the use of which you
-ask, has been paid for by contributions given at a sacrifice by earnest
-men and women, with minds turned towards the solemn and higher things
-of life. However mixed with ignorance, superstitious fear or motives
-of vanity, these buildings, in the smaller towns and agricultural
-communities, are associated with thoughts above and separated from
-personal controversies and material things and, if you can convince
-those in control that you wish to present facts, views and ideas of a
-helpful nature to the community, not incongruous with the teaching of
-their faith, you will generally receive an affirmative answer.
-
-
-LAY PREACHING.
-
-It is common in country districts for laymen, persons neither ordained
-nor licensed as ministers, to speak from Christian pulpits at regular
-church services. This custom should be utilized. A lecture in a church
-building on a week night may attract the more studious or the more
-curious of the community and supply them with rich materials for right
-thinking; but a lay sermon to a regular congregation, backed by the
-regular services and the presence of the minister, carries with it a
-force and authority possible on no other occasion. A Volunteer, by
-reciting, under such auspices, a simple story of the crimes against God
-and humanity perpetrated by the money power, and describing feelingly
-the effect of unnecessary poverty on the souls and characters of men,
-will not only stir the congregation to a new sense of patriotic duty,
-but will furnish material to the country minister enabling him to add
-a new flavor to the food of his flock for months to come. In those
-outlying districts where God has not been entirely superseded by gold
-in the church, a large part of the educational work of our movement can
-be accomplished in this way.
-
-The farmers compose a large part of our country's population and vote.
-They still believe in healthful religion and its power to affect human
-life. They can best be reached on Sunday and very often better through
-the church than in any other way. The reason that the great cities have
-not responded so quickly and so enthusiastically to our movement as the
-country districts is that vice, crime and disease in the great cities
-have, to a large extent, eaten away the capacity for appreciating
-justice and brotherhood, and destroyed in a large class the fundamental
-virtues of courage, manliness, patriotism and belief in the supremacy
-of good. It is to the country, where these virtues are still fresh and
-normal, that our movement must appeal principally. In the city there
-are a thousand places of amusement and dissipation for every idle hour.
-The boy coming from school or work, the mechanic after his day's labor
-pass the open saloon, filled with music and merry-making, the theatre,
-with its novelties, laughter and appeals to all the emotions, the
-gambler's den, the game tables, the dives and a hundred other places,
-always open, some positively and immediately hurtful to both health and
-morals, others absorbing time, attention and vitality.
-
-In the country, however, work or study done, a man or boy has not so
-many places of amusement. There is much more inducement than in the
-city to attend some church entertainment, some healthful neighborhood
-ball, and much more time and energy left for meetings at the school or
-church for the discussion of social problems and questions of national
-or class well-being.
-
-Thus the Volunteer who would teach farmers and villagers must accept
-the church as one very promising field of work.
-
-
-SUNDAY WORK.
-
-No day is more appropriate for effective work in behalf of human
-brotherhood than Sunday. By common consent it has been set aside by
-the majority of civilized races for serious thought, meditation and
-worship, and what is more befitting this day than to think out, study
-out and talk out the solution to the great problem of human justice and
-brotherhood. To speak for the New Democracy on Sunday is no more than
-to gather in the fruit of all the great religions that have come down
-to us. The New Democracy is not religion and those who proclaim its
-truths are neither preachers nor priests, but it is religion's highest
-product. The great religions of the world, nurtured by God's hand and
-growing out of the fertile and sympathetic souls of the men and women
-of all climes and all centuries, have at last produced a practical
-ideal capable of being realized in actual life. This product is the New
-Democracy. It is the answer to the prayers of the ages. It is God's
-gift granted in answer to the cries of suffering of injustice and
-poverty throughout the world. It is God's method of redeeming society,
-of saving our nation, now well-nigh unto death, from greed and sin. Let
-each retain his attachment to his own sect and religion, but instead of
-quarreling about sectarian differences, let us unite in realizing our
-common dreams of brotherhood. Instead of building new walls to separate
-us, let us make one platform so large that on it all earnest sons of
-God can stand erect, confident of His presence.
-
-Centuries before Jesus Christ traversed the plains of Galilee and
-bathed in the troubled waters of the Jordan, there was one Buddha who,
-despising the superstitions of his time, gathered about him others
-who, like him, believed that the larger part of human suffering was
-unnecessary and could be extinguished by human agency. This band
-traveled throughout the most populous districts of Western Asia
-teaching the great truth that the object of life's endeavor should
-be to lessen pain and to increase joy. Their one command was "cease
-causing pain; do not kill or cause to suffer any man or animal."
-And within two hundred years, from this little band and from this
-one whole-hearted man, an enthusiasm for mercy and love and justice
-overspread a third of the human race. Buddha's teachings were free from
-the multitude of miserable superstitions that haunt the people who bear
-his name to-day. His teachings, with those of Zoroaster, Confucius,
-Mencius, Moses and Christ, in their purity, attempted primarily to
-induce men to live as brothers, to teach men that individual good is
-social good and that both duty and true happiness consist in devotion
-to others--to the commonwealth.
-
-Some preachers, however, get so in the habit of prophesying that, when
-their prophecies are fulfilled, they think it wicked and heretical to
-believe it. They refuse to believe their own eyes when they see the
-answer to their prayers. So deep-rooted has grown their habit of prayer
-that the means has become an end. They ask no longer to get what they
-ask for but for the exercise of asking, which they call pious. Their
-prayers answered, they are astounded. Now that their prophecies are
-fulfilled, they open their unbelieving eyes in wonderment and condemn
-those who stop asking for what is already given.
-
-
-DON'T ASK FOR WHAT YOU HAVE.
-
-Christ many times used the relation of a child to its father to
-represent the relation of man to God. When a boy begs his father
-for a sleigh and pony, and, after much pleading, the father grants
-his request, the boy stops asking, accepts the gift with thanks and
-proceeds to take a ride. If he were to continue on his knees pleading
-for them after being told they were in the back yard subject to his
-orders, we should call him a simpleton. What is the use of his saying,
-"Oh, papa, please, dear papa, give me a pony and sleigh," when papa has
-already given it and is anxious to see it driven past the house. If the
-boy has any sense at all, upon first seeing his father drive his new
-pony toward home, he will stop praying, take off his hat, throw it up
-in the air, and hallo a "Hurrah for pop." He will jump into the sleigh,
-go for his best girl, and not show up again till two o'clock in the
-morning.
-
-For centuries the human race has longed and prayed and hoped for a time
-when justice would be possible on earth, when the reign of brutality
-would be superceded by the triumph of justice and brotherly love.
-This desire, this deep yearning, has taken definite expression in the
-ceremonials and prayers of all religions, and in the grand prayer given
-us by Jesus Christ:
-
-"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
-
-The soul of the universe has found expression in the Divine Hand that
-guides the course of nations, and has answered the prayers of the
-churches and the heroes and the saints. And that justice, which for
-centuries has been an object of prayer, has become, for the first time
-in history, a tangible, definite thing, capable of realization. What
-we have asked for, God has made possible. Why now crawl longer in the
-dust like worms beneath the feet of tyrants, when God bids us rise and
-stand erect? Why continue to pray and plead for what God has already
-placed within our reach? Tell the preachers to stop praying for this
-gift, already ours, and accept it as God gave it. THIS SIMPLE ACT OF
-ACCEPTING GOD'S ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS OF THE GOOD AND THE TRUE OF ALL
-PAST CENTURIES, IS THE PROGRAM OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-I ask father for a horse and sleigh. Now that he brings it to me, I
-stop asking for it, and take a ride. We have prayed during centuries
-for an era of justice. The New Democracy is the fulfillment of God's
-prophecy. It is the greatest moral tidal wave that ever thrilled with
-new life this old world of ours. It embodies the practical program by
-means of which the Infinite Intelligence is leading humanity to its
-inheritance.
-
-
-HUMANITY'S SCOUTS HAVE FOUND THE WAY.
-
-A body of pioneers lose their way in the wilderness. After days of
-weary trudging and hunger, they kneel and pray to God for guidance to
-food and shelter. In the midst of their devotions, a scout returns and
-rudely interrupts them, crying, "Get up, boys, stop your prayers; I
-have found the main road, and we are only ten miles from town." What
-should our pious travelers do? If they have an ounce of common sense,
-they will jump to their feet, brush the dust from their trousers, and
-follow their deliverer. Should we not call them insane, on the other
-hand, if, accustomed to hunger and thirst, they had come to believe
-prayer and privation the ends of life, and, if instead of rising up
-and accepting God's answer to their prayers, they should continue to
-grovel and pray on?
-
-After eighteen centuries of prayer and privation, of hunger and thirst,
-the couriers and scouts of the human race have returned, and to their
-kneeling, miserable brothers they cry aloud, "Arise, cease your prayers
-for already they have been answered. We have found the road and the
-promised land is near. Hunger and thirst are no longer necessary. Let
-thanksgiving and praise to God now take the place of begging petitions
-for that which He hath already granted us."
-
-As true religionists, is it our duty to say to these scouts, "Stop, you
-infidels, you interfere with our devotion?" Such a policy is insanity.
-These teachers are not infidels. They are not enemies of religion.
-Otherwise God would not have revealed to them His plan for answering
-the prayers of the millions and fulfilling the prophecies of past ages.
-
-We have been praying: "Lead us aright. Show us the way to realize
-Heaven in this world." Humanity will now stop asking and accept, as
-a child from its father, God's last and greatest gift. The weary
-travelers of earth will see that the privations of centuries are no
-longer necessary. They will stop pleading with Heaven for the manna to
-be had by simply putting forth their palms.
-
-
-PRISONERS OF THE BASTILE.
-
-For an explanation of the action of those poor, irrational creatures
-who are so accustomed to privation and prayer that when relief comes
-they only continue to pray, failing to recognize that their prayers
-are answered, we can only point to the last poor inmates of the French
-bastile. The most prominent and intellectual citizens of France, they
-had been torn from their homes without a trial, thrown into dungeons
-containing not a single ray of light, fed there on bread and water from
-year to year until lonely and in torture their hair turned prematurely
-white and their bodies withered. When, at the first stroke of that
-most glorious of revolutions, the bastile doors were opened, and the
-soldiers of the people broke down the huge iron gates and doors, crying
-aloud in the name of liberty, "You are free, you are free, come out
-long imprisoned brothers," the populace were astounded to find that
-many of the poor, white-haired, white-bearded, pale-faced prisoners,
-instead of walking out into the long-wished for sunlight, clutched the
-walls of their cells, clung to their prison floors and cried in fear.
-They had to be torn from their gloomy haunts by main force by their
-rescuers. Their years of trouble, of darkness and gloom had destroyed
-their power to enjoy the light of freedom. Many of the brightest
-intellects of France had thus been dimmed. Their souls, once afire for
-freedom, had burned out in despair. They had become maniacs.
-
-So now there are devotees of religion, so inured to the gloomy slavery
-of poverty and injustice, so in the habit of praying for relief, that
-when the bold servants of God strike down with their ready hammers
-the prison walls, and freedom's air and sunlight stream in, these
-poor souls are horrified, paralyzed by the very light and atmosphere
-for which they have been praying. "Go away," they say, and, crying,
-they clutch their cell walls refusing to be free. They, too, have
-become maniacs. But the majority of the human race will not refuse
-freedom's balmy breeze or the sunshine of liberty. At the call of the
-New Democracy they will throw down their broken chains of poverty, leap
-through their open prison doors, and cheer with might and main as the
-majority of the prisoners of the bastile cheered a century ago when
-they were given freedom's light.
-
-
-THE COMMANDMENTS GROWN WITH THE WORLD.
-
-If men claim that we are to be forever satisfied with the commands,
-"Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not kill," we will answer
-that these commands have grown, and that under the banner of the New
-Democracy we shall declare in thunder tones to all the world, "thou
-shalt not be killed," "thou shalt not be robbed," and not only this
-but also, "thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be killed," and,
-"thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be robbed." These commands have
-developed still further, so that the cry shall go up from sea to sea
-that our present and past systems of thievery, robbery and murder shall
-be swept away, that the teaching of the churches against thievery,
-robbery and murder, through all the centuries, has borne fruit, and
-that now, not only shall the poor, dependent teachers of abstract truth
-proclaim between hymns and prayers, "thou shalt not steal," and "thou
-shalt not kill," but that the whole people shall Join in one mighty
-chorus, and declare that public thievery, robbery and murder must cease
-from off the earth and that our social and political systems shall be
-made to conform to the teachings of our religion.
-
-To those who oppose us in the name of religion, let our answer be,
-"We do not fight the church; without the church and its teachings for
-nineteen centuries, the New Democracy would have been impossible." The
-New Democracy is an outgrowth of all religions. Religion has protected
-and kept alive, through the barbarous past, the great moral truths that
-we are now applying to actual life. Even if the church or any part of
-the church or priesthood or ministry attempts to oppose us, we will
-simply laugh with God at every futile effort to stem the flood, the
-source of which is their own teaching through nineteen centuries. For
-the church, or any part of it, to oppose or belittle or criticise the
-New Democracy, is for the tree to disclaim its own fruit, for the
-rivers to disown the sea, for the fountain to dry up its stream, for
-the mother to cast aside her child.
-
-The founders and prophets of all the great religions taught the
-principles of justice and brotherly love. The New Democracy makes
-possible their realization.
-
-What nobler work can any man engage in on Sunday than the proclaiming
-in open air or behind closed doors these eternal truths, or tell of the
-new impulse that is fast taking hold of men to weave these truths into
-the texture of our social institutions.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-ONLY TWO PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
-
-
-Another of the few foundation truths upon which the structure of the
-world's present progress is being reared, a truth that cannot be too
-often told nor too continuously urged, is that THERE ARE ONLY TWO
-PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
-
-One party consists of those who, seeing wrong, try to end it;
-seeing injustice, strive to abolish it; and, being told of possible
-improvements, investigate and EXPERIMENT, hoping to attain them.
-
-The other party is made up of those who cannot see wrongs when
-practiced upon others, who are blind to injustice for fear of the
-unjust, and who, being told of possible improvements, antagonize their
-instructors, in defense of the private interests of themselves or their
-masters, that might by change be jeopardized.
-
-One party represents the cause of the people; the other the selfishness
-of kings, nobles and plutocrats.
-
-The fight now is not simply a continuation of the old fight that
-has been going on from ancient times, but is the world climax, the
-end of the struggle. Those who produce and trade and teach, earning
-their money by honorable exertion, are forming all along the line,
-against those who are too lazy to work, too stupid or too proud
-to trade or teach, but who wish to grow rich by acquiring other
-people's property. The honest masses who believe in law, order and
-progress, are approaching a decisive contest for permanent supremacy
-with the dishonest classes who, in order to defend their systems of
-plunder, utilize in their service the combined forces of ignorance,
-superstition, toadyism, lawless cunning and the force of arms.
-
-If the lawless, irresponsible dictators of industry and commerce are
-successful, then liberty, constitutional government and personal
-security are at an end, civilization is derailed into an abyss, and
-retrogression displaces progress through another age of barbarism.
-Gold becomes the only God, and bayonets the only prod to duty. The
-university, the press and the pulpit will all be made permanent
-attachments to the one despotic machine which is to control every
-source of communication and instruction, and stifle all thought and
-aspiration that does not strengthen the ruling power.
-
-On the other hand, the people's victory will end class rule forever,
-and gradually abolish all special privileges and monopolies by means
-of which one man holds an unjust advantage over another. The people
-holding the reins of power will apply the best talent, experience and
-energy possessed by man to the establishment of justice, order and
-public achievement. This is the situation confronting our country and
-the world. It is the situation as it confronts every individual man.
-The war is universal. There are no non-combatants. Everyone is affected
-by the outcome. Each has the power to help decide the result. Whether
-in compliance with or against our will, each of us must participate and
-assist one side or the other.
-
-Which shall it be? The party of the people or the party of tyranny.
-This question presents itself alike to the citizen of America and the
-inhabitant of Europe. Since the historic people's victory at Chicago,
-July 6, 1896, the people's party in America has taken the name "REGULAR
-DEMOCRATIC." In Germany, France and England it is known as the "Social
-Democracy;" in the Balkans and Asia Minor it is the "Greek;" and in the
-West Indies, the "Cuban Army."
-
-When once the masses realize that the same class of adventurers,
-tax-gatherers and oppressors of labor who in this country have gotten
-absolute control of the Republican political machine, are the present
-friends, the advisers and colleagues of the despots, plutocrats and
-military leaders of Europe, that their families are intermarrying,
-their interests being pooled, their cause becoming one, their interests
-identical, all their plans and hopes one and inseparable, then will
-it be impossible for designing demagogues to mislead or confuse them
-further. When it becomes generally understood that the forces of
-reaction throughout the world are one, then will the common people
-come into closer union and bind themselves together as a unit.
-
-The union of those who profit by tyranny necessitates the union of
-all who believe in liberty. The internationalism of millionaires is
-creating an internationalism of the common people. The situation is
-being so simplified that all may comprehend clearly the two forces
-whose conflict extends over the modern world. All minor and secondary
-divisions and issues are swallowed up. The international aspect of the
-problem does not, as one might at first suppose, confuse the mind,
-but, on the other hand, simplifies the issue so that none can mistake
-concerning it. Old prejudices, reverence for party names, sectional
-hatreds, sores left by historic feuds, religious differences and
-affiliations with local political machines, in which self or friends
-are interested selfishly, all tend to cover up the real issues, when
-only the local end of the fight is studied.
-
-But, when we learn that the same class that induced the governments of
-Europe and America to co-operate with Spanish murderers in starving,
-killing and torturing tens of thousands of our patriotic brother
-Americans in Cuba to protect the value of their Spanish bonds and
-got these so-called Christian governments to assist the Turk, supply
-him with arms and drill and general his soldiers for the massacre of
-hundreds of thousands of defenseless Armenians and Greeks, to secure
-the continued payment of interest on their Turkish bonds; that this
-class is made up of the same individual bondholders who are gaining
-control, through syndicates, of our American breweries, distilleries,
-railroads, street car companies, gas companies and other manufacturing
-and commercial institutions; that they are ever ready mercilessly and
-barbarously, by murder or giant fraud, to advance their interests,
-regardless of duty to humanity, country or to God, all of which they
-deny; and, when we prove that this class now controls absolutely
-the machinery of the Republican party in America, and is trying
-again to control Democracy, the masses, in their fury against it
-will, regardless of historic prejudices or past or local political
-affiliations, unite in common defense of home and country to stamp it
-out.
-
-
-THE PARTY OF EXPERIMENT.
-
-Our enemies say ours is a party of EXPERIMENT. We admit it. No forward
-step in the world's history, no achievement in science, art, literature
-or politics has ever come but by EXPERIMENT.
-
-We are not, however, the only party of EXPERIMENT. The plutocrats,
-who now control our country, also believe in EXPERIMENT, only their
-experiments are in the direction of further despoiling the people
-without adding to popular rage, and of tightening their grip upon our
-property, our lives and liberties without inciting to rebellion.
-
-One man experiments with surgeon's knife upon the body of another,
-chloroformed or a corpse. But suppose the chloroform ceases to act or
-the corpse proves a case of suspended animation, rises up snatches
-the surgical instrument, ties his tormentor to the couch and begins
-to experiment on him. The EXPERIMENT in either case may be equally
-beneficial to science, equally dangerous to the victim. But the
-personal value of the EXPERIMENT to either of the principals depends,
-in a large measure, upon WHETHER HE IS THE EXPERIMENTER OR THE MAN
-EXPERIMENTED ON.
-
-The millionaires united are at present experimenting on the people.
-The records of their discoveries are doubtless of great value to
-political science but when the unfortunate public, heretofore thought
-dead or safely hypnotized, arises and with ghastly alacrity, begins to
-EXPERIMENT on its doctors, not only will science be equally benefited,
-but the "corpse" will enjoy the operation hugely.
-
-This outcry on the part of the plutocrats against political
-experimenting means simply that _they want to do all the experimenting
-themselves_.
-
-
-OUR ENEMIES ARE THE INNOVATORS.
-
-A family, sheltered for many years to their entire satisfaction by an
-old homestead, that also protected their property, suddenly discovers
-that their silverware is fast disappearing with many heirlooms, jewels
-and valuable papers and pieces of furniture. They discuss a plan for
-changing the locks and, with the aid of a skilled mechanic, make an
-examination of every wall, floor, door and window with a view to a
-general overhauling and repairs. A neighbor makes serious objection and
-in a solemn manner appeals to his friends not to interfere with the
-ancient landmarks nor lay an irreverent hand upon the old homestead,
-that served their father so well and that sheltered them and protected
-their property so long. His only object in thus warning his friend
-against dangerous innovation being grateful reverence for which has
-been so useful in the past.
-
-Supposing the owner to be possessed of common sense, his answer
-will be: "Yes, my friend, the old homestead has served me and my
-fathers well for a long period of years and I had never intended to
-irreverently destroy it. But I have discovered that some stranger has
-already laid an irreverent hand upon our home and broken the locks of
-our doors and windows. We find that he has cut a hole in the floor
-of our side closet and effected entrances through the roof and the
-cellar window. The home which once protected us serves no longer as
-a protection, because mutilated by an intruder. If the house still
-protected us as it did our fathers we should be satisfied; but, since
-others have changed it, we, in self-protection, must adapt ourselves
-to the changed conditions. It is not the old house that protected our
-fathers that we are changing, but the new house, the changed house,
-the mutilated house--this it is that we wish to renovate and re-adapt,
-so that it may again be made to serve us as did the old one. The same
-outside framework, the same old flag-pole, brown front and corner stone
-remain, but many of the foundation stones are gone, the strength of the
-house, its power to serve and protect us have been taken away so that
-we are in constant fear of its caving in upon us. Therefore, we shall
-repair it thoroughly or else remove to another."
-
-Our government for many years served the people well. Its past is
-sacred. It protected our fathers, made our lives and our fortunes
-possible and we are tempted to give weight to the arguments of a
-compatriot when he says to us: "Touch not the ancient landmarks; do not
-lay irreverent hands on our government; do not seek to change its laws
-or institutions; it has served us well and we should show our gratitude
-by protecting it and by opposing innovation."
-
-In answer, however, we are forced to say that, although we have the
-same flag-pole and flag, the same brown front and corner stone, an
-enemy has for years been removing one foundation stone after another.
-He has removed the vital parts from the locks of our doors and windows;
-made entrances through the roof, the floor and cellar, so that our
-silver is now disappearing, our jewels and our heirlooms are missing,
-and our liberty, our lives and our property are in danger.
-
-WE ARE NOT THE INNOVATORS. WE ARE THE VICTIMS OF INNOVATION. We seek
-to battle against the invaders who have mutilated our government and
-would destroy us. We strive to make our government, of which now only
-the shell remains, serve us as it served our forefathers, capable of
-affording us that shelter and protection, which is the true function of
-government, and which our forefathers intended we should have.
-
-
-TWO GOVERNMENTS IN MORTAL COMBAT.
-
-We have two distinct governments in our country, whose interests are
-antagonistic and irreconcilable. One government is the United States;
-the other, the United Trusts and Syndicates. The former is democratic;
-the other despotic. This inner-treasonable despotism controls our
-industry, commerce and means of life and pleasure. It is using the
-United States government as a machine to enforce its decrees and extend
-its dominion, hoping soon to abolish the last vestige of popular rule.
-It is world-wide in its extent, and only uses local and national
-governments as means of power.
-
-The United States enacts laws openly. The United trusts and syndicates
-enacts laws secretly. Disobedience to our state laws is punished only
-after a public trial, but the merchant who breaks a trust law is ruined
-without a trial, the laborer who ignores it is secretly blacklisted;
-the minister who defies it is forced out of the church, and the lawyer
-disregarding it loses his profitable practice. The nation enacts a law
-and the trust officers laugh at it so far as it applies to them, and
-then, by gaining control of the law-enforcing power, use this law as an
-additional club in the subjugation of their victims.
-
-When the people attempt to defeat a new aggression on the part of the
-trusts by carrying out the plan of some renowned thinker, known to be
-uninfluenced by special interests, the emissaries of the trusts scatter
-the people by crying: "EXPERIMENT." "An untried and Utopian scheme,"
-"Innovators." While the patriots argue as to whether their plan is
-really an EXPERIMENT, the enemy captures a new position.
-
-The United Trusts and Syndicates, by experimenting constantly and
-pushing forward all along the line and at the same time by convincing
-the United States not to EXPERIMENT, succeeds in approaching the
-same relation to its rival government that a live ant sustains to
-a dead worm. By incessant and fearless activity, and by using our
-constitution, traditions and flag as a blind, this irresponsible
-despotism is fast nearing the time when it hopes to throw off its mask
-and publicly usurp supreme power. Not a day passes but these organized
-conspirators try some new EXPERIMENT, attempt some new aggression never
-dared before, attack some nearer outpost of the people's liberties
-heretofore thought impregnable.
-
-Often these EXPERIMENTS fail. The people are sometimes bull-headed, and
-repulse the attack with loss to the United Trusts and Syndicates. But
-failing once, twice or a hundred times, do they cease to EXPERIMENT?
-Even though they lose millions in attempting some audacious act, do
-they therefore refuse to attempt another act equally bold? Never.
-They see clearly that all enterprise, all progress, all victory, all
-increase in power and dominion, result only from repeated EXPERIMENTS.
-The boldest of all EXPERIMENTS was the hatching of the conspiracy that
-gave their present organization birth. EXPERIMENT gave them all they
-have. They live and grow by it. To stop EXPERIMENT is to stop action,
-for the modern world is a new world and in it there are no tried and
-beaten paths. The floods and glaciers of innovation have carried away
-the ancient landmarks, and by raising new barriers and structures
-largely shut off from all progressive peoples, even the kindly rays
-from the lamp of experience. Not agitators, but science and invention,
-have pushed us away from the ancient world, with its well-worn roads
-and lighthouses, and where we walk now human feet never trod before.
-The light from our foreheads is our only lamp, and eternal truth our
-only guide, prefer to EXPERIMENT, OR TO BE EXPERIMENTED ON; TO BE THE
-SURGEON, OR THE CORPSE.
-
-The Democratic party in power in 1900 controlled by the common people
-will, without doubt, EXPERIMENT boldly. It will lead our government
-into new and untried ways, as our enemies very clearly and very
-truthfully predict. It will, without doubt, commit blunders and make
-mistakes. The one thing that above all and in spite of all it is
-pledged to do, is to arouse the United States government from its
-paralysis, stupor and corpse-like state of being experimented on, and
-declare that whatever the EXPERIMENTS of the future, instead of being
-made ON THE UNITED STATES, THEY SHALL BE MADE BY THE UNITED STATES.
-
-The important question for the citizens of the United States to answer
-is simply this: Do you prefer to EXPERIMENT, or to be experimented on;
-to be the surgeon, or the corpse?
-
-When the victimized people declare their independence, through their
-own government, of the despotism of the trusts, it will necessarily be
-an EXPERIMENT.
-
-Every time General Grant ordered an attack on the forces defending
-negro slavery, he tried an EXPERIMENT. Never could he tell exactly
-what the result would be. There might be more dead Union men than
-Confederates, or there might possibly be more dead Confederates than
-Union men. The one thing of which he was certain, however, was that
-his duty consisted in going ahead, and, when defeated, he gathered his
-troops together and tried again. He knew that, if followed long enough,
-his plan would crush the Confederacy.
-
-So each attack on the white slave power to-day is an EXPERIMENT. We
-cannot at any time foretell the immediate result. An attack on a
-special monopoly may fail. Many times we may be repulsed with loss,
-but by constantly renewing the attack and continuing to press forward
-we shall eventually triumph. During the late war, the southern states
-defended black slavery. They lost. Black slavery was abolished. To-day,
-the southern states, dominated by the common people, have espoused the
-cause of liberty and to the oppressors of the North and East they say,
-"White slavery also must be destroyed."
-
-Both parties are parties of EXPERIMENT. The only difference is that we
-avow ours openly and write them in our platform, while the experiments
-and aggressions of the Republican party are planned in secret and
-executed in dark corners where only traitors and adventurers are
-allowed admittance.
-
-To hesitate and refuse to EXPERIMENT is to tie our hands and remain
-inactive, while our enemies harass us, rob us, and assault us from
-all directions. It is as important to weaken the enemy as it is to
-strengthen your own forces. Therefore, when by an extensive literature
-the money-power instill in the people a horror of EXPERIMENT, they
-palsy their limbs and incapacitate them for defense.
-
-Therefore, the Democratic Volunteers will frankly admit the charge
-that they favor EXPERIMENT and will boldly proclaim that EXPERIMENT is
-one of the foundation stones of their creed. By ceaseless and tireless
-repetition in every community of our nation we will ask the people
-to begin to EXPERIMENT on their own account, instead of permitting
-EXPERIMENT to longer remain a monopoly in the hands of those who
-continually decry it. We will ask them to decide whether they will
-longer remain objects of EXPERIMENT, or, by government action, begin to
-EXPERIMENT on their persecutors.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-WITNESSES FOR PLUTOCRACY DISCREDITED.[8]
-
- [8] For part of this chapter credit is due to Carl Vrooman.
-
-
-When the nature of the present world conflict is understood, those who
-favor the people's cause will cease to receive any further instruction
-or advice whatever from their enemies or the allies or agents of their
-enemies.
-
-If America declared open war upon Britain should we put the slightest
-confidence in any statement, emanating from English sources as to the
-best line of attack? And, if a coterie of young Britishers were to
-enter our camp and advise our soldiers to open fire in a northward
-direction, should we not rather suspect an attack from the enemy on the
-south? Is it not a rule in war always to fire in the direction opposite
-to that advised by your enemies? In all business and other practical
-affairs of life is it not universally recognized as the extreme of
-folly to accept as facts the statements of those who may profit by our
-discomfiture?
-
-Most assuredly! And it is time for the merchants and workingmen of
-America to apply to their political struggle these simple maxims so
-well established elsewhere.
-
-
-WORTHLESS TESTIMONY.
-
-Imagine a courtroom filled with spectators and a group of culprits
-being tried for wholesale theft. The strongest evidence has been
-produced by both the prosecution and defense and the result is in
-doubt. Anxious crowds are waiting in suspense for some decisive stroke
-that shall give an advantage to one side or the other. The counsel for
-the defense arises and plays his last card by an eloquent appeal in
-behalf of the prisoners, basing his plea entirely on the superiority of
-his witnesses. He shows that they stand much higher in the community
-than the witnesses for the prosecution, who are poor, untutored
-countrymen. "My witnesses," says he, "include the leading men in
-your community--your parson, the principal of your high school, and
-the editor of your paper. Yours are mere yahoos and ignoramuses, not
-capable of exercising judgment in such a case as this." A murmur of
-assent passes around the room. There is a cheer of confirmation, and
-the jurors nod their heads significantly.
-
-The prosecuting attorney, instead of making a speech, plays his last
-card by taking the jury to the stable, where they discover that the
-horse on which the teacher rode to court is one of those stolen from
-Farmer Hayseed's stable, and further he proves that the suit of clothes
-worn by the parson on the witness stand was made of the very piece of
-woolen goods taken from the country storekeeper, and that the coins
-that fill the purse of the respected editor are the same identical
-marked coins accumulated by Widow Jones for her old age and taken from
-her money drawer on the night of the crime in question. No speeches, no
-arguments are necessary after this. The jurors purge their memories of
-the testimony for the defense, and the culprits are sent to prison.
-
-In the great case of "The People versus Monopoly," now being tried
-at the bar of Public Opinion, the defense, beaten upon every other
-point, bases its last plea upon the superiority of its witnesses. It is
-claimed that the authorities on finance, the press and the pulpit are
-witnesses in defense of Monopoly. We acknowledge this, and in answer
-wish only to take the jury, who are to decide this case, to the homes
-of these witnesses, where they can see for themselves that they are
-sharers in the plunder that has been taken from the plaintiffs.
-
-
-THE PRESS.
-
-The first important witness in behalf of the defense is the great
-metropolitan press, the peculiar and special product of the dying years
-of the present century.
-
-Now, the modern newspaper is a corporation, formed for the one purpose
-of paying dividends to stockholders. In order to make money it must
-serve the people who have money, for now all the profits of the great
-dailies are derived from the sale of space in their columns, the
-receipts for the sale of papers not covering expenses. The business
-manager, with a few exceptions, controls the editorial department and
-dictates all policies. So we poor wayfarers, hungry for information
-concerning some important interest, seize upon a learned editorial in
-a great metropolitan daily, and while we think we are being instructed
-by the weighty opinion of some friendly and scholarly writer, we are
-in fact reading THE PAID ADVERTISEMENT of our enemies, placed in the
-paper to confuse us. When, in the news department, we read a speech or
-an interview, it is often so garbled that the meaning is quite changed.
-And what we consider to be a simple statement of fact is often a
-doctored narrative, containing fictitious figures, and printed for the
-sole purpose of misleading the public.
-
-The attempt of the gold press to array the agricultural producers
-against the city laborers, and the mechanics against the agriculturists
-is cruel and deliberate. And this power to deceive and mislead carries
-with it the power of life or death.
-
-Suppose I were to go to Mr. Jones and tell him that Mr. Smith had
-declared to me that he was going to shoot him on sight, and that I had
-seen him purchase a revolver for that purpose; and then I should go to
-Mr. Smith and tell him that his friend Jones had just armed himself to
-the teeth for the purpose of killing him, stating that I had heard him
-swear and curse and declare before heaven that Smith should not live
-another day. Now, suppose these two neighbors, heretofore warm friends,
-were to approach each other, and Smith, as a precaution, would reach
-his hand toward his hip-pocket, and Jones, in order to save his life,
-would pull out his weapon and fire, both men shooting each other at the
-same time.
-
-The result would be TWO DEAD FOOLS, the victims of ONE LIVE LIAR.
-
-The power to deceive great masses of people by simultaneous and
-premeditated conspiracy on the part of the papers owned by monopoly,
-carries with it the power to weaken the masses by dividing them in a
-struggle over false issues; and while they fight among themselves, to
-rob them and legislate their children into slavery.
-
-Here are the words of the great journalist, John Swinton, before the
-New York Press Association, in response to a toast, "The Independent
-Press:"
-
- "There is no such thing in America as an independent Press, unless
- it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is
- not one of you who dare express an honest opinion; if you express
- it, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am
- paid one hundred and fifty dollars a week for keeping my honest
- opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are
- paid similar salaries for similar things. If I should permit honest
- opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like Othello,
- before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. Any man who
- would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on
- the street hunting for another job. The business of the New York
- journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to
- vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and
- race for his daily bread, or for about the same thing--his salary.
- You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an
- 'Independent Press.' We are tools and the vassals of rich men
- behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks; they pull the strings and
- we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, all
- are property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
-
-In the case of "The American People versus the Banks and Trusts," we
-have found, by personal examination, as also by the confession of a
-member of the family, John Swinton, that the money which inflates the
-purse of the prominent editorial witness consists of the marked coins
-that made up a portion of the booty in question. No sane juror will
-believe the testimony of such a witness.
-
-
-CLERGY NEEDS SYMPATHY, NOT BLAME.
-
-It is also claimed that God's ministry has offered its testimony in
-behalf of the defense. It is not my purpose to say anything against the
-clergy, because if there is an abused and ill-treated class of men on
-the face of the earth to-day, who need pity and prayer and succor, it
-is the men who have dedicated their lives to the Christ who was killed
-by the rich of His time, and who are now dependent for their living,
-their children's food and their wives' clothing, upon the blended piety
-and pride, the virtues and vanities of the rich of to-day.
-
-In all that inconsistent barbarism, which we call civilization, there
-is no man who needs sympathy so much and deserves blame so little as
-he who is attempting at the same time to preach for God and to get
-his living from God's enemies, to build monuments to the Christ who
-lived and died for the poor, and gain the material and cost of these
-monuments by flattering those who are grinding the faces of the poor.
-
-Many clergymen have told me how their hearts have bled for the victims
-of social injustice; how in anguish they have wept over the piteous
-cries for help uttered by their dying brothers and sisters in Jesus
-Christ; how, bursting with indignation, they have longed to strike a
-blow against the brutality that crushes Christ's little ones in order
-to grind from their bones and blood colossal and unnatural fortunes.
-But they said, "We must conceal our tears and swallow our indignation,
-though it chokes us. We dare not speak out--we could neither destroy
-the tyrant nor save the victims. We would only succeed in dragging down
-our own wives and little ones into that dark stream of poverty, from
-which those who have once fallen in can never hope to rise. First of
-all, we must live--and then do what little we can to temper the reign
-of injustice and oppression. The overthrow and destruction of this
-system of injustice rests upon the shoulders of God and the common
-people."
-
-I would ask the workmen of the country who are rapidly leaving the
-churches not to judge the clergy harshly, because the majority are dumb
-in your behalf and because a few openly and blatantly champion the
-cause of the oppressors.
-
-But I must also ask you to place no confidence in their testimony in
-this political trial, for their lips often utter words their hearts
-fain would withhold, and they often pray for success to the banner for
-which they cannot fight.
-
-Let us not condemn them because they are bound with chains of
-dependence, but let us rather include them among those whom we shall
-liberate when we establish a POLITICAL SYSTEM WHICH SHALL SET ALL MEN
-FREE.
-
-In the case of "The American People versus the Money Lending and
-Bondholding Class," we find that the long, flowing garb of the
-ministerial witness, that at first inspired our confidence in his
-testimony, because of the holy office it suggested, is made of the
-very cloth, a part of the plunder, the disapperance of which is the
-basis of the present trial. The testimony of such a witness, cajoled,
-terrorized, and a sharer in the booty taken, is also without value.
-
-
-THE TESTIMONY OF THE COLLEGE AUTHORITIES.
-
-Now, as to the college professors: From the earliest times down to
-the present day, learning has been fostered, patronized and supported
-by wealth. The kings and nobility of various times and nations, too
-stupid or lazy to acquire distinction in the field of scholarship
-themselves, have vied with each other in gathering around them the
-greatest scholars, musicians, poets and minstrels, as well as the
-greatest athletes, the most beautiful and voluptuous women, the fastest
-horses, and the most interesting curios of every description. Some
-of the patrons of learning and art have been really serious in their
-devotion to the beautiful and true. It is, perhaps, one of the greatest
-encomiums that we can pronounce upon the wealth of the world, that in
-all ages it has supported learning as the stalk supports the flower.
-This condition of affairs has not existed, however, without causing an
-undesirable dependence on the part of the beneficiaries.
-
-Who has passed through the great art galleries of the Louvre at Paris,
-and beheld the acres of canvas, covered with the work of the immortal
-Rubens, without being filled with anger and disgust as he thought
-of the genius and years of toil which, instead of being devoted to
-conceiving and executing new masterpieces to delight and inspire all
-future ages, were applied to daubing the vain and cruel countenance and
-the unattractive person of the patroness who gave him his bread?
-
-The first and greatest universities in this land were founded, have
-been built up, and are at present supported by the bequests and
-donations, the gratuitous contributions of the rich. The vast undying
-benefits that have flowed from this wealth, which have been devoted to
-learning, ancient and modern, cannot easily be overestimated. What the
-world would have been without the enlightenment which has come from
-this source it is not easy to imagine. We should hold in high esteem
-the solitary student who, in past ages and to-day, gropes his silent,
-difficult way towards those hidden truths in science, in history or in
-art which will one day enlighten and beautify the world. We should be
-lovers of all that is beautiful, and all that is true, and all that is
-lovable in this great world of ours. Music, painting and sculpture,
-the sciences, literature and history, should be to all sources both
-of inspiration and of light. With all our hearts let us welcome these
-products of man's talent and genius.
-
-The historian is the hinge linking the present to the past. His
-office is not only a useful, but a sacred one. Scholarship is like
-womanhood--one of the most holy and sacred things in the world. But,
-like womanhood, when prostituted, it becomes the most debased. He who
-muddies with error and personal prejudice the fountain of pure truth
-is an enemy to his race. But let us not attempt to blame nor censure
-individuals. We know that wealth has been the friend of learning; that
-in all times past those who have devoted their time to the pursuit of
-truth or beauty have been dependent upon the support of the rich and
-powerful. You say that if wealth has been the friend of learning, it is
-only natural that learning should be the friend of wealth. Yes, this is
-exactly the fact in the case. Learning is the friend of wealth for two
-reasons: One, because she feels grateful for past favors; the other,
-and greater, because she is hopeful for favors to come.
-
-It is well known in educational circles that any college found
-propagating "heresies" like "free silver" or "government ownership of
-the railroads"--in other words, any institution which does not distort
-and curtail its teachings so as to bias the student in favor of the
-single gold standard and the eternal reign of monopoly--will be cut off
-without a dollar by plutocracy and doomed to a future of comparative
-impotence and uselessness for lack of funds.
-
-
-THE RESULT.
-
-What is the result? The president of a large private university,
-knowing that his reputation for success or failure depends upon
-the growth of his university as compared with that of neighboring
-universities, continually trims his sails to secure favors of those who
-have money to dispense. It is a common thing for a college president
-to make what he calls a "begging tour." He endeavors to show to those
-who are supposed to have money to bestow that his university is in
-great need, and can make the best possible use of "sound" money in
-propagating "sound ideas."
-
-A good illustration of this is the tour which Brooker Washington, the
-famous colored orator, the President of the Tuskegee Institute, made in
-1896, through the North and East. He is a man of intellectual power. He
-is, no doubt, thoroughly devoted to the enlightenment of his race; but
-the way he flatters and cajoles the rich, advocates the gold standard,
-overlooks and keeps silent about their corruption and crimes, and
-assents to their plans for further aggrandizement, is a lesson which
-every patriot can study with profit. He has become a pet and fad among
-the wealthy classes of New York and New England. Even Harvard in 1896
-conferred upon him an honorary degree. He has doubtless gotten heavy
-endowments for his college, but he has had to fawn and flatter and
-stultify his manhood to do it. And he has given a striking example of
-what almost every college president must do to a greater or less extent.
-
-The fact is, that PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES, DEPENDING AS THEY DO UPON THE
-CHARITY AND CONSCIENCE MONEY OF THE RICH FOR SUPPORT AND GROWTH, LIKE
-ALL THOSE WHO LIVE BY CHARITY, HAVE ACQUIRED THE FAWNING SPIRIT OF
-SERVITUDE AND DEPENDENCE, AND FAITHFULLY LICK THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.
-"Verily the ox knoweth his master's crib."
-
-Many college presidents dare not use any but "orthodox" gold standard
-text-books, and professors who dissent from the views of these books
-are forced to swallow their own opinions and propagate error.
-
-Many of "our great authorities" are mere sycophants of wealth,
-creatures of the millionaire, placed by him in the same category as his
-musician, his ballet dancer or chaplain, all valuable dependents. The
-money lord of creation often builds the college (Chicago University,
-for example), places the poor book-worm in the position that makes him
-a "recognized authority," and the "authority" must dish up statistics
-as a cook dishes up his delicacies to suit the taste of his master. If
-he refuses he loses his job, and is no longer a "recognized authority."
-
-Young men are not only taught in many instances that the rights of
-monopoly and money are more sacred than the rights of men and women,
-but are shown frequently that if they want to make a success in life,
-and be an honor to their family and their college they must ally
-themselves with the powerful corporations and trusts and keep their
-skirts clear of all popular and reform movements.
-
-The recent action of the Yale students who brutally attempted to insult
-the honored guest of their city, Mr. Wm. J. Bryan, is not without
-significance.
-
-The authorities and the respectable element among the students were no
-doubt, deeply humiliated by such a disgrace. Yet it is fairly plain
-that the dogmatic, uncharitable and violent opposition to Free Silver
-indulged in by the professors, has contributed its part toward causing
-this exhibition of anarchy and puppyism.
-
-There is a wide distinction however, between professors and professors.
-
-There are numerous truly great men who are aristocrats at heart, who
-love luxury and culture and refinement, whose friends are principally
-among the rich, whose sympathies are with the rich, and whose interests
-in life are bound up with the prosperity of the wealthy classes. These
-men oppose popular rights as conscientiously as did the old Feudal
-Lords. They all oppose the New Democracy.
-
-There are many others--men of splendid intellect, but utterly without
-principle--who are mere dishonest, mercenary tools of the highest
-bidder, willing to distort and manufacture history, tamper with
-statistics, and lie like "shyster lawyers."
-
-As, for instance, the learned professor of the Chicago University, who
-declared with brazen effrontery that whatever might be charged against
-Mr. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Trust, no one could say that he
-had accumulated his millions in any way that interfered with the
-accumulations of others.[9]
-
- [9] See detailed account of the lawless Anarchistic methods
- used by Standard Oil Trust to destroy competitors in "Wealth
- Against Commonwealth" by H. D. Lloyd.
-
-Again there are a few university "authorities" who, at the risk of
-their living and the success of the institutions they represent,
-have told the truth fearlessly. They oppose monopoly and the gold
-standard. But their testimony is buried beneath the overwhelming mass
-of prejudice, sophistry and misinformation supplied by their colleagues.
-
-Very distinct from any of these classes is that swarm of cowardly
-pusillanimous book-worms, who, as underlings in the large universities,
-and as full-fledged professors in the small colleges, retail at
-second-hand with stupid pertinacity and pig-headed bitterness, all
-the errors of the "authorities," together with new ones of their own
-special brew.
-
-It is by the prejudiced and purchased testimony of such men as these
-that the monopolies of the country try to prove that empty stomachs
-are full, bare backs clothed, and that a constantly growing and
-appreciating dollar is an honest one. It is with such untrustworthy
-witnesses that they attempt to prove to us that the men who have stolen
-our property are more honest than we.
-
-The teacher witness for the defense may be more "respectable and
-learned" than the witnesses of the prosecution, but when we see that
-the universities are built and professors' salaries paid from the
-booty wrung from the people--in other words, "that the teacher rides to
-court on one of the very horses taken from Farmer Hayseed's stable" it
-does not take us long to decide that this testimony is misleading and
-false.
-
-Therefore, the workmen, merchants and tax-payers who compose the jury,
-which is to hand in its verdict in 1900, must refuse to consider the
-testimony of these collegiate, pulpit and editorial witnesses, who are
-proven to be sharers in the tribute forced from the people by that
-gigantic and almost sublime system of world exploitation carried on
-scientifically and persistently by those powerful "trusts" which have
-cornered the world's gold and monopolized nearly every necessity and
-comfort of life.
-
-The pivotal point in this campaign is the question of the reliability
-of witnesses. Not only do opinions differ, but the history, statistics,
-and facts, advanced by the defenders of monopoly and the gold standard
-contradict the history, statistics and facts discovered by the
-champions of the people. There can be only one truthful history of
-the crime of seventy-three, and the seventy-three other crimes of
-the shirkers against the workers. Figures do not lie. Only one set
-of statistics, as to the rise in the value of the gold dollar, can
-possibly be correct. Facts do not conflict. When men contradict each
-other upon a question of fact, one side is wrong.
-
-Whose history and statistics are we to believe in this campaign?
-
-Are we to believe the interested, prejudiced, purchased witnesses of
-corrupt wealth, or are we to believe the testimony of the witnesses of
-the people--men who have sacrificed and suffered in order to tell the
-truth.
-
-It is because the classes who have the advantages of culture and
-leisure, always care more for their own comforts than for truth and
-justice, that these problems, my reader, must be worked out, by the
-millions made of the same identical common mud that you and I are.
-
-As William E. Gladstone has said, all the reforms brought about in
-England during the last century, and of which all her citizens now
-boast, "were at first merely impossible ideals in the minds of the
-ignorant and fanatical poor," and were carried through by the working
-people "in opposition to the cultured and leisure class."
-
-It is because those who possess the power and the learning to lead
-mankind aright have always proven recreant to the trust imposed
-upon them, that God, in directing the course of human history, has
-invariably swept this class aside and accepted as His instruments
-the poor, the simple-minded and uncorrupted. From the birth of the
-primitive church among the poor fishermen of Galilee to the abolition
-of chattel slavery by an agitation instituted by social and political
-outcasts, the hand of God moving in the world has invariably brushed
-aside the rich and powerful with the intellectual parasites that swarm
-about them, and in building nations, religions, or instituting great
-reforms, has uniformly chosen the normal, healthy material at the base
-of society still uncorrupted by luxury.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-VOTE YOURSELVES RICH.
-
-
-Those who have been voted rich, not by their own votes, but by our
-votes, the votes of the common people, are now engaged in proving to us
-THAT WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY DONE FOR THEM WE CAN BY NO POSSIBLE MEANS DO
-FOR OURSELVES.
-
-Having accumulated immense fortunes by means of vote enacted
-legislation, THEY PREACH TO US THE UTTER FOLLY OF OUR HOPING FOR ANY
-GAIN FROM THE SAME SOURCE.
-
-So interested are they in our proper economic education, that they are
-willing to supply both text-books and teachers. They love learning and
-from purely philanthropic motives seek to make us wise.
-
-But what is their wisdom so willingly imparted? From what follies are
-they so anxious to guard us?
-
-TO VOTE OUR ENEMIES RICH: THIS IS WISDOM.
-
-TO ATTEMPT TO VOTE OURSELVES RICH: DANGEROUS FOLLY.
-
-Their science teaches that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE INSTRUMENT WHICH IS
-THE SOURCE OF THEIR WEALTH TO BE OF ANY EFFECT IN BEHALF OF THOSE WHO
-WIELD THE INSTRUMENT.
-
-Text-book in hand they say to the people, "It is impossible for you to
-vote yourselves rich."
-
-Strictly speaking, it is unnecessary for the people to "vote themselves
-rich." WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE ALREADY RICH. We are rich by the gift of
-nature and the will of God. Each scientific discovery and invention,
-wrung by toil, genius and martyrdom from the strange earth and
-firmament that greeted primeval man, has added to our riches. We are
-now rich, but are debarred by force from the possession of our own. We
-are heirs, not only to the riches of the earth as originally created,
-but to all those opportunities for utilizing these natural treasures,
-resulting from the accumulated knowledge and skill of the centuries.
-But we are kept from our inheritance.
-
-We have been deprived of our wealth by vote-enacted legislation, and it
-is vote-enacted legislation that will again give us possession.
-
-Our enemies say contemptuously that government can no more increase
-wages by legislation than it can increase the size of your foot or
-the length of your arm, for the increase or decrease in both cases is
-governed wholly by natural law.
-
-"Let the poor," they say, "stop agitating and hoping to become
-prosperous through legislation, and instead let every man go to work
-building his own home and fortune, and all will be well."
-
-"The Government cannot legislate a single dollar into existence."
-
-"The remedies for poverty are industry, frugality and temperance."
-
-These are the things they say. But suppose we watch their acts instead
-of listening to their words. Then we learn that, while for us they
-point in one direction to the road that leads to fortune they seek this
-road themselves by going the opposite way. We, who have followed their
-advice, have been impoverished; they, who imitated their acts, have
-been enriched.
-
-
-POTATOES AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.
-
-I ride to market with a load of potatoes, the result of sweat and labor
-for half a year. A ruffian knocks me off my wagon, takes my seat and
-drives away.
-
-Questions: Shall I ask a policeman to help me catch the despoiler,
-or shall I "cease agitating and go to work?" Shall I arm myself and,
-with the help of friends, take back my own, or shall I return to the
-farm and "practice industry, frugality and temperance?" Is it nobler,
-manlier, more courageous of me to get possession of my potatoes by
-fighting, or, forsaking them, to go to work and raise another crop for
-the next thief?
-
-Honest and contented labor under these circumstances is dishonorable.
-
-WHEN A MAN IS ROBBED, THE WAY FOR HIM TO GET MONEY IS NOT TO WORK FOR
-IT BUT TO FIGHT FOR IT. To tell a man that he cannot possibly make any
-money by talking nor get any potatoes by agitating police officers
-is absolutely true, PROVIDED, the man has been loafing all year and
-has not been robbed of his crop. But these demonstrations of the
-economists go into the waste basket, when the fact is made plain that
-the man, seeking by government aid to get potatoes, has already earned
-them by hard labor, but is deprived of them by the criminal act of
-another. Under such circumstances, the man who, instead of fighting and
-pursuing, applies himself to honest toil, is a coward.
-
-Men who, wrongfully deprived of their property, go to work to earn
-more, thus providing additional booty for their despoilers, are
-unworthy a better fate. Honor impels a true man to fight, not work,
-when a wrong is suffered either by himself or friends.
-
-To quietly plow while another eats the result of last year's plowing,
-to contentedly plant while another reaps, to submissively bow one's
-head beneath a yoke and receive the kicks and jeers and sneers of the
-drivers, are not the acts of a man nor the duties of a citizen, but the
-follies of an ass. When a true man, after gathering his harvest, sees
-his product taken by another, he mounts his horse, before planting
-again, and with pitchfork, shotgun or other efficient weapon, starts in
-hot pursuit. He seeks to recover last year's product before trying to
-raise another crop.
-
-Therefore, when government-made millionaires try to persuade the
-working people, small tax-payers and business men to stop meddling with
-politics and instead to work harder in the hope of laying by something
-for old age, they really desire them to cease defending their property
-and to continue creating more for others to enjoy.
-
-The learned professor teaches that "the government cannot legislate
-into being a single dollar, nor a dollar's worth of wealth." From this
-premise, he reasons that a dollar legislated into one man's pocket
-must necessarily be legislated out of another man's pocket. He then
-concludes that the poor cannot legislate themselves comfortable without
-to the extent of their gain depriving another class of their earnings.
-
-If my neighbor accompanied me to market with a load of potatoes and
-I were to ask a policeman to help me take his load from him, the
-economists' words would apply. The government, through its agent, the
-policeman, could not double my wealth without robbing my neighbor. But
-this is not the situation. I came alone. A stranger assaulted me and
-took both wagon and potatoes, leaving me very poor. Now, in spite of
-the professor's words, the state, in the person of its officer, can
-abolish my poverty and give me a wagon filled with potatoes without
-doing injustice to any one else. I can be made happy without depriving
-any other being of what he has earned, and I do not ask the state
-to legislate into existence a single potato. I simply ask that the
-potatoes already existing as the result of my labor be taken from the
-highwayman and returned to their rightful owner.
-
-This is what the masses ask. Not that the government give them anything
-produced by others, not that the government attempt to create anything
-independent of the labor of its citizens, but that it return to them
-their own. We demand the capture of the highwayman, monopoly, and that
-the opportunities taken from us by him be restored to us.[10]
-
- [10] When a monopoly becomes a government monopoly, its nature
- changes entirely, and all that was objectionable disappears.
- The evil pertaining to a monopoly is its exclusiveness. When
- private monopoly becomes government monopoly, it is no longer
- exclusive, for the whole people enjoy its benefits alike.
- Unity of administration is not an evil if the resulting
- benefits are shared by all. The only possible way to destroy
- the great monopolies is to convert them into government
- functions, and administer them as the post office, the army,
- navy, weather service, the public schools and parks are now
- managed. There is no other way to destroy our new industrial
- despotism.
-
- Read "Socialism and Social Reform," by Prof. R. T. Ely; also
- "Wealth against Commonwealth," by H. D. Lloyd.
-
-We not only demand but we are actually organizing for the pursuit. The
-Democratic Volunteers are superintending the preliminaries and in 1900
-law and order are to be established, the adventurers suppressed, and
-restoration made. The issuance of the nation's money, now a private
-monopoly, controlled by bankers, will again be made a function of
-government, and the people will be permitted to exchange their products
-without paying revenue to their enemies for the means of exchange,
-which is their own creation. Other wrongs will be righted with equal
-facility.
-
-Each victim, however, must be taught that his vote is both horse and
-hound for pursuing, and both gun and rope for punishing and reclaiming.
-Our vote is our one weapon, our one means of defense, and source of
-power.
-
-The value of legislative control to our enemies is shown by the
-desperation with which they oppose any effort on the part of the people
-to recover it. They know it to be the true creator of their fortunes,
-and they look to it alone for future "fruits of labor" and "rewards of
-genius."
-
-We are rich, but we have been ousted from our patrimony. How shall
-we recover it? By the same means through which we lost it, namely,
-legislation. The oppressions that curse man are all entrenched in,
-and owe their power to, legislation. If we are to be freed from them,
-it will be by legislation. In primitive times, government was openly,
-frankly exercised for the enrichment of a class at the expense of the
-mass. For ages the "right divine" was believed in honestly. Later when
-its justice was denied, its benefits were seen to be too valuable to be
-relinquished. So duplicity was employed, and the art of "plucking the
-goose without making it squeal" was invented.
-
-Money-making heretofore has not been so much a function of government
-as money-taking, and this function can be made to work one way as well
-as another.
-
-If thieves by government action can despoil honest men, honest men by
-government action can despoil thieves.
-
-If legislation has been made the instrument of crime, it also can be
-made the instrument of restoration. No personal temperance, thrift and
-industry can enrich men so long as the power to legislate rests in
-other hands. Labor makes wealth but legislation decrees how it shall
-be divided. When the people legislate directly and intelligently the
-division will be in accord with justice. By the ballot we can enter
-upon our inheritance.
-
-Poverty exists and we are told that it is the natural order, with which
-legislation has nothing to do. There has been told no more transparent
-lie. Wealth is created by the union of man's labor with nature's gifts.
-What is it but legislation that keeps apart in unnatural divorce these
-two that God hath joined together? What but legislation can remove the
-barriers and allow them again to come together?
-
-Legislation CAN make money; so lavishly that no man need want. How? By
-making conditions favorable to labor, and securing the laborer in the
-fruit of his toil.
-
-
-WE CAN ACTUALLY VOTE RICHES INTO EXISTENCE.
-
-Our instructors say, "Government cannot legislate a single dollar into
-existence." Let us see.
-
-While riding to market with a crop of potatoes, I am dispossessed.
-In the struggle a portion of the crop is injured. The highwayman, in
-escaping, lames the horses by overdriving. Instead of going to work the
-next day, in company with an officer, I start in pursuit. The robber,
-alert, removes to another state at an expense of half his booty.
-Whether successful or not, my time, the officer's time and the thief's
-time are all wasted, in addition to three-fourths of my product.
-
-Now, my neighbors and I, who together make up the government, suppress
-brigandage. Instead of three fourths of my crop being wasted by
-struggle for possession, it is all sold the very day it is carted to
-market. Instead of exchanging my hoe for a gun and chasing another
-man, I plant another crop of potatoes. Instead of helping me in the
-chase the policeman grows a crop of his own, and the bandit, knowing
-beforehand that it is impossible to live by robbery, ceases to watch
-for possible victims and raises his own potatoes instead of taking mine.
-
-Without proper governmental interference the three of us have
-only a portion of one crop of potatoes between us. AS THE RESULT
-OF GOVERNMENTAL ACTION, WE HAVE THREE FULL CROPS. THE GOVERNMENT,
-BY LEGISLATIVE "EDICT" OR "FIAT," if you please, CREATES TWO AND
-THREE-QUARTERS CROPS OF POTATOES. WE CAN VOTE OURSELVES RICH.
-
-And of each dollar voted into our pockets, not more than fifteen cents
-will be stolen property reclaimed. The other eighty-five cents will be
-a new product, rescued from waste or destruction.
-
-The saddest feature of our present industrial cannibalism is that where
-one dollar is stolen at least seven dollars are wasted. THE PREVENTABLE
-WASTES OF CIVILIZATION CAN MAKE EARTH A PARADISE.
-
-
-PROSPERITY, "THE McKINLEY" AND OTHER BRANDS.
-
-We can vote our country prosperous. But it is very essential that we
-understand clearly WHOM we mean when we say "country." We have been
-voting for one kind of prosperity for a long time, even before the
-"McKinley brand," was on the market. Our mistake has been in not asking
-the "Advance Agents" to tell us whose prosperity they represented.
-
-If a burglar is emptying your wife's jewelry box, and filling his
-trousers pockets with the contents of your safe, prosperity to him
-means ruin to you, and your success means the burglar's death. So, in
-the larger affairs of our nation, the kind of prosperity hoped for by
-the plunderers of the people means ruin to their millions of victims,
-while good times for the workers, the farmers, the merchants, mean hard
-times to our despoilers.
-
-We now have the best times the world has ever seen. Mr. Rockefeller,
-or Robafellow--one is his name, the other ought to be--has an income
-of forty thousand dollars a day, and it is increasing. No country
-in the world has ever produced so much; never were there barns so
-bursting with grain, or warehouses so filled with clothing, furniture
-and jewels; never before so many men making from five to forty thousand
-dollars a day.
-
-This great National Joint Stock Company of ours, with its seventy
-million stockholders, is doing a thriving business and making barrels
-of money. There is only one objectionable feature. It is that after
-the labor of these seventy millions of people, their genius, their
-suffering and their sweat, are converted into wealth, the dividends are
-given to a few hundred men, while the rest of us pay the assessments.
-
-We do not need better times. Anybody who wants to make more than forty
-thousand dollars a day is a hog. The real issue is not whether we shall
-have hard times or good times, prosperity or panic in the abstract, but
-it is whether that prosperity and good times, now monopolized by the
-few, shall become the inheritance of every child of God.
-
-
-THIEVES TAKE PANIC WHEN PURSUED BY HONEST MEN.
-
-If a select company of burglars and safe-blowers were to enter your
-village and relieve a number of your merchants of the contents of
-their safes, their stocks of jewels, silks and clothing, and were
-to secure all of the finest horses from half the neighboring farms,
-and utilize them in getting the booty safely to the nearest forest,
-they would no doubt, while unpacking their wealth and feeding their
-horses, after their hasty trip, congratulate one another upon "their
-remarkable prosperity." They would be very apt to brag about the
-unusual "good times." But if, as the sun rose over the tree-tops and
-they were repacking their goods they saw suddenly the glistening
-pitchforks of half a hundred angry farmers and the determined furious
-faces of as many brawny workmen and merchants, bent on reclaiming their
-property--there would be a PANIC.[11]
-
- [11] If you want legal evidence to prove the existence of
- gigantic steals and robberies, read Lloyd's "Wealth Against
- Commonwealth," Harper Bros., and the "Seven Financial
- Conspiracies."
-
-The plunderers of the world are enjoying good times at the expense
-of the masses. Their profits are as fabulous as their methods are
-cruel. But in the midst of their celebration feast, their crime is
-discovered, and the pitchforks of five million farmers glistening in
-the morning sun, the angry faces of four million city workmen loom up
-in the distance, and the result is PANIC and loss of confidence--(among
-the revelers.)
-
-As we approach November, 1900, this panic will increase. But as there
-wells up the sound infernal of their weeping and wailing and gnashing
-of teeth, there will be heard still louder, the voices of millions
-singing their chorus of deliverance. As these offenders look into the
-grave where lies buried their every plan for selfish aggrandizement, to
-us, their innumerable victims, that same grave will be the open window
-through which we behold the land of promise.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
- Chapter Page
-
- I. Introductory 5
-
- II. How to Begin Work 23
-
- III. Speeches and Meetings 43
-
- IV. Methods of Travel 65
-
- V. Saloon Meetings 101
-
- VI. The Heroic and Prosaic 115
-
- VII. Practical Politics 127
-
- VIII. Fundamentals 141
-
- IX. The Church as a Field 151
-
- X. Only Two Parties in the World 171
-
- XI. Witnesses for Plutocracy Discredited 189
-
- XII. Vote Yourselves Rich 211
-
-
-
-
- The Volunteers' Training School For Speakers.
-
- Opens at St. Louis September 15, 1897.
-
-
-Young men of moderate attainments can become ready speakers in from one
-to three months time.
-
-Practice both indoors and outdoors every day by every student, under
-the direction of experienced campaigners.
-
-All the arts and secrets of successful oratory taught in the most
-expeditious manner, accompanied by the daily application of every truth
-learned.
-
-Tuition per month $1.
-
-Text books, good for one year, $5.
-
-
- Especially Cheap Rates at Volunteers' Boarding House.
-
- Address Joseph Hoffman Mgr.,
- 4713 Page Avenue, ST. LOUIS, MO.
-
-
-In preparing for this course read any of the following:
-
- Wealth Against Commonwealth, Henry D. Lloyd, Pub. by Harper Bros.
-
- Socialism and Social Reform, Prof. Richard T. Ely.
-
- Social Aspects of Christianity, Prof. Richard T. Ely.
-
- Ten Men of Money Island, Norton.
-
- Merrie England, Robert Blatchford.
-
- Seven Financial Conspiracies.
-
- The New Democracy, Vrooman.
-
- Coin's Financial School.
-
- The First Battle, Bryan.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Democracy, by Walter Vrooman
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- The Project Gutenberg eBook of The New Democracy, a hanbook for Democratic speakers and workers, by Walter Vrooman
- </title>
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Democracy, by Walter Vrooman
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The New Democracy
- A handbook for Democratic speakers and workers
-
-Author: Walter Vrooman
-
-Release Date: September 26, 2020 [EBook #63298]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW DEMOCRACY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Carlos Colón, The Library of Congress and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
-available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="box">Transcriber's Notes:<br />
-<br />
-
-
-Blank pages have been eliminated.<br />
-<br />
-Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
-original.<br />
-<br />
-A few typographical errors have been corrected.<br />
-<br />
-The cover page was created by the transcriber and can be considered public domain.</p>
-<hr class="chap" /></div>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h1>THE NEW DEMOCRACY.<br />
-
-<span class="medium"><i>A Handbook for Democratic Speakers and Workers.</i></span></h1>
-
-<p class="center">An Outline of the Methods of the National Volunteers of
-Democracy and of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau.</p>
-
-<p class="center p4">BY<br />
-WALTER VROOMAN.</p>
-
-<p class="center p4">Price: Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 25 cents.</p>
-<hr class="chap" /></div>
-<div class="chapter">
-
-
-<p class="p6 center">Copyright<br />
-<span class="smcap">By</span> WALTER VROOMAN,<br />
-Wainwright Building,<br />
-ST. LOUIS, MO.</p>
-
-<p class="p6 center">Witt Printing Co.</p>
-<hr class="chap" /></div>
-
-
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>THE NEW DEMOCRACY.</h2>
-
-
-
-<h2 id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>Upon the close of the 1896 national campaign,
-it was decided at an informal conference of several
-of the leaders of the Democratic party, to establish
-a bureau of speakers for the continuous
-propaganda of Democratic principles by new and
-young men, while the acknowledged leaders of
-the party were busy in the Senate and House of
-Representatives. In December, 1896, headquarters
-were opened at St. Louis.</p>
-
-<p>Several hundred speakers soon became attached
-to this bureau, and it was decided to form
-a permanent organization, that would bring together
-not only the speakers but all the workers
-of the party. The outcome of this has been the
-organization of the National Volunteers of
-Democracy, with the Speakers' Bureau and Train<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>ing
-School as a special department. Each
-volunteer is expected to assist in forming regular
-Democratic clubs, except where for special reasons
-it is found advisable to organize Silver or
-Populist clubs, and also to build up and
-strengthen clubs now in existence.</p>
-
-<p>Heretofore, the handbooks for Democratic
-speakers and workers, have been so stuffed with
-statistics and figures as to burden and confuse
-the minds of their readers, consequently there is
-a demand for something simpler, for something
-that will give a bird's eye view of the political
-situation, with suggestions as to best methods of
-work and speech.</p>
-
-<p>It is to supply such a handbook to Democratic
-speakers and workers, and to outline the plans
-of the Democratic Volunteers, that this little book
-has been written.</p>
-
-
-<p class="p2">St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1897.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br />
-INTRODUCTORY.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>The New Democracy is the Old Democracy.
-It is likewise the only Democracy, and in July,
-1896, after years of suppression, it became the
-Regular Democracy.</p>
-
-<p>The Democracy taught by Jefferson and Jackson
-is the Democracy of Bryan, Stone and the
-Chicago platform. But the victory at Chicago of
-true Democracy over the counterfeit that for
-years fraudulently used its name was not however
-a finality; it was a beginning, and what
-was there accomplished nationally is yet to be
-accomplished locally in many states and cities.
-We have not only to push on to new and local
-victories after taking the central citadel, but what
-is of greater importance, must hold the positions
-already taken.</p>
-
-<p>It was said that at the Chicago Convention we
-not only "raised the dead" but "cast out devils."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
-We must remember, however, that there are other
-devils, which in many places still possess the party
-locally, and the miracle of casting them out can
-only be performed by the power that comes of
-unselfish patriotism.</p>
-
-<p>It is noble to fight for a righteous cause, but it
-is glorious to WIN in a righteous fight. The exposure
-of Republican lies, the betrayal of their
-every promise made prior to the last general election,
-the perfidy back of their pre-election
-threats, have made Democratic victory reasonably
-certain in 1900. When the country has been
-cursed four years more by the infamous gold
-standard and monopoly rule, the majority of the
-people will favor a radical change. WE CAN
-BE DEFEATED ONLY IN ONE WAY. Let
-us repeat this. There is but one possible way by
-which the producing classes can be defeated at the
-polls in 1900; that is by the same old trick
-used by tyrants in all ages, the placing of their
-own lieutenants as the leaders of the people.</p>
-
-<p>The plutocrats fully appreciate this. They
-know that the people, weary of Republican misrule,
-will vote another party into power, hence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
-their only salvation is to guide and control.
-They can do this in but one way, by having the
-opposing army officered by generals of their own
-choosing. It makes no difference how big the
-army, if the enemy chooses its officers, it is
-doomed.</p>
-
-<p>This was the trick by which monopoly defeated
-Democracy in several states during the recent
-campaign. The forces of the people were hastily
-organized. The recruits were strangers to one
-another. By a bold move on the part of plutocracy,
-backed by ample corruption funds, the willing
-tools of the money power were in many
-places made leaders of the very army formed to
-destroy the money power. As a consequence,
-we, the people, CAST the votes, while in many
-places the gold standard representatives of the
-Republican and Democratic parties COUNTED
-them; and incidentally failed to count MANY.</p>
-
-<p>In 1900 the people may poll any number of
-votes, but, if we fail to stamp out such traitors as
-David Bennett Hill, Calvin S. Brice, Wm. C.
-Whitney and John G. Carlisle, who use the
-Democratic name only to defeat Democratic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
-principles, and who claim friendship for the poor
-man only to add his product to the fortunes of
-the rich; unless we expel these conspirators and
-hypocrites from the Democratic party, with all
-their abbettors and partners in fraud, we will be
-defeated in spite of our overwhelming advantage
-in numbers.</p>
-
-<p>Democracy now means the people against the
-organized money power. It is simply insanity for
-us to prepare for battle and select as drill masters,
-men whose salaries are paid by the very money
-power against which we fight.</p>
-
-<p>Suppose a million American soldier boys were
-to march with flying flags and beating drums,
-against an invading army of Cossacks and Turks,
-and that by some trick the wily Czar and Sultan
-should secure the appointment of Russian and
-Turkish officers over our troops. Should we be
-surprised if thousands of our brave boys were led
-headlong into ditches and slaughtered like rats in
-a trap and our magnificent army cut in pieces
-by half as many European king worshippers?</p>
-
-<p>We should not be surprised. And no man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
-who knows anything about war could have been
-surprised when such fate befell the magnificent
-army of raw recruits led last year by Bryan
-against the invasion of the European moneyed
-despots. We were cut to pieces, ambushed,
-scattered and defeated solely by the treachery of
-subordinate leaders whom our great champion
-and the people trusted, who, by sympathies,
-self-interest and custom, were bound to the very
-money power that we were fighting to overthrow.
-And now the very men who sold out the people,
-who defeated the cause of American independence
-and fastened upon our nation the rule of the
-European money power for four more years&mdash;these
-same men, led by that adept in low cunning,
-that master of political knavery and arch enemy of
-popular rights, David Bennett Hill, are trying to
-get a foothold again in the party they have just
-defeated, are again trying to gain the confidence
-of the millions whose liberties they sold, and
-whose children they are now trying to betray into
-perpetual slavery.</p>
-
-<p>Some may say that it is impossible for these
-conspirators ever again to get a hold on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
-the Democratic party. Such over-confidence is
-always a fatal weakness in war. When we
-know that the only possible way for plutocracy to
-continue to rule our country is by corrupting the
-Democratic party and placing its own agents in
-Democracy's counsels, and that the united money
-power of the world, will during the next four
-years (aided by the best talent that can be bought
-by unlimited funds), attempt to man Democracy's
-army with plutocracy's hirelings. Our business
-is not to lull ourselves into a false belief of security,
-but to work by day and watch by night to
-defeat the enemy. It is not for us to proudly
-boast that there is no danger, for there is danger,
-GRAVE DANGER, SOLEMN AND AWFUL
-DANGER, THAT WITH AN UNLIMITED
-USE OF MONEY AND THE PURCHASE
-OF THE BEST POLITICAL GENIUS AND
-CUNNING OF OUR COUNTRY BY MONOPOLY,
-WE MAY AGAIN BE BETRAYED
-ON THE EVE OF BATTLE.</p>
-
-<p>When the outcome of our struggle is a world
-to be gained or lost, civilization to go forward or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
-be derailed, all that is dear to us, all that is most
-sacred in life saved to us or snatched from us, we
-cannot be too alert, too eager, or too anxious; cannot
-prepare or organize too thoroughly for the
-primaries that are to decide the leadership and
-control of Democracy in the contest of 1900. We
-should, each of us, swear in the name of God and
-man, that all the power and influence we possess
-shall be earnestly exerted from now until 1900
-in ridding our party of these parasites who are in
-it only to destroy it. We should bitterly oppose
-the selection of any man for election judge, precinct
-captain, ward committeeman, city committeeman,
-county committeeman, state committeeman,
-national committeeman, or any other
-place of trust in our party, who is known to be in
-sympathy with, or friendly to, the gold standard,
-or to any one of the giant trusts now helping destroy
-our Republic.</p>
-
-<p>If we would destroy the trusts, we must be led
-only by known enemies of the trusts. If we
-would be victorious in this conflict against plutocracy,
-we must follow only leaders whose records<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
-prove clearly that they are absolutely free from
-entangling alliances with plutocracy.</p>
-
-<p>Some say we must harmonize all elements.
-We cannot harmonize the interests of the man
-who steals and the man who is stolen from,
-any more than we can harmonize fire and water.
-We only weaken our cause by trying to get the
-men against whom we are fighting to join us.</p>
-
-<p>Some one exclaims we must have the gold
-Democrats with us, or we are lost. THERE
-CAN BE NO SUCH THING AS A GOLD
-DEMOCRAT. The Democratic party stands
-for the abolition of the gold standard and every
-other monopoly by means of which scheming
-monopolies rob the public. A gold Democrat
-is as much an impossibility as a round
-square, white lamp-black or a red-hot icicle.
-The plutocrats who left the Democratic party
-and enlisted under the banner of Mark Hanna,
-will never join us except for the purpose of defeating
-our plans. They will never work for the
-success of the Democratic banner, unless they
-themselves carry that banner, and lead us, its
-followers, into their own traps, wherein we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
-shall be despoiled. For the vote of every traitor
-and deserter, gained by such cowardly attempts
-at compromise, we shall lose a hundred loyal
-votes through sheer despair.</p>
-
-<p>We do not need the gold bugs. If they are
-honest in their professed change of heart, they
-will vote for honest, fearless candidates as well as
-for those of the milk and water brand, or who
-have no definite programme except their secret
-pledges to moneyed constituents. If they have
-not experienced a change of heart, we do not want
-them, for it is better that they remain open enemies
-than that they become professed friends,
-seeking an opportunity again to betray us.</p>
-
-<p>We do not object to receiving in the ranks the
-man who comes back to the Democratic party
-and says: "I deserted you, but I wish now to return
-to the fold; I was a traitor during the last
-campaign, but I am willing to vote with you hereafter."
-But the manhood, the self-respect, the enthusiasm
-of Democracy do object and register a
-vigorous protest to permitting these deserters to
-assume places of responsibility with power to sell
-the people out again.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
-No one objects to the gold-bugs returning
-to our fold any more than we should to the blind
-regaining their sight or to sinners desiring to
-wash away their sins, but we do object to these
-sinners returning at the price of giving our party
-organization over into their hands.</p>
-
-
-<h3>A PERTINENT ILLUSTRATION.</h3>
-
-<p>An ominous example of the methods being
-used to capture Democracy by the money power
-was afforded by the lawless militarism brought
-into play by the gold bugs at the recent municipal
-Democratic convention of St. Louis, when, their
-fraud being discovered, and legitimately defeated
-by the people at the primaries and at the convention,
-they appealed to the last resort of despotism
-everywhere, the force of arms.</p>
-
-<p>For many years a clique of unscrupulous politicians
-controlled St. Louis Democratic conventions.
-Early in the April campaign, Mr. Hugh
-Brady, for many years Chairman of the Democratic
-City Central Committee, stated in an interview
-published in the St. Louis papers that a
-clique of "machine" politicians had "fixed the
-machine" to nominate Mr. Edwin Harrison for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
-Mayor. The street railway managers, who last
-fall knifed Bryan and the Chicago platform, came
-to the front as Mr. Harrison's supporters. Mr. C.
-C. Maffitt, who bolted the party last fall, headed
-his delegation, and in several other wards the
-Harrison delegations were led by gold boltocrats.
-The "machine" was for Harrison, and Hugh
-Brady declared the "machine" could nominate
-any man it wanted.</p>
-
-<p>The men who supported Mr. Lee Meriwether
-for Mayor were all aggressive Bryan Democrats
-and opposed not only the gold standard, but also
-opposed street car domination in city affairs.
-They appealed from the "machine" to the people.
-They pointed out how the leading supporters of
-the "machine" candidate were gold boltocrats
-and street railway managers, who use their political
-influence to escape paying hundreds of thousands
-of dollars of taxes legally due the City
-Treasury. They insisted that franchises to monopolize
-the public's streets ought to be sold, not
-given away, to private corporations. And on this
-platform they secured enough delegates to control
-the convention.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
-On the morning following the primary election,
-even the Republic, the organ of the "machine,"
-admitted that Mr. Harrison had but 134
-delegates, while the opposition had 153<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>.</p>
-
-<p>When the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison
-united in supporting Mr. Meriwether, it was apparent
-that nothing short of fraud and force could
-prevent the defeat of the machine. Accordingly,
-Mr. Ed Devoy, Chairman of the Central Committee,
-called the convention to order and hurriedly
-announced as its governing officers Messrs.
-Lutz, Barrett and Wand, the three campaign
-managers of the "machine" candidate.</p>
-
-<p>Scarcely was the announcement made when ex-Governor
-Norman J. Colman rose and protested
-against the attempt to muzzle the convention, and
-nominated for chairman Mr. Sterling P. Bond.
-Upon Devoy's refusing to put this motion, one of
-the delegates, R. T. Brownrigg, made the motion
-which was duly seconded, and Gov. Colman
-put the question to the convention and it was
-carried by a majority of the delegates. In a sim<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>ilar
-way secretaries and sergeants-at-arms were
-elected, the convention refusing to accept the
-slate prepared by the machine.</p>
-
-<p>After the committees had been appointed and
-reported, nominations for Mayor were made, and
-on the second ballot Lee Meriwether received 155
-votes, eleven more than a majority of all the
-delegates elected, and he was accordingly declared
-the nominee of the Democratic party.</p>
-
-<p>Thereupon ensued a scene more worthy of Russia
-than of the American Republic. Foiled in
-the attempt to carry the primaries; foiled again
-in the effort to force their own tools upon the
-convention as governing officers, the gold men
-and the street railway managers who were present
-on the floor of the convention, played their
-last card in the game to defeat the candidate
-pledged to make them pay their taxes, and
-ordered their servant, Devoy, to do by force what
-he had failed to do by fraud. A Board of Police
-Commissioners lent themselves to this shameful
-assault upon American liberty, and ordered three
-hundred armed police to drive from the hall the
-delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison. Sterling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
-P. Bond, John J. Fitzwilliam and W. A. Brandenburger,
-the duly elected chairman and secretaries
-of the convention, were brutally assaulted
-by the police. Mr. Bond was carted away to jail
-in a patrol wagon. Mr. Meriwether, who had
-been called on to address the convention after
-his nomination for Mayor, was thrown from the
-platform by two policemen, and, in company with
-a majority of the delegates, was forcibly expelled
-from the hall.</p>
-
-<p>Since the 9th of November, 1799, when Napoleon's
-grenadiers drove the French deputies
-out of their convention hall at the point of the
-bayonet, history affords no parallel to this outrage
-by the St. Louis boltocratic politicians.</p>
-
-<p>That in claiming a convention has no right to
-elect its own presiding officers the gold boltocrats
-were utterly wrong in custom as well as equity,
-will be seen by recalling the manner in which
-last year the Chicago Convention refused to accept
-Senator Hill, the National Democratic Committee's
-suggestion for chairman, and instead
-elected Daniel, a silver Senator from Virginia.</p>
-
-<p>Although the St. Louis papers subsequently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
-supported Mr. Harrison, whose nomination was
-only accomplished by the illegal use of three
-hundred police, those same papers did not hesitate
-to say, the morning after the convention, that
-the action of the machine was illegal and tyrannical:<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
-
-
-<h3>A WARNING FOR THE FUTURE.</h3>
-
-<p>Might never makes right. The candidate
-whose nomination rests not upon ballots but upon
-the clubs and guns of three hundred policemen,
-cannot be the rightful nominee of Democracy,
-which means people's rule, not police rule. When
-appeal was made from the outrage of the corrupt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
-political machine, the Court of Appeals decided
-that the matter was beyond its jurisdiction, that
-no Court has the power to review the action of
-the Election Commissioners, even though they
-certify to the nomination of a candidate without
-a shadow of right to such nomination.</p>
-
-<p>Had the Court consented to examine the evidence
-and gone into the merits of the case, it
-could not but have decided that the rightful
-nominee for Mayor was Mr. Meriwether, who
-had the affidavits of a majority of the delegates
-showing that they had supported him in the convention.</p>
-
-<p>This high-handed attempt of the gold boltocrats
-to tyrannize over the convention resulted
-in Democracy's defeat. But despite the stinging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
-rebuke administered by an outraged people, the
-machine is again endeavoring to fasten itself upon
-the Democratic party of St. Louis.</p>
-
-<p>The same tactics, and even more desperate and
-lawless ones, will be used by the gold plutocrats
-throughout our country. The people must be
-prepared to meet them.</p>
-
-<p>What are the best methods of preparation?
-It is to give some suggestions as to methods, and
-to increase, the vigilance of the patriotic Democrats
-and friends of humanity in whose hands it
-may fall that this little volume has been written.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br />
-HOW TO BEGIN WORK.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>The immediate purpose of the Democratic Volunteers
-is to organize and carry on in the most
-effective way the campaign for 1900. They seek
-to build up and foster the Democracy of Jefferson,
-Jackson, Bryan and the Chicago platform by
-seeing, first, that the common people remain in
-control of the Democratic party; and, second,
-that the Democratic party, representing the
-common people, gets control of the country in
-1900. It is further hoped that the Volunteers
-thus organized and trained, will become a permanent
-force in the history of our Nation; a power
-in the guidance of the forces behind the nation's
-progress; a means of uniting the best intelligence
-of our race with that faith and deep religious purpose
-which permeate the common people, and of
-expediting the conscious co-operation of individuals
-with those giant forces that are slowly but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
-surely destroying the old, and building up the new
-civilization. Our plan appeals principally to young
-men. Our methods are new, at least to this generation,
-and as we believe that the great battle in
-which we are engaged must be led by the most
-vigorous, active and courageous amongst us, we
-depend principally upon young men for leadership
-and work.</p>
-
-<p>Knowing that our principles are eternal, and
-that in proclaiming them we have the support of
-the great common people of posterity, and of
-God, the Volunteers are expected to assume, upon
-all occasions, an attitude of absolute confidence.</p>
-
-<p>We are to utilize every force and every means
-that perception can discover or ingenuity devise
-for the forwarding of our movement. We are to
-proceed, not only by usual, but by unusual methods,
-taking possession of resources never before
-thought of in political campaigns or religious crusades.
-Our principles are to be declared both
-in public and in private, and propagated methodically
-and persistently in every existing institution,
-organization or association of men and women.</p>
-
-<p>The church is the center of activity for many.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
-This class can be reached best by having our
-truths come to them through the channel by
-which they usually receive their opinion and
-ideals, namely, the church. There are other
-hundreds of thousands whose lives center about
-the liquor saloons. To reach these our speakers
-must go to the saloons. In many agricultural
-communities, it is customary to hold meetings in
-school houses, while in good weather, picnics,
-barbecues and all day gatherings take place in the
-woods. To these various customs our speakers
-must adapt themselves. In some sections the
-camp-meeting lasts for a week or two, in great
-tents, or in special woodland resorts, permanently
-constructed and kept for that purpose. Our Volunteers
-will find here opportunities for effective
-work.</p>
-
-<p>But for reasons of economy, the greater part
-of our work will be done outdoors. Plutocracy
-can afford to hire a dozen halls where one drawing
-speaker can be secured. Our movement has
-a dozen speakers to every hall we can afford to
-hire. We will consider first, therefore, methods
-of outdoor speaking.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>OUTDOOR MEETINGS.</h3>
-
-<p>The easiest, the most economical, the most
-fruitful of the Volunteer speaker's work, will consist
-of unadvertised outdoor meetings. There
-is probably not a city, village, or town in America
-in which a man with a strong voice, mounting
-some emergency platform and calling
-out that he has something important to say,
-cannot, in a short time, attract a considerable
-crowd. If his message be direct, condensed, sincere
-and well delivered, he can hold the crowd in
-any except the most inclement weather. Coming
-as a surprise does not lessen the effect, if the
-words are well directed. People who could not
-be induced to enter a hall to hear a lecture, people
-who, if the meeting had been advertised, would
-purposely remain away, will stop and listen to
-an outdoor speaker; they will be interested, and
-may even be converted if the truths are well
-presented.</p>
-
-<p>Of course, many passersby will listen only for
-a few minutes and proceed on their way. An outdoor
-crowd is always a changing one, but this
-merely necessitates a special outdoor method of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
-treatment. Indoors, an address is expected to be
-continuous; one point must lead up to another;
-a line of thought must be followed so as to produce
-interest cumulative to the end. Outdoor
-speaking, on the other hand, must be made up of
-short, concise points, each complete in itself, so
-that no person can listen for a single minute
-without getting something to carry away with
-him. Anecdotes should be freely interspersed,
-but in condensed form.</p>
-
-<p>As the audience is compelled to stand, often on
-damp ground, and in chilly or excessively hot
-weather, it is necessary that outdoor speaking
-should never, under any circumstances, take upon
-itself the qualities of a pedagogical lecture. On
-the other hand, it must be made up of illustrations,
-word pictures, and pungent assertion of
-those fundamental truths known to be most essential.</p>
-
-
-<h3>HOW TO ARRANGE SUCH MEETINGS.</h3>
-
-<p>The speaker arrives in a strange town, having
-entered afoot, by horse, or by rail. If he have
-friends in the town, his work will, of course, be
-less difficult, and it will be comparatively easy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
-to procure a horse and carriage (or a wagon).</p>
-
-<p>The vehicle secured, let him drive to the principal
-street, stop at the corner selected as the
-meeting-place, and, standing on the seat, let him
-announce (his voice pitched high, but not strained,
-dwelling for at least two seconds upon each word)
-that a meeting will be held in a few minutes at
-which "the people will be told how our country
-can be freed from the curse of Hannaism and
-monopoly" (or some similar striking expression).
-Then proceeding to the next corner let
-him repeat the announcement, and so over the
-village, or, if it be a city, over as large a
-section as he can conveniently cover. By making
-a dozen or more of these announcements he
-can always gather about him the nucleus of an
-audience.</p>
-
-<p>If unable to secure a vehicle he may go afoot,
-carrying a chair to serve him as a speaker's platform.
-As efficient work can be done in this
-way as in any other.</p>
-
-<p>In addressing the five or the fifty men, women
-and boys who compose this audience, it is requisite
-that he should begin in the same high key<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
-and the same deliberate manner and tone in
-which he made his announcements, addressing
-himself not to the few in front of him, but to the
-listeners in front of their stores half a block away.
-After speaking thus for five minutes, more or less,
-and arousing the enthusiasm and interest of distant
-listeners, he should suddenly turn his eyes
-and attention from all who are more than fifty
-feet away, and proceed in his natural tone of
-voice. Very often persons standing in front of
-stores and shops, lining the streets for two or
-three squares, when the speaker changes and
-lowers his tone and directs his remarks to his immediate
-audience, will come near to hear, if possible,
-the completion of some interesting point.</p>
-
-<p>In large cities where there is much noise from
-street cars and wagons, this work is more laborious,
-and from start to finish the speech will require
-all the energy the speaker possesses to keep
-his crowd together and to increase its number.
-But in smaller places, or in quieter neighborhoods
-of large places, after the first announcements, outdoor
-speaking can be reduced to a very moderate
-exercise. The average man, after a month's prac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>tice,
-can speak outdoors two or three hours a
-day, divided into three or four speeches, without
-any great fatigue, and keep it up the year round,
-resting only upon days so rainy, stormy or bitter
-cold, that men will not, for any inducement,
-stand outdoors.</p>
-
-
-<h3>PRE-ARRANGED APPLAUSE ONE-HALF
-OF ORATORY.</h3>
-
-<p>If friends can secure the free service of a drum
-corps, a brass band, or a quartette of singers, to
-help draw the people together, the speaker's work
-will, of course, be greatly lessened, and much
-will be done toward saving the voice and energies
-otherwise necessarily expended in attracting
-an audience. He will thus be enabled to concentrate
-all his powers, convincing and teaching
-his hearers.</p>
-
-<p>But in the absence of drums or music, there is
-nothing so helpful to the speaker in getting a
-crowd and in holding it after it has congregated,
-than a little skilfully pre-arranged applause. If
-several men, helped by a dozen boys, take their
-places around the speaker, and from the start take
-off their hats and cheer lustily about every three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
-sentences, not only does the noise attract attention
-and draw listeners, but it impresses deeply
-those who are present, so that each word of
-the speaker has its effectiveness multiplied. A
-few men, starting off in this way (if the speaker is
-bright and forcible), will be joined by half the
-audience, and, in outdoor speaking, generous applause
-doubles the effect of oratory. It not only
-adds weight to the speech, but it strengthens and
-cheers the speaker, stimulating him to his
-highest efficiency. It infuses new blood into his
-veins and new breath into his lungs. It quickens
-his heart beats and helps clear his voice. It at
-once establishes a rapport between the talker and
-the talked-to, and converts what might otherwise
-be a number of isolated units into a sort of
-organism, the vital principle of which is one central
-enthusiasm voiced by the speaker.</p>
-
-<p>To convince the friends of the movement of
-the necessity for loud cheering from the start by
-pre-arranged, conscious effort, is often quite difficult,
-although it is important. Much tact and
-skill are required to select a dozen young men before
-the meeting, and train them in a few minutes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
-so that they will follow the cue of the man who
-is to lead the applause and cheer when he gives
-the word.</p>
-
-<p>A very important point, where young boys are
-concerned, is to stop their cheering when the
-leader stops. Unless you have a confederate of
-tact and personality there is danger that the boys,
-once started yelling, will enjoy it so hugely that
-they will keep it up in a disorderly way, and injure
-the meeting much more than they help it.
-But properly drilled, a dozen young boys are
-worth almost as much as a drum corps. Under
-proper leadership, they will stop instantly at the
-pre-arranged signal, and enjoy the military precision.
-Ten minutes training by an experienced
-man will suffice to complete their education
-in this regard.</p>
-
-
-<h3>REPETITION NECESSARY.</h3>
-
-<p>The outdoor campaigner should never fear
-repetition. The average outdoor listener is not
-averse to hearing something that he has heard before,
-but is averse to anything dull, statistical or
-requiring laborious mental effort. In fact, from
-the standpoint of economy, three or five ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>dresses
-made on the same street corner for three
-or five successive days, will accomplish much
-more for the cause than the same number of
-addresses delivered each one in a different town
-or locality. The apostle of the New Democracy,
-traveling from place to place, should stop at least
-two or three days in each village, even if he has
-only one speech and must repeat it over with
-variations each time. If he is resourceful and has
-a few anecdotes and illustrations for each day, it
-will pay him to stay a week in each town, as it
-takes two or three days for new hearers to become
-familiar with his objects, aims and attitude
-of thought. The writer has often found that
-more real, direct converts are made to the people's
-cause on the sixth or seventh day in a town, than
-during all of the previous days combined.</p>
-
-<p>Thought is like seed. Whatever be the soil,
-like all vegetable life, it must undergo three
-stages, planting, developing and fruit bearing.
-With the majority each stage of development requires
-a season; one speaker sows, another
-waters, and another gathers the ripe fruit.
-But a brain adjacent to an empty stomach, idle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
-arms or a bankrupt business, offers a more fertile
-soil for new ideas, and there are some such minds
-in every town wherein all these processes can be
-carried on under the tutelage of one man; some
-such persons in despair at the beginning of the
-week, who can, by the close of the week, be
-brought to the light, their gloom dispelled, and a
-nobler civilization ever after clearly pictured before
-their eyes, the object of their life's endeavor.
-There are many persons who, by one series of
-meetings, are actually converted from ignorant
-participants in existing injustice to active workers
-for the true state yet to be. The whole tenor and
-ideals of their lives are transformed by knowledge
-vitalized by faith.</p>
-
-<p>When a week's meetings are contemplated in
-country towns, experience suggests that the best
-time to start is on Monday and that the meetings
-all week should lead up to one or two grand demonstrations
-on Sunday, when the largest crowd
-of the week can be gotten together, and when,
-by the aid of a Scripture lesson, a prayer and a
-couple of patriotic songs, the enthusiasm can be
-carried highest.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>LITERATURE THE BASIS OF THE MOVEMENT.</h3>
-
-<p>No outdoor meeting can fill its mission nor
-make use of half its opportunities, without the sale
-of literature, which enlarges and completes the
-points touched on by the speaker. The object of
-an outdoor speech is to interest, to stir the emotions
-of men, dispel their lethargy and despair,
-plant in them hope and faith, and prepare them
-to think out, read out and study out the great National
-problem. The attention of men, that is, the
-real, serious concentration of their minds upon
-great things, is so rare that when you once have
-it the opportunity should be utilized fully.
-Those who are interested by the outdoor speech
-should be urged to develop that interest into
-knowledge, conviction and action. This can only
-be done by inducing them to read some book or
-pamphlet, explaining in detail the points suggested
-by you and backing up your assertions by
-careful arguments. Ten pamphlets, or books,
-sold at a meeting where men's hearts have been
-opened and their prejudices melted by enthusiasm,
-are worth more to the cause than ten thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
-books and circulars distributed from door to door.
-The sale of ten small ten-cent pamphlets at a
-meeting is at least half the value of the meeting.
-In this movement one chicken raised is worth
-more than a whole brood hatched; one fighting
-rooster is worth three dozen eggs. One campaigner,
-armed with facts and possessing contagious
-faith in our creed, necessarily becomes a
-permanent, creative force in the community in
-which he lives.</p>
-
-<p>Literature is one element in the production of
-such centers of power, not literature scattered
-wildly, but literature placed carefully in the hands
-of those who have been prepared by the personal
-appeal of a sincere advocate to see and understand
-the points enunciated. So bountiful has
-free literature become and so ocean-like is the
-flood upon political subjects, that it is difficult
-to get men to open a pamphlet on political or social
-subjects when distributed to them in their
-normal condition. But first arouse them by a
-stirring address, and they will willingly study
-what otherwise they could not be induced to consider
-even superficially.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
-Not only should the speaker try to sell as many
-books and pamphlets as possible at the meetings,
-but he should try to leave in every community or
-section of a great city covered by him, some
-worker who will get a stock of such literature and
-continue its sale until another impulse is given
-the movement by the visit of another Volunteer.</p>
-
-
-<h3>ADVERTISED OUTDOOR MEETINGS.</h3>
-
-<p>Very often a little coterie of enthusiasts will
-think that with the aid of a few handbills they
-can get a great crowd of their stupefied, over-worked
-and discouraged fellow beings to give up
-their other engagements and walk to some out-of-the-way
-place or corner of the town to listen
-to their speaker. Our friendly promoters do not
-know that to the eye of the multitude the bills
-suggest only an uninteresting harangue or the
-visionary proclamations of a dreamer that in no
-way concern them. The result is that very often
-instead of a thousand greeting the speaker, all
-eager for information and ready for a change of
-heart, as anticipated, there are a dozen or so already
-familiar with his teachings and sharing his
-opinion on all important subjects and half as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-many idle curiosity seekers without influence in
-the community. The speaker is discouraged and
-the ardent reformers are chilled to the bone and
-despairingly admit to each other that the citizens
-of their particular community are more perverse
-and hardened against new ideas and reforms than
-the residents of any other locality under the sun.</p>
-
-<p>If, instead of the preparation for an out-of-the-way
-meeting and the laborious provision of seats
-for people who never came, a few circulars announcing
-the meeting and containing two or three
-gems of thought had been distributed and the
-speaker had mounted a wagon or box in the
-center of town as heretofore suggested, the
-meeting would probably have been a success.</p>
-
-<p>Except on occasions of great excitement, when
-men are drawn together by some celebrated orator,
-or on holidays, when they expect, under
-any circumstances, to leave their homes and work
-and betake themselves with their families to the
-woods and fields, it is important to hold outdoor
-meetings where an audience can be gathered
-largely from passersby.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>THE NEWSPAPER.</h3>
-
-<p>A speaker talks to one hundred, one thousand
-or more hearers, but by proper co-operation on
-the part of the press his words are often carried
-to tens of thousands more. Where the press is
-not absolutely united for the purpose of maliciously
-misrepresenting or suppressing the speaker's
-words, at least half of his work consists
-in the silent appeal to auditors he never sees,
-those who read his words as reported in the
-papers. A few suggestions may, in this connection,
-be found of value.</p>
-
-<p>First, have printed, typewritten, or copied by
-hand, all the essential points of your speech,
-ready to be handed to the newspaper representative.
-Properly prepared manuscript, written on
-one side of the paper only, will often be published
-in full. It may be thrown into the waste basket.
-But any paper will publish more of a man's
-speech, if he has neatly prepared his manuscript
-beforehand than otherwise.</p>
-
-<p>Next, get personally acquainted with each editor,
-entering into a pleasant conversation with
-him and trying to make him your personal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
-friend. By this means a Volunteer can often use
-the press of the opposite party to propagate his
-views. The original purpose of a newspaper was
-to give news, and very often, even in these degenerate
-days, the instinct of a newspaper man
-to give news, if encouraged and stimulated a
-little, will become strong enough temporarily to
-overcome his prejudice, and possibly overcome
-his appreciation of the plate matter supplied by
-Mr. Hanna's agents free of charge. He may even
-give a column or a half-column, describing the
-meeting of the New Democracy, quoting freely
-the words of the speaker.</p>
-
-<p>In dealing with Democratic, Populist and other
-friendly papers, there is a secondary opportunity
-for useful work. It is to show the editors how
-they can force the plate matter and ready-print
-establishments to furnish news concerning the
-Democratic Volunteers to all their customers, by
-simply demanding information on that subject.
-Even request the editor to write a letter, telling
-of the intense interest of his constituents in the
-Volunteers, and urging that his ready-print matter
-contain something weekly from the Volun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>teer's
-National office. A sufficient number of
-such letters cannot fail to have the desired effect.
-Let every Volunteer aim to secure the co-operation
-of a few editors, and the work is done. The
-ready-print establishments that remain stubborn
-should lose their patronage.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br />
-SPEECHES AND MEETINGS.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>The Volunteers are organized, not to do the
-easy things that have been done in the past and
-are now being very satisfactorily done by others,
-but rather to do what others have left, and are
-leaving, undone. In communities where the
-New Democracy is strong and the people are already
-in the habit of gathering periodically and
-during political campaigns nightly, it requires no
-organization of Volunteers to provide men to
-instruct and amuse them to their entire satisfaction.
-Our work is to do what others have not
-done and cannot do; to gather crowds where
-others have failed; to create interest where there
-is no interest; to make friends where we have no
-friends, and, WHERE WE ARE ALREADY
-STRONG AND DOMINANT IN A COMMUNITY,
-TO TEACH OUR FRIENDS AND<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
-BROTHERS TO SO SYSTEMATIZE THEIR
-EFFORTS AND ENTHUSIASM AS TO BE
-MOST USEFUL IN EDUCATING AND
-GAINING THE SUPPORT OF LESS ADVANCED
-COMMUNITIES ELSEWHERE.</p>
-
-<p>In arranging indoor meetings, it is essential,
-in order that our work may be fruitful, to get
-out other than what is known as "the same old
-crowd." There are a few people of both parties
-in every community who are always interested
-in politics, and who attend nearly all party meetings.
-On such, ammunition is largely wasted.
-A speaker should never be satisfied to address a
-small crowd, the majority of whom are already
-in accord with his principles. His object should
-be to bring in new men, to get in fresh blood.
-The motto of each of us should be, "I came not
-to bring the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."</p>
-
-<p>To secure the attendance of the non-political
-class, it is, therefore, expedient, in addition to the
-regular speeches, to provide some form of entertainment,
-such as vocal and instrumental music,
-a dramatic rendition, or a children's performance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
-When an audience is assembled particularly to
-enjoy the entertainment and incidentally from
-curiosity to see and hear the strange speaker, it is
-well for the speech to be built from materials
-furnished by the local performers. If children
-have participated, there is no happier way to begin
-than by telling how enjoyable were their
-songs and recitations, how thrilling the thoughts
-born of their happy faces and hearts throbbing
-with youthful hopes. The speaker might tell
-how, looking into their bright eyes, his thoughts
-turned toward the future, where he saw the obstacles
-against which these children will have
-to contend, the difficulties they will meet in getting
-started in life, the unfair advantages over
-them possessed by the children of special privilege.
-By taking the children who participate as
-a text and riveting the attention of the audience
-upon them instead of considering the rights of
-men in general, he can gain at once, not only the
-attention, but the sympathy and the very hearts
-of those who listen.</p>
-
-<p>If the entertainment is a musical one, the
-speaker might begin by describing the state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
-mind produced by the sweet harmonies just listened
-to. By recalling the difference between the
-discord produced by ten men tuning their musical
-instruments and the harmony resulting when
-they play the same instruments together, he has
-an illustration applicable in several ways: suggesting
-the harmony and orderliness of the state
-that we are fighting for, the economy of concert
-in our political methods, and numerous other
-points, which, if given in a conversational way,
-will arrest the attention of even the women and
-the children. Let him then proceed with simple
-axiomatic truths that can be grasped by every
-hearer, abundantly illustrated, and the crowd will
-be induced to attend future meetings.</p>
-
-<p>There are a thousand cues given and illustrations
-suggested by a preliminary entertainment
-that can be made the gateway to the sympathies,
-affections and intelligence of those who listen.
-Convince the audience that the questions treated
-are neither abstract nor incomprehensible, but
-simple and tangible, and concern their personal
-welfare and the future of their families, and self-interest
-will impel them to listen to specific arguments
-backed by facts and figures.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
-The Volunteer who aspires to attract vast audiences
-and transplant the hopes and thoughts that
-flourish in his own mind to the fertile soil of other
-minds, must first learn that the passion to instruct,
-though a noble instinct, must be curbed
-ruthlessly, else instead of an orator the "would-be"
-will find himself a bore. The passion to impart
-knowledge, like the other human passions,
-when given free rein to exercise itself unrestrained,
-defeats its own ends and at last destroys
-itself.</p>
-
-<p>How many old speakers we know who long
-ago looked forward, as hundreds of young men
-now look forward, to becoming orators, with
-power to sway the multitudes, to guide and lead
-them to higher things. But instead of orators
-we call them fossils. Instead of attracting they
-repel. They begin whenever permitted and never
-stop until so commanded. They are brought out
-and used in emergencies when no one else can
-be obtained, but never otherwise. They are common
-hacks. Why is this? Not always because
-such men do not possess ability. Some of them
-have followed the world's greatest thinkers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
-throughout their intricate reasonings and profound
-solutions of life's most serious problems.
-But at the very start they conceived wrong notions
-concerning the function of a public
-speaker, an erroneous impression as to the utility
-and object of a speech or popular address.</p>
-
-<p>We have often noticed that superior minds
-are overlooked on popular occasions and some
-man with less capacity and knowledge, far less
-endowed with mental treasures, is called upon
-to do the honors of the occasion. Why? Because
-he has the faculty of addressing himself
-directly to the listeners and of adapting himself
-to their frame of mind.</p>
-
-
-<h3>TEN COMMANDMENTS.</h3>
-
-<p>To those who would become speakers and
-avoid the mistakes that cause the majority of failures,
-the following rules will be found valuable:</p>
-
-<p>1. Do not try to tell all you know at any one
-time.</p>
-
-<p>2. Do not try to appear deep, learned or
-poetical.</p>
-
-<p>3. Do not try to prove every statement you
-make.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>4. Use statistics sparingly.</p>
-
-<p>5. Address yourself, not to the kind of men
-and women you would have made had you been
-the Creator, but to the actual men and women
-who have been created, who fill your halls and
-make up your audiences.</p>
-
-<p>6. Make your talk personal and apply every
-point to the wants, woes and sentiments of your
-listeners.</p>
-
-<p>7. Never regret the half hour or the hour
-occupied by the music, recitations, drama, or
-other entertainment preceding your speech.</p>
-
-<p>8. Do not manifest impatience at the time
-consumed in short talks by local speakers.</p>
-
-<p>9. Remember that generally all the good that
-it is possible for you to accomplish if your audience
-by preliminary exercises is brought into
-rapport and sympathy with you, can be accomplished
-in half an hour. If you can get the complete
-attention of your audience for half an hour,
-they will have sufficient matter to fully occupy
-their thoughts the rest of the day and night, and
-not only this, if your talk is interesting and
-they go away hungry instead of satiated, they will
-gladly attend the next meeting.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
-10. Be satisfied if you interest your hearers
-and be not greedy to instruct. For those really
-interested by oratory will instruct themselves by
-means of literature which is the only source of
-real instruction. Oratory should win sentiment
-and stir interest; literature performs the work of
-education. The speech fulfils its mission if it
-persuades men to read aright.</p>
-
-
-<h3>ENTERTAINMENT.</h3>
-
-<p>A meeting that is half entertainment or if
-illustrations, anecdotes and stories be included
-under the head of entertainment, a meeting
-that is nine-tenths entertainment and
-one-tenth direct statement of fact and reasoning
-therefrom, is of far more value than a
-three hours' bombardment with facts, figures, arguments
-and the soundest reasoning, directed by
-a master. The average human mind, as God
-made it and as our present unsocial life has unmade
-it, will become wearied by such an effort
-and leave the meeting with the firm resolve not
-to attend another. Such meetings cannot be held
-often and do not win the sympathies and co-operation
-of men nearly so much as a meeting planned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
-and arranged on the basis of adaptation to the
-capacities of the average listener and his multiform
-emotions and mental wants. This is the
-secret of the success of the popular churches.
-They do not try to teach the people too much.
-They do not strain that organ, very weak in the
-average human mind, known as the logical
-faculty.</p>
-
-<p>Far more progress can be made in any community
-by instituting a successful series of meetings,
-wherein serious reasoning occupies a minor
-portion of the time, the rest filled in by entertainment,
-than can be gained by meetings that furnish
-a perfect mine of wealth in the way of food for
-thought and intellectual feasting for the few who
-have the power to appreciate such things.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
-
-
-<h3>LIFE IS SHORT.</h3>
-
-<p>The length of the man's speech should be
-measured, not by his own physical endurance nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
-the time that his breath lasts, not by the amount
-that he has to say nor even by the capacity of his
-audience to listen or to remain in the room, but
-in every case it should be measured by the capacity
-of his hearers to enjoy.</p>
-
-<p>Most political meetings are too long. Very
-often two or three speakers are engaged, each
-harboring the erroneous opinion that duty requires
-him to talk an hour. Now, any speaker
-who cannot say something good, useful and inspiring
-in fifteen minutes, is incapable of saying
-anything good, useful or inspiring at all.</p>
-
-<p>Except in times of great excitement or in out-of-the-way
-country districts where meetings are
-few and the hearers, like savages in a forest, must
-gorge themselves when they have a chance, the
-speaking should never, on any occasion, last more
-than an hour and a half.</p>
-
-<p>Where there are three speakers, not only
-should each be limited to half an hour but the
-chair should be filled by a man with pluck and
-personality sufficiently great to tap the speaker
-on the shoulder when his time is up.</p>
-
-<p>I have seen more hoggishness displayed at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
-political meetings than ever at a dinner table.
-The man who sits down at a table and eats everything
-in sight before his friends arrive, is a gentleman
-compared with the fellow who occupies the
-time of his colleagues at a public meeting; because,
-if by one man's greed all the food on the
-table is eaten, other food can be obtained, but
-when some oratorical hog monopolizes the opportunity
-of his fellow-speakers, he takes from
-his colleagues what can never be replaced.</p>
-
-<p>Our volunteers will accomplish a great work
-for humanity indeed if one of their number succeeds
-in inventing a method to stiffen the backbones
-of presiding officers sufficiently to enable
-them to sit down on that species of "bore" who
-push themselves to the front, ask to speak first
-by pledging to quit at a specified time and then
-talk on until the audience begins to disperse.
-Few people appreciate the great loss caused to a
-party or movement by the vacillating weakness of
-presiding officers and the greedy instincts of men
-who like to be heard and, in order to satisfy this
-instinct, "hog everything in sight."</p>
-
-<p>One mission of the volunteer speaker is to teach<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
-etiquette to the political speakers of our own
-party and when "Ex-Governor So-and-So" and
-"Prosecuting Attorney Other-man" and "Judge
-Dry-Bones" and "Ex-Judge Old Fogy" and "The
-Honorables" and "The Colonels" and "The
-Generals" and the bulldozing youthful speakers
-assume to occupy time not intended for them, to
-take the chairman by the arm and stand by his
-side until he redeems the pledge made before the
-meeting and stops the mouth of the insolent fellow
-who has not sense enough to regard the rights
-of his fellow-workers.</p>
-
-
-<h3>AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION.</h3>
-
-<p>If a prominent man, known to be long-winded
-and lacking in this one requisite of a gentleman,
-is present and it is uncertain that the presiding
-officer has the courage necessary to call him down
-at the right time, our voluble celebrity should
-be told that the position of honor being the
-last on the program, it has been POSITIVELY
-given to him. Thus the other speakers will
-have a chance to plant a few ideas in the minds of
-their auditors before they are hopelessly wearied.
-Although the last speaker may injure the general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
-effect of the meeting by his prolonged and drawn-out
-harangue, the self-assertive and independent
-ones among the listeners can, at least, leave
-the room when they get fatigued, without missing
-the opportunity of listening to those whom they
-came to hear. This point is purposely emphasized,
-and strong language not inadvertently used.</p>
-
-<p>Where more than one speaker participates,
-there is nothing more essential for a successful
-meeting than that each speaker be limited in time
-by a pre-arranged plan, and that each be forced
-by the presiding officer strictly to observe that
-limit.</p>
-
-
-<h3>MORE THAN TWO MILLION MEMBERS.</h3>
-
-<p>The success of the Christian Endeavor movement
-in the Protestant churches is due almost
-solely to their method. The Christian Endeavor
-Societies have no new message to the world; they
-advocate no reforms; they do not add anything
-to the teaching of the church; do not even take
-it back to any of those sublime truths of the past
-largely ignored and forgotten by the modern
-church. But there is one simple reform in the
-method of carrying on religious meetings to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
-which the Christian Endeavor Societies owe their
-success, and by means of which alone they have
-gained more than two million members in little
-more than a decade. This great and valuable
-secret is their system of two or three minute
-addresses, and their requiring participation in the
-meeting by every member.</p>
-
-<p>Some of us are familiar with the old time
-Protestant prayer-meetings, composed of five or
-six old men, from ten to thirty middle-aged and
-old women, with a scattering boy or girl forced to
-attend by parents. The prayers were long. The
-talks were dry. The presence of a young man or
-woman was always a surprise.</p>
-
-<p>The Christian Endeavor Society with the same
-theology, the same message, the same hymns, not
-even having a new impulse, a new moral ideal, or
-a new hope for the betterment of the world, but
-merely by requiring each member to say a few
-words and requiring that they say no more than
-a few words, has succeeded in joining together
-over two million young people into a prayer meeting
-society. Young people and prayer meetings!
-Always before suspicious of each other! Presto<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
-change! Two million young people organize in
-fifteen years to attend prayer meeting. The explanation
-of this miracle is ENFORCED
-BREVITY.</p>
-
-<p>Short speeches, the extinction of bores, and the
-participation in each meeting in some way by
-every listener are so far as method goes the essentials
-for a great popular movement.</p>
-
-<p>Good manners that have been taught to most
-of the world as regards eating and drinking have
-begun to be introduced into the world of meetings,
-religious and political, and when we see a
-feature, a little reform of this kind, building up in
-a few years one of the largest and most formidable
-religious organizations in the way of numbers
-that the world has ever seen, the organizers and
-workers of the new Democracy should profit
-thereby and at least learn the lesson, "Don't bore
-the people." It were better that the long-winded
-talker were a Republican or that he were thrown
-into the sea than that he should be allowed to destroy
-our meetings by his prolonged and learned
-discourses. Flee from the long-winded man, or
-else turn on him and make him sit down when his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
-time is up. Or do with him as you do with the
-man who displays swinish proclivities when you
-invite him to dinner, DON'T INVITE HIM
-AGAIN.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE BUREAU OF VOLUNTEER SPEAKERS.</h3>
-
-<p>A community feels that it needs to be awakened,
-and desires to arrange a series of meetings.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
-How can suitable speakers be had? So often a
-mistake is made. A speaker goes off on a tangent;
-he carries his hearers into a labyrinth of
-statistics and details, from which he cannot extricate
-them; he makes one "break" that alienates
-more votes than his whole speech wins, or in
-other ways proves himself incapable of accomplishing
-good for the community that he visits.</p>
-
-<p>Heretofore such a man, by bulldozing prominent
-politicians into giving him letters of recom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>mendation,
-might impose himself on one community
-after another, and continue for years to
-injure the party. By proper co-operation of the
-party with the Bureau of Volunteers Speakers,
-this evil, in a large measure, can be avoided, because
-this Bureau does not send a man to speak
-until it is thoroughly acquainted, not only with
-his character, but his capacities and judgment,
-and knows his method of argument and what he
-is to advocate. When young and comparatively
-inexperienced speakers are sent out, it is known
-beforehand what is to be said, as their speeches
-are prepared and rehearsed in advance. They
-must know what they have to say, and not trust
-to inspiration, which often results in perspiration
-for the speaker, and exasperation for the hearers.</p>
-
-<p>Every speaker sent out will present the great
-fundamental truths of our movement and not
-waste time in arguing details, which only supplies
-our enemies with new weapons to use against us.
-His speech beforehand has been pruned and criticised;
-the dead branches lopped off; the twigs and
-vines cleared from the trunk of the tree, and he is
-prepared to do only such work as will make con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>verts
-and deepen the convictions of those already
-with us.</p>
-
-<p>There exists no other Bureau or Headquarters
-in America, through which Democratic organizations
-can obtain at all times the best talent, and
-never fail to get a man who will strengthen their
-local organization.</p>
-
-<p>Again, when meetings are held regularly in a
-town and a work of systematic education is carried
-on, it often happens that one speaker following
-another repeats over again the same statistics,
-the same arguments and even the same stories
-heard before, thereby tiring the audience. But
-when a community is supplied regularly by the
-National Bureau, each speaker takes up a different
-phase of the great problem, recapitulating
-only the few fundamental truths on which our
-movement rests. Each presents also something
-new, bright and spicy of his own. By this arrangement
-every community can enjoy the benefits
-of a succession of good speakers every month
-or week during the whole four years, and escape
-the persecution of those unteachable bores, who
-think themselves speakers. The crowds at these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
-regular periodical meetings will increase, because
-each time they will hear something just as good
-as the last time, with added special features, the
-result of individual genius.</p>
-
-<p>At present, when a speaker is wanted, anybody
-is invited who happens to be available, his abilities
-being measured by his own recommendation, or
-by letters bulldozed from prominent men, who,
-for reasons of political prudence dared not offend
-so energetic a fellow. A community in this way
-may secure a good speech occasionally, but often
-the speaker is a positive injury to the cause. One
-poor speech in a series does more to lessen the
-general interest and reduce the size of the crowds
-thereafter, than can be overcome by half a dozen
-good speeches.</p>
-
-<p>Of course, where the local Democracy can secure
-the services of some one of our national leaders,
-no bureau mediation is needed, but our
-national leaders are few and the work before us
-limitless, therefore the service of the Volunteers'
-Bureau in training, equipping and guaranteeing a
-large number of new speakers who can be secured
-at any time, by any community, at a mod<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>erate
-expense, is meeting with hearty response by
-Democratic clubs generally.</p>
-
-<p>The best way to make a strong club anywhere
-is to institute a series of meetings, all the year
-round, and, by having at least one able speaker
-each time, never to disappoint the audience.</p>
-
-<p>Let each town and village establish a lecture
-course at once, and place itself in communication
-with the Volunteers' Bureau. The more numerous
-and closer together such villages and towns
-are, the smaller will be the expense to each community
-and the easier will it be to make up
-regular circuits for speakers.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE CO-OPERATION OF CONSTITUENTS
-NECESSARY.</h3>
-
-<p>Although every speaker sent out is guaranteed
-to do effective work, the leaders of each community
-are urgently requested to report to headquarters
-at once, the success or short-comings of
-each speaker and meeting. Without such co-operation,
-the Bureau cannot keep that oversight
-of its hundreds of speakers necessary to raise the
-standard of work to the highest efficiency. It
-is assuredly the duty of local workers to give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
-straight-forward reports to headquarters, of the
-short-comings and "breaks" on the part of the
-representatives of our Bureau, who represent our
-party and for whom our party is responsible as
-well as to report the benefits resulting from each
-meeting. The fact should also be emphasized that
-each representative of the Bureau receives a letter
-of recognition and instruction once a month from
-headquarters, and his standing with the Bureau
-should be judged solely by such letters or by
-direct correspondence. We must be able, when
-any speaker fails on his part to fulfill our requirements,
-to cease our connection with, and our responsibility
-for him.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br />
-METHODS OF TRAVEL.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>For those very respectable speakers of the old
-school who go to a town only when sent for and
-speak only at meetings properly advertised and
-pre-arranged, who are blessed with a goodly
-supply of that eminently obstructive article, the
-chief burden on every popular movement, commonly
-called dignity, there is no advice needed
-as to methods of travel. For such well regulated
-exponents of bimetallism and reform about the
-only advice that can be given is "be sure that your
-car fare is sent to you before boarding the train."</p>
-
-<p>But to another class of speakers, those who
-make up the rank and file of Democracy's Volunteers,
-those whose purpose and power of will are
-such that no obstacles, no stumbling blocks, no
-hardships can embitter or delay, those in whom
-the fire of enthusiasm for humanity has burned
-up their dignity and who in starting out do not
-ask whether they have means to go respectably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
-and comfortably and quickly or not, but one
-question presents itself, namely, "Can I get to my
-destination in time to deliver my message?" The
-methods used by such will be various.</p>
-
-<p>When we have the money to buy railway tickets
-and when cars go at the proper hour, we will
-travel by rail. Otherwise we will drive when we
-can conveniently secure a horse and vehicle, or
-we will gladly mount the saddle or a wheel. But
-when car tickets, carriages, saddle horses and
-bicycles are alike impossible, the man fighting for
-principle will rise superior to his dignity and dependence
-upon small comforts and taking a
-bundle of literature and a small bag will, before
-starting, ask himself only, "Are my shoes good?"</p>
-
-
-<h3>EXPERIENCE FAVORS TRAVELING
-TWO BY TWO.</h3>
-
-<p>The early Christian disciples went out preaching
-the gospel by twos. Throughout history and
-in the experience of those living, it has been
-found that the will and intensity of purpose of the
-average man is better preserved and that he more
-easily overcomes obstacles, troubles and disappointments
-if in traveling among strangers he has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-companionship. Therefore although, at times
-the Volunteers may travel as individuals, lonely
-and homesick, still, wherever it is practicable, we
-advise our speakers to travel by twos. It is much
-easier to walk five, ten, twenty, or even forty miles
-in a day, from one town to another with a companion.
-Not only is loneliness overcome, but
-two speaker and workers have more than twice
-the influence upon a community that either would
-exert separately. Besides it is safer, and, in case
-of sickness or accident, there is some one to go
-for help or to "tell the story."</p>
-
-
-<h3>AFTER ENROLLING.</h3>
-
-<p>Two young Volunteers start out for a month's
-campaign in the cause of American liberty. We
-have no money, the extent of our capital being a
-bundle of Democratic literature, an appointment
-from the Bureau of Volunteer Speakers and a
-good pair of shoes each. We start at seven
-o'clock in the morning from town "A." It is
-twenty miles to "B" where we wish to speak at
-night. We walk six miles by nine o'clock and
-are then overtaken by a farm wagon in which we
-are allowed to ride eight miles, when it leaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
-our road. We give the driver a pamphlet, thanks
-and a blessing and we part. It is now eleven
-o'clock and we walk six miles further when at
-one o'clock we reach our destination.</p>
-
-<p>In ten minutes we have found a friendly Democrat
-who, after looking at our letters, shakes our
-hands, takes us to his house and provides food.
-After resting a couple of hours after dinner, we
-make an outdoor talk as suggested in Chapter
-three, and announce a night meeting.</p>
-
-<p>If those who profess the name Democracy in
-this village are overburdened with sham dignity
-and devotion to what is old and inefficient and
-refuse to recognize or aid the appointed speakers
-of the people's cause, we must be ready to
-rely on other resources. Our afternoon collection
-may amount to ten cents or it may reach
-fifty cents or a dollar. The crowd may, however,
-refuse to contribute anything. We may sell literature
-sufficient to supply our wants, or the gold
-standard and the trusts may have caused such a
-scarcity of cash that we cannot sell anything.
-We may be compelled to get our supper and maybe
-breakfast by trading a pamphlet to a grocer for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
-crackers and cheese. After speaking in the afternoon
-and evening if we should meet with no success
-or recognition, expediency would suggest
-that we shake the dust from the soles of our feet
-and proceed on our journey toward a more
-friendly community, while the oppressor prepares
-the way for the work of education later.</p>
-
-<p>In some places friends will supply car tickets;
-in others they will procure a carriage or wagon
-and deliver us to the next town. From other villages
-or towns we may have to proceed as we
-started and as the apostles used to travel, walking
-along the dusty road, the frozen ground or
-through mud or snow. This method of travel is
-not only now practiced by many of our speakers,
-but can and will become the method of thousands
-more. It is a thoroughly practicable and sensible
-method of teaching truth against great odds and
-adds to the force of the speakers' message by
-proving him sincere.</p>
-
-<p>That this plan of campaigning is altogether
-feasible the writer can personally attest from
-actual experience. Years ago, as a mere boy, I
-became intensely interested in the principles of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
-the New Democracy and starting without money,
-without friends or any organized assistance, impelled
-merely by enthusiasm for humanity and
-hatred of that tyranny through which my race
-and family had suffered, I traversed in this way
-every county in the State of Kansas, circulating
-thousands of pamphlets in which were pointed
-out the way to a nobler civilization. While still
-a boy I also walked or rode with friends through
-Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania
-and New York. I was often interfered with by
-persons disposed to disagree, but at every village
-and town and city through which I passed, I
-stood up in the open street in a carriage, on a dry-goods
-box or a chair and proclaimed my faith
-that the poor people need not suffer as they do if
-they would but unite in behalf of their own interests
-and use the ballot against oppression and
-tyranny.</p>
-
-<p>Very often I was without money, and I then
-discovered that my early study of hygiene could
-be turned to good account. I found that the
-great capitalists, aided by Edward Atkinson and
-the soup house reformers, in trying to devise a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
-diet for the poor that might enable them to work
-for less wages, though failing in this, had at least
-given me a pointer. I found that their bill of fare
-lacked but one ingredient to make it very endurable,
-and that was enthusiasm and youthful hope
-and fire. I added this ingredient and was independent
-of the world.</p>
-
-
-<h3>HYGIENE AS A WAR MEASURE.</h3>
-
-<p>Those Volunteers who intend not only to try
-to speak for the cause during the next four years,
-but have determined to fight for the continuation
-of our Republic in spite of all obstacles, should
-learn how independent the body really can be of
-what are usually termed the necessaries of life.</p>
-
-<p>As an invalid child I attended a course of lectures
-delivered by one Dr. O'Leary. This distinguished
-gentleman, with the theatre stage,
-which he used as his platform covered over with
-polished skeletons, manikins, human heads in
-chloroform and colored pictures of the various
-parts of the human frame, impressed my young
-mind deeply. At that time, I remember I had
-been "given up" by my parents and the doctor,
-as a child who could not possibly be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
-raised. I was accustomed to thoughts of death
-and for years constantly expected a visit from
-the dreaded monster. No memory is more distinctly
-engraven on my mind than the nights
-when, with eager eyes fastened on this wonderful
-man and his mysterious skulls and manikins, my
-heart throbbing, my face aglow, I listened in rapt
-attention, that possibly I might catch some secret
-that would help me defeat death and add strength
-to my frail body sufficient to do battle with life's
-hardships.</p>
-
-<p>After describing a boy who died at about my
-own age because his nervous system had been
-deprived of the proper life-giving elements which
-had been taken from his food by modern processes,
-the Professor took up a handful of wheat
-letting it fall repeatedly through his fingers, stating
-that each grain of wheat contains in it all of
-the elements required to sustain human life. He
-said that civilization, by taking away the outside,
-the most nutritious part of the wheat, had struck
-a blow at the physical development of our race.
-He declared that man can live for years on whole
-wheat requiring no other article of diet, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
-the outside of the wheat especially, now thrown
-aside as bran and fed to the cattle, contains the
-elements of bone and nerve fibre, that, while
-the lady who eats only the choicest white bread,
-made of the finest flour, has to substitute gold for
-parts of her teeth, the teeth of the cattle that eat
-the bran are perfect. He gave as an illustration
-the march of Caesar and his legions through Gallia,
-when Caesar's soldiers often for weeks at a
-time were without provisions and were compelled
-to feed on whole wheat alone which they would
-snatch in handfuls from the fields as they
-marched, thresh in the palms of their hands and
-grind with their molars. The crushing of the
-hard wheat grain gave the teeth exercise while
-the crushed bran and surface of the grain supplied
-those elements required in the construction of
-bone and teeth. "At the present time, nineteen
-centuries after," so this doctor said, "there are
-numerous skulls of these same soldiers of the
-great Caesar to be seen in the London Museum
-and as a result of their wheat mastication, every
-tooth is as sound in these skulls, as whole and free
-from decay as when heathen Rome was Mistress
-of the World and Caesar was King."</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.</h3>
-
-<p>Whether this astounding statement of the
-learned doctor has any basis of truth or not I
-do not know, but that the lesson he sought to
-impress by it is true, my own experience can attest.
-During a period of several years, with another
-young enthusiast, I subsisted on a diet of
-bread and apples except when these could not be
-had, when we repaired the waste of our bodies by
-eating whole wheat, a bag of which we constantly
-carried with us for "emergencies." Often we
-have subsisted on whole wheat and clear water
-alone for several days, and even a week at a time.
-During these periods we did not notice that we
-lost flesh. Of course we had very little to lose,
-but our vigor and the intensity of our enthusiasm
-and faith in our powers, all of which depend
-largely upon the amount of nutriment carried
-from the stomach to the brain, and various nerve
-centers, were not in the least diminished. Later
-on we found that when convenient, we could obtain
-more nourishment from the wheat with less
-chewing by having it boiled, but when boiled,
-we could not carry with us a week's rations with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>out
-fatigue, and boiled wheat will become sour in
-the summer time while whole dry wheat will keep
-for years, and, like feminine beauty, remain ever
-fresh. It is the most condensed form of digestible
-food known to man.</p>
-
-<p>Of course where men have dissipated and
-their powers of digestion have been undermined
-by intoxicating liquor, tobacco, or the habitual
-use of highly spiced and over-prepared
-foods, any coming down to a natural diet like this
-is a severe hardship. But for a young man with
-firm faith and good health, NOT TO BE IMPEDED
-IN HIS DESIRE TO BECOME AN
-ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE GREATEST
-MOVEMENT OF HISTORY BY THE MERE
-FACT THAT HE HAS NO MONEY WITH
-WHICH TO PAY CAR FARE AND BUY
-GOOD FOOD AND CLOTHES, the suggestions
-here given will be found helpful. I would
-not advise others to do, what I have not done or
-am not willing to do myself. The fact is, however,
-that any young man, in good health, and
-formed of the right kind of "dust," can travel,
-without any money from one end of the country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
-to the other speaking daily, and accomplish much
-for our cause, even if he does not meet more than
-one true friend in a thousand miles. But the
-comforts and vices and follies of civilization he
-must be able to do without.</p>
-
-<p>This austere and ascetic mode of life is not
-commended for its own sake. The suggestion is
-merely thrown out as one possible way of beginning
-work, so that no young man in good health
-can claim that he would have done wonders for
-the cause had he not been prohibited by poverty.
-No such excuse exists. Healthy single men can
-live and thrive if buoyed up by hope and faith
-and manly purpose, and travel the world over on
-a quarter of the wages of a day laborer.</p>
-
-
-<h3>NOT CIVIL BUT MILITARY.</h3>
-
-<p>To those persons who may possibly criticise
-these suggestions as tending to encourage a lower
-standing of living, thereby indirectly aiding
-in the lowering of wages, I will simply say that I
-am not giving suggestions for methods of civil
-life but only military suggestions to be acted upon
-in time of war. The battle is now on. No conflict
-of the past ever appealed more strongly to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
-sublime qualities in human nature than the present
-war of the people against the united plutocracy
-of all countries. It is therefore appropriate and
-timely to give any and all suggestions that may
-be of value to those bearing the brunt of the people's
-battle.</p>
-
-<p>Can it be urged against the half starved Cuban
-patriots that because they have learned how to
-subsist through months on roots and berries,
-and sugar cane their habits are likely to
-lower the standard of living in Cuba? In answer
-the smallest boy would say that the
-Cubans eat berries this year in order to eat watermelons
-next year, that they chew slippery elm and
-sheep sorrel to-day in order to have roast beef,
-oysters and plum pudding to-morrow. They are
-now eating the food of the animals and sleeping
-in the open fields with the beasts and dying, as
-the cattle die, by order of a butcher, that their
-countrymen and their children and their children's
-children hereafter may live as free men,
-enjoying the heritage of a free Cuba and all the
-varied gifts of civilization.</p>
-
-<p>Did our forefathers of the Revolutionary War<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
-lower the standard of living and decrease wages
-or injure the cause of labor or of trade-unionism,
-because, in fighting for country they were willing
-to go without shoes, staining with blood from
-their wounded feet the projecting icy rocks that
-gashed them as they marched against the British?
-Oh, no! Our forefathers went without shoes that
-we might have them. They went hungry and
-cold and gave up their individual comforts and
-lives, that we, their descendants and fellow-countrymen,
-might have greater comforts, increased
-liberties and life more abundant.</p>
-
-
-<h3>GENERAL MARION.</h3>
-
-<p>When General Francis Marion with his brave
-soldier boys was lying in at Snows Island on the
-Pedee River, North Carolina, preparing to make
-another one of his surprising and brilliant raids
-on the enemy, an officer from the British post at
-Georgetown was dispatched to visit him to treat
-for an exchange of prisoners. The blooming
-Britisher was blindfolded and carried by a circuitous
-route into camp. The bargain arranged, he
-accepted an invitation to dine. The meal was
-served on pieces of bark and consisted entirely of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
-roasted potatoes of which General Marion ate
-heartily, requesting his guest to profit by his
-example, repeating the old adage that "Hunger
-is the best sauce." "But surely, General, this cannot
-be your ordinary fare" said the well fed adversary.
-"Yes it is," replied Marion, "For
-months at a time my men have lived on roasted
-potatoes, and we are especially fortunate on this
-occasion to be able to provide a double allowance
-to set before so honorable a guest." The young
-foreigner was so overcome with admiration for
-the brave patriots fighting for their country in
-such a spirit that on his return to Georgetown
-he retired from the service, declaring his conviction
-that men who could with such cheerfulness,
-endure the privations of such a life, could never
-be subdued.</p>
-
-<p>The blooming Britisher was right. The God
-of William Tell, of Cromwell, of Washington and
-Marion, of Garrison and Lincoln, of Moses and
-of Bryan, never has and never will permit such
-enthusiasm and faith and patriotism to go unrewarded.
-Men with purpose so intense, whose
-flame of patriotism burns so brightly as to con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>sume
-their love of comfort and dependence upon
-external things, can never be subdued by hired
-Hessians nor the combined forces of opulence,
-ease and greed.</p>
-
-<p>Going out in such a spirit, demanding three full
-square meals each day for every human being
-born into the world, yet to obtain this end willing
-ourselves to live like Marion's band on roasted
-potatoes, like the Cuban patriots on sugar cane
-and berries, or on graham bread and apples, or
-to ease our hunger if necessary by grinding with
-our teeth dry whole wheat, we will in the name
-of God and humanity take this country and rescue
-our world from those who now make of it a living
-hell.</p>
-
-<p>This unconquerable, independent spirit that
-rises above physical conditions, social limitations,
-comforts and luxuries, is and always has been the
-conquering spirit of the world, always the sure
-omen of victory.</p>
-
-<p>If Marion and his band could rise superior to
-physical appetites in fighting for thirteen little
-colonies away off from the great centers of civilization;
-if the followers of Gomez and the im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>mortal
-Maceo can march over perilous mountains
-and through deadly marshes, suffering continually
-for want of food and drink, and for years
-swing with almost supernatural skill their deadly
-machetes against the brutal hordes of Spain, in
-order to free one little West India isle, then surely
-we, who see the brutal arm of a united world
-plutocracy striking down and destroying all that
-has been bought so dearly by Washington,
-Marion, and Lincoln, about to enslave the world's
-home and refuge of freedom for a hundred years,
-we should not be unwilling to make any sacrifice,
-take any risks, perform any drudgery.</p>
-
-<p>In defending our country we decide the destiny
-of the human race. We fight to make
-seventy millions of people free and eventually to
-free the world. Ours is the most sublime, the
-most terrific, the most inspiring of all historic
-struggles.</p>
-
-<p>In fighting we will take the advice and learn
-what we can from any source however humble.
-We will listen to the hygienist, the vegetarian,
-even to the soup house reformer, if their words
-will help free us from those chains of poverty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
-that paralyze the arm of the ordinary slave and
-make him impotent to strike back against his oppressors.</p>
-
-<p>The man who, because he earns his bread by
-labor, is looked down upon by the companions
-of his youth and, because of his helplessness and
-his clothes, is fenced out of respectable society,
-such a man requires condensed and highly spiced
-food. He craves wine and beer and whiskey and
-every condiment and stimulant that can raise his
-spirits, depressed by failure, disappointment
-and the slow plodding life that offers no advancement.
-Continual drudgery, without opportunity
-for promotion, engulfs man in a gloom
-uncheered by a ray of hope.</p>
-
-<p>The reformer, the friend of labor, the idealist,
-the true Christian believe that such victims
-should not only have the best food and drink,
-better clothes and better homes, but that they and
-their children should also have a chance to rise,
-should never be debarred from opportunities for
-advancement or for utilizing any talent or genius
-before discovered or that may hereafter be discovered,
-that might lift them to a plane of distinction
-and honor.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
-We believe in luxury; so much so that we believe
-every poor man's family should have an opportunity
-to enjoy all those healthful and normal
-luxuries which invention and progress have
-placed within the reach of men. But the greatest
-of all luxuries, that which is more appetizing than
-pepper or salt or cinnamon or garlic, that which
-is more stimulating than beer or whiskey or even
-champagne, and which must precede in the
-hearts of the masses the procurement of all these
-other and lesser luxuries, is that divinest gift of
-Heaven&mdash;hope. Give a man all the other luxuries
-that the world affords, and take away hope, and
-his blood thickens, his eye becomes dull, his
-color heavy and his pulse irregular. But allow
-him only dry bread in the open air and sunlight
-by a flowing brook, and give him hope, and his
-eye flashes, his heart throbs quicken, his face
-flushes, his muscles harden and all his physical
-and mental powers are ready for instant application.</p>
-
-<p>We, the Volunteers of the New Democracy,
-have an abundant supply of this stimulant more
-powerful than any liquor, more appetizing than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
-any condiment, more soothing than any narcotic,
-giving power and increased facility without reaction.
-We have hope. We have faith. We have
-purpose. We have absolute knowledge that our
-cause is just. We know that we shall win. We
-cannot be suppressed. We cannot be put down.
-The world is ours. WE ARE INVINCIBLE.</p>
-
-
-<h3>NO RAILWAY PASSES.</h3>
-
-<p>In starting out to destroy plutocracy, the first
-thing the average weakling does is to approach
-some senatorial or congressional tool of the very
-plutocracy that he thinks he is opposing, and ask
-him to beg plutocracy for a weapon to fight it
-with, free of charge. In other words, in opposing
-the trusts and monopolies, among which the railroad
-monopoly is one of the most tyrannical and
-corrupt, he asks for a free railway pass.</p>
-
-<p>The railroad pass is the most corrupting instrument
-in American politics to-day. It buys
-for a small price our congressmen and senators,
-our county and state committees of both the Democratic
-and Republican parties, our bosses in both
-parties, our editors, Democratic and Republican,
-our preachers, Democratic, Republican and Pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>hibition,
-and many of our Democratic lecturers
-and speakers. Even many of our labor leaders
-make themselves impotent in this great struggle
-by accepting railroad passes. Our labor statisticians,
-from the National office in Washington
-to the smallest State branch, aid in smothering
-facts and giving life to fiction in order to ride
-on railroad passes.</p>
-
-<p>Our speakers, in accepting the gage of battle
-laid down by plutocracy in the late campaign,
-must neither ask nor accept favors of our enemies.
-We must defy them. Rather than ride on railroad
-passes we should walk.</p>
-
-<p>We should learn from that venerable Cuban
-patriot, Maximo Gomez, who, when offered a sop
-by the brutal despotism against which he was
-fighting, although it was presented to him by
-those two eminent yet despicable toadies of
-European tyranny, Messrs. Cleveland and Olney,
-refused point blank to consider their degrading
-propositions and answered: "We do not accept
-favors of Spain. We hate Spain. Our business
-is not to ask favors but to fight."</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>DEFY THE RAILROADS.</h3>
-
-<p>During the late campaign the railroad corporations
-united not only to aid in continuing the
-gold standard by the use of corporation funds
-but in robbing our people of a free ballot by the
-most treasonable acts of coercion and intimidation.
-There is not a giant stock jobber, tax
-dodger, labor skinner or other law protected
-thief in the country who has stolen more than
-one million dollars from widows and orphans and
-other unsuspecting investors, who has not been
-aided and abetted in his nefarious schemes by the
-railroad corporations. There is not a single
-monopoly nor trust that preys upon legitimate
-trade and commerce but has been fostered in its
-unnatural growth by railroad discrimination.
-There has not been a single reform advocated for
-the benefit of the common people during the last
-thirty years, but has been fought bitterly by the
-railway officials.</p>
-
-<p>We cannot destroy plutocracy, we cannot
-fight the trusts, we cannot fight the gold standard
-unless we are willing to defy the railroads.</p>
-
-<p>If, during our coming Congressional campaign,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
-the railroads continue their habit of monarchical
-coercion and intimidation, depriving American
-citizens of their right to a free ballot, we must
-be sufficiently intelligent and determined to co-operate
-with the enraged and long-suffering
-people who will then be forced to declare for
-government ownership of all public highways
-thus destroying, at a single blow, this most dangerous
-and tyrannical form of plutocratic despotism.</p>
-
-<p>We cannot afford to ask for railway passes.
-If we cannot pay our fare and cannot secure a
-horse, WE MUST WALK.</p>
-
-
-<h3>BRYAN WAGONS.</h3>
-
-<p>Before describing our method of fitting up and
-sending out Bryan wagons, something should be
-said about the use of the word "Bryan," and of
-Mr. Byran's request that his name should not be
-used by clubs and organizations.</p>
-
-<p>The word Bryan no longer belongs to any one
-man. It has become the common property of all
-who love liberty. The word Bryan became the cry
-of exultation at the birth of the New Democracy.
-At this most momentous historic event of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
-present century when an ideal was grasped from
-the upper realm of books, of hope, of morality
-and religion, brought down to the world of
-fact and embodied in flesh and blood; when what
-before was a dream, a philosophy, an aspiration,
-suddenly allied itself with physical agencies and
-created a political power that surprised the world,
-the one cry into which the long oppressed millions
-breathed their joy, their hope, their hate, their
-devotion to their fellows, their defiance of their
-enemies was the magic word, Bryan! Bryan!
-As this one word was repeated and cheered and
-cried aloud to express both hope and anger,
-promise and defiance, it became sacred. It
-flitted from the possession of the single human
-mite whom it had pleased God to appoint as the
-herald of the new dispensation, and became the
-common heritage of humanity.</p>
-
-<p>At the Chicago Convention one citizen lost his
-name, but the world found it and the word Bryan
-became the battle cry of all who fight for freedom
-or strive for justice.</p>
-
-<p>As this individual citizen of Nebraska cannot
-by any act or blunder in the future, efface the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
-mark that he has made upon history's scroll nor
-smother the fire of enthusiasm his eloquence has
-lighted nor imprison again in his single
-breast the wondrous truths breathed out of it that
-now fill the whole world, so neither shall he
-rob us of the one magic word, once his own,
-NOW OURS, which, wherever uttered, kindles
-lethargy and inertia into enthusiasm and fills the
-abode of gloom with the light of hope.</p>
-
-<p>The people need a key-note, a battle cry, one
-single word that expresses all they believe and
-feel and hope. We have such a word. It is
-BRYAN. We intend to keep it and utter it
-wherever and whenever it will cheer us or help
-our cause. And if again one individual citizen's
-modesty prompts him to interfere with our
-rights, our only answer will be: "Hands off,
-honored sir," or, in the immortal words of Pennoyer
-of Oregon, "You tend to your business
-and we, the people, will tend to ours."</p>
-
-
-<h3>BEST WAY TO START.</h3>
-
-<p>Where one or two or three persons are willing
-to start on a trip from town to town, and, with
-the co-operation of their friends, can secure a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-large covered wagon and two horses with a supply
-of condensed food, we would commend this
-as the most economical and efficient method of
-campaigning as it affords not only means of
-transportation, but supplies a dwelling house to
-the occupants, and at the same time, by the
-proper application of paint to the covered wagon,
-the wagon itself and the horses may become living
-missionaries, continuous and convincing
-speeches in themselves, by their presence protesting
-against the continuation of existing political
-barbarism. If at the top of the cover is
-painted in large letters, the words, "Bryan
-wagon," every child, every woman in the
-farthest country district, every passerby, whatever
-be his race, religion or education, will know instantly
-that this wagon, now passing through the
-country, is one of the army of wagons being used
-in the work preparatory to the decisive battle of
-modern times to be fought in 1900. A few well-chosen
-sentences painted on the wagon and
-American flags at the top, will make it serve as
-the best possible advertisement for meetings.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>MAKE YOUR ENEMIES ADVERTISE
-YOU.</h3>
-
-<p>The moment this wagon arrives in town every
-gossip, every old woman, every street gamin,
-every enemy of Democracy is converted at once
-into an advertising medium for the propaganda
-of our cause. The wagon, the horses, the dried
-beef, the apples, the whole wheat, the literature
-and everything that the wagon contains become
-subjects for conversation in the village. The
-Bryan wagon is the center of interest and the
-Volunteers who live in it are objects of curiosity.
-By meeting time the people are prepared to listen
-with open eyes and open mouths, drinking
-in every word of the speaker's message.</p>
-
-<p>Its work done, the wagon moves on to the next
-town but the sight of it is a powerful aid to the
-memory of every inhabitant of the village. Each
-will recall time and time again the character of
-the speakers and the words and prophecies that
-they uttered, so that when the next speaker, traveling
-on his shoe leather or maybe in a palace
-car wearing silk hat and patent leather shoes,
-arrives and tells the people how they can free<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
-themselves from the money power, they will remember
-the wagon and the men who lived and
-traveled in it and spoke from it.</p>
-
-<p>It is well to have the wagon so constructed
-that, when the time for meeting arrives, by removing
-the top it can be used as a speaker's platform
-and the announcements made from the front seat
-as it is driven from corner to corner.</p>
-
-
-<h3>FORWARD, MARCH.</h3>
-
-<p>Let a thousand such wagons be started out at
-once and kept on the road for four years visiting
-every country school district every village from
-Maine to New Mexico and from Texas to Oregon,
-each carrying an abundant supply of literature.</p>
-
-<p>Let every Democrat patronize the Volunteers
-liberally, purchase from each a quantity of literature
-for distribution and sale and throw in a
-piece of silver as the hat is passed around.
-When possible supply them with substantial
-and well-cooked meals so that they can better
-stand their heroic diet when they find no friends.</p>
-
-<p>Start the hat agoing at once in each community,
-and let the town or the county that pur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>chases
-a Bryan wagon put the name of such
-county, town or village on the cover. Let
-counties in Colorado, Arkansas and Texas fit out
-such wagons and start them toward the heathen
-territory of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland.</p>
-
-
-<h3>ABOLISH NAKEDNESS AT HOME BEFORE
-GOING ABROAD.</h3>
-
-<p>Let the money heretofore sent by our religious
-friends to teach the naked savages of foreign
-islands to be ashamed of their nakedness and to
-desire clothes, be applied now to the conversion
-of America to the conviction that every citizen
-of our own country who wants clothes should
-have a chance to earn them. If America is destroyed
-by that arch-devil worship, gold idolatry,
-if our Republic goes down amid the horrors of
-a violent revolution and military despotism, following
-in the footsteps of Rome and Greece and
-Egypt, what will result from our missions in foreign
-lands? They will become relics of the past
-because no possible teaching can then convince
-the poor heathen that our religion is a saving
-power. When the very country from which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
-missionaries come is the helpless victim of greed,
-avarice and organized crime, how are other races
-to be tempted to follow our example? Let us
-rather turn our missionary money for the next
-four years, ALL OF IT, into the coffers of the
-New Democracy, and start our wagons toward
-the doubtful states from every Democratic and
-Populist stronghold. Let the more civilized people
-of Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, where the
-creed of progress has reached the greatest altitude
-in earth's history, share their increased physical,
-intellectual and moral development with the less
-progressive and more barbarous states that fringe
-the ocean uniting us with decaying Europe.</p>
-
-<p>Such friendly action will not only be rewarded
-by the satisfaction that always follows a righteous
-act, but the givers will be blessed of God. Nothing
-that a man can do, or a woman, or a child,
-will accomplish more good in this world or gain
-greater reward in the land of the hereafter, than
-the giving of their dollars and dimes and pennies
-for the starting of Bryan wagons. In this way
-the western and southern centers of thought and
-unselfish patriotism may uplift and educate those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
-states where greed, political corruption and the infamies
-of Hannaism still hold undisputed sway.</p>
-
-<p>Let the churches of the Western states hold
-entertainments, let suppers, masked balls, ice
-cream socials, cider picnics and barbecues be held
-by the good women of every village and the proceeds
-devoted to the equipment of "Bryan
-wagons." And after they are started out, each
-well provisioned with literature, blankets and
-food, and containing two good speakers and
-workers, the good women who raised the money
-to start them should continue their benign activities
-and proceed at once to raise a fund to keep
-on hand, so that when our missionaries send tidings
-of persecution, accident or neglect, they can
-be answered at once by a generous remittance.</p>
-
-<p>In order to insure the permanency of the venture,
-and that the wagon and horses may continue
-to serve the cause even if the men traveling
-with them desert their posts, a bill of sale or
-transfer of the wagon and horses should be sent
-to our National headquarters or to our state
-officers on the day of departure. The friends of
-the organization would then be communicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
-with in advance wherever the wagon went, and in
-case either one or both the speakers tired or
-deserted, the vacancies would be filled at once
-from headquarters, and in the meantime the
-horses and wagon would be cared for.</p>
-
-
-<h3>OUTDOOR MUSIC.</h3>
-
-<p>There can be no greater aid to the success of a
-"Bryan wagon" than for the volunteers to carry
-with them and be able to play a banjo, guitar,
-violin, or small organ. Music is one of the
-world's forces and as rare music, like all rare
-things, is a very small part of the whole,
-it is not necessary that our music be of that
-sort. If we have the best arguments, we can
-afford to let the other side have the best music.
-But we must not, for this reason, give up music
-altogether. Therefore a man who is proficient in
-any musical instrument that can be played out
-doors, is a valuable acquisition to a Bryan wagon.
-But by far the most popular and most effective
-music in the world, if well rendered, is the exercise
-of the human voice in song.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> To open a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
-meeting with music always strikes a sympathetic
-chord with the people. It aids and strengthens
-every word that follows. If our speakers do not
-know how to sing when they start out, they
-should practice singing our songs until they do
-know. This should be part of the young speaker's
-education.</p>
-
-
-<h3>STEREOPTICON PICTURES.</h3>
-
-<p>Another advantage of the "Bryan wagon" is
-that it can carry a certain amount of baggage the
-"shoe leather traveler" cannot possibly take with
-him. For those who do not possess an unusual
-oratorical talent, a small stereopticon or magic
-lantern with views picturing the principles of the
-New Democracy in effective colors, will prove a
-valuable aid. Reform stereopticon views have
-been produced in great variety, and the method
-of enlisting the eye wherever possible to
-strengthen the impressions made through the ear
-is sound policy. In securing collections for the
-payment of expenses, the average citizen is more
-likely to give his nickel or dime towards the support
-of the travelers if he has heard a dime's
-worth of music or seen a dime's worth of comic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
-and interesting pictures in addition to instruction
-gotten through the medium of the speaker's
-voice.</p>
-
-
-<h3>BICYCLES AND DEMOCRACY.</h3>
-
-<p>Where a man doesn't care to walk, and where
-it is inconvenient or distasteful to travel by means
-of the "Bryan wagon," that most modern and
-popular conveyance, the bicycle, should not be
-despised as a means of disseminating truth. The
-bicycle is one of the revolutionary factors of our
-age. It is the enemy of tobacco, liquor and all
-other vices that arise from abnormal desires created
-by a sedentary life. It is the friend of
-health, strength, red cheeks and clear heads.
-Where there are good roads it is an excellent
-means of travel, and a strong wheelman can easily
-speak every night at a different town by using
-the wheel, and still have plenty of time to advertise
-each outdoor meeting.</p>
-
-<p>A bicycle, too, is an excellent companion to a
-Bryan wagon, because while the wagon is slowly
-moving from one village to another, the wheelman
-can be scouring along the side roads distributing
-small circulars to the scattered country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>men,
-telling them of the meeting in the next town
-the coming day or night. In fact, one of the
-most important truths for every friend of the New
-Democracy to learn while very young, is that
-our enemy, plutocracy, utilizes every invention
-and element of civilization for the perpetuation
-of its power. In opposing plutocracy we cannot
-be narrow, prejudiced, superstitious, nor allow
-preconceived ideas as to dignity, custom, personal
-appearance or respectability, to interfere
-with our free motion and our energetic conflict.</p>
-
-<p>We fight with every weapon that by any honorable
-means can be secured. We travel by every
-means that will emancipate us from the limitations
-of time, space and poverty. We accept as
-allies every friend who will aid in impressing upon
-our fellow mortals the solemnity of the opportunity
-that confronts them and the malignity of
-the enemy that is destroying our common race
-and country.</p>
-
-<p>Grasp every force in earth, in sea, in air, which
-by ingenuity, wisdom, persistence, or heroism can
-be utilized in lessening human pain or adding to
-human joy; which can be of service in forwarding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
-these grand principles that will, by one social and
-political transition, abolish the primary sources of
-human misery.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br />
-SALOON MEETINGS.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>A young man, of splendid physique, of bright
-and formidable eye, the very picture of strength
-and courage, who became an admirer of Mr.
-Bryan during the late campaign, and, after careful
-and extensive reading forsook the Republican
-party, embraced the New Democracy and enlisted
-the week following the election as a Volunteer
-Speaker and worker. He is an active
-member of the Young Men's Christian Association
-and of the Christian Endeavor Society.</p>
-
-<p>The first meeting he was asked to attend was
-held over a saloon. This image of youthful
-power and courage walked through the bar-room
-of the saloon with a disparaging air, sat down at
-a table beside the writer, answered a few questions
-in a gloomy and dissatisfied manner and
-said diplomatically that he had an engagement at
-another end of the city and could not remain.
-He had promised to help arrange another meet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>ing
-a few blocks away and the next day partly
-fulfilled that promise by carrying a bundle of
-circulars from the printing office to two men
-who were to distribute them. He then suddenly
-dropped out of sight and has never, so far as the
-movement is concerned, shown up since.</p>
-
-<p>It has been learned that to a fellow churchman
-he remarked that he had been attracted by the
-high and noble ideals of Mr. Bryan, had expected
-to work for the cause, but that his attendance
-at a meeting in a saloon was so offensive
-to him that he lost all heart and had given
-up participation in the movement in consequence.</p>
-
-<p>This man is only the type of a considerable
-class who would like to have their fellow
-beings clean but would never help wash
-them, who would dearly love to have them good
-but are too narrow to help save them; who admire
-the poetry of patriotism but who cowardly
-shrink from those sterner duties of which patriotism
-consists.</p>
-
-<p>Think of a follower of Jesus Christ refusing to
-preach patriotism to men because they are gath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>ered
-in or over a saloon, after having been denied
-the opportunity of meeting in a church or
-even a church yard. If Jesus Christ had been
-so squeamish and "gentlemanly" as to have
-confined his services to the respectable people,
-the early church would have died before it
-was born. In no age has there been sufficient
-vitality in the classes that call themselves respectable
-to give permanent form to any social
-or religious movement. Those who wish to do
-great things only in a respectable manner never
-do great things. A man cannot at the same time
-be both great and respectable.</p>
-
-<p>In order to be respectable, he must stifle genius
-and cover with the ashes of artificiality all the
-deepest passions of the soul. He must destroy
-his individuality and trim his sympathies as he
-does his beard, like the barbarous Northmen
-when they entered Rome.</p>
-
-<p>Love for humanity that can be checked or dissipated
-by inartistic surroundings, contact with
-vice or the coarse companionship of intemperate
-men is not love at all, it is a mere fad, a fitful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
-remnant of a religious instinct long since eaten
-out from within.</p>
-
-<p>Imagine a mother talking about how she loves
-to have her baby clean and sweet and wholesome,
-and then picture her refusing to undergo
-the hardship required in making her child sweet
-and clean and wholesome. Such a mother would
-be no mother at all, unless, perchance, a stepmother
-or mother-in-law.</p>
-
-<p>The young man referred to is a typical specimen
-of a sniveling, impracticable and worthless
-counterfeit of religion, the only function of
-which is to emasculate and weaken our youth.
-It serves to ease their consciences and displace
-the instincts that prompt to goodness. For courageous
-self-sacrifice, it substitutes the mumbling
-of prayers; instead of active, righteous contact
-with the world it demands the attendance at meetings
-in which love is expressed toward a phantasy
-millions of miles up into the stars, while the
-Living God of Heaven and earth is forgotten,
-and where imprecation, denunciation and charges
-of wickedness are dealt out to those manly and
-courageous persons who lift out a helping hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
-to the poor instead of praying for them and who
-fight to make this world and this life heavenly
-instead of paying their debts to their fellow creatures
-with mansions in the skies.</p>
-
-<p>The refusal of this young man who, according
-to his own statement, believed that the future
-welfare of the Nation depended upon the triumph
-of the principles represented by Mr. Bryan, to assist
-in spreading those principles in saloon meetings,
-means that his religious and social training
-had unfitted him to do any great or noble thing,
-unless in conformity with his Sunday-school
-manufactured tastes as to nicety and elegance.</p>
-
-<p>The young man sees the giant tree, injustice,
-and offers to assist in cutting it down but, when
-we hand him an ax, refuses to take off his coat
-and returns it saying that his little hatchet at
-home has a blue ribbon around it and that he
-won't cut with any other.</p>
-
-<p>He sings "Rescue the Perishing" at the Christian
-Endeavor meeting, a pretty girl with pink
-cheeks and cherry lips on each side. The
-cheeks and lips and song are so pleasing, he
-thinks he will go further and help rescue the per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>ishing.
-After careful study he is satisfied that
-people are perishing for want of his friendly services
-and the services of others like himself.
-Yet, when he is assigned a place to work, he abruptly
-leaves his post of duty and goes back to
-prayer meeting, because, poor boy, no carpet is
-on the floor, no angel pictures grace the wall, and
-the tobacco smoke about him is offensive.</p>
-
-<p>Innocent creature! Let him continue to sing
-his hymns and say his prayers surrounded by
-pretty girls In the Christian Endeavor meeting
-and pretty boys who should have been born girls,
-while the great forces of reform fight the battles
-of the living God, conquer evil, destroy injustice
-and lift up the fallen. We can do without him
-and without his kind.</p>
-
-<p>Not that we want to. We do not. We need
-all possible help. We will not judge harshly
-all those who now are given over to such innocent
-amusements. For the delicate white hand,
-the girlish student face, the timid mamma's
-boy, taken from the prayer meeting and the
-Christian Endeavor Society, once taught to
-see the great truths of social salvation and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
-human progress, does not always retreat in
-holy horror when confronted with conflict and
-the smoke of battle. On the other hand, such
-timid, singing, praying boys often become National
-heroes. Before manhood is discovered by
-the growth of hair on the face, manly character
-sometimes reaches maturity, with qualities developed,
-not only superior to tobacco smoke at a
-saloon meeting, and the naughty cuss words
-of the fellows who drink there, but to the smoke
-of powder and the thunder of cannon.</p>
-
-<p>Do not overlook nor belittle soft men, but ignore
-only those who stay soft after you have
-tried the hardening process. For where one
-heart may be formed of milk and water, the
-liquid state of another may be that of molten
-steel, and may only require the cooling process
-of an outdoor breeze to make it withstand
-the continuous persecution and conflict of years.</p>
-
-<p>There is no unholy place where men should
-not go who are fired by a passion for justice.
-It is a fact that one of the centers of the social
-life of the great cities of America and of Europe
-is the liquor saloon. How much we may deplore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
-this fact or the evil results that we see flowing
-from it, is entirely another question. The fact
-remains in spite of our deploring, our shocked
-ideals or our sympathies wrung by the desolation
-and death caused by it, that the center of the
-social life of our great cities, the place where society
-meets, (not that floating, top-heavy buoy
-that calls itself society, but real society, the people)
-is the liquor saloon.</p>
-
-<p>At present it is managed in America, not with
-any reference whatever to its social function, but
-merely for the private profit of individuals. In
-order to increase their private profits and to defend
-their special interests, the men who manage
-these saloons, as a general rule, abuse their
-powers and add inconceivably to the horrors of
-the vice of intemperence trying, by unnatural and
-vicious methods, to increase their gain.</p>
-
-<p>Not only this, but as the saloon is the center of
-the social life of our American cities, the proprietors
-of saloons and the manufacturers of liquors,
-who have associated their interests, have a
-terrible and unnatural advantage in controlling
-the political power of the people with whom they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
-come in contact. They do not have to go where
-the people are because the saloon keeper, in the
-natural and usual performance of his business, is
-already in the midst of the people. He always
-has a crowd. He is the greatest preacher of modern
-times. He does not have to invent new
-methods for REACHING THE MASSES. He
-does not have to scratch his bald head and say,
-"O, Lord! why are my sheep deserting me?" The
-saloon keeper always has a congregation, always
-a choir, is always surrounded by men in need of a
-friend, and, like other members of the human
-family having a strange mixture of greed and
-sympathy, cruelty and fellow-feeling, he exercises
-his charitable instincts and lends a material helping
-hand to the members of his congregation quite
-as often as do the five thousand and twenty thousand
-dollar a year ministers who preach not to
-men drinking, but often to men who have already
-drunk their fill.</p>
-
-<p>The saloon keeper preacher, however, lacks one
-advantage possessed by his more fortunate compeer
-of the church pulpit, for, where a member
-of the saloon congregation has a perfect right to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
-answer back and correct misstatements, slanders
-and unjust vituperation, the friend of the common
-people who happens into the fashionable city
-church service must bite his lips and remain
-silent while the name of Jesus, the revolutionist,
-the poor man's friend, is used to strengthen vile
-calumny against His brave modern apostles who
-are fighting to realize practically in government
-the principles represented by the cross.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, one of the most promising fields for
-the social reformer, for the man who drinks beer
-and the man who drinks water, for the man who
-smokes cigars and the man who washes his teeth
-before every meal with charcoal powder and lives
-on vegetables, is the liquor saloon. It is always
-open and you can go in without buying. You
-can take a seat free of charge and you can talk.
-You have as much right to talk as the bartender,
-and even if opposed to your principles, good
-business judgment, if no other motive, prompts
-the average saloon keeper to be tolerant. He
-cannot afford to drive away any large percentage
-of his customers. You have a right,
-and even in the Republican saloons you can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
-get permission to declare the gospel of monopoly's
-downfall in the back room, in the hall
-upstairs or in the main saloon, once a week, without
-paying anything for heat, light or hall
-rent. These are already furnished for the people
-who now go there. You do not need to advertise
-the meeting, for there is always a crowd about
-the saloon. After you have held two or three
-meetings they will grow in size and draw the frequenters
-from other resorts.</p>
-
-<p>The average saloon crowd is as open to conviction
-and as ready to be taught concerning
-the moralizing of government and the establishment
-of justice in the world as the average church
-congregation, and they will treat you as civilly
-and listen as attentively even though every man
-present disagrees with you.</p>
-
-<p>Let the hundreds of saloons throughout our
-great cities be selected as a mission field for the
-new gospel of manliness and brotherhood.
-Christ went among publicans and wine-bibbers.
-We can afford to go among wine-bibbers, even
-when they are Republicans. Our crowd may be
-small at times but the kind of work that moves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
-the world and builds up civilization is work that
-is regular and continuous.</p>
-
-<p>Let the Volunteers organize by twos, and the
-one, two or three evenings a week that they can
-give to the cause, let those who choose this
-work go to a saloon and tell the fellows there
-that under a proper social system, each one of
-them can afford to have a home as sociable and
-homelike and comfortable as a saloon; that,
-after they declare their independence of the party
-whip, and, instead of obeying parties, command
-them to do their bidding, they can soon have such
-opportunities that they won't have to drink to forget
-their troubles, because they will have no
-troubles; that they won't have to drink in order
-to imagine that they are happy, because they will
-have real happiness; that after the gold standard
-and monopoly are overthrown, there will be a
-hundred different pleasures and opportunities
-opened to them, that these will produce intoxication
-just as delicious as that produced by wine
-and beer, and that every poor man who wants
-to drink will be allowed to drink, not slops and
-refuse, but the same fluids that now give the gout
-and dropsy to die millionaire.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
-The way to get up a saloon meeting is to see
-the proprietor, tell him you are a Democrat, not
-a fraudulent, makebelieve hypocrite, using the
-Democratic name to defeat Democratic principles,
-not an agent of the gold bugs trying to corrupt
-the Democratic party, not an attorney for
-monopoly attempting to pervert the Democratic
-organization to help millionaires rob Democratic
-voters, but that you are a real dyed-in-the-wool,
-anti-monopoly, Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, Bryan
-Democrat, standing with all fours on the Chicago
-platform, the enemy of its enemies, the foe of its
-traducers, and the opponent, uncompromising and
-implacable of every man who upholds the infamous
-British Rothschild gold standard of
-money. Tell him that you would like to talk to
-his customers and a few others in his place every
-week, and show them how, by united political action
-in the Democratic party, they can be made
-just as happy as if they were drunk seven days
-each week.</p>
-
-<p>He will let you come, and if you talk straight
-from the shoulder, you will have a larger crowd
-at the second meeting than at the first. If you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
-keep the work up a year continuously, you will
-not only have your name enrolled in the book of
-heroes, kept by the Democratic leaders, but also
-in the book kept by the Divinity who guides the
-Nations. You will be rewarded in this world for
-your sacrificing labor if you live until the people
-crush monopoly, and if not, you will at least have
-that consciousness of duty done which knows no
-time nor space.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br />
-THE HEROIC AND PROSAIC.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>Heroism and the spirit of martyrdom and of
-self-sacrifice are historical factors as real, as tangible
-and as much a part of human nature as greed
-or hunger. The young Volunteers who forsake
-home, business and personal ambition to help
-save our Nation from the money power, starting
-in the name of humanity astride bicycles, horseback,
-afoot and in Bryan wagons, preaching the
-new gospel of glad tidings without money and
-without price, eating whole wheat, dry bread and
-apples, with a square meal only now and then to
-remind them of the good times coming, are not
-impelled by any strange or new force in society.
-They are not the disciples of a new cult or ism,
-the latest off-shot from the great tree of life.
-They are not a new product of civilization but on
-the other hand they are the real conservative and
-belong to the true nobility of the human race,
-that brotherhood of heroes, patriots and martyrs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
-of all ages and nations, as old as the human family
-itself.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, the essentially NEW PRODUCT
-of our civilization is the man who does not
-believe in heroism, who has stifled the nobler instincts
-with which nature originally endowed him,
-and fills his whole mind's horizon with the one
-image of gold. Those in whose minds avarice
-has devoured all other instincts and desires to the
-point of moral insanity, are the only strange or
-new off-shoots. They alone are the special and
-characteristic product of our particular period, distinguished
-above all else by its complete surrender
-to the one passion&mdash;greed. The real cranks and
-monstrosities are not those who are in line with
-historic humanity, but rather those who have
-crucified their humanity on "a cross of gold" in
-accord with a temporary social perversion.</p>
-
-
-<h3>HEROISM AND SOMETHING MORE.</h3>
-
-<p>Some say it is the weakness of our movement
-that we depend too much on heroism and
-patriotism and other of the weaker instincts and
-uncertain qualities of human nature and therefore
-the movement must fail. Successful movements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
-appeal to the more substantial motives and instincts,
-such as cupidity, sectional pride, etc.</p>
-
-<p>While it is true that we appeal first of all to
-the patriotism of our citizens, to the heroic in
-man and to those deep religious and moral sentiments
-of which heroism and patriotism are the
-highest product, and while it is true that we regard
-these sentiments when fully drawn out and
-properly applied, and during great occasions of
-National peril, as being stronger than cupidity,
-sectional pride, or even regard for life, and that
-the exercise of these qualities by vast bodies of
-men have repeatedly, during each century
-throughout the history of our race, saved the
-dominance of the Caucasian race and all those
-principles and institutions that give value to the
-modern world, and, while we intend during the
-four years to come, preparatory to the greatest
-crisis of history, to continue to appeal first and
-foremost and all the time to patriotism and heroism,
-love of justice and fellow feeling, still, we intend
-to utilize every force and every means that
-will aid in bringing about the better world for
-which we hope.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
-We recognize that while in a moment of enthusiastic
-ardor, a man will give his life for a
-principle, and that during hours of deep religious
-fervor, brought about by the preaching of gifted
-orators, people renounce their old ways of living
-and often divide up their property with the church
-and the poor, that such occasions are comparatively
-rare, while every man born of woman desires
-food about three times a day, that he desires
-clothing and suffers for the want of it during
-every one of his sleeping and waking hours,
-that during a large portion of his life intense feelings
-and regard are turned toward some woman,
-and that nearly all men are at nearly all times vain,
-not in any bad sense, but that they desire the respect
-and the confidence of their fellow men, and
-when opportunity offers, strive to be conspicuous
-and influential, and desire to be feared and loved
-and admired for unusual qualities, possessions
-or acts.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, to make our movement completely
-and wholly successful, we appeal first to patriotism
-and heroism, the noblest and highest qualities
-produced by centuries of religious and moral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
-training, but secondarily we appeal to men's ambition,
-their love of gain, their desire to eat, to
-be clothed, to marry, to become influential, their
-vanity, their imagination, their love of activity and
-all the qualities that they possess.</p>
-
-<p>It does not lessen a soldier's courage for him
-to know that if victorious in battle he is to be
-promoted, or that if a city is taken or a country
-conquered, he is to have a plantation where he
-can rest in peace when his gray hairs come with
-his children healthy and happy about him.
-There is no need to dissect with the surgeon's
-knife of close analysis the motives and minds of
-men in order to separate every little vanity from
-the noble and unselfish impulses with which it is
-interwoven, nor to cut away and lay apart from the
-strong patriotic desire to serve one's country,
-every little individual and personal hope that
-in the event one's country is served and saved,
-those who bear the brunt of the battle will be
-especially favored and secure first recognition in
-the universal enjoyment consequent upon such
-victory. By taking human nature as we find it
-with its admixture of the heroic and prosaic, its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
-mingling of selfish and altruistic aims, we seek
-to make every impulse serve the cause of humanity
-by contributing to the one end&mdash;triumphant
-Democracy.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE ROLL OF HONOR.</h3>
-
-<p>The most important feature of the Democratic
-Volunteers' organization, is the honor roll, on
-which is recorded the work done by each Volunteer.
-To all faithful workers are issued semi-annually
-certificates of honor, and to those who
-perform services of unusual merit special medals
-and other awards of recognition.</p>
-
-<p>One copy of the honor roll is kept by the National
-leaders in a safe-deposit in St. Louis, and
-a duplicate copy by the great leader of Democracy
-at his home.</p>
-
-<p>By this system, each worker knows that everything
-he does is recorded at headquarters, and is
-kept there for all future time for reference by our
-national leaders, when they wish, either in asking
-for services or bestowing favors, to find the
-real, deserving, fighting material in our party.
-Each worker knows, also, that it is the end of the
-unjust custom, whereby one or two loud-mouthed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
-adventurers, who have done nothing
-but who claim all, in the hour of victory cast aside
-the unselfish workers, whose years of patient labor
-gained the victory. With an account kept of the
-sacrifices made, the clubs organized, the members
-secured by each party worker in our country,
-there can be no more climbing into favor on the
-shoulders of others, but, instead, each man stands
-on his own bottom, reaping the fruit and recognition
-of his own work, and is assigned to leadership
-as the result of the exercise of his own genius
-and talents. At present, every Congressman,
-Governor or President elected to office, is punished
-sufficiently to offset all the pleasures and
-satisfactions of having been successful by the impossible
-task of trying to disentangle the various
-claims of the men who helped elect him. But no
-such discordant scramble need ever recur, for
-the Volunteers will, in the future, keep an exact
-history of the service rendered by every party
-worker, and, in Congressional parlance, each
-fellow will know exactly "where he is at." The
-system is as carefully thought out and perfected
-as that of any standing army.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
-The roll of honor appeals to the strongest instincts
-in man, which have been utilized in every
-successful social or religious movement since the
-dawn of history. If he is vain, it appeals to his
-vanity. If heroic, it stimulates his heroism. If
-ambitious, he sees the way to get place and
-position is to merit them by faithful work and
-that they cannot be had by cheating the rightful
-owners out of the fruits of their victories, to
-which he has not contributed.</p>
-
-<p>In the Catholic Church and in many other institutions
-through all the centuries, as among
-the followers of Napolean and Caesar, men have
-often given up their lives for a medal or a bit of
-ribbon. For such rewards England to-day gets
-almost as much service as from her vast pay-roll.</p>
-
-<p>By proper organization, vanity can be made
-to offset cupidity. It is as strong an instinct, and
-we have the means of satisfying it. To-day the
-name of England's Queen cannot inspire as great
-enthusiasm in the majority of the English speaking
-race, as does the name of William Jennings
-Bryan. The enthusiasm now aroused has sufficient
-force to accomplish all our ends. What we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
-need is simply to harness this Niagara, organize
-this power, and apply it systematically and continuously.
-It can be done. It is being done.
-Never in the history of our country has the year
-following a great political campaign been the
-scene of such a rejuvenation of the defeated
-party as has taken place since our late repulse.</p>
-
-<p>As every plant must shoot down two roots for
-sustenance, before putting forth a new twig, so
-we have decided to plant the roots of our organization
-prolifically throughout the Southern and
-Western states, where our cause is strong, thereby
-securing the support for a continuous and aggressive
-campaign before sending our Volunteers into
-the doubtful states and those still given over to
-the idolatrous worship of the golden calf.</p>
-
-<p>Each congressional district in the Southern and
-Western states can be made by contributions of
-one cent, five cents, ten cents at a time, collected
-by the Volunteer Speakers, to support permanently
-one organizer in Republican territory.</p>
-
-<p>There are many different ways to work. One
-is by educating and agitating and by advancing
-our principles indoors and outdoors upon every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
-possible occasion by public speeches. Another
-is to go to work quietly, and, by personal man-to-man
-solicitation, to organize regular ward or precinct
-clubs in one's own town or county. This
-is the first thing to be done, where no regular
-Democratic club exists independent of boodling
-bosses. But, anyhow, get five true and tried
-workers enlisted and forward their names to
-headquarters. They will then receive monthly
-instructions for carrying on and enlarging the
-work. When a club is already formed, the Volunteer
-is to build it up by increasing its membership
-and educating its members, and defeating,
-as club officers, any man who is known to apologize
-for the existence of any monopoly whatever.
-After this try to establish a league of the clubs
-in the county, city or state, known to be formed
-on right principles.</p>
-
-<p>In the centuries to come, there will be no
-prouder title to boast of, no higher family honor,
-no more distinctive mark of aristocracy, than
-this record in black and white that one's forefather
-belonged to the band of patriots who,
-through four years of persecution and struggle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
-succeeded in driving from American soil, that
-last representative of historic tyranny, organized
-plutocracy.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br />
-PRACTICAL POLITICS.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>In a cause as holy as ours, false modesty is
-as unwise as false dignity. When we realize that
-money represents human effort, that it gives
-multiplied power either in war or peace and that
-the possession of money, with its accompanying
-power to an almost unlimited extent, is enjoyed
-by our enemies, it is well for us to admit at the
-start that we, every Volunteer of us, must make
-constant efforts wherever speaking or working,
-to raise funds, on however small a scale, for the
-great work before us. One humble but time-honored
-method, which has proved useful in every
-popular movement, recorded in history, is that of
-"taking up a collection." People may laugh at
-it and the collections be small but we must not
-be deterred by ridicule nor discouraged by the
-apparent insignificance of the returns. This is
-the only way to give all the people systematically
-and persistently a chance to contribute accord<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>ing
-to ability to the cause that means liberty and
-the opening of opportunity to them. Therefore,
-let no speaker listen to advice from the timid
-and over-modest, who shrink from the sneers and
-taunts of the over-nice, but at every meeting let
-them pass around the hat after the manner of our
-forefathers. We must also remember that in
-every audience, however small, there may be some
-penitent Croesus awake to existing evils but as
-yet with no clear vision of a remedy, with power
-and will to help but lacking knowledge as to
-where such help should be given. Sudden conversions
-are not unknown where the message of
-truth is delivered with sincerity and simplicity.
-There are thousands of rich men at this moment
-who, if properly appealed to, would give liberally
-to the cause that to them seemed likely to
-promote the general welfare. There are many
-human hearts now waiting, like the Pool of Bethesda,
-for the angel's touch, which shall "trouble"
-their calm and transform them into sources of
-healing for the woes of humanity. No speaker
-knows but he may be the one destined to open up
-these closed fountains of power. The heights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
-and depths of human nature lie beyond our
-ordinary vision. A man's power of response to
-an appeal in behalf of those who suffer is not
-always graven on his forehead, so that "he that
-runneth may read." In any audience there may
-be some listener, apparently indifferent, in whom
-all the preliminary processes of conversion have
-already taken place, and who needs only the
-warm breath of an atmosphere charged with unselfish
-enthusiasm to complete the work of regeneration.
-Such cases are on record. Within
-a few years, the gift of a million dollars was received
-by the promoters of a reform movement in
-New York, not from an habitual contributor to
-such enterprises, but from a sudden convert, a
-man ordinarily cold and indifferent to humanitarian
-movements, and before unresponsive to his
-brothers' needs. Perhaps it was not the need
-that previously had failed to stir his heart, but
-only the methods of helping that had not satisfied
-his mind. There are rich men and women to-day,
-honestly desirous of bringing about better
-social conditions and willing to make sacrifices to
-that end, but who, so far, have found none of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
-methods suggested practicable. To such we
-may appeal with certainty of response, thereby
-being furnished with the sinews of war by those
-who owe their wealth to the very system we
-oppose.</p>
-
-<p>And why not? Because a man has been
-thrown into a brutal and wasteful contest and has
-come victorious from the struggle is no reason
-why he should wish his children and humanity
-at large to be forced into another of the same
-kind. Such a man well knows that he, too, in
-spite of apparent success, is also a victim. He
-sees the possibilities of life under a better social
-system&mdash;the order, the beauty, the harmony, the
-possible development of higher faculties and extinction
-of those that link him with the brutes.
-All this he sees, and even while scrambling with
-the rest for possession of the booty, he would
-hail with joy any change that promised to relieve
-his children from a like sad necessity.</p>
-
-<p>Starve fifty Sunday school teachers for a week,
-lock them in a cage together, throw in a roast of
-beef, a plum pudding, a pitcher of soup, a plate
-of pickles and a pot of beans, at the same time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
-telling each to get what he can, as no more will
-be furnished for a month; and a swinish scramble
-will at once ensue, in which two thirds of the food
-will be wasted, and in the end one man will have
-a pocket full of plum pudding, another a handful
-of pickles, and the strongest the roast beef to himself
-in a corner.</p>
-
-<p>Let it be understood that he who gets the
-roast beef is no worse than the others, nor will
-he, because of his success, NECESSARILY
-favor an indefinite continuation of such brutal
-scrambling. The difference between him and the
-least successful is a difference in strength, NOT
-NECESSARILY A DIFFERENCE IN AIM.
-To-day, most men are actuated by the same spirit.
-To desire success and a share of life's gifts is
-right and normal. It is the political system under
-which we live that has transformed this natural
-and healthy impulse into a devilish desire to absorb
-not only all wealth but all opportunities.</p>
-
-<p>To remedy this radical evil, it is not enough to
-change individuals; we must change the system.
-It is, of course, to be expected that the impulse to
-change our present barbarous monopolistic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
-methods will come from those who have failed in
-the scramble for riches. For the possession of
-wealth naturally tends to promote in the minds
-of those who possess it, a certain degree of satisfaction
-with the methods by which it has been
-acquired and a tendency to oppose any change.
-A spirit of toadyism and fear of social ostracism
-also induces many to sacrifice their highest ideals.
-Great fortunes often destroy the independence
-which it might be supposed they would secure to
-their possessors; yet, in spite of the temptations
-of wealth and the unwritten, but none the less
-rigidly enforced mandates of a heartless society,
-not a few are ready to make the required sacrifices
-in order to advance the interests of our common
-humanity.</p>
-
-<p>To such partially awakened minds, it ought not
-to be difficult to show that the times are ripe for
-a solution of existing problems other than that
-offered by charitable associations. For eighteen
-centuries the Good Samaritan has been the working
-model of the church and society, yet the number
-of the wounded and robbed on the world's
-highway has so increased that the gigantic sys<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>tems
-of modern charity are inadequate to meet the
-increasing demands upon them. Why? The
-answer is clear. No very keen intelligence is required
-to see that one very important duty has
-been neglected by the Good Samaritans of all
-times. Occupied with caring for the wounded,
-they have neglected to hunt down the thieves,
-who have accordingly increased in numbers and
-boldness. It is time for us to leave effects and
-study causes, to organize at once to hunt down
-the thieves, for, when these are routed, there will
-be fewer victims on whom to exercise charity.
-Why plan educational and charitable institutions
-in the slums when the causes that produce the
-slums are left untouched? Why add another to
-the five hundred churches of a great city, when
-the influence of the money power makes the
-preaching of the real gospel well nigh impossible,<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
-thus largely destroying the usefulness of those
-already built? Instead of new homes of charity,
-let us organize to end the need for charity. Instead
-of building one new school, the true educator
-will ally himself with those forces that seek,
-through public action, to place education within
-the reach of all. Instead of building a new
-church, the devout Christian or Jew will divide
-his substance with the party that aims to make
-possible the application of the principles of religion
-to the everyday affairs of life and to all
-social institutions.</p>
-
-<p>Never was there a cause that appealed more
-strongly than ours to a man's generous instincts.
-In the middle ages all Europe was fired by the
-idea of wresting the Holy Sepulchre from infidel
-hands; to-day Greek and Cuban patriots are laying
-everything upon their country's altar for the
-sake of national honor and freedom. Our cause
-is nobler, larger than any of these. Not Christ's
-tomb, but the race He died to redeem; not an
-insignificant nation, but humanity is through us
-pleading to be rescued and restored to liberty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
-Our appeal is not to a class, a church or a nation;
-it is to MEN for MAN.</p>
-
-<p>ONE DOLLAR GIVEN TO OUR CAUSE
-WILL ACCOMPLISH MORE FOR THE
-ALLEVIATION OF HUMAN SUFFERING,
-FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE
-CIVILIZATION, THAN FIVE HUNDRED
-DOLLARS SPENT FOR ANY COLLEGE,
-CHARITY OR CHURCH. As hundreds of
-poor men have sacrificed all they possessed, given
-up home and the comforts of family life, to travel
-from town to town urging the principles of the
-New Democracy; so will there be rich men, who,
-feeling their RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANITY
-TO BE MORE BINDING than any ties
-uniting them with a selfish class, will also give
-up the larger part of what they have and lay it on
-the altar of their country.</p>
-
-<p>Those who feel the divine impulse to give to
-this movement will give double by giving promptly,
-and will have the added personal joy of seeing
-some of the results of their generosity. Not all
-the results, because each dollar given to this
-cause starts a train of consequences for the hap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>piness
-of men and for the peace of society that
-will continue as long as this old earth is inhabited
-by mortals. The effect of every penny, given by
-the smallest child or the poorest servant girl, may
-produce results for good that will be felt by mankind
-through all the generations to come.</p>
-
-<p>It is not unreasonable for us to ask for constantly,
-and to expect to receive a single donation
-of a million dollars sometime during the coming
-four years. Such donations have many times
-been given to causes less holy than ours, and in
-emergencies not to be compared to it in importance.
-We can in reason hope for several gifts
-of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars each,
-and many of not less than one thousand dollars,
-and thousands of lesser gifts proportionate to the
-purses of the poor who will regard it not as a
-duty, but as a privilege to thus co-operate with
-God. Such amounts have been subscribed to a
-single college and to a single religious denomination
-within the memory of the youngest reader.
-Can we not rationally expect that even more will
-be given to the movement which is to multiply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
-many times the usefulness of all colleges and
-churches?</p>
-
-<p>But do not trim your sails nor adapt your arguments
-to the rich, in order to secure donations,
-but speak bravely and fearlessly in behalf of justice
-and the rights of the people, and, if special
-selfish interests are thereby alienated, unselfish
-interests will be drawn to us.</p>
-
-<p>Although generous help may be expected from
-those who have been enriched by the very system
-that we seek to destroy, nevertheless it is a fact
-that, as a class, the rich are satisfied with the
-system of injustice that has given them their
-riches, and, as a class, will oppose now, as they
-have opposed during all history, every reform or
-change that promises improvement to the masses.
-Therefore the bulk of the money to be raised for
-the people's cause must probably be given by the
-people themselves according to their means.</p>
-
-<p>We should for this reason not only call for
-donations and pass around the hat at meetings
-when the people are enthusiastic, but, in forming
-clubs in every township throughout our
-country, we should try to induce each to ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>point
-its most active and popular man as Treasurer,
-and especially to instruct him to collect
-every week or month, a regular subscription,
-HOWEVER SMALL, from every friend of our
-movement in his community. In this way, we can
-establish a system similar to "Peter's Pence," and
-the missionary contributions of the Protestant
-churches, and raise a fund during the coming
-four years that will be a wonder to ourselves and
-a menace to our enemies.</p>
-
-<p>It may be asked, if the Volunteer Speakers
-work without pay, many of them living on heroic
-diet and traveling on foot, what need of money?
-To this it may be replied that the legitimate and
-honest uses for money in promoting any cause
-are too many to enumerate. The field is large
-and workers of many kinds are needed. Though
-many of our speakers will travel and work continuously
-without compensation and the vast
-majority will give their time without any reward
-even for their expenses, still, to utilize properly
-the Volunteer work of the thousands who are willing
-to make such sacrifices, it is very desirable
-that we have at least one paid organizer in each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
-Congressional District, and, if possible, in each
-county one who will receive a moderate salary
-and who will be held responsible for all the routine
-work required in his territory. The Volunteer
-workers and speakers in any locality can be
-made many times as effective, if there is some one
-man responsible to the national office for the
-methodical arrangement of the work and the
-systematic utilization of their services. It is also
-highly desirable that every Volunteer be given a
-bountiful supply of the very best literature on
-economic subjects. Money is also needed for our
-central school for Volunteer Speakers in St.
-Louis, where those with hearts afire to speak for
-Democracy can come, and within one, two or
-three months, be trained and equipped with a
-practical knowledge of the details of the work in
-which they wish to engage.</p>
-
-<p>But it is folly to enlarge further upon the need
-of money. Every person who appreciates the
-nature of our struggle knows that everything we
-do can be done more effectively with additional
-funds.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br />
-FUNDAMENTALS.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>To educate the people, the first essential is that
-the educators know exactly what they wish to
-teach and the ultimate purpose of such teaching.</p>
-
-<p>In the previous chapters are outlined methods
-of reaching and persuading people. More important,
-however, than any manner of speaking,
-traveling, advertising or gaining an audience is
-it that our speakers never lose sight of the few
-great basic principles of our movement, and that
-they keep these central truths steadily before the
-eyes and minds of the people.</p>
-
-<p>The principal danger to be overcome in every
-popular movement is that in the adaptation of the
-central truth of the movement to local and temporary
-requirements, the truth itself may be lost
-in a multitude of petty intricacies.</p>
-
-<p>In the beginnings of the great religions when
-they spread irresistibly over the world, their teachers
-held firmly to a few great salient truths. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
-the influence of every religion waned when its
-ministers, forgetting its real object, gave themselves
-up to details of worship and church government.
-This is also the history of nearly every
-Christian denomination. In their vigor and
-youth, they dwelt principally upon the great primary
-themes. When these were forgotten or neglected,
-the movements themselves lost their
-power.</p>
-
-<p>The weakness of the people's movement to-day
-is that our leaders abandon too often the
-center of the stream, drawn away by the side currents
-and little eddies. The intricacies of finance,
-statistics and details of administration, often absorb
-their whole attention. Those who would
-guide the crowd to a higher civilization forget the
-object of their endeavors, the crowd forgets; then
-medley and Babel. Instead of marching toward
-the goal, the multitude halt by the wayside,
-and go to arguing over the incidents of the journey.
-The compass, governed by fixed and universal
-laws, that acts regardless of the turns in the
-road, no longer directs them. They are at the
-mercy of the local, the incidental and temporary.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
-When they give up the main road to wander off
-in bypaths, unity and progress cease; division,
-disorder and disintegration begin.</p>
-
-<p>The silver question, the question as to the
-power of the Supreme Court Justices, the railway
-question, are all merely incidental to the one
-great fundamental conflict that has been waged
-for centuries, the conflict of the general welfare
-resting on right against the special interests that
-thrive by wrong, of liberty against tyranny; the
-people against plutocracy. This conflict should
-be kept in the forefront by every Volunteer,
-who should urge continuously and repeatedly
-upon his hearers the few great simple truths of
-Democracy, holding these out in bold relief, like
-mountains above the rolling slopes and projecting
-crags that lead up to them, keeping the popular
-mind centered on the goal of their efforts,
-the North Star, as it were, of progress.</p>
-
-<p>Revolutions and special evolutions are brought
-about in human affairs, NOT SO MUCH BY
-THE DISSEMINATION OF A GREAT
-MULTITUDE OF IDEAS, AS BY THE CONCENTRATION
-OF A MULTITUDE OF<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
-MINDS UPON A SINGLE IDEA. This
-single idea, however, cannot be of a local or
-temporary nature. It must, on the other
-hand, be comprehensive and of sufficient import
-to stir the very souls of the masses. A mere
-question of currency, transportation or judicial
-powers, however important, even if absolutely requisite
-to further progress, is not capable of producing
-the universal enthusiasm required to institute
-any fundamental innovation. The truths
-on which the popular mind is to be focused, must
-be self-evident, general, and their application not
-limited to a short time or a special locality. With
-the people's attention fixed upon a great moral
-truth universally applicable, their faces all turned
-toward, their eyes fixed on one star of deliverance,
-it is easy to convince them that to realize
-their goal no sacrifice can be too great. Men are
-prepared to act intelligently concerning currency,
-transportation or other incidental reforms when
-their enthusiasm and purpose are fully aroused
-and their attention is fixed upon universal laws
-about which there can be no doubt, hesitancy or
-confusion. Absorbed in great things, the petty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
-causes of strife and dissension disappear. We
-can gain unity only when, leaving details to tried
-leaders, the people concentrate their attention on
-those simple realities, self-evident and capable of
-being understood by all, the attainment of which
-forces the righteous settlement of details and of
-all questions dependent and incidental.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE WORLD BIG; GOD GOOD; MAN
-ALONE RESPONSIBLE.</h3>
-
-<p>The first such central truth, self-evident to every
-man, to be proclaimed tirelessly by the Volunteers,
-is that the earth is large enough and rich
-enough to supply all the good things of life to
-every human being born on it. Urge that especially
-since the triumphs of modern science is it
-possible for man to satisfy every natural craving,
-every healthy desire, every reasonable hope and
-dream, without any man being compelled to sacrifice
-another human being to his purpose.</p>
-
-<p>The great and the humblest mind alike can see
-this truth. It stands out an impregnable tower
-of strength above all minor and subsidiary questions.
-It is unanswerable, incontravertible and
-DYNAMICALLY IRRESISTIBLE. The earth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
-is large enough and rich enough and human
-energy sufficient to produce in abundance everything
-required to supply every natural, healthful
-human desire. This means that the world, now
-made hell by human greed abetted by ignorance
-and prejudice, might just as well be heaven. The
-misery caused by poverty, tyranny and neglect,
-can be displaced by happiness, plenty and liberty
-for all.</p>
-
-<p>Following this and demonstrable from it by
-the eternal laws of Logic is the conclusion that
-the one primary and all-important duty of every
-man seeing it is to do all he can, after providing
-for his simplest physical wants, to help systematize
-and civilize human effort and overcome
-prejudice so as to obtain this result.</p>
-
-<p>The immediate effect of the practical acceptance
-of this one self-evident truth is almost inconceivable.
-Once convince men that their sufferings
-are unnecessary, that science has placed in their
-hands all the power and materials needed which
-rightly applied will give to all men the satisfaction
-of all their normal desires, and you at once
-transform the world.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
-The most formidable obstacle in the way of
-further progress is not that men are insufficiently
-versed in political economy or lacking in intelligence,
-but it is that the people are without hope.
-Popular effort has so often been thwarted by selfish
-cunning, great moral enthusiasms dissipated
-by the science and superior organization of tyranny,
-that men have lost heart.</p>
-
-<p>Despair is the chief opponent of progress. Our
-greatest need is hope. The people must have
-faith that something can be done.</p>
-
-<p>The majority of men know of public measures
-that would be beneficial if an upward step were
-possible, but they are overwhelmed by a multitude
-of incidental obstacles and petty disappointments
-that cloud their small horizons and shut
-off from sight the great universal and historic
-forces that are slowly but surely working out their
-destinies.</p>
-
-<p>Convince men that our country is large enough
-and rich enough to give them all an opportunity
-to work and earn sufficient to support their families
-and educate their children properly, convince
-them that their present poverty and sufferings are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
-wholly the result of social crimes, and, if they can
-believe that this change is actually to be brought
-about, you change the whole base of their operations
-and revolutionize their attitude of mind.
-They are then ready to co-operate with those bold
-thinkers who have studied out the details of social
-progress.</p>
-
-<p>Our speakers cannot dwell too long upon, cannot
-repeat too often, this one all-important, fundamental
-truth, the basis of all right political thought
-and action, namely, that the world is all right, nature
-is lavish, God Almighty is generous, and that
-human invention has multiplied many times the
-gifts that God originally gave to man, and now
-the human family might just as well sit down amid
-merry-making to the great feast steaming before
-us, prepared through ages of endeavor, but for
-a miserable dog in the manger.</p>
-
-<p>Proclaim everywhere that organized greed is this
-dog. Teach that the highest patriotism consists
-in striking it, that the only martyrs are those devoured
-by it, that to kill it is the sublime mission
-of this generation.</p>
-
-<p>Do not try to teach many things, but urge with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
-all the passion of your being at all times and in all
-places, the self-evident and fundamental truth that
-our world contains everything required to make
-men happy. If want exists, it is the result of
-crime. Those who profit by this crime try to
-convince us that nothing can be done to prevent
-it. Our work is to create hope and courage and
-let the people know that this crime can be
-stopped, the criminals caught and punished, and
-the purposes of God and nature be permitted to
-proceed unmolested. Tell the people they can
-put an end to their sufferings, that misery results
-from human, not from natural causes, and that it
-need not be. Teach and preach and cry aloud this
-one fact. Repeat it indoors and out, with all the
-fire and intensity within you. Each convert will
-become a center, and our cause will spread irresistibly.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, Volunteers, do not weary your
-hearers with statistics and historical or legal minutiae;
-do not cram them with detailed arguments
-relating to questions of a local or temporary nature;
-do not confuse them by trying to explain all
-the intricacies of a financial system soon to perish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
-from off the earth. Rather even let the sophistries
-of an opponent go unanswered. But concentrate
-all your energies upon helping turn the
-attention of the people away from petty and vexing
-intricacies to these few great central truths,
-which, if once clearly seen, make all else plain.</p>
-
-<p>The man who comprehends fully the truth that
-our world, since the discoveries of modern science,
-is capable of giving every human being all the
-good things of life, that as civilization is now
-blessed and glorious to some so it can be made
-to all&mdash;such a man will forsake all small purposes
-at once and devote himself thereafter to the realization
-of his ideal. Nothing else in the world
-can compare to this work in importance. When
-he learns that there is but one great party that
-stands for progress, he will immediately ally himself
-with that party.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br />
-THE CHURCH AS A FIELD.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>Though in large cities the shelter admitted to
-be the most accessible to the poor, who wish to
-discuss methods for improving their condition, is
-the corner saloon, yet in country districts it will
-be found that the churches still cling to many of
-their ancient virtues and will be found open and
-hospitable to every traveler who has a suggestion
-to make for the good of the community.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever a speaker's prejudices may be against
-any church or against all churches, when he consecrates
-his life to the cause of humanity through
-the Democratic party, he must suppress such prejudices
-and regard all buildings as existing for
-use. And a true Volunteer is always certain that
-the highest use that can be made of any building
-in the world is to have taught in it the truths of
-human brotherhood and progress as embodied in
-the New Democracy.</p>
-
-<p>In securing a church building for purposes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
-instruction, it is best not to mention the name of
-our movement. The name that we have adopted
-being an old name and used by various people for
-various purposes has been used upon numerous
-occasions by bad people for bad purposes. Even
-the word politics, which, in reality, means the
-science and art of government, has come to mean,
-in the minds of many, a mere personal contest for
-gain and position. The sacred banner of Democracy
-has often been dragged into these degrading
-brawls and the principles designated by
-the banner and name lost sight of. For these
-reasons and on account of the limitations of the
-average human judgment, it is well in dealing
-with church committees to discard all political
-names and to ask only for permission to speak
-in behalf of human brotherhood, social improvement
-or methods of helping the poor. The fact
-that human brotherhood can only be realized by
-men through the establishment of Democratic
-principles need not be told the committee, but had
-better be reserved for the audience. The fact that
-justice is a mere dream, intangible and unreal, unless,
-by political action on the part of the many,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
-the few who profit by injustice are deprived of
-their privileges (or, in other words, until the Democratic
-program is carried out), makes it eminently
-proper that church buildings be opened to our
-speakers as often as possible. Of course, when
-the churches of a town are controlled by scribes
-and Pharisees, as they were when Paul was a
-volunteer speaker some centuries ago, unless
-some other building can be had, we must follow
-Paul's example and make our rostrum in the
-open street or field; but where the church buildings
-are controlled by Christians instead of gold
-worshippers, by sincere men who desire justice and
-brotherhood and to help the poor, then, however
-different our prejudices, our personal likings or
-our superstitions may be, we should grasp our
-newly acquainted brothers by the hand and arrange
-with them for meetings in the church for
-the examination of methods whereby religion can
-be made practicable and applied to human affairs.</p>
-
-<p>To the charitable who are really to be found
-here and there in the village and agricultural
-churches, we must make plain that no amount of
-teaching or preaching, applied internally or ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>ternally,
-can ever benefit the poor, until organized
-society recognizes men's rights, women's rights
-and children's rights as equal to money rights.
-Buildings owned by Catholics, the different Protestant
-denominations, by Jews, both reform and
-orthodox, and by free-thinking societies, can all
-be secured for the promulgation of these moral
-truths, if our workers will divest themselves of
-prejudices and don a tactful address. The success
-of this plan lies altogether in the judgment, personality
-and breadth of mind of the Volunteer
-who attempts the task.</p>
-
-<p>When you approach the trustee of a Methodist,
-Episcopalian, Catholic or a Jewish church,
-remember that the building, the use of which you
-ask, has been paid for by contributions given at
-a sacrifice by earnest men and women, with
-minds turned towards the solemn and higher
-things of life. However mixed with ignorance,
-superstitious fear or motives of vanity, these
-buildings, in the smaller towns and agricultural
-communities, are associated with thoughts above
-and separated from personal controversies and
-material things and, if you can convince those in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
-control that you wish to present facts, views and
-ideas of a helpful nature to the community, not
-incongruous with the teaching of their faith, you
-will generally receive an affirmative answer.</p>
-
-
-<h3>LAY PREACHING.</h3>
-
-<p>It is common in country districts for laymen,
-persons neither ordained nor licensed as ministers,
-to speak from Christian pulpits at regular
-church services. This custom should be utilized.
-A lecture in a church building on a week night
-may attract the more studious or the more curious
-of the community and supply them with rich
-materials for right thinking; but a lay sermon to
-a regular congregation, backed by the regular
-services and the presence of the minister, carries
-with it a force and authority possible on no other
-occasion. A Volunteer, by reciting, under such
-auspices, a simple story of the crimes against God
-and humanity perpetrated by the money power,
-and describing feelingly the effect of unnecessary
-poverty on the souls and characters of men, will
-not only stir the congregation to a new sense of
-patriotic duty, but will furnish material to the
-country minister enabling him to add a new flavor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
-to the food of his flock for months to come. In
-those outlying districts where God has not been
-entirely superseded by gold in the church, a large
-part of the educational work of our movement can
-be accomplished in this way.</p>
-
-<p>The farmers compose a large part of our
-country's population and vote. They still believe
-in healthful religion and its power to affect human
-life. They can best be reached on Sunday and
-very often better through the church than in any
-other way. The reason that the great cities have
-not responded so quickly and so enthusiastically
-to our movement as the country districts is that
-vice, crime and disease in the great cities have, to
-a large extent, eaten away the capacity for appreciating
-justice and brotherhood, and destroyed
-in a large class the fundamental virtues of courage,
-manliness, patriotism and belief in the supremacy
-of good. It is to the country, where these virtues
-are still fresh and normal, that our movement
-must appeal principally. In the city there
-are a thousand places of amusement and dissipation
-for every idle hour. The boy coming
-from school or work, the mechanic after his day's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
-labor pass the open saloon, filled with music
-and merry-making, the theatre, with its novelties,
-laughter and appeals to all the emotions, the
-gambler's den, the game tables, the dives and a
-hundred other places, always open, some positively
-and immediately hurtful to both health and
-morals, others absorbing time, attention and vitality.</p>
-
-<p>In the country, however, work or study done,
-a man or boy has not so many places of amusement.
-There is much more inducement than in
-the city to attend some church entertainment,
-some healthful neighborhood ball, and much
-more time and energy left for meetings at the
-school or church for the discussion of social problems
-and questions of national or class well-being.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the Volunteer who would teach farmers
-and villagers must accept the church as one very
-promising field of work.</p>
-
-
-<h3>SUNDAY WORK.</h3>
-
-<p>No day is more appropriate for effective work
-in behalf of human brotherhood than Sunday.
-By common consent it has been set aside by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
-majority of civilized races for serious thought,
-meditation and worship, and what is more befitting
-this day than to think out, study out and
-talk out the solution to the great problem of
-human justice and brotherhood. To speak for
-the New Democracy on Sunday is no more than
-to gather in the fruit of all the great religions
-that have come down to us. The New Democracy
-is not religion and those who proclaim its
-truths are neither preachers nor priests, but it is
-religion's highest product. The great religions
-of the world, nurtured by God's hand and growing
-out of the fertile and sympathetic souls of
-the men and women of all climes and all centuries,
-have at last produced a practical ideal capable
-of being realized in actual life. This product
-is the New Democracy. It is the answer to
-the prayers of the ages. It is God's gift granted
-in answer to the cries of suffering of injustice and
-poverty throughout the world. It is God's
-method of redeeming society, of saving our nation,
-now well-nigh unto death, from greed and
-sin. Let each retain his attachment to his own
-sect and religion, but instead of quarreling about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
-sectarian differences, let us unite in realizing
-our common dreams of brotherhood. Instead of
-building new walls to separate us, let us make one
-platform so large that on it all earnest sons of
-God can stand erect, confident of His presence.</p>
-
-<p>Centuries before Jesus Christ traversed the
-plains of Galilee and bathed in the troubled
-waters of the Jordan, there was one Buddha who,
-despising the superstitions of his time, gathered
-about him others who, like him, believed that the
-larger part of human suffering was unnecessary
-and could be extinguished by human agency.
-This band traveled throughout the most populous
-districts of Western Asia teaching the great
-truth that the object of life's endeavor should be
-to lessen pain and to increase joy. Their one
-command was "cease causing pain; do not kill or
-cause to suffer any man or animal." And within
-two hundred years, from this little band and from
-this one whole-hearted man, an enthusiasm for
-mercy and love and justice overspread a third
-of the human race. Buddha's teachings were free
-from the multitude of miserable superstitions that
-haunt the people who bear his name to-day. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
-teachings, with those of Zoroaster, Confucius,
-Mencius, Moses and Christ, in their purity, attempted
-primarily to induce men to live as
-brothers, to teach men that individual good is
-social good and that both duty and true happiness
-consist in devotion to others&mdash;to the commonwealth.</p>
-
-<p>Some preachers, however, get so in the habit
-of prophesying that, when their prophecies are
-fulfilled, they think it wicked and heretical to believe
-it. They refuse to believe their own eyes
-when they see the answer to their prayers. So
-deep-rooted has grown their habit of prayer
-that the means has become an end. They ask no
-longer to get what they ask for but for the exercise
-of asking, which they call pious. Their
-prayers answered, they are astounded. Now that
-their prophecies are fulfilled, they open their unbelieving
-eyes in wonderment and condemn those
-who stop asking for what is already given.</p>
-
-
-<h3>DON'T ASK FOR WHAT YOU HAVE.</h3>
-
-<p>Christ many times used the relation of a child
-to its father to represent the relation of man to
-God. When a boy begs his father for a sleigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
-and pony, and, after much pleading, the father
-grants his request, the boy stops asking, accepts
-the gift with thanks and proceeds to take a ride.
-If he were to continue on his knees pleading for
-them after being told they were in the back yard
-subject to his orders, we should call him a simpleton.
-What is the use of his saying, "Oh, papa,
-please, dear papa, give me a pony and sleigh,"
-when papa has already given it and is anxious to
-see it driven past the house. If the boy has any
-sense at all, upon first seeing his father drive his
-new pony toward home, he will stop praying,
-take off his hat, throw it up in the air, and hallo a
-"Hurrah for pop." He will jump into the sleigh,
-go for his best girl, and not show up again till two
-o'clock in the morning.</p>
-
-<p>For centuries the human race has longed and
-prayed and hoped for a time when justice would
-be possible on earth, when the reign of brutality
-would be superceded by the triumph of justice
-and brotherly love. This desire, this deep yearning,
-has taken definite expression in the ceremonials
-and prayers of all religions, and in the grand
-prayer given us by Jesus Christ:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
-"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on
-earth as it is in Heaven."</p>
-
-<p>The soul of the universe has found expression
-in the Divine Hand that guides the course of nations,
-and has answered the prayers of the
-churches and the heroes and the saints. And that
-justice, which for centuries has been an object of
-prayer, has become, for the first time in history,
-a tangible, definite thing, capable of realization.
-What we have asked for, God has made
-possible. Why now crawl longer in the dust
-like worms beneath the feet of tyrants, when God
-bids us rise and stand erect? Why continue to
-pray and plead for what God has already placed
-within our reach? Tell the preachers to stop
-praying for this gift, already ours, and accept it
-as God gave it. THIS SIMPLE ACT OF ACCEPTING
-GOD'S ANSWER TO THE
-PRAYERS OF THE GOOD AND THE
-TRUE OF ALL PAST CENTURIES, IS THE
-PROGRAM OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY.</p>
-
-<p>I ask father for a horse and sleigh. Now that
-he brings it to me, I stop asking for it, and take
-a ride. We have prayed during centuries for an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
-era of justice. The New Democracy is the fulfillment
-of God's prophecy. It is the greatest
-moral tidal wave that ever thrilled with new life
-this old world of ours. It embodies the practical
-program by means of which the Infinite Intelligence
-is leading humanity to its inheritance.</p>
-
-
-<h3>HUMANITY'S SCOUTS HAVE FOUND
-THE WAY.</h3>
-
-<p>A body of pioneers lose their way in the wilderness.
-After days of weary trudging and hunger,
-they kneel and pray to God for guidance to food
-and shelter. In the midst of their devotions, a
-scout returns and rudely interrupts them, crying,
-"Get up, boys, stop your prayers; I have found
-the main road, and we are only ten miles from
-town." What should our pious travelers do?
-If they have an ounce of common sense, they will
-jump to their feet, brush the dust from their
-trousers, and follow their deliverer. Should we
-not call them insane, on the other hand, if, accustomed
-to hunger and thirst, they had come to
-believe prayer and privation the ends of life, and,
-if instead of rising up and accepting God's an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>swer
-to their prayers, they should continue to
-grovel and pray on?</p>
-
-<p>After eighteen centuries of prayer and privation,
-of hunger and thirst, the couriers and
-scouts of the human race have returned, and to
-their kneeling, miserable brothers they cry aloud,
-"Arise, cease your prayers for already they have
-been answered. We have found the road and
-the promised land is near. Hunger and thirst are
-no longer necessary. Let thanksgiving and
-praise to God now take the place of begging petitions
-for that which He hath already granted us."</p>
-
-<p>As true religionists, is it our duty to say to
-these scouts, "Stop, you infidels, you interfere
-with our devotion?" Such a policy is insanity.
-These teachers are not infidels. They are not
-enemies of religion. Otherwise God would not
-have revealed to them His plan for answering
-the prayers of the millions and fulfilling the
-prophecies of past ages.</p>
-
-<p>We have been praying: "Lead us aright. Show
-us the way to realize Heaven in this world." Humanity
-will now stop asking and accept, as a
-child from its father, God's last and greatest gift.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
-The weary travelers of earth will see that the
-privations of centuries are no longer necessary.
-They will stop pleading with Heaven for the
-manna to be had by simply putting forth their
-palms.</p>
-
-
-<h3>PRISONERS OF THE BASTILE.</h3>
-
-<p>For an explanation of the action of those poor,
-irrational creatures who are so accustomed to privation
-and prayer that when relief comes they
-only continue to pray, failing to recognize that
-their prayers are answered, we can only point to
-the last poor inmates of the French bastile. The
-most prominent and intellectual citizens of France,
-they had been torn from their homes without a
-trial, thrown into dungeons containing not a single
-ray of light, fed there on bread and water from
-year to year until lonely and in torture their
-hair turned prematurely white and their bodies
-withered. When, at the first stroke of that
-most glorious of revolutions, the bastile doors
-were opened, and the soldiers of the people
-broke down the huge iron gates and doors,
-crying aloud in the name of liberty, "You are
-free, you are free, come out long imprisoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
-brothers," the populace were astounded to
-find that many of the poor, white-haired, white-bearded,
-pale-faced prisoners, instead of walking
-out into the long-wished for sunlight, clutched
-the walls of their cells, clung to their prison floors
-and cried in fear. They had to be torn from
-their gloomy haunts by main force by their rescuers.
-Their years of trouble, of darkness and
-gloom had destroyed their power to enjoy the
-light of freedom. Many of the brightest intellects
-of France had thus been dimmed. Their souls,
-once afire for freedom, had burned out in despair.
-They had become maniacs.</p>
-
-<p>So now there are devotees of religion, so inured
-to the gloomy slavery of poverty and injustice, so
-in the habit of praying for relief, that when the
-bold servants of God strike down with their ready
-hammers the prison walls, and freedom's air and
-sunlight stream in, these poor souls are horrified,
-paralyzed by the very light and atmosphere for
-which they have been praying. "Go away," they
-say, and, crying, they clutch their cell walls
-refusing to be free. They, too, have become maniacs.
-But the majority of the human race will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
-not refuse freedom's balmy breeze or the sunshine
-of liberty. At the call of the New Democracy
-they will throw down their broken chains
-of poverty, leap through their open prison doors,
-and cheer with might and main as the majority
-of the prisoners of the bastile cheered a century
-ago when they were given freedom's light.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE COMMANDMENTS GROWN WITH
-THE WORLD.</h3>
-
-<p>If men claim that we are to be forever satisfied
-with the commands, "Thou shalt not steal," and
-"Thou shalt not kill," we will answer that these
-commands have grown, and that under the banner
-of the New Democracy we shall declare in thunder
-tones to all the world, "thou shalt not be
-killed," "thou shalt not be robbed," and not only
-this but also, "thou shalt not allow thy brethren
-to be killed," and, "thou shalt not allow thy
-brethren to be robbed." These commands have
-developed still further, so that the cry shall go up
-from sea to sea that our present and past systems
-of thievery, robbery and murder shall be swept
-away, that the teaching of the churches against
-thievery, robbery and murder, through all the cen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>turies,
-has borne fruit, and that now, not only shall
-the poor, dependent teachers of abstract truth proclaim
-between hymns and prayers, "thou shalt not
-steal," and "thou shalt not kill," but that the
-whole people shall Join in one mighty chorus,
-and declare that public thievery, robbery and
-murder must cease from off the earth and that
-our social and political systems shall be made to
-conform to the teachings of our religion.</p>
-
-<p>To those who oppose us in the name of religion,
-let our answer be, "We do not fight the church;
-without the church and its teachings for nineteen
-centuries, the New Democracy would have been
-impossible." The New Democracy is an outgrowth
-of all religions. Religion has protected
-and kept alive, through the barbarous past, the
-great moral truths that we are now applying to
-actual life. Even if the church or any part of
-the church or priesthood or ministry attempts to
-oppose us, we will simply laugh with God at
-every futile effort to stem the flood, the source of
-which is their own teaching through nineteen centuries.
-For the church, or any part of it, to oppose
-or belittle or criticise the New Democracy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
-is for the tree to disclaim its own fruit, for the
-rivers to disown the sea, for the fountain to dry
-up its stream, for the mother to cast aside her
-child.</p>
-
-<p>The founders and prophets of all the great religions
-taught the principles of justice and
-brotherly love. The New Democracy makes possible
-their realization.</p>
-
-<p>What nobler work can any man engage in on
-Sunday than the proclaiming in open air or behind
-closed doors these eternal truths, or tell of
-the new impulse that is fast taking hold of men to
-weave these truths into the texture of our social
-institutions.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br />
-ONLY TWO PARTIES IN THE WORLD.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>Another of the few foundation truths upon
-which the structure of the world's present
-progress is being reared, a truth that cannot be
-too often told nor too continuously urged, is that
-THERE ARE ONLY TWO PARTIES IN
-THE WORLD.</p>
-
-<p>One party consists of those who, seeing wrong,
-try to end it; seeing injustice, strive to abolish it;
-and, being told of possible improvements, investigate
-and EXPERIMENT, hoping to attain
-them.</p>
-
-<p>The other party is made up of those who cannot
-see wrongs when practiced upon others, who
-are blind to injustice for fear of the unjust, and
-who, being told of possible improvements, antagonize
-their instructors, in defense of the private
-interests of themselves or their masters, that
-might by change be jeopardized.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
-One party represents the cause of the people;
-the other the selfishness of kings, nobles and plutocrats.</p>
-
-<p>The fight now is not simply a continuation of
-the old fight that has been going on from ancient
-times, but is the world climax, the end of the
-struggle. Those who produce and trade and
-teach, earning their money by honorable exertion,
-are forming all along the line, against those who
-are too lazy to work, too stupid or too proud to
-trade or teach, but who wish to grow rich by acquiring
-other people's property. The honest
-masses who believe in law, order and progress,
-are approaching a decisive contest for permanent
-supremacy with the dishonest classes who, in
-order to defend their systems of plunder, utilize
-in their service the combined forces of ignorance,
-superstition, toadyism, lawless cunning and the
-force of arms.</p>
-
-<p>If the lawless, irresponsible dictators of industry
-and commerce are successful, then liberty, constitutional
-government and personal security are
-at an end, civilization is derailed into an abyss,
-and retrogression displaces progress through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
-another age of barbarism. Gold becomes the
-only God, and bayonets the only prod to duty.
-The university, the press and the pulpit will all be
-made permanent attachments to the one despotic
-machine which is to control every source of communication
-and instruction, and stifle all thought
-and aspiration that does not strengthen the ruling
-power.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, the people's victory will end
-class rule forever, and gradually abolish all special
-privileges and monopolies by means of which
-one man holds an unjust advantage over another.
-The people holding the reins of power will apply
-the best talent, experience and energy possessed
-by man to the establishment of justice,
-order and public achievement. This is the situation
-confronting our country and the world.
-It is the situation as it confronts every individual
-man. The war is universal. There are no non-combatants.
-Everyone is affected by the outcome.
-Each has the power to help decide the
-result. Whether in compliance with or against
-our will, each of us must participate and assist
-one side or the other.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
-Which shall it be? The party of the people
-or the party of tyranny. This question presents
-itself alike to the citizen of America and the inhabitant
-of Europe. Since the historic people's
-victory at Chicago, July 6, 1896, the people's
-party in America has taken the name "REGULAR
-DEMOCRATIC." In Germany, France
-and England it is known as the "Social Democracy;"
-in the Balkans and Asia Minor it is the
-"Greek;" and in the West Indies, the "Cuban
-Army."</p>
-
-<p>When once the masses realize that the same
-class of adventurers, tax-gatherers and oppressors
-of labor who in this country have gotten
-absolute control of the Republican political
-machine, are the present friends, the advisers and
-colleagues of the despots, plutocrats and military
-leaders of Europe, that their families are intermarrying,
-their interests being pooled, their cause becoming
-one, their interests identical, all their
-plans and hopes one and inseparable, then will
-it be impossible for designing demagogues to mislead
-or confuse them further. When it becomes
-generally understood that the forces of reaction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
-throughout the world are one, then will the common
-people come into closer union and bind
-themselves together as a unit.</p>
-
-<p>The union of those who profit by tyranny necessitates
-the union of all who believe in liberty.
-The internationalism of millionaires is creating
-an internationalism of the common people. The
-situation is being so simplified that all may comprehend
-clearly the two forces whose conflict
-extends over the modern world. All minor and
-secondary divisions and issues are swallowed up.
-The international aspect of the problem does not,
-as one might at first suppose, confuse the mind,
-but, on the other hand, simplifies the issue so
-that none can mistake concerning it. Old prejudices,
-reverence for party names, sectional hatreds,
-sores left by historic feuds, religious differences
-and affiliations with local political machines, in
-which self or friends are interested selfishly, all
-tend to cover up the real issues, when only the
-local end of the fight is studied.</p>
-
-<p>But, when we learn that the same class that
-induced the governments of Europe and America
-to co-operate with Spanish murderers in starving,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
-killing and torturing tens of thousands of our
-patriotic brother Americans in Cuba to protect
-the value of their Spanish bonds and got these
-so-called Christian governments to assist the
-Turk, supply him with arms and drill and general
-his soldiers for the massacre of hundreds of thousands
-of defenseless Armenians and Greeks, to
-secure the continued payment of interest on their
-Turkish bonds; that this class is made up of the
-same individual bondholders who are gaining
-control, through syndicates, of our American
-breweries, distilleries, railroads, street car companies,
-gas companies and other manufacturing
-and commercial institutions; that they are ever
-ready mercilessly and barbarously, by murder
-or giant fraud, to advance their interests, regardless
-of duty to humanity, country or to God, all of
-which they deny; and, when we prove that this
-class now controls absolutely the machinery of the
-Republican party in America, and is trying again
-to control Democracy, the masses, in their fury
-against it will, regardless of historic prejudices
-or past or local political affiliations, unite in common
-defense of home and country to stamp it
-out.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>THE PARTY OF EXPERIMENT.</h3>
-
-<p>Our enemies say ours is a party of EXPERIMENT.
-We admit it. No forward step in the
-world's history, no achievement in science, art,
-literature or politics has ever come but by EXPERIMENT.</p>
-
-<p>We are not, however, the only party of EXPERIMENT.
-The plutocrats, who now control
-our country, also believe in EXPERIMENT,
-only their experiments are in the direction of further
-despoiling the people without adding to popular
-rage, and of tightening their grip upon our
-property, our lives and liberties without inciting
-to rebellion.</p>
-
-<p>One man experiments with surgeon's knife
-upon the body of another, chloroformed or a
-corpse. But suppose the chloroform ceases to
-act or the corpse proves a case of suspended animation,
-rises up snatches the surgical
-instrument, ties his tormentor to the couch and
-begins to experiment on him. The EXPERIMENT
-in either case may be equally beneficial to
-science, equally dangerous to the victim. But
-the personal value of the EXPERIMENT to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
-either of the principals depends, in a large
-measure, upon WHETHER HE IS THE EXPERIMENTER
-OR THE MAN EXPERIMENTED
-ON.</p>
-
-<p>The millionaires united are at present experimenting
-on the people. The records of their discoveries
-are doubtless of great value to political
-science but when the unfortunate public, heretofore
-thought dead or safely hypnotized, arises and
-with ghastly alacrity, begins to EXPERIMENT
-on its doctors, not only will science be equally
-benefited, but the "corpse" will enjoy the operation
-hugely.</p>
-
-<p>This outcry on the part of the plutocrats against
-political experimenting means simply that <i>they
-want to do all the experimenting themselves</i>.</p>
-
-
-<h3>OUR ENEMIES ARE THE INNOVATORS.</h3>
-
-<p>A family, sheltered for many years to their entire
-satisfaction by an old homestead, that also
-protected their property, suddenly discovers that
-their silverware is fast disappearing with many
-heirlooms, jewels and valuable papers and
-pieces of furniture. They discuss a plan for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
-changing the locks and, with the aid of a skilled
-mechanic, make an examination of every wall,
-floor, door and window with a view to a general
-overhauling and repairs. A neighbor makes serious
-objection and in a solemn manner appeals
-to his friends not to interfere with the ancient
-landmarks nor lay an irreverent hand upon the
-old homestead, that served their father so well
-and that sheltered them and protected their property
-so long. His only object in thus warning his
-friend against dangerous innovation being grateful
-reverence for which has been so useful in the
-past.</p>
-
-<p>Supposing the owner to be possessed of common
-sense, his answer will be: "Yes, my friend, the
-old homestead has served me and my fathers
-well for a long period of years and I had never
-intended to irreverently destroy it. But I have discovered
-that some stranger has already laid an
-irreverent hand upon our home and broken the
-locks of our doors and windows. We find that
-he has cut a hole in the floor of our side closet and
-effected entrances through the roof and the cellar
-window. The home which once protected us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
-serves no longer as a protection, because mutilated
-by an intruder. If the house still protected
-us as it did our fathers we should be satisfied;
-but, since others have changed it, we, in self-protection,
-must adapt ourselves to the changed
-conditions. It is not the old house that protected
-our fathers that we are changing, but the new
-house, the changed house, the mutilated house&mdash;this
-it is that we wish to renovate and re-adapt,
-so that it may again be made to serve us as did the
-old one. The same outside framework, the
-same old flag-pole, brown front and corner stone
-remain, but many of the foundation stones are
-gone, the strength of the house, its power to
-serve and protect us have been taken away so
-that we are in constant fear of its caving in upon
-us. Therefore, we shall repair it thoroughly or
-else remove to another."</p>
-
-<p>Our government for many years served the
-people well. Its past is sacred. It protected our
-fathers, made our lives and our fortunes possible
-and we are tempted to give weight to the arguments
-of a compatriot when he says to us:
-"Touch not the ancient landmarks; do not lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
-irreverent hands on our government; do not seek
-to change its laws or institutions; it has served us
-well and we should show our gratitude by protecting
-it and by opposing innovation."</p>
-
-<p>In answer, however, we are forced to say that,
-although we have the same flag-pole and flag, the
-same brown front and corner stone, an enemy has
-for years been removing one foundation stone
-after another. He has removed the vital parts
-from the locks of our doors and windows; made
-entrances through the roof, the floor and cellar,
-so that our silver is now disappearing, our jewels
-and our heirlooms are missing, and our liberty, our
-lives and our property are in danger.</p>
-
-<p>WE ARE NOT THE INNOVATORS. WE
-ARE THE VICTIMS OF INNOVATION.
-We seek to battle against the invaders who have
-mutilated our government and would destroy us.
-We strive to make our government, of which
-now only the shell remains, serve us as it served
-our forefathers, capable of affording us that shelter
-and protection, which is the true function of
-government, and which our forefathers intended
-we should have.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>TWO GOVERNMENTS IN MORTAL COMBAT.</h3>
-
-<p>We have two distinct governments in our
-country, whose interests are antagonistic and irreconcilable.
-One government is the United States;
-the other, the United Trusts and Syndicates. The
-former is democratic; the other despotic. This
-inner-treasonable despotism controls our industry,
-commerce and means of life and pleasure. It is
-using the United States government as a machine
-to enforce its decrees and extend its dominion,
-hoping soon to abolish the last vestige of popular
-rule. It is world-wide in its extent, and only
-uses local and national governments as means of
-power.</p>
-
-<p>The United States enacts laws openly. The
-United trusts and syndicates enacts laws
-secretly. Disobedience to our state laws is punished
-only after a public trial, but the merchant
-who breaks a trust law is ruined without a trial,
-the laborer who ignores it is secretly blacklisted;
-the minister who defies it is forced out of the
-church, and the lawyer disregarding it loses his
-profitable practice. The nation enacts a law and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
-the trust officers laugh at it so far as it applies to
-them, and then, by gaining control of the law-enforcing
-power, use this law as an additional club
-in the subjugation of their victims.</p>
-
-<p>When the people attempt to defeat a new aggression
-on the part of the trusts by carrying out
-the plan of some renowned thinker, known to be
-uninfluenced by special interests, the emissaries
-of the trusts scatter the people by crying: "EXPERIMENT."
-"An untried and Utopian
-scheme," "Innovators." While the patriots argue
-as to whether their plan is really an EXPERIMENT,
-the enemy captures a new position.</p>
-
-<p>The United Trusts and Syndicates, by experimenting
-constantly and pushing forward all along
-the line and at the same time by convincing the
-United States not to EXPERIMENT, succeeds
-in approaching the same relation to its rival government
-that a live ant sustains to a dead worm.
-By incessant and fearless activity, and by using
-our constitution, traditions and flag as a blind, this
-irresponsible despotism is fast nearing the time
-when it hopes to throw off its mask and publicly
-usurp supreme power. Not a day passes but these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
-organized conspirators try some new EXPERIMENT,
-attempt some new aggression never
-dared before, attack some nearer outpost of the
-people's liberties heretofore thought impregnable.</p>
-
-<p>Often these EXPERIMENTS fail. The people
-are sometimes bull-headed, and repulse the attack
-with loss to the United Trusts and Syndicates.
-But failing once, twice or a hundred times, do
-they cease to EXPERIMENT? Even though
-they lose millions in attempting some audacious
-act, do they therefore refuse to attempt another act
-equally bold? Never. They see clearly that all
-enterprise, all progress, all victory, all increase in
-power and dominion, result only from repeated
-EXPERIMENTS. The boldest of all EXPERIMENTS
-was the hatching of the conspiracy that
-gave their present organization birth. EXPERIMENT
-gave them all they have. They live and
-grow by it. To stop EXPERIMENT is to stop
-action, for the modern world is a new world and
-in it there are no tried and beaten paths. The
-floods and glaciers of innovation have carried
-away the ancient landmarks, and by raising new
-barriers and structures largely shut off from all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
-progressive peoples, even the kindly rays from the
-lamp of experience. Not agitators, but science
-and invention, have pushed us away from the ancient
-world, with its well-worn roads and lighthouses,
-and where we walk now human feet never
-trod before. The light from our foreheads is
-our only lamp, and eternal truth our only guide,
-prefer to EXPERIMENT, OR TO BE EXPERIMENTED
-ON; TO BE THE SURGEON, OR
-THE CORPSE.</p>
-
-<p>The Democratic party in power in 1900 controlled
-by the common people will, without doubt,
-EXPERIMENT boldly. It will lead our government
-into new and untried ways, as our enemies
-very clearly and very truthfully predict. It will,
-without doubt, commit blunders and make mistakes.
-The one thing that above all and in spite
-of all it is pledged to do, is to arouse the United
-States government from its paralysis, stupor and
-corpse-like state of being experimented on, and
-declare that whatever the EXPERIMENTS of
-the future, instead of being made ON THE
-UNITED STATES, THEY SHALL BE
-MADE BY THE UNITED STATES.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
-The important question for the citizens of the
-United States to answer is simply this: Do you
-prefer to EXPERIMENT, or to be experimented
-on; to be the surgeon, or the corpse?</p>
-
-<p>When the victimized people declare their independence,
-through their own government, of the
-despotism of the trusts, it will necessarily be an
-EXPERIMENT.</p>
-
-<p>Every time General Grant ordered an attack on
-the forces defending negro slavery, he tried an
-EXPERIMENT. Never could he tell exactly
-what the result would be. There might be more
-dead Union men than Confederates, or there
-might possibly be more dead Confederates than
-Union men. The one thing of which he was certain,
-however, was that his duty consisted in going
-ahead, and, when defeated, he gathered his
-troops together and tried again. He knew that,
-if followed long enough, his plan would crush the
-Confederacy.</p>
-
-<p>So each attack on the white slave power to-day
-is an EXPERIMENT. We cannot at any time
-foretell the immediate result. An attack on a
-special monopoly may fail. Many times we may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
-be repulsed with loss, but by constantly renewing
-the attack and continuing to press forward we
-shall eventually triumph. During the late war,
-the southern states defended black slavery. They
-lost. Black slavery was abolished. To-day, the
-southern states, dominated by the common people,
-have espoused the cause of liberty and to the
-oppressors of the North and East they say,
-"White slavery also must be destroyed."</p>
-
-<p>Both parties are parties of EXPERIMENT.
-The only difference is that we avow ours openly
-and write them in our platform, while the experiments
-and aggressions of the Republican party
-are planned in secret and executed in dark corners
-where only traitors and adventurers are allowed
-admittance.</p>
-
-<p>To hesitate and refuse to EXPERIMENT is to
-tie our hands and remain inactive, while our enemies
-harass us, rob us, and assault us from all
-directions. It is as important to weaken the
-enemy as it is to strengthen your own forces.
-Therefore, when by an extensive literature the
-money-power instill in the people a horror of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
-EXPERIMENT, they palsy their limbs and incapacitate
-them for defense.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, the Democratic Volunteers will
-frankly admit the charge that they favor EXPERIMENT
-and will boldly proclaim that
-EXPERIMENT is one of the foundation stones
-of their creed. By ceaseless and tireless repetition
-in every community of our nation we will ask
-the people to begin to EXPERIMENT on their
-own account, instead of permitting EXPERIMENT
-to longer remain a monopoly in the hands
-of those who continually decry it. We will ask
-them to decide whether they will longer remain
-objects of EXPERIMENT, or, by government
-action, begin to EXPERIMENT on their persecutors.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br />
-WITNESSES FOR PLUTOCRACY DISCREDITED.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h2></div>
-
-
-<p>When the nature of the present world conflict
-is understood, those who favor the people's cause
-will cease to receive any further instruction or
-advice whatever from their enemies or the allies
-or agents of their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>If America declared open war upon Britain
-should we put the slightest confidence in any
-statement, emanating from English sources as to
-the best line of attack? And, if a coterie of young
-Britishers were to enter our camp and advise our
-soldiers to open fire in a northward direction,
-should we not rather suspect an attack from the
-enemy on the south? Is it not a rule in war always
-to fire in the direction opposite to that advised
-by your enemies? In all business and other
-practical affairs of life is it not universally recog<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>nized
-as the extreme of folly to accept as facts
-the statements of those who may profit by our discomfiture?</p>
-
-<p>Most assuredly! And it is time for the merchants
-and workingmen of America to apply to
-their political struggle these simple maxims so
-well established elsewhere.</p>
-
-
-<h3>WORTHLESS TESTIMONY.</h3>
-
-<p>Imagine a courtroom filled with spectators and
-a group of culprits being tried for wholesale theft.
-The strongest evidence has been produced by
-both the prosecution and defense and the result
-is in doubt. Anxious crowds are waiting in suspense
-for some decisive stroke that shall give an
-advantage to one side or the other. The counsel
-for the defense arises and plays his last card by an
-eloquent appeal in behalf of the prisoners, basing
-his plea entirely on the superiority of his witnesses.
-He shows that they stand much higher
-in the community than the witnesses for the prosecution,
-who are poor, untutored countrymen.
-"My witnesses," says he, "include the leading men
-in your community&mdash;your parson, the principal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
-of your high school, and the editor of your paper.
-Yours are mere yahoos and ignoramuses, not capable
-of exercising judgment in such a case as
-this." A murmur of assent passes around the
-room. There is a cheer of confirmation, and the
-jurors nod their heads significantly.</p>
-
-<p>The prosecuting attorney, instead of making a
-speech, plays his last card by taking the jury to
-the stable, where they discover that the horse on
-which the teacher rode to court is one of those
-stolen from Farmer Hayseed's stable, and further
-he proves that the suit of clothes worn by the
-parson on the witness stand was made of the very
-piece of woolen goods taken from the country
-storekeeper, and that the coins that fill the purse
-of the respected editor are the same identical
-marked coins accumulated by Widow Jones for
-her old age and taken from her money drawer on
-the night of the crime in question. No speeches,
-no arguments are necessary after this. The
-jurors purge their memories of the testimony for
-the defense, and the culprits are sent to prison.</p>
-
-<p>In the great case of "The People versus Monopoly,"
-now being tried at the bar of Public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
-Opinion, the defense, beaten upon every other
-point, bases its last plea upon the superiority of
-its witnesses. It is claimed that the authorities on
-finance, the press and the pulpit are witnesses
-in defense of Monopoly. We acknowledge this,
-and in answer wish only to take the jury, who are
-to decide this case, to the homes of these witnesses,
-where they can see for themselves that
-they are sharers in the plunder that has been taken
-from the plaintiffs.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE PRESS.</h3>
-
-<p>The first important witness in behalf of the defense
-is the great metropolitan press, the peculiar
-and special product of the dying years of the
-present century.</p>
-
-<p>Now, the modern newspaper is a corporation,
-formed for the one purpose of paying dividends
-to stockholders. In order to make money it must
-serve the people who have money, for now all the
-profits of the great dailies are derived from the
-sale of space in their columns, the receipts for the
-sale of papers not covering expenses. The business
-manager, with a few exceptions, controls the
-editorial department and dictates all policies. So<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
-we poor wayfarers, hungry for information concerning
-some important interest, seize upon a
-learned editorial in a great metropolitan daily, and
-while we think we are being instructed by the
-weighty opinion of some friendly and scholarly
-writer, we are in fact reading THE PAID ADVERTISEMENT
-of our enemies, placed in the
-paper to confuse us. When, in the news department,
-we read a speech or an interview, it is often
-so garbled that the meaning is quite changed.
-And what we consider to be a simple statement of
-fact is often a doctored narrative, containing fictitious
-figures, and printed for the sole purpose of
-misleading the public.</p>
-
-<p>The attempt of the gold press to array the agricultural
-producers against the city laborers, and
-the mechanics against the agriculturists is cruel
-and deliberate. And this power to deceive and
-mislead carries with it the power of life or death.</p>
-
-<p>Suppose I were to go to Mr. Jones and tell him
-that Mr. Smith had declared to me that he was
-going to shoot him on sight, and that I had seen
-him purchase a revolver for that purpose; and
-then I should go to Mr. Smith and tell him that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
-his friend Jones had just armed himself to the
-teeth for the purpose of killing him, stating that I
-had heard him swear and curse and declare before
-heaven that Smith should not live another
-day. Now, suppose these two neighbors, heretofore
-warm friends, were to approach each other,
-and Smith, as a precaution, would reach his hand
-toward his hip-pocket, and Jones, in order to save
-his life, would pull out his weapon and fire, both
-men shooting each other at the same time.</p>
-
-<p>The result would be TWO DEAD FOOLS,
-the victims of ONE LIVE LIAR.</p>
-
-<p>The power to deceive great masses of people by
-simultaneous and premeditated conspiracy on the
-part of the papers owned by monopoly, carries
-with it the power to weaken the masses by dividing
-them in a struggle over false issues; and while
-they fight among themselves, to rob them and
-legislate their children into slavery.</p>
-
-<p>Here are the words of the great journalist, John
-Swinton, before the New York Press Association,
-in response to a toast, "The Independent Press:"</p>
-
-<p class="p2 i2">"There is no such thing in America as an independent
-Press, unless it is in the country towns. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
-know it and I know it. There is not one of you
-who dare express an honest opinion; if you express it,
-you know beforehand that it would never appear in
-print. I am paid one hundred and fifty dollars a
-week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper
-I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar
-salaries for similar things. If I should permit honest
-opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like
-Othello, before twenty-four hours my occupation
-would be gone. Any man who would be so foolish
-as to write honest opinions would be out on the street
-hunting for another job. The business of the New
-York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright,
-to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon,
-and to sell his country and race for his daily bread,
-or for about the same thing&mdash;his salary. You know
-this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting
-an 'Independent Press.' We are tools and the vassals
-of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping
-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our time,
-our talents, our lives, our possibilities, all are property
-of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."</p>
-
-<p class="p2">In the case of "The American People versus
-the Banks and Trusts," we have found, by personal
-examination, as also by the confession of a
-member of the family, John Swinton, that the
-money which inflates the purse of the prominent
-editorial witness consists of the marked coins that
-made up a portion of the booty in question. No
-sane juror will believe the testimony of such a
-witness.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>CLERGY NEEDS SYMPATHY, NOT BLAME.</h3>
-
-<p>It is also claimed that God's ministry has
-offered its testimony in behalf of the defense. It
-is not my purpose to say anything against the
-clergy, because if there is an abused and ill-treated
-class of men on the face of the earth to-day, who
-need pity and prayer and succor, it is the men
-who have dedicated their lives to the Christ who
-was killed by the rich of His time, and who are
-now dependent for their living, their children's
-food and their wives' clothing, upon the blended
-piety and pride, the virtues and vanities of the rich
-of to-day.</p>
-
-<p>In all that inconsistent barbarism, which we call
-civilization, there is no man who needs sympathy
-so much and deserves blame so little as he who
-is attempting at the same time to preach for God
-and to get his living from God's enemies, to build
-monuments to the Christ who lived and died for
-the poor, and gain the material and cost of these
-monuments by flattering those who are grinding
-the faces of the poor.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
-Many clergymen have told me how their hearts
-have bled for the victims of social injustice; how
-in anguish they have wept over the piteous cries
-for help uttered by their dying brothers and sisters
-in Jesus Christ; how, bursting with indignation,
-they have longed to strike a blow against the
-brutality that crushes Christ's little ones in order
-to grind from their bones and blood colossal and
-unnatural fortunes. But they said, "We must
-conceal our tears and swallow our indignation,
-though it chokes us. We dare not speak out&mdash;we
-could neither destroy the tyrant nor save the
-victims. We would only succeed in dragging
-down our own wives and little ones into that dark
-stream of poverty, from which those who have
-once fallen in can never hope to rise. First of all,
-we must live&mdash;and then do what little we can
-to temper the reign of injustice and oppression.
-The overthrow and destruction of this system of
-injustice rests upon the shoulders of God and the
-common people."</p>
-
-<p>I would ask the workmen of the country who
-are rapidly leaving the churches not to judge the
-clergy harshly, because the majority are dumb in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
-your behalf and because a few openly and blatantly
-champion the cause of the oppressors.</p>
-
-<p>But I must also ask you to place no confidence
-in their testimony in this political trial, for
-their lips often utter words their hearts fain would
-withhold, and they often pray for success to the
-banner for which they cannot fight.</p>
-
-<p>Let us not condemn them because they are
-bound with chains of dependence, but let us
-rather include them among those whom we shall
-liberate when we establish a POLITICAL SYSTEM
-WHICH SHALL SET ALL MEN
-FREE.</p>
-
-<p>In the case of "The American People versus the
-Money Lending and Bondholding Class," we
-find that the long, flowing garb of the ministerial
-witness, that at first inspired our confidence in his
-testimony, because of the holy office it suggested,
-is made of the very cloth, a part of the plunder,
-the disapperance of which is the basis of the present
-trial. The testimony of such a witness, cajoled,
-terrorized, and a sharer in the booty taken,
-is also without value.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>THE TESTIMONY OF THE COLLEGE AUTHORITIES.</h3>
-
-<p>Now, as to the college professors: From the
-earliest times down to the present day, learning
-has been fostered, patronized and supported by
-wealth. The kings and nobility of various times
-and nations, too stupid or lazy to acquire distinction
-in the field of scholarship themselves, have
-vied with each other in gathering around them
-the greatest scholars, musicians, poets and minstrels,
-as well as the greatest athletes, the most
-beautiful and voluptuous women, the fastest
-horses, and the most interesting curios of every
-description. Some of the patrons of learning and
-art have been really serious in their devotion to
-the beautiful and true. It is, perhaps, one of the
-greatest encomiums that we can pronounce upon
-the wealth of the world, that in all ages it has
-supported learning as the stalk supports the
-flower. This condition of affairs has not existed,
-however, without causing an undesirable dependence
-on the part of the beneficiaries.</p>
-
-<p>Who has passed through the great art galleries
-of the Louvre at Paris, and beheld the acres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
-of canvas, covered with the work of the immortal
-Rubens, without being filled with anger and disgust
-as he thought of the genius and years of toil
-which, instead of being devoted to conceiving and
-executing new masterpieces to delight and inspire
-all future ages, were applied to daubing the vain
-and cruel countenance and the unattractive person
-of the patroness who gave him his bread?</p>
-
-<p>The first and greatest universities in this land
-were founded, have been built up, and are at
-present supported by the bequests and donations,
-the gratuitous contributions of the rich. The
-vast undying benefits that have flowed from this
-wealth, which have been devoted to learning,
-ancient and modern, cannot easily be overestimated.
-What the world would have been without
-the enlightenment which has come from this
-source it is not easy to imagine. We should hold
-in high esteem the solitary student who, in past
-ages and to-day, gropes his silent, difficult way
-towards those hidden truths in science, in history
-or in art which will one day enlighten and beautify
-the world. We should be lovers of all that is
-beautiful, and all that is true, and all that is lov<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>able
-in this great world of ours. Music, painting
-and sculpture, the sciences, literature and history,
-should be to all sources both of inspiration and of
-light. With all our hearts let us welcome these
-products of man's talent and genius.</p>
-
-<p>The historian is the hinge linking the present to
-the past. His office is not only a useful, but a
-sacred one. Scholarship is like womanhood&mdash;one
-of the most holy and sacred things in the
-world. But, like womanhood, when prostituted,
-it becomes the most debased. He who muddies
-with error and personal prejudice the fountain of
-pure truth is an enemy to his race. But let us
-not attempt to blame nor censure individuals.
-We know that wealth has been the friend of
-learning; that in all times past those who have
-devoted their time to the pursuit of truth or
-beauty have been dependent upon the support of
-the rich and powerful. You say that if wealth
-has been the friend of learning, it is only natural
-that learning should be the friend of wealth.
-Yes, this is exactly the fact in the case. Learning
-is the friend of wealth for two reasons:
-One, because she feels grateful for past favors;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
-the other, and greater, because she is hopeful for
-favors to come.</p>
-
-<p>It is well known in educational circles that any
-college found propagating "heresies" like "free
-silver" or "government ownership of the railroads"&mdash;in
-other words, any institution which
-does not distort and curtail its teachings so as to
-bias the student in favor of the single gold standard
-and the eternal reign of monopoly&mdash;will be
-cut off without a dollar by plutocracy and doomed
-to a future of comparative impotence and uselessness
-for lack of funds.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THE RESULT.</h3>
-
-<p>What is the result? The president of a large
-private university, knowing that his reputation
-for success or failure depends upon the growth of
-his university as compared with that of neighboring
-universities, continually trims his sails to secure
-favors of those who have money to dispense.
-It is a common thing for a college president to
-make what he calls a "begging tour." He endeavors
-to show to those who are supposed to
-have money to bestow that his university is in
-great need, and can make the best possible use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
-of "sound" money in propagating "sound ideas."</p>
-
-<p>A good illustration of this is the tour which
-Brooker Washington, the famous colored orator,
-the President of the Tuskegee Institute, made
-in 1896, through the North and East. He is a
-man of intellectual power. He is, no doubt, thoroughly
-devoted to the enlightenment of his race;
-but the way he flatters and cajoles the rich, advocates
-the gold standard, overlooks and keeps
-silent about their corruption and crimes, and assents
-to their plans for further aggrandizement, is
-a lesson which every patriot can study with
-profit. He has become a pet and fad among the
-wealthy classes of New York and New England.
-Even Harvard in 1896 conferred upon him an
-honorary degree. He has doubtless gotten heavy
-endowments for his college, but he has had to
-fawn and flatter and stultify his manhood to do it.
-And he has given a striking example of what almost
-every college president must do to a greater
-or less extent.</p>
-
-<p>The fact is, that PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES,
-DEPENDING AS THEY DO UPON
-THE CHARITY AND CONSCIENCE<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
-MONEY OF THE RICH FOR SUPPORT
-AND GROWTH, LIKE ALL THOSE WHO
-LIVE BY CHARITY, HAVE ACQUIRED
-THE FAWNING SPIRIT OF SERVITUDE
-AND DEPENDENCE, AND FAITHFULLY
-LICK THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.
-"Verily the ox knoweth his master's crib."</p>
-
-<p>Many college presidents dare not use any but
-"orthodox" gold standard text-books, and professors
-who dissent from the views of these books
-are forced to swallow their own opinions and
-propagate error.</p>
-
-<p>Many of "our great authorities" are mere sycophants
-of wealth, creatures of the millionaire,
-placed by him in the same category as his musician,
-his ballet dancer or chaplain, all valuable
-dependents. The money lord of creation often
-builds the college (Chicago University, for example),
-places the poor book-worm in the position
-that makes him a "recognized authority," and the
-"authority" must dish up statistics as a cook
-dishes up his delicacies to suit the taste of his
-master. If he refuses he loses his job, and is no
-longer a "recognized authority."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
-Young men are not only taught in many instances
-that the rights of monopoly and money
-are more sacred than the rights of men and
-women, but are shown frequently that if they
-want to make a success in life, and be an honor to
-their family and their college they must ally
-themselves with the powerful corporations and
-trusts and keep their skirts clear of all popular
-and reform movements.</p>
-
-<p>The recent action of the Yale students who
-brutally attempted to insult the honored guest of
-their city, Mr. Wm. J. Bryan, is not without significance.</p>
-
-<p>The authorities and the respectable element
-among the students were no doubt, deeply humiliated
-by such a disgrace. Yet it is fairly plain that
-the dogmatic, uncharitable and violent opposition
-to Free Silver indulged in by the professors, has
-contributed its part toward causing this exhibition
-of anarchy and puppyism.</p>
-
-<p>There is a wide distinction however, between
-professors and professors.</p>
-
-<p>There are numerous truly great men who are
-aristocrats at heart, who love luxury and culture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
-and refinement, whose friends are principally
-among the rich, whose sympathies are with the
-rich, and whose interests in life are bound up with
-the prosperity of the wealthy classes. These men
-oppose popular rights as conscientiously as did
-the old Feudal Lords. They all oppose the New
-Democracy.</p>
-
-<p>There are many others&mdash;men of splendid intellect,
-but utterly without principle&mdash;who are mere
-dishonest, mercenary tools of the highest bidder,
-willing to distort and manufacture history, tamper
-with statistics, and lie like "shyster lawyers."</p>
-
-<p>As, for instance, the learned professor of the
-Chicago University, who declared with brazen
-effrontery that whatever might be charged against
-Mr. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Trust, no one
-could say that he had accumulated his millions
-in any way that interfered with the accumulations
-of others.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
-
-<p>Again there are a few university "authorities"
-who, at the risk of their living and the success of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
-the institutions they represent, have told the truth
-fearlessly. They oppose monopoly and the gold
-standard. But their testimony is buried beneath
-the overwhelming mass of prejudice, sophistry
-and misinformation supplied by their colleagues.</p>
-
-<p>Very distinct from any of these classes is that
-swarm of cowardly pusillanimous book-worms,
-who, as underlings in the large universities, and as
-full-fledged professors in the small colleges, retail
-at second-hand with stupid pertinacity and
-pig-headed bitterness, all the errors of the "authorities,"
-together with new ones of their own special
-brew.</p>
-
-<p>It is by the prejudiced and purchased testimony
-of such men as these that the monopolies of the
-country try to prove that empty stomachs are full,
-bare backs clothed, and that a constantly growing
-and appreciating dollar is an honest one. It
-is with such untrustworthy witnesses that they attempt
-to prove to us that the men who have stolen
-our property are more honest than we.</p>
-
-<p>The teacher witness for the defense may be
-more "respectable and learned" than the witnesses
-of the prosecution, but when we see that the uni<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>versities
-are built and professors' salaries paid
-from the booty wrung from the people&mdash;in other
-words, "that the teacher rides to court on one of
-the very horses taken from Farmer Hayseed's
-stable" it does not take us long to decide that this
-testimony is misleading and false.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, the workmen, merchants and tax-payers
-who compose the jury, which is to hand in
-its verdict in 1900, must refuse to consider the
-testimony of these collegiate, pulpit and editorial
-witnesses, who are proven to be sharers in the
-tribute forced from the people by that gigantic
-and almost sublime system of world exploitation
-carried on scientifically and persistently by those
-powerful "trusts" which have cornered the world's
-gold and monopolized nearly every necessity and
-comfort of life.</p>
-
-<p>The pivotal point in this campaign is the question
-of the reliability of witnesses. Not only do
-opinions differ, but the history, statistics, and
-facts, advanced by the defenders of monopoly and
-the gold standard contradict the history, statistics
-and facts discovered by the champions of the
-people. There can be only one truthful history of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
-the crime of seventy-three, and the seventy-three
-other crimes of the shirkers against the workers.
-Figures do not lie. Only one set of statistics, as
-to the rise in the value of the gold dollar, can possibly
-be correct. Facts do not conflict. When
-men contradict each other upon a question of fact,
-one side is wrong.</p>
-
-<p>Whose history and statistics are we to believe
-in this campaign?</p>
-
-<p>Are we to believe the interested, prejudiced,
-purchased witnesses of corrupt wealth, or are we
-to believe the testimony of the witnesses of the
-people&mdash;men who have sacrificed and suffered in
-order to tell the truth.</p>
-
-<p>It is because the classes who have the advantages
-of culture and leisure, always care more for
-their own comforts than for truth and justice, that
-these problems, my reader, must be worked out,
-by the millions made of the same identical common
-mud that you and I are.</p>
-
-<p>As William E. Gladstone has said, all the reforms
-brought about in England during the last
-century, and of which all her citizens now boast,
-"were at first merely impossible ideals in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
-minds of the ignorant and fanatical poor," and
-were carried through by the working people "in
-opposition to the cultured and leisure class."</p>
-
-<p>It is because those who possess the power and
-the learning to lead mankind aright have always
-proven recreant to the trust imposed upon them,
-that God, in directing the course of human history,
-has invariably swept this class aside and accepted
-as His instruments the poor, the simple-minded
-and uncorrupted. From the birth of the
-primitive church among the poor fishermen of
-Galilee to the abolition of chattel slavery by an
-agitation instituted by social and political outcasts,
-the hand of God moving in the world has
-invariably brushed aside the rich and powerful
-with the intellectual parasites that swarm about
-them, and in building nations, religions, or instituting
-great reforms, has uniformly chosen the
-normal, healthy material at the base of society still
-uncorrupted by luxury.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br />
-VOTE YOURSELVES RICH.</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>Those who have been voted rich, not by their
-own votes, but by our votes, the votes of the
-common people, are now engaged in proving to
-us THAT WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY
-DONE FOR THEM WE CAN BY NO POSSIBLE
-MEANS DO FOR OURSELVES.</p>
-
-<p>Having accumulated immense fortunes by
-means of vote enacted legislation, THEY
-PREACH TO US THE UTTER FOLLY OF
-OUR HOPING FOR ANY GAIN FROM
-THE SAME SOURCE.</p>
-
-<p>So interested are they in our proper economic
-education, that they are willing to supply both
-text-books and teachers. They love learning and
-from purely philanthropic motives seek to make
-us wise.</p>
-
-<p>But what is their wisdom so willingly imparted?
-From what follies are they so anxious to guard
-us?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
-TO VOTE OUR ENEMIES RICH: THIS
-IS WISDOM.</p>
-
-<p>TO ATTEMPT TO VOTE OURSELVES
-RICH: DANGEROUS FOLLY.</p>
-
-<p>Their science teaches that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
-FOR THE INSTRUMENT WHICH
-IS THE SOURCE OF THEIR WEALTH TO
-BE OF ANY EFFECT IN BEHALF OF
-THOSE WHO WIELD THE INSTRUMENT.</p>
-
-<p>Text-book in hand they say to the people, "It
-is impossible for you to vote yourselves rich."</p>
-
-<p>Strictly speaking, it is unnecessary for the people
-to "vote themselves rich." WE, THE PEOPLE,
-ARE ALREADY RICH. We are rich by
-the gift of nature and the will of God. Each
-scientific discovery and invention, wrung by toil,
-genius and martyrdom from the strange earth
-and firmament that greeted primeval man, has
-added to our riches. We are now rich, but are
-debarred by force from the possession of our own.
-We are heirs, not only to the riches of the earth
-as originally created, but to all those opportunities
-for utilizing these natural treasures, resulting
-from the accumulated knowledge and skill of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
-centuries. But we are kept from our inheritance.</p>
-
-<p>We have been deprived of our wealth by vote-enacted
-legislation, and it is vote-enacted legislation
-that will again give us possession.</p>
-
-<p>Our enemies say contemptuously that government
-can no more increase wages by legislation
-than it can increase the size of your foot or the
-length of your arm, for the increase or decrease in
-both cases is governed wholly by natural law.</p>
-
-<p>"Let the poor," they say, "stop agitating and
-hoping to become prosperous through legislation,
-and instead let every man go to work building
-his own home and fortune, and all will be
-well."</p>
-
-<p>"The Government cannot legislate a single dollar
-into existence."</p>
-
-<p>"The remedies for poverty are industry, frugality
-and temperance."</p>
-
-<p>These are the things they say. But suppose
-we watch their acts instead of listening to their
-words. Then we learn that, while for us they
-point in one direction to the road that leads to
-fortune they seek this road themselves by going
-the opposite way. We, who have followed their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
-advice, have been impoverished; they, who imitated
-their acts, have been enriched.</p>
-
-
-<h3>POTATOES AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.</h3>
-
-<p>I ride to market with a load of potatoes, the result
-of sweat and labor for half a year. A ruffian
-knocks me off my wagon, takes my seat and
-drives away.</p>
-
-<p>Questions: Shall I ask a policeman to help me
-catch the despoiler, or shall I "cease agitating and
-go to work?" Shall I arm myself and, with the
-help of friends, take back my own, or shall I
-return to the farm and "practice industry, frugality
-and temperance?" Is it nobler, manlier,
-more courageous of me to get possession of my
-potatoes by fighting, or, forsaking them, to go to
-work and raise another crop for the next thief?</p>
-
-<p>Honest and contented labor under these circumstances
-is dishonorable.</p>
-
-<p>WHEN A MAN IS ROBBED, THE WAY
-FOR HIM TO GET MONEY IS NOT TO
-WORK FOR IT BUT TO FIGHT FOR IT.
-To tell a man that he cannot possibly make any
-money by talking nor get any potatoes by agitating
-police officers is absolutely true, PRO<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>VIDED,
-the man has been loafing all year and
-has not been robbed of his crop. But these demonstrations
-of the economists go into the waste
-basket, when the fact is made plain that the man,
-seeking by government aid to get potatoes, has
-already earned them by hard labor, but is deprived
-of them by the criminal act of another.
-Under such circumstances, the man who, instead
-of fighting and pursuing, applies himself to honest
-toil, is a coward.</p>
-
-<p>Men who, wrongfully deprived of their property,
-go to work to earn more, thus providing
-additional booty for their despoilers, are unworthy
-a better fate. Honor impels a true man to fight,
-not work, when a wrong is suffered either by
-himself or friends.</p>
-
-<p>To quietly plow while another eats the result
-of last year's plowing, to contentedly plant while
-another reaps, to submissively bow one's head
-beneath a yoke and receive the kicks and jeers
-and sneers of the drivers, are not the acts of a
-man nor the duties of a citizen, but the follies of
-an ass. When a true man, after gathering his
-harvest, sees his product taken by another, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
-mounts his horse, before planting again, and with
-pitchfork, shotgun or other efficient weapon,
-starts in hot pursuit. He seeks to recover last
-year's product before trying to raise another crop.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore, when government-made millionaires
-try to persuade the working people, small tax-payers
-and business men to stop meddling with
-politics and instead to work harder in the hope of
-laying by something for old age, they really desire
-them to cease defending their property and to
-continue creating more for others to enjoy.</p>
-
-<p>The learned professor teaches that "the government
-cannot legislate into being a single dollar,
-nor a dollar's worth of wealth." From this premise,
-he reasons that a dollar legislated into one
-man's pocket must necessarily be legislated out of
-another man's pocket. He then concludes that
-the poor cannot legislate themselves comfortable
-without to the extent of their gain depriving another
-class of their earnings.</p>
-
-<p>If my neighbor accompanied me to market with
-a load of potatoes and I were to ask a policeman
-to help me take his load from him, the economists'
-words would apply. The government,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
-through its agent, the policeman, could not
-double my wealth without robbing my neighbor.
-But this is not the situation. I came alone. A
-stranger assaulted me and took both wagon and
-potatoes, leaving me very poor. Now, in spite
-of the professor's words, the state, in the person of
-its officer, can abolish my poverty and give me a
-wagon filled with potatoes without doing injustice
-to any one else. I can be made happy
-without depriving any other being of what he has
-earned, and I do not ask the state to legislate into
-existence a single potato. I simply ask that the
-potatoes already existing as the result of my
-labor be taken from the highwayman and returned
-to their rightful owner.</p>
-
-<p>This is what the masses ask. Not that the government
-give them anything produced by others,
-not that the government attempt to create anything
-independent of the labor of its citizens, but
-that it return to them their own. We demand the
-capture of the highwayman, monopoly, and that
-the opportunities taken from us by him be restored
-to us.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
-We not only demand but we are actually organizing
-for the pursuit. The Democratic Volunteers
-are superintending the preliminaries and in
-1900 law and order are to be established, the adventurers
-suppressed, and restoration made. The
-issuance of the nation's money, now a private
-monopoly, controlled by bankers, will again be
-made a function of government, and the people
-will be permitted to exchange their products without
-paying revenue to their enemies for the means
-of exchange, which is their own creation. Other
-wrongs will be righted with equal facility.</p>
-
-<p>Each victim, however, must be taught that his
-vote is both horse and hound for pursuing, and
-both gun and rope for punishing and reclaiming.
-Our vote is our one weapon, our one means of
-defense, and source of power.</p>
-
-<p>The value of legislative control to our enemies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
-is shown by the desperation with which they
-oppose any effort on the part of the people to recover
-it. They know it to be the true creator
-of their fortunes, and they look to it alone for
-future "fruits of labor" and "rewards of genius."</p>
-
-<p>We are rich, but we have been ousted from our
-patrimony. How shall we recover it? By the
-same means through which we lost it, namely,
-legislation. The oppressions that curse man are
-all entrenched in, and owe their power to, legislation.
-If we are to be freed from them, it will be
-by legislation. In primitive times, government
-was openly, frankly exercised for the enrichment
-of a class at the expense of the mass. For ages
-the "right divine" was believed in honestly.
-Later when its justice was denied, its benefits were
-seen to be too valuable to be relinquished. So
-duplicity was employed, and the art of "plucking
-the goose without making it squeal" was invented.</p>
-
-<p>Money-making heretofore has not been so
-much a function of government as money-taking,
-and this function can be made to work one way as
-well as another.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
-If thieves by government action can despoil
-honest men, honest men by government action
-can despoil thieves.</p>
-
-<p>If legislation has been made the instrument of
-crime, it also can be made the instrument of restoration.
-No personal temperance, thrift and industry
-can enrich men so long as the power to
-legislate rests in other hands. Labor makes wealth
-but legislation decrees how it shall be divided.
-When the people legislate directly and intelligently
-the division will be in accord with justice. By the
-ballot we can enter upon our inheritance.</p>
-
-<p>Poverty exists and we are told that it is the
-natural order, with which legislation has nothing
-to do. There has been told no more transparent
-lie. Wealth is created by the union of man's
-labor with nature's gifts. What is it but legislation
-that keeps apart in unnatural divorce these
-two that God hath joined together? What but
-legislation can remove the barriers and allow
-them again to come together?</p>
-
-<p>Legislation CAN make money; so lavishly that
-no man need want. How? By making conditions
-favorable to labor, and securing the
-laborer in the fruit of his toil.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>WE CAN ACTUALLY VOTE RICHES INTO EXISTENCE.</h3>
-
-<p>Our instructors say, "Government cannot
-legislate a single dollar into existence." Let us
-see.</p>
-
-<p>While riding to market with a crop of potatoes,
-I am dispossessed. In the struggle a portion of
-the crop is injured. The highwayman, in escaping,
-lames the horses by overdriving. Instead of
-going to work the next day, in company with an
-officer, I start in pursuit. The robber, alert, removes
-to another state at an expense of half his
-booty. Whether successful or not, my time, the
-officer's time and the thief's time are all wasted,
-in addition to three-fourths of my product.</p>
-
-<p>Now, my neighbors and I, who together make
-up the government, suppress brigandage. Instead
-of three fourths of my crop being wasted by
-struggle for possession, it is all sold the very day
-it is carted to market. Instead of exchanging my
-hoe for a gun and chasing another man, I plant
-another crop of potatoes. Instead of helping me
-in the chase the policeman grows a crop of his
-own, and the bandit, knowing beforehand that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
-is impossible to live by robbery, ceases to watch
-for possible victims and raises his own potatoes
-instead of taking mine.</p>
-
-<p>Without proper governmental interference the
-three of us have only a portion of one crop of potatoes
-between us. AS THE RESULT OF
-GOVERNMENTAL ACTION, WE HAVE
-THREE FULL CROPS. THE GOVERNMENT,
-BY LEGISLATIVE "EDICT" OR
-"FIAT," if you please, CREATES TWO AND
-THREE-QUARTERS CROPS OF POTATOES.
-WE CAN VOTE OURSELVES
-RICH.</p>
-
-<p>And of each dollar voted into our pockets, not
-more than fifteen cents will be stolen property reclaimed.
-The other eighty-five cents will be a
-new product, rescued from waste or destruction.</p>
-
-<p>The saddest feature of our present industrial
-cannibalism is that where one dollar is stolen at
-least seven dollars are wasted. THE PREVENTABLE
-WASTES OF CIVILIZATION
-CAN MAKE EARTH A PARADISE.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3>PROSPERITY, "THE McKINLEY" AND OTHER BRANDS.</h3>
-
-<p>We can vote our country prosperous. But it is
-very essential that we understand clearly WHOM
-we mean when we say "country." We have
-been voting for one kind of prosperity for a long
-time, even before the "McKinley brand," was on
-the market. Our mistake has been in not asking
-the "Advance Agents" to tell us whose prosperity
-they represented.</p>
-
-<p>If a burglar is emptying your wife's jewelry
-box, and filling his trousers pockets with the contents
-of your safe, prosperity to him means ruin
-to you, and your success means the burglar's
-death. So, in the larger affairs of our nation, the
-kind of prosperity hoped for by the plunderers of
-the people means ruin to their millions of victims,
-while good times for the workers, the farmers, the
-merchants, mean hard times to our despoilers.</p>
-
-<p>We now have the best times the world has ever
-seen. Mr. Rockefeller, or Robafellow&mdash;one is
-his name, the other ought to be&mdash;has an income
-of forty thousand dollars a day, and it is increasing.
-No country in the world has ever produced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
-so much; never were there barns so bursting with
-grain, or warehouses so filled with clothing, furniture
-and jewels; never before so many men
-making from five to forty thousand dollars a day.</p>
-
-<p>This great National Joint Stock Company of
-ours, with its seventy million stockholders, is doing
-a thriving business and making barrels of
-money. There is only one objectionable feature.
-It is that after the labor of these seventy millions
-of people, their genius, their suffering and their
-sweat, are converted into wealth, the dividends are
-given to a few hundred men, while the rest of us
-pay the assessments.</p>
-
-<p>We do not need better times. Anybody who
-wants to make more than forty thousand dollars
-a day is a hog. The real issue is not whether
-we shall have hard times or good times, prosperity
-or panic in the abstract, but it is whether that
-prosperity and good times, now monopolized by
-the few, shall become the inheritance of every
-child of God.</p>
-
-
-<h3>THIEVES TAKE PANIC WHEN PURSUED BY HONEST MEN.</h3>
-
-<p>If a select company of burglars and safe-blow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>ers
-were to enter your village and relieve a number
-of your merchants of the contents of their safes,
-their stocks of jewels, silks and clothing, and were
-to secure all of the finest horses from half the
-neighboring farms, and utilize them in getting
-the booty safely to the nearest forest, they would
-no doubt, while unpacking their wealth and feeding
-their horses, after their hasty trip, congratulate
-one another upon "their remarkable prosperity."
-They would be very apt to brag about the unusual
-"good times." But if, as the sun rose over
-the tree-tops and they were repacking their goods
-they saw suddenly the glistening pitchforks of half
-a hundred angry farmers and the determined furious
-faces of as many brawny workmen and merchants,
-bent on reclaiming their property&mdash;there
-would be a PANIC.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
-
-<p>The plunderers of the world are enjoying good
-times at the expense of the masses. Their profits
-are as fabulous as their methods are cruel. But in
-the midst of their celebration feast, their crime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
-is discovered, and the pitchforks of five million
-farmers glistening in the morning sun, the angry
-faces of four million city workmen loom up in the
-distance, and the result is PANIC and loss of
-confidence&mdash;(among the revelers.)</p>
-
-<p>As we approach November, 1900, this panic
-will increase. But as there wells up the sound infernal
-of their weeping and wailing and gnashing
-of teeth, there will be heard still louder, the voices
-of millions singing their chorus of deliverance.
-As these offenders look into the grave where lies
-buried their every plan for selfish aggrandizement,
-to us, their innumerable victims, that same
-grave will be the open window through which we
-behold the land of promise.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="footnotes"><h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2>
-<div class="footnote">
-<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See Republic, March 20, 1897.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Witness the following extracts:</p>
-
-<p>Police Commissioner Bannerman in Globe-Democrat, March 22, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"The trouble was all started by Ed. Devoy refusing to allow Bond's
-name to go before the convention as chairman. The whole thing was a
-scheme on his (Devoy's) part to split the convention. Of course it was
-wrong to send Judge Bond to the Four Courts in a patrol wagon."</p>
-
-<p>Republic editorial, March 21, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"Committee Chairman Devoy made a mistake in surrendering the gave
-before the delegates had elected a temporary chairman. A convention
-holds within itself the right to choose its temporary officers."</p>
-
-<p>Post-Dispatch editorial, March 31, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"The blundering began with Chairman Devoy. It was his duty to recognize
-any delegate who desired to move a substitute for the committee's
-report. Devoy failed in his duty and furnished provocation for all that
-subsequently occurred."</p>
-
-<p>Post-Dispatch editorial, March 22, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"Dr. Lutz had no right to a place on the platform until he was chosen
-temporary chairman by a vote of the convention. He had no more right
-than any casual visitor to himself take the vote of the convention on himself
-as temporary chairman. The plain fact is that the whole of these
-preliminary proceedings were in every particular irregular, unparliamentary
-and void."</p>
-
-<p>Post-Dispatch editorial, March 23, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"The delegates who asserted their right to choose their temporary officers
-were within their right in doing so, and in fact only did their duty.
-THE RIGHT IS SACRED."</p>
-
-<p>Globe-Democrat, March 23, 1897:</p>
-
-<p>"The attitude of Assistant Chief Kiely is regarded as having been
-strained in the interest of the Harrison crowd and significant of the Police
-Commissioners' domination in Democratic politics."</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Special suggestions for Sunday work see chapter IX.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Of course the most effective methods of presenting our cause can only
-be hinted at in a text-book. A month or several months of personal training
-is requisite to give the student a real understanding of the difference
-between the old method and the new. It is, therefore, urged that as many
-of the younger speakers as possible attend and take direct, personal instruction
-from the Faculty of the Volunteers' School in St. Louis.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Advertising methods: Tickets afford the best method of advertising
-meetings of all kinds. It is a personal, definite invitation, and the surest
-"crowd-gatherer." In large cities it may be necessary to issue from fifty
-thousand to one hundred thousand, and have them carefully distributed,
-in order to get out two thousand persons. In smaller places the percentage
-of waste is not so great. Get the co-operation of the press, if possible,
-but do not rely upon it. To the last moment there is always danger
-of its deserting to the money power, as the latter can bring almost irresistible
-pressure to bear upon it. Print on every ticket a short list of the best
-books, i. e., Lloyd's "Wealth against Commonwealth," Ely's "Socialism
-and Social Reform," "Ten Men of Money Island," "Coin's Financial
-School," etc.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A volume of songs, prepared for our volunteer work, and for all sorts
-of Democratic meetings, will be ready shortly, and can be obtained of
-our National Bureau or from any of our volunteers.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A letter lies before me now from a talented and earnest young minister
-of the Episcopal church, in which the writer despairingly declares that he
-dare not preach the social and economic doctrines of Christ, lest he bring
-ruin upon his wife and children. "The money-power," he declares, "has
-control of the church and Christ's ministers must either trim their sails to
-catch the wind of its favor or suffer temporal shipwreck. It is easy to
-say that the Christian should be ready to meet any martyrdom, but it is
-equally true that it is not from within the bosom of the church that such
-trials should come."</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> For part of this chapter credit is due to Carl Vrooman.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See detailed account of the lawless Anarchistic methods used by Standard
-Oil Trust to destroy competitors in "Wealth Against Commonwealth"
-by H. D. Lloyd.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> When a monopoly becomes a government monopoly, its nature
-changes entirely, and all that was objectionable disappears. The evil
-pertaining to a monopoly is its exclusiveness. When private monopoly
-becomes government monopoly, it is no longer exclusive, for the whole
-people enjoy its benefits alike. Unity of administration is not an evil if
-the resulting benefits are shared by all. The only possible way to destroy
-the great monopolies is to convert them into government functions,
-and administer them as the post office, the army, navy, weather service,
-the public schools and parks are now managed. There is no other way
-to destroy our new industrial despotism.</p>
-
-<p>Read "Socialism and Social Reform," by Prof. R. T. Ely; also
-"Wealth against Commonwealth," by H. D. Lloyd.</p>
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> If you want legal evidence to prove the existence of gigantic
-steals and robberies, read Lloyd's "Wealth Against Commonwealth,"
-Harper Bros., and the "Seven Financial Conspiracies."</p></div></div></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>INDEX.</h2></div>
-
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" summary="index">
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdc">Chapter</td>
-<td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="tdrb">Page</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">I.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Introductory</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">5</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">II.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">How to Begin Work</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">23</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">III.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Speeches and Meetings</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">43</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Methods of Travel</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">65</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">V.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Saloon Meetings</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">101</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Heroic and Prosaic</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">115</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Practical Politics</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">127</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Fundamentals</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">141</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The Church as a Field</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">151</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">X.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Only Two Parties in the World</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">171</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">XI.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Witnesses for Plutocracy Discredited</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">189</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="tdr">XII.</td>
-<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Vote Yourselves Rich</a></td>
-<td class="tdrb">211</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-
-
-
-
-<h2>The Volunteers' Training School For Speakers.</h2></div>
-
-<p class="center">Opens at St. Louis September 15, 1897.</p>
-
-
-<p class="p2">Young men of moderate attainments can
-become ready speakers in from one to three
-months time.</p>
-
-<p>Practice both indoors and outdoors every
-day by every student, under the direction
-of experienced campaigners.</p>
-
-<p>All the arts and secrets of successful oratory
-taught in the most expeditious manner,
-accompanied by the daily application
-of every truth learned.</p>
-
-<p>Tuition per month $1.</p>
-
-<p>Text books, good for one year, $5.</p>
-
-
-<p class="p2 center">Especially Cheap Rates at Volunteers' Boarding House.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Address Joseph Hoffman Mgr.,<br />
-4713 Page Avenue, ST. LOUIS, MO.</p>
-
-
-<p class="p2">In preparing for this course read any
-of the following:</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Wealth Against Commonwealth, Henry D. Lloyd, Pub. by Harper Bros.</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Socialism and Social Reform, Prof. Richard T. Ely.</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Social Aspects of Christianity, Prof. Richard T. Ely.</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Ten Men of Money Island, Norton.</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Merrie England, Robert Blatchford.</p>
-
-<p class="i2">Seven Financial Conspiracies.</p>
-<p class="i2">The New Democracy, Vrooman.</p>
-<p class="i2">Coin's Financial School.</p>
-<p class="i2">The First Battle, Bryan.</p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Democracy, by Walter Vrooman
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The New Democracy
- A handbook for Democratic speakers and workers
-
-Author: Walter Vrooman
-
-Release Date: September 26, 2020 [EBook #63298]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW DEMOCRACY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Carlos Colón, The Library of Congress and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
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- Transcriber's Notes:
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-
-
-
-
- THE
- NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-
-
-
- _A Handbook for Democratic Speakers
- and Workers._
-
-
- An Outline of the Methods of the National Volunteers of
- Democracy and of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau.
-
-
-
- BY
- WALTER VROOMAN.
-
-
-
-
- Price: Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 25 cents.
-
-
-
-
- Copyright
- BY WALTER VROOMAN,
- Wainwright Building,
- ST. LOUIS, MO.
-
-
-
- Witt Printing Co.
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-Upon the close of the 1896 national campaign, it was decided at an
-informal conference of several of the leaders of the Democratic
-party, to establish a bureau of speakers for the continuous
-propaganda of Democratic principles by new and young men, while the
-acknowledged leaders of the party were busy in the Senate and House of
-Representatives. In December, 1896, headquarters were opened at St.
-Louis.
-
-Several hundred speakers soon became attached to this bureau, and it
-was decided to form a permanent organization, that would bring together
-not only the speakers but all the workers of the party. The outcome of
-this has been the organization of the National Volunteers of Democracy,
-with the Speakers' Bureau and Training School as a special department.
-Each volunteer is expected to assist in forming regular Democratic
-clubs, except where for special reasons it is found advisable to
-organize Silver or Populist clubs, and also to build up and strengthen
-clubs now in existence.
-
-Heretofore, the handbooks for Democratic speakers and workers, have
-been so stuffed with statistics and figures as to burden and confuse
-the minds of their readers, consequently there is a demand for
-something simpler, for something that will give a bird's eye view of
-the political situation, with suggestions as to best methods of work
-and speech.
-
-It is to supply such a handbook to Democratic speakers and workers, and
-to outline the plans of the Democratic Volunteers, that this little
-book has been written.
-
-
-St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1897.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-INTRODUCTORY.
-
-
-The New Democracy is the Old Democracy. It is likewise the only
-Democracy, and in July, 1896, after years of suppression, it became the
-Regular Democracy.
-
-The Democracy taught by Jefferson and Jackson is the Democracy of
-Bryan, Stone and the Chicago platform. But the victory at Chicago of
-true Democracy over the counterfeit that for years fraudulently used
-its name was not however a finality; it was a beginning, and what was
-there accomplished nationally is yet to be accomplished locally in
-many states and cities. We have not only to push on to new and local
-victories after taking the central citadel, but what is of greater
-importance, must hold the positions already taken.
-
-It was said that at the Chicago Convention we not only "raised the
-dead" but "cast out devils." We must remember, however, that there are
-other devils, which in many places still possess the party locally, and
-the miracle of casting them out can only be performed by the power that
-comes of unselfish patriotism.
-
-It is noble to fight for a righteous cause, but it is glorious to WIN
-in a righteous fight. The exposure of Republican lies, the betrayal
-of their every promise made prior to the last general election, the
-perfidy back of their pre-election threats, have made Democratic
-victory reasonably certain in 1900. When the country has been cursed
-four years more by the infamous gold standard and monopoly rule, the
-majority of the people will favor a radical change. WE CAN BE DEFEATED
-ONLY IN ONE WAY. Let us repeat this. There is but one possible way by
-which the producing classes can be defeated at the polls in 1900; that
-is by the same old trick used by tyrants in all ages, the placing of
-their own lieutenants as the leaders of the people.
-
-The plutocrats fully appreciate this. They know that the people, weary
-of Republican misrule, will vote another party into power, hence their
-only salvation is to guide and control. They can do this in but one
-way, by having the opposing army officered by generals of their own
-choosing. It makes no difference how big the army, if the enemy chooses
-its officers, it is doomed.
-
-This was the trick by which monopoly defeated Democracy in several
-states during the recent campaign. The forces of the people were
-hastily organized. The recruits were strangers to one another. By a
-bold move on the part of plutocracy, backed by ample corruption funds,
-the willing tools of the money power were in many places made leaders
-of the very army formed to destroy the money power. As a consequence,
-we, the people, CAST the votes, while in many places the gold standard
-representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties COUNTED them;
-and incidentally failed to count MANY.
-
-In 1900 the people may poll any number of votes, but, if we fail to
-stamp out such traitors as David Bennett Hill, Calvin S. Brice, Wm.
-C. Whitney and John G. Carlisle, who use the Democratic name only to
-defeat Democratic principles, and who claim friendship for the poor
-man only to add his product to the fortunes of the rich; unless we
-expel these conspirators and hypocrites from the Democratic party, with
-all their abbettors and partners in fraud, we will be defeated in spite
-of our overwhelming advantage in numbers.
-
-Democracy now means the people against the organized money power. It
-is simply insanity for us to prepare for battle and select as drill
-masters, men whose salaries are paid by the very money power against
-which we fight.
-
-Suppose a million American soldier boys were to march with flying flags
-and beating drums, against an invading army of Cossacks and Turks,
-and that by some trick the wily Czar and Sultan should secure the
-appointment of Russian and Turkish officers over our troops. Should
-we be surprised if thousands of our brave boys were led headlong into
-ditches and slaughtered like rats in a trap and our magnificent army
-cut in pieces by half as many European king worshippers?
-
-We should not be surprised. And no man who knows anything about
-war could have been surprised when such fate befell the magnificent
-army of raw recruits led last year by Bryan against the invasion
-of the European moneyed despots. We were cut to pieces, ambushed,
-scattered and defeated solely by the treachery of subordinate leaders
-whom our great champion and the people trusted, who, by sympathies,
-self-interest and custom, were bound to the very money power that we
-were fighting to overthrow. And now the very men who sold out the
-people, who defeated the cause of American independence and fastened
-upon our nation the rule of the European money power for four more
-years--these same men, led by that adept in low cunning, that master
-of political knavery and arch enemy of popular rights, David Bennett
-Hill, are trying to get a foothold again in the party they have just
-defeated, are again trying to gain the confidence of the millions whose
-liberties they sold, and whose children they are now trying to betray
-into perpetual slavery.
-
-Some may say that it is impossible for these conspirators ever again
-to get a hold on the Democratic party. Such over-confidence is always
-a fatal weakness in war. When we know that the only possible way
-for plutocracy to continue to rule our country is by corrupting the
-Democratic party and placing its own agents in Democracy's counsels,
-and that the united money power of the world, will during the next
-four years (aided by the best talent that can be bought by unlimited
-funds), attempt to man Democracy's army with plutocracy's hirelings.
-Our business is not to lull ourselves into a false belief of security,
-but to work by day and watch by night to defeat the enemy. It is not
-for us to proudly boast that there is no danger, for there is danger,
-GRAVE DANGER, SOLEMN AND AWFUL DANGER, THAT WITH AN UNLIMITED USE OF
-MONEY AND THE PURCHASE OF THE BEST POLITICAL GENIUS AND CUNNING OF OUR
-COUNTRY BY MONOPOLY, WE MAY AGAIN BE BETRAYED ON THE EVE OF BATTLE.
-
-When the outcome of our struggle is a world to be gained or lost,
-civilization to go forward or be derailed, all that is dear to us, all
-that is most sacred in life saved to us or snatched from us, we cannot
-be too alert, too eager, or too anxious; cannot prepare or organize
-too thoroughly for the primaries that are to decide the leadership and
-control of Democracy in the contest of 1900. We should, each of us,
-swear in the name of God and man, that all the power and influence we
-possess shall be earnestly exerted from now until 1900 in ridding our
-party of these parasites who are in it only to destroy it. We should
-bitterly oppose the selection of any man for election judge, precinct
-captain, ward committeeman, city committeeman, county committeeman,
-state committeeman, national committeeman, or any other place of trust
-in our party, who is known to be in sympathy with, or friendly to, the
-gold standard, or to any one of the giant trusts now helping destroy
-our Republic.
-
-If we would destroy the trusts, we must be led only by known enemies
-of the trusts. If we would be victorious in this conflict against
-plutocracy, we must follow only leaders whose records prove clearly
-that they are absolutely free from entangling alliances with plutocracy.
-
-Some say we must harmonize all elements. We cannot harmonize the
-interests of the man who steals and the man who is stolen from, any
-more than we can harmonize fire and water. We only weaken our cause by
-trying to get the men against whom we are fighting to join us.
-
-Some one exclaims we must have the gold Democrats with us, or we are
-lost. THERE CAN BE NO SUCH THING AS A GOLD DEMOCRAT. The Democratic
-party stands for the abolition of the gold standard and every other
-monopoly by means of which scheming monopolies rob the public. A
-gold Democrat is as much an impossibility as a round square, white
-lamp-black or a red-hot icicle. The plutocrats who left the Democratic
-party and enlisted under the banner of Mark Hanna, will never join us
-except for the purpose of defeating our plans. They will never work for
-the success of the Democratic banner, unless they themselves carry that
-banner, and lead us, its followers, into their own traps, wherein we
-shall be despoiled. For the vote of every traitor and deserter, gained
-by such cowardly attempts at compromise, we shall lose a hundred loyal
-votes through sheer despair.
-
-We do not need the gold bugs. If they are honest in their professed
-change of heart, they will vote for honest, fearless candidates as
-well as for those of the milk and water brand, or who have no definite
-programme except their secret pledges to moneyed constituents. If they
-have not experienced a change of heart, we do not want them, for it is
-better that they remain open enemies than that they become professed
-friends, seeking an opportunity again to betray us.
-
-We do not object to receiving in the ranks the man who comes back to
-the Democratic party and says: "I deserted you, but I wish now to
-return to the fold; I was a traitor during the last campaign, but I am
-willing to vote with you hereafter." But the manhood, the self-respect,
-the enthusiasm of Democracy do object and register a vigorous protest
-to permitting these deserters to assume places of responsibility with
-power to sell the people out again.
-
-No one objects to the gold-bugs returning to our fold any more than we
-should to the blind regaining their sight or to sinners desiring to
-wash away their sins, but we do object to these sinners returning at
-the price of giving our party organization over into their hands.
-
-
-A PERTINENT ILLUSTRATION.
-
-An ominous example of the methods being used to capture Democracy by
-the money power was afforded by the lawless militarism brought into
-play by the gold bugs at the recent municipal Democratic convention
-of St. Louis, when, their fraud being discovered, and legitimately
-defeated by the people at the primaries and at the convention, they
-appealed to the last resort of despotism everywhere, the force of arms.
-
-For many years a clique of unscrupulous politicians controlled St.
-Louis Democratic conventions. Early in the April campaign, Mr.
-Hugh Brady, for many years Chairman of the Democratic City Central
-Committee, stated in an interview published in the St. Louis papers
-that a clique of "machine" politicians had "fixed the machine" to
-nominate Mr. Edwin Harrison for Mayor. The street railway managers,
-who last fall knifed Bryan and the Chicago platform, came to the front
-as Mr. Harrison's supporters. Mr. C. C. Maffitt, who bolted the party
-last fall, headed his delegation, and in several other wards the
-Harrison delegations were led by gold boltocrats. The "machine" was for
-Harrison, and Hugh Brady declared the "machine" could nominate any man
-it wanted.
-
-The men who supported Mr. Lee Meriwether for Mayor were all aggressive
-Bryan Democrats and opposed not only the gold standard, but also
-opposed street car domination in city affairs. They appealed from the
-"machine" to the people. They pointed out how the leading supporters
-of the "machine" candidate were gold boltocrats and street railway
-managers, who use their political influence to escape paying hundreds
-of thousands of dollars of taxes legally due the City Treasury. They
-insisted that franchises to monopolize the public's streets ought to
-be sold, not given away, to private corporations. And on this platform
-they secured enough delegates to control the convention.
-
-On the morning following the primary election, even the Republic,
-the organ of the "machine," admitted that Mr. Harrison had but 134
-delegates, while the opposition had 153[1].
-
- [1] See Republic, March 20, 1897.
-
-When the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison united in supporting Mr.
-Meriwether, it was apparent that nothing short of fraud and force could
-prevent the defeat of the machine. Accordingly, Mr. Ed Devoy, Chairman
-of the Central Committee, called the convention to order and hurriedly
-announced as its governing officers Messrs. Lutz, Barrett and Wand, the
-three campaign managers of the "machine" candidate.
-
-Scarcely was the announcement made when ex-Governor Norman J. Colman
-rose and protested against the attempt to muzzle the convention, and
-nominated for chairman Mr. Sterling P. Bond. Upon Devoy's refusing
-to put this motion, one of the delegates, R. T. Brownrigg, made the
-motion which was duly seconded, and Gov. Colman put the question to
-the convention and it was carried by a majority of the delegates. In
-a similar way secretaries and sergeants-at-arms were elected, the
-convention refusing to accept the slate prepared by the machine.
-
-After the committees had been appointed and reported, nominations for
-Mayor were made, and on the second ballot Lee Meriwether received 155
-votes, eleven more than a majority of all the delegates elected, and he
-was accordingly declared the nominee of the Democratic party.
-
-Thereupon ensued a scene more worthy of Russia than of the American
-Republic. Foiled in the attempt to carry the primaries; foiled again in
-the effort to force their own tools upon the convention as governing
-officers, the gold men and the street railway managers who were present
-on the floor of the convention, played their last card in the game to
-defeat the candidate pledged to make them pay their taxes, and ordered
-their servant, Devoy, to do by force what he had failed to do by fraud.
-A Board of Police Commissioners lent themselves to this shameful
-assault upon American liberty, and ordered three hundred armed police
-to drive from the hall the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison. Sterling
-P. Bond, John J. Fitzwilliam and W. A. Brandenburger, the duly elected
-chairman and secretaries of the convention, were brutally assaulted by
-the police. Mr. Bond was carted away to jail in a patrol wagon. Mr.
-Meriwether, who had been called on to address the convention after his
-nomination for Mayor, was thrown from the platform by two policemen,
-and, in company with a majority of the delegates, was forcibly expelled
-from the hall.
-
-Since the 9th of November, 1799, when Napoleon's grenadiers drove
-the French deputies out of their convention hall at the point of the
-bayonet, history affords no parallel to this outrage by the St. Louis
-boltocratic politicians.
-
-That in claiming a convention has no right to elect its own presiding
-officers the gold boltocrats were utterly wrong in custom as well
-as equity, will be seen by recalling the manner in which last year
-the Chicago Convention refused to accept Senator Hill, the National
-Democratic Committee's suggestion for chairman, and instead elected
-Daniel, a silver Senator from Virginia.
-
-Although the St. Louis papers subsequently supported Mr. Harrison,
-whose nomination was only accomplished by the illegal use of three
-hundred police, those same papers did not hesitate to say, the morning
-after the convention, that the action of the machine was illegal and
-tyrannical:[2]
-
- [2] Witness the following extracts:
-
- Police Commissioner Bannerman in Globe-Democrat, March 22,
- 1897:
-
- "The trouble was all started by Ed. Devoy refusing to allow
- Bond's name to go before the convention as chairman. The
- whole thing was a scheme on his (Devoy's) part to split the
- convention. Of course it was wrong to send Judge Bond to the
- Four Courts in a patrol wagon."
-
- Republic editorial, March 21, 1897:
-
- "Committee Chairman Devoy made a mistake in surrendering the
- gave before the delegates had elected a temporary chairman.
- A convention holds within itself the right to choose its
- temporary officers."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 31, 1897:
-
- "The blundering began with Chairman Devoy. It was his duty to
- recognize any delegate who desired to move a substitute for
- the committee's report. Devoy failed in his duty and furnished
- provocation for all that subsequently occurred."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 22, 1897:
-
- "Dr. Lutz had no right to a place on the platform until he was
- chosen temporary chairman by a vote of the convention. He had
- no more right than any casual visitor to himself take the vote
- of the convention on himself as temporary chairman. The plain
- fact is that the whole of these preliminary proceedings were
- in every particular irregular, unparliamentary and void."
-
- Post-Dispatch editorial, March 23, 1897:
-
- "The delegates who asserted their right to choose their
- temporary officers were within their right in doing so, and in
- fact only did their duty. THE RIGHT IS SACRED."
-
- Globe-Democrat, March 23, 1897:
-
- "The attitude of Assistant Chief Kiely is regarded as
- having been strained in the interest of the Harrison crowd
- and significant of the Police Commissioners' domination in
- Democratic politics."
-
-
-A WARNING FOR THE FUTURE.
-
-Might never makes right. The candidate whose nomination rests not upon
-ballots but upon the clubs and guns of three hundred policemen, cannot
-be the rightful nominee of Democracy, which means people's rule, not
-police rule. When appeal was made from the outrage of the corrupt
-political machine, the Court of Appeals decided that the matter was
-beyond its jurisdiction, that no Court has the power to review the
-action of the Election Commissioners, even though they certify to the
-nomination of a candidate without a shadow of right to such nomination.
-
-Had the Court consented to examine the evidence and gone into the
-merits of the case, it could not but have decided that the rightful
-nominee for Mayor was Mr. Meriwether, who had the affidavits of a
-majority of the delegates showing that they had supported him in the
-convention.
-
-This high-handed attempt of the gold boltocrats to tyrannize over the
-convention resulted in Democracy's defeat. But despite the stinging
-rebuke administered by an outraged people, the machine is again
-endeavoring to fasten itself upon the Democratic party of St. Louis.
-
-The same tactics, and even more desperate and lawless ones, will be
-used by the gold plutocrats throughout our country. The people must be
-prepared to meet them.
-
-What are the best methods of preparation? It is to give some
-suggestions as to methods, and to increase, the vigilance of the
-patriotic Democrats and friends of humanity in whose hands it may fall
-that this little volume has been written.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-HOW TO BEGIN WORK.
-
-
-The immediate purpose of the Democratic Volunteers is to organize and
-carry on in the most effective way the campaign for 1900. They seek
-to build up and foster the Democracy of Jefferson, Jackson, Bryan and
-the Chicago platform by seeing, first, that the common people remain
-in control of the Democratic party; and, second, that the Democratic
-party, representing the common people, gets control of the country
-in 1900. It is further hoped that the Volunteers thus organized and
-trained, will become a permanent force in the history of our Nation;
-a power in the guidance of the forces behind the nation's progress;
-a means of uniting the best intelligence of our race with that faith
-and deep religious purpose which permeate the common people, and of
-expediting the conscious co-operation of individuals with those giant
-forces that are slowly but surely destroying the old, and building
-up the new civilization. Our plan appeals principally to young men.
-Our methods are new, at least to this generation, and as we believe
-that the great battle in which we are engaged must be led by the most
-vigorous, active and courageous amongst us, we depend principally upon
-young men for leadership and work.
-
-Knowing that our principles are eternal, and that in proclaiming them
-we have the support of the great common people of posterity, and of
-God, the Volunteers are expected to assume, upon all occasions, an
-attitude of absolute confidence.
-
-We are to utilize every force and every means that perception can
-discover or ingenuity devise for the forwarding of our movement. We
-are to proceed, not only by usual, but by unusual methods, taking
-possession of resources never before thought of in political campaigns
-or religious crusades. Our principles are to be declared both in public
-and in private, and propagated methodically and persistently in every
-existing institution, organization or association of men and women.
-
-The church is the center of activity for many. This class can be
-reached best by having our truths come to them through the channel
-by which they usually receive their opinion and ideals, namely, the
-church. There are other hundreds of thousands whose lives center about
-the liquor saloons. To reach these our speakers must go to the saloons.
-In many agricultural communities, it is customary to hold meetings
-in school houses, while in good weather, picnics, barbecues and all
-day gatherings take place in the woods. To these various customs our
-speakers must adapt themselves. In some sections the camp-meeting lasts
-for a week or two, in great tents, or in special woodland resorts,
-permanently constructed and kept for that purpose. Our Volunteers will
-find here opportunities for effective work.
-
-But for reasons of economy, the greater part of our work will be done
-outdoors. Plutocracy can afford to hire a dozen halls where one drawing
-speaker can be secured. Our movement has a dozen speakers to every hall
-we can afford to hire. We will consider first, therefore, methods of
-outdoor speaking.
-
-
-OUTDOOR MEETINGS.
-
-The easiest, the most economical, the most fruitful of the Volunteer
-speaker's work, will consist of unadvertised outdoor meetings. There is
-probably not a city, village, or town in America in which a man with
-a strong voice, mounting some emergency platform and calling out that
-he has something important to say, cannot, in a short time, attract a
-considerable crowd. If his message be direct, condensed, sincere and
-well delivered, he can hold the crowd in any except the most inclement
-weather. Coming as a surprise does not lessen the effect, if the words
-are well directed. People who could not be induced to enter a hall to
-hear a lecture, people who, if the meeting had been advertised, would
-purposely remain away, will stop and listen to an outdoor speaker; they
-will be interested, and may even be converted if the truths are well
-presented.
-
-Of course, many passersby will listen only for a few minutes and
-proceed on their way. An outdoor crowd is always a changing one, but
-this merely necessitates a special outdoor method of treatment.
-Indoors, an address is expected to be continuous; one point must lead
-up to another; a line of thought must be followed so as to produce
-interest cumulative to the end. Outdoor speaking, on the other hand,
-must be made up of short, concise points, each complete in itself, so
-that no person can listen for a single minute without getting something
-to carry away with him. Anecdotes should be freely interspersed, but in
-condensed form.
-
-As the audience is compelled to stand, often on damp ground, and
-in chilly or excessively hot weather, it is necessary that outdoor
-speaking should never, under any circumstances, take upon itself the
-qualities of a pedagogical lecture. On the other hand, it must be made
-up of illustrations, word pictures, and pungent assertion of those
-fundamental truths known to be most essential.
-
-
-HOW TO ARRANGE SUCH MEETINGS.
-
-The speaker arrives in a strange town, having entered afoot, by horse,
-or by rail. If he have friends in the town, his work will, of course,
-be less difficult, and it will be comparatively easy to procure a
-horse and carriage (or a wagon).
-
-The vehicle secured, let him drive to the principal street, stop at
-the corner selected as the meeting-place, and, standing on the seat,
-let him announce (his voice pitched high, but not strained, dwelling
-for at least two seconds upon each word) that a meeting will be held
-in a few minutes at which "the people will be told how our country can
-be freed from the curse of Hannaism and monopoly" (or some similar
-striking expression). Then proceeding to the next corner let him repeat
-the announcement, and so over the village, or, if it be a city, over as
-large a section as he can conveniently cover. By making a dozen or more
-of these announcements he can always gather about him the nucleus of an
-audience.
-
-If unable to secure a vehicle he may go afoot, carrying a chair to
-serve him as a speaker's platform. As efficient work can be done in
-this way as in any other.
-
-In addressing the five or the fifty men, women and boys who compose
-this audience, it is requisite that he should begin in the same high
-key and the same deliberate manner and tone in which he made his
-announcements, addressing himself not to the few in front of him,
-but to the listeners in front of their stores half a block away.
-After speaking thus for five minutes, more or less, and arousing the
-enthusiasm and interest of distant listeners, he should suddenly turn
-his eyes and attention from all who are more than fifty feet away, and
-proceed in his natural tone of voice. Very often persons standing in
-front of stores and shops, lining the streets for two or three squares,
-when the speaker changes and lowers his tone and directs his remarks
-to his immediate audience, will come near to hear, if possible, the
-completion of some interesting point.
-
-In large cities where there is much noise from street cars and wagons,
-this work is more laborious, and from start to finish the speech will
-require all the energy the speaker possesses to keep his crowd together
-and to increase its number. But in smaller places, or in quieter
-neighborhoods of large places, after the first announcements, outdoor
-speaking can be reduced to a very moderate exercise. The average man,
-after a month's practice, can speak outdoors two or three hours a day,
-divided into three or four speeches, without any great fatigue, and
-keep it up the year round, resting only upon days so rainy, stormy or
-bitter cold, that men will not, for any inducement, stand outdoors.
-
-
-PRE-ARRANGED APPLAUSE ONE-HALF OF ORATORY.
-
-If friends can secure the free service of a drum corps, a brass band,
-or a quartette of singers, to help draw the people together, the
-speaker's work will, of course, be greatly lessened, and much will
-be done toward saving the voice and energies otherwise necessarily
-expended in attracting an audience. He will thus be enabled to
-concentrate all his powers, convincing and teaching his hearers.
-
-But in the absence of drums or music, there is nothing so helpful
-to the speaker in getting a crowd and in holding it after it has
-congregated, than a little skilfully pre-arranged applause. If several
-men, helped by a dozen boys, take their places around the speaker,
-and from the start take off their hats and cheer lustily about every
-three sentences, not only does the noise attract attention and draw
-listeners, but it impresses deeply those who are present, so that
-each word of the speaker has its effectiveness multiplied. A few men,
-starting off in this way (if the speaker is bright and forcible), will
-be joined by half the audience, and, in outdoor speaking, generous
-applause doubles the effect of oratory. It not only adds weight to the
-speech, but it strengthens and cheers the speaker, stimulating him to
-his highest efficiency. It infuses new blood into his veins and new
-breath into his lungs. It quickens his heart beats and helps clear his
-voice. It at once establishes a rapport between the talker and the
-talked-to, and converts what might otherwise be a number of isolated
-units into a sort of organism, the vital principle of which is one
-central enthusiasm voiced by the speaker.
-
-To convince the friends of the movement of the necessity for loud
-cheering from the start by pre-arranged, conscious effort, is often
-quite difficult, although it is important. Much tact and skill are
-required to select a dozen young men before the meeting, and train them
-in a few minutes so that they will follow the cue of the man who is to
-lead the applause and cheer when he gives the word.
-
-A very important point, where young boys are concerned, is to stop
-their cheering when the leader stops. Unless you have a confederate
-of tact and personality there is danger that the boys, once started
-yelling, will enjoy it so hugely that they will keep it up in a
-disorderly way, and injure the meeting much more than they help it.
-But properly drilled, a dozen young boys are worth almost as much as a
-drum corps. Under proper leadership, they will stop instantly at the
-pre-arranged signal, and enjoy the military precision. Ten minutes
-training by an experienced man will suffice to complete their education
-in this regard.
-
-
-REPETITION NECESSARY.
-
-The outdoor campaigner should never fear repetition. The average
-outdoor listener is not averse to hearing something that he has heard
-before, but is averse to anything dull, statistical or requiring
-laborious mental effort. In fact, from the standpoint of economy, three
-or five addresses made on the same street corner for three or five
-successive days, will accomplish much more for the cause than the same
-number of addresses delivered each one in a different town or locality.
-The apostle of the New Democracy, traveling from place to place, should
-stop at least two or three days in each village, even if he has only
-one speech and must repeat it over with variations each time. If he is
-resourceful and has a few anecdotes and illustrations for each day, it
-will pay him to stay a week in each town, as it takes two or three days
-for new hearers to become familiar with his objects, aims and attitude
-of thought. The writer has often found that more real, direct converts
-are made to the people's cause on the sixth or seventh day in a town,
-than during all of the previous days combined.
-
-Thought is like seed. Whatever be the soil, like all vegetable life,
-it must undergo three stages, planting, developing and fruit bearing.
-With the majority each stage of development requires a season; one
-speaker sows, another waters, and another gathers the ripe fruit. But a
-brain adjacent to an empty stomach, idle arms or a bankrupt business,
-offers a more fertile soil for new ideas, and there are some such minds
-in every town wherein all these processes can be carried on under the
-tutelage of one man; some such persons in despair at the beginning of
-the week, who can, by the close of the week, be brought to the light,
-their gloom dispelled, and a nobler civilization ever after clearly
-pictured before their eyes, the object of their life's endeavor. There
-are many persons who, by one series of meetings, are actually converted
-from ignorant participants in existing injustice to active workers for
-the true state yet to be. The whole tenor and ideals of their lives are
-transformed by knowledge vitalized by faith.
-
-When a week's meetings are contemplated in country towns, experience
-suggests that the best time to start is on Monday and that the meetings
-all week should lead up to one or two grand demonstrations on Sunday,
-when the largest crowd of the week can be gotten together, and when,
-by the aid of a Scripture lesson, a prayer and a couple of patriotic
-songs, the enthusiasm can be carried highest.[3]
-
- [3] Special suggestions for Sunday work see chapter IX.
-
-
-LITERATURE THE BASIS OF THE MOVEMENT.
-
-No outdoor meeting can fill its mission nor make use of half its
-opportunities, without the sale of literature, which enlarges and
-completes the points touched on by the speaker. The object of an
-outdoor speech is to interest, to stir the emotions of men, dispel
-their lethargy and despair, plant in them hope and faith, and prepare
-them to think out, read out and study out the great National problem.
-The attention of men, that is, the real, serious concentration of their
-minds upon great things, is so rare that when you once have it the
-opportunity should be utilized fully. Those who are interested by the
-outdoor speech should be urged to develop that interest into knowledge,
-conviction and action. This can only be done by inducing them to read
-some book or pamphlet, explaining in detail the points suggested by you
-and backing up your assertions by careful arguments. Ten pamphlets, or
-books, sold at a meeting where men's hearts have been opened and their
-prejudices melted by enthusiasm, are worth more to the cause than ten
-thousand books and circulars distributed from door to door. The sale
-of ten small ten-cent pamphlets at a meeting is at least half the value
-of the meeting. In this movement one chicken raised is worth more than
-a whole brood hatched; one fighting rooster is worth three dozen eggs.
-One campaigner, armed with facts and possessing contagious faith in our
-creed, necessarily becomes a permanent, creative force in the community
-in which he lives.
-
-Literature is one element in the production of such centers of power,
-not literature scattered wildly, but literature placed carefully in
-the hands of those who have been prepared by the personal appeal of
-a sincere advocate to see and understand the points enunciated. So
-bountiful has free literature become and so ocean-like is the flood
-upon political subjects, that it is difficult to get men to open a
-pamphlet on political or social subjects when distributed to them in
-their normal condition. But first arouse them by a stirring address,
-and they will willingly study what otherwise they could not be induced
-to consider even superficially.
-
-Not only should the speaker try to sell as many books and pamphlets as
-possible at the meetings, but he should try to leave in every community
-or section of a great city covered by him, some worker who will get a
-stock of such literature and continue its sale until another impulse is
-given the movement by the visit of another Volunteer.
-
-
-ADVERTISED OUTDOOR MEETINGS.
-
-Very often a little coterie of enthusiasts will think that with the
-aid of a few handbills they can get a great crowd of their stupefied,
-over-worked and discouraged fellow beings to give up their other
-engagements and walk to some out-of-the-way place or corner of the town
-to listen to their speaker. Our friendly promoters do not know that
-to the eye of the multitude the bills suggest only an uninteresting
-harangue or the visionary proclamations of a dreamer that in no way
-concern them. The result is that very often instead of a thousand
-greeting the speaker, all eager for information and ready for a change
-of heart, as anticipated, there are a dozen or so already familiar
-with his teachings and sharing his opinion on all important subjects
-and half as many idle curiosity seekers without influence in the
-community. The speaker is discouraged and the ardent reformers are
-chilled to the bone and despairingly admit to each other that the
-citizens of their particular community are more perverse and hardened
-against new ideas and reforms than the residents of any other locality
-under the sun.
-
-If, instead of the preparation for an out-of-the-way meeting and the
-laborious provision of seats for people who never came, a few circulars
-announcing the meeting and containing two or three gems of thought had
-been distributed and the speaker had mounted a wagon or box in the
-center of town as heretofore suggested, the meeting would probably have
-been a success.
-
-Except on occasions of great excitement, when men are drawn together
-by some celebrated orator, or on holidays, when they expect, under any
-circumstances, to leave their homes and work and betake themselves with
-their families to the woods and fields, it is important to hold outdoor
-meetings where an audience can be gathered largely from passersby.
-
-
-THE NEWSPAPER.
-
-A speaker talks to one hundred, one thousand or more hearers, but
-by proper co-operation on the part of the press his words are often
-carried to tens of thousands more. Where the press is not absolutely
-united for the purpose of maliciously misrepresenting or suppressing
-the speaker's words, at least half of his work consists in the silent
-appeal to auditors he never sees, those who read his words as reported
-in the papers. A few suggestions may, in this connection, be found of
-value.
-
-First, have printed, typewritten, or copied by hand, all the
-essential points of your speech, ready to be handed to the newspaper
-representative. Properly prepared manuscript, written on one side of
-the paper only, will often be published in full. It may be thrown into
-the waste basket. But any paper will publish more of a man's speech, if
-he has neatly prepared his manuscript beforehand than otherwise.
-
-Next, get personally acquainted with each editor, entering into a
-pleasant conversation with him and trying to make him your personal
-friend. By this means a Volunteer can often use the press of the
-opposite party to propagate his views. The original purpose of a
-newspaper was to give news, and very often, even in these degenerate
-days, the instinct of a newspaper man to give news, if encouraged and
-stimulated a little, will become strong enough temporarily to overcome
-his prejudice, and possibly overcome his appreciation of the plate
-matter supplied by Mr. Hanna's agents free of charge. He may even give
-a column or a half-column, describing the meeting of the New Democracy,
-quoting freely the words of the speaker.
-
-In dealing with Democratic, Populist and other friendly papers, there
-is a secondary opportunity for useful work. It is to show the editors
-how they can force the plate matter and ready-print establishments
-to furnish news concerning the Democratic Volunteers to all their
-customers, by simply demanding information on that subject. Even
-request the editor to write a letter, telling of the intense interest
-of his constituents in the Volunteers, and urging that his ready-print
-matter contain something weekly from the Volunteer's National office.
-A sufficient number of such letters cannot fail to have the desired
-effect. Let every Volunteer aim to secure the co-operation of a few
-editors, and the work is done. The ready-print establishments that
-remain stubborn should lose their patronage.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-SPEECHES AND MEETINGS.
-
-
-The Volunteers are organized, not to do the easy things that have been
-done in the past and are now being very satisfactorily done by others,
-but rather to do what others have left, and are leaving, undone. In
-communities where the New Democracy is strong and the people are
-already in the habit of gathering periodically and during political
-campaigns nightly, it requires no organization of Volunteers to
-provide men to instruct and amuse them to their entire satisfaction.
-Our work is to do what others have not done and cannot do; to gather
-crowds where others have failed; to create interest where there is
-no interest; to make friends where we have no friends, and, WHERE WE
-ARE ALREADY STRONG AND DOMINANT IN A COMMUNITY, TO TEACH OUR FRIENDS
-AND BROTHERS TO SO SYSTEMATIZE THEIR EFFORTS AND ENTHUSIASM AS TO
-BE MOST USEFUL IN EDUCATING AND GAINING THE SUPPORT OF LESS ADVANCED
-COMMUNITIES ELSEWHERE.
-
-In arranging indoor meetings, it is essential, in order that our work
-may be fruitful, to get out other than what is known as "the same old
-crowd." There are a few people of both parties in every community who
-are always interested in politics, and who attend nearly all party
-meetings. On such, ammunition is largely wasted. A speaker should never
-be satisfied to address a small crowd, the majority of whom are already
-in accord with his principles. His object should be to bring in new
-men, to get in fresh blood. The motto of each of us should be, "I came
-not to bring the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
-
-To secure the attendance of the non-political class, it is, therefore,
-expedient, in addition to the regular speeches, to provide some form
-of entertainment, such as vocal and instrumental music, a dramatic
-rendition, or a children's performance.
-
-When an audience is assembled particularly to enjoy the entertainment
-and incidentally from curiosity to see and hear the strange speaker,
-it is well for the speech to be built from materials furnished by
-the local performers. If children have participated, there is no
-happier way to begin than by telling how enjoyable were their songs
-and recitations, how thrilling the thoughts born of their happy faces
-and hearts throbbing with youthful hopes. The speaker might tell
-how, looking into their bright eyes, his thoughts turned toward the
-future, where he saw the obstacles against which these children will
-have to contend, the difficulties they will meet in getting started
-in life, the unfair advantages over them possessed by the children of
-special privilege. By taking the children who participate as a text and
-riveting the attention of the audience upon them instead of considering
-the rights of men in general, he can gain at once, not only the
-attention, but the sympathy and the very hearts of those who listen.
-
-If the entertainment is a musical one, the speaker might begin by
-describing the state of mind produced by the sweet harmonies just
-listened to. By recalling the difference between the discord produced
-by ten men tuning their musical instruments and the harmony resulting
-when they play the same instruments together, he has an illustration
-applicable in several ways: suggesting the harmony and orderliness
-of the state that we are fighting for, the economy of concert in our
-political methods, and numerous other points, which, if given in a
-conversational way, will arrest the attention of even the women and the
-children. Let him then proceed with simple axiomatic truths that can be
-grasped by every hearer, abundantly illustrated, and the crowd will be
-induced to attend future meetings.
-
-There are a thousand cues given and illustrations suggested by
-a preliminary entertainment that can be made the gateway to the
-sympathies, affections and intelligence of those who listen. Convince
-the audience that the questions treated are neither abstract nor
-incomprehensible, but simple and tangible, and concern their personal
-welfare and the future of their families, and self-interest will impel
-them to listen to specific arguments backed by facts and figures.
-
-The Volunteer who aspires to attract vast audiences and transplant
-the hopes and thoughts that flourish in his own mind to the fertile
-soil of other minds, must first learn that the passion to instruct,
-though a noble instinct, must be curbed ruthlessly, else instead of an
-orator the "would-be" will find himself a bore. The passion to impart
-knowledge, like the other human passions, when given free rein to
-exercise itself unrestrained, defeats its own ends and at last destroys
-itself.
-
-How many old speakers we know who long ago looked forward, as hundreds
-of young men now look forward, to becoming orators, with power to sway
-the multitudes, to guide and lead them to higher things. But instead of
-orators we call them fossils. Instead of attracting they repel. They
-begin whenever permitted and never stop until so commanded. They are
-brought out and used in emergencies when no one else can be obtained,
-but never otherwise. They are common hacks. Why is this? Not always
-because such men do not possess ability. Some of them have followed the
-world's greatest thinkers throughout their intricate reasonings and
-profound solutions of life's most serious problems. But at the very
-start they conceived wrong notions concerning the function of a public
-speaker, an erroneous impression as to the utility and object of a
-speech or popular address.
-
-We have often noticed that superior minds are overlooked on popular
-occasions and some man with less capacity and knowledge, far less
-endowed with mental treasures, is called upon to do the honors of
-the occasion. Why? Because he has the faculty of addressing himself
-directly to the listeners and of adapting himself to their frame of
-mind.
-
-
-TEN COMMANDMENTS.
-
-To those who would become speakers and avoid the mistakes that cause
-the majority of failures, the following rules will be found valuable:
-
-1. Do not try to tell all you know at any one time.
-
-2. Do not try to appear deep, learned or poetical.
-
-3. Do not try to prove every statement you make.
-
-4. Use statistics sparingly.
-
-5. Address yourself, not to the kind of men and women you would have
-made had you been the Creator, but to the actual men and women who have
-been created, who fill your halls and make up your audiences.
-
-6. Make your talk personal and apply every point to the wants, woes and
-sentiments of your listeners.
-
-7. Never regret the half hour or the hour occupied by the music,
-recitations, drama, or other entertainment preceding your speech.
-
-8. Do not manifest impatience at the time consumed in short talks by
-local speakers.
-
-9. Remember that generally all the good that it is possible for you to
-accomplish if your audience by preliminary exercises is brought into
-rapport and sympathy with you, can be accomplished in half an hour.
-If you can get the complete attention of your audience for half an
-hour, they will have sufficient matter to fully occupy their thoughts
-the rest of the day and night, and not only this, if your talk is
-interesting and they go away hungry instead of satiated, they will
-gladly attend the next meeting.
-
-10. Be satisfied if you interest your hearers and be not greedy
-to instruct. For those really interested by oratory will instruct
-themselves by means of literature which is the only source of real
-instruction. Oratory should win sentiment and stir interest; literature
-performs the work of education. The speech fulfils its mission if it
-persuades men to read aright.
-
-
-ENTERTAINMENT.
-
-A meeting that is half entertainment or if illustrations, anecdotes
-and stories be included under the head of entertainment, a meeting
-that is nine-tenths entertainment and one-tenth direct statement
-of fact and reasoning therefrom, is of far more value than a three
-hours' bombardment with facts, figures, arguments and the soundest
-reasoning, directed by a master. The average human mind, as God made
-it and as our present unsocial life has unmade it, will become wearied
-by such an effort and leave the meeting with the firm resolve not to
-attend another. Such meetings cannot be held often and do not win the
-sympathies and co-operation of men nearly so much as a meeting planned
-and arranged on the basis of adaptation to the capacities of the
-average listener and his multiform emotions and mental wants. This is
-the secret of the success of the popular churches. They do not try to
-teach the people too much. They do not strain that organ, very weak in
-the average human mind, known as the logical faculty.
-
-Far more progress can be made in any community by instituting a
-successful series of meetings, wherein serious reasoning occupies a
-minor portion of the time, the rest filled in by entertainment, than
-can be gained by meetings that furnish a perfect mine of wealth in the
-way of food for thought and intellectual feasting for the few who have
-the power to appreciate such things.[4]
-
- [4] Of course the most effective methods of presenting our
- cause can only be hinted at in a text-book. A month or several
- months of personal training is requisite to give the student
- a real understanding of the difference between the old method
- and the new. It is, therefore, urged that as many of the
- younger speakers as possible attend and take direct, personal
- instruction from the Faculty of the Volunteers' School in St.
- Louis.
-
-
-LIFE IS SHORT.
-
-The length of the man's speech should be measured, not by his own
-physical endurance nor the time that his breath lasts, not by the
-amount that he has to say nor even by the capacity of his audience
-to listen or to remain in the room, but in every case it should be
-measured by the capacity of his hearers to enjoy.
-
-Most political meetings are too long. Very often two or three speakers
-are engaged, each harboring the erroneous opinion that duty requires
-him to talk an hour. Now, any speaker who cannot say something good,
-useful and inspiring in fifteen minutes, is incapable of saying
-anything good, useful or inspiring at all.
-
-Except in times of great excitement or in out-of-the-way country
-districts where meetings are few and the hearers, like savages in a
-forest, must gorge themselves when they have a chance, the speaking
-should never, on any occasion, last more than an hour and a half.
-
-Where there are three speakers, not only should each be limited to
-half an hour but the chair should be filled by a man with pluck and
-personality sufficiently great to tap the speaker on the shoulder when
-his time is up.
-
-I have seen more hoggishness displayed at political meetings than ever
-at a dinner table. The man who sits down at a table and eats everything
-in sight before his friends arrive, is a gentleman compared with the
-fellow who occupies the time of his colleagues at a public meeting;
-because, if by one man's greed all the food on the table is eaten,
-other food can be obtained, but when some oratorical hog monopolizes
-the opportunity of his fellow-speakers, he takes from his colleagues
-what can never be replaced.
-
-Our volunteers will accomplish a great work for humanity indeed if one
-of their number succeeds in inventing a method to stiffen the backbones
-of presiding officers sufficiently to enable them to sit down on that
-species of "bore" who push themselves to the front, ask to speak first
-by pledging to quit at a specified time and then talk on until the
-audience begins to disperse. Few people appreciate the great loss
-caused to a party or movement by the vacillating weakness of presiding
-officers and the greedy instincts of men who like to be heard and, in
-order to satisfy this instinct, "hog everything in sight."
-
-One mission of the volunteer speaker is to teach etiquette to the
-political speakers of our own party and when "Ex-Governor So-and-So"
-and "Prosecuting Attorney Other-man" and "Judge Dry-Bones" and
-"Ex-Judge Old Fogy" and "The Honorables" and "The Colonels" and "The
-Generals" and the bulldozing youthful speakers assume to occupy time
-not intended for them, to take the chairman by the arm and stand by his
-side until he redeems the pledge made before the meeting and stops the
-mouth of the insolent fellow who has not sense enough to regard the
-rights of his fellow-workers.
-
-
-AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION.
-
-If a prominent man, known to be long-winded and lacking in this one
-requisite of a gentleman, is present and it is uncertain that the
-presiding officer has the courage necessary to call him down at the
-right time, our voluble celebrity should be told that the position of
-honor being the last on the program, it has been POSITIVELY given to
-him. Thus the other speakers will have a chance to plant a few ideas
-in the minds of their auditors before they are hopelessly wearied.
-Although the last speaker may injure the general effect of the
-meeting by his prolonged and drawn-out harangue, the self-assertive
-and independent ones among the listeners can, at least, leave the room
-when they get fatigued, without missing the opportunity of listening to
-those whom they came to hear. This point is purposely emphasized, and
-strong language not inadvertently used.
-
-Where more than one speaker participates, there is nothing more
-essential for a successful meeting than that each speaker be limited in
-time by a pre-arranged plan, and that each be forced by the presiding
-officer strictly to observe that limit.
-
-
-MORE THAN TWO MILLION MEMBERS.
-
-The success of the Christian Endeavor movement in the Protestant
-churches is due almost solely to their method. The Christian Endeavor
-Societies have no new message to the world; they advocate no reforms;
-they do not add anything to the teaching of the church; do not even
-take it back to any of those sublime truths of the past largely ignored
-and forgotten by the modern church. But there is one simple reform in
-the method of carrying on religious meetings to which the Christian
-Endeavor Societies owe their success, and by means of which alone they
-have gained more than two million members in little more than a decade.
-This great and valuable secret is their system of two or three minute
-addresses, and their requiring participation in the meeting by every
-member.
-
-Some of us are familiar with the old time Protestant prayer-meetings,
-composed of five or six old men, from ten to thirty middle-aged and old
-women, with a scattering boy or girl forced to attend by parents. The
-prayers were long. The talks were dry. The presence of a young man or
-woman was always a surprise.
-
-The Christian Endeavor Society with the same theology, the same
-message, the same hymns, not even having a new impulse, a new moral
-ideal, or a new hope for the betterment of the world, but merely by
-requiring each member to say a few words and requiring that they say
-no more than a few words, has succeeded in joining together over two
-million young people into a prayer meeting society. Young people and
-prayer meetings! Always before suspicious of each other! Presto
-change! Two million young people organize in fifteen years to attend
-prayer meeting. The explanation of this miracle is ENFORCED BREVITY.
-
-Short speeches, the extinction of bores, and the participation in each
-meeting in some way by every listener are so far as method goes the
-essentials for a great popular movement.
-
-Good manners that have been taught to most of the world as regards
-eating and drinking have begun to be introduced into the world of
-meetings, religious and political, and when we see a feature, a little
-reform of this kind, building up in a few years one of the largest and
-most formidable religious organizations in the way of numbers that the
-world has ever seen, the organizers and workers of the new Democracy
-should profit thereby and at least learn the lesson, "Don't bore the
-people." It were better that the long-winded talker were a Republican
-or that he were thrown into the sea than that he should be allowed to
-destroy our meetings by his prolonged and learned discourses. Flee from
-the long-winded man, or else turn on him and make him sit down when
-his time is up. Or do with him as you do with the man who displays
-swinish proclivities when you invite him to dinner, DON'T INVITE HIM
-AGAIN.
-
-
-THE BUREAU OF VOLUNTEER SPEAKERS.
-
-A community feels that it needs to be awakened, and desires to arrange
-a series of meetings.[5] How can suitable speakers be had? So often
-a mistake is made. A speaker goes off on a tangent; he carries his
-hearers into a labyrinth of statistics and details, from which he
-cannot extricate them; he makes one "break" that alienates more votes
-than his whole speech wins, or in other ways proves himself incapable
-of accomplishing good for the community that he visits.
-
- [5] Advertising methods: Tickets afford the best method of
- advertising meetings of all kinds. It is a personal, definite
- invitation, and the surest "crowd-gatherer." In large cities
- it may be necessary to issue from fifty thousand to one
- hundred thousand, and have them carefully distributed, in
- order to get out two thousand persons. In smaller places the
- percentage of waste is not so great. Get the co-operation of
- the press, if possible, but do not rely upon it. To the last
- moment there is always danger of its deserting to the money
- power, as the latter can bring almost irresistible pressure to
- bear upon it. Print on every ticket a short list of the best
- books, i. e., Lloyd's "Wealth against Commonwealth," Ely's
- "Socialism and Social Reform," "Ten Men of Money Island,"
- "Coin's Financial School," etc.
-
-Heretofore such a man, by bulldozing prominent politicians into giving
-him letters of recommendation, might impose himself on one community
-after another, and continue for years to injure the party. By proper
-co-operation of the party with the Bureau of Volunteers Speakers, this
-evil, in a large measure, can be avoided, because this Bureau does not
-send a man to speak until it is thoroughly acquainted, not only with
-his character, but his capacities and judgment, and knows his method
-of argument and what he is to advocate. When young and comparatively
-inexperienced speakers are sent out, it is known beforehand what is to
-be said, as their speeches are prepared and rehearsed in advance. They
-must know what they have to say, and not trust to inspiration, which
-often results in perspiration for the speaker, and exasperation for the
-hearers.
-
-Every speaker sent out will present the great fundamental truths of our
-movement and not waste time in arguing details, which only supplies our
-enemies with new weapons to use against us. His speech beforehand has
-been pruned and criticised; the dead branches lopped off; the twigs and
-vines cleared from the trunk of the tree, and he is prepared to do only
-such work as will make converts and deepen the convictions of those
-already with us.
-
-There exists no other Bureau or Headquarters in America, through which
-Democratic organizations can obtain at all times the best talent, and
-never fail to get a man who will strengthen their local organization.
-
-Again, when meetings are held regularly in a town and a work of
-systematic education is carried on, it often happens that one speaker
-following another repeats over again the same statistics, the same
-arguments and even the same stories heard before, thereby tiring the
-audience. But when a community is supplied regularly by the National
-Bureau, each speaker takes up a different phase of the great problem,
-recapitulating only the few fundamental truths on which our movement
-rests. Each presents also something new, bright and spicy of his
-own. By this arrangement every community can enjoy the benefits of a
-succession of good speakers every month or week during the whole four
-years, and escape the persecution of those unteachable bores, who think
-themselves speakers. The crowds at these regular periodical meetings
-will increase, because each time they will hear something just as good
-as the last time, with added special features, the result of individual
-genius.
-
-At present, when a speaker is wanted, anybody is invited who happens to
-be available, his abilities being measured by his own recommendation,
-or by letters bulldozed from prominent men, who, for reasons of
-political prudence dared not offend so energetic a fellow. A community
-in this way may secure a good speech occasionally, but often the
-speaker is a positive injury to the cause. One poor speech in a series
-does more to lessen the general interest and reduce the size of the
-crowds thereafter, than can be overcome by half a dozen good speeches.
-
-Of course, where the local Democracy can secure the services of some
-one of our national leaders, no bureau mediation is needed, but our
-national leaders are few and the work before us limitless, therefore
-the service of the Volunteers' Bureau in training, equipping and
-guaranteeing a large number of new speakers who can be secured at any
-time, by any community, at a moderate expense, is meeting with hearty
-response by Democratic clubs generally.
-
-The best way to make a strong club anywhere is to institute a series of
-meetings, all the year round, and, by having at least one able speaker
-each time, never to disappoint the audience.
-
-Let each town and village establish a lecture course at once, and place
-itself in communication with the Volunteers' Bureau. The more numerous
-and closer together such villages and towns are, the smaller will be
-the expense to each community and the easier will it be to make up
-regular circuits for speakers.
-
-
-THE CO-OPERATION OF CONSTITUENTS NECESSARY.
-
-Although every speaker sent out is guaranteed to do effective work,
-the leaders of each community are urgently requested to report to
-headquarters at once, the success or short-comings of each speaker
-and meeting. Without such co-operation, the Bureau cannot keep that
-oversight of its hundreds of speakers necessary to raise the standard
-of work to the highest efficiency. It is assuredly the duty of local
-workers to give straight-forward reports to headquarters, of the
-short-comings and "breaks" on the part of the representatives of our
-Bureau, who represent our party and for whom our party is responsible
-as well as to report the benefits resulting from each meeting. The
-fact should also be emphasized that each representative of the Bureau
-receives a letter of recognition and instruction once a month from
-headquarters, and his standing with the Bureau should be judged solely
-by such letters or by direct correspondence. We must be able, when any
-speaker fails on his part to fulfill our requirements, to cease our
-connection with, and our responsibility for him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-METHODS OF TRAVEL.
-
-
-For those very respectable speakers of the old school who go to a town
-only when sent for and speak only at meetings properly advertised and
-pre-arranged, who are blessed with a goodly supply of that eminently
-obstructive article, the chief burden on every popular movement,
-commonly called dignity, there is no advice needed as to methods of
-travel. For such well regulated exponents of bimetallism and reform
-about the only advice that can be given is "be sure that your car fare
-is sent to you before boarding the train."
-
-But to another class of speakers, those who make up the rank and file
-of Democracy's Volunteers, those whose purpose and power of will are
-such that no obstacles, no stumbling blocks, no hardships can embitter
-or delay, those in whom the fire of enthusiasm for humanity has burned
-up their dignity and who in starting out do not ask whether they have
-means to go respectably and comfortably and quickly or not, but one
-question presents itself, namely, "Can I get to my destination in time
-to deliver my message?" The methods used by such will be various.
-
-When we have the money to buy railway tickets and when cars go at the
-proper hour, we will travel by rail. Otherwise we will drive when we
-can conveniently secure a horse and vehicle, or we will gladly mount
-the saddle or a wheel. But when car tickets, carriages, saddle horses
-and bicycles are alike impossible, the man fighting for principle will
-rise superior to his dignity and dependence upon small comforts and
-taking a bundle of literature and a small bag will, before starting,
-ask himself only, "Are my shoes good?"
-
-
-EXPERIENCE FAVORS TRAVELING TWO BY TWO.
-
-The early Christian disciples went out preaching the gospel by twos.
-Throughout history and in the experience of those living, it has
-been found that the will and intensity of purpose of the average man
-is better preserved and that he more easily overcomes obstacles,
-troubles and disappointments if in traveling among strangers he has
-companionship. Therefore although, at times the Volunteers may travel
-as individuals, lonely and homesick, still, wherever it is practicable,
-we advise our speakers to travel by twos. It is much easier to walk
-five, ten, twenty, or even forty miles in a day, from one town to
-another with a companion. Not only is loneliness overcome, but two
-speaker and workers have more than twice the influence upon a community
-that either would exert separately. Besides it is safer, and, in case
-of sickness or accident, there is some one to go for help or to "tell
-the story."
-
-
-AFTER ENROLLING.
-
-Two young Volunteers start out for a month's campaign in the cause of
-American liberty. We have no money, the extent of our capital being
-a bundle of Democratic literature, an appointment from the Bureau of
-Volunteer Speakers and a good pair of shoes each. We start at seven
-o'clock in the morning from town "A." It is twenty miles to "B" where
-we wish to speak at night. We walk six miles by nine o'clock and are
-then overtaken by a farm wagon in which we are allowed to ride eight
-miles, when it leaves our road. We give the driver a pamphlet, thanks
-and a blessing and we part. It is now eleven o'clock and we walk six
-miles further when at one o'clock we reach our destination.
-
-In ten minutes we have found a friendly Democrat who, after looking at
-our letters, shakes our hands, takes us to his house and provides food.
-After resting a couple of hours after dinner, we make an outdoor talk
-as suggested in Chapter three, and announce a night meeting.
-
-If those who profess the name Democracy in this village are
-overburdened with sham dignity and devotion to what is old and
-inefficient and refuse to recognize or aid the appointed speakers
-of the people's cause, we must be ready to rely on other resources.
-Our afternoon collection may amount to ten cents or it may reach
-fifty cents or a dollar. The crowd may, however, refuse to contribute
-anything. We may sell literature sufficient to supply our wants, or the
-gold standard and the trusts may have caused such a scarcity of cash
-that we cannot sell anything. We may be compelled to get our supper and
-maybe breakfast by trading a pamphlet to a grocer for crackers and
-cheese. After speaking in the afternoon and evening if we should meet
-with no success or recognition, expediency would suggest that we shake
-the dust from the soles of our feet and proceed on our journey toward a
-more friendly community, while the oppressor prepares the way for the
-work of education later.
-
-In some places friends will supply car tickets; in others they will
-procure a carriage or wagon and deliver us to the next town. From
-other villages or towns we may have to proceed as we started and as
-the apostles used to travel, walking along the dusty road, the frozen
-ground or through mud or snow. This method of travel is not only now
-practiced by many of our speakers, but can and will become the method
-of thousands more. It is a thoroughly practicable and sensible method
-of teaching truth against great odds and adds to the force of the
-speakers' message by proving him sincere.
-
-That this plan of campaigning is altogether feasible the writer can
-personally attest from actual experience. Years ago, as a mere boy, I
-became intensely interested in the principles of the New Democracy and
-starting without money, without friends or any organized assistance,
-impelled merely by enthusiasm for humanity and hatred of that tyranny
-through which my race and family had suffered, I traversed in this way
-every county in the State of Kansas, circulating thousands of pamphlets
-in which were pointed out the way to a nobler civilization. While still
-a boy I also walked or rode with friends through Missouri, Illinois,
-Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I was often interfered with
-by persons disposed to disagree, but at every village and town and city
-through which I passed, I stood up in the open street in a carriage, on
-a dry-goods box or a chair and proclaimed my faith that the poor people
-need not suffer as they do if they would but unite in behalf of their
-own interests and use the ballot against oppression and tyranny.
-
-Very often I was without money, and I then discovered that my early
-study of hygiene could be turned to good account. I found that the
-great capitalists, aided by Edward Atkinson and the soup house
-reformers, in trying to devise a diet for the poor that might enable
-them to work for less wages, though failing in this, had at least given
-me a pointer. I found that their bill of fare lacked but one ingredient
-to make it very endurable, and that was enthusiasm and youthful hope
-and fire. I added this ingredient and was independent of the world.
-
-
-HYGIENE AS A WAR MEASURE.
-
-Those Volunteers who intend not only to try to speak for the cause
-during the next four years, but have determined to fight for the
-continuation of our Republic in spite of all obstacles, should learn
-how independent the body really can be of what are usually termed the
-necessaries of life.
-
-As an invalid child I attended a course of lectures delivered by one
-Dr. O'Leary. This distinguished gentleman, with the theatre stage,
-which he used as his platform covered over with polished skeletons,
-manikins, human heads in chloroform and colored pictures of the various
-parts of the human frame, impressed my young mind deeply. At that time,
-I remember I had been "given up" by my parents and the doctor, as a
-child who could not possibly be raised. I was accustomed to thoughts
-of death and for years constantly expected a visit from the dreaded
-monster. No memory is more distinctly engraven on my mind than the
-nights when, with eager eyes fastened on this wonderful man and his
-mysterious skulls and manikins, my heart throbbing, my face aglow, I
-listened in rapt attention, that possibly I might catch some secret
-that would help me defeat death and add strength to my frail body
-sufficient to do battle with life's hardships.
-
-After describing a boy who died at about my own age because his nervous
-system had been deprived of the proper life-giving elements which had
-been taken from his food by modern processes, the Professor took up
-a handful of wheat letting it fall repeatedly through his fingers,
-stating that each grain of wheat contains in it all of the elements
-required to sustain human life. He said that civilization, by taking
-away the outside, the most nutritious part of the wheat, had struck a
-blow at the physical development of our race. He declared that man can
-live for years on whole wheat requiring no other article of diet, and
-that the outside of the wheat especially, now thrown aside as bran
-and fed to the cattle, contains the elements of bone and nerve fibre,
-that, while the lady who eats only the choicest white bread, made
-of the finest flour, has to substitute gold for parts of her teeth,
-the teeth of the cattle that eat the bran are perfect. He gave as an
-illustration the march of Caesar and his legions through Gallia, when
-Caesar's soldiers often for weeks at a time were without provisions and
-were compelled to feed on whole wheat alone which they would snatch
-in handfuls from the fields as they marched, thresh in the palms of
-their hands and grind with their molars. The crushing of the hard wheat
-grain gave the teeth exercise while the crushed bran and surface of the
-grain supplied those elements required in the construction of bone and
-teeth. "At the present time, nineteen centuries after," so this doctor
-said, "there are numerous skulls of these same soldiers of the great
-Caesar to be seen in the London Museum and as a result of their wheat
-mastication, every tooth is as sound in these skulls, as whole and free
-from decay as when heathen Rome was Mistress of the World and Caesar
-was King."
-
-
-A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
-
-Whether this astounding statement of the learned doctor has any basis
-of truth or not I do not know, but that the lesson he sought to impress
-by it is true, my own experience can attest. During a period of several
-years, with another young enthusiast, I subsisted on a diet of bread
-and apples except when these could not be had, when we repaired the
-waste of our bodies by eating whole wheat, a bag of which we constantly
-carried with us for "emergencies." Often we have subsisted on whole
-wheat and clear water alone for several days, and even a week at a
-time. During these periods we did not notice that we lost flesh. Of
-course we had very little to lose, but our vigor and the intensity of
-our enthusiasm and faith in our powers, all of which depend largely
-upon the amount of nutriment carried from the stomach to the brain, and
-various nerve centers, were not in the least diminished. Later on we
-found that when convenient, we could obtain more nourishment from the
-wheat with less chewing by having it boiled, but when boiled, we could
-not carry with us a week's rations without fatigue, and boiled wheat
-will become sour in the summer time while whole dry wheat will keep for
-years, and, like feminine beauty, remain ever fresh. It is the most
-condensed form of digestible food known to man.
-
-Of course where men have dissipated and their powers of digestion have
-been undermined by intoxicating liquor, tobacco, or the habitual use
-of highly spiced and over-prepared foods, any coming down to a natural
-diet like this is a severe hardship. But for a young man with firm
-faith and good health, NOT TO BE IMPEDED IN HIS DESIRE TO BECOME AN
-ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE GREATEST MOVEMENT OF HISTORY BY THE MERE FACT
-THAT HE HAS NO MONEY WITH WHICH TO PAY CAR FARE AND BUY GOOD FOOD AND
-CLOTHES, the suggestions here given will be found helpful. I would
-not advise others to do, what I have not done or am not willing to do
-myself. The fact is, however, that any young man, in good health, and
-formed of the right kind of "dust," can travel, without any money from
-one end of the country to the other speaking daily, and accomplish
-much for our cause, even if he does not meet more than one true
-friend in a thousand miles. But the comforts and vices and follies of
-civilization he must be able to do without.
-
-This austere and ascetic mode of life is not commended for its own
-sake. The suggestion is merely thrown out as one possible way of
-beginning work, so that no young man in good health can claim that he
-would have done wonders for the cause had he not been prohibited by
-poverty. No such excuse exists. Healthy single men can live and thrive
-if buoyed up by hope and faith and manly purpose, and travel the world
-over on a quarter of the wages of a day laborer.
-
-
-NOT CIVIL BUT MILITARY.
-
-To those persons who may possibly criticise these suggestions as
-tending to encourage a lower standing of living, thereby indirectly
-aiding in the lowering of wages, I will simply say that I am not giving
-suggestions for methods of civil life but only military suggestions to
-be acted upon in time of war. The battle is now on. No conflict of the
-past ever appealed more strongly to the sublime qualities in human
-nature than the present war of the people against the united plutocracy
-of all countries. It is therefore appropriate and timely to give any
-and all suggestions that may be of value to those bearing the brunt of
-the people's battle.
-
-Can it be urged against the half starved Cuban patriots that because
-they have learned how to subsist through months on roots and berries,
-and sugar cane their habits are likely to lower the standard of living
-in Cuba? In answer the smallest boy would say that the Cubans eat
-berries this year in order to eat watermelons next year, that they
-chew slippery elm and sheep sorrel to-day in order to have roast beef,
-oysters and plum pudding to-morrow. They are now eating the food of
-the animals and sleeping in the open fields with the beasts and dying,
-as the cattle die, by order of a butcher, that their countrymen and
-their children and their children's children hereafter may live as free
-men, enjoying the heritage of a free Cuba and all the varied gifts of
-civilization.
-
-Did our forefathers of the Revolutionary War lower the standard
-of living and decrease wages or injure the cause of labor or of
-trade-unionism, because, in fighting for country they were willing
-to go without shoes, staining with blood from their wounded feet the
-projecting icy rocks that gashed them as they marched against the
-British? Oh, no! Our forefathers went without shoes that we might have
-them. They went hungry and cold and gave up their individual comforts
-and lives, that we, their descendants and fellow-countrymen, might have
-greater comforts, increased liberties and life more abundant.
-
-
-GENERAL MARION.
-
-When General Francis Marion with his brave soldier boys was lying in
-at Snows Island on the Pedee River, North Carolina, preparing to make
-another one of his surprising and brilliant raids on the enemy, an
-officer from the British post at Georgetown was dispatched to visit
-him to treat for an exchange of prisoners. The blooming Britisher was
-blindfolded and carried by a circuitous route into camp. The bargain
-arranged, he accepted an invitation to dine. The meal was served on
-pieces of bark and consisted entirely of roasted potatoes of which
-General Marion ate heartily, requesting his guest to profit by his
-example, repeating the old adage that "Hunger is the best sauce." "But
-surely, General, this cannot be your ordinary fare" said the well fed
-adversary. "Yes it is," replied Marion, "For months at a time my men
-have lived on roasted potatoes, and we are especially fortunate on this
-occasion to be able to provide a double allowance to set before so
-honorable a guest." The young foreigner was so overcome with admiration
-for the brave patriots fighting for their country in such a spirit that
-on his return to Georgetown he retired from the service, declaring
-his conviction that men who could with such cheerfulness, endure the
-privations of such a life, could never be subdued.
-
-The blooming Britisher was right. The God of William Tell, of Cromwell,
-of Washington and Marion, of Garrison and Lincoln, of Moses and of
-Bryan, never has and never will permit such enthusiasm and faith and
-patriotism to go unrewarded. Men with purpose so intense, whose flame
-of patriotism burns so brightly as to consume their love of comfort
-and dependence upon external things, can never be subdued by hired
-Hessians nor the combined forces of opulence, ease and greed.
-
-Going out in such a spirit, demanding three full square meals each
-day for every human being born into the world, yet to obtain this end
-willing ourselves to live like Marion's band on roasted potatoes, like
-the Cuban patriots on sugar cane and berries, or on graham bread and
-apples, or to ease our hunger if necessary by grinding with our teeth
-dry whole wheat, we will in the name of God and humanity take this
-country and rescue our world from those who now make of it a living
-hell.
-
-This unconquerable, independent spirit that rises above physical
-conditions, social limitations, comforts and luxuries, is and always
-has been the conquering spirit of the world, always the sure omen of
-victory.
-
-If Marion and his band could rise superior to physical appetites in
-fighting for thirteen little colonies away off from the great centers
-of civilization; if the followers of Gomez and the immortal Maceo can
-march over perilous mountains and through deadly marshes, suffering
-continually for want of food and drink, and for years swing with almost
-supernatural skill their deadly machetes against the brutal hordes of
-Spain, in order to free one little West India isle, then surely we,
-who see the brutal arm of a united world plutocracy striking down and
-destroying all that has been bought so dearly by Washington, Marion,
-and Lincoln, about to enslave the world's home and refuge of freedom
-for a hundred years, we should not be unwilling to make any sacrifice,
-take any risks, perform any drudgery.
-
-In defending our country we decide the destiny of the human race.
-We fight to make seventy millions of people free and eventually to
-free the world. Ours is the most sublime, the most terrific, the most
-inspiring of all historic struggles.
-
-In fighting we will take the advice and learn what we can from any
-source however humble. We will listen to the hygienist, the vegetarian,
-even to the soup house reformer, if their words will help free us from
-those chains of poverty that paralyze the arm of the ordinary slave
-and make him impotent to strike back against his oppressors.
-
-The man who, because he earns his bread by labor, is looked down upon
-by the companions of his youth and, because of his helplessness and
-his clothes, is fenced out of respectable society, such a man requires
-condensed and highly spiced food. He craves wine and beer and whiskey
-and every condiment and stimulant that can raise his spirits, depressed
-by failure, disappointment and the slow plodding life that offers no
-advancement. Continual drudgery, without opportunity for promotion,
-engulfs man in a gloom uncheered by a ray of hope.
-
-The reformer, the friend of labor, the idealist, the true Christian
-believe that such victims should not only have the best food and drink,
-better clothes and better homes, but that they and their children
-should also have a chance to rise, should never be debarred from
-opportunities for advancement or for utilizing any talent or genius
-before discovered or that may hereafter be discovered, that might lift
-them to a plane of distinction and honor.
-
-We believe in luxury; so much so that we believe every poor man's
-family should have an opportunity to enjoy all those healthful and
-normal luxuries which invention and progress have placed within the
-reach of men. But the greatest of all luxuries, that which is more
-appetizing than pepper or salt or cinnamon or garlic, that which is
-more stimulating than beer or whiskey or even champagne, and which must
-precede in the hearts of the masses the procurement of all these other
-and lesser luxuries, is that divinest gift of Heaven--hope. Give a man
-all the other luxuries that the world affords, and take away hope, and
-his blood thickens, his eye becomes dull, his color heavy and his pulse
-irregular. But allow him only dry bread in the open air and sunlight
-by a flowing brook, and give him hope, and his eye flashes, his heart
-throbs quicken, his face flushes, his muscles harden and all his
-physical and mental powers are ready for instant application.
-
-We, the Volunteers of the New Democracy, have an abundant supply of
-this stimulant more powerful than any liquor, more appetizing than any
-condiment, more soothing than any narcotic, giving power and increased
-facility without reaction. We have hope. We have faith. We have
-purpose. We have absolute knowledge that our cause is just. We know
-that we shall win. We cannot be suppressed. We cannot be put down. The
-world is ours. WE ARE INVINCIBLE.
-
-
-NO RAILWAY PASSES.
-
-In starting out to destroy plutocracy, the first thing the average
-weakling does is to approach some senatorial or congressional tool of
-the very plutocracy that he thinks he is opposing, and ask him to beg
-plutocracy for a weapon to fight it with, free of charge. In other
-words, in opposing the trusts and monopolies, among which the railroad
-monopoly is one of the most tyrannical and corrupt, he asks for a free
-railway pass.
-
-The railroad pass is the most corrupting instrument in American
-politics to-day. It buys for a small price our congressmen and
-senators, our county and state committees of both the Democratic and
-Republican parties, our bosses in both parties, our editors, Democratic
-and Republican, our preachers, Democratic, Republican and Prohibition,
-and many of our Democratic lecturers and speakers. Even many of our
-labor leaders make themselves impotent in this great struggle by
-accepting railroad passes. Our labor statisticians, from the National
-office in Washington to the smallest State branch, aid in smothering
-facts and giving life to fiction in order to ride on railroad passes.
-
-Our speakers, in accepting the gage of battle laid down by plutocracy
-in the late campaign, must neither ask nor accept favors of our
-enemies. We must defy them. Rather than ride on railroad passes we
-should walk.
-
-We should learn from that venerable Cuban patriot, Maximo Gomez,
-who, when offered a sop by the brutal despotism against which he
-was fighting, although it was presented to him by those two eminent
-yet despicable toadies of European tyranny, Messrs. Cleveland and
-Olney, refused point blank to consider their degrading propositions
-and answered: "We do not accept favors of Spain. We hate Spain. Our
-business is not to ask favors but to fight."
-
-
-DEFY THE RAILROADS.
-
-During the late campaign the railroad corporations united not only to
-aid in continuing the gold standard by the use of corporation funds but
-in robbing our people of a free ballot by the most treasonable acts
-of coercion and intimidation. There is not a giant stock jobber, tax
-dodger, labor skinner or other law protected thief in the country who
-has stolen more than one million dollars from widows and orphans and
-other unsuspecting investors, who has not been aided and abetted in his
-nefarious schemes by the railroad corporations. There is not a single
-monopoly nor trust that preys upon legitimate trade and commerce but
-has been fostered in its unnatural growth by railroad discrimination.
-There has not been a single reform advocated for the benefit of the
-common people during the last thirty years, but has been fought
-bitterly by the railway officials.
-
-We cannot destroy plutocracy, we cannot fight the trusts, we cannot
-fight the gold standard unless we are willing to defy the railroads.
-
-If, during our coming Congressional campaign, the railroads continue
-their habit of monarchical coercion and intimidation, depriving
-American citizens of their right to a free ballot, we must be
-sufficiently intelligent and determined to co-operate with the enraged
-and long-suffering people who will then be forced to declare for
-government ownership of all public highways thus destroying, at a
-single blow, this most dangerous and tyrannical form of plutocratic
-despotism.
-
-We cannot afford to ask for railway passes. If we cannot pay our fare
-and cannot secure a horse, WE MUST WALK.
-
-
-BRYAN WAGONS.
-
-Before describing our method of fitting up and sending out Bryan
-wagons, something should be said about the use of the word "Bryan," and
-of Mr. Byran's request that his name should not be used by clubs and
-organizations.
-
-The word Bryan no longer belongs to any one man. It has become the
-common property of all who love liberty. The word Bryan became the cry
-of exultation at the birth of the New Democracy. At this most momentous
-historic event of the present century when an ideal was grasped from
-the upper realm of books, of hope, of morality and religion, brought
-down to the world of fact and embodied in flesh and blood; when what
-before was a dream, a philosophy, an aspiration, suddenly allied itself
-with physical agencies and created a political power that surprised
-the world, the one cry into which the long oppressed millions breathed
-their joy, their hope, their hate, their devotion to their fellows,
-their defiance of their enemies was the magic word, Bryan! Bryan! As
-this one word was repeated and cheered and cried aloud to express both
-hope and anger, promise and defiance, it became sacred. It flitted from
-the possession of the single human mite whom it had pleased God to
-appoint as the herald of the new dispensation, and became the common
-heritage of humanity.
-
-At the Chicago Convention one citizen lost his name, but the world
-found it and the word Bryan became the battle cry of all who fight for
-freedom or strive for justice.
-
-As this individual citizen of Nebraska cannot by any act or blunder in
-the future, efface the mark that he has made upon history's scroll nor
-smother the fire of enthusiasm his eloquence has lighted nor imprison
-again in his single breast the wondrous truths breathed out of it that
-now fill the whole world, so neither shall he rob us of the one magic
-word, once his own, NOW OURS, which, wherever uttered, kindles lethargy
-and inertia into enthusiasm and fills the abode of gloom with the light
-of hope.
-
-The people need a key-note, a battle cry, one single word that
-expresses all they believe and feel and hope. We have such a word. It
-is BRYAN. We intend to keep it and utter it wherever and whenever it
-will cheer us or help our cause. And if again one individual citizen's
-modesty prompts him to interfere with our rights, our only answer will
-be: "Hands off, honored sir," or, in the immortal words of Pennoyer of
-Oregon, "You tend to your business and we, the people, will tend to
-ours."
-
-
-BEST WAY TO START.
-
-Where one or two or three persons are willing to start on a trip from
-town to town, and, with the co-operation of their friends, can secure
-a large covered wagon and two horses with a supply of condensed food,
-we would commend this as the most economical and efficient method
-of campaigning as it affords not only means of transportation, but
-supplies a dwelling house to the occupants, and at the same time,
-by the proper application of paint to the covered wagon, the wagon
-itself and the horses may become living missionaries, continuous and
-convincing speeches in themselves, by their presence protesting against
-the continuation of existing political barbarism. If at the top of the
-cover is painted in large letters, the words, "Bryan wagon," every
-child, every woman in the farthest country district, every passerby,
-whatever be his race, religion or education, will know instantly that
-this wagon, now passing through the country, is one of the army of
-wagons being used in the work preparatory to the decisive battle of
-modern times to be fought in 1900. A few well-chosen sentences painted
-on the wagon and American flags at the top, will make it serve as the
-best possible advertisement for meetings.
-
-
-MAKE YOUR ENEMIES ADVERTISE YOU.
-
-The moment this wagon arrives in town every gossip, every old woman,
-every street gamin, every enemy of Democracy is converted at once into
-an advertising medium for the propaganda of our cause. The wagon, the
-horses, the dried beef, the apples, the whole wheat, the literature and
-everything that the wagon contains become subjects for conversation
-in the village. The Bryan wagon is the center of interest and the
-Volunteers who live in it are objects of curiosity. By meeting time the
-people are prepared to listen with open eyes and open mouths, drinking
-in every word of the speaker's message.
-
-Its work done, the wagon moves on to the next town but the sight of it
-is a powerful aid to the memory of every inhabitant of the village.
-Each will recall time and time again the character of the speakers
-and the words and prophecies that they uttered, so that when the next
-speaker, traveling on his shoe leather or maybe in a palace car wearing
-silk hat and patent leather shoes, arrives and tells the people how
-they can free themselves from the money power, they will remember the
-wagon and the men who lived and traveled in it and spoke from it.
-
-It is well to have the wagon so constructed that, when the time for
-meeting arrives, by removing the top it can be used as a speaker's
-platform and the announcements made from the front seat as it is driven
-from corner to corner.
-
-
-FORWARD, MARCH.
-
-Let a thousand such wagons be started out at once and kept on the road
-for four years visiting every country school district every village
-from Maine to New Mexico and from Texas to Oregon, each carrying an
-abundant supply of literature.
-
-Let every Democrat patronize the Volunteers liberally, purchase from
-each a quantity of literature for distribution and sale and throw in a
-piece of silver as the hat is passed around. When possible supply them
-with substantial and well-cooked meals so that they can better stand
-their heroic diet when they find no friends.
-
-Start the hat agoing at once in each community, and let the town or the
-county that purchases a Bryan wagon put the name of such county, town
-or village on the cover. Let counties in Colorado, Arkansas and Texas
-fit out such wagons and start them toward the heathen territory of
-Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland.
-
-
-ABOLISH NAKEDNESS AT HOME BEFORE GOING ABROAD.
-
-Let the money heretofore sent by our religious friends to teach the
-naked savages of foreign islands to be ashamed of their nakedness and
-to desire clothes, be applied now to the conversion of America to the
-conviction that every citizen of our own country who wants clothes
-should have a chance to earn them. If America is destroyed by that
-arch-devil worship, gold idolatry, if our Republic goes down amid the
-horrors of a violent revolution and military despotism, following in
-the footsteps of Rome and Greece and Egypt, what will result from
-our missions in foreign lands? They will become relics of the past
-because no possible teaching can then convince the poor heathen that
-our religion is a saving power. When the very country from which
-the missionaries come is the helpless victim of greed, avarice and
-organized crime, how are other races to be tempted to follow our
-example? Let us rather turn our missionary money for the next four
-years, ALL OF IT, into the coffers of the New Democracy, and start our
-wagons toward the doubtful states from every Democratic and Populist
-stronghold. Let the more civilized people of Missouri, Kansas and
-Nebraska, where the creed of progress has reached the greatest altitude
-in earth's history, share their increased physical, intellectual and
-moral development with the less progressive and more barbarous states
-that fringe the ocean uniting us with decaying Europe.
-
-Such friendly action will not only be rewarded by the satisfaction that
-always follows a righteous act, but the givers will be blessed of God.
-Nothing that a man can do, or a woman, or a child, will accomplish more
-good in this world or gain greater reward in the land of the hereafter,
-than the giving of their dollars and dimes and pennies for the starting
-of Bryan wagons. In this way the western and southern centers of
-thought and unselfish patriotism may uplift and educate those states
-where greed, political corruption and the infamies of Hannaism still
-hold undisputed sway.
-
-Let the churches of the Western states hold entertainments, let
-suppers, masked balls, ice cream socials, cider picnics and barbecues
-be held by the good women of every village and the proceeds devoted to
-the equipment of "Bryan wagons." And after they are started out, each
-well provisioned with literature, blankets and food, and containing
-two good speakers and workers, the good women who raised the money to
-start them should continue their benign activities and proceed at once
-to raise a fund to keep on hand, so that when our missionaries send
-tidings of persecution, accident or neglect, they can be answered at
-once by a generous remittance.
-
-In order to insure the permanency of the venture, and that the wagon
-and horses may continue to serve the cause even if the men traveling
-with them desert their posts, a bill of sale or transfer of the wagon
-and horses should be sent to our National headquarters or to our state
-officers on the day of departure. The friends of the organization would
-then be communicated with in advance wherever the wagon went, and in
-case either one or both the speakers tired or deserted, the vacancies
-would be filled at once from headquarters, and in the meantime the
-horses and wagon would be cared for.
-
-
-OUTDOOR MUSIC.
-
-There can be no greater aid to the success of a "Bryan wagon" than for
-the volunteers to carry with them and be able to play a banjo, guitar,
-violin, or small organ. Music is one of the world's forces and as rare
-music, like all rare things, is a very small part of the whole, it
-is not necessary that our music be of that sort. If we have the best
-arguments, we can afford to let the other side have the best music.
-But we must not, for this reason, give up music altogether. Therefore
-a man who is proficient in any musical instrument that can be played
-out doors, is a valuable acquisition to a Bryan wagon. But by far the
-most popular and most effective music in the world, if well rendered,
-is the exercise of the human voice in song.[6] To open a meeting with
-music always strikes a sympathetic chord with the people. It aids and
-strengthens every word that follows. If our speakers do not know how to
-sing when they start out, they should practice singing our songs until
-they do know. This should be part of the young speaker's education.
-
- [6] A volume of songs, prepared for our volunteer work, and
- for all sorts of Democratic meetings, will be ready shortly,
- and can be obtained of our National Bureau or from any of our
- volunteers.
-
-
-STEREOPTICON PICTURES.
-
-Another advantage of the "Bryan wagon" is that it can carry a certain
-amount of baggage the "shoe leather traveler" cannot possibly take
-with him. For those who do not possess an unusual oratorical talent, a
-small stereopticon or magic lantern with views picturing the principles
-of the New Democracy in effective colors, will prove a valuable
-aid. Reform stereopticon views have been produced in great variety,
-and the method of enlisting the eye wherever possible to strengthen
-the impressions made through the ear is sound policy. In securing
-collections for the payment of expenses, the average citizen is more
-likely to give his nickel or dime towards the support of the travelers
-if he has heard a dime's worth of music or seen a dime's worth of
-comic and interesting pictures in addition to instruction gotten
-through the medium of the speaker's voice.
-
-
-BICYCLES AND DEMOCRACY.
-
-Where a man doesn't care to walk, and where it is inconvenient or
-distasteful to travel by means of the "Bryan wagon," that most modern
-and popular conveyance, the bicycle, should not be despised as a means
-of disseminating truth. The bicycle is one of the revolutionary factors
-of our age. It is the enemy of tobacco, liquor and all other vices that
-arise from abnormal desires created by a sedentary life. It is the
-friend of health, strength, red cheeks and clear heads. Where there are
-good roads it is an excellent means of travel, and a strong wheelman
-can easily speak every night at a different town by using the wheel,
-and still have plenty of time to advertise each outdoor meeting.
-
-A bicycle, too, is an excellent companion to a Bryan wagon, because
-while the wagon is slowly moving from one village to another, the
-wheelman can be scouring along the side roads distributing small
-circulars to the scattered countrymen, telling them of the meeting
-in the next town the coming day or night. In fact, one of the most
-important truths for every friend of the New Democracy to learn while
-very young, is that our enemy, plutocracy, utilizes every invention
-and element of civilization for the perpetuation of its power. In
-opposing plutocracy we cannot be narrow, prejudiced, superstitious, nor
-allow preconceived ideas as to dignity, custom, personal appearance or
-respectability, to interfere with our free motion and our energetic
-conflict.
-
-We fight with every weapon that by any honorable means can be secured.
-We travel by every means that will emancipate us from the limitations
-of time, space and poverty. We accept as allies every friend who
-will aid in impressing upon our fellow mortals the solemnity of the
-opportunity that confronts them and the malignity of the enemy that is
-destroying our common race and country.
-
-Grasp every force in earth, in sea, in air, which by ingenuity, wisdom,
-persistence, or heroism can be utilized in lessening human pain or
-adding to human joy; which can be of service in forwarding these grand
-principles that will, by one social and political transition, abolish
-the primary sources of human misery.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-SALOON MEETINGS.
-
-
-A young man, of splendid physique, of bright and formidable eye, the
-very picture of strength and courage, who became an admirer of Mr.
-Bryan during the late campaign, and, after careful and extensive
-reading forsook the Republican party, embraced the New Democracy and
-enlisted the week following the election as a Volunteer Speaker and
-worker. He is an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association
-and of the Christian Endeavor Society.
-
-The first meeting he was asked to attend was held over a saloon. This
-image of youthful power and courage walked through the bar-room of the
-saloon with a disparaging air, sat down at a table beside the writer,
-answered a few questions in a gloomy and dissatisfied manner and said
-diplomatically that he had an engagement at another end of the city
-and could not remain. He had promised to help arrange another meeting
-a few blocks away and the next day partly fulfilled that promise by
-carrying a bundle of circulars from the printing office to two men who
-were to distribute them. He then suddenly dropped out of sight and has
-never, so far as the movement is concerned, shown up since.
-
-It has been learned that to a fellow churchman he remarked that he had
-been attracted by the high and noble ideals of Mr. Bryan, had expected
-to work for the cause, but that his attendance at a meeting in a
-saloon was so offensive to him that he lost all heart and had given up
-participation in the movement in consequence.
-
-This man is only the type of a considerable class who would like to
-have their fellow beings clean but would never help wash them, who
-would dearly love to have them good but are too narrow to help save
-them; who admire the poetry of patriotism but who cowardly shrink from
-those sterner duties of which patriotism consists.
-
-Think of a follower of Jesus Christ refusing to preach patriotism to
-men because they are gathered in or over a saloon, after having been
-denied the opportunity of meeting in a church or even a church yard.
-If Jesus Christ had been so squeamish and "gentlemanly" as to have
-confined his services to the respectable people, the early church would
-have died before it was born. In no age has there been sufficient
-vitality in the classes that call themselves respectable to give
-permanent form to any social or religious movement. Those who wish to
-do great things only in a respectable manner never do great things. A
-man cannot at the same time be both great and respectable.
-
-In order to be respectable, he must stifle genius and cover with the
-ashes of artificiality all the deepest passions of the soul. He must
-destroy his individuality and trim his sympathies as he does his beard,
-like the barbarous Northmen when they entered Rome.
-
-Love for humanity that can be checked or dissipated by inartistic
-surroundings, contact with vice or the coarse companionship of
-intemperate men is not love at all, it is a mere fad, a fitful remnant
-of a religious instinct long since eaten out from within.
-
-Imagine a mother talking about how she loves to have her baby clean
-and sweet and wholesome, and then picture her refusing to undergo the
-hardship required in making her child sweet and clean and wholesome.
-Such a mother would be no mother at all, unless, perchance, a
-stepmother or mother-in-law.
-
-The young man referred to is a typical specimen of a sniveling,
-impracticable and worthless counterfeit of religion, the only function
-of which is to emasculate and weaken our youth. It serves to ease their
-consciences and displace the instincts that prompt to goodness. For
-courageous self-sacrifice, it substitutes the mumbling of prayers;
-instead of active, righteous contact with the world it demands the
-attendance at meetings in which love is expressed toward a phantasy
-millions of miles up into the stars, while the Living God of Heaven and
-earth is forgotten, and where imprecation, denunciation and charges of
-wickedness are dealt out to those manly and courageous persons who lift
-out a helping hand to the poor instead of praying for them and who
-fight to make this world and this life heavenly instead of paying their
-debts to their fellow creatures with mansions in the skies.
-
-The refusal of this young man who, according to his own statement,
-believed that the future welfare of the Nation depended upon the
-triumph of the principles represented by Mr. Bryan, to assist in
-spreading those principles in saloon meetings, means that his religious
-and social training had unfitted him to do any great or noble thing,
-unless in conformity with his Sunday-school manufactured tastes as to
-nicety and elegance.
-
-The young man sees the giant tree, injustice, and offers to assist in
-cutting it down but, when we hand him an ax, refuses to take off his
-coat and returns it saying that his little hatchet at home has a blue
-ribbon around it and that he won't cut with any other.
-
-He sings "Rescue the Perishing" at the Christian Endeavor meeting, a
-pretty girl with pink cheeks and cherry lips on each side. The cheeks
-and lips and song are so pleasing, he thinks he will go further and
-help rescue the perishing. After careful study he is satisfied that
-people are perishing for want of his friendly services and the services
-of others like himself. Yet, when he is assigned a place to work, he
-abruptly leaves his post of duty and goes back to prayer meeting,
-because, poor boy, no carpet is on the floor, no angel pictures grace
-the wall, and the tobacco smoke about him is offensive.
-
-Innocent creature! Let him continue to sing his hymns and say his
-prayers surrounded by pretty girls In the Christian Endeavor meeting
-and pretty boys who should have been born girls, while the great forces
-of reform fight the battles of the living God, conquer evil, destroy
-injustice and lift up the fallen. We can do without him and without his
-kind.
-
-Not that we want to. We do not. We need all possible help. We will
-not judge harshly all those who now are given over to such innocent
-amusements. For the delicate white hand, the girlish student face, the
-timid mamma's boy, taken from the prayer meeting and the Christian
-Endeavor Society, once taught to see the great truths of social
-salvation and human progress, does not always retreat in holy horror
-when confronted with conflict and the smoke of battle. On the other
-hand, such timid, singing, praying boys often become National heroes.
-Before manhood is discovered by the growth of hair on the face, manly
-character sometimes reaches maturity, with qualities developed, not
-only superior to tobacco smoke at a saloon meeting, and the naughty
-cuss words of the fellows who drink there, but to the smoke of powder
-and the thunder of cannon.
-
-Do not overlook nor belittle soft men, but ignore only those who stay
-soft after you have tried the hardening process. For where one heart
-may be formed of milk and water, the liquid state of another may be
-that of molten steel, and may only require the cooling process of an
-outdoor breeze to make it withstand the continuous persecution and
-conflict of years.
-
-There is no unholy place where men should not go who are fired by
-a passion for justice. It is a fact that one of the centers of the
-social life of the great cities of America and of Europe is the liquor
-saloon. How much we may deplore this fact or the evil results that we
-see flowing from it, is entirely another question. The fact remains in
-spite of our deploring, our shocked ideals or our sympathies wrung by
-the desolation and death caused by it, that the center of the social
-life of our great cities, the place where society meets, (not that
-floating, top-heavy buoy that calls itself society, but real society,
-the people) is the liquor saloon.
-
-At present it is managed in America, not with any reference whatever to
-its social function, but merely for the private profit of individuals.
-In order to increase their private profits and to defend their special
-interests, the men who manage these saloons, as a general rule, abuse
-their powers and add inconceivably to the horrors of the vice of
-intemperence trying, by unnatural and vicious methods, to increase
-their gain.
-
-Not only this, but as the saloon is the center of the social life of
-our American cities, the proprietors of saloons and the manufacturers
-of liquors, who have associated their interests, have a terrible
-and unnatural advantage in controlling the political power of the
-people with whom they come in contact. They do not have to go where
-the people are because the saloon keeper, in the natural and usual
-performance of his business, is already in the midst of the people. He
-always has a crowd. He is the greatest preacher of modern times. He
-does not have to invent new methods for REACHING THE MASSES. He does
-not have to scratch his bald head and say, "O, Lord! why are my sheep
-deserting me?" The saloon keeper always has a congregation, always
-a choir, is always surrounded by men in need of a friend, and, like
-other members of the human family having a strange mixture of greed
-and sympathy, cruelty and fellow-feeling, he exercises his charitable
-instincts and lends a material helping hand to the members of his
-congregation quite as often as do the five thousand and twenty thousand
-dollar a year ministers who preach not to men drinking, but often to
-men who have already drunk their fill.
-
-The saloon keeper preacher, however, lacks one advantage possessed by
-his more fortunate compeer of the church pulpit, for, where a member
-of the saloon congregation has a perfect right to answer back and
-correct misstatements, slanders and unjust vituperation, the friend
-of the common people who happens into the fashionable city church
-service must bite his lips and remain silent while the name of Jesus,
-the revolutionist, the poor man's friend, is used to strengthen vile
-calumny against His brave modern apostles who are fighting to realize
-practically in government the principles represented by the cross.
-
-Therefore, one of the most promising fields for the social reformer,
-for the man who drinks beer and the man who drinks water, for the man
-who smokes cigars and the man who washes his teeth before every meal
-with charcoal powder and lives on vegetables, is the liquor saloon. It
-is always open and you can go in without buying. You can take a seat
-free of charge and you can talk. You have as much right to talk as
-the bartender, and even if opposed to your principles, good business
-judgment, if no other motive, prompts the average saloon keeper to be
-tolerant. He cannot afford to drive away any large percentage of his
-customers. You have a right, and even in the Republican saloons you
-can get permission to declare the gospel of monopoly's downfall in the
-back room, in the hall upstairs or in the main saloon, once a week,
-without paying anything for heat, light or hall rent. These are already
-furnished for the people who now go there. You do not need to advertise
-the meeting, for there is always a crowd about the saloon. After you
-have held two or three meetings they will grow in size and draw the
-frequenters from other resorts.
-
-The average saloon crowd is as open to conviction and as ready to be
-taught concerning the moralizing of government and the establishment of
-justice in the world as the average church congregation, and they will
-treat you as civilly and listen as attentively even though every man
-present disagrees with you.
-
-Let the hundreds of saloons throughout our great cities be selected
-as a mission field for the new gospel of manliness and brotherhood.
-Christ went among publicans and wine-bibbers. We can afford to go among
-wine-bibbers, even when they are Republicans. Our crowd may be small
-at times but the kind of work that moves the world and builds up
-civilization is work that is regular and continuous.
-
-Let the Volunteers organize by twos, and the one, two or three evenings
-a week that they can give to the cause, let those who choose this
-work go to a saloon and tell the fellows there that under a proper
-social system, each one of them can afford to have a home as sociable
-and homelike and comfortable as a saloon; that, after they declare
-their independence of the party whip, and, instead of obeying parties,
-command them to do their bidding, they can soon have such opportunities
-that they won't have to drink to forget their troubles, because they
-will have no troubles; that they won't have to drink in order to
-imagine that they are happy, because they will have real happiness;
-that after the gold standard and monopoly are overthrown, there will be
-a hundred different pleasures and opportunities opened to them, that
-these will produce intoxication just as delicious as that produced
-by wine and beer, and that every poor man who wants to drink will be
-allowed to drink, not slops and refuse, but the same fluids that now
-give the gout and dropsy to die millionaire.
-
-The way to get up a saloon meeting is to see the proprietor, tell him
-you are a Democrat, not a fraudulent, makebelieve hypocrite, using
-the Democratic name to defeat Democratic principles, not an agent of
-the gold bugs trying to corrupt the Democratic party, not an attorney
-for monopoly attempting to pervert the Democratic organization to
-help millionaires rob Democratic voters, but that you are a real
-dyed-in-the-wool, anti-monopoly, Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, Bryan
-Democrat, standing with all fours on the Chicago platform, the enemy of
-its enemies, the foe of its traducers, and the opponent, uncompromising
-and implacable of every man who upholds the infamous British Rothschild
-gold standard of money. Tell him that you would like to talk to his
-customers and a few others in his place every week, and show them how,
-by united political action in the Democratic party, they can be made
-just as happy as if they were drunk seven days each week.
-
-He will let you come, and if you talk straight from the shoulder, you
-will have a larger crowd at the second meeting than at the first. If
-you keep the work up a year continuously, you will not only have your
-name enrolled in the book of heroes, kept by the Democratic leaders,
-but also in the book kept by the Divinity who guides the Nations. You
-will be rewarded in this world for your sacrificing labor if you live
-until the people crush monopoly, and if not, you will at least have
-that consciousness of duty done which knows no time nor space.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-THE HEROIC AND PROSAIC.
-
-
-Heroism and the spirit of martyrdom and of self-sacrifice are
-historical factors as real, as tangible and as much a part of human
-nature as greed or hunger. The young Volunteers who forsake home,
-business and personal ambition to help save our Nation from the money
-power, starting in the name of humanity astride bicycles, horseback,
-afoot and in Bryan wagons, preaching the new gospel of glad tidings
-without money and without price, eating whole wheat, dry bread and
-apples, with a square meal only now and then to remind them of the good
-times coming, are not impelled by any strange or new force in society.
-They are not the disciples of a new cult or ism, the latest off-shot
-from the great tree of life. They are not a new product of civilization
-but on the other hand they are the real conservative and belong to the
-true nobility of the human race, that brotherhood of heroes, patriots
-and martyrs of all ages and nations, as old as the human family itself.
-
-On the other hand, the essentially NEW PRODUCT of our civilization is
-the man who does not believe in heroism, who has stifled the nobler
-instincts with which nature originally endowed him, and fills his
-whole mind's horizon with the one image of gold. Those in whose minds
-avarice has devoured all other instincts and desires to the point of
-moral insanity, are the only strange or new off-shoots. They alone
-are the special and characteristic product of our particular period,
-distinguished above all else by its complete surrender to the one
-passion--greed. The real cranks and monstrosities are not those who are
-in line with historic humanity, but rather those who have crucified
-their humanity on "a cross of gold" in accord with a temporary social
-perversion.
-
-
-HEROISM AND SOMETHING MORE.
-
-Some say it is the weakness of our movement that we depend too much
-on heroism and patriotism and other of the weaker instincts and
-uncertain qualities of human nature and therefore the movement must
-fail. Successful movements appeal to the more substantial motives and
-instincts, such as cupidity, sectional pride, etc.
-
-While it is true that we appeal first of all to the patriotism of our
-citizens, to the heroic in man and to those deep religious and moral
-sentiments of which heroism and patriotism are the highest product, and
-while it is true that we regard these sentiments when fully drawn out
-and properly applied, and during great occasions of National peril, as
-being stronger than cupidity, sectional pride, or even regard for life,
-and that the exercise of these qualities by vast bodies of men have
-repeatedly, during each century throughout the history of our race,
-saved the dominance of the Caucasian race and all those principles and
-institutions that give value to the modern world, and, while we intend
-during the four years to come, preparatory to the greatest crisis of
-history, to continue to appeal first and foremost and all the time to
-patriotism and heroism, love of justice and fellow feeling, still, we
-intend to utilize every force and every means that will aid in bringing
-about the better world for which we hope.
-
-We recognize that while in a moment of enthusiastic ardor, a man will
-give his life for a principle, and that during hours of deep religious
-fervor, brought about by the preaching of gifted orators, people
-renounce their old ways of living and often divide up their property
-with the church and the poor, that such occasions are comparatively
-rare, while every man born of woman desires food about three times a
-day, that he desires clothing and suffers for the want of it during
-every one of his sleeping and waking hours, that during a large portion
-of his life intense feelings and regard are turned toward some woman,
-and that nearly all men are at nearly all times vain, not in any bad
-sense, but that they desire the respect and the confidence of their
-fellow men, and when opportunity offers, strive to be conspicuous and
-influential, and desire to be feared and loved and admired for unusual
-qualities, possessions or acts.
-
-Therefore, to make our movement completely and wholly successful,
-we appeal first to patriotism and heroism, the noblest and highest
-qualities produced by centuries of religious and moral training, but
-secondarily we appeal to men's ambition, their love of gain, their
-desire to eat, to be clothed, to marry, to become influential, their
-vanity, their imagination, their love of activity and all the qualities
-that they possess.
-
-It does not lessen a soldier's courage for him to know that if
-victorious in battle he is to be promoted, or that if a city is taken
-or a country conquered, he is to have a plantation where he can rest
-in peace when his gray hairs come with his children healthy and happy
-about him. There is no need to dissect with the surgeon's knife of
-close analysis the motives and minds of men in order to separate every
-little vanity from the noble and unselfish impulses with which it is
-interwoven, nor to cut away and lay apart from the strong patriotic
-desire to serve one's country, every little individual and personal
-hope that in the event one's country is served and saved, those who
-bear the brunt of the battle will be especially favored and secure
-first recognition in the universal enjoyment consequent upon such
-victory. By taking human nature as we find it with its admixture of the
-heroic and prosaic, its mingling of selfish and altruistic aims, we
-seek to make every impulse serve the cause of humanity by contributing
-to the one end--triumphant Democracy.
-
-
-THE ROLL OF HONOR.
-
-The most important feature of the Democratic Volunteers' organization,
-is the honor roll, on which is recorded the work done by each
-Volunteer. To all faithful workers are issued semi-annually
-certificates of honor, and to those who perform services of unusual
-merit special medals and other awards of recognition.
-
-One copy of the honor roll is kept by the National leaders in a
-safe-deposit in St. Louis, and a duplicate copy by the great leader of
-Democracy at his home.
-
-By this system, each worker knows that everything he does is recorded
-at headquarters, and is kept there for all future time for reference
-by our national leaders, when they wish, either in asking for services
-or bestowing favors, to find the real, deserving, fighting material
-in our party. Each worker knows, also, that it is the end of the
-unjust custom, whereby one or two loud-mouthed adventurers, who have
-done nothing but who claim all, in the hour of victory cast aside the
-unselfish workers, whose years of patient labor gained the victory.
-With an account kept of the sacrifices made, the clubs organized, the
-members secured by each party worker in our country, there can be no
-more climbing into favor on the shoulders of others, but, instead,
-each man stands on his own bottom, reaping the fruit and recognition
-of his own work, and is assigned to leadership as the result of the
-exercise of his own genius and talents. At present, every Congressman,
-Governor or President elected to office, is punished sufficiently to
-offset all the pleasures and satisfactions of having been successful
-by the impossible task of trying to disentangle the various claims of
-the men who helped elect him. But no such discordant scramble need ever
-recur, for the Volunteers will, in the future, keep an exact history
-of the service rendered by every party worker, and, in Congressional
-parlance, each fellow will know exactly "where he is at." The system is
-as carefully thought out and perfected as that of any standing army.
-
-The roll of honor appeals to the strongest instincts in man, which
-have been utilized in every successful social or religious movement
-since the dawn of history. If he is vain, it appeals to his vanity.
-If heroic, it stimulates his heroism. If ambitious, he sees the way
-to get place and position is to merit them by faithful work and that
-they cannot be had by cheating the rightful owners out of the fruits of
-their victories, to which he has not contributed.
-
-In the Catholic Church and in many other institutions through all the
-centuries, as among the followers of Napolean and Caesar, men have
-often given up their lives for a medal or a bit of ribbon. For such
-rewards England to-day gets almost as much service as from her vast
-pay-roll.
-
-By proper organization, vanity can be made to offset cupidity. It
-is as strong an instinct, and we have the means of satisfying it.
-To-day the name of England's Queen cannot inspire as great enthusiasm
-in the majority of the English speaking race, as does the name of
-William Jennings Bryan. The enthusiasm now aroused has sufficient
-force to accomplish all our ends. What we need is simply to harness
-this Niagara, organize this power, and apply it systematically and
-continuously. It can be done. It is being done. Never in the history of
-our country has the year following a great political campaign been the
-scene of such a rejuvenation of the defeated party as has taken place
-since our late repulse.
-
-As every plant must shoot down two roots for sustenance, before
-putting forth a new twig, so we have decided to plant the roots of
-our organization prolifically throughout the Southern and Western
-states, where our cause is strong, thereby securing the support for
-a continuous and aggressive campaign before sending our Volunteers
-into the doubtful states and those still given over to the idolatrous
-worship of the golden calf.
-
-Each congressional district in the Southern and Western states can
-be made by contributions of one cent, five cents, ten cents at a
-time, collected by the Volunteer Speakers, to support permanently one
-organizer in Republican territory.
-
-There are many different ways to work. One is by educating and
-agitating and by advancing our principles indoors and outdoors upon
-every possible occasion by public speeches. Another is to go to
-work quietly, and, by personal man-to-man solicitation, to organize
-regular ward or precinct clubs in one's own town or county. This is
-the first thing to be done, where no regular Democratic club exists
-independent of boodling bosses. But, anyhow, get five true and tried
-workers enlisted and forward their names to headquarters. They will
-then receive monthly instructions for carrying on and enlarging the
-work. When a club is already formed, the Volunteer is to build it up
-by increasing its membership and educating its members, and defeating,
-as club officers, any man who is known to apologize for the existence
-of any monopoly whatever. After this try to establish a league of
-the clubs in the county, city or state, known to be formed on right
-principles.
-
-In the centuries to come, there will be no prouder title to boast of,
-no higher family honor, no more distinctive mark of aristocracy, than
-this record in black and white that one's forefather belonged to the
-band of patriots who, through four years of persecution and struggle,
-succeeded in driving from American soil, that last representative of
-historic tyranny, organized plutocracy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-PRACTICAL POLITICS.
-
-
-In a cause as holy as ours, false modesty is as unwise as false
-dignity. When we realize that money represents human effort, that it
-gives multiplied power either in war or peace and that the possession
-of money, with its accompanying power to an almost unlimited extent,
-is enjoyed by our enemies, it is well for us to admit at the start
-that we, every Volunteer of us, must make constant efforts wherever
-speaking or working, to raise funds, on however small a scale, for the
-great work before us. One humble but time-honored method, which has
-proved useful in every popular movement, recorded in history, is that
-of "taking up a collection." People may laugh at it and the collections
-be small but we must not be deterred by ridicule nor discouraged by the
-apparent insignificance of the returns. This is the only way to give
-all the people systematically and persistently a chance to contribute
-according to ability to the cause that means liberty and the opening
-of opportunity to them. Therefore, let no speaker listen to advice from
-the timid and over-modest, who shrink from the sneers and taunts of
-the over-nice, but at every meeting let them pass around the hat after
-the manner of our forefathers. We must also remember that in every
-audience, however small, there may be some penitent Croesus awake to
-existing evils but as yet with no clear vision of a remedy, with power
-and will to help but lacking knowledge as to where such help should be
-given. Sudden conversions are not unknown where the message of truth is
-delivered with sincerity and simplicity. There are thousands of rich
-men at this moment who, if properly appealed to, would give liberally
-to the cause that to them seemed likely to promote the general welfare.
-There are many human hearts now waiting, like the Pool of Bethesda, for
-the angel's touch, which shall "trouble" their calm and transform them
-into sources of healing for the woes of humanity. No speaker knows but
-he may be the one destined to open up these closed fountains of power.
-The heights and depths of human nature lie beyond our ordinary vision.
-A man's power of response to an appeal in behalf of those who suffer is
-not always graven on his forehead, so that "he that runneth may read."
-In any audience there may be some listener, apparently indifferent, in
-whom all the preliminary processes of conversion have already taken
-place, and who needs only the warm breath of an atmosphere charged with
-unselfish enthusiasm to complete the work of regeneration. Such cases
-are on record. Within a few years, the gift of a million dollars was
-received by the promoters of a reform movement in New York, not from an
-habitual contributor to such enterprises, but from a sudden convert,
-a man ordinarily cold and indifferent to humanitarian movements, and
-before unresponsive to his brothers' needs. Perhaps it was not the need
-that previously had failed to stir his heart, but only the methods of
-helping that had not satisfied his mind. There are rich men and women
-to-day, honestly desirous of bringing about better social conditions
-and willing to make sacrifices to that end, but who, so far, have found
-none of the methods suggested practicable. To such we may appeal with
-certainty of response, thereby being furnished with the sinews of war
-by those who owe their wealth to the very system we oppose.
-
-And why not? Because a man has been thrown into a brutal and wasteful
-contest and has come victorious from the struggle is no reason why
-he should wish his children and humanity at large to be forced into
-another of the same kind. Such a man well knows that he, too, in spite
-of apparent success, is also a victim. He sees the possibilities of
-life under a better social system--the order, the beauty, the harmony,
-the possible development of higher faculties and extinction of those
-that link him with the brutes. All this he sees, and even while
-scrambling with the rest for possession of the booty, he would hail
-with joy any change that promised to relieve his children from a like
-sad necessity.
-
-Starve fifty Sunday school teachers for a week, lock them in a cage
-together, throw in a roast of beef, a plum pudding, a pitcher of soup,
-a plate of pickles and a pot of beans, at the same time telling each
-to get what he can, as no more will be furnished for a month; and a
-swinish scramble will at once ensue, in which two thirds of the food
-will be wasted, and in the end one man will have a pocket full of plum
-pudding, another a handful of pickles, and the strongest the roast beef
-to himself in a corner.
-
-Let it be understood that he who gets the roast beef is no worse than
-the others, nor will he, because of his success, NECESSARILY favor
-an indefinite continuation of such brutal scrambling. The difference
-between him and the least successful is a difference in strength, NOT
-NECESSARILY A DIFFERENCE IN AIM. To-day, most men are actuated by the
-same spirit. To desire success and a share of life's gifts is right
-and normal. It is the political system under which we live that has
-transformed this natural and healthy impulse into a devilish desire to
-absorb not only all wealth but all opportunities.
-
-To remedy this radical evil, it is not enough to change individuals;
-we must change the system. It is, of course, to be expected that the
-impulse to change our present barbarous monopolistic methods will
-come from those who have failed in the scramble for riches. For the
-possession of wealth naturally tends to promote in the minds of those
-who possess it, a certain degree of satisfaction with the methods
-by which it has been acquired and a tendency to oppose any change.
-A spirit of toadyism and fear of social ostracism also induces many
-to sacrifice their highest ideals. Great fortunes often destroy the
-independence which it might be supposed they would secure to their
-possessors; yet, in spite of the temptations of wealth and the
-unwritten, but none the less rigidly enforced mandates of a heartless
-society, not a few are ready to make the required sacrifices in order
-to advance the interests of our common humanity.
-
-To such partially awakened minds, it ought not to be difficult to show
-that the times are ripe for a solution of existing problems other than
-that offered by charitable associations. For eighteen centuries the
-Good Samaritan has been the working model of the church and society,
-yet the number of the wounded and robbed on the world's highway has so
-increased that the gigantic systems of modern charity are inadequate
-to meet the increasing demands upon them. Why? The answer is clear. No
-very keen intelligence is required to see that one very important duty
-has been neglected by the Good Samaritans of all times. Occupied with
-caring for the wounded, they have neglected to hunt down the thieves,
-who have accordingly increased in numbers and boldness. It is time for
-us to leave effects and study causes, to organize at once to hunt down
-the thieves, for, when these are routed, there will be fewer victims
-on whom to exercise charity. Why plan educational and charitable
-institutions in the slums when the causes that produce the slums are
-left untouched? Why add another to the five hundred churches of a great
-city, when the influence of the money power makes the preaching of
-the real gospel well nigh impossible,[7] thus largely destroying the
-usefulness of those already built? Instead of new homes of charity,
-let us organize to end the need for charity. Instead of building one
-new school, the true educator will ally himself with those forces that
-seek, through public action, to place education within the reach of
-all. Instead of building a new church, the devout Christian or Jew will
-divide his substance with the party that aims to make possible the
-application of the principles of religion to the everyday affairs of
-life and to all social institutions.
-
- [7] A letter lies before me now from a talented and earnest
- young minister of the Episcopal church, in which the writer
- despairingly declares that he dare not preach the social and
- economic doctrines of Christ, lest he bring ruin upon his wife
- and children. "The money-power," he declares, "has control of
- the church and Christ's ministers must either trim their sails
- to catch the wind of its favor or suffer temporal shipwreck.
- It is easy to say that the Christian should be ready to meet
- any martyrdom, but it is equally true that it is not from
- within the bosom of the church that such trials should come."
-
-Never was there a cause that appealed more strongly than ours to a
-man's generous instincts. In the middle ages all Europe was fired by
-the idea of wresting the Holy Sepulchre from infidel hands; to-day
-Greek and Cuban patriots are laying everything upon their country's
-altar for the sake of national honor and freedom. Our cause is nobler,
-larger than any of these. Not Christ's tomb, but the race He died
-to redeem; not an insignificant nation, but humanity is through us
-pleading to be rescued and restored to liberty. Our appeal is not to a
-class, a church or a nation; it is to MEN for MAN.
-
-ONE DOLLAR GIVEN TO OUR CAUSE WILL ACCOMPLISH MORE FOR THE ALLEVIATION
-OF HUMAN SUFFERING, FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE CIVILIZATION, THAN
-FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS SPENT FOR ANY COLLEGE, CHARITY OR CHURCH. As
-hundreds of poor men have sacrificed all they possessed, given up home
-and the comforts of family life, to travel from town to town urging
-the principles of the New Democracy; so will there be rich men, who,
-feeling their RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANITY TO BE MORE BINDING than any ties
-uniting them with a selfish class, will also give up the larger part of
-what they have and lay it on the altar of their country.
-
-Those who feel the divine impulse to give to this movement will give
-double by giving promptly, and will have the added personal joy of
-seeing some of the results of their generosity. Not all the results,
-because each dollar given to this cause starts a train of consequences
-for the happiness of men and for the peace of society that will
-continue as long as this old earth is inhabited by mortals. The effect
-of every penny, given by the smallest child or the poorest servant
-girl, may produce results for good that will be felt by mankind through
-all the generations to come.
-
-It is not unreasonable for us to ask for constantly, and to expect
-to receive a single donation of a million dollars sometime during
-the coming four years. Such donations have many times been given to
-causes less holy than ours, and in emergencies not to be compared to
-it in importance. We can in reason hope for several gifts of not less
-than twenty-five thousand dollars each, and many of not less than one
-thousand dollars, and thousands of lesser gifts proportionate to the
-purses of the poor who will regard it not as a duty, but as a privilege
-to thus co-operate with God. Such amounts have been subscribed to a
-single college and to a single religious denomination within the memory
-of the youngest reader. Can we not rationally expect that even more
-will be given to the movement which is to multiply many times the
-usefulness of all colleges and churches?
-
-But do not trim your sails nor adapt your arguments to the rich, in
-order to secure donations, but speak bravely and fearlessly in behalf
-of justice and the rights of the people, and, if special selfish
-interests are thereby alienated, unselfish interests will be drawn to
-us.
-
-Although generous help may be expected from those who have been
-enriched by the very system that we seek to destroy, nevertheless it
-is a fact that, as a class, the rich are satisfied with the system
-of injustice that has given them their riches, and, as a class, will
-oppose now, as they have opposed during all history, every reform or
-change that promises improvement to the masses. Therefore the bulk of
-the money to be raised for the people's cause must probably be given by
-the people themselves according to their means.
-
-We should for this reason not only call for donations and pass around
-the hat at meetings when the people are enthusiastic, but, in forming
-clubs in every township throughout our country, we should try to induce
-each to appoint its most active and popular man as Treasurer, and
-especially to instruct him to collect every week or month, a regular
-subscription, HOWEVER SMALL, from every friend of our movement in his
-community. In this way, we can establish a system similar to "Peter's
-Pence," and the missionary contributions of the Protestant churches,
-and raise a fund during the coming four years that will be a wonder to
-ourselves and a menace to our enemies.
-
-It may be asked, if the Volunteer Speakers work without pay, many of
-them living on heroic diet and traveling on foot, what need of money?
-To this it may be replied that the legitimate and honest uses for money
-in promoting any cause are too many to enumerate. The field is large
-and workers of many kinds are needed. Though many of our speakers will
-travel and work continuously without compensation and the vast majority
-will give their time without any reward even for their expenses, still,
-to utilize properly the Volunteer work of the thousands who are willing
-to make such sacrifices, it is very desirable that we have at least one
-paid organizer in each Congressional District, and, if possible, in
-each county one who will receive a moderate salary and who will be held
-responsible for all the routine work required in his territory. The
-Volunteer workers and speakers in any locality can be made many times
-as effective, if there is some one man responsible to the national
-office for the methodical arrangement of the work and the systematic
-utilization of their services. It is also highly desirable that every
-Volunteer be given a bountiful supply of the very best literature on
-economic subjects. Money is also needed for our central school for
-Volunteer Speakers in St. Louis, where those with hearts afire to speak
-for Democracy can come, and within one, two or three months, be trained
-and equipped with a practical knowledge of the details of the work in
-which they wish to engage.
-
-But it is folly to enlarge further upon the need of money. Every person
-who appreciates the nature of our struggle knows that everything we do
-can be done more effectively with additional funds.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-FUNDAMENTALS.
-
-
-To educate the people, the first essential is that the educators know
-exactly what they wish to teach and the ultimate purpose of such
-teaching.
-
-In the previous chapters are outlined methods of reaching and
-persuading people. More important, however, than any manner of
-speaking, traveling, advertising or gaining an audience is it that our
-speakers never lose sight of the few great basic principles of our
-movement, and that they keep these central truths steadily before the
-eyes and minds of the people.
-
-The principal danger to be overcome in every popular movement is that
-in the adaptation of the central truth of the movement to local and
-temporary requirements, the truth itself may be lost in a multitude of
-petty intricacies.
-
-In the beginnings of the great religions when they spread irresistibly
-over the world, their teachers held firmly to a few great salient
-truths. But the influence of every religion waned when its ministers,
-forgetting its real object, gave themselves up to details of
-worship and church government. This is also the history of nearly
-every Christian denomination. In their vigor and youth, they dwelt
-principally upon the great primary themes. When these were forgotten or
-neglected, the movements themselves lost their power.
-
-The weakness of the people's movement to-day is that our leaders
-abandon too often the center of the stream, drawn away by the side
-currents and little eddies. The intricacies of finance, statistics and
-details of administration, often absorb their whole attention. Those
-who would guide the crowd to a higher civilization forget the object
-of their endeavors, the crowd forgets; then medley and Babel. Instead
-of marching toward the goal, the multitude halt by the wayside, and go
-to arguing over the incidents of the journey. The compass, governed
-by fixed and universal laws, that acts regardless of the turns in the
-road, no longer directs them. They are at the mercy of the local, the
-incidental and temporary. When they give up the main road to wander
-off in bypaths, unity and progress cease; division, disorder and
-disintegration begin.
-
-The silver question, the question as to the power of the Supreme Court
-Justices, the railway question, are all merely incidental to the one
-great fundamental conflict that has been waged for centuries, the
-conflict of the general welfare resting on right against the special
-interests that thrive by wrong, of liberty against tyranny; the people
-against plutocracy. This conflict should be kept in the forefront by
-every Volunteer, who should urge continuously and repeatedly upon his
-hearers the few great simple truths of Democracy, holding these out in
-bold relief, like mountains above the rolling slopes and projecting
-crags that lead up to them, keeping the popular mind centered on the
-goal of their efforts, the North Star, as it were, of progress.
-
-Revolutions and special evolutions are brought about in human affairs,
-NOT SO MUCH BY THE DISSEMINATION OF A GREAT MULTITUDE OF IDEAS, AS BY
-THE CONCENTRATION OF A MULTITUDE OF MINDS UPON A SINGLE IDEA. This
-single idea, however, cannot be of a local or temporary nature. It
-must, on the other hand, be comprehensive and of sufficient import
-to stir the very souls of the masses. A mere question of currency,
-transportation or judicial powers, however important, even if
-absolutely requisite to further progress, is not capable of producing
-the universal enthusiasm required to institute any fundamental
-innovation. The truths on which the popular mind is to be focused,
-must be self-evident, general, and their application not limited
-to a short time or a special locality. With the people's attention
-fixed upon a great moral truth universally applicable, their faces
-all turned toward, their eyes fixed on one star of deliverance, it
-is easy to convince them that to realize their goal no sacrifice
-can be too great. Men are prepared to act intelligently concerning
-currency, transportation or other incidental reforms when their
-enthusiasm and purpose are fully aroused and their attention is fixed
-upon universal laws about which there can be no doubt, hesitancy or
-confusion. Absorbed in great things, the petty causes of strife and
-dissension disappear. We can gain unity only when, leaving details to
-tried leaders, the people concentrate their attention on those simple
-realities, self-evident and capable of being understood by all, the
-attainment of which forces the righteous settlement of details and of
-all questions dependent and incidental.
-
-
-THE WORLD BIG; GOD GOOD; MAN ALONE RESPONSIBLE.
-
-The first such central truth, self-evident to every man, to be
-proclaimed tirelessly by the Volunteers, is that the earth is large
-enough and rich enough to supply all the good things of life to every
-human being born on it. Urge that especially since the triumphs of
-modern science is it possible for man to satisfy every natural craving,
-every healthy desire, every reasonable hope and dream, without any man
-being compelled to sacrifice another human being to his purpose.
-
-The great and the humblest mind alike can see this truth. It stands
-out an impregnable tower of strength above all minor and subsidiary
-questions. It is unanswerable, incontravertible and DYNAMICALLY
-IRRESISTIBLE. The earth is large enough and rich enough and human
-energy sufficient to produce in abundance everything required to supply
-every natural, healthful human desire. This means that the world, now
-made hell by human greed abetted by ignorance and prejudice, might just
-as well be heaven. The misery caused by poverty, tyranny and neglect,
-can be displaced by happiness, plenty and liberty for all.
-
-Following this and demonstrable from it by the eternal laws of Logic
-is the conclusion that the one primary and all-important duty of every
-man seeing it is to do all he can, after providing for his simplest
-physical wants, to help systematize and civilize human effort and
-overcome prejudice so as to obtain this result.
-
-The immediate effect of the practical acceptance of this one
-self-evident truth is almost inconceivable. Once convince men that
-their sufferings are unnecessary, that science has placed in their
-hands all the power and materials needed which rightly applied will
-give to all men the satisfaction of all their normal desires, and you
-at once transform the world.
-
-The most formidable obstacle in the way of further progress is not
-that men are insufficiently versed in political economy or lacking
-in intelligence, but it is that the people are without hope. Popular
-effort has so often been thwarted by selfish cunning, great moral
-enthusiasms dissipated by the science and superior organization of
-tyranny, that men have lost heart.
-
-Despair is the chief opponent of progress. Our greatest need is hope.
-The people must have faith that something can be done.
-
-The majority of men know of public measures that would be beneficial if
-an upward step were possible, but they are overwhelmed by a multitude
-of incidental obstacles and petty disappointments that cloud their
-small horizons and shut off from sight the great universal and historic
-forces that are slowly but surely working out their destinies.
-
-Convince men that our country is large enough and rich enough to give
-them all an opportunity to work and earn sufficient to support their
-families and educate their children properly, convince them that their
-present poverty and sufferings are wholly the result of social crimes,
-and, if they can believe that this change is actually to be brought
-about, you change the whole base of their operations and revolutionize
-their attitude of mind. They are then ready to co-operate with those
-bold thinkers who have studied out the details of social progress.
-
-Our speakers cannot dwell too long upon, cannot repeat too often, this
-one all-important, fundamental truth, the basis of all right political
-thought and action, namely, that the world is all right, nature
-is lavish, God Almighty is generous, and that human invention has
-multiplied many times the gifts that God originally gave to man, and
-now the human family might just as well sit down amid merry-making to
-the great feast steaming before us, prepared through ages of endeavor,
-but for a miserable dog in the manger.
-
-Proclaim everywhere that organized greed is this dog. Teach that the
-highest patriotism consists in striking it, that the only martyrs are
-those devoured by it, that to kill it is the sublime mission of this
-generation.
-
-Do not try to teach many things, but urge with all the passion of your
-being at all times and in all places, the self-evident and fundamental
-truth that our world contains everything required to make men happy. If
-want exists, it is the result of crime. Those who profit by this crime
-try to convince us that nothing can be done to prevent it. Our work is
-to create hope and courage and let the people know that this crime can
-be stopped, the criminals caught and punished, and the purposes of God
-and nature be permitted to proceed unmolested. Tell the people they can
-put an end to their sufferings, that misery results from human, not
-from natural causes, and that it need not be. Teach and preach and cry
-aloud this one fact. Repeat it indoors and out, with all the fire and
-intensity within you. Each convert will become a center, and our cause
-will spread irresistibly.
-
-Therefore, Volunteers, do not weary your hearers with statistics and
-historical or legal minutiae; do not cram them with detailed arguments
-relating to questions of a local or temporary nature; do not confuse
-them by trying to explain all the intricacies of a financial system
-soon to perish from off the earth. Rather even let the sophistries
-of an opponent go unanswered. But concentrate all your energies upon
-helping turn the attention of the people away from petty and vexing
-intricacies to these few great central truths, which, if once clearly
-seen, make all else plain.
-
-The man who comprehends fully the truth that our world, since the
-discoveries of modern science, is capable of giving every human being
-all the good things of life, that as civilization is now blessed and
-glorious to some so it can be made to all--such a man will forsake all
-small purposes at once and devote himself thereafter to the realization
-of his ideal. Nothing else in the world can compare to this work in
-importance. When he learns that there is but one great party that
-stands for progress, he will immediately ally himself with that party.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-THE CHURCH AS A FIELD.
-
-
-Though in large cities the shelter admitted to be the most accessible
-to the poor, who wish to discuss methods for improving their condition,
-is the corner saloon, yet in country districts it will be found that
-the churches still cling to many of their ancient virtues and will be
-found open and hospitable to every traveler who has a suggestion to
-make for the good of the community.
-
-Whatever a speaker's prejudices may be against any church or against
-all churches, when he consecrates his life to the cause of humanity
-through the Democratic party, he must suppress such prejudices and
-regard all buildings as existing for use. And a true Volunteer is
-always certain that the highest use that can be made of any building in
-the world is to have taught in it the truths of human brotherhood and
-progress as embodied in the New Democracy.
-
-In securing a church building for purposes of instruction, it is best
-not to mention the name of our movement. The name that we have adopted
-being an old name and used by various people for various purposes has
-been used upon numerous occasions by bad people for bad purposes. Even
-the word politics, which, in reality, means the science and art of
-government, has come to mean, in the minds of many, a mere personal
-contest for gain and position. The sacred banner of Democracy has
-often been dragged into these degrading brawls and the principles
-designated by the banner and name lost sight of. For these reasons and
-on account of the limitations of the average human judgment, it is well
-in dealing with church committees to discard all political names and
-to ask only for permission to speak in behalf of human brotherhood,
-social improvement or methods of helping the poor. The fact that human
-brotherhood can only be realized by men through the establishment of
-Democratic principles need not be told the committee, but had better
-be reserved for the audience. The fact that justice is a mere dream,
-intangible and unreal, unless, by political action on the part of the
-many, the few who profit by injustice are deprived of their privileges
-(or, in other words, until the Democratic program is carried out),
-makes it eminently proper that church buildings be opened to our
-speakers as often as possible. Of course, when the churches of a town
-are controlled by scribes and Pharisees, as they were when Paul was
-a volunteer speaker some centuries ago, unless some other building
-can be had, we must follow Paul's example and make our rostrum in the
-open street or field; but where the church buildings are controlled
-by Christians instead of gold worshippers, by sincere men who desire
-justice and brotherhood and to help the poor, then, however different
-our prejudices, our personal likings or our superstitions may be, we
-should grasp our newly acquainted brothers by the hand and arrange with
-them for meetings in the church for the examination of methods whereby
-religion can be made practicable and applied to human affairs.
-
-To the charitable who are really to be found here and there in the
-village and agricultural churches, we must make plain that no amount
-of teaching or preaching, applied internally or externally, can ever
-benefit the poor, until organized society recognizes men's rights,
-women's rights and children's rights as equal to money rights.
-Buildings owned by Catholics, the different Protestant denominations,
-by Jews, both reform and orthodox, and by free-thinking societies,
-can all be secured for the promulgation of these moral truths, if our
-workers will divest themselves of prejudices and don a tactful address.
-The success of this plan lies altogether in the judgment, personality
-and breadth of mind of the Volunteer who attempts the task.
-
-When you approach the trustee of a Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic
-or a Jewish church, remember that the building, the use of which you
-ask, has been paid for by contributions given at a sacrifice by earnest
-men and women, with minds turned towards the solemn and higher things
-of life. However mixed with ignorance, superstitious fear or motives
-of vanity, these buildings, in the smaller towns and agricultural
-communities, are associated with thoughts above and separated from
-personal controversies and material things and, if you can convince
-those in control that you wish to present facts, views and ideas of a
-helpful nature to the community, not incongruous with the teaching of
-their faith, you will generally receive an affirmative answer.
-
-
-LAY PREACHING.
-
-It is common in country districts for laymen, persons neither ordained
-nor licensed as ministers, to speak from Christian pulpits at regular
-church services. This custom should be utilized. A lecture in a church
-building on a week night may attract the more studious or the more
-curious of the community and supply them with rich materials for right
-thinking; but a lay sermon to a regular congregation, backed by the
-regular services and the presence of the minister, carries with it a
-force and authority possible on no other occasion. A Volunteer, by
-reciting, under such auspices, a simple story of the crimes against God
-and humanity perpetrated by the money power, and describing feelingly
-the effect of unnecessary poverty on the souls and characters of men,
-will not only stir the congregation to a new sense of patriotic duty,
-but will furnish material to the country minister enabling him to add
-a new flavor to the food of his flock for months to come. In those
-outlying districts where God has not been entirely superseded by gold
-in the church, a large part of the educational work of our movement can
-be accomplished in this way.
-
-The farmers compose a large part of our country's population and vote.
-They still believe in healthful religion and its power to affect human
-life. They can best be reached on Sunday and very often better through
-the church than in any other way. The reason that the great cities have
-not responded so quickly and so enthusiastically to our movement as the
-country districts is that vice, crime and disease in the great cities
-have, to a large extent, eaten away the capacity for appreciating
-justice and brotherhood, and destroyed in a large class the fundamental
-virtues of courage, manliness, patriotism and belief in the supremacy
-of good. It is to the country, where these virtues are still fresh and
-normal, that our movement must appeal principally. In the city there
-are a thousand places of amusement and dissipation for every idle hour.
-The boy coming from school or work, the mechanic after his day's labor
-pass the open saloon, filled with music and merry-making, the theatre,
-with its novelties, laughter and appeals to all the emotions, the
-gambler's den, the game tables, the dives and a hundred other places,
-always open, some positively and immediately hurtful to both health and
-morals, others absorbing time, attention and vitality.
-
-In the country, however, work or study done, a man or boy has not so
-many places of amusement. There is much more inducement than in the
-city to attend some church entertainment, some healthful neighborhood
-ball, and much more time and energy left for meetings at the school or
-church for the discussion of social problems and questions of national
-or class well-being.
-
-Thus the Volunteer who would teach farmers and villagers must accept
-the church as one very promising field of work.
-
-
-SUNDAY WORK.
-
-No day is more appropriate for effective work in behalf of human
-brotherhood than Sunday. By common consent it has been set aside by
-the majority of civilized races for serious thought, meditation and
-worship, and what is more befitting this day than to think out, study
-out and talk out the solution to the great problem of human justice and
-brotherhood. To speak for the New Democracy on Sunday is no more than
-to gather in the fruit of all the great religions that have come down
-to us. The New Democracy is not religion and those who proclaim its
-truths are neither preachers nor priests, but it is religion's highest
-product. The great religions of the world, nurtured by God's hand and
-growing out of the fertile and sympathetic souls of the men and women
-of all climes and all centuries, have at last produced a practical
-ideal capable of being realized in actual life. This product is the New
-Democracy. It is the answer to the prayers of the ages. It is God's
-gift granted in answer to the cries of suffering of injustice and
-poverty throughout the world. It is God's method of redeeming society,
-of saving our nation, now well-nigh unto death, from greed and sin. Let
-each retain his attachment to his own sect and religion, but instead of
-quarreling about sectarian differences, let us unite in realizing our
-common dreams of brotherhood. Instead of building new walls to separate
-us, let us make one platform so large that on it all earnest sons of
-God can stand erect, confident of His presence.
-
-Centuries before Jesus Christ traversed the plains of Galilee and
-bathed in the troubled waters of the Jordan, there was one Buddha who,
-despising the superstitions of his time, gathered about him others
-who, like him, believed that the larger part of human suffering was
-unnecessary and could be extinguished by human agency. This band
-traveled throughout the most populous districts of Western Asia
-teaching the great truth that the object of life's endeavor should
-be to lessen pain and to increase joy. Their one command was "cease
-causing pain; do not kill or cause to suffer any man or animal."
-And within two hundred years, from this little band and from this
-one whole-hearted man, an enthusiasm for mercy and love and justice
-overspread a third of the human race. Buddha's teachings were free from
-the multitude of miserable superstitions that haunt the people who bear
-his name to-day. His teachings, with those of Zoroaster, Confucius,
-Mencius, Moses and Christ, in their purity, attempted primarily to
-induce men to live as brothers, to teach men that individual good is
-social good and that both duty and true happiness consist in devotion
-to others--to the commonwealth.
-
-Some preachers, however, get so in the habit of prophesying that, when
-their prophecies are fulfilled, they think it wicked and heretical to
-believe it. They refuse to believe their own eyes when they see the
-answer to their prayers. So deep-rooted has grown their habit of prayer
-that the means has become an end. They ask no longer to get what they
-ask for but for the exercise of asking, which they call pious. Their
-prayers answered, they are astounded. Now that their prophecies are
-fulfilled, they open their unbelieving eyes in wonderment and condemn
-those who stop asking for what is already given.
-
-
-DON'T ASK FOR WHAT YOU HAVE.
-
-Christ many times used the relation of a child to its father to
-represent the relation of man to God. When a boy begs his father
-for a sleigh and pony, and, after much pleading, the father grants
-his request, the boy stops asking, accepts the gift with thanks and
-proceeds to take a ride. If he were to continue on his knees pleading
-for them after being told they were in the back yard subject to his
-orders, we should call him a simpleton. What is the use of his saying,
-"Oh, papa, please, dear papa, give me a pony and sleigh," when papa has
-already given it and is anxious to see it driven past the house. If the
-boy has any sense at all, upon first seeing his father drive his new
-pony toward home, he will stop praying, take off his hat, throw it up
-in the air, and hallo a "Hurrah for pop." He will jump into the sleigh,
-go for his best girl, and not show up again till two o'clock in the
-morning.
-
-For centuries the human race has longed and prayed and hoped for a time
-when justice would be possible on earth, when the reign of brutality
-would be superceded by the triumph of justice and brotherly love.
-This desire, this deep yearning, has taken definite expression in the
-ceremonials and prayers of all religions, and in the grand prayer given
-us by Jesus Christ:
-
-"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
-
-The soul of the universe has found expression in the Divine Hand that
-guides the course of nations, and has answered the prayers of the
-churches and the heroes and the saints. And that justice, which for
-centuries has been an object of prayer, has become, for the first time
-in history, a tangible, definite thing, capable of realization. What
-we have asked for, God has made possible. Why now crawl longer in the
-dust like worms beneath the feet of tyrants, when God bids us rise and
-stand erect? Why continue to pray and plead for what God has already
-placed within our reach? Tell the preachers to stop praying for this
-gift, already ours, and accept it as God gave it. THIS SIMPLE ACT OF
-ACCEPTING GOD'S ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS OF THE GOOD AND THE TRUE OF ALL
-PAST CENTURIES, IS THE PROGRAM OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
-
-I ask father for a horse and sleigh. Now that he brings it to me, I
-stop asking for it, and take a ride. We have prayed during centuries
-for an era of justice. The New Democracy is the fulfillment of God's
-prophecy. It is the greatest moral tidal wave that ever thrilled with
-new life this old world of ours. It embodies the practical program by
-means of which the Infinite Intelligence is leading humanity to its
-inheritance.
-
-
-HUMANITY'S SCOUTS HAVE FOUND THE WAY.
-
-A body of pioneers lose their way in the wilderness. After days of
-weary trudging and hunger, they kneel and pray to God for guidance to
-food and shelter. In the midst of their devotions, a scout returns and
-rudely interrupts them, crying, "Get up, boys, stop your prayers; I
-have found the main road, and we are only ten miles from town." What
-should our pious travelers do? If they have an ounce of common sense,
-they will jump to their feet, brush the dust from their trousers, and
-follow their deliverer. Should we not call them insane, on the other
-hand, if, accustomed to hunger and thirst, they had come to believe
-prayer and privation the ends of life, and, if instead of rising up
-and accepting God's answer to their prayers, they should continue to
-grovel and pray on?
-
-After eighteen centuries of prayer and privation, of hunger and thirst,
-the couriers and scouts of the human race have returned, and to their
-kneeling, miserable brothers they cry aloud, "Arise, cease your prayers
-for already they have been answered. We have found the road and the
-promised land is near. Hunger and thirst are no longer necessary. Let
-thanksgiving and praise to God now take the place of begging petitions
-for that which He hath already granted us."
-
-As true religionists, is it our duty to say to these scouts, "Stop, you
-infidels, you interfere with our devotion?" Such a policy is insanity.
-These teachers are not infidels. They are not enemies of religion.
-Otherwise God would not have revealed to them His plan for answering
-the prayers of the millions and fulfilling the prophecies of past ages.
-
-We have been praying: "Lead us aright. Show us the way to realize
-Heaven in this world." Humanity will now stop asking and accept, as
-a child from its father, God's last and greatest gift. The weary
-travelers of earth will see that the privations of centuries are no
-longer necessary. They will stop pleading with Heaven for the manna to
-be had by simply putting forth their palms.
-
-
-PRISONERS OF THE BASTILE.
-
-For an explanation of the action of those poor, irrational creatures
-who are so accustomed to privation and prayer that when relief comes
-they only continue to pray, failing to recognize that their prayers
-are answered, we can only point to the last poor inmates of the French
-bastile. The most prominent and intellectual citizens of France, they
-had been torn from their homes without a trial, thrown into dungeons
-containing not a single ray of light, fed there on bread and water from
-year to year until lonely and in torture their hair turned prematurely
-white and their bodies withered. When, at the first stroke of that
-most glorious of revolutions, the bastile doors were opened, and the
-soldiers of the people broke down the huge iron gates and doors, crying
-aloud in the name of liberty, "You are free, you are free, come out
-long imprisoned brothers," the populace were astounded to find that
-many of the poor, white-haired, white-bearded, pale-faced prisoners,
-instead of walking out into the long-wished for sunlight, clutched the
-walls of their cells, clung to their prison floors and cried in fear.
-They had to be torn from their gloomy haunts by main force by their
-rescuers. Their years of trouble, of darkness and gloom had destroyed
-their power to enjoy the light of freedom. Many of the brightest
-intellects of France had thus been dimmed. Their souls, once afire for
-freedom, had burned out in despair. They had become maniacs.
-
-So now there are devotees of religion, so inured to the gloomy slavery
-of poverty and injustice, so in the habit of praying for relief, that
-when the bold servants of God strike down with their ready hammers
-the prison walls, and freedom's air and sunlight stream in, these
-poor souls are horrified, paralyzed by the very light and atmosphere
-for which they have been praying. "Go away," they say, and, crying,
-they clutch their cell walls refusing to be free. They, too, have
-become maniacs. But the majority of the human race will not refuse
-freedom's balmy breeze or the sunshine of liberty. At the call of the
-New Democracy they will throw down their broken chains of poverty, leap
-through their open prison doors, and cheer with might and main as the
-majority of the prisoners of the bastile cheered a century ago when
-they were given freedom's light.
-
-
-THE COMMANDMENTS GROWN WITH THE WORLD.
-
-If men claim that we are to be forever satisfied with the commands,
-"Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not kill," we will answer
-that these commands have grown, and that under the banner of the New
-Democracy we shall declare in thunder tones to all the world, "thou
-shalt not be killed," "thou shalt not be robbed," and not only this
-but also, "thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be killed," and,
-"thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be robbed." These commands have
-developed still further, so that the cry shall go up from sea to sea
-that our present and past systems of thievery, robbery and murder shall
-be swept away, that the teaching of the churches against thievery,
-robbery and murder, through all the centuries, has borne fruit, and
-that now, not only shall the poor, dependent teachers of abstract truth
-proclaim between hymns and prayers, "thou shalt not steal," and "thou
-shalt not kill," but that the whole people shall Join in one mighty
-chorus, and declare that public thievery, robbery and murder must cease
-from off the earth and that our social and political systems shall be
-made to conform to the teachings of our religion.
-
-To those who oppose us in the name of religion, let our answer be,
-"We do not fight the church; without the church and its teachings for
-nineteen centuries, the New Democracy would have been impossible." The
-New Democracy is an outgrowth of all religions. Religion has protected
-and kept alive, through the barbarous past, the great moral truths that
-we are now applying to actual life. Even if the church or any part of
-the church or priesthood or ministry attempts to oppose us, we will
-simply laugh with God at every futile effort to stem the flood, the
-source of which is their own teaching through nineteen centuries. For
-the church, or any part of it, to oppose or belittle or criticise the
-New Democracy, is for the tree to disclaim its own fruit, for the
-rivers to disown the sea, for the fountain to dry up its stream, for
-the mother to cast aside her child.
-
-The founders and prophets of all the great religions taught the
-principles of justice and brotherly love. The New Democracy makes
-possible their realization.
-
-What nobler work can any man engage in on Sunday than the proclaiming
-in open air or behind closed doors these eternal truths, or tell of the
-new impulse that is fast taking hold of men to weave these truths into
-the texture of our social institutions.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-ONLY TWO PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
-
-
-Another of the few foundation truths upon which the structure of the
-world's present progress is being reared, a truth that cannot be too
-often told nor too continuously urged, is that THERE ARE ONLY TWO
-PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
-
-One party consists of those who, seeing wrong, try to end it;
-seeing injustice, strive to abolish it; and, being told of possible
-improvements, investigate and EXPERIMENT, hoping to attain them.
-
-The other party is made up of those who cannot see wrongs when
-practiced upon others, who are blind to injustice for fear of the
-unjust, and who, being told of possible improvements, antagonize their
-instructors, in defense of the private interests of themselves or their
-masters, that might by change be jeopardized.
-
-One party represents the cause of the people; the other the selfishness
-of kings, nobles and plutocrats.
-
-The fight now is not simply a continuation of the old fight that
-has been going on from ancient times, but is the world climax, the
-end of the struggle. Those who produce and trade and teach, earning
-their money by honorable exertion, are forming all along the line,
-against those who are too lazy to work, too stupid or too proud
-to trade or teach, but who wish to grow rich by acquiring other
-people's property. The honest masses who believe in law, order and
-progress, are approaching a decisive contest for permanent supremacy
-with the dishonest classes who, in order to defend their systems of
-plunder, utilize in their service the combined forces of ignorance,
-superstition, toadyism, lawless cunning and the force of arms.
-
-If the lawless, irresponsible dictators of industry and commerce are
-successful, then liberty, constitutional government and personal
-security are at an end, civilization is derailed into an abyss, and
-retrogression displaces progress through another age of barbarism.
-Gold becomes the only God, and bayonets the only prod to duty. The
-university, the press and the pulpit will all be made permanent
-attachments to the one despotic machine which is to control every
-source of communication and instruction, and stifle all thought and
-aspiration that does not strengthen the ruling power.
-
-On the other hand, the people's victory will end class rule forever,
-and gradually abolish all special privileges and monopolies by means
-of which one man holds an unjust advantage over another. The people
-holding the reins of power will apply the best talent, experience and
-energy possessed by man to the establishment of justice, order and
-public achievement. This is the situation confronting our country and
-the world. It is the situation as it confronts every individual man.
-The war is universal. There are no non-combatants. Everyone is affected
-by the outcome. Each has the power to help decide the result. Whether
-in compliance with or against our will, each of us must participate and
-assist one side or the other.
-
-Which shall it be? The party of the people or the party of tyranny.
-This question presents itself alike to the citizen of America and the
-inhabitant of Europe. Since the historic people's victory at Chicago,
-July 6, 1896, the people's party in America has taken the name "REGULAR
-DEMOCRATIC." In Germany, France and England it is known as the "Social
-Democracy;" in the Balkans and Asia Minor it is the "Greek;" and in the
-West Indies, the "Cuban Army."
-
-When once the masses realize that the same class of adventurers,
-tax-gatherers and oppressors of labor who in this country have gotten
-absolute control of the Republican political machine, are the present
-friends, the advisers and colleagues of the despots, plutocrats and
-military leaders of Europe, that their families are intermarrying,
-their interests being pooled, their cause becoming one, their interests
-identical, all their plans and hopes one and inseparable, then will
-it be impossible for designing demagogues to mislead or confuse them
-further. When it becomes generally understood that the forces of
-reaction throughout the world are one, then will the common people
-come into closer union and bind themselves together as a unit.
-
-The union of those who profit by tyranny necessitates the union of
-all who believe in liberty. The internationalism of millionaires is
-creating an internationalism of the common people. The situation is
-being so simplified that all may comprehend clearly the two forces
-whose conflict extends over the modern world. All minor and secondary
-divisions and issues are swallowed up. The international aspect of the
-problem does not, as one might at first suppose, confuse the mind,
-but, on the other hand, simplifies the issue so that none can mistake
-concerning it. Old prejudices, reverence for party names, sectional
-hatreds, sores left by historic feuds, religious differences and
-affiliations with local political machines, in which self or friends
-are interested selfishly, all tend to cover up the real issues, when
-only the local end of the fight is studied.
-
-But, when we learn that the same class that induced the governments of
-Europe and America to co-operate with Spanish murderers in starving,
-killing and torturing tens of thousands of our patriotic brother
-Americans in Cuba to protect the value of their Spanish bonds and
-got these so-called Christian governments to assist the Turk, supply
-him with arms and drill and general his soldiers for the massacre of
-hundreds of thousands of defenseless Armenians and Greeks, to secure
-the continued payment of interest on their Turkish bonds; that this
-class is made up of the same individual bondholders who are gaining
-control, through syndicates, of our American breweries, distilleries,
-railroads, street car companies, gas companies and other manufacturing
-and commercial institutions; that they are ever ready mercilessly and
-barbarously, by murder or giant fraud, to advance their interests,
-regardless of duty to humanity, country or to God, all of which they
-deny; and, when we prove that this class now controls absolutely
-the machinery of the Republican party in America, and is trying
-again to control Democracy, the masses, in their fury against it
-will, regardless of historic prejudices or past or local political
-affiliations, unite in common defense of home and country to stamp it
-out.
-
-
-THE PARTY OF EXPERIMENT.
-
-Our enemies say ours is a party of EXPERIMENT. We admit it. No forward
-step in the world's history, no achievement in science, art, literature
-or politics has ever come but by EXPERIMENT.
-
-We are not, however, the only party of EXPERIMENT. The plutocrats,
-who now control our country, also believe in EXPERIMENT, only their
-experiments are in the direction of further despoiling the people
-without adding to popular rage, and of tightening their grip upon our
-property, our lives and liberties without inciting to rebellion.
-
-One man experiments with surgeon's knife upon the body of another,
-chloroformed or a corpse. But suppose the chloroform ceases to act or
-the corpse proves a case of suspended animation, rises up snatches
-the surgical instrument, ties his tormentor to the couch and begins
-to experiment on him. The EXPERIMENT in either case may be equally
-beneficial to science, equally dangerous to the victim. But the
-personal value of the EXPERIMENT to either of the principals depends,
-in a large measure, upon WHETHER HE IS THE EXPERIMENTER OR THE MAN
-EXPERIMENTED ON.
-
-The millionaires united are at present experimenting on the people.
-The records of their discoveries are doubtless of great value to
-political science but when the unfortunate public, heretofore thought
-dead or safely hypnotized, arises and with ghastly alacrity, begins to
-EXPERIMENT on its doctors, not only will science be equally benefited,
-but the "corpse" will enjoy the operation hugely.
-
-This outcry on the part of the plutocrats against political
-experimenting means simply that _they want to do all the experimenting
-themselves_.
-
-
-OUR ENEMIES ARE THE INNOVATORS.
-
-A family, sheltered for many years to their entire satisfaction by an
-old homestead, that also protected their property, suddenly discovers
-that their silverware is fast disappearing with many heirlooms, jewels
-and valuable papers and pieces of furniture. They discuss a plan for
-changing the locks and, with the aid of a skilled mechanic, make an
-examination of every wall, floor, door and window with a view to a
-general overhauling and repairs. A neighbor makes serious objection and
-in a solemn manner appeals to his friends not to interfere with the
-ancient landmarks nor lay an irreverent hand upon the old homestead,
-that served their father so well and that sheltered them and protected
-their property so long. His only object in thus warning his friend
-against dangerous innovation being grateful reverence for which has
-been so useful in the past.
-
-Supposing the owner to be possessed of common sense, his answer
-will be: "Yes, my friend, the old homestead has served me and my
-fathers well for a long period of years and I had never intended to
-irreverently destroy it. But I have discovered that some stranger has
-already laid an irreverent hand upon our home and broken the locks of
-our doors and windows. We find that he has cut a hole in the floor
-of our side closet and effected entrances through the roof and the
-cellar window. The home which once protected us serves no longer as
-a protection, because mutilated by an intruder. If the house still
-protected us as it did our fathers we should be satisfied; but, since
-others have changed it, we, in self-protection, must adapt ourselves
-to the changed conditions. It is not the old house that protected our
-fathers that we are changing, but the new house, the changed house,
-the mutilated house--this it is that we wish to renovate and re-adapt,
-so that it may again be made to serve us as did the old one. The same
-outside framework, the same old flag-pole, brown front and corner stone
-remain, but many of the foundation stones are gone, the strength of the
-house, its power to serve and protect us have been taken away so that
-we are in constant fear of its caving in upon us. Therefore, we shall
-repair it thoroughly or else remove to another."
-
-Our government for many years served the people well. Its past is
-sacred. It protected our fathers, made our lives and our fortunes
-possible and we are tempted to give weight to the arguments of a
-compatriot when he says to us: "Touch not the ancient landmarks; do not
-lay irreverent hands on our government; do not seek to change its laws
-or institutions; it has served us well and we should show our gratitude
-by protecting it and by opposing innovation."
-
-In answer, however, we are forced to say that, although we have the
-same flag-pole and flag, the same brown front and corner stone, an
-enemy has for years been removing one foundation stone after another.
-He has removed the vital parts from the locks of our doors and windows;
-made entrances through the roof, the floor and cellar, so that our
-silver is now disappearing, our jewels and our heirlooms are missing,
-and our liberty, our lives and our property are in danger.
-
-WE ARE NOT THE INNOVATORS. WE ARE THE VICTIMS OF INNOVATION. We seek
-to battle against the invaders who have mutilated our government and
-would destroy us. We strive to make our government, of which now only
-the shell remains, serve us as it served our forefathers, capable of
-affording us that shelter and protection, which is the true function of
-government, and which our forefathers intended we should have.
-
-
-TWO GOVERNMENTS IN MORTAL COMBAT.
-
-We have two distinct governments in our country, whose interests are
-antagonistic and irreconcilable. One government is the United States;
-the other, the United Trusts and Syndicates. The former is democratic;
-the other despotic. This inner-treasonable despotism controls our
-industry, commerce and means of life and pleasure. It is using the
-United States government as a machine to enforce its decrees and extend
-its dominion, hoping soon to abolish the last vestige of popular rule.
-It is world-wide in its extent, and only uses local and national
-governments as means of power.
-
-The United States enacts laws openly. The United trusts and syndicates
-enacts laws secretly. Disobedience to our state laws is punished only
-after a public trial, but the merchant who breaks a trust law is ruined
-without a trial, the laborer who ignores it is secretly blacklisted;
-the minister who defies it is forced out of the church, and the lawyer
-disregarding it loses his profitable practice. The nation enacts a law
-and the trust officers laugh at it so far as it applies to them, and
-then, by gaining control of the law-enforcing power, use this law as an
-additional club in the subjugation of their victims.
-
-When the people attempt to defeat a new aggression on the part of the
-trusts by carrying out the plan of some renowned thinker, known to be
-uninfluenced by special interests, the emissaries of the trusts scatter
-the people by crying: "EXPERIMENT." "An untried and Utopian scheme,"
-"Innovators." While the patriots argue as to whether their plan is
-really an EXPERIMENT, the enemy captures a new position.
-
-The United Trusts and Syndicates, by experimenting constantly and
-pushing forward all along the line and at the same time by convincing
-the United States not to EXPERIMENT, succeeds in approaching the
-same relation to its rival government that a live ant sustains to
-a dead worm. By incessant and fearless activity, and by using our
-constitution, traditions and flag as a blind, this irresponsible
-despotism is fast nearing the time when it hopes to throw off its mask
-and publicly usurp supreme power. Not a day passes but these organized
-conspirators try some new EXPERIMENT, attempt some new aggression never
-dared before, attack some nearer outpost of the people's liberties
-heretofore thought impregnable.
-
-Often these EXPERIMENTS fail. The people are sometimes bull-headed, and
-repulse the attack with loss to the United Trusts and Syndicates. But
-failing once, twice or a hundred times, do they cease to EXPERIMENT?
-Even though they lose millions in attempting some audacious act, do
-they therefore refuse to attempt another act equally bold? Never.
-They see clearly that all enterprise, all progress, all victory, all
-increase in power and dominion, result only from repeated EXPERIMENTS.
-The boldest of all EXPERIMENTS was the hatching of the conspiracy that
-gave their present organization birth. EXPERIMENT gave them all they
-have. They live and grow by it. To stop EXPERIMENT is to stop action,
-for the modern world is a new world and in it there are no tried and
-beaten paths. The floods and glaciers of innovation have carried away
-the ancient landmarks, and by raising new barriers and structures
-largely shut off from all progressive peoples, even the kindly rays
-from the lamp of experience. Not agitators, but science and invention,
-have pushed us away from the ancient world, with its well-worn roads
-and lighthouses, and where we walk now human feet never trod before.
-The light from our foreheads is our only lamp, and eternal truth our
-only guide, prefer to EXPERIMENT, OR TO BE EXPERIMENTED ON; TO BE THE
-SURGEON, OR THE CORPSE.
-
-The Democratic party in power in 1900 controlled by the common people
-will, without doubt, EXPERIMENT boldly. It will lead our government
-into new and untried ways, as our enemies very clearly and very
-truthfully predict. It will, without doubt, commit blunders and make
-mistakes. The one thing that above all and in spite of all it is
-pledged to do, is to arouse the United States government from its
-paralysis, stupor and corpse-like state of being experimented on, and
-declare that whatever the EXPERIMENTS of the future, instead of being
-made ON THE UNITED STATES, THEY SHALL BE MADE BY THE UNITED STATES.
-
-The important question for the citizens of the United States to answer
-is simply this: Do you prefer to EXPERIMENT, or to be experimented on;
-to be the surgeon, or the corpse?
-
-When the victimized people declare their independence, through their
-own government, of the despotism of the trusts, it will necessarily be
-an EXPERIMENT.
-
-Every time General Grant ordered an attack on the forces defending
-negro slavery, he tried an EXPERIMENT. Never could he tell exactly
-what the result would be. There might be more dead Union men than
-Confederates, or there might possibly be more dead Confederates than
-Union men. The one thing of which he was certain, however, was that
-his duty consisted in going ahead, and, when defeated, he gathered his
-troops together and tried again. He knew that, if followed long enough,
-his plan would crush the Confederacy.
-
-So each attack on the white slave power to-day is an EXPERIMENT. We
-cannot at any time foretell the immediate result. An attack on a
-special monopoly may fail. Many times we may be repulsed with loss,
-but by constantly renewing the attack and continuing to press forward
-we shall eventually triumph. During the late war, the southern states
-defended black slavery. They lost. Black slavery was abolished. To-day,
-the southern states, dominated by the common people, have espoused the
-cause of liberty and to the oppressors of the North and East they say,
-"White slavery also must be destroyed."
-
-Both parties are parties of EXPERIMENT. The only difference is that we
-avow ours openly and write them in our platform, while the experiments
-and aggressions of the Republican party are planned in secret and
-executed in dark corners where only traitors and adventurers are
-allowed admittance.
-
-To hesitate and refuse to EXPERIMENT is to tie our hands and remain
-inactive, while our enemies harass us, rob us, and assault us from
-all directions. It is as important to weaken the enemy as it is to
-strengthen your own forces. Therefore, when by an extensive literature
-the money-power instill in the people a horror of EXPERIMENT, they
-palsy their limbs and incapacitate them for defense.
-
-Therefore, the Democratic Volunteers will frankly admit the charge
-that they favor EXPERIMENT and will boldly proclaim that EXPERIMENT is
-one of the foundation stones of their creed. By ceaseless and tireless
-repetition in every community of our nation we will ask the people
-to begin to EXPERIMENT on their own account, instead of permitting
-EXPERIMENT to longer remain a monopoly in the hands of those who
-continually decry it. We will ask them to decide whether they will
-longer remain objects of EXPERIMENT, or, by government action, begin to
-EXPERIMENT on their persecutors.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-WITNESSES FOR PLUTOCRACY DISCREDITED.[8]
-
- [8] For part of this chapter credit is due to Carl Vrooman.
-
-
-When the nature of the present world conflict is understood, those who
-favor the people's cause will cease to receive any further instruction
-or advice whatever from their enemies or the allies or agents of their
-enemies.
-
-If America declared open war upon Britain should we put the slightest
-confidence in any statement, emanating from English sources as to the
-best line of attack? And, if a coterie of young Britishers were to
-enter our camp and advise our soldiers to open fire in a northward
-direction, should we not rather suspect an attack from the enemy on the
-south? Is it not a rule in war always to fire in the direction opposite
-to that advised by your enemies? In all business and other practical
-affairs of life is it not universally recognized as the extreme of
-folly to accept as facts the statements of those who may profit by our
-discomfiture?
-
-Most assuredly! And it is time for the merchants and workingmen of
-America to apply to their political struggle these simple maxims so
-well established elsewhere.
-
-
-WORTHLESS TESTIMONY.
-
-Imagine a courtroom filled with spectators and a group of culprits
-being tried for wholesale theft. The strongest evidence has been
-produced by both the prosecution and defense and the result is in
-doubt. Anxious crowds are waiting in suspense for some decisive stroke
-that shall give an advantage to one side or the other. The counsel for
-the defense arises and plays his last card by an eloquent appeal in
-behalf of the prisoners, basing his plea entirely on the superiority of
-his witnesses. He shows that they stand much higher in the community
-than the witnesses for the prosecution, who are poor, untutored
-countrymen. "My witnesses," says he, "include the leading men in
-your community--your parson, the principal of your high school, and
-the editor of your paper. Yours are mere yahoos and ignoramuses, not
-capable of exercising judgment in such a case as this." A murmur of
-assent passes around the room. There is a cheer of confirmation, and
-the jurors nod their heads significantly.
-
-The prosecuting attorney, instead of making a speech, plays his last
-card by taking the jury to the stable, where they discover that the
-horse on which the teacher rode to court is one of those stolen from
-Farmer Hayseed's stable, and further he proves that the suit of clothes
-worn by the parson on the witness stand was made of the very piece of
-woolen goods taken from the country storekeeper, and that the coins
-that fill the purse of the respected editor are the same identical
-marked coins accumulated by Widow Jones for her old age and taken from
-her money drawer on the night of the crime in question. No speeches, no
-arguments are necessary after this. The jurors purge their memories of
-the testimony for the defense, and the culprits are sent to prison.
-
-In the great case of "The People versus Monopoly," now being tried
-at the bar of Public Opinion, the defense, beaten upon every other
-point, bases its last plea upon the superiority of its witnesses. It is
-claimed that the authorities on finance, the press and the pulpit are
-witnesses in defense of Monopoly. We acknowledge this, and in answer
-wish only to take the jury, who are to decide this case, to the homes
-of these witnesses, where they can see for themselves that they are
-sharers in the plunder that has been taken from the plaintiffs.
-
-
-THE PRESS.
-
-The first important witness in behalf of the defense is the great
-metropolitan press, the peculiar and special product of the dying years
-of the present century.
-
-Now, the modern newspaper is a corporation, formed for the one purpose
-of paying dividends to stockholders. In order to make money it must
-serve the people who have money, for now all the profits of the great
-dailies are derived from the sale of space in their columns, the
-receipts for the sale of papers not covering expenses. The business
-manager, with a few exceptions, controls the editorial department and
-dictates all policies. So we poor wayfarers, hungry for information
-concerning some important interest, seize upon a learned editorial in
-a great metropolitan daily, and while we think we are being instructed
-by the weighty opinion of some friendly and scholarly writer, we are
-in fact reading THE PAID ADVERTISEMENT of our enemies, placed in the
-paper to confuse us. When, in the news department, we read a speech or
-an interview, it is often so garbled that the meaning is quite changed.
-And what we consider to be a simple statement of fact is often a
-doctored narrative, containing fictitious figures, and printed for the
-sole purpose of misleading the public.
-
-The attempt of the gold press to array the agricultural producers
-against the city laborers, and the mechanics against the agriculturists
-is cruel and deliberate. And this power to deceive and mislead carries
-with it the power of life or death.
-
-Suppose I were to go to Mr. Jones and tell him that Mr. Smith had
-declared to me that he was going to shoot him on sight, and that I had
-seen him purchase a revolver for that purpose; and then I should go to
-Mr. Smith and tell him that his friend Jones had just armed himself to
-the teeth for the purpose of killing him, stating that I had heard him
-swear and curse and declare before heaven that Smith should not live
-another day. Now, suppose these two neighbors, heretofore warm friends,
-were to approach each other, and Smith, as a precaution, would reach
-his hand toward his hip-pocket, and Jones, in order to save his life,
-would pull out his weapon and fire, both men shooting each other at the
-same time.
-
-The result would be TWO DEAD FOOLS, the victims of ONE LIVE LIAR.
-
-The power to deceive great masses of people by simultaneous and
-premeditated conspiracy on the part of the papers owned by monopoly,
-carries with it the power to weaken the masses by dividing them in a
-struggle over false issues; and while they fight among themselves, to
-rob them and legislate their children into slavery.
-
-Here are the words of the great journalist, John Swinton, before the
-New York Press Association, in response to a toast, "The Independent
-Press:"
-
- "There is no such thing in America as an independent Press, unless
- it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is
- not one of you who dare express an honest opinion; if you express
- it, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am
- paid one hundred and fifty dollars a week for keeping my honest
- opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are
- paid similar salaries for similar things. If I should permit honest
- opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like Othello,
- before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. Any man who
- would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on
- the street hunting for another job. The business of the New York
- journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to
- vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and
- race for his daily bread, or for about the same thing--his salary.
- You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an
- 'Independent Press.' We are tools and the vassals of rich men
- behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks; they pull the strings and
- we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, all
- are property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
-
-In the case of "The American People versus the Banks and Trusts," we
-have found, by personal examination, as also by the confession of a
-member of the family, John Swinton, that the money which inflates the
-purse of the prominent editorial witness consists of the marked coins
-that made up a portion of the booty in question. No sane juror will
-believe the testimony of such a witness.
-
-
-CLERGY NEEDS SYMPATHY, NOT BLAME.
-
-It is also claimed that God's ministry has offered its testimony in
-behalf of the defense. It is not my purpose to say anything against the
-clergy, because if there is an abused and ill-treated class of men on
-the face of the earth to-day, who need pity and prayer and succor, it
-is the men who have dedicated their lives to the Christ who was killed
-by the rich of His time, and who are now dependent for their living,
-their children's food and their wives' clothing, upon the blended piety
-and pride, the virtues and vanities of the rich of to-day.
-
-In all that inconsistent barbarism, which we call civilization, there
-is no man who needs sympathy so much and deserves blame so little as
-he who is attempting at the same time to preach for God and to get
-his living from God's enemies, to build monuments to the Christ who
-lived and died for the poor, and gain the material and cost of these
-monuments by flattering those who are grinding the faces of the poor.
-
-Many clergymen have told me how their hearts have bled for the victims
-of social injustice; how in anguish they have wept over the piteous
-cries for help uttered by their dying brothers and sisters in Jesus
-Christ; how, bursting with indignation, they have longed to strike a
-blow against the brutality that crushes Christ's little ones in order
-to grind from their bones and blood colossal and unnatural fortunes.
-But they said, "We must conceal our tears and swallow our indignation,
-though it chokes us. We dare not speak out--we could neither destroy
-the tyrant nor save the victims. We would only succeed in dragging down
-our own wives and little ones into that dark stream of poverty, from
-which those who have once fallen in can never hope to rise. First of
-all, we must live--and then do what little we can to temper the reign
-of injustice and oppression. The overthrow and destruction of this
-system of injustice rests upon the shoulders of God and the common
-people."
-
-I would ask the workmen of the country who are rapidly leaving the
-churches not to judge the clergy harshly, because the majority are dumb
-in your behalf and because a few openly and blatantly champion the
-cause of the oppressors.
-
-But I must also ask you to place no confidence in their testimony in
-this political trial, for their lips often utter words their hearts
-fain would withhold, and they often pray for success to the banner for
-which they cannot fight.
-
-Let us not condemn them because they are bound with chains of
-dependence, but let us rather include them among those whom we shall
-liberate when we establish a POLITICAL SYSTEM WHICH SHALL SET ALL MEN
-FREE.
-
-In the case of "The American People versus the Money Lending and
-Bondholding Class," we find that the long, flowing garb of the
-ministerial witness, that at first inspired our confidence in his
-testimony, because of the holy office it suggested, is made of the
-very cloth, a part of the plunder, the disapperance of which is the
-basis of the present trial. The testimony of such a witness, cajoled,
-terrorized, and a sharer in the booty taken, is also without value.
-
-
-THE TESTIMONY OF THE COLLEGE AUTHORITIES.
-
-Now, as to the college professors: From the earliest times down to
-the present day, learning has been fostered, patronized and supported
-by wealth. The kings and nobility of various times and nations, too
-stupid or lazy to acquire distinction in the field of scholarship
-themselves, have vied with each other in gathering around them the
-greatest scholars, musicians, poets and minstrels, as well as the
-greatest athletes, the most beautiful and voluptuous women, the fastest
-horses, and the most interesting curios of every description. Some
-of the patrons of learning and art have been really serious in their
-devotion to the beautiful and true. It is, perhaps, one of the greatest
-encomiums that we can pronounce upon the wealth of the world, that in
-all ages it has supported learning as the stalk supports the flower.
-This condition of affairs has not existed, however, without causing an
-undesirable dependence on the part of the beneficiaries.
-
-Who has passed through the great art galleries of the Louvre at Paris,
-and beheld the acres of canvas, covered with the work of the immortal
-Rubens, without being filled with anger and disgust as he thought
-of the genius and years of toil which, instead of being devoted to
-conceiving and executing new masterpieces to delight and inspire all
-future ages, were applied to daubing the vain and cruel countenance and
-the unattractive person of the patroness who gave him his bread?
-
-The first and greatest universities in this land were founded, have
-been built up, and are at present supported by the bequests and
-donations, the gratuitous contributions of the rich. The vast undying
-benefits that have flowed from this wealth, which have been devoted to
-learning, ancient and modern, cannot easily be overestimated. What the
-world would have been without the enlightenment which has come from
-this source it is not easy to imagine. We should hold in high esteem
-the solitary student who, in past ages and to-day, gropes his silent,
-difficult way towards those hidden truths in science, in history or in
-art which will one day enlighten and beautify the world. We should be
-lovers of all that is beautiful, and all that is true, and all that is
-lovable in this great world of ours. Music, painting and sculpture,
-the sciences, literature and history, should be to all sources both
-of inspiration and of light. With all our hearts let us welcome these
-products of man's talent and genius.
-
-The historian is the hinge linking the present to the past. His
-office is not only a useful, but a sacred one. Scholarship is like
-womanhood--one of the most holy and sacred things in the world. But,
-like womanhood, when prostituted, it becomes the most debased. He who
-muddies with error and personal prejudice the fountain of pure truth
-is an enemy to his race. But let us not attempt to blame nor censure
-individuals. We know that wealth has been the friend of learning; that
-in all times past those who have devoted their time to the pursuit of
-truth or beauty have been dependent upon the support of the rich and
-powerful. You say that if wealth has been the friend of learning, it is
-only natural that learning should be the friend of wealth. Yes, this is
-exactly the fact in the case. Learning is the friend of wealth for two
-reasons: One, because she feels grateful for past favors; the other,
-and greater, because she is hopeful for favors to come.
-
-It is well known in educational circles that any college found
-propagating "heresies" like "free silver" or "government ownership of
-the railroads"--in other words, any institution which does not distort
-and curtail its teachings so as to bias the student in favor of the
-single gold standard and the eternal reign of monopoly--will be cut off
-without a dollar by plutocracy and doomed to a future of comparative
-impotence and uselessness for lack of funds.
-
-
-THE RESULT.
-
-What is the result? The president of a large private university,
-knowing that his reputation for success or failure depends upon
-the growth of his university as compared with that of neighboring
-universities, continually trims his sails to secure favors of those who
-have money to dispense. It is a common thing for a college president
-to make what he calls a "begging tour." He endeavors to show to those
-who are supposed to have money to bestow that his university is in
-great need, and can make the best possible use of "sound" money in
-propagating "sound ideas."
-
-A good illustration of this is the tour which Brooker Washington, the
-famous colored orator, the President of the Tuskegee Institute, made in
-1896, through the North and East. He is a man of intellectual power. He
-is, no doubt, thoroughly devoted to the enlightenment of his race; but
-the way he flatters and cajoles the rich, advocates the gold standard,
-overlooks and keeps silent about their corruption and crimes, and
-assents to their plans for further aggrandizement, is a lesson which
-every patriot can study with profit. He has become a pet and fad among
-the wealthy classes of New York and New England. Even Harvard in 1896
-conferred upon him an honorary degree. He has doubtless gotten heavy
-endowments for his college, but he has had to fawn and flatter and
-stultify his manhood to do it. And he has given a striking example of
-what almost every college president must do to a greater or less extent.
-
-The fact is, that PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES, DEPENDING AS THEY DO UPON THE
-CHARITY AND CONSCIENCE MONEY OF THE RICH FOR SUPPORT AND GROWTH, LIKE
-ALL THOSE WHO LIVE BY CHARITY, HAVE ACQUIRED THE FAWNING SPIRIT OF
-SERVITUDE AND DEPENDENCE, AND FAITHFULLY LICK THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.
-"Verily the ox knoweth his master's crib."
-
-Many college presidents dare not use any but "orthodox" gold standard
-text-books, and professors who dissent from the views of these books
-are forced to swallow their own opinions and propagate error.
-
-Many of "our great authorities" are mere sycophants of wealth,
-creatures of the millionaire, placed by him in the same category as his
-musician, his ballet dancer or chaplain, all valuable dependents. The
-money lord of creation often builds the college (Chicago University,
-for example), places the poor book-worm in the position that makes him
-a "recognized authority," and the "authority" must dish up statistics
-as a cook dishes up his delicacies to suit the taste of his master. If
-he refuses he loses his job, and is no longer a "recognized authority."
-
-Young men are not only taught in many instances that the rights of
-monopoly and money are more sacred than the rights of men and women,
-but are shown frequently that if they want to make a success in life,
-and be an honor to their family and their college they must ally
-themselves with the powerful corporations and trusts and keep their
-skirts clear of all popular and reform movements.
-
-The recent action of the Yale students who brutally attempted to insult
-the honored guest of their city, Mr. Wm. J. Bryan, is not without
-significance.
-
-The authorities and the respectable element among the students were no
-doubt, deeply humiliated by such a disgrace. Yet it is fairly plain
-that the dogmatic, uncharitable and violent opposition to Free Silver
-indulged in by the professors, has contributed its part toward causing
-this exhibition of anarchy and puppyism.
-
-There is a wide distinction however, between professors and professors.
-
-There are numerous truly great men who are aristocrats at heart, who
-love luxury and culture and refinement, whose friends are principally
-among the rich, whose sympathies are with the rich, and whose interests
-in life are bound up with the prosperity of the wealthy classes. These
-men oppose popular rights as conscientiously as did the old Feudal
-Lords. They all oppose the New Democracy.
-
-There are many others--men of splendid intellect, but utterly without
-principle--who are mere dishonest, mercenary tools of the highest
-bidder, willing to distort and manufacture history, tamper with
-statistics, and lie like "shyster lawyers."
-
-As, for instance, the learned professor of the Chicago University, who
-declared with brazen effrontery that whatever might be charged against
-Mr. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Trust, no one could say that he
-had accumulated his millions in any way that interfered with the
-accumulations of others.[9]
-
- [9] See detailed account of the lawless Anarchistic methods
- used by Standard Oil Trust to destroy competitors in "Wealth
- Against Commonwealth" by H. D. Lloyd.
-
-Again there are a few university "authorities" who, at the risk of
-their living and the success of the institutions they represent,
-have told the truth fearlessly. They oppose monopoly and the gold
-standard. But their testimony is buried beneath the overwhelming mass
-of prejudice, sophistry and misinformation supplied by their colleagues.
-
-Very distinct from any of these classes is that swarm of cowardly
-pusillanimous book-worms, who, as underlings in the large universities,
-and as full-fledged professors in the small colleges, retail at
-second-hand with stupid pertinacity and pig-headed bitterness, all
-the errors of the "authorities," together with new ones of their own
-special brew.
-
-It is by the prejudiced and purchased testimony of such men as these
-that the monopolies of the country try to prove that empty stomachs
-are full, bare backs clothed, and that a constantly growing and
-appreciating dollar is an honest one. It is with such untrustworthy
-witnesses that they attempt to prove to us that the men who have stolen
-our property are more honest than we.
-
-The teacher witness for the defense may be more "respectable and
-learned" than the witnesses of the prosecution, but when we see that
-the universities are built and professors' salaries paid from the
-booty wrung from the people--in other words, "that the teacher rides to
-court on one of the very horses taken from Farmer Hayseed's stable" it
-does not take us long to decide that this testimony is misleading and
-false.
-
-Therefore, the workmen, merchants and tax-payers who compose the jury,
-which is to hand in its verdict in 1900, must refuse to consider the
-testimony of these collegiate, pulpit and editorial witnesses, who are
-proven to be sharers in the tribute forced from the people by that
-gigantic and almost sublime system of world exploitation carried on
-scientifically and persistently by those powerful "trusts" which have
-cornered the world's gold and monopolized nearly every necessity and
-comfort of life.
-
-The pivotal point in this campaign is the question of the reliability
-of witnesses. Not only do opinions differ, but the history, statistics,
-and facts, advanced by the defenders of monopoly and the gold standard
-contradict the history, statistics and facts discovered by the
-champions of the people. There can be only one truthful history of
-the crime of seventy-three, and the seventy-three other crimes of
-the shirkers against the workers. Figures do not lie. Only one set
-of statistics, as to the rise in the value of the gold dollar, can
-possibly be correct. Facts do not conflict. When men contradict each
-other upon a question of fact, one side is wrong.
-
-Whose history and statistics are we to believe in this campaign?
-
-Are we to believe the interested, prejudiced, purchased witnesses of
-corrupt wealth, or are we to believe the testimony of the witnesses of
-the people--men who have sacrificed and suffered in order to tell the
-truth.
-
-It is because the classes who have the advantages of culture and
-leisure, always care more for their own comforts than for truth and
-justice, that these problems, my reader, must be worked out, by the
-millions made of the same identical common mud that you and I are.
-
-As William E. Gladstone has said, all the reforms brought about in
-England during the last century, and of which all her citizens now
-boast, "were at first merely impossible ideals in the minds of the
-ignorant and fanatical poor," and were carried through by the working
-people "in opposition to the cultured and leisure class."
-
-It is because those who possess the power and the learning to lead
-mankind aright have always proven recreant to the trust imposed
-upon them, that God, in directing the course of human history, has
-invariably swept this class aside and accepted as His instruments
-the poor, the simple-minded and uncorrupted. From the birth of the
-primitive church among the poor fishermen of Galilee to the abolition
-of chattel slavery by an agitation instituted by social and political
-outcasts, the hand of God moving in the world has invariably brushed
-aside the rich and powerful with the intellectual parasites that swarm
-about them, and in building nations, religions, or instituting great
-reforms, has uniformly chosen the normal, healthy material at the base
-of society still uncorrupted by luxury.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-VOTE YOURSELVES RICH.
-
-
-Those who have been voted rich, not by their own votes, but by our
-votes, the votes of the common people, are now engaged in proving to us
-THAT WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY DONE FOR THEM WE CAN BY NO POSSIBLE MEANS DO
-FOR OURSELVES.
-
-Having accumulated immense fortunes by means of vote enacted
-legislation, THEY PREACH TO US THE UTTER FOLLY OF OUR HOPING FOR ANY
-GAIN FROM THE SAME SOURCE.
-
-So interested are they in our proper economic education, that they are
-willing to supply both text-books and teachers. They love learning and
-from purely philanthropic motives seek to make us wise.
-
-But what is their wisdom so willingly imparted? From what follies are
-they so anxious to guard us?
-
-TO VOTE OUR ENEMIES RICH: THIS IS WISDOM.
-
-TO ATTEMPT TO VOTE OURSELVES RICH: DANGEROUS FOLLY.
-
-Their science teaches that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE INSTRUMENT WHICH IS
-THE SOURCE OF THEIR WEALTH TO BE OF ANY EFFECT IN BEHALF OF THOSE WHO
-WIELD THE INSTRUMENT.
-
-Text-book in hand they say to the people, "It is impossible for you to
-vote yourselves rich."
-
-Strictly speaking, it is unnecessary for the people to "vote themselves
-rich." WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE ALREADY RICH. We are rich by the gift of
-nature and the will of God. Each scientific discovery and invention,
-wrung by toil, genius and martyrdom from the strange earth and
-firmament that greeted primeval man, has added to our riches. We are
-now rich, but are debarred by force from the possession of our own. We
-are heirs, not only to the riches of the earth as originally created,
-but to all those opportunities for utilizing these natural treasures,
-resulting from the accumulated knowledge and skill of the centuries.
-But we are kept from our inheritance.
-
-We have been deprived of our wealth by vote-enacted legislation, and it
-is vote-enacted legislation that will again give us possession.
-
-Our enemies say contemptuously that government can no more increase
-wages by legislation than it can increase the size of your foot or
-the length of your arm, for the increase or decrease in both cases is
-governed wholly by natural law.
-
-"Let the poor," they say, "stop agitating and hoping to become
-prosperous through legislation, and instead let every man go to work
-building his own home and fortune, and all will be well."
-
-"The Government cannot legislate a single dollar into existence."
-
-"The remedies for poverty are industry, frugality and temperance."
-
-These are the things they say. But suppose we watch their acts instead
-of listening to their words. Then we learn that, while for us they
-point in one direction to the road that leads to fortune they seek this
-road themselves by going the opposite way. We, who have followed their
-advice, have been impoverished; they, who imitated their acts, have
-been enriched.
-
-
-POTATOES AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.
-
-I ride to market with a load of potatoes, the result of sweat and labor
-for half a year. A ruffian knocks me off my wagon, takes my seat and
-drives away.
-
-Questions: Shall I ask a policeman to help me catch the despoiler,
-or shall I "cease agitating and go to work?" Shall I arm myself and,
-with the help of friends, take back my own, or shall I return to the
-farm and "practice industry, frugality and temperance?" Is it nobler,
-manlier, more courageous of me to get possession of my potatoes by
-fighting, or, forsaking them, to go to work and raise another crop for
-the next thief?
-
-Honest and contented labor under these circumstances is dishonorable.
-
-WHEN A MAN IS ROBBED, THE WAY FOR HIM TO GET MONEY IS NOT TO WORK FOR
-IT BUT TO FIGHT FOR IT. To tell a man that he cannot possibly make any
-money by talking nor get any potatoes by agitating police officers
-is absolutely true, PROVIDED, the man has been loafing all year and
-has not been robbed of his crop. But these demonstrations of the
-economists go into the waste basket, when the fact is made plain that
-the man, seeking by government aid to get potatoes, has already earned
-them by hard labor, but is deprived of them by the criminal act of
-another. Under such circumstances, the man who, instead of fighting and
-pursuing, applies himself to honest toil, is a coward.
-
-Men who, wrongfully deprived of their property, go to work to earn
-more, thus providing additional booty for their despoilers, are
-unworthy a better fate. Honor impels a true man to fight, not work,
-when a wrong is suffered either by himself or friends.
-
-To quietly plow while another eats the result of last year's plowing,
-to contentedly plant while another reaps, to submissively bow one's
-head beneath a yoke and receive the kicks and jeers and sneers of the
-drivers, are not the acts of a man nor the duties of a citizen, but the
-follies of an ass. When a true man, after gathering his harvest, sees
-his product taken by another, he mounts his horse, before planting
-again, and with pitchfork, shotgun or other efficient weapon, starts in
-hot pursuit. He seeks to recover last year's product before trying to
-raise another crop.
-
-Therefore, when government-made millionaires try to persuade the
-working people, small tax-payers and business men to stop meddling with
-politics and instead to work harder in the hope of laying by something
-for old age, they really desire them to cease defending their property
-and to continue creating more for others to enjoy.
-
-The learned professor teaches that "the government cannot legislate
-into being a single dollar, nor a dollar's worth of wealth." From this
-premise, he reasons that a dollar legislated into one man's pocket
-must necessarily be legislated out of another man's pocket. He then
-concludes that the poor cannot legislate themselves comfortable without
-to the extent of their gain depriving another class of their earnings.
-
-If my neighbor accompanied me to market with a load of potatoes and
-I were to ask a policeman to help me take his load from him, the
-economists' words would apply. The government, through its agent, the
-policeman, could not double my wealth without robbing my neighbor. But
-this is not the situation. I came alone. A stranger assaulted me and
-took both wagon and potatoes, leaving me very poor. Now, in spite of
-the professor's words, the state, in the person of its officer, can
-abolish my poverty and give me a wagon filled with potatoes without
-doing injustice to any one else. I can be made happy without depriving
-any other being of what he has earned, and I do not ask the state
-to legislate into existence a single potato. I simply ask that the
-potatoes already existing as the result of my labor be taken from the
-highwayman and returned to their rightful owner.
-
-This is what the masses ask. Not that the government give them anything
-produced by others, not that the government attempt to create anything
-independent of the labor of its citizens, but that it return to them
-their own. We demand the capture of the highwayman, monopoly, and that
-the opportunities taken from us by him be restored to us.[10]
-
- [10] When a monopoly becomes a government monopoly, its nature
- changes entirely, and all that was objectionable disappears.
- The evil pertaining to a monopoly is its exclusiveness. When
- private monopoly becomes government monopoly, it is no longer
- exclusive, for the whole people enjoy its benefits alike.
- Unity of administration is not an evil if the resulting
- benefits are shared by all. The only possible way to destroy
- the great monopolies is to convert them into government
- functions, and administer them as the post office, the army,
- navy, weather service, the public schools and parks are now
- managed. There is no other way to destroy our new industrial
- despotism.
-
- Read "Socialism and Social Reform," by Prof. R. T. Ely; also
- "Wealth against Commonwealth," by H. D. Lloyd.
-
-We not only demand but we are actually organizing for the pursuit. The
-Democratic Volunteers are superintending the preliminaries and in 1900
-law and order are to be established, the adventurers suppressed, and
-restoration made. The issuance of the nation's money, now a private
-monopoly, controlled by bankers, will again be made a function of
-government, and the people will be permitted to exchange their products
-without paying revenue to their enemies for the means of exchange,
-which is their own creation. Other wrongs will be righted with equal
-facility.
-
-Each victim, however, must be taught that his vote is both horse and
-hound for pursuing, and both gun and rope for punishing and reclaiming.
-Our vote is our one weapon, our one means of defense, and source of
-power.
-
-The value of legislative control to our enemies is shown by the
-desperation with which they oppose any effort on the part of the people
-to recover it. They know it to be the true creator of their fortunes,
-and they look to it alone for future "fruits of labor" and "rewards of
-genius."
-
-We are rich, but we have been ousted from our patrimony. How shall
-we recover it? By the same means through which we lost it, namely,
-legislation. The oppressions that curse man are all entrenched in,
-and owe their power to, legislation. If we are to be freed from them,
-it will be by legislation. In primitive times, government was openly,
-frankly exercised for the enrichment of a class at the expense of the
-mass. For ages the "right divine" was believed in honestly. Later when
-its justice was denied, its benefits were seen to be too valuable to be
-relinquished. So duplicity was employed, and the art of "plucking the
-goose without making it squeal" was invented.
-
-Money-making heretofore has not been so much a function of government
-as money-taking, and this function can be made to work one way as well
-as another.
-
-If thieves by government action can despoil honest men, honest men by
-government action can despoil thieves.
-
-If legislation has been made the instrument of crime, it also can be
-made the instrument of restoration. No personal temperance, thrift and
-industry can enrich men so long as the power to legislate rests in
-other hands. Labor makes wealth but legislation decrees how it shall
-be divided. When the people legislate directly and intelligently the
-division will be in accord with justice. By the ballot we can enter
-upon our inheritance.
-
-Poverty exists and we are told that it is the natural order, with which
-legislation has nothing to do. There has been told no more transparent
-lie. Wealth is created by the union of man's labor with nature's gifts.
-What is it but legislation that keeps apart in unnatural divorce these
-two that God hath joined together? What but legislation can remove the
-barriers and allow them again to come together?
-
-Legislation CAN make money; so lavishly that no man need want. How? By
-making conditions favorable to labor, and securing the laborer in the
-fruit of his toil.
-
-
-WE CAN ACTUALLY VOTE RICHES INTO EXISTENCE.
-
-Our instructors say, "Government cannot legislate a single dollar into
-existence." Let us see.
-
-While riding to market with a crop of potatoes, I am dispossessed.
-In the struggle a portion of the crop is injured. The highwayman, in
-escaping, lames the horses by overdriving. Instead of going to work the
-next day, in company with an officer, I start in pursuit. The robber,
-alert, removes to another state at an expense of half his booty.
-Whether successful or not, my time, the officer's time and the thief's
-time are all wasted, in addition to three-fourths of my product.
-
-Now, my neighbors and I, who together make up the government, suppress
-brigandage. Instead of three fourths of my crop being wasted by
-struggle for possession, it is all sold the very day it is carted to
-market. Instead of exchanging my hoe for a gun and chasing another
-man, I plant another crop of potatoes. Instead of helping me in the
-chase the policeman grows a crop of his own, and the bandit, knowing
-beforehand that it is impossible to live by robbery, ceases to watch
-for possible victims and raises his own potatoes instead of taking mine.
-
-Without proper governmental interference the three of us have
-only a portion of one crop of potatoes between us. AS THE RESULT
-OF GOVERNMENTAL ACTION, WE HAVE THREE FULL CROPS. THE GOVERNMENT,
-BY LEGISLATIVE "EDICT" OR "FIAT," if you please, CREATES TWO AND
-THREE-QUARTERS CROPS OF POTATOES. WE CAN VOTE OURSELVES RICH.
-
-And of each dollar voted into our pockets, not more than fifteen cents
-will be stolen property reclaimed. The other eighty-five cents will be
-a new product, rescued from waste or destruction.
-
-The saddest feature of our present industrial cannibalism is that where
-one dollar is stolen at least seven dollars are wasted. THE PREVENTABLE
-WASTES OF CIVILIZATION CAN MAKE EARTH A PARADISE.
-
-
-PROSPERITY, "THE McKINLEY" AND OTHER BRANDS.
-
-We can vote our country prosperous. But it is very essential that we
-understand clearly WHOM we mean when we say "country." We have been
-voting for one kind of prosperity for a long time, even before the
-"McKinley brand," was on the market. Our mistake has been in not asking
-the "Advance Agents" to tell us whose prosperity they represented.
-
-If a burglar is emptying your wife's jewelry box, and filling his
-trousers pockets with the contents of your safe, prosperity to him
-means ruin to you, and your success means the burglar's death. So, in
-the larger affairs of our nation, the kind of prosperity hoped for by
-the plunderers of the people means ruin to their millions of victims,
-while good times for the workers, the farmers, the merchants, mean hard
-times to our despoilers.
-
-We now have the best times the world has ever seen. Mr. Rockefeller,
-or Robafellow--one is his name, the other ought to be--has an income
-of forty thousand dollars a day, and it is increasing. No country
-in the world has ever produced so much; never were there barns so
-bursting with grain, or warehouses so filled with clothing, furniture
-and jewels; never before so many men making from five to forty thousand
-dollars a day.
-
-This great National Joint Stock Company of ours, with its seventy
-million stockholders, is doing a thriving business and making barrels
-of money. There is only one objectionable feature. It is that after
-the labor of these seventy millions of people, their genius, their
-suffering and their sweat, are converted into wealth, the dividends are
-given to a few hundred men, while the rest of us pay the assessments.
-
-We do not need better times. Anybody who wants to make more than forty
-thousand dollars a day is a hog. The real issue is not whether we shall
-have hard times or good times, prosperity or panic in the abstract, but
-it is whether that prosperity and good times, now monopolized by the
-few, shall become the inheritance of every child of God.
-
-
-THIEVES TAKE PANIC WHEN PURSUED BY HONEST MEN.
-
-If a select company of burglars and safe-blowers were to enter your
-village and relieve a number of your merchants of the contents of
-their safes, their stocks of jewels, silks and clothing, and were
-to secure all of the finest horses from half the neighboring farms,
-and utilize them in getting the booty safely to the nearest forest,
-they would no doubt, while unpacking their wealth and feeding their
-horses, after their hasty trip, congratulate one another upon "their
-remarkable prosperity." They would be very apt to brag about the
-unusual "good times." But if, as the sun rose over the tree-tops and
-they were repacking their goods they saw suddenly the glistening
-pitchforks of half a hundred angry farmers and the determined furious
-faces of as many brawny workmen and merchants, bent on reclaiming their
-property--there would be a PANIC.[11]
-
- [11] If you want legal evidence to prove the existence of
- gigantic steals and robberies, read Lloyd's "Wealth Against
- Commonwealth," Harper Bros., and the "Seven Financial
- Conspiracies."
-
-The plunderers of the world are enjoying good times at the expense
-of the masses. Their profits are as fabulous as their methods are
-cruel. But in the midst of their celebration feast, their crime is
-discovered, and the pitchforks of five million farmers glistening in
-the morning sun, the angry faces of four million city workmen loom up
-in the distance, and the result is PANIC and loss of confidence--(among
-the revelers.)
-
-As we approach November, 1900, this panic will increase. But as there
-wells up the sound infernal of their weeping and wailing and gnashing
-of teeth, there will be heard still louder, the voices of millions
-singing their chorus of deliverance. As these offenders look into the
-grave where lies buried their every plan for selfish aggrandizement, to
-us, their innumerable victims, that same grave will be the open window
-through which we behold the land of promise.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
- Chapter Page
-
- I. Introductory 5
-
- II. How to Begin Work 23
-
- III. Speeches and Meetings 43
-
- IV. Methods of Travel 65
-
- V. Saloon Meetings 101
-
- VI. The Heroic and Prosaic 115
-
- VII. Practical Politics 127
-
- VIII. Fundamentals 141
-
- IX. The Church as a Field 151
-
- X. Only Two Parties in the World 171
-
- XI. Witnesses for Plutocracy Discredited 189
-
- XII. Vote Yourselves Rich 211
-
-
-
-
- The Volunteers' Training School For Speakers.
-
- Opens at St. Louis September 15, 1897.
-
-
-Young men of moderate attainments can become ready speakers in from one
-to three months time.
-
-Practice both indoors and outdoors every day by every student, under
-the direction of experienced campaigners.
-
-All the arts and secrets of successful oratory taught in the most
-expeditious manner, accompanied by the daily application of every truth
-learned.
-
-Tuition per month $1.
-
-Text books, good for one year, $5.
-
-
- Especially Cheap Rates at Volunteers' Boarding House.
-
- Address Joseph Hoffman Mgr.,
- 4713 Page Avenue, ST. LOUIS, MO.
-
-
-In preparing for this course read any of the following:
-
- Wealth Against Commonwealth, Henry D. Lloyd, Pub. by Harper Bros.
-
- Socialism and Social Reform, Prof. Richard T. Ely.
-
- Social Aspects of Christianity, Prof. Richard T. Ely.
-
- Ten Men of Money Island, Norton.
-
- Merrie England, Robert Blatchford.
-
- Seven Financial Conspiracies.
-
- The New Democracy, Vrooman.
-
- Coin's Financial School.
-
- The First Battle, Bryan.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Democracy, by Walter Vrooman
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