volves the very existence of the republic and the destruction of our free institutions. We regard it as the paramount issue of the campaign.

The declaration in the Republican platform adopted at the Philadelphia convention held in June, 1900, that the Republican party "steadfastly adheres to the policy announced in the Monroe doctrine" is manifestly insincere and deceptive. This profession is contradicted by the avowed policy of that party in opposition to the spirit of the Monroe doctrine to acquire and hold sovereignty over large areas of territory and large numbers of people in the eastern hemisphere.

We insist on the strict maintenance of the Monroe doctrine and in all its integrity, both in letter and in spirit, as necessary to prevent the extension of European authority on this continent, and as essential to our supremacy in American affairs. At the same time we declare that no American people shall ever be held by force in unwilling subjection to European authority.

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace-loving people a large standing army and unnecessary burden of taxation and a constant menace to their liberties. A small standing army and a well disciplined State militia are amply sufficient in time of peace. This republic has no place for a vast military service and conscription. When the nation is in danger the volunteer soldier is his country's best defender.

The National Guard of the United States should ever be cherished in the patriotic hearts of a free people. Such organizations are ever an element of strength and safety. For the first time in our history and coevil with the Philippine conquest has there been a wholesale departure from our time-honored and approved system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as un-American, un-Demo. cratic, and un-Republican, and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.

Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They de stroy competition, control the price of all material, and of the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment of labor, and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof, and deprive individual energy and small capital of their opportunity for betterment.

They are the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and unless their insatiate greed is checked all wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the republic destroyed.

The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the Republican party in State and national platforms is conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are the legitimate product of Republican policies; that they are fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by the Republican administration in return for campaign subscriptions and political support.

We pledge the Democratic party to an unceasing warfare in nation, State, and city against private monopoly in every form. Existing laws against trusts must be enforced, and more stringent ones must be exacted providing for publicity as to the affairs of corporations engaged in interstate commerce, and requiring all corporations to show before doing business outside of the State of their origin that they have no water in their stock, and that they have not attempted and are not attempting to monopolize any branch of business or the production of any articles of merchandise, and the whole constitutional power of Congress over interstate commerce, the mails and all modes of interstate communication shall be exercised by the enactment of comprehensive laws upon the subject of trusts.

Tariff laws should be amended by putting the products of trusts upon the free list to prevent monopoly under the piea of protection. The failure of the present Republican administration, with an absolute control over all branches of the national government, to enact any legislation designed to prevent or even curtail the absorbing power of trusts and illegal combinations, or to enforce the anti-trust laws already on the statute books prove the insincerity of the highsounding phrases of the Republican platform.

Corporations should be protected in all their rights and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations to interfere with the public affairs of the people or to control the sovereignty which creates them should be forbidden under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible.

We condemn the Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding measure skillfully devised to give the few favors which they do not deserve and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear.

We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the interstate commerce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminations, and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.

We reaffirm and indorse the principles of the National Democratic Platform adopted at Chicago in 1896, and we reiterate the demand of that platform for an American financial system made by the American people for themselves, which shall restore and maintain a bimetallic price level, and as part of such system the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation.

We denounce the currency bill enacted at the last session of Congress as a step forward in the Republican policy which aims to discredit the sovereign right of the national government to issue all money, whether coin or paper, and to bestow upon national banks the power to issue and control the volume of paper money for their own benefit. A permanent national bank currency, secured by government bonds, must have a permanent debt to rest upon, and if the bank currency is to increase with population and business the debt must also increase. The Republican currency scheme is therefore a scheme for fastening upon the taxpayers a perpetual and growing

debt for the benefit of the banks. We are opposed to this private corporation paper circulated as money, but without legal tender qualities, and demand the retirement of the national bank notes as fast as government paper or silver certificates can be substituted for

them.

We favor an amendment to the federal constitution providing for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, and we favor direct legislation wherever practicable.

We are opposed to government by injunction; we denounce the blacklist and favor arbitration as a means of settling disputes between corporations and their employes.

In the interest of American labor and the uplifting of the workingmen, as the corner-stone of the prosperity of our country, we recommend that Congress create a Department of Labor, in charge of a Secretary, with a seat in the Cabinet, believing that the elevation of the American laborer will bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to our country at home and to our commerce abroad.

We are proud of the courage and fidelity of the American soldiers and sailors in all our wars; we favor liberal pensions to them and their dependants, and we reiterate the position taken in the Chicago platform in 1896 that the fact of enlistment and service shall be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.

We favor the immediate construction, ownership, and operation of the Nicaragua Canal by the United States, and we denounce the insincerity of the plank in the National Republican platform for an isthmian canal in face of the failure of the Republican majority to pass the bill pending in Congress. We condemn the Hay-Pauncefote treaty as a surrender of American rights and interests not to be tolerated by the American people.

We denounce the failure of the Republican party to carry out its pledges, to grant Statehood to the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and we promise the people of those Territories immediate Statehood and home rule during their condition as Territories, and we favor home rule and a Territorial form of gov. ernment for Alaska and Porto Rico.

We favor an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of the West, storing the waters for purposes of irrigation, and the holding of such lands for actual settlers.

We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese exclusion law and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic

races.

Jefferson said: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."' We approve this wholesome doctrine and earnestly protest against the Republican departure which has involved us in so-called politics, including the diplomacy of Europe and the intrigue and land-grabbing of Asia, and we especially condemn the ill-concealed Republican alliance with England which must mean discrimination against other friendly nations

and which has already stifled the nation's voice while liberty is being strangled in Africa.

Believing in the principles of self-government, and rejecting, as did our forefathers, the aim of monarchy, we view with indignation the purpose of England to overwhelm with force the south African republics. Speaking, as we do, for the entire American nation, except its Republican office-holders, and for all free men everywhere. we extend our sympathies to the heroic burghers in their unequal struggle to maintain their liberty and independence.

We denounce the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high, and which threaten the perpetuation of the oppressive war levies.

We oppose the accumulation of a surplus to be squandered in such baretaced frauds upon the taxpayers as the shipping subsidy bill, which, under the false pretense of prospering American shipbuilding, would put unearned millions into the pockets of favorite contributors to the Republican campaign fund.

We favor the reduction and speedy repeal of the war taxes, and a return to the time-honored Democratic policy of strict economy in governmental expenditures.

Believing that our most cherished institutions are in great peril, the very existence of our constitutional republic is at stake, and that the decision now to be rendered will determine whether or not our children are to enjoy those blessed privileges of free government which have made the United States great, prosperous, and honored, we earnestly ask for the foregoing declaration of principles the hearty support of the liberty-loving American people, regardless of previous party affiliations.

CHAPTER III.

*BIOGRAPHY OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN.

ANCESTRY.

Within the last few years Mr. Bryan has corresponded with a number of persons bearing the family name. Some of the Bryans trace their ancestry to Ireland, some to Wales, while others have followed the name through Irish into English history. biographical sketch written under the supervision of Silas L. Bryan states that the family is of Irish extraction.

A

William Bryan, who lived in Culpeper County, Virginia, something more than one hundred years ago, is the first ancestor whose name is known to the descendants. Where he was born, and when, is a matter of conjecture. He owned a large tract of land among the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Sperryville. The family name of his wife is unknown. There were born to the pair five children: James, who removed to Kentucky; John, who remained upon the homestead; Aquilla, who removed to Ohio; and Francis and Elizabeth, about whom nothing is known.

John Bryan, the second son, was born about 1790, and at an early age married Nancy Lillard. The Lillard family is an old American family of English extraction, and is now represented by numerous descendants scattered over Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. To John Bryan and wife ten children. were born, all of whom, excepting Russell and Eliz

*Written by Mrs. Bryan for the "First Battle."