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.