wipe out
capitalism, and to do that we have to get together, and when we do that
we will find the way to emancipation.

You may not agree with me now, but make note of what I am saying. The
time is near when you will be forced into economic and political
solidarity.

The republican and democratic parties are alike capitalist parties. Some
of you may think that Mr. Bryan, if elected, will do great things for
the workers. Conditions will remain substantially the same. We will
still be under capitalism. It will not matter how you may tinker with
the tariff or the currency. The tools are still the property of the
capitalists and you are still at their mercy.

Now let me show you that Mr. Bryan is no more your friend than is Mr.
Taft. You remember when the officials of the Western Federation of
Miners were kidnaped in Colorado, and when it was said they should
never leave Idaho alive. It was the determination of the Mine Owners'
Association that these brave and loyal union leaders should be foully
murdered. When these brothers of ours were brutally kidnaped by the
collusion of the capitalist governors of two states, every true friend
of the working class cried out in protest. Did Mr. Bryan utter a word?
Mr. Bryan was the recognized champion of the working class. He was in a
position to be heard. A protest from him would have tremendous weight
with the American people. But his labor friends could not unlock his
lips. Not one word would he speak. Not one.

Organized labor, however, throughout the length and breadth of the land,
took the matter in hand promptly and registered its protest in a way
that made the nation quake. The Mine Owners' Association took to the
tall timber. Our brother unionists were acquitted, vindicated, and stood
forth without a blemish upon their honor, and after they were free once
more, Mr. Bryan said, "I felt all the time that they were not guilty."

Now if your faithful leaders are kidnaped and threatened to be hanged,
and you call upon a man who claims to be your friend, to come to the
rescue and he refuses to say a word, to give the least help, do you
still think he is your friend? Mr. Bryan had his chance to prove his
friendship at a time when labor sorely needed friends, when organized
labor cried out in agony and distress. But not a word escaped his lips.

Why did not Mr. Byran speak? He did not dare. Mr. Bryan knew very well
that the kidnapers of those men were his personal friends, the