"A CONQUERING NATION."

Hon. William Jennings Bryan delivered an address on "A Conquering Nation" before a large and enthusiastic audience in Sanders Theatre Saturday evening. After being introduced by R. C. Bolling 3L., Mr. Bryan began by expressing his great pleasure in addressing an audience of students. He then said in part: Civilization may be defined as the harmonious development of the human race physically, mentally, and morally. Of the three elements in civilization I am satisfied that the moral element is not only an important element but is the paramount element. We must judge the nations as we judge the individuals, for there is no limitation upon a moral principle.

As it is with individuals, so it is with nations. The nation must overcome evil with good. Let us apply this principle to anarchy. We try to suppress it, we must do more, we must cure it. This can be done only by education -- by teaching the people that government is a necessity, that our government is the best form of government ever devised, and that they must make it so good that every citizen will die, if necessary, to preserve its blessings to posterity.

Again, this nation must conquer other nations, not by arms, but by example. We must so live that all eyes shall be turned toward the republic, and that the world may be so impre sed with the justice of our form of government that it will recognize it as the best government on all the earth.

If, with these ideals of service and example, we are going to help others and ourselves, we must have some fundamental rule for our political life. That rule is found in the Declaration of Independence, which declares that "All men are created free and equal." I believe that this is the most important political truth that ever fell from human lips. If you do not believe in it, you want a government of favoritism.

But what do we mean by men being created equal? We mean that in natural rights every man is the equal of every other man. We mean that society should be as nearly as possible adjusted so as to enable every man to get from it in exact proportion as he contributes to it.

Let us apply this principle to taxation. In its light we see that we do not even approach justice in our methods of taxing. Even in local taxation, where we come nearest to justice, we tax only visible property. Our federal taxation is yet more unjust, for there we tax a man's needs, not his possessions. We have failed to secure an income tax. The nation has become unlimited where it deals with men, but limited where it deals with property. The government, in the hour of peril, may take men and stand them up against the enemies' guns, but it cannot lay hand upon wealth and make it pay its share of the expenses of government.

We must apply the principle of equal rights to the money question. The very people who say it is dead are trying to pass new money bills, and are boasting about the increase of money in the country--a result to which they have not contributed. The increase of money, they say, has brought prosperity. Thus they themselves admit that more money would have brought more prosperity. If we really apply the doctrine of equal rights, we shall have plenty of money, and a dollar which is just between man and man, because it is stable.

If we apply this doctrine to monopolies, we shall be satisfied only with their extinction. For they give one man despotic power over thousands of others.

Important as it is to apply this doctrine of equal rights in settling domestic questions, it is even more important to apply it in settling foreign questions, in which we actually touch other nations. I find that we are asserting today a doctrine against which Washington took up his sword. They call it expansion, but I deny it. There is a difference between expansion and imperialism.

People say the Filipinos are fighting because they have been encouraged by the anti-imperialists in this country, but they issued a declaration of independence before we ever thought of anti-imperialism.

The arguments for imperialism may be summed up in a single sentence. "There's money in it, God's in it, we're in it, and we can't get out." Yet do we wish to purchase money with human blood? Already imperialism has cost thousands of our boys and millions of money. Are we to measure our strength by the number of men we can kill and the number of lands we can sieze; or shall we rise, and in rising draw all men unto us?

I want this nation to be a conquering nation in the true sense. I want its light of liberty to shine around the world. I want its flag to be loved; and all people to bow down and turn their faces toward it, and thank God that there is one flag which stands for human rights and the doctrine of self government.