tv [untitled] June 17, 2012 8:00pm-8:30pm EDT
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public finance in elections. he didn't want private individuals to give any money to elections. he realized that wasn't going to fly at the time. his idea at the time, was to publicize the donations that people give. make sure that it's above board. for example, in 1996, johnny rockefeller wrote a standard oil check for $250,000 and gave it to mark hanna and that was not known until after the election was over. bryan wanted that to be known if it happened. 1907 the serious campaign finance law was passed which banned corporations from giving money directly to campaigns. individuals could give as much money as they want. the connection between influence and money is still something we argue about all the time and fight about all the time. the court has ruled on it. it's an issue which is certainly not dying. >> william is joining us from detroit. good evening. please go ahead. >> caller: good evening. how are you guys today? >> just fine. thank you.
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>> thank you. >> caller: i had a question i wanted to ask, because i just caught the program and i wanted to understand. william jennings bryant, was he a supporter of the gold and silver standard of currency in america? >> he wanted the money supply based on both gold and silver, which at the time would have meant that more dollars would have been put in circulation, more money out there and prices would have gone up, but that meant also that people who produced crops would have seen their prices that they were able to get for their crops go up. it meant interest rates would have gone down, because more money would have been in circulation. it sounds arcaic and he can on thetic today, but the best way to think about it bryan wanted cheaper money and more money in people's pockets and sfw rates to go down so people can borrow easily.
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>> he gets the nomination in 1896 and renominated in 1900. what happened in 1904? >> in 1904 the democrats decided to go with a less exciting candidate, a more conservative candidate who they thought could appeal to a more traditional electorate. they nominated a guy that ran for judge before, parker from new york. a very gray candidate, i think it's fair to say. a man who did not go around the country giving speeches, but he was more like grover cleveland in many ways. he had some of bryan's politics, not none of bryan's charisma and appeal to order americans. he got killed in a landslide by roosevelt. >> the party comes back to bryan in 1908. why? >> well, the party is in great need of a leader, and it's a party that's divided by region.
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it's had a great deal of difficulty uniting around a candidate and making its voice heard in the national election. bryan is that voice. he's a tremendous, charismatic figure. >> yet you had three republicans william kennedy assassinated and teddy roosevelt is president and william howard taft elected in 1908. let's go back to something else that was, i guess, rather revolutionary. set up the debate that took place and how that occurred technically speaking in 1908. >> there wasn't actually a debate the way we have debates now. 1908 was the first time in which both candidates recorded speeches on wax cylinders, which things you can still hear renditions of them, perhaps you play one at the library of congress owns some of these copies. this was the original short-playing record. they didn't last very long. two or three minutes, but they
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went into studios and recorded them. this was bryan who sold these to campaign supporters. it was a way to hear bryan and taft without speaking to you directly. of course, we take that for granted now, but this was a new idea at the time. >> one of the campaign buttons of william jennings bryan in 1908, we begin with the words of william howard taft followed by william jennings bryan. >> i had known a good many regular attendants in churn and distant members that religiously if you choose to use that term refuse to contribute to foreign makes. i did not realize the immense importance of foreign missions. the truth is we have to wake up in this country. we are not all there is in the world. there are lots besides us, and there are lots of people besides us that are entitled to our money and our sacrifice to help them on the in world.
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>> imperialism is the policy of an empire and it's different races living under varying forms of government. a republic cannot be an empire, for the public wrestles with the theory that government has their powers from the consent of govern and colonialism invites the theory. our experiment is colonialism has been unfortunate. instead of glory it has brought humiliation. >> did william jennings bryan change as a candidate in his first race to his third bid in 1908 and what issues dominated? >> the key issue in 1896 was the gold and silver issue and the issue of the depression and sort of class divisions in that sense. regional divisions.
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the big issue in 1900 was imperialism. the u.s. was fighting in the philippines to try to stop the philippine independence movement from winning a war against the u.s. occupation in those islands. that was a big issue in that campaign. 1908 there were several issues. bryan tried to make the power of the trust, the power of big corporations the issue. his slogan said let the people rule. taft was perceived as progressive at the time. he was the secretary of war under roosevelt. roosevelt is a progressive president. in many ways similar it to if some of your viewers remember, george h.w. bush in 1988 running as sort of the hand-picked successor to ronald reagan. george h.w. bush was not a tremendously charismatic figure certainly, but if people liked reagan, they thought if you like reagan, i guess i can vote for bush. similarly, people liked
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roosevelt tend to think, we'll be safe with taft. that's why he won. so bryan tried to use a lot of the same rhetorical techniques. he went out to talk to hundreds of thousands of people in that campaign as he did before, but it wasn't very successful. the country was prosperous again after a sharp recession in 1907. so times are fairly good. taft was popular because he was the hand-picked successor to a very popular president theodore roosevelt, so bryan couldn't get much traction that year. >> his closest rate was 1896 as we look at the election results. we're joined by marie from connecticut. go ahead, marie. >> caller: thank you very much. i'd like to know how did william jennings bryan come to live in miami, florida? >> in fact, boca raton, florida -- coral gables, florida.
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>> his wife mary contracted crippling arthritis when she lived in the house. she couldn't live in the winter climate of nebraska any longer. so miami was beginning to be a place for older people to go if they could afford to, and also he had been in the south before, he had a lot of strong supporters in the south. so they'd go to miami and stay at friends' houses before and they decided to move there. it was a very good move for mary certainly. >> you tell a story in the book about how he was used to help bring other people to coral gables, including the venetian pool that's still there today. >> he became a proeter in the 1920s as he gave up all hope of becoming president, he began to make money giving speeches for land promoters. this was not one of his, you know, more sort of honorable adventures, perhaps, but after all, he needed to make money and
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he did. >> again, just to understand this period, we move into 1912, and a democrat finally wins the white house but it's not william jennings bryan. >> right. it's woodrow wilson. and the democrats had struggled for a long time and bryan led the struggle for the republican party and really for the votes of working people, i think, and the broad middle class. the republicans were able over that period to co-op many of the issues that the populists and democrats had brought forward and develop their agenda as a progressive party. theodore roosevelt was the master of this, and bryan and the democrats had a very difficult time reaching that broad middle class and convincing voters that they could bring progressive change, not radical change, but progressive change. wilson was able to do that.
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he was a professor at princeton, he was governor of new jersey, and he was able to succeed where bryan >> you want to follow-up? was not >> the only reason wilson won is . because the republican party split in 1912. taft proved not to be a really progressive successor to roosevelt, at least roosevelt doesn't think so and he tries to get the nomination away from taft in 1912 but fails to. for republicans to stay united, we'll never know what would happened, but it's possible wilson would not have been elected. >> michael and teaches politics and history at georgetown university and will thomas is the chair of the history department in lincoln, nebraska at the university of nebraska and josh joins us from phoenix. good evening. welcome to the program. >> caller: good evening. great show.
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thank you for your show. i wanted to ask something a little different. i wanted to see if the gentlemen could speak to mr. bryan's foreign policy attitude and what he thought about, say, the spanish american war or american european colonialism. if he ever went abroad, and what would the gentlemen think how he would handle, for example, now afghanistan and iraq and the invasion? i mean, what was his mindset back then in terms of, you know, how the major colonial powers around the world were going into other countries and, you know, controlling them and such? what was his theory about that, about all of that and how did he feel? in general his foreign policy. thank you very much. >> josh, thanks for the call.
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he served as our secretary of state. >> after all, he served in the spanish american war, but once the war ended, he opposed the occupation of the philippines. he was an antiimperialist. he did travel around the world for the whole year with his family being financed by william randolph i, who we wrote articles for. he went to indonesia, which was then controlled by the dutch, india controlled by the british. he stopped and denounced the european powers who controlled those not countries. that doesn't mean he was opposed to all wars.
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he was opposed to what he thought of as unjust wars, and when secretary of state, he resigned as secretary of state in 1915 because he thought united states was about to enter world war i. after this very large british passenger ship was for bead yoed by a german u-boat. the u.s. did not get into the war at that time, but he resigned as secretary of state because he was so opposed to world war i. he that it it was an insane war the united states shouldn't be part of it. >> what was his relationship like with woodrow wilson both during the campaign in 1912 and his tenure as secretary of state. >> 1912 he does come around to supporting wilson in the convention in baltimore in 1912. he supports wilson in that convention, and it helps to put wilson over the top where he needed two thirds of delegate votes to win. it was an old-style convention, 46 ballots. but he and wilson never were close. wilson had not supported bryan
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in 1896. wilson was a more conservative democrat up until 1908-1909, and so the two didn't really trust each other. wilson came to this house at one point, came to fairview and was not impressed by it. he was an intellectual and bryan was an non-intellectual. he was disparaging of bryan's intelligence and interest in the world. the two were not close. bryan became secretary of state because it was a political appointment. at the time it was not unusual for the leading figure in the party, who was not the nominee, to be nominated secretary of state by an incoming president. in many ways wilson expected to be his own secretary of state. one of the reasons bryan was unhappy as secretary of state was he didn't get the responsibility he would have wanted. one thing he did do which shows something about his views about war and peace, he put together -- he convinced various
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foreign powers to sign peace treaties with one another saying they would not go to war with one another. these were symbolic but he gave them each a little bronze plow share with the line from isaiah being your source into plow shares as a symbol of these treaties. in the end, the treaties did not stop world war i. for bryan as a good christian showing a humanitarian face to the world was one way of acting in more humanitarian ways. >> larry is joining us from delaware. go ahead. >> caller: thank you for visiting with me. i have a religious question about bryan's religion, but i first applaud his efforts to level of playing field for the common man against big business. free enterprise defeating
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communism. what impact does your panel think bryan's fundamental christian religious beliefs have an impact on his election results? >> thanks for the call. we should point out, too, the bible is open to the book of e zeke y'all in his desk directly below where we're at in his parlor in fairview. what about the role of religion in his life and his wife's life? >> it's a big question. one of the things about bryan that's important is he never separated religion and politics. we think of that now as some more conservative people think that you should have a christian government and america is a christian nation. but for bryan his christianity was applied christianity. he believed if you were a good christian, you want to go out and save the world and help the poor and help workers and level the playing field as the caller mentioned.
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so for him his religion and politics were not separate. in some ways, i think, this hurt him among some people that weren't protestants, and he supported prohibition beginning in 1910 and was a very big supporter of what became the 18th amendment to the constitution. this was a very, you know, divisive issue in american life. the came to prohibition because he wanted to purify the american politics. to him this was a christian issue. that naent a lot of people from 1910 on didn't trust him because he was a prohibitionist. >> sometimes he ate as many as six meals a day, and he was known to devour three chickens at one sitting.
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>> if you're just tuning in, this is c-span's contenders series, we're looking at 14 candidates for the presidency that lost, but in their own way shaped american politics and resinate today with the ishs they put forth. we're coming to you from his home in lincoln, nebraska referred to see a fairview. it's part of the medical center in the state capital. and our phone lines are open for viewers in the eastern and central time zones and 202-737-0002 in the mountain and pacific time zones. this is an exterior view of what the home looks like. you can see the bryan lgh medical center directly
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adjacent. it's open to the public and offers tours for those who travel through lincoln, nebraska. nadine is joining us from california? >> caller: i'm from desert hot springs nir palm springs in california, and i have like a kodak picture in my files. he has a relationship with my family. i have geneology. i'm not a mormon and i research my family and i have 6200 names in it. and i would like to know about buying the book or speeches of what you have and how much it is and where i send the money. >> well, before you get an answer to that question, we want to ask you who is in the photograph, and what is your connection with william jennings bryan, at least through your own family research? >> caller: as far as i know, he's in a car in this picture. it's like a kodak picture, and he's in the car with -- it's a single -- looks like a single seater with the top down.
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and i always thought the other man was the one whose name i can't remember who didn't believe in religion. i'm 94 years old and almost 95. i can't remember his name now. but i have this, and he's in my family. i have 6200 names i've researched, and, you know, on my computer. i don't say i'd like to have that one. i research them to make sure they're my relative. >> stay on the line, and we're going to try to get your phone number if there's a way we can get you connected with mr. casson directly and his book is called "a godly hero." stay on the line, and we will get your phone number. she brings up another part of his life. dayton, tennessee, the monkey scopes trial and clarence darrow. >> i was just going to tell her
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that we have put all of his speeches from 1896 online on our digital project. if she'd like to use her computer to look at those speeches, there are hundreds of them. every speech he gave in the 1896 presidential campaign is online on the railroads in the making of modern america website that we started here at the university of nebraska, lincoln. >> all the material from this series is available online, 14 weeks looking at presidential contenders, thecontenders.cspan.org is the website. the scopes trial. >> in many ways william jennings bryan is known by americans because he was prosecutors in this trial in tennessee in july 1925, which was prosecuting a teacher named john scopes who was teaching the theory of evolution in high school, in dayton, tennessee.
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you know, what's interesting about this is this issue is still very much alive with us, of course. a large number of americans believe that it is bible, the book of genesis is how the earth was formed. bryan believed that, too. but it's important to remember also that for bryan, one of the things he disliked about the theory of evolution, he thought it was not just darwinism but social darwinism. he believed it was the survival of the fittest and he put out a series of lectures about evolution before the scopes trial, which was entitled "brother versus brute." for him to be a good christian meant that you were against the theory, the social theory of evolution. he didn't really understand the science very well, but he believed rightly or wrongly that the way the science was being applied by some people that did
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very well in american society, by some people in the military was that those who were doing well in society were those who should do well, who were biologically inclined to come out on top. this is one of the things he disliked about the theory. again, he was a fundamentalist and he believed what the bible said was true. so he thought school children shouldn't be learning something which would counteract that. >> there is an iconic photograph of clarence darrow and william jennings bryan in 1925 in tennessee. how did the two come together for this historic moment in american history? >> well, bryan was asked by the prosecution to help in the trial. this was a state law that was passed that year in tennessee. they knew that if bryan helped them this would draw a lot of attention to the case. once clarence darrow, this great defense lawyer for labor candidates, labor figures like eugene debz and many others, when he heard bryan a former
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friend, by the way, was going to be -- work for the prosecution darrow said he had to be on the other side on the aclu, the american civil liberties union that begun several years before financed the defense of scopes. one thing that people should know about this. people might have seen the famous movie starring spencer tracy as the darrow character and frederick march as the bryan character. unlike what the movie shows you, scopes never went to jail. scopes was basically a -- he agreed to be a defendant because he knew a trial was going to take place somewhere in tennessee. his town of dayton, tennessee, where he taught high school was hurting economically. he wanted to bring business to dayton, tennessee. that's why the trial took place there. scopes agreed to be a defendant. >> technology was a factor in this trial.
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cameras were allowed inside the courtroom, and it was broadcast nationwide on radio. >> right. one of the things that is so remarkable about this trial is not only that it was broadcast on the radio and tens of thousands of americans listened to it, but it also -- it was a courtroom, and for bryan to try to defend his christianity and creationism in the courtroom, it was the context of the courtroom and cross-examination that made it so difficult for bryan to say what he really meant and what he was trying to convey about the importance of creation in his thinking and about the social darwinist logic that, as he saw it, was infected american society, as michael pointed out. so it was a very difficult context in which to make that argument, and so bryan ends his life really in a sort of a man out of context. making an argument in a place where, unlike 1896 where the context was perfect for bryan to
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make the cross of gold speech, the context of the courtroom in dayton, tennessee, proved very challenging for bryan. >> go ahead, please. >> caller: hi. i'm calling because i noticed that the gold standard debate appears to have made a comeback recently with networks like cnbc having debates about whether the gold standard should be brought back, and people come out arguing against the gold standard and against the federal reserve and for the government's ability to print its own currency. those people in particular almost always seem to quote william jennings bryan for their argument. he seems to be making a comeback in that regard. my question for the panel is if they see any ways in which his cross of gold speech in 1896 is relevant to the america we live in today. ron paul has talked about the federal reserve and governor perry is critical of ben bernanke making sharp comments about him.
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>> well, the gold and silver standard, the legacy of that debate, i think, was among other things the federal reserve system. it was also getting off the gold standard eventually in the early 1930s. what bryan really wanted and those who were on his side in this debate wanted was a more flexible money supply. they wanted, you know, in hard times, interest rates to go down and more money in circulation in prosperous times and they were happy to go up. the kind of thing the fed does today actually. a lot of americans thought it was a great reform. we get in economic trouble like we are now, people look for panaceas, going back to the gold standard, for example. but i think, you know, as a historian, i think that in many ways one of the reasons we've been able to avoid serious economic downturns between the great depression and now is because we have had a flexible money supply and the fed is able
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to take charge when necessary. i don't know if you have a different point of view. >> i think one of the big issues that brian was trying to confront with the silver issue and gold standard was the great contraction of the american economy. we lived through a similar contraction in the american economy recently, and so i think it's not surprising that some of these issues are coming forward when they are right now. i think that the difference is, of course, that bryan's efforts to broaden the money supply were mainly aimed at trying to rescue a class of americans who were struggling deeply with their financial well-being in their situation. so i don't see that quite playing out today in the same way when the gold standard is brought up. >> our two history professors representing georgetown university and the university of nebraska at lincoln, michael casson is the author of "a godly
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hero: the life of william jennings bryan." he teaches history here. he's also the author of iron way. harold is joining us from youngstown, ohio. good evening. >> caller: good evening. it seems rather ironic that many of the parallels from william jennings bryan's day and our day, it's just amazing where, again, we're arguing soft money versus hard money. and we do see the class warfare argument, except this time the argument is coming from the rich against the poor as opposed to the poor against the rich. i have to say the irony is just, in my mind, amazing. >> who would like to take that point? >> well, i think it is interesting to look back at that time, because for bryan making the argument not only about the money supply ahe
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