Transcriber's Notes:
Blank pages have been eliminated.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in theoriginal.
A few typographical errors have been corrected.
The cover page was created by the transcriber and can be considered public domain.
An Outline of the Methods of the National Volunteers ofDemocracy and of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau.
BY
WALTER VROOMAN.
Price: Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 25 cents.
Copyright
By WALTER VROOMAN,
Wainwright Building,
ST. LOUIS, MO.
Witt Printing Co.
Upon the close of the 1896 national campaign,it was decided at an informal conference of severalof the leaders of the Democratic party, to establisha bureau of speakers for the continuouspropaganda of Democratic principles by new andyoung men, while the acknowledged leaders ofthe party were busy in the Senate and House ofRepresentatives. In December, 1896, headquarterswere opened at St. Louis.
Several hundred speakers soon became attachedto this bureau, and it was decided to forma permanent organization, that would bring togethernot only the speakers but all the workersof the party. The outcome of this has been theorganization of the National Volunteers ofDemocracy, with the Speakers' Bureau and Train[4]ingSchool as a special department. Eachvolunteer is expected to assist in forming regularDemocratic clubs, except where for special reasonsit is found advisable to organize Silver orPopulist clubs, and also to build up andstrengthen clubs now in existence.
Heretofore, the handbooks for Democraticspeakers and workers, have been so stuffed withstatistics and figures as to burden and confusethe minds of their readers, consequently there isa demand for something simpler, for somethingthat will give a bird's eye view of the politicalsituation, with suggestions as to best methods ofwork and speech.
It is to supply such a handbook to Democraticspeakers and workers, and to outline the plansof the Democratic Volunteers, that this little bookhas been written.
St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1897.
The New Democracy is the Old Democracy.It is likewise the only Democracy, and in July,1896, after years of suppression, it became theRegular Democracy.
The Democracy taught by Jefferson and Jacksonis the Democracy of Bryan, Stone and theChicago platform. But the victory at Chicago oftrue Democracy over the counterfeit that foryears fraudulently used its name was not howevera finality; it was a beginning, and whatwas there accomplished nationally is yet to beaccomplished locally in many states and cities.We have not only to push on to new and localvictories after taking the central citadel, but whatis of greater importance, must hold the positionsalready taken.
It was said that at the Chicago Convention wenot only "raised the dead" but "cast out devils."[6]We must remember, however, that there are otherdevils, which in many places still possess the partylocally, a