2 1908 Election 78s, William Jennings Bryan, Taft Picture Record

                       Auction includes the following two 78rpm 10" records:
   
    Victor 16168 (1908), E
  "An Ideal Republic" and "Immortality" by Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan
 
  Columbia 15404/6 (1908), G
  "The People Do Rule and Will Rule Through the Republican Party," and "Approval by Southern Democrats of Republican Doctrines" by William Howard Taft. This rare picture record with facsimile signature plays scratchy but it's easy to follow along with the words. The spindle hole is non-standard but I easily fashioned a piece of cardboard that allowed me to play it. Below is the text for the two speeches:
 
  The People Do Rule...
  But it is said that the people do not rule in this country.
  My impression has always been that the election of Mr.
  McKinley and a Republican Congress, in 1896, was one of
  the most intelligent and effective expressions of popular will
  ever manifested to the world, and that the maintenance of the
  gold standard and a protective tariff by his Administration
  was a correct interpretation of the people's will. This was
  conclusively shown to be so by even a greater majority for
  Mr. McKinley in 1900. When Theodore Roosevelt was

chosen in 1904, a still greater majority was returned, and the
      inference that he and the Republican Congress under him
      had again carried out the people's will was indisputable.
      We may well submit to the country whether his present
      Administration has not expressed the will of the people
      in the Roosevelt policies.

It is suggested that the popular will is to be suppressed
      because the Speaker of the House of Representatives will be
      given certain powers in the procedure of the House if Repub-
      lican. I do not intend to enter into a discussion of the wisdom
      of such procedure. Suffice it to say, that at one end of the
      Capitol we have the example of a body that has no rule for
      the previous question, and in which the ability of the minor-
      ity to defeat or delay legislation favored by the majority
      has been made the subject of criticism on the ground that this
      defeated the will of the people. The House of Representa-
      tives is a much larger body in which no business at all could
      be done unless the rules in some way secure control to the
      majority over the business to be done, and stricter rules of
      procedure have been adopted. The rules cannot be adopted
      or amended except by a majority of the people's chosen
      representatives. Whether such rules might well be modified
      or not, it suffices to meet the criticism of our Democratic
      friends to say that the rules complained of, which were
      originally adopted under Speaker Reed for the purpose of
      doing business in the House, were subsequently adopted by a
      Democratic House for the same purpose.

But whatever may be thought of the House procedure,
      there is not the slightest doubt that after the present campaign,
      after the declaration by the Republican National Convention
      that the Roosevelt policies are to be followed, after the
      specific promise made by the National Convention to render
      more effective the provisions of the Anti-trust Law, and the
      Interstate Commerce Law, by restricting the overissue of
      stocks and bonds on interstate railroads, that a Republican
      Congress when elected can be counted on to take up and, with
      due consideration of the form and details of the proposed
      measures, adopt the remedies promised with the same loyalty
      to the popular will as the Republican Congress elected with
      Mr. Roosevelt manifested in the enactment of the most
      important statutes that have been placed upon the statute
      books in our time for the suppression of economic evils.

       Approval by Southern Democrats...
      I know the South is a conservative portion of the country.
      By tradition, its attachment to the Democratic party is firm;
      but a party represents principles, and when the principles
      change, though the name of the party remain the same, it
      would seem that after a while the traditional attachment to
      party would rest lightly on an intelligent community. Still
      there is a political habit, a political association which a con-
      servative people hesitates to throw off.

Many independent Democrats in the South agree with the
      Republican party in all its main economic doctrines. Since
      1890 the manufacturing interests of the South have exceeded
      her agricultural interests; the industrial expansion of the
      South exceeds that of any other part of this country, and is
      really the marvel of the world. Its cotton manufactures, its
      iron manufactures have grown enormously, and the South
      is today in its cotton factories, in its iron factories and in the
      sugar culture of Louisiana more dependent for its business
      prosperity on the maintenance of a reasonable protective
      tariff than any other community in the country. It is vitally
      interested that the coming revision of the tariff shall be made
      upon protective principles and not with a view to the adop-
      tion of a revenue tariff.

The Spanish War led to the entering of the flower of the
      young men of the South into the army of the United States
      in order to uphold the country's cause. This did much to
      remove sectional feeling lingering after the Civil War and
      served to unite in a common brotherhood the blue and the
      gray. Many of the Southern Democrats have taken an active
      interest in promoting our present Philippine policy and more
      are in sympathy with it. They are opposed to the policy of
      scuttling out of the Philippines; they generally believe that
      we have a problem of national responsibility there of aiding
      those people to stand upon their own feet, and that we ought
      not to leave the islands until we have fully completed our
      work. They rejoice in the missionary character of what we
      are doing, and in the spread of Christian civilization that we
      are helping on by our policy in the Philippines.

So, too, they have not the slightest sympathy with that spirit
      of the Democratic platform favoring a destruction of certain
      industrial interests for the purpose of stamping out the evil
      in their conduct rather than their regulation, with a view
      to bringing them within the law. They know and under-
      stand the threat against the prosperity of the country involved
      in placing in power the Democratic party under its present
      leadership.

We hear much of Jeffersonian Democracy and the adher-
      ence by the present regime of the Democratic party to the
      principles of Thomas Jefferson. I venture to say that if
      Jefferson were to return to life, he would not recognize his
      reputed political descendants. While there is a good deal of
      declaration in the Denver platform against centralization of
      power, the propositions contained in the Democratic platform
      are even more Federalistic in their tendency than those in
      the Republican platform.

I'm not a professional record grader. I make a judgment of the condition of the record based on a visual inspection and having been played on my Esoteric transcription turntable. Please understand that the grade I assign is subjective.
         
      E+  "Excellent plus." Minimal  effects of age. Slightly  surface noise, clicks, pops  etc.
      E  "Excellent." Some slight evidence of age or handling (fine  scratches, scuffs, rubs). Minimal groove wear. May show some very minor grey  traces in grooves.
      E-  "Excellent minus." Very close to "E" but with slightly more  wear from handling and age.
      VG+ "Very  good plus." Obvious wear, but not excessive. Slightly more surface noise. Not as choice as the higher grades, but what one would expect of a  record that was actually used for many  years. And can be still quite enjoyable.
      VG "Very  Good." As "very good" implies the record will still play quite  well. However, there is more wear and  tear than with "VG+" grade. There is moderate surface noise.
      G "Good." Serviceable but not great. Quite a bit of wear.