Senator Thomas P. Gore

              Figure
Senator Thomas P. Gore




Senator Thomas P. Gore



S
ENATOR Thomas P. Gore comes to the platform as one 
of
 its latest acquisitions.  He is the first Senator from the State 
of
 Oklahoma.  This fact in itself is suggestive 
of
 unusual ability and worth.  For a blind man to make a successful canvass 
of
 any state is promise 
of
 rare gifts, but to win out in Oklahoma, in that most hotly contested race, places him in the first rank as a man 
of
 sterling character and as an effective platform speaker.  The Senator has very little time that he can spare from his Congressional duties.  During the holiday vacation and a few dates before the opening 
of
 Congress, will be the limit of his available time for the Lyceum Platform.  Those who desire his services should apply promptly.—
The
 Management.





The Senator's Subjects



For the present season Senator Gore will confine his platform work to the two great themes:




1.


Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson DavisUnder this subject he will take a broad view of the great questions involved in the conflict between the North and South, preceding, during and following the Civil War, showing sincerity of purpose on both sides and indicating the methods to be adopted by both, to the end of making that dreadful war a commensurate blessing to the NATION.


2.


Social Duty
Under the second subject he will discuss the present day economic problems, showing the spirit to be cultivated and the methods to be adopted which will remove a large part of the social UNREST and advocate certain policies which will tend to a more equitable distribution of the growing wealth and other advantages of our civilization.





By Way 
of
 Comment



TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:




Honorable Thomas P. Gore, the United States Senator from Oklahoma, is a very impressive speaker—
The Blind Man Eloquent
—and is well informed on public questions.  I have no doubt he will be eminently successful on the lecture platform, and take great pleasure in commending him.




Yours truly,
William Jennings Bryan.


Senator Gore inspiring New England Democrats.  The blind Orator from Oklahoma was the principal speaker at the Bryan Dinner yesterday, and his snappy remarks kept a line of cheers coming his way.—


Herald, Boston, Mass.




Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, blind and eloquent, entertained the company with a wealth of poetic language utterly beyond the power of any Massachusetts orator today and his rhetoric was a rapid flowing stream of natural grace and wit.—


Springfield, Mass.




* * * But as for Gore, of Oklahoma, blind or seeing matters not.  The bond of manhood holds taut through all times and people.  Over the mountains and rivers and the plains the message of the East goes to Oklahoma:  
Send back this blind man to the Senate!  America needs Americans!  Praise God!  We've seen a man this day!
—


North American, Philadelphia, Pa.




Being Thomas P. Gore means a good many things.  It means being 37 years old, in perfect health, of indomitable will and unlimited energy.  It means being by turns a good fighter and a generous conciliator.  It means the ability to get and to keep friends.  It means, moreover, having had a good mind to start with and having given it 25 years of almost unexampled training.—


New Haven Union, New Haven, Conn.




Thrilled by the eloquence of the blind man of the Senate, Thomas P. Gore, of Oklahoma, an audience of nearly 2000 men in the Y. M. C. A. meeting in Court Square Theater yesterday afternoon, laughed, wept, applauded and cheered the Orator's plea for universal brotherhood.  His subject was, 
Social Duty, or the Curse of Cain
, being an answer to the question, 
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
—


The Springfield Union, Springfield, Mass.




His voice is clear and has a carrying power which is presaged by the well-knit and sturdy figure of the man.  With his clean-shaven, somewhat sharp features, his thick growth of iron-gray hair and his excellent enunciation, he seems to be almost a model platform speaker, quick to think, logical of thought, he carries with his spoken words the manner that he is speaking his own convictions, and these convictions he delivers tellingly.—


Journal, Providence, R. I.





Some Sample Sentences

From the Senator's Speech at Springfield

Friends and Neighbors:




I appreciate the terms of my welcome.  I am glad to come to New England—to Massachusetts—the Mother of States—as a representative of the youngest state in the splendid sisterhood of American Commonwealths.  I am glad to come to Springfield, that great and growing city whose inhabitants cultivate the arts of peace, and manufacture the arms of war.




I am glad to have the opportunity of addressing this assemblage of young manhood.  Young men are the pledges the present gives the future of continued hope, faith and endeavor.




The Biblical view of creation is that the world was made in six days, and the scientific that it was evolved through countless centuries, while man developed through the stages from a monad, mollusk, mammal, and monkey to his present estate.  I do not quarrel with the scientific view.  In a free country like this, every man ought to be allowed to select his own ancestry.




Ignoring the how of man's getting here, he is here, and is a moral being charged with certain responsibilities and duties.  As long as two human beings occupy the universe, man can't escape his Social Duty if he would, and wouldn't if he could.  The first lesson in Social Duty is re-enforced by a striking example — 
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother?  And Cain said, Am I my brother's keeper?




Conscience-stricken guilt has rendered the same answer from that time to this.




Suppose Cain, instead of murdering his brother, had allowed him to die of hunger, or suppose a worshiper of mammon takes the mite from the widow:  can he be defended by saying, 
Am I my brother's keeper?




If the brotherhood of man be a fact, every one in real need has a right to assistance.  It is not possible for every man to be rich or influential or famous, but it is possible for every man to fulfill his Social Duty—full in spirit and to the uttermost letter.




In this way it is possible to acquire a moral worth unequaled by those receiving the plaudits of the multitude — to acquire a moral heroism unequaled by the warrior.




Selfishness is the only thing that stands in the way.  Over-love of self is the root of all evil — the cactus of the human soul — and it is the duty of every man to lay the axe of Social Duty at the root of this tree.




WHAT SOCIAL DUTY WILL BRING



The recognition of Social Duty is the key to the peace of the world.  This Republic has always welcomed aliens from every clime.  Social Duty demands that we join in the effort for the better welfare of these people, and in harmonizing them with the other citizens.




The recognition of Social Duty will ultimately bring to the world universal peace and the end of all wars.




It was bad for Cain to kill Abel, but it is a thousand times worse for a thousand Cains to kill a thousand Abels.  Murder does not diminish in atrocity as its victims increase in quantity.






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