The government being the people’s business, it necessarily follows that its operations should be at all times open to the public view. Publicity is therefore as essential to honest administration as freedom of speech is to representative government. “Equal rights to all and special privileges to none” is the maxim which should control in all departments of government.
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speech before the City Club, Baltimore, Maryland (April 24, 1915); reported in "Bryan's Ten Rules for the New Voter", rule 8, The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland (April 25, 1915), p. 16. Bryan prepared the ten rules as a synopsis of his speech so the newspapers might get the exact sense of it.