debate '08... 1908!
"Debates" on wax cynlinders from 1908, between William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft have been digitized. Topics include imperialism (colonization of the Philippines) and insurance for bank deposits. WSJ has some samples. "Taft and Bryan wrangled over such then-hot topics as the annexation of the Philippine Islands and the right of labor unions to strike... It's startling... to hear Taft, who at the time was Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of war, state unapologetically that 'Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the only basis for hope of modern civilization in the growth of popular self-government,' or to listen to Bryan, the Great Commoner, castigate the evils of American imperialism."