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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1901)
i ffT T tyfyi generation, from century to century, although the application of the principles varies from timo to timo as now questions arise. To-day, Lincoln's memory is glorified, and yet it is significant that tho party that claims him , as its own, is now antagonizing every vital princi , plo taught by tho martyred president. That government "should express the highest spirit of justice and liborty," was Mr. Lincoln's idea; government for tho advantage of the few at 'the oxponsc of tho many, is tho republican notion of today. Lincoln believed that tho Declaration of In dependence was writton for all men and for all time, and provided tho only yafe rule for human government. To-day tho republican politician has nothing but sneors when tho Declaration of Independence is invoked as a safe guide for tho solution of present day problems. Lincoln boliovcd that a people should never "entrust to hands other than thoir own, the pres ervation and porpotuity of their own liberties and institutions." Tho republican notion of to-day is, that one sot of men has tho right to give to an other sot of men only that degree of self-government whioh in tho estimation of tho former, tho latter is capable of enjoying. Lincoln had faith that right makes might. Tho republican notion of to-day is, that might makes right. What a vast difference botweon tho preaching of Lincoln and tho practice of the party that olaims Lincoln as its patron saint. At this time, when tho republican party is engaged in policies involving tho doctrine that this nation may trample with impunity upon tho rights of men, and that our reliance is in becom ing a world, power it is interesting to recall Lin coln's roforonco to "tho sure logic of history." It was in 1858 that Mr. Lincoln said: Our I'elianco is in tho lovo of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of tho spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy una spirit ana you nave piantea tno seeds of despot ism around your doors. Familiarize yourselves with tho chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on tho rights of those around you, you have lost tho genius of your own independence and become tho fit subjects of tho first cunning tyrant who rises among you. Aud, let me toll you, all these things are pre pared for you, with tho sure logic of history. There is not a lesson taught by Lincoln, there is not a prinoiplo defended by Lincoln, there is not a rule of government, proclaimed by Lincoln to bo the truth that tho republican party is not -'-now arrayed against. Evory policy of tho administration violates in practice tho lessons which Liucoln taught; and as tho wealth of trusts and syndicates increases, as tho power of mercenary politicians becomes groater protonso is more and more being cast aside. Some of tho foremost leaders of tho republican party do not now hesitate to drop the mask entirely and boldly antagonize tho truths , that Lincoln proclaimed. Kf. W A Striking Coincidence. The Congressional Direotory shows that Bor- :: tram T. Clayton was eleoted to tho fifty-sixth Uongres8 as a democrat from the Fourth New TJio Congressional Record shows that Ber- tram T. Clayton was one of the four democrats The Commoner. in tho House who voted for the Hull Army Bill. It is strange enough that a man elected to Con gress as a democrat should give his support to a bill so undemocratic and so directly opposed to tho platform unamiously adopted at Kansas City, but tho strangest part of the statement is yet to bo made. Tho Washington Star reports that a number of Congressmen from Now York, mostly repub licans, recently called upon the President and urged tho appointment of Congressman Bertram T. Clayton to a position in the army with tho rank of major. Tho paper also reports the Pres ident as npeaking very highly of Mr. Bertram T. Clayton. Now this striking coincidence his vote on tho army bill and his application for a position in tho army suggests several inquiries. Did ho vote for tho army bill because ho intended to apply for an appointment, or did he apply for the appointment because he voted for tho army bill, or wore the two acts entirely disconnected? Did tho republican members recommend him be cause of his personal qualities or because of polit ical peculiarities? Did the President speak highly of him because he calls himself a democrat or because ho voted like a republican? w Gambling. The Philadelphia papers aro discussing with astonishment and indignation the gambling which has recently been discovered among the pohool children. The evidence shows that a large ma jority of tho children of some of the schools habitually buy chances at what is known as "policy," tho amount invested sometimes being as low as two cents. A teacher of one of the schools has been largely instrumental in securing aii investigation and the North American charges some of tho police officers with protecting the gambling places and ignoring the complaints made. About tho same time word comes from Chicago that President Harper, of the Chicago University, made a raid upon some students who were engaged in gaming. While gambling is probably less common here than in other countries, it is still entirely too common. It is not long since a great lottery establishment required suppression, and even now a great many lottery tickets are sold in tho United States, while slot machines, cigar-counter wheels and similar devices give constant testi mony to tho fact that tho mania for games of chance has not been entirely cured. It is difficult to conceive of anything more demoralizing than tho gambling habit when it once becomes fixed. In condemning it one need not consider so much those who are driven to despair by losses as those who are encouraged by occasional success. Case? are not infrequent where gambling has led to tho use of trust money and to the sacrifice of a life's accumulation, but more pernicious still, if possi ble, is the adoption of the doctrine that one should try to get something for nothing. The only sound economic theory upon which society can be built is that each person shall make to society a contribution equal in value to the benefits which he receives; that is the basis of tho compaot between tho individual and society. The same principle applies in all exchange; each party to an honest transaction furnishes an equiv alent for that which he receives. People will not willingly make exchanges unless they think they are receiving equal value, and if one party deceives the other he is guilty of fraud. Gambling destroys this economic principle and substitutes a system wherein to secure the possibility of large gain one accepts tho proba bility of a small loss. It is difficult, however, to make much headway against 'small gambling by children while it is considered respectable for grown people to gamble on a largo scale. Tho same paper which describes tho investiga tion of policy dealing in Philadelphia reported a "cotton corner" in New York. So long as society bows before tho successful market specu lator, who wins his gamo with loaded dice, it is going to be hard to impress college students with tho immorality of poker or to teach kindergarten school children the wickedness of a two-cent investment in a policy slip. John Marshall Day. There seems to have been a disposition on the part of republican orators to make ' ' John Mar shall Day" the occasion for doing reverence to his memory as if the republican party could claim a monopoly on him. It was noticeable all over the country that these partisan speakers, after praising Marshall and seeking to make it appear that his history would justify republican policies of to-day, m.tdc it a point to assail the memory of Thomas Jeiferson. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, in a speech de livered at Chicago, referred contemptuously to Jeiferson and pointed out that Marshall "despised and distrusted" the author of the Declaration of Independence. Senator Lodge sought to extol the virtues of the great chief justice at the ex pense of the great statesman. There is enough that is creditable in Marshall's history to sustain the good reputation which an orator usually seeks to bestow upon the subject of his oration. So far as these two great Americans aro concerned, for the purpose of placing a proper estimate upon their worth, it is not important what the one said or thought of the other. If comparison between these two men were essential, it would be. sufficient .for present pur poses to say that the lawyers and the students aro familiar with John Marshall, while every one is familiar with Thomas Jefferson; that Marslyill. is admired, while Jefferson is loved. In view of the fact that these republican orators have laid elusive claim on John Marshall's memory it is significant that they were silent on the one con trolling principle that characterized Marshall, the jurist. A writer who was familiar with the record of the chief justice said: John Marshall immortalized himself and con ferred an incalculable benefit on humanity by making it clear for the first time that tho law is higher than the government, and that any. mere enactment of government repugnant to fundamental law is void. The principal is not new. For without its operation all power is arbitrary; but in England the struggle has been so long between the arbitrary power of the king on the one hand and the parliament on the other that the supreraccy of fundamental law was gener ally lost sight of except by a few great menthe Chathams and Burkes; who reverenced law, not merely as the sovereign will of all the people, but as the moral purpose through which the world was created q.nd the omnipotent method by vrMah all good y;v I 'Tfl ' i !tfiMUJlif .a&L. '--'