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The Commoner.
The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
William J. Bryan.
Editor and Proprietor.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln, Ncbraskaj
as second class mail matter.
The Ohio republicans have learned that it is
not their part to think. All they have to do
is to accept.
Mr. Beveridge should hasten home if he
expects to get his presidential "boon inflated be
fore frost time.
For some time in the future Mr. Depew
should work his administration -views, in. 4 the
reverse motion.
It will be observed that Russia is not the
first to exhibit symptoms of saying "enough"
in the tariff war.
Of course Kansas has rendered thanks to
the administration for permission to harvest a
bumper wbeat crop.
Our great and good friend, Abdul Hamid
Woolomol, sultan of Sulu, is satisfied as long
as the salary voucher follows the flag.
George Washington is dead while Con
gressman Grosvenor is alive, but this is by no
means the only difference between them.
The mullet is a fish that bites at doughballs.
How many mullets will bite at the Babcock
bait thrown out by the wily tariff taxers?
Mr. Hanna insists that, the tariff be let
g everoly alone. It must be that ho expects to
find it necessaty to fry an unusual amount of
fat in 1004.
General MacArthur still acts on the as
sumption that telling about it, not stealing the
commissary goods, is what menaces the mili
tary situation.
The oivil government of the Philippines
will bo answerable to the war department.
One of the first tasks set for the Filipinos is to
learn the intricacies of our elastic language.
The man who believes that he benefits him
self by taxing himself poor to make others
rich is not in a good position to poke fun at
those who believe in the faith cure.
It is only within the last three years that
Americans have learned to look with composure
on the spectacle of a band of patriots ruthlessly
slaughtered while defending their homes.
The shortage of wheat harvesters in Kansas
was due, of course, to the fact that the unem
ployed miners of Pennsylvania refused to spend
$50 for car fare in order to earn $30 binding
the grain.
On July Fourth the Filipinos are expected
to celebrate the establishment of a civil govern
ment that is provided by the war department.
The Filipinos deserve it if they fail to see the
huge joke.
Mr, Depew shows a commendable disposi
tion to abide by his third term talk. Perhaps
Mr. Depew is thinking about those changes of
opinion concerning plain duty and criminal
aggression.
People who cling to the old superstition
that Philadelphia is' slow should make note of
the rapidity displayed by the municipal
authorities when an opportunity is offered for
plundering the public.
If tho Declaration is "to be read at the com
ing celebrations of tho Glorious .Fourth it is
high time the administration censors began
work on it to make it fit the Supreme Court's
decision in the Porto Rioan cases.
It is estimated that 75,000 yards of ribbon
will be required to properly fit out Great
Britain's South African war medals. This is
only about three yards of ribbon for each
British soldier who has died in the unjust war
upon the Boers.
The money the shipping subsidy promotors
ask for would make habitable many millions of
acres of western arid land. But the benefits of
irrigation would be. enjoyed by the many,
while the subsidy would be enjoyed by the
few.
It is" amusing to read in a high tariff organ
words of rejoicing because American manufac
turers are competing successfully with foreign
manufacturers. Tho high tariff ougans are
continually shrieking for protection against
competition.
Mr. Foraker announces that the Ohio cam
paign is to bo fought out on national issues.
This is an interesting announcement because
Mr. Foraker's lieutenants were always loud in
declaring that stato campaigns should be fought
on state issues when they thought that tho
easiest way of winning.
The harmony existing in the Ohio republi
can convention indicates that Mr. Foraker
would rather be senator again than tpjbotbo
leader of tho minority fighting against a brutal
majority within bis own party ranks. Mr.
Foraker's fire alarm system appears to be sadly
in need of some new battery cells.
The congressional industrial commission
announces that it is about to begin an investi
gation to ascertain why American made .goods
are sold cheaper in Europe than in ,the JJnited
States. This is a valuable hint to the enter
prising gold brick men of the country. . . Such
innocence is remarkable.
Giving Away Former Postmaster General
Public Property. John -Wanamaker of Phila
delphia has recently given a
practical demonstration of the fact that valu
able things belonging to the people are given
away to corporations without remuneration.
The Philadelphia city council has granted four
teen franchises, covering practically all tho
street railway rights of the city, and contain
ing no provision for adequate compensation,
to a company in which Senators Quay and Pen
rose and other republican politicians are stock
holders. Mr. "Wanamakcr has written a letter
to tho mayor urging him to disapprove the
franchise. Ho offers to pay for the favors
which the Quay company has received free of
charge, the sum of $2,500,000. As evidence
of good faith, Mr. Wanamakcr deposits $250,-
000 in cash. In his letter Mr. Wanamaker
says:
"My offer of $2,500,000 is not made because I
conceive that sum to be the measure of the valuo
of the franchises granted by -these ordinances, for
1 bellevo them to be much more valuable, but
merely as an indication to your honor in concrete
form of tho magnitude of the gift conferred upon
private citizens without return to the people. It
seems to me that to give away such franchises for
nothing when others stand ready to pay millions
for the same rights is little short of public plunder.
"I earnestly urge upon your honor, therefore,
that you will veto the ordinan.ee now before you
and secure, as you can so well do with your known
influence in the legislative body, the sustaining of
your veto, in order that new ordinances may bo
drafted conferring the franchise in question only,
upon tho payment of a sum of money into the
public treasury commensurate to the value of tho
grant.
"I will cheerfully pay the sum I have named,
but I suggest to you that if the new ordinance re
quired the franchise to be put up at auction and
sold to tho highest bidder an amount largely in
excess of that which I have designated could be
readily secured. "
"My sole object is to assist you in the perform
ance of this public duty, and therefore I have mado
the offer herein set forth that by a veto of tho
measure in question, for the reasons stated, you
may have no difficulty In securing your friends in
the councils to sustain you in obtaining for tho
people an adequate return for the valuable public
rights conferred upon private citizens."
Mr. Wanamaker has performed a great
service to the public in making this offer. It
cannot be doubted th'at tho people in nearly
every city of tho United States have been
grossly imposed, upon in tho giving away to
corporations of valuable street franchises.
The people of Philadelphia through tho
favor of Mr. Wanamaker, have tho privilege
of knowing that when the Quay company se
cured these franchises on tho original tenns
that the city council had voted to tho Quay
company an immense sum of money out of tho
pockets of the public. In spite of Mr. Waria
maker's offer tho mayor approved tho Quay
franchises.