The Commoner.
WILLIAn J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR,
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Vol. i. No. 43.'
Lincoln, Nebraska, November 15, 1901.
$1.00 a Year
The Elections of 1901.
While it is impossible at this time to measure
and weigh the local influences which may have
affected the general result, enough Is known to
justify the conclusion that the two leading politi
cal parties show practically the Bame strength
that they did a year ago. If the republican pol
icies which have been developing during the last
twelve months have aroused any protest among
' the people, that protest has beeen off-set by the
influence exerted by the assassination of the presi
dent. .The republicans everywhere confessed their
reliance upon this influence when they devoted so
much time to appeals to the personal regard felt
for McKinley, the man. It is not unnatural that
the republicans should have been spurred to
greater activity by the president's death, neither
:s it strange that it caused some apathy on the
other side.
There was another general cause which
the republican position, namely, the ability of the
republicans to get out their vote. The off-year
elections always show a falling off in the voting
population as compared with presidential and con
gressional elections, and the party that is best or
ganized and most successful in getting its voters
to.the polls has an advantage. Take, for instance,
the election in Nebraska this year. The total vote
.will probably fall fifty thousand below the vote
of last year. If there is a loss in the republican
vpto of twenty thousand, and a loss in the fusion
otevTJf'tlilrt3rthoiisand, the republican candidate
can have ten thousand majority more than his
ticket had last year, and yet have twenty thousand
votes les3 than his party polled last year.
Aside from having federal officials everywhere
through whom to reach the voters, and besides
having money everywhere with which to organize,
the republicans in some of the states are able to
secure from the railroad companies transportation
for all persons who desire to return home to vote.
In every community there are voters who, for
business reasons, have frequent occasion to be
absent from home. The party that is able to
bring every voter home on election day has an
immense advantage over the party that cannot
furnish transportation. During the recent cam
paign the republican authorities were prepared to
eecure passes and send every Nebraska student
home to vote, a practice not only helpful to the
party, but demoralizing to the citizen.
The Teturns do not give any considerable ad
vantage to either element of the democratic party,
The reorganizes have not gained any prestige
where they have secured control, neither have the
regular democrats won any signal victories where
they have been in charge of the campaign.
We gain a senator in Kentucky and the state
shows an Increase in the strength of the demo
cratic party, but as wo elected a democratic sena
tor there two years ago, and carried the state last
year, the result this year, though gratifying, was
confidently expected. The democrats have carried
Maryland, and Mr. Gorman will in -all probability
be re-elected. to the senate, but as the campaign
.was fought purely on local issues, (the negro ques
tion being the main issue), the victory is not a
vindication of any national policy. In Ohio, Penn
sylvania, and New Jejrsey, where the conventions
faile'd or refused to reaffirm the Kansas City plat
form, the republicans won. In Massachusetts, Iowa
and Nebraska where the conventions did reaffirm
the Kansas City platform ,the republicans also
won. Insofar as the result has any influence upon
the democratic party, it will tend to strengthen
those who believe in lighting for principle rather
than those who are all the time offering to lead
the party to a glorious victory, provided it will
abandon its principles. Those who fight for prin
ciple may mourn over a defeat, but their purpose
is not shaken because they are doing what they
believe they ought to and find thoir reward in
the consciousness of duty done. Those, however,
who are willing to suspend thoir principles in the
hope of securing political success have little to
console them when a reverse comes. If a man
barters his convictions for a promise of success
and then loses, he has nothing left; if a man keeps
his convictions with him he has a foundation upon
which to build in future contests.
It would seem that republican policies ought
to arouse overwhelming opposition among the
wealth-producers of the country, for surely no man
who earns his living can point to any advantage
which the republican party brings or can bring to
the masses of the people. In the bank control of
our currency, in the monopolistic control of our
industries and in an imperial policy for the coun
try there are 'danger and disaster for a large ma
jority of the people. But they evidently fail to
appreciate the viciousness of the principles which
are at work. The only lesson that can be drawn
from the election returns is that still more work
is necessary. The "let-well-enough-alono" argu
ment rannntialwayg pr.yll, ,fnr hafl.ixriiBfflplag willj
ultimately bring about bad times, arid experience,
costly experience, will teach those who refuse to
foresee evil and provide against it.
JJJ
Organize Debating Societies.
The election Is over, and while the returns are
not -sufficiently complete for analysis it is evident
that the democratic party has not made any con
siderable gains since 1900. In another column
the returns, so far as they are In, have been dis
cussed and some of the difficulties encountered
have been enumerated. It Is plain that there must
be a large amount of educational work done if the
country is to be saved from the evil results that
must necessarily follow the continue support
of republican policies. How can this work be
done? The large dailies cannot be relied upon, be
cause they are too Intimately connected with the
men and the corporations enriched b republican
policies. It cannot be done entirely through the
democratic and populist weeklies, for they do not,
as a rule, reach the people who most need en
lightenment. A debating society should be or
ganized in. each country precinct and in each vil
lage. Let it be non-partisan in its membership
and educational in its purpose. Meetings should
be held once a month, or, if possible, once in two
weeks, for the discussion of public questions.
Let the motto of the society be: "Country first,
party afterwards."
To avoid-any wrangle about the officers it
would be well to select the president from the
party having the largest vote in the precinct, and
the vice president from the leading minority
party. If three other officers, recording secretary,
corresponding secretary and treasurer, are selected,
all parties can be given a fair representation in
the management of the society and the arrange
ment of programs. The officers of the society, If
they constitute a committee on program, should
arrange, besides other features, for a discussion
of sorao live question at each meetingthe leaders
to open the debate and the other members of the
society to have an opportunity to speak briefly
when the leaders are through.
No ono should bo afraid of having his party
injured by a full, and fair presentation of all public
questions. The person who objects to the dis
cussion of public questions confesses the weak
ness of his own cause or brings an indictment
against tho intelligence and patriotism of the
people. Tho hope of the nation lies, first, In tho
study of public questions, and, next, in a ballot cast
according to the dictates of conscience and Judg
ment. JJJ
Severe on Bolters.
Sometimes the gold democrats who bolted the
ticket In 189C complain because the regular demo
crats insist that those who deserted tho party five
years ago should, on coming back, give some as
surance of thoir purpose to support the ticket
hereafter. While tho conditions Imposed have
never been unreasonable or severe, they have .
aroused violent criticism in some quarters. It may
not. bo out of place, therefore, to quote what the
St. Paul Globe says about local bolters. In a re
cent issue it condemns some St. Paul aldermen who
deserted their party in the-election of a county
commissioner. The following is an extract from
the Globe's editorial:.
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, ... ..:- '
It is as the Globe nredicted It would be:
A democratic county commissioner tia's been
.elected by the votes of the democratic alder
men assisted by ono republican, and democratic
traitors are ignored and spat upon, as they
long since should have been. Treason to the
party has not been found profitable in practice
among St. Paul democrats. It will be found no
more in the future. Hunt and Bantz have a
severe reckoning before them; and we appre
hend that tho mass of St. Paul democrats will
find as little use for them in the future as the
democratic aldermen found for them in the
election of County Commissioner Kelly.
The way of the transgressor is hard, and
transgressors these men have been of all the
rules and observances in political life which
all true party men and good citizens will hold
themselves bound by. The Globe will gladly
aid their return to the obscurity from which
they should never have emerged.
The Globe is much more severe in denouncing
democratic aldermen who refuse to support their
party in a local fight than the silver democrats
are in condemning. papers, which, like the Globe,
deserted the presidential ticket in a national con
test. i
JJJ
Not an Immoral Document.
James Jackson of Cambridge, Mass., was sus
pended from membership in the Reformed Presby
terian church because he became a citizen of ths
United States and took oath that he would sup
port the constitution of this country. One of ths
clergymen of this church, in explaining Mr. Jack
son's suspension, said:
"We look upon the constitution of the
United States as an immoral document and as
an insult to the Almighty, in that it makes
no mention whatever of God, and claims for
the people that sovereign power which belongs
to God alone. We refuse to accept the con
- stitutlon thus defective, and cannot swear
allegiance to it."
The point raised by this clergyman is one that
long ago became famous in controversial history.
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