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Commoner.
April 4, lpoa A
lod, nor shall any monopoly of freight room
for any one article or articles to any on
shipper or shippers be given "by any individual .
or corporation drawing either mail or general
subsidy under this act.
The defeat of these three amendments shows
the complete subseviency of the supporters of the
subsidy and the senators who voted against these
amendments ought to be made to feel the wrath
of an indignant and outraged constituency.
Senator Gulbertson endeavored to secure an
amendment limiting the subsidy to July 1, 1907;
Senator Bacon tried to set apart one-fourth of the
subsidy for ships engaged in trade between the
United States and South America, and also pre
sented an amendment permitting the cancellation
after four years of any contract made with a
ship owner; Senator Patterson offered an amend
ment prohibiting the employment of Chinese sea
men; Senator Mallery offered an amendment with
holding the subsidy from any one who had within
a year entered into a contract in restraint ot
trade or for the controlling of rates; Senators
"Vest, McLaurin of Mississippi, Teller and others
also offered valuable amendments, but the republi
cans voted solidly against all or them and yet
when Senator Hanna brought in his amendment
repealing the Sherman anti-trust law so far as it
applied to ship owners, the republicans, with tho
exception of, Allison, Cullom, Proctor, Spooner,
and Quarles, were ready to vote yea. The fol
lowing is the Hanna amendment:
Provided, however, that nothing contained
in- this act, OR IN ANY OTHER ACT OP
CONGRESS, shall be construed to prevent
any citizen or corporation of the United States
or of any state from contracting for, acquir
ing, holding or operating any interest in one
or more steamship lines engaged in foreign
commerce.
The senators voting for this amendment were
Ald'rich, Bard,' Beveridge, Burnham, Burrows, Bur
ton, Clark (Wyo.), Deboe, Depew, Dietrich, Dil
lingham, Dolliver, Dryden, Elkins, Fairbanks,
Foraker, Frye, Gallinger, Gamble, Hale, Hanna
Hansbrough, Hawley, Jones (Nev.J, Kean, Kearns,
Kittridge, McComas, McCumber, McLaurin (S. C.J,
McMillan, Mason, Mitchell, Nelson, Penrose,
Perkins, Piatt (Conn.), Scott, Warren, Wellington,
and Wetmore. Senators Clapp, Lodge, Millard,
Piatt (N. Y.J, Pritchard, Quay, Simon, and Stew
art were paired in favor of the bill and in favor
of the amendments supported by the republicans
and against the amendments opposed by the re
publicans. These names are given because the ship sub
sidy will be an important issue in the coming
congressional campaign and readers of The Com
moner must be prepared to bring this subject to
the attention of their republican neighbors. The
vote for the bill on its final passage was the.same
as for the Hanna amendment except that Dolliver
and Dillingham, who voted for the amendment,
voted against the bill, and Cullom, who voted
against the amendment, voted for tho bill.
JJJ .
A Righteous Veto.
Governor Cummins of Iowa is entitled to the
thanks of every friend of good government, be
cause of his recent veto message. The legislature
of Iowa had passed a bill authorizing a change in
the law relative to the indebtedness of railroad
corporations. The bill removed the limit of in
debtedness as fiad by the present law and left it
with the stockholders to fix the amount of indebt
edness by a clause in the articles of incorporation.
Under the p.esent law the limit is $16,000 per
mile, or two-thirds of the capital stock, if that
would permit more than $16,000 per mile. An ac
tive railroad lobby was behind the bill and it was
properly known as "the merger bill." It was
claimed, and a familiar claim it was, that if this
bill were passed, the railroad companies would
be able to raise more money and make large im
provements throughout Iowa.
In his veto, message, Governor Cummins said
that he could not resist the belief that tho real
application of tho proposed amendment would not
be to enable the two or three railroad companies
to which it would apply to improve their proper
ties, for their own profit and for tho advantage of
the people, and ho added: "Its only substantial
effect would be to overcome the real or imaginary
difficulties growing out of the purchaso of tho
stock of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad
company by the Great Northern and Northern
Pacific Railroad companies." In conclusion Gov
ernor Cummins said:
It is one thing to grant to railway com
panies tho right to borrow tho money needed
to aid in the construction and equipment of
their lines of railway; it is quite another
thing to authorize a class of railway com
panies to incur unlimited obligations with
out respect to he amount of their stock or
the worth of their property. I cannot bring
myself to believe that this species of special
legislation is consistent with the public wel
fare or necessary for tho legitimate develop
ment of railway property; on tho contrary, it
is my firm belief that corporate' power to issue
stocks and incur indebtedness needs regula
tion rather than expansion.
When a republican governor has the courage
to rise above the enormous influences working
within his own party for corporate advantage, he
is entitled to more than ordinary praise. Governor
Cummins is a brave man, and deserves the laurels
which he is now wearing so gracefully.
JJJ
Begin at the Primaries.
The democrats of Tully East precinct, Van
Wert county, Ohio, held a convention or primary
a few ilay3 ago at which they passed resolutions
declaring their adherence to the Kansas City plat
form and tD the principles therein set forth, and
they instructed their delegates to carry out their
wishes. Attention is called to this precinct for
the purpose of t emphasizing the fact that tho
friends of democratic principles musL make their
light at the primaries if they expect to win.
Democracy pure and undefiled is stronger with
the voter? than it is with tho democrats who arc
in the habit of attending conventions remote from
the people. There are two reasons for this. In
the first place, those who can pay railroad fare or
secure passes to attend conventions far away
from home are the ones among whom the defec
tion was greatest in 1896. Some of the well-to-do
democrats are connected directly or indirectly with
large corporations, and others are so under the
inlluence of the financiers that they are not al
ways at liberty to express their convictions.
In 1896, and to some extent in 1900, the cor
porations terrified democratic voters and com
pelled them to give support to the republican
party. Some of these came back In 1900 without
: being entirely emancipated from corporation con
trol. They plead for harmony, and ask the demo
crats to be generous and send them to conven
tions. They generally object to instructions on
the ground that instructions are humiliating, and
then when once entrusted with authority they
proceed to harmonize by emasculating the demo
cratic platform and turning the organization over
to the men who are Indifferent to democratic prin
ciples. The Chicago convention came nearer rep
resenting the actual sentiment of the rank and file
of the democratic party than any national con
vention held in recent years, and it did so be
cause the voters" made their fight in the precincts
and carried their instructions all the way up to
the national convention.
The friends of the Kansas City platform must
be on their guard. If they would defeat the plans
and purposes of the reorganizers they must in
troduce into every pre.clnct convention or primary
a resolution indorsing the Kansas City platform
and instructing delegates to vote for the adoption
of the resolution in the convention to which they
go. If any man is unwilling to bo instructed, let
him remain at home. A man who io not willing to
carry out tho wishes of thoso who olect him has
no right to represent men of convictions.
The reorganizers have never fought an honest
battle, in tho party or out of it, and they will not
make an open attempt to change tho policy of
tho party. Tho will object to instructions; they
will object to the indorsement of the Kansas
City platform without presenting their own plat
form, and then if thoy can ejeuro control of a con
vention they will adopt a platform that is ambig
uous and uncertain, with the hope of deceiving the
voters.
East Tully precinct has set a good example;
let it bo followed by every other precinct in tho
United States. If tho reorganizers want to raako
a fair fight lot them introduce a resolution re
pudiating the Kansas City platform and instruct
ing the delegates to favor the repudiation of that
platform and the adoption of a gold standard plat
form. Then tho Issue can bo met clearly and
the r.esult will not bo doubtful.
JJJ
The Sanguinary Jlr. Hawley.
"I have' an utter abhorrence of anarchy, and
would glvo a thousand dollars to get a good shot
at an anarchist."
These were tho words of Senator Hawley.
They were delivered in tho United States senato
March 19.
"Mr. Hawley may be pardoned for his im
petuous statement. Probably ho did not half mean
it, and yet one would suspect that "abhorrence"
of anarchy is not so utterly "utter" on the part
of a man who, at tho very moment of giving ex
pression to this "abhorrence," boasted of his
willingness to pay a considerable sum for tho
privilege of being, for the moment, a disciple of
anarchy.
The best blow that has been struck at anarchy
in recent years was the orderly manner in which
the trial of Mr. McKInley's assassin was con
ducted. Doubtless there were many people wno
would have esteemed it a privilege to have par
ticipated in the swift punishment of tho assassin,
but the fact that the people, suffering under a
great national and personal grief, showed their
real abhorrence of anarchy to the extent that they
demanded even for the miserable assassin of
Mr. McKinley tho same orderly and fair trial
that Would be accorded any other person, was In
itself one of the greatest object lessons In law,
one of tho greatest demonstrations of order's
superiority to anarchy that has ever been offered
to the world.
JJJ
Is it Possible?
In a letter addressed to Speaker Henderson,
Mr. Birge, a prominent republican and merchant
of Keokuk, la., says:
There Is a storm brewing in the mind of
tho average American as to existing condi
tions, and the congressman who fails to real
ize this will find himself in the near future
relegated to the shade of home life. I find
many intelligent republicans who feel as I do,
that tho time has come when it is the business
of tho republican party to look the whole ques
tion square in the face and to lower the pro
tective tariff to Its legitimate ends, that it
shall be no longer prohibitory
Can it be possible that the rank and file cf
republicans In the great state of Iowa have con
cluded that after all It is not tho part of wisdom
to permit a handful of leaders to do their think
ing for them? It is not strange that republican
congressmen fail to 'take notice of the storm that
is brewing. These republican leaders have .had
such remarkable success in pulling the wool over
the eyes of the rank and file of their party that M
is not in the least surprising that they look lightly
upon such warnings as that presented by Mr, Birge.
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