o
12
The Commoner.
.Vol. a, No. as.
-v
f
a memorial signed by Charloa Francla
Adams, Androw Carnogie, Charlos
Suhurz, Edwin Burrltt Smith and Hor
bort Wolsh, aBlcing that a congres
sional commlttoo of investigation ho
appointed to go to tho Philippines to
inquire into and roport upon condi
tions oxlstlng thoro. Tho memorial is
dated at Boston, and statos that tho
signors aro a committee appointed at
a rocontly hold meeting of person?,
irrespective of party, interested in tlio
policy pursuod by tho United Statos
toward tho Philippines.
A dispatch from Washington under
date of Juno 12 says: "Representative
Foss of Illinois, chairman of tho com
mlttoo on naval affairs, has introduced
in tho houso a bill to authorise tlio
prosidont to nominato Captain Charles
Edgar Clark to bo a rear admiral of
the senior grado on tho activo list
Senator Forakor has introduced a
moasuro providing that tho resident
commissioner from Porto Rico shall
have a seat in tho houso of represen
tatives, but without a voto, thus plac
ing that ofllclal on tho samo level as
dologates from the territories.
On Juno 13 tho irrigation bill was
adopted in tho houso by an overwhelm
ing voto. Tho debate on tho bill prior
to its adoption was participated in by
many of tho leading members of the
houso and many amendments wore of-
. fored, but only one, except thoso or
dered by tho committoe, was adopted.
It was of a minor charactor. Tho bill
alroady has passed tho senate. Tho
frlonds of tho measure greeted the an
nouncement of its passage with a
round of applause. The bill as passed
creatos a reclamation fund from the
sale of public lands in Arizona, Cali
fornia, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mon
tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon,
South Dakota, Utah, Washington and
Wyoming, leas tho amount paid to lo
, cul land offices and 5 per cent due the
stato under existing laws for educa
tional purposes, the reclamation fund
to bo used for tho construction and
maintenance of irrigation works in
tho states and territories enumerated.
Provision is made for tho payment
out of tho treasury any deficiencies "in
the allowance to agricultural collegos
owing to this stato disposition of pub
lic lands. Tho secretary of the in
terior is authorized to examine, sur
vey and construct the irrigation works
and report tho cost thereof to con
gress at each session. Section 4 pro
vides for tho letting of contracts whon
tho necessary funds are available in
the reclamation fund for such section.
Section 6 provides that no right to the
use of water for land in private owner
ship shall bo sold for a tract exceed
ing 160 acres to any ono land owner
and on such right shall permanently
attach until all payments therefore
are made, and no such sale shall be
made to any land owner unless he is
an actual bona flde resident on such
land or occupant thereof residing in
tho neighborhood of such land. Sec
tion 6 authorizes tho secretary to use
tho reclamation fund for tho opera-,
tioh and maintenance of the irrigation
works. Section 8 requires state con
trol over waters of non-navigable
streams such as aro used in Irrigation.
In regard to the recent disclosures
respecting the expenditure of money
in Cuba to promote reciprocal rela
tions with that island, General Wood,
ex-governor of Cuba, declared that as
trustee for tho island he had spent the
money to good purposes and that
there was nothing in his administra
tion of affairs that ho wished to cover
up. In conclusion, he outlined his
work while govornor general of Cu
ba, and told of the many changes that
had been wrought there during the
American occupation.
On June 13 the president sent a spe
cial nessago to congress in regard to
the reciprocity measure with Cuba.
jHe. regards it as a matter of national
honor to give reciprocity to the isl
and, and urges this as giving practi
cal effect tq President McKinley's
messages of December 5, 1898, and
December 5, 1890, when ho wrote:
"It is important that our relations
with this people (of Cuba) shall bo of
tho most friendly charactor and our
commercial rolations closo and rec
iprocal. . . . Wo havo accepted a trust,
tho fulfillment of which calls for tho
sternest integrity of purpose and tho
oxerciso of tho highest wisdom. Tho
now Cuba yet to rise from tho ashes
of tho past must needs bo bound to us
by ties of singular intimacy and
strength if its enduring welfare is to
bo assurod. . . . Tho greatest blessing
which can como to Cuba is tho restora
tion of hor agricultural and industrial
prosperity." President Roosevelt then
asks that tho United States help Cuba
in hor offort to establish solf-govern-mont
and independence, and advocates
a 20 per cent reduction of tariff duties.
A House of Lords for tho Trusts
Tho moneybags and mossbacks of
tho United States senate continue to
stand out doggedly against the will
of tho people, which would replace
their kind with live men directly re
sponsible to their constituents.
That will found its latest formal offi
cial expression on February 13 last,
whon the houso of representatives
unanimously passed tho Corliss resolu
tion, authorizing the submission of an
amendment to tho constitution provid
ing for tho election of senators by pop
ular voto.
For more than three months that
resolution ban bnon in tho hunds nf rno
senate committee on privileges and
elections, and every effort has been
made to put it to death.
Chauncey M. Depew, representing
in the senate the New York Central
Railroad company and its corporate
allies, sought to convert the amend
ment into a force bill for tho purpose
of arraying against it every senator
who Ib opposed to federal interference
with stato elections.
A majority of tho committee opposed
to the Corliss resolution; a majority
is in favor of tho Depew amendment; a
majority is against the Corliss resolu
tion as changed by the Depew amend
ment, and a majority is opposed to re
porting tne resolution adversely.
This remarkable report of the com
mittee's conclusions, submitted tn t.li
senate by Chairman Burrows on Tues
day, was "received with laughter."
If an insult which impugns at once
the intelligence and candor of the sen
ate appeals to that body's sense of
humor, it is entitled to its mirth.
But the country will see nothin-o-
mlrth-provoklng in tho committee's af
fronting report, which seeks by jug
gling to conceal a little its cynical de-
nanco or tno electorate of the United
Estates. What the roport says to the
American people is just this:
"You want to elect senators directly
by your votes, do you? Well, you
won't bo given that democratic right
if we can help it."
It is now tho duty of senators -who
believe that tho men of this country
and not its money should govern it to
take the aggressive an.il forco upon
record every member who has the in
solent hardihood to resist the clearly
and frequently expressed will of the
American people.
The legislatures of no fewer than
twenty-nine states have petitioned con
gress for this amendment.
Who doubts that if submitted to a
popular vote it would be adopted by a
tidal-wave majority? Nobody.
That is why the mossbacks' and
moneybags of the senate oppose it and
resort to every possible trick to pre
vent tho amendment going to the peo
ple. The only opposition worthy of the
slightest respect is that represented
by Senator Hoar. In his old-fashioned
way he shivers with, alarm at any
suggestion of improvement upon the
constitutional devices, tho federalist
fathers, who, in their Inherited British
fear of the populace, went as far as
they dared in setting up checks upon
tho popular will.
There is no argument advanced by
Senator Hoar In support of the exist
ing practice that could not be as well
employed in support of a proposal to
restore to tho olectoral college tho
charactor intended by the fathers
that of a deliberative body free to
make its own choice for president and
vice president.
Custom has deprived the electoral
college of its undemocratic powers al
most as completely as if tho trans
forming work had been done by con
stitutional amendment.
But custom cannot give to the peo
ple tho power to elect senators di
rectly, as it has practically done in the
caso of tho president and vice presi
dent Tho opposition to be overcome in
tho senate is not that made by a few
worthy old gentlemen motived by a
horror of change as such.
Tho real challenge to the people
comes from men who are in the sen
ate, not as representatives of their
states, but as representatives of spe
cial interests in those states.
Tho Standard Oil company, the great
railroad corporations, the steel trust,
the food trust and the trusts in general
the gigantic combinations of capital
which have absorbed the natural re
sources of tho country, and to a largo
extent its business also constitute the
power which speaks in the senate
through such men as Depew.
This power would fasten upon the
republic in perpetuity a house of lords
for the trusts.
Tho men of the senate who believe
in democracy, who believe in govern
ment .by the" people for the people, -will
insist upon the Corliss amendment be
ing brought to a vote.
They will exhaust every parliamen
tary expedient to compel tho servitors
of the trusts and the contemners of
popular sovereignty either to yield to
the people's will or go down In black
and white as open foes of republican
principles.
No house of lords for the trusts!
New York Journal and American.
Books Received.
History of the United States of
America Under the' Constitution, by
James Schoulor; published in six vol
umes by Dodd, Meade & Co., New
York.
The Abbey French-English and English-French
pronouncing Dictionary;
published by the Abbey Press, New
York.
Aaron Burr, His Personal and Po
litical Relations With Thomas Jeffer
son and Alexander Hamilton, by Isaac
Jenkinson; published by M. Cullaton
& Co., Richmond, Ind.
Nominating Systems: Direct Pri
maries Versus Conventions in the
United States, by Ernest C. Meyer;
published by the author, Madison.
Wis.
The War of (he Civilizations,- Being
the Record of a "Foreign Devil's" ex
periences with tho allies in China, by
Georgo Lynch; published by Long
mans, Greene & Co., London, New
York and Bombay. "
The Story of Jesus, For Children,
by Louise Castlo Walbridge; publisho-i
by tho Abbey Press, New York.
Every-day Children, by M'. C. Em
mel; published by tho Abbey Press,
New York.
Bobtail Dixie, a Dog Story, by Ab
bey N. Smith; published by the Ab
bey Press, New York.
A Study of tho United States Steel
Corporation in its industrial and legal
aspects, being three lectures delivered
to the class in private corporations la
the University of Michigan, June 3, 4,
and 5, 1901, by Prof. Horace L. Wilgus;'
published by Colloghan & Co., Chicago.
QJ JP Month and ISxponscti; no oxporlence
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