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The Commoner.
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Vol. a, No. 37.
The Commoner.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
"Special legislation Is needed!" oxclaimoi
President Roosevelt just after congress adjourned.
The Pennsylvania republican platform de
mands honest elections. In Philadelphia it is to
laugh.
It costs more to maintain the presidential
Mayflower than it did to build the Mayflower of
the Puritans.
Rear Admiral Crowninshiold seems to be bet
tor at navigating a roll-top desk than at steering
a battleship.
,VTho g. o. p. organs will have to haul out their
cjjpyjd logic' In order to discuss the Smith' court
rMltlal verdict ' "
Perhaps it would have been better to call
"Hell Roaring Jake" Smith homo and set him on
Bandit Tracey's trail.
King Edward will bo crowned on -August 8,
and the. administration will be represented if Mr.
Roid's padding holds out. P
An esteemed exchange has published a long
article on "The History of Kissing." The future
of kissing concerns more people.
It is noted that overy nowspaper that depre
cates tariff revision commends the president's
"truBt busting"' speech at Pittsburg.
If "Hell Roaring Jake" Smith had been but a
little bit more brutal ho might have received a
slap on the wrist from the administration.
A. Jeremiah Boveridgo denies that he is a can
It didato for tho vice presidency. Jeremiah must
still be insisting that he is a child of destiny.
Emperor William has decorated J. Plorpont
Morgan with tho Ordor of the Red Eagle. This is
quite correct. The eagle is a bird of prey.
Tho administration manages to work for tho
trusts during the sessions of congress and to work
tho people while congress is not in session.
Tho "shadow of predestined defeat" seems to
have first been cast when Mr. Cleveland stood be
tween the people and the sun of democracy.
The harmony for which the reorganizers plead
la tlat peculiar brand of harmony invoked by a
man who seeks to obtain an advantage ove,r
another.
The government paid $650,000 for the trans
port drant shortly after the Spanish-American
war broke out. The other day the government
sold the transport Grant for $51,000, and it was in
bettor shape when sold than, when purchased. Tho
rake-off department seems to have put In full
time during that little scrap.
Mr. Roosovelt's equestrian pictures always
show him jumping a stake-and-rlder fence. The
country would dearly love to see him jumping tho
tariff wall.
Hon. Davo Ball of Missouri is worse than a
cannon ball when he gets after tho reorganizors.
Ho did some very effective work for tho democratic
party at Springfield recently.
Senator Elklus urges tho annexation of Cuba
an4 thinks that a refusal of reciprocity will drivo
her 'to a proposal for admission. This 16 a good
sample of 'republican ethics.s
Rear Admiral Crowninshiold (pronounced.
Cruhchell) is afloat. His course is being marked
by tho sight of American battleships with their
noses stuck in sandbars and mudbanks.
Tho Smith court-martial verdict vindicates
those gentlemen who were denounced for trying to
defend tho army by making the army uniform a
badge of honor and not a sign of brutality.
Every time a republican state convention de
clares for, Mr. Roosevelt your Uncle Mark Hanna
allows his left oyelid to -droop gently, while a
wrinkle appeaVs on each side of his mouth.
1 . ! m
There is something radically wrong about a
democratic platform that moots with the approval
of men and newspapers that aro always bitterly
opposed to the principles and policies of democracy.
Thomas C. Piatt declares that the. republicans
of New York can elect a yellow dog to the gov
ernorship. After reviewing the actions of New
York republicans in tho days gone by wo cheer
fully admit that it has often been done.
Tho Birmingham Age-Herald remarks tljat
General Funston has been sent to Arizona, where
tho rivers are underground affairs. This may ex
plain the general's sudden disappearance. Per
haps he 1b swimming those underground streams.
"The Friars Must Go," is the startling ,head
line found in an administration organ. We confess
to a tremOr of terror which lasted until wo noted
tho orthography. Tho fryers will be with us aa
long as the trusts exist and depend upon the
g. o. p. for protection.
"Who is the most unpopular man in tho
world?" asks Harper's Weekly. We don't know.
But tho most popular man with the trusts is the
one who shackles cunning with cobwebs and post
pones talking about anti-trust legislation until
after the lawmaking body adjourns.
"President Roosevelt carries his government
under his own hat," declares Secretary of the Navy
Moody. Within a fortnight we may expect another
speech from the president warmly defending Sec
retary of tho Navy Moody. This is the sort of
reciprocity Jthat tho g. o. p. believes in and car
ries out.
"There was no brutality in the Philippines!"
shouted the administration organs, "and the man
who says there was is a coward, a little American,
a traitor, a copperhead, a defamer of the army and
a prevarictor of tho worst typo!" Now they can
prove it by pointing to the findings of the Smith
court-martial.
Those who have for years objected to free
coinage on tho ground that the production of sil
ver was increasing so rapidly that tho parity
could not be maintained are now just as certain
that the parity cannot be maintained because gold
is being produced moro rapidly than silver. The
republican arguments always answer themselves.
On another page will be found an article by
George E. Vincent, written for tho Chautauqua,
treating of Chautauqua as an educational center.
No educational movement In recent times hag
moro thoroughly demonstrated Its practical useful
ness than the Chautauqua movement. All ovex
the land Chautauquas have sprung up in imita
tion of the parent association on the shores of the
lake bearing that name. These annual assemblies
have been of incalculable value in bringing tho
discussion of religious, social, economic and po
litical questions before the thinking public. They
have also furnished millions at small expense an
opportunity for rest and recreation. The com
munity which has a Chautauqua assembly is forV
tunate.
Of course tho officers and gentlemen making
lip the court-martial are guilty of defaming the
army by declaring General Smith ,guilty of bru
tality. It. appears that the ;dire punishment inflicted
upon General Egan Is to fie inflicted upon General
Smith. It will bo remembered that Egan was
punishedjby being retired on pay for tho rest of
his life. "" .; ,
Strange that republican papers should resent l
criticism of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Hill as if it
were directed against republicans. If reorganiza
tion is intended to strengthen the democratic,
party and enable it to defeat the republicans, isn't,
it queer that the republicans are so willing to as-
sist in the reorganization? 'l u'
General Bragg, consul to Cuba, Is in' trouble.
He says it is because he wrote a letter to" his
wife and she read it to a woman friend who told
it to her husband who told it at the club where a
reporter got hold of it. This is a variation of the
Adam and Eve story, but not' so much so that there
will bo difficulty in recognizing it.
A New York reader of The Commoner says:
"I admire your paper in every particular, but I
think as the old minister did, that you are not'
preaching fire and brimstone enough to the gold
standard democrats." Well, The Commoner will
endeavor to make it a little warmer for those
who claim to be democrats and yet are more loyal
to the money changers than to the party.
The senatorial convention of the district which
includes Du Page and Will counties, Illinois, met
at Wheaton recently and nominated Charles L.
Swartz for senator and W. A. Bowles for repre
sentative. The convention adopted resolutions re
affirming without mental reservation the Kansas
City platform and deploring the "efforts of those
so-called democrats who in the national campaign
of. 1896 sought by every means in. their power to
aid their republican allies to gain control of the
policies of the democratic party in state and
national politics." Mr. Hopkins committee wa3
not able to control this convention. .
The editorials which appeared in the Boston.
Herald, Kansas City Star, Chicago Chronicle, De
troit Free Press, and several other papers, criti
cised Mr. Bryan's editorial . commenting on Mr.
Cleveland's speech at the Tilden dinner. These
papers are quite bitter in their criticism of Mr.
Bryan's position, but they are so much milder than
the editorials which appeared in the same papers
denouncing Mr. Bryan in the campaign of 1896
that ho really feels that ho must be rising some
what in the estimation of their editors. It is not
strange that the papers that went out of the party
with Mr. Cleveland should desire to transform the
party into a Cleveland reorganization, but they
will not succeed.
The gold papers bitterly denounce The Com
moner for its criticisms of Mr. Cleveland's Tilden
club speech. These papers point out that Mr.
Bryan did not until recently comment upon Mr.
Cleveland, and accuse him of reopening old sores.
As long as Mr. Cleveland acted with the republi
cans he was an open enemy and enjoyed the pro
tection of the rules of war. But when he tried to
enter the democratic camp, not as one in sym
pathy with its purpose, but as one who would
use it for republican purposes, The Commoner ob
jected. When Mr. Cleveland becomes a democrat
he will be treated as such, but as long as he be
lieves in republican policies he ought to be con
tent to associate with those who believe in those
policies. He ought not to be afraia or the namo
"republican" so long as ho is in political affilia
tion with them.
. Mrs. Elizabeth Owen, 1004 Detroit avenue, To
ledo, O., has written, a biographical sketch of tho
late president, William McKinley, on a postal
card. The sketch contains 240 lines, 5,700 words
and 27,353 letters. The manuscript covers thirty
pages of foolscap, closely written, and makes about
six columns of newspaper matter. She has pub
lished the biographical sketch in a cloth covered
pamphlet containing nearly forty pages, with,
plate of the postal card. The price of the pamphlet
is 50 cents. In her preface she states that tho ob
ject of the book is to show what can be accom
plished with the pen. For sixteen years she has
practiced writing in small hand, and claims to be
the champion of the world in this style of writing.
Not long ago she wrote a biographical sketch of
Admiral Dewey on a postal card, but it only coil
talned. 5,650 words and 25,782 letters.
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