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The Commoner0
WILLIAM -J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
Vol. 5.. No. 40
I. '
Lincoln, Nebraska, October 20, 1905
Whole Number 248
1
,
CONTENTS
;
Advice to Public Official's
TnE Chew Resolution ;
A Little Family Matter
Custodian Perkins
t i
One Thing Worse tiian! Corruption
'Little Drops of Water"
Ohio's Fight Against Bossissc
Turn On the Searchlight
Frauds In Insurance Circlhs
Rockefeller's Biographer Crihs
Comment on Current Topics
The Primary Pledge
News of the Week
A LITTLE FAMILY MATTER
0, tell me, Pa McCurdy, are there any more at
home like these?
Any other sons or daughters, son-in-law or cous
ins, please?
I really want to ; know, you know my premium
now is due
0, tell me, Pa McCurdy, are there aiiyfmore de
pending on you? '" --.-.
Your son has made a million, "'; ' :'
And your son-in-law has, too
0, tell me, Pa McCurdy,
Are we still in debt to youfe,
Answer quickly, Pa McCurdy we are "mutually"
in doubt
Any other "poor relations?" Has our policy run
out?
0, toll me, Pa McCurdy, are there any not yet
on your roll?
Any others in your family pouring premiums in
a hole?
Have you any aunts or uncles who have failed
to make a touch?
0, tell me,. Pa McCurdy, are 'there very many
more of such?
Tis but a family matter
But an answer is my due
0, tell me, Pa McCurdy,
Any more at home like you?
Answer quickly, Pa McCurdy we are "mutually"
in doubt
Any other "poor relations?" Has our policy run
out?
O, tell me, Pa McCurdy, does your salary meet
all desire?
If not, remember, papa, tell us just what you
require.
JJ you have more relations do not hesitate, I pray,
But get 'em on the payroll quick you should not
long delay.
The men who pay the premiums
Meet them promptly when they're due,
They know well, Pa McCurdy,
There are more at .home like you.
Answer quickly, Pa McCurdy we are "mutually"
in doubt
Any other "poor relations?" Has our policy run
out?
THE POLICYHOLDER
JJJ
Mr. Carnegie asserts that a university train
i unfits a man for business. Perhaps for some
mes of business, but Chauncey, M. Depew, and
Klcnard A. McCurdy are university graduates,
h5vor?Lnt a,Bt0lWs Poi"t to the fact that- they
Imsiness eminently successful in some lines of
t. i.
AND ONE OTHER
.
M"y ' - -
3 (vM? common PE0n N"" f-1"
"We have protected and encouraged every interest but our mer
chant marine, and every protected industry has flourished. "--Secretary
of the Treasury Shaw.
ADVICE TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS
The Omaha (Nebraska) Bee, a republican
newspaper, referring to Mr. Bryan's open letter
to President Roosevelt says: "Admitting his
good intentions, is it not a little presumptuous
for Colonel Bryan to offer advice continually to
Mr. Roosevelt on the subject of running the. gov
ernment?" The special interests have had under the
Roosevelt administration as under all adminis
trations representatives who were in position
to offer advice. No one knows better than the
editor of. the Omaha Bee that the counsel reach
ing the president from these inner circles is fre
quently sugar-coated, and that a man isolated
as the president of the United States naturally
is can not always determine either upon the wis
dom or the disinterestedness of such counsel.
A public official will be best helped by ad
vice publicly, given. Not that all advice, even
though given in a public way, is the best advice
but given as it is it becomes subject to criticism
and the public officer to whom such advice lias
been offered has the advantage of weighing the
original opinion with the criticism.
But special interests "doth so hedge a king"
that it is not at all strange that public officials,
depending upon the counsel of their intimate,
and all too often particularly interested, asso
ciates, mistake partisan suggestion for patriotic
'idvice.
If it were true that in his open letter to the
president Mr. Bryan gave any advice not in keep
ing with public interests, then he would be open
to criticism. But in our form of government
public interests are best secured when the
humblest citizen in the land feels free to offei
suggestion, even to the highest public servant.
"Admitting Mr. Bryan's good intentions," the
Bee, as a newspaper published in a republic, has
estopped itself from all criticism of Mr. Bryan'a
suggestion to the president of the United States,
at a critical period in our history, that the best
service he can render to his country or to his
party would be by rigid adherence to the de
clared policy of requiring the railroads to do jus
tice to the peopSe.
If it should bo establlshel that counsel off
ered, even to the president of the United States
counsel whose wisdom and patriotism may not
be successfully assailed is to be regarded as
presumptuous when given by a citizen of the
republic, then tho men who at one moment con
tribute other people's money to republican cam
paign funds, only in tho next moment to profess
their devotion to high ideals, would very soon
run away with the government.
Incidentally, The Commoner does not mind
saying that ho one understands these truths bet
ter tlian the editor of the Omaha Bee, a man who
has on many occasions found it necessary to give
"presumptuous" advice to the leadcra of his own
party whom he has suspected of a disposition
to- pull the corporation chestnuts out of the fire.
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