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The Commoner!
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uy R. Spencer The Commoner Cartoonist
o Arena Magazine for October pays a high
e to The Commoner cartoonist. This is un-
o headline: "Guy R. Spencer, a cartoonist
ressive democraoy and aggressive honesty."
rena article follows:
o cartoonist of the great middle west stands
tinctively at once for the aggressive honesty
eded at the present time and for the prin-
of progressive democracy, as G. R. Spencer
ho World-Herald of Omaha and Mr. Bryan's
oner. His cartoons have been widely copied,
bo much for their artistic worth as for the
ht behind the pictures, the truth emphasized
e lesson sent home in such a manner as to
a vivid impression on the minds of all who
frthem.
Mr. Spencer was born in Missouri in 1878
twas reared in a small Nebraska town. It is
ct worthy of passing notice that most of our
nists who are striking telling blows for the
amental principles of free government and
Inst the reign of graft that is a part of the
ent "system" that in recent years has domi-
ed politics, have been born and reared in the
ntry or in small towns. They have also usu-
y been poor boys who had to depend on their
wn exertions for an education and a successful
entrance into business life. In this respect also
pur artist was no exception to the rule.
His earliest interest in drawing, dated from
the receipt of a series of lessons on newspaper
drawing, with enthusiasm and a resolute deter
mination, to accomplish something worthy, he set
to work to master tho instructions given. All the
spare time at his command was given to the work.
When Mr. Bryan was nominated for the presi
dency, he enlisted as a worker for the success of
the great Nebraskan, seeing then what the ma
jority of the more clear-visioned and thoughtful
Americans, who are not beholden to or beneficiar
ies of trusts, monopolies and privileged interests,
are" now coming to see that the real issue was
not so much a question of the kind of money most
demanded, but whether the principles of the De
claration of Independence, the ideals of Jefferson
and Lincoln, and the fundamental demands of a
true democracy should be maintained, or whether
the government should pass under the control of
privileged interests operating through corrupt
bosses and the money-controlled machines a con
dition in which the mantle of republican govern
ment should mask a despotism of the criminal
rich, a commercial feudalism based on class legis
lation and special privileges of various kinds. Be
lieving in the old ideals of freedom, fraternity,
justice and honesty that nlarked in so conspicu
ous a degree the lives and statesmanship of Frank
lin, Washington, Jefferson and -Lincoln, Mr. Spen
cer threw all the influence at his command on the
side of free institutions and the rights and in
terests of all the people, bringing with him the
fine enthusiasm of youtE that high-minded, conscience-guided
youth which is the chief hope ot
tho nation today.
In 1899 he went to Omaha, determined to se
cure a position on the World-Herald, the great
progressive democratic organ of Nebraska and the
one daily of the state that represented his own
political ideals. Mr. Hitchcock, the proprietor,
however, could not see his way clear to give him
any position; but nothing daunted he appealed to
the Sunday editor of the Herald, who agreed to
let him work for him, provided he labored for
nothing. This he did until the hour arrived when
Ms little store of money was exhausted, and he
was confronted by the alternatives of abandoning
his cherished dream and perhaps permanently
giving up his master-purpose in life, or obtaining
some outside work in Omaha which would tmable
him to continue his art-labors, which he recognized
as a valuable training or schooling. He accord
ingly set out to hunt work, but all doors seemed
closed. Everywhere there appeared to be more
seekers for work than positions calling for labor
ers. At last, however, he was offered employment
In a restaurant. A smaller nature or a more super
ficial character would have spurned such work
as too menial or as beneath the dignity of an
artist but Mr. Spencer belonged to that finest
type of young American manhoodthe type that
has enriched our nation and added inestimably
to the true greatness of the republic. Lincoln,
with eyes fastened on a nobler station in law and
in the halls of state, wrought with Herculean
power and splendid enthusiasm in splitting rails,
knowing that success in that humble task could
be made .the stepping-stone that would help him to
his goal. Garfield on the towpath and Henry Wil
son at the last, are other types of this class of
erica's noblemen who were great enough to
accept any honest labor that might help them to
iT V i ulB"ur ana nner dreams that haunted
their brains. So when Mr. Spencer was offered
the position which enabled him to continue his
work on tho World-Herald, ho gladly accepted
tho work and strove to give satisfaction.
The pluck, determination and fine ambition
of tho young man, no less than his steady prog
ress in his work as an artist, wore not over
looked by Mr. Hitchcock, who ono morning called
Mr. Spencer to him and gave him a position as
all-round artist to the paper at a salary of $10
a week. "I never saw," observed Mr. Spencer in
relating this incident in his lifo, "such big dollars
as tho ten comprising my first week's salary."
He gradually drifted into cartooning and in
addition to his work on the Herald began, between
three and four years ago, to make cartoons for
Mr. Bryan's Commoner. Recently, in speaking of
his present position, Mr. Spencer said:
"I am so fortunate as to bo connected with
two papers whose editorial policies, except in a
few minor matters, are exactly in line w'ith my
political principles, and I am allowed a fairly free
hand, most of the ideas of my cartoons being en
tirely my own and made on subjects of my own
selection.
"The cartoonist can do his best work only
when his heart Is enlisted in the causo which he
is advocating with his pencil. He has, to a great-
HHIHfcHflfefe' 'f -wBr
JM L-i i i ii-JK-J I
GUY R. SPENCER
er or lesser degree, an influence on public opinion,
and particularly at a time like the present when
the country is saturated almost to the soul with
corruption, any man wielding any influence, how
ever small, should see to it that that influence
be cast en the side of the right the right as de
termined by his conscience, not his Saturday night
check.
"Of course, it is practically Impossible in this
day and age for a cartoonist to malce every car
toon an expression of his individual view on the
subject in hand, owing to the peculiar habits edi
tors and proprietors have of running their own
sheets and firing incorrigibles. All that is left
for the poor fellow is to secure a situation, if he
can, on a paper whose editorial policy is as. nearly
in accordance with his ideas and ideals as po
slble and do the best lie can. With present con
ditions so serious the ranks of reform can not
spare a man and the cartoonist should look be
yond jnere salary."
In answer to our question as to his views on
the master evil of the hour in our land, Mr. Spen
cer replied with clearness and directness, and
in his reply we may see something of the high
. moral idealism that dominates his brain.
"Our business, political and social life," ob
served Mr. Spencer, "is steeped in corruption and
graft. The extent of the deterioration of the moral
fabric of a great body of our citizons is appalling.
Wore this moral degradation confined to a cor
tain class or a fow individuals of many classes,
the conditions would not be so dangerous. But
tho graft germ seems to have inculcatod itself into
tho moral tissue of all classes and a much too
big percentage of tho wholo of each class.
"The fact that a groat railroad official has
boon giving rebates or that a trusted insurance
president has been working tho gamo for all it
is worth, or that a United States sonntor has beon
discovered deliberately assisting to defraud tho
government need not, of itaolf, worry us over
much. But it is tho evidence seen on ovcry hand
that tho disoaso extends not only into tho great
places where temptation is great, but into tho
humblest homes In tho land that shows tho real
seriousness of tho situation. Your offico boy bor
rows a bicycle and grafts tho 10 cents you gave
him for carfare. Neither your stenographer nor
your bookkeeper evor buys writing paper, pens
or Ink, and seldom purchases a stamp. Your
man on tho road stops at a $2 a day hotel and
charges you $3. and so on. Tho wholo business
world Is full of It this potty grafting. And no
ono seems to think anything of It. Everybody does
it, what's the harm? Nobody makes any pretense
of concoalment, except possibly from tho 'boss.'
'Of course, ho wouldn't care, but oh, well, you
never can tell!' It is all so trivial and not to bo
compared with the giving of a robato or the adul-'
teration of a food product. Yet it is this moral
obtuseness to the iniquity of Jittlo things that it
seems to mo is tho real danger that threatens tho
country. A man does not become a criminal in a
day. We do not forget tho lessons of a God-fear.-ing
mother In an hour, and the nation can not be
corao wholly corrupt in a decade.
"By association with wrongdoers and by de
parting by only one short step at a timo from tho
straight and narrow path do wo drift into ways
that are dark. Familiarity with ovil lessons tho
hideousness of evil, and the time soon comes
when what jo our senses once was evil is bo
longer evil; what was once a crime Is now 'a.
custom,
"Tho young man who, unknown to his em
ployer, carries home from tho office, paper, ponw,
ink, etc., sufficient for his own and probably his
room-mate's correspondence, will, when sent out
of town for the offlce, 'pad' his expense account,
only a little at first, but gradually more and more
on each successive trip, until It Is standing 'all
the traffic will bear.' He Is considered honest
as the world goes and probably will never reach
tho point of 'stealing;' yet can this petty grafter
be expected, when he reads of tho great Insur
ance scandals or the Pennsylvania railroad ex
posures, to experience the sense of outraged jus
tice any honest man would feel? The arguments
of the pleader for special legislation, the monopo
list or the grafter appeal to him a little more for
cibly than to another. He drifts with tho tide of
everyday association and custom. All over this
broad land are thousands of respectable men work
ing little grafts of their own and almost uncon
sciously sympathizing with the ambitions of the
bigger grafters. And these men exercise no small
influence on election day.
"This moral blindness to the wrongfulness of
little misdeeds grows with the indulgence and un
less it is checked it will bo only a matter of timo
until tho state becomes utterly corrupt, the homo
will become as corrupt as the state, and the his
tory of Rome will have been repeated.
"But I think the checking process has begun.
It is only a question of rousing the conscience of
the public and of teaching a part of it what Is
right and what is wrong. Modern 'business
methods have so warped the senses of a great
body of our ciMzens that they will have to be re
taught at least the finer distinctions of right from
wrong. This can be done by precept and by force;
that is by preaching and by legislation. Of course
we are told that morals can not be legislated Into
men, but, to a certain extent they can. Wo de
clare by law that a certain ethical or moral offense
is criminal, prosecute, convict and punish the
offenders and in the nature of 'men, if tho process
be repeated often enough, he will learn to refraUi
from trespassing this law and in. time come to
believe the breaking of it to be wrong, no matter
what opinions he may have had prior to the estab
lishment of this particular rule. A conscience can
be redeemed as surely as it can be lost, and in
herently our consciences are all sound.
"There are enough right-minded citizens in
this republic to save it if they but continue as they
have begun. A partially free press is doing noble
(Continued on Page 6)
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