ri
The Commoner.
1 WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
.M
d.
Vol. 7. No. 2.
Lincoln, Nebraska, January 25, 1907.
Whole Number 314.
CONTENTS
The Moral Awakening
Heart O' My Heart
A Colorado Protest
TnoMAs H. Benton
A Simple Trust Story
One More "Defender"
Where Are tiie Captains
Think oe Tms
"Washington Letter
Comment on Current Topics
Home Dep rtment
Whether' Common or $ ot
News oe tue Week
$3,750,000 PER YEAR!
THEY WILL FIND THE WAY
In his letter to Governor Johnson, President
Hill of the Great Northern Railroad company,
says: "It is not by accident that railroad build
ing has declined to its lowest within a gen
eration, at the very time when all other forms
of activity have been growing most rapidly. The
investor declines to put his money into enterprises
under ban of unpopularity, and even threatened
by individuals and political parties with confisca
tion or trahsferHb'thV state.'-' fM.-;-
"Well, if individual investors decline to build,
railroads, it may be necessary for the government
to do so; for certainly the public is not to be de
prived of railroad facilities, simply because indi
viduals decline to engage in railroad construction,
for fear the laws may be so framed as to make the
railroad the servant rather than the master of
the people.
" i i i i . t
-
V
What the Passage of the New Ship Subsidy BsBI Nleans
HEART O' MY HEART
Heart o my Heart, as the day is done
Homeward I turn to thee;
Knowing full well at the setting sun
Love waits to welcome mo.
Weary my feet, but I haste away
After the toil is through,
Eager to see and eager to be,
Heart o' My Heart, with you.
Heart o' My Heart, we take our way
On through the fleeting years;
Snows of winter and rains of May,
Never with doubts or fears.
Smoother the path to my tired feet,
Brighter the skies of blue;
Sweeter the rest in the snug home nest,
Heart o' My Heart, with you.
Heart o' My Heart, come good, conie ill,
Stormy; the weather, or bright,
Gleamings of love your dear eyes fill,
Shining by day or night. '
Onward I go, your hand in mine,
Strong in your love so true;
Fair as the rose now the old world grows,
Heart o' My Heart, with you.
Heart o' My Heart, we side by side
Wander on love's highway;
Hand in hand whatever betide,
Trusting, let come what may.
Slowly the sun dips in the west,
Still I my way pursue
On to the goal of the weary soul,
Heart o' My Heart, with you.
W. M. M.
THE MORAL AWAKENING
Eleven years ago Tolstoy quoted a letter that
had been written by Dumas two years earlier, in
which the great Frenchman, with rare prescience,
said: "The spiritual movement one recognizes
on all sides, and which so many naive and am
bitious men expect to be able to direct, will
be absolutely humanitarian. Mankind, which does
nothing moderately, is about to be seized with
a frenzy, a madness, of love. This will not, of
course, happen smoothly or all at once; it will
involve misunderstandings even sanguinary ones,
perchance so trained and so accustomed have
we been to hatred, even by those, sometimes,
whose mission it was to teach us to love one
another. But it is evident that this great law
of brotherhood must be accomplished some day,
and I am convinced that the time is commenc
ing when our desire for its accomplishment will
become irresistible."
Thus it will be seen that a groat philosopher
in Russia and a French writer of note discerned
more than a decade ago the signs of a new era.
In another part of the letter Dumas said: "I
know not if it be because I shall soon leave this
earth, and the rays that are already reaching me
from below the horizon have disturbed my sight,
but I believe that our world is about to realize
the words, Love One Another."
What these men saw with the eye of faith
is becoming more and more evident, and no
where is this change more noticeable than in the
United States. That ethical questions are re
ceiving increasing attention is certain. If the
awakening were confined to this country wo might
look for a cause in local conditions, but these
conditions do not apply to Russia, and Tolstoy
has not been out of his native land for years. How
can we explain his indorsement of Dumas' state
ment? And what was there in Dumas' environ
ment to impress him with the coining of this
brighter epoch? It must be more than a national
movement.
While the stirring of conscience is manifest
ing itself within the churches it is outside the
scope of this article to discuss the evidences
of it. The Y. M. C. A.,' the Y. W. C. A., the
Christian Endeavor Society, the Epworth League
and the brotherhoods and societies of the various
denominations and branches of the Christian
church all these are at work enlisting the young
men and young women and encouraging the ap
plication of Christ's teaching to every-day life.
But the movement seems to have a broader
foundation than any nation or race. It extends
around the globe; it reaches down and takes hold
upon the heart the connecting link which binds
every man to every other manT No movement
can be a universal one unless it appeals to the
heart, and nothing that really appeals to theJ
heart can be less than universal in its scope andr
Influence.
The brotherhood of man is the slogan of the
new movement, and a powerful slogan it Is. c."
The first effect of the moral awakening is
on the individual himself an examination of self,
a scrutiny of ideals, an analysis of motives and
fl
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