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The Commoner
v WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL. 7. No. 15.
Lincoln, Nebraska, April 26, 1907.
Whole Number 327.
CONTENTS
MR. BRYAN TO THE WALL STREET"
JOUBNAL
ANDREW CARNEGIE'S MAGIO LAMP.
. " "IT MAY BE TBEASON BUT"
MR. CLEVELAND ON INSURANCE
GRAFT
. NE,W YORK'S PEACE CONFERENCE
OKLAHOMA'S CONSTITUTION
' LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
PARAGRAPHIC PUNCHES ,
' WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
NOT A PEACE INVITING SPECTACLE
ANDREW CARNEGIE'S MAGIC LAMP
At the dedication of the Carnegie Institute in
IUttsburg recently an institute made possible by
Mr. Carnegies "generosity" Mr. Carnegie made a
speech in which he said: "I have tried to make
myself realize1 that I have anything to do with
it, and-have failed. J is true that'll gave"
some pieces of paper, but 'tliey do not represent
anything in my mind, because I did not part with
anything that I can understand. I said to
Mrs. Carnegie Inst night: 'It is like the palace,
raised In the night by the genii who obeyed Alad
din.' She replied: ..'Yes, and you did not even
have to rub the lamp.' "
No, Mr. Carnegie did not even have to rub the
lamp. The American people not only provided
the lamp, but they rubbed it and summoned the
genii which worked industriously night and day to
take from the providers and rubbers of the lamp
their hard earned money, and after taking this
money from them turned it over to Mr. Carnegie.
The name of tills lamp is "protective Tariff." But
what name shall bo given to the people who pro
vided this magic lamp and then rubbed it for Mr.
Carnegie's benefit?
There is a aeries" of "comic" pictures running
in a number of daily papers that illustrate the
trials of a gentleman .who is always being bun
coed by artful strangers. He is named "Mr. Jfl.
Z. Mark." Would that not be a good name to
give to the voters of America who have sweat anil
toiled 'to provide Mr. Carnegie with a "magic
lamp," and after having provided it work over
time to rub it and pour treasure into the pockets
of the gentleman who admits that he "doesn't even
have to rub the lamp?"
Some of these days the voters of America will
destroy Mr. Carnegie's "magic lamp" and proceed
to make one that will, when rubbed, pour treas
ure into the pockets of the maker and rubbers.
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"HUMILIATED"
The Chicago Chronicle declares that President
-Roosevelt has been "greatly humiliated" by the
compliments paid him by certain democrats,
notably John Temple Graves and Mr. Bryan. The
Chronicle says: "President Roosevelt has not de
served the humiliation."
It must hurt the president terribly to hear a
democrat speak a good word for him occasionally.
Perhaps he would prefer to have his compliments
come exclusively from men who, like John R.
Walsh, proprietor , of the Chicago Chronicle, have
been indicated one liundred and odd times for fraud
ulent transactions.
If Mr. Roosevelt cau prospeiTwitli an everyday
enthusiastic endorsement by Walsh, he ought xo
be able to survive aii occasional kind word by
bumble democrats. - -
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Apropos -of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude on, the disarmament. ' ;.
proposition
Mr. Bryan to the Wall Street Journal
The following in reply to a letter addressed to
Mr. Bryan appeared in a recent number of the
Wall Street Journal:
To the Editor of the Wall Street Journal: I
find your favor upon my return to the city and
take pleasure in answering your questions, and
you are at liberty to publish the letter if you so
desire.
If you will carefully read ray Madison Square
Garden speech, you will find that I did not discuss
government ownership as an immediate issue, but
as an ultimate solution of the controversy.
I prefaced my remarks by saying that I did
not know whether the country was ready to con
sider the question or whether a majority of the
members of my own party agreed with me.
For some fourteen years after my entrance Into
national politics 1 hoped for effective railroad leg
islation and was brought reluctantly to the belief
that government ownership furnished the only sat
isfactory "remedy for the discrimination, rebates
and extortions practiced by the railroads and for
the corruption which they have brought into pol
itics. My first public expression on this subject was
after the national convention of 1904. Two rea
sons led me to discuss the subject at that time.
First, the triumph of the reactionary element at
St Louis discouraged the more radical members
of our party. Feeling sure, from contact with the
rank and file of our organization, that the ascend
ancy of the so-called conservative leaders would
be temporary, I appealed to the radical demo
crats to remain with Ihe party, secure control of
the organization and make the party an effective
instrument in securing needed reforms.
To encourage these progressive democrats to
remain with the party, I announced the conclusion
which I had reached in regard to the final neces
sity for government ownership. '
My second reason for bringing the subject for
ward then was that federal ownership of all the
railroads was the only plan discussed by the advo
cates of government ownership and I thought it
worth while to present the dual plan which would,
in my judgment", give the country the benefit of
government ownership without the centralization
involved in the plan which puts the federal au
thorities hi control of all the railroad systems of
the country.
The dangers of centralization are real dangers,
however difficult if may be to get the people as a
Whole to consider theories in advance of their ap
plication. AT BEGINNING OF RAILROAD DEVELOP
MENT We are not at the end of railroad development
but rather at Its beginning, and I feel, as I have
always felt, that the ownership and operation by
the federal government of all the railroads, now
constructed and to be constructed, would go far
toward the obliteration of state lines and I regard
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