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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1907)
"wSWTir''' "" t ,?, -w sir "'"T v" sjt The Commoner.!? AUGUSf),.2,3,-.-J.90r 3S 'yW9irmi''VF wfqw&w3 T"' resulted except the arousing of public opinion? , No noted corruptioriist lias been punished. Ham ilton and Fields are going about their business. No high official has been punished or even pros ecuted. McCurdy and Hyde arc enjoying life in Paris. No syndicating director has been pun ished. Harriman, Schiff and the rest were not even officially stigmatized. Ryan has succeeded Hyde a dangerous change. McCall's son-in-law has succeeded him and Perkins' brother has succeeded Perkins. Peabody, a Harriman un derling, has succeeded McCurdy another dangerous change. The old presidents have gone. Throe satellites of predatory financiers have taken theiF places. The policyholders are worse off. They get smaller dividends. The public are worse off. They have not the salvo of ignorance. The state of New York is worse off. Its shame is self-confessed. And all be--cause the law is not executed by the responsible head of the insurance department and the official representative of the honor and shame of the state of Now York. Wherefore Otto Kelsey must bo removed." It is, indeed, a deplorable situation; and most people would conclude that Kelsey ought to go; but most people concluded that the two cent rate ought to be established in New York; but Governor Hughes, it will be remembered, thought the matter ought to be investigated. It is strange that upon the very -thing which gave Governor Hughes his national reputation lie is so slow to act, but it must not be forgotten that after the. noise made in connection with the Armstrong insurance committee, Mr. Hughes disappointed many of his friends by failing to insert the probe at promising spots and failing to follow interesting clues to their high ter minals. oooo "INCONCLUSIVE, THEATRICAL FURY" Referring to the boast that the adminis tration is about to proceed against the tobacco trust, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says: . "Suits like this have multiplied. Beef trust, coal trust, lumber trust, oil trust, sugar trust and railroad trusts innumerable all these in turn have been made the- butts of the administration's 'policy.' But, with all this fanfare of trumpets in the lists, the encounters have consisted of nothing but a spectacular splintering of lances. Not one trust has been unhorsed; not one has suffered more than a scratch; not one has even been made to breathe hard from exhaustion in the pretty tournament. One and all, these mock sufferers are blandly continuing at their old trade, and the prices of the products are steadily mounting. That is why the tobacco trust may smile. The people of the country would like to see one pitched battle to the death, with lance, sword and" dagger one good fight finished, instead of the inconclusive, theatrical fury in all quarters of the field at once, which has been the essence of the administration's loudly self-lauded 'policy.' " Does the Post-Dispatch think that there can be anything but "inconclusive, theatrical . fury" in a battle waged against the trusts by a president whose cabinet is composed of men not in sympathy with his flgh or by a political party whose candidates are supported and whose campaign funds are provided by the special in terests? OOOO A NEWSPAPER "SIDE ISSUE The New York World is devoting consid erable space to the effort to prove that John D. Rockefeller's father still lives. The World Bays that for several years it has sought to locate the elder Rockefeller and it prints, with the younger brother of the oil magnate, an inter view in which Frank Rockefeller is quoted as Baying that the public may expect the unfolding at an early day of a scandal which will shock the civilized world. This scandal, it is said, will involve John D Rockefeller and the treatment he has accorded his father. This is all very Interesting, to be sure, and there are many peo ple who would not be in' the least surprised if it .developed that the oil king has accorded to his own parent the ame sort of Injustice that has characterized his dealings with other of his fellowmen. But the World would bo in bet ter business if it devoted its great ability to an effort to persuade the authorities to call the oil king and other trust magnates' to account for their offenses against the public and their defiance of the peoples' laws. Nothing is needed to further inflame the public mind against the mpst arrogant monopo list of the ago, but something Is neodod to nerve the arm of the authorities so that they will call John D. Rockefeller and offenders of that class to account. They should bo called to account not with injunctions that do not restrain, not with fines that do not prohibit futuro violations, not with official roports that do not tell the whole truth, but with prison colls. Then de stroy, in tariff and in other laws, the shelter found by special Interests and encourago a de termination on the part of the people, as well as on the part of the men in power that in every act of the legislative and executive depart ments of government "equal rights to all and special privileges to none" shall bo the control ling principle. OOOO INCOMPLETE The Kansas City Star calls attention to the fact that the report of Commissioner of Corpora tions Herbert Knox Smith on Standard Oil prices, domestic and foreign, Is not complete. The Star explains: "High prices are attributed solely to the Standard's monopolistic power, and the monopoly is attributed to preferential rail road rates and other favors exacted by the cor poration. But Mr. Smith shows that Standard Oil demands about twonty-soven per cent more for its products in this country-than it gets for the same products In Europe. Russia Is the only country that can compete with the Stand ard, and Russian competition, in Europe, keeps down European prices. But Russia Is estopped ' from competing in the United States by a tariff that gives Standard Oil about 150 per cent "pro tection." But for the tariff Standard Oil would be compelled to make substantially the same prices at home as abroad. But this is a fact that a republican commissioner of corporations can hardly be expected to put Into his report. Nevertheless a report without it is not complete. More than that, it is misleading and to a consid erable extent ineffective." OOOO THE GREATEST MAN William Q. Channing paid a high tribute to the common people when he said: "The greatest man is ho who chooses the right. with invincible resolution, who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace and frowns; whoso reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, is most unfaltering. I believe this great ness to be most common among the multitude, whose names are never heard." ' OOOO ELKINS AND CORTELYOU : The Kansas City Star says: "If Secretary Cortelyou is really a candidate for the presidency it is unfortunate for him that his candidacy should be launched by Senator Elkins." Does the Star imagine that the people did not have a fairly accurate idea of theforces be hind the Cortelyou boom even before Mr. Elkins spoke? OOOO THE TARIFF IN 1800 AND 1000 A Commoner reader directs attention to the fact that the New York World charges that the democratic platforms in 1896 and 1900 dodged the tariff question. The World has often made this charge although its error has, as often, been pointed out. The Chicago platform said: "We hold that tariff duties should be levied for the purpose of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country, and not discriminate between classes or sections, and that taxation should be limited by the needs of the government, honestly and economically ad ministered." The Chicago platform denounced the proposition of the republicans to restore the McKinloy law, and . declared that that law "enacted under the, false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of the many, restricted trade and de prived the producers of the great American staples, of access to their natural markets." Not only did the platform of 1900 "con demn the Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding measure, skilfully devised to give the few favors which they did not deserve and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear," but it also declared that "tariff laws should"be amended by putting the products of trustsupon tho freo lists to prevent monopoly under tho plea of protection." Tho Kansas City platform further said:. "Wo reaffirm and lndorso tho principles of tho national democratic platform, adopted at Chi cago In 1896 Whllo it is true that In 1890, as in 1900, tho tariff question wns not a conspicuous issue, and while tho Chicago platform objected to "any agitation for furthor changes in our tariff laws, excopt such as are necessary to moot tho deficit in tho rovonuo caused by tho advorso de cision of tho supromo court on tho income tax," tho party did not abandon Its time-honored pos ition on tho tariff question In either 1896 or In 1900. Nor wore theso platforms evasive upon the tariff question. It Is absurd to say that tho democratic position was evasive In 1900 with a platform that deuounced tho Dingley law, prom ised tho amendment of the tariff laws by putting tho products of trusts upon tho free list to pre vent monopoly under tho plea of protection and reaffirmed tho platform of 1896 in which plat form it was plainly said: "Wo hold that tariff duties should be lovled for tho purposes of revenue" OOOO ITJ PERSONS" OR "PEOPLE" Rccontly the talented editor of tho Wash ington, D. C, Herald took his pon In hand, and wrote: "After a two weeks' tranco, an Iowa girl woke up unable to speak tho English lan guage." Subsequently the talented editor of tho Now York Herald took his pon in hand and wrote: "Purists, noting that our Washington namesako uses tho word 'people' instead of 'persons,' will doubtless insist that among tho 'millions who wake up overy morning' there arc also a few who aro unable to 'wrlto' tho English language." A few what, "persons" or "people?" If wo are going Into this purist business wo must insist on our esteemed contemporaries being purists from taw. By the way, will tho "per sons" or "people" responsible for tho languago flung at "people" or "persons" in general through the Now York Herald's columns plcaso explain: If a hen, engaged in tho process of In cubation Is "setting," is a hen that merolyrt. upon her nest "setting" or "sitting?" Proper, elucidation of a fow of these seemingly minor points may bo of material assistance to tho rest of us "persons" or ' people" in furthering tho campaign for purism. AS A LITTLE CHILI) M As a little child they are leading him, ' v For his hair Is white and his eyes are dim;' As a little child ho is whispering low To tho phantom friends of long ago; As a little child he is wandering back In fancy over the golden track; In tho years that were and the days that fled He is dreaming the dream of the dreamless dead! As a little child they must humor him.. When the hair is white and the eyes are dim. . Ah, do not jeer at his peevish ways - ,; That try one's patience through dreary daya-r-. He's living over the life ho know ,- "; Jr In boyhood's valley of gold and blue; .. As a little child on a mother's breast, '-., His heart is weary; ho wants to rest! As a little child he must have his way, In this thought of youth and his dream of play; He has forgotten his time and place And lives in the joy of an olden grace; As a little child in the childheart spell He hears the chime of tho fairy bell, . And thinks he is young as a boy again In tho rosy weather and country lane! 'y 7-4 " As a little child with his hand In theirs They lead him forth as his fancy fares; ' His hair is white and his form Is bent, v.;v And his voice is soft as a sacrament When he calls the names that are on tho tomb As if they -were sweet in the living bloom; , ; He has forgotten, he does not know He isn't a child in tho long ago! Second childhood they call It. Yea! Old heart grown young in the dream f play, Feeble footstep and palsied hand Are lost in the vision of childhood land! He hardly sees and he seldom hears, But ever the Voices of vanished years Are singing sweet as they sang of old . ., In the gates of. youth and the fields of gold!- f Baltimore Sun. 'i 3 1 I 1 'Wv&jr,mTtiM fmim in irtifarti wMrfkMHimimauiJMi ridtttf-tlAiHfrt ktmm '"jf