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The Commoner.
VOLUME 7; NUMBER 35
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The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
VlI.T.TAM J. IJUVAM
Editor nnd Proprietor.
1UCJIA.1U) h. llKrCAhVK
.A MocltUn Editor.
ClIAHLICS W. MllYAN
Publisher.
EdltorJnl Koomu nnd JIuhIiicm
Ofllco 324330 South 12th Strcot.
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THE COMMONER, Lfncoln, Nob.
But will Speaker Cannon be able to sec the
brakes when the president takes the whip and
starts the congressional team?
"Uncle Joe" Cannon says that the next con
gress should do nothing. "Masterly inactivity"
seems to be the slogan of the standpatters.
Is Secretary Taft the great postponer
in favor of postponing national Incorporation or
is that one of the few things that should be at
tended to at once?
The' news feature about the report of
trouble in the Oklahoma republican convention
'was concealed in the fact that therd were enough
'republicans present to permit of a riot. '
' , A. lot pf Oklahomans are opposing the adop
tion , of , tho constitution ostensibly on patriotic
grounds, but really for the reason that state
opd, -would end their territorial graft.
i.
'nn TA ?teel trust made a net Profit of $45,-
r.000,000 during the last quarter. This "is in
.money The moral profit will not be known
until the celestial bookkeeper strikes a balance.
A New York farmer is mourning because
a barber cut off his twenty years growth of
whiskers while he was aBleep. He can console
himself with the thought that they will havo
time to grow out again before tho republican
party reforms the tariff.
Schonoburg.Germany, has decided to put a
double tax on vacant city lots. Is this a blow
at the "unearned increment?" It is easv to
guess what the speculators will say about this
scheme to prevent them from profiting by the
improvements made by others.
The Filipinos should begin their legislative
work by passing a resolution declaring that the
Z? n(mera?e? ,0f ?e PhlPPine commission
should be selected by the Filipino assomblv
They can not be expected to represent the Fili.
pinos unless they are selected by them.
J7R nTnhn ntted States government is spending
$75,000 to ascertain the population of Okla
homa ari& yet Secretary Taft complains that the
democrats did not carve out the legislative dis
tricts with exactness. Are the democrat pre
sumed to know more about the population Uian
the government officials do?
Washington Letter
Washington, D. C, September OfRecently
tho New York Herald came out with a strong
editorial urging that the United States should
sell the Philippine Islands. The Herald did not
qualify its recommendation by suggesting the
purchaser. It merely urged that this nation
should got rid of a province which has been
only a source of expense expense in money
and expense in the lives and the blood and
the health of young Americans.
A proposition of this sort coming from an
ultra conservative newspaper like the Herald
has naturally awakened widespread interest and
discussion. There is in Washington a subordi
nate office of the war department called the
bureau of insular affairs. The chief of this
bureau, General Edwards, is now engaged in
making an estimate of what the Philippines has
cost this country to the present day. The initial
expenditure of course was $20,000,000, but tho
resulting expenditure for the suppression of tho
native uprisings and the policing of the islands
runs well up into the hundreds of millions.
General Edwards says that his estimate is al
most completed, but it can not be made public
until congress meets, when it will be presented
as an official report.
Talking to that universal character, the
average man, any suggestion that the United
States should rid itself of the Philippines will
be met by two arguments: First, that having
taken tho islands we owe a responsibility to
their people and must discharge.it; second, that
the islands are necessary to us as a naval and
military outpost in order to maintain our con
trol of the Pacific.
As to the first argument. The Filipinos
do not seem to regard bur responsibility very
seriously, nor do they prize our benevolent pur
poses toward them as they should. After we
had been in possession for nine years we gave
them an opportunity to vote for representatives
to a national assembly of their own. What was
the result? Four-fifths of the representatives
elected stood for the immediate independence of
the islands, and made their campaign on that
issue. That seems really ungrateful on the part
of the natives who have for so long enjoyed the
beneficence of American military rule, have been
taxed to pay the bills of their rulers and have
had the market for their best products shut off
by the operation of the United States tariff.
As a matter of fact the movement which
the Herald has inaugurated is meeting with sup
port from unexpected quarters. That paper has
been first to give public expression to what has
long been the opinion of representatives and
senators at the capital. It is probably a safe
statement that nine out of ten of our public
men wish we could be out of the Philippines
with honor. It iB true that not all think we
should sell. Many believe, and with reason,
that should we sell it it should be to the Filipi
nos themselves, taking their bonds and maintain
ing tho neutrality of the islands by our national
power exactly as we support the Monroe doc
trine. Others hold that we should wash our
hands of a bad bargain and sell to Japan the
only probable purchaser. '
It is rather curious to find a public man
so closely allied with the administration as John
Barrett, chief of the international bureau of
American republics, publicly urging the sale of
the islands. Few men in the United States
know more concerning Asiatic conditions than
he. He has served not merely as a journalist
in Asia, but was minister to Siam and to several
South American countries. He said yesterday
that he had urged upon President McKinley im
mediately after the conclusion of the Spanish
war that the United States should attempt to
exchange the Philippines with England for the
British possessions in the West Indies, including
Jamaica, Bermuda and British Guiana Any
one who will take a map of the United States
and study the relations which these islands bear
to this country will see how inestimably more
valuable they would be than the far off Philip
pines. Mr. Barrett tells me that the suggestion
was received with interest and without unfriend
liness' on the part of England, and that Presi
dent McKinley himself at first favored it. Later
the president said that the possible moral re
sponsibility of this country toward the Filipinos
was such that it might seem necessary to hold
tho islands until the, natives should be fit for
self government. Who is going to judge when
they are so fit, Mr. Barrett did not specify, in
their last election the Filipinos seemed to indi-
eate that if they "were the judges they are al
ready well fitted for self-government.
The acting director of the census bureau
in Washington said yesterday that practically
.ninety per cent of the census of Oklahoma had
been completed. It indicates that that terri
tory has about 1,500,000 population.
Under the enabling act passed by the Fifty
ninth congress Oklahoma and the Indian Ter
ritory are to be joined in one state as soon as
the people of both unite in approval of a con
stitution. Nearly 400,000 inhabitants of tho
Indian Territory are to be added to the Okla
homa population when the wedded territories
shall become a state. In brief the new state
if Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt's
Rough Rider appointees will permit it to become
a state, will have a population equalling that 0!
Alabama, California, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jer
sey, Virginia, and closely approaching such his
toric commonwealths as Massachusetts, Michigan
or Indiana.
It is seriously suggested now, and strenu
lously urged by Mr. Taft, who speaks for the
president,' that tlfe two million people in the
proposed state of Oklahoma are unfit for self
'government. The most serious charge brought
against them is that they created a constitu
tional convention which had a nine to one ma
jority of democrats; and that this convention
adopted a constitution which strove to re-establish
in that southwestern community the rights
of the citizens that date back to the time of
Magna Charta. It prohibits government by in
junction; it is in line with the constitution of
the United States in demanding for every man
a trial by a jury of his peers. It provides for
the truest form of democracy by establishing
the initiative and referendum and the election
of senators by the direct vote of the people; it
makes provision for the conservation of public
lands and for the proper control of public fran
chises to the end that these gifts from the people
shall not be used to, exploit the people.
Yet Mr. Taft goes into Oklahoma and at
tacks the constitution and even more bitterly be
rates the ninety per cent of the voters of the
territory who adopted it. It seems to be a case
of the eleven obstinate jurors. Taft is the
one wise man; the some tens of thousands of
voters who live in Oklahoma, have built it up,
who know its needs are expected to submit to
instruction upon their own affairs from the pro
consul of the man in the White House.
WILLIS J. ABBOT.
MR. BRYAN IN OKLAHOMA
(Continued from Page 3)
cratic members from Oklahoma may cast the de
ciding vote on impbrtant- legislation.
"The president has proposed the national
incorporation of railroads and other corporations
engaged in interstate commerce. As I have
, praised the president whenever he has recom-
, mended anything good, I shall not hesitate to
criticise this proposal as one of the most danger-
ous devices in recent years. Its object is to
transfer from the states to the nation entire
control of railroads and other large corpora
tions. "And, my friends, because of my personal
, acquaintance with him, I want to ,uay one word
about your candidate for congress in this dis
trict. Mr. Fulton livjd in my district when I
was a candidate for congress fifteen and
seventeen years ago and I had no more faithful,
loyal suppprter in my campaign. At that time,
this, young, man had developed a character that
made him admired and loved by all who knew
Iiim then; but he has had fifteen years added
to his intellectual stature, and hehas grown in
strength and character, and I rejoice that you,
in this district, are likely to have as your con
gressman, a man who fills my ideal as to what
a congressman ought to be in the United States.
I believe that he has the ability. I believe that
he has the strength of will, and I know that his
heart beats in sympathy with the toiling masses
of his state. I know him so well, that I am
willing to endorse in advance, any speech he
will make, every vote he will cast, and if he
goes wrong, charge it up to me I stand behind
him." '
OOOO
The eastern papers are exploiting a pur
ported interview in which a friend, of -Mr. Bryan
is represented as announcing that -Mr. Bryan has
chosen the chairman of the next national con
yention and the chairman of the next national
cpmmittee. The Commoner does not believe
that the gentleman .quoted made , the state
ments attributed to him. But in any. event no
spnslble man would .believo"thaJ; bespoke t with
authority. M s ,,;..,.,. V ;
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