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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 7, NO. 47
Lincoln, Nebraska, December 6, 1907
Whole Number 359
CONTENTS
"A PATRIOTIC SYSTEM"
MR. BRYAN AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
TOO MUCH FOR HORACE WHITE
J. PIERPONT MORGAN IS A MAGNANI
MOUS MAN
ABOLISH THE STOCK EXCHANGE TICKER
POOLING
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
GOOD WORK FOR THE "MILLION ARMY
PLAN"
WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOMi3 DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ABOLISH THE GAME
The Philadelphia North American says:
"The institutions that are in trouble owe their
troubles not to any incidents or accidents of
legitimate banking, but to gambling. The dis
closures of the last few months are not of new
found evil practices. Wall Street assumes the
virtuous pose of being shocked by the traction
scandal and the use of a chain of banks as an
adjunct of stock jobbing. These practices,
known now by the public, have been known for
years by Wall Street and by well-informed bank
ers throughout the country. The cover is off
now, or at least partly lifted. But the mal
odorous mess that has long been stewing beneath
is not of new mixing."
' Then why not a concerted, movement by
men of all parties toward the abolition of this
great gambling game that traffics in the prop
erty of the people?
oooo
POOLING
The National Industrial Traffic League com
posed of the principal traffic managers of the
country and representing 20,000 shippers, in
session at Kansas City sent a message to Mr.
Roosevelt protesting against his proposed amend
ment to the interstate commerce commission
act providing that railroads may enter into
pooling arrangements.
Mr. Roosevelt has in this plan the ardent
support of the chairman of the interstate com
merce commission who recently denounced the
Sherman anti-trust law as a failure; but he
will not have the support of shippers who are
already inadequately protected.
Mr. Roosevelt's pooling proposition is not
consistent with his efforts to protect the public.
OOOO
IS IT ENCOURAGING?
The Boston Herald professes tosee a hope
ful sign in the fact that "the receipts of all
the leading postoffices of the country continue
at top notch." By "leading postoffices" we pre
sume the. Herald means Boston, New York, Phil
adelphia, Pittsburg, etc. But may It not be
a sign that the eminent financiers of those cities
are merely burdening the mails with letters ad
dressed to wifely relatives in the rural districts
and containing earnest appeals for some real
money?
OOOO
THEN LET GO
. "What we need now is not more gold but
more confidence," says Mr. Vanderlip, a New
York banker. Then let Mr. Vanderlip bend his
energies toward breaking the New;York corner
on currency.
Uncle Sam "Well, Hint old fraudulent urguinent, 'panics don't come when republicans
are in power,' is exploded nt last!"
"A Patriotic System"
The tariff was at first defended as a patri
otic system, calculated to render the country
independent in time of war. There is force In
the argument when it Is presented In behalf of
a country just entering upon national existence
at least there is more force in such an argu
ment when applied to a young nation than when
applied to our nation today. Such an argu
ment always implies that the protection Is tem
porary; it is Intended to guard the Infant in
dustry until it is able to stand upon its feet.
It Is absurd to employ the argument to shield
industries which are not only able to stand
upon their own feet, but to walk over the feet
of others. Even Henry Clay admitted the tem
porary character of protection. He said in 1833:
"The theory of protection supposes, too, that
after a certain time the protected arts will have
acquired such strength and perfection a3 will
enable them subsequently, unaided, to stand
against foreign competition."
Seven years later Mr. Clay said: "No one,
Mr. President, in the commencement of the pro
tective policy, ever supposed that it was to be
perpetual." ,
The same doctrine is set forth by Alexander
Hamilton in his report. Ho declares: "The
continuance of bounties on manufactures long
established must always be a questionable policy,
because a presumption would arise in every such
case that thero were natural and Inherent Im
pediments to success."
Although the Industries of United States
are no longer infants, and although the patriotic
argument can no longer bo advanced in sup
port of a tariff, the high duties still stand, and
the beneficiaries of the tariff refuse to sur
render the advantage which they havo secured.
After the infant nation argument and tho
Infant Industry argument were outgrown, the
manufacturers put forward a new defense, name
ly, that the tariff must be maintained as a per
manent policy In order to cover the difference
between the coBt of labor hero and abroad. Mr.
McKInley In presenting tho bill which bore his
name, said: "We havo recommended no duty
above the point of difference between the normal
cost of production hero, Including labor, and
the cost of like production In the countries which
seek our markets."
This was the basis of the defenso for a
number of years, and we heard many protesta
tions of Interest In the laboring man from law
makers who, instead of voting the aid directly
to the wage-earner, voted it to employers, with
out providing tho employes with any means of
compelling a division. Men who would not
trust their own children to deal fairly with their
brothers and .sisters in the distribution of an
estate have trusted manufacturers whom they
. thrift f'W
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