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The Commoner
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The Commoner. Letters From the People
SSUED WEEKLY.
WJM'IAM J. HIIVAN
Kdltor nntl Troprlctor.
IUCiiAiii) L. Mkicax.pic
Associate Kdltor.
ClJAM.KH W. UllVAN
rubllslior.
Editorial Hooms mid llURlncss
OHIco S24-.1S0 South 12tli Street
I'litofd nl llic roBtofl'tt' nt Lincoln, Neb., nn Becondclws matter
Our Your- . .- . . 81.0O
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
, ."There 1b only ono United States," sagely
observes a republican contemporary'. Let's see:
didn't Oklahoma make tho forty-sixth?
By the way, isn't the prosecution of the Now
York World case entitled to about the same
consideration as tho writer of an anonymous
letter?
Rccont democratic action in Pennsylvania
contributes to the number of reasons why Penn
sylvania goes republican by such heavy ma
!,?, a?Ut lY WG0ks loft beforG we are to
have that promised extra session for a revision
2nm5 TTup n somG thIngs and dow on
some other things.
We judge by tho silence of the Washington
correspondents that Israel Putnam's ride down
the stairs has not yet been equalled by any
modern presidential equestrian.
Tho "leading republican" who has not yet
dS wn7wUT? fr a placo in thG cabinet woJld
do well to look around and see if he is reallv
leading anything or anybody. y
At any rato, this discussion of Poo's riehr tn
a place in the Hall of Fame has resulted in caus
ing a lot of people to turn from the silly lltorary
trash of today and read some of tho real litoi
SIsycuPssion.Cti0118 f th AmriCan ? "to
The mere fact that Senator Hopkins has gv
perioncod considerable difficulty in secuHnc: a
re-election to tho senate from Illinoi 2 evt
denco of a considerable moral development ra
tho part of tho state that gave a Linonin ? , U
Grant to the service offfcoimf? and a
Tho philosopher of tho HaqHnia xTv v
Tribune says: "The girl who mn5,fhiNfb,i
wife is the one who is as much ?tw.l ! St
kitchen a in tho parlor "YGHn?wi Vh?
husband is the ono who gives his' wife X
Ken1? mUCU at hmQ iffitft!
thf
Tho members of that gmnd hll fr1"1'
A Subsciber, Brandon, Wis. I think the opin
ion and assertion of the Catholic Citizen of Mil
waukee should havo at least as much considera
tion as that given to your many correspondents
who are contributing their individual views on
the subject "What Did It?" and therefore en
close clipping from late issues of that paper.
From the Catholic Citizen, Milwaukee: The
Commoner (January 21) continues to let demo
crats tell "What Did It?" Here is C. W. Rob
bins of Custer, S. D who despairingly com
plains: "If the people all over the country had
voted their sentiments, Bryan would have been
elected by the largest majority ever received by
a presidential candidate. But it has come to
pass that such an expression can no longer be
had in this country. The labor vote was scared;
the bank and business vote was united and the
Catholic vote was delivered." Now, if the Cath
olic vote was "delivered," as Mr. Bobbins inti
mates, to Taft, it must have been contracted for.
Who were parties to tho contract? We feel
that Taft's managers have a cause of action
against any Catholic person who contracted to
deliver him the Catholic vote. It was not de
livered. Two-thirds of it went to William J.
Bryan. It would do no harm for TheCommoner
to admit the fact, now that The Commoner's
own columns have called the matter into ques
tion; and indicate that Mr. Bryan had some
gratification in the compliment. On the other
hand, we note with regret that the Methodist
ministers did not swing many Methodist votes
to their brother of the cloth in his latest sacrifi
cial run. Mr. Roosevelt got more Catholic votes
In 1904 than Mr. Taft got in 1908. Two-thirds
of the Catholic vote went to Mr. Bryan in No
vember, 1908. But it is true that since 18 9 G
there have been more Catholic republicans than
ever before. It is also true that there are not
a few democrats who are as narrow on the re
ligious question as Mr. Roosevelt Is broad.
James H, Clark, Summerfleld, Kan. As a
democrat and a reader of The Commoner I re
grot the fact that efforts have been persistently
made since the late election to convince Mr:
Fn iind the democratlc party that the defeat
of the ticket Was due to religious considerations.
The charges in this regard are made mainly by
victims of a peculiar religious horror that has
always manifested itsolf in human nature and
should not be given serious consideration A
recent issue of The Commoner contains extracts
from the St. Louis Mirror as follows: "If Mr
William Jennings Bryan wants to know one rea
son for the overwhelming character of his de
feat last November I can tell him that It was
ernSfeaH BlTP ?' Catnoll democratic votes
JfafATau6S 0f.th,at Sartleman'B tali treat
ment of the church in the Philippines. Even
the simple and kindly nuns were working for
him in their convents." As a Catholic I w?ll
say that such assertions are prompted either by
imagination or deliberate malice. The assertion
that nuns were working for the election of Taft
is a ridiculous attempt at misrepresentation as
nuns neither vote nor talk politics to voters
Colo16 wrUesf "TaTT 6 A $;,
ooio., writes, laft showed favoritism to th
his falrSeaTv &ffiL
eminent money to build and maintain Protlstant
Ph mfZ Bectarian institutions in the
So cfthollcaRn?nelSewhere- NlnotT Per ent o!
tne catholics in my community are democrat
and voted for Mr. Bryan. Even our local clerv
n wo is a republican, voted for tnehead
?n th Hmocratic ticket. The Catholic eleSv
Ice all other classes of men, have different n
lltlcal ideas and have no authority to ?2
nor influence the political action of church t!
upon the voter Tho Lt.J I ittIe effect
Louto Mirror a VnSor- 4lT &R, ?,''
mont only .n France, evo SSX
volume 9; Dumber
t
men who professed to be uemocrats and even
contributed to the democratic campaign fund
fearing that they might lose a few dollars from
the threatened business depression or future
speculation went to the polls and voted for the
head of the republican ticket. Thus the dollar
designs the destiny and the penny outweighs
the principle.
J. A. Gaynor, Grand Rapids, Mich. I re
gret very much that ono of your broad views and
understanding should give space to such grossly
false, offensive and defamatory utterances and
insinuations as appear in the first communica
tion on page sevdn of your issue of January 29
"The Holy Father had told them all to vote for
Taft." Do you believe there is any element of
truth in such stuff? Do you not see that it is
a gross insult to a large class of your fellow
citizens, and if so why allow the clean pages
of The Commoner to be used for such purposes9
Do you know any Catholic democrats who voted
for Taft, because "the Holy Father had told
them to?" J know hundreds of Catholic demo
crats, but npt one of them talked or voted for
Taft at the last election. The article above re
ferred to is but one of many such that have
appeared on that page since election, and I shall
feel very much disappointed if you neglect to
correct the false Impression they are-creating.
Robert Haydn, Butte, Mont. The enclosed
clipping from The Commoner of January 29,
1909 is an "A. P. A," statement utterly un
worthy a paper presided over by William J.
Bryan, for whom I, a Catholic, have voted every
time he was nominated for president. The vote
in this county, Silver Bow, is nearly half Cath
olic, and the county went for Mr. Bryan last
November. This clipping is the only thing that
I have ever seen in connection with Mr. Bryan
that suggests a reason for mistrusting him. I
haye no religious prejudice. I'd fight today for
the Chinaman's right to worship his idol as I
would for a Catholic's right to attend mass.
. Nick Colgen, St. Charles,. Minn. -In , , your
.Commoner I notice quite a few who .-attribute
your defeat to the Catholic vote.- If those writ
ers had gotten, their education in a Catholic
parochial school they would not be so bigotted
and also know that all German and Irish Cath
olics are all democrats, and that French. Italian
and Spanish Catholics are a very small percant
age of the whole in this country, and like as
not a good percentage of them may be demo
ocrats. Now let us take up these peoples' line
of reasoning and pursue it a little farther, i. e.:
You are a Woodman, so am I, but of all the
M. w. A of my acquaintance, seventy-five per
cent voted for Taft. Why? You may also be
a. Mason, still I know of no Mason who voted
for you or who would admit of having voted
for you. Still, not a word about all this from
anyone. But with Catholics things are different
and any old croak thinks hehas a legal right or
moral obligation to pick flaws or express criti
cisms. When Cleveland was elected a certain
ST; ?Ur?ard Plained the election by .saying
that the three R's rum, Romanism and rebel-
tSSh00 plL,eid ?e defeat of the republican
ticket, he probably knew, or he would not say
so, for was he not a Methodist minister, and of
rteht G to Tt? f itrUth? ,Now lf Burchard was
Catholln orTnat Clr? or. B" did yur Psent
Catholic critizers belong? Romanism? Hardly,
25 alon001"?9 thf W0Uld explaln their conduct
Pnhn?g' I send yu two clippings from two
Catholic papers, the leading ones in the west
lio Wn?i f6,0? rself how leading Catho
lic journalists look upon this question.
A. Freeland, Mount Pleasant, TennThe
tvToIlt TX Y tW Chances to securTfbn
lndurtrtS w ali gov?rnn"t. One is for the
industrial depression to continue four more
years. The other is to cease attempting thfim
possible task of mixing oil and water Le? ?
TSlVtntiJ'T fr ?c ownershiV o!
m litarism SiSSS P? r,eSive free trade nti
So overtti'rnw nf ..Ieeislation, anti-injunction,
3 overthrow of the national banking systeni
alihe assessment for taxation of the raw m
n ninlUJCes f the trusts' as coalT l?on
for Si l?ndi8' 6t,C" at theIr maiet value and
w7h0eTbeloPnaJty l?t0 the ubJitn arty
. invitation to th I Sd W0Uld ro7Q otandlng
who m Tvet 5-fl L "l"1101 of honest republicans,
SIS ilToTh e'To JUmp,ng 0Ut of thi
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