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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1909)
" H-w i- i TT-" W V '',, SEPTEMBER 10i 1SQS The Commoner 5 -? '!yjwijyjy WIW'mmi' "iwmLmxp'tiwipwivkmi-'wm pawif . Trw- "- Editorials By Commoner Readers IS IT A USELESS STRUGGLE? Wanatah, Ind. I have been a reader of The Commoner ever since the first year of its pub lication, alao have the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh volumes of The Com moner Condensed in my library and I find them a valuable set of reference books. I have sup ported Mr. Bryan during three campaigns and have fought for the principles advocated by Mr. Bryan, fully appreciated the difference between the two sets of principles set forth in the plat forms adopted at the national conventions by the two strong parties and believed that, if Mr. Bryan could be made president of the United States, he would be able to accomplish the re-, forms which he advocated and which are neces sary for the betterment of conditions for the common people of our country. But the actions of the last session of congress has changed my mind, and I have come to the conclusion that it is not within the reach of any man or political party under the present system of government tc accomplish any great good for the common eople. I have just completed reading an article n The Commoner of August 13, volume 9, num ber 31 entitled "The 'Tariff Revision' Fraud," and from the substance of this article I am in clined to think that if The Commoner's opinion was .fully expressed it would harmonize quite well with the gist of my thought. In this article you say: "Tariff revision by 'the friends of the tariff' is an exploded theory. It can not be used to fool the people any more." If the people have become wise enough to realize that they have not bem represented in congress but have been misrepresented, I want to ask what means they have at their command to rectify this evil? You also say: "The consumer now knows that his interest will not be considered until he makes his vote mean what he wants." But what right has the voter to believe that he is in a position to make his vote count for what he wants? Among the intelligent voters it has been well understood that there are special priv ilege characters who have received their special privileges as a result of the vote of the repre sentatives of the majority of the voters. The initiative and referendum, the right of recall and the election of United States senators by popular vote has been suggested as a remedy for these abuses, but I am unable to see how this can bo accomplished since a resolution in favor of the election of United States senators by popular vote has passed a republican house several times, but in each case has been killed by the senate. There is a reason for such action and the reason is simply self interest. The senate being filled with men who are enjoying the special privileges is no more liable to allow laws to pass in the future which would be against their own selfishness and in the interest of the common people than it has been in the past. Show me a reason why the most staunch of our democrats in the senate should turn traitor at -a most critical moment and I will show you the same excuse for doing the same in the future. I think I fully realize that unless something is done to mend the present evils, conditions will continue to grow worse and how to mend these evils is the question which I am interested in. The plan proposed by the democratic party, as I understand it, is a plan which has been advocated by the said party for a good many years and a plan under which the present evils have grown to a great magnitude, and with no promise of coming to an end and In searching for a solution I have come to the conclusion that we can only find it in a co-operative commonwealth. S. D. BAILEY. TAKING CARE OP CAESAR Findlay, Ohio. Your "Story in Point" 'in yesterday's issue respecting the "St. Louis Busi ness Caesar," brings to my mind that when Judge Taft was first mentioned as a presidential possibility a prominent democratic Standard Oil trust lawyer regaled me at great length on the eminent safety and sanity of Taft, between the paroxisms of his democratic wrath against the exclamations of Theodore Roosevelt, assur ing all hearers and all comers that Mr. Taft would give us a sane, business administration eminently satisfactory to the business interests. This same eminent democratic lawyer for the trusts is the president of the Middle Bass Fish ing club which used to eutertain the late Ex Presldent Cleveland, and who put Taft and Foralcer in the same bed at the Toledo- encamp ment, and arranged tho preliminaries whoroby Foraker was to preside at Taft's love feast then scheduled for his homo city of Cincinnati, but which Roosevelt vetoed by reason of tho Hearst expose of tho Archbold (Standard) letters to Foraker. After Roosevelt and tho fedoral officeholders had accomplished tho nomination of Taft, and in order to securo material for tho democratic campaign, I wrote to this same prominent demo cratic trust lawyer, reminding him of his recom mendation of his friend, Judge Taft, as so emi nently satisfactory to tho interests and so dif ferent in temperament from his predecessor, stating to him tho obvious fact that either Taft was deceiving tho interests, or tho president who had prostituted his high offlco to securo hio nominatidn, and appealing to him to tell mo (as I know he could) which one of these two Taft was fooling, and I furnished a copy of this letter to tho president at least three weeks before election. I did not send him tho answer of tho democratic lawyer, as it nover reached me. Events will prove, If they have not already proven, that tho system will "Take care of Caesar." p. q. TANGENT.- THE FARMERS' VIEW Malaga, Washington. There is something in President Taft's corporation tariff bill that looks to me (a farmer) very much like a healthy colored gentleman. The trusts are re quired to disgorge two per cent (now one per cent) of their profitts Fifty million dollars of profits represent at one per cent, $6,000,000 profits. Don't tho consumer pay this Immense sum, and tho same individuals who pay all other tariff taxes. Can't the trusts charge this one per cent tax to their present prices, and increase it to any limit. Are the trusts honest? Then why prosecute them? If they are dishonest, can the government afford to make them part ners in business? Is thoro not'a difference be tween an income tax, and a corporation tax? Ono compels tho person to draw on his bank ac count, the other on ,tho people and without limit. The more tho trusts make, tho more the government gets after paying tho high tariff on stockings and gloves. Won't these same people be compelled to pay the corporation trust Lax also? Ninety-nine per cent is the highest com mission over paid by anybody in the last 100 years. The farmers foot all the bills. ELIAS MARBLE. CRITICISMS OF DEMOCRATS Gainesville, Texas. In response to your invi tation for expressions of opinion from your read ers, on the course of the democratic senators and congressmen, who voted against free lum ber and iron, I beg leave to say that I think their course is absolutely inexcusable and their position' indefensible. The Insurgent republi cans are entitled to much praise and credit for the fight they have made, and that the demo cratic senators should not join forces with them is incomprehensible. The "standpat" republi cans are entitled to more respect than. -the demo crats who voted against free lumber, for tho reason that their platform does not demand a revision of the tariff downward, and the whole history of their party is such that nothing in that direction can be reasonably expected of them, but a vote against free lumber and iron, on the part of a democrat was a repudiation of the national platform, to say nothing of being a betrayal of the people's Interests. I condemn and deplore the action of the democrats, who voted contrary to their party's platform and the best interests of. their country. Yours truly, J. W. POWERS. POPULAR .GOVERNMENT Rock Rapids, Iowa. I wish to add my testi mony to the thousands Of others in commenda tion of Mr. Bryan's fair, dignified and intelli gent discussion of political questions. Tolstoy may be the moral Titan of Europe, but Bryan's teaching will mark an epoch in the morality of the human race. It seems to me that at no time in recent years has the outlook for demo cratic success appeared more favorable than at the. present time; with the almost positive as surance that the outlook will become brighter as the searchlight of investigation reveals the perfidy that republicanism has harnessed onto the consumer. "A condition that would incite revolution woro It not that the people htfre been brought into submission by easy stages and crafty methods, which necessitated tho sub sidizing of tho press, the main artery in the life of a frco country. This condition of industrial servitude is fast becoming moro intolerable than that of Kin? Georgev-and moro arbitrary and inhuman than that of tho negro alaven. A corporation has no soul to bo damned, no body to bo kicked, no eyes to soo tho misery it has wrought and no oars to hear tho appeals of want and suffering; dovold of conBdonco and shame, a monster of dopravlty according to tho othlcs of deconcy; keeping ono oyo on tho pearly gates of heaven and tho othor on tho flesh pots of Egypt. Yet tills barnacle on tho body politic hao boon nur tured and fostered and pampored in tho lender care of tho republican party till its tentacles have ponetratod every lino of Industry. Threo essentials aro necessary to tho existence of every civilized human boing: food, clothing and shelter, and whoever is responsible for un necessarily enhancing tho prlco of any ono of these Is a foe to humanity. Tho great need of tho hour is organization and tho dissemination of tho truth. Heretofore wo have had to fight tho entire republican party but now wo aro ably aidod in our strugglo for? the emancipation of mankind from tho bondage of greed by some of tho master minds who aro battling with their colleagues to save tho repub lican party from going down Into porfldlous oblivion. Tho present session of congress is tho great est schoor of politics that ever convonod In tho new world. Somo of tho most formidable strongholds of tho republican party havo boon hopelessly surrendered. Tho crusaders of tho 'full dinner pall" havo boon derided to scorn by tho reality of the empty market basket. Errors of judgment may bo defended but perfidy finds no apologist anywhere. When tho emissaries of King George tried to onforco tho collection of a tax on tea our ancestors turned Boston harbor into a teapot and King George's demands into ridicule but the- descendants of t.oso brave ancestors havo been paying a similar tax into the coffers of the American tea trust with scarcely a word of protest. Evidently an cestral ties do not affect posterity's judgment to any marked degree. Taxation without representor r tlon was tho plea df tho colonists tor a'avortrig their allegiance with the British crown, but how many representatives of the common people aro called into the councils of tho beef trust when it levies tribute on every man, woman and child in the United States. Spanish treachery In blowing up the Maino and sending its crew into eternity justified tho United States in declaring war against Spain. But how about the trail of death that tho trusts aro leaving by means of adulterated food'-' stuffs and prohibitive prices for necessaries. Was sudden death by means of a Spanish mlno a more aggravated offense than lingering death by means of embalmed beef? Spain expiated her offense on the altar of war but tho beef trust was moro fortunate. Tho slaughter of tho in nocents has kept Herod's name infamous for -twenty centuries, but how about the slaughter of tho innocents that Is going on every day ln tho mills and factories of our fair land; a con dition made necessary to enable the trust mag nates to revel In wealth and fill tho columns of the great dailies with scandalous sensations. A system that breeds millionaires and produces paupers can not be defended in the light of rea son. The theory of government of "the people for the people and by the people becomes a mockery when one man can write tho tariff laws over the nation's protest. Wealth and stealth seem more closely related In reality than in epigram when one reads the story of Standard Oil. Long life to Tho Commoner and Its gallant staff of defenders of our common rights. P. H. KONZEN. WHY NOT "LET WELL ENOUGH ALONE" Warren W. Edwin & Co., dealers In stocks and bonds at 54 Bread street, New York, don't think so. In their market letter of August 9 to their customers, they refer in this rather un complimentary, way to the Aldrlch-Taft tariff law: "We expdet to see the tariff agitation go on in tho next few years evin more actively than it has gone on in the past few years; the fact that tho prices of materials, food, shelter and clothing will rise rapidly partly as a result of new tariff trusts can not hut lead to renewed tariff discussion -when consumers' eyes, aro turned toward aid watching for these probable effects." The Public, Chicago;- i .1 I M J f