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The Commoner
WILLIAM J. .BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 10, NO. 5
Lincoln, Nebraska, February 11, 1910
Wlole Number 473
Cannon Not Alone
A Taft elector from Ohio, Mr. E. M. Higgins,
returned from a visit to Washington a few days
ago and gave his impressions to tho Ohio State
Journal as follows:
"I have seen in the concrete in Washington
"what I have always known in the abstract, and
that is Cannonism and Aldrichism in control of
the legislative machinery of the national gov
ernment, directing tho party's policy, suppres
sing reformative measures, blocking the presi
dent in his program, insolent with power, defy
ing public opinion, celebrating their successful
exploitation of the people and planning further
to serve the special interests of which Cannonism
and Aldrichism are the agents. I am a repub
lican. All these evils are done in the name of
the republican party. If these forces of cor
ruption and deplorable political methods are
not dislodged the republican party will collapse
by the very weight of them. The issue is be
coming more a1 moral than a political one."
Referring to this interview, the Kansas City
Times, a republican paper, says:
' "All of which means, in a word, that if the
republican party is to be saved it is to be saved,
by the insurgents, whom Speaker Cannon has
been trying to read out of the organization."
But why lay it all onto Mr. Cannon? What
about Mr. Taft? Is he not trying to drive the
insurgents out of the republican party? Is it
not about time that republicans recognize that
Aldrichism and Cannonism is as thoroughly en
trenched in the' White' House as it is-.in the capi
tal building?
oy
- . .v
A STERN. REMINDER
Mr. Roosevelt's suit against the New York
World and Indianapolis News has. been dis
missed by the federal court at New York. It
was a mistake to begin these 'proceedings and
the fact that the president of the United States
seriously undertook to hold newspapers to account-
for the criticisms of individuals, seeking
to establish that there is such a thing as lese
majeste in this country, must have been re
gretted by thoughtful men in all political
parties. The Philadelphia Public Ledger" puts
it well when, in approving the dismissal of these
proceedings, it says:
"Every citizen has access to the courts; the
government can not stretch out its imperial hand
and distort a plea of personal libel to the ar
bitrary suppression of public criticism. The de
cision is most important, not merely as it con
cerns the liberty of the presst but as a reminder
to those- in authority that ours is a government
of law."
WHY NOT LAFOLLETTE?
A Washington dispatch carried by the As
sociated Press says: "President Taft read in
the papers today that the senate was marking
time while the house is struggling with the va
rious appropriation bills. So he sent for Sen-'
CONTENTS
CANNON NOT ALONE
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
REPUBLICAN PROSPERITY ITEM
IN OLD VIRGINIA
ADDRESSED TO BRITONS BUT VALUABLE
TO AMERICANS
WHERE THE OLD SHIP IS LEAKING
PRACTICAL TARIFF TALKS
HOW THE FARMER PROSPERS
TIMELY QUOTATIONS
A YOUNG GIRL'S LESSON
CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF -THE WEEK ,
WASHINGTON NEWS
LINCOLN'S "PURPLE PATCHES"
BIGGER ISSUES THAN PERSONALITIES
" If the cost of living continues to in- ,
crease, the masses of tho people will
awaken to the truth, already realized by
a few leaders that there is a vital rela-
tion between legislation and life, and -
that the quarrels' between polit'ical lead-
ers of the Aldrich-Cannon typo, and
. those who would see them succeeded by
, others, involve Issues bigger than per-
sonalities. Voter Magazine, Chicago.
.
ators Penrose of" Pennsylvania, Crane of Massa
chusetts and Carter of Montana and asked why
it would not be a good thing for the senate to
"get busy" on some of the measures he had
recommended. Senator Aldrich was not includ
ed in the summons, he being absent from the.
city."
Mr. Aldrich was out of the city otherwise he
would have been included. But Messrs. Pen
rose, Crane and Carter are good enough "re
formers" in this year of 1910.
How does it happen that Mr. Taft's political
conferences are held with such men as Aldrich,
Penrose, Crane and Carter?
If he is the reformer that some of our repub
lican friends would have it appear, why do wo
never hear that he is in consultation with Sen
ator LaFollette?
STOP THAT EXTRAVAGANCE
The Spokane Spokesman-Review, republican,
has an explanation for tho increased coBt of liv
ing. It says: "Some part of the increased cost
of living is due to higher prices of necessaries,
but personal indulgence and extravagant desires
are the chief factors."
This will bo interesting reading to the con
siderable number of people who have stopped
eating meat by way of protest against trust im
position and to the even larger number of people
who have curtailed their supply of moat and
of other foods because of inability 'to pay the
high prices fixed by tho men who have secured
a' monopoly upon the necessaries of life. "Per
sonal indulgence and extravagant desires are the
chief factors" says this republican organ. Is
it possible that the American people are so
simple as some of the arguments addressed to
them by republican editors would indicate?
REPUBLICAN PARTY DOCTRINE
Referring to the statement attributed to
President Taft that New Mexico and Arizona
must submit their new constitutions for the ap
proval of congress before they are admitted to
the union, the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal, republi
can, says:
"If the territories are competent for statehood
they are competent to draft their own consti
tutions, without further limitations than are
imposed by the fundamental law of the re
public." The Journal must remember, however, that
the present day republican party doctrine is:
"Government without the consent of the gov
erned" which, in the case of proposed states or
AviRHner colonies, means tho right to carefully
scrutinize all constitutions and statutes that
Tnitrhf In mv wav interfere with snejiifflJikin-
"o " " JMfl
terests.
SDBftJ
MORE PEOPLE THAT'S EASY
Professor Milton Whitney of the United States
department of agriculture has an explanation for
the high cost of living. He says: "People
are eating far more now than they did fifty
years ago." And in his opinion that goes a long
way to explain the Increase in cost. Of course
"people are eating far 'more now than they did
fifty years ago," because there aTe more people.
But there are a whole lot of people who are
not eating quite so much today as they were
during the summer of 1908 while the republi
can party was trying to secure an extension in
its lease of power.
Abraham Lincoln
-Tomorrow will be the one hundred and first
anniversary of tho birth of Abraham Lincoln.
American citizens everywhere might, with great
profit to themselves and. to their country, spend
a few hours February-12, 1910, in reading some
of the advice which this man of tho people gave
to. his countrymen.
"Soberly," said Abraham Lincoln in 1859, "it
is now no child's play to save tho principles of
Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation."
In this year of 1910, fifty-one years after
Abraham Lincoln made this ptatement, it is now
"no child's play" to save- the principles of Jef
ferson from total overthrow in this -nation.
Mr. Lincoln was not a man of one idea. His
thoughts wero not entirely centered upon tho
slavery question. 'lie knew that, aside from tho
institution of slavery, there were other deep
seated problems with which tho people of a re
public must grapple and his writings and speech
es are full of statements which have direct bear
ing upon tho great contest in which tho Amer
ican people are now engaged a contest wherein
it is to be determined whether a plutocracy or
the people Bhall govern in this great republic.
"I hold," said Mr. Lincoln, "If tho Almighty
had ever made a set of men that should do all
the eating and none of the work, he would havo
made them with mouths only and no hands;
and if he had ever made another class that ho
intended should do all tho work, and none of
the eating, he would have made them without
mouths and with all hands. But inasmuch as
he has chosen to make men in that way, if
anything is proved It is that those hands and
mouths are to be co-operative through life and
nfat to be interfered with. That they are to
go forth and improve their conditions, as I havo
been trying to illustrate, Is the Inherent right
given to mankind directly by the Maker."
Many of the things written and said by Mr.
Lincoln seem to havo been written for this
very time. It would be well if every American
citizen could ponder upon these utterances and
profit by them. On one occasion ho said:
"The resources, advantages and powers of the
American people are very great, and they havo
consequently succeeded to equally great respon
sibilities. It seems to havo devolved upon them
to test whether a government established on tho
principles of human freedom can be maintained
against an effort to build one upon the exclusive
foundation of human bondage."
No statement made by Mr. Lincoln is more
' appropriate today than his definition of liberty.
He said:
"The world is in want of a good definition of
the word liberty. We all declare ourselves to
be for liberty; but we do not all mean the same
thing. Some mean that a man can do as he
pleases with himself and his property. With
others it means that some, men' can do as they
please with other men and other men's labor.
Each of these things is called liberty, although
they are entirely different. To give an illustra
tion: A shepherd drives a wolf from the throat
of-his sheep when attacked by him, and the
sheep, of course thanks the shepherd for the
preservation of his life; but the wolf denounces
him as despoiling the wolf of his liberty; espe
cially if it be a black sheep."
On another occasion ho declared: "I have
never had a - feeling, politically, that did not
spring from the sentiments embodied in the
Declaration of Independence." On another oc
casion he rebuked those who, in the discussion
of public questions, gave no concern whatever
to the rights .of men. He said:
"Why this deliberate pressing out of view
the rights of men and the authority of tho peo
ple? This Is essentially a, people's contest. On
the side of the union, it is a' struggle for main
taining in the world that form and substance
of government vhose leading object Is to elevate
the condition of man; to lift artificial weights
from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable
pursuits to, all; to afford all an unfettered start
and a fair chance in the race of life."
He pleaded for the preservation of the con-
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