-" 0Ks-p&rij'y?iiF$8iirf
'" rfUV? ,
? t
4
The Commoner
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 31
u
I
It!"
I
o
rf
frrf
The Commoner,
ISSUED WEEKLY
Entered at tho PoBtofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
as second-class matter.
"Wll. 1,1AM J, ItllYAN
Kill tor nnrt 7'roprlotor
IliciiAui) U Mktcaij'i:
ARHoclnto Kdltnr
CllAllI.IU W. UllVAN
Piibllfllior
KilllorJnl lloomn nml miriness
Olllco 124-330 South 12th Htrcct
One Ycnr JM.00
Mix Montlin no
In Clubs of Flvo or
more, per year... .75
Three MondiN. ... . . -'
Klnglc Copy 03
Bamplo Copies Free.
Foreign Post, 5c Extra.
SUIISCltll'TIONS can bo sent direct to Tho Com
moner. They can also bo sent through ncwHpapors
which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through
local agents, whora sub-agents have been appoint
ed. All remittances should bo sent by postoulco
money order, express order, or by bank draft on
New York or Chicago. Do not send Individual
cheeks, stamps or money.
DISCONTINUANCES It Is found that a largo
majority of our subscribers prefer not to have their
subscriptions Interrupted and their flics broken In
ease they fall to remit beforo expiration. It Is
therefore assumed that contlnuanco Is desired un
less subscribers order discontinuance, olther when
subscribing or at any tlmo during tho year.
PKKSMNTATION COPIKS. Many persons sub
scribe for friends, Intending that tho paper shall
stop at tho end of tho year. If Instructions aro
given to that effect they will receive attention at
tho proper time.
RENEWALS Tho date on your wrapper shows
tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus
January 21, '10, means that payment has been re
colved to and Including tho last Issuo of January,
1910. Two weeks aro required after money has
been received before tho dato on wrapper can bo
changed.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Subscribers requesting
a chango of address must glvo old as well as new
addross.
ADVERTISING Rates will bo furnished upon
application.
Address all communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
ty option. You say it is unfair in tho county
but not in" the state? You dare not put your
argument to the test. When wo get county
option you will not ho willing to submit it on
what you call a fair basis. "Why? Because you
want to defeat county option with the argument
that any town can have prohibition if it wants
it. And why is it not fair to have saloons
everywhero when a county goes wot? Because
thero is nothing fair about the saloons. You
do not talk about fairness and justice when you
talk about the saloon. The saloon is an out
law and a nuisance, and it lives by sufferance
where it lives at all. You do not defend the
saloon as an institution, you tolerate it, if you
tolerate it at all, on the theory that if you tried
to abolish it you might get something worse.
And yet the saloons exert more influence in poli
tics than ten times as much capital invested in
necessary and helpful industries.
Are the farmers nor to have any voice in
deciding the saloon question? You can not
build a slaughter house in your block without
consulting the people around you, because you
can not confine the odors to your own land, and
yet you would establish a saloon and nil the
air with poison and then say to the people who
must breathe it and suffer from it, that they
have no right to protest. When you fight coun
ty option you ought to have argument to pre
sent, and no arguments, have yet been advanced
against it. The farmers have been taxed with
out representation; they have been taxed to
support the paupers turned out by the saloons.
I was interested tonight in tho indorsement
given to the eight o'clock closing law, I was on
the committee and I voted for that resolution.
I drew tLo platform in Lancaster county, which
indorsed the eight o'clock law. I am glad that
it passed by so large a majority, but I ask you
who voted for it, how could you support tho
eight o'clock closing law and then oppose county
option on tho ground that it interferes with
home rule? If you can make an argument
against county option on the ground that it in
terferes with personal liberty, with how much
greater force can you make an argument against
the eight o'clock la"w. Under county option,
we say to tho people in Douglas county that
they can decide for themselves whether they
want saloons or not, but under the eight o'clock
law, we Ktell them what time to go home. I be
lieve in eight o'clock closing, but I believe also
in county option, and I submit it is much easier
to defend county option than it is to defend
. eight o'clock closing,
You will find a puniber of these questions
that vwlll be interesting when you get beyond
Judge Oldham's stage, and commence to study
tlyis question in earnest. There aro people who
talk4 about this being a legitimate business; well,
it depends altogether on how you define legiti
mate. I recently met a farmer from a county
that instructed against county option; he said
a man came to him and asked him to sign a
'petition for a saloon, and ho refused on tho
ground that they did not treat the saloon keeper
fairly. Tho man asked him what ho meant and
the following dialogue ensued: "You want to
start a saloon in -this town?" "Yes." "To help
tho-town?" "Yes." "To improvo business?"
"Yes." "To increase trade?" "Yes." "Well
now if you are going to do all that good for
this town, I think they ought to give you a
subsidy instead pf putting a tax upon you." If
the saloon is such a good thing for a town, why
is it we treat it as wo do? Why do we require
tho would-be saloon keeper to secure a petition?
Why do wo tell him when to open and close,
how many chairs he can keep in the room, and
require him to give bond for all the damage
done? Can you not see some difference between
tho saloon and other lines of business, and does
not this difference justify different treatment?
County option lets tho county decido whether
to license the sale of liquor or not.
I will go a stop further and ask you to bear
in mind that if tho people who can have' saloons
under county option aro not satisfied with that,
but insist on forcing them upon counties that
do not want them, they will arouse resentment.
I know of nothing that will hasten prohibition
more than to have the liquor interests contend
that a county can not bo dry even when tho
people want it to be dry.
The iBsue is here and we must meet it. No
party is big enough to govern a state that is
not big enough to decide the questions when
they arise. This question must be decided, and
you must decide one way or another. Do not
deceive yourselves by thinking that you can
avoid a decision by silence. Do not deceive
yourselves by thinking that you can refer this
to the districts and escape responsibility. The
governor must act, and it makes a great deal
of difference whether we have the influence of
the state convention and the state organization
in favor of county option or against it. As one
who favors county option I am not willing to
have tho influence of our state ticket, of our
state committee, and of our entire campaign
thrown against every democrat who is a candi
date in a district on a county option platform.
I do not want every democrat who stands for
county option to be branded as undemocratic,
and as opposed to the policies of his party.
More than that, there is now only one way
to get this question out of politics and fight
our campaign on national issues. Our platform
says that the tide is turning toward democratic
victory, and that we can win on national issues.
If so then victory is within our reach. The re
publican party has acted; the populist party
has acted; if we act against them county option
is an issue. If we act with them it fs not an
issue. You can no longer insist that you want
to make this fight on national issues if you re
fuse to remove this question from the campaign.
You have a chance to make it on national is
sues. If instead of that you prefer to make it
on the liquor question then cease talking about
national issues. You aro to decide whether this
question is more important than these national
questions that will become paramount as soon
as this -question is disposed of, I shall put it
on a higher ground. I behove it is expedient
for the party to do this, that it promises victory
todo it, and I see no other path that gives so
much promise of victory.
But it is more than expedient it is right.
The democratic party can afford to do right
tho democratic party can afford' to take the
moral side of a moral question. The majority
report says it is a moral question and there is
but one side to a moral question. Which side
will you take? Will you put the democratic
party on the moral side, or will you put it on
the immoral side? Learn from the popularity
of the eight o'clock closing law the strength
of a moral issue. A majority of the demo
crats in both houses voted against it, and yet
by an overwhelming vote this convention com
mends tho governor for signing it.
I am interested in the democratic party I
owe to the democratic party all that I am, 'or
have, or hope to be. I expect to live many
years to fight its battles; I want to strengthen'
that party, and to bo strong it must keep time
with tho marching spirit of our times. You
must remember that temperance is growing in
this country and in the world. Since twenty
yeats ago, when we last acted upon the sub
ject, many states have declared for state ex
clusion of the liquor traffic, others have de
clared for county option, others have declared
for township option, but here stands Nebraska
chained to its law of twenty years ago, and the
people tfho passed it not only will not enforce
it, but disobey it at every opportunity. Let
Nebraska understand that the world is moving
forward and not backward. We must appeal to
tho young men with their ideals, their hopes and
their aspirations; we can not hope to win them
if wo take the liquor side of this question.
When a party takes a position on a new
question thero is a certain realignment. At
this time there will be less than usual if all
parties take the same stand. If it is made an
issue, wo shall lose some and gain some. No
one can tell whether our losses will exceed our
gains, but I am not willing to trade men who
think so much of the home that they are not
willing to march under the standard of tho
liquor interests for men who come simply for
a drink and will leave us when, tho barrel is
empty. If we drive out good democrats and
secure in return men drawn merely by appetite
men who put the love of liquor above prin
ciples of government, we shall be weaker when
the next moral question is to bo met. I appeal
to you, democrats, let us be strong now that
we may be stronger tomorrow to meet the issues
of tomorrow.
Pardon me for speaking at length, but I have
not had a chance to speak to you on this sub
ject before, and I wanted to present these
thoughts. They are on my mind and on my
heart.
Nebraska's democracy has been at the front
for nearly two score years. Look back over
that record, it is a record to be proud of. The
question of bimetallism came up and Nebraska
took the people's side, the side of justice; sho
was not afraid, and her courage made, her
prominent among the states. The trust ques
tion came up and Nebraska took the people's
side, the side of justice; and we have seen the
republicans of the nation forming upon the line
that we established. We took our position in
favor of railroad legisjation, tho people's side
and the side of justice, and we saw the demo
cratic party of the nation take that position.
We saw republicans adopting our policy. We
declared for the election of senators by the
people; we took the people's side, and the side
of justice, and wo have seen three national con
ventions of our party indorse it, and the re
publican candidate for president admit two
years ago that ho favored it himself. On the
income tax question, we took the people's side,
the side of justice, and we have seen a repub
lican president take the plank out of the demo
cratic platform and put it through the senate
Wo have seen a republican senator from our
own state embody this democratic plank in a
constitutional amendment, and we see that
amendment ratified by state after state. The
question of imperialism came up, .and wo took
tho people's side, the side of justice, and now
republicans admit that we can not forever hold
those people in bondage, that a colonial policy
can not forever be maintained. The guarantee
of bank deposits became an issue and we took
the people's side, the side of justice. We have
seen three states, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas
adopt the democratic idea and we have seen the
republican party of the nation forced to adopt
tho postal savings bank bill as an alternative-
and by adopting it, admit that after fifty years
of power they have been unable to make the
depositors secure, Tho question of campaign
contributions came up, and we took the people's
side, the side of justice, and we have seen Ne
braska lead off, adopting publicity before elec
tion; we have seen the republican house indorse
Nebraska's position. On the tariff question wo
took tho people's side, the side of justice, and
we have seen the republican party brought to
its knees by the insurgent revolt against the
high tariff policy. Cannonism came up, and we
took the people's side, the side of justice, and
there were enough insurgents in congress to
help us to somodify the rules as to put the
speaker off the committee on rules and increased
the size of the committee, so as to make it rep
resent tho entire country. Look at Nebraska's
standard! In every battle it has been on the
firing line. By your command I have borne it
most of tho time. I have been proud of you,
and proud of these things for which we have
fought. Look at that standard; there is no
stain upon it; it has never been trailed in tho
dust since you gave it to me. I shall not lower 1
it now. We never espoused a more righteous
cause than that which now appeals to us; wo
never" faced an enemy more deserving of attack
than that which is attempting to corrupt our
party and control our state. If a retreat is to
bo sounded, it mus.t be sounded by another. I
shall not do it, never, never, never!
n
a
i
l r .,., MUaftm
fiAt.wAlw
