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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1910)
"r?.Tf '"vwi ryng?w a. The Commoner. . V T"" ' i H w Roosevelt and Bryan Parallel Tho democrat who has, for fourteen years, kopt up the fight for progressive democracy will ho interested In comparing the language em ployed hy Mr. Roosevelt at Osawatomie, Kan., ' August 31, with democratic speeches and plat forms. Any number of democratic speeches -would furnish parallels, hut as Mr. Bryan has boon tho candidate In three of tho campaigns it will not be unfair to quote from the platforms , on which ho ran and from some of his speeches. Tho subject was tho corporation in politics. Mr. Roosevelt says: "We must drive tho spe cial interests out of politics. That is ono of our tasks today. The constitution guaran tees protection to property and wo must mako that promiso good. But it does not give tho right of suffrage to any corporation." Tho democratic national platform of. 1900 con tained this plank: "Corporations should bo protected in all their rights and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations to interfere with the public af fairs of the people or control the sovereignty which creates them, should bo forbidden under such penalties as will mako such attempts im possible." Mr. Roosevelt said: "Of that generation .of xnon, to whom we owo so much, the man to whom wo owo the most is, of course, Lincoln. Part of our debt to him is becauso he forecast our present struggle and saw the-way out. He Baid: 'I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist In ameliorating mankind.' And again, 'Labor is prior and independent of capi tal; capital is only tho fruit of labor and could never have existed but for labor. Labor is tho superior of capital and deserves much tho higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other lights. Nor should this lead to n, war upon tho owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build ono for hiniself, thus by oxample showing that his own shall be safo from violenco when built.' It seems to mo that in these words Lincoln took substantially tho attitude that wo ought to take; he showed tho proper Bense of proportion in his relative estimates of capital and labor, of human rights and property rights. Wo can not afford weakly to blind our selves to the actual conflict which faces us today. ho issue is joined and we must fight or fall." That has been the contention of democrats, particularly during and since 1896. In an ar ticle printed in the Saturday Evening Post in 1905 Mr. Bryan said: "Every attempt to legis late in tho interests of tho laboring men Is met with tho declaration that' it is an interference with tho rights of properly. How would prop erty he created but for labor, and who will say that tho man who furnishes tho capital should bo permitted to decide without appeal the condi tions upon which property "shall bo created by those who labor for him?" Mr. Roosevolt said: "In every wise struggle for human betterment ono of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to 'achieve in larger measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from harbarism to civilization, and through it peoples press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. Ono of tho chief factors in prog ress is the destruction of special privilege. Tho essence of any struggle for healthy liberty haB always been and must always he to take from some ono man or claBs of men tho right to cn jpy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. At many stages in tho ad vance of humanity this conflict between tho men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they, possess is tho central condition of progress. In our day it appears aB tho strugglo of freemen to gain, and hold the right of self-government as against tho special Interests, who twist tho methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. At every stage and under all circumstances tho essence of the strug gle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege and givo to the life and citizonship of every in dividual tho highest possible value both to him self and to tho commonwealth."' In his letter of acceptance in 1896 Mr. Bryan said: "Our institutions rest upon the proposi tion that all men, being created equal, are en- l titled to equal consideration at the hands of the government. Because all men are created equal it follows that no citizen has a natural right to injure any other citizen. Tho main purpose of government being to protect all citi zens in the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, this purpose must lead the government, first to avoid acts of affirmative injustice, and, second, to restrain each citizen from trespassing upon the rights of any other citizen. A democratic form of government is conducive to the highest civilization becauso it opens before each individual the greatest oppor tunities for development, and stimulates to the highest endeavor by insuring to each tho full enjoyment of all the rewarda of toil except such contribution as Js necessary to support the gov ernment which protects him." Mr. Roosevelt said: "The true friend of property, tho true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of tho commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man's making shall be the ser vant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of tho United 'States must effec tively control tho mighty commercial forces which they have themselves called into being." In his speech of acceptance, delivered at In dianapolis in 1900, Mr. Bryan said: "In 1859 Lincoln said that tho republican party believed in tho man and the dollar, but that in case of conflict it believed in the man before the dollar. This is the proper relation which should exist between the two. Man, the handiwork of God, comes first; money, tho handiwork of man, is Of inferior importance. Man is the master, money the servant, but upon all- important questions today republican legislation tends to make mon ey the master and man the servant." Writing in the Saturday Evening Post in 1905 Mr. Bryan said: "While the issue between the ' man and tho dollar seems to be an acute one, yet in the last analysis there can be no issue between human rights and property rights, for nothing more surely undermines property rights than a disregard for human rights, and nothing brings greater security to property than a scrupulous regard for the natural rights of each human being. But we must always remember that human rights are paramount. In fact. everything depends upon the establishment of tho true relation between the individual and dull, inanimate property. The house and its foundation are indissolubly connected, and we can not think of one without the other. So . human rights and property rights are indissolu bly connected. We can not think of the one without the other, as in the building of a house, wo must think of tho foundation first and of the house as a superstructure, so in thinking of society we must necessarily think of human rights first and of property rights as resting upon human rights. He who talks of property -rights as if they could exist without a' regard for human rights, speaks as foolishly as one who would attempt to build a house without con sidering the foundation upon which it is to stand." Mr. Roosevelt said: "We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know beyond pre-adventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for politi cal purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced." Mr. Roosevelt also said: "It is particularly important that all moneys received or expended for campaign purposes should be publicly ac counted for not only after election but before 'election as well." The democratic national platform for 1908 said. "We demand federal legislation termin ating the partnership which has existed between corporations of the country and the republican party under the expressed or implied agreement that in return for the contribution of great sums of money wherewith to purchase elections, they should be allowed to continue substantially un molested in their efforts to encroach upon the rights of the people Any reasonable doubt as to tho existence of this relation has been for ever dispelled hy the sworn testimony of wit nesses examined in the insurance investigation in New York, and the open admission unchal lenged by tho republican national committee of a single individual, that he himself, at the' personal request of the republican candidate for- tho presidency, raised over a quarter of a million of dollars to bo used in a Blngle stato during the closing hours of tho last campaign. VOLUME 10, NUMBER 3 In order that this practice shall be stopped for all time, we demand the passage of a statute punishing with imprisonment any officer of a corporation who shall either contribute on be half of, or consent to the contribution by a cor poration of any money or thing of value to bo used in furthering the election of a president or vice president of the United States or of anv member of tho Congress thereof. "Wo denounce the action of tho republican party having complete control of the federal gov ernment, for its failure to pass the bill, intro duced in the last congress, to compel the publi cation of the names of contributors and tho amounts contributed toward campaign funds and point to the evidence of their insincerity, -when they sought by an absolutely irrelevant and im possible amendment to defeat the passage of the bill. As a further evidence of their intention to conduct their campaign in the coming con test with vast sums of money wrested from favor-seeking corporations, we call attention to the fact that the recent republican national con vention at Chicago Tefused, when tho issue was presented to it, to declare against such practices. "We pledge the democratic party to the en actment of a law prohibiting any corporation from contributing to a campaign fund and any individual from contributing 'an amount above a reasonable minimum and providing for tho publication before election of all. such contribu tions above a reasonable minimum." .Mr. Roosevelt said: "We have come to recognizo that franchises should never be grant ed except for a limited time, and never without proper provision for compensation to the public. It is my personal belief that the same kind and degree of control and supervision which should ba exercised over public service corporations should be extended also to combinations which control necessaries of life, such as meat, oil and coal, or which deal in them on an important scale." In 1906 Mr. Bryan wrote for The Commoner an editorial protesting against perpetual fran- chises in the Philippines, saying among other things: "No generation has a moral right to mortgage posterity unless a permanent improve- ment is created equal in value to the incum brance. Who will calculate the value of a per petual franchise? The future is so uncertain that the purchaser of .a franchise would not pay any more for a perpetual franchise than ho yould for one running fifty or a hundred years." Mr. Roosevelt said: "It has become entire ly clear that wo must have government super . vision of" the capitalization not only of public service corporations, including particularly railways, but of all corporations doing an inter state business. I do not wisn to see the nation forced into ownership of the railways if it can possibly be avoided, and the only alternative is thoroughgoing and effective regulation which shall bo based on a full knowledge of all tho facts, including a physical valuation of the property. This physical valuation is not needed or at least is very rarely needed for fixing rates, but it is needed as the basis of honest capitali zation." The democratic national platform for 190.8 contained this plank: "We favor the efficient supervision and rate regulation of railroads en gaged in interstate commerce. k To this end we recommend the valuation of railroads by the in terstate commerce commission, such valuation to take into consideration the physical value of the property, the original cost of production and all elements of value that will render the valuation made fair and just." Mr. "Roosevelt, snirtr "T helieve flint, the offi cers and especially the directors of corporations should be held personally responsible when any corporation breaks the law." The democratic national platform for 1908 said: "A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. We therefore, favor the vigorous reform of the criminal law against guilty trust magnates and officials, and demand tho enact ment of such additional legislation as may bo necessary to make it impossible for" a private monopoly to exist in the United States." In an address delivered in Chicago Mr. Bryan said: "They tell you that I will not enforce the law. My friends, the fear of these people is not that I will refuse to enforce the law; their fear is that I will enforce the law. They know that I entertain old-fashioned ideas upon this subject, and that, according to my ideas, the big criminals should wear striped clothes as well as the little criminals. I want -to say to you that I believe in enforcing the lav against all classes of society; and those who believe in that policy are better friends of the government than Uhoso who would make scapegoats of little crim inals and then let the big ones run at large to v?. 'J w V X .-k. V JJtl -hfi " i ti.2t3l4A'li7x'Jlfi