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than Governor Wilson, Champ Clark or Polk.
'While Governor Wilson today is a radical
of the radicals in contrast to his former opinions,
as expressed in his books, I believe he represents
generally the feeling of the majority of voters in
the democratic party and in the whole country.
"What Bryan wants or says need not decide
the issue, except for Mr Bryan as an individual.
The Wilson following by no means is subject
to Mr. Bryan's desires, but it is a powerful
political sentiment that can not be ignored by
a few self-constituted bosses in Michigan or any
where else."
LETTERS TO CONGRESSMEN
C. G. Bassler, Attorney at Law. Lancaster,
Pa., July 1, 1911. Hon. W. J. Bryan, Lincoln,
Neb. Dear Sir: Enclosed you will find the copy
of a letter I wrote to O. C. Underwood, chairman
of the committee of ways and means, of the
house of representatives. Wo have no demo
cratic representative in our district so I thought
I would send it to Mr. Underwood. Respect
fully yours, C. G. BASSLER.
C. G. Bassler, Attorney at Law. Lancaster,
Pa., July 1, 1911. Hon. O. W. Underwood,
Member of House of Representatives, Washing
ton, D. C. Dear Sir: I have spoken to a num
ber of democrats in this vicinity in regard to
the tariff on raw wool, and to a man they are in
favor of free wool. It seems a pity that no other
method of raising revenue can be devised save
putting a tax on one of the very necessities of
every man, woman and child in the land, and
in a manner that the poor man with a family,
be it large or small, may pay more than the
rich man, for the rich man can clothe himself
just as cheaply as the poor man. But you can
always find argument for or against any propo
sition that is advanced. Some years ago when
it was proposed to Increase the internal revenue
of tobacco, James G. Blaine, that eminent states
man or demagogue, take-whichever appellation
you choose, said that tobacco is as much a
necessity as. tea or coffee, because so many use
tobacco. And all his followers took up the same
argument and said it was so whether they be
lieved it or not, and I suppose some really be
lieved it, because Jim Blaine said so. Reasoning
on the same lino you might say that the saloon
was as much of a necessity as the grocery store
because it is so freely patronized.
Another product of our protective system, I
do not recollect whether or not, it was Mark
Hanna or Borne other pillar of our trust-made
tariff, made the remark that our workingmen
don't want cheap coats. That they want to
pay high prices for their woolen clothing; and
it became the hue and cry in the campaign, (I
am not sure, but I think it was in 1900), of
the republican spellbinders, and they received
their applause.
Now I am so constituted, 'and I know that
every other reasonable being Is the same, that
I like to buy my coats, and other clothes as
cheaply as I possibly can, and therefore I am
in Javor of free wool, and believe that you
fellows down at Washington can find other
means of raising revenue, if it is necessary, than
to tax our clothes which are so essential to keep
us warm during our cold winters. Yours truly,
C. G. BASSLER.
Creighton, Neb., July 7. Hon. Mr. Under
wood, Member of Congress, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: My impression since last November
election was that our democratic congress would
make laws that the whole people, might partake
of the spread. Disappointed again, after march
ing in the democratic column for forty-five
years. Let me say, as an illustration how pro
tection and tariff would work in Nebraska if our
legislature enjoyed the same powers as the
United States congress. Suppose I discovered
coal on my farm that would supply half the
wants of the Btate, and to protect this infant
industry my legislature, for they would be work
ing for me, placed a tariff for my benefit of
50c a ton on all coal shipped into the state, my
legislature and I would be the only guests at
this spread. Say I owned all the sheep in Ne
braska and the wool made in cloth would sup
ply half the Nebraska people's wants. The legis
lature to protect the oldest known industry, puts
a tariff for my benefit of 40c a pound on all
wool shipped into the state to make clothing for
the remaining half of the people. The spread
here is narrowed down to the sheep owner,
manufacturer and law maker. It was said of
the late Hon. John Finnerty while stumping for
Harrison that it was a question with him, which
was raw, the recently shorn sheep or the wool?
If he added his auditors and pronounced them
The Commoner.
raw chumps, he would have done a groat good
for his country. Being a followor of William
Jennings Bryan, whose democracy stands for
equal opportunity for all the people, I can not
square myself to give that lusty hurrah that I
would wish for our present democratic congress.
Respectfully, FRANK CARROLL, SR.
Muscatine, la., July 1, 1911. Hon. I. S.
Pepper, Washington, D. C. Dear Sir: You are
advocating twenty per cent duty on wool, on
the theory of revonue.
Raw silk and raw rubber aro not subject to
duty under present tariff law. It would not
injure your constituents if that twenty per cent
was collected on above named articles.
Wo agree that revenue is needed for the ex
penses of government.
But free wool is the democratic position. The
tariff on wool has not increased the price of
raw wool In this nation.
If wool was put on the free list the consumer
could purchase cheaper woolen clothing.
The people are In need of cheaper woolen
clothing for health and comfort. This tax on
wool benefits only the trusts.
The American Woolen company will derive a
large benefit from this twenty per cent tax.
The American Woolen company has a capital of
sixty-five million dollars, they have thirty plants
and control sixty per cent of sales in this nation. .
I quote the following from the democratic
platform, 1908: "Articles entering Into compe
tition with trust controlled products, should be
placed on the free list."
Abraham Lincoln held that a platform waB
binding. Ho made use of the following lan
guage In his first Inaugural address: "And more
than this, they placed in the platform for my
acceptance, as a law to themselves and to mo."
Democrats in past times, believed in the bind
ing force of platforms.
I voted for you at election of 1910, and helped
elect you to congress from this Second district.
I am, respectfully yours, JOHN M. O'BRIEN.
BRYAN HAS NOT BEEN BLIND
St. Louis Globe-Democrat: Mr. Bryan is
sometimes right. Whenever he Is, the republi
can party is with him. It is he who has declared,
and on many more than one occasion, that all
the progressive legislation of the last ten years
represents ideas and principles advocated by him
and adopted by republicans. The republican
party Is a great organization of American citi
zens organized to promote the public welfare
as the majority of republicans see it, and it is
always strong and virile enough to make Its
majority opinion prevail in its work, something
of which the democratic party has not, for a
generation, been capable.
Having told the country what the republican
party can do with a good thing, Mr. Bryan is
now telling it what the democratic party can't
do with anything. Having often admitted that
the republicans have taken up his best ideas and
given them the force of laws, ho is telling, in
The Commoner, a story of democratic treachery,
fraud, falsehood and hypocrisy, concerning which
he has maintained a long silence. Readers of
the Globe-Democrat were told this history in
detail during the years when democratic head
quarters were maintained all of the time in
Chicago, and when gumshoe intrigue was the
keynote of all democratic party work. Mr. Bryan
was often misled by his secret enemies. His
efforts to unite the party, and to conciliate all
factions, were at times pathetic In the tenacity
with which ho clung to Individuals unworthy of
his support, while not losing hold of anything
he considered to be a vital principle of honest
action with the people. His attitude, during all
of those trying years, increased the hold he had
upon the admiration of men finding themselves
forced to differ with him In methods.
The question was asked, in a meeting of such
men: "Is it possible he doesn't see?" That
question is answered, for the first time, in The
Commoner. The advance extracts wired out of
Lincoln were brief, but they glow with the long
restrained wrath of a man who has seen for
years, and suffered in silence. "He has made
three campaigns," says The Commoner, "and
in every one of them he has had to meet treach
ery within the jparty," "He has had
to conduct his campaigns through committee
men, some of whom were In league with the
opposition and In secret correspondence with the
enemy." "He has seen the party
platform attacked, sometimes openly and some
times by innuendo, by those pretending to sup
port the ticket." "He has had to
oppose distinguished members of his own party
attempting to insert weasel words in the plat-
form and mako it ambiguous and uncertain. He
has had to contend with timid politicians who
professed friendship out of fear of their con
stituents and only so long as that proton do d
friendship would help thorn." What a terrific
Indictment of a party, and as truo as terrific. It
is in such bold vein, that we rogrot ho should
have fallen, at tho last, into tho empty platitude
of saying, "But tho heart of tho party Is sound."
That could havo gone without saying. The
heart of all parties is sound. But, tho demo
cratic party Is hopeless, because, wbilo not
afflicted with heart disease, It is paralyzed in
all of Its limbs. Tho sinister motives and In
fluences which Mr. Bryan so powerfully de
scribes comblno to mako It Inconclusive, inco
herent, impotent. It breathes, but It can not
move. Wo would invite Mr. Bryan to como
ovor to the republicans, If wo did not know that
ho would refuse, and were not suro that any
good thing ho may horeaftor propose wo can
tako ovor and use, and establish, against the
party to which he belongs.
MAD
Tho editor of the Houston (Texas) Post Is
mad that's very evident. Ho is offended just
now because The Commoner said that as a rule
tho Post, In politics, serves corporation mastors.
In a vain effort to read Its title clear as a
democratic newspaper tho Post says that It sup
ported Mr. Bryan three times for president. Of
course It did. It was necessary for it to do so
in order to retain tho support of Texas demo
crats. But among a considerable number of Texas
democrats tho Post was always under suspicion
Its editorial page, day after day and before the
ticket has boon named and tho platform framod,
is better evidence as to its political character
than tho support it pretends to give to tho
ticket nominated by a party upon whose mem
bers It depends for support
After printing a somewhat lengthy editorial
of defense the Post editor says: "So, after all,
wo are rather amused at tho snarls of Tho Com
moner, as much as wo pity its intolerance.'
But tho editor of the Post is not amused at all.
Ho Is mad and that's very evident.
ThePost editor knows the identltyot his paper's
masters and it is inconceivable that a man of
such marked ability should act gracefully whllo
wearing a corporation yoke. Bccauso the Post
editor is a talented man and a conscientious
one ho has felt all the more keenly Tho Com
moner's reference to a fact doubtless all too
patent to tho Post editor himself.
DISTRUSTING THE SACRED STANDARD
The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial en
titled, "The Future Value of Gold" describes tho
wave of high prices which it says "is beginning
to be felt at the very confines of civilization,"
and adds: "Enhanced prices havo induced tho
Chinese government to demonetize Its copper
'cash' and sell it for old metal; while the same
cause has Impelled the British government to
substitute nickel and silver coins for the cowry
shell money hitherto employed in its protec
torate of Northern Nigeria. No cause, general
or universal enough in ita influence to affect
these and the numerous other localities from
which similar official reports havo been pub
lished, has been suggested, except the vast supplies-
of gold which have of late years been
poured out of South Africa, Russia, Alaska and
tho mining states west of the Mississippi valley.
Should the advance of priceg continue, it will
scarcely fall to awaken some distrust in tho
future purchasing power of the metal in which
now all our obligations are couched."
It Is an approach to treason for the Wall
Street Journal to 'intimate that there could be
such a thing as distrust of tho sacred metal in
which not only "all our obligations aro couched,"
but in which national honor itself is Idealized
and expressed.
0
APPRECIATED IN MONTANA
K. O. Slette, Montana Herewith find
my check for $3.00 which credit as fol
lows named subscribers each for two
yeaTs for $1.00. Now is the time for all
good democrats to boost The Commoner,
it should be read by at least sixty per
cent of the voters, as It is about the only
source we have to get reliable informa
tion. 0
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