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The Commoner,
As a Progressive Republican Sees
The fight for and against the inveutigation of
the, money truut 1h dmicrlbed by Angus McSweon,
Washington correspondent for the Philadelphia
North American in the following dispatch to his
newspaper:
If the public Interest can bo safeguarded
against treachery ny the democratic leaders of
the botiso of representatives and against a pro
gram of attempted deception, the purpose of
which will bo to persuade the public that some
thing baa been done in its behalf, when the
service baa boon rendered only to special privi
lege, there may be an investigation of the cen
tralized control of money and credit now known
as the money trust, and which constitutes the
greatest menace to the welfare of the country
im a whole.
With a view to doing all ho can to erect the
safeguards recognized as necessary, Chairman
Henry, of the rules committee of the house, vho,
la fighting for the Investigation, presented a
new resolution. It provides for the election of
a special committee of seven to investigate the
money trust as proposed by the Lindbergh,
resolution, and to take charge of all other pro
posed investigations now under consideration.
It was announced that Floor Leader ,Under
wood and tho other reactionaries are obvious
that tho fight must still come over the selection
of tho Investigating committee, and that Its
character will indicate whether anything of Im
portance or value to the public may he expected.
Henry's resolution, while It seems to open the
way to some jugglery in the selection of an in
vestigating committee, Is Intended to head off a
plan for the complete stifling of the investiga
tion by Underwood and his followers.
This plan was to Intrust any Investigation
which might be ordered by the house to the com
mittee on banking and currency, of which Pujo,
of Louisiana, Is the chairman. . There is not In
the entire list of house committees one so ab
solutely reactionary and special-privilege-controlled
as this.
Most of the older members of the committee
were appointed by .Cannon and were named by
him to pack the committee against former
Chairman Fowler and to place it in line with all
tho schemes of public exploitation which for
mer Senator Aid rich and the Morgan-Rockefeller
combination, which he represents, wished to
force through the congress.
Vreeland, appointed chairman of the Cannon
packed committee, and now vice chairman of the
Aldrlch packed monetary commission, Is the
leading republican member. Pujo and the two
other leading democrats are also members of
the Aldrlch commission and signed the Aldrlch
consolidated banking scheme.
To refer a resolution affecting the direct in
terests of great and powerful financial combina
tions to the present banking and currency com
mittee of the house would be like referring them
to former Senator Aldrlch, or Cannon, or to any
one of the half dozen democratic house mem
bers like Underwood, or Littleton of New York
who are so obviously seeking to serve those in
terests for purposes of their own.
This is another part of the fight that is still
to come, for it will he urged seriously by
Underwood, or some of those who express his
view that any investigation of the money trust
must be referred to the banking and currency
committee.
It was for this reason that Henry proposed In
a special resolution the election of a special
committee, and Included In the scope of the
inquiry which he suggests should be concluded
by that committee, other subjects than control
of money and credit, in order that it can not
be urged that the banking and currency com
mittee should have jurisdiction over the whole
As the situation stands now there is everv
reason to believe that some sort of an Insti
gation of the money trust will be ord red
This much even the reactionary leaders will
probably erfneede is necessary to silence nubile
clamor and to prevent suspicion from becSmin
conviction that the house majority i , TiS?
vient to the Morgan-Rockefeller nterest T But
here is very little encouragement for the beHe
that a serious public-snlrltprf tnr.. yeuei
thorough inquiry v.mfjhncl l? d
desXeTirdtheTrde& " able,
mand for the Invention0 neywillho
ever be strong enough in all probabUitv fA hW'
a sufficient number of the democrats oVVeT-
vestigating committee to make it virtually a
packed committee.
For if the committee la to consist of seven
men, three of these will be republicans named by
Cannon and Mann to serve the trust and not the
public, so that if Underwood and Co. can
name but one democrat, who will be equally
subservient, they will have turned the trick in
favor of Wall street, and Underwood will have
earned all the support of his presidential am
bitions which Wall street has promised him.
It was Underwood who wanted an understand
ing established with the republicans which
would make it necessary that the democrats
should accept republican caucus elections to all
committees, and it was Underwood who led the
democrats in their support of Campbell, of
Kansas, for the expressed purpose of making
this agreement effective. It is this agreement
which makes it possible to pack every com
mittee in the house of representatives.
Representative Martin W Littleton, a tory
member of the committee, declared such an in
vestigation would have the effect of further
identifying the democratic party with a "blind
and destructive policy."
THE CAMPAIGN IN OHIO IN 1912
The following editorial appeared in the Cin
cinnati Enquirer: There should exist no desire
upon the part of any democrat in Ohio to
underestimate the results of the election of 1910
throughout the union, and especially not that
held in his own state.
Yet it would be a gross folly and self-deception
to attach undue importance to the victory
obtained by the party that year in this state.
We had in that contest ample evidence of the
demoralized and disorganized condition of the
republican party, but our own vote, 75,000
short of the vote polled for the same candidate
for the same office two years before, was no evi
dence of his power as a vote-getter, notwith
standing that much misunderstood 100,000 plu
rality. The democrats of Ohio in every ward, town
ship, city, county and congressional district in
this state are aware of the state and local in
fluences that entered into that campaign and
that produced the results.
They know they were not national in their
character and that In the next election the
democratic party will be contesting upon issues
far removed from those that divided the opposi
tion in the 1910 campaign.
Every democrat knows also that the settling
or unsettling, as the case may be, of the state
Issues Involved in the campaign of 1910 has
drastically weakened in this state the leading
candidate of that campaign.
Disappointments as to expected action upon
various measures, resentments as to unexpected
action as to others, grievances, real or tolglned
all the numerous 'causes that sap political
strength and bring political weakness have been
n operation for three years in this state. There
is no reason to doubt that the 75,000 votes of
shortage in 1910 might be five times that short
age under existing conditions in a na ional con
test with a candidate upon whom i these lncn?
disappointments, resentments and gdevancS
would center, in addition to the opposUion UDon
his record and associations in nationa issued i
supreme importance and interest to the people
The coming campaign Is to be a contest for
the advancement of the interests of rh J L I
oTfh the rple' and S "Set u thhee leader
ZZrtolTiZ tCwaondyleda S5
state and whose record ff tlSSl aflata hS
candXfmo the republi-
long and faithful attachment n X f ' ind. Uia
advocated by the party e PWes
nnmhers slnc?! haS larse lnsed m
w. $ srksj-
VOLUME' 12, NUMBER
ber, and the democrats will need a candidate to
head their ticket that can carry the state upon
the greatest total vote ever cast.
UTAH WILL BE DEMOCRATIC
Ogden, Utah, Feb. 7, 1012. The Commoner,
Lincoln, Neb. Gentlemen: In ydur issue of the
2d Inst., I see a letter from one George O.
Brophy, assistant superintendent of the Union
Pacific Railroad company, with offices at Ogden,
Utah. This man expresses a decided preference
for Judson A. Harmon as the democratic nomi
nee for president. Mr. Brophy, so far has not
been known In democratic councils in Utah; in
fact he acknowledges that he is a stranger, but
expresses his intention to use his influence to
secure a Harmon delegation from this state.
Mr. Brophy may have reference only to his
personal influence, but we assume, inasmuch as
his letter to you was written on an official letter
head, that he means the influence of the Harri
man interests will be for such a delegation. I
desire to assure you and your readers, that
Utah's democratic state convention will not be
dominated by the Harriman or any other cor
porate interests. We are progressive, and we
will send a progressive delegation to the national
conventfon. I will not attempt to name the man
the Utah delegation will support in national con
vention, but speaking as one who has been
honored by my party in the past, and one who
has been a worker in the party ranks in this
state for the past fifteen years, I say that our
candidate will most assuredly be a progressive.
The fact that Mr. Harmon has, or has not been
a supporter of Mr. Bryan, is not the question
we have to deal with. No apologies are neces
sary. We want a constructive statesman; a
man who is abreast of the times; a man who is
in favor of the initiative, referendum and re
call; in fact, a man who realizes that the para
mount issue is "Shall the People Rule." We
have plenty of such, in the democratic party,
without taking a man who is just as good as
Taft. We might do worse than to nominate a
man for the fourth time. Very respectfully,
SHERMAN S. SMITH.
Delegate to Democratic National Con. in 1903.
A POLL FROM THE BUCKEYE STATE
Rushsylvania, O., Jan. 22, 1912. Editor The
Commoner: Probably you will find below some
thing of interest to Commoner readers as well
as something in the way of expression of this
vicinity as to the choice of voters for their
preference or choice of candidates for president.
Below you will find the result of an election
for choice of men so far mentioned as candidates
for president. This election was held at the
law office of Hon. John P. Bower, Rushsylvania,
L??an county, Ohio, on January 18, 1912, at
which election more than three-fourths of the
qualified voters of the village precinct seemed
eager and quite anxious to cast a vote for their
first and second choice for their candidate for
president in the approaching presidential nomi
nation: DEMOCRATIC
First Choice Second Choice
garmon 10 Harmon 6
JJ711 31 Bryan 17
lark 2 GIai"k 21
?011 2 Wilson 9
1 Folk 3
.Underwood o Underwood 3
REPUBLICAN
Jaft ; 23 Taft 5
5SvfeIt 42 La Alette 16
Cumins 0 Roosevelt 25
gughfs 0 Cummins 5
Beveridge 1 Hughes ..... 13
fF 0 Beveridge 2
eld 2 Fonaker 2
? ' 0 Garfield 6
La Follette 24 Cannon .......... 3
Tbis vote is taken in one of the strongest re-
M. C. BRADY.
A MICHIGAN POLL
The Bay City (Mich.) Tribune took a nresi
dential poll with the following riults-
Bryan DEMOCRAT
Champ Clark . . .'.'.'. -
Gov. Harmon .... .' J
Woodrow Wilson
noosevelt REPii6AN '
Taft 554
La Follette . . .
Beveridge
A. B. Cummins
130
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