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A flit MAT DEMOCRATIC VICTORY
Following to an Associated Press dispatch:
"Washington, May 14. Supported by all tho
progressive republicans, tho house tonight
passed tho Clayton anti-injunction bill. Every
democrat present voted for it, and the result
was announced to tho accompaniment o a re
markable demonstration.
"Tho legislation is regarded as one of tho
most advanced steps yet taken in tho interests
of organized labor. Throughout tho debato
President Gompors, Secretary Morrison and a
half dozen members of the executive committee
of tho American federation of labor woro in
terested listeners. Gompers occupied a front
seat in the members' gallory.
"Tho opposition to tho measuro attempted to
put through a substitute drawn by Representa
tive Sterling of Illinois. This modified tho
swooping terms of the Clayton bill, but it was
defeated, 219 to 48.
"It was generally said that the Clayton meas
ure would meet with little opposition in tho
sonato. Tho bill amends tho law to prohibit
tho issue of injunctions without notice being
served on those affected.
"Such injunctions would bo effective for
seven days only and renewal would bo possible
only when the court was convinced such injunc
tion waa necessary for the conservation of rights
of property. b
" 'Jotik Doo' injunctions would be impossible
and tho right of 'peaceful picketing' in strikes
or tho 'peaceful boycotts' would be recognized."
Tho following plank appeared in the demo
cratic platform of 189 6:
"Wo denounce arbitrary Interference by
federal authorities in local affairs as a violation
of tho constitution of the United States and a
crime against free institutions, and wo especially
object to government by Injunction as a new
and highly dangerous form of oppression by
which federal judges, in contempt of the laws
of tho states and rights of citizens, become at
once legislators, judges, executioners; and wo
approvo tho bill passed at the last session of
tho Unltod States sonato, and now pending in
tho house of representatives, relative to con
tempts in federal courts and providing for trials
by jury in certain cases of contempt."
Tho following appeared in the democratic
platform of 1908:
"If judicial processes may be abused, we
should guard them against abuse.
"Experienco has proven the necessity of a
modification of the present law relating to in
junctions, and wo reiterate tho pledge" of our
national platforms of 189G and 1904 in favor
of tho measure which passed tho United States
sonato in 189G, but which a republican congress
has ever since refused to enact, relating to con
tempts in federal courts and providing for trial
by jury in caso of indirect contempt.
"Questions of judicial practice have arisen
especially in connection with industrial dis
putes. Wo deem that tho parties to all judicial
proceedings should be treated with rigid im
partiality, and that injunctions should not bo
Issued in any cases in which injunctions would
not issue if no Industrial dispute were involved."
AT THE TITANIC MEMORIAL
Mr. Bryan was one of tho speakers at tho
Titanic memorial services in New York on the
21st of April. The meeting was arranged by
Mr. Frederick Townsend Martin, whose activity
In public affairs of a popular nature is giving
him increasing distinction. There were a num
ber of persons on the program, and tho local
papers only published extracts of the various
speeches. By request, Mr. Bryan gives below
a brief abstract of his remarks:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: "Wo
aro all indebted to Mr. Frederick Townsend
Martin for this opportunity to give joint expres
sion to the universal sorrow which the Titanic
catastrophe has brought and to put into words
our sympathy for tho relatives of those who
were lost. There are just three thoughts. I
deslro to present each thought in a word. First,
tho death of so many at ono time under condi
tions so appalling shows that whatever dif
ferences may separate us in matters of creed
or politics or social environment, wo are one
at heart and speak a common language when
we mourn. Death by accident is not infrequent
in these modern times it is only too frequent
but occasional deaths, however great in the
aggregate, do not shock us like the burying of
a multitude in one watery grave. The great
'stream of our national sympathies is swollen
from time to time by the tragedies that occur
upon the rail, 1n the mines and in the factories i
but those, like the swollen tributaries of a
great river, do not come all at once. A calamity.
The Commoner.
like the sinking of the Titanic raises human
sympathy to a flood.
The second thought is that the world is full
of heroes who only wait the necessary staging
to play their part. As we meet peoplo upon
the street, we can not always tell the real man
from the villain, but an emergency furnishes a
stage where the character of these is dis
tinguished. The Titanic disaster has brought
to view a nobility in men and women that makes
us proud of our civilization. Men who in the
presence of danger can stand back and at the
risk of death invite others to precede them ex
hibit a self-control and an unselfishness that
makes us all proud of these illustrations of man
hood that were not confined to the rich or to .
the poor. We found the men of means and
employes upon the ship vieing with each other
in manifesting a high conception of duty.
Women, too, proved themselves equal to the
occasion. One will be especially cherished in
memory, tho wife of Isador Straus, who pre
ferred to risk death by his side rather than to
be saved without him a modern Ruth.
Tho third word is the lesson to be learned.
Mr. Martin has coined a splendid phrase when
he says that one can see farther through a tear
than through a telescope. Our sympathy ex
cited by this enormous sacrifice of life will be
quick to point out improvements that may be
made in seafaring for the safety of the pas
" sengers. I remember hearing a man quote some ,
thirty years ago the declaration that without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sins, and ho made a broad, application of it by
adding that no great reform comes until the
tragedy of death has startled the country and
made it acquainted with .the evils that need to
be remedied. Already numerous remedies have
been proposed, and we can not doubt that as a
result of this great misfortune, the lives of those
who will travel upon the sea will be made more
secure. The speed mania will bo checked if not
entirely cured; more attention will be given to
the safety which has been in some cases sacri
ficed to luxury. A sufficient number of life
boats willbe required and better regulation for
tho transfer of crew and passengers to the life
boats. Two wireless operators will be put upon
all ships, and other precautions will be com
pelled. Out of the grave new hope will come,
and the dead by their death will aid the living.
In conclusion let me add that one thought
which must come to us all on an occasion like
this is that the soul can not be swallowed up by
the sea any more than it can be confined in a
tomb upon the land. That which is best in us
can not be destroyed by the elements that battle
so successfully against the body. Many of us
were personally acquainted with thosa who lost
their lives upon the Titanic. That which we
knew in these friends still lives, and we shall
greet them in the world beyond.
DEATH, THE GREAT LEVELER
King Frederick of Denmark fell dead upon
the street a few days ago and not being Identi
fied his body was taken to a morgue, where the
members of the family afterwards found it.
Death is a great leveler; it comes to prince and
to peasant alike. While this mysterious thing
which we call life animated the body of the
king he was supreme in his land, but the mo
ment the golden cord snapped, his authority
passed to another, and that which was mortal of
him was carried to the common receptacle of
tho unidentified dead. Mystery of mysteries is
man; he comes into the world without his voli
tion, he lives moulded by conditions that he
can not largely change, and passes out of this
temporal existence he knows not when. He
works with an interrogation mark before him,
and must qualify all of his plans with an "if."
He surrounds himself with that which he calls'
his own, and sometimes builds artificial walls
between himself and others, but when death
comes his plans are at an end, and the temporal
abode of his spirit falls back to the dust whence
it came. Surely death is a great leveler.
THE INCONTROVERTIBLE BOND
The Commoner, in a recent issue, called at
tention to a suggestion made many years ago
by Tom L. Johnson and renewed by Mr. Jones,
tho New York banker, in reference to giving
elasticity to the currency by the issuing of
money on government bonds. Here is a kind
of elasticity that can be given without the ex
tension of special privileges and without doing
Violence to n.nv rlAmnnrn ln lVKt-nntio. mi
-- .wvUwv. iiiuwj.jc. xuere
is noi reason why every holder of a government
bono; should not be able to use ijt as security in
time of financial stress.- When the government
loansliflioney on its own bonflnft not only (eases
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 20
the money market but it saves the interest
while the loan is outstanding. At present only
banks could borrow on government bonds, and
the money which, they borrow is of course
loaned to the public at a higher rate of in
terest than they pay for it. Why should banks
bo given a monopoly of this privilege? The
plan is commended to the democratic members
of congress as one that can be used to satisfy
the demand for elasticity. But possibly tho
Wall street crowd 'does not want any elasticity
that enables the public to get directly from the
government. It Is worth while to put the advo
cates of tho Aldrich bill to the test; or if they
oppose the incontrovertible bond, it will show
that their real desire is not elasticity but a
mdre complete control of the financial situation
by Wall street.
TIT FOR TAT
Assailing Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Taft says: "Just
in what respect I have failed, just in what re
spect I am different from what I was when ho
recommended me, I have been unable to see.
"I am here to say why he should not be nomi
nated, and why, if nominated, he will run tho
risk of defeat in election.
"Theodore Roosevelt would be a
dangerous man to intoxicate with the compli
ment of putting him in a place and giving him
the power that has been denied to every Ameri
can president since the beginning of the govern
ment. "Is it fair, is it honest, is it a square deal for
him to turn on me and denounce me for a reac
tionary for following the only course which he
advised "me to take?"
Assailing Mr. Taft, Mr. Rgosevelt says: "Four
years ago Mr. Taft had not discovered that I
was a flatterer, a demagogue, and egotist, and
engaged in honeyfuggling the people, and yet
I stood then exactly whero I stand now.
"We have not changed position, we progres
sives, and we stand exactly where we stood four
years ago.. It is Mr. Taft who has left us, and
who has joined the enemy. Therefore our atti
tude toward Mr. Taft can be expressed in the
words of Abraham Lincoln, when he said: 'I
will stand with anybody who stands for the
right; stand with him while he is right, and .part
with him when he goes wrong.' "
ARIZONA'S INNOVATION
Arizona, under the leadership of her reform
executive, Governor Hunt, is setting the older
states an example in the regeneration of con
victs. Success to his efforts. The following Is
from the Philadelphia Enquirer's Arizona cor
respondent: "Two hundred converts in tho Arizona state
penitentiary at Florence have organized a 'law
and order league,' the constitution of which sets
forth belief in prison reforms, and names the
purpose to be the promotion of better morals
and the abolishment of crime. The membership
includes 96 per cent of the prisoners, who above
their signatures have agreed to observe the
following seven rules:
" 'To try each day to do some good deed.
" 'To set aside from each day a certain time
for the study of pure and noble thoughts.
" 'To assist each other in all matters of
grievance.
" 'To assist the officers in the discharge of
their daily duties.
" 'To avoid and prevent disorderly conduct.
" 'To refrain from profane language.
" 'To respect each other, assist the weak, and
do all in our power to uplift the principles of
prison reform and the policies of our new
state.' "
GOOD FOR THE MINORITY
Men of all political parties will heartily ap
prove the action of Senators Lea and Kern,
democrats, and Senator Kenyon of Iowa, re
publican, in protesting against the retention of
William Lorimer in the United States senate.
They have submitted for the consideration of
the senate this resolution:
"Resolved, That corrupt methods and prac
tices were employed in the election of William
Lorimer to the senate of the United States from
the state of Illinois, and that his election was
therefore invalid."
The resolution ought to pass. Senators Lea,
Kern and Kenyon may be depended upon to
make a hard fight for it. It is to be regretted
that the name of any democrat was appended
to tho majority report, but it goes without say
ing that Senators Lea and Kern are better repre
sentatives of the-democratic party than Senator
FJetcher ,of Florida and Senator Johnston' of
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