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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1912)
4' The Commoner. VOLUME 12, NUMBER 34 m M h ' f if" fM P. h7 v fc it t" e 1 ' J-a S'!- M- s;."' i. " !1.'S- ir '.3 k :'!. 1 nc& if mt' The Commoner. Bryan and Roosevelt or Baltimore and Chicago ISSUED WEEKLY Entered at the PostoBlco at Lincoln, Nebraska. eh second-class matter. Vii.ijam J. UllVAM Ktlltnr nrnl Proprietor IllCJIAJIft L. Ml'.TCAT.rK .A Modatc Editor ClIAItLKS W. DliTAK Publisher Kdltorfnl Rooms nnd IJuslnera onicc. 324-SCO South 12th Street One Ycnr 91.00 Six MontliN .50 In Clubs of Five or more, per year.. .75 Three Months...... .25 Single Copy .OS Sample Copies Free. Foreign Post. Be Extra. SiniSCHII'TIONS can be sent direct to The Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapers which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through local agents, whero sub-agents have been ap pointed. All remittances should bo sent by post fllco money order, express order, or by bank draft on New York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, stamps or money. ItB.VBWALS Tho date on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus 1912. Two weeks are required after money haa eclved to and Including the last Issue of January, January 21, '12 means that payment haa been re been received before tho date on wrapper can be changed. ADVERTISING Hates will be furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob. SOCIALISM THE NEXT STEP Tho Chicago Tribune compares the Roosevelt position on the trust question with tho demo cratic position as follows: "The progressives showed their intelligence in their declarations on the trust problem. They know that the economic laws underlying in dustrial organization can not be thwarted but they can bo directed. The republican platform potters with this question. The democratic party, inheriting the well intended but un reasoned theories of Mr. Bryan, an inheritance from populistlc days and antagonistic to consoli dation, commits itself to a policy of repression if not destruction. The progressive platform makers were wiser. The democrats would get in the track of an economic law and wave tho rod flag at it, commanding it to stop. The pro gressives would get in the engineer's cab and direct the law to its best ends. "Foolish and vain denunciation of tho trusts has served its political purposes and had its day." Here we have tho basic principle of socialism indorsed by the Tribune and the Roosevelt party. The next step is a short one. The new party would try regulation control through a bureau and failing in that, what? There is only one thing that can follow a failure of control, name ly, ownership. And any attempt to control a private monopoly must end in failure; success Is impossible. Look at the failure of cities to successfully control franchise holding corpora tions, they all develop corruption and then gov ernment ownership is resorted to by the com munity as a matter of self protection. If regu lation of a private monopoly is a failure in a city whore the regulators can be watched by their neighbors can it succeed at the national capi tal when the trusts have billions at stake? Who will appoint the members of the bureau under Mr. Roosevelt's plan? Ho would, if president. And how would Perkins, director of the Steel trust, the Harvester trust, and other trusts, do for head of the bureau? Is it pos po8siblo that the earnest and honest reformers who have joined the new party can trust the Roosevelt plan for turning the people over to tho trusts? THE CRIME OF 1012 Senator Lorimer has exposed a conspiracy ttio crime of 1912. In his speech in tho senate he dramatically oxclaimed: "Was over mortal man more completely sur rounded by conspiracy and intrigue? The president of the United States, William Taft; Theodore Roosevelt, the ex-presldont; a former democratic candidate for the presidency, Wil liam Jennings Bryan, and the trust press of tho country, were in it, all joined in the conspiracy to poison tho minds of the citizenship in order, that one man might bo destroyed to Batlsfy the malice of the most corrupt set of newspaper owners known to the history of the country." He is too modest; ho has named only afew of tho nearly ninety million American citizens who wore in tho conspiracy to rid tho senate of his presence. What profound logic that ho .ought to be acquitted because everybody is against him! J J Claud G. Bowers in The Public Official Maga zine: The conventions at Chicago and Balti more were epochal. They mark the beginning of the end of the old order. The day of the ward heeler in national politics is hence forth dead. The platform of platitudes is a relic of the past. The candidate who blows both hot and cold is a memory. The dawn of the people's day is here! These two conventions are historic. They have had no parallel. They were revolutionary in that they displaced the old regime at Balti more, and all but accomplished the same result at Chicago. In both battles they had "lovely fighting along the whole line." Both were re plete with dramatic situations. Belasco's genius could have conceived nothing finer than many of the scenes, especially at Baltimore. Rienzi attempted nothing more spectacular than Roosevelt. Mirabeau, sending his defiance to the king, presented a picture no more inspiring than Bryan throwing down the gauge of battle to Wall street. Whatever may be thought of either by indi viduals here and there the fact remains that these two conventions were elevated above tho commonplace by Theodore Roosevelt and Wil liam Jennings Bryan. One failed pitifully in his mission, while the other, through supernal genius in generalship, snatched from defeat a matchless triumph. A study of the contributing causes is worth while.. II. History will find something fascinating in the furious fighting of Roosevelt at Chicago, but will inevitably conclude that like the Don Quixote of old he was finding wind mills. Ho tried to beat down opposition with a battery of vituperation. He assailed closed organiza tion with a bombardment of epithets. He turned every adjective of abuse against his foes. And at every turn he was hopelessly out-generaled. In anticipation of his weakness he initiated contests in the selection of delegates, hoping thereby to secure enough favorable decisions to give him a majority. This was his Idea of political warfare this and the copious flow of vituperation. The injustice of some of his con tests cast a Bhadow on the others. As the tide of battle turned against him he tried to stem the flood by .arousing the country by the fury of his denunciation. Thief, crook, porch climbers, Apaches, gar rotters these were the principal weapons he employed in battling for principle. His methods only cemented his foes in tho convention, in toxicated his followers until they merely cursed and reeled, and shocked the sober thought of the country. Had he been battling for principle, unhampered by his personal ambition, he might have dominated the convention and named tho nominee. The close of his fight was a pitiful anti-climax. He had ridden the great white horse of pro gressive principles. He had disclaimed personal ambition. And yet when a compromise was proposed favorable to progressive principles he fairly shrieked "I am the compromise." And when his party workers trembling at the havoc wrought by internecine wax' proposed to capitu late to the "principles" he claimed were in volved by the selection of his own floor manager he indignantly renounced the idea and de nounced his manager. Thus defeated, demoralized, discredited, he emerged from the convention one of the most pathetic figures of this or any other age. From the moment tho bugle sounded for the battle until taps were sounded over the battlefield he did not make a single masterful move to justify or explain the fulsome flattery of his idolaters III. Now turn to Baltimore. Here, too, the issue was progress or reaction. The men of power were largely arrayed on the side of retrogression. A careful review of the convention disclosed a majority of the conven tion inclined toward that conservative action which some think spells, stagnation. Tho selection of Alton B. Parker for tem Prafy CQa"Win was a challenge. With that the Men of power cried havoc and let loose the dogs of war." It was a signal for tho slaughter. That skirmish won, many of the most consummate politicians in the veteran corps conceived that the influence of Bryan would be nipped in the bud, tho delegates would rush for the band wagon, and the domination of the ultra-conservative forces would have been assured. To these battle scarred veterans of the old guard it seemed certain that the armv of progress would bo demoralized the moment its great leader fell wounded upon the battle field. To some of the more sanguine it appeared probable that there would be a capitulation without the firing of another shot. It was Monday evening. The personnel of the, convention had been scrutinized and it was evident that Bryan was destined to defeat. The commoner was cogni zant of the situation. It was because lie was familiar with this situation that he determined upon giving battle. This was a master stroke of genius. And why a master stroke of genius? Be cause the convention was against him, and the millions of reserves through the country were with him, and it gave him an opportunity to call in the reserves for the really vital battles of the convention. His speech on Tuesday was a bugle call. It was Danton urging the youth of France to the frontiers. It was Roberspierre calling Paris to the defense of her representatives. It was Gambetta calling the virile men of France to the colors. It will rank among the few politi cal masterpieces of audacity in the history of the world. The bullet of the opposition grazed him, and left him standing, and in the rebound it found the heart of the enemy.. Just as Danton's speech sent hundreds of thousands post haste to the frontier; just as Roberspierre's speech sur rounded the convention with the infuriated populace of Paris; just as Gambetta's appeal stirred the fainting heart of his country after Sedan, so did this powerful appeal of Bryan touch the heart of the country to an instant re sponse. The wires were hot with the burning messages of protest. The word from the places where delegates are made, served notice on tho convention that the eyes of the folks back homo were upon it. After that his enemies, snarlingly approached to lick his hands. That day his enemies "showed him his place." The next morning they heard from home, and they unanimously offered him the chairman ship of the platform committee beseeched him to take it, awaited on his pleasure, sent com mittees to plead with him, allowed him to de cline and name Kern of Indiana. A lesser man would have been flattered into a compliant acquiesence in the future actions of the conven tion dominated by his enemies but Bryan is a super-man. The end of the fighting was not yet. He was battling for the substance and not tho shadow., . . It was Thursday night. The hall was packed to suffocation with 20,000 people eager for the nomination. The wife of the president of the united States, becomingly gowned in purple, occupied a conspicuous seat on the platform. A storm of applause broke over the convention when Bryan appeared near the chairman. He is preparing for the supreme contest. In the midst of his preparations he lays down his pencil, strides smilingly to the first lady of the land, offers his hand and bows like a courtier. "Flowers over the garden wall." Then the smile passes. His face is stern. His form is tense. He stands before the conven tion. Because he Is -struggling for the substance and not the shadow of victory he offers his resolution pledging the nominee against any sort of affiliation with J". Pierpont Morgan, Thomas F. Ryan, and August Belmont. It is a bomb. It splutters and explodes. The convention is in turmoil. Hisses, cheers, and groans. Men snout their dissensions like demented creatures, l'lood of Virginia rushes to the platform show ing his teeth as if to bite. Fists are shaken in the direction of the com moner. Insults are hurled at him and he stands there stern and unrelenting clad in the armor or a nghteouB cause. Little creatures, safe in tne cloak of obscurity, take courage from tho storm to join in the work of tho mob. Tho galleries looking, figure that Bryan is lost. The roll is called. 'And the men who hissed and hooted voted for tne resolutionvoted for it because there stood k-iL,f iJL.Klu