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The Commoner
VOL. 13, no. 32
4
The Secret of Happiness
The Commoner
IS. S UI1I) MONTHLY
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Entered tit tho Pontofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
a second-elasH matter.
WILLIAM J. UllYAM ClIAlU tW W lltlYAK
Killtor iiml Proprietor Atocfnto ICilllnr ami Punllhcr
JKilllnrlnl JIooiiib mid HuhIiiom Onico, 32-1.330 South Twelfth Street
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
A NEW YEAR PLEDGE
As life is measured by what we put
into tho world, I shall make this year
more valuable than any previous one by
crowding more service into it.
Tho colonel -has been making some speeches,
ostensibly to tho natives down in South America,
but ho took care to furnish tho homo newspapers
with full and complete copies. They are tho
same kind of speeches that tho colonel did not
make when he Avas president.
A Now Bedford dispatch says that one of the
big cotton mills thero has declared an extra casli
dividend of $400,000 and will increase its capital
stock by twice that sum. It is exceedingly dis
uVossing to note how fast ruin is overtaking the
cotton manufacturers, ever since tho new tariff
went into effect.
Tho supremo court has again endorsed the
legal right of a state, through its railway com
mission, to fix all rates within the state upon its
transportation systems. A decade hence wo will
be wondering who was the fellow who raised the
point that a -&.ate couldn't attend to that which
was peculiarly and directly its own business.
Utah physicians have been puzzled for several
weeks over the case of a man who was pushed
off a cliff near Ogden. The man has regained
al of his physical faculties, but he has absolute
ly no memory and is incapable of recalling any
thing that happoned prior to his injury. Tho
doctors might find some other interesting ma
terial to work upon if they would take up cases
of thoso republican congressmen who cannot
recollect ever having said that the Payne-Ald-rich
tariff bill was a revision downward.
At this season of the year, when gifts are
making glad the hearts of children, and when
the young people are remembering Him in whose
honor Christmas day is celebrated, tho older
folks may find profit in considering the philos
ophy that tho Savior brought into the world. He
taught, not only that service is tho measure of
greatness, but that it is the measure of happi
ness as well. We enjoy life in proportion as we
invest in it our energy, our thought and our
sympathy "where the treasure is there will the
heart bo also."
As money is of value only because it can be
spent for something that is more desirable, so
existence is of worth only because, it can be ex
pended for other things. "Whosoever will save
life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save it." This is a
maxim of universal application, demonstrated by
history and capable of proof at any time by ex
perience. The Great Teacher instructed the
.world by precept and enforced the precept by
example; and yet, in spite of the great truth
which He established, multitudes are still blind
still hoping to find satisfaction in pursuits
which are wholly selfish. Some worship their
bodies, spending their time collecting the most
Secretary Daniels is likely to be accused of ad
Vising socialistic action by the government.
Socialistic action is doing something that inter
feres with tho profit-making system of private
individuals. The government owns considerable
land containing oil. Its navy uses oil-burning
engines. Mr. Daniels says that the price of the
oil used has doubled in the last two years. As a
measure of protection against future extortion
lie recommends that the government develop oil
wells on its own lands and got its supply there.
palatable foods and the most stimulating drink
ornamenting themselves with the most rostlv
clothing" and housing themselves in luxurious
homes, only to find that they weaken and finally
destroy the physical frame which they idolize
Others pay their homage to the mind, fiatteriiiK
it and fawning before it, as if it were a thing
divine. Its sensations are more lasting, its de
lights more refined and it has a greater range of
achievements, but it may be employed as selfish
ly as the body. If it is wrongly directed, it is
far more potent for evil than muscle and bone
and it may lead one into the mires of doubt and
into the solitudes of unbelief. He builds upon
the sands who ignores the spiritual in man. The
soul looks upward, as the flowers turn their
faces to the orb of day; the conscious presence
of the Creator is as necessary to the happiness of
the human being as is the sunlight to the plant.
To attune one's se.lf to the infinite, it is necessary
to conform to tho law of the universe, and that
law is service. To serve largely, one must, by
the avoidance of all that will dissipate and de
stroy, husband his strength and make it avail
able for the doing of the things that are worth
while the larger his capacity for service, and
the more complete his willingness to serve, the
more abundantly will be the fulfillment of the
promise "It is more blessed to give than to re
ceive." . W. J. BRYAN.
Free Wool
..-'Tho Commoner Wishes
A MERRY CHRISTMAS
. , and a i .
j HAPPY NEW YEAR ,
)- To Everyone, Everywhere
, and Forever . . -,-
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Free wool at last! The country has waited
for it a long while and it has been a weary wait.
Under the guise of aiding the farmers, the bene
ficiaries of protection made overtures to the
wool growers, who constitute but a small frac
tion ,of the agricultural population, and gave
them a tariff on wool. Then they gave to the
manufacturers of woolen goods a so-called com
pensatory duty which far more than offset the
tax on wool. By the time the tax reached the
consumer it became a grievous burden upon
nearly all of the farmers of the nation and upon
all who are not farmers. In campaigns the
tariff on wool has been paraded as an evidence
of the desire of protectionists to include the
farmer within the benefits of the system and
they have been only too successful in deluding
a part of the rural vote, but deception can be
practiced no longer.
Wool was the keystone of the protectionist
arch, a fact well understood by the tariff barons.
They have been quick to see that without the
farmer vote "protection for protection's sake,'.'
would not be endured. Now that the farmer has
been taken out from behind the bulwarks we
may expect to hear from the agricultural classes
a more vigorous protest against high import
duties.
With free wool has come the lowest rate of
duty that woolens have borne for a generation,
and as soon as the old stocks are worked off the
consumer may expect to secure a substantial ad
vantage from the revision of Schedule K. The
average duty on woolens under the Payne-Ald-rich
bill was about 89 per cent. The average
duty under the Underwood-Simmons bill is
about 27 per cent.
In the purchase of manufactured woolens the
percentage of reduction in price may be less than
some expect, because the price -of the garment
includes the cost of making, which is not re
duced, as well as the cost of material; but it will
be a substantial reduction and the total saving
to the people will be very considerable. As a
result of the cheapening of woolen goods it is
probable that there will be an increase in the
use of good woolens and a decrease in the use of
shoddy substitutes. It is gratifying that the
revision of the tariff has come at such a time
and under such circumstances as to meet with
the approval of a large majority of the people
of the country. Where any great change in
policy is made with a bare majority there is
danger of a reaction the parties aggrieved
being more energetic in expressing disapproval
than the parties benefited are in expressing .ap
proval but in this case the country seems to be
ripe for the revolutionary change which haB
taken place in tho economic policy of the coun
try, and indications give promise of permanence
in tho change. W. J, BRYAN.
THANKSGIVING
The amount that one has to be grateful for
differs with different persons and with eacli indi
vidual it differs at different times, but in a coun
try like ours there is enough at all times for
every one to be grateful for to make Thanksgiving-
day welcome. It gives opportunity for
the inward feeling, if not the outward expres
sion, of gratitude. We are profuse in our thanks
when an individual does us a favor; how then
shall avo adequately express our appreciation of
the blessings which we enjoy through the opera
tion of our government? And how shall we
estimate those larger blessings that are ours be
cause we are members of civilized society? And,
to enter a still larger field, by what rule known
to mathematics can we compute our obligation
to our Heavenly Father, whose gifts outnumber
and whose benevolences outweigh those that
come to us from all other sources combined?
We all have enough to meditate upon and to be
thankful for, no matter how far our accomplish
ments fall short of our plans and hopes.
There are some men who claim that the world
'is not making any progress. In the 1908 cam
paign Mr. Bryan's proposal to guarantee the
safety of deposits in banks was derided as a
dreamer's vision and utterly impractical, dis
honest, confiscatory and a few little things lwe
that. The same proposition is now being de
bated at Washington in connection with the new
currency bill, and nobody has removed any oi
his outer garments in the excitement of debate.
THE MTTLE DREAMS
The little dreams run,gayly up
The golden shore of sleep;
Beyond them lies tho slumber sea
Where waves are strong and deep.
And when the sun wilts redly down,
A flower of the heat,
The littlo dreams come forth to play
With timid, childliko feet.
They wander into babies' hearts
To make them stir and smile,
But you can never capture them
They stay so brief a while!
Just when the sun wilts redly down,
Or when the snowdrops dawn
Comes dancing o'er the hazy hills
As fleetly as a faun.
The litUo dreams come out to play,
And then are gathered deep
Into the slumber ocean's arms
Beside the shore of sleep.
V ' -New York Evening Sun.
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