VOL. 21, NO. 4
4
The Commoner
!
If
m
The Commoner
ISSUICD MONTHLY
Entered at the Poetofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
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Address all communications to
THE COMMONER, LINCOLN, NED.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE ANGLO
JAPANESE ALLIANCE
A determined effort is being made in some
quartors to picturo tho Anglo-Japanese alliance
as directed against tho United States. Tho best
answer to such misrepresentation is to set forth
in order tho facts of that allianco.
The original agreement between Britain and
Japan in 1905 declared the purpose of the
alliance tobo as follows:
To consolidate and maintain tho peace in
eastern Asia and in India.
In other words, the Japanese army and Brit
ish, navy would act together to resist any at
tempt to ovorthrow existing conditions in that
part of tho world. It was really what Bis
marck would have called an insurance treaty
against a war of revenge by Russia, or a revolt
in India fomented by emissaries of the czar.
Alliances, it is true, sometimes wander from
their original purpose. But when the Anglo
Japanese agreement was renewed for the term
of ton years in 1911, the following article was
made a part of tho treaty:
"Article 4. Should either of the high contract
ing parties conclude a treaty of general arbi
tration with a third power, it is agreed that
nothing in this agreement shall entail upon such
contracting party any obligation to go to war
with tho power with whom such treaty of arbi
tration is in force.
At that time, negotiations were pending for
an arbitration treaty between the United States
' and Great Britain; and Lord Grey recently
stated that Article 4 of the Anglo-Japanese
agreement was inserted expressly to avoid any
misunderstanding with the United States, and
to give notice that Britain refused to contem
plate a war against America The arbitration
treaty then under discussion came to nothing
but in November, 1914, Mr. Bryan's arbitra
tion troaty with Britain was ratified.
It was pointed out at the time that one of tho
gfeat advantages of th0 Bryan agreement was
that it released Britain from any obligation to
go to war with this country on behalf of Japan.
There is the record. It shows that whether
the Anglo-Japanese alliance is wise or unwise
that alliance never was directed against the
United States and was amended fo the exnress
purpose of making it impossible to drag Britain
into a war against tho United States. The
Japophobes wil have to seek some other scarecrow.-
Chicago Journal. e
THINK!
,,,Tio;i1 J' you are mistaken who may
think that there can bo an enduring and
effective association of tho nations for the
maintenance of peace so long as those na-
TasnkSeraiH.aS! ttrf -. Gen.
The Moral Breakdown
The wots havo been attributing the "crime
wave" to prohibition. Below will be found two
extracts from one morning paper:
"London, March 11. A great outcry has
arisen in the shipping world over the heavy
losses that are incurred through the depredations
of thieves, many of whom it is suspected are in
the employ of the companies that are the vic
tims. . A j
"Lord Askwith states it has been estimated
that in transport through the port of London
alone, through pilfering in various forms, there
is a loss of 3,500,000 pounds a year.
"One shipping company says that whereas,
before the war it losses on cargo attributable
to thefts amounted to one shilling and four
ponce per ton, it now amounts to 26 shillings
and ninepence per ton.
"Increases of wages, it is asserted, afford no
guarantee of greater trustworthiness. Rather
the contrary. The average wages of stewards
are said to bo four times their pay before tho
war but it is those departments on passenger
liners with which stewards are most concerned,
that depredations, it is declared, are most notice
able. "The manager of ono line running to Australia
said that recently he had to expend well over
2,000 pounds in replacing the linen stolen on one
round voyage alone. On this same round trip
the stewards' charges for 'over-time' amounted
to 2,532 pounds.
" 'Even the captain's boy charged 28 pounds
for overtime on the voyage,' said the manager.
'If the capitain rang for the boy to bring him
a drink, the boy charged one hour's overtime for
fetching it, provided he had 'already done his
eight hours.'
"Much plundering undoubtedly takes place
before the goods are stowed on shipboard, steam
ship men declare. Cases of machinery have been
found to be full of stable manure and those sup
posed to contain gold and silver goods to be filled
with shavings.
" 'The thieving that is going on at sea and
in docks is beyond anything in history,' writes
Lord Inchcape, chairman of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company. A man recently removed
the clocks from the smoking and music rooms of
one of our steamers, while the passengers were
embarking at Tilbury dock and they have never
been traced. Within the last few days a piano
was removed from one of the steamers in dock
and carried off to a cottage where, however, it
was recovered.'
"Stewards, through their union officials,
strongly resent Lord Inchape's charge that
much of the stealing that goes on in steamers is
done by them. One of the officials declares that
the fondness of the passengers for collecting
what they call 'souvenirs' is responsible for far
more missing' articles than are the stewards."
Montevideo, Mar. 11. Many merchants of
this city havo refused to accept delivery of
American goods consigned to them because, in
stead of arriving boxed, as requested, they came
in bales, and many articles were broken. In
some cases legal action against the American
of El Dia published photographs of broken bales
and remarked that the situation should receive
the attention of the United States authorities?
Such occurrences,' the newspaper declared
lead to strained commercial relations between
tho United States and Uruguary. SlLe Euro
pean production has been augmented Urugua
merchants have received better treatment from
European manufacturers, who carefully fill T
dors. The reduced prices at which thes nn,w
Product hee & ! MX
when American manufacturers tool 1 IdvanSS
fruit- B n COmpetItors' aPPr to be bearing
i T,he fi !tem shows that stealing from shinn
In Great Britain has increased from 1 i3 X Pi
'KVZ tlf SJ5-S H-3
weakening the conscience and thus undermining
morality? Thero may bo contributing causes
but the doctrine of evolution is the fundamental
cause. -It has removed the creator from the
life. Darwin's far-away-God has ceased to re
strain, by either love or fear, those who have
accepted the ape hypothesis. It robs man of
the sense of God's presence in his daily ijfe,
makes prayer a mockery and tiestroy's belief
in a future life. Man will have to get back to
God if we are to have honesty or any of the
other virtues included in the general term, moral
ity. No police service can take the place of
conscience; the chief control must come from
within. W. J. BRYAN.
DR. HARVEY W. WILEY THROWS HARPOON
INTO PET MEDICINE-BEER SCHEME
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, former chief of the
Bureau of Chemistry and father of the pure food
law, scouts the idea that beer is a medicine as
suggested in the Palmer opinion. Dr. Wiley in
sists that beer, wine and whisky have no medi
cinal value whatever and asserts that if the
new ruling is allowed to stand "convalescence
will be a disease which will kill more people than
consumption."'
In a statement to Attorney-General Daugherty,
Dr. Wiley is quoted as saying: "Already ap
plication has been made to start breweries for
making medicinal beer. If the ruling of the at
torney general is carried into effect the profits
for beer-making in this country will rise to
heights never known before. The vitality and
morbidity statistics will be Bwelled by such a
new multitude of sick and convalescent as to try
the capacity of the printing presses of the census
bureau.
"Those who have the welfare of medical and
pharmaceutical profession at heart and who want
to see the honeBt and efficient execution of tho
prohibition act will unite as one in an effort to
obtain a -recall of this order by the present attorney-general
of the United States. Rated on
the scale of usage, beer has not now and never
has had any standing as a recognized remedial
agent." American Issue.
MUNICD?AL PLATFORM TO BENEFIT
CONSUMERS
C. W. Bryan in the Lincoln contest for mayor,"
has a platform of municipal markets, municipal
gas, municipal ice and municipal coal. Under
his administration these things would doubtless
be of benefit to the consumers, and he has in
cluded a few of the actual necessities of life, on
which there should be no profiteering. It would
be different if the meat, ice and coal men had
dropped prices to correspond with present con
ditions but there is too wide a spread between
what they pay and what they get. We would be
glad indeed to see him succeed and put his plans
in operation, as if he can demonstrate, there is
a possible relief for other towns in event the
dealers do not take the hint and like Davey
Crockett's coon "come down" before they are
brought down. Aurora, Neb. Register.
PLEDGED THEM TO ABSTINENCE
If all Catholic priests, and all other clergy
men who have the power to reach young people
m the solemn way that marks confirmation
duties and services, would follow the examplo
of Cardinal Gibbons, much good would be
achieved.
3lea,!dng of Cardinal Gibbons' attitude to
ward the use of intoxicating liquors, William H
Anderson of the Anti-Saloon League of Mary-ute-
nW charge iu New York, pays this trib-
o J!?aIdinalJ Gibbns undoubtedly sincerely de-
i0, the evils of drunkenness and
labored in that direction as he thought best.
SntP5BOiniillyt?ld mG som-e thirteen years ago
that he pledged to total abstinence till they were
ffini m?mbe of every claJ8 he confirmed."
Miami Metropolis.
fl7i?3 of applications for, appointments
hRffSte,rS ae said t0 baVQ been filed in the
to ohn h b? RPublicans. This would seem
"Ia? inclination on the part of faithful
?ealfv Ta ner that. tIle' PBtal department 10
really the fire department.
emW lr ?. nannn wb0 was discovered to have
bSn iSSr fi80,,00 exPlaine that his wife had
Bovora nH l0ne, tImo and ha ba to Have
SSL Sit KV1611 that Profiteering
i ftfv- 3.rTT,rv,
-u .-t, &xAmikisum&em;,
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