"" m WyTfW
The Commoner
VOL: 22, No. 10
k
regular state officers elected by you, Is taken
from them and centralized in the governor, giv
ing hlin more power than a crowned head
abroad. He in turn delegates this power out to
six code secretaries and they appoint a small army
of assistants, clerks, etc., at compensation fixed
by them, with the result that you find a great
army of political employes standing between you
and your government.
"The theory of the code system is that you
can't elect men co'mpeteut enough to handle the
government affairs so you go out and hire cx
p6rts at ? 5,000 a year to handle the affairs for
thtfrn.
''These men are 'supposed to be the very best
that can be found in efficiency and economy. Did
Governor McKolvie select such men for his code
secretaries? No. Ho picked men who, as far as
I can learn, never earned more than $150 a
month in their lives men who were associated
"1th him in a political way.
"With his code system he set up a bureaucracy
at Lincoln second only to the one at Washington
now. It got so bad down at Washington that
the President got Charles Dawes an old Lincoln
boy, down there to figure out what was the mat
ter. Dawes cut off 122,000 useless employes
f rqm' the payroll before they stopped him and he
cbuld have cut off 300,000 more. It's just like
that at Lincoln. We can't actually find out how
many employes they have now under the code
system. But we havajiad no trouble at all in
finding out what It's costing. Just look at your
tax receipts and you'll be convinced that it's
costing aplenty.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES -
"Thc governor, who now is touring the state,
with a couple of charts trying to explain'the code
system, says ho admits the taxes have been
doubled during the Republican administration
and assumes responsibility for the same. Mind
you, the governor is not running for any office
this year. It'B easy enough for him to assume
responsibility, but who's going to accept the fi
nancial responsibility? He explains that the
money is going into good roads, etc. Letus see:
The cost of operating the governor's department
during Neville's administration was $72,000 in
round numbers. During McKelvie's administra
tion this same appropriation jumped to approxi
mately $127,000. Did that go into good roads?
"It cost the state about $61,000 to operate the
attorney general's office under Gov. Neville,
whereas now it costs $122,000 under the cade
plan. Did that money go intp good roads?
"Take a look at your tax receipts and you'll
see where your money is going. The code sys
tem, building up a great political machine as it
is, already has advanced until now we have
more than 300 people on the state payroll riding
up and down the state advocating re-election of
their bosses. The expense of this code system
in traveling expenses of employes alone amounts
to something like $300,000 a year.
"I want to see the code system or duplica
tion in government wiped from the statute
books of the state and the state's business placed
back into the hands of the men whom you1 elect.
THE INIQUITOUS REVENUE LAW
The revenue bill, passed under Republican
rule, was the next to come under fire of Mr.
Bryan, who discussed it as follows:
"Next, I desire to call your attention to a
revenue bill that was passed a year ago last win
ter by the present legislature. The revenue bill
is about as vicious a piece of legislation as was
ever put on the statute books of Nebraska. It
provides that tangible property such as farms,
homes, business blocks, livestock, stocks of goods
and other property that you can see, shall be as
sessed for taxes at their full value or one-hundred
per cent.
"But the bill also provides that intangible
property, such as cash in the banks, stocks,
bonds, notes, mortgages and other forms of in
tangible property should be assessed at one-
. fourth their value. This bill was introduced by
two .bankers, and they said it wo,uld encourage
the wealthy people who had their money invested
in intangible property to list a larger per cent of
it with the tax assessor and that there would be
so much more of it listed under the reduced tax
than there was listed formerly when they were
taxed on the Bamo basis as the farmers and other
. business men wore taxed; that it would produce
more revenue and enable the state to lower the
tax on the farms, homes, etc. They said that the
wealthy people who had their money invested in
e intangible property could not afford to be dishon
est for a tax only one-fourth as large as farm
ers and other holders of tangible property nay
"This vicious law has now been in operation
THE ISSUE IN NEBRASKA
In Nebraska, as well as in the nation,
the great issue of the ponding campaign
will bo the problem of taxation. To meet
this issue fairly the Democrats of Nebras
ka have nominated as their candidate for
governor a man whose very name is an
argument in opposition to code bills and
all other forms of Republican incompet
ence and extravagance. Charles W. Bryan,
the Democratic nominee for governor, has
made a life study of the taxation problem.
Upon this question he is-wedded to one
and only one idea, and that idea demands
the levying of all taxes in manner to make
the tax burden rest evenly on all shoul
ders. He is opposed to our present Mc-Kolvie-Code-Bill
and to all manner of taxa
tion fads. In private life he has been suc
cessful in business. In public life, as
mayor and as commissioner for the city of
Lincoln, he has made a record which has
attracted the favor of economists through
out the world. His successful inaugura
tion of a municipal coal yard in Lincoln,
by the aid of which the p.eople of that city
saved in one year more than $100,000.00,
stamps him as the true friend of common
men. When -Charles W. Bryan is elected
governor of Nebraska he will carry to that
high office the same courage and the same
ability which he has so splendidly dis
played as Mayor and Commissioner of his
home city and by the aid of which he will
accomplish good for the whole people of
Nebraska in measure as he has worked for
the welfare of the people of Lincoln.
From Nebraska Democratic State Platform.
one year, and the law has operated just the op
posite of what the state senators (who wore
bankers) who introduced it claimed. The rec
ord shows that there has been but a very slight
increase In the amount ' of intangible property,
listed with the assessor over the year before, and
inasmuch as it is only taxed at one-fourth of
what it was under the former law, the present
revenue law has brought into the treasury $500,
000 less than that class of property did when it
was assessed the same as the property of the
common people of Nebraska. In other words,
this vicious law has transferred $500,000 of the
taxes of the rich on to the backs of the common
people of Nebraska", who are already overburd
ened and some of whom are borrowing money to
pay the taxes on their farms at the present time
"I believe that all taxpayers should stand
equal before the law and that all property be
taxed alike, and that men who are so unpatriotic
or so dishonest that they will not list their prop--erty
with the assessor should be prosecuted the
same as any other criminal.
"I am in favor of wiping this vicious revenue
bill from our statute books and replacing it with
a revenue bill that recognizes "the Jeffersonian
principle of equal rights to all and special privil
eges to none.
THE FOUR REFERRED BILLS
"The state direct primary law will be so emas
culated if the amendments tacked onto It by the
last legislature are allowed to pass at the No
vember election that selection of delegates to
the national conventions will virtually revert
back into the hands of the party bosses," he de
clared. "Those amendments are so bad and contrary
to the interests of the people that they were sus
pended through the filing of a referendum peti
tion containing 60,000 signatures ofboth women !
and men.
"The filing of the petition enables the people
to vote on adoption or defeat of the proposed
amendments this fall. Those amendments, if
adopted, will take election of national commit
teemen out of the hands of the people.
"Next, it would take selection of delegates
now selected by popular vote, out of the hands
of the people and permit party conventions to
pick them. This would place their selection in
the hands of the party bosses who are controlled
by special interests and the delegates thus
p eked, select the candidates for president and
vice-president and also write the party platforms
The amendments also would repeal the law that
now prevents conventions from endorsing, candi
dates for pffice.
"If you permit a convention to endorse your
candidates it will have the same result as tliouRh
you permitted conventions to nominate the can
didates because candidates with party endorse
ment would be given such ah advantage over
other candidates who might file that it would be
folly far others to do so. Without party endorse
ment, other candidates might as well withdraw
from the-race and save campaign expenses.
ROBS PEOPLE OF CONTROL
"Ti
'I'm a strong supporter of the direct nrimarv
system and I hope the people will be aroused
to the importance of exercising their right under
the referendum to defeat those amendments.
They are 50 drawn, that they practically nullify
the direct primary system .and take from the peo
ple the control of, their own nominations,
"I realize that the governor alone cannot re
peal these reactionary measures and If you feel
as I and the other Democratic candidates
do about them, it is your duty to support the
Democratic state and legislative candidates, all
of whom are pledged, In writing, to wipe out the
rev'enuo law first, the code system second, and
to reduce the state appropriations.
"If, on the other hand you lavor the code sys
tem, objectionable as it is; the revenue laws; the
wholesale expenditures in state and national gov
ernment, you should cast your votes for our op
ponents. "Another measure which we complain of,
which, like the primary law amendments, is up
for referendum vote this f alibis the so-called
bank monopoly bill whicli vests in appointed em
ployes at Lincoln the power to decide whether
any more bank charters shall be issued. It is
too much of a temptation to place before them
employes who are not directly responsible to you.
You should not let that power pass from you.
"Another measure up for referendum which
we are protesting against is a measure which you
people of Sarpy county will feel the full effect
6t. ,It would require you to go to your county
seat thirty days before an election and register
under penalty of disfranchisement. In the city
registration is necessary to protect the ballot
because there, most voters are strangers to each
other but here in tlie country where you all
know each other, there is no occasion for such
a law.
"TJhe most charitable way I can view it is that
it is 'designed to cut the. rural vote and place con
trol in the city. . t. , , . i. '
"Isn't it very singular that that reactionary
legislature controlled by . Republicans should
pass so many bilJs with the same aims?
ANTI-PICKETING BILL
"The next measure suspended by referendum
petition and upon which you will vote this fall
is the anti-picketing bill. You people out here
might not know what it means, because it will
not directly affect you. It is a measure designed
to prevent peaceful picketing and it is so dras
tically drawn that it almost prevents a man on
strike from talking to his wife when he gets
home. It is un-American, to say the least, and
should be defeated at the polls this fall.
"Those are some of the things that the Demo
cratic party is pledged against. I came into this
campaign because I'm interested in legislation
for the people. My idea is to cut off these dup
lications Tn government; abolish the office of
fire warden because that office is a duplication
also. I want to see action to cut the county
taxes. I want to abolish the office of county
highway commissioner; the county truant officer
they have wished on you; I want to see the
health department put on a practical basis and
the fads" and isms cut off. I want the state auto
mobile tax reduced. It was raised as a war
"measure and the war's over now. Let's get back
to normalcy, as the President said.
"When you see the necessities of life advance
in price under the new tariff bill you'll sep what
has been done to you at Washington. It's time
for you to turn around and give some attention
to the man behind.
". . , There is no reason why any two or
you should differ on these issues. Either we are
right and the other party is wrong or we are
wrong and the other party stands for what you
want. The issues' were aever clearer. You shoum
discuss these issues and when you find out wnicn
party- represents what you are interested in, you
should vote as units. Form farm blocs and then
you'll begin to have your influence felt in state
and national affairs.
DEVELOPMENT OF WATER POWER
"The development of water power has been
delayed for years on account of the influ
ence of the big private power plants over
the state government," Mr. Bryan contmueu.
"These plants have fileu7 on the power sites
on the , rivers, .not with" the intention of develop-
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