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The Commoner
VOL. I. NO. 8.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MARCH 15, 1901.
$1.00 a Year
V"
Williajm J. Bryan,
Editor and Proprietor.
The Fifty-Sixth Congress.
The record of the Fifty-sixth congress is com
pleted, and it is not an enviable one. For ex
travagance it has never been equaled, and no pre
vious congress has ever shown anything like the
contempt for American principles and traditions. .
The republican party in 1896 promised interna
tional bimetalism and this Congress redeemed the
promise by retiring the greenbacks and giving the
country as large a dose of the gold standard as
it thought the patient was able to bear.
It has fastened a large army upon the, United
States an army larger than the President would
have been willing to defend during the late cam
paign. It has violated the solemn promise made to Cuba
and demanded a supervision of Cuban affairs
which amount to a denial of independence.
It has conferred upon the President authority
over the Philippines as unlimited, as arbitrary and
as tyrannicalvasx George IHNever exercised'over the
colonists.
In addition to its sins of commission it has
sins of omission to answer for.
It has failed to respond to the demand of the
wage-earners for relief in the way of shorter hours
and it has neglected to abolish government by
injunction.
It has refused to give the people any relief
from" extortionate railroad rates and has 'declined
to enact anti-trust legislation, although a billion
dollar trust was organized while it was in session.
It has repudiated the party's promise in re
gard to the inter-oceanic canal. For years the re
publicans advocated the Nicaraugua canal; in 1900
they substituted an endorsement of an Isthmian
canal, but the trans-continental railroad lines have
sufficient influence with the republican party to
prevent its carrying out any canal project.
It has failed to recognize the desire of the people
for election of senators by a popular vote; and it
would have committed the country to the infa
mous ship subsidy legislation but for the filibus
tering reported. to by the democrats, populists and
silver republicans. A fifty million dollars River
and Harbor bill was also defeated by a few fili
busters led by Senator Carter of Montana.
This is the record not all of it, but enough of it.
These things are known to the reading public and
yet republican farmers continue to vote the re
publican ticket, republican laboring men continue
to defend their party and republican business men
raise no protest against what is going on. Great
corporate interests furnish campaign funds, dic
tate platforms, make nominations and dominate
administrations. To what extreme can the repub
lican leaders go before they provoke remonBtance
and repudiation?
A Pathetic Statement.
A most pathetic interviow was that given to
the Pall Mall Magazine by President Kruger of
the South African Republic. Mr. Kruger referred
feelingly to his reception by individuals and
societies, in which receptions he was welcomed
with flowers and words of kindness. Ho ex
pressed his appreciation of these evidences of
sympathy, but he added that he cared little for
flowers or words of kindness, although ho was
grateful for the sentiment which they represented.
What he wanted was a fair hearing; what ho
longed for was justice; what ho desired was arbi
tration and the right to defend the integrity and
the existence of his government before the organ
ized governments of the world.
In the same interview Mr. Kruger said:
Two of my sons have died on the battle-field.
Two were captured. I believe two more are dead
also, as I have not heard from them for two months,
and i know they were in the thick of the fight.
Thirty-one sons and grandsons I have in the field
Here is a man torn not only from the country
to whose service ho has given the best years of
his life, but torn from the wife and the children
and the grand-children whom he doubtless loves
more than life itself. Convinced, of the integrity
of his nation's position, confident of the righteous
ness of his own attitude, he has struggled with
his countrymen against a powerful foe, and the
courts of Europe dare not raise a voice in his be
half, although they know him to be the victim of
one of the most outrageous conspiracies against
constitutional government in the history of the
world.
It is not a new thing for the world to observe
European courts silent in the presence of a great
national wrong. It is, however, something new
for the world to see the United States of America
and its authorities tied down and hindered by the
same bonds that tie down and hinder the courts of
Europe. It is something new for the United
States of America to withold its sympathy from a
republic struggling against an empire from a weak
yet brave people struggling for freedom and con
stitutional government against the aggressions of
a formidable adversary.
Applied Christianity.
Dr. W. M. Hindman, of the First Presbyter
ian church of Lincoln, Neb., in a recent sermon
on the Good Samaritan, drew a practical distinc
tion between pity and sympathy. He said:
All believe in the Good Samaritan; all admire him
for the sympathy he bore the unfortunate. His sym
pathy was more than sentiment; it is deeper than
pity. Men of independence despise pity; they crave
sympathy. lie who pities feels for you; he who sym
pathizes feels with you. Thcro is a vast difference
between the two. The priest and Lovito pitied, and
passed by on the other side. The Samaritan sympa
thized and got down with the man in his suffering,
lie sacrificed his own comfort to make the needy com
fortable; ho suffered with the sufferer; ho helped him
out of his trouble.
Sympathy is applied Christianity; it is a fulfill
ment of the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself."
In the course of the sermon Dr. Hindman em
phasized the fact that those who would help their
fellow-men must go among them and share their
burdens, and quoted the lines so often used as a
rebuke to those pastors who never get within
hailing distance of their flock:
A parish priest of austerity
Climbed up in a high church steeple
To be near to God, that he might hand
God's word unto the pcote.
And in sermon script ho daily wrote
What he thought was sent from heaven,
And he dropped it down on the people's heads
Two times, one day in seven.
In his time God said, "come down and die,"
And he cried from out his steeple:
"Where art thou, Lord?" and the Lord replied,'
"Down here among the people."
Should be Above Suspicion.
The position taken by Congressman Hull in
regard to his investment in the Philippine island
opens up a question which ought to receive se
rious consideration at the hands of tho American
people. He is chairman of tho house committee
on military affairs, and is also president of the
Philippine Lumber and Development Company.
As chairman of tho committee, Mr. Hull had
charge of the bill for the increase of the army;'
as president of the Philippine Lumber and De
velopment Company he was interested in increas
ing the army for the protection of his Philippine
investments. He confesses that the investment
in the Philippines depended upon political con
ditions, for in explaining lis connection with the
company he said:
I will say further to the gentleman from Tennea.
see, and to. this House, that while the campaign was
on, the company with which I am associated called a
halt in their enterprise and notified every one of the
stockholders that if Bryan should bo elected not one
dollar would we invest in the Philippines, but if Mc
Kinley should be elected we would invest all the
money that we pleased, belipving it would have fa
vorable return by the restoration of order and good
government in the Philippines.
It will be remembered that the democratic
party declared against a large army; tho size of
the army was, therefore, an issue in the campaign.
The question arises, can Mr. Hull discharge his
duty to the public and fairly and impartially do
the work of a congressman and committeeman,
and at the same time look after investments i
the Philippine islands which are so intimately con
s
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