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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1901)
6 The Commoner. 1 If The Commoner, ISSUED WEEKLY. William J. Bryan. Editor and Proprietor. Ter Payable la Advance. Oae Yar Ji.oe fix Months ', 8e Three Months ; :.. .as UnglcCopy At Newitands or at this Office o Sample Copies Free. No Traveling Canvassers arc Employed. Subscriptions can be sent direct to The Com moner. They can also be sent through newspapers which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through precinct agents where such agents have been ap pointed. All remittances should be sent by postoffice order, express order or by bank draft on New York or Chicago. Do not send individual checks, stamps, or money. Advertising rates furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb. Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, ws second class mail matter. Doubtless the g. o. p. leaders referred to tlio full dinner pails of the gentlemen who con trol the output of steel. In the face of an industrial war the Repub licans of Ohio demand a campaign on state issues. Over in Pennsylvania the republicans demand a campaign on national issues. When organized labor goes on a political strike and refuses to work for the political su premacy .of politicians who cater to trtiBts and monopolies there will be more hopes of success. T. C. Piatt and Governor Odell should sub mit their quarrel about the personality of the next republican candid atef or president to Mr. J. P. Morgan. The indications are that Mr. Morgan will be the final arbiter, anyhow. Professor Triggs calls most of the church hymns "doggerel," probably because they do not have that smooth oily flow so common to the bits of poesy advertising paraffine candles and other manufactures known as the by-products of kerosene. General Bates says he always made the Sulu slaveholders prove their title to their slaves. If they failed he gave the slaves freedom pa pers. It seems time to attach a preamble to Bates and set him in the place once occupied by the constitution. If democratic organs will confine their edi torial utterances to tho upholding of domooratio doctrines they will not have space to abuse and deory men who were supporting democratio platforms and candidates when some of tho loudest advocates of reorganization were sup porting tho republican ticket. John Bull is arming Kaffirs and sending them against the Boers. But this is nothing new for John Bull. Indeed, it is a favorite trick that he has been turning ever since 17V6. It has not been so long ago .since he turned Tecumseh loose under the spur of .British gold. A republican politician in Kentucky wanted a postoffice hold by a widow whose husband had been a working democrat. " After vainly striving to oust the widow the man married her and became postmaster. "When a republi can starts out after an office he will generally accomplish his point. Five men may meet secretly and lay plans to crush an independent manufacturer, and" that is called financiering. Five hundred men may meet openly and endeavor to persuade their fellows to stand by the juBt demands of or- ganized labor, and that is called intimidation and punished by prison sentences. It has been discovered that after less than twelve years of existence the steel armored cruiser Columbia is worthless because of inat tention and disuse. For two years it has been deserted save for a $2 a day watchman, and tho engines are rusted until they refuse to work and are useless. One half the effort expended in trying to make Sampson the hero of the Spanisb-American war, would have kept this cruiser in fighting trim. A number of mouthpieces of trusts and monopolies profess to bo greatly scandalized because the striking steel workers broke cer tain contracts said to have been made with their employes. But these mouthpieces insist by implication that it is right .and proper for the strikers to break their contracts with their fellows and repudiate their unions, flas it come to pass that it is no sin to break a con tract unless it happens to be a contract made 'with a trust? The esteemed Chicago Chronicle seems fond of telling how fusion has failed in Nebraska. Let's see about that. Fusion rescued the state from republican control after thirty years of fruitless effort on the part of democracy." It retired a republican senator after the state had been the victim of unbroken republican sena torial representation for more than a quarter of a century. It reduced the republican represen tation in tho lower house from three to two and added four to the opposition. It uncovered $500,000 of financial rottenness in the state's finances and saved thousands of dollars to tho permanent school fund. It cleared the political atmosphere in Nebraska, and had democratio newspapers liko the Chronicle worked as hard for tho success of democratic principles as tho democrats of Nebraska did, tho present day rule of trusts and monopolies would not be in existence, tho flag would not bo dishonored abroad, tho constitution would not be a literary collandor and the principles of the Declaration of Independence would yet bo in full force and effect. Professor Professor Triggs' assertion Triggs on . that church hymns are for tho Church Hymns, most part doggerel has stirred up a great controversy which bids fajr to rago for some time to come. It ia not a sufficient reply to Professor Triggs' as sertion to say that ho is the gentleman who likened Mr. Eockefeller to William Shake speare. It is well for tho world that Profes sor Triggs is sadly mistaken in his comparison of the two men. No one can appreciate what the world would have missed had Shakespoaro been a financier instead of a poet and dramat ist. As for the professor's remarks concerning churoh hymns, he is entirely too sweeping in his charges. No one will dispute that some church hymns aro doggerel, but even the poor est of them contain a sentiment dear to tho Christian heart. Perhaps the professor would be willing to write a few church hymns .merely for the purpose of showing tho world just what he would have church hymns to be. Why -- Bourke Cockran was snubbed Cockran in the House of Commons re- Smiled. . cently. Mr. Cockran was tho guest of Winston Churchill, and the two met Colonel Arthur Lee, recently the British military attache at Washington. Colonel Lee did not deign to recognize tho New York lawyer, and Mr. Churchhill asked "Don't you know my friend Bourke Cockran?" " "Yes," replied Colonel Leo, "The last time I saw him he was welcoming Boer delegates to Washington." .Then Colonel Lee turned ,on his heel, leaving Mr. Cockran as ono English writer puts it, "in a beastly state of humilia tion." The more reliable information, however, says: "Mr. Cockran only smiled, while Mr. Churchhill made profuse apologies for subject ing his guest to such a "rebuff." There are, however, in America, millions of men and women who can readily understand why Mr. Cockran smiled. These can readily un derstand why Bourke Cookran accepted Lee's statement as a tribute rather than a rebuff. True it was not intended as a tribute, but there is an old fashioned notion in America that it is a distinct-honor to have the privilege of wel coming representatives of a people struggling for' republican form of government. If the Lee example is followed generally, and Englishmen refuse to speak to Americans who have expressed sympathy with the Boers, then the conferences between American citizens and King Edward's subjects will bo limited, so far as this side of the water is concerned, to administration politicians. At this rate ono need not be surprised if some haughty Britisher refuses to confer with an American on tho ground that the latter has at some time or an other paid tribute to tho memory of Georgo Washington or said words of commendation for the gallant deeds of "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Americans ( "rebuffed," "rebuked" and "in sulted" on this account, will smile, and can af ford to smile exactly as Bourke Cockjan smiled.