The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, December 20, 1901, Page 5, Image 5
""y;iiw j,"s-" v3 o 5 Sauce for the Goose and the Gander. " In a recent consular report, Frank' Mason, United' States consul general at Berlin, said that the business situation in Ger many could not regain its former prosperity as long as the future respecting duties continues un certain and the danger of for eign reprisals remains. A German paper, the Kreuz Zeitung, commenting upon Mr. Mason's statement, declares that tariff duties in Germany are no more uncertain than in the United States. ,The Kreuz Zeitung adds, "Let the United States make and inaugurate a tariff reform favorable to commercial treaties before accusing other coun tries of endangering trade relations through pre parations for tariff legislation." It will occur to a great many people that this German paper has come very near to hitting the nail on the head. For a country that is so immovable on its high pro tective tariff provisions as the United States, it vtould seem we are indulging in considerable com plaint concerning the tariff laws of other nations. Senator Frye, who is one of the senatorial leaders of the fight for the ship subsidy, announced some time ago that he had Atraid "worked out a new subsidy bill." of When asked for its provisions Publicity. he replied: "I am unwilling that its features should become the shuttle-cock of journalistic comment." Why should the bill be shielded from public scrutiny? Why should its features be kept in the dark? Truth and justice do not fear the light; 'neither has any good measure reason for avoiding the public gaze. It is a significant fact that the republican leaders of late years have refused to give any considenble time for the discussion of their pet public meas ures. When they want something done they spring a bill upon congress and hurry it through. They failed to get-the last subsidy bill through and it was announced that it was going to be materially changed, but the public has had no chance to con sider the changes. Publicity has never defeated a good measure, but tad measures have often been passed hurriedly which could never" have been passed if sufficient time had been given for consid eration and discussion. It is a mistaken notion that the postal depart ment should produce a revenue. Its mission is to serve the people at the smallest cost, Express and when the department finds the re- and ceipts equalling the expenditures It Man. should immediately better the service. It is undoubtedly true, as the post master general claims, that the department is the victim of mail abuses, but it is not true that the abuse is confined wholly to a too liberal construc tion of the second class mail privileges. The greatest abuse is in the letting of mail carrying contracts at exorbitant figures to railroads, and in the payment of unreasonable rentals for mail cars. II costs no more to haul an express -car than it does to haul a postal car, yet the postoffice depart ment pays from seven to ten times more for haul ing postal cars than the express companies pay for hauling their cars. It costs the railroads no mco to ca'rry a ton of mail than it does to carry a ton of express, yet the government pays from seven to ten times more for mail hauling than express companies pay for their express haul. Before the benefits to the people are curtailed the exorbitant sums paid for. carrying the mails should be brought down to just and reasonable figures. Governor-elect Cummins of Iowa, speaking be fore the New York chamber of commerce, said: "I know that the people of this country will not stand for in dustrial monopoly any more than they would for a monarchi cal form of government. If we wish to preserve the manhood of our citizenship The Commoner. the lime will come when it will be necessary to nationalize the questions now agitating the pub lic mind in this particular domain." What Mr. Cummins Intended to do was to Titter to the as sembled republicans a warning against trusts. Mr. Cummins, however, touch&d very gingerly upon this question. If the "manhood of our citi zenship" is threatened, then the time to act is at hand rather than in the indefinite future, when that "manhood" shall bo destroyed. The ques tions now agitating the public mind in "this par ticular domain" are already "nationalized." The democratic party has taken a firm and unequivocal position on those questions. The republican party has deliberately and persistently encouraged the processes of industrial monopoly ana when the people become thoroughly awakened as to tho dangers confronting them the republican party will be. convicted upon its record. Representative John S. Williams of Mississippi has introduced a resolution providing for tho ap pointment of a committee to in vestigate the charges made by Historian Maclay that Crownin shield, Sampson and other naval officers read tho proof-sheets of Maclay's bitter attack on Admiral Schley. It can not be doubt that Mr. Williams, who is one of the forceful members of the house, will push hi3 resolution with all possible vigor, and yet it Is not likely that republicans will permit the adoption of any such resolution introduced by a democrat They will perhaps prefer to adopt a similar resolu tion introduced by a republican. At all events, the American people will expect the charge that Admiral Schley has been the victim of a con spiracy, to be thoroughly investigated. There seems, also, to be a disposition In congress to pre vent the creat'ion of the grade of vice admiral un less provision is made -for conferring that grade upon Admiral Schley and restoring him to active service. It required a long time for some of the politicians. in the republican party to realize that injustice was being done Admiral Schley, but it is now probable in spite of the court of inquiry's decision that many of them will compete strongly with democratic members in the effort to do jus tice to Schley. Doing Justice to Admiral Schley. The Retirement of rir. AlcLean. Mr. Cumraln'5 Stern Warning:. If the Ohio campaign has served no other pur pose, it has g'iven the democrats of Ohio - an in sight into Mr. McLean's views and plans. The Inquirer, which reflects his sentiments, recently contained the following: "A kindly commentator says that Colonel Kllbourne made as good a race as could have been expected under the circumstances. Per haps so. Not 'much was expected." The demo cratic papers of Ohio are now calling attention to the fact that Mr. McLean did not feel any inter est in Mr. Kilbourne's election. He was interested ici securing a repudiation of the Kansas City plat form because he thought it would help the reor ganizing element to get control of the party. The adoption of tho Tom Johnson planks, however, made the platform about as odious to him as the Kansas City platform would have been, and having no love for Mr. Kilbourne he did not take interest enough in the election to return to Ohio to vote. Mr. Kllbourne and Tom Johnson are growing fac tors in Ohio politics and neither one of them is in harmony with McLean's machine methods. At present the Kilbourne men and the Johnson men together control the state organization in Ohio. In future fights it ought to be possible to com bine the national principles entertained by the Kansas City platform with the state policies urged by the Johnson democrats and the clean poli tics advocated by the Kilbourne democrats, and thus put the democratic party of Ohio in good fighting trim. A London cablegram to tho Chicago Tribune cays that keen interest has been excited by the re port that tho ceremonies of do Drench Them ing homage and annolnting with intheniik oil will bo omitted from tho cor of Kindness. onatlon service of King Edward. Assurance is given, however, that this report Is not well grounded. It is gen erally admitted, so this cablegram says, that it Is no longer necessary to kiss tho king's, foot, yet oven this was done as late as tho coronation of Edward VI. But tho coromonial of annolnting with oil is a very old one. Tho annolnting Is to bo made on tho hands, breast, shoulders, elbows and head of tho king, and while It Is possible that King Edward will not require that his foot be kissed, ho will, it is said, adhere to all tho ancient customs concerning annolnting. This, to bo sure, is not the affair of outsiders, and if the English people conclude to drown their king In oil, no ono on this side of tho pond will have authority to complain. If, however, wo were permitted to make a suggestion, wo would say that if all tho men In authority in Great Britain, from tho King -to the humblest member of the British ministry, coulJ bo thoroughly annointed with tho milk of human kindness, tho coronation services would bo more successful both from tho standpoint of tho loyal Britisher and from tho standpoint of humanity having in view the rcconcentrado camps of South Africa. The Independent of New York, which makes somo pretensions to being Independent in politics, is sometimes more partisan in The Independent Its editorial comments than the not most pronounced party organs, independent In a recent issue it has the Im pudence to remove all the im portant questions from tho field of discussion by declaring them settled on the republican side. For Instance, it says: "There is no question of mili tarism before the country, nor of imperialism. No body defends either. Our army is very small, and la being reduced. Nobody wants war. Nor Is there any difference to amount to anything about imperialism. Nobody complains that we have Porto Rico, and nobody wants Cuba unless Cuba should ask to como to us. The Philippines are ours, and it cannot be helped. Everybody is pleased with the way we are trying to give them self-government, perhaps faster than the people know what to do with it. The question of im perialism, if there ever was one, is forgotten In the pressing task of establishing schools and courts and free government. If anybody has any suggestions for better conditions there, let him make them; tho administration will be glad. It is of absolutely no use to try to make a party cry of imperialism any more. It has gone to Lethe with sixteen-to-one, and it is not strange that tho new party never thought of it. And trusts? We wait for practical working suggestions that will differentiate parties." We now have in the Phil ippines more soldiers than we had in the whole United States four years ago, and there Is no pros pect of our being able to materially reduce the forces there. Instead of It being true that nobody, wants imperialism, the republican readers not only favor imperialism, but are today administering an imperialistic government in the Philippines. The Independent entirely ignores the real situation lu Porto Rico, and makes no reference to the subject of Cuba'3 representation in congress. It also as sumes that we must necessarily hold the Philip pine islands, anJ praises the manner In which the government is being administered there. Its posi tion on the trust question is In entire harmony with its views on the other questions It simply ac cepts tho position of the republican party, ana, without trying to defend it, denies that there is any necessity for defense. It would be difficult for the most bitter republican partisan to prepare a more misleading, untruthful or partisan edi torial than the one above quoted, and yet it cornea from a paper pretending to be independent.