The Commoner.
v
WILLIAfl J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
Vol. 2. No. 23.
Lincoln, Nebraska, June 27, 1902.
Whole No. 75,
BUND'S M0NI1MEMT
On June 17, the third anniversary of his burial,
a handsome monument, reared to the memory of
Hon. Richard P. Bland, was unveiled at Lebanon,
Mo.-, his old home.
Notwithstanding the threatening weatheY a
large crowd assembled, hundreds coming on ex
cursion trains from points twenty-fivo to one hun
dred miles away. Mrs. Bland and family, Judge
Bland, tho brother of tho deceased, and other
relatives and intimate friends occupied seats on
the platform.
The statue is life size and is made of white
bronze. It represents the distinguished demo
cratic leader in a characteristic attitude with arm
uplifted as if to give emphasis to his words. Col.
Moses C. "Wetmore, chairman of tho monument
committee, in an admirable address, presented the
statue to the city of Lebanon and Mayor Wright
responded in appropriate words. Hon. J. W. Farris,
chairman of the occasion, then announced that
little Virginia Bland, the youngest daughter of
the great commoner, would unveil the statue,
which she did while the Knights Templars saluted
and, the audience stood uncovered.
Ex-Governor W. J. Stone, the orator of the
day, in a masterly speech, reviewed Mr. Bland'-s
public life, calling special attention to his part
in the discussion of The Force bill and the tariff
question and to his even more conspicuous part in
the prolonged contest waged over tho coinage
issue. His public services were set forth and his
private virtues e'ulogized. It was fitting that this
task should be assigned to Mr. Stone, for he and
Mr. Bland were joint leaders in the great fight
that placed Missouri in the front rank in the
contest which resulted in the adoption of the Chi
cago platform.
Governor Dockery, his colleague in congress,
testified to Mr. Bland's steadfast advocacy of econ
omy in appropriations and of his consistent de
fense of the people's interests whenever and where
ever attacked.
Mr. Bryan also-spoke. He said that Mr. Bland
possessed all the qualities essential to a useful
public servant, namely, ability to discern the
people's interests and the courage to defend them,
the eloquence necessary to make his speeches ef-
fctive, the honesty to resist the temptations inci
dent to official life, and a tireless industry.
The monument proves the public appreciation
of Mr. Bland's work and wi.x be an inspiration to
those who shall look upon it in after years, but
the influence exerted by his life and example will
endure, when granite and bronze have crumbled to
decay.
JJJ
Violence in Strikes.
The occasional resort to violence in, strikes is
the weak point in this method of industrial war
fare The labor leaders understand this and al
ways endeavor to preserve order, but in every pro
longed contest the danger increases in propor
tioriras a settlement is delayed. The laboring men,
even with all of our boasted prosperity, have little
laid away to support themselves in idleness and
it is difficult to reason with hungry men. The
oretically all men recognize the lawfulness of
persuasion when employed by strikers and the un-
lawlessness of threats or force, but it is as unfair to
expect that all employes will at all times observe
the exact limitations of their rights as to expect all
employers to observe at all times the exact limi
tations of their rights, but, as tho unlawful acts of
employers are not always apparent to the eye,
while the acts of employes can be seen and meas
ured, the acts of the latter are more apt to bo
known and condemned. It Is necessary,
therefore, that labor leaders should exert
themselves to the uttermost to prevent any
infringement upon personal or property right. A
single act of lawlessness will often suffice to change
public opinion and defeat those who actually have
justice on their side. Some times tho violenco
comes from men outside of the labor, organiza
tions from that lawless element always found in
the cities and against these the labor leaders
should be ever on thev alert. Every appeal to
force weakens the cause of labor and furnishes
an argument to those who clamor for a largo
army. The remedy, however, Is not to be found in
militarism, but in a system of arbitration which will
without expense to either side lay all the material
facts before the public and thus insure a just and
equitable settlement.
It is a pity that education is so slow and that
it should require bloodshed and even death to
awaken the people to tne necessity for arbitration,
but every great reform comes from vicarious suf
fering. JJJ
i i
i i
REORGANIZATION IN ILLINOIS
i i
i
The democrats of Illinois might as well face
tho fact that the state organization is now in the
hands of the reorganizers. They controlled tne
late state convention, dictated the platform and
turned the party machinery over to John P. Hop
kins. The platform makes no reference to the'
Fowler bill, although that measure Is so inde
fensible that the republicans decided to postpono
consideration of it until after the election, not
daring to submit It to the judgment of the people.
Those who dominated the convention were them
selves so dominated by the great financial Inter
ests of the country that they were incapable of
representing the people at large.
With Hopkins in control of the party machin
ery the platform is, however, immaterial, because
he could not be trusted with the carrying out of a
platform embodying the Sermon on the Mount.
He was chief of the Palmer and Buckner forces in
1896 and conducted a campaign of fraud and de
ception. Failing to break up the party from the
outside he returned to the regular organization in
1900, and there is every reason to believe that ho
came back, not to assist the party, but to use the
party to forward republican schemes. By the aid
of corporate influence he became the head of the
state committee, and as long as he is the source
of democratic authority, the party in Illinois will
be essentially a republican party. It will be worse
than no party, for he will keep It from taking ad
vantage of republican mistakes. His presence at
the head of the "organization is an insult to tho
intelligence, honesty and loyalty of the rank arid
file. His past record and his present methods will
draw to the party only the venal and the cur
' nipt, while they will alienate those whose sole
ambition is to see the government administered
according to Jefferson's maxim of equal rights to
all and special privileges to none.
AT CLEVELAND'S FEET
The banquet given on tho evening of Juno 19
by the Tllden club of New York city was adver
tised as a "harmony meeting," but it turned out
to bo, what might have been oxpected of such a
gathering, an ovation to tho chief guest, former
democrat Grovor Cleveland. There can bo no
such thing ns harmony between mon like him
and those who believe in democratic principles,
and he is frank enough to say so. Ho spent no
time looking for "middle ground" upon which to
gather together discordant elements. Ho boldly
called upon tho members of the party to abandon
their convictions and accept tho construction which
ho places upon democratic principles. Ho even
taunted tho party with being a sort of prodigal
son and invited it to give up its diet of husks and
return to its father's house.
He spoke of his "retirement from political ac
tivity" and said: "Perhaps there a're those who
would define my position as one of banishment in-
stead of retirement. Against this I shall not en
ter a protest. It is sufficient for mo in either
case that I have followed in matters of difference
within our party tho teachings and counsel of tbo
'great democrat in whose name party peace and
harmony are tonight invoked.. No confession of
party sin should, therefore, be expected of me. I
have none to make; nor do I crave political abso
lution. I am hero to take counsel with others
professing the same party faith concerning tho
democratic situation."
He not only boasted of his course, but put his
brand upon those who sat at meat with him.
Having asserted that his democratic faith com
pelled him to leave the party (or resulted in' his
banishment) ho described the banqueters as shar
ing in that faith.
Pie is not only defiant, but he Insists that
party success can only be secured by an open
and avowed return to his Ideas. Harmony is to
he secured not by tho suppression of differences,
but by tho elimination of those who differ from
him.
The text of Mr. Cleveland's speech Is pre
sented on another page that the readers of Tho
Commoner may know that It sustains the editor's
contention that the reorganizers do not want har
mony, but control, and that their control means
the abandonment of the party's position and a re
turn to the policies and practices of Mr.
Cleveland's second administration. Ho secured
his nomination in 1892 by a. secret bargain with
the financiers; his committee collected from the
corporations and spent the largest campaign fund
the party ever had; he filled his cabinet with cor
poration agents and placed railroad attorneys on
the United States bench to look after the interests
ot their former clients. Ho turned the treasury
over to a Wall street syndicate and the financial
member of his official family went from Wash
ington to become the private attorney of the man
who forced (?) the treasury department to sell
him government bonds at 105 and then resold
. them at 117. He tried to prevent the adoption of
, the income tax provision, refused to sign the only
tariff reform measure passed since the war, and
while thundering against the trusts in his
messages did even less than Knox has done to In
terfere with their high-handed methods.
His administration, instead of being a foun-
'.
