The Commoner
WILLIAfl J, BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
Vol. 2. No. 31.
Lincoln, Nebraska, August.22, 1902.
Whole No. 83.
Optimism That is Fatal
'God bless tho optimist!" shouts the republi
can spell-binder. Well, optimism is good when it
rests upon a sound foundation; it is bad when it
blinds one to approaching dangers. It is one thing
In havn friith In tho ultimata triumnh of a cause
f;and quite another thing to ignore reasonable
warnings and the lessons of experience. Wo don't
'say: "God bless the man who stumbles into a
f'holo without seeing It," or "God bless the man
;wno sleeps while Ms nouse is miming, xnere is
io. golden (and silver) mean between -the doubt
(that retards healthy progress and tho over-confl-
fidence that invites catastrophy.
Just now the republicans are very optimistic;
fthey want to "let well enough alone." They re-
rsent any suggestion of reverse and scout at the
possibility of calamity. They are rushing fteau-
ang into new conditions and are leading the coun-
into untried paths. They are sure that wo
San maintain a republic here and at the same time
administer a colony in the Orient, unmindful of
tho fact that consistency will ultimately compel
. us to adopt at home the principles which wo
f defend abroad.
They are sure that they can safely encourage
the growth of private monopolies notwithstanding
the inevitable tendency of man to use power for
his own selfish purposes.
They think they can permit watered stock
and fictitious capitalization seemingly indifferent
to tho interests of those who must suffer from
unjust rates in order that dividends may be paid
on stock that represents no actual investment.
They are giving free reign to the financiers,
Indifferent to the fact that in all history they
have never been known to consider or conserve
the interests of the producing masses.
They are allowing.. United States judges to
abuse the writ of injunction when asked against
laboring men, while those who violate tho anti
trust laws go free, blind to the fact that such
discrimination makes more anarchists than all
. the speeches ever delivered by Herr Most.
Belshazzar was optimistic up to the night of
Babylon's fall and the republicans of today are
Imitating him as closely as possible. Theirs is
the fatal optimism that refuses to recognize the
logic of events or to apply reason to the affairs of
government.
Trusts and the Republican Party.
Will any one be deluded by the hope held out
by some republican newspapers that the republi
can party may bo depended upon to give the peo
ple relief on the trust question or on the tariff
question, or on other questions in which it is to
the interest of those who provide the republican
party with campaign funds to maintain present
conditions?
Republican leaders cannot claim that the fail
ure to provide relief was due to oversight. Demo
cratic members of the house of representatives
met in caucus on Juno 27, and adopted resolu
tions in which it was charged that the republican
majority in congress "is dominated and controlled
by the trusts and monopolies which have tho
great industries of our country in their grasp."
These resolutions charged that the republican par
ty refused and failed "to bring In any measure to
suppress the trusts or to favorably report any of
the numerous anti-trust bills Introduced by demo
cratic members during this session." Then the
democratic members resolved:
We favor the immediate passage of a meas
ure to amend the present anti-trust law, so
as more fully to protect trado and commerce
against .unlawful restraints and monopolies,
and also a measure to reduco the duties on v
all articles and commodities manufactured
and controlled or produced in tho United
States by a trust or trusts, so as to destroy
such illegal combinations, and to reduce tho
rate of duty on any article or commodity
manufactured In the United States and sold in
foreign country moro cheaply than in tho "
United States.
We oppose the adjournment of congress
until the measures mentioned above have been
enacted into law.
The republican congress adjourned. The anti
trust law was not amended. Nothing was done to
more fully protect trade and commerce against
unlawful restraints and monopolies; nothing was
done to roduco the duties on articles and com
modities manufactured and controlled or produced
in the United States by a trust or trusts, so as to
destroy such illegal combinations; nothing was
done to reduce the rate of duty on any article or
commodity manufactured in the United States and
sold In a foreign country more cheaply than in tho
United States.
The republican,vcongress clearly showed that
the arraignment made by the democratic caucus
was justified. In the refusal of this congress to
provide the people with any of the relief de
manded, the republican congress provided proof,
if, indeed, proof was necessary, that tho republi
can party "is dominated and controlled by tho
trusts and monopolies which have the great in
dustries of our country in their grasp." .
JJJ
A Railroad HoldUp I
r ii 1 7
On another page will be found a cartoon repro
duced by the courtesy of tho Chicago Record
Herald. It is entitled '"Another Railroad Hold-up"
and forcibly illustrates a capitalistic scheme that
ought to be better understood than it Is. Any ono
who has pursued the study of mathematics far
enough to be able to add 2 and 2 together should
know that an inflation of stock means, first, that
the purchaser buys on a fictitious basis, and, sec
ond, that the patrons of the road must be op
pressed by extortionate rates to pay dividends
upon stock that ought not to have been issued.
When watered stock is permitted tho holders of
such stock become by interest the enemies of the
patrons and the public, because having Invested
their money in the stock they easily convince
themselves that rates should be such as to yield
dividends, however unfair such rates may be.
The railroad employes are also interested In
preventing inflation, for In times of industrial de
pression tho stockholders will be tempted to cut
down wages Instead of dividends. Such hold-ups
as the Record-Herald describes are becoming com
mon and there seems to be no way of arousing a
protest so long as the masses are soothed to sleep
by the "let well enough alone" argument, but
tho time will come when tho indignation of tho
people will be aroused and then tho remedy ia
likely to bo the more drastic because so long de
layed. Those -are really the conservative coun
sellors who advise the immediate application of
means calculated ta protect the people from in
Amending the Constitution
Tho Kansas City Journal Is otfonded because
in his Nantasket speech Mr. Bryan said that "the
"republican senate has refused to grant the de
mand of tho people for tho olectlon of United
States senators by direct vote." Tho Journal saya
that this charge was "dictated by Ignorance or
recklessness."
Tho Journal first asks, "How did Mr. Bryan
learn that tho people had demanded tho right to
elect senators by direct vote?" Tho fact that with
very few exceptions tho newspapers of tho United
States, regardless of political prejudice, aro in
favor of tho election of senators by tho people is
an indication along this line. Tho fact that tho
lower house of congress, a body composed of men
who must run the gauntlet of popular Investigation
every two years, four times adopted a resolution
providing for tho election of senators by tho peo
ple Is further indication. Tho Indorsement of this
plan by republican, as well as by democratic and
populist conventions, provide other indications
that tho people arc in favor of the election of sen
ators by the people.
The Journal says that thero is a way for tho
people to enforce this demand if they really "de
sire that this proposed plan bo carried out. It
points to tho provision in tho constitution that
whenever the legislatures of two-thirds of tho
states shall make application, congress shall call
a convention for proposing constitutional amend
ments, and the Journal thinks that because this
course has not been adopted, the people do not
really advocate tho proposed change.
If the editor of tho Journal would tako the
trouble to read carefully Article 5 of the constitu
tion, h.o will discover that it was evidently the
impression of the framers that congress would
provide for tho submission of proposed amend
ments whenever it became certain that tho
people favored such amendments. Tho first pro
vision of this article empowers congress, when
ever two-thirds of both houses shall deem It nec
essary, to propose amendments to tho constitu
tion. The provision relating to the action of
tne legislatures of two-thirds of the states was
very evidently inserted as a means of forcing con
gress to act when congress, either through a mis
understanding of the necessity of tho situation or
a disinclination to act in conformity with the
public will, failed to discharge Its duty.
Tho method provided through tho initiative
of tho legislatures Is a clumsy one for obvious
reasonstho legislatures of two-thirds of the state
being required to join in this application. Because
the legislatures meet at different periods consid
erable delay would bo necessary in preparing
such an application. Then it would be neces
sary for the application to be submitted to. con
gress, undergoing, as it probably would in a re
publican congress, considerable delay; and then
after congress had acted, a convention would be
necessary, not for tho adoption of any particular
amendment, but for tho purpose of proposing
amendments, and after all this tedious process the
proposed amendments would be submitted to the
legislatures; and when ratified by the legislature
of three-fourths of the states, the proposed amend
ments would become a part of the constitution.
The advocates of the popular election plan