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The Commoner.
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The Commoner.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nek.
Speaking of tko Fowler bill, read Proverbs 6:5.
Wonder if Wall street could not uso a little
more silver just now?
Messrs. Baer and Markol seem to be something
of rough ridors themselves.
Mr. Shaw says he's tired. For once Mr. Shaw
and the public are in accord.
A criminal- prosecution might let the serum
out of the coal trust traumatic.
Doubtless Mr. Henderson would be rejoiced
to wake and And it only a dream. . M
The miners might have won without a striko
If they had voted as solidly as they now stand.-
The steel trust's latest statement looks and
reads like the budget of a world power nation.
a democratic platform that Is thoroughly dem
ocratic needs neither apologists nor interpreters.
There are as many definitions of the "Iowa
Idea" as there are republicans who attempt to de
fine it
Gentlemen who have nothing to arbitrate us
ually find themselves possessors of something to
regret
Mr. Sibloy's. friends are said to bo J'beeflng"
because General Alger received the senatorial ap
- polntmeht.
Tho coal barons will not be so insolent here
after If the people strike at them through the
ballot box.
Mr. Republican Congressional Candidate, do
you favor enacting into law the Iniquitous Fowler
currency bill?
However, Mr. Shaw is not the first secretary
of the treasury to cucnge his mind after lunch
ing in Wall street.
When Mr. Bragg gets settled in Hong Kong
-Mb first writing should bo in tho nature of a post
script "burn this letter." '
Either Wall street knows the psychological
moment or exercises a hypnotic influence over sec
retaries of tho treasury.
The anthracite operators want the coal strike
settled just like tho protected "infante" wanfJS
tariff revised-all their way. fc the
"x, In view of what the Fowler bill m-ovM f.
-W.UWU w UiEUJUSg IE.
After Imnortincr itrnrn4r. t..x. -
E&XFiS
tr-sa L-j3re z ass-
. ---. 0,U0I w uuiu operators.
Head tho "Lots of Five" proposition found'
olsowhere in this issue. .
President Mitchell is still wearing his laurels
modestly, but President Baer -well ho has no lau
rols to wear.
Having been sent from Cuba to China for say
ing something about "sow's ears," Mr. Bragg
should bo careful what ho says about pig tails.
City Attorney Folk of St Louis is proceeding
along lines that will bring upon his head tho
enmity of captains in certain lines of municipal
industry.
The Fowler bill is not even sleeping. -It is
peering over tho committee room transom watch
ing to see when it will be safe to come in on tho
floor of congress.
The steel trust announces that it "earned" $36,
764,643 during tho last three months. .'But doubt--less
tho steel trust uses the word "earned" in a
Pickwickian sense.
The coal barons may have more money than
Mitchell, but Mitchell has something that all tho
money of the coal barons cannot buy the re
spect of the people.
Judge Birdsall's letter of acceptance indicates
that ho would just as soon run on that kind of a
platform as any other, no matter as long as ho
has a chance to run.
Senator Hanna believes in letting well enough
alono and ho is, therefore, still suppressing tho in
vestigation of the-means employed by him to get
his seat in the' senate.
Perhaps Baer would be satisfied if Governor
Stone would order each one of the ten thousand
Pennsylvania militiamen to lay down his gun and
get into the levels with a pick.
Secretary Shaw is going through all sorts of
contortions trying to prevent a stringency In Wall
Btroet, but the reorganized have to keep still about
it or they will make tho financiers mad.
None of the dust thrown In the eyes of the
people by tho president's remarks on the trusts
was scraped from the amount which has accumul
ated on the criminal clause of the anti-trust law.
It appears that Mr. Baer Is one of those
"sterling democrats" who has been voting the re
publican ticket for a number of years and con
tributing liberally to republican campaign funds.
The Nebraska supreme' court has decided that
it is unlawful to read the Bible in the public
schools. The decision may have a good effect if "it
influences parents to read it more in the home
circle.
The democratic platform of Connecticut in
dorses tho Kansas City platform remedy-for the
trusts. But for its evasion of the money ques
tion the Connecticut platform would be a very good
document.
The Nebraska Independent is one of the lead
ing populist papers in the United States. It is
ably edited, and readers of The Commoner will do
well to take advantage of its free sample copy offer
on page 16.
The president and his cabinet are on tho de
fensive and all of them are trying to explain tho
administration's inactivity on tho trust question.
If tho defendant's witnesses could be separated
they would tell a very contradictory story.
The president seems worried to find some
means of getting at the operators without resort
ing to the criminal clause of the anti-trust law.
The operators have never yet been hurt by being
hammered over the head with feather pillows. '
Mr. Mitchell rs diplomatic enough to con
ceal the fact that the president's request that he
end the striko by giving up all the miners havo
contended for was calculated to insult tho intelli
gence of a loss shrewd man than John Mitchell.
The New York gentleman who rejoice because
Mr. Shaw loaned them government money on any
old kind of securities aro tho gentlemen who
laughed most derisively when tho populists pro
posed a similar course of action and offered good
security.
Vol. a, No. 39.
, That precocious "infant," 4 the steel trust la
earning about 520 pr cent on a capitalization of a
billion, and 0 per cent on an actual investment
of five hundred millions. Of course the managers
of the steel trust believe in, "standing 'pat" on thn
tariff. W8
General Grosvenor is agitated to such an ex
tent that he feols it to be incumbent - upon Mr
Morgan to settle tho strike in the interests of a re
publican congressional candidate in Ohio, the in
terests of the miners and tho general public cutting
no figure at all in the matter.
A Centralla, 111., young lady who had been
asleep for ten days, resisting all efforts to arouso
her, has been awakened by an osteopathist This
is a hint to those wise republicans who would
arouse their fellows-to a realizing sense of the need
of tariff revision. Try osteopathy.
Wall street has received $30,000,000 as a loan
without interest to loan to the people at stiff
rates of interest in order that the people may
secure money enough to pay the tariff taxes.
There is every reason why Wall street should hold
Mr. bnaw in grateful remembrance.
Mr. Hill was not willing to indorse the Kansas
City platform remedy for all trusts. Will he sug
gest government ownership for the steel trust, the
oil trust, the sugar trust, the starch trust, tho
cracker trust, the harvester trust and the more
than two hundred other trusts? If not, what rem
edy has he for them?
Republicans advocate a tariff on steel because
it stimulates competition and reduces the price of
steel. Then they advocate a tariff on wheat be
cause it prevents competition and increases tho
price of wheat This sample of republican logic,
like the whole output, is- so crooked that it has
crossed itself a dozen times.
The gentleman who thought he had left his
watch at homo and took it out of his pocket to see
if he had time to go back and get it reminds us ot
the gentleman who unconsciously holds, tho crim
inal clause of the Sherman anti-trust law in his
hand ancj rushes frantically around to find a misslo
to tnrow at the anthracite coal trust
Mr. Allison has just given to the public his
ideas about the matter of the tariff. Mr. Allison
is of the opinion that it should not be revised un
less it is revised without revision by revisors who
are opposed to revision. For fear that this may
be misunderstood it is here explained that it Is
fully as clear as Mr. Allison's published views on
the question.
Mr. Roosevelt's request to Mr. Mitchell was
in- effect this: "As you have offered to go more
than half way, please go all the way; give up all
you have fought for and, take chances on getting
relief from an administration that is controlled
by the parties that refuse to budge an inch." These
were not the president's words, but they cover
the same ground.
Senator Hanna says, first, that there are no
trusts; second, that trusts are a good thing, and,
third, that "if the trusts aro bad tho republican
party will take care of them." That recalls the
famous defense of the man who was charged with
borrowing a kettle and returning it cracked. Ho
said, first, that Le did not borrow it; second, that
it was cracked when he got it, and, third, that it
was sound when he took it back.
Senator Turner of Washington is one of the
active advocates of election of senators by a direct
vote and the convention that renominated him de
manded that reform. Until we fill tho United States
senate with men chosen by the people it will be
impossible to pass any important measure for the
benefit of tho masses. The republicans of the stato
of Washington can afford to lay aside partisan
ship and return such a man as Turner to the senate
where ho has battled so earnestly and so ably for
the interests of the common people of 'the wholo
country.
Secretary Shaw says that tho law requires na--tonal
banks in reserve cities to keep 25 per cent of
tueir deposits on hand, but ho insists that the sec
retary can exercise discretion in the enforcement
of the law, and in his discretion he has decided
not to enforce it The president seems to feel the
same way about tho criminal part of the anti-trust
Jaw. The administration seems to be more stren
uous on tho stumpthan in the attorney general'H
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