f
The Commoner.
WILLIAH J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR,
es
I.
K .
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Vol. 3. No. 43.
Lincoln, Nebraska, Nov. 14, 190a.
Whole No. 95.
DAVID B. BILL'S BOOM
Tho editors are now construing tho returns,
and each one is able to Bhow that his views have
been vindicated at the polls.
For instance, the Evening Post of New York
says that "David B. Hill has been demolished as
a presidential candidate and that he will no longer
be an important personage in politics." Other pa
perstake an opposite view. The Kansas City
Journal says in a special dispatch that the election
makes Hill the logical candidate of the democratic
party. The Commoner insists that the late elec
tion neither helps no'r hinders Mr. Hill. He had no
chance of nomination before and has none now.
Those who talk of availability, as if the carrying
of a state or the losing of it would decide a presi
dential nomination, reflect on the good sense of tho
democratic voters. They assume that the demo
crats of the south will vote for any man on any
platform and'that their wishes need not, therefore,
be considered, and they also assume that the demo
crats of the rest of the country would favor' the
nomination of any one calling himself a demo
crat who had a reasonable prospect of carrying
Tew York. Those assumptions question the hon
esty of the democracy of the south and west. The
democrats of the east do-not vote the ticket unless .
both tho platform and the-nominations suit them;
they boast of their convictions and of their wlll--ingness
to follow their convictions oven if they
are thereby led to vote tho republican ticket, but
they talte it for granted that the democrats in the
rest of the country have no political convictions-
and are indifferent as to platform and men, pro
vided the democratic tag is attached by a conven
tion calling itself democratic.
Mr. Hill Is not an available candidate, not be
cause his state-failed to go democratic this year,
but because Mr. Hiil himself has not gone demo
cratic for several years. He Is credited with the
authorship of the phrase, "I am a democrat," but
he borrowed it from Mr. Cleveland and neither one
of them, could -prove title to it before an impartial
jury. There is not a single issue upon which the
party could make a fight under Mr. Hill's leader
ship. He made a record in the senate which would
be a millstone about his neck in any race before
the people. If he were a new man he might steal
a march on the voters, but he has been before the
public so long that his words and acts are fa
miliar to all.
His failure to support the ticket In 1896 (for .
his vote made known two years later after he had
conceived tho notion of being a candldato himself
cannot bo called support) Is not his greatest fault;
his greatest fault Is found in the fact that ho, is
controlled by influences which kept him aloQf from
a contest between the money power and the com
mon people. His very silence, coming after Jala
fight in the convention, gave most eloquent sup
port to the republican ticket The republican
party Is dominated today by the .same
corporate interests that dominated it in
1896, and as Mr. Hill 'has undergone no
change of beart or change of environment he can
be silenced again by the influences that silenced
him six ,jears ago. He now talks tariff revision,
but in 1894 he Tefused to support tho only tariff
reform bill passed, since the civil war and he re
fused, he said, because it contained an incomt tax.
He talks against trusts and yet he dares not say
a word against the money trust the worst trust
of all. He has never yet shown real devotion to a
principle, a cause or a person and such a candi
date could not inspire enthusiasm among those
with whom democracy is a sort of religion i-o
brotherhood of man stated in governmental terms.
The editor of The Commonor can discuss Mr.
Hill's candidacy frankly because he is not a can
didate himself and has no choice as between men
who can bo trusted to stand with the masses
against tho encroachments of organized wealth.
If democratic principles are worth holding,
thoy are worth fighting for, and if they aro worth
fighting for they aro too sacred to.be entrusted to
the keeping of one who instead of making a con
sistent and continuous fight for democratic doc
trines seizes upon any circumstanco that promises
temporary advantage, like tho spasmodic trader
who buys a bankrupt stock at half price, soils it
at auction and then waits until he can run across
another bargain.
More than two years ago one of tho great
financial magnates suggested Mr. Hill as a suitable
man to lead the democracy whenever tho corpora
tions decided to have a change of administration.
He would be entirely satisfactory to tho capital
that Is accumulated through governmental favor
itism and that supports- the candidates secretly
pledged to obey the orders issued from Wall street,
but ho would not be acceptable to those who de
sire to make tho party an effective instrument In
the hands of tho people for tho enforcement of the
Jefforsonlan maxim of equal rights to all and spe
cial privileges to none. '
JJJ
THE WINTER VACATION.
If any of the readers of The Commoner are
contemplating a winter vacation the editor sugr
gosts that they consider the wisdom of a trip to
Mexico. He took that trip five years ago and the
memory of it lingers yet The City of Mexico, the
capital of the second largest republic on the west
ern hemisphere, was once tho home of the Aztec
rulers "and now presents an interesting com
mingling of tho ancient Indian and the modern
Spanish. The visitor will not find in Mexico the
wealth and magnificence displayed in the European
capitals, but from the time he crosses the Rio
Grande until he again sets foot upon tho soil of his
native land he will be Instructed as well as enter
tained. There are so many Americans in Mexico
that one ha3 no difficulty in travelling there, al
though it Is convenient to know a few of tho more
common Spanish words. Those who are anticipat
ing a trip will find It' a great help to read Prescott's
"Conquest of Mexico" and the late Senor Romero's
book on Mexico. These will enable the visitor to
better understand what he gees and will also point
out. the places of rarest interest
Those who have already been to Europe will
find in the land of the Montezumas .a pleasing
change of scene; those who have never traveled
'abroad will be the better prepared to cross the '
ocean after they have acquainted themselves with
their own continent -
THE ELECTIONS OF 1902.
Those domocrat whose enthusiasm ebbs and
flows with the political tides will not be made
jubilant by reading the election roturns of last
wcok. Later roturns not only fall to strengthen
democratic claims, but give furthor evidence of
republican gains. In the south tho usual majori
ties have boon polled, but In tho northern states
Rhode Island and Nevada a.ro tho only ones that
olected democratic govornors. Senator Toller will
probably bo re-elected, but it is duo to hold-over
senators, tho house boing republican. Tho demo
crats lose Harris of Kansas, Tumor of Washing
ton, Rawllngs of Utah and Holtfeld of Idaho, and
gain Lattlmer In place of McLaurin In South Caro
lina and Nowlands in placo of Jones in Novada.
Tho democrats have gained a few congressmen and
lost some, leaving tho republicans In control.
Gonorally speaking, tho democrats made gains
in the cities and lost in tho country, the explana
tion being, first, that the city organization is
more comploto, and, second, that prosont prices
have brought more advantage to tho farmers tham
to tho wage-earners.
The result has been the same, too, whether he
.national platform of the party was Indorsed or
rejected. While .the Kansas City platform was
indorsed J- Rhode Island and Nevada the states
that wo carried it was ignored in Now York and
California states in which we maao gains.
On the other nand, wo wore defeated in Wis
consin, Indiana, Massachusetts, Illinois, Iowa,
Connnecticut, Now Jersey and Michigan, where
they turned down tho Kansas City platform as well
as In Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Minneso
ta, Washington, and Idaho, where it was indorsed.
Noithor tho regular democrats nor tho rcorganizors
can point to tho election as an evidence that their
plan of dealing with the issues will Insure succors,
but tho Kansas City platform democrats can con
sole themselves with the fact that thoy were fight
ing for principle and that they still have that while
those who fought only for victory have nothing
left
The gain in California-is doubtless due to the
activity of tho labor organizations and to tho fact
that the democratic party joined with them. la
the support of candidates especially satisfactory to
the wage-earners.
In New York the gains were almost entirely In
the city of New York where all factions were pull
ing together for Color. It Is difficult to locate the
credit for all the gains made in the city or to locate
the blame for tho failure to mako gains in the
up-state counties. Coler was a very strong can
didate and it Is an open question whether ho was
aided or weakened by the fact that Mr. Hill con
trolled the convention which nominated him.
In Massachusetts tho reorganizes had control
and they nominated a man more acceptable to the
corporations than the republican candidate, but he
was beaten badly enough to show that even from
tho low standpoint of expediency nothing is to be
gained by an attempt to republicanlze the demo
cratic party. Possibly It was just as well to make
the experiment at this time rather than later. Mr,
Williams said a year ago that he would remain out
of politics as long as the party stood by its prln-
x.&ilw,w.w b. "Mftntmreftifofi ifiiiriMJf"'"-"--
