Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1903)
JiPfl rm?mm nuwww mmifwmimw ljPI'lIWillWlll.''PlIWIIIMlW-WfftlWWWIWiilipilfli)jiiiir,lii t pqyiyij;i iiwiiiiiii, yfiii The Commoner. 3 JULY 17, 1003. MWWII bonds. Wo are receiving from shrewd business men from the large trading centers, monthly or ders for certlflca.es, they claiming that the in vestment is safer and the possibilty of largo gain greater than investment in bonds, life insuranco or any of the speculative stocks offered on the boards of trado in the various commercial cen ters. Most of them purchase certificates syste matically, that Is, send in every month for from one to five dollars' worth. Almost every ono can economize a few cents a day, and the funds thus saved can re invested in certificates, and with a hundred or more certificates in your pos session you are likely to wake up some morn ing and find yourself tho lucky possessor of ah independent fortune. It hardly seems reason able that with a hundred certificates ono could miss ALL of the 1,889 prizes." Please let me know whether the department has issued any order on the subject and whether or not such a contest is regarded as a violation of tho anti-lottery laws. Yours truly, W. J. BRYAN. V The Answer. Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Postofllce Department, Washington, D. C, June 23, 1903. Your communication of the 10th inst. addressed to the postmaster general, sub mitting a circular of the World's Fair Contest company, Saint Louis, Missouri, and expressing the view that the prize scheme advertised therein is a lottery, has 'been referred to this office. It is unquestionable that the effect upon the public of these so-called gvesslng contests con sidering tho elaborate plan upon which they aro operated, the very large prizes offered, etc. is al most as pernicious as that of ordinary lotteries, and it Is the disposition of the postoffico depart ment to scrutinize very carefully all such schemes and to deny them the use of the United States mails where authority of law can be found for so doing. You of course understand, however, that in all such cases the department must be governed by decisions of the federal courts and opinions of law officers of the government. In this connection your attention is directed to the opinion of Attorney General Miller, 19 Opinions of Attys-Gen. 679; opinion of Attorney General Griggs, 23 Opinions of Attys-Gen. 207; opinion of Attorney General Knox, 23 Opinions of Attys-Gen. 492; and to the t:cison of the United States circuit co rt for the southern district of New York, in United States vs. Rosenblum, set forth in the inclosed circular. From a consideration of the authorities abovo cited you will observe that the scheme to which you call attention is beyond the reach of - tho postofllce department, unless it 'shall develop that fraud is being practiced in its operation. Very, respectfully, - C. H. ROBB, Assistant Attorney General for the Postoffico department. Hon. William J. Bryan, Lincoln, Neb. JJJ ", An Interesting Dispute. Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis of the Plymouth church, Brooklyn, and Senator Chauncey Depew are engaged in an interesting dispute as to the ef fect of great wealth. Dr. Hillis said in a sermon recently: "I want to say that vo will all go to tho devil on $50,000 a year at least a great many men I know are going to the devil on that sum and very few are escapirg it Once a man has an income of that much . money a year, he is apt to forget, in the same way that a man forgets to say grace after ho has dined. "Today we are raising pampered sons and daughters, surrounding them with every lux- ' ury and idle satisfaction of the decado and k they are rotten before they are ripe. I re- - peat it they are rotten before they are ripe and the boys in many cases are sinful before they are bearded. "They practice the 'sn commandments with the 'shall nots' left out and I warn them that in the future they will find that God and nature practice the ten commandments, but the 'shall nots' are left in. "I cannot pick up a paper, but that I sea ' tho '400' of this city engaged in divorce Buits. "I tremble for my country when all the work the preacher does :.fc ono end in mar rying the judge undoes U the other end in the divorcecourt "If the women of my congregation who ' are suffering with nervous prostration had the will power to take nine out of every ten of their froclis into the. back yard and burn them, I do not think thoy would longer be troubled with their nervous prostration." This is pretty strong languag- for the "pastor of a prominent i.rw York church, and no ono who is familiar with t!io situation can doubt that there is truth in what he says. Now comes Senator Chauncey Depew with his reply. Ho says: "It all amounts to this: Whether a man has, first, an inclination to go to tho devil; or, secondly, will power onough to resist tho temptations to take him thore. If a man pos sesses tno first or lacks the second condition, he can just as well go to tho devil on $10,000 a year as on so0,000." Ho then goes on to argue that tho sons of tho very rich are less liable to dissipation than tho sons of families of moderate means who come in from tho country. Tho trouble with Senator Depew's argument is that he does not give enough consideration to his second proposition. Very few men havo an inclination to go to the devil; tho great trouble is that they yiold to temptation, and tho temptat.ons that como to those who aro idle are greater than tho temptations that como to those who are necessarily occupied. The divorce suits that seem to be so frequent among the "400" aro largel duo to the fact that having no useful employment and spending their time in the search of pleasure thoy fail to find any real enjoyment at homo or anywhere else. The temptations of such a life are not only greater than tho temptations that como to those who30 hands and thoughts aro occupied, but tho strength to resist temptation is also weakened by high living. JJJ Reed's Fortune. The following item concerning the value of ex-Speaker Reed's estate appears In tho press dis patches: Tho report filed by tho appraisers ap pointed by the surrogate's court to value tho estate left by Thomas B. Reed, once speaker of the house of representatives, and for some years prior to his death practicing law in this city, shows that Mr. Reed left a personal estate valued at $431,099, after provision had been made for the payment of debts and tho expenses of the administration of the prop erty. The gross personalty amounted to ?G29,533. The principal items comprising tho estate, which consists chiefly of i ocl.s and securities, are: 9U0 shares of Northern Securities, val ued at $95,850; 200 shares of American Car and Foundry company, preferred, $77,800; 1,000 shares of American Smelting and Refin ing company, $38,000; 600 shares of Metropoli tan Securities company, $18,187; 1,200 shares of Metropolitan Street Railway, $167,250; 400 shares of Brooklyn Union Gas company, $90, . 000, and 100 shares Great Northern Paper company, $100,00U. Mr. Reed died last December. By his will ho left any propertr he waB possessed of to his widow. His will was executed many years before 1.1s death. Mr. Reed's investments sfc.w that he did not entertain any prejudice against the trusts. Well, he did not show any prejudice againct the cor porations during his speakership. In fact, whila he differed from tne republican leaders on the question of imperialism, he was in hearty sym pathy with thom on all questions effecting cor porations and monopolies. Tho report does not explain how Mr. Reed accumulated so much, or t, nether the accumula tion occurred during his memLorship in congress or afterwards. If the source of bis income, as well as the amount of his estate, had been given, the public could better judge whether his fortun9 was due to tho practice of economy while ho was drawing $5,000 a year, or to the literary and pro fessional work since he retired, or to speculation. rrr The Tariff Logicians. The St Louis Star has attempted to explain how a tariff on manufactured products makes manufactured products cheaper by stimulating competition and at the same time makes wheat dearer by preventing competition. But its ex planations are as lame as tho explanations of the protectionists usually are. The price of wheat is fixed abroad. Whether the farmer sells to tho miller In his home state or to the miller in Eu rope he geta the foreign price less carriage and commissions. The republicans try to show that a tariff on wheat raises tho prico of the farmer' wheat and then they try to show the farmer that a tariff lowors the- prlco of manufactured prod ucts. They make tho same argument In regard to wool. Thoy do not put tho arguments side by side, but In tho course of tho same speech they will assert that a tariff on wool raises the price of wool and that a tariff on tho goods made out of tho same wool lowers tin prlco of tho goods. Thoy mako these contradictory arguments not be causo thero Is any truth in them, but because thoy havo to dccelvo the farmer. The manufac turers understand the necessity for such argu ments and overlook thorn, but republican farm ers aro expected to accept them at their face value. rer Slavery in the Philippines. The Buffalo Expross comments upon the new government to bo established among tho Moros and says that "tho now council will be authorized to abolish slavery," and it adds: "This If not only a confession that slavery has continued to oxist under thd American flag, but apparently thore has not oven been authority to nbollBh it hither to." The Express then proceeds to quote the constitution on tho subject and says: "Not all tho advantage which tho pos session of tho Philippines can possibly bring to tho United States could offset tho harm done by this demonstration that tho military powor can violate tho most explicit and es sential clauses of tho constitution with im punity." The Express ought to have learned before this that colonies nro govorncd outside of the constitution and that It is 'Ms very thing that tho democratic party has boon objecting to. JJJ A Warning From Wealth. The Now York Post recently printed an editorial entitled "Monopoly and So cialism." The editor of tho Post speaks of the action of tho socialists in hailing "a leading Wall street organizer as a fellow-worker in a good cause," and points out that thero is really more truth than irony in it Tho extortion of gas, water and lighting companies did moro to accel erate tho movement in favor of municipal owner ship than all the abstract arguments that could have been made. And so Morgan, Hill and other railroad magnates have done moro to create the sentiment in favor of tho government ownership of railroads than either tho populist or tho so cialist party. Tho Post points tho truth none too strongly when It says: "Tho destroyers of competition aro the real enemies of our existing social system. It Is they that Individualists havo to dread moro than tho street-corner orator, or the peddler of socialistic literature, or tho foreign en thusiasts who have como hero to organize American workingmen for the coming revolu tion. Those republican senators who are so disturbed at the growth of the socialist voto y would do well to look first to some of their own associates and their own methods. Ev ' ery man who works to create a monopoly or who, in its name, exacts the uttermost farth ing, Is the most dangerous propagator of so- clalism known today." It Is time that tho republicans who have been blindly following their leaders should consider the question: "Is competition an evil or a good?" They cannot support monopolies without believ ing that competition Is an evil, and the moment they decide that a monopoly Is good they are face to face with a choice between a government monopoly and a private monopoly. On the other hand, if tho republicans decide that competition is good, then they must exert themselves to protect it, for competition Is being fast destroyed by organized and concentrated wealth. Tho democratic party has declared that private monopolies are Indefensible and intoler able; will the republicans take the samo posi tion, or will they hasten the issue between public and private monopolies by permitting the Indus tries of the country to bo gathered into a few hands? The democratic party has been the champion of competition where competition is possible, but it can never be the champion of private monop olies, for to champion private monopolies would simply bo to turn the people over to the tender mercies of the greedy and the avaricious. When a paper like the Post, a thick and thin advocate of the moneyed classes, begins to see danger in the rapid growth toward private monop olies it is time that the republican organs in the rural districts sound a warning to their party. SKfJl rjfltonrnrii ii i rtfiilTir '"nHmvatm m
