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The Commoner.-
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VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2a.
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Mr mflll llsForiir
Rockvillo (Ind.) Tribuno: That big
democratic picnic at Chicago ought to
ratisfy even the plutocratic press
where the "rank and file" stand.
JerseyvIUe (111.) News: All demo
crats should - understand that the re
organizer plea, is nominally for har
mony and in reality for the republican
party.
Hastings (Mich.) Journal: The re
publican press is again' nominating
democratic candidates for the presi
dency. They are getting a lot of fun
out of it, too.
Rochester (Ind.) Sentinel: Demo
crats who do not want to win and re
publicans who do not want the demo
crats to win are talking in favor of
Grover Cleveland.
Langdon (N. D.) Courier-Democrat:
Senator Hanna says he would join the
Salvation Army and go to preaching if
he had time. The senator is a good
deal like "the rich young man" of the
Bible. Ho hates to let go.
Jonesburg (Mo.) Journal: Republi
can papers are- very busy these days
bringing- "good men" to the front for
places on the democratic ticket
When the democrats chooBe theL
standard-bearers, the republicans'
wishes will not be consulted.
Eureka (III.) Democrat-Journal: Re
publican papers cito the fact that the
government has taken a hundred mil
lion from the people more than it
needs, by exorbitant taxes, as an evi
dence of "prosperity." Any old thing
seems to go for an argument in that
camp.
Falrbury (Neb.) Journal: The two
most prominent candidates for presi
dent on the democratic side are Wm.
R. Hearst and Tom Johnson. The
Journal could support either of them
on the proper platform, but we want
no Dave Hill or Grover Cleveland or
Arthur Pue Gorman.
Westmoreland (Pa.) Democrat: The
absolute subserviency of the republi
can, party to Quayism has been de
monstrated by the fact that, thus far,
not a single republican county con
vention, in Pennsylvania, has had the
independence or courage to condemn
the unconstitutional and infamous
press-gag law.
Bloomfield (Ind.) Democrat: When
democrats quit bidding against the
republicans for monopolistic favor
thq 'day of their triumph is in sight
There is a big majority of the Ameri
can people who believe in democratic
principles. All they want is a party
that will fight for them, and they will-
get together.
Bowling Green (O.) Democrat: Gro
ver Cleveland is to publicly open his
THE COMMON PEOPLE
Clinton (111.) Register: In the fu
ture the letters g. o. p., used by the
republican party, will be transposed
and read p. o. g. post office grab. ,
Lewlsburg (W. Va.) Independent:
The tariff plank In- tho republican
platform of Iowa Is a mere juggle of
words that makes no positive declar
ation and simply means nothing. It
declares that if any schedule is too
high, it should he reduced, and if any
schedule is too low it should be in
creased. Any fool could write a plank
like that
Portsmouth (O.) Times: We have
not yet heard of Roosevelt threatening
to send around minions and shut down
business entirely at Evansville be
cause the whites are driving all tho
blacks out of the town. Neither do
we see a certain class of papers pro
jecting such thunderous editorials
against the Hoosiers for their bloody
exhibition of race prejudice. With
some people the location of a crime is
far more he"inous than the crime itself.
New Bloomfield (Pa.) Democrat
The question now being asked is,
What has become of the "Iowa idea?"
It seems to haye "gone glimmering
like a schoolboy's dream, the wonder
of an hour." After all the beating of
torn toms and sounding of hew gags
anent this "Iowa idea" the platform
adopted by the Iowa republicans was
a straddle and a fake on the tariff
reform and revision question and all
tho analysis of it on earth could make
nothing else out of it
Monmouth (UL) Democrat: The
fact that Grover Cleveland has ac
cepted an invitation to speak before
the Chicago Commercial club this fall,
and tho further fact that a number of
his old political friends and allies are
also invited to attend the meeting, is
taken as evidence that his "corpul
ency" has really designs on the presi
dency again, and there is much stir
in political circles in consequence. We
are not a prophet, but nredlct that
the "auto" that fetches Grover in the
presidential ring in 1904, will be so
badly punctured that both it and the,
only living ex-president will look
worse than a Mexican dollar does to
a gold bug, before, the finish.
Lowell (Mich.) Ledger: The presi
dency of the United States Is too
great a temptation for mortal man.
No matter how great or good a presi
dent may be or how lofty his pur
poses when first Installed, he very
sooil begins to lay his plans for re
election, always at a sacrifice of prin
ciple. Cleveland was not proof
against it, nor is Roosevelt What has
come of the tatter's bluff against the
trusts? What is the trouble with the
presidential campaign with a speech K?fi0S?eaSa,,d In,7esSJtions? Why
at a Commercial club banquet at Chi
cago in October. Pshaw! The gall of
como persons is amazing. Tho demo
crats ot the country have no use for
G. C. but perhaps it- is a republican
nomination he Is after, as his politi
cal affiliations for somo years past
would indicate.
Sigourney (la.) Review: Let ub
see, it was President Roosevelt who
recommended publicity as a cure for
.trusts. The president believed that
by compelling those combinations to
make public their transactions it
"would act as a sort of "cure all" for
the disease. It is noticeable that the
ame physician has recommended and
'enforced secrecy as the remedy for the
postal outrages that have been in
x vogue, during his administration. It
.aeems to make a difference whose af
Ifairs are to ho made public as to tho
Jjcfflcacy of the medicine. v
this "hushing uo" Of the BwindnlR?
What of tho demand for tariff reform,
as expressed by McKInley in his last
speech, and as echoed by Roosevelt
on his accession to the presidency?
Only the overmastering desire for an
other term furnishes the answer. Tho
presidential term should be extended
to six years and the president made
ineligible for re-election. Then the
people would get the best there Is in
a man of mind and conscience. For,
having nothing further to expect of
public preferment, the president wonld
be independent of the rascals and en
emies of good government, who always
swarm around one who has fat offices
to give out, like flies around a mo
lasses barrel. The instituting of this
reform, together with the election of
United States senators by direct vote
of the people, would work wonders for
the public good. Let us hope to see
them both enacted.
(Continued from Page 6.)
"therefore, the sense of hearing of the
grasshopper is in its legs."
'ihat the common people do respond
to appeals to right, is a historic fact
All down tho highway of history you
Und its landmarks. Go bacic to Pal
estine, go back to the days when the
iuan of Galilee preached through that
far eastern country, when the doc
trines of truth, of righteousness anu
love, echoed among tho hills of Pales
tine, and who was it that heard him?
'ihey all heard him. But the com
mon people heard him gladly. It was
not the reinorganizers, it was not the
Pharisees that heard him gladly. It
was the common people.
Come down a little later. When
printing was invented, and when the
powers that ruled in those times tried
to suppress it, what was Jit that
brought printing out into the open arid
made it spread ideas of truth and jus
tice all over the world? The.de
mands of the common people, the de
sires of the common people; it was
they that welcomed printing, and with
It all the knowledge that printing was
capable of spreading over the earth.
Come down a little farther, a little
nearer to our own times. Who were
the people that followed Cromwell?
Who were the people that gave us the
British constitution, which has in it
so much of what is best in popular
government? Who was it that rose
up under Cromwell's leadership and
made that constitution possible? It
was the common people of England.
And now turn to this Declaration of
Independence that we have heard read
here today. A century and a quarter
ago on this very day we have the evi
dence of It in letters from aristocrats
of Philadelphia, living there . at the
time, which tell how a mob of the
common people, these letters call them
a mob of common people, how that
mob of the common people listened for
the first time to the reading of this
grand old document The first time it
was ever read in public, it was the
common people who welcomed it The
aristocrats sneered at them and at it
and held aloof. Their own private let-
tors of that day tell us that all the re
spectable people, they called them the
respectable people, stayed away on
that historic occasion. It was the
common people of that day who wel
comed the Declaration of Indepen
dence, as it is the common people who
welcome it now.
, Then if you come down "a little
farther still, when Jefferson in 1800
appealed to the common peoDle
against the aggressions of the aristo
crats of that time, the common people
responded to him. Half a century later
there was another call for the com
mon people. As the democratic party
which Jefferson had given birth to be
came demoralized by the slavocracy
of this later period, a new democracy
sprung up. It was the democracy of
Abraham Lincoln. It could not call
Itself "democratic" because there was
already a trade mark on that name.
So It went back to the days of Jeffer
son for a name and took the original
trade mark of Jefferson's party. He
had not named his nartv democrat r?
he had named it republican. Therefore
the new democracy of the fifties called
itself republican, and the common peo
ple ot that tlmci flofrirod to it fnr
vears more and this newer democracy
nsa lost its democratic moorings.. I
am not taTkiner politics, my friends : T
am simply referring you to history.
There came a later time, I say, when
the spirit of democracy felt that It
had been driven out of the new homo
that Abraham Lincoln had mado for
it, and then It appeared In another
ulace and the common people respond
ed to a newer democratic leadership.
So we have in this count.rv the re
sponse of tho common neonle tn an-
J peals to right, to the clarion o true
democracy, not only in 1776, and in
1800, and in I860, . but also in 1896.
(Applause.) Tho common people did
not win in 18DG. That was a lost bat
tle in a war that is not yet ended. But
they did respond. And the other peo
ple kept away as they did in Pales
tine, as they did in Philadelphia, as
they did in Jefferson's day, as they
did in Lincoln's time. Tho common
people responded to the new demo
cratic leadership of 1896; and al
though they jost the battle then, and
may Jose battles in. the future, . there
will be a glorious victory yet to crown
the work of this new inspiration' of
democracy.
Many who did not understand tho
call in 1896 are finding out not ex
actly what they missed, for they could
not very: well realize that but what
they havp got It is written largo in
the story of the trusts. Look at these
trusts. all over the country. See how
they are absorbing every interest By
the way, did you ever hear a definition
of the trust? I suppose you have. Ev
erybody seems to have his own defini
tion. But I have found a pretty good
definition in a set ot verses. Maybe
It isn't a definition either, but at any
rate it Is a suggestion as to the char
acter of the trust These, verses are
called the son of the Nancv Bell, or
something like that I suppose most
of you have read it It is a quaint
story in rhyme of a ship-wrecked crew
on a "Jbarren island. No succor came
and they had to get food by killing
off one another and turning canniba s.
Finally they reduced the whole ship
wrecked party down to the mate and
the cook; and then the verses go on
to tell how' the cook was getting a
broth ready, and the mate was stand
ing by to see that it was a good palat
able broth, for he loved thacopk, and
how the cook said: "New come on;
it is your turn!" and then how. the
mate grabbed the cook and threw him
into tho broth and lived off him till
a passing ship came that way. All
this horrible experience drove the
mate crazy that is the explanation of
the verses and he used to standVupon
a city street and sing them with this
refrain: ,
For I am the cook and the captain
bold, ,.;
And the crew, of the captain's gig,
And the midship mite and the bo's'n
tight,
And the mate of tho" Nancy brig.
He had Morganized them all and
was a trust (Applause.) '.
Now, I want to say a ivord to tho
common people.;; not -about them; but
to them. Remember this, it does not
make much difference how little prbg
ress you make toward the right at
any time; it does not make much dif
ference how far or how often you are
shoved back. The question is, Which
way is your face turned? If, your fac
Is turned toward the right, and yon
keep it turned toward the right, and
you go forward with a struggle, slow
ly, painfully It may be. now pushed
back by superior force, hut now gain
ing a little, and all the- while t your
face to the right if you do that, you
are winning the greatest of victories.
Even the gaining of the whole world,
even the winning of all you strive for.
might not bo so great a victory. Com
what may, be wo moved forward or
be we pushed backward, let usheep
our faces to the right In that war
we shall establish the right In that
way we shall conquer the enemy. At
any rate, we shall rise. But if yon
have your face toward the wrong, even
if you do recoil once in a while to
ward the right, with vpur back to It,
because the wrong doesn't look good,
or taste good, or smell good, hut om
the whole yon are going toward the
wrong, vou will pnd down a- 1
torn of the sn of hell if there !fl any
Roa there. The, question, my friend,
is one of direction. It Is. not a quea
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