wynwn. immwin
"iTSJ
The Commoner.
OCTOBER 23, 1903.
tPWP
Wm
Something
Concealed?
Following close upon tlio announcement that
the militia at ictor, C0I6., had suppressed a
that the governor of the stato
has found it necessary to inves
tigate the acts of the militia of
flp.firs. Tt rimihtlnsR occurred to
& great many people that the Colorado militia
showed considerable activity in suppressing free
speech and interfering with constitutional rights.
Tho Philadelphia Press says: "What a dread
ful thing it would ho if the country went on do
ing business and not pay atten
Would tion while Wall street just keeps
be Very on bursting itself." But so long
Dreadful. as Wall street is, permitted to
arrange the country's financial
system and to control the country's money, it is
not likely that the country will remain entirely
indifferent if Wall street should "keep on burst
ing itself."
A Cherokee, Tex., reader of The Commoner
.writes: "I wish to ask if a man makes a con
tract with the government to
Ualted States carry the United States mail,
Mall has he a right to sublet it? If
Contract not, what is the p'enalty for sub
letting?" He has a right to sub
let a contract with the approval of the postofflco
department. In the event that a mail contract is
sublet without such approval, the contractor can
not recover from the government.
&&&
' According to the chairman of the Rhode Isl
and republican convention, Theodore Roosevelt is
the "most brilliant and most
Was it courageous of living statesmen,"
4 Slap but Nelson W. Aldrich, who is
at Roosevelt? generally regarded as Mr.
Rockefeller's representative in
the senate, is "the foremost defender of our na
tional honor and of our national prosperity." It
is dollars to doughnuts that Mr. Roosevelt won't
surrender without a struggle the right to bo
known as the "foremost defender."
A Waukesha, Wis., reader of the Chicago
.Chronicle suggests Daniel S. Lamont as the dem
ocratic nominee for president.
Where Referring to Mr. Lamont, this
Did Daniel reader says: "His democracy
Stand? was never questioned in or out
side of his own party." It might
be interesting to have this reader say where Mr.
Lamont was in the battles of 1896 and of 1900.
Was he on tho,in,side pr.on the outside? Unless
memory isserioUslyat fault, .Mr. Lamont, in both
of those chatties: -was counted among the con
spicuously absentr ;
In an editorial entitled "Shall Law or Anarchy
iRule?" the United States Investor, a bankers'
puDiicauon, says: we ueg m
bor leaders to pause and reflect
They are sowing the seed and
will reap the whirlwind." Would
it not be well for the Investor
to address some of its appeals to the financiers
and trust magnates and to those who are openly
defying existing law and to those who are seek
ing to manipulate congress in order that new
laws, to their, advantage and to the disadvantage
of 'the people, may be enacted?
Why not
Ask the
Financiers?
Like
S. o. p.
Editorials.
Writing in'lhe Des Moines (la.) Capital, Col.
"Lafe" Young says: "According to the Cincin
nati isnquirer a uninaman at
tended the theatre in that city
and gave the following opinion
of the performance: Lfl yartif
wvedncmfw shrdlu cmfw
shyrd.' Few people would imagine that a Celes
tial would be able to evidence such keen discern
ment in the role of a dramatic critic." And yet a
similar tribute could be paid to many republican
editors for the "keen discernment" they display
in their editorials on the money question.
The permanent chairman of the Rhode Island
republican convention referred to the coming
campaign as "tne siurmisn pro
ceeding that other campaign,
which will decide whether wo
shall return to the United States
canotn Vio ipnr?fli ivP that body.
the foremost defender of our national honor and
of our national prosperity Nelson W. Aldrich, and
whether Rhode Island will remain faithful, to that
most brilliant and most courageous . of living
statesmenTheodore Roosevelt" It is generally
Foremost
Defender
Aldrich.
understood that Nelson W. Aldrich represents tho
Rockefeller interests on tho floor of tho senato,
and In tho light of this fact it is interesting to ob
serve that Mr. Aldrich is pointed out in a re
publican convention as "tho foremost defender of
our national honor and of our national prosperity."
Warfltld
Not
Dickenson.
A Baltimore, Md.( reader of Tho Commoner
writes: "What appears to have been a miQprlnt
occurs In your Commoner of
this week, and, as tho gentle
man in question is one of Mary
land's best and truest democrats,
and also 'a Bryan one,' tho
writer feels It his duty to call your attention to
tho mistake, that it may be corrected. Under tho
heading of 'News of tho Week,' you stated that
Mr. Edward Dickenson, of Howard county, had
been nominated for governor. This should have
read Mr. Edwin Warfiold, of Howard county." ,
Referring to the frauds in tho postofllce de
partment, tho Chicago Record-Herald says: "When
m tnc commS trials are over, when
Way Not the department has been weed
Change ed not. only of its criminals,
Parties. but also of its incompetents, its
'shut-eyes,' its triflers, when tho
congressional investigation lhat is sure to be or
dered Is finished, then it will be tho clear duty of
the president and congress to join hands in put
ting the whole department upon a "strictly business
basis from top to bottom." But would It not bo
the part of wisdom for tho people to take a hand
and place their public affairs in the control of a
party that is not responsible for tho "shut-eyes,"
the triflers, and the corruptionlsts? Does any ono
Imagine that any of the federal departments will
bo weeded by the party that is responsible for tho
misdeeds?
The Rhode Island republicans, in convention
assembled, commended "tho courage of President
Roosevelt and his auviBers in
bringing the operations of tho
great trusts into publicity and
their illegal proceedings to tho
bar of justice." The convention
also denounced trustB "so far as they inflate val
ues beyond their normal condition, destroy com
petition and build up barons of wealth on the
earnings of the common people." This same con
vention was presided, . over by a gentleman who
referred to Nelson.1 JAldrlch, recognized as tho
trust representatiC" ,n the senate, as "tho fore
most defender of3 it national honor and of our
national prosper.'" Mr. Rockefeller must have
smiled when hread that men who back Nelson
Wto " '-i fq' WQ United States senate had con
dor ''itrust7. ,30 far as they "build up' barons of
wea -fy m .earnings of the common people."
Charles C. Schwab Is charged with turning in
the Bethlehem steel works to the United States
Shipbuilding company at $30,
000,000 when they were worth
only $10,000,000. Court proceed
ings have been commenced for
the purpose of making ' Mr.
Schwab and his associates pay over the differ
ence. If Mr. Schwab really did this, he simply
imitated tho example of trust magnates, several
of whom have boasted that "Charlie" Schwab wa3
raised from poverty to affluence under their train
ing. Men who engage in trust enterprises do not
regard tho actual plant as the only thing of value.
The "captain of industry" who happens to engi
neer the deal is worth something; and if in this
iEstance the plant was really worth $10,000,000,
who will say that tho men who purchased it for
$30,000,000 did not obtain value received when it
Is remembered thejr were honored by having
"Charlie" Schwab engineer the deal?
Where
Rockefeller
Smiled.
Captains
Werth
Something.
The
IsthmlaM
Canal.
The Buffalo (N. Y.) Express recently said:
"It is a well-known fact that efforts on behalf of
the Nicaragua route were de
feated year after year because
many of the most careful mem
bers of congress feared the ef
fect on their reputations if they
should support a project which was being pro
moted, in part, by suspicious methods." Referr
ing to this, the Louisville Courier-Journal makes
very interesting comment and doubtless hits the
nail well on the head when it says: "It is a well
known fact that the Nicaragua canal bill was de
feated year after year because the transcontinen
tal railways, fighting among themselves about all
things else, agreed among themselves that there
should be no waterway between the Atlantic (and
the Pacific. When public sentiment grew too
strong for them, they jumped into the Panama
One
Republican
Complaint.
band-wagon with tho Frenchmen as a measure of
further obstruction and' delay. Helping the
Frenchmen to pans their bill at Washington, they
defoatcd tho ratification of tho treaty at Bogota."
Governor Cummins and othor champions of
the "Iowa Idea" may see themselves as others
ceo them by reading an extract
A from an editorial appearing in
Others a recent Issue of tho Kansas
See Them. City Journal, a republican pa
por. Tho Journal said: "As a
spreader of dissension in tho republican party tho
'Iowa idea' never had any real forco, and tho last
eomblanco of its potency has now dopartcd. Tho
chlof apostle of this idea and his followors In tho
stato whenco it arose havo fallon heartily Into
lino with approved and orthodox republicanism.
When tho republicans of Iowa reiterated their
faith in protection, and when Governor Cummins
last Saturday ovonlng placed himself squaroly up
on tholr platform, all possibility a,nd fear that
tho present national administration would have to
contend at tho coming campaign with a division
in its own party were finally removed."
A DePauw, Ind., reader of Tho Commoner
writes: "In arguments of a political nature with
some republican friends, It Is
hard to get them to understand
many of tho questions. Ono of
their arguments on the money
question In 18UG was, In short,
this: 'If wo shall got free colnago of silver and
tho price of labor rises, it will not benefit us be
cause we will havo to pay out all our wages for
our necessaries of lifo anyway. Wo make $1 per
day now and havo to let it go for the day's needs.
If things In general would come up under tho dou
ble standard, wo would perhaps make $2 per day,
but would havo to spend those $2 for the day's
needs. Therefore nothing Is gained.' Several
still look at this part of the question In the same
light. It would please mo to have you discuss
this In The Commoner, even if you could spare
only a few lines on It." The oyes of men who
made this argument should be opened under pres
ent conditions. Tho wages of a man who was
making, say, $1 per day havo not Increased, and
yet expenses of living havo gono up immensely.
Under bimetallism It Is believed that the general
level of prices would be raised. It is difficult to
understand why theso Indiana republicans would
object to bimetallism on the ground suggested by
Tho Commoner reader when they havo no com
plaint to make because of present day conditions
wherein wages have not increased while the price
of everything which tho wage-earner must buy
has Increased.
The gentlemen who proposed that the words
of "Dixie" be altered are just now engaged in
wondering what happened. The words fit the mel
ody all right, and tho melody Ib now a national
one. In fact, "Dixie" Is about the only national
air wo havo that is not borrowed or stolen from
some other nation.
The anthracite operators are working tho
mines half-time because of overproduction. And
the consumers arc being held up for increased
prices because of under-supply. But It is barely
possible that tho public will some day grow tired
of playing tag and always appearing in the rolo
of "it"
When Charlie Schwab last addressed a class
of graduates he told tlrem how important it was
to get ahead of their competitors in tho business
world. Now tho ship building company suit Is
showing what methods he employed In getting
ahead of his competitors and his associates also.
If Russia and Japan do go to war there Is
one thing sure If Russia wins no concert of pow
ers will have the nerve to wrest the fruits of vic
tory from her. It was different in tho caso of
Japan, owing to the fact that Japan is a com
paratively small nation.
Of course Attorney General Knox is doing
something. Does any one suppose that an ap
propriation of $500,000 would not be spent by a
republican office-holder?
Mr. Hanna has Imported an army of republi
can spell-binders into Ohio, probably with an
idea of attracting the attention of the people away
from the main issue.
If Mr. Hanna emits many more wails Mr.
Roosevelt may deem it necessary 'to take a "re-;
creation trip" through Ohio.
i ,'
