irwi
The Commoner
FEBRUARY 26, 1904.
a
Kit Is not at all likely that Wall street generally
?will agree that the farmers could legitimately
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umaice sucn a ciaim.
When a few years ago the populists proposed
fcthat the government loan money on farm mort
gages, the suggestion was met with sneers by the
LJWall street magnates; and- the plan was not at
fall popular throughout the country.
And yet, when it is proposed to loan money
gon railroad bonds, Wall street is very generally
favorable to the plan, while there does not ap-
imear to be, throughout the country, any consider
able disquietude with respect to the proposition.
Perhaps American people have become quite
, accustomed to accepting the Wall street view aa
p being the correct one, however inconsistent its
protests against one plan may bo with Its cham-
smionsnip oi anuuier piaii.
', It is but a short step from the acceptance of
railroad bonds as security for government de
posits and the acceptance of railroad
i bonds as the basis for national bank cir
culation. If the secretary of the treasury can,
Without express authority of law, accept railroad
! bonds as security in the one case, there seems to
s be no reason why he may not, without authority
ol law, accept railroad bonds in the other case.
JJJ
Cleveland on Trusts.
The Montgomery Advertiser in a labored edi
torial attempts the defense of Mr. Cleveland's sec
ond administration. It asserts that Mr. Cleveland
In "his last annual message, December, 189G, de
nounced trusts in the strongost possiblo terms, de
claring that 'their tendency is to crush out indi
vidual Independence and to hinder or prevent tho
free use of human faculties and tho full develop
ment of human character.' "
. Yes, ho used those words after tho election of
his successor and after hlB surrender to tho cor
porations had caused his repudiation by his party.
But why did ho not do something to destroy tho
trusts? He did not enforce tho existing law any
better than President McKinley or President
- Roosevelt, neither did ho recommend any specific
measure for the extermination of tho trusts. After
a term of inaction during whloh the trusts con
stantly grew he wbnt through the farce of kicking
at them as ho leftf the White house and tho insin
cerity of his off or t id shown by the fact that ho1
would be tho unanimous choice of the trusts today
if they were allowed to select tho democratic
nominee, provided they thought ho could bo
elected. Tho trusts woulil contribute more lib
erally to his campaign fund than to the fund of
any other man who could be named by the demo
k cratic party, for. they would feel more certain of
being allowed to make the money back out of the
pockets of the people, regardless of Its effect on
the democratic party.
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JJJ
Hindsight Vs. Foresight.
Mr. Cleveland's latest is to bemqan tho bold
that "imperialism" has secured upon tho country.
But it will bo romembcred that Mr. Cleveland's
fear of imperialism was not nearly so great as
his fear that tho people might tako control of the
money of tho country. Ho preferred a gold stand
ard era of imperialism to a bimetallic era of con
tinued adherence to tho republic of tho fathers.
Tho Clovcland hindsight Is working better than
the Cleveland foresight over did.
GERMANY AND SOCIALISM
(Copyright, 1904, by New York Journal.)
At "Rfiriin T found, an l had at London and
-PnrlK. a considerable number of Americans and,
i as in the other cities, they have organized a so
F!tafcv. the nblect of which is to brine the Amori-
fvcah residents together for friendly intercourse. At
t .1 j . i 1- .- am 4-1 a A winflnnn On
ijonaon tne group is kuuwh u me auid tuu v
K ciety; at Paris and Berlin the society is known as
lithe American Chamber of commerce, xnrougn
wthe receptions given by these societies I was able
ao meet not only the leading American resiaems,
;but many foreigners wno came as invited guests.
fOur American residents are evidently conducting
rthemselves well because I found chat they are
fwell liked by the people among whom they are
temporarily sojourning, i am inaeDteu to .am
'hfissmdnr Towor'for courtesies extended me at
I Berlin.
My visit to Germany occurred at Christmas
time and while it was for that reason impossible
to see the kaiser (much to my regret), I learned
something of the German method of observing tho
great Christian holiday. The German is essen
tially a domestic man and at Christmas time
especially gives himself up to the society of tho
family, relatives and friends. Christmas coming
on Friday the festivities covered three days
wHrinv Snturdav. and Sunday. The toys in
If which Germany abounds were of endless variety,
and the Christmas trees Denning oeneatn tneir
load were centers of Interest to the young folks.
There were dolls and dogs, horses and woolley
sheep, cows that give milk, and soldiers an
abundance of soldiers. I saw one cavalryman
with a saber in his hand. When ne was wound
up the horso would rush forward and the rider
would strike out with his saber as if he was keep
ing watch on tho Rhine and in the very act of re
sisting an attack from the enemy. A little strange
that the birthday of the Prince of Peace should
bo celebrated by the presentation of toys illustrat
ing mimic warfare! But as in America we are in
creasing our army and enlarging pur navy we aro
not in a very good position to take tho military
mote out of the eye of our friends in the father
land. Berlin is a splendid city with beautiful streets,
parks and public buildings. It is more modern in
appearance than either London or Paris and there
is a solidity and substantialness about the pop
ulation that explains the character of tho emigra
tion Prrm fifirmnTiv to America. No 'one can look
h upon a gathering of average Germans without
recognizing tnat ne is in tne preaouce ul a buous,
intelligent and masterful people. Bismarck has
left his impress upon Germany as Napoleon did
upon France. An heroic statue of the man of
"blood and Iron" stands between tho relchstag
and the column of Victory, which was erected at
the close of the Franco-Prussian war. The relchs
tag is a massive, but graceful structure, built some
twnnfv vnnra nero. Tn one of the corridors I no
ticed a silk'flag which yf as presented in tho sov- i
(riHoa lw fiift if3rman w6nen' of America. The
reichstag proper is a popular body, much like
the English parliament, and, as in England, the
members do not necessarily reside in the districts
they represent. The upper house, or bundesrath,
is somewhat like our senate in one respect, name
ly, that it represents the various states that com
prise the German empire, but it differs from our
senate, first, in that the subdivisions aro repre
sented somewhat in proportion to population, and,
second, in that the members of tho bundesrath
are really ambassadors of the several state, gov
ernments whose credentials can bo withdrawn at
any1 time. As all legislation must bo concurred
in by the bundesrath as well as by the relchstag
It will be seen that tho German government is
not nearly so responsive to the will of the people
as the governments of England, Denmark and tho
Netherlands.
In tho relchstag they nave resorted to a de
vice for saving time in roll call. Each member is
supplied with a quantity of tickets, some pink
and some white. Each ticket bears on both sides
the name of the member. On the white tickets tho
word "Ja" (yes) appears under the name, on the
pink ones "Nein" (no). These ballots are gath
ered up in vases containing two receptacles, one
white and the other pink. The vases are carried
through the hall and tho votes deposited accord
ing to color. As they are deposited in the differ
ent receptacles and aro distinguished by color tho
ballot is quickly taken and counted in about ono
fourth the time, I think, formerly required for
roll call. This is a method which our congress
might find it convenient to adopt.
It was my good fortune, while in Berlin, to
meet Dr. Otto Arendt, the leading blmetalllst of
Germany. He became a student of the money
question while in college, being converted to the
double standard by the writings of Cernucshi, the
" great French economist. Dr. Arendt is a member
of the reichstag, from one of the agricultural con
stituencies. He has represented his government
in International conferences and has urged his
government to join in an agreement to restore bi
metallism, but like other advocates of the double
standard has found the Erisli3h financiers an im
movable obstruction in the way.
I haye for two reasons reserved for this ar
ticle some comments on the growth of socialism
in Europe. First, because Germany was to be tho
last of the larger countries visited, and, second,
because socialism seems to be growing, more rap
idly In Germany than anywhere else. I find that
nearly all of the European nations have carried
collective ownership farther than we have in tho
United States? In a former article reference has
already beiTmade to the growth of municipal
ownership in England and Scotland and U may
add that vhore tho private ownership of public
utilities is still permitted the regulation of the
corporations holding these franchises is generally
more strict than in the United States.! Let two
' illustrations suffice: Where parliament charters
gas and water companies in cities itt'has for .some
years been the practice to limit tho dividends that
can be earned any surplus earnings over and
above tho dividends allowed must be used In. re-'
duclng tho price paid by tho consumer. I fear
that our money magnates would be at a loss to
find words to express their Indignation if' any
such a restriction was suggested in America, and
yet Is it not a just and reasonable restriction?
In the case of railroads, I noticed that there
are in England but few grade (or, as they call
them, "level") crossings. 1 am informed that
railroad accidents and injuries aro not so fre
quent in England as in the United States.
In Switzerland tho government has recently
acquired tho principal railroad systems. In Hol
land, Belgium and Denmark also the railroads are
largely government roads. In Russia the govern
ment owns and operates the roads and I 'found
there a new form of collectivism, namely, the
employment of a community physician who treats
tho people without charge. These physicians are
employed by societies called Zemstro which have5
control of the roads and the care of the sick.
fin Germany, however, socialism as an eco
nomic theory is being" urged by. a strong &nd
growing party. In the last general election the
socialists polled a little more than three million,
votes.out of a total of about nine and a half mil J
' llons. Measured by the popular, vote it is now
the strongest party In Germany. The fact that
with thirty-one per cent of tho vote it only has
eighty-one members of the reichstag out of a to
' tal of 397 id due, in part, to the fact that the so-
cialist vote is massed in the cities and In part
to the fact that the population has increased
more rapidly in the cities and as there has been
no recent redisricting the socialist city districts
are larger than the districts returning members
of other parties.
George von Vollmar, a member of the relchs
tag, In a recent Issue of the National Review thus
states tho general purpose of the social demo
cratic party of Germany:
"It is well known that social democracy in
all countries, as its name indicates, aims in tho
first place at social and economic reform. It starts
from the point of view that economic development,
the substitution of machinery for hand imple
ments, and the supplanting of smail factories by
gigantic Industrial combinations, deprive tho
worker in an ever-increasing degree, of the .essen
tial means of production, thereby converting bJm
into a possessionless proletarian, and that the
means of production aro becoming the exclusive
possession of a comparatively raall number oj
capitalists, who constantly monopolize all the ad
vantages which the gigantic increase in the pro,
ductive capacity of human effort has broughfc
about. Thus, according to the social democrats,
capital Is master of all the springs of life, and
lays a yoke on the working classes in particular,
.aidhholQjpppulationingenerai, which ever
-'"'. mAiJt XGonYinued on Pae 11.).
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