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4
The Commoner.
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THE COMAIONER, Lincoln, Neb.
King Sully nnd King Schwab might flock to
gether for a time and swap condolences. .
Tho latest Balfour vindication looks won
dorfully like a congressional disclaimer of tmduo
'Interference in postal affairs.
Attorney Genoral Knox wants it understood
that ho does not fool as exultant over the merger
decision aa ho ought to feel.
Mr. Hill is quito confident that he can evade
the merger decision as long as the criminal clause
of tho Sherman law is not enforced.
Reorganization will hardly bo left to the emi
nent gentlemen who have been actively engaged
in trying to spread demoralization.
Tho man who endeavors to undermine the
foundation is not the man to entrust with the
work of building tho superstructure.
Mr. Knox says, "Tho administration will not
run amuck." Of course Mr. Knox makes a mental
reservation in favor of the fryingpan.
s That confirmation having been landed, General
v "Wood will probably find it unnecessary to pacify
any more of the already pacified Filipinos.
Republican Newspaper to tho Trusts: Cease
your extortion on print paper and wo will over
look your oppression of tho general public!
No wonder the trusts would like "four more
years of Grovor." A corporation justice in place
. of Harlan could rovorso the merger decLIon.
Tho republicans of Minnesota have declared
in favor of tariff revision, but they still seem will
ing to entrust tho work of revision to the people
who profit by high duties.
President Roosevelt fears that ho will bo un
. ablo to attend tho St. Louis exposition. There will
be no boar hunting there, and tho visitors will bo
too busy to talk politics.
Tho democratic platform will stand for some
thing. The republican platform will be passed
wound as an argument for a cheerful compliance
with tho requirements of the fryiugpan.
w
The timo. has gone by when tho democratic
party will nominate for presidona man whose
sole qualification is that nobody knows where he
stands on the great issues of tho day.
The democrats of Nemaha county, Kansas, in
structed their delegates to tho state convention to
vote for no man as national delegate who did not
unqualifiedly support the Kansas City platform
and who will not vote "first, last and all the time
for the reaffirmation of the Kansas City plat
form." After tho convention they organized a
strong Jofferson club.
The Commoner.
The York (Neb.) Democrat, after listening to
the chorus of the reorganizes figures ; out that it
is about a thousand croaks to one frog. L.ven
though this be true, loyal democrats should not 00
less active.
Governor Cummins is laboring under the hal
lucination that republican promises mean some
thing. This will explain the hoarse hoots that
greet tho governor's animadversions on current
political affairs.
N If Mr. Hill persists in continuing the merger
he will be fined. The trust magnate who makes
millions a year out of his trust schemes will not
worry a great deal about fines amounting to a few
hundred dollars.
Mr. Knox kindly tells the trusts that the ad
ministration "will not run amuck" with its prose
cutions. The trusts would feel better if Mr. Knox
would assure them that the "fryingpan" would
also be held in abeyance.
A Chicago business man makes the startling
announcement that avarice is the basis of graft.
This demands the attention of those who imagined
that charity, or love, or patriotism, or something
like that, was the real basis.
"Republican Missouri is on the way!" glee
fully shouts the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. And so
is the day of Judgment. The Globe-Democrat will
havo to be patient and wait, for the indications are
that tho two will arrive simultaneously.
On another page will be found a Chicago Tri
bune editorial which describes the attempt on the
part of the Transvaal authorities to introduce what
is in effect Chinese slave labor. As England's
treatment of her colonies is the m'odel .after which
our imperialists pattern, Americans may find in
struction in the Tribune's editorial.
And now the republican papers are calling
attention to the fact that Mr. Cleveland did not
prosecute the trusts during his second administra
tion.' It is exceedingly unfair to blame the demo
cratic party with the sins of Cleveland. As they
took him away from us and used him to elect
their president it is cowardly in them not to as
sumo responsibility for his official acts. '
The pass question is being discussed in con
gress and some of the members are denying that
such favors influence representatives. Why do
the railroads give passes if they do not expect a
legislative return?" The Commoner has already
shown by the testimony of railroad officials that
they, expect pay in legislative favors. In some in
stances they have demanded a return of the pass
when the holder has shown his independence. The
railroad pass is one of the most demoralizing as
well as insidious of all the means employed by
corporations for the corrupting of officials.
Harmony
as is
Harmony.
The Cedar Rapids (la.) Gazette has "been mak
ing notes of the harmony existing in republican
lauus, involving "abutting rights
at the pie counter," and finds
some interesting things. In Ohio
it is Dick vs. Foraker. in New
, . 101IC it is Udell vs. Piatt in
Delaware it is Addlcks vs. the Field. In Wiscon
sin it is La Follette vs. the Machine. In Utah t
is Smoot vs. Fate, and in the Capital City o the
J i fis Brist vs. the Republican Congress
The Gazette sagely concludes that "the only thin
nvolyed is the salvage sale of patronage ad
that the people "will be pardoned if they retain
a large measure of self-composure" y
The Financial Age, New York, talks interne,.
ingly on the subject of the merger' deotato . ie
decision of the supreme court
wny wag unexpected " nvcf!,
Insolence Financial Age'an then Jt
Prevails. Jiiues: "It cannot be doubtad
fi tnat sni3 plan saHqro? ?a
the present controlling interest wm 1 Ct?ry. lo
whereby the ownership of the road u 1 bo .devIsed
it does at present, in addition tn V11 rest whero
liquidation of the company ??US ?" Plan for a
ti'ibution of Great No rtheri Tan TntFJ0 rata (lls
stock to Northern Securities ho ld 1Grn Paciflc
under advisement a fur her , 1 ?' ??re ls n
leave the Northern Secur ties In n!'!1 Wo"W
ence. in accordance with thfo 3??P??y ,u cxist"
Securities company would oMaVhe Nor"iern
the shares of ZTfSG Vffi
., ' ' " VOLUME 4, NUMBER 11
Northern and would give up to a trusteo u
shares of the road whose stock it :decidprt t h9
with. Under this plan, if the company dUW
hold Northern Pacific shares, the shares nr .ft
Great Northern would be turned over to a vm)
trustee and voting trust certificates would il f8
tributed to Northern Securities stockholders in!?"
plan, it was believed, could be carried out witi?.?
infringing on the terms of the supreme S2
decision." This sort of evasion is to be eCted
under existing circumstances. But if a few of S
.insolent violators of the anti-trust law were im
prisoned, as the law directs, there would be w
insolence and more regard for the rights nt ?
public. h s 0 th9
How It Is
Being
Explained.
It appears that the gentlemen who engineers
the 'merger will not be punished for violation n
that they did not know it waa
good law until after a decision
was rendered settling its valid-
i.j. xvuu uie oniy means thev
had of learning whether the law was val'd was to
do something and then have the law tested Hav
ing discovered that the law is good and that thev
had violated it, they will now be allowed to re
sume their efforts to frame up some sort of schema
that will permit them to accomplish what thev
sought to accomplish through the merger. This
explanation may not be quite clear to those who
are so old-fashioned as to believe that rich crim
inals should suffer the same penalties as poor
criminals when the offenses are equal.
While Messrs. Piatt ana Odell are signine
0100ujCui0 aa w wuttt auuu oe aone in republican
Where Do
Tho People
Come In?
state politics in New York, what
ure me tnougnttui people of that
state, doing? It remains to be
seen whether a majority of New
iunt voters win consent to be
ing used merely for the purpose of ratifying agree
ments as to the division of spoils made by tiro
eminent republican statesmen above mentioned.
Time was when New York republicans endeavored
to elect statesmen to office; now it seems that men
who can "pass the pie" are in favor. Since Gov
ernor Odell sold groceries to the state institutions
at a high price, and since Mr. Plait has so care
fully safeguarded the interests of the express com
panies In congress, it seems high time that New
Yorkers selected some officials who would devote a
share of their time to looking after the interests
of the whole people.
Union labor leaders in Chicago are undertak
ing a novel scheme. They have bought 30,000
I7j r . acres of Sood farming land In
Union Labor Mississippi, which will be di
Leaders vlded into 5-acre farms and sold
Planning. to union workingmen. Tiio
. ,, terms of purchase will be re
markably easy, and provision is to be made that
if the purchaser is dissatisfied and prefers to re
turn to his work in the city, the purchase money
is to be refunded. A similar plan was tried in
tvtV, several years' aS Typographical Union
wo. 0 leasing all the available garden plots with
in reach and sub-leasing to members of the union
wno could not secure steady work. The nlan was
very -successful and served to tide a number of
men 0Ver a long spell of enforced idleness. Hie
unicago leaders estimate that if their plans carry
jney will find employment for every union man in
Chicago who is now idle. '
The Menace of the Law's Delays" is the title'
ol an interesting and timely article by Frederick
Th t Trevor Hill in the current num-
.. ne aws Der. of Everybody's Magazine.
Unwarranted Mr. Hill cites numerous cases
Delays. wherein delay was sought and
, , , obtained for the purpose, not of
Si P justIce. but pr6venting it. One case is
particularly interesting. A brakeman named Will
iams sued the Delaware & Lackawana railroad for
uamages sustained by reason of personal injuries.
On the initial trial Williams was awarded ?4,000.
xwenty-one years afterwards, after six trials and
i(Drnaftppeal8 Williams secured a final verdict for
H,o00. Mr. Hill does not say so, but the fact still
remains that by reason of the ability of rich cor
porations to securo long delays, thus wearing out
tneir opponents who have little or no monoy wIW
jvmch to prosecute their cases, the general public
s losing faith in the integrity of the courts and
is growing contemptuous of laws that permit suco
Palpable injustice. -Those who mourn over tne
growing contempt for some courts' are invited w
ponder over thJ3 matter. - N
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