f 'yswirt "' wvv'w The Commoner. ,;" , j WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. Vol. 4 No. 33. Lincoln, Nebraska, August 26, 1904. Whole Numberi8 UNREDEEMED PLEDGES In the republican campaign text book for 1904 it is asserted: "The pledges ot 189G and thoso made in 1900 ' have been redeemed." In 189G the republican party promised reci procity "on such term's as will equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restriction which now obstructs the sale of American products in the ports of other countries and secure and en large markets foir the products of our farms, for ests and factories." But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 1896 the republican party said: "We are opposed to the free coinage of silver excopt by international agreement with the leading com mercial nations of the earth, which agreement we pledge oursolves to promote." But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 189G the republican party promised that whenever practicable the veterans of the union armies should be given the preference in the mat tor of appointments to office. But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 189G the republican party promised to hon estly enforce the civil service law. But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 189G the republican party promised the creation of a national board of 4 arbitration. But that pledge has not been redeemed?"' In 189G the republican party promised the ad mission of the territories. But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 1896 the republican party promised that the citizens of Alaska were to have representation in congress. But that pledge has not been redeemed. In 1900 the republican party promised that . it would restrain and prevent all conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, to cre ate monopolies, to limit production, or to control the prices. But that pledge has not been redeemed. The party also pledged itself to "the associated policy of reciprocity." But that pledge has not been redeemed. It renewed its pledge to enforce the civil service law and likewise, during its sec ond term, it failed to redeem that pledge. II again promised the admission to statehood of the ter ritories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma, and again it failed to redeem the pledge. The republican campaign text bodk declares that under republican administration the gold standard has been "made permanent,'' and this claim is made in the face of the fact that repub lican newspapers have had much to say in criti cism of Judge Parker because he declared that the gold standard had been "irrevocably" estab lished. The text book boasts that the laws against the trusts have been strengthened and enforced; and this statement is made in the face of the fact that no effort has been made to enforce the chief feat ure of the anti-trust law, which is the criminal clause, and no one speaking for the administra tion has undertaken to explain why that clause has not been appealed to. The text book refers to "the relation of the trusts to the nomination of the democratic candi date for the presidency," and the readerp of the text bodk are expected to forget that the trusts provided the republican party with their campaign funds in 189G and in 1900 and that they are ex pected to make liberaLcontributions to the same campaign fund in 1904. JJJ Hard to Please Harper's Weekly is hard to please. In 1896 it was one of the most bitter and malignant of the opposition press. Now it is fighting mad be cause ' Mr. Bryan's, l statement is not such as it would write.V In -last week's issue appeared an extract from a recent editorial. It attempts to be little the reasons given for supporting the ticket. If the reader will examine tho speech made by our candidate at the time of the notification he will see that Judge Parker has justified tho reasons given by Mr. Bryan and has answered the arguments put forth by the "Journal of Civilization" as Har per's Weekly calls itself.. It is determined to bo displeased no matter what Mr. Bryan does. JJJ MR. ROOSEVELT ON THE TARIFF A reader of The Commoner asks if it Is true that Mr. Roosevelt was onco a "tariff reformer." It is true, and at one time Mr. Roosevelt even wont so far as to become a member of a free trade club. When he resigned his membership in that organization he wrote a letter in which ho said that he was "a republican first, and a free trader afterwards." If the reader who makes this inquiry will look at pages 66 and 67 of the "Life' of Thomas H. Benton," a book written by Mr. Roosevelt, he will find that Mr. Roosevelt wrote as follows: "The vote on the protective tariff law of 1828 furnished another illustration of the solidarity of the west. New England had abandoned her free trade position since 1824 and the northwest was strongly for the new tariff; the southern sea coast '. states.-except Louisiana, opposed it bitterly; and tho bill was carried by tho support of the western states, both the free and the slave. This tariff bill was tho first of the immediate irritating causes which induced South Carolina to go into the nullification movement. Benton's attitude on the measure was that of a good many other men who, in their public capacities, are obliged to ap pear as protectionists, but who lack his frankness in stating their reasons. He utterly disbelieved in and was opposed to the principles of the bill, but as it had bid for and secured the interest of Missouri by a heavy duty on lead, he felt himself forced to support it; and he so announced his posi tion. He simply went with his state, precisely as did Webster the latter, in following Massa chusetts' change of front and supporting the tariff of 1828, turning a full and complete somersault. Neither the one nor the other was to blame. For free traders are apt to look at the tariff from a sentimental standpoint; but it is in reality purely a business matter, and should be decided solely on grounds of expediency. Political econ omists have pretty generally agreed that protec tion is vicious in theory and harmful in practice; but if the majority of the people in interest want it, and it affects only themselves there 4s no earthly reason why they should not be allowed to try the experiment to their hearts' content. The trouble is that it rarely does affect only them ' selves and in 1828 the evil was peculiarly aggra vated on account of the unequal way in which the proposed law would affect different sections. It purported to benefit the rest of the country, but It - undoubtedly worked real injury to tho planter states, and there is small ground to wondei that the irritation over it in the region so affected should have been intense." JJJ Canadians Attack Tobacco Trust The Canadian government has Inaugurated a fight' against the tobacco trusts which seems likely to succeed. A bill has passed the house of com mons providing for the revocation of the excise li cense held by manufacturers who sell goods sub ject to the condition that the purchaser shall not sell or deal in goods of a like kind -produced by any other manufacturer or dealer. The measure is a good one and suggests a new anti-trust rem edy. Our congress should pass such a law and thus put an end to one of the vicious practices of the trust. THE "OIL" LITERATURE An Iowa minister linn cnllod attention to a book entitled "Tho Riso and Progress of tho Standard Oil Company," written by Gilbert Hol land Montague and published by Harper Bros. It was sent to him without solicitation and without chargo and ho learned that it had also been sent to other ministers. Tho book purports to be an impartial review of tho growth of tho Standard Oil company but it is in fact a plausible plea for the company, evidently intended to iclievo the company from censure and to justify the monopoly. As Inevitable "a natural development' as apol ogists say. While control of prices, secret rebates, unfair ness to competitors and all the other sins charged against the company arc cheerfully admitted tho tond of tho author is apologetic throughout as will appears from tho following quotations: "That the industrial efficiency of tnc favored company was superior to that of other refiners seems equally demonstrable. By tho sheer su periority of its organization, and, ho far n la known, quite unaided by discrimination in rates, tho Standard Oii company had obtained In 1892 its pre-eminent position." Wm. II. Vanderbilt Is quoted as saying of tho Standard Oil officials : "They arc very enterprising and smart men. I never came in contact with any class of men as smart and as able as they are in business." "They are vory shrewd men. I don't believe that by any legislative enactment or by anything else, through any of the states or all of the states, you can keep such men down. You can't do it. They will be on top all tho time." "An explicated narrative such as this lias pre tended to be should bear Its own judgment upon the agents who accomplished the oil monopoly. That judgment if the narrative lias succeeded in logical clearness runs somewhat as follows: Since the railway and economic conditions, tho progress of the Standard Oil company was quito inevitable. Since it showed at an early time bright promise of industrial efficiency it readily acquired, after the fashion of the period, propor tionate discrimination in freight rates." "If the Standnrd Oil company were not tho strongest refiner, its most powerful rival would most certainly have seized the same control over transportation that the Standard Oil company in fact secured. In the last analysis, monopoly, by the Standard Oil company was, under existing con ditions, inevitable, simply because it was most efficiently organized." "And bo in what seems at first sight an un accountable and suspiciously rapid growth may bo discerned signs of inevitable developmon tho operation of motives which are, at any rate, ex plicable." "In the period from 1895 to the present, It may be added, the difference between tho price of crudo oil and the price of refined oil ha3 re mained almost constant, which shows that this power of fixing the price of crude oil has npt been abused, in spite of the fact that the Standard Oil company during these years refined over eighty per cent of the output of oil." "There is, he (Mr. Archibald) admits, a certain amount of monopolistic power, coming from tho aggregation of capital itself, which keeps prices higher than they would bo under severe compe tition; but at present this- power and its effect upon prices are very- slight and the lessened cost of dging business on a largo scale more than compensates in lowered prices for the slight mo nopolistic power of getting higher prices "The statement has frequently been made that the Standard has reduced its prices in the terri tory of its competitors and maintained prices at more profitable rates at non-competltitve points. Such a practice, as an instance of ordinary bust- ill