TT
"yjwmfwi'-ji jr"
vr "y'W wr
2
Insulting the Flag
Wo havo neei trying to point out to repub
licans tho fact that President Roosevelt Is chang
ing the ideals of. the nation and substituting tho
"big stick" for tho light of liberty, but many have
refused to believe. Now, an appointee of this ad
ministration has come to our aid and declared
this change In language so plain and forcible that
no republican can longor doubt it. Reference is
made to tho article written by John Barrett, United
States minister to Panama, and published in the
Chicago Tribune It is a campaiga document con
tributed by tho president's appointee and spread
broadcast as an argument in favor of Roosevelt's
election. Attention is called particularly to a
paragraph which reads as follows:
"If they who today aro stumping the land
against President Roosevelt could have- gone to
foreign ports in tho old days when tho flag stood
for nothing, when Amorican merchants and trav
elers wore everywhere snubbed, when our army
and navy wero the laughing stock of tho world,
when wo had no influence in the councils of tho
nations; and if, then again, they could havo jour
neyed around the world now, when the flag means
more than the standard of any other nation, when
our merchants havo access to all markets; when
our navy Is respected in every port, and when our
advice is sought in every conclave of the powers
they would In sheer sense of stricken conscience
renounce their presort attitude and pray for tho
success of tho par.y which has accomplished this
mighty change and of a leader whose namo is
honored in the most remote portions of the earth."
Republicans, what do you think of this? Did
tho flag "stand for nothing"" in "the old days"'"
Washington held that flag in his hand; did it staid
for nothing then? Did it stand for nothing when
our revolutionary fathers followed fronTBunker
Hill to Yorktown? Did it stand for nothing when
It was in the hands of Jefferson, the author of the
Declaration of Independence? Did it stand for
nothing when it was held aloft by tho older and
younger Adams? Did it stand for nothing when
Madison held it or when it was held by Monroe
who has given his name to tho Monroe doctrine?
? J Btn,a for notnmS in the hands of Jackson
at Now Orleans and in Washington? Did it stand
for nothing in the hands of Hayes and Garfield
and Harrison? What say you, republicans?- And
you veterans of the civil war? Did it stand for
nothing when you followed it through four years
of war and upon bloody battlefields'
Did it stand tor nothing until it became ihe
omb em of an empire and the companion of the
president's -big stick?" Did it begin to stand fo?
w?n0tHingH.ny When k vedover Fiiip no sub
jects bought in a job-lot at $2.50 apiece? Did it
begin to mean something only when it was car-
tEL"8?' mf ? Wh Were fiShtinS 'op The dTd
trines for which our revolutionary sires were
youtlink T diG? Ru " waaHS
you think of this new doctrine of your nartv
proclaimed by tho president's appointee? Do you
endorse this doctrine or will you put it aside and
say it is merely the flattery of a officeholder who
kneels before this new built throne and euLTzes
the man from whose hand ho receives htedaU?
bread? Barrett is a true and faithful exponent of
tho policy of .our present president. He SnGaka
With brutal frankness of the new policy that S
nation is to pursue if imperialism is endorsed
You must forget all that you hav- ever Kl
the patriotism and principles o ! government )e
fore you can throw your hats In the air aTcheer
for Roosevelt and his colonial policy. Surely the
must be a multitude of , epubllcans who wlUretSS
to apologize for a century of glorious htatoTaS
they must do if they Indorse the doctrine of Bar!
rett and toe doctrine of Roosevelt. The names 5
our illustrious Americans who have stood for the
flag m tho -old clays" are too dear to the hear
of our people to "be forgotten now merely that
the name of Roosevelt may be exalted?
JJJ'
Ax Needed Electoral Reform
' The influence of money and railroad passes in
our national and state elections is a growing evil
that is engaging the attention of thoughtful citi
zens who seek to purify politics. One phase of this
question was discussed by Mr. Bryan in a speech
at Arlington, Nebraska, during the present cam-
ijuigu. ,ne gam:
'
t
t
WI liaVefbi veni's nMhi1 fliwf fw MAn..uii
jy Aote.aftWty to flecra!ftfcfci$B. yp' m gr,eat
mirffira .XnJStS!Ltako atu
; ""Tr.fHMkv S4Ws?. SPS. t0, their 'voting
blaccs when tkj sfilts are fopuulIqlfSi Vhey
The Commoner,..
can bring the traveling men home to vote "and thus
give the republican traveling men an advantage
over thoso who vote the fusion ticket. And
"wb.ere.ver they find a man temporarily absent from
homo, they furnish him transportation to his place
of residence. This gives them an advantage which
amounts in tho aggregate to many hundreds of
votes, and tho advantage is often sufficient to de
cide a county election "or the election in a legisla
tive, district. I havo recently been reading a his
tory of the reforms which have been accomplished
in New Zealand, and among them I notice one
that will meet the condition I have just described.
"They have a postal vote there which I believe
we should have. It allows a person who is neces
sarily absent from home to mail his vote under
regulations and restrictions which prevent fraud.
There is no reason why we should riot secure this
reform. It will save a large amount of money, not
to speak of time wasted, to those who now travel
long distances in order to discharge their duty as
citizens, and it wilt neutralize the advantage that
the corporations give to the party they favor. If
we have a fusion legislature at Lincoln next win
ter, I am going to bring this matter before the
members, and urge the passage of a law which will,
give the traveling man, tho student and the man
temporarily absent from home an coual chance
with the man who works near his voting place,
l His Is one of the .reforms that we need and one
that I believe we can secure if wo jcarry the legis-
JJJ
Publicity in Practical Operation
Por'several years, Mr. Roosevelt has had much
to say in favor of "publicity" as a remedy for the
trust evil. It is interesting to remember that fact
in the light of the statement by the Washington
correspondent for the New York World, that "not
one fact about trusts, secured by the department of
commerce-the sole object of which was to be pub
licity has been made public in twenty months "
Although the law creating the department of
commerce and labor gave to that department the
power to subpoena witnesses and compel their
attendance and testimony, this correspondent says
that no witnesses have been subpoenaed nor has
any testimony been given. According to this cor
respondent the only information obtained has
been classified and given to the president. Only
three men know exactly what this information ' is.
They are the president, George B. Oortelyou
chairman of the republican national commitee, and
tionf Garfield' chief of the bureau of corpora-
wnvwfT?!10 Is reviewed n an interesting
way by the World correspondent who says,:
Secretary Metcalf, the present head of the
department of commerce, has not been in his
office long enough to find out anything
The department, while Cortelyou was head,
conducted three major and eight minor inves
tigations. The first were into the Shipbuilding
trust the great life insurance companies and
m BenitrUSt NothIn& came of them. The
shipbuilding and insurance investigations were
Cm?,pl?tedTrllen the Beef trust was taken
up. This is still going on.
The eight minor investigations reviewed
the corporation laws in the states of New York
?ii?oS' Tni0 West Virginia, Massachusetts,'
Indiana, New Jersey and Connecticut
Ton lawyers made these investigations
SSJ we instcted nt only to examine the
laws but to make a general report on the cor
porations in these states. These results were
also tabulated by Commissioner Garfield gTveS
to Secretary Cortelyou and by Secretary CoS
telyou taken to the president.
i,J?hQ IjUsatlons into the Shfpbuilding
fLT the insFance companies were begin?
in the summer of 1903. Ten special investhrn
tors were put on the Shipbuilding -trust The
orders were to find out exactly who was be!
panl ablsr "" "
On Kob. 4, 1904, -Representative MirHr,
South Dakota, introduced a TMutlithl
house calling on the secretary of C0Zp1
investigate the low price of beef Sl fr t0
country and high prices of beef th
and to discover whether this diicrepancvn
.prico was due to any trust or consnWv ,
.L restraint Rf trade. The original SeXta?'
quired, tto secretary of commerce to "furnish
to tola house, at his earliest 'convenience th
r results, tfof,th investigation requested ' Thl
A SucSrto' maUeqUCSt $ thia tafcaSto "
insHufu9R . , P Piake an early .report of his
VOLUME 4. NUMBBR
if
SSK if SmL ?
Shipbuilding trust and the inSncTh :
panles ana hired some new investIgSors &
men were all put on the Beef trust rS Theso
told to pay particular' aCuon to th??iiWer;
end, to see what part they played l iS ad
ness of the trust. Twenty men were niK
work. Some of them were lawyers Lml t0
pert accountants, some beef men S?i eX;
investigators, some cowboys and emnin a,ned
stockyards. They scattered through fc
try, from Boston to San Francisco CUn"
This investigation is still on Thncn
make daily reports to Commissione?GarS
They have sent in thousands of pages sini
April 1, concerning not only the oSn ,
the Beef trust, which is composed osevPn
corporations and controls GO per cent of thn
meat business of the United States hut alsS
of the railroads, the system of rebates thi nrn
vails the freight discriminations S and Pth0"
heef boycotts. Still no publicity. NotliJt
given out to the public. No person in to!
department knows what the gist of these re
parts is except Commissioner Garfield Ho
makes an abstract for the president. His So
clerk, his secretary and the lawyers and inves
t gators under him dare not say a word about
them. One investigator knows not what an
other does. Commissioner Garfield refuses
absolutely to tell a single fact.
He points to the law which says the results
of invest gations shall be communicated to
the president and that the president shall bo
the judge of what portion of the Information
secured shall be made public.
Secretary Cortelyou was in close touch
with Commissioner Garfield in these investi
gations and got ail the secret information
about theso trusts, so-called, beforo he be
came chairman of the republican national com
mittee, and began to receive political contribu
tions from some of the alleged trusts.
The department of justice is also con
cerned in Beef trust affairs. It has also had
agents in the field. These men have been seeing
wheiaer the Beef trust is violating a certain
injunction granted by Judge Grosscup of Chi
cago on May 26, 1903, whioh restrains the Beef
trust from carrying on its business as for
merly. The appeal of the Beef trust from this
injunction to the October term of tho United
States supreme court will probably be reached
in December or January next. Meantime tho
agents of the department of commerce aro
discovering undoubted combinations in re
straint of trade and illegal railroad rebates and
discriminations and are reporting them to tho
department. But so far as the public knows
after twenty months the department of com
merce has accomplished absolutely nothing.
The most persistent inquiries in Washington
elicit no information. Instead of being a
mighty engine of publicity as President Roose
velt intended when he advocated it, the depart
ment is- more secretive and mysterious in its
operations than any other in Washington.
JJJ
When Will They Have Enough?
A reader of The Commoner sends a copy of an
editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, a
republican paper, February 15, 1900, and suggests
that that editorial will be interesting during tho
present campaign.
The Tribune editorial is certainly interesting.
It was entitled "When Will They Get Enough?"
The Tribune pointed out that in the preceding year
the Carnegie company made $20,000,000 and said:
"and yet,. Mr. Carnegie is not satisfied." Tho
Tribune directed attention to the -fact that tho
Standard Oil company had at the time this edi
torial was written just declared a quarterly divi
dend of $20,000,000, "and yet," said the Tribune,
"its directors are not satisfied. They wish con
gress to pay subsidies to the ocean-going vessels in
whose earnings they have a share." Tho Tribune
added:
If .there are any other American corpora-
tions whose profits were $2u,000,000 last year
or promise to be $80,000,000 this year, it may
be taken for granted that the men at the head
' of them are no more satisfied than tho Car
negiqs and the Rockefellers and are no more
scrupulous as to the methods of adding to their
possessions.
There seem to be no limit to the rapacity
J of corporations which have been, built up J
the expense of the public by excessive tanu
1
1