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. Vlelacy to plutocracy. Thoso who left tho republi
can party on account oftho silver question would
havo returned had ihc,vrepubllcan party abandoned
. the, gold standard jythbso who left thch republican
party on account bf imperialism would have re
turned to the republican partyMf It ha"d abandoned
imperialism, and so thoso who temporarily aban
doned the democratic party this year will return
when the party again takes up the standard of re
form and makes a vigorous attack against the
privileges of those who are now preying upon the
public.
Wo ma expect a growth in the spirit of inde
pendence among republicans as we get farther and
farther away from the war period and the deep
anlihoslties which It aroused.
It Is both necessary and proper that men shall
belong to parties, for through- parties the policies
of the government are developed and presented.
It is also right that the citizen should hold his
allegiance to his country above his attachment to
his party.
The country can afford to take off Its hat to
,s the independent voter. He makes mistakes, but ho
' means well. Ho has made a mistake this year so
.far as the national election is concerned, but the
game spirit of independence will lead him to cor
rect the mistake.
JJJ
' -The "Imprudent Benefactors"
' -''WhalT world-wide benefactors," some one has
. fald, "these, iinpjrudent mon are! How prudently
most men creep, into nameless graves while now
and then one or two forget themselves into im
mortality." prudence is a good word and it describes an
excellent virtue, and yet when it is used to char
acterize one's care for. himself when he ought to
i i be willing to forget himself in aL effort to advance
some ause more important that self it describes
a vice rather than a virtue. In this sense it may
be, used to describe the nan. who is too much ab
sorbed in looking atter his own business to give
any attention 4.0 public affairs, and with equal
propriety it can be used to describe those politi
ciansfor they can not bo called statesmenwho
always conser the effect of a policy upon them
selves. Tho great men of the world have not teen
prudent in the opinion of the selfish and the short
sighted; cuey have constantly done! imprudent
things a.id have always been warned that they
were hurting themselves and injuring their own
interests. They have, however, established uie
fact and it is a fact Liat no one can obtain a
clear view of a subject if he Idoks at it through
himself. If he would win immorcality he must for
get himself and devote all his energies toward the
advancement of the reforms which lie believes to
be needed. The man wnose first thought and last
,. thought are of himself has little time to consider
higher ad jmore Important subjects.
But this lesson is not for the great and con
spicuous alone. The rule applies to all, whether
in exalteu or humble position. To every one
whether. ho acts in a small or In a largo sphere'
this: question comes, and these two courses are
open. 'He can forget himself and remember only
his country or he can forget his -ountry and re
member rnly.himself. If his thoughts aro of him
self, he is selfish; if ids thoughts are upon his -country
and upon his country's good, he is pat
riotic. .
The same rule applies to parties. The prudent
party, tnat considers only the chance to win is
not nearly so apt to win as the party that devotes
- Itself to a great cause and is willing to suffer if
, , by suffering It can promote the public good. If a
man can forget himself into imm rtality, a party
can likewise forget itself into immortality. It is
time for the democratic party to do a little for-
' jetting; it. is time for it to put aside, as a con-
v trolling purpose, the thought of getting hold of
tho offices and dividing the patronage. It is tmo
for it to espouse the cause of the people and devote
itself to uiis cause without stopping to ask what
the effect will be on the election, "in pursuing
euch a course it can never meet with dishonorable
-defeat; and such a course is the most likely to
lead it to a real victory.
JJJ
'! The Meadow Lark
L tn another page wffl be found an article de
scriptive of the meadowlark and its service to tho
farmer. The article is written by Mr. William
putcher, chairman of the, American- Ornethologists'
Union, and appeared recently in tho Nebraska Far
mer. Spaco is given, to' it not only because it gives
The Commoner.
needed information in regard to this valuable lit
.tie bird, but also bc,ttise the Tiieadowlark is iMr.
Bryan's favorlto songster. It is to be found every,
where. He first sa,w It In Southern Illinois wnen
a boy; ho has found it as'far south' as the, gulf
coast of Texas and as far nortlr as northern Idaho,
and it is the bird most seen about his homo in
Nebraska.
- Tho meadowlark comes early in the sprang,
sings a strong, sweet song, and .seems to delight
in giving forth its notes of good cheer. It has not
the variety of the mocking bird that bewitching
aristocrat of the feathered tribe but what tho
meadowlark lacks in repertoire and compass u it
m&kes lip in tbe 'number 61 songsters, in the con
stancy of its singers and In the htarty goodwill
that it throws into Its work. If the mocking bird
is a soloist of high repute, the meadowlarks form
a chorus that can be heard throughout the summer
from ocean to ocean. They are the common peo
pleso to speak of the singing birds, and even
the bright yellow shield which each lark carries
upon its little breast will not keep the editor of
The Comoner from liking them and longing for
their return when winter days drive them into tem
porary retirement. - :
Mr. Dutcher's article shows that the meadow
lark' is a double-standard bird, being as useful as
it is agreeable. May its tribe' increase!
JJJ
Schurz Answers a Critic
The campaign' of 1904 has brought out many
bright things J&ut it has probably brought forth
nothing that will be appreciated more than the
reply made by Carl Schurz to a Connecticut banker
who. sent Schurz an insulting letter. The letter
and reply will be found below. The republican
readers of The, Commoner can pause in their re
joicing long enough to peruse this correspondence,
and the democrats and populists may find in it
some little relief from the unfavorable returns
which were so frequent as to become monotonous:
Bristol Savings Bank, Bristol, Ct., Howard
A. Warner. Pres't.; Miles Lewis Peck, Treas.
Oct. 26, 1904. Carl Schurz, Esq. Dear Sir:
Your printed letter is at hand. Conditions here
seem very unsatisfactory tor you. I wonder you
do not return to your native land. That 'I'
think is the best -way for those who do not "
' like the views of the' rulers of this country ,
the voters. Yours respectfully, Miles Lewis
Peck, 24 East Ninety-first St., New York, '
Novi 3, 1904. Miles Lewis Peck, Esq. '
Dear Sir: I thank yOu for your com'munica- '
tion of October 26. I have received similar
letters in the course of almost every political
campaign, but they were uniformly anony
mous, vours is the first one of which the
author was proud enough to sign it with his
, name. This deserves recognition, and entitles .
it to an answer.
Your demand that I shoujd leave this coun
try on account of my political disagreement
with Mr. Miles Lewis Peck is. uiikind. V
have lived in this country over 52 years, and
as, to judge from your letter, you are still
young, it may be that I was one of those vot
ers, of whom you speak as the "rulers of this
country," before you were born. I have be
come attached to it. During that half-century
I liave also tried to,, serve it. In peace aha"
war, not to your satisfaction, perhapsbut as
best I could. And now to be turned out of 't
because I do not agree jjolftjcally with Mr
Miles Lwis Peck of Bristol, Ct, is little short
of cruel. , ''.
But the rule you lay down is alo unrea
sonable. In justice you will have to apply it
as well as to me, to all other persons in the
same predicament You will then, supposing
you to be in the majority, send all those who
differ from you politically, out of the country
the foreign born to their native lands, and tho
native born to the homes of their ancestors
But It is probable I may say certain that tho
remaining majority would' also divide into
parties. You being always of the majority
party, would then, according to your rule read
the new minority party out of the country
Now you will see that this 'operation, many
times repeated, might at last leave Mr. Miles
Lewis Peck, of Bristol, Ct, on the ground
lonesome and forlorn, in-desolate self-apnre-ciation.
mc
But it may also. happen to you to find
ITlfl SOmf Ume accide?tally in the minor
iL?'th vot.015 and th$V according to your
rules, you would also bo saht out of our be-
; , VOLUME 4, NUMBER 45
,loved country, to tho, home of your fcrefnti,
JThlrio; doubt, would be VewaSl
yot,,.nd, r assure you. you would TaVe J?
sincere sympathy. - It would show you ho?
ever, how uhstatesniKMike your theory V
Lrfit'us agree then, that it is, after all
best for us to respect one another's rht
good Americans to differ politically, and thS
this country Is largo enough to hold both Mr
Miles Lewis Jeck of Bristol, Ct, and his hum!
ble fellow-citizen, CARL SCHURZ
' JJJ
An Unjust Criticism
Professor Goldwin Smith of Toronto, Canada
makes a very unjust criticism of our presidential
contests:
It is with regard to the form provided for
the election of tha.president, however, that the
work of the fathers has most signally and
perhaps, most unhappily failed. Their inten
tion was that the president should be elected
by chosen oodles .of select and responsible citi
zens. For a time the nominations were kept
if not in the hands which the legislators had
intended, at least in select hands. But sinco
the Jacksonian era nomination and election
liave been completely in the hands of the
, democracy at large, and the 'election has been
performed by a process of national agitation
and conflict which sets at work all the forces
of political intrigue and corruption on the
most enormous scale, besides filling the coun
try with passions, almost as violent and anti
social as those of civil war. The qualification
for the nomination is no longer eminence, hut
availability. It is not a question which man
is most Worthy of public confidence, but which
man can carry New York or Ohio.
It Is true t .at "the electoral college does not
answer the purpose now for which it was in
tended. At the time it was created we lacked the
railroad, tne telegraph and other means now em
ployed to Aing political information to the home
of the humblest citizen, and it seemed to those who
made tho constitution that such ah electoral body
was necessary. Tne change that has taken placo
is not however t a retrograde movement. It Is
ra'ther a distinct evidence of progress. The presi
dency is 'saf when "completely in the hands ol
the democracy at large," and the agitation of which
Prof. Smith complains is the stirring that is nec
essary to, keep1 our political waters pure.
Canada has made progress because she. r.lso
has stirring campaigns. The fact that our cam
paigns iricluae the election of a president as well
as the election of a congress is a fact to our credit
rather than against us. There is no danger in
leaving these questions with the people. Tho peo
ple make mistakes, but they do not make them
so often as arbitrary rulers, and when the people
do make mista ces they correct them more quickly
and more easily.
If, Professor Smith will cross the line and come
among us he will find tiat tho campaigns are edu
cational, and that our people are the better for
the political experiences .through which t .ey pass.
Responsibility is ctrengthening our people,
and no one at Jhome or abroad need lose fai
in the ability of the people of this country to
settle arignt all the problems that concern them.
Some one has said that the American people some
times wait until the eleventh hour, but that when
they do get to work they do onough in the re
maining hour to make up for earlier inaction.
The American republic is all right It is just
now suffering from a republican victory and it is
afflicted with imperialistic tendencies and an over
dose of militarism, but it will recover. The people
are enduring things just now that they cught to
put an. end to, but there Is ho reason to he dis
couraged. The democratic party ought to simply
redouble its efforts and iake its appeal to the
moral sentiment of the country, and that appeal
will ultimately be successful.
JJJ
.
municipal Ownership
.""
nvin-hnTTin rMtv nirinTinma Territory, bought
out t&V private water .works plant about J"JeJ
years ago by a bond issue, paying some $72,000 for
the plant. It has lowered the water rates about
25 -per cent and has mado enough profit to spena
about $30,000 in additions to the plant. Last year
there' was. a balance of $13,000 left over for tna
year after paying running expenses.
."" Municipal ' ownership Is a success i and w
rgaders of The Commoner Syiho live in cities oug
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