V.
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civil service tho appointees in that department
should bo mado to roprosent tho voting strength
of tho various parties as shown by tho last elec
tion. Thin would not prevent selection by exam
ination. Portions passing a satisfactory exami
nation could bo put on tho ellglblo list and appoint
ments could bo mado from tho party having less
than its quota. As long as an attempt is made to
conceal tho politics of an applicant tho party in
powor will find a way to All tho offices with its
friends, and then tho incoming party will feel
justified by proccdent In putting tho opposition out
and its friends in. If each applicant is certified to
by his party organization and each appointeo is
charged up to his party tho law can bo enforced
and tho sorvlco put on a satisfactory basis.
Tho plan can bo applied to tho stato and to
tho nation as well as to a city. It rests upon a
Jiist prlnciplo and is practical in operation.
JJJ
Democratic Idea of Government
Tho Saturday Evening Post is tho latest recruit
to democracy. It is not a partisan sheet of tho
"thick and thin" variety, but it occasionally lias
an odltorlal which indicates its democratic ten
dency. Tho following, for instance:
German newspapers aro always sighing be
causo tho Monroe doctrinoprevonts Germany
from acquiring the South American lands set
tled by German immigrants and so from be
coming a "world power."
What a pitiful and perverted notion of the
object of government this involves. Yet it is
ono that has not a few adherents in our own
country, whore thero is no oxcu-33 for such ig
norance. For wo ought all to know that gov
ernment Is mado for man, not man for gov
ernment. According to our theory, and let
us hope, practice, government h not a power
hut a servant, an instrument to enable tho
common man to devolop his faculties to their
fullest. And tho conditions under which those
faculties can best develop aro freedom and
peace neither of them consistent with tho im
perial notion.
How slowly tho world develops! How hard
it i3 for man to gra?p the great, broad, high
truths of democracy, mere common-senso
though they aro! How many men who ought
to know bettor secretly share the. benighted
"patriotism" of tho peasant who glories in tho
spendthrift splendor of the aristocracy that
grinds him into tho dust.
Tho abovo does not present an argument in
Tavor of any surface policy but it touches a fun
damental principle. The democratic idea is that
tho government is a thing mado by the people
for themselves, or rather It is the people acting
togethor for tho protection of their own rights
and for tho advancement of their own interests
The imperialistic idea of governmentand it is
also tho monarchical and aristocratic idea is that
a government is a thing entirely separate and
apart from tho people. According to the imper
ialistic idea tho people may have nothing whatever
to do with their own government except to obey
it under fear of death and to support it by taxa
tion levied upon them without representation.
According to this theory a government can bo
carried in a ship and thrown like a net over heln
less people. According to this theory a few men
can land upon a shore, before unknown to them
coerco tho natives into submission and do with
them as they see fit. If the invaders gather up all
the property in sight and then sail away leaving
tho people free, it ia usually called piracy, but if
the invaders remain, set up a "government" and
extend their pillage over a period of years It is
some times called "benevolent assimilation," but a
colonial system rests upon the same foundation
as piracy, namely, force. Piracy is coXnSi
colonialism; colonialism is piracy extended anS
reduced to a system. The democratic theory of
solf-goyernment is and must be eternally at war
with the doctrine of imperialism. The Post is
right; tho government is not the master but th
servant of the people. This is the rock upon
which democracy is built, and democracy can Tot
rest securely on any other foundation. 9
JJJ
Those "Useless"Silver Dollars
J Jon.Landis. superintendent of tho Phil
exhausted "because nf mJ ,u Il0n ha3 been
bUO lu emmng or our uge
o
The Commoner.
loss hoard of 558,000,000 standard dollars, for which
thero has never been any real popular demand."
Superintendent Landis is guilty of astonishing
Ignorance upon this subject. We have no "use
less hoard" of silver dollars. Tho silver dollars
stored in tho treasury are really in circulation,
for they represent money actually doing sevico
among tho people. But for that "useles3 hoard"
we would have $558,000,000 less of standard money
than wo have today. It is a very common mistake
for tho advocates of tho gold standard to speak
contemptuously of the silver in the treasury, whilo
they handle the paper representatives of that sil
ver every day. Why not speak of the "useless
hoard" of gold dollars held for the redemption of
gold certificates?
According to the circulation statement of Jan
uary 1, 1905, tho money in circulation includes:
$G49,548,528 in gold (including bullion in treas
ury). $4GG,739,G89 gold certificates.
$80,039,395 standard silver dollars.
$408,0x7,22'? 3ilver certificates.
$102,891,327 subsidiary silver.
$10,940,054 treasury notes.
$342,287,627 United States notes.
$449,157,278 national bank notes.
Tho gold certificates include all certificates
issued, although some have doubtless been lost or
destroyed. The same is true of silver certificates,
treasury notes, United States notes, and bank
notes, so that the estimate of paper money is nec
essarily an over-estimate. It will be seen, however,
that the silver certificates and gold certificates
aro practically the same in amount, and yet tho
gold standard advocates never speak of a "useless
hoard" of gold, whilo they constantly speak of tho
silver in the treasury as being useless. Is thi3
discrimination due to prejudice or to ignorance,
or to both?
JJJ
One Idea of Liberty
President Tuttle of the Boston & Maine rail
road, in a recent speech, before the Newton club
at Boston, said:
When tho United States government or a
state government undertakes the .supervision
of the private business of a corporation or an
individual, to the extent of saying what price
they shall charge for their product in the open
market, then I say in the most temperate man
ner that I fear we have entered upon a course
which is against the fundamental principle
upon which this government is founded, in
dividual liberty, and I don't want to live to
see the end of it.
This is the idea of "individual liberty" which
somo of the railroad magnates have. They call it
individual liberty for a man at the head of a
railroad to arbitrarily fix rates and discriminate
in favor of one patron and against another. Presi
dent Tuttle ought to learn at once, and not here
after forget, that a corporation has no natural
rights. It is a creature of law and deriving its
existence from an act of the leg'slature it must
live always under government regulation. A rail
road i3 under a double control. It is not only un
der control because it is a corporation, but be
cause it is a quasi public corporation. Because
of its public functions it enjoys the right of emi
nent domain and otherwise exercises privileireq
denied to the individual. b
It is just such talk as that which comes from
President Tuttle that is awakening the public to
the necessity of stricter regulation of the rail
roads, and when this stricter regulation is found
impossible or not wholly effective, tho demand for
public ownership will increase.
JJJ
After The Horse Has Been Stolen
In lieu of tariff revision, Secretary of the
Treasury Shaw has suggested a revision of the
drawback law. The Shaw plan will enable manu
facturers who use certain imported dutiable raw
materials to enlarge their sales In foreign mar!
plansaysf50 Tl'ibUn' refe"lng to the Shaw
As the law stands the man who can Rhnw
" to tho satisfaction of treasury offldals Z
quantity of foreign dutiable materials u ed by
him in goods he exports gets a drawback of
t2rPfnPnt f the dUty That is a simple mat
ter in the case of a tanner who buys Argentine
exports. It is not a simple matter with the
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 3
'' ' ' '
shoemaker who may use' in each pair of shoes
he exports a little of the leather made out of
those hides. The process of "identification" of
that leather is not an easy one.
But tho Tribune demands to know why tho
duty on hides should not bo repealed altogether
thus cheapening leather for Americans as well as
foreigners. The Tribune says: "The only bene
.ficiaries of the duty are tho great packers, it was
imposed to please the cattle raisers; they thougut
it would help them. They sowed and others reap."
The Tribune points out that the consumers aro
the ones who need the relief and it declares that
the liberalization of the drawback provisions will
not be striking at tho trusts and pools which sell
cheap abroad and sell high at home, while the tar
iff i3 unrevised. Tho rail pool which tho Tribune
says is glad to sell steel rails abroad at from $16
to $21 per ton, charges $28 per ton for them at
home and the Tribune says that this is "because
there is a duty of $7.48 per ton," adding, "what
ever amount is taken off the duty will be taken
off the price asked for rails.
The Tribune -concludes it3 remarkable con
fession in this way:
Tho question of drawback revision is mere
ly throwing a 'tub to the whale. It is an effort
to get the popular mind away from tariff re
vision. It will not work. The consumers aro
" thinking of weir own grievous burdens due to
certain monstrous features of the tariff rather
than of the restrictions it imposes on some men
who use imported materials in making goods
for export.
Those men who would be pleased to seo
tariff revision confined to them. The manufac
turers who use alcohol are anxious to have tho
tax taken off it when employed for their pur
poses. They would bo content to have tariff
revision stop there. What is demanded, and
must be had, i3 revision for the benefit of tho
whole people and not of a few manufacturers.
It is strange that republican papers like the
Tribune do not think of these things prior to elec
tion day. The democratic party demanded revision
for the benefit of the whole people and not for
a few monopolies. According to republican argu
ment the verdict returned at the polls provides
justification for the tariff barons to demand new
and enlarged opportunities for plundering the con
sumers. JJJ
"A Played Out Old Tune"
The following letter, which appeared in tho
New York Herald's Paris edition, December 28th,
is interesting reading:
To the Editor of the Herald:
I was very much amused to read in your
paper the letter from bir Howard Vincent
complaining about the "Star-S'pangled Ban
ner." I am surprised, Sir, that a titled English
man should not know that in America no ono
but our tradespeople ever sings that horribly
grotesque song. Our best class considers it
inexpressibly vulgar.
Let me assure Sir Howard that, except
among very ordinary persons in America, tho
words of the song are not known. I daresay
not one of my friends could repeat more than
two lines of it from memory.
Only those assertive, patriotic bourgeois
persons in America who so ju3tly excite tho
ridicule of Englishmen and travelled gentle
men of whatever nationality, rise and uncover
when the national anthem is played. The cul
tured class does not even know any national
anthem except "My Country 'tis of Thee,"
which was so shamelessly stolen from Great
Britain.
Sir Howard can rest undisturbed in his
very kind desire to promote Anglo-American
amity. Our better classes are heartily ashamed
of the anti-British sentiment expressed in tho
words of which he complains.
CLARENCE HOSEBERY JONES.
In the "old days" when, as Minister Barrett
said during the campaign, "the flag stood for
nothing," the Star Spangled Banner was consid
ered quite a hymn, but now that the nation has
become a "world power," and is associating with
the land-grabbing nations of Europe, the senti
ment may seem a little old fogy. But had wo
not better get back to tho flag as it .was, and he
again "the land of the free, and the homo of
the bravo"?
V.tiaAfVlmJUX.
