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The Commoner.
MABCH 17. 1905
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Not Plutocrats But Plutocracy f-
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The London Spectator has stirred the
bile of our usually placid neighbor the
Sun by carlessly remarking that the
United States Senate "may be -said to
be composed of plutocrats." The Sun
gracefully admits, however, that the
Spectator is "excusable for making so
gross a misstatement; for it spoke on
the authority of frequent assertions to
the same effect made in reckless and
mischievous American newspapers."
The Spectator is clearly wrong in
saying that the Senate is composed of
plutocrats. Webster defines a pluto
crat as "one whose wealth gives him
power and influence." Comparatively
few United States Senators have power
and influence due to their wealth. In
deed some of the richest members of
' the senate have the least influence, one
of the conspicuous examples being Sen
ator Clark, of Montana, whose annual
income is represented by seven figures
and whose power as a lawmaker is al
most nothing.
But if the Spectator had' said that the
United States Senate is dominated by
plutocracy, would it have been so far
wrong? How many of the Senators are
political agents of "vested interests,"
of corporations and of aggregations of
Wealth? How many of them owe their
places to the influence exerted upon
State Legislatures by organized capi
tal? How many of them are notor
iously the agents of railroads or of
protected industries? These men are
not plutocrats, but is it a gross mis
statement to call them servants of
plutocracy?
The Sun cannot have' forgotten how
the agents of the .transcontinental rail
roads in Congress held up the Isth
mian Canal legislation for years, and
surrendered only when Mr. Roosevelt's
Panama coup d'etat made further re
sistance impossible. It cannot have
forgotten how the successor to the
late Senator Quay was selected by the
president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company ,and how the Governor of
Pennsylvania, in ratifying the com
pany's choice, ignored a plain mandate
of the State Constitution It cannot
have forgotten how the Senatorial rep
resentatives of certain great interests
so mutilated the Wilson bill that Pres
ident Cleveland refused to sign it.
It cannot have forgotten how certain
other aggregations of capital were all
but successful in defeating the Cuban
reciprocity treaty regardless of Presi
dent McKinley's sacred pledges and
President Roosevelt's earnest plea3. It
cannot have forgotten the fact that a
dozen reciprocity treaties negotiated
by' Secretary Hay have been smothered
by the representatives of protected in
dustries in the United States Senate.
It cannot have forgotten how the scan
dalous system of weighing the United
States mail has been perpetuated by
railroad influences and how these in
fluences have succeeded in tying the
hands of the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
And these are but a few of the ex
amples. The millionaire who goes to the
Senate is usually there for pleasure,
not for business. He buys a seat in
that august body as he buys anything
else that he thinks will give him dis
tinction. 3 :e intrusts his real political
affairs, as ho does his legal affairs, to
more competent hands. Yet if the plu
tocrats themselves are few in number,
the agents of plutocracy in the Senate
constitute a veritable government
within a government.
In an address delivered June 1 to tho
graduating class of the Albany Law
School David J. Brewer, Justice of
the Supreme Court of tho United
States, said:
"No one can be blind to the fact that
these mighty corporations are holding
out in their lawmaking those interests
rather than the welfare of the nation.
Senators and Representatives have
owed their places to corporate influ
ence and that influence has been ex
erted under an expectation, if not an
understanding, that as lawmakers the
corporate interests shall be subserved."
Will the Sun pretend that Justice
David J. Brewer is "a reckless and
mischevious American newspaper?" Or
does it believe that this eminent jurist
has been mi3led by the "Senator Sor
ghum" jokes in the "funny column" of
a ribald press ? New York World.
Cures
To Fit the Filipinos For Self-Govern-ment.
Men prominent as educators, church
men, publicists and philanthropists in
all sections of the country have or
ganized the Filipino Progress associa
tion, for the purpose of promoting the
welfare of the nine million odd in
the Philippine Islands.
The ultimate purpose of the associa
tion is to bring about a condition of
affaira in the Philippines which will
make possible legislation that will put
the Filipinos on a par with the Cu
bans concerning their relations with
the United States in other words, to
give them self-government.
In the association, whose formation
was announced yesterday, are Andrew
Carnegie, Cardinal Gibbons, Jacob G.
Schurman, President of Cornell Uni
versity; Charles W. Eliot, president of
Harvard; David Starr Jordan, presi
dent of Leland Stanford university;
Prof. Henry Van Dyke, Horace White
and many others of equal prominence,
who have given much thought and
study to the Philippine problem. Those
named are all leaders in the movement.
"Dr. Schurman of Cornell nas ac
cepted the presidency of the associa
tion, and Mr. White is the treasurer.
Dr. Schurman's personal knowledge of
the needs of the Filipinos, gained while
he was a United States commissioner
in the islands, is expected to aid the
work of the association materially.
There are Many Imitations of
Baker's Cocoa
and
Baker's Chocolate
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Our trade-mark is on every
pacicage or genuine gooas.
Under the decisions of several
United States Courts, no
other chocolate or cocoa than
Walter Baker df Co.'s is en
titled to be sold as "Baker's
Cocoa" or "Baker's Chocolate
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Our handsomely illustrated recipe book
sent free.
Walter Baker & Co. Ltd.
Established 1780 Dorchester, Massachusetts
45 Highest Awards in Europe and America
In outlining its purposes one of the
officers of the association declared
them to be:
"To procure and disseminate infor
mation concerning the industrial, com
mercial and political conditions in the
Philippine islands; to promote legis
lation favorable to the Filipinos and to
promote the fulfilment of the hope ex
pressed by President Roosevelt in his
message that the Philippine islands
'shall stand in some such relation to
the United States as Cuba now
stands.' "
While the labors mapped out for the
association are counted upon to cover
a long period of time, because of the
magnitude of the task and its great
importance both to the United States
and the Philippines, there are a num
ber of preliminary matters which aro
to be attended to immediately.
One of these concerns the opium traf
fic in the islands. To coirect its evils
the association has already petitioned
congress, recommending as a model tho
Japanese law regulating the use of th
drug in Formosa.
Every separate task undertaken by
the association will be gone into thor
oughly and exhaustively before any
definite move Is made. One of its
watchwords is to "make haste slowly,"
so that there shall be no steps to re
trace in the upbuilding of the Fll
iplno. Exchange.
The Primary Pledge
' .
I promise to attend all the primaries of my party to he held between now and the next demo-
cratic national convention, unless unavoidably prevented, and to use my influence to secure a clear, J
honest and straightforward declaration of the party's position on every question upon which the
voters of the party desire to speak. "
Signed ,
i
Street .
Postoffice ;..' -State,
r ........... . r
County Voting precinct or ward ;
Fill out blanks and mail to Commoner Office, Lincoln, Neb. a
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