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nnd, as ono Commoner reader well said, ho Will
find that even though ho may have regularly par
ticipated in the primaries, the very fact that ho
has formally given a pledgo will do much to aid
him in maintaining liis good record. The record
of every man who aspires to he a delegate to
dcmocralic conventions should ho carefully scruti
nized and democrats should see to it that no man
is sent to a democratic convention, county, state
or national, who can not he depended upon to
fail hf ul ly represent and defend tho opinions of
the rank and file.
Those who call it wisdom to accept as final
the insolent boastings of commercialism and plu
tocracy and who regard it as "conservatism" to
permit tho representatives of those influences to
frame tho policies of parties and dictate the course
of nations will find food for thought in Carlisle's
testimony to tho omnipotence of truth: "Hast
thou considered how thought is stronger than artillery-parks,
and (wore it fifty years after death
and martyrdom, or were it two thousand years)
writes and un writes acts of parliament, removes
mountains, models the world like soft clay? Also
how tho beginning of all thought worth the name
is lovo; and tho wise head never yet was, without
first tho generous heart? Tho heavens ceaso not
their bounty; they send us generous hearts into
every generation. And now what generous heart
can pretend to itself, or be hoodwinked into be
lieving, that loyalty to the money bag is a noble
loyalty? Mammon, cries the generous heart out
of all ages and countries, is the basest of known
gods, ovon of known devils. In him what glory is
there, that ho should worship him? No glory dis
cernible; not even terror; at best, detestability,
ill-matched with despicability!"
If the democratic party is to build upon a
permanent foundation, it must recognize the fact
that truth alono can give to the party hope of
perpetuity; and that back of all thought must
bo lovo. Deep love for tho common people and
belief in human brotherhood will make the demo
cratic party an invincible force. Unless the party
is an exponent of thought and truth; unless it is
built upon love not self-love, but brotherly love
it can not hopo for more than temporary and trif
ling success. Democracy when rightly under
stood is a religion, for it is founded upon the doc
trmo of equal and inalienable rights. A party
founded upon that doctrine is entitled to tho best
service of Its members.
JJJ
THE REFERENDUM MOVEMENT
Tho referendum movement is growing. Tho
Montana legislature has decided to submit to the
people of that state a constitutional amendment
providing for tho initiative and referendum. This
has been the result of a contest which hegan
with the people and has finally resulted in the
capture of tho legislature. Montana will be the
fifth state to vote on this subject. The other states
are South Dakota, Utah, Oregon and Illinois The
SfJ Nevada legislature voted to submits con
stitutional amendment providing for a direct in
itiative but as it requires two legislatures to act
favorably on such an amendment it goes over to
the next legislature. In Utah two republican leg
islatures have refused to put a constUutional
amendment into operation. In South Dakota the
republican legislature has shown a disposition to
SitllGnPrOVlslons of the referendum amend
ment, but tho cause of direct legislation is ctow
tag. Those who helleve in bringing The govern
ment nearer to the people will support it when
thoy understand it. i'vun it when
JJJ
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
afSEXS aCitvUlhaVe een f Sected!yHisS SS?eh
may toff i """"V Would indicate that ho
Sy.ne'saidf0"11 elemmt in tho "PnMlcaS
tho 2ifffSl0W Citlzens' l have matched somewhat
the fight in your municipalitythe snmA Jw
are having across tho line-the samf fw that we
having in the nation today VaJSK We are
has made the fight of tl 7nnnn? J reSVnt mayor
tions. Will you stand by him? VSi,nBt QV0T!l'
haiter. I do not envy the mn ? ,no political
only the envy that I do nS? piaSsa !? Tft
want to say tonight that tho grea auoJL ?? l
tho American people that li crasum w ti "5 b.foro
ests and time is the conflict SetwiSn 1Gir Inter'
and the encroachments of tw the peoi)l0
their unlawful eSSSia 0 theh"nTaUns m
wealth. Now, you, my fellow cl "TOted
Christian statesman, TZ $
The Commoner.
that you are with him in the fight. Do not he
misled." , . ,
He recognizes that the great question before
the American people is the conflict "between the
people and tho encroachmnts of the corporations.'
He has diagnosed the case properly and he has a
great work before him if he tries to restore to the
people their rights. He commends Kansas for Its
fight against the Standard Oil company and he
will have a chance in Washington to make good
his words. Let us hope that Missouri's "Mys
terious Stranger" will earn a foremost place
among republican reformers.
JJJ
A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT
That fine old republican paper, the Chicago
Chronicle, is indignant because the congregational
ministers at Boston protested against the accept
ance by the American hoard of commissioners for
foreign missions of a gift of $100,000 offered hy
John D. Rockefeller. The Chronicle is particularly
indignant because these clergymen said:
The Standard Oil company, of which Mr.
Rockefeller is the head, stands before the pub
lic under repeated and recent formidable in-
dictments in specific terms for methods which
are morally iniquitous and socially destructive,
and tho acceptance of such gift involves the
constituents of the hoard in a relation imply
ing honor toward the donor and subjects the
board to the charge of ignoring the moral is
sues involved.
The Chronicle denounces these clergymen as
"a lot of Pharisees" and declares that "Judas
Iscariot would make a white mark on some of
them."
Then the Chronicle rushes to the defense of
the Rockefellers in this eloquent way:
The Standard Oil company does business
on the same principles as any other business
company or person has done it ever since the
days of Adam, and the only reason that it
attracts the attention and excites the hatred
of Pharisees is that it does business on such
a large scale.
The complaint is just as illogical as would
he a complaint against an oak tree on ac
count of its bark when every rose bush has
a bark also in proportion to its size, or against
a great bakery on account of the smoke it
makes when every private kitchen is making
a smoke also in proportion to the amount of
cooking it does. Nobody but a pharisee could
be so inconsistent.
Admitting, as it must admit, that "the Stand
ard Oil trust stands before the public under re
peated and recent formidable indictments in spe
cific terms for methods which are morally iniqui
tous and socially destructive," the Chronicle says
that that great trust "does business on the same
principles as any other business company or per
son has done it ever since the days of Adam "
According to the Chronicle, all business con
cerns and all individuals engaged in business em
ploy the same iniquitous methods for which the
Standard Oil trust has become notorious and the
en y reason that the iniquity of the Standard
Oil trust "attracts the attention and excites tho
hatred of Pharisees, is that it does business Sn
such a large scale." That is a terrible inSctment
to bring against the business men of this cSS'
arraieV? " Chr0nlcle's P
Oil us? -M San
not consent to the charge that Whn'i
is 2W figurG
Chronicle's serious accusation if1?3 ihat th
ness men of the count?? Tas ?nrS,n8t the busi
H is, indeed, anTteresUng S ie TF
the greatest of trusts nmi nn ,,o nerhaps
of the trust system generaliv I f ,ng defense
as a defense for ovTS&nlZ0' also
It would serve as justlSnfinn f WOrld s hlstory
and if that view should hJ ?n fr eTery evil deed;
the rising yne7aCIdherI SSukTS
for the future of our country 7 SmaU hopo
JJJ
TEACHING MONARCHICAL DOCTRINE
has 2& S instructor,
Mich., an address in wWehhf ml?1 at Detro"
-nt in favor of mr
VoiJME 6, NUMBER U
ngainst representative-government. Ex.Pn
man Lucking of the Detroit district was if?
audience (the address was delivered at nn 9
meeting of the Cosmopolitan club) and roniin0??
the nrofeasor. nolntincr nut fbnf , .. ., ., Iuiel to
monarchical lo-nmTs
really an attack upon our theory of govern?
The professor admitted this and attempted tW
fy himself by saying that President RoosovSm li'
said to him, "Ytm will never hear me quotinff !?d
the Declaration of Independence." He -Usn i
scribed a visit to the white house about Christm '
time, when he declares he saw on the walk
gift from the German emperor." According tn ,a
Detroit Tribune he describes tho gift as follow
"There was a golden frame and within it wn?o
crown, and during- the several days after Chrkt
mas when I called upon the president ho C
entwined about the cr6wn the American holly
was a beautiful suggestion, the crown and t
American holly." " u l
If the president is correctly quoted, the Har
vard professor can certainly feel that ho has hich
authority to support him" In his attack upon tho
Declaration of Independence and our theory of
government, but let us hope that he did not cor.
rcctly understand the president. He may have
been overwhelmed by his reception at the white
house, and so agitated as not to have compre
hended the president's language. Let us even
hope that his eyes deceived him when he saw
what he describes as a -crown entwined with
holly. A crown, even in a frame, would hardly he
regarded as the proper ornament for the white
house, unless it was a. captured, crown.
But while the professor may have misrepre
sented the president's position; he certainly speaka
with authority as to his own position, and what
shall we think of the propriety of the employment
by a great American college of a professor who
feels it his duty to belittle our principles of gov
ernment and to praise monarchy? Is it strange
that our .heiresses are-seeking titles abroad, when
American colleges employ exponents of European
ideas to instruct American youths?
JJJ
WASHINGTON AND ROOSEVELT
Several newspapers are giving Mr. Roosevelt
considerable' trouble just now with respect to his
quotations.' It does not seem exactly fair to hold
to a strict accountability on this line one who is
required to deliver as many addresses as are de
manded of the president. It is true, however, that
men should be very careful in. using the language
of others, particularly when that language is em
ployed by way of justifying 'the orator s course.
A writer in Harper's Weekly directs atten
tion to the interesting criticism made of Mr.
Roosevelt on this line. Mr. Roosevelt said that
among the maxims bequeathed by George Wash
ington in his farewell address was the following:
"To be prepared for war is the most effectivo
means to promote peace."
The New York Sun points out that nothing of
this kind appears in the farewell address and that
no unqualified statement to the effect indicated
by Mr. Roosevelt is discoverable in any of his
extant utterances. The Sun says: "The nearest
thing to it is the qualified, assertion made in
Washington's first annual address, or message,
sent to congress on January 8, 1790. Then ho
suggested that 'to be prepared for war is one of
the most effectual means of perserving peace.' "
The Sun adds:
"Cautious as the statement is, it is
scarcely consistent with the conviction at
which Washington arrived near the close of
his life, and which found earnest expression
in the following words: My first wish is to
see this plague to mankind war banished
from the earth, and the sons and daughters of
this world employed in more pleasing and in
nocent amusements than in preparing imple
ments and exercising them for the destruction
of mankind.'"
A Quaker correspondent of the Philadelphia
Public Ledger directs attention to the fact that
the modern battleship is clearly, nay, preeminent'
ly, ono of the "implements" coming under tho
above category.
IIXT Mr- Roosevelt is also quoted as saying:
Never since tho beginning of our country's his;
tory has the navy been used In an unjust war.
Tho New York Evening Post reminds the
president that the navy was used in the Moxican
war, which General Grant pronounced one of tho
most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a
weaker nation. Assuming that Mr. Roosevelt may
decline to take his opinions second-hand from Gen
eral Grant, Harper's Weekly says that he cannot,
with any show of consistoncv, dissent from the
judgment rendered by himself in his "Life of
Benton," when ho spoke of the Mexican war as
t