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The Commoner.
VOLUME -5, NUMBER 15
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The Commoner.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
Chicago's "I will" has set the pace.
Whilo Mr. Taft Is on tho lid a lot of people
show a disposition to put him on tho gridiron.
Tho hoof trust has hoisted prices again, prob
ably with a View to making its profits an oven 2
per cent.
Mr. Hydo is now making strenuous efforts to
appear in the Dr. Jekyll rolo before tho Equitable
policyholders.
Judgo Parker says that tho democratic organi
zation must begin with tho voters. On this point
ho is sound.
It may yet dawn upon the czar that his police
are hatching up plots for the purpose of being able
to frustrate them.
Democracy will win whon it shows the collar
galls of progress instead of tho breeching strap
scars of so-called conservatism.
Tho primary pledge plan of organzation meets
with the approval of earnest democrats - every
where. Have you taken hold?
Tho Guatamalan ant, which was widely ad-
vortised as a sure death for the boll weevil, seems
to have como to a regular republican-reform-of-the-tariff
finish.
Tho .Outlook defends tho acceptance of Mr.
Rockefeller's gift to missions. The Outlook also
dofends imperialism and the present system of
finances.
Failure to hear anything definite from Togo
and Rojestvensky may be due to the fact that
tho MQle St. Nicholas and Che Fu correspondents
aro out "sooing a man."
Tho new census report on the Philippines
convoys the information that only 9 per cent
of tho inhabitants are uncivilized. "Como over
into Macadonia and help us!"
Mr. Garfield is busy gathering data about
oil in Kansas. And in tho meanwhile the Stand
ard Oil company is just as busy gathering in tho
money of the oil consumers.
That "American Beauty" oil trustl to make
which a thousand independent refiners wero
snipped off, seems to have developed into a reg
ular Canadian thistle sort of industry.
Democrats who are interested in making the
primary organization a success and who will cir
culate the pledge for signatures, aro requested
to send for blank pledges. They will be furnished
all applicants.
Secretary Taft, it is rumored, is the presi
dent's choice for a successor, while Fairbanks is
tho candidate of the "opposition" in the repub
lican party. Judge Taft has not shown any re
form symptoms yet. Wait until La Follette gets
to Washington; ho promises to go beyond the
president as a reformer.
Speaking of the secrets that the beef trust
magnates entrusted to those trunks, we are re
minded that those same magnates have had the
people in a box for many yeajs.
"Beware of the Greek bearing gifts!" Thisv
advice to the Trojans is equally good advice for
tho churches seeking: gifts from men who acquire
their wealth by means that will not square with
tho teachings of the Nazareno.
The Milwaukee Sentinel is just now engaged
in telling its readers what Jefferson would not do
wero he alive today . The Sentinel is wasting
time and space telling it. It is clearly showing
by its actions what Jefferson would not do.
The Chicago Chronicle's "Washington co-respondent
is afraid that the successful manage
ment of the Panama railroad osrill encourage public
ownership. Too bad.x And yet they can not
afford to make a failure of the road. What are
they going to do about it?
.A great many republican daily newspapers
that made mention of the fact that a democrat
was elected mayor of Lincoln, Neb., failed to
add that "Lincoln is Mr. Bryan's home town." It
was different when Lincoln went republican.
President. Roosevelt accepted a silver flagon
at one place, and a pair of silver spurs at another
place. We have forgotten the name of the place
where he refused to accept a hand-made American
Hag from a little French girl who had become a
loyal American citizen.
A half-million earnest democrats working un
der the primary pledge "plan can put into the next
democratic platform an expression of the senti
ments of tho real democrats of the country. If you
will be one of the number, sign a pledge and send
it to Tho Commoner.
It is a little unkind in Judge Parker to say
that his defeat was easy to "forsee and predict."
Those who urged his nomination, used as their
only argument that he could win. If the judge
had made his Jefferson, day speech last June he
would not have been nominated.
In no spirit of cavil, but merely from a desire
to impart information to a number of g. o. p.
organs, that Seem to have overlooked the fact,
The Commoner hero states that about the time
that Mr. Bryan's home city went democratic Mr.
Roosevelt's home city also went democratic.
Thomas Fitzsimmons of Cleveland has gone
into court to compel the assessors to raise the
assessment on his property. If it seems strange
that the assessors have to be forced to raise an
assessment it is explained by the fact that several
trusts have property in that vicinity and an in
crease in Mr, Fitzsimmons' assessment would com
pel an increase in assessment of trust property,
i, -
The Equitable disclosures show that condi
tions are worse than Lawson' reported. Young
Hyde has returned over one hundred thousand
that he wrongfully appropriated and declares that
other directors are guilty. It develops that the
French ambassador was given an expensive dinner
for advertising purposes. The policy holders aro
being heard from.
The discussion aroused by the Rockefeller
donation to missions is one of the most healthful
signs of the awakening of the public conscience.
Churches aro always in need of money and minis
ters are strongly tempted to allow the end to
justify the acceptance of money from any source
but many ministers are beginning to revolt
against a partnership with the trust magnates.
Memorial Day is but little more than a month
in the future, and the veterans are preparing to
m . r, observe it. For several years the
Not a Day soldiers have been protesting
for against making it a day of
Merrymaking sports, and The Commoner hear-
, , . tiIy seconds the protest. Me
morial Day is a day set apart to pay our respects
n ihmS? ? f2snt and died for their country
and whether it be the memorial day of the noS
ern or the southern soldier it should be a day of
solemnity and fervent thankfulness for the valor
which proved beyond dispute that the American
soldier, fighting for what 1 e believes to berieht
wibeat Sildier the world aa 1 er knowf 'in
justice to the memory of these brave men the
SSLn1 T? t0I paying tributes to their memor?
should not be desecrated by making it a da of
revelry and dissipation. After the jproper tributes
have been paid to their memory, the day should bo
spent in teaching patriotism to the children, and
reviving the patriotism of those who may have
grown lukewarm. The spirit of Memorial Day
seems destined to be lost in the tendency to make
the day a mere holiday to be enjoyed, and not a
day of remembrance. The protest of the veterans
is founded in justice and should be heeded by
every citizen.
f
A professor of a certain Theological Seminary
has asked Rockefeller for some money and has
promised him that no inquiry
Let the would be made concerning the
Discussion methods employed by him in
Proceed obtaining it. Another professor
rebuked the first, not for his
willingness to accept money without inquiry as
to how it was obtained, but because the promise
not to inquire might seem like a reflection on
Mr. Rockefellers methods. Let the discussion
proceed. It is doing good. Every man who
speaks for Rockefeller unintentionally gives new
reasons why the money should be refused.
When Mr Lawson began his disclosures of
the rotten management ot some of the big life in
surance companies many people
The exclaimed "impossible," and in-
Insurance terested parties tried to ignore
Muddle the ugly disclosures. But the
Equitable management is just
now in a bad tangle and its managers, quar
reling among themselves, are disclosing a sit
uation of affairs much worse than any pictured
by Mr. Lawson. Charge and counter charge fly
thick and fast, and the great insurance buying
public is forcibly reminded of an old saying to the
effect that honest people get their dues when
a certain class disagrees.
They Are
Not Expecting
( Much
Walter Wellman predicts that when the senate
meets in the fall a rate bill of some sort will be
reported, and then says that
the "opinion is expressed that it
would, not be a drastic bill,"
and that it would "probably be
a disappointment to the western
people" who have wanted congress to enact "a
real and effective measure of railway reform."
There is only one disappointment that the -senate
committee can frame for the western people,
and that is. a happy disappointment. The jteople
of the west are not expecting anything "real
and effective" in the way of a railway measure
from the senate as now constituted. They may
have a faint hope, but" they have steeled them
selves against disappointment.
The baseball season is on once more, and
lovers of the game are' packing the "bleachers"
and the grand stands and cheer
Great ing their favorites on to victory.
American Baseball has a greater hold on
Game the American people than any
other athletic game. It is a
game of skill and science, it furnishes exercise
for participant and spectator, it takes those who
play and those who watch'out of the daily grind
of lousiness and gives them fresh air and fresh
blood and fresh impulse. The growing boy who
does not love to play ball should be looked after
carefully. The grown man who does not love to
watch a good game betrays the fact that he missed
something in his early training. One reason why
baseball has so long retained its place in the
hearts of the people is that it has been kept prac
tically free from the taint of gambling. It is a
"clean sport," and as long as it-remains such it
will retain its place at the head of American
games of athletics.
Crimes
Against the
Children
The National Association ot State and Dairy
Food Departments has sounded a warning against
adulterated "baby foods," and
declares that last year 445,000 in
fants died from causes primarily
due to the adulteration of food.
This is a dreadful indictment to
draw against any man or set of men, and immedi
ate action should be taken to punish them. But
there is another fruitful source of disease and
death among children, and it is to be found in tho
iniquitous "sweatshop" and child labor systems
in vogue in many of the large cities. While pub
licists are decrying the evils of adulterations that
lead to the slaughter of innocent children, let them
also turn their attention to these other, and
equally great, evils that are not only slaughtering
thousands of children everyyear, but are blasting
the lives of thousands of men and women and add
ing daily to the great social problems that must
be settled if this republic is to endure.
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