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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1905)
i A-y nr-r -J V ? . jumto - .& 2 strength lies in the fact that you have a large majority of the voters of all parties with you. Pass over the railroad representatives and appeal to the people. Compel the opponents of railroad legislation to meet the issue in the open. Thore is no logical or oven plausible argument against the legislation which you recommend. A railroad corporation is a creature of law; it has no rights except those conferred upon it by the people. It is inconceivable that the people should create a corporation without reserving the right to so control it as to make it subserve the public interest. The right of the people, acting through organized government, to control according to their own pleasure every corporation created by them must be conceded and the necessity for the exercise of that control ic clearly demonstrated. Extortion in rates, unfairness, discrimination against persons, discrimination against places, midnight tariffs and rebates galore all these iniquities have resulted from lack of regulation. They are intolerable and must be stopped. Will you use the great influence of your high office to The Commoner. secure the regulation now, or will you leave the honor to a successor? They will tell you that effective rate legisla tion will disturb the harmony of your party. You can answer that a refusal to respond to the just demands of the public means not harmony but political death. The democrats, if they' had no higher pur pose than to secure control of the offices, might wish you to lead the railroad element of your party, but they are citizens first and democrats afterward. They are more interested in securing needed reforms than they are in securing credit for the reforms. If, as I think probable, it is found necessary to change the method of electing senators before that body is brought into sym pathy with the masses you will find enthusiastic support in the advocacy of this reform. Four times the house of representatives has by an al most unanimous vote declared in favor of the election of senators by direct vote, twice when the house was democratic and twice when it was republican. VOLUME J, NUMBER)i If in your flght you deem It wlss t none worth cultivating, if you are v the trusts you will find that they have fol Uclt none worth cultivating if vn 1 le .rlenJ help reduce the tariff where it shelter? ? to you will find the democrat. rmwiv .... a tr"st you will find the democrats ready to aid vnn l with them an increasing number of renfiJ04 If, encouraged by the success of your !& the anthracite coal strike you decide to u?.? establishment' of a permanent board for thS !? tration of differences between labor and can! !' you will find a growing force behind you ' Stand by your guns! You have develop reform element in the republican party; you mJ lead it or suffer the humiliation of seeing the lea? ership pass to someone else. Your words have excited great expectations which must be met, for you will be measured by your own words. The Commoner commended your message of last December and will lend you any influence it may have so long as you advocate reforms. Go forward, you owe it to yourself you owe it to your party and, more than all, you owe it to your country. W. J. BRYAN. VALIANT DEFENDERS OP THE NATIONAL HONOR "Wo must guard the nation's honor when assailed by any foe, "We must keep it safe whatever ill befall; Wo must use our best endeavor to preserve it clean forever," Said Depew, Hyde, Alexander and McCall. So with tears their eyes bedimming and their honest hearts aglow For the widows and the orphans in their care, They gave forth the declaration they would save their well loved nation But you see they didn't do things on the square. For the widows and the orphans they made many touching pleas, Saying, "Hands off; we will guard therm day and night!" But a search is now revealing some gigantic games of stealing By these trusted devotees of truth and right. "While of honor and of widows and of- orphans they did talk It transpires they worked with orooked turns and twists. And while "honor" safely guarding their own pockets were rewarding, Shoving hands into trust money past the wrists. "Do not sully our fair credit by repudiation's route! Do not let the nation's honor be debased," Cried this precious lot of hooters who of trust funds were the looters, "We must never let our nation be disgraced." How they talked of "honest money," how of "honor" they did cry, But remembered dirty schemes they worked the while. For corrupt and rotten revel this gang seems to have the devil Beaten seven furlongs in a single mile. What a precious lot who guarded our great nation from all harm! A sweet-scented bunch of grafters, to be ure, Eotten stocks were syndicated, rotten bond deals well inflated, By these men whose motives were so clean and pure. Judges bought and sold like cattle, legislatures were debauched, Loot and graft and dirty deals on every hand. And it must not be forgotten that these men with schemes so rotten Are the men who posed as saviors of the land. Nerve sublime and cheek gigantic had this bunch who stood on guard Over "widows," "orphans," "honor," night and day, Shouting "honor," "honest money," don't it now seem awful funny When you learn the crooked schemes tho bunch did play? Satan standing forth rebuking those who weakly yield to sin Cuts a better figure than these posing pa triots do, And next time we seek defenders we'll not chooso such double-enders As McCall, Hyde, Alexander and Depew. WILL M. MAUPIN. TELL THEM TO PUT IT BACK, MR. PRESIDENT The disclosures made before the New York legislative committee has directed attention to the evils of contributions to political campaign funds by great corporations. In tne case of these Insurance companies the money contributed protferly belonged to the policyholders, and while many of these policyholders were working in be half of the democratic ticket they were contribut ing in the form of insurance premiums to the suc cess of the party which they hoped to defeat. In such cases a wrong is perpetrated upon the policyholders, but in those cases, as in all other cases where corporations contribute to po litical funds, the offense is against popular gov ernment. While no attempt on the part of re publican leaders has been seriously made to deny that these great corporations contributed to repub lican campaign funds, it has been suggested that the contributions were given without any promise, expressed or implied. Of course such a defense is merely a subterfuge. Everybody knows that the corporations do not contribute money except for "business" purposes, and when a corporation contributes money as a matter of "business" it means that it is either paying for some favor already received or purchasing a favor for future delivery. It has been shown that the New York Life Insurance company contributed somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 tj the republican cam paign fund in each of the last three national cam paigns. It is safe to say that every other great insurance company made similar contributions. Because his party was tho beneficiary of these funds, President Roosevelt should be quick to act upon the suggestion provided in disclosures made before the New York legislative committee. President Roosevelt would do well to sug gest to the republican national committee the advisability of returning tho money paid by these insurance companies, for the use and benefit of the policyholders to whom it belongs. It would be gratifying to tho American peo ple generally if the president in hi forthcoming message would present a measure for the "purifica tion of politics. One of the best methods in this work of purification is to begin with the cam paign fund. In some of the states congressmen are compelled to file a signed and itemized ac count of their campaign expenditures, but this should be made a national requirement, and the law should be so stringent as to require the filing of the statement whether the money was spent by the candidate himself, by tho officers of his committee or by anyone else with his knowledge or the knowledge of the committee. The law ought also to apply to the election of senators, for senatorial contests have sometimes involved the spending of enormous sums. And it is even more necessary that the law should apply to presidential contests. The president has a veto power, which, in addition to the influence that his office naturally exerts and in addition to the in terest exerted through patronage, enables him to block the passage of a measure until two-thirds of both houses support it. It is a well-known fact that the great corporate interests rely upon the senate to protect them from hostile legislation. It has. now been proved, as it has long been-suspected, that they have contributed' large sums to influence presidential elections. Votes can not be bought unless there is mon ey with which to buy them, ana money will not be subscribed to buy votes if it must be sub scribed in the open and the corporation's interest in tho result be known to the public. What argu ment can be made against the publication in ad vance of the election of the money subscribed for the campaign. What right has a party which appeals to the public to conceal from the public the purpose of its victory? And how can the pur pose of a victory be better determined than by an examination of the campaign contributions? Does any one doubt that the publication of the larse contributions made in 1896, 1900 or 1904 would have had an influence upon the result of the elec tion? Not only ought tha larger contributions to be made public before the election for tho in formation of the public, but it would be well to require a publication of the principal expenditures of the committees. . The use of enormous campaign funds collect ed from the trusts and great insurance compa nies can not be continued without danger to the country. Is it not time to put a stop to it? It the president will take cognizance of this import ant subject in his forthcoming message he will win the approbation of the men of all political parties who have grown weary of corporate domi nation in political affairs. If the president does not act the democrats in congress should frame such a measure and secure its passage or put upon the republicans the responsibility of defeating it. JJJ NEBRASKA DEMOCRACY Judge W. G. Hastings, nominated by the Ne braska democratic convention to be judge of tne supreme court, stands high as a lawyer and a man. Those who know Judge Hastings well wm have no hesitancy in saying that if elected no will prove himself to be in every way worthy oi the great honor conferred upon him. Messrs. Cole and Lightner, the nominees tor regents, are highly spoken of by their neighbors. They are deeply interested in popular education, and it is safe to say that if elected to the uoara of regents they will exert every effort to advance the best interests of the great institution com mitted to their care. , The platform adopted by the convention is clear and explicit. It will be found in anotner column of this issue, and speaks for itself. JJJ THAT "HURRY UP CALL" Many republican editors and leaders sneered when Thomas W. Lawson said that during ' closing hours of the 1896 campaign a "hurry i call" for $5,000,000 was made in behalf of tho ; publican ticket, and promptly responded to. i" news columns of all papers reporting the nisi anco inquiry at New York provide corroborate testimony for Mr. Lawson's charge.