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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.
