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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1905)
The Commoner. - VOLUME 5, NOiBElt SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1905 ELECTIONS The results of the recent elections Indicate not only a disposition on tho part of the American people to resent tho impositions they have been required for so many years to bear, ,but, .what is moro Important, a revival of the public con science with respect to public affairs. Without minimizing the great influence which Coxism and other local issues played in bringing about the good result in Ohio, It must not be forgotten that the railway rate issue con tributed materially to that end. Even now some republicans are claiming or admitting, as you please that tho democratic victory In Ohio must bo accepted as an endorsement of Mr. Roosevelt's railway rate policy. Had tho result been other wise, every one knows tho interpretation Senator Foraker and other of Mr. Roosevelt's opponents would have placed upon tho result. What in terpretation would Secretary Taft, who pleaded for Ilerrlck votes, have given to u republican vic tory in Ohio? Mr. Foraker seems eager to placo ,lhe blame upon Coxism and other local issues, but it 'vay not be doubted that Mr. Roosevelt and his friends will yet find it convenient ,to point to the fact that the result in Ohio discredits For akorism and sustains Mr. Roosevelt in his advo cacy of what Mr. Foraker called " a democratic measure." It will bo observed that some or our republi can friends are very ready to hold the democratic party responsible for the sins charged against Tammany, while they absolve the republican party from the sins charged against the repub lican machines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mr. Roosevelt did well to keep his official SENATOR KNOX ON RAILWAY RATES United States Senator Philander C. Knox de livered an address on the railway rate question before the chamber of commerce banquet at Pittsburg on the evening of November 3. Sen ator Knox's remarks seemed largely to bo directed to railroad managers whom he asked to submit cheerfully to the proposed legislation . on tho theory that, after ail, it will not really be serious. The important part of Senator Knox's address relates to his assurance that "no cuch law could bo enacted that could prevent the court, if satis fied that injustice had been done tho railroads, from staying the operations of the order upon terms until the court had passed upon the merits of the controversy." Referring to the railroad claim, that the fixing . of railroad rates was a very difficult question and one to be determined only by experts, Senator Knox said that expert testimony would, of course, be taken by the commission "and it follows, of course, if the weight of reason is with the rail roads, the complaints will be dismissed. To con-' jecture otherwise would be to assume that the commission could not ilnderstana or would not heed a sound defense." In his references to railway rate legislation during his Ohio speech Secretary ' Taft seemed anxious to have the railroad managers understand that the legislation proposed was not after all, serious. As a member of the. .cabinet and personally, Secretary Taft stands close to the 'president, and Senator Knox's relations with the chief executive are likewise intimate. It. is not, therefore, encouraging to hear such interpretations placed upon the pro posed legislation by men intimately associated with Mr. Roosevelt. If the program as outlined, by Intimation at least, in the speeches -of Messrs Taft and Knox is carried out, then Mr. Roose velt's boasted campaign for railway rate legis . lation will terminate in a farce. As the friends of railway rate legislation un derstapd it, a program for the establishment of genuine reform means that tho power wilP be lodged with the interstate commerce commission and that when that; commission has found a given rate to be unreasonable and has made its order accordingly, the rate newly fixed by the -commission will go immediately into effect and remain in ..effect until overruled in final adjudication of the,; qon test. ,,.,.. .i;f The president himself -in his speech nt Raleigh said that the law's delays were proverbial, and , what he said on that occasion, fairly interpreted Mneans,, tha,Lt!ie. .only way to provide the public family out of the Pennsylvania contest, and it would have been. greatly to the credit of his ad ministration had his cabinet .officers refrained from interfering in the Ohio contest. It was not at all creditable to the administration that so conspicuous a spokesman as Secretary Taft should take the stump in an effort to defeat the only po litical party that had the courage to endorse the president's views on the railway rate question, and in behalf of a ticket nominated by a conven tion that deliberately refused to endorse those views, which ticket was supported by leaders who were openly hostile to them. But the important fact to remember is that in Ohio, the only state where the railway rate question was a clear cut issue made so by the two conventions and by the speeches of leaders on either side tho "democratic measure" to which Mr. Roosevelt has given his endorsement received formal approval by the people. The crushing defeat which the republican machine met in Philadelphia's city election and in the Pennsylvania state election is the best news that the people of the Keystone state have heard for many a year. Although Pennsylvanians have long been mercilessly oppressed, they seemed to have been wedded to their idols, but there, as in other contests where an appeal was made to the conscience of men, the response was ready and unmistakable. The elections of 1905 must give encourage ment to those who would wage political battle along moral lines. The conscience controls hu man actions whenever it is awakened, and it is only awakened by a voice from another con- wlth relief is to require the new rate to go im mediately into effect. Friends of railway regulation will prefer to. base their hopes upon the straightforward policy outlined by Mr. Roosevelt at Raleigh rather than upon the ineffective plans suggested by Messrs. Taft and Knox. The evils from which the people suffer are real. They must be met by real re forms, hejmrthian, preferences of the men who mtveTqr so many years, violated the spirit of the laws are not to be considered. Executive and lawmaker owe no apology to these influential law-breakers. Their duty is to the public welfare, and now that the people have become thoroughly .aroused on this important question public officials will be held strictly to account. JJJ TURN ON THE SEARCHLIGHT Election contests are, not as a rule profitable either to the public or to the individuals immedi ately concerned. It has been generally found that where errors have been committed in the interests of the contestee, otner errors were made in the interests of the contestant. But when accusations are made so serious as those brought against the Tammany machine in New York City public interests tie country over, as well as public interests in the community directly interested, require a searching Investigation, and a thorough prosecution of tho men responsible for the wrongs. lf Whatever criticisms have been made of the political machine behind Mr: McClellan, no one has questioned his high personal character; and it is inconceivable that he should be willing to profit through election frauds. Rather is it his duty, as every one will hope it will be his pleasure, to co-operate in the effort to ascertain whether his small plurality was made possible by fraud. But whatever the preferences of individuals may be; the investigation will certainly be thorough. Men and newspapers that did not prefer Mr. Hearst for mayor have now gone to his support. In the investigation under way Mi Hearst's own, and well known, energy will be no ! small factor in the proceedings; 4u ?h,enwit,h an honest vote and a fair count the majority have erred, the error may in- time, be rectified and public interests may in the long SJ! Lhrough HJe experiences gained by the people, ?n7im0re ?aVn : temporary losses sus' tained from the error. But there is no remedV for a fraudulently carried election other than the ' prompt unmasking of the men responsible ft the frauds .and the Vigorous prosecution of the most eminent rascals who wore parties to them. tV it is to, belhoped that no effort will; bo snared ss,,a.searoi,,ieht - Ne science. If we would touch the conscience J others we may get evidence that our own Ln sciences have been quickened. The great 1 this time is the issue between man and mamrnnn between democracy and plutocracy. All 8UrS questions of national policy, of taxation of rem, lation and of finance, are biit phases of 'that dST tury-long, that world-wide struggle between the! common . people and organized wealth. To say that Jit does not pay a nation to vio. late the rights of the people of another nation in volves so much of addition, subtraction, multiplica tion and division thaemany are lost in a maze of mathematics, but to. say that the wages of sin is death is to give an epitome of history that accords with each person's experience. To say that taxation which confers immediate benefits upon the priv ileged few who secured the enactment of the law does not find its way back by indefinite and devious ways to the pockets or the many, may confuse the minds of some, but to say "Thou Shalt Not Steal," either by law or in defiance of it, can be easily understood. And so in dealing with' principles, with finance, with labor problems and all the other questions at issue, we may view them from a moral standpoint and arraign every evil at the bar of public conscience. Will it win? Nothing less can give perman ent success. As the martyrs who, eighteen hun dred years ago, kneeling in prayer while hungry beasts devoured them, invoked a power mightier than the legions of Rome, so today it is not only possible, but necessary to appeal to that moral sentiment of a nation which, when aroused, will prove more potent than the oppressor. A SPLENDID MONUMENT Sir George Williams, the founder of the Young Men's Christian Association, died in London, England, on November 6, at the age of eighty six. Sixty-five years ago, while yet a clerk in a London store, he inaugurated the movement which is known today as the "Y. M. C. A." In 1844 he called a few of his fellow clerks together and the first organization was formed. The in tention was .to confine it to clerks, but the move ment soon outgrew its original "bounds and in a few years was world wide in its scope. Today there are Y. M.' C. A. organizations in every country on the globe, and in nearly every city in these, countries. Mr. Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria, in 1894 - as a recognition of his work in the interests of young. men. It is impossible to conceiveof the great work that the organization started 'byt Sir George Wil liams sixty years ago has donejifor young men. It has been a wonderful influence for righteous ness, and its worth has been recognized by great corporations, by individuals andr by communities Nearly every great railroad system supports a branch of the Y. M, C. A., and religious denom inations are a unit in supporting the organization. No monument of brass or marble that may bo erected above the remains of Sir' George Williams will be as enduring as the greater monument that has been erected in the hearts of thousands of younff men who have been directed to lives of usefulness by the great Christian organization he founded. ' - JJJ ' ' r' AND TAFT WAS JNiT Prior to the recent electibti, the New York Press, a republican paper, referrjhg to tho Ohio campaign sqld: ' ' It is a sickening farce for republican speakers to' go out on the stuhip asking votes for a state ticket on the ground that votes against it will be votes against President Roosevelt when the state platform tacitly sayd that a vote for it Is a vote against the president in the matter of " republican party . policy which he holds nearest his heart. The people of Ohio evidently recognized the farce, and ft is indeed regretable that members of Mr1. Roosevelt's cabinet bore conspicuous part in the effort' 'to hoodwink the people of Ohio. JJJ '. COk AND FORAKEj Referring. to the democratic landslide in Ohio, Senator Foraker says that Cox did it. Cox might point tp Senator Poraker's re peated declarations - that railwayrate regulation is a democratic measure and very reasonably in sist that Senator 'Foraker was hi7 part responsible for the good results. a - iiif!jfli Mm