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The Commoner
MrDnm,,. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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Vol, 6, N(frfffiT(jfaj( , tvyirTfa'ncoln Nebraska March 2, 1906
Whole Number 267
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CONTENTS
t Mr. Bryjln's Letter
A Delightful Joke
Limitations on Justice
"We Must !Forgii.t It"
some telling blows
fetching
Easy to Believe
"What About the. Merger?
Washington City Letter
Comment on Current Topics
Home Department
Wiietuer Common or Not
News 01 the Week
NOW THE "FACT"
The London Daily Mail, in its issue of De
cember 23, 1905, printed an editorial addressed
to Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, in which edi
torial the "Mail said: "We would further point
out that any reduction orxurtailment of the gold
pEBSttBt sslypon 'trade,
causing "a fall in prices and general depression.?'
At .London reader .of The Commoner, direct
ing attention to this statement, says: "The Mail
is evidently a believer in the quantitative fact in
money." That is very well put. A few years
ago it was the "quantitative theory' but now the
theory which republican papers in America and .
if we mistake not, the London Mail vigorously
denied, is so generally admitted that it is recog
nized as a fact rather than a theory; and we must
not forget that what wo call me quantitative
theory or fact in money is in truth the founda
tion of all arguments made in Dehalf of bimet
allism. JJJ
FETCHING
Representative Sibley of Pennsylvania who
voted against the railroad rate Dill declared the
measure to be "socialistic and anarchistic, and
highly endorsed 'by Bryan and Hearst." In that
speech Mr. Sibley admitted that there are abuses
to be corrected, but he demanded to know how
men could be held to stricter accountability than
under the Elkins law against rebates. In the
same speech he said that if they were not held
accountable it was because of aerilictlon of offi
cials or because the law was not drastic enough.
Commenting upon- those remarkable statements
the Pittsburg Dispatch says: "There's reason
and logic for you!"
It was a rather fetching argument, coming
from one whose intelligence revolts at the proposi
tion that corporations, the creatures of law, shall
bo regulated by thoir creator.
JJJ
TOM JOHNSON DRAFTED HIM
- When last elected, Mayor Tom Johnson, of
Cloveland, Ohio, defeated William H. Boyd, a
well known Cleveland lawyer. Mr. Boyd en
deavored to make the voters believe that he was
a greater reformer than the mayor. He was de
feated. Now Mayor Johnson has appointed Mr.
Boyd to a place in the city solicitor's office where'
he will have a chance to fight ror .the reforms
he was so insistent in demanding while he was
merely a candidate. Mr. Boyd has said he will
accept the place. If Mr. Boyd makes good the
city will benefit thereby. Viewed from any point
" Mayor Johnson"s selection was a good one,
jggP71 . J' - V
Collecting the Mail of the Departments, Washington, D. C. x
Japanfler Government, Polities
And Problems
MR. BRYAN'S SEVENTH LETTER
The government of Japan is a constitutional
monarchy in which the emperor not only claims
to rule by divino right but by right of divine
birth. He is described as Heaven born, and ac
cording to the accepted history there has been
no break in the family line for twenty-five hun
dred years. Among no people on earth has
there ever been more universal respect shown, or
implicit obedience yielded, to the reigning family.
There never has been a revolt of any consequence
against the emperor, although there have been
numerous conflicts between the shoguns. For
about twelve hundred years, from 670 to 1868, the
shoguns were, however, the actual rulers, and
while they never questioned the sovereignty of
the emperor, Jthey did not allow him to retain
much more than the empty title.
The shoguns were military rulers and a num
ber of them were men of great force and execu
tive ability. First, the Fujiwara family controlled
the country through the shogunate for nearly four
hundred years; then for a' century the Taira and
Minamoto families alternated in the exercise of
power; then came the Hojo family and others of
less importance until finally the Tokugawa family'
became supreme in the shogunate and continued
in power for something like three hundred years.
The emperor lived at Nara until about 1600,
when the capital was moved to Kyoto where
it remained until less than forty years ago.
Tokyo, on the other hand, was .the seat of the
shogun power, and there is a . very noticeable
difference between the two cities. The shoguns
fortified their castles and required the feudal
lords to keep headquarters in Tokyo. One can
not go through the palace in which the emperor
lived permanently without noticing how plain It
is as compared with the castle (both at Kyoto)
in which iWe shogun resided for a few days dur
ing his annual call upon the emperor. While it
may seem strange that the real rulers never at
tempted to become emperors in name, it only
shows their Intelligence, for by insisting upon the
recognition of the royal family, they were prob
ably more successful In maintaining the real
authority than they would have been had they
questioned the divine right of the Immemorial
rulers.
During the early part of the last- century
there began to be a reaction against the shogun,
and when ho agreed to the treaties opening the
country to foreign intercourse, his action was
taken advantage of by the friends of the em
peror. When the feudal lords of Choshu attacked
the foreign ships at Shimonoseki Strait, the sho
gun was compelled to pay an indemnity of three
million dollars and attempted to chastize the
Choshu leaders. His forces were defeated and
he died soon afterward. The emperor siezed upon
this event and the influential lords of Choshu
and Satsuma encouraged him to abolish the. sho
gunate, which he did In 1868. The new shogun
accepted the situation without a .struggle and
those of his followers who attempted a resistance
were.soon routed.
.Everything in modern Japan dateB from 1868,
which -Is called the restoration. While In the
restoration the emperor was -acknowledged as the
sole and absolute ruler in whom all authority was
vested, still it was really the beginning of con-
