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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1906)
""-'j2 -fjrr t MtsMr'mMMCTwww uuesg The Commoner. .VOLUME 6, NUMBER 7 6 I ' The Commoner WASHINGTON GITY LETTER ISSUED WEEKLY "' Milter unci Proprietor. x "W""er- nifiiiAiii) L Motuamtb KdUorlnl Rooms and Business RiaiiAiiu L;(mor( omeeBMo so. 18th Street. knterednttl.c pobtofllfo t Lincoln Ncbruslm, as becond class ninil mutter. One Year $0 Six Months 50o In Clubs of 5 or more por Year 75o Threo Months 25o Slnillo Copy...... 5 Samplo Copies Ireo Foroidn Potgo52o Ex- tlR. ci rn;r RIPTIONS win bo sent direct to The Com- HE? JMK! nvnioqci nnior or by bank dralt on jnow xuik uj. S8tSS. Do'nSt send Individual checks, stamps or mmsfeoNTINVANCES.-It is found Hint a lawro majori ty of our sSbscShcrs prefer not to have their BUbscripUons interrupted mid their files broken in case they fail to remit before cilrutlon. It is theref oi o assumed that continuance is desired unless subscribers order fl'fcont inuonce. eller when subscribing or tit uny time during the year. I Jjbi.N TATION COPIES: Muny persons subscribe for wlcnfls, m- "K'W'XE-Tho date o,, your wmppor Bhowa When your subscription will expire. Thus, Jan. means that payment has been received to and Includ ing the last issue of January, 190G. Two wee s are required after money has been received befoio tno date on wrapper can bo changed. ..,- n CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Subscribers requesting a change of address must give OLD as well as tho NLiW address. x, ADVERTISING rates furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER. Lincoln. Nob General Grosvenor's pessimistic personal prog nostications have proved perfectly correct. Philadelphia seems to like her experience At any rate she has again turned down the "gang." If Mr. Baer is tho mouthpiece of the coal trust the othor members would do well to silence him. General Grosvonor will now have ample time in which to figure out a large number of problems. Strawberries are moving up from Florida, and ,tho bottoms of the boxes are meeting them halfway. As might have been expected a ship subsidy bill went through the senate ahead of the pure food-bill. Tho explanation department of the canal com mission has the dredging department beaten to a standstill. If thero is a coal strike It will not be the real cause of an advance in tho price of coal. It .will meroly be an excuse. Mr. Garfield defies that he promised the packers immunity. Doubtless they were deceived by Mr. Garfield's conclusions. Kansas City has another new union depot in sight. If the official accountant has not skipped a fow this makes tho 3,443d. Harvard has abolished football by faculty en actment, but It is quite generally believed that Yale had something to do with k. It took tho pure food bill four years to come to a vote in the senate. Senator Smoot need not begin packing his trunk just yet. Mr. Clovoland is again viewing democratic prospects through pessimistic spectacles. Any thing genuinely democratic worries Mr. Cleveland. It is to bo hoped that a "lock canal" does not meau.ono to be constructed by gentlemen who are securely handcuffed by tho railroads inter ested in delay. D. M Parry says that the. labor unions are cutting their own throats. If Mr. Parry believed the enT b SltUng qUiGtly by and waiting to? Mr. Rockefeller is still in hiding but iho i no doubt that the six million Sar qu ? erly dividend of the Standard Oil company wi find him all right, all right. y um Washington, D. C, Feb. 26. The ship subsidy bill that recently passed the senate is now before the house committee on merchant marine and fisheries, of which General Grosvenor, of Ohio, Is chairman. Senator Frye, of Maine, has been hammering away on this proposition for the last twenty years. It has a been veritable hobby with him. The late Senator Hanna, of Ohio, was an enthusiastic supporter of the measure. His in fluence, however, was not great enough to put the bill through. The truth of the matter Is that the republicans aro seriously divided on the ques tion of voting millions of dollars annually to pri vate corporations. Not a democrat in the sen ate supported the bill. Five republicans voted against it. Tho friends of the bill would feel happier if they had been almost any other five republicans who could possibly have been grouped together. It should be recalled that Senators Spoonor and La Follette, of Wisconsin, were two of the republicans recorded in the negative. The other three were Messrs. Warner, of Missouri; Dolliver, of Iowa, and Burkett, of Nebraska. The ship subsidy advocates do not mind the action of the three last mentioned as much as they do the votes cast against the bill by Messrs. Spooner and La Follette. There is a Mr. Minor on the house merchant marine and fisheries committee. Mr. Minor Is also from Wisconsin. And for the past eight years Mr. Minor has been making no end of trouble for tho scheme in the house committee. His opposition was even intense when Mr. Payne, of New York, was chairman of the committee. That was before Mr. Payne became chairman of the ways and means committee and by virtue of that position leader of the house. Mr. Minor Is still full of fight and those who know him best say that he and Chairman Grosyenor will not be able to agree. Worse than that Mr. Minor is likely to have the assistance of several other republican members of the committee. Not a democratic member of the. house, committee will favor the subsidy plan. They thinlc it is a vicious principle and do not believe that it will generally benefit the shipping interests of the United States. On the contrary they think it is an organized effort to enrich a few corporations whose offi cials have long yearned to get their hands into the public treasury. At this writing General Grosvenor is not inclined to say much regarding the prospects of tlie bill. That veteran legislator has been in the depths of gloom for two or threo weeks. After serving for nearly twenty years his constituents have refused to send him back to congress. Although they have had such lively tilts with him many of the leading house demo crats are sorry that the Ohio member will retire at the end of the present term. It is a reason ably safe republican district and nothing but a landslide in favor of the democrats like that which occurred in 1890 could possibly give the district to a democrat. General Grosvenor is a unique figure in the house and by friends and foes is regarded as a man of ability. As has been repeatedly stated in this cor respondence some sort of railroad rate bill will be passed before the close of the session. That is conceded by nearly everybody who keeps a close watch on legislative proceedings. The most prom inent railway officials who visit the capital admit that fact, whether willingly or not. They have evidently made up their minds that 'it is impos sible to stave off action. If the railroad people have maintained a lobby here this winter their work along such lines has been the most quiet in the memory of those who are supposed to lmow what is going on. In tho old days when the late Collis P. Huntington and other powerful men connected with Pacific railroad enterprises want ed to prevent legislation their agents and attor neys swarmed about the capitol. Mr. Huntington came here himself and too often, in the opinion of those who opposed him, got at the hands of the republican party pretty !nuch everything de manded by the corporation controlled by him It has been some years since a democrat was sent to congress from Philadelphia. A strong effort will be made this year toP elect Two and probably three, democrats from that big city A Fn ?niriVn? Uti,n .f ,,1Uge Proportions no only m Philadelphia, but also in Pittsburg, seems o bo Imminent. The republicans in Pennsykan a for the past twelve or fifteen years hi i?nin terally drunk with power. OlyTery nOW an2 then have the democrats elected a high offlSfnl , of the state, and when the late Robert E.Pattl. son was chosen governor the legislature remained republican bo that none of the reforms demanded by the masses could be carried out at Harris burg. For almost a quarter of a century tho congressional districts of the Keystone state have been arranged so that it is impossible for tho democrats to elect their candidates except in a few of the districts that have been left over wheliningly democratic in order that the rest of them might easily be carried by ttyB republicans. During the past decade the republican bosses and grafters of Philadelphia have levied almost unheard of assessments upon the congressional candidates. The late Henry Burk, who represent ed the greater part of the old Randall district, did not conceal the fact that his nominations cost him every two years $50,000. In addition he either was compelled to spend or else did of his own volition fully $5,000 more in visiting the Bcores of political clubs that are peculiar to Phila delphia. These clubs are conveniently located near saloons of spacious size, many being pver the places where wines, beer and strong liquors are dispensed. The name does not indicate it, but Henry Burk was a native of Germany. He was a millionaire manufacturer of vici kid and other light leather. Burk, during his lifetime, seemed to think it entirely proper for the repub lican bosses of Philadelphia, to demand such out rageous sums for the seats in congress, and used to talk of his as if it had been a $50,000 house or something else that he had purchased. His income was over $300,000 a year, and he would explain his entry into public life about like this: "A great many rich men will spend their surplus cash in yachts, fine race horses or in maintaining palatial resi dences. I have no tastes in those directions. For years I thought I would like to go to con gress, and the leaders hearing of my ambition made it easy .for mo to get the nomination. I was perfectly willing to put up the money would indeed have furnished more if any other man in the district had 'raised the limit.' ,Money had to be collected to run the campaigns, and it was hone of my business how much of it went into the pockets of the leaders." At the same time Burk was in congress there was another leather manufacturer turning out products like his who was a representative from Philadelphia. His name was Foederer. He and Burk died about the same time. Within the past ten days there died in Philadelphia another mil lionaire republican congressman George A. Cas tor. Each time Castor ran for congress the bosses assessed him for enormous sums. As Cas tor also had plenty of money he paid it out to the leaders with a free hand. These were all men of mediocre ability. In the old days the Phila delphia delegation was composed of men of ex ceptional ability. They died in harness, and not only were they permitted to come to congress as long as they wanted to but such a thing as assessing them for the campaigns was an un heard of proceeding. The republican rings have flourished in Phila delphia and Pittsburg and have retained their power in recent years by not only raising vast sums of money with which to purchase votes, but every time there was a serious movement on the part of the people to put a stop to their gatting the leaders have prepared, and their or gans have printed stories to the effect that if what they were pleased to term the "organiza tion" was defeated it simply meant that Penn sylvania would go democratic. It would also mean the election of from ten to sixteen democratic members of congress from the state conrolf L fhi WQ S? demons ?n?l? i ? h01se of representatives at Wash ing ?nd !f WOuld prove the entering wedge to split in two the protection log. Arguments of this kind have been potential in Pennsylvania and tie average business man and most of his employ have been gulled by such gauzy staCenS ThS? ? ?E?t,the,,r Gyes. "Hen they must have know J tlmt the leaders of the "organizations" in tho cities and in the state have simply been highway men in their treatment of the' corporafc ons and S ttiS11?"116 Wlat,on in th0 b'S ties and SL?? i Q ,caPital- Last year tho people of Philadelphia had their eyes opened. The ring bSr?!,!1 wa"Pln- The election at Pitts uurg the other day when a democrat was vic torious in the mayoralty race for the first tiino n lorty or more years proves that the revolt ?Wo ?ray.,,mns serious business for , the organization." , ALFRED J. STOFER. te4MfMk..' nMJtXt tiftiliiiHiMiitolifc''111'1 "