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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 16, 1906)
"WW' -r.- The Commoner. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR Vol. 6. No. 9 Lincoln, Nebraska, March 16, 1906 Whole Number 269 CONTENTS , ' Mb. Bryan's Letter Not a Judicial Duty . James S. Hogg .. Playing With Fire Is It Surrender? TiiE LaFollette Amendment Not by a Convention Stories From Real Life Washington City Letter Comment on Current Topics Home Department Whether Common or Not News of the Week II THE RICHEST! N1AN1 IN THE WORLD 1W 1 v"v NOT A JUDICIAL DUTY General Weaver, in his speech at the demo cratic dinner at Lincoln on the 6th inst. while alluding to the wide difference between the prin ciples of government represented by Thomas Jefferson and those taught by Machiavelli, the railwayrate question now .pending in the United . $- V2,v State's" senate. , General Weaver declared that'tffew,5?5f'l republican leaders know that the question involved is distinctively a legislative question and not judicial in its character, and that unless the order of the interstate commerce commission should be confiscatory their action could not even be re viewed by the courts, and that if a wrong was done, the remedy must be sought at the hands of the legislature , rather than the courts. He said this had been the settled rule for thirty years. This accounts, he said, for the great effort now made to have a clause inserted expressly provid ing for review by the courts. He read from the decision of the supreme court in the celebrated Grange cases handed down in 1876, in which the court speaking through. Chief Justice Waite held: "Railroad companies are carriers for hire. They are incorporated as such, and given ex traordinary powers in order that they may .better serve the public in that capacity. They are, therefore, engaged in a public employ ment affecting the public interests, and sub ject to legislative control as to their rate of fare and freight, unless protected by their charters." Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail road Co vs. Iowa 94, XJ. S. 155. In Peit vs. C. B. & Q. Ry. Co., 94, U. S. page 178, the court said: "Where property has been clothed with a public interest, the legislature may fix a,, limit to that which shall in law be reasonable for its use. ThiB limit BINDS THE COURT as well as the people. If it has been improp erlv fixed THE LEGISLATURE, NOT. TH COURTS, MUST BE APPEALED TO for th change," These decisions disclose the Machiavellian cunning and duplicity now being exerted by cor poration senators in the effort to secure the in sertion of an express clause providing for court review. It will be observed that the trouble in securing needful legislation lies in the senate the body farthest from the people. Now the proposition is to take the question away from the legislature altogether and lodge it in the courts where the judges hold by the life tenure. Are not these things worthy of serious thought by those concerned in the perpetuity of popular gov ernment? . - " KOCKErtllER, T I I " 7J JJ ThC PHILANTHROPIST L.) ,,, jft H , Pf f w ,; Mmm Kw ROCKEFELLER, (T-k ' . - 'IRm" .1 . : - 'V! ' TfiL INSPIRING! ;, .4-. CHINA AS SHE WAS Mr. Bryan's Ninth Letter " The contrast between the China of antiquity hoary with age and the new China just awakening into life is so great as to suggest the treatment of the two periods in different articles. And if the contrast between China of yesterday and the China of today is great, what shall we say of the contrast between the Flowery Kingdom and our own country? The same stars shine overhead and the same laws of 'nature operate on the earth, but in mode of living, appearance, customs and habits of thought, 'the Chinese peo ple could scarcely be more different from ours. First, a word as to the land which they oc cupy; its very vastness impresses one, unless he has recently consulted his geography. While the eighteen provinces which constitute China proper have something less than two million square miles, yet the Chinese empire with its tributary states has an area of about five million three hundred thousand square miles -and ex ipnciR ovor thirtv degrees north and south and seventy degrees east and west. Wo hardly realize when we speak of China that her em peror holds sway ovor a territory nearly twice as large as the United. States; that his decrees are law to a population estimated at from two hundred and fifty to four hundred millions; that her climate is like that of Russia in the north, while in the southern provinces her people live under a tropical sun; and that she has so many mountains and such mighty deserts that more than half of her population te crowded together upon a plain which contains but a little more than two hundred thousand square miles. Wil liams, In his work entitled "The Middle Kingdom" calls this district "themo'st densely settled pi any part of the world of the same size" and estimates that upon this plain less than three times the size of Nebraska one hundred and seventy-seven millions of .human beings dwell. The harbors of China are hardly what' one might expect on so extended a line of sea coast. While the harbor at Hong Kong Is an admirabjo one one of the best in the world the one at Shanghai .has no hills to protect it, the one at Chefoo is open to the storms and the one at Taku does not deserve to be called a harbor at all. In leaving Shanghai we went an hour and a half by launch in order to reach a steamer of only six thousand tons; at Chefoo a still smaller ship was delayed a day because the lighters could not unload it in the wind, and at Taku, the sea port of Tientsin and Pekin, we spent a day on the bar waiting for ten feet of water. The capital of the empire has until recently been so difficult to access that comparatively few tourists have visited it. The large ocean steamers stop at Shanghai and Hong Kong only, making it necessary for one desiring to visit Pekin to take a smaller boat and risk indefinite delays oh account of wind and tide. Since the completion of the railroad from Hankow to Pekin it is possible to accomplish the journey from Shanghai to Pekin in less time, and in addition enjoy tho . advantage of a trip Inland. 'When the projected road Is completed W . Mitt0iim- ,4' - -,