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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
Vol. 6. No. 10
Lincoln, Nebraska, March 23, 1906
Whole Number 270
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CONTENTS
MB. BRYAN'S liKTTEB
y " The Cry op the Children,
' ' A Fortune in Sunbeams
' : Sudden Activity
ieogeed agalnst the trusts
A Democratic Measure
To The .Old Chums LrvrtfG ""
And The Old Chums Dead
' "Washington City Letter
Comment on Current Topics
Home Department
. " Whether Common or .Not
News op the Week
"WHAT CONSTITUTES A REPUBLICAN"
A republican writing to the Chicago Inter-
Ocean says: "Alter forty-five years of active
political life I am compelled to ask 'What con
stitutes a republican?'" The Inter-Ocean de
clares that ..many republicans are In the same
State of" unce'rtjifinty, arid says"' this i$ so-.because
eO many recognized republican leaders do not
seem positive that they stand for anything, nor
to be uncompromisingly for or against any
thing." In the house recently Champ Clark consumed
considerable time in an effort to persuade Con
f gressman Lacey of Iowa to admit that Governor
Cummins is a republican.' But he failed.
The question submitted by the Inter-Ocean
reader would perhaps be more readily answered
by citing those who have been read out of the
republican party. Distinguished Iowa republicans
do not regard Governor Cummins as a republican;
Cummins has insisted upon the destruction of the
shelter which the trusts find in the tariff, and
demands that the people of Iowa be granted pro
tection from corporate imposition. LaFollette's
fight along anti-monopoly lines is well under
stood, and the republican national convention of
1904 read LaFollette out of the party and re
fused to give his following a seat in that con
tention. The republicanism of such men as LaFollette
and Cummins has been repeatedly assailed but
no one has had the temerity to question the re
publicanism of John D. Rockefeller, Thomas C.
Piatt, Depew, Aldrich or Elkins.
The men who stand resolutely for special in
terests and who never raise a voice against cor
porate imposition are "true blue republicans."
The men who dare to suggest that the re
publican party do something by way of calling a
halt to greedy men, and protecting the people
from the encroachments of powerful interests
these men prove themselves faithless to a political,
organization which in theory is "the party ofGod
and .morality" but in fact is the party of pecula
tion and plunder. ,
JJJ
ANq HE SAW IT IN THE SUN
J. A. Blanchard of Jenksvilie, N. Y. writes:
"In its issue of March 2 the New York Sun dis
cussing on its market and financial page the cot
ton goods market said: 'The silver using coun
tries are enjoying phenomenal prosperity. Now
how can that be? I have asked several of the
leading papers that have called Mr. Bryan all
sorts of names, but none of them take notice
' of my .inquiry. Shadows of Palmer and Buckner!
Of Morgan! Of Rockefeller! Of Dawes!. How
can a people so far lose their self-respect as to
'prosper' by using silver? It is too horrible to
think of. And in the Sun, of all papers! .
Mr. Blanchard must romomuor .:ye
tne very highest autnonty iui sa-o.
" it in the Sim. it's so."
'Iikyou
HIGHER UP! '.." U. ,:.
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But there never was a line or a thing that was done in the New York Life in my administra
tion of my department but that the executive officers, one and all were conscious of what the
purpose was or what the object was and of what the expense was. Andrew Hamilton before New
York Legislative Committee.
CHINA AS SHE WAS
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S ISSUE
Mr. Bryan's
In the first article on China- reference was
made to some of the characteristics of the Chi
nese, but the subject was not exhausted in fact,
it would require several articles to exhaust this
subject, and attention can only be given to those
traits or customs which are in most violent con
trast with our own.
Chinese society is patriarchal in its organi
zation, tho family being the unit and the father
the head of the family. The Chinese sages pre
sent filial piety and fraternal submission as the
rocft of all benevolent action. The children are
subject to the parents as long as the parents
live, and the younger sons are subject to the
eldest. The four relations which are continually
discussed by the philosophers are: First, the
relation between the king and his ministers; sec
ond, between the father and his sons; third, be
tween the elder brother and the younger broth
ers; and fourth, between the individual and his
fellows, but tho fourth relation receives the least
consideration.
Marriages are arranged by the parents, and
Tenth Letter
- .
the children must be content with the selection
made. When the wife Is taken to the home of
the husband, she becomes a member of his family
and subject to her mother-in-law, if the husband's
mother is still alive. As other sons are married
their wives are brought In and they are expected
to live peaceably together an expectation which
is not always fully realized. As law and custom
permit the system of concubinage, it is not
strange that the homo Is often the scone of con
tention rather than the center of felicity.
As the duty of sacrificing to ancestors falls
upon the son, the advent of a boy Is the signal
for rejoicing, while the birth of a girl is not con
sidered a good omen. So unpopular was tho
female baby that in some provinces many of them
were formerly put to death, but child-murder is
now on the decrease.
, No one can visit China without becoming ac
quainted with a peculiarly oriental phrase called
"losing face." One of the first newspapers that
I picked up in China described the attempted
suicide of a man who complained that he had
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