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The Commoner,
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WILLIAM J. BRYAN,, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
;&Vpl. 6.,No.ll
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Lincoln, Nebraska, March 30, 1906
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Whole Nujriber 271
CONTENTS
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Mr. Bryan's1 "Letter
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Tub Bjainr Trust Faroe
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Try Section 0
Mb. Bryan on Chinese Exclusion '
A 190G Prediction"
A Republican Story
Mr. Roosevelt and the Subsidy .
Reforming tite .Courts
. Washington City Letter , -Comment
on Current Tones
Home Department
Whether Common or Not
News op the Week -
' "COMING HOME TO ROOST"
Defending his efforts to protect Paul Morton
from prosecution, Mr. Roosevelt said that the
corporation rather than the individual should be
prosecuted. Judge Humphrey's decision In the
beef trust cases, which decision we, are told has
greatly grieved the president, was in effect, that
the" corporation rather than the Individual packers
should be prosecuted. .,: -V--:"',
It ''looks" somewhat' Mike a case of "chickens
coming home to roost." '"'',
JJJ
"CALAMITY" ARGUMENT
A resolution has been introduced in the New
York legislature providing' for an investigation
of the state banking department. The New York
World is authority for t' e statement that "a re
publican of national note" wired to Albany: "An
investigation now would be a public calamity."
Referring to this telegram, the World says:
"Not so. The calamity, if there, is one,
consists in having a great state department in.
such condition that the mere proposal to find
out what that condition is becomes a disturb
ing element in politics and finance. To leave
the department in that morass would-be to
double the calamity."
Has a "change come over the spirit of the
World's dreams, or has it forgotten that the "ca
lamity" argument has been used very effectively
by "republicans of national note" at times -when
the World was- working earnestly for republican
success? The "calamity" argument is even used,
in this day by the opponents of railway rate reg
ulation. JJJ x
" -NOT ALL DISTURBED
-Newspaper dispatches say that Senator
Chauncey M. Depew has become, so nervous and
melancholy, as a result of the recent exposes,
that he is seriously ill at his homeland is not
likely to resume his seat in 'the senate during
the present session. We are told that the Mc
Ourdys have fled to Paris, driven .from their na
tive land by the condemnation of their country
men. McCall is said to have died of a broken
heart, and even Andrew Hamilton, the far-famed
lobbyist of the insurance combine, seems to be a
bit conscience stricken.
It is worthy of note, however, that the equi
librium of republican committeemen having
knowledge of the misappropriation "of several
hundred thousand dollars of policyholders' money
is not disturbed. -
If the republican party won't "put it back" .it
might at least retire from the cabinet the man
undeu whose administration as chairman of the
republican committee a considerable "sum of the
policyholders' money was misappropriated, and
for the benefit of ..the. "party, or uon anji moral-.
. - . 1
JUSTICE I
Chinese Education, Religion and
Philosophy
Mr. Bryan's Eleventh Letter - ,, ,
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Chinese education has been very much over
estimated. The literati- have boasted of the
antiquity of the government and educational
system, the invention of the compass, the print
ing press and of gunpowder, and the western
world has been inclined to concede their claims,
but these claims will not bear investigation. The
government is ancient, but it is also antiquated.
The emperor exercises a power as unlimited as
that of the czar and is as inaccessible to his
subjects. The ruling family seized the throne
two and a half centuries ago and has' retained
power because the people have learned to submit
to almost anything. The laws have .not only
been arbitrary, but they have been ciiuel; the
v officials have not only been .appointed without
consulting the governed, but they have been
shamelessly corrupt.
When Confucius and Menclus taught, they
complained of the degeneracy of the government,
and in more than twenty centuries that have
elapsed since those days, there has been no
marked improvement. 'Of course there have been
pure and patriotic men in high places occasion
ally, but the government showed neither per
fection then nor improvement afterwagds until
within the last few years.
What if the compass was known to the
Chinese before it was to Europe? They made
litUp use of it compared with the use to which
it was put by the Portuguese, the Spaniards,
the Dutch and other Europeans.,
They Invented gunpowder and yet they
equipped their soldiers with bows and arrows
down to the present generation.
They invented the printing press and yet
until recently they had no newspapers and but
few books. I shall speak in another article of
the improvement in this direction, but as an
evidence of the little use made of the printing
press even now, I record the fact that in a four
days' ride (at present the train runs only in
the day time) from the capital of the empire
to Hankow, through a densely populated section,
we did not see a man reading a paper or hear
the voice of a newsboy.
Equally without justification is the boast of
great learning among the people. They have
had no educational system and their children
have had to rely upon private schools, a few
families getting together and hiring a teacher.
Even then the main purpose of their higher
education was to obtain a government position.
As only a very limited number could possibly
be selected at the competitive examinations held
by the government, there was small incentive
to study and the written language, with two
hundred and fourteen radicals and twelve hun
dred different characters, was enough to dis
courage even the ambitious. ' A Chinese official
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