W - ,? - ( v The Commoner. n ,- a lSWffwwii j ' VJ Vol. 6. No. 17 WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR Lincoln, Nebraska, May 11, 1906 Whole Number 277 CONTENTS Mb. Bryan's Lkttjck ., PlwlTffLY A SxJBREIfDER Tub Pabamoitnt Evil Tiib Paxic ov 1893 " Pjulixg It Ok Congress and ties Courts Prosecute the Rockbtellbks Corey Re-etjscted Washington City Letter Comment on Current Topics r Home Department Wiietiier Common or Not News op tub Week 3t ,'', 2& t S & & S GOOD WORK in;texas Je & A. Oswald, a dealer in real estate at S Beaumont, Tex., writes: "I hereby hand S '2you a listjrf 105 subscribers for The Com- & ytVnoner each' for one year, and attach draft ' for $63 to pay for same. I give all-the ' benefit of your offer of club rates, 60c & Having some spare time I thought that I , S could put some of it to no better use than 'C to interest some of my friends to take & S and read The Commoner. This much I S S have accomplished with little effort and & '& expect to be able to add to the list very & x& much from time to time." & ' $ "" """ I nirr jglggjjgpAi TBKwyc. ..tar xw f? .. J lift Bring Him Down, Mr. President! ' - -i-. w IS IT STRANGE? The New York World complains that Secre tary Sliaw "goes on indefinitely .extending his scheme to make it profitable for a few national banks to import gold." The World says that Mr. Shaw "betrays a lax sense of responsibility, as well as an extraordinary desire to oblige a few banksit might also be said one bank." Is the New York World surprised? ':, Who contributed liberally to the campaign funds for the republican victory which made pos sible Mr. Shaw's elevation to the treasury de partment? Is it possible that with all of its opportuni ties for gleaning information the World was in ignorance of the fact that at the time it was con tributing to republican success in 189G, power ful financiers were putting up money for the use of the republican party and for the advantage of their own pet schemes? JJJ A GREAT PRIVILEGE In his speech at St. Louis. Secretary of the Treasury Shaw said that of course every one "would like to buy that which he consumes as cheaply as pbssible, and sell what he produces as higb as possible." Of course! And that is just where the trust magnate the beef tni3t magnate, for instance who contributes gener ously to the republican campaign fund, has the advantage of the common folks. He fixes "the price at which the cattle raiser must sell his cat tle, and he fixes the -price which the consumer must pay for his meat. JAVATHE BEAUTIFUL Mr, Bryan's Seventeenth Letter -V We- had not thought of visiting Java, but we heard so much of it from returning tourists as we journeyed through Japan, China and the Philippines that we turned aside from Singapore and devoted two weeks to a trip through the island. Steamers run to both Batavia (which isthe capital and the metropolis of the western end of the island) and Soerabaja, the chief city (Ofjjieastern Java, and a, railroad about four hun dred miles lone connects theso two cities. A Jtcuir of the Islands can thus bo made in from ten to ntteen days, according to connections, but un less one is pressed for time, he can profitably employ a month or more In this little island, at tractive by nature and made still more beautiful by the hands of man. There are excellent hotels at the principal stopping places, and the rates are more moderate than we have found elsewhere in the Orient. The lover of mountain scenery finds much in Java to satisfy the eye. The railroad from Ba tavia to Soerabaja twice crosses the range, and as the trains run only in the day time, one can, without leaving the cars, see every variety of tropical growth, from swamp to mountain top, from cocoanut groves and rice fields on the low land to the tea gardens and coffee plantations of the higher altitudes, not to speak of mountain streams, gorges and forests. Java is the home of the volcano and con tains more of these fiery reservoirs than any other area on the earth's surface. While only about six hundred miles in length and from sixty to a hundred and twenty miles in width, it has, ac cording to Wallace, thirty-eight volcanoes, some ing relics of a period when the whole island wa deluged wiih molten lava. Some assort that- al most all of Java has been built up by thj erup tions of volcanoes. Two extinct volcanoes, Salak and Gedeh, can bo seen from Buitenzorg, and from the top of Boro Boedoer temple nine vol canoes can bo counted when the air Is clear at least, Groneman so declares in his description of thla temple, although not so many were visible the day we visited there. It is only twenty-three years ago. that Kra Ifatau, which stands upon an island of the same name In the Strait of Sunda just off the east end of Java, startled the world with an eruption sel dom equalled in history. It began smoking In May, 1883, and continued active until the 26th of August following, when explosions took place which were heard at Batavia, eighty miles dis tant, and the next day the explosions were still more gigantic, being audible two thousand miles away. The loss of life caused by the mud and ashes and by the waves set in motion by the eruption was officially estimated at over thirty-six thousand. Various scientific societies, especially of Holland, England and France, made exhaustive reports on the Krakatau eruption The Royal Society of Great Britain estimated that the Vol ume of smoke arose to a height of seventeen miles' and that several cubic milea of mud, lava and stones poured forth from the crater to the' ruin of a large area. At one place the water rose more than seventy-five feet and threw a steam ship over the harbor-head Into a Chinese mar ket, but under the influence of a tropical sun and abundant moisture the slopes of the volcano of, them gftli-BfflpMns and all of them interest' soon grew green again, and now the. natives speed ;vr '1 1 J I ' "3 & 4 '1 i t .i