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The Commoner.
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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." &
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Bring Him Down, Mr. President!
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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
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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
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