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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J, BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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Vol. 6. -No. 18
Lincoln, Nebraska, May 18, 1906
Whole Number 278
CONTENTS
,-t
Mr. Bryan's Letter
When $enators Laughed
Day's Defense of Trusts
Ben Daniels at "The Door of Hope"
Increase in the Cost of Living
The Standard Oil "Athene"
Twas a Famous Victory
Mr. Roosevelt and Rate Legislation
The Sneer a Back Number
Comment on Current Topics
Home Department
Whether Common or Not
News of the Week
rV
k EVEN ALLISON BLUSHES
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat says: "Dem,
ocrats should remember that Senator Allison's
amendments have never furnished any ammuni
tion, to speak of for their party."
: But even Senator Allison is heartily ashamed
of his latest ailRWJ'Wnt. Evidently he thinks
Atha.thatr. amendment will furnteti considerable
ammunjtioh for the democratic party.
JJJ
GOOD DOCTRINE
A Texas newspaper protesting against the
proceedings brought against the packers by ttie
attorney general of the Lone Star state said that
if these packers were driven beyond the borders
of Texas a welcome would await 'them elsewhere.
The Houston Post says that no one is proposing
to drive the packers from the state; that the
question at issue is, are the packers violating the
lawsNof Texas; that if they are it -is the duty
of the attorney general to prosecute them and
compel them to conduct their business in accord
ance with the law; that if the attorney general
had paid heed to the audacious challenge given
by the packers the people of Texas would have
blushed for him; and that if the packers demand
the right to violate the laws of the rtate as a
condition of their remaining, then they should
be made to understand that their retirement will
be facilitated by the state authorities. .,
That is good. old democratic doctrine bluntly
stated.
JJJ . . . WJ
THINK A LITTLE IN THE PRESENT "
.
. Speaking, to a representative of the Ne,w York
Herald Secretary Taftsaid: "We do-not need to
fear wealth because its menace will be its own
safeguard, and at the same time be a national
protection. Personally, I doubt very mucli if it
will ever reach to a stronger influence thanr at
present." ''-'
Well, it has about reached the limit. Tho
beef trust has done Its worst and its members
are immune. The Northern Securities company
is doing business at the old stana unaer a new
name, and it has not been two weeks since the
president of the United States sent to congress
a report showing that there was much to fear
from the encroachments of the Standard Oil
trust.
Mr. Taft says: "I am an optimist. I be
lieve in the future. I trust in the future and I
(think in the future." It is about time some of
i these republican leaders did a little thinking in
the present. Mr. ,Taft insists that the dangers
; ; from great wealth may be easily overcome, but
the only remedy he suggests is an inheritance
tax, "while the destruction of special privileges
seems not to have occurred to him.
THE VISION
. .
"Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before"
NETHERLANDS INDIA
Mr. Bryan's Eighteenth Letter
As the Dutch have administered in what they
call Netherlands India, a colonial system quite
different in its methods from the systems adopt
ed by other nations, I have thought it worth
while to make some inquiries concerning it.
The, Malay. Archipelago, which might almost
be described as a continent cut up into islands,,
has furnished' jl farm on which several nations
have experimented in" colonialism, but the Dutch,
botbf in length of occupancy and in the number
of people subjected, to their rule, are easily first.
The archipelago is mora than four thousand miles
long from east to west, and if Ithe Philippine
Islands are included, thirteen hundred miles wide.
Some of the islands are larger than European
states; Borneo and New Guinea each have an
area greater than the British Isles. On the map
the islands of ther archipelago look like stepping
stones connecting Asia with Australia, but some
writers, arguing from the fauna and flora as
well as from the depths of surrounding waters,
contend that the western islands are an exten
sion of Asia and the eastern ones an extension
of Australia. Alfred Russell Wallace, for In
stance, points out that the animals, birds and
natural products of the two sections differ so
much as to suggest that one group Is much older
than the other.
. This archipelago is the home of one of the
branches Into which the human family is divided,
viz., the Malay or brown race. These people
are distinct in appearance and in many of their
characteristics from the yellow and" black races
as well as from the white race. There are in
some'of the islands remnants of aboriginal tribes,
but' the Malays from time immemorial have fur
nished the prevailing typo. They have shown
themselves capable of continuous and systematic
labor where they have been subjected to coercion
or where a sufficient inducement has been pre
sented as a stimulus, but the depressing influence
of a continuous summer, added to the bounty of
the tropics, has naturally made them less indus
trious than those who live in the temperate zone.
The clothing required by the Malay is Insignifi
cant in amount and value. The little children
are bare and seem to enjoy a shower as much
as ducks do. In Sourabaya, the second city In
Java, we saw a group of them naked sliding on
their stomachs on the marble floor of an open
norch during a heavy rain. This seemed a fairly
satisfactory substitute for the Ice ponds of the
north.
The adults, both men and women, wear a
sarong (except when the men content themserves
with a breech clout). The sarong, a simple strip
of cloth, is draped about the figure with all the
fullness in front and fastened in some mysterious
way without the aid of buttons hooks or pins.
This garment, If garment it may be called, give3
opportunity for the exercise of taste, and the
range In price is sufficient to permit of some ex
travagance in dress. The best native sarongs
are more expensive than silk, the cloth being
overlaid with wax, upon which the pattern is
traced, and the dyes applied by hand. The
masses use a cheap cotton print manufactured
in Europe. One of the striking peculiarities of
Javanese life Is the adoption of the sarong by
f I European women for morning wear. Ladles
., $ appear at dinner in full evening dress may
be seen on the balconies and streets in the morn-
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