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The Commoner
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WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
Vol. 6. No. 22 -
Lincoln, Nebraska, June 15, 1906
Whole Number 282
CONTENTS
'Mr. Bryan's Letter :
'The Chicago Pla-teorm Still Lives"
Asylum Reforms
A Great State's Plight
"Embalmed Beep" in 1898
Newspapers and the Packing Houses
"When the Test Comes
"There's Pansiesfor Thoughts"
Comment on Current Topics.
HOME D EPAPwTMENT
Whether Common or Not
News of the Week
ROBERT PITCAIRN'S ENORMOUS FORTUNE
Robert Pitcairn, assistant to President Cas
satt of the Pennsylvania railroad, has retired
from active life under the age limit of seventy
years.. Mr. Pitcairn's salary has been $25,000
per year and his fortune is now estimated at
$15,000,000 or .more. It is not difficult on an
income Of $25,000 per year to lay aside something
for. the Vainy day-, but Pitcairn's fifteen million
dollar fortune was hardly saved out of his $25,000
salary. The Terra Haute Tribune throws a little
light on the subject when it says:
"The name of such a man as Pitcairn is
valuable as an ornament or guarantee of enter
prises, and it secure many privileges that are
denied to smaller men. His successes were not
achieved without exceptional ability and judg
ment. "An example of the opportunities open to
the Pennsylvania officials Is to be found in the
Columbia Coal company on the Pennsylvania line,
which was organized in 1895 by the stockholders
paying 10 per cent of the $150,000 capital stock.
The stock has been paid up to $100,000 by the
application of profits and at the Same time 109
per cent has been paid in dividends on the par
of the stock. The investors of $15,000 have thus
received $85,000 on their stock and $163,500 in
dividends. Incidentally, we may wonder why it
is so hard for the operators to pay the- miners
more wages, when such tremendous profits can
be made in the Pennsylvania coal fields.
"The profit of nearly $250,000 on a $15,000
investment in about eleven years probablyris not
an isolated example in the coal, railroad and
manufacturing fields 'of the great Keystone state."
JJJ
BEGIN AT HOME
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat says: "At the
risk of severing our .friendly relations with for
eign nations, some effort should be made to stop
the exchange of American heiresses for high
sounding titles and, impecunious princes."
A good way to tiegin in this great work would
be the cultivation among rising generations of
a wholesome respect for labor; greater concern
for men than for dollars; better appreciation of
the noble qualities generally found in those
who are not ashamed of work and usually conspic
uous by their absence in the fop.
If we would put a stop to the exchange of
American manhood for American dollars, and
call a halt upon the tendency in our so-called
"four hundreds" to follow, in an exaggerated way,
the foibles of the courts of kings, tho American
girls growing into womanhood would learn to
place a proper estimate upon those high and en
suring qualities which make the real man,
1 - - - -rr . " -' - "1
Latest View of Some "Defenders of the National Honor" '
"HIND V INDIA
s
Mr. Bryan's Twenty-Second Letter . ,. .
Before beginning the trip through the in
terior, a paragraph must be given to Indian
travel. There are no Pullman sleepers in this
country, and the tourist must carry his bedding
with him. Night trains have compartments con
taining broad seats which can be used as couches
and hanging shelves upon which one may lie. '
The traveler carries his own blanket, pillow, sheet,
towels, soap, etc., and occasionally has to rely
on these at hotels as well as on the trains. The
cars are entered from the side, and one must
take his chance of waking at the right station,
for there is no official to give him warning. In
India it is customary for foreigners to take an
Indian servant with them who acts 'as interpreter
and looks after the baggage and looking after
the baggage is no easy task in this part of the
British empire. After we had made one short
trip without assistance we were glad to yield
to the custom and Goolab, a Calcutta Mussel
man, proved himself an invaluable aid in dealing
with the baggage coolies whose language we
could not understand and whose charges varies .
from the legal rate as the minimum to three or
four times that if the tourist shows himself a
novice at the business.
The hotels of India are declared by the guide
books to be bad, and one does not feel like
disputing these authorities after having made
the trip. I do not mean to say that there is no
difference between them, for in several places we
found comfortable rooms and in some places
palatable food. Everywhere we were so inter
ested in what we saw that we could endure al
most any kind of accommodalion8J, but at . one
place the fare was so unsatisfactory that we
were reduced to eggs and toast. Goolab, over
hearing some mutterings of discontent, took it
upon himself to report In the hope of securing
some Improvement, and the clerk asked mo for
particulars. I told him that I had not intended
to make any complaint but that as he was
good enough to inquire, I would say that we did
not like the cooking; that the crackers were
sometimes mouse-eaten and that we found worms
in the cabbage. He thought that the mice were
inexcusable, but, as if tho question disposed of
the matter, asked: "The worm was dead, wasn't
it?" I was compelled to admit that it was.
Leaving Calcutta we sought the ancient city
of Benares, which bears the distinction of being
the center of Hinduism. In fact, it has been the
religious 'capital of India for two thousand years
or more.
At Sarnath, just outside Benares, stands the
first Buddhist pagoda, said to have been erected
nearly five hundred years before the beginning
of the Christian era to commemorate a spot in
the deer park where Buddha taught his dis
ciples. Recent excavations near there have
brought to light one of the Asoka pillars which,
though unfortunately broken, still bears testi
mony to the skill of the sculptor as well as to
the zeal of the great Buddhist king. But these
ruins are all that there Is left of Buddhism In
this vicinity where Buddha lived .and taught and
where his doctrines were once triumphant, for
Hinduism has ylrtually rooted out Buddhism
11
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