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The Commoner.
VOLUME 6,- NUMBER 24
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I THE GUILTY PARTY
Mr. W. S. Ryan, of Indianapolis, writes:
"Tho pooplos' political band-wagon Is not be
ing driven by any, especial driver at present,
bonce tho indiscriminate evacuation of that in
which tho reins are held by Theodore Roosevelt
is not in favor of nor towards any one in par
ticular, but more after the nature of rats forsak
ing a sinking ship. I am not, by any means, a
believer in tho awakening of tho people; in fact,
I believe they are in the humor to submit to sev
eral years of good healthy robbery. And it is
with tho 'makln's of a sneor' that I call attention
to one portentous fact.
"The blighted state of California is bravely
fighting her own battle, and to strike her now
would be cowardly, but if the brave old state
'would only rise up in her wrath and strike off
tho shackles of the railroads that bind her, own
her, control and operate her to their own ag
grandizement, how nobly great she could be.
But her own brave people can see the fact at
tho end without having their patience tried by
criticism for a condition that is now possibly be
yond their power to cope with. Oregon, .where
the land frauds have discovered men of high
place and accredited repute to be the commonest
of grafters, as with Wyoming and Nevada. Mon
tana, the state of Amalgamated Copper where
United States senatorships are traded in and
judgeships are controlled by rich men whose
litigation fills the courts; where Rogerd, the
financial magician of Standard Oil holds sway,
from 26 Broadway, and plays with the state as
a pawn. Colorado, where working men and their
wives and children were deported from the state
at the point of the bayonet and threatened with
death should they return; where the peoples' will,
as expressed by the ballot was, by the courts
of the state, set aside and held for naught.
Kansas, where the Standard Oil and railroads
held- sway and by perjury and law violation sus
tained themselves for years. Missouri St. Louis
where corruption smelled to heaven and until
one nervy, honorable young officer found his duty
to be to cleanse the cesspool. Illinois Chicago
the home of the Beef Trust, private Car Trust,
Harvester Trust, Railroad Trust, all of which
violated the law to their own enrichment and
robbery of the people, the ruin of humble com
petitors and jan ignoring of the law and orders of
courts with a contempt that oven drew down upon
the courts the distrust of the poople. Indiana,
where the Standard Oil and railroads do exactly
as they please and with no power, in any author
ity to estop them and where the Tobacco Trust
estimated a state legislator's price to be an
hundred dollars. Ohio, where the Standard Oil
and the railroads may come again into their own
and Boss Cox. now that the people's endeavor has
been overcome by the death of the one who, in
.protest to conditions, they had elected governor.
Pennsylvania, from Pittsburg to Philadelphia,
politically rotten, and content with the seeming
relief given by a frightened mayor of a large city
before the threatenings of an infuriated popu-
lace, that is now satisfied seemingly with every
thing to come. New Jersey, the state without
fame or shame, in the smallest pocket of the
Pennsylvania railroad and the Prudential Life
Insurance company. New York, rotten with dis
honesty in high place, where banking, insurance,
railroading, gas, telephone all business is per
meated, seemingly, with corruption; entering the
legislature through wide open doors, and whose
'house of mirth' is humorously considered, with
out shame at its significance. Rhode Island, with
Senator Aldrich the grocer-statesman, whose
leadership of his political party in the United
States senate is notoriously attributable to his re
lationship with Standard Oil interests. "We3t Vir
ginia, with Steve Blkins in the senate. Massa
chusetts, with its gas and copper robberies. Dela
ware, deprived of its rightful representation in
the senate because of an Addicks, and the Powder
Trust and its interests now safely anchored in
the senate.
"For all this thieving in insurance compa
nies, operating under bribed legislatures and
bought laws and favoring judges and courts; for
all the unpunished perjury and trickery and cor
ruption of Standard Oil personages; for all the
laxity of government in the exercise of its func
tion to enforce the laws; for 'all this favoring of
corporate interests and ignoring of the sacredness
of personal rights; for the favoring legislation
of congress to especial interests and denial of re
lief from wrongs practiced by those same inter
ests; for all the muck that has been uncovered,
and. that which strenuous effort is being made to
keep covered; for this, seemingly, national rot
tenness of and, in public affairs and their method
of conduct; for the contempt of the vorld, which
such conduct of omission and commission "has
brought upon us, is not the republican party to
blame?
"Has the republican party' not been in abso
lute control of all branches of the national gov
ernment? "If the republican party in power could not
check or stop it, is she not a failure?
. "She has reached what she has celebrated as
her golden jubilee, the fiftieth year of her exist
ence, and in what condition are the public affairs
of the country?
"Is all the civilized world beside not pointing
the finger of scorn at us as a -discredited, dis
honest, dishonorable people?
"Has not ike republican party bred and fos
tered the conditions that have imposed upon
us the necessity of the muck-rake?
"Has not our social structure become a slimy
institution that shames us with its wealth of
mothers without husbands, and children without
fathers? Are not our courts insulted with sus
picion? "What political party has been in power all
this while?
"If government is to govern, the republican
party has failed.
"The republican party is guilty."
e
THE PRIMARY PLEDGE
As this copy of The Commoner may be read
by some one not familiar with the details of the
primary pledge plan, it is necessary to say that
according to the terms of this plan every demo
crat is asked to pledge himself to attend all of
the primaries of his party to bo held between
now and the next democratic national convention,
unless unavoidably prevented, and to secure a
clear, honest and straight-forward declaration of
the party s position on every question upon which
the voters of the party desire to speak. Those
desiring to be enrolled can. either write to The
Commoner approving tho object of the organiza
tion and asking to have their names entered on
the roll, or they can fill out and mail the blank
pledge, which is printed on page 14.
Extracts from letters received at The Com
moner office follow:
F. E. Hammond, Cuba, N. Y. You will' find
enclosed primary pledge signed by eighteen per
sons besides myself.
Anna Feoback, Dodd City, Tex. After giving
best wishes for The Commoner's success, I en
close my primary pledge. The cause of real
democracy is just and holy. Keep the primary
pledge plan moving. I do not want to miss a
single number of The Commoner. I hope Mr.
Bryan will get home safely.
John Hoppe, Hulls, 111. Enclosed find twelve
primary pledge signatures.
C. R. Browne, St. Louis, Mo. Enclosed you
will find a list of fifteen signatures to the primary
pledge. These I have been able to secure among
the employes at my place of employment. They
are a few good democrats who believe in demo
cratic principles as advocated by Mr. Bryan. Wish
ing you success in your work of making the. demo
cratic party truly democratic.
A. P. Conklin, Cedar Run, N. J. I send
you a pledge with seventeen names, five demo
crats and the rest are republicans.
Jacob Welch, 1214 Harrison street, Kansas
City, Mo. Enclosed please find primary pledge
signed by thirty-five good democrats. All of them
are true-blue. Please excuse my tardiness for
not sending list in sooner, as I will be 73 years
old next month, and on crutches, and can not get
around very well. I wish The Commoner and
the primary pledge success.
A. W. Tucker, Florahome, Fla. Find en
closed list of names freely given to the primary
pledge. Democrats here believe the "hour of our
deliverance is at hand. The Commoner grows
better as it grows older. And it ought to be read
by every democrat in the country.
John Betz, Ft. Recovery, Ohio. Enclosed I
send you nineteen signatures to the primary,
pledge.
A. G. Cardwell, Seymour, Mo. I enclose
fifteen signatures to the primary pledge.
W. H. Mastin, Kansas City, Mo. Enclosed
find thirty-five signatures to the primary pledge.
EVEN "THE GREATEST PROTECTIONIST"
Representative Landis of Indiana, speaking
in the house recently, referred1 to William Mc
Kinley as "the greatest protection president we
have had." Mr. Landis said that Mr. McKinley
was satisfied with the Dingley act, and we ought
to be satisfied now.
Referring to Mr. Landis speech, the Chicago
Record-Herald says that Mr. McKipley's last
speech delivered at Buffalo "is calculated to make
standpatters and pile-of-brick theorists squirm."
The Record-Herald reminds Mr. Landis that "the
greatest protection president" used such sen
tences as these:
"The period of exclusiveness is past."
"The problem of more markets requires our
urgent and immediate attention."
"Only a broad and enlightened policy of reci
procity will keep what we have. No other policy
will get more."
"We mus'c not repose in fancied security."
"Reprocity treaties are in harmony with tho
spirit of our times."
' The Record-Herald adds:
'jMr McKinley advocated the 'employ
ment' of schedules and rates that were no
longer needed either .for reyenue or for pro
tection in reciprocity treaties.
"All this was said in 1901. What has
congress done for reciprocity, for the exten
. sion of our markets? Nothing. We. nar
rowly escaped a tariff war with Germany. .
We are threatened with discrimination else
where. The standpatters warn us that no
rate or schedule of the Dingley law must be
touched, save in the way of 'upward' kind
ness.' What would Mr. McKinley have thought
of their confession of impotence?"
The Record-Herald is a republican paper and
is also' one of the severest critics of the standpat
ters; yet Mr. Dalzell of Pennsylvania tells, us that
there is no demand for tariff revision except on
the part of democrats.
JJJ
A FRIEND OF THE ANIMALS
Mayor Dahlman, of Omaha, has appointed,
and the council has confirmed, the nomination of
Alfred Millard, cashier of the United States Na
tional bank of that city, to be city poundmaster.
Mr. Millard, who is president of the Nebraska
Humane society, has accepted the appointment
and says: "I am very grateful to the mayor and
city council for my appointment as poundmaster,
and to those friends who have spoken a good
word in my behalf. I shall so conduct the office
that more respect will attach to it than hereto
fore, and the animals will be treated with more
consideration."
Mr. Millard Is a man of large affairs, but his
business cares have not hardened his heart. He
frankly announced that he would like to be ap
pointed poundmaster, believing that in that office
he could effect many reforms that would bo
beneficial to the city and at the same time bene
ficial to the dumb creatures too often brutally
treated by inhumane men. He has set an ex
ample that other men with equal opportunities
for doing good might emulate. The city of Oma
ha Is to be congratulated upon the fact that such
a man has accepted a .position that has hereto
fore been looked upon as the perquisite of some
party henchman who was devoid of feeling. Mr.
Millard has honored himself as well as his city,
and The Commoner congratulates the homeless
and heretofore helpless animals upon the acquisi
tion of a friend at court who will see to it that
they are treateojustly and humanely.
JJJ
HOMEWARD BOUND
On June 20, Mr. Bryan was at Stockholm,
Sweden jon June 26 he was at Christiana, Norway,
and on July 3, he will arrive at London, England,
where on July 4 he will deliver an address to' the
American society. He will sail for home August
23, reaching New York August 28 or 29. .
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