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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1906)
i-'JV SF rT .7WJ' VPRIPgptW" H, i y iftfe o iously achieved. Corruption Is never so rife, as in communities where the demagogue and the "agi tator bear full sway, because in such communi ties all moral bands become loosened, and hysteria and sensationalism replace the spirit of sound judgment and- fair dealing as between man and man. In sheer revolt against the squalid an archy thus produced men are sure in the end to turn toward any leader who can restore order, and then their relief at being free from the in tolerable burdens of class hatred, violence, and demagogy is such that they can not for sometime be aroused to indignation against misdeeds by men of wealth; so that they permit a new growth of the very abuses which were in part responsible for the original outbreak. The one hope for suc cess for our people lies in a resolute and fear less, but sane and cool-headed, advance along the path marked out last year by this very con gress. There must be a stern refusal to be mis led into following either that base creature who appeals and panders to the lowest instincts and 'passions in order to arouse one set of Americans against their fellows, or that other creature, equally base but no baser, who in a spirit of greed, or to accumulate or add to an already huge fortune, seeks to exploit his fellow-Americans with callous disregard to their welfare of soul and body. The man who debauches others in order to obtain a high office stands on an evil equality of corruption with the man who de bauches others for financial profit; and when hatred is sown the crop which springs up can only be evil. "The plain people who think the mechanics, farmers, merchants, workers. with head or hand, the men to whom American traditions are dear, who love their country and' try to act decently by their neighbors, owe it to themselves to re member that the most damaging blow that can be given popular government is to elect an un worthy and sinister agitator on a platform of violence and hypocrisy. "Whenever such an. issue is raised in this country nothing can be gained by flinching from it, for in such case democracy is itself on trial, popular self-government under republican forms is itself on trial. The triumph of the mob is just as evil a thing as the triumph of .the plutocracy, and to have escaped one danger avails nothing whatever if wo succumb to the other. In the end the honest man, whether rich or poor, who earns his own living, and tries to deal justly by his fellows, has as much to fear from the insincerity of the unworthy demagogue, promising much and performing nothing, or else performing nothing but ,eyil, who would set on the mob to plunder the rich, as from the crafty corruptionist who for his own ends, would per mit the common people to "be exploited by the very wealthy. If we ever let this government fall .into the hands of men of either of these two classes, wev shall show themselves false to America's past. Moreover, the demagogue and the corruptionist, often work hand in hand. There are at this moment wealthy reactionaries of such obtuse morality that they regard the pub lic servant who prosecutes them when they vio late the law, or who seeks to make them bear their proper share of the public burdens, as be ing, more objectionable than the violent agitator who hounds on the mob to plunder the rich. There is nothing to choose between such a re actionary 'and such an agitator; fundamentally they are alike in their selfish disregard of the rights of others; and it is natural that they should join, in opposition to any movement of which the aim is fearlessly to do exact and even justice to all." wii TxhQt, tpresldent urees congress to pass the XV. IT ,B tue nuioer or nours of employment of railroad employes. He says that the eight ?EK ?aI ?hould be generally observed in the United States, but he takes the pains' to explain that there are industries in which it is not pos sible to reduce the hours of labor and that in Panama, for instance, "t.ii nlLJ: at every way so different from what they are here uu uism. uour aay woum be absurd; just as it is absurd, so far an tho lRtbmi,Q i lJL"Zr where white labor can not be employed, to bother : w wuemer tne necessary work is done by alien VIU.VH mcu or uy anen yellow men." 1 no urges congress to provide for an investi S fill ?t hi dola?0p and of the labor of women in the United States. , congratulates congress for having passed it the last session an employers' liability law but says that neither Hia fmwm i, W - 1wdlalilig ittl tllis luestion are sufficiently telSSL ..entire traeVrisk i , - l,uu V"., n:pioyer. ' juriung to, the, question of arbitration the siaent savs: ttrrhn nnmmiu.. ti 'V :.. -w vuuiujjoojuu ttiijuimu uy The Commoner; ?- resident says: the president Ootober 16, 1902, at the request of both the anthracite coal operators and miners to 'inquire into, consider, and pass upon the ques tions in controversy in connection with the Btrike in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania and the causes out of which the controversy arose, in their report, findings, and award expressed the belief 'that the state and federal govern ments should provide the machinery for what may be called the compulsory investigation of controversies between employers and employes when they arise.' This expression of belief is de serving of the favorable consideration of the con gress and the enactment of its provision into law. A bill has already been introduced to this end. "Records show that during the twenty years from: January 1, 1881, to December 31, 1900 'there iV?!!S ?ikes affectinS 117.S09- establishments, and 6,105,694 employes were thrown out of employ ment. During the same period there were 1,005 lockouts, involving nearly 10,000 establishments, throwing over one million people out of employ ment. These strikes and lockouts involved an estimated loss to employes of $307,000,000 and to employers of $143,000,000, a total of $450,000,000. The public suffered directly and indirectly prob ably as great additional loss. But the money loss, great, as it was, did not measure the anguish and suffering endured by the wives and children of employes whose pay stopped, when their work stopped, or the disastrous effect of the strike or lockout upon the business of employers or the increase in the cost of products and the in convenience and loss to the public. "Many of these strikes and lockouts would not have occurred had the parties to the dispute been required to appear before an unprejudiced body representing the nation and, face to face, state the reasons for their contention. In most instances. the dispute would doubtless be found to be due to a misunderstanding by each of the other's rights, aggravated by an unwillingness gtner party to accept as true the statements of the other as to the justice or injustice of the matters m dispute. The exercise of a judicial spirit by a disinterested body representing the fe.deral government, such as would be provided by a commission on conciliation and arbitration would tend to create an atmosphere of friendliness and conciliation between contending parties; and the giving each side an equal opportunity to present fully its case in the presence of the other would prevent many disputes from developing into a series of. strikes or lockouts, and, in other cases, would enable the commission to persuade the opposing parties to come to terms. "In this age of great corporate and labor combinations, neither employers nor employes should be left completely at the mercy of the stronger party to a dispute, regardless of the righteousness of their respective claims. The proposed measure would be in the line of secur-:-ins recognition, of the fact that in many strikes the public has itself an interest which can not wisely be disregarded; an interest not merely of general convenience, for the question of a just and proper public policy must also be con sidered. In all legislation of this kind it is , well to advance cautiously, testing each step by the actual results; the step proposed can surely be safely taken, for the deoisions of the commis sion would not bind the parties in legal fashion, and yet would give a chance for public opinion to crystalize and thus to exert its full force for the right." . Referring to the withdrawal of coal lands the president says: "It is not wise that the nation should alienate its remaining coal lands. I have temporarily withdrawn from settlement all the lands, which the geological survey has indicated as containing, or In all probability containing, coal. The question, however, can be properly settled only by legislation which, in my judgment, should provide for the withdrawal of these lands from sale or from entry, save in certain especial circumstances. The ownership would, then re main in the United States, which should not, however, attempt to work them-, but permit them to bo worked by private individuals under a royalty' system, the government keeping such control as to permit it to see that no excessive price was charged consumers. It would, of course, be as necessary to supervise the rates charged by the common carriers to transport the product as the rates charged by those who mine it; and the sutfervigion must extend .to the conduct of the common carriers, so tjiac they shall in no way fayor one competitor at the expense of an other. The withdrawal of these, coal- lands wouid constitute a policy analogous to that which has . been followed, in withdrawing the forest lands from, ordinary, settlement..' The coal, like the for ests, should . be treated as the property of the TOLUME 6, NUMBER f public and its disposal should be unrtor tions which would inure to the bS Wndl public as a whole." l,eneflt of th m, ReferrIng to corporations the president The present congress has taken long 8tr (18pay?: the direction of securing nronpr b2 ? , e s ln control hv m df "pAr. suPervision and ations onWdTnMnTe enormous majoritv of n.nrnnMfSe ' and toe enormous majority-of corporations of anv ,,. are engaged in interstate business T ho X. Z0 of the railway bill, nmi nii !?'- ,ne passase the. passage of the pure food bill nmi n, greo vision for increasihand rfndimg'C SfecK national control oer the beef-packing ffll? mark an important advance in the proper d & Z ,w t!e Sh0rfc session " will porta, , Z difficult to do much further along this line- anX it may be best to wait until the laws have' beeJ in operation for a number of months before en deayoring .to increase their scope, because onW operation will show with exactness their merit and their shortcomings and thus give opportunity SL?f?nevW fUrther remedIal legislation is needed Yet in my judgment, it will in the end be advisable in connection with the packing house inspection law to provide for putting a date oS the label and for charging the cost of inspection inatniPSCl?rS' An these laws have already justified their enactment. The interstate com. ??T?J? Z' for instauce, has rather amusingly falsified the predictions, both of those who as serted that it would ruin the railroads and of those who asserted that it did not go far enough and would accomplish nothing. During the last five months the railroads have shown increased earnings and some of them unusual dividends while during the same period the mere taking effect of the law has produced an unprecedented, a hitherto unheard of, number of voluntary re ductions in freights and fare by the railroads. Since the founding of the commission there has never been a time of equal length in which any thing like so many reduced tariffs have been put into effect. On August 27, for instance, two days 'before the new law went into effect, the commission received notices of over five thou sand separate tariffs which represented reduc tions from previous rates. "It must not be supposed, however, that with the passage of these laws it will be possible to stop progress along the line of increasing the power of the national government over the use of capital in interstate commerce. For example, there will ultimately be need of enlarging the pow ers of the interstate commerce commission along several different lines, so as to give it a larger . and more efficient .control over the railroads. "It can not too often be repeated that ex perience has conclusively shown the impossi bility of securing by the actions of naif a hundred , different state legislatures anything but ineffec tive chaos in the way of dealing with the great , . corporations which do not operate exclusively .within the limits of any one state. In some method, whether by a national license law or in Other fashion, we must exerciser and that at an early date, a far more complete control than at present over these great corporations a control that will, among other things, prevent the evils of excessive overcapitalization, and that will com pel the disclosure by each big corporation of its stockholders and of its properties and business, whether owned directly or through subsidiary or affiliated corporations. This will tend to put a stop to the securing of inordinate profits by favored individuals at the expense whether of the general public, the stockholders, or the wage workers. Our effort should be not so much to prevent consolidation as sucl, but so to supervise and control it as to see that it results in no harm to the people. The reactionary or ultra conservative 'apologists for the misuse of wealth assail the effort to secure such control as a step toward socialism. As a matter of fact it is these reactionaries and ultra-conservatives who are themselves most potent in increasing socialistic feeling. One of the most efficient methods of averting the consequences of a dangerous agita tion, which is 80 per cent wrong, is to remedy the 20 per cent of evil as to which the agitation is well founded. The best way to avert the very undesirable move for the governmental owner ship of railways is' to secure by the government on behalf of the people as a whole such adequate control and regulation of the great interstate com mon carriers as will do away with the evils which give rise to the agitation against them. So the 'proper antidote to the dangerous and wicked agi tation against the. men of wealth as such is to secure by proper legislation and executive action ' the abolition of the grave abuses whioh actually ;.i do obtain in connection with the business use of wealth under our present system or rather no 4S2ffiSSS?E2222! t J- -A. iii. i i-t-ii ikAuJl' v" i -"thJ'SwrfflLit r IJitiiHiniili'ii'WtinihMgh: tfM jAjkMjujXAAd