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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1907)
JJPJWW l"iJlllJ",M rr"""" n i i i iiiWmw mum - -- r i M-- 'ii 2 The Commoner. VOLUME 7, NUMBER 13 7 : K h ? , h 14 LV fc. f Iff ' 'Hon compliments those who are honored with it. The south furnishes most of tho electoral votes of llio democratic parly but It does not furnish a ( majority of tho (lomoernMc voters. In 3800 New York ciihL 55.1,000 democratic votes, more than Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi comhfiiccl. rennsylvanla cast d.'Kl.OOO democratic voles, or more than Kentucky and Virginia combined. Ohio cast '177,000 demo cratic votes, or more than North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee combined. Illinois east 405,000 democratic votesnearly 300,000 more than Texas. These figures are given to show that the selection of a democratic candidate Is a matter of Interest to the whole country, and in tLo selection it Is not fair (hat one section should be alighted or that another section only should be considered. There are democrats in every state in tho union. In many or the stales they have often fought Without hope, but they are none the less deserv ing of consideration. Dcmocnatlc platforms should be made and democratic candidates should bo se lected Avlth a view to strengthening the party's position all over the country, not with a view to pleasing any one section or any one element of tJio parly. Let us enter the next convention with an eye single to tho party's good, remembering that tho party can advance its interests only by advancing the interests of tho country. Let us enter upon the selection of candidates, not with a view of gratifying any man's ambition or of complimenting any state or portion of the union, but with a desire to select candidates who voice tho sentiments of tho rank and lile of tho party and who, If elected, will strengthen the party's hold upon tho country by proving the party deserving of public confi dence. If tho most available man is a southern man, lot our candidate bo from the .south. If tho most available man Is a northern man, let him be from tho north. If tho east presents tho most available man, let him be from the east If the west can furnish the most available man, lot him be from the west. Tho real democrat from any section will poll more votes In any other section than one whoso democracy is certiiled to by Wall Btrccb whose iniquities have so aroused the pub lie that even many republicans are trying to get away from their Influence. oooo JAMES ON ASSET CURRENCY Hon. Ollle M. James, congressman from Ken tucky, made a very strong speech on tho money question in the discussion of the currency bill, rt was the opposition of men who like .Tames pointed out tho iniquities of tho asset currency system that frightened the republican leaders into Aband oning tho project. Mr. James pointed out the difference also be tween loaning at a fixed rate to favored banks and loaning at a competitive rate to the banks who pay the most for tho money, the security being lixed. Democratic Missouri, by employing tho competitive system, secures nearly three per cent a year on tlio money which it deposits in banks, but tho federal government in the hands of re publicans is so partial to the banks that it gives them tho benefit of public money for nothing and thus lays the foundation for a campaign corrup tion fund, and tho record shows Unit this corrup tion fund has been drawn upon. oooo A CHAMPION OF PLUTOCRACY The Kansas City Journal seems ambitious to Win distinction as the most extreme of the defend f,m, of I,lltpcracy. In a recent editorial entitled "The ; Popular Cry" It gives Harriman, Carnegie . and llockcfellor a clean bill of health and admin isters a caustic rebuke to those who havo dared to lay anything to the doors of these benevolent "captains of industry." Tho following is an illus tration of tho wholc-souleduess of its defense- "The truth about Mr. llarriman is that he has spent more money to make his railroads physically first-class than any other man in the business Ills tracks and his equipment are the best that money n i1 5??' I!n!,lmS Sptmt not less two hundred and fifty millions of dollars in tho past ten years making Ids tracks and machinery what they sho d be Kansas people have only to look the ne w Union Pacific line between Kansas City and To peka for an Illustration of what we mem So ?" as the Alton deal is concerned, the facts are Ihe rhe Alton was once a groat succor wiiVm il prnotlcnUy !ho cart cm! ofToTn(n'o svsTom or rowtlr its os,neS. While t ,s h m ?&! DnrrliniHi bouKht it-or n control or If tt p' ble to give it business VomZunfouPaci Illinois Central, and Kansas City Southern, and, presto, it was valuable again. He made it as fine a piece of property physically as there is in the west and he reaped some of the benefit of bring ing the property to life." Here is a champion indeed! "Oh! What was love made for, if 'tis not the same Through joy and through sorrow, through glory and shame. I know not, I ask not if guilt's in that heart, I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.". Some have feared that llarriman had carried" his "enterprise" loo far; some havo intimated that lie was unscrupulous, and some have even ex pressed the opinion that he ought to be in tho pcu Itentlary, but the Journal sees in him a public benefactor, putting his strong arms under a weak railway system, lifting It out of the mire, and then modestly contenting himself with "some of the benefit of bringing the property to life.? No one lias ever drawn a more flattering pen-picture of Saint llarriman, the generous patron of the strug gling road. But the editor of the Journal is not at all par tial wiUi ids favors. Ho is a commercial artist and his studio seems to be open to any exploiter who Is willing to sit for a portrait. For instance: "Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Rockefeller began as poor boys and practiced all their lives the rules that are preached in church and Sunday school and by every careful father to his sons and daughters. Economy, thrift, Industry, temperance and charity and the greatest of these is charity. Both these men have given more money for good purposes in proportion , to their means than is given by ninety-nine out of a hundred of the Well-to-do people of tho country such people as are now making the noise and wearing the badges. They were lucky in getting hold of extraordinary lines of business capable of great development and destined to be greatly affected by tho unfore seen events of the time. They have borne their good fortune soberly, unostentatiously, decently. They have been custodians of vast wealth, but they have not tried to eat and m ,!' il11, Uloy liavc B-ot triGd l0 buy office with it, they have not gambled with it, they have not corrupted politics with it. On the contrary they have given it to good purposes or kept it active in legitimate lines of busi ness, contributing enormously to the unpreced ented stretch of prosperity which has char acterized tho business history of tho United States since they became masters in tho field." "They were lucky in getting hold of extraor dinary lines of business, capable of great devel opment and destined to be greatly affected by the unforeseen events of the time?" How lucky they were! And their luck has not deserted them for are they not fortunate in having a biographer who can conveniently forget the evils of monopoly and the immoralities of the trust? No reference here to tho criminal cases now being prosecuted against Mr. Rockefeller's company throughout tho coun try; no reference to tho extortion practiced by Mr Carnegie's steel trust nothing of this kind' "They are all honorable men," or would be if the immunity bath administered by the money mag nates' mouthpiece of Kansas City, could wash their guilt away. Luck seems to cover as many sins as charity, and generosity in distributing other peo ples money apparently atones for grand larceny in securing It. Fortunately for the country there are few editorial pages which give such unqualified ' endorsement to criminal business methods The Journal boast an odious pre-eminence in its chosen field. Paraphrasing a proverb of Solomon, it may be said: Many editors have done outrageously Sm aeil 1' f th0 KnnSas ity Jo"aTScete OOOO MONEY ABOVE DUTY We have recently had three conspicuous In stances of the fact that money offers to some of our public servants more attraction than the per formance of a civic duty. Two of these instant are found in Shouts and Stevens. Tnly were G" trusted by tho president with an important work It is to be assumed .that they were specially fitted for the work-tho president so certified when ho appointed them and they admitted their cood iniYi ion of their qualifications when hey ente ' They were paid salaries which were sufflrim? enable them to live in comfort S sa"? enough In a few years to be above want the rest of ?i,5, lives. Willie Shouts, at least 1? vIS ? , 0!l millionaire it is not wZiS&fin tune they may have acquired previously. So i?i" ernmen was paying them enough to satlsi v an J reasonable ambition. But they resiinort Vn L larger salaries from vrtoaUVSSgfiSi! Because they were cither lacking in atdotlsn III made the mistake of thinking Siat patotouSS Is not involved in civil service. They revealed a low conception of duty and betrayed a sordidness that is-inexcusable. If they were qualified for the work they ought not to have been allured away from it by higher salaries; if they Were not qual ified tlfoy ought to have resigned btifore. It is going to be difficult for the government to dig the canal unless it finds engineers who nufc duty above money. This desertion in the hour of need is as reprehensible as the desertion of a sol dier on the eve of battle. The railroads opposed the digging of the canal; its completion -will1 mean n loss of many millions a year in transcontinental rates. The roads could afford to btfy oft every engineer selected, aiid If they are all as susceptible to a money consideration as the ones who have been employed, what will the -government do? Strange that interest in this great public work and the honor of having a part in it does not out weigh money in the minds of these men. The third illustration is to be found in the resignation of Senator Spooner. If he had given as his 'excuse that he was not in harmony with the' republicans of his state as represented by Sen ator La Follette the reason would have been ac cepted, but he gave as his only reason for leaving public life that ho could not afford to sacrifice his private interests any long'er. The papers that are friendly to him mpurn and the president min gles his tears with theirs that the country is to lose the services of a great statesman. None of them suggest that he should have continued the sacrifice; they seem to assume that no one is jus tified in serving his country at a loss, and they do not seem to remember that official service baa increased his earning power by giving him a ua- -tional reputation. When a man Is given a high official position his prominence can be capitalized at a large sum and many use the position as a child uses a stool in the pantry to reach the jam on the upper shelves. Paul Morton raised himself to the Equitable jam jar; Shaw stood on the treasury safe until he could reach the presidency of a trust company; Stevens raised himself on a spade until he could get hold of the traction com pany job, and Senator Spooner has his eye on an attorneyship which is as yet x- an unknown quantity. Why waste sympathy on the man who resigns to add to his wealth? Any prominaut senator or cabinet officer could turn his position into more dollrfrs if be would. Let us rather' (id mire those who resist the temptation and let us hope that an increasing number will be willing to serve their country in spite of inducements of fered by private corporations. Instead of using these resignations to show that public salaries are too low we can better use them to "show the low standard of patriotism among some of jpur public servants and the argument loses none of its force even if in some cases the service has been impaired by the resignations. OOOO STATESMAN OR FINANCIER, WHICH? A word to the young men who are entering public life: The first and most important ques tion for you to decide is whether you are goimr to be a statesman or a financier. You cannot be both and you had better understand it in the be ginning than learn it by experience. The mind mi i !ttesi?,m is essentially different from the in nd of the financier; the former looks at every thing from the standpoint of the people-the hitter asks whether there is any money in it The man who enters politics with the idea that he can make money out of his position is ant to yield to the many temptations which surround him. Most of these temptations come In B!f especially if the public servant is an attorney It Is a very common tiling for legislators Jimi f i' ecutives if they are also Tlawyefs, to be Offered egal business by persons whose sole DurnoS i m influence them as legislators. One sZtS was offered ten thousand a year to act as awoiSS counsel for a railroad which had bLh!ess befm-o congress, the offer being accompanied by the as surance that he need not appear In couTt Conp-essmen are often asked to draw coi tracts for .corporations which are seekhS fav-ors-the work to be done in private and th? JST pensation to be liberal. Some are vata on,S?7 think that it is their legal ability thlt , ? for but it is a very dull mnS & does not fnlf stand that these lobbyist could bnv nil ?L ? J ability they need at less a nfi offethl 5? Aetata. A legislator has a right to! sYspe?thood" faith of any business offer made by a party who 19 seeking favors. No protestation of fXdsh o or disinterestedness by such can blind the eves of the conscientious. If a lobbyist confers a favo? upon a legislator he expects a return ami 5, ,1! Mater must either subject himself to Mare The chances are that such debts -will be pal . (".,'&