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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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YOL. 7. No. 21.
Lincoln, Nebraska,, June 7, 1907.
Whole Number 333.
CONTENTS
JUDGE GAYNOR ON TAINTED MONET
STRANGE ADVISORS '
FORAKER NOT UNHAPPY
LICENSING INTERSTATE CORPORATIONS
WHAT OHIO NEEDS - -...
TARIFF REFORM
A MINNESOTA "LITTLE BREECHES"
A HOT TALE FOR MR. ROOSEVELT
WARRING ON OKLAHOMA
WASHINGTON LETTER
- PARAGRAPHIC PUNCHES '
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
.- HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
' NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE PRESIDENT AT INDIANAPOLIS
GOODBYE TO THE CHRONICLE
Democrats everywhere -will be interested
In an Associated Press dispatch, dated Chicago,
May 31. The dispatch follows: ''The Chicago
Chronicle this morning announces that it will
cease publication with this issue owing to the
fact that the paper has been unprofitable for
some time. The official notice signed by the
editor H W. Seymour, follows: 'As "it has not"
been profitable of late, publication of the Chrotf-'
icle will be suspended with this issue. All liabili-'
ties of the Chicago Chronicle company wllf be
met in the regular course.' The Chronicle be
gan publication on May 28, 1895, as the only
democratic morning paper then in Chicago.
John R, Walsh, one of the chief owners and
formerly president of the Chicago National bank,
refused the support of his paper to William J.
Bryan during Bryan's candidacy for the presi
dency, and during the last national campaign
the Chronicle came out as a republican news
paper. The last issue of the Chicago Chronicle"
was No. 4 of volume 13."
The Chronicle was an ably edited and hand
somely printed newspaper, but it utterly failed
as a democratic organ, because it used its great
abilities in an effort to persuade its party to
bo undemocratic. "
It was a good thing for the democratic
party when the Chronicle deserted it and went
over to the republicans. ' Neither the republican
party nor the general public suffered when the
Chronicle went out of business altogether, be
cause it stood for special privilege and em
ployed its great -abilities to the detriment of the
public interests in every serious contest between
privilege-and the general welfare.
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RADICALISM
A -New York newspaper that printed an
editorial entitled, "The Drift to Radicalism,"
is given this valuable bit of reminder by on
of its readers: "And what is there in radi
calism to-fe&r? Orily this: that the people in
their haste and earnestness for reform shall con
fuse capital with privilege, Jgitimate business
methods '-with monopoly, Tijere "'vBho.uld be no
war against capital as such ;f?ut privilege the
legal power to levy tribute '"without rendering
an equivalent must be abolished root and
branch. This is the true radicalism which
shouldxbe promoted Ijy every real conservative."
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NOT FOR; TAFT
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, republican,
says: "Before the national conventions meet
next year a .new congress will have completed
its long session. Cold-storage is the best place
for political predictions."" Evidently theGlobe-
Democrat is not incjlnedto fall Into dine -for
William H. Taft. .
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KBra&si ." $BbJbm . ,jZLJy sfiMir .- .- . .. """? ffl Jj
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v Mr. Roosevelt Adds Another to His Collection
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'' JiMge. Gaynor on Tainted Money
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Judge W. J. Gaynor of the appellate divi
sion" of -the supreme court .of New York ad
dressed the Knife and Fork club of Kansas City
May 23. Judge Gaynor spoke on freight rate
abuses. The Associated Press gives extracts
from Judge Gaynor's speech as follows:
"There is no prejudice in this country
against honestly acquirod wealth, however
large. It is wealth acquired infamously which
is under the ban of the splendid intelligence
and. integrity of the people of this country. The
prime object of government Is to promote dis
tributive justice to all. Without this object
being fulfilled thero can be no true prosperity.
Prosperity is the highest production which a
community is capable of consistent with the
physical and mental welfare of its members,
accompanied by a just distribution of the total
product among the producers. This does not
mean share and share alike, but according to
the productive capacity, physical or mental, or
both, of each. If a few are getting each year,
and constantly, by hook or by crook, the total
product of all who work, then the condition is
not one of prosperity.
"If certain individuals in a-short lifetime
become possessed of so much property that they
can make abnormal gifts to charity; if one man
can give -away, for instance, the vast sum of
$32,000,000 in one gift without feeling it any
more than you would miss $5, we make a fatal
mistake if we ascribe such a condition to pros
perity. If we find the railroads being used to
allow a few to acquire such fortunes at the
expense of their fellowmen by havipg their
freight carried at a rate lower than others have
to pay, so that -they are-able to create monopo
lies in themselves, our' condition is not-one of
prosperity, but it is dangerous to the perpetuity
of our free government. ;
"From the beginning of the world the pub
lic highways always had been built by the gov
ernment. In the same way the government
could have built our iron high waysr the rall-v
roads. And even though privately built, 'the
railroads of the country are still public highr'
ways.
"This Is the decision of all the courts in,
the land. The corporations, nor the individuals
who control them, can not do with them as thejr
will. They are mere trustees, or agencies of
the government, to run them as public high
ways for the benefit of all, and without any
favoritism or discrimination to anyone. Every
free pass issued, every favor in freight rjate
granted, is in defiance of the law. Some people
are under the delusion that recent statutes made
these things unlawful. Not at all;" they were
unlawful from the beginning. Wo only needed
statutes to make it a .criminal offense to grant
them, arid to jail those who should grant them.
That these public highways should be used 'to
enable . iv tew men to destroy their business -rivals
Is the basest crime of our day and gen
eration, "If I give' an illustration, It Is not for hold
ing any one man up for reproach above others.
In 1870 I went through the oil regions of Penn
sylvania and saw a wilderness of derricks spread
out over the country over engines pumping oil
from wells. 'Hundreds of people owned such
wells, and were producing oil. Five years later
all these wells had passed into the control of
one man, or set of men. All the other producers
had failed and joined those unfortunates who
fall by the wayside In the struggle for exist-
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