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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL. 7, NO. 34
Lincoln, Nebraska, September 6, 1907
Whole Number 346
CONTENTS
' WHERE TARIFF BARONS RULE , v .
-'.'".. TRUSTING, THE INDIVIDUAL
OKLAHOMA'S FIRST BATTLE" ( '
ONLY LASHES OF LOVE
PROVE IT NOW
HOW THE TRUSTS CONTROL CONGRESS H
REASSURED
THE FIRST ECHO
SILENT ON THE TARIFF
MR. TAFT ON TRUSTS
NAME ONE GOOD TRUST
WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
s WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
TRUSTING THE INDIVIDUAL
Secretary Taft undertakes to draw a con
trast between President Roosevelt and Mr.
Bryan, saying that the former trusts the Indi
vidual while the latter distrusts him. Mr..Taft
may be able to .speak for the president, but lid
shows gross ignorance of Mr. Bryan's position.
Mr. Bryan, like all other democrats, trusts "the
indivfdual that is a distinguishing feature of
the democrat, but the Jeffersonian democrat
recognizes the weaknesses of man as well as
the rights of man and the weakness of man
shows itself when the representative puts his
own interests above the interests of his con
stituents. Jefferson declared that- confidence was the
parent of despotism and that free government
existed in jealousy not in confidence. The
Hamiltonian republican trusts the representative
but not the individual. The Hamiltonian re
publican thinks that a representative is elected
to think for the people; the Jeffersonian demo
crat believes that the people should think for
themselves and then elect representatives, to act
for them and give expression to their thoughts.
Mr. Bryan takes the Jeffersonian view and
has expressed his views so often that Secretary
Taft ought not to be ignorant of them. B3
cause Mr. Bryan believes 'in and trusts the in
dividual he favors the election of senators by
direct vote and he also favors such checks on
our representative system as will enable the in
dividuals to control their representatives and
prevent betrayal. It is Secretary Taft who, fol
lowing in the footsteps of Hamilton, distrusts
the individual and puts his faith in the repre
sentative. Secretary Taft has raised a question'
which will embarrass him it will not embarrass
Mr. Bryan.
OOOO
"MANANA"
The Spanish have a word, "nianana" which"
means "tomorrow." Secretary Taft may yet
become famous as "the manana statesman." He
seems to favor putting everything off until to
morrow. He is in favor of an income tax but
not just now; he believes in an inheritance tax
but not for the present; he thinks the Filipinos
will be ready for self government after awhile;
and ho feels that tariff reform might be a good
thing after the next election, or some other
time in the future. How would it do for re
formers to adopt his own language and say
"Secretary Taft might make a good president
some day, but not yet, afterwhile, say about
1912 or 1916." Present abuses- need immedi
ate treatment and "manana" is not likely to be
come a popular campaign slogan.
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A CHANGED TUNE
WHERE TARIFF BARONS RULE
In another column of this issue is an art
icle taken from the Boston Horald. In this
article it is shown by republican testimony that
the steel trust through the control it has over the
republican ways and means committee of the
house, blocked action upon Representative Lov
ering's tariff drawback bills.
The editor of Moody's Magazine says that
he has for years known that the officials of the
steel trust were dictating "standpatism" to the
ways and means committee. Moody's editor
says that he has seen letters from steel trust
officials to members of the ways and means com
mittee "advising them not to touch the tariff
on any pretext."
For the second quarter of 1907 the" sfeel
trust earnings were "about $4,000,000 more than
the earnings of any previous quarter. For the
full year, ending Juno 30, 1907, the net earn
ings amounted to $164,490,945. Moody's editor
points out that these earnings amounted to
$500,000 a day, $21,000 an hour, $350 a min
ute, and $6 a -second more than three men,
working twelve hours a day, could count.
Moody's editor then says:
"Fully half of these earnings of $164,490,
945 for the year, come from the tariff, and are
really tariff taxes collected from steel consum
ing industries and individuals. If the steel cor
poration really were, as protectionists assume, a
struggling infant industry that could not sur
vive, long without tariff pap, and if the good
people of this country were generous, kind and
foolish enough to vote this tariff tax of $80,-
000,000 a year upon themselves, there would bo
no ground for criticism or complaint. If the
steel corporation officials would even confine
their tariff activity to arguments and to con
tributions to political parties, they would not
be censurable to any great extent. But when
these officials, by some means, gain control of
the leaders of the ways and means committeo
and the house of representatives and use their
influence to suppress discusKion of the tariff, they
are playing the tariff game unfairly."
It is not difficult to understand the means
whereby these tariff barons "gain control of the
leaders of the ways and means committee, and
the house of representatives." These gentlemen
are merely carrying out the policy for which
helr party stands.
And why should not the steel trust, or any
other trust, tell the republican ways and means
committee when to act and when to refuse to
act upon any question affecting the trust sys
tem? The political party represented by that
committee obtains its campaign funds from these
trusts. Republican leaders and republican edi- v
tors have for years drilled it into the rank and
file of their party that the persistent champion
ship of high protection is the purest act of patri
otism and that the man who objects to the high
rates of the Dingley bill has shown himself to
be not only false to his party but faithless, to
his duty as a patriot.
The republican party can not separate It
self from "the system." It can not divorce
itself from that form of protection which means
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