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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 7, NO. 40
Lincoln, Nebraska, October 18, 1907
Whole Number 352
CONTENTS
.
A WORD TO DEMOCRATS
AFTER ASSET CURRENCY AGAIN
PLAIN TALK BY A REPUBLICAN EDITOR
THE CONSTITUTION
WHY LAFOLLETTE?
NEWSPAPER OPINIONS ON CENTRALI
ZATION JOHNSON AND BURTON
WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
108,759!
The official count of the Oklahoma vote ac
cording to a Guthrie, Okla., dispatch shows that
the vote on the constitution stood, yeas 180,
836, nays 72,077 the majority for the constitu
tion heing 108,759. Prohibition received 130,
524 votes to 112,244 against, a majority of
18,280.
Majority for the constitution 108,759! -And
MeBsrs. Roosevelt and Taft expected the people
of Oklahoma to repudiate that great charter!
oooo
NOT A MARKER
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat (rep.) says:
"It is amusing to see a free trade paper strug
gling to prove that the British government pay
ment of $750,000 a year to the Lusitania is not
a subsidy but a speed premium. Of all gammon
the free trade sort is cut most thick and slab."
But it isn't a marker compared with the
Globe-Democrat's high protective tariff editorial
read in the light of the free trade-on-print-paper
resolution adopted by the American Publishers'
Association.
oooo
NAME THE GOOD ONES
The Wall Street Journal quotes from John
Sherman to show that in introducing what is
called the Sherman anti-trust law he "aimed
at making it strike only at unlawful combina
tions." The Journal adds that the Sherman
law should be amended so as to provide for
"reasonable combination." In the same edi
torial the Journal says "Sherman did not seem
to have a clear idea of what was a good com
bination and what was a bad one." Well others
than John Sherman have failed to designate
the good and bad trusts. Perhaps the Wall
Street Journal can enlighten its readers on this
point. Will it tell them the names of some of
' the good trusts?
DENTISTRY
In his speech at Cairo, 111., Mr. Roosevelt
said: "I think that the excellent people who
- have complained of our policy as hurting busi
ness have shown much the same spirit as the
child who regards the dentist and not the ulcer
ated tooth as the real source of his woe."
Referring to this statement the Wall Street
Journal says: "The modern dentist in operat
ing on an ulcerated tooth does not frighten the
patient by telling him how bad it is. Nor does
he ordinarily extract the. tooth in order 'to kill
the ulceration. He applies scientific methods
of painless dentistry."
And the New York World, struck with the
same presidential remark, says: "But what is
the' child to think if the forceps keep slipping
and the dentist fails to pull the tooth?"
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WHAT JS A REPUBLICAN?
A Word to Democrats
Has the democratic party a mission? If
so, "what is it? Does democracy stand for a code
of political principles, or Ib It merely an organi
zation formed to secure offices for its members?
From the arguments that are advanced by
some of our metropolitan newspapers one would
suppose that it had no cqneern about principles
and little reason for existence.
There are a few metropolitan papers, call
ing themselves democratic, which are now urg
ing the democratic party to become the expo
nent of predatory wealth. It were better for
the party if these papers did not call themselves
democratic, for they do the party far more in
jury by presuming to speak for it than they
could do if they openly .opposed the party. These
papers not only misrepresent democratic senti
ment themselves, but they constantly quote each
other as the exponents of democratic sentiment,
and what is worse, they are quoted by republican
papers as reflecting democratic sentiment. They
sometimes admit that the masses favor a pro
gressive policy but In a, "holier than thou"
tone castigate the masses and call upon the
"superior" element to save the party from its
own folly. Some of these papers are owned
bodily by .favor-seeking corporations, and their
editors are employed to chloroform their read
ers while the proprietors pick their pockets.'
Others are owned by men who are aristocratic
rather than democratic in their sympathies and
whose leanings toward plutocracy are due to a
habit of mind or a perversion of heart, but what
ever the reason, these papers do not represent
the rank and file of the party and do not appre
ciate the party's opportunities or its obligations.
The democratic party Is a people's party;
It stands for a government of the people, by the
people and for the people. It demands that the
government shall be administered in the interest
of the people and by those whoso sympathies
are with the people and not with the exploiters.
The democratic party believes in observing
the distinction between the state and the nation
because the observance of such distinction is
necessary to the protection of the rights of the
people. The republicans cry "a revival of the
doctrine of seresslon" whereVer the democrats
demand that the states shall bo allowed to con
trol their domestic affairs, but this Is a false
cry, and it will not deceive the country. The
p'eople of California got a lesson In states' rights
when the, president Intimated that their control
over their school system could bo regulated by
a treaty, and the attorneys general of the various
states got a lesson in states' rights when the
federal courts began to suspend the laws passed
by the states for dealing with state affairs.
But while the democratic party opposed the
. doctrine of some of the republican leaders that
the states ought to bo deprived of the power to
regulate corporations, it also opposes the doc
trine advanced by some of the corporation demo
crats who hide behind the doctrine of states'
rights whenever federal legislation is proposed
against monopolies. Tho democratic party be
lieves in tho exercise of the powers of the fed
eral government as well as in the exercise of
the powers of the several states. In other words,
it believes that each government should act
within its own sphere, but should act In the in
terest of the whole people.
On the trust question, on the tariff question,
on imperialism, on the labor question on
EVERY question the democratic party insists
that its policy sliall tip guided by the people and
that the party shrjl act in the interest of the
people. In all matters concerning the structure
of co'vernment and the methods of government,
the democratic party. stands for the largest par-
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