Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1907)
JSW 4 mm q imwi rTT' 4, - "fW"' fWVT -,HiJV rr" H - V"T The Commoner. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR VOL. 7, NO. 47 Lincoln, Nebraska, December 6, 1907 Whole Number 359 CONTENTS "A PATRIOTIC SYSTEM" MR. BRYAN AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL TOO MUCH FOR HORACE WHITE J. PIERPONT MORGAN IS A MAGNANI MOUS MAN ABOLISH THE STOCK EXCHANGE TICKER POOLING THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE GOOD WORK FOR THE "MILLION ARMY PLAN" WASHINGTON LETTER COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS HOMi3 DEPARTMENT WHETHER COMMON OR NOT NEWS OF THE WEEK ABOLISH THE GAME The Philadelphia North American says: "The institutions that are in trouble owe their troubles not to any incidents or accidents of legitimate banking, but to gambling. The dis closures of the last few months are not of new found evil practices. Wall Street assumes the virtuous pose of being shocked by the traction scandal and the use of a chain of banks as an adjunct of stock jobbing. These practices, known now by the public, have been known for years by Wall Street and by well-informed bank ers throughout the country. The cover is off now, or at least partly lifted. But the mal odorous mess that has long been stewing beneath is not of new mixing." ' Then why not a concerted, movement by men of all parties toward the abolition of this great gambling game that traffics in the prop erty of the people? oooo POOLING The National Industrial Traffic League com posed of the principal traffic managers of the country and representing 20,000 shippers, in session at Kansas City sent a message to Mr. Roosevelt protesting against his proposed amend ment to the interstate commerce commission act providing that railroads may enter into pooling arrangements. Mr. Roosevelt has in this plan the ardent support of the chairman of the interstate com merce commission who recently denounced the Sherman anti-trust law as a failure; but he will not have the support of shippers who are already inadequately protected. Mr. Roosevelt's pooling proposition is not consistent with his efforts to protect the public. OOOO IS IT ENCOURAGING? The Boston Herald professes tosee a hope ful sign in the fact that "the receipts of all the leading postoffices of the country continue at top notch." By "leading postoffices" we pre sume the. Herald means Boston, New York, Phil adelphia, Pittsburg, etc. But may It not be a sign that the eminent financiers of those cities are merely burdening the mails with letters ad dressed to wifely relatives in the rural districts and containing earnest appeals for some real money? OOOO THEN LET GO . "What we need now is not more gold but more confidence," says Mr. Vanderlip, a New York banker. Then let Mr. Vanderlip bend his energies toward breaking the New;York corner on currency. Uncle Sam "Well, Hint old fraudulent urguinent, 'panics don't come when republicans are in power,' is exploded nt last!" "A Patriotic System" The tariff was at first defended as a patri otic system, calculated to render the country independent in time of war. There is force In the argument when it Is presented In behalf of a country just entering upon national existence at least there is more force in such an argu ment when applied to a young nation than when applied to our nation today. Such an argu ment always implies that the protection Is tem porary; it is Intended to guard the Infant in dustry until it is able to stand upon its feet. It Is absurd to employ the argument to shield industries which are not only able to stand upon their own feet, but to walk over the feet of others. Even Henry Clay admitted the tem porary character of protection. He said in 1833: "The theory of protection supposes, too, that after a certain time the protected arts will have acquired such strength and perfection a3 will enable them subsequently, unaided, to stand against foreign competition." Seven years later Mr. Clay said: "No one, Mr. President, in the commencement of the pro tective policy, ever supposed that it was to be perpetual." , The same doctrine is set forth by Alexander Hamilton in his report. Ho declares: "The continuance of bounties on manufactures long established must always be a questionable policy, because a presumption would arise in every such case that thero were natural and Inherent Im pediments to success." Although the Industries of United States are no longer infants, and although the patriotic argument can no longer bo advanced in sup port of a tariff, the high duties still stand, and the beneficiaries of the tariff refuse to sur render the advantage which they havo secured. After the infant nation argument and tho Infant Industry argument were outgrown, the manufacturers put forward a new defense, name ly, that the tariff must be maintained as a per manent policy In order to cover the difference between the coBt of labor hero and abroad. Mr. McKInley In presenting tho bill which bore his name, said: "We havo recommended no duty above the point of difference between the normal cost of production hero, Including labor, and the cost of like production In the countries which seek our markets." This was the basis of the defenso for a number of years, and we heard many protesta tions of Interest In the laboring man from law makers who, instead of voting the aid directly to the wage-earner, voted it to employers, with out providing tho employes with any means of compelling a division. Men who would not trust their own children to deal fairly with their brothers and .sisters in the distribution of an estate have trusted manufacturers whom they . thrift f'W A , . -. j - .