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The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1
4
The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
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THE COMMONER, L'ncoln, Nob.
Volumo Eight, Number One.
ISlr. Tuft skated deftly all around the tariff
question while In Boston.
With this number Tho Commoner begins Its
eighth year, feeling very well, thank you.
Tho "million army" Is being recruited at a
rapid rate. Join and assist in tho work of organization.
Perhaps a doctor was put in command of a
naval ship so as to be handy in caso it was sud
denly afillcted with (hat sinking feeling.
Tho Roosovolt-Brownson affair does not
boost tho llobson $200,000,000 naval appropria
tion plan.
Next time tho "round robin" system will bo
used In disagreeing with tho president, prece
dent pointing tho way.
Another flvo to four decision of tho supremo
court, tho llvo bolng against tho best interests
of tho common people as usual.
A remarkablo thing happened recently at
Muncio, lnd. A mob was subjugated there with
out General Frederick Funston being called upon
to parade.
Political battles avo won by thorough organ
ization and woll defined plans. Now is tho time
to organize and perfect plans for tho triumph of
democratic principles.
Tho Now York World's "map" is not nearly
130 black as tho faco of the Now York World when
it contemplates tho possibility of a triumph of
gonulnoly democratic principles.
With tho postoillco department making laws
to suit itsolf, and tho supromo court declaring
unconstitutional the laws that tho people enact,
things seom to bo in a somewhat mixed condition.
And of courso some time in tho .future our
military and naval manouvors will havo to bo
postponed whilo tho surgical head of tho army
holds a consultation with tho surgical head of
tho navy.
Buffalo, N. Y., has a "Smilo club." Tho
K?n.iW J8.. n,ot oliSlbl membership in a
Smile Club during tho prevalence of tho kind
wm"w" u??ihQr ,wo 11!,lv. beo enjoying is
uuvu,w tu illvJ "lumuursuip in a "Urouch Club.
Washington Letter
Washington, D. C, January 13. The bitter
fight being made in Ohio upon Secretary Taft
as a republican nominee and the fact that both
Indiana and Illinois have their own favorite
sons with quite a possibility of New York pre
senting the name of its governor forward, puts
tho Taft candidacy in a very serious position.
Undoubtedly today he is the strongest man
whoso candidacy has been presented. That
means it is the Held against Taft. He has back
of him tho strength of the administration, of
course, but ho has the weakness as well. Most
recent successful candidates for presidency on
tho republican ticket have come in without any
record of their own or any record which they
had to father. Benjamin Harrison was elected
as a result of a revolt against Cleveland; Cleve
land was re-elected as a result of a revolt against
Harrison. McKinley was swept into office be
cause of the unpopularity which Cleveland had
built up, and for divers other reasons which
everybody knows. President Roosevelt with his
famous luck was elected by the greatest popular
majority known to American politics, and the
greatest electoral majority, though he polled
scarcely four hundred thousand more votes than
his predecessor, and ran behind the vote given
to Mr. Bryan in 1900. Thus it appears that
you can not always be sure that the nominee who
represents tho policies of an administration is
going to bo strengthened thereby. Politicians
in Washington think that Mr. Taft will suffer
if he appears openly as the residuary legatee
of the Roosevelt administration.
But it is worth while considering three
men, two of whom are national characters, one
a state figure. One of the most prominent finan
ciers of Washington said to me today: "Watch
out for a ticket made up of Cannon and Hughes.
Cannon is a national character. All his life
has been spent in public service. Ho has been
speaker for three terms. He represents the
revolt against the Roosevelt radicalism. He has
the best machine in the United States, for he
has every republican member of congress with
him. Hughes is strong in his own state, and
with the well-informed people of other states.
But ho is not known widely throughout the coun
try. Furthermore he knows little of national
affairs. If he should come here for a term as
vice president he would learn much about na
tional matters of which today he is ignorant.
Of course it is always possible that the president
may die, either by disease, accident or the act
of the assassin. We have had five such cases.
In that event what better man could there be
to succeed to the office than Governor Hughes
of Now York?"
Tho request made by attorneys for the
Seaboard Air Line railroad for a receivership is
a matter of national importance. "Of course the
railroad controls a limited territory, running
south from Washington to Tampa, Florida, with
branches that enable it to touch Savannah and
Charleston. It has 2,382 miles of road and a
funded debt of $G3,000,000. It is one of the
roads controlled by Thomas F. Ryan, the head
of the tobacco trust and the man who now holds
the interest in the Equitable Life Assurance
company which was formerly possessed by the
unlucky James Hazen Hyde. It is reported that
Mr. Ryan is going to turn his interest in this
railroad over to Edward H. Harriman a state
ment which recalls the phrase that the last state
of this corporation was worse that the first
Tho territory through which this railroad runs
is rich and prosperous. The business the road
has been doing has been so great that it was
hardly able to discharge it. But about a year
ago Mr. Ryan and some men of his type sought
to oust from any position of power or control
Mr. John Skelton Williams. Mr. Williams
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fought. He showed the meth'ods of which the
Ryan faction had been guilty. He proved to
the satisfaction at least of the investing public
that the Seaboard Air Line was being run for
the personal profit of Ryan.. His fight has now
resulted In throwing the road in the hands of a
receiver.
Of course nobody thinks this is going to
hurt Ryan, financially. Having milked this road
and ruined it, he will milk others. But politi
cally it should hurt him. The exposition of his
railroad methods in Virginia is likely to reflect
somewhat upon the various distinguished states
men from the Old Dominion who are his close
friends and earnest supporters. The record of!
Ryan as the wrecker of this railroad, and as the
head of the tobacco trust and as the new con
trolling, spirit in the Equitable Life Assurance
society, is hardly one that will add to the popu
larity of Virginians in the house or in the senate
who are known to be his close friends and
intimates.
Ohio is lost to the republican party. The
Ohio republican state committee has repudiated
Senators Foraker and Dick, and the Ohio sen
ators have in turn repudiated the republican
state committee. The factional fight in Ohio
has ceased to be a state quarrel. It is now a
national contest within the republican party.
Senator Foraker absolutely refuses to accept the
primary plan adopted by Taft's friends on the
state committee. Ho threatens a snap conven
tion and a contesting delegation if this plan is
adhered to. In any event the Ohio fight is sure
to be carried into the republican national con
vention, and it will disrupt things there much,
as it has disrupted things in the Buckeye state.
Of course a democrat cares little which re
publican dog eats the other in their Ohio quar
rel. The struggle is interesting to watch and the
longer it continues, the more certain it is that
the democrats will appropriate the real bone of
contention. The trouble is already past mend
ing, and those who can not even now appreciate
that Ohio is lost to the republican column will
have a rude awakening the day after the next
election. Ohio men in Washington and the
departments are full of them throw up their
hands in signs of distress and confess that who
ever may be nominated, their state is going to
be in the doubtful column for the first time in
twenty years. In the meantime the Foraker
and Taft factions are hard at it, like the alle
gorical Kilkenny cats who when their battle
was over, found that only the tails of each were
left.
President Roosevelt, who is influenced by
men close to him, yielded to the surgeon-general
and appointed a doctor to command a warship.
Admiral Brownson resigned. The admiral hos
been rebuked with very much the same vigorous
language that was applied to the retiring en
gineer of the Panama canal or to any other
man who has dared to affront the Roosevelt
imperialism.
Looking back upon the record of Mr. Roose
velt prior to the time he was president and
while he was assistant secretary of the navy,
one finds that he was always a sturdy supporter
of the line officers. His writings on naval sub
jects were as voluminous at that time as they
are today upon the joys of shooting bears, fawn
rabbits and other large game. In all his writ
ings on the navy he laid emphasis upon the part
to be played by the officers of the line and
ignored altogether this new idea that has come
to him that surgeons should be given command
of ships.
The controversy is an unfortunate one for
the navy. The Sixtieth congress was prepared
to increase the salaries of navy officers Such
an increase is justified by the needs of the
officers and is demanded for the good of the
service. But, as a member of the navy com
mittee of the house remarked today: "If the
president and the navy department, the chief
of the bureau of construction and the chief of
the bureau of navigation are all at swords points
each with a faction of the navy lined up in his
support, the best thing to do is to let it all co
over until another year."
Of course if the president is going to scold
every officer in the navy who disagrees with him
and if such officers are going to resign rather
than listen to the rebukes which he imposes,
we are not likely to have a very effective navy!
and it is not altogether certain that the fault will
be with the men who were educated at Anano
.lis and who have been bred on the sea. Some
day the story of what the navy thinks of Roose
velt may be told. It can not be told now while
he is commander-in-chief and criticism of hirn.
rebellion1, eaulvalent to subordination and
WILLIS J. ABBOT.
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