VOLUME 8, NUMBER 7,
6
The Commoner
The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
Wll.MAM J. HllYAM
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THE COMMONER, L'ncoln, Neb.
In tlio cjiho of Mr. Charles W. Morse wo
do not envy the Ico man.
"We will have tariff revision after 1908,"
romarkB Mr. Sorcno Payne, with great accent
on the "after."
Worklngmen in jail for contempt the
Standard Oil fine still considered a joke at No.
20 Broadway.
Laboring men are still sent to jail for con
tempt, while trust magnates are merely fined
for violating the law.
Congress costs $lGu a minute, and the
mom hers seem to bo satisfied that they are get
ting their money's worth.
Senator Foraker's Brownvlllo supporters
Boom to havo failed in their efforts to reach
Ohio In tlmo for the primaries.
I he tariff protected trusts that sell abroad
cheaper than at homo are tho foremost promo
tors of tho "home market" idea.
King lOdward's speech was disposed of in
?hmf.n.,nnnutC?- Thor? uro some God features
about a limited monarchy after all.
"Theories About Jonah" is the caption of
an editorial in an esteemed contemporary But
It was a condition, not a theory, that confronted
New fork's exhibition of pampered canine
o?wnv in"Cinoro entertaining than a show
would bo B m0U' WOn,on Und chil(lro
Immediately after the first ballot at the
Chicago convention tho Indiana delegation win
The Massachusetts hen that laid an egg con
taining a silver quarter is in danger o 'i,
reprimanded for rebating, i ' t ,
"reprimanded." sa
Another eminent "defender of rhn ,,nn i
honor" is now engaged in a tuLel J ?iV inl
sheriff and a bunch of legal wits i i ,tll,
continue to fall. b s IllG i(lols
Ex-Governor Pennypackor wnnui ,?, ii,
501 after .ho port pnragf'Srs Mo cm, 1 f
;jf..th.hrr2Pfi.r..h.0. " when l.o triod'o
after tho cartoonists.
ied to got
Washington Letter
Washington, D. C, February 24. In the
course of the debate upon the Aldrich cur
rency bill it has become apparent that the demo
crats in tho senate are not likely to make more
than an oratorical fight against it. It is un
questionably truo that the democratic minority
in tho senate is opposed to the measure. For
example on Friday Senator Clay, in debating it,
called attention to tho fact that it greatly en
larged the powers of the national banks, and
that congress was giving up through it the
right to issue and circulate money. Mr. Clay
called attention to the more than $550,000,000
of treasury notes in circulation, not costing
tho government anything, but performing all the
functions of money. He asserted that this
amount could easily be increased $500,000,000
more without disturbing finances and without
resulting in a depreciated currency. Pie further
contended that the Aldrich bill would add great
ly to tho strength of the speculative banks of
Now York because most of the states, municipal
and railroad bonds are held by the New York
banks. Continuing he said: "If the Aldrich
bill becomes a law the government guarantees
the redemption in gold of the additional notes
issued by tho national banks, and would not
this bo as great a strain on the gold reserve as
treasury notes?"
if anybody can explain why it is that a
national bank note, guaranteed by the govern
ment, is better than a straight out and out
treasury note or greenback issued by the gov
ernment without any intermediary, we would be
glad to print tho explanation in this column.
If anybody can make it clear why the gov
ernment is acting rightfully in guaranteeing the
notes of national banks, and would be asked
to do something outside of its functions in
guaranteeing the deposits of the people who
put 'the money into the banks and make them
rich and solvent again, we would be glad to
havo the explanation made and to give it
publicity.
The speech of former Governor Black of
Now York delivered before the Home Market
club at Boston, Thursday night has attracted
much attention in Washington. People here
remember that it was Black who put President
Roosevelt in nomination at the republican na
tional convention in 1904. Now he denounces
Mr. Roosevelt with a wealth of metaphor and
of epigrams that can hardly be paralleled by
any other political orator in this country. Here
are a few of his caustic references to the pres
ent administration:
"She (tho republican party) resumed her
industrious career at the beginning of McKin
ley's administration and followed it incessantly
until the culmination last October of those
dangerous, socialistic, un-American doctrines
which took away her courage and started her
upon a course of wandering and hesitation."
"Wo have seen within the last few years
the gradual obliteration of the republican idea.
Tho protection of American industries, the
equality of American citizenship, the inde
pendence of tho courts, the fixed and salutary
boundaries of co-ordinate functions, the guar
antee of fair play, the scrupulous regard for
the limitations of official power all these
which have been the blood and spirit of the
republican party are staggering under blows in
flicted in the party name."
"The occurrences of the last few years
point too plainly toward a national crisis Re
spect for the old and established is givin'g wv
1 . TS11 af fr UlQ new aml ePorimenTaiy
The decisions of our highest courts are
criticised by men who never studied law and
by lawyers who never tried a case. Policies
consist now of a series of antics. NearlJ
everybody is accused, but few are tried
If those accused are innocent, the oft repeated
accusation is a wicked slander Tf Vw
guilty their immunity is a nXnal dll"0
PC
away, and thei-e along tie bJntaip ? lapaed
with their fires out and tul .? il "e. "aces
workmen sleeping in the en Z, fSlth
vius still continues active. The torrenfnlf"
peration is still tearinc on on t0,rrent of vit
stricken is nil ng tho Sd wni C1T f the
again while these5 eruptions iast-'" 1UGU bUiW
and now, but what the general tone of it was
may be fairly judged by its last paragraph which
runs in this wise:
"It will be a sad day for the American
people if they discard the words, 'In God Wo
Trust,' and adopt the motto, 'After Me the
Deluge.' "
Any intelligent reader of this article knows
to whom Governor Black referred, and it might
be well for him, so knowing, to recall the fact
that it was Governor Black of New York who
placed Mr. Roosevelt in nomination at the last
republican convention.
Democrats can not do better than to keep
their eyes fixed on the state of Ohio. The bit
terness of the republican fight there exceeds
everything known in the history of political
feuds. This is not mere speculation, nor is it
mere prophesy. Already one representative in
congress, Hon. D. G. Dawes, has been forced out
of public life, whether permanently or not, is yet
to be determined. Mr. Dawes served in tho
Fifty-ninth and is now serving in the Sixtieth
congress. Under the pressure of the big stick
and the spear that knows no brother he threw
his influence to the candidacy of Secretary Taft.
As a result Mr. Dawes has not been renomin
ated. When the president and the Taft faction
went out after the scalp of Foraker the friends
of Foraker naturally went back after some
scalps of their own. The first statesman to be
deprived of his plumes was Mr. Dawes. Of
course another republican candidate was nom
inated, but a district which in 1904 was only
five hundred and thirty-two to the good, and
in 1906 only a little over a thousand for the
republican nominee, can't stand much factional
strife. A change of a very few hundred votes
will be sufficient to make it democratic. And
there are other congressional districts in Ohio,
to which the democracy may look forward with
some confidence of victory. The Second dis
trict has less than two thousand republican
plurality; the Third 1,730; the Eleventh 1,333;
the Thirteenth 273. The transfer in any one
of these districts of a very few hundred votes
would mean the election of a democrat. Today
there are five democrats from Ohio in the house
of representatives and sixteen republicans.
Shrewd politicians from Ohio and Washington
are prophesying that the next delegation will
be twelve democrats and nine republicans. If
it occurs, this will be the result of the effort
of the White House faction to eliminate Foraker
and Dick from politics and to control the state
by the unblushing and unbridled use of federal
patronage. WILLIS J. ABBOT.
HITCHCOCK PRODUCES THE RECORD
(Continued from Page 5)
Mr. Hitchcock: Now I desire to refer to
the state from which my distinguished inter
locutor (Mr. Keifer) comes. Ohio is put in the
republican column, as beyond all doubt, by Gen
eral Grosvenor, and put there as more possible
for Bryan than for any other candidate. Yet
what are the facts? They are that Bryan polled
more votes in Ohio than any other democratic
candidate before or since. (Applause on demo
cratic side.) Does that look as though Bryanism
is a bane on the democracy of Ohio? Or may
that great Bryan strength in Ohio possibly af
ford a suggestion of the motive for the dis
interested non-partisan advice of General Gros
venor and other eminent republicans and as
sistant republicans who have advised the demo
crats not to nominate Bryan? (Applause on the
democratic side.) Bryan polled 130,000 more
votes in Ohio In 1900 in a campaign against
Ohios favorite son, who was then president of
the United States he polled 130,000 more votes
than Parker did four years later without an
Ohio candidate against him. Does that show
Bryan weak or strong in Ohio? And when wo
come finally to the state of New York, from
wh ch Judge Parker hails, we find that Bryan
polled substantially in 1900 as many votes as
Parker did in 1904, and that the majority
aga nst Bryan in that state was not so great as
against Parker by some 32,000 votes.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I rarely make a politi
cal speech, and I have only been moved to do it
on this occasion because there has seemed to
J 2 a 8y8.tematlc conspiracy in high places,
J?nS Publicans and assistant republicans,
posing sometimes as the friends of the demo
fnSti ? y' misrePrcsent and distort the
S tim Xnn aVe?br0ught here some of the figures
domnnclH.nmi)lSn.S 2 our rece,lt experience to
the Zt n? ha Bryanism ther than being
at nro?ont nninemOCratlG mvi ls lts strength
at piesent and its hope of tho future (Great
applause on the democratic side.)
iaH