The Commoner
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL. 8, NO. 12
Lincoln, Nebraska, April 3, 1908
Whole Number 376
CONTENTS
ALL GOVERNMENT AT WASHINGTON?
THE PEOPLE? PSHAW!
THE HANDFUL OP MEN WHO RULE
AMERICA
DEMOCRATS READY TO HELP IN ALL
GOOD MEASURES
ARE STATES TO BE STRIPPED OF THEIR
POWER?
DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTIONS
MILLION ARMY PLAN
WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
LIGHT, MR. PULITZER, LIGHT!
The New York World is calling for "pub
licity" with respect to Wall Street. It is sup
porting a resolution introduced in the New York
legislature providing for the investigation of
the stock gambling practices now countenanced
by the New York stock exchange.
A very good measuro, indeed; all of which
reminds us that democrats in all sections of the
country are calling for publicity with respect
to the motives of the New York World in na
tional politics.
But while finding time to attack democrats
who have criticised corporations such, for in
stance, as the steel trust, and who have insisted
upon railroad regulation, the World has not
found it convenient to tell its readers the ex
tent of its owner's financial interest in the
concerns that are to be regulated.
And this brings us again to the question,
"What is the extent of the financial interest
held by Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York
World, in railroad companies and in great cor
porations commonly known as trusts?"
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NO TIME FOR THE PEOPLE
It will be remembered that in March, 1907,
the democrats in the senate killed the ship sub
sidy bill, which had passed the house by repub
lican votes. Senator Carmack of Tennessee led
in the filibuster which resulted in the defeat of
this iniquitous measure. Now the republican
senate has passed a ship subsidy bill and the
measure goes to the house. It seems that the
republican party has ample time to pass meas
ures demanded by the financiers, such as the
Aldrich bill, and measures demanded by the
subsidy grabbers, such as the shipping bill. But
when the people demand tariff revision and
other important reforms they are expected to
be satisfied with the assurance that if they will
again trust the republican party with power they
may have such tariff revision as the "friends of
the tariff" think the people are entitled to
after the presidential election.
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WHY?
Senator Hopkins of Illinois is quoted as
saying: "There is no more reason that a man
should be guaranteed the return of his funds
placed in a national bank than a farmer should
be guaranteed his crop."
Why, then, does the government require
of national banks a guarantee for the return of
government funds?
T - i
"SEE, THE CONQUERING JIKHO COMICS!"
All Government at Washington?
In his first Inaugural address Jefferson set
forth what he deemed "the essential principles
of our government, and consequently those
which ought to shape its administration. " In
this statement of principles he presented his
views respecting the spheres of the general gov
ernment and the state government as follows:
"The support of the state governments in
oil' their rights, as the most competent admin
istrations for our domestic concerns and the
surest bulwarks against anti-republican ten
dencies; the preservation of the general govern
ment in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet anchor of our peace at homo and safety
abroad."
Jefferson placed his defense of the state
government upon two grounds; first, that it is
more competent to administer domestic con
cerns, and second, that it is a bulwark against
centralization. So tenacious was he about the
preservation of the state's influence that he in
sisted an amendment should be added at once
specifically asserting that "the powers not dele
gated to the United States by the constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved
to the states respectively or to the people."
Jefferson's part in the adoption of the ten
amendments is referred to In a letter which he
wrote in 1802, while he was president, to
Joseph Priestly. He says: "One passage in the
paper you enclose me must be corrected. It is
the following: 'And all say It was yourself
more than any other individual that planned and
established the constitution.' I was in Europe
when the constitution was planned, and never
saw it until after it was established. On receiv
ing it, I wrote strongly to Mr. Madison, urging
the want of provision for the freedom of re
ligion, freedom of the press, trial by jury, habeas
corpus, and substitution of militia for a stand
ing army, and an express reservation to tho
state of all rights not specifically granted to tho
union. He accordingly moved in tho first ses
sion of congress for these amendments, which
were agreed to and ratified by the states as they
now stand. This is all tho hand I had in what
related to the constitution."
The ten amendments cover many subjects,
but they all relate to two things, viz.: tho pro
tection of the individual and the assertion of
the doctrine of local self-government. Tho In
dividual was safe-guarded In his right to wor
ship God according to the dictates of his con
science, in his right to speak his rnlnd and to
put his thoughts on paper, in his right to as
semble and to petition, in his right to bear
arms, in his right to trial by jury, and in his
right to hold property, rio careful were those
who insisted upon these amendments that after
enumerating all the rights they could think of,
they added amendment nine as a precaution.
"The enumeration in the constitution of certain
rights shall not be construed to deny or dispar
age others retained by the people." Tho tenth
amendment carries the same doctrine a little
farther, and gives tho state the benefit of the
presumption as against the general government
where a power Is neither granted nor denied.
The reservation of power to the state Is all
the stronger because it is specifically set forth
in the amendment. Had the language of the
amendment been inserted in the constitution
Itself, It would not have shone out so boldly.
The constitution was ratified with the under
standing that the amendments would be added
at once, and they were in fact, submitted by the
first congress, and In a short time were ratified
by the necessary number of states. There can
be no doubt that those who lived at the time
of the adoption of the constitution favored the
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