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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1908)
IMfSUiA S ' .VOLUME 8, NUMBER ! la I: , v. 4 n fow hundred thousand by giving it a perpetual flinch bo In Dlaco of a hundred year franchise, Sh cl it then had. And in his testimony before U o co.nmittee-ho being then secretary o war lie urged the passage of a bill which author ized the Philippine commission to give to rail roads a perpetual guarantee of income. A per notual franchise? And a perpetual guarantee of fncome? Remember that the Filipinos are our wards and that we are their guardians. Now, J guardian must ho very careful about what he does for his ward, for he acts under restrictions that he does not feel when he acts for himself. If Secretary Taft would bind the Filipinos for ever by a perpetual franchise and by a perpetual guarantee of income to railway corporations, what would ho do to the people of this country? Does Socretary Taft favor the national incor poration of railroads, as suggested by tho presi dent? Would ho favor a law withdrawing from tho states their control over railways and vest ing exclusive control in the federal government? And if ho favors national incorporation, would ho bo in favor of giving tho railroads a perpetual franchlso and a perpetual guarantee of income? If not, will he explain why he will bo more un just to tho Filipinos than to the people of his own country? How long is eternity? How long would one of Secretary -.tatt's perpetual franchises run? "When I was a boy, they tried to explain the length of eternity by telling me that if a bird carried a grain ojt Band from the earth to the farthest star, occupying a million years in the flight,' and then camo back for another grain, and continued until every grain of sand had been carried from tho earth to the star; and that if It finding then it had made a mistake, pro ceeded to carry the sand back, a grain at a time, it would out be sun-up in eternity when the little bird would get through with its task. And yet if Secretary Taft were in authority and gave one of his perpetual franchises, with a guaran tee of income, when tho bird began, the fran chise would still be in good health and drawing its annual income from the people when the bird got through. "What chance of reform is there at the hands of republican leaders who take the side ot corporations against the people and act upon tho theory that Inducements must be held out to capital, no matter how great the burdens imposed upon tho producers of wealth? There is no doubt that tho masses of people, republi can and democratic, are in -favor of reform, If wo can only convince tho voters that the demo cratic party will bo true to reform, victory is assured; and the only way in which we can convince tho public that we honestly desire to administer the government in behalf of the peo ple, is to give them an honest platform, employ honest argumentsj and conduct a campaign by honest methods and through an honest organ-zatlon. ' '. 'r'"' ' t t St t Washington Letter, i Washington, D. C, April 6. When the president sent his latest and most conciliatory messago to congress he carefully ignored one topic, namely, tho national publicity bill and ho urged tho creation of a tariff commission wheh would make its report after tho coming election. These two facts taken in conjunction mean much politically. A tariff commission like tho bureau of corporations which Mr. Cortelyou managed some years ago, will have much power to influence and oven to compol campaign contri butions. If tho publicity bill by which such con- ' trlbutions must be made public is set aside the one protection against tho contributions of the protected manufacturers is lost. It may be an unfortunate coincidence that President Roosevelt should at the same time haVe pressed tho ono and forgotten tho other But here In Washington thd feeling is that in tho last days of his administration he has be- come desperate and turns to either side, or ac cepts every expedient for tho purpose of not . being dismissed from office discredited and with his policies abandoned. Ho has said to a republican senator within twenty-four hours of this moment of writing that ho will not under any circumstances re- woiuui mu lurmur ueciaratlon ntrnlnnt v.ic The Commoner assert with any degree of confidence. But as it stands now the White House is In a condition of panic. It believes that even if Secretary Taft should be nominated he can not be elected, and it has come belatedly to the conclusion that should the hoped for stamped to Roosevelt be accomplished he himself would prove a weak candidate. Nor will his toga, falling on tho shoulders of Taft, confer any very great dignity or strength upon him. Taft puffers more than he profits by the attempt of the administration to force him upon an unwilling electorate. When John Sharp Williams, leader of the house democrats, declared that if President Roosevelt would deliver twenty-nine votes out, of the overwhelming republican majority in be half of the measures for which he (Roosevelt) stood, namely, the employers' liability bill, the revision of the law respecting the use of injunc tions, the revision downward of tho duty on wood pulp, the democrats would give a solid delegation in support of the same measures, he spoke quite within the facts. It seemed to be the policy of the republican party to permit Mr. Roosevelt to appeal to the country on issues that are commended heartily by the democratic members of congress, and to get no action upon them. The president breaks into the news papers with magniloquent messages concerning perfectly proper reforms and after having been heard in silence by the republican side of the house and the senate they are pigeon-holed and the recommendations never re-appear. But be fore being pigeon-holed, they have been given the widest of all possible publicity and the country as a whole believes that the republican party is struggling to effect these reforms, whereas as a matter of fact the republican party, so far as it is represented at either end of the capitol, is struggling to prevent any reform or any positive action. Whether Mr. Roosevelt Is a party to this can only be determined as the latter days of the Sixtieth congress come on. If he really wants legislation on the things about which he has been preaching so loudly and so well, he should have power to get it. Theoreti cally both the house and senate follow his lead. If they do, it is a most extraordinary thing that no recommendation made by him in any of the messages he has sent to the Sixtieth 'congress has yet been put into the form of an enacted bill and presented to him for signature. People are beginning to wonder whether after all the big stick was not a boomerang. The democratic congressional committee, under the leadership of Rep. James T. Lloyd of Missouri has begun already a magnificent fight for the control of the next house. Moreover this congressional committee is so closely in touch with those democrats who believe that Mr. Bryan will be nominated that another na tional committee, in the event of that nomina tion, is likely to be at least friendly with the congressional committee. In three campaigns there has been a tendency for the national com mittee to antagonize the congressional commit tee. This year there is the inclination to put the two committees into a position of perfect harmony and of complete co-operation. Of course it is too early to say who Is fo be the chairman' of the national committee, but Chair man Lloyd of the congressional committee is not merely willing, but eager to effect the most through co-operation between tho two. WILLIS J. ABBOT. THE FOLLY OP THE BLIND The following editorial is taken from the Omaha World-Herald: The palm for enlightened ignorance will have to be accorded the newspapers of the At lantic seaboard which think they are making a great fight to defeat Bryan's nomination In a single article in the New York Herald it 'is easy to see first, how astounding is the extent of their misinformation, and second how worse than in-' effective are their methods, t First as to ignorance. We quote from the Herald's elaborate political article of March 30 "It had been expected that the Johnson boom in the northwest would prevent the South Dakota state convention from instructing for i V 1 " wuvwuuon met last week and although there was a strong movement for John son the Bryan men were in control and the con- y,entlTnx. Passed resolutions of instructions for tho Nebraskan." The South Dakota convention na n ,,. ?f ?J' 55?, n ?eei? held tt win be held April wSomtaatton. It bo han nensS tffiSL 8 h K I?11 Lnly . send a Bryan aegat'ion tlon comes to me in a way that nml E, JilV;? Dakta convention -assured that. the president said It-wheher h a " tZTt "nslructed 'op Bryan. wll adhere to it, nobody who knows him can Again we, quote, from the snm nrHiA. Iowa endorsed Bryan but did not instruct for him. The action of Iowa. in indorsing in. stead of instructing leaves the opposition with the hope that if they can make headway and show the unavailability of Bryan they may get Iowa's twenty-six votes around to their side id Denver." We. quote now from the Iowa platform: "We hereby Instruct the delegates from Iowa to the national convention at Denver to vote as a unit on all questions coming before the said convention, and to support for president of the United States, first, last and all the time, that typical citizen, exalted "patriot and incor ruptible democrat, William Jennings Bryan." Comment would be wasteful and ridiculous excess. Another quotation from this article in the Herald will show the suicidal "arguments" to which the Bryan opposition resort In the effort to weaken him: "If President Roosevelt should be the can didate there will he a terrific fight in Denver) to prevent the nomination of Bryan and to geti some new blood into the democratic party. The financiers, it is argued, would go to the support! of a conservative democratic ticket. They would like to see it composed of Gray and Johnson or, Johnson and Harmon. On the other hand, shojuld Secretary Taft be nominated at Chicago the opposition to Bryan would not be so aggres slve and would he willing to have Taft in tho presidential chair, believing him to be conserve tive enough to suit the interests of business." Now, what does this show? Simply that the fight against Bryan is al fight of the "financiers;" that "the financiers" are anxious to see either Gray or Johnson nom inated by the democrats if Roosevelt Is nomin ated at Chicago; that, if Taft is nominated, hfl would satisfy these "financiers," because they, believe him safe and "conservative," and that th'ey would lose interest in the Denver conven tion, meaning to support Taft for the election" in any event. Does the Herald think, do the short-sighted enemies of Mr. Bryan think, that the people are going to fall over themselves to nominate and elect the candidate "the financiers" are behind?i "The financiers'' and their newspapers only, think they are fighting and injuring Bryan. Tho real fact is they are boosting him by opposing him. They are doing more, by their malignant enmity, to win him the confidence and good-will of the people than all his friends are able to do for him. Omaha World-Herald. fr trt i&N w HABMONY The proceedings of every southern republic can convention held so far have been marked with dissentions so serious as to almost reach' proportions of Tiot. The Tennessee republican convention was particularly disorderly. The New; York Evening Post prints this Interesting story:! "Those who accuse "the newspapers of in variably affecting omniscience must be confound ed by the frank admission of the Tennessee press that it knows no more than any one else what happened at last week's republican con vention. 'What was done by either side was practically impossible to follow,' says the Mem phis Commercial-Appeal. ''What either faction did in the. first hour of the dual convention agrees the Nashville American, 'will ever be shrouded in mystery.' The only fact which ap pears clearly is that the trainload of moun taineers which W. I. Oliver brought from tire three congressional districts on the east stormed and captured the convention hall with out waiting for breakfast. The next phase was a fight to see which faction should hold & con vention. This ended in n. tfimnnrarv nrmnire- ment by which both factions held conventions at once, superposed, as it were, with one chair man,. Newell Sanders, on the regular" rostrum, and another, W. S. Davis, astride a bronze eagle on top of a twelve-foot sounding-board behind him. The incident of the first period which, interests us most is thus reported T)y the Commercial-Appeal: 'In the struggle the chairman! lost his coat entirely and his, shtrt was torn into ( shreds. At the height of the tempest, the chair man, during a moment's stay on the platform, seized a 'reporter by the,' hand, exclaiming - huskily'My name is Sanders. You see I am at my post of duty." ' After perusing the saga of the double convention, we tire quite unable to read with any emotion the account of the next" day's gathering in which. Vhe seceding faction met in a. calm and orderly assemblage to endorse Taft and Henry Clay Evans for president and vice president." o . .u .