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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1908)
flP nT The Commoner. OCTOBER 2?,, 1903 3. Don't you think the republican party has been in power long enough? Don't you think there are enough suspicious looking circumstances about Panama Canal affairs to justify the people in calling "OPEN THE BOOKS" on that great job? The only way to get the books opened is to change administrations. t 'iii'ii .fwiwpMwiifmui "Well," said the questioner, "let mo assure you that you are gaining on it." And so, my friends, the trusts are gaining on the republican party. They aro winning faster than the republican party is. There is no hope of relief on the trust question from republican success. Why, my friends, Mr. Roosevelt has had seven years in which to carry out the policy of regulation; and there is a clause in the anti-trust law that provides a pen itentiary penalty for any man or set of men conspiring in restraint of trade. It is just as plain as the law against horso stealing and yet, while the law against horse stealing is enforced the criminal law against the trusts is not en forced; and after seven years the presidont can not show one single trust magnato put behind prison bars and if a strenuous man like the president, following their idea of regulation can not imprison one trust magnato in seven years "how long will it tako a man, an amiablo and complacent man like Mr. Taft, to got a trust magnate in the penitentiary? The democratic party says that no trust should be permitted to exist; that is that no corporation should be permitted to convert it self into a trust. The democratic party believes that God never made a human being good enough to be at the head of a private monopoly, and decide each day without appeal, what price he will charge for that which the people must have and which ho alone can furnish. The dem ocratic plan is to draw a line and say that be yond that point the corporations shall not go. Does that mean the extermination of business? No, it means the rovival of business. When they tell you that their trust fallacies will re store prosperity I remind you that it is under that very trust policy that we have come to the conditions that confront us. From one of, Mr. Bryan's speeches. 0 0 m ' . ; A MISQUOTATION From an obviously inspired Washing ton dispatch to the Tribune: "On October 14 the president an swered, stating that he had heard that Mr. Harriman did not think it wise to come, and continued: " 'If you think there is nothing spe cial I should be Informed about, or no matter in which I could give aid, why, of course, give up the visit for the time being, and then a few weeks hence, be fore I write my message, I shall get you to come down to discuss certain govern ment matters not connected with the campaign.' " Tut! tut! Keep the record straight. This is what the president wrote: "If you think there is any danger of your visit to mo causing trouble, or if you think there is nothing special," etc. What could have been Anybody's pur pose in cutting oft the first part of that sentence, and conveying a false impres sion by beginning. the second "if" with a capital "I?" Wisdom can not be sup planted by cunning while memories continue to be green. Harper's Weekly. VINDICATION OF BRYAN Mr. Bryan Is quite justified in the declara tion that he has outlinved the venomous attacks of his opponents. "Twelve years ago," ho said to an Iowa audience, "you heard me called a demagogue. You saw them bury me and you heard them chant songs over my grave, and now they have explained how It happened that I was not dead." "Demagogue" was among the least of the epithets applied to Mr. Bryan twelvo years ago. "Revolutionist," "socialist ' and "agitator" were common, and we all recall a cartoon in Harper's Weekly libeling him as an anarchist. Of course, much of that was ordinary campaign hyperbole, but there were thousands indeed, 'millions of men who reckoned Mr. Bryan as a political dreamer and somewhat of a fanatic, and the most tolerant and kindly of his critics rogardod him as dangerous In views and methods. The silver question was the great Issue then, and his doctrine was esteemed as financial revolu tion portending commercial ruin. Four years later, when ho was again nom inated, even many who agreed with his views opposed his selection and the policy of a second free silver pronouncement. The prevailing opinion of many democrats at that tlmo was that If he suffered defeat the second time he would go down to history ns a mero adventurer. His opponents in that contest denounced him as a rebel and a traitor because he resisted tho retention of tho Philippines. In 1904, when ho opposed Judge Parker, some of his former ardent supporters felt that ho was playing "dog in tho manger" with his party, and it seemed at St. Louis that ho was permanently rotlred as democratic leader. Notwithstanding all this, his third nomina tion was the mandate of the deliberate thought? of an overwhelming majority of tho party. And now, less than thirty days from the election, it is conceded by friends and foes allko that he ; is nearer to the White House than he over was ' before. This Is a remarkable circumstance. We need not go so far as to contend that events have vindicated every doctrine Mr. Bryan '. has advocated. It Is a disputed question whoth-" er the free coinage of silver was a wise pro- ' posal in 1896; whether the prosperity which followed that campaign was a rosult of tho in creased supply of gold, or whether like results would have followed the increased supply of silver on the quantitative theory of money. No' one will contend that Mr, Bryan's third nomin ation involves an indorsement of his Ideas of-" government ownership. Indeed, the Philippine issue may be dismissed, though- the republicans now talk of the ultimate independence of the island. It is not any single or particular idea that these twelve years have vindicated; it is the character, integrity, manhood, courage and patriotism of Mr. Bryan that have been vindi cated his zeal for the man above tho dollar, his devotion to the welfare and happiness of the masses, his opposition to tho privileges and tho power of the classes, his broad and deep human sympathy, his quick and unfailing cour age In speaking his convictions, his eminent ability in commanding public thought and the tremendous force of his mental and moral energies. He is no man's man. but all men's man. He Is no creature of circumstance, but the master of circumstance. He owes his distinction to no boss or class or faction, but to his own consci entious aspirations and sense of duty in spite of bosses and classes and faction. Occasion and opportunity have favored him at times, but more often he has driven through disasters and discouragements that would have appalled and overwhelmed any man lacking the resources of real greatness. The palpable drift toward him now, whiclT promises if not arrested to carry him safely to the presidency, is undoubtedly the momentum of an increased and Increasing esteem and con fidence composed of these elements. It is accel erated by a corresponding lack of confidence in Mr. Taft as his own master and in the repub lican party as a pledge of good faith. This is not to say that Mr. Taft is a man of no mind or purpose, but he has permitted him self to be obscured by the more pronounced per sonality of the president. He became a candi date, as we recall, at the president's behest; he entered the contest as the representative of the president's policies; his first utterances were scarcely more than echoes of the president, and during tho last two weeks the president ha3 be come his spokesman, has gone so far as to publish his private letter about Foraker without consulting him and has thought It necessary to reiterate the assurance that ho and he alone can save the republic by maintaining the Roose velt policies. John Alden did not plead half so eloquently in behalf of Mi'es Standish as' Mr. Roosevelt is pleading for Mr. Taft, but tho American voter, llko Prlscllla, Is not to bo won that way. "Why don't you speak for yourself. John," mlght.be said to Mr. Roosevelt if he had not put himsolf out of tho contest, but politico, llko lovo-innking, is unsatisfactory by proxy. Mr. Bryan is speaking for himsolf and fot his party, and tho pooplo aro moro and moro yielding to his argument and poraunsivo per sonality. It is a rcasonablo hope that his vin dication will bo complotod in tho November eloction. Fort Worth Record. 0 ' ; MOVING HEAVILY Following Is an oxtract from an edi torial that appeared In tho New York Evening Post of Friday, October 9: "Thoro aro many signs that tho Hughes campaign In this state and consequently tho Taft campaign is moving hoavily. Tho local bosses who wero compelled to take Hughes have not rocoverod from their soronoss and aro inclined to sulk. Nor have thoy tho money to subsidize the country weoIcJios, hire 'workers,' pay tho farmers or tholv 'time,' and get out tho vote. Tammany, on thoothor hand, is not ront by dlsson sions, and promises to roll up a henvy majority in Greater New York, in spito of any possiblo dofections to tho ranks of Hearst. Evidently, then, when Gov ernor Hughes finishes his engagements in tho west, there must bo a concentra tion of offort upon -this state. And al though Mr. Hughes alono is an offoctlvo campaigner, as ho has already shown, the' republican managers aro woll ad vised In supporting him with their best speakers; for if ho goes down in Now York, Mr. Taft Is pretty sure to go down with him." t ' - 0 0 0 0 0 , , , 0 0 HUGHES ANSWERS HUGHES Little Rock, Ark., October 13. To tho Editor of The Commoner: In his western crusade, Governor 0. E. Hughes of New York, indulged In hilarious ridi cule everywhere ho spoke of that plank in the Denver platform providing that legislation should bo enacted to prevent any corporation or combination in the form of a trust from controlling moro than fifty per cent of the output of any manufactured product. Ho held up his hands in assumed horror over the fact, as contended by him, that this would deprive many thousands of work in tho industries where thoy had been trained and turn them out on society without the means of making a living. Tho reading public Is familiar with his bois terous argument but I havo seen no where, either in speeches or in tho cur ront publications, any allusion to tho governor's amazing porsonal Inconsis tency. It was ho who prepared and used every power of his office to enact , into law the New York insurance statute providing that no life insurance company however great its accumulations or how- ever large its plan or however many with their families might be dependent there- on for a livelihood, should be allowed to 0 write more than one hundred and fifty millions of risks in any ono year. It may havo an acquired capacity to write three times that amount but it must stop and turn out to grass 'two-thirds of its era- ployes and dependencies. Tho parable 0 is perfect and might be commented on at length with profit as a test of the gov- ernor's sincerity. C. S. COLLINS. 0 0 0 0 , 1 i if SI It Bit ifrgjBJM iJ ijHiajfctoja