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in the future,, as in the past, stand for the rights
of all men. The democratic party may well hopo -to
gain control of the federal government.
F. R. Day, Seattle, Wash. The "mystery" is'
summed up in five words: Prejudice, ignorance
(misunderstanding perhaps is a better word)
fear, Romanism, indifference. '
George M. Chase, Waterbury, Neb. Republi
cans won by making the independent voter be
lieve that hard times would follow a democratic
victory. For the future reformers must work
together. There surely is great hope for the
democratic party. See the way the republican
majority has been cut down in many of their
strong states.
John A. Currie, Marysville, Mich. I will say
that the democrats made big losses in this coun
ty; these were due to labor unions and temper
ance movement All .business men and men who
wish to build homes are robbed by union car
penters and union masons. All corporations
are against men who will uphold unions. A
labor union is a trust just as much as a sugar
trust, for it compels us to pay a poor work
man the same wages as the best workman. In '
hard times the laborers can be bought or coerced
with a promise of work or a threat of no work,
to vote against the man who tries to aid them.
The reformer in the future should let labor
unions work out their own ends. The repub
licans have done nothing to aid labor unions
and have succeeded admirably. The democratic
party can not hope to gain control of the federal
government as long as they uphold labor unions.
. Z. T. Pointer, Oskaloosa, la. The threat that
the election of Bryan meant disaster did the
business. The democratic party must educate
the people. But I think we can hardly expect
to ever gain control of the federal government.
David Goodell, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. This
is the explanation: $ Church, $state, $politics.
$1896,, $1900, $1908. This will continue as
long as God smiles on this country with big
crops, that sell big- in the Liverpool market,
giving us sl big balance to develop our unde
veloped resources. Horse sense, logic, argu
ment to the winds! Boiled down it is the $.
PJ. A.. McClernan, Stephen, Minn. My reason
for 'the recent defeat of the .democratic party
is' that 'all parties read and were influenced
byther rqpublican press; that the republican
PKess was o.wne ahd, directed by those who were
specially interested in the defeat of the demo
cratic party. My remedy for the present news-
paper evil is to pass laws which will compel all
daily newspapers to publish quarterly, yearly, or
other, statements in their papers, showing the
present ownership and all' transfers of stock.
J. L. King, Blco, 111. Reformers must all
enlist under the same banner and under the
same' leader and then they will win. If this
enlistment is .under the democratic banner it
will gain control of the federal government.
Berton C Howard, Morlow, N. H. Progres
sive, democrats should form a national fighting
organization similar in methods to that of the
socialist anctUe independence league. It seems
that a change of 70,000 votes in the right states
would have .elected Mr. Bryan. It is not at all
a hopeless task to get these 70,000.
Dr.. P. Ii. canlan, Prairie du Chien, Wis.
The needof literature, especially newspapers,
of the democratic principles are badly needed
here. One man who was bitterly opposed to
Mr. Bryan-, became an ardent advocate of his
election after taking The Commoner for a short
time. The. republicans put up no arguments.
They used all their efforts to discredit the hon
esty and judgment and ability of Bryan. They
flung the "bloody shirt," they preached pros
perity, threatened disaster in case of Bryan's
election, and made every appeal to prejudice
that you can imagine and followed up with
money. I fear the lack of confidence in Bryan
was the main cause of his defeat; however,
if he had made as many gains in other counties
as in ours he would have been elected, while
if he ,will note, the heavy losses he sustained
in our little city, he can easily see the cause of
his defeat. ' I look upon the present conditions
in this "county as favorable to success in the
democratic party in the near future. I can see
how new alignments are to be made. The old
conservative. ,element in the democratic party
must go into the republican and the progres
sives of all parties come to us. The west and
the sputh must unite against the east to check
the rule of. corporate greed. It must come by
just and honest laws, properly executed and to
bring about. these laws and see to their execu
tion, is the work of the future democratic party.
It may" be. possible to compel the adoption of
these laws- as. a. minority party, if we can, well
and good; but if return to power is needed, some
The Commoner.
nrynMaJrlty ' th VterS Wl11 8nd for tllO
i S We advocated and must advance in
oider to be worthy of the people's support.
d,W; E; Xlncent' Hutchinson, Kan. The peoplo
shied at the name "democratic" and feared the
result of the democratic administration. That's
m, e r-?10 from tho Omaha World-Herald,
The Battle That Is Ahead," copied in this
week s Commoner. But it is largely sentiment.
I do not undertake to dispute that "God is still
standing within the shadow, keeping watch
above His own." But the work of a few favored
predatory individuals with their millions of
wealth, is an almighty sight more discernible
to me. Not sentiment, but business wins In
politics. Not religion, but business. We often
heard it said that the church vote would elect
Bryan. It would too if he. had gotten it, but
the republican churchman on election day let
his idea of business mark his ballot. Also, It
is either hatred or ignorance that charges
Bryan's defeat to his weakness. The facts are
the reform forces are so evenly divided between
the two great parties, each refusing to "budge
an Inch" in favor of the other, that that party
wins to which predatory wealth throws its enor
mous influence. "What course shall reformers
adopt for the future?" If these two reform
forces, marching under different banners really
opposing each other, ought to bo united, it seems
to me the first question is, how unite? Reform
republicans have shown in this campaign they
will not come to us. Is it not good business,
reason and charity for us to go to them? I
believe that no condition more alarming to tho
Wall Street crowd and more pleasing and bene
ficial to tho great rank and file could be brought
about than the union of these elements of tho
twoVi great parties. Let the democratic party
dissolve and this condition will quckly be
brought about. The republican reform forces
need us for the great battle before them. To do
this, no democrat need surrender his democratic
principles.
Frank W. Ball, Grand Rapids, Mich, Talk
ing with the editor of one of the two weekly
democratic papers here, he said: "The business
men were against us, and we. never can win so
long as they are united on the other side," This
statement is almost literally true, and 'includes
a large majority of- the manufacturers, Mr.
Charles R. Sligh and Mr. George P, Hummer
being notable exceptions. There are, in my judg
ment, two reasons for this. . First, the tariff.
A leading hardware merchant said to me when
the McKinley tariff bill was passed: "The new
law has put $25,000 clean cash into our pockets,
through increase in the price of stock on hand.
Is there any reason why we should object?"
The ' repeal of that law would cause a corre
sponding loss in value of stock on hand, and
members of that hardware firm, old time demo
crats, vote the republican ticket through fear
of the loss to them which would follow tariff
reform. Millinery, dry goods, shoes, drugs, al
most all stores carry some line of goods in
stock that would drop in price in case of tariff
reductions, and if there would be any benefit
to make good the immediate loss the average
storekeeper fails to see It. Second, The banks
and their dislike of tho bank deposit guarantee
plan and their fear that a change in the ad
ministration would leave the banks a less fa
vored special privilege class than they have been.
The reach of the banks among the business men
and manufacturers is most powerful, because
they are borrowers, rather than depositors. The
banks have loaned to their customers, mostly of
these two classes, more than four times the total
amount of currency in the country, and most
of the successful business men and manufac
turers are today heavier borrowers than ever
before. Many of them are literally at the
mercy of the bankers. The people, too, are
more in debt than ever before. The amount of
house furnishings, apparel of every kind bought
on the "dollar a week" or some similar time
payment plan has increased prodigiously within
the last twelve years, and because of this debt
load many laborers were more afraid oZ being
laid off, in case of a democratic victory, than
they were in 1896, when they had nothing, to
be sure, but owed nothing. If the presidential
election were the whole thing. I believe you
would have been elected, but many voted the
other ticket fearing that you could accomplish
nothing with a congress whose majority leaders
would do all in their power to make your ad
ministration a failure, and this would mean two
or three years of uncertainty and this would
mean business depression. I told the editor
above mentioned that times would be worse
instead of better next year and after, and the
working men and farmers would then know
they had been bilked in tho prosperity promise
made and would bo snowed under at tho next
election. Tho republicans have had and now
have no program to Improve business condi
tions. The bankers, who were tho largest con
tributors to thoir campaign, will not permit any
effectivo remedy. Getting intorcst and rates
of interest are much higher than thoy wore
eight and twelve years agoon four times tho
total amount of currency in tho country Is too
soft a snap to let go of willingly. What tho
country most needs, it seems to mo, Is not, a
five to ton per cent emergency currency law,
which places it in tho power of tho banks to
put tho screws harder on their customers, and
gives the latter no show for relief, but a billion
or more of additional currency, and a postal
savings system, tho savings funds not to be
loaned to banks, but to anyone having satis
factory collateral, at three per cent interest. In
a contest along these linos, as I have previously
written you, I boliove there will be victory for.
the democrats.
George H. Leonhnrt, Warren, Pa. Tariff re
duction means death to any party. In New
York City I know from personal knowledge that
the head of every factory called his men to
gether and told them that they had orders con
tingent on Taft's election. I am not a believer
in high tariff and shall always vote against it,
but as long as you have the reduction of tariff
in your platform corporations will fight you and
laboring men dare not vote any other way.
Henry lieaton, Bolfleld, N. D. Fear of hard
times prevented a democratic landslide in the
western states. Lot democrats reform their
state government. Follow the lead of Oregon
and Oklahoma. If the democratic party as such
ever hopes to win it must conduct a campaign
of education as to the causes of the succession
of periods of falling and rising prices that have
succeeded each other since the world began.
The real causes of these periods must be made
so plain that no demagogue who has any re
gard for his reputation for intelligence will have
the. temerity to stand before an intelligent au
dience and repeat the well known misstatements
that' free trade has always caused hard times
and that the panic of '93 was caused by It.
Every student of economic science knows these
statements to be false, yet thoy have been boldly
repeated by republican speakers and writers,
from the presldent-elect'dbwn, for tho" past fif
teen years.
B. B. Swift, Kokomo, Ind. The democratic
party is on tho right road, and If it will organize
the young men and continue to preach tho true
democratic principles to the masses it can by
quiet and earnest effort, bring about a feeling
of independence and determination in the hearts
of the American people which can not bo
thwarted by the "scare crow" methods of the
republican calamity howler. Right must and
shall prevail; consequently the democratic party
may hope to gain control of the federal govern
ment and administer its affairs, not in the in
terest of the classes, but in tho Interest of all
the people.
Dr. George M. McWhorter, Rlverton, Ala.
Intimidation and bribery practiced by certain
Individuals at the head of great corporations,
Such methods are identical wjth the methods
of the night riders in the tobacco districts.
Democrats should endeavor to arouse the peo
ple to a sense of the danger that threatens them
at the hands of these respectable terrorists. Tho
democratic party can, by rising to the emergency
and appealing to the higher and better instincts
of the American people, hope to gain control of
the federal government.
D. B. Stewart, Anchor, 111. The banks of
the United States generally withdrew from cir
culation all moneys of the nation in the fall of
1907, thereby throwing out of employment mil
lions of the laboring classes, and rendering their
families destitute of food, clothing 'and the
comforts of life, and they were promised work
if Taft was elected and continued suffering if
Bryan was elected. A drowning man will grasp
a straw.
COMBINED!
Anxious Reader: Yes, Mr. Bryan was defeat
ed. It Is not known just how many votes Mr.
Taft received as a representative of eastern
conservatism and how many he 'received as the
representative ofJMr. Roosevelt's radicalism. If
these two votes were equally divided, Mr, Bryan
had about two million, more votes than either,
but Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt' combined had
about a million and a quarter more than Mr.
Bryan. '
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