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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1909)
'-tQgpz- .," f"'' - i ' T vw The Commoner VOLUME 9, NUMBER It 6 ' . JSSSS" EDUCATIONAL SERIES ISSUED WEEKLY. v : ' srf ,f i ,-" k titmKm WII.UAM J. WtYAM ClMlUJM W, BllTAH Killtor and Proprietor. IMibllrtier. KioiARD L. Mxtcamtcc Editorial noomn ami Buslnew AttacMo Editor. Onlco lh-H0 Fouth 12th Streot FntrifO lit tlie Pcston cc At Lincoln, Neb., if tccond-cJan matter (j,lf Yrnr SI.OO Ilireo Moiilli- - 3a fclx Montlm .... -0 Slnirlo Copy Ji Clul cl Five or more. EnmpJ( Cojiirp Free. rrT(x .... .7 ForclKnl'oMo:et.2Contf Extra fiUIlSOHll'TIONS can bo ucnt direct to Tho Com monor. They can eIbo bo Bont through newspapers wlilch havo advcrtlicd a clubbing rato. or througii local agontB, whoro nub-agontn "ftvo been appoint ed. All remittances should bo sent by posto mc money order, express ordor, or by bank arart on Now York or Chlcacro. Do not send IndlvlduaJ chocks, stamps or money. niSCONTINUANCICS It Is found that a ,ar' majority of our subscribers prefer not to naya their subscriptions interrupted and their nioi broken In caso thoy fall to remit before expiration It Is therefore assumed that continuance Is desired unless subscribers order discontinuance, eitner whon subscribing or at any time during the year. Presentation Copies: Many persona subscrlbo ror frlonds, Intending that tho paper shall stop at tho end of tho yuar. If Instructions aro given to that fleet thoy will recolvo attontlon at tho proper tlmo. URN raw A l,S Tho date on your wrapper "bows tho time to which your subscription Is paid. Thus January 31, 08. means that payment has been re ceived to and including tho last Isnuo of January, 1908. Two weeks aro required after monoy has been received boforo tho dato on wrappor can d changed. CHANG ID OF ADDRESS Subscribers requesting 'a chango of address must glvo OLD as well as NEW address. ADVERTISING Ratos furnished upon applica tlon. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb. It Beems that tho now Philippine tariff has the approval of. everybody Bave the Filipinos. Thero are a lot of people vho will he sur prised to learn that lemons havo not been "on -the free list. ' Among other by-products of tho Standard Oil trust may bo mentioned a few representatives and Nelson W. Aldrich. After all, isn't it rather restful to have an opportunity to decide a, few unimportant things without executive advice? - Tho great trouble with tho enhanced price of flour is that it will be so long up after the price of wheat takes a tumble. Whon Rhode Island adopts tho Oregon plan of electing Unitod States senators the Aldrich tail will cease to wag the Uncle Sam dog. No one need call tho attention of the wheat raisers to the fact that the record-breaking price did not arrive until after thoy had sold their wheat. It has been close upon sixty days since the Ananias . Club was recruited by the addition of a member recommended by the nation's chief executive. Republican congressmen who vote for in creased tariff taxes after promising revision downward should take good care that hides are well protected. v,That Ffencl rePrtor will havo to have some thing better than an ex-president's endorsement boforo ho can pass the inner guard qt the Ananias Club temple. , Denial is made that tho oil schedule in the v new tariff bill was aimed to benefit tho Standard Oil trust. Had the truth been admitted the shock would have been fatal. , Lincoln (Nebr.) Wagoworker suggests that in the event Mr. Carnegie is determined to pension somebody he might look np the widows of the men who wero slaughtered in his steel mills. The judge who decided that a twoWtf faVe did not furnish adequate return on the-' invest ment of tho Missouri railroads -should" ' take tho people into his confidence faid'tell'them just how he arrived at tho amount ofsaid investment THE REFORM IN MAINE (By Roland T. Patten, of Skowhegan, Secretary of tho Maine Referendum League.) Maine, has the initiative and referendum as a part of her constitution, and in a form per haps tho best, thanks, to our good friends in other states, that has over yet become law. How did it come about? Well, chiefly because the trend of things is all that way. Our little de tachment of workers, presenting a solid front of six bayonets, as remarked by a friend of the cause, hastened things somewhat and helped to see to it that the statute had some business in it was the real thing; but in my opinion it would have to come to pass within a few years just tho same if the initiative and referendum league of Maine had never existed. I would not advise neglecting organization, but don't let any association or Individual sacrifice anything of the good effect of their work by pride in the opinion that they have given the car of progress a great big boost, when, as a matter of fact, they have only discovered that it was moving and helped it along a bit. When I reflect how tho trend toward direct legislation has come, the change in the last ten years, I am really astounded. About 1894 I heard something of the idea as made use of in Switzerland. I had been a believer Jn munici pal ownership and was losing courage on that line, discovering that, under irresponsible rep resentative government, it didn't so much mat ter whether things were publicly owned or pri vately owned, as the ringsters and bosses got all there was in it anyway. Now this breath from Switzerland was just what I was looking for. If the people could only have the say, something might be hoped for from the public ownership of public utilities. Of course, I after wards discovered that direct legislation was much broader than the idea that led me to it. I havo since come to know that others were traveling the same road that I was, and coming to just about the same conclusion, but at the time I knew nothing of them. I wanted the initiative and referendum bad. I was impatient and in no mood for delays. Used to the wiles of practical politics, a county official and a member of the inner ring of the dominant party in my section the first thing I did was to go to the county boss and offer him a' plank to be presented at the county con vention, then about to assemble. I don't think he had ever heard of the Initiative and referen dum, but he knew right away it was a thing he didn't want. It made him a little out of humor even to have such an idea suggested. He turned it down, flat. It was of no use at that tim.e to try to get anything through thp county conven tion that the boss didn't approve of, and I didn't try. But the thing went comparatively easy after all. Every convention after that that I could get at had to wrestle with the question, and in 1902 the democratic state convention at Bangor adopted the plank just as I wrote it. Right away after that I commenced to hear of others who were on the same track. Pretty soon the Initiative and Referendum League of Maine was formed, the Maine State Federation of Labor and the Maine State Grange, became interested, and in 1906 we succeeded in getting a plank favoring our measure adopted at the state convention of every one of the four po litical parties of this state. I should also men tion in passing that in the legislature elected In 1904 we made a very good bid for success. The same gentleman who, as boss of Somerset county in the nineties, had turned the measure down, was then president of the Maine senate, and he left the chair to vote in lavor of the bill making it a tie vote in his branch of the legis lature. Thus do things change. Well, the direct legislation crowd knocked at the door of the seventy-third legislature, early in the session, with those four planks, from tho four state platforms, adopted by the four Maine parties in the preceding campaign. Then the real battle came on. The banks, the timber land owners, the railroads, and the allied in terests had a splendidly equipped lobby, and about every gun was turned on our measure Wo were a good deal troubled, but fortune favored us and the "Interests" got to scrapping among themselves.' Portland wanted the seat of government transferred to her precinct from Augusta, and Maine became a great warrine camp in which ever?, man was taggddas "for removal" (of the capital to Portland) or against it. From our standpoint this was a "good thing." We lost no opportunity to "push it along." None of us cared about the location of the capital. They might have located it on an island, off the coast or on the Canadian border, for all wo cared. Any old place was good enough for us to have the laws made, provided the people could have a chance to revise them under the initiative and referendum. All we wanted was a good sharp fight, and the ma terial was all there for it, in this capital re moval business. We also gave judicious en couragement to a few other minor legislative contests and we soon found that we could force a vote on our measure before the capital re moval bill came to a vote, one side being so greedy to get, and the other to retain, the seat of government, that neither dared be found opposing a measure that they knew was so uni versally demanded as the initiative and referen dum. Our bill, to refer it to the people in the form of a constitutional amendment, passed both. branches without a single dissenting vote. This was in the winter of 1907, and the amendment was voted on at the election of Sep tember, 1908. It was adopted by a vote of about two to one. There was a steady campaign against it all the time and the mails were filled with opposition literature, just before election day, but it was of no use.- Another legislature is now in session. We have the pleasure of knowing that, if they do anything very rank, we can call the law out and have the people vote on it. It is too early in the session to prophesy what use, if any, will le made of this privilege. We do not anticipate that the occa sions will be frequent that it will be demanded. But it is there, ready for use, and Maine has what she soon hopes, to see all her sister states attain, but what she had never before' enjoyed, the governmental machinery under, which the people can rule. IT IS COMING We favor an income tax as part of our revenue system and we urge the submis sion of a' constitutional amendment spe cifically authorizing congress to levy and collect a tax upon individual and corpor ate incomes to the end that wealth may bear its proportionate share of the bur dens of the federal government. (In come tax plank Democratic National Platform 1908.) . . In the campaign of 1908 the democrats de manded an income tax and favored a constitu tional amendment as the means of securing it. Now the , republicans are considering the ques tion, although they refused to include it in their platform. KINDLY EYES If you look on the world with kindly eyes You will see nothing in it to despise, In all that hitherto seemed low and mean You will see virtues heretofore unseen And all the beauties of the world will grow More beautiful than those you used to know. The faujts of others you can then condone, Because they aTo so like unto your own, For others' actions you excuse can find As if they were your own you had in mind. No harsh misjudgment will you then express, Thus advertising your own littleness; No hasty criticism will you make; Which, though half founded, might cause hearts to acho. But, loving all your world and by your world Beloved, forgiving and forgiven, furled Safe in dear hearts all that will be your prize If you look on the world with kindly eyes. t v Kansas City Times. i'SaiI&f0Dp,sed Uie' guaranty flaw in Nebraska during the campaign the -republican leaders in that state are now declaring that- the new law Ms not nearly igood-Jas-theoffe they wanted. m l. - T. v H. .. , "-"-il- '-".xJi jktf&HfM