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The Commoner.
, .VOLUME., NUMDEn 38
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The Commoner.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
revenue principle instead of the protection
principle.
One idea looks to spasmodic, fitful, uncertain
and unequal disturbance of the great producing
interests, which far outweigh the manufacturing
interests, and the other looks to orderly, con
sistent, certain and equal treatment of both the
producing and the manufacturing interests.
The senator's analysis of platform obligations
is complete, masterful and illuminating. A plat
form demand which clashes with a constituency's
demand precipitates a conflict which the con
scientious statesman must determine upon his
own judgment under his oath of office, and as
a representative of the people he muBt appeal
to them for vindication and final decision.
Mr. Bryan pitched the contest upon a broad
and impersonal issue entirely above any local
or factional interest. Mr. Bailey takes the same
high ground. Thud the debate rises to the dig
nity of real statesmanship and involves the
fundamental principles of political economy with
respect to democratic taTlff policy. The more tho
question is studied the wider it reaches. This
is no merely Texas issue. Mr. Bryan's voluntary
visit to the state recognized and emphasized it
as a national issue, and the last word, will not
have been said until the democrats of every
state have deliberated and atted. The conclu
sion will not be authoritatively and formally
expressed until the next 'national democratic
convention enunciates its policy and nominates
its candidate.
- Tho debate begins among the people, where
all discussion should begin, to the ,end that the
people themselves direct the expression of their
representatives in convention. The opposing
views are advocated by two of the choicest
spirits and strongest intellects of the age in the
democracy of the union. The theatre of the
combat is no less than the nation itself, and it
seems assured that whereyer democrats ate num
bered from Maine to California between now and
. 1912 We are to witness a battle between giants
-and , an irrepressible conflict between ideas of
commanding Interest and importance to tho
economic welfare.
SENATOR BAILEY AT HOUSTON
On the evening of September 21 Senator
Bailey spoke at Houston where he was greeted
by a large and enthusiastic crowd. The Hous-
. ton (Texas) Post, a Bailey organ, presents tho
following as the notable sayings of the senator
"In- his Houston speech:
' My own doctrine 1b that tn levying our tariff
w should assimilate our tax on consumption
as nearly as possible to a tax on property so that
in taxing consumption we will emancipate as
far as possible -the man. and woman who have
no property and who would, therefore, pay no
taxes under a property system of taxation.
I believe in a high tax on silk and no tax
at all on calico. I would lay a tax on champagne
and I would not lay a tax on coffee. I do not
believe it is just or fair to lay the great burden
of this government upon those who are not able
to bear it.
We are told that unless the sovereign democ
racy of Texas reverses Itself we will have two
democratic parties, or else two kinds of democ
racy in this country, the Texas kind and the
other kind. There are different kinds of re
ligion in this world, there are Baptists and Meth
odists and Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and
Campbellites and Catholics. Any one of these
religions is better than no religion at all in this
world. But while there are many kinds
of religion, there is but one kind of de
mocracy, and that is our kind. Now let's see
what the Texas kind of democracy is. It is the
kind that lays the tax for the purpose of rais
ing revenue to support the government and for
no other purpose, but in laying the tax to raise
revenue to support the government it commands
us to lay that tax on those who are best able
to bear it with the least of inconvenience.
They are complaining at me because I would
not vote to take the tax off of the manufacturer's
raw material while laying a tax on the manufac
turerer's finished product; in other words, they
are complaining against me because I would
not take the tax off of what the manufacturer
buys from the people and still they would lay
a tax on what the people buy from-the manu
facturers. I am willing to take the tax off of iron ore
whenever they are ready to take the tax off
of what they makq out of iron ore.
If you want to punish the trusts, take the tax
off of what it sells that is the way to do it.
l have no doubt these other men are perfectly
sincere in wanting to punish the trusts, but it
is not enough for man to want to do what is
right. He must know how to do what Yis
right. And the man who believes that you can
punish the trusts by taking the tariff off what
it does not Intend to sell may be a very good
man, but he is not a very wise man.
A man who believes that he renders a patro
otic service to the state of Texas by voting for
the policies that enable Massachusetts to rob
us every year may be yery honest but he can
not be very wise.
The republicans are divided into two classes.
There are wise ones and there are honest ones;
but the trouble is the wise ones are not honest
and the honest ones are not wise.
Do you believe that it Is just and fair for
the manufacturer to buy a hide from a Texas
farmer or cattleman without a tax and then
make that hide up into harness and shoes and
send them back here and sell them to that man,
Texas cattleman or farmer, with a tax on them?
Do you believe that It is right? Some men say
it is, but they say it because they have not
studied the question.
- Under the beneficent policy of free raw ma
terial, they would take the tax off hides, out of
which the government realized $2,000,000, and
leave the tax on shoes, from which the govern
ment collected less than $30,000. And yet they
say I am a protectionist because I want to col
lect $2,000,000 for the government on hides.
I will never consent to taking the tax off
hides for the benefit of the manufacturers until
they take It off of boots and shoes for the benefit
of the American people.
I am as good a party man as lives, and I voto
the democratic ticket like my party makes me
never scratched one of them In my life though
I have had to hold my nose sometimes when I
voted for some of them For, when the plat
form commands me to do what I know is wrong,
I will not do it. A man who will do wrong
to please you will tho next time do wrong to
help himself.
There never was a more dangerous heresy
preached to the people of a representative gov
ernment than this doctrine of slavish obedience
to the platform, right or wrong. If you accepted
It, it would divest tho legislative power out of
the bodies where the law and constitution has
conferred It and would Invest It In a sot of Irre
sponsible conventions which ar not qualified
to exercise it.
Tell me that I do not faithfully .represent yqu
and I will give you back your senatorship, but
as long aa I keep It I will not violate my oath
and betray your-welfare. I like to be your sen
ator but .1 do not lov It well enough to -violate
my conscience in order to hold that office, and
the man who will do that is the-last man in this
world worthy to hold your office.
I believe in a political convention to nominate
a candidate; that is the only way to preserve a
party organization. I believe a political f.
vehtion has a right to declare, and I believe
every convention has a right to declare the ge -eral
principles of the party; but there it ougH
to stop. A political convention is utterly n -capable
of prescribing the details of legislation.
It is utterly impossible to adopt a platform
irt a national convention a great crowd of dele
gates, a greater crowd of spectators. The sub
committee reports to the full committee, the full
committee reports to the convention, and tho
convention orders the previous question nine
times out of ten, and it passes without one dele
gate in a hundred knowing what it contains.
I am not trying to convict Mr. Bryan of i i
consistency. I am trying to convict him of error.
When a democratic triumph comes, I want it
to come as a free-will offering of affectionate
confidence on the part of the people of the
United States. I believe it is just as immoral
to bribe a class of rich men to vote the ticket
by promising them exemption from taxation as
it is to give a poor wretch a -five-dollar bill to
do so.
- I said many bitter things and it cost me a lot
of votes to say them. I am not sorry I said
them, but I am not going to say it any more,
and I will tell you why. I found it was doing
me more harm than it was them. I was willing
to lose my office for the privilege of abusing
them, but I am not willing to lose my soul to
do it. I have not only quit abusing them, but
1 have actually quit hating them. I don't say
I love them, for I do not; but I have quit hating
them, and that is all anybody could ask of me,
isn't it? And so I put all of them behind me
forever and my face is to the future now, and
whatever talent God gave me I shall concentrate
to the service of my people.
Since the world first took its commercial les
son every one knows enough to know that when
ever a- man is compelled to sell his goods for a
lower price in competitive markets he makes up
the loss in the non-competitive markets. In
other words, if a Texas mill man is compelled
to take less for his lumber In- Chicago In conse
quence of Canadian competition, as soon as ho
recedes far enough from the Chicago market
to-be free from the effect of Canadian competi
tion, he proceeds to put up his price. That is
human nature. Everybody will do that.
This same Mr. Bryan who demands free lum
ber for Nebraska from Texas voted for a tax
on wheat in Nebraska to Texas. If I must
choose between bread and lumber, I take the
tax on lumber and I will take it off of bread,
wouldn't you? It is better that men have bread
than jt is to have lumber, because every man,
woman and child in America eats bread, and
only a fraction of us buy lumber every year.
Benevolence is out of place in legislation; the
practice ought 'to be justice, justice for every
body and favor for nobody. That is my creed
atid if I have had a favor for anybody It will
not be for someone who refuses to do justice
to my people. This idea of turning the other
cheek is all right in religion, but it will not do
in politics. The way to make a man respect
you is to assert and maintain the rights of your
people.
They charge you a tax on everything that
enters into the construction of a home, and yet
they wanted us to give them free lumber. If
we are going to have free homes, let them be
free from roof to cellar; if wo are going to have
free homes let us make free what we buy from
the northern and eastern manufacturers before
we make free what they buy from us.
You are paying, the tobacco users of the
United States, thirty times as much towards the
support of tho government on the tobacco they
consume as the lumber purchasers were paying
on their lumber; and yet in the face of that
great and disproportioned burden, they still fur
ther reduce tie moderate taxes on lumber; yet
they add 25 per cent Increase to the already
high tax on tobacco.
The republican party believes in protection
and claims to believe m protection for all
classes; the democratic party believes in a tariff
for revenue only and believes that every, class
should pay Its fair proportion of that revenue,
and tho only class in whose favor we would
make an exception aro the pgor, who are the
least able to pay the taxes; and yet Instead of
this ancient and memorial creed of democracy,
they now propose a new and strange doctrine,
and the-'doctrine reads like this: l A tariff w3
BbH&ttoi
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