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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1909)
j p-T j-rT,)riMirw'',Twv wwwi Ik ? The Commoner .4 The Commoner. ISSUED WEEKLY. Entered at tho Postofflco r.t Lincoln, Nobraslca, as second-class matter. . , WlM.TAM J. HllYAK Editor nnd Proprietor RlCHAllD Jj. MJCTCAI.FK Ascoclnto Editor CiiAnirs W. BiiyAh Publisher ICdltorinl Rooms nnd Uuslncss Omco 324-3T.0 Bouth 12lh Street One Ycnr $1.00 filx Montlin RO In Clubs of Five or more, per year.. . .75 Three WontliH. . i ... .25 Single Copy 05 Samplo Copies Free. Foreign Post. 5c Extra. SUBSCRIPTIONS can bo sent direct to The Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapors which have advertised a clubbing rato, or through local agents, hero sub-agents have been n ipolnt cd. All remittances should bo sent by postofTlco tnoncy order, express order, or by bank draft on rJew York or Chicago. Do not send individual checks, stamps or money. 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Adding all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nb. of shifty persons who havo cultivated habits of getting things that do not belong to them. .Whitman will probably go out hot after- that spocies of citizen, and will raid them to the heart's content of nearly everybody." JJNCLE JOB INTERESTED Uncle Joe Cannon is somewhat interested in the results in New Yorlc, according to this dis patch published in the Chicago Record-Herald: Washington, November 3. Speaker Cannon -will find when he attempts to push matters against Representative Parsons of New Yorlc for charging him with entering into a bargain with Tammany that Mr. Parsons' influence as a party leader has vastly increased during the recess. Politicians hero read the returns from New York City to mean that Mr. Parsons, as chairman of the republican New York county committee, has scored a great victory. While -he did not succeed in electing his party's candi date for mayor, he struck Tammany a terrific blow in depriving it of control of the board of estimates and in defeating its county ticket, bnould the speaker make good the reports com ing from Danville ho may, through an investi gation by the house, secure a whitewash, be cause such an investigation would be equivalent to an investigation of himself by himself. Mr. Parsons' success in the elections just held ad vances him materially in the councils of his party and will go a long way in the direction of making him an influence in New York state politics. He has his eyes upon tho New York senatorship, it is whispered, and a coalition be tween the forces of Governor Hughes and Mr Parsons may be sufficient to overcome the re publican upstate leaders with whom both have had to fight. "THERE STANDS MASSACHUSE,TTS" Senator Lodge went on the platform in Mass achusetts in the campaign just closed, and ex horted the people of that commonwealth to give the lie, by their votes, to the defamers of tho Aldrich tariff "which means so much to Massa chusetts." They listened to him and then went and voted the democratic ticket. At leaBt some scores of thousands of them did it who hadn't been in the habit of doing it before. For last year Massachusetts went republican by 100,000; the year before by 80,000. This year it lopped off a cipher and went republican by only 8,000. Why? Why was not Massachusetts with its big cotton and woolen mills all fattenirig off the tariff graft, eager to vote its thanks to tho party that had authorized it to levy still heavier tribute on the rest of the country? Because there are more people, even in Massa chusetts, whom the tariff hurts, than there aro . people it helps. And they are finding out the truth. The old fake about the tariff "protect ing American labor" is played out It doesn't. It grinds American labor down to the merest margin of subsistence and pours the profits, all the profits, into the coffers of tho corporations. Hero are some figures just come out of Rhode Island, for example, where conditions are almost identical with those in Massachusetts. These figures are from the twenty-second annual re port of tho Rhode Island bureau of industrial statistics Wages of operators in woolen and worsted mills, $8 to $9 a week; 80 per cent of operatives foreign born. Wages in cotton mills, $7 to $8 a week; 80 per cent of operatives foreign born. Wages in silk mills, $7 to $8 a week; 93 per cent of employes foreign born Wages in rubber factories, $8 to $9 per week; 70-per cent of employes foreign born. Clearly protection doesn't mean a penny's worth of benefit to these people. If the tariff were wiped out entire they couldn't be paid less because they couldn't live on less. And they have to be kept from starving, because their services are valuable to their employers, to society, to everybody but themselves! But protection does compel these same miserable, half-starved "protected American laboringmen" to pay much higher prices for the cotton goods they buy, the woolens, he boots and shoes, the rubber goods everything they help to make, just exactly as it compels the Nebraska farmer to pay more. And neither the employe or the farmer gets the remotest benefit. It all goes to the mill owner. All the employe and farmer gets is the privilege of living in the same country with trust magnates worth hundreds of millions of dollars, "earned" by passing the hat around among the rest" of us while Uncle Sam compels us to contribute. Omaha World-Herald. The tariff was the leading feature of the cam paign, in spite' of the desire of the republicans to' shelve it. It grew in interest and importance and was most vigorously handled by Foss, the democratic , candidate for lieutenant governor. Persons now not in an apologetic mood see in it the chief cause of the republican slump, and we are the more disposed to accept their inter pretation of the election because the apologists are so groggy after the battle. Massachusetts, like the middle west, has its grievances against the new tariff law; it has expressed its feelings on the subject in a very significant revolt. What can be expected pf other Btates less certainly attached to the repub lican column? That question is likely. to give republican statesmen a great deal of anxious thought during the coming year. Chicago Record-Herald. Rep. THE ELECTIONS OP 1009 Another election day has come and gone, but the elections turned so largely on local issues as not to furnish anyclcar indication of the trend of public opinion. Insofar as they give any encouragement it is to the democrats. The election of Judge Gaynor as mayor of New York was one of the most important results of the campaign. He was the candidate of the inde pendents as well as the candidate of Tammany, and his personal popularity won him a signal victory, in spite of the fact that he was opposed by a republican candidate as well as by Mr. Hearst. For a number of years Judge Gaynor has stood out as a conspicuous representative of radicalism in the heart- of plutocracy, and his record justifies us in expecting that he will make a splendid mayor. He will find work enough to do, and with his sympathies already aroused in behalf of the plain people, It will not be surprising if he keeps the eyes of the nation turned upon the city of New York. Suc cess to him. The result in Massachusetts is gratifying. The republican majority is reduced to a minimum on both governor and lieutenant governor. Gains have also been made in the legislature. As the. democratic platform endorsed the income tax, and as a number of republican candidates also declared themselves in favor of it, there is rea sonable expectation that the income tax amend- ment may be "atified by the Massachusetts legis lature. Wha a splendid example that' would get to the other states! Maryland will return Senator Raynor, who made such valiant fight for tariff reform. ydbuME-&;-NOMBfciR a f While the Maryland platform did not endorse the income tax the republicans did and there ought to bo a majority for it in the legislature Virginia gave her usual democratic majority in spite of the predictions made that the state was going over to the republican party. In Kentucky the democrats made such laTgo gains that it seems likely that they will havo two-thirds majority in both houses and, there-. fore, be able to legislate in spite of the republi can governor. It Is to be hoped that the first measure wilj bo a resolution for the ratification of the income tax amendment. In Nebraska the democrats came very near electing their judicial ticket. When it is con sidered that tho republican candidates on tho judicial ticket two years ago were elected by over 24,000, this is a gratifying gain, and a promise for next year. The democratic rejoicing is checked, how ever, by -two defeats which will causo universal regret throughout the party. Mayor Tom John son went down before his republican opponent in Cleveland, and Heney was defeated in San Francisco. Mayor Johnson, however, has reason to rejoice that he has won his fight for a three cent fare, in spite of such an opposition as few men have had in spite of injunctions innumer able and misrepresentations interminable he has forced even his opponents to the acceptance of the three cent fare, and he doubtless finds a joy in that triumph that the somw of defeat can not overcome. That was not the only re form that has characterized his administration, however, and it will not be long before the peo ple of Cleveland will recognize the loss that tho state has suffered in his retirement, and call him back to the patriotic duty that ho has per formed so unselfishly and so well. ENORMOUS TRIBUTE The press dispatches say that the price of ready-made clothing will be increased on ac count of the Aldrich law to the amount of $120, 000,000 in the aggregate that is, that the pur chasers of this kind of clothing will havo to pay that much more than they did last year for the same amount. This does not cover the increase on other kinds of woolen goods, and it does not cover the Increase' as heretofore made because of thetariff oh wool. These figures, however, showwhat an enor mous tribute is being collected from the people because cf the 89 per cent tariff on woolen man ufactures. When it is remembered that tho ' tariff collected on wool amounts to about six teen millions and that the tariff collected by the wool growers because of the tariff on wool amounts to some thirty millions, if the tariff i3 added to the price of wool, it will be seen that the manufacturers collect from the consumers a great deal more because of the tariff on wool than wool growers collect from the manufac turers. Who will say that a tariff on wool is in the interest of the masses? Who will say that justice to the wool growers requires that they be protected at such enormous cost to the taxpayers? FRED SEMPER Few readers of The Commoner will recognize the name. Mr. Semper was a young telegraph operator who served Mr. Bryan in a confidential capacity during the Denver convention, when a wire was in use between Fairview and the Colo 'rado capital. He was not only an efficient operator rapid and accurate but he endeared himself to thoso who came into contact with him by his genial Bmilo and hi3 readiness for every task. The newspaper men who were present at that time will regret to learn that Mr. Semper has suc cumbed to an attack of typhoid fever and taken his place among the great majority in the un known world. It is sad that so promising a life should reach such an untimely end. Thoso connected with The Commoner and with Mr. Bryan's household tender their sympathies to tho stricken family. "BISHOP SUNBEAMS" Richard L. Metcalfe, author .of "Of Such ifl the Kingdom," has issued another book entitled "Bishop Sunbeams." Mr. Metcalfe's articles are always interesting but he appears at his best in philosophical sketches. In "Bishop Sun beams" he makes the hero of the story to pre sent a theory of life that works out beautifully in practice. The whole book 1? wholesome ana helpful and will add to Mi.. Metcalfe's increas ing reputation as a writer, imt W. J. BRYAN. 8 fj vJl. - ,fc T-A-w J fcWrfA t. ..... 1 5 J