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The Commoner.
6
VOLUME ,. NUMBER 45
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A BRIDGEPORT, Conn., dispatch to the New
Haven Union says: "In some respects the
democratic victory' in which Edward T. Bucking
ham was elected mayor by 3,043 is the most re
markable result of a municipal contest in the
history of the state. The contest hjnged upon
a most drastic set of proposals for municipal
reform proposed in the platform of the demo
cratic party and urged by Mr. Buckingham in his
speech of acceptance. A program of tax equali
zation will, it is said, bo immediately carried
out. The manufacturing interests and public
service corporations will be most affected. There
will be an investigation of the United Illuminat
ing company, which furnishes the city and its
inhabitants with electric current, and the pri
vate water works will be acquired by the city
as soon as steps necessary to that end can be.
taken. The democrats captured nine out of
twelve members of the common council and
control that body."
THE LONG contested indebtedness In St. Clair
county, Missouri, has resulted in another
judgment. A Kansas City dispatch carried by
the Associated Press says: "Bernard J. Burke,
a New York capitalist, was awarded a judgment
of $662,000 against St. Clair county, Missouri,
in the federal court here last night, because that
county in 1870 floated bonds for the Lebo &
Neosho railway, which was never built. "When
the bonds were issued the officers of- St. Clair
county thought the railroad would be built. Mr.
Burke owned about $200,000 of the county's
bond Issuance, and after hearing the history of
the case the court held that he was entitled to
a judgment for the full amount with interest.
The controversy over the St. Clair county' railroad-'case
lioe caused' endless litigation. ' All the"
power of the United States courts was used in
an effort to collect from the county. Tlie people
elected county judges who refused to obey the
court's orders, and more than fifteen county
judges served jail sentences for contempt of
court. The men received their regular salary
while in jail."
THEY ARE TO have a special election to fill
the vacancy in the lower house caused by
Mr. Lorlmer's election to the senate. Referring
to the contest that is on over the republican nom
ination the Chicago Record-Herald says:
"There is a unique opportunity for the republi
can voters of the Sixth congressional district of
Illinois. They may, without peril to party domi
nance, give an object lesson to the whole coun
try. Mr. Moxley is running as the exponent of
Lorimerism, Cannonisra, Aldrichism'. His em
phatic defeat would mean that the republicans
of even this stronghold of reactionary republi
canism would stomach no more. It would in no
way affect the republican majority in congress,
but would act as a wholesome warning of the
state of mind of the middle west. Mr.. Barnes,
the Independent candidate, stands on the tariff
platform on which President Taft was elected.
He believes in a tariff that will protect American
Industries and labor not in a tariff that Is a
shield to protect extortionists. He believes that
pledges should be sacred not tossed to the
wind after election. He should be elected and
a great warning given."
THE AMERICAN Federation of Labor, in ses
sion at Toronto, was addressed by Samuel
Gompers. He reviewed the proceedings in the
case against, Gompers, Mitchell and Morrison
and denounced the court's decision as an attack
upon the free press and free speech. He said:
"I say advisedly that the whole people of our
country are aroused to the seriousness of the
situation. They realize that this attack upon
a freo press and free speech among the workers
is only the insidious beginning of the entire
withdrawal of those rights from the whole peo
ple whenever it might suit tho plans of those
who dqslro to profit by injustices and tyranny.
Tho response of the masses of the people to the
campaign of the American Federation of Labor
for tho preservation of constitutional rights
shows how thoroughly our labor movement is in
harmony with tho spirit of liberty and the love
of justice and right which makes a nation great.
The struggle is far from ended. Jternal vigil
ance ever was and always will be the price of
tho liberties of a people. Let no one doubt my
great respect for the judiciary of our country;
I. have confidence in their integrity, no matter
what their decision, still they are human beings
and as such liable to err. I say this with re
spect not only to the three justices of the dis
trict court of appeals, but with reference to the
judiciary generally. I repeat and emphasize
this fact, that the doctrine that the citizen must
yield obedience to every order of the court, not
withstanding that order transcends inherent,
natural, human rights guaranteed by the con
stitution of our country, Is vicious and repug
nant to liberty and human freedom, and that
it Is tho duty, the Imperative duty, to protest.
The history of the human race has beerifull of
tyranny and the denial to the people of the right
of expressing freely by speech or in the press
their opinion. After the people established a
government they recalled that they had omitted
to safeguard this vital right in framing our con
stitution. Therefore, the first amendment to
that instrument was that guaranteeing the right
of freedom of speech and press. That means
something. Wo do not need this right to please
those entrusted with the authority of govern
ment. Free press and free speech were guar
anteed that men might feel free to say things
that displeased;"
WRITING IN Collier's Weekly L. R. Glavis,
recently dismissed By President Taft from
his post as chief of field division of the general
lahd office, charges that Secretary Ballinger
while land commissioner, - favored the granting
of patents to Alaska coal lands of great value
when the claims to these patents were under
grave suspicion. The hand of the Guggenheims
in tho alleged attempted grab of 5,000 acres of
coal lands, containing 91,000,000 tons of coal,
is traced, according to Glavis, through what are
known as tho 'Cunningham claims,' it being
alleged that Cunningham acted as agent for the
Guggenheims, the real influence being that of
the latter. In consequence of the Guggenheim
influence, charges Glavis, Secretary Ballinger-
then land commissioner took a friendly atti
tude to the Cunningham claims, albeit Glavis
alleges that these claims had been shown
through his personal investigations to be of the
shadiest character."
MR. GLAVIS makes charges as follows:
That tho land office ordered the Cunning
ham claims to patent without due investigation
when Commissioner Ballinger knew they were
under suspicion; that while in office Commis
sioner Ballinger urged congress to pass a law
which would validate fraudulent Alaska claims;
that shortly after resigning from office he be
came attorney for the Cunningham group and
other Alaska claims; that there is a statute ex
pressly prohibiting a former officer of the gov
ernment becoming within two years a private
attorney in any case pending in the department
with which he was connected which arose or
was pending at the time lie was there, despite
which fact President Taft approved Mr. Bal
llnger's employment; that soon after Mr. Bal
linger became secretary of tho Interior his office
rendered a decision that would have validated
all fraudulent Alaska claims, and that if there
had not been a reversal of that decision at every
point by Attorney General Wickersham every
fraudulent Alaska claim would have gone to
patent; that the Alaska coal claims are still in
danger. He says: "I assert that in the spring
of 1909 the land office urged me to an early
trial of these cases before the investigation was
finished, and when Secretary Ballinger, as the
President has stated, knew "that the Cunning
ham claims were Invalid. When I appealed to
Secretary Ballinger for postponement he referred
me to his subordinates. The department of agri
culture Intervened. I was superseded In the
charge of tho cases, and the man who super
seded me Indorsed my recommendations, and
the postponement was granted. Immediately
thereafter I made, my report on the Cunningham
cases to President Taft, and was dismissed from
the service for insubordination." Glavis traces
the history of his connection with tho Alaska
cases from its beginning in the fall of 1907 to
his dismissal. Ho insists that ho found much
evidence of fraud, that ho laid that evidence be
fore Commissioner Ballinger and Fred Dennett,
first assistant commissioner, and that his official
superiors constantly took an attitude of friend
ship to tho Cunningham claims and of hostility
to his chaTges against those claims.
REPLYING TO the Glavis article in Colliers,
Secretary Ballinger makes the following
statement: "My attention has been directed to
the text of an article purporting to have been
written by L. R. Glavis, which is to appear in
Colliers Weekly, and advance copies of which
have been furnished by that weekly to the press.
The Glavis story is a tissue of falsehoods and in
sinuations, utterly unwarranted in view of the
facts, easily obtained by anybody who wants
them. It is not surprising that a publication
which could, in pursuit of this same propaganda,
recklessly, under date of October 30, reproduce
a view appearing on a familiar railroad folder
of the Grand River canyon in Colorado, as a pic
ture of an available power site which was in
danger of unlawful acquisition on the South
Platte river, 200 miles away and across the con
tinental divide, should be willing, without the
slightest effort to ascertain the facts, to give
wings to a1 story which had heretofore been sub
mitted to so. great and just a man as the presi
dent of the United States who, after a most care
ful consideration thereof, in which he had be
fore 'him the complete files of the general land
office, and of the secretary of the interior, relat
ing to each and every one of the matters pre
sented, pronounced the chaTges, without justifi
cation. The statement of Glavis has gained
nothing, either as to its veracity or justification,
in the interval since its presentation to the presi
dent, and in view of the complete vindication by
the president of myself and other officers of tho
department concerned, I will make no further
statement at present."
CHARGING THAT the cotton schedule in tho
Payne-Aldrich tariff bill permits the pro
tective policy to become a plunder policy,
United States Senator LaFollette denounces that
schedule bitterly in LaFollette's Weekly. Under
the caption, "The Disgrace of the Cotton Sched
ule," the leading editorial says in part: "In
the cotton schedule of the Dingley law, perver
sion of the protective principle was conspicuous
in all its forms. In the Payne-Aldrlch-Cannon
'downward revision' tariff, the outrages of the
cotton schedule are perpetrated and accentuated.
The power behind this new cotton schedule was
the power of successful public plunder. And
the incentive to it was more plunder. Under
the Dingley cotton schedule, the duties levied
on the imports of 1907 amounted to a fraction
less than 45 per cent of the value of the goods
imported. The duties of the Payne-Cannon-Aldrich
cotton schedule applied to the importa
tion of 1907 would average over 50 per cent
of the value of the goods. Under the new
schedule there are more prohibitive duties high
er than before. Conservatively estimated the
new schedule is at least 25 per cent higher than
the old. There is no justification for increasing
the cotton schedule. The labor cost in cotton
manufacture in this country is decreasing, not
increasing."
THE EDITORIAL declares the average wage
of cotton mill operatives in 1905 was $6.47
a week and the pay of skilled operatives but
$8.53 a week. The editorial concludes: "Tho
indictment against the cotton schedule and its
beneficiaries is made. The case against the
'coptians of co.tton' is in. The evidence of their
grafting and embezzlements is abundant and
conclusive. Charged by the people with the ad
ministration of a great trust fund for the benefit
of 'American labor,' they loll and surfeit in
wealth while the lawful beneficiary of that trust
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