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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1910)
"v i ;p5R.rTJ!.'w VKCT,prwjrwwr'' 4 Commoner, ) JL JIjLv "VV t- r .V, r' '". .7 36 ;i 4s Nf . ' 1V s t j?& , fe. Iv- h8fc "&A. n; WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR VOL. 10, NO. 1 Lincoln, Nebraska, January 14, 1910 Whole Number 469 Stealing a March The president's message relating to the Sher- inan anti-trust law and to trusts is formal no tice to the people that they have nothing to ex pect in the way of "trust busting" at the hands of this administration and re-assurance to the trust magnate that he may hold the American consumers within the hollow of his hand. In this message the president of the United States undertakes, seriously, for the first time to show the difference between a "good" trust and a "bad" trust. That the president makes a very sorry effort in these descriptions must be ap parent to every one who has read his message. .Throughout the message fairly bristles with phrases and forms of argument and protest that . are sd familiar in the circles where trust mag nates most do congregate. The president ad mits that it is impractical to undertake, in an explicit law, to differentiate between good and bad trusts. But he leaves it to be inferred that the "remedy" he proposes and the legislation lie suggests will be carried out in conformity with his own oddly stated ideas of the differ ence between a good trust and a bad trust. T,hen the president boldly recommends the en actment by congress of a general law incorpor ating corporations by the national government. -He says this will protect these corporations .from "undue interference by the states," and that it will also enable the federal government to enforjcetheanti-trust law. rlhe presidentoOVer looks ivhat the American people are not likely to forget, viz., that all of the practical efforts toward relief have been brought about through ptate legislation and under state authority. Under the president's own description of his national incorporation law every corporation in the country, desiring to do business in more than one state, must reorganize and become incorporated under federal charter. He tries to answer the objections on the ground of cen tralization but he makes lamentable failure of this. Indeed, throughout the president's mes sage his own words, his own tone, his own argument give emphasis to the dangers of cen tralized authority over the great corporations. He bluntly proclaims that' they should be per mitted to combine and to concentrate capital where such combination seems desirable. He would not object to" a good trust, and he points out the "dangers" of indiscriminate investiga tion into the affairs of trusts. In his recommendation for national incorpora tion President Taft is doing just what the trust magnates of 'this country want done and no amount of well phrased messages can alter the fact that will become more and more apparent CONTENTS STEALING A MARCH PRINCIPLE OR PIE THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND NOW HE WANTS THE CENTRAL - BANK MR. BRYAN IN CUBA "THE OLD SHIP IS LEAKING NOW" AN UPHEAVAL AT WASHINGTON WHO GOT FOOLED, OR THE MYSTERY OF 1910 "FOUR YEARS MORE OF THE FULL, DIN NER PAIL" WHETHER COMMON OR NOT , HOME DEPARTMENT ' J; NEWS OF THE WEEK ' . WASHINGTON NEWS 0 ; EVERYONE MAY HELP Circulating The Commoner in your, community helps to interest your people in the questions which are so vital at this time; It will help you get out the democratic vote on election day. It will help you to get legislation that will permit you to retain a larger share of tHe results of your labor. It will assist you in convincing your republican neighbor that the democratic party is fighting his battles and should have his support. Do you agree with The Commoner up- on the importance of commencing this year's campaign at once and learning what candidates may be trusted and which ones should be retired? We must depend upon our subscribers to secure other readers, and the wider dissemination of Mr. Bryan's writings and speeches will help bring about the election of a democratic congress. A year's subscription now will con- tinue the paper through the coming con- gressional elections. Your assistance in placing The Commoner in the hands of your acquaintances may enlist their ac- tive interest in a cause which needs their help. M -LS&i. to tho plain peopleTof America aB the days go by. Such a measure is so uncalled for, so inde fensible and so inexcusable that the attempt to bring about such a revolution in the regulation of corporations suggests an organized and far reaching plot to withdraw the corporations from state control. No state has asked for this, no platform has demanded it and the people have not discussed it. With a cabinet filled with corporation attorneys the president seems to be planning the biggest surrender of the century. The great corporations want to escape from state supervision, and national incorporation is the means proposed. The democratic democrats and the progressive republicans will have the fight of a life time to defeat it. Doubtless many congressmen have been se cretly pledged to it and many of the senators are pecuniarily interested in bringing it about. The predatory corporations aTe preparing to steal a march on the people. It is not necessary to have national Incorporation; we can have all the regulation necessary without national in corporation. The democratic platform demands that federal remedies be ADDED TO, NOT SUB STITUTED FOR state remedies. That platform was made to warn the public against this very proposition. It is not exaggeration to say that never in American history has a president so uncovered his inclinations and his purposes as Mr. Taft has done in his recent message to congress. So centralize the authority over the railroads of the country that railroad regulation will be entrusted to the whim of one man and to the inclination of a political party. So centralize railroad authority that the means whereby com plaint may be made will be so remote and the method so cumbersome that the ordinary ship per will find it difficult to register his complaint. Take from the states all control over the cor porations, centralize that control in the federal government and give the reins into the keeping of a political organization which, deriving its campaign . funds from the very concerns it is expected to regulate, finds it convenient to allow the people to be oppressed in order that the "business interests of the country" may thrive. Is it possible that there is in all America a republican who, having no axe to grind, can not see that the policies so bluntly outlined in the president's special message are not Intended to advance the interests of popular government? ' Principle or Pie Republican Insurgents who have boon told that they must cither support administration measures or abandon hope for obtaining federal offices for their friends aro now becoming per sonally familiar with a threat that is as old as human government Itself. "Do as tho king wills if you would onjpy tho king's favor" Is the edict with which tho history of monarchies abounds. Sometimes In tho olden days men who displeased the king lost their heads and where that radical course was not deemed advisable social and political 'prcstigo was withdrawn. In America the cutting off of a man's head is not to bo thought of and so the plan of cutting off tho republican congressmen's pie has been adopted. Something like sixteen years ago a democratic president undertook to say to members of con gress who refused to vote for tho repeal of a particular measure, in the repeal of which the president was interested, that those who an tagonized the administration on this proposition would lose favor. For many months it would havo seemed from tho Washington view that the democratic congressmen who adhered to what they conceived to be principle had been' barred from their party. But at tho next na tional convention of thoir party their course was approved and tho principle for which they contondedformally received tho sanction of their party organization. It would not be right toehold out to tho republican insurgents the hope that their party will formally ondorso tho action of thoso republican congressmen who, in the name of popular government, rebel from tho decrees of the representatives of special inter ests. It must bo patent to every observing per son that these special interests aro so thorough ly entrenched in power in tho republican party that nothing but the defeat of the party at the polls will provide any hopo for tho party's re generation. President Taft boldly endorsed Sen ator Aldrich, calling him a faithful servant of public interests and there is every reason to be lieve that Messrs. Aldrich and Cannon may con fidently depend upon the president's co-operation in tho great program they have outlined for tho benefit of the "business interests of tho country." Mr. Victor Rosewater, editor of the Omaha Bee, in an authorized interview denies that tho president is using the patronage club to whip insurgents into line. But Mr. Rosewater quotes the president as saying that "there is a well founded custom that has becomo almost a rulo that in making certain appointments such as postmasters, the president should act on recom mendation of the members of congress In whoso districts the appointments lie if reported by a member of the same political party. This obliga tion resting on the president, however, is reci procal. The republican congressmen Is under a similar obligation to support administration measures recommended by the president to carry out platform pledges on which both wero elected." Mr. Rosewater adds: "The presi dent says he has not turned down recommenda tions of Insurgent congressmen but is simply preserving the status quo to impress them of their obligation." Could anything bo plainer than that? It is the old demand to "bend tho pregnant hinges of the knee .that thrift may follow fawning." No matter that these congressmen were elected to serve in a branch of govern ment co-ordinate with that occupied by tho gentleman who was elected to the presi dency; no matter that these congressmen were nominated and elected on the theory that they were men of ability and independence, men who could be depended upon to think and act for themselves; no matter that they could read, as all the world may read, that the republican ad ministration is more thoroughly allied with tho special Interests and more firmly committed to the scheme of predatory wealth than any other limit) nL -'