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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 ;
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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 -'
