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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1910)
' ffFWWT 1 '- M"1l"HHIMlj The Commoner. VOLUME 10, NUMBEH 27 ' Tj"F tip, in? IH Bi. K m ihb The Commoner. "Catch -My -Pal" A Tremendous Nickname ISSUED WEEKLY Entorcd nt tho PoBtofllco ftt Lincoln, Nebraska, rb HcconU-claHB matter. WII.1.IAM .7. llHYAN Editor and Proprietor ntciiAHt) Ju Mktcai.fk. AKfsocInto Kdltor One Ycnr ?1.00 KIx MontliN HO In ClubH of Flvo or more, per year... .75 Ciiatu.ks W. IJllVAW Publisher Kriltorlnl Rooms nml Business Ofllco 321-330 South 12th Street Three MnntliM 25 Mingle Copy 05 Sample Copies Free. Foreign Post. Be Extra. SUBSCRIPTIONS can bo sent direct to The Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapers which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through local agents, whero sub-agents have been appoint ed. All remittances should be sent by postofllco money order, express order, or by bank drart on Now York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, stampB or money. niSCONTINUANCKS- It is found that a largo majority of our subscribers prefer not to havp their subscriptions Interrupted and their files broken In caso they fall to remit before oxplratlon. It Is therefore assumed that continuance Is desired un less subscribers order discontinuance, either when subscribing or at any tlmo during tho year. I'UKSKNTATION COPIES Many persons sub ecribo for friends, Intending that tho paper shall stop at tho end of tho year. If Instructions aro f;lven to that offoct they will receive attention at ho proper time. ItKNlOWALuS Tho date on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus January 21, '10, means that payment has been re ceived to and Including tho last Issue of January, 1910. Two weoks aro required aftor money has been received boforo tho dato on wrapper can bo changed. CHANGE OH1 ADDRESS Subscribers requesting a chango of address must glvo old as well as now address. ADVERTISING "Rates will bo furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb. The Million Army Among tho letters received In reply to Sen ator Owen's question, "If the people really rule, why don't the people get what they want?" was one from Mr. J. F. Huntzinger, Enid, Okla. Mr. Huntzinger's letter is interesting for several rea sons and is printed hero in full. Ho says: "The reason tho people do not rule, therefore do not get what they want is their own inactivity. Action is the law of God. Tho good people gen erally as members of one or the other party are like many church members; all they think necessary on their part is to send out a petition in words and expect their wants or rather de mands to bo supplied. If men want results they must have right motives, followed with right thinking, taking form in right actions right now.. Every man should make it his business to watch tho caucus and the primaries. Ques tion all candidates closely on the many vital questions before the public today, and work openly for the man who declares himself for tho people. Then and not till then will the people rule and get what they need, if they don't get all they want. To those who are willing, but don't just know how to act, I would advise them 'to at once join Tho 'Commoner's Million Army and follow the line of action laid down every week in The Commoner and the results will be for tho good of all." Archie A. Shanburg, Goodland, Kan. We all realize Mr. Bryan is doing a great educational work among tho people. I am sending you two applications for The Commoner's Million Army. Will send more as my time permits. Albert A. Mann, Steamboat Springs, Colo. I am grateful to you for tho Invitation to co oporato with you in the matter of obtaining candidates who stand for the people instead of. for special interests, and I appreciate the good work of The Commoner in championing this cause. I am with you, and trust that the demo crats of tho next congress will be found loyally standing on tho platform, and that the platform is up to the standard of the Denver platform. Henry Wilbur, Hutto, TexaB. I am not a citizen of Texas only visiting relatives and in search of health. I am in sympathy with your good work and duly appreciate your efforts in the work" of regeneration, and only hopo I may live to see tho overthrow and downfall of the party in power. Pontics are at a very low ebb, and to purify them it will take drastic measures. When a man Is elected and violates his oath of Some movements are better known by their nicknames than by the formal titles attributed to them by their organizeVs. It is a good aug ury for tho success of any reform when the public attaches to it a pet name. It at least im plies interest, a little admiration and sometimes no small affection for the cause. In Ireland just now we have a remarkable example of this. Tho most popular movement that has stirred the Emerald isle in years is known wholly by a nickname. The formal designation of the "Catch-My-Pal" organization is the somewhat prosaic title, "Protestant Total Abstinence Union." But it must needs be a very formal occasion indeed when that title is heard. The movement began in a very simple way. On the evening of the 13th of July, 1909, Rev. R. J. Patterson, pastor in Armagh, was coming home when he noticed a small group of men lounging around a lamp post. He bade one of them "good-night," and in response to the salu tation the man made some slighting remark about his companions and their weakness for drink. Mr. Patterson stopped, asked the man if he really meant what ho said, spoke to the others, took them round to his manse, and in the dining room that night the society was born. These six men went away pledged to turn up again in the same place on a succeeding 'even ing, each with another man who wanted to give up the drink. Prompt to the moment they all arrived, bringing their boon companions. They prayed together, and all pledged themselves to go out and get others to join with them. Since that night the movement has steadily grown until now there are over 70,000 mem bers. The incidents told 1n the various meetings aro sometimes very thrilling. Men who had never been sober for a week at a time since they remember have been stanch teetotalers and aggressive temperance workers for the last six months. The men who drink have proved them selves best suited to persuade their comrades to join them in this new crusade. Other temperance movements have been ap parently run too much by total abstainers, and those who needed most to be reached could not bo approached by men of that type. They re sented all Interference with their personal lib erty from men who had apparently never under stood the so-called friendly ties developed round the social glass. All great institutions, as some one I:as said, are but the lengthening shadow of some unique personality. This truth is at once apparent in this instance. Mr. Patterson is a man in a class by himself. He combines in a marked degree devoutness and humor, sanity and en thusiasm, simplicity and eloquence. He can at tract men and set them to work. How he has been able to do so much in so short a time it is difficult to understand. The distinctive feature of the union Is of course the fundamental principle of each ono pledging himself to get another. There is noth ing new about such a principle, but somehow it has never been applied in connection with tem- offlce prosecute him for perjury, and when he is elected on a good platform fix it so when he steps off that platform he steps off the earth. Then we will have honest politics. A long time ago Henry Clay of v Kentucky said every man had his price, but I did. not think perance in just the same way or with the same beneficent results. The men who have stopped drinking need something to occupy their at tention and excite their interest. Nothing seems so fitting to do this as trying to persuade some other man to leave liquor and join the society. Some Irish towns of 3,000 or 4,000 inhabi tants have been so influenced by the movement that almost all the men who tippled have talcen the pledge and left the public houses without customers. Over the whole province of Ulster the effect has been noted in the great decrease of crime, so that the judges at the recent as sizes had to compliment several of the counties on their unusual condition of peacefulness. The movement has created a sentiment in favor of sobriety among the very ".lasses who formerly thought it no disgrace to get drunk. It has also awakened enthusiasm in all districts it has reached, not only among the drinkers but among temperance workers who had fallen into a rut and were making little if any impression onthe community. Another very important effect of the union has been the bringing together on a common tem perance platform of all Protestant denomina tions. Never before in Ireland have the Espico palians, the Presbyterians and the Methodists fraternized as they are doing now in connection with this organization. The pledge and ritual are as simple as t:an be. All members stand, hold up the open hand, and repeat together phrase by phrase these words: "For God and home and native land, I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks as bever ages, and to do all that in me lies to promote the cause of total abstinence by getting others to join the union." Then they shut their fists and say word by word: "We will see this thing through." The pledge may be taken for months or years or for life. The weekly .meetings are maTked by this public -pledge-taking. If a man breaks his pledge he can be restored only by the vote of the members and must be restored publicly. It is remarkable how few have -as yet broken these pledges. Perhaps the publicity has helped to keep the pledge-takers constant. I fear that a large majority of the pledges signed in private are broken in a very short time. These men can get those who have broken their pledge to come back and face their fellow members again when Christian workers would have very little chance of succeeding. All the meetings are opened and closed with religious exercises and the Lord's Prayer is re peated In unison by all present. It Is too soon yet and we are too near the active participants to express any opinion as to the permanence of the movement. However, all admit It is doing a splendid work and the or ganization has in it all the elements of success. Never since the days of Father Mathew have temperance meetings been so popular, the au diences so large, the speakers so effective or the results so satisfactory. at that tlmo they would bargain counter. I am a on the Mississippi and been since 1856 and am the age of 74 years, and I can for you. ever be placed on tho river pilot and captain Ohio rivers and have on the down grade at by the' way will do all 5a I APPUCATION BLANK The Commoner's Million Army Signed. Adlres8... HMWHtMIllfnIHMW With tho understanding that Mr. Bryan agrees to accept annual subscrtotlon tn Th rmmnna. w, members of tnls Army at a net rate of outfa esuh. and tht" ch wS?on to ThlKnSnlr riSffiS cludo a subscription to Tho American Homestead (a strong homo Tand &rm anerl-lhS Cvl.Tha Commoner free to devote Its undlvldod efforts to political matters andrrent evSto--i SohmirttS fi cents for ono annual subscrlpUon to Tho Commoner (Including The American Homestead? nMewim . V, yu already a subscriber to Tho Commoner and do not care to extend your xolraUnn date at this tlmo, tho last paragraph above may be disregarded. WBU your exPaon 1 ,.$ m.fc. til tig.
