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The Commoner.
6
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 2
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IN AN ARTICLE written in a democratic
newspaper, John W. Kern, the democratic
nominee for sonntor in Indiana, Bays: In
tho next political contest the chief question
for solution will bo whothor tho economic policy
which lays unnecessary burdens upon labor and
production for tho benefit of tho favored fow
shall bo continued. Tho democratic patty must
continue to bo tho champion of tho masses in
that contest, and it must present an unbroken
front. If wo have in our party councils men
who stand for special privilege in any form wo
must bo rid of them, for they belong on tho
other sido. It must bo understood that our
party platform declarations two years hence and
always must bo religiously carried out, and that
party honesty is as essential to party success as
porsonal honesty is essential to personal success.
So long as there is doubt whether our leaders
will porform tho party's promises, so long will
there bo doubt in tho minds of tho American
voters as to whether our party can bo trusted.
Broken platform pledges destroy confldenco, and
without confidence there can be no victory."
THE PEOPLE of Hutchinson, Kansas, aro lay
ing themselves liable to tho charge of lose
majeste. A Hutchinson, Kans., dispatch printed
in tho Denver Times says: "Because of an ar
ticle by Theodore Roosevelt in the last issuo of
tho Outlook, that number of the magazine has
been barred from sale in Hutchinson. An ordi
nance recently was passed .following the agitation
over tho fight films to bar prize fight pictures,
newspapers containing accounts of prize fights
and magazines, books or pamphlets containing
such matter. Because of Mr. Roosevelt's com
ment on the Reno prize fight the laBt issue of
the Outlook came under the ban and was not
placed on sale. To see that the ordinance was
enforced, City Commissioner Oswald made a tour
of the book stores yesterday asking for tho Out
look in each place. Nono of them would sell it,
as tho ordinance provides a heavy fine for tho
violation. Mayor Martin was a victim of the
ordinance. Ho attempted to buy a copy of tho
magazine, but the bookseller said, 'Can't sell it.
It has an article on prize fighting by Roosevelt
and would bo breaking tho ordinance.' "
THE LATE King Edward paid his income tax
under the Lloyd-Georgp finance bill even
before ho gave that measure his royal assent.
Referring to that incident tho New York World
says. "The rate is very high. The king was
not obliged to pay at all, since parliament has
no legal power to levy on tho crown. Ho pre
ferred to follow the excellent example of Queen
Victoria,-who voluntarily shared the burdens of
British taxpayers. There are American 'kings
of finance of far greater wealth and fewer finan
cial burdens of obligation than King 'Edward's
who fight by every means in their power all
attempts to securo legislation such as every other
civilized nation of consequence has adopted to
insure that wealth shall bear a reasonable part
of the public burdens along with poverty. Or
ganized wealth in New York is almost solidly
against the adoption of the income tax amend
ment, for which President Taft is still pleading.
Is tho New York legislature prepared to take tho
position that this organized wealth should have
privileges transcending those which the British
crown claims for itself?"
SPEAKER CANNON has been making several
addresses in Kansas and has defied his re
publican opponents. In a speech at Emporia ho
said that he would not take himself out of the
race for tho speakership but would abide by tho
will of tho republican caucus. On this point he
said: "I am speaker and on March 4 next I
will have been speaker for eight years, a longer
continuous term than any man ever served as
speaker since, the foundation of the government.
There has been only one man who has had a
longer service of speaker than I have had, and
there was an interim of four years in his. service.
That was when Henry Clay, who in the aggregate
served ten years as speaker. Somebody has got
to be tho scapegoat through magazines and let
ters. Candidates forcongress are asked, 'Will
you pledge yourself not to vote for that old czar
for speaker?' Oh, the scapegoat! This little
154 pounds of clay can not bear many sins off
into tho wilderness. If my constituency is as
kind to me as it has been for thirty-six years
I will go back, if God spares my life, and be in
tho next congress, either in tho majority or in
tho minority, and I would rather be there in a
republican 'minority, a real, virile republican
minority, than to be one of an apparent ma
jority that could not take account of stock and
know from one day to the other whether it was
tho majority or tho minority. They wanted me
to pledge that I would not be a candidate for
speaker if the republicans have a majority of the
next house. They will meet in caucus and select
a candidate for the speaker. I will be in that
caucus and I will vote for tho man the caucus
selects. I know of no crime I have committed
that should bar me from entering a republican
caucus. If you ask whether I want to be speaker
of tho house of representatives longer than eight
years, I have been speaker that long because
my friends thought I could be most useful as a
member of congress in that position. But, as
long as God lets me live, the muckraking period
icals and the so-called independent or progres
sive republicans shall not make me say that I
will not be a candidate for speaker any more
than they shall make me say, if I am again elect
ed to congress, that I will not vote when my
name is called."
Bristow and his constituents that, instead of
endeavoring to make political capital by mis
stating official figures and making charges
against the brother senator, he had better, as a
good citizen, give the information that he pro
fesses to have to the appropriate grand jury and
,to the department of justice for their action in
tho enforcement of the laws that cover us all."
SENATOR BRISTOW replied to Speaker
Cannon on the rubber trust charge. "Mr.
Cannon," said Mr. Bristow," "forgets that thero
is rubber and rubber. When he says that the
increased duties on manufactured rubber did
not result in a decrease in importations he would
seem to refer only to hard rubber, the kind that
is sometimes used in making rules. Let tho
speaker look up the rubber question and he will
find that there are several kinds of elastic or
soft rubber to which my statements apply ex
actly. I am told that Speaker Cannon said he
did not know that Senator Aldrich organized
a trust. In my Winfield address I set forth facts
as contained in official documents, in Poor's
Manual and in the Wall Street Journal which
are considered reliable authority by every busi
ness man in this country. Whether or not Sen
ator Aldrich is guilty of a technical violation of
the statutes I do not know. It is the duty of
the attorney general of the United States to
investigate violations of the Sherman anti-trust
law. But I do know that he is guilty of violation
of political decency, of political dishonesty."
tqEPLYING TO Senator Bristow's recent
Xt charges concerning the tariff on rubber Mr.
Cannon said: "Senator Bristow, in his speech
at Winfield, charged that Senator Aldrich and
others brought about an increase of the duty
on 'manufactured rubber, and thereupon organ
ized a rubber trust. Senator Bristow said that
under the operation of the Payno tariff law there
was a decrease in the amount of manufactured
rubber imported, and therefore a loss in revenue.
Either knowingly or ignorantly, Senator Bristow
did not state the facts. The truth is, as shown
by the official figures of the bureau of statistics
for the nine months ending March 30, 1910, un
der the Payne law there was an increase in the
importations of rubber manufactures amounting
to $356,332. For the same period tho revenue
derived from imports of manufactured rubber
increased $126,384. The senator further said
that for the same period as indicated above
there was an increase of more than $40,000,
000 in the amount of crude rubber imported. I
submit that tho senator intended his audience
to understand that, notwithstanding the increase
and importation of crude rubber, the imports of
manufactured rubber decreased. The truth is,
as I have shown from official figures, that the im
portations of manufactured rubber increased un
der the Payne law, despite the five per cent
higher duty.. Since May 30, 1909, there have
been increases in the price of crude rubber
amounting to forty-five and one-half per cent
due to the increased use of rubber in the every
day life of the people, for automobile tires, elec
trical purposes, etc. But the price of the crude
rubber as given is that of the open markets of
tho world, and can not be ascribed to the tariff,
for rubber is on the free list. The figures I have
given show that even the increased rate is not
sufficient to prevent the large increase in impor
tations of manufactured rubber made by foreign
labor in competition with labor of America. Upon
these misstatements which Senator Bristow
makes himself responsible for he builds his
charges against his brother senator. So far the
statement is Mr. Bristow's. Then ho proceeds
to put in quotation marks what his authority is,
God only knows that Senator Aldrich and
others organized a rubber trust. I don't know
whether Senator Aldrich and others organized a
. trust. Being uninformed, I neither deny or af
firm, but if Senator Aldrich, occupying his great
position, did organize a trust, then, under the
Sherman anti-trust act, provided trusts engaged
in interstate commerce, he is liable not only to
severe punishment by fine, but by Imprisonment
in the penitentiary. Let me suggest to Senator
REPRESENTATIVE Victor Murdock, insur
gent republican, replied to Speaker Can
non In his speech delivered at Emporia1. Mr.
Murdock declared that Cannon is a "standstiller"
and has been opposed to every law giving re
form. He declared the speaker is a "living
denial" of the right of tho people to rule, and
he added: "There have been corrupt votes in
the American congress; there have been servile
votes in the American congress; but I stand hero
to tell you never was a more servilo and slavish
vote cast in your congress by your representa
tives than when, under the lash of Dalzell, the
slave driver of Pennsylvania, your representa
tives in KansaB, from all the districts but the
Seventh and Eighth, voted under the lead of
that Tammany democrat to bind that corrupt
bargain with Tammany and the New York ma
chine. Can you imagine Webster voting with
that gang? Or Clay? Or Jefferson? Or
Jackson?"
THEY ARE HAVING a stirring campaign in
Tennessee, Zach McGhee, correspondent
for the Columbia (S. C.) State is writing a series
of letters on Tennessee politics. Mr. McGhee
says: "Everybody in tho whole state of Tennes
see seems to be terribly wrought up, and tho
atmosphere is everywhere thick with those
classic expletives and epithets, which when at
tempt is made to print them, melt the type into
a dash or a blank space, but which, they say,
add, in the spoken language, to the picturesque
ness of life, especially politics. Kentucky, you
know, is the place where the poet hath said:
'The landscape is tho grandest, and politics tho
damndest,' but Kentucky is not and never was
a circumstance to what Tennessee is this year.
Everybody is a liar; pretty nearly everybody is
a thief, a large portion of the population aro
murderers, tho exact number depending upon
the election returns, while a heap of folks here
tofore considered at least fairly respectable, are
things which' we just can't put into print. Now
the center of all the disturbance is the governor
of the state, Malcolm R. Patterson, of Memphis,
commonly known from his youth as 'Ham.' He
is the center. The crowd and with it tho eulogy
storm surrounds him. 'Ham' calls them things,
and they call 'Ham' things. About the mildest
thing he calls them is a pack of curs, which he
says are barking at the heels of the mastiff.
What the other fellows call him I haven't yet
found a printablo word for. Their meaning,
though the ordinary anti-Patterson Tennessean
may nbt express it so mildly or so-respectfully,