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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1910)
?T:--'"rv-7,n- 6 The Commoner. .VOLUME 10, NUMBBE 38 I V "fT f' t I f f- N . r. MANY PROGRESSIVE republicans wore dis appointed becauso Mr. Roosovolt did not "say a good word for LaFollette prior to prihiary oloctlon day. Tho Minneapolis Journal prints this editorial: "Arriving in Milwaukee on tho day following Senator LaFollotto's victory at stho polls, Colonel Roosovolt was bound to say fiomothing about it. What ho said can not bo 'construed as an enthusiastic indorsement of Senator LaFollotto. It amounted merely to this, that it would bo a1 shameful thing not to ratify 'the choice of tho people. But, as Colonel Roose velt when president said tho samo thing about .the election of Senator Chamborlaln in Oregon, 'this indorsement can bo construed no further than was tho Oregon indorsement. In each case Colonol Roosovolt stood for tho right of the people to mako their own selections and the duty of tho legislature to ratify tho samo. "Why Colonol Roosovolt did not go further and say something in praise of Senator LaFollette is his own secret. But it is no secret that the ultra-progressives expected it and are disappoint- ed that it did not come. Colonel Roosevelt has indorsed warmly suclufionators as Dolliver and Bristow, who work hand in hand with LaFol- letto, but ho has not warmed up to LaFollette , himself." MRS. BELLAMY , STORER is taking a hand against Mr. Roosevelt. The Springfield (Mass.) Republican prints a letter from Mrs. Storer written in Franco, Septembor 6, review ing tho controversy between tho Storers and Mr. Roosovolt concerning tho former president's al leged authorization of tho former ambassador to Austria-Hungary to visit Pope Pius X. aiid ask him as a personal favor to tho president of tho United States to mako Archbishop Ireland of St. 'Paul a cardinal. Letters written by tho arch bishop in 1003 and 1904; hitherto unpublished, aro quoted by Mrs. Storer to show that at re peated intervals in tho fight between tho arch bishop and the president, Mr. Roosevelt ac knowledged that ho had commissioned Mr. .Storer to act as his personal envoy at the Vatican in behalf of the archbishop. Mr. Roosevelt has hitherto publicly denied that Mr. Storer was ever Authorized to represent him in this manner, and the Ireland letters now published by Mrs. Storer ihavo tho effect of making much sharper the issue of veracity between the Storers and the ex-president. Mrs. Storer's letter to the Repub lican also seeks to prove, on the testimony of Archbishop Ireland, that President Roosevelt promised to make Mr. Storer United States am bassador either at Paris or London and there is included still another letter, allegod to have been Written by Mr. Roosevelt to Mr. Storer, just after the presidential election of 1896, in which Mr. Roosevelt asked Mr. Storer to see President elect McKinley and urge him to appoint Mr. Roosevelt assistant secretary of tho navy. This last letter seeks to refute a recent assertion that Mr. Roosevelt never sought a public office except when he sought a presidential nomination in 1904. cally for tho election by direct vote of the people of all federal judges fr specified terms. Tho strength of Roosovelt lies in the belief on tho part of a majority of the people that he repre sents and embodies opposition to special privi lege, which has seized control of every branch of the federal government, including its judicial branch, That the popular estimate of Roose velt's sincerity is a mistaken estimate the writer, in common with the World, is firmly convinced. But the fact remains that his popularity is bot tomed on a' popular belief that he is a champion of tho rights of man as opposed to the greed of vested wrong. No utterance he has made on his western trip is more popular in the region where he made it than his outspoken criticism of tho hair-splitting, wire-drawn reasoning pro cesses of the supreme court of the United States. What atmosphere of holiness surrounds a group of judges to render them immune from making tho same mistakes or yielding to the same im proper influences as other men? Why are they not subject to the same temptations and as likely to commit the same errors as other men? Are they not, in common with the policeman on his beat, mere public servants, liable to the same free criticism as the policeman for any departure from tho strict line of duty? Is not 'bench worship' out of place in a republic?" THE SAN FRANCISCO Star says: "Several months ago Mr. Bryan offered the sugges tion that if the government is to hire ship owners to sail ships so that it may have? ships to use in event of war, it might find it more profitable to build and operate the ships itself. Tho idea is not now. Wo have used it as an argument against ship subsidy. The idea of the government using its transports and colliers in time of peace to carry merchandise is not wholly without merit, says the Milwauke Jour nal. It might not be a bad idea if the entire navy could b.e put to some useful service and carry the flag and exports of coal oil and other commodities to remote places. When Mr. Bryan made the suggestion, of course, it became 'so cialistic' and extremely visionary. It was ab surd that he should pretend to be a Jeffersonian democrat and hold to such undemocratic ideas. How little those who extol Jefferson most know of what he really said and urged and advocated in his long and active life! The idea, it happens, was original with Jefferson and is something over a century old. In a letter to Richard Henry Lee on the building of an American navy Jef ferson wrote: 'I would be happy to hear con gress thought of establishing packets of their own between New York and Havre. Could not the surplus of the postoffice revenue be ap plied to this?' So we see that Jefferson enter tained the socialistic idea that the government should own and oper.ate merchant ships which belong to tho navy. Jefferson, of course, was not a practical man or there would . not have beeff a surplus in the. postal revenues." I AN "IOWA DEMOCRAT" writes from Sioux City to the New York World to remind that newspaper that Thomas Jefferson, as well as Theodore Roosevelt, had some distrust of courts. This Iowa democrat says: e "Inasmuch as the , World is a democratic newspaper, I suggest that it read and digest Thomas Jefferson's opinions concerning tho sanctity of courts and tho in fallibility of judges before it ventures too far .in condemnation of Colonel Roosevelt's 'assault' upon our august supremo tribunal. What Roosevelt said is mild and gentle compared with tho openly expressed abhorrence with which tho patron saint of the democratic party viewed our whole federal judicial system. Condemnation of Colonel Roosevelt's remarks concerning the supremo court has been confined almost exclu sively to journals published east of the Alleghany 'mountains. Western newspapers know that Roosevelt echoed western feeling. Tho real sentiment of tho ordinary voter of tho middle west, which now holds tho balance of power in presidential and congressional elections, was voiced in tho platform recently adopted by the republicans of Kansas, which declared specifi- THE SITUATION looks blue for the republi can party. The Kansas City Star, a repub lican newspaper, says: "Representative Mur dock's prediction that the next congress will be progressive is borno out by the political events of tho summer. It may even be democratic, if the revolt proves as far reaching as the out come in Maine indicates. In the house the re publicans started with a majority of forty-seyen. With a loss of two votes in the Cape Cod dis trict in Massachusetts and the Rochester district in New York this was reduced to a majority of forty-three. The loss of two more in Maine reduces it now to thirty-nine. But with the further losses in the general elections that are thus foreshadowed including five seats in Mis souri there is hardly a republican leader who fails to admit privately that the house is 'gone Of the thirty retiring senators, nine are removed from the possibility of Succeeding themselves. These are Aldrich, Burrows Flint, Hale, Piles and Warner, regular republicans; and Daniel, Money and Taliaferro, democrats. Burrows probably will be succeeded by Townsend, pro gressive; Warner by a democrat; Flint and Piles by either progressives or democrats, and Hale presumably by a democrat. Aldrich's suc- cessor presumably will be a regular. A demo crat, temporarily appointed from North Dakota, is likely to be succeeded by A. J. Grtfnna, pro gressive republican. It is believed that nine of the thirty members who ask for re-election aro leading forlorn hopes. These are Beveridge of Indiana1, progressive; Burkettof Nebraska, near-progressive; Bulkeley of Connecticut, Car ter of Montana, Depew of New York, Dick of Ohio, Kean of New Jersey, Nixon of Nevada, and Scott of West Virginia, all regulars. In the event of a landslide year, Clark of Wyom ing, DuPont of Delaware and perhaps 'Suther land of Utah might go. If Maine forecasts a general landslide, there is a possible loss of six teen republican votes in the senate and a gain of one a net loss of fifteen. The republican majority of twenty-six would then be trans formed into a minority of four. A republican loss even of six which is regarded as practi cally inevitable would give the balance of power to the progressive republicans. Evi dently it is distinctly within the range of possi bilities that President Taft may have to- work with a democratic house and senate for the last two years of his administration." RUSHING TO the defense of the much abused "preachers' sons," theDmaha (Neb.) Daily News says: "Other men commit crimes and there is no special reference made to their fath ers' occupation, "but let a preacher's son make a mistake, and the gossipers are set going at once. 'What can you expect from a preacher's son?' is so easily asked by those who seem to expect preachers and their children to be im maculate specimens of human beings. It must not be forgotten that while your minister is doing a thousand and one things for the spiritual comfort of the members of his congregation on a salary that most bricklayers would despise, his children must necessarily be neglected to that extent, and that they have each the same temp tations to struggle against that your boy and girl face The next time it occurs to you that preachers' children 'are no better than they should be,' read over this list of preachers' sons: Oliver Wendell Holmes, author; Edward Everett Hale, statesman and author; John Hancock, first signer of the declaration of independence; Jona than Edwards, theologian; Increase Mather, former president of Harvard; Cotton Mather, author and scholar; George Bancroft, states man and historian; Louis Agassiz, naturalist; Henry Clay, statesman and orator; Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet; David Dudley Field, jurist; Stephen J. Field, justice United States supreme court; Cyrus W. Field, founder of the Atlantic Cable company; John B. Gordon, soldier and statesman; Henry Ward Beech er, preacher and reformer; Samuel F. B. Morse, artist and inventor; James Russell Lowoll, author and diplomat; Francis Parkman? historian; Grover Cleveland, twice president of the United States; David J. Brewer, former justice of the United States supreme court; Jonathan J. Dolliver, senator; Henry James, novelist; Richard 'Wat son Gilder, editor and poet; Lyman Abbott, preacher and editor. There are others, too many to enumerate, enough to prove that were all men's sons up to the average made oy preachers' sons there would be a much higher average." REV CHARLES STELZLE, the "union labor preacher," has prepared what he calls "an every day creed." Here it is: "I believe in my job. It may not be a1 very important job,' but it is mine. Furthermore, it is God's job for me. He has a purpose in my life with reference to his plan for the world's progress. No other fellow can take my place. It isn't a big place; to be sure, but for years I have been molded in a peculiar way to fill a peculiar niche in the world's work. I could take no other man's place. He has the same claim as, a- specialist that I make for myself. In the end, the man whose name was never heard beyond the house in which he lived, or the shop in which he worked, may have a larger place than the chap whose name has been a household word in tw.o continents. Yes, I b'elieve in my job. May I be kept true to the task which lies before me true to myself and to God who intrusted me EE 'tJM