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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1910)
rf";!"-.' The Commoner. VOLUME l'O, NUMBER 45 '-rHW 1 L1 r I l! V 1 ft !' The Commoner. ISSUED WEEKLY Entered at tho Postofflco at Lincoln, Nebraska, as second-class matter. WlUJAM J. BnYAK CUAM.KS W. BllYAN Editor and Proprietor ruMlaher niciiARD I Mktcaxkk Editorial Hooma unci Buslncsa Assoclnto Kdltor Office 324-330 South 12th Street One Year 1.00 Six Montliw .50 In Clubs of Five or more, per year... .75 Three Month .25 SIhkIc Copy........ .05 Samplo Copies Free. Foreign Post. 5c Extra. SUBSCRIPTIONS can bo sent direct to Tho Com moner. Thoy can also bo sent through newspapers which havo advertised a clubbing rate, or through local agents, where sub-agents have been appoint ed. All remittances should be sent by postofflco money order, express order, or by bank draft on New York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, stamps or money. DISCONTINUANCES It Is found that a largo majority of our subscribers prefer not to havp their subscriptions interrupted and their flics broken In case they fall to remit beforo expiration. It is thorcforo assumed that continuance is desired un less subscribers order discontinuance, either when subscribing or at any time during the year. PRESENTATION COPIES -Many rersons sub scribe for friends, Intending that the paper shall stop at tho end of tho year. If instructions aro ? riven to that effect they will receive attention at ho proper time. RENEWALS The dato on your wrapper shows tho time 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 weeks are required after money has been received beforo tho dato on wrapper can bo changed. CHANGE OF ADDRESS Subscribers requesting a change of address must glvo old as well as new address. ADVERTISING Rates will bo furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb, Little do ye know your own bless edness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and 4he true success is to labor. Robert Louis Stevenson. THE PHILOSOPHY OF BOLTING The eastern newspapers seem to think that Mr. Bryan has changed his position on the right of the voter to follow his conviction. "When Mr. Bryan was editor of the Omaha1 "World Herald ho published an editorial (issue of Feb ruary 26, 1896) entitled "The Philosophy of Bolting." That editorial is hereinafter repro duced, the name of the paper-referred to in the editorial bein& omitted: The is very much agitated at the thought that some democrats may refuse to vote for the Chicago, nominee, and it alternately castigates Secretary Carlisle for refusing to aid Senator Blackburn and silver democrats, whom it accuses of an unwillingness to support a goldbug for president. It gives more space to criticism and warning than it does to an intelli gent effort to remove the cause of danger. We have reached a time when calm discussion will avail more than crimination and recrimination, and the World-Herald invites its esteemed con temporary to discuss this question: 'Is bolting justifiable, and if so, when?' The World-Herald holds that the individual member of a party at all times reserves the right to vote against a nominee of a party and to abandon his party entirely, 'whenever, in his judgment, his duty to hiB country requires it. He may abandon the party temporarily, as for instance, when an unfit candidate is nominated this is recognized by the fact that newspapers and speakers discuss the character of candidates and point out their fitness and unfitness. The voter may abandon his party permanently either when he himself changes his opinion upon a paramount public question or when his party changes its position. The strength of party or ganization is found in the fact that men do not like to repudiate a nominee or leave their party for light and trivial causes; in fact, the ten dency to vote a straight ticket is so great that men require tho strongest of reasons to justify desertion, and yet the right to bolt or abandon is essential unless man is to become a mere machine and unless the party machine is to become omnipotent. The desire to draw voters to the party makes tho party careful to indorse the wisest policies, and the fear that men may bolt is the most effective protection against bad nominations. Webster defines a party as: 'A number of persons united in opinion, as opposed to the rest of tho community or associations, and aiming to influence or control tho general action.' Agreement in opinion is the essential thing; who would define a party as 'a number of persons differing in opinion, but united in an effort to secure the, offices?' The reason why abandonment of party is not frequent is found in tho fact that party principles are generally permanent in character and therefor the mem bers of the party, agreeing in opinion, work to gether harmoniously to carry out those opinions in legislation. The fact that a new national platform is adopted every four years is evidence that the right of tho party to change its posi tion on public questions is universally recog nized, and the fact that a campaign is carried. . on through the press and upon the stump is proof that the right of the voter to change his party affiliations is also recognized. The party is a means, not an end; it has no reason for exis tence except as it enables the citizens to secure good government. When is a man justified in abandoning his party? Obviously, when he sat isfies himself .that some other party Is a better means through which to serve his country. "If the members of a party agree upon the important issues, difference of opinion on minor matters is of little consequence, but difference of opinion upon the questions that are for the time being paramount, always has destroyed, always will destroy, and always ought to destroy party harmony. It may bo sad to contemplate the disturbance of harmony or the disintegration of a party, but until human nature is changed arid our form of government abandoned such things- must be contemplated. When the taTlff was the main issue democrats stood together, regardless of differences of opinion upon the money question; but now the money question is paramount, and we see such a democratic tariff reformer as John G. Carlisle refusing to aid a democratic tariff reformer like Senator Blackburn in his fight against a republican pro tectionist, and we see a tariff reformer like Grover Cleveland carrying out the financial policy of a protectionist like John Sherman. Can a national convention harmonize the dis cordant elements of the democratic party? Im possible. Suppose the advocates of bimetallism control the national convention and nominate a free silver democrat upon a free coinage plat form, will Cleveland, Carlisle, Olney, Morton, et al. support the ticket? Of course not.' They say the free coinage of silver means Individual dishonesty, commercial disaster and national dishonor, and if they believe what they say, they ought not to support the ticket, because their duty to their country is higher than their duty to their party organization. If, on the other hand, the convention nominates a gold standard democrat on a platform indorsing the gold standard, gold bonds, and national bank currency, should the nominee be supported by those who believe the gold standard to be a conspiracy of the capitalistic classes against the producers of wealth a crime against mankind? Who says that they should? If to continue Mr. Cleveland's financial policy Is to declare war against the common people, what friend of the common people would he willing to enlist in such a warfare, even at the command of his party? "There is no compromise between monometal lism and bimetallism; there is no middle ground between tho issue of all paper money by the government and the issue of all paper money by the banks. There may have been a time when compromise was possible, but the question Is now before the people and it must be settled one way or tho other. If the question was an unimportant one it might be settled within the party and the decision acquiesced In; but It is a question that touches every man, woman and child in the nation, a question of right or wrong, a question of justice or injustice, a question of. freedom or slavery. Will advise its readers to silence their conscience, close their ears to cries of distress and their eyes to a misery greater than 'war, pestilence and famine,' and vote the ticket straight if the goldbugs con trol tho convention? "It does not dare to give that advice if it has any interest in the welfare of its readers.. The democratic party can not serve God and Mam mon; it can not servo plutocracy and at tho same timo defend the rights of the masses. If it yields to the plutocracy it ought to lose, and it will lose the support of tho masses; if it espouses the cause of the people it can not expect either ' contributions or votes from tho capitalistic .classes , and 'from- the great corpora tions. If the gold standard democrats control the national convention they will determine tho policy of the, democratic party on all questions Will they give the people relief from corporate aggression and from the oppression of trusts' Will they make this a government 'of the peo ple, by the people and for the people?' Tho knows that the gold standard demo crats, instead of affording the people relief would simply carry on the government accord ing to republican ideas. When, the democratic party has gone down fighting for the right it has felt certain of resurrection, but what assur ance has it of rising again if it goes' down fight ing against the interest of the masses? When the spirit of Jefferson leaves the" democratic party it will be a corpse. "If abandonment of party Is ever justifiable the voter must determine for himself when tho time for abandonment arrives. When should he decide? The proper time, if not the only time, is after the party has adopted its platform and named its candidate. Until that time ho does not know whether ho can rely upon it to secure the government which he regards as good and the legislation which he considers necessary. Does, participation in a primary or convention bind the voter to support a policy which ho considers ruinous? If ho tries, through his party organization" to cave his country and fails, must he then take a hand in its destruction? If a great question arises, must he assume that his party will go wrong, and therefore leave it before it acts, or should he try to hold his paTty to the right course? If a question of supreme importance arises which, threatens to divide tho party, have not the majority a right to retain the party name and organization? And how can the majority be determined unless all members of the party have a right to take part in tho decision? In some of the western states tho goldbugs have Insisted that silver democrats should pledge themselves to support the nominee before taking part In the selection of delegates. If a pledge is to be required, it should be re quired of those who select delegates as well as of those who act as delegates; but what organi zation has a right to require such a pledge? "A county organization might require a pledge of those "who are going to vote upon a county ticket, and a state organization might require a pledge of those who aro going to vote upon a state ticket, but only a national organization can require a pledge of those who are going to vote upon national candidates and national questions. It would be manifestly unfair for democrats of Missouri to be required to givo a pledge to support the nominee of a national convention unless the same pledge is required of the democrats of Massachusetts. Why should the democrats of the west and south agree to support the nominee of a national convention unless the democrats of the northeastern states enter into the same agreement. Has any east ern state, pledged its democrats to vote for a free silver candidate if nominated? Of course not; and yet if election returns are worth any thing, they prove that easlern democrats aro more apt to bolt than the democrats of the south. The eastern papers announce with great emphasis that a free silver democrat can not carry an eastern state. Is that not a declaration that eastern democrats, after taking part in tho selection of a candidate, will vote against him if they do not like him? The democratic party has selected its candidate from New York, and yet some western democrats insist that the dem ocrats of the west and south are In duty bound to support the nominee, regardless of his posi tion on the money questiori, even though the nominee may, if elected, destroy tho value of their products, mortgage their home to foreign capitalists and lower the standard of civilization. "The World-Herald repudiates such a doc trine and demands the samo' liberty, the same Independence, the same political rights, for the democrats of the south and west that our east ern brethren have at all times enjoyed. Will the enforce against its own readers a doctrine 'Which it has 10 power to enforce against the goldbug democrats of the east? Or will it recognize the right of all democrats to a voice in the deliberations of the party, with the reserved right to abandon the party whenever the party abandons the cause of the people?" Tho American Homestead, a monthly farm journal of national scope, will ho sent to all Commoner subscribers, without additional cost, who renew their subscriptions during tho month November when this notice is mentloncHl. Q ff,