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DECEMBER 30, 1910 '
The New Nationalism
The Scotching of new nationalism is one of
the undeniable results of the election. In &
speech at Indianapolis, October 18, Mr. Bryan
spoke of new nationalism as follows: '
The senate to be lp.nfri win nui..
to deal with new nationalism, and you ought to
Know what new nationalism means. You will
not feel offended if. I assume that some of you
- may not know, because I did not find out until
about a week ago, and I make it my business
to keep posted on what is going on politically.
But I was so jejoiced to find Mr. Roosevelt en
dorsing several democratic reforms that I over
looked some of the things that he said at Osa
watomle. I had wondered why he called it new
nationalism-It seemed to mo that-old democ
racy would really be a better description, be
cause the things that attracted attention were
things for which democracy has been fighting.
But a little more than a week ago I saw an
extract from his own magazine, the Outlook,
' and in this extract; Mr. Roosevelt himself had
condensed his new nationalism into four sen
tences. When I read these sentences I was
amazed; I was astounded. And you will be
both amazed and astounded when you find out
.. what new nationalism means.
Before I read the three sentences that-1 de
sire to comment on I will read the fourth, which
is not so important. He says:
"New nationalism demands of the judiciary
that it shall be interested primarily in human
welfare, rather than in property."
Well,- there is nothing new about that de
mand. It is now more than sixty years since
.Lincoln coined the phrase which is the most apt
expression of this doctrine; he said that when
the dollar and the man come into conflict he
was for the man before the dollar. The demo
cratic party has been preaching that doctrine
for years; that is all that fourth sentence means.
You do not have to advocate new nationalism to
get. that old doctrine. But let me give you the
three sentencea which contain the essence of new
, nationalism.
t,. "First, the new nationalism is impatient of
the utter confusion that results from local legis
latures attempting to treat national issues as
local issues."
What does that mean? It means that new
nationalism wants to deprive the states of some
of the powers that they now have; and transfer
those powers to Washington. One of the things
desired is the national incorporation of railroads.
Mr. Roosevelt has recommended it in one of his
messages, and one of the reasons he gave was
that it would relieve the railroads some annoy
ance by local legislatures. President Taft is
now preparing, through his attorney general,
a bill that provides for the national incorpora-,
tion of corporations engaged in interstate com
merce; and why? Because state restrictions
are objected to by these great corporations. The,
first step toward the new nationalism is to con
centrate power in Washington, to increase the
proportional power of the federal government
and decrease the proportional importance of the
Btates. It means that when you want to deal
with a railroad, or with the big corporations
that come into your state, instead of doing so
by your slate legislatures, you must wait until
Washington acts. And remember that when you
wait on Washington you wait on the senate as
well as the house; and that senate now has so
many representatives of predatory interests in
it, that it is the bulwark of the exploiting in
terests of the country. Are you willing to sur--render
the power you now have, and put your
government farther away from you? The demo
cratic party says that federal remedies should '
be added to the state remedies, not substituted
for state remedies. The democratic party says,
let "the state exercise the power it has, and let
the nation exercise the power It has. When
both state and nation have acted you will not
have any more regulation than you need. Let
me illustrate this. The home, the church and
the school join in developing the character of
our boys. What mother would be willing to
strike down either the home, the school or the
church, and leave it all to the other two? And
yet. my friends, the advocates of new nation
alism would diminish the power of the people
of a state to protect their own rights, and make
it more difficult to secure redress by removing
the seat .of power to Washington. That is the
first step in the new nationalism-the concen
tration of power in Washington. And the
MeC?The: new Nationalism is still more impatient
The Commoner.
divfRh!nnlm,?tcnc h,ch 8prIn from the over
division of government powers." .
WmWnSS, ni6Dly t0 conwntrato power in
Washington, but you aro to consolidate tho
En8 f, sovcrnmont. Instead of having a
division of powers such as tho fathers thought
necessary for tho protection of liberty you fir a
courfnS ,, Pi,8V,f eXCCUtIvo and a diminish ng
And whdnf1Cg,l8,anUro,That Is ateD mcr two.
foHowK d Step? U naturay
"Third, tho new nationalism regards tho oxec
?areP0Wer aS stward of tho public wel-
There you havo it, my friends. First nut
everything in Washington. Second, put every
thing in the hands of tho president. And thon
lie Is to stand as a sort of earthly fathor and
take care of us. How do you. like now natlon
f i8mm,my frlend8' when you find out what It
is.' This is tho doctrine from which tho world
has been moving. It has cost tho lives of mil
lions of patriots to get away from this doctrine.
God forbid that wo should go back to it?
I doubt if there is another man in tho United
tates who would desire to exercise tho power
that Mr. Roosevelt wants to vest in a president.
I do not believe there is another. Even if you
are willing to trust him with this power I beg
you to remember that ho is only human and
may die; you must trust another man to exorcise
it when he is dead. You cannnot judge a mon
archy by a good king. Thero havo boon good
kings, but there never was a good monarchy.
The doctrine is bad, and never since tho days
of Alexander Hamilton has such a doctrine been
promulgated in the United States by a prominent
man as is now advanced in tho name of new
nationalism. You need John Kern there to
vote against these initial steps toward a one
man power. You need John Kern there to vote
against national incorporation of railroads. You
need John Kern there to vote against tho na
tional incorporation of great corporations that
are now hard to deal with, and will bo stronger
still if they can rid themselves of all state re
strictions and stalk, uncontrolled, across this
land.
And then there is the question of a free
speech and a free press. Is it a part of new
nationalism to commence libel suits in Wash
ington, and drag editors across tho continent
to defend themselves for criticism of an admin
istration? Is that to be considered a part of
now nationalism? If wo are to increase tho
Importance of tho federal government by con
centrating all power there; if we aro then to
increase the powers of the presidential office
by consolidating all power there, and then be
required to reverence it as the guardian and
steward of the people if that is to be the doc
trine then you need not bo surprised if you are
told that you must not frown when you look
up towards this source of power; that If you
do frown you must not speak; that if you speak,
they can take you from your home and make
you defend yourself at such a distance from
your home that even a victory will be bank
ruptcy for you and your children.
. While it would not be fair to say that opposi
tion to new nationalism accounts entirely for
Mr. Roosevelt's failure to elect the men whom
he supported, still it Is evident that the doctrine
which he presented has not taken hold upon
the hearts of the people, and why should it?
The people are democratic at heart, and tho
doctrine of local self-government Is the demo
cratic doctrine. People are not apt to surrender
political power when once thoy have been per
mitted to enjoy it; and it is a surrender of
political power to turn over to the national
government work that can be better done by
state legislatures. It is fortunate for tho coun
try that Mr. Roosevelt brought out his Hamil
tonian creed at the time he did, for had he held
it in reserve, he might put It forth now and
insist upon its popularity being tested at the
polls. As it is, ho will probably recognize that
tho people aro .wedded to the state as well as
to the nation; if he does not recognize it, tho
multitude do.
A GOOD BEGINNING
Senator-elect Wilkinson of Louisiana makes
a good beginning when he announces: "I am
a democrat and will stand with the democratic
party on the tariff question." This Is encourag
ing; Louisiana has at times been a -little weak
on tariff reform and the party will welcome a
senator who will stand with the democrats.
Here's to Senator Wilkinson.
5
Practical Tariff Talks
A Commonor reader auks for somo Informa
tion respecting tho tariff schedule on pahffi.
There aro a number of paragraph In tho o S
and chemicals schedule which havo a bearing
merce0 ThoV.n,lh0 Cmmon Da,nt
merco. Tho paint ono flees upon a house for
nTl 'Vr?? u" .f Vnrl0'r or teiSSioff
inore is tho pigmont, tho coloring materia'
o0inr,iho'th W,ln Bt,n "Mid I. rofoiSd
!.?i I? t trad0 Par,anco n tho vehicle, and
which when dry becomes tho binder; the Mi in
ner or solvent, tho drier and tho like. Tho
SS"lS!.n nr f VUr,0UB or,B,n"' So of thorn
Sri? pBJ0mi ftr 8uP,,ldoa. 8omo are iron
oxides. Each boars a sopnrato rating In tho
tariff schedule, as incidentally referred to in a
previous art clo, and each la very liberally nro-
wn n'rnS1,0 ,lh that amD, Stlmony
was prcsontcd to congrosa to show that them
Swfia r.",C t00h,Kh or oIbo unnecessary.
7KIE V t? ,B i!8,m,,?r oniployod as a solvent,
linseed oil as tho vehicle, whllo tho driers aro
wl!iiyi C,mpou,"d8 of ,cad nnd nrngnanoHc.
Whito lead and red lead aro basic compounds
of many paints.
Tho white load trust is a veil known and
powerful figure in commerce. It has boon able
to spring into being nnd to make millions for
Its owners very largely because of tho tariff
protection afforded it. This tariff protection
has boon for years about 4G per dent, Tho
dolusivo reduction mado in tho present tariff
law loaves It at 40 per cont. As tho Importa
tion was loss than $40,000 a year, which Is plain
proof of tho prohibitive character of tho old
tariff, it Is easy to discern that tho 0 per cent
cut, which is exactly ono-elghth of a cont a
pound, will not affect tho power of tho trust
to fix prices in tho homo market. This Is not
tho only instanco in this schedule whoro tho
Interests of tho truHt wero carofully lookod
after by tho tariff-makers. Tho high duties of
past years and tho high prices of lead paintn
drove a great many manufacturers to tho uso
of cheaper materials, such as barytes.
Barytcs Is a white, usually translucent pro
duct of stone, and used as a white pigment. It
docs not possess body enough of Its own to
form a substitute for white lead, but mixed with
the latter as an adulterant it accomplishes tho
beneficent purpose of necessitating a smaller
quantity of the latter. It takes color stains
uniformly, and experiment has shown it pos
sesses a permanent valuo In tho Industry. For
one thing, when used in connection with ana
lino, it enables a considerable surface to bo
covered by an unusually small quantity of paint.
It Is also used as tho base for convoying many
original coloring matters heed In paint. Its
uso meant and still means cheaper paints than
those where white lead Is the base. These
cheap paints havo become serious competltorH
with those made from tho products of tho lead
trust, and in order to protect tho trust by In
creasing the cost of making these cheapor paints
the Payne-Aldrich law doubled the duty on
crude barytes, increasing It from 20 to 40 per
cent.
In paint-making several Ingredients aro com
bined to form the white base from which color
ing tints are made. To get these tints tho
makers use dry colors mado from a combination
of chemicals or prepared from ores and clays
dried from the mine. Each of these ingredients
bears a duty of some kind, and in each instanco
tho duty is excessive, intended either to protect
tho manufacturer or tho mine-owner. The paint
making business is usually divided Into several
branches, each of which furnishes some one or
more Ingredients, usually prepared for mixing,
and the final mixing of oil and color is a divi
sion In Itself. The taTlff has been adjusted with
such a keen eye for the manufacturer and with
such disregard for the Interests of the consumer.
In such a way that several trusts exact tributes
from every paint-maker, with the final result
that today tho man who buys and uses the paint
pays 100 per cent more than he did ten years
ago and then ho usually got a better article
' for his money than he will for double that figure
today. C. Q. D.
Tho American Homestead, a monthly farm
journal of national scope, will be sent to all
Commoner subscribers, without ndditioncl cost,
who renew their subscriptions during the month
of January when this notice is mentioned.
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