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The GothmonfeL
JANUARY 13, X'Ollr
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cripple the Initiative and referendum law by
Impossible amendments was either knowingly
or unknowingly being dictated to by the brewery
combine.
"The governor spoke in favor of county option
and promised his best efforts along this line."
He declared that the people of the state "had
elected a republican governor and a democratic
legislature, thus doing away, with the possi
bility of playing politics. He urged that the
legislature get down to serious business, pass
a few needed laws and adjourn. He believed
It possible to adjourn March 1 with everything
done that the state requires.
"The governor urges the restoration of the
closed primary; strengthening of the antf-trust
law; giving cities the power to make their own
charters; ratification of the income tax amend
ment; favoring the use of voting machines;
overhauling of the registration law to prevent
certificate frauds; liberal appropriations."
In Indiana Governor Marshall warns -the. legis
lators to beware of the lobbyist. He- recom
mended the repeal of tho county option.. law, Uie
enactment of a . direct primary law and- a refer
endum act giving the voters the right to ap
prove or reject measures passed by the legis
lature. v
In Illinois, Governor Deneen advocated the
anti-pass law, employers liability, corrupt prac
tices act. and application, of Initiative. and refers
e'ndum upon a very important measure rather
than npon many measures. He advised the
adoption of the recall in the commission form
of government on petition of twenty-five per
cent of voters instead of seventy-five per cent
as at present.
In Minnesota, Governor Eberhart devoted his
message largely to purely local matters. He
recommended the abolition of capital punish
ment. In New York, Governor Dix devoted his mes
sage to state finances. Ho recommended, how
ever, a direct primary law, also tho election of
senators by popular vote.
In Connecticut, Governor Baldwin advocated
giving women the right of suffrage, and the
election of senators. by popular vote.
u.
POMERENE OF OHIO
; The. 'Ohio legislature has elected Atlee Pome
rene of Canton,. Ohio, to be United States sena'tor.'.
An. Associated Press dispatch says:
"Pomerene won the caucus nomination on the
first ballot when lie received forty-five votes the
exact number required. Next Monday he will
be inaugurated lieutenant governor of Ohio. Al
though his term in the senate begins in March,
he will serve as lieutenant governor, in which
capacity he presides over the Ohio senate, until
tho end of the present session, which may ex
tend until after May 1. His successor as lieu
tenant governor will be appointed by Governor
Harmon.
"The ballot was as follows: Pomerene, 45";
Stanley, 10; Campbell, 4; Powell, 1; Anderson,
5; Kilbourne, 3; Ansberry, 5; Thomas, 1; Lentz,
3; Donovan, 4; Daugherty, 5; Hughes, 2. Forty
five votes were necessary to. a choice.
"Atlee Pomerene is forty-seven years old. He
was graduated from Princeton in 1884, with
honors and from the Cincinnati law school in
1886. Since that time he has practiced law at
Canton. He served Stark county as prosecut
ing attorney. Pomerene was nominated for lieu
tenant governor at Dayton last June against his
wishes. He had been active in state politics,
but has had only one state honor, that of mem
bership in the tax commission appointed by
former Governor Harris. He was born at Berlin,
Holmes county, the son of a physician, who
owned a farm on which his eleven .children, in
cluding eight sons, were partly reared. The
father managed to send all his children to col
lege and of the sons four are physicians, three
lawyers and one, de'ceaBed, was a preacher.
Pomerene is married, but has no children."
Mr. Pomerene is one of Ohio's faithful demo
crats. He may ne depended upon to represent
the public interests and to take his stand among
the genuine progressive senators.
high freight rates, etc., were but evidences . of
tho fact of tho rule of special privilege. TMiis
- issue in the United States was raised in the last
democraticnational platform, where It declared:
"The people's rule" to bo "tho overwhelming
Issue which manifests itsolf in all tho questions
now under discussion."
Everywhere the republicans mado this tho
issue with obvious sincerity, they won out, as
in Washington and Wisconsin and in tho pro
gressive republican districts. Where the demo
crats made- the doctrine of "the people's rulo"
and the abuses of "the rulo of tho few" the
issue, they won out, as In Maine, Now Jersey,
Connecticut, Colorado, and in the numerous dis
tricts where the republicans wont to defeat,
Tho initiative and referendum, which is tho
soul of tho'peo.plo's rule, carried Maine two years
ago, and the triumph of the progressive democ
racy In Maine was a foregone conclusion.
Where the republican leaders have been suffi
ciently progressive, the people have been con-
tent to trust them. Where they wore evidently
controlled by machine politics In alliance with
business, they have suffered a tremendous loss.
Where the. democratic leaders wero in apparent
alliance with such selfish interests, i meant de
feat, as with Dahlman in Nebraska and tho Pat
terson machine In Tennessee which dragged the
too good-natured Bob Taylor to temporary
defeat.
That tho real issue was the. issue between tho
people's rule ami the rule of special privilege Is
abundantly evidenced by Pennsylvania, whero
Berry, the people's rule candidate, under tho
maragement of the Keystone committee, running
on the people's rule program, got 314,745 votes,
while Grim, the democratic candidate of the
bi-partisan machine, got 116,816 votes, a total
of 431,561 votes; while Toner, the regular' re
publican machine candidate, got 348,209 votes.
If the democrats of the Keystone state' had put
up a people's rule candidate and made the cam
paign on the people's rule system,, they would
.have carried Pennsylvania by over 84,000 votes,
in spite of the control of the election, machinery
by the republican bosses.
No power on earth can stop the movement
of the people's rule. It dominates the heart
' of democracy, It moves tho progressive repub--
licans, whose successes have depended on this
doctrine alone, and who grow strong Just in
degree that they show their confidence in It.
. The reactionaries of the country under the
color of conservatism will now make haste to.
court the democracy and try to win It away from..,
the people. The progressive democracy should,'
therefore, and for this very reason, make hasto
to clean its own house, to pledge itself anew to
establishing the rights of the people and the
rule of the people. Only by the system of direct
legislation and direct nomination can corrupt
machine politics, the agency through which
special interests have succeeded in ruling this
country for their own purposes, be overthrown.
ROBERT L. OWEN.
"THE PEOPLE'S RULE"
The revolution in political affairs of Novem
ber 8 should not bo misinterpreted. The real
issue was not whether one set of men should
replace another set of men, but whether special
interests in alliance with professional self-seeking
politicians should rule this country for the
benefit of monopoly at the expense of the great
masses of the people, or whether we should have
"the people's rule." High prices, high tariff,
TEXAS IN LINE
The following dispatch from Austin explains
itself: "Governor Campbell today certified to
President Taft, Vice President Sherman, Secre
tary of State Knox and Speaker Cannon the
ratification of the proposed income tax amend
ment by the third called session of the Thirty
first legislature. There was only one dissenting
vote in each branch of the legislature. Tho
full text of the amendment which Is proposed
is as follows: 'The congress shall have power
to lay and collect taxes on incomes from what
ever source derived without apportionment
among the several states and without regard
to any census of enumeration.' "
THE ROLL OF HONOR
Oklahoma
Alabama Maryland
South Carolina Kentucky
Illinois Mississippi
These states have ratified
What stato will be number ten?
Georgia
Texas
tho income tax.
LONESOME SENATOR
Senator Frazier of Tennessee (democrat) re
fuses to join in whitewashing Senator Lorimer.
He must feel lonesome, but to "keep good com
pany or none" sometimes reduces a senator's
associates.
The American Homestead, a monthly farm
journal of national scope, will be sent to all
Commoner subscribers, without additional cost,
who renew their subscriptions daring tlio month
of January when this notice is mentioned.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Edgar Howard in tho Columbus, Nebraska, Telegram
Twenty years ago a young man from a west
ern stato began suggesting that tho best way
to protect tho money which tho people deposit
ed in the banks would bo to have tho stato legis
latures enact a law to provide a guaranty fund
for stato banks, and for congress to enact a
law to protect depositors In national banks. At
that timo banking interests quito generally
ridiculed tho proposition, and the great majority
of newspaper editors endorsed tho ridiculo of
the bankers. Tho young man did not push tho
project, but ho defended the idea of guaranteed
deposits whenever that Idea was assailed.
As tho years wont by tho people began to
take, more and more interest in tho question of
guaranteed bank deposits, and finally in several
states the agitation carried a pledge for guar
anteed bank deposits into the state platforms
of the political parties, quite generally into tho
democratic platforms, but in some states tho
republicans also endorsing tho plan. At last
one stato Oklahoma actually enacted a law to
guarantee bank depositors against loss. What
a howl went up from tho great banking inter
ests and their subsidized newspapers! How the
great lawyers of the country laughed at tho
man who was redognized as tho foremost cham
pion of the idea of guaranteeing bank deposits!
They admitted that the man might be honest,
but they said ho had no knowledge of law, and
declared that the courts would kill every bank
guaranty law which any legislature might en
act. And tho courts did kill some of tho guar
anty laws. Hero in our own stato the people
instructed the legislature to enact such a law,
and the Instruction was obeyed. Then a United
States judge was imported from Wyoming to
pass upon the law, which tho big bankers were
opposing. The imported judgo killed the new
law,- and then tho lawyers laughed again, and
again laughed at the great advocate of guaran
teed deposits, placing him In the ranks of fools
and dreamers.
' But now comes the time when tho friends
of the. principle of guaranteed bank deposits
can do a little laughing. It is their turn to
laugh, because the supreme court of tho United
States last Tuesday overturned tho imported
judgo from Wyoming, and decided that the
bank guaranty laws enacted in Nebraska, Kan
sas and Oklahoma are good laws, and that tho
people can now get the benent of them.
What is the name of this man who has for
years been the foremost advocate of guaran
teed bank deposits? What Is the name of tho
man whose principle of tho law was laughed at
by the great lawyers, but which principle has
now been sustained by the highest judicial trib
unal on the earth? It is a name very dear to
the common people of the world, but particu
larly to the people of Nebraska:, because It is
the name of Nebraska's own great commoner
tho name of Bryan. The great bankers and tho
great lawyers called Bryan a dreamer, and so he
is, but the splendid dream has at last been
proved true by a court from which there s no
appeal.
Bryan has won many great victories, but the
Telegram regards the decision of the United
State supreme court In the bank guaranty cases
aB the greatest of all his victories. No longer
will the great lawyers of the nation dare to
question the legal mind of the great commoner.
No longer will they be able to patronizingly
say: "He is a good man, but still an impracti
cable dreamer." That supreme court decision
has given to our Bryan the unquestioned title
to leadership In statecraft as well as in politics.
A great authority has said that the duties of a
leader of men In the world of thought and
politics are to foresee and foretell. Bryan fore
saw the necessity of guaranteed bank deposits,
. in order that the money deposited by the peoplo
might be absolutely safe and secure. Bryan
foretold that the principle of guaranteed bank
deposits would some day become a fixed prin
ciple in America, and now from the very pin
nacle of all judicial authority comes the decree
that, Bryan's dream in favor of the protection
of depositors in the banks is now an estab
lished fact, and that tho stone which the great
law-builders rejected has now become the head
stone in the corner of the temple of common
sense law.
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