, -,"Tr.y sn f
MARCH S, 1511'
parity with, gold until it was deprived of Its
legal tender quality and mint rights, through
the act of 1873, and subsequent legislation, and
there seemed to be no valid reason why its
parity could not be re-established by restoring
its former position beside gold. No man has
a monopoly on wisdom or intelligence in this
world, and therefore, no man can say advisedly
that Mr. Bryan was not right.
In 1900 Mr. Bryan waged his campaign with
anti-imperialism as his battle slogan, and again
went down to defeat under the sentiment created
by our victories .over Spain and the successful
conquest of Cuba', Puerto Rico and the Philip
pines, with the help of a few more millions
poured into the campaign by the big financial
interests and the beneficiaries of the tariff.
The wisdom of Mr. Bryan's position in that
campaign is becoming apparent, through con
stant preparations for war, with a tremendous
drain upon the couu try's resources for battle
ships, coast fortifications and other war equip
ment. The time-honored Monroe doctrine has
been discredited in the house of its author, and
we have invited war with Japan by oui stand
for the "open door" in Manchuria. Further
than being a benefit to the sugar and tobacco
trusts, the Philippines are only a source of
enormous expense and a menace to our .place
with other countries, with which we formerly
sustained friendly relations. Whether the per
sistent rumors of threatened invasion of our
territory by Japan are or are not well founded,
the fact remains that the mikado is constantly
preparing for war, and in the event that war
should occur, the Philippines would undoubtedly
be the first United States territory invaded and
would be found a source of great weakness be
cause of the fact that our fleet would neces
sarily be divided, leaving our western coast, in
a large measure, at the mercy of an invading
army. Then iLthe mikado happened to have an
European maritime .power as an ally, we would
find- our thousands of miles of coast line jon
either side of the continent very difficult of
defense. That the rumors of war preparation
on the part of Japan is more than idle rumor
is evidenced by the recent arrest of Japanese
army engineers while engaged in planting
mines in. the harbors of Luzon, and others were
arrested while erecting wireless telegraph sta
tions on the coast of that island. It was also
reported that maps and charts were found on
the persons of these men. The constant addi
tion of the most modern men of war to the
Japanese navy, together with the purchase of
other war equipment and supplies, last but not
least being the reported purchase recently of
100,000 tons of rice in China and India give
a, decidedly vivid coloring to the war rumors.
Representative Tawney, chairman of the com
mittee of appropriations of the national house
of representatives, said in a speech recently,
regarding the expenditures by this government
for war purposes:
"We have expended during the last ten years
in prepartaion for war alone, within four hundred
million dollars as much as the entire bonded
debt of the United States at the close of the
civil war, We have expended during the last
ten years in preparation for war four times the
aggregate loss of the people of the United
States and Canada by fire in the last eighty
fi,ve years, We have expended an amount that
would build five Panama canals. -We have ex
pended four times the entire cost of the
Spanish-American war."
A few years ago when ' Mr. Bryan had re
turned from his trip around the world he hinted
in his speech at Madison Square garden that
probably no effectual control of the railroads
would bo accomplished without government
ownership. He was scathingly criticised for the
statement, but a similar declaration by Theodore
Roosevelt, a- few years later scarcely attracted
passing attention, and after several years of
attempted- control, with but small results, many
people of high standing are willing to admit
that probably Mr. Bryan was right.
In the campaign of 1908, Mr. Bryan advocated
a system of bank deposit insurance similar to
the system which has been in operatic" to Okia
home several years with results Ctisfactory
alike to the public and the banks.
But the big financial interests of the country
were opposed to the system and of course Mr.
Taf t had to oppose it. In his speeches he char
acterized the idea as "paternalism and social
ism," calculated to revolutionize existing insti
tutions. The Oklahoma system met with so
much favor that similar laws were enacted in
Kansas and Nebraska, but their constitutionality
was tested in the courts. Being sustained In the
lower courts, the cases were taken to tne su
preme court of the United States and that in-
The Commoner.
bunal has just recently handed down a unani
mous decision finding that a class of "paternal
ism and socialism" which gives the people much
needed protection against bank failures is
within the scope of the constitution thus inci
dentally placing its O. K. upon another of Mr.
Bryan's theories.
Col. Bryan is a disciple of the good old
democratic school of statesmen who safely con
ducted the ship of state during half a century.
He believes in the Monroe doctrine and in
confining our imperial possessions to the terri
tory embraced within the treaty boundaries of
the United States on the North American conti
nent; in the largest opportunity for individual
ism, with special privileges to none. Nearly
every policy ever advocated by Mr. Bryan has
been approved by the people or is growing
in favor.
As the first great champion of equal rights
in a generation he drew the fire of overy favor
seeking interest and went down to defeat under
a storm of ballots cast by those whose interests
he sought to defend. Whether or not he shall
outlive the unjust prejudices created against
him remains to be seen, but one thing Is cer
tain, political sentiment is becoming broader and
Mr. Bryan is yet a comparatively young man.
There is bound to be a great political revolu
tion In the United States within the next ten
years, and who can say that the Moses who led
democracy out of the wilderness may not yet be
president. Aberdeen (S. D.) Democrat.
Practical Tariff Talks
An illuminating exposition of the manner in
which tariff schedules are made can be secured
by any inquisitive person who will compare
the silk schedule as it appears In the Fayne
Aldrich tariff law with the one submitted to
the ways and means committee, when it was
preparing to draft the bill, by the silk associa
tion of the United States. Some may be of the
opinion that congressmen, when making a tariff
bill, hear all of the testimony and secure all
of the information available, and then draw the
schedules as their judgment dictates. This idea
would be rudely shattered if' the advice con
tained above Is followed. The silk schedule
that the manufacturers of America drew up
may be found in volume 6 of the- tariff hearings,
on pages 5843-5869. It as practically identical
with the silk schedule as it appears on the tariff
law, about the only changes made being those
of about the same character a conscientious
adapter of another's ideas might make when he
took to rewriting what the other had set down
upon-paper.
Ad valorem rates are theoretically always the
fairest, but the silk manufacturers objected to
them as they .appeared in the Dlngley law be
cause, as they said, the unscrupulous importers
would undervalue shipments. They, therefore,
asked and secured from congress a law which
generally substitutes specific duties per pound
which inevitably means that higher prices will
be possible for the home manufacturer. The
silk association made no secret of what it de
sired. It appointed a revenue -laws committee,
and that committee secured the adoption by the
house and senate of the schedule it drew up.
It Is not difficult to guess, therefore, In whose
interest it was drawn.
The brief filed by these manufacturers dis
closes a pitiable condition in that trade. They
Insisted that there is no such thing as market
value for silk goods, the prices being dictated
by the freaks of fashion in women's dress
They averred that silk goods of the same tex
ture may vary 25 per cent in price today, while
two months later that which sold at the higher
price may he sold for the lower. It was also
contended that In the silk Industry American
labor Is not more efficient than foreign labor,
as in most manufactures; that the Japs and
the Chinese have been making silk for centuries
and their soft hands and supple fingers make
for efficiency far more than the Irish, Swedish,
German and Polish laborers the American manu
facturer must hire. The lower cost of foreign
labor, they said, made It possible for the foreign
manufacturer to use cheaper materials than
it would pay to handle with our high-priced
labor. Then they proceeded to draw up a
schedule that would practically bar this
cheap silk.
As the schedule built up by the silk, manu
facturers is printed, tho argument for each
change Is placed opposito tho changod suggested.
Commenting on ono change, It Is stated: "it
la estimated that In this paragraph tho duties
will average slightly lower, but as thoro la a
considerable range of value to tho same number
it will be a higher duty on tho low grades and
a lower duty on tho high gradoa." This Idea
seems to permeate tho whole schomo of tariff
making, putting high duties on tho cheaper
grades and low dutlos on the moro expensive
ones. It is frankly confossod, In advocating
tho change in duties on volvots and plushes,
changed from mixed ad valorem and specific
to straight specific, that this drops tho saving
clause that at least 50 per cont of tho com
ponent material must be silk to como thereunder.
liatters' plush has heretofore como In undor
a. 10 per cont duty. Tho silk manufacturers
told congress that this was so low that they
couldn't make any, and wouldn't congress
please put it so high that tho foreign manu
facturer couldn't import any. Congress did so.
They also called attention to the fact that tho
importers Were bringing In too many yards of
velvet and plush ribbon, and they submitted
a classification that would put a stiff specific
duty on instead of an ad valorem. And congress
adopted it. The same obliging disposition is
noted in almost every one of tho remaining
paragraphs of this bill. The evidence is so
plain that the silk association of America wroto
the silk schedule that nobody would probably
deny it. In defense of tho advanced rates tho
president of the association told the committeo
that this would affect only tho rich because "tho
laboring class can escape them altogether by
not indulging in purchases thereof." C. Q. D.
"FREEDOM FOR 1012"
Toledo, Ohio, Feb. 23, 1911. Editor Tho
Commoner: Please find enclosed clipping from
Saturday night's "News-Bee." I like the plans
it suggests that the rank and file of the parties
have a chance to express who they want as thoir
candidate. I have wanted to write you for
some time in regard to this same plan. Why
can't we do that way before a candidate is
nominated? That would give a lot of fellows
llko I am a chance to express ourselves. Wo
are too small to cut any figure in the councils
of the party. I don't like to seo the honors go
to some one who has not done anything to bring
this better state of things about. I would
rather vote for a rank stand-pat republican than
vote Jfor tho half-hearted democrat. I did that
last fall, here in Ohio. I wish to express my
appreciation for your valuable paper and pray
you may live long to edit the same; also, that
you will consent to be a candidate again if
the people want you. I don't believe you have
been defeated by the people yet. Yours for
good government. R. B. BREHART.
"It's a, , large order, but some of the most
earnest and trustworthy reformers in- the
United States have launched a plan to bring
'freedom in 1912' to pass. They '-have formed
the Progressive Federation. It is composed of
prominent men of both leading parties who
want the country to go forward on progressive
lines republicans like LaFollette, Cummins
and Pinchot; democrats like Brya, Nowlands
and Folk, with the editors of most of the ad
vanced periodicals like McClure's, Collier and
Success. m .
"That's the first point that it is a bi-partisan
movement and alms to control both parties, .
just as tho big Interests have done.
"Next, it invites all legal voters to partici
pate in a postal ballot, namlpg their first,
second and third choice for the presidential
nomination of their party republicans naming
three republican candidates in the order of their
choice, and democrats naming, three democrats.
By this means it is expected that millions of
voters will have expressed their preference long
before the national conventions.
"The voters are also asked to sign a pledge
agreeing to 'attend the elections within my
party for the coming two years, and to 'vote
only for progressive delegates to state and na
tional conventions, delegates who have declared
for a first, second and third choice for presi
dential nominee By this means it is Tioped to
harvest results and make both parties squarely
progressive In 1912, Instead of permitting both
to be reactionary as might otherwise happen,
"It will require work, vigilance, and, abovo
all, good faith. But the end sought is momen
tous. If you believe in It get busy and push -it
along." Toledo (Ohio) News-Blade. V '
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