-AJGrtFt- - r v
11
4
The Commoner.
VOLUME 11, NUMBER 40
wwwwHHprw 4
fii
'
ivy
The Commoner, "CardinalCibbons Speaks a Philosophy That Is on Its Last Legs"
ISSUED WEEKLY
Entered at tho Postofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
as second-class matter.
WXLIJAM J. BnTAK
Kill lor nnd Proprietor
IUCIIAJID It. MKTCAliVK
Associate Editor
GiiAiu.Ka W Dhyan
Publisher
Editorial Rooms nnd Business
Onico, 324-330 South 12lh Btrcot
One Ycnr 91.00
filx Months CO
In ClubB of FIvo or
xnoro, por year. , ,7B
Three Months. . ... . .2ft
Single Copy 05
Sample Copies Free.
Foreign Post, Cc Extra.
SUIISCRII'TIONS can be sent direct to Tho Com
moner. Tlioy can also bo sent through nowspapors
which havo advortlsod a clubbing rate, or through
local agents, whero sub-agents havo been ap
pointed. All remittances should bo sent by post
ofllco money ordor, express ordor, or by bank draft
on Now 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 havo thoir
subscriptions interrupted and their flies broken in
caso thoy fail to remit boforo oxpiration. It is
thoroforo assumed that continuance is desirod un
less subscribers order discontinuance, cither whon
subscribing or at any time during tho year.
PRESENTATION COPIES Many persons sub
scribe for frionds, intending that tho papor shall
stop at tho end of tho year. If instructions aro
givon to that effect thoy will recelvo attention at
tho proper timo.
RENEWALS Tho date on your wrapper shows
tho time to which your subscription is paid. Thus
January 21, 11, means that payment has been re
ceived to and including tho last issuo of January,
1911. Two wooks aro required after money has
been roceivod boforo tho dato on wrappor can bo
changed.
CHANGE OP ADDRESS Subscribers requesting
a change of addross must give old as well as now
address.
ADVERTISING Rates will bo furnished upon
application.
Addross all communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
NEMESIS OF THE BOBBER
If anybody Is casting about in his mind for
what old-fashioned folks still call "a' course of
reading," we recommend to him the chapters
on Turkey in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire."
Gibbon unfolds a strange and thrilling drama,
as interesting as anything seen on the stage.
But independently of that, a few hours spent
over the Turkish chapters of Gibbon, would be
full of instruction bearing on the present crisis
in Europe.
They enable one to get the broad view.
With the evacuation of Tripoli, Turkey will
have no African territory.
In the memoYy of people, still living, Turkey
had three times as much land in Europe as she
has now.
Very likely In our own time, nothing will be
loft of Turkey in Europe but the city of Con
stantinople. The inexorable process of division to which
Turkey is being subjected is but a repetition of
what Turkey herself once did to other nations
notably the Byzantine empire which ages ago
was where Turkey in Europe is now.
After a while all that remained of Byzan
tine was Constantinople and a little outlying
territory.
Then the Turks beseiged Constantinople, and
took it by storm.
Its inhabitants were a cultured, reading body
of people indeed, the remnants of Greek genius
and learning that survived, were within the
walls of Constantinople.
Her people were carried away, sold into
Blavery, or, where thoy lingered in the city, were
reduced to a state of serfdom. .
That was in 1453 thirty-nine years before
Columbus discovered America.
It has taken four centuries and a half for tho
wheel of fortune to turn. It has almost com
pleted its revolution, and now Turkey is at the
bottom.
"Destiny never hurries but it always comes,"
said Victor Hugo.
Nothing is more sure than that tho nation
which gains by violence will lose by violence.
Buffalo (N. Y.) Times.
-' .' ' THE WALSH INTER VIEW
Lincoln, 111., Oct. 2, '1911. Editor 'The Com
moner?: Your Issue of the 29th Inst, is" at hand,
and I havo been pleased to fcee the ' way Mr.
Bryan called the president on the carpet as a
witness, and proceeded to answer Mr. Taft's
questions by Tils own former statements, and
It seems to. me that these answers ore not less
potent or appropriate because they were made
before the questions were asked. I have always
understood that when a witness undertakes to
Tho Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph-Herald, edited
by a good Catholic layman, makes such a reply
to Cardinal Gibbons that it deserves the widest
sort of publicity. Tho Telegraph-Herald says:
"In his argument against direct election of
United States senators Cardinal Gibbons, noting
that one reason for tho contemplated change is
that many of our state legislatures are charged
with being venal, and that it Is easier to corrupt
the legislature than the whole people, asks:
'If you can not trust the members of the legis
lature how can you trust their constituents from
whom they spring? If you can not confide in
our legislatures you can not confide in human
government, nor in human nature itself.'
"Tho argument is fallacious. With equal con.
slstency it might be asked, 'If you can not trust
'her son, how can you trust the mother that
bore him?' Or, 'If you can not trust a com
municant of the church, how can you trust the
church?' The turpitude of a son does not prove
that his mother is not pure and good. The sins
of the church member do not prove that the
church does not serve the mission of Christ on
earth.
,"Sb the cardinal's question might be In
verted to his confusion: 'If you can not trust
the people from whom they spring, how can you
trust the representatives of the people?' The
cardinal's reply to this probably would be that
the representatives of the people are better
qualified by education, training and experience
to determine what is best in government than
are the people themselves. This reply is the
dregs of the doctrine of divine right of kings.
"There are other attributes needed in govern
ment than education, training and experience in
the matter of law making. These are patriotism,
unselfishness, integrity. We doubt that the cardi
nal himself will assert that the average of
patriotism, integrity and unselfishness is higher
in representatives of the people than in the
people themselves. For our own part we would
not concede that It is as high. Moreover, it is
self-evident that it is easier to reach 100 'legis
lators than 30,000,000 voters.
"This is a government of, for and by the
people. It is a government republican in form.
It bore home to the world proof that the power
is resident in the people themselves to work out
their own salvation independent of king or prince.
It is a crushing rebuke to the hoary lie that the
few are better qualified to order the lives of the
many than are the many themselves, and that
the few are wiser, more patriotic and more vir
tuous than the many in their relations to gov
ernment. "The history of countries goveriied under tho
doctrine of divine right is a history of oppres
sion attended by capitalizing of the necessities
and misfortunes of the people.
"The history of governments republican in
form is that this exploitation is continued for
the benefit of those whom wealth or intellectual
force makes powerful in the affairs of govern
ment. The aristocracy of blood has gone the way
of the doctrine of divine right. Feudalism hag
gone the way of the divine institution of private
property. An aristocracy of intellect is as ab
horrent in a republic as an aristocracy of wealth.
We have as much to fear from the evils last
-named as from the two jirst named and of the
latter two as much to fear from one as from
the other.
"Delegated government is the proper power
for intellectual aristocracy and the aristocracy
of wealth. Direct government would make this
in fact as well as in form a democracy in which
the ivill of the people, would be supreme as
supreme as it is in England today, or in France,
or in Switzerland.
"The cardinal speaks a philosophy that is on
its last legs. He is embalmed in the mists of
antiquity that democracy's sun is dispelling from
the face of the world."
queer the truth that he is very apt to get his
story in a tangle.
But I wish to especially express' my joy In
reading Frank P. Walsh's reasons why he could
not be (even a candidate for) governor of Mis
souri. While I have never seen anything from
him hitherto that I now remember as especially
solid politically speaking, I must say that after
reading this interview I desire to extend the
"grip of the lion of the tribe of Judea" to him,
and would extend one yet stronger if I knew
of one such. It has the clearest ring of the voice
of a true patriot of anything I have seen in
print for many years. And when I say that I
do not mean to say that I have not read many
inspiring words from men both eloquent and
patriotic.
Mr. Walsh is more than right when he says
that the proper place for an unselfish patriot
is in the ranks of the agitator.
Any man who starts out on any line of re
form, if he will strive earnestly for success,
must divest himself of all thought or wish for
any official position, as it will be "as a millstone
about his neck" in his struggle for the attain
ment of his ideal.
Mr. Bryan has had my admiration and sup
port in each of his campaigns for the presidency,
but I must say that he has grown in stature as
a patriotic citizen in my eyes since his last de
feat now that he has (like Mr. Walsh) cut loose
from all compromises. When we aro called on
to compromise on any great issues of either
morals or economic policies we must remember
that we are dealing with enemies of the people.
Our reply should always be "get thee behind me,
Satan." Very truly yours,
D. L. BRAUCHER.
IOWA DEMOCRACY
The Denver News prints an interesting dispatch
from its Des Moines, la., correspondent. This
correspondent says: "There's an Interesting
democratic side, also, in the Iowa political situa
tion. It relates principally to the prospective
attitude of the delegation to the democratic
national convention, and it involves tho respec
tive strength of -Taf t, La Follette, or some other
republican candidate against the various states
men now prominent as democratic presidential
timber."
Further describing tho situation, this cor
respondent adds: "Harmon is regarded out here
as the weakest candidate under scrutiny. Ho is
tho possible candidate, who, It Is asserted, would
stand the least chance of carrying Iowa' against
Taft, and the one who surely would be beaten
here if an anti-Taft progressive be the republi
can standard bearer.
"The strong anti-Harmon sentiment out this
way, which is understood to prevail as well in
many other middle western Btates, is interest
ing, for the reason that Harmon was the favorite
among the democratic leaders at Washington
when the extra session of congress closed.
"Harmon and Wilson is not a combination that
appeals to the Hawkeyes. Indeed, scarcely one
consideration is given to the possibility of Wil
son being the tall of a Harmon kite, and when
the possibility is suggested it is waved aside
with apparent assurance that the New Jersey
governor would not accept second place on the
ticket.
"In considering the democratic situation it is
not necessary to take into account any except
progressives in the party. The bourbon demo
crats cut no more' figure in the equation than
the standpatters of the republican side would
in a contest where the issue was clearly defined
as progressiveness versus standpattism.
"Among the older leaders of democracy the
name of Woodrow Wilson is most on the tongue.
If there were any such thing as real enthusiasm
on either side of the political party fence at this
peculiar period it might be said that Governor
Wilson has aroused considerable in Iowa.
"Wilson and Folk is a combination that is
being discussed with much favor here by demo
crats that incline to Wilson for the, presidential
nomination.
"One thing seems certain, and that is that if
Harmon be the democratic candidate there will
be little trouble in gauging the November result
in Iowa, whomever the republicans may nominate."
0
APPRECIATED IN SOUTH DAKOTA
L. C. Campbell, S. D: Find enclosed
postal order for $2.00, for two new sub
scriptions to The Commoner for two
years as per your late offer to swell tho
subscription to The, Commoner. If
enough people would" read The Com
moner and become Informed as to the
issues that are before the people to settle
there would be no doubt as to the results.
I doubt If any other paper or magazine
gives the valuable information to be
found in The Commoner.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0