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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1911)
,rt.m' 'W"wwmwyMyro immmtmmmmmm mm MWU.M WMi.MW'Prf' dW'iiW y. wiiwliW'" " "r'l m "tui '; ""f I ;JM l 'y'S1 j -Aty M 2 ' V t "" r t i , bSPmt i i 1 : am ft ?. .v ?i.i slvo republicans are strong enough to do this alone. They must make the nght together if they would protect tho people against the results of this decision. The country is face to face with tho real danger, a danger fully realized by tho democrats and progressive republicans, a danger as dlfllcult to meet as any that has confronted tho nation in recent times. Ex-President RoobsvoU recently appeared be fore tho Stanley committoo at Washington and testified that he was compelled to consent to tho absorption by tho steel trust of its largest rival in order to provont a spread of tho panic In 1907. He says that as he. looks back upon that period ho is still convincod that he acted wisely, and believqs that tho panic would have been worso but for his action. This moans that we have a corporation so big that it can make panics or call them in at pleasure so big that It can stalk into the White house and intimidate the president of ninety millions of people! Can any patriotic citizen view this condition with out alarm? The report recently published by the bureau of corporations declares that tho steel trust when organized ten years ago possessed less than seven hundred millions of real property upon which to base the one billion, four hun dred millions of capital of stocks and bonds issued. More than one-half of the securities put upon the public by the steel trust repre sented not value but power to extort from tho public. Do you realize what seven hundred mil lions means? It is many times tho value of the ordinary county. It means, too, as much as some of the staple crops of the nation for a year, and yet those who organized the steel trust gathered about a little table and with pen and Ink and paper created this value and pocketed it. Is it strange that the officials of the Steel trust have helped to nominate and select every republican president since? Is it strange that they aro actively interested in politics at present? Is it strange that Mr. Carnegie who raised the price of his property from one hundred and sixty mil lion to three hundred and twenty million in a. year because he was dealing with a mo nopoly that could pay it, should think Mr. Tatt .worthy of renominatlon and re-election? But this is not all. These men not satisfied with the hundreds of millions made through excessive tariffs and hundreds of millions more made from watered railroad stock, and hun dreds of millions more made through tho ex ploitation of the people by the trusts, now de mand national incorporation in order that they may ride roughshod over state laws and state regulations, and Mr. Taft favors national in corporation. But there is another infamy beyond this. The Aldrich currency scheme is now urged. The Aldrich scheme contemplates the creation of the most gigantic money trust the world has known a trust more potent for harm than all the othera put together, and the financiers are counting on Mr. Taft to help them out. Surely if there ever was a time when tho wel fare, of the country demanded co-operation among all tho reform forces that time is now. Let every reader of The Commoner in every state and district where the election is held this year make it his special business to be at the polling place and to urge every other re former to vote. Bring this matter to the at tention of your neighbors. Tho reform elements are making a brave fight but they need en couragement. One vote may turn the tide in your state or district. Let no indifference on your part jeopardize the cause. DAN V. STEPHENS Mr. Stephens,- the democratic and populist candidate for congress in the Third congres sional district of Nebraska, is an ideal man for the position. He has labored for a generation r In behalf of reform. Ho is intelligent, indus trious, and, above all, he is incorruptible and can not be terrified. He is just the kind of a man to represent a great agricultural district, a district in which the people aro not seeking special favors but fighting Tor the right to enjoy the proceeds of their own toll. Stephens ought to be elected by an overwhelming majority. MASSACHUSETTS Governor Fobs is a candidate for re-election and he has earned the honor. He has already become a national character and a second elec tion will center attention on him still more. If he only had state officials and a legislature to support him he could accomplish a great deal more. Let us hope that tho people will give mm zummm iuu. The Commoner. THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE Justice Harlan's successor is about to be chosen. Will the president require everyone who recommends an applicant for this position to put his recommenda tion In writing? And then will he make the recommendation public? Why should secrecy characterize the appoint ment of such a high and Influential official? If the supreme court is to amend laws, as it did in the anti-trust law, ought not the people to know ot the influences dictating appointments? 0 0 0 A GOOD BEGINNING The democrats of Illinois, with Carter Har rison at their head, have organized for the pur pose of putting the Illinois organization on an anti-monopoly basis. This is encouraging. The democratic party has no prospect of success in Illinois until it cuts loose from the preda tory interests. It would be well if some of the other states would follow the example and get rid of their representative on the democratic national committee. The national organization ought to be composed of men who represent the rank and file of the party and who sympathize with tho masses in their struggle for better things. The trusts are more watchful than the people and insist on picking out a' man for every position that is to be filled. It behooves the democrats to scrutinize the members of the national committee and turn out those whoso connections are Buch as to bring suspicion and censure upon the organization. The Illinois movement has named Congressman Rainey as national committeeman. He Is worthy of the confidence of the party and would be a tower of strength to the national committee. GOOD FOR THE STANLEY COMMITTEE The Associated Presa says that the testimony upon which the government bases" Its suit against the Steel trust was. obtained through the investi gations by the house committee under the leader ship of Stanley of Kentucky. The Commoner has had occasion several times to compliment the excellent work of Mr. Stanley and his com mittee associates. It is gratifying: to democrats everywhere that the work of the Stanley com mittee has been so thorough that even the re publican administration must pay tribute to It. NEW MEXICO New Mexico is about to hold her first election. If there is one state in the union that ought to rebuke the republican party it is New Mexico. The republican leaders used the desire for state hood to force upon the people the worst con stitution "written in a generation. The demo crats at Washington secured for the people an opportunity to amend the constitution and have nominated some of the best men in the state on tho ticket. Democracy deserves to win in New Mexico. KENTUCKY Kentucky democrats have nominated tl. splen did state ticket with Governor McCreary at its head and Congressman James is the democratic candidate for the United States senate. Every democratic voter ought to be at the polls this year. James has earned his promotion. He is one of the leaders of the party in the house, of representatives and will be a power for good in the senate from the day he enters. He is needed in Washington for the great work that lies before the party in the nation. IN A NUTSHELIi Tho "mob" is all right when it delegates power and responsibility to a coterie of poli ticians, but all wrong and dangerous, when it proposes to exercise power direct in obtaining the blessings its "representatives" have always withheld, and that for "purely selfish reasons. Somehow popular rule is growing in popularity throughout the land. A. L. Bixby, in Lincoln (Neb.) Journal. CAMPAIGNS FUNDS NEEDED The democracy of New Mexico needs funds. It is too late to send by mail but any democrat desiring to help the party in its great struggle can telegraph to the democratic state com mittee at Albuquerque. Mr. Bryan has. con tributed and a number have sent contributions at his suggestion. ACT AT ONCE. VOLUMB 11, NUMBER i HERE IS TAGGART'S PLATFORM Joseph Taggart, democratic candidate for congress from the Second Kansas district at the lection November 7, has announced the platform on which he is asking to be elected. Mr. Tag gart declares himself for the following: "Higher pensions for the survivors of tho union army.. "The improvement of uninhabited territory by the government's early policy of internal im provements. The Irrigation of unproductive lands by the government, the lands to be sold in small tracts at actual cost to actual settlers. "Tho construction of public highways by tho government; the building tf macadamized roads between all cities of ten thousand inhabitants or more and that the state er county benefited and the cities so connected should bear a share of the expense to be apportioned annually over a long period of time. "A revision of the tariff, congress to sort out the good and the bad. in this method of raising revenue and so adjust the tariff that it will pro duce the revenue and at the 'same time prevent an unjust tribute being levied upon the people for the benefit of a few. "The destruction of 'artificial famine' the cause of the high cost of living by the appli cation of existing laws to the men who create 'artificial famine' and the passage of a law levy ing practically a prohibitive tax upon the stor ing of food or clothing, or the materials of food or clothing, or the holding of either of them for a price beyond certain, limits of time and over certain amounts. "The conservation of natural resources to the end that monopoly shall cease and that oppor tunity shall be open to men who are willing to work, leaving the people free to make use of and improve the resources that are awaiting development. "The support of the workmen's compensation act introduced by Representative David J. Lewis of Maryland and now pending in the house." WHAT CANT BE THE MATTER Special dispatch, from the New York World correspondent: Aberdeen, S. D;, Oct. . 23. Eleven thousand miles have been traversed, seventeen states, haye; been invadeji, and cities, towns and villages with a: census population of more than 4,50Q,000 have been visited. But nine days of the forty-six originally planned for the "winning of the west" remain. What has been the net result of Mr. Taft's journey? If the answer be a measure of the personal popularity of William Howard Taft, it must set forth that the office, not the man, was the object of practically all the demonstrations made wherever he appeared. There was not anywhere a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm for the man himself manifest enough to chronicle itself on the minds of those who have been with him since the presidential special left Boston on the evening of Friday, Sept. 16. Perhaps, as some insist, he lacks the personal magnetism that brings a crowd to its feet shout ing its approval till exhaustion compels a respite, perhaps he lacks some other quality that makes an audience forget Us dignity in. its desire to show its approval of a speaker's sentiments. Whatever it is, he lacks it. He has talked protection and tariff reduction, trust-busting and the fostering of big business, conservation and its opposite, in fact he has run the gamut of his politics and his apologies for them. But only one, universal peace, has met with uniform approbation. DON'T STAY AT HOME Some of the republicans, are talking of stay ing at homo. Well, that is one way of express ing dissatisfaction with the ticket. The demo cratic victory of last fall was due to stay-at-home republicans more than an increase in tno democratic vote. If a republican wants to re buke his party, the first inclination is, of course, to stay at home. But in Nebraska the desire to rebuke the republicans ought to be stro"S enough to bring him to the polls and cast Ms vote for the democratic ticket. A .republican vote cast for the democratic ticket counts two, and a republican stay at home vote counts oniy one. AN IMPORTANT MEETING Tho twenty-second, annual session of tho Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress wm meet in Kansas City November 14, remaining in session four days. Mr. Bryan was one oftne founders of this congress. It is nn important body and its session should be well attended. - , 'i- A IftftjrtdHVJMtoMtjjfeJuUj rHj fiTijfrito- r'iMI V- .H?
