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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
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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?
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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.
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