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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1912)
rwstw-WWWtJfimw.tSl'-.- - . i: The Commoner. 6 7- ' Hi'. I " f t . r fl, IiC K ft. to MS is (V Speeches Delivered at Bryan Birthday Dinner Following ro the upeccheB delivered at the Bryan birthday dinner, March 19, by Congrcss mn n Henry, and Frederick Townacnd Martin: J n referring to Mr. Henry, Mr. Bryan mild: Congressman Henry of Texas Is winning now laurels each year aa a ultirdy and uncompromis ing foe lo every form of public graft and greed. I have known him for Bixtcon yearn and havo found him over on the watch for an opportunity to render service to bin follows. His moat rocont nchlovoment has been in compelling a more thorough Investigation of the Money trust than some of the democratic members wero willing to permit. With a skill that comes only with extended experience and with a fidelity that is found only when the heart is right, ho has stood In the forefront of the light and won his conten tion in tho interest of the people. 1 wanted you to hear him discuss this subject, and I am sure that ho will return to Washington stronger for bis work because of tho encouragement you havo given him as you will be stronger because of the instruction he has imparted To you. Ne braska is Indebted to Texas for loaning Con gressman Henry to us for this occasion. Mr. Henry spoke In part as follows: Tho position of tho democratic party is mis understood in regard to wealth and corporations. Our party is not opposed to dominancy in busi ness achieved by fair enterprise and normal methods of dealing whether by corporations or individuals. Monopoly is not constituted by size alone. Many who opposed the democratic party porsist In misrepresenting its position, and it is appropriate in this presence that I should state what I conceive to be our view. What we do criticise and condemn is the combinations, con spiracies and concert of action between corpora tions and individuals in the form of trusts and otherwiso for the purpose of restraining trade and destroying competition. It is proper that I should allude to tho decision of the supremo court recently considering tho Sherman anti trust statute. Tho democratic party believes that congress should speedily legislate tho rule of reason out of that statute as inserted by the judicial amendment of tho supremo court. In addition to that, we think that the acts consti tuting a trust should bo clearly defined by statu tory enactment. Furthermore, we believo that such offenses should bo donounced as villainous and tho offonders imprisoned in the peniten tiary. A fow trust magnates decorated with penitentiary stripes would bo an examplo to deter future offenders and put to route this breed of violators of the law. Furthermore, it is essen tial to a correct solution of tho question that tho mandate of tho Denver platform should be en forced by placing imports competing with trust controlled articles on the free list This brings me to tho subject 'of the great money monopoly in Now York which is in league with the industrial trusts and great trust rail ways. They are taking under its wings these institutions and the three are daily violating tho anti-trust statutes by concert of action, con spiracies, agreements and joint system of con trolling finances. The money monopoly is com- !KL if n0t cc?aine twelve lllen- The men control the banks of New York that havo monopolized moro than seventy-five per cent of he industrial trusts and trunk railways, absorb ing tho Ip bank deposits and financial rosou ices. It is admitted by tho Wall Street Journal that LHniP?ntf M!rt;an is in practical 1 sub stantial control of every bank and banking "in stitution in the city of New York. It? ; uttoriy Impossible to set up competition to one of these railroads or corporations now under tho wing of the money monopoly. By requiring these trusts and railroads to deposit their bankable fSnds and resources in the vaults of the Now York banks and trust companies, they are enabled to direct how they shall ho loaned or how they shall not he loaned, and are in a position to reward tner friends and punish their enemies to the fu 5 St extent. What America needs in regard to this question moro than anything else is the blaz! Sffii1? f PUbll?lty thro "Pon this cond I tion and system by a thorough congressional mtU tR lZm7Q WiU b0 SroinS tlie dark until the conditions are uncovered and tho truth revealed and utterly unable to legislate on tho currency question and the trust prob ems An investigation of the records in tho'tre-n ury department and those of the greit h,K institutions of New York will denfonstratow the people's tax money paid into So treasSry S the United States has been and is frequent?y hurried from the vaults of the treasury and the banking Institutions oi anuw iui. iu m i' pose of furthering stock gambling, speculative schemes in other countries and to manipulate market prices of cotton, grain and agricultural products. lioyond controversy we know that Corlclyou, Roosevelt's secretary of treasury in 1 907, hurried to the city of New York more than forty-seven millions of dollars of the people's money out of the treasury of the United States and poured it into the coffers of tho great bank ers there, principally among the four largest controlled by J. Pierpont Morgan and the Stand ard Oil group. This was done for the sole pur pose of allowing these bankers to engage in scandalous stock gambling and doubtful specu lative enterprises with tho people's money. It is admitted by the Wall Street Journal that two groups now control practically tho entire finan cial resources of New York and this country, to wit, tho Morgan group with a financial ability and capital of more than eleven hundred and nine millions of dollars and tho Standard Oil group of more than eighteen hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars. Recently in a public address we find this language: "Tho great monopoly in this country is the money monopoly. This is the greatest question of all, and to this statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination to serve tho long future and the true principles of man." These are words of patriotic wisdom and far-seeing prophecy uttered by the great progressive demo crat, Woodrow Wilson. Permit me to refer to the Aldrich currency scheme for a few brief moments. It is un deniably designed to entrench the moneyed monopoly more securely in its present position of power. Bad as tho present system is, it is a hundred times preferable to the conspiracy of Aldrich and his followers to insure by his plan the life of the money monopoly for generations to come at the expense of the blood and brain and labor and resources of the ninety millions of people. ,r X011, nermit me to pay my respects to the Mad Mullah of recent African hunting fame now giving his presidential appointee, Mr. Taft a square deal with a brick bat. Years ago 'he wrote, The men who object to what they style government by injunction are in hearty sym pathy with their remote skin-clad ancestors who lived in caves, fought one another with stone head axes and ate the woolly rhineocerous Thev are not in sympathy with men of good minds and sound, civic morality." He now not only wants to upset government by injunction but kick at the judges and rip up their decisions. He is a mixture and strange being. In New York in company with George W. Perkins and the steel trust he appears like a kitten. In fact, there is shown not the difference of an eyelash between the big stick and the big trusts. Out of New York he preaches progressive principles, but it is plain to see that ho is chaperoned by Perkins and the trust magnates whom he protected while ?n office while he had the chance to bend the big stick oyer their heads when they were committing bigamy with the Tennessee Coal and I?on com- SPEECH OP FREDERICK TOWNSEND MARTIN Frederick Townsend Martin, of New York ?HiV p?di Sn ?ddress on the subject of ''The BiTanali: In Wteta to Mr' n. Mr But tho last speaker on our nrozrim m,. honor Mr. Martin for the "wort tlt i ' l and is doing in bringing the W rt S ,done, the poor to the attention of the rich V?! met Mr. Martin at Atlanta two years ' airo ull December. I found him interested fn S? establishment of a homo for IZr ! ? tho dors at foreign courts? and it wa the?m?hSa; first heard him utter his warning tc ? Sin wi1 rich. Until recently the rich have had a monopoly of the diplomatic branch of the d vice, and I was attracted to Mr Martin wL found him attacking from aUruisUc moUves a monopoly which his class enjoyed I had L come acquainted with the undemocratic characl VOLUME 12, NUMBER 13 ter of our diplomatic service when I first visited Europe and had on my return to this country brought before a committee in Washington and urged the purchase of homes for ambassadors on two grounds, first, that no deserving person should be excluded from government service merely because of his lack of a large fortune, and, second, because the owning of the homes in which our ambassadors live would enable us to control their style of living make them live like Americans and not ape the aristocracies of the old world in extravagance. Since I first met him Mr. Martin has written several magazine articles on the subject which he discussed to night, and these convinced me that something had happened to him although I did not know at first just what it was, but when a few months ago I read a speech that he delivered at one of the missions in a po.or section of New York, I understood what had happened to him. Ho was talking to the poor and telling them that the rich and the poor are children of the same God and must stand together and make their fight for better conditions. Then I knew what had happened; he had taken hold of the doctrine of brotherhood and was putting it into practice. I desire to thank Mr. Martin for coming from New York to deliver this message to us, and I am sure that you will appreciate the message all the more when you understand what it costs him to combat the influences which have en vironed him. This completes the galaxy of speakers who have done honor to this occasion and a strong group of men are they. Mr. Martin spoke as follows: My Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen I deem it an honor and a privilege to be present here tonight and take part in this celebration. I am glad with you that our dear friend, William Jennings Bryan, statesman, orator and' genius, was born, and express with you the hope that he may live to an age that shall distinguish him even more than would a United States presidency. Were I the fortunate possessor even of a frag ment of tho wonderful genius which has dis tinguished our friend, I should not now be com pelled to impose upon you by reading these few ideas. A distinguished life is more worthy of honor than a distinguished birth. Our honored friend, William Jennings Bryan is a man of such true qualities that he need not label himself with genealogical tables or live on the 'reputation of his fathers. I know nothing of the glories of his ancestry but we all know that his life is a credit not only to himself, his nation, but his generation. Men used to borrow merit from the dead but a grandfather is no longer a social institution. Men do not live in the past. They merely look back. Forward is the universal cry. This brings me to my subject. We live in an age of rapid and profound change. The very foundations of the world seem to be giving away. Forty years ago I was a boy in a conventional American home. The atmosphere of that homo was still under the vitalizing influence, of tho ? nS? fi great s1tr"sgle- Lincoln was enshrined. Longfellow and Emerson, Hawthorne and Irv ing We!V,nHatly read- At that time, the good and bad of Europe had not deeply affected w w We wore more provincial, to be sure, but there was bliss and simplicity and innocence. Morally and intellectually, the life of-the Syi?we life f state were settled We JUSt Whar WHai20d- , W WGr6 PSitiVe aS t0 BIWa ?h i lig and what was wroiifr. The Sitution o?efif t i0u ,f Independence, the Con assuro?! Lthe Unlted States tne fact of tho Sur re i S n,?Sm?f ?ur cou"try, the power of thl Lilfi ' political and social ideals to save of Yge d"AndfaithHin tUeSe was our "Rock absolfitn hi? i t0 thGSe must be added the sacr lutvn in tUe, theory that " was the kind! y hUman beins t0 servo his broke'n SiZf" "leTS(funlamentals are now But itniS tw IT tw8?!' x Si?!1 not attGmPt t0 say that'ielwSta11 osrihold8 M8" &T thG Jar t"ampledatupon STthe "SS-r-0 lonser hJd as GopkrBtoadV10?',6 read ZoIa and road Ibiii n5 cf, LonSfellow and Bryant, we resectable Zl S ?aw' AmonS many perfectly of Wetsche ifSn0,.?? re f i0US pePle' the name nal Newman" T liar than that of Cardi" golnc hiS t t UC know either we are Nor would dTinow, that WG are eoing. a mSLrnt Siat wa nnder8to.od to imply' oven for have p?Sfound fhaiG ?ing ,to destction. I v proiound faith in the ultimate sources of