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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1912)
The Commoner. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR r VOL. 12, NO. 31 Lincoln, Nebraska, August 9, 1912 Whole Number 603 Five Hundred New Commoner Readers in One Bunch E. H. Moore, a well known Iowa democrat, writes: "I want five hundred copies of The Commoner until the close of the campaign next November. Four years ago, as county chairman, I used five hundred copies of The Commoner. I found this a very effective help in my campaign of education and organization. There is nothing in the line of education equal to The Commoner with its sixteen pages of fine political matt'er each week going to the average voter, who ispen to conviction. This campaign of education, together with other lines of organization, changed that county from a thousand republican majority in the year3 of 1896, 1900 and 1904, to a democratic majority in 1908." . " A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT President Taft's speech of acceptance will, for several reasons, stand out in political his tory as a very remarkable public utterance. To begin with, he accepts Senator Root's guaran tee of regularity without a smile and even adds his indorsement of the proceedings which re sulted in his nomination. "This occasion," ho says, "is appropriate for the expression of pro found gratitude at the victory for the right which was won at Chicago. By that victory, the republican party was saved for future uca fulness." What an astounding indifference to the in telligence of the public! How completely has his conscience been seared, not to be sensitive in regard to the methods employed at Chicago! Both he and Senator Root know that he was not the choice of- a- majority of the republican voters; they know that .the president's adminis tration was repudiated by those who elected him. vkjxr)Mcthat a-vholiUwHMr, romihlttee. deliberately and contemptuously disregarded the voters of the party and changed the char acter of the convention by the seating of Taft delegates. Hold-over committeemen who had been repudiated In their states khowirigly, even exultlngly, thwarted the expressed will' of the republican voters of their respective states in order to give an apparent indorsement to the administration and President Taft is willing to accept this shadow as if it were substantial. The president knows that the republican com mitteemen from, a number of southern states represent mythical constituencies and yet ho accepts, with expressions of gratitude, a nomi nation that was only possible because southern republicans had many times as much influence in the convention in proportion to their num bers, as northern republicans had. And he ac cepts the nomination without any suggestions as to improvement in method. He neither in dorses the Baltimore plan of having committee men begin to serve as soon as elected thus hav ing a new committee organize a new convention nor does he outline an;- plan for protecting the republican party from the scandal brought upon its conventions by its patronage-controlled delegates from the southern rtates. The next thing In the president's speech that attracts attention is the marked con trast between his point of view today and his point of view four years ago. In 1908, he was condemning the malefactors of great wealth and crying out against dishonest methods in business. He held himself out as a reformer and appealed to the progressive senti ment of the country. Now he is horrified at the "demagogue," the "muck-raker" and the politi cal disturber. He says, "In the work of rousing the people to the danger that threatened our civilization from the abuses of concentrated wealth and the power it was likely to exercise, the public imagination was wrought upon and a reign of sensational journalism and unjust and unprincipled muck-raking has followed, in which much injustice has been done to honest men. Demagogues have seized the opportunity to further inflame the public mind and have sought to turn the peculiar conditions to their advantage." He contends that, "It is far better to await the diminution of this evil by natural causes than to attempt what would soon take on the aspect of confiscation or to abolish the prin ciples or institution of private property and to change to socialism." '.What a difference in the tone of the- two speeches! Four years ago, ho was alarmed for fear the country was going to. suffer at tho hands of the predatory Interests; now, every exploiter is pleasing, and only tho roformer is vile. His speech of four years ago must have been de livered during a mental abberration. Surgeons tell us that a man's eccentricities are sometimes due to a pressure on tho brain at somo point; is it possible that Doctors Hoot, Penrose and Barnes'have restored his mind to normal action by removing tho Roosevelt pressure? Mr. Taft is so solicitous about the pooplo who have failed "to devote as much time as is necessary to political duties" that ho Is afraid to burden them with responsibilities three times greater than "the people have been willing to assume." He is afraid that t6 concede the re forms demanded will result in new duties that "will tire them Oth o people) into such aji in difference ag giilL ,furihor to remand 'control of abticffaWltfHrminorlty.'' -Wfind 'an argu ment as absurd as tho above, one must go back. Several centuries and consult tbe reasons that kings gaye for not admitting the people to par ticipation In government, and then to Add ' In sult to Injury, he has the audacity to "present the aristocratic argument that it Is bread, not votes, that tbe people need; work, not constitu tional amendments; money to pay house rent, not referendums; clothincr, not recalls; employ ment, not initiatives! Modern literature pre sents no parallel to this ignorance of, or in difference to, the growth of popular government. In referring to reforms that have come under his administration, he confines himself to a few and these are not the most Important. Why" does he Ignore the popular election of United States sonators? It ts tho greatest reform in methods of government that has come since the adoption of our constitution; why does ho overlook it? Is It because it camo without his aid? Whv does he fall to mention the income tax amendment to the constitution? He urged it in a message; but he did it in order to defeat a statutory income tax, and ho has never said a word since then to encourage its ratification by the states. He even appointed Governor Hughes to the supreme bench after tho latter had sent a message to the New York legislature opposing tho ratification of the income tax amendment. Why is he silent on the publicity law, passed in the interest of pure' politics? Was it because the publicity before tho election, provided for in the law which he was compelled to sign, re buked his utterances of 1908 when he insisted that contribution should not be made public until after tho election? Here are three great reforms that have come during his administration and yet he can not claim credit for any of them, although, but for his reason for recommending it, he might claim some credit for tbe income tax amendment. He defends the Payne-Aldrich bill, and says, "It has vindicated itself." He praises the su preme court decision writing the word "un reasonable" into the anti-trust law a decision which made every trust magnate rejoice; ho eulogizes the dissolution (falsely, so called) of the oil and tobacco trusts a dissolution that leaves the trusts undisturbed and has already Increased the value of their stock; and he advo cates federal incorporation of big business tho one thing that the 'trusts atlli'n&etf -tO"complet0' their control of tho industries of tho country. What a program at a timo like this when three fourths of tho voters of tho country are up in arms against the plunderbund! Not content with an indorsement of every thing reactionary that Wall street has had tho courago to suggest, ho threatens panic if any thing is done to disturb thoso who fatten on governmental favoritism and legislative privi lege. Ho oven appeals to democrats to join him "in an earnest effort to avert tho political and economic revolution and business paralysis which republican defeat will bring about." . Tho president's defense of his refusal to Inter vene in Mexico is tho host thing in his speech but his reference to China gives wejght to tho ruinor that recognition of the Republic pf China is being withheld as a means of forcing upon China the acceptance of an American loan. Ho stiya, on this subject, "vre have lent, our good offices in the.negothition-ofa?loan essential to tho continuanco of. tho republic and ' w(ilch W6 tiopo that China will accept, etc." If this Is an admission that his administration is attempting 'to compel China to borrow from our financiers as a condition preceddnt to tho recognition' of 'the republic, he confesses to an inexcusable degradation of tlio department of state. ' Democrats will resent tho president's action in associating them, for denunciatory purposes', with the progressive republicans, In replying to "tho former republicans" as ho calls them In one place, and to "those who have loft tlio republican party," as ho calls them in another place in his speech he replies to democrats also 'and accuses both groups of "going in a direc tion they do not definitely know, toward an en'd they can not definitely describe, with butVno chief and clear object, and that is of acquiring power for their party by popular support through a promise of a change for tho better." This Is a very unfair statement of the demo cratic position in view of the fact that the demo cratic platform is the only ono that is a specific in pointing out abuses and in proposing remedies, and in view of tho further fact that tho democratic party has shown its fidelity to the people by its willingness to suffer defeat In its advocacy of tho reforms which are now being accepted by tho entlro country. Tho president pays himself a high compli ment when he offers himself to the voters as tho only exponent of constitutional government. He avers that the democratic party, as well as the Roosevelt party, is not to be trusted to pre serve tho constitution and he declares that this is to him "the supreme Issue." "Tho republi can party," he declares, "is the nucleus of that public opinion which favors constant progress and development along safe and sane lines and under the constitution as we have had it for more than one hundred years, etc." Here, then, is the paramount issue. Shall tho constitution bo preserved, by President Taft, with such aid as he can secure from Root, Penrose, Barnes, Lorimer, and tho other self-appointed custodians of constitutional gov ernment, or shall our organic law be given over into .tho hands of thoso who favor tho election of senators by the people, an income tax amend ment, a single term for tho president, and other changes of this character which have for their object tho divorcing of tho government from tho favor-seeking; privilege-hunting class? If this is to be thtf-atrpremo'lssu tho democrats are- ready to call the battlo oa.-. kifiliiStM&iStfAoitfMM MUM JtAri!h-JUjit & 1 -