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 -
