Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1912)
hf ii- M. KM 4 The Commoner. VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3S i ( h IM M It u 4! Tiki Ifll r; 1UU w . The Commoner. ISSUED WEEKLY Entered at tho Postofllco at Lincoln, Nobraska, as Kccond-clanfl matter. WlMJAM J. UXIYAM CJIAJU.K8 W. BjlTAN Kdltor ntul Proprietor Publlnhcr IUcjiaki) L. Mktcaj.vk JTdltorlnl Hoomu and lluslncts Awoclntc Editor . omcc, 324.320 South 12th Street One Ycnr $1.00 Six Monthn GO In Clubs of IJMvo or more, per year. . ,75 Three Month .25 Single Copy .05 Sample Copies Free. Forcljjn Post, 6c ICxtra. SUBSCRIPTIONS can be Bent direct to Tho Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapers which have advertised a clubbing: rate, or through local agents, wliero sub-agents have been ap pointed. All remittances should bo sent by post office money order, express order, or by bank draft on Now York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, stamps or money. HRNEWAliS Tho dato on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus 1912. Two weeks aro required after money ha eelved to and including tho last Ibsuo of January, January 21, '12 means that payment has been ro been received beforo the dato on wrapper can be changed. CHANGE OF ADDRESS Subscribers requesting a chango of address must give old as well as new address. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb. BRYAN IN NEBRASKA Rockville (Ind.) Tribune: William J. Bryan's courso at tho Baltimore convention was over whelmingly indorsed at tho Nebraska state con vention. Mr. Bryan has been severely criticised by those who objected to his change from Clark to Wilson on the ground that the Nebraska dele gates had been instructed at a primary election for Clark. But the vote for Clark, as Mr. Bryan construed it, was a vote for him as a progres sive not a reactionary and the instructions were more binding on the issues than on the personality of the candidate. It was eminently proper under the circumstances that the ques tion should be submitted to a referendum vote of tho state convention. This was opposed by Mr. Bryan's personal enemies, who illogically opposed the very thing that would provo whether or not he disobeyed the mandate of his people. The speech of, Mr. Metcalfe in defense of Mr. Bryan's position was one of the best ever de livered before a popular assembly. With such a speech, not to mention the cause it advocated, it is not strange that tho vote of approval was bo large. NO LIMIT The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal has an in teresting cartoon on tho battleship proposition. A number of individuals representing tho vari ous nations of the world aro seated around a table playing poker with battleships for "chips." Throwing in a number of vessels, England says: "I raise you twenty battleships." Germany fol lows, "I raise you." Other nations increase tho bid until Uncle Sam finally "raises them all." A. long-suffering individual representing the tax payer looks on at the game and exclaims; "Gosh, Isn't there any limit to this game?" No, Mr. Taxpayer, there is no limit to the game. Tho only way for anyone to "beat tho game" will be for some nation to become big enough, broad enough and bravo enough to stop the game and stand upon its great moral force. The United States of America ought to bo equal to this emergency. DR. ELIOT FOR WILSON A Boston, Mass., dispatch says: "Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard university, is an ardent supporter of Woodrow Wilson for tho presidency. He said so after his world trip, -which ended when ho and his party stopped from the western train at the Back Bay station and proceeded to Brooklino. 'I have road tho three platforms since landing at 'Frisco and I must confess I was amused to notice that all three claimed title to tho progressive spirit,' ho said They are all progressive if one is to judge from tho claims of the platforms.' " i OLLIE JAMES' LITTLE JOKE Special dispatch to the Chicago Record Herald: Washington, Aug. 5, "The name bull moose as applied to Colonel Roosovelt is-a mis nomer," aald Senator-elect Ollie James of Ken tucky, who was permanent chairman of the democratic national convention at Baltimore. "Bull mooBo nothing; it should be bull, loose and the republican party la the china shop." Governor Wilson's First Campaign Speech Governor Wilson delivered his first campaign speech at Gloucester, N. Y. He was given a great ovation, particularly by the farmers present. Governor Wilson Baid, in part: "I am interested in politics, not as a search for office, but as a great contest devoted to something very definite and practical, indeed. Politics ought not to bo considered as a mere occasion for oratory. Politics ought to be con sidered as a branch of the national business, and as a man who talks politics to tell his fellow citizens very distinctly what he thinks about their affairs and what his own attitude toward them is. "Here we are at a farmers' picnic, and on this day I suppose we might say that tho farmers occupy the center of the stage. When .did the farmers ever occupy the center of the Btago in our politics? I don't remember any time. I have seen the interests of a great many classes especi ally regarded in legislation, but I must frankly say that I have seldom seen the interests of the farmer regarded in legislation. And one of the greatest impositions upon the farmer of this country that has ever been devised is the present tariff legislation of the United States. "I have not heard of farmers waiting for a hearing before the committee on ways and means of the house and tho finance committee of tho senate in order to take part in determin ing what the tariff schedule should be. While you were feeding the world congress was feed ing the trusts. Nobody doubts what the process of tariff legislation has been, because everybody who has been curious enough to inquire knows what the process of tariff legislation has been. "I would be ashamed of myself if I tried to stir up any feeling on the part of any classes against any other class. I wish to disavow all intention of suggesting to the farmer that he go in and do somebody up. That is not the point. All that I am modestly suggesting to you is that you break into your own. house and liye there. I want you to examine very critically the character of the tenants who have been occu pying it. It is a very big houso and very few people have been living In it, and the rent has been demanded of you and not of them. You have paid the money which enabled them to livo in your own house and dominate your own premises. "I regard this campaign as I regarded the last one and the one before the last and every cam paign in which the people have taken part since the world began, as simply a continued struggle to see to it that the people were taken care of by their own government, and my indictment against tho tariff is that it represents special partnerships and does not represent the general interests. . It is a long time since tariffs were made by men who even supposed they were seek ing to serve the general interest, because tariffs are not made by tho general body of members of either house of congressv They have in the past been made by very small groups of indi viduals in certain committees of those houses, who even refused information to their fellow members as to the basis upon which they had acted in framing the schedules. "One of the gentlemen who has been most conspicuously connected with this thing has ,in recent years prudently withdrawn from public life. I mean the one-time senior senator from SS11' 5?r' Aldricl1' I at least give Mr. Aldrich the credit of having had a large weather eye. He saw the weather was changing in Rhode Island, even in. Rhode Island as well as in the rest of the union; the men. who had long known ho was imposing upon them felt that the limit had been reached, and thoy were not going to be imposed upon any longer. They saw that he was n6t even doing what he pretended to do namely, to serve the special interests of Rhode Island, because ho was serving only some of the special interests of Rhode Island and not all of them. "Now there are various questions which you gentlemen ought to realize are pending, ques tions that directly concern the farmer of this country. The tariff intimately concerns the f Sp52,r of tbl? countrv- " makes a great deal of difference to you that Mr. Taft the other da vetoed the steel bill. It makes a difference to you in the cost of practically every tool that you use upon tho farm, and it is very significant or ought to be significant to you, that the demo cratic house of representatives haa passed the. steel tariff reduction hill over the president's veto, a thing I am informed in unprecedented. i the history of the country, that a house should have passed the tariff measures, the wool mcas ure and the steel measure over the veto of tho president. "Tariff measures are not measures for the merchants, merely, and the manufacturer. The farmer pays just as big a proportion of the tariff duties as anybody else. Indeed, sometimes when we are challenged to say who the consumer is as contrasted with the producer, so far as the tariff is concerned, I am tempted to answer 'the farmer,' because he does not produce any of the things that get any material benefit from the tariff, and he consumes all of the things which are taxed under the tariff system." POLITICAL HEALTH "Practical Ideals" (a magazine) says: Wo want political health as we want health in every other phase of human life. Of mere party poli tics "Practical Ideals" has little to say, enough if it is clean and wholesome and the party leaders of conspicuous ability and character. Every leader in politics and candidate for gov ernment office is being subjected now-a-days to the severest scrutiny and criticism. Repara tions are made in politics. in a day r.s it were, and often unmade aB quickly. The true states man will first or last be known and be appreci ated. The reputation to stand the test of time must be based on a solid foundation. No matter how far such an one is in advance of his time, the world catches up with him first or last in these live days of general intelligence almost first even while the person, of the true reputa tion lives. A prominent leader in politics for some years past, William J. Bryan seems according to gen eral testimony even of his politcal enemies- to have come signally to honor in the late con vention of the democratic party at Baltimore. He is even said to have saved the party in dire peril among political breakers and brought it to safe landing and to him, it is freely acknowl edged, is mainly due the satisfactory outcome of the convention. We have presented here a forceful illustra tion in the political sphere of the rapidity of pro gress in modern times. Isn't it remarkable that today we have the leading men of both parties the reader can name them contending openly and strenuously for what Mr. Bryan, standing alone, contended for only a few years back. Mr. Iyn has weathered tho wholesale detraction of his political opponents made for party and commercial purposes and now seems likely to have his great merits at last acknowledged. A CLEAN CAMPAIGN FUND SNeX7 York World says: "The check for ?1,000 which William J. Bryan sent to tho democratic national committee is said to be the largest single contribution yet received. If this S ?5e?ven 1 at the end of the campaign it snouid still, be true, democracy might be proud of the record.. A great deal of money is needed ror the legitimate uses of a campaign, but it is clean money when it comes in sums of moderate size from many people interested in the triumph or a political theory or principle. It is dirty money when it comes from an insurance com pany without knowledge or consent of its policy holders; or from a Harrlman expecting to edit a president s message; or from 'the Morgan in terests which are so friendly to us; from a cor poration that is trying to buy privilege, or even irom a harmless millionaire who merely seeks to make his country ridiculous as an ambassa dor abroad. No fear that the people will not support a people's campaign sufficiently for proper purposes. No greater and no other sup port is necessary" oJ2 PeoPlo must not, however, forget that considerable money is -necessary to carry "on a presidential campaign. The Commoner urges its readers everywhere to contribute what they can 2Lr? m?ratIc campaign fund. Subscriptions SSSi-:010 Commoner will be acknowledged and rorvrarded to the treasurer of the democratic national committee. ? eal Judge gPee. facing the danger of impeachment proceedings, takes a four month's vacation for his health. We begin to entertain S5IS ?eax Position upon tho federal SSI f very much like the Isthmus of Panama JSH Deforo the medical corps took. hold. The ir drain lnCh Uould bc digihf?cted, fumigated v - -. A4 w " . iiiwAit. 'V
