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The Commoner
ISSUED WEEKLY
Entered at the Postofllce at Lincoln. Nebraska,
is Bccond-claas matter.
"WJL1JAM J. liliTAN
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JEFFERSON RADICAL
Alfred Henderson in the Cincinnati Times
Star: Tlio celebration April 13 of the birthday
of Thomas Jefferson by Tammany Hall at which
all of the speakers were conservatives, pre
sented an amusing spectacle in the lack of har
mony in spirit and belief between the men
celebrating and the man celebrated.
The boldest innovator, the most ruthless
Iconoclast that ever appeared upon the stage of
practical politics was Thomas Jefferson.. Philos
ophers like Plato, Moore and rRousseau had
dreamed in closet and books, but Jefferson,
though schooled in the theories of these men,
entered the arena of action and led with daunt
less courage the revolutionists and radicals of
hia day. Compared with Jefferson, even Bryan
is a reactionary and this, too, not merely con
sidered in relation to the ago in which the two
men lived but on the score of abstract prin
ciples. The owners of vested rights, those who
enjoyed privileges, denounced Jefferson as "a
red," and when he was elected president the
first time there were communitis that actually
went into mourning. As a whole the press, the
pulpit, the bar, the colleges, polite society, every
organ and moldor of public opinion was against
him.
Jefferson attacked the judges even more
bitterly than Lincoln did later for the Dred
Scott decision, Bryan for the income tax case
or Roosevelt for the Chicago"' case. Writing of
Chief Justice Marshall, then on the bench,
Jefferson said: "His twistifications in tho case
show how dexterously he can reconcile law to
his personal bias," and he referred to "the. cun
ning and sophistry withjn which he is able to
enshroud himself." But Jefferson did not con
fine himself to men on the bench, he assaulted
tho system of the federal judiciary, saying:
"The judiciary of the United States is the subtle
corps of sappers and miners constantly working
underground to undermine tho foundations of
our confederated fabric. An opinion is delivered
by a crafty chief justice who sophisticates the
law to his mind by the turn of his own reason
ing. A judiciary independent of the will of the
nation Is a solecism in a republican government."
Jefferson was the champion of the laboring
classes, and his writings now read like the
speech of some populist or socialist orator. In
- ono passage Jefferson says: "Experience de
clares that man is the only animal which de
vours his own kind, for I can apply no milder
term to the general prey of the rich on the
poor." He severely denounced monopoly of
every kind.
Jefferson went even further than Henry
George in his advocacy of the common or equal
ownership of land, On this subject Jefferson
wrote much, of which this is a small paragraph:
"The earth is given as the common stock for
men to labor and live on. No individual has of
natural right a separate property in an acre of
land. Ownership is the gift of social law and
is given late in the progress of society." Jeffer
son held that landowners have no rightful claim
to compommtlon, but that if it is given at all it
Is a -puro gratuity, Jefferson says: "This prln-
The Commoner.
ciple is of very extensive application. It enters
into tho question whether the nation may change
the appropriation of lands, and it goes to mo
nopolies in commerce, and it renders the ques
tion of generosity and not of right."
It is the fashion of some conservative demo
crats to talk of the constitution as if that were
all and they proclaim themselves "strict con
structionists." Jefferson was a strict construc
tionist in that he opposed legislation by judicial
decisions, but he did believe every generation
should revise the constitution and he regarded
a constitution as a means to an end, the happi
ness and welfare of tho people. Jefferson said:
"Some men look at constitutions with sancti
monious reverence, and deem them like the ark
of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. But
laws and institutions must go hand in hand with
progress. As new discoveries are made, new
truths disclosed and manners and opinions
change with the change of circumstances, in
stitutions must advanco also and keep pace with
the times. We might as well require a man to
wear still tho coat which fitted him when a
boy as civilized society to remain ever under
the regimen of their ancestors. It is this pre
posterous idea which has lately deluged Europe
in blood. Their rulers, instead of wisely yield
ing to the gradual change of circumstances,
have clung to old abuses and obliged the people
to seek, through blood and violence, rash and
ruinous innovations. Let us follow no such
examples nor weakly believe that one generation
is not as capable as another of taking care of
itself and of ordering its own affairs. If this
avenue be shut to the call of suffrage it will
make itself heard through that of force."
Of the "money power" of his day Jefferson
said: -"I hope we shall crush in its inception
the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations,
which dare already to challenge our government
to a test of strength and bid defiance to the laws
of our country."
It is curious that, while throughout the coun
try, the birthday of Jefferson is being cele
brated lie deprecated such a thing. On this
subject Jefferson said: "Disapproving myself
of transferring the honors and feneration for the
great .birthday of our republic to any individual,
or of dividing them with individuals I have de
clined letting my own birthday be known, and
have engaged my family not to communicate
it. This has been the uniform answer" to every
application of the kind."
Jefferson, though of distinguished ancestry,
cared nothing for it and wrote: "They trace
their pedigree far back in England and Scot
land, to which let everyone ascribe the faith
and merit he chooses." He was also opposed to
such organizations as the Sons of the Revolu
tion, Colonial Wars, that have the hereditary
?u ' the society in hls day he fought being
Tho Cincinnati," composed of officers of the
revolutionary army.
Jefferson, though an idealist, was also a "prac
tical politician," and, through his political skill,
built up a party organization that for half a
century ruled the country. He believed in par
ties, though not because of office or spoils, but
because of principles and drew a sharp distinc
tion between what is now known as a "boss."
and a leader.
A BREEDER OF TRUSTS
The protective tariff is the direct breeder of
trusts and, therefore, of high prices. The proof
is easily marshaled. Suppose there are twenty
five men or companies engaged in the manufac
,.re La certain article of general use, a neces
sity. They find that by adding 12 per cent of
the amount each has invested to the production
and sale cost they can sell it at about $2.50.
Competition between these manufacturers keeps
the price of that article to about that figure
Some financier down in Wall street, eager to
make a few unearned millions by promotion
notices that there is a 40 per cent tariff on this
specific article. Forty per cent of $2.50 is $100
He calls a meeting of these twenty-five indepen
dent manufacturers and points out to them that
if they would consolidate all of their plants into
one establishment under one ownership thev
could secure $3.50 for the article for which thev
have been getting $2.50, because the tariff keens
out foreign competition. l
A trust is formed, and with competition
eliminated, each concern, selling at $3.50, makes
a profit of $1.00 more than before! or approxi!
mately $1.30 If the profit is four times as much
as before, this justifies, the trust, following the
usual commercial ethjes, in quadrupling its cani
tal stock, each share then earning -what on
share of the old stock issue earned. In other
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 44
words, the capital stock is watered three times
its original value, This new stock, earning an.
proximately 12 per cent is floated, and is di
tributed among hundreds of the "widows anil
orphans" class. The promoter and the original
stockholders divide the loot between them The
public is thus permanently saddled with the re
sponsibility of earning this increased amount
upon the fictitious capital. If a reduction in the
tariff is urged it is pointed out that the industry
can not stand it, that it would not be able to
earn reasonable dividends upon each share of
stock and would have to either close down or
cut the wages of the men. If the tariff had not
been excessive in the first place, there would
have been no incentive to balloon the corporation.
The theory of the protective tariff is that it
insures the laborer in American mills getting
a just wage, a higher wage than is paid abroad
for the same work. If a mill hand gets $1 a day
abroad and the American mill hand in the same
occupation gets $2 a day, the manufacturer
should be given a tariff that will represent the
difference he pays out in wages, say the protec
tionists. The proper tariff is arrived at by com
puting what proportion of the production cost
is paid out for labor, and then fixing the rate at
the differences in percentage. The manufac
turer is then made the agent Of the government
to collect this difference and hand it over to the
laborer. In practical tariff-making, the manu
facturers fix the tariff they think is needed, al
ways fixing it plenty high enough, and then pro
ceed to hire labor as cheaply as they can get
it, often sending over to foreign countries for
the workers. Let us see how this works out.
Tho government statistics for 1905 show that
the. value of the woolen manufactures of this
country that year was $767,000,000. If these
goods had all been purchased abroad and no
tariff paid upon them they would have cost
$.404,000,000. The margin of protection in
actual dollars, therefore, was the difference, or
$363,000,000. That is, in order to insure
American workmen proper wages, American
consumers paid $363,000,000 more than they
could have purchased these goods for in a free
market. But the same census figures show that
the actual labor cost of producing these goods
was about $150,000,000, taking the percentage
given of the total labor cost in this industry.
If these workers were paid twice as much as
were the workers in foreign mills, then the dif
ference in labor cost wa3 about $75,000,000.
As the consumers were taxed $363,000,000 in
order to pay this difference of $75,000,000 in
wages, it isn't difficult to figure where the excess
went and that the wool tariff is excessive.
C. Q. D.
THE UNIT RULE
Let every democrat gird himself for the fight
to overthrow the unit rule. The Baltimore plat
form declares that national committeemen
should commence to serve as soon as elected
this puts an end to the hold-over system under
which an old national committee could organize
a new convention. Now let the unit rule be
abolished. It has served to strengthen the power
of the boss it must go.. Under the unit rule
Mr. Murphy, for instance, by securing forty-six
or more of the ninety votes was able to use the
remaining votes as his personal property. The
four delegates-at-large may, with propriety, be
instructed by the state, but' the district delegates
should be instructed by the voters of the dis
trict. This brings the control nearer home.
NOT ONE MAN ESSENTIAL
At Tacoma, Wash., where he spoke to a
large crowd, Governor Marshall said:
"I object to your idea that this government
depends upon the life, the patriotism or the
effort of any individual leader. Good govern
ment or bad government simply goes back to
the people that make up the citizenship of this
country. This government does not rest upon
the shoulders of its officials, but it does rest upon
individual shoulders of 90,000,000 of its citizens.
That's where responsibility rests. When you
effectively have taught this great lesson to the
populace of this country you will protect the
lives of your public servants from such an attack
as occurred recently at Milwaukee."
These interstate monopolies have waged in
cessant warfare on all forms of labor organiza
tions, and have crushed with an iron hand and
remorseless cruelty every effort of their im
poverished toilers for the betterment of their
condition. Senator Reed, of Missouri.
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