The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 12f NO. 47
Lincoln, Nebraska, November 29, 1912
Whole Number 619
STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!
It behooves members of congress to be on guard. The big financiers who are behind the Aldrich currency scheme are planning to rush
the bill through congress at the short session which convenes in December. It must be prevented. The Aldrich bill includes the two thin
for which Wall street has been planning for nearly twenty years, namely, an asset currency and complete control of the business of tht
country. An asset currency would enable the banks to make a double profit on their money they would first loan their money and then
use the notes of borrowers as a basis for bank note circulation, and then their organized control of the financial -world would be made abso
lute by the central bank system proposed. The reformation of the currency should bo postponed until the new congress meets and then it can
be undertaken by democrats according to the democratic theory which puts the responsibility upon the government instead of the banks.
The currency can be given all the elasticity it needs without increasing the privileges of the banks or the influence of Wall street.
MR. CARNEGIE'S PRESIDENTIAL SUBSIDY
Andrew Carnegio's latest proposition is
described in the following Associated Press
dispatches:
Now York, Nov. 21. Future ex-prosldenta o the
United States are to bo pensioned In the sum of
$25,000 each annually by action of tho Carnegie
corporation of New York today. Tho grant is pro
vided for with the Idea of enabling former execu
tives of tho nation to devote their knowledgo
gained In public affairs to tho public good, freo
from pecuniary care. A similar amount is to bo
paid widows of ex-presldents as long as they re
main unmarried. Tho pensions are to be promptly
offered to tho ex-presidents or their widows so
that no application will bo required from them.
Payment is tq bo continued so Jong as. tho recipi
ents "remain unprovided for by tho government.
Tho announcement followed tho second annual
meeting of tho corporation held at the resldonco
of Andrew Carndglo hero and attended by the cor
poration's eight trustees.
Provision has been made through this corpora
tion for a pension for each future ex-presldent and
his unmarried widow of $25,000 per year as long
as they remain unprovided for by tho .nation, that
they may bo ablo to spend tho latter part of their
lives devoting their knowledge obtained to public
affairs to tho public good freo of pecuniary cares.
Thcso pensions will bo promptly offered to tho ex
presldents or their widows, so that no application
will lie roquired from them.
Washington. Nov. 21. -When Informed tonight of
tho action of tho Carnegie corporation in Now
York, in providing pensions for future ex-presidents
of tho United States, President Taft said it
wasva very novel and very unexpected proposition,
but that ho- preferred to make no comment
unon It tonight. In a speech boforo tho Lotus club
In New York city last Saturday night tho president
anted broadly that congress should provide for
ex-presidents so that they need not lower tho
dignity of tho position they held when they re
enter prlvato life.
Tliis is the most extraordinary proposition
yet made by a man given to extraordinary propo
sitions. The arguments used against the Car
negie pension or subsidy for teachers, may be
applied with four-fold force against his pro
posed presidential pension or subsidy as it would
better be called. It would be a monstrous thing
to permit the president of the United States to
rest under the shame of anticipating a pension
CONTENTS
MR. CARNEGIE'S PRESIDENTIAL
SUBSIDY
A SIX-YEAR TERM FOR PRESIDENT
WICKERSHAM ADMITS RESPONSIBILITY
A MISSISSIPPI OPINION
TWENTY-IINE NEW GOVERNORS
WHEN NO PRESIDENT IS ELECTED
MR. WILSON'S FAVORITE POEM
CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
WASHINGTON NEWS
from a fund accumulated through special privi
lege. It would bo bad enough to pat our ex
presidents in tho attitude of tho object of
charity, but it would bo infinitely worse to make
him tho beneficiary of special interests. Mr.
Carnegio's proposition is so serious a menace
to the public welfare, that congross should
seize the first opportunity to make such a pen
sion as that proposed by Mr. Carnegie utterly
impossible. Indeed, the proposition is so in
sulting to the intelligence of a peoplo living
under popular govornment and it amounts to
such a serious attack upon popular govornment
itself, that it would be well if public sentiment'
could be so crystallized as to force an immedi
ate withdrawal of tho proposition by tho gentle
man who made It.
Mr. Carnegie lias piled up so much gold that
he has found it difficult to devise ways in which
to dispose of it. He secured his immense for
tune, first, through special privileges from tho
political party, to whose campaign funds ho was
a generous contributor and finally through tho
watered stock of the steel trust perfected under
the 1912 trust system. Tho use of this ill
gotten wealth for tho pensioning of educators
has had a bad effect upon our educational sys
tem, but the efforts of those who wore suffi
ciently far seeing to recognize tho evil Involved
in the teachers' pension, wofo overcome by tho
influence of those who were anxious to partici
pate in the pension coupled with tho efforts of
the many who are all too ready to believe that a
seemingly generous gift may cover a multitude
of sins. The Carneglo presidential subsidy
proposition should bo rejected with such vigor
that a similar suggestion will never again be
made by any reader of American history or any
student of American character.
Several years ago Mr. Carnegie offered to pay
20 million dollars to tho American government
provMed that he was permitted to insure tho
Filipinos that they would bo i?iven their inde
pendence. About that time the Chicago Tribune
(issue May 18, 1902) printed an editorial en
titled, "Tho Arregance of Wealth." The Tri
bune complained that Mr. Carneglo was "con
stantly posing," and that ho had "tried the pa
tience of his friends severely In some of his
late bids for notoriety." It said that Mr.
Carneglo had "scattered libraries broadly
through the country, all of which were to bo
called for him, and every one of them Is a con
tribution to the conscienco fund." Then tho
Tribunp said: "Mr. Carnegie made his money
in a magnificent way, but he should never for
get that HE MADE IT THROUGH UNDUE
FAVORITISM of tho government of the United
States. OWING TO THE DISCRIMINATION
PRACTICED IN HIS FAVOR BY THE TARIFF,
ho was enabled to amass a fortune of two hun
dred million dollars or more, MOST OF
WHICH CAME OUT OF THE POCKETS OF HIS
COUNTRYMEN THROUGH THE OPERATION
OF UNEQUAL LAWS. Much has been said of
the benefit to the worklngmen from the estab
lishment of the Carneglo works. The beneficent
tariff system permitted tho works to survlvo and
flourish, but thoro aro somo pooplo who havo
not forgotten tho Homestead strike, nor the
outrageous manner Jn which worklngmen wore
treated at that time by employers whoso bru
tality has seldom boon exceeded in tho history
of labor agitations."
A thoroughly non-partisan description of the
Homestead strike in tho Encyclopedia of Social
Reforms, is as follows:
"Homestead Striko In July, 1892, a serious
difficulty arose in tho iron and steel works of
Messrs. Carnegie & Co., Homestead, Pa., em
ploying several thousand mon. Wages had been
for many years fixed in those works by a sliding
scalo based upon tho selling price of steel billets.
(See Amalgamated Assn. of Iron & Steel
Workers.) Tho wages wore high for many of
tho men, but a considerable degree of skill Is
required for the work, which also, in some cases,
makes great demands upon tho health and
strength of tho workers', owing to tho high tem
perature of tho workshops in which tho molton
iron has to bo worked. The scalo agreed upon
in 1889 was to expire on June 30, 1892; and
when that date approachod, the owners gave
notice of a desire to reduce the basis from
$20.50 a ton to $23,000, and to mako tho scale
terminable at the beginning of January Instead
of at the beginning of July. To this tho em
ployes objected, because in tho middle of the
winter thoy could not afford a cessation of
work, and would not be in a position to resist
any unwelcome demands mado by tho employers.
Tho number of men actually affected by the cut
down was not large, but the delegates of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and steel
workers, in the name of tho employes, rejected
tho proposed scalo. Tho employers retaliated
by formally discharging all who refused their
terms and announcing that they would hold no
further negotiation with the association as such.
A virtual lockout followed, for tho company
nominally severed all connection with the dis
charged employes. They subsequently Issued a
notice that "all tho old hands who did not re
turn by a certain date would lose their posi
tions." Further Messrs. Carnegie & Co. had
provided against the contingency of a striko or
lock-out during the previous six weeks by build
ing a fence around the works three miles long
and twelve feet high upon a parapet three feet
in height, and covered with barbed wire, so that
the operatives called the works Fort Frlck. Hav
ing prepared the works to stand a seige, they
proceeded to obtain a force of Pinkerton special
constables to enable them to introduce non
union labor to take the place of tho strikers.
Negotiations for the supply of this force had
been begun even before the lock-out had been
declared, though the men were not introduced
until after application had been made to tho
sheriff for a guard to protect the property of
the company. The officials of the Amalgamated
Association, on their side, offered to provide
such a guard but their offer was refused by thfe
sheriff on the ground that though thoy might
oil
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