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The Commoner.
. VOLUME 13, NUMBER 20
The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY
Entered at tho PostoIlco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
nfi Hocond-uluMJ matter.
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A FINE NOTE OP HOPE AND COURAGE
Comnionnr readers have had the privilege of
reading many beautiful articles from tho pen of
Laurlo J. Quinby, editor of tho Omaha Chan
cellor. There is to Mr. Quinby's articles such a
dopth of beauty that they not only entertain and
inspire for the moment, but they leave with
tho reader a lasting impression. Some day tho
man who discovered Frank Crane will wake up
to tho fact that there is a Laurie J. Quinby, with
a pen so strong and a thought so tender and
beautiful, that it was all born for tho service of
men. In that day men and women everywhero
will read tho words of Quinby and be thrilled
by them, just as Commoner readers have been
thrilled. In a recent issue of the Omaha Chan
cellor, Mr. Quinby, writing from the scene of a
destructive tornado, gives to the world thiB fine
note of hopo and courage:
0nGitnlslt' when tho heaviest of darkness
filled the chamber where my little ono slum
borod, I heard a tender voice whisper words that
awakened every emotion of my being. During
? 8l0,?R18H ha(1 either fallen or climbed out
of her little bed, and, wandering about the room,
had lost all her bearings, being unable to again
gain her couch.
Sleep hung heavy upon me, for the day's
labors had been great, and tired nature craved
a season of rest. In her baby voice she called,
Papa, take her hand; papa, take her hand!"
Out of tho mystery of sleep came the baby voice
so iuletly so tenderly, not disturbed, but con
fident that somewhere in that darkness rested
one whoso loving duty it was to take her hand,
that it required many repetitions of tho baby
voice's beseeching to call me fully to my senses.
My awakening was so gradual that I could hard
ly realize that it was anything but a dream
so softly, so sweetly and so sereno came the
baby voice, "Papa, tako her hand."
v Fy awakene. I followed tho leading of
that little sound, and taking baby by the hand,
lifted her into her couch, where, once more
secure, she reposod herself to slumber.
So it is through life. Occasionally we seem
to Plungo deeply into tho very heart of dark
"i8,8 solf. Wo gropo about to feel som0 tan
gible thing to clasp, to seek some ray of lieht
soino avenue from that inky darkness. Sornei
timeB, after all our own resources havo become
exhausted, in our forlorn and dreary state wo
cry out in the darkness of despair, "Papa, take
her hand!" or, f not in that baby speech and
tone, then, "Father, lend mo your hand." And
in the soul of him who so cried out, full of tho
same unrestrained confidence that possessed tho
mind of my little one on that dark night was
it ever tho caso that some Hand did not reach
into that darkness, into that gloom, and with
til?iB?mo tender toucl1 lead from that pit" His
cm id j
Sometimes that Hand is never seen. Some
times it comes in such devious ways and uses
President Wilson's Great Fight
Denver News: Whilo President Wilson Is
writing with simple and convincing eloquence of
"Tho New Freedom," he is fighting for it in
person in his own stato of New Jersey. There,
like many other states the old dogs of politics
dio'hard. Two years ago the president thought
ho had routed them and sent them with hanging
tails to their caves of obscurity. He was mis
taken. Those yelping tools of special interests
who bark their corruption into the faces of the
people are back again striving with all of their
might to secure a leg hold on the popular will
and if possible to undo all that has been done.
There is significant similitude in the fight of
the masses against privilege everywhere. It is
the same in New Jersey as it is in Colorado.
The cause that calls it is tho same. It has its
root in tho jungle of monopoly. It has spread
its noxious growths to the chambers of legisla
tures, to the offices of stato executives, to the
private rooms of mayors. It has established what
President Wilson well describes as "illegitimate
connections between business and legislation."
The slime of bribery has marked its trail and
tho corruptions of politics pockpitted its ad
vance. As the president truthfully puts it, "it
is the system with the big snake-like s-s-s the
great, sneaking, whispering system."
Politicians of the stripe that the president is ,
fighting in New Jersey are merely the instru
ments of the system. They are never chosen
because they stand for ideals in government.
They are not selected because of desire to serve
the people, but because of their peculiar ability
to thwart the will of the people and barter their
patrimony in the market place of greed. They
are employed for much the same reason as an
unscrupulous lawyer to find ways and means to
vitiate justice and poison the vitals of equity.
They work in the dark, cloaking their schemes
of fraud and bribery with simulated honesty and
a mocking pretense of loyalty to political faith.
ThiB last 1b their sheet anchor, for through their
appeals to the fidelity of partisanship they gain
much of the strength which comes to them from
the unthinking, from those who have not been
entirely divorced from the fetish of party.
The country will watch with uncommon in
terest the progress of the struggle for popular
government which the president is leading. The
issue is jury reform, as embodied in a bill wi,u
takes from sheriffs the power of empaffi
juries and vests it in a non-partisan commissi!.
but behind this is the greater issue of stato Z'
trol. The shrievalty offices in New Jersey hat
been effective and persuasive weapons of ma
chine rule, and like every other factor which
political machines have used to perpetuate their
domination their original purpose lias been cor
rupted until their methods have becomo crying
scandals. President Wilson had ample oppor
tunity to watch their devious and questionable
courses, and before he left Trenton for Washing.
ton had laid the foundation for the bill which
the political bosses, backed by the system, are
now fighting with malignant persistency, 'it 8
the same old fight with the people on one side
and their enemies on the ojJier the fight for
publicity as against obscuration.
The president strikes the nail squarely on the
head when he says in this connection: "There Is
not any legitimate privacy about matters of gov
ernment. Government must, if it is to be pure
and correct in its processes, be absolutely public
in everything that affectB it. I can not imagine
a public man with a conscience having a secret
that he would keep .from the people about their
own affairs." We can imagine with what a roar
of ironical guffaws this plain, honest sentiment
of the president was received by the dis
tinguished leader of the Now Jersey machine,
Jim Nugent of Newark. Why, that is nothing
but treason, deep and dark, to the ancient estab
lished methods of the machine. One of the ex
clusive prerogatives of the machine is secrecy in
the legislative committee rooms, in the back
rooms of hotels, in tho privacies of corporation
offices, in the sub cellars of tho system. Light
is the one great thing which the system and its
offspring, tho machine, fear.
"I hold tho opinion," hurls the president into
the middle of the dark lantern apostles, "that
there can be no confidences as against the people
with respect to their government, and that it i3
the duty of every public officer to explain to his
fellow citizens whenever he gets a chance ex
plain exactly what is going on inside of his own
office." That's exactly what the political ma
chine does not want, for publicity would end its
chicaneries and paralyze its nefarious activities.
such inconceivable means that we realize it not;
but whatever the means employed it is the same
tender Hand, dominated by the same unflinch
ing Will, and it leads unerringly to light those
who, for a time, had lost hope.
These are the tests that bring out the quali
ties of men. Some there are who can not bear
the test, and in their despair cry out, sending
forth a wail of criticism of others that thus they
have been so placed. They have not learned the
beauty of exhausting tho very last resource of
which they are capable, of blaming no one else
for their failures, of holding on to the bitterest
end, and only then appealing, in the fullest
confidence that it would not be denied, for some
one to reach into that darkness a hand.
ria ea?Gi mother PusneB om the loftiest
cliffs her fledgling, and in its desperate struggle
to save itself it learns to fly, but constantly
hovering over that fledgling in its frantic efforts
amid air, soars that mother under maternal im-
wSmHB Stron? a evor beat' and whn she sees
S?I i ? n? in danger of beiQS dashed upon
the cruel rocks beneath she pounces down after
him and in her strong talons lifts him to safety!
So let us rest content that in all the depths
of agony and despair, there is no pit so dark but
some strong Hand shall reach even to its
S0???' r that in our BoarinB through dizzy
?h J?ht tbier Is always Covering over us a Wing
S a" vl ect UB from a and death, if
only we first havo exhausted our own powers
SS Sl "B?d extent, afraid, Sspairing
55? Jn1?9? confldence trusted that from
out of that darkness a Hand would lead or en
veloping Wings enfold ua. n
he is proceeding along patriotic lines. Search
ing calmly and carefully for the genuine solu
tion of every problem submitted to his adminis
tration, the president is fortified for every con
test. The American people of all political par
ties are coming to understand the Wilson brand
of courage, and the more intimately they be
come acquainted with their president tho
greater will be their respect for him and their
confidence in him.
PliENTY OF COURAGE
mM 5?.? Texas) Times-Herald savs-
w "w WilSTn' Whil not Pretending to know
Just how tho Japanese affair will termw.
opines that ho is not frightened an Sate'
to sit steady in the boat Th presdLf tlnUe5
lost his head, and it is erlto'thS he will Sot
loso his nerve." Wlil nt
The president's courage is due to the fact that
START THE DAY RIGHT
Start the day right. When tho sun comes to
greet you
Give it a smile for each ray that it sends;
Shake off the worries that long to defeat you,
Strengthen your faith in yourself and your
friends,
Yesterday's ghost will be striving to haunt you.
Yesterday's errors may come to your brain ,
Throw off the worries that trouble and taunt
you;
Start the day right; begin over again.
What a brief span is the longest existences
One flashing journey from Nothing to Nign
Show while you may the old Roman resistence-
Off with your drowsiness into tho fight!
Never an empire was won by the laggard.
Never a prize was obtained but by wTi'
Heed not the sneers of the misanthropes aw
gard
Start the day right and they'll know you'tt
on earth.
Start the day right and you'll find as it P&s
Something to live for and something to lowj
View not for the future through indigo glasses
Note the bright streams and the blue sKie
above. , n-
Failure may mock you thrdugh years 01 eu
' deaVor; ,11.1
Fame and success may not come at your w
But nothing can baffle a climber forever,
Start the day right, and you're half up w
Mil. Cindnati Commercial Tribune,
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