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The Commoner.
VOIiUME 13. NUMBER n
SGcrotary Daniels continued, "I would bo the first
to want tho pooplo to know the truth. How
ever, thoro is not, and I protest against tho
highly colored misinformation which tho peoplo
aro now hcing fed by some publications.
"I recontly ordered tho cruiser Maryland, now
in Pacific waters, to test some Alaskan coal
which had been recommended by the naval board
for government use. Her bunkers were filled
and she made a test run to San Francisco. This
was tho result" and he pointed to tho head
lines: "U. S. S, MARYLAND STRIPPED FOR ACTION,
MAKES FORCED SPEED TO SAN FRAN
CISCOPREPARED FOR BATTLE."
"Tho man who wrote that story," Daniels
continued, "ought to be prosecuted. But this
is only one instance. There have been hundreds
within the last two weeks. Not only has the
navy department been misrepresented, but tho
Whito House, tho state department, and the war
department, and other federal branches.
"Tho danger in this character of publication
is not conilned to tho boundaries of tho United
States. It is spread throughout the civilized
world, Jn Japan and everywhere. Thus tho
pooplo of overy nation aro given erroneous im
pressions; they are without tho true facts, and
tho radical elements demand reparation. They
demand it justly, too, but tho men who aro re
sponsible aro not government officials; they aro
tho editors and proprietors of such papers."
PROSECUTING JINGO LIARS
The Chicago Record-Horald prints the follow
ing editorial: Secretary of the Navy Daniels, a
nowspaper man himself, and Mr. Bryan, also a
man of journalistic training and experience,
have publicly denounced the yellow publishers
or oditors who have been busy inventing lies and
manufacturing scare headlines in connection
with the Japanese question. Mr. Daniels favors
prosecution of yellow manufacturers of war
scares.
Some months ago the British foreign secre
tary complained publicly of tho pernicious effect
of jingo lies and fabrications on international
relations. What honest, pacific statesman has
not felt and suffered from this modern evil?
Certainly the law should provide for tho
prosecution and punishment of such poisoners of
public opinion, such willful incendiaries and
destroyers of peace. They commit their' offenses
merely to create sensations and sell papers. They
are hypo-critical and reckless.
-Meantime, if legal proceedings are at present
impossible, the government should name the
worst of the offenders and brand them publicly
as enemies of their country and of society.
AVAR SCARES MAKE AMERICA RIDICULOUS
The New York Herald prints the following
editorial: It is an American characteristic to
talk about war every time the Washington ad
ministration is engaged in negotiations regard
ing an international dispute. Indeed, we do not
seem to have progressed in self-restraint and
common senso since tho days described by
Dickens in "Martin Chuzzlewit," while tho
speeches of most of our statesmen are almost
counterparts of the great Elijah Pogram's "De
fiance." But these war scares do not come as they
did then, so much from rawness, bad manners
and ignorance as from design on the part of
those whose businoss fattens on war's alarums
One element is tho men who want to sell guns
and munitions of war. Others have a few worn
out ships to dispose of to the government. Still
others expect to sell hundreds of thousands of
copies of one cent papers each day, smeared all
over with red inked hoadlines. And still an
other class is playing politics.
They are an unsavory, sordid and unpatriotic
aggregation who would profit by dragging the
country to the verge of war for the purpose of
pocket or other personal advantage. If war
camo they would remain home and make money
If they were asked to go to tho front and face
a few salvos of artillery they would rush to cover
or retire from the jurisdiction.
These remarks are prompted by the spectacle
of a nasty crowd of adventurers who are predict
ing that war is coming with Japan. It is too bad
they can not be muzzled or locked up The
Japanese war scare has been brought out so
often that the entire public might be expected
to laugh at its appearance. But the trouble is
wo live so rapidly that the war scares of the
past are forgotten and each new one appears to
serve for a time as something really serious
Ice on the heads of the public! A club on the
heads of the disturbers!
The President's Great Speech at Newark
President Wilson delivered tho following ad
dress at Newark, N. J., May 1, 1913:
Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens: It is
with very deep and genuine pleasure that I find
myself in Jersey again. I know of no greater
satisfaction than speaking for tho people of this
great state. For I have not come to speak TO
you. I know what you believe in; I know what
you want; I have come to speak for you, and
to tell these men with whom wo aro dealing
what it is their business to do. For wo aro
their masters; they aro not ours.
It made all my pulses go quick again to think
that I was going to come back and speak tor
these people in this great county of Essex; that
wants to govern itself and does not. Tho
most amazing thing to mo about Essex in all
my life in New Jersey has been tho number of
aggressive, intelligent, independent men there
ard in this great county and tho failure of those
men to grapple the realities of the situation and
master their own county and city government.
You aro not governed by yourselves in Essex;
but there come times when the great voice of
the people of this county speaks out in such
volume that even those who ordinarily dare
to venture upon mastery cower under the voice
of the real master. That is what has to be
dono now.
I have exercised a great self-denial about
New Jersey. When I had to make up my mind
where I was going to spend next summer, after
I got back from the Panama canal, my great
temptation was to come back and pitch my tent
near where I used to pitch it on the shore. I
was withheld by this consideration, my fellow
citizens. There is going to bo a contest for the
nomination for-the governorship of this state
next summer and I did not want anybody to
suppose that I was coming back to try and boss
the job. I have no candidate for the demo
cratic nomination for the governorship of this
state; but I am opposed to whoever is desired
for governor by certain gentlemen whom I shall
have the pleasure of naming tonight. I do not
want to see any more governors of New Jersey
privately owned. I do not want to see any more
governors of New Jersey manipulated by hands
that are not discovered to the people them
selves. I am going to New Hampshire next
summer. New Hampshire is in telegraphic
communication with New Jersey, and anybody
who wants to know what I think can find it out
by asking the question; but I am getting just as
far away from New Jersey as it is convenient to
get, so that nobody may think that I had camped
here as if I wero trying to manage the choice
of a people that I have labored as I never
labored for anything else to set free to make'
their own choices.
That was the whole object of the electoral
rsform for which we fought so hard, and, thank
God, fought so successfully, while I was gover
nor of New Jersey to set the people free to
make their own selections, not personally con
ducted; selections not suggested by people who
undertook to make the government of the state
their own private business, but exercised in the
open, under discussion, under scrutiny, under
canvass of all the worthy names that were to
bo considered in so great a connection.
I want to say a few words about the demo
cratic party. I want everybody to realize that
l, at any rate, have not been taken in by the
results of the last national election. The coun
try did not go democratic in November fit
was impossible for it to go republican, because
it could not tell which kind of republican to go)
The only united and hopeful instrument through
which it could accomplish its purposes was the
democrat c party; and what it did was to say
this: "There are certain things that wo want
to see done, not certain persons who we wish
to see elevated. There are certain thinks thai
we want to have demonstrated; as, for Lample
that the government of the United States can
no longer be controlled by special interests
Now, wo are going to have a trial at using the
democratic party as our instrument to discove?
those things, if the trial is not successful we
will never make it again. We want an instra
ment in our hands by which to make ourselves
S thfnv ,UP r affairs' and " looks hS
in the existing circumstances that this is ti Z
suitable and ready instrument. Therefore
will try it, not adopt it try it "Yon I'
what happened to the democratic party In thS
sto,te. It got so confident of power about sixteen
years ago nearly twenty years ago now--tS
it supposed that the- people of New Jerse? had
gone to sleep and had entrusted it with th i
" "" " T, ..& uu questions
more. Therefore, that power was grossly
fortunes, and were askintr nn nnrt
more. Therefore, that power was grossly ll
abominably abused, and the people turned ain!
frnm Hint nnrtv fm tronnfw -i i.. . a7
from that party for twenty years almost hi
cause it had betrayed its trust. Then 'thev
turned to it again in 1910 to make trial whether
this long dwelling in the wilderness had pureed
this party or not; to see whether the evil spirits
had been baked out of it under the sun of tho
desert; to see whether this was a rejuvenated
a renewed, a chastened party. And the first
thing they wanted to know was whether the old
gang still ran it or not. Well, I will not go
into the history of the two years that followed
Suffice, it to say that the old gang did not run
it;" that they fcept under cover even in the lob
bies at Trenton, knowing that there were fingers
that would point them out to the whole country
if they wished to come there and display them
selves. These gentlemen do not like the open. They
do not like to have attention concentrated upon
them. Tliey tremble in the spotlight. Then I
was told that justas soon as I went to Wash
ington the old gang lyould come back; and I
did not believe until I saw it. Once more that
bulky form of the gentleman who used to per
sonally lead the legislature of New Jersey into
disgrace reappeared upon the very floor of the
legislature, and again it was known that his
intrigues were successful In blocking the things
that he did not wish done. Am I mistaken?
Have you not seen them? The same influences
that have for two years been scotched had not
been killed. That great system, with a big
snalce-like S-s-s-s, that great s-s-sneaking,
w.his-s-s-nering s-s-Bystem had established itself
again in 'Trenton. And why had it established
itself? Because something was afoot that it
could not afford to allow to be done.
As I came in Mr. "Matthews was referring to
the circumstance that at the .hearing against
the jury bill the room was lined with sheriffs
of the various counties or their representatives,
Nothing had distressed me more than that. New
Jersey is at present full of Honest sheriffs; but
they are not all honest; and we are, not gunning
for tho honest ones. But the ways of the dis
honest are just as astute as they are devious.
They can let their grand juries indict at tho
strategic and dramatic moment, and they can
also withhold their grand juries from indicting
when everything is quiet and there is no storm
on the horizon. You know perfectly well that
the mastery in politics of some gentlemen who
assume to dominate New Jersey would be im
possible if the things that they did were sub
ject to the ordinary scrutiny of dispassionately
chosen grand juries. We passed a very strin
gent electoral reform, intended to put the gov
ernment of the state in your hands, but if tho
grand jury's hand is withheld at chosen mo
ments, what good is it that you go to the polls
and vote? Who counts the votes? Who con
trols the management of the polls? How will
the crimes committed against the ballot be
brought before your judges? I managed to
give you two judges that were not afraid of
the system. At last, in the fullness of time, I
managed to give you a prosecutor who was not
afraid of the system. And the prosecutor saw
without spectacles things which I myself from
a distance had pointed out to the authorities
of this city as much as a year before. It did
not require spectacles to see them! Everybody
knew that they were there; but' the hand of the
law was withheld.
Do you want a system under which it is pos
sible to withhold the hand of 'the law? Do you
want a system under which it is possible to
choose when the hand of the law shall be with
held and when it shall not? Ah, gentlemen, I
tell you the processes of corruption in the jus
tice of this country do not lie so often where
it is supposed that they lie with the men who
preside over the trial of cases as they He with
the system which determines who shall feci the
punch. of the law and who shall not; and tho
poor man, the uninfluential man, the man who
does not stand in with the gang, will feel tne
punch of the law and the other man will not.
It is a disgrace to the judicial system of the
state and of the union, and I-come here to pro
test against it as a representative American
citizen, that these things should be allowed to
exist. Look at the apparent reasonableness or
the whole thing how honest men allow them
selves to be played upon. "Ah," they say.
The democratic platform of the state promised
jury reform, but it did not say what kind oi
-tBitri
