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14
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The Commoner
vol. -m,- NO. 3
The First Quarter
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The Commoner
ISSUI2D MONTHLY
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Entered nt tho Powtofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
nn Hecond'Clatin matter.
WILLIAM J. IlllVAN ClIAItHM W. JIltYAW
KilltoruiHlI'ropriclor AnnxrlaloKdltorand Publlhor
Kdltorlnl IlooiuB niul Itimtnrwi Offlcc, Suite 207. 1'rcM lhiMdlng
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
PKOGUESS OF TRUST LEGISLATION
Democrats everywhere are deeply interested
In tho outcomo of tho anti-trust bills now pend
ing beforo congress. These bills, introduced
immediately following tho delivery of President
Wilson's messago on trusts beforo the joint ses
sion of congress, January 20, embody the vital
features of the administration's program in the
treatment of this question. In another part of
Tho Commoner will bo found an article on
"Trust Legislation," by Henry D. Clayton, chair
man of tho house judiciary committee, which
fully explains tho nature and scope of these
bills.
The democratic position on the trust question
Is founded on tho conviction that "private
monopoly is indefensible and intolerable." The
wbolo purpose of the proposed tniBt legislation
is to write that conviction into laws that will
make it possible to end the rule of monopolistic
power in tho United States, and to forever free
tho legitimate business interests of the country
from tho restraints of unlawful combinations
and monopolies. Tho passage of these bills is
Jooked forward to as one of the great accom
plishments of the present administration.
FRAUDULENT STOCK EXCHANGE TRANS
ACTIONS A number of bills to prevent the use of the
mails, tho telegraph and the telephone in the
furtherance of fraudulent and harmful trans
actions on stock exchanges have been introduced
In congress. Among these is senate file No. 3895,
by Senator R. L. Owen of Oklahoma, which con
tains provisions that aro aimed at tho elimina
tion of tho evils and abuses of tho stock ex
change system, and which, it is believed, win
fully protect tho interests of the producers and
tho public. Senator Owen comments on his bill
in a forceful article on another page of this
issue.
A crushing blow has fallen upon the prophets
of disaster who have for a generation been pre
dicting wholesale ruin if the republican party
was driven from power in tho nation. And yet
a year has passed since the executive, the senate
and the house at Washington all three be
came democratic. The president has been in a
position to recommend what he would and he
has had a senate and house ready to cooperate
with him. All of the departments of the federal
government are administered by democrats. The
affairs of the nation, foreign and domestic, are
in the hands of those who believe in the de
mocracy of Jefferson and Jackson, and the coun
try not only lives but prospers. There has been
no panic, there have been no wars abroad and no
disturbances at home. Could refutation of re
publican fears and realization of democratic
hopes be more complete?
The democratic party is not only victorious
but harmonious, while the republican party is
still separated in two warring factions; each
blaming tho other for the party defeat.
The president enters upon his second year
with a record of achievement of which the party
may well be proud and with more wide-spread
approval of his acts than any other president
has enjoyed in recent years. It will be a long
while before any political opponent will again
have the audacity to question the intelligence,
tho ability or the character of democratic leader
ship. Not only the national government but the states
as well have imbibed the progressive spirit and
the people and their democratic governors and
democratic legislatures are reforming abuses
that had grown up under republican rule, and
adopting measures and methods that make the
several governments still more responsive1 to the
will of tho people.
The first quarter is past and all is well.
W. J. BRYAN.
IN SIIADOWLAND
Ex-Senator Forakor of Ohio is the ground
hog of tho republican party. Ho came out of
his retirement long enough tho other day to see
tho shadow of President Wilson's forward march
and then predicted a "long winter" for this
country. Ex-Senator Foraker, it will bo re
called, was k mighty power in the days when
tho political boss grew round shouldered carry
ing tho burdens of the corporations.
George W. 'Wickershara, who was attorney
general for the Taft administration, told the
academy of political and social science the other
week that tho Sherman law meets every require
ment of present conditions as to trusts and un
fair competition. Mr. Wickersham says the
president means well, but he disapproves of the
legislative measures Mr. Wilson has sponsored
Evidence of tho president's wisdom seems to
keep piling up all tho time.
It was charged before the steel trust hearine
the other day that the United States Steel cor
poration and its subsidiaries receive rebates
through their ownership of ore carrying roads
Well, at any rate it sounds reasonable enough
GET TOGETHER
The democrats in Illinois who are opposed to
turning the party over to the special interests
should recognize the importance of getting to
gether on a candidate for United States senator.
Roger Sullivan may be expected to marshal
under his banner every element interested in the
misuse of government. There will be no division
in their ranks; knowing that they constitute a
minority, they will be held together by the in
stinct of self-preservation.
There will not only be -no division among the
favor-seeking forces, but these forces will exert
themselves to divide the opposition by the
stimulating of ambitions and by giving false en
couragement to those whose vanity can be played
upon. Those who desire to see the great state
of Illinois worthily represented in the United
States senate should confer and select the man
most available and put the entire progressive
democracy of the state of Illinois behind him.
No man's ambition should have weight in mak
ing the selection, and no man fit for this high
honor will allow his aspirations to be considered.
Devotion .to a cause is shown by willingness to
sacrifice for it and not by the desire to profit
by it or through it. While it is entirely proper
for any man to offer himself for an office, his
choice should depend, not upon his wishes but
upon the strength which he is able to lend to the
cause which he represents. Now is the time for
men to exhibit the virtue of "preferring one an
other" rather than assert their own claims. The
future will have many honors to award to mem
bers of our party if Illinois is brought fnto the
democratic column. Those who make personal
sacrifices now will lay up merit and be more
eligible in the future. Let no unseemly scramble
rob the party of its great opportunity. The pro
gressive democrats of Illinois should get to
gether and give the nation a man whose heart is
with the people and who has the courage to be
their champion. w. J. BRYAN.
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
Addressing the American Economic associa
tion at Minneapolis, Dean A. W. Small, of the
University of Chicago, pointed out some of the
causes which he believed contributed to the
present high cost of living. He said: "Our
inquiry into the central problems of our time
will amount to nothing until the leaders of our
thought and action consent to a policy of candid
and thorough inquiry as to whether there is
something radically mistaken in tho capitalistic
system itself. Now, when we are paying for to
day s dinner we are paying also for dinners
served and paid for long ago and we are also
paying installments on other dinners that will
he served generations hence. Yet we marvel
at the growing Blze of the bill. We are still
paying interest on $441,000,000 of national debt
incurred before 1865. Interest payments al
ready have equaled the original loans twice
over. Through continuance of the annual in
terest payments which do not reduce the prin
cipal we are now discharging these loans a third
time. Americans for the next fifty years will
he paying interest for portions of the Panama
canal and at that time will have repaid I the
original borrowings but the principal and in
terest still will be just as much due as if no
payments had been made. Improvements of
railroad terminals completed or projected in
various cities are bonded for $100,000,000. The
interest will be a permanent charge upon the
earnings. It will press down upon wages and
lift demands for higher rates. Our industries
will repay these loans over and over again to
the children and the children's children of the
original lenders." Dean Small pointed out what
he described as "functional fallacies that
radically ignore social efficiency. The fallacy of
treating capital as if it were an active agent and
of crediting income, to tho personal representa
tive of capital irrespective of their actual serv
ices. The fallacy of incorporating the- fallacious
capitalistic principle, thus promoting the local
person to immortality. The fallacy of a system
of inheritance which assigns the powers and
privileges of incorporated capital to sentiment
ally designated individuals. This creates herpdi
tary economic sovereignty, which must eventu
ally become more intolerable than the heredi
tary political sovereignties overthrown by revolution."
COUNTRY VS. CITY LIFE
Theschances of attaining old age are much
greater if we live much of our life in the fresh
country air, according to a bulletin of the
American Medical association. "Statistics go to
show," says Dr. Dezso of Budapest, "that the
fourth .generation of the town dweller is un
known; but enough is' currently reported to
make the conclusion inevitable that the sine qua
non of longevity is a certain amount of time
spent in the country. The city child is subject
to a number of disturbing conditions other than
mere absence of creature comforts, which under
mine the constitution by throwing too heavy a
burden on the sense organs, through which ex
haustion of the central nervous system follows;
among these conditions are noises, a perpetual
round of hurry, and unending sequences of inci
dents exhausting the attention, to which are
super-added the physical discomforts of vitiated
air and effluvia from human beings and waste
iVanCB'tbeBiJLeB offensive gases and infection-laden
dust. To attain old age we have
vfeHieV0 ?S.rSelveB from worry, strains and
J? ile?; 7rltlldfaw Periodically from the whirl
"rf existence, modify our diet, omit the
use of stimulants and narcotics, and spend rea
sonably long periods of time under pleasant con-
Sn? ,5tlC01. reSement- Above all amuse
ment should he simplified and accepted rather
Z wUg ter' 0nly vegetable -and semi
animal foods should he eaten."
The New York savings banks show an increase
I ep0sitBm, 0Ver 5M0,000 during the past
wVti, aittiI1,onf f W increase in bankable
wealth in one state during the first year of the
democratic administration is not a had showing.
Some men like to make themselves consnic
hV?8' WillianiWimame wote
"S I0'? Xorld tQe other day demand-
wJJSJ? tb,e5;ited StateB mediately recognte
Huerta and -thus put an end to the revolution.''
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