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The Commoner
VOL. 15, NO. 2
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The Commoner
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ISSUIBD MONTHLY
Entered nt tho PoBtonico at Lincoln, Nebraska,
as iiecond-claoa matter.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN CHARLES W. BRYAN
Editor and Proprietor Associate Ed. and Publisher
Edit. Rms. and Business Ofllcc, Sulto 207 Press Bld.
Ono Year $1.00
six Month no
In Clubs of Five -or
more, per year.. .7S
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checks, stamps, or currency.
XllSNUWAIiS Tho date on your wrapper shows
tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus
January 1G mean that payment lias been rocoived
to and Including tho lssuo of January, 1915.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Subscribers requesting
a change of addross must glvo old as well as new
address.
ADViailTlSING RatcB will bo furnished upon
application.
Address all communications to
THE COMMONER, LINCOLN, NED.
THE COMMONER'S FIFTEENTH YEAR
At tlio beginning of every year, The Common
er has reproduced the following statement,
printed in its initial number:
"Tho Commoner will bo satisfied, if, by fidelity
tti tho common people, it proves its right to the
namo which has been chosen."
Whether The Commoner has fulfilled the spirit
of this declaration must be left to the judgment
of its readers.
During tho past two years many of the reforms
that The Commoner has advocated since it was
established have been enacted into law by a dem
ocratic administration. Tho revision of the ta
riff, tho enactment of the new currency law, the
paBsago of tho Clayton anti-trus'. bill and the
creation of a trade commission will probably
havo a far more reaching effect and prove of
more real value to the people, than all the other
laws passed by Congress in the past twenty
years. Tho importance of preventing any back
ward step from being taken in the great reforms
that have been inaugurated, and tho pushing for
ward to completion during the coming two years
the unfinished legislative program of the pro
gressive forces of the country can not bo over
estimated. Tho Commoner sincerely appreciates
the loyal support that it has received from its
many readers during the fourteen years the pa
per has been published. At the commencement
of its fifteenth year Tho Conruoner reaffirms its
fidelity to the cause of the common people, and
will endeavor to co-operate in every honorable
way to advance their welfare and happiness.
Apparently the republican talk about a tariff
for the protection of American labor has not mis
led all of the laboring men. Speaking at tho
hearing before the president upon the immigra
tion bill, Secretary Morrison of the American
Federation of Labor said that under tho repub
lican protective theory the big concerns get pro
tection for their products, but the labor market
is on the free list with the big protected com
panies paying their men the lowest wages. Mr. .
Morrison has a happy faculty of putting undeni
able truths in a Bmall compass of language.
Some partisans insist that the test of loyalty
is to stand by the party right or wrong; to de
fend the corrupt members regardless of decency.
This policy puts a premium on corruption and
weakens a party by driving decent men from it.
Tho man who sees no more in democracy than
this does not know the meaning of true democ
racy. Joseph W. Folk.
KIND WORDS
Jackson, Mississippi, February 4, 1915.
The Commoner, Lincoln, Nob. My dear Mr.
Bryan: It is always one of .the greatest pleas
ures of my life to subscribe to The Commoner.
I believe it would almost be impossible for any
one to hold your brother in higher estimation
than I do. I have always, looked upon him as
one of the gireat men of tho world s) true, so
jut, so fair, so uncompromising, so loyal to all
that is true and noble in our Christian civiliza
tion. I look forward jto The Commoner with
pleasure every month and read it with great
profit. Rev. Dr, G. Cordon Smejoxjr
Increasing Railroad
Rates
.The following Is a letter written by the pres
ident of a large knitting mill at Fort Wayne,
Ind., to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette on the
subject of increasing railroad passenger rates.
In view of the advertising campaign being car
ried on by tho railroads through tho press of
tho country in an effort to bring public opinion
to the point where it will not oppose an increase,
tho following letter is timely and contains food
for thought. The letter, follows:
"Tho impression has been conveyed
through the newspapers that at a meeting of
railroad passenger agents and local business
men, favorable action was taken on the railroad
companies' plan to ask for an increase in their
passenger rates from 2 cents to 2 cents per
mile. This must be a mistake, because from
what I can learn, no business men were invited,
but the meeting was attended by railroad, inter
urban and public utility o-Tlcials. As we will
hear enough of the railroads side of tho case,
I would like to present a few observations on
tho public's side.
"Broadly speaking, the railroads base their
claim on these three arguments.
"1st. They are making no money.
"2nd. There is no demand for their stocks
and bonds.
"3rd. A half-cent a mile is a small matter to
the public, but will mean much to the railroads.
" 'Making no money' is not confined to the
railroads, but is shared by the manufacturers,
tho commercial and professional men, and es
pecially by the working people. It is conceded
by all that the depression in business is caused
by the war. We know that railroad stocks were
held to the extent of some thousand million dol
lars abroad, and the foreign investors now need
the money, with the result that thse stocks are
now offered at sacrifice prices and must be ab
sorbed by American capital. And so money avail
able for new issues of stock is now employed
more profitably in bargain sales of old stocks.
Should the American people be expected to make
up the war loss to the railroads? We are al
ready paying one war tax to the government. If
our government is to reimburse the railroads,
then it should, reimburse the manufacturers, the
business men, the working men and all others
suffering because of the war. The war has
thrown millions of working people out of em
ployment who are without any income, and yet
tho railroads ask them to pay more money for
their transportation. Manufacturing concerns
are shut doyn in part or in total and are offering'
the product at reduced prices. They are losing
money, and yet are asked to pay the railroads
higher prices for their product.
" 'There is no demand for their stocks and
bonds.' The war is partly responsible, but are
not the owners of the railroads more responsible?
Why would not investors be wary 'after the al
most inconceivable frauds perpetrated on the in
vesting public, as revealed in the exposures of
the New Haven, the Rock Island, the St. Louis
and San Francisco, and other railroads? I my
self am holding some of these gilt-edged bonds
(?) which I now find are worthless. Will any
body blame me for looking with suspicion upon
all railroad investments? I belong to that class
of 'innocent stockholders' whose money was not
lost through interference by the government, but
because of non-interference. It is these same
owners and promoters operating in Wall street
who have ordered their passenger departments
to go out and hypnotize the people of Indiana
into giving them larger profits. Are we not jus
tified, in view of the past history of railroad
blue sky' financing, in believing that the in
creased revenue will be immediately capitalized
in Wall street by the issue of millions of addi
tional stocks?
"They ask a small advance of half a cent a
mile, but this means a 25 per cent increase
Where a passenger now pays $2 he will pay
$2.50; where ho pays $20 he will pay $25
Where the railroad Company tr.kes in $2,000,000
it will take in $2,600,000. The interstate com
merce commission, after a full year's investiga
tion with ample power and facilities for exam
ining tho books of tho railroads, turned down
their application for a higher freight rate, but
finally after another period, in which pressure
.' 'i f
was brought to bear on them, they 'reluctantly
granted a 3 per cent increase. The passenger
department asks an increase of "25 .'per cent.
Think of it, you manufacturers, business men
and working men, how would you like to receive
an increase of 25 per cent, on your product?
"We must not forget that this increase also
applies to tho interurbans, and that a 10-cent
farewill go up to 12 cents; a 20-cent fare to
25 cents. The interurbans have not asked for
the increase, nor is it assumed that they had any
intention of doing so, as it is common knowledge
among those who know that a 2-cent fare for
interurbans in this section affords a vast field
for speculation and stock promotion. These in
terurbans have much to do with reduced receipts
of railroads, and up to now have met the rail
road rates between points. It is significant that
only last week they notified tho state public util
ity commission that, beginning immediately,
they would demand 2 cents for every mile trav
eled. That means that where the railroad, which
usually travels in a straight line, covers the dis
tance between, two points in 100 miles, the in
ter urban covers it in 105 or 110 miles even, as
they take in all the towns along tho way. Here
tofore the interurban charged $2, the same as
the railroad. Now they expect to get 2 cents for
every mile, or $2.10 or $2.20. The inference is
that the interurbans could hardly sustain their
position in expecting an increase in rates, when
they were not collecting the full 2-cent rate to
which they are at present entitled. A 25 per
cent increase in the interurban passenger rates
would be like deliberately stuffing some ten or
twenty million dollars into the pockets of about
a half dozen men owning the interurbans of this
state. Can we afford to be so liberal with multi-millionaires,
when the average man is asking
his wife and children to be more economical, and
in thousands of cases, asking them to eat less?
And how about the manufacturers, the jobbers
and other business institutions, whose salesmen
practically live on the railroad trains and who
are the main support of the railroads? How do
they feel about having the traveling expenses of
their salesmen increased 25 per cent?
"This rate increase movement is a Wall street
proposition. The first bomb was fired last week
in editorials of the leading Yll street papers.
The leading editorial in Saturday's New York
Commercial, a stock exchange paper, presents
the railroad's side of why the legislature 'of In
diana should grant this increase.
"We will have another exhibition of 'why it
pays to own the legislature and the same cor
rupt agents of the public utilities those half
dozen bosses who put over the public .utility
law of 1913, the fake 'constitution' bill and the
'twenty-two lost amendments' will no doubt put
over this 25 per cent passenger rate increase.
Watch the performance.
"In my opinion this advance in rates should
be rejected without compromise of any kind. It
is unfair, discriminating, and out of tune with
the time."
THEO. F. THIEME.
PROVIDING PUBLIC PARKS
In speaking at Baltimore recently, at the open
ing of McHenry Park, Mr. Bryan suggested a
means of adding automatically to the park area
of growing cities.
The park is the people's common; it is the
joint property of all, and not only furnishes
breathing space that the individual could ill-afford
to own, but invites a neighborliness and a
companionship which contribute to the social
life of the community. When, as in the case of
Fort McHenry, patriotic recollections entwine
about the gathering-place, the value of the
ground is many times multiplied.
We have net reached perfection in the devel
opment of our communal life; the problem of the
city is still unsolved; tho last word is yet to be
spoken on the subject of joint holdings. The
usefulness of these areas set apart for recrea
tion will some day be so highly esteemed that
the municipality will, when acre property Is con
verted into lots, appropriate to Itself for public
parks a part of the unearned Increment created
by the city's growth. In platting new additions
ground is given for streets why not for parks?
The war may have the unexpected result of
transferring the financial centre of the world
from London to New York. The chief duty of
a financial centre is to supply thfc world's needs
in tho way of money, and if thO conflict lasts the
three years some eminent experts predict, there
won't be enough left on the other side of the
waters to finance any enterprise of magnitude;
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