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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1915)
The Commoner VOL. 15, NO. 9 t $ i i kf ' p US ,'f i V It, J S. MU ,,tT V , vu : - Swm . j4'(.'! H ' c . The Commoner ISSURD MONTHLY Entered at tho Postofllco at Lincoln, Nebraskn, as Hccond-class matter. WILLIAM J. BRYAN CHARLES W. BRYAN Editor and Proprietor Associate Ed. and Publisher Edit. Rms. and Business Office, Suite 207 Press BIdg. One Ycni; $1.00 Six MontliH HO In Chins of Five or more, per year.. ,7S Three Mordtit 2." SIdkIo Copy 10 Samplo Copies Free. Forcig-n Post, 25c Extra SUHSCltll'TlONS can bo sent direct to The Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapers which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through local agents, where such agents havo been ap pointed. AH remittances should bo sent by post office money order, express order, or by bank draft on New York or Chicago. Do not send individual checks, stamps, or currency. It EN RIVALS Tho date on your wrapper shows tho time to which your subscription is paid. Thus January 15 mean that payment lias been received to and Including tho issue of January, 1015. CHANGE OF ADimKSS .Subscribers requesting a chango of address must givo old as well as new address. ADVRltTISrNG Rates will bo furnished upon application. Address all communications to TUB COMMONKU, LINCOLN. NED. "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." Milton. Some of our preparetllsts are having nervous prostration out of courtesy to the militarists of tho old world. The motto of the jingoes is "Run little 'fraid or big 'fraid will catch you." It does not require as much preparedness as It used to: very little training will enable a man to lie in a trench and be suffocated. The "Blood and Thunder" Gospel Wo are getting occasional side lights on tho spirit that animates the advocates of prepared ness a glimpse of what we might expect lr tho government was turned over to them.' A fair sample of this "blood and thunder" gospel is to be found in the utterances of a man who is described as "Associate Editor of the Army and Navy Journal." He has (after a careful inves tigation, of course) discovered that there were no "red-blooded people" In attendance upon the Friends of Peace convention. He also found that "the convention was run by women and ministers." He boasts that he would like noth ing better than to get on "the public platform" and ask "what great advance in the nation's his tory was made without force of arms?" What new advance has this man in mind? What are we preparing for? He ought to take the people into his confidence not his mother, if she is living, for she is a woman, and not his spiritual adviser, if he has one, for he is a min isterbut just the "red blooded people," and tell them what new movement he is heading for which FORCE is essential. Possibly the concluding paragraph of his in terview may reveal his purpose. He complains that the advocates of peace are trying to accom r bwih"trpqtisand propaganda" "that which Christ has failed to accomplish after two thou sand years the overthrow of human nature'1! There we have it: He resents the idea that the brute instinct in man can be subdued; the teach ings of Christ seem to irritate him. He belongs to the tribe of the "Tooth and Claw." The pre paredness demanded by the jingoes is a chal lenge to Christian civilization it is a plea for a return to barbarism. W. J. BRYAN. " The number of republican aspirants for the presidential nomination would indicate that the republican leaders are suffering from a severe attack of over-confidence. To the advocates of bigger appropriations for preparedness: Why not put a tax on the jingo papers that are working up a scare, and upon tho manufacturers who will profit by big appropriations? Whatever disputes may arise between citizensy as to tho preparedness for war of the United States there can be none with respect to the pre paredness of a number of republican leaders who want to bo president. It would be cheaper to buy the entire cotton crop at a fair price, use what we need and then dump the. surplus into the sea than to go to war over the order declaring cotton contraband but that would not please the jingoes who are looking for an excuse for getting into this war. Mr. Taft told the people of California in a recent speech that they were conducting a chem ical laboratory for social and political experi ments that would cause them a lot of trouble in the future. Mr. Taft failed, however, to explain to them how it was possible to secure better so cial and political conditions unless some com munity or commonwealth conducted experiments. And California seems to bo doing quite well. The chairman and secretary of tho republican national committee havo issued statements in which tliey predict certain victory for that party in 1916. In view of tho fact tlrat a campaign is decided on issues and men and nobody knows now what issues the republicans will seek to raise or what men they will nominate, it is safe to assert that the predictions of Mr. Hilles and Mr. Reynolds havo no greater value than any of the remainder of the flapdoole output. Among the newly erected republican presi dential lightning rods may be discerned, that of ex-Governor Hadley of Missouri. Mr. Hadley qualifies in a recently printed article in Colliers, "by declaring that tho terms "progressive" and "conservative" are impossible of definition and that it is difficult to distinguish between them when various commonwealths are compared. The average voter, howevor, is not as sadly puzzled as the floor leader of the republican national convention of 1912 is. RIVALRY IN SCARES The advocates of "preparedness" are increas ing their demands. The Defense league recently demanded $300,000,000.00 for the navy and $3 50,000,000.00 for the army -a total of $450, 000,000.00 a year "to get ready." Now th&Navy league raises the bid; it asks for $500, 000,000.00 for the navy, and demands an army of one million men to support the efforts of the navy. Well, such an army would cost not less than $250,000,000.00 per year or a total of $750,000,000.00 per year for army and navy. As we are now spending $250,000,000.00 for the army and navy, the Defense league wants the appropriations for preparedness nearly doubled, while the Navy league wants three times as much spent as wo are spending now Next! Do wo hear a higher bid? If we start out on a "get ready" policy the leadership will go to the jingo with the liveli est imagination to the one who can think of the biggest scares to startle the taxpayers into giving up their money. At present the Navy Iqague has the biggest case of fright, but just wait until the Defense league has another scare.. 'IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN" "It is an ill wind that blows no one good " so runs thQ old proverb, and it may be added 'that it is a good wind that blows no one HI ho new proverb is suggested by the sad fate of the two colonels whose hopes of war have, for the time being, at least, been ruthlessly shattered by Germany's acceptance of this government's position on the submarine attacks. If the wires between Oyster Bay, New York, and LouisTi lie Kentucky, would only give up their secrets the literature of tho world might be enriched by havoCbeenS"mUCl1 re than "" ht GUSSIE'S GALL Gussie Gardner, is telling the world what h would do under the title, "If I were ffl" Forget it, Gussie! Things do look bad but if will never come to that Tf tho ,,. ' Dut n noot you vltb Caesa it WiH ta WhS thTL00 hat ho said about "All Gaul," etc If the readers of The Commonpr vidf T geles during the exposition shou Id ? to see the mission plav af 4nn ni i , ot fail AN ENEMY OF WOMAN RTrm, . - w .' A J,MI I41 The Philadelphia Ledger contains tho t ,, ing dispatch from Reading, Penn y Va4'0l,W "All the influence of the pZ?:. Federation of Liquor Dealers wilf b ? fi?n-,a against the constitutional amendment Iff? gives women the ballot. Opinions l?1 by dealers from widely scattered a-nSS!?1 closed that they oppose 'votes for S"8. dis" they will aid in financing toTJthrtm paign With women voting, the deS saT the vote against the saloon would be so V J' to sound the death knellfor the business g 8 "Delegates to the liquor convention wn session behind., closed doors at Xhtt mapped out their campaign to comba tLSS Bade of Governor Brumbaugh for local mS Th?'i w !1i?UOr m,en wiI1 orSaniZe in each cX and that they will support legislative candidate who are avowedly 'wef was the news circnta? mg from tho convention hall." uuiat- Yes, of course, the liquor intereststhat is those who make money out of the liquor bust nessare against woman's suffrage. Every man who traffics in sin is opposed to woman's Suf frage. But why is it that the good people arc not as prompt to take the side for woman' suffrage as the evil influence; are to oppoTo ?t! If those making a profession of wickedness un derstand that woman's conscience is AGAINST them, why can those who are fighting against evil and for righteousness fail to understand that woman s conscience is on their side' While the brewer, the distiller, and 'the sa loon keeper have a pecuniary interest in oppos ing woman's suffrage, the temperance forces ought to take advantage of this opportunity to enlist a powerful ally on their side. Even the man who uses liquor, unless he is very far gone will prefer to go to the polls with his wife rather then with those who make a profit out of the liquor business. w. J. BRYAN. MR. BRYAN ON WAR LOANS As to the proposed war loan of a vast sum, now being discussed in financial circles, Mr. Bry an gave out tho following statement at Minne apolis, September 11: "At the beginning of the' war this government expressed its disapproval of loans to belligerents. An exception was afterward made in favor of the credits given by banks here to cover pur chases. This proposed loan, however, is so large and will require the co-operation of so many people to insure its success that it raises several serious questions, the most important being its possible effect on the nation's neutrality. The president has appealed to the American people to refrain from unneutral words and acts, hut this appeal will have little effect if our people become financially interested in the success of either side. If such loans are encouraged, our people are likely to become separated into groups, each group loaning to the side with which its sympathies rest. We have difficulty enough in maintaining neutrality when sympathy rests on sentiment. It will be still more diffi cult if sympathy represents large money invest ments. "We can not afford to jeopardize our neutral ity for any money consideration. If Europe wants American money, let it send back American se curities instead of asking our people to share the risks of the war." GERMANY ACCEPTS AMERICA'S POSITION The American people read with great gratifica tion of the successful settlement of the matters between this country and Germany relative to the use of the submarine. The war cloud, such as it wag, has disappeared and the sky Is again clear. The sensational papers exaggerated the situation and made war. appear more probable than it ever was. It was a delicate situation, however, and had in it sufficient dynamite to have- implicated this nation had wo had a jingo inj;ne Whito house. The -partisan portion 01 the press did its best to aggravate the situation, and succeeded in increasing the delicacy of the task, but the crisis Is past, and the .public shares the feeling of relief which the president must experience in this happy issue of the dispute. W. J. BRYAN. Mr. Bryan sent the following telegram to Sec retary Lansing, Sept. 1: "Lexington Junction, Missouri. Hon. Robert Lansing, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.7 Blease accept for yourself and convey to tna president my hearty congratulations upon tne successful settlement of the submarine contro-, versy. W. J. Bryan." B5 4 ' I ,'1 ?"-i . W