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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1916)
SW&r ,WVH.W"7rV&""9fKftr The Commoner VOL. 16, NO.-2 ip W . w B fc' R. &, The Commoner ISSUED MONTHLY Entered at tho Pontonico at Lincoln", NebraHka, an ftocond-cliiHH mattor. WILLIAM J. DIIVAN CHARLES W. BRYAN ICditor and Proprietor AflHooIato Ed. and 'Publisher Edit. Riiib. and HuhIhcbb Ofllce, Sulto 207 Press Bldff. One Your If J. 00 Six Month 50 In ClufoM of FIvo or more, por year.. .7tf TJirco JlortliN 20 HIukIo Copy ...... .10 Hainplo CopleH Froo. Foreign PoHt, 25o Extra SIUISCIIII'TIONS can bo Hont direct to Tho Com moner. They can alo bo sent through nowHpaporH which have advertlBod a clubbing rate, or through local agentfc, whoro such agentH havo been ap pointed. All remittances should bo sent by post ofllco money order, express order, or by bank draft on Now York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, Htamps, or currency. HlONinVAIiH Tho dato on your wrapper shown Urn tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus January 10, means that payment has been received to and Including the Issue of .January, 1910. ClIANOF. Olf ADDltlQSS Subscribers requesting a chango of address must glvo old as well as new address. ADVIOUTISIXO Rates will bo furnished upon application. Address all communications to Till! COMMOIVKIt, LINCOLN'. NEI1. "Tho mills of tho gods grind slowly," but for evidence that they DO GRIND, see recent su promo court decision. Possibly It was tho light of one of the Steel trust's blast furnaces that blinded the eyes of Congressman Mann when he was meditating in his garden. So Congressman Mann was in his "garden" when ho yielded to tho "scarodness" program. Woll, well, that is whoro the first man was when Uo listened to the serpent, In demanding "incomparably the biggest navy In tho world," tho President has gone "incom parably" farther than tho wildest recommenda tions of the Navy experts and the Navy league. Congressman Mann does not claim that ho was on tho road to Damascus when tho sudden chango took place, and his blindness, being of long standing, would not indicate that he had seon a bright light very recently. .Tho Security league endorses every proposed addition to tho army and navy appropriations and then some. Of course the business of the scarodness organizations is to raiso the bid no matter how much anybody else proposes. Senator William Alden Smith insists that Provldonco ontrustod us with tho Philippines, and that wo should, therefore, keep them. If it over becomes a crime to acquire information as to the Lord's plans, William Alden will have no difficulty in proving an alibi. If Congressman Mann will read his Bible he will find that there are two kinds of conversion. Paul, once a persecutor of the Christians, be came an apostle of the Prince of Peace; that was conversion to, righteousness. But Aaron's case was different. Ho started out a worship per of the true God, but afterward possibly in fluenced by the spear-makers of his dayset up a golden calf. One of tho "scarddness" organizataions is sending out a picture showing the hauling of a torpedo through tho streets, "as an exhibit in the preparedness campaign." Why stop there? Why not put a lot of crippled soldiers, sorrowing wid ows and weeping orphans on a float decorated with artificial limbs? If they want to bring war vividly before the imagination they should show its victims, not merely tho attractive-looking machinery that causes death. It would shock the public for a minister to invoke tho divine blessing upon a prize fight and yet in a prizo fight tho contestants risk themselves and divide tho gate receipts. Is it not a little strange that ministers can convince themselves that they see tho hand of God in a war waged for commercial advantages a war in which each side wants ALL the benefits, and in which the REAL beneficiaries have OTHERS do the fighting for them? Experts By this time the average man has a pretty clear understanding of the army expert, and a well settled opinion in regard to him. It may, however, please the average man to know that tho ruling passion in. tho military expert is un derstood by statesmen as well as by tho rank and fllo of the people. Lord Salisbury, for in stance, one of tho most distinguished of the latter-day statesmen of Great Britain, is quoted as having said to Lord Cromer in Egypt, "Pay no attention to the military experts, for if they had their way, they would fortify Mars to pre vent invasion from the moon." Lord Salisbury is right. There is nothing too ridiculous for them to advise. They act upon tho theory that the nation must be prepared to resist ANY ATTACK THAT CAN BE IMAGINED, no matter how improbable it may be. And there is no limit to the amount of pre paredness that would become necessary, if the experts controlled the various governments, be cause the experts are all alike. Each group would insist that its country MUST BE BETTER PREPARED THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, and that means that the rivalry in preparedness must at last absorb all available money a policy under which each nation would bankrupt itself in order to keep other nations from bankrupting it. According to the theory of our experts, we must, in the first place, have a navy able to nrevent any enemy from reaching our shores. In the second place we must have fortifications sufficient to prevent an enemy from landing if it sunk all of our ships. Then we must have an army sufficient to repel any invasion in case our navy and fortifications failed to prevent a land ing. Then wo must have a reserve sufficient to repel tho invasion in case the regular army was not able to withstand It. And we must have all our citizens trained in the use of arms so that they could be called to the colors imme diately, if the reserve was not sufficient to sup port the regular army In Its support of the navy. Then the boys in school must be trained to be able to take the place of the adults if the war lasted long enough to exhaust the trained men when called to support the reserves, when sum moned to support the regular army, when re quired to assist the navy, in repelling an imagin ary foe. But even this could hardly be considered COMPLETE preparedness. The women must have something to do. They are already being enlisted, and they must be taken from their or dinary duties and trained in the making of bandages for the men who may be wounded if the imaginary foe vanquishes our navy, defeats our regular army, cuts its way through our re serve force, overwhelms our host of trained citizens, and slaughters our trained schoolboys The papers sent broadcast throughout the coun try a few days ago the information that one woman had agreed to build and equip two hos pitals in case of an invasion. But the limit has not yet been reached in get ting ready. One of our jingo business men pro posed that the manufacturing plants be so or ganized as to be able to turn out an inexhaust ible number of motor trucks for use in case of an invasion. And why not organize an auto mobile corps made up of the owners of all the automobiles in the country? Ought they not to bo ready at a moment's notice to carry the soldiers to the point needed, to meet the attack of this imaginary foe? Another thoughtful expert has suggested that preparedness, to be adequate, must also provide an ample supply of artificial limbs for at least " two hundred and fifty thousand cripples why should the nation be so slothful and unpatriotic as to wait until these imaginary soldiers have already lost their limbs in this imaginary war' Tho country would be driven mad, or to nerv ous prostration, by the dreadful predictions of these professional soldiers but for the fact that their conduct furnishes a sort of soothing pow- 2?,w!T!!?yareto be found in undiminished numbers at the afternoon teas this ought to be sufficient proof that the enemy is not within sight. As long as these experts continue to adorn social functions and enliven dinner par ties with their presence, the country can rest assured that the enemy is far away so far away that wo are justified in postponing for tho pres ent any INCREASE in the appropriations for the army and navy. W. J. BRYAN. - THE PROPOSED TARIFF COMMISSION The President has announced himself in favor of a tariff commission, and it is likely to receive the endorsement of congress. The republicans have been asking for a tariff commission for a good many years, and the democrats have op posed it, on the ground that such a commission is practically useless, for two reasons: First, be cause the report would follow the bias of tlie members of the commission, and second, con gress would not pay any attention to a report that was contrary to the wishes of the majority of the members; For instance, a democratic tariff commission would have no influence with a republican congress, and vice versa. The commission was also opposed by the dem ocrats on the ground that it was merely an ef fort to prevent immediate tariff reduction. Now that the reduction has been made, the democrats would be more likely to favor the commission as an excuse for not dealing with the tariff ques tion for the present. As a motion for a contin uance, it may serve a useful purpose. There is no use, however, of ignoring the fact that the findings of the commission will have very little weight in congress. A republican will favor a high tariff, no matter what reductions a demo cratic commission might recommend, and a dem ocratic congress would in like manner ignore the recommendations of a republican commission. W. J. BRYAN. Congressman Mann, republican leader, made a very interesting speech, which has been con strued by -the jingo press as a patriotic, non partisan pledge of support to the President's program on preparedness. The speech, when stripped of its rhetoric, means that the country needs preparedness and that the chief feature of preparedness is industrial independence. The conclusion UNSTATED, but in his mind was that a return to a protective tariff would give, both industrial independence and the money for" ships and soldiers that is, the republicans will support the President's plan if the democrats will accept the republican plan of raising the. money. " - -,inri4)Xtt THE PEOPLE VS. PRESIDENT iftSP EX-4 PRESIDENT ' " 'uVHti1 ' r r Here are the three positions: Ex-President Roosevelt wants this nation to go to war with Germany NOW. The President, if we may judge by his recent speeches in the west, wants a' big army and navy with a view to going to war with both sides. The plain, tax-paying, peace-loving' people are opposed to going to war they do not believe that we have, or are likely to have, a cause of war against Germany or against the Allies. It is better to postpone final settlement until after the war, if necessary, than to enter' this unprecedented conflict. A CALL TO CHRISTIANS In another part of this irsue will be -found an appeal to the Christian citizenship of the nation by Rev. Dr. Martin D. Hardin, of the Third Presbyterian church of Chicago. Read it, have your neighbor read it. Be sure to bring it to the attention of the preachers and priests, Iwl n Th are Prominent in the various churches. It is an unanswerable argument, and can not fall to touch the conscience of those 2f n?wledse anegience to Christ and hope for the triumph of his teachings. Did you ever authorize an architect to pre pare plans for a house, without first telling him what you wanted it to cost? You consult the architect about HOW to spend the amount YOU STJJhS fPfnd not a,s to HOW much to spend. So with the army and navy experts. It is their Sfwifnf11? Hie government HOW to spend wisely what the taxpayers want to spend on preparedness not HOW MUCH OUGHT to be spent. And yet the experts seem to feel offend ed if they are not allowed to decide for the peo ple the amount to be expended. THE "NEW PATRIOTISM" The- new patriotism which the jingoes are try ing to introduce in the country insists in de nouncing the government of the United States as cowardly, and belittling its ability to protect The American Defense society announces that it will establish branches in Latin America Certainly. If the United States' gets vlZly against imaginary foes in Europe, why should not our neighbors get ready to res st us? ""BBCStitegBMBttasaBtttM