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The Commoner
VOL. 16, no. 12
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The Commoner
ISSUED BIONTIILY
Entered Jit tlio Postofllco at Lincoln, Nobraska,
an HcconU-clasB matter.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, CIIAHLES W. BRYAN
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'II 1 10 COMMONF.lt, LINCOLN, NEB.
WORLDLY FAME
Naught but a gust o wind is worldly fame,
Now from this quarter, now from that arriv
ing. And bearing with each change a different name.
Danto.
The fact that monoy gets tight every now and
then ought not to bo utilized as an argument
against national prohibition.
Tho voters do their best to equalize matters.
Montana sent an unmarried young .woman to
congress, while California sent a Benedict there.
x
Mr. Hughes isn't the only eminent republican
who found it an irksome and laborious task to
think up a reason for observing Thanksgiving
this year.
Tho best proof that the republican national
committee grossly mismanaged the campaign
is that it didn't elect its candidates. The other
evidence doesn't matter.
Colonel Roosevelt has gone to the Fiji islands
where the natives won't bo able to tell whether
the languago ho employs in commenting on tho
result of the late election is religious in char
acter, or on the other hand.
General Trevino, defeated at Chihuahua, says
that tho reason was ho ran out of ammunition.
It would be interesting to know where Villa gets
his ammunition. He seems to have a fairly
well greased avenue of supply.
It is as yet Impossible to say which is the more
devout devotee of silence, the political prophet
who said that as goes Maine so goes the nation,
or the chap who said it was all over when he
heard, how New York and Indiana had gone.
This is the season of the year when newly
elected members of state legislatures are firmly
convinced that the business of the session ought
to be cleaned up within" six weeks at the most.
Along next April they will have changed their
taiirids.
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COMMONER RENEWALS
ft
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little delay las possible.
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The "Peace Issue"
(The following editorial by Mr. Bryan was
published in the May issue of The Commoner,
just prior to the St. Louis convention. In view
of the "Peace Issue," which was one of the im
portant factors in carrying the western states
for the democratic ticket, this editorial will bo
of interest now. Ed.)
Tho Chicago .Tribune, the most influential
republican paper west of New York, begins a
leading editorial in its issue of May 7 as follows:
"The meeting of the republican national con
vention, which will be in session in Chicago a
month from today, will bo the most important
meeting of republican delegates since the party
was founded.
"The issues confronting the country today are
fully as great as those which faced our fore
fathers in I860, while the influence of the re
publican delegates will be greater this year than
it was at that time. In 1860 it was the division
of their opponents which gave the control of the
nation to the republicans. This year it will be
only a division of republicans which will permit
the government of the United States to remain
in the hands of the democrats.
"Mr. Wilson is a minority President. He
received a trifle under 6.300,000 votes, as com
pared to 7,600.000 and more cast for Roosevelt
and Taft together. Thus the progressive-republican
vote was more than 1,300,000, greater
than Yhe democratic vote, while it is probable
that in their factional bitterness both repub
licans and progressives voted for Wilson in or
der to assure the defeat of their pet aversion.
"It therefore appears mathematicallv certain
that if a candidate can be found who will please
the voters who voted for ' Roosevelt and the
voters who voted for Taft ths person will be
the next president of the United States.
"If only one candidate is chosen to represent
progressives and republicans, Wilsony will need
to hold his entire 1912' vote arid approximately
700,000 votes from his opponents."
It is just as well to look the facts in the
face. The REPUBLICAN party, if united, can
enter the campaign with "a popular majority of
1,300,000 votes on its side. As a portion of this
majority is made up of large majoritffis-ln a
few republican states, our party's handlcap'is
not quite as great as it appears, but it is still
enough to compel serious consideration.
To the normal republican advantage must be
added the disaffection among German and Irish
democrats. Without attempting to decide
whether the President was wise or unwise in
taking the course that alienated them, the
party is confronted "with the FACT that this
alienation will cost it a large number of votes
enough to defeat the party in severaj close
states. . ,
.From what source can we draw the number
of recruits necessary to give the party a fighting
chance? From one source and from one source
only, namely, the PEACE ELEMENT of the
republican party; we can not draw votes from
thd war element. v
There is a peace element in the republican
party as shown by the vote cast for Henry
Ford in Michigan, Nebraska, and other states.
This is the only element to which the demo
cratic party can appeal, and to 'appeal to this
element it will be necessary to do more than
has yet been done. If any considerable num
ber of republicans felt friendly to the Presi
dent they would have shown it by writing in
his name as their choice when they expressed
themselves at the primary.
If this element is to be conciliated it must
be done by a MOVE TOWARD PEACE. The
opportunity is here. The German government, in
accepting this government's position in the sub
marine controversy, gives as one of its reasons
for doing so its unwillingness to be responsible
for extending or spreading the war. It refers to
the fact that it has twice expressed a desire to
consider terms of peace. The -way is onon
EJil2ie P'eidonVe advantage of the oppo?l
tunity? Failure to secure peace would bring
isyj s ? wwle success would hQ ot TRE-
MENDOUS advantage to him politically, as well
as a blessing to this country and the world
He can at one stroke destroy all the advantage
the .-republican, party now has and makP i.
race on I. record of a peacemaker win J8
give voice to the world's conscience to hi
ity's hopes? t0 human-
MR. BRYAN'S RESIDENCE
Following is an interview by Mr. Bryan dvn
to the press December 1, 1916:
"I expect to be a frequent visitor in Washing
ton during the next fifteen or twenty years if t
live that long. I am interested in national and
international questions more than ever if that
is possible. Asheville, N. C, is beautifully lo
cated in the Blue Ridge mountains. The ell
mate is salubrious and the mountain peaks but
rounding the city present a magnificent view"
but our chief reason for spending the summers
at Asheville is that it is only a night's ride from
Washington. Lincoln, Nebraska, will remain
our home as it has been for the past twenty-nine
years. We shall spend a part of.each year there
and that part will Include election day. I shall
retain my citizenship there and shall vote there
The sacrifice of home life is the severest pen
alty that one has to pay for being in politics. By
spending the summer in Asheville I can remain
home more and yet be near enough to come to
Washington whenever it may be desirable to do
so. Several years ago I secured a building site
near Asheville ten acres on top of a little
mountain which rises five hundred feet above
the city. We shall build there next spring. The
name selected for the Asheville home is 'Mount
Calm.' "
IN MR. BRYAN'S STATE
Commenting on the result in his own voting
precinct, the "city of Lincoln, Lancaster county
and state of Nebraska, in the recent election,
Mr. Bryan, in an interview November 9, said:
"I am proud of Normal precinct, the city of
Lincoln, the county of Lancaster and the state
of Nebraska. AH of these units have not only
supported President Wilson, but they have sup
ported the dry amendment. The prohibition ma
jority in Nebraska is so large that the question
is settled, and the state politics for the future
will be built upon a prohibition basis. The li
quor question is the only question that has di
vided our party during the last twenty years,
and now that this question is settled and out of
the way, Nebraska democracy will take its place
on the firing line and share in the leadership in
this reform, as in all other reforms during the
last two decades."
THE NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN
Mr. Bryan spoke in Nebraska the last week
of the campaign. He spoke upon two subjects
only. One Tvas the desirability of the adoption
of prohibition; the other the duty the voters of
Nebraska, irrespective of party, owed to support
President Wilson because he had kept the nation
out of war and had given prosperity. Prohibi
tion carried the state by 29,442. Mr. Wilson
carried the state by 41,0 5 6( The state had once
before rejected prohibition by a majority in ex
cess of 20,000, and politicians' usually speak of
it as being "normally republican" by 20,000.
These facts are here stated for the benefit of
those Commoner readers who may have seen in
the newspapers that have never tried to be fair
to Mr. Bryan that he was repudiated in his own
state at the November election.
A CORRECTION
1T Trn.n 1,. 4-r.rn.tir afofoQ l 11 T 1 II EUl 6
recent presidential campaign. By an oversight
Ohio and Pennsylvania were omitted from tlie
list given in the November Commoner. The cor
rect list of states, visited by Mr. Bryan in order
named, follows: New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada,
Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa,
Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Missouri, Tennes
see, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Illinois and Nebraska.
The health commissioner of Chicago has been
experimenting with a dozen employees as a oi
squad to determine whether it is possible torn
upon an allowance of forty cents a day rooa
each individual. If he will follow it up wu
aemonstration of how a workingman with a w
Ily of six children can get the forty cents i pj .
lie will have contributed something worth wu
to the discussion.
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