Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1917)
"1 " t; "ly Kfrr FEBRUARY, 1917 The Commoner "fxWjK Four Essentials to Peace The President in his great appeal to the bel ligerent nations stated four essentials to peace four stones, so to speak, which will serve as a foundation. "First of all, there must be a peace without victory." This proposition struck the belligerent nations on both sides as an impos sibility. Since the war began they have had the same idea about RESTORING peace that they had about MAINTAINING it before the war began, namely, force, the excitement of fear, or, if you please, terrorism. Each side has felt that IT ALONE could maintain peace in Europe and that it could maintain it only by the exercise of SU PERIOR FORCE. This is a fatal defect in their philosophy, and the President has pierced it to the core with' the statement, that there should bo a peace without victory. If the war goes on until one siae vanquishes the other, it will be followed by "over-confidence, if not arrogance, on the part of the victor, and cultivation of the spirit of revenge on the part of the vanquished. The President well states it, when he says, "It would be accepted in humili ation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last." Second: "The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded, if it is to last, must bo an equality of rights." There is no more reason why a nation should be respected because of its geographical area, its population or its wealth, than that the indi vidual man should be respected because of his size or wealth. If the Individual has inalien able rights which it is the duty of his govern ment to protect, so nations have their inalien able rights which it is the duty of other nations to respect. Third: "And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of right among organized na tions. No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were prop erty." This is a farieacliing proposition; it relates to the very basis of government. He says that it has been customary to transfer human beings with the land which they occupy. Inanimate matter has thus been placed above living souls. The President has performed a signal service in bringing to the attention of the old world the fundamental doctrine that the people are the source of power. Fourth: The President concludes, "And the paths of the sea must, alike in law and in fact, be free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace, equality, and co-operation." Near ly all the suffering which has come to neuttST" nations since this war began has come because the world has not yet secured the freedom of the seas. When duelling' was in vogue,, the . duellers were considerate enough to retire to some quiet place and shoot at each other without injury to others. War is nothing but duelling between nations and the belligerent nations ought to be. consid erate enough to retire from the oceans the highways of the world .and fight out their Quarrels without disturbing the lives, the prop erty and the commerce of neutral nations. f the world will come together on the basis proposed by the President, it will not need any League to Enforce Peace. Peace will come" as the natural result of recognition of rights and the adoption of the spirit of co-operation. W. J. BRYAN. ! INVITING DISASTER George W. Perkins seems to be of the opin ion that the republican leaders of the old guard persuasion are very selfish and perverse gentlemen. All he asks of them is that they turn over to him and his associates control of the party organization and get out. The blindness of tho democratic ndvocatos of preparedness is pathctic--thoy aro inviting disaster, political and national. They aro piling up burdens upon tho people which can not bo carried without increasing tho national debt, even after resort to every imaginable device for raising more revenue. They aro pouring money into an open sieve; thoro is no limit to tho de mands of the militarists. The army and navy are like "tho horseleafch's two daughtors," de scribed by Solomon as "crying give, give." Every excuse for a scare Is gone. It was a manufactured scare and it was manufactured for a purpose, but It Is now as Impotont to frighten as a group of graveyard terrorists aftor their white sheets have been snatched from them. It is time to rebuke the professional soldiers who are setting up their sham standnrds of honor and trying to 'put into the hearts of all our boys a desire for murder by wholesale; they aro a greater menace to the nation's peaco than any of the nations which they libel, and yet they aro permitted to insult the volunteer soldier while they ride upon the backs of tho taxpayers and goad them with golden spurs. Tho reaction will come soon; it is criminal folly to commit tho party to so indefensible a policy. W. J. BRYAN. PROHIBITION SWEEPS ON Tho prohibition wave sweeps on in states and nation. The greatest surprise is Indiana. A strict prohibition bill has passed both houses, the senate vote being 38 to 11 and tho house vote 70 to 28. The bill becomes effective, after signing by the governor, on April 2, 1918. The liquor interests in that state, after con trolling the democratic stato convention, then voted the republican ticket and thus sot tho democratic party free from obligation, and a considerable number joined tho republicans and put the measure through by a large majority. The amendment has been submitted in Wy oming and is sure to bo surabittcd in titan, 'New Mexico and Florida. In Minnesota the bill has passed one house. Submission is also under consideration in Illinois and Wisconsin. At the national capital the senate has already passed the bill making the District dry, and it will pass tho house before adjournment. If a vote can be secured on the national amendment it will show a large gain over the vote two years ago, and it is quite sure to be submitted by the next congress. Tho cause goes from victory on to victory. ROOSEVELT VS. TAFT On another page will be found Mr. Roose velt's attack on Mr. TAft's league to enforce peace. Tho Colonel's conclusion is right, but his reasoning is wrong. The fault of Mr. Taft's plan iB that it has too much Roosevelt in it. Mr. Taft wants to use FORCE not as much as Mr. Roosevelt would use, and he would not re sort to its use so quickly, but It is force after all upon which he relies. By the time this war was over the people of the United States will understand the importance of the thirty treaties and also tho peril of tying ourselves to the European nations. s A WORD OF WARNING The democratic senators and members who are tempted to vote for big military and naval appropria'tions should remember that its exces sive appropriations for preparedness at the last session nearly cost it an election. The party was saved from defeat by the section that favored peace not preparedness. Several Iowa republican newspapers are clamoring for the repeal of the new law there which removed the party circle from the bal lot They say that it complicates the ballot too much. A much better remedy would be to strengthen the schools of Iowa that teach how to read. WELCOME NO'RTH DAKOTA The Commoner welcomes North Dakota Into the sisterhood of states admitting women. to the privilege of voting for president and municipal officers. Next! "Constitutional" Lawyers This Is tho ribaaon of tho year the legislative period when tho constitutional lawyers a bi ennial crop ripen under tho genial auu of tho special interosts. Mon who, at home, wero novor suspected of superior learning, blossom out into profound students of tho constitution, and It sometimes dev.olopB that tholr only reason for aspiring to legislative honors was to keep that sacred document from being shattered by legis lation directed against some predatory corpora tion. Tho liquor interests have employed nearly all tho constitutional lawyers not previously re tained by the railroads, and many of them rep resent both. Whonovor a state law is proposed it iB represented as interfering with Interstate commerce, and, whon federal legislation Is pro posed, It Is objected to on tho ground that it violates the rights of tho statos. According to the constitutional lawyers all tho big corporations live In a twilight zone between the state governments on one side and tho fed oral government on tho other safo from tho authority of both. But the constitutional lawyers received a rudo Jolt recently. When the Webb-Konyon law was passed all the constitutional lawyers (from wet territory) opposed it. Even tho president, claiming browery rlddon Cincinnati for his home, Interposed his veto on tho advice of his attorney general, who hailed from Now York. Congress passed tho bUJ, however, ovor tho president's veto, amid the lamentations of tho constitutional lawyers, who wept aloud and In concert for the fall of the republic. And now tho supremo court has, by a voto of 7 to 2, de clared the Webb-Kenyon law constitutional, tho decision being delivered by the chief juBtico and concurred In by all tho democratic members of tho court! But tho constitutional lawyers, In stead of being happy that tho constitution is safo, aro wailing again because, according to tho decision, the saloon has no constitutional rights to defend. Moral: NO LEGISLATOR IN STATE OR NA TION SHOULD OPPOSE ON CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS ANY BILL WHOSE PURPOSE HE APPROVES. If a legislator wants to defeat a measure and Is ashamed to give his REAL reasons, ho can hide behind a constitutional objection it is a very dignified and respectable objection. But you can generally embarrass the man who makes it by asking him for his REAL reason. The courts not the legislators aro author ized to decide constitutional questions. You can not possibly make a mistake by voting FOR an unconstitutional measure because tho court will nullify it; but you can make a mistake by voting against a constitutional measure because the court can not decide a law constitutional un til it is passed. If a measure is defeated thero is no way of knowing whether it Is constitutional, or not. It is time for the legislative representatives of the liquor 'Interests, the railroads and tho trusts to quit posing as conEtitutlonal lawyers and leave constitutional questions to tho courts. W. J. BRYAN. Those farmers who have been showing signs of nervousness in the past when the railroad managers were conducting their campaign to show thorn how to increase their acre yields have been having tho time of their lives tho last few months suggesting to the railroad man agers various means of increasing thoir pro duction of freight cars to relieve the car short ago in the west. Some members of the Nebras ka legislature -went so, far as to suggest' that if tho railroads were too busy jawing with tho In terstate commerce commission the stnte might build a few thdusand cars for them. But who is going to furnish this peace that the league now so much talked about proposes to enforce? The ancient injunction about first catcning the hare before attempting any culin ary experiment in which a rabbit figures s'eoma to be pat right here. . o '.' . sAf r- t!