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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1917)
VwrFW w y "ym nfmM a The Commoner APRIL, 1917 - A Beautiful Ending Tho fight for the eight-hour-a-day law had a beautiful termination. The threat of a strike gave all tho enemies of labor the opportunity to criticize tho working men and im peach their patriotism. The acquiescence by the employers to the demands of the brotherhoods gave the jingo press a chance to eulogize the railroad magnates. Then a few hours after wards a very few hours the supreme court rendered a sweepingdecision sustaining tho con tentions of the working men and declared the eight-hour-a-day law constitutional and all aro happy. All' is well that ends well. Tho eight-hour-a-day law ' has been declared constitutional by the supreme Court of the United States the court standing six to three in favor of the law. The court, in the decision read by tho chief justice, swept away all tech nicality and temporization anil planted itsetf upon tho substantial ground that tho public must have protection and that the parties in tho controversy having been unable to agree, con gress discharged only its duty in stepping in and protecting the public's interest. The decision marks a decisive advance on the road to na tional peaco and prosperity. The recognition of the public's interest is not, only timely, but necessary. The idea that the employer and employee, who together consti tute not more than one-tenth of the total pop ulation, should be allowed to fight out a con troversy to the injury of the public which fur nishes both the profit of the employer and the wages of the employee, has ceased to be a ten able position, The largest party in interest id the public whose business furnishes to the rail roads and their working men both the oppor tunity and tho emolument. The way is Tiow clear for economic progress; employer and em ployee are at liberty to confer and to agree but the people will not be hopeless nor help less.' -' The 'tiecisioh' wnis a great victory a victory for the working men, riot ilia": it gives them the shorter hours which they deserved, and tli& in creased pay which present conditions makes necessary, but it helps the legislators by bring ing to an end a long drawn out controversy rind helps tho public. Tho decision is thus a three-fold blessing to the nation. ' W.J.BRYAN. ' Below is an extract from Mr Bryan's speech' during the last presidential campaign. Follow ing a reference to the part played by President Wilson in bringing about a peaceful solution of the controversy between the railroads and the brotherhoods in the summer of 1916, and secur ing tho enactment; ot an eight-hour day law, Mr. Bryan said: "The greatest effect was the support it gave to the eight hour day in the United Statqs. While the immediate beneficiaries of this law number only between three hundred and four hundred thousand, every wage earner in the nation is a participant in the benefits of this law, for it has brought that struggle to a suc cessful issue. It has been a long struggle. If you will read the platforms of the parties you will find that as far back as eight years ago both of the great parties declared in favor of an eight-hour day. I put myself on record as in favor of an eight-hour day years ago. I be lieve in it. These laboring men aro a part of our community; they are a part of our business life; they are" a part of our political life, and: they have a right to live up to all the possibil ities of American citizenship. If you drive the laboring man from his hed to his work and from his work back to his bed again, how is he to know the comforts' of home life, "And how is he to prepare himself for the discharge of the duties of citizenship? It is a farce to say to the laboring man that he is a citizen and then al low him to be prevented from preparing him self to enjoy the things you give him. The eight hour day is now a fact, and it has been estab lished under the leadership of a President who wisely used .theapportunity presented." There seems to be a dearth of candidates for the job of .king-' in several European countries. There also -seems to be a reason r' A NKV RUSSIA The basis of tho now government established in Ruia shows that democracy has won a com plete victory. It reads a$ follows: "1. An immediate general amncBty for all political and religious offenses, including ter- roo ?Mts and mI1Itary nd agrarian offenses. , 2. Liberty of speech and tho press; freedom for alliances, unions and strikes with tho ex tension of these liberties to military officials within the limits admitted by military require ments. m "3. Abolition of all social, religious and na tional restrictions. "4. Proceed forthwith to tho preparation and convocation of a constitutional assembly based on universal suffrage, which will establish a governmental regime. "5. The substitution of the police by a na tional militia, with chiefs to be elected and re sponsible to tho government. "6. Communial elections, to bo based on uni versal suffrage. "7. The troops which participated in the rev olutionary movement will not be disarmed, but .will remain in Petrograd. m l78, While maintaining strict military disci pline for troops in active service, it is desirable to adopt for soldiers all restrictions in the en joyment of social rights accorded other citizens. "Tihp provisional government desires to add that Jt' has no intention to profit by tho circum stances of the war to delay tho realization of tho measures of reform abovo mentioned." Freedom of speech and of the press these are not only fundamental but they furnish tho broad base upon which to erect popular gov ernment. If tho czar had permitted freedom of speech he might have known something of public sentiment and saved himself by yielding. The ruler who silences his critics and tries to run his government according to tho flattery of his cburtiers Invites revolution. "Universal suffrage" at one step. How dif ferent from the" experience of tho countries where the extension of suffrage has been grad ual eacli step won after a Btruggle. "The abol ition of ali sdciai, rellgidus and national re" strictions," and "amnesty for all political and religious offenses!" They have torn despotism out by the roots and planted In Its place the tree of liberty. The people are king "long live the king.". ' W. J. BRYAN. y ' ; oino's dry democracy: ?,Tho dry democrats of "Ohio have just held a.', st'aie , eppventioa and adopted Jfa qeof resolu tions which will boiound on another pa'ge., This is the first state convention the , dry democrats have ever held Ohio leads tho way. The resolutions refer to the approaching an niversary of Jefferson's birth an anniversary made the more interesting by the adoption of Jeffersonian ideas In Russia and by the growth of theso ideas in Germany. Tho two points emphasized in the resolutions are, first, the need of prohibition to raise the standard of military efficiency and, second, the need of prohibition to conserve the nationrs food supply. These two arguments will aid powerfully in securing legislation against the saloon, and the Ohio democrats were quick to make use of them. The dry democrats pledge themselves to aid in the adoption of the prohibition amendment. Good for Ohio. The Commoner Is at their ser vice Its columns are theirs until the fight is won. W. J. BRYAN. Liuetenant Governor Howard, a stauch dem ocrat, declared that the wet democratic ma jority in the Nebraska senate, when it passed a bill that if made into law would make prohi bition impossible of enforcement in tho state, "had crucified the democratic, party on a beer keg." Mr.. Howard has tho splendid virtue of being -able to state a fact in a striking manner. With nineteen states dry and six others in process-of drying up It Is not difficult, when the chief executives meet, to recall just what it was that-tlie governor of North Carolina said to the governor, of South Carolina. The pacifists are patriotic enough to hope that their fears may not be realized patriotic enough to hope that events may vindicate the wisdom otthose who wanted wan . , , . ,, ... - . :. . Two Important Decisions The decision on tho Webb-Konyon- law and tho decision on tho olght-hour-a-day law'nm dored within a fow hours of each other,, have givon tho supromo court additional credit, of popular confidence All tho power of tho liquor lobbies had boon brought to boar to defeat tho passage of the Wobb-Kenyon law, and tho jneti ' with millions invested in tho liquor Inferosts employed their ablest counselors to urgo upon tho court tho unconstitutionality of tho laty, Whon seven Judges out of nlno voted to sustain tho law, a complete answer was given to any who might question tho partiality of tho court on this long disputed question. Tho decision on tho olght-hour-a-day law is even moro convincing proof of tho Impartiality of! tho court. Tho law passed by congress wan made an Ibbuo In the, campaign and one of tho candidates boldly chargod that congress had been coerced Into tho passago of tho law. It was" made ono of tho leading Issues In tho cam paign, and tho railroads hoped to bo able to nullify tho law by Judicial decision. Tho court met tho issue fairly and squarely and stated Its position In unequivocal Ian uago. Tho law stands; the authority of cr -css Is vindicated; tho' power of the people triumphs; the country moves forward and tho highest court in tho land enjoys the completo confidence of its cit izens, W. J. BRYAN. TQf AS USUAL The people of Nebraska havo been givon proof of the futility of expecting a political leopard to change its spots. During tho 19 1C campaign Mr. Bryan told tho voters of his homo state that ho Intended to vote only for those candidates for the legislature who were sup porters of tho dry amendment, regardless of their pplitica.1 affiliations, and advised voters to do likewise. The house elected was three fourths dry, tho senate three-fifths wet. Tho house passed a bill putting tooth Into prohibi tion. Save Jp the respect that it was necessarily influenced by tho Reed aniondmont to tho Webb Konyon law, It was responslvo to tho wishes of tho people who had supported tho prohibitory amendment in 1910. It provided a law that raado bootlegging almost Impossible. Tho sen ate took the house measure, changed it into a bill' 'that sought to permit the manufacture of beer that contains a low percentage 6f alcohol and whloh furnished a market for tho brewers and distillers by throwing the mantle of pro tection around illegal alo by Jointists and bootleggers. Wh.erevor thd liouso bill was strong, the senate bill made it weak. Moro than a hundred amendments, nearly all of them deliberately and' purposely drawn for tho pur pose of making prohibition impossible were attached to the bill by tho nineteen wot sen ators seventeen democrats and two repub licans and put through. At this writing tho bill is in the hands pi conference committee;. Six of -tho eighteen senators who supported the bill had pledged the people that they would sup port, if elected, any bill that the drys in the legislature would agree upon. They broke this pledge. It may or may not be that they Jjad another pledgo or promise out that they did not break. It was not tho pledgo tho demo cratic party made in state convention either. Legislative assaults upon tho direct primary were as numerous as ever at the recent sessions of state law-making bodies, but so far as ob served none of the states took a backward step in the matter. The politicians, who arc the principal critics of. the primary method of mak ing nominations, for obvious reaspns, seldom, have the courage of their convictions when tjiei people have their eye upon them. '" " ' '"' There are a good many loyal citizens of' the United States who had bond that tho tinid would never return when tl people 6f any- one section would arrogate to themselves sole-olalm upon the possession of the virtue of patriotism. To read an eastern newspaper one 'would .Sup pose that patriotism was still nr. mutter --1 geography . '7 " 1 1, Vi MOwmtMrnn i iiiiiiiA.tMiguS .JK
