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The Commoner
- VOL. 17, NO. 5
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The Commoner
ISSUED MONTHLY
Entered at tho Postofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
r sccond-clasu matter.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN. CHARLES W. BRYAN,
Editor and Proprlotor Asuoclato Ed. and Publisher
Edit. Urns, apd Bualnoss Ofllce, Suite 207 Press Bldg.
Oho Ychv 91.00
SIX Mouth CO
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RENEWALS Tho date on your wrappor shows
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January 17 means that payment has been received
to and Including tho issue of January, 1917.
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Address all communications to--
THB COMMONER, LINCOLN, NEB.
Congress seems inclined to make the present
generation pay its. part of the expenses of the
war. That is right; wealth should bear its
share.
An optimist is a man who believes that tho
rich men of the country will give solid support
to the proposition that all incomes in excess of
$100,000 a year shall bo commandeered for the
war chest.
Tho fact that tho nation is at war seems to
have induced a number of noisy individuals to
believe that everybody who is not as -loud-voiced
as they are ia not as patriotic. They are
merely deluding themselves.
If the colonel isn't permitted to lead his
140,000 volunteers into the trenches in Flanders
and really must do something, there are many
farmers in the middle west who would allow
him to deploy his force into their trenches.
If the board of strategy down at Washington
runs across Any problem that it ilnds to be im
possible of solution, all its members need do 'is
to call up any town in the country and consult
the voluteer boards on duty there.
It is now claimed that somebody has invented
an electrical machine .so delicate that on board
a ship it discloses t''e presence and location of
any submerged sul ..marine. What is really
needed, however, is a device that can disclose
an enemy spy before;, he gets his eyes to work
in t
o
i
The food speculators and price boosters on
the exchanges of thevcountry can be depended
upon to solidly approve tho proposition to put
a limit on tho price a farmer may receive for
his grain. They have had a lot of experience
limiting the price for. the producer, but the
wheat and corn raisers seem to have run around
tho end with tho ball.
The metropolitan newspapers, which were tho
largest factors in bringing about the sentiment
that made a declaration of war popular in this
country, entered very emphatic protests against
the proposed censorship as defined by the war
college. The metropolitan newspapers are a
unit in believing that nobody but their editors
have the right of free speech in this country.
A patriot may be definod as a man who is
willing to make any sacrifice for his country
that common sense or public sentiment dictates
is necessary for its success when at war. Under
this definition where would you place tho brew
ers and distillers who insist upon running their
liquor-making factories in spite of the over
whelming belief and the demonstrated fact that
an army's efficiency is seriously impaired as long
as liquor is available and that the raw material
of foodstuffs that goes into the making of that
liquor is needed to save the world from the dis
tress of famine conditions?
National Bulletin
Needed
In his address at the banquet tendered to him
by prominent democrats at Washington, D. C,
December 6, 1916, Mr. Bryan, in enumerating
tho reforms ripe for action, made the following
referenco to the need of a national bulletin: ,
"There is a very pressing need for a means
of reaching tho voters and informing them in
regard to the questions upon which they are to
vote. Tho value of government by the consent
of the governed depends largely upon the In
formation those have whose consent is required.
Something has been said about the south' and
the west. My friends, "when I speak "Without
restraint my praise of the south and west is oven
more earnest and more emphatic than the elo
quent eulogy of my friend from California. I
love 'the south and the west, and the ideals to
which they are attached; but I would do in
justice to the east if I told you that tho people
of the south and west were at heart
different from the people of the other
sections of our country. It- is not a difference
in people, it is a difference in their means of in-'
formation and their environment. In the east,
the common man is overshadowed by concen
trated wealth that he has not the freedom of
'expression or action that he has in the west, and
then, too, he is the victim of a press that pub
lishes the truth by accident and falsehood by
consistently cultivated habit. When I look
back over twenty years, and see four hundred
thousand democrats in Pennsylvania, and more
than that many in New York, and democrats
also in every New England state, fighting and
fighting and fighting with a courage never sur
passed, I wonder how we have ever been able
to keep our splendid army together with the
poor means we have of furnishing them with
the information so necessary for their fight. In
campaigns extending over twelve years, I polled
almost the same number of votes three times.
It was practically six millions and a half of
votes three times, and in all that time I never
had the support of a predatory corporation or
of a newspaper that was under obligation to
them. And yet, in spite of all misrepresenta
tion, these men walked up to the polls and voted
the democratic ticket year after year. I am
grateful to the democrats1 of the south and west,
but I love them no more than I do these brave
men of the east who answer the description the
Bible gives of those who 'come up through
great tribulation.
"There is no appropriation of money more
clearly and fully defensible than an appropria
tion intended to inform -the people of the coun
try in regard to the matters upon which they
are to vote. I would like to see the democratic
party a party that believes in discussion, Is tho
champion of free speech, and an advocate of in
telligence among the voters I would like to see
that party become the champion of a measure
that would put into the hands of every voter
a government publication, issued at intervals
between campaigns and at shorter in
tervals during campaigns, with editorial space
divided between the parties in proportion to
their respective representation in congress, so
that every group represented in congress would
have a chance to present its principles and its
policies to the voters for their judgment at the
polls. If in the last campaign we had had such
a paper to present our cause to all the people
it would have been worth more to us in votes
than our entire campaign fund.
"Someone has made a suggestion I am not at
liberty to give the name of the author of it
that appeals to me, namely, that the newspapers,
in return for the valuable privileges that they
are given by the post office department, be re
quired in return to give a certain percentage of
the space devoted to Teading matter to the gov
ernment for the spread of information among
the people who read the papers.
"The first need, I Tepeat, is a means of in
forming the public, and I suggest to you that a
national bulletin would bo in keeping Vlth the
.spirit of our times; this Is a reform implratively
demanded by tho present situation." erauveiy
SOLDIER PRAISES WORK OF Y. M. O. A
A secretary at El Paso asked a soldinr
whom he was writing. "My Pal, back hi S
was the reply, "want to see what I sad aK
HeereSTtr?s: h asked for .
"Dearlf11' EI Paa0' T3XaS' 0ct" - '
"It's raining tonight; a good night to writ
letters. I have written to everybody back hn!
and I feel as if you ought to know somethC
about the work of this life saver! th "S
Men's Christian Association. You will find i?
wherever there are men, and there are men he
on the border tonight. Tho Y' is hero good and
strong with a comfortable shack for everv hH
gade. ' l"
"Since our shack opened the Mesa Bar and
Bill's place are pretty well deserted. Mother
gets more letters and the United States govern
ment gets more efficiency. If you havo loved
ones at home, you can't, resist the open ink Lot
ties and pens and paper. It makes you ashamed
to think that tho Y is moro Interested in your
loved ones than you are. It hands you out re
ligion in doses a man can take. It tightens up
the halter that gets loose when a man gets
away from home. It assures you that somo one
is interested in you, no matter who, or where
you are. m (
"Who pays? I dbn't know, but whoever it
is, God bless them. They are the fathers of
thousands of boys.'
OPENS HIS CAMPAIGN IN OALIPORNIA
Southern California welcomes William J. Bry
an, returning for a brief visit after a long ab
sence. A great deal o1 water, indeed, has run
under the bridge since the great Commoner here
preached the gospel of peace based on reason
and justice and cemented by universal arbitra
tion. It is not that he loves peace less, but that
he loves his country more that Bryan now do
votes the genius of his eloquence to the success
ful prosecution of the war.
There are few men who have gained so strong
a hold upon the affections of the people as has
been won by the Nebraskan through years of
faithful service. The purity of his character,
the nobility of his aims-, his devotion to high
causes all have strengthened the influence of
this apostle of true democracy. He comes to
California preaching the conservation of food
supplies and could not render larger help to the
common cause than by his espousal of that pol
icy, for henceforth this nation must feed not
only its own people but serve as the granary of
France and England. If they are starved into
submission through any omissions of our own
tvo shall pay dearly.
The address MrBryan delivers tonight at the
Long Beach auditorium will be the first of an
extended series during which tho whole of Cal
ifornia will be covered. It is fitting that Mr.
Bryan should devote much endeavor to this
sTiate, for here the excellence of tlie climate joins
with the fertility of the soil throughout vast
areas to make certain the production of vast
stores of foodstuffs. Few states of the union
through intensive cultivation could yield more
profitable response to the emergent demands of
this tremendous, soul-searching epoch. If there
be evident as yet some seeming lethargy, some
lack of full appreciation of the fact that this war
must be won in the farms and fields of America
no less than in the trenches of Europe, the in
telligence and patriotism of our people will rise
to the high level of the demand upon them.
Aiding in this work to which he has set his
hand, Mr. Bryan gives a help greater than if he
raised a division of troops for active service.
Los Angeles (Cal.) Tribune.
The government having declared that it will
not permit any graft in contracts, It may be
reasonably surmised that some of those big cor
poration managers who have been so vociferous
on "behalf of war will rise to inquire what's the
use?
The dandelion crop seems to be about the,
only one that we can 'be real sure of this year.
The man of the hour will be the chap who can
figure out somo way to'make it fill the need oi ,
tho hour." ' ' . "
t':
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