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The Commoner
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Some Needed
Reforms
Two pew cabinet officers, secretary of educa
tion and secretary of health; throe constltu
tibhar amendments, one permitting ratification
of treaties by a majority vote, another making
the constitution amendable When amendments
are submitted by a majority in two successive
congresses, and. ratified by a majority of the
popular vote iii a majority of the 'states, pro
vided it is also a majority of the popular vote
in the nation; third, an amendment requiring a
Toforendum on a declaration of war except In
case of actual Invasion.
Sovoral statutory reforms are needed: First,
a federal primary law providing for presidential
primaries in all the states on the same day, voter
to express first, second and third choice; cam
paign expenses to bo limited in amount and
source to be made known before the primary.
Second, a national bulletin should be estab
lished under bipartisan control, with editorial
J Race equitably divided between parties repre
eutod In congress.
Third, penal laws that will prevent profi
teering. ' '
Fourth, legislation that will, .prevent private
monopoly.
Fifth, legislation that will prevent specula
tion in farm products, government bonds and
industrial securities.
, State reforms and other national reforms Will
be discussed In the next issue.
' W.J.BRYAN.
THEY WILL RISK AGAIN
(
Landslides do not respect great personalities;
the big are overwhelmed" with the small, the
blameless with those who are at fault. As a
result of the very magnitude of the Republican
votary the country will temporarily lose; the
services of many Democrats whose re-election
Would have been Sure under normal conditions
j men like Chamberlain, Phelan, Nugent, Mark
Smith and Beckham in the Senate, and like
Champ Clark, Henry Rainey, Ayres of Kansas
and Morris of Oklahoma, not to speak' of such
rrom.islng now men as Julian of Ohio, Long 6f
Missouri, Scqtt of Colorado and Moyle of Utah.
We also lose many splendid officials who hold
Appointive positions, like John Skelton Williams,
the host comptroller of the currency the- Na
tion over had; Indian Commissioner Sells,
Anthony Caminetti, commissioner general of im
migration, and Louis F Post, assistant sedretafy
of labor. The cabinet officers, too, go Into par
tial eclipse, but the good Democrats die not with
out hope-? they will rise again with the resurrec
tion of democracy which is sure to come.
. .."Truth crushed to earth shall rise again:
,. Th' eternal years of God are hers."
If the Bemocrats of New York will consult
the .platform which they adopted last spring and
then review the course of their delegation at
Sari Francisco, they may understand the causes
of Democratic defeat as well as the other
Democrats of the nation do.
If the authorities can find any one who issued
or circulated the cruel slander against Senator
Harding during the closing days of the cam
paign, the culprit jjhould be dealt withcriraihal
ly. Civil process Is hot severe enough vf or such
cases.
MB. BRYAN'S PART IN THE CAMPAIGN
Mr. Bryan did not make any political speeches'
during the campaign of 1920 but he traveled
nearly two-thousand miles from his winter
homo in Flordia to Lincoln, Nebraska to cast
his vote for Cox and Roosevelt and the entire.
Democratic state and congressional ticket. He
did not speak because his speeches would not
fit into the plans of the campaign. The presi
dential candidate has a right to direct the cam-
paign, and Governor Cox so directed It that,
distressing as it was to Mr. Bryan, he could not
make speeches in harmony with those made by
the candidate. He could not guarantee Govern- '
or Cox's position on the liquor question or en
dorse Ws evasions in the West and his silence
on this subject in the Bast. He could not sup
port Mr. Cox's declaration in favor of a repeal
M tho excess profit tax ra gratuitous abandon-'
mont of the national pTatform in Order to throw
a sop to Wall Street. Neither could he support
Governor Cox in his effort to make the Demo
cratic party appear as the sole champion of
world peace. Knowing that the President was
more to blame than Mr. Harding for the failure
of our nation to enter the league on March 19,
1920, and believing as firmly in the sincerity
of such peace advocates as Taft and Hoover as
he did In the sincerity of the Democratic can
didate, he could not insult the intelligence of
the American people by questioning the good
faith of these distinguished Americans.
He voted for Mr. Cox. not because of the lat
ter's campaign speeches but In spite of them.
He believed that Mr. Cox would use his influ
ence to prevent a surrender of the splendid eco
nomic reforms secured by the Democratic party
during its lease of power, and he belieyed that
the Democratic party could better be trusted
than the Republican party with the solution"
of the economic problems that demand thjs at
tention of the American people.
Wv J. BRYAN. T
The yeftiocratic Party
Still lives
v.-.': :.. WHEN LAW IS' ENFORCED; w'-h;' -'
vThe wets -are" boasting of lawlessness under
prohibition, but it is where prohibition is' not
enforced. Some states and cities are not help
ing the federal government to enforce the law.
The New York governor ran on a platform ihat
encouraged violation of prohibition; Chicago's
chief of police has just been removed for collu
sion with bootleggers, and look at New Jersey's
governor. But New York's governor was de
feated by a candidate pledged to enforcement,
and New Jersey's governor has been rebuked at
the polls. Ohio and Missouri have ratified their
enforcement laws, and Great Britain will soon
-cease to permit her territory to be used as a
base for conspiracies against our .laws. The
world moves.
v Let no Democrat despair. Today clouds con
ceal the shining pun, but Senator Harding's big
majority Is not an expression of confidence in
the reactionary leaders of the Republican party;
it is a protestagainst the failure of the Demo
cratic party to measure up to great opportun
ities. There never has been as many people
yearning for reform as there are today; their
forces are defeated and their councils are dis
tracted but the reaction against the Republican
party Will begin on, the fifth day of March if
not on the fourth day of November. When the
Democratic party makes an inventory of its
stock, it will find that its splendid economic re
cord will be its great asset. If the Republican
party permits it to stand, it will be a confession
of Democratic virtue; If it attempts to undo what
has been done, it will arouse an opposition as
irresistible as that which the Democratic party
has just encountered. The time for preparation
for the next conflict is at hand. Let thp Demo
crats bestir themselves and put their house In
order; let unfaithful leaders be relegated to the
rear and men of vision and unselfish purpose bo
called to the front; let the progressive forces of
the nation join hands and compel the Republican
party. to meet the present uomestic problems of
today, or failing, give way to those who are able
to protect the people's interests.
W,: J. BRYAN.
L- L.
DEMOCRATIC PART BETRAYED
On another page will be found an editorial
reproduced from The Commoner of last Febru
ary entitled M1904 Over Again." It may be in
teresting for the readers of The Commoner to
compare prediction with4 fulfillment. The New
York democracy played its old game, and played
It with Unusual nrcfreM.' it took the party up
on to the mountain and 'offered it victory in re
turn for surrender, and then it basely betrayed
the party and helped to give the Republican
candidates an unprecedented majority in the
state. How long, oh Lord, how long can this
polipy of deception and betrayal .continue to mis
lead the well-meaning Democrats of the nation?
RELIGION NECESSARY
HOW MANY WANT INCREASE?,
If, as estimated, the government will need,
four-billions in revenues next year, and Wall
street succeeds in securing a repeal of the ex
cess profits tax, how shall we make up the bil
lion dollars that repeal of the excess profits tax
will give to the profiteers? It Will require an
The effort to divorce religion from education
xhas been carried so far that scepticism and
agnosticism are, being taught under the 'guise of
scieiice ah.d philosophy. If the tfihle can not
be defended in public schools the teachers should
'not be allowed to attack It or to undermine the
'faith of those 'who believe in it. Attention is
called to aa article on 'this subject on another
page.
In view of the fact that New York gave Hard
ing a million majority, NeW Jersey" three hun
dred thousand, Illinois eight hundred thousand,
Ohio; four .hundred thousand, and Indiana over a
increase of 3$ 1-3 per cent in the taxes on the- hundred thousand, it may be well to remember
rest of the people. Those who want their taxes that Murphy, Nugent, Brennan and Tag
increased will please raise theirljands. sart helped to select the Democratic candidate
8 . and pledged their states ,to him. Can they de-
THE WOMAN VOTE ceiye the west and south again?
CONGRESS, TAKE NOTICE!
An effort will be made to repeal the excess
'profits tax. Candidate Harding declared for the
Repeal of the excess" profits tax, Candidate Cox
declaed for repeal, and the President! has recom
mended repeal. Quite a respectable group of
supporters of repeal, I admit, but it is a Wall
Street demand and congress can nOt afford to
'yield t'o the demand, The excess projlt has al
ready liQQn collected from the people for ten ,
months and a half of the year 19250 why allgw
.the profiteers to keeii it all? Jf the profitoera
will qjit profiteering there will be no excess
lrofits.to tax. Why not reduce, the excess prof
"its tax 6y reducing PROFITEERING;? s I prof
iteers plunder in spite of the tax, they would
plunder. 8.illmpre if there, was 'no .tax Tho ex
cess ; tyfot It's. ta should staM,uiul profiteering
is STOPPED. Stop profiteering; let the tax
stand. W, J. BRYAN.
.The woman vote did not seem to help Cox
much, but that is no reason, for regretting woman
suffrage the male vote did not help . much
either. Some Jiope for the, future can be de
rived, from the old proverb that credits woman
with the right to change her mind. To win. in
1924 we need a largo amount of change. '
NO NEW PARTY NECESSARY.
Candidate Cox ia correct when, in his post
election statement, ho declares" that the Demo
cratic party is not dead, War questions have
overshadowed domestic issues; the way Will
soon be cleared for the consideration of economic
questions and then it will be easy to see which
party is the real progressive. . .
SPECIAL INTERESTS REPRESENTED
On another page will be found a list ot.the
organizations represented by special agents' At
Washington. .The average man is the "forgottec
man. Ho must rely upon his congressman and
senators;, therefore, he should be careful to se
cure the nomination and election of candidates
who can be trusted to represent the masses
The failure of wet Democrats to make good
the pledges into whichtliey entered at San
Francisco will relieve tho democratic party of
the prohibition issue for the future. Never
again can a bunch of brewers deceive er intimi
uate the Democratic hosts into silence upon this
great moral .question- It .was -costly experience
but its lesson will not be forgotten. ,
The Democratic National Committee assured
us. that the tide turned in favor of Governor Cox
about the middle of October and was running
higher and higher up to the time, of election. It
makes us shudder to think what the result might
have been if the election had occurred before the
tide turned. ."" .
Wanted, a Democratic par,t;yjn Jew York
that cannot be intoxicated, by Unejl'iquor inter
ests pv intimidated by Wall Street, r
The day is past when the liquor machines and
yl Street interest of th 'Urge cities can suc
cessfully dictate to the great moral majority of
the nation. Make the Democratic party deserve
to win, hen organise for tlie coming struggle.
Ik
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