.i'SStWI
The Commoner
'VOL. 22, NO. 5
"N
r
I.
has behind it a much larger majority than sup
ports most of tho laws.
The Prohibition Amendment was adopted
after a light of nearly fifty years. More than
two-thirds oC the states banished the saloon by
their own separate act; over two-thirds of the
mombors of tho Senate and the House voted to
submit a prohibition amendment and forty-six
states out of the forty-eight have formally rati
fied this amendment, leaving two of the small
states, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as the
only ones that havo not ratified. One branch of
tho Connecticut legislature has voted for rati
fication, the magnitude of the majority in
favor of prohibition is seen when it is remem
bered that n.inety-three of the ninety-six separate
branches of the forty-ejght legislatures have
given a majority vote in favor of ratifying tho
Prohibition Amendment. '
To make the argument in favor- of acquies
cence still stronger, attention is called to the
fact that two congresses have been olectod s'nee
prohibition was submitted; one of them en
acted an enforcement law by more than a two
thirds vote of both houses and the succeeding
congress, elected after the Prohibition Amend
ment actually wont into effect, passod by more
than a two-thirds vote of both houses a bill
prohibiting tho use of beer, even as medicine.
In addition to this, tho question has been
passed upon, indirectly in all the large states
since the saloons were closed by Constitutional
Prohibition. New York elected a governor and
legislature in 1020 pledged to prohibition as
did Pennsylvania and Ohio. Illinois and New
Jersey have elected dry legislatures and put
their states back of the -federal' government in
the enforcement of the law for prohibition. In
fact, there wore only five states in which beor
could be used as a medicine when the anti-beer
law was passed.
And yet, in spite of the accumulating evidence
that prohibition represents a permanent deter
mination on the part of the poople to rid the
nation of the curse of alcoholic beverages, many
of tho metropolitan papers deliberately encour
age lawlessness by editorials criticising enforce
ment and defending conspiracies against law.
This is the habitual attitude of some of the
New Yorjc papers. They give large space and
big headlines to each new plan devised for out
witting the government. They describe, a& if
it wore permissible, the proposed opening of a
palatial floating saloon just outside the three mile
limit. A Philadelphia paper, ordinarily regarded
as respectable, impudently warns the government
against attempting to interfere with rum-runners
when three miles from shore With such edi
torial encouragement from the United States it
is not surprising that a corporation is being
organized in London, with public offering of
stock, to carry cargoes of alcoholic liquors to
Mhnee.mile limit tot 'livery to smugglers.
While the smugglers are being thus encour
aged by editors too cowardly to do what they
advise others to do, men, and even some women,
consider it smart to give their patronage to the
.lawless vendors of liquor they boast of it.
It l?oi time for tue law abiding people to
notify the wet newspapers that it is as criminal
to advise crime as to actually commit it. Is it
n?f. time t0 remind these would-be editorial
authorities on international law that the hieh
seas do not belong to pirates or to conspirators
against any other law? The geography tells
us that three-fourths of the earth'! surface s
SnrflWfIhi1fWoter"aJro th0 smuSElers to un
derstand that they reign supreme over three
fourths of the earth's surface? It would be a
Zftef1? civili?atin t0 say that it must con
line itself to cno-fourth of the globe and let law
lessness reign everywhere else.
Jim?n 7h?, make? hlmself an outlaw can
not find protection under any flag when he uses
Xlie paths of the ocean to carry into any coun
try that which the conscience of the country has
condemned. J
V1 "Drys"iwere as quick to resent edi
torial attacks on virtue as the vicicus are to re
sent editorial attacks on vice, the "wet" papers
would soon learn that it is good policy to bow
to the public will and respect the laws ot state
and nation. w. J. BRYAN
DARWINISM TO DATE
A Cornell professor has found, so he nv
that while alcohol weakens the immediate do
scendantB of guinea pigs, it strengthens th
fourth generation by killing off the- least ruJed
This is Darwin's doctrine of the survival of 8?i
fittest That is why thebolcfe 5oHowerS o? ni
win cair Christianity the doctrine o 'the de?en
Dr. Birge, Autocrat
Dr. Birge, head of the University of Wiscon
sin, has for about a year been hiding in the
bushes, so to speak, and dodging questions raised
by his attitude on evolution. Finally he has
come out into the clearing and expressed himself
on two propositions. In the first place, he ad
mits that he believes himself to be a descendant
of the ape. In a recent letter given to the Capi
tal Times of Madison he says:
"Mr. Bryan is pleased to ask would-be
facetious questions about 'ape ancestry.' He
repeats in a cheap fashion the question
which Wilberforce ask6d of Huxley on a
memorable occasion sixty odd years ago,
and I am quite content to give him Huxley's
reply; 'A man has no reason to be ashamed
of having an ape for his grandfather. If
there were an ancestor which I should feel
shamed in recalling it would rather be a
MAN ... a man of restless and versatile
intellect . . . who, not content with equivo
cal success in his own sphere of activity,
plunged into scientific questions with which
he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure
them by aimless rhetoric and distract the
attention of his hearers from the real point
at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled
appeals to religious prejudice.' "
This may be fairly accepted as evidence that
he is proud of his brute ancestry (-proof also
that he does not accept the Mosaic account of
man's creation.) It is also evidence of his will
ingness to endorse Huxley's slur on the ministry.
Wilberforce was a great preacher. It is inter
esting to obrerve that Dr. Birge carries his evo
lution so far as to T)e willing to use "with seem
ing relish Huxley's contemptuous reply to the
minister's criticism. He would rather be a de
scendant cf an ape than a descendant of a great
preacher like Wilberforce. ,
But it will be still more interesting to the tax
payers of Wisconsin to note his insistence that
he has a right to teach to the studentsMhe Dar
winian hypothesis even though it does make the
Bible a lie and he insists that he has a Vight to
do it regardless of the wishes of the ttix payers
of Wisconsin. In discussing the impudence of
cortain professors, I gave utterance recently to
what would seem to be a self evident truth
namely, that the hand that writes the pay check
rules the school. I had not supposed that any
teacher would be bold enough to put in writing
a denial of the right of those who employ him
to direct the course of study. But we seem to
have one educator we shall know later if anv
others agree with himwho resents the very
suggestion that he is a hired man. He says:
"There is, however, one significant state-
. ment m Mr. Bryan's letter, which shows un
the general policy that he is advocating ana
that he and his friends are trying to force
upon us in both church and school. This
In Tifp ?ffhhioBeverll1 WS2?' but lt eliminates
m the noble maxim, 'The hand that writes
the pay check rules the school.' I question
whether there was ever advocated a more
cynically immoral purpose. Mr. Bryan cre
tells us plainly that the power of money il
to determine, what shall be taught in the
schools Religion, science, history? econom
ics soc ology-these are all to be taught as
Mrrinr f l:he pay chGck' demands
Mr. Bryan is at work to make thp tpn-.tr
er into the hired man of mney-teachin;
not the truth as he sees it or as God m 0
gressively reveals it to the world bnt
peatln in parrot fashion the doctrines thai
his paymaster calls for. This is L wl
on which Mr. Bryan wishes our yolh,?
structed in school and church ami hi V?"
us that he is at work to sewre thta result
any right to rule the school! The feaohft V
cording to his views a tn 2. C10rs' ac"
shall teach and'hTw' fheVshalf fiit & '
proposes to set up the most autocVatic fnim H?
government ever proposed, it i- to h f
posed of professors who will dAw hS !0m
from the people and Vet I L! ! ,hel1; Varies
out instructions and w thou f anwi' ""h
shall teach the children entrusted to ?? ' they
No matter what these children l?J2 fheir care
home the teacher is to have ?ie leai'necl at
substitute what hBcXu?
parents of th children believe to be Vt $
matter what effect it may have upon t,n
of the child, the teacher's opinion is t imoral8
stituted for tho nnmnt.'a ntt.!n l0 be sub-
r W v'l.'.IiUl.I
Public sentiment has brought about in
noar-
lv OVOrV atntek ilia nnnfl.i. .
j v-y uvj mv, en u, t, i nit; ill OL laWS COmnnlt?
toe cnim 10 go to school. This is a w sV7 K
vision, but if the teacher is to be theVoV Vi
of what the child Js to be taught in mi a 8'
well as in science, compulsory education il'
to the omnipotence of the instructors ami V.
helplessness of the parents. Ule
Dr. Birge's statement is all that is ...
to awaken the public to the fact that S 2
ATTITUDE is so hostile to the highest n.Pr
ests of the state and of the nation that it vin
in in. un uit'i h mii mi -!i in vn - t- mi.
not disposed to return to the 'discarded0 sAS
of "taxation without representation." em
W. J. BRYAN
THE BONUS
The Republican leaders are like the business
man who subscribed for the building of a ciinmh
ind then FOUGHT THE LOCATION to S
paying the subscription. All the Republicans wan
the bonus, but they can not agree upon the way
to raise the money. Democrats will vote for it
and then find a better way when a Deniocratfo
congress is elected c
FORD'S PAPER MONEY PLAN
On another page will be found Henry Ford's
interview on the issue of paper money to pay for
Muscle Shoals improvement. The government
non-interest bearing notes would do all that he
says, but the reactionary leaders of the Repub
lican party will never consent to government
paperbonds, are better for the big financiers.
Liquor treaties
Commissioner Haynes is talking of liquor
treaties with neighboring nations. Why not'
Why should any friendly nation allow its flag
to project rum runners? The smugglers are pi
ratesthey sail under the black flag. Thev are
outlaws and should be dealt with as such.
farm: tariffs
The Republican-leaders are trying the old
flim-flam on the. farmers. They are putting a
useless tariff on farm products in order to. induce
the farmers to bear a burdensome tariff on the
things they have to buy. It is a very one-sided
game and the farmers are on the losing side.
BIG NAVY MEN WIN
The big navy men won in the House. Too bad,
but wait until the voters get a chance. They
will vote for the smallest navy and the smallest
army possible. On any proposition the peoplo
will vote for the least number proposed.
MR. BRYAN'S STATEMENT ON SENATORIAL
' CONTEST
Believing that, as a United States senator, I
could render ,valuable service to the state of
Florida and to the Democratic party in the na
tion, I stated about two months ago, in answer
to inquiries, that. I would consider a call from
the Democrats of this state from the standpoint
of duty, but that I had no thought of entering
into a contest for any office. Since that time
petitions, numerously signed, have been received
from every part of the state asking me to file
as a candidate. I am profoundly grateful to
these friends for their gejierous confidence and
an! happy to know that I can count on their
cooperation in Florida politics. But no assur
ance of success, unless it were overwhelming,
would justify me in entering into a contest for
office. My fights have been made for Democratic
principles and policies and I have made them as
the representative of voters who desired me to
act as their spokesman. Nearly all of these
principles and policies have been written into
the unrepealable law of the land. I cannot at
my age turn from such enjoyable work to per
sonal politics. It is only fair to others who may
desire to file that I at once announce that l
shall not be a candidate.
As a private citizen I shall be just as active
in all that concerns the welfare of the state as
I would be in office and shall, as soon as pos
eible, visit .all the countiea in the state. These
visits will be the more pleasant because I caQ
become acquainted with all the peoplo regard
less of their views on political questions.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
.,
Jtuxit. Jii . i.'tr W. Aitu. j'