The .Comifloner
VOL. 22, NO. 7
at
God for a revolution of that which no human be
ingtfuWIcnow, and 'God answered by showing
him In a dream tho very picture that had startled
NetiVrchaVlhQssssar. '
Da-fib'? Ilrst offered a prayer' of thanksgiving
antThehwont before tho King arid told him of
tho dream that ho could 'not recall; Tho King
at ffflcti recognized tho dream, and tho fact that
Da'iiibr had doscribed to him the terrible image
witH'nead of gold, breast and arms of silver,
middle parts of brass, legs of iron and feet of
iron'an'd clay gavo him confidence in the truth
otf'ttitf'toitorpretntioh. ' u' l'T
It'lnc, most ho'tftblb dream' that history 're
cords an'Daniel oxpbaihdd'Mb'Cho astonished
rim iiittt ,,th6MgreUt,God,,haDlr:m&do-kndwn to
tnKiitewlmt'shalf come tM)dss' hereafter."
'AfccordhiVtothdM'riterpretdttbii'God Had given
uritor toebuchadnosttaV 'kingdom; pdwor, strongth
and glory. It Watf'e.a'sy for" Yh6 King to' under
stand ' lthis 'tribute' his ' Buprdtaacy. Ho had
built Babylon, regarded as in' some respects tho
greatest city tho world has seen. In a lifetime
ho had liftod it in splendor above the cities of
tho past and put it where tho cities of the future
would find it difficult to become rivals.
After him thor.e was to. bo another kingdom
inferior to- hiq,i a ikingdoni" represented by the
silver breast and arms; then a third kingdom
would arise,' inf eriori to tho , second this was
represented by. e jiniddlo. parts of brass, Tho
fourth, kingdom Tyas to.be H strong onef repre
sented by the iron legs of tho image; then was
to. fojllpw a, kingdqm in which there would be
bothitlio strength., pf iron and the weakness of
cldy--lack of unity represented by tho impos
sibility of mixing 4roh and qlay.
"A STONE CUTOUT WITHOUT HANDS"
Theft' comes the m6st important part of tho
dream "ti stonJe cut out of ' the mounta'n with
out hands" was. (to break in pieces the iron, tho
brass, tho clay, the silver and the gold. When
tho fullness of time had come tho God of heaven
was to sot up a kingdom which should never be
destroyed, a kingdom whose sovereignty would
never bo given into the hands of another people,
a kingdom wKjch would break in pieces and con
sumo tho kingdoms previously described, and
stand forever
Bible authorities have differed as to the na
tions described, which brings us to a very im
portant matter connected with tho interpretation
of prophecy. Prophecies aro divine, but caro
must be takon not to invest human interpreta
tions with the sanctity that attaches to divine
prophecies. $any havo attempted to apply
prophecies to their own day and to the kingdoms
with which they wore acquainted. The inter
pretations havo failed, but the failure of human
interpretation, brings no reflection upon a divine
prophecy.
To estimate the unreliability of human inter
pretations one has only to recall the numerous
efforts that have been made to fix the time of tho
second coming of Christ or the time of the com
ing of tho end of tho world. Many honest peo
ple, both men and women, have felt so sure of
their interpretations as to set tho day.. The ex
pected changes have not come, but no one should
lose faith in the fact of divine prophecy, or in the
certainty of its fulfillment, merely because hu
man beings havo erred in their interpretations.
But whatever differences there may have been
in the designation of the kingdoms that made up
tho image which appeared to .Nebuchadnezzar,
there is unanimity as to the power that was at
last to destroy these fcingdoms and set up a king
dom that should stand forever. Christ is the
stone cut out of the mountain; his kingdom is to
be the final one, it shall stand forever.
This is the kingdom that Isaiah foretold when
he said, "of the increase of his government and
peace there shall be no end." It is to bo strong
er -than Iron, more useful than brass, more pure
thamsilver and more precious than gold. The
stone, was. to be cut out of the mountain "with
out hands:" not a human government framed by
finite .man or relying for its perpetuity on man's
puny JBtrength. m
Those.who spurn the prophecies may attempt
to .explain how Daniel could foretell the decline
of ancient kingdoms, but they cannot explain his
revelation of tho coming of an invisible power
tha,t surpasses the might of man, defies deqay
and' r6ws throughout the world.
The1 sfkeptic may seek to evade the force of
arguments based upon prophecies fulfilled in
foritier' times, but ho cannot ignore a prophecy
that i 'la heing fulfilled today when the world
brought t the brink of ruin by worldy wisdom'
can only be saved by tho application to life and
to government of the principles of Christ
The truth of prophecy is established ' in the
Saviour,
- mi 1 aSainst the municipal ownership program " H-w-
Nebraskan Ends Coal', gzsi
mombers to induce them to give to tho nV
Profiteering
(By H. T. Dobbins, in Henry Ford's Dearborn
Independent.)
Tho home fires in the city of Lincoln, Nebras
ka were kep,t burning during al the past win
tor at cost. 'The reason was that on October 1,
1921, the city itself entered the local field as a
rotailejrrof bituminous coal after Commissioner
Clui lies. W,i Bryan had found no disposition o'n
th , par t.cif", Jibe 21 dealers to readjust prices.-
Purjng the winter the municipal yard sold ,6,
907 separate, orders totaling 8,484 tons at .a
prico averaging a little more than $10 a ton: It
did a, cash business in six months of $85,440, ,
and not only saved to the peoplo who patronized
it approximately $34,000, but it saved for those
who patronized the local dealers, who were
forced by city competition to shave their prices
to leave little or no profit.
This has not been the first time that a munici
pality in America has sought to use a publicly
operated yard as a regulator of competitive
prices of fuel, but this experiment was attended
by so many spectacular features that it consti
tutes a tale worth tolling. Commissioner Bryan
is a brother of .William Jennings Bryan. In all
the years of the latter's political activity it has
been "Brother Charley" who has plottel all his
political strategy, who has been his confidential
agent and who has planned many of his cam
paigns. He lacks the readiness of speech that
characterizes his brother when it comes to mak
ing public addresses, but the fertility of his mind
and the activity of his brain are evident in even
tho most casual conversation.
From 1915 to 1917 Charles W. Bryan served
as mayor of Lincoln. He entered the contest to
put across a number of municipal government
reforms. During his campaign he announced
that he pronosed to give the city dollar gas.
Nine years before the city had passed an ordi
nance fixing the. price at a dollar, but the com
pany, one of the Henry L. Doherty syndicate
properties, had held it up by injunction process
in the Federal courts. Mr. Bryan proposed to
put in a city plant. Before the election the.
company capitulated and put in dollar gas. Five
months after Mr. Bryan's term expired it put the
price back to tho old figure. Only a few months
ago, following a Federal Supreme Court decision
upholding the ordinance, the company paid sev
eral hundred thousand dollars of overcharges
back to its patrons.
During January of 1521, Mr. Bryan, after an
investigation of the cost and selling prices of
coal in Lincoln, recommended to the city council
that it establish a municipal yard. Ho said he
was convinced that a first-class bituminous coal
could bo sold for $4 a ton less than the cur
rent figures. Tho members of the council backed
and filled on the proposition but finally refused
to embark in the business.
Thereupon Mr. Bryan announced his candi
dacy for mayor on a platform that provided for
a municipal coal yard, a municipal public mar
ket and a municipal ice plant, after he had been
unable to induce several well-known business
men to make the race. Immediately he became
the center of a very active fight, financed largely '
by the coal dealers, he says, and backed rather
solidly by the business interests. Half-page ad
vertisements in the city newspapers warned the
other business men- that if Mr. Bryan were suc
cessful they might expect .to see municipal groc
eries, municipal dry goods stores and so on down
the business list. ww
At the election in May, Mr. Bryan received
652 more votes than did his opponent for mayor
but the council 'seated the latter as m" S
gave him the position of commissioner of streets
the object being, as Mr. Bryan firmly believes
that this would retard or make impossible his
municipal ownership program. This arbitrary
sidetracking of Mr Bryan was made possible by
the fact that Lincoln . operates under the com
missioner system, 'by which five men are elected
as commissioners and from their number the five
choose a mayor. Mr. Z&hrung, who ran against
Mr Bryan in the popular cotitest for mayorVs
made chief executive because he also was elected
as one of the five' and the other thfee did nft
want Mr. Bryan to be a'1, thelicad of affairs The
, matter aroused great "indignation among Mr
Bryan's supporters; but while they could hive
ordered a recall election upon Mr. Zehrung thlv
makVthace'.0 deB,rabIe &
"As the city commission, stood four to one
what they had declared for in the election n
nance in the council, petitions were put in cjrp,
lation under the initiative and referendum to !"
tablish such a yard by direct vote. At tho sunn
time petitions were drafted to recall two of to
city commissic.irer's and replace them with men
pledged to my municipal program that it miKht
have 'the backing of a majority.
"While these were' being presented to the vot
ers the ordinance was introduced, and after be
ing voted down one week was brought forth
again at the next meeting. Public sontiment
had been aroused by the first defeat, ami mani
fested itself so' plainly that at the second meetinc
all five member voted for it. The four that op
posed it but wfto yielded to the public demand
placed it in my department and made me re
sponsible for its success or failure."
The coal dealers a"t once applied to the district
court for a writ of injunction. They denied the
legal right of the city to compel them to pay
taxes fox establishing a yard created for their
undoing, and attacked its power under the char
ter to engage itisUch an enterprise. The district
court denied tti'e injunction, and held that the
city had the right to buy and sell coal. The deal
ers appealed to tho Supreme Court, and there
the case rests at 'the present time.
Meanwhile, m. Bryan organized his buying
and selling forces. He found himself hampered
at the beginning, in securing the supplies nec
essary. The private dealers sought by various
means, he says,, to prevent his buying coal from
any of the mines, pr frpm the big jobbers, but he
soon found a wholesaler who, in consideration of
the big trade promised by, a city yard, agreed to
furnish him the "kind of coal he wanted, and did
so during the entire six months of its operation.
Mr. Bryan established a price of $10.50 a ton
delivered for Franklin County, Illinois, coal. Im
mediately the dealers began a campaign against
it. They attacked its quality, declaring that it
was not as, represented, and that they were of
fering just as gpod coal for the same or less
money. Mr. Bryaj while refusing to disclose
where he was buying his coal, declared that it
was exactly the samo Hind of coal that before
he began operations was being sold by the dealers-at
$14.50 a ton. He said that at that time,
a month after he began, the dealers had already
reduced their price on the same coal $2 a ton,
although the price at the mines had been ad
vanced from 50 to 75 cents a ton since the
February, or spring, quotations.
The city council had appropriated, at the be
ginning, a revolving fund of $15,000, but this
was never used, the price at which the coal was
sold yielding a profit that enabled the city to fi
nance its own operations. The first of January,
finding that this profit was larger that was nec
essary, he reduced the delivered cost from
$10.50 a ton to $9.90, and continued it until the
winter season ended.
The municipal yard handled but the one grade
of coal, although during the winter there was a
big demand for it to sell semi-anthracite, and
later steam coal. Mr. Bryan says that the deal
ers made this unnecessary by reducing the price
of the semi-anthracite, a large amount of which
is used in home furnaces.
Mr. Bryan was too busy with the municipal
coal yard to embark upon either the municipal
ice plant or the public market. Indeed, the ice
company there is but one in the city did not
wait for him to turn, his competitive business
batteries upon it. Before his coal yard had been
fairly started a meeting of husiness men was
held at the chamber of commerce, and acting
upon the advice of those who were in attendance,
the company announced a schedule of prices that
met in every respect the figures at which the
Omaha municipal ice plant was selling, and
which were low enough to make city competi
tion inadvisable.
A conservative estimate of the saving to Lin
coin people during the past season on their coal
bills would he $150,000, says Mr. Bryan. It will
be reopened October next unless the Supreme
Court forbids.
Since the yard has closed, tho dealers, by an
attorney have made a demand for the inspection
of .the city's list of customers. Mr. Bryan has re
fused this. The dealers declare it is a public
document, and intimate that if he does not pro
duce it they will resort to court proceedings. He
says he will not comply with the request because
he fears that it will be used as a weapon of boy
cott against patrOins should there be a shortage
following tho coal strike.
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