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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1922)
fflWWT T 9 AUGUST, 1922 8 v f A QMflRf The Reactionaries at Work Secretary of War Weeks made a speech re cently Bounding the key note for the reaction aries. Senator Stanley spoke in New York as Bailing the progressives in bofcji parses. t Now comes "the late" Senator New he-has been "the late' ever since Beveridge defeated him al though he is not yet officially interred arid an nounces that the primary must go. ' ' No wonder the reactionaries hate the primary it is the only piece of party machinery that they are unable to control. They used to keep a dominating boss in each state when they had the convention system. The primary has made it somewhat of a wilderness for the boss and he is looking hack to the flesh-pots of Egypt, so to speak. But there will be no turning back. There are parasites which attack the primary system aa parasites attack nearly all forms of life. But the faults of the system will be removed. We will not destroy the jjystem in order to get rid of the parasites. It is fortunate that the plans of the reaction aries include an attack upon the primaries'. That, like the reduction in the tax on big incomes, is something that can be seen with the naked eye. Many of the schemes of the reactionaries are de veloped in the dark and the public finds it is vic timized before it knows it. But an attack on the primaries has to be made in the daylight and that means that it will fail. If there is to be an other war between the bosses supported by big business and the plain people, let it begin when ever the reactionaries are ready a few more primaries and all their generals will be disabled. W. J. BRYAN. WHITE AND "JUDGE" SEPARATE Press dispatches carried a statement of the rea sons that led William Allen White to resign from the editorship of "Judge." The paper stands for light wines and beer and White is not willing to lend his name and influence to the light wine and beer propaganda. White is right and it is commendable for him to give up an editorial salary rather than be placed in a false position. If all editors would follow their con sciences and refuse to write against their con victions or to lend their influence to papers with whoso policies they could not agree, the tone of the press would be greatly improved. . The statement made by the owner of "Judge" is quite in line with the attitude of the wets no wonder White found it difficult to look up t aim as a boss. "Judge's" owner says that "a segment of Kansas convictions does not repre sent the country." That is about as wide a vision as any wot has. He looks at the nation F?ugU the foam on a glass of beer and thinks mat everybody is wet. "A segment of Kansas convictions" isn't that intelligence for you? iwri , J5!?ment was submitted by a vote of inpmv JPS of both houses and ratified by thii X states out of forty-eight. The last Si?ngresses have been dry by more than wMhirda but the owner of "Judge" sees in it L a.sesment of Kansas convictions." nnngra!ulations' Brother White, that you do irlimVe . assciate any longer with such a Pecimon of humanity. ROBBERY BY AGREEMENT thmJLr?b!,cXy from a distillery of eighty-one davS doll,ars worth of "luor by fifty men in an S5 W(!uld seem t0 indicate that it was by whiakv tandin& between the owner of the StatPR nan?ttho suPPOsed fobbers. The-United bond li to take over all the whisky now in day twyf!!g for lfc wnal t was worth on the creasflin , amendment was ratified (any in rei?arfi, pr ,os since that time should not bo to tha nns?Srttimate slnce " is duo entirely JebilitKo selling it in violation of taedicitift Uate7er alcohol or whisky is needed for toQRoviL0 n the arts should be .supplied by eminent and by the government alone. Qave hl,? the strong Republican newspapers tarlff that 5, 0Vr the tracos on tbe altitudinous tog. ThnV RPublican congress is construct Gressionm Jfty that the President and his con majorit SnSS 1 ?5Bhould remember that the big Warand l m 20 Presented reaction from the Bhor thT not mandates to boost tariff duties Qan evt Payne or Aldrlch dreamed of. r and for CLASSIFYING HlTCIICOrnr Paying tributn tn u . - attainments of the Sl?1 united States . i?: fa aiatoB for Journal savs that "hn T . a th0 L'ncoln highest office a stake in h Z "Vorili tho vorv nhiDr! Ke m tuia election two of its Hlto?" f -"vf progSi V'' wh SSi oldthool.''3 a C0Usee, a public man Tfhe MHowenrlif ?,te that the Joi'nal rotB on the wmind fw rowive progresslvism" nhi?n Pound that one the most remarkable public business organizations in the world t Omaha municipal water, gas and ice s ices is o recall' ?n ", " is perhaPs not ami . iinri a Vf1? thiS connectin, that the long and hard fight for municipal ownership in Omaha las been successfully prosecuted through the years with the earnest support of many Oma la mlllZ ibG -ideS Mr' Hawoll Eluding Senator Hitchcock, in person and through his .newspaper. Ihat support has been given, despite partisan ship and much adverse pressure, out of public spirited devotion to a principle. Yet in s6mo curious way, as the Journal interprets it, the record establishes Howell as a "progressive" and Hitchcock a "conservative." If to be thoughtful, judicious, open-minded and fair-minded, if respect for and devotion to the blood-cemented foundation stones on which the republic rests, is the mark of a conservative, then Senator Hitchcock, in these respects at least, is conservative. If adherence to tho fund amental principles of American democracy, harking back for a century and a half to Thomas Jefferson, their first and foremost apostle, dis tinguishes the "public man of the old school," then it is to that school, rather than to the school of Lodge or Newberry or Berger, that Senator Hitchcock belongs. Senator Hitchock is tho kind of conservative of the old school who ardently supported Bryan when clamorous and indignant creditors de manded that he support McKinley or imperil his business life and solvency. He is the kind of conservative of the old school who gave his sup port, at the beginning of tho fight against cor poration rule in Nebraska, to maximum freight rate laws, to a 2-cent passenger law, to the anti pass law, to laws regulating and curbing tele phone and express and stock yards and grain combinations to the whole long series of re forms that put Nebraska near the headof the list of enlightened states. He is the kind of conservative of the old school who supported tho direct primary, the popular election of senators, the graduated in come tax, the federal land bank system, tho child labor law, the league of nations and other meas ures and ideals adherence to which has by com mon sense marked other men as progressive. He is the kind of conservative of the old school who dared differ with his party and its administration when he believed it was mistaken in the framing of the federal reserve act, and from his place as a Democratic leader in the sen ate to demand a reorganization of tho war de partment during the world war when he believed it was extravagant and inefficient. He is the kind of conservative of the old school who refused to trade his birthright for a mess of pottage when' the Nebraska legislature unanimously demanded that he support the gold brick "emergency tariff" law. He is the kind of conservative of the old school who stands today in the Senate as an un yielding opponent of tho profiteer's tariff and ship subsidy program of the present administra tion, just as he opposed its reduction of the sur taxes and its repeal of the excess profits law. He is the kind of conservative of the old schoo who with his Bank of Nations bill, has advanced fhe only proposal of scope, vision and bigness Sat has emerged since the war for the restora tion of our once profitable trade with Europe. The Lincoln Journal is an adept at tho mani nnlatfon of words when it deals with a political P innf Tfis particularly interesting to watch Herald. investigation, J0"0 ? the retailers expect, advance in prices, what a o iu that two and two will make five. . Time to Act How long will the President wait before bring-1 Ing the railroad strike to an end? Every day la creases the tension and makes tho situation moro difficult to deal with. A Washington dlnpatch vsays that tho railroad heads aro determined to break up the unions there is ovidonco of thla fact in the attompt ta organize a soparato union for each company. The dispatch also suggesta that the coal operators share in this purpose. To i this information is added a statement that sorao of tho President's frlonds think ho should keep v his hands off and .allow the railroads and thotr,, mon to fight it out. , j. But the government cannot keop its hands off and tho railroad heads havo no thought of flght-t ing it out alone. They count on tho army, and tho question now Is whether tho government will uso the army of the United States to onforco tho private opinions of railroad magnates. Upon this subject there will be a wide difference of opin ion. Those whose sympathies aro with big busi ness will demand this that is why thoy want a big army. What does the general public think? The patrons of tho railroads want traf fic resumed and they want tho work done by ex perienced mon. Tho time has como for tho ProsI- , dent to InvoJco tho aid of Congress for authority to end the strike by the operation of such roads as refuse to perform their duty to tho public. The government can use tho army for Its own purposes, but it cannot rightfully uso tho army merely to please one sllo of a labor dispute. It dees not use the army to force tho railroads to take tho mon back on the terms fixed by tho men; it should not uso tho army to onablo tho railroads to carry out the porsonal views of rail road heads regardless of tho public wolfaro. It the President will use a people's government for the people's welfare and inform tho railroad magnates of his determination to ask Congress for authority to operate the railroads until tho railroad managers awaken to a sense of their obligation to tho public, the strike will end very quickly and business can j-esumo. It in time to act. w. J. BRYAN. AIDING THE PROFITEERS J On another page will be found a press dis patch suggesting the return to profiteers of fines collected from them before the law was declared unconstitutional. It would seem that with tho present scarcity of money in the treasury tho profiteers might bo left to prosecute their claims against the government. Possibly some of them are ashamed to expose themselves by asking a return of the money thoy were compelled to pay. Thoy wore convicted on tho facts and tho facts show them to bo guilty of extorting monoy from the public. Whether legally guilty or not, they were morally guilty of a crime against tho nation and there is no reasonwhy the govern ment should make ap effort to return the money collected. Let them sue if thoy are not ashamed to come into the limolight again. LIQUOR NOT NECESSARY On a British ship going to Panama about twelve years ago, the captain told mo that during the eighteen years that he had been captain of that ship he had changed the policy in 'regard to liquor. They formerly furnished grog to tho sailors three times a day but thoy afterwards abandoned this custom and fined any one who brought liquor aboafd. He said it had greatly improved the crew. He also told me of several ships being wrecked in the neighborhood of Panama by captains under the influence of liquor. He said that during the eighteen years above mentioned tho sale of liquor to cabin pas sengers had decreased seventy-five pecent. Tho last fact would seem to indicate that liquor is not as necessary as the members of the Shipping Board seem to think. W. J. BRYAN. On comparison it has "been found that so much of Mr. Bryan's Sunday School Convention ad dress at Kansas City has been covered In sub stance in the Sunday School lessons, and in tho Radio Speech on "ALL," that it will not be nec essary to publish the abstract of it, as mentioned in the July Commoner. Speaking of tho inability of congress to got anywhere, it will be recalled that while the Genoa conference was unable to accomplish any-' thing, it adjourned when It discovered its im- potency. . 7 -ji v 'w ri Ov Jfcg-JHLf H