JHfWiiT'' " ""
The Commone
SEPTEMBER, 1922
3
tw
Protection of the
Public
. --&,
, -f,
Honorable David I. Walsh, - Z :
rnltod States Senate,
Washington, D. C. s
Mv dear Senator: v f
I have read with interost and approval your
nrooosition to empower Uie President to take
nvor the railroads and the. coal mines whenever
the private owners are unwilling or unable to rc
snond to the demands of the public, and operate
them temporarily until the private owners are
ablo to discharge their duty to the public. I be
lieve you are entirely right; the railroad and
mine owners collect their profit from the publics
and, being in charge of, their several industries,
arc under responsibilities to the public to operate
the roads and the mines in such a way as to sup
ply tho needs of the public.
Whenever they fail to do this, no matter what
the reason may be, the government musjt, for the
protection of the public, assume temporary con
trolthat control to last as long as the disabil
ity of the corporations last. If the President has
this power then responsibility rests upon him
and public opinion will compel him to act when
ever action is necessary for the protection of the
public.
There is only one alternative to this plan, and
that alternative needs only to 5be stated to be re
jected namely, to turn the army over to private
individuals to enforce private and personal opin
ions. If the railroad executives are permitted to
decide what should 1e done Regardless of the
opinions of the President and Congress, and re
gardless of the welfare of the public, and call for
the array to enforce their views, tho army be
comes a body of mercenary troops loaned to pri
vate corporations for private use.
The same objection would lie to the loaning
of tho army to' the employees to enforce their
views. Either attitude would be indefensible be
cause the army is the agency of the government
and can only bo used to enforce decrees of tho
government.
With the business of the country seriously
crippled by the railroad situation and the coal
supply diminishing 'at the approach of winter,
no time should be lost. The compulsion is so
urgent and the reasons which support your prop
osition so unanswerable that you should have no
difficulty in securing the support of both Demo
crats and Republicans, and thus put an end to
an intolerable situation.
A large majority of the people have no pecu
niary interest on either side of the struggle and
should not be compelled to suffer while a rela
tively small number fight out their differences.
For instance,- there are six hundred thousand
coal mine workers aut. If wd coujit the number
of stock holders in the mines at frfur hundred
thousand and they are probably much less than
that number we have a million men pecuniar
ily interested on the two- sides of tho strike.
Counting five to a family, that would give us not
over five milliqn pecuniarily interested on both
Out of a population of more than one hundred
millions, why should' ninety-five per cent of the
people freeze just because five per cent cannot
?&reQ as to wages? The vesting of authority in
jne President to act when necessary would re
neve the present emergency and wo should have
J Permanent tribunal framed on tho plan of the
wrty Treaties to provide for the investigation
J industrial disputes before they reach tho stage
i a strike or lockout.
ii the treaties can stay the hand of war until
i a period of investigation, why should wo
not be able to delay war in industry until after
J mvestigation that would give the public Jn
tEIr I011 as t0 the matter in dispute and permit
tonn?10? lizatlon of Public opinion for the sottle
Snn i dIfferences before an innocent people is
ff! J the loss that accompanies war be
lm labor and capital?
v0,,ru aro rendering a real public service .when
to nr ? y your ffrts commenced month's ago
uffori thQ pePlG from sreat and imminent
A,;i . Very truly yours,
gust 26, 1922. W. J. BRYAN,
TIE ETERNAL TRIANGL1B
V" S.i
&('
(Copyright: 1922: The Chicago Tribuue.)
been , , the loly & Washington that has
canitni i ng for turning these ovor to private
ton! anv ?UB Wih a 8ubsldy blB enough to pre
IMPUDENT ATHEISM
A paper that calls itself a seeker after truth
and professes to be an exponent of free thought
and agnosticism includes among nine demands
of "liberalism" (?) that "tho use of the Bible in
public schools, whether ostensibly as a text-book
or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall
bo prohibited." Yet it demands that tho teach
ing of irreligion be permitted. It does not unt
the Bible defended but insists upon the teaching
of that which contradicts and discredits the
Bible.' It gave tho name "scientific" to attacks
upon the Bible by advocates of agnosticism while
condemning instruction in reverence and worship
for God. Guesses of scientists can be taught
but Bible truths must bo excluded!
This shows the shallowness of such pretended
searching after truth; this is the intolerance that
passes for liberalism. Christians both Protes
tant and Catholics must build their own col
leges in which to teach Christianity, why not re
quire atheists and agnostics to build their own
colleges in which to teach their doctrines? "Free
thought," as' they define it, means a substitution
of irreligion for religion and tho elevation of
agnostics and atheists above Christians in their
right to propagate their doctrines. Not ye
A NEEDED REFORMATION
The theatrical managers have named Augustus
Thomas as general director of all of their future
productions. In their greed for profits the man
agers wrecked the industry in this country. Mis
led by their own pruriency and the applause of
certain groups of Now Yorkers whom wealth has
deprived of the ancient virtues, they have been
staging plays that the people outside of the big
citiw. who form the court of last resort on pub
lic taste, refused to attend. The theaters found
themselves up against exactly the conditions that
menaced the moving picture industry, and the
owners are applying, exactly the same remedy.
Mra have found that individually it pays them
to be dSnt The example ought not to be lost
on those who control tho nation's dramatic en
tertainments. CONVINCING TROOF
A Nebraska congressman, voicing tho public
A wJDsh;aaan8i introduced a resolution
dem??d ni railing for an investigation of the
months ago calling rorau Matters, a
means and methodj by whkh ,c fid.
Republican polit chin, wnom cuted flnd
eral district a"? nf0P Assisting in the
plant,ef nf a K The resolution was never
"?S The congressman has since resigned
pressed, mo frifmnt from Attorney Gen
nd accepted an SSomin was
eral Daugherty, against wnom . t men
directed, as JB government when
charged with aumng J unlslling Convinc
at war. Mr. Q ,8 the practical
The newmgSffilS
ot tun ovor the toot " k Germany
Uavo undertaken a campnlg n to m mB oIgo
avy. It will be s bg circles In this
considerable us")?r '?0.0 when tho move
country a number ot year America dry. History
CaTaMfoVCAl0". P,
Germany for the next scone.
Wall Street Hoaesty
In a recent inane of a Now York paper wo routff
tho following:
"Eighty-five "Wall stroot brokerago houses
have failed in tho last sovoral months, District
Attorney Banton said today, and on investiga
tion their asBOts woro found to be less than two
per cent of their liabilities.
"In many of thoso instancos, said Mr. Banton,
'money has been stolon deliberately from the
customors of tho concorns. So many complaints
have come in that wo have decided to arrange a
special court calendar for Wall stroot cases.
In '90 wo used to hoar a groat deal about nn
honest dollar. Wall street soomod to bo united
in denouncing tho silver dollar as a fifty-cent
dollar. But eveu fifty cents sooms to, bo worth
about twenty-flvo times as much as tho dollar
which eighty-five Wall street brokerage houses
aro using to pay their creditors. According to
district attorney Banton tho assets of these brok
erage houseB were found to be less than two por
cent of their liabilities, In many instances he
says, "money has been stolen deliberately froun
tho customors of tho concorns." Might it not be
well to investigate those organized robbers who
prey upon the public? Piracy has been drivon
from the soas, should it bo allowed on Wall
street? A stago robber is a man of high moral
character compared with some of tho bandits
who infest tho nation's motropolis. If thoro la
no conscience-among the brokers there should
bo among the legislators who represent tho peo
ple who are fleeced. W. J. BRYAN.
LIVING COSTS WENT UP
A Washington dispatch, dated Aug. 18, says:
Wholosale and retail costs of food and othoi
commodities took an upwardjump during th
month of July, retail prices avoraglng at 1 pel
cent increase, while wholesale prices registered
a gain of about 3 1-3 per cent, as compared wit)
June prices, tho department of labor announced
yesterday.
The largest retail increases wore noted in th
sale of granulated sugar, 7 per cent; strictly
fresh eggs, C per cent; navy beans-, C por cent;
potatoes, 8 per cent; while a 1 per cent increase
was registered against certain kinds of meats,
cheese, baked beans and prunes.
Thirteen food staples decreased in price, onionn
dropping 13 per cent; cabbage, 10 per cent;
hens, 3; lambs, 29, and flour, 2, whllo canned
goods showed but a slight decrease.
Fuel and lighting materials registered a 13
"p"6r cent increase during tho last month; farm
products, 3 per cent; foodstuffs, 1 1-2 por cent;
building materials, 1 3-4 per cent, while clothing
and metals incroased 1 per cent. Decreases woro
registered in chemicals and drugs, but no change
was reported for tho group of miscellaneous com
modities, including cattle, feed leather, paper
and pulp.
IMMORALITY GROWS
On another page will bo found an editorial 4
from a Salvation Army paper complaining of the
growing immorality. What else can be expected
if children are taught that the Bible in fiction
and that man is a descendont of the brute? Tho
inner restraint is the only one that counts. If
there is no sense of responsibility to God there ia
no hopo for morality. There Is .no escape from
the logic of Paul: "I after the manner ot men I
have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what ad
vantagoth it mo, if the dead rise not? let us eat
and drink; for tomorrow we die." (
Senator Hiram Johnson won a decisive victory
in his race fox renomination In the California
Republican primary, in spite of tho fact that tho
business interests of the stato felt quite certain
they had him beaten.. It Is but another proof o
the already demonstrated fact that this is a year
when progressives are making their power felt
in the party primaries, and is indicative ot what
is going, to happen at tho November election
whorevor a real progressive with a real progres
sive record is running.
Senator Capper ot Kansaa has come out as a
proponent of the Democratic plan of paying the
soldior bonus by levying such taxes as will ex
tract it from tho men who made large fortunes
out ot tho participation ot this country in -the
war. The Question ot how to reach the war;
profiteers is not a difficult one to onswgk The
incomo tax returns give a very fair indication. 6t
who got it, and that class has a faculty of keep
ing whatever it gots ita hands upon.
fl
pay losses in operation.
ifi
IMflig -f i "