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The Commoner
VOL. 22, NO. 9
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The Commoner
ISSUED MONTHLY
Entered at the Pbatofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska,
na second-class mattor.
WILLIAM J. BKYAN, CHARLES W. BRYAN,
33d It or and Proprlotor Assoclato ISd. and Publisher
Bdlt. Rms and Business Olllco, Suite 207 Press Bldg.
One Yenr 51.00 Three Month .25
Six Mouth........ JBO Slavic Copy. ...... .10
In Clul)3 of Five or Sample copies Free.
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THI2 COMMONER, LINCOLN, NEB.
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Private Monopoly
Rejoices
On another page will be found an editorial in
which the New York Tribune rejoices that gov
ernment competition with privately owned ships
is ended. It welcomes the hows that the emer
gency fleet has withdrawn ten government ships
from tho Hamburg and Bremen routes. TheBe
ships, the Tribune says, -were in direct competi
tion with privately owned American ships -and
then adds that their operation represented the
principle of government owned shipping in its
most baneful form.
This note of exaltation comes a few days after
tho press dispatches announced that the steam
ship companies had raised the rate on coal upon
learning that seven hundred thousand tons of
joal had been contracted in Great Britain as a
means of escaping from the dearth of coal in the
United States. Nothing could better illustrate
the heartlossness of big business than the two
facts, first, tho extortion by tho privately, owned
companies and, second, tho abolition of govern
ment competition.
The New York Tribune is a large journal and
is representative of what passes for patriotism
among tho big financiers. There is no conscience
whatever in the predatory interests and it seems
never to occur to their journalistic champions
that conscience has anything to do with the sub
ject. These masters of finance take "all that the
traffic will bear." When business increases, in
stead of lowering rates because full cargoes re
duce the cost per ton, they Taise rates ' ecause
they CAN, and they demand that the government
shall not interfere with their piracy.
Is it possible that a farmer, just because he is
a Republican, can ignore the injustice rfot to
say, immorality of such business methods and
such party policies? Can the laboring men be
blind to the injustice that this must "work to the
country? And what about the small business
man? Is he so sympathetic with big business
that he cannot use his influence for the protec
tion of the public? W. J. BRYAN.
What's become of all that -talk around tho
balls of congress about investigating Attorney
General Daugherty? A few months ago it was
the opinion of the editors who affect to interpret
events for us and to ring up the curtain on the
going-to-be that Harding could not any longer
carry so heavy a burden. When Daugherty was
selected he was described as the politician of the
cabinet. It begins to look as though ho has been
exercising his chief talent most effectively.
PROGRESSIVES STILL WINNING
Wtter great victory of La Follette in Wisconsin
and fce. smaller but decisive victory of Johnson
in. California " show . that the progressive wave
has not spent itself. There may bo enough pro
gressive Republicans In the Senate to help pass
the measures formulated by the next Democratic
House,
The Philosophy of
Self
The dispatches have recently given us a good
illustration of the philosophy of self. There is
such a philosophy and it is tho basis of "much of
tho sin and most of tho sorrow in the world.
Happiness is made the encT of life not the high
est form of happiness, but purely physical happi
ness. Some months ago a man eloped with his
secretary, leaving his wife and nine children;
he-and his companion have recently been ar
rested and the papers ar6 interviewing the thr,eei
parties torthe triangle.
Tho wife says, "I freely and of my own ac-
cord forgive my husband and" Miss and
ask him to come home and live happily with my-'
self and the nine children."
The man says, "It is all very unfortunate. No
man should be. eternally damned because he
seeks love when he has not possessed it. Life is
but a trip through a great wilderness and some
where in the wilderness there is a rose for every
man. That is the rose of love; its possession
means happiness and success. If a man plucks
a thistle by mistake, should he be prevented
from plucking a rose should he later chance
upon it?" He says his wife was a "heathen,"
and could neither read nor write; and embar
rassed him by "eating with her knife at church
suppers."
Tho girl with whom he eloped says, "I don't
blame Mr. for leaving his wife and nine
children and running" away with me. We love
each other and that is the first requisite to hap
piness in this world."
Here we have the views of the principals
stated in their own languagerif the interviews
are accurate. This is net all that they say, but
enough to indicate the attitude of each. The
wronged wife is willing to forgive lier husband if
he will come back and live with her and the
nine children which they, together, have brought
into the world. Surely this is generous enough
to satisfy the most exacting requirements.
What of his attitude? He puts what he calls
his happiness above his duty to his wife and the
nine children for whom he is responsible. He
says he found "a thistle" and, after joining her
in bringing nine half-thistles into the Tvorld, he
leaves the thistle and the nine half thistles, and
plucks "a rose" that he found growing by the
wayside. His philosophy of life centers in him
self. The fact that he THQUGHT he loved tho
woman he married and, under this delusion, led
her to sacrifice opportunities to be married to a
better man and also led her to assume responsi
bilities (to nine children) from which she can
not honorably escape, has no influence upon him.
What are her rights to him, or the rights of the
children when they stand between him and his
idea of happiness? The wrecking of her life"
seems to be a trivial incident and the fate of the
nine children a matter of unconcern.
He called nine human souls out from the un
seen world to live their lives on earth nine
souls with infinite possibilities for weal or woe
and yet, he leaves them to faro or fail what
are they to him compared with the possession af
a rose? Can selfishness go farther or more
conclusively prove its turpitude What a world
this would bei if ALL men lived on as low a
Sfe?6 and WGre aS beSti ln their concePtion o
The theory that one cannot control his affec
tions, but must follow them whithersoever they
may lead him, is quite attractive to the passion-
lef nder -some dispute the doctrine that
uL m- J?VG i0Ur enem,es- a man cannot
love his wife, how can he be expected love his
enemies? The man in question is not the first
man who has fallen under the influence of a
woman younger than his wife and become blind
fhdafeSUng- Hi? Bin began 3n encXagSg
the attachment until it overcame his will. Christ
co
selfish as he is. She does not blame him for
leaving his wife and the nine children. What is
the happiness of a wife and mother and the wi
fare of children to her? If happiness is so Lived
a thing, why should her happiness or th w,
Piness of the husband whom she stole be sc mS
more valuable than the-, happiness of the Sther
ten parties involved? She says that she is will
ng to take the nine children and caw for 'them
but what mother would be willing to entrust hw
children to a woman who was willing to destroy
, a home. And what assurance would the children
have that she would notjlesert them if she founrt
a man more pleasing to her than tho other
woman's husband? And what assurance has she
that when she grows older and becomes the
mother of a family, her fickle husband may not
find a younger and fresher "rose?"
The moral in the case is plain. Obligation is
more than inclination; duty is more than
passion. The home is an institution ordained of
God. The rights of many have to be considered
When it is once established and tho rights of tho
children are not least, for in each child Here are
latent possibilities. Because of these unmnic
ured and immeasurable possibilities no court can
estimate the guilt of those who disregard them
or adequately assess punishment. But we do
know that in any court where justice is admin
Jstered tho RIGHTS of one child outweighs the
PLEASURE of any parent. We need a law pro
tecting the home from burglary by the lustful
it is a sacred institution and about the only
valuable thing" that is not protected.
W. J. BRYAN.
BRYAN OP MINNESOTA
There is another member of the Bryan family
who is receiving some newspaper publicity these
days in Minnesota and adjoining states. Silas M.
Bryan is a practising attorney at Minneapolis.
He is the only son of Charles. W. Bryan, and
was named after Judge Silas L. Bryan, the father
of William J. and Charles W. Bryan. The
Minnesota member of the Bryan family grew up
in Lincoln, Nebraska, "was educated in tho pub
lic schools, and was graduated from the Uni
versity of Nebraska in 1915. He entered Har
vard Law School in the fall of that year, and at
tho close of his second year in the law school en
listed in tho army as a volunteer, and was com
missioned as a captain of infantry at the first of
ficers' training school at Camp Snelling. After
serving as an instructor in the second, third and
fourth officers' training camps, he took a com
pany of colored troops to France, and saw ac
tive service the last few weeks of the war. After
being in the army two and a quarter years, ho
was discharged just in time to enter the law
school again in the fall of 1919, and completed
his law course the following spring and located
in Minneapolis.
Silas M. Bryan is the Democratic candidate
for lieutenant-governor, "being on the same ticket
with Mrs. Peter Olesen, who is the Democratic
candidate in Minneosta for United States sena
tor. Mr. Bryan was maTrled during the war to
Miss Fanny Schibsby of Minneapolis. He did
not seek the nomination for lieutenant-governor,
but it was given to him by tho Democratic state
convention and no other candidate filed against
him in the primary.
Silas M. is a progressive Democrat in politics,
is a good public speaker, is well equipped in
every way for the position of lieutenant-governor,
and The Commoner wishes for him and the
Democratic ticket of Minnesota success at the
November election.
WET ADVOCATES REBUKED
Two men were entered Jn the Republican
primary in Nebraska as candidates for congress
man on a light wines and beer platform. The
association against the prohibition amendment
fostered their candidacy and was responsible for
their appearance as contestants. They picked
out two districts in the state wherein reside a
considerable number of men of foreign birth or
descent. Neither one of the candidates had a
look-in at the nomination. They ran so far be
hind the other candidates that their total vote
was not even carried in the election returns.
This fact ought to be conclusive of the question
sometimes raised by the wets that if the people
ever got a chance at prohibition they would snow
it under.
If the House follows the Senate lead and
there is not the slightest reason to doubt that
It will this country will be saddled with the
highest protective tariff in Its history. The one
and only object of a high tariff is to prevent
foreign goods from competing with American
goods, ana this is don by making the tariff so
high that the American manufacturer is left in
possession of the home market, and may charpe
whatever he can get. The Fordney-McCumber
tariff will add two billion; dollars annually to tho
price burdens of the consumer of the country,
and that at a time when every interest dictates
lower prices, Upon so clearcut an issue as that
the Democrats should Bweep the country by ma
jorities greater than ever before in Its history.
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