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WH.LIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL 23, NO. 3_ Lincoln, Nebraska, March, 1923 Whole Number 767
The Standard Oil
Monopoly
The LaFollette committee, which has been in
vestigating the oil question, has filed a report
which ought to arouse the American people. The
most sensational sentence in the report is that
a dollar a gallon for gasoline is the prospect un
less the government is successful in break ng
the Standard Oil company’s monopoly of the
business.
The (tecision rendered several years ago dis
solving the Standard Oil company Was ridiculous
—probably the most ridiculous that ever ema
nated from a high court. It actually permitted
«—don’t laugh, dear reader, for it is serious
enough for tears—the SAME MEN who con
trolled the Standard Oil company to RETAIN
control of the SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES which
had joined together to make the Standard Oil
company. The average man will find it difficult to
understand why it should have been called a
DISSOLUTION when the same m*en who con
trolled the Standard Oil company (declared to be
a monopoly) were allowed to control the sub
sidiary corporations and carry on the same old
business at the same old stand. Since that time,
these companies have added about four billions to
the value of their stock, all made up from profits,
and they have recently been declaring enormous
stock dividends (permitted by another farcical
decision of the court, only a little less absurd
than Standard Oil decision).
How long will the representatives of big bus -
ness in the Senate and House and the sub
sidized newspapers in the big cities be able to
stifle legislation looking to the protection of the
country from these conscienceless profiteers?
Do the readers of The Commoner now under
stand why Wall Street is so active in the selec
tion of the Presidential candidates of both par
ties? If the plundered masses were half as vig
ilant in the protection of their rights as the mo
nopolists are in overreaching the public, it
would not take long to restore justice. But how
can the people know so long as all the avenues
of information are in private hands?
W\ J. BRYAN.
THE REPUBLICAN RECORD
Last November the American people passed
judgment upon the record of the administration
up to election day. The unsuccessful effort to
pass the ship subsidy bill at the short session
has increased rather than diminished the popular
indignation expressed at the polls.
The outstanding fact of the last congressional
election was the growth of progressive sentiment
in both parties. This was the natural result of
the extreme reactionary policy of Republican
leaders. They failed to meet the expectations
of the voters. The farmers were the greatest suf
ferers and their protest was the most emphatic
ns shown by Republican defeats in the agricul
tural sections. Wherever Republicans were elect
ed in the west it was due to the nomination of
progressives like La Follette in Wisconsin,
Brookhart in Iowa, and Johnson in California.
The wrath of the wage earners was aroused
by the attitude of the administration in the coal
and railroad strikes. This showed itself in the
cities and industrial centers. The hostility of the
ex-service men was expressed quite uniformly
throughout the country.
There has been no attempt to restrain the
profiteer; on the contrary, they have been fa
vored by the repeal of the tax on excess profits
and by he reduction in the tax on large incomes.
The arms conference was a step in the direc
tion of world peace, but its influence has been
largely neutralized by the delay of the admin
istration in accepting invitations to participite
in settlements of international disputes. The
president's eleventh hour recommendation was
commendable, but came too late for action.
Summed up in a sentence: The administra
tion has been rebuked for its failure to take the
people’s side of pending questions. Big bus'ness
has enjoyed a Belshazzar’s banquet at the ex
pense of the public. The feast was interrupted
last November by the handwriting on the wall,
but the administration seems unwilling to accept
the popular interpretation. W. J. BRYAN.
A NATIONAL BULLETIN
Now that the reactionary Congress has ad
journed and a new Congress, controlled by pro
gressives, is in charge, it is good to lay plans for
remedial legislation.
The first thinj* needed is a NATIONAL
BULLETIN, put within the reach of all voters so
that they can know WHAT they are voting about
and HOW TO VOTE.
A National Bulletin is needed for three rea
sons; first, to let the people know what the is
sues are; second, to give the people arguments
on both sides of questions at issue. Third, to
enable candidates for President, the Senate and
House, to present their claims for nomination and
election, at a nominal expense, so that rich and
poor will be on the same footing.
The first and third reasons are easily under
stood; the second reason requires elaboration.
The proposed bulletin will have space for edi
torials by the representatives of different parties
in Congress. These editors will be selected by
the congressmen for whom they speak—each
party and each faction in the party should have
its editorial spokesman so that all the lines of
thought represented in Congress shall be laid
before the voters. “Let there be light;” that is
all that the people need. There is enough in
telligence, honesty and patriotism in the masses
to insure a right solution of every problem if
the facts and the arguments can be brought be
fore the people. Now is the time to secure,the
National Bulletin. W. J. BRA AN.
MR. OLDFIELD’S SPEECH
On another page will be found a copy of the
speech by Congressman Oldfield. He forged to
the front in the past few years and is now one
of our leaders in Washington. He is able, hon
est, courageous and he is on the side of the peo
ple all the time.
Ship, Subsidy Dead
The ship subsidy is dead—it is not in any
TRANCE, it is sure enough DEAD. Thus endcth
one of the most daring attempts made in many
a year to thwart the will of the people. Nothing
except the effort to relieve the big tax payers
has so much aroused the progressive element of
the Republican party. With more than two-thirds
Republican majority in the House, the bill
passed by only twenty-four majority and among
those who voted for the b 11 were sixty-six of the
seventy-six defeated Republican Congressmen. In
other words, it took forty of the Republican con
gressmen, whose districts were lost to the Demo
crats last November, to make a majority in an
overwhelmingly Republican House.
In the Senate thp vote was very close, but
would not have been if the defeated senators had
been subtracted from the advocates of the bill.
The Democratic filibuster finally defeated the
measure, but the filibuster could not have suc
ceeded in defeating a meritorious measure. If
the Republicans who favored it had been willing
to make a sacrifice they could have forced a
vote; but their desire to pass the bill was not as
strong as the determ nation of the Democrats to
prevent it.
But the ship subsidy bill has served its pur
pose. It has disclosed the extreme to which Big
Business will go in its co.ntempt for popular gov
ernment—a government resting upon the consent
of the governed. And it has also brought promi
nently before the country the menace of a con
gressional session held AFTKR the election. The
ship subsidy bill contributed the impulse neces
sary to carry the Norris amendment through the
Senate and there is no doubt that it will be sub
mitted at the next session.
Things are working out all right. The Re
publicans by their attempt to put through this
“ iniquitous steal have awakened the country to
the importance of an amendment to the Consti
tution. The Democrats by their filibuster de
feated the attempt; hence we shall have the good
of education without suffering the plunder of
the treasury. W. J. BRYAN.
SENATOR ROBINSON’S STATEMENT
On another page will be found a statement by
Senator Robinson in regard to a point of order
made and sustained against Senator Heflin. Sen
ator Robinson’s statement speaks for itself, and
furnishes an illustration of the influences that
controlled at Washington. The rule of big busi
ness has been carried so far that a mere state
ment that a senator represents the people is re
sented by those who are not able to truthfully
make the same statement. The next Senate will
have a progressive majority and will not, there
fore, be so sensitive about criticisms of Wall
Street.
Senator Heflin is to be congratulated on the
assertion o^his right as a senator to use the lan
guage that he d d, and he is forunate in having
a term that extends into the next Congress when
he can speak mere freely and writh less fear of
rebuke. W. J. BR\AN.