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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1923)
A Word as to Candidates It is impossible to consider the relative avail ability of candidates until we know what issues are likely to be paramount. As the issues will be framed by congress and as congress does not convene until December, it will be well into the winter before anyone can discuss intelligently the personnel of the next campaign. There are certain general principles, however, that should govern no matter who may be a candidate. The first is that the question of location plays a less important part than in times past. It does not matter so much whether the candidate comes from the east, west, north or south as it does that he shall stand for the things that the peo ple want. Neither does it matter whether the candidate is prominent or not. There is nothing like a campaign to make a man known. An ob scure man who will grow as the people become acquainted with him would be better than a prominent man whose popularity would decrease with investigation. The attitude of the candidate upon the liquor iss*e is important. He nnfst be dry and in favor of enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment and the laws passed for its enforcement. The Democratic party cannot encourage lawlessness or enter into partnership with the lawless ele-#* ment of society. It woul^be fatal to do so if only men voted—it woul<W)e absurd to expect the women to vote for such a candidate. Our candidate must be with the people as against Wall Street That issue cannot fail to be prominent in the next campaign, owing to the influence big business has exerted over the present administration. If the Republican leaders, with over two-thirds of the House and nearly two-thirds of the Senate, could not show the people with big incomes the favoritism that was attempted and could not pass the ship sub sidy bill, how can Democrats expect to win without a straightforward, unequivocal declara tion in favor of the disinherited masses and the victims of the profiteer? It is difficult at this time to estimate the rela tive importance of the international issue. The President has set out to secure co-operation with other nations in the promotion of peace. Hq is right, as far as he goes, and to the extent that he succeeds the importance of international questions will be lessened. It is quite likely that we shall, before the next election, be par ticipating in the international councils—reserv ing, of course, the right to independent action. No surrender of our right to decide questions of war will be advocated by either party. "Neither government ownership of railroads nor government ownership of coal mines is likely to play an important part in the next campaign, but the right of the people to regu late the railroads and to regulate the mines also will have to be admitted or fought out. W. J. BRYAN. LIBERTY ANI) LAW On another page will be found a cablegram reporting Premier Mussolini of Italy as saying that the people are tired of liberty and want law and order. Mussolini is so new to public life that this blunder may be due to a misunder standing of government rather than to a disre gard for liberty. There is no conflict between liberty and law; in fact, liberty and law are not only consistent but they are indissolubly linked together. Our Declaration of Independence sets forth certain self-evident truths; first, that all men are created equal; second, that they are endowed with inalienable rights. These are fundamental; they are the basis of liberty and the source of love of liberty—a sentiment which has been in the heart of man from the creation. The second and the fourth of these self-evi dent truths relate to government; that it is es tablished among men for the purpose of secur ing to them the enjoyment of these inalienable rights, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. If Mussolini does not understand that law and liberty travel together, he has something very important to learn. If, however, he knows the relation between liberty and law and puts law above liberty or considers government as a thing independent of liberty, he will prove dangerous to human progress in proportion as he has in fluence. It may be that his bloodless victory was due to the fact that the plutocratic element—an ele ment to be found in «very country—saw in him a valuable ally. If it proves to be true that he is in sympathy with the reactionary forces of society and the champion of great capital in its assault upon human rights, the plunderbunds of other countries will be looking for a Musso lini to lead the masses into the slaughterhouse. W. J. BRYAN. THE ISSUES OF 1924 April 11, 1923.—Mr. Lester Markel, Sunday Editor, The New York Times, New York City. My dear Sir: Responding to your request, I sub mit a brief answer to the question: "What will be the issue in 1924?” It is the business of newspaper men to ask questions and it is a pleasure to answer them when an answer is possible. It is easier, how ever, to be far-sighted in asking questions than in answering them. One can ask without limit but in answering one is restricted to what he knows, or thinks he knows. The future itself refuses to answer questions and those who do venture to answer must be very cautious if they have any regard for their reputation,.because no one knows what a day may bring forth in poli tics. The issue—or I think it is better to say, issues —of 1924 will be determined largely by what the next session of congress does and by what is done in Europe between now and the conven tion. We have the domestic questions with us always; in each campaign we have a paramount issue—the issue that is made paramount by* events. Domestic issues absorb attention except when the American people are compelled to lift their eyes above the domestic horizon and sur vey the world at large. At home there are four questions that are being widely discussed, al though no one can now estimate their relative importance, and of course there will not be un animous agreement as to their relative impor tance even when election day arrives. First, I would put the condition of the Ameri can farmer. He is suffering more than any other class and the farmer makes up one-third of the nation in population. The price level is dis jointed; the farmer buys upon a level nearly fifty per cent higher than the level upon which he sells. This is ruinous and, in time, spells bankruptcy. No other question is likely to influ ence the farmer’s thought and political action as much as this question. The second question affects the laboring class, the next group in si-ze to the agricultural group. There are certain readjustments necessary to in sure equity to the laboring men, but the most disturbing feature of the situation is the increas ing antagonism between labor and capital—the class consciousness manifested by members of both groups. The attitude of the government is alarming to the laboring men and this alarm has been increased by the recent decision of the Su preme Court in which five of the court denied the right of congress to fix a minimum wage—three judges dissenting and one not taking part in the decision. This is another of the five to four de cisions and still further intensifies the desire of the masses for legislation or Constitutional pro vision which will make it impossible for a bare majority of the Supreme Court to nullify legis lation on questions which are more political than judicial in their character. The third issue deals with the curbing of the profiteer. Those who are in position to organ ize can charge what the traflie will bear and are doing so while those who can not organize are the victims, not only of natural conditions but of the artificial conditions which monopoly creates. Something must be done; it remains to be seen whether the situation will be relieved by the ac tion of the next congress or aggravated by its failure to act. Taxation is the fourth domestic issue. Mr. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, is already sug gesting a further reduction in the surtax—a policy which puts the pecuniary interests of the rich above the necessities of those not so well to-do. It is shifting the burden of taxation from the backs of the strong to» the backs of the weak. As the Democrats and the progressives com bined will have a majority in both houses, it is not likely that any such reactionary policy can be successful. There will, of course, be many other issues but I mention the above as issues that affect very Urge groups and which will, therefore, have strong public opinion back of them. When we know what the issues are we shall be in posi tion to discuss candidates. Events make issues and issues mak* candidates. Vary truly yours, W. J. BRYAN. Making Banks Safer The Bank Guarantee Law has compelled banks to feel an interest in each other; since they are joined together in the protection of de positors they are interested in insuring each other’s solvency. I venture to suggest three things that will lessen the number of failures and thus lessen the assessments made to pay de positors of failed banks. First; there should be laws, state and nation al, making it a penal offense for any bank official or bank employee to speculate upon the stock market or the produce market. No gambler can be trusted; the facf that a bank employee de sires to gamble is conclusive proof that he is not the kind of a man to trust with the handling of other people's money. Even-if he were a per fectly reliable man at the beginning of his gamb ling, his honesty would not last long. For his own protection, as well as the protection of the bank, he ought to be restrained from specu’a tion. The public has just as much right to pro tect banks from the menace of the gamblers and speculators as a powder factory has to prohibit the carrying of matches by those working with powder. The second law needed is a statute requiring the capital and surplus combined to bear a rea sonable relation to deposits. The capital and surplus furnish the margin that protects the de positors. A bank requires a borrower to have property in excess of the face value of his loan —enough more to give him margin for shrink age. Bankers ought to live up to their own rules and give depositors a margin in the way of surplus sufficient for protection against possible shrinkage in loans. The third law is even more necessary that the first and second above mentioned. Bank officials should be held personally liable for the violation of rules made for the protection of the bank’s solvency. The laws, state and national, limit the amount that can be loaned to one person or firm, but there is no penalty fixed for the violation of the law. Bank officials are continually violating this law under the pressure of influence or inter est. It is sometimes difficult for a bank official to refuse the demand of a powerful customer. A criminal law would give him something to bacK up against. He could say to a man desiring to borrow more than the law permits, “I cannot accommodate you at the risk of being sent to the penitentiary.” The borrower ^sometimes gives the bank official an indirect pecuniary interest in the loan. A criminal penalty would give the official strength to resist such temptations. No one will question the wisdom of the laws above proposed, or the need of them. Why will leg islators allow banking influence to prevent the enactment of such legislation? W. J. BRYAN. BENTLEYVILLE SETS EXAMPLE Professor C. G. Pearsall of Bentleyville, Penn., asked the students of the junior and serior high schools of that city, numbering four hundred, to join with him in signing a total abstinence pledge. Three hundred and seventy-five of the four-hundred signed with him. It was a splen did example. His action will be brought to the attention of the high schools of the country and professors and teachers will be urged to lead their students to pledge themselves to abstinence from intoxicating liquor as beverage. This is the ‘most effective way to aid enforcement of pro hibition. It will not take long to dry up wet spots if the churches and schools build up total abstinence sentiment back of the prohibit on amendment. W. J. BRYAN. ON DANGEROUS GROUND If the execution of Vicar Butchkavithc was due, as seems probable, to hositility to religion in general, it is the surest evidence yet gi^en of the irresponsible character of those in authority in Russia. Tolstoy defines religion as the relation that man fixes between himself and his Maker, and adds that morality is the outward manifestation of religion. If morality rests on religion, as I believe it does, then the entire absence of re ligion destroys the foundation upon which civil zation rests. W. J. BRYAN. The robin and the summer hat are pretty fair harbingers of spring, but the average man is not likely to believe that it is really at hand unless there are predictions in the newspapers that the mine operators are about to have their men strike on them again.
