  THE Reform editor is a political waif on the tempestuous sea of strife. It would have been money in his pocket if he had never been born. He has a devil part of the time, and a devil of a time all the time. The smallest thing about him is his pocketbook and the largest his delinquent list. He says more kind things of other people and gets more “cussings” than any other man living. When he first takes the job of reforming the world he thinks it can be finished in six months or a year. Then he puts it off another year and borrows some money of his father-in-law. Then he enlists for three years or more during the war and borrows some more money. At this stage of the game he takes a new grip on the situation and starts in to finish up the job in the next campaign. But a cog slips and the dadgummed thing slides merrily down the broad road to destruction. The editor tears his hair and says some cuss words. The devil grins and throws the shooting-stick at the office cat. Every opposition paper trots out its rooster, and the editor waits for the world to come to an end or the moon to turn to blood. At this point in the proceedings it is time to borrow some more money. He would quit business, but he can’t. When a man undertakes to reform the world he is never out of a job. He always sees something that needs his attention. But the Reform editor is made of the right kind of metal. He is always out of money, but seldom out of heart. He used to dream of the time when he could bathe his wearied feet in the rippling waters of success. When every man would do unto his brother as he would have his brother to do unto him. When in Utopia’s green fields and by the side of its babbling brooks he could end his days. But he is over that now. All he can do is to attract some attention and set the people to thinking. Here’s to the Reform editor. He may have chosen a rough and tempestuous road, but the lightning strokes of his gifted pen and thunder tones of his voice will purify the moral and political atmosphere.—Morgan’s Buzz Saw. “A reader of The Commoner asks where he can secure a copy of a book entitled ‘Ten Men on Money Isle.’ If anyone who is able to give the information will send it to The Commoner on a postal card the information will be published for the benefit of the readers.” And the foregoing from Bryan’s Commoner! “Ten Men on Money Isle” is one of Colonel S. F. Norton’s best books, and one of the most popular on the money question. It is a book that made thousands of converts to Populism, the triumph of which gave Mr. Bryan two terms in Congress and placed him prominently before the American people. Every Populist newspaper advertised it, quoted it and praised it. Greenbackers, alliancers, union laborites, socialists, single taxers, students of political economy and sociology and If the Populist vote was thrown out in all other counties as it was in Monroe, Tom Watson should have had about 5,000 votes in Iowa this election. One thing sure, the Republican papers admit that 75,000 legal voters in Iowa did not vote this year 1904; that means that over a hundred thousand did not vote. There was no choice between Parker and Roosevelt, and these men thought Watson could not win, so they did not vote.—Iowa Educator. We look upon the battle of Waterloo as a tremendous catastrophe because 57,000 people were killed in that memorable conflict, but in ten years the railroads of the United States have killed 78,152 persons, and all for the sake of earning dividends on watered stock. How many Waterloos are comparatively soon forgotten!—Field and Farm. On Christmas Eve a private conference of prominent Bryan Democrats was held in Lincoln, Neb., at which Mr. Bryan presided, having for its purpose the development of a scheme to re-Bryanize the Democratic party and put out another bait for the Populists. The details of the plan will, no doubt, be given out at an early day. The Pops have been gold-bricked by Democrats enough to learn that any plan, promise or pledge from that source has nothing good for them in it. Keep in the middle of the road! Don’t be caught by these political trimmers!—Southern Mercury. Roosevelt wants Congress to provide work for the Indians on the reservations. The Indians won’t work. Nothing is said about the two million men who are out of work. To provide them with jobs would be to disband the great army of the unemployed, without which capitalism could not exist.—Iowa Educator. President Roosevelt says there should be no rebates allowed on freight rates by the railroads. It is plain to be seen that if we had government ownership the President would not allow “rebates,” but it is safe to say nothing will be done, for these railway corporations have a way to interest members of Congress in these profits, so that no law to curb them can be got through Congress. If we had government ownership even a Republican President would give us relief, but as it is he is powerless.—The Forum, Denver, Col. It is easy to see now that the St. Louis convention was the crowning event of damphoolishness. Almost anyone can be fooled part of the time, but nobody but a fool can be fooled all the time. The yellow-hammers that are now in control of the Democratic party insist that they are going to hold on. The consensus of opinion among Populists seems to be that they won’t take any more of Dr. Bryan’s medicine. The Democratic party may not be dead, but it is disfigured beyond recognition, crippled beyond recovery, and disgraced beyond redemption. As principle has been abandoned, and there are not enough offices to go round, there is nothing to hold the pieces of the Democratic party together. There is a man down in Texas who is so particular as to “what’s in a name” that he won’t kiss a “grass widow” for fear of catching the “hay fever.” If the South will set its face forward instead of backward it will see One of the most spectacular scenes ever exhibited in this old world of ours is presented by a lot of laboring men howling for what they want and voting for what they don’t want. When the politicians of the South want to steal something, or do some other mean thing, they dig up the “nigger domination snake” in order to distract the attention of the people from their own meanness.—Morgan’s Buzz Saw. Reformers make a mistake in thinking all the reform element is outside of the Republican party. The greatest obstruction today in the way of reform is the Democratic party. If it would gently sink to rest as the Whig party did, the forceful men in the Republican party would lead a movement that would give us quick and substantial relief. Seventy-five per cent. of the Republicans have advanced ideas and are anxious for reform. To be sure, the party is in the strong clutch of greed, as much so as the Democratic party was in 1850, but the Whig party had the good sense to die in 1854, and the Free Soil Democrats, the strong men of the then dominant party, came out and formed the Republican party, a party of the people, by the people and for the people. And this party would have given us splendid service in economic reforms had not the great Civil War required its attention; while the nation was torn by this internecine struggle the vampires of greed, who have no politics, fastened themselves upon this grand new party, and long before peace came were so intrenched in power that such men as Lincoln, Morton, Wade, Stevens and a host of other great Republican leaders were compelled to bow in submission. They saw and comprehended the dire results that would follow the machination of these ghoulish hounds of hell, but they were powerless. Wade and Stevens were moved to tears, Lincoln’s soul was torn by grief. “We submit,” said Stevens, “to save the life of a nation.” Thus did grasping greed take advantage of our extremity and make the struggle for existence a strife more fierce than war.—The Forum, Denver, Col. Back of all politics is the System. What the System is we now know fairly well from the exposures of Ida Tarbell, Steffens, Lawson and others. The System is not a political but an industrial form of control. Its rewards and punishments are economic. The greater part of the population of the United States lives under conditions of economic slavery of one kind or another. Political liberty does not in any way mean or guarantee industrial liberty. Hence the impending revolution in this country is not to be political but industrial.—Tomorrow. A hundred thinkers grow gray a-thinking; a hundred discoverers grow old a-discovering; a financier comes along, grabs the theories and the finds, hires folks to straighten ’em out, and rides in his automobile while the poor fellows of ideas eat mush and water by the roadside. The men who do brain-work get the crust-crumbs which fall from the commercial sponge-cake. Brains are poor collaterals to raise money on.—The Scythe of Progress. The Saturday Evening Post says that there is to be a new deal in politics. It predicts a realignment and declares that “there is a great body of Republicans who really belong on the Democratic side, and a smaller, but still large number of Democrats who ought to be Republicans.” Let the exchange take place—the sooner the better. Harmony in belief and in purpose is the only basis of co-operation in politics.—The Commoner. There is no danger of Bryan stealing the Populist platform while Tom Watson is standing on it.—Morgan’s Buzz Saw. COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN ATTRACTIVE PAPER BINDING. PRICE, 25 CENTS
SELECT FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST:
Sent Postpaid on Receipt of Price, 25c. THE SMART SET PUBLISHING CO.,452 Fifth Avenue, New York “TOM WATSON” is the one historian through whom we get the point of view of the laborer, the mechanic, the plain man, in a style that is bold, racy and unconventional. There is no other who traces so vividly the life of a people from the time they were savages until they became the most polite and cultured of European nations, as he does in THE STORY OF FRANCE In two handsome volumes, dark red cloth, gilt tops, price $5.00. “It is well called a story, for it reads like a fascinating romance.”—Plaindealer, Cleveland. “A most brilliant, vigorous, human-hearted story this: so broad in its sympathies, so vigorous in its presentations, so vital, so piquant, lively and interesting. It will be read wherever the history of France interests men, which is everywhere.”—New York Times’ Sat. Review. NAPOLEON A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, Illustrated with Portraits and Facsimiles. “The Splendid Study of a Splendid Genius” is the caption of a double-column editorial mention of this book in The New York American and Journal when it first appeared. The comment urged every reader of that paper to read the book and continued: “There does not live a man who will not be enlarged in his thinking processes, there does not live a boy who will not be made more ambitious by honest study of Watson’s Napoleon * * * “If you want the best obtainable, most readable, most intelligent, most genuinely American study of this great character, read Watson’s history of Napoleon.” “TOM WATSON” in these books does far more than make history as readable as a novel of the best sort. He tells the truth with fire and life, not only of events and causes, but of their consequences to and their influence on the great mass of people at large. They are epoch-making books which every American should read and own. Orders for the above books will be filled by Transcriber’s Notes: Antiquated spellings were preserved. Typographical errors have been silently corrected. |
|
