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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
AUSTRALIA AND WAR.
Austialia relies in the main on the British
fleet for national defence. Realizing, how
ever, that there may come a time when she
will need to be self-reliant and self-protecting,
she is working out the details of a scheme
v hich would give her at the end of eight years
t 4,000 men, trained and equipped for war.
The plan, as now outlined, provides that
every male is liable to undergo military train
ing from the age of 12 to 18 in a cadet corps,
and from 18 to 26 in the National Guard.
Dispatches tell of the arrival in San Fran
cisco of an Australian military expert, en
route to London and Aidershot, where he is
to study latest devices and methods of war.
He has come from Japan, and presumably
will not pass us by, although in this country
he will get no light on conscription. —Boston *
Herald. > ; , ; ,
OLD POPS, READ THIS.
Out in Texas, in the town of Abilene, is a
irue-hearted, industrious reformer, who is do
ing his level best to stimulate independent
though and action, and to revive the interest
which tens of thousands of good citizens once
felt in Jeffersonian democracy. He has been
doing this work at his own expense. Being a
poor man, this is an imposition which we
ought not to allow. We owe it to ourselves to
help the man who is trying to help us.
The Jeffersonian strongly urges upon every
citizen who feels that in the campaign of 1908
every legitimate effort should be made to
bring out a full, independent vote, to send
Mr. H. L. Bentley, Abilene, Texas, a contri
bution to help him on in circulating literature,
conducting a national correspondence, and or
ganizing Jeffersonian clubs. If you can send
sl, send it —send it now. If you can spare
$5, send that. Thousands of you can send
$lO and never miss it. Do it, and reap the
reward of that good feeling which follows th«
performance of a good deed. If you can send
no more than 25 cents, send that amount.
The Jeffersonian can vouch for Mr. H. L.
Bentley, and for the fact that that money will
be honestly applied to the purpose herein in
dicated.
HIGH RATES; LOW WAGES; WATERED
STOCK.
Few public setvic'' corporations illustrate
better than does the Western Union Tele
graph Co. the consequences of freedom from
governmental regulation. The results are bad
f r the public it serves, for the employes who
w< rk for it, and for the investor in its stock.
The public gets a poor and expensive service.
The employes are not adequately paid, and
conditions imposed upon them are better suited
to Russia than free America. Finally, the in
vestor finds that he has a certificate repre
senting water instead of property.
The Western Union is, or was, one of the
Gould properties. Its history is a record of
stock jobbing and financial jugglery. An
enormous capitalization now exists without
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
any adequate property value to represent it.
The last 44 dividend” shows one of the meth
ods by which it has grown. The company
spent, since last July, some millions fighting
its employes. So its stockholders got a
“stock” dividend instead of a cash dividend.
It simply means more capital on which profit
is to be w'rung out of the public and its
employes—out of the public by collecting
excessive tolls, and out of its employes by pay
ing niggardly wages and requiring too long
hours.
Its high-handed dealing with its employes
is shown in many ways. It does not run an
44 open shop.” No one can get employment
from it without declaring that he is not a
member of the telegraphers ’ union and promis
ing never to join it. But more than this, the
Western Union is not content to deprive
union men of the right to serve it, but it has
required those who lease its wires to dis
charge all the union operators they employ.
In New York state Gov. Hughes is urging
that telegraph companies be brought under
the control of the public utilities commissions.
In congress a bill is pen ling to bring them
under the jurisdiction of the interstate com
merce commission. The need of immediate
and through-going regulation is 4 imperative.
If adequate regulation is not afforded, govern
ment ownership must and will come. —Cleve-
land Press.
WHY BRYAN WOULD LOSE.
Talk has never made any man President
of the United States.
Lincoln was nominated because Seward, the
logical candidate, had already been too much
in the limelight. Grant wrote nothing and
said nothing, and his political views were his
secret property right up to the day of his
election. Hays defeated Tilden, although
Hays was only a name, while Tilden was
already famous.
Blunt, plain-spoken Cleveland swept the
silver-tongued Blain to the oblivion which
broke his heart.
Where are the speeches of Jefferson?
Where are the orations of Zachary Taylor?
Why did the coruscating Conkling fail to
reach the White House? Why has the Demo
cratic party been out of power every day of
the twelve years of Bryan?
Jefferson led the party for twenty-eight
years, and twenty-four years it was in power.
For twelve out of sixteen years as leader
Andrew Jackson pointed the way to victory.
It must be conceded that Mr. Bryan is a
peerless orator, an untiring agitator, and
possesses talents of high order, else he could
not have reached and held his present posi
tion in the face of repeated political disaster,
and seemingly because of it. But Mr. Bryan
owed his first nomination to the fact that
he was unknown. Bland and Boies were
passed over by the Chicago convention be
cause they had been identified with the ancient
feuds and controversies of the Democratic
party. Bryan was chosen, not because of his
crown of thorns and cross of gold speech, but
because he had no record to defeat and could
not be made the storm center of factional
strife arising from old animosities.
But the same Mr. Bryan whom the con
vention chose because he had no record was
rejected by the people because he very soon
placed himself on record, and that record
consisted of so many kaleidoscopic opinions
on everything under the sun that no one
could be sure overnight whether Bryanism
met with his approval or his disapproval.
Mr. Bryan is plausible, energetic, and
persevering, but in the light of his twelve
years as leader he should not be permitted to
answer selfishly the very grave question
whether he is qualified to be the candidate
of the democratic party for the coming
election. The answer ought to rest with
what is left of the party after his years of
constant defeat and steady loss of territory.
There are a thousand reasons why Mr.
Bryan should not for one moment be an
available candidate. They are to be found
in his speeches, no less than in his actions.
If he should he chosen, the only issue of the
campaign will be whether Mr. Bryan or the
Republican candidate can more safely be
trusted to carry out the Roosevelt policies.
Tariff reform, the most inviting basis for a
(Continued on Page Fourteen.)
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HOME AND STATE, 319 Commerce St., Dallas.
Texas.
ANNOUNCEMENT.
To the Voters of the Northern Judicial Cir
cuit:
I announce* my candidacy for the office of
Solicitor-General of the Northern Judicial
Circuit, subject to the primary to be held for
that purpose. I assure you that I will appre
ciate your support
U D. M’GBEGOB.