The representative., 1901-04-18
INCONSISTENT.

The New York Journal declares that in
future ages men will bless the great COM
binations Of capital which frighten us at
present. These combinations. 1t says, are
harmful to the Individual to the discharged
drummer, to the small business man driven
to production and deprived of the middle
mans joys. But these combinations are
great advance agents of social reOrganiza-
tion. They have done and are doing the
greatest work of this age. They enable in
dustry to be organized on an enormous
labor-saving scale. They abolish childish.
wasteful competition and annihilats old
fOgy ideas of political economy. Great
wealth. hated today, paves the way for a
social system to be based on organization
and not on competition. Great wealth. a
mere tool in the hands Of the ahlest indus
trial leaders, prepares for the inevitable
day when national industry shall be nation
al property. when workingmen shall be self
respecting partners and not dissatisfied ser
wants. This is the painful, cramped period
Of CESSATION. The birth Of social organiza-
ton will come In due time.-Ex.
The New York Journal in the inter
val between elections Is . power for
good. The foregoing is an illustration
of the many strong arguments that ap-
pear in it's columns advocating govern
ment ownership. 1t has on its editorial
staff some Of our ablest reform writer's
but when a national election rolls around
it is found working for party and its
candidates, embracing the most corrupt
and Objectionable elements in American
politics.
The foregoing stops but little If any
short of Socialism Of the most radical
type. 1t advocates in unequivOcal lam
guage government ownership of the in
dustries. When all industry is owned
and operated by the public there is small
scope for private ownership.
The Representative has long advocat-
ed similar ideas, but at election time we
have been sufficiently consistent to work
for party and candidates who stood
for these things. w. J. Bryan is gen.
orally recognized as reformer so far In
advance of his party that half his party
deny his right to claim that he Is a
Democrat and over a million Populists
and Socialists voted for him because
they considered he was no longer a
Democrat
At last election the Journal was a
tiOns above referred to advocates moth
ing more radical than what he terms
publicity" and government license. +"
II Bryan, the most radical and ad-
vanced Democrat before the public, will
not indorse public ownership but falls
back upon the weak apologies of pub
licity" and license what credit can
the reading public give the Journal when
1t talks sense three years out of every
four and then deliberately repudiates
all it's teachings by supporting a party
and candidates opposed to the whole
scheme of public ownership?
II Bryan, Major Jones, Tom Johnson,
John P. Altgeld and the Hearst news
papers, Journal, Chicago American and
San Francisco paper would all together
cut loose from Eastern and Southern
Democracy in 1904 and work for such
adya4ecG reforms as the Journal here
advocates, we would see the most Inn
portant and decisive political battle this
country has ever witnessed. Reform
would be winner. Will they do this
Thousands of expectant and earnest re-
formers are watching anxiously for just
this kind of move. The nation is now
too large for any one man to become the
Moses for all its people. A combina-
tion of reformers is absolutely neces-
sary and their first act must be to re-
pudiate the old.