Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-02-09

While this spirit of the book would
not today appeal to very many persons,
in the elaboration Of his subject Gen.
eral Weaver gave a mass OF facts
which will continue to be deeply In
teresting to all who want to under
stand the political developments of the
last quarter century.
General Weavers first chapter was
on the United States senate and he de-
clared that it's leading members during
the war and reconstruction period ARE
chiefly responsible for the unconscion-
able acts of legislation which have
cursed the nation for over quarter
of century and which, if not speedily
corrected, are likely to precipitate
tragic revolution" 1t was here that
General Weaver described the stand
patters for the first time.
The corporations and special inter-
ests of every class created during the
past twenty five years by various
species of class legislation and ia
voritism, have grown rich and power
full. They are now pleading to be let
alone. They cry out, You will disturb
the peace, unsettle business and Vio-
late our vested constitutional rights
The world has heard similar lamenta
tons before. The same spirit has
lurked in the pathway Of progress and
Kissed it's sinister protests from behind
the constitution and from beneath the
very affairs of holy religion, from the
beginning until now"
He described the senate as an
august body literally filled with splen-
did specimens of a by-gone epoch
men whose only mission is to pre-
serve the old order of things-to guard
the embalmed corpse of the past from
the touch of the profane reformer."
This was written twenty years ago.
General Weaver had direct and
simple remedy for what allied the SEN
ate. It was constitutional amend
ment providing for election of senators
by direct vote Of the people. and until
this could be done the public nomin-
alton Of senators and publicly pledg-
ing the legislative candidates to vote
for such nominees" This is the Iowa
primary plan.
His chapter on the speaker of the
house contained the story of his re-
markable contest with Speaker Ran
consideration Of resolution regarding
the money question.
In his chapter on the supreme court
General Weaver asked: why should
the judiciary to today be exempted
from elective control or hold tn 2ir po-
sitions for life?" And again, How
strange that just at the point where
we lodge the greatest power we should
10
who are the embodiment of sovereign
~ and the fountain of all authority"
The corporation control Of the supreme
court was pointed out by General
Weaver and he presented a brief COW
ering scores Of cases showing what
had been done by the court not in the
interest Of the people. In referring
to corporations and trusts he said:
Men and women, not corporations.
are the glory Of the state. 1t ts man,
not the trust, who hastens to the de-
Tense of society when it is imperiled.
Owing to the disposition of man to
transgress every obligation of the
decalogue the span of his life has been
cut short by his Creator. But our
governments, state and national, have
been dealing out legal Immortality and
immutab ility by the wholesale. They
have created thousands Of corpora
lions on every hand and endowed
them with perpetual succession. They
have clothed them with all the power
belonging to ordinary mortals. These ar
tifcial beings have the infirmities Of
avarice but are without the restrain
ing virtue of conscience In every
conflict flesh and blood go down be-
fore them like grass before the scythe.
With the certainty Of life given them.
the fear Of death taken away and
with millions Of wealth at their COM
mand to what may they not aspire"
General Weaver presented in this
book his remedy for the evils Of mon
opoly by trusts and combines.
1.-THE states should pass stringent
penal statutes which will visit per-
sonal responsibility upon all agents
and representatives OF the trust who
aid or assist in the transaction OF Its
business within the state The gen.
eral government, thru it's power to
Law and collect taxes, should place an
excise or internal revenue tax OF from
% to 40 per cent on all manufacturing
plants, goods. wares or merchandise
of whatever kind and wherever found
when owned or controlled in the IN
tereyt of such combines or associations
and this tax should be asf'rst lien upon
such property until the tax Is paid"
The chapters Of the book devoted to
financial questions and to considera-
ton OF the waste of the public do
main are equally filed with interesting
material.
Gen. James B. Weaver. as an asitator
and an insurgent, stirred congressional
circles as never before. He tore on
great many masks. He exposed wrongs
wherever they could be found Men
of today will not agree that his rem
ed,es were good: but they know that
he was looking at actual wrongs and
was able to detect and to expose III
justice.
It has often been said OF him that he
left the republican party because OF MS
defeat for nomination for governor
This is hardly fair, as those who know
him best assert. There were other
reasons He went into congress really
as an Independent, and soon Demon
strated his great power in debate 1t
was in the campaign of 1880 that ne
rose to his highest point OF efficiency
as political leader. The writer recalls
hearing him in that campaign when ne
stood up In q wagon beneath q big
tree surrounded by 10000 farmers, some