LIGHT of "SENIORITY" the Democratic Party Is Going to Have An- Country Wag the Progressive
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WILLIAM AND PROPRIETOR VOL. 12, NO. 51 Lincoln, Nebraska, December 27, 1912 Whole Number 623 It is generous in Thomas Fortune Ryan to forgive the democratic leaders for the rebuke administered to him by the Baltimore convention, but possibly the leaders whom he has forgiven are not --the ones who administered the rebuke. THE BLIGHT OF "SENIORITY" The democratic party is going to have an- country wag the progressive. Tho democratic SELECT COMMITTEES SHOULD victory of 1912 BE MADE other struggle in both senate and house over brings in another group of new i:P TO SUIT THE NEW CONGRESS. la democrats all of Thero tho committee assignments, and it is again them progressives. no good reason why hold-ove- rs on the ways and The progressive democrats threatened with the blight of seniority that is, will now be in tho means committee should consider thomsolvca majority in the senato caucus. Will they allow entitled, AS A MATTER QV RIGHT, to appoint- will be to put in- it asked the ambitions and a reactionary minority to man tho ship? Will ment on tho now committee. The democratic terests of individuals above the welfare of the they allow length of service to outweigh sym- caucus fhould feel free to select thiH comrnittoo party and the good of the country. The rule of pathy with the progressive cause? without regard to its present membership Just If it were a personal matter the new senators aft free as if seniority requires when a man is once put the committee was being nolectod that might prefer to yield to the older ones but a for the first time and from members entering upon a committee he shall be permitted to stay man who acts in a representative capacity is upon their first term. If a new congress is to there until he voluntarily withdraws, and ho not at liberty to bo courteous at the expense be bound by tho comrnittoo selections made by must be promoted as fast as those above him of his constituents. The democrats of the a former congress, the change in the ruloH will senate owe it to the party to make tho senate prove of doubtful advantage If fall out. entirely disregards spirit of tho rulo of It the organization represent tho prevailing sentiment seniority is to bo Invoked in behalf of tho re- democracy and violates the fundamental prin- of the party and thus enable it to work in har- appointment of those now on tho com- ciples of representative government. mony with the administration. To do this the mittee tho selection of committees should bo Take the United States senate, for instance. rule of seniority should be ignored. Assign- entrusted to a special committee whoso existence ments to committees should be made upon tho will cease when its work is done; and whether The democrats in the senate were, until two basis of fitness and with aview to giving faithful the right to recommend members for tho various years ago, largely of the reactionary type re- expression to the will of tho majority. No committees is conferred on tho wnys and means actionaries were in charge of all the important democrat is deserving of preferment who puts committee or upon a special committee, chosen positions allotted to the democrats. As a re- his personal interests above the general welfare. for the purpose, the caucus should feel free to sult of the democratic victory of 1910 a num- If our party is to earn a long lease of power it reject any recommendations made. ber of new democrats entered the senate must regard the rights of the people as para- Tho democratic party is pledged to tho doc-tri- no nearly all of them progressives. The reaction- mount. of representative government tho doctrino il aries insisted on retaining the leadership, al- The same rule ought to be applied in the of seniority is destructive of both tho theory and though it was apparent that the democracy of house. THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO tho practice of representative government. TOO MUCH POWER "President-elec- t Wilson's warning of a gibbet hundred stock brokers to prolong their saturna-lia- n Pro-gressIven- feast at the expense of public. esB Referring to Woodrow Wilson's notice to higher than Hainan's for the king of commerce the using his power to precipitate an artificial panic includes legislation which will pro- Wall street, the Denver Times says: "This during his administration is very Interesting. tect the public from both the pirates and the sounds plausible, but it will not do. A little Hainan, it will be remembered, was the man who gamblers of Wall street. over five years ago a 'bankers' panic' was forced built the gibbet for King Ahasueras from which was to swing, and if upon the a to Roosevelt and the melancholy Mordecai SAVING SENSE OP HUMOR nation as lesson Mordecai's comely adopted daughter, Esther, the gentle took Governor Wilson seems to have something of reader may remember what had not found such marked favor in the eyes Lincoln's sense of humor. lie often Illustrates place. Overnight the overlord of tho banking of the king it might have been even as planned, his ideas with a story. He was recently quoted world, J. Pierpont Morgan, was transmuted into but, lo, it fell out that Mordacal lived and Ha- as follows, in discussing cabinet positions: president-elec- says a hero, and more than Wall street acclaimed him inan died. The t ho fears "With respect to his cabinet, Governor Wil- the savior of the republic; and, incidentally, it nothing and nobody. That is all right, but he son said he had not made any final selections. may be stated that. Mr. Morgan has believed will find a few kings to deal with quite as At no time in his conversations with tho corres- himself the salvation of the nation a good many regnant in certain spheres as was this one who pondents who have been traveling with him con- times in the last forty years. When a panic ruled from India unto Ethopia and brooked de- stantly has he mentioned the name of a single comes the people forget their good resolu- fiance not even from his own queen. And what Individual as a possibility for his cabinet. de- sovereigns are not tions, and and bank is more, these Wall street "Governor Wilson said ho bo-fo-re banker and broker from realized that positor will seek cover with the politician. blown by the fickle winds of emotion deciding upon the personnel of his cabi- Equally as courageous a man as Mr. Wilson Vashti's to Hadassah's." net he would have to determine Just what typo under stress of circumstances made terms with If the situation is as bad as these papers de- of cabinet he would form. Ho recognizes two the enemy and helped to en'd the panic five years scribe it then it is certainly time for another types from a review of the manner In which his ago. Wo have reference to Colonel Roosevelt. Andrew Jackson. If the money trust has all the predecessors have met this question. Testimony from the money trust committee nower these newspapers say it has, then It has "One type is tho political cabinet constructed at Washington days is sufllcient to cause altogether too much power. For the reason from party material that must in a sense be re- these too much power star-gaze-rs to hold their believe it has garded to preserve party harmony. The mathematicians and that Americans they are other heads in wonderment, to say nothing of the plain and uses it against the public interests is characterized by Mr. Wilson as tho personal citizen Woodrow Wilson and to tho men cabinet, made up of men whose business fitness who can not think in .billions." sending to money trust On the same line tho Omaha Bee says: who are honestly investigating the is known to him personally and on whose words of encouragement. judgment he would like to lean. "Carefully steering the correspondents away from all questions of personnel, Governor Wil- THE MONEY TRUST son also declined to say which type of cabinet CONTENTS testimony now being given before tho he now prefers. He said he had written some The who years ago a magazine criticising committee will open the eyes of those article Presi- THE MONEY TRUST Svp "money trust" as a myth and dent Cleveland's cabinets, but he had not speci- - THE BLIGHT OF SENIORITY it as the "mouthing of deina- fically asked President Cleveland which type ho cSmof many of them reluc- - had found the most desirable. WOODROW WILSON'S WARNING eotiies " The witnesses, " types fan forced to admit the existence of 'The two of cabinet,' he said, 'remind CHEERS FOR THE PRESIDENT-ELEC- T ones, are mo of a question I was once discussing hichBhocKB the moral sense of the with THE BEST GIFT a condition Dr. James McCosh, president of Princeton CONGRESS RAIL- the hold of this tyran-oi- K in the late SO'r. We were speaking of tho WILL ACT ON BIG are unable tobreak., types ROAD EXPOSURE ought to be grateful to two of teachers the one who tried to n,ICal oftide for7 the release that is sure reach the average Intelligence of the class and J. PIERPONT MORGAN'S TESTIMONY people who to the 01 ,nve8tigatIon. The the other, catered the most intelligent HOME DEPARTMENT to come as a result and let tho rank and file get along as best they will not n n WHETHER COMMON OR NOT people or blackhand methods could.