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About The alliance. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1889-1889 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1889)
THE ALLIANCE. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORNING. UY THE ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO. BOH ANNAN BLOCK, Lincoln, - - - Nebraska. J. BURROWS, : J, M. THOMPSON, : .. Editor. Associate Editor. AH communications for the paper should no addressed to T1IK ALLIANCE PUBLISH ING CO., and all matters pertaining to the Farmers' Alliance, Ineluditg subscriptions to the papc. to the Secretary. ; Notice to Subscribers. i X PI RATIONS. As the easiest und cheapest means or noti fying subscribers of the date of their expira tions we will mark this notice with a blue or red pencil, on the date at which their sub scription expires. We will send the paper two week alter expiration. Jf not renewed by that time it will be discontinued. EDITORIAL. THE ELECTION. "Elections were held Tuesday in nine states,. Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, Iowa. Mississippi and Massachusetts to elect governors, while minor offices were to be filW in New York, Nebraska and Maryland. Of Uie.se Ohio, Iowa, New York, New Jersey and Virginia, have gone Democratic. Pennsylvania, Massachu setts and Nebraska 'nave gone republi can, but by greatly reduced majorities. .This remarkable result will be ex plained in a very different manner by the partisan press according to the partisan, bias of the writer. The loss of Iowa, a great republican stronghold, will be attributed to prohibition; that of Virginia to Mahonism; that of New- York to the personal influence of Gov. Hill. The general fact thi.t the republican promises of hist year have not been ful filled, that hard times remain and are intensified, and that the people see no prospect of relief through republican rule, will account largely for the stam pede. The st owing conviction that pro tection protects only capital and not la bor, may be another reason. But to fly from republicanism to de mocracy in the hope of relief is to avoid Charybdis to be wrecked on ocyna. With no change on financial policy of fered, and only 8 per cent relief on tar iff, would seem to be too thin bait even for gudgeons. The loss of Iowa shows a continued objection of the farmers of that state to corporation rule. The railroads pro posed to regain through Hutchinson what they had lost through Larrabee. 'lothe Alliance belongs the honor of .their checkmate. Ti.,,.ni!lf in Xfiln-.iilr:. i ji siirnrisp j. ... "'Til . tfia tw rw.-rnriivol nn. U J i.y unt. . - position to . the railroad crowd. If the pipn-ipnt thatt was outraged by the purchase of the votes that nomina ted Norval had bolted and nominated Ilecte.Norval would have been defeated. 13ut the depth of infamy a Nebraska re publican convention will submit to is beyond human ken. The dissatisfied clement had nowhere to go, and simply reduced the vote by staying at home, without changing the result. We have now an ex-li. & M. attorney for one of our Supreme Judges. In the Second district of course the result is not a surprise. As in the stale, there was no organized opposi tion by the disaffected republican ele ment. It woi'LD not rally to the dem ocrats, and could not rally anywhere else. So the B. & M. sends another corporation capper to congress, and the people and farmers of that district go unrepresented. Vive La Felt lis! Vive La Ilicprr.LHjUE! As we close our forms a dispatch reaches us saying that the entire people's ticket of Custer Co. is elected. "FAKE STATISTICS. ' ' That nio.iopoiy organ the Lincoln Tonvii-il i:i U 5-;er of ( )ef"ohi'V Jit ilfitic a lion's skin, and wltii all its parts ex cept its ears hidden,' makes a brave as sault upon the. far-famed Alliance me morial or rather upon that single allu sion in it to the mortgage debt of Ne braska. No pa per that lias been issued in many years has created so much of a stir as this memorial; 'out it is noticea ble that the monopoly press, while try ing to throw discredit upon it by deny ing its statements about -farm mort gages; have "uniformly failed to publish it, and have failed to combat any eco nomic proposition contained in it. The Journal article contains almost as many misstatements as it does sentences. It says: "That memorial represented that Nebraska farms were mortgaged to the extent of $150,000,000." The fact is, the memorial alluded to the "farm mortgages' as amounting to $150,000, 000, and the memorialists included mortgages on farmers' chattels as farm mortgages, as they properly are. Nmv it has not been shown, and cannot be. that this is a high figure, even for the land mortgages. The Bee, in trying to ligure these mortgages down, admitted the existence of $00,000,000 . of land mortgages. The amount of chattel mortgages must remain unknown;" but the fact of chattel mortgage sales tak ing place weekly in nearly every county seat is patent to every man who knows anything. The Jomiial says, "similar memorials ' 'were prepared in several other states, "and all were characterized by similar ' 'stateme nt3 relative to , farm mort gages." ,; We quote the above to show just the reliability of the Journal's statements. The fact is. no similar memorial was the "editor of the Journal to produce ;one; r 'jl; " y: : ' . '"-';'." . The Journal says, -."where the figures came from was not at first known." No. And it does not appear to be known now to the erudite editor of the Jour- sal. We will enlighten him. 1 he esti mates were first made up from the re cords of the great loan and insurance companies of Hartford. The name of the gentleman who compiled them can be found by the editor by referring to the Cong. Record for May 8th, 1888. A short time previous to that date Senator Reagan of Texas embodied them in a speech in the U. S. Senate, and a week or so later Senator Stewart, of Nevada, did the same thing. The figures had been twice printed in the Record, and were common property of the public before the Alliance alluded to them. But not until they were published by the Alliance, and had been sent to con gress by a fool committee of the Ne braska legislature, and presented to the senate by Senator Manderson, in a speech alluding to the memorial as "a very important subject," did the brass collared brigade, headed by the Jour nal, say anything about them; and then only to abuse the Alliance, and slobber their tilth all over Mr. Burrows for presuming to publish such a slanderous statement about Nebraska, thinking as they did in their ignorance that the Al liance and Mr. B. had originated the figures. After trying to show that the stated mortgage debt corresponded with the assessed valuation of the' farms, the .Journal says: "in otner Avoids it was 'made to ' appear that financiers had "loaned more money upon farms than the amount of their assessed valuation. wen: n ignorance oy me editor or a would-be great paper can be any denser than this, we would like to know it. The editor can step over to the court house and find the -assessment rolls and the mortgage records side by side; and we will wager a new hat that he can find farms in every precinct in Lancaster county mortgaged for more than their assessed valuation; and we will make the same wager for e very county in the stale. The fact is, this editor is so absorbed in obeying the or ders of his corporation task-masters that lie has no time to learn anything about the condition of the farmers of this state. The Journal says: "Commissioner Jenkins declares that "time and again he has asked the mem "hers of the Farmers' Alliance to fur "nish the source from which those lig "ures were taken, but in each case his "request has been refused." This is another sample of loose state ment. We do not believe Mr. Jenkins ever made any such declaration; though how many- "members" of the Alliance he knows we are unable to sav. Mr. Jenkins has never asked the officers of the Alliance for any information about the memorial. He applied for lists of secretaries of the subordinate Alliances, and for nothing else. Again it says: "Further than this Mr. Jenkins says "that not more than one sixth of the "mortgages recorded are genuine that "is ate an incumbrance upon the farms." We are not prepared to deny that Mr. Jenkins said that; but if he did well, we have no quarrel with Mr. Jenkins. He is one of our subscribers. But is any sane man prepared to believe that live-sixths of the men who have put mortgages upon their farms are such silly fool as to pay them off and not re cord a release, thus leaving a clouded title? No answer needed. Again "Another class of mortgages is enti tled to careful consideration. A man may save a small sum of money, pur chase a farm, make a payment and give a mortgage? to secure the balance. Mr. Jenkins thinks such a step is not an in dication of distress but of thrift." The above is . altogether a matter of opinion excel' t to the man who gives the mortgage. With him it is a stern fact. It is something new in the ethics of finance, however, that compulsory debt is an evidence of thrift. The com plaint of the .Alliance memorial was that "the volume of the currency fur "nished by the government is insufii "eient to transact the business of the "country upon a cash basis, and tlie "people are therefore forced to do it "upon a credit basis." This is the pri mary fact which places the farmers and laborers of this country at the mercy of the money lenders and not the farmers and laborers alone, but all business men who are forced to borrow money. The system is an "evidence of thrift" on the part of those who uphold it and profit by it. That some men, by energy, perseverance, industry and frugality, sometimes succeed in spite of the sys tem, and under the load it imposes, il lustrates the capacity of human-nat ure; but does not furnish an argument for a financial system that is in tlie last de gree oppressive and tyrannical. After all is said, Ave could concede what Ave do not, that the current state ment as to Nebraska mortgages is some millions too high,, and the money-monopoly tools would gain nothing. The object of money is to effect the exchange of commodities, not to compel the peo ple to sacrifice nine-tenths of the net fruits of their industry to pay for its use l lie result ot an "insufficient vol ume of money" named by the memorial may be illustrated by two facts. In 1865 Ave paid 130 millions of interest, but it only took 58 million bushels of wheat, or 10 million bushels of corn to pay it. In 1880 Ave paid only 87 millions of interest, but it took 87 million bushels of wheat, or 201 million bushels of com to pay it. Connect this with the preg nant sentence in the memorial: "The "power to fix values, and the power to "accumulate by interest, are the quali "ties which give 'money control over la "bor and production, and enable the "money-lenders to accumulate in their "hands the greatest share of produced "Avealth." The Omaha Real Estate Exchange is rejuvenated. A great fall of real estate has taken place. Inside property ten miles from city hall can how be had as Ioav as fifteen .thousand dollars a front foot. -.' WHO OWN THE UNITED STATES. V The Limitation of Wealth. In the November E ormn is an article by Thos. G. Shearman, entitled, "Ihe Owners of the Country," which seems to l)c an elaboration of an article on the same subject in the Forum for Septem ber, an extract from which we pub lished, some weeks ago. The statistics of wealth presented oy the last article are quite interesting. It gives seventy names which represent an aggregate wealth of $2,700,000,000. The writer says he has information of thirty other persons Avorth $450,000,000, making one hundred persons worth over $3,000,- 000,000. Comparisons are made be- t ween the individual -.wealth of this country and England, which show that the accumulation in this country has been much more rapid than in that, and that the contraction of. wealth in few hands is much greater here than there. Calculated on the basis of the Boston tax returns, it is shown that 40,000 per sons oAvn half of the wealth of the coun try. Deductions made from these and English statistics, show that 200,000 persons own 70 per cent of our total Avealth, Avhile 250,000 persons own 80 per cent of the Avhole. The writer concludes that without any doubt there has been a vastly great er accumulation of Avealth in feAV hands in this country in the past twenty-five .years, than in any other. He says "in no other country, and least of all in England, during the last thirty years, has the burden of taxation been cast so exclusively upon the Avorking class, or the machinery of taxation been used so unscrupulously for private profit." Mr. Shearman confines his article to a revicAV of the facts, and does not at tempt to present a remedy; but he ex pressly states that he is "opposed, on principle, to all schemes for arbitrary limitations of individual wealth, Avheth er by a graduated income tax, a heavy succession tax, or otherwise." We have given this brief revieAv of the facts and conclusions of Mr. Shear man's article to reach the point which he may consider hereafter, viz: the remedy. We stand on the same ground as Mr. Shearman as to schemes for the limitation of individual Avealth, A-ith some reserA ations as to the character of the Avealth, and the means for its accu mulation. If any general logical de duction can be made from Mr. Shear man's facts, it is that this concentration of Avealth must be stopped, "or Avithin thirty years the United States Avill be owned by less than 50,000 persons." The first question is, how is it to be stopped? In answering this the r ext query which arises is, of Avhat do the accumulations consist, and liow are they made? Do they consist of Avealth created by labor, or Avealth created by law? It is neces sary to a correct understanding of this subject to keep this question doAvn to its simplest terms. It is certain that there should be no limititation put upon wealth Avhich results from human in dustry, while it is equally certain that there may properly be put a sharp lim itation upon wealth Avhich is the result of "indirect taxation imposed through privileges and franchises granted by laAV. The least reflection Avill show that these accumulations are not the fruits of legitimate industry. Such enormous aggregations could not be possessed, oi held, or stored, in any form of Avealth created by labor. They exist only in representative forms Avhich enable their possessors to exercise the poA-er of in direct taxation, and thus continually absorb the fruit of labor as it is created, Avhich they immediately transform into some of those representative forms en dowed with the same taxing poAver. What are those forms Avhich are so potently endowed? Avho created and endoAved them? and may their creator and bestOAver resume them? In the cor rect answer to these questions Avill be found the correct solution of the pro blem . The forms are franchises for banks, railroads of all kinds, gas companies, electric light companies, express and telegraph companies, Avator companies and privileges, bonds, U. S., state and municipal, and every form of franchise and privilege Avhicli is created by the community, defined by law, and by law granted to individuals or corporations. These franchises all carry Avith them the power to tax. In granting them the community has alienated the im mense wealth a hich Avas alone created by itself, and has at the same time shared its right of eminent domain, as expressed in the taxing poAver, Avith the grantees, who have thus acquired by all odds the lion's share of that poAver. Added to the grants of franchises is the right to monopolize land for specula tive purposes, and ultimately for rent, and the control of mines. The greatest of the poAA'crsthus grant ed by laAV, in its control over created Avealth, is expressed by interest, the next greatest by rent. These two fac tors absorb the largest part of created Avealth. Few people realize the accu mulative power of interest. We give below a table from the Mercantile Jour nal of the accumulation of $1 for 100 years, compounded annually, at differ ent rates: . $1 at 3 per cent, - 10 76 lat 6 " - 340 00 1 at " - - 5,543 00 1 at 13 " - - - 84,675 00 lat 15 " - - - 1.174,405 00 lat 18 " - - - , 15,145,007 00 1 at 24 " - - - - 2,551,599,404 00 Taking the total debt of the country at $30,000,000,000, at G per cent interest, which is far beloAV the average, in twen ty years the accumulation would amount !o $120,214,080,000. Add to this the net income from all kinds of franchises, from mines and from rents, which can only be imagined, as statistics are un obtainable, and some idea may be formed of the rapidity of the transfer of created Avealth to the possession, of those who control the franchises Avhich haA'e been granted by the government, ami the taxing power arising from them. Money being the comprehensiA e form of wealth, or a representative of all wealth, interest becomes the controll ing factor of distribution; that is, inter est fixes the ratio of the other factors. Therefore if the people can control this factor they can centrol all. Can they control it? We 'unhesitatingly answer yes. If money Avas composed only of the precious metals, and coinage Avas not limited by law, money would lx? a natural product. The natural laAV of in terest Avould then be operative. Interest AA-olild be determined by the volume of money as compared with products. But many kinds of money are issued by governments besides the precious met als, and the coinage of these are re stricted. So ifcomes about that inter est is determined by municipal instead of natural law, as municipal law deter mines the volume of coin and other money, and fixes legal limitations upon interest. V olume determines purchas ing power, or priee purchasing poAver determines accumulating poAver, or the proportion of product which money will command. So in the laAvs Avhich deter mine the volume of money the people have the power of redress from the evil of this rapid accumulation of wealth in the hands of a fenv people. While space does not permit us noAV to consider the other factors of distribu tion our argument thus far ansAvers the questions avc haA-e asked, and offers a logical solution" of the ..problem present ed by Mr. Shearman. ' The power to issue money is an inherent sovereign power, and embraces the poAver to reg ulate its volume and fix its A'alue. The A alue of franchises is a value created by the community collectively. They be long to the community, and their reve nues may be held and used by the com munity. The land and all mines belong to the community, and possession of them for public uses may be resumed at any time. So tlte natural and only remedy for the dangerous condition portrayed by Mr. Shearman lies in the resumption by the people of the special privileges and franchises which give to their possessors the power to tax. A relief from taxation, as AA-ell as an equal ization of its burdens, Avill come from the use of the proper revenue of fian- ehises for public purposes. Decrease of Population in Kansas. The report of the Kansas state board of agriculture for the months of August and September, 1889, contains the fol- loAving remarkable statement: "The population of Kansas, as re turned by the assessors one year ago, was 1,518,552; for this year the same re turns make the population of the state 1,464,014, a loss of 53,638, or 3.V per cent." The board attributes this unusual fall ing off of population to an excessive ac cumulation of people in the cities and toAvns during the boom period. The booms haA'ing collapsed, the inference is that the people have returned Avhenee they came, or sought ncAv fields of spec ulation. The Omaha World-Herald at tributes the loss to prohibition. Be cause the saloons are closed the people are leaving the state. The Bee attribu ted the bank failures to prohibition. If an epidemic of cholera or small-pox should break out in Kansas these pa pers Avould also attribute that to prohi bition. It used to be traditional that tlie brain and muscle of the average Arkansan Avas developed, on "pork, pone and Avhiskey," and that with him Avhiskey was an indispensable article of diet. But not so in Kansas. The infu sion of puritan blood Avhen that region Avas settled A ery sensibly tempered the Avhiskey appetite; and all the ills that may now or hereafter atliiet that state are not to be laid to prohibition. While the board of agriculture? may be partly right in its explanation, it is probably true that the greatest causes of the de crease of Kansas population are short crops and dear money. For seyeral years previous to the present one the state has been afflicted Avith drouths Avhich have greatly impoverished her producers. Debts and mortgages have been the legitimate result. Parallel with this, contraction of the currency has gone forward, continually loAvering prices of products and property. Thus in both, ways the farmers of Kansas have been scathed their products less ened and their purchasing poAver di minished. This has paralyzed them, and of course the reflex effect is felt by the citizens of the toAvns. Without the country trade they. must leave. Thous ands of Kansas farms have been aban doned, and of course the business that has no basis except the production of those farms must also be abandoned Iu these causes may be found the de cadence of Kansas population; and not iu prohibition.' Chairman Cooley's Letter. Chairman Cooley's letter, published in another column, is worthy of special attention. Its allusion to "the consid erable number of persons improperly carried free" is peculiarly pat. The muzzling of the press through the agency of practically free transports tion is not generally appreciated by the people as it should be. Every paper that carries railroad advertising is prac tieally controlled in the interest of the railroads. The editor is a jumping-jack who performs his antics as the freight agent or president pulls the string Look at the number of papers Avhich carry railroad advertisements and the extent of this evil may be imagined Three important facts bear upon this: 1st, the roads pay little or no money for advertising; 2nd, they gain little or no business by it, each road command ing the business that naturally belongs to it; 3rd, the contracts 'on which these advertisements are taken are termina ble at the pleasure of tlie roads. This advertising business is used as a great engine for controlling the press of the country. . The people who ' pay . their fares see the liberty of their press de stroyed, and at the same time pay the bill. 1 Public opinion ought to make it disreputable to ride free on a railroad. OVERPRODUCTION. Superficial thinkers are apt to mistake symptoms of a disease for the disease. They attribute to an effect the potency of a cause, overlooking the cause itself. Thii3 in the regular recurring cycles of financial distress caused by the specie basis system of money the cry of over production is ahvays raised. This cry is ahvays accompanied by Ioav prices all along the line, but especially Ioav prices of farm products; and the unfailing con dition precedent of this situation is a diminishing volume of money. contraction of this volume produces low prices, and low prices produces the apparent overproduction. As an eco nomic fact' overreduction is not on ly a paradox, but it is impossible. Production is the constant effort of all mankind. It is the natural result of the human instinct of self-help the one power which raises man pre-eminent oA-er the brute creation. Its result is the accumulation of capital, and the in crease of the power to gratify ever-increasing human desires. These desires always luue, and always will, keep in advance of production. Overproduction means that all the desires of men have been gratified, and that there is a re maining surplus of the means to gratify them. This condition has never been reached, and never Avill be. But a con dition resembling it in one feature is pro duced by a long continued shrinkage of values and falling prices. This condition is an apparent oA'er-supply or unused pro duct. The other indispensable feature of overproduction, viz: a condition in which all wants are gratified, is not on ly entirely lacking in such times, but the opposite condition is the existing one. in v times or tins apparent over supply, accompanied by, falling values and Ioav prices, men's Avants and needs are less supplied than in any other times. In such times want invades thousands of homes, tramps multiply, business stagnates, debt accumulates, failures increase, insanity and suicide become common. If Ave take the statist!"s relating to agricultural products, says the Econo mist, and consider them simply as sta tistics, the results seem to prove an overproduction, but the moment Ave consider them in the light of an under consumption the true condition is dis covered at once. In 18G7, 65,636,000 acres in cultivation produced 1,329,720, 000 bushels of all kinds of grain, which sold for $1,284,000,000; while in 1887, twenty years subsequent, 141,821,000 acres produced 2,660,457,000 bushels, which sold for only $1,204,289,000. That is, the products of 1867 from less than one-half as many acres and half the amount, brought the farmer $70,711,000 more. It is impossible to charge this wholesale destruction of values to OA'er production. It was a Avant of ability to purchase, caused by a shrinking volume of currency, and nothing else. In 1867 Ave had $52 per capita of money and in 1887 avc had less than $7. Let us go to the figures and amounts themselves and ascertain how much this alleged overproduction was. Work ing from the rule that this surplus is sent abroad, Ave find that in 1888 avc ex ported in all, of beef, pork, and dairy products, 1.132,000,000 pounds. 120,000, 000 bushels of ay heat and flour (reduced to bushels), and that our whole exports amounted to $683,000,000. Had the 65, 000,000 of our people consumed each day that year more than they did con sume, one ounce of meat, it Avould have taken 1,470,030,000 pounds, 338,000,000 pounds more than Avas exported. If they had consumed four ounces of flour each day it Avould have required 148,280,000 bushels of wheat,- 28,280,000 bushels more than Avas exported. If they had expended 3 cents each day for products in excess of Avhat they did ex pend, they Avould have bought $711, 750, 000, or nearly $20,000,000 more than was expended. Does any one doubt that our people could have consumed one ounce of meat or four ounces of flour each day more than they did? Go among the alleys, the by-Avays, and alms-houses, and Ik' taught better. Could Ave not have expended three cents each day for the comforts or nec essaries of life more than aac did? Stand on the street corner and notice the croAvds as they pass by, and receive the ansAver. Where there is a demand there is no oAerproduetion. And the fact that the ability to supply that de mand does not exist does not alter the case. If overproduction existed its only cure Avould lie to cease labor, cease pro duction. The cure for inability to sup ply demand, lies in another direction. If contraction of money volume depress es prices, expansion of money volume Avill increase prices. In the application of this economic law Avill be found not only the cure for so-called overproduc tion, but for the hard times that now beset us as well. ' Conquest by Free Trade. Toronto, Can., Daily Globe. We are sapiently told by one of Sir John's protectionist premier city or gans that the establishment of continen tal free trade Avould be equixalent to the conquest of Canada bythe states. Why not to the conquest of the states by Canada? The whole republic would, in fact, become ours by unrestricted reciprocity just as much as though avc had killed all Uncle Sam's forces, and put garrisons in .New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Charleston, Philadelphia, and every other city or toAvn of note. Nay, it would be more truly ours by fvee trade than by conquest. Did Ave overrun the republic with the governor general's body guards our neighbors would be as much annoyed as surprised. They would not then buy freely from us. Their guerillas would try to cap ture without paying for those immense herds of Canadian cattle, horses and sheep that American consumers will buy, Avhen avc havet free trade Avith them, at prices twenty per cent higher than our people get now. Surely all rational beings must perceive that a Canadian conquest of the states would . ...ptii-ip more not give Canadians on f. - -profit than continental free trade, but would put them to huge expenses in niiint-linini? thir posiiiou. vu iiiu whole we had better not suujugaie our neichbors ws"l""' nvuKi v is so plain that we can gain all the ad vantages of subjugating them, and a great many more, by an untaxed ex change of commodities. The novel doctrine that free trade be tween tAvo countries is equivalent to conquest of one by the other tends to some curious conclusions. For instance, Ontario has conquered Quebec, and Quebec has conquered Ontario. Mani toba has conquered Nova Scotia, and British Columbia lias conquered the Avhole confederation. Were an impe rial zolverin established. Canada would have conquered Great Britain, Austra lia and all the other parties to the com pact. Again, the doctrine that free trade in all things is equivalent to con quest has this corollary: Free trade in some things is equivalent to 'partial conquest. AVe have therefore obtained a considerable victory and an undivided interest in the whole .territory of the whole United States people by selling untaxed eggs. They -have conquered considerable, though unspecified and unmapped, possessions in the dominion by selling us untaxed cream of tartar. In accordance Avith these enlightened premises it may be logically argued that Canada's conquest of the States, and the states' conquest of Canada, are in strict proportion to the values of the interna tional exchanges of free and dutiable goods. If this be not incorrect, Ave have been almost half conquered by our neighbors, for they send us annually about $21,384,168 of goods Avhich Ave do not tax, and about $27,097,680 Avorth of goods which' we do tax. Equally, of course, avc have about half conquered them by sending them free aud dutia ble goods in something the same pro portions. Just here the important con-, sideration comes in that our conquerors, who thus appear to own an undivided half interest in Canada, ha-e no repre sentative either dominion or provin cial. Nor have Ave, after half con quering them, any representative in their congress. t Isn't this very remark aide? Doesn't it point straight to the conclusion that if Ave AvholJy subdue them by continental free trade, and they Avholly subdue us thus absorbing each other as the Iavo snakes did that SAvalloAved one another from the tails avc need not haA-e a common legislature, and, therefore, each country would re tain as much independence as it has now? This seems at first a queer con clusion from the acceptance of our lory contemporary's novel doctrine, but avc are sure it is a correct one, and avc hope, at least, that all logicians will combine in a certificate that Ave haA-e reasoned as soundly as possible upon this very intricate, strange and perplex ing subject. . Consolidation of Wealth in the U. S. and in England. - From Mr. Shearman's article in tlie Forum entitled "Who " owns this Coun try?" avc make the following significant extracts: - In Great Uritain, although indirect taxation still constitutes the greatest part of the pub lic revenue, a large sharo of direct taxation bus been maintained, and, ns far as possible, nil tribute levied by the rich upou the poor, under the pretense of taxation, lias been abolished. The natural consequence fs that the disproportion between the rich and the poor In Great fJrita5u is less to-day than It was forty years ago; that Avealth is more widely distributed; that the middle class is much more numerous, and that the masses arc rapidly gaining: in power and Influence. In America the drift has been in precisely the opposite direction. Federal taxation has increased six fold since 1800, and the whole, of this increase has been taken out of the rela tively poorer classes. At the same time, the profit which is secured to the wealthier class es, by the adjustment of indire ct taxation in their interest has been increased not less than tenfold. - Mr. Shearman is an enthusiastic advo cate of the single tax. With Mr. George he probably attributes the great irregu larity of wealth in this country to the monopoly of land, or the natural oppor tunity to labor. How he can reconcile this view with the conditions he tie scribes as existeng in this country and England, it is difficult to conceive. Here land has been comparatively free. Un til Avithin a feAV years a fertile home stead of 160 acres could be had for the taking. In England, on the contrary, land has been monopolized for several hundred years to an extent unknown iu any other country. And yet "the dis proportion between the rich and the poor in Great Britian is less to-day than it Avas forty years ago," etc. We should like to hear from Mr. Shearman. The Independent Voter. Harper's Weekly. independence is simply the attitude of a voter who uses parties instead of suffering them to use him. He is so far from denying their value or their neces sity in a free government that he makes the utmost use of them at every elec tion. But he does not admit that, in order to use a party effectively, a voter must become its slave. That, indeed, is the spirit of party which honorable and self-respecting men who use all parties will constantly withstand. Un doubtedly surrender of independence is the condition of official honors from party. But it is conceivable that from temperament or some other reason some men may prefer not to pay that price. Party requires unwavering obe dience to all its behests. Its candidates must be always supported. Its meas ures must always be advocated. Tlie misconduct of its chosen representatives must be extenuated, upon the ground that every man is fallible and no party is perfect, but that, on the whole, the party of the partisan who pleads is very much better than the other. It is po litical independence, the action of voters who have uo other object than honest and able government, and the enforce ment of certain poltcies,which restrains parties from dangerous excess. Mr. Conkling used to say that he despised those who belonged to a party a little. But it is such independent Americans who make parties useful public agen cies. Ax effort is to be made on Nov. 13th at Chicago to make a neAv platform find name for the Union Labor party. We warn these people that the public is ready for only three great planks, namely: Land, -Joney and Transpor tation, and any movement which un dertakes more is foredoomed to defeat and derision. Let us have no more "lumber yard" platforms. WANTED A MAN! The crying need of the hour is more personal integrity, more honor, more manhood, more principle. It is :i fact that in this day of grand material pro gressin this day of churches, and schools, and steam and electricityno business is dono upon honor. Business is done upon security. A man is only trusted upon a contract if he is "good" or offers "good" security. "(Hood" means that he has collectable assets that can le. reached by laAV. Speak of this to a business man, and he will re ply, "O, that's all very Avell, but busi ness is business." "Business," in gen eral estimation, is something separate and distinct from ordinary manhood something to which a code not founded upon honor, but solely on assets, is ap plicable. The underlying principle of this code is based on money is greed. The possession of wealth has become the touchstone of modern life. It has become the open sesame to the cavern Avherelie hidden all treasures respect, honor, position, political power, love;- al ft hose and more await tlie men a ho can can command the magic talisman. So, men destitute of all of them, and Avho could command none of them in any other way, seek thenv through Avealth and Avealth alone. The de moralization resulting from this condi tion is incalculable, unnamable. The thief Avho steals a horse avc semi to the penitentiary or hang; the thief who by vile practices of so-called "business," by slock -jobbing or corners, steals a million, Ave laud as a Napoleon of finance. The doors of society are closed against the honest man with a thread bare coat; the doors of our aristocratic churches sAving on silver hinges to the banker prince Avhose hoard comes from usury and oppression. Education, pure morals, a noble life spent in aiding fellow-men, high scientific attainments, are, no keys to good society. It doors are only open to the successful accumu lator of Avealth and no questions asked. An age of gold, of great material pro gress; but alas, also an age of the de cadence of morals, of honor, of states manship, of poetry, of art. This is the record avc are making for history. Wanted, a Man! "A man who the truth avIH speak, Shorn of all doubt ; "Who, when justice the truth Avould seek. Dares to spealc out. A man who with purpose grnnd. Strong in his might, Will always for honor stand, And die for the right." IN PRINT AT LAST. Nkw Yokk, Nov. 2. The agreement between the Union Pacific and Chicago & North Avestorn railroads, signed hy Presidents Adams and Hughitt October 18, has been put in print at last. It provides that a joint through line for passengers and freight shall be estab lished between all stations on their re spective lines, and that the point through which the same shall pass Khali be Council Bluffs. It is to be adver tised and known as the Chicago, Uniou Pacific r Northwestern.- A joint through passenger service i to be undertaken as soon as ehhor party if i - w' , -wh4if.fi fif f n Vf .j f 1 i ii . ttjw' if. .i .i 1 ,1 1 1 1 1...WV1. ..1. 1111111111. ,w the service, and each party to be fur nished its proper proportion" of equip ment. The Northwestern is to make rates on all joint business west bound, and the Union Pacific is to make east bound rates, but the rates are not to l reduced unless such aciion is found necessary iu order to meet ih' competi tion of other lines. All questions arising out of the opera tion of this contract are to be tettled by an arbitration-committee made, up of. .the two presidents, one director from each of the two boards, and a fifth per- son io oe seiecr.eu ny me oireciors. . At points competitive between the Uniou Pacific and Northwestern lines, the traffic is to be divided as nearly as possible in pro portion to the earning. Any changes that may be made in th division ot rates, either by agreement or by arbitration are to continue in force for six months from the time tin? change is made. The agreement took effect" yesterday and is to continue for ten years. Sini'i ilar contracts are being made between the Omaha & Republican Valley, Chi cago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha and the Union Pacific, tlie connecting noint to be Sioux City, ami the joint lines to be known as the L;ike Superior, St. Paul & Union Pacific line. If an agreement by Avhich two m-hh-rate roads each agree to be bound by rates made by the other, and to equally divide earnings at conipetitie points. is not a pool within the inter-stafe hv, we would like to know what it is. r" Tribute to a Leading Democrat. Eloquent as the Hon. William' Scptt has been as the champion hi people ground down by monoiolies robbed and oppressed by corpora avarice, he was far more eloquent truthful when he wrote to the presi of the New lork Central railr Send me a free pass to help me out my district. 1 am a democrat and J are a republican, but wo are both ot first of all for the coriorations. li get back to congress you will kit 1 where my heart really is: and be 4 that on any question affecting yourc poration my vote will go where it v do the most good' The Hon. Willi Ii. bcott may not be liable to convict; under Section V00 of the Itevi:; Statutes, but we fear much that lie liable to conviction as an unlawt humbug. -New York Sun. i Words of Sympathy. Bro. John A. Hogg, of Shelton, o ganizer for Buffalo county, lost his car mill outfit, with molasses house and s fixtures, and fifteen barrels of moUisn' one night last week. Loss $600, and insurance. The fire is thought to the work of an incendiary; but avc In , this is a mistake. We trust arrangements will soonl made by which every brother on joi; ing the Alliance, may if he so choose' , receive at least $500, or perhaps $t,0t worth of insurance on the mutual plan We believe this is entirely practicable In answering advertisements a! way' mention The Alliaxck.