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About The alliance. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1889-1889 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1889)
THE ALLIANCE. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORSilSS. BY TIIK ALLIANCE PUBLISMG CO. BOHANNAN BLOCK, Lincoln, - - - Nebraska. J. BURROWS, : J, M. THOMPSON, : . Editor. Associate Editor. All communications for the paper should te addressed to THE ALLIANCE l'L'RLISH JNC CO., aud all matters pertaining to the fanners Alliance, includitg subscriptions to the pape, to the Secretary. Notice to Subscribers. i XPIRATIONS. As the easiest and cheapest means of 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 weeks after expiration. Jf not renewed hy that time it will be discontinued. EDITORIAL. THE SINGLE TAX AGAIN. Many of the proselytes of Henry fleorge arc quite unfair in their meth ods of advocating the theory of the sin gle tax. They are coming of late to speak of this as simply a tax to be levied upon land values only to an entent needed to raise a sum adequate for the -expenses of the government. Compari sons have lately been published with a view of showing that the levy under the single tax system would be lighter than under the present system; at least that seemed to be the object of a table in re lation to valuations at the city of Buffalo, lately published in the Standard. In considering this subject it will not do to lose sight of the fact that Mr. George proposes to impose the single tax on land values for a two-fold purpose, 1st to open natural opportunities to labor; 2nd to raise money for public uses. The first is the paramount object, and em braces the second, which follows as a matter of course, and is only incidental. By opening natural opportunities to la bor Mr. George means to destroy pri vate ownership of land. This he pro poses to accomplish by confiscating rent by taxation. That is, he proposes to take all the annual rental value of land lor public uses, and thus destroy any incentive to own land. He assumes, correctly, that if the full annual rental value of; land is taken by the public no man would care to own it, and that it would therefore be left open to those j who wished to use it, and were willing to pay this rental value to the public. It will be seen at once that no partial confiscation of the rental would do.". If any margin of value was left for the landlord the land would still be held for speculation, or for that annual mar gin, and the prime object of the single tax would be defeated. Access to the natural opportunity of labor upon land would be denied. So any argument that assumes that only a part of the rental value need be taken is unfair, .and does not express the Henry George idea. To destroy speculation in land, and prevent its being held unused, it is necessary to confiscate it utterly or, what amounts to exactly the same thing, confiscate rent. This being conceded, what method Vloes Mr. George propose to ascertain the annual rental value which it will be necessary for the public to take? This value varies greatly. It varies with lo cality, with seasons, 'with abundance or .scarcity of money, in fact with all things which render values uncertain and va riable. ! It would not do to leave this valuation to be fixed by assessors as at present. They would be open to influ onees, and under that system specula tion and private holding might still go forward. Some invariable principle, of general application, must be adopted; iind.Mr. George proposes to continue exactly the same principle that is ap plied now on the acquisition of land .: wherever it becomes valuable, viz: the principle of competition. He proposes that the man or men who will pay the highest annual price shall have the land, or the use of it. I intend to be fair, and I believe this is a fair statement. ' Let us ree how this will operate in the case of an absolutely poor man, with a large family, who has been able under the old system to eke out a slen der existence, but who now thinks un der the new system, with natural op portunity open, that he will be able to do better. Seeking for the unused land he lirst meets organized capital. Not being able to compete, he goes further, uud meets private capital. Failing here he goes still further and further, until he gets beyond the reach of those who have capital at all. His natural oppor tunity has led him to the outskirts of civilization, where under the llieardo law there may be land that can be had without rent. As no civilized being can or will live where land brings no rent ;us in such a situation labor will bring jio reward he is fain to go back and . Ixgiii again the strife for life under the remorseless competition which the sin gle tax only intensifies. , To develop or restore natural oppor tunity under the law of competition is a paradox." ; Natural opportunity cannot exist where competition has free play. The two ideas are absolutely at war. In fact natural opportunity has no place in organized civilized society. It can only be found under the single tax system by ileeing to the outskirts of society where the influence of that system Avould not be felt. : ; We shall consider in another article the idea of Mr. George that the single tax will relieve the small farmer of all taxation. Do not send money by postal notes. "They are no safer than stamps. Postal notes lost cannot be traced or recovered. Send by express or money order, regis tered letter or bank draft. In answering advertisements always mention The Alliance. AN UNLEARNED LESSON. Though twenty-live years have elapsed since the close of the war of the rebel lion the? great lesson taught by that struggle is still unlearned by the Amer ican people..' That lesson was that in terests instead of parties govern. Nom inally our government is one by parties. Practically, and as a matter of fact, or ganized interests control parties, and, themselves standing above parties, use partisanship to accomplish their ends. For fifty years before the war the slave interest was the dominant power in this country. It was composed of a small, compact body of men, cultured in the science of government, versed in the -art of managing conventions and skilled in the tactics of -parliamentary bodies. This interest, w hile it became more intimately identified with one party than the other, was not partisan. Its control of one party, instead of its indiscriminate diffusion through both, was a strategic necessity; and it must be noted that, while it was not itself partisan, the opposition to it that grad- j ually grew up was also not partisan. Its influence permeated and pervaded both parties. It came to be understood not only that no man who did not truckle to that power could achieve eminence in our national councils, but that able men who did truckle to it were sure of preferment, no matter to which "party they belonged. As the struggle pro gressed, and the northern conscience became more and more aroused, ambi tious men began to avow one shade of belief to the north, and another to the south, and the term "doughface", was a common epithet for almost a generation. A generation before Jay Gould gave ex pression to it, the practice of being one thing in one district' and another thing in another, but all the time for slavery, was common among our public men. Note the important fact, that so thor oughly and completely did this slave in terest pervade and dominate both the J whig and democratic parties, that neith er of them could make a party fight against it, but both were rent by it; and when the final struggle came a new party had to be formed to meet the is sue. ''"' The great lesson that these facts should have taught has not been learned. Men are failing to discern the fact that organized interests, which are not par tisan, which in fact care for no party only as they can use it, stand behind or within party organizations, and manip ulate their conventions, and dictate their platforms, and mould their actions to promote their own welfare. And in pursuit of this policy they play party against party, and leader against leader, and nurse and exasperate party feeling and party hate so as to hide the hand that grasps the wealth of the people w ith a grip of steel under a velvet glove. Who does not .know that no man can be nominated for president by either party .who is not approved by the money power, of New York and Boston ? Who does not know that the railroad barons, democrats and republicans though they be, are one in the halls , of congress? Who does not know that the protected interests, belonging to all parties as they may, do not jar against each other when a tariff bill is up. This is the lesson we want the great plain people of this country to learn. They are being plundered to-day by or ganized interests; but -when they go up to vote they forget this like fools, and ask w hich side this or that candidate took on a dead issue twenty-five years ago. The fool cry, got tip by some hoo doo, "vote as you shot," has more influ ence on, a result than the knowledge that the money power and the railroad power, organized as interests for their own emolument, are driving the people straight to beggary and slavery. Wake up, People! Roosting on the Safety-Yalve. We remember the palmy days of Mis sissippi river steamboats, two rival boats, each loaded with a thousand pre cious souls, would get into a race, and their captains would pitch barrels of rosin into the furnace, and set a nigger to roost on the safety-valve. This is just what Secretary Windom is doing now roosting on the safety-valve. Money on call commanded nine per cent last week in New York. City banks are strengthening themselves," that is they are calling in loans and curtailing discounts that is, ' they are making money tighter. Country banks, denied advances on good collaterals, are doing exactly the same thing. This brings it down to country merchants, and to farmers. With corn at 12 to 15 cts. it takes 1,000 bu. of corn to pay a little note of $120 to $150. Compelled occa sionally to have money at any cost, the farmer goes to the sidewalk Shylock and is robbed at the rate of 2 to 3 per cent a month. The man who holds you up with 'a pistol is a saint compared with this villian. And the condition of society, and the system of laws, that permit such .robbery,' are worse than barbarous. The day will come, unless another dark age is nearly upon us, when men will look back .with amaze ment that such things could be tolera ted in any agcealled civilized. And there sits Secretary Windom, roosting on the safety-valve. If the pressure seems to be getting a little too high, and . an explosion imminent, he puts President Harrison on the roost, and slips down to New York and un loads a few millions of money, giving the bond-holder 27 per cent premium for the privilege. And then he goes back on the roost, and the boys go ahead pitching rosin into the furnace in the shape of needless taxation, filling the boilers with high pressure contraction steam. The passengers are dropping off one by one faster and faster. With them it is only a question of time. They all have a little obituary after they are gone. These read "Mr. So-and-so made an assignment yesterday; assets merely nominal;" or, "Another great failure; liabilities $100,000; total loss to depositors;" or, "Mr. committed suipide yesterday. Verdict insanity, caused by financial difficulties." Hadn't the steamer better have a new set of owners, and a new captain and engineer? A SHORT RETROSPECT. The election is over. Its excitement and its partisan feeling may now be laid hy for nearly a year, and we may take a calm view of the situation. Did the voice of the people find expression in the election of a judge of the supreme court, and a member of congress for the Second district? It certainly did not. It is as certain as anything can be in this w orld that a majority of the people of this state desired M. B. Reese re-elected as judge, and that a majority of the people of the Second district did not desire the election of Mr. Laws as their member of congress. How were these results,- directly in opposition to the voice of the people, brought about? All men know. In the case of the judge the state convention of the party of moral ideas, the party of progress, the party which periodically screeches for civil service reform and does not en force it, and a free ballot and fair count and does not give it, was": deliberately debauched by bribes given by the hire lings of a railroad corporation; and a man who was lately a B. & M. attorney was placed upon the supreme bench of this state by B. & M. influence. A crime against property of one-hundredth part of the magnitude of this would be ex piated in the pen. A crime against vir tue not at all approaching it would be met w ith a halter at the hands of Judge Lynch. Here is the very safeguard of the state, the animating spirit of the ballot, th,e delegate's vote, assailed, cor rupted and bought by wholesale here is the very fountain-head of justice mal formed in its birth, a stream corrupted at its source; a judge taking his seat not his, another man's seat on the bench before a people who know it was obtained by shameless corruption . Un der such a Upas shadow what will flourish except poison plants? Does the cashier rob the till? he looks up and sees he is innocent as the new-born babe compared with the perpetrators of this crime. Does the young man rob his father or his employer, and betray his trusting friend? he looks up' and sees crime so much darker that an au reole of glory shines on his brow in comparison ; and venomous plants shoot under this blight, and men's souls are poisoned, and society rots, and hell thrives. And the delegates who were bought what shall we say of them? Bought with a free pass, or a little promise, or perhaps a little money! If they had only sold themselves the transaction would have been a trifle. But they sold a precious thing. They were intrusted with a people's birthright a right our fathers gave their hearts' blood for a precious, intangible thing the very spirit of liberty, and equality, and jus tice and they sold it, murdered it, be- Jxayd it, for a mere baud of no value, and in a spirit of levity that showed they knew nothing of the treasure they held, or the responsibility they bore. Selling a vote on election day is a crime, but it is single and personal. It de faces only two souls. Selling a dele gate's vote is the betrayal ' of a people, and the debauchery of the most sacred privilege God ever permitted his chil dren to achieve. A stream cannot rise higher than its source. The need of the hour is a high er moral sense, a finer honor, a truer ap preciation of the nature and sacred character of the suffrage. With this will come an indignation against the corporate power that sends its menials to invade and corrupt a convention that will wipe it and its minions off from the face of the earth. God speed the day. ELECTION ECHOES. The Lincoln Journal says "It is an off year." 'Also, "Generally, several states that gave repub lican majorities at the presidential election fro democratic the next year on account of the insuperable laziness of a. certain class of republican voters who never go to the polls except under great stimulus." "Great stimulus" is good. It is aston ishing how that "insuperable laziness" is overcome when you trot those fellows out in "blocks-of five." Again, says the Journal: "People get tired of being dragooned by a convention into subscribing to platforms or planks with which their party affiliations have no connection, merely because a majority of the convention has it in its power to go wan dering about in search of new party tests." Well," the Nebraska republican con vention didn't fool away any time "in search of new party tests." It just banked its candidate up with railroad passes, and left him to take his chances. But he got there, all the same. Says the Bee : "Forakerism in Ohio, Mahoneism in Vir ginia, Tom Plattism in New York and prohi bition in Iowa are responsible for Tuesday's defeat. When the party drops side issues and sticks to principles in which it was cradled, it will do away with disasters in off years. By "side issues" the Bee probably means any modern question w hich in terests the people. The money ques tion would .probably be considered a "side issue." Flying the bloody shirt, and galvanizing a dead issue, would be sticking to "the principles in which it was cradled." Again, says the Bee, ' . "The campaign in Iowa was warmly contest ed on both sides, and prudent republican leaders recognized early in the campaign the danger that menaced the party, and called at tention to the formidable opposition. The re publican defeat Is solely due to the popular conviction that prohibition has been a failure in Iowa, in spite of the most rigid laws enact ed for its enforcement." We have a very strong conviction that the monopoly record of Mr. Hutchinson had much to do with the result. The election of Mr. Boies does not repeal the prohibition law,. Hear another buzz from the Bee: "The republicans of Douglas county have again suffered defeat, because their conven tions had been packed by reckless ward poli ticians who deflautly disregard public senti ment and the admonition of those who had the best interests of the party at heart." What an awful pity that "defiant dis regard of public sentiment" by the "reckless ward politicians" who packed the state convention could not have had an equally salutary effect on the rail road nominee for Supreme Judge. Says the Daily Call: . "The astute editor of the Omaha Republi can asserts that jLarrabeeism caused the de feat of the republican ticket ia Iowa. The republican party in Iowa this year adopted opposite grounds from the work of Governor Larrabee, and named a corporatin candidate for governor. Dainphoolism would seem to be the matter with the Omaha Eepubiican." The Call strikes it exactly, in both cases. When Secretary Rusk heard the election news he said: "We are Johnstown and the dam has broke." Call. '-,, Just so. And the break of that dam is echoing all through the party yet only the echo .spells it damn. But if you want to hear jubilation more jubilant over the election result, just read the Chicago Herald. It bub bles over in verse and gushes in a sparkling stream of prose. Just hear it: "David B. Hill's party has carried New York again, and we may look for a fresh sup ply of mugwump and republican slanders upon him. . . It is astonishing how amiable a democrat who cannot carry an election looks to a re publican an& a mugwump. It is also aston ishing how fine a democrat who can carry an election looks a democrat. Governor Hill is a very handsome man, if he is bald-headed." "The defeat of the Chicago gang who have been worrying him about the offices Is the one solitary ray of comfort that lightens the gloom which surrounds Benjamin Harrison." "The country is getting tired of the combi nation of high taxes, hypocrisy, cant, snivel and corruption, known as the republican party." "Among the political impossibilities for 1892 must be included the distinguished names of Benjamin Harrison and Joseph Benson Foraker." "The sorest spot with Foraker is that his de feat fills John Sherman with emotions which are the very reverse of grief." "No administration but little more than six months old ever got such a rebuke as has just been visited upon Ben Harrison." "The Australian voting system will never do in this country. It is too one-sided; it helps only the democrats." "One thing this democratic landslide means, which it does not require an Elijah or a De pew to see Benjamin Harrison will not be renominated by the republican party." "The republican Organs will give every reason for the awful result except the real one that Harrison's administration has dis gusted the whole country." "The only man in the country who is get ting all he wants is Ben Hari-ison. Indeed, he has lately been getting a good deal more than he wants." "Vice-President Morton boie the result of the elections with manly fortitude. Repub lican grief increased the trade at his bar." AFTER THE BATTLE. " 'As the smoke of the battle clears away' Frorn the fields of the recent political fray, The,e is widely strewn from lake to sea The sad remains of the g. o. p. The potent force of the wild landslide And that of the groundswcll were allied, And the stalwarts were so tossed about They are almost g. o. petered out." WORDS VERSUS DEEDS. That oft-heard saying, "Talk Is cheap," is no no doubt very true, , For people never tire telling what they're going Jo do, But old age often reaches them before their work's begun, And this I I !!!!!! ! Is what they said they'd do. While here 0000 Is what they've done. Anent the hit'? election race the g. o. p. was sure That every plum worth getting it was certain to secure. Foraker, Hutchison, Mahone each had a happy lot, For here X X X X X X X X Is what each said he'd win, But this 0000 Is all he got. The public was not slow to show its feeling of fatigue Toward Harrison, the leader in the party of intrigue. He with his broken pledges out of office will be swept, For here's 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i i The promises he made, While these 00 00 Are what he's kept. CLOSING OUT SALE. Fou Sale A slightly bursted boom, Stained just a little bit with a gloom. Have changed my future plans of late, And want to sell at "remnant rate." Address (the goods cannot be shown). ' . ( Foraker. Hutchison. ( Mahone. HARD TIMES IS ENGLAND. Those "vacant farms" in New England hav ing been worked for about all they are worth, perhaps the tariff reformers will turn their attention to England, where things are man aged more according to their own ideas. In Kent, the "garden of England," the number of furies falling vacant this season is more than has ever before been known, and In all that region there are signs of decay in the ag ricultural industry. In New England the land is barren and was exhausted years ago; in the portion of England under considera tion the soil is rich and highly cultivated. While the discussion is going on, let us hear about the vacant farms across the water as well as those In New England. Liucoln Jour nal. The Journal tells the truth about the hard times in England; but, while mak ing its fling at the free traders, it makes no effort to explain them. The fact is the devil-fish of money contraction has got its slimy tentacles on England, Ger many, France, and all the states of the Latin Union, as well as the United States. England is a single-gold-standard as well as a money-lending country. The interests of its aristocratic capital ists demand low prices to enhance the purchasing power of their incomes. So their influence was used to induce this country and Germany . to demonetize silver, and the Latin Union to limit its coinage. The result of this policy is seen in the state of facts shown above, and in the degradation and distress of all other classes of laborers as well as farmers. When the Journal is ready to explain existing conditions by their true causes it maj perhaps entitle itself to the respect it has never yet received. Read our Premium offer in our ad vertising columns. The Twentieth Century. A surprise awaited us in the twentieth Century. Hugh O. I'entecost is its edi tor. We believe this gentleman was some sort of a clergyman; and we sup posed he was an ardent single-iaxer. He has given up both, and like many men who lose their grip on their con victions, he swings beyond the other ex treme. As" to the use of land, or nat ural opportunity, he says: "There is but one absolutely right way to effect the change, and that is for each person to refuse to be the owner of any land for which he has no productive use," Surely this is getting skyward. In this age of greed, w hen wealth is all and in cludes all, when the desire for gold pos sesses men's souls as never before, Mr. Pentecost would induce men volunta rily to relinquish half their wealth, "be cause it is right." Well, there's some thing insoiring in the spectacle of a man advocating an impossibility just be cause it is right. Mr. George does not hold his per sonal friends. He quarrelled with Dr. McGlynn. Mr. McCready, who was lately on the Standard, is now on this moral idea paper, the Twentieth Cen tury. Mr. Pentecost has given up the single tax. We suspect that Mr. George, for all his philanthropic writing, does not possess those personal qualities which inspire love. , But the greatest surprise w as caused by the fact, which we learn from the Twentieth Century, that Mr. Pentecost has gone from the pulpit straight to the rankest atheism. He rejects God, and abjures the church. And he does it in the advocacy of a better and higher life, and the sway of justice among men. We give one or two extracts from his address of Sunday, Nov. 3: But the position that I have taken ia that the church i3 wrong and that the human inind will never be perfectly free, and peasants and mechanics and day laborers will never be per fectly fairly treated in this world, until the church is utterly destroyed. I do not want to see the church reformed. I want to see her utterly destroyed, because as long as she ex ists the ruling classes in society will always have a faithful ally to help them carry on their infernal schemes of pillage. I do not want people to have a better idea of God. I want the idea of God entirely rooted out of the mind, because I knw that as long as any idea of God remains in the mind the priest and the politician will have something to work upon, and this world will never be free and happy until the priest and the politician are gone, , My life in the church, although it came to an end so recently, is like a forgot ten dream ; I remember It only as one remem bers a night mare that he had years ago; and if you ask me what is my idea of God, I can say truthfully: "I have no idea of God whatever." Now, this is the thing that is so difficult for many persons to comprehend. They cannot understand why the church may not be made good, and why we may not be brought to be lieve in a really good God, who wou'd be our helper ".and strenth. And yet, if they will read history they will discover that the church never was good, and that there never M as a single person in the whole world who had a conception of God that was rational and at the same time good. Of course these extracts may not be fair, inasmuch as they fail to give a full and complete idea of the creed of Mr. Pentecost and his reasons. Whatever may be thought of Mr. Pentecost's belief, his bravery cannot be questioned. "'Monopoly Trusts." In a late article in the Lincoln Jour nal, under the above caption, the asi nine misinformed editor of that mo nopoly sheet says: "No legislation can meet the emer gency of such an organization as the "barbed wire trust." All the barbed wire of the market is made by patented machinery, and the only at tack that can be made upon the trust, or one end of it, is to attack the ralid ity of the patents in the courts. It is a question whether any new principle is involved in these patented machines," but so far they have held their own in the courts." As usual, there are just about as many misstatements in the above as there are sentences. This editor sup poses something, and then states it for a fact in his editorial. As a matter of fact, the barbed wire trust is not now founded upon either patented wire or patented machines. The Glidden patent on wire has ex pired, and has not been renewed; and the erudite editor of the Journal will only have to go to Beatrice to find on sale as good barbed wire machinery as any in the United States, on which no royalty would have to be paid: These machines are made at Beatrice. The barbed wire trust is based wholly and only on the power of combined capital. It has not back of it the pro tection of a single patent. It throttles competitors and holds up the price of wire solely through the power of com bination. We advise the Journal to establish a bureau of information. Our time is too precious to allow us to correct its many blunders. More Railroad Bonds. Omaha is all torn up about the pro posed submission of a proposition for $150,000 of bonds, to be given to the U. P. for a union depot, viaduct, etc. The Bee favors the bonds, the World Herald opposes. Certainly, on general principles, the U. P. ought to have more bonds. "To him who hath more 4 shall be given," etc. Leading capital ists favor giving the bonds. In referr ing to some of these the Bee says: "No men own more property or pay more taxes." These capitalists know fitfl well, and so does the Bee, that taxes are not paid out of accumulated capital, but that they are paid out of cur rent earnings. This being the case, they belong to the current expense ac count and form an element of price. If this is true annual taxes are the product of annual labor, and every addition to them is an added burden to labor. If laboring men understood this principle as well, as, capitalists, there wotild be fewer taxes voted. There ought to be a law passed prohibiting taxes for any corporation under any pretext whatever. Especially to Our Farmer Readers. Does bur paper please you? Do you approve the principles we advocate Are we improving the paper little hy lit tic? aud do vou think we will get there after awhile, if wo have half a chance? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, are you not willing to help us get there? It costs money to print a paper. The two articles composing it are white paper and labor. These two articles are as staple as flour or sugar or oil, and they are cash articles. The cash for them must go out every week whether any conies in or not. And newspapers arc dirt cheap. Compare the cost of a newspaper at one dollar a year with the cost of other necessa ries. When you go to town you pay for one dinner as much as we ask you for the paper for three months or as much for one day's board as the paper costs you for a year; or if you smoke you pay nearly as much for one cigar as the paper costs you for a month, or as much for two pounds of plug as it costs for one year. And the paper is a necessary. You can't do without one if yon expect to keep up with the times. In fact you ought to take several. And you should take those that are on, your side those that advocate your interests above all those that are fearless and out-spoken in de fence of truth and justice, and which cannot be controlled or muzzled by any corporation. That is the kind of a pa per we intend to give you. We are am bitious to improve it, and enlarge it, and employ upon it moro editorial ability. In fact, we want to furnish you, for one dollar a year, the brightest, newsiest, CHEAPEST AND BEST PAPER IN THE STATE of Nebraska; and if you will help us we will do it. Now we want every farmer reader to secure for us just one more subscriber. Will you do it? It will cost -you a little trouble, perhaps; but we will make it pay you. Read our offers of premiums, and read our clubbing offer with the Bee. There never was a chance to get two so good papers for so little money. We have set our mark at 50,000 sub scribers in Nebraska, and Ave intend to reach it. The Australian Ballot. In the Standard of the 9th Henry George gives an account of the working of the new ballot in Boston. He says: "When in old Faneuil hall, 'the cradle of American liberty, I saw the polls close on Tuesday afternoon. I knew that the most pressing of political reforms has been Initia ted, not merely in Massachusetts, but for the whole country; and that what we have called the Australian system must in the immediate future become the American system. No op position in other states can long stand beforo the demand for its adoption which its success ful operation in Massachusetts will create." "In Massachusetts on Tuesday the new sys tem of voting fulfilled and more than fulfilled every anticipation of its friends and falsified every prediction of its enemies," The above are a fair sample of nearly a page of editorial comments and de scriptions in th? Standard of the late election in Boston. Viewed in every aspect the new system is a success. "Heelers" and "strikers" and "ticket peddlers" and "vote sellers" lost their occupation on that day, and stood around quiet and idle. Not long ago the Bee detailed a meth od by which the law might be evaded. A man was to go in ami procure an official ballot on the pretext of voting, and then vote a blank, and bring the official ballot out to his confederates. The following extract from Mr. George's article is of interest in connection with that scheme: "On the outside wall were posted the official lists of candidates to be voted for, and the le gal directions and regulations, prominent among which was the notice that the taking or possessing of an official ballot paper out side of the rail was punishable by a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for one ear." The people of Nebraska will demand that law of its next legislature in tones that will b'e heard. Cheering Words From Sherman County. E. A. Draper sends us an interesting letter from Litchfield, from which we extract the following: "The farmers of Sherman count' ex press the opinion that in order to keep the farmers out of politics the corpora tions will have to do the same, and the result of the recent election here proves that the farmers and laboring classes will not support machine nominations where their interests as a class are en tirely ignored. If corporations can buy conventions and have machine politi cians in every county in the state on a salary, and then succeed financially, the farmers might make more money in pol itics than raising twelve cent corn. "The Alliance is harmonious in this county,' and we expect to thoroughly organize in every part of the county this winter." Bro. Draper also sends a list of sub scribers to the papei for which he has our thanks. GONE HOME AT LAST. 'Frank Ransom, senator from Otoe county, has moved to Omaha aud will practice Ins pro fession in that city. Frank is a splendid law yer and will do himself credit in the metropo lis." Call. Let us tell the truth while we pray. Frank Ransom, the old-time anti-monopolist, who when he heeded his hon est convictions was on the side of the people, has put himself in the line of promotion by becoming a corporation attorney. In the late lamented legisla ture he was the tool of Church Howe. In the next act he will blossom out as a corporation candidate for congress, and in the meantime will be toadying for popularity among the working men. Just watch him. THE AUSTItALLlJi SYSTEM. From the Daily Call of Nov. 8. From this date the campaign should be on in Nebraska for the Australian voting system ' in , this state. It is the clean, honest, untrammeled method that makes every man in fact as well as in name the equal of his neighbor in casting his ballot.. It drives the strikers anil heelers and ward bummers from the polls, and prevents tho crime that this state has seen committed many times, the voting of -men like eattly. The Australian system will allow a man to vote without his employer standing over him arid making him vote as he dictates or Jose his position f hat furnish es him the means of a livelihood. The Australian system will abolish the grav el train tactics that have disgraced elec tions in this slate, and humiliated lum est workingmen in thousands of in stances. There - was an-honesty effort made to . establish this system in the state at the last, legislature, but the ele ments that controlled that body throt tled the measure. Iet the campaign orien now so that the people can de mand of their representatives m future that the system be enacted. In the re cent election in Montana the Australian system was declared on every hand an entire success, lint the most sitrnilieant. endorsement the measure has ever re ceived comes in the echo of the election of this week from Massachusetts. All telegraph reports stated that the work ing of the law was a success and giving the utmost satisfaction. . A dispatch from Boston on election day said: lo-days experience lias seemed to prove beyond a doubt the success of the Australian system of voting, and the testimony from all sections of the state is almost unanimous in its praise. In this city the voting places have present ed a remarkably quiet appearance, and the scenes therein have in many cases boon in marked contrast to those usu ally witnessed. Voting has proceeded with dispatch and voters have enjoyed freedom from the importunities of bal lot distributors that they have ne er known before. Very few cases are re ported where instructions sis to the method of voting were necessary, ami practically the only aid required was for those who came under the law as by blindness or other physical disability unable to mark then ballots. While voters expressed their pleasure at being able to vote without the usual solicita tions in the interest of one candidate or another, the ward officers were also de lighted at being able to attend to this duty without being disturbed by the customary bustle and disturbance out side the rail. All this is splendid evidence in favor of the system, and it is just what is need ed and 'demanded in this state. Let it be work from this on for its adoption. The Facts ofthe Beef Combine. A few days ago it was intimated by a Chicago paper that Mr. Philip Ar mour, of the Big Four, had experienced a change of heart, and that he would appear before the Senate committee and tell how he, with the other three, were enabled to rob the entire nation of beef producers and beef consumers. It ap pears, however, from the following des patch to the Chicago Tribune, that it is Senator Vest that has experienced the change of heart: Senator Vvst is not going to be so hard in dealing with Phil Armour after all. He won't bring the Chicago packer to Washington and immure him in a Capitol dungeon for refusing to testify before the select committee. He won't even ask the Senate that a pro cess be issued, but instead will content himself with a statement of thecircum-. stances under which Mr. Armour de fied the authority of the committee. The reason for Ids course is plain. After a careful examination of the law and precedents Senator Vest has reach ed the conclusion that the authority is lacking even to bring the contumacious witness before the bar of the Senate for contempt. Mr. Armour's attonA";, after searching the law volumes in Con gressional Libarrv, took the same view. Senator Vest, however, proposes to make Mr. Armour the text lor a speech which will be an entertaining one. If it is true that the Senate has no authority to bring Mr. Armour before its bar for contempt and to keep him in the Senate dungeon all sessoin, then Hon. James Wilson and Senator Allison are very poor authority on congression al matters. We understand they both tell the farmers of Iowa both privately and publicly that Mr. Armour fuust testify, and that this will be, one of the first matters of business before the Senate when it meets. Mr. Wilson has long been regarded as authority on the rules regulating congressional action, and no man has a better opportunity of being fully advisd as to the powers of the Senate than Senator Allison. The farmers of the West are in blood earn est about this matter, and expect to see it probed to the bottom, and if Senator v est is trifling with them, or if Sena tor Allison is deceiving them, they will not be long in finding it out. We be lieve the Senate has ample, exclusive and unlimited power to the extent of confining Mr. Armour in the Capitol dungeon during the next term of Con gress if he don't tell the truth. The Western beef growers at least will de mand not only that this power be used, but that a law be enacted that will pun ish this sort of contempt They are not in a mood to be trilled with by Senator Vest or anybody else. The facts must come out. Homestead. Look Here. One hundred old party dollars at ten per cent (Iowa bank rate) now steal from the iarmer sixty-six bushels of corn weighing 4,020 pounds, for interest in one year. A farmer on oiie of the best corn farms in Iowa, fine buildings, fine im provements, his corn crop this year about 5,000 bushels. The coupon on his mortgage note calls for five hundred and ninety-five dollars. His taxes are $180. He must keen 500 bushels to feed his teams so he can raise another f crop. His 4,500 bushels at fifteen cents! a bushels will yield $075. His whole crop men wuuacK one nunureu uonars of paying these two items. To sell this corn he, hauls it fire miles to market This will cost at least three -cents bushel or SI 35. Again, he mnst live.! He must pay store bills. Ho must clothe his family. He must buy conK to keep them from freezing. Standing in our office with his shabby-clothes, u net-work of patches, his form bent over with excessive labor aud mental auxi- ety, he put the question, "What can if do?" This stumped us, but as he had ; been a laithful follower of the republi- can party we referred him to Senator Allison and to the editor of the Iowa State Register, the organ of the money sharks. Let them tell their victims how to get out of the hell which they have prepared for the farmers of Iowa. Iowa Tribune. Ladies read our offer of Premiums to lady workers. Read our offer of clubbing rates with the Omaha Bee. r