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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1901)
'Ti f, y 4 m r.-s ' M ) i t f . tf f v ft. : - V I? V W,. $v mr Km fs iA.!-. tr. The King's Spiritual Advisers. Simple It is reported-that the variety tflister." of titles used for the officers and professors of different de grees in the University of Chicago result in so much confusion and complaint that by general consent the old fashioned designation of "mister" is to be employed. Titles do not by any means make the man or the teacher and it is not a bad sign when even the professors of Mr. Rockefeller's famous school return to the good old fashioned designation of "mister." When the present King of England ranked as the Prince of Wales, one chaplain and four honorary chaplains looked out for his religious welfare. Now, as King of England, this same man is the proud possessor of sixty-five spiritual guides. .Two "reverend deans of the Chapel Royal," four ."reverend clerks of the King's Closet," two "domestic chaplains," fourteen "chaplains in ordinary," thirty-three "honorary chaplains," five "priests in ordinary," and five "honorary priests in ordinary," these, aggregating sixty five clergymen, serve as guides, "philosophers and friends to the king of England on the reli gious line. It is difficult to understand why a man di- vinely appointed to be the ruler of other men needs so many clergymen to keep him in the ' straight and narrow path. At all events, if King Edward is not "good" he will have only himself to blame. Certainly :iio effort has been spared in the arrangement of the theological attachment of his court to ' snatch "a brand from the burning." The Concen tration of Wealth. In 1893 an article appeared in the Political Science Quarterly for December, written by George K. Holmes, from which a few extracts are here made. His conclusions are obtained after the most careful investiga tion and examination of all the reports avail able and the correctness of his conclusions are backed up by several pages of statistics. He says: .. "Ninety-one per cent of the 12,090,152 families of the country own no more than 29 per cent of the wealth, and 9 per cent of the families own about 71 per cent of the wealth." Further on he says: "Among the 1,096,265 families in which 71 per cent of the wealth of the country is concentrated, there is still a further concentration which may he indicated by taking account of the wealth of the very rich. The New York Tribune's list of 4,047 millionaires affords the best basis for this. With out going into details, the conclusion adopted in this article is that the 4,047 millionaires are worth not less than $10,000,000,000 or more than $15,000, 000,000 say $12,000,000,000 or about one-fifth of the nation's wealth. Wo are now prepared to char acterize the concentration of wealth in the United States by stating that 20 per cent of it is owned by three-hundredths of 1 per cent of the families; 51 per cent by 9 per cent of the families (not includ ing millionaires) ; 71 per cent by 9 per cent of tne families (including millionaires), and 29 per cent by 91 per cent of the families." "Another writer in the Arena for September, 1897, shows that in 1890 one-half of the wealth of the country was owned by 125,000 persons. There is no easy way of ascertaining the exact wealth of Mr. Rockefeller, but it has been es- The Boers Still Fighting. The Commoner. timated by iome as high as $500,000,000. That it is the greater part of this, no one doubts. If it is a fact that ho is worth $500, 000,000., there would have been wealth enough in the United States in 1890 for only 120 men like Mr. Rockefeller. James S. Stowe; United States consul general at Capetown, recently arrived at London. In an interview Mr. Stowe said that the South African problem is un doubtedly difficult and complicated. In a dip lomatic way, he pointed out that Great Britain was having enormous trouble in her efforts to conquer the Boors, and he did not hold out much hope for an early termination of the war. It. is very probable that the world has no conception of the exact condition of South Africa. The telegraphic lines are controlled by the British and it is not at all likely that they permit anything to pass the censor that is extremely disadvantageous to the British cause; but once in a while a bit of real information creeps out. " Consul Stowe's interview, although care fully guarded because of his official position, tends to corroborate the suspicion that the half has not been told concerning South African affairs. It is not difficult to believe that if the . British ever do conquer the Boors it will be, as President Kruger said it would be, at "a price that will stagger humanity." Attorney General Knox de clares with well developed symptoms of anger that he is not officially aware of the ex istence of a steel trust. Of course a high official with place in a presidential cabinet would not deny anything without being honest about it. The existence of the steel trust may be an official secret to Mr. Knox, but its exist ence certainly is known to the ex-attorney of the Carnegie corporation who is now Attorney General in the McKinley cabinet. Perhaps Mr. Knox is like the South Carolina father who had so many children he found himself unable to provide names for all of them. After the twelfth was born ho had recourse to num bers, and gave each child a number. When asked how many children he had the proud father replied: "I ain't no good at figures. When I done run out o names I begin numberin' 'em from 1 up. If I knew how many of 'em had names I might add up and tell yer." It is possible that Mr. Knox has been con nected with so many trusts that he has had re course to numbering, and the steel trust, being among the latest, may be without a name in his mind. Conmenting upon the address delivered by Mr. Littlefield at Do lver, in which he criticised the insular decisions, the New York Sun says thai; there is no statutory law which prevents any American citizen from doing what Mr. Littlefield did. The Sun in sists, however, that there is a well defined pro- Mr. Knox and the Steel Trust. He Can Stand Such Criticism. vision in the code of American humor which makes it a misdemeanor of the second degree of ridiculousness for a lawyer, probably a membor of the Bar of tho Supremo Court, to stand all alono before the American Bar Asso ciation and solemnly and on his own hook over rule tho Supremo Court in so important a mat ter as that involved in tho insular cases." If it were true that Mr. Littlefield stood alono in his position it would be all the more to his credit that ho dared state his opposition. Tho fact is, however, that instead of standing alone, it is very evident that Mr. Littlefield's position is supported by a considerable major ity of tho lawyers of the country. The vory fact that tho issues involved in tho insular cases are of tho utmost 'importance makes it all tho more necessary that mon who believe tho decision to be wholly wrong and destructive of the very fundamental idea of our govern ment should enter their protest against such a construction, even though tho construction was made by men on the highest bench in the land. Notice. The following notice appeared in tho last issue of the National Watchman: Tho last number of Tho National Watchman, issued July 11, contained an announcement that commencing September 1 The National Watchman would, thereafter, appear as a monthly journal of thirty-six pages instead of a weekly of sixteen pages. When tho announcement was made it was our purpose to materially enlarge the scope of tho paper by introducing new and attractive features calculated to interest every member of tho family. It was thought that tho proposed change would pro 3 acceptable to our readers. But in this we were drmed to disappointment. Letters have been received, numbering thousands, from our patrons in all sections of tho country urging that we re consider our purpose of discontinuing The Na tional Watchman as a weekly by converting it into a monthly publication. The need of a wcekjy Journal especially de voted to the discussion of public questions and national politics was urged with argument and logic tint seemed to us to be unanswerable. But on account of the diminished Interest exhibited by the people at large in questions bearing upon na tional politics, owing to the fact that a presiden tial election Is three years distant, The National Watchman during the present year failed to re ceive the support necessary to the proper main tenance of a weekly journal conducted on broad and comprehensive lines. Therefore, we are constrained to believe that the cause of the people, for which The National Watchman has so zealously worked, will bo best subserved by merging The National Watchman with Mr. Bryan's paper, The Commoner, which comes nearest The National Watchman's idea of filling the requirements of the times of any paper published in the nation. To this end arrange ments have been completed with Mr. Bryan to take the subscription list of The National Watchman and send Tne Commoner to all subscribers for the unexpired period of their subscriptions. Where a National Watchman subscriber is also a subscriber to lue Commoner his subscription to The Com moner will be extended by adding to It the unex pired portion of his subscription to The National Watchman. We feel that this arrangement gives ample protection to all subscribers and we trust that they will extend to The Commoner the same confidence' and support which they have given to The National Watchman. With a heartfelt appreciation of the endearing tie that has bound together The National Watch man and its readers during the years in which they labored so zealously for the cause of true dem ocracy, and with a firm and abiding faith in tho ability of the plain people of America to surmount all obstacles in the pathway to a complete realiza tion of a government resting upon the equality of all men before the law, we bid our friends an af fectionate farewell and Godspeed. THE NATIONAL WATCHM'AN. -SA O