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The Commoner.
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 19
14
CONCERNING PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
M. P. Harrington, a well known at
tornoy of O'Neill, Nob,, nnd president
of tlio Nebraska public qwncrship
league, lias writ! on for the St. LquIs
Mirror. Tlio article follows:
Tlio lino of division botwocn the ad
vocates of private ownership and the
Advocates of public ownership- of, rail
ways may easily bo drawn. The de
fenders of private ownership say that
private persons should own all prop
erty whether It be of a public or of a
ptlvato nature The friends of public
ownership contend that private per
sons should owii Unit property which,
In Its nature, is private; and that the
public should own those properties
which are, In their nature, public. Re
garding railways as public highways, it
Is contended that they should be owned
by the public, and tills brings us face
to face with the question whether rail
ways are essentially private or puo
lie 'property. If railways are private
property then they could all have been
built by private person without any
grant of public power, But were they
so built? Manifestly not.
A railroad corporation may take the
veal estate of the citizen over his pro
test by paying the damages sustained.
Tt may cross country, roads, streets
and alleys. Whence comes this power?
Solely from the people. The British
king' possessed this power originally,
and used It in the establishment of the
dirt roads. Hence the term "Kjng's
Highway."
Under our government this sovereign
power Is possessed by the states and
by the nation. The state may takctho
privato property of the citizen without
his consent for public purposes. But
no private person may do this. John
D. Rockefeller, with his great wealth,
can not take a single foot of land
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Life and Speeches
of W. J. Bryan
Illustrated octavo, 4GT papes, publialicd in
1000, nothinirlator, nothinc In print moro
complete. A few coplos, last of publisher's
stooic at greatly reduced prico. substantially
bound in oloth, by mail, prepaid, $1.00 oopy.
G. H. WALTERS, SSSS&
MR. METCALFE'S BOOK
"OF SUCH IS
THE KINGDOM"
And Other Stories from Life
NOW READY FOR DELIVERY
JOHN M, HARLAN, Associate Justice. United
States Supreme Court: ' Your little book, 'Of Such
is the Kingdom,' has been read by me with more
than ordinary interest. Indeed, I have read it
through twice. No one can read theso stories from
life without both interest and proQt, or without hav
ing a higher conception of his duty to God and to
us Icllowman.
from any person without his consent
But the railways in which ho is Inter
ested may do so. Why? Only because
the people have granted tills power to
public corporations. We have also per
mitted them to cross highways, streets
and alleys and take tolls. From the
public they get what Is termed their
franchises. Under these franchises
they have built and operated the railed
highways. Mr. Rockefeller, as an In
dividual, has not power to operate a
railroad through a single county, town
or city In the republic. But under
the franchises granted by the people,
the railways In which he is interested
may exercise this power which is de
nied to him as a private person.
And what use have the railways
made of these franchises? They were
granted them for the public good, but
they have used them to plunder the
people. These franchises now consti
tute the most valuable assets which
the railways possess. It is aganist
these franchises that they Issue wa
tered bonds and watered stocks. Tlloy
Issue stocks and bonds for two to five
times the worth of the physical prop
erty. The excess above tlio actual
worllroi! the property is watered stock
and bonds. And there Is nothing be
hind these fraudulent stocks and fraud
ulent bonds except the franchises
granted by the people. Plainly the
financiers make us pay freight and pas
senger rates high enough to pay divi
dends on billions of watered stocks and
bonds Issued against these franchises,
which we foolishly gave them. No
clearer case of abuse of a grant of
public power can bo found iri the an
nals of history.
But some don't understand how we
can acquire the railways o"r such part
rf thnm na If mnv lio niMirlrtnt- in nn-
1 oulre without navinc for the watered
stocks and watered bonds. The prob
lem is not tremendously difficult. We
can build one great railway from
ocean to ocean and another from north
to south, with necessary feeders, and
wo can get the money to build and
equip these roads at two per cent per
annum. This is a much lower rate
than any privato corporation can se
cure money at. The government will
have no dividends to pay on watered
stocks or watorod bonds. In this way
it can reduce freight and passenger
rates. The other railroads located In
the same territory will be compelled
to compete with the government rate.
By this means their earning capacity
will bo reduced. They will not be able
to pay any Interest on watered stocks
or watered bonds. Tkese roads will
theif drop In the market to what they
are really worth, and the government
can either buy them outright or con
demn them at their honest value. Hav
ing acquired some additional roads in
that way it can proceed to acquire
others gradually until it has acquired
ail of the roads that it may desire to
purchase. By this process the govern
ment will gradually acquire the rail
roads. Tho roads to bo built by the
government should be double tracked
and should bo the best built and best
equipped railways in the country. The
government should secure the cy
host talent to man'age and operate
those properties and make their oper
ation a success. Tlils has been done
in other countries and can and will be
done here. The public ownership sen
timent is growing ratfidly and the
American people are going to put pri
vate men out of the ownership and
control of public properties.
cent, or over " one-half , were either
14 or 15 years of ago. About 60 per
cent of tho number were employed
on farms.
Of tho whole number about 200,
000 are classed as working at occu
pations that are wholly or partjally
objectionable, and the number so en
gaged between 10 and 1.3 years of
age are as follows:
Bookkeepers, clerks, stenograph
ers, etc., 2,668; boot and shoe mak
ers and repairers, 918; draymen,
hackmon, teamsters, etc., 2,240;
glass workers, 1,433; -laborers (not
specified), 49,426; laundresses, 1,
365; messehgers and errand office
boys and girls, 9,826; metal workers,
2,458; miners and quarrymen,
9,000; packers and porters, 1,313;
painters, glaziers and varnishers,
343; - printers, lithographers and
pressmen, 699; salesboys and sales
girls, 2,544; servants and waiters or
waitresses, 49,461; textile mill oper
atives, 26,744; textile workers, 4,
700; tobacco and cigar operatives,
2,628, and wood workers, 2,328.
There are three great objections to
child labor; it prevents the proper
physical and mental development of
the child, often subjects him to im
moral surroundings, and keeps him
from obtaining a proper, education.
The children on the farms may be
counted out. Their surroundings
are seldom such as to hurt them, and
they attend school on the whole to
a- very great extent, varying with
the requirements of the several
states in this matter.
The greatest evil is found in the
cotton mills, sweat shops, and mines.
Recent statistics are not available but
it is computed that in 1902 the cot
ton mills of the south employed 50,
000 children, and that there were
5,000 under ten years of age. Think
of that, babies almost, some of them
receiving only 10 cents a day!
It is those of. less than ten years
of age who constitute the most piti
ful part of the whole national shame.
No statistics have been compiled of
them, but they are believed to num
ber in the thousands
The passage of anti-child labor
laws for which union labor is largely
'responsible is rapidly lessening the
evil, but still much remains to be
done, and it is a 'question how many
generations it will take to get rid
of the harm already done( for the
evils entailed are handed down from
generation to generation. Schenect
ady Gazette.
ing. Goodness is usually tame, and
it is so general as to seem common
place. Badness, on the other hand,
is dramatic and exciting because it is
as compared with the bulk of hu
man transactions so rare. The fact
is that most people are naturally
good. Their tendencies are in tho
right direction. They reflect tho
stamp of the divine which is upon
them. Were this not so, this world
would be a pretty poor place to live
in. Therefore believe the best you
can of people; yohr judgments then
will be vmore nearly right than if
you believed the worst. Wall Street
Journal.
DR. AKED'S COMPLAINT
Dr. Aked, the imported pastor of
Rockefeller's church, . did not take
our hint about his sermon1 on Sun
day. Instead of going into the mat
ter of tainted money, with specific
reference to the Rockefeller gifts to
religion and education, the Liver
pool preacher devoted himself to a
criticism of the American press. His
objection is that some of, our news
papers give too much space to crime
and the like". "Crowd in the good,"
he says, "and the bad will be forced
out."
This is a sentiment with which
Mr. Rockefeller will agree most
heartily. Much space is occupied in
the newspapers by reports of gov
ernment bureaus, proceedings of
grand juries, and sentences of, judges
relating to crimes committed by the
Standard Oil agents and the oil mon
opoly's rebate partners in the rail
roads. If reports of this kind of
crime could be kept out of the news
papers not to mention editorial
criticisnT'of Mr. Rockefeller and tho
ministers of the gospel whose mouth3
are stopped by his money there
would be plenty of space to print in
full sermons by Dr. Aked and their
like. The only objection to fills pro
gram is that the newspapers, would
sOOn be as barren 6"f influence upon
the community as the preachers and
college presidents who subsist on ill
gotten wealth and who do not dare
to tell the truth about their patrons.
New York Press.
Oloth bound, printed from olear typo on
heavy paper, gilt side and baok stamps, 200
pages. Sent prepaid on receipt of $1.00.
Address
(Care Tho Commoner LINCOLN, NEDR.
i i i , ,
SOME CHILD LABOR STATISTICS
It is a somewhat uncomfortable
thing to know that, according to the
United States census returns there
were 1,750,178 child wage earners
in 1900 in this country between the
ages of 10 and 15 inclusive. Of this
number, however, one-third had at
tained their 15th year, and 54.8 pqr
BADNESS THE EXCEPTION, NOT
THE RULE
"Bad men are the exceptions. It
is natural that men and women be
good and do good. Love and sym
pathy are part of the divine plan."
These words are to be found in one
of the essays contained in Richard
L. Metcalfe's beautiful and uplifting
book entitled '!Of Such is the King
dom." Mr. Metcalfe is sub-editor,
under W. J. Bryan, of The Com
moner. The thoughtless reader of the daily
newspaper might easily get a differ
ent idea than that put forth by Mr.
Metcalfe in the paragraph quoted.
The daily press is constantly parad
ing before the people the bad deeds
done by the bad men. They tell of
the manipulation, the scheming, the
unfair competition, the lawless fives,
the divorces and godlessness of those
men of wealth and high station
whose sole idea of life appears to
be to use their power for their per
sonal gratification. They parade al
so the gross crimes and violence of
the lowest class, the vile wicked
nesses to be found in "the submerged
tenth."
One would almost think from
reading of the crimes which-are re
ported in the newspapers that bad
men were the fule instead of the ex
ception. We are apt to forget that
the newspapers simply report what
is abnormal, because it is abnormal
things which are the. most interest-
A PLEASING GREETING
-
It is always a pleasure to drop in
and have a brief chat with Internal . .
Revenue Commissioner John W.
Yerkes, for he usually 'has a good
story to tell. Recently he related
one concerning the popular saying
that every man who comes from Ken
tucky should be hailed as "colonel."
In fact, I fell into this trap myself
and could not resist the impulse to
use" a military title rather than
"Mr." When I called him "colonel"
lie promptly retaliated by turning
around and addressing me as "gen
eral," a title to which I never even
dreamed of aspiring. He then con
tinued, grimly:
'The city of Washington is prolific
in titles. It is seldom you find a
man who may be addressed as a
plain American citizen. It is general,
admiral, colonel, captain, United
States secretary, United States com
missioner, or what not. until it
really seems to me that time is
coming when I shall not dare to
pass even the iron dooas of an ele
vator, without hailing the man who
operators it as 'Mr. Elevator Conduc
tor.' "
He told a story of how, one day,
when he was in Washington, in con
versation with a crowd 'of congress
men, Admiral Watson, whom he had
known in the old days, entered. Mr,
Yerkes was delighted to- hear him,
call out:
"Hello, John, how are you?"
"I sprang from my chair," said
Mr. Yerkes, "and almost hugged
him. 'Admiral,' I cried, ''I can hard
ly resist the temptation to embrace
you. Do it again. I am so tired of
hearing myself called colonel that,
my given name is music in my
ears.' "National Magazine. - ' -
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