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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 1902)
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. SCHOOL APPORTIONMENT Smallest December Distribution In Yr "Redemption tomri High, bat w HdiI Hare It Willis J. Abbott, the gifted eaitor of The Pilgrim, says that "the one fool, blind. In his own conceit,' is the hard headed, practical business man blind to the teachings of history." Evident ly Mr. Abbott has an intimate ac quaintance with the republican mullet heads who went to the polls this year, and the populist and democratic pout ers who stayed away. The teachings of history show that republican state officials always have been and now continue to be wholly incompetent to manage the state's business in a bus iness manner. Yet so peculiarly con-, stituted is the mind of these hard headed business men the "yelow dog" supporting republicans, and the populists who want infallible officials made of fallible men, and the demo crats who -are jealous of Bryan that they are willing to suffer almost any loss if they may be entertained by a sham fight over the whisky question. Following upon the heels of a re publican victory in Nebraska came the news of a "restoration" of freight rates- a polite terra for genteel high way robbery by raising them, just as "liquidation" is good form when speaking of the failure of a bank and the consequent robbery of its creditors, the depositors. The next we hear is that the Dorgans and the state board are beginning in a mild way to do a little "plugging to size" in coal con tracts. And then comes the news that the December, 1902, school apportion ment is eighty thousand dollars less than it was a. year, ago, and. $82,000 less than the average December ap portionment made under fusion admin istration. That would liay the 'sal aries; of a hundred teachers for a whole year at $830 each; and the amount, if even paid to the teachers, must be raised by local taxation in the various school districts. The apportionment just announced Is $236,252.681-or more than $50,000 smaller than the smallest December apportionment ever made by the fu sionists. It is made .up of the follow ing items: . APPORTIONMENT, DEC, 1902. State tax .$ 67,775.48 Interest on school and saline lands sold 36,001.06 Interest on school and saline lands leased 46,751.10 Interest on U. S. bonds.... 300.00 Interest on county bonds.. 65,887.78 Int. on school dist. bonds.. 863.11 Interest on state warrants. 17,006.82 From fish and game license. 1,666.00 Embalmers' balance ........ 1.33 Total $236,252.68 Suppose we make a little compari son and see what it has cost the envi ous, the pouters, and the followers of "yellow dogs" to indulge their pro pensities. The following shows the four De cember apportionments made under fusion administration: FUSION. December, 1897 $377,365.90 December, 1898 300,816.63 December, 1899.. 292,883.59 December, 1900 307,830.54 Total $1,278,896.66 Average 319,724.16 REPUBLICAN. December, 1901.... $316,813.59 December, 1902 236,252.68 Total $553,066.27 Average 276,533.14 The average republican December apportionment is more than $43,000 smaller than those made by the fu sionists. December apportionments are as a rule smaller than those made in May, but it is not out of the way to say that for the entire year round, the schools of Nebraska will receive between $50,000 and $80,000 less money from republican state administration than they did receive under fusion government. Peraaps it's worth eighty thousand dollars for the privilege of helping Bud Lindsay. Tom Darnell, Elmer Steph enson, "Rev." J. B. Carns, "Cap." Bil lingsley, et al., form a coalition whereby the beer-haters, beer guzzlers and beer-slingers unite in electing a prohibition - high license - Gothenberg system governor. But it's a little tough on those who wanted higher railroad taxes, higher, school appor tionments, and lower freight rates. Years ct Nebraska." a nsonograph from the pen of Hoc" Thomas Wjston Tipton who was United States senator for Neraaka, It covers the hietor of Nebraska, gleaned largely from ogblal aourc?s, from 1855 down to 1894, and brings Into "review fifty official, -"eight territorial governors, six delegates in congress, tens state governors, eight United States tena tors, and eighteen members of the house of representatives." It Is a book of 670 pages and will be a valuable addition to the library of any Nebras kan at all Interested in the history of hla state. Volume V. covers the his torical papers and addresses delivered at the society's annual meetings down to that of 1600. Cass county is rich enough to stand it but how do her people like it? They used to get seven and eight thousand dollars of school money twice a year. The lowest they ever received from the fusionists was $6, 026.68 in December, 1899. This De cember it drops down to $4,795.69; that is. $1,230.99 it cost them for the full of helping elect a republican state ticket Historical Society The Independent acknowledges re ceipt of volumes No. IV. and V., sec ond series, proceedings and collections of the Nebraska State Historical So ciety. Volume IV. is entitled, "Forty Why Condemn Them? . A reader of The Independent, living in Nance county, writes the editor "not for publication" that he went to the polls this fall "more as a matter of habit than any interest in the re sult." That he has been in the pop ulist movement from the beginning. That the chairman of the populist county central committee said the main issue was the railroad tax ques tion. And our friend continues: : ,"If that was true, why. condemn.men for staying at home, when the main issuers to increase the railroad taxes while they, the railroads, still have the power to get back at you $2 for every one of additional tax?" First, because the man who takes no interest in poli tics is a dangerous citizen so said hundreds of years ago by Thucydidesi Second, because the man who takes no interest in the question of taxation is equally as dangerous a citizen. Third, because it is not true that the rail roads have power to "get back at you $2 for every one of additional tax." They have increased freight rates, be cause the traffic will bear it or, rather expect to raise them shortly with the prospect of no additional tax. Freight rates would go no higher than they now are, or shortly will' be, even if railroad taxes should be increased half a million dollars next year which they won't be and the other taxpay ers will have to make up what the railroads are released from paying. "I fully appreciate your spirit in public affairs," continues our reader, "but let me say that it is my firm be lief that it is only the most fleeting and trivial good that can be done for the welfare of the masses so long as they are deprived of their natural rights of common ownership in land. Our Omaha platform declared for this doctrine and yet we have as a party paid no attention to it. You say in your paper that you are not for the single tax. How then do you propose to carry out the plank in the Omaha platform that declares that the land and all the natural sources of wealth belong to all the people?" Like the man who quoted the scrip tural saying: "Let him that stole steal" leaving off the very necessary words, "no more," our brother does not give the Omaha plank in its entire ty. It reads as follows: "The land, including all the -natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people , and should not be MONOP OLIZED for SPECULATIVE purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by rail roads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs and all lands now owned by aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only." Not a word about the common own ership of land. Not a word against private ownership, except that it should be forbidden to aliens, and to corporations, except for their actual needs. Not a word about the single tax; but on the contrary a specific de mand for a graduated income tax. The single tax is not a populist idea, but populists are friendly to the single taxers because both agree upon the diagnosis of present conditions; they agree upon the money question and many others. But populists demand the public ownership and operation of the railroads, while the single taxers would have public ownership of the right of way and let any man run a train who could afford the expense of putting one on the public railroad. However, questions of national pol icy only indirectly affect the election of state officers and The Independent is nnable to see whj the election of republicans will further the cause of the single taxers. The logic of our friend's contention would bring us 'to exemption of all railroad property from taxation, and no man who has studied th,e question believes our freight rates would be any the lighter for such ex emption. On the contrary, the divi dends to eastern and European stock holders of Nebraska railroads would be increased to the extent of the taxes exempted. REPUBLICAN HYPNOTISM Mr. Freiday Give- HIi Idea Retarding t b Stay-at-Hom Voter Editor Independent: I see by pa pers over the state that a good many farmers are called "corn-field canar ies," stay-at-homes, etc., but after due consideration I find it comes from our democratic side of the house. Now, I -would like to ask our democratic friends, Why all this slurring? This has been the case from our friend, C D. Casper from David, for a number of times in the years past Our friends from the democratic side should remember that we are not dem ocrats, or a lot of stay-at-homes are not democrats, but formerly republi cans, greenbackers, and anti-monopolists, with a few democrats thrown fn. Our friend thinks we should whoop it up. For what? For democrats? No, I guess not. and that I? the opin ion of a good many that I have talked with. We see that, we have no organiza tion. We feel we have no place to go to, and so of course we stay at home. I .think this is the last year for hun dreds of us, and if it had not been for a, good state, ticket before the people, I .think hundretls of us would have stayed at home this season. When tfie populists fuse 1 with the democrats, that day was the downfall of the pop party. We could feel it, see it, and hear it everywhere. Our populists who would argue politics with anyone that came along, would tal!-- no mon after the fusion. . We lelt beat, ashamed, crestfallen. Af'er all oui hard work we saw we were lost, for was it not so with the old green backers? But theiv organization was not a failure entirely, for it had its effect for a time, and we see the pop fusion had its benefits so far for the present. They call us stav-at-homes and corn field canaries. Well, my democratic friends, if we have nothing more to vote for than we had the last year or two, there will be droves of stay-at-home "cattle" as some of them dub us and canaries, whole flocks of us. Of course we can't blame some of these eld mossbacks, much as they are past conviction. As my father rced to tell me, when a man has passed the 50 year milepost, he is ptst conviction. Now, I for my pari don't want any more name "democrat," for it is like the republican it has only the name left, but its principles have vanished years ago. Also as icng as the name democrat is attached to a new party it gives these old political bosses a show to still get their pull. But a new name and a new organization makes a mixture of different classes different men and no for a few years we hav? a clean organiation until politicians get hold of it and that is in about twelve years, as all previous histor has shown us and a3 any observant fian has seen for himself. z F. E. FREIDAY. Rising City, Neb. (The Independent is glad to publish Mr. Freiday's explanation of the stay-at-home vote, even if it cannot ap plaud the reasons given by him. Cur iously enough it shows the psychologi cal effect of suggestion, or, to put" it in the plain English of Ayer the ad vertising expert, "Keeping everlast ingly at it brings success." In season p.nd out, ever since the days when the democrats indorsed the nomination of Holcomb for governor, the republican papers have been full of sympathy for the populists and deplored the fact that the populis; organization had been swallowed by the democrats. Ac coiding to republican papers the pop ulists could feel and see and hear everywhere (in republican papers, of course) that the downfall of the "pop" party had been accomplished by fu sion. Now, Mr. Freiday and hun dreds of his fellow stay-at-homes "feel and see and bear" ihe ' same thing as keenly as though it were orig inal and not the result of republican suggestion. Republican papers said, "The pops are beat. a:hamcd, crest fallen;" and now Mr. Freiday says the same thing. Republican papers announced that the populist organiza tion had gone to pieces, and now Mr. Freiday reiterates the story in spite of the fact that Chairman Weber and Sec retary Farris did as thorough work as was ever done by a populist state committee. That they wer not suc cessful signifies nothing, except that they had to combat the effect of re- DECEMBER 18, 1302. publican hypnotism upon their own party members. It is a curious mental condition which will invite the votes of demo, crats for a populist nominated solely' by the people's independent party, and relieve it a grand and noble work; and then turn right around and seek to deny democrats the right to vote for a populist; because, forsooth, he has been nominated by the democratic par ty as well as the people's independent It is a curious mental condition which will permit men to vote for Honest John Powers for governor in 1890, anl believe they were doing a patriotic act in soliciting democrats to vote l him, and which in 1902 will cause these same men to stay at home and refuse to vote for Honest John Powers for secretary of state because the whole body of democratic voters had signi fied their intention of voting for him by nominating him ai their candidate It is a good stud v for the nsvchni. ogist. Ed. Ind.) What Hight Have Been Editor Independent: I acknowledge your paper a fearless exponent, but to wnat purpose Is another matter. I was a nonnlist ATI? T VT rid1 ontr use for a fusionist and you will ac knowledge failure of It now. TnVe my state, Wisconsin, as a sample. democrats adopted part of our plat form; republicans some more. Now the democrats have purged their party of populism and gone back to the old grooves. So now we do not know where we are at. The two old parties are so split that they can virtually accomplish nothing. But if we had maintained our orMni- zation we would have been a iroad which monopoly would respect; more man a Drigade or rough riders. This year I was obliged to vote rem i hi i nan ticket or become a socialist. I chose ttie latter and am now working in the Appeal to Reason armv and am doiYis- grand work, considering a late start. we maae quite a show at the polls and would have . .d more votes than the democrats if the nonuli 3ts had turned out. The only way I now see to rnrh mn. nopoly is a big socialist vote an op portunity the Deonle's nnrtv lnot in fusing. My reason for it is that with two or three million of independent populists or socialist votes. Wall street would not dare cause a panic because they . would not. know where the mullet heads would jump. nowever, l shall not talk reason to editors, because they want to know it all. But we will leave that as it is. Your educational cards are in mnA hands. I am town treasurer and will have a chance to see the boys before many moons, l was a close reader of the National Economist from its first number until McOune sold out. I am yours for the right, even if we have different ways of seeing it. JOHN HANSEN. Suring, Wis. (Editors do not claim to "know it all," but they make an effort to find out as much as they can at least some of them do. The failure to carry an election does not mean the fail n ro of the principles involved or of the party policies used in attempting to carry an election. Had Rrvan heon elected in 1896, thousands of populist3 wno now cry against co-operation (there never was "fusion" probably today be telling the wonder- t'ti Denents or it. What might have been aeromniiaiiorf by absolutely independent action is a matter of guess work. No one knows. The prohibition party is a good ex ample of what independent action amounts to. Beginning with less than 6,000 votes in 1872 it had grown to over 264,000 in twenty years. In 1896 the split reduced the total to 132 000 for Levering and less than 14,000 for uenuey. in 1900 the party had nearly 209,000. It has been throne-h thirty years of independent party action and accomplished less than the people's party has in six years of fusion, or co operation as the action really is Ed. Ind.) Those K. C. & O. Bonds Dan Corcoran in tha vr-ir i , " ium irillllll Lit is still talklnrr nhont thnoa v n p. n bonds given about fifteen years ago ti mat iuau vy six townships in York county ($60,000 in ain - - u.tjiufi mat some action be taken to recover dam ages from that road or the Q, inasmuch as the consideration has failed. That is to say, the bonds were given to se cure a road that would compete with the Q, and now that the Q has ab sorbed it3 competitor, the townships have a cause of action for damages. What is the matter, Dan? Have the Sedgwicks so hypnotized the people of York county that you can't get some taxpayer with grit enough to begin thi action? Or are the county attorne and township officials at fault? How ever, keep hammering away you will get somebody to move bye and bye.