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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 1902)
8 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT, DECEMBER. 25. 1902. tbc Uebrasha Independent EiiKcIn, Hebraska. LIBERTY BUILDING. J 328 0 STREET. Erttred acccrdinpr to Actef CoiiRicssof March 2, 179, t( tl:c lofloffice at Lincoln, NebiasUta.as tccond-cla's mail matter. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. FOURTEENTH YE.lB. $1.00 PER YEAR When nakiiig jcniittances do not leave n cuty with news seucies, postmasters, etc., to le itiumded ly than. Tlcy frequency (r if et ct remit a difkrtnt en.cunt than was left with them, and the subscriber fails to get prot ercred t. Add i os all communications, and make all hait. n.oiiey orders, etc., payable to the tlebraska 'Independent, Lincoln, Neb. Anonymous communication will not be notittd. Kejecttd manuscripts will not be tetuiued. Wild cat banking and rag money! Where, oh, where is the gold standard? And yet, you old sinner, there is no information at hand to show that there is a coal famine in hade3. Be good! Gosper county will bo "shy" about $446.15 in this school apportionment. It is that much less than the smallest ever made by fusion state officers. With Madden for third assistant and Loud for fourth assistant in the post master general's office, then editors of reform papers would have a time of it sure enough, and they say that that is what is going to be done. According to the dispatches from Washington the Fowler bill has been changed into a bill authorizing the is sue of an almost unlimited amount of "rag money" by the banks. What has become of the "gold standard?" The British and German govern ments are giving some new theories to the world in relation to the collec tion of debts. The way they do it is to destroy the debtor's property, then he will be sure to pay. A proposition is being discussed in Hartford, Conn., to close the churches and give the coal which is in their bins to the freezing poor who have no coal at all. In the old days the authorities in that religion forbade any artificial heat at all in the churches. The State Journal says that the enormous decrease in the apportion ment for common schools under a re publican rule is because "the holders have paid all back interest and prin cipal on the school lands." The mullet head in the state answers back: ' Yep, That's so. The more money a repub lican treasurer has, the less he can pay out." Rockefeller raised the price of oil 1 cent a gallon. Then he made a Christmas gift to the Chicago univer sity of $1,000,000. The raise of 1 cent a gallon on oil will net him during the next year about $30,000,000. But the Standard Oil trust must be a good trust because out of $30,000,000 of stealings, $1,000,000 is given to a uni versity. For the delectation of the million. aires, a Boston publisher is to issue an edition of the works of Paul de Kock, the nastiest writer who ever got into print.- It is to appear in 50 vol umes issued in various styles, the most sumptuous of which, to consist of a single set, is to cost $150,000. There are ten sets at $50,000. The sensuality of the Roman emperors can no more be compared with that of the American millionaires than their for tunes to the vast accumulations of the present day. 1MUKMC8 ADDRESS Perhaps it is not strange that bo many men have been thinking along similar lines since the last election. The letter of Mr. Houston, published last week, had been read and placed on the hook for the linotyper when the very next letter contained an ad vance proof of Chairman Parker's "Plan To Unite Reformers." Inspec tion will show that these two have very similar ideas as to what ought to be done. Taking The Independent's editorial, "Marion Butler, Listen," in issue of November 27, Dr. Reemelin's suggestion, Mr. Houston's l.tter, and Chairman Parker's aldrjss as a basis, ine Independent would suggest this: A joint call by Chairman Butler and Chairman Parker. State conferences on February 22, 1903. Selection of three or five delegates from each state to meet in national conference, with the various national committees of the present factions. National conference at St. Louis, February 22, 1904. Declaration of prlmirJes, selection of a committ:e end committee offi cers, together with adoption of a name and call for a national conven tion. Non-interference in state politics during the year 1903. If southern populists desire to "fuse" with the re publicans let them ("o P. If Nebraska populis s de:ire :o ".use' with .the democrats let them do it. The elec tion of a democratic supreme judge in Nebraska a man o t'r.e character and legal at ainments of Chief Justice Sul livanby the united effort of populists and democrats, need cot retard the movement toward united effort to se cure government nr. one and govern ment railroads. THE COAL FAMINE PUZZLE The shortage of coal all over this continent, in Canada as well as in tl 2 United States, is a puzzle still un solved. Montreal is suffering just as Boston and Washington are. A dis position is developing to 'lay, the trou ble at the doors of the railroads. A prominent citizen of Montreal remark ed the other day that "the coal in un limited quantities is at our very door; let cars be begged, borrowed or stol en as you will, let the government commandeer the mines if necessary, but let Montreal have coal, and plenty of it, at a reasonable cost." There are some facts known to all men and among them is that there is coal all over the United States in un limited quantities, there are trained miners, many of whom cannot get work, there has been no greater con sumption of coal this winter than usual, the railroads have greatly in creased their equipment in the last two or three years, and yet there is a scarcity of coal everywhere. Even in the little towns of Nebraska, one has to go to the dealers, beg for coal and then pay an exorbitant price to get it in very small quantities. Some days it cannot be got at all. So far, no one has attempted to give any reason why coal should all at once become so scarce. If we had a con gress that. was worth the powder and lead to blow it up, it would create a commission to investigate the subject and give the people the facts so that they could protect themselves in the future. It is the opinion of The In dependent that this famine in coal has been brought about by the precon certed efforts of the same men who have been forming trusts and that the directors of many of the railroads have had an active hand in it, for most of them have been in the trust promotion business up to their eyes. One thing is certain. There is "no necessity for a shortage in the coal supply of the United States. If pri vate parties have schemed to tleece the people in this way and cause the great suffering and loss that has en sued, the public should know it so that means can be taken for their pun ishment If the coal operators have not genius enough to supply the peo ple with coal, then the time has ar rived for the government to take pos session of the mines and prevent fu ture extortion and suffering. WHO AKK HIRELINGS? Some time ago The Indep?ndent re marked to the labor unions, business men and other parties who were hurl ing anathemas at Mr. Burt because of his action in bringing on the strike on the Union Pacific, that they were af ter the wrong man, that Mr. Burt was as much of a hireling as any man who worked in the shops and had to be more careful to obey orders than any blacksmith or boiler maker. The truth of that statement wa3 made evi dent last week when Mr. Burt had a private conference with the labor lead ers and asked them to delay further aggressive movements against the road until he could go to N;w York, confer with Mr. Harriman and see if something could not be done to bring the strike to an end. People ought to begin to see by this time that what The Independent has been telling them was simply "God's truth." Through the private ownership of railroads, ev ery business interest of the state of Nebraska is at the mercy of a few Wall street sharps. Harriman can give an order that would bring everything to a standstill in this si ate. It used to be Jay Gould who held that power, now it is Harriman. When Harriman dies, some other plutocrat will take his placo and exercise the same unlim ited power a power far greater than that held by any monarch of all Eu rope. Under such circumstances , as these, some wise men of Nebraska have come to the conclusion that "there is nothing to vote for." So they brag of the fact that they are "cornfield canaries" and stay at home on election day. The power of Wall street grows year by year. harriman's orders are more far-reaching than thoe of Jay Gould ever were. His extortions upon the producers are far gr.a er than those inflicted by Gould. Slowly the lines are closing in around us all.- But then there is nothing to vote1 for and we will content ourselves by husking corn on election day. ; i A PANIC TOIpER It seems that the Rockefellers, "Van derbilts and Goulds have become very tired of stopping panics, by putting up some millions every week or two as was told in The Independent last week, so they have organized a "panic stopper" with JfroO.OOO.OOO capital. The papers say that "the pool is not de signed to revive a wild-cat specula tion for the rise or to preserve solv ency where there is hopeless entan glement in insolvency; its aim is to see that no solvent interest is thrown down because of a temporary pinch in money." That fifty-million pool may serve for a while as a panic stopper, but something on a different line from that will have to be invented. An inflation t t of all reason of bank credits can not be remedied by providing more inflation furnished by a pool organ ized for that very purpose. That sort of a panic stopper may work for a while, but a few raids on it by the bears will wreck it. The organization of the "panic stopper" with fifty millions of capi tal is looked upon in Europe "as a public acknowledgement that the fi nancial position is renlly strained," as one correspondent lcc ted in Lon don expresses it. The National City bank has been making a desperate ef fort to import a li tie ? old and got a very small amount from France. For years, the gold stand rd countries of Europe, whene er th y got in a tight place, have fled to siivcr-itsin France for aid and now Wall street is reduced to the same expedient. THE PLUTOCRAT'S CREED The creed of the plutocrats has at last been formulated and officially promulgated. It is as follows: "It Is better for society on the whole that its surplus wealth fall into the hands of the few to be by them disposed of as they see fi;. -Given, then, a Etrong ssnse ol . trusteeship for the public on the , part of the wealthy few we have a better disposition of surplus riches in the present order of things than would be the case were, surplus wealth more evenly distributed." Under this creed it is better for thf public, that aldermen should be bribed, legislators bought at so muca a head, thousands of men ruined by favoritism on the railroads, that the people should be forced to pay extor tionate prices for the necessities of life and hundreds of millions accumulated in the hands of three or four men to be given away, than it would be to have hon;st city councilmen, upright legislators, all treated alike in the way of rates on the roads and men prevented from forcing the people to pay extortionate prices for the actual necessaries of life. It is by those means that these enormous accumula tions of wealth have been made. It is better for mankind that a few men should steal millions and then give away part of their stealings than that wealth should stay in the ownership of those who created it. That is the doctrine. This astonishing creed is attract ing the attention of economists every where. John A. Hobson, the distin guished English economist, attacks it at various points. He says: "It is not always easy to trace the origins of great wealth. U is sometimes accomplished by the increment of land values, by com binations to secure control of the market limit the output; by re bates and discriminations, tariff manipulations, lobbying to that end; by speculative coups, etc. "Those engaged in private char ities know the dangers of promisc uous giving. What about the pub lic? Has it no character to lose? Does not charity buy off justice? . .;. Is there no loss of indepen dence in this? I challenge any one to deny that these methods of getting money for public purposes do not awake in the receiver at any rate that sentiment of patron age which is the mortal enemy, of independence in an individual or in a city." We have a Carnegie-millionaire-gift library here in Lincoln. We do not know what the records show, but from occasional visits there it appears that it is not doing half the good to the public that the old library did. The common people look upon it as a place for the rich and they are not at home there as they were in the one that they themselves created and supported. Millionaire charities are alike a curse to the giver and receiver. IS IT A GOOD TRUST? And now comes tha Springfield (Mass.) Republican, following the ex ample of The Independent, and wants Te uuv to tell us whether the Standard Oil trust is a "good trust" or a "bad trust." It says that Rockefeller has raised the price of oil 314 cents a gal lon since the beginning of the hard coal strike and that he made 45 per c . on his investment last year, while capital generally did not make over 5 or 6 per cent. It don't think that "publicity" will mend matters. After giving the above facts in the case it remarKs: "Is the Standard Oil company, then, a gocd trust or a bad one? What says the president and all tne rest who are f al ' ing about trusts as lxnng good or bad? Here also is publicity. How effective is it in preventing extortion? Does the fact that Mr. Rocke feller gives a small part of his oil monopoly pains to education make the trust, a pond one, when other wise it would bo bad? Or if it is a good trust anyway, where can be found an example of a bad trust?" ratrouize our advertisers.