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mm i 4 .
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VOL. VI.
A POPULIST FINANCIAL SYSTEM.
Our Exchanges are
This Plan in All Its Provisions.
iETTEB THAN CARLISLE'S PLAH
Tho Secretary of the Treasury has pub
lished a plan to get rid of what green
b"ks we hart left, and bestow upon
bjatkers alone the power to issue fiat
- mosey, money that has no intrinsic value
in it, but which, being clothed with the
power to make exchanges, they can loan
to the people and draw from them for
the use of mere pieces Of paper an enor
mous amount of usury and wealth. His
plan is unjust, unequal, unconstitutional.
It would be class legislation of the worst
, sort. A better plan for providing safe,
sound, sufficient currency must be found,
and we propose the following:
Repeal all laws permitting private cor
porations to issue, their notes for use as
money.
Enact a law providing that every state
may make and deposit non-negotiable
bonds in the United States Treasury in
sums not to exceedintheaggregatetwen-ty-five
per cent of the actual value of its
taxable property, and that for bonds bo
made and deposited as security, bearing
an annual revenue to the government of
J one-half of one per cent, it shall be per
mitted to draw from the Treasury ninety
percent of their face value in coin or
greenback dollars, which shall be full
legal tender for all debts public and pri
vate. .
By state laws that may beenactedsuch
state bonds shall be in quantity, dupli
cates of county bonds deposited with the
state treasurers, county bonds to be
issued to provide only what money each
county needs, and to be limited also to
twenty-five per cent of each county's
taxable property, and made to bear to
the state one per cent annual interest.
For each deposit of county bonds with
the State Treasurer the state shall de
posit the same emount of state bonds in
the United States Treasury, r the
money which shall be advanced nch
bonds shall be paid directly to thetfrop
er officials of the counties whose bonds
are deposited as security with the state.
The funds so provided and secured by
bonds shall constitute the capital for
county government bauks which shall be
ir. charge of regularly elected county
(bank) officials whose bonds shall be ap
proved in four times the sum the people
may have on deposit at any one time.
The presidents, cashiers and directors of
these public banks shall be paid reason
able, fixed salaries.
The counties shall each provide their
banking representatives the necessary
safety deposit vaults, fire proof safes and
other needed furniture, blank books, etc.,
to conduct the entire loan, deposit and
exchange business of the people of the
lounty, furniture to also include a com
plete set of abstracts of titles of all real
extate in the county.
TI19 county government banks shall be
fey law required to receive all surplus
cash which individuals may wish to de
posit, and to pay b'ack to depositors the
full amount of their deposits, but no in
terest shall be paid on such deposits.
Loans applied for shall be passed upon
by a board of three bank directors, who
must be agreed that the security is worth
at least double the amount of the loan
desired. Finding the security amply
sufficient, loans shall be made on im
proved farms in size not exceeding 640
acres, up to half their selling value, at
two per cent per annum. Oa homesteads
In town (lots built on and owned by th
parties living on them), niinin g towns
excepted, loans limited to 33 per cent
of their cash value shall be made at two
per cent. On business "'operty up to
83 per cent of its cash value loans aV
two per cent may be made, provided the
owner does not possess more than a half
block of such property. On warehouse
receipts for grain and cotton stored in
county, state orgovernment warehouses,
loans at two per cent may be made up to
50 per cent of their market value. Per
sonal security for thirty, sixty and ninety
days, or fractions thereof, may be taken
good repute, two of whom are established
Comparators Champions ot Morals.
Nebraska City, Dec. 16, 1894.
Bbotheb Gibson I did not get the no
tice of the meeting called for Saturday
and Sunday next, consequently I have
not time to enter into details on the sub
ject proposed, but I will say this much
at least.
Let it be distinctly understood that we
are the champions of morals! And that
the only object we have in view is to
plant a mission station in the center of
this world of competition, that threat
ens to entirely blot out of existence that
Divine teaching that admonishes us to
love our neighbor as ourselves.
And when we consider how few there be
that understand what that means, does
not the idea of mission stations all over
this land commend itself to every
tiwashtlstndfint ,pf. 8odplqgy?Jn
taking a backward glance at the past
Asked to Consider
in Dusiness in the community and pos
sessed of ample property to collect the
debt by law, such loans to be discounted
at one-half to one per cent.
Above rates to be reduced to cost ot
conducting the business when founf
above it, as doubtless would be the caw
as soon as all money came to be deposit
ed in the government banks and all loan
ing should be done by the people's
banks.
The above plan, would make losses ex
ceedingly small if adopted with all the
safeguards, profits even at these
rates, cut down to perhaps one
per cent, over labor cost, would
much more than make good such
possible losses. . The tax-payers would
thus be secured by the profits exceeding
losses, and by ample bonds against the
occasional dishonesty of an official of
their own selecting. The state would be
secured against any fraudulent or over
valuation of particular counties by a
state board of tax rate or valuation
equalizers and by the entire taxable
property of each county, and the nation
al government would be secured absolute
ly in its state loans by the state bonds
deposited in the U. S. Treasury. There
would be no more money called for (or
bonds given) than the people with secur
ity judge they individually need to em
ploy labor, and if money could be bor
rowed of county government banks at
rates, say, not to exceed one per cent a
year above the labor cost of loaning it,
all private money loaners would be driven
out of business, and their money would
either be turned into more labor-employl
ing capital or directly deposited with the
government and so would go into the
circulation without enforcing usury trib
ute. The volume of money would not be
greatly increased by the system we pro
pose, because with government banks
furnishing money at cost it would draw
all money not for the present needed bj
individuals to their care for absolute sf
curity, and when deposits exceeded de
mauds bonds could be paid off and can
celled. But an amount of perpetual state
bonds drawing only one-half of one per
cent a year and of county bonds dra ring
one per cent a year should be kept de
posited and not paid off, to supply se
curity to the government for whatsver
money can be used profitably as capital
and is needed in excess of coin to ioak
additional state charge would be some
more than the labor cost of this machin
ery of credit, but it would not be a bur
den, for it would furnish an income that
would reduce other taxation. There
would be no interest tax, except the
slight one going to the government. .
Now are there any who wiH object to
the above financial system.
Yes, the bankers will object to it; all
who own bank stock will call it frightful
names. It is not in their special interest,
as are the Baltimore and Carlisle plans
Were it to be enacted into law the money
power would be destroyed and honest la
bor would be enthroned. It would pro
vide capital at nearly labor cost for those
who new must pay from five to a hnn
dred per cent a year bonus for it. It
would prevent panics and periods of com
mercial paralysis and enforced idleness
and starvation. It is a just currency
system that would bring to the masses
unheard of prosperity, therefore the
classes, the bankers especially, will view
Jt with alarm and will frighten foolc
with their cries of, "Socialism!"
there are many of our old citizens can
well remember many things that will il
lustrate the working of a co-operative
colony.
Many of them can call to mind the
wool raised on the farm, carded, spun
and wove into cloth by careful mothers
and sisters, each member of the family
doing his best to advance the interest
and secure the comfort of the other mem
bers, each family producing for its own
use and having absolute control of the
primal necessaries of life. But all this is
changed. . Today our best efforts are di
rected to producing for profit. Then the
only object iu view was to produce what
tho family needed at home.
Now the question comes to us, what
shall we do?
The old Hebrew prophet gives us the
most plausible answer to tne question I
can think of, vis: "Stnnd ye in the ways
and ask for the old paths, where is the
f.Kns:fto! v tho remndv: Get Wk to I
I first principles! In otner worus, orgau-T
LINCOLN, NEB.; THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1894.
lie a co-opr.t.tvecolonvon the Christian
plan, all being "members one of an
other." Now I know some very good people
will raise serious objections to the move
ment, and if I had time, and space would
admit, 1 might be able to satisfy them of
the practicability of our plan of co-operation.
But I want to inquire as to our
fitness for the work in hand. Remember
ing our former education in the school
of competition, do we fully realize that
to succeed we must be born again? With
us old things must pass away; and if we
are to be the instruments in inspiring
others in the principles of co-operation, I
reiterate it, we must be born again. Self
denial is the keystone of the co-operative
arch, and upon our capacity to exercise
this virtue depends, not only our happi
ness as a family, but our perpetuity as a
colony. I might cite you to a few in
stances of the benefits of self-denial. The
patriotic women of '76 refused to indulge
in the taxed .tea of King George, al
though they idolized the fragrant bever
age. And perhaps there are those living
that can remember how the society of
Friends (Quakers) refused to be par
takers with human slavery by ignoring
all its productions, using only the pro
duct of free labor. Now are we ready to
separate ourselves from the world (com
petition) by a refusal to indulge in the
luxuries produced by monopoly. Now
do not understand me that this is a nec
essary test of fitness for membership in a
colony. I only mention these facts to
indicate the importance of this principle
of self-denial in securing ultimate success
as a colony devoted to the principles of
co-operation.
With my constant prayers to "our
Father in heaven," that His will may be
done on earth as it is in heaven, I am
fraternally yours, 8. Littlk.
IS IT ANTI-SOOIAL?
The Criticism of an Able Duluth
Newspaper on the Debs Decision.
The decision convicting Debs may be
good law the court is the final judge in
that matter. But it is very much to be
regretted, for it is retrograde, and anti
social. If it stands it has done a serious
harm.
For in holding that a man may be
punished for ordering a strike it denies
for the first time the right to strike,
since a strike without leaders under pres
ent conditions is an absurdity.
And the right to strike is the sole de
fense of labor organizations, no matter
bow unfortunate strikes in general or in
particular may be. -
Workingmen will organize and will
strike at times because they must. It is
necessary and it is their right, no matter
what the law says.
Then if the law forbids them to do it
by open methods they are bound to take
secret methods.
If this decision stands every strike is a
conspiracy and every labor organization
stands on the same footing as the Mol
lie Maguires. It is an untenable posi
tion. It is a monstrous attitude to
ward society in which to place the men
who are the foundation of the state.
In the open labor organizations have
made steady progress toward better
methods and have steadily left behind
violence and sneak warfare. Forbid them
to take such action as they think neces
sary exception pain of imprisonment, and
you compel them to fight in the dark
and invite them to use the weapon ol
darkness.
In the open they have worked, forward
until the trades assembly iu Duluth in
vites the newspapers to report its pro
ceedings it has nothing to conceal. A
growing sense of responsibility is the
natural consequence and fairness is bred
by the practice. Declare that their asso
ciations are outlaw and they have no re
uource but to do as outlaws do, to be
come irresponsible and lawless as the
Sugar trust or Staudard Oil itself.
It may he good law; but it is false so
cially, and if it is not reversed by the
higher court it will be reversed by the
highest court of all that makes the
laws. Duluth Commonwealth.
One Hope Lef t-
Tbe second was despondent
"The
other fellows have agreed
terms," he faltered. The
was obviously disconcerted,
to our
pugilist
but his
at once
buoyant, courageous nature
asserted itself. "There is
yet a
chance," he exclaimed, joyfully "the
governor of the state, you know."
Thus despair was eventually com
pelled to take flight
Holiday Rates via the Burlington
Route.
December 22, 23, 24, 25 and 31st, and
also on January 1st, tickets to points
within 200 miles will be on sale at rate
of fare and a third. Minimum rate 50
cents.
Tickets and information at B. & M.
depot or city office, corner 10th & O St
A knowledge of Double Entry Book
keeping is the very foundation of busi
ness success. You can employ your leis
ure moments at home in acquiring
knowledge of this valuable science and
qualify yourself for a good position.
The National School of Book-Keepino,
232 Union Trust Building, St. Louis, Mo.
have pupils in allB parts of the country.
You 8nould write for Particulars,
MEEK
Visitors from Over the Sea Speak fot
International Union.
PLATFORM VIRTUALLY POPULIST-
Headquarters Removed to Indianapolii
, Go m pert Retires and MeBride
. y
' of the Minus' Union
i Made President. ,.-
The Action of Woods Donounced,
' ; The American Federation of Labor, at
its annual convention at Denver, just
held, elected John MeBride, president of
the United Mine Workers', president of
the A. F. of L., in place of Samuel Gom
pers, who has for twelve years been at
the head of the great organization. Me
Bride is the man who led the great min
ers' strike of last spring, which called out
180.000 miners, and 50,000 or more
other associated or dependent . work
men. He is a stronger, more aggressive
leader than Gompers, a man of courage
and judgment, devoted to the interest ol
organized labor, and a man who sets his
face" like a flint against lawless violence.
In the convention were two elements,
the socialists and the "pure and sim
ples'," struggling for supremacy, T. J.
Morgan of Chicago , being one of the
chief ' leaders of the former element, and
McGuire of Philadelphia of the latter.
The conflict between these two parties
was not a decisive one. The defeat ol
Mrj Gompers was a victory for the radi-eaJV-and.the
defeat. of the preamble
committing the A. F. of L. to independ
ent political action, was a check upon the
Morgan-led party.
Burns, Benn and Holmes were brought
over from England and took part in the
proceedings of the convention. Gover
nor Waite, T. M. Patterson (editor of
the News) and Rev. Myron Reed of Den
ver, also Rosewater of Omaha, and
others, addressed the convention. 1 The
platform adopted, as near as we can
make out from the somewhat confusing
telegraphic reports, is as follows:
1. Compulsory education.
2. Direct legislation through the refer
endum. 3. A legal eight-hour work day.
4. State inspectors for shops and fac
tories. 5. Liability of employers for injury to
health, body, or life.
6. The abolition of contract system in
all public works.
7. The abolition of the sweating sys
tem. ,
8. The municipal ownership of street
cars, water works, gas and electric plants
for public distribution of light,' heat aud
power.
9. The nationalization of telegraphs,
telephones, railroads and mines.
The abolition of the monopoly system
of landholding and the substituting
therefor a titleof occupancy and useonly.
Resolutions were adopted denouncing
the sentence of Judge Woods, imprison
ing Debs and other officers of the Ameri
enn Railway Union for leading the strike
of last summer, and pledging them finan
cial aid and support.
The headquarters of the federation, by
vote, was removed from New York to
Indianapolis.
At tfie opening session of a new
chapter of the Daughters of the
American Re volution, recently formed
in Los Angeles, CaL , with Mrs. Jessie
Benton Fremont' as president, tea
wat brewed in camp kettles that are
felicitously believed to have been
used by Washington and Lafayette
in the Revolutionary war.
Will Yon Do Yonr Part?
Look on page 2 for our clubbing rates
with
The Nonconformist,
The Representative and
The Prairie Farmer.
Remember, friends, that we have to de
pend on you, your personal work, to put
our papers in the hands of the voters
Times are hard, but there is no reason
why every one of our subscribers should
not send us in at least one new name.
You could do it by a little personal work,
couldn't you? Then our list would be
doubled.
Friends, do your duty. Have we not
among all our thousands of readers, 500
who will make some friend or neighbor
who will appreciate it, a Christmas
present of a year's subscription to Thi
wealth Makers? The good you would
do them and others directly and indi
rectly would last through the ages.
3S&a4lMUe-S?)!t to respond?
THE DENVER
SOME FACTS ABOUT TRUSTS.
Methods Used to Crush Competition
1 Standard Oil Trust. '
In 1869 the Standard Oil trust, the
first of its kind, was organized. It was a
combination among the refiners of crude
petroleum in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
This scheme was attended with such as
tonishing pecuniary success that it was
in the course of a few years applied to
almost every kind of industry, says The
Trade Unionist. The proprietors of var
ious mills said to each other: .
"We are now spending large sums of
money in the race for business in adver
tising, in sending out drummers, and so
on. If we will only pool our property,
and put it under, one control, we shall
save all this expense; wecan also dismiss
many agents aud employes, and one
superintendent or cashier will do all the
work that is now done by twenty; and
we can charge what we please for our
products, for we shall then have no com
petition. In short, let us quit trying to
cut each other's throats, and let us be
gin to fight the public." This reasoning
resulted in a trust, and with the results
of trusts we are familiar.
As soon as the trusts are formed the
prices of the goods are marked up.and as
every increase in price means a decrease
in consumption, the production Of goods
is not so great as it was. Therefore cer
tain mills are closed, or are run on
shorter time, and workmen are told that
their services are no longer needed. The
profits derived from this proceeding are
phenomenal. Thus, on the establish
ment of the Standard Oil trust, though
the railways were carrying the products
of this monopoly nominally at the same
rates imposed on other refiners, they
paid the Standard Oil trust $10,000,000
in eighteen months in rebates that were
agreed on. The result was that its com
petitors were ruined, and idle factories,
old pipe lines no longer used, and busi
ness wrecks throughout the country give
evidence oi enormous economic waste.
The most marvelous thing was that by
its agreement with the railways the
trust not only secured and received a re
bate on. its own shipments, but also on
all shipments of oil made by other pro
ducers. A few years ago the Cotton
Seed Oil trust by a single stroke of the
pen reduced the price of cotton seed from
$7 to $4 a ton, thus realizing two mill
ion dollars per annum on that item
alone; the loss being sustained by the
planters.who raised the seed.
It would be of little use to put down
competition unless it could be kept
down. To accomplish the result, the
trusts resort to measures which are very
effective. If a number of men, say in the
south or west, couclude to begin the
manufacture of some article of necessarj
consumption, it, will not be long before
they receive a letter reading somewhat
as follows:
"We notice with regret that you pro
pose to start a factory in your place for
the purpose of making the commodities
which we are now producing in a man
ner acceptable to dealers. You are no
doubt aware of the fact that for many
years we have supplied your market
with articles of that kind. This we have
done at the lowest possible cost of pro
duction. Our duty to our customers as
well as to ourselves forbids that we shall
sit idly by and let our trade be taken
out of our hands. We therefore think it
proptr to advise you that if you persist
in your purpose we shall sell the articles
that we manufacture in your town and
country at much less than you can make
them for. Hoping that you will receive
this communication in the same friendly
spirit by which it is dictated, we remain,
etc."
This letter is signed by some well
known manufacturing firm, and means
what it says. On inquiry the promoters
find that while they can start their fac
tory with a capital of f 100,000, it will
take a million more to fight the battle
with monopoly; therefore they usually
desist. Occasionally a very rich man
may start an opposition factory; but in
that case there is no guaranty that if he
comes out safely from the conflict with
an established trust it will not very
soon disappear in the capacious bosom
of that trust, with a participation of the
extra 25 per cent that the trust levies on
the consumer.
It has sometimes been said that the ef
fect of the trusts is to bring down prices,
owing to the greater cheapness with
which goods can be manufactured on a
large scale, and that the proof of this
lies in the fact that refined oil is now sold
for less than it was before the Standard
Oil trust was formed. In this statement
there is no truth whatever. It would be
strange if these trusts should forego the
very objects for which they were created.
The truth is that the price of oil has gone
down because the Standard Oil trust was
never able to corner the entire produc
tion, and has therefore always been sub
ject to the law of competition; and be
cause of the extraordinary development
of the oil industry in Russia, which has
reduced prices the world over.
But the evil does not stop here. Lord
Coke pointed out an evil effect arising
out of monopolies from the fact that the
public are defrauded by having goods of
an inferior quality imposed on them.
Those who have the absolute power to
fix whatever price they please on the
commodities that they sell may freely in
dulge that privilege without reference to
NO. 29
Send Us Two iier;
With 9. and yonr own
subscription will be ex
tended One Ye sir
Free of Cost. . .
quality. The result of our monopolies
has been that goods of greatly inferior
quality have usurped the "market of the
country, and have placed a stigma on
our products abroad, turning out in
some cases, as in the lucifer matches,
which have been put on the market for
years by the match trust, articles so de
plorably bad that nothing like them can
be found elsewhere in the whole world.
Judge Cooley, whose opinion has al
ways been listened to with respect, says :
"A few things may be said of trusts
without danger of mistake. They are
things to be feared. They antagonize a
leading and most valuable principle of
industrial life in their attempt not to
curb competition merely, but to put an
end to it. The course of the leading
trusts of the country has been such
as to emphasize the fear of them.
When we witness the utterly heartless
manner In which trusts sometimes have
closed manufactories and turned men
willing to be industrious into the streets,
In order that they may increase profits
already reasonably large, we cannot help
asking ourselves whether the trust as we
see it is not a public enemy."
While the trusts are thus making in
ferior articles of consumption, and sell
ing them at extortionate rates, they fre
quently declare that there is an "over
production," shut down their mills, turn
their workmen out of employment, and
wait until the needs of the public require
the payment of the coveted prices; the
phrase "overproduction" having with
them a technical meaning, which, being
interpreted, signifies that the trusts are
not making as much money as they want
to maker f::': ir", i--(-
Aladdin and Hie Ump Outdone.
The following is a copy of a dispatch
that was sent out from the city of New
York on Thanksgiving day:
"Orders were issued today, from the,
headquarters of the American Sugar Re
finery, in Wall street, to shut down all
the refineries of the company in Boston,
New York and Philadelphia. Fifty thou
sand operators will be thrown out of
work." . " -: .
We have often been told by politicians
and preachers that rich men are neces
sary to give poor men work. If this
theory is true, these fifty thousand men
have the right to mandamus the Ameri
can Sugar Refinery to take them back on
living wages and to enjoin it from turn
ing them off whenever it feels like stop
ping the output and raising the price of
sugar. , N
But this is not the main thought sug
gested by the above item. The startling
thing about it is the demonstration of
tho power and truth of magic. We have
been taught to discredit the story of
Aladdin and his wonderful lamp. This
hero of the imagination, by rubbing his
fingers on a certain lamp, could call up a
slave to serve him. But in the light of
the developments of modern commerce,
the story seems reasonable. In fact,
Aladdin's lamp and its miraculous feats
cannot hold a candle to the writing pen
of a millionaire. Here in New York we
have a man at the head of the sugar in
dustry, whose pen, rubbed a few times
over a common sheet of paper, can in
stantly have fifty thousand slaves do his
bidding. Verily there are things under
heaven and on earth not dreampt of in
Horatio's philosophy. Western La
borer. X
Mr. Bellamy Speak.
The New Republic one week ago critic
ised the proposition of Mr. Taubeneck to
reduce the demands of the People's party
to the money qustion, with a view to
gaining the vote of the pure and simple
free silverites. A "marked" copy of the
paper was sent to Mr. Edward Bellamy,
and the following vigorous letter in re
sponse to it has been received:
... mr. Bellamy's letter.
Chioopee Falls, Mass., Dec. 10, '94.
Editor of the New Republic.
Dear Sib: A copy of your paper for
the 6th inst. has been sent me with a
marked article, condemning the idea ol
committing the People's party to a one
plank silver money platform in place ol
the Omaha declarations. I agree entirely
with you as to the unprincipled and sui
cidal folly of such a plan. It would be as
wicked as it would be fruitless. Far from
limiting and reducing our demands, we
must, as you well say, extend and em
phasize , them. We must demand the
democratizing of our industrial and
commercial system by its collective own
ership and management in the public in
terest. Economic equality, as the only
adequate basis of political and social
equality, must be avowed as our goal.
Fraternally yours,
Edward Bellamy.