I I
ijvOL. VL LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1895. NO 37
W.
SO MOVES THE WORLD.
MW sleep and wake and aleep, bat all thing
DOTC i
Tba Ban DIM forward to his brother 8nn ;'
The dark Earth follow, wheeled In taw ellipse;
and ha man things, returning on themaelTes,
Mots onward, leading op the golden jear."
Highway robbery is becoming common
on the street of Chicago.
Bank failure at Superior, Neb. Hard
-time depreciated securities.
The gold bugs of London are suffering
(loss of interest) from the plethora of
gold there.
Senator Ringdal of Minnesota is op
posed to paying ten dollars a prayer for
a three minutes exercise of the chaplain,
and would abolish the office.
Dr. John P. Coyle, the successor of Rev.
Myron Reed as pastor of the Denver
First Congregational church, who was
reported dying of rheumatism of the
heart, is recovering.
The Broadway Tomple Association of
Denver has been incorporated "to em
ploy the Rev. Myron Reed to stand up
unafraid and say how things seem to
him in Denver and elsewhere."
At the Sbeffier coal mines the men have
returned to work for six months at 45
cents a ton, the price that iron machines
cesld be used to dig it. ("Iron law of
wages," so to speak.) Hitherto the men
have been barely able to live with the
. price at 69 cents per ton.
Mrc. Tan Rensselaer, writing in the
v . current Century, states that "among the
v 185,595 families not persons regis
tered by the Charity Organization Soci
ety as asking for help during a recent pe
riod of eight years, more than fifty per
cent were honestly seeking work and find
ing none."
(The Civic Federation of Chicago has
adopted a resolution which declares
: "that there can be no permanent correc
' tion of congressional, legislative and
r municipal corruption until the present
i district or ward system of representation
iHe abolished and the proportional system
of representation substituted therefor."
The New York Independent of Feb. 7th,
contains a series of articles on. "The
Strife between Labor and Capital, What
is its Solution to Be? by six writers,
among whom are Bishop Huntington of
the Episcopal church, Bishop Newman
of the M. E. church and Alonzo Giles
Hollisterof the New Lebanon (N. Y.)
Shakers.
An Omaha painter named Jacobs. One
year out of work. Wife attacked eight
months ago with consumption. Five
children, oldest nine. Doctor's bills, rent
and food exhausted savings. Too much
elf respect to beg. Wife has hemorrhage
and dies. Children run sobbing trom dead
.j'' mother's side out to the neighbors, and
then neighbors come in and find the
family has suffered poverty in silence,
and done without the actual necessities
of life. There are hundreds of thousands
such cases in America.
Chadron, Neb., Is to have a beet sugar
factorv. Capitalists required a bonus ol
i $30,000 in cash and deeds to 16,000
" acres of land valued at $10 an acre, alto
gether $ 190,000. The contract calls for
i a factory with a capacity of 250 tons oi
beets a day and farmers must be paid $5
a ton for beets. The syndicate contem
plates building glucose and starch fac
tories and it is anticipated that several
hundred thousand dollars will be spent
to get the plants in operation; Yes, but
this bonus is an enormous price to pay
men to run a private business.
Famine is threatened in the district of
Hungary southeast of Budapest and
) great disorder prevails in consequence.
The soldiers have charged upon the fam
ishing rioters with fixed bayonets.
i Eleven coal miners killed at Ashland,
. Pennsylvania. Miners werenot to blame.
Died for their country, did they? Well,
not exactly. They died for the men who
' hired them, for the wages they got. Had
f the government owned the coal mines
V' they would have died for their country,
for all, and their wives would have been
peusioned. No gratitude, even, goes now
to the poor miner who perishes that the
people may have coal to make them com
fortable. They were hired to die for all
men for the wages men will (must) con
tract to take the risks and work for.
Mrs. Rensselaer writing in the Febru
ary Century of People in New York says:
"Do you grasp the real meaning of 'no
work' in families where a day's wage are
1 but for a day's bard fare, and leave no
penny over? Can you appreciate the un
speakable danger, moral as well as
physical, involved in the fact that among
150,000 women who, in our town, earn
, . their living, and often the living of men
' and children too, the average wage
not the lowest, but the average where
some are paid pretty well is only sixty
cents a day? Have you tried to under
stand the tenor of lives like those of
seamstresses who get from twenty to
thirty-five cents a dozen for making
flannel shirts, and a dollar and a half a
dozen for calico wrappers? Or to fancy
how it must feel to labor for such pit
tances in cold and semi-darkness from
four in the morning until eleven at night?
Or to estimate their purchasing power
when coal must be bought by the bucket
at the rate of twenty dollars a ton, and
i rent in the vilest purlieus must be paid
iat a nigner ratio upon the invested cap
ital than is asked on Fifth Avenue?"
Improve your time by getting up a
elub for The Wealth Makers.
THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
Oftbe Farmer In the Existing Indus
trial Organisation
(CONTINUED.)
Address of Prof. William A. Jones ol Hastings
before the annnal meeting of the Nebraska Far
mers Alllanes at Kearney, January. 1895.
One roan may get two dollars a day;
another, in a different market, or coun
try, one dollar. The latter may be able
to live better than the former. If so, his
real wage is higher at the price of one
dollar a day than that of the first at
two dollars a day.
The fourth factor of distribution is the
government, which takes directly and in
directly by force of law such part of the
wealth as is necessary to pay all ex
penses of government, national, state,
county, township, schools and road, dis
trict and municipal expenses. It takes
this, not only for current expenses, bnt
to pay all public debts, and interest
thereon. The more extravagant and
reckless the government, the more the
taxes, J. e., the larger the distribution
hare taken by the government. These
urns amount to thousands of millions
of dollars every year.
These immense sums, like rent, interest
and wages, must come out of the pro
ceeds from sale of the products of the
productive industries. But this is not
the only way in which government is a
factor of distribution.
"The government exerts its influence
through the laws affecting persons and
property."
It may be mentioned here that the the
ory of this paper is that all rights of
property and of persons are derived from
the state. This theory involves this con
ception which has two phases an objec
tive and a subjective one. Objectively
viewed it is the coercive power of the
state that creates, defines, and enforces
the rights of property and of persons.
Subjectively viewed it is the end or pur
pose the state has in view and which it
wishes to attain which leads it to create,
define and enforce these rights.
The end or purpose of the state de
pends on the ethical and political devel
opment of the Bocial class which rules the
state at a given time.
But the state and the government are
not the same thing. The state in the
universal sense is the organic unity of
the race. Or, the same thing stated
from an ethical standpoint is, the state
is the brotherhood of man. In a partic
ular sense a state is a portion of the or
ganic unity of the race of the brother"
hood of man occupying a definite por
tion of the earth's surface and living un
der one form of government.
The ethical idea is the sovereign organ
izing idea. The justification for consti
tuting different natious is found only in
the fact that the organic unity of the
race the brotherhood of man will be
thereby better promoted.
See Declaration of Independence for
twenty-seven reasons why a new nation
should be born, and theappeal to a "can
did world" i. e., to the moral sense of
mankiud.
The government is the whole body of
constituted authority. The persons who
occupy government positions are elected
by a political party. Hence the "social
class," under the name of a political
party, administers the government in a
way to realize their own aim or purpose.
If the government of a party is such as
to promote the brotherhood of man it is
a good government. If otherwise, it is
not a good government.
If the above statements are true, we
are in a position to judge of the policy of
a dominant party which has placed the
class farmer in its present economic po
sition. It may be of advantage here if I point
out the legal personal rights that have
been sanctioned by the state.
I shall quote freely from the "Distribu
tion of Wealth," by Prof. John R. Com
mons of Indiana State University, and
at the same time recommend every sub
ordinate Alliance in the state to study
the book. It is one of the best contribu
tions to the subject the distribution of
wealth that is available to all the Alli
ances. It is strictly scientific, but it is
high time for the Alliances to graduate
from the primary grades of economic
thinking into the higher scientific grades.
The farmers as a class have allowed "the
other fellows" to do their thinking.
Thousands of them are still indulging in
that luxury.
"Legal personal rights are (1 ) the right
to life; (2) the right to liberty; (3) the
right to employment; (4) the right to
marriage."
That "all men are endowed with cer
tain inalienable rights, among which are
life, liberty and the pursuitof happiness,"
etc., is a proposition quite familiar to the
American people; although, as stated,
it seems to be based on a different con
ception of rights from that stated in this
paper. But that the right to employ
ment is an inalienable right seems quite
new and shocking to the private proper-
(Contlnaed on i'rd page.)
The Land Qnestlon Greatest
Editor Wealth Makers:
Being a constant reader of your paper,
it is hardly necessary to say that I am
much interested in the issues discussed
by The Wealth Makebs; bat, although
I am a Populist, I cannot agree with you
in each and every thing. For ., instance:
that the money question is the most im
portant of all questions and that wih
the money question settled right good
times and prosperity will again bless the
American people. I will say I don't be
lieve such will be the case.
The money question, in my mind, is
only a question of difference between the
creditos and the debtor classes.
In considering this question we must
always remember that the value of the
dollar must never be changed by legisla
tion, because whenever we do so we do
an injustice to somebody, whether such
value be made smaller by inflation or
greater by a contraction of our currency,
I favor a currency that will retain the
same value at any length of time, a cur
rency that shall be kept increasing in
proportion to increase in population and
business; but I am just as much opposed
to changing the purchasing power of the
dollar by inflation, as to what is now be
ing done by contraction, or rather non
increase of currency.
Most people' believe that with more
money in circulation, money would be
cheaper and interest rates lower, so peo
ple by having less interest to pay would
soon get out of debt and the country be
prosperous. Would this be so? Let us
ee. '
It is a fact that nearly all the people
aim to get a home; that is, a place to
live where they can provide for their fam
ilies independent of any landlord or other
creditor. Under existing conditions,
however, a man can hardly get such a
home, providing he is poor when he ar
rives at manhood. If he makes a liv
ing by farming, he will either have to
rent a farm or buy one, which is about
the same; the rent he is required to pay
is one-third, and now often two-fifths if
he pays share rent, otherwise money rent
figured at the same rate; if he engages
in business about a town he must work
for others, and produce enough over and
above his wages so that it will allow his
employer a reasonable profit (equal to
the amount taxed out of his fellowmen,
engaged in agricultural business, for the
use of the land). Now if a man don't
wish to move about renting farms, he
may buy one, but the price of the farm
will always correspond with the net rent
the farm will bring. For example: if one
third rent of a piece of land is equal to
$200, and money brings 7 per cent inter
est, the piece of land is worth about $2,
700, with an allowance made for tax;
now if money were made more plenty
and we accept the theory that interest
rates would be lower, would not the
price of that same piece of land be in
creased? I think so, and I believe that
an increased circulation and lower inter
est rates would only result in more land
HpHcuiution and more indebtedness on
the part of the American people; to
prove this it can be shown that in so
called prosperous years mortgages and
bonded indebtedness always increase
faster than in years of hard times.
I approve of the plan of establishing
government postal saviugs banks where
people can deposit their surplus cash for
safe keeping, but I am opposed to the
government going into the bauking busi
ness on the usury plan, to my mind
money should only be used for the one
purpose it was made for, namely: a
medium of exchange; and such legisla
tion should be enacted that people could
get a home without going into debt, or
having to pay a tribute to their fellow
citizens. To do this we must have gov
ernment ownership of land, or the owner
ship of land should be so limited that
every citizen could get a piece of land
without cost, upon which he could settle
and work for himself and family, receiv
ing the full product of his labor, only
paying his share of the public taxes.
The next thing would be (as our plat
form properly demands) government
ownership of railroads. With the gov
ernment operating the railroads, giving
us transportation at cost, people could
exchange their products without having
to give a great share of their products
away to pay dividends and profits on
actual as well as fictitious investments,
thus taking from money another chance
to enslave the people.
Also let the government own the coal
mines and oil regions, giving us fuel and ,
ngnt at cost.
With these and other measures enacted
into law it occurs to me that the money
question would dwindle down and become
a very unimportant question.
To my mind even a right solution of
the money question will never do a great
deal of good until the land question is
settled right, as even, if the best financial
system, government banking, could suc
cessfully be put into operation and carri
ed out, so people could borrow money
lor neuny nouiing, thus driving private
money lenders out of the business, what
is to hinder them from taking possession
of the lands and then extort from the
people high rents, so making tenants of
our farming population. The land ques
tion la undoubtedly tne an-important
qnestlon. With the land question settled
right nearly all questions would be settled
The labor question would be settled; be
cause, when people could not find profit
able employment in the shops or In the
factory they would go to farming in
place of destroying property, no man
would be unemployed, no tramps any
more, people would not have to steal to
get bread, honorable employment could
be had by all, all people would have to
work for their own support, thus making
shorter hours and easier work for all;
children could be sent to school in place
of to (he factory to work; we would have
leu insanity, less drunkenness, fewer
crime committed, less worry and more
and more pleasure.
Let the people be educated and our
motto be: "Homes for the homeless."
MattStebdp.
Gresham, Feb. 5, 1 895.
Pojnter Seconds the Motion
Albion. Neb., Feb. 12, 1895.
Editor Wealth Makers:
'. In your issue of the 7th, inst., I notice
a "Farmer's Trust Motion" by "D." I
want to raise a second to that motion. I
have contended for a long time that this
is the only practical way to bring pros
perity to the farmers in any reasonable
time. We bad this plan almost com
pleted in the palmy days of the Alliance
Had the farmers said at that time, we
will wait before we sell a bushel of grain
till it reaches a price agreed on, the pro
blem would have been solved. We got
switched off from this plain practical
plan into politics and here we are yet
in the soup. Had we obtained remunera
tive prices in the three or four proceeding
years this terrible drouth would not have
brought such calamities.
Agree on some price and just wait till
we get it this is plaiu, simple and effec
tive. V. J. JrOYNTEB.
Who Kales This Nation? "
, A complete history of the last ten days'
dealings between our bankrupt nation
and the house of Rothschild would open
the eyes even of the rreat, blind, obsti
nate, conservative, American public and
stir them to action against those insid
ious destroyers of our country's welfare.
One or two steps only are known, but
they are full of significance. Last week
Sunday morning August Belmont, the
New York representative of the Roths
childs, a man who was educated in their
London bouse and has their confidence,
took the express for Washington. On
his arrival, with every precaution to se
cure secrecy, he was driven to the White
House and was closeted with the Presi
dent all day, no one else being admitted.
A rapid succession of cablegrams to the
bankers of Lombard street, lasting all
day, was the only immediate result, till
Monday morning, when came the infa
mous proposition to tie another knot in
the cord which binds and is already al
most throttling the producers of our
country. This latest proposition for re
lief (?) from our Jewish taskmasters (via
the White House) is to retire our green
backs, the only real competitor with the
national bank currency, issue bonds pay
able in gold coin only, and thus "estab
lish our national credit," as Mr. Micaw
ber paid his bills by giving another note
of hand to his creditors. Luckily, al
though there are plenty of "boot-lickers"
in Congress, there is also a sturdy band
of independent men who know that our
country's financial independence hangs
in the balance and they stand ready to
defend it at any sacrifice. The President
found bis message was going to be fought
tooth and nail and its chances of suc
cess greatly diminished. Straightway
the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
was disoatehed to New York, Mr. Bel
mont was consulted and more cable
grams from London followed. Now a
dispatch from that city states that "the
Kotbscbilds are preparing to issue united
States Treasury notes." W hat possible
villainv this may portend we cannot
state. We knew our dependence and sub
serviency to the British. Shylocks. but
that they could issue Treasury notes for
our government is beyond our ken un
less they are about to foreclose a mort
gage on the mint and are now going to
rnn the government openly as they have
sub rosa for the past two yerrs.
If any one imagines that this financial
matter does not directly concern him, we
would like to point out two immediate re
sults of the President's message. Cash
wheat on the Chicago Board of '.trade
dropped from fifty-three to forty-eight
and three-fourths cents; the lowest point
ever touched, just as it dropped last year
on the repeal of the Sherman law; and
futures in cotton on the Liverpool mar.
ket dropped from five to four cents. That
is to say, the Liverpool cotton brokers
bet on the strength of tho President's
message that cotton will strikefour cents
before fall, and having wagered money
on it they will work to bring it about.
One more fact and we are done. Live
stock statistics for January, '95, show
an aggregate value of $2,922,600,000 for
all the live stock on farms in our coun
try as against $2,262,400,000 last year,
a shrinkage of $340,000,000, or fifteen
percent. This is a shrinkage not in
numbers but in values, understand, and
to whose score are we to charge it?
Farm, Field and fireside. 1
The Itemed) for the Strife)
M ALONtO GILES HOLLIITKR.
Of ths New Lebanon, (N. T.) Shakers.
The best and only complete remedy is
for the people to act from love of the
neighbor, in lieu of supreme love to self.
Let this motive be sought by teachers
and people, and let the following reforms
be introduced, then labor troubles will
cease.
In business that brings profit, labor
should be reckoned as capital, and the
laborer should receive a fair share of the
profits. Some people cannot set them
selves to work, others can organize and
direct vast enterprises, requiring thous
ands of people to execute them. Can we
suppose that He who said "Love thy
neighbor as thyself, "endows one with ten
talents, or five, to prey upon, or to ag
grandize himself at the expense of his
neighbor of one talent? Nay, indeed
not. The intent seems to be that each
shall be the complement of the other,
and that they shall co-operate and share
the results between them.
The laws o! usury should be so changed
that banking, which produces nothing,
would not be from five to fifty times
more profitable than wheat raising,
which produces a needed something. In
terest draws like a blister, and eats like
a canker, whether anything grows or is
made to meet the demands of interest or
not Crops may fail, business stop, labor
cease to be in demand; but intereetgrows
on, heaping np fortunes, taking from
one what it gives to another, and often
est making the poor poorer and the rich
richer.
The laws of banking and usury have
been devised by avarice, to feed a maw
which enlarges, like Hell, the more it is
fed; not to defend the weak from the
crafty greed of the strong, as law should.
Avaricehae an insatiable appetite, which
ought to be thwarted, rather than en
couraged as it is, by law. In countries
loudly boasting their civilization and
Christian culture, the laws place nocheck
upon the insatiable greed of avarice, but
allow it to go on robbing the unfortu
nate, and accumulating forever. Those
who own the land levy any amount of
tax they choose on the industry and
thrift of toilers, and compel them to
serve for the ease and luxury of their
owners. The season of judgment is
here, and injustice can no longer thrive
without incurring swilt retribution.
Judgment is entering the people, and
those who teach lies to put gold in their
pockets will fall under contempt and
obloquy.
The Mosaic law divided the land and
gave to every family a perpetual inherit
ance. Jehovah said: "Theland is mine;
it shall not be sold forever." It might
be leased for a larger or smaller price,
according to the years it had to run till
the fifty-year jubilee. At the jubilee, all
debts were canceled, and all lands that
had been sold reverted to their original
owners. The land could not be alienated
from the family. This was a wise arrange
ment, to curb avarice and bind its power
to enslave the people. The laws of land
should fix a reasonable limit to men's
landed possessions, and also to the exac
tions of interest After the amount of
the principal has been twice or thrice
paid in interest the debt should be deem
ed canceled.
The manufacture and sale of intoxicat
ing beverages should be made indictable
offenses, and property in such beverages,
lor saloon purposes, should be outlawed.
A license to sell intoxicating drinks is a
license to commit murder, to sell the
Devil, to sell moral poison and be a re
cruiting officer of Hell. It is a license to
sell poverty, vice, contention and crime
of every description. It is a license to
sell despair, to blast the prosperity oi
the community, to destroy the peace of
families and break up households, to en
courage wife beating, to rob children of
rood and shelter, and convert their natu
ral guardians into ferocious wild beasts
It Is a license to manufacture paupers
and idiots, to increase the tax sevenfold
and reduce the number of taxpayers, by
converting industrial people into shift
less wights and drivelers. Wo to the
man that puts strong drink to his neigh
bor's lips. The manufacture and sale of
tobacco and opium, for other than medi
cinal uses, is but little less vile: for the
unrestrained use of either and all of these
defaces the image of Ood and qualifies
tneir slaves lor anarch v. treason, piracies
and spoils.
I be laws of election should be so
changed that wise minorities can be re
presented in legislative bodies. Thev
should be so arranged that a few men of
sinister purposes cannot select the entire
candidacy to be voted for, nor carry any
election by fraud. Unrefornied criminals.
paupers, habitual drunkards, the com-.
pieteiy illiterate, and such as are known
to have sold their votes, should be de
barred from voting.
Government should create full legal-
tender notes sufficient to pay its debts,
and issue them directly to the people,
through its employes. Banks of issue as
now conducted are parasites that foster
(Contioued on 5th page.)
IN THE LEGISLATURE.
Tki But Thing to Report It That lothing
la Being Dona,
THE OLEO BILL WILL BE PASSED
The .Relief Muddle Begging Commit
tees Being Sent Out Farther Ap
propriations Needed Four Mow
Appointments
Powers Deputy Labor Commissioner
The legislature reconvened, after the
long adjournment, on Thursday, at 8
o'clock, and both bouses immediately
adjourned out of respect to Speaker
Richards, who was suddenly called home
to attend the funeral of bis little child.
Both houses met again on Friday
morning, but at noon the senate ad
journed over to the following Monday
afternoon.
The house remained in session both
Friday and Saturday. Most of the work
done was of a routine character, leaving
little interest to the general reading pub
lic. On Saturday the oleomargarine bill
came up and a special order was made for
the following Tuesday, A resol ution was
introduced by Howard (Dem.) to endorse
Representatives Bryan, McKeighan and
Kem for their votes against Cleveland's
gold bond scheme, and it was referred to
the committee on resolutions by an al
most strictly party vote, the Populists
and Democrats all desiring immediate
action. The resolution will probably
come up again Monday or Tuesday.
, BELIEF MATTERS. ',''
The relief commission has moved its
headquarters to the state house. It
seems that the commission has at last
awakened to the stupendous work be
fore them. Here it is four or five
months till anything can be raised, sup
plies nearly exhausted, and the demands
growing heavier everyday. Because ol
the slowness of the commission and tho
fact that Rev. Mr. Ludden cent word
back east that enough provisions, order
ing in some cases that shipments already
to be sent be withheld, supplies from tho
eastern states are rapidly falling off.
It has been found that the bond bill
for furnishing feed and seed is objection
able and will not apply in many of tho
counties concerned, so that it now seemo
probable that the legislature will be re
required to appropriate another fifty or
one hundred thousand to help out. '
It now seems that it will be necessary
to send out begging committees from
most of the afflicted counties, to go east
and ask for help.
It is said that the commission is hold
ing nearly all the $50,000 recently ap
propriated by the legislature, to pay
freight to the railroads, which are now
refusing to haul the relief supplies free. -The
trouble with this whole relief mat
ter is that it has been made a botch from
start to finish. The legislature should
have fired Ludden when it framed the
new bill.
It may be said to the credit of the
commission that it is doing better work
now than ever before. The trouble is
that most of the harm has already been
done, and is irreparable.
Meanwhile the western farmers are liv
ing in some way. Ood only knows how.
NEW APPOINTMENTS.
Four appointments have been made
during the past week, as follows: Deputy
Labor Commissioner, John H. Powers of
Hitchcock county; secretary labor bu
reau, J. A. Edgerton, Lincoln; deputy
oil inspector, first district, Major Daily,
of Nemaha county; chief janitor state
house, W. P. Guthrie, of Custer county.
Mr. Powers needs no introduction to the
readers of this paper. His appointment
is one that will meet with the general
satisfaction among the Populists of the
state. Maj. Daily, a long time ago, was
a Republican wheelhorse and was at one
time deputy C. 8. marshal. Mr. Powers.
Mr. Daily and Mr. Guthrie are all old
soldiers. J. A. E.
Gladstone a Populist.
"Populist ideas seem to be making
some progress in Europe. The sub-treasury
idea of loaning money on the pro
ducts of the soil is being discussed in the
German Reichstag and Mr. Gladstone, ths
ex-premierof England, bus expressed him
self as favoring a government issue of
legal tender paper money, based on the
credit of the country, than which he says
there can be no better money. He saya
further that such a currency wonld be 'a
far steadier and safer circulating medium
than gold.' He thinks this form of cur
rency would not fluctuate as gold does.
He favors cutting loose from the Bankc!
England and leaving it to hoe its own
row. Senator Peffer's stock should ad
vance a point ortwo, since Mr. Gladstone
advocates the issue of $500,000,000 of
government legal tender money." Kan
sas State Journal.
Dr. Davis, crown and bridge work, 11th ft 0.
i