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About The Wealth makers of the world. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1894-1896 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1895)
VOL. VL LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1895. NO. 43 1 u ) SO MOVES THE WORLD. . W sleep and waka and sleep, out all thins noTi; The Ran flies forward to lilt brother 8nn : The dark Earth follows, wheeled In br ellipse; -And unman things, returning; on themselves. Hot onward, leading op the golden year." The State Bank of Stanton, Neb., baa gone into liquidation. The Michigan legislature will vote on woman suffrage this week. The Commercial Bank, the oldest in Cincinnati, failed March 27. There has been an advance in the gene ral range of prices for two weeks past. The Nevada legislature has passed a resolution endorsing the newBilver party. The Cuban insurgents number 10,000. Spain has sent 8,000 men against them. Depew has been selected to orate Com mencement Day at the Standard Oil Company's Chicago University. The Illinois legislature has passed a bill placing the municipal employes of Chicago under civil service rules. Women this week, for the first time in the history of Ohio, will be permitted to Tote for member a of school boards. The papers report that American boots and woollen goods are selling in England They have reduced American laborers and skilled workmen below the European . level. The General Electric Company and its only rival, the Westinghouse Eelectric, are negotiating for a consolidation of interests, by pooling their patents. It will make a gigantic electric trust. There is prospect of a war in Canada. Manitoba through its premier says the Catholic parochial schools will not be re stored. Thegeneral governmeut through the Ottawa cabinet has ordered that they eh all be, and its law is denned. The British House of Commons has voted to pay its members. Heretofore only the rich could afford to be lawmak ers, and so the laws have been made by as well as for the rich, A few labor mem bers elected bad to be supported by the voluntary contributions of their consti tuents. Gen. J. S. Clarkson is said to negotiat ing for the purchase of the Inter-Ocean, to make a free silver paper out of it. Clarkson is one of the most unprincipled politicians that ever cursed the country, but keen and able. He has long been editor of the conscienceless Des Moines Register. The New Orleans strikers, the Screw men's Union, are demanding to be per mitted (asa-union) to take contracts directly from the steamship agents, in the work of screwing and loading the bales of cotton. Tliey offer to do for 35 -cents a bale what the agents have here- tofore paid 40 cents to do, the saving being in doing away with oppressive con tractors and sub-contractors, useless middlemen. Siegel, Cooper & Co., of Chicago, are about to build another great department store in New York. The site will cost $4,000,000, the store $1,000,000. It will be seven stories high, and will house a business requiring the work of 2,000 persons. Besides the departments al ready included in their great Chicago store the New York building will provide a, restaurant, barber shop and buth rooms, a medical department and bank ing and safe deposit features. There are but two larger department stores in the world, Whitely's of London, and the Bon Marche in Paris. The latter is a co-operative business. Mr. Asquith, member of Liberal min istry, has introduced into the English Parliament a new truck bill and anew factory bill. The latter measure increases the already great power of the Home Office over all factories and workshops. It brings under public control not ouly common factoriesbut laundries, bake houses, docks, wharves, quays, building operations w here machinery is employed and tenement factories. It provides also for the securing of an irreducible minimum of fresh air for all workers, aud for in vestigation into all cases of accidents occurring in factories and workshops. The river Nile is to be dammed.making a lake over a hundred miles long, to pro vide water for irrigation purposes. Won derful improvements in irrigation in the lower Nile country have also been made in the last 13 years. In consequence it bids fair to be again in fertility the most productive portion of the world. A dozen miles above Cairo the Barrage, built across the Nile, holds up 13 feet of water which is conveyed to the land be low through canals, and after flowing over the land is taken off by great drains some of which themselves are rivers large enough for vessels. When the Nile in its whole length of 3,500 miles comes into control of one people its waters can be made to support an enormous popula tion. Ohio Inheritance Tax Declared Void Cincinnati, Ohio, April 1. The di rect inheritance tax levied by the last legislature was yesterday declared un constitutional by the Circuit court, which held It was In the nature of an excess tax upon the right or privilege of succession to property; also, that It was not uniform In Its operation. The state will lose much revenue under this decision. Subscribe for The Wealth Makes. BOUNTY BILL VETOED Bat Carried Over the Governor's Veto by a Big Vote THE 8EMT0R STEWART EPISODE District Irrigation Bill a Law Omaha Fire and Police Bill to Take Appoint ing Power Out of Governor' Handi is Vetoed The present session of the legislature is at last drawing to a close. The hour of final adjournment has been fixed at high noon Friday next, which, of course means sometimes Friday night or Saturday morning. BEET SUGAR BOUNTV. The great struggle of the week was on the beet sugar bounty bill with the re sult, that the bill, with the chicory amendment, is now a law. The governor vetoed, the legislature passed the bill over the veto and that ended the matter. The governor's veto message is one of the ablest state papers ever emanating from the Nebraska executive office. Even the friends of the bounty admit that much. He attacks the bounty as not beingalegitimateexpenseof government. He opposed taking money raised by gene ral taxation and giving it to a few indi vidual enterprises whose object is profit and gain. While he believed in encourag ing every new industry in the state, he did not believe in taking money out of one man's pocket and putting it into the pocket ot another. Many of the gover nor's warmest friends advised him to allow the bill to become a law without Lbis signature, while others even went so far as to advise mm to sign uw-suvuo cause it would become a law anyway. But Silas A. Holcomb is not that kind of a man. He possesses the courage of his convictions. Believing the bill to be wrong, he was man enough to veto it. The vote overriding the veto was 68 to 23 in the house and 26 to 5 in the senate In the house every vote for the bill was that of a Republican, every vote against it was that of a Populist or Democrat. In the senate two Populists (Crawford and Jeffres) voted for the bill and one Republican (Cross) against it. UNIVERSITY WILL HAVE A LIBRARY BUILD ING. The bill appropriating $73,000 to com plete the library building for the state university, has passed both houses and received the approval of the governor. It is understood that work on the build ing will be started as soon as the appro priation is available. STATE FAIR WILL REMAIN AT OMAHA. The bill permanently locating the state fair at Lincoln is dead. It was killed in the house last Thursday by a very deci sive vote. The basis of the action was not any hostility to Lincoln, but the fact that the state board of agriculture had entered into a contract with Omaha, which contract the legislature believed should becarried out. Stewart Meets Stewart. There was an occurence in the senate this week that everybody connected with regrets. Senator Stewart (pop) was making a speech in committee of the whole against a vicious measure calcu lated to cripple schools in the western part of the state. While Stewart was speaking, some Republican offered a point of order and Stewart refused to pause for it to be heard. The chairman tried to rap the senator from Dawes down, but it didn't go. The chairman then shouted to the sergeant-at-arms, whose name is also Stewart, to seat the doughty pop and the sergeant-at-arms did his best, but that didn't go either. The contestants were separated without the loss of anything except some dignity and whiskers, and nothing came of the affair except a voto of censureon Senator Stewart, though probably unmerited, he is abundantly able to bear. NOTES. The bill requiring an educational qual ification for voters has been killed. The governor has signed the district irrigation bill. The senate added $7,300 to the salary appropriation bill. The bill to create a bureau of immigra tion has been recommended to pass the house. It has been amended in such a way as nqt to interfere with the present labor bureau. The bill to take the appointing powers of the Omaha fire and police commission out of the governor's hands, has passed both houses and has gone to the govern or for his signature. The governor is al most certain to veto the measure and his veto messuge will probably go in on Monday next. It is not probable that the measure will be passed over his veto'. One more appointment has been made Dr. Danierell, of Red Cloud,- lor super intendent of the Hastings nR.vlum. Dr, Damerell was congressman McKeighun's candidate, aud by those who know him is considered one of the best physicians in the state. Dr. Steele, of Hastings, will probably be assistant superintendent and Hon. A. J. Scott, of Kearney, stew ard, of the same institution. The penitentiary committee has recom mended that the contract ot W. H. Dor gan be annulled and that the state take charge of all convict labor. All good citizens will pray that this recommenda tion may be adopted by the legislature. Governor Holcomb sent in bis veto attached to the Omaba Fire and Police bill April 1st, his message showing that it contained nothing ' to recommend it and that the old law is better than the new. Each feature of the propose! law is dangerous. It is a machine partisan measure of the worst sort. SAWDUST FOR BREAD Proposes to Feed the Poor Upon Wooden Bread A proposition has been made in Chicago, an d i t eman ates from a charitable society, to feed the poor upon bread made partly out of wood. It is asserted that in Ber lin there is a great bakery where two hundred weight of wood bread is turned out every day for popular consumption. The bread is made out of sawdust and rye flour three-fourths sawdust, A chemical process, it is said, takes away the texture and the taste of the sawdust and liberates the saccharine and nutri tive elements, and with a little rye flour, the compound makes nutritive bread, which is sold very cheaply. Twentieth Century. The saw mills of the gods be praisedl Here it is at lastl Bring forth the bread-pan, and let us beat a royal tattoo with the old iron spoon that mixed the dongh of our fath ers' bread. J Decorate the wood-saw with red, white and blue ribbonl Cover the wood-box in the corner with a dish-rag. And let us sing a song that will make the dishes dance in the cupboardl . .. j Man the pump-handle, saw down a hitching-post, and let the banquet be spread.- am-m mm s"" Away to the wild wood let the siren song of the murmuring leaves drive dull care away. ' - Give us sawdust straight no rye in ours! If a little sawdust is good, give us more. Let us feast upon the dust of our mon archs of the forest. The evergreen pine with turpentine sauce be our food forever. Let us prepare cookies from the dust of the cedars of Lebanon. Crullers from the crisp white ash. Fiapjacks of the young and tendersap ing. Johnny cake from the sturdy oak. Save your money and buy a Buzz-Saw and a gun. Buzz-Saw. Stand Up For Nebraska" This was the campaign cry of the Re publicans last fall. That party has ab solute control of the present legislature and it stands up for Nebraska in fine style. While the state has been receiving trainloads of relief supplies from abroad, the legislators have presented the sorry spectacle of "standing up," and reaching up and into the public treasury with a greea and a recklessness that should make an honest man blush. The legisla ture of New York has 43 employes, all told; Illinois and Indiana about thesame; but Nebraska pays $ 3 a day to the ab surdly large number of employes. The wealthy Empire State can afford but 43, but drouth stricken Nebraska puts on airs and employs 180. The number em ployed in New York would cost our state for 60 days $7,740. But, not satisfied with this niggardly amount, Nebraska finds places for a number that costs the state $32,400. Nothing small about this. We can call on New York to help our suffering farmers while we impose on them a needless tax of $24,700 for super numerary employes. This is standing up for Nebraska with aveugeancel Does it take four and a haif men in Nebraska to do the work ac complished by one New York? Do we employ incompetents? Do we employ men as copyists who have no experience in this line, and can write only at the snail's pace of a schoolboy? Do we put a man who has served us politically into any position we can possibly crowd him into, with no regard to qualifications, either natural or acquired? Is it incom petence, criminal extravagance, paying off political debts, or what is it? Will the Republican legislators tell us why this waste of about $25,000 has been in curred? Unless some satisfactory an swer can be given we should "stand up for Nebrarka" with both feet on the neck of every man who has voted for or con nived at this stupendous robbery. Ante lope Tribune. Kansas City Election Indictments. Kansas City, Mo., April 1. The jpeclal grand Jury, which has been in vestigating election fraud cases, re turned ten Indictments against alleged election thieves yesterday afternoon. Two of the Indictments are against Charles S. Owsley, formerly recorder of voters. Goverament banking explained in "Money Found." For sale at this office. Send 25c. GO V. HOLCOMB'S VETO A Menage ot Great Reasoning Ability ' . and Force of Truth Overridden EQUAL BIGHTS ABB DISREGARDED No Abler State Document Ha Evei Been Written. Populist Will Be Proud of Their Executive An Unconstitutional Measure ' To the Houorable, the House of Repre sentatives ot the State of Nebraska. I herewith return without my approval house roll No. 67, "An act to provide for the encouragement of the manufac ture of sugar and chicory and to provide a compensation therefor." This bill or iginated in the house under the title of "An act to provide for the encourage ment of the manufacture of sugar and to provide a compensation therefor," with all of the provisions as it now exists rel ative to the manufacture of .sugar from beets and the payment of a bounty therefor. After the bill had reached the senate an amendment was made to the title so as to include chicory, and the bill was amended so as to provide for the payment of the same bounty upon chicory manufactured from chicory beets as provided for the manufactureof sugar from sugar beets. The amendments thus made were concurred in by the house and the amended bill presented to me for ex ecutive action. This bill, in substance, provides for the payment of a bounty out of the state treasury of three-eights of a cent per pound for manufactured sugar or chicory from factories now established, and 1 cent per pound on the manufactured ar ticle from factories hereafter established. I am unable to approve of this act for the reason that, in my judgment, it is in the nature of class legislation and ot doubtful constitutionality. Through it, under the form of taxation, the sacred rights of property of the many are in " v&tted- and-thisir means taken to-advance the welfare of those only whoareengaged in the industry. The principle involved in the bill under consideration is not how to raise reve nues through the medium of direct or in direct taxation, but to what extent the revenues derived by direct taxation may, by legislative enactment, be diverted from the purposes of the ordinary ex penses of government and used in aid of enterprises of individualsor corporations which are not of a public character and thus aid in the individual interests aud personal purposes of profit and gain. While the constitutionality of the measure may be said to be an unsettled question and should perhaps be left to the courts to be finally determined, yet the great weight of judicial authority is to the effect that such legislation is un constitutional and unwarrantably inter feres with the property rights of the in dividual citizen. The principles involved are of vital in terest to every person who contributes to the revenues of the state. The right to take by taxation any portion of the property of any individual citizen for other purposes than that of defraying the expenses of the government may well be questioned. Theconstitution declares that the legislature may provide such revenue as may be needful by levying a tax by valuation so that every person and corporation may pay a tax in pro portion to the value of his, her or its property. This constitutional provision is undoubtedly intended to preclude the legislature from levying a tax for any other purposes whatsoever. A tax is a sum of money assessed, un der the authority of the state, on the person or property of an individual for the use of the state. Taxation by the very meaning of the term implies the raising of money for public uses and ex cludes the raising of it for private objects and purposes. If a tax may be collected for other purposes in one instance there is and can be no limit to the taxing pow er of the legislature, therebyjeopardizing the constitutional and inherent right of every citizen in the acquisition and en joyment of his property. There is no protection to the property rights of the individual if the legislature can compel a majority of the citizens to transfer to certain favored and selected individuals such portions of one's estate as they may deem expedient through the medium of direct taxation. An act passed by the legislature of this state to encourage the growth of timber and fruit trees by pro viding that there shall be exempt from taxation of the property of each taxpay er who shall, within the state of Nebraska, plant and suitably cultivate one or more acres of forest trees for timber, the sum of $100 annually for five years for each acre so planted and cultivated, involves the same principle as the subject under consideration. In this case, in order to encourage the growth of timber a very lauduhla object the legislature under took to reduce the amount of taxes which, under the constitution, each indi vidual would have to pay in support of the government. The supreme court de cided that this law was unconstitutional. To collect a tax to pay a bounty dis criminates against all who are not di rectly benefited and compels tbem to bear a greater burden than that contem plated by theconstitution. Similar cases involving this principle have been like wise determined by other courts, in cluding the highest judicial tribunal of the land. It has well been said in one of these numerous cases that if there i any proposition about which there is an en tire and uniform weight ot judicial au thority it is that taxes are to be imposed for the use of the people of the state in the varied and manifold purposes of gov ernment and not for private objects or the special benefit of individuals. Taxa tion originates from and is imposed by and for the state. The authority to indiscriminately tax the citizens of any commonwealth of necessity must be limited. There is and should be a clear line of demarcation be yond which the taxing power cannot go, Nebraska isayoungandthrivingstate. New industries are continually being es tablished. There is always connected with the establishment of a new industry more or less difficulty and uncertainty as to the success of the venture. All stand upon an equal footing. If the legislature has the power and adopts the policy of contributing to the success of these en terprises by giving bounties through the medium of taxation of all of the people there can be no limit, and the state, with its now depleted treasury, will Boon be bankrupt. I am of the opinion that the material interests of our growing young state and its future prosperity would be best sub served by abstaining from a policy that is fraught with such danger. If this pol icy is adopted many industries as deserv ing as the favored ones mentioned in this bill will doubtless be knocking at the door of each recurring legislature praying for the stimulus of a bounty to be taken from the pockets of the people. At each recurring session the legislature would be besieged with the representatives of differ ent industries, each clamoring for the smile of legislative favor at the expense ot the great masses of the people. The people of Nebraska hail with pleas ure the establishing of industries within the state. Every legitimate plant located means the employment ot labor and a stimulus to business in that locality. All fair minded citizens are loath to offer dis couragement to worthy enterprises, but the taxation of the people ot the entire state for the encouragement of a few in dustries in certain localities is wrong in principle and obnoxious to the people of the -tnte?rTbe theory of compelling the masses of the people to contribute through the offices of the tax gatherer to the support of any favored individual or corporation does not find favor with the great body of the people. Industries should stand upon their merit. If they can contribute to the ma terial welfare of the community in which they are located they should and do re ceive voluntarily the substantial en couragement from the people who are thus benefited, but no citizen should be compelled without hisconsentto support an industry from which he derives no di rect beueflt. If the theory of taxing the many for the benefit of the few is to be recognized, it is doubtful if the very laudable enterprises of manufacturing sugar and chicory should be entitled to greater'recognition than others. Boun ties can be demanded on the same prin ciple and with equal assurance for irri gated land, alfalfa fields, manufacturing plants and numerous other enterprises which contribute to the prosperity and development of the state and tend to better the condition of the people. I am firmly of the opiuion that the cultivation of sugar beets has come to Nebraska to stay, and every reasonable encouragement should be offered to the industries which have been located within the state at a great expense to the pro moters of the enterprise. For several years the test has been, made and the manufacturers are doubtless enabled at this time to determine whether the soil and climatic conditions make Nebraska a sugar beet producing state. If this question has been settled, why continue the bounty? If sugar beets cannot be profitably produced in this state, the state should not be called upon to make np the deficit. If the cultivation of the beets is to be profitable it needs no bounty. Its produetioiishould be placed on tho same footing with wheat, com, potatoes and all other agricultural pro ducts. The burdens of taxation are now especially onerous and the people are illy able to bear additional burdens. There are few communities in the state which do not possess some industry which benefits the residents in its vicinity, yet it is not reasonable to ask all the people to contribute by taxation to the various mills and factories located in al most every purt of the state. The bounty proposed by this bill is just only if it benefits all the people who pay the taxes. It cannot do that, and if it did the benefit would merely meet the expenditure and the tax would be a farce. But the law in fact; proposes to impose a burden on every taxpayer in the state for the encouragement of an industry which will provide a means of livelihood for a few hundred families. All legitimate industries within the state should be encouraged by wise and just legislation. Every industry should be protected by law. No legislation should be enacted calculated to injure any lawful enterprise. Each should be left to seek investments of capital and to become prosperous through the efforts of the owners. When this has been done legislation will have accomplished the purposes for which it was created and each citizen will be secure in the acquisi tion, posssesiou and protection of prop erty, which are among the chief ends of governments. Silas A. Holcomb, Governor. Executive Chamber, March 29, 1 8U5. AS IT IS Tut Truth About One Country Ii The Truth Oonoerning All debts nroBEAsnra everywhere Polttlcal Rottenness, Partisan Blindness, 8poils-Hnnting Demagogues Every Where, and the People Still Asleep Apparently From Investors' Review. The subjoined' letter from a correspon dent in Canada is black enough for us to wish it were false. Unhappily it is true, and we receive confirmation of the dark est points in it, from one source or another, by every mail. The railway are discharging men right and left; at some point on the Canadian Pacific from 40 to 50 per cent, ot the hands have gone and the hungry ex-employes have been offered laud in the frozen North-West to settle on. Wages have been cut down to starvation point, although wheat was lately selling in Manitoba at Is. 7d. per bushel, as compared with 4s. 7d. a few years ago. In many townships taxes are falling grievously in arrears, and the quantity of land, in town lots or other, put up for sale because the taxes are un paid is eloquent of the prevailing distress. In many instances these lands have been recently taken up by immigrants who have been enticed to Canada by the false statements ot emigration agents in this country, Tney are now penniless, and the land they invested their few pounds in is put up for sale by the tax-collector. Scandalous examples of this description of fraud are to be found in Port Arthur and in Renfrew County, from which we receive portentous lists ot these land lots seized by the State. And the tale of dis tress might be indefinitely prolonged. There are some 30,000 people wholly or partly out of work at present in Mont real, a town of 210,000 inhabitants. Following is the Canadian letter: - If asked to say off-band what is the general condition of Canada, and what the most marked characteristic of Cana dian society, I should say the general condition is one of universal indebted ness, and the most marked characteristic charlatanism. You have been saying some hard things of late in the Investor's Review about this Canada of ours, and it is unfortunate that they can neither be contradicted with truth nor disproved by facts. But the truth must sooner or later be known, and the truth is that at the present moment, and with our pre sent system of government by "bood ling," as the Canadian vernacular goes, this country offers neither material nor moral security to its creditors. Right thinking and really patriotic Canadians are wearied and disgusted with the cries of party politics, which profit noth ing, and many are seriously alarmed at the turn the economic situa tion is taking, for, despite bom bast of Sir Charles Tupper and the foolish eulogies of Canada in leading organs of English opinion, we are on the verge of a serious crisis. This is making itself evident in the marked and continu ous decline in trade, both export and im port, and in the revenue. The decline i the revenue does not arise, as our Mc Foster, to whom you recently adminis tered a well-merited castigation, would perhaps pretend, or like, to be the case, for it happens that the average duty collected, for example, in November last on the dutiable imports was 33 per cent as against 32.8 per cent, for the sami mouth of 1893. tt arises from a diminu tion of purchasing power on the part ot the mass of the population, and this cab hardly be otherwise when the lack ot work and dullness of business generally is considered. To such a degree has this now reached, that banks and loan socie tifs are reducing their interest payable on deposits, and as I happeu to know, some of the weaker banks are feeling the strain to such an extent that it would moke their shareholders and depositors exceedingly uncomfortable if they knew the truth. At least one bank is at this very moment only kept afloat by thehelp and support of some of the strongest ones, who dare not let it go for fear of a dauic that would bring the whole fabric down with a run. I have spoken of the general condition of Canapa as one of universal indebted ness. It is strictly true. It would be difficult to find who or what is not in debt or mortgaged, except the few whose eminent position has enabled them to take advantage of the chances attaching to it, or the manufacturers who are en riched by a tariff which is crushing the farming iudustry and the labouring classes of the country. No one but a lunatic at large or an Ottawa Cabinet Minister, of whom there are now seven teen, with and without portfolios, would continue to argue that the Protection policy which is enriching a few at the ex- (Continued on 3rd page) THE WORLD