THE WEALTH MAKERS.
August 22, 1895
THE WEALTH MAKERS.
New Sortee of
THE ALL1ASCEINDEPESDENT.
Consolidation ol the
Farmers Alliance and Neb. Independent.
PUBLISHED EVESY THCB8DAY BT
Till Wealth M aken Publishing Company,
UM U BU Lincoln, Nebraaka.
Qeorcib Howard Gibo..
1. 8. HTiTT..,.. .......
Edltot
..Buelaea Manager
N. I. P. A.
"If any man must fall for me to rle,
Then eek I not to climb. Another's pain
I choose not for my good. A golden chain,
A rob of honor, la too good a prlc
To tempt my hasty hand to do a wrong
Unto a fellow man. Thl lite hath woe
Sufficient, wrought by man's eatanlc foe;
And who that hath a heart wonld dare prolong
Or add a aorrow to a stricken eon)
That seeks a healing bairn to make It whole?
My boeom owni the brotherhood of man."
Publisher' Announcement.
The enbacrlptioa price of Tai Wbaltb Mac
tM ie il.Oo per year. In advance.
Agents In Bollcltinir subscriptions ehontd be
Terr careful that all names are correctly spoiled
and proper poitofflce glren. Blank for return
subscriptions, return envelopes, etc., can be bad
on application to toil office.
Always algn your name. No matter how often
Lou write oe do nut nuvlect tbl Important mat
r. Erery week we receive letters with Incom
plete addresses or without signatures and It ia
ometlmea difficult to locate tbt-m,
Cbanqb or ADDRKas. Subscribers wishing to
change their postofhce address mint alwaye give
their former ai well ae their preeent address when
change will be promptly made.
Advertising Rates,
$1.13 per Inch. 8 cent per Agate line, 14 llnea
to the Inch. Liberal discount on large apace or
long time contracts
Address all advertlalng communication! to
WEALTH MAKERS PUBLISHING CO.,
J. 8. Hyatt. Bub. Mgr.
People's Independent Ticket
( A. B. TlBBBTTB
For District Judges... t 1
For County Treainrer '. A. H. Vim
For County Commissioner K. E. Kiohakdion
For Clerk of District Court. Kmab Bab
For County Clerk O. H. Walters
For County Sheriff Fbbd A. Mu.l.aa
For County Jadgs . O. W. Bkrob
For County Superintendent H.8. Bowkb
For County Coroner... , Ob. LowbT
' tabor Day Celebration
September 2nd, will be the next legal
holiday and Bhould be observed by all.
It will be celebrated in the city park,
near the court houHe. There will be no
parade but there will be able speakers
who will favor and oppose the free coin
age of silver 10 to 1.
All are invited to hear both sides from
tho same platform. No admission fee to
park. Only two blocks south of court
bouse. By Order of Committee.
State convention at Lincoln August
28. Everybody come.
20 cents for The Wealth Makers till
after election. Six names for f 1.00.
The goldbugs have beaten the silver
Democrats of Ohio and done it with
post office pie.
Silver is reported to be gaining in
England. But do not be misled.. It is
only a move in politics.
Another movement of gold to Europe
and a rumor of bonds to draw it back.
Every issue of bonds increases the power
of the foreign bankers over us.
Gov. Holcomb is proving himself to
be more than a match for his enemies
who surround him at the state house.
He is not through with them yet either.
Bring in a club of subscribers to The
Wealth Makers when you come to the
state convention. If you do not come
yourself send in your subscription by one
of your delegates.
We want every man who comes to the
state convention August 28th, to visit
the office of The Wealth Makers, and
get acquainted. Don't forget the address
1120 M St.
The vote in the Democratic Iowa con
vention on the proposed free silver plank
was 652 against, 420 for. Some of the
free silver men and papers are refusing to
be controlled by the goldbug majority.
Oub contemporary, The Evening News
is about to introduce typesetting ma
chines, It will not be long before all city
papers will use machines. The typos will
have to crowd themselves into some
other over-worked field ol industry.
Do not buy canned meat or sausage in
the market unless you want to eat horse
meat. 'In Chicago men are buying up
brokendown horses at from 91.50 to
$2.00 per head and the meat canned is
sold in this country and in Germany,
Belgium and France.
The bankers are a unique class in that
they get rich by drawing interest on
their debts. Other people grow poor by
paying interest on their debts. Why
should some men receive an income from
their debts and other men have an outgo
to meet the interest on their debts?
Delegates to our state convention
next week can get one and one-third
rates by taking receipt for your ticket
from your local agent and getting the
secretary of the state committee to sign
it. This receipt will entitle you to one
third fare on the return trip. Bear this
in mind.
A PLAN TO UNITE
The conviction is forcing itself upon in
telligent thoughtful people that party
rule is mostly misrule, that it is not safe
to entrust power to representative law
makers, that representative government
is a conspicuous, hopeless failure. But
hitherto no way of uniting the people
has been found.
The rank and file of all parties are not
spoilshunters. They have no axes to
grind. As a rule they desire just legisla
tion. IIow to secure it is a question
they are not able to answer. IIow to get
together at the ballot box is an unsolved
problem. '
We must admit that there are a great
number of good Republicans, good
Democrats, good Prohibitionists and
good Populists. On some important
questions they would be glad to vote to
gether, if they could, and by voting to
gether they could enact some very im
portant anti-monopoly legislation. But
party machinery stands in the way. The
individual is nothing without organiza
tion, and politics becomes simply a war
bet ween rival organizations. The people
in all parties who wish to vote on this
that or the other question cannot get to
gether without binding thomsolves up
with and supporting demands they do
not favor. And great numbers of honest
people for this reason will not leave the
party they have long been connected
with to join a new party.
Now let us consider a plan which may
emancipate us from all party machinery.
In Switzerland they have a pure democ
racy by means of direct legislation. It
is called the Initiative and Referendum.
The Initiative permits the people who
petition for a new law to vote upon it
and make it themselves. The Referendum
allows the people within a given time to
reject by popular vote or veto any law
passed by the representative legislative
body. This makes it impossible to buy
up councilmen, legislators, congressmen,
etc., and secure class legislation. Any
corrupt or obnoxious measure passed by
a lawmaking body is certain to be vetoed
by the people. In short, the people rule,
and there is no way of corrupting the
majority. The voice of a petitioning
minority cannot be smothered, either.
They have the power of the Initiative
and can force a vote of the whole people
on any measure that a respectable num
ber call for action on. Therefore, we
suggest that the Populist party in a
sense save itself by losing itself. We re
cently suggested a state conference next
December to discuss a plan to unite the
people of all parties who believe in ma
jority rule, or a government of the peo
ple. We wish the Populist party to lead
in this matter, for it is of vital import
ance, we believe, and wesuggest that the
state convention endorse the Omaha
platform for national questions, but
make a new departnrefor a state plat
form. For our next platform let us have
in substance this:
Having found that the voice of the
people cannot be freely expressed
through parties and elected party candi
dates, and that by party rule we are fast
losing our liberties, we propose as a
means of rescuing our government from
the hands of selfish office seekers, hood-
ling lawmakers, and corporation con
trol, what is known as Direct Legislation.
And we suggest that the fair-minded
people of all parties join with us in our
demand for the Referendum which would
restore to the people the power to veto
all unjust legislation, and our demand
for the Initiative which gives the people
wno petition for a new law or the abro
gation of an old Btatute power over the
lawmaking body to require it to submit
such questions to a popular vote.
That majority rule may thus be secur
ed and party machinery of every name
cut off from power, we urge the union of
an citizens wno desire justice. Upon the
all-important question of popular gov
ernment by direct legislation we must
unite, in order that we may bring to
popular vote and divide on the following
questions, and all others which' may
come before the American people:
A system of government banks.
Free silver at 16 to 1.
Public ownership of public utilities, or
natural monopolies.
Juand tenure based solely on use and
occupancy.
Government employment of the unem
ployed.
Tne single tax on land vaines.
A graduated income tax.
Graduated tax on property inherit
ances.
Equal suffrage regardless of sex.
State dispensary of liquors by salaried
officials, at cost.
Prohibition of the sale of intoxicating
liquors for beverage purposes.
Election of senators, president and
vice-president by direct vote of the peo
ple.
These and other questions we wish to
divideon.to bring to a vote of the people.
Let us all unite, regardless of party, on
the demand that direct legislation be
submitted to the people in order that the
people of all present parties may vote
upon these other questions on which our
liberties depend. Let a stole conference
be called to meet in Lincoln in December
next to discuss this plan of breaking the
power of party machinery to divide us,
to keep us divided.
MB- BRYAN EXAMINED
Mr. Bryan is always a pleasing speaker,
There is an air of sincerity abont him,
and he is very bright and interesting.
But while hearing him at the park last
Thursday we could not help thinking
what a pity for him towaste so much
talent building so airily, so pleasingly
beautiful structures, upon such narrow
and false foundations. It ia always the
art of a speaker who cares less for truth
than to carry the minds of his hearers
with him, it is the art of such, we say, to
assume a great deal, and to slide quickly
from insufficient premise or imperfect
postulates to what he wished to build
thereon. Mr. Bryan is that sort of a
public speaker.
He assumes that gold plus silver, freely
coined and put in circulation, would pro
vide us ample currency, or the basis as
redemption money for ample currency,
to prevent falling prices and accompany
ing evils. It is an assumption the truth
of which history disproves. We had 16
to 1 free coinage prior to 1873, but it
did not prevent the periodic falling prices
panics and distressing times which have
occurred, with greater or less blocking
of commerce and paralysis of industry,
during almost every decade. It was not
a singlegold basis which caused the hard
times period which culminated in 1857,
or the like period of 1 837. What should
lead us to believe that the free coinage of
silver now would do what it had no
power to do for three quarters of a cen
tury and more when the mints of this
nation were open to it? If it could not
prevent the cornering of money during
our history prior to the late war, it
would have even less power to prevent
money concentration now, because of the
enormous growth since the war of corpo
rate monopolies and trusts and the ex
tension of landlordism. Why, use a
little reason. Would the free coinage of
silver reduce rents? We allknowit would
not. And fifty-two per cent of the fami
lies of this country are renters, according
to the last census. Add to this enormous
rent roll the amount of rent that busi
ness men pay for stores, offices, etc., and
we begin to get an idea of one great drain
which takes money from those who need
it (to buy more goods and holdup prices)
and places it in the bands of a class who
have more money than they can expend
for labor products.
The land and buildings monopoly is the
greatest of all monopolies, but the
transportation monopoly heads a great
group of monopolies, which draw the
currency from the wealth producing class
and leave it in overfull hands, in the
bank vaults of men who consume not a
tenth or often not a hundredth part of
their income. There are also the coal,
iron, oil, lumber, cattle, street car, tele
graph, telephone, and a host of other
lesser monopolists, whose regular de
mands, in the shape of prices, draw
money from the handsof the insufficient
ly supplied producers of wealth and
lodge it in the pockets of a class whose
only use for much of it is to buy up, not
what is produced, but the means ofpio
duction. And last but not least, free
silverorno freesilver.weraust pay yearly
interest on private and public debts
amounting, according to the author of
"Coin," to $40,000,000,000. For this
we get nothing in return. The money is
taken from the toil-hardened hands of
the workers, and keeps piling up in the
vaults of the money-loaning class. ' '
By all these inequitable monopoly
methods the money which stands for the
goods marketed is taken away from the
producers, and placed in the hands of a
class who do not need and cannot expend
for luxuries the vast sum that as mono
poly tribute comes to them. And be
cause they do not expend it, the goods it
balances are not demanded by purchaser
prices fall, production is periodically un
profitable and is reduced, millions are
thrown out of work and wages are cut
down, and bankruptcies multiply and
poverty spreads. These are the causes
and the dreadful resulting evils. It is a
Niagara torrent of decreed or law-sustained
tribute that Mr. Bryan proposes
to check, a torrent that would swallow
up all the silver in our mountains and
scarcely make a ripple in the rapids.
And it is demagoguery for an intelligent
man to propose so manifestly inadequate
a remedy for the evils of monopoly, a
power now grown so great that only the
most swift and radical remedies can check
it and rescue the liberties of the people.
A V0I0E OF WARNING
"I have watched the rapid evolution of
Social Democracy in England; I have
studied Autocracy in Russia and Theoc
racy in Rome; and 1 must say to at no
where, not even in Russia, in the first
year' of the reaction occasioned by the
murder of the Czar, have I struck more
abject submission to a more soulless des
potism than that which prevails among
the so-called free American citizens when
they are face to face with the omnipotent
power of the corporations."
These are the words of an English
writer who has recently made a study of
our municipal institutions. And Associ
ate Justice Brown of the United States
Supreme Court, commenting on the
above, says:
"Granting this to be overdrawn, for
I am unwilling to believe that corpora
tions are solely responsible for municipal
misgovernment, the fact remains that
bribery and corruption are so general
as to threaten the very structure of
society."
Justice Brown in his article in the
August Forum from which the above ex
tracts are taken says by way of explana
tion of municipal corruption that
The activities of urban life are so in
tense, the pursuit of wealth or pleasure
so absorbing, as upon the one hand to
breed an indifference to public affairs;
while upon the other, the expenditures
are so large, the value of the franchises
at the disposal of the cities so great, and
the opportunities for illicit gain so mani
fold, that the municipal legislators,
whose standard of honesty is rarely
higher than the average of those who
elect them, fall an easy prey to the de
signing and unscrupulous. Franchises
which ought to net the treasury a large
sum are bartered away for a song; privi
leges which ought to be freely granted in
the interest of the public are withheld
till those who are supposed to be most
immediately benefited will consent to
pay for them; gross favoritism is shown
in the assessment of property for taxa
tion; great corporations are permitted
to encumber the streets and endanger the
lives of citizens, while every form of vice
which can be made is secretly tolerated."
Speaking of corporations in general
Justice Brown referred to the fact that
"they havea practical monopoly of land
transportation, of raining, manufactur
ing, banking, and insurance." "The ease
with which charters are (secured has pro
duced great abuses." The advantage
they offer of limited liability lead men to
incorporate in order to avoid paying
their obligations, to crush out rivals;
charters are secured in one state to do
business in another or others, so as to
bring litigation into Federal courts. The
eminent writer describes the gross frauds
of railroad construction companies and
the "wrecking" process, and the vast
profit, or rather plunder, thus got un
der cover of law.
Speaking of the trusts he said:
Worse than this, however, is the combi
nation of corporations in so-called trusts
to limit production, stifle competition,
and monopolize the necessities of life.
The extent to which this has already
been carried is alarmirg, the extent to
which it may hereafter be carried is
revolutionary. Indeed thr evils of aggre
gated wealth are nowhere seen in more
odious form. If no student cau light his
lamp without paying tribute to one
company, if no housekeeper can buy a
pound of meat or sugar without, swelling
the receipts of two or three trusts, what
is to prevent the entire productive in
dustry of the country becoming ultima
tely absorbed by a hundred gigantic
corporations? If a railway company
originally crganized to build a hundred
miles of road has by fifty years of con
solidations and leases become the undis
puted master of ten thousand miles of
transportation, what is to prevent it in
another fifty years from monopolizing
half the traffic of a continen t?
When a man sitting on the Supreme
Bench of the United States thus writes
the people should be aroused to act. De
lays are dangerous. But what can be
done with the great corporations, mono
polies and trusts? The process of con
solidation and the development of the
trust is a forward movement in the line
of labor saving, of economic service. It
cannot be checked, but monopolies
should be forced to pay tribute to the
government and they should be bought
up by the government as fast as by com
plete consolidation and single organiza
tion they destroy competition. So
rapidly are monopolies absorbing the
wealth and resources of the people and
grasping all power that prompt and
radical measures are our only salvation.
The danger at present is that monopo
listic control of political parties and the
press will keep the people ignorant of the
danger and partisanly prejudiced until
violence and anarchy will follow. The
momentum of the power of wealth in the
process of concentration is become so
great that unless a party of the people,
or a political uprising of the best element
of all parties can grasp the reins of gov
ernment within ten years organized labor
and organized capital will be drawn into
a conflict the most bitter, terrible and
sanguinary of the ages.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Fargo, N. D., Ang. 18. The great in
flux of laborers to this section is causing
the people here no end of trouble, and it
is likely that before the city has gotten
rid of the army of tramps there will be
serious trouble. Of late the men, tired
of looking for work and angry of being
repulsed on every band when asking for
food, have been arming themselves, and
there are now, it is estimated, over
10,000 men in this immediate vicinity
who are carrying revolvers or guns.
Burglaries of hardware stores are of
nightly occurrence, and it is remarked
that the cases of the revolvers and shot
guns are the only things molested. It is
claimed by some of the men who have
been sent to jail as vagrants that the
army of unemployed is waiting a favor
able opportunity to hold up the city.
For the past month men have been com
ing in here by the hundred, and of late
the police have been ordering them away
as fast as they came. Every freight
train brings in from ten to one hundred
of the men, and among the lot are some
of the most villainous specimens un
hung. They claim that they were in
formed that there was plenty of work
here, and demand tnat tne people oi iue
city support them until they can find
work, and the steady rush of men to
this point is but complicating affairs.
Many of the people here are badly fright
ened at tne outiooK.
The above is an Associated Press dis
patch in last Monday morning's papers.
What does it signify?
To our mind it betokens trouble, a
general condition that must soon be
remedied, or there will be precipitated a
general struggle to settle which is to be
upheld, the alleged rights of property, or
the declared rights of man. At the pres
ent time the inalienable rights of man are
trampled on, hisliberty made a mockery,
his independence destroyed. Either the
right to life and liberty, cherished and
fought for by our fathers of the revolu
tion, must be given up, or the legal
power of property to command tribute
for those who hold it must be extin
guished. On the property side it is, a
question not of ones right to hold what
he produces, but of his right to demand,
by force of monopoly, what others pro
duce. They who dispute the right of
landlords, capitalists and money monop
olists to the tribute they demand, dis
pute it on the ground that the producers
have a just claim to all ther produce,
and that that government is a despot
ism which allows inequality of inheri
tance of natural resources and an un
equal distribution of ths benefits of
government. The government has al
lowed less than half of the people to get
possession of all the land, fifty-two per
cent of the families In the United States
being renters. The government now
forces one class to come unci or tribute to
another class, to toil and sweat for it,
and even beg for permission to be al
lowed to live.
The rights of property .have been
placed above the rights of man. Prop
erty is on the throne, and reigns as
proudly, as luxuriously, as lustfully, as
cruelly and with as insatiable avarice
as any despotic power that the world has
known. It wants the earth, and is fast
getting it Property must be legally de
throned, its tribute refused, its power
broken, or the miserable masses refusing
slavery, refusing longer to- suffer and
starve, will join themselves together to
defy its demands and battle for life and
liberty; The lessons of history are be
fore us. Why cannot this generation
discern the signs of the times?
"Wheresoever thecarcass is thither, will
the eagles be gathered together."
Walter Wellman, the well known
Washington correspondent of the Chi
cago Times-Herald, reports, upon autho
rity of one of the campaign managers,
that General Harrison used $2,000,000
to carry Indiana in the 1888 campaign.
The territory of that state and the entire
country west of it was given him to draw
upon, the national committee raising all
its funds east of the Indiana line. It is
on good authority stated that an
average of $20,000 was expended by the
Harrison machine in each of Indiana's
ninety counties. The national committee
the same writer says, (himself a Republi
can and a Republican paper reports it)
raised nearly $4,000,000 for the cam
paign outside of Indiana, making very
nearly $6,000,000 raised and spent by
the "grand old party" to secure again
the places of power and plunder. What
do you think of this, good Republicans?
Another discovery of Republican cor
ruption extending through past years
has been unearthed at Beatrice. Beatrice
is a place where what is known as repub
licanism .is blindly worshiped. They
have wanted no Populism in theirs. 'Rah
or the grand old party and down with
the despised party of the poor, has been
the overwhelming sentiment of the proud
city of the Blue. But the "grand old
party" has been caught in the crime of
forgery, systematic forgery carried on
for years. City warrants made out and
official signatures forged have been sold
by City Clerk Phillips and Water Com
missioner Hawkins did the work. They
are now in jail at Beatrice, having been
caught on the wing while attempting to
get away. It is not possible yet to tel
what amount of forged warrants are
outstanding.
American dailies are all picturing and
writing up the "Greatest Baby on Earth
His Roynl Highness, Prince Edward of
York." It is sickening to read of this
yearling youngster's equeries, ladies in
waiting, special trains and gold crowns.
Greatest baby! BoshI Just an ordi
nary kid. No prettier, no brighter, no
greater than my baby and your baby
and anybody's baby. Has God Almighty
made him for a king? No. This is His
universal law. "In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread." This grandson
of Victoria was made to earn his living
by honest productive labor, as all the
rest of us were. But so long as men will
be fools enough to fall down before their
fellowmen and worship them as kings
and monopolists, as born to rule, so long
will the people under power suffer.
In Michigan,' according to the Secre
tary of State's report, there was a de
crease last year from the year previous
on the value of farms of $13,193,595, or
$3.94 per acre. If the same ratio of de
crease holds good in other states the far
mers of the entire country have lost in
one year $1,900,518,180. But this is
only part of the loss. About forty-five
percent must be added to this to cover
the loss on stock, farm implements, and
the rest, making the farmers' losses $2,
703,050,416. Now how do our single
Tax panacea friends explain this loss of
value? According to their theory the
value or price of land must be always on
the rise.
We failed to mention last week that
the Republican county convention had
to be cooled off by a hose attachment to
the nearest stand pipe. It was the crazi
est lot of scramblers for office ever seen
in Lincoln. The chairman could do
nothing with them till the hose was
attached and leveled on the mob. Do
not look incredulous, friends. This is a
fact we are reporting. And the conven
tion had no time nor inclination to think
of resolution. D-n the platform was
the way they disposed of that useless
piece of hypocrisy. O the Republicans
here are rotten, and they fight like vul
tures over a carcass.
Cherry county Republican officials
were all safe and respected as long as the
grand old party remained in power, but
in an unlucky day the Populists seized
the reins of office. Investigation of the
books then brought to light shortages
of the county Republican officials extend
ing over a long period of years. The
county board has made a settlement
with some of the number whose accounts
were found crooked and is now prosecut
ing others. A. T. White, ex-clerk of the
County, and C R. Watson, ex-treasurer,
are to be brought to trial.
The bitter silver fight in Iowa at last
week's convention Beems certainly to
have quite a disintegrating effect on the
Democratic party. It was apparently a
golbug victory but the sort of victory
that does most good to the Populist
party. In Missouri the silver n.en won
the day, which means that the Demo
cratic party will there hold its reform
element in its own ranks.
In the Hindoo census quite a number of
persons are returned as "village thieves"
or as "living on loans," or "living on
relatives." That is right, they belong
all in the same category. It matters not
how one sponges his living from others,
the fact of his taking what another's
toil produces should make him an out
cast from society. Did you produce all
that you take. Do you respect people
who live on loans, that is, on interest,
rent and dividends? Why? Can you tell
why?
Twenty-four shots were fired at the
police by now striking moulders in the
heart of the city of Indianapolis at an
early hour Sunday morning last. They
were infuriated by the presence of the
officers. Strange to say no one was hit,
although shots were fired into squads of
police. As property comes to be wor
shiped human life will cease to be sacredt
will be valuless and dispised.
Stack this startling statement, or
rather record, of the 1890 census away
in your mind. Fifty-two per cent of the
families in this country are renters. On
top of it this other fact that thirty per
cent of the people who possess titles to
their homes have those homes under
mortgage, $1135 on each home.
J. A. Wayland, ex-editor of The Com
ing Nation, will begin the publication of
a new paper at Kansas City about Sept
ember 1st.
Blackburn weems to have won enough
delegations to give him the Kentucky
Senatorship if the Democrats carry the
6tate.
AMOMG OUR EXCHANGES
No apology would be offered on any
score if Judge Stark of Aurora is nom
inated for supreme judge. Minden
Courier.
The Labor Market yes we have heard
of it in the south befo' de wah they
called it the slave market. Pittsburg
Kansan.
Judge Maxwell appears to be the choice
of many Populists for judge of the su
preme court, a position he filled so ably
and honorably for so many years until
turned down because he was too honest
to suit some people. Those opposed to
him say he is too old to fill the position,
but we notice he uses clear-cut and very
vigorous language yet just the same.
Eustis Weekly Record.
Rapidly accumulating evidence goes
far to indicate that die rights of prop
erty are considered greater than the
rights of God's children. At the same
time, the idea is spreading among the
American people, that property can
have no rights which they are bound to
starve to death to respect. The shame
ful, disgraceful subjection of a free peo
ple to the will of iron and stone-hearted
mercenaries has made more votes for
economic freedom than anything else.
Oppression always has died by the forces
of its own creation. Walton Herald.
Suppose a co-operative colony of one
hundred families own a coal bank and
a mammoth spring of water. Suppose
two sharpers come along. One proposes
to open up the coal at his own expense,
provided he can charge any price he
pleases for the coal, while the other offers
to pipe the spring water to every house
and have the privilege of setting his own
price on water. Of course no other coal
or water can be used by the colony.
Would it be wise to hand over these ne
cessities? How does such a colony differ
from this great nation? If it be good for
such a colony to retain its ownership ol
those public necessities, it would be good
for the people of this country, collec
tively, as a government, to own all ne
cessities for the public welfare. Sledge
Hammer.
The populists of Dawes county have
presented the name of Judge E. S. Ricker
as their choice for district judge. This V'
paper can cordially recommend Judge
trict, as a good citizen, a capable lawydf ' (
a straight populist and an Honest man.''
Mr. Ricker is 52 years of age, was an t
Abrahani Lincoln republican, served four
years in the union array, graduated from
a commercial college at Galesburg, 111.,
after the war, studied law and was ad
mitted to the bar at Brooklyn, Iowa, in
1882. He came to Dawes county in
1885 and was elected county judge in
1886. He left the republican party ten
years ago on the tariff issue and after -
tne democratic party at me special ses
sion of congress had dose the bidding of
Grover Cleveland and the gold gamblers
he cast his lot with the populists and
has been an active worker in their
ranks. Chadron Signal.
The Quill editor hasnotchanged a par
ticle. He believed last year in free coin
age of silver, tariff reform, income tax,
and government ownership of railroads
and telegraph, and he does yet, but we
have seen the folly of fusion. Fusion
fails to accomplish what it is intended for,
and last year it drove several thousands
of democrats into the republican ranks
on one side and thousands of populists
on the other. There cannot be two par
ties live with like ideas. It is foolishness -to
keep up two party organizations with
like ideas advanced by both. If the
democratic party is right the populist
party has no right to exist, if the demo
cratic party is wrong then it is wrong to
compromise with it. The democratic
party is the party of Cleveland goldbug.
ism, not Bryan free silver ideas. The
free silver democrats must sooner
9
later leave the old corrupt party wheim
reform has no chance and the populist
party must be kept strong for theircom
ingand not wrecked on the rocks ol
fusion. The Quill.
Europe as well as America is experienc
ing an unusual dry period.