I-
(
J, f
VOL. VII.
SO MOVES THE WORLD.
A new comet has been cited at the Lick
.observatory.
A fall carnival of crime is reported in
New York.
Over 1,000 iron workers in New York
are on a strike.
A half million dollar fire in Chicago
last week. Fully insured.
The strike of the New York house-
smiths has thrown 20,000 out of employ
nient.
Arabs to the number of 45,000 have
attacked the Turks, the Sultan a regulars,
and defeated them.
Gov. Altgeld of Illinois has stated em
phatically that when his term of office
expires he will retire from politics.
Sir Henry Ponsonby died Nov. 21.
Ee was keeper of Queen Victoria's pri
vate purse and her private secretary.
' The Standard Oil trust has bought up
all the Kansas oil wells and plants. So
monopoly completesitspowerand grows
by the plunder it feeds on.
Big meeting in Philadelphia in the in
terests of freedom for Cuba. It was held
under the auspices of the Philadelphia
brigade, Pennsylvania reserves.
The Knights of Labor held their an
nual meeting last week. The order is
liaving trouble with traitors, and jeal
ousy among past and present leaders.
Two boys wrecked a fast mail on the
New York Central railroad Nov. 19. Two
were killed and a number seriously in
jured. The boys did it for the purpose
of robbery.
Judge Riner has decided that Race
A Horse, the Bannock Indian, has a treaty
right to huntgamein theJackson's Hole
region, and has released him. The case
w ill be appealed.
Eugene V. Debs' contemptible sentence
of contempt expired last Saturday, and
he addressed an immense meeting held in
his honor at Chicago the same day. Ilis
theme was Liberty.
American Missionary buildings worth
. $800,000 have been burned by the Turks
at Kharput. The missionaries saved
their lives. Armenians to the number of
800 were massacreed.
The mayor of Chicago has compelled
the Calumet street railway company to
pay $50,000 for its franchise. The City
Railway Co.. has also had to pay some
thing. A good beginning.
Twenty-nine of the great railroads of
the country have just reached an agree
ment which will enable them to put up or
keep up prices and prevent all cuts, com
petition" and competitive expenses.
Turkey is fast tumbling to pieces. The
Sultan haw lost all control over whole
provinces and the country is in a state
of anarchy. The massacre of the entire
Christian population and the mission
aries as well is greatly feared. American
missionary property worth $800,000 has
alrea.y been destroyed.
The Imperial decree has been defied by
the popularly elected Council of Vienna,
which the third time elected the anti
Semite leader, Dr. Luger, to the Austrian
Reichsrath, the Emperor . each time re
fusing to accept their will. The third
time the Council was by edict of the Em
Jperor dissolved the second time this
fciyear, a thing which has not been done for
ri nearly two centuries. Dr. Luger is offen
" sive to the Austrian despot not only be
cause of his anti-Jewish, but also be
cause of his socialistic, tendencies, the
thing which makes him popular with the
people.
"All England and all France are again
agitated over labor conflicts." The
trouble in France began as a strike, but
has obtained its national importance as
a lockout. It began among the glass
workers at Carmaux. Theirstrike failed,
the men decided to go back at the old
terms and support their black listed com
rades (the officials in. the strike) by
assessments, but their employers then
imposed new and more oppressive condi
tions, which stirred the sympathy of
socialists and radical papers and through
these other workers began regular con
tributions to help the glass workers.
The English strike is among the ship
builders of Ireland and Scotland. The
employers of Scotland have sympatlieti
colly locked out their employes to weak
en the union and so force the Irish ship
carpenters to terms. The entire nation
is aroused to symyathy with the men.
Dr. Madden, Eye, Ear, Nose, and
Throat diseases, over Rock Island
ticket office, S. W. cor. 11 and O streets.
Glasses accurately adjusted.
If ybur raiigion is only visible on the
Sabbath it will never make your next
door neighbor want to quit his mean
ness.
L. P. Davis, Dentist over Rock Ia
land ticket office, cor. 11 and 0 streets.
Bridge and crown'work a specialty
The new fast service inaugurated by
the Northwestern-Union Pacific line to
f points as above, enables us to offer you
1 the best through car service and a good
I many hours faster time from Lincoln.
Please call on us for full information.
S. A. Mohher, General Agent. A. 8.
V Fielding, City Ticket Agt. 117 So 10 St.
An Interview with Mr. Harvey
W. II. Harvey, the grand champion of
silver, was recently interviewed on the
political phase of the silver movement.
"Coin" stood squarely up to the inevit
able as will be seen by the following:
"What do you think will be the effect
of the silver agitation on the two old
parties?"
"The silver question," replied Mr. Har
vey; "will crop out in a vigorous fushion
in the next national convention of both
the Republican and Democratic parties.
If they should both adopt gold standard
platforms, or if either platform should
straddle, which would mean duplicity,
or if they should fail to adopt a plank
for independent action by the United
States and the free coinage of silver at
16 to 1, then there are thousands of
voters of each of these parties who will
vote against either or both of the par
ties thus declaring."
"But, Mr. Harvey, let me repeat the
question more specifically. If both the
old parties adopt an equivocal platform,
where do you think the silver men will
go? What ought they to do?
"If the old parties adopt what are sub
stantially gold standard platforms, the
voters who are ou our side will go almost
en masse to the third party. The people
have been deceived too long to rely any
longer upon platitudes. It is now a
burning real question that affects them
materially. It affects also the very exist
ence of the Republic, and the people are
getting too intelligent to allow party ism
to further control them."
"As 1 understand it, then, you mean if
the old parties adopt the equivocal plat
forms, the strength of the silver men will
be thrown to the Populists?"
"Yes; and I would adv'ie that. It will
mean that the party machinery in these
two parties in controlled by selfish mo
tives that it is instigated by money deal
ers, and the interests which are against
the people."
"How about a free silver party?"
"It is too late to organize u fourth
party. We must select from one of the
parties in the field, having a standing
under the Australian ballot system. It
would be an impossibility to equip and
organize a fourth or silver party for
effective work in 189G."
No Longer in Doubt
There is no longer any doubt as to the
feelings of the Chicago University to
ward Mr. Rockefeller, it is for him from
top to toe. Recently the president denied
that any of the professors was prevented
from denouncing Mr. Rockefeller or his
business methods, if he wanted to.
There were good grounds for doubting
that then, aud there are better grounds
now. As already announced Mr. Rocke
feller has recently swelled his donations
to the university to the princely sum of
$7,000,000. A few nights since the
faculty aud students gathered and sung
the praises of Mr. Rockefeller until the
roof shook, and some of the professors
defended his business methods. In fact
they painted him with expanded wings.
We are not finding fault with this de
monstration. We approve of it. When
a man does you a favor it is only decent
in you to speak well of him, and $7,000,
000 is not to be picked up every day.
We believe iu a case like this that the
university owes to Mr. Rockefeller the
best gratitude that it can muster. We
hold to the same principle here that we
do in the acceptance of a free pass by an
official. If he accepts a free pass, he
should be decent enough to return the
compliment if he has the opportunity.
That is the reason we object to the use
of free passes by public officials. We
have no objection to the university of
Chicago thinking well of Mr. Rockefeller,
and we think in all decency it should not
use his money to pay men for teaching
that his business methods are as crocked
as a ram's horn; and we do not believe it
will do it. Prof. Bemis does not believe
it either. In fact when he was pitched
out of his professorship, he wasconvinc
ed that it would not.
Sing for Liberty
. "The Armageddon Song Book contains
Populist and patriotic songs, set to mu
sic. 138 pages. Price 30c each; $3.00
per dozen, postage or express paid by us.
Get up a Populist glee club and help sing
the cause through. We can thus have
better and more soul inspiring music
than brass bands can make, besides we
are not always able to hire brass bands.
Got no musicians in your neighborhood?
You don't know; there may be some
veritable Jenny Liuds right around you.
Get a dozen or so to practice and then
from the best select the necessary number
for a glee club. There will be a great de
mand for glee clubs next year. The cam
paign will open early and be the greatest
ever held. The best Populist Glee Clubs
will find constant employment at good
pay. Practice makes perfect. Begin now.
ForCaliforniaand Puget Sound points
quick get tickets 117 So. 10.
Dr. Madden. Eve. Ear. Nosa unA
Throat diseases, over Rock Island
ticket omce, . w. cor. 11 and O streets.
Glasses accurately adjusted.
LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1895.
A COMING REVOLUTION
The Editor of "The Arena" Discusses Mr.
Call's Book
INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITIES
Plutocracy the Product of Speolal Privi
lege The Fallacy of the Survival of
the Plttest Things whan Applied to
Social Conditions The Well-springs
of Colossal Fortunes Found In Privi
leges Obtained through (1) Inheritance;
(2) monopoly In Land; (3) Monopoly in
Money; (4) Monopoly in Transporta
tion; (5) Monopoly in Commodities, or
Corporate Control of Industry The
Plea of Privilege The Fruit oi Privi
legeThe Law of Freedom A Critical
Examination of the Main Factors in the
Production of Plutocrat and Proleta
riatThe New Republic
(continued from last week.)
plutocracy the product of privilege.
He observes that a great number of the
great fortunes descend to their owners
by inheritance.
"These inherited fortunes grow with
out effort or exertion of the owners, by
interest, by rent.and by profit upon capi
tal. The many,, who are disinherited
must have the use of this wealth, and
they have no recourse but to go to those
owners for that privilege; their necessity
compels them to pay the price asked,
whether this be interest for the use of
money, rent for the use of laud, or sell
ing their labor at such prices as to yield
capital , the great., profits, of Uidjistry
Cau it be wondered at, then, that the
owners of the world's wealth, to whom
it is parcelled out by laws of inheritance,
continue to grow richer, standing as they
do at the very threshold of life and dic
tating to the world of labor the terms
upon which it shall live? Thus it is that
these inherited fortunes grow from age
to age, and will continue to do so, until,
by the inexorable logic of the present
system, the world becomes altogether,
as it even nowalmost is, the world of the
rich. Inheritance is thus a privilege, in
that those who take under it do so with
out engaging in any struggle for exist
ence, or even for their hoards, which are
vastly in excess of the amount required
for their subsistence. It is, furthermore,
a privilege, iu that the fortunes so
acquired grow of their own accord, with
out struggle or exertion on the part of
the owners, by the mastery which the
monopoly of the world gives.
"Many more of these fortunes are ac
quired by the monopoly of land. The
poor who invest in' the mere equities of
land during seasons of speculation, or
who endeavor to own thefr homes under
mortgage, may conclude, when they lose
these by foreclosure, that land owner
ship is not desirable; and the conclusion
of both may be true when they are com.
pelled to pay interest at present rates
upon the mortgages. Yet the fact re
mains that the reul landlord class not
those who hold a mere equity, but they
who own the land itself or the mortgugo
upon incumbered land although they
perform no labor or service upon it,
nevertheless grow rich; to them, whether
in rent or in interest, comes the wealth
acquired by the monopoly of land.
"Whether the land thus monopolized
be withheld from use for mere purposes
of speculation, or rent be charged for its
use, in either case the owner of the soil
need perforin no service upon it; he can
sit by in idleness while his hoards grow;
the land increasing in value with the
growth of the community, and rents or
interest are paid because of i.ts necessity
to the community. Seasons of specula
tion which lure the laboring classes into
purchasing lauds, succeeded by periods
of crises which compel them to relinquish
it, but add to the gains of the real land
lord class, who emerge out of each crisis
richer than before. There is no loss as a
whole; the losses of the land-poor but
mean the gains of the land-rich, a mere
transfer of wealth has taken place.
"The landlord is exempt from labor by
the privilege which the ownership of land
gives him to appropriate and turn into
LLi coffers the labor of others."
The monopoly of land carries with it
monopoly in mines. Thus the Rocke
fellers and the Flaglers have been able to
acquire millions of wealth from obtain
ing a monopoly in one of nature's great
treasures which should have been enjoy
ed as the laud by the whole people, or
subject to rental value.
A third source from which the privileg
ed class reap millions is fouud in mono
poly in money. Thus in the republic to
day we have a spectacle which might well
excite the amazement of a true Republi
can who believes in a democracy in fact
rather than a plutocracy labelled democ
racy. Here we find that
"Thegovernnient issues the money and
charges the bank from one-fourth to one
half of one percent interest for its use;
the bank, iu turn, charges the public
rates varying from six to twelve percent,
and even upwards' practically, the whole
interest charged is thus its profltsfor the
mere distribution of the money. The
bank also receives individual deposits,
paying no interest thereon; these it lends
at the same rates as before, the whole
charge again constituting its profits. As
almost the entire money circulation of
the country passes through the backs,
it is not strange that with such exorbi
tant profits tit eir fortunes should be
both large and numerous.
"The fortune of the banker is not, any
more than those acquired through in
heritance or the monopoly of land, accu
mulated by a struggle like that of the
toiling poor Money is a public necessity
and every laborer and all industry must
have its use; trade or exchange, which
means so much to industrial society, is
impossible without money. The banks
which are intrusted with its distribution
take advantage of this necessity.
A fourth source of colossal fortunes is
found in Monopoly in Transportation.
"That lurge fortunes are acquired by
this means every one knows, yet so com
plex are these interests that the exact
manner in which these fortunes are ac
quired is not always known; there is a
growing feeling, however, that it is at
the expense of society, and the private
control of railroads is therefore looked
upon with increasing disgust.
"This plunder first begun in the build
ing of the roads. , They are regarded as
public interests, and large publicaidsare
given by land grunts nd the voting of
bonds to encourage and assist in their
building; yet notwithstanding this assist
ance, the roads when built are often
mortgaged far in excess of their actual
cost, the public aids, together with the sur
plus ...realizedjjrpm the mortgages above
the cost oi tho" roads, going to swell
the fortunes of the builders. Stock is then
issued upon tho road, much as if a far
mer who had mortgaged a five-thousand
dollar farm for ten thousand dollars
should attempt to dispose of his equity
Put the public are not acquainted with
the cost of railroads, and these seem to
the ordinary imagination the embodi
ment of wealth; the stock is, therefore,
purchased by investors all over the
country, aud the price received for such
in vestment adds still further to tho for
tunes of the manipulators.
"The road is then launched into opera'
tion with a debt-burden far in excess of
what it cost to build. The public are
charged exorbitant rates for the main
taining of this debt-burden und the pay
ing of dividends to stockholders; labor
is paid the lowest wages for the same
reason, and is also turned out of employ
ment when business is light, it being well
known that applicants will be plentiful
enough when ntrain needed. Yet, not
withstanding these exorbitant charges
to the public, and this oppression of labor
the debt-burden of the road bond and
stock cannot be supported; dividends
fall behind and interest on bonds is not
paid. Here, however, is another great
source of proht to the shrewd manipu
lators, whose power of combination has
already done so much for them. The
stockholders take fright and sell their
stock at any price, and these buy it in.
Or if the stock is not worth buying, by
reason of the large bonded indebtedness,
then the road is foreclosed, aud these
shrewd heads get it for less than it is
worth, effectuully defeating the claims of
stockholders aud other creditors of tho
road.
"It is by these means in the building,
the operation, and the wrecking of roads
that in the space of a short lifetime the
great railroad magnates can heap np
their hundreds of millions. The railroad,
telegraph, and kindred . interests, by
nature, offer peculiai facilities for such
appropriations; so long as they are com
mitted to private control, their very
complexity permits manipulation which,
in simple affairs, would at once be seen
through and resented. Their necessity
to communities compels these to contri
bute unduly toward the building, and
their nature as a monopoly compels the
public to pay rates fixed by no competi
tion, but alone by the appetite for plun
derof their manipulators; theirextensive
ness, too, prevents all competition be
tween them as employers of labor, and
compels labor to contribute more than
its snare toward this plunder.
Another fountain-head of gigantic for
tunes is found to be monopoly of com
modities; millions are reaped through
systematic plundering of the markets by
speculators and trusts. The trust is as
yet in its infancy, and "though only just
beginning to exult in its newly learned
power, it already controls many of the
staples of life."
"Society must have sugar, salt and oil,
and other like commodities at whatever
price: and when the trust has secured en
tire control, it cannot, of course, get
these elsewhere; to the trust it must come
There is thus no limit to what the trust
may and will chargo. These giant cor
porations, already capitalized into al
most the billions, corrupting legislatures
and senates, are piling up untold wealth
from the plunder of all society, until by
their grip around the sources of lite they
must throttle it.
"Sheltered as they are under alleged
freedom of competition and contract,
their position toward industrial society
Is none other, or different, than that of
the pirate of the high seas toward the
honest merchantman he plunders; aud
the complexity of Industrial society
makes it as dangerous to license their
occupation, as it would to license piracy
itself. The mere permission to pursue
their uefarious business unwhipt of just
ice, is a privilege from honest toil, and to
prey upon the labor and necessities
and lives of society.
"Many of these-fortunes have, as we
have seen, been acquired with the assist
ance of the corporation. Tho transpor
tation and banking systems are alto
gether too complex in their nnture for
individual enterprise, and, as society
does not th ink it sale to manage its own
concerns, there remains nothing for it to
do but to create corporations and give
these concerns into their keeping. These
corporations are called quasi-public;
public because the business entrusted to
them affects vitally the whole of society,
and private because it is conducted
wholly for private gain. But it is not
only these concerns that have been en
trusted in this manner to private corpo
rate control. Does a city or any muni
cipal corporation need street-car or tele
phone facilities, or water, or gas supply,
it is not thought fit for itself to provide
these, as giving it too much and pater
nal power; but straightway a franchise
is granted to a corporation, and pro
perty condemned therefor, audi even
public aid extended, as we have already
seen it done in the building of railroads;
the business is, however, conducted wholly
for the gain of a private corporation. It
is not strange, where these corporations
thus control necessary and vital to the
the whole community, and where their
franchise gives absolute monopoly, thus
placing the public at their mercy, that
they should amass enormous wealth."
CARDINAL SOURCES OF THE GREAT FOR
TUNES OF TO-DAY.
It will be seen then that a vast major
ity of the great fortunes found today are
not due to the patient industry or in
tellectual capacity of man, but rather
spring from "privileges" which are en
joyed or acquired through (J) inherit
ance; (2) monopoly in land; 8) mono
poly in money; (4) monopoly in trans
portation; (5) monopoly in commodities
or corporate control of industry.
"There may be large fortunes not so
accumulated, and these may, in some in
stances, be acquired honestly in legiti
mate enterprise and competition, or
they may, more likely, be the result of
privilege and vicious legislation. It is
not claimed that the privileges here
named include all evils of law which need
correction; others exist and will grow
up, aud it is the glory of government, ut
of intelligent riian, to rid itself of these
as they arise. But the privileges here
meutioued are the most grievous, those
most generally recognized, and the ones
that account for by far the larger part of
the enormous fortunes which concentrate
tho world's possessions in the hands of
the few, and thereby deprive society of
their use and oppress it by their power."
TO BE CONTINUED.
liand, Labor and Money
Land, meaning in this discussion natu
ral opportunities, utilized with human
labor in the production of wealth in its
different forms.
Labor, meaning the mental and physi
cal energy of man applied directly and
indirectly to the land in the production
of houses, food, clothing, machinery, etc.,
called by the common names wealth,
property, capital, improvements, pro
duce. There are four principal applications
of labor in producing wealth.
By growth, such as growing grain,
fruit, etc.
By adaptation, Buch as building houses
railroads and mining coal, etc.
By transportation, moving wealth to
where it is needed for use.
By the conservation of wealth from
natural destructive agencies.
Teuching thesciences,publishing useful
books and pupers, etc., are applications
of labor in producing wealth, etc.
Lubor may be misapplied by producing
things that have no power to satisfy the
real wants of the human family.
Lnnd is the prime passive factor in the
production and distribution of all forms
of wealth, and is furnished by nature for
the equal benefit and use of the human
family.
Under existing laws it is owned and
controlled under two titles.
One is for the equal or common benefit
of all.
Public highwuys, sites for public
schools, post offices, etc., are examples
of public ownership of land. ,
Ihe improvements located On the land
thus owned are for the equal or common
benefit of all.
Both the land and the improvements
thus owned are for the mutual benefit of
society
Ihe other ownership of land is for pri
vate or individual purposes.
Under this ownership, two opposite
motives or principles are involved.
One is for the purpose of owning or con
trolling land for actual possession and
use, such as growing crops from it, pro
ducing homes and locating them on it in
which to live, etc. ft
1 his is properly called the productive
ownership, for the reason that parties
thus owning it produce something direct
ly and indirectly from the land.
lhis title, protected by law, gives free
dom to produce from the land, which
makes it inure to the equal benefit of all,
the same as that portion held for public
purposes.
This title to land natural opportuni
tiesfully put into practice as far as
trade extends, would give to the pro
NO. 25
ducers in the different industries all their
produce, by paying rent to no one for
the privilege to produce from the land.
This title for possession and use grants
to each producerfreedom to produce, free
dom to enjoy all he produces, and free
dom to exchange his produce for equiva
lents. This is the natural title, and harmon
izes with the following truths, to-wit:
1, That which any one produces from
the land is bis.
2. No one has anything to exchange or
lose until he first produces it.
8. No one can productively use' two
tracts of land remote fromeach other,
nor live in two houses at the same time.
4. Man Is endowed by bis Creator with
the inalienable right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.
5. Each individual member iu society
has an equal right to sufficient land from
which to produce the necessary com
forts of lifo.
Under this title houses, machiuery,
tools, and public improvements, etc.,
would be mado when and as they were
needed, and as a rule uwned by the pro
ducers and operators of them, carrying
with them the right to the land from
which they are produced and on which
they are located.
It is the principal basis of co-operation
or Christian socialism in making ex
changes one with another.
It is tho fundamental basis of personal
or individual liberty and of free govern
ment. With the rent of land completely
abolished in trade it would abolish the
ront of houses and property of different
kinds located on the laud, for the reason
that a house or superstructure of any
kind cannot be made without the founda
tion on which it is located.
As the fouutain is, so Is the stream.
Effects purtake of the nature of their
causes.
Under thecompleteco-operativeowner-ship
of land in all thedifferent industries
with the increase of population it would
become more and more easy to provide
for the necessary wants of the human
family, until the land is utilized to the
greatest productive capacity.
For instance: two men byco-operuting
and exchanging certain applications of
labor cau accomplish more than twice
as much in a given time than if each
worked alone.
Four men can accomplish more than
twice as much as two in a given time,
and so ou.
This ownership of land with the pro
per use and distribution of the things
produced from it is the remedy for the
inequality aud increased poverty among
the producing classes.
The other private ownership of land is
for the purpose of deriving rent from it.
Parties thus owning or controlling it
produce nothing from it, therefore this
is properly called the non-productive
title.
Bent, interest or profit in this discus
sion means the amount of produce or
useful service exacted iu a trade above
what is given or loaned out to the other
party.
Since land is a product of nature for
the equal benefit of the human family,
therefore the amount of produce, or
the money that represents it, exacted for
it or for the privilege to use it is pro
perly called rent, interest or profit.
A tool of any kind returned to the
lender by the borrower, plus the wear or
damage from the use of it is not of the
nature of rent. '
It is simply returning an equivalent.
Bent is not produced by the exactors
of it, therefore it does not justly belong
to them.
It is produced by those from whom
it is exacted (provided they make their
income with their own labor), and there
fore justly belongs to them.
To insist on its exaction is a greater
moral crimi than the refusal to pay it
according to agreement.
To the extent that rental incomes are
sold back or loaned to the producers
from whom they are exacted at a profit,
to that extent they purchase or borrow
their own produce, or itsequivalent with
interest.
This is being practically accomplished
under the rental system of the land, and
explains the primary and principal cause
of poverty aud distress among the sober
men and women from whom the rent is
exacted.
It is the support of the idlers through
rent that gives the producers plenty of
work without just compensation.
Holding land for rent is the very basis
of oppression and slavery.
Its nature is to kill and destroy the
lives and happiness of the producing
class, by exacting their hard earnings
through rent on which their lives and
happiness depend.
Its effects reduce them to that degree
of poverty where they are tempted to
steal or eugnge in a demoralizing busi
ness for a livelihood.
Under this system of land holding the
prbducing class in all industries are ruled
over by the exactors of rent after the
manner of a king, described in 1st Sam.
8: 10-18.
Whatever is made possible under the
non-productive ownership of land would
be abolished under the co-operative title,
on the principle that opposite causes
produce opposite effects, other things be
ing equal.
The essential function of government is
to equally preserve the lives and happi
ness of the people by preventing and
punishing any who attempt to injure
another, by the exaction of rent, by the
manufacture and sale of whisky as a
beverage, by theft, by the use of decep
tive weights aud measures, etc.
, t innnln KoK HfVBV SrnTT