"'f VOL. VII. LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1895. NO. 29 SO MOVES THE WORLD. Agricultural distress prevails to a very Jreat extent in England. A conspiracy of nihilists to assassinate " the Czar has been discovered. Philadelphia was under martial law last week. Street car strike. The Italian army met with a serious Idefeat in Abyssinia, last week's dis- rpatches say. ThiirHt-nn tins introduced a bill to raise the rates of all pensions twenty- flve per cent. Tnfai-nol mni'liinaa flflVA tlpfin Rent m iiiivi u il . j through the mails to George M. Pullman and P. D. Armour. The Senate Finance Committee con tains eight men in favor of free coinage and five against it. Mobs have had their way in the street car strike. Violence seems an unavoid able attendant of strikes. The Sultan still does as he pleases and the Powers agree upon nothing to force him to protect the Armenians. Senator Call of Florida has introduced a bill to reduce passenger rates on inter state railroads to one cent a mile. The steamfitters' strike which has been on for several weeks is extending, 2,000 nore men have been called out in Isew fiYork. j V The Irish here are ready to fight Eng- land and the National Alliance has issu ' ed a manifesto and offered Cleveland an army of 100,000. Colorado mining stocks were on the kboora in Denver Friday morning, Dut on iews of the Wall Street panic, prices Iddenly collapsed. rrh 8.000 members of the care-enters 'nd woodworkers union of New York f will consolidate and join the United Order f of Joiners of America, which has 60,000 members. Itis reported that the tramp fraternity . of the southwest will hold a Christmas holiday convention at Hot Springs, Ark. and their regular summer convention at Cripple Creek, Colo. Ten thousand members of the United Brotherhood of Tailors have stopped work in New York, The employes having Adopted rules which practically re-introduce the sweat shop. The Socialists of Germany are placed, bv the rVnresHive policy of the Emperor, in the positiou of befriendiug free speech , and the fundamental rights of the pej- ple. They are an increasingly popular party., The President says we must have more gold, and be asks Congress to fasten bonds upon the people to obtain it from 'the bankers. And then the bankers are to be allowed to draw it awav from us without giving bonds for it. According to the Dec. 21st, dispatches the Porte has ordered Mustapha Remzi Pasha to attack with 10,000 troops and two 'batteries the city of Zeitoun and bombard and destroy it, and to massacre the twelve thousand Armenians in the city. Big floods are reported in Missouri and also in Chicago, where four days of al most incessant rain fell, leaving a scene of watery waste in the suburbs varying in depth from a few inches to several feet, onow succeeded as the weather prediction-there. The trnmns nf the southwest. heM lnnh week n. twn Hnvn nnnvAntinn on t.ha Arkansas river between Wellington and "Winfield. About 1,500 were present. Kansas Citv.Tim nresidpri. T.pt. thn hia. torian of the decline and fall of modern civilization make note of this. Senator Lodge of Massachusetts has introduced a bill which not only re affirms the Monroe doctrine, but gooa farther and declares' that the Uniteii States will regard any attempt on the part of any Europeau power to take or acquire new territory on the American continent, whether under pretense of boundary disputes or otherwise, as an act of hostility to the United States. Big strike of street car men on in Phila delphia. The company they strike against owns all the lines and is capital' ized. at $20,000,000. The strikers will be attacked in the rear by their own pressing needs, and on either side by the destitution of men out of work. Debs and John McBridehave been telegraphed for by the strikers to come and advise them, and have wired that they will be there. Cotton declined a quarter and wheat two cents Inst week. There were 377 fail ures the first two weeks iu December, against 349 last year, and 32 in Canada against 45 Inst year. Lower prices are the rulesays Dun. Manufactured good rontinue to decline. Boots, shoes and leather prices are still fullme. "Iron and l Steel have fallen 3 per cent for the week. kemer pig and grey forge and most M of finished products have dropped f or less, rnnt cloths are weaker, market for woolen goods has not vea. tiouble the wheat has left the as compared with last vear. vet r lections there are slow and there is an rfnl scarcity of money (wheat did not ng anything). The stock market of i country went all to nieces Fridnv. that one day the four nromineut rail- rd stocks fell on an average of $5.62 snare, much of the selling being of amies neia abroad. DIRECT LEGISLATION So-called Bepresentative Legislation Does Not Represent THE BETTER SWISS METHOD Address Delivered by Eltweed Pomeroy, Secretary of the Direct Legislation League of New Jersey, Dec. 4, 1895 Delivered Before the N. J. Grange (continued fhom last week.) Geographical representation is all our present system provides. A century and more ago this was a vital point. In one small local community there were few and unimportant class divisions. That local ity was almost homogeneous. A man from it could represent it carrying with him to the central body its local flavor and getting its local wants. Other com munities differed from it, and they had to have a representative of their own. But with the growth of our great sys tems of transportation and inter-communication there has coineachurning up of our people. The local lines have been broken down, they have been made more homogeneous as a people. But the growth of great fortunes and the sociali zation of industries in huge factories has built up class divisions instead of the locality divisions, and geographical rep resentation is today almost useless. Thirdly. Representation does not rep resent, because no man can perfectly rep resent another. No two human beings are perfectly alike. Even if the best man is always elected, there are some issues on which he does not represent many of those who voted for him. A thinking voter casts his vote for either of three reasons' or some combination of these reasons. First He thinks the platform of the party whose candidates he votes for suits him on the whole better than that of the other party, but there may be in it one or more planks that he is op posed to. Second He uses the opinions or records of the candidates in the same way as under the first he used the plat form. Third He votes for the candidate because he believes in his honesty of pur. pose and ability. Yet that very honesty of purpose may lead the elected candi date to pass some measure to which the voter is much opposed. Even under the best conditions representation cannot perfectly represent. But under present conditions the voter often has a choice of evils. The party machines, representing only the political wire-pullers,dominate; the ignorant voter is deluded by the shouting of party shib boleths; theenthusiastic voter is drawn in by torchlight parades and violent haran gues; the corrupt voter is brought to do something that will be for his permanent disadvantage, and the intelligent voter is distracted by the multiplicity of issues and claims. Is it a wonder that wrong results? And after the election, an issue not made in the campaign, though it may have been foreseen by the' wire-pullers, comes up for the representative to vote on, and he decides it, though unable to know how his constituency would have him vote. From its very nature, representation cannot accurately follow the wishes of the people. Fourthly. Representation does not represent, because human nature is weak and the law maker is bought either by money or by promise of power or place. Every thinking man can easily recall where men have been definitely pledged to certain measures before election, and have either done nothing or just the contrary. During theeighties the Repub lican party was given the power to re form and gradually lower the tariff on direct pledges embodied in its platform and in the speeches of such leaders as Garfield, Blaine, Sherman and others. In 1890 it went buck on its pledges and passed the McKin ley law, which raised the rates. The issue was clearly made between the two parties; it was the main issue, and onit the people gave the power to the Democratic party in the election of 1890, and emphusized it by the elec tion of 1892. No mandate from the people could be clearer. Yet the Demo cratic party passed a law which their leader in the House, Mr. WilsoD, said was a perfidy, and which Mr. Cleveland was ashamed to sign. There is no question here of the wisdom or otherwise of pro tection. The will of the people, as clearly expressed in the elections, was not car ried out. The reason it was not carried out in both cases was the corruption by corporate interests of therepresentatives of the people. No one will claim that the Democratic legislature of 1892 in New Jersey repre rented one-tenth of the Democratic party of the State when it passed the Coal Com bine bill. Nor did the legislature of 1893 when it passed the Gambling laws. These laws were bought through. Representation does not represent for four reasons. 1st. Whole classes composing the bulk of the community are entirely unrepre sented by men of their own class and coudition, who are the ouly ones that can fully understand their wants and needs. 2d. Political parties are not properly represented, and other parties not at all. All we have is geographical representa tion, and though that may have been useful a century ago, it is useless now be cause of changed conditions. 3d. From its very nature, representa tion can only roughly approximate the wishes of the community. Only a few great interests can be thus determined; where many issues are before the people it breaks down completely. 4th. Representation fails because of the weakness of human nature. The men elected often leave undone the things they were pledged to before election, and do the things they were not pledged to do, and, in many cases, they do it be cause they have been bought. The remedy for this has been pointed out in the last clause of the quotation from Alexander Contee Hanson, "Pre serving the dependence of the greatest on the people." It was foreshadowed by Richard Henry Lee, when he said: A free and enlightened people in forming this compact will not resigu all their rights to those who govern, and they will fix limits to their legislators and rulers which will soon be plainly seen by those who are governed, as well as by those who govern." It was somewhat clumsily carried into effect in the early constitu tion of Pennsylvania, of which Noah Webster said: "I cannot help remarking the singular jealousy of the constitution of Pennsylvania, which requires that a bill shall be published for the considera tion of the people before it is enacted in to a law, except in extraordinary cases. This annihilates the legislature and re duces it to an advisory body." It has been the guiding principle of all legisla tion in the country parts of New Eng land from its settlement in the seven teenth century, and it has there magnifi cently proved its value and uses. No one would be rash enough to even suggest in New England the abolition of the town meeting. It has been perfected in detail and carried into effect on a large scale in mountain-pierced, freedom-saturated Switzerland. Direct legislation consists of two things, the Referendum and the Initiative. It is thescientific method forgetting the voice of the people on measures. The word Referendum comes from two Latin words, re (back) and fero (to bear) it means to bear back or to refer. By it, no law save a strictly defined class of ur gent measures for the public peace, health and safety which require a two thirds or three-quarters majority to pass can go into effect after passing the law making body under a fixed time, say 90 days. If during this time, a small per centage of the voters, say 5 per cent., sign a petition for the Referendum on that law, it is held from operation till after the next election, when the people vote on it. If a majority vote for it, it is a law; if a majority against it, it is not a law though it may have unanimously passed the faw-innking body. The word Initiative comes from two Latin words, in and itio (to begin) hence it means to bring in or to initiate. If a certain percentage, say 5 per cent., of the voters sign a petition for a law for any purpose and file it with the proper officer, it goes to the legislature. The sending of petitions is an old, highly valued and often useless right. But this petition can not be pigeon-holed or buried in com mittee; it takes precedence of alt other busiuess. The law-makers have got to act on it. They can do just as they please with it. They can amend it, re ject it, lay it on the table or pass it. If they pass it, it becomes a law the same as other laws after the time specified for filing petitions for the Referendum on it. if it is not passed, it goes to the people ,t the next election for a Referendary rote and all the people vote on it. If a majority of the voters vote for it, it be comes a laweven though every law-maker may have voted against it. It is enacted by the people. If it is amended and then passed by the law-making body, both the law as in the original petition and the amended form are voted on by the people. The Referendum is negative: the Initia tive positive. The Referendum is preven tive; the Initiative is constructive. Both together make direct legislation", which finally and thoroughly remedies our faulty system of misrepresentation. This is the system used in all deliberative bodies. A man rises and says: "I move so and so," and alterdis cussion, the body votes on it, the majo rity deciding. Under the Initiative 5 jwr cent, of the voters rise and say. "We move so and so," and after discussion led by their representatives, all vote on it. Often a society refers a matter to the committee to examine and report, and after the committee has reported the body takes action approving or rejecting the report. This is the Referendum. This is the principle by which all the fundamental laws and principles of our government are fixed. The people vote on all Constitutions and amendments to Constitutions. They are the final autho rity on the fundamental law of the land. If they are capable of fixing the great principles of government they ought to be capable of deciding on the by-laws if they wish. The principle of Direct Leg islation is entwined with the very foun dation and framework of our whole sys tem. Why should it not be extended to the minor details? The people have tried to do this by lengthening their Constitu tions and enrtailing the powers of their law-making bodies. The Constitution of New Hampshire, in 1776 had GOO words; the last Constitution of Missouri, passed in 1885, has 26,000 words, or 43 times as many as that of New Hampshire. This is a clumsy and inefficient way of getting at Direct Legislation for a few things. It is holding the feet of a horse to prevent his running away when it would be better to use a pair of reins of the Referendum and the Initiative. Often when the people want something badly they find they cannot get it because they have tied the feet of their horse. The advantages are too many to even name fully here. It will remove corrup tion because the legislator cannot be sure of delivering the goods. It will make the political discussion on measures and not on men, as at present, thus re moving much of the mud-slinging so pre valent and raising our political discus sions to a higher plane and make them truly educational. It will allow wild schemes an outlet, so that whatever is good in them can be adopted and the bad dissipated by free discussion. Jefferson said. years ago, "There is no reason to fear error which reason is free to com bat." It willremove the bitter partisan ship of which Washington in his farewell address, warningly said: "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natu ral to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a most frightful despotism Let me warn you in the most solemn manuer against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally." I want no better summary of its rea sons, methods and advantages than the century-old words of Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts, member of the Constitu tional Convention and honored writer and thinker: "All writers on govern ment agree and the feelingsof the human mind witness the truth of these political axioms, that man is born free and pos sessed of certain inalienable rights; that government is instituted for the safety and happiness of the people, and not for the profit, honor or private interest of any man, family or class of men; that the origin ol all power is in the people, and that they have an incontestible right to check the creatures of their own crea tion vested with certain powers to guard the life, liberty and property of the com munity. And if certain selected leaders of men deputed on these principles deter mine contrary to the wishes of their con stituents, the people have an undoubted right to reject their decisions, to call tor revision of their conduct, to depute others in their room if they think pro per, to demand further time for delibera. tion on mattersof the greatest moment.'' Toward Pauperism The American of Philadelphia, recently published some astounding statistics, which are quite sufficient to prompt the producer to inquire, what the end is to be under the present policy of government. During the five yeurs 1870-74 the plant ers of the United States raised 8,630, 016,870 pounds of cotton, estimated by the Agricultural Department to have been worth $ 1,491,467,000. For the five years 1880-94, 19,572,026,085 pounds of cotton were produced in the United States, of an estimated value to the planter of $1,503,281,201. The planters during the last period raised 2 27-100 pounds of cotton where they raised one in the first, but they only re ceived 8-10 of one per cent more for the 2 27-100 pounds of cotton in the years 1890-94 than they did for theone pound of cotton for the years 1870-74. Cotton has fallen over 55 per cent. If the cot ton growers had realized prices current during the years 1870-74 for the crops lliised in the vears 1890-94, they would have received $3,385,900,512 instead of $1,503,281,271. During the five years 1870-74, the far mers of the United States raised 1,305, 9G 1,600 bushels of wheat, valued at $1, 461,159,940, while the crops of wheat harvested iu the five years 1890-94, amounting to 2,383,300,141 bushels, the farmers received $1,609,431,676. In other words, 1 825-1,000 bushel of wheat were raised in the second period for every one in the first, but the farmers only received 10 percent more in money for acrop92 percent greater in quantity. Wheat had fallen 39.7 per cent, so in stead of realizing $2,607,031,567 for their crops of wheat in the second period which they would have done if they had received prices current in the first period, they received only $1,609,431,670. The clip of wool in the United States for the years 1870-74, amounting to 800,000,000 pounds, was valued at $450, 400,0(10. For the five years 1890-94, the production of wool amounted to 1, 450,210,384 pounds, but its value was only $458,706,270. For 654,000,000 more pounds of wool the sheep raiser only realized $8,000,000 more. The pro duction of wool has increased 82 per cent, but the value of the clip less than two per cent. This is a criminal waste of the national wealth, and the cause of it, the stupid government, we unhesitat ingly say, is responsible for most of it. Famers Voice. Tr. Miles Nmtv Pr.ASTXRScnre RHETJMA. T1SM. WEAK BACKS. At druxgliit. only 23c, The Sociality of Jeaus'a Itellglon Prof. George D. Htrron, In the Anno, for Novem ber. Coudeuued tor Publlo Opinion. The chief characteristic of Biblical reli gion, from Moses to Jesus, is the revela tion of God in the simplest facts of the common life; in the terms of social effort. Moses has revelations concerning sanit ary laws, architecture, marriage relations land ownership, good government, and the commonwealth of society. Elijah and Isaiab, with all the prophets, are social and national reformers. David is a man of affairs, and Ezekiel a teacher of politi cat ethics. Christianity comes, not as a theological or ecclesiastical system, but as a revelation of life; not as a cult of worship, but as a social ideal, based up on the sacrifice of service as the natural law of human life. In religion as a thing in Itself Jesus was not interested; rather, He looked with profound distrust upon what was then.aud is now, both officially and popularly understood by religion. A religious cult was something He could not tolerate; an official religion was to Him a usurpation. Religious forms and theological dogmas He regarded as mat ters of little consequence, except as they perverted and oppressed human life. There is no indication that Jesus came expecting to found a new religion, but every indication that He came expecting to disclose to men the divine or natural order of human relations. It was human life that interested Jesus and that seemed to Him, even at its worst, to be the one altogether sacred matter of concern. The age that finally changed the revelation of Jesus from a social ideal to an official religion, from a revelation of righteousness to a theologi cal system, was the most licentious and untruthful, the most morally apostate and insanely wicked, in the history of the church. The Nicene council, from which the church received its theology, was so shamelessly immoral, so without sense of right and human honor, as to outrage even Constantino's sense of ethical decency and he, although styled the first Chris tian emperor by church fables, was avowedly atheistic in both morals and intellect, acharacter that might stand as the heroic incarnation of the political genius of evil. It is a long and down ward journeys from Jesus to Athanasius, longer by far than from Athanasius to either Hildebrand or Calvin. I do not say that the church has not been receiv ing moral discipline, yet to bear its best fruit, during these centuries of wandering in the wilderness of theology and ecclesi astical politics. But we need to under stand that this wilderness, in which we still wander among the bonesof our fath ers, is not the land of social promise which Jesus viewed for His nation, and His human race. The sociality of life was Jesus's fundamental religious con ception. The sociality of religion is the revelation of Jesus's religious experience, and is the realization of his kingdom. His teaching did not come into the world as something new, but as an interpreta tion of that which is eternal in all reli gion; itcameas a program for the simple organization of all religious facts and forces iu a redeemed and natural human life. Christianity began, so far as it issued from Jesus, not as a new religion, but as a revelation -of human iife in a social ideal. The whole law of man's re lation to God, the knowledge of which law had hitherto been fragmentary, Jesus came declaring. To reveal the sociality of religion, he taught by deed and word. The sociality of experience is, then, a fundamental fact of Jesus's religion. We cannot hold fellowship with God apart from the particulars of our occupation and career; apart from our daily rela tions with men and things. Our relig ious experience is without value except it comprehend, change, and ethically glorify the actual facts of life. It is easy to be worsh ipfully or professionally religious; to be just and righteous is quite another matter. Religion is relation, and a right relation with God is primarily a right re lation with human life, where the God of man is. The sociality of religious expe rience is its value alike to God and man; its sociality is the true measure of its reality. The religious, because social, test of life is in the quality of our rela tions with our fellow men of all sorts and conditions. To be morally splendid in the heat of public conflict, in the thick of controversy or viewed battle, even in martyr-flre and dungeon chain, is infinitely easier than to fulfill the sacrifice of service in the daily rounds of common life. While I do not forget that ours is a world of stern fact and toil, with the gulf between the real and the Ideal greater than the purest and strongest seem able to pass, while to the truest and bravest, life often seems a slow, wearisome, sadful school of disen chantment, and that there is bread to be earned with children to be reared, I yet remember that amidst sternest condi tions of life has the glory of the Lord shone round about the sous of men. It was in the midst of hardest experiences that fieethical reality ol Jesus's life was evolved, We a.v nearing the social crisis In the Jff9tltJUllHOJb e crimu)tCh liar's reli gion. The forces of selfishness and sacri fice are gathering for their supreme struggle on the field of Christ's truth, while the cross has become foolishness to the church which bears His name. The church has become of the world even as as He was not of the world. Things which are an abomination in the sight of God are now no more highly esteemed in the world than in the church, and the church has been reconciling itself to the will of the world rather than vicariously reconciling the world to the will of God. Human life is now so settled in discon tent with individualistic principles and competitive practices, so glowing with Messianic forces, so near to breathing the heavenly breath and watchful for the holy city, that it often seems that ii the many sons of God now committed to the social redemption could find some way to make one supreme associate sacrifice, fully illustrative of the social law, they might lift the whole organism into a living social vision, so appealing and commanding that it would renew the strength of the common life to enter up on the strifeless progress of the ransom ed society. NEWSY TRIPLES. The last turnpike road In Connecti cut, the old Derby road, Is soon to be made free. Strawberries In marketable quanti ties were gathered In Greenville, Or., last week. A Paris, Me., woman takes boarders. does dressmaking, gives music lessons and takes in washing. A kite-shaped track on the Penob scot river, near Bangor, is a hope en tertained by Bangor horsemen. Two deaths from the effect of poison Ivy occurred In Connecticut within a few days of each other recently. A connoisseur In cats living In West field, Mass., has twenty-three cats in his house. One lie values at $1,000. Fifteen cents apiece is all that the plumpest partridges are worth, deliv ered at the hotels, In many parts of Maine, in this exceptional year for game in that state. School teachers under contract with the school board of Chehalis, Wash., are prohibited by an order issued by the board last week from dancing or playing cards. Fishermen in the vicinity of New London, Conn., report that during the past week several of them have seen a huge whale about eighty feet long In the waters there. A 16-year-old Diana, Miss Lulu Daniels of Big Elk, Ore., Bhot and killed a big buck with five-point antlers" at 200 yards range while out hunting with a party aey-fiiy agfl.- ( - , ."Three girls and a boy were bornJIS Mrs. Amanda Webster at Bethel, DeL, one day last week. The mother is 20 and the husband 52 years old. All the children are doing well at last accounts. PERSONAL. Mayor Davis of Kansas City, having foiled to pay the tax on his house for last year, discovered to his surprise the other day that his property had Just been sold to satisfy the claim. Tennyson is said to have declared that the late Mrs. Alexander's "The Burial of Moses" was one of the few poems by a living writer of which he would have been proud to be the au thor. Samuel Craft, living near McGee's, Simpson county, Mississippi, Is Just 47 years old and has had twenty children, fourteen of whom are living. This Is . considered something of a record in that section. Marlon Butler of North Carolina, the youngest member of the new senate, 82 years of age, Is tall and slender and resembles a college professor. He has prominent features, dark brown hair, mustache and pointed beard. Hall Calne said, in Philadelphia, that it was not so many years ago since his tea table service consisted of one china cup and one silver spoon. He was able afterward to add other cups, but his single spoon had to suffice for several guests. The late Gustav Freytag, in his wilL provides that all letters in his posses sion be returned to the writers. In his life he used to disclaim the practice of publishing dead people's letters, and he directs that nothing of his own be printed of which he had not authorized the publication. Ex-Governor Shepherd, who is visit ing Washington after a long absence in Europe, says that 80 per cent of the persons he saw at work in the fields of the continental countries last summer were women. The absence of men, he adds, was due to their compulsory serv ice in the armies. Dr. Madden, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat diseases, over Rock Island ticket office, S. W. cor. 11 and O streets. Glasses accurately adjusted. City ticket office Elkhorn-Northweitera j 1!-. HT p. trrn A