Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 18, 1896)
"I 57 V The Wealth Makers and Lincoln Independent Consolidated. VOL. VIII. LINCOLN, NEBR., THURSDAY, June i8, 1896. NO. 2. i J REPUBLICAN Railroad Cpapers Canvassing the State for Nominations. THE B. & M. IS IN THE LEAD. Hay ward Will lay out IMcColl and Meiklejohn and the Best. Holdrege Gives the Word. Other State News. Two weeks later and the republican etate ticket will be in the field. A multi tude ol candidates are traveling over the state by courtesy of the railroad com panies working up the booms ahd the boomlets and next week they will wit ness the advent of the bosses at Lincoln who, agreeable to time-honored republi can custom, come in advance to "fir things" for the cenvention. Interest centers in the nomination for governor and it is noticeable that the candidates and the friends of the different aspirants for gubernatorial honors are anxiously inquiring: "Is Holcomb going to run again?" The State Journal has been endeavor ing to impress upon the partizans the dancer ot weak nominations, out us aa vice is not well received. Last week it came out in an editorial which was re produced in The Independent, calling attention to me gravity 01 me situa tion" and stating that "we have got to put up the greatest fight of the genera tion; tnat mere must De no ueuu um ber to weaken our barricades;" that "this is not a year in which anybody can be elected" and that "we run the risk of losing everything." When this editorial was read at the etate house, a sulphurous odor ema nated from the offices of Russell.Churchill, Piper and Corbett. Editor Gere was de nounced as an unmitigated scamp. "I want that article to be explained," loudly declared "Colonel" Russell when the Journal's reporter came around in the afternoon. Everybody thinks it was intended as an assault on us fellows now in office. I have had a dozen people ask me today why the State Journal is jump ing on to me. ; The "Colonel," likewise the other in con-petents before mentioned, recognized the description of themselves as "dead timber." Everybody concedes their weakness and yet it was surprising when these fellows themselves confessed that thev were a burden to their ticket. They protested so hard and long because of the State journal s aavice mat tne or gan of the Burlington had to come out next morning with a short paragrapu declaring that the old officers ought to be renominated "if they desired to make the race again." v . The great interest naturally Centers in the nomination for governor. McColI, Meiklejohn, Hayward and Eugene Moore seem to be in the lead while Speaker Richards and Claire Adams will each have some followers. Six weeks ago an x even bet of McColl against the field would have found no takers, but the tables are turned now and "it s dollars to dough-nuts" that Hayward will walk off with the nomination. McLoll and Meikeljohn are acknowledged Union Pa cific men and when 'the canvass opened the B. & M. powers were backing Tom Majors again. 1 he hickory shirt states man from Nemaha was put forward by his county convention in beautifully worded resolutions of endorsement but the boom was nipped in its incipiency by the country editors who pounced on the Burlington's hired man and tore him in to shreds. Bnt Tom isn't a man who forsakes a fight because it seems to begoing against him. He recognized his inability to se cure the nomination and then went over to see Claire Adams. The result was that Claire came out as a candidate and the B. & M. coppers aver the state put out feelers to find how he was received. The report was adverse. Adams was unable to arouse any enthusiasm whatever out side of Grand Army circles. For a few weeks the Burlington appeared to have no candidate,and thecappers went about with worried looks and anxious mien. But the fight was not off. Boss Tom was scouring the southeast for a man from Burlington Territory and ; a few weeks ago the hundred Holdrege tooters were venturing their private opinions that Judge Hayward of Nebraska City would win. Although he had not been mentioned anywhere and even the Ne braska City people were unaware that a . gubernatorial possibility was in their midst. These cappers confidently de clared that Hayward was a winner. The hundreds of pass users took the cue readily and it was whispered around that the powers were backing Hayward. There was a hurrying of the railroad tools into the Hayward band wagon and in a few days from the announcement, the boom of the Burlington's man was fairly on. He will win just as Majors won. The Burlington's choice always gets the nomination iu a republican convention and Burlington Hayward will be no exception to the rule. The B. & M. Journal has served notice and when Holdrege cracks his whip.the delegates to a republican convention do the dancing. Orlando Tefft, the state senator from Cass county, w 11 probably encounter rery little opposition In his candidacy for the nomination as lieutenant gov ernor. The senator never opposes the will of the political czars of Nebraska ring republicanism and he will receive the reward of the faithful advocate of cor poration control. The fight for auditor may be warm. Eckles, of Chadron is making a thorough canvass and his friends claim that the extreme northwest can no longer be de nied representation or the populists will carry that section by unanimous vote. Geddes of Grand Island is in the race but stands little show of winning. "Geddes isn't a politician," remarked a republican the other day in a depre cating manner, adding; 'He doesn't stand a ghost of a show." The winner will probably be McClay of Lancaster. Deputy Auditor Uendlund is making strenuous efforts and the Swedish element will have to be looked after, so they say, but then Hendlund will undoubtedly accept the deputyship and promise to. vote his countrymen for the nominee. The state of Nebraska has a million and a halformoreof money which it is the custom of republican officers to farm out to favorite banking institutions at a rate of interest netting the treasurer $4,000 or more peranuum. The great difficulty is in giving agood bond but thatdoesn't deter the unterrified. C. C. McNish, of Wisner will probably be the man if Meiklejohn and Moore are defeated for the gubernatorial nomination. L. H. Jewett, of Broken Bow, will have some strength after McCall is turned down but tne "fixers will see to it that no man who has not been identified with the Burlington crowd can get the plum. It must go to one of the railroad strikers and McNish would acceptably fill the bill. Balch, of Omaha, may cut some figure and might prove almost as acceptable to the gang as the Cumingcounty aspirant. ELEMENTARY ECONOMICS. A Wayfaring man, Though a Fool can, Understand. first. 1 here is no such thing as in trinsic value. There is but one kind of value in economics viz.: purchasing power. Secand. All money including gold, is "fiat" money. All money is credited by law, edict, "flat" of government " ' Third. Demand and supply control all values. Fourth. Cut down the quantity of money in circulation one-half (other con ditions remaining unchanged,) and prices of wheat, cotton and other things, as a whole, will fall one-half. Fifth. Double the quantity of money in circulation (other conditions remain ing unchanged,) and prices of the peo ple's products will double. Sixth. Double other forms of prop erty without increasing the quantity of money in circulation, and prices of the people's products will fall one-half. Seventh. There is no such thing in reality as "50-cant dollars." It is not the value of the metal a dollar is made of that controls its value as money; it is the fact that it is a dollar, and is legal tender that gives it its value as money. Eighth. The men who have so much to say about 50-cent dollars are daily passing them, right now, for 100 cents thus proving their own statements un true. The foregoing elementary principles of political economy are sanctioned by all the great writers on money for 1,500 years past, and the great money lenders ot Europe 01 today. Anybody can figure out -from the above eight propositions whether we should restore silver and have "more money and less misery" or not. You pays your money and takes your choice." George Phentiss. Contentious Blatherskites. "Unadulterated cussedness," is the very appropriate caption 01 an artistic roast which the Nebraska Independent last week administered to the conten tious blatherskites who edit the Missouri World and Arkansas Kicker. We heartily appreciate the Indepen dent in its severe arraignment of these vicious party-wreckers, and indorse its repudiation of alleged reformers who seek to destort the utterances of our ablest and noblest Readers, and pervert the public mind by unjust exaggerations, and false accusations. It has come to a pretty pass when Sen ator Allen, who stands higher today in the estimation of the common people everywhere, than any public man, should be made the victim of such vile abuse, and malignant excoriation as he has been subjected to by the Missouri and Arkansas outfit in the last few weeks. All public servants are liable to error. Dut .senator Allen s record ot errors is very small. It is disgraceful in the extreme, that in the face of the able and manly letter written by chairman Taubeneck he should be so bitterly assailed, and relent lessly censured by papers which ought to be his friends. The Nation has abundant assurance of the people s implicit faith in all the populist leaders. Only one or two men are responsible for whatever dissension may exist. Should the Missouri World, Arkansas Kicker, and other rantankerous publica tions persist in their mendacious assaults upon our leaders, they have repudiated every vestige of populism and forfeited their right to ask or expect support, sympathy or recognition, of those sub scribing to the true principles of popu lism. Red Cloud ISation. A Timely Thrashing. The Nebraska Independent of last week gives a timely and much needed thrashing to the Missouri World for its vicious and uncalled for assault on Sen ator Allen. . ' The populists of Nebraska are proud of Senator Allen and are more than sat isfied with the record he has made since his advent to the U. S. senate. We know him to be a consistent, cool-headed and conservative populist a man who can always be trusted as a true servant to the common people and a most inveter ate foe to their enemies in the plutocrat ic camp. Beatrice Tribune. HON. WM. M. STEWART Twenty Years of Gallant Eighting for the Common People. DON'T CALL ME A BEFUBLICAN. John Sherman's Visit to Europe and His Contract with the Money Power. Senator Stewart's JFlnal Stand on the Money Question, Senator Stewart was born in Wayn county, New York, August 9, 1827. He was first elected to the United ' States senate and took his seat March 4, 1865, He began to investigate the money ques tion and made one or two speeches on the subject before the silver dollar was demonetized and the coinage stopped in 1873 and 1874. He had his eye on John Sherman when that gentleman went on his famous trip to Europe in 18G9. It was during this' trip which wound up with the Paris conference in which John Sherman declared that the United States was in favor of the single gold standard that the final arrangements were made by Sherman with the European money power to contract the currency and double the value of American bonds, At that time Senator Stewart was not the economist he is now, but he did not like this hobnobbing of Sherman with the aristocrats and millionaire of Europe and said bo. Sherman came home and worked so secretly and so slyly that when the act of 1873 passed the senate, even Senator Stewart, whose suspicions had been WILLIAM M. STBWABT. aroused four years before voted for the act of 1873 along 'with the rest. But the bill, as Senator Stewart has time and again demonstrated, as it was read to the senate, provided for an American dollar the equivalent' of the French five franck piece, which would have put our coinage at the ratio of 15 to 1 and the American dollar would have contained 384 grainsof silver instead of 412. That was John Sherman's explicit statement on the floor of the senate. When the bill was sent to conference committee it con tained no dollar at all except the trade dollar. Senator Stewart was one of the first to discover what had been done and he be gan the battle which he has been fight ing ever since. In the conflict which has now waged for more than twenty-five years, Senator Stewart has never ceased his efforts during the working hours ol of a single day. He has put more hard work into the contest than any other man now living. When other men were silent, his voice was raised in defense of the common people. It did not take him long to come to the conclusion that the banks were behind the movement to contract the currency and he denounced them with all the vigor the English lan guage wouia permit, ue iooks upon this bank organization as the enemy of mankind. Senator Stewart was the first man of national reputation to publicly deuounce and abandon the republicanparty. Time and again he announced his allegiance to the people's party but the great dailies refused to publish the fact. The report ers of the Senate Press gallery would in giving a vote, always say "Senator Stewart voted with the populists" Fin ally he wrote a letter to the daily papers requesting them to cease classing him with the republicans. During the long contest over the Wil son tariff bill he was the only populist who stuck absolutely to the Omaha platform. He would have nothing to do with the tariff. He wouldn't vote, he wouldn't pair, and he wouldn't make speeches on it One day, if he had voted, he could have killed the Wilson bill. It was a trying situation. The writer saw him in the corridor just as the vote was coming on. The senator was in a quandary. "He said, "What shall do?" The writer replied: "It is a very grave responsibility." After a mo ment the senator said very slowly. "The Omaha platform declares that this fight over the tariff is a sham. I'll stick to the platform. I'll have nothing to do with the tariff." lie did not go into the senate chambe and did not vote. During this tariff fight in congress there were constant successions of dele gations coming to Washington demand ing a tariff on this thing and that, all declaring that if it was not done, "that particular industry would be absolutely destroyed." One day one of these dele gations headed by a portly, side-whiskered aristocrat, came to Senator Stew art's committee room. The spokesman of the party opened out after this fash ion: "Senator Stewart we represent the manufacturers of . If the tariff is re duced in the least upon it, it will abso lutely ruin the whole industry and the mills will have to close and all the work men be discharged. We call upon you with confidence, knowing you to be a re publican and" at that point Senator Stewart sprang to his feet and iu a sharp ringing voice, loud enough to be heard down the corridors said; "Don't you call me a republican. Do y,ou supppose I would associate with that ang of John Sherman thieves and traitors who are trying to make slaves and serfs of the common people of this country?" Such a look of astonishment came over that millionaire plutocrat's face as is seldom seen and he began to back toward the door. At this the kindly senator changed his look of wrath to one more pacific and extending his hand said: "There, you having heard my honest opinion of your republican John Sher man party, I will hear what you have to say." Senator Stewart's views on the money question are constantly misrepresented, not only by the goldite dailies and mag azines, but by a few "holier than thou" populist papers. The following is an ex tract from a speech delivered during the 53d congress upon which he put more time, perhaps, than any other speech of his life. Every sentence of it was gone i.-over many times before it was delivered It contained bis final convictions after a study of thirty years: Since the art of making, engraving and printing paper has been invented, a ma terial has been produced, having every essential quality of gold and silver, for use as money, except limitation of quan tity. faper is sufficiently durable. cheaper as to cost 01 transportation and more convenient than com, except tor small change, ihe only question re maining is, can any sure and safe rule be ascertained and established by law for the limitation of quantity. General prices furnish a rule or gauge by which to determine whether the sup ply of money is sufficient or otherwise. i be volume of money in circulation, and all the property for sale, are reciprocally a supply and demand as to each other, 11 tne average price ot commodities is stable, the proper volume of money is in circulation. All authorities agree that stability in general prices is the end and aim of monetary science. Any increase or diminution in the supply of money produces a corresponding rise or fall in general prices. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when there was only about Zlou.uuu.uuu of coin Incircula tion in all Europe, general prices reached the lowest level in history. A hundred years after the discovery of gold and silver in Mexico and South America, the volume of money was more than quad rupled, and prices greatly advanced. Be tween the years Into and 1850, the cut ting off of the supply of precious metals. due to the Spanish-American wars, large ly reduced the supply of money as com pared with property for sale, and prices tell over 61) per ceut I he new supply of gold from California and Australia ad vanced prices, between 1850 and 1873, from 18 to 25 per cent. Since 1873 the reduction of the supply of standard money, by the demonetization of silver. nas produced a tail in general prices amounting to fully 50 per cent. ihese practical examples are in har mony with the law of supply and de mand. A supply of money, in excess of the legitimate demands of business is not desirable, because it disturbs the equity of time contracts, and enables the debtor to discharge his obligations in, money less valuable than the money n circulation at the time the contract was made. A constantly increasing volume of money is necessary to supply the . 111 creased demand, arising from the growth of population and business. A decreas ing volume of money as compared, with the demand is disasterous. It compels tne debtor to pay in dearer money than he undertook to pay whn he entered in to the contract. It discourages enter prise, because property produced or ac quired by the investment of money, de clines in price, and thus the probability of profit upon any venture is diminished. When money is advancing in value, or. what is the same thing, is increasing in purchasing power, the human instinct of gain induces investments in money. Such investments are made by exchang ing property for money, with a purpose to hoard it, or for bonds and other cred its, which are investments in money fu tures. Investments of this character do ot create wealth, but absorb wealth al ready produced. When prices are rising, the same in stinct leads to the acquisition of prop erty. Property is acquired by purchase, and by production which results from the employment of labor. The employ ment of labor in production, is the source of all wealth and prosperity Speculators of every description, iiictud ing dealers in money, in the language of Wall street "go long on those things, whether property or money, which are rising in price or value, and go "short" on those things which they believe to be on the decline. Since the demonettza tion of silver, money has been appre ciating in value, and the competition to acquire reliable money futures has been so great as to induce people to accept very low iuterest, in view of the pros pect of an inciease in the purchasing power of money invested. The decline of prices has been so serious, as to induce prudont men to go short on property by declining to engage iu new enterprises, and by converting their property into money futures. Enforced idleness, pro duced by the enhancement of the value of gold, or what is the same thing, the fall of prices, has withdrawn the pro gressive and the ambitious from pro ductive undertakings, and has led them to seek wealth by investment in money futures, (i, e. bonds.) The hope of relief by increasing debts, or issuing more currency redeemable in gold, is vain. The inflation of prices, by issuing papsr redeemable in gold, with out gold for redemption, must end in panic and collapse. It would be like at tempting a permanent cure of delerium tremens by an increased indulgence in strong drink. The use of theprecious metals as money and the use, at the same time, of stamped paper of no appreciable value, have led to much confusion. The fact that the precious metals have uses, other than those incident to the value confer red by the money function, tends to com plicate the subject, and leads many to suppose that it is the material in these metals, and not the .money function, which makes them valuable as money. Neither gold nor silver can be used as a commodity, and at the same time in its charter as an order for all things for sale, and a legal tender for the payment of debts. Anything which is clothed with the money function of a dollar will Eay a debt amounting to a dollar, and uy a dollar's worth of property no more and no less no matter of what material it may be made. It is the money function which makes it a dollar, not the paper, the gold or the silver. If there were no law, custom or under standing, by which the money function could be conferred upon anything but gold and silver, and gold and silver only could be converted into money without loss or charge, the amount of gold re quired to make a dollar, would be worth a dollar, and the amount of silver neces sary to make a dollar would also be worth a dollar. And if the money func tion could only be conferred upon a cer tain kind of yellow paper, and another certain kind of white paper, and all such paper, both the yellow and the white, could be converted into money without loss or charge, the amount of yellow paper required to make the same amount of money, would also be worth a dollar, but the value of each dollar in coin mo di ties would depend on the number of such dollars. Rude nature never has, and there is no probability that she ever will, yield from the mines too much of either gold or silver, or both, for use as money; conse quently, it has always been, and still is, safe and expedient to confer the money function upon all the precious metals, offered for that purpose, by coining them into money. The preliminary effects of the gold standard contraction, have paralyzed enterprise and destroyed the prospect of future credits. It is now destroying ex isting obligations, and, when its deadly work shall have been accomplished, all bonded debts will have been liquidated by repudiation and bankruptcy. It blind greed is to be the only guide of the money power in the future, as it has been in the past, the horrors of universal ruin and the disorganization of society may be realized before the work of re construction can be begun. The hope still exists that there is sufficient intelli gence in the masses, to direct their dor mant energies in a mighty effort to break the chains of contraction, with which fraud and avarice have bound the Timbs of enterprise. If this hope can be realized, the civilization of the nineteenth century will escape the abyss of degredation and want in which all preceding civilizations have perished. The above extracts are taken from Senator Stewart's book, Silver and the Science of Money. For sale at this office Price 10 cents. It is one of the best doc uments extant. Danger Ahead. The bitter determination which Henry Clews makes no effort to conceal, in de claring the threatened coercive policy of the Wall street money - trust, has long been anticipated as a terrible certainty by many thoughtful men whose serious experience and wide opportunity for ob servation enables them .to weigh with much significance the rapidly developing signs of the times. One correspondent reflecting the sentiment of his neighbors in one of the central states, says: "While I do not speak of it promiscuously, yet I am today more afraid of a rebellion than I was in May, lWbO. Should the gold standard idea succeed in this election, strife will be almost inevitable. The banks will know that their sway is Uni ted to two years, and they will do all they can in that time to bind future gen erations; and the people of the west are not in a temper to stand much more. National Bimetallist. Union of Forces. Several congressional districts In Mis souri have held conventions this month for the selection of delegates to the na tional convention. The resolutions are generally favorable to a union of reform forces on the cardinal principles of the umana piattorm. CORPORATION THREATS They Will Give the West an Object Lesson if It Don't Stop Talk ing Tree Silver. PRES. ROBERT'S ARROGANCE. Bat He Will Find That Men of the West Are Not Cowards. Come on With Vour Financial War Well Make It Interesting. A special to the News from New York conveys the information that the Penn sylvania railroad is going to issue an or der for the strictest economy on its lines because it fears that Ohio, Indiana and Illinois will vote for silver and it will have to pay a gold premium on its bonds when free coinage ' of silver is re stored. Mr. Roberts, the president of the Penn sylvania system, has raised his voice in behalf of the gold standard more than once of late. He is a pronounced gold bug, and in complete harmony with the viewB of the banking interests of New York. The order which he is going to is sue is the first move in the campaign of bulldozing which the money power has determined upon in order to intimidate the people from voting for bimetallism. This giant corporation employs many thousands of men, upon whom hundreds of thousands depend. It threatens a cut in wages in order that its employes may be frightened out of their intention of voting for silver. The order is the answer of the corporation to the address issued by the leaders of the great labor organizations, who have advised that every working man should vote for free coinage. from this time forward we shall see this policy pursued by the heartless imp lements of the money kings. Threats, cutting of wages, discharges, and boy cotts of free coinage men may be looked for. The banker's panic was the object lesson given by Wall street to the busi ness men of the country. No w the work ing men are to have an object lesson. The pittances which they receive will be relentlessly shaved in order that they may be driven by the fear of starvation for themselves and families to Vote as their treacherous masters may order. The plans of the gold oligarchy are be ginning to develop. They include a reign of terrorfor all those whoowe their daily bread to any firm or corporation that is dominated by the money interest. The News hopes that the people will get back, and get back hard, at any bulldozers of this kind. An organiza tion like the Pennsylvania railroad is a power because of the immense number of its employes, but we feel sure it it is sues any such orders as that outlined in the dispatch it will meet gallant fighters in the aroused farmers and business men of the states which it traverses. We very much mistake the temper of the free coinage men of those states if they will not fiercely resent an attempt to whip them into line, and if the Pennsylvania system proposes to enter the lists in be half of the gold standard there will be no surprise felt should it experience a diminution of its receipts considerably larger than any saving it may effect through cutting salaries and other re ductions of expenses. bvery day it is becoming clearer that the question before the people is whether or not Wall street shall rule this country. In recent circulars issued from that financial center by commission houses, it has been stated that "the street" viewed the increase of free coinage senti ment with comparative unconcern, be cause it had resources which could be brought into play and against which voters would not dare to stand in an tagonism. These resources are financial contraction and disturbances which it can create, the control which it believes it can exercise over a large portion of the labor of the country, and the millions of money it can use in corrupting elec tions and congresses after elections. It may be presumed that the using of these resources will now begin in the form of unwarranted assaults upon wages and upon debtors. The money kings are in viting the contest, and upon their heads will be the result Seventy-two millions of Americans are not yet ready to sur render the rights of self-government The president and directors of the Penn sylvania road have in their hearts no fear of being embarrassed by having to pay a premium on gold to meet their . gold bonds. They are representative of and allied with the money owning classes and are simply using the great property which they control to further their pur poses. .Looking at the matter from another point of view, it is, of course, a cheering sign that the goldites are so alarmed concerning the vote of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The wave of free coinage in those states must be rolling high and strong, and the gold bugs must indeed fear that there will be a complete union of all the silver forces in the coming cam paign. Denver News. Quaker State Pops. Abram T. Line, of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, an old worker in the re form cause, writes: "Everything here looks favorable for a very large increase in our vote in this state this year." Illustrate your argument with a good story. Send for a copy of Reform Cam paign Stones. See ad on other page. A
