THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
Aug. 6, 1896.
Bl Nebraska 3nucpcnucnt
THE WEALTH MAKERS m4 UNCOLN
INDEPENDENT.
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IndBpBijdsijt Publihiijg Go.
At 1110 M Street,
LINCOLN, - NEBRASKA.
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THE INDEPENDENT PUB, CO,
Liicoli, III.
Nebraska's choice for President
of the United States 1896-1900 w
WM. J. BRYAN.
SPECIAL NOTICE.
Our subscribers will please take notice
of the date following the address on the
paper. This is the time at which the
snbscription expired or will expire. Note
this carefully, and if behind make w a
remittance at onne, while yon have the
date at band. Thin applies to all who
are behind, and especially to those who
hare written and promised to remit dur
ing harvest. The amount yon owe may
seem small, hut when there are several
thousand behind it means a considerable
load for us.
National bank notes
tendor for anything.
are not a legal
Would we maintain the national honor
by reducing our farmers to peasants?
. - i'
Populist orators will be the only ones
who can use their old speeches in this
campaign.
Every fall in pries increases by just
that much all debts, taxes, interest and
freight rates.
What the Walt street defenders call a
"craze" is an earnest desire of patriotic
citizens to restore prosperity.
John Locke, the great economist said:
"Gold is not the money of the world or
measure of commere, or fit to be so."
The so-called market or commercia
value of gold is a law made value. En
gland and other nations make the price
by law. Who will deny it?
At Bellwood, Butler county, a Bryan
club was organized composed of fifty
democrats, forty-five republicans, twenty
one populists and one prohibitionist.
"Come, let us reason," says the popu
list. "You're an anarchist and repudi
ator," replies the gold bug. They call
that reply an evidence of intelligence.
Who owns that f 100,000,000 gold re
serve? If the government owns it why
don't it lock it up and keep it? But it
seems the banks own it, and whenever
they wantsome of if they just go and take
it. .
The contestants on one side of this
conflict are reading, thinking, and inves
tigating. On the other they are coining
abusive epithets and inventing slanders
with which to besmirch private charac
ter. ' . : '
It is anarchy for a miner to advocate
free coinage for the purpose of advancing
the price of silver, but it is pure patriot
iBm for a manufacturer to advocate a
high tariff to advance the price of his
product. " "
It is the duty of every honest Ameri
can citizen to rebuke the insolence that
asserts that the average voter has not
the mental capacity to study and thor
oughly understand the science of money
If the honesty of a coin varies in accord
ance with the cost of the metal In it,
which is the gold bug doctrine, then the
honesty of the coins of every different
mine in the world varies. Qold from
some mines costs little, and these coins
are very dishonest.
Let voters avail themselves of the
fruits of the world's scholarship. The
great minds of the past have thought
all these problems out, and written
down their conclusions long ago. They
all agree. Believe them, and not the
teaching of modern Shylock.
The republican party advocates an en,
tirely new experiment an experiment
never sanctioned by any party before.
and denounces all those who refuse to
sanction it as lunatics, idiots, knaves or
swindlers. They have reached the
mountain top of insolence.
All the gold advocates claim that the
decline in the price of silver bullion was
caused by increased production. There
has been a great increase in the produc
tion of gold bullion during the last year.
Why has it not declined in price? Simply
because the governments of the world fix
the price by law, and take all that is pro
duced.
WjtRtEABEAT.a
It is well for all to kwp in mind that
while the populist and democratic par
ties have united in the effort to elect a
president who is in favor of the free
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1
by the United States independent of any
other nation, and who is opposed to
banks of issue and isene of bonds in
times c;f peace, that the two parties re
main distinct organizations, with widely
diverging views on many other subjects.
The populist pregs and the members of
the party will continue to advocate the
the doctrines laid down in the platform
adopted at St. Louis, the foundation of
which principles were first promulgated
at Omahafour years ago.
The populist party has maintained
and will evtr continue to advocate
those principles. They may be briefly
stated as follows:
There are three functions mat a gov
ernment must never surrender to private
control.
1. It must issue all the money and
regulate its value by controling the
quantity by positive enactment of law,
and not leave it to the chance production
of gold and silver mines or the will of
corporations.
2. It must own or absolutely control
all public highways, by water and by
land. This is the old common law. It
is only in modern days that public high
ways have been turned over to the con
trol of corporations or individuals. In
reality, a railroad is only a public high
way, and its surrender to private control
is against good public policy and a
danger to free government.
3. To provide means of rapid com
munication is a government function,
and to surrender it in whole or in part
to the control of corporations or indi-
iduals, is against good public policy.
Telegraphs and telephones, being means
of rapid communication, the government
should own them and make them part
of the postoffice system.
In all of these things the populist
platform differs from the democratic
platform. They make the continuance
of populist organization a necessity.
They give a wide field of usefulness to
the populist press. They will continue
to be advocated until enacted into law.
If the populist party should dissolve
another party would arise to take them
up.
There are many correlations to the
above principles which would take a
wide field of legislation to cover, which
cannot be enumerated here. All taken
together, they mean government for the
benefit of all the people.
All populists agree that legislation
cannot be given a trend in this direction
until the government is wrested from the
control of the money power. Therefore
we have united with two other parties,
the democratic and free silver parties; to
first overthrow that power, and, after
that, we match on. There is "where we
are at."
JOHN SHERMAN PROPHET.
John Sherman is the great law-giver
and prophet of the gold bugB. In 1893
he made a famous prophesy. It can be
found on page 2597 of the Congressional
Record, 53d congress. This is his proph
esy.
"Why should we be here seventy odd
days without a single vote on any ques
tion? Let us try it. If we would try it
tomorrow after all the long debate that
has been had and dispose of this ques
tion as we think best for the people of
the United States, while you are assum
ing your responsibility we would glad,
den the hearts of millions of laboring
men who are now being turned out of
employment. We would relieve the bus
iness ares of thousands of men whose
whole fortunes are embarked in trade.
We would relieve the farmer and his pro
duct for free transportation to foreign
countries, now clogged for the want of
money. In the present condition of af
fairs there is no money to buy cotton
and corn and wheat for foreign consump
tion. Break down the barrier now main
tained by the senate of the United States,
check this viper called obstruction to
the will of the majority, give the senate
free powar and play, and in ten days
from this time the skies will brighten,
business will resume its ordinary course,
and the clouds that lower upon our
house will be! in the deep bosom of the
ocean buried."
That is the famous John Sherman
prophesy of '93. Repeal the purchasing
clause of the Sherman act and in ten
days the skies would brighten, business
would resume its ordinary course, the
hearts of millions of laboring men
would be gladdened!
The act was repealed and not only
"ten days"'but nearly three years have
passed and no port of .this prophesy has
come true.
In;i878 he made another famous
prophesy. He said if we coined 50,000,-
000 silver dollars, gold would be driven
out of thecountry. We coined $ 24,000,'
000 a year until 1890 and our imports
of gold were 100 per cent greater than
our exports.
All his other prophesies have failed in
the same manner, but John Sherman is
still the great prophet of the gold bugs
and his prophesies are implicitly relied
upon today by millions of people. That
at the close of the 19th century a false
oroDhet should be so trusted and be
Iieved is very strange indeed.
A banker's note is honest money. The
government's note is dishonest money,
repudiation and anarchy.
Id clubs often or triers? campaign
subscriptions 10b jaeh. No com
mission allowed.
FOREIGN CAPITAL.
Thos. B. Reed, more widely known as
the Czar, in opening the republican cam
paign in Maine used thefollowing words:
"What this country needs is capital
from abroad." This is the fundamental
error of the whole goldite contention.
That is what gives Lombard street an
interest in this campaign. All men in
favor of monetary reform utterly deny
this statement and their reasons for de
nying it have never been refuted. They
say that every government must of ne
cessity have the right to coin money and
regulate its value. It should furnish the
people with a sufficient quantity to en
able them to develope the country's re
sources and do its business. To borrow
money of a foreign nation and pay to
foreigners interest for the use of a medium
of exchange when the government has
the sovereign right to furnish that
instrument itself, is not only unwise but
is disloyalty to the people, for it makes
them in fact, tribute payers to foreign
powers to the amount of interest that
they pay.
The investment sa .oreign capiiai in a
country, at any rate of interest ever
heretofore charged, and where the inter
est must be annually sent out of the
country, is always a T detriment. So
when the golditea sayr "Establish the
gold standard so that foreign capital
will be invested here" say to them: "That
is just what we do not want, for in the
end it will transfer the property to the
foreign money loaner at any rate of in
terest current in the past.
SOMEWHAT PERSONAL,
In looking over our populist exchanges
we find not one protesting voice among
them all against the final action of the
national convention, but several of the
editors file protests against the action
of their delegations in minor matters.
The editor of this paper has no pro
tests to file. Every plank of the plat
form which he proposed, and which was
printed in this paper two weeks before
the convention assembled, was adopted.
The policy of the convention was the one
outlined in the speech he made before
the delegates of the Third congressional
district at Grand Island, and for which
he got sat down upon very hard.
That policy is now conceded to be the
only way to secure the election of W. J.
Bryan, and any variance from it means
defeat. All agree to that now. So the
editor of Independent is fully vindi
cated, and therefore feels quite elated.
There is a thing or two about the
platform he don't like. One is the cum
bersome sentences in which the ideas are
expressed. Donnelley's criticism of it
may be too severe, but the style is cer
tainly open to criticism. Donnelly says
'is a barren statement of thread-bare
facts, unrelieved by a single flash of
genius; it is as stale, fiat and unprofit
able as a congressional agricultural re
port." . .
The next time a platform is to be
made a newspaper man or two should
be put on the committee, or if that is
not done, hire one and let him just
clothe the ideas in a fitting form of good
English.
This platform will make two columns
or more of solid brevier. It will bank
rupt the country editors to set it up.
A good newspaper man would have put
every idea in it in three-fourths of a col
umn, and stated them more clearly than
they are now.
Now let this be a reply to all personal
inquiries, either by letter or otherwise,
to the editor of this paper.
JOHN M. THURSTON,
In the Associated Press report of the
speech of Senator Thurston opening the
campaign in Wisconsin, occurs this pas
sage: "The senator mentioned that J uly
11th the Chicago Chronicle had charged
Bryan with being the paid agent and
spokesmen of the bonanza silver kings,
who had really made the silver issue,
and that he had not met the charge.
'That man,' cried the senator, 'posing
as the friend of the downtrodden masses,
holding a crown of thorns in one hand
and the bugaboo of a cross of gold in
the other, owes it to every man, woman
and child in this country to say whether
that charge is false, or whether it is
true'."
Ever since John M. Thurston went to
Washington he has been falling in the es
teem of intelligent men. That statement
removes him from the position of an in
telligent partisan and places him on the
level of a ward politician.
NO SENSE IN IT.
The moment that free coinage becomes
probable, say all the goldites, a deluge
of American bonds and stocks would be
returned from foreign couutries and sold
on the stock exchange at one half their
present price, and that that would be
the greatest calamity that ever befell
this nation. But would it be a calamity?
If Americans could buy the debt we
owe to foreigners for half its face value,
would not that be a great blessing to
this country instead of a calamity?
Their predictions of disaster are of nec
essity based on the idea to be enormous
ly indebted to foreign countries isagreat
blessing and to buy np that debt or pay
it off, would bring untold disasters.
There is no sense, at all in that kind of
talk.
10 campaign subscriptions 81.00.
Send in your orders,
WHAT WILL Hr.COM K Of THEM.
If the drouth had continued for two
more years in Nebraska, what would a
corner lot in Omaha or Lincoln have
been worth? What would a medical or
law practice return? How many
goods could a merchant have sold?
If taxes, freight rates and rates of in
terest remain the same and the purchas
ing power of the dollar increased until
one dollar would buy twenty busnels of
corn, five bushels of wheat, and fifty
pounds pf pork, bow much would a law
or medical practice then be worth? How
much goods could a merchant sell then
to the farmer,aftr he had paid bis taxes,
rents, repairs and interest?
Under such conditions the farmer
would not be as badly off as the profes
sional and business man.
The farmer could live, he could raise
enough, with fair seasons to live on and
if need be, return to the old hand loom
and spinning wheel of our grandfathers.
But what would become of the profes
sional or business man. He would
starve.
The republicans hold that money of
great purchasing power is "sound mon
ey," and therefore the greater its pur
chasing power, the sounder it would be.
A dollar that would purchase twenty
bushels of corn, according to their the
ory, would be a better aoiiar tnau one
that would purchase ten bushels. If corn
should go down to five cents a bushel, as
it will if "the present gold standard,"
is maintained," any effort to raise the
price of corn by increasing the number of
dollars, would, in their eyes be repudia
tion. It would depreciate money. ,It
would be "cheap money."
Is there any "soundness" in such talk
as that? Is there any common sense in
it? Do the people of this state want
money, so dear that business men must
starve, the professions be forsaken and
nothing left within our borders, except a
few tillers of the soil, who will live in
huts when the present houses rot down,
pound their hominy in a wooden mortar
dress in sheepskins or linsey woolsey.
have no churches or schools or books?
Is that what you want? you can make
money so dear that that will be the in
evitable result. When money gets so
"sound"that a man must raise 100 bash-
els of corn to get five dollars, we will be
very near that state. Do you want that?
Then vote to maintain "the present gold
standard" and in a few years you will
see the lawyers, doctors, professors and
merchants become tramps, and the only
one safe from starvation, he who tills
the soil. That is what will become of
them.
Any man who can clearly reason, can
not fail to know that a constant in
crease in the purchasing power of money
or wfiat is the same thing, constantly
falling prices, must end in the wreck of
civilization. While prices are falling men
do not build new houses. Even when
one burns down it is not replaced. Look
at the blackened ruins in Omaha and
Lincoln and see if that is not true. In a
few years more, the fires and natural
deterioration of property, if money con
tinues to appreciate and prices continue
to fall, will make this state a land of
ruined homes. It cannot result other
wise. Do yon want to leave such a heri
tage as that to your children? What
will become of them?
EDUCATING THE PEOPLE.
The magazine economists who are
hired to "educate" the people in the in
terest of the money power are having a
hard time in writing their ponderou3 es
says in trying to explain the constant
export of gold. That the export of the
jellow metal has anything to do with
the relative amount of our exports and
imports, or with the payment of interest
and dividends on our enormous loans
from Europe, or with our payment for
the use of foreign ships, is not even hint
ed by any of them.
They talk of gold as if it were a sen
tient being, and bad a volition of its
own, and that when the people of a
country offended its delicate sensibilities,
by not speaking in truly reverential
terms of the bankers, it just gets up and
walks off to some other country where
the Shylocks are rightfully revered.
That sort of writing they call "educat
ing the people" in political economy.
PRESERVING THEIR FETICH.
Wall street has recently been exchang
ing gold for greenbacks at the sub treas
ury. The bankers know that another
bond issue before election wonld knock
McKinley out, and they suspicion that
if the gold reserve should run down to
twenty or thirty millions, and nothing
should happen except to stimulate busi
ness to the extent of putting seventy or
eichtv millions, now locked up in the
treasury into circulation, their gold re
serve fetich would be forever destroyed,
To preserve their fetich and save McKin
ley, they exchange their gold for green
backs, knowing that they can get the
gold back whenever, they present the
greenbacks. By this silly performance
they hope to deceive the people into con
tinued faith in their gold reserve fetich
AN INTELLIGENT INSTRUCTOR.
The Independent thought jt had dis
covered the prize re publican idiot when
it overheard one of them declaring that
"yon silver fellows and populists want
the government to coin sixteen silver
dollars for every gold 'dollar," but it
was mistaken. It is another fellow by
the name of Thomas McKee, who has
just been put in charge of one section of
the gold bug literary bureau. In his
book entitled, "Hard Places Made Easy
in the Coinage Problem," he says: "Coin
age ratio between gold and silver is fixed
by law. The original law of 1792 made
$1 in gold equal to f 15 in silver. The
act of 1834 changed the ratio to one
dollar of gold to sixteen." Men of that
calibre will be intelligent instructors of
the American voter.
GOLD BUG CONGLOMERATES.
Goldite campaign literature is a very
strange conglomeration. One document
tells us that we have little need of any
money at all, that 95 per cent of busi
ness is done with checks and drafts.
Another document tells us that the
probability of free coinage will drive
1600.000,000 of gold money out of the
country and the loss of that much mon
ey would produce such calamities as the
world never suffered before. So it seems
that checks and drafts won't do the busi
ness without money after all.
Another document says that free coin
age will dump all the silver of the world
into the United States.
Another document says that the silver
of the world would, if compressed in sin
gle bulk, constitute a cube sixty-six feet
on each side and could be hidden out of
sight in any of the great modern com
mercial buildings.
Another document says the sole idea
of the free coinage men is to inflate the
currency. Another says that free coin
age would produce a terrible contraction
by driving gold out of circulation and
to this our own Parson Andrews agrees.
And so it runs through the tons and
tons of gold bug literature. No two of
the documents tell the same lie. A man
who would try to believe any two of
them true, would go mad.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.
The claim that the vast amount of im
ports following the repeal of the McKin
ley act has caused the present depression
in all prices and the stoppage of manu
facturing, will appear grossly absurd to
any man when he takes into considera
tion that of 700,000,000 imports,
1223,000,000 worth is contained in four
items, which are not manufactured goods
viz, coffee, f 90,000,000; tea, $ 13,000,
000; sugar, f 80,000,000; linen and flax,
$40,000,000. Besides these, there are a
large number of other articles imported
which in no way effect our manufactures
and some that are a great aid to them,
such as hides. It is doubtful if the man
ufactured articles imported during the
last year amounted to $350,000, 000
while our exports were $882,510,229.
Nine-tenths of the honest readers of re
publican papers believe that our imports
exceed exports, for this falsehood is con
stantly printed in the republican goldite
papers. The campaign committeeought
to furnish large numbers of the govern
ment reports on this subject for distribu
tion among republicans.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
Gold dollars are a full legal tender.
Silver dollars are a full legal tender un
less otherwise provided in the contract.
Treasury notes and greenbacks are a
legal tender except for import duties and
interest on the public debt.
Minor silver coins halves, quarters
and dimes are a legal tender for five
dollars.
National bank notes are not a legal
tender.
The banks hold on to gold and silver
coin, gold certincates, ana greenpacKs,
and pay out silver certificates and na
tional bank notes whenever they can.
This is why but little of these forms of
currency is seen in general circulation.
IN MAINE.
This year things in Maine are in a
queer fix. The democratic iree silver
vice-president lives there. The demo
cratic gold bug candidate for governor
refuses to run on the Chicago free silver
platform. Maine will vote September
14. In 1894 Maine gave 69,599 republi
can, 30,621 democratic, and 5,321 pop
ulist votes.
Awful calamities are predicted if gold
should leave the country. Once in our
history it fled to foreign shores. During
its absence we fought a great war and
had the most prosperous times in all
our history, and times remained good
until it begun to come back again.
From the day of its return until now,
they have gradually grown worse.
Every man of fifty years of age knows
this to be true.
A telegram from Washington to the
New York World says several men hav
ing been nominated as presidential elec
tors on the democratic ticket prior to
the Chicago convention, have since that
time repudiated both the platform and
the ticket and are publicly credited with
the intention to vote for McKinley.
What are you going to do about that
Mr. Jones? Populists will never vote
for such men on a joint electoral ticket.
Money has but one kind of value
purchasing power. It has little or no
"utility." Don't get mixed up on these
two words. Price is value expressed in
terms of money. The "price" of a bushel
of corn is 10 cents, etc. Money has val
ue, and the value of a dollar is not 100
cents, but what the dollar will purchase.
Henery Vincent has retired from
Coxey's paper and Carl Browne takes
his place. The paper supports Bryan
and Sewall and says nothing about non
interest bearing bonds.
The money owner dearly nen that
when money is mads scarce and dear by
contraction, that his wealth is doubled
without exertion on his part. Is it im
possible that he who owes money, or is
a producer, cannot see it also? Does it
follow that because a man is in debt or
is a producer that he is incapable of
reasoning?'
John U. P. Thurston and Herr Most
both belong to the same party and their
style of campaigning seems to be on a
parity, repeating slander and assaulting-
private character.
At Norfolk last week Judge Maxwell
was nominated for Congress in the Third
district by representatives of the populist,
democratic, prohibition and free silver
parties.
Senator Thurston seems determined to
reduce this campaign from a discussion
of economic truths to one of personal
slander. Those who have known Johu
U. P. Thurston are not at all surprised.
Hon. Wm. J. Bryan's Sayings.
Some who are ready to use the power
of the government to limit the supply of
money, in order to prevent injustice to
the creditor, are slow to admit the right
of the government to increase the cur
rency when necessary to prevent injus
tice to the debtor. I denounce that
cruel interpretation of governmental
power which would grant the authority
to starve, but would withhold the au
thority to feed our people which eould
permit a contraction of our currency.
even the destruction 01 all prosperity,
but would prohibit the expansion of our
currency to keep pace with the growing
needs of a growing nation.
I may be in error, but in my humble
judgment he who would rob man of his
necessary food or pollute the springs at
which he quenches. his thirst, or steal
away from him his accustomed rest, or
condemn his mind to the gloomy night
of ignorance, is no more an enemy of his
race than the man who, deaf to, the en
treaties of the poor and blind to the suf-
fering he would cause, seeks to destroy
one of the money metals given by the
Almighty to supply the needs of com
merce.
The line of battle is laid down. The
president's letter to Governor Northen
expresses his opposition to the free and
unlimited coinage of silver by this coun
try alone. Upon that issue the next con
gressional contest will be fought. Are
we dependent as a nation? Shall we leg
islate for ourselves or shall we beg bo mo
foreign nation to help us provide for the
natural wants of our people?
You may think that you have buried
the cause of bimetallism- you may con
gratulate yourselves that you have laid
the free coinage of silver away in a sep
ulcher, newly made since the election,
and before the door rolled the stone.
But, sirs, if our cause is just, as I believe
it is, your labor has been in vain; no
tomb was ever made so strong that it
could imprison a righteous cause. Silver
willl lay aside its grave clothes and its
shroud. It will yet rise, and in its rising
and its reign will bless mankind.
Alexander "wept for other worlds to
conquer" after he had carried his victor
ious banner throughout the then known
world. Napoleon "re-arranged the map
of Europe with his sword" amid the la
mentations of those by whose blood he
was exalted; but when these and other
military heroes are forgotten aud their
achievements disappear in the .cycle's
sweep of years, children will still lisp the
name of Jefferson, and freemen will as
cribe due praises to him who filled the
kneeling subject's heart with hope and
bade him stand erect, a sovereign among
his peers.
STREET ILLUMINATION
The City of Omaha to Expend 83,500 to
Light Its Street Fair Time.
Omaha, Aug, 6. The local electrio
light company has a force of men at
work putting up wires for the street
illuminations during fair week. The
plan of the illuminations will be exact
ly the same as last year, but six blocks
will be added to the previous route.
Just which additional blocks will be
included has not been decided, but the
matter will probably be settled this
week. The incandescent lights will
be strung five feet apart on each sidej
of the streets along the route of thei
parades, and the street intersections
will be crossed by a Greek cross of in-1
candescent lights as was the cass last
year. The city has appropriated
$2,500 to pay for the extra lights, this
being slightly more than the amount
expended last year.
HOLCOMB NOMINATED.
Hastings Convention Nominate the Gov
ernor Bryan and SeweU Elector.
Hastings, Neb., Aug. 6. At the pop
ulist convention yesterday Silas A. Hol
comb was renominated.
The matter of electors was left to
the populist state central committee
with power to act.
Resolutions were adopted indorsing
the Omaha exposition. Senator Allen's
course, Congressman Kern's course, and
the administration of Gov. Holcomb.
The only other nominations made
were J. C. Cornell for auditor and J.
W. Porter for secretary of state. But
one ballot for treasurer was taken, re
sulting in no choice.
A central committee was named.
Will Stand by Watson.
John Breidenthal, state chairman oi
the peoples party of Kansas, has uttered
a strong denunciation of the plan to put
up populist electors instructed for Bryan
and Sewall. He maintains that the party
in Kansas mnst be true to Watson and
tno action oi tne national convention iu
all things.
Breeders of fine stock can find no better
advertising medium than this paper.
Ripans Tabules: pleasant laxative.