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About The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1900)
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. November 29, 190D Zht Tlebraska Independent ttmctla, Jltbrssk PK1SSI tUXL. COSHER OTM AND N JTS TLLMvmxw Yea PCBl-ISKED KvkXT THCMDAT SLOO PER YEAR IN ADVANCE Wfc atkia ruin do sot UTt f 17 villi potmr. te.a Ids tritk J Um Mfeactiber fil to ct ., MA4rm ll BWMak-tJo. 4 mW all tfcftftan mot 4mr. ate. pyti to Rtbrssks Tmdependtnt, Lincoln. Neb. cd - Bcto4 sicriX win aot t r The lat republican congress created 20 Efw oCces and Increased the salaries of 479 old oScers involving as Increase In salaries of IS.234.6S3. That doe not Include the commis sions appointed by McKlnlejr whose salArlo and expenses amount to some ralllloa more, riant some more corn and help pay the bilL It Is announced that the Porto Rican ca which was to decide whether the constitution follows the Sag or not lis, on the motion of the trust attor ney general, been postponed until Jan uary 1. By that time It Is expected that rocxress having assembled, the thing can be to fixed as to suit the ideal of Imperialism. Hat it about time that the great dailies let up on Use pictures illus tjatinz the manner In which the Chi nes bcheal their criminals and let their art lets try their hands at a few diagrams showing how the Christian soldiers loot cities, shoot down con combatants and assault women? 'Too much of one kind of pictures has a tendency to weariness. The enacting clause of every, law promulgated In the Philippines reads as follows: "By the authority of .the president of the United States it1 is ordered, etc' The republicans con tinue to declare that Imperialism is a bogy. If there is greater imperial au thority than that, please tell where it resides. Laws enacted by the will of one mac without any one's consent. If It Un't Imperialism, what Is it? John J. Lenta, who is respected by all popullits for his manly fight s gainst military government In Idaho, was defeated by 14 votes. Ilia district has always been a close one. The republicans were exceedingly anxious to defest him and llanna, Dick and others of like Ilk poured money into his district just as the national com mittee did Into Nebraska to defeat Bryan. i - There was a suit up for trial la one of, the Omaha courts the other day that has been in court over twenty years. It concerns the title to some land In one of the additions to that city. It is a shame that this Is possi ble In a civilised country. During the pendeacy of the case, Joseph Baker, the original plaintiff, half a dozen of the defendants and a number of the lawyers have died, but still the case goes on and on. " Treasurer Roberts reports that 23 per cent of our money Is gold, or a lit tle over a third. The other two-thirds Is silver and paper. Because any kind of legal tender money remains at par with gold, he calls that the gold standard. All the money now Issued, Including bank cotes. Is legal tender to some degree. When they started out, they undertook to make gold the only legal tender in this country. They have utterly failed and have abandoned the project. They have discovered a better scheme. Organize the trusts, control production and fix prices. There is a good deal more in . that than there was in stopping the coinage of silver. A mullet head Is the easiest creature to fool oa earth. They all believe that the (current -rate of Interest on govern ment loads is lower In this country than in any other country on earth. They say that the government 2 per cent bonds are at a premium of 6 per cent. That Is. if a person bought a government bond, he would have to wait three years before he got any Interest and after that, get only 2 per cect. Times must be dreadful and all aterprtse dead when a man could J&ot do better with money than that. What la the truth about the matter. The man who gets government bonds to the value of 123.000 can organize a bank ard take his bonds down to Wash lector and get all hla money beck. Then he gets his 2 per cent on Lis bonds and can loan his money over again. The people pay the inter est on that second lot of money just as well as upon the bonds. Money is net being loaned at less athan 2 per ceat in the United States to the gov ernment r to any one else for 2 per HORRORS OF EMPIRE. The world would stand aghast If the simple truth of the horrors of the pres ent wars for empire were made known to the people. But the military cen sorships established by the different powers see to it that; the people shall not know. Of these censorships, that established by William McKinley, as testified to by the experienced corre spondents of all nations, is the most severe. The Ground robbln" signed by the correspondents q, all Rations and sent from an outside fctation concern ing the war of empire In the Philip pines is sufficient-proof. In all history whenever an Invading army has at tacked another "and "different race, ra-. pine, murder of the Innocent, assaults upon defenseless women, has over whelmed the unhappy country and the corpses " of women- 'and children have strewn. the land. The few private letters that have come from the, Philippines have told the old, sad story. Officers and men who have returned, -will in private ad mit the truth of 'them. "'In China the "Christian" powers are , repeating an cient history with' additional horrors. The troops of each nation are tde nounced by writers belonging to other nations. French and English writers tell of the rapine of the Russians. Writers of other nations tell of the crimes and murders committed by the French. The Japanese and Eng lish correspondents tell what the 'Am erican troops did. From among them all, if one has the nerve to read the horrible details, the whole story is told not in the regular dispatches, for that is forbidden by the censors but In mail correspondence and private letters. Some of the work of McKin ley's troops has -appeared In - private letters, one of ; which -was printed in The Independent, News from the Philippines contains ' the statement that when the troops of His Majesty, the president of the United States and emperor of the Philippines, returned to Manila, they were loaded down with the "most costly articles, their share of the loot gathered in China, some of which was being disposed of for a song 'and much of it was being sent to the United States as Christmas pres ents. Think of that! Stolen goods being sent to the - United States as "Christmas presents!.. Commemorat ing the birth of the Savior with relics and costly merchandise gathered from fields of murder and rape! Will any minister of any rich and powerful church in the United States denounce it? Probably not one. Whether there Is a single voice in the degenerate church raised in pro testation against these horrors and crimes or not, The Independent will cry aloud and spare not. The crime rest i?on the guilty soul of William McKinley. He is commander-in-chief of the American army and navy. . An order five lines in length would stop the whole business. The wailing cries of ravished women, the blood of in nocent thousands rests upon his guilty souL An order from him with seventy-six millions of Americans to back it would bring this looting, murder and ravishing to an end, not only in the American army, but in the armies of all of the "Christian" powers. If there is not another voice in all the land to protest, The Independent will protest. The Christian ministry may be silent. The religious press may not say a word. The secular press may exclude it from comment in their columns, but The Independent will cry out. The bloo of innocent women and children shall not rest upon it. . .-' For details of some of the horrors against which The Independent pro tests, the reader is referred to a letter written by Norman Coleman jr., who was an eye witness of . the inhuman cruelties and unspeakable horrors of which he writes. The letter is printed In another column of this paper. THE FUTURE OF SILVER. Several old friends have written to The Independent asking for an ex pression In regard to the future of sil ver. In answer to all. It may be said that the effort of the money power to stop the coinage of silver has been a complete failure. . More silver, is be ing coined today than heretofore and still more yet would be coined if more were produced. Under the administra tion of McKinley, which came into power under the promise, to stop the coinage of silver, more has been coined than was ever coined either under the Bland act or the Sherman act In the same length of time. .Z' ... Since the beginning of thpTyear the Indian government" has Shipped 1, SOO.000 in gold to London v. The aver age price of silver, lait month in Lon don was 29.58 pence per ounce fine, compared with "26.70 pence 'In October, 1899. and 27.90 pence in October, 1898. Shi pments of - silver ' 1 rbmLondori to India for ten months since January 1, 1900, are reported at 5,310,307, against 4.509,525 in the same portion of 1S99. The gain reads 800,782 or. $4,003,910. The effort to force a gold currency upon the people of India has been abandoned. Gold shipped there for that purpose has been . returned and silver has been sent back in place of It. Three-fourths of the population of the world use-silver for money, not only as subsidiary coin, but. for : . ' - all their business . transactions. The other 1 fourth uses as much silver as gold and as long as any nation .uses metallic money, silver must of neces sity furnish a great part of the cur rency. ' The basis of business is such .that it will be an impossibility for ages yet to come to stop the coinage of silver in the Asiatic world. The transactions are. so small, that of necessity silver and . copper - must be used," ' As long as gold is used for money, " just that long will silver be used. The attempt to stop " the" coinage ' of silver was Quixotic The result was a tempo rary disturbance" of all values, the bankruptcy of hundreds of thousands and suicides;' insane and "criminals without - number. ?'-': The attempt, has. been abandoned there is not a financier in. the whole; world who does not know that it. has been abandoned. All the silver that is mined, except what necessarily" goes into the arts, is coined. All uat is mined will : continue to , be coined. Notwithstanding the triumphant elec tion of McKinley and "the permanent establishment of the gold standard," silver remains in the market eight cents per ounce higher than it was three years ago. The great cry raised in the east" against the "threat of free silver" was a fake, pure and simple. It was not raised in the hope of stop ping the coinage of silver, but for another purpose altogether. The money power had gathered in all that could be gathered by the "crime of "73" and was laying plans for the further spoliation of the people. To accomplish its purpose it was neces sary to re-elect McKinley and keep Mark Hanna in control of the policies of the government. It was preparing to monopolize all the industries and to take from labor all the profits of production through the organization of the trusts. To do that, the manip ulators of the finances of the world were willing to invest millions in the republican campaign, with a certainty that if they won, it would be returned to them many times over. The stoppage of the coining of silver cannot be effected by the "powers" even if they all work in harmony. The millions of brown people will con tinue to use silver as primary money and the other millions of white peo ple will continue to use it as sub sidiary, and also as standard money to some extent. More than $600,000, 000 of the standard money of the United States at the present time is silver. Any attempt to make it re deemable on demand in gold would produce a panic such as the world never saw. Yet the mullet heads con tinue to "firmly believe that "the gold standard is firmly established." BLACKLISTED. The following appeared in the State Journal as a special dispatch from Washington: "There Is no question that the re publican victory is a great thing for Nebraska. The state had been black listed and reviled by eastern people for four years or more, and was pointed out as a place where the in vestment of capital was unsafe, where enterprises were not wanted, and where the courts were ruled by mobs." Any newspaper man would know at a glance that the dispatch was a fake and written in the State Journal office. It is referred to because it announces that a state that does not vote the re publican ticket will be blacklisted by the eastern plutocrats and slandered to the limit of the ability of these same trust, corporation and bank mag nates to lie. Nebraska, they have been telling the people down there, is a state where "the courts are ruled by mobs!" This cowardly degenerate in the State Journal office instead of re senting such a villainous lie about the state, prints it and gloats over the fact that the people of the state have been represented as a set of barbarians who mobbed the courts. There is an old saying that it is a nasty bird that fouls its own nest, but there is no proverb describing the foulness of the degenerate who so vili fies his own state and people. That is the sort of men and the character of the journalism that will be dominant in Nebraska, for the next two years. Mr. Harold Martin, correspondent of the Associated press in the Philip pines, in an article printed In a New York paper says: .. . ; "No matter how the question is con sidered at home, the retention of these islands is today unpopuiar with the majority of individual Americans who must . live out, here. , They, put up with the Philippines as an unpleasant fea ture of their duty, hoping the while for speedy relief." : While the article is conservatively written, it really depicts in the dark est colors the incompetence and 'dis honesty of the government maintained since the military occupation. He re lates how one officer who protested against the shutting up of all the dis tilleries except one, and that one al lowed to run night and day to supply the trade, making immense profits, was removed from office and sent back to the United States. He says that the enormous tariff , taxes imposed by the Spanish have been maintained and no one "knows what has become of the money. " . ' " : : 'r -;' . PROFOUND IGNORANCE. I t lt is-hardly;, possible that the voters of Nebraska would have repudiated a state administration that had paid off in four years all the bonded debt, made provisions for the full payment of all the floating debt in the next eighteen months, had reduced the cost of main taining every public institution and doubled the disbursements to common schools in the short term of four years, if theyhad full information upon the subject. "That many t thousands who voted ther republican ticket did so for want"1" 'of -information cannot t be doubted, unless - we come to the' con clusion that men. will ' vote knowingly ; against their own interests. C c ; A few days after -the election some students of the "university "remarked to' the editor of The' Independent that many of . the 1 students voted- .against Bryan because, ; when he was ordered to Cuba by the president he refused to go and resigned, At first ' hk thought quiry was - convinced that ;they hon estly believed the statement - to v be true. Now students of' a "university. especially those old enough ta vote," are expected to be above the average;, in intelligence, and if they believed such a story as that, what could be expected from the , average .working farmer and farm hand? - Further Investigation showed - that this 'story had been circulated in the republican country newspapers- and other documents by the hundreds of thousa nds. Those ; who read ' it, be lieved it and voted accordingly.. , About a year ago the State Journal printed a story to the effect that near ly a h u ndred populist county ; treas urers were defaulters. That received the same treatment at the hands of the republican managers that the one about Bryan did. It was copied many hundred thousands of times and was put into the hands of every re publican and doubtful voter in the state. These voters honestly believed that the populists had inaugurated a very saturnalia of corruption all over the state and voted according to the information that they had. A busi ness man of Lincoln remarked the other day, and he was perfectly honest and sincere, that while Meserve had made a passible state treasurer, the unparalled rascality of the populist county treasurers had made it neces sary for the people to down him with the rest o" thercu Meserve's misfor tune was that he belonged to such a disreputable gang, . none . of - whom he had undertaken ;o punish. :. f '. Tho republicans push their? papers into every household that will receive-them. TheyTgo'week after week loaded down with? such statements as the above and the . people are. .deceived and misinformed If it were not for that policy they would not have a handful of voters in this state.. Their country papers nave been furnished with free patent B iusides, free plate matter and many of their largest week lies have been sent out at a price of less than half the"cost of publication. The Independent knows whereof it speaks, - for these- same offers have been made to it-rone came' last week. The republicans-do this from year to year by means of the great cam paign funds received from the trusts and those operating under special privileges. It is not done only during the campaign, but all the time. They know that in that lies their only hope of success. By these immense sums they have been able to hold the great dailies, the reiigfous press,, the agri cultural press and the weekly press by a very great majority to their sap port. To further prevent the voters from gaining information: they have refused to engage in joint discussion and as far as possible prevented their voters from hearing the public speak ers on the other side. By this means they have kept the people in profound ignorance and , by that ignorance con trolled their votes. , V.. There is but one way to offset this policy. It is to gt our papers into the hands of the people:" Many thousands of those who voted the fusion' ticket take only republican papers, but they have intelligence enough to see the fraud and falsity of them, but It is not so with all. Let our people take 'hold of this matter now and not, wait until another campaign Is on. Thee work that a good populist paper Can-do now is ten times greater than during ".a, campaign. Papers sent to subscribers during a campaign" are looked upon as campaign documents, but 5 sent ;: now when the long winter eveningsgive time for, reading and partisan passion has. subsided, the facts and arguments they contain will bear "abundant fruit, to aid you in this Vork, The Indepen dent offers good . premiums and a club bing list that is unsurpassed. The only hope that is left for reform lies in the extension of ! the' circulation of honest, truthful literature among the people. Who will take up the work now when it will be the most effective? PRACTICAL POLITICAL WORK. We should learn something from our. enemies. With the protected In terests the campaign' is always on. Their publication mills send out tons of matter the year round. . They never stop to take breath.: t The American Economist, elated with recent success, is telling its readers how they got ac tively- at work f or the 1900 campaign in 18S8. They, sent out questions to 400,000 manufacturers (think of the money it cost) and asked them to re port how many more men they em ployed than they did two years prev ious to that, and how much they had raised wages The manufacturers re ported they had employed 44 per cent more men .and had raised , wages per cent.?-Air on account of the tariff From" that "time; on ' they ; kept things hot printing aid circulating these documents-, f . Millions of them were sent out." 4 Every mullet head who re ceived loneswom Jby It ; and believed the statementmor e firmly than he did holy: wriJU trAll thisltime,:1 what were the Supporters -of Bryan doing? Noth ing at all. They left everything to be done during, thejfieat" of a campaign. We. i'doVfc: want to.: do that way no moreV- Gotorwork" now. Practical political WOTk:is;the only thing that, wins. Appeals to high ideals are use-' less in this commercial age.. ' 1 GIVING AWAY FRANCHISES. -As long as . a presidential election can be bought with money, there will be no hope that the people will enjoy any of the blessings that are freely conferred upon the , subjects of the monarchs and autocrats of the old world. There Is not an economist or historian in the whole world who will not say, that both history and econ omics teach that a government by the rich always 'has been and always will be , the very worst possible form of government . that can be instituted among, mankind. . t. , Franchises worth millions are con stantly . given, away . in this country presents made by the common people to those who are already rich. The Czar of Russia gives away franchises, but after a fashion that would throw any party in power out of office that dared to do it in this country. The rich would simply go out and buy enough votes at the next election to drive such a party from power. When th3 party ..was out, the mullet heads would assemble and hold a great rati fication meeting over the triumph that the rich had gained. A cable gram from St. Petersburg tells how the Czar gives away telephone fran chises. It says: 1. . "The government has prescribed the condition of rentals and the fran chises were given to the parties fixing the lowest subscription. The St. Petersburg municipality won here, agreeing to demand 45 rubies ($34.65) annually, compared with 250 rubles ($192.50) hitherto charged. The Western Electric company of the United States, bid. unsuccessfully ,.evT erywhero. " ' " , : . ; "The subscriptions are: - Odessa, 48 rubles; Riga, 57 rubles; Warsaw, 69 rubles, and Moscow, 79 rubles." (A ruble is equivalent to about 77 cents in our money.) What would become of a party in this country that would advocate giv ing franchises to railroads, telegraph and telephones only to those agree ing to charge the lowest rates? There wouldn't be enough" left of it to gather up the pieces after the first election. A government by the rich never would allow such a thing to be done. If you want anything like that you will have to go to a monarchy or an autocracy to get it, or wait until several hundred thousand mullet heads , who have the right to vote are dead and burried. TIRED OF THEIR JOB. It is stated in the Washington tele grams that Generals MacArthur, Bates and Grant serving in the Philippines, have each asked to be relieved of their commands and' allowed to return to the United States. The reason as signed for their request is that they have had long and hard service in a tropical climate and are entitled to a rest and a. chance to, recuperate. That is the official reason, but if there was any honor or glory in - fighting the Filipinos, or any signs of success were evident, there would be no such re quest sent to the Emperor of the Philippines at Washington. Any man who know3 the motives that govern military men knows that to be the case. ' : ' . . ! During all the-long contest, the as sertions of' those who have opposed the. policy of imperialism, have told the, American people the truth about this Philippine business.-. It .will take at least 100,0(K) thousand v men to es tablish the semblance of American au thority in those Islands . and it will take a standing army of nearly that size to maintain what we already have. That 100,000 j ;meir will have to be re newed every two years and those who come backrwill .be for the .most part broken in health and ruined -for the remainder of their ,s lives. .; That is what this venture in imperialism will cost us in men. Wnat.it will cost in money no man can tell.t What it will tost In honor and tarnishing our re putation as lovers of . liberty makes one blush as he thinks of-it. ' THAT ICK TRUST. Theodore Roosevelt has at last giv en the quietus to the republican cam paign cry of "ice trust." He has dis missed the case. . From Maine to Cali fornia the mullet, heads yelled "ice trust" at every political meeting and those same dolts will continue to be- HOLIDAY DISPLAY AT THE ...'jLTtji:. THANSGIVING Almost over, attention turns to suitable articles fqr.Xmas gifts, etc. -When looking for such perquisites don't overlook our magnificent stock. F he China , Brie a Brae, Novelties in Feather Goods, Fans, r Kill Gloves, Sterling Silver Manicure and Toilet Articles, Ebony Manicure and Toilet Articles. ,Medalions,in fact Fancy Goods of every description. We are Headquarters . . . GIVE US A CALL. lieve that the democrats organized and had in operation the most villain ous, and destructive trust that ever held sway in the United States. They will never know any different, for the republican press will not say a word on the subject and when the next cam paign begins those same chaps, who will;all the time have been paying a cent a pound more for their meat and a hundred per cent more for their salt with otner things in proportion that the trusts control, will be around shouting "ice trust." Such is the in telligence of the hordes who vote the republican ticket. The next day af ter the rise in the price of meat a re publican who runs a meat market in Lincoln , was solemnly declaring that there :was no such thing as a meat trust. He said he - was in the meat business and he knew what he was talking about. It Is by the votes of those who are ignorant of the most common things that we have a govern ment by the rich. SUGAR BOUNTIES. The populists from principle as well as from an economic standpoint have always opposed sugar bounties. The policy, never had an inch of. economic ground' to' stand upon." It was pernic ious in every respect. It seems now that the nations of the earth are com ing to the same conclusions that the old pop farmers formed the first time their attention was called to the mat ter. A conference of the various sugar producing nations has been called, the purpose of which is to enter Into an agreement to abolish all bounties by all the nations and let the production of sugar rest upon the old economic foundations proclaimed by every work of authority that has ever been pub lished. Germany and the United States have been the chief culprits in this matter. It .has at last dawned upon the would-be statesmen that a fur ther pursuance of the policy will end in the utter ruin of the industry. Many sugar . estates have already become worthless and more will follow, if all the people are taxed to support this one Industry. A nation might as well give a bounty on the production of wheat or any other crop as upon sugar. The whole system belongs to the order of false political economy that con stantly Insists upon special privileges for the. few, while the many pay the bills. V News of the Week The all absorbing thing in Europe this, week has been, not the Chinese situation, but the triumphal progress of Oom Paul Kruger through France. It is one of the most remarkable things in history.; President Kruger is in ap pearance and dress only a common peasant, and he comes from a country harried and. oppressed by 200,000 Brit ish soldiers who : are under the com mand of the -most famous generals of modern times, he represents : a little army which at no .time numbered more than 30,000 men, his capital has been captured, 10,000 ; of ; his soldiers are prisoners of the British, but he is not conquered. His is a most pathetic figure. His indomitable courage, his pure and honorable character, his long fight for home and native land, en dear him to the hearts of the people of France and he has received an ova tion not accorded .to any other man in the present century, all along the way from Marseilles to Paris. In Paris fie has been received by President Loubet with the honors us ually accorded a sovereign ruler trav eling incognito, that is to say not In state. The French republic could do this without violating diplomatic us ages" or giving England any right to complain of - an unfriendly attitude, because France has received no offi cial notice from the English govern ment that the South African republics have been annexed to the British em pire. But there may have been an other things influencing the , French government.. The ship that conveyed kruger was a day behind. The people of Marseilles gathered at the wharf in uncountable thousands and waited -two Lincoln; neb, f m a days for Kruger to come. They decked the town with garlands and French and Boer flags. All the time it was said that the government of the city would give Kruger no official recogni tion. The crowds grew and grew and the enthusiasm mounted higher and higher. Finally, the mayor concluded for himself, or from Instructions sent from Paris that it would be the proper thing to give the old president clothed in peasant clothes and wearing deep mourning an official reception. While the assemblages to meet Kruger have been enormous every where, there have been no disturb ances of the peace. At Marseilles some English dudes threw some small coins into the crowd and the people took it as an insult to Kruger. For a few minutes there was a lively time. The police kept order and the "Inci dent was closed." What the result of Kruger's visit to. Europe will be, no man can foretell. It is said that he has a big card up his sleeve which he will play at the right time, consisting of some original documents that will play havoc with certain English statesmen. Glasses ; There ' have been reports of three or four fights in the Philippines, in one of which two officers were killed and eleven men wounded. The most Important thing about these flglits was that one occurred within forty miles, of Manila, a. fact that goesto show that the jurisdiction of 'the Am--' 1f erican government, has been extended at least five miles further after two years of fighting. Two years ago, our lines were thirty-five miles from Manila. vThe official count of the ballots for president are not yet attainable. The vote of the states so far known show some strange things. In Ohio, where over a million votes were polled, there were the same number cast for Bryan not one more or one less than In 1896. The same is true of Lancaster county, Nebraska.. All the increase in the vote went to McKinley. That in crease in Nebraska is the occasion of comment everywhere and the repub lican press is busy explaining it. Ne braska, which according to the census only increased its population 10,000 In ten years, casts 20,000 more votes than it did in 1896 and they were all counted for McKinley. News from Washington is still to the effect that a bill creating a large standing army will be hurried through congress, probably before the Christ mas vacation. This Imperial admin istration will be in dire distress for troops to maintain its conquests in a very short time, for the terms of en listment of the present army will soon expire. It seems that men for the navy troubles the imperialists also. The American navy is the most aristo cratic In. the world. There is no pos sible chance , for an enlisted . man in the navy ever to get a commission. If a man once enlists In the navy, that settles his fate for life, he can never be anything but a common sailor, no matter what his ability or courage may be. . There are therefore feelers being put out concerning a conscription for men for the navy. - How the navy can be increased fourfold without it, is a conundrum that no one seems able to solve. The Independent says, the peo ple having voted for imperialism, a big army and a big navy, let them have their way, and if ,it is necessary t to carry out their mandate to have a conscription, let us have it and make no fuss about it. There is a great protest during the week by the ministry in-all the large cities against vice and crime. Public meetings have been held in many large cities to devise .ways and. means to , suppress vice which is everywhere rampant. Recent' statistics show that crimes cost the taxpayers of the coun try more than the value of the whole ' wheat crop. That is to say the ordi nary every-day crimes, not the whole-, sale crimes committed by Rockefeller and Carnegie who rob by the million and not by snatching pocketbooks are breaking into stores.- -If such crimes were counted, it would take the corn crop also to settle the bills. Large public meetings have been held during the week in Chicago, Cleveland, Den ver, Philadelphia and other cities, at tended by the goodie-goodies, who hold church membership and pray for peace on earth and good will to man and then vote for wars of conquest, gov- navies. No suppression of vice will come along those lines. , . , The Independent has been calling at tentlon to this increase in vice and crime for years. , The state of society 4 LA.