4
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
Zbe Utbraska Independent
Mafia, Htbrasks
F2SS BUXL. CONNER OTM AND N ST$
Eleventh Yea
Prai.iKex Evsr Thcmdt
St.OO PER YEAR IN ADVANCE
wia mmhiig rmitt do Mt Imt
t(Mif, patmtr, te.m
tm t trrdd by tlrm. TLey f r tly
Uft witli tfceat. Htm bcribr fil to (t
id.'lrw all raBi)SM'Uee, sd4 sk all
4rfl k( -to. jayfcle to
CAr Htbrjskj Jpdependtat,
Lincoln. Neb.
lMCnt rmB3isu-tkO? will ot b OO-ik4-
fct4 fcBcfstt will not I r
FIVE IMiLTLAK rtIt A AMK.
'jfce Independent offers five dollars
in cah to th person furni&hin; the
EKifet arpropriate n-nse for the .State
Jouraa!. The tan. that it prints at
the Lead of it fMge U such an out
rageous misnomer that there is a de
mand for another to designate its
character. Send in the name and the
person who furnishes the one adopted
will rcHe Ave dollars. The contest
Is opm 'j all persons except those
rocamwl with The Independent.
frtsOuM two persona rugK'-.-t the tame
came tie one mho letter is receive 1 j
at th ofire nrtt will be entitled to !
j
the award if the name iueste.1
fcoa!4 I the one adopted. Send in j
your urjErtion today. Award
be c&ade February 1. '".
rill
The populate provided a treasurer
for the ttate for four years at a cost
of per year. The republicans
will furnish on for the next'iwo years
and he will cost the state Z.VQ per
year. TLa; is the firt part of the "re
deeiaics" tfaxt will be done.
There s-eems to be no use to con-
Tirt national ticker and snd them j
to the peaiteEtiary. After all the cost I
of a trU! they are no ooner safely I
landed behind the bar than McKIn- !
ley n them ot:t. Some one would dr !
a public service by publishing & list
of national bankers that McKinley has
pardoned. The lat one was Magill.
ho as convicted on numerous ac
count? at Chicago, but as Secretary
Claae ard Kohlsaat both signed the
petition for pardon McKinley couldn't
well do otherwise.
The ccntrmrt that The Independent
has so rtten expressed for the writing
of W. E. Curtis in the Chicago Record
is alo entertained by decent newspa
per men all over the United States.
The Washington Post calls it "cheap
rigmarole. "third rate attempts at
ridicule." "it evokes only contempt,"
"exhibition of offensive impertinence,
"vulgarly n.alicious and a lot of other
th!rg ra-.'ch in the same style that
The Independent has bad occasion to
use whenever this Journalistic scab
was under di&eussion.
Every day or two an item appears
in lb dispatches something like this:
"The work of dismantling the roll
ing mills cf the Springfield Iron com
pany, purchased about a year ago by
the Republican Iron and Steel com
pany, and operated for a time with
about tM0 men. i being carried on by
a large force of men. The steel shears
have all bn removed and the rail
rolls torn up."
That sort of work is going on a'l
over the United States, but the daily
papers have no comments to make.
They prefer to fill their columns with
personal gossip, scandals and divorce
trials.
The State Journal knowing the gen
eral incompetency of republican legis
lators wants "an expert in English"
attached to its body of solons now
snaking taws at the capitol. so thst
the acts of the legislature will not all
be pronounced unconstitutional by tlie
court. The Independent seconds the
motion. Such a masa of unintelligible
Incongruities &s past republican legis
lator have placed on the statute books
of this tate. were never seen in all S 4",,iL "c .wyu?u
the world before. Meanwhile would aud others are advocsted with earnest
it not be well to attach an "expert !r, ne8S b newspapers and leaders of the
EnglUh to the State Journal staff? j
Perhap toot of the vulgarity nnd
lacg which burdens its editorial col
umn might be eliminated.
The difference In the generalship of
the two ccsteading forces of South
Africa is no other particular stands
out In greater contrast than in the
equipment of their cavalry forces. The
English are always short of horses
aJthorxh they have Imported over 100.
060 fifty thousand coming from ihi
country while It is said the Boers
have three fcoies for every man.
f!re la English hands soon becom-j
exhausted and disabled. The Bo-r
general eee to ' It that their horses
tave the bet of care, A Tommy At
kins. frea from the manufacturing
centers of England, knows about as
iswi coBcercisg a horse as he does
aJUoat the Fourth of July.
I.rOBMATIO' WAMED. ,
Th3t the national government has
been run In the interests of banks, cor
porations and millionaires for many
years Is shown by the way statistics
are bandied and information for the
Instruction of the voters is manip
ulated. To vote intelligently the voter
must hae the facta submitted to him.
The departments of the government
which should have furnished the facts,
have suppressed, distorted and manip
ulated them in the interest of plu
tocracy. As an example, the report
that was made shortly after the cen
sus of 1890 was taken in regard to
wages, is a sample That report
showed that wages had greatly in
creased. It was a government report
and was always referred to as undis
puted authority. There was never any
thing more false and misleading. Th3
former report with which comparisons
were made only included actual wage
workers, and the average wages de
duced from it were correct. In this
report, general superintendents ana
h!gh-?alaried scientists such as chem-
Ista, civil engineers and all those who
had anything to do with manufactur
ing were included r.s wake workers.
In one instance at least a man re
ceiving a salary of $50,000 a year was
Included a3 a . wage-worker. When
the average was struck from this list,
it of course showed a very great in
crease in wages.
Not only has much of this kind cf
work been done, but the government
has absolutely, refused to collect and
give cut information of the most vital
Importance to the welfare of the peo-
p'f For thre has en any-
thing more necessary for the voter to
know than the of Md capltaliza.
tlon of railroads. That item has never
been included in any list given out to
the census gatherers. To remedy this
wrong. Congressman Sutherland intro
duced a resolution , in the house to
appoint a committee cf seven members
to get this information. The resolu
tion require' thm'vsU.,acrtain the
number, of miles of raiiroad owned and
operated by. European , governments,
their original cost. "present valuation.
Indebtedness, , operating expenses,
ae paia. profits realized and pas-
CSC and freight charges,
Sond. to report to congress the
number ofrmiles of railroads in the
United States and the present value
and indebtedness of the said railroads,
the operating expenses, wages paid to
employes. Interest charges, dividends
earned on capital stock, passenger and
freight rates charged, the discrimina
tions, if any, made between shippers,
the past agreements 'made. and exist
ing between the different roads, if
any. and all other information relativs
to the cost of construction, equipment,
and operation of railroads, together
with a report as to the method, prac
ticability, and cost, of acquiring own
ership on the part of the government
of the United States of said railroads;
the committee to have power to send
for persons and papers, employ the
necessary clerical and expert assist
ance, and hold sessions in any part of
the United States that they deem nec
essary to facilitate their work.
Now that Is the very sort of informa
tion that the farmers of this country
have been calling fori for the last
twenty years. It is necessary to the
public welfare that it should be fur
nished, but congress has seen to it
that it should not be furnished. There
is no probability that this congress
will act otherwise than those that have
preceded it. It will never do any
thing that will have a tendency to give
accurate information to the people
concerning the over-capitalized rail
roads, whose stock has been watered
more than 100 per cent and whose rob
beries are relied upon to keep the re
publican party in power.
LEADS TIIK WORLD.
It Is amusing to see the great lights
and the little lights of the republican
party trailing along in the rear of The
Independent. When this paper first
began to teach political economy to
the people, these same gentlemen
were horrified at its doctrines. They
called them anarchy, and sometimes
were so excited as to call them an
archy and socialism in the same sen
tence. Now some of the most impor
tant doctrines defended by The Inde-
republican party. Now here is John
D. Long, a member of McKinley s cab
inet think of that! wno says:
"Human ingenuity may devise some
entirely different system of currency,
which will not be dependent upon the
fluctuating value of a precious metal.
Would it not be Interesting if the fi
nanciers of a hundred years from now
should look back upon gold and silver
coin as we look back upon Indian
wampum?"
That Is a doctrine that The Indepen
dent has advocated for ten years Sec
retary Long's words can be duplicated
from a hundred different issues of this
paper but when The Independent be
gan the discussion, John D. Long
thought the holding of such opinions
was evidence of idocy. Massachus
etts ex-governor and McKlnley's cab
inet member come trailing along ten
years behind The Independent.
Stranger than all that, The Indepen
dent has pounded some .sense into the
State Journal a task that seemed, to
all men who ever read a column of it
an utter impossibility. The readers
of this paper will recall how earnest
ly it has fought the creation of debt,
Individual, county, state and national.
It has told its readers that the way to
abolish Interest was to keep out of
debt. It has recommended to the wise
saying of St. Paul: "Owe no man any
thing." While The Independent was
giving this kind of teaching the State
Journal was talking about the rum
that the populists were bringing upou
the state by driving capital away. It
declared that the only -. way for the
people of Nebraska to get rich was to
borrow' millions of money and pay in
terest upon it. If capitalists did not
bring millions into this state and loan
it out, "the people would be ruined. It
made one campaign upon that idea.
All its candidates took up the cry and
declared that if the populists won, the
capitalists would refuse to loan money,
and starvation would stare us all in
the face.
Well, at last it really seems that th
State Journal has managed to compre
hend one economic idea. Last Satur
day it said:
"The present is a good time for the
people of Nebraska to get out of debt.
It is an easy time to borrow for new
enterprises which may be profitable
but the conservative farmer who wants
to take no chances and make his fu
ture absolutely sure will use his pres
ent income for the payment of debt if
he has any. No combination of drouth
and panic can get the best of the Ne
braska town or farm man who is not
carrying a mortgage."
Think of that! If after ten years
The Independent has been able to
drive one idea into the noodles of the
State Journal writer, what may we
not hope for the future? The seeming
impossible has been accomplished. As
it is with the secretary of the navy
and with the Journal, so is it also
with hundreds of others. Populism
has profoundly influenced its most bit
ter antagonists. It has modified to a
great extent the policies of this na
tion. The principles that were ridi
culed by the would-be wise a few
years ago, are being adopted as sound
and fundamental. In this contest The
Independent has led the whole nation.
EVERY BODY COME.
The chairman of the populist state
central committee has issued a call for
a meeting of that committee at the
Grand hotel in Lincoln, January 16.
The call includes an invitation for "all
others who are anxious to see the re
form forces continue the good work"
to come also. The Independent hopes
to see this broad invitation generally
accepted, and that a great many of the
workers who established the Alliance
and have stood by the principles first
enunciated by the populist party ever
since, present. There will be many
things of importance to talk over.
There is sure to be a division in the
democratic party in the near future.
Cleveland, Hill, Whitney and others
are actively at work in New York ef
fecting an organization that will be
repudiated by most of the democrats
in the west and south. This legisla
ture is sure to pass a bill that will pre
vent fusion in this state. Two par
ties will not be allowed upon the same
ticket, both having the same candi
dates. Nothing in the future is more
certain than that. What will the pop
ulist party do? Now is the time to
talk it over. The democratic state
committee will meet at the same time
and place. A majority of the legal
voters of this state are opposed to the
rule of the republican party and tJ
its national policies. Shall we allow
a republican manipulation of the bal
lot to keep them in power? Many
other things are to be considered.
Come, and come with the intention of
staying two or three days.
Transforming deserts into fertile
farms, making happy rural homes for
coming generations, it seems to The
Independent, is a more honorable work
for statesmen than organizing standing
armies, or sending troops 7,000 mi!e3
across the ocean to , conquer alien
races inhabiting tropical islands. But
our statesmen at Washington think
otherwise. They could extend our do
main in the arid region of the west by
the proper appropriation of small sums
of money, Involving no shedding of
blood, either of alien races or of our
own young men, but they prefer to
spend millions in wars of conquest,
while they leave millions of acres of
fertile land to lie idle in the very
midst of the United States.
Every man who has ever been
around congress knows that the ap
propriations of the river and harbor
bill are looked upon by the members
themselves as part of their perquisites.
Millions upon millions have been ap
propriated "to improve the navigation
of the Missouri river" when every one
knew that there was no navigation on
it. More than half of these appropria
tions are simply clean stealing. Every
one knows that they are. This year
the stealing is larger than ever be
ing $60,000,000. President Arthur ve
toed a river and harbor bill because it
appropriated $18,000,000. There is no
danger of McKinley doing such a
thing.
Big bargains in shoes at Webster i
Roger? .-
SOME SHARP THRUSTS. . 5 -
When McKinley started on his ca
reer of benevolent assimilation The
Independent was accused of bitterness
because it denounced him and his
whole gang of cheats and deceivers as
hypocrites. Now the great lights of
literature; come trailing along behind
The Independent and adopt the same
sort of language, only they put' it
more forcibly and pointed. That they
are able to do 'that because they have
the time to study over a sentence for.
an hour, or for half a day, and arrange
the words so they will cut like a two
edged sword, while The Independent
editor, writing two or three, columns
a day4 has no time to make fine and
forcible sentences, but must rattle off
what, he has to say and let it go to
the printer without any revision.
The hypocrites are getting some
pretty sharp thrusts these days. Mark
Twain likens Christendom to a state
ly matron "returning bedraggled, be
smirched -and dishonored from pirate
raids in Kiao Chau, Manchuria, South
Africa and the Philippines, with her
soul full of meanness, her pocket full
of "boodle" and her mouth full of
pious hypocrisies. ,
Mr. I. Zngwill, and he is one of the
keenest analysts in the world, says:
"The twentieth century will be Am
erica's critical century. Will she de
velop on the clear lines laid down by
her great founders, or will she sur
vive, like most human institutions, a3
a caricature and contradiction of the
ideals of her creators? Will she fall
back into outward feudalism, accepting
second-hand ideals from the Europe
she has outgrown? . . . For Am
erica to hash up again hereditary aris
tocracy and militarism would be a
ridiculous anti-climax. Oh, if America
were less conscious of her own great
ness and more conscious of the great
ness of her opportunity!"
Lo Fung Luh, the Chinese minister
at the court of St. James, make a shot
at the same crowd in the following
words: ,
"Very heartily do I wish the Chris
tian nations a happy new century.
However, it would probably be well
if their attention were drawn to the
source of their spirituality, their
ethics. I would remind them not to
lay up treasures for themselves upon
earth, where moth and rust doth cor
rupt and where thieves break through
and steal. Their Lord says:
" 'Thou shalt; have no other gods be
fore Me.'
"Let Christian nations abjure the
gods of conquest and war. Let them
obey the comtaandment, 'Thou shalt
not bear false., witness against . thy
neighbor.' I would admonish Chris
tendom that itcan never get from the
flash and smoke of war so wise a' rule
of conduct as that which came to it
among the thunder and lightning of
Mount Sinai.
"In fine, 'Practice what you
preach.' "
Many more savage thrusts of the
same kind have appeared lately. The
Independent is glad to see that the
culture and brains of the world, re
gardless of the nation to which they
belong, are taking the same view of
the crowd of hypocrites who are run
ning this government that it has en
tertained for the last four years. Of
the men who are above quoted, one is
an American, one a Jew and one a
Chinaman. Similar sentiments could
be quoted from scholars, writers and
philanthropists of every nation on
earth.
The great protection editors are
vigorously assaulting all the reciproc
ity treaties that have been recently
made and MarkcHamia will not allow
one of them to be ratified by the sen
ate. The San Francisco Chronicle
says:
"From now on the thing to do is to
insist on holding the republican party
to the pledge of its platform, which is
not to reduce the duty on any product
produced in America for the purpose
of increasing the foreign market, for
some other product, and to rigidly
hold congress to the provisions, of the
compact by which, after full and pub
lic discussion, the various industries
of the country received, by the Ding
ley bill, the protection which was
adjudged their due.
A BUNCOED EDITOR.
The editor of The Independent got
buncoed and his pulse has been 150 for
four days. This is the way it was
done. He saw an advertisement that
stated that one of the old, cultured and
stately magazines of Boston had an
article entitled "The Growth of Pub
lic Expenditure." He thought that
there would be a good thing and
straightway went and invested 35 cents
in one of those magazines. When he
had read the article he found that the
conclusion that author arrived at was
that the growth of public expenditures
and increased taxation in consequence
thereof, was a great public blessing.
Then he got mad and was out of hu
mor for a whole week. That 35 cents
was worse than thrown away.
The rate of national taxation in this
country in per capita was In 1S42 only
$1.38. In 1S86 it was $4.22. In 1897 it
was $5.01. By the time we get
through with creating a big army and
a big navy it will be about $10. It has
been greatly increased during the last
three years, but the exact figures can
not obtained. The most unfair, thing
about this magazine article is the at
tempt to compare the national debts
of the great powers with that of the
United States. The European debts
consist largely of bonds issued for the
construction of railroads and similar
investments that not only pay an in
terest, but make returns which is paid
into the government. A war debt is
another thing altogether. It is money
paid out that never returns interest
or anything else. The attempt to show
that river and harbor bills appropriat
ing millions of money stand in the
same class as debts created for tne
building of railroads and telegraph
lines is on a par with the writing of
most of these gold bugs. The only
thinff of that kind in the expenditure
of this country is the few millions ap
propriated for the deficits in the post
office department.
The next time one of those eastern
magazines buncoes this editor out of
35 cents will not be in the near future.
THE ARMY BIIX.
There is no doubt that the army
bill will soon become a law and per
haps it will be well to consider what
it means for Nebraska. Nebraska's
quota under the bill will be 1,000 men.
The towns in this state will soon be
placarded with the recruiting officer's
beautifully engraved posters asking
for recruits and a thousand of Nebras
ka's young men will have to go to the
Philippines. The cost of maintaining
a soldier in the United States has
long been $1,000 a year. In the Phil
ippines, including transportation, It
will be not less than $1,500 per year
for each man. That means that this
state will have to furnish a thousand
men and pay $1,500,000 a year to main
tain them while they are in the Phil
ippines. Of those who live to come
back, half of them will go upon the
pension rolls and they and their wid
ows will be a continuous charge upon
the public for two generations to come.
They will bring back with them the
germs of Asiatic diseases and many
communities will suffer great cost and
many people who never went to the
Philippines will be carried off to the
grave. What will Nebraska get In re
turn for all this? The whole trade of
the Philippines last year, according to
the official statistics, was about $1,500.
000, the amount that it will cost this
state to maintain her quota of troops
in those islands. How much benefit
will the voters of the state get from
that $1,500,000 of trade? Figure it
out for yourself.
There will be some temporary ben
efit from this war. The taking of 1,
000 men out of the state will make
places for L000 wrho are now idle. The
supplies that will have to go to the
Philippines will have a tendency to
help the markets. But it will all be
like taking a good big drink of whis
key. This will all have to be settled
when pay day comes. The 1.0Q0 young
men from Nebraska will have to be
furnished if it takes a draft to get
them.
The republicans have long been in
the habit of calling every one an an
archist who does not agree to all their
policias, but of late they have gone to
work to produce anarchy in a very
systematic way. If criminals who es
cape from one state to another are not
to be returned for punishment for
their crimes, it will not be long until
we shall have anarchy in full force
all over these states. Two republican
governors have, for political reasons,
recently refused to deliver criminai3
to the officers of 'the states where the
crimes were committed, namely,
Roosevelt, who refused to deliver John
D. Rockefeller to the officers from
Texas where he had been indicted,
and Mount, who refused to honor a
requisition for the man indicted for
the murder of the governor of Ken
tucky. If these precedents are fol
lowed we shall soon have, instead of
an orderly government, universal
anarchy.
The American Economist, the organ
of the protective tariff league, really
and actually published a logical argu
ment in its last issue. It being the
first time such a thing was ever dis
covered in its columns, The Indepen
dent takes pleasure in reproducing it.
It was as follows:
"The doctrine of protective tariff
and the doctrine of the ship subsidy
are parallels. He who has accepted
the former as worthy of enactment in
to national law and sustained it as a
builder up of home manufacture can
find no inconsistency with his views
in the subsidy bill. The idea of it is
wholly protective, as the McKinley
and Dingley laws were and are protec
tive, notwithstanding the anti-cratic
yelping of the 'robber baron chorus."
There is no denying the facts stated
in the above clipping. If "protection "
is logical, ship subsidies are logical.
No one who believes in the one can
consistently attack the other.
The republicans were able to buy
votes by the thousand in this state, but
they have found that they were not
able to buy the confidence of men of
property. Their state treasurer could
not get a single reputable banker or
business man to go on his bond. Tho
guarantee companies made him pay a
rate for insurance nearly four times as
high as they charged Meserve, the
We
Male
It & Po
To clear stocks as thoroughly as possible for
inventory and lines left untouched by the clearing
sale are sacrificed most unmercifully ' after, it.
there are a number of such lines here "nowarticles
that must be disposed of before the first of February
and its our intention to dispose of them by that time
even if its necessary to go below the wholesale
price.
the populist treasurer. Now he is go
ing to come to the legislature and ask
it to approcpriate the money for In
suring him against stealing. It will
cost the people of this state more than
twice as much to have a republican
treasurer as it did for the populist who
made such an excellent record. Re
publican state treasurers are costly ar
ticles. If the people will have them
they must pay the bill.
Secretary Gage continues laying the
foundation for a final assault on the
greenbacks. In a recent speech he
said: "The present situation is re
flected In the fact that we have (in
circulation among the people and as a
reserve fund in the banks) $346,000,000
of government notes an enormous
public debt payable on demand." Any
sort of money is redeemable on de
mand, and is redeemed gold, silver
and paper from once to fifty times a
day. Greenbacks when made a full
legal tender without exception are not
a government debt at all. When issued
on the promise to exchange them for
another legal tender dollar and then
paid out again, which is missnamed
"redeeming" they are still not a public
debt. If a congressman serves a term
and the government pays him for hi3
services $5,000 in greenbacks, does it
thereby create a public debt? The con
gressmen and all employes of the gov
ernment as well as the army and navy
were thus paid for many years. If
every time such a transaction took
place a public debt was created, we
should now be owing a debt of about
ten billions. But instead of that, ac
cording to Secretary Gage, it is only
$346,000,000. Gold bug logic is a very
queer production.
The sturdy good sense of American
farmers stands out in bright colors
when put in contrast with the doings
of farmers of most other countries.
The German farmers have been bitten
with the republican idea of "protec
tion." What is called the "Agrarian
party" in Germany is a combination to
effect the "protection" of farmers by
high tariffs. It is. working ruin to the
whole German nation. The exclusion
of foreign food products and a conse
quent rise in their price will result la
one of two things. Either there will
be very great suffering among the
mass of the people or wages will have
to rise. If wages rise, and the addi
tional cost Is added to German manu
factures, she will lose some of her
foreign trade and some of her work
ers will be thrown out of work. It is
to be hoped that by the end of the
twentieth century the people will have
learned enough of the fundamental
principles of political economy, to
look upon "subsidies" and "protection"
as the last relics of barbarism elimi
nated from the government of civilized
nations.
Congressman Hitt is making a gal
lant effort to demonstrate that he is
the most accomplished economic Idiot
on the surface of the globe. He has
recently introduced a bill in congress
to immediately coin all the remainder
of the seignorage now in the treasfry
into silver dollars and then redeem the
same dollars in gold whenever pre
sented to the treasury ,in amounts of
five dollars and over. Why can't the
silver be "redeemed" without coin
ing and save that much expense?
These gold bug idiots are never happy
unless they are tinkering with the
currency. What earthly good would it
do to coin and issue a few million of
silver dollars and then "redeem" them
as fast as they were issued? Or does
Mr. Hitt really mean to make a gen
uine attempt to establish the gold
standard? If silver is made redeem
able in gold how long does he think
the treasuiy could stand the drain
that would be made upon it? There
are now 600,000,000 silver dollars in
circulation and not half that amount of
gold in ' the treasury. How many
bonds would. there have to be issued
mt
Lincoln, Nebraska.
and how much Increase. would there
have to be made In the national debt to
carry out that scheme? Some mem
ber of the house should quietly whis
per to Mr. Hitt that he would better go
and soak his head.
MAYOR QUINCY'S MADNESS.
The "madness" of Mayor Quincy
which induced him to introduce many
populist principles into the govern
ment of the city of Boston Is now be
ing written about by some of the mul
let head republican editors down there
in the terms of the highest praise.
Mayor Quincy, in spite of the most
bitter opposition of the same editors
established public bath houses, a city
printing office, a repair department
doing all the city repairing, Including
carpentering, plumbing, mason work,
steam fitting and plastering. He had
the city to provide for free excursions
for the poor children, for music both
in summer and winter and many other
things of like nature. Now one of
these mullet head writers who de
nounced all that as "socialism" says:
"This system has .worked well. The
madness of Mayor Quincy had evi
dently a method. It seems to 'have
made permanent a good many excel
lent institutions. Some good citizens
say that things were done too quickly,
that they cost too much money, that
the mayor was always robbing Peter
to pay Paul, as it were. But, after
all, it seems cause for thankfulness
that they were done at all."
All that is a demonstration of the
remark often made in The Indepen
dent that republicans, while they
can't think, can see. When a good
thing is put in such shape that they
can see it, they generally indorse it.
Until they can actually see it, they
will fight it and call it "socialism and
anarchy." They all seem to be af
flicted with a sort of economic and
political color blindness.
VK STICK TO IT.
The Omaha Bee takes exceptions
to the commendation given the fusion
government by The Independent last
week. The Bee says:
"The fusionists came into full power
in Nebraska coincident with the in
auguration of President McKinley and
the assumption by the republicans of
the control and responsibility of hc
national government. The country was
Just emerging from the depths of fi
nancial disaster and commercial de
pression, which in Nebraska had been
made more severe by a succession of
drouth years and crop failures."
Now The Independent never claimed
that the Inauguration of the fusion
state government was the cause of the
economic changes which in a measure
relieved the distress ' following the
stoppage of the coinage of silver un
der Cleveland. It did not claim that
the change in state government
stopped drouths and produced good
crops. It has alwa'ys - referred to such
claims with the utmost contempt. It
was the republican, newspapers! and
not The Independent in which such
idiotic nonsense appeared. "The coun
try was just emerging from the depths
of disaster" and The Independent has
said that the rise In the level of price.
and better times was the result of
McKinley going to work and coining
silver by the ton, issuing paper, money
! and the immense output of gold, which
altogether increased the amount of
money In circulation an,d made better
times. " v
The Independent claimed , and stlH
claims that the fusionists gave this
state "a model state ; government for
honesty," efficiency and economy." By
so doing they saved the taxpayers sev
eral hundred thousand dollars which
added to their prosperity. It reduced
the cost of government in all the state
institutions, it greatly Increased tho
disbursements to the common schools.
It handled more than $10,000,000 of
state money and accounted for every
cent and that sort" of government, nt
only added to- the prosperity of 'the
state, but .was in great contrast to' the