Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1901)
t t i VOL. XII. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MAY 2, 1901. NO. 40; Jms(" ji:sl-ljlj'- ( Vi 4 4 - TKE TRADE WE BOUGHT rai4 f soo.ooo.ooo for th rainp- plMt 4 t TkrM HaaMlretbs of rr Ceet f Trade Of ail tt crazy dreams that ever en t' the Leauii of sorkj old states men was the dream that we were going to ta?e an lmtBTJt trade with those H lands in the foutfaern where the t ar-footei Malay loved to lie la the ade and rat banana and watch the rock tsMitg- Trade follows the ttg ity cried, trd on they went la ii.e read ruth for gold and glory. The first ax "ousting ba t- n made and our tra with the Philippics is o small that it tk it place ia the second column of feir3&3. How large a per centage of our total exports are actual ly taken ty different groups of eoun tri : show a at a slant by the fol low tg tat ': Per cent. Great Drilila and Ireland.. ... 41.71 Ur:t-- is ro'oni and depend Vie 12.17 All Gont.nenLal Europ 34-57 All South America and Central Africa. p!u Mexico. Cubi. Porto Rico and a!! other Latia- American countries 7.50 All Africa. .except British I .28 All Af'a (except British t. ia- rlu China. Japan. te 2. S3 All Oranka lexcept British)... .73 Philippine- 1 lands 03 Total 100.00 Mark that last item as particularly ujc.--ii'- I t!:ppiz.e exports .03 per rent of the total. Thews percentage were Scared on the oSlcial export sta tistic of the ?tal year ending Jane, ! Yi. ty ils able and accurate a sta titictan a any Hving. But you can f-ure it for yarjrse.f. The total value tit our Cia-.eric export for the last t-ral jr 1 1 J was ll.370.7S3.371. To this total the Philippine i&lands ror-trl Voted an item of $2.523,24 (caoetly for army supplies! ; Cuba, $25.-2ZC.s-.-h: Porto Rico, $l.2fci32; Hawaii, ti2..'.-T-v". The j rcentasea will vary a inT. froni tho-M for IS 59 above quoted, but to little a to be of no coa-M-jaeac. Tbsa Experts Thr Is more Idiotic bragging about oar wor.irr?al -xcess of exports. For tli eirrt months ending with Feb ruary, tie excess of exports of mer chants was f il-2 24.J4. That means ttil r.arly half a billion of goods have rone out of the country, over and a?ove what were paid for by goods eorrtit.g in. To the country, therefore. tte-e figures show a loss unless the d;STrr-nce has been. Is now, or is to be paid, in some way or other. It has ret i-ea paid !n the past, for our ex cess of exports has been almost coa tinoous since 1S73. and foots up aa nornou total. It is not paid with go!4 or siiTer now. for during the same eight months our excess of silver ex ports wis $17.SS1.416. thus increasing tie &srrepate of our export balance Instead of paying any part of It; and oar excess cf gold Imports during the ms period was but $23.SK6&5 only $53479 snore than enough to pay the exported silver. Of the excessive mer chandise exports cf the past eight months, then, we have received back in gold payments les thaa 14 per crt What has become of the rest? Chicago Public. THAT FILE OF GOLD llEtUU I tfe MIbS (U MillttHttd ijiiXmr nmt ro4 Amy It is probable that more weeklies reach voters thaa the great dallies. If th boiler plate furnished the repub l:raa papers can be used to keep a great, big lie circulatiag among the people, ilark Hanna party leaders think that they have made a perma nent advancement. Why they should keep sach a ridiculous lie going the rounds as the statement that the gov ernment has and owls five or six nun-, dred millions of gold Is not apparent, for it seems that any man of common t'M would know that it was a He. Perhaps the managers go upon the plan that any man who would take and read a republican weekly does not have common sense. However that may be. the republican weeklies have articles from week to week declaring that the United States has ia Its cof fers nearly eco.O'0.000 gold dollars. The Independent has called atteatioa to this matter before and it does so again for the reason that every republican weekly that comes to this oSce keeps repeating the statement- The follow ing is the official statement sent out from the United States treasury last Saturday: RESERVE FUND. Gold cola and bullion ia division of redemption.. $150,000,000 TRUlST FUNDS. Held for the redemption of the notes sad certificates for which they are respectively pledged. Ii vie lo a of redemption eola $2S4.197S9 Silver dollars 425,003.000 :lver dollars of 1S:0., 1.019.494 Silver bullion of 110 61.13306 Total , .$77153S9 Diri4c3 of iMue Gold certificates outsfd g. .$2S4.137.9S9 Silver certificate outst'd'g. 425.003.000 Treasury eertlfi. outst'd'g. 52.159,000 Total $77159.953 GENERAL FUND. Gold cola and buliioa...$ 6.743,046 40 Gold certificates. 28.523.4S0 00 Standard silver dollars. . 10,511,637 00 Silver certificates.. 4.71S.752 00 Silver bullion 2.157.426 2S UfcitM Elates notes! 8.774.634 00 Treasury notes of 130.. 60.556 00 National bank cotes... ,38.123 99 traciiosai lilrer cola. 8,5SI.$77 35 Fractional currency.... 119 58 Minor coin 616,472 25 $138,429,223 85 la national baak depositories To credit of treas. U. S..$ 91,959,430 49 To credit of disbursing officers 6,306,291 05 , $ 98,265,721 54 Bonds and Interest paid. 2,971,327 70 Total $239,666,274 09 Less national baak 5 per cent fund . $ 14,016,061 21 Outstanding checks and drafts 5,858,113 95 Disbursing officers bal ances 55,353,597 87 PostofSce department ac count 6.044.964 03 Miscellaneous items.... 3,241,309 OS $ 84.524,046 12 Bilance ...$155,142 227 97 The 284,000.000 of gold In the trust fund not oaly does not belong to the governmeat, but is as much in circula tioa as are the 435,000.000 silver dollars that are la circulation by means of silver certificates. The government has simply supplied a safety vault free of charge to take care of the gold be longing to bankers. NOTES OF WARNING Tby Com From Maay IJiflrent Quarters Httildloff Md Lota Associations Hold Meeting- 1b Lincoln The building and loan associations held a meeting In Lincoln last week to discuss the present situation of their societies, as McKInley's sudden infla tion of the currency has caused them many difficulties. In the five-hour discussion of inter est rates many Interesting opinions were expressed and every phase of the question dissected. President Bentley called attention to a historic coinci dence, bearing on present financial condition. During the eighteenth cen tury, he said, the British government undertook to refund the public debt at a lower rate of interest. The re duction amounted to 2 per cent. This cut into the incomes of thousands of people. Immediately they sought more lucrative Investments for their money, and the result was the floating of stocks and bonds of wildcat character and an era of speculation with the in evitable disaster. He protested against being classed as a pessimist, yet pres ent conditions In the United States closely paralleled that cf Great Brit ain In the eighteenth century. There Is the funding of the government debt, followed by widespread speculative fever and unexampled inflation of se curities. P. L. Hall, another banker, expressed a similar line of thought. In his opinion the present abundance In the money market would not long continue. A reaction from the spec ulative mania was as certain as that day followed night. We are loaning money to foreign governments and contributing means to relieve the ft aaaclal stress ia Germany and' Ene land. Already there are 'signs of a tightening money market, which" in time will make itself felt in the west He thought It prudent for associations to go slow and not make radical re ductions In Interest rates. Dr. P. L. Hall urged the associations to simplify their business methods so that the people at large can readily comprehend them. "It Is no longer necessary," he said, "to cover up a high rate of Interest with premiums, membership fees, etc. Premiums should be abolished entirely, as should membership fees. Let the rate of in terest to be paid by the borrower be fairly and frankly stated- Abolish en tirely the payment of Interest on stock Let the principle of mutuality reign supreme and each shareholder share in the earnings of an association ac cording to the amount invested and the time which it Is Invested. -I feel at this time," continued Dr, i Hall, "like raising a warning voice - 1 till a i t a v, : u Dunuiug auu iuau inn; pie ui luia state by calling attention to the fact that we appear to be on the eve -of another era of expansion of values, such as characterized the. period em braced between the years 1887 and 1S33. And It behooves the building and loan people of this state to guard well their trust and not permit funds of their associations to te loaned upon values fixed by real estate speculators or the gambler in futures. While as yet in this state property values have not risen above a normal basis, yet with continued good crops and in creased redundancy of money the wild fever of speculation may suddenly break forth. A building and loan as sociation, construed as it is, can defy dro?iths and panics If It is properly protected during periods of expansion and speculation. Carried through the latter periods with judgment and dis cretion an association will stand like a rock when other financial Institutions sink In despair." Tie tremendous inflation of prices on Wall etrc et last week and the reck less dealing, oing beyond everything known in the past has sent a shiver through all financial institutions There Is no possibility that some of the inflated prices can be maintained and interest paid on the stocks. To pay interest on some cf these stocks at their present Inflated values would crash labor into the jearth and then It could not be done." The next 'day after these warnings were given In Lincoln the Bee had the following: "The scramble to get rich in a day by capitalizing industrial ventures into fabulous figures and speculating in stocks and bonds secured by enter prises listed at inflated valuations contains dangerous seed of deception The man who tries to lift himself over the fence by his bootstraps is paral leled every day by the nan who builds up a fiction of wealth, soon to find It an air castle vanishing into thin space." TRUSTS CANNOT RULE A Population Armd With the Ballot and Energized With the Instinct of Self Frsservatlon Will Over- throw Them v The following article is by Arthur McEwing and appeared in the Chal lenge. The reasoning is mainly sound, but in one part seems somewhat con tradictory. He speaks of the "pro letariat" and then of "a democracy aimed with the ballot." The use of that' word "proletariat" is not permis sible when applied to the population of the United States.' A proletaire is a member of a class too poor to pay taxes. The proletariat is the lowest part of the lowest order. There may be four or five hundred thousand in the United.. States to whom the word coiild be applied, but when that num ber is compared with a population of 80,000,000, it is altogether too insigni ficant to consider in relation to any political movement. If a few writers would drop the words "class-con scious" and "proletariat they would have a great many more sympathetic readers. Mr. McEwing says: ' : "In their present unrestraint the trusts stand for the most forbidding and injurious kind of socialism a so cialism not for the public good, but for private profit, the "communism of pelf at which President- Cleveland aimed his animadversion. It is ob vious that that sort of socialism cannot be enduring in a "democracy. A force which has overturned thrones, put no bility out of date, and given the race the now rooted ideal of the govern ment for the people instead of the people for the government, is not to be thwarted by aggregations of mere men of business, who are neither planted in the soil, nor buttressed by tradition, nor blessed by the, church, nor stayed by the superstition or the ages. The trust has no crown on its head, no order on its breast, no garter on its leg, no venerable coat of arms on its ccach or safe. It is new as the telephone, and no more sacred than a ton of coal. "The trust itself points the way to its conquest. By demonstrating the power of associated effort for business ends it is teaching the public the nec essity for associated social effort en forcing the need for the extension of the domain in which society as a wnole should supplant the individual and the corporation. "The trust is giving us a proletariat as a by-product, the most significant, important, and useful of its manutac tures. Men do not need in this repub lic to be reduced to grinding want in order to become proletaires in their political spirit. Whoever has been re duced in circumstances and social im portance by the trust becomes the trust's enemy a proletaire for politi cal purposes. The victims smart, and fear for their children in a future which seems to them to belong to the trust. The trust is bringing together classes hitherto separated in sentiment and informing them with a common hostility to the predatory rich. The minor men of business, the myriads of clerks, and all those coolies of com merce who are privileged to wear white shirts while earning their living, like to possess the upper class" feel ing and are commonly more capital istic in their prejudices than capital ists themselves. Their native attitude towards manual laborers is that of the household servants of the south to ward the brawnier field hands. The widening of the space between the rich and the poor, and the steadily in creasing difficulty of rising from the status of an employe to that of an em ployer, for all save the exceptionally able or fortunate, necessarily tend to awaken the underlings of trade to a perception of the identity of their lot and interest with those of the work Ingmen.. In the professions radicalism is already epidemic. The thousands of young men, mostly ambitious, turned out each, year by the universi ties, in great part find themselves in the situation of Danton, who made his red mark so broadly on France. "The revolution came," said he, "and I, and air like me, threw themselves into it. The ancient regime forced us to do so by providing a good education for us without providing an opening for our talents." The many are taught by the public schools to read, and the Declar ation of Independence, with its doc trine of equality, is a living document to them. Against the gross inequality in the distribution of wealth, against the rule of federated money divorced from any moving sense of public re sponsibility, a rebellion is fermenting As Taine says of France's final revolt 1n 1789, against the trust of the nobil ity, which had lasted for a thousand years: "It is the republican spirit The entire middle class, artists, em ployes, curates, physicians, attorneys. advocates, the lettered and the jour nalists, all-are won over to it; and its aliment consists of the worst as well as the worthiest passions, ambi tlon, envy, craving for liberty, zeal for the public welfare, and the conscious ness of right." Though the trust is the offspring of modern conditions, and is doing its share in the evolution toward a higher, civilization, there is no rea son why the community should arti ficially aid its undue development feed it with tariffs and suspend civil and criminal statutes in its favor. That is to arm with extra horns and tusks the fittest newcomer for War upon-the old occupants of the habitat, whose changing" environment Is al ready killing them off. The prosecu tions which end in decisions that are evaded, and the popular rancor whose voice swells in portentous volume, are not to be" counted as useless. Before the engine can move there must be plenty of fire under the boiler. Nine ty per cent of the coal's heat Is wasted, to be sure, but the remaining ten per cent makes the steam that does the work. Along with direct assaults with blows and arrows, futile but educat-i ing, there is springing up out of hu man needV a ' movement that is de stined to break the trusts to harness, i The celerity with which proposals have become popular that not long ago were j ranked as flagrantly socialistic, and therefore deemed un-American, im practicable and wicked, bewilders the old-fashfoned and scares the timorous. What were dismissed twenty or a doz en years ago as the' vagaries of doc trinaires or the schemes of hare brained ' radicals, are becoming com monplace vr in political platforms. Classes once exempt from sympathy with innovation and by tradition and Instinct defenders of the sacredness of property are now proletaires in sentiment. They have felt the pinch. Everywhere the masses, and in al liance with them the superior intelli gence that is not Insensible to the ob ligation of public spirit, are favorable to municipal ownership of public utili ties street railroads, gas, plants, and water works. v ; "This is the road along which the people must march to do conquering battle with the trusts. If street rail roads, why not. other railroads? The nationalization of the country's high ways must precede the subjugation of the trusts as anti-social agencies. While the railroads remain in private hands, they will of commercial neces sity confederate with the trusts, and together Nthe two will continue to ap propriate the power of government as a shield -under which to exert the spoil- ating power of monopoly. "Socialism? Assuredly; as social istic as the trusts themselves, with the difference that the object is public good, not private profit. The stream of " modern tendency, the democratic movement, is not to be stayed serious ly by a fire of paper pellets. . Names cf injurious import interfere with it no more than appeals to conscience and generous sentiment interfere with the exactions of the trusts. Self-in terest is regnant in human affairs. If municipal ownership of public fran chises and the nationalization of the highways do not sufficiently check the growth of the tumor of inordinate pri vate fortunes, there will be further ad vances along the socialistic road. What is happening in overcrowded England, where the land question has entered practical -politics, will happen hero. The' things which experience teaches must, be done in order to give opportunity to the common man, and to preserve free "government, will be done. And each forward step will make the next easier. Palliative re forms will giveaway to uprootings. The taxing power will be exerted to remove from the category of private property whatever' by remaining private prop erty harmfully affects the community. There will always remain plenty of things to buy and sell. The negro has ceased to be an article of commerce, and buccaneering has been abolished, but capital in this day makes no com plaint that its field is thereby distress ingly cramped.- . "Association of effort that is the principle which has worked the ma terial miracles of this century. It has at the end of the century given us its wealth gathering masterpiece in the trust, and it is synchronously, but much more slowly, evolving the polit ical trust, the closer union of the com munity for the attainment of common benefits.. Until this trust overtakes the others, we shall naturally have the spectacle of the public welfare being sacrificed at many points to private welfare "Fundamental changes do not ac complish themselves swiftly. At best the complex forces of conservatism, of resistance, are so powerful that -the community movement will proceed at a snail's pace when measured by the desire of those who suffer under exist ing conditions, yet it will advance at a gallop relatively, to the economic revolutions of the past. The world goes by steam now. Where there is manhood suffrage, with as high an av erage of prosperity as in the United States, the changes may reasonably be expected to accomplish themselves Vith a minimum of heat and destruc tive disturbance. "This evolutionary revolution is in evitable. For what is the alternative? Is it thinkable that a democracy armed with the ballot, and energized by the instinct of self-preservation, will sink into lethargy and accept poverty for the mass and opulence for the few? The trust itself is the pillar of fire which reveals the road out of the econ omic wilderness in which the harassed and'eonfused'democracy for the histor ical momentfindsitelf POPULIST FUNDS They Come From the Tollers, It Has no Barrels to Tap, ao Corporations to Milk, no Fat to Fry That sterling and able populist pa per, the Nebraska Independent, is mak ing a heroic effort to raise money with which to pay the Indebtedness incurred by the fusion state committee during the last campaign. It appeals to the rank and file to raise the money by popular subscription and its appeal is not in vain, for although the contribu tions are small, they seem to be com ing from all sections and the necessary amount will no doubt be raised. This is a highly commendable movement and ought to appeal to every true and loyal populist in the sate. It Is a high honor to belong to a party which -has no Way of raising money except by dis interested contribution of its members It has no barrels to tap, no fat to fry, no corporations to milk. Contrast the two parties in this state. The sworn statement of the republican state com mittee shows that it expended the en ormous sum of $58,000 in the state dur ing the last campaign. The fusionists expended about $5,000 and had to gcr in debt for the most of that. The con trast tells the whole story. The elec tlon was simply bought. If you want a corrupt regime you know where to find Lit. York: Teller. WASHINGTON EXCITED The Cabas Commissioners Throw the A d ministration Into a Panic Senator ' . Pettigrew Still a Fighter Washington, D. C, April 27, 1901. The Cuban commission is here and causing quite a stir in official circles. The commission is being wined and dined and flattered by all sorts of offi cial attention. This Is all very pleasant, but has nothing to do with the Piatt amend ment, which is the topic on which this commission desires light. The administration is following the example of European imperialists in trying to dazzle the representatives of his subjects by his great hospitality and thus make them forget that they are -not accomplishing the object of their visit. Of course it is true that the admin istration ha.s no power to change. the action of congress. The Piatt amend ment stands at least until congress convenes . again. It was pointed out in these letters some time ago that the administration made a point of having congress as sume responsibility in the Cuban and the "Philippine matterv McKinley and his immediate advisers are shrewd. It is so much better to make the whole people, through their representatives in congress, responsible than for the administration to continue an imper ialist policy on its own volition. The Cuban commissioners must have had some idea that they could get concessions on the Piatt amend ment or they would not have-taken the trouble to come here. The pill is being sugar-coated and gilded, but they will go home realizing that it must be swallowed. It must not be imagined that there is indifference in adminis tration circles over this visit. On the cpntrary, there Is"- great excitement. The president's forthcoming western trip is completely thrown in the shade by it. .The air of excitement and bustle about the White house and the var ious departments would do credit to the congressional season in its height. The reason is this: The administra tion is exceedingly anxious to have the Cubans accept the Piatt amendment at once. The hospitality to the Cuban commission will be well Invested if they-can be persuaded to go back and report to their people in favor of the Piatt amendment. Congressman Cannon let the cat out of the bag in an interview in Wash ington., recently. He naively explained that under the Piatt amendmentXht Cubans would be given an opportunity of showing whether or not they were capable of limited self-government. If not, there would be nothing left to do except to annex the island and thus have it right in our own hands. No careful student of affairs has ever sup posed that the administration meant to keep its promise and make Cuba free. It is merely a change of masters. Meanwhile it is important to certain interests to have the Piatt amendment adopted and let things settle down so the franchise grabbers and speculators and carpet-baggers can get to work in good earnest. Military rule keeps business stagnant. It hampers the free-booters in getting at their vic tims. Senator Kyle has been airing his troubles in Washington. He complains that Senator, or rather ex-Senator Pet tigrew is not going to stay whipped and that in spite of Mark Hanna s per sonally conducted campaign in South Dakota last fall, Mr. Tettigrew is go ing to try to defeat Senator Kyle for re-election next fall. Kyle admits al ready that he fears defeat. He de serves it. He has been a traitor to the party which gave him a place In our national councils and he has made a speciality of blocking every effort of the working people to secure much needed legislation. He has made the industrial commission a farce. Mr. Pettigrew will make a gallant fight and progressive people all over the country will hope to see him back in the senate. Haven't you noticed how fiat that proclamation of Aguinaldo's fell, even with the administration press. The lit tle brown man apparently got scared and did exactly what his captors asked, but it is very much feared that his ac tion has only : incited the rebellious Filipinos to greater activity. It hard ly seems fair to pass judgment on Aguinaldo at this distance. He has been carefully guarded and nothing is sent out purporting to come from him except through carefully censored ad ministration channels. It is impossible to know that misrepresentations may have been made to him or whether he is correctly reported. ,But assuming that he did turn cow ard or was bribed into making the proclamation urging his people to sub mit to American sovereignty, all that does not affect the principle underly ing our treatment of the Filipinos. Be cause Aguinaldo has come into camp we are not excused from violating the basic principles of government in at tempting to conquer his people. ' Not a word is being said about need ing less troops in the Philippines. The return of the volunteers is delayed. It is evident that the war department has good reason to believe that Aguin aldo is a white elephant on its hands. Free he was a menace to us. Cap tured he is worthless to his own peo pie. They hunt up new leaders as did the Cuban insurgents when fighting Spain and the war goes on. Meanwhile public sentiment is realizing with deep disgust that we bought a . very thinly plated gold brick when we took the Philippines from Spain and that they will never be of any commercial value If we do conquer their Inhabitants. He Lent a Hand A Lincoln man whb has sharp eyes for street scenes, was walking along O street recently when he saw a large dray broken down under a heavy load of merchandise. ' One wheel had come off and . naturally the load fell to the pavement with a provoking twist in the vertebra of the vehicle." The driv er was vainly trying to lift the load with the aid of a piece cf timber taken from a pile where a new building was being erected A laborer who was tak ing his noon rest had . volunteered to help. The combined force of the two men was not sufficient to raise the axle high enough to permit the wheel to be put. on. While they, vainly labored a strfclTli'HDf people, .hurried past, taking no interest in the stlugsj j Final Vj: a third man joined them. He"cxjrjietn;o the scene another large oak plank that was very much soiled with the mud of the day before. He went to work with a will and his strength was just what had been needed. The load was lifted, the wheel was put on and the nut screwed again in place. A distressed drayman was distressed no more and drove off toward th.9 railway station. The two assistants brushed the dust from .their clothes ana 'hands and moved back to the sidewalk. ' One joined the stream of people homeward bent, and the other sat down on a pile of lumber to resume his noon rest. The man : who joined the passing throng was Dr. .E Benjamin Andrews of the university of Nebraska. BABIES VS. TRUSTS - It Was Better That Even the Steel Com bine Should Fail Than One of These Little Ones Should Perish In all the hells in China or any other nation "sitting in darkness"- no infamy can be found to exceed those which ex ist in our own great cities. A reporter of the Chicago American tells what he' found at 7953 Union avenue In that city, in the following words; "In a bedroom" twelve by fourteen feet, in a house which, from the out side, gave little evidence of being In habited at all, were twelve infants. Two Women who said they were nurses were in attendance. - Six tiny babies endeavoring to take sustenance from empty bottles, and with no other cloth ing except a soiled blanket, were ly ing on a bench, with neither d mattress nor other covering, along one side of the room. Two little 'ones were lying on the bare floor. Another, whose face was yellow from jaundice, and which was thought could not live, was wheez ing and crying feebly on a chair. - The eldest was but eighteen months old; three werebut six days old, and the others were not older than six weeks." Afterwards through , the exposure made by printing what the newspaper man had written, the affair got into court where 'the facts related were es tablished by unimpeachable testi mony. One of these babies they had named William McKinley, another they named Jumbo, and still another, which weighed less thatl three pounds, they called Midget. Rev. Thomas B. Gregory, in com menting upon what the newspaper man found, says: "In our haste to be rich, in our life and-death chase after the 'almighty dollar,' we forget all about' the eternal truth that the dearest and holiest thing in this world is human life. The man needs badly to be ' born again' who does not feel away down in his heart that the interests of any one of the waifs in question kt 'William McKin ley,' or of 'Jumbo, or, of the 'Midget' are holier than those or all the 'trusts together; and ' that it is . better that even the billion dollar combine should fgo under than that one of these little ones should perish." ; HORRORS OF INDIA - Five Million of People JDled of Starvation While England Spent a Thousand Million to Kill Christian Boers If in Tennessee 900,000 people had died of famine and plague; .if New York instead of a million more had 50,000 less people than in 1891; if, al though many sections had wholly es caped, 5,000,000 people in the United States had yielded up their lives in five years because of hunger we Would have but the parallel of the appalling conditions in India just re vealed by the new census. Many of the Southern Indian pro vinces with good crops have grown in numbers, but the central states, which would normally show an increase of 1,500,000, have lost 1,000,000 a total loss of 2,500,000. . And these figures are dwarfed by the harvest of death in Oodeypur, where 45 per cent of the people have perished, and in Bhopaul, whose population is less by 808,000 than in, 1891. Even Bombay "Royal and dower-royal, I, the Queen," so Kipling quotes her is 50,000 less of a city than she was ten years ago. These results are not all ; they are not even the worst that famine has left. . Weakened bodies, mourning mothers, emaciated, ghastly"conval- escents" who will never again be well, slaughtered buffalo that will plough no more, ruined villages, weed-grown fields all these are due to the years of hunger and disease that money would have made impossible. Five million people have died pre ventable deaths, twenty million more have suffered beyond description, while the world has made merry over fat years, and while the government di rectly responsible for India's ill-fare has spent hundreds of millions how? In making war upon another people; in making South Africa a worse desert than Bhopaul; in farm-burning and deportation; in more suffering, more anguish, more 'sorrows, .more corpses. New; York world; MORAL EDUCATION The Lack of It Is Shown in Every Depart ment ef Life It Showld be One of the Chief Things Taught in ' 1 the Schools The Independent believes that thera will bo a revolt against the universal lylx.g now so prevalent. ,It has grown to be so universal that all knowledge is destroyed and there are no certain and well defined truths upon which . men can rase opinions left Deception seems tc-oe the xtoek ia trade of stat esmen, politicians, solilterg and, news papers. The great reward given to Funston for successful forgery and de ception, he going so far as to change the uniform of his soldiers to that of the enemy, a thing never recognized as permissible in war before, has giv en standing to lying and deceit and has the formal benediction of our . Methodist president. Newspapers are ' becoming almost worthless, especially so, the great metropolitan dailies. If the craze for lying goes on, if its sanc tion by the president and its universal practice in the daily press is uncheck ed, of course civilization will disap pear. . Whatever the cause of .this sad state of affairs maye, it behooves all the people o seek for a remedy. It seems to The Independent that Chancellor Andrews has offered the most practic able. In the Educational Review of New York he says: We are on the threshold of a mo mentous new development In this1 mat ter. The time seems near, when our public schools will be able to teach the elements of morality in a positive way. In the past they have not been allowed to attempt this, because the simplest moral teaching has been though to involve dogma, and because churches. have been afraid of one another. Pro testants have feared that if a Catholic teacher sought systematically to teach her pupils self-restraint, purity, gen- rosity, charity, truthfulness, and so on, the lessons would reach down Into religious-; doctrine, and some of her pupils turn Catholics. And Catholics have trembled lest if the Presbyterian or the Lutheran teacher propounded to her pupils any ethical lessons, t ow ever rudimentary, youth brought up In the ancient church would be In danger of espousing such a teacher's faith. This fear now seen to be groundless, is on the wane and will soon disappear. For all practical purposes morality can be taught without dipping into re ligion, and all sects are becoralng aynre of this. "In his Foundations of Belief Mr. Balfour says: 'The two subjects on which the professors of every creed, theological and anti-theological, seem least anxious to differ are the general substance of the moral law and the character of the sentiments with which it should be regarded. That it is worthy of all reverence; that it de mands our ungrudging submission, and that we owe "it not merely obedience, but love: these are commonplace which the preachers of all schools vie with each other in proclaiming. And they are certainly right.' To teach ordinary morality you need not refer to or even know any of morality's profbunder im plications. ' "Public sentiment would sanction It should we at once begin systematical ly teaching such virtues as cleanliness in speech and thought, thrift, temper ance, fortitude, perseverance, veracity, the rights of laws of property, publio spirit, love of country, regard for par ents, for the aged, for the feeble, for the unfortunate and for brutes, and a great variety of kindred virtues, form ing a large part of what Is put clown in books of practical ethics. There are no parents who do not wish their children schooled in these highly im portant duties, provided the teaching breathes a right spirit and is free from prejudice. That kind of teaching is quite possible. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, unbelievers, will rejoice in it, none fearing that it will collide with , religious dogma or attack church life or fealty. "Moral education is one of the splen did new tasks which the school of the 20th cenury is to undertake and achieve. A most useful-code of prac tical morality will be propounded la school, fastening upon children at the very outset of their career the prin ciples calculated to make them good men and citizens. Then shall the school, already influential morally in a most praiseworthy degree, realize its ideal a,s a social power, working limit less and unprecedented good to society and the state. "Moreover, when the common vir tues are well taught in the public schools, when we bring before school children In this effective way the dif ference between the right and the wrong in all the main particulars of human conduct, the public schools will make a new appeal to the patrons of private schools. Without quarrel or dispute it will be seen that all children can be best educated under the same auspices, sectwise divisions among el ementary schools being no longer nec essary. This reform in public school ing is destined to bring about universal interest and a common, undivided faith, in it, all citizens without distinction or creed applauding it with one voice. "Confessedly, however, the schools are not producing all the moral uplift that is desirable. One admits that dis content with schools has at this point some justification. I myself maintain that usual school discipline lacks in attention to that will-training which Is so important In the' formation of char acter. And criticism in this respect, as it is not without basis, is also not without results. The rightful demand on the part of the public that a costly system of machinery like the public schools shall render large and more efficient service in shaping society's morals is bearing fruit." To wait for a new generation to grow up under proper moral training is otf ; course a slow process. But to whati - ' . 1 A