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VOL. XII.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MAY 16, 1901.
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THE 6AHBUK8 CRAZE
Ws. mm Wall ftlrt Wb M a ad
THir All-How tbe
' Lasatte Wer IWm4
"Wt after wte of psychic Infla-
nccs scra to sweep over this country
Sorting a large portion of the pop
Klatlca. Sometime U it one thing.
ijZzu&-3 another, but the sane and
CKicl-Ciis;4 men are unaffected by
thrs. Vcvt yeara ago it was the de
rutnd for dear coney which went to
urh an extent a to produce the worst
panic that erer afi"ted the people.
That havls; ten overcome by the
!. daring the lit year of $245,
1')J of additional money, a new
enure has in that of gambling.
Started Sn Wall meet it ha spread
oter the hole country and thousands
of mn and worses tare been irre
trietably reined, while a few have the
money t.i the unlortunates safely
fo-rtd away to their credit.
That ms count 4 tane thould buy
nock hkh would only pay interest
upon a valuation of from forty to
eighty rest cf their face value at
pr r-i that ran vp Into the hundreds.
U jta.it azd-mndlr-g upon any other
hypcthf: than the wt!l-kcon one
cncrniEg all fad and crates. The
larr. are regularly sheared year af
Ur j ear. tut that make no difference
New osea walk up to be sheared the
txt time with J-t much enthu
iam a evrr.
ThU iajt game played by the sharks
u the tlrsp!et ever manipulated.
Two firms, Kuhn. Lx-b & Co. and J.
P. Morgan & Co.. get hold of prac
tically all cf the Northern Pacific
stock and lock! it cp in their vaults.
Th-n they tnn to run up the price
of Northern Vrrltc. Thousands began
to eeil Northern I'arjhc h-n they did
cri have a share in th-sr poaj-sslon
w:th the her of Laying it bsck when
th fall ran &i much loer prices.
Whn th-y came to buy it back there
vii not u hare fcr sale and it ran up
to !.v-:. Sixty ir cent interest was
r-r-4 f'r the Joan cf the stock over
nlfcht. but the two bloodsucking bank
ing tima would not let it out. No
doubt tJ "j Intended to push tfa-ir ad
:.xzs to the extreme, but the con
K'l'iM.tu would have leen so terrible
thvutand4 of his firms under such
c!rurirtEts would have been forced
Into ! sn;; try thzt the whole finan
ce! pith of N-w York took a hand
to i-:tz.l .; h r inhuman end to the
crvr. and forced Kuhn. Loeb & Co.
and J. P V organ A Co. to settle with
the u r. !rt u a !i who had fold North
ern I "arise atock wfcea fcy dldn'ti
h.tf It Kith a hope tt buying it back
at a iOw-r f.sre, at Ym. The stock
wiil pay intc-ret at atiout i". and that
Is a!l ihii it i worth. These two
bvnking Srsi would have wrckd
tns C'f thoasands more and created a
tradition in New York that would
late femora Hied trade in every direc
tion if they had not ben called to a
hat ty all the great financial inter
cut in the city. The two pirate firms
had ti e po-r to do it. They had the
ttork locked up in their vaults. These
other men had aereed to deliver them
stock and they were forced to do it or
to Into bankruptcy ani there was no
!ock to be boujebt at any price. These
pirate hankies firms could have made
them pay f !," or 2.i.t for that mat
ter for stock worth only 43 cents and
.!ey would have done it if there had
not tec-n a rebellion ail over the coun
try at urh an enormous highway rob
bery proceeding.
The grtai tonkins institutions that
lntrferred did nLi do to for any phil
anthropic purpose. They saw that if
the two pirates were allowed to take
all that was in sight there would be
little business left for them for some
time to come, and it was a purely sel
13 motive that made them Interfere.
Chlsacu bankers put up f and
New Ycrk banker put up HSOO.OoO
and took what stocks and bonds the'
Unit could muftfr for security, thus
enabling the shorts to hoid on. Then
the tmo pirate firms were forced to
compromue with tho&e who had sold
Northern PaciSe and couldn't deliver
the goods because there was not any
for sale at any price, at three times
the value f the stock, namely, at 150.
Wt n Northern Pacific went kiting
under the conditions above named, the
wfeoie country seemed to go craty.
Every other rt of stock, bum stocks,
fair stocks, and gilt-edged stocks all
began to jump upward under the ei
c.ted bidding of the fools who thought
that they wou'd all get rich in a min
ute. Everybody went to buying stocks.
The result ts that there are thousands
r f people bankrupted. They have lost
thetr all and will from henceforth
live live of want and poverty. One
New York reporter describes scenes
around the stock xrhanjre as follows:
There have be: n financial cries be
fore this in V.'til street, but none
where the excitement was so intense
sr.d C;en were so paralyzed. Brokers
ere were crowded with customer
who aked for additional margins, and
waited dumbly, watching the broker
trying to decide what to do. Out In
the streets people from up-town came
crow ding and running toward the ex
chin r and a great many Incident
iBsilssg or touching were noticed by
theme w tote business it waa to be
there.
Jufct before noon a hansom cab
nuhed up to the entrance of the ex
change and an elderly woman alighted.
Her fa was pale and she leaned on
the arm of a colored attendant- En
tering the building the inquired for a
certain broker and was told that he
was not on the Coor.
How is steel preferred? she asked
of the doorkeeper.
-Eighty-three." was the indifferent
rc5tcrc.se.
God help me. I'm ruined. sobbed
the woman, burying her face in her
handkerchief and blindly staggering
lsck to her carriage.
On the fioor of the exchange the
scene w& cne of extraordinary confo-
slon. Some brokers practically threw
up their hands and stopped doing
business. One refused to buy a hun
dred shares of stock for a customer
who called him to the entrance and of
fered him a certified check for the
amount of the 20 point margin.
C. A. Missing had a customer short
5.000 share of Atchison common at
S8. When he received, an order to
cover at 72 the price was 75, but Mr.
Missing walked rather deliberately in
to the crowd and said quietly: "What's
doing In Atchison common?"
The mob leaped at him and one
broker yelled: A thousand at 41."
Take it." said. Mr. Missing. "Any
more?".
"A thousand at 42."
The broker got his 5,000 shares all
under 47.
Zimmerman & Forshay bought 1,000
shares of Louisville & Nashville at SO
and sold it a few minutes later at 93.
Room traders were enormous buyers
of stocks on the Vay down. They;
were covering their shorts and reap
ing a harvest of profits.
In the rotunda of the Astor House
so great a crowd gathered around the
ticker that the quotation had to be
called off, the men writing down the
figures hurriedly on bits of paper. Ev
eryone in the lower part of the town
seemed to have a personal interest in
the market. In the elevators, on the
street corners, the same anxious faces
could be seen: the same nervous, In
coherent stock talk could be heard.
Fme men who were in hard luck
themselves were talking of others who
were worse off. Said one man:
"I was dining last night with a
friend of mine and his wife. I knew
that he had gone heavily short on
Northern Pacific. The dinner proceed
ed gayly. Finally his wife said: 'Did
you make any money today, John?"
"No. he said, laughing.
"'Did you lose any?'
" 'No. he said, laughing again.
"And the dinner proceeded gayly.
r3 r. matter of fact everything he had
had been vlped out."
One of the big private banking
houses, which was reported to have
lost heavily, was a scene of tears. The
principals wept, and 6o did two old
clerks. The "Btar customer," how
ever, who had lost 1700,000, received
a reporter with this outburst:
"Say, look here, will you? The
nerve! Here's a man up in Maine has
sent me a circular, 'Where to Spend
Your Summer. Think of that!" He
held out the circular, thoughtfully,
then he added: "I'll spend my vaca
tion up in the park. Central Park, on
a bench."
In the midst of the excitement a
handsome, gray-haired man rushed up
the steps that lead to the exchanging
fioor. At the door he calmly asked
the price of Manhattan. '
"If dropped over 30 points," calm
ly replied a uniformed employe, who
had been watching a ticker near the
door. There was no note of sympathy
in his voice.
"Oh, my God! I'm ruined!" half
screamed the gray-haired man, who a
moment before had been himself so
cooL He tumbled over in a heap on
the steps and several men rushed by,
paying him no heed, for they had af
fair of their own too important to
waste time on a human wreck. Tne
ruined victim of speculation was
helped to his feet by two messenger
boys, for messenger boys, even in
time of panic, have leisure, and he
went away. He was but. one of thou
sands. Men sauntered into their broker's
office, looked at the tickers, read-the
story of their own ruin; then laugh
Ingly sauntered out again, with no
look of worry on their well-schooled
face.
It was wonderful study of character
there around the entrance to the ex
change and In all the brokers' offices.
The victim accepted tne news in a
thousand different ways. Some did not
even seem to care. Many of the wom
en who have been making thousands
in the last three weeks and who nev
er once thought that a break could
come laughed when they learned they
had lost their all.
But to others it was a tragedy, the
grimmest tragedy they had ever
known. Loss of fortune is more ter
rible than death to the men and wom
en who risk their money on the stock
exchange, and even those who laughed
did it to hide the torture brought by
the falling prices. Room traders up
town had the usual assembly of fern
inlne patrons. It was not so much a
panicky as a hysterical market for
them.
"I'm ruined!" shouted a woman in
the corridor of a build! pg that faces
one of the large up-town hotels.
"They've got every cent of mine in
there." and she pointed to-the door
of a well-known trading room.
"You've got a husband to support
you. screamed her companion. but
when I'm out I'm out und that's the
end of it. I've lost $3,0(K), and it's all
I had."
The voices were hard one hoarse
and one very shrill. The women's
faces were hard also, and one was
flushed a deep red, while the other was
ghastly pale.
"If you could only be quiet, ladles,
Implored a manager, "you might hear
the quotations much better." But they
could not.
"Why. everybody's lost," exclaimed
one woman to an inquirer. I guess
nobody' made, except bucket-shops.'
"Oh. I don't know how I'll ever ex
plain to." The speaker caught her
self, gave one quick glance around and
then rushed away without telling who
was to hear that explanation. She was
young. It might be ber.grandfather.
Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles
commander of the army of the United
States, is paid $11,000 a year. Field
Marshal Charles M. Schwab, comman
der of a single one of the armies of the
trusts, ha an annual salary of a mil
it
MAYOR JONES
He Says That m Political Boss is In Esseaco
a King; and Rales In tho Sam Way
That Kings Bale '
Willis J. Abbot has taken charge of
the Pilgrim, a monthly magazine pub
lished at Battle Creek, Mich. In the
May number there are character
sketches of Mayor Jones, mayor of
Toledo, and Tom Johnson, mayor of
Cleveland. It also contains a short
article from Mayor Jones entitled
'Aristocracy and democracy from
which the following extract is taken:
"More and more I am settling down
to the conclusion that although we are
25 years old as a nation, "conceived
n liberty and dedicated to the propo
sition that all men are created equal,"
we have hardly begun to understand 1
the meaning of 'democracy,' and we
are to a very great extent, so far as
our governmental relations are con
cerned, ruled by a pronounced aris
tocracy. In a remarkable book, "The
Religion of Democracy,' that has re
cently appeared, Charles Ferguson
tells us that 'Europe and America to
day are sick with the nightmare of
their dreams; in their dreams they
have dreamed of democracy, and in
their dreams they have achieved lib
erty, but only in their dreams, not
otherwise.'
'We are all familiar with the old
theory of government known as the
divine right of kings, and we know
that in theory our government was
predicated on the opposite idea that all
divine right was lodged with the peo
ple; that the people are sovereigns.
There are few in America today who
will question the soundness of the
undamental proposition of equality,
but, on the other hand,, there are few
ndeed who make any attempt to prac
tice and apply it in their relations
with their fellowmen, politically, so
cially or religiously. We dream of
democracy, but in our daily lives prac
tice the most outrageous form of aris
tocracy. "It is not to be wondered that the
people did not go by one step from
aristocracy to liberty. Such are not
the processes of evolution or growth,
and if we trace the development of the
race from the primeval period of man's
history upon the earth up to the pres
ent time, those of us who are eager
to see a more orderly, more artistic,
more human society, will learn a
much-needed lesson in patience.
"There is in the popular mind a mis
conception of the meaning of the word
aristocracy.' I use it as meaning the
rule of the few. The aristocratic idea
s that there are a few who are well
born, born to rule, while the many are
born to serve, and considering that
this idea possessed the world's mind
for so many ages, it is not strange that
it is yet the dominant idea in America;
it is far less so than it was a hundred
or even fifty years ago, nevertheless it
dominates our politics, our business,
and our religion today.
"Aristocracy has its most virulent
manifestation in the politics of Amer
ica. We are not ruled by hereditary
kings and queens, it Is true, but we
are just as certainly, and sometimes
quite as abjectly, ruled by the political
parties and bosses who have merely
taken the place of the kings and
queens.
"The king governed the people be
cause God had called him to that ser
vice, so he said; he did not want to
rule them, but they were better for be
ing governed, 'better because their
necks were bestrode.-' So with party-
ism and party bosses. The people ac
cept the traditions and superstitions
of the past as authority. 'You must
have a party,' they tell us, and I ask,
Why must I have a party? 'You can
not do anything without organization,'
they repeat, but I say I am for the
organization of the human whole.
" 'I'm a man without a party,
A free, untrammeled soul,
An undivided atom
Within the human whole.'
"Under the party system, as I view
it, the party bosses occupy the place
of the kingr of thepast. We are sup
posed to have a popular government
a government of the majority, and yet,
as a matter of fact, in real practice we
are governed by a very small and very
select minority; and in almost every
political division of our country, in the
primary political divisions of town
ship, precinct, ward, and city when
election time approaches, a "commit
tee" rises out of the ground, as it were,
and makes an announcement through
the public press of the holding of a
convention on a certain date, the busi
ness of the convention being to pro
vide candidates for the people to elect
to office. Clearly this is a kindness in
the committee to do the people's work
for them, just as it was a kindness in
the kings of old to rule the people In
stead of letting them rule themselves.
This is the rule of the few."
Mr. Abbot's remarks upon the "no
party" idea Is contained in an intro
duction and are as follows:
"The Honorable Samuel M. Jones,
who appears this month for the first
time as a contributor to the Pilgrim,
holds a really unique position in Am
erican politics. Other public men have
left one party and gone to another,
carrying with them a great and en
thusiastic following, while still others
have abandoned all existing parties
and created a new organization of
their own, state or national, so that
within the last half century we have
seen no less than fifteen so-called third
parties, the republican party itself
having at one time held this position
Mayor Jones, however, has smashed
all precedent by denouncing partyism
as both useless and hurtful, and shap
ing his political career purely as an
individual, instead of as a member of
an organization. He ignores all the
established precedents of politics. De
siring an office, or feeling it his duty
to serve the people in some capacity,
he nominates himself, and the organi
zation which is formed to accomplish
his election is disbanded as soon as its
end is attained. Three times he has
been elected mayor of Toledo, and once
as a non-partisan candidate for gov
ernor, he polled more than 100,000
votes in the state of Ohio. It is not
too much to say that his success has
puzzled politicians, among whom the
virtues. of organization, . and, indeed,
the absolute necessity of organization,
are .regarded as mere truisms. The one
possible criticism of " Mayor Jones
theory in the face of his undoubted
success. is that while.. his methods en
able him to secure election, they -do
not carry through -with him other
nominees , for other offices who will,
after his . election, assist in carrying
out his policy. The politicians say that
while you may elect a non-partisan
mayor without organization, you can
not elect a mayor and a council t)oth,
and they point to the fact that in none
of his terms of office has Mayor Jones
had a friendly council behind him,
and therefore the results of his elec
tion have been comparatively little.
Besides his activity and success in
purely original politics, Mayor Jones
is widely and justly celebrated for the
kindliness. of his relations with his
employes. Himself a manufacturer,
and a successful one, he has assumed
a position of almost perfect good fel
lowship with those in his employ; has
declared that his business shall be run
in accordance with the dictates of the
Golden Rule, 'and has, by the estab
lishment of play-grounds, club-rooms,
and other public enterprises, contri
buted immensely to the happiness and
well-being not only of his own work
ing people, but of the working people
of Toledo in general. Both as poli
tician and business man, he has as
sumed a position wholly anique and
wholly original. There is perhaps no
more interesting character in Ameri
can public life today."
A PLUCKY PREACHER
Ho Lives at El faao, Texas, and He
Preachad to McKlnloy About Greed,
Gold and Glory
President McKinley attended service
at the Station Street Methodist Epis
copal church, El Paso, Tex., and list
ened to a sermon by 'the Rev. W. M.
Leftwith, a friend of his boyhood days.
The president, had been invited by his
old friend to worship in the modest
little church, and went in company
with the mayor of the city, B. F. Ham
mett. The place of worship was packed
to the street, and standing room could
not be had by a large number.
The Rev. Mr. Leftwith preached up
on "Trusts and the Present Social Con
ditions Existing in the United States."
When asked why he chose this sub
ject, Mr. Leftwith said he considered
it the most appropriate one that could
have been selected. In part he said:
"The term selfishness expresses all
the conditions of human life that make
necessary -the laws of the kingdom of
God, because selfishness is the root of
all evil. Paul told Timothy that the
love of money is the root of all evil.
But the love of money has its root in
selfishness.
"So long as the selfish greed for gold
is embodied in our civil institutions
and protected and fostered by our civil
laws we will have financial and econ
omic troubles, conflicts between labor
and capital, strikes, insurrection, law
lessness and crime, and with these-the
unrest, uncertainty, insecurity and dis
asters that visit our country period
ically. "We condemn the largest-holders of
wealth and hold responsible the trusts,
the combines, the monopolies and the
financial policies of adverse political
parties. When self-sacrifice for the
good of others is the law of the king
dom of God, self-interest in spite of
others is the rankest infidelity.
"So long as our vast fortunes are
built out of the wrecking of private
industries, and trusts and combines
and corporations, with multi-millionaires
of capital, make corners of the
necessities of life, and this is sus
tained by public sentiment and pro
tected by law, our land may continue
to bring forth plentifully, our mines
and mountains may continue to pour
their rich ores Into the lap of industry,
our manufacturers may multiply in
every state and county, but the uncer
tainty, the injustice, the oppression
and the corresponding poverty and
crime will continue.
"Our social and secular life has dark
ened our ethical vision until we fail to
see the moral causes that underlie the
economic and industrial evils that so
often menace our public peace and
prosperity, nor do we look in the right
direction for the remedy.
"We see the rich man and great cor
porations increasing their riches by
robbing the poor and then administer
ing large charities for the relief of the
poor. We see great fortunes, amassed
under legal forms of oppression and
extortion, standing at the head of great
philanthropies and endowing great in
stitutions, as if the selfishness of
greed cotild atone for its own injus
tice and cruelty by bestowing alms.
"The remedy for the ills will not be
found in this political party or that;
in this financial policy or that; in this
administration or that, but in the sac
rifice of life upon the cross. By the
sacrifice of Christ's life on the cross
men are reconciled to God, and more,
are reconciled to each other . in the
brotherhood of higher relations.
"The cross means death to sin, death
to selfishness, to injustice, oppression,
fraud and wrong in all forms and in
all places, not only in the personal life
of the believer, but In social life, se
cular life, commercial life, , politica
life, in the store, the shop, the factory,
the school, the Church, the home.
"WJth the cross of Christ the na
tions would then have to reckon, the
philosopher think, the statesman plan
-the market calculate and the courts
decree justice. We would then teach
the nations that the Sermon on the
Mount is the only Christian constitu-
tion ol society;.", . , v , J
STEEL TRUST DESOLATION
Many Cities and Towns Etava Received
Kotica of Their Destruction Wail
ins; Will Soon bo Heard
The first ten ible stroke of the steel
trust has been announced. Many cit
es and towns will be deserted and the
property therein will become worth-
ess. This destruction reaches from
Massachusetts to west of the great
akes. The announcement of the
abandonment of scores of large plants
was made in Pittsburg the other -day
as follows:
"The United States Steel corporation
has adopted the policy of centralizing
operations, of abandoning its smaller
plants, those disadvantageously lo
cated, and those that cannot be run
economically. The work heretofore
done at these plants will be trans
ferred to those that can be operated
to the advantage of the company. Of
the details I can say nothing. I can
only say that to work out some of the
details of this policy operating heads
of the concerns of the United States
Steel corporation have been in con
ference in New York. Undoubtedly
the plan will revert with greatest ben
efit to the Pittsburg district as the
most favored of all which the United
States Steel corporation operates."
The above is the statement of
Joshua Rhodes of Pittsburg, retired,
as chairman of the directors of the
National Tube company, now a con
stituent of the United States Steel cor
poration, in reply to an inquiry as to
whether the new Morgan combine had
adopted such a policy.
Adoption of this policy of centraliz
ing operations will mean to tht Pitts
burg district, if carried intoYeffect.
without delay, the bringing here with
in a year of about 50,000 mill, men
from plants of the company that1 will
be abandoned.
The American Bridge company has
had plans drawn for a new $1,000,000
plant to be erected in the Pittsburg
district. The American Bridge com
pany has its plants scattered through
the east, at points where they are at
a disadvantage to operate and some
are considered for abandonment.
The recent announcement that the
American Sheet Steel company had
given up its plan to operate the new
and costly plant at Chester, W. Va.,
was a reflection of the new policy of
the new Morgan combine. The equip
ment of this plant will be taken to
Vandergrift, where the most modern
plant of the company, that of the
Apollo Iron & Steel company, is op
erated. Since the sheet company
formed it has abandoned a number of
its plants of lesser importance and
nearly, all of the apparatus of these
was sent to .Vandergrift. Other plants
of the company, located at Cambridge,
East Liverpool, Coshocton, Denison,
Creston, Niles, Canton, Canal Dover
and Piqua, O., and Carnegie and Hyde
Park, Pa., are among those which are
being considered as best to abandon
and their equipment to be centered in
a large plant at Vandergrift.
For the American Steel & Wire
company, the United States Steel cor
poration is expected to carry out the
plan of the wire company to central
ize all operations possible at Neville
Island, where $10,000,000 works are be
ing built. This has already led to the
abandonment of plants at Worcester,
Mass., and is expected to be followed
with works at Cincinnati, the Portage
works at Newburg, N. Y., and the
works of Everett, Wash.
Of the American Tin Plate works,
those at Agnew and Johnstown, Pa.,
and Canal Dover, O., are expected to
remain much as they are. Of the Na
tional Tube plants, among these con
sidered for abandonment is the Penn
sylvania Tube Works, which although
one of the most important companies,
is not economical in operation.
The citizens of many of these towns
have donated heavily to secure the
plants in land ar.d cash. Now with
out a word not only all that they have
given,? but the value of all the prop
erty they have left will be wiped out
of existence. In scores of places where
there has been plenty and prosperity.
there will be nothing but poverty and
starvation. This is the first work of
the big trust. More like it will fol
low. On with the dance.
NATIONAL DEBTS
That of Franca Has Increased Thirty Times
in a Hundred Tears Taxation of all
, Nations Increasing-
It will take ' something more than
the assurance of a cable dispatch to
convince the world that France can
long maintain her credit and continue
piling up peace budgets that surpass
the expenditures of her wealthier
neighbors. - French financiers are sup
posed to be the keenest and most
adroit in the world, and they always
manage to figure out in advance some
small balance of revenues over ex
penditures. But the steady growth of
France's national debt since the found
ing of the third republic tells a tale
of unrealized financial dreams which
cannot be misinterpreted.
The budget of France for the year
1902 just submitted to the senators and
deputies provides for the expenditure
of 3,600,000,000 francs, or $720,000,000,
to which $20,000,000 is to be added for
pensions to workingmen under a bill
supported by the ministry. With this
addition the budget for 1902 will ex
ceed that for the current year by up
ward of 140,000,000 francs.
While this does not .justify the char
acteristic French boast of being "the
greatest budget in the world, the great
est budget that has ever been paid,
the greatest of all -budgets since the
world began" (since the sum voted by
.the second session of our Fifty-sixth
congress was $729,911,000 and Sir Mich
ael Hicks-Beach- has just laid before
the British parliament a budget ask
ing for $920,000,000), yet it is enough
to stagger the economists and taxpay
ers of France. If France, at peace
with the world, since China . does not
count, spends $720,000;uu0i a year, what
would happen if she raii Across any.
such problem as we did In the Philip
pines or England did in South Af
rica? But the financiers of the United Stat
es and Great Britain, face their de
ficits with increased taxes or open re
sort to fresh . loans, while those of
France delude their people with the
promise of adequate ..revenues which
perennially! fail.
If France has not the largest budget
since the world began, it can truly
boast the largest public debt of any
jiation on earth, and one that has dou
bled during the last thlry years. In
1900 this was $6,010,000,000, against
$3,140,000,000 for the United Kingdom
and $1,379,289,464 for the United
States. '
The annual interest charge on the
public debt of France amounts to over
$249,000,000, or more than the total an
nual expenditures of the United States
as late as 1886. - . ,
How the national debt of France has
grown is shown in the following brief
table:
Veriod -1800
First republic.
1815 Napoleon I ....... .
1830 Louis XVIII..
1848 Louis Philippe
1852 Second republic. . . .
Francs.
714,000,000
1,272,000,000
... 4,426,000,000
... 5,913,000.000
.. 5,516,000,000
...12,454,000,000
1871 Napoleon III....
1889 Third republic. . . . .21,251,000,000
1900-Third republic 30,050,000,000
During this hundred years, while
the public debt of France has in
creased more than forty-fold, its pop
ulation has only risen from 27,349,003
in 1801 to 38,517,975, and is now sta
tionary. What is it the poet, says of lands
where budgets grow and people do
not? , , - .-" .
DESTROYING HOMES
The Gradual Work of the Concentration of
Capital Reducing the Poor to Worse
Than Feudal Times
A dispatch from San Francjsco of
April 8 shows the condition among the
poor of that city. Every year this mat
ter grows worse. In Omaha and oth
er cities of that size these sort of
hospitals are constantly increasing in
numbers. They keep advertisements
constantly standing in the papers. The
San Francisco account was as follows :
An example of how the prevailing
capitalist system destroys the home,
and breaks the family ties is furnished
by an. incident that came to light in
the county hospital recently. Despite
the great hue and cry of prosperity
that the capitalist papers here are con
tinually raising, more and more of the
women of the poor are forced to re
sort to the county institution to give
birth to their children. .
In the maternity ward of that cold,
bleak charity institution -away Out on
Potrero avenue, fourteen babies en
tered this world of trial and trouble
in one week. The nurses, hard-worked
but patient, were at their wits' end to
know how to accommodate this influx
of howling infants. On several days
there were as many as three and four
births. ' They came into this world so
quickly, in fact, that the doctors and
nurses could not keep tab on them
and when they gave them their morn
ing ablutions often returned them to
the wrong bed and mother. They
were dressed alike, all about the same
size v and,, except in one ' or two in
stances, without any special identify
ing marks. Then, how were these ma
trons to know which was which? '
One morning when all of the babies
were taken irom tneir motners into
the nursery to be washed and clothed
for the day several assistants from
other wards were called in to aid. All
the babies were out of their swaddling
clothes at the same time and when the
nurses began to dress and return them
to their proper parent they found, to
their dismay that they could not dis
tinguish between them. If some nurse
hadn't tipped the developments of the
nursery off to the anxious mothers all
would have been well and good. The
mothers would have been none the
wiser; certainly the babies themselves
wouldn t have objected. But some
conscience etricken attendant couldn't
retain herself and let the cat out of
the bag. Then there was consterna
tion in the maternity ward. Mothers
in their feeble, helpless condition, as
soon as the hint was dropped as to
the mixup in the other room, imagined
that she wras being robbed of her child
In the meantime babies are wearing
numbers on the soles of thir feet,
done In blue pencil. But in the days to
come how will No. 2 know he is not by
rights No. 4? And how will No. 3
persuade himself that he has not been
changed from a seven?. '
Now that the mixup has been recog
nized, the "people of the hospital have
made atonement. They have numbered
the feet of every infant in a blue that
will not rub. But for the original 14
of that busy week this precaution
comes too late.
The Whole situation is sad and con
fusing. Already has the problem
reached the mothers' cots, and fierce
has been the strife where the cots are
close, reaching easy, and less than
stage whisper enough. One infant of
special beauty and precocious good na
ture- was claimed by two of the pa
tients, after the nurse had tattled. Put
the doctor adjusted the matter some
how. .
But there are twelve other mothers
who are not sure of their young since
the mingling and the muddle of the
bath tub and the prattle of the nurse
The number Is on the foot and the
name -Is on the register, but the chil
dren of a week are much alike, and
who car settle it that the mother's
number calls for her own?
If you want to do your neighbor a
favor invite him to subscribe lor The
Independent, r . r ' "7
BLUE PENCILED
Tha Associated Press Censor Suppressed
r Paris otth J. T. Hill Interview r
Pow.ro? MoneV "f" b
Curtailed ; ...
TJ, InfnrvUm -writ, T T lUll S6nt
... A a
sociated press was mangled and tha
pertinent parts of it suppressed after
the same fashion that news has been
manipulated for the last ten years. The
nterview which was obtained by
James Creelman as 1t was furnished to
the press was as follows: .
"Out of the mighty chaos of Wall
street, with Its tales of black ruin and
blacker treachery, there emerges, the
orms of honest men. And foremost
among the great masters or nnance
who stood at the heart of that vast
scene of crime, untempted by the op
portunities for plunder It offered, was
James J. Hill, president of the (treat
Northern railroad, the one man who
could have given victory to thfi or
ganizers of the raid on the Northern
acific railroad "which resulted in the
panic. Mr. Hill consented tonight to
tell the whole story.
"This has been terrible work," he
said. "There are some men in this
rkiinfiiir rw trVi wfi c Tri ncf eat t nr
their consciences, and they are wel
come ,to what they will get. I want
no money taken as money was taken
yesterday. There will be no pocket
in my shroud.
"There are men who have come to
believe that money can do anything in-
this country. If we have reached that
point, then money must be shorn by
aw of its power to do harm. I am
willing to see money shorn of such
power. I have no wish to have that
kind of power. And, in my opinion,
the events of yesterday will do much
to bring about legislation that will
make them impossible in the future.
"I am sorry for the victims in Wall
ctreet Tnut- T Tnavo not. hnucht. nr sold
one share of Northern Pacific i3tock'
since October. I have simply istood
with my friends In defense of that
property and refused to sell the con
trol of the Northern Pacific to Itsi riv
al, the Union Pacific, no matter how
high the price of the stock rose. No
price tempted us. It was a matter of
ordinary principle.
"In Mr. Morgan's absence we would
not allow the railroad he reorganized
to be seized by its competitor.
"The control of the Northern Pacific
road is safely In the hands of Mr.
Morgan. The attempt of the Union
Pacific people to secure possession of
their great '!val haa completely failed.
I am very, very sorry tor the un
fortunate speculators who have been
ruined. r I see what ruin and misery
have been wrought. The theory that
there is no limit to the power of money
is modern feudalism. Combinations to
wreck and destroy competition should
be made impossible."
The last two sentences of this inter
view and which were blue-penciled by
the Associated press censor, are very
important statements. There is the
same denunciation of the money power
that the populists have continuously
demanded. The readers of republican
papers were forbidden to read such
statements. It is along the same line
that has been followed so long and
against which The Independent hat
made a continuous protest.
The Lambs
When the bull is on the rampage
And the bear is in the air;
When the stock is getting frisky
And is Jumping everywhere,
It's a bad time for the little fish.
A bad time for the clam,
A bad time for the sucker
And a bad time for the lamb.
Sometimes the bear is uppermost,
Sometimes It is the bull,
But the sheep Is always underneath
And loses all his wool;
When things are panicky and all
Are caught within the jam,
It simply hurts the bull and bear,
But finishes the lamb.v
They gave the game the proper name,
It's worthy of the beast.
The weak are prey unto the strong;
The innocent are fleeced.
For all exeept the ravenous
It is a cheat and sham. .
Whichever way the battle goes.
It's death unto the lamb.
It is a fight of animals,
Each seeks the biggest share.
Not only bruin and the bull,
The wolf is also there.
Yet unlike brutes, they're hungry still.
However much they cram,
They make their prey from day to day
Upon the fallen lamb.
Tis not aloire the one who's caught
Within the robber's den;
But back of him they shear in turn
The common citizen;
And evermore to hide the game,
They play the old flim-flam;
And evermore they keep it dark
The public is the lamb.
J. A. Edgerton.
On the Roll of Hereos
A civilian having applied for a com
mission in the army- the president
asked him:
"What are your qualifications?"
"Qualifications?" the civilian re
peated -"what's them?"
"That is what I am trying to find
out," replied the president "what
yours are."
"Well, well," said the civilian ."this
floors me! For. ten. years I've run the
party in my ward, and I never before
-
"Hold!" said the president, "you've
answered my question. Be a lieuten
ant colonel and quartermaster."
His name stands high upon the roll
of heroes. It is John Smith.