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V5Ar i II WW WW
VOL. XIII.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, JULY 18, 1901.
NO. 8.
HARTLEY IS FREE
15
It U Ir'.r4 That III Iralratloa
Wr I'atrteUe Acta b4 Sbeeld If ave
th ApiUttt ef
"Hi following article recently ap
peared in th? Blair Pilot and was
copied on the editoria page of the
State Journal:
T1 Imprisonment cf a person who
La rorrimiltJ no intentional wrong,
1 c :- of the rreates-t outrages that tan
i eoncrired- For, more than four
year. Joseph Bartley. tx-sute treas
urer, has languished Uhind prison
bars fcr a crime he never committed
and for the oie ra n. not that Jus
tice should be ati5i, but that polit
ical capital miKbi U- made out of his
misdeeds. If the true history
cf th U&nUy c&,e were written it
would glte Mr. Hartley a much differ
ent nzi.d'.r'K In public esteem than he
lo' enjoy It Is no secret that he
made us.- of th funds to arrest." the
prosr of a flighting panic which at
that tin.' thr atri.fi the life savings
of hecdr-is of citizens and Lid fair to
dri r.'.y ba r: k and business houses
To tii Had he i-en Euccessful
Is t:::r. over and have b-en the means
cf prevent Ing commercial failures too
n u-h pra.x? could not have been given.
"Sveryto-ly woull have praised him.
II 'it, many other well meaning
tnec w ho suffe red hitler acr;ce:S and
revere s. he miscalculated the length
etc -esdth of the financial disturb
ance, which, as everyone will remem
ber. is.:j- ril-i furtune-i and properties
t very where, at-d, in a commendable
fTurt to j"l e home conditions, he
was carri-d do n in the reek of the
twm Had he triumphal he would
have . th- idol of the state he
5r.il I and b-carse a convict. Mr.
lUrilry aner look a dollar with the
:nt: n of "wrongfully appropriating
:t to his own ti.-. His object was to
afford r;:f to itijw-n and institutions
f I Netrika. Not dishonesty, but un
df.lfd friendship an I state pride act-UAt'-d
li-ra- After patking through the
or Hi arl facing conditions that have
drt-n frfror. rr.n to ek relief in
flsits i;id or have tent them with
t-"i:.ch!-d an l .jrr:rd faces to the mad
fc ourag-vab!y undertook to
repair the damage and make good the
t--t&, tie ccer-d ten of thousands of
dollar it V .r.to V.i treasury with
gfK2 ro.-;-tt of returning every dol
lar. ''li me a year's time to realize
on my .rranr-n:ents. tail Hartley,
"and 1 wi!! psy up every dollar." He
had paid in a considerable amount and
no o'yub? wculi have paid In full, bnt
th- ami ty of the f uslonifts to make
I"Ol:tical capital reuited m his arrest
and Uart I was made a defaulter
whets n's sr :-r:tior.s ere to make good
every penny. There never was, there
fore, any occasion or just cause of
Jo- ph 1 .ir.i'y arr-t. and his incar
ceration for four yf-ar In the peniten
tiary a a convict Is one of the most
shameful cutrtr- ever cemmitted In
th tame of Justice It is high time
thftt the wor.g done him 1 e correct;-"
The Pilot believe it speaks the senti
ment of a very !arg majority of.'the
people of tl is rtite when it says that
this almost traeie scene should close
and Joseph Hartley be given a free and
cnccnditional pardon. No governor
certainly not t-o good and klJd as Ezra
P. b'av&i:-. can afford to countenance
a continuation of this embargo on Jus
tice. Even in the days of kings some
attention was paid to human rights
and it is hoped that the steps of or-irar.ii-cd
society in this respect have
been forward instead of backward."
That article shows the immoral ani
mus of the republican party. The fu
sion government Is condemned fcr
prosecuting and convicting a republi
can embezzler. Embezzlement is not
a trim-, but a patriotic deed. It was
to tide over a bank crisis that 1200,000
u deposited in Millard's bank and
then disappeared. Was the Omaha Na
tional snatched from a receiver's hands
I r stealing $::m of the school mon
ey? Was that a patriotic act and not
a crime?
The publication of such an article as
the above in regular republican organs
shows cosciusively that the party Is
rotten to the core, and should never be
trusted with a dollar of public funds.
Crf&e Is not condemned, but praised.
Embezzlers are patriots. Every man
who v tL-& the republican ticket here
after vot-s to uphold and sustain such
doctrines. The mo-aning of the whole
thing is that Hartley i to be pardoned
and the pardon defended by reasoning
I'.k that in the above article.
main in Nebraska and make my home
here." .
These are the words of the defiant
criminal. He never ran up the white
flag and he never did anything of
which he was ashamed. Those are the
words of the man who stole nearly a
million dollars, much of it school funds
belonging to the children of the state
and who has been pardoned by a "re
publican governor. Now We may look
for another saturnalia of crime in the
state. If such crimes as this are to be
condoned when the criminal is unre
pentent, what may we look for? If
Bartley had confessed his crime, told
what he did with the money and who
got it, there would le no objection
among populists to a mitigation of his
sentence, but to pardon a defiant crim
inal who declares he has never shown
the white flag is to invite anarchy and
give a stimulus o crime. At such
actions as these k the part of the par
ty in power, every honest man in the
state, be he populist, republican or
democrat, must revolt.
Hartley's pardon came in the way of
a parole. He is nominally in the em
ploy of C (VWhedon, the gold-bug
lawyer, who believed so much in "hon
est money." Their "honest money"
was of the same character in this
transaction.
Penalties for crime are inflicted un
der the law for three purposes. Pun
ishment, reformation of the criminal
and -a deterent to others against the
commission of crime. This issue of a
pardon to a defiant criminal, releases
htm from punishment, confirms him in
his criminal ways and is an invitation
to others to commit like crimes. If
that is not Instituting anarchy in this
state, it at least goe3 a long ways to
ward it. Every honest man in the
state should rise in revolt against it.
With one of the parties involved in
the stealing of the school fund of the
state sent to the United States senate
and the other released from prison,
the republican party comes before the
voters of this state for indorsement.
Will it be given? The republican party
will be beaten In this state this fall by
20,000 majority, or we may look for a
saturnalia of theft to follow such as
was never before experienced among a
civilized people.
H'KINLEY'SPET THIEVES
ThoM Who Kob by th Million r t th
fald Ilttorlt WhlU th Man Th
Stole m Loaf U In Jail
Homer Davenport cartoons the
thieves of the Seventh National bank
under the question: "How does throw
ing away dejwsltors' money differ from
robbery on the highway?". The Jour
nal finally makes, the following com
ments: Perhaps the rascality of the Seventh
National bank failure In New York
is not generally known. It ought to
he. '
A bank and those who conduct It are
supposed to be bound ty laws of hon
or. This particular bank took the
money of men who trusted it and lent
that money without security to friends
willing to profit by its dishonesty.
A swindling bank management, in
order to help on gambling operations
in which it is interested, took mil
lions of dollars Intrusted to It and
without compunction stole from those
who trusted it.
All the swindlers ought to be in jail.
It Is barely possible that they will be
eventually. .iSjg
They are not In Jail now because
they stole a great deal.
For the man who steals to live very
competent machinery is ready to take
him to prison.
But for the respectable thief, who
lives to steal, correctional machinery
Is lacking.
The thief who stole a trifle two
weeks ago Is in Jail today.
The thieves who robbed the bank
of millions two weeks ago are at lib
erty today, presnmably at the seaside,
receiving the sympathy of other re
spectable thieves whese turn may
come next.
There Is so much talk of high moral
principle, of property rights, of vested
rights, cf 'keeping down the masses,"
etc., in the respectable circles cf na
tional banking that it is well to call
attention to the fact emphatically
when this respectability reveals itself
as shameless knavery and common
thieving.
Moral lecturers one day telling vot
ers of their duty to property, and com
mon" thieves the next day, stealing
money intrusted to them such are
many eminent respectabilities that ask
the people to reverent attention.
THE COST OF WAR
Th above article was written some
day s ajro. t xn after the last edition cf
The Independent went to press. The
l-pi uliit hate no daily la this state
or they would have been informed of
Partly 's pardon some days before.it
as jtieen to the public. It is well now
for th- populists cf the state to do a
Slttl thinking. Every man who was
acquainted with the animus of the
v.x. who run the republican party In
this state kn-w that if they carried the
state that Hartley would be pardoned,
just si they knew that Clem Deaver
fcs la the employ of Mark Hanna.
Now that the republicans have set
Pa.tly free and sent bis partner la
Infamy to the United States senate,
they win com before the people and
ask that they b retained in control of
the state. . Ik the people of Nebraska
want that Und of men to rule over
then?
All the dailies of the state agree in
Kiting the statements of Hartley upon
his release1, Tfa's is what he said:
1 kT server yet run cp the white
Sag and I ans not going to do so now.
What I Lave suffered the past four
years is past and no rood can come
of speaking of it. Hut I say with em
phai that 1 c-ver did anything that
taad me ashamed to face any one, and
my future conduct will speak for it
tlL You may say that I expect to re-
REDEEMERS IN SEWARD
Thr Ht Cot th Tax l'ayer Oat Tktre
f97S.OO for th First Six Month of
Thlr Reign
It might be interesting to some of
the taxpayers of this county to know
Just what Seward county- has lost,
financially, during the first six months
that the "redeemers" have had control
of the state. Seward county's share of
the June apportionment of state school
funds this year was $3,749.64. Last
year, when the fusionists made the
apportionment, it amounted to $6,
570.18. Thus from that source we have
lost $830.54. The average amount this
county received in June during the
four years the fusionists had control
of the state was $6,152.75. By reducing
the assessment of the railroad property
in the county $2,856 their taxes will
be reduced about $145, which makes a
total of $975 that the county has lost
in cold cash during only six months
of republican control of the state's af
fairs, and which the taxpayers of the
county will have to make up out of
their own pockets. The t;avings of $145
In taxes to the railroads will partly re
imburse them for furnishing free
transportation to persons who "came
home" to vote the republican ticket
last , falL Seward " Independent-Democrat,
Th Century's Hainan Butchery Bill
Amounts to Nearly lg-htn Bil
lion Dollars
Robert Gordon Butler in the Home
Magazine gives the figures showing the
cost of wars during the last century.
The figures are so large that it is past
the power of any mind to conceive
them. In this case it will be well to
exercise the imagination and try to
conceive as far as one is able this
human butcher's bill. Only an esti
mate can be made and this can take
nq account of Indirect cost or the cost
of an army or navy in times of peace.
Leaving out these important and ex
pensive items, Mr. Butler presents the
following table, showing the esti
mated direct cost of the principal con
flicts of the last century:
Napoleonic wars $ 3,289,000,000
Turco-Russian war 100,000,000
Algerian war 190,000,000
Civil wars, Spain and
Portugal 250,000,000
Canadian rebellion 11,000,000
Seminole war 57,000,000
Rev. wars in Europe 50,000,000
Chinese wars 44,000,000
Kaffir war 10,000,000
Crimean war 1,520,000,000
Italian war 253,000,000
American civil war 5,000,000,000
Abyssinian war 43,000,000
Schleswig-Holstein war. 75,000.000
Franco-Mexican war 75,000,000
Austro-Prussian war 330,000,000
Brazil-Paraguayan war. . 240,000,000
Franco-German war. . . 2,500,000,000
Ashantee war 4,500,000
Central Asian wars 225,000,000
Turco-Russian war 1,210,000000
Afghan and S. Af. wars. 85,000,000
Soudan war 21,500,000
Madagascar war 85,000,000
Italy-Abyssinian war... 115,000,000
Span.-Am.-Filip. war. . . 1,000,000,000
Boer war .- 800,000,000
Soudan war 12,000,000
Chinese-Jap. war 300,000,000
Total $17,922,000,000
The second decade of the century
had no great war; the nations were too
weary with the Napoleonic contests to
fight.
But the third ten years saw a war be
tween Russia and Turkey which cost
$100,000,000, divided unevenly be
tween the combatants, Russia paying
three-quarters of the amount. During
the '30s there was a recrudescence of
war. Spain and Portugal fought for
ten years at home, with expenses
amounting to $250,000,000; France be
gan her war with Algeria, which end
ed in 1847, after she had spent $190,
000,000; we had our Seminole war at
a cost of $27,000,000 and Great Britain
had a little rebellion in Canada to
suppress at a cost of $11,000,000. Fully
$478,000,000 was spent in that decade.
The ten years from 1861 to 1870 saw
more money spent in war than any
other decade of the century. Our civil
war was responsible for a larger direct
expenditure than any other contest,
not excepting the Napoleonic wars,
which lasted four times as long. The
direct cost of the war was about $5,
000,000,000. The indirect cost, which
is not considered in these statistics,
amounts now to at least $3,000,000,000,
making a total cost of the war of se
cession about $8,000,000,000. Between
1870 and 1880 came the Franco-German
war and the Turco-Russian wars. For
the first the French paid the entire di
rect expense, amounting to $2,500,
000,000, and the latter cost about $1,
210,000,000. Between 1881 and 1890
there were no very large wars, but the
last decade of the century saw a brisk
revival. The Spanish-American con
flict, short and decisive as it was, has
cost the United States certainly not
less than $500,000,000 and Spain at
least as much; Japan and China spent
$300,000,000 on their war six years ago
and Great Britain, before the close of
the century, had run up a bill in its
war with the South African republics
of at least $800,000,000.
At the least Mr. Butler figures that
war in the 19th century cost in direct
expenditure fully $20,000,000,000. And,
he asks, just how much is a billion?
It is one thousand millions, but this
fact is not expressive. There are
only 3,155,673,600 seconds in a cen
tury that is, $6 has been spent on war
for every second of the last century.
But as if this illustration were not
enough he gives the following:
"If a man counted 200 a minute for
ten hours a day, six days a week, he
would have counted 1,000,000 in 8 days
3 hours and 20 minutes. At the same
rate, he would need 8,333 days 3 hours
and 20 minutes to count 1,000,000,000 or
26 years 195 days 3 hours and 20 min
utes, not counting Sundays. To count
20,000,000,000 would take 532 years 150
days 6 hours and 40 minutes."
After employing the imagination in
trying to comprehend those figures it
might be well to employ it awhile in
trying to conceive what a different
condition the world would have been
In if that money had been devoted to
building houses, parks, making good
roads and in other ways for the ben
efit, instead of the destruction of mankind.
LABOR AND TRUSTS
t
Th Magnates Find That They Will Hit
to Meet a Foe That Is Not to be
Despised
There is no doubt that promoters
who . were foremost in the organiza
tion of the great trusts fancied that
they would have a great advantage
over the labor organizations when
they had their plans completed. But
it did not turn out that way. The lead
ers of the labor organizations say that
result has been to give to them great
advantages which they did not before
have. Mr. Gompers, in discussing the
question, says:
"The Industrial conditions requiring
the attention and consideration of or
ganized labor have assumed a new as
pect through the recent great combin
ations of mills and factories. Of espe
cial significance is the control ot a
group of these by one organization,
which plans to devote the respective
plants to special work, and to that
work only, so that this mill is set to
producing one small part or division
of the general product, that mill to
another branch, and so on. Probably
there is greater economy in this pro
cess of specialization, and the end.
therefore, justifies the means. But
with this division and subdivision a
huge and complicated machine is pro
duced, so interdependent in its parts
that the least disarrangement at any
point may clog or stop the whole
mechanism. -
"If this be so, then, in a machine so
cumbersome; and complex, the labor
organizations, in my opinion, have a
new strength. Labor tends to special
ize . under the trusts, and thus', its
productive power may be Increased.
It also acquires another power. The
withdrawal of any specialist's mill
would reduce the trust to a mass of
silent and inert machinery, one part
being so dependent on another. Of
course, this new power of labor in its
own behalf is predicated upon one
thing namely, organization. Unless
the workmen In the various depart
ments of a trust get together, to act
under discipline, their specialization as
productive units will mean their weak
ening as working men, for the man
who works in one branch of industry
has far less independence than the
old-fashioned workingman, who could
with equal facility apply himself to a
number of different jobs.
"I believe thoughtful workmen ap
preciate this fact as well as their
leaders, and they will see the benefit
of organization more than ever before.
Fortunately the era of prosperity and
the consequent demand for labor in all
fields of industry is helping this. The
workingmen individually are doing
well, and, as is generally the case,
prosperity breeds aspirations. They
desire to do better. Their thoughts
turn to the trade unions. Those who
have been delinquent pay up and those
who have been outside come into mem
bership. For these and perhaps other
reasons the unions are now recruiting
as never before.
"In this era of trusts it may be said
that labor represents organized num
bers opposed to concerted power. Look
ing merely on. the surface of things it
might appear o many that the trusts
are so strongly Intrenched in power
as to be able tp crush literally the life
out of organized labor, but the-interdependence
of J$e different parts of
their - organization- already alluded to
shows really where their great weak
ness lies. I 'fear no blow that trusts
might aim' at labor on account of the
changed conditions. As a matter of
fact the concentration of productive
and monopoly powers has been accom
panied by a movement among the
workers, who, realizing that what
were frequently separate plants and
separate industries had come under
one management, quickly saw the de
sirability and necessity of uniting the
separate unions into large federated
bodies so as to, make united move
ment for offense and defense.
"In any contest with capital we
must consider the value of a favorable
public opinion and to secure this labor
must be right in its demands. It must
possess might to enforce the right,
but it must be right in order to ap
peal successfully to public sentiment.
This can be done only on ethical
grounds; we must seek the broad basis
of justice. In a strike crisis the
masses of the peoyle, apparently pas
sive at other times, are stirred tp
thought and give judgment on ques
tions that are complacently ignored
in normal periods.
"The suggestion is made that the
monopoly trust should be met with a
labor trust. The x implication is that
some new kind of an organization of
workmen should be formed. I desire
to say that whatever action the work
ers want to take to protect or promote
their interests can best be taken
through the American federation of
labor. This, it seems to me, is better
suited to their purposes than any oth
er form of organization. There Is no
limit to its freedom of action. Its
members merely have to determine
their course and then act. The twenty
years of experience in building up the
American federation of labor is .tpo
valuable to be thrust aside by the for
mation of a new organization. If such
a new body is to be formed on the old
lines, then it will be an attempt to
form anew what we alreadynave. If,
on the other hand, the proposal be to
strike out on new lines, that can with
least effort be lone by the existing organization."
Carnegie's Burden
, Poor Andrew Carnegie! He hs
$280,000,000 still left to give away, and
does not know what to do with it.
The bulk of Mr. Carnegie's fortune
is known to be invested at 5 per cent.
If all of it returns the same rate his
annual income must be $14,000,000. He
has to give away that much, therefore,
merely to avoid growing richer. That
is about all he has succeeded In ac
complishing so far. Last year he gave
away just about his annual income.
The awful burden of the principal still
rests upon him as heavily as ever.
Mr. Carnegie is a robust man, but
he is elderly. He can hardly hope to
live more than twenty years longer.
He may not live more than five. If he
is to dispose of his fortune in twenty
years he will have to get rid of $14,
000,000 a year besides the interest, ii
he is to do the work in five years he
will have to give away $56,000,000 of
the principal annually.
It is a dismal prospect for one who
believes that a man who dies rich dies
disgraced. J
PSYCHOLOGICAL SOLUTION
Th Stat of Terror That Kxlsts In Denver
on Account of th Assaults ' Mad on
Women Causes Investigations
The women of Denver have been ap
pealing to the ministers, the judges
and the police for protection against
the beasts and murderers who infest
that town. The police are too few in
.numbers, the ministers got hauled up
for contempt of court and a judge went
court and all over to the side of law
lessness. Then the business men were
called upon and they have filled the
papers with columns of protests and
advice. At last they appealed to the
professors and a psychologist gave
them his views as follows:
"Horrible crimes are liable to hap
pen in-any community, and the best
regulated neighborhoods of the coun
try are not free from them, but when
such a series of crimes are committed
with impunity as. have taken place in
Denver in the past year without the
perpetrators being discovered, and
with everyone left in dread as to
where and how near home the next
tragedy may occur, it is time to give
serious thought to the subject, and
there is reason to be exercised about
it. I am, therefore, glad to respond
and give expression of opinion upon
the subject. The emergency is one
which justifies very plain speaking.
"The crimes which have horrified
Denver are only what might be ex
pected under the conditions which
prevail, and with such -a criminal ele
ment as Denver, like most large cities,
contains. These crimes in a large
measure are the result on the one hand
of Inefficient police and court adminis
tration, and on the other of the low
moral tone and general disregard for
the law which are prevalent A com
munity which .regards with indiffer
ence official misconduct, which con
dones 'and apologizes for such an out
rage as the burning of the negro Por
ter, whose newspapers multiply and
magnify, as the Denver papers do, the
gruesome details of every criminal
outrage, whose police department is
the spdrt and plaything or the tool of
opposing political parties, whose court
can allow the law to be so perverted
that It plays into the hands of that
element in our community which by
common consent is responsible for
most of the lawlessness which does
occur, whose ministers of the gospel
are ridiculed and belittled in and out
of the press for their strenuous en
deavors to promote the better enforce
ment of existing laws such a city
may be so blind and so indifferent to
the responsibilities of its position as
to require a series of awful outrages to
arouse the conscience of the people and
provoke them to proper remedial ac
tion and assure protection for the fu
ture. "But there is another phase of the
question which deserves to be strongly
emphasized. What is it that causes
crime? Of course, primarily, it is the
evil instincts of wicked men and wom
en. It is true that overt acts of these
evil-disposed persons mighty be largely
restrained by active and efficient police
administration, but in every commun
ity there are a large number of per
sons who have within them the possi
bility of committing crimes, but who
are either unconscious of their evil
instincts or who would be restrained
from yielding to them were it not sug
gested to them that' they can do so
with Impunity. No one who has given
the slightest study to criminology or
who knows anything about the law of
suggestion can fail to realize the man
ner in which this class is prompted to
crime through the sensational adver
tisements which our newspapers give
to crimes which have been already
committed. The first paper I took up
yesterday morning had nearly three
pages given over to the most grue
some details of the most recent trage
dies. Of course this is called journal
ism, but it is a sorry kind of journal
ism. In my opinion the managers of
the paper in question would have done
the community a service if they had
made a bonfire cf the whole edition
after it was printed. When I saw the
character of the contents of my paper
yesterday morning I threw it aside in
disgust, but its demoralizing effect
has been so great upon me that I
shall now have to terminate this in
terview and go to Elitch's to see the
play, in which, as I am told, there are
three people killed in every act."
That psychologist was evidently a
very disgusted man which accounts for
the sarcasm in the last sentence. Nev
ertheless there is a world of truth in
what he says. The Independent has
been impressing that sort of truth
upon its readers for a long time. Den
ver is only reaping what it has sown,
c .-e the .same environment to a pop
ulation anywhere and the result will
be the same. When a man is burned
at the stake the whole community be
comes excited, the crime becomes the
common thought with all its disgust
ing details. A psychological impulse
is created concerning the crime and
the weak minds give way to it. Then
another crime of the same sort follows.
The calm enforcement of law 4s the
only thing that will result favorably.
Inhuman and brutal punishments will
only Increase it.
Dark Spots in Nebraska
The spots in Nebraska that are un
der republican rule are darker than the
dungeons of hades. Their foulness is
attracting the attention of the whole
world and the dailies are full of com
ments on the degeneracy that is so
prominent. The Nebraska peniten
tiary and Omaha are held up as a
warning to the world. Last week The
Independent published the comments
of a great Chicago daily. This week
it gives the opinion of a New York
daily. This is what is said:
The appearance of the bull fight at
Omaha and? the acquiescence of the
people of that city in such a brutal
and disgusting entertainment, seem
to us among the most amazing things
of the year.
For generations Anglo-Saxons have
been accustomed to point out with
artless vanity, that the conclusive
evidence of the superiority of their
race was in the absence pf cruelty and
brutality from their amusements. They
did not tolerate the bull fights of the
Spaniards nor the heartless diversions
of other nations.
We have been accustomed to read
of the bull fights of Spain and Mexico
with horror and the offering of thanks
that such things are impossible in this
country. -
We discover now that they are not
impossible in Omaha at least.
We think that the respectable people
of Omaha should hardly relish this
distinction and are totally unable to
understand why they tolerate it. Un
less they have ceased to care for their
city's reputation or their own.
It is urged in palliation of the offen
sive perfqrmance that blunted or
wooden weapons were used ' and the
bull was merely irritated and an
noyed, but not actually tortured.
We do not see how this alters the
real significance of the case.
It seems that Omaha is willing to
permit and its citizens ready to sup
port an exhibition in which a dumb
and helpless animal is nagged and
driven and punched into fury.
We think that is enough to cast a
grave reproach upon the city and of
that reproach the people of Omaha
should take instant steps to relieve
themselves.
THEY ARE ALL ALIKE
From Maine to California Public Service
Corporations Defy the Lawi, Fix
Juries, Dods; Taxes, Control
Courts and Corrupt
Legislatures -
Public service corporations are alike
from Maine to California, in their
treatment of the public. They do
worse than tell it to be damned. They
buy or defy law-makers, they fix jur
ies, they dodge taxes, they control
courts, are the fountain head of polit
ical corruptions they are in effect a
conspiracy against society. In self
defense, society must assume their
functions. Every populist devoutely
wishes for that consummation. All
men are asking: "Where is the swal
lowing of little fish by big ones to
stop?" No answer satisfactory to the
little fish need be expected from demo
cratic oracles while 'the big fish fur
nish their inspiration.
Events afford the unanswerable log
ic. Every time a corporation buys
up an assessor to make false and di
minutive returns upon its property, or
misleads a court to smother opposition
to its abuses under Injunctions, or
hires a legislature to give the people
the worst of it, it becomes increasing
ly apparent that the corporation mon
ster is 1 a menace to popular govern
ment. Every trust that fattens on a
monopoly created and protected by the
tariff teaches the doctrine of free
trade. Every discrimination in the
carriage of persons or property - by
rail, in favor of the rich against the
poor, is a burning leaflet In favor of
government ownership of railroads.
Every legislature or city council or
board of commissioners controlled by
corporations working through party
machinery brings the primary election
to the fore as an indispensable ad
junct of the Australian ballot. Every
occasion on which the United States
senate disappoints the hopes and ex
pectations of the voters is a treatise
in favor of electing senators by a di
rect vote of the people.
Every land-grabber who piles up
farm upon farm or city lot upon city
lot and grows rich out of values creat
ed by population, but appropriated by
himself, helps along the propaganda
for restricted ownership of land.
Upon these and- similar questions
one wing of the democracy is largely
in accord with us. Whenever that
moiety gets ready to cast adrift from
the foes of its own household, it can
have a more perfect union with us. It
is their move. Edwin Taylor. -
Railroad Hogishness
The Buffalo dallies have let loose on
the railroads. They declare In the
most approved populist style that the
managers are the most selfish, greedy,
grabbing, and altogether extortionate
set of men the world ever sa.w. As a
specimen, of what they are saying, the
following, is clipped from the Times,
which, after giving a description of the
beauties of the exhibition, says:
"The only question remaining then,
is:, 'How am I to get to Buffalo?'!
This is a question which must be an
swered by the " railroad companies.
Upon their shoulders now lies the re
sponsibility for the success, from ' a
financial standpoint, of the pan-American
exposition. All others have done
their respective parts, and have done
them well. The house is swept and
clean from parquet to gallery, the
doors are open, the curtain is raised,
the orchestra in its seats. Shall the
pan-American exposition play to an
empty house, ' or will the railroads
make, without delay, such rates as will
enable the people at large to see the
greatest, the grandest, the most in
structive exposition that has ever been,
produced since history began? i
"Gentlemen of the railroad com
panies, it Is up to you,"
It may be that after the railroads
have ruined and bankrupted the men
who got up the exposition that some
of them will find time to look into the
question of the public ownership of
the railroads.
THE LAND HUNGRY
McKlaley Establishes a Grent Bis; Land!
Lottery Down in the Indian
Territory -
What is called the "opening up Ind
ian reservations for settlement" is be
ing gone through with again down in
Oklahoma. The land-hungry have
been camped by the thousand around
the reservations for more than a year.
There are said to be thirteen applicants
for every quarter section. A lottery
was substituted for the usual race.
The enormous number of people who
are there trying to get land and the
suffering they have endured has at
tracted attention all over the country.
The Chicago American comments upon
it as follows:
In Oklahoma a drama is progressing
that has in it too much of the ridicul
ous to be wholly tragic; too much of
the tragic to be entirely farcical.
It is the regular periodical spolia
tion of the Indian of his lands, and the
subsequent distribution of them among
settlers in the order of their unfitness
for building up a new commonwealth.
We do this every two or three years.
Some tribe of Indians is coaxed, ca
joled or coerced into surrendering its
reservation, and, while the plaints of
the despoiled redmen fall on deaf ears,
the administration, whatever Its poll
tics, announces very impressively that
It has added a new empire to the pub
lic domain and that land will be dis
tributed to bona fide settlers on some
specified date. ,
Among a certain sort of people in
this country there is " a comfortable
theory that there Is and always will
be inAso wide a domain land enough
for all. The periodical opening of Ind
ian reservations gives the lie to this
opinion. . ' "
Land hunger never had such pictur- ,
esque manifestations. Long before '
the day of opening men gather along
the border line, many .accompanied by
their families. In the case of the re
servations of the Kiowas, Comanches
and Wichitas, now about to be opened,
it is reported that more than 50,000
"boomers' are on the lines.
The "boomer" is npt the most docile
of citizens, he is not always that bona
fide settler whom the government pro
fesses to encourage, but rather seeks
land at government prices to sell at
an advance. But he is wholly admir
able in comparison : to the "sooner,"
who precedes him and who is the out
come of the same conditions. It is the
honest industry of the "sooner" to
sneak intp the reservation ahead of
the legal day, pre-empt the choicest
lots, defend them with murder If nec
essary and enter them by fraud.
Several thousand of icese seekers
for government bounty are now on the
ground. Out of the Irresistible con
flict between "boomer" and "sooner"
and out of the whole stupid govern
ment system come turbulence, outlaw
ry, crime and as perfectly unsatisfac
tory a distribution of lands and selec
tion of settlers as could be devised.
Even our government, which usual
ly prefers to do an -old thing wrong
rather than a new one right, has seen
the folly, of it and is going to try
something new but the wrong thing.
It Is going to dispose of these coveted
lands by a species of lottery. Every
man on the ground In season will be
given a ticket numbered in accordance
with a plan of numbering homestead
acres In the district. On a certain
date the department of the interior
will hold a lottery drawing and each
man will learn whether he has drawn
a fertile, level homestead, a swamp or
an arid barren. This, it will be seen,
abolishes the immorality of settling
the matter by a general horse race and
the turbulence and disorder attaching
to the methods heretofore in vogue.
However much this "reform" may
improve the morals of the distribut
ing process, it does not tend to secure
any better class of settlers, nor does
It prevent the successful ones from
selling out their claims to some land
monopolist and moving on to the next
"opening.',' .
New Zealand is continually coming
into -possession of desirable pieces of
land to be distributed among the peo
ple. Over there the nation doesn't
steal its land from-an Indian tribe,
but buys it under condemnation from
some . millionaire holder who seems
to be holding too much. This land Is
offered to tenants on 999 year leases.
The valuations are made low and the
rents are fixed at 5 per cent. The
prospective tenant must satisfy the
authorities that he has the qualifica
tions necessary for success. As he
has to pay nothing down for the farm,
all the money he has may go to Its Im
provement. He may sell his leass if he
will, but the purchaser must pass the
same tests as he, and at all time3 he
must faithfully comply with the re
quirements of his lease. i
Thus land monopoly Is -being de
stroyed in New Zealand. The system
has been tested in two 'general elec
tions and warmly approved by the
people. Meanwhile we have dissipated
our public domain among railroad cor
porations,' speculators, boomers, soon
ers and common thieves of all sorts
from eminent politicians to Michigan
millionaires. Perhaps it is not too
late to read a lesson from over seas.
i
The other day, so the New York pa
pers say, some distinguished gentle
man called on Russell Sage and asked
him to make a contribution to a local
charity. Mr'; Sage replied that if the
gentleman knew what financial straits
he was in that they would not ask
him to contribute.' "Why," said Mr.
Sage, "I -have $700,000 lying in the
Chemical bank not drawing a cent of
interest, and which it Is impossible
for me to safely Invest under the pres
ent circumstances." There are two
morals to that tale which are o ob
vious that they need not be pointed
out. .
r?
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