The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902, August 15, 1901, Image 1
1 X iri V ft lie A WW VOL. XIIL LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, AUGUST T5, 1901. NO. 12. THE TARIFF CH TIM WLmmmmUMr Make mi Ar(nst ia Iefeae f (! Tie Treat It Ulk Ut ! 7kt -n be Xa4e Powitfr is the only leading re j at Jkaa ia the elate who Las had the coira? to me-t an opponent la pub lic dtte for the la&t ten years and the esly c-dltor mho ever undertakes to make a erious argununt la defense cf r put Loan principles and policies. For that the populism np-ct him. whatrter thy nay think of the force of hi arinznents or the policies which he defend. At the risk of a little mJori The Independent herewith prlct th who article, including the extract from this papr as follows: In lt". when William Jennings Bryan na hi first campaign for a at In conr, and again In 1S52, he boldly deiar-d that the duty on tin plate was one of the most iniquitous Tui li -ver perpetrated upon the cation. Oniah.4. Y- he did. &wd he never declared a traer thir.g in all his life. That tariff on tin, of nhka not an ounce is pro duct d ia the United States and prol atlf netr will be .was not to pro tect an ""isiant" industry," for no such indaary existed or exists today. It was eoid-Llooded robbery of the poor for the benefit of the rich. The fce is w bragging about the great tin industry that grew up under the S!eK!sey tariff. lto.e water ought to be athazs-d of himself. He knows that Izr the tia that was usd to salt a cine in the IJ'aek Hills was taken cut rot an o'iitcm has be a mined in the United States, The tariff on the ten plates is o great that it prohib its the importation of any of that sort c-f too-! ar.-i has ral-d the price of tin 2yj or 2.3 p-r rent- Tin is !o-lrt-i ir t'i this country and the plates are C;; p"i b re to th Ln-lit of the tin trutt and the tol.bery of every Am erltas fsjiiily. -p-ciaily tb families cf the poor. The rich don't use tin. bet th- poor do. A great long lift of hat are call-d "tinplate raills" don't aftr the situation or mak the robbery l . Th:s in from the Nebraska Indepen dent, th oracle of Nebraska populism. It is ty experience alone that all tL-or; a:ut be tested a th-ory that cannot taxd the t-t of experience fi.Ua to th .-oa&d. Up to he largest tinplate mills at ti-- acrid were at Hwauwa, in South 'Vt. an-i i-ry box of ticpUte im-p.-rt- i ;:-to the United States was nanufacture2 In the Swai-M-a mills. Yt not an ...: - of tin is mined in Wa'r. The tinplate industry has f.urih-l there bnau of the abund ance cf ajithra;;te real and Iron a! r.ft at th- very threshold of its mills. Th tin w:th which the V.'elsh-made t:r. :a.t r- roat-d Is mined in Corn wai it. i triws;-rrt. d ty boat to jf lii.w a. Tin plate is not oa. of solid tin. b;t 5 sscply sheet iroa plated with t:z. Th t:n imported to this country for maoufarturtag purj-o&e is free of dJt'T. tut the ifcKinley tarii? placed a heary d.y on tinplate and tiawares cf erery 1-mption. T a iTi 3kq, hn William Jea-2:r.-s lirjas p:antl ttrnelf on the f.iLr of t.. ho,-e in opposition to a tin"! t.-ri t;Ep!ate, there was not a r'.- t: ; factory in the country. TcIaj- f ha fc-ral hundrel tln plate mills which supply practically all th- t:tpla:e that is u&ed in the United Ti. .'!-' i-.-ii that the price of tln jiate ha i.- n . raised --'M to J0 per ci.t by the Mc Kin key tariff is oa a jar with- th-r rt.les statements tsatle ly the Nebraska organ 'f popul ism in daliLg with economic ques tiorrs. Instead ..f raising the price of tlsplale p-r c-nt the mills engaged in it masufacttire in this country have sol i it si'ghtly 1 low the price it I roi'ht lefore the enactment of the tariff. V.hi it ia true that the rich use lit t tstplafe fa the shape of dinner pa;Is. l::(i. ?i utensils and tableware, thr 4t tor tb bulk of all the tin pUr i:-r ,-5a.- f.-r4. The tinplate con t iiTi i Id ti.- rjrr.g of business tlork?, j nt;-.sT dweintps and the thou ax.1 oth-r p jr;M-s for which it is iii-ei t y the rich forma a much greater jwr-ntajc; than the Insignificant quan tity of ;tsare ued by the joor. Not only has the poor man not been robbe-i by the revolution wrought in he tinplate industry through the Me-ill::?-y tariff, but oa ti-e contrary he has bees sibtanti&iiy benefitted. NVarly workmen are now em ployed at r'oa In the American tin plate mills. In an industry that only a few years a:o was exclusively car-ri-1 cn fn Cireat Britain. The ad va.tae cf having an army of 25.000 ir- a employed in a pro table industry ia this country instead of draining the ccir.try of millions of dollars annual ly In paying for imported tinplate must m apparent to every rational person. e to whether the price of tin has brtj advanced since the trust was formed asd there never could have been tin trust but for the tariff which Mr. Ii'-ew2tr will cot deny The In-de-tijent Is willing to leave that qu.'tion to lis readers own experience, as eU as the other statement that while the price has risen the quality has deteriorated. To get an answer to tb-CTse jce-ticss one has only to ask any ho-itewlfe fa the land. The state ment that the rich use any appreciable scvistt f tin shows that Mr. Itosewa ter has cot 'paid much attention to Tin. rn archlterture. The rich do not P't tin roofa t a their modern man aist axi palaces. The enormous profits of the tin trust as shown by their own reports, came almost wholly from the poor. The tariff on tin plates and terne plates makes those unjust profits possible. Mr. Rosewater gives on instance in which be says the rich use tin the roofing of houses and then says "thousands of other purposes" with out specifying one. His assertion .aat the rich "pay for the bulk of all the tinplate manufactured" Is not sus tained by any proof. Mr. Rosewater should remember that the populists are like the man from Missouri, "they must be shown." They will take the assertions of no man as the truth un less they are sustained by proof. The cost of the transportation of the tin ore to this country is but a baga telle. The terne plates can be, and are made In this country cheaper than they are made in England. There is no ground for a high tariff on tin even accepting as true the usual re publican arguments for protection.' The imposition of such a tariff has re sulted in building up one of the most oppressive trusts in the United States. The result is that all of the poor of the United States are forced to pay tribute to a few, millionaires. Mr. Rosewater says that by this means "an army of 25,000 men are em ployed in a profitable industry in this country instead of draining the coun try of millions of dollars annually in paying for Imported tinplate." Look at that statement carefully. It does Include the fact that a few men are made millionaires by charging the poor exorbitant prices for a necessity. But is it good public policy to tax the millions of hard working people so that 25.000 of them may get employ ment at the expense of all the others? What right has the government to tax by tariff duties the farmers of Ne braska to furnish employment to a few thousand men down in the eastern states? Mr. Rosewater does not furnish any evidence that these 25,000 men whom he says are engaged in the tin indus try would be rendered idle and be come a public charge unless the farm ers of Nebraska and other states were made to find them employment by the paying of tariff taxes, but that is the logic of his remarks. Except during the time that the coinage of silver was stopped and the bank conspiracies were in active operation, the ' people of this country have generally been able to find employment without forc ing the farmers to support them by exorbitant charges laid upon neces sities. The statement that there is an abundance of anthracite coal at the very threshold of the tin mills' in Wales Is what may be called "an as tonisher." When this writer was in England he was entertained by an Englishman on his country estate not very far from these Welsh tin mills in fact one could not get very far frcm them unless he went to sea and was shown as a great curiosity a hard coal stove. The gentleman said that he had shipped the stove and the an thracite coal both from New York. The truth about this whole business is that tinplate could be made in this country, with the same wages paid as now at a good round profit without any tariff at all. The only difference that would result would be a half dozen less multi-millionaires, and the tax on tin would stay in the pockets of the poor instead of being filched therefrom and transferred to the pockets of those who are already enormously rich. Glories in Savagery The British government first denied, then evaded and now frankly admits and even glories in the charge that it has armed the savage natives of South Africa and is using them in its war upon the Boers, just as It used the sav age redskins In Its war upon us a century and a quarter ago. Further more. Mr. Chamberlain has tele graphed Lord Kitchener that the Boers are violating "civilized usage" in summarily shooting any and all sav ages caught In tattle. For sheer "glory" the war Mr. Chamberlain and his coleagues are now carrying on in South. Africa sur passes -anything which even Britain has done In that line heretofore. - It must make British citizens peculiarly proud of their country as they see it marching "In the foremost files of time." burning homes, robbing non combatants, "concentrating" women and children to die of disease, and seeking to conquer their unconquera ble victims by exposing them to the hideous calamatles incident to using against them the "black beasts" of Zululand and Matabeleland. If such an enterprise does not pros- ! per, then indeed must Britain's queer "god of battles" have forgotten all she has done for him- New York World. THE GREAT SCIENCE If Ton Would o Something; to Relieve DUtreas. Eradicate Ignorance and Extirpate Vice Yon Must Study 1'olitical Economy The following is an extract from a lecture delivered by Henry George to some students some years ago. It is of as much interest now as then. This great man who spent his life to al leviate the suffering and uplift man kind, never uttered more forceful and truthful words than in this peroration to a lecture that was from beginning to end full of wisdom, love and peace. Such words must have a lasting effect upon mankind. It is bread cast upon the waters that will return after many days. Henry George is dead, but the good that he did still lives. Whether the particular reform that he advo cated would bring the relief that he thought it would, time alone can de monstrate, but that he did more to arouse thinking men to a study of fun damental questions than any other man who lived in the last century all must acknowledge. He put the world to thinking and study and out of that study and thinking will come forth the remedial measures that will be a bless ing to all mankind. His closing words were as follows: Gentlemen, if you but look, you will see the need! "Vou are of the favored few, for the fact that you are here. students in a university of this char acter, bespeaks for you the happy ac cidents that fall only to tiie lot of the few, and you cannot yet realize, as you may by and by realize, how the hard struggle which is the iot of so many may cramp and bind and distort how it may dull the noblest facul ties and chill the warmest impulses and grind out of men the joy and poetry of life; how it may turn into the lepers of society those who should be its adornment, and transmute, into vermin to prey upon it and into wild beasts to fly at its throat, the brain and muscle that should go to its en richment! These things may never yet have forced themselves on your attention; but, still, if you will think of it, you cannot fail to see enough want and wretchedness, even in our own country today, to move you to sadness and pity, to nerve you to high resolve; to arouse in you the sympathy that dares, and the indignation that burns to overthrow a wrong. And seeing these things would you fain do something to relieve distress, to eradicate ignorance, to extirpate vice? You must turn to political econ omy to know their causes, that you may lay the axe to the root of the-evil tree. Else all, your efforts will be in vain. Philanthropy, unguided by an intelligent apprehension of causes, may intensify, but it cannot curte. If charity could eradicate want, if preach ing could make men moral, if printing books and building schools could de stroy ignorance, none of these things would be known today. And there is the greater need that you make yourselves acquainted with the principles of political economy from the fact that, in the immediate future, questions which come within its province must assume a greater and greater importance. To act in telligently in the struggle in which you must take part for positively or negatively each of you must carry weight you must know something of this science. And this, I think, is clear to whoever considers the forces that are mustering that the struggle to come will be fiercer and more mo mentous than the struggles that are past. There ie a comfortable belief pre valent among us that we have at least struck the trade-winds of time, and by virtue of what we call progress all thse evils will cure themselves. Do not accept this doctrine without exam ination. The history of the past does not countenance it, the signs of the present do not warrant it. Gentlemen, look at the tendencies of our time, and if the earnest work of intelligent men be not needed. Look even here. Can the thought ful man view the development of our state with unmixed satisfaction? Do we not know that under the present conditions, just as that city over the bay grows in wealth and population, so will poverty deepen and vice in crease; that just as the liveried car riages become more plentiful, so- do the beggars; that just as the pleasant villas of wealth dot these slopes, so will rise up the noisome tenement house in the city slums. I have watched the growth of San Francisco with joy and pride and my imagina tion still dwells with delight upon the image of the great city of the future, the queen of all the vast Pacific per haps the greatest city of the world. Yet what is the gain? San Francisco of today, with her three hundred thousand people, is, for the classes who depend upon their labor, not so good a place as the San Francisco of sixty thousand i and when her three hun dred thousand rises to a million, San Francisco, if present - tendencies are unchanged, must present the same sickening sights which in the streets of New York shock the man from the open west. , This is the dark side of our, boasted progress, the Nemesis that seems to follow with untiring tread. Where wealth most abounds, there poverty is deepest; where luxury is most pro fuse, the gauntest want jostles it. In cities, which are the' storehouses of nations, starvation annually claims its victims. Where the costliest churches rear the tallest spires toward heaven, there is need of a standing army of policemen; as we build new schools, we build new prisons; where the heaviest contributions are . raised to send missionaries to preach the glad tidings of peace and good-will, there may be seen squalor and vice that would affright a heathen. I if mills where the giant power of steam drives machinery that' multiplies by hundreds and thousands . the productive forces of man, there are working little chil dren who ought to be 'at play or at school; where . the mechanism of ex change has been perfected to the ut most, there thousands' of men are vainly trying to exchange their labor for the necessaries ot life! Whence this dark shadow that thus attends that which we are used to call "material progress," that which our current philosophy teaches us to hope for and to work for? Here is the question of all questions for us. . We must answer. it or be destroyed, as preceding civilizations have been de stroyed. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link, and ourglorious sta tue with its head of gold and its shoulders of brass has yet but feet of clay! Political economy alone can give the answer. And. if you trace out, in the way I have tried to outline, the laws of the production and the exchange of wealth, you will see the causes of so cial weakness and disease in enact ments which selfishness has imposed on ignorance, and in maladjustments entirely within our own control. And you will see the remedies. Not in the wild dreams of red destruction nor weak projects for putting" men in leading strings to a brainless abstrac tion called the state, but in simple measures sanctioned by justice. You will see in light the great remedy, in freedom the great solvent. You will see that the true law of social life is the law of love, the law of liberty, the law of each for all and all for each; that the golden rule of morals is also the golden rule of the science of wealth; that the highest expressions of religious truth include . the widest generalizations of political economy. There will grow on you, as no mor alizing could teach, a deepening reali zation of the brotherhood of man; there will come to you a firmer con viction of the fatherhood of God. If you have ever thoughtlessly accepted the worse than atheistic theory that want and wretchedness and brutalizing toil are ordered by the Creator, or, re volting from this idea,' if you have ever felt that the only thing apparent In the ordering of the . world was a blind and merciless fate - careless of man's aspirations, these-thoughts will pass from you as you see how much of all that is bad and all that is per plexing in our social conditions grows simply from our ignorance o law as you come to realize how much bet ter and happier men might make the Iifetf man. , , CONNING ' TOWER BOB He Gets Reprimanded by the Secretary Of the Nary for Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and Gentleman There has been no more persistent enemy of Admiral Schley than Fight ing Bob Evans as the plutocratic pa pers dubbed him, although he was the only captain who took to the con ning tower during the fight with Cer vera. Now the navy department has acted upon the complaint made by Hon. William 1 E. Chandler against him. It has reprimanded the admiral and the following letter has been ad dressed to him: Hon. William ET Chandler, presi dent of the Spanish treaty claims com mission, lately a senator of the United States and formerly secretary of the navy, has complained to the depart ment, as you are aware, of certain strictures upon himself in your book entitled "A Sailor's Log." The stric tures in question are in the nature of aspersions upon the official conduct of the then (18S4) secretary of the navy. . The text of j-our book it is not nec essary here to recite. Nor is it need ful to ask of you an explanation' why you felt yourself justified in publish ing what you have. It is obvious to any reader that you speak offensively of Secretary Chandler's action; that you impugn his motives, and other wise traduce him in respect to orders given you by the secretary in the dis charge of the duties of his office. You are informed that this deliber ate publication of yours has justly in curred the displeasure of the depart ment. For an officer thus to attack a former head of the navy department because of orders given to him by that official is a failure to observe the cour tesy that should always characterize an officer of the navy. If tolerated it would unquestionably prove subversive of discipline. It would tend to bring the office itself into disrepute. The act is the more reprehensible, in this in stance, because of your long exper ience in the service. It has become my duty, therefore, to censure you for this breach of the obli gation Imposed upon you as a commis sioned officer of the navy of the United States, which I accordingly do. A copy of this letter will be fur nished to the Hon. William E. Chand ler. . Very respectfully, F. W. HACKETT, . Acting Secretary. ! Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, U. S. N., Washington, D. C. MILLION DOLLAR THIEF The Exact I-oaa to the State by Hartley's Thefta and Bank Defalcation ' ia About a Million The Independent has several times given the items of Bartley's stealings during the last three or four years. That the people may have it in such form that the republicans will not be in a mood to make a denial, the fol lowing statement is therefore copied from the Omaha Bee of August 8: The extent cf the loss to the state by Bartley's defalcation and the short age in the state treasury by reason of insolvent bank depositories was em bodied In the report of Expert Ac countant Helbig and approved by the investigating committee on Novem ber 10, 1897. - Computed with interest up to that date tne defalcation was summed up as follows: , Am't of sinking fund check wrongfuly converted to Bartley's private account, together with interest $201,8S4 05 Amount of trust funds con verted to his own use and not turned over to his suc cessor 335,S87 08 Excess of deposits in state depositories over the amount authorized bylaw 17,81V 4S Interest on funds wrong fully held from deposit witn depository bonds when approved and oh file 11.2S7 21 Total defalcation, with in terest ...r $569,86182 In addition to this the loss of the state in depositories during Bartley's adminis tration by the failure of depository banks 271,522 08 Interest on funds tied up in suspended banks from the date of their suspension to the close of Bartley's ad ministration 28.S23 30 Aggregate loss to state. . 4S70.207 20 Bartley's biennial reports show that the sinking and -relief funds were in deposi tory banks, but the book accounts showed that much of the time be tween the reports these , funds were not on deposit. The iifference between the interest accrued and the interest received from the state depositories is.. 14,287 20 Computing Interest on the total defalcation of S569. 861.82, which is justly chargeable to Bartley and the sureties on his bonds, up to the first day of Aug., 1901, we have about $5,500 00 Or a total , of ($569,861.82 Trade Follows Drummer It is announced by the United States treasury bureau of statistics that Ja panese imports from this country have increased from a value of 6,000,000 yen in 1893 to a value of 60,000,000 yen during 1900. To secure this commer cial exploitation the United States has not found It necessary to take forcible possession of Japan and kill 50,000 of its people. Trade is not there waiting for a flag to follow. It follows the drummer. Sioux Falls Press. and $85,500) $665,36182 Including the loss incurred by the failure of they iate -depositories, for Aich Bartley cannot be held re sponsible, the actuaFloss to the state at 4 per cent interest up to the first day of August," 1901, will ag gregate : $965,000 00 V first little home and saves the rent, and accumulates a little at a time, until some investment comes along and gives the industrious man a chance to better himself. Many great fortunes have begun with a very small nucleus, but opportunities of that na ture are decreasing., The wolf is never very far from the door of the working man. Contrast the chances of the em ployer and employes in the following trades from this table, compiled by Dr. Thomas of Washington: In every $100 worth" of hardware, $24.17 goes for labor. In every $100 worth of furniture, $23.77 goes for labor. In every $100 worth of boots and shoes you buy, $20.71 goes for labor. In every $100 worth of men's fur nishing goods, $18.24 goes for labor. In every $100 worth of clothing, $17.42 goes for labor. In every $100 worth of cotton goods, $16.91 goes for labor. In every' $100 worth of worsted goods, $13.55 goes for labor. Add the cost of raw material, ship ping, etc., and the balance is still im mensely out of proportion. When the Herald says "We. are becoming wealthy," the "we" refers to the 4,000 gentlemen alluded to, not to the 75, 000,000 who are controlled by the all powreful "we." Denver News. A CRISIS COMING THE FIRST BILLIONAIRE It ia John I. Rockefeller aid a Million Men Muat Toil Ceaaeleaaiy to Create the Income That lie Receives The biggest item of news printed in any newspaper recently is the state ment that the fortune of John D. Rock efeller is close to the billion mark; so close that he can easily be called a billionaire. It is a dangerous total. Expressed In figures it means only great wealth. The human mind can not comprehend a billion dollars, a billion people or a billion anything. But, expressed in power, it means everything. It is the labor of a mil lion men, for a year. It is the abso lute control of opportunity in certain lines of business, and it is a concen tration of wealth that is a menace to mankind. Wealth is a good thing. Fortune and the comforts, the opportunities to do good, that go with it are desirable. Existence without ambition and the desire . to rise and prosper would be miserable. But the billion-dollar fortune isn't all a matter of superior intelligence and big brains and ability. I It is a combination of favoritism and downright dishonesty that would make a highwayman blush. The live-and-let-Iive plan has been perverted. The whole Rockefeller idea has been and is live and grow rich at the ex nense of the other fellow. Put him jout of business. Buy him out! Crush SINGING FLAT The Republican Band Masters Havel-oat Their Nerve and are not ao Certain About Prosperity There seems to be a certain uneasy feeling in some quarters that the Mc Kmley prosperity of the present, which has come from the golden Klondike and our own mines, should be regarded with chastened joy. It is as if it was too good to be true, and rather puzzling at the same time. The prosperity proclaimers feel that there is somebody singing fiat in their chor us. They have not located the sound, but it is there, and its discord, faint and muffled though it may be, is so 1 insistent that it cannot be utterly dis regarded. Not long since the New York Herald devoted considerable space to the 3. 828 millionaires of the United States, and in doing so became impressed with the power of these gentlemen: "One two-hundredth part cf one per cent of the population of the United states, or one person out of every 20,000," says the Herald, "controls about one-fifth of the nation's wealth; that is, 3.S2S millionaires out of a population little in excess of 76,000.000 own $16,000,000,000 of the $81,750,000. 000 at which our entire property is fairly valued, tn the first quarter of the century just closed there were not more than half a dozen millionaires in the land, and two only John Jacob Astor, in New York, and Stephen Gir ard, in Philadelphia had sufiicient wealth to make them particularly con spicuous. Now we are nearly the 4,000 mark." There is a certain subdued tone about this that is refreshing. The Herald actually seems to admit that millionaires at one end of the line im ply paupers at the other; that, given so much money in the world, the more some people have the less others must expect. If A and B start out In a game with $10 between them, and A has $20 in his pocket at the end, B is likely to go supperless. The question arises, is this prosperity? There is more money in circulation than there was a few years ago, but labor's chances for getting hold of it have rot increased with anything like the rapidity of the opportunities of capital J. D. Rockefeller Is probably the - li st billionaire the earth has ever seen, but he has wrecked a good many other men in the billionaireing pro cess. Such men make or lose, by a single fluctuation in stocks, more than most men can earn In a lifetime of un remitting toil. Money makes money; it buys the hhim out. Take away his means of living. Honest methods never gave one man a billion. Somebody, a million some bodys have been robbed of their chances to make good livings for their wives and children. Businesses, big and little, have been wiped out. Men who were conducting their own es tablishments are clerks and depen '2nts. They fought well, but on the other side was unlimited greed, unlim ited .wealth, laws that either favored mon ties or were ridden down by the sfc e; . not one moral scruple, and a greaiachine that is being builded to run and coin millions long after John D. Rockefeller shall have been harvested by an opponent even he cannot defy. These things are worth the sober thought of every man that a remedy may come." The increasing destruc tion of the opportunity for individual effort is today the most serious prob lem that confronts the American peo ple. It must be solved some day. Cincinnati Post. The Silver Republicans The following resolutions were passed by the silver republican con vention that was held in Lincoln, Aug ust 7: While we steadfastly adhere to the principles fdr the maintenance of which the silver republican party was organized, and are proud of the record made by the candidates of our party; yet believing that those principles can, in the future, be best maintained by co-operation with the other organized reform forces, and deeming it unwise and inexpedient to longer continue our party organization in the state of Nebraska as such, therefore, be it Resolved, That the organization of the silver republican party in Ne braska be, and the same is hereby dis solved. -Resolved, further. That the several officers and members of our state, dis trict and county central committees preserve intact, any and all records of the silver republican party for future reference or use. . Lincoln,-Neb., Aug. 7, 1901. v Won't Phase Current rumor says that Mark Han- na will reintroduce his ship subsidy bill when congress resumes Its func tions. The purport of this measure Is a necessity for encouraging Ameri can ship building, the plea being that we cannot compete with foreign ship yards. Before Mr. Hanna secures an opportunity to spring his steal anew on congress several first-class ships will have been put afloat from Ameri can yards at a cost much below the construction price in any European yard. But these circumstances will not phaze Mark. He started in to re coup the steamship trust for campaign contributions and willTjursue the sub ject until he wins or is knocked down Sioux, Falls Press. A Little at a Time the Courts Continue hy Their Decision to Make Slaves of Working Men Decision after decision has been ren dered lately, one following hot on the -heels ot another, every on ot them directed at taking away the long established rights of American wage- workers. The daily press, being whol ly published In the interest of plutoc racy, refuses to make any note of tho matter or issue any protest concern ing it. One of these days there will bs an uprising against the courts that will shake the very foundations of gov ernment. One of the late decisions la discussed In the American Federation- ist by Victor Yarros, as follows: Two decisions recently rendered In the superior court of Chicago on "blacklist" cases have attracted na tional attention. Judge Baker wa3, so far as the writer knows, the first member of any American bench to uphold the legality of the operation known as blacklisting. The case was that of a girl who had been employed in a Chicago packing house, earning from $12 to $16 per week. She had been guilty of partici-, pating In a strike and had been dis- charged. Her skill and proficiency would eas ily have enabled her to find work in another packing house, but the var ious firms in this trade have agreed to maintain a blacklist and to refuse em ployment to anyone who had in any way whatever made himself or her self objectionable to any one of tho combined blacklisters. On her behalf it was contended that the blacklist agreement was an unlaw ful conspiracy to Injure; that there was malicious intent to Inflict injury by means of the agreement and that it actually did result in great and last ing injury to the plaintiff, by taking , from her the means of livelihood. But Judge Baker sustained the de fendant's demurrer to the complaint and held that the girl's right had not been infringed upon, and that the packing firm had not exceeded its le gal rights in blacklisting her and in inducing other firms to treat her ia, the same manner. 4 WThat one firm had the rieht to do i all firms might lawfully do, hence, J concluded Judge Baker, the concerted blacklist was as legal as would bo several independent and separate blacklists. As already pointed out, no argument accompanied this pronounce ment, " Judge Waterman, however, In a caso exactly like that decided by his col league, rendered an opinion only two or three weeks later In which the same legal conclusion was reached and in a . measure defended. NEW GOLD FIELDS - They are In South Africa and the British May Start After Them and Leave the Boers Alone Now that a new El Dorado has been discovered in Africa perhaps the British may allow themselves to bo more readily induced to cease the merciless persecution of the Boers, whose only offense has been the own ership of valuable gold and diamond mines, and to direct their depreda tions against the inhabitants of tho Gold Coast countries, upon the pre sumption that they would constitute an easier prey than the sturdy burgh ers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State:. :.. v:v;. ; The recently discovered gold mines are at Sakondi, or between that place and Presta, and Consul Smith sends from Monrovia glowing acounts of the mining activity along the British, Gold Coast since the suppression of the Ashantee raiders. Sekondi Is crowtka with prospectors, engineers and riiners of all kinds, who are flocking in great crowds by every steamer to tho gold country, A large number of A.merlcan prospectors, too, are traveling; up and down between Sekondi and Presta. The quartzlte rock, from which the placer gold is derived, has been found and has proven very rich. : Mining prospects are, without doubt, far brighter, as a general thing, than in the past along the Gold Coast. Sup plies are coming in at a rapid rate, while 'the recent railway construction and the building of piers, etc.; can only tend to aid in the development of the mines. Now that money is being lit erally poured into the country by great mining companies and numberless ex ploration syndicates, the confidence reposed in the Gold Coast territory as a great mining country will doubtless be justified. It is interesting to note, from Consul Smith's report, that although, hither to, Immigration to that region has been almost prohibited on account of the prevalence of deadly malaria, it Is hoped.that this unsanitary feature may. now be eliminated, or at least minim ized, by dealing with it through the recently-announced method of the practical extinction of the mosquito. In fact, the Gold Coast of Africa is at present one of the most interesting theatres of human endeavor, both from commercial and scientific view-points. Hardly The question that is puzzling some of the Indiana. Bryan men is, Would William Jennings Bryan advise the democrats of the country to vote for Kilbourne of Ohio for president were he nominated and groomed by the men who made the recent "democratic" platform in the Buckeye State? Our Standard (Ind.). , t f