V.
IT
ll
Hi IU
Wit . MfiM liM
r
J 1 1 r II III. Ill 1 1 II II II II I III
VOL. XIII.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, JANUARY 16, 1902.
NO. 35.
SHIP SUBSIDY STEAL
Germany Investigates American Ship
Yards Ship Can be lluilt Here
Cheaper Than Anywhere EIe
I " utenant Tjard Schwartz has -t-turtfed
to Germany from his official
visit to the American ship yards and
made his report to the German gov
ernment. He is the naval constructor
sent to the United States by the im
perial marine staff. He says that
American shipbuilders are "striving
with all the means at their command
to put their industry in a position to
compete successfully with the lons
established English builders, on the
one hand, and with the younger -but
rapidly developing shipbuilders of
Germany."
Lieutenant Schwartz declares that
material for the construction of steel
ships is cheaper in the United States
than in any other country. He says
American workmen are the best in th
world and earn wages 30 to 50 per cent
higher than those paid in Great Brit
ain, and 100 per cent higher than the
wages paid on the continent, and says
that wage bills in the United States
are counterbalanced by economical
processes Of machinery which are n jt
tound in European yards.
Herr Schwartz reports that, not
withstanding the wages paid, freight
ers are being built on the great laks
as cheaply as tramp steamers are
built in Groat Britain.
He says that the most striking dif
ference between German and American
shipyards is found in the use of pneu
matic boring, hammering and rivet
ing machines and pneumatic cranes
in the United States.
The investigator saw seventy-five
pneumatic machines working at once
in the yards of an American ship
building company in Chicago, al
though only two ships were on the
stocks. He says that British ship
builders are arranging to obtain these
pneumatic machines from the Unit d
States.
Herr Schwartz reports that the new
consolidation of shipbuilding com
panies in thr United States is the
largest and richest shipbuilding con
cern in the world, and he says that it
will devote its resources to economic
shipbuilding, to reducing the present
method of obtaining material to uni
f...mity. and to the centralization of
ship construction and its management.
The one thing complained of in the
United States, he says, is the fluctua
tion in the prices of material, whicn
makes competition with foreign ship
.builders difficult. , Lieutenant Schwartz
says in this connection that withia
four months the prices of shipbuilding
materials in the United States have
fluctuated 200 per cent from a lack of
stability of the market, and that this
is the principal reason why some
American shipbuilders are combining
with the steel producers.
WHAT IS IT
A Republic, an Empire' op a Deapetitm?
All Sorts of Government Under the
American Tlag
Under one form there actually ex
ist today many kinds of United States
governments, differing from each other
essentially, widely, radically, as to
the measure of freedom, justice and
equal rights which the people living
under them enjoy. These different
kinds of government may be concisely
enumerated as follows:
1. In the northern states govern
ment is based broadly upon universal
suffrage, except that Massachusetts,
Cannecticut, Nevada and Wyoming
exclude from the suffrage all men
who cannot both read and write, while
Pennsylvania and Minnesota require
the prepayment of a poll tax by every
voter.
2. In the southern states govern
ment is based on the principle of
'"white supremacy," and such educa
tional and tax-paying qualifications
for voters are prescribed as in prac
tice totally disfranchise the black
race. There are nearly 10,000,003
black people living within the con
tinental limits of our union and not
one black member of congress.
3. In Cuba we areat the mome .t
maintaining a military government,
levying taxes on the people and
spending the revenues therefrom by
decrees of our military governor:
levying duties on Cuban imports "jy
the same authority, collecting at tho
same time tariff duties on Cuban ex
ports to this country under act3 -of
congress in which Cuba has no repre
sentation. SHORTLY. HOWEVER,
CUBA WILL BE LEFT ENTIRELY
FREE TO GOVERN HERSELF, EX
CEPT THAT SHE WILL NOT BE
ABLE TO MAKE TREATIES, CON
TRACT DEBTS OR DEAL WITH
HER OWN DOMESTIC DISORDERS.
IF SHE HAS ANY, WITHOUT THE
CONSENT, APPROVAL AND POSSI
BLE MILITARY INTERFERENCE
OF THE UNITED STATES.
4. In the Philippines we are carry
ing on a so-called "civil government"
based on military authority pure and
simple the president's war powers
and maintained only by an army of
43,000 men, who were engaged in ovr
1,000 actions against "insurgent" na
tives in the year that ended with
June, 1900. Our governor-general's
rule there is as absolute as that of
the governor-general of a Russian
province. There is no trial by jury
in the Philippines, and we are depriv
ing men of their lives and liberties
out there by the summary process cf
courts-martial.
5. In Porto Rico we have a terri
torial form of representative govern
ment, with a native" legislature, none
cf whose acts can become laws with
out the consent of the executive coun
cil of eleven members, six of whom
are American born and five natives,
and 'all of whom hold their offices by
presidential appointment.
6. In Hawaii we have another ter
ritorial form of government with a
native legislature. But the governor
is appointed by the president and is
the representative of the American
born residents who brought about t
annexation of the islands and who
number only 4,000 in a total population
of 154,000. And the governor's veto
power effectively stops all legislation
by and for the native people of tlis
islands, who lack just one vote of the
two-thirds majority in the senate
necessary to override a veto. .
7. In Guam. Tutulla and Manua we
have government by naval command
ers sent out there by the navy depart
ment. They levy taxes and make and
change laws for the natives about
13,000 of them by the simple process
of issuing "general orders." And that
is simple absolutism, benevolent it
may be, but still absolutism.
In fine, alike in our "insular posses
sions" and within the borders of our
own union, in many states of the
south and in some of the north, we
are denying equality of rights to men
on grounds of difference in race, color,
education or means. Ten millions of
black people living in the United
States are denied representation really
because they are black, and only osten
sibly because they cannot read or
write, or do both, or pay taxes. Some
millions of white people exactly how
many cannot be stated are also de
nied representation by similar require
ments as to qualification, many of
them in states that are not southern
and have no "race problem." Ten
millions of brown people living in the
Philippines are not only 'denied
equality of rights, but are treated at
once as aliens and "subjects," wholly
outside all the great guarantees of the
constitution except such as are prim
ary and "go to the very root of the
power. .-of - congress to; act at all, - irre
spective of time and place" such as
the prohibition of torture.
What then has become of those
heretofore fundamental axioms and
maxims of American government
"Taxation without representation 3
tyranny," "Governments derive tber
just powers from the consent of tho
governed," and Lincoln's immortal
paraphrase of Jefferson's immortal
sentence, "No man is good enough to
rule another man without that other
man's consent?" In the evolutionary
and revolutionary processes of growth
at home and expansion beyond the
seas these landmarks of American lib
erty seem, temporarily at least, to have
disappeared. JOHN S. DE HART.
Jersey City, N. J.
THE GREAT BIG "I AM IT"
1
One year's subscription to
The Commoner, edited and
published by Hon. W. J.
Brvan, and three months' ?ub
scription to The Independent,
the leading people's party
paper in the United States,
both for $1.00. Send yojii;
Soma Pertinent Fact Called to the Atten
tion of a Senatorial Boaster
Washington, D. C, Jan. 12. (Spe
cial Correspondence.) At a recent,
swell dinner given t in this city a
United States senator was painting the
splendors of American institutions
with a somewhat lavish hand. At his
side sat one of the most distinguished
diplomats who represent foreign coun
tries at our national capital. Thi
diplomat "stood for it" with com
mendable patience for a time, but
finally took up the conversational
challenge with a number of very perti
nent remarks.
"You are a great nation," said he,
"but you have disappointed the worhl
in many respects. All other countries
freed their slaves without serious
strife; Russia manumitted twenty
million serfs by an imperial decree,
and then took steps to see that they
all were secured in possession of their
land. Yet the United States nearly
destroyed itself with civil war over
the slavery question. You have
sneered at other governments for
their heavy military burdens, though
the standing armies abroad have been
immense national schools to change
bent backed peasants into upstanding,
intelligent freemen. At the same time
you have saddled yourselves with mx
much greater burden in a huge pension
list which has not begun to shrink,
though the war on which it is based
was over forty years ago. You have
the only government which has lost
three rulers in less than forty years
by assassination. You are the only
nation whose highest court has for
twenty years been undermining the
fundamental charter of the govern
ment by vacillating, conflicting and
divergent opinions. Commercially, in
dustrially, and intellectually you are
magnificent; governmentally you
retrograde." R. S. RISELEY.
Can't Part With It I
Editor Independent: I had thought
of stopping my paper for a while, but
can't quite make up my mind to do it,
as your paper stands so boldly for
right. ..that, I .can hardly part withr
for oheyear even. "Therefore plei.
aT flft.f i J'cIi-itT
03
UTED AND PUBLISHED BY THAT MATCHLESS LEADER, M
W ILL I A M J . B R Y A N
THE ABOVE PAPER Q EAF TOQETHER WITH
The leading Peoples Party Paper in the United States,
Three Months 0f;fy
The above offer i-? open alike to OLD and NEW subscribers. We have de
cided to give to the readers of The Independent the advantage of all the commis
sion allowed us by Hon. W. J. Bryan for NEW subscriptions and RENEWALS to
his paper, " The Commoner," for the current year. Send in your order today and
do not miss a single issue.
SI Pays for Tti3 Commoner One Ysir and The Independent .3 ' Months
if your neighbor take3 The Commoner and does not take The Independent call his
attention to this opportunity to get The Independent for three months free.
PRESENT READERS
of The Independent who wish to subscribe foB The Commoner, or who wish, to
RENEW your subscription to The Commoner, should SEND $1.00 DIRECT TO
"THE INDEPENDENT, LINCOLN, NEB.," and we will have The Commoner
sent to your address for one year (or will have you j subscription to The Commoner
renewed for one year) and will also give your subscription account for The Inde
pendent credit for three months.
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
Send $1.00 to "THE INDEPENDENT, LINCOLN, NEB.," and we will send
The Commoner one year (or renew your ' subscription to The Commoner for one
year) and also send you The Independent three months. The regular subscrip
tion price of The Commoner is $1.00 per year. By taking advantage of this club
bing offer you will get
Iferes Mostfcs Safcscriptiaa to The Independent Absolutely Free
This is the most liberal offer made by any publisher. Call your
neighbor's attention to this opportunity and invite him to subscribe
Why not GET Ur A CLUB of 5 or 10 and in that way show your in
terest in the cause of the people? Education is the first essential. to the -..
success of the cause of reform. The weekly paper delivered regularly at
the home is the most effective means of education that can be found.
Why not take advantage of our liberal offer and help to increase the cir
culation and educational influence of the greatest reform papers in the
country? Why not do it today? You will find an order blank on this
page. Address all orders to
The Independent,
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have
been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago, we be
gan by declaring that all men are created equal; but, now, from that
beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men
to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government." These prin
ciples cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mam
mon; and whoever hclds to the one must despise the other. From
Abraham Lincoln's Speech, Peoria, 111., Oct. 16, 1854.
In those days our Declaration of Independence was held sacred
by all, and thought to include all; but now to aid in making the bond
age universal and eternal it is assailed and sneered at and
construed and hawked at and torn, till, if its framers could rise from
their graves, they could not at all recognize it. Abraham Lincoln s
Speech at Springfield, 111., June 26, 1857.
Are you going to do your part fo preserve the Republic?
PHILIPPINE CARPET BAGGERS
A Conquered Nation, Taxed Unmercifnlly
find Without Representation
Pay the Bill
Washington, D. C, Jan. 9, 1902.
(Special Correspondence.) The civil
ian salary list under our government
in the Philippine islands reveals au
interesting if not disgusting state of
affairs. It is an exposure fit to make
any sensitive American blush for
shame. These salary lists carry 4.60G
names. Of that number of office
holders, 2,044, or nearly 45 per cent,
are Americans, and 2,562, or slightly
more than 55 per cent, are Filipinos.
The annual salaries of these 4,606 office-holders
amount to $3,086,989, a
mild average of $670. But of this
amount the Filipinos get but $806,945,
or about 26 per cent, while the Amer
icans get $2,280,044, or about 74 per
cent. It appears, therefore, that only
26 per cent of the salaries go to 55 per
cent of the officials, while 74 per cent
of the salaries go to 45 per cent of the
officials. Our carpetbaggers are, of
course, getting the best end of it.
Governor Taft receives $20,000 a year,
double the salary paid the governors
of any of our states and four or five
times as much as the most of them
receive. Four American commission
ers receive $15,000 apiece, or threa
times the salary of our members of
congress. Other salaries, drawn al
most exclusively by Americans, vary
from $5,000 to $7,500 a year. As these
salaries are paid by the Philippine
people, the circumstances are not al
together unlike those of which our
own people complained in 1776, when.
In the Declaration of Independence,
they charged George III. with having
"erected a multitude of new offices and
sent hither swarms of officers to harass
substance,"
pnnvof
ouif peopIr nd eat out our sut
the state department, is fading out
and but few of the heavier lines of
the ink manuscript remain of that im
mortal document. But even the cor
roding hand of time has no more com
pletely blotted out the original work
of the revolutionary fathers' than .the
practice of their principles has dis
appeared from the policies of the re
publican party. The American super
intendent of schools in the Philip
pines has ordered- that the birthday of
Jose Rizal, the Filipino patriot who
was executed by the Spaniards, be ob
served by the school children. The
order of the superintendent is com
mendable in teaching the rising gen
eration to revere the memory of those
who make great sacrifices in defense
of a great principle, but it will .likely
inspire in the children contempt for
a nation whose practice toward their
fathers is. so inharmonious with the
precepts taught them.
H. W. RISLEY.
WANDERED FAR AWAY
Compare the Republican Interpretation
of the Declaration of Independence
With What Lincoln Said -
Many persons honestly believe that
because the men who are now in con
trol of this government call themselves
republicans that they are pursuing the
same governmental policies to which
Lincoln devoted his life. But the fact
is that every fundamental doctrine
that Lincoln preached has been re
pudiated by them, and an effort Is
made by. the assistance of the supreme
court to make the declaration, as Lin
coln said, "a mere wreck, a mangled
ruin." How far away from the doc
trines upon which the republican party
was founded these modern statesmen
have wandered may be gathered from
an extract from v the speech that . he
made upon this subject at Beardstown,
old Independence hall said to the
whole race of men: 'We told these
truths to be self-evident: That all
men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.' This was their MAJESTIC
INTERPRETATION OF THE ECON
OMY OF THE UNIVERSE. This w-.s
THEIR LOFTY, AND WISE, AND
NOBLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE
JUSTICE OF THE CREATOR TO HIS
CREATURES. Yes, gentlemen, TO
ALL HIS CREATURES, TO THE
WHOLE GREAT FAMILY OF MEN.
In their enlightened belief NOTHING
STAMPED WITH THE DIVINE
IMAGE AND LIKENESS WAS SENT
INTO THE WORLD TO BE TROD
DEN ON AND DEGRADED AND
IMBRUTED BY ITS FELLOWS. They
grasped not only the whole race d
man then living, but THEY
REACHED FORWARD AND SEIZED
UPON THE FARTHEST POSTERITY.
They erected A BEACON TO GUIDE
THEIR CHILDREN AND THEIR
CHILDREN'S CHILDREN AND THE
COUNTLESS MYRIADS WHO
SHOULD INHABIT THE EARTH !N
OTHER AGES. Wise statesmen as
they were, they knew the tendency of
prosperity to breed tyrants, and so
they established these great self-evident
'truths, that WHEN, IN THE
DISTANT FUTURE, SOME MAN,
SOME FACTION, SOME INTEREST,
SHOULD SET. UP' THE DOCTRINE
THAT NONE BUT RICH MEN. NONE
BUT WHITE MEN, OR NONE BUT
ANGLO-SAXON WHITE MEN WERE
ENTITLED TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS,
THEIR POSTERITY MIGHT LOOK
UP AGAIN TO THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE AND TAKE
COURAGE TO RENEW THE BAT
TLE WHICH THEIR FATHERS
BEGAN, so that truth and
justice and mercy and all the humane
and Christian virtues might not i)e
extinguished from the land; so that
NO MAN WOULD HEREAFTER
DARE TO LIMIT AND CIRCUM
SCRIBE THE GREAT PRINCIPLES
ON WHICH THE TEMPLE OF LIB
ERTY WAS BEING. BUILT.
"Now, my countrymen, IF YOU
HAVE BEEN TAUGHT DOCTRINES
CONFLICTING WITH THE GREAT
LANDMARKS OF THE DECLARA
TION OF INDEPENDENCE; IF
YOU HAVE LISTENED TO SUG
GESTIONS WHICH WTOULD TAKE
AWAY FROM ITS GRANDEUR AND
MUTILATE THE FAIR SYMMETRY
OF- ITS PROPORTIONS; IF - YOU
HAVE BEEN INCLINED TO BE
LIEVE THAT ALL MEN ARE vNOT
CREATED EQUAL IN THOSE IN
ALIENABLE RIGHTS ENUMER
ATED BY OUR CHART OF LIBERTY,
LET ME ENTREAT YOU TO COME
BACK. RETURN TO THE FOUN
TAIN WHOSE WATERS SPRING
CLOSE BY THE BLOOD OF'THfi
REVOLUTION. Think nothing of
me; take no thought for the political
fate of any man whomsoever, but
COME BACK TO THE TRUTHS
THAT ARE IN THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE. You may lo
anything with me you choose, if you
will but HEED THESE SACRED
PRINCIPLES. You may not only de
feat me for the senate, but you may
take me and put me to death. While
pretending no indifference to earthly
honors, I do claim to be actuated n
this contest by something higher than
an anxiety for office. ' I charge you to
drop every paltry and insignificant
thought for any man's success. It is
nothing; I am nothing; Judge Doug
las is nothing. BUT DO NOT DE
STROY THAT IMMORTAL EM
BLEM OF HUMANITY THE DEC
LARATION OF AMERICAN INDE
PENDENCE!" The Independent continues "to look
up again to the declaration of inde
pendence and takes courage to -renew
the battle which the fathers began."
although the party for which its edi
tor cast his first vote is governing
8,000,000 of people by a military des
potism and he sees the leaders of that
party wandering back to the doctrines
of George III.
A QUEER ADMINISTRATION
Authority to Plunder the Philippine
Islands to be" Rushed Through Sena
tors It e fine to go to the White
House
Washington, ' D. C, Jan. 11.
Isthmian legislation will be the most
Interesting thing before congress for
some time to come.
The house passed the measure fa
voring the Nicaragua route and the
real fight will come in the senate.
The Panama people are in earnest,
and as the price is now put at a rea
sonable figure there are iaany sena
tors who favor the Panama route.
It has certain advantages and it Is
a bit suspicious that the house repub
licans were in such a rush to push
through the Nicaraguan bill.
They were not at all willing to give
President Roosevelt authority to de
cide the matter. The house does not
seem overburdened with confidence in
the new executive.
Senator Lodge has introduced a bill
which ostensibly provides a temporary
form of government for the "Philip
pines. - : ' "' " ' r
In reality it aims to give the fran
chise grabbers the chance which they
have been seeking since the 'islands
came into our possession.
Representative Cooper has a similar
bill in the house. In effect these meas
ures seek to confirm - all tentative
franchise negotiations and give free
scope to the mineral, prospectors and
lumber speculators and - land grabbers
' Th pre is considerable natural wealth
in the Philippines no one knpws how
pines since the last session was not
altogether for their health.
The promising land has been stake i
out and the republican majority in
tend to exploit the islands for all
they are worth.
The military authorities gravely
assure the public that at least 40,000
soldiers will be needed permanently in
the islands for their "moral effect"
in upholding the civil government. j
So now the schemes of imperialism
approach fruition. The islands are to
be looted by speculators under gov
ernment protection. -.-
The result has been rather deferred
in the estimation of those who desireJ
to begin the work of plundering im
mediately after the signing of the
treaty, but in another year it will be
fully under wray and the Filipinos will
discover how thorough and up-to-date
are the modern methods of the enter
prising American as compared with
the manana tactics of the Spanish.
The state of Minnesota" seems in
earnest in its war upon the western
railway trust.
Attorney General Douglass of Min
nesota came to Washington 'a few
days ago and filed a bill cf complaint
against the new corporation with the
supreme court. This action has inter
ested the whole country. It is evident
that the state of Minnesota is alive
to the danger of being owned by a
railway trust and proposes to sounS
the alarm generally. There is no
doubt but the consolidation of these
competing lines puts the territory
which, they control completely at the!ir
mercy. Meanwhile . there is not a
whisper of any congressional action to
disturb the easy security of the trusts.
The republican organs of the coun
try are doing much unnecessary wor
rying because the democrats in con
gress do not caucus every morning be
fore breakfast and announce a policy.
There is no earthly reason why the
democratic minority should begin to
build a national platform either this
year or next.
Its members are in harmony In
their opposition to the pernicious
measures that are being; pushed by
the republican majority.
The country will be the judge of the
work accomplished.
So far as the next congressional elec
tion is concerned, the democrats Jieed
only to keep the country informed of
the trend of affairs and each candidate
can make the fight better locally on
his record and that of his opponent.
Ex-Senator Chandler, in a jovial
mood, has been suggesting that the
president should be a trifle more ex
clusive and somewhat less democratic
in his methods.' Gp the surface s.
plea is that the present democratic
custom of seeing everybody overtaxes
the chief executive. That may be.tru.?,
but all that is necessary is to let
President Roosevelt alone. He gets
more brusque every day and at the
present rate will . soon have all the
solitude he wants because he will hate
offended everybody in reach.
Even at the public reception at the
White house the other evening Mir.
Roosevelt gave signs of sharing th-5
eccentricities of her gifted husband.
She kept both hands tightly clasped
about a huge bunch of orchids and
only offered to shake hands when the
whim seized her.
Sometimes the president would greet
a public personage with the greatest
cordiality and Mrs. Roosevelt would
pass the same person along the line
with the curtest sort of a nod. More
than one outstretched hand was ig
nored by the first lady of the land
and the chagrined expression of those
so treated was one of the notable in
cidents of the receptions. It is said
that several senators have been so
deeply offended that they have noti
fied President Roosevelt that when he
wants to consult them he can let them
know. They are not going to visit
the White house any more. Verily it
is a queer administration. D. P. B.
WHAT CONGRESS IS DOING
Common Sense
Editor Independent: Your favor of
December 28, 1901, received. I think
The Independent contains more com
mon sense than any paper. I ever,re2id.
I like it better than any paper that had
come to my office. I am expecting to
travel this winter or I would subscribe
for the paper now. I am one among
Lthe common people.
I hereby thanic you ro;r tne sampie
copies you sent me. J. F. W ATKINS.
Kilbridge, Tenn.
The Nicaragua Canal Hill Senate Ad
jeu'rns to Attend Wedding The
Hartley Pardon ia Washington
Washington, D. C.,, Jan. 11. (Spe
cial Correspondence.) Congress con
vened after its holiday recess on Mon
day and after, the reading of several
non-important incidentals, the senate
and house adjourned out of respect to
Hon. William Joyce Sewell, United
States senator from the state of New
Jersey, who died during the holidays.
On Tuesday morning congress reas
sembled, the house to consider the
Hepburn canal bill, which had been
made a special order before the holi
days. Greater opposition to the canal
bill developed than was anticipated at
the time it was favorably reported by
the committee. It was certainly ap
parent that the members or at least
quite a number of them, had taken
kindly to the report that the Panama
canal company was willing to sell its
interests to the United States for tho
sum of forty millions of dollars. Even
men who had been enthusiastic In sup
port of the bill before the close of tho
meeting before the holiday recess hesi
tated to go further until the matter
had been entirely sifted in fact till
the report of the Panama Canal com
pany had been made to the president
and transmitted by him to congress
they did not care to act. They felt
that the entire situation should Ixs
completely, considered before the na
tion, took one false step.
By previous arrangement the bill
was made a special order and it was
taken up immediately after the meet
ing of congress on Tuesday, with Rep
resentative Grosvenor of Ohio in tho
chair. The galleries were filled and
there was far more than the average
attendance of members, when Chair
man Hepburn, author of the measure,
took the floor for debate of the ques
tion. He was primed to meet the Pa
nama project, which he expected would
be thrust at him, and his expectations
were thoroughly realized. Represen
tative Morris (Minn.) brought It for
ward by giving notice of an amend
ment authorizing the president or a
majority of the . Isthmian canal com
mission, under certain stipulated con
ditions, to negotiate, for the purchase
of the Panama property and the com
pletion of the canal by that route.
But -Chairman Hepburn was not
primed In fact he seemed to be net
tled by the stand taken by his old
antagonist, Chairman Cannon of the
appropriations committee, who based
mis objection on the ground that the
United States had no right to build the
canal until it had secured the assent
of Costa Rica and Nicaragua by treaty.
He counselled delay for at least sixty
days.
But the bill passed the house late
on Thursday evening by a practically
unanimous vote. There being only two
dissenting Votes out of a total of 310
cast. Mr. Fletcher (rep.) of Minne
sota and Mr. Lassiter (dem.) of Vir
ginia were the only two dissenting
members to cast their votes.
The opposition to committing the
government to the Nicaraguan route
attempted to lodge the discretionary
power with the president to purchasa
and complete the Panama canal, if it
could be purchased for the sum of $40,
000,000. The test came on the first
vote, when the advocates of the alter
native route polled 102 votes against
170, and at each succeeding vote, thjy
diminished in strength until Chairman
Cannon was unable to get the "yea
and nays" on a motion to recommit.
All other amendments failed and the
bill passed the house exactly as It
came from the committee. None of
the votes cast were recorded until the
final vote upon Its passage. Two
years ago a similar bill passed tho
house by a vote cf 224 to 36.
The bill passed Thursday gives the
president the authority to secure from
the states of Nicaragua and Costa Ri
ca, if possible, in behalf of the United
States, control of such a portion of ter
ritory belonging to the said states as
may be desirable' and necessary on
which to excavate, construct and pro
tect a canal suitable to tho wants and
needs of modern commerce, and ap
propriates such a sum as may
necessary to secure the control of such
territory.
Section 2 authorizes the president
after securing the control of such ter
ritory to direct the secretary of war
USE THIS ORDER BLANK
The Independent, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Gentlemen: Enclosed Jind $. . , . .... .for which send "The
Commoner ' for on; year and The Independent for three
months to each of the following names and addrres; .
NiMEs" t raartoFrici: i txt.
. v , 1
; f r ' ' !'"''-- -
' . " , . ,, , '
. . .. ' : - - - I: .
1 .': ' :'.".""" j!
"1 . , r ; ; ;
-: ' - ' '''.'.'' ' " .'I. -.. '. ' '; '
" --""-I"'