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About The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1902)
.... - , ft , n VOL. XIV. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, JUNE 26, 1902. THE PANAMA ROUTE 8Bt Substitute Panama for Nicaragua in Order to Defeat thm Caaal Project The Aalatle Ckalara Coming Washington, D. C, June 23, 1902.--(Special Correspondence.) The canal bill has been defeated. The Spooncr bill, introduced by the senior senator from Wisconsin, has been passed as a substitute and soon the canal will i built. (So they say.) But this meas ure, being so radically different from that passed by the lower house, will be necessarily returned to them for consideration. At this late date then, there is little probability, if even a possibility, that the bill will be con sidered at this session. The republi cans can thu3 go out onto the hustings and proclaim that they have gotten the thing under way they can shout that they have commenced upon the work proclaimed In their platform at Philadelphia. But they know tcai with the enormous expenditure of money in the Philippines and in our other colonial' possessions, that thy dare not commence even a greater task In carrying out an American principle. The canal bill was under discussion In the senate for over two weeks ant', finally reached a vote on Thursday last. Political parties as usual are closely drawn and with but few breaks this was carried out in the vote. Senator Jones of Arkansas vote 1 with the majority in favor of giving the president the right to secure th Panama holdings, if possible, but fail ing in this, it orders him to secure tne Nicaraguan route. Quite a number of speeches were made. Senator Hanna closed the de bate for the Panama adherents and was followed by Senator Morgan of Alabama, whose life's work haS been to secure the digging of the canal. In fact, he has been of little use for anything else. He would prostitute his opinion on everything else, to get a vote for the canal, and while we may all agree that the canal is a good thing and a necessary thing, it in no way Justifies a Morgan to lie down on everything else. The final vote was 42 to 34 in favor of the Panama ad herents. This means that the president shall do all in hi6 power to secure the hold ings of the French company, who are only too willing to have a bad Job taken off their hands, and to -then con fer with the neighboring countries to secure whatever rights may be neces sary. Ecuador and several of the Cen tral American countries must give 'the necessary permission, before the canal can go through the Panama route. Tailing in the Panama routethe stren uous Teddy is ordered to have the ca nal dug through the Nicaraguan route. But as I said before, the house of rep resentatives passed the bill providing for the Nicaraguan route, an entirely different bill, and this grave difference of opinion must be smoothed over be fore anything definite can be said a to whether the .canal will be built The question now, as before, Is, "Will the canal be built?" The situation on the question of Cu ban reciprocity is still somewhat mixed. Seventeen republican senators whose names you published in the last issue of The Independent are still holding firm and demanding that the beet sugar interests be taken care of by the republican majority. Bshind all of their bolting can be seen the master hand of both the railroads and th ex sugar trust. When men of the calibre mental and moral of Dietrich take firm stands on any position someone with brains must be behind them driving them into the corral'. They are still holding out and after several caucuses both of the body of senate and of their own number are still firm. Among them is Elkins Df West Virginia, in whose state there is not a single sugar beet grown. Miss Rebecca J. Taylor has bobbed up again in both houses of congre3 and as I predicted in last issue that something would be doing when it was heard from again. In the senate, Ed vard W. Carmack of Tennessee mad a characteristic speech, full of elo quence and logic, demanding that tbero be an investigation of the civil service ' as it is conducted. He quoted from an interview with the strenuous Teddy construing a certain section of tha civil service regulations. The language seemed to Teddy to be a slight bit am biguous, but after Teddy got through with it, it was undoubtedly ambiguous and instead of saying what he intended to say, Just reversed the situation. He had undertaken to say that anyone who should act as had Miss Tayior should be dismissed for the good o? the service. But Instead of saying that, he declared that anyone who was guilty of such charges should be kept for the good of the service. Well, Carmack thought that under such cir cumstances the clerk should not - be fired for uttering her sentiments, but that she "should stay put." In the house, Mr. Shallenberger of Nebraska wa3 called upon by the committee on civil service to contend with tlie ad ministration. It was during the de bate on the urgent deficiency bill that '"he secured the time. This is now a vsrv busy time in congress and both par sties are eagerly seeking to get ma terial into the Record. Congressman Richardson of Tennessee, the demo cratic leader, had been speaking for . nearly two hours and had nearly ex hausted the democratic time. Nine members clamored for the remaining seven minutes, but again ability was recognized and Nebraska's representa tive was allowed the time. For that time he cut loose on the administra tion and poured clean cut argument than half concluded his speech, ths time had elapsed and Uncle Joe Can non, the republican floor leader, real izing the strength of the speech and the ability , of the young man,, arose and yielded him five minutes out of his personal time. This was greeted "Kith CCojitiattedgnPge, 2J Ftie 'Foundation "-of 'American Liberty THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE mXm iajihfcjitfii Miayihi liem w r the Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of IHmetka$ HEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the eatth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature which impel them to the separation. ' 'y'''-:-':JtK We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they, are endowed by their Creator with certain-un alienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the 'pursuit of Happiness. Tha stituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of he-governed; That,whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them- shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new guards for their future security. - . Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to altertheir former 3' Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all hav j ing in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny oyer these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid I world: He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public eood. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his Assent should be obtained: and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. v He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Rec ords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. ' , He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for the exercise, the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. ; . - . !; ' - He has endeavored to; prevent the population of ; these states, for that purpose obstructing the laws for the Naturalization, of For eigners,. refusing to pass others to encourage their , migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. " 'He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. ' " t v"H.hasimade judges Hpendenl 01 his Wil! alone ior the tenure'bf their offices and the amount m& payment? of their salahes. - f . He lias kept among us in time3 of peace, stainding Armies; without the Consent of our Legislatures. ' ; ;; -. ; :: He has affected to render the Military independent of, and superior to the Civil Power. - , . He has combined with others to subject ue to a jurisdiction foreign to onronstitution and unacknowledged by our laws, s giving his Assent- to their acts of pretended Legislation: - "Por quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of. these States:: '.'.'; . " . v For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: ' For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: . For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, altering fundamentally, the Form of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. '. He has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed .the. lives of our people. ' . He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death,' desolation and tyranny, al ready begun, with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the He&d of a civilized nation. . - He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the exe cutioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages, whosse known rules of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and" conditions. In every stage of these oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble , terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have -warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our sep aration, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends. ; We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America in Gene al Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude' of our intentions, do in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, sol emnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to ' be, totally .dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each. other our Lives, our. i? ortunes, and our sacred honor. ".: ' ':'" "XT J J IT. p. - The government as now administered has become in direct antagonism with the Declaration of Independence. So much so that it can no longer be read as a feature of a Fourth of July celebration, especially by republicans, except as an ancient document that in its time was appropriate but is now inapplicable to present conditions. The very acts committed by George III, which are in this document condemned, have been committed by our government, as directed by the republican party. The judges appointed in the Philippines have been appointed in the very manner condemned by the Declaration. A multitude of new officers with enormous salaries have been created. A large standing army of foreign troops have been kept among the people there. Taxes have been imposed upon them without their consent, they have been deprived of trial by jury, we have ravaged their seas and plun dered their coasts. Savage Macabeebes have been employed to slay the Christian inhabitants and, far worse than anything King George ever did, a general pf the army has issued or- NO. 6. SOCIALISM TRUSTS aers io siay ail xne mnaDitanis oi a wnoie province a Dove ten years oi age. In all the charges brought against Jim g Ueorge there are none that equal the acknowledged order of test against kings and monarchs. In the 126 th year after it was proclaimed the republican party sends a special ambassador to help "crown a descendant "of King George, against Vhoia the Poffn -T Trl ' i TTlft TnTl'f ?" "till BtfTr1 "hv fhft nlrl flffljiratinn TKiht Imlrl TTrmrtVi nf Tnlv nolotinna -rrr WVi -int ViTjT-inn-rio tr i Sir. IeHrt KTlewt the Rr. Chrl II. Tali's Book oa Soclllim-God Religion But ror Politic. Socialism is a religion as well as a politics. Rev. Charles 1L Vail of Jer sey City, N. J., has left his pulpit and gone to preaching socialism. He ha written a book of 230 pages, besides many pamphlets on the subject. He be lieves and teaches that labor should have the whole product of labor and capital, that capital ought to belong to Uncle Sam, that rent, interest and dividends ought to be abolished and that whatever is produced should bo divided among those who produce anl that nothing be given to those who do not work. This is very good religion: but is it good politics? Is it wise to be trying to get the whole product of labor and capital, when It is so hard to get a small part of rent, Interest and dividend by way of tax for the sup port of the federal government? That those who do the work of a nation should have the whole product is right theoretically, there can be no doubt; but how does it happen that those who do the work, do not own the land and the machinery of produc tion? At the beginning those who worked owned everything. Now those who do the work own very little; yet they pay all the rent, interest and dividends, while those who do not work receive all the rent, interest and dividends. Why is this? Because monopoly has been a work. It began with monopoly of land, then it extend ed to monopoly of tools and machinery of production. Mr. Vail points out this, but he does not mention any practical method of labor recovering its own. Socialists welcome the trust, not that it is good absolutely, but good relatively. Mr. Vail says: "The time was not ripe for socialism until the capitalist system had taken on its logi cal expression in the trust and syn dicate. Until this stage no political or social upheaval could accomplish more than to upset thrones and be head monarchs. Such a revolution would accomplish nothing." "Every Industry that has reached its trust stage of development is eminently rip for appropriation by the community. It is useless to say that an enterprise cannot be managed by society when it is being managed by a group of capi talists. The board of directors wiio as a rule do not own the capital iu-vestedr-can as .rtl&flry be made re sponsible to society as to the share holdeiw. The directors in charge at the time of transition could Be re tained if thought advisable, simply making them responsible to all tha people Instead of to the few favoreJ stockholders. Socialism, is thus soa to 'be , practical as well ' as Inevitable. The realization of this final stags of , Industrial development is nearer than many think." The methods of the socialists aro peaceful, namely, agitation and ap peal to the ballot box. In 1900 they polled 124,000 votes for president out of about 14.000,000 of voters. This does not indicate that their system Is popular. It shows either that the people do not comprehend the system or that they regard it as wrong. I be lieve that they do not know the mean ing of it. It is certainly beyond the comprehension of the ordinary man. Who, for instance, can see any prac ticable way by which the federal gov ernment can become the owner of all the private property in the United States? It is estimated to be worth a hundred billions, I e., a hundred thousand millions, which, at 4 per cent, would produce an annual Income for the government of four thousand millions. This i3 the amount that the private owners are now receiving an nually by way of rent, interest or divi dends. It is eight times as much as the government now receives annually by way of taxes. If the government had this amount, it could abolish th present system of taxation and still have thlrty-flve hundred millio an nually, to be divided among tho peo ple or to be used In public improve ments. But who can understand this problem? It Is too vast for the com prehension of the ordinary man. It is therefore useless to present It to the voters for adoption. One of the most pressing necessities of the time is that the federal govern -raent should own the railroads. They are public highways and they received their charters from the several states. The original intention was that these highways should belong to the staies at the end of a certain time. This U written In the old charters of the rail roads of New Jersey. It was sup posed that the stockholders would be able to reimburse themselves in fifty or a hundred years and that then the state would take the property and run the railroads for public accommoda tion, charging enough for freight anl passengers to pay the running ex penses. This has been lost sight of and nobody thinks of taking the rail roads for the states, and if the people should think of it, the railroads ar altogether too powerful in the legis lature. Besides, every railroad in n state now is part of a railroad sys tem in the United States, and it !s necessary to take the whole system, which is a work that only the na tional legislature cfe.n do. How can congress take not only one railroad system, but all the railroads at once? It can be done through the power of taxation. Con S3 can tax the In comes of tb,-j private owners until all the shareholders would surrender their shares to the government The Income from a railroad Is, either dividends oth the capital stock." or Interest on tht railroad tends. If the tax on this in-x-ae s!-ould be 1) per cent, it woull be e-:ivalent to taking one-tenth of r'l Ce railroad property in the Unite i ' -tes. This coiid be done, if onlv .... . mere were . a puanc opinion to sup- 1 1