THE ITEBRAflEA INDEPENDENT,
AUCT. 14, 1902,
Zbt litbrasha Independent
tlnecln, UtbrMMkm,
PRESSE BLOG.. CORNER 3th AND N STS.
Entered Recording to Act of Congress at the
Postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, aa aecond-claaa
mail matter.
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FOURTEENTH YEAR.
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Zbe Debrasks Independent,
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Till - Ticket
For Governor....... W. H. Thompson
(Democrat, Hall County.)
Lieut. Governor......... E. A. Gilbert
(Populist, York County.)
Secretary, of State John Powers
(Populist, Hitchcock County.)
Auditor... ,.C. Q. De France
(Populist, Jefferson County.)
Treasurer J. N. Lyman
(Populist, Adams County.)
Attorney General.. J. H. Broady
. (Democrat, Lancaster County.)
Commissioner Public Lands and
Bufldings........ J. C. Brennan
(Demo las County.)
.?" vo?T:... Claude Smith
Populist, Dawson. County.)
Rosewater is having about as much
trouble these days as your Uncle
Mark. y-s
For every man who was killed In
battle or died of wounds in the Phil
ippines, three died of disease.
The English now have an old bach
elor for premier, the first since Pitt.
Milner and Kitchener are also bach
elors. Senator Beveridge has been invited
to go to Texas and stump Bailey's
baliwlck. The Indiana imperialist iias
not accepted the invitation.
The coast artillery is untrained and
the navy is undermanned, yet the re
publicans go building more ships and
constructing more big guns.
It is said there are 127 districts and
different ways of getting to heaven.
At any rate -there are at least that
many religious sects in the province
of Ontario alone.
When these retaliatory wars upon
trade of the United States by the na
tions of Europe get unbearable we
can get even with some one of them
by giving them the Philippines.
The national capital has been re
moved from Washington to Sagamore
Hill. Said hill lies somewhere on
Lond Island sound. From that point
Teddy governs the United States and
its colonies.
The republican campaign text book
says: "The man with the hoe is the
man with the dough." We hadn't
heard before that Morgan, Schwab,
the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, Jim Hill
and Harriman were all broke.
Tom Johnson has finally won his
fight for 3-cent street car fares in
Cleveland in spite of the courts and
your Uncle Mark. If a few more cities
could get a-Tom Johnson it would be
a good investment for the workers.
. Mr. Henry Lehr's Newport dinner
to Joseph Leiter's monkey has set a
good portion of the sane population to
guessing which was the monkey and
which the human at that elaborate so
ciety function.
The law making it compulsory to ap
point bi-partisan boards is one of the
most ridiculous things ever put on a
statute book. The so-called demo
crats appointed by Savage on the Oma
ha ' police board are gold democrats
who always vote the republican ticket.
The schemes to .raise missionary
funds have been many and various,
but the las announced really "takes
the cake.' G. W. Glover announces
that he will give 10 per cent of the
winnings of his pacing mare to the
Home Missionary society.
A number of papers have lately re
ferred to , Philander as Do Nothing
Knox." Here in Nebraska it's different
with our state attorney general. An
amendment, proposing to strike out
the word "do" and insert the word
"know," would be pertinent and ger
mane. ..
England has an Ireland and a Trans
vaal; Germany has a Posen, and the
United States the .Philippines. Any
protest of this government against
monarchy or government by force in
stead of. the consent of the governed
would simply; be ridiculous. It is In
the same boat as tjje monarchies of the
old world " '07 ". .'
CHANGE THE TACTICS
' Every day It becomes more evident
that the great capitalists have formed
a combination to destroy organized
labor or so cripple it that it will no
longer be a formidable foe!" There
has been too much method, too close
following of one line of assault by all
the capitalists and trusts to be the
plan of separate and distinct parties,
each formulated and worked out by
itself. .:. :; .'.Vf-v :
On the capitalist side there is a
universal agreement to arbitrate-The
position of every aggregation of capi
tal is: "There is nothlag to -t arbi
trate." So far, in case; of a strike,
there is not a single Instance in which
the employing side has 'not taken ex
actly the same position - That shows
concert of action : of the part of - the
aggregations of capital.' But that is
not the only thing that goes to show
a preconcerted plan. In a contest with
the wage-workers the main reliance
of the capitalists is always and ev
erywhere upon government by injunc
tion. There seems to be a perfect un
derstanding between them and the
federal courts. Injunctions increase in
extent just as the exigencies of the
capitalist seem to demand. In West
Virginia the injunction . has been
spread out to cover almost every act
of a man's life and commands have
been issued by the federal judges for
bidding people from '.. giving food to
men on a strike. Living under a gov
ernment like that is as much abject
slavery as that of the' African before
the civil war or that which exist3 un
der the republican national govern
ment in some of the Philippine isl
ands. So far organized labor has . every
where proclaimed a desire to arbi
trate and has made a brave fight. But
in the nature of things it is impossi
ble to win any general victory. Here
and there a slight success may be re
corded, but the general trend is all
the other way. As long as the whole
power of the "general government is
thrown in the favor of 'capital it is
bound to win. The courts and the
army and the power to tax the whole
people to pay the expenses of the con
test; with labor, is" too much for the
organizations to overcome. There
must be a change of tactics on the
part of labor leaders.
It is impossible for labor to wage a
successful peaceful contest against an
armed government and plutocratic
courts. Victory in that line is not in
the nature of things. Labor must
have the sympathy of those in au
thority. It can do nothing while it is
the fixed policy of the government to
render constant and efficient aid to
combinations of capital. When this
is brought to the attention of wage
workers their. first suggestion is to or
ganize a new party and by that means
get control of the government. That
line of fighting would be just as futile
as the present. Plutocracy always
gives assistance to any effort of that
kind. The thing for labor to do is to
vote with that party, that is in sym
pathy with them, and upon which
they can rely for some sort of real
aid. They must know, that the re
publican party is the party of trusts
and combinations of capital. They
have so far used all the power of their
organizations to fight the policies of
the republican party for 364 days of
the year and, on the other day most
of them go and vote for the men, they
have been fighting.
The countless strikes now on and
the constant Increase in government
by injunction indicates that there are
to be more serious disturbances than
with which we have before been ac
quainted. Whether, .'when election
day comes, the wage-workers will con
tinue to vote for the men they are
now fighting, we will have to wait to
see. The indications now are that a
good many of the wage-workers, and
especially those in the eastern states,
finding that they were the losers in
the "full dinner pail" game, will not
vote for their natural enemies at the
coming election. The wage-workers
in New Zealand seem all at once to
have come to the conclusion that it
would be for their interests to take
charge of the government and pro
ceeded to do it. Whether the men of
that class in the United States will
ever have enough common sense to
do such a thing is doubtiul. There are
a good many mullet heads among
them.
TARIFF WARS RAGING .
The Independent has long been say
ing that, a trade war would be made
upon these states by European states
men, it was? an economic impossibil
ity to orever f-hip good3 out of this
country and huyxnothing in return.
Now it appear? that there is a com
bination forming in every European
country against this country. The law
that will soon go into effect in Ger
many will absolutely destroy our for
eign trade with that country in very
many important articles. When Sec
retary Gagje upon the orders of the
sugar trust, Imposed a contravailing
duty on Russian sugar, very small
Quantities of which ever came to this
country, The Independent foretold
what the result would be. Russia had
always been our friend, but this BenSe
less attack on " the ' Russian trade
arpused the wrath of the commercial
men of that country and Russia came
back at us with discriminating duties
on machinery, immense amounts of
which have been sold in -that country.!
So severe has been this blow to our
foreign trade that many of our great
manufacturing concerns are going over
Into Canada and to other countries to
escape it. ,
The Westinghouse company of Phil
adelphia has moved much of its plant
to Russia; the Ingersoll Sargent Drill
company of New York, the Port Hu
ron Threshing Machine company of
Port Huron. Mich.;. the Deering Har
vester company of, Chicago, and the
Minneapolis Threshing Machine com
pany of Minneapolis, Minn., have
transferred or are ' about to transfer
a substantial share of their produc
tive facilities to ; Canada.
To this list , rumor insistently adds
the names of the McCormick Harvest
ing Machine company, the John Deere
Plow company, the Studebaker Wagon
and Carriage company, the Republic
Steel and Iron company and about
thirty others of equal importance.
Capital h"as no country and no pa
triotism. It goes where the largest
profits are to be had. Protection has
claimed all the patriotism in the land,
but the moment there Is more money
to be made in Canada where its advo
cates can escape the discriminating du
ties aimed at this country, to Canada
they will go. When the products of
the countries enumerated above no
longer figure in our foreign trade,
great will be the falling off. The for
eigner has grown" fat on purchasing
American goods for half what they
are sold in this country, but it ha3
brought such disturbance into the
economic situation in Europe that it
can no longer be endured. Russia
heads the list of those who are de
termined to retaliate for prohibitive
duties and all the rest are willing
followers. Who can blame Russia?
Gage began the war upon her.
Senator Allen has our thanks for the
following neat ? little , diagram of an
appellation The Independent first ap
plied to Attorney General Prout about
the time he began dismissing the anti
trust suits brought by Mr. Smith:
'Attorney "General Prout is called
"Necessity," because "necessity
knows no law."
The idea was not original with The
Independent, however, and we hereby
acknowledge our indebtedness to Hon.
M. A. Hartigan of Hastings, who used
the term with much vigor many years
ago.
The republican dailies have devoted
a great deal of their editorial writing
for the last two or three years to dis
cussing "harmony" in the democratic
party. But there are more cliques,
discord and factions in the republican
party today than there ever were in
the democratic party. There is even
a big row in the reliable old republi
can state of Iowa. The party there is
divided into two sharp factions. Gov
ernor Cummins and his followers want
to revise the tariff and the other fel
lows are dead against it. The federaf
office-holders don't know which way
the cat is going to jump and are in a
state of misery. Down in the eastern
states the republican managers fear
that everything is going to pieces and
Roosevelt and his cabinet are barn
storming the whole region trying to
"pacify" the voters. Your Uncle Mark
has lots of trouble these days.
Torture was used almost universal
ly to extract testimony from unwill
ing witnesses in Europe not many
hundred years ago. It was sanctioned
by law and approved by the church.
Men accused of no crime were tortured
to make them give evidence against
others very often when they had no
evidence to give. That went on until
the French revolution, the leaders of
which abolished it. It was never re
vived until about two years ago when
our army in the Philippines revived
these cruelties to make men testify
against their comrades. Many mem
bers of the "God and morality" party
now indorse and defend it. When men
begin to degenerate it does not take
them long to get back where their an
cestors were- four or five hundred
years ago.
I The money power to a more or less
extent vitiates . all literature. Now
here is the Encyclopedia Britannica,
which in its article on Cleveland says:
"Both . houses being democratic, the
Wilson bill, a tariff for revenue only,
was passed." Think of the bald ly
ing that that sentence contains! A
tariff for revenue only! There never
was such a tariff enacted by any con
gress and the writer of that sentence
knew that there never had been. But
that was not the worst of it. In the
same paragraph the encyclopedia says:
'President Cleveland had secured' the
repeal of the act of 1890, calling for
the purchase of $4,500,000 of silver bul
lion monthly." The government nev
er purchased $4,500,000 worth of sil
ver bullion monthly and the writer
of that article knew that also. Yet
this is a work of reference used by
tens of , thousands daily. The inherent
deviltry of tbe money magnates is be
yond all description.
BaBCOCK A FAKIR v
When Congressman Babcock intro
duced his bill into congress to , lower
the tariff rates on - trust-made goods,
The Independent denounced the' ac
tion as a fake and Babcock as a politi
cal sham. When this same Babcock
was made chairman of the republican
congressional campaign committee by
the tariff grafters, that was sufficient
evidence that he was a fraud. But now
he comes out flat-footed and without
evasion and declares himself to be a
political knave. In reply to the charge
that the trusts, are selling their goods
to foreigners from 40 to 50 per cent
cheaper than they do to American
citizens, which can no longer be de
nied, he says: . - -'")-'-
"What if they are? It is a rule
of trade that surplus products must
not be dumped on the local mar
ket to demoralize prices, but must,
be sold outside. Any jobbing house'
in this country desiring to close
out a surplus stock would not un
load it in the home territory,
breaking prices, but would try to
move it into the other fellow's ;
bailiwick. ; The disposal of our
surplus products abroad at low
figures 'keeps our mills running -the
year ' around, worklngmen
steadily employed and so main
tains prosperity." ' ? "
That.answer is on a par with all re
publican logic. The jobber who year
after year stocks up with goods which
cannol be sold And does it with delib
erate intent," must be a republican
mullet head. The protected manufac
turers for fifteen years havemanufac
turpd and sold' goods to foreigners at
a much lower price than they sell
them for in the home market. They
"plan- to do - it. - The jobbing houses
do not r'an to stock up with goods
which they know cannot be sold in
their own territory. ..If the judgment
of a jobber is bad and he gets too
many goods on his shelves, he some
times has to sell the surplus at a
loss. But he does not "plan" to lose
money in that way., bo the trusts sell
goods to foreigners from year to year
at a loss? Do they plan to do that
and then make. up the loss by making
overcharges to citizens at home?. v Is
that to be the settled policy of the
United States? Are Our manufacturing,
plants to be run to Yurnish goods to
foreigners at a loss, and the people of
these states overcharged to, make up
that loss ? That is the logic of Chair
man Babcock's statement.
No man of . common., sense believes
that these, great manufacturing con
cerns sell goods from' year to year to
foreigners at a loss;TrThey do not do
anything of the kind. . They make a
profit on the goods ; that they export.
If they did not; they ' would not ex
port them. Besides "that profit, which
perhaps" '..is only a .Reasonably one,,
they make exorbitantproflts upon the
goods that they sell to us. It is the
tariff that enables them to do that. But
as long as a majority of the people
prefer to pay 40 per cent more for
American goods in New York than
they can buy the same American goods
for in London, there is no help for us
who do not want to do' it.
An American" sugar' grower in writ
ing to the New York' Mail from Cien
fuegos says that "no one can gainsay
that Cuba is in a worse condition now
than the Spanish ever put her, and
the United States is largely, If not
wholly, responsible." , He further de
clares that the idea that Cuba can be
"starved" into asking for annexation
is ridiculous. . It would be impossible
in a tropical country like Cuba to
starve the people. ' But if all hope of
advancement is cut off and the, people
have no prospect beyond a bare : liv
ing, , they will naturally degenerate
and Cuba will soon be in the condition
of San Domingo and ; Venezuela. That
would destroy all trade and commerce
with this country and render the pro
jects of the syndicates absolutely non
productive. The whole situation is
another demonstration of the economic
law that to do unto others as you
would wish them to -do unto. you, is
tbe only road to the permanent in
crease of wealth. -
A CASE OF GROWLING
It is a pretty hard matter to tell
just how the Nebraska Independent is
independent. It tells us in one place
that the free silver issue should not
oie and in another column it says that
during the last two presidential ' cam
paigns it has held that silver was not
the issue and is not so yet. That pa
per goes the cur in the manger one
better and growls at itself for eating.
Boyer & .Leach, in .Hoosier Demo
crat, Charlestown, I nd.
It might be just as difficult for some
to tell just how the Hoosier Demo
crat is democratic, since Cary Bray
field, its former editor, was rooted out
by the reorganizers. The Democrat,
under its new management, could not
be expected to understand hpw the
"silver issue should not die" and yet
be consistent with the statement that
silver was not THE issue in the last
two national campaigns and Is not so
yet. The rear issue all the time has
been and is the money question. The
silver question Is only part of a greater
one. The crying need in 1896 was
more money. Free coinage of "silver
was a step in the direction of more
money. Because the republican j' party
has complied with the democratic and
populist demand and furnished; more
money, and thereby - caused less need
for free coinage, it does not follow
that the underlying principles have
changed in the least. The real fight of
the reorganizers has never been act
ually against free coinage, but against
any monetary legislation which would
make it more difficult for the banking
Interests to control the circulating
medium. Free coinage of silver is
obnoxious to the plutocrats, demo
cratic and republican alike, because it
would put into, circulation . a great
number of legal tender dollars upon
which the bankers would draw no in-,
terest, and which could not be with-,
drawn from circulation at any mo
ment to satisfy the greed-of the bank
ing trust. The Fowler bill is a good
illustration of the fact that these plu
tocrats know that gold coin alone is
not sufficient to do the money work:,
but whether it is to be supplemented
by silver dohars and United States
notes, or by corporation notes based
upon assets already morally pledged to
depositors, is a question they wish to
decide, in favor of the corporation
notes. Doubtless the Hoosier Demo-,
crat thinks the Fowler bill is a good
thing it is saying nothing against it.
The communication of Mr. Ralph
Rockwell in another column is worthy
of careful reading, especially by our,
recent subscribers in the east and
south who are so well versed in the.
work done by the farmers' alliance
years ago in educating the people.
Much of Mr. Rockwell's article will be
a revelation to many of our new read
ers, but the old-time "populists will
recognize many, of his quotations as
old friends. Not that this detracts
in any way from the merits of. what
Mr. Rockwell . says, but the financial
history of. the .United States was so
thoroughly studied by the populists
of Nebraska twelve or fourteen years
ago that after, some years of. speeches
and newspaper articles it was appar
ently dropped by common consent as
haing about accomplished, its mis
sion. s Many, times since The Indepen
dent's circulation has grown so. large,
the editor has seriously- considered
taking up and writing a series of ar
ticlps on the fundamentals. It was
only the fear that he might be accused
of trying to keep his readers in the
primer class that made him hesitate.
Ferhaps the editor overestimated the
number, of people who have really .a
clear idea of the principles upon which
populism is founded in fact, the elec
tion returns would seem to indicate
that he did. At any rate, well written
articles like that of Mr. Rockwell
indicate a healthy growth' of thought.
ROSEBURT AMD CXEYEI, AND
The liberal, party in England is very
much in the same condition as the
democratic party is here, in the east
ern states. There is an unreconcil
able difference of principles between
the men calling themselves liberals
and every attempt to get them to
"harmonize" . and work together in
politics b:; failed. .Lord Rosebury
is as much a tory and jingo as ever
Salisbury was. On every important
public question he takes, exactly the
same position as the tory government,
YeThe calls himself a liberal and was
once prime minister. That is the very
position that Cleveland, occupies in
this country. He is a republican upon
all questions . of importance and has
been president. Cleveland still calls,
himself a democrat, while ; being a.rer
publican in principle and thus' lntro-
duces discord into the democratic par-tyr-
, The liberal . party In England
should fcrce Rosebury -out of their
ranks into the tory party and the
democrats should take such measures
as would inrure the complete transfer
of Cleveland and Hill into the. re
publican party. Cleveland , wrecked
the democratic party. Bryan afterward
rallied it and polled more votes than
It ever polled before. That was done
with Cleveland and Hill in opposition
and practically out of the party and
they both probably voted the republi
can ticket. It is an impossibility to. get
men to work In harmony In a politi
cal party whose principles are antag
onistic and it is nc use to try. .
A great deal has been said about the
sacrifices made by the colonies in aid
ing the defense of the British empire.
What does It amount to? They have
shouted patriotic songs, drank patri
otic, toasts, broken up pro-Boer meet-i-
gs, sent out a few thousand of their
"unemployed" at five shillings a day,
paid by the British taxpayer. They
have not contributed anything toward
the cost of the war.. - '
The old question of taxing mort
gages is' up for discussion In Chicago
again. It is said that there are over
$1,000,000,000 of mortgages held by
trust companies and others in the city
that pay no taxes whatever. To tax
the property and the mortgages both
would be double taxation. What
ought to be done is 'to assess the
equity that aman holds In real estate
against him and the value of the mort
gage against the man who holds that.
To make a man' pay the full amount
of taxes on a house "when he really
owns only one-half is not just. The
man . who owns . the other half should
pay half the taxes. . -
OMK OF LAUGBLIN'I TRICKS !
J About the meanest-thing that plu
tocracy ever diiwas.when J. Laurence
Laughlln was employed to get up an
annotated copy of John Stuart Mill
to be used as at text-book' by the stu
dents in our universities. In the mid
dle of the book Laughlln has inserted
a whole chapter ori bimetallism of hU
own getting up; in which he asserts; as
truth numerous and: outrageous econ
omic errors. , He even talks about "in
trinsic value," and makes' the positive
assertion that "there never .was such a
thing as bimetallism and" could not foe.
Any pop school. bey could refute some
of Laughlin's arguments. An honest
annotator would have given the posi
tion of both sides upon "this question,
but all that LaugMln says that would
in the least lead a student to think
that there was any 6tlier side to the
question is to remark that "a-body of
opinion exists, best represented In this
country by F. A. Walker and S. D.
Horton, that the "relative values ; of
gold and silver may be.' kept un
changed, in spite of all natural
causes, by the forceof lkw." Neither
General Walker or Horton ever made
such an assertion. ; That, is not th9
position of the economists of the
world at all. That chapter' forms a
text-book for the young men of Ne
braska who attend our university, and
the getting it there, is about as mean
a trick as a man who was determined
to lie was ever caught In.
- THE FIGHT DOWN EAST
In the campaign in the eastern
states" which" has begun much earlier
than out west, imperialism is one of
the chief issues. The anti-imperialist
league is actively at work and the In
fluence of Senator Hoar is everywhere
felt., The Imperialists are relying upon
their old i argument that this govern
ment thas the inherent power to do
anything that any other government
can do. There , was never anything
more false than that proposition. This
is a government of limited powers
limited by; a written constitution. All
the .powers , that this government- has
were granted to it and what was not
granted was expressly reserved to the
states and the people. .-.The people of
this nation have unlimited ; powers.
They can change the form of govern
ment. They can set-up-a monarchy
or make an autocracy if they wish to:
But the government at Washington
cannot do any of those things.
The falsity of this y imperialistic
proposition; lies in confusing the pow
er of the people with the power of the
Washington government. . They are
two separate and distinct: entities. The
-republican spell-binders .insist on
speaking of them as one. and the same
thing. With the unthinking that sort
of logic is very convincing, but with
thinking men it has-no -weight at all..
This question is not settled, as Prof.
Schurman in his .latest, addresses as
serts. It" is no more settled than the
slavery question was by the Missouri
compromise. -.As - long as there Is a
man in the United States who believes
in the Declaration of Independence
left alive there will be a . protest
against it. . . ' :
CONTRACTS FOR THE UNBORN
Away back fifty years ago a Michi
gan legislature granted a "' charter to
the Michigan Southern railroad, al
lowing it to charge 3 cents a mile for
passengers. Recently the legislature
reduced the fare t6 2 cents. Now the
road wiir nBue 'the "state for $10,000,000
damages "and puts its plea "upon the
basis that the charter was a contract
that was to last for all eternity and
sustains" it" by the Dartmouth college
decision in which the supreme court
held that : a state dciuld not violate
a contract. The idea seems to be that
a legislature could bind the people of
a state for a thousand, generations to
come, and make them pay exorbitant
charges to some corporation' and that
there would be no" way of escape.' Un
born children could be bound to that
corporation fair "all eternity, to serve
it and hand over toit the fruits of
their toil, if some legislature could be
bought" to make euch a contract. If
the Michigan case goes up to the su
preme court, that body of plutocrat3
will undoubtedly sustain the claim of
the corporation. It ' always does.
That is what they were appointed for.
Now there Is no way of escape from
such a situation except by; adopting
the principles of populi sm. Let the
state of Michigan build another . road
alongside of the Michigan Southern
and let the Michigan -Southern charge
3 cents, or 10 cents a mile for pas
senger fare if it wants to, while the
state road is run at cost. That would
be a settlement of that sort of busl-
.... ? .
ness that would last. . ;
TWO GOOD REASON'S
There are two very strong reasons
why the manufacturers are removing
their plants from the United States to
Canada and ' other countries. The
manufacturers of all- ; those : articles
into which much iron- and' steel en
ters can get: their material of the
steel trust 40 per cent cheaper in Ca
nada than they can get it Inthis coun
try. The Steel trust as well, as all the
other trusts sells lt8 goods, to foreign
ers from 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than
Americans buy them. A reduction of
40 per cent in the cost of material is
enough in itself to make an American
manufacturer move his- plant across
the line. Then if the goods are manu
factured in' Canada, they will escapa
the retaliatory" tariffs ' that all the
world is enacting; against the United
States, for 5 they will go out with the
British brand on them instead of that
of a country of prohibitive tariffs.
Commerce goes where ' the profits are.
It cares nothing',for flags or patriot
ism. '.';.- ; , .' - V V ,
"The price of a commodity, increases
as the demand, is increased. The re
verse of that is true in: regard to an
thracite coal. Demand has .decreased,
so the authorities say, SO 'per cent,
vhile the price of coal has advanced
over 100 per cent." That 'is'.' what a
mullet head took pains to . come and
tell the editor of The Independent, and
on it he based a conclusion that the
whole populist theory of " political
economy was wrong. This wise-man,
who., was once a republican, member
of the Nebraska legislature. struts
around the village streets and thinks
that he -has settled things for 'all time
to come. The-Independent, glad to
see it. It showsHhat the man, per
haps for the first? time, in all his life,
has begun to think a little. . After a
while he will learn that there is an
other economic law : that he has not
taken into consideration. Whenever a
commodity becomes abnormally hign
in price, substitutes make, their ap
pearance and the demand for the high
priced article decreases. . If a trust
Fhould fix the price of corn abnormal
ly high, the farmers would begin to
feed their horses barley and oats and
cut off the demand for the corn until
an equilibrium was reached. " It Is
good thing for a mullet head to'ge.t
hold of an idea even if it is a false
one. The effect that it produces must
be an exceedingly strange sensation
to him.
There 1 is one thing that the great
dailies don't say anything about, and
that' is the floating of hundreds of
schemes to exploit the Philippines.
There are hundreds of promoters at
work taking in the cash' of the mullet
heads to build railroads, open mines,
take in the forests, capture the hemp,
build street railways and every other
gress has provided for looting those
islands ; and the looters are after the
spoil by the thousands. In towns and
cities like Lincoln, Omaha, Topeka
and Kansas City people are running
around saying: "Can I get In on this
Philippine deal.1" If. the looters take
everything that the Filipinos have, it
would not pay. 10 per cent on the
money that these fools are turning
over to the promoters.
If the contest that has started In
the republican party in Iowa concern
ing the revision of the tariff goes on.
it. will not be long before that party
will have to hold more "harmony
meetings" than the aemocrats ever
dreamed of. The manufacturers who
suffer from the exorbitant charges of
the trusts, especially those that use
steel and Iron when they see their
competitors In f breign countries get
ting their material at half what It costs
them, get rantankerous. These manu
facturers have all been great repub
licans, but they now begin to under
stand that too much tariff will be the
ruin of them.' Your. Uncle Mark feels
very sad over the matter, but he can't
make them " stop quarreling.
Republican financiering of publ ic
business is always and everywhere the -same.
It consists of two things; Bonds
and interest. Here is this little city
of Lincoln which has always insisted
upon republican rule except one short
interim when things got so foul that
they: smelled up to v heaven, with, a.
debt of $1,169,100 and one-third of the .
taxes going to pay interest That sort
of situation Is the very acme of re-,
publican delight. No doubt they will
continue to increase the debt until at.,
last there will have to be a receiver
appointed or the bonds repudiated.
The people. of Lincoln, are bound . to
have a republican city government if
It sends the whole lot , of them Into
bankruptcy.
That money actually rule3 In' the
eastern states and for a long time has
ruled, is illustrated in the fortunes of '
the Sprague family When the family
had money they ruled Rhode Island.
They were governors and United States
senators. When the crash of 1873 came
they lost their fortune and from that
time on the family had none to do
them honor. Amasa Sprague the last
of the members of the great firm, died
the other day. The business is in
other hands now and the comment pf
one Massachusetts editorial writer IS:
"It requires great wealth In order to
be influential."
There are 15,000,000 males In the
United States over eighteen ;years of
age. Last year - there were almost
exactly 1,000 ,000. on the pension rolls.
The last congress provided for put
ting on something over 10,000 more.
The republicans seem to think that If ;
they can only get a majority on the
pension rolls they can hold power
forever; . - ,v :