r . . , ! tfyt Eebraska Independent Lincoln, Jiebraska. PRESSE BLDO., CORNER 3th AND N STS. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. v FOURTEENTH YEAB. SI. 00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE When making remittances do not leave Jnoney with news agencies, postmasters, etc. to be forwarded by them. They frequently forget or remit a different amount than waa left with them, and the subscriber falls to get proper credit. Address all communications, and make all drafts, money orders, etc., payable to the Dtbraska Independent Lincoln, Neb. ' Anonymous communications will not be noticed. Rejected manuscripts will not ba returned.- The Ticket ;For Governor..... . .W. H. Thompson (Democrat, Hall County.) .Lieut. Governor E. A. Gilbert (Populist, York County.) 'Secretary of State John Powers t ' (Populist, Hitchcock County.) lAuditor C. Q. De France (Populist, Jefferson County.) (Treasurer J. N. Lyman (Populist, Adams County.) lAttorney General J. H. Broady (Democrat, Lancaster County.) Commissioner Public Lands and Bufldings .J. C. Brennan ' (Democrat, Douglas- County.) Bupt. of Schools Claude Smith ' . (Populist, Dawson County.) ' CONGRESSIONAL. JFirst Howard H. Hanks (Democrat, Otoe county.) ,'Second... Gilbert M. Hitchcock ; (Democrat, Douglas county.) jTThird John S. Robinson (Democrat, Madison county.) fourth William L. Stark l (Populist, Hamilton county.) kFifth Ashton C. Shallenberger ; (Democrat, Harlan county.) 33ixth Patrick H. Barry (Populist, Greeley county.) t . A southern newspaper says that Gov ernor Savage's Red River plantation is suffering from the drouth. According to Baer, the coal baron, 'Me and God are in charge of the property Interests of the United States." Mr. Walter Page says that he has never seen a magazine that was more than a pile of debris, and he has about the same opinion of them that The , Independent has. Where the millionaires are, there also are the paupers and the potters' 'fields. New York has tens of thou sands of the former and acres of the a latter. There were 1,556,520 votes cast for 5 governor at the 1900 election. The Omaha Auditorium company has a guessing contest on as to how many will be cast this year. The New York anarchists held their first meeting since the assassination of jMcKinley the other day. They de nounced this as a "bum republic" and the police did not interfere. i When the republican denies that the i republican party is a railroad corpor ' ation party, ask him if he ever lenew ' or heard of a railroad official in Ne (baska working and voting for any other than the republican party. ' A republican writing 'from Saunders county says the banks have $2,500,000 ' on deposit. If he had wanted to make !a truthful statement he would have ' said: The banks of Saunders county owe $2,500,000 and have $250,000 in ' cash on hand to pay it with. v Even some of the republican papers have tired of the greatness of Little field. Perhaps it is because they have discovered that the story that Roose , velt, Littlefleld and Knox were en , gaged in a conspiracy to destroy the trusts wouldn't go down. To "vote er straight" this time means to vote away the privilege of educating your children in the common schools and that whether this repub lic is a world power or not. What will your children care whether this na tion is a world power or not if they grow up in ignorance. It is announced in the financial pa pers that the governors of the New York stock exchange are going to. "se verely discipline" all the members of that organization who had anything to do with bringing the Powers merger suit against Jim Hill and his partners. Any man who brings a suit against a trust hereafter will have a pretty tough time of it. Notwithstanding the savage on slaught made upon the trusts by Ted dy and Knox, there has been about a score of new ones organized during the week, and among them a $5,000, 000 broom trust. Pretty soon the Inde pendent owners of all sorts of manu factories will have nothing to show for their property but a piece of paper called a share of stock. A piece of paper will last a little longer than one of those Holland tulips and there ' may be some consolation in that. WALL STREET AND ROOSEVELT ' The plutocratic papers have been fllled'of late with stories of, the break between the president and the trusts, banks, coal and railroad magnates that go under the title of Wall street They say that the privileged interests and tariff grafters who have hereto fore furnished from three to five mil lions for campaign purposes every year for ten or twelve years have shut down the lids of their cash boxes and that when Congressman Babcock has called upon them as usual for two or three millions to buy the present elec tion, the magnates have turned them away without a cent. Then they tell how piteous appeals have been made to Hanna to take charge of the cam paign as he never has had a bit of trouble in getting a few millions from the privileged classes whenever he de manded It, and that Hanna has abso lutely refused to have anything to do with the present campaign and has told the campaign managers that as the house turned down his subsidy bill, that he would rather like the idea of a democratic house and they could get no help from him. Furthermore they say that the president's anti trust speeches have set the whole of Wall street, with Morgan at their head, against him and that they, too, want a democratic house so that they can beat Roosevelt for the presiden tial nomination. The Independent does not take a particle of stock in any of these stor ies. Roosevelt's attacks on the trusts have uch a lack of "strenuosity" that even the trust magnates are very well pleased with them. They smile se renely when they think of the injunc tion suits against the beef trust which, if they had any effect at all, it was to raise the price of dressed meats still higher. Then one cannot forget his action In regard to the anthracite coal trust which is an organization that exists in direct defiance of law. He sent Carrol D. Wright to investigate It. Mr. Wright investigated and made a report. The president locked that re port up and refused to let the public have a glimpse of It. Whether it was In favor of the trust or the miners, it was a public document, the cost of get ting it being paid by the people and the people had a right to see it. It is positively asserted by all the great dailies and denied by no one that Morgan Is the head of the coal trust and a word from him at any time would end the strike that is disturb ing the business of many states and putting a very heavy tax on the poor. Does any one believe that Roosevelt is making a gallant and desperate charge upon the accumulated millions of the trusts and combines 'when a word from him would cause the arrest upon a criminal charge, provided ( for in the Sherman act, of this "first citi zen of the world?" The president does not even try the mild Injunction plan on Morgan while the dailies pic ture the great Rough Rider as going forth, single-handed: Valiantly he rode alone, With his yeman's sword for aid; Ornament It carried none Save the notches on the blade. It is a pretty picture that dailies make, but there is no truth in It The foundation on which most of the trusts are built is the tariff, but Teddy so far, while he has talked of the army, the navy, our Insular possessions and many other things, has not mentioned the tariff. When he openly demands that the tariff shall be removed from trust-made goods that are sold to for eigners cheaper than they are to Am erican citizens, then The Independent will begin to believe that the trusts and Wall street have fallen out with him. In his speech at Haverhill, Mass., the president said: "We need a wise administration of the law, an upright and fearless administration of the law." Would not a fearless administration of the laws result in the criminal pros ecution of every trust magnate who is openly violating the criminal laws en acted by congress? Is it not a cow ardly administration of . the law to let the great, rich lawbreakers go unpun ished vrhile petty violators find no mercy? The anthracite coal trust, ev erybody admits, exists in direct viola tion of law and. the president will not order a criminal prosecution brought against it or any other trust. Do these things indicate that the president is engaged in a war upon the trusts and that Wall street is down upon him? OF THE SAME OPINIOX The right of the working people have been the special care of the kings, em perors, tariff grafters and property holders since the world began. They always know what is better for them than the workingmen do themselves, and the leaders of the working people from Moses and Aaron to the present time have always been agitators and walking jdelegates. That is the record of all history and Mr. Baer, the coal baron, is only reiterating what the rich, the powerful, and. the governing class have always said. Working peor pie according to; Mr. Baer (and for that matter in the opinion of the rich generally, although they usually have sense enough to be silent on. that sub ject,) are not yet fit for self-government any more than are the Filipinos, and should not be allowed to choose their own leaders. Their leaders should be selected for them by those "whom God in his infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country." That is what old Pharaoh thought, and Mr. Baer, the trust magnates and tariff grafters are all of the same opinion still. These opinions have been held by the men to "whom God in his Infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country," for four thousand years. The men who opposed were in the time of Paul called "pestilent fellows," and "mov ers of sedition." Now they are called "labor agitators." If God ever chose the rich as his agents to control the property of the world, there is no rec ord of it in what Mr. Baer calls the "Word of God." St. James seemed to think that God had chosen the poor, for he says: "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world?" The truth about the matter 13, that the workingmen have themselves chosen Mr. Baer and men like him to control the property interests of the country and it was not God in his in finite wisdom at all. The safety of property lies In the government and the workingmen have chosen to put the millionaires, the trust magnates, the tariff grafters in control of the government. The man whom they elected vice president and who, by ac cident, is now president, is out stumping-the country in the defense of the trusts and great combinations of capi tal and the only restraint that he would put upon them is what he calls "publicity." The workingmen have done this in all ages and all countries with one exception. In New Zealand they concluded to take control of the country and property Interests them selves. In the United States they pre fer to turn all this over to Mr. Baer and men of his stamp and when these men begin to brag about it and say that it was God and not the working men who gave them the control of the property, the said workingmen raise a great outcry. But the magnates will have the same opinion still and will continue to in sist that God in his infinite' wisdom has given them the control of the property of the country and the howls of the workingmen will only add to their amusement NOT A DEAD ISSUE The army and navy have been en gaged in some complicated maneuv ers, along and off the coast of New England for the training of the officers and men of the two forces. The naval maneuvers brings to mind how this na tion's defenses have been JWeakeried by the imperialistic policy of the gov ernment. Everywhere It is being re marked that if this nation, in the fu ture, should have the misfortune to get into foreign wars, the probability is that the issue would be decided at a distance from our continental do main. Our enemies would try to strike us in our possessions over the sea, exactly as England struck France in Canada and India in the seven years' war. They might endeavor to take Ha waii, possibly Porto Rico, Guam and Samoa,, and surely the Philippines. If, by superior sea power, they coujd strip us qf these possessions far from our continental borders, they would probably be able to force our govern ment to some kind of a peace, since the loss of those appanages of empire would be accompanied by such a weak ening of our naval strength assum ing, as we may, that an effort had been made to defend them that the government's naval resources for con tinued warfare would be reduced to a point presaging ulttmate defeat In attaining the objects of the war. When this imperialism first began, The Independent insisted that expan sion beyond the seas, Instead of strengthening the defenses of this country, with the exception of Hawaii, that it weakened them and made us a lesser, instead of a greater world pow er than we had been before. After some years, the idea seems to have dawned upon some other writers. In stead of the question of imperialism being a dead question, it is likely at any time to become a question of the life or death of the nation as a world power. The Charleston exhibition winds up its affairs with the announcement that there is a deficit of $225,000. How the promoters of that exhibition ever came to believe that they could make it pay in a city of 30,000 white popula tion and in a country where half of the population was poor negroes and still poorer white trash, is beyond comprehension. Congress will be called upon to foot the bill and the taxpayers must '"shell out" Judge Pennypacker, Quay's candi date for governor of Pennsylvania, gravely announces that " Quay Is a greater man than Webster or Clay. It Is but natural that the creature should look withv admiration and rev erence upon its creator. The Penn sylvania papers have .wasted a great deal of space in discussing the matter. They should have thought of the above solution in" the first place and then "dropped : the matter, . . TRIUMPHANT POPULISM Populism is forcing itself to the front j so rapidly that even close observers are unable to keep track of all t Its victories. The ground it" has gained is not to be measured by looking at the" party , strength, but rather by observ ing the inroads it has made in other parties. As a political organization one of its chief recruiting grounds was closed against it by the democratic national convention . of 1896 demo crats who were dissatisfied with the Cleveland program, and would un doubtedly have, become populists had that been continued, remained in the democratic party because the democratic-party made a lOng step in the direction of populism. And ' whether we may view the Chicago platform as a victory for populism, in the light of ultimate results, orjthe opposite, ev ery sensible man knows that the growth of the people's . party was checked in 1896 and the only sensible thing that could be done was what was done. There was no room for two opposing parties asking substantially the same reforms. In 1896 we heard , much about the "immutable value of gold" it was the standard which could, not change. If prices went down, it was wholly be cause of "over-production", of the goods that fell in price. - If the general level of prices fell, it, was because there was an over-production of all things; and if the general level of prices rose, it was because of a short age of all things or an immensely in creased demand with no corresponding increase in the supply. The populist contention, founded upon the deduc tions of the best economists in the world, that an Increase in the money supply meant an increase in the gen eral level of prices, was scoffed at as the "vaporlngs of a disordered im agination." Gold was the money of "intrinsic" value had the "value" right in it. It couldn't change. From the time "that gold was first found un til then, its value had never fluctuated in the slightest degree, etc., etc., ad lib. Populists will remember the discus sions they had, but mullet heads have forgotten all about it A New York subscriber sends The Independent an editorial clipped from the Buffalo News" a thick and thin republican paper" with the comment, "The world do move." The editorial is worthy of reproduction and is as follows: "The armory board of the National Guard throws out" all the bids for the new armory of the 65th regiment be cause the lowest is still $65,000 above the appropriation? ' Those most inter ested, such as Architect Metzger, Gen. Welch, and other's, say that they are surprised attheigh prices of ma terials which enter into' the cost of building. :i: "The point suggests one idea over looked in much of the current discus sion about priced That is that there has been an inflation of-the currency of the country without the observation of most of the people. The output of gold for several-years, in spite of the interruption of the Boer war. has been without parallel in any otlrer period of history. Not after the discovery of gold in California and Australia was there anything like the production of the yellow metal reported annually for the last six years, while the re turns show no signs of diminishing, but rather of exceeding even former figures. "The effect of this state of things is to enhance prices, among other results, and to do it in a way that is not no ticed at first or always traced to its right source when observed. It is not contended, of course, that corners in beef, or corn, or oats, or. any other commodity, recently seen in this coun try, are due to the' Increase of cur rency. But a tendency is noted toward a constant rise in the prices of goods in all directions so that the cost of living is greater than two or three years ago. There was a period when the price, that is, the wages, of labor, had been pushed beyond the general level of advance in other things. Now the reverse appears to be the case in some directions, and there are com plaints that wages and salaries aVe not as high as formerly In relation to the expenses of living. "Without discussing the process of readjustment it is well to recognize the expansion of the currency as the great underlaying cause of much of the disturbance felt over the relation of earnings to expenses in this country today." BETTER HURRY UP The active support and large contri butions of every railroad corporation in the state makes the republican leaders feel pretty sure of winning. That be ing the case they are laying the foun dation for future stealing in advance. The Prout opinion, permitting the sale of the school lands and putting a mil lion dollars in the hands of the state treasurer to be handled for years Tjy the gang, beats the old Bartley deal ten to one. So anxious are they to get this money into their itching. palms, they could not wait to lay the foundation after the election and they have pre pared for it in advance. Elect the re publican ticket this fall and: the great patrimony of the common schools will to -dissipated within the ; next few years. -The republicans, are, after It and they will get it just as sure as they are continued in office. If there are -any republicans left in this state who '. would rather preserve the common schools; than see the re publican party in power, it is time they began to hustle. If the school ' lands are sold and the money turned over to a republican treasurerunder'laws that prohibit him from investing it in anything but state and national secur ities, just, as certain; as the sun con tinues to rise and set, will that fund be lost to the schools, or it will have to be replaced by a transfer from the gen eral fund and raised ,by increased tax ation. It wjllr.not take the crafty re publican politicians long to invent a way to get around the constitutional provision making that necessary. The constitution only allows a state debt of $50,000, but the state is in debt about $2,000,000 all the same. As long as that land is held, the school children are safe. The moment it is sold and the money turned over to a republican state treasurer, its final dissipation is. provided for. The present republican state treasurer handled the school funds in such, a way that the party dared not renominate him. The next one they send there will be exactly of the same brand. If the school fund is to be saved, somebody "better hur ry up." If Dr. Lyman is elected it will be safe while he" holds office. ARRANT HYPOCRISY In his Providence speech, President Roosevelt said: "One of the dangers of the tre mendous industrial growth of the last generation has been, the great increase in large private, and espe cially in large, corporate fortunes." That Is just what The Independent and populist party have been saying for the last ten years. The difference between them and Roosevelt is, that Roosevelt has been supporting a painty under whose policies the great in crease in private and corporate for tunes has been made possible, while The Independent and populist party have been, advocating policies that would make these great private and" corporate fortunes Impossible. Every one of these fortunes has been the re sult of special privileges granted by the party of the president. Without these privileges the fortunes would never have existed. The railroad fran chises which- have been made a free gift to the Vanderbilts and Goulds have created those fortunes. The spe cial privileges on the railroads was the foundation of the Rockefeller for tune, and so it has been all along the line. The Union Pacific Railroad com pany was given enough bonds to build it and then enough land to build it twice. ) Is 4t any. wonder that the men who control it are masters of im mense fortunes? The party that Mr. Roosevelt represents, and which he is stumping the states to keep in power, made these gifts from money taxed out of thepeople to a privileged few and a great increase in private and corporate fortunes has been the re sult. -Mr. Roosevelt proposes to keep the party that did this in power and to continue these same policies with out any material change. When the president's acts ' are placed alongside of his words, the words appear to be the most arrant hypocrisy. "WALK UP GENTLEMEN" Many a business man of Lincoln and other towns and cities in this state will be, hard pressed to pay his taxes and the contribution that he must make to the coal trust. It will be real sacrifice for him to do it. But he will go and- vote f or the men who will not only make him pay his own taxes, but a part of the taxes of the Goulds, Vanderbilts, Hills and other railroad owners. Every one of them knows that if he . votes the republican ticket that that is just what he will have to do. Why do-men act in this unreasonable manner? Can anybody tell? ' , . ' There are hundreds of wage-work ers in Lincoln, Omaha and other cities of Nebraska who know that they pay taxes to the -full value of their little homes if they are among, the few for tunate ones who have a home of their own. it is. a great narasmp ror tnem to pay their taxes. - They and their wives have to skimp for weeks to raise the money. But these men are so con scientious, have such a constant dread that if the fusion, candidates are elected that they will, tax the railroads too much, that they will $bte to pay their own taxes and part of the taxes of those railroad owners who give $100,000 balls and riot and gamble the summer days away at Saratoga. They know that the value of their houses are what they can sell them for and they know that they are taxed accordingly, but they , can't imagine how the" value of a railroad is what it will sell for and that the claim to tax it accordingly is confiscation. A rail road which would 'sell for $80,000 or $100,000 a miles they think ought to be taxed for about $5,000. A great many of them are influenced in their con clusions by .speeches, such as were made by one of the heavenly twins: "Walk up gentlemen and take some thing on me." . ' Give credit where credit is due. When writing to ad'ertisefs tell them you saw their ad. in The Independent THE LEADERS OF CLOTHES FASHIONS v. THE tXADEBI OF LOW PRICES WE HAVE THEM ALL DISTANCKD. In'-this raoe for Clothing supremacy there is plenty of excitement. The com petition is sharp and keen. But the excitement is all with the other fellows now. They're running neck and neck back somewhere 'round . the quarter pole. We're in on the home stretch with the judge's , flag ready to drop and proclaim The Arm Strong Clothing Co. winners. With the fall campaign on in its fullness, comparison with the cata logues of every other mail order house awards us the supremacy. . .they've all done well to us. the greater credit we. have excelled. Willingly we urge you to compare value for value, sample with sample secure in the knowledge of your verdict. Your conclusion will be the same as thou sands of others The Best Place fo Buy Clothe is at Armstrong's We are especially anxious for you, to investigate these five new lines that are priced at-O, $8.75, $10, 12.50, $15. ARMSTRONG CLOTHING CO., 1221 1223 1225-1227-0 STREET, LINCOLN, NEB. ROBBING THE SCHOOLS AGAIN Thousands of the readers of The Independent who have been fighting the battles of reform for the last de cade know what to expect from the republican party and they are not sur prised at the decision of Attorney General Prout which makes another raid upon the school funds very easy and exceeding by far the amount that the gang gathered in when Bartley was treasurer. Some years ago a bill was introduced into the legislature by Mr. Sheldon which received the hearty support of all the fusion forces as well as many of the better class of republicans. It prohibited any further sale of school lands and preserved to the children of the state forever the Income,from those lands. Land cannot be stolen by re publican state treasurers and that made the children's inheritance safe. Now comes the attorney of this same old gang and delivers an opinion that the most of the lands can be sold and the money turned over . to the state treasurer. The rdaily papers say that there are hundreds of applications for these lands. Their sale will put into the hands of the state treasurer over $1,000,000. Under the constitution of the state it will be impossible to in vest that money. So that it will bring an income to the, schools. There are several hundred thousand dollars now in his hands that cannot be invested. Add to that $1,000,000 more and the office of state treasurer will become one of the greatest bonanzas In all the west for republican politicians. On the other hand, the income of the schools will be greatly reduced and we will have the old republican situation over again when teachers had to wait for months for their pay and the dis bursements to schools was so small that large sections of the state could maintain schools for only a few months in the year. No one but a thief would want to put a million dollars In the hands of the state treasurer to He there for years and bring no income to the schools. It is putting a premium on embezzlement. It would seem that there would be some public spirited citizen who could afford to bring a suit to enjoin this crowd at the state house from violat ing the law and robbing the children of the state. It would be a most ap propriate action if taken by some one who helped to put these rascals there. We who opposed their election knew what they would do before they got there. . , Rents in fiats and all heated build ings where heat is included in the rent have taken another jump skyward in all the eastern cities and no doubt the western cities will follow suit in short order. The owners of heated buildings in Omaha and Lincoln will be de manding this increase as soon as the cool .weather sets in. The excuse is the high price of fuel caused by the anthracite coal strike! It will be seen that the clerks, the " small business man and the lower middle class peo ple generally will be called upon to ray the cost of the coal strike to gether with a big profit to coal barons who are selling their stored up coal at enormous prices. These renters all ought to pay this little assessment upon them very cheerfully. It Is what they have been voting for for the last ten years and now that they have come to the realization of their political ideas, they should be supremely happy. Meantime Presidents Truesdale and Baer stand firmly by their position of divine right and God appointed agents of the property interests of this re public and abate not a particle of their claim that they are the joint rulers with God and responsible to him alone. That thought should In crease the happiness of the renters as they hand over their monthly stipend. The money which they have earned with so many weary hours of toil, ps almost directly into the hands of these God appointed agents. The renters pay It to the landlord, the landlord pays It to the coal dealer and the coal dealer hands it over to the barons. It is absolutely certain to get to "Me and God," and why should not the renters be happy? TENANT FARMERS The populists for more than a de cade have been calling attention to the increase of tenant farmers. Thy have said that the policies of the re publican party lead directly toward the old world system of landlordism and peasantry. That their warnings were based upon a solid foundation is shown most conclusively by the last national census reports. The census shows that tenant farm ing has advanced during the last do cade much faster than in the previous ten years, and now stands at a propor tion calculated more forcibly to ar rest attention. This is the census statement on the subject back to 1880: Per cent operated by No. of Own- Cash Share . farms. ers. ten'ts, ten'ts. 1900 ..5,739,657 64.7 13.1 22.2 1890 ..4,564,641 71.6 10.0 1S.4 1880 ..4,008,907 74.5 8.0 17.5 To the hard working tenants of the Nebraska farms, of which there are thousands, it must be a great consola tion to think that they have always "voted 'er straight," even though the hope of owning a home has vanished forever. HOW TO DO IT The rich, after having corrupted congresses, courts and legislatures to enable them to accumulate their mil lions, then refuse to pay taxes on them. Even some of the plutocratic papers are now making that bold as sertion. The Chicago Record-Herald says: The taxpayers or tax dodgers who have made the tax fixer and the tax forger ubiquitous and ra pacious are not to be found among citizens of small means, nor alone among citizens of shady reputa tions. They are for the most part wealthy. The question whether these wealthy , rascals shall pay their taxes Is the chief question before the people in the campaign Just beginning, If the state government is entrusted to the fusion candidates now before the people, the rich will be made to pay their just share of taxes. If the republicans win they will not. Every intelligent man knows that those are the facts. If a majority of the hard working people of this state prefer to pay their own taxes and then a large share of what the rich corporations ought to pay. they can accomplish that by voting the republican ticket. Pennypacker did not equal W. E. Curtis In sycophantlsm, although his effort received universal recognition, when he declared that Quay was great er than Webster or Clay. Curtis' "first citizen of the world" when he bowed at the feet of the' great trust pro moter was a little better than the ai julation of Pennypacker. According to the standards set up by the Mam mon worshipers, this country is pe culiarly favored with great men. Quay is greater than Webster or Clay, a Chicago professor declares that Rocke feller is greater than Shakespeare and Curtis has found in Morgan the "flrst citizen of " the world", before whom princes, .kings and emperors bow down.