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About The farmers' alliance. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1889-1892 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1890)
YOL. II. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1890. NO. 10. notice to Subscribers. EXPIRATIONS. As the easiest and cheapest mekni ef not) fylar subscribers of the date of tfcf.ir zplra Sods we will rcrli thU notice with w r.lue or rd pencil, on the ito at which their sub Srlption expires. We will send the papr ro weeks after expiration. If not reoeo r ttiat time it w ill he discontinue Marching for Freedom. Tune Makching through Georgia. Vohfoabo nrw nrP In ft fearful plight. For years they have been worse than slaves; it is a woful sight, To see the way they have been robbed by banks and railroads' might But now they are marching for freedom . Chorus. Hurrah for Powers, a farmer true and grand t Hurrah I For Powers we pledge our heart and hand And ne'er again shall lawyer or banker rule our land For we are marching for freedom. They made this western desert fairly blossom as the rose, That they have toiled both long aRd hard our State most amply shows. But now old Shylock says 'tis his and mox-e the farmer owes, So now thy are marchiDg for freedom. Oh, nevermore to party rule the farmer's knee shall bow, To work his own salvation out he takes a solemn vow, He'll vote for home and justice, for wife and baby now, For he is marching for freedom. No banks shall corner the exchange provided by the State. No speculator shall get rich on wealth that we create, No railroad e'er again shall tax three-fourths our crop for freight, For we are marching for freedom. Mrs. J. T. Keuie. Industrial Democracy. By Rev. Dr. for August. Lyman Abbot in The Forum In much of the writing and speaking on the subject of the industrial Situa tion, it is assumed that the wages sys tern, which divides society into two classes capitalists and laborers, em ployers and employed is the inherent, essential, and permanent industrial condition of society. It is, on the con trary, of recent origin; certainly mod ern, I believe transitional. A hundred years ago the weaver owned his loom, the tailor hi3 bench, the cobbler his stall, the stage driver his coach, the woman her spinning wheel. The in vention of steam, the spinning nenny, "the power loom, created a necessity for organized labor. Individualism gave place to combination, and combination created capitalism. I believe, and it is thisfaith which I wish to set before my readers in this article, that as slavery gave place to serfdom and serfdom to the wages system, so in time the wages system will give place to industrial de mocracy. What is industrial democracy? Aris totle divided government into three classes government by the one, gov ernment by the few, government by the many. We have added a fourth self government. Thi3 is political democ racy "government of the people, for the people, by the people." Industria democracy is the application of the principles concisely stated in this Riot to, to the organization of industry; it is the doctrine of wealth of the people, for the people, by the people. In this ar ticle I desire to set forth the essential characteristics of this industrial democ racy toward which I believe all indus trial changes are tending and will even tually peacefully carry us. The wealth of the nation is wealth of the people; that is.; it springs from the people. It therefore of right belongs to the people. For what are its sources? In twenty-five years the wealth of the nation is reported to have grown from fourteen billion to forty four billion. Why? What is the secret of this marvelous growth of wealth ? It is, first of all, discovery. We have found in this land unmeasured wealth, which God has in ages long past stored here forests in northern and north western states, waiting to do obeisance to the woodman's axe; water power in north-eastern streams, waiting to be lassoed and harnessed by Yankee enter prise; harbors and great river ways, built long before river and harbor bills were dreamed of; coal in Pennsylvania mines and oil in subterranian reser voirs, waiting for pick and blast to call them forth; wheat and eorn; resting in western prairies until Prince Labor should awaken them with his wand of fruitful life; gold and silver in Colora do and California mines, imprisoned until civilization should unbolt their prison doors and summons them . forth. To whom belong of right these treasures which are not of our making? To the people first in posession of the soil? Then they belong to the dispoil ed Indian races. To the first discover ers? Then to tlo Spanish and French races; certainlv not to the present own ers, who are neither the discoverers nor their heirs or assignees. To the men who bring them from their hiding places ana makes them ot value to man- kidd? Then the forest belongs to the woodman, the coal mine to the opera tor, the prairie to the cultivator of the soil. Something might perhaps be said of each of these hypotheses; the one Ivy pothesis that cannot easily be defended in the court of reason by any theory is the hysothesis on winch we have in fact acted that they belong of right to the strongest (or to the most grasping and unscrupulous) in a struggle not for existenc, but for wealth, luxury and power. This wealth has. oeen iiKe a hower of gold pieces flung out into a populous Italian street by a passer-by "We have all scrambled for it; a few of the strongest have won the prize, while the rest look on with covetious eyes This wealth of the continent belongs to the nation; and justice demands such methods of legislation as will give most equitably to the nation this common wealth, and to each member of the na- tion his share of advantage in the com- xnon store. Next to discovery of wealth hidden in the earth, is what we call invention, which in truth is simply the discovery and application of a like wealth hidden in the forces of nature. We are rich beyond all previous ages because we have found a way to make nature do our work and accumulate our weaitn for us. God puts his muscles at the dis posal of our brains. He is the genie of the lamp who has come to do our bid ding; to be, as it were, our drudge nd servant. His water courses grind our grist for us; his tire summons from the water its secret energy and puts at our service unesuniaiea norse power 10 drive our machinery for us; his lighten ing comes from the clouds to carry our messages ana light our streets and pub lic halls and private houses. To whom belongs these natural forces? There is a reason in justice, and a reason in ex pediency, why the nation should give a yield to the men whose insight first dis covers, whoes wisaom nrst applies to useful service, these divine forces. But the forces themselves are not private property; they belong to humanity. The very existence of our patent laws is pub ic testimony to the truth that every such force i3 public property; private property only so far as the public chooses to relexquish its larger right for its ewn larger oeneht. Industrial de mocracy claims as its own the crude wealth hidden , in the earth, and the more subtle wealth concealed in the brces of nature. Mr. Edward Atkin son estimates that seven persons can with our improved machinery provide bread for a thousand This fact, which ought to reduce the labor and enhance the wealth of the entire population, en riches the few and leaves the labor and the recompense of the many substanti ally as before the labor but slightly essened, the recompense but slightly increased. A third source of national wealth has been in franchises created by the peo ple for the public welfare, and trans formed into private wealth through public neglect and private sagacity. The railroads of the United States are estimated as worth above eight thou sand million dollars, about one half of which is represented by stock: Y hat gives them their value? It is not the road bed, the iron or steel rails, the stations and surrounding grounds; it is that the railroads are public highways. Formerly our public highways afforded poor facilities for locomotion, but they were tree: now they anorcl admirable facilities for locomotion, but they are private property. The telegraph wires aretne nerves of the nation; the rail roads are its arterial system. The body politic has sold or given away its nerves and its arteries, lhe nation could well afford to pay liberally, the men who invented the telegraph and created the railroad system. It could afford to pay Avell for the poles and wires, for road bed and stations. If it chooses to leave pole and wire, road bed and station under private control, it may certaixly do so; whether that is wise or not is matter for further con sideration. Here it must suffice to say that the wealth of both telegraph and railroad, of long inter state lines, and of short electric or horse-car lines, is due to the fact that they are indispens able means of intercommunication; this wealth is derived from the public and belongs to the pubic. Like the wealth of the forests, the mines and the prairies; like the wealth of the gravita tion, fire, electricity; it is a wealth of the people, and belongs of right to the people. All these values, and indeed all val ves of any considerable cunsequence, are themselves the product of that civi lization which is the common contribu tion of the nation. The wealth of America has attracted hither millions of immigrants, and has given to our country a growthjunprecedented, which fills the student of national life some times with a sense of exaltation, some times with a sense of awe akin to alarm. But it is this immigration which has created -the wealth. The hungry mouths have given a value to our bread stuffs; these multiplied homes have made a market for our coal; these rush ing hordes ofgimmigrants and traders have enriched our railway companies, No man ever, by himself, created or ever can create wealth. Into the loco motive have entered the hopes and fears, the successes and failures, the labor and achievements of many lives now ended. The railroad owner can not, does not, recompense the grave. Your beautiful vase cost Palissy the potter many a pang, though he never saw it; and for the sake ot it his wite and children often wrent supperless to bed. Can you pay them? The wharf age of New York City, which with reck less lack of prevision we have allowed to become private property, is valuable solely because of the three million peo ple who live on and about Manhattan Island. Every farmer in Illinois helps to enhance the value of the Illinois Central railroad; every shopkeeper in New York adds to the value of every warehouse. 1 hus it is clear that our wealth is in its source and origin a common wealth. Our system of exchange is a rude method of balancing values with one another. Possibly there, may be no better one discoverable; possibly no amendment of it may be conceivable; but no thoughtful man will contend that it affords absolute adjustment or represents a divine equity. The wealth of every millionaire comes from the re- sources of the land of which he has go ten control; or from natural forces, the chief grist of which falls into his meal bags; or from public franchises given by the state and created for the state; or from the general advantage which grows spontaneously out of the presence and power of a generally dif fused civilization and an increasing population. The last part of it is that which his own ettort has created, lhe basis for a democracy of wealth is found in the fact that all wealth springs from the people. The basilar factor in our civilization is that wealth, like po litical power, is of the people. , , And therefore it ought to be for the people. . At present it certainly is not. it is not necessary, on the one hand, to contend, that the rich are growing rich er ana tne poor poorer; it is in vain, on the other hand, to point to the truth that wages are appreciating and interest depi'eciating. 1 he fundamental fact re- mains, that while in the United States political power and public education are distributed, wealth is concentrated. The plutocracy which DeTocqueville dreaded is here. Elaborate statistics are unnecssary. Accurate statistics are impoossible. A single brief statement may suffice to illustrate a fact patent to any observer oi nte or reader of the daily press. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman has made a careful selection and com parison or statistics for the purpose of considering the question, Who own the United btates? and reaches the conclu sion that 40,000 persons own one-half the wealth of the United States; that one seventieth of the population own two-thirds .of its wealth; and that 250, 000 families, aggregating possibly 750.- 000 to 1,000,000 persons, own upwards of thre-quarters.of the whole. A friend, an authority in economics, to whom I submit this article in manuscript to in sure accuracy in its statistics, thinks Mr. Shearman's estimate of the number of owners too low. but he writes: "It is quite certain that one per cent of the families of America own as much as the remaining ninety-nine per cent;" and he adds that the concen tration of wealth is worse in Great Bri tain. If these estimates are either of them even approximately correct and the latter probably minimizes the con centration it is clear that the second condition of a democracy of wealth does not exist in the United States; the wealth which really springs from the people is not in fact controlled by, or administered for the people. Industrial democracy does not de mand simply a division of the wealth of the nation among its 00,000,000 of population. Such a division would have to be repeated in every generation, and would end, not in a common wealth, but in a common poverty. It does not demand that all labor shall receive equal wages, and all men possess equal wealth. It demands equity, not equal ity. It does not adopt as its own the motto of modern socialism: "From every man according to his ability; to every man according to his need." That is the motto of the church, not of the nation. It is the principle of benevo lence, not of justice; and not benevo lence but justice should be the basis of the state. But industrial democracy does demand, with Laveleye, "To each producer, his entire produce, and nothing but his produce." It agrees with him that "the great problem of so cial organization is to realize this form ula of justice." I do not indeed hold with Laveleye that "if this were once applied, pauperism and divitisra, mis ery and idlness, vice and spoliation, pride and servitude would disappear as if by magic," from' among us. Social transformations are not wrought by magic, but by patient labor and pain- fully slow processes of evolution. There would still be lazy folk who would rather live by begging than by industry; still inefficient folk who could live only by servitude to the more efficient. But organized injustice would disappear from our industial organization, and with injustice would disappear danger ous, because reasonable, discontent, and the division into the two classes of the very rich and the very poor. So ciety Avould still exist in grades, but no longer in castes; and Lazarus would no longer worry Dives with his importun ity, nor Dives afflict Lazarus with his scorn. What is the true basis of ownership? We brought nothing into this world; no infidel was ever so skeptical as to deny that proposition. How then do we get anything? There are three ways. We may create it by our own industry; that is, it may be the product of our la bor. It may be given to us by some one who has created it by his industry, either as a free-will offering or in ex change for a product of our own; that is it may be acquired by gift or pur chase. Or we may take possession of it without leave. In the latter case, if we take it from a private owner, the act is called stealing; if from a public fund. it is called speculation, lhe wages paid respectively to brain and brawn are perhaps unfairly balanced, the val- ues of the respective products of indus try are perhaps unmatched. But the great fortunes are not made by indus try. They are made by men who have had the opportunity and the ability to get possession of the common wealth. They have been acquired by owners of coal and gold and silver mines, taking as their own the wealth of the hills; by oil corporations takiug as their own the wealth of' the subterranean reservoirs; by railroad kings taking as their own public highways; by landlords taking as their own the wealth of the prairies and the greater wealth ot the suddenly uprising cities, lhe just reformer will not condemn these makers of great for tunes. He may even commend their sagacity in discerning the opportunity, their forcefulness in seizing it, and their generosity in using their advantage as to make the public real sharers in their wealth. But he will condemn the sys tern which has to many workers given very much less than the entire produce of their labor, a5rd to many others has given immensely more. Jay Gould commenced life with a mouse trap; af ter twenty-hve years he displays securi ties worth $100,000,000. Who will claim that he has created this wealth by his industry Part of it? Yes; but most of it our industrial system has enabled him to take from the public stores from wrealth of natural resources and of public highways that is the product of no man's labor and therefore of right the private property of no man. Indus trial democracy may be quite willing that the ratio of proht between brain worker and brawn worker, between captains of industry .and privates of in- dustry, be left to be determined in a free and open market bv the law of de- maud and supply; but it insists, and will insist more and more strenuously, that the wealth which is not the product of individual labor shall not become indi vidual property; that what is by its na- ture common weaitn shall remain wealth common to all the people. Industrial democracy involves the further principle that, as the wealth of the nation comes from the people and belongs to the people, so it should be aaministereu Dy tne people. This is the point concerning which most read ers will be skeptical, and here the ad vocates of the system will make their stand. The doctrine that wealth is pro perly a comjQon wealth, is familiar to political economy and is the basis of the doctrine of eminent domain. The doc trine that is to be used for the people, underlies the familiar doctrine of the New Testament that wealth is a trust, ana the equally familiar doctrine of po litical economy that it must be active to be profitable. But the doctrine that the common people are competent to administer wealth, will be received with the same sort of skepticism with which its predecessors in the evolution of democracy have been received. De mocracy, the doctrine that the common people are better able to manage their own an airs than any one is to manatre for them, is accepted by Protestantism . it . . .. in religion, by republicanism in politics, and by industrial democracy in indus trialism, lhe reformation assumes the capacity of men to answer each for him self the profoundest questions of life Is there a God? Is the soul immortal? Has God Spoken to the soul? How has ijrod spoken to the soul? How? By church, Bible, conscience, or all three? What are the laws of right and wrong? un what do they rest and haw; are they are enforced? And it reirarda all priests ana propnets as advisers not .. , . . 3 rulers, servants, not masters, of the people. Republicanism follows Pro testantism in the evolution of liberty. If man can settle for himself the Eroblems of the kingdom of God, e can settle those of the kingdom of men. If he can solve the problems of eternity, he can solve those of time. Priestcraft being repudiated, kingcraft follows. Democracy calls no man mas ter and all men brethren; chooses its own leaders, who become, like priests and prophets of the church, advisers, not rulers, servants, not masters. In dustrial democracy carries this evolu tion one stage further. It is the neces sary corollary of religious and political democracy. If the people are compe tent to govern an empire, they are com petent to govern a cotton mill; if they can select servants to administer a treasury department, they can choose servants to carry on banking; if they can conduct a gigantic civil war to a fortunate conclusion, they can conduct civil industries with successful results; if they can select their own captains for a few years of military service, they can choose their own captains of indus try. The real origin of what men mis call our labor troubles is to be traced back to Luther. When men were taught that they had a right to think, the whole world of thought was opened to them; when they were taught that thev had a right to govern themselves in church, self-government, first in the state, then in industry, followed as the day follows the dawn In America, our churches, our politics, . our school boards, are based on the competence of the people; our industries on their in competence. Both views cannot be right; one must overturn the other. We cannot permanently have a state based on democratic principles, and an industrial system based on oligarchical . !-! TT -1 11 t principles. v e snau Decome, sooner or later, consistently democratic or con sistently oligarchic. The whole labor movement, with its .organizations of workingmen, its labor legislation, its strikes and boycotts, its brotherhood of industry, its demand for shorter hours and larger wages, its rude and some times barbaric attemps to exercise con trol over industrial enterprises in which it has no capital invested, its attempts at co-operation, its proposed nationali zation of land and industries, is all a movement toward industrial demo cracy; that is, toward such an industrial reconstruction as shall recognize the truth that wealth, like education and political power, is of the people and for the people, and therefore should be ad ministered by the people. industrial democracy is not anarch ism and does not tend toward it. An archism is the doctrine that government is an evil and should be abolished; the doctrine that "government is a neces sary evil," pushed to its extreme by strikiag out the word necessary; an ex aggeration ot individualism; laissez faire gone to seed. It is, indeed, the an tipodes of democracy, for democracy assumes in men a competence for or ganizatioa, political, educational, indus trial. J. he one is founded upon a pro found distrust of man, the other upon a 1 r 1 1 i r t . . - proiounu iaun in mm. : industrial de mocracy is not nationalism or state so cialism. It does not confound the func tions of government and of industry; it does sot propose to put two incongru- uus uuues upuii me same organization. It does not propose that the state shall wn all the tools and order all the in dustries of the community. It does not necessarily even look in that direction. It is certainly not individualism with its pagan motto, "Every one for himself and the devil take the hindmost," and the equally brutal motto (which belongs to the beasts of the forest, but not to man made in God's image and for the realm of mutual service), "The strug gle for existence, the survival of the fittest, and, as a consequence, the tragic "unsurvival" of the unfittest. Yet it involves something of each one of these three systems. The industrial democrat would, with the ararchist, re duce government and enlarge liberty; out, uniite tne anarcmst, lie would pre serve government as a necessarA and beneficent means of preserving liberty. With the socialist he would give to every man a share in the control of the world's industries, and, consequently, in their gains and losses; but, unlike the socialist, he would adjust both con trol and participation in the profits ac cording to the measure of each man's contribution, not in the ratio of his need and the inverse ratio of his con tribution. With the individualist, he would leave each individual to a free contract in the open market; but, un like the individualist, he would recog nize the truth of the aphorism, '" When combination is possible competition is impossible," and he would make unau thorized and undemocratic combina tions impossible by promoting combi nations of labor and capital upon dem ocratic principles; that i is, upon the simple principle of the greatest good to tne greatest number. if 1 am asked to be more specific. and to indicate what reforms industrial democracy involves, and what are the first steps it will take toward their real ization, I reply illustratively, not com prehensively. Industrial democracy means tne recognition in private indus tries of JFrof. Jevonss aphorism, that combinations should be perpendicular. not horizontal; that is, that there should be a combination of labor and capital in one organization, in competition with a similar combination of labor and capital in a rival organization, not a combination of all capital in battle array against a combination of all labor Thus it means an extension of Drofit sharing and co-operation, for both of which the device of joint-stock corpo rations is preparing the way. It means certainly, not a nationalization of all wealth, but such legislation as will pre serve to tne people tne values which properly belong to the people the mme3 and oil wells, the undeveloped ianu vaiues, tne iorests, the greaMran- cnises, ana tne iorces oi nature Given by our present patent laws too absolutely A. 4. L. A. i. 1 1 iu me patentee, wuo is rarely the rea discoverer or inventor. It means such a reform of taxation as shall prevent tne imposition oi taxes on the many, to create a surplus in the treasury out of which to pay bonuses or to lend money to the few, whether the borrow ers be manufacturers, railroads, ship owners, sugar-growers, or farmers. It means the total abolition of the methods ot partnership now in vogue, by which the state furnishes funds to certain enterprises sometimes ecclesiastical sometimes educational, sometimes in dustrial and leaves the control in nri vate hands, and the profits, when there t.h- dnnHnn f w r. " i "."7ri i piivaie pockets, it means . uiuau nnnciuie "No appropriations bv ff0nm0n tn any organizations not under public con trol and for the public benefit." It means, not the conduct of the industries of the community by the state, out the regulation by the state of all industries on which the life of the state depends; of all natural and necessary monopolies, such as telegraphs, railroads, water supply, public lighting, and the like ; and the absolute ownership and admin istration by the state of all such indus tries, m the measure in which cautious experiments may indicate that the pub lic can serve itself cheaper and better than it can hire private corporations to serve it. It seems to me to involve mu nicipal ownership and administration of all street-lighting, and all stret-car routes; federal ownership of the tele graph and telephone service; State reg ulation of all mines ad oil wells; and federal regulation, though probably not ieaerai ownersnip, or an interstate rail 1 1 H 4. A. 4 1 way systems. - These seem to me to be nrst steps in the torward movement, let respecting these specitic steps l am not dogmatic. My object is accomplished if I have suc ceeded in setting clearly before the reader the process of the evolution of industry from slavery, or ownership of the laborer by the capitalist, to feu dalism, or ownership by the capitalist of the laud, with a lien on the laborer; from feudalism to individualism, or free competition, in an open market, of an almost wholly unorganized industry; from individualism to the wages sys tem, or the organization of industry on oligarchic principles under captains of industry, responsible only to God and their own consciences; from the wages systom to industrial democracy, or a system of industry founded upon, and effectually applying, the principle that wealth is of the people, should be for the people, and must eventually be ad ministered and controlled by the people. PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE. Does the Republican Party Want Lower Rates ? Ed. Richmond In the Venango Argus. We invite attention to the following plank in the republican platform, and a few comments thereon: We demand the reduction of freight and passenger rates on railroads to correspond with rates now prevailing in adjacent states in the Mississippi valley, and we further de mand that the next legislature abolish all passes free transportation on all railroads ex cepting for employes of the railroad compan ies. Clearly depicted in the above plank are two facts, or inferences that few or any will attempt to deny ; that is, rates are lower in the adjacent states, and that ours are too high. If too high how they have been for a series of years. This confession comes from the party who built these roads with Wants f " , T 1 J, "J" I 1 oi puoiic lanus, suusiuies anu Donus, and whose every legislative act has been in their interest and against the shipper and producer. Is it possible that they have changed their policy and intend to legislate for the people? The rapidly increasing sentiment against extortion is becoming dangerous, and they seek to avert the danger by promises, plati tudes and declarations that are not in tended to be put in practice. A more devoted trio of railroad men could not be found In the state than Richards, Benton and Hastings. Think you, they will carry out the provisios of the above plank if elected? Think you, the party desires it to be done? rerish the thought! Not an action of the party breathes in sympathy with the plank, as circumstances clearly demonstrate. t is a well known fact that both Mr. Hill and Mr. Lesse are not only willing but exceedingly anxious that the secre taries prepare a schedule of rates to con- orm to the Iowa rates. The secretar- ies are doing nothing ana drawing a a . 1 big salary. Who is responsible for this inaction ? Tom Benton, who has been honored by his party with a renomina- tion, which means a complete endorse ment of all previous actions. Conse quently we repeat, there is no sympathy between the actual intentions of the party and that plank in the platform, t was placed there to pacify the clam orings of a dissatisfied public. Again, if that piank was a bona-fide declara tion of principles, was intended as an actual expression of party faith, why. does not Tom Benton so accept it? Mr. Hill and Mr. Lessee stand ready to approve such action. Will he do it? No, certainly not. It was not so intend ed. What more propitious time could t - , 1 - , T -?l 3 . . t De asKeu ior. Aanroau rates is tne par amount issue of Nebraska politics to day. It has caused a mighty uprising of the people, it is producing discord and enmity in the ranks ot the g. o. p., which can to some extent be averted by a single stroke of lom Jsenton's pen. The party reluctantly says yes, the railroads possitively say no. The posi tion of the republican party of Nebras ka is simply this, it has two sets of prin ciples, one written and one unwritten; one expressed, the other unexpressed The party is allowed to dictate or form ulate its written declarations, and to express its opinion (excepting the Lin coln Journal), but the unexpressed, un written power- behind the throne (the K. It.) governs the executive of the par ty, absolutely. Their dictum is the law of the Medes and Persians. Shall thev be granted another two years lease of relentless power. To every honest vot er, we would ask this question, have you evpr entertained a desire for lower rates? If so, be contented and vote the independent ticket, that is clean from top to bottom. Doing Good Battle. Our own Opinion, of Hastings is doing battle in the cause of the people. Its convictions are deep and sincere, and its utterances have the ring of pure me tal. In an article on the present con- Act in this state, it says: We tight for wronged woman and manhood; we fight to take the mothers and daughters out of the city tenement cellars and in the place of saddened hearts and care worn faces, to fill the former with ioy and light up the latter with the beauty of health; we fight to leave for our children the heritage of a country free from debt, where honest womanhood and manhood rule and sefve and reign; where political rascal ity has found its grave, and class legis lation is a thing of the past. Chase County Independent Candidates. ' For county attorney, W. C. Gilham, of Lamar. Couaty commissioner. Win. Thomas, of Champion. County surveyor, C. I. Brainard, of of Imperial. Yours truly, Andkew Nicol, Chm. Co. Com STANLEY'S FIRST LOVE. C UPl IPS JPSA JfKi WITH TUB ORE AX. JSXl'J.OltEB. foTo th Footlights In an Omaha Tho-aler-Tho Foolish Youth EJecUd Ho Hone to Fame, She Fell to the Grare. With fame and fortune at his back. Henry M. Stanley was enabled to suc cessfully woo one of the most beautiful ami talented women in England. Early in the sixtiei" matters were different Stanley was noted for noth ing but poverty and persistence the lat ter bred in his bone, and that has been of incalculable benefit to him all these latter years of uncertainty and priva tion. "Annie" was a variety actress who was tlien gladdening the hearts of that won derfully large floating population stream ing into the great plains region through the then new city of Omaha. She was bright, vivacious, of very attractive figure, and . knew how to entertain. Stanley, who had been about the city a few weeks, had, like many others, fallen under her spell. Young and impression able, he became enrolled as her devoted friend. "in ding means to gain admission to the theater in which she was playing, he found a seat close to the stage night after night, watching the coy Annie with all the eagerness of an infatuated lover. Stanley s existence seemed cen tered upon her. But Annie was fickle. One night, it is related, a scene was pre cipitated bv the love sick young man, wiio had begun to realize that the object of his affections was playing fast and loose with him and was soliciting atten tion from other gentlemen of larger wealth. On the night in question, as the story go?s, ne was in ms accuscomea seat in the theater, and when Miss Ward came on to do her little Mact," Stanley was observed to be in a condition : of excite ment quite foreign to his nature. Misi Annie was too palpably engaged in im pressing her personality upon a rather boisterous young man, who had the rep utation of having cleaned out numerous bar rooms, and was not on the most inti mate terms of good fellowship with the law loving element of the community. Stanley is said to have stepped into the aisle in a most demonstrative manner, and a scene of excitement followed that terminated only when he was summarily and safely ejected through the front door. There were many stories related as to what really happened an angry col loquy with the actress, the public dec laration that both he and she would be on out of this world of heartaches and unre quited love, and the final exhibition of a very large and dangerous revolver, Through the prompt interposition of muscular spectators (who didn tso much object to blood lettingjas to the disrup tion of the programme and the possible unsatisfactory termination of the even iuor's entertainment) Annie ward was evabled to get out of range of Stanley's -reapon, and Stanley was ejected. An nie was saved to die of alcoholic excesses, and Stanley to discover Livingstone and make known the secrets of the Dark Continent. Stanley's life at that time was a pecu liar one. He had knocked about the West a good deal, and had done some fair newspaper work on a military expe dition. Dropping into Omaha, he was for a time out of employment, and de veloped into a splendid specimen of pov erty and general hard luck. His trousers were "out" at the heels, his shoes were apologies for foot gear, his linen even a Chinaman would have scorned, and his 6t6ck of flannel shirts reduced to one. He would get a job now and then none of the Omaha dailies a day's work, no more, at a time. As for lodgings, he had none, and one of the city editors of that period relates how Stanley would appear nightly at the editorial rooms of the Republican and solicit the privilege of sleeping there, for the reason that he had no money for a bed elsewhere. It was invariably ac corded him, and he made his couch by scraping together a lot of old newspapers and softening up the dictionary for a pillow with a few Chicago or New York exchanges. There he spent his nights in refreshing sleep, with no covering save papers; and making his toilet on arising as best he could in the composing room, he would start out every afternoon to skirmish for food and a job. Soon after ward Stanley went to New York, and later he was in Abyssinia, Spain, and then Africa. Am Old Hoax. Occasionally a correspondent seeks in formation concerning the 1,000,000 post age stamp hoax. It is firmly believed that if a million stamps, are collected and forwarded to a given address some benefit will accrue to the sender. A sublimated form of this swindle hai originated in the fertile brain of a post- ago stamp couwvur bv oitrtviu, vici . He desired to get vast collections to or out and sell again, and hit upon a plan to set the whole civilized world to work for him free of charge. He preyed on the sympathies of people by announcing that an orphan would be cared for in a private asylum for every million stamps sent to him. This worked well; and tm next dodge was the starting of a mythi cal mission in China, the holy fcisters of which agreed for every million stamps sent to save from the jaws of the croco diles of the Yellow River at least one Chinese baby, and then educate and Christianize it. The stamps were to be tent, not to Jerusalem or China, but tc Munich or Stettin. The last claim on the sympathy of the world that has been made by this German is, that' for one million stamps a home for an old lady oi nn old gentleman will be provided in one of three homes one in Iondon, an other in New York, and the third ir Cincinnati. For five hundred thousand s tamps a bed will be endowed in a hos pital, and for one hundred thousand i home will be found for an orphan foi ne year. There are agencies in variou i ties to forward stamps to Stettin, li ..h estimated that this swindler has col !ected over one hundred million stamp ii tho United States a o ie. A Life Romance. A fashionable physician told an In teresting, experience the other day. Thirty yearn ago he was a boy in. on of the villages near New York. Like most lad of his ape, he had a sweetheart, with whom he used to nt tend prayer meeting, parties and other affairs. Like some other vil age maidens, this maid was capri cious, and one fine day she'coolly gave him the go-by for some other fellow. To add insult to injury, she badgered him about his prospects, and asked, tauntingly what he was going to do when he grew up to bo a man. Oh! he was going to be a doctor, and a great doctor. She laughed and said contemptuously, as only wicked, heart-breaking, girls can, that he'd never amount to much because her i mother had told her that he was very stupid. "Well, that s all right," responded our doctor, grimly. You'll hear from me some day because I am going to moke a success of it." The village lad kept his word. He became a famous doctor, and at tended some of the most celebrated persons in the United States. He rose constantly in his profession, and had almost forgotten his village maid when one day, not so very long ago, he received a note from her ask ing if he was the same person she had known as a boy. lie replied courteously, but without unnecessary M'ords, that he was. About two weeks later the lady called on him at his office. She was gray-haired and matronly. She had seen his name hundreds, of timeu in the public prints, but had supposed that it must be some one other than her former admirer. Then she asked if he would do her a favor. Her hus band had had reverses and was at present a sort of demented paralytic. She was too poor to provide for nim and had vainly tried to have him ad mitted to one of the hospitals for incurables. The doctor pave her a note to the superintendent of the hospital with which he happened to be connected, that wns tantamount to an order for the admission of the patient. Two months alter the husband died in the institution, and the widow called to thank the doctor for his services. A tear glistened in her eye. and, with a deep sigh, she hinted at how different things might have been if her mother hadn't forbidden her to have anj'thing more to do with the stupid village lad. The doctor. who saw the ticklish ground that the widow was treading, rapidh changed the subject, and soon alter bowed the ladv out, with much dignity, to receive one of his high-priced patients. But ha wns verv absent-minded, and shocked his new caller considerably by the diffident manner in which he asked after her symptoms. His mind was with the Hudson river vil lage girl of 30 3'ears ago. New York Star. Came to 8ee Sail and Dick. From the New York Times. Among the immigrants who landed yesterday at the Barge Office was a female stowaway who had crossed the ocean in the White Star steam ship Teutonic. She was a tall, mat ronly looking woman and was well dressed for one passing through the Barge Office. She gave her name as Mrs. John Jones and said that sh was about fifty years old. Her home is near Queenstown and her husband is an old sailor and a pensioner otthe Uritish government. A few j'ears ngo her daughter came to this coun try with a letter to the late Father lliordan, who found a good situation for her. The girl wrote home a num ber of times to her mother. Tho lat ter longed to see her daughter and her son Dick, who had also come to this country. Last Thursday morning when she saw tne Teutonic entering queens- town Harbor the old woman put on her best clothes and said she was go ing to America to see bally and Dick. As she did not have a penny in her pocket her husband did not take her at her word. At the dock she board ed the White Star tender and was transferred to the Teutonic. W hen the vessel was out at sea the purser asked her for her ticket. Although she had neither ticket nor money, the purser was not harsh with her. - "Sure, he couldn't help but treat me decent," she said, "because I was respectable." During the voyage she was treated as well as the other immigrant women. Gen. O'llierne directed that she should bo detained at the Barge Office while ho endeav ored to find either Sally or Dick. America's Dofenselessness. There is nothing pleasant in the testimony given by Gen. Nelson A. Miles, of the United States army, be fore a senate investigating commit tee. He said that the entire Pacific coast is defenseleps and that during ten days the British fleet could de stroy every town and city on Puget sound, destroy our railroad system there and occupy our outlets for that northwestern country. An en emy's ships could go up the Colum bia river and destroy the city of Portland. There is not an earth work nor a single artillery soldier on Puget sound. South of the harbor of San Francisco there is not a single ?un in position, nor a soldier to de fend the harbors and cities ot San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Ped ro. The city of San Francisco is ab iolutely open to attack by an en, ray's fleet. o