The farmers' alliance. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1889-1892, December 13, 1890, Image 2

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    THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE, LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, DEC. 13, 1890.
THE : l---V , -
TARMERS' iilANOE
PUBLISHED EYErIATUDAY (
AUianceMishingCo.,
COR. 11th AND M STS., J .O
LINCOLN, -. - NEBRASKA.
J. , BURROWS. - - - EJitor.
J. U. THOMPSON, BusinetsPg'r.
In the beauty of tho lilliea $j .
, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigures yoajhd me.
As He strove to make irften holy
Let us strive to make men free,
.. Since God is marching on."
Julia Ward Howe.
" Laurel crowns cleave to deserts, .
And power to him who power exerts..1
" A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging Sea outweighs."
Emerson.
Hs who cannot reason is a fool,
He who will not reason is a coward,
He who dare net reason is a slave."
EDITORIAL.
The Farmers' Alliance,
Publish Weekly br
Tbe Alliance Publishing Co.
J. BURROWS. Editor.
J. M. THOMPSON, Bns. Mgr.
SUBSCRIPTION $1.00 PER YEAR,
OrTABlABLT IN ADVANCE. OB FIVE
fTjBSCXIPTIONS, IN ONE OBDEB
ONE TBAB FOB $4.00.
The Alliance is the official organ of
the State Alliance. It is conducted
solely in. the interest of the farmers and
laboring men of the state. It is abso
lutely fearless and tin trammeled in the
discussion of all questions. IT AO?
CEPTS NO CORPORATION PAT
UONAGE. ITS EDITORS HAVE NO
FREE PASSES, AND ITS OPINIONS
ARE NOT FOR SALE AT ANY
PRICE, In the above particulars it is
a new departure in Nebraska journal
Urn. We confidently appeal for support to
all who can appreciate the ralue of
such a paper.
The bold and aggressive fight made
by this paper in the late campaign, re
sulting in giving the farmers movement
in this State over 70,000 votes against
both of the old parties, has made it the
FOREMOST CHAMPION and obgan
OF THIS MOVEMENT IN THE WEST!
Its aggressive warfare against corpo
rate and plutocratic rule will be contin
ued, '"Truth and Justice" always being
its motto.
If our subscription warrants, The
"Alliance will be enlarged to a six
column 8-page paper Jan. 1st, 1891.
With an Alliance membership of
80.000 the subscription list of The Alli
ance has never exceed 12,000. It should
be 75.000. With a list near that num
ber v would be able to furnish
The Best Paper in the State.
Will you aid us to make it 50,000?
t3JT Alliance officers are requested to
act as agents.
tST All yearly subscriptions sent from
this date forward run to Jan. 1st, 1892.
v t PREMIUMS.
The Alliance one year, andLook-
, ing Backward, postpaid 11.80
Ditto and Labor and Capital by
Kellogg...... : 1.10
Ditto and Caesar's Column 1.25
Ditto .ad Our Republican Mon
archy by Venier Voldo. . .... 1.10
The above books for sale at this of
fice, or sent postpaid as follows:
Looking Backward. 50 cts.
: Caesar's Column . . . ............ .50 cts,
Labor and Capital 20 cts.
Our Republican Monarchy. 25 cts
- Address,
Alliance Pub. Co.. Lincoln, Neb.
no
JU
TO DELEGATES.
REDUCED BATES TO
THE STATE MEETING.
Delegates to. the annual meeting of
the State Alliance, to be held atLincoln
Dec. 16, 1890, will buy full fare tickets
going, and will secure certificate (or
receipt) therefor from the ticket agent,
by request, at time of purchase. These
certificates, on being signed by the State
Secretary, will entitle the holder to a
return ticket at one-third fare. Where
the journey is over more than one line a
separate receipt for each line should be
procured.
Information as to special rates at
hotels will be given at Lincoln
J. Burrows,
Ch'm Ex. Com.
J. M. Thompson,
Secretary.
TO ALL IDLE "FARMERS.
We will furnish you two of three good
selling ooks that all "farmers ought to
read, that sell quickly for 20 to 50
cents, and we will give you an agency
to canvass for The Alliance. We
will receive yearly subscriptions at $1
each, and give six months time for
payment, and will allow you a fair com
mission to be paid when the subscrip
tion is paid. - :
You can canvass your own vicinity
without expense. Apply for agency at
: once.
Above terms will only be given to
special agents. "'. - ' ' fj; .
K7Anotheb Lie. -The Bet ' informs
an inquirer that L. L. Polk is president
of the National Farmers' Alliance, which
it knew was a lie out of whole cloth.
THE GOVERNMENT LIEN ON THE
UNION PACIFIC.
THE ' RAILROAD TRUST" OF JAY
GOULD CAN BE DEFEATED;
BY HAVING THE GOVERNMENT
FORECLOSE ! ITS LIEN ON r
THE U. P. R. R.
In 1867 the government loaned the
Union Pacific railroad company $33,
513,000 6 per cent, bonds, and gave it
an immense Jand grant, ' for the pur
pose of building up the west." The rpad
has been used to : enrich its managers,
and its: extortionate rates have been
such as to oppress the settlers along its
route. According to the report of the
attorney general of Nebraska for 1888,
the freight charges on subsidizod rail
roads in Nebraska are SO per cent
higher than on Iowa railroads that
have received no government aid. The
road, although paying in ten years over
$28,000,000 in dividends to its stock
holders, has never paid the coupons oh
Its, subsidy bond. These the govern
ment has been compelled to pay, and
the principal of the subsidy, with the
balances due on account of interest,
and the unpaid coupons, now amount
to nearly $66,000,000.
The control "of this road, reaching
from Kansas City and Omaha to the
Pacii c coast, was necessary to enable
Mr. Gould to domplete his scheme of a
"railroad trust," organized for the pur
pose of extorting $22,400,000 annually
out of western producers to pay divi-
aenap to eastern stockholders, it is
fortunate for the people that he has ob
tained control at a time when the Union
Pacific railroad, a armed at the ap
proaching maturity of its subsidy, is a
suppliant to the government to extend
that subsidy for fifty years without ade
quate security. By defeating the proposed
extension, and having the gotemment fore
close its lien an the road, the farmers' alii
ance can defeat the railroad trust scheme
Although the amount properly due the
government by the road amounts to
about. $66,000,000. Senator Frye, of
Maine, introduced a bill in the last ses
sion of this congress that reduces this
to $52,000,000, by deducting discount
from , payments made by the govern
ment for the account of the roadj in
stead of adding interest to them ; and
then he gravely advises the government
to accept for this balance 3 per cent
fifty-year bonds, secured by a mortgage
preceded by $115,000,000 bonds, when
the government now has asecondmort
eaee on the Union Pacific road, lands
and assets preceded by only $33,500,
000, He advised the government to ac
cept these 3 per cent, bonds at par,
when better bonds of the Union Pacific
road, paying A and 5 per cent., are of
fered at 75 and 80. Such an extension
will be the means of the government
eventually losing the entire amount of
the subsidy, and only a foreclosure of
the government lien at once can save it,
and by removing the road from Mr.
Gould's control, defeat his railroad trust
scheme. If the Frye bill passes, it will
place many millions in the pockets of
Mr. Gould and other stockholders of the
Union Pacific railroad.
The charter of the Union Pacific pro
vides that its telegraph line shall be
open to all ' telegraph companies on the
same terms. . This line, although built
by money furnished by the government,
is now monopolized by the Western
Union Telegraph company, and the
control of the Union Pacifie is as neces
sary to Mr. Gould to defeat Mr. Wana
maker's plan of cheap telegraph facili
ties as it is to perfect his railroad trust.
The Union Pacific has repeatedly vio
lated the United States laws of 1873
and 1878, and has placed its charter in
jeopardy. The attention of the United
Sta.es attorney general (whose duty to
enforce these laws is made mandatory)
was called to this matter last year by
the attorney general of Nebraska.
The Farmers' alliance can call
THE . ATTENTION OF THE COUNTRY TO,
AND CAN DEFEAT THE SCHEME OF MR.
Gould, by presenting to the Utited
States Attorney General some
such resolution as this:
Whereas, The managers of the Union
Jfac he railroad nave repeatedly vio
lated the acts of 1873 and 1878, and are
now conspiring with other railroads to
form a railroad trust, in violation of
the charter of the Union Pacific rail
road, and to defeat the provisions of
the interstate commerce act; therefore
be it
s Resolved, That the attorney general
of the United States be requested to de
clare the charter of the Union Pacific
void, and to proceed to, foreclose the
lien of the . Uni ed States aginst the
road and to enforce against its officers
the prescribed penalties of the violated
acts of 1873 and 1878. . O:- ' .
,. It the attorney general refuses to do
his duty in this matter, the people must
press it before congress, and by. all
means prevent the passage of tho Frye
bill. '-.'ft - -
The questions before the people of
this country now are: Shall Jay Gould
be permitted to perfect his railroad
trust? Who owns the United States,
Jay Gould or the people? Are the law
and ; judicfary departments under the
control of millionaires, or are they the
servants of the people? "
AN ELASTIC CURRENCY.
, Mr. Wiadom says in his report that
the gravest defect in our present system
of currency is its lack of elasticity. The
elastic quality which he seems to think
so desirable Is the power to adapt itself
to the varying needs of the money
using public. Mr, Windem does not
suggest any plan forgiving the currency
the desired elasticity; and he seems to
forget, if inded it ever occurred to him,;
that until a currency has reached the
point where it . fully supplies, the needs
of the people for a1 circulating medium
there cannot possibly 'be any automatic
contraction, even though facilities exist
ed for such contraction. By the very
system under which it is constituted the
law ot our currency is contraction.
Even though there was no absolute con
traction of paper money, the growth -.of.
population and business works a con
tinuous contraction . which must be
counteracted unless the money volume
is to grow continually less For many
years the natural contraction has not
been counteracted. With money based
on precious metals alone, and with an
inadequate supply of those metals, con
traction must continue. The. money
power of the country finds its account in
depressing prices, which is done by les
sening the volume of money. With low
prices men with fixed incomes such as
come from interest and rent, command
an increasing portion of wealth. .The
reason why the national bank system
did not furnish .the needed elastic qual
ity was because it conferred upon a cer
tain class of men the power to contract
or expand the curreucy at their pleas
ure, and they found their account in
contracting it; and the power to coun
teract this was not conferred upon any
other class.
Now, as we said above, expansion
must take place up to the point where
the needs of the people for money are
fully supplied before any provision for
elasticity or automatic regulation could
possibly, become operative. A mere in
terconvertible bond, without providing
any additional money volumo, would be
sheerest nonsense. But let the govern
ment provide a land-currency issued to
all who could furnish the required se
curity at one and one-tenth per cent,
and then issue an interconvertible bond
at one per cent, and an elastic self-regulating
currency would be provided.
If there was any redundancy of money
it would go into the bond. If there was
still a redundancy so that men could not
make money by paying the government
one and one-tenth per cent on the land
mortgages, these would be paid off and
the money redeemed.
To try this plan the issue of land-currency
need not be unlimited. A per
capita, amount might be authorized.
But it must absolutely be made equal
to any other money so far as debt-paying
power is- concerned. It must be
full legal tender for ail debts, public
and private.
Mr. Windom shaves this proposition1
very closely. He acknowledges there:;
is not enough money he acknowledges'
it lacks elasticity but when he comes
to the remedy he gropes hopelessly in
the dark. If he could be disenthralled;
for a few months from his slavery to
Wall street and the money power, if
he could consider the interests of all of
the people instead of a few of them, the
true remedy would soon burst upon him
like the glory of a summer sunrise.
The Author of "Caesar's Column."
"Caesar's Column: A story of the
Twentieth Century," was issued last
June by a new and comparatively un
known publishing house. The name on
the title page was EdmunBoisgilbert.
M. D., and it was given Sut that this
was a pseudonym. The-reking maga
zines and reviews, with "$he exception,
and many of the great newspapers en
tirely ignored the book, and everything
at first was against its success; It
created the most profound interest,
however, among those who read it, and
soon became talked about. Julian
Hawthorne, Bishop Potter, Frances E.
VV illard and others spoke highly of it,
and Cardinal Gibbons praised it as an
example of the highest literary form
upie ir. need summed up its cnarm in
these words r "It will thrill a careless
reader of novels, or profoundly impress
a statesman. It is gentle as a child,
and yet it is rugged as a giant." In six
months ''Caesar's Column" passed
through ten editions, and considerable
guessing was done as, to the real name
of the author, among those prominently
named being Judge Tonrgee. Mark
Twajn, T. V. Powderly, Robert G. In
gersoll, Chauncey M- Depew, Benjamin
F. Butler, and others. The publishers,
F. J. Schulte & Co., of Chicago, now
announce that Ignatius Donnelly, au
thor of "Atlantis," "Ragnarok" and
"The Great Cryptogram," is also the
author of "Caesar's Column." Mr.
Donnelly escaped general suspicion be
cause'his previous writings are more
distinguished by laborious industry av.d
wide information than by the qualities
that go to make the creator of ro
mances. He is now engaged in finish
ing a semi-political novel which will
soon be published by the same firm.
Competent critics who have seen the
MS. say it is based on the most original
and extraordinary conception in litera
ture. . .
; Caesar's Column is for sale at this of
fice at 50 cents, paper covers; or we send
The Alliance one year and the book
for $1.25.
, OMAHA POINTERS.
The vote in , the late city election in
Omaha was a little over 10,000. The
election was very hotly contested. In
several wards there were as many as
four candidates, and every effort was
made to get out a full vote.
At the state election, November 4,
there were said to be 23,000 votes cast.
There are, probably at the outside about
16,000 votes in Omaha At the city
election there was no large fund to col
onize voters from Iowa and Missouri;
so all the darkies and roughs of Coun
cil Bluffs were not voted. ' At the state
election there was a large fund, ' and
probably a ' thousand colonists were
brought in from the bluffs alone. These
votiug at nearly all the voting precincts
could easily make the difference be
tween 16,000 and 23,000. As , their re
peaters came into the line to vote they
were furnished- with cards with the
name they were to vote under, so as to
avoid duplicating the same name. '
Special provisions will have to be in
corporated into the Australian law to
suit Omaha. - r '! - ; ;
' Very r delicate, people should t not
Imthe before breakfast but 'put it off
until the middle of tee morning, when
their vitality is at its best.
THE RAPE OF THE RAILROADS.
The Methods' of the Great Looter.
Who Owns the United States?
Tho facts . in regard to Gould's con
spiracy are gradually coming to light.
For years no doubt he has been gettisg
ready for the grand piece ,of strategy
which he has'recently successfully car
ried out. This preparation has ioji
sisted in obtaining full informatih of
the exact financial condition of $ the
railroads he wished to seize, their debt,
amount of stock, etc., etc., and in com
municating and gathering around him
the millionaires who were willing to
join him in the grand burglary and put
their millions in his control. 'These
preparations made, he only waited for
the most favorable moment to spring
his trap. That moment came when a
financial panic was imminent, when
money was running to cover, and when
men who must have it were ready to
sacrifice their stocks and bonds to get it.
The failure of the Barings offered the
opportunity. Money was wanted in
Europe, and American securities were
sent for it. A panic was feared, the
banks were strengthening themselves,
and cash was becoming scarce. An
hour of gloom was falling on other men,
but their sorrow was Jay Gould's joy.
He and his co-conspirators now began
to lock up money. Gould, Vanderbilt,
Sage, Rockafeller, the Standard ' Oil
trust, John H. Inman, Samuel Thomas,
and others of the financial blood-sucking
fraternity, unloaded their safes "of
bonds, stocks .nd mortgages into the
tills of bankers and loan companies, un
til they had tied up and withdrawn from
the reach of the public six hundred mil
lions of money. It is amazing that the
disasters resulting from this have been
so few. But it has been felt through
out the length and breadth of the land,
and all our large cities have had more
or less failures in conseqnence of it. Of
course these failures were not the object
of the conspirators. They were only
incidents the casualties of a battle
thedead and wounded which a general
regrets perhaps, but accepts as inevita
ble. The desired conditions were
achieved stocks were tumbling and
L the brokers, of the combine were buying
them in. The din of battle was high
the air was obscured but when the
smoke cleared away Gould and his com
bine were found to be in possession of
the main arteries of a continent. He
holds his finger - to-day on the pulse of
the nation, and its life blood must flow
fast or slow as he in his supreme pleas
ure may determine.
Some fellows in Texas or Mississippi
conspire at a cross-roads and stop and
plunder an express train. If they are
caught and they are quite apt to be
it is the pen for life, if not short shrift at
the end of a halter. Some fellows on
Fifth avenue conspire and stop the com
merce of a nation and rob a thousand
widows and orphans. They do not
have to be caught they are well known
and they receive the plaudits of man
kind. The penalties for robbing a peo
ple andthe penalties for robbing an ex
press messenger are vastly dispropor
tionate. What shall be said of the finan
cial system under which such a damna
ble scheme of plunder can be consu
mated? What shall be said of a finan-v
cial system under which four or five free
hooters can so corner and manipulate
the money volume as to bring ruin on
hundreds perhaps thousands of innocent
and enterprising business men in order
that a few pirates may rake in and ap
propriate the life earnings which may
happen to be invested in railroad enter
prises? What shall be said of a railroad
system under which the tenure of own
ership is so frail that four or five con
spirators can by financial jugglery trans
fer in a day to tbeir.own possession the
muscles of steel which are indispensable
to the commerce of a nation and bind
together the extremities of a continent?
What shall be said of the nation of so
called freemen who can sit idly down
and see the great agency of commerce
which they have created by a , quarter
of a century's honest labor, looted in
the interest of a junta of millionaire free
booters? How long will it be before
the people of this country will with a
united voice demand that the govern
ment shall own and control the railroads
and telegraphs of the nation? And
when they do at last so demand will it
then too late be found that the condi
tion and destiny of this great people
hang upon the will of one man?
. INFAMOUS DIABOLISM.
, After the movement for the relief of
the western counties was well under
way, the Journal came out with several
emphatic articles in one issue protesting
against any effort being made to obtain
relief outside of the state, and saying
that any persons soliciting such aid
should be denounced as imposters. It
did this in the f ace of the well-known
fact that the demand for relief would be
so great that it would be impossible for
the eastern part of the state to anything
like fully meet it. In its issue of the
5th is an article stating that funds had
been sent from Chase county to aid the
contest, , and intimating that if funds
could be sent from that county for such
a purpose it probably does not need re
lief from, outside on account of its
drouth sufferers.
! Now in the first place the JournaVs
statement about contest funds sent from
Chase county is an unadulterated false
hood. No such money has been sent
from that county.4 But if it had the ef
fort of the Journal io stop relief on that
account is simply diabolic- There may
be - people in the west who have some
money, and . they can dispose of it as
they see fit.. The contribution of money
to sustain the contest is a patriotic duty
that the independents owe to their lead
ers' and their party, and the Journal may
be sure that theV' will perforin it. But
the stricken' counties have not been ask
ed to contribute to that fund.
: S. H. H. Clark is appointed general
manager of the U. P.
PARNELL.
Since the fatal facts of the Parnell
O'Shea business became public the ciVr;
ilized world has been watching with
batedbreath the desperate struggle of a
great man against destiny. And what
a man he was is. Let us not forget he
is the same man he was before. Only
now we know before we did not.
Look at what he has achieved. When
Parnell emerged from obscurity Ireland
stood with streaming eyes and dishev
elled hair, distracted, a sacrifice to
English freebooters; the spoil of the
church; the victim of centuries of relig
ious and national aversion; regarded as
a malefactor and idolater who was
treated; with sufficient mercy if spared
to Her misery the prey,from William of
Orange to Victoria, of tyrants who ad
mired and manacled only to plunder
her. Her children had been misgovern
ed through a long succession of genera
tions. Her fair green fields were given
over to English landlords. Her sons
were scattered in every clime, and made
by their complainings the Irish cause
the impulse of the world. She was the
mother of Swift, of Grattan, , of O'Con
nell. Hers was the land of Burke, who
plead in an English parliament for
American liberty. Parnell came. He
found an Irish party, indeed, but weak,
aimless and unorganized. It had no
leader. It was full of patriotic longings,
but only , conceived impossible tand
Quixotic adventures. To invade Ire
land through America to attack Eng
land through Canada were stfme of
them. Parnell came, and chaos abated.
Men took their places in orderly array.
A party powerful by its votes, its organ
ization, its just demands, grew under
his forming hand. Parliament gave
attention and the world listened. The
object of the Irish party, before vague
and indeterminate, became well-defined,
and was approved by mankind. It was
the nationalization of Ireland through
an appeal to the enlightened informa
tion and awakened justice of the English
people! This work was going grandly
forward. The greatest of Englishmen
the greatest man of the century, always
next to Lincoln, was enlisted in its favor.
Parnell was the "uncrowned King of
Ireland." Uncrowned, he was the ac
knowledged chieftian of an heroic race.
In the imperial parliament his very foes
admitted he had no peer. He was
hailed as Ireland's Washington, and
might well have hoped to sit in an Irish
parliament, and have been the foremost
citizen of Ireland restored,. to nationality-
'
All was going well, when alas! we all
lear&ed what we might ha!ve known be
fore that Parnell was only a man! A
weak and wanton thread of fate, clipped
by a smiling siren, tripped him, and he
fell, like thousands of other men before
him like many of the very ones who
are now clamoring for his blood and
hisgaiment.
We do not care to censure we do not
,care to palliate or excuse. He was only
a man! great in intellect, great in his
power over other , men, greater still in
his aspirations, which were the noblest
with which God endows men, the as
pirations of a patriot for his country
but still only a man, with a man's un
subdued passions.
Parnell has made two mistakes one
in yielding to his temptation, one in not
yielding to what passes as public senti
ment. '
There is no wrong without a penalty,
and he must now endure the penalty.
He may have absolution only on one
condition: it must be by the man who
has committed "no sin. He may be
stoned also only on the.same condition .
"He who is without sin among you, let
him cast the first stone."
A Benevolent Plan to Aid Western
Settlers.
Lincoln, Nebli Dec. 8, 1890.
To County Clerks, in Western Nebraska where
the drought has Impoverished the people:
Gentlemen: There is now, and al
ways will be, a demand for female labor
in the cities of Liacolnand Oinaha, and
in the rural districts adjoining cities,
by families who are able to employ help,
and by families who are willing to
clothe, and feed girls for their labor,
and qualify them for household duties.
There are many young ladies in your
district that caonot find anything to do
at home, and must necessarily suffer
for want of proper clothing and food,
and who would readily accept a place
in a good tamily, where they could earn
their own living and a great help to
their parents or their friends. This ac
tion on" the part of these girls would
greatly lighten the burden and relieve
the parents and friends of the anxiety
which poverty , through the- drought
forces on the heads of f amilies, and give
confidence and encouragement to them
who must ask for aid. Now, gentlemen
if you will secure the names of such
young ladiess that are willing to accept
a place to work in good families at such
prices as can be secured, or on such
terms as will feed and clothe them, and
tide them over the next six months, or
until crops are assured to their parents,
I think all these young women can find
employment. : . - '
Please send such advice to Rev. Geo.
W. Martin and Rev. Luther P. Ludden,
who are members of the Nebraska State
Relief Commission," located in Lincoln,
and, they will, I think, find .them em
ployment, through the "Ladies' Em
ployment Bureau." in the cities named.
This is a noble work and I believe every
Christian woman in eastern Nebraska
will endorse your actions and help these
poor struggling, ' discouraged girls and
young womeu to earn an honest living.
Please make invostigation in your neigh
borhood and see if there are not many
who will be glad to accept such offers of
help. ! If this can be brought about you
will find hundreds of Christian men and
women who will call you true philan
throplsts,' and ,,wiU aid you in getting
these girls ino good homes; Jv , t , ,
Yours" respectfully,
Mrs. John R. Underwood,
Pres. Women's Christian Association.
Electric Light Contract.
SOME . IMPORTANT I FACTS AND
FIGURES.
A Remarkable Change in the Convic
tions of Members of the City
Council.
Since letting the contract for lighting
our streets by electricity by our city
council, not a little comment has been
brought out as to its advisability from
an economic standpoint.
When notice was published that the
contract was asked for and would come
before the council at its. next meeting,
the chairman of the lighting committee
was waited upon by various . persons
and asked to hold the contract over
long enough at least to inform himself
as to the advisability of letting this con
tract, to which he was quite favorable,
and expressed himself that he thought
the council should be fully informed as
to the cost to other cities before letting
as important a contract as this. Not
only was the chairman favorably in
clined, but also other councilmen, . and
even said in as many words that he was
strongly in favor of municipal lighting,
and would vote against the letting of
the contract. '
In addition to this a petition signed
by a long list of prominent citizens and
heavy taxpayers was submitted to the
council, asking them to defer the let
ting of this contract and the cancelling
of the old contract for gas.
But it seems that during Sunday
something happened to change the
minds of some of the council, or else
they were inspired, or it may be it was
revealed to them that the cost to the
taxpayer cut no figure, and the con
tract must be let at once. In fact, we
found the entire city council except
three, Messrs. Burns, Beohmer and Mc
Laughlin, not only voting for it but
urging its consummation.
So much for what has been done. Let
us see what it meaus.
The contract calls for not less than
sixty lights; all night lights to cost
the city $180 per year; midnight lights
to cost $120 par year.
Now it is conceded that it will be im
possible to satisfy our people who live
outside the business part of the city
with either gas or gasoline when they
pay just as much tax for the support of
the electric lights as those who receive
the benefit, and this emergency has
been looked after by a clause in the
contract for as many more than sixty
lights as the city council shall in their
judgment deem necessary. So as a
natural consequence, before our con
tract expires instead of having to pay
for sixty lights the number will likely
exceed 120. .
Now let us see what the city council
have got this for, and at the same time
see how much of our city's good hard
cash they have voted to till the pockets
of our electric light company. One
hundred and twenty lights at $180 per
year for five years would cost the city
$108,000. We do not wish to be unfair
by taking all night lights for our com
parison, but because they are cheaper
in proportion, and are the most desir
able because , they v afford protection
when needed most. Some time last
fall the council of the city of Scranton,
Pa., appointed a committee to investi
gate the cost of electric lighting. Be
low is only a partial list of the cities
from which they got reports. I give
those nearest the number used in this
comparison:
No. of
lights.
..100
..105
..105 .
..115
Town.
Atlanta, Ga..!
Oalesburv, 111
Boston, Mass.
Sandusky, O.
P'r yr. ,
$130
105
ISO
100
150
140
Time lig-ht'd
all night
Milwaukee
,.iao
Kichmond.ciVa. .133
The above are cities that are lighted
by private corporations. Below is a
list of a few of the cities who own their
own plant:
. No. of
Town. lights. P r yr. ' Time llght'd
Decatur 111 52 B0 (10 all nisrht
P'r yr.
tm (to
30 50
48 (K)
47 60
72 (O
65 60
Uuiikirk. N. Y ... 5T
Madison, I nd.... 85
Little Kock 110
Topeka, Kan.... 14
Chicago... 292
The list is not given iu full for want
of space, but the average on the full
list is $103 .13 per year for private cor
porations, and $52.12 when owned by
the city.
Prof. Barrett makes the following es
timate on the cost of a plant of 120 arc
lights, 2,000 candle power capacity:
Apparatus for 125 aro light capacity.. ..$ 7.500
125 horse power steam 8,500
25 miles circuit, $30u per mile 7,500
Total f 18,500
He says the above estimate includes
everything except building. For the
benefit of those who are not acquainted
with Mr. Barret's reputation, I would
say he is the electrician for Chicago,
and has charge '; of its immense light
plant, with which, when completed, ho
proposes to light the city of Chicago for
$125,000 per year, instead of paying the
gas trust as in the past the modest sum of
$600,000 for a very much poorer light.
Returning to our subject we will take
Topeka for a standard, because it is
similar in location, and also the highest
in the list. 1 he price per year is $72;
Ve will call it $75 per year.
One hundred and twenty lights would
cost the city at $75 . per year , in ' five
years $45,000; we will say our plant out
side the building cost $20,000. We have
then a net, cost to the city for five years'
service $65,000. or a saving of $43,000,
besides owning our own plant, which is
worth nearly its cost. But say it has
depreciated 25 per cent-i we still have
$15,000 to add to our; saving, making a
total of $58,000, or a saving of over 53
per cent, on the present contract.
I have purposely omitted the expense
of a building in this comparison, for we
have a building in the old F street water
plant which has been of no particular
use to the city for several years, excpt
for the I council to spend : money on,
which could be utilized for this purpose
at a very small expense. To say that !
we think there is a nigger in the wood
pile is not necessary. N. S. B.
ALLI.
' ANCE.
i An Enthusiastic Meeting.
: The meeting of the Lancaster county
alliance held on Saturday tho Cth inst.
was a very successful one.
A committee of one from each alli
ance was appointed on relief for west
ern. Nebraska, aud a number . of : alli
ances reported definite action already
taken :v, , . . ..
A number of cars of supplies will be
made up by Lancaster county's gene
rous farmers and placed in charge of the
state relief committee.
O. Hull was re-elected president by a
unanimous vote amid an enthusiasm
that could not but be gratifying to tho
man who has so unselfishly labored for
the success of our cause in this county.
Other officers were elected as follows:
I. N. Leonard, vice president; W. II,
Kerlin, secretary; J. W. Masters, treas
urer; II. M. Penn, doorkeeper; W. li.
Wright, assissant doorkeeper; Wm.
Foster, sergeant-at-arma.
A committee of eight was selected to
assist tne state secretary in meeting
trains and caring for delegates to an
nual meeting of state alliance.
The meeting was enthusiastic, and
delegates were present from every alli
ance in the county, eacfi personally in
terested in the welfare and success of
our organization.
THE ALLIANCE RELIEF FUND.
The following amounts have been con
tributed for the relief of the drouth-
stricken regiou of the state:
Amount previously reported. . . .$370 05
E. S. Davison, Emerald, from
farmers of Emerald 11 25
J. D. Rcising, Ponca, Neb...... 10 00
Gideon Purbaugh, ' Lancaster
county, Nolan alliance
10 00
II. G. Weigel, Diller, Neb., Cen
terville alliance, No. 077
G6o. Timblin, Wisner, Neb., al-,
liance No. 814
8 75
12
Ed. Arnold, Odell, Neb., Glen--
" wood alliance No. 930 10 25
UNPARALLELED JOURNALISTIC
ENTERPRISE.
The Poor Old Journal to the Front.
In the B. f M: Journal of the 4th is an
article under flaming headlines: "A
Secret Conference; The Alliance Will
Hold It at Lincoln," etc., etc. The ar
ticle begins: "The report that the alli
ance leaders will hold a secret confer
ence at Lincoln December 10 is not to
be dismissed with a laugh." Now this
is very funny and illustrates the won
derful enterprise in the news hunting
line of the great morning daily. Some
time before December 4 the regular an
nual meeting of the state alliance was
called to convene at Lincoln December
16. Special rates were arranged for
and published to the alliances through
out the state. There wasn't a county
in the state but what knew of the meet
ing before the Journal published its
mysterious information of a secret con
ference of alliance leaders.
And now comes another amusing in
stance of the sleepiness of the poor old
Journal. In its edition of Sunday, De
cember 7, Mr. Gere has a column edi
torial combating what is called "the
sub-treasury scheme," in blissful ignor
ance that the southern alliance in its
session at Ocala, Fla,, refused to en
dorse this scheme, thus making it a
dea i letter.
If Mr. Gere had been at all well in
formed he would have known what
nearly all alliance men know, viz: that
the scheme never had the endorsement
of any national body, but was a person
al fad of Mr. Macune. The failure of
the southern alliance to endorse it
leaves it on its own merits, and as it
has no merits we hope we have heard
the last of it.
THE GOOD DIE YOUNG.
The Herald is pained to learn fr m a
rolirble source locality, Nebraska City
that the new people's paper, the Inde
pendent, has been established in this
city as a back tire agajnst Brother Bur
rows, ind his estimable and popular
Alliance. Ex-Senator Van Wyck,
Postmaster Helvey and other republi
cans and some envious a liance enemies
of Brother Burrows have taken this step
with the full determination to harass
and sripple him, to raise femls, to di
vide the independent party, to under
mine and destroy Mr. Burrows. That
they may succeed to the full extent U
not impossible. That they will . in a
measure is probable. Most wicked
things do succeed more or less. Lin
coln Herald.
Let 'er went, Dro, Calhoun. Wo im
agine Bro. Burrows would rather en
joy being "undermined and destroyed."
He might get a rest then, which it
Sjeems now nothing but the grave will
afford him. Let 'er went.
But, Bro. Calhoun, don't let your
cynical philosophy get away with you.
Most wicked things do not succeed
"more or less." The good is in plain
daylight the wicked has to be searched
for. "Truth crushed to earth will rise
again," but. "the wicked ilee when no
man pursueth." . .
THE LYING JOURNAL.
The Journal says there are only ten
counties in the , state needing relief.
We give below the list .'of counties to
which relief has been sent by the relief
commission in , this city. We . aro in
formed by the' commission that calls
are constantly increasing:
Banner' Harrlsburgr
Box Butte Nonpareil
J. E. Logan
1. B. Tash
Cash D. Kuller
D. McAleese
'Due- imperial
Cheyenn
I "Ulster "
Dawe
DawBon
Deuel "''
Dundy
Frontier .
Furaa '
Hayes
Hitchcock
Keith -i
Kimball V
Lincoln ll
Locran
cianey
Broken Bow J.O, PaHiter
Chadron
John Q. Matter
Lcxiuffton
Chappell
Uenkleman
PtockvlUe .
Ed Harrington
C. K. Williams
J. D. Horrell
John W. Olmsted
' Beaver City
Hayes Center Geo. Go win a-
Culbertson F. M. Pf rimmer
Ou-allala k. P. Dichson .
Kimball 8. Wooldrldjre
North Platte Butler' Buchanaa
Gandy C. R. Beckvelth .
MoPhersoa U. P. Wilson
Grant J B. Miller
Indianola Geo. W. Koper
Thedford J. E. Joy
McPberson
Perkins
Hod Willow
Thomas
THE LANCASTER COUNTY
"1