t
TJIE FARMERS' ALLIANCE, LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY DEC. 17. 1891.
Gije Jarmera' alliance,
PubtUlwd Brery Saturday
Thk Alluxce IVbusiiixo Co.
Cor. 11th sad M Bt- Lincoln, Rob.
3 hum Editor
J.M.TBUMPKM BuslBeaa Ma"
"la tbe beauty of tbelillie
Christ wit born across the tea,
With glory In his bosom
That transfigure yon and me.
As M strove to make men holy
. Let us strive to make them free,
j Since God is marching on."
Julia Mard Boot.
"Laurel crowns cteave to deserts.
And power to him who power exerU.'
"A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surfing sea outweighs."
Emerson.
"Be who cannot reason is a fooL
Ha who will not reason is a coward.
He who dare not reason is a slave."
N. R P. A.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
AMreM all business communication to
sjomnea ru Diieninr n.
U4M matter tor pubiloatkm to Editor
JLrtJeleS written on both sides of the paper
m rul Mnnot be ud.
TBE F AR4IERS' ALLIANCE
published wikxt at
CORNER 11TH AND M STREETS,
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.
I. BURROW'S, Editor.
J. M. THOMPSON, Business Ma'gr.
fat treat Alliance Wsikly art ike Leading
iRatpeadsnt Piper el the lisle.
EVEN COLUMN QUARTO.
It will always be found on the slds of the
yaepls and wholly devetod te theadrooaor of
i principles In state and nation.
IT IS YOUR PAPER.
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Address all orders and make all remits
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Ctll for Annual Meeting of the
Neb. Farmers' Alliance.
The next regular annual meeting of
the Nebraska Farmers' Alliance will bo
held in Bohanan's hall, Lincoln, Ne
braska, on Tuesday, January 12, 1892.
All Subordinate Alliances having dues
fully paid to State Alliance for quarter
nding September 30th will be entitled
to representation, and should elect
their delegate at the first regular meet
ing in December or as soon thcrcaftor
as convenient.
Representation will bo one delegate
for each Subordinate Alliance, who
will cast the full vote to which the
Alliance may be entitled.
Liberal hotel rates have been secured
for delegates and reduced rates of fare
will be arranged for on all railroads.
J. H. Powers, Pres.
J. M. TnoMrsoN, Sec'y.
TRADE DIVERTED FROM THE B. & M,
The hoggishness of the B. & M. rail
road, and its results, is illustrated at
Adams, on the A. & N. line. There is
an Alliance association there which is
handling produce for its members. It
lias a warehouse, but no elevator. The
li. & M. agent at that place, a contempti
ble little tool named Frost, has refused
cars to the association, while giving
the elevator all that eame. When the
matter was reported to the division
superintendent he referred it back to
the agent, and he rejoined with tho
statement that the association had no
grain in sight, while as a matter of fact
ft could load cars as fast as the eleva
tors, and was holding 30,000 bushel of
corn fcr cars. As a fitting sequel to the
hoggishness of the B. & M., and its il
legal refusal to furnish cars to the Alli
ance, Mr. Ashcraft, the manager of the
association, has diverted a large amount
of grain which had been (.bought for
Adams, to Panama, where it will be
shipped over the M. P., which is ready
to furnish cars for grain from B. & M.
territory, even if Alliance men buy it.
GENUINE DEMOCRACY.
The far-famed Boies, of Iowa, who is
supposed to be in training for the dem.
cratic nomination for vice president,
was whisky-republican, somewhat of
the Rosewater stripe. Disgrunted on
account of republican prohibition and
railroad legislation In Iowa, the demo
crats took him up and elected him gov
ernor. Where, O where, are the Jack
i democrats?
ty The New lork Commercial Adver-
fueris informed that the demand! sent
to the Associated Press by atraitorious
old blatherskite in this state have not
bees submitted to or authorized by "the
Alliance of Nebraska." They were J
ground inrouga mo invw fu111'
capital mill of the person above allu
ded to.
some vtsT nnnrr things.
A very funny thing indeed is the idea
that great grain markets can be built
np at Omaha or Lincoln, or any other
inland city, by furnishing facilities for
inspection of grain. For men of sense.
and men of aagacity in business, to in
dulge the idea that trade can be thus
diverted from it natuial channels, is
certainly funny, or perhaps more
properly absurd. There is no earthly
reason why grain In transit to the sea
board or to milling centers, should be
stopped tnroute to be cleaned, inspected
and graded, for the sole and only pur
pose of paying tribute to the place of
steppage. Chicago is a natural place
of trans-shipment for grain going by
rail and from thence east by water
transportation. Kansas City, if there
was water carriage thence to the south,
would be a natural point of transfer.
So also would St Louis under the same
conditions. All those points being
terminals of western roads which do
not care to send their cars to the sea
board, grain Is warehoused at them,
and loaded into other cars. This is an
unnecessary handling, and causes a tax
upon the producer which would be
saved if the government owned the
roads.
It is excessively funny for inland
towns to be clamoring for a milling in
transit rate, whea they have no mills.
This Involves the former foolishness of
trying to divert trade from its natural
channels for the sake of imposing a tax
upon it, and is of the same nature of the
Mediterranean tariff a robbery. A legiti
mate enterprise for the citizens of
Omaha and Lincoln would be to put up
mills to produce the flour consumed by
their own population Omaha has a
population of about 100,000 we were
about to say souls, when we thought of
Jim Boyd and the common council
but 100,000 people. These people will
consume 000,000 bushels of wheat per
ancum. Lincoln has SO, 000 Inhabitants,
a ho will consume 300,000 bushels qf
wheat. The number of mills and the
number of vorkmen needed to convert
this wheat into flour would be very
considerable; and if these towns had
facilities to make their own flour they
could also make the same article for
export. But right at this point will be
met a riddle of the sphinx which must
be solvod on the penalty of death to the
capitalist who tries and falls. The
elements of that riddle are the com
bined flour producing monopolies, with
the falls of St. Anthony kept in repair
at government expense, and the long
haul mania of the combined law-controlling
railroad corporations. When the boards
of trade of Omaha and Lincoln get
rqfdy to approach these problems in
the proper spirit, they will realize the
timidity of capital, and the Insuperable
nature of the obstacles that confront
them.
As to their new Inspection law and
their milling in transit rates, we have
this to say: If the owners or shippers
of grain are willing to stop grain en route
to have it loaded with added expense by
inspection, storage and insurance
charges, it is all right. Men will be
fools, and no one can prevent them.
But if the machinery of this new law is
invoked to compel private warehouses
to become public institutions, and to
compel the stoppage of grain at un
natural points for purposes of tribute,
the final result will be disastrous to the
cities that undertake it.
Some other vory funny things occur
to us anent tho lucubrations of some
gentlemen terming themselves the Lin
coln Real Estate Exchange. The hor
rible inconguityof an editor being a
director of such an institution we pass
in amazed silence. It is dazing. A
fat and lazy editor at that! Did he in
herit real estate? or marry it? or is
he only cherishing a hope of it? or only
accumulating it under his finger nails?
Secretary Gillilan has a gleam of sense
when he advises members of the ex
change to put their own money Into
manufacturing enterprises. Certainly
that is a good way to show faith. But
did he forget the riddle of the sphinx
alluded to above? and that when you
get away from Lincoln fifty miles you
have paid a rate equal to that from
Chicago? and will Mr. G.'s bi others of
the exchange risk their money on the
special favors of a railroad corporation,
which may be withdrawn in a day, or
bettered to a rival in another? Gentle
men, you are reading Euclid backward.
We adv'se you to solve your problems
in their proper order. If you expect to
build don't begin in the air. Your founda
tion must be only four classes of freight
astead of four hundred, and an inflex
ible rate fixed by law.
SECRETARY FOSTER ON DUTIES AND
WAGES.
We make the following extract from
the first annual report of Secretary
Foster. 1 he small caps are ours:
" Inasmuch as a considerable portion of
our revenues mast be derived iron) duties on
imports, it Is the part cf wisdom and patriot
ism to so adjust the rates as to hare regard
lint to the interests of our own people and
the rightful demand of American labor for
remunerative wage. I do not believe that
any considernl number of people desire to
see our Industries destroyed or wages re
duced to the European basis, WHICH WOULD
DC TUB ISBVITABUE RBSfLT Or A RltMNTION
Or DUTIES WITH A VIEW TO KEVIMTI ONLY
While we do not propose to make the
tariff question a prominent issue in this
paper, we are willing to discuss this
question of wages, as it is all the time a
vital question to till producers, Mr.
Foster, In the above extract, goes back
to the antiquated notion that tariff
should be imposed for the protection of
the American laborer, a position which
has for some time past been practically
abandoned by the politiciaus. How
ever, we propose in this article to con
sider that phase of the question, and
to show that any increase in the price
of commodities by the agency of a tariff
tax tends to lower wages to the sole ad
vantage of the manufacturer, and the
loss of the wage worker and the con
sumer who pays the tax.
Wages are fixed by competition, and
while measured in dollars and cents
are high ur low according la the poirer they
give the rorlsr of procuring the products of
the labor of others by tuhaf. Therefore
whatever impedes exchange, whether
it is intervening oceans and rivers, im
passable range of mountains, or im
post duties at natural borders, if it adds
to the cost of articles which tho wage
earner must have, lowers wages. Let
us take one article which tba wage
earner has to buy as an illustration
sugar, for instance. A short time ago
the day wages f a laborer would ex
change for ten pounds of sugar. Now
the wages of the same day laborer will
exchange for twenty pounds of sugar.
Now, is It not apparent that the laborer's
wages have been doubled as they relate
to the exchange for sugar. He can now
exchange one-half a day's labor for the
same amount of sugar for which he
formerly had to exchange a whole day's
labor, and be has remaining the one
half day to exchange for shoes, flour,
clothing, or any other articles for which
he exchanges labor. Is it not apparent,
if he was exchanging all his labor
for sugar," that the reduction of one-half
in th9 price of sugar wosld actually have
doubled his wages. And is it not ap
parent that if the same reduction in
price of all articles he exchanges labor
for took place, that his wages would be
doubled? If wages are high or low in
proportion to what can be obtained for
them the above proposition is indispu
table. Now, what would an increase of
wages such as we nave described result
in? Why, the wage-earner, being able
to supply bis former needs with one
half his former labor, would devote the
balance of his labor to exchange for
additional noeds for more and better
clothes, fcr nicer furniture, for better
education for his children. Thiswould
result in an increased demand for la
bor, in the employment of more and an
increased competition for laborers, and
therefore lacreascd wages.
Every improvement in transportation,
every new machine which increases
production, and every removal of arti
ficial restraints on trade tend to increase
wages. That these things have resulted
In building up the wealth of a few in
dividuals, and not in proportionately
improving the conditioa of the wage-
earners, is tho result of entirely diffe
rent causes, which we cannnot discuss
hero.
The assumption of Mr. Foster that
wages will be paid in proportion to the
ability of the employer to pay, is a long
since exploded absurdity. What would
be thought of a congaessman who
should propose, as a "working-man's
measure," to divide tho treasury sur
plus between two or three railway
kings, and who should gravely argue
that to do this would be to raise the
wages in ail occupations, since 'who
railway kings, finding themselves so
much richer, would at once raise the
wages of their employees; which would
lead to the raising the wages of all rail
road employees and this again to the
raising of wages in all occupations. Yet
this would be equally sound with Mr.
Foster's assumptions that protective
duties on goods raise wages.
Wages in the United States are higher
than in other countries, not because of
protection, but because we have had
much vacant land to occupy. Agri
cultural wages, or wages in the widest
occupation to which unskilled labor
ean be applied, determine tho goneral
level of wages in all countries. To
raise the general rate of wages in the
United States tho wages of agricultu
ral labor must be raised. But our tariff
does not and cannot raise even tho price
cf agricultural produce, of which wo
are expoiters, not importers. Before
we had any tariff wages were higher
here than in Europe, and far higher
relative to tho pf oductiveness of labor.
than they are now after our years of
protection. In spite of ail our jiroteo
tion the condition of tho wage earners
of the United States has been slowly
but steadily sinking to that of the "pau
per labor " of Europe. While this may
not be because of protection, it is cer
tain that protection ha) been powerless
to prevent it.
NATIONALISM IN THE POST-OFFICE.
s
Juno 30, 1801, there were 04,320 post-
oflices in the United States. There were
during the year 1,703,189,408 letters
mailed to other post-offices and 2S9,
553,445 drop letters averaging two cents
each, and 37,727,249 drop letters at one
cent each. And all this, with the vast
newspaper and package postal service
is carried on by the government with
marvelous economy, business ability
and untold benefit to the public If a
corporation like the Western Union
Telegraph Co. were doing it the service
would be made to the people vastly
more expensive and proportionately
less efficient. But if the government
can even now conduct so complex and
vast a bus iness as the pest-oflice de
partment includes, with unsurpassed
business wisdom, economy of labor and
almost perfect honesty, securing to the
people more value in service than it is
possible to obtain for tho same money
of private parties, it stands to reason
that tho government can conduct other
and all lines of business most economi
cally and justly, for the equal good of
all.
A DELIGHTFUL' STORY.
Opie P. Read, the Arkansas journal
ist, has written a new book, " Emmett
Bonlon," and its hero is a newspaper
man, an Arkansas editor. After seve
ral failures "The Back-Log" briags
him fame, fortune and happiness which
a hero deserves, the love of a beautiful
girl. The book has two or three very
amusing original characters, Blahead
the stuttering composer. McAmle the
office seeker and Mrs. Potts the fero
cious female. It Is altogether a de
lightful book and will have wide circu
lation. On sale at this office. Price
50 cents.
RU8SIA S GREAT FAMINE.
The famine in Russia is so far away
and the news of its miseries is so mea
ger that the reading public even ha
almost no conception of the extent of
suffering waicb it embraces and the
heartrending horrors ef its scene.. The
famine district where starvation stalks.
a ghastly f kelaton, is a tract of country
from 500 to 1,000 miles bread and 3.000
miles long, extending from Odessa to
Tobolsk. The number destitute in
October last was estimated at from
30,000,000 to 35,000,000, a number that
must steadily increase during the sue
ceeding months.
About half of the horses of the famine
district were either sold or killed last
September. What stock is left is being
kept on the foliage of trees, straw and
the salted roofs of dilapidated hovels.
Many ol the quadrupeds eat it and be
come sick and die. The people are
barely keeping life in their own bodies
by eating the refuse that remains from
the manufacture of linseed oil and a
mixture called "hunger bread" which is
totatlly unlit to eat. Pig weed in also
used, and so desperate is the need that
a measure of it costs three times as
much as the ordinary price of a strong,
healthy, well-fed celt. Into the midst
of this fight with hunger and death
speculators have pushed themselves and
purchased all the pig weed they could
obtain, putting its price out of reach of
the poorest, forcing them to starve that
they might make at least 300 per cent
on their money.
Pbilimonoff, a well known parish
priest, says: "Many of my parishioners
have had no bread for two or three
weeks, and nre sustaining life as best
they can on grass and the foliage of
trees." He found children unable to
stand, dying of hunger, and in two
days administered the sacraments to
sixteen persons who starved to death.
An entire village was found in October
last in the Booinsky district dying of
hunger, and not one of the males could
stand upon his feet. The peasants
quarrel and sometimes kill each other
over the little that is left of the "hunger
bread," which when given to hens kills
them almost immediately. Any thing,
even what is most dangerous to life, is
greedily devoured by the famishing
wretches. Women who prefer sin to
starvation sell themselves to the rich
for food to live upon. Parents have
also poisoned themselves and their
children in their extremity, and it is
darkly whispered that some have turned
cannibals and eaten their own offspring.
Those who are too weak to walk are
left behind to perish and the strong
leave everything and ronm the country
in search of food. Tens of thousands
of these wanderers have pushed on into
China. Thirty-seven thousand were
driven by hunger from one province
weeks ago. A much larger number in
another province petitioned the Czar to
be granted liberty to leave, having
neither food nor property with which
to buy food.
With skeletons scarce covered, the
vast numbers of the immense famine
district, driven abroad in twos and
threes, in companies and larger bands,
are, as a writer says, "wandering ad
vertisements of squalor, suffering from
dysentry, scurvy and other diseases.
Their eyelids are swollen to monstrous
dimensions; their faces pinched and
withered, aud their whole persons
shriveled from aught human to gnosts
and shadows. Sometimes one meets
them stalking silently through deserted
villages consisting of the tenantless
ruins of burned houses; at other times
they drift into hamlets when instead of
alms-givers they meet their own lean
images, still ghostlier shadows of them
selves, and slink away to a hiding place
which isoften their last earthly lodging."
What is the cause of all this indescrib
able suffering? The country they in
habit is fertile, but the failure of one
crop linds the agricultural class with
nothing accumulated to buy the neces
saries of . life. The royal family ex
penses, the government officials, the
enormous idle army and costly navy,
the nobles, the aristocrats, the land
lords and usurers; all rest upon and
draw their wealth and support from this
ignorant peasant class. They are at the
mercy of men who have no mercy, all
their surplus each year being taken by
tyranical tax-gatherers and unjust
superiors. Even when tho famine was
beginnicg to press upon them the gov
ernment compelled them to borrow
moiey of private money loaners, at
very high rates of interest, to pay their
taxes. But hunger and actual starva
tion is so common in Russia that only
tho great famines'; which como on an
average once in ten years, receive at
tention. Next tan.qt.hiag, however, is
being done by the government to succor
the starving millions. The money
lately borrowed is being invested in
war ships and war preparations. Is it
any wonder that Russia is the heme of
nihilism? The intelligent who sympa
thize with or who suffer among the
poor cannot help being desperate.
Selling Grain and Selling Senators.
Some soft-pated individual is said to
have asked a person named Koontz,
who was formerly a Nebraska senator,
how to dispose of his grain "to the best
advantage" The ex-senator advises
him, if he wishes to sell immediately, to
obtain cars and ship the grain to the
point of sale on a through bill of lading,
with privilege to stop in transit at
Omaha or Lincoln, to clean, "which
will cost you i cent a bushol," says the
ex-senator. He adds, "bo sure and
have your grain inspected and weighed
before going into the elevator and in
spected and weighed before reloading,"
at a cest of 35 cents per car for inspec
tion and 25 eents for weighing each
time-.
If you do not wish to sell at present,
the ex senator advises to ship the grain
to an elevator of class A, and store it.
"You can borrow money on the ware
house receipt 90 per cent of its face
value," at 2 per cent a month, or any
other rate that happens to be going.
Storage will be t ceat per bushel for
the first tea days, and three eighths of
one cent for each subsequent ten days.
This will amount to 17 per 100 bushels
for six months, or os 3,000 bushels, the
amount Mr. Koontz's friend had for
sale, 1210. Insurance will be $1.40 per
1100 for six months, or about 135 on
the whole amount Now, you can
sell your wheat when you get
ready. The longer you leave it in
store the more anxious you will be to
sell it. As your 2 per cent notes become
due you will get just crazy to sell. But
the price will not suit you. The price
of wheat in ore never advances soon
enough nor fast enough for the owners
of it. But after awhile, between cost of
storage and 2 per cent interest, you
will feel impelled to sell. But the
storage sharks, inspection sharks, in
surance sharks and interest sharks will
have corralled a big slice of it.
Now let this editor tell you how to
sell your grain. If you don't want to
sell it right away, keep it aad take
good care of it. It will not cost you
any more to fix a place to take care of
it than it will to stop it in transit, nte.
If you want to sell it now, clean it up
in good shape, and ship it direct to
some reliable bouse at the point of
sale, and save all intermediate pluck
ings. If any one wants te know how to sell
a senator for a little tuppenny office,
we advise him to inquire of ex Senator
Koontz. But if be wants to know how
to sell grain inquire at this office.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TIMES.
"The busiDSBS failures last week were 30C
about the heaviest on record. The commer
cial agencies long ago ceased to publish the
amout of liabilities. Tho whole country was
never so dull, the danger of general collapse
was never so great, a long, wearisome and
profitless future was never so certain. And
yet when a man or a paper ventures to allude
to the notorious facts of the case, he or it is
stigmatized as a "calamity howler." What
the country needs is an increase in the num
ber of calamity howlers and a decrease in the
horde of calamity producers. A peoplo who
can be hoodwinked and gulled Into the .up
port of a party whose control of the govern
ment has brought about this condition de
serves calamity. And It is sure to get it."
The above is clipped from J. D. Cal
houn's paper of December 12. It is the
truth, and we do love a man who is not
afraid to tell the truth. The Omaha
Bee, with the balance of the gold-bug
press, has been rejoicing about the
wonderful revival of business which is
always just about to take place, and
the wonderful prosperity of the farmers
which they have been predicating upon
the great crop of 1891. Now what is
the fact? It is that times have not been
harder for all classes In a year past
than they are now. Money received
for all sales of grain goes at once to the
banks to pay notes or arrearages of in
terest, or to the merchant to pay ac
cumulated bills. The money is then all
sent east, and will not go into the chan
nels of trade here until it is sent back
here to be re-loaned. Another fact
which we stated months ago in this pa
per is slowly percolating through the
thick skulls of these gold-bug editors
and eastern capitalists. That is that the
crops of this year have been most out
rageously exaggerated. There was a
large acreage of corn, but the yield was
light, as always in wet years. There
was a great growth of wheat straw, but
the yield of wheat was light. A few
phenomenal yields have been held up
as fair samples of the whole, greatly to
the deception of the public and the in
jnry of farmers. Prices, considering
the foreign situation, are disastrously
low. This is only explainable by the
two facts of the sales of wind grain and
the fearful contraction of tho currency
compared to business and population.
Failures are increasing in number and
amount day by day. Nineteen-twen-tieihs
of al! the so-called cancellations
of farm mortgages are done by turning
the farms ever to the mortgagees. It
will take two more exceptionally pros
perous years to put the farmers of this
state in as good position as they were
before last year's drouth. The lying
gold-bug prosperity howlers like the
Bee and B. f M. Journal can put these
facts in their pipes and smoke them.
THE IDEAL NEWSPAPER MAN.
Why shouldn't the journalist novel
writer picture his prototype as a hero?
That's what he is if he succeeds. The
man who would win true success in the
newspaper profession must have a mind
fit to lead. He must read onmiverous
ly, he must study men's needs and meas
ures, he must have a capacity for hard
mental work, he must obtain breadth
of view and reason to tho bottom of
things, and must acquire, finally, a
trained, excellent all-around judgment.
But he needs also from the start faith in
himself and his fu'iire, a just reasoning
faith which cannot bo killed by failure.
Journalism cannot be learned in the
schools. Experience is the only teach
er, and experience is a dear school to
attend. Only one among hundreds
with whom he competes can rise to
large success. If he starts out to pub
lish his own thoughts his first paper will
die a natural death und die young And
succeeding newspaper ventures will be
likely to keep him painfully poor. Sj
unless he has in hand a largo stock of
grit and works with tireless persistence,
self denial and patience, he will fail.
PROHIBITION NATIONAL. CONVEN
TION. The national prohibition committee
meets in Chicago on Thursday the 17th
inst. The time and place of holding
the next national convention will be
fixed at this meeting. In fact that is
tha principal object of the meeting.
The prohibitionists of Lincoln will be
well represented, and will make a strong
effort to bring the national convention
to this city. Messers. A. Hardy, Roberts,
Bentley, Hawley, Maxwell, Wolfen
barger and Mrs. Mennick and Mrs.
Belle Bigelow, of this city, and Mr.
Scott, of Sutton, will attend the meet
ing of the committee. We wish them
success.
WHO PAYS THE RENT?
In bis advocacy of the single tax on
land values Henry George claims that
the tax is not a tax on labor or the pro
ducts ef labor, but that it is a tax solely
on the land owner, and that the land
owner cannot shift the burden. This
we have strenuously denied. We have
claimed that rest, like fuel, lights, in
surance, water rates, is an element of
price, and is paid by the consumer; and
that if rent was confiscated by the state
it would merely result in changing
the landlord from the private individu
al to the community. Three weeks ago
the Standard, Henry George's organ,
promised a special article from that
gentleman, elucidating this much
mooted point. We watched for that
article with interest. It came at last,
and greatly to our disappointment left
that subject as much in the dark as ever.
Mr. George asserts that the landlord
loses the rent that may be taken by the
state; but he makes no argument on the
subject, and offers no reasons in proof
of his assertions.
Mr. George says " but land has no
original value." Granted. "Land is
not produced by labor, but is the natu
ral prerequisite and field of labor."
Granted also. " Nor does value attach
to land from the quality of usefulness,
or from the fact of use." Denied in
toto. The "quality of usefulness" and
" the fact of use " are the only things
that give value to land. Even in the
case of vacant idle land, valuable on
account of its location, the value in
heres to it from " the quality of useful
ness," though it may be unused Mr.
George proves this when he says such
land, if the single tax was adopted,
would not long : remain unused. We
make theso quotations only to show
the kind of argument Mr. George uses
to prove the disputed point as to who
pays the rent. As to this point, Mr.
George says " There Is no dispute about
it among economists worthy of the
name, nor is there any doubt about it
amoug land owners."
We accept ihe above sweeping denun
ciation.. We make no claims of being
an economist. But we assert now that
Mr. Georee has never proved his nrooo-
sition. If he has we would be glad to
uu uncu iu mo lusiaucu. ms wnoie
single tax theory rests upon that propo
sition, and unless he proves it it must
fall to the ground.
THE NEW COUNTY COMMISSIONER.
Before the election, and while nomi
nations were being made, the cry of the
railroad republican organs was against
the greed of the independents. The in
dependents were really presuming to
nominate candidates for all the offices!
It was horrible! But it was observed
that there was no dearth of candidates
in the railroad party. The only trouble
was there was not offices enough to go
around. A peculiar fact one never be
fore suspected developed as soon as
the votes were counted, and it was
learned that a number of independents
claimed to be elected. That thing was
the grim stlck-to-ativeness with which
the republicans who had been nomi
nated to succeed themselves held on to
their positions. The grip of a dying
bull-dog, tho clammy embrace of the
deadly tentacles of the devil-fish are
nothing to it. Wherever there was te
be found tho least pretext for a contest,
and often where there was no pretext,
they began contests. Holcomb, Baker,
Wheeler, are only a few examples. In
numerable local contests were threat
ened, and some began. Time will
bring around his revenge in one caee.
The newly elected county commissioner
of this county will not be installed.
There is no contest in this case, but
there is also no vacancy. That this ca
lamity should fall upon a man who has
been so hungry for office is melancholy
indeed. It is probably his last chance.
That his name should be handed down
to posterity unadorned with any official
prehx or suffix is a family calamity of a
serious nature. His consolation may
be that those who do not elimb cannot
fall, and that he loses the office from no
fault of his own, but only because there
is no vacancy.
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
Contrary to the usual custom we do
not publish the president's message on
tho opening of congress. It is a
fourteen-columu document and ab
solutely valueless, either as a
contribution to current literature or
as information to the people. There is
no matter that we are in the habit of
publishing that is not of more value to
our readers than the message, and that
is the reason we do not print the mes
sage. The matters it deals with have
passed into history. As a champion of
the plutocratic Wall street power Mr.
Harrison of course opposes the free
coinage of silver. His arguments on
this question are hackneyed, fallacious,
and unsound In every respect. We
have controverted them time and again
in these columns, and shall probably do
so again as the war progresses. The
money question, and as an incident of
it, the free coinage question, is to-day
the leading issue in American politics;
and notwithstanding that the leaders of
both parties desire to evade this issue,
it will continue to be the leading ques
tion until it is sottled iu the interest of
the debtor classes.
In his character of champion of the
plutocrats, Mr. Harrison also opposes
the election of presidential electors by
a direct vote of the people. This is a
strange statement to make of the presi
dent of a party that was originally the
party of the people, but it is true. The
only significance of his opposition lies
in the fact that the antagonism of a
president shows a marked advance In
the proposed reform.
The message is all that could be ex
pected. Mr. Harrison is a weakling,
personally. His strength as a candi
date lies in his truckling to the political
power of the aggregated millionaires.
Both old parties angled for Senator
Kyle. Both failed, aad both arc now
abusing him.
To Perjuon Aftd Workingtoeo.
Mr. Manderson has introduced s bill
to pension aged workingmen What a
commentary this is on the competitive
system and on free American institu
tions. The opportunities of working
men should be such that they never
need become pensioners. What s pro
spect to bold out before the honest
American laborer, that when his days of
toil are over he must become a pauper,
and live upon the bounty of his fellow
men. We suppose it ia cheaper for the
plutocrats and aristocrats like Senator
Manderson to grind the workingman.
during the vigor of his days, down to
the lowest point of competitive wages,
half starring him and his family, and
then pension him when he breaks down.
The money for the pension, under our
present system, would be collected from
the workingmen themselves. The plu
tocrats would have the profits of the la
bor and pay no part of the pension.
Senator Manderson shows his utter
ignorance of the labor question, and the
demands and needs of the workingman.
And this is not surprising. He is not
for them nor of them.
Repeal the unjust legislation that now
burdens labor establish a monetary
system that will make debt exceptional
instead of universal destroy land mo
nopoly and open out to labor broader
opportunities for self-employment and
no ponsions will be asked for. To leave
present oppressive conditions undis
turbed and offer to pension aged work
ingmen, is an insult to every laboring
man in the country.
If Senator Manderson hopes to gain
any popularity by such a law as this he
will find his sad mistake.
ABUSE OF CONGRESSMAN BRYAN.
The great railroad organ of Omaha
relinquishes its grip upon Congressmen
McKeighan and Kem to give Hon. W.
J. Bryan a dig. Its cause of complairt
against Mr. B. is that he voted for Bill
Springer for speaker. If Mr. Bryan
doesn't make any worse slip than that
during his term, he may be re-elected.
The Bee claims that in so acting he was
inconsistent as a free trader. We fail
to see it. Mr. Springer has not gained
a reputation as a protectionist, and has
always been a consistent democrat
The Bee says Mr. Bryan is a free-trader.
Well, .didn't be trade himself into a
position on the best committee in the
house when he voted for Springer? and
can't he have more influence on tariff
questions on that committee than any
where else? Mr. Bryan is all right at
least as far as trading goes.
UNSCRUPULOUS LYING.
The Journal, of Superior, Neb., says:
"Jay Burrows, in his newspaper
which is the official organ of the Ne
braska Alliance, laysMown the financial
views of its editor. Briefly he declares
for demonetizing both gold and silver
and issuing as the only currency irre
deemable paper money, which shall be
legal tender for all debts, public and
private."
The above is simply an unmitigated,
unscrupulous lie. We will give the ass
who edits the Journal one hundred dol
lars if he will show an editorial taking
tho above position, which has been pub
lished in The Alliance since Mr. Bur
rows took charge of it. On the bssisjof
tho above article the editor proceeds to
moralize against the reformers. It is
on just such falsehoods that most of the
opposition to the independents is predi
cated. Memorial for tie Butterworth Bill.
We publish this week a letter from
one of the most reliable and oldest es
tablished business men of St. Louis, on
the option dealing octopus. This letter
is from a legitimate dealer and packer
who is thoroughly posted in all tho in
tricacies of the business. His opinion,
like that of all dealers in the aetual pro
ducts, should have great weight.
We republish the memorial. We
hope all the papers of the state wili take
this matter up, and see that congress is
overwhelmed with petitions in favor of
that bill in the next thirty df.ys.
The petitions can be sent to this office
for consolidation, and we will have
them presented to congress in the most
effective form.
RAILROAD ADVERTISING.
Wo have refused railroad advertising
in Nebraska, for the reason that this
patronage, and the passes furnished for
it, are conferred solely to control tho
pres3 of the state, let editors who are
disposed to deny this make an aggressive
fight on the political methods of the
roads and see how long thier railroad
patronage will continue. The paper
that apologizes for or defends this sys
tem is absorbing the virus and passing
under railroad influence.
We have not rejected foreign railroad
advertising. It has only rarely been
offered to us. While eastern roads
want western business, they do not get
it by advertising, aud they are not
actively in Nebraska politics. The edi
tor who can see no difference between
an announcement of some special rates
on the Monon Route between Chicago
andlndianapolis for an Alliance conven
tion, and a standing ad. for the 11. &
M. is an egregious a?s. We made such
an announcement on cash terms. We
called for tickets instead of cash, be
cause they was exactly the same to us
as cash. We made the announcement
quite as much in the interest of Ne
braska delegates as of the road.
WHO STOLE IT?
We find an article giving the result ia
the counties of the late election in this
state published verbatum in The Great
West, and credited to the Nonconformist.
Did the Xon Con steal it? We have no
ticed an indisposition to credit original
articles taken from tills paper but
there is such a thing as carrying a joke
too far.
f-The attention ef A. B. Charde is
respectfully invited to the song on our
first page. It sizes up his fusion schema
exactly.
