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About The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1897)
TALK TO YOUNG MEN. DR TALM AGE ON THE EVILS OF GOING IN DEBT. Instructive Influences of Society Keeping Up A ppcirancea-Temptc Hons of City Lire Ilnncm of the Wine Cap. Our Weekly ftrmon. Dr. Talnmge iu this sermon shows how running into hopeless debts and skepti cism haze undone young men in town aii'l "ouutry. The text is Proverbs vii., 22. "As au ox to the slaugbtei." There is nothing in the voice or manner of the butcher to indicate to the 01 tuit there in death uheud. The ox thinks he is going on to a rich pasture lield of clover where all day long he will revel in the herbaceous luxuriance, but after awhile the men and the boy close in upon him with sticks and stones and shouting and drive him through bars and into a door way, where he is fastened, and with well aimed stroke the ax fells him, and so the anticipation of the redolent pasture field Is completely disappointed. So many a young man has been driven on by tempta tion to what he thought would be para disiacal enjoyment, but after awhile In fluences with darker hue and swarthier arm close in upon him, and he finds that instead of making au excursion into a garden he has been driven "as an ox to the slaughter." Society to Mam. We are apt to blame young men for being destroyed when we ought to blame the influences that destroy them. Society slaughters a great many young men by the behest: "You must keep up appear ances. Whatever be your salary, you must dress as well as others, you must give wine and brandy to as many friends, you must smoke as costly cigars, you must give as expensive entertainments and you must live in as fashionable a boarding house. If you haven't the money, borrow. If you can't borrow, make a false entry or subtract here and there a bill from a bun dle of bank bills. You will only have to make the deception a little while. In a few mouths or in a year or two you can make all right. Nobody will be hurt by it, nobody will be the wiser. You your self will not be damaged." By that awful process 100,000 men have been slaugh tered for time and slaughtered for eter nity. Suppose you borrow. There is nothing wrong about borrowing money. There is hardly a man who has not sometimes bor rowed money. Vast estates have been built on borrowed dollar. Hut there are two kinds of borrowed money, money bor rowed for the purpose of starting or keep ing up legitimate enterprise, and expense and money borrowed to get that which you c!iri do without. The first is right, the other is wrong. If you have money enough of your own to buy a coat, however plain, and then you borrow money for a dandy's outfit, you have taken the first revolution of the wheel down grade. Ilorrow for the necessities; that may be ell. Borrow for the luxuries; that tips your prospects over in the wrong direction. The Bible distinctly says the borrower is servant of the lender. It is a bad state of things when you have to go down some other street to escape meeting some one whom you owe. If young men knew what is the despotism of being in debt, more of them would keep out of it. What did debt ilo for I-ord Bacon, with a mind tow ering above the centuries? It induced him to take bribes and convict himself as a criminal before all ages. What did debt do for Walter Scott, broken hearted at Abbottsford? Kept him writing until his hand gave out in paralysis to keep the sheriff away from his pictures and statu ary. Better for him if he had minded the maxim which he had chiseled over the fireplace at Abbotsford, "Waste not, want not." Going in Debt. The trouble Is, my friends, that people do not understand the ethics of going in debt, and that if you purchase goods with no expectation of paying for them, or go into debts which you cannot meet, yon steal Just so mm h money. If I go into a grocer's store and I buy sugars and cof fees and meats with no capacity to pay for them, and no intention of paying for them, I am more dishonest than if I go Into the st re, and when the grocer's face is turned the other way I fill my jiockets with the articles of merchandise and car ry off a hum. In the one ease I take the merchant's time, and I take the time of ilia messi ngei to transfer the goods to my house, while In the other case I take none of the time of the merchant, and I wait upon myself, and I transfer the goods without any trouble to him. In other words, a sneak thief is not so bad as a man w li contracts debts he never expects to pay. Yet in all our cities there are families who move every May day to get into proximity to other grocers and meat shops mid iipolheciiries. They owe every body tire balf n -nilc of where liny now Ine, and next May they will move into a tii-l.it.t pari of the city, finding a new lot of victims. Meanwhile you, the honest family in the new house, are both ered day by day by the knocking at the door of disappointed bakers and butchers and dry goods dealers and newspaper car riers, mid you are asked where your pred ecessor is. You do not know, it was ar ranged you should not know. Meanwhile your predecessor has gotii- to some distant part of the city, and the people who have anything to sell have sent their wagons and stopped there to solicit the "valua ble" custom of the new neighbor, and he, the new neighbor, with great compla cency niul an air of allluence, orders the finest steaks and the highest priced sugars and the best, of the fanned fruits and perhaps nil the newspapers. And the debts will keep oil accumulating until he gets his goods on the 30th of next April in the furniture cart. No wonder that so many of our mer chants fail In business. They are swin dled Into bankruptcy by these wandering Arabs, these nomads of city life. They cheat the grocer out f the green apples which make them sick, the physician who attends them during their distress and the undertaker who fits them out for depart ure from the neighborhood where tbey owe everybody when they pay the debt of nature, the only debt they ever do pa;, ( uiii mcrciyl l.thlCH, Now our young men are coming up in this depraved state of commercial ethics, ml I am solicitous about them. I want to warn them ngalnit being slaughtered on the sharp edges of debt. You want many things you hnve not, my young friends. You shall have them If you have patience and honesty ami iudustry. Cer tain lines of conduct always lend out to certain succckhis. There is a law which controls even those things that seem hap hazard. I have been told by those wiio have observed that it is possible to cal culate just how many letters will be sent to the dead letter olllce every year through misdirection; that it is possible to calculate just how many letters will be detained for lack of postage stamps through the forget fulness of the senders, and that it is possible to tell just how many people will fall in the streets by slipping on an orange peel. In other words, there are no accidents. The most insignificant event you ever heard of is the link between two eternities the eter nity of the past and the eternity of the future. Head the right way, young man, and you will come out at the right goal. Bring me a young man and tell me what his physical health is and what his mental caliber and what his habits, and I will tell you what will be his destiny for this world and his destiny for the world to come, and I will not make five inaccurate proph ecies out of the 500. All this makes me solicitous in regard to young men, and I want to make them nervous in regard to the contraction of unpayable debts. I give you a paragraph from my own expe rience. My first settlement as pastor was In a village. My salary was JHtK) and a par sonage. The amount seemed enormous to me. I said to myself, "What, all this for one year!" I was afraid of getting world ly under so much prosperity. I resolved to invite all the congregation to my house in groups of twenty-five each. We be gan, and as they were the best congre gation in all the world, and we felt noth ing was too good for them, we piled all the luxuries on the table. 1 never completed the undertaking. At the end of six months I was iu financial despair. I found that we not only had not the surplus of lux uries, but we had a struggle to get the necessities, and I learned what every young man learns, in time to save himself or too late, tht you must measure the size of a man's body before you begin to cut the cloth for his coat. When a young man willfully and of choice, having the comforts of life, goes into the contraction of unpnyable debts, he knows not into what he goes. i''or the sake of your own happiness, for the sake of your good morals, for the sake of your immortal soul, for find's sake, young man, as far ns possible keep out of it! Irreligious Ymmir Men. But I think more young men are slaugh tered through irreligion. Take tiwny a young man's religion and you make him the prey of evil. We all know that the Bible is the only perfect, aystem of morals. Now, if you want to destroy the young man's morals, take his Bible away. How will you do that? Well, you will carica ture his reverence for the Scriptures, you will take all those incidents of the Bible which can be made mirth of Jonah's whale, Samson's foxes, Adam's rib. Then you will caricature eccentric Christians or inconsistent Christians. Theti you will pass off as your own all those hackneyed arguments against Christianity which are as old as Tom Paine, as old as Voltaire, as old as sin. Now you have captured his Bible, and you have taken his strongest fortress. The way is comparatively clear, and all the gates of his soul are set open in invitation to the sins of earth and the sorrows of death, that they may come in and drive the stake for their encamp ment. A steamer 1,500 miles from shore, with broken rudder and lost compass and hulk leaking fifty gallons the hour, is better off than a young man when you have rob bed him of his Bible. Have you ever no ticed how despicably mean it is to take away the world's Bible without proposing a substitute? It is meaner than to come to a sick man and steal his medicine, meaner than to come to a cripple and steal his crutch, meaner than to come to a pau per and steal his crust, meaner than to come to a poor man and burn his house down. It is the worst of all larcenies to steal the Bible which has been crutch and medicine and food and eternal home to so many. What a generous and magnani mous busluess infidelity lias gone into this splitting up of lifeboats and taking away of fire escapes and extinguishing of lighthouses! I come out and I say to such people, "What are you doing all this for?" "Oh," they say, "just for fun." It is such fun to see Christians try to hold on to their Bibles! Many of them have lost loved ones, and have been told that there Is a resurrection, and it is sin h fun to tell them there will be no resurrection! Many of them have believed that Christ came to carry the burdens and to heal the wounds of the world, and it is such fun to tell them they will hnve to be their own savior! Think of the meanest thing you ever heard of, then go down l.OtMl feel underneath it, and you will find yourself at the top of a stairs 1H) miles long; go to the bottom of the stairs, and you will find a ladder 1,000 miles long; then go to the foot of the ladder and look off a pre cipice half as far as from here to China, and you will find the headiiiarters of the meanness that would rob this world of its only comfort in life, its only peace in lea ih and its only hope for immoi tul'ty. Slaughter a young man's faith in find, and there is not much more left to slaugh ter. Physical and Moral Wricks. Now w hat has become of the slaughter ed? Well, some of them are in their fath er's or mother's house, broken down in health, waiting to die; others are in the hospital, others are in the cemetery, or, rather, their bodies are, for their souls have gone on to retribution. Not much prospect for a young man who started life with good health and good education find a Christian example set him, and op portunity of usefulness, who gathered all Ids treasures and put them In one box and then dropped it into the sea. Now, how Is this wholesale slaughter to be stopped? There is not a person who Is not Interested iu that question. The object of my sermon is to put a weapon iu each of your hands for your ow n de fense. Wait not for Young Men's Chris tin ii Associations to protect you or churches to protect you. Appealing to (iod for help, take care of yourself. First, have a room somewhere that you can call your own. Whether it be the house or n room In the fourth story of a cheap hslgliig I care not. Only have that one room your fortress. Let not thp dls sipater or unclean step over the threshold. If they cotne up the long (light of stair and knock at the door, meet them face to face ami kindly yet firmly refuse them admittance. Have it few family portraits on the wall, if you brought them with you from your country home. Have a Bible on the statnl. If you ran afford It and can play one, have an Instrument of music-harp or I! ute or cornet or melodeon or violin or plnno. Every morning before 70a leave that room pray. Every night after you come home in Hint room pray. Make that room your (iibraltar, your Se vastopol, yi.nr Mount ion. Let no bad book or newspaper come into that room any more than jju would allow a cobra to coil on your table. Take ci re of yourself. Nobody else will take care of yon. Your help will not come up two or three or four llights of stairs; your help will come through the roof, down from heaven, from that (iod who in the (i.iHHI years of the world's his tory never betrayed a young man who tried to be good and a Christian. Let me say in regard to your ad'. erne worldly cir cumstances, in passing, that you are on a level now with those who are finally to succeed. Mark my words, young man, and think of it thirty years from now. You will find that those who thirty years from now are the millionaires of this country, w ho are the orators of the coun try, who are the poets of the country, who are the strong merchants of the country, who are the great philanthropists of the country mightiest in church and state are this morning on a level with you, not an inch above, and you in straitened cir cumstances now. Yonnii Men in Great Cities. There is no class of persons that so stir my sympathies as young men in great cities. Not quite enough salary to live on, and all the temptations that come from that deficit. Invited 011 all hands to drink, and their exhausted nervous system seem ing to demand stimulus. Their religion caricatured by the most of the clerks in the store and most of the operatives in the factory. The rapids of temptation and death rushing against that young man forty miles the hour, and he in a frail boat headed up stream, with nothing but a broken oar to work with. Unless AI mighty (iod help them they will go under. Ah, when I told you to take care of yourself you misunderstood mo if you thought I meant you are to depend upon human resolution, which may he dissolved in the foam of the wine cup or may be blown out with the first gust of tempta tion. Here is the helmet, the sword of the Lord (lod Almighty. Clothe yourself In that panoply, and you shall not be put to confusion. Sin pays well neither in this world nor the next, but right thinking and right believing and right acting will take you in safety through this life and in transport through the next. I never shall forget a prayer I heard a young man make some fifteen years ago. It was a very short prayer, but. it was a tremendous prayer: ") Lord, help us! We find it so very easy to do wrong and so hard to do right! Lord, help us!" That prayer, I warrant you, reached the ear of (iod and reached his heart. And there are .100 men who have found out 1,000 young men, perhaps, who have found out that very thing. If is so very easy to do wrong and so hard to do right. O friendless young man, ( prodigal young man, O broken henrled young man, discouraged young man, wounded young man, I commend to you Christ this day, the best friend a man ever hud! l orrt in Benion, Many stories are told of the eccentric P::rson Adams, minister in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, for over forty-five years. He was a man whose character won respect from laymen as well as from his brother clergymen, and tvIiohc Influence was widely felt. At one time be went, to preach in a town some miles distant from Lunen burg', niul stopped to pass the night at a friend's house. It was a cold winter night, nud the clergyman was both tired ami hungry. It was proposed to have prayers at once anl then supper, after which the minister could go di rectly to Ills bed, and get a long night's rest. To this he agreed, and the fam ily were called together. The supper was to consist mainly of Indian cukes, which were set to bake, on platters In front of the fire. The parson's seat was opposite the kitchen door. The service began, but hi a moment Parson Adams saw that one of the cakes bad fallen down and was burn ing. He piiusisl and looked toward his hostess, who seemed unconscious of any culinary crisis. "Mrs. Blank," he said, gravely, "we are told to watch, as well as to pray. I cannot help seeing that one of those excellent cakes is burning. I will thank you to attend to it." The cake was rescued, and Parson Adams resumed his Scripture reading with tin cnsy mind. The Kcnl Work. The rml work before the Christian church to-day Is to show that, while the gospel of love has displaced the, gospel of fear, It has done so in the Interest of higher Christian living. In the IMist the gospel of fear restrained men and somehow at the same time produced men whose lives were flllt'd Willi reverence and hope anil holiness. The gospel of love, if rigidly proclaim ed, must lead to a profoiimler rever eiwe, to fuller and purer hopes and to greater holiness. Otherwise It were better to return to the old gospel of fear. The freedom of this new gospel Is not a throwing olT of the restraints of life, but a putting of Impulses to right In tholr dace; it Is the freedom of the sons of Cod. The call is to 11 freedom In which we can honor (iod best by serving man lnisst. In the Hour of T ciiirtutloii. To realize that He, who Is our cre ator, our daily guide and ruler, our tenderest friend, knows all things and moans to use that knowledge for our good is full of comfort. It Is a help in the hour of temptation. We are check ed, when likely to yield, by the recol lection that the Divine eye Is upon us and that all the oonsocueueos of our sin are foreseen by Him. It Is a help in the (lay of trouble. It Is consoling, In some degree, to Ik- sure that (iod known why we have been ulllletod and how good can lie made to result from our bitterest trials. Whatever knits us closer to our Heavenly Father Is of present, permanent and the utmost lienetll, and our consciousness that Ho Is nll-luiowlug as truly as allloving helps to bind us fast to Him. Near Alachua, Kla., a man who had Just put some tools into a client at ap proach of a storm was struck by light ning and killed as he stood under an oak tree, which wan photographed per fectly In hta body by the fluid. t LOANS TO THE PEOPLE A DEMAND FOR GOVERNMENT SAVINGS BANKS. Jt Baa Reached Froportlona that Will Make It an Important luue t the Coming: eaalnn of CoagreH-Spread Populist Doctrine. Plea for Postal Banks. The demand for a government sav ings bank system has reached propor tions that will make It one of the first and most important Issues of the com ing session of Congress. Tbe move ment is gathering new strength every day and the dally press of the entire country Is joining in the demand. That this movement has had Its origin as a party measure, Inside the ranks of I'opullsm, will probably not be disput ed, but that the movement has out grown the limits of ajy one party is now certain. There are, however, many points in connection with this most important Issue whic h should not be lost sight of and the agitation of which must come through others than the millions who have so recently come into the ranks of those who are insisting on postal savings banks. On those who have thoroughly studied the questions in volved, yet are free from the selfish motives which Umpire certain business enterprises, must devolve the duty of settling this question if It is settled right. Tbe deposits In banks form the basis for a large volume of business which, If drawn fiom the ordinary channels of trade, would seriously unsettle and disturb tbe business world. To many It seems an unreasonable proposition that, bank deposits are far In excess of the total circulation of money in the country, yet such 1s the case. Tbe facts are that money is deposited and then loaned out, then paid to other parties and again deposited; the process being repeated over and over until the fig ures shown by deposits In banks, and a report of "loans and discounts" bear but little relation to the actual money in circulation, but rather, indicates the extent of confidence In the batiks, and the willingness of tbe banks to extend favors in the way of loans. This well-known fact, that the money of depositors is the real basis of the banking enterprises of the country, and the very natural suggestion that a government savings institution would hold all deposits out of circulation has called out frequent objections to the proposition, and well it might were no means proposed to solve this obstruc tion. As the matter now stands the bunks and their whole power is being exerted to secure a postal savings bank law, and the general agitation Is largely due to the fact that they expect to be abb; to fully dictate Its provis ions. Now that the question is an issue and with the well understood fact that the measure has been pushed to the front by Populist agitation, every ex ertion Rhould be used to see that the question Is solved correctly and a law passed that Is an improvement over laws existing In other nations of the world where the money power has dic tated the terms. There is no reason why methods which obtain in a mon archical government should be pattern ed after if there be better methods which might be adopted. There can certainly be no reason why the government should loan the mon ey accumulated by this system to cor porations rather than to individuals on real estate security. No other security is considered superior to real estate, unless it be government bonds. There are questions raised as to the advisa bility of investing in State or munici pal bonds, and there Is certainly a question about many banking corpora tions being seund. Tbe point Is well understood that for the government to accept deposits and make no provision for distribution by some system of loans would lead to a congestion of the money now in circu lation and a retirement as complete as though the money was locked up In a vault or buried; and such a plan could not fail to cripple business, but among the many proposed bills the provision for placing the money again in circula tion Is to let the banking corporations put It out again. This question should be met by active work on the part of evt ry l'opulist ami the work should be done right now. Tbe government should provide for loaning direct to the people Instead of to banking corporations. Every bill that, will be presented will provide for placing a large per cent of the postal deposits out at Interest or In certain de positories. This Is right and is the only true system for a banking business of which a savings system Is a vital part. The main point now Is that the govern ment should place this money directly with the people Instead of giving It to the bankers. One duly of government Is to see that justice Is rendered to all the people, anil there is no n ason why certain corpora tions should be granted the right n use these funds, either free, as may be the case through political favoritism in se lecting depositories, or at n nominal low rate of Interest, while nil others of tbe great nation of people ar ? subject to the demands and requirements of these favored few. The position the Express lias main tained in a steady fight of many years for postal savings banks, Is that the government should make loans direct to the people and at n low rate of In terest. Now that the m hole country is falling Into line In favor of the savings system every true advocate of reform should exert, an Influence II favor of Hie declarations of the Omaha plat form, which la explicit on thn, subject. The government would bo rbsolutely secure agaltvt loss and the borrower would be reiyved from the ruinous rates of usury charged by the banks. Tbe millions of dollar whkh have been hidden away or loewd up in safe ty deposit vaults wulch will by a gov ernment savings system be brought out, would, if placed directly in circula tion, stimulate every industry and bring an era of prosperity. If this question can be settled right, and a measure is passed providing for loans direct to the people, it will prove to be the most important legislative act of the century on the money question. It will destroy tha fangs of the money power more completely than could any other proposition, for when the individ ual is freed from all obligations to the banks it will mean an era of liberty which the people have never enjoyed. There is no reason why the govern ment should loan to a corporation and refuse to loan directly to the individual, when the security offered is good. The government should most assuredly pro vide a plan to save depositors from be ing robbed, but why may it not also ar range to save borrowers from beiu:i held up by the same gang of bandits? The millions drawn out of hiding, if turned over to the banks, only adds to their power, and there is no reason why the government shall be made tbe agent of banking corporations iu their speculative enterprises., The duty of government is to deal Justly and act for the good of all. The question is up for solution, and the only true solution is loans direct to the people. Chicago Express. How Populist Seed. The seed sown by word of mouth and by the distribution of reform liter ature may not germinate immediately, but it will in time. Don't think the seed you have planted has fallen on the rocks because the man you have argued with or gotten to read is as much opposed to reform principles as ever. Even If he seems more opposed to them do not consider tliat as a bad sign, for sometimes ever anger is a good indication. Total disinterested ness is the most discouraging s'.'rn, but remember what one reads is stored in the mind and some day may be years hence it will be taker, off the shelf in the mind's warehouse, and used. Pieces we learned and repeated at school Friday afternoons come into good play now, though we hadn't the least idea of their meaning then. We learned them because it was required of us, but what they meant did not in terest us in the least. Wc used to have an old book of proverbs at home, with the best proverbs illustrated. One of them read, 'The longest way around is the shortefct way home." The illus tration showed two brothers returning from school; one attempted to cross the fields and was plunging through a swamp, only half way home, while the other who had stuck to the good road was nearly to his destination. We did not then realize what that meant. We can now see that if every reformer will obserre the truth of that proverb we wll' succeed much sooner than if we take short cuts across the swamps. Millions of minds are stored with re form knowledge, which are not yet (.onverted, but which only lack some event, some condition, something such as a weakening of faith in the old ways to cause them to suddenly, earnestly and intelligently espouse the cause of reform. Let the good work of spread lag the light go on, regardless of im mediate results. The mother cautions ber boy against evil associations; he 1-uighs it off or endeavors to close his ears to what she says, but her words are stored in his mind in spite of his indifference; he does not realize It; could not repeat what she said. Years later he remembers her loving advice; can repeat every word Just as she said it; remembers the solicitude that was w rltten on her face It Is all as fresh to kirn as if it had occurred but an hour la-fore, though hii mother may have been sleeping in her grave for many years. Workers la the reform move ment, your warnings and arguments are not lost; your missionary work with reform literature is not in vain; keep active In tbe good cause. Let no man's mind escape a knowledge of the principles and arguments of the reform movement. Vi'-tory may be nearer than we think !t Is. Tbe knowledge stoi'Hl away in the minds of the people through the grand work of the noble men who for many years have labored so bard and expended money iu the interest of right and progress will be the ni.'uus of tinhing in the reform movement men In Irresistible numbers. Keep 011 In tlw grand work. Let us never give up trhlle there is life in our bodies. Labor accomplishes all things and l'sir will accomplish the great re forms we advocate and bring blessings untold If we will not falter by the wayside. Patriotic men may tempo rarily V divided as to policy, but they cannot long lis kept apart after they bocoino. enllgbtened. No earnest re former can stray so far from the re form organization but what he can and will find his wny back. We cannot per manently lose a single patriot. If any of us get into the wrong camp we will find It out nu1 make haste to find the true standard. In '88 the reformers had become scattered, but in '02 when the long roll was beaten one mrillon men rallied 1-round the nform ting. When our bar nor Is hoisted high In air again, and w bent the long roll, the scattered hcrs will gather together, re-euforced b, millions whom the logic of events will have taught to use the knowledge Imparted to them by the ad vance guard of the new (virilization. If all the reformers who now have the blues will buckle on their armor and go out to battle It will be but u !' t time until all will be more hope ful a 1 1 encouraged than ever before. Missouri World. l'nty of IVpnllats. The duty of Populists In to get to gether and by a strict adherence to principle, prove to the world that we are fighting for a cause and are not ' mere gang of place hunter. The rink' and tile of Populism are not oilieeseek ers and it is not right that a few chron ic placehunters should dictate party policy. The fusion deals of last year and this may serve to sift out a certain! class who have stranded the party,' and if so it will do good. i 1 Rnistestive Facts. , The commissioner of labor in Mlaw souri, Lee Meriweather, has made a; very complete report of the street rail way business of St. Louis, and the facts presented contain much that la of interest. The capital stock Is $22,-: 837,000 and the bonded debt $15,600, 000, making a total on which interest or dividends are paid of $38,437,000. A; liberal estimate of the actual cost of the lines and equipment complete la placed at a little less than eight and a half millions, being but little over one half of the bonded debt, while all of the capital stock ot nearly twenty three million dollars is clearly ficti tious. During the year 1895 the net earnings of these street railways waa $1,92,4U8, being about one-fourth of the entire value of the lines. The im mense over capitalization of nearly thirty million dollars can only repre sent the value of franchises which were granted free of cost by the city. Even in the matter of taxation the favors given the street car company are simply enormous. The value of the line and equipment is not taken into account, but on the net receipts above operating expenses a tax is paid of 2y per cent. This is about two-thirds of one per cent, on the real value of the property and not quite one-sixth of one per cent, of the alleged value on which Interest and dividends are paid. The man who is paying tax on his home at tbe rate of four to ten per cent, on a 40 per cent, valuation can readily figure out that he is bearing at least ten times his equitable proportion of the burdens of taxation. We're Drifting That Wny. An American missionary, Rev. T. S. Wyncoop, writing from India, has thrown a ray of light on the situation which indicates that the famine In that country is only the sufferings of a wronged and plundered people. In a letter written to friends in this coun try, and published in the Cleveland Recorder, he says there is enough grain and rice to feed everybody, but it Is held by the great grain niefthants who have forced up the price, and "the gov- , ernment decides that it is not their province to interfere with trade." H last winter "visited a district where the crops of the autumn were large, and as the land holders get high prices, they are better off than for many years. Yet among the peasantry great distress prevails." This all goes to show that famine, distress and suffer ing for the workers, doesn't always mean any great loss for the landlords. How long will it be, as things are now going, before this country reaches the condition of India or Ireland, where a short crop means millions of dollars for the landlords, but leaves the workers suffering for bread? The Fool-Killer- Lamrhs. When Moses went down to Egypt to release the Israelites, he did not go to the government with a petition beg ging for more work., He said, Let my people go, that thej may hold a feast. He did not beg for work, he demanded liberty. But the modern slaves cry like frogs, more work, more work; and the Shylocks squawk like cranes, more gold, more gold. Tie foolkiller laughs and Fate spins. Under a proper system of production and exchange, an average of two hours labor a day would t reduce an abund ance to supply all material wants. Un der the present system, those who do the hardest work never have enough. The wage slave, whtn fully employed, is unsufficiently supplied with the common necessaries of life. When out of employment, t he tortures of want and care abide with idm always. The fruits of labor instead of being placed in storehouses for the use of those who produce them are shipped to Europe to pay interest on bonds and mortgages, or turned over for the purpose to na tive plunderers who double the price while the workers suffer want. Auvo cate, Pittslicld, 111, j A New Idee If we do not get postal savings banks pretty soon, the reformers may appeal to Siiiie Leglslul tires tj inaugurate a plan bv which the duties of each coun ty treasurer will be so enlarged as to accomplish for the people just what it is hoped the postal savings bank sys tem will do for them. Under proper safeguards we wonder 'f this plan would not work well until the govern ment adopts postal savings banks? Era, North Platte, Neb. The Democratic party 10-day Is no more uniformly, or radically, in favor of Tree coinage, or so loud in Its de fense of greenback money ns it wa near a score or years ago, opposed to national banks and the destruction of the greenbacks, yet It succeeded In ab sorbing the greenback party and secur ing control of the government only to aid the money power In fastening upon the people its damnable policy of rob bery and ruin. Visalla (Cnl.) News. An inquisitive old sinner nsked us Hie other day how many of the 135,000 striking miners we thought were among the free excursionists who vis ited the "advance agent" during the last campaign In order to secure points on "coming prosperity." We referred him to Mark Hnntm, the agent of the syndicate, w'o n! ! for those exuur alons. Visalla tc..i.) News. Call Judas Iscarlot a friend to our Savior, Ananias a truthful man, Ben edict Arnold a patriot, but don't, fet the sake of your Intelligence call Jones and Stewart of Nevada Popullats. Southeru Mercury, Dallas, Texas.