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14
The Commoner.
Vicarious Benevolence
. Supposo an Oregon farmer had a
pear orchard and the fruit was ripe.
Sunnose also that there, was too much
of the fruit to sell at home and he
wished to ship the surplus to Chicago.
Suppose finally that the railroad
charges were so high that he could
not ship to Chicago without losing
money. What would that farmer nat
urally do? Ho would go to congress,
would he not, and ask for a subsidy,
f Ho would ask "bur benevolent car
, makers to give him a bonus on each
box of fruit large enough to enable
him to pay the freight and sell it at
a profit in the Chicago market. Such
is the habit of farmers, is it not? And
when they ask for such a subsidy they
always get it. Or are we dreaming?
Is it the farmers who ask for subsl
. dies to help pay the shipping expenses
. - of their crops, or is it the millionaire
'" trust magnates. And is it the farmers
who get the subsidies and tariff boun
ties, or is it the great monopolist mas
ters of congress?
It is a dream indeed. One farmer,
or one thousand farmers, may see their
.crops rot on the ground because of
high freight charges and the serenity
of congress and Mr. Root and Mr.
Shaw is not disturbed in the least;
but when certain merchants have
goods which they wish to ship to
';. South America and which they can
,not ship with a profit because the
freight is too high, then there is a
;iuistling and bustling. Then the
'.tongues of statesmen begin to wag.
Then Apolitical philosophy bubbles
j forth in bounteous abundance and we
;,hear of building up a magnificent in
r terriatiohal trade. There is nothing
qulte so lovely in the world as a mer
- chant marine when a trust of ship
builders wants to make a grab from
the national treasury. Nothing in the
, heavens above or the waters beneath
i is so altogether .beautiful as foreign
: commerce when the plutocratic ex
; porters wish the American taxpayer
" to pay their freight bills for them.
J But when the talk swings round to
, fVift 4-n-nUV U,,., tut., m .
.j . mim, tiitsu xvir. onaw turns pale
$ and rends his garments at the very
Luougui 01 loreign trade. Nothing is
au uau Lor ine country as international
commerce when it thrpnfona hQ ,n
W - . --- wvwwWAAfcJ Uil. W.X
i vine tarnr; nothing so good 'as foreign
I trade when it opens the way to a
J grab for the millionaire shipowners.
The domestic trade of this country
; has made it great and prosperous. It
I is worth in dollars many times over
;, what our foreign trade comes to or
! ever can. Our marine upon the great
lakes has flourished and developed to
- imperial magnitude without subsidies,
3 and so would our ocean marine were
the barbarous laws which check and
blight it repealed. In regard to our
- ocean marine we are like the half-witted
farmer who set the brake on his
wagon and then wondered why the
: horses could not pull the load. He
whipped and swore and the team
tugged; but the wagon never budged.
His wife came out to look on. "Wife "
said he, "I shall have to buy another
, horse This load is too heavy for one
. Pair to haul." 'Before you buy an-
' tTLl J don? yTu
, w. w.UV;l ul tuning tno brake off?"
' 7he man stared in amazement at her
. lack of statesmanship. "That w
n?Spli tne Xehelming impor
tance of our domestic trade, laws to
tmwh
KiTMMnTw
lBP
Give effective relief in
bronchial and lung trouble.
Contain nothing injurious.
facilitate it are wrenched from a re
luctant government only after infinite
strivings. Such laws are unconstitu
tional; they are direful paternalism;
they are hostile to capital; they are
socialistic. Congress shies at them;
the courts annul them when they can.
But nothing can exceed the philoso
phical excellence and the entire pro
priety of. laws making donations to
foreign trade. We are like the man
who had a gold mine that would have
made him rich, but he spent all it pro
duced trying to raise cocoanuts in Lab
rador. The gold mine is our domestic
trade. The cocoanuts are the unpro
ductive tradfc With fni-olcrn nn..,Un
which so excites the imagination of
Mr. Root and Mr. Shnw
Foreign trade is a f?nnri tMno- i na
natural sphere, just as cocoanuts are,
but it may cost too much. Before sub
sidizing the -shipbuilders to build up
an ocean marine, why not try remov
ing the absurd navigation laws which
have destroyed it? Why not cut down
the tariff schedules? Foreigners buy
of us more goods than they sell to us
by many hundreds of millions of dol
lars. Since they can take these goods
home cheaper in their own ships than
they could in ours, they naturally do
so, and they would continue to do so
though the whole ocean swarmed with
our merchant navy. The effect of a
subsidy would be to pay a bonus to
these foreigners for carrying home
their own ernnrlcj tMo v.nn..n u
American taxpayers would advance
ou uio tiuaua coma tnen cut prices
to the foreicriRi' hv tho cnmn omni,ni.
The ultimate consequence would ba
. iuhuci uueapening or American
goods in foreign markets. Would it
also cheapen them in the domestic
market? How long will the patient
American consumer continue to tax
himself to make goods cheap for the
English and German purchaser?
Mr. Root's especial fad now is to
beguile us into making a present of
free freight to the South American
buyer. This would be a charming
benevolence, but would it be sensible?
It would enable the trusts to sell
goods to the Argentines cheaper than
they sell them at home, but where
does the taxpayer come in? Benevol
ence is an attractive thing when you
can practice it with somebody else's
money. The Portland Oregonian.
TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES
For years the census bureau has
been gathering statistics relative to
telephones and telegraphs in the Uni
ted States, and the mass of informa
tion collected will soon be issued in
the form of a comprehensive report.
Statistics of the telegraph and tele
phone were first shown in the census
of 1880. At that time the telegraph
had been in successful operation for
f?.y 7ears' wnile tQe telephone was
still in its formative stage. Since
then telephony has outstripped teleg
raphy. Now the various telephone
systems oneratn mnva iimn v.
fourth of thewire mileage and em
ploy about three-fourjths of the wage
earners in the service of both.
o oT?rt 1904 there were approximately
5,300 commercial systems, 1,000 mu
tual systems and 5,300 indenenrtent
S i, eB For the commercial sys
ImSU "eaSe was about 5,000,000,
Z? ! epW' 2.500.000; mutual
Sin?8' m age 90'000' number of
telephones, 120,000; independent lines,
8000a0gO' ' ' nUmber 0f telePhoneS;
In 1902 the number of messages and
SiVS L rWted was 5,00,654,553, of
which 4,949,849,709 were local ex
Cnance calls nrr ion niA oaa i
rHof.; , . "' ' u0" weio long
distance and toll calls. The report
will show tlmf fl, f.. .i
-.. x..,v u. i-uw. uvoiiige tnere
Was one telenhnnn fn nira., oa
J sons; that each person talked G5 times
VOLUME 6, NUMBER
52
THE PRIMARY PLEDGE
6
now1,6 t0 d a" tb primarIes of m Party to be held between
now and the next Democratic National Convention, unless unavoidably
prevented, and to use- my influence to secure a clear honest tn
straightforward declaration of the party's position on every qu st on
upon which the voters of the party desire to speak.
, Signed.
Postofflce
Street ;
County ' State.v. Voting precinct or ward...
Fill out Blank and mail to Commoner Office, Lincoln, Nebraska.
a year and that each telephone was
used 2,200 times,
During the last ten years there has
been a tremendous growth of the tel
ephone service in rural communities,
although the greatest increase in the
number of telephones has been in the
cities. San Francisco was the best
served city in the United States, hav
ing one telephone for every nine in
habitants. The average revenue per telephone
amounted to $37.5p and the average
per message 1.7 cents. The average
operating expense was $24.56 per tel
ephone and 1.1 cents nor mpqaniro n
January 1, 1905, the total number of
telephones in the United States was
3,400,000 against a total of 1,485,784
in all Europe.
The effect of the telephone in re
ducing or checking the amount of tele
graph business is produced in two
ways by substituting the long dis
tance phone call for the telegraph
message between two widely separat
ed points and by obviating to a very
large extent the necessity for using
the telegraph within city limits.
The rates of the two systems for
medium distances do not differ great
ly and for very long distances they
are overwhelmingly in favor of the
telegraph if the message be taken as
the unit; but if the number of words
exchanged be taken into account, as
well as the time required for getting
into communication, the telegraph is
at a disadvantage in case of a large
amount of traffic.
Frequently the brief message will
answer and th -wHtf-on foion-mm or
as a record; but when a swift inter
change is required the telephone
seems to have thoroughly established
its superiority for social matters and
for business. The public employs the
telegraph at the rate of only a little
more than once a year per capita,
whereas the number of telephone
messages is already 65 per capita.
The commercial telegraph systems
owned and operated 1,318,350 miles of
wire in 1902. In addition there were
16,677 nautical miles of submarine
cable. The twenty-five systems have
an investment or capitalization of
stocks and bonds of t$162,946,525, a
total revenue of $40,930,000, and total
assetB of $195,503,775. About 30,000
wage earners are employetl.
The railway telegraph systems are
represented by 684 companies. They
employ 32,000 operators. The number
of messages sent during the year for
railroad business only was 201,743,
756 and the number of commercial
messages was" 4,474,693. Special Cor
respondence Sioux City Journal.
IRRESISTIBLE FUN .
We must have fun occasionally. De
voted as we are to solemn work, the
complications of reformers at times
give us the blessing of a smile, What
is known in Illinois as the Deneen
organization, which owed its recent
victory to the reform element of the
town, before the election entered into
an armed truce with one Martin B
J?? ?S W oSe procIivies are known
5 fiffS On account of the nature
of the Honorable Madden, and his mi
fitness for the snnfAtv f k ",",
true, it was arranged that he should
om ntv Q i reslins: from the
nyrC!?traJ committee. Also, in
spite of the fact that the Honorable
Madden was unfit for association with
the truly good, it was conceded that
he was good enough to represent his
district in congress; so the ways were
greased for his nomination, the presi
dent gave him strong letters of rec
ommendation, nnrt Via -nror, k,
mgly elected. At a certain meeting
of the ward club the letter of the Hon
orable Madden was taken out of the
pocket of the presiding officer and
placed upon the table. The Honorable
Madden walked to the front of the
hall, stood beside the table, and start
ed to make an impassioned address.
The chance was too good. He reached
out, seized the letter, crumpled it up,
stuffed it into the pocket of his
pants," and announced in no uncer
tain language that the letter was ob
tained under duress. The members
of the reform machine in public and
private have not Infrequently ex
pressed the opinion that they always
did suspect that the Honorable Mad
den was not quite right. A negro
coachman had a valuable coach dog
poisoned with strychnine. As the dog
was kicking his last an overgrown
brother-in-law of the coachman stood
in the sad assemblage and repeated
over and over: "I told Mr. Brown
there was something the matter with
that dog." Collier's Weekly.
I B.S. & A. B. LACEY,Wa8hlngton.D.C Estab. 186
Subscrlbtrs' Advising Deparimiat
This department Is for the exclu
sive use of Commoner subscribers,
and a special rate of six cents a
word per insertion the lowest rat
has been made for them. Address
all communications to The Com
moner, Lincoln, Nebraska.
YIRGINIA FARMS,
wood, VA.
DUNLOP, . BOX-
FOR SALE-SHOE STORE. GOOD TOWN,
ffood location, cheap rent. Address, T. S.
Scnnion, Huntlogton, W. Vft.
"KTEWSPAPER FOR SALE OR TRADE
-Ll New presses, nras engine, type and full
job equipment, democratic growing county
seat In Kansas oil and tfas belt. Worth $2,500
cash or clear property. Address "A" care
The Commoner. Last publication.
"XTANTJ5D--A GOOD KANSAS TOWN
TV is in need of a Hyo energetic man to
conduct a democratic newspaper already es
tablished, and will arlve proper inducement to
right? party, Address W. E., Oare Commoner.
.. - i . -
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