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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1915)
c The Commoner JANUARY, 1915 21 was accidental, has not been explain ed. If a .majority of all tho votes can not be secured at tho November election the bill is lost. The ma chine was depending upon that, so they introduced at tho same time a series of twenty-two amendments, called the 'lost amendments,' becauso they "were not entered' in tho house journal; in fact few legislators, not to mention citizens, knew of them. Think of itl Twenty-two amend ments to our fundamental law, de signed to replace a new constitution, being juggled in this secret, under handed manner; these amendments jontain provisions authorizing the legislature to make important laws themselves, like tho initiative and referendum, workmen's compensa tion, special charters for cities, class ification of property for taxation, etc. laws which are fundamental and are a part of the constitution, and should be made by the peoplo themselves. ."Says Cooley: 'In accordance with universal practice and from tho ne cessity of the case, amendmentsto an existing constitution, or an entire revision of it, must be prepared and maturod by some body of represen tatives chosen for the purpose "Jamison says: 'That whenever a constitution needs a" general revision a convention is indispensably neces sary 'That fundamental law is the work only of a convention, a special and extraordinary assembly, convening at no regular recurring periods, but whenever tho harvest of constitu tional reforms has become ripe.' "Knowing who owns our govern ment and controls our legislature, you can readily see the deep laid plot of the machine to frame those laws first when they like; second, how; they like. . SILENCE OF PARTIES IS EXPLAINED This will explain to you why bdth old parties in their platforms ift dorsed a new constitution, and why both narties. through their press and speakers today, ignore the 'constitu tion' question. Silence is negative; in this instance silence is more, it is worse than open opposition, because without knowledge of the question the people know little or nothing about a new constitution, and so will not vote; and every voter who does not vote, id counted 'No.' "Perhaps the most glaring in stance of a bold raid and an utter disregard on the part of the 'ma chine' for the rights of the people, and especially the working people, is found in the state public utility law, passed by the same notorious legis lature. Supposedly designed to pro tect the people and the cities from the merciless tyranny of public fran chise corporations, we find this situa tion: The law was framed by public utility lawyers; it was passed through the legislature by the public utility agents; it is executed by a commis sion made un of politicians and pub lic utility lawyers. ' Where do you suppose the -people's interests come in? "They have been trying to put a similar scheme 'over' in Minnesota, but they have something in Minne sota that, we have not yet reached in this -state; they have many organi zations of citizens for the purpoae of watching the political machine" and the legislature, and so they are al ways ready for action. Those organ -tzatlons went to work and investi gated the pubjic utility commission which haa been operating in their neighboring utate, Wisconsin, for several years. The work of the Min nesota league has been put in pamph let form. Here are juBt a few qno- tatlrmtt? "'Th commission hae shown a tron learning toward the interest of the utilities as against public in terest, revealed in its finding of high rate for service, more than reason able profits and excessive valuations. Originally created as an agency for the protection of the public from the exploitation of utility companies, It has become rather an agency for tho protection of the companies and the means of increasing the value of their Investment.' " 'It has moved with exasperating siowness In rate and service cases in volving great public concern, wjth the companies profiting enormously in the interim of its Inaction.' "It has used the indeterminate permit to protect Inefficient private electric utilities in their local mon opoly, in continuing poor service and excessive charges, and avoiding their legal contract obligations with municipalities.' " 'It has interfered unwarrant ably with the operation of municipal plants. " 'It has failed signally to elimin ate the public utilities from local politics. On the contrary it has com pelled them to be more active than ever.' " 'It has worked to suppress com munity initiative and to retard the development of citizenship and growth of the citizens in capacity for self-government.' " 'It has shown a brutal disregard of local public sentiment in matters affoitine: vitally the political, social and material welfare of communi ties " 'It has gained such influence over tho legislative body of the state that, in effect, it writes its own legis lation, with the result of dangerously enlarged powerp in this department of government." " 'Tho nubile was successful before the Wisconsin commission to a sub stantial extent in but. 7 per cent of the cases brought by It for rate re ductions, and was given even the slightest relief in but 50 per cent of the cases." " 'Public service corporations were successful to some extent in more than 96 per cent of the cases brought before the Wisconsin railroad com mission for rate increases, and wefe fully or substantially successful in more than 82 per cent of the cases brought by them before the com mission for rate increase. They got practically what they asked for in this percentage of all the cases brought." " 'In a term of five years, during which the trend of public service charges have been so otrongly down warfl. it. Is nuite amazinff that the trend under the Wisconsin commis sion should bo uniformly upward INDIANA BILL IS IN INTEREST OP UTILITIES rendering of franchise corporations absolutely independent of tho cities, and to enable them to chargo oxhor bitant rates and give such service as they like; and lastly to legalize the over-capitalization through tho issue of watored stock; and if tho cities should desire to purchase they must do so at tho companies' price. "To nrotect themselves they In serted this clause: "Section 100 provides that 'Every now franchise granted hereafter will bo an indeterminate permit, and any oxisting franchise may do exchangcu for tho Indeterminato permit.' "Tho Wisconsin commission admits that 'Tho indeterminato permit Is a legally protected -monopoly which is more valuable than tho driglnal special franchise, and Is a practically perpetual and exclusive franchise.' "This is also the opinion of tho Wisconsin supreme court. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO CITIES? "As you will see from this, no franchise will hereafter expire. They are now, In effect, perpetual. Picture to yourselves this situation. The day will soon come when tho peoplo must take over tholr public utilities their street car, gas, electric light and water privileges. The history of the cities of tho whole civilized world, outside of the United States, teaches us tliat, ana any tmnKing man can see this day coming soon in tho United States. The fight is already on in many cities. The public utility lawyers knew what was coming, and so Uiey prepared for tho fight. This piece of highway robbery and of wholesale betrayal will cost the peo ple of the cities of Indiana millions upon millions of dollars; and this ia but one example of what it means to own tho legislature, and wny u payg to own tho government, "The cost of a convention has been -used "by the opposition. 'It will cost a million and a half dollars they say. Here are the facts: The official figures in Ohio show that the cost of their constitutional convention was $267,571.11. Wo will have one or two special elections in Indiana, and these will cost approximately $200, 000 each. At the most, total cost would be about $650,0Q0. That looks like a largo amount of money, but the governor of Ohio makes the statement and proves it, that the new constitution saved the state of Ohio $4,000,000 tho first year. I am will ing to make the statement that a new constitution in tnis staie, wun home rule' and the 'initiative and referendum in it, will save the peoplo of Indiana from five to ten million dollars .every year. The reason the opposition in so much ' concerned about tho 'dear people' spending $050,000 in becauso tho five to ten million dollars a year saved comes from tho 'bags of money WHAT OHIO THINKS OF ITS CON STITUTION "The opposition states that thoTiew Ohio constitution Is not a succese; that tho peoplo are dissatisfied, that thoy sco tho dangers of tholr new constitution, etc. 1 wrote letter to leading citizens in each of the larger cities of Ohio, asking their opinion rogarding theso statements. The replies indicate that just tho oppo site is true. One of the most clinch ing arguments received wns mado bj a gentleman from Cleveland, who says: " 'If the amendments that were adopted to tho state constitution hh a result of the recent constitutional convention were so unpopular as rep resented, there would bo a strong movo looking to their repeal. Tho fact that no such movement Is being undertaken, and that tho proposed amendments to tho constitution to bo voted upon at tho next November j election are by way of moro radical I amendments to tho constitution, such as tho prohibition amendment j nn'i te vomnn's suffrage amend ment and tho taxation amendment, I muiuUo that tho peoplo of Ohio are not uissatisiied wun mo iauu aim 'isms' of the new state constitution "A wave of reform against dishonest-government is passing ovor the country. Tho peoplo arc getting an insight into tho question, 'Who owns our government?' Now York, California and several other state will have constitutional convention this fall. Over 500 cities have scrap ped tho old bi-partisan, political -city government system, inuiana is one of but a few states of the union which are still black on the map of pro gressive states. Are we going to be tho very lasf in tho union." "In like manner the Indiana utility bill is wholly in the interest of public utilities, and against the cities. Sec- tfnn 48 marln: " 'No municipality shall hereafter construct any such plant or equip ment where there is in operation in such municipality a public utility en gaged in similar service under an in determinate permit as provided in this act without first securing from the commission a declaration after a public hearing of all parties Interest ed, that public convenience and ne cessity require such municipal util ity 'rvuta -hin dflclAres that all public utilities shall be monopolized, no competition will be allowed. The city must, therefore, buy the existing pri vate plant, or submit; and when they buy they will be handed a piece of property that has been overloaded with watered stock to the bursting poiift, and the price will stagger the P.e. t !, A.faKHaTi. y "This movement wi mo ww.w-.w. inent of public utility commissions is nation wide, and has for purpose the A STANDARD OP C1TIZEN8HD? Elsewhere in this issue will be found a report of an address deliv ered recently in Terre Haute, Ind., by Theodore F. Thiemo before the Federated Commercial clubs. It deals with the question of a constitutional convention for Indiana and in speaks for itself. Tho inspiration for these observa tions Is not tho address, but the speaker. Without investigating his pedigree, we take it that Thieme is a Dutchman he is more, he is a new standard of citizenship. Tho easiest way to dismiss the dis ciples of principles with which we Esapj That's tho money you should jtct thin year, I mean it. 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You should do Swefl. 2 8ALE8 A DAY KEANS So A MONTH. Th work la yen ea.tr. ctcasast. permanent, la .doatlnz. It jneaas a I buticess of jrrt r own, IJtde eacfta! Bcded. t Srant credit Helpyou out Back nan un Don't ilonbt DtB.'t kel t .,- rWkft, hrhlH tiaflr4-.Ymi MttfiAf lose. My other men tic buibusar nouset, mck accounts. Tut same cs penny post card lor free tub offer, lluulct H. S. Kobinson, Pres., 740F"ftftD,$fo1o. CatudUaBrauch. Wlkrvlll, Oat. &sz n ' ; rCS,