The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, November 06, 1902, Page 2, Image 2
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. Uig HUIIillUd That's the test of an Incubator and that's thoiecordof the SUCCESSFUL. Don't cxpertmant Gt a time tried and proved In cubator. The hmrrrmmTu not only hatches perfectly, but it will Inst a life-tune doea not awell nor b rink, tiet oar big Incubator book (15 patrea) free. Other catalogue In languages. Des Moines Inob. Company, Svi. S3 IS EaiaM, Ivws. mr lJpLIi. Bnffala, H. T. clde upon the party candidate for the senatorship. There are several can didates for the honor. The party is split as to the nomination and sev eral votes will decide the winner. Finally comes the chance for the mem ber to betray his trust He thinks to himself, I was not instructed, I can vote as I please. There Is no appeal from my vote. It makes very little difference to me who he is just so that he is a party man. Several offers are made to the legislator, bidding for the rote commences, and the man paying the most in money or patronage gets the vote. Take the average legislature of pne hundred and fifty members. The dominant party has the average of ten members majority on the joint ballot, thus giving it eighty votes in the caucus. Forty-one votes will de cide the winner. So that you see that the candidate receiving this num berbut a trifle over twenty-flve per cent a trifle over one-fourth of the legislature , gets the nomination and the remainder of the party will sup port him. Let us suppose for instance that the caucus cannot agree and the time comes for a vote to be taken on the floor of the legislature. A deadlock is precipitated on the legislature and they ballot on and on for weeks and months until the last hour of the ses sion. Finally perhaps they turn the dock back, and lest the party lose a seat in the senate, a compromise is made and the .nan elected is scarcely ever known except as a man who has always supported his party. "While this is going on no stato business is being transacted. In Montana and Ne braska the four present senators were elected after the clock had been turned back a compromise on all four three of them dark horses, whose names had not even been considered tip to that crucial moment And at that one moment when all is at stake oh what a chance there is for brib ery and corruption to creep in. I re member the instance in Kansas sev eral years ago, when a bribed legisla tor regretted his deal and lay on the table of the speaker two thousand dollars more than the whole salary of the senator to be elected. Over twenty-five times his own salary.. Should not something be done to prevent such workings as this? When a candidate for the senatorship can give more than his whole salary when a legisla tor can receive such amounts and his honesty be so severely tested, I say that there should be something done to curb such outrages and protect the people from the candidate. But often the legislature fails even to elect a senator as the present case in Delaware will plainly show. This state has no representatives in the United States senate and all because the legislature refuses to elect one Addicks a gas magnate and he, on the other hand, says, you must elect me or elect nobody. So far he has sue ceeded in keeping that state from hav ing a single representative in the up per house for nigh four years. While these deadlocks last there are very of ten very disgraceful scenes being en acted in the legislature. For an in stance of this I cite the case in Ken tucky several years ago, when, to pre vent bloodshed, the state militia, com prising several hundred men, were sta tloned in the capitol and on the very floor. As long as this system lasts, as long as there Is a deadlock, there can be no assessments, no taxation, no im provements and no appropriations. Al is subservient to the election of a senator. The legislature elected for the very purpose of carrying on the states business is embroigled with other questions and consequently the business of the state must suffer. This shame is crying out for a remedy. I say that these concrete facts cannot be answered by the advocates of the present system. They have existed and that proves conclusively that they can exist again. These wrongs are unan ' swerable, unalterable, and vicious in all their tenets. I ask you, is this method, which we see carried on before us in every sec tion, is this the method that the fath ers proposed? Is this the scheme that the quotations about the fathers of the republic are meant to justify. A change s needed and I venture to predict that the will of the people as de manded by the legislatures of thirty four states, and thrice demanded by he house of representatives of the na tion at large by practically a unani mous vote, I predict the change will . come and carry away the old scheme under which so many evils are mani- ; est But to the second question asked by our opponents. Will your scheme cure these evils? I answer a most emphatic Yes! There can be no Gerrymander, be cause the vote will be taken of the whole state as it is for governor, and other state officials. Under this sys tem every one knows that Gerryman der is impossible. Now to the next statement the voter will be able to cost his vote for the election of a senator directly, thus declaring his views on the national situation, and when he is called to administer a re buke, as he desired to do in the Iowa case I cited before, he may vote for the candidates he chooses. Thus he may vote distinctly on both the state and national issues. What a Utopia for the party-laden voter of today. What a chance for him to be a free American, the sovereign in his own idea, having power to reprove and to commend. When this time has come and I predict it at no distant date one long mile will be passed on the highway of political independence of the voter. You speak of him as cloud ed by the will of his party. Give him but the chance and changed condi tions will make you marvel. There would be no need for party caucusses and the deadlock would be an Im possibility. In one day the vote of the state could be taken, its legisla ture could go to their business, as sessments could be made, taxes could be levied, highways improved, schools built in short, the legislature could do the work its proper functions de mand. The election of senators by popular vote would in one day do the work of months in short, it would rid us of all the evils foisted by the pres ent system. The opposition then assert that this would entail on us the possibility of a senate, whose tendencies would not e conservative. T,et me answer them n one word it is the term of the sen ator rather than the manner of his election that accomplishes this con servatism. It is the fact of his term being three times as long as that of the representative that breeds his con servatism. You then advance that the people would not re-elect the sena tors. Let me answer this by telling you that I searched for figures and failing to find any and being curious as to the real truth of this state ment, I compared the lists of mem bers for the past thirty years and I find that a senator is elected on an average of one and one-half terms, while the usual member of the lower house serves three and one-half terms. So that when they tell me that the people seldom re-elect, I know that they are making false statements, statements that they have taken on the face as the truth, but a study of this question, and the figures that I have obtained convince me that a representative serves three and one half terms, while a member of the up per house is elected but one and a half times. Thus proving that the people elect three times as often as do the legislatures. The figures in this present congress as compared with six years ago show us that out of 356 members of the house who were there six years ago and six years is the term of a senator I find two hundred and forty-six are still members over two-thirds. We find the figures almost the same in the senate, where out of 90 senators, 62 are still members. Thus showing the average to approximately be the same. If we go back to 1890, we find that but 27 out of 90 senators are In that body now. Taking all these figures it can be seen that the percentage of elections by the legis lature as compared with that by the people Is one-third, while the terms served by each In the matter of years Is nearly the same. The senate Is often called a club of millionaires often the American house of lords. To find out the truth of this statement, I find that there are twenty-seven millionaires In the senate almost one-third. For my in formation on this subject I consulted the World Almanac of this year. But perhaps the evil that Is most harped on bv these opponents of prog ress Is the fact that in the system that we propose the senator would be nom inated by a party convention. Those opposed to the popular election of sen ators forget that each of the members of the legislature are nominated by county conventions equally, if not more susceptible to the control of a boss than 13 a state convention. If there Is a chance for bribery in the state convention why then Is there hot more chance for bribery In num berless little conventions. The power of the local boss over his henchmen Is far more potent than i3 the power of a state boss if there- is such a thing. And they forget that behind the bosses, behind the nominee of the state convention comes the voice of the people, who in their power can choose their own masters. This evil has been so much complained of that many have considered a way In which t could be absolutely avoided. The system in operation in many of the southern states and found so capable to avoid the system of boss is the primary system. Under this scheme toe power of a boss is "nulla bona" for anyone may run for office and go squarely before the people with as much power behind him as the nomi nee of a bogs. So we see that if the state convention is an evil, it can be remedied by the primary system in connection with the popular election and by the combination of both of these schemes all of the present evils would be obviated by being rendered mpossible. When we meet'our opponents on the highway and challenge them to combat or the people's rights, when we de mand' that in this day of enlighten ment the people's rights must be re spected, and their voices heard, they fall back to their old argument about the constitution. We believe that the burden of proof is not upon us to prove our system wise, for it is based upon the fundamental tenets of our re public If the power to elect senators s not In the hands of the people di rectly, there must be reason for it and this reason-we demand. If our op ponents fail to show you reason for keeping from the people their just due, if they cannot substantiate the scheme on better grounds than that it has apparently worked well, they have failed to justify a scheme that is un democratic, unrepublican and vicious in all of its tenets. When we have met the opposition and proven that our system, the real defender of the people's rights, would cure the evils that now exist and would reep other ills from brewing, they re treat behind the shelter of the consti tution. I admit that in proposing amend ments to this sacred instrument, that gre?it care should be taken not to de stroy or injure a single fundamental principle of the republic. But if per chance some stone of the superstruc ture is imnronerlv laid or if properly laid, has become worn by abuse or cor roded by "dcrrTt methods unknown and unforeseen by its builders, surely the hand cannot be deemed impious that seeks with loving touch to adjust the misplaced stone, or apply some life giving lotion to that "ark of the cove nant," that bulwark of liberty for ourselves and 0"r posterity. WILLIAM W. BRIDE. HORRORS OF PROSPERITY. LHtl Twentieth Century Slave Who Toll Twelve Honrs a Day While Revel at til Clubs and Theatres. This Is an era of prosperity there can't be any doubt about it for the trusts and great capitalists. It is also an era of slavery child slavery as revolting as the world has ever known. The tales that come from these slave pens are more pathetic and heart rending than any that have ever been told before with perhaps the excep tion of the slave ships. The little black picaninnies of the south before the war were happy and free in com parison with the pale-faced, scrawney little things who toil in the thick dust and foul atmosphere of the tobacco and other factories of the jeat cities. And what is it all for? It is permitted so that the millionaires and trust magnates may have prosperity, and the nation something to gloat over in that it has more millionaires, cor poration and trust magnates, than any other nation of the earth. Mr. John R. Rathom, in last Sun day's Record-Herald, told of the lives, sufferings and surroundings of some of the pitiful little white slaves in the factories of the city of Chicago. In some of the other large cities the slav ery is much worse. Still the million aires prosper. Still the trusts expand. Still millionaires grow richer and the supine and indifferent people vote to keep the government in their hands and that of trusts. Mr. Rathom's ar ticle was as follows: It is very dark on these fall nights down in the wholesale district in the neighborhood of the Rush street bridge. The chill of winter in the air adds to the gloom, and the great black, bulky factory buildings keep sentinel watch all about it. It is as if they were proclaiming "Here is our do main. Where our shadows fall there we are supreme." This forbidding kingdom has its subjects. The men of affairs who are mentifled with every step of the city's YOU CAN MAKE PICTURES. IT'S KAST with one of our KODAKS OR CAMERAS. Complete I,ine of Photo Supplies. Send for Our Catalogue. ' D. E. DePUTRON, 1 17 North ii St. Lincoln, Neb. progress owe allegiance to it, and are proud to proclaim its sovereignty. But we must not look for them here tonight Away out on the boulevards where the trees are still full of their glorious crimson and gold, in beautiful homes where they rest after the cares of the day; in the club houses on Michigan avenue . where they discuss the . responsibilities of life, like the responsible factors of our giant growth that they are; in the theatres where the talented players of the world por tray for them entrancing stories of the past, or of our own civilization there, where every known comfort takes them to its bosom to soothe and refresh them for the struggle of the morrow, they rest contented and happy. Why linger then in this gloomy do main? Surely its towering walls and slippery cobblestones can have no message for us when all human life has temporarily abandoned it. But wait; just a moment, let us wait Not all human life, for through the gloom, here and there, are flickering gas lights in the windows and figures are passing back and forth, and feet are moving, and if we come a little closer we can hear the whirr of . factory, wheels and the clank of machinery in its even monotone of strength. So we will step back in the shadow of an archway and look a little farther into the marvels that are being spun into this wonderful web of activity. The shadows deepen. Here and there thrcsgh the break in the fog a star sparkles; a long way oil it seems. Soon a bell clangs out, and then we see the shadows passing more swiftly still in the windows; the lights vanish altogether, and the clatter of an army of workers sounds on the worn wooden stairways. Now for a sight of the brawn of, American manhood the faithful toil ers whose labor can. move all human, things in giant strides upward; whose stayed arm can throw all the world into stagnation. Hats off, then, as thfy come, for approaching us are the piilars of the republic, those who by (heir labor reap health, by their health reap contentment, by their content ment open the source of every human joy. And here, out onto the dirty, road way through the frowsy doors they come. And at the sight of them die all our gathered thoughts of admira tion, and in their place come bitter ness and pity and shame. For the night toilers here are not men at. all, but women, and girls, and little children. Had we seen tho wom en alone, white and hollow-eyed as they are, the thing would have been enough to shock us. Had we seen none but the tall, thin, frail girls just reaching womanhood the appall-" ing conditions that had brought about such a sight might have seemed In comprehensible. But when out into the chill night stagger the little hopeless, helpless creatures whose forms and faces mock the name of childhood, what can we do for the first few moments but turn white and sick and stand dumb before the revelation, or curse the iniquity that takes a baby life, squeezes it dry of love and hope and ambition, of heart and of brain, and gives to it, in token of the generosity and the prosperity of our great merchant princes 5 cents an hour and an early grave. Exaggeration here may be doing someone a grievous and wicked wrong. Conditions may not be as bad as they appear to us in the first few moments after the pitiful procession gropes down the wooden stairways. Let us push back and smother as far as possi ble the feelings that would otherwise overwhelm us, and become, for a lit tle while, impartial investigators. Two little girls, clutching hands as they move out into the night, are just in front of us. They stumble and slip along over the cobbles and then make for the opposite sidewalk, where they hug the pitiless unfriendliness of the factory walls and make for "home." We will go with them. A tap on the shoulder, and both faces, such poor, helpless, old-woman faces, are turned inquiringly, without fear, to our own. A few kindly words, a look, of wonder for the uncommon