TH NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
9
be desirable. A state bond Is theoret
ically not as good an Investment as a
county bond, for there is no legal way
of compelling payment and some
states have repudiated their obliga
tions in the past and a good many of
them have threatened to do so not
without great provocation it is true.
And there is another thing: The
Independent has reason to believe that
if the court sustains this view, the
next board will refuse to continue the
investment in state warrants on some
flimsy pretext The Independent will
support the board in their purchases of
other state bonds, but it will fight
them to the bitter end on any proposi
tion to stop buying state warrants so
long as there is a cent of idle money
in sight.
AVALL STREET SPECULATORS
That the Wall street speculators
have not that unwavering faith in the
power of the republican party to pro
duce prosperity that abides in the con
sciousness of the ordinary mullet head,
is very evident. Just when the great
dailies, with heads running across two
pages, were announcing that congress
was safely republican, that God reigned
and the republican party still lived,
stocks began to fall in a most alarming
manner. Average prices dropped near
ly $2 a share on Wednesday, held stea
dy over tne next two days on dull trad
ing, and slumped to the extent of
more than $2 a share on Saturday. The
net average loss of the week exceeded
$4 a share, and in many conspicuous
cases, like American sugar, St. Paul
and the hard coal stocks, losses exceed
$7 a share. Delaware & Hudson fell
10 points, Lackawanna 23, and Reading
7 1-8. But the most noteworthy de
cline was that of the United States
steel stocks, which lost 2 3-8 and 2 3-4
for the common and preferred, respec
tively. The preferred closed at 85 1-4,
rallying from 84 1-2, the lowest point
-of; the year,: and the lowest ever
reached by the stock except for a mo
ment during the panic of 1901.
If the democrats and populists had
carried the house, as a good many re
publicans expected, and such a slump
had occurred on Wall street,, every
plutocratic editor in the land would
have let loose with shrieks wild and
; . Vnged, declaring that the "threat"
of Bryanism was wrecking the coun
try. As it was, not one of them-had a
word to say. A plutocratic editor is
about the most despicable creature
that the good God ever permitted to
roam over this green earth.
The cause of the slump was that the
fact leaked out that all the trust
promoting syndicates were overloaded
with stocks and could no longer induce
the gudgeons to bite. The Republic
Trust company had on hand $4,000,
000 of the ship building trust stock
which it could not get rid of and its
stock fell in one day from $370 to $170
a share. The fact seemed to dawn
on Wall street all at once that the
simple-minded public had invested all
the money that it had in watered trust
stock and no more could be squeezed
out of it.
A DEAD DUCK
It seems very probable that David
B. Hill will not trouble democratic
national conventions with his pres
ence hereafter. He is denounced from
one end of the state of New York to
the other by every shade of democrat.
The Albany Argus, the leading up
state democratic paper, speaks of him
as follows:
"Misfortune after misfortune
has befallen the democratic par
ty, year after year, for a full de
cade to be candidly specific, ever
since Hill's captaincy. In justice
to our own reputation for party -fealty,
in justice to the democratic
party of the state, we must, if
we hope ever again to participate
in the affairs of the nation, be rid
of David B. Hill as our state
leader."
THE REFERENDUM
Mr. Bride's article on direct legisla
tion will be read with great interest
by our readers. ' He refers to the fact
that a constitutional amendment was
submitted to the electors of this state
at the last election. And opponents of
direct legislation will point to its de
feat as proof that the principles of
the initiative and referendum, while
no doub. good enough in theory, are a
flat failure in practice. The vote on
this amendment is not available yet.
but enough is known to say that it car
ried by a large majority of those vot
ing on the proposition, but is irre
trievably lost because a great number
of voters neglected to exercise the
franchise on this proposition.
Why did they neglect to vote? Pri
marily because no effort at least no
systematic effort was made to in
struct the people as to what effect the
adoption of the amendment would
have. The most ardent partisan in
favor of it had no hope of its adop
tion because of past experience with
constitutional amendments in this
state. Our constitution requires an af
firmative majority "of the electors
voting at such election" to adopt an
amendment, and the praeffc-e has al
ways been to side-track the propsi
t.on by placing it at the bottom of
the ballot. Practical men know that
ordinarily the greatest number of
votes are cast on the head of the ticket
and that as we go down the long list,
each succeeding office or proposition
receives a smaller number of votes
either for or against. Constitutional
amendments have been submitted at
almost every available election (in
even numbered years) since the orig
inal instrument became effective in
1875, and it is perhaps no treason to
say that no amendment was ever car
ried according to. the rigid provision
of the constitution although one was
"counted in" by the legislature.
Years of experience have taught the
voters of Nebraska the almost utter
futility of trying to amend the con
stitution. They have given up hope,
and. thousands v:ho favored the pres
ent amendment did not vote because
they felt it to be a useless expenditure
of time. Had the amendment carried,
future amendments could have been
adopted by an affirmative majority of
those "voting on the proposition." Op
ponents of direct legislation are even
now busying themselves in an at
tempt to show that the people will not
become sufficiently interested to vote
on a proposition, but that they will
rend their nether garments to elect a
man. The experience of Nebraska
with constitutional amendments is no
criterion, for the reasons named. But
in many counties at the election vari
ous propositions were submitted affect
ing local government and in every case
the vote was large enough to show not
only an intelligent vote, but also a
hope that something could be accom
plished by exercising the franchise.
The very hopelessness of carrying an
mendment lost it many thousand
votes.
RASCALLY FINANCIERING
There has never been such rascally
work done in the treasury department
since the days of Nick Biddle as has
lately been accomplished. Not even
in the days just after the war, when
the greenback party was organized,
when every one was denouncing the
rascals in the treasury department un
der whose management the great bank
ing fortunes of the country were laid,
was there such villainous collusion
with pet banks and bankers. The re
cent purchases of government bonds is
a greater swindle than that when
Cleveland sold these same bonds to J.
Pierpont Morgan for 104V6, at the very
time that they were being quoted in
Wall street at from 112 to 118. These
same bonds are now from six to cevcu
years nearer maturity, yet are being
bought in by the government at a
premium of nearly 38 cents on tho
15th and Farnam.
mma
,a CSL y ir,, fry-y;rt- S if.
Clothes for Men and Women.
The place to buy your overcoat is here. Not because
of the greater quantity we carry, not because of the
greater variety we show you; not even because of the
lower prices we quote, but because of the safety of buy
ing here. It is absolutely impossible for you to pay too
much or to get a poor coat no matter what you pay
You don't need to be "posted.1' You don't need to be
"a judge." - You don't need to know anything at all
about overcoats except to know Avhat style you want
and -what price you want to pay. We take your money
on deposit you take our overcoat on approval and
we stand ready to trade back whenever you think you
might have done better somewhere else.
a
dollar. The net loss to the govern
ment is something like 30 cents on
the dollar, or $4,500,000 on the amount
of bonds lately bought. This is finan
ciering of a very high order of value to
somebody besides the government, but
to the public treasury it is a disgrace
fully losing business; but year after
year it goes on in much the same way
bonds being sold when the public
credit is lowest, and bought in before
maturity at enormous premiums. This
sort of work is not only scandalous,
but criminal. The treasury department
is run in the interests of the rich and
at every turn of the wheel millions are
poured into the coffers of bondholders
and bankers for 'which they give no
return whatever, except heavy contri
butions to the republican campaign
corruption fund. But they say that
the people are "satisfied." They make
no protests, because by the control of
the public press they are kept in total
ignorance of the facts. If a few hun
dred thousand copies of The Indepen
dent had been circulated among the
people during the last year or two.
there would be as great a protest
against these criminal transactions of
the treasury department as there was
in the days of the greenbackers. That
was before capital had obtained con
trol of the dailies, the agricultural
and religious weeklies. Now the peo
ple are "satisfied" because they know
nothing about it. It takes a critical
scanning of the financial columns of
the dailies and a close watch upon the
stock exchange to learn anything con
cerning it. Not one man in a hundred
thousand does that, or could make any
thing out of these technical market
reports if he did undertake to do it.
Twenty lines in an editorial of the
dailies would attract the attention of
the average man and in those twenty
lines the whole thing could be ex
plained. Why don't the dailies do it?
Because they are owned and controlled
by the "very rascals who profit by.
these crimes.
The prince of tariff revisers is one
Shaw, secretary of the United States
treasury. He just says,, " Facilitate,"
and the tariff disappears. The Dingley
tariff law says, (Sec. 415), "Coal, bi
tuminous, and all coals containing less
than 92 per cent of fixed carbon, 67
cents a ton." But when Secretary
Snay said "Facilitate" that tariff on
anthracite disappeared in the twink
ling of an eye.
SAD
HORSE COLLARS
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m
OURDEALERTOSHOWTl
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Lincoln.Neb.
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Long distance Telephone 2305
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