12
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
DECEMBER 18, 1902.
Zbe Uebrasha Independent
Elntcln, nbiaska.
HE LRU BUILDING.
J328 0 STREET.
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Econd-cla?s mail' matter. "
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.dduss all communications, and make all
draft.", money orders, etc., payable to
Vbe Htbraska In&tptndtnt,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not be
jiolicid. Rejected manuscripts will not be
returned.
A story is published in the Pacific
coast papers to .the effect that a
schooner load of Alaskan miners got
within about half a mile of the north
pole when they were trying their best
to go the other way. Peary, or some
of the other arctic cranks, might try
that route.
From the testimony given before the
strike commission it appears that the
G. B. Markle Co. is composed of about
as inhuman a set of monsters as ever
enslaved labor. Making little boys
toil for years (o pay the "pluck me"
store bills and coal debts of their
father? killed in the mines and caus
ing the death of women by summary
evictions are some of their doings.
The last Englnh papers received in
this country contain numerous letters
from Hong Kong and other points in
the Orient, all of them declaring that
foreign trade has come to a standstill
on account of the fall in the price of
silver. The correspondent of the Lon
don Times says that the condition
there is worse than it was in 1S92.
There is ldts of trouble ahead for the
gold bugs.
From private letters -The Indepen
dent learns that the populists of Ind
iana are contemplating the holding
of a conference on Washington's
birthday, on which occasion they will
have some remarks to make to David
B. Hill, Grover Cleveland, and other
plutocratic political idiots who think
that they "can win" without the vote-?
of the 2,000,000 men who supported
Bryan, but who will never vote for one
of the Dave Hill breed.
A great deal of talk is indulged in
by the dailies about the 30-cent dollar,
"but the national bank notes is one de
gree worse than the 30-cent silver dol
lar, for it is redeemable in silver. If
a man should conclude that the small
piece of paper issued by a national
bank was not "sound money" and
want it redeemed, all he could g3t for
it is one of these despised 30-cent
silver dollars. But the dailies never
denounce the national bank note
Those dirty pieces of paper are, in
their eyes, just "as good as gold.''
The interstate commerce commis
sion is going to present a formal in
quiry to the railroads, asking them
why they raised rates and the rail
roads will make a formal reply, the
plain English of which will be, be
cause they thought the traffic would
bear it. That will be the end of the
costly farce. But then this is a world
of shams and it all goes in a life
time. There are little shams and big
shams and the public likes the big
shams the best. That is why they
pay so much' to keep up this interstate
commerce commission.
VENEZUELA
The muddle down in Venezuela is a
puzzle past solving for most men, on
aounjt-of a lack of information upon
which to found a satisfactory opinion.
After. one has read columns of stuff
about it in the dailies he is left with
out the necessary facts. It appears,
however, that the German and English
citizens built some railroads down
there. Whether these roads were
owrned by the government or by pri
vate parties the dispatches do not say.
It is stated that interest on the debt
caused by building these roads has not
been paid for five years, and that
Castro, the dictator president, had re
fused to propose any satisfactory plan
for an adjustment.
Of late years the European govern
ments have adopted the plan of be
coming collectors of the bad debts of
their subjects contracted in foreign
lands. The propriety of this, The In
dependent has always doubted and
still believes that it is not the func
tion of any government to become the
collector of debts of private parties.
However, to this sort of paternaiism,
this government and all others have in
late years given their sanction. That
being the case, the English and Ger
man governments formed a pool for
the collection of these bad debts in
Venezuela and sent a great fleet there
to enforce payment. That fleet cap
tured the tiny gunboats and cruisers
of the little South American republic
and then took the captured vessels
outside the harbor and sunk them.
This -needless destruction of property
was in direst violation of all law.
The British say that the Germans did
it and the Germans say that the
British had as much to do with the
destruction of this property as they
had. It is one of the most cowardly
and shameful things that has hap
pened in a long time.
This trust, formed for the collection
of debts in South America by the com
bination ot the British and German
governments, proposes to enforce the
payment by seizing the custom houses
and collecting the tariff themselves.
Castro says he will abolish all tariff?
and enter upon a reign of free trade
and asks the collection trust how it
will get any money that way. When
the trust sent its ultimatum, which
was done in a very queer way, for they
were sent on Sunday and the govern
ment offices not being open, the docu
ments were left at the private resi
dence of the minister of foreign af
fairs, the governments at the same
time withdrew their ministers and
turned over the protection of their
citizens to the United States min
ister, Mr. Bowen. Castro ordered all
of the British and German citizens ar
rested and rounded them up in the
police station. Mr. Bowen interceded
and got most of them released.
That is the history of the row up to
the present writing, but there is some
thing more to it.
Everybody is talking about the Mon
roe doctrine by which this govern
ment has stood since 1823 when it was
first proclaimed in the seventh an
nual message of President Monroe
on December 2 of that year. The sen
tence which contained the doctrine is
as follows:
"We would not view any inter
vention for the purpose of op
pressing them (the South Ameri
can republics) or controlling in
any manner their destiny, by any
European power, in any other light
than as a manifestation of an ua
friendly disposition towards the
United States."
From that day to this the people
cf the United States have stood as a
unit for that doctrine and it has often
been reaffirmed by the executive de
partment. No European government
will be allowed to add one foot of land
to its jurisdiction on this hemisphere.
But this collectors' trust says that the
governments have no such intention,
that they have sent two fleets of war
ships over here for the simple pur
pose of collecting some bills and when
that Is done they will take their war
ships and go home. If they take possession-
of custom houses and small
portions of the territory of Venezuela,
they intend nothing but a temporary
occupation and not a permanent addi
tion to their jurisdiction.
But that is exactly what England
said when she went down to Egypt to
colect a bad debt and every one knows
that she is there yet and intends to
stay there. That is what is causing
such constant reference to the Mon
roe doctrine.
The sycophantic dailies have taken
occasion to talk about the wonderful
foresight of the government in as
sembling a fleet in proximity to the
shores of Venezuela, which is about
t-e silliest sort of writing that ever
appeared in a newspaper. It is true
that Dewey is down in that region in
command of most of the war vessels
of this government, but the assembl
ing of the fleet there for practice and
ma:. :uvering, as every one knows, was
arranged months ago, long before any
European fleet ever started for the
shores of South America, and all the
details of the matter were published
last summer.
.One thing will be a serious detriment
in (he settlement of this question, if
any complications arise, and that is the
imperialism that the republican party
has been engaged in. The principle
upon which the Monroe doctrine was
founded was that the United States
would not interfere in European poli
cies and that the converse of that was
that European governments should not
interfere in American policies, wheth
er in North America or South Ameri
ca. Now the European diplomats
claf .i that as America has abandoned
that position and has gone into Asia
and extended its jurisdiction over a
large territory and millions of peo
ple there, it has thus in abandoning
the principles upon which the Monroe
doctrine was founded, also abandoned
the doctrine itself. This point was
often insisted upon by those who op
posed imperialism.
If Venezuela adopts free trade and
the trust collection agency undertakes
to blockade the ports and levy custom
duties, that will be an act of sover
eignty and the levying of taxes will in
itself be an annexation of South Am
erican territory. What will John Hay
have to say then?
RAG MONEY
The feature in Secretary Shaw's re
port that delights the inflationists and
"rag money" advocates more than
anything else is the recommendation
that the banks" be allowed to issue all
the "rag money" that they wish with
out making it a first lien on their as
sets. If congress fails to indorse this
"rag money" system, then he ooks
forward with pleasure to the time
when the government will begin to
issue isthmian canal bonds which can
be used by the national bankers as a
basis for issuing "rag money," while
they draw interest on both the bonds
and on the. money which they issue.
The amusing thing about this is to
watch the mullet, head mobs. When
the republican party is for "hard mon
ey" they are all for hard money, too.
When it is for "rag money," they de
clare that rag money is just the thing.
If the exporting trusts should find out
that the slide downward of silver
could not be stopped, that the fal!
would ruin the Oriental trade, that
the loss of that trade would bring
stagnation at home and ruin of the
industrial trusts, and should conclude
to turn around and advocate the coin
age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1,
every last one of these mullet heads'
would be out shouting for silver in
side of a week. That is proven by
the way they have taken to rag mon
ey after shouting for gold and hard
money for ten years. Great is the
mullet head.
VINDICATED
For years the republicans have spe
cifically charged that the panic of '93
was the result of the democratic free
trade Wilson bill, but at last that party
has teen vindicated by no less an au
thority than Mr. Roosevelt's secretary
of the treasury. Mr. Shaw in his offi
cial report says:
"In 1893 a very serious financial
panic arose, which threatened, ev
ery commercial and industrial in
stitution in the land. Without go
ing unduly into the history of this
. panic, it is quite universally rec
ognized that the possibility of gov
ernment notes being redeemed in
coin worth less than 25.8 grains of
gold was the prime factor which
led to the hoarding of gold."
So it was not the tariff , at all, but
the possibility of the government
notes being redeemed in a coin worth
less than 25 8-10 grains of gold that
caused the panic and the hard times
that followed. No higher republican
authority exists than that of the sec
retary of the treasury. He refutes the
charge that the panic was caused by a
"democratic free trade tariff." Here
after let no republican spell-binder or
hireling editor of a great daily news
paper bring that old charge against
the democratic party. The question has
been settled by the highest authority.
Neither tariff legislation nor the
"threat" of tariff legislation was the
cause of the panic of '93. It was caused
by the fact "universally recognized"
that the government notes might be
redeemed in a coin worth less than
25 8-10 grains of gold. So that is set
tled at last.
But who was responsible for the laws
that made government notes redeem
able in a coin worth less than 25 8-10
grains of gold? It was the republican
party. That law was known by the
name of the great republican leader
of that time and is still called the
"Sherman act." The republican party
had held power for a quarter of a
century during which time it had al
ways controlled either the legislative
or executive branches of the govern--ment
and nearly all the time both of
them. The laws that made govern
ment notes redeemable in a coin worth
less than 25 8-10 grains of gold -were
republican laws and if that is what
caused the panic and hard times, then
the republican party brought on the
panic and not the democratic party.
Nevertheless the mullet heads wera
rounded up to vote 'er straight under
the cry: "Do you want to go back to
free trade and Cleveland soup houses?"
When it wasn't free trade at all that
did the mischief.
DEPENDENT EMPLOYES
Some of the professors are begin
ning to employ the very language so
often used by The Independent in re
gard to the condition of the masses of
the people. Prof. G. Frederick Wright,
A. M., D. D., LL.D., of Oberlin col
lege says:
"Business is more and more
coming into the hands of immense
corporations, which, like the long
winged beetles, are fitted to sur
vive the financial storms, while
the masses of the people are set
tling down to the condition of de
pendent employes."
This professor is a plutocrat and
seems also to be a fatalist, and he
thinks that the making of the masses
hirelings is the will of the Lord and
all for the best. But the acknowledge
ment of the truth of what The Inde
pendent has been saying, coming from
such a source, is worth mentioning.
This professor of the "Harmony of
Science and Revelation" thinks that
is "evolution" and an illustration of
Darwin's theory of the "Survivai of
the Fittest." It is not the first time
by any means that one of these "di
vine right" apologists has tried to
stretch Darwinism so as to cover their
inhumanity. Darwin never dreamed of
any such thing.
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