14
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
DECEMBER 18. 1902.
STRANGE EDITORIAL EPIS DE .
Ia the course of many yeara of news
paper work, some strange and some
very interesting things have occurred,
but none so out of the ordinary as that
the editor of a populist paper should
become the confidant of a millionaire.
Some copies of The Independent com
ing Into the millionaire's possession
Teas the occasion for It F emission
has been obtained to use rome por
tions oft the correspondence as it
shows men who have accumulated
great wealth meet questions that
have a tendency, especially in their old
age, to bring anything but happincv?
to them. The Independent, will make
a short summary of the lu'e of this
millionaire as he has told it himsel!
but in such a way, that no one, not
even his most intimate friends, couid
get an inkling of his name or even thr
etate In which he lives.
In the first- place, this man is wort",
somewhere in the neighborhood of
$20,000,000, that is at the present price
of stocks and bonds. Not one cent of
this has" been accumulated by the vio
lation of any law. According to bus
lness ethics, every cent has been hon
estly made. And in brief, this Is the
way he, got it: He began life on a
cattle ranch. He become acquainted
with a tamer who proposed that he,
the miner, would go out prospecting,
if this present millionaire, whom we
will call Mr. Jones, would grub stake
him for half of what he might find.
Mr. Jones saved every cent possible
of his salary and paid it over to thi&
nan for two years when a "pay
streak" was found. The mine was sold
and Mr. Jones' share, aftr all ex
penses were paid, was $41,000. Willi
this money Jones engaged in the cattle
business and finally sold out his In
terest for $400,000 and went back eas
with that amount of money He ani
four other man secured a franchise
to build a street car line. The fran
chise was given to them and not a
dollar was spent in buying up ci.v
councils. The line was built and
other lines added. The contract not
to charge more than 5 cents a fare
was honestly kept and in one instance
transfers were granted and 5 cents
charged where the contract womM
have allowed them to charge 10 cents.
Upon the original investment the it
come was nearly 20 per cent and pail
quarterly. This was always immediate
ly reinvested in as good securities as
could be obtained on the market, sonv
of it In county bonds paying from o
to 8 per cent interest. The enormous
Income from the street car systems
was really compounded fou; times a
year and mounted up at an astonishin.
rate. Some of this money was also
Invested in real estate, which since
Its purchase has more than doubled
in value.
After a while the other partners in
thy street railroad proposed to dou
ble the original stock. To this Mr.
Joi.es objected, but as the others, all
taken together, owned a majority ot
the stock. It was dene. Thereupon Mr.
Jones job. his stock, which upon its
face was double the amount that he
had invested at 115. The result of
this was that while he had been re
ceiving 20 per cent interest on wh7t
he had invested, he now had returned
to him $2.30 for every dollar that In
put in. This amount that he received
for street railway shares hp invest? 1
In the stock of one of the oldest and
most conservative railroads. Shortly
af.er this Investment, the rrad passed
Into the control of other men and the
stock of that road was doubled by a
vote of the directors and stockholders,
so his capital was doubled again and
on that he has been receiving a quar
terly dividend of 2 per cent. The re
sult of all this and some minor trans
actions, Mr. Jones is now worth $20,
000,000. He has never bribed a city
councilman or tried to influence a
congressman. Only once did he ever
appear at Washington and that was
when he had bought some shares in
an iron and steel concern. The prin
cipal stockholders insisted that he
should; go with them to Washington
ard appear lfore the ways and means
committee o sfcure a higher tariff on
steel and ir' n. He went and appeared
along with them but never uttered a
word when he and the other gentle
men appeared before the committee.
Others did all the talking. Shortly af
terwards he sold all his interests in
that company. Mr. Jones is a married
man and has several sons and daugh
ters. He is a member of one of the
Evangelical churl hes. But Mr. Jones
is not happy. The following extracts
from his letter tells why:
"My sons will not enter into busi
ness or take up any useful occupa
tion and they spend their lives in
frivolity. My older daughter wears
herself out In an endless round of
social functions. Neither of them can
see any necessity of doing anything
bdt to try to amuse themselves. They
know that there is a fortune for each
of them safely invested. I sometimes
feel that I ought not to have so much
money, but I got it honestly. The
only thing that I regret Is that street
car transaction. . I sometimes think of
the crowds of poor working people on
the cars each of whom paid 5 cents,
when 2 cents would have paid a fair
return, on the capital invested. I feel
that my boys would be better men,
yes, and happier men, If they had to
begin life as I did. But what am I to
do? I might spend some millions in
charity,' but charity degrades men and
as to endowing universities, there
seems to be a plethora of that already.
I might enter into some reform move
ment, but I know nothing about gov
ernment or political economy and
would probably do more harm than
7.ocl. It seems that all that I can do
Is to sit here and see my money con
tinue to pile up around me, for It is
all Invested and my . income is large
something like $800,000 a year. The
family spends over $100,000 and the
rest of it piles up. I try to find safe
investments for the remainder from
habit I suppose but thus adding to
the capital only increases the incomt,
and makes the burden heavier each
year and all for what? I wish sonn
one would tell me."
How many more men there are ot
this sort among American millionaires
it would he hard to tell, but here is.
one at least who has not found happi
ness in the accumulation of money. He
has been the victim of his environ
ment as much as any half-starved
wretch in the slums of New York. It
can be plainly seen that his wealth
has come from the gift of franchises
and the watering of stock which has
been the practice under our laws and
sanctioned by public opinion. The
continued accumulations which are
the result of such fortunes, for the
owners can't spend or give away the
vast amounts, will in the end. impover
ish the whole mass of the people.
Think of these things.
A CHANCK FOR MORGAN
Mexican dollars are now selling at 37
cents each in "the world's currency,"
a3 the State Journal lovingly refers to
gold. And American silver dollars
would be selling for a trifle less than
37 cents each if they were not a legal
tender issued by one of the mightiest
and wealthiest nations on earth. Am
erican bar silver is selling at 47 5-8
csnts an ounce. Here is the chance of
a lifetime for J. Pierpont Morgan: By
raising a great hue and cry about the
"parity" and national honor, the pres
ent congress might be induced to take
away the legal tender quality of the
six hundred millions of silver dollars
and offer to redeem them in quantities
of a thousand or more on presentation
at the treasury, giving yellow gold in
exchange.
Of course it wouldn't take but a few
days, or hours for that matter, till
silver dollars would be refused at the
banks for more than 36 or 37 cents,
and the price would drop very fast. It
would not be surprising to see them
go down" to 25 cents or even 10. Of
course the fellow who presented a wa
gon load of them at the treasury would
get gold coin or greenbacks or na
tional bank notes dollar for dollar
and a handsome profit could be made
gathering them in. The poor devil
with four or five of them in his pocket
couldn't get his redeemed; he would
be obliged to take what the grocer
would give him for them: and the
grocer would be obliged to give no
more than the banker would allow for
them on deposit.
Equally of course the $150,000,000
of gold reserve wouldn't last much
longer than the proverbial snowball;
but bonds could be issued to buy back
from the bullion gamblers what they
had withdrawn in exchange for de
monetized silver dollars, and the pro
cess could go on until the whole six
hundred millions were "redeemed."
The gold gamblers would have six
hundred millions of bonds; the silver
certificates would all be wiped out and
the government would have tons and
tons of silver, worthless as money, and
worth but little as metal.
Then by a little more agitation it
could be decided that the government
ought to sell its silver at auction.
That would make such a slump in th
price of silver bullion beside which
all others would pale into insignific
ance. Morgan could buy the dross for
a song and sing the song himself.
Of course, there would be "some
thin doin'" in the United States.
Thousands of business men would go
to the wall, but they would be com
forted bv the assurance that panics
are inevitable; that they come and go
just like winter and summer, and that
it is both trenonnble and blasphem
ous to thin th-.t inv monetary legis
lation could poHilv cause a panic.
Poor, old. nv'i'-v"r' oH "Confidence"
(or want of him) would have to bear
the blame.
Morgan could make a profit of o0
to 75 per cent financing the redemp
tion of the silver do'lars. IT couid
thAn b'iv the coins hack for 10 to 15
cents an ounce. And then, when the
noule were wroeht tin to fever heat
over the panic, Frank Munsey's maga-
MM 1WUI I -J ttffOHldsiiS
The Tas. Boss Stiffened
Gold Watch Case is made of
two layers of Solid Gold with
a layer of Stiffening Metal between
welded and rolled together into one solid
sheet of metal. The Jas. Boss Case is a
Solid Gold Case for all practical purposes.
The Stiffening Metal simply adds
strength and durability. The Boss Case
is guaranteed for 25 years by the largest
watch case makers in the world, who have
been making it for a full half century.
Every Boss Case has the Keystone trade
mark stamped inside. Ask any dealer to
show" you one. Write us for a booklet
telling the whole story.
The Keystone Watch Case Company, Philadelphia.
By this mark Wf yoa know them
zlne and all the munseyized papers in
the United ' States could begin to agi
tate for the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at 16 to 1, regardless. It
wouldn't take fifteen days to do the
trick. Every big and every little re
publican paper in the United States
would be clamoring for free silver.
And substantially every democratic
paper would be "agin' " it But it
would prevail and without spoiling
the mint mark on any of the old coins
hid away in the vaults, Morgan's fif
teen or twenty thousand tons of silver
would suddenly jump up in price from
10 or 15 cents an ounce to $1.29. He
ought to clear up half a billion dollars
easily on this transaction alone, to
say nothing of the half billion made
doing the redemption stunt.
A billion dollars isn't made every
afternoon. And if Morean doesn't
take advantage of this opportunity,
The Independent will mark him down
as fit only for running a peanut stand.
CAPTIOUS CRITICISM
During the past six months the tem
porary school fund has been credited
with $17,000 of interest upon state
warrants, which would indicate that
over $600,000 of Irredeemable warrants
are held as an investment. In other
words, more than $600,000 of the state's
floating debt is credited in the per
manent school fund as an asset, when
in fact it is a liability. To put it
more tersely still, the state has taken
over $600,000 out of the school fund
and replaced the money with I. O. U.'s.
Omaha Bee.
All of which goes to show that the
Bee is better equipped to talk on some
other subjects say, taxation of rail
roads than it is to discuss school
investments. A little investigation
would show that the state now holds
approximately a million and a half of
these "irredeemable warrants." But
the $17,000 in interest came from the
redemption of about $350,000 of 'irre
deemables" purchased some twenty
months previous. Not a cent of inter
est on state warrants held as an in
vestment gets into the temporary
fchool fund until the "irredeemable
warrant," both principal and interest
is fully paid and redeemed. There
are no partial or annual payments of
interest on registered general fund
warrants, as the Bee ought to know.
The Bee's terseness verges on im
becility. The state has taken several
millions of the school fund and re
placed the money with I. O. U.'s of
various kinds. There is about ten
thousand dollars in I. O. U.'s of Un
cla Sam registered consols; three mil
lions and more of county I. O. U.'s;
besides $300,000 in the I. O. U.'s of
Massachusetts (when the deal is final
ly completed).
Is a state bond any better security
than a state warrant, and if so, why?
Has Nebraska ever repudiated a state
warrant, with the single exception of
those illegally issued by 'Gene Moore
to the sugar factory? The Bee's at
titude on this matter reminds The
Independent of the fellow who was so
suspicious of himself that he always
locked his trunk and gave the key to
his wife, in order to make sure that
he would not rob himself.
The greatest travesty on govern
ment ever enacted in the United Stat
es occurred the other day in Denver,
when a majority of the board of coun
ty commissioners who are out of jail
on bonds fo' stealing, got together
and as a boar l of equalization lowered
the taxes on the corporations holdia
city franchises $200,000. When mu
nicipal government gets to that sta'-;
through the bribery of public official
by the owners of city franchises, pop
ulism is the only thing thai will save
them from reversion to actual barbar
ism. With the public ownership of
the water works and street car lines
such thingse could not occur.
a L so J B
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