10
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT,
:
DECEMBER 18, 1902,
THK Pi EXT STEP
Judge P. S. Crosscup of Chicago de
livered his lecture on "The So-Called
Trusts, or the Next Great Step In
American Politics" last Friday evening
at the state university, appearing un
der the. auspices of the college of law.
Readers of The Independent , are fa
miliar with some of Judge Grosscup's
decisions especially the one in what
Is known as the "school ma'am's" tax
case in Chicago.
"It is the fashion nowadays," said
he, "to point to our place as a people,
Industrially and politically among the
nations of the earth; to take a just
pride in the leadership acquired; and
to exploit the belief that it is not only
secure now. but will remain secure
for a long time to come. We are told
that our manufacturers go to every
land; that our harvesters are to be
Been in the grain fields of Asia Minor;
our. locomotives drawing trains in
Russia; our machinery bringing out
gold from the mines of South Africa;
our bridges spanning the rivers at
Khartoum; and the sultan of Turkey
preparing to defend his sovereignty
by battleships built in American ship
yards. All this, it is said, is still on
the rising tide, so that when the flood
Is reached, the United States will have
become the richest and most powerful
people on the face of the earth."
But granting all this to be true,
Judge Grosscup believes that we
sh6uld inquire, "How goes the life
within?" "During these years," he
declares, "one-third or more of the in
dustries of the United States have
passed from the ownership of individ
uals or local corporations into the
great bodies of property known as the
trusts. Should the process go on un
til all our industries are thus consoli
dated, as many well-informed men
now think probable, the so-called
trusts will have absorbed nearly one
sixth of all the wealth of all kinds.
Nothing in history, outside of the rise
of the feudal system, has left so strik
ing a change in what may be called
the personnel of ownership. . . . Ac
curate statistics show that the former
owners of the industries now consoli
dated have put their money, or the
bulk of it, in the banks; the workman
declines to invest his surplus wages;
and with them, also standing aloof, is
the ordinary man, possessing ordinary
means."
In brief, the judge believes that the
enormous deposits in banks some
thing over eight billions show a dis
inclination on the part of former own
ers of trustified industries to invest
in the new enterprises; but that they
prefer to deposit their money in bank,
content with a low rate of interest,
and continue with the trust as mere
employes. - This he considers a dan
gerous sign.
His remedy is simply an amplified
publicity which wilfencourage a wide
spread investment in trust stocks. Old
methods of production have passed
away and now the former owners
should still continue ownership in the
new enterprises. But they stand
aloof, afraid of losing everything (al
though Judge Grosscup does not so
state), if they invest in trust shares.
So they become bank depositors, And
in the ultimate furnish indirectly to
the trusts what they refuse to do di
rectly. The experience of small sharehold
ers in railroad corporations has been
sufficient to frighten away the man
with a few hundred dollars saved up.
Everything is booming when he buys.
He receives a dividend or two. Then
the receivership comes; then the re
organization and the small share
holder has nothing but a beautifully
engraved and essentially worthless
certificate to remind him that he was
foolish enough in the first place to
play the other fellow's game. True,
the experience with savings banks
has not been much better; but the
bank is close by and each depositor
fondly expects to be at the head of the
line when a "run" comes. He knows
he has absolutely no chance with the
big fish in a receivership and reorgani
zation game.
A GOLDKUO DIFFICULTY
The fellows who want to redeem
silver dollars in gold are meeting with
new difficulties all the time. At a re
cent meeting of the New York cham
ber of commerce it was declared that
there were not less than 40.000.00C
"counterfeit" silver dollars in circula
tion, that is, silver dollars containing
exactly 412 grains of silver, nine
tenths fine, but which had never
passed through the government mints.
Old readers of The Independent will
remember the articles that appeared
in this paper during the two last presi
dential campaigns on that subject It
was specifically stated many times
over that there was an enormous
quantity of these dollars in circula
tion and as there was about 100 per
cent profit in making them, there
would be thousands more of them
continually made. It requires no great
mechanical skill to make a silver dol
lar so perfect that it cannot be de
tected. Instead of 40,000,000 of them
being in circulation, there are prob
ably 100.000,000.
Long before that time the editor of
The Independent wrote article after
article pointing out the impossibility
of a current silver money coined, at a
rate far below the value of the metal,
for it would be impossible to detect
counterfeits. If money of any kind
was to be circulated, the value of which
did not depend on the material of
which it was composed, then that mon
ey must be made of paper so manufac
tured that it would be impossible to
circulate counterfeits without detec
tion. Whenever an economic law is vio
lated, there results unending difficul
ties. No. man can forsee them all.
Every day adds new testimony to the
absolute scientific accuracy of the pop
ulist theory of money and sooner or
later all the nations of the earth will
be forced to adopt it.
"MY LANGUAGE IS PLAIN"
There are some things connected
with the matter that appears in The
Independent that is indeed very puz
zling. Economic articles which ap
pear in the editorial columns of this
paper reappear almost word for word
in scientific journals, in speeches, ad
dresses and pamphlets almost contin
ually. What is most astonishing about
it they "bob up" in the most unex
pected places and are always credited
to some distinguished professor or
man eminent for his studies in econ
omics or sociology. These men must
be in the habit, not only of thinking
the same thoughts, but of expressing
them practically in the same words
that The Independent uses.
"Which is why I remark,
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
And tricks that are vain,
The modern professor's peculiar
Which the same I am free to main
tain." Recently there was a dinner given
to professional economists at Copley
Square, Boston, by the single tax
league in which they discussed
Ground rent; what is its nature, oper
ation an l office; what causes it, what
maintains it, how much is there of
it. Now it happens that tLis same
question was discussed in The Inde
pendent and much that these distin
guished professors said was couched
in the very same language used in
tms paper some months ago. The
question of whether the amount of
land could be diminished or increased
and all the points which were discussed
in The Independent was gone over by
these professors in the same order and
were discussed in the same way that
they were in The Independent. Among
the economists who read papers on
that occasion were: Prof. Charles J.
Bullock, of Williams; Prof. G. A. Col
lender, of Bowdoin; Prof. Willard C
Fisher. Wesleyan university; Dr C
W. Mixter, Harvard; Prof. William
Burke, Alboin college; Prof. Carl C
Pihn. university of California; Prof".
F. Spencer Baldwin. Boston univer
sity, and rroJNCarver, Harvard.
"TIGHT" MONEY
Those poor, simple souls who im
agined that the money question was
settled by the defeat of Bryan, and
who firmly believe that the gold stand
ard was established by McKinley's
election, might learn a little from the
report of the finance and currency
committee of the New York chamber
of commerce on a "Feasible Measure."
The report was adopted and the com
mittee directed by resolution to pre
sent it in person to President Roose
velt. The report says in part:
"We must come right down to
the proposition that the only
thing which can be done to make
our financial system safe, sound
and solid is to get down to one le
gal tender, and that is gold, and
then to bank upon a currency circulation-
enlarged beyond the
present authorized issues of na
tional banks and based upon the
credit of the legitimate trade of
the country and rigidly safeguard
ed under the law."
The report suggests that banks
be permitted to retire their cir
culation at will; recommends that
the coinage of $1,500,000 silver
dollars per month cease, and that
the silver bullion and silver dol
lars in the treasury be coined in
to subsidiary silver coins, and
that the secretary of the treasury
be permitted to deposit customs
receipts in national banks.
T,here you have the real thing. No
legal tender money except gold, and
Ks7
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Ivls
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m wm.
Wholesale Supply House, Omaha.
A Piano by Mail.
We have developed an enor
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If you need a piano or are
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kwsS r .
r J n
mi luiCe ui,
207 South nth St., Lincoln, Neb.
it all in the hands of tin bankers. No
currency except subsidiary coins and
asset bank notes. That would cure
"tight" money! But why should the
silver dollars be recoined into smaller
pieces if their legal tender quality cuts
no figure? Evidently the committee
takes no stock in the current republi
can talk that the 150 million gold re
serve makes GOO million "34-cent dol
lars" circulate on a par with gold.
That committee knows the power of
legal tender.
J. S. Davison, Pryor Creek, I. T.:
I am taking The Commoner and will
continue to take it as long as we can
keep the reorganizes down. If the
money-bugs again get in control in
the democratic party, then I am done
with it and am ready to go with the
people's party. I like your paper.
Lincoln Hide Market
The Lincoln Hide & Fur Company,
920 R street, Lincoln, Nebraska, suc
cessors to S. J. Dooson & Co., quote
the following prices, f. o. b. Lincoln,
until further notice: No. 1 green
salted hides, per lb., 7c, No. 2,
6c; bulls and side branded, Cc;
horse and mule hides, large, each,
$2.35; small, 75c-$1.50; green sheep
pelts, each 40-75c; dry pelts. 5-8c per
lb.; dry flint butchered hides, per lb.,
12-13c; dry fallen, weather beaten and
murrain hides .per lb., 5-10c. Our clas
sified fur list, together with little
booklet telling how to trap, skin,
stretch and handle furs and hides to
obtain the best 1 -suits, will be mailed
free to aU upon request, also write for
tags and general information any time.
All correspondence promptly attend
ed to.
