THE NEBRASKA-INDEPENDENT
the Uebraska Independent
Lincoln, Uebraika.
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LIBERTY BUILDING.
1328 0 STREET
Entered according JoActcf Congress of March
$, i?79, at the Postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, as
, eecond-claes mail matter.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
$1.00 PER YEAR
When making remittances do not leave
mcney with news agencies, postmasters, etc.,
to be forwarded ty them. They frequently
forget or remit a different amount than was
kit with them, and the subscriber fails to get
proper credit.
"Address all communications, and make all
draft, money orders, etc., payable to
the Uebraska Independent,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not be
aotktd. Rejected manuscripts will not be
returned.
The Independent has been favored
with 'a marked copy of the Christian
Cynosure (Chicago) asking that the
American people "guard the Mt. Ver
non tomb." The whole magazine
seems to be devoted to an attack on
freemasonry.
: Certainty in . punishment is much
more salutary than severity; In the
olden times persons were subject to
capital punishment for all sorts of
misdemeanors, but crime was even
. more prevalent than now. The fear
of hanging never prevented a murder.
The Independent is pleased to see
that the legal representatives of Mar
ion Mead Morrell, who was killed in
the Table Rock .wreck last month,
have sued the Burlington for $50,000.
. A. D. McCandless of Wymore and E.
O. Kretsinger of Beatrice represent
the plaintiff.
Thes total output of coal, bituminous
and anthracite, for the year 1901 was
293,298,516, and for 1902, 295,018,192
tons. Where does the shortage com 3
from? There was a shortage in the
output of anthracite of 23,738,536 tons,
. but that was more than made up by
the increase in the output of bitum
inous. ,
And now it is announced that Edna
Wallace Hopper is to set a new pace
v for eastern idiots. It is nothing more
or less than to have diamonds set in
her finger nails. Of course the in
genious paragrapher does not explain
' how the diamonds can be fastened to
the nails but that doesn't bother him
in the least It suffices for an illus
trated two-column article in the Cin
cinnati Enquirer, that one-time sup
posedly democratic paper. '
Republicans take their political
economy second hand from the pop
ulists. Populism, seen too oft, fa
miliar with its face, they first de
nounce and then embrace. Look at
these chaps, after having called pop
ulists anarchists for ten years - for
advocating the public ownership of
street car lines, water and gas works,
now introducing bills in the Nebraska
legislature to force the cities to adopt
that populist policy. What a strange
sort of a creature a mullet head is
anyway.
Father Hardy intimates that the
state government "sanctions the
drunkard-making machine by giving a
license" (to sell liquor). He forgets
that it isn't the selling of whisky that
. makes drunkards but . the drinking
of whisky. Instead of whipping the
devil around the stump, why not give
him "a direct slap? Selling whisky i?
not in. itself productive of evil it is
. the drinking that , does the deviltry.
.Why not go after the whisky drinker?
Why not make, it a criminal offense
to drink ardent spirits d a beverage?
THE INDEPENDENT'S LEADERSHIP
f Xttorney General Knox has at last
found outjhat what The Independent
has been declaring for the last two
or three years is true. Rebates on
the railroads, consequent and result
ing from private ownership, is tha
basis upon which the trusts rest' and
the source of their greatest profits.
Mr. Knox says: .
' "I believe the rebates and kin
dred advantages granted by car
riers to large operators in the
leading industries of the country,
as against their competitors, in
many year3 amounted to a sum
that would represent fair interest
upon the actual money invested in
the business of such an operator."
The Independent leads, and one by
one the chief administrators of the re
publican party fall in behind its lead
ership and adopt its economic views.
Two or three years from now the re
publican leaders may advance enough
to adopt the views of The Independent
concerning the government ownership
of the railroads, but at present they
offer no such solution of the problem
of rebates. Mr. Knox gives his opinion
on the way to prevent relates as fol
lows: "My suggestion, therefore, is
that as a first step in a policy to
be persistently pursued until ev
ery industry, large and small, in
the country, can be assured of
equal rights and opportunities,
and until the tendency to monop
olization of the important indus
tries of the country is checked,,
that all discriminatory practices
affecting interstate trade be made
offenses to be enjoined and pun
ished, such legislation to - be di
- rected ; alike against those who
give and those who receive ad
vantages thereof, and to cover dis
crimination in prices as against
competitors in particular locali
ties resorted to for the purpose of
destroying competition in inter
state and foreign trade, as well as
discrimination by carriers."
In reply to that, The Independent as
sures Mr. Knox that he may set hi?
injunction mills to grinding every day
in the year and they will never settle
that question. Injunctions were: sp
cured in Chicago against the railroads
but since that the managers have ad
vanced rates and continued their old
practices.
Just at the present time the repub
lican leadership sees a necessity to
make a show of doing something to
suppress the trusts and various things
are proposed, none of which are in
tended to be effective. It will not do
anything that will destroy the source
from which the contributions come
with which thty buy elections. The
tariff will remain a shelter for the
trusts and the railroads will be man
aged by men who have a large finan
cial interest in the trusts. The two
weapons which could be effectively
used to destroy the trusts will not be
used, namely, the government owner
ship of the railroads and removing the
tariff shelter.
BLAINE AND MC KINLEY
Every reader of this paper will re
member how often it has declared
during the last five or six years that
if the protectionists continued to hold
the government and refused to reduce
the exorbitant tariffs in force, that
the other manufacturing nations of
the earth would enact retaliatory tar
iffs and the whole world would start
on a Chinese exclusion policy. Ger
many has already greatly raised her
tariffs against this country and Austria-Hungary
is about to enact similar
laws. The rejection of the French
reciprocity treaty will result in re
taliatory legislation in France. Rus
sia has already to some extent adopted
that policy on account of the addi
tional duties imposed on her sugar
and so it goes all over the world. No
nation can open its markets to us
while we shut them off from a market
here. The economic necessities of
the case would make that certain
without retaliatory laws.
"Whom the gods would destroy they
first make mad." The idea that we can J
continue for any length of time to sell
roods to any nation and take nothing
In return but gold, is an insane idea.
If we do not take goods in return for
the goods that we send a nation, then
we must take gold. How long could
any nation continue to buy any con
siderable amount of goods and pay for
them in gold?
It is true that a foreign trade may
be carried on with a nation for an in
definite time from which we import
nothing directly. We may sell ma
chinery to Argentina. That republic
may sell hides to Great Britain and
Great Britain may buy wheat from
us but all that docs not alter the fact
that Argentina pays for our machinery
with hides and not with gold. Both
Blaine and McKinley tried to hammer
this idea into the skulls of the mullet
heads of the republican party, but it
seems that they failed.
BANK NOTE ISSUES
If President Roosevelt had taken
down from the shelves any work on
banking or had even read an article
in any of the standard encyclopaedias
on note issuing by banks, he never
would have made the recommendation
to congress that he did. He would
have learned of the disasters that have
followed leaving the issue of paper to
the unrestricted discretion of an in
definite number of bankers. He would
have learned that note issuing is no
part of the banking business, but an
other and entirely different thing
The issues of the Bank of England
are secured by a loan to the public,
being very much the same thing as
national bank notes, secured by the
deposit of bonds, and a small in
crease allowed if provincial banks cur
tail their issues. But for every other
note which the issue department of
the Bank of England may issue above
the maximum of 15,000,000 pounds
sterling, an equal amount of coin or
bullion must be deposited in its cof
fers. That makes the notes of th-e
Bank of England always immediately
convertible into gold and the gold is
there to make the conversion, not
"bank assets." The Bank of Eng
land directors are not permitted to
substitute a shadow for a reality, such
as "asset banking" would allow. What
the law of England does i3 to limir
the uncontrolled issue of bank notes.
Asset banking would allow banker?
the discretion of increasing or dimin
ishing the amount of notes to be is
sued, and they would do it just as their
own interests indicated, the public
interest would not be considered.
The scheme recommended to con
gress by the president and secretary
of the treasury is simply "wild cat"
banking, a thing that the republican
party has denounced for twenty-five
years.
All this brings to mind an incident'
that occurred in one of the corridors
of the house of representatives in
Washington in 1893. The editor of
The Independent was engaged in a
discussion with a congressman from
New Jersey. The Jersey congressman
was applying some of the customary
epithets to populists, when the editor
replied that the mass of republican
congressmen knew nothing of finance
or political economy and if the lead
ers of the party should demand a re
turn to wild cat banking they would
all favor and vote for it, upon which
both persons got angry and a capitol
policeman took a hand in the fracas.
That identical congressman is now aa
ardent supporter of "asset banking.'
It seems that the Chicago Record
Herald has al?o discovered a truth
that The Independent has been pro
claiming for a long time and falls in
line behind this paper and says: "The
railroads have been the chief instru
mentality for the building of trusts.
They have constituted, in fact, such a
large part of the trust problem that
they might be considered its all-sufficient
cause in themselves." The Record-Herald
is welcomed to the ranks
of those who follow the leadership of
The Independent
JANUARY 15, 1903.
' LET SATAN RESIGN
If any man can manufacture a
bigger lie th-n the following from W.
E. Curtis, then satan should resign
and give him his throne. In the Record-Herald
of January 2 Curtis say&
"Uncle Sam has $1,329,266,733 in his
strong box as working capital to re
sume -business January 2, 1903."
Compare that monumental lie with
the statement made before the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Science by Assistant Secre
tary Ailes, which was as follows:
"Within the last few months
the secretary of the treasury, by
extraordinary efforts, succeeded in ;
stimulating national banks to take ;
out some $25,000,000 additional ;
circulation. He also increased the
amount of public funds which na
tional banks are permitted to hold 1
by $4,000,000. By anticipating the
payment of interest on the public ,
debt, he succeeded in paying out : ;
$3,000,000 more, with a profit of
over $40,000 to the treasury, and,
finally, when the business of the '
country demanded still further
relief, he anticipated a portion of
the public debt itself by buying -bonds
and thus releasing some
$23,000,000. By the time the crop
moving season was over the
amount of cash actually locked up
in the treasury had been reduced
by nearly $50,000,000, and there
was left in the treasury vaults
only a little over the $50,000,000
which tradition and practice have
established as a fair working
basis."
While it may be true that satan is
the father of liars, here certainly is a
demonstration of the fact that some o?
his progeny can outlie the devil
himself. There is considerable dif
ference between $50,000,000 and $1,
329,266,733. This statement by Curtis is a sam
ple of the "facts" furnished the read
ers of the great dailies. It is by flood
ing the homes of the American voters
with such statements that the repub
lican party has been able to keep it
self in power. Millions of dollars
have been spent by that party to get
these plutocratic papers into the
homes of the people. The only way;
to fight that thing is to spread tho
circulation of papers that publish tho
truth. No expenditure of money wilk
have so good effect as putting such'
papers as the Nebraska Independent,
in the homes of the people. Every,
county that ever tried it has founi
that to be true.
A MOST SERIOUS MISTAKE
Any man with a slight knowledge o?
history or present conditions in tht
densely populated regions of Asia
knows that annexation of any part of
it to these states could be nothing less
than a burden and a drag upon us.
What possible advantage can come to
us as a nation from having to keep
fifteen or twenty thousand troops and
a large party of our navy in the Phii
ipines, where the climate wrecks and
destroys the health of the men? Our
commerce would be just as great
the islands were a republic or if they;
were under the suzerainty of any oth
er nation. The only possible advant
age that can come from the annexa
tion is that it furnishes a large num
ber of officers, which the party in pow
er can use to pay off their party work
ers and to which they can send those
men who have done party work, but
whose characters are such that it
would be impossible to give them
offices at home. To the people at
large there is no benefit at all. It.
would be cheaper for them to appro
priate a million dollars a jear to pay,
the ward heelers and ballot box stuf
fers of the party in power, and let
these men go without offices.
No cation ever made a worse mi?,
take from every point of view than
was made when the Philippine islands
were annexed as an "appurtenance"
of the United States. It weakens th
nation as a military power and is a
constant drain on its resources, which,
in hard times would be most severely;
felt. "
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