2 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. January 22, im.
tail dealers buy from both the rail
. -'roads and the independents and their
iprice ha3'to be on an average arrived
I at through consideration of the cost
prices the railroad cost, of $5 and the
.'independent price of $10, or whatever
"it may.be .. ;
"'The railroads could enforce a
fixed retail price only by seling enough
to one retailer to free .him from the
necessity of buying coal from the in
dependents. This is impracticable for
the-reason that a retailer who would
, sell coal at $6 a ton would have de
mands made upon him for 10,000 tons
a day, which no one railroad could
meet." ; .
"Prices advanced yesterday in near
ly every yard in the city as soon as
the dealers heard of the arbitrary ac
tion agreed upon by , the independents.
Many persons who were charged from
. ?9 to $14 a ton went to the office of
President Baer, in the Jersey Central
buirdirig, at the foot of Liberty street,
to lodge complaints against the deal
ers who had charged the high prices.
These' persons were told by the clerks
that President Baer had returned to
Philadelphia and had left no instruc
tions about receiving such complaints.
They were advised to put the com
plaints in writing and forward them
by mail to President Baer's office in
Philadelphia.
"Curtis & Blaiedell and Burns Bros.,
two of the largest firms in the city,
raised the price to their customers to
$9 a ton. Heretofore these firms have
not charged more than $7.50 a ton.
"SoftNeoal is expected to advance
sharply as a result of the action of
the independents. Yesterday the
price was $7.50 a ton, which is more
than 100 per cent higher than the
normal price.
"Should the plans of the indepen
dents to work the price up to almost
prohibitive figures succeed, steps will
probably be taken to have the health
department again suspend the ordi
. "nance against soft coal, - so as to re
duce the demand for anthracite."
There are no "independent opera
tors," although the New York World
speaks of "independents." They, the
so-called independents, are all in con
spiracy with the ' coal-carrying rail
roads. It is impossible for tne inde
pendents, so-called, to exist. They can
mine as much coal as they please, but
they cannot send it to market without
permission of the railroads. On this
point the Jersey City Evening Journal,
a stalwart republican paper, remarks:
"The coal roads own nine-tenths of
the anthracite mines, and there are
no independent operators: ?v
"The attempt on the part Of the coal
' managers to show that there is com
petition is ridiculous. '
"An independent mine owner can
mine air the coal he wants to, but he
cannot send it away from his mine
without cars, and the cars Ire owned
' by his competitors. Me cannot get a
car or ship a pound without permis
sion from the railroad companies,
' who own all the cars and railroads
and nine-tenths of the mines.
"The railroad companies are cor
porations which hold their powers, not
merely in trust for the pecuniary
profit of the stockholders, but also
in trust for the public weal. When
a corporation acts prejudicially to the
public, in order to make undue gains
and profits for its stockholders, it
uses its powers in a manner not con
templated by the law which confers
them. '
"These are the words of the late
Chancellor McGill in deciding against
the coal combine when it first began
operations. They have just as much
force now as ever they had.
"The coal combine has been created
In a somewhat different form, but
. there is no doubt that it could be
checked by this state if prompt action
were taken."
Some days ago the New York Amer
ican declared that the "independents,"
so-called, were in collusion with the
railroads and the evidence presented
- was so strong, that all the newspapers,
both democratic and republican, were
obliged to admit the fact, and there
fore what the Jersey City Evening
Journal says about the "combine" is
what all the papers in New York are
saying.
There is a flood of bills, a flood of
resolutions, a flood of talk at Washing
ton. It is not worth while to repeat
what they are saying in Washington,
because a large part of it is either
for partisan purposes or individual
advantage. At any rate little of it is
for the public good. For instance.
Senator Vest's bill or resolution to put
coal on the free list can't do any good.
The duty on foreign coal is only 67
cents per ton. This does not account
for the high price of our domestic
coal and if we should take the duty
off of foreign coal, the price would not
fall one cent on our domestic coal
certaisJy not more than 07 cents. It
is, therefore, unfortunate that states
men should be thinking or talking
about free trade, at a time when action
Is so much desired. - What Mr. Vest
ought to be doing is he should be
drawing up articles of Impeachmen
against the attorney "general for not
commencing a suit against the coal
trust. The attorney general cannot
furnish any excuse for not proceed
ing against this trust, because William
R. iiearst has furnished the evidence,
and it is in the hands of the attor
ney general. I inclose the "open let
ter of Mr. Hearst to the president on
this subject and, indeed, on the
whole Ruhjpcf-. Tha letter . shows
either that the president or the attor
ney general should be impeached. I
believe the president is honest, sin
cere and want3 to do the right thing
but some how or other he seems to "be
handicapped by his attorney general
The president is not a lawyer and he
does not know how lawyers can con
trive not to do things. ,
It is now up to the president to re
move his attorney general. He can do
this at once and he ought to do it at
once. If ae does not do it then con
gres3 ought to do it by impeachment.
We cannot, however, expect thai
congress will remove the attorney
general by impeachment, first, be
cause the senate has not adopted Sen
ator Jones' resolution calling upon the
attorney general to send the evidence,
which Mr. Hearst has furnished, to
the senate, so that all the world can
see it. This resolution is so important
that I reproduce it as follows:
"Resolution introduced in senate by
Senator James K. Jones:
"Whereas, On October 4, 1902, a
sworn statement or petition was filed
with the attorney general of the. Unit
ed States by William Randolph
Hearst, charging the existence of an
illegal combination or conspiracy
among railroads therein named en
gaged in interstate commerce, the ten
dency of which was the establishment
of a monopoly in the business of
transporting and selling anthracite
coal, and in connection with said pe
tition a request was made for permis
sion to present evidence establishing
the existence of such a combination;
"Whereas, Said petition was re
ferred to the United States district at
torney for the southern district of
New York, with instructions to re
ceive the evidence proffered and re
port the same to the department of
justice;
4 "Whereas, A protracted interval has
elapsed since '. the, filing of said peti
tion, and the submission of such evi
dence;! ' " . .... .
.""Resolved, That the attorney gen
eral be and he, is, hereby directed to
transmit to the senate the, evidence
presented by said petitioner, together
with a report thereon by said United
States district attorney."
I tL.k Senator Jones' resolution is
worthy of a second publication be
cause it has beep suppressed by all
the" New York papers (except the
American). This is vtvy unfair to
the readers of the newspapers of New
York. It shows that we cannot rely
upon the papers for the news. The
resolution was debated in the senate
several days, and yet no note of the
debate has been made by New York
papers, except the American. The
resolution is still pending, a fact that
we would not know if it were not for
the New York American.
JNO. S. DE HART.
Jersey City, N. J.
CANNOT BE DODOED
Mr. Van VorhJs AdrUea an Indiana Editor
That the Money Question Cannot
be Evaded
Readers of The Independent will
doubtless remember Carl Brayfield,
formerly editor of the Hoosier Demo
crat and a staunch' supporter of the
Chicago and xvansas City platforms.
Some time last year the plutocratic
element in the democratic party told
him to "get off the earth" and he was
obliged to sell his paper or be ruined.
He sold the paper. The new manage
rs 3nt seems to have scarcely enough
ability to edit a sale bill, and the
Hoosier Democrat from being one of
the. leading democratic journals of
Indiana is now simply a conglomera
tion of "pay" locals and items to the
effect that "John Smith has a new
buggy look out girls!"
Carl Brayfield has recently begun
the publication of the Clark County
Citizen, but lacks his old-time vigor.
Apparently he is trying to put the
money question in the background
and make the "trusts and tariff" the
slogan for 1904. The following letter
to him from our esteemed contributor,
Hon. Flavius Van Vorhis, will throw
some light upon the question:
Editor Clark County Citizen: I
have your issue of January 2, 1903,
which you sent me, and for which I
am much obliged. I have read your
"A New Year for Democracy."
You advise the party to swear o'J.
making a fool of itself; to stick to
some well-defined democratic princi
ples; to begin organization, and show
that it is In earnest in a fight against
trusts and tariff. "
The trouble is that the party has
been too slow in learning that a larg?
number of men, whom it has been ac
customed to regard, as leaders, has
been using its organization to advance
their personal interests. These men
have had little .regard for principles,
and have cared nothing about suc
cess, except such, as put money into
their own pockets.
I am at a loss to understand why,
when you say they wanted the party
to surrender convictions, you did not
say plainly just what these convic
tions which they desired surrendered
were. It seems to me that, in such an
appeal as you make, it would have
been opportune for you to have said
plainly what you think are the "well
defined democratic principles" to
which you think the party ought to
stick. If you meant to state this
when you advise a show of earnestness
in a fight against "trusts and tariff,"
then to me the most interesting thing
about your editorial is what you do
not say. "McKinley democrats" is a
very good name for the men who re
mained with the democratic party in
name and voted the republican ticket,
form but voted the democratic ticket
to keep themselves regular that they
might do the party the most harm in
the future.
What were the declarations in the
Chicago and Kansas City platforms
to which these so-called democrats ob
jected, and that expressed the convic
tions they desired (not "petty politi
cians in county and city precincts '
but) the rank and file of the party to
surrender? It was not the question of
"trusts or tariffs." These are the fel
lows who desire now, and are "mov
ing heaven and earth," to make the
ksues in the next national campaign
a sham battle against "trusts and tar
iff." This is the class of men, who
at Kansas City induced the friends of
the Chicago platform and of Mr. Bry
an, to make a most disastrous and
foolish mistake when they allowed to
be inserted in the platform of 1900
the declaration that imperialism was
the paramount question. If they had
stated in this connection that wealth,
when concentrated in the hands of a
few, produced imperialism, and that in
the whole history of the world it never
had any other origin, it might have
done; but they did not..
What they wanted, and what they
accomplished by this declaration, was
to create the impression among the
masses that the convention had de
clared the money question to be of
secondary importance. It was insert
ed in the platform by men who did
not want Mr. Bryan nominated, and
who did not want him elected when he
was nominated. It was put there by
such men as went from Indiana as
delegates, and who came home after
the convention and had control of the
democratic organization and used it,
not in an effort for success, but to se
cure defeat. v
These were not "inexperienced bovs
and dunderheads," but veterans in
trickery and deceptions. Why did the
New York crowd, and the" friends of
Cleveland in Indiana, want Mr. Bry
an defeated? Because the purposes
of the republican party or the finan
cial question suited their interests
tetter than the declarations of the
democratic platform and the well
known convictions of Mr. Bryan. Ev
erything that their ingenuity can de
vise is now being done to overshadow
this question again.
The republican party is to ''stand
pat" on the tariff, and the Boston free
trade league is flooding the counfy
with literature to arouse an interest in
this old humbug, so that attention
may be kept away from the schemes
of robbery that are covered up in the
financial question. We hear from th
mouths and read from the pen of thi
Cleveland-Hill-Olney-Hearst -National
Bank crowd the slogan "Tariff is the
mother of trusts."
I grant the republican party has
made it impossible for a tariff to be
applied wisely or honestly for any
purpose except for revenue. It is too
plain for controversy that any at
tempt to apply it for any other pur
pose is equivalent to, and in effect is
public robbery; but to assert directly
or inferentially that trusts can be de
stroyed by a revision of the tariff
schedule according to the doctrine of
"tariff for revenue only" is too ab
surd for serious consideration.
The secretary of the Boston free
trade league came to Indianapolis and
gave a banquet at the Grand hotel at
which it was specially arranged that
no one was to mention the name of
Mr. Bryan. To insure this silence, no
one was invited, no difference how
sound 0:1 the tariff question, if It was
believed that there was the slightest
danger . that he would refer to the
Chicago or Kansas City platforms or
to Mr. Bryan. Why this desire for si
lence? Why this anxiety to creata
the impression that the platforms anJ
Mr. Bryan had ceased to interest the
people? Why did, the Indianapolis
Sentinel report this banquet, with sucbt
glowing enthusiasm, and make promi
nent the fact that Mr. Bryan was not'
mentioned? Everybody knows that:
as between Bryan and Cleveland th
Sentinel is for Cleveland; that as be
tween what - Bryan represents anuT
what Cleveland represents the Sentinel
is still with Cleveland. What is the
difference between these two men?
What was It that caused Cleveland
to desert the party btandard 111 183G3
It was the declarations of the Chicago;
platform on the financial question
and the convictions of Mr. Bryan upoa
that question.
This question has come to stay
Make no mistake about that. Tho
men who in 1S96, inside and outside o
the party, supported Mr. Bryan on ths
declarations of the Chicago platform,
and did it from convictions on the
money question, know too much to be
humbugged by the attempt to smother!
this question by trusts and tariff t
They know full well the evils of both,
but. they know that there is no hope
cf relief from the domination of tru-'t
combinations until the money ques
tion is settled according to correct
economic principles, and the financial
trusts are deprived of the power thejc
have acquired over the money and?
credits of this nation and of its peo
ple. Make no mistake about Mr. Bry
an either. No doubt there are many,
men as good and able as he is ami
he may never be a candidate again
but no man living has so strong a hold
upon the minds and hearts of tha
American people. .
FLAVIUS J. VAN VORHIS.
Indianapolis, Ind.
United We Stand
.1
Editor Independent: I helped to or
ganize the populist party in Indiana,
and believe it has always advocated
the living issues for the people and
country, and has done more for the
country than any party during its his
tory. Its success has only been
thwarted by the division its enemies
have been able to keep in its ranks.
If reformers were united they would
stand. But if divided they must fall.
I admire the fight The Independent is
making. I am a populist or Br an
democrat. ; : JOHN C. ENGLE.
Francesyille, Ind. .
Nathan Demoulin, R. F. D. 4,
Highland, 111.: A week ago I wrote
you to erase my name from your sub
scription list. After reading the last
Independent I received (December 11),
I think it my duty to sustain such a
good reform paper. It is the right
kind for all those who have a desire
for better government. Herein find a
dollar bill. If you have ome copies
left of the December 11 issue I wish
you would send me a few to distribute.
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