8
THC NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
JANUARY 29, 1903.
Zhe lUbraska Independent
Lincoln, Utbtaska.
LIBERTY BUILDING.
1328 0 STREET
Entered according to Actef CongreSs of March
i;9, at the rofcloflice at Lincoln, Ncbiatka.as
tecocd-class mail matter.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
. $1.00 PER YEAR
When rrailrg icmittar.ces do not leave
meney ith news sgti:c:es, T.oslmaslers, etc.
to te fcrwarded ly them. They frequently
forget or remit a difTtrent 8ti:cunt than was
left with them, and the tuUcriber fails to gel
proper credit.
ddresa ell communications, and make all
draft, money orders, etc., payable to
Zb fttbrtska 7ndeptndnt,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not be
rctictd. Rejected manuscripts will not be
returned.
The people of New York city seem
to think that the. more bonds they c an
issue the richer they will be.
For the republican doctrine of
"can't," The Independent has the most
profound contempt.
There have been quiet times on
Wall street - for a good while. , "The
bulls are afraid and the bears dasent."
The Independent is inclined to be
lieve that that Chicago grand jury and
its indictments of coal dealers are
A No. 1 fakes.
Judge Lindsey of Denver declares
that 50 per cent of Colorado boys are
thieves. That shows the effect of
keeping such an example before them
as ex-Senator Wolcott.
The Colorado democrats wanted it
.11 3 i V. . MnVln. T Oft fll . n
till tt.il U UlCy JL HUlUIUg. U ail Uiuis
or two had been given to the populists
and by that means their organization
recognized, the democrats would have
had all the rest.
Confining innocent people on small
islands and refusing to let their
friends bring them food and water is
one of the civilizing methods that
England, Germany and Italy have
brought over the ocean to us. not
withstanding the Monroe doctrine.
The Independent desires names and
addresses of populists and reform
democrats from every part of the
country. We wish to send them sam
ple copies. Readers who will send in
such lists lists of men who are in
terested in the cause of good govern
ment will greatly oblige.
Another court, this time out in San
Francisco, has sustained the conten
tion of The Independent that margin
deals are illegal and debts contracted
in that manner are gambling debts,
not collectable at law. Perhaps in
time gambling on the boards of trade
nay be abolished.
The 31st annual meeting of the Ne
braska Press association will be held
at Hastings, February 10 and 11, 1903.
Editors who have not received a pro
gram can secure one by writing to
the president, Adam Preede, Hastings,,
or the secretary, F. N. Merwin, Bea
ver City. Membership fee, 2, which
includes a year's dues.
The Independent never had a very
high opinion of the intelligence of the
farmers who would vote the republi
can railroad ticket, but it never
thought that they were so silly as to
present petitions to this, a republican
legislature asking legislation concern
ing railroads instead of presenting
them to John C. Baldwin. Who do
these simpletons think runs this legis
lature anyhow?-
FUTURE POPULIST POLICY
When a man looks back over the
policy of the 'democratic party for
the last six years he cannot help feel
ing astonished at the folly of its man
agement If after the St Louis con
vention democrats had shown the
least consideration for the honest con
victions of southern" populists, the
votes that Bryan lacked In the north
to elect him could have been easily
obtained, and obtained in spite of all
that Mark Hanna, Dave Hill and
Cleveland could do to prevent it. That
was a lesson that the managers of the
democratic party should have learned,
but they learned nothing and four
years afterward they perpetrated a
worse folly at Kansas City when they
turned down the brilliant and pa
triotic Towne. By that action all the
fire and vim was taken out of thfe
campaign in the northern states and
especially in the west and northwest.
Any man who had common sense
knew it would. The populists and freo
silver republicans who were at Kan
sas City when that silly thing was
done, saw at once that defeat was
inevitable. The editor of The Inde
pendent met Senator Teller within
half an hour after Stevenson was nom
inated and he said: "The action beats
us, but we will make as good a cam
paign as we can, save what it is pos
sible for us to save."
The populists, patriotic and as un
selfish as always, withdrew their can
didate for the vice presidency, but
they did it with the full knowledge
that there was no hope of success in
the campaign. Everywhere when the
populists have given away to the
management of the democratic party,
defeat has followed. But still the
Mad Mullahs of the democratic party
rushed on. They learned nothing from
constant defeat. Out in Colorado they
tried their old tactics, with the never
failing result, and lost everything.
Here in Nebraska when the populist
policy was adopted, victory perched
upon the united banners and when
the democratic plan was followed wi,
were beaten out of our boots. Twice
the democrats have insisted on having
the head of the ticket and each time
the result was disaster. They learned
nothing. from the first defeat and the
second defeat did not change their
opinions.
That sort of management, and
there seems to be no indication that it
will be changed, is what has led a
large number of populists who have
been willing to co-operate with the
democracy to give up hope of accom
plishing anything by such co-operation.
They do not believe that such
management has been by the advice
of Bryan. He was altogether too
large a man for partisan democrats to
comprehend. He has ever been
courteous and willing to listen to the
opinions of populists. Neither does it
alter the fact that if the trusts and
the republican party are to be over
thrown that all those who oppose plu
tocracy with all its robberies and
piracies upon the common people,
must vote for ihe same candidates for
president, vice president and members
of congress.
After six years of failure to get the
democratic party to treat its allies
with the respect and consideration due
to an ally, after its insistance upon a
policy that has always resulted in de
feat, a good many men think that the
time has come to drop all attempts at
co-operation with a party so blind to
its own interests as the democratic
party has been. If it will insist on a
policy that is certain to result in de
feat, what is the use of co-operation?
What the final populist policy will be
is by no means certain at the present
time. If it is true, as has often been
charged, that the democratic party
never learns anything, then, of course,
the populists will have to change their
attitude towards co-operation.
About the funniest paragraph that
ever appeared in a paper was an ac
count "of how some Jefferson county
farmers petitioned this present rail
road legislature to make the railroads
furnish them with cars so they couH
ship their own wheat instead of pay
ing 20 cents a bushel to the elevators
to ship it for them. A more ridicul
ous thing never happened in this
state.
WYOMING COAL
Out in Wyoming there are inex
haustible mines of coal of the very
best quality thousands upon thou
sands of acres of it lying upon or
near the surface. Rock Springs coal
can be put on tne cars at 70 cents a
ton and the Hanna and Sheridan coal
at $1 a ton. After that coal is hauled
over a level road six or seven hundred
miles, it i3 sold in eastern Nebraska
at eight, nine and ten dollars a ton.
The freight on a ton of this coal in
northeastern Nebraska is from four
to five dollars a ton, and the roads
so restrict the shipment that it is
very difficult and much of the time
impossible to get it at all, even at
those extortionate prices. There are
thousands of men willing to dig and
handle that coal at reasonable prices,
but the railroad management will not
permit it to be done.
" aiow much money is ground out of
the farmers of Nebraska by these
methods, which consist of restraint of
trade if there ever was such a thing,
it would be hard to tell, but the farm
ers have to raise many hundred thou
sand bushels of corn and wheat,
which, after exchanging them for
money, they hand over as tribute to
these robbers. In the cities and towns
the laborers have to work many a
day to get the money to pay this toll
to the railroad barons.
This Wyoming coal could be sold
in eastern Nebraska at $4 a ton and
give a big profit to miner, coal dealer
and railroad. More than twice that
much is charged.
These are the facts and they are
known to every intelligent man in
the state. Yet a majority of the vot
ers insist that the state government
shall be placed in the hands of the
railroad managers. They are willing to
suffer . cold and toil long and hard to
give them a monopoly of the coai
trade. May God have mercy on these
fool people, and not make them suf
fer too much for their idiocy, for
those who suffer the most are toiling
wives and little children. With gov
ernment ownership of railroads we
could have coal in eastern Nebraska
for $2.50 a ton.
NOT THE RIGHT WAY
A certain farmer is very much dis
gusted because The Independent has
not made a special feature of the ef
fort among the farmers to organize
and appoint agencies for handling and
selling their own grain, and given
prominence to it in the columns of this
paper. The reason that The Indepen
dent has taken no part in the matter
is because there is nothing in it. The
money that the farmers spend in this
way is money thrown away. The
railroads will not give the space on
their right of way for elevators, they
will not furnish- cars on the sidings
so that the farmers can load them
with. grain from their wagons. The
farmers elected a legislature and state
officers nominated by the railroads
and now they will have to accept
what the railroads are pleased to give
them. As long as a majority of the
farmers of this state insist on voting
for railroad nominees, they will have
to pay their tribute to the elevator
trust and the railroads. They cannot
escape by forming little organizations
in the various counties. Rates have
been raised since the election as ev
ery man who had common sense knew
they would be if the roads carried the
legislature and elected the state of
ficers. Little organizations among the
farmers will never force the elevator
combine and the railroads to do jus
tice. That is not the way to go at
it to get justice. T.
TflE COLORADO MUDDLE
The Independent has said but very
little about the attempt of Wolcott
and the corporations to South Ameri
canize the state of Colorado. In the
first place while it has the greatest
admiration for Senator Teller it has
the, most profound contempt. for the
democratic . party of that state. Be
fore the election, under the . inspira
tion of ex-Governor Thomas, the dem
ocrats declared that they would have
nothing to do with the populists and
refused to recognize them in any way.
The populists, patriots as they always
were, thereupon resolved that they
would nominate a separate state tick
et, but would, although rebuffed by
the democratic state convention in the
most-insolent way, fuse on the mem
bers of the legislature so as to insure
the re-election of Senator Teller. The
consequence was that the democratic
state ticket was badly beaten from top
to bottom, but a legislature was elect
ed that had 12 majority for Teller. -
From the very beginning, "one fac
tor in the case was ex-Senator Edward
O. Wolcott. With him in the cam
paign, with his' pronounced corporation
and plutocratic tendencies, his infam
ous record, his disgraceful family re
lations, the republicans felt that they
could, not win, even with the advant
age that the refusal of the democrats
to recognize the populists gave them.
So Wolcott was kept out of the state
during the campaign and the republi
can speakers everywhere announced
that if they carried the legislature
Wolcott would not be a candidate.
No sooner was the election over than
Wolcott returned to the state and or
ganized a plan to unseat enough dem
ocrats and replace them with enough
republicans to elect himself instead of
Teller. The house had two republi
can majority while the senate was
heavily democratic. The house pro
ceeded to carry out this plan, arid
ejected enough democrats to elect
Wolcott, whereupon the senate ejected
enough republicans to give Teller pn
joint ballot one majority. Then th3
few republican senators with the lieu
tenant governor at their head, left
the chamber and organized a rump
senate all by themselves. '
On the first joint ballot it was found
that Wolcott had bought one democrat
and Teller failed of election by one
vote. By the next day Wolcott had
bought six democrats. But the re
publicans are themselvas divided into
two factions, a portion of them being
L intense haters of Wolcott and refus
ing to vote for him. At this writing
the house is held by the anti-Wolcott
republicans and democrats, all heav
ily armed the dispatches say each
member has a couple of revolvers on
his desk while repeating shot guns
and rifles are stacked up around the
hall.
The whole thing taken together is
South American politics with a little
more chicanery and a little less force
than the .Spanish republics generally
employ. It is another demonstration
of the statesmanship and common
sense of the populist demand that
senators shall be elected by a vote of
the people and not by a legislature
that can be bribed and intimidated.
At the bottom of the whole thing is
the desire of certain great corpora
tions to have another senator upon
whom they can always rely. The cor
porations, with Hanna for their
spokesman, are using every means in
their power to get Wolcott back into
the senate. Hanna has sent dispatches
out there rallying the cohorts to the
support of Wolcott and there is all
the money ready that Wolcott can
employ.
Three state, legislatures are now in
a deadlock over the election of a sena
tor. Colorado, Washington and Del
aware. In all of them the vilest
measures are being used. Delaware
has been without any senators at all
for two years, because the members
of the legislature are swayed by Ad
dicks money, but so far he has not
