The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, February 05, 1903, Page 8, Image 8
8 "THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. FEBRUARY 5. 1903. Zh e llebraska Independent Lintrfn, nebtaslta. f i IS jl LIBERTY BUILDING. J328 0 STREET Enttred according to Act ef Congress of March j, jf 79, attl.e PoMoff.ce at Lincoln, Nebraska, as recond-class mail matter. . PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. IOUBTEENTH YEAR. $1. CO PER YEAR When rr.lt'rg icjnittanccs do not leave Htny with i:iw8 ei.cr.c.'er, ottir.Cstcrs, etc. lo lc frrvjidid ly trtm. They frequently "icrrct cr run it a difTtruit amount than was left with tl tin, and the subscriber fails to gel ptojercredt. cditfB all communications, and make all CialU, irony crders, itc, payable to Zhe hdrasha Tndeptndent, Lincoln, Neb. Aicnymcv.s communications will not be tttiud. tijtcttd nu.iiucripts will not be returned. Walter Wcllman speaks of "the western or second rate" senators. If he had in mind the specimens fur nished from Nebraska the phrase is very applicable. The harvester trust has raised the ' price of all kinds of harvesting ma chines $5 each. That's another of those trusts that made a combine to reduce expenses and lower prices. Leo Vincent has joined the demo cratic party. If Dave Hill controls the next democratic national conven tion and Judge Parker or some man like him is nominated, what will Leo ; Vincent be then? Who established the Chicago uni versity? Not Rockefeller. It was the toiling housewives all over the coun try who had to scrimp and save to fur- ,.nish the money paid over by them to " the oil trust. This county keeps one major gen eral and six brigadier generals all the time in the Philippines. Nevertheless the "ladrones" seem to be increasing in numbers. Last week three schcol teachers were killed and the native police put to flight. J. Pierpont Morgan issued a check the other day for 522.500.000. It didn't go to protest citiipr. If a man should sit down to count 22,500,000 and count as fast as he could, or at the rate of 100 a minute, ten hours a day, it would take him 375 days to do it. The trait cr McLaurin did not get even one vote in the South Carolina legislature. Now unless Roosevelt gives him an office he is done for. . Asbury C. Latimer was elected to suc ceed McLamin, receiving every vote in both branches of the legislature. Levy Ankeny, whom the republicans elected United States senator from Oregon, is president of six national banks. They have got a man who will stand without hitching this time such enough. He can issue enough asset notes from his six banks to run the whole state. It will be remembered that The In dependent declared last summer that the coal trust would make an im mense amount out of the strike. Who doubts that fact now, when anthracite has been selling for months Rt the seaboard for three times its former price? Sixty-eight square miles of oil claims have been staked out near Chadron in this state. They say they have discovered an oil field up there that runs all the way through Ne braska and into Wyoming and South Dakota. Rockefeller will soon have it, and kerosene oil will go up a notch or two higher. THE RIGHT TO-1VOKK The saintly Baer made a speech at a public dinner in New York the oth er day.' to 'a "lot of millionaires who cheered and clapped their hands until they were tired. The burden of Baer's speech was an attack upon the author ities for not enforcing the laws. He declared that "today we have the spectacle of citizens born right in this country not being protected in their right to work, the very smallest cf the natural rights for the protection of which the government was founded." The hypocrisy of this speech is be yond anything heretofore attained in that line. The falsehood of the posi tion is equally astounding. At Baer's request the whole military force of the state was called out. Every man among the workingmen proven guilty of any crime was most severely pun ished, by. the courts. Baer brought the whole force of the state government, including the courts as well as the military, to aid him. What more could he demand? But supposing that all the Jaws as well as the law providing the "right to work," had been enforced. In this connection let us quote the words of Richard Olney, regarded by all men as a lawyer of the most distinguished ability. Mr. Olney, in speaking of Baer and his methods, said: "Who are they who are so in sistent on suppression of lawless ness in the mining regions? "Why, the most unblushing and persistent of lawbreakers. "For years they have defied the law of Pennsylvania, which for bids carriers engaging in the busi nes of mining. "For years they have discrim inated betveen customers in the freight charges on their railroads, in violation of the interstate com merce law. "For years they have unlawfully monopolized interstate commerce, in violation of the Sherman anti trust law. "Indeed, the very best excuse and explanation of their attitude Is that, having violated so many laws for so long and so many times, they may rightfully think they are wholly immune from either punishment or reproach." Think of the height of impudence that Baer reached when he upbraided the government for not enforcing the laws while he himself was one of the most flagrant violators of law in the whole land. But a few days ago, George F. Ed munds, another of the most distin guished lawyers in the whole United States, in an article which he pub lished over his own signature, declared that the Sherman anti-trust iaw, if enforced, would dissolve every trust in the whole country. He declared that it covered the whole subject and was sufficient of itself to stop the ag gressions and piracies of all these trust robbers. Remembering that, re flect upon the dubious and unconstitu tional way that the president adopted to prevent death and destruction all over the land resulting from the acts of this worst lawbreaker of them all, the saintly Baer. Clothed with all the authority that eighty million of people could confer upon him and by the use of which he could have brought this lawbreaker to terms at any time, the -president refused to use that authority and went outside of the constitution and the law to apoint an arbitration commission that is still sitting. Why did not the president en force the law? He well knew that if he brought one case, that the whole row of trusts would go crumbling down. Baer had to be checked, but in do ing it a way had to be devised that would not endanger the other trusts. If Baer had gone on for a few weeks longer, the coal famine that would have followed would have resulted in something akin to anarchy. Stopped when he was, the results were death and suffering of many hundred thou sands. All this forms proof sufficient that this administration does not in tend to interfere with the trusts. The call for more laws, when the best lawyers in the land all declare that there are enough now on the statute books to repress them, is nothing but political chicanery. The claim of Baer that the "right to work" for the protection of which this government was founded" is about as silly twaddle as ever a set of mil lionaires exhausted themselves in cheering. The right to work is a slave's right and the African slave en joyed it to the fullest extent. The right to the possession of what a worker produces by his labor is the essential thing, and to protect that right this government was founded. Baer's idea is that a man has the right to work, but it is the right of the trust magnate to take what. the worker produces and claim it for his own. FRUIT GROWING "Will it pay?" is the question in variably asked when the suggestion is made that Nebraska farmers should engage in fruit growing. And the answer is, Yes. ' But we should understand that "pay" is not always in the form of gold and silver coins or credit at the bank. It "pays" to have a good, healthy body. It "pays" to have a contented wife and family. And in this sense, fruit-growing certainly "pays," because, while not a panacea, it assists in bringing and beeping good health and contentment. Fruit-growing for commercial profit is a branch of industry as distinct as fine stock raising. Men should no blindly rush into it without previous training. But every farmer can grow some fruit for his own use and ought to do it. The work of caring for the trees and vines and plants will break the monotony of his life. The fruit he gets may be nearly as expensive as Horace Greeley's potatoes but it will "pay" nevertheless. Better plant something this spring. Try it. Buy your trees and plants of The Independent's advertisers. The associate editor is personally acquaint ed with Marshall Bros., Arlington; George B. Galbraith, Fairbury; Carl Sonderegger, Beatrice; J. V. Steven son, North Bend; and J. A. Gage, Bea trice. Every man of them is a man whose word is as good as his bond, and within reasonable limits his bond is worth a hundred, cents on the dol lar. Whatever any of these gentlemen agree to do,- will be done to the let ter. None of them could afford to stoop to take petty little advantages of their customers and none of them are inclined that way even if it should pay. Patronize Nebraska nur series. Keep your money in the state. And don't forget that advertisers like to know the papers that do them good. Tell them you read The Independent. The legislature could do a great service to the people by compelling all telephone companies to connect their lines with each other at all the cities and towns in the state, just as rail roads arc compelled to take freight and passengers from competing lines. But this corporation legislature will do nothing of the kind. An agent of the harvester trust told a member of the Kansas legislature that if any bill was passed inimical to the trust, not a harvester would be sent into the state this year. The re publicans down there will have to take a very big dose of their own medicine. Their party has built up the trusts and their national administration dare not antagonize them. Put up the $5 and shut up. The Independent was away off when it said that the recent rise in oil would be followed by another gift to the Chicago university of $1,000,000. The gift is seven millions instead of one, and goes to the medical department. The loot gathered in from the poor during the last few months must have been larger than usual. COAL COMBINATIONS There is not a city in the union that has not now, or has had, a coal trust which existed in direct violation of law .These combines have reduced production, side-tracked cars, refused to sell coal from their yards except at exorbitant prices and done numer ous other things which were in re straint of trade and against good pub lic policy, yet not a United States at torney has raised his little finger to-; ward bringing a case to enforce the law, anywhere, in any judical district of the United States. That many of these attorneys were willing to bring such cases and would have done so if they had not been restrained by orders from the attorney general at Wash ington no man can doubt In a few instances state attorneys have begun cases under state laws, and as soon as such cases were brought, or threatened to be brought, the combines have dis solved, as in Omaha and Detroit, which shows that there is no lack of law to stop these robberies of the poor, but a refusal of executive officers to do their sworn duty. A "Get Coal" convention was held in Washington last week with repre sentatives from nineteen states pres ent. That convention passed unani mously the following resolution: "Companies in the form of trusts and conspiracies exist in restraint of trade, especially in the produc tion, transportation, distribution and sale of coal, tending to create a monopoly of one of the necessi ties of life, occasioning suffering to millions; that combinations and ' conspiracies exist between trans portation companies whereby spe cial rates, rebates, etc., are al lowed some shippers, and exorbi tant rates charged others; that these conspiracies are in violation of the interstate commerce and anti-trust acts." The convention also resolved "that the president, whose duty it is to see that the laws are faithfully executed, be requested to direct the attorney general to cause to be instituted civil proceedings, in the circuit" courts where the law is being violated, to restrain illegal comibnations and con spiracies and strictly enforce the sev eral remedies provided by existing law and that the president be request-' ed to direct the attorney general to cause grand juries to be summoned in the judicial districts where the un-. lawful acts are being perpetrated, for the indictment and punishment of per sons found guilty of violating the law." The Independent does not doubt the honesty of President Roosevelt, but he is surrounded by the worst pack of scoundrels that ever led .an honest man astray. He relies upon the ad vice of Attorney General Knox, who lias constantly asserted and advised the president that there was no law under which a conviction against trusts could be secured When this trouble about coal first began it Avas pointed out to the presi dent by private parties that there was a coal trust in the anthracite re gions which existed in direct viola tion to the constitution of the state of Pennsylvania, the law of that state, the interstate commerce law and the Sherman anti-trust act. The presi dent referred the matter to Attorney General Knox, who reported to the president that the contracts by which this trust existed had been drawn up by such eminent and skillful lawyers that there was no way of attacking them in the courts, and the president believed this agent of satan and trusts and appealed to congress for more laws. From that moment little coal trusts began to spring up in every stale in the union, where coal was needed, like mushrooms after a rainy night. They have gone on unhindered except in a few cases where they have been held in restraint by a threat of appealing to state law. Some men have advocated the im peachment of Attorney General Knox. But how can he be impeached when V iHtViVi0ea won)) win. y