8
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
. FEBRUARY 12. 1903.
Zfyt Ucbraska Independent
Lincoln. Hebraska.
LIBERTY BUILDING.
J328 0 STREET
Enttred ncccrdiuR toActcf Congiessof March
if 79, Etthe rostoffceat Lincoln, Nebiafcka.as
econd-cla?a mail matter.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
$1.00 PER YEAR
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Address all communications, and make all
- draft, money ciders, etc., payable to
tlx iltbraska 'fndeptndent,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not Jic
rctictd. Kejecttd niauuf-cripts will not be
j turned.
Trust management of railroads has
proved entirely inefficient as regards
profits as well as in service to the
public. Let us try some other way.
The dailies have not yet found out
that there is a car famine, that the
elevators are full and the doors
dosed. Be patient with them. In a
month or two they will hear about it.
The house passed the bill donating
$3,000,000 to relieve the distress in
the Philippines. Bevcridge ought now
to arise in the senate and display an
other nugget of gold found in a Phil
ippine creek.
The editor of The Independent
wishes to say that the article by
Perry D. Plain, of Atwater, 111., in
last week's Independent, is Ihe best
thing that he has ever read on "tax
ing land values."
The recent frightful wrecks on the
Central of New Jersey and the South
ern Pacific have given rise to a de
mand for two engineers on duty at
the same time which will never be
under private ownership.
The three ambassadors of the Eng
lish, German and French nations at
Washington have American wives. To
get an American wife seems to be a
great point for all the European am
bassadors to this country.
The scandalous scenes in Delaware
and Colorado over the election of a
United States senator tend to intensi
fy the demand for election direct by
the people. Henry Loomis Nelson
has a strong article in the Century on
arrogance in the senate. And The
Outlook favors direct election.
A farmer with 4,000 bushels of corn
that is not very sound, piled up on the
ground, spring rains not far in the
future, the elevators closed and no
cars to be had, does not think as well
of the beneficence of the trusts and
railroad mergers as he did last fall
when he voted the republican ticket.
George Kennan's history of "Gas"
Addicks "Holding Up a State," now
running in The Outlook, is a tale of
the most brazen and wholesale de
bauchery of voters ever practised any
s where. Addicks spent about $130,000
buying about 8,000 of the 13,000 votes
cast for the union republican legisla
tors. Senator Hanna turned a trick th?
other day which he thinks will go far
toward securing him the vote for thj
nomination for president of every ne
gro delegate in the republican national
convention. He introduced a bill to
give every ex-slave now living a
bounty of from $300 to $500 and a
pension from $S to $12 a month.
SOME I'l.AIN TALK
The socialists and mid-road pops
are" foverever declaring that, "the
leaders"forced the populism party in
to fusion, which is simply saying that
populists are a lot of political sheep
that follow a bell weather and have
no minds of their own, which is an
infernal slander. Populist conven
tions follow no leader. When a pro
position is presented, the delegates
make up their minds and vote for
what they each think is for the best.
The Independent treats with con
tempt all such assertions. There was
never a body of men united for po
litical action less inclined to follow
leaders than the voters of the pop
ulist party. Every man who knows
anything" about them at all, -knows
that is true. Clem Deaver tried to
lead and less than a thousand fol
lowed him. Jo Parker tried to lead
and his following was so insignificant
that his effort was ridiculous. Sev
eral others tried it and they found
out that populists were not led. The
rank and file marked out a policy by
their votes in conventions and the
would-be leaders were commanded to
obey orders. Senators Harris, Heitfeld
and Patterson tried to "lead" them
into the democratic party. The sena
tors went, but the populists did not
follow. One can argue with a pop
ulist, and he will listen, but when
any one undertakes to lead him, he
will buck worse than an Arizona
mustang.
Mr. Wayland's assertion that "the
leaders sold out the movement to tho
democrats in '" is a premeditated
slander. lie knows that the question
whether the party should indorse
Bryan or not was fought out in the
St. Louis convention and decided
there. It was decided by the regularly
elected delegates, who were neither
bribed, coerced or intimidated. They
were as noble a body of men as ever
assembled in a national convention,
and any man who says that they sold
their votes is more disreputable than
the common street liar. It is on the
same plane as the charge that this pa
per has been corruptly sustained by
the democrats because it was neces
sary to them. It is true that many
thousand democrats subscribe for The
Independent because in advocating
populism it advocates true Jeffersonian
democracy. The insinuation that
charge carries is of the same charac
ter that the two factions of socialists
constantly hurl at each other. It ex
hibits the same sort of logic that Mr.
Wayland does when he says: "The
Independent during the last six years
has exhausted its vitality in attacks
on mid-road populists and socialists."
If going from a circulation of a few
hundred far up in the thousands in
six years is "exhausting its vitality,"
then Mr. Wayland's remark would
have some sense in it. During that
time its circulation has spread into
every state and territory of the union
and the constant increase in its cir
culation which is still going on at a
more rapid rate than ever, is a. very
queer indication of exhausted vital
ity. There was never a more silly lie
published than that Mr. Bryan stated
that he and the populist leaders had
arranged "months before" what the
populist party would do. Mr. Bryan
must have known months before that
he was going to beat Dave Hill and be
nominated at Chicago, for only fifteen
days intervened between his nomina
tion at Chicago and the populist in
dorsement of his candidacy at St.
Louis. If The Appeal is going into the
business of publishing lies it would
better give a little more care to their
preparation.
In conclusion, the editor of The In
dependent has never even, received a
suggestion from a democrat in regard
to the policy of this paper, while ev
ery sort of an inducement has been
offered him by republicans to change
its policy or leave it.
llayden Bros., proprietors of the
largest and most complete . general
store in Omaha, are offering some ex
cellent bargains in their advertise
ment on page nine. Send them an
order by mail and mention The Inde
pendent. You'll get your money's
worth of good goods.
HENRY GORGE SOCIALISM
Undoubtedly the followers of Karl
Marx,, the followers of Henry George,
and Bolton Hall have jointly and
severally a good cause of action
against one "K. B.," a would-be re
viewer of books who doe3 space-writing
for The Reader.
Bolton Hall is an earnest student of
taxation and a firm believer in the
Georgian philosophy. He has recent
ly written a book, "The Game of
Life" (A. Wessels Co., N. Y., $1.), in
which the single tax is presented in
parable, fable, and allegory. "K. B."
tells The Reader what he thinks about
it
"He sees," says 'K. B.," "that the
world is awry. He wishes to go out
and raise turnips and potatoes on the
first vacant lot he comes to, and is
grieved that the owner chases him off
with a shot-gun. . . . Taken as a
whole, Mr. Hall's book is socialism
pure and simple."
And there is where "K. B." puts
his foot into it. Except that both sin
gle taxers and socialists declare
against the private ownership of land,
they have nothing in common. The
single taxer would have private own
ership of all man-rnadc goods the
greatest individualism possible; but
land could not be subject to private
ownership any more than the sea, or
air, or light. The socialist would not
permit the private ownership of any
of the means of production or distri
bution. The land, machines, and all
goods not finished ready for consump
tion would belong to the collectivity.
To call Mr. Hall's book "socialism"
is a double-dyed insult to Karl Marx,
Henry George, and the many thou
sands of both socialists and single
taxers. There ought to be a literary
guillotine for such as "K. B.," who
pretend to criticise books on political
economy without even a smattering
of knowledge of the subject under dis
cussion. LAND MONOPOLY
Mr. Quinby, like all other single tax
ers, is very confident there is a land
monopoly. Well, there is according
to his way of defining the term; but
his definition of monopoly is
synonymous with ownership. If ex
clusive individual ownership of a
thing is monopoly, then we are all
monopolists both in desire and in fact.
But where's the use of using a new
term for an old idea? Why not rail
against land ownership and let it go
at that? When The Independent
speaks of monopoly it intends its
readers to understand it to mean that
substantial unity of ownership or con
trol over property which enables the
owners or those in control to dictate
the price of that property or the ser
vices which may be rendered in con
nection with it. There is no unity
among owners of farm land which en
ables them to dictate the price of land
or the price of the products grown
upon it. There would be no such unity
among owners of mineral lands say
coal fields were it not for the mo
nopoly in transportation.
There has not much been said
about the sugar trust lately, so that
piratical institution concluded that it
would give an illustration of its pow
er just to let the people know that it
was in the swim as well as the coal
trust. One day last week it closed
down a number of its refineries and
threw C,5C0 men out of work. The rea
son that it gave was that there was an
overproduction of sugar. It would
be interesting to know what those 30,
000 people, the workers and their
families, think of a "prosperity" that
can be brought to a sudden stop by
the order of a trust at any time.
ON WITH THE DANCE
TLe Independent wishes to say to
a certain irate republican that when
it said that the coal trust had caused
a greater number of deaths and more
suffering than "Hell Roaring" Jake
Smith did in the Philippines, it was
telling the simple truth. The Chi
cago board of health issued a bulletin
January 31, in which it said that the
"returns of mortality for the month
of January, 1903, show an increase of
10.4 per cent (or 344) in the actual
number of deaths from all causes and
at all ages, and of 11.4 per cent in
proportion to population, as com
pared with January, 1902, when coal
was abundant at one-half the price
or even less than that it now com
mands where it can be obtained at
all. These two facts are cited to
gether because, in the judgment of
the health department the latter is
the principal, if not the sole cause, of
the former. A large proportion of the
excess deaths is, as was stated in the
bulletin of January 10, due to cold
and exposure caused by the coal fa
mine and which at that date had af
fected the health of fully 10 per cent,
or nearly 200,000 of the population of
the city. Had any other one cause so
seriously menaced the public health,
and welfare a grave emergency would
have been declared to exist, authoriz
ing the exercising of the plenary pow
er of the municipality under the war
rant and law of 'overruling neces
sity.' Disregarding for the present
the important fact that all manufac
turers and power-producing plants in
the city must pay double rates for
all coal contracted for at the present
time, and the serious increase of cost
that must eventually follow to the
consumer of substantially all prod
ucts, the immediate danger to health
and to life constitutes an emergency
which needs no further argument or
demonstration. The head of a fam
ily earning $40, $50, $60 or $75 a
month can scarcely buy enough fuel
to cook his food, much less keep his
family warm, and it is a serious mat
ter, too, for all householders, with,
the price of fuel doubled and in some
instances quadrupled. A contempla
tion of the fact's must make the most
loyal supporter of private ownership
of trusts and private ownership of
public service corporations think a
second time, because in micrwinter,
so far as coal is concerned, many are
dangerously near the question of the
right to live, and this right produces
an emergency that is higher than all
other rights and all law."
The Independent has constantly
been telling its readers that the fail
ure of the republican party to sup
press the trusts, would end in an ov
erthrow of society as it has hereto
fore existed. To destroy competition
and place the great industries in the
hands of a few monopolists is as great
a revolution ns has ever occurred in
the history of the world. It is en
tering upon a new order as radical as
was ever advocated by a follower of
Marx. The result so far is death and
suffering equal to that of a great war.
The present administration is re
sponsible for this condition of things.
Its refusal to enforce the laws has
brought this condition about. If a
case had been brought against the
coal trust in the beginning of the
strike, the present condition would
not exist.
The suffering from the coal trust
is only part of the evil and it soon
may develop that it is only a small
part. The merging of the railroads,
forming railroad trusts, destroying
competition in transportation, has re
sulted in such inefficiency that orders
were issued last week by a large num
ber of roads not to receive anything
but perishable freight, live stock and
coal. No such condition ever ex
isted in the United States before, but
it exists now after all the facilities for
transportation have been greatly in
creased. More locomotives and more
cars are at the disposal of traffic
managers than there ever were be-
