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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1903)
8 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT MARCH 5, 1903. C - the Nebraska Independent Lincoln, Htbrasba. UBERTY BUILDING. J328 0 STREET Entered according; lo Act of Congress of March j, 1879, at the Toslcffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, aa aecond-clar a mail matter. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. $1.00 PER YEAR . Vfccts ffiaJsjcgr' remittances5 Ao not money with news agencies, postmasters, etc., to be forwarded by them. They frequently , forget or remit a different amount than was left with them, aill the aubscriber faila to get pi oper credit. Address all communications, and make all diafu, money orders, etc., payable to Zbt tltbrnska Indtptndtnt, . Lincoln, Neb. Anonymous communications will not be. noticed. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned. ..... . . . Write a postal . card today, if you want to take part in The Independent's school of political economy. .The sap-headed humorists have dis covered a new theme. It Is, "Running a Store as Christ Would Run It" The. effort of Frank B. Noyes to write humorous editorials for the Chi cago Record-Herald are heart-rending. Rev. H. L. Hutchins, an agent off the American Bible society, makes the charge that polygamy is practiced to a considerable extent in the down east state of Connecticut. Secretary Cortelyou , wants nearly $8,000,000 to start off his new depart ment of commerce. More departments, more commissions, more offices, indi cate very heavy taxation ror me iu ture. vJsXxX J A. decision in the United States su- preme court, in a luneiy ta&u ib iuiu--preted to mean that congress, can pro- ;nit)it tne transportation 01 any ar ticle of commerce. - If that is so, con gress can smash the trusts any time that it wishes to do so. The republicans continue to pile high the honors on ' Senator Hoar's head. Circumstances demand it The senator's fierce opposition to imperial- ism has "endangered republican control of the state of Massachusetts. An effort must be made to right things. The republicans of the Indiana state senate killed a bill limiting the power of the state courts to issue injunctions for contempt In labor, troubles where the offense was not committed in the presence of the court and providing a trial by jury when the offense is com mitted, elsewhere. Wonder if the la bor unions will still line up and vote 'er straight? " ' - ' " 7 It was long ago settled that typhoid fever was a preventable disease and that an epidemic of it pointed to un mistakable disregard of well known sanitary laws. The epidemic at Cor nell university which has been so deadly that it has almost closed its doors is plainly chargeable to the criminal neglect of the health author ities of that place. It is the next thing to wholesale murder, The number of heelers placed on the pay roll by the republicans of the Il linois legislature Is so large that great pains are taken to keep a large part of Ihem away from the capital as their presence would so jam the floors and corridors that It would be difficult for any one else to get in. Each senator and representative is allowed so many dollars a day to pay henchmen who fere put on' the roll. That Is the sub stance of the charge made in the re port of the Legislative Voters' League. People submit to it because Abraham Lincoln freed the slave3. ACCURATELY PREDICTED During the last four or five years The Independent has remarked several times that crime was on the increase in the United States. In the clubs and elsewhere the editor has been at tacked fiercely for making such asser tions. Now It seems to have become an accepted fact The Chicago chief of police lays the blame on the min isters. He says that they fail to im press the ten commandments upon their congregations. The ministers lay the blame upon the exclusion of the Bible from the common schools and 'the utter lack of training in mor als of the children. Others say that it is owing to the circulation among the youth of the Jesse James style - of novels. Judge Lindsey of Denver says that half the boys of Colorado are thieves. All are agreed that crime, and especially murder, has Increased out of all proporti&n to. the increase in population. : ! ; This state of affairs has been ac curately and often predicted in these columns. Two or three years ago the subject of "degeneration" was treated in every detail and the beginnings of it noted. The words "degeneration" and "degenerates" occurred very fre quently in these columns those days. Now the facts are acknowledged, the evidences of degeneration are taken for its cause. When the ministers abandoned the old gospel and began to preach a new one, when the bread "and wine in the communion service was passed by millionaires who had gained their , millions by special priv ileges, by bribing city councils, legis latures "and v congresses, and the fact that a church was proud to have the circumstance known that it harbored and gave exalted seats to that class in preference to the poor to whom Christ belonged, when men were everywhere honored because of the dollars they had accumulated instead of their character for honesty and righteous ness, the foundations for an increase in crime was laid. Murders and iaoy burglars followed as effect follows cause. . .. ..... . : ; -f , : : There was an act committed byi'the house of representatives at Washings ton , the other day that will produce more degeneration than all the Jesse James novels that w,ere. ever printed. When a member of that body was un seated who had been elected by over 6,000" majority without any excuse at all other than that the majority had the votes to do.it, and the men who thus violated their ' oaths go back home and proclaim again that "all is fair in politics," the youths of the land will have another high example to set aside , the -ten commandments. When all the rules of moral conduct are thus trampled underfoot, and not a pulpit in the land raises a warning voice, is it any wonder that crime increases? The "causes" of the increase, in crime are political and economic. When men who buy elections, practice every sort of deception and falsehood, make contracts with polygamists to carry a state, attack men of the pur est character, defame and vilify, and then are regarded as the highest types after which our youth should pattern what other result could follow? When the accumulation of vast for tunes created by the labor of the poor is held to be the chief aim of man, and that upon those who succeed in accumulating millions .should be poured out the honors ' and adoration of the public,, instead of the lovers of mankind - who strive tb bring .comfort and happiness to the common people, the very foundations of morals is un dermined and a stimulus given to crime of every sort This is what The Independent has called the worship of Mammon Instead of the love and wor ship of the God of our fathers. This is placing at the head of the list, not as the angel did, the lovers of man kind, but the lover of gold. The re sult Is inevitable and easily foreseen. Crime will continue to increase as long as the doctrine is publicly preached that "all is fair In politics." For a large part of each year the daily press is filled with accounts of politi cal contests. The people become fa miliar with the buying of city coun cils and legislatures, with ballot box stuffing, with the perjury committed to escape taxation and other things criminal which are condoned by the churches and the perpetrators cf which instead of being prosecuted and convicted, are pointed to, both In so ciety and the church, as fine examples of sharpness and American strenuos ity. That leads to increase in crime as certainly as gravitation draws things toward the center ofthe earth, Letus make the Independent School of Political Economy a great body of" truly educated men and ' women, and thus counteract the evil being done by the National Economic League, with its plutocratic college presidents, trust magnates, and Grover Clevelands. NEW CABINET MEMBER No doubt Secretary Cortelyou, who is to be the head of the new depart ment of commerce, is a very estimable gentleman, but if the president had searched ;the whole country over he could not have found a prominent man who was by education, previous em ployment and environment less fitted for the place. The department is to be the government head of the great business interests of the country, but Secretary Cortelyou has had no busi ness training at all. In that depart ment is to be located the control of the trusts, but Mr. Cortelyou has had no experience in that line that can guide him. He has never held a po sition of authority but as stenogh rapher and private secretary he ha been completely subject to the orders of others. He has had no experience in government whatever and none in politics except as a private secretary to men engaged in politics. h The people and the business inter ests that have suffered from the for mation of trusts should have had a man selected from among them to head the department that is to con trol the trusts, not a young man who has had no experience in business ex cept to draw a stated salary. The appointment of Mr. Cortelyou is as wide a departure from the policies that have controlled cabinet appoint ments heretofore as cbuld possibly have been made. When a president disregards the prominent men of his party men who have had experience in government or business and ap points his private secretary to a cabi net position, it is inaugurating a new system. ;; Such places have heretofore been held by men who had proved their ability, had been active in pub lic affairs or had gained a position of prominence by their ability and learn ing. Mr. Cortelyou may prove ef ficent in the position, but there is nothing in his career to presage k. His many years of obedient service to men in a party under which the trusts have grown to be the greatest power in the land, does not indicate that he will be a very efficient "trust buster." W. E. Curtis improves in his abil ity to lie as the months pass by. Last week he announced that "the vaults of the United States treasury are crammed with hundreds of millions of dollars." Aside from the extravagance of the expression, "hundreds of mil lions," the truth Is that all the money, belonging to the government, with the exception of the redemption fund and the working balance of about $50,000,000, is in the banks, which have got it without interest and are already loaning it out to the people. Build on the solid rock". Read the best books onv political economy for the foundation. Read The Independent to lieep up to flats. Wrlto c card to day If youj&ro Interested In the Inde pendent School of Political Economy;. INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM Another conference was held in Washington last week concerning the, fixing of a ratio between gold and sil ver to which the president called Rep resentatives Southal, Southard " and Cochran as the principal parties.. The thing that urged them on was that citizens of the United StateSnnow have investments in Mexico alone aggre gating more than $500,000,000. : The earnings of these enterprises have suf-. fered a serious fall in gold value with every fall in - the value of Mexican money. So it will be seen that . it . is not the good of the Mexican that these gentlemen are , interested in. The earnings of these foreign, investments go out of Mexico, and every fall in the price of silver leaves v-hat much more in Inn hntn t.t A ' rise in the price of silver means a fall In the. price of , the products of labor in which the Mexicans pay the inter est on these foreign investments. The importers of foreign goods into Mexi co, foreigners who have invested there and the exporters of goods from other countries to Mexico are all in favor of fixing the price of silver by law. The same is true in regard to all countries which are on the silver basis. That creates a large moneyed Interest that is now for bimetallism and it is grow ing in influence every year. Just at present they declare that "there is no movement in contemplation to estab lish international , bimetallism." If' fixing the ratio of silver to gold by law is not bimetallism, then what is it? - To say "fixing "the price of sil ver" instead of saying "fixing a ratio between silver and gold" does not al ter the case in the least Do you want to read the best books on political economy? Then write a card to The Independent today. Dr. Hirsch has the same opinion of the daily press that The Independent has so long .held. He says it is "sen sational in its' methods, , unreliable in its statements, evil in its influence jand unscrupulous to the point of deprav ity." ; jj ' ' CREDULOUS TEDDY Every one will remember how :a short while "aeo the president, -waa making speeches telling how happy and prosperous the Filipinos were and how many blessings the imperialists had brought to those people. He had been listening to Beyeridge and sev eral more imperialists of that sort and believed every word they said ami believed it so firmly that he re peated it in his speeches everywhere. Now Governor Taft and others in the Philippines have been telling him an other story -and without retracting a word that he said, he sends a special message to congress in which he con firms every word that The Indepen dent has said in regard to the horri--ble conditions in -those Islands. He says in his message: "A series of calamities have be- ' fallen the Philippine people. Just as they were emerging from near ly six years, of devastating war- ; , fare, with the accompanying de struction of property and the breaking up of the bonds of social order and the habits of peaceful industry, there occurred .an epi demic of , rinderpest which de stroyed 90 per cent of the caribous, the Philippine cattle, leaving the people -without draft animals to till thfi lands of to aid in the ordi nary, work of farm and village life. The extent of the disaster can be seen from the fact that the surviv ing caribous have increased over It appears from this passage in the message that what The Independent has said is all true. There has been "a devastating war," "destruction of property," "breaking up the habits of peaceful industry" and "destruction of social order." So the Filipinos who were , denounced as "savages," had "habits of peaceful industry," and lived "in bonds of social order." It will be seen that those who wish to be informed, who wish to get "the
