8
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
MARCH 12, 1903.
tbe Uebraska Independent
Lincoln, Utbraitta ,
LIBERTY BUILDING. J32S 0 STREET
Entered according to Act of Congress of March
5, 1879, at the Postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, as
second claw mail matter. -'
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
$1,00 PER YEAR
When making remittance do not leave
money with news agencies postmasters, etc.,
to" be forwarded by them. They frequently,
forget or remit a different amount than was
left with them, and the subscriber fails to gel
psoper credit. '...
Address alt communications, and malca all
tfrsfts, money orders, etc., payable to '
T!)f tttbrask 1niptndnt,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not b
noticed. Rejected manuscripts will ' not be
returned. . ' ,
The English effort to , establish
'forced labor" in South Africa finds its
counterpart in this country, in Judge
Adans' injunction. Plutocracy is the
sanie sort of devil everywhere.
" The Independent is working on a
list of offices that have been created
by the' republican party in the last
six years. Office-holders have in
creased by several thousand during
that time. Who pays the bill?
It'.. Is astonishing what a deathlike
silence the great dailies can maintain
when anything happens in, which the
people are generally interested. The
disgraceful ending of the republican
pet admiral, Crowni'nshield, has not
elicited one paragraph from the pen
of the "great" editors.
The plan to down Bryan includes
the sending of a contesting delegation
to the national convention after the
same way that they did -it m isao. 11
Pave Hill has a majority of the con
vention outside of Nebraska, he cal
culates to make an end of Bryan then
and there.
Gambling on the board of trade is
bad, as The Independent has often as
serted, but it hardly deserves a sen
tence of murder in the first degree
and imprisonment for life, which
seems to be the conclusion that the
jury in the Lillie murder case arrived
at ;
If your subscription is delinquent
please remit. We have a number of
unpaid balances due for material used
'n the construction of Liberty Build
ing and need the money to meet them.
Recently we sent bills to delinquents,
but for some reason only a few have
sent the money as yet
By killing House Roll 330, the rail
roads have the "age" over other tax
payers in the cities; but let no farmer
feel that that is none of his affair,
for when the revenue bill passes he
will find that the railroads have a-still
greater advantage over him. It's a
case of "turkey" for the railroads
whether coming or going.
The Independent is pleased to see
the populists of Iowa taking steps to
unite the factions in the party. With
a call for conference, signed by more
than 500 Iowa populists, the Albia
meeting ought to accomplish some
thing. The populists over there" are
not falling over themselves joining
the "kangaroo" socialists, it seems.
The eastern papers that are gloat
ing over the prospect that Bryan is
going to be beaten in. the next demo
cratic stafe convention in Nebraska
evidently do not know Dr. P. L. Hall,
who is the chairman of the democratic
state committee in this state as well
as The Independent does. If they did
they would not be quite so lilarlous
in their prophecies.
THE LAST PRETENSE OONK
The republicans have abandoned the
last pretense that ware on the gold
standard basis." It . .was at best. but a
pretense- from ..the beginning. ; We
never had a "gold standard" in this
country and "the republican . leaders
when they talked of "more firmly es
tablishing the gold standard" knew
that they were frauds of the first
water when they did it . : ,
After the house killed Senator Pat
terson's bill, authorizing the presi
dent to call an international confer
ence to fix a ratio between silver, and
gold, it was .added by the senate to
the sundry civil appropriation bill,
was passed by the house' and become
a law. The Independent has learned
that it was not only upon the appli-,
cation of Mexico and China that the
president sent' his special message to
the house on that subject Several of
the European countries had indicated
that such a measure would meet with
their hearty concurrence. All, these
countries have trade relations with
Asia and many of them have large
territorial possessions in the Orient
The continual fall in the gold price
of silver promised to ruin their
trade. They at last saw that the
greedy attempt of bondholders to dou
ble the value of their bonds by de
stroying half the money of the world,
would, if carried to its full fruition,
bring such disaster that they could not
stem the torrent. What the econom
ists prophesied was coming true and
the results; that they predicted were
at hand.
Senator Patterson's bill carries an
appropriation of $100,000 and the
commission will be appointed. It will
meet with a hearty reception on the
other side of the Atlantic for the ruin
of the Asiatic trade has been greater
there than here. The result will prob
ably be a compromise. Instead of
one-half of the money of the world
being destroyed, it will be one-fourth.
That is, instead of a ratio of 16 to 1,
it will be a ratio of 32 to 1. The Brit
ish government has already fixed a
ratio between England and India con
siderably below 32 to 1.
No honest man can look back on the
contest that has raged since 1873 with
out revolting at the mendacity, the
greed, the wholesale piracy of those
who advocated the gold standard. It
was the foulest and most criminal at
tempt to deceive the people and then
rob them, that" was ever engaged in
since the world began. The pirates
that roamed the Spanish main were
Christian gentlemen in comparison
with them. The most contemptible of
the whole lot were the economists who
had a scientific knowledge of the
whole subject, who sold themselves to
this gang of gold standard robbers and
chief among them was one J. Laur
ence Laughlin, Rockefeller's profes
sor of political economy. The only
thing that will ever save him from
eternal damnation is that he never
got the courage to 'positively and
openly deny the quantity, theory of
money. In all other ways he aided
the pirates to the best of his ability.
It is true that many thousand of
ordinary intelligent persons support
ed' the . pirates and voted" for their
tickets, because of their ignorance of
political economy. Now that the re
publicans have abandoned everything
that they contended for, have enorm
ously increased the "quantity" of
money instead of decreased it, and
have abandoned the last pretense of a
gold standard, if these men are hon
est, they will forsake the leaders and
the party that deceived and lied to
them and spend the rest of their lives
in trying to drive the foul criminals
from power. ' If they don't, they will
show that they are no better than the
worst of them.
POPULIST PAPERS
Readers of the Missouri World and
the Southern Mercury are somewhat
aroused and worried because the Ap
peal to Reason's "populist" edition
made the assertion that "The Inde
1 pendent is the only paper of GEN
ERAL CIRCULATION in the United
States that still pretends to teach
populism,"- but they seem to accept
as a matter of' course the further
statement in that edition that in 1897
Bryan told the writer of the screed
that he and the populist leaders had
arranged months before the St Louis
convention to nominate him for the
presidency. . ; ' r;?
The writer of that screed is an ex
populist of the mid-road variety. .He
certainly knew of the existence , of
both the World 'and the Mercury.
Either he had some doubts about the
populism , they pretend to preach, or
felt that they had no such circulation
as would warrant the use of the term
"general;" but the chances are that
he did not intend to slight either, one
of them. He seems to be a man who
jumps at conclusions based . on sus
picionwho gives as a solemn state
ment of fact what exists only in his
imagination. ,
If he had said that The Independent
has probably the largest general cir
culation, that would be true. But
there are other, populist papers of
general circulation, the World and
the Kansas Commoner being the best
that reach this office. The Mercury
seems to have contracted Hearstitis
and can hardly be called a political
paper now.
For the information of the World
we would say that the Nonconformist
and Advocate did not die; they be
came farm papers. .
LOGIC OF BARBARISM
The republicans have started out to
discussing the tariff in the old way,
for they evidently , believe that the
tariff is to be a vital issue in the next
campaign. The thing that perplexes
The Independent is that any man
could be influenced by this old post
hoc argument that Henry George so
thoroughly annihilated " with his the
atre illustration.
Senator Gallinger delivered a set
speech at Detroit the other day in
which he contrasted conditions in the
country in 1895, the year before the
passage of the Dingley law, with con
ditions in 1902. He pointed out the
great increase since 1895 in railroad
business, in bank clearances, in sav
ings deposits, in the money in circula
tion, in the exports of the country and
the domestic manufactures. Then he
said: -
"These figures tell the story of
the difference between low and
high tariffs more eloquently and
convincingly than tongue or ora
tor possibly do." '
He did not attempt to tell how the
Dingley tariff effected these things.
The assertion was simply that the
tariff was enacted and "afterwards"
these things came to pass, "therefore"
they were the result of the tariff. It
is the old barbaric logic and the sort
of reasoning by which congress guid
ed their lives. There was an eclipse
of the sun. "Afterwards" the chief
suddenly died. "Therefore" the eclipse
of the sun caused his death. That
was the logic of the savage and is
still the logic of Senator Gallinger.
The Independent invites Senator
Gallinger to attempt to prove that
the tariff caused any . . one of the
things that he mentions. It would be
pleased to know how the tariff in
creased the amount of money in cir
culation which is one of the things
that he mentions. Most people be
lieve that the amount of money in cir
culation was Increased by the coin
age of gold and silver and the issue
of more national bank notes. Senator
Gallinger asserts that that was not
the case at all. It was increased by
raising the tariff. After all, that sort
of logic may not be barbaric, but
simply republican idiocy.
Let us 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 Cleveland.
FREAKS OF THE M ISO
Many times the editor of The Inde
pendent ha3 listened to a public
speaker or minister, who, for fifteen
or twenty minutes, would make a logi
cal, 'symmetrical and consistent argu
ment,' and then all at once proceed
to state conclusion, not only unsus
tained by the facts, but absolutely,
contrary to human experience. The
minds of the brightest men will
sometimes play them freaks of . that
kind. Henry George was an exam
ple. Take his last unfinished work on
political economy. Up to the point
where it was necessary for him to
treat of money, no work on the sub
ject is more logical, but the moment
he takes up that subject his reasoning
powers seem to break into disjoined
fragments. Look at the statement
(we quote, from memory, the volume
not being, at hand) .that money is
partly wealth and partly not wealth.
That portion that is composed of gold
is all wealth, the portion that is
composed of silver about half wealth,
and the paper money not wealth at
all. Notice the strange use of the
word "money." He seems to con
ceive that it is two or more different
things. It must be, if part of it is
wealth and part of it not wealth.
Many of the single taxers are trou
l!ed with .this same frailty. Here is
a statement made by The Indepen-
dent's correspondent, Mr. C. F. Shan
drew. From the facts that "men were
given feet to walk with, that birds
were given wings to fly with, that,
fishes were made to live In the water
and men to live on land," he draws
the following conclusion:
"Hence if he (the editor of The In
dependent) would learn the intent of
the Creator in social affairs, let him
but look and he will find that the
Creator made man -to livein society,
and knowing that society would need
revenues, He at the same time pro
vided the revenue just as he provides
milk in the breast of the mother for
the nourishment of the child." .
The Egyptologists tell us that civ
ilized man has certainly existed on
this earth for 10,000 years. During all
that time the child has been nourished
at its mother's breast, but never yet
has man found the revenues that God
has provided. Without the mother's
milk the race would have become ex
tinct within,, one generation, though
it is possible . with modern knowledge
to raise a child without it, but with
out this single tax the race has in
creased and multiplied until It covers
nearly the . whole face of the earth
and society has never once gathered
in this God-ordained revenue. Man
could not exist without feet, nor birds
without wings, but man does exist
without the single tax.. If one were
as much a provision of nature as the
other the failure to apply them would
have the same results. Man cannot
exist in direct violation of natural
law. That is so evident that no mind
will play such a freak as to deny it
But according to the statement of Mr.
Shandrew man has existed for 10,000
years in direct violation of natural
law, which is an absurdity.
The Independent has never yet
made a dogmatic statement against
the single tax. It is open to convic
tion. If it can be shown in a logical
way that the adoption of the system
will bring about all the blessings, or
even half that it is claimed it will,
then it will become an enthusiastic
advocate of the system. It has the
very highest respect for the men what
advocate the single tax from Henrj$
George down to the humblest in the
ranks, for unquestionably they are
men unselfishly advocating a system
which they believe will be a blessing
to all humanity. . :
Persistent efforts for a greater
navy have resulted in victory. The
naval appropriation bill just passed
provides for five fighting ships of the
line; four to-be first-class battleships
of 12,000 tons each, of the Kearsarge
type, and one armored cruiser of 16t
000 tons.
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