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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1903)
MARCH i3, 1903. THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. 7 33 ' ' . . Trusts The Cause and Cure . TRUSTS A NECESSITY. Editor Independent:, I take quite an interest ia many uruia iu j"ul paper and notice the wonderful dif , f erence of opinion expressed. I like Congressman 'Stark's idea of primary nominations, but I wonder whether people would turn out to such or would only a few who make politics their business still manipulate as has been the case in the past? There must of necessity be a "machine," the or- ' caniTntinn wtitr V rnnslsf S of State. county and precinct committees. These are generally supposed to do about all the work and my observa tion has taught me that precinct pri maries are attended by them and a few who have axes , to grind. But under our present system of telephones and rural mail it might be possible for each county chairman to get an ex pression over these routes by giving a few days' notice, but to get voters to attend a primary election to simply choose between two or more neigh bors as delegates, to a county conven tion it requires something very im portant and as a usual thing will re sult about as the present plan has. I also notice many of your writers : are giving trusts fits and I wonder how they are going to stop them with out, checking all advance In commer cial evolution. In my opinion trusts are a necessity. No single person can carry on great enterprises. It re quires combined effort. Take the oil trust: when coal oil first came into iiao ? met Krt rp'nfs rpr frallnn! now It costs 12 cents. How was this done? First, by competition In open- , ing oil wells; second, by combining capital to still increase production; third, by merging many interests and piping the oil at less rates than rail roads would deliver it. Each of these conditions made It possible for cheap . oil and larger -profits. , Why curse Rockefeller for getting rich when at the same time he has lessened the cost of oil 75 per cent I love to see any man make money when at the same time he is saving others money. I be lieve,, however, thta human naturo is selfish and that Rockefeller is not cheapening oil as he might for, if re ports are true, he is getting very rich. Wow wniild it rln fnr TTnr.lo Sam to say, "Now, Rocky, this oil is a God , given comfort, to all mankind, there fore, I will put a graduated income tax on your until , your profits are large enough for any man, after which you can take . your, choice; , cheapen your ; oil "to the people or give the surplus " to me and I'll use it in lightening their ' burden of taxation." I see the old tariff bone is being gnawed a good deal in your columns. The populist party cannot afford to try to take that bone from those two ."old dogs." It's dry ' gnawing any way. , The people of this country are. for tariff and no political party can live unless it advocates some tariff. What the populists should do is to advocate a just tariff exempting nothing we can produce, let it be raw or manu- factured material. It is the inequal ties by privileges given under the law and not the law that is wrong. W. C. STARKEY. Violet, Neb. (Mr. Starkey evidently burns pine- knots or candles for lighting purposes or has a "pull" with the oil trust for we cannot get kerosene at 12 cents a gallon in Lincoln; 19 cents in five-gallon lots is the best we can do. ivir. Diarney overiooKs ine iaci al though kerosene is cheaper now than - it was in the days when it was dis tilled from coal, or before the art of refining the petroleum was developed, yet for the past several years the price has been steadily creeping up in de fiance of all known laws of price when controlled by competition. There is no , such economy of production as Mr. Starkey believes it is economy' jf ' transportation, .a better .rate , tjia'n anyone else can get. There are hun dreds of dismantled refineries whica could , refine oil as cheaply as Rocke feller can but they can't get it to market Rockefeller did not reduce the price of oil 75 per cent he was -not omnipotent then and couldn't' pre sent its going down. But today he is , showing the world the spectacle of in 4 creased production and Increased , ., price, with no new use to Indicate an . abnormal increase in the demand. .Ed. Ind.) , : - v SOCIALISM. The creator of the trust is special privilege. This' may come (1) from ah act of the legislative body, such as, a tariff,1 or statute excluding foreign; competition;" (2)fteight' discrimina tion or rebates-'4 in transportation of freights; (3) of '"by the weight' and force of money itself, or what is called the power of capital; that is to say, the power which money, once ob tained, has over the labor of the poor, so that the capitalist can take all its produce to himself, except the la borer's food." The privilege or pre rogative, may have come from any one, from any two, or from the three things given here. The fault being in the prerogative of capital to accu mulate to itself the most of the weight, which is created solely by la bor, the ' remedy must come from a complete removal of the cause. We now have and always have had law3 against illegal restraint of trade. These laws are not enforced, the ex ecutive power and the courts as well, allow to become practically obsolete. Outlawing men who take advantage of privileges granted them by law, cus tom and -conditions, cannot be justi fied by reason. A law making it a crime for an Individual, corporation, or an aggregation of corporations, to exploit labor; when this is but the natural and logical result of the sys tem, cannot but prove futile. The remedy means the taking away from capital the privilege of exploiting labor to any extent. In other word3, a system whereby all wealth hereaf ter created, shall go exclusively to the laborers creating, or producing it This means industrial revolution, which cannot come by temporizing with the present competitive system. It means the nationalizing of all in dustry, where each laborer shall have the privilege to work for all, and where the All (the nation) guarantees to him the full product of his toil. This means socialism. JOHN EVERSON. Alma, Neb. . ABOLISH CORPORATIONS. Editor Independent: It appears to me that writers on trusts and their cure have failed to get at the root of the evil. To me it seems that the causes of trusts are laws creating pri vate corporations and the privilege of alien ownership. Tariff duties, boun ties, - license, loaning of credits and private ownership of means of com munication and transportation have wonderfully aided the growth of trusts but did not cause them. We must adopt drastic measures to curb them. Take away all private special privil eges. This would effect a radical cure. Then if we would expect it to be permanent a sharply graduated in come and legacy tax must be enacted and enforced. E. W. FERGUSON, Jr. Hartington, Neb. . PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. Editor Independent: I believe that there is only one remedy for prevent ing trusts and that is public owner ship. . The trusts and capitalists don't care a darn whether the democrat or republican party is in power. It de lights them to see democratic and re publican editors quarreling with each other, each one claiming to be the poor man's friend; but, reader, did you ever stop to-think that perhaps many of these bullet-headed editors are paid to quarrel and rip In order to keep us blinded? They never mention public owner ship unless to say it would cause busi ness stagnation and is impracticable. Perhaps it might cause a business stagnation to the Rockefellers, Mor gans, Hills and many other fortunate possessors of numerous " business tal ent, but is it not better to cause busi ness stagnation among the few mil lionaires instead of the millions of ragged workers? Suppose Rockefeller and Morgan owned the postoffice; if they charged 25 cents to carry a let ter we would have it to pay; but for tunately it is owned by the public and 2 cents does the work. Now, I ask if land, oil, coal and other public necessities were owned by the govern ment ,why wouldn't it, like the post office, work like a charm for the strug gling millions? , ALPHA L. NEELY. Ogden, S. C. Try one of Branch & Miller's special combinations of groceries as adver tised in this issue. The Independent guarantees you will not regret It All who have ordered express entire sat isfaction. Able Educator 4 Editor Independent: Like that other fellov and some millions of other fel lows, if the truth were known, I am sorry I cannot send something sub slantial. : I hate been working stead ily, but could not save anything, though I do: hot drink. Such papers as The Independent and - Commoner should be supported for their educa Unnal methods if for nothing more. They choult! be patronized for their logical treatment of economic subjects as being free from those technicali ties which eavor - so much of Wall street slang, which ia tetter adapted to the perusal of the proverbial Phila delphia lawyer, or 3ome foot-of-his-class graduate- of Yale or Princeton, Experience is an Impressive teacher. It will not be necessary to orate to any extent before the "masses' in the next presidential campaign about the existence of a coal monopoly. Three years ago they could not or would not believe that any such beastly thing ex isted. They also felt the pinch of the money trust during Cleveland's in famous administration', but the dupes refused to be convinced that tho same malign Influence was the prime factor in both cases. All honest men should work to save the country from any more panic breeding candidates who tfllra thft Tin mo Homnirat fnr tho nur. pose of robbing the people. They are n 1 . . A 4 1 IL. 1 . 1 .1 whose object in life seems to be to torture to death a people struggling for the God-given right to liberty, and who facetiously call themselves re publicans, the better to carry out a policy of plunder. PHILLIP KELLY. Danville, III. Thinks fit's All Right Editor Independent: Please stop The Independent, as I don't think it will do me a dollar's worth of good. I don't think taking your paper will save this country, or the pops, or the democrats, as money will talk. There are . too many fools in the world. They won't read anything but trash. Your paper is all right, but the right people don't read it I don't need it, as I am with the reform party first, last and all the time. J. W. ENIX. Imperial, Neb. (That's the same idea which pro duces so many ajuilet heads. After Lincoln freed the slaves, these mullet head republicans said, "I am all right; I don't need to know anything more about republicanism; I don't need to read; I have learned all there Is to know." They , were not mullet heads then, but they are now, simply because they failed to keep abreast of the times. The fundamental principles of pop ulism arc eternally true and, like the tree, always young; but how to build government upon this solid founda tion is a problem that cannot be worked out in a day, in a month, in a yearr-prhaps in a lifetime or longer. There is no such thing as standing still. - The. man .who Is not learning sontf thing, new each day, is forget ting something. And the populist who thinks he has learned all there Is to populism, and who quits reading, will some day wake up to find him self a genuine mullet head. Ed. Ind.) Physician, Avondale. Okla.: I am greatly interested in Captain Ashby's article on "Money and the Taxing Power." I hope it will , be published in book form. John Hansen, Suring, Wis.: I shall not renew. Your paper is very good for a "fuse" paper, but "fuse" don't go with me after this. I am fully able to appreciate your efforts and manly ways in saying what you have to say and it is no pleasant task for me to send you this notice. (No hard feelings against you, Bro. Hansen. People have a right to differ as to methods. Would you resent public ownership of the railroads if it came under a republican or democratic ad ministration? Ed. Ind.) Should be at It Now Editor Independent: Well, Mr. Edi tor, I think fusion with the demo crats Is done with. I don't think the democrats are doing fair with us pops. I think they are too much on the hog order; they must have the best of ev erything and then we all get .'beat I don't think there are ten populists in Valley county that will ever fuse with them again. I for one can't vote with them any more; neither will I vote with the republicans.- There willl be a bid landslide over to the socialists in Valley county, but I must see their platform before I can go with them; but one thing is certain, we must do something to bust the republican ma chine and we should be up and at It now. J. O. SMITH. Ord, Neb. A Careful Survey Editor Independent: Enclosed find 50 cents for subscription. I notice you have requested your subscribers to express their opinion on the change in the form of The Independent I think it is decidedly 'more convenient. Now, Mr. Editor, I want to say some thing through The Independent that has never been said before. : Now, while you "are traveling the national road of reform, cutting bushes on both sides. It would bo worse than folly to turn out of the plain wide populist road for a divided democratic party. Let the reorganizers, Cleveland, Hill and Gorman,- have full swing: I do hope one of them will be nominated for president, so we can see their overwhelming defeat and death. They can't carry New York, and not exceeding a half dozen states all told. I see no way to get rid of them, only to let them go ahead to certain defeat . Another thing, It Is nonsense to think of accomplishing any change or reform while a majority of million aires are in the senate, and so many parties In the field. These million aire senators are big Masons whose secret obligations make them con veniently forget the promises they made to their constituents. To illus trate: ' . . ; 'V Some years ago I attended a public dinner given by the Masons on the 24th of June. They had imported a young brother from Louisville to make the opening address, after a short apology for his inexperience in addressing large audiences, tie said: "We meet to celebrate a day, not the Fourth of July, but a greater day, a day in which Masonry had its origin." Of course that would stagger a Fourth of July patriot. Again, for more than fifteen years an. undoubted majority of the people and legislatures has petitioned for a change to elect United States senators by the people as congressmen are, twice at previous sessions the lower house has passed almost unanimously a bill to make the desired change, and as often have these millionaires re ceived the bill in . the senate and chucked it in a pigeon hole, to sleep th&sleep that knows no waking. Yet, while a candidate for the sen ate every one of them declared in favor of it Now all this makes it plain that no change or reforms can be expected as long ae they hold a majority in the' senate. It makes no difference whether they are republi cans or democrats, they are all one and the same when they get in tho senate. There never will be any reforms In government until the people elect a majority of senators of a different stripe and kind. Now, I want to go on and look over the road, and after making a careful survey of the whole route I now -offer my report: First The government shall . coin goia ana silver at tne presem raiio as it has, and is now doing. . ,.: ' Second The government shall issue all paper money without the inter vention of any bank or banks. ", Third The government shall own and operate" .the telegraph' and tele phone system.' " ; ' ' Fourth The government shall own and operate the principal through lines of railroads, and acquire others neces sary as may be. . Fifth The government shall own and operate the principal coal mines. Sixth The government shall make said purchases at a fair valuation cr by the right of eminent domain. Seventh The government . shall stand pledged to increase the wages of all coal miners and railroad em ployes double what they now are. Eighth The government shall stand pledged to reduce freight and passen ger rates one-half of what they, now are. Thus ending all future Ktrikes and coal famines, and thus distributing wealth more, equally and justly. - Ninth The government will save enough by thus getting rid of swin dling bankers, and from telegraph and telephone service, and railroad extor tion for carrying the mails, t6 pay In full for said purchases inside of fif teen years. Tenth We are in favor of an in come tax and again demand that United States senators shall be elected by the people. Now it is no use talking about a new name; that would only play Into the. hands of the enemy. The only way that these reforms can be accom plished is, for all the miners and all, the railroad employes, farmers, and all other laborers, to unite on th? above platform, to be known as the Pedple's National Silver Party with Tom Johnson of Ohio for president and John Mitchell of the coal miners union for vice president; and with W. J. Bryan, Towne and Teller in the cabinet; then success would be cer tain. ' - ' ; But if two or more parties made a canvass against the reorganizers and republican party nothing will, be ac complished, and a few fleeting years will see our liberties and boasted republic supplanted by a , plutocratic dictatorial government - ; When I call to mind the prophetic words of prophecy ' spoken,, by our martyred president, I am ready to ex claim, Oh, for. a Lincoln, to lead u3 out of the wilderness. . . L S. FRYMIRE. ..FrymJre, Ky. ,
