!4
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
APRIL 2, 1905.
RESCUED A COLLEGE
And Then l'd That a Lever for Prying
. ' Loose alt Kind f Kranehltee
- E&for Independent: . In the New
York American of the 27th ultimo, on
the editorial page, i3 given the his
tory of a man who "bought a coal
mine." I want to give you a 'part 'of
the history of a man who found a col
lege in a financial strait and came to
its rescue. It was located in a town
of about 2,000 people; he paid off the
debts, put up with the help of others
yery extensive buildings, he putting
In nearly as much as all others put
together did. His college was soon
named after him. Soon he asked the
city council to give him the franchises
of the streets for railroad purposes for
ninety-nine years. This was done.
It was not long until he had a mo-'
nopoly in the electric lighting of the
city and the price was put very high.
Soon after he got a monopoly of the
ice business and the price of ice wa3
put two or three times higher than in
other cities. .Then he got a monopoly
In the furnishing of milk for the col
lege. Soon he must have been get
ting eight or nino thousand dollars
per annum from these sources. I have
not the exact figures at hand. Well
sometimes the. college failed to pay
running expenses, and he generously
camo to its assistance. One year I re
member he put up nearly three thou
sand dollars besides giviDg a hou33
- and lot and some other things, and in
the meantime the city had put up a
system of water works, owned and
operated by the city, of which all its
. citizens were very proud; but thi3
public benefactor, having a monop
oly; in everything else, soon cast a
., covetous eye towards the city water
works. Finally he ihought his chance
had come; he found a board of alder
men, a majority of whom were cor
rupt br else he corrupted them with
his' Immense wealth, and he proceed
ed to lay his proposition before them.
Soon they had the contract signed,
sealed and delivered, and, Mr. Editor,
right here I want to ask you to vouch
for my veracity, for I have to give
' facts. The records of the city clerk's
' office will show which - no man with
an honest impulse !n his heart can be
lieve unless he is assured of the hon
esty of the man who tells them. What
are these- facts? Iid he propose to
sccept .the, city's system of water
. works as a gift? Not he. Did h3 of
fer to take them as a gift with the
- addition of 100 thousand dollars add
cd? Never!
Now . bear, in mind the . city was
pumping its water . from an artesian
well, and he had a system of water
works about one mile from the well.
; ' Ilia offer was to put in a pipe from
his water tank to connect with city
water works and to pump the water
for-them for 20 carts per thousaul
gallons for a period of fifty years.
Now, do not forget thatthe city was
then pumping its water at an average
tost of about 5 c ents per thousand gal
lons. The city was to keep up 1U
pipes and extend them and renew
them when necessary, collect the wa
ter rents and pay him this price at the
end of every month.
Now, I am somewhat of an expert in
figures, - and as I figure it, if he had
put his income from this contra.! at
interest at 8 per cent as he took it in
from the city he would have had at
the, end, of the fifty years tmore than
6?0' thousand dollars, a sum far in
excess of double the amount of the
assessed value of all the property,
personal and real, in the city as shown
typT, tax assessors' books. Now, for
what the taxpayers did at 'a heavy ex
pense: they went into the courts and
obtained an injunction Estopping them
in this villainous affair because the
mayor, of the c ity did not sign it.
Did the old man stop there? No, he
makes a new contract with the cor
rupt majority of the board of alder
men worse in some respects than the
first one. The mayor, to his everlast
ing honor be it said, vetoed the thing.
Then the philanthropist got a "one
horse" lawyer to try and get the coun
cil to pass It over the mayor's veto,
' but it. was no go. At the next two
city elections a desperate effort was
made to defeat this honest mayor by
the "one-horse" lawyer, but he won
.out both times.
This philanthropist poses as a
Christian. God save the mark. So do
the Rockefellers, pnd perhaps the
Morgans; of this last, however, I am
not sure, as I see he is reported to
fcave gone to sleep at the funeral ser
vices "of Dr. Curry; and again I see
he gives a man 230 thousand dollars
a year, the reason for which is being
severely criticised. Bear this in mind,
Mr. Editor, all millionaires will bear
watching. Now, Mr. Editor, I want to
troubla you with this article because
all over this broad land millionaires
are' playing dirty tricks upon the peo
ple. ....
It Is not often it is done through a
college, but in some way or other al
most every city and even, too. little
towns are in the courts fighting these
thieves for their rights. In a Texas
city some years ago an effort was
made to sell the city a system of wa
ter works at double the cost of the
system, no money to be asked for in
50 years, but Interest at the end of 50
years would be three times what the
principal was; " but the people sat
down upon the scheme; they have a
good law there. The people must be
consulted. Could the people had a
say-so in Philadelphia when John
Wannamaker offered 26 million dol
lars for franchises that a thieving
board of aldermen gave a few days
after to a band of looters, they, the
people, would have accepted Wanna
maker's money and thereby lightened
the burden of the taxpayers. And this
brings to mind the fact, that college
builder was from the Quaker City, so
we want to make allowance for him In
view of his associates at home.
VOX POPULI.
De Land, Fla.
Single Tax
' Editor Independent: Your Issue of
December 18 contains a letter from
Irl Dean of Marion, la , in which the
fnllnwine la found:
"Land mononolv mieht be restrained.
by Henry George's piaiof single tax
ation by the government buying the
land with greenbacks to be issued by
the government. The land to be re
sold to actual settlers for payments
of these greenbacks and a quit claim
deed given in exchange."
This passage shown an erroneous
view of the single tax. No single
taxer advocates the government buy
ing the land with greenbacks or any
other kind of money.
If Mr. Dean will look into tne law
hp will find that there exists no nec
essity of doing anything of thre kind
in most if not all the states or me
union. In Iowa. Nebraska and all
states except Louisiana, the common
law of England is tho rule ot action
envernine all matters relating to land
Now the common law of England does
not recognize anything like private
property in land. Most people tninK
land is owned like other property, but
tnis Is not so. When a man is said
to own land the legal phrase is that
he is a tenant in fee simple, wow tne
word tenant means, simply a noicter
a person who has temporary posses
sion of the land as long as he pays tne
fee or tax exacted by the real owner
th state or the neonle as a wnoie.
The single taxers do not propose that
the Deonle should buy what they al
ready by right own. Such a proposi
tion is on its face an absurdity.
-All indications now point to a re
vival of an energetic non-partisan cru
sade in behalf of the single taxes, pure
and simple. It is therefore important
hat at this juncture all persons in
clined to single tax should have cor
rect view? of' what it is and what is
irtended to be done. The single tax
involves the total abolition of the
tariff end internal revenue systems of
taxation by which the national gov
ernment is now maintained. Instead
of these indirect taxes over which, the
people have practically no control it
is the single tax idea to substitute a
direct tax to be collected by the local
governments and paid to the national
government. In the states it is pro
posed to abolish all taxes on personal
property and improvements to land.
This leaves only land value to be
taxed. The proposition is a gigantic,
one and will not be carried into ef
fect for years. It is questionable
whether it will be ever accomplished
under our present form of representa
tive government The plutocratic in
terests are too much in control of all
branches of our present government to
let the single tax have much chance of
success.
Direct legislation through the in
itiative and referendum by placing
the political power in the hands of
1 he masses off the people may bring
about this great reform. As a single
taxer I am willing to submit the mat
ter to the people as a mass as soon
as they get a government which they
really control. I am quite confident
that I could prove that single tax
would be to the best interests of 99 per
cent of (or even more) of the popula
tion. WM. N. HILL, M. D.
Baltimore, Md.
God-Ordained Revenues.
Editor Independent: Some wise
and witty person has remarked that
truth lies at the bottom of a well;
that most people are willing to let her
stay there, while still others would
rap her knuckles if she attempted to
climb out. .
I am inclined to think that the edi
tor, in his attempt to break the force
of my argument that the single tax is
a God-oT-dained law, has been guilty
The Silent Salesman
I'. . ...BO;.
ill Xiaiilw ' J.
i
OUR 1903
SPRING
CATALOGUE
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TION. IT WILL BE
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TODAY.
MENTION .
THE
INDEPEN
DENT
6
this time of rapping truth's knuckles.
In his reply, "Freaks of the Mind,"
issue of March 12, he confounds men
with society. These are two wholly
distinct and different things. Let this
distinction be made, then let any
one inclined to dispute the existence
of a natural revenue for society, con
sider again the analogy I used, name
ly, that after the same manner in
which the Creator has provided suste
nance for the child in the breast of the
mother He has likewise provided rev
enues for society (not for men, who
are the individual units of which so
ciety is composed). This natural rev
enue is the rent of land which single
taxers propose to take in the form of
a. tax. Further, for society to refuse
to take this revenue, and instead per
mit individuals to misappropriate it,
i3 the primary . cause of most of the
ills which afflict society, even as with
holding the milk in her breast injures
the mother and robs the child of the
nourishment which the Creator in
tended for it.
Now the only valid objections to
these assertions that I know of are,
first, to deny God or the existence of a
Creator; second, to deny that God or
the Creator was wise enough, or "ben
eficent enough, or had enough pres
ence to foresee the needs of society
and provide for those needs; third, to
admit that there is t God, that He
had enough wisdom to do this; but to
refuse to believe that he designed so
ciety should derive its revenues from
a single tax on land values. Take
your choice, but have a care. If the
last mentioned position is taken, then
it's up to you to discover and reveal
what revenue the Creator did design,
for the uses of society.
C. F. SHANDREW.
Germantown, Pa.
(If it is really true that it is up to
the editor of The Independent to dis
cover and reveal what revenue the
Creator did design for the uses of so
ciety, then he Is in the worst fix that
he ever got yet He never claimed
that he had the power to discover, or
the authority to declare what the de
signs of the Almighty were. He has
even held that no man ever held a
commission from God authorizing him
to declare the "designs" of the Al
mighty. If Mr. Shandrew has such a
commission will he please forward It
to The Independent so that the sig
nature can be examined and its gen
uineness proved. Ed. Ind.)
Indiana, etc.
We propose to help promote imi
gration to this state. Within a few
weeks we shall commence the prepar
ation of the most extensive list of
property,. for sale ever seen in Ne
braska. This will contain a complete
catalogue of all lands listed with us
for sale, both farm and ranch. Many
thousand copies will be printed and
judiciously circulated throughout the
above mentioned states. A large and
systematic campaign of . advertising
will be inaugurated, and we propose
to place our catalogue of Nebraska
lands in the hands of everv nrosDec-
tive buyer, This will enable us to dis
pose of a very large amount of land
within the next year.
If you have anything to sell it will
pay you to write for blank and list
your property'with us, and thereby get
the benefit of this extensive advertis
ing. We desire to put the copy for
this catalogue in the hands of the
printer as soon as possible, so if you
will allow us to help you sell your
property, please act promptly.
WEBER & FARRIS,
Lincoln, Neb.
The Prussian Stock Food and Rem
edy Company have a reputation for
manufacturing as good, if not the
best, articles in the way of stock
remedies, and are certainly worthv of
the reputation they have gained. The
proprietors being practical pharma
cists of over 25 years' experience
should be sufficient guarantee as to
teir goods being all they claim for
them. We call attention to thejLr spe
cial offer and anyone in need of any
thing in the way of stock food, poultry ,
food, etc., we would suggest that they
write the Prussian Rpmiviv rv if v...
V.J W., Ai UiJ ..J
cannot secure them from local agents.
Sell Your Land While Prices are High
Land values are higher today than
ever before in the history of the state.
It is an unpleasant fact, but our real
estate values fluctuate very materially.
However, extremely high prices or
extremely low prices never prevail for
a long period of time. Now is the op
portune time to sell property. Several
thousand men have taken advantage
of these high prices and sold their
property during the past year; many
more will do so during the toming
year. It looks like we will have an
exceptionally good crop in Nebraska
this coming year, and if that is true
there will be a very heavy imigration
of home-seekers to this state during
the coming summer and fall. These
men will come from the great farming
districts of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri,
Good Harlan County Farm
No. G31. 160 acres 3 miles north and
one mile east of Huntley! 60 acres in
wheat that eoes with'tho for, -ma
u - V A. 14. A 111 y X JLJ
acres in cultivation; 2 acres in alfal
fa, yitmy oi iimner tor posts and fire
t.UUu, guuu pasture; 4-room house,
barn 24x40, with granary and loft;
four , and a half miles from Ragan
thus giving choice of two trading
points. Can give possession this year
if taken at once. Price $4,000. Weber
& Farris, Lincoln, Neb.
W. B. Weekes, of Scotia, Neb., had
a car of 1300-lb. steers on last Thurs
day's market at South Omaha that
brought the top price of the day, $4.
They should have baen on . Wednes
day's market, but arrived several hours
late. Cattle held over are usually
called "stale" and sell at a disadvant
age, but owing to the excellent wav
this car was handled by the commis
sion house, Nye & Buchanan Co., Mr
Weekes says they held their place at
the top.
The Independent knows a good
opening for the right man to publish
a reform paper. One of the Old Guard,
who has grown gray in the service
desires to retire. He will sell at right
figures. Location, Nebraska. Mentioa
paragraph Y,
