8
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
APRIL 2, 1003.
the Uebraska Independent
Lincoln . Tlcbrasha.
LIBERTY BUILDING. J328 0 STREET
. Entered according to Act of Congressof March
j, 1879, at the Fostoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, aa
econd-class mail matter.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
$1.00 PER YEAR
When making remittances do not leave
money with news agencies, postmasters, etc.,
to be forwards!! by them. They frjnntly
forget or remit n different amount than was
left with them, and the subscriber fail to get
pi oper credit.
Address all communications, and make all
iifcftn, money orders, etc., payable to
Zbt Hebraska Indtptndtnt,
"f Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not be
noticed. Rejected manuscript will not be
returned.
The dailies now call, their neuseat
ing scandals in high life, "tobasco
salad." The Sunday editions are
filled -with them.
The Rock River News, Dixon, 111.,
has made its appearance, "published
under the auspices of the allied labor
unions by J. F. Bixby."
The democrats are waking up to
the fact that there is a fight on to con
trol the next democratic state conven
tion n this state. It is time that they
did.
Grover is coming west in a "private
car" accompanied, soothe dispatches
say, by a few friends. . To whom does
that private car belong? The railroads
have never yet furnished Bryan a pri
vate car.
The plutocratic dailies when they re
fer to the panic that they know is
coming because of the extortions of the
: trusts and the watering, of stocks,, call
It "the returning swing of the pen-
iulum,"
The Japanese for some centuries
. were satisfied with one shogun at a
time, but . in these United States we
have at least two, Rockefeller and
Morgan, with about a dozen deputy
shoguns, among whom are Kill, Har
riman and Gould.
Nature attends to the .plutocrats and
sees to it that the world is not exces
sively stocked with their breed. Mr.
Dooley figures it out after much study
that they reproduce themselves at the
rate of .00001 to each married pair,
while the families of Archie road gen
erally consist of 14 children.
Another Iowa court, Judge Oliver
presiding, has held that operations on
the Chicago board of trade are gam
bling and notes given in payment of
losses are void. It cost a Sioux City
bank $5,500 to find that out, which it
would have saved had it been a sub
scriber to The Independent.
Carnegie may have some hope of
heaven after all. He refused to com
mit perjury to escape taxation and is
the first among the big multi-million
aires to do so. Morgan and others of
that stamp commit perjury with the
same careless abandon that a French
man says, "sacre" or "mon dieu."
The leading' Bryan democrats in
this state keep saying to the editor of
The Independent that there are not
enough reorganizers in this state to
make any trouble in the next demo
cratic convention; that the moment
one of them shows his head he will get
it smashed. But they will find they
are mistaken. Information recently
received indicates that it is going "to
. be a fight to the finish. To aid it,
Cleveland himself is. coming west, and
will go as far as Denver.
Bit TAN AND HIS FOLLOWERS
Most of the republican voters still
think that as soon as their party got
back into power it stopped the coin
age of silver and that was what
brought about prosperity. The most
of them know, for that was talked
about so much during the campaigns,
that before the repeal of the Sherman
law there were-two millions of silver
coined each month, or 24 millions each
year. They do not know that a very
much larger amount of silver has been
coined by the republicans ever since
they got full control than was coined
before, sometimes more than three
millions a month. They did not coin
nearly so much during the last fiscal
year as they did during the two or
three preceding years, but it mounted
up all told to $27,096,250. Two half
dollars is just as much an increase of
the currency as one whole dollar.
In a recent . article, William B.
Ridgley, comptroller of the currency,
makes the following statement:
"On June 30, 1902, the total vol
ume of money in the United States
was $2,563,260,658, a net gain for
the fiscal year of $80,198,681. This
increase is made up of $67,955,527
in gold, $19,735,259 ill silver dol
lars, $7,360,991 in subsidiary sil
ver, and $2,929,904 in national bank
notes. During -the same period
". treasury notes decreased $17,783,
000." In the same article Mr. Ridgley
says:
"The volume of money in cir
culation increased during the
fiscal year of 1902 in the sum of
$74,082,589,"
That is an increase of more than
two and a quarter millions a month
more than was contemplated in the
Kansas City and Chicago platforms.
The essential demand of those plat
forms were that the volume of money
should keep pace with the increase of
population. That was the burden of
the great speech of John P. Jones.
That was the demand of the populist
party. Mr. Ridgley bears testimony
to the fact that such increase has been
secured. He says: ,
"The growth in the t volume of
money . in circulation more than ,
keeps pace with the increase in
population. From 1896 to 1902 the '
circulation has grown very rap
idly, the per capita advancing .
"from $21,41 to $28.43, or 32.6 per
cent, while during the same per
iod - the population increased 12.4
per cent."
These being the facts, the situation
has been changed since 1896. The de
mand for the free coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to 1 was made for the
sole purpose of relieving the money
stringency and securing a volume of
money commensurate with the needs
of business and an increasing popula
tion. If such an increase had not
been secured, the nation today would
be in the depths of poverty and de
spair. As far as the money question
is concerned, the republicans, while
declaring that they never would do
such a thing and that the doing of it
would be repudiation, have done it.
Not exactly in the way that Bryan
democrats and populists proposed, but
nevertheless they did do it. One thing
that they did was exactly what the
silver men had long demanded. They
coined the seignorage. The silver bul
lion that was stacked up in the vaults
of the treasury like cord wood, is
there no longer.
The time is coming, and in the near
future, too, when that question will
arise again and the republicans are
preparing to become the silver party
of the future. They have already
provided for another international
commission to fix the price of silver
and appropriated $100,000 to pay its
expenses. But it is not a pressing
question now and no platform or con
vention can make it one. So for the
present it might as well be dropped.
The vital question of today is, Who
shall issue the money of the nation?
Shall the government issue the mon
ey, or shall it 'be issued by the na
tional banks? That is the question
that presents itself just at present,
and it involves a principle, which the
Send for Your
Spring Suit Today
The u Nebraska" is the best store in
this western country at which to buy your
spring suit, Not because of the greater
quantity toe carry, not because of the
greater variety ice show you, not even- be
cause of the lower prices we quote, but be
cause of the safety of buying here. It is
absolutely impossible for you to get a poor
garment here or pay too much for any
thing bought. We take your m oney on
deposit, you take our garments on appro val,
and we stand ready to trade back when
ever you think you might have done better
somewhere else. Our spring Catalog is
ready look on page 3 and see what splen
did suits we offer at $7.
free coinage of silver did not, The
free coinage of silver was a "policy,"
and involved no fundamental "prin
ciple" of government. The sovereign
power to coin money and regulate its
value, which can only be done by reg
ulating its quantity, resides in 'the
government and can reside nowher?
else. Shall the government delegate
this power to private corporations or
ganized for gain? That involves a
principle, the affirmation of the gov
ernment's right and duty can never be
abandonedThere is where 'the fight
should be centered. V
To this, Bryan and his followers
should devote their energies, and let
the republicans take care of the sil
ver question, which everything indi
cates that they intend to do. The
moment the democracy begins to de
vote its attention to this question,
there will come to their aid all the
state banks and they control more
than half of the banking business"' of
the country. Mr. Ridgley says:
"On June 30, 1902, state batiks
to the number of 5,397 made re
ports to the comptroller of the
currency, being an increase over
1901 in the number making re
turns of 414. The aggregate capi
tal stock of these institutions was
$276,991,398, and the individual
deposits $1,693,185,287, an increase
during the year of $21,939,325 in
capital and $87,783,041 in deposits.
Their total resources on June 30,
1902, were $2,309358,715, an in
crease over the preceding year of
nearly $149,000,000.
"On the same date returns were
received from 1,036 savings banks
with resources aggregating $2,
893,172,986, and deposits amount
ing to $2,750,177,290, or an aver
age of $412.53 to each of the 6,
666,672 depositors as compared
with an average deposit of $408.30
in 1901. Of the total number- of
savings institutions reporting, 607,
with $2,380,200,804 deposits, are of
the mutual class, that is, banks
without capital, and which are
operated by trustees in the inter
est of the depositors. These banks
are practically all located in the
New England and eastern states,
those of the latter section holding
more than 50 per cent of the sav
ings deposits of the country.
"In 1901, 334 loan and trust
companies with total resources of
$1,614,981,605 reported, and in
1902, 417 institutions of this char
acter made returns. During the
year their resources increased in
the sum of $368,233,102, and aggre
gated on June 30, 1902, $1,983,
214,707. "The number of private banks
reporting was 1,302, as compared
with 917 in 1901. Assuming that
the banks making no returns held
deposits in the same proportion as
those which reported to the comp
troller, it is estimated that the '
aggregate of deposits in all banks (
. was $9,707,281,904. Of this,. 33.2 .'
per cent was held by the national '
banks."
From this statement it wall be seen
that the national banks :control only
one-third of the. financial power , and
if the . other tworthirds,can, be con
centrated against them they, are sure
to go down. t .-I,, ,.y .:, i,, .. ,
The other portions , of the Kansas
City platform contain the great "prin
ciples" that underlie just government.
To them will rally as of old the com
mon people. Government by injunc
tion and trust domination are becom
ing every, day more unpopular. Let
the portion be dropped that is not of
present importance and push those
parts in which two-thirds of the
banking capital and all the common
people are vitally interested. To these
the populists will give enthusiastic
support. They were never "silver
lunatics" at any time.
Let the Bryan democrats reaffirm
the "principles" of the Kansas City,
platform, swear eternal allegiance to
them and be satisfied with that. The
changed conditions require new "pol
icies." The insistant questions of this
time are trusts, a modification of the
tariff, government by injunction, ar;d
that the government shall issue all
the money, and never delegate that
sovereign power to private corpora
tions. All these things the populist3
favor. They advocate other things to
which the democracy, if kept out of
the Hill and Cleveland camp, will
come by and by.
The Chicago Chronicle is one of the
kind of "democratic" papers that de
light the hearts of all the republican
leaders. Notwithstanding that Carter
Harrison was unanimously nominated
by the democratic convention for
mayor and no charge of fraud was
made, this "democratic" paper is sup
porting the republican nominee.
Among "democratic" papers of that
kind is the Brooklyn Eagle, which'
has not supported a democratic ticket
for ten years. A "democratic" paper
that always supports the republican
party is an invention of these later
years. The trusts see to it that such
.papers make money. ' "