8
' THE NEBRASKA
INDEPENDENT. 1
MARCH 9, 1903.
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The " Nebraska " is the best , More in
this western country attwhic7i.fo buy . your
spring suit. Not because of jthe greater
quantity we carry, not because of the
greater variety we show you, not even be
cause of the lower prices we quote, but be-.
cause of the safety of buying tiere. ' It is
absolutely impossible for you to get a poor
garment here or pay too much for any
thing bought. We take your money on
deposit, you take our garments on approval,
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.
Zb Uebraska Independent
' Lincoln, ttebraska.
. LIBERTY BUILDING. 1325 0 STREET
Entered according to Act of Con grew of March
3, 1879, at the Postoffice at Uacoln, Nebraska, a
econd-cloM mail nailer. '
"PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
FOURTEENTH YEAR.
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iopet credit. ; . 1 ' - ? - ' '
Addreaa alt communications, and make all
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i Lincoln, Neb.
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COURTS AMD KINGS
Many men, when the constitution
"Was framed, were much opposed to
the Judicial system Incorporated in it.
Mason of Virginia fought against it
and predicted that the judicial system
of life appointments and , unrestricted
power to interpret the constitution
would end in the overthrow of the re
public. It depends altogether xipon
'the prejudices of a majority' of the
.supreme court what kind of a consti
tution we have and they alter and
1 amend it "by construction" so as to
make it one thing at one time and an
other time. For a long series of yeare
an income tax was constitutional and
then without an amendment to that
document it became unconstitutional.
" For more than a hundred years the .
constitution was supposed to uphold
government by the consent of the
governed. Then there came a time
when the court made another docu
ment out of that instrument and It
sanctioned government by force and ,
without the consent of the governed.
In this way the supreme court makes
a new constitution of its own motion
whenever it sees fit to do so.
This altering and amending the
constitution of the United States by
the supreme court has destroyed, to a
great extent, any. reverence for state
constitutions and they are trodden
under foot by politicians and judges
whenever they see fit to do so. If the
party in power in any state wants the
constitution of the state altered,
amended or nullified, obedient judges
proceed to "construe it," as they say.-o
f that It is another document altogether
from what the men who drafted it,
' and the people who voted to make "it
the supreme law, thought it was.
Notable Instances of this have oc
curred In the state of Illinois where
the republican, party found the pro
visions of the state constitution in
terfered w.ith some of their plans. The
following are a few instances In which
they have repudiated, by aid of the
courts, sections about which there
could be no doubt of their meaning.
The courts say that those sections
mean something else than the words
Indicate and that settles it.
Speaker Miller of the house of rep
resentatives has repeatedly refused roll
calls and taken upon himself, by the
use of the gavel, the decision of ques
tions before the house.
Tet in article IV., section 10, the
constitution of the state of Illinois
declares:
"In the senate at the request
of two members, and In the house
at the request of five members,
the yeas and nays shall be taken
on any question, and entered upon
the journal."
The assembly has been In the cus
. torn of passing appropriation bills
without having them itemized.
Yet in article , V., section 1G, the
constitution says:
"Bills making appropriations of
money out of the treasury shall
specify the objects and purposes
for , which the same are made,
and appropriate u them respect
ively their several amounts in
distinct items and sections." '
. Many members of the assembly
have been given appointments by Gov
ernor Yates upon the state commis
sion to the St Louis "exposition and
to other offices during" their terms of
service.
'Yet in article IV., section 15, the
constitution says; ,
"No person elected to the , gen
eral assembly shall receive any;
civil appointment within this stite
from the governor, the governor
and senate, or from the general
assembly, during the term for
: which' he shall be elected, and all
such " appointments ! and all votes
given for any such ' members for
3 any ' such office or appointment -,
shall be-void." ; ' - T :-
Many of the members of the as
sembly receive money from the state
in indirect ways.
"Yet article IV., section '21, of the
constitution-says: . . . . ."
"The members of the general
assembly shall receive . . . such
compensation as shall be pre-,
scribed by law, and no other al
lowance' or emolument, directly .or
Indirectly, for any purpose what
ever, except the sum of $50 per
session to each member, which
shall be in full for postage, sta
tionery, newspapers and all other
incidental expenses and perquis
ites; but no change shall be made
in the compensation of members ,
of the general assembly during the
term for which they may have
been elected."
The courts of Illinois are only fol
lowing, the precedent set by the su
preme court of the United States and
are making over the constitution to
suit the party in power, just as the
supreme court at Washington has re
peatedly done.
The result of all this is, that we
have practically no constitutions and
the courts are the supreme rulers, ex
ercising powers that no constitutional
monarch dare to assume. In the end
a government by courts will prove
worse than a government -by kings.
The power assumed by the courts over
labor in the United States is more
extensive than any European monarch
dare attempt
THEMES TOR GREAT EDITORS
The commissioner of Indian affairs
every month or so gives a theme to
the editors of the great- dailies upon
which they dilate to the extent of col
ums of space. The commissioner is a
great source of relief to" these editors.
To do any thinking is so wearisome to
the flesh of their kind that the com
missioner is a source of never-failing
joy to them. A while ago an order
was Issued to the Indian agents to use
their influence to discourage the use
of paint among the Indians and en
courage wearing the hair short instead
of long. The columns that were writ
ten about that could not be numbered.
That was a subject that these editors
thought they could comprehend, while
trusts, combinations, the destruction
of competition, taking all the tariff
would bear and kindred things were
rather too much for their grade of
intellect Recently the commissioner
has issued another order for which
these editors of the great dailies seem
to be truly thankful. It gives them a
chance to write about "Rain-in-the-Face,"
"American-Horse," "Two
Bears" and similar topics which Is on
a level with the capacity of their
brains.
The fact Is that the order of the
commissioner is a very sensible one.
When an allotting agent arrives at
an agency he begins by allotting land
to Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, An
drew Jackson, U. S. Grant, and when
these names run out he takes to nam
ing the Indian allottees Smith, Jones,
'Brown, or anything else he happens
to think of. The fact is that Indian
names are no more ridiculous than the
average names of white men If one
should undertake to translate them in
, to another language. White men de-
o
rive their names to a large extent
from animals, occupations or incidents
just as Indians do. We have Camp
bell, Hogg, Horseman, Miller, and
hundreds of others of like nature. To
tell an Indian that a man's name was
Koo-koo-see, which is his word for
hog, would appear more ridiculous to
him than "Rain-in-the-Face" does to
a white man.
; There are Indian names that have
no meaning they are just names
and to ask an interpreter to translate
such a name into English' puts him in
a bad plight But the interpreter is
generally equal to the occasion and
furnishes one without hesitation.
What the commissioner seems to de
sire is to preserve as far as possible
the Indian names as the surname of
the family. Some Indian names are
unpronouncable by English-speaking
people without long practice and can
be given no phonetic spelling with
our letters of the alphabet, but there
are many others that are easily pro
nounced and are pleasing to the ear.
Such, for instance, is "Wa-ja-pa." The
allotting agent in this case, instead of
retaining "Wa-ja-pa" as the family
name, dubbed the man, who is widely
known and highly respected by both
whites and Indians, John C. Fremont
There are a great many Indian names
of that character and it seems to be
the desire of the commissioner to re
tain such as the family names instead
of writing them down as Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster and Andrew Jackson.
Upon this subject the "great" edi
tors exercise their mighty intellects
and spread themselves out over many
columns. They seem, however, to
know less about this subject than they
do about political economy. One of
them, commenting on the subject,
says:
"But what right has the Indian
bureau to rechristen the red man
anyway? Why should the bureau
menace the country with a threat
ened Indian uprising in an at
tempt to transform picturesque
Roaring-Bear-of-Red-River' v into
Willie Smith'?"
It is with such stuff as that that
the great editors delight and Instruct
the followers of Mark Hanna.
The whirligig of time and men's
changing interests bring about strang
er things than ever were unfolded In
fiction. Ten" years ago Wall street
was denouncing silver and damning
fiat money. Today a large section of
them are turning' longing eyes toward
silver and confidently expecting an is
sue of fiat money to help them float
their great undertakings, only the fiat
money that they expect to soon see,
issued is clearing house certificates in
stead of greenbacks issued by the gov-1
ernment Nearly $200,000,000 of new
bonds have been listed on the stock
exchange in the last few weeks and
everybody is liquidating instead of
buying, while interest has been as
high as 15 per cent. These promoters
are beginning to realize that their
long planned schemes are about to,
fail for want of "more money" and
so they long for silver and fiat
8KELEY DINNERS
Plutocratic apologists excuse waste
ful extravagance on the part of the
immensely rich by saying that it
gives employment to laborers. The
most apt answer to this is to be found
in tbe reply of Prof. Enrico Ferri, the
Italian criminologist and socialist, to
his fellow criminologist but anti-socialist,
Baron Garofalo. The latter
had said:
"Apparently, many young men of
aristocratic families do not work. It
is nevertheless more correct to say
that they do not do any productive
labor for themselves, but they work
just the same, and this for the benefit
of others! In fact, these gentlemen of
leisure are generally devoted to sport
hunting, yachting, horseback riding,
fencing or to travel, or to dillantisme
in the arts, and their activity, unpro
ductive for themselves, provides an
immense number of persons with
profitable occupations."
And M. Ferri replied:
"One day when I was studying the
prisoners in a jail, one of them said
to me: 'Such an outcry is made
against criminals because they do not
work; but if we did not exist, "an im
mens number of persons" jailers,
policemen, judges and lawyers
would be without a profitable occu
patton!' ' ("Socialism and Modern
Science," p. 186 International Li
brary Pub. Co., N. Y., 1900.) i
The joy of giving Is Increased bjfj
the necessity, of working for what 19