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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1903)
APRIL 23, 1903. THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. SUBMISSION AND SILENCE There is a passage In the letter of Mr." James Theobald, printed in The Independent last week, that is so fundamentally wrong and so opposed to democracy in its generic sense, that it seems worth while to call at tention to it In speaking of the dis cussion of economic theories and terms he says: "No one is competent to discuss them who is not thoroughly versed in history and a master of , style." If that were true, the great mass of the people, the ; very ones who by their votes decide what eco nomic theories shall be the policy of this government, must forever remain silent, and probably among the silent ones would be Mr, Theobald himself. The editor of The Independent does not pretend to be "thoroughly versed in history,", although he has read some hundreds of volumes on that' subject, neither does he claim, to be '."a master of style." He, for one, ob jects to being assigned to the silent throngs who must not discuss politi cal economy. What the editor of The Independent Lnow3 of history leads him to be lieve that every great reform, every theory that has advanced the human . race, either in philosophy, ethics, me chanics or government, since the days of the fishermen of Galilee to the present time) has originated among those "not thoroughly versed -in his- tor ana wno coma noi ciaim io u "masters of style." Especially is it true that every protest against falsa political economy, every effort to throw off the .burdens which it im posed upon the toilers, has originated among the common' people, not one of whom could claim to be "a master of style," or "thoroughly versed in his tory." Neither Ricardo nor Mill or iginated anything in political econ omy, as every one knows who is at all acquainted with the uproar among the people of England occasioned by the distress which followed the Na poleonic wars and the doubling of the value of bonds by the shrewd manip ulations of the house of Rothschilds. ..." ' ,1 l l- -.V A J unese miiigs weie n uikwu vu by' discussions among the people be fore either one of them ever put pen to paper. What these ' "masters o? style" did was to take these ideas that originated among the common people and express them in good English. The "discussion" occurred among the people and among them the ideas originated. i 1 The Independent is somewhat famil iar with this claim that the common people should leave the discussion of the money question to another class ' "' ' ' - 1 f t 1 A. 1 1 1 of people, we were ioxa mat uy an the great dailies from 1893 onward. Members of congress and senators were in the habit 'of rising in their places and declaring: "I don't pre tend to know anything about the money question. That matter ought to be left to the financiers and those who "deal in money." The absurdity of the proposition that none but "masters of style" should discuss the money question, should be apparent to every man when he reflects that those who are not "masters of style" are the ones who will, by their votes, decide What eort of a money system we will have in this country. It is the revival of the old theory that the few should rule and the mass of the people should submit and keep silent The Independent has several times tailed attention to the anarchistic and revolutionary acts of several repub lican legislatures. It is by no means through with the list The Rhode Isl and legislature was attracting atten tion last week all over the eastern states. It appears that a lawyer ran for the senate of that state on the democratic ticket As soon as that body assembled he declared himself a republican and the republicans made ! him their leader and gave him the lLalrmanship of the most important committee. It appears that this same lawyer had sneaked through a bill at the last session which was denounced bj the whole population. The house, by an unanimous vote, passed an act repealing it When it got to the sen ate, it was sent to this lawyer's com mittee and he not only refuses to re port it back, but uses the most insult ing and threatening language to any senator who intimates that the bill should be reported. So one man, and he a brazen-faced turncoat, is hold ing up the whole state of Rhode Isl and. The senate is a republican body and absolutely refuses to change the rules so as to force the bill back be fore the body or punish this threaten ing, shyster lawyer. Wherever the re publicans are in power just such things as that constantly occur. A little more of it and we shall have anarchy, pure and simple. "A LUCKY PROMOTBR" A paragraph in a personal letter from a gentleman in New York city, who is in excellent position to know Wall street, deserves publication. It savors of prophecy and only the flight of time will show how true it may be. He says: r . "The Norlhern Securities deci sion has dealt a mortal blow to Morgan, who is no 'financier,' but simply a lucky promoter who will henceforth gradually sink into the obscurity from which he arose," r, LEE AND SECESSION Under a law of congress each state in the union has the right to erect two statues of distinguished citizens in the rotunda of the capitol at Wash ington. The legislature of Virginia has recently voted to erect there a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee. When the matter comes up in congress, there is likely to be a hot debate. One side will declare that no state has the moral right to erect there a statue to a rebel. The other will claim that the secession of a state was not re bellion. Both sides will -have to acknowl edge that in the -case of General Lee, there were extenuating circumstances, even if secession is declared to be rebellion! General Lee was educated by the United States government at We3f Point While Lee was a student there, secession was taught ' in the school by the authority of the gov ernment and one. of the text books, given to Cadet Lee and from which he recited was "Rawle's View of the Constitution." In. that book are found, among other of like nature,. the following passages teaching the doc trine of secession: If a faction should attempt to subvert the government of a state for the purpose of destroying its republican form, the paternal pow-? er of the union could thus be called forth to snhdiifi it. Yet it. is not to be understood that its I A. HI t I interposition wouia ve jusunaDie if the people of a state should determine to retire from the union, whether they adopted another or retained the same form of govern ment (Page 289.) . The states, then, may wholly .withdraw from -the union; but while they continue they must retain the character of represen tative republics. (Page 290.) The secession of a state from the union depends on the will of the people of such state. (Page 295.) The people of a state may have some reasons to complain in re spect to acts of the general gov ernment; they may in such cases invest some of their own officers with the power of negotiation, and may declare an absolute se cession in case of their fabric. Still, however, the secession must in such case be distinctly and peremptorily declared to take place on that event; and in such case, as in the case of an uncon ditional secession, the previous ligament with the union would be legitimately and fairly destroyed. But in either case (conditional or unconditional secession) the peo ple is the only moving power., (Page 296.) When the government takes a boy and teaches him doctrines like that, he can hardly be called a rebel for putting those teachings into practice rrr Ws SPECIAL SALE SPRING CLOTHING We. make it a point to have the best clothing there is made. If you want the "right" clothes let us show them to you. The Hayden clothes are right in style and in the mak ing; they fit your body and your purpose and the prices fit your purse. We guarantee you absolute satisfaction. 1,200 men's very fine suits at a price that has never been ri valed in the history of clothing sales. These suits are made in all the newest fabrics, and the fit and finish are equal to the very best. They are worth up to $12.60; Q7 rft our special sale price, only. . 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EVERLASTING LYING The Associated press keeps up a never ending stream of lies. The other day it sent out from Topeka,! Kas., the following: "The bank deposits of Kansas amount to $3,000,000 more than at any previous high water mark, according to the quarterly state ment of Kansas banking institu tions, issued by. Bank Commis sioner Allbaugh today. High wa-" ter mark in the state's bank de posits heretofore was on Sep tember 30, 1901, when they aggre- ' gated $88,181,194.14. : The deposits ' are now more than $90,000,000, over $60 for every man, woman and child in the state." Now that lie was written by an expert, not only in banking, but in the science of lying. Ninety-nine readers out of a hundred would un-' derstand from reading it that there were $60 per capita of money in Kan sas. The Independent has a hundred times, more or less, pointed out that bank deposits did not represent mon ey nearly as much as they did credit, 'i ue man who got it up could have told as easily how much money was in the banks of Kansas, but he simply makes a statement of what the bank ers owe. A man goes to a bank and gives his note for $20,000. He is given a credit on the books of the bank for that amount and that note goes in a3 a deposit Not a dollar of money up to that time has been used and prob ably very few will be used from that time until the account is closed and the books balanced- If Mr. All baugh and the Associated press had wanted to make a truthful statement, the amount jof cash held by the banks would have been given and then the amount that they owed. But no such statements are ever made by the As-? sociated press or republican newspa pers, .Th'ey prefer to lie and they everlastingly keep at it There are hundreds of men in this state so poor that they cannot give their children even a high school edu cation, not to speak of sending them to the university, and whose condition is the result of the robberies of Rockefeller and others like unto him, who look with approval upon the gift of a few thousand dollars from his plethoric purse to the state university as a meritorious act They are will ing to be robbed of thousands of dol lars if the robber bestows a few doK lar3 of the loot upon some charity. The people of this state are supposed to be self-supporting and independent They are not paupers to receive char ity. The reception of money, obtained as Rockefeller obtained his, is to be come the receivers of stolen goods. Every honest man in the state should protest against the reception of a gift to the state university from the foul hands of John D. Rockefeller. The mendacity of the republican press of this state is shown in the way Jt treats the matter of deficiencies. During the last campaign it was uni versally declared that the populists always had an immense amount of de ficiencies, but that the ' republicans would have none. The godly Mickey was foremost in making these asser tions. Now that the legislature has adjourned and the amount of defic iencies that had to be provided is shown by the books to be $121,000, neither the godly Mickey nor a re publican editor in the state will men tion the matter. A more disreputabls set of political scoundrels, to take them all around, cannot be found on the face of the earth than the repub lican leaders in this state. ' . It looks to The Independent as if the trusts were going to try to gain their point by the same methods adopted by The national bankers In 1893. They are' going, to threaten a panic if they are not allowed to de stroy competition. Let them do it if they think. that they can win by that method. The populists will like to see them do that thing. That they can produce a panic If they so desire, no one doubts. But the people know more about finance' and political econ omy now than they did in 1893 and a panic may have . a-different ending from what it did when they tried It before. If competition is to be de stroyed, the dilemma will be pre sented: Socialism by the trusts or socialism by the whole people. The anthracite coal trust announce'4 the discovery of an immense new field of hard coal just south of Wilkes barre on land belonging to the trust The veins aggregate a thickness of 150 feet and the value of the coal is placed at $1,000,000,000. Now look out for another rise in the price of hard coal. Every time a new oil field Is discovered the Standard Oil trust . raises the price of kerosene oil and the coal trust will likely follow that example.