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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1903)
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. APRIL 30, 1903. independent School of Political Economy HFI MAD' CHist,prrdou8 metals urfc-- i'M-ti tJj3; Hist, money $2; Hist Monetary crimes, 75c; Science money, $1; Hist. Money in America, i.5o; Hit money China, 50c; Hist money Kelherlands,5oc; Cambridge Press, Box i6o,M. 8. New York. Do vou want to understand the alms and objects of the single tax? If you do, you can obtain literature on the subject free of cost by writing to the Brooklyn Single Tax League, 1467 Bedford ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. fPTTTTl urTTT-l t T The Director acnowledges receipt from the author, A. M. Simons, editor of the International Social 1st . Review, a copy of "The American Farmer" (12 mo., cloth, 208 pages; 50c; Chas. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago). A hurried glance through its pages leads The Director to believe that Mr. Simons has at least laid the foundation for a better understanding of American farm economics. Most socialist lit erature treats the farm problem from the standpoint of the European farm er and the conclusions drawn are not applicable here. A more thorough review will be given at the earliest possible moment; but, in the meantime, The Director has no hesitancy in recommending the book as worthy of a careful reading. It will help the student of political economy who desires a glimpse at this phase 'of socialism through American glasses instead of the strange foreign ones we have hitherto been obliged 0 USe. . - THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION. Mr.. Simons has also favored The Director with a copy of "The Social Revolution," by Karl Kautsky, trans lated by A. M. and May Wood Simons (Kerr & Co.; 12 mo., cloth, 189 pp., 50c). This Is also reserved for re view. SOCIALISM UTOPIAN AND SCIEN TIFIC. , To A. W. Ricker, one of the editors of The Appeal to Reason, The Direc tor's ackowledgments are due for a copy of Frederick Engels "Socialism Utopian and Scientific" one of Kerr's little pocket library series. This The Director has promised Mr. Ricker to read carefully and thus assist in the "development," signs of which Mr. Ricker professes to have observed in The Director's knowledge of social PROGRESS AND TOVERTY. : A disciple of Henry George and a modest man to boot has given The Director a cloth-bound copy of Henry George's great work, "Progress and Poverty," with the condition that Tne Director first read it and then do as he pleases with it afterward. As The Director has read this work, he "be lieves it should be in the hands of some member who has never read it. It is a "free" book, costing the reader postage on to the next. Who wants to read it first? .; The school work grew faster than The Director expected, and, with the Henry George Edition crowding, he is literally swamped with work, which, being largely in a formative stage, requires his personal . attention. A ..njinibeT of 'members have books or dered and some delay has been un avoidable, but as soon as the work is systematized so others can assist, the members may expect prompt service. Parsons ' "City for the People," Ghent's "Our Benevolent Feudal?sm," Ely's "Outlines of Economics," and Del Mar's "Science of Money" are the leaders thus far. Simons' "The Amer ican Farmer will doubtless take well, once it is started. Deposit, 50c; same for Kautsky's "Revolution." The Director expects to furnish a treat for the populists some of these days. He is now in communication with H. W. K. Eastman, Cheever, N. H., who, back in 18S8, copyrighted "The Science of Government," which was published under the auspices of the Massachusetts state assembly of the Knights 'of Labor. Mr. Eastman denies that labor has anything to do with values, and sustains his point with vigor. Both the Marxists and the single taxers reach some wonder ful conclusions in their efforts to con nect value with labor cost. Marx, for example, denies that virgin soil can have (exchange) value, but admits that it may command a "price!" Mr. Eastman's book will be re viewed as . early as possible and ar rangements made to circulate it. - The few pages referring to the-K. of L. will not detract from its worth. A Plan For Union Editor Independent: I have never written before for publication and am usually too busy to worry about poli tics, but having read an article in your issue of April 2, by Rev. W. M. Kain, under the head of "Unite, Unite," I happened to think of a plan to unite all of the parties op posed to republican misrule. The plan is: Let each party meet in national convention as usual; let this plan be put befor.e them and it having carried, let each party nomi nate candidates for president and vice president as usual. Then let all these candidates for .president meet and draw lots, the lucky one to run. -The rest to withdraw. Let the candidates for vice president draw lots in the fame way. The resulting ticket to be called the Union ticket. The same pian to be carried out in nominating state and even county tickets. I think this plan would result in a conservative cosmopolitan ticket that none of the common people except the very hide-bound and partisan could object to. Hope my suggestion won't do any harm anyhow. From my observation 01 human nature it would be impossi ble for these parties to meet in joint convention and nominate. Each would want their idol to be IT. E. W. ROBBINS. Naponce, Neb. COW P TT71 A . n FOR FODDER FOR COWS A valuable and Nutritions Forage or Hay Crop. One of the best and cheapest ways of improving soil is plowing under of a crop of Cow Peas. Enriches Poor Land. Improves good land. Cow Peag are superior to clover from the fact that the foilage is greater, besides making full growth in from three to four months. If planted in the central corn belt sec tion, a crop can be cut and cured for hay the same as clover, then the stubble in a short time will put out a new growth which can be pastured or turned under in the fall as a ferterlizer. Sow as early as May 10th or as late as July one (1) bushel to the acre broadcast - : x Cow Peas can also be drilled in between rows of corn when laying corn by; the Peas will ripen early in the fall, when the corn is cut off, and stock turned in will feed upon the peas without touching the corn until the peas are gone Half (i) bushel to the acre is required when planted in corn. Whipporwill per bu. $2.25. Black per bu. f 2.25 Clay per ba ....... . $2.15. Mixed per bu. $2.00 GRISWOLD SEED CO. P. O. BOX K LINCOLN, NEBRASKA o o o o o A Populist Socialist May Tours to California Colonist (second class) rates to California are in effect daily until June 15. Rate from Lincoln is $25.00. May 3, also May 12 to 18, the round trip rate (first class) to Los Ange les and aan Francisco will be only $45.00. Choice of Routes via El Paso and via Col orado. For information, call at nearest Kock Island Ticket Office, or write F. H. BARNES C. P. A. 1045 O St. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA A Editor Independent: In an article of yours in reply to Mr Steffe under head "As to Baby Rattle," you say that the socialists "ignore the farm problem" and you ask wherein the farmers are exploited. Does not the transportation companies, the grain elevators, the flouring mills, the1 meat packers, the cotton factories exploit the small farmer? The farmer has to sell his staple produce to co-operative buyers. Do they not take all that he produces over and above very limited wages? Does not the interest on debts, public and private, constitute a fixed, tax laid upon the producers? The "capitalist employer buys labor power at -the cost of production," as you grant, and he exploits the farmer by fixing the. price of what he has to sell as well a3 what he must buy. He Is therefore as much a serf and as much a wage-slave as any operative in the factories. He can never rise above this condition except by adopt ing some form of exploitation him self and robbing his neighbor. The socialists are therefore right in classifying the people into two classes, the robbers and the robbed, and they look forward to the time when the brilliant editor of The Independent shall wield his pen for that platform Which offers in their opinion the only hope for the robbed. Come with us! We need, you. You are too broad to care for a name. The sacred cause of labor, both rural and urban, we know, is on your heart and the socialist pro blem for its emancipation needs your logical brain and warm enthusiasm. Many of us take your paper because we believe you are an unprejudiced rea soner and will ultimately see the light, and when you do you will have the courage to stand for the right regardless of hoary custom. . "By surplus value" we do not un derstand to mean that a surplus is produced over and above the consum ing' capacity of the people, but that there is more produced than the wages allowed will pay for. Conse quently there is real distress in a land of abundance. How can this ever be remedied while a small part of the people fix both price of products and the wages paid labor? - Public ownership of transportation might help the independent farmer who owns his farm, if it were not that the exploiting class owns the govern ment and by means of fixed charges of interest and taxes Impossible to escape because added to everything he buys. The farmer populists called in vain on the wage-earners for aid in their reform movements. The tide is now turned and the wage-slaves are calling on the farmers. It is useless to hope for reform until these two classes get together. They are used now by the robbers to neutralize each other, the landholder being told that he Is a capitalist and needs cheaper labor In order to get a profit. But the system which teaches men to take profits from labor is wrong and will eventually divide mankind into master and servants. A feudal ism which may at times be benev olent, but never the less slavery. In o o o 0 o o o o o o which class will your children be? M. FOERG. Meridian, Miss. . (Mr. Foerg makes a erood nomilist. argument . in the main, but wholly overlooks the point The Independent has been ursrins:: That the nresent inequitable distribution of wealth can not ne explained wholly by applying the Marxist formula of "surplus val ue." certainly the farmer is ex ploited, just as Mr. Foerg suggests; but the Marxist does not account as "exploitation" the robbery of one burgeois by another. Marxist "ex ploitation" occurs when the laborer sens nis labor-power at cost of pro duction and the capitalist uses thif labor-power for a longer number of hours than would sufitce-to Droduce the things necessary to keep up the laborer's capacity to perform labor. The surplus - hours produce "surplus value," we are told. The Independent renudiates as un sound the whole Marxist theory of "surplus value," willingly admitting, however, that the laborer receives nothing like an equivalent for the services he renders. It has no auar- rel with thcgeneral survey made by the socialists, but objects to beins required to account for the enormous inequalities in the distribution of wealth by using the "surplus value" formula. Further, The Indeperdent does not fc ffrive in the "inevitability" argument advanced by the socialists, but vioes believe that we must fiehh every inch c" the ground if we mak any advance. Asociate Editor.) Cracks a Kangaroo Editor Independent: In a recent is sue A. K. Angaroo says: "The sin gle tax will help the man who works for himself," which is true, and the gentleman will also admit that then there -will be more working for them selves because land will become prac tically free easier to get, as then no one will hold land idle because it will be unprofitable to do so. This increased number of people working for themselves will reduce the army of the unemployed some, also the fact of their being "helped bv the single tax will enhance their pur chasing power, thus making an in creased demand for labor products and again reducing the army of unem ployed, making of them not only pro ducers, but consumers, in turn em ploying others and a repetition of the act indefinitely. That one benefit should be enough to make any fair- minded person favor the idea. The gentleman. al3o intimates the socialist old stereotyped expressed that the single taxers want to go back to hand production, which is almost too ridiculous to notice. The single taxers would not abolish the present labor-saving machinery if they could, and could not if they would; we would leave the machinery as it is, and eith er gradually or instantly abolish all taxation, direct and indirect, and sub stitute the idea of single tax, which is really not a tax at all, but the pay ment to society for advantages that society confers on the Individual. The adoption of the single tax would remove the evils that the socialists are cracking at Karl Marx uncon sciously admitted it when he wrote: "The expropriation of the soil from the people forms the basis of the ca pitalistic system of production." If that is true (which we do not admit) then the restoration of the soil would destroy the basis of socialist bogie man, the capitalist. Then if there is anything in their evolutionary idea it can go on natural lines and not per verted ones on account of the conse quent result of the unnatural monop oly of natural resources. , ' ' TANGLE SIXER." ; Youngstown, O. Jefferson The author of the Declaration of Independence stands in human history as the foremost man "who ever lived, whose influence has led men to gov ern themselves in the conduct of states by spiritual laws, not formulas to be assented to, but rules of life to be governed by. It was due tn Jef ferson that our fathers laid deep the. foundation of the state in the morar law. They first set to mankind the ' great example and exhibited the mighty spectacle the sublimest spec tacle in the universe of a great and free people voluntarily governing it self by a law higher than its own de sire. He will hold his place among the world's immortals as the author and finisher of that great charter of hu man rights and foremost architect among the builders of free institu tions, when those who now speak and act in hollow mockery of his exam ple, and selfish serviency to his glory, are but forgotten dust. His is a safe name for these to juggle with for popular favor; but his loyalty to con science and his sublime courage to resist popularity when it demanded sacrifice of manly independence are and will remain to them unknown vir tues. Senator Hoar, Importance of fresh air to the sick i3 told about in "Care of Invalids," (a copy of which has reached this office), issued by the medical depart ment of the Mutual Life Insurance company of New York, and sent on request to those who address the home office of the company, Nassau, Cedar, William and .Liberty streets, New York city. Is it not time that the populists take charge of our state government again to reduce freight rates and raise ail road taxation? The populists may have given up their fight as a party, but their work with the democratic party was productive of much good to the people of the state of Nebras ka. Anyone who is fair ought to ad mit that the populists did more for the interests of the farmer and ranch men than, any republican legislature, Valentine Democrat. .