8
THf NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
S06T '1 AYK
the Nebraska Independent
Lincoln, nebraska.
LIBERTY BUILDING.
J328 0 STREET
Entered according to Act of Confess of March
j, 1679, at the Postoflfice ait X,incoln, Nebraska, aa
ccond-clata mail matter.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
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Address air communications, and make all
diaftf, money orders, t tc, payable to ... ,
C; Iltbraska Indtptndtnt,
Lincoln, Neb.
Anonymous communications will not be
diced. Rejected manuscripts will not be
returned. " , ' ,
William Russell, La Gloria, . Cuba,
has the editor's thanks for a copy of
, Clarence S. Darrow's "Realism in Lit
erature and Art," one of Kerr's pocket
library series.
5
The Industrial Tribune announces
that on the 28th ult. it moved into its
new home in Corona, Long Island, and
asks ( exchanges to change address to
that place.
The Chicago Record-Herald says
that it knows for a "certainty" that
news from the Philippines was cen
sored and suppressed. The Indepen
dent told its readers that fact three
years ago. vNNNssysN
7 Ground rent is a value created by
the community. So is the value of ev
erything else. Without the "commun
ity" or population there would be no
values. If the community has the
right to make common property of
ground rent, why not of every other
value that the community creates?
J." Pierpont Morgan has offered a
reward of $500 ; to any one who will
smash a camera' taking a snap shot of
him. Any man who has had a chance
to study his countenance will express
no wonder that Morgan will be will
ing to pay most any price to keep the
people genenflly from having a look
at it in a' photograph.
Professor Cairnes summed up the
populist view of the writers on politi
cal economy in the following words:
"Ricardo supplied the backbone of the
science; but it is not less certain that
the limbs and joints, the muscular de
velopmentsall that renders political
economy a complete and organized
body of knowledge have been the
work of Mlll
The face value of the stock issued
by the authority of the letters of
marque of the state of New Jersey is
a little over '$73,000,000,000. To state
that there is to be no hereafter to a
system like that, or to believe that it
will not enct in the wreck of thou
sands, is to believe that the trusts are
endowed with powers equal to that
of the Deity itself.
. General Funston and Secretary Roo!
engaged in a little farce last week for
the general amusement of the Ameri
can public. Funston demanded n
court of inquiry to investigate his
performances in the Philippines and
Root gravely replied it was not neces
sary. So the kettle has white washci
the pot and the farce ended in gen
eral applause by the parties engaged
in -it. avwwvs
Another demonstration that has
been given of the correctness of the
position taken by the populists and
Bryan democrats, in regard to silver,
is the continued rise in price since the
Philippine bill was passed authoriz
ing the government to purchase 20,
' 000,000 ounce3 for the coinage of pesos.
.Some of the gold dailies begin to fear
that silver will go above 64 cents an
ounce and in that case the pesos would
be hoarded, for the metal in them
would be worth more than their face
value. But they needn't fret on that
account. Whatever ratio is "fixed '
by the European governments in con
nection with the United States, as is
contemplated, will "fix" the price also.
The Rothschilds and their partners
are now going to do what they swore
cever' could be done, fix the value of
silver by' legislative enactment. In
the prospect of those enactments, and
before the commission meets to pre
pare the way; for them, silver rises.
GKW. MILES' REPORT
The demand that the report of Gen
eral Miles oa the Philippines should
be given to the public became so uni
versal that the war department was
forced to heed it, but only a part of it
was given out. It has created a furor
from one end of the country to the
other. Replies had been prepared be
forehand by the government which
were sent out with it, so as to lesse.i
as far as possible its effect General
Miles says:
"I do not think there is today a
1 people so sorely afflicted as the
. 8,000,000 of inhabitants of this
(Philippine) archipelago. Their
country has been devastated by
war. In some places locusts have
destroyed the crops. Pestilence
has prevailed, resulting in the re
ported death of nearly 75,000 peo
ple, while t is estimated that the
number not reported is fully as
large." .
... The general tells how the people
everywhere appealed to him and how
he issued an order to the commandiag
general in the Philippines to stop all
further cruelties. The general give3
names, dates and places where bar
barities had teen practiced upon thfc
people, prisoners murdered, popula
tion forced into reconeentrado camps.
GOO being jammed into one building,
where many ied from suffocation, and
other things of like nature.
General Davis, judge advocate gen
eral, in the reply prepared and given
to the public along with General
Miles' report, - does not deny the
charges, but lays all the blame on the
volunteers. General Davis says that
investigation have been made in
these cases," but they are especially
difficult . because the incidents com
plained of were not made known at
the time, and officers and soldiers of
the volunteer army who have been
named have teen discharged.
, General Miles directs attention to
the acts of reconcentration by General
Bell, and claims that they were in
direct violation of the law. He says
the law was also violated in handling
and buying large quantities of rice,
which was sold at a profit. The peo
ple who were in the reconcentration
camp were, says General Miles, "con
sidered prisoners of war, but were
compelled to buy food from those
who held them at a large profit"
General Miles characterizes this as
unprecedented. He speaks of the
magnitude of the transaction, whi5h
involved 21,000,000 pounds of rice and
other supplies at a cost of $306,320. He
says that "an extraordinary feature of
this ; transaction" is that . the action
was disapproved by a division com
mander, who assumed command, and
who turned the matter over to the
civil authorities.
This report came like a clap of
thunder from a clear sky. People ha-, e
long suspectad such things, but tha
close censorship that the secretary of
war has ordered ha3 prevented the
people from knowing the facts.
ON THE ROAD TO RUIN
If ever a country was on the road to
ruin, that country is England.' Sta
tistics just published show that th?
drink bill of England in 1902
amounted to the appalling sum of
$895,000,000, or an average of abo'.'t
$25 per capita.
The money England spends annua'
ly for drink is far in excess of the an
nual expenditure for all government
purposes or for all the rents for ai;
the houses and farms, or for all re
ligious, educational and philanthropic
objects combired, or for the purchase
of more than any one kind of food or
clothing considered to be -articles of
absolute necessity.
There is no show at all for rem
edial legislation. The tory party has
filled the upper house with brewers,
who have been made peers on account
of their enoimous donations to the
campaign fund of the tory party. There
they sit arid will put a veto upon any
bill passed by the house that has a
tendency to curtail the quantity of li
quor consumed in the vUnited King
dom. The tory party in England 13
kept in power in the same way that
the republican party Is in this coun
try, namely, by the collection and ex
penditure of en enormous corruption
fund. wvw
THE PEOPLES PARTY
' There is much said about the in
exorable laws of political economy,
especially in the plutocratic papers.
That there are such laws over which
parliaments and legislative bodies
have no control is certain. But when
one comes to examine them it is found
that they all relate to production of
wealth. When we come to the distri
bution of wealth we enter another
field. The production of wealth is gov
erned by physical laws which no man
can evade, but distribution is a mat
ter of human arrangement over which
AT S
lien's Fine Suits
7.75
, Look in Our Catalog on Page 4
Its the day of good merchandise. Nobody is looking
for poor merchandise at any price. The . laboring man
of to-day is buying better clothes than the capitalist in
'93. Some manufacturers are plugging away, making
up shoddy clothes with shoddy trimmings, using un
skilled labor and turning out" shoddy clothes. Soma
merchants are still selling this class of merchandise'
This store is buying and selling the best goods that
money can buy. The suit that we are showing on page
4 of our men's catalog, is made of honest cloth, is cu
right in the very latest style, and is marked at a price
which guarantees you the best value for that price to be
had anywhere. .$7.75 worth $10.00.
society has supreme control. Th i
whole thought of the world is directed
to the production of wealth. Its dis
tribution has been left to chance and
the greed of mankind. This is the
particular field of political economy
yepTthat's'so
The price -o silver continues to ad
vance, the highest quotation up to this
writing being a small fraction less
than 55 cents an ounce. One of the
factors in the rise has just been dis
covered. The Rothschilds are inter
ested in the United Metals Selling
company and the Guggenheim smelt
ing syndicate, owning a very large, if
not a controlling interest in both
those companies. The two companies
control about all the uncoined silver
in the world. When it was for the in
terest of the House of Rothschilds to
depress the price of silver, every mul
let head in the United States was
shouting "Down with silver." Now
that the House of Rothschilds is in
terested on the other side of the mar
ket, they all rejoice that the price o
silver goes up. Of such stuff is the
American mullet head made.
The truth about the matter is that
some six months ago the Rothschilds
and others of that ilk having found
out that they could not work their
gold standard idea without the de
struction of the Asiatic trade, conclud
ed to change their policy and their
obedient ser ants on this side of the
water were quick to obey orders. Con
gress reversed itself and appointed a
commission to go to Europe to "fix"
the price of silver, where everything
has been arranged for their coming.
The Rothschilds were quick to get on
the other side of the market. In 189H
when the Rothschilds said that silver
must be eliminated from the money
of the world, every mullet head an
swered back "Yep, that's so." Now
that they say that silver must remain
as part of the monetary system of the
world these same mullet heads are
'just as quick to answer: "Yep, that's
SO." vws
THE TRUSTS
In his testimony before the inter
state commerce commission last week
in answer ti a "question about the
wholesale prica of coal at tide writer,
President Baer said: "On May 1, I
am going to advance the price 10
cents and try to work it up to $5.00."
In answer to another question, he
said: "I fixed the price and com
pelled the other dealers to do the
same." So it seems that the people
are to be forced to pay as much or
more for coal next year than they did
last
The beef trust has arbitrarily made
another advance in meats. Steaks are
now sold in the Chicago market fo?
22 and 23 cents a pound. There has
been an advance in the wholesale price
of 2 cents a round added to the sev
eral recent advances. Chickens sell
at 18 to 19 cents a pound. Pork is 12
and mutton chops 16 cents.
Every man will naturally inquire
what is being done in opposition to
the extortions of the coal, beef and
other , trusts. Many hundred thou
sand wage-workers are out on strikes,
trying to force employers to raise
wages to a point that will equalize
this arbitrary advance in prices. The
National Live Stock association haS
started a movement to build a string
of slaughter houses from Denver to
Chicago, and $25,000,000 have been
subscribed for . that purpose. The
stock men :laim that the price of
meat is out of proportion to the price
which the trust pays for cattle, hogs
and sheep.
The Independent must say that It
has little faith that the efforts of eith
er the wage-workers or the stockmen
will amount to anything in lighting
the trusts. The only way to fight the
trusts effectively is to elect a presi
dent and congress opposed to the de
struction of competition, that will en
force the laws, both criminal and
civil, that are now on the statute
books and if more legislation is need
ed to suppress the trusts, speedily en
act it. That i& what The Independent
has been saying for ten years. Ir
will not be long before the masses of
the people will be forced by self
preservation to take such action. In
that day the trust magnates will be
calling on the rocks and hills to fall
upon them and hide them from the
wrath of the people.
According to Professor Hobson, the
great English sociologist, the trouble
with Great Britain comes from the
same sources of evil and degeneration
to which The Independent has been
calling attention in almost every is
sue. He says that the reasons of Eng
lish decline are the low standard of
fife so widely prevailing, the decline
of agriculture, the enormous consump
tion of drink, and the demoralizing
influence of the gambling habit. For
example, owing to a bad land system,
the peasantry of some parts of Eng
land are pronounced, if not the poor
est, at least the most degraded in the
world, and of the 70 per cent of tha
population who now live under city;
conditions nearly a third are below
and almost another third just above
the poverty, line.
The mistake that many good men
make is that the platform of a politi
cal party should be the skeleton of a
plan for model institutions instead oC
a statement of fundamental principles
upon which institutions suitable to the.
varying conditions of human life maj
be built. Such principles must always
begin with the demand for equal
rights for all and special privileges ti
none. Even the. enunciation of such;
principle will be useless unless those
who advocate them have the honesty;
and courage to always and everywhere
apply, them. , .T jr,