Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1903)
8 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT JUNE 11, 1903. the Uebraska independent Lincoln, Utbraska. LIBERTY BUILDING. J32S 0 STREET Entered according to Act of Congress of March j, 1879, at the Posi'office at I,iucoln, Nebraska, aa second-tiara mail matter. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. FIFTEENTH YEAR. $1.00 PER YEAR r When making remittance do not leave money with newi agciiCic, postmasters, etc-i to be forwarded by tbem. They frequently forget or remit a different amount than was left with them, and the subscriber faila to gel pi opei credit Address all communications, and make all draft? , money orders, etc, payable to the Utbraska Independent, r" Lincoln, Neb. Anonymous communications will not be noticed. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned. T. H. TIBBLES, Editor. C. Q. DE FRANCE, Associate Editor. F. D. EAGER, Business Manager. The price to be paid for the Phil ippines was $20,000,000, an unending war, thousands of dead soldiers, sick, wounded and a pension list. Did it pay? ' V. If all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the gov erned, then the Taf t commission has no just power at all in the Philip pines. It is tyranny. When the question came up In the New York city council about naming a certain recreation ground, Beecher Park, one of those intelligent law makers seriously inquired if Henry Ward Beecher was a man of national reputation. They are still after the boodlees down in Missouri. Former State Sen ator Charles F. Busche, who con fessed to having received bribes dur ing his term in the state senate, has resigned as member of the republi can state central committee. ' A private note from the editor of The independent says that it has been raining almost constantly the past week and that the road between his farm house and Bancroft has been impassable for a buggy, keeping him at home. He expects to return to Lin coln in the near future. Dr. Edward Everett Hale advocates an old age pension list He would re Vive the poll tax for men and women and then when they arrive at 65 .years, out of thefund to which they themselves have contributed he would pension every one of them. There would be no sting of charity about that, for the money they received would be their own money which they had paid over to the state during their working years. The Omaha World-Herald has it "towline" out again and Is this time pulling eagerly for funds in aid of the lopeka flood suieiers. . The seconrl day's work footed up $2,020.35. , A telegram from Mayor Bergundthal of Topeka to Mayor Moores of Omaha says that conditions In Topeka are mucn worse than they anticipated and that anything the good people of Omaha can do will be thankfully re ceived. When a Second Adventist called on Emerson to warn him that the world would very soon come to an end, Em erson replied: "No matter. We can do very well without it" A man with a religion like that dwells on the mountain heights far above the storms. What matters it if friends, fortune and even the world Itself passes away? We can do very well without them. There are things mots 'real' than all these. I THE SINGLE TAX The masterly way in which the sin gle taxers' presented their views in the edition of The Independent which was put under their control has commend ed them to all fair-minded men. There is no class of men for whom the edi tor of The Independent has a higher regard, for they are unselfish, seed ing neither office or profit for them selves. It is impossible for the edi tor to write such an article as he hal contemplated concerning that edition and he will only make a few remarks for the consideration of these earne3t and thoughtful men. , ; One thing must be borne always mind. What effect certain legislation will have when it comes to be applied is always problematical. - All those who have watched the administration of law know that very often a bill, to the astonishment of its advocates, has the very opposite effect from what was intended. The founders-3f this government thought that in the electoral college they had perfected a law that would take the election of a president out .of partisan contests and make his choice that of a disinter ested body of men who would select a man free' from partisan influence, who would be an administrator of the law for the whole people. The effect cf that provision has been the very on posite of what was contemplated. So it has been with hundreds of other laws. No man can be certain that the ef fect of the single tax will be what its advocates hope. A thousand things will arise in its administration of which the closest students will never have dreamed. The only way to absolutely know what its effect will be is to try it That can only come about by its adoption in localities, and to that The Independent would not object ; It would even give aid and assistance to such a movement. The subject of taxation is a most perplexing one from whatever stand point it is approached. Two theories have been current: One is that taxe3 should be levied on the value of prop erty possessed, and the other is thai they should be levied in proportion to the benefits received. But every ef fort to put either of these theories in practice has always proved a failure. Our present system is unjust in the extreme. Neither is property taxed according to its value nor do those who receive the greatest benefits from government pay a greater amount of taxes. Taxes, except the income tax, will not stay where they are put. They are shifte'd from one to another until they fall finally upon laborers and consumers. If a tax is put upon a mill, the miller shifts the tax upon the consumers of flour by raising the price that much. So it is everywhere. The Independent is willing to con cede that the raising of all revenue from taxes upon land would perhaps be a better method than the present. It could not possibly be worse. But would all the other things follow that the advocates of the single tax hope for? Would the awful power that resides in the control of money be overthrown by the single tax? Will that plan when in operation save the people from the destruction that always fol lows the sudden increase In the pur chasing power of money? Single tax ers say that the farmers would pay less taxes under that system than they do now. Granting that to be true, if the men who control the volume of money should suddenly, by decreasing the quantity, more than double the purchasing power, would not the farmer be reduced to penury and want, regardless of whether he paid taxea only on the rental value of his land or on all his improvements and other property? If the price of corn went down to 10 cents a bushel and wheat to 30 cents, could he sell his crop for enough to supply his family, educate his children and beautify and adoru his.. home? . In the large amount of reading that this writer has Uons of single tax lit DOM'T TAKE AMY STOCK In the statement that we sell poor goods because we sell goods cheap. -We know that your home merchant will tell! you that we canH sell goods any cheaper than j anybody else, but we can and we do just; the same. If you really want to see how we can sell clothes cheaper than your, clothier can,: cpme here or send here and "we'll show you." We'll sell you a bet ter suit for $7.75 than you can buy for 10 dol lars. We hiov) we can. We j want you to hioto it. We want yoiijto come.and see these suits when you come -to town. Ask to see these particular priced suits that you saw adver tised in the " Independent," or we .want you to send for samples of the cloth ............. erature, he has not found one writer who understood the awful power that resides in the control of the volume of money in circulation among the peo ple. None of them seem to under stand the underlying principle of the money question. Great as Henry George was, he certainly did not. The only writer among them all who seem'? to have a correct idea of "value" is Mr. Post. In his article in the single tax edition he starts out with a state ment of that question and shows that he has some correct views on that subject ' ' . : " While the single tax would of nec essity abolish tariffs, would it pre vent the formation of trusts? In what way would it prevent great combina tions from controlling whole indus tries and charging exorbitant price for their products? How would 't prevent railroads from taking all thH traffic would bear? The abolishment of tariffs and all taxes on commerce of whatever character would, without doubt, have a tendency to increase the production .wealth, but would the single tax make an equitable distribu tion of that wealth among a-1 the peo ple? Science, invention and education have vastly increased the possibilities of wealth creation. The question that presses for settlement now is not the creation of ' wealth, but its equitable distribution among those who create it The object of all reform Is the more equitable distribution of wealth. The Independent cannot see how this can be brought about by the adoption of the single tax unless other legislation is also enacted. The public owner ship of all city utilities is now rec ognized by most men as a necessity. With the water works, street cars. gas and electricity in the hands cf private corporations, there is a power to oppress the people that the adop tion of the single tax could not reach. Three things enter into the distribu tion of wealth among the people, aside from the land question. Two most im portant ones are the transportation of goods and pasngers and the dis semination of intelligence. There is a power to oppress in the ownership by private corporations of railroads, telegraphs and telephones. How can the single tax overthrow that power? Money and transportation must be taken into consideration and not land alone, T. II. TIBBLES. The class struggle see Karl Marx Edition, July 23, 1903. TRUST UNIVERSITIES No greater danger threatens scienc and the welfare of the people than th endowment of universities by the great trust magnates. It is impossible that it should be otherwise than harmful. The Independent has of tea and for years warned the peopla against this danger. The great French sociologist, Leopold Mabilleau, in a recent lecture in Chicago said over again what The Independent has often said on this subject, declaring that his statements were deduced from facta within his own knowledge.. .- Among other things, he said: ' -"If a professor is to do the high est grade of work and accomplish ; a maximum amount of good he must be at liberty to think and speak as he pleases, even though his thoughts and opinions may be contrary to those, of trustees and founders. In America, unfortun ately, this is not yet the case. In this country educators are bound to respect certain interests, and failure in this respect on their part frequently results in their enforced resignation. Numerous instances of this sad state of af fairs have arisen in the past few years, and I have personal knowl- edge of sever:! such cases. Pro fessors in American universities ' are liked caged employes. They may not speak, they may scarcely 1 even think as they please. They ! must respect the opinions and in- ( terests of the trustees who employ , them and of the rich men whose millions make the institutions ' possible." ...Mr. B. P. French undertook In the last issue of The Independent to make a defense of the socialist term "stored up labor." Jle did It in a gentlemanly, way and made as good an argument in support of the term as ever was made, yet The Independent must in sist that his illustration of a squirrel picking up nuts and depositing them in a hollow In a tree neither illus trates nor proves his contention. What was stored in that tree was not labor, but nuts. The labor, consisted in the energy spent by that squirrel in gath-, ering the nuts and placing them irt that tree. It Is manifestly impossible for that expended energy to be gath ered up and stored In that tree or anywhere else. Mr. French makes an other mistake when he says: "All wealth, save that produced by nature is capital or 'stored up labor.' " Only, that portion of wealth that Is used in' the production of more wealth is cap- ital, and capital and wealth are by nai means synonymous terms. Karl Marx Edition July 23, 1903,