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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1904)
JANUARY 28, 1904. THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT HOW MANY PARTIES Mr. De Hart, in one of his articles gome weeks ago, said that "there can not be but two great political parties in a country at a time" and assumed that the question is settled.. Now, why only two' After all the smoke Is cleared away, we find that men are obliged to exercise their sovereign powers through the medium of a po litical party. With what one shall they affiliate? Plainly the one which to them, seems, most likely to protect them In "life, liberty and the pur suit of happiness." But the pursuit of happiness, resent the statement as we may,, cannot be divorced from the pursuit of things which man needs or wants in short, the accumulation of property. Hence, under all, political parties must have an economic foundation. The fact that in the past only two great parties have existed, is proof only that there were two great divisions of property, each struggling fqr political dominion. For convenience of expression these may be termed agricultural and manufacturing. The war between the two great divisions of property still continues, although a very one-sided contest because the democratic party, as it now exists, has failed to show that it can be depended upon to rtp resenf the agriculturists and the re publican never pretends to, except at election time. With the growth of socialism, how ever, a new factor enters, and the coming struggle, as The Independent views it, will be a three-cornered fight, with the profit-takers represent ed by the republican party (manufac turing); the rent-takers represented by the democratic party, or some other built upon its foundation (agricul ture); and the wage takers repe: sented by the socialist party. Simply because men have hereto fore aligned themselves with one or the other of two great parties, is not proof that they will always do eo. Men are learning more about matters political every day, becoming "class conscious" as the socialists say. The big capitalists have never been any thing else. But . the farmers are learning a few lessons themselves, ' and while they may agree with Mr. De Hart's conclusions as to the rel ative merits of tariff tweedledce and tweedledum, not many of them, at least here in the west, when they get at the root of the matter, will be will ing to give thoir life-long political an tagonist, the manufacturer, a loaf in , order that he may give them' a trumb in return. There is nothing of sect'onal or class hatred in this. Adnm Smith contended that the individual in an orderly pursuit of his own interest - thereby promoted the good of all. So collections of individuals, known as a political party, will promote tie good of all by pursuing, in an order ly, honest way, their collective m ' terest. There is no reason why an agricultural party should waste any tears over the manufacturer he has shown remarkable ability in taking care of himself. . Along this line Mark Foster touched the keynote last week ("The Foint of Attack," p. 13) when ae said: "It is true, though, as Mr. De Hart says, that protection is the settled policy of this country and for us to light against it is a waste of effort. What we should do is to ignore tha tariff, and continue to fight for public rail roads, scientific money, and free land. "At the same time we should point out tlu.t while all conserva tives admit business interests need protection, and it must be had through legislation, tariff protection doop not npjjy to workingmen and farmers, and . these classes must therefore have protection by ether moans." A protective tariff la eseential'y favorable to tho manufacturing In terests, but, with some trlllins excep tions, It Is not possible to benefit tho agricultural interests by bucL a meas ure. It is true that incidentally numo benefits may aecruo to stock growers by a tariff cm cattle, to wwr tntt growers by a tariff on iitsar, and bo on; but much of this advantage h transferred to tho inantifAiturer'a pockets by mean of rebates on tx lrt!, like, for example, tho tariff cm little. ARrUu'.turnl int-nstt, ai Mr. Foster point out, must ' htve pntec turn ly other means" than a tariff, ThU they can m-uro through tho 1-opnlHt demand fur reform In 'money, land nl transportation," vhkh grow out of tho riectltim of tl. agricultural lntereU and 1Mi, Jf oiuuU'd Into Itw, would lorn fit i k r i imlturUU iit"fo th n any ollu t c!.im. lot tho mstuif.u turoii have their I rntftlvo tariff, If It N im :ry for j ttulr woiraro; mil in inm it re u fcy their o'Mt otlng Mrrr.Kh. Their jrtfllou", aiiut the Invasion of pauper-made foreign goods (made, in lands where the "enlightened" gold standard prevails) must' not be used as a means of domestic robbery and government railroads and govern ment money, will go a long way to wards preventing this evil. At any rate, inasmuch as the. manufacturing element looks after its interests 3G5 days in every year, it is time that tho- agncultural element did a little more looking after its own interests. "Live and let live" is a very good motto but so is "charity begins at home." . STATE TAX ICS 1004 The corporation republican legis lature of 1903, 'having made total ap propriations of $3,740,280.70 to be ex pended during the biennium which will end March 31, 1905, (which must be paid out of the state tax levies of 1903 and 1904), and having enacted a new revenue law in order to permit the big corporations to escape paying their fair share of the taxes, has pre sented a situation which Is anything but encouraging to the "redecmcie." Already the republican organs are fcusying themselves with apologies. The appropriations of 1303 aggre gate nearly a million and a half great er than the appropriations made by the populist legislature of 1897, and it stands to reason that if this Im mense sum is to be met without an enormous increase in the state's float ing debt, state taxes must be In creased very materially. The state levy for 1903 averages something like 30 per cent higher than that of 1S03, and The Independent cannot see how the levy of 1901 can be much less than double the amount levied in 1902. Here are the reasons: Section 134 of the new revenue law, which becomes effective this year, provides that "The rate of the general state tax shall be sufficient to realize the amount, necessary to meet ap propriations made by the legisla ture for the year in which the tax is levied, and an additional sum not exceeding 20 per cent of the amount of any existing state in debtedness, and not exceeding in all 5 mills on the dollar valua . tion." Now, without niakirg an exhaustive examination of the appropriations made last year, The Independent fig ures that about $817,000 is against funds other than the general .fund, leaving the nst general fund appro priations, about $2,923,000 for the two years, to be covered by the. tax lev ies of 1903 and 1904. Last year the state board made a general fund levy of $l,135,72i.C9, which would leave, in round num bers, $1,787,000 to be levied this year for the general fund simply to cover the appropriations, and without con sidering the 20 per cent of "any ex isting state indebtedness." We know that the "exist.ng state indebtedness" on November 30, 1903, aggregated the sum of $2,203,177.21, and it is reasonable to suppose that it will not be any smaller by the time the levy of 1904 is made. Twenty per cent of that would mean an addi tion of $432,000, making the total general fund levy $2,239,000, without considering the levies for state uni versity, and temporary school fund. It is reasonable to suppose that the levies for temporary school and state university will be about the same as last year say, $387,000. Hence, the possible and probable tax levy for the year 1904 will look something like this: For general fund $2,239,000 For other funds 387,000 Total $2,CL'G,000 Thi will moan that state taxes this year will be 72 per cent higher than In or nearly two and a half times as groat as In 190-, or more than twice as much as under tho biggest levy ever made by the populists. "Vote Vr ffrain'it." Tho Independent believes Channel lor Andrews misjudged tho temf.er of Nebraska people when he Rolicltd llockoft Jler'a contribution!. One can readily under Jtand tho Chincellir's feelings In cel;i? the University grow under hi ma;tlleont ndmlnl.HWatlon, and how ho rnl;ht swallow hi pildo ind ft.ik for aim to net uro wh.it ho believed to be a mu h needed build hi';. Hut thtiif Nctnukan who have endured th (.ranshoppera, drouth and panic did it by living In the i; wl hniuo until th could nfTord to build a lttf oi:.; wltllu their nththbor who wanted to Rmw r:',l lly, and tr rowed money U build ftie house, have lung !mo i-o.io therein tho mnrt i f iniotj iKO ftree!.iu!0 and aro i n tho frontier trying to biRiu over ttjrsvln, lionet, there I no imbu hM our tho project to hU up tho Unlvmity faiter than th? nUt Ibelf Improve, especially when tho E fejiL t-fi wi i G mss Seed TEE TIME TO PLANT It's sure to advance as planting time draws near. An order placed today will pay you.. " flllal3!-K::::::::::::::::sS:S I Brant Grassffi,',.. 9.0J 7.25 Red Clcv8rR::::::; Timothy?K:::::":::::::: !:S :: ..fSOO bir .. 1.75 " 1.73 " Cleaned 65 " Blue Grass Riz Rati TnnFnu,,y Unhuiied.... 1.00 n tJU I Up J Choice 65 " .2J.bu. grain bags extra at 15c each for alfalfa, clover, and timothy. Write for catalog. Gr is wo Id Seed Co. 149 So. 10th St., Lincoln, Neb. mm fti I The " Onlv " Incubator. I Ileats evenly. . Regulates perfectly. Hatches surely. In caring for chicks The Only Brooder beats the old hen at her own game. Agent3 wanted everywhere. Write for free catalogue. Lincoln Incubator Co. Box E, Lincoln, Neb. ... ' M funds to be med are quite generally regarded as "blood money." Notes From New York The number of cattle that can be put In a car is limited by law in New Vorlc, but the number of human be ings 1 not so limited. In Europe the same consideration for human beings 13 demanded of the corporations for human beings as for cattle. The cor porations own the government here, but over there the government owns the corporations. There were 441 new national banks created last year, every one of which will be a little center of activity to keep the party in power that grants special privileges to the few. Each one of these tan take their capital, put it in bonds and then take the bonds down to Washington and get all the money they have Invested back and get interect on the bonds also. That is a nice little privilege. An other item in the comptroller's report shows that while the banks increased their capital only $48,180,000 their loans increased $201,1)00,000. So the banks not only got double intcicst on their capitnl, but they loaned and got Interest on nearly five times as much money as they put Jnto the business. The hanker winks his loft eye and the mullet heads continue to ' vote 'er straight." The Innate villainy of the tariff grafters never had a better demon stration than ihe recent hill intro duced by Senator Frye compelling all trafiin between tho Philippines and the United S'tateH to bo cnrriul In American Bhlpn, If that law is pa- ed. there would be nn Immediate rlhc In freight nnl the fanner of Aincrha would have an additional hill to p.iy lor binding tvhu in additUn to the r xtravimaut c'mrgeu now ma tie by tho trust. Th present pinn of the hlp iut tdy m inuter! U to Kt (onrew to aid Ph uUtur to buy foreign built ttMp and tat th pro pi to run thnu. That om tnuh mttMn n that will t put ttroumh the. first uiun a ft r r tlu? ipl prv.itd-tiUtil ilntliMi no vull posted mut HUml New York doubt. The New Yrk r:pr are how .ty let; that It" the I iwuru uind It imt dfRd Juil'j Ci ir It In rt tin f detid n Nuind roiupi!tu4 after Casmu tried U dargrr cu hlui. The Independent remarked some years ago that, an isthmian canal would never be built while the trans-continental railroads owned so many; United States senators. The thing that has occupied the most space in the New York dallies during the last week, after the dis cussion of a bolt from the democratic party, has been , Christian science.' Several long editorials have appeared on, .the subject. In papers that have generally been satisfied with a quip, a sarcasm or an unfriendly jibe. They all .now eay that that cult has passed the stage of rh'icule and is something that must be reckoned with r&s a prominent part of the religous move ment of the clay. The New York Sun, which has heretofore treaied the movement only with sarcasm, had col umns of fairly commendatory matter about the great million dollar First Church of Christian science at 96th. street, of which I' wrote something the other day. The Sun says. "Their number is constantly growing and, apparently, with rapidity. Its tem ples of worship, built by its devotees, are many and frequently imposing. In one way and another It has af fected religious thought far beyond the limits of the Christian science cult specifically." llcing in the neighbor hood of this building, which com mands the hh;hes(. plaudits o. experts in architecture, I called upon the su perintendent. The readers of The In dependent will be interested lu a de scription of how a million dollar church is run. .Thia church Is open every day lu the year. The perma nent, paid employes, ennshtmg 0f cn fclneera, clettrhjarm, tho men who look niter the great cr;-r.n and thoso ensured ill keeping mr thing apot lensly el-'in, number tw.lve. Uroidcg these there In c lart;e' corps cf volun teers on duty, The reading rooru 1 nn idegantly furnished parlor and thero are ulwoya a number of wtll dieted uml cultured ladle present la wehome cyery enlter ami iv.ake hlni feel instantly at home. They "i-nter-tain" as tho ladUa do In ihcir own homes Umg Fifth avenue and with J"i a imnh eteium and srate, Ttm echo origin and thime weio Uycd while I wan In the rhimh and it t!m Rweeteht and most ondrful mu Rta t-fTett I ever heard, either In thit tountry at l.'strope, Th thunh U ery hish and what In other chunheti 1 U 'l'lltrd t HjiVe, tut becil rut i.ff with a mMiom hlh c;:.ui, upporled I7 beautiful &rwhi and tU