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
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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
