z
Vol. XV.
LINCOLN NEB., MARCH 31, 1904.
No. 45k
3'
mi
V.WALL S I It. t t I
vx - . - . ,
irftr K if H A M r r
a- T . r
S
GOV.
PERCY3ANIELS
Veteran Kansas Reformer
Gives Some Timely Hints.
Editor Independent: Partyism has
led the industrial masses into the
worst system of bondage that was
ever imposed on a civilized and intel
ligent people, and it is the windlass
by which the thongs that bind them
are being constantly drawn tighter.
Patronage and the band wagon have
become the chief inspiration of po
litical effort.
Tossing pie to a crowd of heelers
with a prodigal hand or landing a use
less slice from the "pork barrel" ap
propriation have been made the cardi
nal tenets of modern statesmanship.
No party now makes anything else its
highest purpose. Neither makes the
welfare of the masses a paramount
project.
A vast majority of the people are
earnest anti-monopolists, and this was
the paramount principle of the al
liance. It was the seed and soil and
climate, the early rain and late raia
and sunshine that gave it its wonder
ful growth; and this was what gave
the party its prestige and power. The
people's party inherited this great in
centive this righteous purpose from
that organization.
Had they stuck to their text and
loyally kept the faith, monopoly would
have now been unhorsed, and the multi-millionaires
remanded to decent
methods and honest efforts; while the
great conservative, industrious and
patriot n middle class the bed-stone
and keystone of our Institutions
with rapidly accumulating prespeilty,
would be getting a stream of recruits
from the two extremes.
The history of parlies for the pa&t
fifteen years, of the, promise mauo
and the pledges broken, epcUlly the
trickery and d"elt over this trust and
inoiuMMily question, prove that until
we images the ncnse and the nerve to
ptwh an offensive movement tmaiusit
the trusts and the vast plha of aggre
gated plunder they ihmmsm, on which
their great xwer to rob and opprr
U baed, through the me of the prog
ressive taxing (itK-rits, we had bitter
drop our whining over hHr plunder
lag and our ho ling, a they rotitlmie
to turn down the turew. The result
of 1U use In New Zealand, where It
has been the main feature in making
the prosperity of labor instead of the
prosperity of the capitalist the pros
perity of the country, is one strong
proof of its unsurpassed value.
The vast majority of all parties are
thoroughly tired of this duplicity. So -;
eral of the great combinations are
paying at least 50 per cent on their
actual investment. Republican gov
ernments are organized to protect in
dividual citizens from the raid3 of
such freebooters. If a government fails
to do this from impotence it forfeits
the right to the people's confidence. If
it fails from friendship for the free
booters, it is because those who con
trol its policy are getting a share of
the plunder (either directly or indi
rectly). These trusts are able to collect
these rates that would b3 fabulous un
der honest or legitimate business pro
cesses, because they are monopolies.
But they are not satisfied with prices
that yield them 50 per cent dividends.
No pirates are. They sell many ot
their products In other countries for
less than the cost of production here,
plus the cost of transport, for the
purpose of crushing foreign estab
lishments and making the lot of " tae
pauper labor of Europe" a harder one.
Then they tax us for a bounty on ex
ports to make ip the deficiency occa-.
stoned by this heathen and greedy
philanthropy, in addition to that re
quired for the 50 per cent dividend.
Government habitually have laws
to restrain extortion and define us
ury, even where the field Is open.
Honest government provide ways for
rnfon Ing such laws.
No honest government enact law
limiting Interest on loured money,
with open competition, to 6, 8, or It)
jwr cent, and attend monopolies a
transportation In collating to per cent
net on cot.
No honvt government limit the
amount of a miller' toll In a free field
to a reasonable profit and protect
manufa.turlng combinations that ate
monopoly In collecting CO per cent
nrt on thdr Investment, and a bounty
on what they export they may mul
tiply the hardship, leen the privil
eges and increase the burdens of the
foreign laborer whose lot we have
heretofore been taught to lament.
The defenders of these iniquities
may answer that tolls and interest
are matters for state jurisdiction, but
the government at Washington is sim
ply made up of individual agents of
the several states, and whether it
were or not, a righteous principle is
persistently violated, and the purpose
and promise of the central government
defiantly betrayed.
When we pause to consider that we
are taxing our . peopie ten dollais
apiece to support the national gov
ernment alone, we may be appalled at
the public burdens they are carrying;
but in this national tax of $50 per
annum per family, they are not with
out representation, to protest, ana I
power to prevent it if they choose. !
Half of thia money, too, is honestly
expended in their interest and for
their welfare.
This great burden, If equitably dis
tributed In proportion to ability to
pay, would by itself be borne without
destroying all chance for an Improving
economic condition among the masses.
But the day foreseen and foretold
by our , lamented Lincoln, when coi
porations would be enthroned, Is
here. They are enthroned.
They are the crowned usurper be
fore whom legislatures and courts
bow; the tyrant who give statesmen
their position; the despot wh grants
politicians thflr opportunities. Tho
tax which this usurper 1m pones over
shadow that of the federal govern
ment by 6) per cent. Corporations,
through their combinations, are tax
Ins us ti p-r family; they have the
nation by the throat and their hand
In our pocket. Fortified In their po
sition, a.i they cr by tho legislature
they buy, and defended a they are by
the court they have based, the peo
ple are now without a thatue to pro
test or M)er to prevent. They tan
reclaim the iham-c and regain the
power, If they o win it, but they art
without them today.
There are two great niieatloni that
lhaulj draw the especial attention it
reformers in the pending campaign.
They are:
First Curbing the corporations and
throttling the trusts.
Second The initiative and referen
dum. But above and beyond all other sub
jects, and all combination of ques
tions and all possible aggregations of
issues, is the question of the trusts,
with their armament o concentrated
plunder.
For twenty vears the people have
tried to get effective legislation against
them and for twenty years they have
been defrauded and swindled by cun
ning party manipulators into making
some minor issue the paramount ques
tion of every campaign.
Parties have always been promising,
but their promises have been simply
a delusion and a snare.
The Stierman anti-trust bill, while
it was passed because of the party's
promise In 1888, was not intended to
disturb the trusts. It could not and
did not pass the senate until It was
amended into Impotcncy. It was
passed for the purpose of preventing
hostile legislation against them. It
was enacted for the purpose of deceiv
ing the masses and defending the
trusts and it hns fulfilled its mission
a a huge fraud for a dozen years.
This law has helped the trusts, as
the silver purehasa act helped tha
monometalllsts. Undet Its amrle
shield they thrive and grow as never
before, and th republican conclaves
"point with pride" to their legisla
tion against the trustk. and .they
ought to. It ha served them both
the trust and the party. It has ac
eomplUhed ltd purine, and they
should point to it with prl-le.
And nhn they point with pride to
their bill against the trust, they point
with pride to nypocri.iy enobled an!
to chicanery enthroned, tlwy point
with pride to a law that ha failed.
And more than that, they pclnt wlih
prlda to the fact that through that
chl.anery. that hypocrisy and that
failure, there are more people In thl
Hnintry now living from hand to
mouth than ever before, at lar&tr