fheStateof.;Vilinn(SSO
follows the lead of fourteen other states and territories, csd
Extends a Cordial Welcome
.. . to the
anliors Etosorvo life
OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA,
granting full authority through its insurance
department, to sell any and all of its attractive
forms of policy contracts in its prosperous and
productive domain.
Reliable men desiring liberal contracts for
Policies Not Excelled in the Work
in the choicest territory of this prosperous
state should communicate at once with
B. H. ROBISON, - - Presicbn:,
I Thereto a .steady demand for young men and young wcn
Lincoln steBt,
; ' . courses ;; , ; i!-
Bujlnesa, Shorthand and TypwMt:rj
Preparatory and Talasnr-I; .
y-V i a a ' 5 5petalPetrMl'.' Teacher of iticcesaftil buitneai experisac
Personal intercut in eacb student, 6. Awlttaace ia ascurlr -
Busines
cones
employment. . , t r
Catalogue Free. ! Write Ua. -v " " Lincoln Cuslnea CcIUje, Lincoln. H;''
Mr. Albright,-in his communication
this week, makes what on the sur
face appears to be a telling argument
in favor of either" socialism or ideal i
anarchy one extreme or the other.
He refers to Lincoln's famous saying
that the United States could not exist
"half slave, half free," and from this
draws the conclusion that society can
not exist "half individuals, half cor
porations." ;
We might carry this further and say
that society cannot exi&t "half males,
half females" but that might sound
absurd to those who believe that so
ciety could' not exist at all without
both, because life itself would soon
cease. Lincoln meant that the union
of states could not stand if in part of
them slavery existed and in part of
them free labor. It must be either all
slave or all free so far as the states
were concerned, but being all slave did
not mean that, every person must be a
slave. There could be no masters in
such a case.
The fallacy in Mr. Albright's posi
tion lies in the assumption that in
some of the states individual owner
ship prevails, while in others corpora
tion, ownership prevails. . The-fact is
that both kinds of ownership prevail
in every state, and the Lincoln anal
ogy fails.
As the Independent views it, it is, not
the fault of corporate owneiuip, of
itself, that present conditions exist,
but that the difficulty lies in permit
ting corporations or individuals to
own the necessary p. opt ity and per
form certain services which m all ages
have been, regardea as tie prerogative
of sovereigns. Caesar's superscription
was .upon the coins; it was the king's
highway.
; Today the ownership of those steel
shod highways the railroads makes
the owners kings, and the mere fact
of corporate ownership does not mat
ter. Individual ownership by Rocke
feller would not change the fact that
he would be the king as long as he re
tained control of the highways.
. So with the issue of money. Na
tional banks have succeeded to the
kingly, prerogative to - coin , and issue
. money, , and whether the ownership
were in , corporations dominated by
, Rockefeller, or in. the oil magnate
himself would make no difference, .
. Carrying Mr. Albright's reasoning
to its logical conclusion, the outcome
' would be either all government and
no Individuals, or all , individuals .and,
no government. Neither of these ex
tremes will ever be reached. The In
dependent feels assured. . The two ten
dencies .correct each, . other much the
same as centripetal aud centrifugal
forces. Populism may not be 'centri
fugal" enough to suit the ideas of
some, , but it., is, moving along some
where near the mean between the two
extremes, The people's porty may . die,
as Mr Albright believes it has died,
but, populism under some name will
exist as long as men strive to . better
their condition. D. V -
Prof.. Shaller Mathews of the Chi
cago university divinity school, at a
minister's institute in Milwaukee the
other day said: "Many of, the people
to whom you preach do not have any
destre to know the fatherllness of
God. When preaching to them you do
not want to give them the gospel of
God's love; you want to give them
hell. Most pecple don't care a rap
about righteousness. They are busy
with the accumulation of property."
That is a pretty good kind oi preach
ing. It is the sort that The Indepen
dent has been doing, but every time
we give the corpoiations, "Wall street
and the mullet heads "hell," Doc. Bix
by or some one else puts up a protest
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST
' An interview with W. It Hearst was
sent out by thev Associated press last
Sunday that any newspaper man, af
ter onco reading it, will doclaro Is not
only genuine, but of that kind of in
terviews that are carefully prepared
in tho quiet of some retreat and. sent
to the manager of the Associated press
with a request that it be sent all the
papers taking the Associated press
dispatches. Let populists read the fol
lowing sentence:
"1 supported Cleveland three
times and Bryan twite, I expect
- to support tho noralm of tho par
ity at St. LouU, whoever he may
I. William Randolph 1 learnt
It Is very doubtful If a prominent
candidate of either of tho oU parties
(bver made sueh a statement a that
foro. It proclaim the author a man
without principle, a man wro would
support any man, or any let of pi In
r I plea. There are no quail Ikatton to
the statement If Dave Hill, Parker
or CtaveUatJ I nominated, Hearst
and hi! papers' 111 iipport tho randl
UtC What tho man u, what princi
ple La taay advocate, la nolhlnx to
Hearst The only qualification is to
be the nominee of the democratic na
tional convention. :
One of two things seems probable in
connection with this interview.
Hearst either got away from his guar
dians, Brisbane and ; Ihmsen, and
made a fool of himscf, or he has
made his peace with Wall street,
In what kind of a ilx will this leave
General Weaver, George Fred Will
itms and several other men of that
kind who have been for fighting
Hearst delegates? Will they, too, sup
port Parker or Cleveland if either is
nominated?
K1VETIKG THE CHAINS
' .The supreme court step by step is
riveting the chains on the wrists of
labor, Last Monday that court laid
down the princ'ple that a telegraph
operator for a railroad company and
a fireman on a railroad engine are
"fellow servants," and that the negli
gence of the former causing the death
of the latter in the operation of trains
was a risk the fireman assumed and
was not ground for damages against
the railroad company. '
A fireman oh the Northern Pacific
road was killed in consequeuce of a
telegraph operator sending a wrong
order and the widow of the fireman
sued the road for damages. On this
newadvance toward more firmly es
tablishing that abominal ruling called
the "fellow servant law," the court
stood as usual, "five to four." Accord
ing to all decisions heretofore ren
dered, the telegraph operator was the
agent of the railroad and his negli
gence made the l ail road - liable, but
the five members held that "the negli
gence of the operator was the negli
gence of a fellow servant of the fire
man, the risk of which the latter as
sumed." The result of that ruling, if fol
lowed, will be to relieve the railroads
of all liability for killing and dis
abling any of their employes. It will
always be the fault of "a fellow ser
vant." The railroads have got this
decision from the plutocrats on the
supreme bench, they have raised rates
in this state 17 per cent during the
last three or four years by varying
classifications, and - now the mullet
heads who vote 'ei straight, will alsb
be willing to let them avoid their just
share of taxes. - . ' : '
During the next four years it is
probable that three or four of these
judges i who are very old will retire
or, - die.! If Roosevelt or Parker is
elated president, young inen whohold
the same views will be appointed to
hold that ; court for - plutocracy, im
perialism and capitalism for another
generation. r On to Spiingfleld. ; (
;!,; ftw:;;;;-v.;:'V,!:,
MUNICIPAL OWKKB1HIP , i ,
The telephone rates in Glasgow, and
the system runs far put lnto the coun
try, with an unlimited numbei of calls
over the entire system is $25.50 a year.
There is no installation charge, and
no dues of any kind other than the
annual payment of this amount A
toll service is rendered for $17 a year,
with an additional charge of a penny
for each .outward message, with un
limited inward calls free. On a party
line with more than four subscribers
the rate is $6 per annum, witn an un
limited number of calls.
In New Jxork and Brooklyn there
are different systems and it costs 40
cents to telephone to any part of the
city and 50 cents to get a connection
with Brooklyn. Newark, N. J., is only
25 miles away, and the rate is 75 cents
for a five minutes' conversation. Citi
zens pay five times as much a thou
sand feet for gas in Hastings on-Hud-son
as is charged In Glasgow, and it
does not cost half as much to put It
in the males. They pay four times
as much for electric light. They pay 2
cents a mile to ride on the railroad
between that village and N;w York,
which is about four "times the rate
charged for suburban transit lu any
part of Great Rrltaln or Europe. But
the people of New York are so used to
being robbed that they actually enjoy
it and resent the suggestion that re
lief should be sought either by legis
lation or public ownership.
There are 11.000 subscribers to the
munlelnal telephone system of Glas-;
gow. The private company predicted
that the Insanity of tho management
in reducing rates and giving decent
service would result In financial ruin,
but tho investment ahowed a profit
of $70,000 lant year, and tho indlea.
Mens aro that tho present year will
put tho fljcnro beyond tho $100,000
mark. In that event tiie mananement
will materially reduce tho rates. It
ha no Intention of extorting a profit
from those ho patmnlne tho ser
vice, t?urcly the Scotch aro a strange
People,
When th plant It fully paUl for,
which will cot bo many yeara at the
present rato of profita, tho cUUena of
Glasgow will, pay not more than 30
cents for gas. Oil and coal cost much
more, in Scotland than in any. part of
the United J3tates.i ' . ; , !
.How much will New York and, Chi
cago be paying when Glasgow fur
nishes , gas at actual cost ! price?
Strange as It may seem, cheap gas
does not seem to destroy the indepen
dence nor deaden the ambition of the
people of Glasgow. ! We are assured
by certain interests that it will have
that effect in thia country. ;
The following statistics concerning
the extent , and growth of publicly
owned undertakings may be of inter
est to students of this problem. There
are in Great Britain 1,045 water plants
owned by cities, boroughs or districts,
as against 251 owned by private com
panies. ' Every city of 1 consequence,
with the exception of London, owns
and operates its water supply plant,
and London is ! moving for, public
ownership. 7
There are 256 public gas : plants
against 454 privately owned ones, but
the number of the former Is Increas
ing, while that of-the latter Is sta
tionary or decreasing. On capital in
vested the cities have made 6 per
cent, against 5 1-4 for . the private
companies. The .cities -have charged
an average price of 64 cents a thou
sand feet, while the private companies
have charged 70 cents. The total
profit last year to tho cltlep owning
their plants was about $111,500,000.
There are In Great Britain 142 mu
nicipally owned street railway sys
tems, against 151 belonging to private
companies, tut tho former represent
an outlay of nearly $122,000,000 com
pared with $$5,000,000 of private capi
tal. The mileage la 1.0C7 municipal
against 704 private, Tho percentage
of profit on money Invented Is 7 3-4
for the cities and 4 3-4 for the private
companies. This percentage la an In
ereane over last year of 1 3-3 for the
cities, and a decrease of 5-8 for the
private companies. The net profit to
tho cities wa $.0oo.ooo. and to tho
companies $4.$M.0x. These figures
are official, and do not ro far to sup
port tho contention of Uobert T. Por
ter to the effect that public owner
hlp la a failure In Crat Britain, Ho
wrote a nerie of article to that end
recently and I Mo either dencuned
or lauxhed at all over th t-nlletl
Kingdom. Mr. Porter is rwponnlMo
for similar statement! whkn have
been printed widely In the Ucitci
States. . ' '""v ;
Populism was not met In Great Brit
ain with the cry of "anarchy," "ra
cialism,'' "lunacy," and its advocate!
were not calledU'long-haired and wili
eyed cranks." When the propositicr3
of populism were first presented there,
the highest culture of the king-lop
first " investigated 7 and then adopted "
them. One of the most distinguisisd
republicans in Lincoln said the other
day in The Independent office that ha
favored municipal ownership, tut
when he thought of the men who' raa ?
politics in this city, he was afraid to
trust such things in their hand3,
which was a confession that the re
publican leaders here were a set cf
thieves and embezzlers, or only lacked
the opportunity of becoming such, ,
The barbarities attending the evic
tion of people on th eeast side of New
York who were unable to pay the ex
orbitant rents, has been more than
equalled in Omaha where the fevr
dishes and bed of jin old couple were
seized, and both of them thrown out
on the street, resulting in the death of
the old man and reducing to starv&tioa
the aged woman left a desolate widow.
It is now said that every lease znada
in Omaha will hereafter contain a
chattel mortgage on all tho household
goo's xlown to the most cherished
keepsakes and little treasures. Tna
poor have no consideration shown
them In a city run by grafters, gam
blers and g. o. p. managers. It nut
ters not whether It la In tho east or
In tho west, tb favoritism shown
wealth produces tho same results, Ca
to Springfield. t t(
The rovernmrnt crop report for Utj
utates that tho acreage of wlntrr I
wheat Is 5.472,0oo than it was ta
tho ft rat of May last year. It tzji
that 2H.0O0 acre of wIlUt wheat fcrj
been v plowed up In Nebraska atar.?,
which statement Tho Indepvtiii:::
very much doubts. ",
In thU country they talk about t?;3
"yellow peril," but over In China they
aro mere Interejiteil In tho "white prr
II." All of which goes to show ittl
tho way you l4k at a thins fcu t
great deal to da with tho coclurl:i !
you form, . ' , : . i