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Vol. XVI. LINCOLN, NEB., OCTOBER 13, 1904. 1 1 No. 21
fTTI TJTA TITIT A. Accepting th nomination for
Letter of Thomas JL. W edson ,he affl b,w.
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To Hon. Samuel W. Williams,
Chairman Committee on Notification:
When two great political parties
have, in turn, governed a country, and
have between them, brought about un
satisfactory conditions, it is but natural
that a third party should arise.
Citizens who have looked in vain to
"the two great parties" for remedial
legislation lose confidence in . both
after a while, and adopt one of two
courses: they either submit to the
evils of bad government, or protest
by organizing a third party.
To the student of history, there is
Tiothitis more saddening than the ten-
"rule, political education never reaches
the 'masses. S'tate-craft, like priest
craft jealously guards -its secrets.
There is always the inner sanctuary
which, the people are taught to believe
would be profaned : by the touch of
their unholy feet. "
Reverence for Authority.
Again, in organized government
there is a mysterious reverence for
authority. "Whatever is, is right" to
the unthinking multitude; and the
votaries of power never cease to deep
en that impression. Thus partly
from Ignorance and partly from rever
ence for established authority, the
people, in every age, have shown more
inclination to submit to bad . govern
ment, than to resist it. The crimes
which have been committed under
iorm of law by ruling classes- against
subject masses almost stagger belief;
They have been so deliberately cruel,
so relentlessly selfish, so shamelully
unjust," that the blood of the student
boils within him as he reads the re-
cord,. ...What was the purpose of the
law-maker in forming such heartless
legislation? The motive was to ren
der permanent the rule of the few,
the privilege of the few, the power
and the wealth of thefew. Always
and everywhere the result of this sort
of legislation has been the same
it defeated itself; and the aristocracy
fell with the state which it misgov-
erened. Those who rule. by. corrup
tion , - beings COrxn Pi ihemseJv'eiT'sap officers cut down "with thei r swords
things of the past.
Subsidized Press.
Editorial writers, whose papers are
owned and salaries paid by the pets
of class-legislation, lose no opportun
ity of patting the self-complacent sage
on the back, alid of the strengthen
ing his belief that all is well with the
republic. Class legislation did. once
upon a time, lead great nations to
ruin but, that was long ago. Class
legislation is the same old tree, but
the fruit is not the same. Thus sayeth
the subsidized editor; and. the self
complacent sage , who knows that all
is well with our Republic, purrs "with
satisfaction, and thinks highly of the
A I I I I II l nifASI.
t- i - 11 4 i . kninr
let, 11 BUtJ itSoiiJ YV'IOUCa, iu, nm-ii
the truth, and will but look around
him, he will observe the symptoms
which have always characterized the
diseased nation when afflicted by
class-legislation.
Did the people of Russia demand war
with Japan? Were they consulted?
Did they have any grievance against
the Japanese ? No. The Czar did not
want war; the people did not want
it. Who then forced Russia into that
bottomless pit of blood and suSermg?
The corrupt ruling class th: preda
tory capitalists who were seeking new
fields of conquest. A score of gold
hunting Nabobs provoked the strife; .
and now the Russian peasant must
yield up his body, throw the weeds
of widowhood around his wife, wring
the cry of orphanage from the lipS of
his child, and feed the buzzards with
his rotting flesh, in order that the un
scrupulous marauders may get their
clutches upon more gold.
In Germany; see' how the war-lord
struts and swaggers and mis-governs..
See him clap men, ..WfiiniaJuadf.hilT
dren iiito filthy dungeons for the high
crime of speaking disrespectfully of
their imperial master. See how the
soldier rides on the back of his pro
ducer. See how the common people
are ground down under the wheels of a
splendid, extravagant, insolent mili
tarism. See the millions wasted year
ly on the personal , vanities ofjthe
"The"very foundation of social and poli
tical order; and when there is noth
ing in the masses of the people but
tame submission to tyranny, there is
no robust strength left to meet the
enemy within or without.
A handful of Englishmen are abis
to hold Egypt down, and plunder its
people in the interest of the Koths
childs, and other holders of bonds
signed by a decadent and heipless
khedive Why.? Because the life had
been taken out of the poor creatures
by centuries of misrule. The common
man, in Egypt, has been dht under
the feet of masters so long that he
has come to believe that he is dirt,
and nothing more. S'ee how the two
hundred millions of Hindoos are held
down by one hundred thousand Brit
ish See how they submit to be so
closely shorn by English plunderers
that at the least breath of famine they
perish by the millions. How was. that
horrible situation made possible? Cen
turies of misrule did it. Souliess aris
tocracy, thinking of its own interests
only, killed the spirit of the people
by atrocious law. When the evil hour
came and India needed robust man
hood to defend the empire, no robust
manhood was there. The rulers were
effeminate, weakenetl by their own
wealth, their own self-indulgence,
their own monopoly of power, privi
lege, and opportunity. The subject
classes, on the other hand, had sub
mitted so long, had been slaves so
long, that the instinct of patriotism
was JacWing; and to the new yckc of
the British the patient ox submitted.
To be. an ox and wear a yoke had be
come second nature to the wretched,
lower class Hindoo
But, those things happened long ago;
they happened to people of another
race; in modern times and among thr
white races such misgovernmeni would
be Impossible! Self-complacent Ignor
ance' of the present day takes that
kind of comfort of itself, and blandly
congratulates itself upon the fact that
the private soldier, or the private
citizen, and escape punishment. See
how this proud emperor sends to penal
servitude for seven years a poor devil
of soldier who had expressed the wish
that the swift train which bore the
kaiser by, on one of his journeys,
might have been slowed up, so that
his Majesty's loyal subject could have
gotten a glimpse of the royal face.
See how Italy is harrowed by the
tax-gatherer, who squeezes out every
possible penny from the common peo
ple in order that there shall be main
tained an idle aristocracy, and an ex-
agerated militarism. In that unhappy
land, so richly blessed by Nature,
misrule has been so flagrant that half
of the people never have enough to
eat.
See Great Britain, with its lands mo
nopolized by a few hundred aristocrats,
its legislation controlled by property
interests, and "its hordes of homeless
poor crying for bread along the streets
of the richest cities in the world.- Con
sider these legions of the homeless.
Look into those tenements, packed,
like sardines in a box, with hungry
men, women and children. Think of
the morals inseparable from such con
ditions. Think what passions must
rage under the ragged shirt of the
workman who stops in the street to
pick up the remnants of foou' which
are foul enough to turn the stomach
of a well-kept dog. Think of the
multitudes who sorawL, about the
narks, skulk under the bridges, prowl
through the slums not by tens, but
by thousands; not in one city, but in
all cities. Millions of human beings,
God-created men and women,' lash
'oned out of the same clay as our
selves, in all essential respects the
same sort of folks we are; yet they
suffer, they starve, within ' sight of
he synagogue, within earshot of the
oreacher, who is holding forth to his
"rearers upon the loveliness of the
'Ireed of Christ the Christ who never
wned a home, and never carried a
statutes might have fared as a vag
rant. How Is It In America?
How is It in your own land? God nev
er made a grander home for his children
than that which the Cavalier in Vir
ginia, the Dutchman in New Vork,
and the Puritan in Massachusetts
sought as a refuge from, the systems
of the Old World. In natural advan
tages this earth holds no region super
ior to ours. Once it belonged to the
people. With his gun, the common
man won it, mile by mile, fiuin the
Indian, the Frenchman,' the Saxon,
and. the Spaniard. What the common
n riisf tinf wln ' -wlth-Ms "'1" i itft
rignFH?n,ir?1ndhey.roai sea
to sea. the land which is ours became
ours because the common man was
ready to pay for it with his tax-money
or "his blood.
What became of it? With bewild
ering rapidity, it has. been taken from
the common people and given to the
corporations. It belonged to the gov
ernment, to -all the people. r it was
meant to supply homes to individual
citizens, and there was enough of It
to last for many generations. To the
extent of about two hundred million
acres, it has been given to Railroad
corporations; and now when a common
man wants a home in all that vast
domain he mu3t go to the Railroad
Corporations to get It.
No Blacker Chapter Can Be Found
A blacker chapter than that which
records how both the old political
parties united to despoil the common
people of their land, is not to be found
in the annals of class-legislation.
Once upon a time we had a finan
cial system of bur own.; Placed, in
the constitution as part pf our funda
mental law, it seemed to be firmly
fixed. For a hundred years this money
system was in operation aruoag us.
Therefore, it seemed to be 'irrevoc
ably fixed."' Very wise men created
this system of national finance. It
was the one subject , upon which
pThomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton agreed. Those two were, per
haps, Jhesreatet
cuntmrtArdl 7. Bo & pre
eminent' were they above all others
that they divided the people into two
distinct schools of political thought.
But, upon the vital subject of finance,
these master-minds- reached the same
conclusion; and that conclusion be
came a part of the constitution.
Whether the Wall street Influences
which produced the establishment of
the gold standard emanated irom
wiser heads than those of Jefferson
and Hamilton, may be doubted. . Both
of these great men served their coun
try a long time and died poor. In fix
ing bimetallism as a system, and the
silver dollar as the unit of value,
they had no selfish motive. Two
lofty-minded statesmen agreed upon
that system as the right system. It
remained in force, giving full satis
taction, until the money power in its
march of cojiquest, found it to be a
barrier. The money power demands
a standard which it can control; and
one metal is easier to control than
two. For the same reason, it opposes
governmental issues of paper money,
and will never be content until the
greenbacks are called in and de
stroyed. "7" "
To establish the single gold stand
ard, which "sets the constitution
aside, the statute had to be violated.
The word "coin" had to be construed
to mean "gold only;" and the paper
note, issued; on silver, had to be re
deemed in a manner different from
that prescribed by law.
Reasons Against "Irrevocability"
There are at least five reasons why
the gold standard : can not'' be con
sidered asN fixed:
(1) It Is unconstitutional.
(2) It violates statute law.
(3) The supply of the gold rnlpjht
increase beyond all the calculations
of -the money power. Thus, the
standard of value would get beyond
its control. In that event, the money
power itself would change the stand
ard. (4) The supply of gold might
suddenly cease. In that event, con
traction would at once set in, because
and increase in population require a
constantly increasing volume oi cur
rency. If the horrors of contraction
should again come upon us by the
selfish policy of the money power, the
people would compel a change in the
standard. Wall street gave us the
panic of 1873; Wall street gave us the
panic of 1893. Let Wall street give
us another, and it may find it has
given us one too many: The American
people have about reached ,he limit -of
emfurance. We have heard much
of "Constitutionalism" in this cam
paign. The sincerity of the cry is -'
shown r-y the facypAiJgQjif
DwmefiYiolates the statute law
and the Constitution,- is not only
supported by Theodore Rooseck, the
Imperialist, but by Alton B. i arker,
the chosen apostle of Constitution-
alism. -.
(5) The golid standard is not "ir
revocably fixed." - because it is un
scientific, wrong. Nothing, more cei -tain
than "the people of this couu
try will continue , their struggle unUI
they have a national currency whton
the money power can not control and
which answers the purpose of per
fecting exchanges without becomjiAg an
armory from, which the buccaneers
of modern finance, draw the irresis
tible weapons with which they attacK
values and raid the . markets.
National Banks The A Feature.
One of the worst 'features of our
financial system is the .farming ont to
the national banks of lh3 power,
privilege and profit of supplying tne
country with paper currency. Instead
of using its own credit for the equal ,
benefit of all people, the government
lends this credit to; the 'national
banker to be used for the benefit of
the banker. .Thus the national banker
becomes a beneftciarxjl sal
liege; and, basing h-s notes upon the
credit of the government, chaigea hitf
fellow citizens for the use of thcra.
He, the privilegedr fattens upon usury
at the expense of the unprivileged.
There are now about five thousand
national ;battlg whte
Uifli5MBf tCh"undredmil- -
lion dollars of their notes. At eigne
per cent, this represents a yearly pro
fit of more than thirty million dollars
which they derive from the special
privilege of using the public credit for
their private benefit. Clothe 1 with
the sovereign power of creating what
is practically a legal currency, they ,
can contract it or expand it wncnevcr
they please; and, if they decide to
give the country a taste of their des
potic power, as in 1893, there is no
power which can protect the victim.
No class of citizens should be clothed
by law with such terrible advantages
over their fellows. .
Jefferson and Jackson wacd war
against national banks, contending
they were hostile to the spiri' of our
government. The republican party
ha3 always favored national banks;
but the latter day democrats have
sometimes opposed them. Thus, in
the national platform of the party
in 1S0G and 1900, national banks
were denounced in language strong
enough to have satisfied Thomas J ef- ,
ferson. At this time, howerer, the
councils of the democratic party .are
presided over by Arthur Gorman, who
has always supported the system, and
by August Belmont, who is a nation- ;
al banker. To prove that both "the ;
great political parties" are now "ir-
revocably fixed" in their support of
the national banks we have only to
remember that they united hands aud
hearts to recharter them two jears
ago.
Railroad- Monopoly
Another example of class-legislation ;
is found in a study of our transporta
tion system. We have given to the
various corporations which control
our telegraph, telephone, express and
railroad business ' such enormous
powers that the government itself is
a dwarf among these giants. Their
revenues are greater than those of
the government. Their power to tax
falls not only upon the public, but
upon the government itself. In the
late conflict with Spain, the manner In
which they preyed upon the govern
ment was something frightful in its
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