DECEMBER 1, 1904
PAGE S
tfo Nebraska. Independent
Proportional Representation
; (Article 2.)
. . f Before riving details of the proposed
reform in political methods, let us
consider how the present electoral sys
tem works. ; , - t
The present machinery may be brief
ly shown by taking almost any state of
the union as an example, and examin
ing the method of electing members
to congress or the state legislature.
The whole state is cut up into little
arbitrary districts, and in each of these
districts the voters elect one member.
A voter ia one -district can not, of
course, vote for a candidate who is
running in any other district. In each
of these little districts or constltuen-
. ties there are usually several political
ideas that desire expression and rep
resentation, as, for instance, the repub
lican idea, the democratic idea, the
expansionist, and anti-expansionist
ideas, the anti-trust idea, the direct
legislation idea, the populist, labor,
prohibition, socialist and single tax
. ideas. Some of these may not be num
erically strong enough to entitle them
to representation, in any event; but
others certainly are. Yet all these
varying and often conflicting ideas have
either to find expression and represen
tation, in the one solitary member sent
up from that district, or not to be rep-
" resented at all. Is not absurdity
x stamped plainly on the face of such a
system? . . . '.. . -
Of course the result is practically
that only one, or possibly two, of the
leading ideas are represented, and the
voters who hold the other ideas are all
disfranchised,, and unrepresented, in
cluding, of course, the members of the
people's party. ,
But, if you like, we will, leave out of
consideration all th,e political ideas but
the two large ones. Take, as an illus
tration, a district or constituency con
taining 4,000 votes. A republican and
a democrat are "running; -2,050 men vote
for the republican, candidate and 1,950
for the democratic candidate. The re
publican is elected.. These 1,950 dem
ocratic voters are as " absolutely dis
franchised and. 'unrepresented as if an
act of congress or the legislature had
been passed declaring that the demo
crats in that district should have no
vote at that election. Consider that
this kind of thing takes place all
through the United States, and you
JSSfjJJ-5ee that as a matter of fact near
ly, one-half of the voters in the whole
country, either on one side, or the oth
er, are disfranchised at every, election.
Is that popular, representation?.
Do you wonder at the party bitter
ness which obscures reason and calm
judgment, when every election is a
light in which the penaltyof defeat is
disfranchisement and humiliation? But
bur elections need not be fights, and
would not be under any reasonable and
sensible' system. An essential part of
. such a system would be to abolish the
"one-member" districts. Instead of
these, we can have districts large
enough and containing voters enough
to elect seven or: more members; and
we can elect these members in such a
way as to give fair representation to
- every important phase of public opin
f ion in fair proportion to the number
of voters holding that opinion.
(Next week I shall . deal with the
question of nominations.)' -
.,- ROBERT TYSON.
Toronto, Canada. -
R&ilroad Nationalization
There has never been any question
that the, railways are public highways
in the same sense that the more than
' . millions of miles of common roads are
public highways. As a legal fact, this
has been settled by the decisions of
every state as well as the supreme
court.
It is just as well settled that rail
ways represent a function of the gov
ernment. , Succeeding the "king's high
way" they are impressed with the same
economic and civil characteristics.
vThey are the common blood ves-
" sels of the social body, and should be
as responsive as the arteries of the
human being to the countless cells they
serve. Now. then, to the di-
v rect question, "Is the railway a func
tion of government?" Let John Stuart
Mill, one of the noblest and wisest of
mankind, make answer: V
"In attempting to enumerate the nec-
, essary functions of government, we
. find them to be considerably more mul
tifarious than most people are at first
aware of, and incapable of being cir
cumscribed by those very definite lines
which it is often attempted
. to draw around them. We sometimes,
for example, hear it said that govern-
ments ought to confine themselves to
affording protection against force and
fraud; But why should peo
pie be proteeted .by their government
" that" " isir-foy ." their own. collective
strength, against violence and fraud
and not against other evils, except that
the expediency is more obvious.
. mo iuuu tMccytiuu ytuiv,u 1 Snail
notice to the doctrine that government
can not manage the affairs of individ
uals as well as individuals themselves,
has reference to the great class of cases
in which the individuals can only man
age the concern by delegated agency,
and In which the so-called private
management is, in point of fact, hard
ly better entitled to be called man
agement by the persons interested than
administration by a public officer.
This applies to the case of a
road, a canal, or a railway. These are
always, in a great degree practical mo
nopolies, and a government which con
cedes such monopolies unreservedly to
a private company does much the same
thing as if it allowed an individual or
an - association to levy any tax they
choose for their own benefit, etc."
David J. Lewis, Senate Doc. 53.
Watson Votes Not Counted
If it were not that considerable ex
pense would be imposed upon the coun
ty the citizens who voted for Thomas
E. Watson and Thomas H. Tibbies for
president and vice -president would be
justified in asking the court to summon
a number of election officers to ascer
tain why their votes were not re
corded. In the eastern district of the
Eighth ward the publisher of, the
Sunday Call '-f voted for Watson and
Tibbies by putting a paster in the
last column and writing underneath
in the places left vacant the names of
five citizens,'' two of them members of
the board "holding the election. The
names of the five citizens were plain
ly and legibly written and should have
been recorded. That they were not
can only, be accounted for by charging
the members of the board of election
with" carelessness or incompetency. We
do not think" they intended to commit
any fraud, but that they failed to per
form their whole duty is too plain to
be denied.
Nor was the vote of the writer, in
the eastern district of the Eighth ward,
the only one that was unrecorded. We
have been assured by several persons
we can name -in that district that; they
voted for Watson and Tibbies and their
ballots were not returned as counted.
Nor is the eastern - district of the
Eighth ward the only one in which the
election officers failed to perform 'their
whole duty. Mr. Elkanah Custard as
sured us that he voted for Watson and
Tibbies in the eastern district of the
Fourth ward and that no return was
made of the ballot.
We have the following letter before
us from a voter in the western dis
trict of the Sixth ward, which speaks
for itself: -
EastonNov.-11, 1904.
Editor Sunday Call:
I had the honor to vote for that
distinguished patriot, Thomas E.
Watson, on, Tuesday, November 8,
in the western district of the Sixth
ward. Why was the vote not count
ed? Do the conceited idiots who
compose some of the election
boards think the spirit of Ameri
cans will brook such outrage. They
had better have a care. H, W.
If the election officers of the western
district want to know who "H. W." is
they "can call at 717 Washington street
and they will find him there. "
It may be considered a trifling mat
ter to throw out the votes of a few
"cranks," but.it is of no little import
ance and should have been brought to
the attention of the court. If election
officers can refuse to count the vote of
a "crank" they can also throw out the
ballot of any other person. The sarnie
people are heard pratling shout a "free
vote and a fair count" in the south,
when the fact is that we are not hav-ing-it
in the city of Easton. Easton
(Pa.) Sentinel. :
"party regularity.' He could have
done this in a far different manner
- and yet not have laid himself open
to the charge of stultification. But
his enthusiasm for Parker during
the campaign was quite as intense
as his denunciation of him before
the campaign and this magnified
whstever inconsistence there may
have been in his general attitude.
In the past fifty years the demo
cratic party has stood for many
different things. The fact that lov
ers of Lincoln are numerous with-'
in the democratic party today
proves conclusively that at least
one big change has taken place. In"
adidtion thereto there have been
minor changes, all of which have
made it incumbent on the party to
defend itself against the charge of
inconsistency and vacillation.
During eight years of the party's
existence it stood for a construc
tive rather than a destructive pol
j icy and in that time it wa3 rapid
ly eadearlng itself to the masses.
Had it continued on that line, a
different story would be to tell.
But.it wearied in well-doing with
disastrous results.
Three changes of policy in twelve
years are altogether too many for
any party to have. Mr." Bryan has
already come forward with a ten
tative plan. It is in many ways
good; but it is also weak in many
respects. It is strong in those
points where it exhibits a construc
' tive policy, where it stands for
well-known reforms that the coun
try is ready to adopt. It is weak in
that it does not show a comprehen
sive idea of economic fundamen
tals; in that it deals with issues
that are in no sense issues and in
that it tacitly objects 'to . well
known social phenonomena' with
out finding their underlying cause,
or offering a general remedy.1 1
The new democratic party, if it
is to have the people's confidence,
must forget its history, and build
for the future; it must rally from
the disappointments and the fail
ures of the past around a platform
based on ' morality and economic
truth. Morality is not sectional,
economic, truth is not sectional;
they are both universal and when
the democratic party becomes a
party of men who believe the same
things, no matter in what part of
the country tbey may live, it can
win and not till then. .
A Tentative Pleurt
A few of the democratic editors are
crawling from under the landslide and
beginning to say things. The Colum
bus, Ohio, Press-Post, the leading democratic-
paper of that state, for the En
quirer has long been nothing more
than an assistant republican sheet,
makes among others, the following re
marks: Superficially, no doubt,. Mr. Bry
an's course appeared inconsistent
and possibly the ultimate analysis
will bear thU out. Mr. Bryan may J
- . i - . . r i. i !ii n
nave maue a senuus uusiuite euner
before or after the convention, or
both; but. whatever else may be
said, he did what he thought was
right and this, few question. If
Mr. Bryan madea mistake, it was
a mistake in. judgment It was not ;
so muck the mistake of adhering- tcr !
the old but threadbare" principle of i
Nothing so exasperates a man as to
have his pump work hard and espe
cially is this so in cold weather. Our
readers perhaps have already noticed
the small advertisement calling at
tention to the "Ideal" Pump Equalizer,
made by the Pump Equalizer com
pany, 40 Dearborn street, Chicago. This
simple little instrument can be applied
to any pump or windmill and make the
work of pumping water a very easy
matter. It is one of the best and easiest
sellers on te market and agents are
making big money handling them. Ev
ery equalizer, is fully warranted and
can be easily adjusted tc any pump.
Write to the, company and get their
terms of sale,' and be sure to mention
The Independent.
SPECIAL MARKET LETTER
FROM NYE & BUCHANAN CO.. jJVE
STOCK COMMISSION MER
CHANTS. SO. OMAHA,
NEB.
South Omaha, Dec. 1, 1904.
Receipts of cattle for the past three
days have been about 14.000 head here
with 60,000 in Chicago. Good demand
for desirable beef steers and the under
tone of our market seems very good.
The warmed-up and short-fed steers
are very hard to move at satisfactory
prices at all. In fact, very short-fed
rattle, would bring more money to the
feeders had they not had any corn.
Our cow market was rather uneven
and lower during Thanksgiving, week,
and will say that it started out no bet
ter Monday, but Tuesday It was 1015o
higher on cows and closing firm and
today it is steady. Stockers and feed
ers higher and in good demand for
anything desirable. Common grades
steady. We cuote:
Corn-feds Choice steers, $5.236.00;
fair to good, $4.005.00; cowsand heit
ers, $2.504.00. .
Grassers. Choice killers, $3.504.00;
choice feeders, $3.504.00; good feed
ers, $3.003.40; choice yearlings, $3.50
4.00; heavy stockers $2.503.25;
good cows and heifers, $2.50;y3.2.".:' thin
ners, $1.002.00; bulls, $1.753.50;
veal, $3.00 5.50.
Hog market is still on the decline.
Prices today $4.3o4.50 with the out
look, weak.
-Sheen: receinis are stirt light :with tna
it trket strong on feeders-and easier oni
fat ones. -.- -; "
s Harlan Countv Farms
1C0 acres, 3 miles from Huntley ; 90
acres under plow, remainder pasture,
fenced on three sides, half mile from
school. Price f 2,500. 14U. i
240 acre farm, 1 mile from Huntley?
60 acres under plow, balance pasture.
Price $3,500; half caBh. IBB.
160 acre farm, 5 miles from Ragan; 90
acres plowed, H-rooxu frame' hon,
frame stable, well and windmill, all
fenced. Price $3,500. 16B.
320 acre farm, 3 miles from Ragan; 160
acres under plow, level land, 6-room
frame house, granary, etc. . A bar
gain at $7,500. 17B.
Harlan county farms are good farms.
They are Increasing in value each
year. Harlan county land produces
as many bushels of crop per acre
each year as land in eastern Ne
braska that costs twice as much.
Write Weber & Farris, Lincoln, Neb.,
for any information you want con
cerning Harlan county land. - '
Christmas Holiday Excursion
' ; Hates
via the Nickel Plate road, December 24,
25. 26 and 31, 1904, and January 1 and
2, 1905, good returning January 4, 1905,
at a fare and a third for the rcund trip,
between Chicago and Buffalo. Three
through express trains daily to f ort
Wayne, Findlay, Cleveland, Erie, Buf
falo, New York, Boston and all eastern
points. Through Pullman sleepers and
excellent dining car service, individual
club meals, ranging in price from i5
cents to $1, teing served In Nickel
Plate dining cars; also service a la
carte. No excess fare chrrgod on any
train. Chicago depot, Van Bnren and
La S"alle Sts. City ticket offices. 111
Adams St. and Auditorium Annex.- All
John Y. Calahan, General Agent, ll.T
information given upon application to
Adams St., Room 298.
v Ranch for Sale
One and one-half miles from rail
road town, with good school, church,
one general store, hotel and livery, de
pot and other railroad, buildings, with
fifst class stockyards. The ranch con
sists of .212 acres with miles of rango
on three sides, enough for 300 head
of cattle. ltO acres of ranch are un
der high'tate of cultivation, the barn
is 2432. hayJofjt for 12 tons ofjhay,
has nice cupola on barn; wagon shed,
12x24;- granary, 12x28; chicken house,
8x12; . "LL" on east of barn for calves,
12x24; "L". on north of barn, 16x24.
These buildings are all compact, every
thing bid It substantial, shingled and
painted. All stock can be fed from
inside. Frame house, 24x28, 5 rooms,
shingled, painted and plastered. Good
well and windmill a nd cistern; good
garden, fenced; pice plum grove; bear
ing strawberries, gooseberries, etc
Rock reservoir, cemented, to irrigate
garden; outdoor cellar, 12x14, all built
of rock and plastered inside. Large
corral, 80 acres pasture. If sold be
tween now and February 1, price $1300,
$1,200 cash. $300 in one year, $300 in
2 years, 8 per cent interest. ; What hay
is left will go with place arid home
machinery. Write me. :
J. W. MILLER.
. Venango, Neb., Box 182. ,
Specialists for Msn
We cure Nervous, Chronlcand
Private Diseases. Kidney and
Bladder Troubles Blood Pois
on Vtrlcorcla. Stricture all
diseases and weaknesses of
Men. Advice Iree at oflice vr
by raalL tall or write P. O.
box 5KM, for our Special Meta.
od oi Home Cure.
Ore. Srle & Sarlos
12410 Bt. Lincoln, Neb.
ICS
n
S20
Chicago
and
Return
' OR VIA
St. Lou is
IN ONE DIRECTION
$20.10
Sell Daily to November
v 30th- Rerturn Limit
December 15, 1904
R. W. McGINNIS, :
General Agent -
ucor.N,r 1024 O St.1 NKbbabka