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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1905)
FEBRUARY 23, 1905 &e Nebraska. Indopendont you used to rave when the populist proposed a moderate maximum freight rate bill with none of these other at tachments. Is it any, wonder the old Nebraska pop strokes hi3 whiskers and smiles a quiet smile? This attempt in Kansas to down mo nopoly and .re-establish" competition has given heart to those who have been robbed for so many years in other states and they have mustered up cour age enough to attack the trust also. Indiana, Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma have fallen into line, but they have all run up against one thing freight rates. There is where every man lands that starts out to get justice in a con test with any trust. That's the snub bing post that every one, is drawn up to, tied and then kicked. There will be no final relief, and these Kansans and other fellows who have started out to fight ; the trust will find that there is none, until the government 'cwns the railroads. As soon as Rocke feller got his pipe line complete, rates ch crude oil went up . to 51 cents a .barrel for. crude oil from Kansas oi! :fields to the Missouri river, while Rockefeller redud the price of oil to 31 cents a barrel. When we populiuts used to try to tell the republicans about these things, the 'great dailies immediately denounced us v.f lunatics and anarchists. Theyin- slsterl that- tmsts vvprp hpnevnlpnt - in- UU J V- VMM . UU Va w w . - .slitutions and declared that they re duced expenses a.V lowered the price to the consumer, althougn prices al "ways rose to the consumer as soon as "the trust got into working order. Every 'time that Rockefeller reduced the price or cruae on, ne raiseu uits- pnus ui (the refined. In this fight against the trust, the republicans have not gone at it in Jhe way that a populut would. The popu ' list ' would prosecute: criminally the s Standard' "Oil managers, 'and as; scon as they - had the Vald-pated old pirate . ir. the penitentiary, they w'culd go after the railroads! But the republicans are oing pretty, well, that -is, considering Hhe class of, newspapers,"fhfy have been . reading. "The -populists shout, "Whoop- tla! ..Give if. to. Jem". : : j Costly Newspapers The Custer County Beacon (populist), . cays: ' . We took charge of the county in 1890, with a debt of $40,000 hanging like a i dark pall over us. In spite of drouth, the chinch bugs, grasshoppers and the bankers' panic, we paid off every dol lar of that indebtedness and turned over the county to our successors with ova warrant raid and with a lew cut I V. A J i " " , in two. . But the people wearied cf well-doing. For some unaccountable reason they took from ourhands the reins of coun ty government and turned them over to our political enemy. Now, we take our compas3 to find where we are, after several years of high tax levies and collections under distress, and find V, nr-n orroin in HoVlt 1 K (Cft When the populists had the state government they acted very much in the same way, anl in spite of years of drouth, mortgage foreclosures, and without raising taxes, paid off more than $600,000 of the state dejjt. But the people did not like that either, and now with vastly increased taxation, Ave have a vastly increased state debt. These are facts. The official records at the state capital show that they are facts. Any man who denies that they are facts, is simply ignorant or a common, every day, political liar. The farmers who prefer to have a plu tocratic paper that costs only 25 cents a year or is sent to them for nothing, perhaps don't know the fact3 and they iu the end pay frcm $10 to $25 a year for their paper in increased taxation. The tax-eaters can well afford to send the papers to the farmers for 25 cents or for nothing. Wildcat Insurance The New York Equitable Life In surance company it a stock company the sort of company that the people in Nebraska havs been in the habit of calling "old line" companies. Its cap ital stock only amounts to $100,000 and James H. Hyde owns 51 per cent of it, which gives thi3 young high flyer the management of over five hundred mil lion dollars of money to invest, and Insurance to the amount of 1,500 mil lions. When young Hyde, who inher ited this stock from his father, gave a hundred thousand dollar dinner at which the performance of the Little Egypt at the SVeley dinner in the ''altogether," were put into the shade, there was a row. The knowledge that the savings of millions of people are at the mercy of this young butterfly of fashion is not d pleasing-one, and the prospect that the Equitable had leached a point where the public would no longer patroniza it caused some of the more sober ones connected with the company to advocate a change ot its organization to that policy holders could have a voice in tho election of directors. But the Independent believes that back of all this is the use of the r..any millions of the' Equilable funds by trust and loan companies connected with Wall Ureet, as a marKei foi- reil r.ad bonds and stocks of the his i rusts. It has even been suggested that E. K. Harrinian be ejected president of the Equitable, an l Urns tunithe whole affair over to the Standard Oil crowd. The PhlMppines From several remarl s made by re publican member-; in the house during the last few weeks it is very evident that that body is in a mood, privately, to aAvard a handsome -priw to any one Mho will point out a decent and hon orable w?ay for us to retire from the far east and relinquish our obligations ir. our colonial possessions. George E. Frost, chairman of the committee on naval affairs remarked very . bitterly the other day after a fight on the navi, appropriation bill that: "At least one third of great naval outlay was attributable to our posi tion in the Philippines." Another mem ber of congress said in discussing the same subject: "We are like the man who had the bear by the . tail, w can't 1st go and we enn't hold on." Both members of the lie use and senate are eaj ing: "We got nto the greatest mess in all our history when we took the islands, but now that we have got them we must hold on unlil we find a chance tc slide out. One . . the republican sen ators from the nnrthwest Enid: If Japan is successful in the present war with Russia, and, becoming-arrogant at the end of that conflicCcasts covetous eyes at the Philippines, on my soul, I don't know how we could prevent her from taking them. Of course, if Uncle Sam got his dander up we could go over there and retake them, but I think it would be hard to inflame public sentiment in this coun try sufficiently to make that re-conquest possible. The readers of The Independent will remember how often it declared when the republicans had the imperial craze that the acquisition of the Philippines, instead of being a defense in time of war, would be a weakness, and that it would be almost impossible to hold them and defend our own coasts against any great power. But the republican leaders have had a fashion whenever a fad struck them, whether financial, domestic or foreign, to declare that every man who pointed out their fqlloy and madr-ess, was a traitor and a copperhead. And every mullet head whei he heard the declar ation answered back: "Yep, that's so." Only One Wtvy The object of The Independent has been to show the absurdity of this talk about "railroad control." It involves a contradiction. If the government ha3 a right to regulate one kind of pri vate property it hjs a right to regulate all kinds. If it can say that a man who invests his money in a railroad can not fix the price of his service and the commodity he has to sell, it also has the right to fix the price of the service and the commodity of the man who puts his money in a farm. The principle is exactly the same. To get LARGEST STOCK Gnatest Western Mail Order House THE RELIABLE STORE. 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