(PA
in.
VoL XVI.
LINCOLN, NEB., MARCH 23, 1905.
No. 44
POPULISM III NEW YORK
Tom Watson at Work and Full Ticket
Will Be Put in the Field To
Overthrow Tammany
"PUBLIC OWNERSHIP" THE ISSUE
Rascality and Thievery in the Metrop
olis Now Greater than in the
Days , of Boss Tweed.
'3 (C jt ij8
&
.' The vast system of rascality
'8 which now oppresses New &
'J York would not have been
.St dreamed of in the Days of &
Tweed the people absolutely
'O at the mercy of a small band
. of ignorant cunning political J
; knaves. Tom Watson. ' . &
j8 d& ' jf J$ : j t &
(By 'James Creelman, in the New
York World.)
There was a shine of enthusiasm in
the thin, fighting countenance of
Thomas E. Watson as he announced
. that the people's party would take part
in the New York mayorality cam
paign this year.
"We propose to -help the people of
New York to rescue their city from
the grafters and blackmailers who are
in control now," he said. "With our
municipal ; principles of government
ownership of public ; utilities, the in-
' itiative and referendum and the right
of recall, I believe that we can poll
50,000 votes in this community at any
time. : We will make our fight right
here, and will support any honest and
courageous man who will make the
struggle for principle and for the re
demption of the city, from misrule."
A bright brave,; clever face, seamed
: and puckered and dimpled, lean, bony,
" clean-shaven; keen, merry eyes; a sen
sitive, humorous j mouth; fine, thin
ears a high brow, ; and straight, slen
der' nose 'Hi!1 r " -;
The figure is' .tall slight and erect;
the hands sinewy and refined. The
.whole look of the man is alert, ner
vous and earnest beyond words to ex
press. : ! ; :
This is the Georgia lawyer, author,
and politician who stood for vice presi
dent on the ticket with Bryan in 1896,
was the populist candidate for presi
dent last year, has just established
a magazine in New York and is about
' to take part in the fight to overthrow
Tammany Hall.
Mr. Watson is a recognized scholar
and historian. He cames of an old and
good family. He owns $300,000 worth
of cotton lands in Georgia and has an
income of $15,000 (a year, aside from
his book royalties.: 1 ' '
Mr." Watson sat in 'the office of the
"Tom Watson's Magazine." At his side
was Dr. John H. Girdner, his editorial
associate, once the friend and adviser
of Mr. Bryan,! but now the local lead
er of populism in Kew York. ,
"We have decided to make a fight
' In New York this year because our
principles and policies make a centre
of graft and special privileges like this
a splendid field for our activities. We
are very much alive and decidedly in
earnest. We propose to attack the
grafters of both the old parties. It is
true that my own home is in Georgia,
but I; spend about half of my time in
New -York, and consider myself iden-
tifled with its interests, I talk freely
"Svith representative men of the city
and have a profound feeling of resent
ment and indignation when I see how
ithe powers of the municipal' govern
ment are abused. The situation grows
worse every day. j i
Hgnorant, Cunning Political Knaves"
"It is time for the people's party
to enter upon this scene vigorously. ;I
believe thdt it can. exercise a decisive
influence. ,The population of the coun
try is crowding ino the cities, towns
and villages more and more. Thirty
one per cent of our entire population
lives in incorporated places. More
than 28,000,000 Americans live in
cities, towns and villages. The Greater
New York has as great a population
now as the whole country had when
the constitution was adopted. It has a
greater population than any of the
other states, except Illinois, Pennsyl
vania and Ohio, This one city, with
an area of only 326 3-4 square miles,
has more inhabitants than Texas, with
an area of 265.7S0 square miles. Yet
this magnificent metropolis, the great
est centre of wealth and commerce on
the continent, finds itself today abso
lutely at the mercy of a small band
of Ignorant but cunning political
knaves. Its two great political parties
seem dead to the shame of the situa
tion. "Take Tammany Hall, for instance.
It calls itself democratic simply be
cause that is a good name to do busi
ness under. It has no democratic prin
ciples and does not care for them. It
is ready to knife the democratic tick
et when it suits its purposesand has
done it repeatedly in the past. To all
intents and purposes it is a business
organization, which makes business
out of the city government. Every
body knows something about the
Croker fortune, which reeks with dis
honor. The fortune which Murphy, his
successor, is piling up will be just
as much tainted.
"The man who picks my pocket in a
crowd, may be'more honest, when prop
erly judged, than those who make use
of public office to despoil the people.
The vast system of rascality, which
now oppresses New York would not
have been dreamed of in the days of
Tweed, and the most marvellous thing
about it is the patience with which the
people submit to it." An overwhelm
ing majority of the citizens are brave
and honest. Perhaps a majority of
those in office are brave and honest.
Yet brave men here submit like cow
ards and honest men submit to what
they know is dishonest rather than
fly the flag of revolt and, fight it till
they kill it.
"Such a system as that which Tam
many has imposed on New York could
not stand a real fight. The only hope
of the thieves is Jhe - continued pa
tience of a plundered pliblic. Letan
independent ticket of honest and cour
ageous men be put up, and the whole
corrupt Tammany ring will be
smashed like a lot of rotten eggs.
"To accomplish such a purpose there
should be no partisan politics intro
duced into the fight. There is no hope
of help to be found in any of the regu
lar political conventions in New York.
The regular machines will control the
nominations. What is needed now in
this city is union for honest and cour
ageous action by honest and coura
geous men, by no matter what name
they call themselves. That is the way
to clean out the stable. :
Great Enterprises Held Up
"Under the present system great en
terprises vital to the city's growth and
happiness are held up, things which
the city needs and can not get till its
false officials are first bought off.
"Yet all this is in the second city of
the world the metropolis of a coun
try which boasts of its progressive civ
ilization and which is so anxious to
impose its civilization upon foreign
countries and upon its own world-mission
that it has gone thousands of
miles from home, i with rifle and can
non, to impress this system upon other
peoples.
"The Pennsylvania Railroad com
pany, under Mr. Cassatt, and the Me
tropolitan Street Railroad company,
under Mr. Ryan, have undertaken
great enterprises in this city which
are being held up by the Tammany
board of aldermen. As I understand
it, these two men wield vast power,
and are men of the highest order of
intelligence. They are reputed, to be
masters of their business, and repre
sent hundreds of millions of invested
dollars. Yet they are halted in the
highway and reduced to impotence by
a lot of nondescripts who happen to
find their way into municipal office.
"The way a populist would look at
a thing like that is this: If these en
terprises, undertaken by Mr. Cassatt
and Mr. Ryan, are undesirable, they
should not be permitted at any price;
but if the enterprises promise to be
beneficial to the city, if the city is
actually suffering for want; of them,
then whatever money Is paid by the
corporations should go into the public
treasury for the common benefit of the
people, who own the franchise wealth
created here by concentration of popu
lation. Why, the state itself has
classed franchises for street railways
as real estate, and the courts have de
clared the classification to be valid.
"Of - course, you understand, popu
lism demands the public ownership of
public utilities, and that populism
would get rid of dishonest aldermen
by what we style 'the recall.' That
would settle the Tammany system at
once and forever. The moment an
alderman sold out the people to corpo-j
rations, or used his office for private
gain, we would simply recall him and
put another man in his place, as was
done with Davenport in the city of Los
Angeles last year. This plan would
be absolutely effective and would puri
fy the city governmentbecause It is
incredible that a majority of the peo
ple would vote for a man shown to bo
a thief or a. blackmailer.,
"The system of recall advocated in
our platform applies immediately. It
is a simple and practical Idea, which
has worked well in Los Angeles. If
an official has betrayed his trust, a cer
tain percentage of citizens have only
to sign a petition to have a new elec
tion to fill his place at once.
"New York should apply that system
to men like Alderman Gaffney and Al
derman Tim' Sullivan, and those who
act as their confederates. Under such
a law it would be impossible to have
graft perpetuated, unless it is conceiv
able that a . majority of the people
would indorse a man caught with the
goods on him. Official rascals could be
indicted and tried at the bar of public
opinion in thirty days. '
"This plan is an automatic correc
tive of municipal corruption. Once
put it in force, and graft, blackmailing
or any other form of official wrongdo
ing could not live in New York two
months. ; .
"We believe that Is the only remedy.
With that idea we will enter the fight
in New York full of confidence. We
have no man iu sight for mayor. No
remedy is proposed by either of the
old parties. To go from Tammany to
the local republican machine is simply
to swap the devil for a witch to jump
from, the frying pan into the fire. You
change the men, but you don't change
the methods. The only hope on earth
for New York this year " is an Inde
pendent ticket that will draw to itself
all the people who want an honest city
government. With our principle of
public ownership of public utilities, the
initiative and referendum and the
right of recall, I am confident that we
can poll 50,000 votes in this city.
"Perhaps the principle of public
ownership is stronger in itself than
any political party in New York, and
could, of itself, poll more votes than
the democratic party. If it had a
square test on its merits, I believe it
would sweep the city.
"The country is beginning to realize
what populism means. At one end of
the line stand the socialists, proposing
that the house be demolished and a
new one built. At the other end of
the line stand the republicans, repre
senting special privilege and those
class wars which suggest the predic
tions made by De Tocqueville more
than sixty years ago. The democrats
have joined the republicans. In the
last session of congress it was plain
to be seen that party lines had faded
away. 1
"Between these two extremes stand
the populists, who want to protect pri
vate property and the rights of the in
dividual, but, at the same time, have
the lawmaking power used for the ben
efit of all, instead of for the enrich
ment of the few." . 1
THE INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE-
Miss Ida Tarbell is in Kansas study
ing the Rockefeller situation there.
She has the same opinion about ; the
effectiveness of a state oil refinery in
fighting Rockefeller and his ; railroads
that The Independent has expressed.
In an interview Miss Tarbell says:
"Your state refinery is a very inter
esting experiment, but 'I do not think
it will bring relief. It can handle only
one-fifteenth of your product and were
it lare enough to refine all : ;of ! the
crude oil produced in the Kansas field,
the problem would still be unsolved.
Kansas produces more than enough oil
to supply the entire Mississippi val
ley. With certain strong competition
from the-Standard the marketing of
the. refined product, would be impossi
ble. As an evidence of the intention of
Kansas to protect the interests of the
indmiendent refinery, the state refinery
is a worthy institution. Still I wish
that the $410,000 you propose to use
in constructing: a refinery was to be
used in laying a pipe line to the gulf."
It Creates New Nations, Builds up
Peoples and Through It the
World Moves On.
AN UNKNOWN NEVADA HERO
Will This Country Follow. the Nations
of Old First Liberty, Then
Wealth, Then Decay? "
Editor Independent: Recently an
European diplomat congratulated thb
English Chamberlain on the English
colonial policy and Chamberlain re
plied that England had no colonial pol
icy, that she had simply blundered
into a great colonial empire. The Ger
man kaiser has tried hard to build up
German colonies and has miserably
failed and he can not understand tho
reason why, Chamberlain, by his
speech, and the kaiser,, by his acts,
show how profoundly ignorant they are
of the reason of Iflemocratlc progress.
England has gotten a colonial empire
because of the strong and vital demo
cratic spirit of her colonists; Germany
has failed to get' such an outside em
pire because that democratic spirit is
hampered and tied with rules and reg
ulations so that it can not expand and
grow.
The secret of colonial and all other
progress consists in freedom, in so
developing the power and spirit of
Individual initiative that whenever a
new occasion arises, the individual is
ready to meet it and does not have
to go to some authority to tell him
what to do. ' He meets the crisis in
some way and .conquers it. ,
For this reason, real progress, is
rarely ' brilliant, spectacular, eye-at-tractingcnjisJjLOf
a multitude of
"small deeTs"ot initiative and creation
by a multitude of men." It is not boast
ful and bragging, it does not surround
itself with pageants. - The autocratic
spirit can net understand It., It seems
to them weak and humble, a mass of
petty details and happy blunders. But
England did not blunder into, a colo
nial empire; her sons' and daughters
came to this country,! to Canada, to
Australia and to the ends of the earth
and usually the home government left
them alone which was the very best
thing they could do and the real demo
cratic spirit of these " virile men and
women met each condition as it arose
and great lands and peoples developed
out of hard conditions. When the
home government Interfered and
strove to force its will on a colony,
it made a tremendous blunder that
divided the Anglo-Saxon peoples , by
the American revolution.
The autocratic spirit today possesses
the business and industry of our coun
try. It largely controls the press. If
simply does not see the signs of real
progress. It is blind and Its blindness
some day will lead it , to over-reach
itself and a tremendous downfall, just
as the blindness of the; Russian autoc
racy has led it into the overwhelming
blunder of the Russo-Japanese war.
But the immediatepurpose of this
article is to tell of the, really greatest
happening at the last election on Nov.
8, 1904, and this great happening il
lustrates both the method of demo
cratic progress and the utter blindness
of our autocratic leaders of industry,
of the press and pulpit.
Shortly after the election, I wrote
to all the secretaries ; pf state in our
country asking if there had been any
referendums on constitutional amend
ments and if so, for i copies of tho
amendments and theyole on them. I
wished to prepare an article on these
referendums.1 I was greatly surprised
to receive from the secretary of state
of Nevada the following:
"Constitutional Amendment for the
Referendum in J Nevada
"Section 1. Whenever 10 per centum
or more of the voters of this state, as
shown by" the number of votes cast at
the last preceeding ; general election,
shall express their wish that any law
or resolution made by the legislature
be submitted to a yote of the people,
the officers charged with the duty of
anouncing and proclaiming elections
and of certifying nominations or ques
tions to be voted on, shall submit the
question of the approval or disapproval
of said law or resolution to be1 voted
on at the next ensuing election where-