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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1905)
PAGE 2 MAY 4, 1905 T3ha Nebraska. Independent the men to make laws for us and administer our public affairs, we are not In a position to forcibly oppose any trusts or any impositions that may be put upon us. t 7 " ' . Obviously then it Is our first duty to attack and destroy this political trust, this railroad oligarchy that rules'and robs us here in our own state. , Now with this explanation of the situation, are the bankers prthe Re publican valley still willing to joinwlth us in the fight? Well, then, to fight this railroad trust successfully, we must strike it where the blow will count It gets its control over our state government through politics. It gets control of our politics through the free pass system. All this means that to fight this Nebraska railroad trust we must fight the free pass system and that means that we must fight the passholders. - We must treat them as enemies to good government, drive them out of the political conventions, out of office, and keep them out. Is not this a fair statement of the case? ' . And is It really worth while for .bankers' associations or other associa tions of men to indulge in hot speeches and fierce resolutions against the trusts, until we get ready to do the practical thing that is right before us, and that is absolutely necessary to destroy the trust power? The railroads of Nebraska maintain a system of extortionate freight rates and of low taxation on railroad property by means of their pull on the ' state government -and they get this pull through a systematic organization of their passholders. We must get at the free pass system, and to do that we must get at the men who compose the organization, the men who carry the passes. We must cut these passholders out-of our political conventions Just as the cowboys of the Republican valley cut a bunch of stce?s out of the main herd. This is the very first thing to do, and it is not worth while to pass anti-trust resolutions - until we are ready to do this. If the next meeting of the bankers wiir direct Its hot speeches and its resolutions , against the free pass bribing system here in,Nebraska, then the people of Nebraska will understand that they mean business. THE ROCKEFELLER GIFTS aue murui ui pruietsis agaiust lue acceptance ui guts iux religious purposes from John D. Rockefeller which has been raised by press, and pulpit is an encouraging contrast to the contemporaneous discouraging ex posures pf rottenness in our commercial trust institutions, such as banks and Insurance companies. For, whether well founded or . not," according to close moral or logical analysis, they are at any rate moral protests and must spring from an active and sensitive moral perception on the part of the public. Hot only is the existence of this keen moral sense encourag-' , ing and hopeful, but the. expression of it is wholesome and strengthening. It is good to keep the moral sentiment moving. juweuyw, iu ttyyiuve ui or jusuiy me protest it tzs not necessaryio prove that the very wide popular belief that Mr. Rockefeller is an enemy to society is well grounded. It is sufficient that the belief exists and un mistakably. This principal consideration has been overlooked by the de fenders of the gift-takers. After many years of thought and publicity given to Mr. Rockefeller's methods and their result he has come to be the type in the public eye of the most oppressive public evil and he himself the typical evil-doer. To accomplish his purely individual purposes it is very generally believed that he has persistently broken not only the moral, but the positive civil law as well, and that his successful course is strewn with ' the wrecked business, the blasted hopes and the means of livelihood of in numerable men, women and children. How, then, can representative organ izations of society the church, school or state accept gratuities from this finemy of society without compromising themselves and, worse than that, destroying the t'confidence of the people in, the integrity and good faith ojf . their representative, institutions, and men? ; Of a surety there is now no superabundance of popular faith or confidence that . it should be delibe rately undermined or destroyed! ' ' 1 ; ; Roekefellerism, in the - almost ; universal public, opinion, is the chief public abuse or oppression with which the" people are how grappling and with: none , too much confidence in the outcome. If our highest expression of public morality and aspiration, such' as the churches and the schools, recognizes' the prince of Rockefellerism as a public benefactor in this crisis wiir,it,hdt,.tend to emasculate 4he spirit ''pi opposition,, discourage reform' effort, and stifle moral sentiment? . ; t ; , ; L , i f : Furthermore, men do not make mistakes : by nations,' and there is a national ' p'ublic judgment and , belief t that Rockefeller is" an enemy to .the public weal In face . of this fact can church '. or. state, or any . organization of the: people whatever afford -to go into partnership with Rockefeller in any enterprise whatever? J;';.' ' ; ' - ; WHO ARE . THE RADICALS? , . . "It never rains but it pours."- This truism is truer' of political than of physical weather. Important political changes are evolved slowly and almost imperceptibly, by the influence, of unsatisfactory social conditions and "ad vanced thinkers and leaders, . The slowly formulated, new conceptions and resulting demands quietly accumulate behind the dam of timid conserva tismfor social conservatism is largely social timidity or want of self confl- -dence---until; some unusual strain breaks the dam and the new sentiment flows on and spreads, for a time with revolutionary force. This is the condi tion of American politics just now. . u ; The oppression and menace of capitalistic combination were felt and perceived twenty, or even forty years ago, but railway trusts, beef trusts, steel trusts and Rockefellerism in general have grown to crushing weight, and political corruption, which has . been the ( principal means of their growth, has become general and unmistakably obtrusive only In recent years. An over-prosperous people, like ours, will not resist oppression or resent public Immorality until the one becomes very heavy and the other flag rantly offensive and dangerous. Unspeakable crimes againstr society have been committeed and condoned In the name of "prosperity." The already disturbed slumber of self-satisfied public opinion and con science was rather suddenly broken by the president's, daring call to arms, Mn the nick of time; and the sensational and spectacular "exposures" of long known corrupt conditions divide honors with the Roosevelt dash. Ten cent popular magazines leading the way and forcing the great newspaper press to follow, have changed a nation of "sleepy conservatives into one of wide awake radicals so-called. This was the pressure that broke the dam. In a vpar nr twn thprpfnrp rmhHf tntolHtren nnA RontimMit ralntfvn to the control of corporate capital , and capitalists have advanced quite - twenty-five years, until they are now almost abreast of like conditions under the "obsolete" governments of Europe. For example: Under the immemorial hands off policy, legacy of ab solutely obsolete industrial and political conditions, the Chicago street railways had become "almost the worst in the world." They are described by a great conservative (last year) newspaper: "By dirty and decrepit cars, by multiple fares, by gross over-capitalization and by flagrant disre gard of public conscience and public rights the Chicago traction companies have fairly won tt e enmity they confront." j or many years the suffering people of Chicago remonstrated, en treated and prostrated themselvjes before the private i monopoly t "system," not thinking of gaining relief by appeal from, but by appeal, to that sys tem. But after they, had been repeatedly spurned with contempt from the foot of the private ownership throne, which was alike deaf to public peti-" tion and superior to public law, necessity became the mother , of a new device, and a glance across the sea at its long-time successful application in the best cities of Europe convinced Chicago of its practicability here. "Thereupon, three years ago, by a referendum vote of five to one, the people of Chicago decided to appeal from the convicted failure of private, to the hopeful promise of public ownership. C ' r ' Both candidates for the office of mayor at the recent election in" that city stood on the reaffirmation of the , public ownership policy, - but one stood on It firmly, and with both feet, while the other kept one foot on the Fabian, unready, not-just-now policy. With the advantage of the sweep ing victory of nearly a hundred and ten thousand majority for his party last November, the Fabian candidate went down under a majority of twenty-five thousand for the now-is-the-accepted-time candidate. N Thus, after full discussion and deliberation through successive years, the second city of the country in population and the first In many Import ant respects commits itself positively to the "radical" and "socialistic" policy of public ownership. - " More than this, the principal newspapers of Chicago have favored public ownershiprand in the late campaign neither of the great republi can, or conservative party journals dared, even if it wished to oppose it. After the election the Record-Herald, commenting on the result, defiantly held to its positicn: " " "Not only has it no apologies to make for the work that it has done for municipal ownership, but it is thoroughly convinced that the guardians of special privileges are in the wrong and that they are struggling hopelessly to stay the law of progress-" ' In behalf of other "socialistic reforms" the Tribune is no less out spoken: : i . -. - :v; r-r "Reciprocity treaties are stopped because,, soie senators- have constituents interested in pinchbeck jewelry and shoddy cloth. The duty can not be removed from wooFpulp or print paper because the senior senator from Connecticut has constituents heavily "interested in - the . securities of the paper trust. The railroad rate bill can not be ad vanced in the "senate because many of the senators are avowedly in- . terested In railroadssome of them as . officials while others repre sent the railroa "s more faithfully than they do the states' which nomi nally elected them. . The only immediate remedy seems to be a direct vote on senators by the people. . Even this Is hardiv a sufficient remedy. Some step much more radical Will have to be taken in the near future. ..' :The majority ought to rule. It does rule everywhere in this country except in the United States . senate and it ught to rule there; If.it doesn't some Marius ultimate ly "will want to !:now why." A'. : v ' - The New York World is the chief democratic newspaper jof the country, and up to a recent time it echoed in full the conservative "safe" sentiment of the democratic party; but following are samples of its present daily utterances. In approving the radical legislation in Kansas against the Stand-