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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1905)
NOVEMBER 23, 1905 &6e Nobrasko. Independent PAGE 3 bo a constant effort to secure for the people '"a square deal." This can be accomplished, to express the writer's ideas in a very general .way, by the withdrawal of special privileges and by public ownership of railways and municipal utilities. THE ROLE OF CHARITY Many earnest people who are sure the world will be made happier by various social and economic reforms are apt to minimize the importance of charity in human affairs. By their panaceas they hope to solve all those sad problems springing from poverty and crime. But with the approach of winter in this keen northern climo we are forcibly reminded that "the poor we have always with us." No matter what changes may be wrought in methods of dis tributing wealth the centuries will witness the continued exist ence of a defective and a delinquent class. Tim "problem of the unemployed" may not be the same tomorrow as it is today. .The application of the golden rule in business and politics may go far toward the removal of poverty and the elimination of crime. A reign of law and justice may give to each man a fairer share of the world's goods. But the weak and laggard, the sick, vicious and defective will not vanish from the earth. Neither your cure nor mine will ever produce an economic condition that will make it possible for men to say, "I am not my brother's keeper." Even if we grant that laws and customs may give the individual a better chance to obtain a livelihood wo must expect that human greed will forever strive to escape the law and leap the hedges of custom. The weaker will go. down in the battle of tomorrow as they are going down in the battle of today. Poverty may grow less and less and its shadow may cease to darken all the land, but there still will bo a place for charity, in a world where' human weaknesses and passions continue to produce want, sickness and misery. There was a time when the phrase "Merry England" was used to describe a nation in which pauperism was unknown. At that epoch the fuedal system was in its flower. Individual liberty as it exists today was unknown, but industrial conditions were such that the rich did not grind the faces of the poor and the people were happy and contented. And yet Robin Hood and his merry men detained the wayfarer long enough to relieve him of his purse, and in every part of the kingdom were hospitals and refuges for tho sick and suffering, the weak, laggard and defective. For there was still a place for charity. If there were no place for charity, it is likely that man would become a cold, callous and entirely selfish being. The circumfer-. ence of love would not be the circumference of the world, but the cir cumference of the family or more often of the individual. While advocating reforms and offering remedies for economic -ills no man should forget the obligation of loving his neighbor. A mind too much set upon the problem of improving the material condition of men in the mass may and sometimes does ignore tho immediate needs of the individual. IMPLEMENT COMBINE'S INSINCERITY The Nebraska and western Iowa retail implement and vehicle 'dealers have declared themselves as heartily in favor of the presi dent's railway regulation policy. This is a commendable stand to take and might indicate that implement and vehicle dealers are disinterested advocates of the "square deal." At every conven tion the acts of the harvester trust are aired and sometimes they are condemned, but the implement dealers themselves are not free of tho trust taint. While demanding "a square deal" for themselves, they are un willing to grant "a squaro deal" to their customers. One of the closin-r acts of the 11)0 convention in Omaha was tho fixing of prices and an agreement to maintain these prices. It was a secret agreement and was not reported in the newspapers. It is quite probable that like action was taken at thi year'., convention. At all events this is a common practice with the implement ami ve hicle dealers and i clearly a combination in restraint of trade such n is condemned by the federal law and the statute of the state of Nebraska. The attention of Attorney CJoneral I'rown U called to this de fiance of the anti trust law. If he should legin action against tho implement dealer he might find hiniM-lf handicapped by the faet that the Nebraska and Western Iowa Retail Implement and Vehicle lhaler' uwoeutto i an interstate corporation, but in that event the ca-e would 1k taken into the federal court when it would come under the provision of the Sherman anti-trust law. The attorney general has been working to secure what he terms "a free harvest" for tho farmers of Nebraska this year by striking down tho grain trust. Meantime he might add to tho benefit of tho "free harvest" by breaking up the agreement among tho retail implement dealers t maintain prices illegally fixed. WHY THE RAILWAYS ARE HAPPY Various explanations have been offered for the discontinuance of the railway publicity bureau, which, it is said, has spent $2,000,000 in an effort to educate tho people against the president's rate regulation policy. Uie consensus ol opinion is mat tne ourcau proved a failure, but is this the real explanation of the death sen tence which has been passed upon it? To The Independent it seems as though the railway trust has decided that it is unnecessary to influence public sentiment against a policy which has turned out to bo little more than a myth, if some- of its talkative advocates are telling the truth. Since President Roosevelt's speech at Raleigh the most en lightening speeches on the subject have been delivered by Secretary Taft and Senator Knox. Both gentlemen promised tho railways that the courts could be trusted to fully protect the railway in terests. Senator Knox was most explicit. In his speech at Pitts burg on November ? the senator said: "No such law could be enacted that could prevent the court, if satisfied that injustice has been done the railroads, from staying tho operations of the order upon terms until the court had passed upon tho merits of the controversy." Plainly this was a hint to tho railways that they could rely on government by injunction. The inference, is that the railways can enjoin any order of the interstate commerce commission no mat ter how great may bo the commission's theoretical powers. All these powers must bow before a federal injunction. President Koosevelt evidently has grave fears that his plans for rate regulation will fail, for ho demanded in his speech at Raleigh that congress pass a little effective legislation rather than a great amount of useless legislation. Whether Taft or Knox share tho president's anxiety is not clear, but whether grieved or gratified they have taken tho trouble to inform tho railways that government by injunction will render rate legislation of little avail. After Senator Knox had uttered the foregoing words just suffi cient time had elapsed to impart their full meaning to the railway lawyers when it was announced that the railway literary bureau would bo discontinued. The connection between these two events h not capable of absolute demonstration, but it is most natural to conclude that the railways would scarcely expend another $2,000,000 for education when convinced that tho federal injunction is a much easier and cheaper method of preventing effective governmental con trol of transportation. . The quiet life proved too galling for Teddy and 'so he started quite a row with Harry Whitney of Massachusetts, and it must be conceded that the president is still something of a fighter in spite of his billing and cooing with the bird of peace. m Defenders of the national honor are having poor success in defending their own honor. If this thing keeps up plain people will leave New York for Sing Sing to get into a more respectable neigh borhood. . As soon as the foreign engineers had gone on record as favoring a sea level canal President Roosevelt said ho was in favor of a lock cnnal. ' The foreign engineers will wonder why they were invited. Senator Chester A. Long, of Kansas, thinks ho will not support tho president's railway policy. Another statesman discovered by tho railways. Secretary Taft says tho secret enemies of tho canal are delaying it construction. That acquits the open friend of tho canal of all guilt. Perhap Norway did not lxfome a republic leeauso a very h.rge republic ha lteen getting a bad example. Now that the lde of Pine ha seceded from Cuba, Long Inland tdiotild m-cdo from the United State. The nuiulter of ejHualtie among the 1nsc wa great, but ltosot po?ts wonderful vitality and die hard.