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V.
VOL.. 10, NO 44.
ESTABLISHED IN 1886,
?RIGE F1VB CBNT
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LINCOLN. NEB., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 1895.
KXTKBXD IK TIIE POST OFFICE AT MXCOLX
A9 SECOND-CLASS MATTER
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
BT
TIE GOWIER P81NTIII6 AND P8BLISHIII6 GO.
Office 217 North Elerenth St.
Telephone 384
W. MORTON SMITH
SARAH B. HARRIS
WILLA CATHER
Editor and Manager
Associate Editor
Associate Editor
&
(5)
Si
people demands that the land, the
mines, the factories, the railroads and
the ships be made the property of the
whole people, so as to put a stop to star
vation among plenty and misery amidst
abundance. When the people
shall take hold of this, then the wheels
of industry will run smoothly; everybody
who has produced by bis labor one dol
lar's worth will get 100 cents' worth of
goods for it, because the people have no
interest in taking anything away from
him. Then there will be no big pile of
goods in the way of prosperity. We
will all work and we can all enjoy the
fruits of our labor. No more idleness,
nor over worked children or women, no
more misery and dependence for one's
bread and butter upon somebody else.
Everybody will be everybody's peer, and
. , . , true freedom will prevail.
Subscription Rates In Advance. r.
Perannum 200 Socialism, not the socialism of Web
Three months V.V.V.V.V.V. 50 8tcr but the socialism of the brethren
One month ...... . . . . . ". ". " ". ' . " 20 of the red flag, goes farther than popu-
Single copies 5 lism, and is just so much more danger-
ous than populism . It presupposes the
possibility of attainment of a condition
made impossible by ths fall of man. It
rDCCDWATinMC argues on a presumption incompatible
niiu tuc tan ui uabuic. 11 id luio in no
promises, dangerous in its temptations.
It appeals to credulity and cupidity.
The other day there came to me a aD(j insults the reason. "The people
circular printed in red ink. with the red mU8t own the an(jf the mines, the fac-
flag of socialism in one corner. It was tories, the railroads and the ships." Why
addressed to the proletarian class of draw the line at these things? If the
Lincoln. It was signed "The Socialists, welfare of the wholo people demands
of Lincoln, Neb." Let us see what the that the whole people own the land,
socialists of Lincoln, Neb., have to say m jnes factories, etc., why does not the
for themselves: "At the present time welfare of the whole people demand that
you may be employed. If so, we con- the people own the grocery stores, bar-
gratulate you, but have you any guar- ber shops, newspapers, drug stores, dry
antee that tomorrow you will not be goods stores, banks, hardware stores- in
discharged?" If the socialists have any fact everything? Why stop at land and
sort of a scheme that will guarantee a mines and factories and railroads and
permanent job to every man, let us find 6Qips? The answer to these questions
out what it is. These socialists con- disposes of the whole theory of red flag
demn the republican party and the dem- socialism. The minute all enterprises
ocratic party, and stonge to state come into the possession of the people
abuse these little brothers of the social- that minute would progress turn about
iBts, the populists. "Whenever and face and go backward. The possession
wherever this party has had a chance to 0f an these things by the people would
demonstrate and carry out its pledges to take away all individual ambition and
the laboring people, investigation will perBOnal profit, and the result would be
show that all its acts have consisted of that the people's railroads would cease
words, words, words, nothing but to be operated, the people's mines would
words." To this expression of the social- be closed, the people's grocery stores
ists I am not disposed to take any ex- would be depleted and the doors closed;
ception. The socialists' opinion of the the barbers would desert their chairs:
populists is treated at length elsewhere the newspapers would not issue. The
in The Courier. one thing that keeps the world moving
would be taken away. The people
The socialists ask: "Is it not time for would have no use for railroads, no use
you to cast your lot with the only party for mines. Ibey would lose all culture,
in this country whose cardinal idea is all civilization. They would be little
the emancipation of the propertyless better than beasts of the field. They
clsss, by revolutionizing or abolishing would go unshaven, and find their food
the existing social system, and which like the beasts. They would be unread
favors the tstablishment of one which and unintelligent.
will prevent economic class distinction?"
Beforr answering this let us turn to the
leaflet which accompanied the circular
entitled, "What Shall We Do to Be
Saved A Sermon to Workingmen."
Therein it is said: "The welfare of the
In this country, before the lightof the
new world entered it, there was a people
living under conditions much the same
as those advocated by the red flag social
ists, The Indians owned the land, the
mines, everything, ard they were In
dians, mere beaets of the field. They
had freedom, but at what a cost? The
socialists would make Indians, barba
rians, savages of us. If .the day will
ever cotne when "the people" shall take
ho.'d of all industry, the wheels instead
of running smoothly, will not run at all.
A dollar's worth of labor would not be
worth $1, because there would be no
labor, no dollar. There would, indeed,
be no big pile of goods in the way of
prosperity or in the way of anything
else.
No, it is not time to answer yes to the
socialists' query. It is not time to undo
all the progress tha world has made and
reduce civilization to a communism of
savagery. I shall hardly "send my name
and address to "The Socialist, Box 1015,
Lincoln, Neb."
It is a coincidence that the subsidence
of talk of free silver in this section should
have been so quickly followed by the
discovery of free gold. Whatever may
have been the attractiveness of thoughts
of free silver they are entirely overshad
owed by the more potential delights of
possible free gold. Going cut on one's
farm and finding free gold is infinitely
more satisfactory Iban waiting for con
gress to grant free silver. Mr. Bryan
has more hard luck than anybody. In
fact, that old goblin Fate and all the
little blue bottled devils of circumstance
seem to be after him. Mr. Bryan con
fined himself for some years to telling of
the great benefits of a low tariff. Then
congress gave us a low tariff and Mr.
Bryan immediately saw that low tariff
was not what we wanted. Instead of
being a prospective good thing, it is a
very real bad thing, and Mr. Bryan has
had to drop all talk of the tariff. Then
he chased after the tail of the populist
kite. He finally caught it. When he
had once got hi hands firmly on it the
tail came off. Lately he has devoted
himself to picturing the joys of free sil
ver. Straightway the people of Ne
braska begin to lose interest in the sub
ject, and soon Destiny gives the silver
orator a turn by uncovering gold almost
under his feet. I notice that among
those who are most interested in the re
ported gold findings at Milford and
vicinity are many who were erstwhile
torch bearers in the silver illumination.
Hatred of gold in the abstract is one
thing, and hatred of the tangible, pres.
ent yellow metal is an entirely different
thing. If there is any considerable
amount of gold in the soil of Nebraska
not all the silver tones of all the silver
orators in the world can stay the devel
opment of the new mining industry. If
there should be gold mines in Nebraska
it would be like heaping coals of fire on
Mr. Bryan. He would have to find an
other prejudice to appeal to. And of
late years he has been kept busy jump
ing from one prejudice to another. Mr.
Bryan is nimble, but enlightenment is
giving him a hot chase.
Last Sunday Agent Bonnell, of tho
Burlington, took a personally conducted
excursion to the Nebraska "gold fields."
That excursion was unique in tho his
tory of this state. To many it Bcetned in
congruous, anomalous, paradoxical, this
looking for tho precious metal in tho
prairie soil. There were a great many
skeptics. Few were qualified to give an
intelligent opinion as to the prospect of
the production of gold in paying quali
ties. But tho party tramped about over
the Dillenbeck farm and adjacent terri
tory, and dug many holes. At one time
I saw fully three hundred meu scattered
about digging in the ditt or talking with
the farmers. A hundred teams were
hitched near by. Near the Dillenbeck
farm house was a shaft ten feet deep
and five feet wide. It was surrounded
by a crowd. Within a hundred feet was
the improvised rocker, in appearance
something like a baby's cradle, which
was reported to have sifted out 110
worth of gold in one day. A good many
had microscopes and were eagerly ex
amining little piles of dirt and gravel.
A little way off an enterprising Lincoln
man was vending sandwiches and cigars,
the "first store" in the gold fields, he
called it. It was a strange scene, truly.
For thirty years or more the people of
Nebraska have tilled the fields, raising
corn and wheat and rye and oats and
fattening hogs and cattle, and tho most
imaginative Nebraskan never expected
any other condition in this prairie coun
try. But here within two or threo weeks
were many hundreds of people who be
lieved that gold, much gold, lies in the
soil, and who, with pick and penknife
and glass, were looking for tho shining
metal. While there were many doubt
ing Thomases, there were plenty who
saw nothing unreasonable in the theory
that there is good, paying gold, under
the sod, to be had for the digging. In
the crowd who came from Lincoln were
not a few whom fortune has not treated
kindly in recent years, and who wanted
to believe in the story of bidden riches,
who saw in the prospective excitement
and development, a possible short cut to
former prosperity. Heaven knows many
of us need to find gold. There is gold
in the soil. This is trua of many local
ities. A few weeks will determine
whether there is a sufficient quantity to
make its production profitable. On Mr.
Dillenbeck's farm are some fat young
pigs. There is gold in these, sure. It
can be mined by merely taking the pigs
to market. Whether Mr. Dillenbeck
and the other farmers of that locality
will bo able to attain great wealth atone
bound, as it. were, through the discovery
of paying gold, or whether they will
have to depend on the slower but sure
way of raising corn and alfalfa and
sugar beets and fattening hogs and cat
tle will soon be determined. Whatever
may be the result of the pending invest
igation there is one fact that cannot be
disputed, a fact which Tiie Courier is
always ready to affirm, and that is that
there is money and lots of it in the soil
of Nebraska. And the careful farmers