Pike County Democrat, Volume 27, Number 38, Petersburg, Pike County, 29 January 1897 — Page 5

,ECT LEGISLATION NATIONAL LEAGUE SAYS NOW IS THE TIME TO PU8H IT. t Am Appeal *u AU TmtrUMe CttUem Wbo L Arc VkToniU* to Boform la Oww ■art branl by the Orgaaiaatftoa’* Kxeeettre Committee. To the Patriotic Leaders In All Parties, Reform Movements and the Press: The election is over. Its waves of oratory and intense excitement have almost gpbtided. As Bryan says, “We have •admitted the issues to the American people and their will is law. ” Whether you belong with the majority which «frfailr«i the recent decision wise or with the large minority which feels that it is not wise, one thing is sure—the discussion and education hare been at great value. The whole people have been at eohool for four months. The teaching has penetrated the remotest corners and stirred the most ignorant intellects. It has been worth all it cost and mere. Yet the decision is imperfect, crude and awkward. The American people have practically disfranchised themselves far four years. They have given to one man for that time the almost absolute power to stop any national legislation and great influence in initiating and shaping legislation. They have given to a small group of men, for at least two years, the absolute power at starting and oonanmmating national legislation. This system forces our political education into periods of short, intense and largely unhealthy political excitement followed by periods of reaction, lassitude and indifference. The interest, which would be vivifying and wholesome if extended over four years, is concentrated into four months. This is political gluttony. It will be impossible to interest the people much in national matters for at least two and probably four years. They cannot apply that interest till the lonely day of tbeir enfranchisement cranes around again. It is worse than useless to arouse any interest which, from the conditions surrounding it, must live on itself and cannot fructify and become effective. The people at heart know tills, and no. matter how mi« h reformers may deplore their indifference, such indifference, under present conditions, is both wise and necessary. Yet political education .must go ool If the casting of the ballot is not intelligent and honest, the republic is doomed. How can this political education gc on where the poeple are indifferent? By advantage of the wise and wholesnne division of our government into national ami state and kvaL State and local elections come around oftener. The officers elected are dorer to the people; they can be more easily influenced; they are mure responsive: they are sc numerous and their powers are so limited that it does not pay the interests that buy legislation to tamper much with them. An agitation for a state or local matter can be made effective now; hence people w ill become interested in it and that interest can be sustained and wil be odocationaL It will be a great deal better if that tone can be made to apply to the nation as well as to the state and locality. The regulation of the money of the country can only be attended to by congress. It is a national issue. Interest cannot be aroused on it till that interest can be effective, which will be two and four years hence. The epeuing of a new street or arranging fear Sewers is local. Interest can be aroused on them now locally, but the education will not be effective nationally. Direct legislation can be applied with great benefit either to the locality, the state, or the nation. "When striving to apply it in a locality, you educate the people on a national

It is not well to extend the bitter par ttannhip and ranour of oar election campaign a moment longer than it is necessary. A party which would grow most make its converts from members ■of the other parties A strictly party organization active after the campaign is over lengthens partisanship and makes few converts. Hence let ns join in a nonpartisan, or rather interpartisan, organization for some object at common good where we nan meet without bitterness and obtain an acquaintanceship which will show ns that all of the other parties are not either /cols or knave*, and when the time for a national campaign comes around again, each side will have an aoqwain mnoeahip and knowledge of the others which will be valuable for getting votes for what is honestly right. For these reasons and many more the •executive committee and officers of the National Direct Legislation league urge the format khi of local ami state leagues and their persistent activity. These leagues take hold of a thing which can be applied wt once in the city or town where you live which can likely be obtained in the legislature of your state which assembles this winter. Ton am ■saw* interest on it now. because that interest can be at once effective. Yet it ia also a national issue of supreme importance. The education on it will be of great value. It is not a partisan issue. Good citizen* of all parties can be gathered together in these leagues Get a league going in your own town or city. The time is very opportune now, as legislatures are assembling, which be influenced. This is a people’s issue. The National league cannot do the work for locations and states. If the good people at a locality or a state dp not do thevrosk themselves, it will not be dope. The National league will not attempt it. Its province is mainly to act as a bureau of information, a center of acquaintanceship, an inspirer of local work, and to to the national legislation aa as possible. .The executive oonunifehave drafted a very simple farm for * local constitution', they axe preparing yp«i^ qI value. In the files of % £ i*:

The Direct Legislation Record are print- j ed proposed laws and constitutional amendments and much other new* of the movement These and any other in- j farmutinn or help in our power can be had without any cost Bitweed Pomeroy, President, Newark, N. J. J. W. Airowsmith, Corresponding Secretary, Orange, N. J. Walter Breen, Omaha. William A. Cotter, Fleming*®, N. J. E. M. Davis, Cincinnati Henry CL Dillon, Los Angeles, Ca$. J. Warner Hills, Denver. Dr. George E. Sherman, Detroit L A. Ueland, Edgeley, N. D. Executive Committee N. D. L L THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS. Shall Be Doaet The defeat of Congressman Bell's substitute for the Powers, bill, as well as the Powers bill itself, shows conclusively that congress will yield to the universal sentiment in favor of foreclosure of the government’s mortgage an the Pacific roads. No other disposii tion of the matter is possible. Now the question arises, What shall we do with this railway property, ex-* tending from the Missouri river to within a few hundred feet of the Pacific ocean and covering 2,293.04 miles? Shall we make the experiment of government ownership and management of railways, as provided for in Senator Morgan’s bill? Or shall we take advantage of the readiness of private persons, as evidenc-1 ed before the senate’s committee, to pay 1120,000,000 for the property under guarantee that they will maintain a competing line to the Pacific coast? There are several arguments in favor of the alternative. It would undoubtedly save a lot of trouble. It would give the government, after paying off the l guarantee obligations, a net return of $00,000,000 on its original investment of more than $110,000,000. On the other hand, there is no reason why, just to save trouble, we should ■ calmly pocket a lota of $50,000,000 when the trouble would enable us to retrieve the has. The net earnings of the two systems—Union and Central Pacific j —in 1895 were $11,908,902.34. It is j true that most of the income was charged to the branches and feeders, on which the government has no hold, and that the main lines have invariably apj peared to be run at a loss. But C. P. i Huntington has kept the books, and his ’ bookkeeping always 1ms another purpose than to constitute a record. The truth undoubtedly is that the profits have come largely from the transcontinental long haul busings and that the main line could be operated by the government at an expense* considerably un- ! der the receipts. If the main lines had been unprofitable, Huntington would not have fought so desperately to keep j them. The plan outlined in the Morgan bill ! has many points of excellence. Briefly I stated, it is this: The stock of the eom- ; panics is to be reduced to an equality j with the value of the property; thegov- ! ernment is to issue bonds to replace the present first mortgage bonds, and until j interest on these bonds has been paid and a sinking fund for their redemption ; established there will be no dividends, f Management of the roads is to be confided to nine trustees at moderate salaries and all existing offices and the directorate will be abolished. Under this practical scheme govern- , merit ownership does not seem either j “impracticable” or “chimerical,” as it I is designated by one of our contempoj raries. Nor should any prejudice remain | against government ownership of railj ways, in view of recent experience, ! which shows that actual management ! by officers of the federal courts, as in j the case of the Northern Pacific and the | Santa Fe. is vastly superior to private management, which brought those properties to the verge of ruin while its managers enriched themselves at the expense of the bondholders. There is every reason to believe that j government railways would be as eco-1 nomieally and satisfactorily conducted j as the government postal service.—New j York JoumaL

J - ] Confidence In the Government. The use of postaffioe money orders as ; a means of holding small savings of cash in safety is being adopted to a . much greater extent than most people would suppose. Postmaster Hesiug of Chicago declares himself unqualifiedly in favor of the establishment of a postal savings bank system, and in giving his reasons mentions the fact that many persons withdraw their money from banka and other places of deposit and purchase money orders payable to themselves. Of course in so doing these persons ignored alluring promises of inters est on their money and were at the expense incident to the purchasing of the orders, but so great was the confidence j in the government that many were glad thus to place their money for safe keeping rather than intrust it to banks of whose reliability they were naturally j suspicious. No better evidence could be ; gives of the demand for postal sayings j banks than the fact that so many persons even now make the post office, through its money office department*, serve as tie depositary for their ■ inga—Chicago Express. The Express has devoted considerable space to giving a brief report of a j few recent bank failures, yet we have i not mentioned one-half of them, but j hereafter we Will probably not devote much space to that particular line* as j the Associated Press has resolved to not make further reports beyond what it is i absolutely necessary to do locally. They expect to restore confidence by keeping j the people in ignorance about tiie break- ; ing banks. The Associated Press and telegraph monopoly is an octopus that ought to be wiped out along with the ; 1 - .1

CAUSE OF DEPRESSION. Farmers Have Lost $2,000,000,* 000 In Three Years. TEADB ’RAR'RT) d AGBIOTJLTUEE. ITMtiUM and Industry. Decline With the of Item Prodacts—Prosperity . Cannot Come #ntil the Purchasing Power of the Parmer la Restored. We observe that some of cmr friend?; Who have not been able heretofore to examine both sides of the issue which was up for discussion daring the reoent campaign are inclined to dismiss the. quest ion from a false position. The essence of that issue was not silver or gold, bat the depression canoed by low prices of farm products. The Providence Journal, cs well as Edward Atkinson, is now tcrning itc attention to the real cause of dor business troubles. The Journal says that four men in every ten are engaged wholly in agriculture, but the proportion is much larger. Edward Atkinson estimates that at least one-half of the workers of the country are occupied either in agriculture or in processes directly dependent thereon. But even this is an I understatement, for, outside of money lending and note shaving, and some of ] the recent results of electrical inventions, the whole business of the country depends for its activity and stability on the purchasing power of farm products. Our mercantile trade and the vast bulk of our railway traffic are peculiarly dependent on the power of the farm products to command jnbney in the market* Mr. Powers of the Minnesota bureau of labor has shown from well assured figures that the cash receipts of farmers at the farm prices of crops in 1893 were | less by #750,000,000 than tbeir receipts! from the crops of 1891. Mr. Edward Atkinson accepts these figures, which is pretty certain evidence that they are j indisputable. It can thus be estimated that their receipts for the years 1893 and 1894 were less by a much larger amount Impair the purchasing power of onehalf the population to the extent of more than #2,000,000,000 in three years, and the result 4a bound to be disastrous to at least two-thirds of the rest of the population. This ought tc have been plain to everybody from the very beginning of the discussion. We are glad it is plain to some of the eastern brethren now. Indeed, tbo Providence Journal practically admits every contention that has appeared in these columns on this particular question when it says that the inability of the farmers and those dependent on therni to buy is the real cause of the depression in our manufacturing industry during the last few years. There cannot be any possible dififerencebe tween our Providence contemporary and Tbs Constitution except as tc the real cause of the low prices of farm products, and we are firmly convinced that during the next four years that cause will demonstrate itself, just ac the real cause of the business depression has done. Mr. Atkinson says, and we presume that nearly everybody will agree with him, that we cannot have a restoration of prosperity until the purchasing power of one-half the population is restored. This is the simple truth. The question then arises, By what means do the Republicans propose to restore this lost purchasing power? What remedy dc they intend to^apply to the evil which during the past three years has taken #2,000,000,000 out of the pockets of the farmers aud consequently cat of trade and business?—Atlanta Constitution. *

PITY FOR THE POOR. With Protectionist* It Tikes the Form oi Taxing Hi* Seowilttofc The McKinley politicians and monopoly organs axe opposed to revenue taxes to meet the treasury’s deficit Already they hare began their old outcry against taxiug “the poor man’s beer” or the “poor man’s breakfast table,” meaning Email duties on tea and coffee. What humbug! An additional tax oi $1 a barrel on beer (31)4 gallons, or nearly 500 glasses, counting froth) could not be addod to the retail price It would be divided between the rich brewers and the dealers. The refusal of the protectionists tc restore or increase internal revenue taxes is due wholly to their desire to increase the tariff taxes which strengthen their monopolies and add to their bounties. Wholly! Wholly! If they were really concerned for the poor man, would they—in this biitei weather—be planning to increase the taxes on his woolen clothing or on his coal, his window glass, his lumber and nails and bis marketing? Would they? | To exempt wealth and luxuries and tax ncoosssT as is the high protectionist’s measure of pity for the poor.—Hew York World. The alleged interview to the effect that Major McKinley intended to be president of the United States has beer promptly denied by Mark Hanna, great iy to the relief of the presidential trust, whose members must have been throwx almost into a panic by the original report.—New York News. There axe no more “workingmen’* excursions” to Canton now that McKinley is elected. The trusts are having their innings now, and they bavt no more use for the workingman an a stool pigeon. The Coal trust deserves congmtnlrtions on having secured the vice prr-j idency. It will save money by owning instead of merely retaining the offltriau

a double: edged doctrine. Dim Mmy Wet like It So Well When Luarat Accepts It as His Kale. An enlightened contemporary which approves of trusts and insists that there is no social problem brightens the Christmas holidays by telling the poor that they are guilty of impiety in complaining of inequality of condition. It is God, they are kindly informed, who has decreed that some men shall he clever and others incapable. Therefore it logically follows that the person who is dissatisfied with being cold and hungry when he sees others warm and well fed impugns the wisdom of his Maker. This is the good old doctrine that whatever is is right The poor can consent to accept that doctrine, with an extension to meet their needs. To stop its application at the status quo is a comfortable practice in vogue with certain philosophers who are themselves well provided for. but it happens that dissatisfaction with the unequal distri-1 bution of wealth is an existing fact quite as apparent as the unequal distri-; bution. Therefore the dissatisfaction is right So also ore all efforts to bring about a more just state of things. By the hypothesis even anarchistic dynamite explosions are no more to be complained of than Sases of starvation in the midst of plenty. Whatever occurs must be right simply because it occurs. Whatever comes to pass, even the holding up and robbing of the whatever is is right philosophers, cannot be objected to without committing the sin of blasphemy.

V*U UiO w iJUic, tv kj aiu u* uir upau; u that when Dives thinks a little more deeply about this doctrine it ^rill not be so complete’y satisfying as he could wish. He miy be willing to see the beneficent design of God in placing him in the mansion and Lazarus on the doorstep^ but heaven's agency is net so readily recognized when Lazarus climbs in through the window to help himself. The shifting to heaven of blame for conditions for which human selfishness, indifference and want of thought are responsible a device as old as the race. But if the Creator is benevolent, then the blasphemy is with those who imputq to him tho oruelty of poverty, which famishes bodies, stunts minds and denies opportunity to most of mankind. It is mocking God to say that the misery we see all around us is the fruit of his tender care for his creatures. The poor whose poverty is not the result of their own vices or tbriftlessness have an indefensible right to cry ont, and the trust, or the organ of a trust, that lifts its white hauds to heaven in horror at the impiety is, we should think, a much less pleasing sight,viewed from above, than protesting poverty. But there are not many trusts whi-h^ can afford to take the time to lift their hands to heaven. The hands are more gainfully employed in emptying other people's pockets.—New York Journal. A Menace to One Civilisation. “There are plenty of facts, ” says the Rev. Fred O. MacCartney in The Christian Begistc", “showing the growth in America of a mammoth Mammon power, a concentration of wealth in the bands of a few, which is a menace to the continuance of republican institutions. A plutocracy can become as real a menace to justice and to liberty as an organized hierarchy or a political despotism. The press of this nation is largely under the control of this power, the pulpit is cowed by it, political parties are corrupted by it, public morality is declining nnder its influences, manhood is decaying, intemperance, vice and crime abound because of poverty and because of a competitive and monopolistic system in the production and distribution of weaikh. Money has become the ruling factor in every function and in every relationship to a degrading extent. The atmosphere of social life is polluted by the spirit of wealth worship and wealth control. Unless these tendencies are staid, unless the encroachments of organised selfishness are withstood, unless the tyrannies of wealth are destroyed, unless the principles of justice are maintained, as embodied in our institutions; unless liberties are restored, and, above all, unless the principle of brotherhood is applied to economic life, this nation is doomed and this civilization will follow in the wake of the dead civilisations of history." Congressman Elect A. M. Todd of Kalamazoo, Mich., will introduce bills in the next congress for the establishment of postal savings banks and a postal telegraph to be operated by the government. He also favors a law making it a misdemeanor for any member of congress, judge or other officer of the government to accept a pass or other emolument at favor at any kind from any railroad or other corporation, and making it a misdemeanor for any railroad or other corporation to offer the same He further favors the construction by the government of one or more trunk lines of railroad across the continent to break the combine which now controls the railway traffic at the coontry.—Exchange. The People's Party committee of Oakland, CaL, has outlined a plan of campaign based on educational Uses. The members propose to establish % permanent headquarters where literature of the party will he within easy reach. It is planned to establish a lecture hall where open discussion of the principles of the party can be bail President Elect McKinley, the great advance agent of prosperity, went to Chicago to spend a few day* and the next day after his arrival four banks failed in the Windy City, with liabilities amounting to tlt.000.00a Any otW city wanting a visit from the advance

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coarrmng: ana ns literary aeparemerus are etjiteu wuu coosjminaie sain. Such a paper i* a great popular educator. It should bejin'every home. The subscription price of Leslie’s is $4 per annum. We make the unparalleled offer of a eopy of Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly and a copy of our own Weekly for one year, at only $3.35 for both. No such offer was ever ma le before. No such offer will ever be made again. These two papers make a most acceptable gift to a friend and will be constant reminders of the giver’s kindness. % Remit by postal order or check to * THE DEMOCRAT, Petersburg, I nd. IW-BWH—t—WWWHUWWWWWWHW X A HANDSOME ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF THE SiBflran Bbsiiess Oollek {33rd Ye LOUISVILLE. KENTUCKY, 80GHEEW, SHOW, TttHfflfHT, PEKHANSHEP. ETC ■gaoiarf Am