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IN NEW ZEALAND. GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP EN¬ RICHING THE PEOPLE. A Sensible Talk from a Man Wh“ Knows — Railroads and Telegraphs Yield All the Tares for linprove mcn t s. Macaulay’s Now Zealander is stop¬ ping at the Grand hotel in this city. He is a member of the New Zealand parliament from Wanganui, named A. D. Willis, who has been making a trip around the world. He told yesterday how the woman’s suffrage, the govern¬ ment ownership of railroads and tele¬ graph lines, government Insurance, government banking, co-operation in public works, the doing away of large land holdings, Henry George's single tax theory, and other things only dreamt of in the rest of the world are known In the practical every-day life of that southern land. All these things, he says, have been brought about by their legislature and are fur beyond the experimental state. Speaking last night, at the Grand, Mr. Willis said: “The mass of the people Is the first consideration with us altogether, and everything Is being done for them, from the government ownership of railroads down to loaning money on land. I have been for some months traveling in different countries in Eu¬ rope and the United States, and find that everywhere a great deal of interest Is taken in our government on account of the many new departures we have made and the desire to know how our new experiments, as they regard them, are coming on. Hut we have got far beyond the experimental stage. I have received the greatest kindness from Americans everywhere, and I am leav¬ ing the country with a very feeling toward the people, but with a decided dislike for their system of government, by which wealth is represented and not the people. “With us, all that, onr government Is for Is the mass of Hits people. We are very radical. There Is no conser¬ vatism about us at all. 1 suppose you want to know something about wom¬ an's franchise and how that Is work¬ ing. The hist parliament was the first to be returned under the new system. The women are coming to the front at a rate that astonishes us. The most astounding thing about It, all Is that, while the conservative party took the greatest interest In giving the fran¬ chise to women, in the hope that it would help their dying cause, the women have come out strongly against them, and over two - thirds of the members of the house of representatives were re¬ turned by the liberals. The liberals never had so large a majority before the women were given the franchise. Even the women who were careless about getting the franchise are mak¬ ing full use of it. As you Americans say, it has come to stay. Generally speaking, nearly as many women voted as men. They formed their own committees and worked very hard and very systematically and are making a careful study of all political ques¬ tions.” Evidently, according to Mr. Willis, there is no question about the ad van tage of government ownership of rail roads. He said: I have been astonished to see how blind the .people of America are to their own interests in allowing rail¬ roads and telegraph lines to bo taken up by monopolies. In* our country we look upon railroads much as we do on wagon roads, and think it would be Just as bad to hand the turnpikes over to monopolies to erect toll gates every few miles and collect tolls as to hand them over those greater highways railroads. Railways, we believe, should bo a means of assisting farmers to ttike their products to market even If there is no profit in running them. There are over two thousand miles of railway in New Zealand, nearly all owned by the government. Our sys¬ tem of managing them can not be beaten. There Is no corruption and not a single abuse. The telegraph system belongs entire¬ ly to the government. Then we have a government system of Insurance which works admirably. Through this wc are abolishing all pen¬ sions. AH government employes, in¬ cluding those connected with the rail¬ roads and telegraph system, are com¬ pelled to provide for their own insur¬ ance out of their salaries. Our taxation is based on Henry George’s theory of a single tax on land, and we also have an income tax. All legislation is so arranged that there Is no taxation on Improved land. Land improved and unimproved pays the same tax. Under our income tax we exempt all Income under 300 pounds a year, and on incomes from 300 to 1.000 pounds the rate Is six pence per pound. On incomes from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds the rate increases from six pence to a shilling, and on incomes above 2,000 ! pounds it remains a shilling to the I pound. Last year we adopted a system of ! j lending money to farmers on both free hold and leasehold lands at a low rate i of interest with a 1 per cent sinking I ' fund which clears off the loan in thir- i ty-three years by compound interest, ! Nr Zealand has taken the bull by the horns in the question of preventing large holdings of land. As to this Mr. Willi sjii We have pas S( d legislation by which j we can take b :ii k lands held in largv' ! blocks. 1 hat is. a bill has l 'll pass I j giving the government a r t to pur one man's holdings over from three thousar 'OS. rip. pending on the quality, to b* decide* by arbitration. It does not follow that much of th!* will bo done yet for awhile until our population Increases. Then wo have not the money to spare. Government land Is now leased for 999 years In small portions form 100 to 500 acres. Any one who wishes to take such land pays a low rate of in¬ terest on the value of the land, and for the first two years is required to put In a small amount of work until it is in condition to settle on. Then he must live on It. But our people are not satis¬ fied with that. What we want and what wc shall probably get. soon is a system of leasing In perpetuity with a revaluation from time to time. We are trying something entirely new In the way of co-operative labor in public work. Instead of letting such work out to contractors, it is cut up into small pieces by the government engineer, who values it at fair working wages, 7 shillings a day, or about $1.75 In your money, and contracts are given out to the men at that rate. This sys¬ tem has been so successful that it is being extended to all work such as painting public buildings, building stations and tin- like. Probably there will be no contracts let under the old system in the future. In every way, as I have said, we look carefully to the Interest of the mass of tlx* people. Our factory girls are not allowed to work over eight hours a day, children under 14 years of age are not allowed to work In factories and until they have passed through certain grades in the schools. We compel em¬ ployers in factories to give a weekly half-holiday. No shops are allowed open on Sunday, and every shop must he closed one day in the week at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. The closing of the shops on Sunday was not at all on secular grounds, hut simply to give employes a reasonable amount of rest. The governor sent over by the fpieen has no veto power over our legislation and is really only a figure-head, for ho, has really very little to do with our government. We have home rule in reality. Mr. Willis looks hopefully to the practical workings of the single tax theory as soon as It is adopted In its en¬ tirety by the government of his coun¬ try. San Francisco Examiner, May 4. Will They Do It Again? In 1H7H there was ft strong greenback sentiment in Missouri that threatened to overwhelm the Democratic party. When their state convention met it adopted the following plank In its plat¬ form : “We regard the national banking system as being oppressive and bur¬ densome, and demand the abolition and retirement from circulation of all na¬ tional bank notes and the issue of legal tender notes In lieu thereof, and In quantities from time to time sufficient to supply tho wholesome and necessary business demands of the entire country, and that all greenbacks so Issued shall bo used in the purchase and retirement of bonds of the United States, so that the Interest bearing debt of the coun¬ try may be lessened to the extent of the greenbacks thus put in circulation." This plank corralled the boys. They all fell in and whooped for the grand old party. The grecnbackers warned them that It was only a bait and meant nothing except to catch votes. These warnings were unheeded. They fol¬ lowed tho leaders until they are now in the gold-bug camp. And now the Democrats of Missouri are trying that same old trick. They have held a freo silver convention. They have declared for free silver. But the trouble is they still remain with a gold-bug party. They are in the minor¬ ity. They will have to vote for a gold bug for president in 1896. It is tin* same old story of betrayal. Tho people must be deceived in order to save the party and give a few men office. It Is a continual scramble for spoil instead of principle. The same farce is being played in oilier states. How long will the people suffer themselves to lie thus fooled for the sake of a party that frustrate their objects? Debt Slavery. Chattel slavery could have been leg¬ islated out of existence had it not been for the intolerance of the slave power. Not by proclaiming them free without remunerating their owners, but by purchasing them, and forever prohibit¬ ing slavery in the future. This would have been much cheaper than the war. But the Slave Power in its arrogance would not permit it. The policy was compromise. It secured the Dred Scott decision. It hung John Brown. But all these did not make it right. The j party leaders refused to settle it by legislation and tho people rose up and ! shot it to. death. We have in this country today a system of debt slavery, Its burdens are greater than chattel slavery imposed upon the blacks. The people have been trying to settle it by legislation. The creditors, the ownors of labor, are They want to extend their dominion i over the people as the slave power did I over the blacks. The people are willing I to pay their debts, but they insist on i the right to pay in the dollar of the ' contract. The creditors insist on meat in a dollar of greater value. They bribe the people’s representatives, the executive and the courts. The income tax decision is almost a parallel to the Dred Scott decision. The court of last resort has declared for plutocratic wealth. The people have lost confl- | deuce in government and respect for law. They are approaching the temper of revolution. Debt slavery must go. If it is not legislated out of existence that is, if the people are not given an opportunity to pay their debts in the dollar of the contract, they will shoot debt slavery to death as they destroyed chattel slavery. Nothing is ever set Fed until It is settled right, and debt slavery 1 no more right than was chat tel slavery. ^ ' \ f V I fef '£ ; 7 L tv t \ V/ 4 y L i \ / i i 7 m HI W FTl 1 : ‘ itt 7, i V * i rrmnrf. x;N iV \ V4 \i ■ *• 1 1 f 3 ^ AN (OLD DODGE. Letting the Little Fellow T link He’s Driving -When He Isn’t—A Najlonal Dlsgraca.-I-From the Chicago Inter Ocean. REV. SAM JONES TALKS I GIVES HIS VIEWS OF THE |f6 L1T1CAL SITUATION. ! I i Kayo Old I’arty Lines Are Fading: VHit. and the Country Is Organizing on he Drains and Common Sense of the Common People. For the past twenty years the ra nk and file of citizens have given very lit tie attention to politics. Our rapidly le veloping country, tho various commer¬ hdive cial and agricultural interests, commanded their attention, every n/ian has been busy with his own affalnji— watching his opportunities in the busi¬ ness world. We have literally tur: id the governmental machine over to ‘re politicians, and for years the prof'- H slonal politicians and tricksters halve manipulated tilings to suit thomselvies, clut and all they had to do was to write their platform and write democratic the [or republican above It, crack par ty whip, and the people fell in line. As long ns the old governmental cow ga ve milk enough for the family nobody cared how many calves sucked, byit when there was not milk enough jto go in the coffee the question was raised. The people have attended to their own personal business and have turned gov¬ cians ernmental and tricksters affairs over until to they pot politi¬ ha^ e managed things their own way urn, il the government of tho United Sta*"*’ n I Re rally in The hands of a'set'oi poll, cal stealers and government robbers. 1 * * * The only question the average polit| "ian of to-day asks is: “What, planjc md what man will capture the most votes?” The vote hunter has made ap¬ propriations wherever he could capture a vote, and every fellow who got scared at the sight of a soldier or a gun during the war, or who had a bad cold or stumped his toe, has got his pension and gone to town to whittle white pine, while a few of the honest soldiers arfe supporting nearly a million of Uncle Sam’s loafers and white pine whittlersi. The question now is how to got a pubii^ pap to suck. When the democratic calves are sucking the republican calves stand around the lot and bawl. When the national election opens the gateo and turns out tho democratic calves every little republican calf rushes in, grabs a tit, shakes his tail and goes sucking. * . The people looking on the depleted treasury, gazing on their property re-j duced to one-half its value, putting) their grain and stock upon hard-earned the marketj at half price, pouring their money into the depleted treasury of the United States, in heavy taxes, are be-! ginning to look square in the face the question of the absolute bankruptcy of the United States unless something is done. They have waited four years on a wrangling congress, cross lifting with each other and the President, and bringing no relief. They have stuck to old party lines till hope has died within, their bosom, and now almost every thoughtful citizen in the United States has got his ears backed and is prepared to kick the filliug out of any fellow that cracks a party whip over him. The old party lines are fading out and the country is organizing on the | brains and common sense of the com mon people; organizing on a basis to secure speedy legislation on the ques tions that most need immediate atten tton. 1 looked upon this as the most fortunate thing that could happen to our great commonwealth. This is a re publican government. Me need an in telligent citizenship. To have this we must have first a free press, with brains and statesmanship at the head, not bought and bribed and dominated by a party lash, but governed by patriotism, intelligence and sense of right, instruct Ing the people honestly and Impartially on the great governmental questions of the day. The common people are be ginning to think more than ever on government questions; they are begin uing to doubt, investigate and examine, and the time is coming and ought quickly to come, when the masses of the people will cease to be driven into line by party lash wielded by corrupt. selfish and designing politicians. If I should make a cartoon of the ; government of the United Stat*s I would picture Uncle Sam standing with his hands thrown up saying: "Anything you want, gentlemen,” to the liquor king with his gun presented on the right and the money king with his gun presented on the left. Money and whisky have got the politicians, and the politicians have got the gov¬ ernment. My hope has always been in the people. 1 have never had any hope in a politician except as he feared the people and acted for the people. People are aroused from one end of this country to the other, and well they may be, and the politicians may look to hear thunder before long. * * * Party lines are broken; the people are thinking independently and the time has passed when a little pot poli¬ tician can take a drink out of his flask and yell Jeffersonian democracy a few times and call the democrats into line, hitch them to his little wagon, crack his party whip and ride into office. This country is bigger than any polit¬ ical party. Political parties have died and tho country has lived, and some more can die and the country will be better off by their death. An Anolent Chestnut. The Boston Herald says that the treasury has the same old story to tell about the “dishonest silver dollar”— it won’t circulate, it keeps coming back into the treasury. If the silver dollar were one-half as dishonest as ^hose wuofl6"dusnie8s it is to malign '.t~ ft would be In the penitentiary, rather than In the treasury. Coin, whether gold or silver, does its work through its paper representations. The people would rather have silver certificates than silver coin just for the same rea¬ son that they would rather have gold certificates than gold coin. The day has long since passed when either gold or silver in the form of coin will cir¬ culate except as “change,” because their paper representations are more easily handled. But why doesn't the Herald make its point all the stronger by telling how people fall over each other to get one dollar gold coins? Perhaps that would be too glaring a falsehood for the Boston Herald to tell. The fact is, that silver dollars do cir¬ culate freely, while the effort of the government to force gold dollars into circulation was so complete a failure that congress stopped their coinage by law. The people simply wouldn’t have them, and they wouldn’t circulate at all. Whoever sees gold coin of any kind In circulation? Where is all the gold complacently supposed to be “in cir¬ culation” by the circulation artists of the treasury department? What il¬ limitable nerwe it requires for a gold bug newspaper to talk about silver coin not circulating among the people, when not one man in a hundred ever gets even a glimpse of a gold coin of any denomination, and no man will have one if he can get a silver certificate, a greenback or a banknote in place of it. What gold is in circulation among the people is In the form of gold certifi¬ cates, and thore is precious little of that. The Nev,- York Financial Chron¬ icle in 1888 published an editorial on this subject calling attention to the fact that not on»? man in twenty viewed either a goM eoVn or a gold certificate, and said this was as true of the north as it was in the south, though the treasury officials figured it out that there were sometlung like $300,000,000 “in circulation,” ju st because there was that much whose whereabouts was un¬ known. The truth seems to be that about $200,000,0(10 of this gold circulates only in the treasury reports and in the minds of treasury officials. It is not in the country, a/nd what is here doesn’t circulate and is not wanted for circu¬ lation in the form of coin. A few days ago the Mobile Register, a monometalldst paper, declared with charming naivete that Mr. Bryan had put the people there to great in¬ convenience by charging that the banks were hoarding gold: that the banks thereupon began to pay out gold to their customers* who protested vio¬ lently and vigoro usly against being forced to receive it—they didn't want gold coin if they could get silver certi¬ ficates or anything- else. The only rea gold coin Moesr.'t “flow back into the treasury” is that there is so pre¬ little to flow. It certainly doesn't in the chaaiae is of trade. dear money folly. DEBT INCREASED $111,17a054 IN ONE YEAR. And Millions of Cash In the Treasury —A System of Financiering That Would Disgrace Hottentot Barbarians Practiced by Honest Money Men. The following is taken from the an¬ nual report of the secretary of the navy issued July 1: The monthly statement of the public debt, shows the debt on June 30, 1895, the end of the fiscal year, to have been $1,096,913,120, exclusive of $579,207,863 in certificates and treasury notes in cir¬ culation, offset by an equal amount of cash in the treasury. Nor does it in¬ clude $31,157,730 in bonds of the last is¬ sue which have not yet been delivered to London purchasers. The correspond¬ ing debt on June 30, 1894, was $1,016,- 879,816, showing an increase for the year, including bonds not yet delivered in London of $111,173,054. The cash in the treasury, however, has increased, during the year from $117,584,436 to $195,230,153, a gain of $77,655,717. The true public debt, including bonds not yet delivered, less cash in the treasury, is therefore $922,830,717, an increase for the year of $33,517,337. In plainer language the secretary of the treasury in order to find an excuse for the issue of additional bonds, has added $77,655,717 to the money lying idle in the treasury a year ago, and added $11,655,054 to the bonded debt, and the interest-bearing burden of the people. Or, to put it in another way, while money was scarce and all business suf¬ fering, labor Idle and farmers pinched for money, the heartless scoundrels in control of the government deliberately manipulated things so as to buy up and withdraw from circulation $77,- 655,717 of cash. To make it still plain¬ er: While the body politic is suffering from lack of blood—money—these wretches deliberately tapped the body and bled it to the tune of seventy-seven millions, thus making money still scarcer and pinching the people more and more. That this was a damnable conspiracy is proved by the report which further on gives the following item of cash in the treasury July 1,1895: Gold...................... $155,893,931 Silver..................... 512,338,750 Paper..................... 125,925,883 Distributing officers’ bal¬ ances................... 16,903,120 Total $811,061,684 In the face of these figures the people are led to believe that there is only $195,240,153 “available” cash in the treasury. The treasury officials get this figure by deducting $615,821,533 “de¬ mand liabilities” as they call them and designate the balance as “available.” The total debt including these “de¬ mand liabilities” (gold and silver cer V.»- •i’’ Vp-JR ,*WR” Was there ever a business man in the world, who having a large amount of assets and owing $1,600 kept $811 in the drawer to pay his creditors who don’t want their money? That is precisely what the adminis¬ tration is doing. And by that system it makes money dear and labor cheap. —Milwaukee Advance. Slaves at Auction. On June 24, 265 convicts in the In¬ diana state prison were auctioned off to the highest bidder, with the privilege of buying them again at the end of that time. These men were sold as slaves to contractors! This is plain, unvarnished truth. In olden times, when the rulers needed more slaves, men were arrested for alleged violation of some law and made to do service. In Indiana and nearly every state this is true to-day. If the reports in the daily press are true these men. on an average, are better than the average officers. The reports of forgery, theft and brutality by those in charge of prisoners and other public business is notorious. There is no moral reason why convicts should be made slaves of. It is brutal. It will make them worse. Why should the state house and feed and guard slaves to allovT some grasping contractors to make a profit? If the prison officers are not competent to employ the prisoners in a self-supporting manner they should be displaced and others vvho are com¬ petent employed.’ A max's actions are bis mind; his mind is the reflex of sur roundings, Make his surroundings just, kind and fraternal. Nearly every criminal could be reclaimed if their minds were cultivated in prison, but to do this the minds of the prison officials must be right. When a man is sent to prison for violating a law that Is not in accord with morals, that man is not a criminal but the men who make and execute such a law are the real crim inals. Most men In prison are not to blame.—Coming Nation. Why Is It? Why is the plute press so quiet about the bankers’ national convention held at Sarataga. N. Y., the other day? Have they caught on that bankers’ opinions are mightily unpopular now?—New Charter (San Jose, Cal.) Haven’t you heard the news, broth¬ er? The bankers have decided not to allow any more of their proceedings to become public. The people are catching on to the conspiracy. -— There is no getting around it. The main question is now, as it has al ways been, whether men or money shall rule. Bankers and usurers ere the only men that ever questioned the credit of this government in time of peace. If men won’t vote for freedom they deserve what they get WaYLAND’8 csnter shots. The On* (low Editor Rips ’Em Up the Hack. A government fiat makes three cents worth of copper into a dollar worth 100 cents, but it can’t make 50 cents worth of silver into a dollar worth 100 cents! ! Rats! * We do not kill and eat people now-a days. Greed and gluttony have found out a better way. A body would not net over a hundred pounds and would not go very far. But by making that body’s mind believe certain lies about “sound-money,” “protection,” “private property,” etc., the captors can make that body produce thousands of pounds of fine meat, vegetables, and pleasures galore. It’s cannibalism all the same, only the present system of wage-slav¬ ery is far more profitable. There is no moral difference. One eats his neigh¬ bor who lives by making a profit off him. The textile workers of Rhode Island, after starving more or less for three months’ “striking,” have returned to work at the master’s wages. The mas¬ ters didn’t starve. They had feasts like unto Belshazzar, they balled and dined, while the workers, too foolish to listen to socialists, were outside and starving. They vote their masters’ ticket, and are afraid to listen to socialism and learn how it will make them masters. Let ’em starve. Darn a starving voter who insists on voting for a system that starves him. Vote for boodlers some more, eh? If public ownership of railroads were submitted to a vote I think it would carry three to one, even with as cor¬ rupt a government as reigns at Wash¬ ington. The tactics being played by the kings is to keep it frem being dis¬ cussed, let alone voted on. The rail¬ roads are the armies of conquest by which a Gould, Vanderbilt, Hill or Huntington gather in the riches of the people. They are as much opposed to government ownership as would be a conquering general to the taking away of his army. But the people being robbed should take away from the gen¬ eral the army used to oppress them. Confessed His Ignorance. Prof. Jordan of Stanford University (California), has been very busy of lata denouncing socialism. He is a professed disciple of Darwin, but is evidently go¬ ing back on the teachings of his mas¬ ter, whose evolution represents human¬ ity losing its tail in search of a soul, while Jordan's economic evolution leads to the loss of a soul in search of a tail that can never be restored. According to the San Francisco papers. President Jordan was lately announced for a lecture in the Oak¬ land Unitarian church on “Socialism, Altruism and Individualism,” but on learning just before the lecture that Laurence Gronlund had made his way past the door-keeper, and had cjvmo address, in ta« presence of the same assembly, he prudently refrained from delivering the literary goods for which an entire audience had paid in advance, and donated an hour to per¬ sonal abuse of Mr. Gronlund and other social reformers, “who are trying to get something for nothing.” When the reporter asked him why he failed to deliver the original lec¬ ture, as announced, he answered that not being a scientific student of social¬ ism lie did not care to discuss the subject with Gronlund. Yet, he was assuming to instruct the public on the very theme of which he confessed himself so ignorant that he did not dare to discuss It with a thinker and author whose works in that line are uitiversally regarded as authority. That Ten Per Cent "Raise." All over the country the statement is published that w r ages at Pullman have been Increased ten per cent and the company has received eulogistic notice from the daily press generally on this unselfish act of a corporation that only a year ago was the most extensively abused for pusilanimous meanness of any corporation In the United States. The real facts appear to be that the Pullman company are deceiving the people and that the pretended raise in wages has not occurred. The Chicago Chronicle under the caption “The Pullman Fraud” says: “Inquiry among the men who earn the wages demonstrates that there has been no “raise.” At least, the people who draw pay have not found their checks bigger or their pay envelopes heavier. One man—a skilled work¬ man, not a laborer—tells a Chronicle reporter that a week’s work of 10.% hours a day brings him only $13.80. Another says that in the cabinet-mak¬ ing department $2.35 a day is the limit set. Pay is theoretically by the piece, so as to prevent loafing—which is Just —but If a man is particularly active, industrious and efficient, he is still prevented from earning more than 22 cents an hour—which is more than un j US t, it is fraudulent, it is singular that even for three or four days the Pullman concern could humbug ♦»**» press of Chicago. No¬ body who has had opportunity to study the methods of that corporation could attach importance to the assertion that jt had voluntarily increased the wages j 0 f its employes. Philanthropy Is no part of the Pullman code of business, nor even is justice. Wages once low ere d never increase. The hand of Pull m an is against every man—that Is, : against society, and it is not extrava gant to say that society is coming to raise its hand against Pullman.” j j The way to win is to work to win. Now is a good time to begin. j Democracy seems to be afflicted with a bad case of lost identity.