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HEIM RT.M ENT STORES. A GREAT EVIL OF MODERN BUSI NESS—AN OCTOPUS OF CREED. (Should I i<‘ Condemned by vii i«eht I hi liking People Throughout t in# \% bnl** f *diri: rv It I- tin I imf.lt ntlnn «• f f .>rrlfrn Origin »i»r1 » Monopoly. A city is something more than merely a large collection of houses. A city should be a scene of busy, hustling activity, where are erected many homes, when are employed many laboring people in factories, stores, workshops and mills. It is :>p parent that the farmer whose land lies nearest a prosperous city is in beti.ei shape than his fellow-farmer whose possessions are not so favorably situ ated. In order to succeed a city must have stores of every kind, and many of them for the sake of competition it nothing else. The more stores in a city the more families to be maintained and the more labor connected therewith, hence the greater demand for farmers’ pro¬ duce of every kind. This being the ease, Imagine a city in which the mer¬ cantile business of a city is all con¬ ducted under one roof! The result would be that a hydra-headed monop¬ oly of the worst form would be in con¬ trol, and in course of time every in¬ terest. of Die city would pasp under its direction. There would lie no such a tiling as competition. That city would be ruined, Ichabod would he written all over its every industry, and it. would eventually become a monument to man’s avaricious greed as represented by that modern devil fish of business life, known as the department store. The practices of tin- modern depart¬ ment store are those that we might eall “cut-throat games.” Its competition is illegitimate, such that no business man of principle can endorse. For instance, “bait" is thrown out. to laggard buyers. Twenty-six pounds of granulated sugar is offered for a dollar. Any man ac¬ quainted with the price of this com¬ modity knows that no department store can secure sugar any cheaper than the legitimate dealers, however large the quantity they purchase may he. Then who meets this loss more than 25 cents on every dollar’s worth sold? This “bait" is thus thrown out that the pub¬ lic may enter and the loss on sugar will be made up on other articles the public may be Induced to buy, the. price of which they are not so familiar with an they are with the price of sugar. I : tills he not tin’ proper solution of this problem then what is? Surely the managers are not. so magnanimous as to absolutely give away money! tin inanity is not built that way. As we have said before, the average department store should be opposed by every right-thinking person. Because it is a monopoly. Because it encourages cheap labor. Because it encourages the manufac¬ ture of shoddy goods. • Hoy autsc it .s ilSi pit unate competition. Because it la an Institution of foreign origin that ought not to lie counte¬ nanced on American soil. These are some of our reasons for opposing the department store. The department store the world over is a monopoly, or seeks to be¬ come such, hence they advertise to "re¬ tail everything.” it is just ns censur¬ able for a few men to control the retail business of a city as it is for Jim Hill to control the two great northern railways across this continent, which attempt has caused such a stir in the judicial and business circles of ibis state, and the condemnation of everybody except the monopolists. It is a fact susceptible of the clearest demonstration that coming to this country from Egypt, and from the va¬ rious cities of continental Europe, ev¬ ery week, are ship-loads after ship¬ loads of rags, the cast-off clothing of the poor of those countries, whose wear ers, in many cases, died of small-pox and other contagious and loathsome dis eases. These rags furnish, in a gre at measure, the raw material that keeps the shoddy mills at work preparing the elotli for the manufacture of garments to be sold “cheap." thus coming in com petition with wool growers of the north, and the cotton growers of the south, and whose principal customers arc the sweat-shops of the great cities. and factories whose output is sold to managers of department stores. We have it upon the authority of expert mieroscopists that even after this shod dy material is soaked in hot water and subjected to other treatment it receives before being “made up.” that the cuticle of the skin of the original wearers is still retained in the fibre of the cloth, and that the disease germs still lurk therein! Is it not unreasonable to ask dealers in legitimate goods to compete with dealers in these disease-lurking articles? What has been said of this shoddy cloth may with equal force he said of nearly all the wares for sale by depart nient stores. Products of sweat shops, of penitentiaries. 1: is strange that public sentiment does not speedily mass itself against an institution so fraught with danger and disaster as that disor ganlzer of business principles, km wn as the department store, but which should more properly and correct I speaking, be called the big racket store. Whercver aggressive capital, may hope to be amply rewarded department stores are being established. Admit¬ ting that they are a success, then what of the future? 1 nder our present s.vs tern a young man maj enter a store as a chore bo>. t•■*-n. - s h*s ..’ifities ar< recognized. ... ...... a 1 ” ' As tr saves bis mo ”' • • U - > in-- ■; 5 there is a possio.iitj ot oi.gaglug it: business on h:> > u .. .1*,, .t. r. nuv nally developes st ui is a fit.; bility before a young m n to-day : t fact, it is the history ot many a mer- chant’s experience, hence the Incentive lo excellency on the part of young men as they first enter the employ of the merchant under existing conditions. How is it in the department store? Over the front door the young man entering and ambitious to establish a business for hmiself may see. if he scans close ly, these fateful words: "Abandon hop* . all ye who enter here." Depart meii. lore;, with alJ their glare, tinsel and elaborateness, require a great deal cl capita) such as no business man nan accumulate in a life time. Generally speaking, these stores are established on the money of eastern capitalists. For instance, Armour, who has accumulat f .,| j,j S millions by questionable meth 0 ,j 8j 8 , Jch ag> jn the wheat anrt combine, is now investing his millions jn department stores. It is impossi i,i e f or a y 0ur) g man j uat: beginning life as a clerk ever to become the owner ol a department store. In the event of the success of the de¬ partment stores, what must become of the thousands of small merchants and the large army of clerks? There is but one opening for them to enter the channel of productive industry, and that avenue, with the Hood gates of im¬ migration wide open, is already filled with more men now than can be profit - uhy employes). This question of the department store is an important one, and it behooves every person interested in the success of city, state and nation to carefully consider, and promptly discourage. Shut it off’ before it becomes a power in • he land. Let every one realize at once the great danger of this insidious ene¬ my to business and industrial life.— Mankato (Minn.) Journal. WILL DO SAME IN OTHER STATES Wliai the People’ll Party llai Acroin pU»hed in TSeVtraakn. A people’s party handbook, issued by the campaign committee of Nebraska, tells what Hie people’s party lias done for that state. The same results will follow the election of the people’s party ticket in other states. The reforms en¬ acted by a people’s party administra¬ tion in Nebraska are ns follows: H enacted a maximum freight law. but republican courts suspended its op¬ eration. It cut down extravagant appropria¬ tions, but a republican legislature brought them back. it brought to light the corruption ex¬ isting in state institutions. It made possible the passage of the Australian ballot law. It enacted a law requiring state and county treasurers to make all banks give bond that handle public money, and to collect interest for the use of snob money and turn it into the public fund. The last republican legislature sought to repeal this, but the governor sustained it. It enacted a law requiring intersect¬ ing railroads to build transfer switches, and, by moans of such transfer switches, ship all freight the shortest distance to destination, but a republican board of transportation has nullified it. It repealed the special bounty given to sugar refineries, which was re-enact¬ ed by the last republican legislature. It enacted the eight-hour law. It gave the state a warehouse law. It was instrumental in securing the passage of a law to have the books of all county treasurers examined at least once every two years. It secured the passage of an anti¬ trust law. It secured the passage of an anti Pinkerton law. It was instrumental in having passed many other good measures. It elected the ablest United States senator that ever represented Nebraska. it elected the ablest and cleanest gov¬ ernor who ever occupied the executive office of the state. Under his adminis¬ tration it saved the state money by the veto of several useless and extrava¬ gant appropriations. Unit Si ri'ft Hint a Thiril Term. The Tribune puts the whole question in a nutshell when it says "the business men of Wall street are not unfriendly lo the idea of a third term for Mr. Cleve land," This is all there is to the Cleve land third-term movement, Business men of Wall street would be ninth-power ingrates if they did not remain loyal to Mr. Cleveland. For 'hem he repudiated his party’s solemn declarations of faith; for them he broke his party's solemn pledges to the peo p!e of the United States; for them he filched the public treasury of millions of dollars. Some of the business men of Wall street, our contemporary says, "think she objection to a third term is purely a sentimental one. Others do not, but seem to have a feeling that with Mr. Cleveland in the white house there could not be any tampering with the money standard.” With the money standard of Wall street, the Tribune means, the money standard which debases the value of one-half the metal money of the coun¬ try and appreciates the value of the other half. The patriotic business men of Wall street have no fear that Mr. Cleveland will tamper with their gold money standard. It is with the money standard of the constitution that Mr. Cleveland tamp ers. That standard is the silver dollar enjoying all the rights of gold. It recog mz.es tin' demands of a!l sorts and con ditions of men Instead of just the round bellied greed of the business sharks of Wall street. In tampering with this standard Mr. Cleveland violates his oal h 0 f office and slaps in the face a , 0 i_ v tradition of the democratic party j n doing he fosters his third-term :uov , : v. on. > y Si: irk’s street an,, k ij ls p i n the test of the country.— Chicago Daily Press. -- j# *v,, rr ,; s anv other bra- ! of pros — We must have the Referendum. NOT DEAD. BUT VERY SICK. As ■/a j? ' 31 a w* ________, ; C' . /-r? -4 wyM { JLW* 4 "mmm Si. m I <i : i %;. hi A A I If i , /"’ d&f y L Wm ■.' :5 STp*j m dH ■■w j i ■>/<£ -A eggs |. NATION A 1 i BRAZEN IMPUDENCE OF OFF 1 CIAL PROSTITUTES. I A Striking Example of This Oftl< hi' 1 J’rosti! utton to the Money Power 1 Found In »ho speech of Carlisle at Boston. The history of the world could scarcely afford a more humiliating prostitution of the corrupt Influence of any age than that which charactc izes the acts and utterances of States officials in these degenerate days, A striking example of this official pros t itution to the money power is found i: a speech of Secretary Carlisle at a din ner of the Massachusetts Reform club in Die city of Boston on Saturday, Oct. 12. in this speech Mr. Carlisle said: * “The first great mistake in our curt rency legislation was made in the ac'; of March 17, 1862, which authorized th secretarv of the treasury to issue Unit ed States notes to the amount of $150, 000,000. This was a radical and danger ous departure from true financial prin ciples, if not a serious infraction of the United States. T y. - legislation of the U depreciated paper, of course, expelled specie from circulation, but as the gov ernment had not promised to redeem it at any particular time, it subject*’ the treasury department to no sertom responsibility or inconvenience.” The above statements are not e- 1 at variance with the recorded tact.. history, but there are hundreds of thou¬ sands of men and women still living to whom those facts are familiar recol¬ lections. Mr. Carlisle deliberately states that the depreciated paper Issued by authority of the act of March 17, 1SG2, expelled specie from circulation. The fact is specie payments were sus¬ pended by all of the banks Decem¬ ber 30, 1801. over three months before the act of authorizing the issue of treas¬ ury’ notes was passed, and there was no specie in circulation from that time until after resumption which took place nominally in 1879. Mr. Carlisle is not ignorant of this fact. When he made the statement that the depreciated treasury notes drove specie from circu¬ lation he deliberately stated that which he knew to be false. There are a few facts bearing upon the financiering of the times that may be appropriately recited in this connec¬ tion. Mr. Casca St. John Cole has col lated these facts and published them in so concise a form in his little pam¬ phlet. “Cold Facts,” that we shall sim¬ ply quote and accredit to him. He say’s: In the Bankers’ Magazine, January, 1876, George S. Coe, president of the American Exchange Bank of New Y T ork, tells of the meeting, August 9, 1861, of those who "were supposed to possess or control capital” with Mr. Chase at the house of John J. Cisco, the assistant treasurer of the Y’nited States in New York. The result of the meeting was the appointment of a committee con¬ sisting of ten bank officers to make ar¬ rangements to make the loan. Mr. Coe says: "It was unanimously agreed that the associated banks of the three cities would take $50,000,000 of 7 3-10 notes at par. with the privilege of an additional $50,000,000 in sixty days, and a further amount of $50,00(1,000 in sixty days more, making $150,000,000 in all.” The following figures also show that the financial condition of the banks at this time was one of great strength: Liabilities. Banks. Peposits. Circut’t’n in coin, York..... * 92.ii46.S0N s S.52L42S $49.73ts.9So Boston Philadelphia ........ .. i3.t35.sj8 !o“:sk Totals .....$125,917,20* *16.1154.749 $6 3,165,63 1 “Total liabilities $112,581,956. against $63,165,030 coin on hand, equal to 45 per cent of liabilities. Surely such con ditlons as these, with judicious admin istration, were adequate to the work re quired.” These united minted banks had specie enough on hand to pay 45 cents on the dollar of their liabilities; yet they agreed to loan the government $150,000,000 in specie and had $63,165,039 to do it with. They oyo.i 55 per cent more than they could pay in specie. It would certainlv require “judicious man e r, r at of a common man to make 45 cents ! nts and then be able to loan 1:, cents, wouldn't U? Well, the associated banks claimed to have loaned the “associated people’’ —the government — $150,000,000 in specie and Mr. Coe further says: “After taking the third amount of $50,000,000 by the associated hanks, those in New York, who had at that time paid in of their proportion over $80,000,000 in all, found themselves in this position:—Their aggregate coin, which on the 17th of August, before the first payment into the treasury, was $49,733,990, was on Dec. 7, $42,318,010, a reduction of only $7,415,380, and the other two cities in like proportion * * Tt ma >' ,Je confidently affirmed that had the banks been permitted to exercise their own methods, they could have continued their advances in sums of $50,000,000 for an indefinite period.” Great Caesar’s ghost! Just think of it; the banks of New York had loaned the'government over $80,000,000 in specie, out of a stock of $49,733,990, and had reduced their stock of specie $7,415 380. They had loaned nearly twice as much «P ecie . as <* ey P° ssess f’ , ™d , had . „, the governments bonds for nearly ^ven times as much money as they had lost in coin And, had the banks been permitted to exercise to o me °‘ Ulf,> c ou ‘ ll vo their . advances in . sums of $o0,000,000 for an indefinite period.” The explanation , of their . meth- ., own oils” by which they were enabled to perform these acts of legerdemain may be found m the following extract Irom a speech of Thaddeus Stevens in the Wr >use of representatives, February *o, JA. r*r.ir “Before the banks had paid much of the last loan they broke down under it, and suspended specie payments. They have continued to pay that loan, not in coin, but in demand notes of the gov¬ ernment.” In another speech February 20, 1862, Mr. Stevens said: “The banks took $50,000,000 of 6 per cent bonds, and shaved the government $58,000,000 on them. They paid for the $50^006,000 in demand notes, not specie.” Query: If the demand notes were not good money’ for the banks were they good money for the banks to loan to the government at this trying period of its existence? Was it a mistake to issue treasury’ notes to meet the vast expenditures of the government under such circum¬ stances? There was a mistake, or something worse than a mistake com¬ mitted, but it was not of the character indicated by Mr. Carlisle. The govern¬ ment should have issued United States currency in sufficient amount to meet all the requirements of that trying period. This currency, instead of being a promise to pay, should have been re¬ deemable only in receipt for taxes and public dues, It should have been a full legal tender for all debts both pub¬ lic and private, and no provision should have been made for its conversion into interest-bearing bonds. Such a cur rency would have been gladly received by the people for food, clothing and munitions of war, and by’ the army and navy for military and naval service. It would have saved thousands of mil¬ lions of dollars that have been plun¬ dered from the people by the associated banks under the system of brigandage that was provided for instead, and to¬ day we should be free from public debt and from thralldom to AN all street pirates.—Topeka Advocate. the passing show. \ rm snap shots at an Endless l*ro cession. Of course the recent elections have attracted more attention than any thing else in the grand circus parade we are engaged in watching. The populists were not particularly con cerned ag to which 0 ld party won since one is as bad as the other, an j worse. We are interested in edu eating the people upon certain prin¬ ciples, but what the boys out of school do W e are not responsible for. Let the play go on as it will. The Popu u s ts are busy educating and organiz ; B g for the coming revolution at the ballot-box in 1S96. * * * “Government by injunction” is j n g improved upon. The Great North ern railroad, which is raising a private » r mv of thugs and ex-policemen to ' mak e waT on Us employes, ordered the coart to issue an injunction, which was of course immediately issued but .he peculiar urgency of the case caused this injunction to be hastily telegraphed to the deputies by the rail¬ road company for execution. “Injunc¬ tions to order, by telegraph” is the lat¬ est form of judicial tyranny. * * Here you are. An Associate Press dispatch just after election says: “Since it has been demonstrated that the Democratic party is so badly divided everywhere, especially on the currency question in the south, Dem¬ ocratic leaders in Alabama, where the State campaign, which will culminate in the State election next August, is on the eve of opening, are seriously considering the advisability of stop¬ ping all discussion inside the party of currency and turning their attention to reuniting the Democratic party for the coming contest.” This dispatch was from Alabama, and referred to a conference held be¬ tween Senators Morgan and Pugh and other prominent silver Democrats of the south who have been making a vigorous campaign for free silver. But like many other pretended silver men in the party they regard principle as a subordinate matter. ★ * Democratic silver men must either pull down their signs or get out of the party. The wholesale defeat of the Democratic party renders all talk of reform “inside the party” useless. Even if the party were not divided against itself there would be no hope of its carrying out any measure at all. The peopl*. have lost all ftsnfidence in Its professions and woul d not give it an other chance though it declared by all the angels in heaven that It stood solidly jn favor of free silver and all other great national reform principles. The gold-bugs of the east prefer the Republican party, and the true silver men are thoroughly disgusted with Democracy. The Democratic party has been driven from the field in con¬ fusion. Neither gold-bugs nor silver men can endorse its vacillating, uncer¬ tain, cowardly policy. East, west, north and south the Democratic party is a wreck. One kind of a Democrat can¬ not be distinguished from another in the general mass of obliteration. The very name Democrat has become a dis¬ grace in the eyes of the people. Come out from among them, if you wish to stand up for principle. Do not call yourself a Democrat any longer, unless you wish to take chances of being buried alive in the same grave with the dead. * * * The prostitute press dispatches and machine editorial writers made a great noise about the “Farmers’ Congress” at Atlanta declaring against silver. While it would not have been surprising for the “farmers by appointment” who composed that congress to have taken such action, the fact of the matter is that they did not make any such decla¬ ration as was announced by the tele¬ graphic news liars’ association. The following resolution was adopted: “Resolved, That we favor the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at an agreed ratio guarded by an import duty upon foreign bullion and foreign coin equal to the difference be¬ tween the bullion value and the coinage value of the metal at the date of im¬ portation. whenever the bullion value of the metal is less than its coin value.” It is true that this resolution is almost absolutely meaningless—but it is not a declaration in favor of a single gold standard any more than it is a declara¬ tion in favor of anything else. The misunderstanding between Chairman Taubeneck and Col. Norton, appears now to be satisfactorily settled, as far as they are concerned. In a let¬ ter to Col. Norton. Mr. Taubeneck says: "Many good people have been misled in not knowing that you had severed your connection with the ‘Weekly Sentinel.’ It is due to the public as well as to you and myself that I make this explanation. "I desire for all to know that 1 here by retract every unkind, uncompliment¬ ary word used against you in this dis cussion and also apo'.ogize for the language used and exonorate you from ;in y unfair or any unmanly dealing. -Honing that this explanation will. much as Dossible remain unio *he • .. u0De . 3 ou ‘ I “ as rter ’ ” * - !e discussion in wh*^h they were originally engaged will probably be continued without personalities. a hypocrite PUBLICLY ADVERTISES HIS HY¬ POCRISY AT ATLANTA. One Public Act of the President ilaa Been Conspicuous A* Tending Toward Promoting the General Wel fare—Wholly a Servant of Monopoly. President. Cleveland said in his speech at Atlanta. Ga.: “We shall walk in the path of pa¬ triotic duty If, remembering that our free institutions were established to promote the general welfare, we strive for those things which benefit all our people and each of us is content to re¬ ceive from a common fund his share of the prosperity thus contributed. We shall miss our duty and forfeit our heri¬ tage if, in narrow selfishness, we are heedless of the general welfare and struggle to wrest from the government private advantages which can only he gained at the expense of our fellow countrymen.” The sentiment contained in the above is good, very good, but Mr. Cleveland has acted out the very opposite. What act of Mr. Cleveland since his inaugura¬ tion has tended to “promote the general welfare?” Does the establishment of the gold standard promote the “general wel¬ fare?” If so, robbing the masses and fattening the classes is Mr. Cleveland’s idea of serving the “general welfare.” Did the negotiations with a foreign bank syndicate to furnish gold to main¬ tain a useless gold reserve at a profit to the syndicate of not less than $30,000,000 thereby in addition piling a gold prin¬ cipal and interest debt on future gen¬ erations, “promote the general welfare,” or was it “wresting from the govern¬ ment private advantages?” Was the act of ordering out the fed¬ eral army to shoot down laboring men in the Chicago railroad strike inspired by a desire to “promote the general welfare” or the welfare of the railroad corporations? Not one public act of the present ex¬ ecutive has been conspicuous as tend¬ ing toward promoting the general wel¬ fare, but rather to promoting the wel¬ fare of trusts and combines, the banks and money combinations. The success of combinations of capi¬ tal must come from the depression of the welfare of the people. When com¬ binations of capital are profitable that profit must come from the ruin of some other interest. Combines live from rob¬ bing the general welfare, and without, robbery they could not exist a day. Mr. Cleveland’s course has been wholly devoted to promoting the welfare of the combinations of capital, which neces¬ sarily results to the detriment of the public welfare. It could not possibly be otherwise. After the record Mr. Cleveland has made by his every public act, favoring special welfares instead of'the public welfare, it is not only cheeky, but msut?to an intelligent people for him to hypocritically proclaim his devotion to the public welfare. The people judge a man by his acts rather than by his words. If Mr. Cleve¬ land had followed in the footsteps of the immortal Jackson and seized the money monster by the neck and choked the life out of it, he then could consistently call upon the people to sanction his ad¬ vocacy and practice of upholding the public welfare. He has done the re¬ verse. He has rather choked the life out of the public, laid waste the heritage of the common people and aided plu¬ tocracy to enter into the homes of the masses of wealth producers and confis¬ cate them to their use and profit. Then to talk about “striving to do these things which benefit all our people!” Bosh! A man who will thus publicly advertise his hypocrisy should have been hissed from the stand, even though he may, by some ill-fate to the people, hold the office of chief executive. The things that are Caesar’s should be ren¬ dered unto Caesar, but the things that belong to the people they should de¬ mand and enjoy. If Caesar is not con¬ tent with the things that are his, but seeks to rob, oppress and enslave the people, then the sooner such a Caesaf encounters a Brutus, the sooner the people will enjoy their inalienable rights.—Southern Mercury. It is well that President Cleveland issued his Thanksgiving proclama¬ tion before the election returns were in —else he might not have been in a fit¬ ting frame of mind to have rendered thanks to the “Giver of every good and perfect gift for the bounteous returns that have rewarded our labors in the fields.” He asks the people to remem¬ ber the poor and needy, “and by deeds of charity let us show the sincerity of our gratitude.” Rank hyprocisy— the whole proclamation. It is true that God has bounteously bestowed His good gifts upon the American people— and for that we are thankful. But the people who deserved them have not re¬ ceived the gifts—and Grover Cleveland is one of the conspirators who has pre¬ vented God’s plans being carried out. Why should he blaspheme God and in¬ sult the American people by assuming gratitude to the one and fatherly care over the other. The issuing of a Thanksgiving proclamation is a mere form and some clerk no doubt com posed Mr. Cleveland's epistle after the customary and regular form pre¬ scribed in the book of traditionary eti¬ quette for the guidance of presidents— but the whole thing is a sham, a pre tense, an empty formality. Real grati tude to God needs no sealing-wax and official signatures, Say ’ y ® a f ti l0WS that TOted for the democratlc j office-seekers and prosper ity, don t you want to give your party a ^ber chance? Come, now; don’t be bashful, don t you want some more prosperity—the same brand we bars been having for two years?