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PAGE TWO Public Opinion Throughout the Union *«A«A**A*A *-* - • A » M THE DINGLEY TARIFF—IB97. “JNo one will claim that the agri cultural interest is protected. It is true mere is a duty on wheat, barley, oats, etc., but it does not afford any protection. . . This high tariff ex cludes our highly taxed manufac tures, made from highly taxed mate rial, from the markets of the world, although we have natural advantages possessed by no other nation.” —ben. Win. B. Allison. “Every advance toward a free ex change of commodites is an advance in civilization. Every facility to a free exchange cheapens commodities, increases trade and production, and promotes civilization. ... A few years farther experience will convince the whole body of our people that a system of national taxes which rests the whole burden of taxation on con sumption, and not entirely on prop erty or income, is intrinsically un just.”—John Sherman. The longest road has a turn; the darkest night is followed by dawn; tides ebb and flow; spring follows winter and periods of depression are followed by times of revival. John bherman was facetiously credited with the unprecedented farm crops of 1879 and the Dingley tariff has been seriously credited with the time ly showers and their products since President McKinley’s inauguration. Given the fertile fields of America, her forest and mineral wealth, her facilities for manufacture and trans portation, the inventive genius of her people and above all their enterprise and industry, and permanent stagna tion is impossible, however vicious may be her system of taxation. It is the tine art of the railroad monopolist to take just “all the tar iff will bear.” It will not do to de populate the farms by excessive charges but leave the northwest farm ers just enough to keep the Russian immigrant, his wife and his children pushing the plows, the drills and the reapers. Under McKinley’s tariff, monopoly took much and stagna tion followed. (Free trade they called it; it was freedom to plunder without restraint.) Under the Dingley tariff they have learned to leave labor just enough to continue its hopeful or hopeless struggle. When all else has reached the stage of most profound slumber the cock crows at the approach of dawn. When our hands were empty, our farm equipment worn out, merchants' shelves empty and factories empty there arose the shout, “The advance agent of prosperity is about to take the saddle. ’ ’ Merchants ordered goods. Factories had to start. Men were put to work; business revived, and all this under the Gorman tariff. (No thanks, however, are due to Gor man or the tariff.) When once in motion our long felt needs urged on the wheels of activity, which grew by what it fed upon. All things, except the tariff, even greed conspired to give us the greatest era of production ever known in the world’s history. During the period of stagnation invention had not been idle. Tele phones and typewriters, gas engines WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. • • and electricity from water power, im proved implements of every kind, coupled with the farmers’ skill in im proving breeds and seeds and meth ods of every sort, have added untold increments to our wealth. Moreover, never before since rec ords were kept has Providence poured upon us such timely showers. Never were the products of our farms so great, nor even did they approach it; and Dingleyites claim credit for it all. Nearly half our people are still upon farms and more than half the remainder depend upon the prosper ity of the farmer. When those pros per all others must do so. Moreover, if the farmers’ great gains are all stolen the wicked must indeed wax fat. Tariffs have to do with the dis tribution of property, not its produc tion. By no possibility can legisla tion produce a dollar; it may divert industry or destroy it; it might en courage but it cannot cause it. Since all industries cannot be pro tected a protection to any one sim ply means a privilege to plunder from others. How is it that one per cent of the people in America now have more than half the earnings of the other 99 per cent? How the Dingley tariff has served this mal distribution of property is the sub ject of Part V. of this work. From 1850 to 1860 our wealth in creased 126' per cent. Half the peo ple were farmers and under our mild tariff half the wealth went to them. From 1870 to 1880 the increase was 77 per cent and the farmers received 17 per cent of it; from 1860 to 1890 wealth increased 62 per cent and the farmers had 17 per cent of this; from 1890 to 1900, wealth inerfeased but 45 per cent and the farmers got less than 15 per cent of it. Fifteen per cent of 45 per cent is 6 3-4 per cent, while from 1850 to 1860 the farmers’ gains were 47 per cent of the total wealth of 1850. The farmers realized the inequity but said the railroads took it and they assailed them and drove them to bankruptcy. They said it was the middle men and they fought to de throne them. They said it was due to the kind of money they could not get. The qualitative theory of money has been proved true by the progress of events. However good or bad, wise or otherwise, his proposed remedy might have been, it was not applied; it was not needed. The unexpected and unprecedented increase in the production of gold has given us rap idly increasing prices which have cer tainly proved a powerful stimulant to trade and production. This is unquestionably a potent cause of our prosperity despite the Dingley tariff. But,where, oh where, has gone our portion of this prosper ity? We now know it is monopoly that robs us of our earnings. Will we try to pursue and punish each sepa rate thieving, slinking, foxy, deceit ful trust or shall we attack and maim the “mother of trusts” that she may produce never another pestiferous brood ? —Exeract from ‘ ‘ The Farmer’s Tariff Manual,” by Daniel Strange. STATE COMMITTEE PEOPLE’S INDEPENDENT PARTY. August 22, 1907. Deal- Sir: • The meeting of the People’s Inde pendent State Committee, which was held in the parlors of the Koehler Ho tel, at Grand Island, on July 30, was one which was very largely attended considering the very budy season of the year. At the meeting definite ac tion was had upon three important matters. These were: 1. That the People’s Independent party had not performed all the good that it should, and that a complete state and county organization must be maintained. That the party of the common people has a work of educa tion which demands the best of heart and mind, for our own and posterity’s welfare. 2. That the People’s Independent party should be always ready to join hands with organizations whose aims, efforts and beliefs are similar to our own. We therefore consider it wise and in the interest of good govern ment to co-operate at this time with Nebraska democrats, supporting such candidates as are pledged to our cause. 3. That a vigorous campaign should be waged all along the line, and with that idea in mind, every pos sible effort should be made to have a large representation at the next meet ing of the State Committee, to be held in Lincoln, Tuesday, September 24, at 12 m. In order to fulfill these instructions it is necessary that your officers have the hearty support of all and finances with which to wage the battle. Right now we want you to do two things, viz.: 1. Get together all leading popu lists of your county —if you have not a regular county organization—and after a thorough discussion of the needs and desires for the perpetua tion of our organization, let us know what action you take and in w'hat way you need assistance. 2. Collect what funds you can for the carrying out of the work as out lined by the State Committee. It is useless to try to carry on an organi zation without finances. In past years we have all contributed liberal ly for the support of our convictions and there is still need for sacrifices in order that the work may go foi ward. If every populist in the state will be earnest, enthusiastic and will ing to work, much good can be ac complished. Prestige that has been lost will soon be recovered and new’ converts made to our cause. We are pleased to note that from the White House, at Washington, and the Executive Mansions of nu merous states, come declarations with populist ring. And it is indeed grat ifying to note that populist ideas are no longer derided, nor are we longer looked upon as a wild-eyed, long haired, rattle-brained crowd of non descripts. Populist ideas are being clothed in republican and democratic garments and all over this land men are adopting the principles taught by the economics of populism. This is no time to falter. Let us hear from you as soon as possible. Send communications and remittances to either of your officers. E. A. WALRATH, Secretary, Osceola, Nebraska. C. B. MANUEL, Chairman, St. Paul, Nebraska. MORE ABOUT THE PARCELS POST. By those who are opposed to the establishment of the parcels post the principal objection advanced is that it would multiply the business of the mail-order houses in the great cities, to .the detriment of the local trade in the smaller towns. This is an as sumption not likely to be verified by the facts. Were it practicable to send a five or ten pound package through the mails for a nominal sum, would all such packages be ordered from New York or Chicago by an Orangeburg purchaser? asks the Charleston News and Courier, or would the result of the new system be greater efforts on the part of merchants in Charleston and Columbia to meet the demands of mail customers? If the latter would be the event, it seems equally probable that merchants in Orange burg would adapt themselves to the new conditions by making special ef fort to sell goods by mail within a radius of thirty or forty miles, as would the merchants of every town from which rural delivery routes radi ate. The expansion of the rural delivery system completely changes the aspect that the parcels post scheme wore a few years ago. Then the average ru ral community in the South received its mail not more than three times the week, but now there are compara tively few communities that have not at least one daily mail. Were the de livery of larger parcels by these car riers cheap it would be natural to expect that thousands of country peo ple would do much of their shopping e by mail and not take a day from their farm work to visit the court-house town. A mail order business to be suc cessful does not require to be domes ticated in a large city. Any reader of the advertising pages of the maga tines will observe that hundreds of articles are manufactured in and dis tributed from towns in the North and Central West that one rarely hears of in any other way. The parcels post system might result in the es tablishment by enterprising merchants of mail-order houses in the little towns and to the rural inhabitants there would be a saving of time as well as of money by means of them.— Augusta Herald. The Louisville Courier-Journal says “the devil often baits his hook with a joke.” But his catch is not con fined to suckers. A writer of verses in the ew York Sun declares: “I am a poor poet.” Some announcements only serve to fill up space.