The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 8, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, February 23, 1900 Page: 1 of 8
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vol. 8.
The Peoples Voice
n
TRANSVAAL NATIONAL SONG.
South from the Orange River,
North to Limpopo's tide,
Burgher to burgher answered,
Freeman to freeman cried.
Through every burgher homestead,
In both the burgher States,
Goes forth the call to battle,
"The foe is at our gates."
Echo the strain from hill to plain,
Wherever the burghers stand :
Strong is the ward and stern the guard—
1 he guard of the burgher's land.
They drove the burgher northward
From the Cape and Natal's shores,
I o where the bushman wanders
To where the lion roars,
He found the land a desert,
He won it by his toil.
The men who till will keep it
Or die upon the spot.
Echo the strain, etc.
Side by side with patriot pride
We hold our mountain's track,
The hour is nigh to do or die
To meet the sea wolves' pack.
Where the nations groan 'neath a despot's
r,.u , out of our anthem rings : (throne
I he land we own is our.s alone,
We know not queens nor kings.
Echo the strain, etc.
i their elect toys and pet puppets, oiled and var-
nished and incensed, lounge in front placidly,
| or, for the greater part, weakly and sickly con-
templative.'
" In order that he may not be misunder-
j stood, he dwells on the point again and again :
Nearly every problem of state policy
and economy, as at present understood and
j practised, consists in some device for persuad-
ing you laborers to go and dig up dinner for
j us reflective and esthetica! persons, who like to
j sit still, and think, or admire. So that when
| we get to the bottom of the matter we find the
I inhabitants of this earth broadly divided into
two great masses, the peasant paymasters,
spade in hand, original and imperial producers
of turnips ; and, waiting on them all round, a
crowd of polite persons, modestly expectant of
turnips, for some—too often theoretical—serv-
ice.'
" If we read these statements detached from
their context, would we not be justified in sup-
posing that they came from socialist or an-
archist pamphlets? Ruskin was unquestion-
ably a revolutionist. He longed to see our so
j cial system changed from top to bottom. His
I ideal was almost identical with that of a social-
! William Morris, or an anarchist such as
Prince krapotkine."
norman, oklahoma, february 23
no. :n.
newspaper in that state that did not denounce
the Allen bill as a gigantic robbery of the peo-
ple. The whole population of Illinois protest-
ed oy letters, by great mass meetings, by peti-
tions to the legislature, but the so-called ' rep-
resentatives' of the people calmly went ahead
and enacted the law. 1 he governor signed it.
" Suppose the people of Illinois had had
the power of direct legislation—such a bill as i ,, t .
the Allen bill would never have been introduc- . , W 8'le sp°s it. You
cd. Yerkes would not have considered it ! , "oni Missouri, aud have, to be
Of you trying to explain to your wife
that hIio'r extravagant? She lux.ws ,t
worth his while to negotiate with the Illinois
legislators, for he would know they could nev
er deliver the goods.
" If, however, such a project were started
S per cent of the people of Illinois could have
demanded that the Allen bill be taken out of
the hands of the boodling legislators, and the
sovereign people would have settled the fate
of the bill at the ballot box.
Direct legislation is the remedy for ofilc
shown. She has only been down
to HEED A- SHAFFER'S and pur-
chased for one-half the wonry you
would have to pay elsewhere, an ele
C Sg?ird i—
, . Dtidy."* n'ey """* "fit f That ,,/trr the first of the ),„/• was
. . . - 7 — B"d ,uost «"•'«' after any and allbusimva
corruption ; for the purchase of corrupt : ! ' 'e lo & aml Growing out all kin Is of imi-.,„jns •- I'liv -
,1 ! w'hat we are doiujr. We do not '
to divide
representatives would not be tempted when
such representatives could not fulfil their agree- I so'"'' 'i°\ but are williu
'>ii all the
[Hilit,
Lit
>s.
11 of
coal
horn
ler 4
[From Tile Literary Dlaent.]
IN summing up Ruskin the man, it is impos-
sible to gain a full comprehension of his
message without an understanding of his
social ideals. The fashion is to brush these
lightly aside as "extravagant" or "visionary"'
but whatever may be our own individual view
of society, we have to recognize the important
influence which Ruskin's conceptions of social
reform exerted in his writings and life In
The Independent (Feb. l), Leonard D. Abbott
writes of Ruskin from the viewpoint of a revo
lutionary. He says :
" Ruskin, like his socialist disciple, William
Morris, was consumed by a passion for art.
I his is the keynote to his life. But to him the
word art always meant infinitely more than the
pictures we hang on our walls and occasionally
go to see in the galleries. In his mind it was
simply a synonym for beauty in everything that
the hand touches—in our cities, streets, and
homes. From earliest boyhood his whole soul
was in revolt against the sordidness and ugli-
ness of the life that he saw around him. Look-
ing at the matter first of all from the esthetic
standpoint, he came to realize that popular art
is inevitably rooted in social conditions—that
it is, in fact, simply the outward expression of
social ideals. He loved to look back to the
Middle Ages, with their glorious architecture
and their multitudinous art-products from the
hands of unknown workmen. This, he "aid
showed the result of simple and wholesome
lives of fellowship inspired by devotion to the
common weal and to noble religious ideals In
the sordid city streets of today, on the other
hand he saw simply the expression of a selfish
commercialism.
" We can trace the current of Ruskin's rev-
-""vm yji ixijmkuI s reV*
olutionary social thought in all his writings.
JVr Se? !-rPlair"ly SUch books as 'Sesame and
earn
her a
•ears
u nds
slactf
lorth
20th
erty:
head
year
■ifer,
Itain
inds,
ture,
nder,
it of
laser
rity,
uk.
I'ull.
I K Ht
i n find
in I veo.
riving
r fur-
Lilies,' 'The Crown of Wild Olive,' and 'lime
nd Tide.' We see it even more unmistakably
.n those four essays on political economy
which he called 'Unto this Last.' Finally, it
burst the floodgates in that fervid series of ' let-
ters to workingmen ' entitled ' Fors Clavigera '
—almost the last of Ruskin's writings.
"• Unto this Last ' was contributed nearly
30 years ago to 1 he Cornhill Magazine, of which
Thackery was then editor. After two of the
essays had appeared, there was such a storm
of indignation that Thackery refused to print
more. This little book was a bombshell thrown
info the camp of the orthodox and conservative
political economists. It attacked the very ba-
sis on which political economy was supposed to
rest. In 'Unto this Last' he boldly declared that
political economy was a science not of things,
but of mrn, and that the test of modern society
was not its material wealth, but the character
of all its men and women. I he message of the
book can be summed up in one sentence from
it : ' There is no wealth but life. '
t "' 1'ors Clavigera ' is perhaps the most
stinging indictment of modern- society and re-
ligion in English literature. In one of these
letters Ruskin exultingly declares himself a
'Communist, reddest of the red. The follow-
ing quotation is from ' Fors ' :
"'The guilty thieves of Europe, the real
sources of all deadly war in it, are the capital-
ists -that is to say, people who live by per-
centages on the labor of others ; instead of by
fair wages for their own. ... All social evils
and religious errors arise out of the pillage of
-the laborer by the idler; the idler leaving him
only enough to live 011 (and even that miser-
ably), and taking all the rest of the produce of
his work to spend in his own luxury or in the
toys with which he beguiles his idleness.'
" In the most deliberate way imaginable
Ruskin declares that the wealthy class of today
is essentially a parasitic class:
We, of the so-called "educated" classes, j
who take it upon us to be the upper and better
|iart of the world, cannot possibly understand
o*r relations to the rest better than we may
wtere actual life may be seen in front of its j
Shakespearean image, from the stalls of a tliea-
ler. I never stand up to rest myself, and look
!i"Oiin<! the house, without renewal of wonder
'itw the crowd in the pit, the shilling gallery,
|rtlo-w u« of the boxes and stalls to keep our
places! Think of it! those fellows behind
there h'ave housed us and fed us ; their wives
have washed our clothes and kept us !io'v ;
hey have bought us the best places, brought
pis through th "■ cold to them ; and there they
it behind us, patiently seeing and hearing
hat they may. Tlic-'re they pack themselves,
queezed and distant, ,behind our chairs j we,
Direct Legislation in South Dakota.
1 he Dakota Ruralist, of Aberdeen, South
Dakota, a state which already has direct legis-
lation in vogue, gives a very trenchant synop-
sis of the benefits and advantages to be de-
rived from this Populist proposition, as fol-
lows :
" Direct Legislation.
" What is it ?
" Government of the people, by the people.
" How is it done ?
" In the state any measure before the legisla
ture can be taken out of the hands of the legis-
lators whenever 5 per cent of the voters of the
state file a demand with the secretary of state
The secretary is then obliged to refer the meas-
ure to vote of electors of the state at the next
election.
If carried by the people, no governor or
legislature can veto, amend or repeal the law;
it is the will of the people. Such laws are not
dead letters, as many laws are now.
Again, if 5 per cent of the voters propose
a new law themselves they can demand that
this measure be submitted to popular vote. If
it is carried it becomes law without the legisla-
ture having had anything to do with it. By
this means legislators cannot prevent the peo-
ple from calling for a vote on some reform
measure and securing the reform when public
opinion demands it. By direct legislation the
people can be wholly independent of legislators.
Heretofore, when we wanted anything of
our ' rulers,' we went to Pierre and said, ' We
petition,' 'We humbly pray,' etc., ' Your honor-
able body, etc. Now, with direct legislation,
«"■ will beg no longer. We will demand our
the people will
rights in a manly way. Then
rule. We will have no rulers.
" Every law on our statute books thus pass-
ed will begin: 'The People of the State of
South Dakota Enact.' Direct legislation will
make a true statement instead of a pretty legal
form.
We live under a representative govern
ment. We are busy with our own business and
have hit on the plan of choosing agents to do
certain other business for us. These we call
representatives. If they really represented us
| as per contract, all would be well. Unfortu-
| nately they do not. Before they are hired
j they make excellent promises ; after they are |
j engaged they assume the attitude that their \
| judgment is superior to ours. They fail to
j keep their promise. Curiously enough we en- |
j ter into a contract by which we can neither I
discharge them if they do wrong or betray us, !
I neither can we prevent them from doing it.' j
| At the most, we can only threaten that we will j
I not employ them again when we once get rid I
j of them. Such a plan of conducting private J
j business is so utterly lacking in common sense '
i that no one would contemplate it for a minute.
' II WHul<1 bring inevitable ruin to any private
j business. It brings disaster in public business.
" Representative government is practically
' a failure, it is co-rupt, dishonorable and enor
j mously expensive.
" Direct legislation will act as a check, a!-
1 ways at hand ; it will remove the incentive of
legislative corruption—the final power to de-
I liver the goods. With direct legislation, the
representative will cease to represent unchecked
wealthy corporations, and the party boss, and
become again a representative of the people.
" In all ranks of life men are living more
economically—in many homes wages and in-
come have decreased, yet our expenses for
state and local government grow much faster
than the population.
" Direct legislation is the only remedy. It
does not propose to do away with represent-
ative government, but to control the represent-
atives. It simply proposes that the people can j
take any measure they want out of the hands j
of the representatives and settle it themselves. ;
The moment the people have this power the j
representative becomes an agent, whereas he is 1
now a ruler. Then his inotto will be, ' We
strive to please.'
" A street railway magnate in Chicago se- '
meats.
" Men who seek office for the purpose of
being bought would have no interest in public
service. Bad men would not be honored in of-
fice, we would secure the wise services of good
men who would strive to please their employ-
ers, the common people.
" Counties, towns and cities are now grant-
ed power to legislate in many local matters.
" Direct legislation proposes that the voters
of a county, town or city shall have the same
right to control their ' ruler ' (or representa-
tives) as the voters in the state at large. If
the county commissioners or the city alder-
men do their work to the general satisfaction,
well and good, but 5 per cent of the voters can
step in and take any measure out of the hands
of the commissioners or aldermen and call for
a vote of all voters when thev consider it nec-
essary to do so.
" When special privileges, or public fran-
chises are to be sold or bargained away, it is of
course natural that the people will make the
best bargain they can for themselves.
" When the people of the county, town or
city want to try a reform of any sort they will
be able to put it in force without the gracious
permission of the commissioners or aldermen.
" Do we need the governing intelligence of
aldermen? The incorruptible guidance of
legislators ? Or can we occasionally get
along without these and depend upon the com
■non sense and self interest of the common
people ?
" In Brookline, a suburb of Boston, the
electors have to transacCthe town's business
directly, do it themselves ; they have no repre
sentatives at all. Brookline's receipts for one
year were $1,795,217, and expenditures about
the same tidy sum. This was three times as
large as the receipts and expenditures of the
state of New Hampshire, and just about the
same as the state fund of New Jersey.
" The common people of Brookline seem
quite capable of attending to their own rather
extensive business; and, there being 110 alder-
men to buy and sell franchises, Brookline has
the best of everything which the people want,
and is known in Boston by the curious title,
' 1 he tax dodger's paradise."
" Boston has invited Brookline to walk
into her parlor for these many years, but, odd-
ly enough, Brookline sticks fast to direct legis-
lation.
" The people of a state cannot all gather in
a town hall and vote by voice, but they can
consider their own business, decide their own
j will and express it by a ballot upon measures.
" In South Dakota we have direct legisla-
tion, and the people of the state, or the people
of any county, city or town can secure the
best there is, just as the people of Brookline
do, and South Dakota, freed from jobbery, be-
comes, like Brookline, the taxpayers' paradise.
" We will keep our representatives to act as
our agents, and do our business if they do it
well, but any particular business which they
fail to do to the satisfaction of the people and
in which the people are sufficiently interested,
will be taken out of their hands and accom
plished by the people direct, to their own satis
faction, without let or hindaance by any powers.
Call and investigate.
HERD A- SHAFFEK,
FURNITURE AND UNDERTAKING.
Farmers Grain
AND
Implement Co.
will pay you the highest
market price for ^our
Grain, Hogs and Cattle,
and will sell you all kinds
of Farm Implements at
the lowest living prices.
If you have Grain, Fat
Hogs or Cattle to sell,
let us give you prices ou
litem.
If you want to buy any
• I, , , , kind of farm implement,
we will be pleased to have you examine our line and stock of imple-
ments, and learn our prices.
1 he growth of our busines show
profitable to tliem to deal with us
FARMERS GRAIN AND IM-
PLEMENT CO..
khmi side Kallrmia '■'ruck, Nmtn.iN.
customers find it
flint 0:11
w
BUT NOT TO QUIT BUSINESS.
We want to close out all our winter stock of Millinery Goods
before the arrival of our Spring Goods, and have greatly re-
duced our prices in order to move this stock out. Come in and
nff£ttUS' a^d wc wi" s^ow V°u some °f best bargains in
Millinery Goods ever given in this city.
CALLIE GRAHAM & CO.
W. IlKNI- Kil l I'
;ko. r. iik* noi,os, v.-i'iw
(j, ii. iiks^kn i', Ciislit."
.Norman .State .Bank.
Capital, $50,000.
Collections a Specialty.
w. c. renfrow. c. ii. bessent. geo. t. reynolds. f
j. h. dibble. i. m curtice. t. e. smith.
A " Business Administration."
The treasury deficit for the last three years
of McKinley's Administration Run on Business
Principles, was as follows :
18(1"
18(18
18<l!l
Total deficit, last three years
Receipts for same period :
1897
1X<|K
1 sun
Total receipts
Expenditures for the same period
Ji®7 * 385,775,000
44.1, :W8,000
1W!) 605.09.'!,000
Total expenditures $17414,236,000
From the above receipts deduct $200,000,-
000 which was received on new bonds issued,
and add it to the above stated deficit ; then
take from the receipts, $76,000,000 received on
$ 18,054,000
38,048,001)
88,870,000
*144.97X(iOO
$ 347,721,000
405,321,000
516,216,000
$1,21 ill. 258, (11M1
I •
° •
J •
• The '
5 California I
I Limited
«
#
o I' 1 nest train west of Chicago.
• hours to I,oh Angeles.
« Pullman, Dining car. liuliet
o Smoking car with barber
• -hop), (Ibservation car (with
! ladies' parlor).
a Vestihuled and electric-
• lighted throughout.
j Four times a week Tues-
0 days, Wednesdays, Thnrs-
• days and Saturdays from
J < hicago, by Santa Pe Route.
1 h. j. morgan, agent,
> norman.
We furnish scale books of our own
make ami our ottice is headquarters
for line job printing.
IT IS NO ^
Yel ete-
rybody
1 does not
know y&mm
. ThuttheNrw -
Sewing M.K-liim-
Com puny of Oranj'i-
Their No. IS Homo l>r.,p llrad
Is S<'Ilii..: nue ||„| calle.
SEE IT BEFORE YOU BUY ANY OTHER!
- ... ww... • . .chlnr you
1 *«T) (l;n thai
ali tin
oilier mm p;i,
n leu combined
ooeoeci<ioaoaaci0o <M «*>o94ai>o Non MAIN,
r;yt -SCIENTIFIC 1 HEAnLF MOTION J
eniSmtrMt 1&4
I iMtm MO ,1 ore IIIHII I common .\ervdnt niachim Vt)
Ml,-r k,'"l rr.„„ «| .™ «,.,|i„„lin, HiKflLr,
Er ;yh"-v .« ■ ,i K,-< u,,, m„,t
N.^,11, 111 "fY ,"r', lull} tfUarunUid.
REKIJ & SHAFFER,
Lewllng Furniture Dealer* and Undertakers m
Southern nklahoum.
OKI. \ MO ti A
/ 1 ■ . . 0 " ... at , *7u,oo(i,oo() received on
cured from the legislature of Illinois the infa- 1 Pacific railroads, and 12,000.000 received on
IIIMIIC A U>ti I 1 nr I . ., ...I. :_1. .L . .IJ I , .......
j motis Allen law, by which the aldermen of the
! large cities of that state can sell or give away
| to the street car companies the right to tax the
I people of those cities for 5-cent fares for fifty
| years to come.
"(.lasgow, Scotland, owns and operates its
own street cars, collects i-cent fares for short
rides, 2-cent fares for long rides, and clears for
the city half a million dollars a year profit.
V.Vith this for comparison, 5-cent fares for the
nex.' half century seems to the people of Illi-
nois ather severe. There w.as not a single
war revenue bill—both of which, like the bond
money, were extraordinary receipts,— and you
have a " business" shortage of 5532,978,000 in
the past three years, notwithstanding the gigan-
tic wave of unparalleled prosperity which has
been sweeping o'er the country during this
period. _____
Socialist Mayor Chase, of Haverhill, Mass ,
has pushed gas down to 80c per 1000 cu. feet.
Peoples Voice one year, and Farm Journal for
five years—all for ONLY ONE DOLLAR.
H. W. Stubbeman lias his harness
shop full of line harness and saddles,
having made heavy purchases of all
kinds of leather and leather goods be-
fore the leather trust got in its work
on advancing the price of leather.
"Stub has made a handsome profit
on the advance of leather; but he in-
forms us that his customers reap the
benelit for be continues to sell at old
prices. If you need anything in the
For Hale,
Several line male hogs old enough
for service and a number of gelts
bred to Iowa King. See or address
T. <!. Dixon, Norman, Okla. —24
I want to let the people who suffer
from rheumatism ui'd sciatica k«ow
that ('haruherlain's Pain Balm relieved
rae after a number of otfier medicines
1 ''11 d 11 ti let or had failed. It Is the best
liniment I have ever known of J. A.
... ,. , , , Hodgen, Alphiretta, Ga. Thousands
harness or saddlery line, don't forget] have been mired of rheumatism hy this
to see Stub, and learn prices be- remedy. One appli,'alien relieve* t|,n
ore making purchases. I ,,alii. For sale by Blake Ueed.
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 8, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, February 23, 1900, newspaper, February 23, 1900; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc117145/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.