The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, November 19, 1897 Page: 2 of 8
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THE PEOPLE'S VOICE.
THE PLUTOCRAT AND HIS TOY.}
NO KM AN,
OKLAHOMA
Wpyler gocn and Tlanco firnifi and
tli« deadly work goe on forever.
Everything we see in surely perish-
ing. Of all things Id this world or in
the world to come the truth alone
survives.
The Michigan Central and the Lake
Shore railroads hare refused to Issue
mileage tickets at |20, and Gov. Pln-
gree u right on their trail.
Burglars represented themselves as
plumbers, and gained entrance to a
rich man's residence the other day and
stole $2,800 worth of property. Sup-
pose they had been plumbers?
l.et us hope that the woman who has
contracted to clean muny of the streets
of Chicago will make her work as lit-
tle like a house cleaning as possible,
for some of the men of that town want
to stay at home occasionally.
We are no longer compelled to
walk on stony beaches, holding on to
our hats, or back hair, as the case
may be, and wishing that when
benches were provided at the sea
fchore, they were not invariably placed
In thrf hottest sunshine. We need not
get up at unholy and unearthly hours
in order to go fishing and shooting,
but we can buy our fish and game
like rational beings.
A jury in Pennsylvania gave a man
damages in one hundred dollars for
dlifellowthlp from a local church and
consequent "loss of his spiritual life."
There is no man, guilty or Innocent,
who might not be damaged In that
way; and If the decision is to hold
ihere is grave danger of the breaking
up of a good many churches. How-
ever. organization is not everything,
and there !s «'* .> 3 the consolation of
having a mugwump church— every
man for himself und the gentleman
down below for the hindmost.
The figures relating to the operation
of the Filled Cheese law from the time
it went into effect. September ti, 189C,
to the end of the fiscal year, June 30,
1897, have been completed. During the
period, 1,GG3,067 pounds of filled cheese
were produced. The number of factor-
ies engaged In the industry was seven,
all loeated in Illinois. The tax of 1
cent a pound, amounting to $16,630,
was collected. In addition, the seven
factories paid a special tax at the rate
of $400 per annum. Only one whole-
sale establishment, located In Mary-
land, qualified under the law and paid
a special tax of $250 per annum. There
were sixty-two retail establishments,
each of which paid a special tax of $12
per annum. No filled cheese was with-
drawn for exportation during the per-
iod coverad by the government's fig-
ures.
One of the most, successful of iwnt
novels debates a question that has
probably occurred to many thoughtful
men and women. Is It possible for
one w ho forms a part of our complex
and tempestuous civilization to lead a
Christ-like life? The novelist's con-
clusion is, on the whole, unfavorable,
and. therefore, condemnatory of civil-
isation. Such a theme, so treated, was
certain to awaken controversy. Chiefly
opinions rage around the hero of tho
story. It is asserted that his failures
were chargeable to his character, not
his environment; and the criticism Is
sound enough—as far as It goes. It
cannot be an adequate statement, be-
cause it fails to take note of certain
fundamental truths. In the first place,
it is important to remember that the
author'! inquiry is no novel one. For
eighteen centuries, the earnest and the
faithful, straining their eyes at the
ideal of human brotherhood that Christ
set up, have wondered despairingly
whether man could ever reach it. The
better the man judged by the stand-
ard of others—the more hopeless, to
him, has seemed the attempt. Thus
the recent raising of the inquiry does
not mean that a single good man has
ti! at once perceived the world to be
growing worse. Does it not rather
show that an artist, keenly susceptible
to the mental influences that mold the
time, has been impressed by those as-
pirations toward general helpfulness
and justice which unquestionably tend
to dominate mankind? We believe
that he misreads the answer to his
question. But even if we were forced
<o side with him, conceding that the
world has not gained wisdom as it has
grown older, we might comfort our-
selves with the thought that hitman
nature has at least not changed. There
are no new pitfalls on the road to per-
fection, though some of the old ones
may bear new names. The saints of
the early centuries lived, as we must,
in the midst of rich and poor, Phari-
sees, publicaus, sound and sick, sinners
and righteous. And in our day, as
in theirs, "the aids to noble life are all
within."
Xj|;r A
MErRQPOLIlAN
rs
'///
r/s ,
T see a man. Why does lie smile? Be cause lie lias a jump ing jae'r. Wli.v does the jumping-jack
make him smile? Be cause he makes it do fun-ny things, just as lie plea ses. He can make it jump up
the stick and then down the stick in the twinkling of an eye. Why has he that mark on his front?
Be cause In- is a plu to-crat. What is a plu to crat? A dis ci-ple of Plu to, the god of riches. He
mea sures all things by wealth, of which he has much. Can he buy lots of jumping-jacks with his
great wealth? Yes, he owns ma ny jump ing jacks and he keeps tiiem work ing all the time. Why
has the jump ing jack got that card on its tail? That is to tell what kind of a jumping jack it is.
What does the mon key represent? The monkey represents the ed i tor of a big dai ly paper. lie
does whatever the plu to crat tells him to do. Do the peo ple be lieve what the ed i tor says? Some-
times they do and to the great in ju ry of them selves. He told them to vote for Cleve land in
eighteen nine ty two and for Mr-Kin-ley in eighteen-nine ty sis. They got it in the sol ar plex us both
times. How can the peo ple beat the plutocrat's game? By watch ing the jump-ing-jack and no-
ing the op po site of what it ad vis es. Does the ed i tor make the peo ple sick? Yes anil ang ry too.
Some dav they will take him and the plu tocrat and give it to them in the sol-ar-plex-iis.
RAILROAD QUESTION.
AN ABLE DISCUSSION OF THE
SUBJECT BY JOHN DAVIS.
I'reRident llipir j of tlie Santa Fa vystrm
i* iiiiHwered by a iiihii u lio Iirh nt ;«<(* n
tudy of tli«* triuiHportatiou problem
In all Its plianeH.
[t on tim 1; | from last wkkk.j
After twenty years and more of ef-
fort the opening of the Indian Terri.
tory to modern civilization has been
assured, and tribal ownership of the
oil will soon be ended. The treaty
between the Dawes commission .and
the Creeks provides for an allotment
of 160 acies to each Indian citizen and
for the sale of the remainder at public
auction. This will throw open 600,000
acres, or 958 square miles, to white
settlement, and the treaty about to be
closed with the Cliickasaws will place
ten times as great an area of land on
sale.
Editor of the Kansas Commoner:
Following in the order of discussion
by Mr. Brown and President Ripley,
the next point to be mentioned is the
transportation and delivery of parcels.
Replying to Mr. Brown on that sub-
ject. President Repley says: The oth-
er point which Mr. ltrown raises is in
regard to tho English Parcels' Post.
It is quite true that the postoffice de-
partment of the British government
covers a wider field in some respects
than the post office department iu this
country, and the Parcels' Post since it
was instituted in England has been a
great convenience especially in the ab-
sence of any express companies over
there. The government handles the
j parcels just as it does the letter mail
( and it makes up any deficiency out of
| the revenue from general taxes. The
same tiling could be done in tiiis coun-
try. So far as the cost of tiie service
goes, to the people it makes very little
difference whether they pay it direct-
ly in charges on the individual article
or whether it is paid subsequently in
taxes to make up a government defi-
ciency. But the parties to criticise for
its absence in this country are not the
railroads, but the administration in
Washington. It is a matter which Mr.
Brown had better refer to the Post-
master General."
That is the most unfortunate para -
graph for the writer that 1 have met
with. It is like the Prince of darkness
referring his victim to the source of
light The railway corporations are
secret organizations; their closely
guarded secrets can only be fathomed
by the people incidentally and by
pie-je- meal.
Acting on President Ripley*s sugges-
tion, I refei to the report of the post-
master general for 1895, and find on
page 33 that the United States govern-
ment pays to the railroads eight cents
a pound for the transportation of the
U. S. mails.
The first question which arises after
learning that fact, is this: How far do
the railways carry the mails for that
price, on the average? What is the
ayerage haul for which the U. S. gov
eminent pays the railroads eight cents
a pound for transporting the mails?
'Xhe beat etUuiutv 1 have at hand ou
| this .subject makes the average haul of
! tho U. S mail bags 442 miles. That is
j t he distance for which the railways arc
! paid eight cents a pound, or, SI00 per
ton, for transporting the mails. No
| such extortionate rates, or highway
robbery charge#, I think one may safe-
I ly say, are paid by any other govern-
ment in the world It is a plain case
of "hold up," with Hie alternative:
"Your money or your life!" I ask at-
tention to the following testimony:
"The postoffice today pays fifty per
cent more for the transportation of a
ton of mail bags from New York to
Buffalo by railway,than it used to cost
to send ordinary freight the same dis-
tance by boat and by wagon, iu the
daj'8 before the opening of the Erie
canal. Books, carpets, hats and caps,
boots and shoes, gloves and laces, are
carried from Liverpool by steamer to
New Orleans, and thence by railway to
! San Eraneisco, for one dollar and sev-
en cents ($1.07) per hundred pounds
| Our express companies carry all sorts
of parcels from the domicil of New
! York to the station, thence by rail a
thousand miles to Chicago, and deliver
at the domicil in that city, at a rate of
j three dollars (S3) per hundred pounds:
but the railways tax the government
eight cents a pound; eight dollars a
hundred; one hundred and sixty dol-
lars a ton for the transportation of its
mail bags for an average haul of not
over 442 miles." (See fowler Freight
and Passenger Post, page 7.)
That astounding statement shows
that, in proportion to distance, the
railways receive from six to ten times
as much for transporting the Ir. S.
mails, ton for ton, as is paid for the
transportation of similar matter for
the express companies. That fact
standing alone ought to be shameful
enough, even for the shameless con-
science of a railway corporation: but
the first obvious result adds to the
enormity It enables the express com-
panies, through their lower railway
rates, to compete with and underbid
the government on much of the mail
matter that is carried at a profit, leav-
ing the profitless second-class matter
to be carried by the government at a
loss. This, of course, enlarges the an
nual postal deficit that we hear sueh
interminable scolding about among the
corporations that envy the people their
much valued cheap periodical litera-
ture.
There are further lessons to be learn-
ed from the above statement. The
railways carry costly freights for one
cent per ton per mile, as a high aver-
age in the United States, and are glad
to get the profits of the business at
that price. That is. I think, about the
average of freight rates on the Santa
Fe railroad. Where there is do com
petition, freights are often higher, as
every opportunity for extortion and
over charging is promptly and dili-
gently utilized to the utmost of the
corporations. But, take the great east
and west trunk lines between ths Mis-
sissippi and the Atlantic as examples,
and we find them eager to carry
freights at half a cent per ton per
mile, which is but half the figure that
1 have adopted us the ayerage of
freight charges in this country.
We have seen that the estimated
haul of the U. S. mail is 442 miles. At
one cent per ton per mile, the cost to
the government would be four dollars
and forty-two cents. (84.42 per ton.)
Now what does the government pay
the railroads for that service at pres-
ent rates? It pays them SI00 per ton;
or. about thirty-six times the average
price of carrying costly freights in this
country. Nor is that the whole story.
The U. S. government loads and un-
loads the goods, and pays for the use
j of the cars in which the mails are car-
! ried, at the rate of one hundred per
i cent per annum on their cost. The
I railway companies merely haul the
j cars when loaded and ready, along the
| roads that are operated for other pur-
i poses. The railway companies fix
! their own time tables and haul the
mail cars because the trains are run-
ning. and because they get thirty-six
prices for doing so. If there are any
exceptions to the rule here, stated
they are comparatively few, and I
would be very glad to see them point-
: ed out.
j Iu contracting for the transportation
! of the U. S. mails, the corporations
; are virtually contracting with them-
| selves. The only limit is the consider-
ation: "How much will the people
i stand?" The American public is very*
patient, but there is a limit to its en-
durance. The ballot box is within
reach, and through that the people can
control things whenever they think it
worth their while to earnestly try to
do so. When it becomes apparent to
all that the railways have l>een in the
governing business long enough, and
! have exhausted the patience of the
most patient, it may then be determin-
ed that the railway managers shall go
out of the governing business, and that
, the U. S. government shall go into the
railway business. Things may then
be done a little better than now. They
will surely be done as well and at less
cost.
(To be continued.)
A girl about to get married is as full
of business as a woman who is manag-
ing a church festival.
The people spend a terrrible lot of
money on things they cannot eat,
wear or burn for fuel.
IT IS NOTHING NEW.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF
RAILROADS NO EXPERIMENT.
tinvrriiuirnt* on every Continent, to a
greater or Inn extent, nun ami rontrol
their railroa<l« and it i mm louder an
%S| erluieiit.
| Jl is not ns wel. understood as it
j ought to be that the Union Pacific
! road is now and has been since the
first of this years the property of, for
j its own use and benefit, the United
1 States government It is true that
foreclosure proceedings have been be-
gun to secure the first mortgage bond-
; holders, while entirely couutiug out
j this federal right and ownership. A
| great deal is said about this matter,
j Meanwhile the situation of other gov-
ernments in regard to railway owner-
ship und operation possesses an inter-
esting bearing upon the question.
Senators Allen, Gear and Butler are
J responsible for the following statistics,
i they, especially the former having
I sifted this matter down into simple
shape better than most other compilers:
The Argentine Republic owns 020
miles of railway.
! In Australia five-sixths of the rail
j ways are the property of the colonial
governments.
Austria Hungary owns about 40 per
cent of the total mileage and operates
about 73 per cent.
Three-fourths of the mileage of Bel-
gium is owned and operated by that
country.
Brazil owns one-fourth and does
one-half of all its railway busines.
Canada owns one-tenth of total
mileage.
tape of Good Hope, English South
Africa, one-half is owned by that gov-
ernment.
Columbia subsidizes with under-
standing that it shall own at end of a
period.
Greece own a part of its railways.
Gualainala likewise.
. Holland owns one-half.
India owns two-thirds.
Italy owns all but leases them.
I .lapan owns a small percentage
j while retaining an option of purchase
on roads built since 1887.
Mexican railway charters give gov-
ernment an option of purchase.
Nicaragua owns all.
Norway owns all.
Paragua}' owns all.
Portugal owns 38 per cent and all
railways revert to government in nine -
ty-nine years.
Russia owns 40 per cent and the oth-
er GO per cent are subsidized by the
government. Russia controls all divi-
dend paid by means of state board of
directors subject to government ap-
proval.
Sweden owns one-third.
In United States, Illinois bnilfc a
road but sold it.
Indiana has constructed railways.
Georgia now owns one.
Ptiiinsylvania built one from Phila
delphia to Columbia but sold it.
Massachusetts, Michigan and several
other states have built and own roads.
North Carolina has built two roads,
operates one aud leases the other; both
pay well.
It is not the purpose here to give
the advantages or disadvantages of
government ownership, but merely to
draw attention to facts as they exist.
—New Era, Springfield, O.
The ropnliota View of Money.
The Populists demand the coinage of
all the gold and silver that may come
to our mints at the ratio of 10 to 1, and
the issuance of paper certificates there-
on, in order that it may not be neces-
: sary to circulate the metal in specie.
If this furnishes a sufficient volume of
I currencj', then wc shall have no paper
i money not based on coin. If there is
| not sufficient metalic money to meet
the demands of trade and there never
i has been—then we demand that suf-
ficient paper money be issued by the
government receivable by it for all
dues, and a full legal tender for all
debts, public and private, which may
thereafter be incurred. This paper j
money shall not be subjected to a
forced redemption in coin or any re-
demption except as the output of the
mines automatically supplant it with
gold or silver coin. If these principles
are wrong, then the Populist party is
wrong. If this party is wrong, then
the overwhelming majority of political
economists have always been wrong,
for we are in harmony with the great
thinkers and writers on government
monetary science. We are not in har-
mony with the great bankers. They
are mere specialists in so organizing
financial systems and in so handling
ready money as to make the largest
possible private gains for themselves.
The real conflict is not between gold
and silver, but between a national cur-
rency issued and controlled by the gov-
ernment for the equal benefit of all the
people and a bank currency issued and
controlled bj* the banks for their spe-
cial selfish interests. The bankers
well know that gold is so scarce that
thej' can always keep it cornered in
their vaults, then expand and contract
their bank currency just as their in-
terests demand, and thereby control
the value of their investments and the
destiny of the world in their interests.
—Congressman Bell, in the Illustrated
American.
If by some magic the American peo-
ple couid look upon the scenes in some
of the PeMi ylvania mining regions the
bloody incident at Ha^elton would pre-
cipitate a revolution.
The responsibility does not rest en-
tirely with the sheriff aud his deputies
as they are but toola in the hands of
real murderers, for whom we must
look higher. As a general rule the
public functionaries in the mining re-
gions are the spinless and aub ervient
creatures of the companies. They is-
sue proclamations, read riots acts and
commit murder when ordered to do so
their masters.
The miners who are murdered in the
name of law and order were perfectly
peaceable. They were quietly walk-
iug on the highway when the assassin
authorities stopped and bullied aud
attacked them.
Suppose a man of wc;dth, a cop.1 op-
erator, were stopped and killed under
the same circumstances. The whole
country would be aroused in an in-
stant, and such papers as the Chicago
Tribune, supporied by the Christian
clergy, would demand in thunder
tones that all the powers of the gov-
ernment be invoke' to crush out the
whole body of workingmen.
Wholesale murder has been commit-
ted at the behest of corporate capital
by the public authorities in the name
of law and order. No amount of jug-
glery or sophistication can obscure the
indictment
Is this an attack on', government, or
is it government?
Is it an assault on "Old Glory," as
they declared when the Pullman strike
was on, or is it what the old llag now
symbolizes?
Governor Tlastiugs ordered out the
troops. Was it for tho purpose ol
shooting the murderers, or murdering
more miners.
The crime is so revolting that it is
difficult to keep within the bounds of
reasonable statemeut.
The t wenty or more graves of these
murdered workingmen loom up before
us. What a text for the Christian
ministry!
Have they raised their voices in as
solemu protest as if the strikers were
the murders instead of the victims of
the authorities?
\Vhen 1 think of these hard-worked,
half-starved coal miners iying in the
dirt of the highway, the blood oozing
from their ragged bodies, and then
think of the hovels in which wives and
childred are awaiting their return, my
heart melts in compassion, and my
whole being revolts against the satanic
crime.
It is worthy of remark that the mas-
sacre occurred in a state that boasts
of a majority of 280,000 iu favor of pro-
tection to Americau labor.
Government by injunction has borne
fruit. We now have government by
murder.
The Pennsylvania horror is a blot
upon the state, a disgrace to the re-
public and a blistering reproach to ouf
gold standard civilization. It is sufti-
cient to shock all Christendom, and it
is to be hoped that the American peo-
ple will wake up.—E. V. Debs.
Now 1 don't see any sense in people
starving themselves when it is so easy
to make money and money buys food.
1 have before tne Henry Clews Invest-
ment Guide for 1897, and I would rec-
ommend that the miners get a copy
and study it On page 33 it gives the
net receipts of the Manhattan Rail-
way of New York City, after paying all
wages, salaries, attorneys, lobby ista
and other legitimate and illegitimate
expenses, as §3,880,840. As the road is
only 14 1-7 miles long, this means that
the road paid in round numbers, $9000
per mile per month profit! When a
mile of elevated railway will pay all
expenses and pay enough every year
to build the road, why don't the min-
ers quit mining coal and embark in the
more lucrative business? The same
authority tells us that the surface rail-
roads of New York City pay nearly
S2"j,000 per mile profit per year! And
there are some people who are so crazy
that they would have the city bank-
rupt itself by owning and operating
its own street cars!—Appeal to Rea-
son.
In 187? tbpr# were 1,970 national
banks that had 3340,000,000 for circu-
lation, an average circulation of $172,-
000 per bank, amounting to S10 per
capita, and they had loaned outS~.48
for every dollar in their circulation.
In 1892 there were 3,721 national banks
that had Si83,000,000 of circulation, an
average of Sl8,r 00 to a bank of S2.75
per capita, and they had loaned out
Si 1.03 for every dollar of the circula-
tion. Since 1893 the number of banks
have increased about 1,000 and their
circulation reduced about 30 per cent
and the amount loaned out by these
banks for every dollar of their circula-
tion stands about SI7 for one. Friends
draw your own conclusions. — Denver
Road.
No man who likes a savage dog is
good to his family. You can put thia
down and swear to it
Always tell people to do things they
want to do and they will fiually grow
very fond of you.
Some women never entirely lose
their kittenish ways until they hav#
married and had trouble.
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, November 19, 1897, newspaper, November 19, 1897; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc115797/m1/2/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.