The Tecumseh Leader. (Tecumseh, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, May 24, 1895 Page: 2 of 8
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Tecumseh Leader.
N. S. MOUNTS, Publisher.
TECUMSEH,
OKLAHOMA
In the country the boys will wear the
Trilby bathing Buits this summer alto-
gether.
A Boston paper calls Japan the "Ire-
land of the orient." Not guilty; there
is nothing green about Japan.
The long-distance telephone between
Paris and London has over 200 calls a
day. At the rate ol $2 for each call it
pays.
The teacher of a cooking class in Chi-
cago eats what her pupils cook. There
is an example of subliiua laith and con-
fidence.
Of course a mere earthly jail wUl not
hold Schweinfurth, but he seems to
have an extraordinary objection to it,
just U:e rarne.
If tha north pole ever is discovered
by a CMcagoan we will wager that it
will have a trolley wire strung upon
it within a week.
has sent the price of oil skyward "to
stimulate the production of crude oil."
Dut too much stimulation is always fol-
lowed by katzenjammer.
Uncle Sam has just paid an old war
claim, but then it was not quite so
nearly outlawed by the limitation as
the French spoliation claims.
Now that the cruel war Is ended we
suspect that an investigation will prove
that the Chinese have been doiug all
their fighting with gunpowder tea.
Cornelius Vanderbilt will pay $75,000
for the fire place in his new Fifth
avenue palace. Cornelius is the only
one who should get hot about it, though.
There is no money available to run
the Nebraska penitentiary, and it may
have to be closed. There may be times
when a criminal can really enjoy pov-
erty.
George Pye, of Chicago, tried twice
in one day to kill himself. If tenacious
resistance to annihilation is significant
he must be a near relative of Restau-
rant Pie.
Emperor William has invented a new
tipple which he calls "violet cham-
pagne." It probably produces the same
old pink tinge, however, when used for
painting purposes.
Aspiration is nine-tenths inspiration,
for without earnest thought there will
be no inflow of Ideas that will leave
their mark on the pages of time or
make us better or nobler beings.
Thieves got $35,000 from a bank at
Fifllintown, Pa., last week. They were
smart enough not to tackle a New York
bank. In all probability the cashier
would have been too quick for them.
A Boston paper says: "Slaughtered
cattle are beef, slaughtered sheep are
mutton, slaughtered hogs are pork; but
what are slaughtered horses?" In the
cheap restaurants they are 10 cents a
cut.
A Washington paper says that Sen-
ator Blackburn is extremely popular
in Kentucky "because he is a splendid
mixer." We would sooner believe he
was popular there because he didn't
mix at all.
A Washington correspondent says
that President Cleveland has been pho-
tographed oftener than any other chief
executive. It must be admitted that
Grover has earned a great reputation
for dealing out negatives.
Abraham Rimes, of Fulton County,
Ind., who has been married and di-
vorced ten times and has just married
his eleventh wife, is, if we are not mis-
informed, still in the prime of life and
has a great future, if not a perplexing
hereafter, ahead of him.
We never know what we aro capable
of doing. Our latent capabilities lie
fallow until aroused by the needs of
the hour. There are no great leaders
until the necessity for them arises.
Without wars we can have no great
generals. But when the crisis arrives
there will always be someone to arise
superior to the situation to lead his fel-
low men or unravel the skein in which
they have become entangled.
The Mexican cotton-boll weevil has
already begun its depredations on Tex-
as cotton. It seems likely to do more
than anything else to reduce the cot-
ton acreage in this largest cotton-pro-
ducing State. Last year 15 per cent of
the cotton crop of Texas was destroyed
by this weevil. It works on the bolls
while the crop is growing, and poisons
have little effect on it. The damago
to the Texas crop is estimated this year
at 25 per cent. Measures will be taken
by adjoining States to keep this de-
•tructive enemy out of them.
AMEiSGAIMv RFPRESENTATIVES OF THE.
RULED BY WEALTHY.
altgeld's arrangement op
supreme court judges.
Dlrinlty of Riches Itecogn'xed and I
Cnrse Breathed Against Enterprise bj
the Income-Tax Decision—Memoran.
clum Filed by the Attorney-General.
KinpGroveP—How much go Id will you acJvance on this chattel?
tested against the tendency towards a
plutocratic government founded on
wealth concentrated into the hands of
a few by the aid of class legislation.
He said :
"I know that the bond holders and
monopolists are seeking to destroy all
the industries of this people in their
greed to enhance the value of their
gold. How far they have succeeded in
their secret and devilish purposes let
the poverty, wretchedness and ruin
which have resulted answer. We are
curious to know what facts and proc-
ess of reasoning the sound money
clubs will furnish to prove that the act
of 1873 was not a fraud, a sneaking,
cowardly villianous crime."
During Cleveland's first administra-
tion Senator Beck denounced the policy
of the administration in a speech in
the United States senate, that is hardly
equalled by that of Joseph Sibley in
the fifty-third congress.
* •
General Weaver is out west with the
managers of the bimetallic party, try-
ing to put that party on its feet. We
fear that the general'a occupation as
midwife at the birth of new parties has
somewhat clouded his judgment as a
practical politician. We are inclined
to think that relief must rather come
through tenacity to principle and un-
compromising effort in a certain direc-
tion, than in the organization of a
new party every two or three years.
The growth of the party in Iowa has
not been of that nature that would in-
dicate that General Weaver's policy
was the best one to pursue. What we
need is organization and downright
hard work on the lines laid down in
the Omaha platform. If the general
is going to go off with the bimetallic
party we ought to know it now. Bet-
ter come back, general to your first
love.
Senator Vest evidently thinks there
are still enough righteous men in the
democratic party to save it from de-
struction. In a recent letter to the
New York World he says;
"We of the west and south believe
in a tariff for revenue only, and the
free coinage of silver. We propose to
frame a platform unequivocally declar-
ing our opinions, an<i to nominate for
the presidency a candidate about whose
loyalty to this platform there can be
no suspicion.
"The letter of the president to his ad-
mirers in Chicago simply reiterates his
well-known views on the silver ques-
tion, and widens the breach between
him and a majority of his party. The
president insults that majority by his
lecture on sound money. His idea
seems to be that gold alone is sound
money, and that the value of every-
thing is measured in gold. He pro-
poses to destroy one-half of the primary
money of the world and to sustain this
outrage by the cry of unsound money.
"I agree with Mr. Cleveland in his
position on the appointment of com-
missioners to an international monetary
congress. There was never any thing
practical in the proposition, and never
will be. We must act for ourselves
and give the world to understand that
we are true bimetallists, honestly in
favor of both gold and silver as pri-
mary money. This is the great issue
in the coming campaign, and we intend
to fight it out in the national convention
and in every state in the union. The
struggle will be in the northwest in-
stead of in the northeast, as heretofore,
and we must align our forces with that
certainty before us.
"The talk about nominating a south-
ern democrat for president in 1896 is
absurd. We must win or lose on free
coinage, a revenue tariff and the in-
come tax, and it would be suicidal to
invite war prejudices and sectional
feeling unnecessarily."
notes and comments.
Carnegie and Frick have advanced
the wages of employes, but at the same
time advanced rents. When Rockefel-
ler endows a college or builds a church
the price of coal oil is advanced, but
he is counted a philanthropist.
* * *
The command of the plutocracy to
poor people as pictured in cartoons in
recent years, to "Get off the earth!"
is being complied with. A company of
New York capitalists has been formed
to erect extensive floating tenement
houses to be moored on East river and
rented to families. The same scheme
is in operation on the Thames, near
London. Many families live on boats
in the vicinity of St. Louis. It is true
that the psalmist says, "The earth is
the Lord's and the fullness thereof,"
but David was not acquainted with the
modern landlord.
•
Forty cents a day is the average
wages of more than 30,000 women in
the city of New York, and this accounts
for the fact that there are 70,000 prosti-
tutes in that city. Is it possible that
these conditions can exist under the
eyes of millions of Christian people
and they will still go on voting to per-
petuate them?
• * •
By a vote of 70 to 3 the New York
legislature passed a bill submitting to
the voters of New York city, Brooklyn
and Buffalo the question of municipal
ownerships of street railways. In Eng-
land one-third of the street railway
mileage is owned by cities, and it is
said the service is so much better and
cheaper that it is merely a question
of a short time when corporate or pri-
vate ownership will be driven out.
* * •
There is one thing that can Jm Kiid
to President Cleveland's credit that
cannot be said of his party. Wo always
know just where to find him. There
is nothing wishy-washy about his de-
clarations. It was the wildest stretch
of the imagination when anybody ever1
dreamed that he was the least bit
friendly to silver. He was made popu-
lar by Wall street at so much a line
in the newspapers, but that was not his
fault. Grover Cleveland is just what he
is, and his actions on the silver ques-
tion are in entire accord with his let-
ters and messages during his first ad-
ministration. If he has blocked silver
legislation, it is the fault of the party
that nominated him twice after he de-
clared his position on that question,
and not his.
* * •
The total capital stock of both the
national and private banks in the Unit-
ed States is $1,067,597,237, and the total
loans $4,140,701,169, according to the
report of the comptroller of the cur-
rency. In other words the banks have
loaned out more than four times the
amount of their capital. This is money
deposited in the banks by the people
who have but little or no security for
it. The profits of the banks consist
in interest on loans and discounts.
Then three-fourths of their profits
consist in interest on money which
they owe. That is the banker lives and
thrives on the interest of what he owes.
A great banking system, this!
* * *
If the people would adopt the policy
of the bankers and demand gold for all
their transactions it would bankrupt
the country within thirty days. Or, if
they would even refuse to take bank
notes it would give the banks and
business men a dose of their own medi-
cine that would soon make them sick
of the gold fallacy. In fact if the peo-
ple would act as selfishly as the bank-
ers do in these matters the government
would be forced into a sensible finan-
cial policy over which the banks would
have no control.
• *
The Standard Oil company advanced
the price of oil 17 cents on the barrel
in two days recently, and $2 a barrel is
predicted soon. In freezing out small
producers as a means of getting rid of
competition, and skinning the people,
the Standard Oil company is becoming
the greatest robber concern in this
country. In advancing oil Rockefeller
is probably getting ready to endow an-
other college or build a church.
* * *
Do not be surprised that you meet
with opposition in this reform move-
ment, and that men are slow to accept
the truth. No reform has ever been
effected without opposition—in fact,
no innovation in science, in the field of
invent^in, religious or political reforms
have ever been readily accepted by the
world. Every reformer, every inven-
tor or great discoverer has encountered
skepticism, opposition and many of
them persecutions.
* * *
Six thousand men in Brooklyn were
interested in the strike in that city sev-
eral months ago. The incidents attend-
ing that strike and its result ought to
add 6,000 voters to the reform ranks in
opposition to the two old parties, the
policies of which make strikes of that
kind necessary. But how many of these
6,000 laboring men will use the ballot
as a means of correcting the wrongs
heaped upon them?
A Springfield, 111., special says: Got.
Altgeld gave out an interview today
denouncing the United States Supreme
court for the income tax decision. He
says:
"Tho court has held the law to be
void in so far as it affects the large real
estate owners, such as the Astors, of
New York, and has also held it to be
void in so far as it affects the rich
bondholders of the east. But the re-
mainder is sustained, the court holding
that the business and producing classes
must pay the income tax. It is all a
question of constitutional construction,
and as this depends on opinion or prej-
udice, one is reminded of the distin-
guished Englishman who, in speaking
of the court of chancery, said that the
proceedings were all a matter of con-
science, and as the consciences of the
different chancellors varied as much
as the size of their feet, so did their
decisions on any question. Now, the
constituion of the United States has
been construed in more different ways
than all the judges together had feet,
but always in harmony with what wa.-
the controlling influence or power of
the times. Before the war the slave
powtr and the south dominated the
court. Since the war concentrated
wealth and the east has dominated th«
court, and the time will come when jus-
tice pnd the great Mississippi valley
will dominate the court.
"This particular decision recognizes
the divinity of wealth by exempting it
from taxation, and it breathes a curse
against enterprise by making it bear
ali the burdens of government. But it
is in harmony with that passage of
scripture which says that "for he that
hath, to him shall be given; and he that
hath not, from his shall be taken even
that which he hath." And it is in per-
fect accord with the Republican and
Mugwump theory of government now
being applied in this country, and, as
this decision is in favor of New England
and a few eastern cities, and against
the rest of America, it is also in har-
mony with what will soon be recog-
nized as the sixteenth amendment to
the constitution, which declares that a
gilded vestibule is no more important
than the remainder of the house, that
the interests of the east are paramount
to the interests of the rest of the coun-
try. It also shows that at least two ol
the co-ordinate branches of our gov-
ernment receive their inspiration at the
same altar.
"You remember that the president
opposed the income tax and would not
sign the tariff bill, and Mr. Wilson,
who represented him in congress, op-
posed the income tax. Congress, how-
ever, kuowing that almost every civil-
ized country had an income tax, and
believing it to bo the most just form ol
taxation, and having no doubt about Its
constitutionality, passed the measure,
both Republicans and Democrats sup-
porting it. For a time there was bitter-;
ness in the camp of Mammon, but the
Supreme court has come to the rescue,
and now the Standard Oil kings, the
Wall street people, as well as the rich
mugwumps, are again happy. To be
sure, the great business and producing
classes are not relieved; their burden
is made a little heavier, and the whip
has made a new welt on their backs,
but what of it? In fact, what are they
there for, if not to bear the burdens
and to be lashed?
"But this decision is radically defect-
ive in a number of particulars. (1) It
should contain a panegyric on the ma-
jesty of the law and the exalted char-
acter of eternal justice. (2) It should
have contained a stinging rebuke tc
the growing discontent of the times.
(3) It should contain a declaration in
favor of gold, for if the interest on
bonds is divine and so sacred that not
a cent of it can be used to help beai
the burdens of government, then the
court should see to it that this sacred
household god of the east shall never
suffer profanation by having the rim
of its eyes made silvery. But it would
be unreasonable to expect the court tc
think of everything. Besides, it will
have other opportunities from time to
time to solidify our institutions and to
teach patriotism by coming down with
terrific force on some wretch whose vul-
garity and unpatriotic character will be
proven by the fact that ho is poor.
"The decision, however, suggests a
more important question to the Ameri-
can people. You know that the judges
of. the Supreme court when in sessior
wear large black gowns, such as were
worn in the middle ages. In othei
countries: and in other times this was
done to make little men seem great. Ir
this country it is done to impress the
populace with the infallibility of the
court. Now, ns these gowns are not
very thick, and as some people might
be able to see through them, and as
some of our business people may be un-
patriotic enough to question tho jus-
tice of having to pay a large income
tax while the rich pay nothing, nnd aa
there is danger that some of thosa men
may doubt the infallibility of the court!
would it not be well to have each judge
wear two gowns for awhile, until tbo
storm blows over?"
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Mounts, N. S. The Tecumseh Leader. (Tecumseh, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, May 24, 1895, newspaper, May 24, 1895; Tecumseh, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc177809/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.