7
A MODEL RE? CU-ICAN TEACHES.
When one reads republican pa
pers, takes note of the kind of stuff
f onnd in their columns, and remem
bers that only a fractional part of the
republican voters read anything else,
he cannot wonder at the lack of intel
ligence manifested in the exercise of
the franchise. We have an example
of the information imparted to repub
lican readers now before na in the
Abilene Dispatch of March 22. The
subject of the learned disquisition is
the Bland seigniorage bill; and the
information which it fails to impart
concerning that measure will strike
the intelligent reader as very volumi
nous. The writer says: j
The bill ia intended to take the place of
what ia known aa the Sherman law. The
Sherman act of 1890 was an amendment to
the Bland-Allison bill, provided for the pur
chase of $2,000,000 worth of BiWar bullion
per month, and that silver certificates to
equal that sum should be used for circula
tion. This is certainly a very compre
hensive statement of the features of
the Bland-Allison bill. The writer
continues:
When the Sherman law passed in 1890 it
so amended as to increase the ooinnge of
silver dollars, and the issue of certificates
from $2,000,000 to $4,500,000 per month.
It will be news to people who sup
posed themselves well informed upon
this subject to learn that the coinage
of silver dollars was increased by the
Sherman law from $2,000,000 to
$4,500,000 per month. Men who
thought they were posted on the sub
ject have been laboring under the
impression that the coinage of silver
dollars was stopped altogether after
the first day of July, 1891. But here
is the climax in this learned disserta
tion: Under the Sherman aot, the silver was
coined into light weight dollars, and th
certificates were issued against thess dol
lars, for 100 cents. This left in the vaults
of the treasury an amount of surplus bullion
amounting to more than $55,000,000, and
that bullion is known as the seigniorage.
Mr. Bland in his bill proposes to ooin into
silver dollars all the surplus bullion, and
base the notes on 50 oents instead of 100
cent notes.
Light weight dollars! Just think
of it. There never was such a thing
known as a light weight dollar. There
were some "heavy weight" dollars
coined a few years ago which the
government afterwards discredited
and which were then bought up by
speculators at a discount; but no
light weight dollars were ever coined
in the government mints, and no
standard dollar was ever coined that
was not worth 100 cents in the pur
chase of any commodity in the mar
ket. Neither was there eer a certi
ficate issued under the Sherman law
of 1890 tiat would not purchase as
much of any commodity as a gold
dollar. Neither is the seigniorage in
the United States treasury the resi
due of bullion remaining from the
coinage of light weight dollars. Is
it any wonder that, with such teach
ers as the Dispatch, men continue to
vote the republican ticket?
THE PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION.
At last the official returns of the
Pennsylvania election have come
along by freight, and we are able to
make an authentic statement of the
"great republican gains."
In 1892 Harrison received 516,011
votes. In the late election Mr. Grow
received 485,693. This indicates a
republican loes of 30,318. In 1892
Mr. Cleveland received 452,064 votes.
In the late election-, the democratic
candidate for congressman at large
received 299,452 votes a democratic
loss of 152,612. The great republi
can majority, therefore, was not the
result of a republican gam, but it was
because so many democrats stayed at
home. Adding the republicans who
stayed at home to the democrats we
find a total stay-at-home vote of 182,
940. Now suppose that these fellows
should happen to find out before next
election, "where they are at," how
much of a majority would the repub
lican party have m that case?
A. 6. STACSY RETURNS.
Some time ago A. G. Stacey went
to Salt Lake City to edit the Herald.
Topeka papers of March 19 published
the news of his return to this city.
Among the reasons assigned for his
return is the following:
There is another drawback to journalism
in Utah. The Mormons consider it a part
of their religious duty to lie to the Gentiles,
and they do not neglect their religious
duties.
After the newspaper man had hung
this item on the hook a satisfactory
smile was observed to play upon his
features as much as to say, "Now,
that's the best joke of the season."
Ths numerous revivals all over Kansas
ao not seem to nave reaonea out ana taken
any Populist offloials into the fold. State
Journal.
Very true. It is not the righteous,
but sinners, who are called to re
pentance, and lots of sinful republi
cans are repenting and forsaking
their former evil associations.
Thk circulation "per capita" is one of the
foolish theories of Amerioan politios. It is
not the amount of money in the oountry
that makes it prosperous but the opportu
nities offered to workingmen to get fair
wages. Emporia Gazette, Maroh 11.
Now tell ns what is the matter with
the opportunities offered to working
men to get fair wages.
INVESTMENTS.
A Means of Monopolizing Land and Cheating
Labor.
Communicated.
Next to obtaining control of the
offices and of the taxing power, the chief
end of the republican oligarchy seems to
be to induce foreigners and non-residents
to invest their capital in Kansas
lands and corporations. To do this they
do not heeitate to lie and deceive as to
the certain and large profits to be de
rived, and they persecute and slander
anyone who refuses to join them in seek
ing to delude the unwary. With them,
the chief end of man is to sell real estate
at a big advance over coBt. The "Stand
up for Kansas" cry of last campaign
really meant: "Help ua to work a confi
dence game on the newcomer and on the
unwary eastern capitalist; help us to lie
about our resources and financial condi
tion bo we can skin Bomeone out of some
money." The true secret of the bitter
and malignant feeling of hostility to the
Populists is that the people's movement
has to some extent interfered with their
profitable confidence gamed.
This leads us up to the question of
what is the real economic) nature and
meaning of the word "investments."
Very few realiza the tremendous import
ance of this word, and that it embraces
nearly the whole theory of economic re
form and social justice. Money or capi
tal invested in a monopoly is all there is
or can be of oppression and injustice to
the masses, and so long as the laws per
mit such investments it is idle folly to
think they will not ba made, or to blame
the investor.
Forty years ago money was profitably
aacl safely invested in African slaves and
100 years ago slave ships were a very
common and respectable form of invest
ment. Legislation has destroyed these
resources of investment, greatly to the
benefit of the African race, aa it must
and will destroy other forma of invest
ments to the equally great benefit of.
both white and colored people.
"Investments" means capital planted
where it will grow and inorease without
the care and supervision of the owner.
It means "a cinch" on part of the wealth
produced by the labor of other people.
All wealth being the product of labor,
it necessarily follows that those who ac
quire more wealth than their own labor
produces must do it by tolling or taxing
the labor of other people, and this can
only be done legally through some form
of investments.
Investments return either rent, inter
est, or profits, though careless or un
learned persons speak of all returns aa
interest, and this wrong nomenclature
renders it difficult to enlighten the
masses on the sources and remedies of
their wrongs. It is an anxiom of politi
cal economy that the three factors in
production and distribution of wealth
are: land, which draws rent; capital,
which draws interest, and labor which
draws wages. This ia the old, or Adam
Smith definition, but the modern or
scientific economists make some further
and very important distinctions, for the
latter takes into account the question of
monopolies and certain moral questions j
which Smith ignored. The most im
portant difference is in the fact that the
modern school teaohes that interest is
largely, if not entirely, itself a product
or result of rent, and that with the abo
lition of rent or unearned increment, true
economio interest on real capital would
cease to be a burden to labor, if it did
not indeed cease to exist entirely. This
they claim would be the result of a
double cause "the great increase of
available capital and the lack of any
source of profitable investment except in
aiding labor to produce more wealth."
Were there no investments open to ac
cumulated capiial except in the employ
ment of labor, such capital could at best
earn only true economio interest, which
would necessarily always be less than
the increment of labor, hence less than
3 per cent.
But so long aa capital can be invested
in real estate and return both annual
rent and profit in rise of value, it nec
essarily follows that such investments
must absorb the bulk of all capital and
govern the rate of interest. In proof of
this, we always find active capital scarce
and rates of interest high in a new coun
try, where land is rapidly advancing in
value, and capital plentier and interest
low in old and densely settled countries
where land has about reached its maxi
mum. Also we find capital in demand
and interest high during a real estate
boom, but that money congests in banks
after the boom collapses.
Perhaps the greatest evil of permit
ting private capital to be speculatively
invested in real estate Is the financial
panics and periods' of depression, of
which collapsed booms1., are now the ad
mitted causa. It ii it&ct beyond de
pute that every such period of depres
sion has been preceded by a period of
inflation of real estate and of corporation
values. It is largely through these
periods of depression and forced salas
that peor men lose their homes and prop
erty, business stagnates and labor ia idla
and suffering. I notice that Mr. Plercs
and others attribute depressions to con
traction of the currency, but the facta do
not sustain this theory. The panic of
1837 occurred with more than the usual
volume of money, but following a period
of wild real estate speculation. The
banks failed after the collapse of the
boom and as a result of it, because they
could not realize on their landed securi
ties, or their patrons could not.
The boom of 1S57 followed a period of
bank inflation, while bans: failures and
panic followed the bursting of the boom.
The Kansas land boom of 1833 0, when
land in the eastern third of t the stats
was considerably jMr than it ia to
day, began, or at leaatrSSied its max-.,
imum, after the great .contraction.'-''
currency, and lasted until 1872. The'
Kansas boom which began in 18S1 and
bu rated in '1888 was with a less per
capita volume of money than we have
now, and the general boom all over the
country of these years was the principal
cause of the general depression.
Another favorite form of investments
is corporation stocks and bonds, whioh
always follow real estate up and down,
but are far less disastrous to the peopla
than to the speculators, as they do not
cause so jreat a load of debt and taxes
on fictitious values.
With land and publio utilities mads
public property through the single tax
system the opportunity for speculative
investments would be gone and capital
could only be employed in machinery
and other aids of labor. The chief
trouble now is that hundreds of millions
of dollars annual profit from invest
ments are reinvested and give no em
ployment or aid to labor, but on the
contrary demand a price which labor
cannot afford to pay access to opportu
nities for protection, hence the laborer is
idle and suffering in the midst of abund
ant resources which he would gladly
utilize to satisfy wants. The British
landlords have fine investments in little
old Ireland and in big. new Ireland
(America), and they did have in New
Zaaland, until that country adopted the
rental value tax system a few years ego,
since which time the people of New Zea
land are the most prosperous in the
world, but the British landlord has lest
his large yearly revenue from that coun
try. It seems to me too plain for argument
that the way and the only way to pre
vent speculators from getting a cinch on
our future earnings is to deprive them of
the privileges now given them by un
wise and unjust law to invest in monopo
lies. So long as we give them this legal
privilege, all efforts to mitigate its vil
effects will be utterly without effect.
Why should we labor to inaugurate
another boom engulf a fresh set of
victims. W.fl. T. Wakxfijxd.
The Railroad Question.
We acknowledge receipt of a book with
the above title written by William Lar
rabee and published by the Schulte Pub
lishing company, Chicago. Anything
upon this subject is in demand at the
present time, and from the hasty glanoa
we have been able to give this work wa
are satisfied it is a valuable contribu
tion to the literature of the times. That
part of it especially which treats of tba
history of transportation and the history
of railroads in Europe and America
will be especially interesting. We com
mend the work aa one which should be
I read by all who s:cit to ba thoroughly
Infamsd upen tha sub'cci,