The representative. [volume], April 04, 1894, Image 1

About The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
The Representative
/Isi.oo !ve a ar ; IN ADVANCE. ST. PAUL, MINN., APRIL 4, 1894. VOL. 1. NO. 49.
TREMENDOUS
ROBBERY.
Millions of Dollars Stolen From
the School Fund.
1 he Unborn Generations Stripped
of Their Heritage.
How the Republican Party has
Governed the State.
The revelations made by the legis
lative Pine Land Committee are sim
ply appalling.
We quote the following from the
Minneapolis Tribune of March 30th:
“St. Paul, March 30. —The pine lan#
investigation committee was in ses
sion here all day, receiving the re
ports of a sub-committee appointed
to collect evidence and institute
suits against the lumbermen, who, it
is alleged, have possessed themselves
wrongfully of the state pine. The
committee, as usual, declined to give
out any information, but The Tri
bune reporter interviewed several of
the members, and one of them made
the following statement: Prom the
the suits already instituted the state
expects to recover about SIOO,OOO from
the defendants. In every suit
brought there has been an offer made
by the lumber firm to compromise in
the matter, but in each case the state
has declined to consider the offer, and
preferred to leave the matter to the
courts.’
“Have you brought all the suits
you intended?”
“No, we have several other cases
which we are working upon.”
“What has been the effect of the
investigation and the suits com
menced, so far as you have learned?”
“I can say, without exaggeration,
that the effect has been tremendous.
The system of failing to account for
pine logs cut on state school lands
has. we believe, entirely ceased. Of
course we know that it is rather late
in the day for the state to step in
now to protect its pine lands. We
are going back, however, a score of
years ago, and whereverwe find proof
that the pine has been misappropri
ated we will institute suits to re
cover. We have come across cases
where from 8,000,000 to 14,000,000 feet
of pine have been cut from school
lands for which the state has not re
ceived one cent. In some of these
cases it may be difficult to prove who
took the timber, but where we can
trace the logs we can measure the
stuff and sue the parties, and this
will be done every time. The com
mittee will be al>le to show, in its re
port, that if steps had been taken in
time to protect the school lands, their
sale at fair prices would have result
ed in placing in the state school fund
a sum which, if invested at 4 per
cent, would be sufficient to have re
lieved the cities of Minnesota forever
of the burden of the school tax.”
•II as the committee exhausted
its appropriation yet?”
“No not yet, We propose to go
ahead as long as the money lasts.
The members of the committee are
not indulging in junketing.”
The suits already commenced by
the committee are as follows:
1. The State versus the Shevlin-
Carpenter & Co. 1 n this case the state
seized two and a half million feet of
logs, in boom in Minneapolis. The
logs are worth $25,000 and that is the
amount sued for.
2. The State versus the Itasea
Lumber Co., for short returns on two
seetions of school land. One section
was eight million feet short; the oth
er one and a half millions short.
The Total amount sued for is $74,-
;>oo.
3. The State versus T. R. Foley, of
Aitken Co. In this case there was
no permit. It was a wilful trespass
and unlawful seizure of the state’s
property. Two million feet were tak
en. The amount sued for is $14,000.
4. The State versus the Shelvin Car
penter Co. In this case the defend
ants cut two and a half million feet
off a single section, in the winter of
1892-3. and reported but one million
three hundred thousand feet: leaving
1,200,000 unaccounted for.
Put these four suits together and
we have claims of $135,000. and this is
not one-tenth of the eases revealed by the
investigation, and on which suits will
probably be brought. Mr. George W.
Day, of Minneapolis, pine land ex
aminer. has written the committee
that he will work for his expenses,
during the spring months: and take
his chances of the next Legislature
paying him: and that he believes he
will show a robbery of fifty million feet
of pine timber in a few sgua.re miles of
territory!!
And remember that the investiga
tion is confined to the last three or
four years, as the old cuttings are so
burned over that it is impossible to
scale the stumps.
The probabilities are that the State
School Fund has been plundered of an
amount as great as its entire present fund!
Think of the awful robberies inflict
ed on the countless generations that
are to come after us! The people of
Minnesota today would not need pay a
cent of the tax for the support of the
schools, if this robbery had been shut
Donnelly Dr Ignatius 55
Lndlcolt Are*rip °
off during the last thirty years. 1
We do not want to make party j
capital out of such a dreadful state j
of affairs; but it is only just to j
remember that during all the years
i that this tremendous plundering was
going on, the republican party had en
tire control of the state government!
in all its branches; and the men who -
did the plundering were mainly re
publicans, and many of them promin-!
ent politicians and leaders of thatj
party.
We need a new party—a “new
broom,” to sweep out the rascals and
their methods; and we need to pene
trate into this and all other robberies
to the very bottom. Go to work,
brethren, and let us elect a legisla
ture that will do this work, and save
chat is left. That’s the point.
It will be asked; —are, then, all the
lumbermen thieves? No; there are
many honest men among them. For
instance, not a particle of testimony,
we are happy to say, touches our old
friends, the Hassetts, of Minneapolis.
Their hands are clean. Hut then
they voted the Populist ticket in
1890 and 1892, and instinct is a great
tiling. A man who takes the side of
the people is not apt to rob them.
Would it not be_ji good idea for
Hon. J. S. Pillsbury,—“Honest John”
they call him, —to come to the relief
of the pojr, little children of the
state, and chip in two or three hun
dred thousand dollars, to make up
for the robberies perpetrated by bad j
men. He gave $350,000 to the State j
1 Diversity. It is true he was the !
“sleeping partner,” (ride Pioneer-1
Press), in the firm of Smith A Co.,
whom Hob Dunn compelled to ante
up SIO,OOO to the state for one section
of pine land. But he should now
wake up, and get a hump on himself:
or he may fail to descend to proster
ity as the great philanthropist of his
generation.
Come, brother Pillsbury, the world
is waiting for you. I. I).
Harmony.
I note that some of our eorrespoip
dents are very much alarmed lest we
shall not have “harmony” in our
ranks. These fears are ail ground
less. As the Irishman said:—“We
must have peace if we have to tight for
it.” Hut we don't want the peace of
the grave-yard; or the sweetness of
the corruptionists. Honest men will
have honest differences of opinion,
and the clash and conflict of views
are as healthy as the stiff winds agi
tating the salt sea and keeping it
from rotting. Let everything be bold
ly discussed, —men. principles, poli
cies. .But let the discussion be con
ducted in a brotherly spirit, without
abuse. We want all our quarreling,
—if there is to be any,—to take place
before the nominating convention is
held, not after it. We are neither
boors nor fools, that cannot differ
without coming to blows: and we
want no padlocks on men’s lips.
When we have made our ticket and
our platform we will all take hold,
with a tremendous enthusiasm, and
sweep the state! Reform is a bigger
thing than candidates or personal
ambitions, and reform we must have
or the republic dies. I. D.
Another Trick.
Mr. W. E. Cummings of Preston,
Minn., has been writing a series of
very valuable articles for the Preston
Republican, to show that our school
books are being doctored, and the
truth perverted, in the interest of
the Money-Power, so as to train up
the western rising generation to sub
mit patiently to be reduced to serf
dom. “As the twig is bent the tree
is inclined:” and if the East can get
possession of the youthful mind of
the West, her domination will con
tinue for generations. It is a beau
tiful co-partnership. Our fat soils
and tireless industry are to furnish
the money: and New England’s bar
ren hills and matchless cunning are
to equip us with ideas: so that we
may sing under the lash, and grin
when we are kicked.
This last assault on the West is the
most demoniac of all. We want a
Superintendent of Public Instruction
who will fling out of the schoolsevery
book that tends to bind the mind of
youths to false ideas. We are, it is
true, citizens»of the United States:
but as human creatures, on this
planet, we are entitled to all the
prosperity and happiness which the
universal age can give us; supple
mented by the constantly increasing
powers of a world-wide civilization;
and we do not propose, in the name
of patriotism, or any thing else, to
be reduced to pauperism. The best
way to preserve the Union is to make
it a blessing to every section of the
nation. Whenever it becomes an in
“SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THAT THEY GO FORWARD.”
strumentality to oppress one region
for the enrichment of another, then
you will have to maintain patriotism
by the bayonets of a standing army;
and you cant, unfortunately whip a
man into loving you. We will best
stand by the Union by first standing
by ourselves. I.D.
What We are Fighting About.
The people of 1892, had a tremen
dous “sham battle” over the tariff,
and the free-traders, (democrats),
won. and the country drew a long
breath of relief, and felt that duties
were to go down, and that the good
times were at hand.
“ The mountain in labor has
brought forth a mouse.” Senator
Murphy, of New York, (democrat),
has secured an increase of duty on
collars and cuffs from 35 to 45 per cent!
Think of that, farmers and work
ingmen! You don’t use cuffs and not
always collars, but there is free-trade
for you with a vengeance. Wasn’t it
worth while to turn your backs on
the currency question, the silver
question, the railroad question, and
go in for “free trade,” and get a ten
per cent increase of duty on collars and
cuffs? Wheat is worth but 45 cents a
bushel, and cotton six cents; but col.
PREMIUMS
lars and cuffs are safe from “the pau
per labor of the old world.” Hurrah!
You can’t pay that mortgage, and
you have no collars or cuffs, or scarce
ly anything else; but collars and cuffs,
all the same, are on cop! The ooun
try is out of danger! Hurrah for
humbug!
Let the republicans nominate Gov.
McKinley for president, and confine
the fight to the tariff question. Let
the whole battle, turn on that 10 per
cent increase on collars and cuffs; for
if the democrats win they may
change their minds and cut down the
tariff on those important articles,
and where will the world be then?
Horrible thought! Hoist the ban
ners, brethren, —let the slogan ring
out: “Collars and cuffs forever!”
“Three cheers for humbug!” I. D.
A friend writes and asks us what
kind of a man is Senator Burkhardt,
of Wabasha county, and how he would
do for State Treasurer. We will
support the Populist ticket, but if
any republican is to be elected State
Treasurer, we kuow of no man we
would sooner see in that place than
Senator Burkhardt. He is an honest,
fair-minded, liberal gentleman—a
good representative of a great race.
I will sacrifice a fine 320 acre im
proved farm, in the South Dakota
Corn Belt. Will sell much below act
ual value, only one fourth cash, bal
ance on time to suit purchaser at low
interest. Adress, Lock Box “U”
COLLARS AND CUFFS
6ftESflß'S
COLUMN
In English or Norwegian, and the Rep
resentative, for one year, all for
ONE DOLLAR!
The Arena Publishing Company, of Boston, has un
dertaken the publishing of this famous book, of which
300,000 COPIES
have been sold on botli sides of the Atlantic, and will at
once put forth editions in English and Norwegian.
This is a special offer, and Good for Only
Three Months. No other commission or rebate
can be allowed on these orders; but one dollar must ac
company each subscription. As these books retail for
fifty cents, this makes the Repesentati ve cost but
Fifty cents a year.
“We make the same offer for ‘ The Golden Bottle.'
One dollar will pay for a copy of it, and for the Repre
sentative for one year. A Swedish edition is now be
ing printed and will soon be ready for distribution. Ap
plications will be filled according to date of receipt of or
der.” Address.
The' Representative,
673 Wabasha St., - ST. PAUL, MINN,
A Good Man.
To Get Out of Debt.
Mitchell S. D
COXEY’S ARMY.
We have a phenomenon heretofore
unheard of in this country;—a dan
gerous phenomenon:—the outgrowth
of the terrible conditions into which
the people are plunged; and one that
may yet cover the whole land
with the lurid flames of civil war.
Great bodies of drilled men are mov
ing. like armies, upon the seat of
government at Washington; their
number steadily increasing: with a
strong probability that they will
march up Pennsylvania avenue 100,-
000 strong. The leaders are a man
by the name of Coxey, and my old
friend Carl Brown, of California.
Coxey is a man of wealth, a horse
raiser and racer and farmer, dwelling
near Massillon, Ohio. Brown is an
enthusiast, who has been traveling
through the country, dressed in a
buckskin suit, exhibiting a panorama,
illustrative of the Money-Power and
the sufferings of the people. Brown is
an able man, witty and a good
talker.
Their army began with 97 men;
they have now about 500, while re
cruits are swarming in from every
direction. In Arkansas 1,000 men
A GREAT OFFER.
are in line, and almost every large
city has its recruiting station and of
ficers.
At first the daily papers undertook
to write it down by ridiculing it.
They sent forty correspondents who
traveled with the army and covered
it with mockery. Then we heard
nothing for weeks, but jests about
Carl Brown’s unwashed liver, “Weary
Iler’s” attitudes, and Coxey's debts.
We were told that Coxey’s creditors
had fallen on him, and that a $20,000
mortgage was being foreclosed on one
of his $40,000 horses. It turned out
that there was no mortgage on the
horse! In short one lie was piled on
another in the usual way of the daily
press. But in spite all the forty cor
respondents the army grew from day
to day. The men were well behaved,
well drilled; food was plenty; their
advent at town after town was an
ovation. —thousands turned out to
welcome and cheer them: —the lying
dailies had readied the end of their
rope: and now the press has “dried
up.” On this day. April 3d, there is
not one line about them: and we will
probably hear no more of them until
100,000 men swarm into Washington.
The daily papers would ignore the
sun, moon and stars, or lie them out
of their orbits, if Wall Streetdemand
ed it.
Seven hundred men left California
to join Coxey’s army, in box cars of
the Southern Pacific railroad: the
company side-tracked the train in
the midst of a vast cactus desert,
and left them there to starve. For
I. D
A PORTENT.
three days they had nothing to eat.
Gov. Hogg, of Texas, notified the
company that they must move the
men forward or backward, or lose their
chmier. At last the men were reliev
ed and carried forward, to another
town. Here they were fed, but their
stomachs were so weak they could
not retain the food that was given
them; they staggered and fell as they
walked. But now they are in a set
tled country and are all right. They
are advancing a thousand strong and
are gaining every day.
The eastern movement is a great
pic-nie and political campaign.
Coxey and Brown hold vast meetings
every night, and the newspaper-en
slaved East is atlast hearing Popu
list doctrines. The people are mov
ing in their primary capacity and
the shackles of the hireling press are
falling from their limbs.
But we fear for the future. What
will this vast army do if Congress re
fuses to pass the laws it asks for?
The members of the House and Sen-
ate may be placed between Wall
Street, with its gold, on one side, and
the multitudes, witli ropes in their
hands, on the other. It will be an
awful ordeal! Nothing can be more
terrible than the feelings of a cor
rupt rascal who cannot take the
money that is offered him.
And how will this mob be scat
tered? And who will feed them?
And who can control them? It is a
very serious condition of affairs. It
may be the beginning of terrible
events. I. D.
New Candidate for Office.
A Minneapolis paper says:
“The farmers are getting it again,
and it behooves them all to keep
their eyes well open. Instead of the
old-time watch fakir swindling the
horney-handed sons of toil as in the
days of yore, the swindler has assum
ed the disguise of a butcher. There
are several places on the North side
where fake meat and fish markets
are being conducted. The “cappers”
are stationed on upper Washington
avenue to watch for farmers with
pork to sell. When they find one
they steer him around to the fake
market and flim-flam him—not only
in paying him, but in weighing the
stuff. Short weights are shifted on
the scales, and the farmer is left to
wonder, why it is his meat weighs
so much less than it did when he
loaded it on his wagon at home.
Several cases of swindling of this
nature have come to the attention
ot the police within the last few
days. Among those tocomplain were
P. J. Freed and F. W. Swanson. Yes
terday forenoon Andrew Helgerson
was taken to one of the fake markets
and cheated out of $30.”
We will bet a sixpence that tiie
men thus swindled do not subscribe
for the Representative, or be
long to the Peoples party. They are
members of one or the other of the
old parties; l and discuss the questions
of slavery and the war to this day;
and call the Populists “Anarchists;”
and confound Donnelly with the
Devil. We hope the “fakebutchers”
will continue to go for them, even as
the political bosses have gone for
them, for twenty years, until they
havn’t a cent left.
How would it do to take up one of
those “fakes” and run him for U. S.
Senator against Washburn? How the
fools would hurrah for him! True he
has not pocketed as much as Wash
bum:—but, as the Dutchman said,—
“Fader vas old, and dis dog vas a
pup.” Give the “fake” a chance.
Wants to Know.
Warren Register: Will some Popu
list statesman tell us what is meant
by the Populist cry, “Let the govern
ment issue the money direct to the
people without the intervention of
national banks?” And while you are
about it, tell us how to get hold of
any of this money when it is issued,
unless we have something to ex
change for it.
Why should the United States gov
ernment pay a lot of bankers, out of
the people’s pockets, ten per cent per
annum, to stand between the govern
ment and the people, to handle the
people’s money? Is there any banker
that has the credit the whole people
have? Look at the recent panic.
When the inhabitants of St. Paul
and Minneapolis were drawing their
money out of the banks what did
they do with it? They were afraid
to put it into any other bank, or into
any safety vault, or to carry it about
their persons, but they took it to the
postoffice,—Uncle Sam's postoffice--
and bought postal orders. The earth
was quaking—the bottom falling out
of everything—but the credit of the
nation was as unassailable as the sun
in heaven. Does Uncle Sam need the
endorsement of his pamper by village
money-lenders? Suppose Vanderbilt
wanted to issue his promissory notes
for a large amount, and the world
was eager lo get them, do you sup
pose he would go to the editor of the
Warren Register, and ask him to put
out the notes in his name, and give
him ten per cent on every dollar for
doing so? If he did Vanderbilt's
relatives would soon put him in the in
sane asylum. And what difference is
there between this and the United
States printing a lot of notes and
handing them to the bankers to put
out and make a profit off? Can any
one give a reason why it should be
done?
Hut how, says the Warren editor,
can this money be got out to the peo
ple. Where there is a will there's al
ways a way. Let the government ex
pend $500,000,000 of greenbacks in the
improvement of public roads. Let
them take up the ten per cent mort
gages of the farmers and substitute
3 per cent national twenty year loans.
by not? England is doing it in
Ireland. France has done it. Penn
sylvania once did it. Shall we stand
by and see the Plutocracy make
money so scarce and dear that the
people are all driven off the lands,
and the soil of the nation turned over
to non-resident capitalists. Does not
that mean the death of the republic
—of liberty—yea, of civilization?
Observe, brethren, that it is these
old-party newspapers that are preach
ing against the power of the people
to defend themselves. They simply
express the views of the village pluto
crats who maintain them. Don’t
you help to keep them alive. They
don’t intend that you shall live—ex
cept as helpless slaves. ]. I).
A Grand Opportunity.
That splendid woman and magnifi
cent orator. Mrs. Mary E. Lease, adds
the following postscript to a private
letter: “P. S'.—Will lecture all during
May in your state.—M. E. L.”
This is your chance, boys. Corres
respond with her at once at Wichita,
Kansas, as to terms and time. Don’t
be af-aid to venture. She will pay
for herself. She will draw tremen
dous crowds and do the cause a
world of good.
The Living Truth
is the name of the only paper in
Speaker Crisp’s congressional district
in Georgia, that opposes his re-elec
tion. “The Truth” wants northern
readers, and northern readers <want
to know what the people are doing
‘way down south in Dixie.” The
Representative will furnish you
the means to find out. Forsl we will
send you this paper for one year, and
will send you The Living Truth one
year as a premium free of all cost!
Now let us hear from you!
The Truth is a six column, four
page weekly, with a good cartoon
each week. Address your orders to
Tiie Representative, 073 Wa
basha St., St. Paul, Minn.
Free Literature.
The “great plain people’’ have
the gold gamblers on the run. Or
ganize, educate, and complete vic
tory is bound to come. For ten
cents in silver or stamps your name
will be placed on the list of reform
press circulators and the leading re
form papers of the United States
will send you sample copies free for
distribution among your neighbors.
Write your name and address plainly.
Address your letter to,
Farmers Trirune Co.,
Des Moines, lowa.
All for 10 Cents.
A copy of Twentieth Century. New York; The
Coming .\ation, Green>ourg, lad.; yonconjorm
ist. Indianapolis, Ind.; The People. New York;
Tom Watson's People s roper: St Louis Labor ■
Brick Pomeroy's Adra.ut Thought ; Express,
Chicago. 111.; Missouri. World. Chillicothe, Mo.;
Commoner. Wichita, Kansas; Advocate. Topeka,
Kansas, Bellamy’s Ne.w yation , Ignatius Don
nelly’s Representative, and others.
1. D
Enclose 10 cents in silver to
REFORM LITERATURE CO.,
Oreensburg, Indiana.
i Important to
i Alliances.
3 It is proposed to push the
3 Alliance organizations to the
5 utmost during this year: but
3 as a first step we need the
3 names of all members. I
3 therefore ask all secretaries
3 of local Alliances to send me
3 a list of their active mem
bers, and the list of those
who have been members but
have fallen into arrears: and
a third list of liberal-minded
farmers in their section who
would be likely to join the
Alliance. Please attend to
this at once.
ICNATIUS DONNELLY,
STATE FARMERS ALLIANCE.
v - i'
V ■