HB 172 .H76 Copy 1 2§S /ov> ua^h Cityii uo^ aoo ^io\b 6(o« lyo \S 6^\b (^o\b OV)UO\3tJO\ Public and Private Rights BY W. W. HOPKINS 4^*'^^*' PRICE. 15 CENTS The Christian Publishing Company St. Louis Public and Private Rights J By W. W. HOPKINS For ten years pastor of the Second Christian Church, And six years Assistant Editor of the Christian -Evangelist, St. Louis. "The spirit of the I,ord God is upon me ; because the I^ord hath ,nointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. — Isaiah 6i: i. St. Louis: CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1900. 27719 73790 Hit Library of CongreeB Two Copies Received AUG 1 1900 Cooy right entry SECOND COPY. Delivered to ORO£R DIVISION, AUG 3 1900 Copyright, 1900, BY W. W. HOPKINS. « To all those persons who are seeking the freedom, elevation and moral, material, and spiritual wellfare of their fellow-men, these lines are prayerfully dedicated by The Author. / PREFACE. The dullness of the public conscience toward the perversion of public possessions to private interests has suggested the need for the follow- ing treatise. Our courts distinguish between public and private rights in the interpretation of our laws, but the principle is not very closely adhered to in the political administration of our municipal, state and national affairs. The abuses of the distinction are so flagrant and widespread and the public mind so indifferent about the matter that there seems to exist urgent need for an awakening on this subject. There is much literature indirectly bearing on the subject, but nothing pointing out the importance of this dis- tinction to our national prosperity in a particular way. Even reforms based on the distinction be- tween Public and Private Rights have not em- phasized the same as its importance demands. If the following pages shall, therefore, in any way assist in making manifest the importance of this distinction and its bearing on society, on our in- dustries and on the general welfare of the peo- ple, the writer shall feel abundantly rewarded for his pains. The Author. St. Louis, Mo., July 4, 1900. Public and Private Rights INTRODUCTION. However optimistic our view of the future, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that there are conditions of life extant in our civilization that no thoughtful, unselfish man can view without some feeling of indignation, resentment and alarm. It is not the purpose of this treatise to attempt the portrayal of these conditions, but to speak of some of the causes and their present most promising remedies. The rapid trend of the population from rural toward urban districts; the rapid trend of public and private lands to- ward fewer lords; the rapid centralization of wealth; the frequent labor troubles, low wages, strikes, lock-outs, shut-downs, enforced idleness and sweat-shop horrors, are but the ominous signs of underlying forces which, if not arrested or Christianized, mean the overthrow of our na- tion. They declare in unmistakable terms the existence of radical wrongs somewhere in our civilization, g,nd to aid in the discovery and re- 8 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS moval of these wrongs is the duty of every law- abiding citizen in the nation. Alarming as are some of these signs at times, we do not predict a national catastrophe, as do some, for the reason that there is intelligence, moral sentiment and Christianity enough in the land to overcome the danger. God has decreed the overthrow of all unrighteousness, and his plans cannot be defeated. The victory may be delayed, but it cannot be prevented. But let us not think that these evils will be re- moved or remedied independent of human reason and human action. God as much expects to es- tablish righteousness in the social, civil and the industrial departments of life as in the church or the individual; and He expects to do it through His Word, His Spirit and His people. Here is where too many people err. They say — and rightly, too — that the gospel is the solvent of all our national evils ; but they forget that the gos- pel preached only in the churches is a failure; that is only putting the light under the bushel. The gospel of Christ to be effective in the regen- eration of society must be absorbed by it. Its righteousness must be crystallized into action in the business world, into customs in the social world, and into laws in the national domain. God's will contemplates the regeneration of so- ciety, of communities, of business and of gov- ernment, and he who does not so read His Word PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHT.S 9 fails to comprehend the significance of Christ's coronation and reign, of which the conversion of the individual is but the beginning. Christianity has achieved great victories in the past. It met and overthrew idolatry in the Ro- man Empire; it has about destroyed civil slavery throughout the world; it has elevated woman- hood; it has developed the worth of childhood; it has modified the tyranny of governments; its blessings are peerless and countless, but its work is not done. There are other forms of idolatry, slavery and oppression to be removed, and this is the great work of the church to-day. The real work of the church has only just be- gun. There are greater and graver problems confronting Christianity to-day than ever before. The government of our cities, the right use of money, the social evil, the liquor traffic, the labor problem, the amelioration of the masses, and the evangelization of our great cities, are all questions of momentous import, and to be solved before we are entitled to be called a Christian nation. To say that the evils of our nation cannot be suppressed, and our most intricate and involved social, civil and in- dustrial questions solved, is to pronounce the reign of Christ a failure, and to refuse to aid in their accomplishment is to delay the victory. Christians have been too exclusive with their Christianity. They have kept it too much con- 10 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS fined to churches and Sundays. The religion of Christ is not a cathedral ornament, but an every- day affair ; and until we begin to exemplify the righteousness of God in business, in our indus- tries, in politics and in all other departments of life, it is a failure and worthless. Remember that the leaven in the meal means the gospel in the world. Some people seem to think that these great problems are insolvable. It takes but a mo- ment's reflection to see that their solution is im- plied in the success of the gospel. Are we not told in the Holy Book that righteousness is to cover the earth, and that every enemy is to be destroyed? The trouble is that the dominant powers have never set themselves to the solution of the task in a very active and general way; neither will they until the pressure of enlight- ened public sentiment shall compel them. For a long while inventors tried to discover a device for coupling cars automatically that would be acceptable to the railroads, but seemed to fail. The presumption was that the inventions submitted to the railroad companies were im- practicable. But by and by the States began to take cognizance of the matter, and a law was passed compelling all railroad companies to adopt some self-coupling device instead of the old-fashioned, man-killing coupling-links, and in due time all complaint about a practical way to PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 11 do it had ceased. The railroads soon found a practical self-coupler. The same principle ap- plies in moral reforms. Make public sentiment strong enough, and our political parties will soon find a practical solution of all our industrial, social and civil troubles. One reason why so many reform measures fail is that they are too superficial, too narrow. Re- forms, to be effective, must reach primary causes. Take the condition of laboring men for an illustration. It is said, for instance, that their condition is due to intemperate and im- provident living. That there is ground for this charge is too sadly true, but the accusation does not hold against all laboring men affected by the conditions. The real difficulty lies back of the character and deportment of the laboring classes. All men should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present life, for their own and their families' sake, but there is no law under heaven that compels a man to live on bread and water, and keep his family in rags and ignorance, simply that he may enable his employer to pay larger dividends on watered stock. The laborer and his family, and not his employer, are entitled to all of the fruits of an economical life over and above honest time and honest work for his em- ployer. The fact is, labor is not receiving its rightful share of the profits thereof, and under the present order of things it cannot. It is in- 19 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS jured by unjust competition; it is robbed by un- scrupulous lawmakers; it is burdened by false ideas of government; it is weighed down by taxes ; it is compelled to pay dividends on ficti- tious captital; it is made the slave of capital. Another difficulty in the way of benefiting the condition of the laboring class is the prejudice that exists against a change in the prevailing cus- toms or present order of things; an inexplicable fear of new things ; an inexcusable devotion to the ways of our fathers. In the first place, there are those who are opposed to a change, to re- forms, to progress, for purely selfish reasons. They are in good positions, a paying business, on top, or in some way hold the reins of prosperity, and are so inhumanly selfish as to have no con- cern for the welfare of others. Such idolatry is cruel and unworthy of the protection of a civil- ized government. There are some, of course, who are conscien- tiously opposed to changes. They think that because things have been as they have so long they must ever remain so; and, to their minds, all efforts at reforms are but wasted energies. And yet the logic of their position, if enforced, would arrest all progress, defeat all the promises of God, and continue to lay all advantages in this world at the feet of unscrupulous and wicked men. But we have come to an age of the world in PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 13 which reason and righteousness are demanding a higher and broader application in the affairs of men. Nothing, however hoarj with age, is too sacred for criticism. There was a time when the criticism of established customs, laws and gov- ernments endangered the life of the critic, but that day is past. The spirit of investigation is in the air, and no man can stay its work. There is a growing consciousness of wrong woven into the fabric of things that have come down to us from the past, and an enlightened human nature is demanding an investigation of the facts ; there is a growing sense of unfairness and unreason- ableness in the fortunes and misfortunes of men, and an awakened public conscience is demanding a correction of the evil; there is an increasing sense of injustice underlying civil and industrial affairs, and an enlightened public sentiment is crying out against the iniquity. There was a time when any departure from es- tablished customs, tradition, creed or party was considered the greatest wrong within the moral domain. It was called the sin of heresy, and it outranked all other sins. But a better concep- tion of righteousness has dawned, and we are beginning to make room for the golden rule. Sin and iniquity are by no means confined to the common people. Criminals are to be found in the uppermost seats in the synagogue and in the social, civil, industrial and commercial high 14 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS places in the land. Some of these may be un- conscious of the nature of their character, but they are none the less the enemies of righteous- ness, of humanity and of God. To them the present order of things is good enough, and they are opposed to anything that would disturb their gains. To all such persons all reformers are dis- turbers of the peace, enemies, anarchists. That the many should be the servants of the few, and must so remain while the world stands, they re- gard a part of the divine economy. But there is another view of things rapidly coming to the front founded upon the father- hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and before this new conception the old order of things must give way. The days of the oppressor in the industrial world are numbered; piracy in public utilities is beginning to be outlawed, and the political boss is beginning to feel the pressure of public disapproval. Man is a brotherhood, and governments must be so adjusted that the rights of the humblest subjects will not be vio- lated. The strong men who now hold the posi- tions of favor in the world will not willingly surrender to the new order of things, but the battle is on, and will not end until we have that "new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" of which God's inspired seers have sung. That the present order of things in our social, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 15 civil and industrial systems is imperfect is a self- evident proposition. Man, coming out of the ignorance and darkness of the past, could not invent perfect institutions. He could only de- vise according to his ability, and revise according to later experiences. Civilizations, like children, outgrow their garments. We have only to look at our present social and industrial conditions to see the truth of this statement. Any government in which the few grow rich and the many poor is certainly faulty. That we have the finest country and government in the world is admitted, but that is no reason why we should not have a better one if we can. And so long as the present striking contrasts between poverty and wealth exist, who shall say that there is no room for improvement? FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. A man can no more live apart from his fellow- men and prosper, as he ought to prosper, than he can live without food. Society is essential to his proper development. Men will organize into societies for social, civil, commercial, industrial, moral, religious, and other purposes, and these organic collective bodies must be endowed with certain rights and possessions in order to the fulfillment of their respective missions. No society can exist without constitutional powers and possessions. There must, then, of necessity be a division of rights and possessions between men as individuals and men in collective organic bodies. There is no such thing as unlimited personal liberty. Every organic collective body essential to man's moral, material and spiritual welfare has rights and must be protected in them; especially is this true of civil govern- ments. The matter, therefore, of distinguishing between that that rightfully belongs to the indi- vidual and that that rightfully belongs to an organic collective body, becomes a matter of supremest importance; disregard for this dis- tinction, a matter of supremest danger. But 16 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 17 while this principle holds throughout all organic bodies, it is not our purpose to follow it beyond its application to civil governments in this dis- cussion. No civil government of any size can do busi- ness without constitutional rights and a working capital. It has its expenses and must meet them. And if the distinction between that that rightfully belongs to the public and that that rightfully belongs to the individual was always rightfully made and observed, no government would ever be without a working capital. Nei- ther would labor ever be taxed to supply a treas- ury bankrupted by theft or by unwise legisla- tion. And any civilization that does not regard and enforce this distinction between public and private rights, is essentially unchristian and oppressive, and headed toward destruction. All true reform measures must likewise recog- nize this distinction. The weakness of many reform movements is their narrowness ; they are too exclusive. No public measure in conflict with essential private rights can succeed without injuring the individual. Upon the other hand, no private or corporate measure in conflict with public interests can succeed without injuring the public. These rights are equally sacred and must be equally conserved, or friction, wrongs, oppression, tyranny and injustice of every sort will appear. 18 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS The most casual observer cannot fail to see that a large per cent of our industrial, social and civil troubles as a nation have had their origin in the confusion and abuse of public and private rights, and not until the distinction between these rights is more clearly defined and enforced will these difficulties disappear. It is an undeniable fact that our public lands have been squandered, our cities plundered of their franchises, and other public possessions turned into private channels for private uses. Not a few of our millionaires and multi-million- aires have become such by the private possession or use of that which belonged to the city, the state, or the nation, and just to the extent that these organic collective bodies have been de- prived of their rightful possessions, the burdens upon labor have been correspondingly increased. It could not be otherwise. These institutions must meet their current expenses, or cease to exist; and when deprived of their natural re- sources they have been compelled to levy a tax upon labor. The reforms most urgently needed at present, therefore, are, first, the restoration to our various civil governments of their respective rights and resources; and, second, the restoration of all civil governments to the people. The government con- trol of a public utility amounts to nothing if that government is controlled by a corporation. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 19 political boss, ring, or machine. One reform without the other would be useless. Govern- ments must not only own and control all public utilities, but must themselves be owned and con- trolled by the people. Restore to governments their rightful possessions, and then restore to the people their rightful governments, and you will have the key to the solution of about all of the national evils of which we complain, and under which we groan. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES ILLUS- TRATED. Take, for instance, the land question. Pri- marily, all lands belonged to the government, and the people are now beginning to see that perpetual right to no part of the public domain should ever have been granted to any individual. No man can live in this world without the use of land; it is as essential to his existence, and as God-given, as air or water. His use of land, therefore, should be regulated by law in the in- terest of all men, and not of the few. But un- fortunately our government has erred at this point, so that large tracts of land that should have been held in trust for homes have been given to corporations and to individuals for speculative and commercial purposes. Much of the public domain given to railroad and to other companies was given to foster internal improve- ments; but the excess to which this has been carried and the instances of fraud which have been perpetrated, have greatly modified the sup- posed good in these enormous land grants. The land grants to railroad companies alone now amount to 215,000,000 acres, an area almost equal to eight States the size of Ohio. At a 20 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 21 moderate price for farms this land would have more than paid the national debt at its highest point; or it would have built all the railroads for which they were given; or it would have given to every man, woman and child in the United States, upon the basis of the census of 1890, almost thtfty acres of land. But the evil does not stop with land grants to railroad corporations. Vast areas of the public domain have been secured at a nominal cost by foreign capitalists for speculative purposes. The public records show that fifty-six foreign corporations and persons now own 26,000,000 acres of land in the United States, of which 7,500,000 are owned by two Dutch syndicates, 1,800,000 by one English syndicate, and 500,000 by one Scotch syndicate. And of the foreign individuals now owning land in the United States, Baron Tweedsdale claims 1,750,000 acres, Byron H. Evans 700,000 acres, M. Ellerhousen 600,000 acres, Robt. Tenant 530,000, and the Duke of Southerland 422,000 acres, besides many smaller tracts to many others.* Neither is this the end of the evil. The num- ber of land-holders for homes and farming pur- poses in the United States is rapidly decreasing. Or, in other words, the homes and farms in the * For a larger discussion of this evil, see The Land Question, published by C. F. Taylor, 1520 Chestnut Street, Philadel- phia, Pa. 32 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS- United States are rapidly passing into the hands of fewer owners. In 1880 there were 1,024,599 renters in the United States. In 1890 this num- ber had increased to 1,624,431 renters, an in- crease of 599,832 in ten years. It is said that 126,000,000 acres of our best farm lands in the United States are now owned by 115,940 men, an average of over 1,000 acres each. The meaning of all of this is too plain for comment. It points to a centralization of wealth which, if not arrested, can be viewed only with alarm. It means that we are passing from a nation of land- owners to a nation of land-renters. If all of these lands were passing back to the control of the government, it would be the promise of bet- ter conditions; but this is not the case. As it now appears, it means the loss of rural inde- pendence, and in due time the serfdom of the people of the rural districts. We do not believe in the confiscation of prop- erty in any form ; nor is this necessary in order to right these wrongs; but we do believe that the absolute control of all land in the United States should have remained in the national government. The system of parting with the public domain in fractional sections has proved an open door for speculation, fraud and op- pression. Land given in perpetuity for homes should have been more carefully guarded and the door closed against speculators, land-rob- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 23 bers and franchise-grabbers. There is no reason why the title to a tract of land should be per- petual, and that to an invention limited to a term of years. If any difference, the argument for perpetuity of title is in favor of the inven- tion over that of the land. An invention is the product of the brain, while the land is the gift of God to all men. One of the best solutions of the land question we have yet seen is the Single Tax theory. We do not claim that the Single Tax theory is fault- less, but we do claim that it is founded in right- eousness, and if put into practical operation would mark a new era of prosperity in our nation. The Single Tax theory, as we understand it, is unfortunately named. Properly speaking. Single Taxers do not believe in any kind of tax what- ever. What is miscalled a land tax, in their theory, when rightly understood, is nothing more nor less than an equitable rent paid to the gov- ernment for the use of land according to its value. They would have but one landlord, the government, and put all users of land upon the common basis of renters. The fear that this system would work a hard- ship to farmers is wholly imaginary. The differ- ence is that rents now paid to landlords by rent- ers would be paid to the government ; but these rents would be greatly reduced. While the so- 24 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS called tax on land would be increased to include the tax on personal property, and paid to the government, not as a tax on land, but as a rental value for its use, the total of the farmer's tax would not be so great. To pay more taxes upon land and correspondingly less on personal prop- erty is not increasing a man's burdens even under the present system ; but under the Single Tax rule the present expensive system of tax- gathering would be abolished and a much sim- pler and cheaper plan substituted. But the beauty and righteousness of the Single Tax theory is that it would prevent the holding of land in large or small tracts for speculative purposes. Land owners or users would be com- pelled to improve their holdings, or part with them to parties who would improve or use them. All idle lands would be in the hands of the gov- ernment. There is no reason for believing that any honest farmer or user of land would be dis- turbed in his home, his plans, or his possessions by the Single Tax theory beyond that of the present system. If a man is a renter, and fails to pay his rent, or a tax-payer, aud fails to pay his taxes, as the law now is his holdings are placed in jeopardy, and they could not be more so under Single Tax rule.* * For a full presentation of the Single Tax doctrine and its merits, see Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. » PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 25 The claims of a city to the site value of its lots seem to us to be indisputable; and if indis- putable, then the rents paid for their use should be paid to the city. The claims of the public to the agricultural, timber and mineral values of land seem also to be equally just. It hardly seems reasonable that God grew the great for- ests of the earth and planted vast treasures of iron, lead, zinc, tin, copper, gold, silver, granite, coal, oil and gas in its bowels for a few individ- uals, corporations and trusts. A more equitable distribution of these vast fields of wealth would, it seems to us, far better comport with the doc- trine of the fatherhood of God and the brother- hood of man. That the government is allowing these vast treasures to pass to private owners without proper recompense to the public is an injustice of such magnitude that it seems to entirely elude the grasp of the public mind. Certainly there must be some way whereby this peculiarly legalized system of robbery can be arrested and this wealth turned into the hands of its rightful owners. If not the wealth already accumulated by individuals, corporations, syndicates and trusts from public possessions, let us insist that what yet remains of the earth, on the earth, and under the earth, in the United States, shall be held in trust for the public and not for juggling politicians and greedy corporations. Let the 26 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS government lease its lands, its forests and its mines upon some basis whereby these resources shall become sources of revenue that will, in some degree at least, afford relief to the tax- payer. In this way the people for whom God created these mines of wealth would at least share with those who work them. Canada has already adopted a profit-sharing plan in the Klondike gold fields. Next to the land question is that of public utilities. A government has no moral right whatever to give to any individual, corpora- tion or trust any of its possessions without adequate compensation therefor. To do so is to rob the public of its just holdings. One of the strongest arguments in favor of the govern- ment ownership and control of all railways and telegraph lines, and of the municipal ownership and control of all municipal franchises, outside of their moral rights, is the fact that franchise- grabbers and robbers are opposed to the scheme. And the humorous part of it is that they are op- posed to it on the ground that it would increase the facilities for civil and municipal corruption. About all manufacturers of intoxicating liquors are opposed to legal prohibition for similar rea- sons. That a city should give to any individual or corporation the right to operate cars on its streets at a profit that pays large dividends on PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 27 watered stock, without due compensation to the public, is a crime of the first magnitude. Street cars should be run at the cost of labor, and the interest on actual investments, or else the profits turned over to the cities; and what is true of street railway franchises is true of every municipal franchise. Without the city these franchises would have no value. The same is true of railway and telegraph lines. Their val- ues are created by the public and belong to the public. The arguments in favor of municipal, state and national control of all lands, mines and pub- lic utilities may be briefly stated as follows: 1. It is a question of 7noral right. All lands, mines, canals, railways and municipal franchises are public rights by virtue of their dependence upon the public for their values. Many of the millions now owned by many of the millionaires by all moral rights belong to the public, and ought to have been paid into our municipal, state and national treasuries, less interest on actual investments, in the place of taxes directly and indirectly collected from individual holdings. 2. It would take out of politics one of the chief causes of political corruption. Our public utilities are a continual temptation to unscrupu- lous politicians, speculators and wealth-seekers. They have been used for political spoils, political pulls and for personal emoluments. They have 28 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS been bartered away for a mess of pottage, given birth to a horde of "boodle" politicians, and made the basis of some of the most oppressive and tyrannical monopolies. 3. Traffic in public utilities has had a demor- alizing effect upon business. It has stimulated the thirst for sudden wealth, fostered the specu- lative spirit, created unjust competition, preju- diced men against the more legitimate invest- ments, and, by use of fictitious capital, oppressed labor and robbed the people. 4. It would discourage strikes by paying labor- ers better wages and giving them more satisfactory working hours. Some of the worst industrial upheavals this country has yet known have oc- curred in a private business founded upon some one or other of our public utilities. 5. Profits from the operation and use of these utilities by the governtnent would greatly reduce taxes. There are urgent moral reasons why all forms of government should raise their revenue for current and other expenses, in part at least, from what in all justice belongs to the public, in- stead of the present direct and indirect system of taxation. If properly adjusted, about all reve- nues for governmental purposes could be raised by rentals on lands, mines and forests, and from the profits or rentals of public utilities, instead of taxes levied upon individual holdings. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 29 6. The government control of the railroads upon the postal system would put all men upon an equal footing as to the marhets, and do away with special favors to the larger shippers. It has been es- timated that the government could take full con- trol of the railroads in the United States, and operate them upon the postal system at an aston- ishingly low and uniform rate for both passenger and freight traffic. In the June number of The Coming Age, 1899, is a valuable article on this subject by Jas. L. Cowles, entitled "The Post Office the Citadel of American Liberty." Mr. Cowles is the author of a bill now in Congress seeking such a change in our railway system. He has estimated that the government can operate all of the railroads in the United States on the postal system at the following fares : By local post, ordinary cars, 5 cents per trip. By local post, palace cars, 25 cents per trip. By express post, ordinary cars, 25 cents per trip. By express post, palace cars, $1 per trip. By fast post, ordinary cars, $1 per trip. By fast post, palace cars, $5 per trip. These fares are only for continuous trips in one direction, without stop-over privileges; when necessary, transfers would be provided until the trip was completed. The freight schedule contemplated by the bill- is as follows : 30 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS By local post, per standard box car, $6 per haul. By local post, per standard open car, |5 per haul. By local post, per ton in box car, $1 per haul. By local post, per 100 pounds in box car, 5 cents per haul. By local post, per ton in open car, 50 cents per haul. By local post, per 100 pounds in open car, 2}4 cents per haul. The above figures might require some change after a trial, but the plan is certainly an ideal one, and has every appearance of practicability. The rates are based on the speed and conven- iences of the trains used, and not on miles or distance. Under such a schedule a man could travel from New York City to San Francisco for any one of the fares named in the schedule as he might elect, and the farmer in the inland or Western States would be as near the markets as any farmer on the coast or near the larger cities. Under this bill there would be no free passes, free baggage, rebates nor special rates. But for further particulars about this system we must refer the reader to the article referred to in The Coming Age, or Senate bill number 4,935. 7. The rental system of lands would release vast tracts of land for homestead purposes now held by speculators. It would also release vast sums of money for more legitimate investments. Under the rental or single tax rule men could not afford to keep land for speculative purposes. They would have to improve it or let it pass to those who would. /PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 31 8. The rental or profit-sharing system of all mines luould prevent their waste., or the building up of oppressive trusts or their falling into the hands of men who have no conception of the right use of wealth nor interest in their fellow-men. It would render unto Caesar — the government — the things that are Caesar's. y. The municipal, state and national owner- ship of all lands, mines, forests and public utili- ties would then constitute a substantial business basis for the issuance, when necessary, of munici- pal, state and national bonds. Our cities, states and the nation are about the only institutions in our civilization that issue bonds on what they do not own. There is something peculiarly averse to sound business and sound morals in a government selling or giving away its legitimate possessions, and then afterwards issuing blanket mortgages in the shape of bonds on them. Still other arguments might be advanced in the support of the municipal, state and national ownership of lands, mines, railroads and other public utilities, but it is not within the purpose of this book to treat the subject exhaustively. Certain qualifications in the arguments pre- sented, however, might assist the reader to a clearer conception of the general subject. It is not claimed that the Single Tax theory would be satisfactory without all the relative conditions advocated by its distinguished author, 32 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS Henry George, obtaining. To think of the Sin- gle Tax theory obtaining in this land under pres- ent industrial and commercial conditions is to see it confronted with almost defeating obsta- cles. The ideal Single Tax contemplates abso- lute free trade, and the municipal, state and national ownership or control of all lands, mines, forests, canals, railways, and other public utili- ties. Again, whether public utilities should be owned and operated by the government at cost, or at a profit for revenue, is a question iu which there may be room for argument. In either case, however, there would be a great saving to the people. If owned by the government and operated at fair living expenses for the em- ployees, there would be a corresponding saving to the people in the decrease of tariffs. But if the government owned yet leased its utilities to companies to operate them, unless well safe- guarded, the expenses of the lease would soon be added to the operating costs, and tariffs corre- spondingly increased. The argument as it stands to-day points most strongly to the government control of the utilities, either at reasonable operating expenses, or else at a profit for reve- nue in the place of taxes. The taxing of fran- chises, incomes and estates looks toward a rem- edy for some of the evils underlying our present PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 33 system, but does not cover the ground; does not remedy the difficulty. But our contention is chiefly for the principles involved in this discussion rather than plans that have been suggested for working them out. Whatever may be thought of the plans, the principles are of vital importance to the future welfare of this nation, and the people are begin- ning to appreciate them. And we believe the time is at hand for their embodiment in some practical way. If better plans can be suggested than those given, the people are ready to hear them; if not, the plans already suggested, to-wit, the municipal, state and national control of all public possessions, utilities and rights, will be put in operation in whole or in part in the near future. Public sentiment is now so strong in favor of these reforms that they can hardly be prevented. The people will not be satisfied until a trial of them has been made. The objections urged against the government ownership of public utilities as seen in European countries do not hold against the theory as advo- cated in America. The conditions are too dis- similar to give weight to the objections. Upon the other hand, where the control of street-railways, water-works and gas-plants has been given a fair trial, as in Glasgow, Scotland, and a few other cities, wholly or partially, the ex- periment has resulted favorably to the doctrine. GOVERNMENTS MUST BE RETAINED IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE. Next to the need of a restoration to munici- pal, state and national governments of all their respective rights, privileges and possessions, is the need of a complete restoration to the people of their essential governments. A government of, by and for the people is the American con- ception, and it should be adhered to. The dark cloud on our government to-day is the fact that it is too largely controlled by trusts, rings, ma- chines, bosses, corporations or other private in- terests ; it is ceasing to be a representative gov- ernment. Primary elections, '*boodle," "spoils," campaign "barls," party platforms, lobbies, subsidized newspapers and other factors and agencies are made use of to defeat the will of the people, and unless these evils can be over- come there is little hope for relief or improve- ment from any of the reforms suggested. The reins of government must be taken out of the hands of machines, trusts, corporations, or other private interests, and restored to the people. Experience has demonstrated that it is unwise to trust the government of a city. State or na- tion to any one party, political or religious, per- 34 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 35 manently; sooner or later they begin to abuse their trusts, use their power to the advancement of their party, or otherwise corrupt, pervert and destroy the government. It is necessary to have changes of administration; or, better still, to have a strictly representative government. One of the latest and most promising reforms in the direction indicated is that of Direct Leg- islation by what is called the * 'Initiative, Refer- endum and the Recall measure." While Direct Legislation involves no new prin- ciple of government, it would be far-reaching in its effect upon the laws and conditions of our country. It is merely the extension of a princi- ple which lies at the bottom of our political sys- tem. DIRECT LEGISLATION. Direct Legislation may be explained, briefly, as follows : 1st. The Initiative. — By the Initiative a certain per cent (say five per cent) of the citi- zens could compel any new legislation they might desire, which lawmakers fail or refuse to act upon. By this the people could compel the en- actment of laws more conducive to the welfare of the public. 2d. The Referendum. — By this, upon demand of a certain per cent (say five per cent) of the citizens in a district affected, any measure passed 36 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS by a lawmaking body could be submitted to a direct vote of the people for approval or disap- proval at the next following election. This would give the people the right of vetoing laws enacted against the public welfare. 3d. The Kecall. — By this power a majority of voters could recall any public official who might prove inefficient or unfaithful to his duties. This would give to the public immediate relief from an incompetent or dangerous official. The arguments in favor of this measure are so clear and strong that it seems that they need only to be stated to be accepted. Direct Legis- lation means honesty, fair play, and better laws for the people. It would rob political dema- gogues and tricksters of their power, defeat boodlers and lobbyists in their influence over our lawmakers, and separate between politics and legislation. It would facilitate legislative reforms. In the language of another: **Every meritorious plank in the Republican, Democratic, Populist, Liberalist, Prohibition, or other platforms, would be more certain of speedy adoption under Direct Legislation than under the present method. Now we must not only convert the voter to the desired reform, but also convince him that its adoption is of such importance that he must be willing to see other issues or candidates he may be friendly to de- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 37 feated, if need be, in order to get the one re- form. By means of Direct Legislation the voter could vote directly for what he favors, not em- bracing men or measures obnoxious to him." The constitution in each State would have to be amended before such a law could be enacted, and steps should be taken at once in each State to have such an amendment submitted to the people at the earliest opportunity. The people have a right to say what laws shall govern them, and no man or party should oppose the adoption of such a measure in any city or State. HOME RULE FOR CITIES. Next to the Initiative and Referendum, where- by the power of legislation is placed in the hands of the people, we should seek home rule for our larger cities in all local matters. It is becoming more and more apparent that large cities must have larger legal privileges in the management of purely local matters. Home rule for cities is one of the rapidly approaching events of the future. As a reform measure it is rapidly coming into favor. In the North Amer- ican Review for June, 1900, Bird S. Coler argues strongly for a larger independence for municipalities, for commercial and other rea- sons. Two governments in a city, state and mu- nicipal, cannot exist without friction, detri- mental to the business and morals of the city. 38 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS The state's control of a city's local matters afford too many temptations to political corrup- tionists. The experience of our larger cities have demonstrated that the state's control of their local affairs is unwise and dangerous. The people of a city must hold the reins of govern- ment in their own hands in all matters pertain- ing strictly to the city. Under the present order of things there is too much machinery — too many chances for boodle. Things could and should be simplified. There is no reason why a city should not be run on strictly business prin- ciples the same as any other business enterprise or corporation. There is no reason why there should be any politics in a city government at all. TO SIMPLIFY MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS. After securing home rule for our larger cities, efforts should be made to simplify their govern- ments and protect them against selfish politi- cians, boodle aldermen and franchise-grabbers. One of the best suggestions that has come to our knowledge on reforms in municipal government, outside of their divorcement from the state, and the adoption of the Initiative and the Referen- dum, is that of Orlando J. Smith, in a book re- cently issued by the Brandur Publishing Com- pany, New York City, entitled '*The Coming Democracy." PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 39 Mr. Smith's theory is that a city should be governed by a board of directors elected annu- ally, as in any other corporate body, the board to be thoroughly representative. To secure this Mr. Smith suggests the following unique method: Let each political party in the city have its ticket at each voting precinct at each municipal election. Each voter then selects the party ticket most agreeable to his method of thought. The number of tickets voted by each party de- termines the number of directors each party is entitled to have on the board. But the most striking feature of this system is that no voter is entitled to vote for more than one man on the board at any one election. On each party-ticket there is a blank space in which to write the name of any one person who, in the judgment of the voter, is competent to a place on the board. The results of an election under Mr. Smith's system would be determined as follows: 1st. The number of tickets voted by each party would determine the representation of each party on the board. 2d. The persons on each set of party-tickets voted receiving the highest number of votes, up to the number of persons to which each party was entitled on the board, would be the persons elected to fill those places. In this way the board would always be thoroughly representa- tive. 40 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS Such a system would head off all wire-pullers, ward-healers, machine-slates, and other persons and methods from tampering with and defeating an honest ballot. The voter would be absolutely free and his vote absolutely secret, if he so wanted. There would be no slate-ticket to vote, no convention nominee, no primary elections. Primary elections are the bane of politics and a nuisance to business and professional men. This system would eliminate this evil. MONEY. We wish next to speak of money as a function of the government. The political discussion of this subject is bewildering, and intentionally so. Upon no subject has more foolish things been said than upon the money question. That it is somewhat of an intricate and involved question is admitted, but that does not mean that it is too deep for the common people to comprehend. One of the first things to understand about money is that it is a creature of law. Any mate- rial substance may have a commercial or other value in the world, according to its use, but it cannot have a money-value without the sanction of law. The right to coin or create money is a prerogative of the government. The article or articles selected by a govern- ment to be used as money may or may not have a value or values other than that imparted by law. The distinction between the legal or money value of a piece of gold, or a piece of silver, or a piece of nickel, or a piece of copper, or a piece of paper, is as clear in one case as the other, and as clear in all of them as the difference be- tween the seed and the food- value of corn, the farm-value and the gambling-value of a race- horse, or the sentimental and the real value of 41 42 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS an heirloom. In the case of gold the two values — the legal and the commercial — coincide, are equal; in the other substances named they differ, the greatest difference being in the case of paper money. The value of all money proceeds from the gov- ernment. The idea that all money must carry an intrinsic or commercial value equivalent to its legal or money value is absurd. The asser- tion is contradicted by history, by facts and by actual conditions in every civilized nation. No nation has yet existed that has not used money the intrinsic value of which was less than its money value, and this has been and is to-day especially true of the United States. The general stock of money in the United States, June 1, 1900, is given as follows: Gold Coin (including bullion in Treasury), $1,041,531,374 Standard Silver Dollars 487,497,976 Subsidiary Silver 81,672,075 Treasury Notes of 1890 79,440,000 United States Notes 346,681,016 National Bank Notes 300,569,759 Total 2,337,392,300 Of this total the amount in circulation June 1, 1900, is placed at $2,074,687,871. But this in- cludes much that is not in actual circulation. Of the gold said to be in circulation the repoit says that there is $618,624,530 in coin, and $204,049,- 299 in gold certificates. By circulation this PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 43 report probably means that there is this amount scattered about over the country, but in bank vaults, etc. Of the silver dollars in circulation the report gives $67,645,528, and of silver cer- tificates $408,477,649, nearly double the gold certificates. During the last two years the volume of cur- rency has been considerably enlarged by trade with foreign nations and by legislation, and there has been a corresponding stimulus given to trade, which practically demonstrates the cor- rectness of the claims of those persons who ad- vocate bimetallism or an independent national paper currency. Even if the purported two billions of dollars of all kinds of money were in actual circulation, as claimed in the above fig- ures, the amount would still be inadequate to present demands. The greatest prosperity the people of this nation have yet known — not the trusts — was at a time (1865) when they had a currency as good as gold and a volume of it equal to $50 per capita. Now it is but little more than half that amount per capita, and everybody who knows anything about our pres- ent currency system knows that there is not two billion dollars of money in circulation. It is chiefly in the hands of capitalists and trusts, or hoarded in vaults, and the prosperity of which so much has been said has chiefly been a pros- perity of the trusts and larger corporations 44 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS rather than of the country. The prosperity the nation needs, and that the people are looking for and are justly entitled to, is a prosperity in which they can justly share, and this they cannot have without an adequate currency. Any attempt, therefore, to contract the currency, whether by demonetizing silver, eliminating the greenbacks, or a corner on the money market, is a crime of the worst sort. We need to enlarge, not to con- tract, our present volume of money. There are now three systems of money promi- nently before the American people. They are the Gold Standard, the Bimetallic Standard and the Multiple Standard. The latter is compara- tively new. The Gold Standard is based upon one article of commerce — gold; the Bimetallic Standard is based upon two articles of commerce, gold and silver; the Multiple Standard proposes a currency based upon all of the leading commo- dities of life. Concerning the respective merits of these systems we can speak only in brief. The Gold Standard is based upon the theory that the commercial or intrinsic value of the article used for money must be equal to its face value. This, as before stated, is a false concep- tion of money. It would be just as wise to argue that a "title to a piece of land must be written on a plate of gold of equal value to the land." In the language of another : **The object of commerce is not to get gold. , PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 45 In 999 out of a thousand sales the vendor does not want gold or silver. The dollar is not sought by him for the sake of the 23.22 grains of gold in it. Most of the dollars he gets contain no grains of gold at all, but are made of paper. He does not think of asking for gold, and would deem it a burden if he were required to take large payments in gold. His object is to ex- change his commodities for other commodities, and he takes money because it is a convenient means of making that exchange. The pic7yose of money is not to convey a certain weight of gold, 23 grains to the dollar, or any other num- ber of grains to the dollar, but to transfer a pur- chasing power equal to that of the goods which are being paid for, or the loan that is being liquidated. The receiver of the dollar takes it because it will buy the means of life and happi- ness — commodities in the broad sense. The dollar is taken as the representative of the means of living, the representative of commodi- ties ; and in order that it may be a true repre- sentative it must be based on commodities and kept in harmony with them." — Parsons. The objections to the Gold Standard, in brief, are as follows: 1. It is a physical impossibility for a nation to transact all of its business with a gold cur- rency, or upon a gold basis. The total currency of the United States is now more than two 46 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS billion dollars, of which less than one-third is gold. Imagine this nation trying to transact its business on $600,000,000 in gold, even if it could retain all of this at all times in the country and in circulation. Wendell Phillips once said: "If England, the richest nation in the world, the reservoir and refuge of coin, cannot, without subterfuge, support one specie-paying bank in London, the world's business-center, how can we expect to hoard gold enough to form a basis for two thousand (now over twice that number) banks scattered over the continent?" 2. It is an uncertain quantity. On this point we cannot do better than to quote from Ex-Sen- ator Ingles' great speech in the Senate Feb. 15, 1878. He said: "No people in a great emer- gency ever found a faithful ally in gold. It is the most cowardly and treacherous of all metals. It makes no treaty it does not break. It has no friend it does not soonor or later betray. Armies and navies are not maintained by gold. In times of panic and calamity, shipwreck and disaster, it becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No nation ever fought a great war by the aid of gold. On the contrary, in the crisis of the great- est peril it becomes an enemy more potent than the foe in the field ; but when the battle is won and peace has been secured, gold reappears and claims the fruits of victory. In our own Civil War it is doubtful if the gold of New York and PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 47 London did not work us greater injury than the powder and lead and iron of the South. It was the most invincible enemy of the public credit. Gold paid no soldier or sailor. It refused the National obligations. It was worth most when our fortunes were the lowest. Every defeat gave it increased value. It was in open alliance with our enemies the world over, and all its en- ergies were evoked for our destruction. But as usual, when danger had been averted and the victory secured, gold swaggers to the front and asserts its supremacy." 3. It cannot be kept in the country. One has only to watch the money-centers of the world to see the truth of this statement. It is always on the go, first to one country, then to another. It is the most migratory of all metals. It is always in search of the securest places or the largest profits. Any nation dependent upon gold for money may be robbed of its currency by another nation, or by its own people at any time. 4. It cannot be kept in circulation. Let a panic or a scare come, and gold suddenly dis- appears, it goes into hiding. We have had ample demonstrations of this in our own na- tional history. The disposition to hoard gold is strong even in times of prosperity, and this dis- position becomes an almost uncontrollable pas- sion at the sight of approaching danger. It was estimated, or rather guessed, that more than 48 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS half of the gold in the United States went into hiding during the last panic; the balance was locked up in the vaults of banks and of the nation. 5. It is an instrument of panics. In Mr. Parsons' book on "Rational Money," he says: "Looking over the history of England and America, we find that panics of the first magni- tude occurred in England in 1763, 1783, 1793, 1797, 1816, 1825, 1837-8, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1875 and 1890-3, and in the United States in 1819, 1825, 1837, 1839, 1847, 1857, 1873 and 1893 (with a plentiful supply of lesser disasters in interme- diate years), and every one of them was either directly caused by the movement of money, or grew to ruinous dimensions because the money volume failed to expand at the proper time to relieve the financial pressure, metallic money being far more apt to shrink away and hide itself in time of danger than to come to the rescue of commerce when credit money is shaken." The Bimetallic Standard is an improvement on the Gold Standard in that it decreases the ability of money gamblers and manipulators to control and corner the nation's currency. When money is to be cornered by gamblers, they want every avenue of relief for the people whom it is their intention to rob closed. The intentional con- traction of a nation's currency is a crime differ- ing from a corner on money only in degree. The PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 49 demonitization of silver was an act purely in the interest of Wall Street. The chief objection to silver is not that it is dishonest money — it is as honest as any other money bearing the impress of national authority; not that it is a forty-five-cent dollar — no man has yet refused to take a United States silver dollar at its face value — but that it is subject to the same faults of gold, already mentioned, in a large measure; and, second, that, joined with gold, the two metals do not furnish the country with an adequate currency. The currency now in the United States, all told, is far too small at two billions of dollars, and yet the total of all coin in the United States in circulation hardly equals one billion. Even if all of this coin could be kept in the country and in circulation, it could not possibly do the business of the country. The objection of some capitalists and politi- cians to silver is not that the silver dollar lacks intrinsic value, but that it decreases their power over the currency of the nation by increasing its volume. They would like to have the green- backs out of the way for the same reason that the coinage of silver was stopped. The fight for the reopening of the mints to the coinage of silver and for the greenbacks is therefore a fight for public as against private rights ; a fight for the people as against the capitalists of the na- tion ; a fight for larger commercial and industrial 50 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS liberties as against money famines and panics. The Multiple system, now advocated by some of the ablest men of the nation, and rapidly growing in favor, is a proposition to issue a na- tional paper currency wholly independent of banks, and based upon the largest possible num- ber of commodities for its basic value. This, it is argued, will give the people an adequate, flex- ible and safe currency of uniform value at all times and in all places. In his California speeches, as reported in the Denver New Road of July, 1897, Mr. Bryan ad- mitted that neither gold nor silver represents an honest dollar. *'An honest dollar," said he, "is a dollar that will always buy the same amount of products; and if such a dollar could be con- structed, a man would not be called upon in ten years to pay back a debt in dollars worth four times the dollar he borrowed; neither would he be enabled to pay off a debt with dollars four times as cheap as the dollar he borrowed." The report continues: "Mr. Bryan advocates a paper dollar based upon ten leading products of the nation, and when he does so he recommends the most scientific money the world ever saw. Given a dollar based upon oats, corn, wheat, rye, petro- leum, pork, cotton, sugar, tobacco and coal, the value of which would be controlled by the aver- age of these commodities, would give us 'an honest dollar.' " PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 51 The Multiple system embodies the principle indicated by Mr. Bryan, but proposes to enlarge the basis of the dollar so as to include all of the leading products of the nation instead of ten. We have not the space to go into the merits claimed for this system in detail, neither does that come within the scope of this book, but we cannot pass the matter without some further explanatory remarks. In the first phice, paper money is coming to be the money of all modern civilizations. The peo- ple want neither gold nor silver beyond the small transactions of daily life. During the last panic in New York City paper money was at a higher premium than gold — 4 to 1 per cent. And of the $487,497,976 silver dollars in the United States over $400,000,000 circulates in the form of silver certificates. Of the gold over one-third is in gold certificates. The people do not want metallic money. In the next place, they are entitled to a safe currency, and in this they cannot improve upon the credit of the nation. Even gold can be pur- chased by national bonds in any market. And in the third place, they are entitled to a currency at the lowest cost, and this they cannot have when the right to furnish the currency is delegated to national banks, or other corpora- tions, or dictated by capitalists. The Multiple system, therefore, seems to em- 53 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS body all of the essential elements of an ideal national currency. It is safe, having the wealth and the authority of the nation behind it; it is honest, in that it holds both buyer and seller, debtor and creditor, to the same uniform stand- ard of values; it is adequate, because not limited to mines; it is independent money, because not issued nor controlled by banks or foreign finan- cial conditions. It is said that "for over six hun- dred years Venice had no commercial panic. Her independent national money, under wise public management, was always so well adjusted to the needs of trade that a crisis was impossible." **It is clearly absurd to say that the Govern- ment cannot give value to paper. An individual can do it, why not a nation? A deed has value, and a note, and a bit of manuscript. Tennyson could make a sheet of paper worth $1,000 by writing a few verses upon it. A postage stamp has value, and is just as good as gold or silver all over this country, although it is "irredeemable" in coin — redeemable in service only. Anything that is useful has value. The difference between gold money and paper money is not that gold has value and paper has none, but that the gold money has a value aside from its character as money. It has another utility, and therefore an- other source of value, while paper in general has only value as money, because it has only that one utility (or rather its other utilities are insig- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 53 nificant in comparison with its money utility, bulk for bulk). But in that utility it is as useful as gold, and therefore has the same value for money as gold, and frequently more." — Par- sons. Our present national currency is a mixture of all of the systems named, embarrassing alike to the government and the people. Instead of a currency founded on a composite basis, as it ought to be, we have a composite currency sup- posed to be based on gold. Aside from the in- convenience of so many kinds of money, although they are of equal value in commerce, all legal tender, the present system is objection- able: 1. Because it is inadequate. The volume of money does not keep pace with the demands of the country. 2. It is irresponsive. It does not quickly re- spond to the emergencies of trade. 3. It is unnecessarily expensive. Paper could perform the same service, and release all of our gold and silver now locked up in metallic money. "This gold and silver could be used in produc- tive industry, or sent away to buy American se- curities held abroad, and pay American debts in foreign countries, relieving us of a considerable burden of interest, increasing the volume of money and raising prices across the water, whereby a better market would be made for our 54 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS products, and a bit of the prosperity that comes with the impetus of rising prices would be intro- duced into Europe." — Parsons, 4. It enslaves the government to capitalists. The government is in bondage to its bondholders, and dare not conduct its financial and commer- cial affairs independent of their interests, as was shown in the new financial bill passed by the last Congress. 5. It is a perversion of public rights to pri- vate uses. To delegate to national banks the right to furnish its subjects with money is an abuse of a fundamental principle of a righteous government, to say nothing of the additional in- terest-burden put upon the people by this method. 6. It subjects the business of the country to money famines and panics at the will of money manipulators. Mr. Parsons says that * 'there is evidence tending to show that the panic of 1893 was not entirely a natural phenomenon. The moneyed interests desired the unconditional re- peal of the silver-purchase law. It was openly said that *the quickest if not the only way to re- peal the silver-purchase law is to precipitate a panic upon the country, as nothing short of that will convince the silver men of their error and arouse public opinion to a point which will com- pel the next Congress to repeal the Sherman law PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 55 whether it wants to or not. ' The panic came and the silver law was repealed." 7. It promises no relief from the bondage of debt. It does not appear to be the intention of capitalists to whom the government is in bond- age to permit the payment of the national debt. Government bonds have been and will continue to be refunded as long as it can be done as a basis for a national bank currency and other rea- sons. 8. Our present national bank notes are in violation of the American principle of govern- ment. They are simply corporation notes en- dorsed or secured by the government. National banks are simply private corporations doing business under a national title. The govern- ment's notes would be just as good if issued direct from the government as they now are issued by a national bank and endorsed by the government, and would be far less expensive to the people. National bank notes are another in- stance of the private use of a public right — of a species of favoritism that is becoming intoler- able to the American people. 9. It is unnatural, because it is inadequate and arbitrarily forced upon the nation. 10. It is unscientific, because the theory is mathematically incorrect and impossible. Take the present redemption fund of $150,- 000,000 in gold, to be kept exclusively for the 56 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS redemption of greenbacks and treasury notes, of which there are jointly $426,121,016. According to the intrinsic-value theory, there ought to be a gold dollar actually in the national treasury for every dollar of United States and treasury notes in circulation, as in the case of the gold and sil- ver certificates; but as it is, the gold behind this volume of paper currency is less than thirty cents on the dollar. And yet some men make a great noise about an "honest dollar," a dollar worth 100 cents. This money is all honest money, and worth 100 cents on the dollar, but not on the intransic value theory. It is worth it because it is national money. On the intrinsic value theory the so-called 45-cent silver dollar is worth more than the greenback dollar, but on the national credit theory they are of equal value, and that is their face value of 100 cents on the dollar. To talk about gold enough to do the business of the country is to talk about an im- possibility; and to talk about a paper currency founded on gold is to beg the question and aban- don the theory. 11. It is dangerous, because it subjects the interests of the country to conscienceless politi- cians, capitalists and gamblers. When the mon- eyed classes of the country threaten a financial earthquake if they cannot have the President they want, as was hinted in the campaign of 1896, it is time that the interests of the country PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 57 be placed beyond the reach of such anarchists. We have now carried this investigation as far as we contemplated in this treatise. In closing, permit us to again remind you that we are prima- rily concerned with the rights of the public. We are opposed to the invasion of these rights by mercenary, wealth-seeking individuals. We have briefly set forth some of the latest and best sug- gestions for preventing this very ancient system of robbery. We believe them to be practical and worthy of immediate trial by the people. We believe that they will be tried in the near future. If not practical, they will suggest reme- dies that are. What we want is to arouse the people to their privileges, their rights, their pos- sibilities. If our methods of civilized life are not to keep pace with our wants, our education, then we had better close up our schools and our colleges. But we cannot go backward. We must go forward. We can and must have *'a government by the people, of the people and for the people." The world is done with the **di- vine rights of kings" and the assumed rights of capital. Man and not money — character and not the dollar— liberty and not oppression must stand at the front of the civilization of the twentieth century. Appendix, The following classification of public and pri- vate rights, privileges and possessions may help to a clearer perception of the distinction between public and private right and of the reforms of which our civilization now stands in need : PRIVATE RIGHTS. All Trades. " Professions. " Arts. " Sciences. " Inventions. " Literature. " Private Schools. " Religion. PUBLIC RIGHTS. All Lands. " Mines. " Forests. " Railways. " Telegraph Lines. " Telephone Lines. " Street Railways. " Rivers. " Canals. " Harbors. " Municipal Water Works. " Municipal Light Plants. " Public Schools. And Qurrency (Money) For some of the latest and best literature on the things spoken of in this book we commend the reader to "Rational Money/' "The Land Question," and **A City for the People," all of which may be had by addressing "Equity Series," 1520 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., or the author of this book, 1522 Locust St., St. Louis. 59 60 APPENDIX. Since putting our message into type a new book has appeared from the press of Dodd, Mead &Co., New York, entitled, "Problems of Life," being selections from the writings and sermons of Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., by S. T. D., in which are some paragraphs on Labor and Gov- ernment that are so apt and timely that we cannot forbear the following quotations: "Industrial peace is to be brought about, not by a well-balanced conflict of self-interest, by capi- tal buying labor in the cheapest market, and labor selling itself in the highest market, and each trying to outwit the other, but by a frank recognition of partnership between the power of the brain and the power of the muscle, which should be united in the community as they are united in the individual, and should work to- gether for the largest service to humanity; not the greatest acquisition of wealth, but the great- est development of mankind.'' "Most commodities in our time — even agricul- tural commodities are gradually coming under these conditions — are produced by an organized body of working-men, carrying on their work under the superintendence of a 'captain of in- dustry,' and by the use of costly tools. This requires the co-operation of three classes, — the tool-owner or capitalist, the superintendent or APPENDIX 61 manager, and the tool-user or laborer. The re- sult is the joint product of their industry, — and therefore belongs to them jointly. It is the bus- iness of political economy to ascertain how values can be equitably divided between these partners in a common enterprise. This is the labor question in a sentence.'* **Conciliation, the recognition by employer and employed that they are partners in a common enterprise; arbitration, the adjustment of all questions of self-interest, that cannot be ad- justed through conciliation, by reference to a mutually chosen tribunal ; and the intervention of law where public rights are infringed upon by controversy between laborer and capitalist, — this seems to me to be the application of Christ's method for the solution of the labor war, until we come to the full recognition of the fact that the working-man and capitalist are partners in a common enterprise, and the very motives of war cease to exist." "There are six standards by which we may measure any existing civilization : by the charac- ter of the government; by the condition of labor; by the moral standards which prevail in the social life ; by the state of the home and the position of woman; by the quality and extent of 62 APPENDIX education ; and by the nature and influence of the religious institutions." "What is a Christian nation? Not a nation which has no vices, which has no foes within its own borders, which is perfect; but a nation which is battling against the evil within itself and against the evil without itself, and struggling toward a higher and better ideal of justice, mercy, truth, reverence. It is a nation which is endeavoring to give equal rights and equal jus- tice to all men; it is a nation which has consid- eration for the poor, the ignorant, the oppressed, and the suffering, and which loves mercy as well as it does justice; and it is a nation which shows reverence not merely nor mainly by temples in which its people assemble from time to time to pray and praise, but reverence, because it seeks to ascertain what are God's laws and to incor- porate those laws into its own commonwealth, and to conform its national life to those laws, and because in some measure it trusts to the forces which God has set at work in the world for obedience to those laws within its own com- monwealth; a nation which in its organic, legal, constitutional action does justice, loves mercy, and walks reverently and humbly. Just in the measure in which it attains this, in which it sets this ideal before it and walks toward this, is it a Christian nation. If a Christian is one '^ho APPENDIX 63 serves others, then a Christian nation is one which seeks not its own glory, its own prestige and power, but seeks the welfare of the human race." "Government is founded on force; and no man has a right to use force against his fellow- man except to protect him from his own evil, to protect him from the evils threatened by others, or to protect others from evil threatened by him. The end of government is protection of life and of person and of property. Government takes from its citizens their property by force, — that is, taxation. Taxation is taking the property of a citizen by force ; because if he does not yield it voluntarily the government comes and takes it from him whether he will or not. But to take a man's property from him by force without ren- dering him a just equivalent is robbery. If it is done by one man, it is robbery; by a group of men, it is robbery; by a whole nation in its col- lective capacity, it is robbery. To take property from a single individual, or from a group of in- dividuals for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals, from one class for the ben- efit of another class, from one person for the benefit of another person, whether by taxation or by any other method, without the purpose of rendering a fair and legitimate equivalent there- for, is robbery. If it is done by a government. AUG 1 1900 6i APPENDIX it is a governmental robbery. If it is done by military law, it is military robbery. If it is done by civil law, it is civil robbery. To hold a man down and rifle his pockets for the benefit of those who are rifling them, is robbery, no matter by whom, no matter under what forms of law it is done.*' BY J. H. GARRISON. AI^ONB WITH GOD. A Manual of Devotions. One of the most useful, most needed, and best adapted books we have ever issued, and therefore it is not strange that it is proving one of the most popular. In work of this kind its distinguished, gift- ed, pious and beloved author is at his best. While this book will be helpful to every minister, church oflScial and Sundaj'-school superintendent, as well as every private member of the church of all ages, it is particularly well adapted to the wants of members of the Y. P. S. C. E. It has models of prayer, suitable for the service of the prayer-meeting, while its suggestions, meditations and instructions are pre-eminently calculated to be of service in prepar- ation for the solemn duties that rest upon the Active Members. 244 pages, cloth, 75 cents. HEAVENWARD WAY. This popular little book, addressed to Young Christians, with Incentives and Suggestions for Spiritual Growth, has lately undergone a thorough revision, and much new matter has been added, making it a fit companion-book for "Alone With God," and "Half-Hour Studies at the Cross." It is meeting with a large sale among Christians, young and old, and hundreds have expressed themselves as greatly benefited by reading it. It should be in every Christian household. 100 pages, cloth, 75 cents. HAI^E-HOTJR STUDIES AT THE CROSS. A Series of De- votional Studies on the Death of Christ, designed to be helpful to those who preside at the lyord's Table, and a means of spiritual preparation for all who participate. This little volume is designed by its author to fill a vacancy in religious literature by furnishing a treatment of the atonement in the devotional rather than in the controversial spirit. The cross is used as a means of spiritual culture, rather than as an instrument of argumentative warfare. Cloth, 75 cents. -wThe Three Volumes, Uniform in Binding, Sent Prepaid for $2.ooii- THE CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS, MO. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 002 426 485 3