||Sti LIBKAKV STARTLING STATEMENTS = OR THE = Downfall of the Great Republic Facts and Figures for the People RALSTON J. MARKOE Copyrighted by RALSTON J. MABKOE St. Paul, Minn. 1910 INTRODUCTION. The author of this volume is the great-grandson of Captain Abram Markoe of the War of the Revolution, who organized the first company got together to resist British oppression, and who presented to his company the first flag with thirteen stripes ever used in this country. This flag is still carefully preserved in Phil- adelphia, by the First City Troop, the company which he organized, which still exists. The writer has devoted his life to the professions of law and civil engineering, and has had opportunities to meet, more or less intimately, persons in every walk and condition of life in every section of the United States as well as hi several European countries. An alphabetical index will be found at the end of the volume. Chapter Headings and Table of Contents. Chapter I. THE REPUBLIC IS NO MORE. The United States an Empire. For What the Republic Was Sacrificed. Why the People Are Losing Faith in the Federal Authorities. Taxes a Needless Robbery. Franchises are Usually Thefts. Chapter II. NATIONAL WASTES. Avoidable Wastes in the United States More Than $6,000,000,000 a Year. Enormous Waste From Fires. The Remedy. Railway Accidents More Destructive Than An Invading Army. The Remedy. Chapter III. THE UNITED STATES LEADS IN CRIME. The Remedy. Fines Encourage Crime. Frightful Destruction by Sui- cides. The Remedy. Rugby, Improperly Called Football, More De- structive Than War. Real Football a Splendid Game and Harmless. Rowdyism Rampant. Bad Manners Prevalent. The Remedy. What is a Gentleman? The Most Perfect Gentleman was a Workman. Chapter IV. THE REMEDY FOR LABOR TROUBLES. The Great Anthracite Coal Strike. Its Causes and Remedy. Strikes, Their Causes and Prevention. A Complete Remedy for Industrial Disturbances, Which Has Abolished Them in Several European Coun- tries, Has Been Filed Away, For Years, Unused, in the Department of Commerce and Labor at Washington. Chaptep V. AMERICAN WAGES ALWAYS FALLING. Are Lower Than Wages of Chinamen, or Any Other Foreign Workmen. Employers Never Pay Wages of Industrial Workmen. The Philoso- phy of Life. Making Work for the Unemployed. Large Cities the Greatest Danger to the Nation. Starving School Children. How to Avoid Overstocking the Labor Market. How to Bring Idle Men and Idle Lands Together. Right to Hold Meetings. Chapter VI. ' HOW TRUSTS ARE FORMED. How a Farmer Worked for Others for Nothing and Paid His Own Board. Rapid Transit Aids Trusts. Causes of High Prices of Food. Why Manu- factured Goods Cost So Much. Honest Judges are Helpless. Legal Precedents Are Destructive of Justice. Chapter VII. HOW TO DESTROY TRUSTS. How an Executive Stopped the Delays of the Law. Only the Executive Can Control Trusts. The Destruction of Trusts. How Two Young Men Beat the Fiour Trust. How a St. Louis Plumber Beat the Beer' Trust. How the Farmers Broke the Local Fuel Trust. How the Farmers Broke the Local Combine. How J. J. Hill Helped the Farmers Break the Elevator Trust. How the Farmers Broke up the Grain Trust. Chapter VIII. MONOPOLIES NOT ALL BAD. A Word for De- partment Stores and Trusts. Envy of the Rich is Folly. Million- aires Poverty Stricken. Money is Never Wealth. Fads and Fashions. Cheating in Taxes and Customs Duties Prevented. Chapter IX. A HOPEFUL PROSPECT. How the Farmers May Own the Railroads, Stockyards, Packing Houses, the Milk and Com- mission Business, the Factories and Banks, Without Cost to Them- selves. How to Keep the Boys at Home on the Farms. "Farming not a Commercial Business. Save the Boys. Keep the Boys out of the Professions. Good Advice for the Boys. Chapter X. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS KIND. But Little Waste Land in the United States. Fuel as Easily Raised as Turnips. Unlimited Power Going to Waste. Water Traffic vs. Railway Traffic. A Great Chance for the Farmers. Chapter XI. HAPPINESS WITHIN REACH OF ALL. Happi- ness Can Not Be Bought With Money. Why Everybody Loved Little Bessie. The Colored Glass. What Cured Mike of the Drink Habit. The Earl and the Miner. The Captain and the Frontiersman. How the Pay Roll Was Collected. The Dude Engineer and His Party. The Lion and the Artist. The Stage Driver and the Balky Horse. The Lady and the Puppy Dog. The Elephant and His Tormentor. Chapter XII. CAUSES AND REMEDY OF HARD TIMES. A Guarantee Against Misfortune. Success in Life Guaranteed. Alex- ander the Great and Diogenes the Cynic. Some Examples of Thrift. A Wise Rule for Expenses. Why Building Societies Failed; The Remedy. Old Age Pensions and Postal Savings Banks. How to Abolish the Evils of Drink Without Closing Saloons. How to Abolish Jails, Workhouses and Poor Farms. Chapter XIII. THE ARMY AND NAVY. An Army of Greatest Strength at Least Cost. A Most Powerful Navy at Minimum Cost. Why Recruiting is Difficult. Air Ships as Engines of War. Chapter XIV. POSSIBILITIES OF AN EMPIRE IN THE UNITED STATES. Chapter XV. THE ISLAND EMPIRE. Where There are No Jails, No Workhouses, No Idleness, No Want, and No Taxes. PREFACE. The historian, Polybius, writing long before the time of Christ, stated that every nation passed through three forms of government, and that nothing can prevent this change, although many circum- stances may tend to cause one form of government to continue for a longer or shorter period of time. The primitive and most natural form of government is a king- dom, of a paternal or patriarchal character. After a time the reign- ing family always becomes more or less despotic and addicted to luxury, especially if it is strictly hereditary in one family line, and this destroys the efficiency of its reign. It also becomes extravagant by reason of its luxury, and this results in raising a needless amount of revenue, which is first felt most disastrously by the larger property owners, and they combine to protect themselves from the exactions of the government. This brings about the change which results in an oligarchy, or republic, in which persons supposed to represent the mass of the people at large are the governing body. It is always a matter of time only before this form of govern- ment also becomes oppressive towards the poorer masses of the peo- ple, and results in establishing monopolies for the benefit of a favored class, and is even more oppressive than a monarchy, and more difficult to overthrow because it represents much of the wealth and power of the nation. This is always followed by some thing in the nature of a revo- lution when, either the people endeavor to control the government through persons pledged to protect their interests, which is a democ- racy; or in the assumption of the supreme power by some one man, who possesses the confidence of the people, and who, for a time at least, governs in the interests of the entire people, and in this way a monarchial form of government is again established. Every nation in history has passed through these various forms of government, some of them but a few times; others many times in the course of their history. The United States is following exactly in the footsteps of ancient Rome. It began as a kingdom, just as the United States did, when we were British colonies under the kings of England. Later Rome became a republic, just as we did after the Revolutionary War, in which we gained our independence from British oppression. As Rome expanded, and acquired more territory, a more cen- tralized form of government was established, and the empire fol- lowed the republic. The United States also, as it has expanded and acquired distant colonies, has passed out of the republican form of government, and has become an empire, with a centralized government which has scarcely any resemblance to the republic founded by our forefathers after the War of the Revolution. There are persons in the United States who seem to think that we are quite different from other nations whose history has been recorded, but this is a great mistake, and the saying of King Solo- mon, that "There is nothing new under the sun," is absolutely true. In the minor details of our ways of doing things we have our peculiarities, just as every nation in history has had. But in all the great problems of national life, such as government, industrial condi- tions, foreign relations, the relations between the rich and the poor, the tendency of the strong to oppress the weak, there is not an iota of difference between us, and any and every nation that has ever existed, excepting in so far as we, with other Christian peoples, have been beneficially influenced by the teachings of Christianity; for the aspirations and weaknesses of human nature are always the same, and they always will be as long as human nature exists. A long time ago a writer stated that "There are those who ride and those who are ridden, and all strive to ricje," and so it will con- tinue as long as humanity lasts. There is not a problem or a condition of human life that has not been met with thousands of times before. Moreover, practically all the conditions of human life that have ever been experienced by the human family exist today, so that somewhere or other on this globe we may find human beings now living in very much the same way that they ever did anywhere, or at any time, in the history of the human race. It is therefore the part of wisdom to study the history of other nations and see in what way, and with what success, they have met and dealt with the various conditions that we have to deal with; for they have all been met with, and dealt with before, and it is the purpose of this volume to show by what means the problems which confront us have been successfully met, and how they can be met by us. CHAPTER I. The Republic Is No More. The United States An Empire. To be entitled to the allegiance of a people, a government must be beneficent ; it must be in possession, and it must be strong enough to maintain itself, and to control all those under its jurisdiction. If any individual, or combination of individuals, is strong enough to successfully resist the government, or disobey its laws with impunity, it has failed as signally as a business man who does not meet his financial obligations. Judged by this test the government of the United States has lamentably failed in the most essential duty of civil government, which is the administration of justice, and the enforcement of all its laws, for a number of individuals and combinations of individuals have openly defied the laws, and, for years, have disobeyed them with impunity, either because of the impotence of the government to enforce its laws, or by reason of the connivance of those whose duty it is to enforce the laws without fear or favor. As I write, the news is published throughout the land that the glass trust has finally secured control of the man- ufacture and handling of all the glass in the country, in open defiance of the statutes forbidding such combina- tions, yet not a single arrest of those who have committed this crime is reported, not even an injunction by any of the courts is heard of; no step has been taken by any rep- resentative of the legal department of the government 10 STARTLING STATEMENTS towards the prosecution of those who have established this trust by the destruction or forcible absorption of all com- petitors ; and within the past few years the Tobacco Trust, in open defiance of existing laws and natural right, carried on its nefarious practices, and appeals to the executive and judiciary brought no relief, and it continued unchecked, until a state of local civil war arose, and some of its victims destroyed the property of the trust and of those in collusion with it, wherever it could be found, and this is the only check known to the writer that it has ever met with. At present an attempt is being openly made to obtain control of many of the most important banks in the country, and strenuous opposition is being made to the attempt to establish government savings banks, such as are in success- ful operation in several countries, to the great advantage of the great mass of the people who are in need of safe depositories for their savings, not subject to the vicissitudes which in the past have so often wiped out the hard earned savings of thousands of toilers. At the same time a high Federal official is working to aid land sharks to obtain possession of some of the most val- uable properties not yet stolen from the people, and those who are sworn to protect the interests of the people, instead of checking him, or removing him from office, are actually supporting him in this disgraceful course, despite the pro- tests which are being made against it by American citi- zens who are entitled to consideration when opposing such an outrage, and the number of these great monopolies has increased rapidly, until at present every staple article of consumption is controlled by a trust. The effect of the Civil War was to put an end to the Con- federation which composed the Union, and in its place, es- tablish a Federation, and so reverse the order previously DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 11 existing, under which the several states were recognized as sovereign and independent, being held together by a vol- untary Confederation, which was represented by the Presi- dent and the Congress with such powers only as were dele- gated to them by the mutual agreement of the individual sovereign states; while under the Federation, the President and the Congress, instead of being recognized as having such powers only as were delegated by the states, were, on the contrary, held to be the supreme power, over, and superior to, the several states, which were no longer rec- ognized as sovereign and independent states, but merely as integral parts of one whole, exactly as independent busi- ness concerns, when absorbed by a trust, lose all their inde pendence as separate concerns and become entirely depend- ent upon the one all-absorbing organization which has swallowed them up. Briefly stated, the nation was organ- ized as a great trust, instead of as an aggregation of inde- pendent concerns. This was a long stride towards the concentration of a centralized power, such as is essential to the establishment of an imperial government in the truest meaning of the word. Since that most important change in our national organ- ization events leading up to the formation of a fully de- veloped empire have followed one another in rapid succes- sion, and among the most important of these are the fol- lowing : First. The enactment of a United States statute placing the state troops, known as the national guard, under the direct control of the president, instead of that of the gov- ernors of the various states, as had always been the case previously, until they were formally mustered into the service of the United States in case of some great emer- 12 STARTLING STATEMENTS gency, such for instance, as the Civil War, or our recent war with Spain. Second. Within recent years, the Supreme Court of the United States has annualled laws enacted by individual states for the control of transportation companies within their own borders, although these laws had beep sustained by the Supreme Courts of the states; and has set aside in- junctions and writs of mandamus by the state courts, issued for the purpose of enforcing the state laws, and has over- ruled the writs of state courts granted for the purpose of preventing the formation of trusts and unlawful combina- tions in restraint of trade within the several states. Third. Another characteristic of an imperial and highly centralized government is the employment of a large num- ber of spies to enable the government to keep watch of the people everywhere, and report anything deemed in any way dangerous to the government. Such a system as this has become very highly developed in this country of late years, as the following figures will show : TOO MANY SPIES. Tawney Says Government Pays Nine Millions Annually For Service. By Associated Press to the Dispatch. Washington, Jan. 11, 1910. "Yesterday Representative Tawney of Minnesota, said that the resolution introduced in the house on Saturday providing for the appointment of a special committee of five to investigate the inspection methods of the government, does not contemplate an inquiry concerning the operations of the secret service. DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 13 His desire is to arrive at the facts concerning the ap- pointment of special agents and inspectors, aside from the secret service bureau, and he has been engaged in this in- quiry for several years. He points out the fact that while in 1896 only 166 of such employes were carried on the roll at a cost of $1,3000,000, by 1907 the number had grown to three thousand, and the expense to the government to $9,000,000. "Indeed," said Mr. Tawney, "there are so many in- spectors and special agents abroad in the land that we are rapidly developing a system of espionage into even the do- mestic affairs of the people of the country, and I think it time the facts should be known." Fourth. Foreign colonies have been conquered, and are governed from Washington without representation in the National Congress. Thus the centralization of all the military power of the nation; the destruction of the legislative and judicial inde- pendent power of the states, and the government of vast areas of territory and of immense populations without rep- resentation in our national assembly, the Congress, which is supposed to represent the sovereignty of the people, have been accomplished, so rapidly that the majority of the peo- ple appear not to be aware of these most important facts which have resulted in placing us under an imperial gov- ernment just as truly as the governments of Austria, Ger- many and Russia are imperial; and today, at the public functions in Washington, even the formalities and cere- monial are carried out in a manner similar to those which are customary upon such occasions at the imperial courts of the Old World, and now the only things required to complete the resemblance are the assumption of the title of emperor and the imperial insignia, with a life tenure of 14 STARTLING STATEMENTS office by the Chief Executive, and this is likely to happen. An important difference between the imperial govern- ment in North America of today, and the imperial govern- ments of the Old World, is that in the Old World the gov- ernments are in a controlling position in all affairs of na- tional importance, and individuals gain power by affiliat- ing with the government, while here the imperial govern- ment is merely the tool of the moneyed interests and trusts of the country, which it 'obeys in the most obsequious man- ner in all things, and the government relies upon these interests for its support, instead of controlling them, but it will be a matter of a short time only when both will be united, either by the resumption, for the nation, by some master mind, of the vast interests that have been hereto- fore stolen from the people by the collusion of those in au- thority with the miscreants who have been the gainers, at the expense of the people, and who have received vast prop- erties and great sums of public treasure without compensa- tion or value of any kind paid for them; or the trusts and monopolies will become centralized and absolutely absorb the governing power in the nation. Whether this result be brought about rightfully or wrong- fully, in either case it will give the imperial government sufficient power to maintain itself, without the necessity of raising any revenue by taxes collected from the people, and such a government will continue to rule until overthrown by a foreign power, or by a revolution by the people, in consequence of its having become so oppressive and careless of the interests of the people as to be considered by them insupportable. This fate has befallen every highly centralized govern- ment in the past, sooner or later, and the length of life of such a government depends entirely upon its adherence to DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 15 the fundamental principles of justice; therefore the great maxim to be followed by a successful government may be expressed in that ancient saying, "Let justice be done though the heavens fall." Recent Presidents Have Forced the Election of Their Successors. Not many years ago, shortly prior to a presidential elec- tion, the Secretary of the United States Treasury at Wash- ington, deposited $100,000,000.00 of the people's money in a bank in New York City, without security of any kind, and without making known to the people why this was done, and it caused much comment at the time. In the ordinary course of business this money soon found its way into many banks scattered over the country, which in turn loaned it to business men in the usual way. After it had been distributed in this manner, and shortly before the presidential election, the Secretary of the Treas- ury notified the bank in which it had been originally de- posited, that if the candidate favored by the administration were elected there would be no hurry about the return of this money to the United States Treasury, but if the op- posing candidate should be elected the entire $100,000.000.00 would be called for at once. The Secretary knew perfectly well that the collection and payment of this great sum of money, without previous notice, w r ould be impossible. Consequently every bank that had loaned any of it, and every business man who had bor- rowed a part of it, was forced, quite regardless of his own judgment or inclinations, to work with all his might for the election of the candidate favored by the administration. Therefore this sum of $100,000.000.00 of the people's money 16 STARTLING STATEMENTS was being deliberately used as a corruption fund to force the election of the administration candidate. At the same time that the people's money was thus being openly used to purchase votes for the administration candi- date for the presidency, many thousands of factory hands, commercial travelers and other employes in the commercial world were laid off and notified that if the administration candidate were elected their places would be open for them on a certain specified day after the election, but that if the opposing candidate were elected there would be no work for them. In this way every one of these employes was compelled to work for the election of the administration candidate, whether he wished to or not, as the bread and butter for himself and family depended upon his obtaining work again. Moreover the business depression, artificially caused by this general suspension of business, which was .brought about for the express purpose of forcing the election of the ad- ministration candidate, made it impossible for those dis- charged employees to find other situations, and it also made it doubly difficult for the banks to collect the loans made by them of the people's money deposited in the New York bank, as previously stated. And so a great combination was formed composed of the administration, using the people's money, and the manu- facturing and commercial interests of the country, to destroy the freedom of the ballot, and force the election in the in- terests of a favored class and it succeeded. Shortly after this election, in the lobby of a hotel in an Iowa town, the writer referred to this wholesale laying off of commercial travelers and others, for the purpose ef forcing the presidential election, when a man sitting next to him said that he did not believe the writer could give the DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 17 name of a single man laid off in that way, whereupon a com- mercial traveler sitting near by sprang to his feet and with great energy declared, "Here is one right here, and I'll make you a list of a thousand of them if you want them." The Unkindest Cut of All. Worst of all, many thousands of New England factory hands, who had been laid off with promises of steady work and higher pay if the administration candidate were elect- ed, found that they had been completely duped, and .by the vilest fraud and misrepresentation, had actually been in- duced to work for their own ruin, for after the election of the administration candidate the factories remained closed, and these poor men were left without work, for the manu- facturers found it more profitable to hold their stocks of manufactured goods for the higher prices which they knew they could get with the tariff rates which were sure to be enacted after the election of the administration candidate. With the employment of such methods as this will any one have the assurance to say that the successful candidates were the free choice of the people? And without freedom of the ballot, where is the republic of which we have been so proud, and which our forefathers established at the price of their life's blood? It has passed into history, and in its place is an aristocracy of money and corruption, absorbing the life of the nation for the benefit of a favored few, who employ an imperial government as their tool. What the Republic Was Sacrificed For. And for what has this system of corruption, bribery and repression of the dearest rights of the people been brought about? In order that a few soulless men may accumulate 18 STARTLING STATEMENTS colossal fortunes, far beyond their utmost possible require- ments; for the insane and insatiable craze for gold, more gold! ever more gold! has made them the servile slaves of the degrading vice of avarice, a vice quite as revolting as the craze for strong drink, or the barroom gambler's love of cards and loaded dice. And who and what are these owners, or rather robbers, of such vast sums? Each of them, at most, is. the merest speck on the ocean of humanity; drifting upon the tide of life, impelled by the trade winds of time towards the shore of the "Great Beyond" from which none shall ever return, and to which they cannot carry with them one single penny of their vast hoards of ill-gotten gain. Why the People Are Losing Faith in the United States Authorities. Because a chief executive stated that an officer -of the United States army, charged with committing a most brutal, cowardly and unprovoked murder while on duty in the Philippine Islands could not be prosecuted after he had re- signed his commission in the army, although everybody knew this to be utterly false. If this contention were true, one who wished to commit murder or any other crime with impunity, would merely have to gain admission into the army and then, after com- mitting the crime, obtain his discharge before being prose- cuted. Such a statement is an insult to every American citizen, and an unparalelled slander of the army of which we are all so justly proud, for we know that it is not a shelter for murderers or other criminals, and we cannot be made to believe that the army cannot be purged of criminals and miscreants who disgrace our national uniform and tarnish the glory of our national flag, for we know better. DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 19 Because a chief executive. publicly insulted and humiliated a commanding general of our army while pandering to the hatred of criminals within the army, whose prosecution had been undertaken by this commanding general who was be- loved and revered by the entire nation by reason of his glorious services to his country during a long life of un- swerving devotion to duty, during which his reputation was without a blemish. Because all the recent chief executives have had in their cabinets, and otherwise closely associated with their ad- ministrations, certain men notoriously connected with the greatest trusts and unlawful combinations in the country. Because when certain notorious criminals, by the name of Flemming and Merriam, doing business under the firm name and style of "Fund W" had been carrying on an ex- tensive system of swindling through the United States mails, had finally been convicted and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary, they were pardoned by a chief executive, after they had served but a few months of their well deserved sentence. Because an attorney general of the United States publicly declared that after certain trusts and unlawful combinations had been convicted of crimes, that there was no way in which the individuals composing those unlawful combina- tions could be brought to justice, although everybody knew that a conviction of the trust was a conviction of the indi- viduals composing it who were responsible for its unlawful acts, and that, upon a conviction of the trust, all that was necessary to mete out justice was to pass sentence upon those responsible for its acts, and that upon motion for sentence against these parties, it would be the duty of the court to pass sentence upon them. 20 STARTLING STATEMENTS Because the legal existence of such a notorious trust and unlawful combination as the Standard Oil Company was recognized by the United States Department of Justice, by proceedings to impose a penalty upon this concern, although again and again it had been decided that it was a trust, and its very existence was an open defiance of the laws of the land, and although every tyro of the law knows that an organization contrary to law has not, and cannot have, any legal existence, and therefore, that having no legal existence as a corporation, it can neither sue nor be sued, although the individuals composing it, who are guilty of the unlawful practices, may be brought to justice for their unlawful acts. And because in this same proceeding, instead of condemn- ing the guilty individuals to prison sentences, a fine was imposed, which, large as it was, everybody knew would be collected by the guilty parties from their victims, the people, in whose name the prosecution was conducted. It was estimated that by raising the price of oil at that time, in anticipation of the possibility of having to pay a fine, the Standard Oil Company had collected from the people about $70,000,000.00, which was considerably more than twice the amount of the fine specified in the judgment against the defendant. Because when certain other notorious swindlers, who, for years, had been using the United States mails for criminal purposes, and who did business under the name of a so-called grain and commission company, had finally been convicted before a United States court, the trial judge, after stating that he would impose a fine heavy enough to act as a de- terrent for the future, made the amount of the fine $2,500.00, which was but a small fraction of the amounts stolen from the people by their swindling operations. As far as being a deterrent, it would have been about as effective to require DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 21 the convict to present the court with a cigar as a condition for being released. Yet there was no rebuke forthcoming from Washington for making a farce of a prosecution that had cost a large sum of the people's money, and the judge was neither removed from office nor suspend- ed from duty, nor was any other step taken by the author- ities at Washington to put a stop to such trifling with jus- tice. Because when another criminal had been openly defying the laws of the United States, and after a prosecution cost- ing large sums of the people's money he was finally convicted, instead of being sentenced to a term in the penitentiary com- mensurate with his crime the sentence of the United States court was that he be placed for six hours under the custody of the United States marshal, who turned him over to his attorneys, who presumably told him to go take a drink or go home, thus prostituting the justice to which the people were entitled for their protection. Yet the judge guilty of such disgraceful conduct was not removed from office by execu- tive authority, nor in any way punished for this scandalous betrayal of the trust reposed in him. The people are pretty well disgusted with this continual playing to the galleries, and their patience is about exhaust- ed with the farce-comedy of prosecutions which bring no results excepting the expenditure of large sums of the people's money, and the feeling is rapidly growing that no other result is intended. Such things as this are what caused a president of the state bar association of Iowa to say to the association in con- vention assembled, that the greatest obstacle in the way of the administration of justice was the venality of the courts, and especially of the Federal courts. 22 STARTLING STATEMENTS N. Taxes Are Needless Robbery. Kobbery is the unlawful taking by superior force of what belongs to another, or the unjustifiable taking by the misap- plication of the law, of what belongs to another. While the collection of taxes can not be brought strictly cr technically under the above headings, a moment 's analysis of the methods employed in the levying and collection of taxes will show that it may truly be brought under both of these headings, when the essential principles involved are made the standard, for several of the fundamental princi- ples of our national constitution are violated under the present methods; such as the axiom that private property shall not be taken without due compensation therefor; that taxes shall be levied only for the reasonable requirements of government; that there shall be no taxation without representation, etc. Theoretically the public benefits derived from the conduct of the government, and the protection afforded to person and property, are sufficient compensation for the levying of the taxes : Theoretically, also, the taxes levied are necessary for the maintenance of the government ; and further, all tax- payers are theoretically represented in the bodies which levy the taxes, but unfortunately, as a matter of fact, practically no one of these essential requirements is in reality complied with under existing methods, for if the various federal, state, county and municipal governments made due use of the sources of revenue which properly belong to them no taxes whatever would be necessary. This will be shown clearly enough under the heading "Franchises are usually thefts," and it will then be seen that the taxes are not necessary for the maintenance of any one of these governments. DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 23 As to the protection afforded to person and property in return for the taxes paid, excepting to the limited extent to which this protection is given through the police patrols, it is not to be found, for the protection derived from the courts, without which the work of the police patrols would be of but little effect, can be had by those only who have the means to pay for it, in each particular case. This statement does not involve any charge of venality on the part of the judiciary, but refers to the well known fact that the expense involved in attempts to obtain justice through the courts is such as to deter any but persons of means from availing themselves of these legal proceedings, hence it may be truly said that the needed protection in return for the taxes paid, however much of it there may be in theory, is actually lacking in fact and in practice. As to the representation of those who pay taxes, we all know perfectly well that a very large number of tax payers are not represented in any way whatever, for those only are represented who are perfectly in accord with those who are elected to office, and as the choice of candidates is always so restricted that in the great majority of cases there is in reality no choice at all, it logically follows that the great majority of the taxpayers are not truly represented in any way in those bodies who control the tax levies. Under our system this is so obvious that no argument is needed on the subject. It therefore follows that taxes are collected without any return being made for them ; without necessity for the main- tenance of government, and without representation, and as the existence of these absent conditions is the only justifi- cation for the collection of taxes under existing methods, their absence shows that this collection is strictly within the definition of robbery. 24 STARTLING STATEMENTS Franchises Are Usually Thefts,. Theft may be defined to be the unlawful taking of the property of another. It is generally recognized in this country that property can not be taken for public use without compensation to the persons from whom it was taken. From the foregoing proposition it logically follows, and with at least equal force, that public property can not be lawfully taken for private use without compensation. Now entirely independently and apart from the bribery and cor- ruption so frequently resorted to in obtaining franchises permitting the use of property owned by the community at large, and therefore public property, such as public high- ways in city and country, the right to exercise the power of eminent domain, a right inherent in the government alone, and all the others usually granted to corporations, but more especially to transportation companies, it is well known that in a very large number of cases that not only is no payment of any kind or amount made by the company receiving the franchise, but in a number of cases in addition to the fran- chise itself, often of very great value, land grants of lands worth vast amounts, have been given outright to corpor- ations. There are persons who will say that it is the development of the property under the franchise that has made it so valuable, and that the franchise, before the development, was of little or no value. Precisely so. The franchise made it possible to so develop the property as to make it of enorm- ous value, and the credit which resulted from the franchise was the most important element in the development of the property. DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 25 Now, let me ask, why was this franchise granted without compensation to a private corporation, instead of being re- tained by the state and developed by the state, for the bene- fit of the community to which it belonged, for it will scarce- ly be denied that the credit appertaining to the franchise, and which made its exploitation possible, would have been still more available if the franchise and the land grants, or whatever other bonuses or rights went with it, had been re- tained by the state or municipality to which it belonged. Without going into the details of bribery and corruption, which too often were employed to secure these valuable fran- chises, it is clearly a case of wrongful taking from the pub- lic or community to which it belonged, of valuable property, and this is precisely the definition of theft, which proves the proposition that franchises are usually thefts. If all the rights, privileges, credits and property granted away without compensation to private corporations, had been retained by the communities to which they belonged, taxes would have been entirely unnecessary for the main- tenance of the government, therefore the pretext that taxes are necessary for the maintenance of government falls to the ground. 26 STARTLING STATEMENTS CHAPTER II. NATIONAL WASTES. Avoidable Wastes Exceed $6,000,000,000.00 Annually in the United States. The most valuable of all fertilizers is night soil or human manure, yet, in practically all the cities and towns in the country this is allowed to go to waste, and still worse, in many cases, it is turned into streams and rivers to pollute the waters and spread disease, or it is allowed to soak into the ground near dwelling houses and business buildings where it becomes a greater menace to health than if allowed to run into the streams. On most farms in this country it also goes entirely to waste. In the most densely inhabited countries of Europe and Asia every particle of this is saved and placed upon the land where it will do the most good in furnishing nutrition to the field and garden crops and the economical use of this most valuable fertilizer is one great secret of the capacity of such countries as China, Belgium, France and Holland to support the densest populations in the world. A very conservative estimate of the loss from this source alone shows it to exceed $2,000,000,000.00 every year. On a great many farms the liquid manure, the most valua- ble part, goes entirely to waste, and neglect of the remainder, allowing it to go to decay until it is almost worthless; the entire loss of the straw on farms by burning it, allowing it to decay in heaps, or by hauling it away to be sold off the DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 27 place ; the entire loss of hen manure which is simply guano and second only to night soil ; the loss of the ashes, although they are very rich in plant food difficult to obtain from other sources; the failure to use the sawdust, soapsuds and house slops, all exceedingly rich in plant food; the general neglect to crop barnyards, although they may contain fully half the manure on the farm ; taking all these losses together a most conservative estimate would place this inexcusable, avoid- able waste at upwards of $6,000,000,000.00 a year in the United States. And it would be much more profitable each year to entirely destroy or cast into the depths of the sea all the gold and silver that can be got possession of in the country than to continue this enormous, reckless waste of the greatest sources of wealth that we have. When we further consider that most farms in the so-called humid regions are entirely without irrigation, excepting truck gardens, which are usually irrigated by hand in the most ex- pensive and laborious manner, although crops of all kinds in all climates and conditions of humidity may be increased from two to five-fold by irrigation, it is safe to say that the average farm in the United States yields considerably less than one-fourth of what might be produced from less land with less labor by the employment of proper economic methods. Some years ago an expert, after investigating the farming methods employed on farms in Minnesota, estimated that the loss from waste or neglect of barnyard manure alone exceed- ed the value of the entire yield of the land in the state. And it now seems safe to say that the waste in the United States considerably exceeds the actual earnings of the entire popu- lation ; that is, that if proper economic methods were follow- ed the earnings of the population would be more than doubled, and that the country could better afford to throw 28 STARTLING STATEMENTS away each year all that is to be found in the way of money or jewelry of every kind in the country than to hoard the money and each year waste more than its value. We are somewhat in the condition of a drunkard who keeps putting one dollar bills into one pocket while at the same time throwing away two-dollar bills from the other pocket. The final result to his financial condition could be foretold with- out the gift of prophesy. Dairy Wastes. The writer recently read in an engineering magazine an account of an ingenious method of disposing of dairy wastes by their destruction and an analysis of these so-called wastes showed that they consisted largely of oxygen, nitrogen, and nitrogen as free ammonia, and of casein, which is simply cheese. So that the system consisted of a method by which quantities of the most valuable of plant foods were being regularly destroyed to get rid of them and also a quantity. of cheese. The creameries in which this inexcusable waste is being regularly carried on are controlled by business men who produce nothing themselves and it is probably found cheaper to destroy these valuable fertilizers than to return them to the farmers who ship the milk and cream, therefore they are destroyed and become a literal waste, whereas, if the farmers who ship to these creameries owned their own creameries they could easily make available these plant foods which would increase the yield of their fields and gardens. This is an argument in favor of the ownership by the farmers of the plants in which their produce is worked up for market. Were it not for the enormous resources at our disposal we would long ago have become hopelessly bankrupt or DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 29 have been compelled to adopt some reasonable economic methods to stop the unparalelled waste that has continued for centuries. Some Neglected Resources. Many of our most valuable resources are not even gen- erally known to exist. Among them the following are a few that are most entirely neglected. In every state in the union there is a native silk worm, and so far as the writer knows no attempt has been made to develop them. Millions of sugar maple trees, capable of producing great quantities of the purest sugar and syrup are never tapped. Large areas of swampy lands suitable for raising wild rice, cranberries and other valuable crops are not used until drained when it is often doubtful whether the crops raised are worth as much as those that could have been raised with- out drainage. Valuable pearl and pearl shell fisheries, both on th sea coast and in inland waters are being destroyed by a dis- regard of any system of preservation, and it does not seem to be known to our people that pearls can be as easily raised, where conditions are favorable, as cabbages. Millions of willow trees are destroyed instead of using them for basket-making and other kindred industries. Great quantities of grasses and rushes suitable for mats and other similar things are allowed to go to waste unused, although this industry has received some attention within the past few years. Tea, similar to that cultivated in Ceylon and China, grows wild in a number of states of the Union but receives no at- tention. Wild hemp, suitable for rope-making, annually goes to waste. 30 STARTLING STATEMENTS A number of the northern states are capable of growing a fine quality of cotton but, with the exception of one or two of these states, none is grown there. Valuable gums, herbs and barks are entirely neglected in most parts of the Union. Almost unlimited deposits of sand suitable for making the finest quality of glass remains unused. Great deposits of the finest pipe and pottery clay lie un- developed. The mud in some of our city streets is worth almost its weight in silver when turned into pottery. Hazel bushes, if preserved and attended to, would yield more valuable returns than almost any crop raised on the ground from which they have been cleared away. The timber cleared away to make room for farms, if cared for under forestry methods, would in many cases yield much better returns than the crops raised on the land from which it has been cleared. In parts of the south the weeds and grasses hoed out to allow cotton and corn to grow have a greater value than the cotton crop raised in their place. Quantities of stumps burned or dynamited to get rid of them are capable of producing valuable assets in the way of turpentine. And now a chemical analysis has shown that sage brush, heretofore considered worthless and a positive nuisance, is valuable for the production of chemicals in common use. In fact it may be truly said that we have not as yet more than begun to learn our national resources and know but very little about them, and many a time, in their haste to find gold or other minerals, men walk right over resources of far greater value of which they do not know enough to take any advantage. DOWNFALL OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 31 MAKE SAGE BRUSH VALUABLE. Chemist's Discovery May Change Face of the Desert. Carson, Nev. "Hundreds of millions of dollars are involv- ed in a discovery that may turn the sage brush of the Western plains into a new national resource through the production of distillate, yielding a net profit on the sage brush of $15 a cord. Chicago chemists have informed the state publicity and industrial commission of Nevada of the discovery. Their re- ports and especially one received today from Prof. Sylvester Sparling, give such startling figures that it is predicted sage brush land will jump in value to $100 an acre. There are millions of acres in the West on which the sage brush has been regarded as a nuisance. Should the Chicago process for extracting valuable dis- tillate turn out as expected, these will be cleared at great profit, ready for the hand of the farmer. Prof. Sparling's report shows that tar, wood alcohol and acetic acid are the valuable constituents of the sage brush distillate. Charcoal is also produced after the distilling process is completed, the charcoal being a valuable by- product. Prof. Sparling's report shows that 220 gallons of the dis- tillate was extracted from 4,000 pounds of sage brush, which further yielded 350 pounds of charcoal. "Los Angeles Ex- aminer. Enormous Waste From Fires The Remedy. The following editorial from the St. Paul Pioneer Press of Mar. 3rd, 1907 needs no comment and shows an utter want of any proper system in the country to prevent this 32 STARTLING STATEMENTS great destruction which is not only needless but utterly in- excusable. Fire Losses and Fireproof Buildings. ' ' The statement that the losses from fire last year amounted to $500,000,000 while the total put into new buildings was only $605,000,000 is sufficiently startling to attract attenti