Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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The Right of sfffraoe By JOY WHITEMAN IIK right of .suffrage Is not one of the universal and inalienable rights of V r Individuals. It i a right given to certain persons coming under the required restriction for the benefit of all. It Is for our country’s laws and constitution to define to whom this right or privilege should be given. He who would set aside our laws and constitution is a traitor. It is evident that facilities of fraud are increased by the great number of immigrants which come to our country annually. The foreigners are taught to disregard their laws at home so they do not think much about our laws and they expect to vote and take part in the government as soon as they land in New York City. One cannot tell a naturalized immigrant from an unnaturalized one. Many of them are poor, ignorant men and of evil passions. Our states boast of self government. Our executives are not officers who can or are doing Just as they like, irresponsible to anybody but God. They are servants appointed either directly or indirectly. A monarch however absolute, can rule only through Ids people. It is Ids duty to choose or collect the best, wisest and most faithful subjects for his council. The great Interests of every democratic nation are directed and controlled by the majority of its voters, so the government is just in proportion to the number of intelligent and qualified voters. Then If we would have a good government we must have good, intelligent, honest, and conscientious voters to make it such. In some of our great cities self government has not proved a success, but so far as our nation has not been successful, it Is due to the fact that some of them were not qualified or tit to rule and were elected by voters who lacked Intelligence or moral principle. It is true that he who holds the ballot controls the government. What the good of the state requires in reference to the negro is Just what It requires in reference to all other persons. It Is the admission of those who are Intelligently and morally qualified, and the exclusion of the rest. The time has certainly come for the passage of laws restricting the suffrage to citizens of the I'nited States who read their ncwspa|M rs intelligently and can write a correct chirography. These qualifications are very easily acquired and would do away with those men who are a burden on the government. It would l e an inducement or incentive for them to Ik educated and so they would try to give their children more education and thus as they advance their different privileges and rights would be given them. It would dispose at once of the greatest race questions and admit foreigners gradually as they prepare themselves to positions they have won. It would give strength to those classes who should rule in every state. Whatever makes men wiser or better will always advance the interests of a state under a democratic rule. I believe the time will soon come when these qualifications shall be required of each voter. JC SOMK OF AMERICA’S NaTCUAL WOM KRS By MERLE GWIN 7TTllK world is full of wonders and the more of nature’s secrets a man dis-VI covers, the more he appreciates his former Ignorance, and those wonders which are yet hidden. There are no two travelers will chance upon the same thing, therefore many different descriptions are given. The wonders of America are exceedingly great. Travelers often claim it to have the most U autiful in the world. Niagara Falls is the greatest of American wonders, and many thousands of |K ople go then every year. The Falls are about three-fourths of a mile wide and one hundred and fifty feet high. Below the Falls, the river rushes through its long gorge, making rapids of great size and grandeur. The Falls have great power and men are anxious to secure power for generating electricity. This will certainly cause the destruction of them in a short time. The only way to preserve them will Ik- by some agreement between I'nited States and Canada or England: for there Is no use protecting the Falls on one side if they are not protected on the other. A way should Ik , and no doubt will be found to keep them. The whole world is interested in them and it would be wrong to sacrifice them for the advantage of a few persons. Next to Niagara Falls, is the Yusemlte Valley ami Falls of California. The

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races as the Yellow Peril. Admitting that immigration is proving a menace to our government they now invite our intelligence to a subject of greater importance. When we consider that nations have fallen and that nations may fall, we breathe out with a recent poet: “Lord (lod of hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget, lest we forget. It has been admitted by men for twenty years that freedom’s cause is suffering and demands attention. Other nations have had similar conditions and they fell. Persia perished when one per cent of the people owned all the land. Kgypt went down when two per cent owned ninety-seven hundredth of their wealth. Babylon died when two per cent owned the wealth and Rome fell when one thousand eight hundred men possessed the then known world. England underwent a complete reformation because of like circumstances. History proves that issues which now confront us are perilous. Hence some facts. One eighth of the families of America receive more than one-half the aggregate income, and the richest one percent receives more than the poorest fifty percent. Seventy American estates average thirty-five millions, and yet more than one-third of our population live on 3.88 per week for food. $2.91 per month for clothing. $7.’ 0 per year for furniture and $7 per month rent in some wretched hovel, basement or dark room of a tenement. Without entertaining any socialistic ideas, who can evade the stilling in-iluence of an atmosphere where love of money displaces all human sympathy and love of a government for the people. Some may say: The poor ye have always with you.” There are many poor financiers who lack every quality of a good citizen. Others have been under oppressors’ rods. Had the money kings of our country acquired their wealth while giving their fellowmen equal chances the four per cent of our population who are paupers would not be so. Our wealth is increasing at the rate of eight millions per day and two-thirds of It goes to increase already large fortunes. John 1). Rockefeller has a fortune estimated atone billion, an amount difficult to conceive. A dollar for every minute of time since the birth of Christ would not make tlie amount, or if Mr. Rockefeller would have solid walls of his dollars made on either side of him as high as his head it would oblige him to walk two and one-half miles to get to the other end of his money prison. The startling idea is not the fortune but the enormous yearly increase of $1.70,000,000. Experts have considered every possible obstruction and state that if he lives to a comparatively old age he will lie worth eight billions. These moneyed men are not wrongly called kings. The railroads of our country valued at twelve billions are practically owned by nine men. The various trusts valued at twenty billions are governed by twenty men, of which nine are the above mentioned railroadmen. Is monopolizing ended? What influence do such men have on our government? Of what consequence are legislative bodies against such men. it is with this score of men that congress has been dealing for several years. They have for years been dictating to congress decisions on questions concerning their affairs. Many senators and representatives are men of inferior fortunes Invested in Interests dependent on the attitude of the moneyed men. hence many chosen and sent there by the people, vote for their own Interests. For this reason packers make a wider margin titan ever before. The poor railroad accomodations for delivery of coal have been traced to their proper source. Rate bills have continually been evaded. The prices of agricultural products are also fixed, as they, too, must passthrough hands controlled by wealth. Why has the fight by the women against polygamy been requiring such immense expenditures of time, energy and money? Is it other than a possible draining of some ample fortune? Numerous illustrations might U mentioned whereeapital detained intelligent, humane legislation. Why then not money kings? The spirit which Kurke recognized in Parliament as being the very life of our nation and which Franklin represented when he said: “We must now hang together or hang separate,” sucli spirit has been made a variable approaching zero as a limit. Sucli degeneracy of spirit has become a contagious germ and lias caused men foolishly to prize wealth far above principle. Hence the child slavery laws enacted and in some states repealed. Men must urge food bills for their stomachs’ sakes. Life insurance officials are becoming rich. The medical profession in which remarkable progress has been made Is not free from stains of the life blood of our nations. A lady was recently found dead in a New York home, whom the coroner declared had starved to deatii. when she might have written a check for 100,-ooo and it would have lieen cashed. Is it wealtli that Is so ponderously and firmly crouching down upon us or is It the love of wealth? Wealtli has always played an important part in the making of a nation, but when men forget all else and boil up with emotion at the sight of a coin, then massive pillars are being spalled from under our temple of fame. The American commonwealth must stand against this real “Yellow Peril’ or in painful silence endure tiie inevitable.

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Falls are two thousand seven hundred feet high. The first Fall is sixteen hundred feet: the second, seven hundred feet; the lower one. four hundred feet. The valley is on the Pacitic slope of the Sierra Nevada. In some places its steep sides are about half a mile in height. There is also another place made up of nature’s wonders, in 1872 Congress reserved a strip of land sixty-ttve miles long and fifty-live miles broad in the Rocky Mountains, known as Yellowstone Park, for the enjoyment and bene-tit of the people. It has most all the wild animals, beautiful trees and foliage. hot springs, lakes, mountains, falls, and rivers. The whole forming a beautiful place for the lovers of nature. Near Louisville, Kentucky, there is a world renowned cave. This covers eight thousand square miles. The natural arch that admits one to Mammoth cave has a span of seventy feet, and above it there is a cascade which leaps fifty feet and then disappears. It was first discovered in Ihoi» by a hunter named Hutchins while hunting fora wounded l ear. it shows few tract's of dynamic disturbances but has been changed since Into many caverns of which Mammoth is the greatest. Thus these wonders of nature and many othere are distributed over America. so that every man may enjoy the same pleasures, practically by only stepping out of his door. This Mi nicipal Problem in The Unitkd States By IDA P1PPENCER jMt has been demonstrated in both national and municipal experiences that W the greatest abuses of corporate power have been in connection with public utilities. And since nearly all these public utilities excepting the steam-railway systems, express companies and telegraplis are found within the limits of our cities, they are proper subjects for municipal control. Hut for years these have been owned and controlled by private companies. Money-making lias been the sole aim of the private operators of public utilities. Private corporations owning and operating these public conveniences and necessities conveniences that represent the property and power held by all for the good of all have been conducted for the single object of gathering in the greatest possible profit and have clung to the principle that the most effective way of gaining the largest dividends for the stockholders is to give the cheapest service for as high a charge as can lie extracted from a community. Throughout our country people have encountered and suffered the abuses which have arisen from tills monopoly by private parties. If one wishes to purchase gas or elect ric-light, or to utilize the street-ears, the steam-cars, the telegraph or telephone lie finds himself deprived of tlie right of free contract. He must accept such service as is offered and pay the price demanded. There is no other way. He finds himself face to face with a monopoly and is compelled to meet their demands or do without. The question arises, What can be done to remedy tlie evil?” The only remedy Is, Municipalize them. Municipal ownership is not only a matter of justice but of expediency. It has not “money-grabbing as its object. It has been shown repeatedly that wherever fairly tried municipal ownership has given better results than private ownership. Its one aim Is to give the best possible service at the least possible cost. rsually the lirst purchase made by cities desiring to try municipal ownership is that of the water system, and It has Invariably given good service. Chicago like many other American cities owns its own water-systems and supplies its citizens at a rate of from four to ten cents per thousand cubic feet and from twenty-five to seventy-five percent lower than the rates exacted by private companies and gives service fairly satisfactory. New York must soon solve the problem which confronts her or in a few years a water famine will lie the result. From the telephone and telegraph monopolies the people of our cities have experienced excessive charges and unsatisfactory service, that the dividends of the few in control of these conveniences and necessities might be the greater. In Sweden the government conducts its own telephone systems and in Stockholm ami other Swedish cities good telephone service may lie had in some cases, as low as six dollars a year. Those who have paid the high rates exacted in Chicago and other large cities in the I'nited States will readily understand conditions to Ik somewhat different. In Switzerland the government owns and operates its own telegraph system, as do many progressive European cities. Why then could not the same thing be done in the United States? The people in our cities also pay an extravagant price for gas. Numerous