The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 53, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 31, 1896 Page: 1 of 8
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VOL. XV., NO. «3.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, DEC. 31, 1896.
$1 PER ANNUM
MAYOR PINQREE.
WÉ&
Governor-elect and Mayor Pingree, of
Michigan, Who blames all the notional,
civic and personal woes to the ravages
of trusts and corporations, had a long
chat with Professor Bernia at the Audi-
torium in Chicago last week. Profes-
sor Bemis 'hates trusts of all kinds as
heartily as Pingree does. Pingree has
a labor commissioner to appoint for
Michigan1.
It is known that Pingreé thinks a
good man is a good man in any state,
and the fact that Professor Bemis is a
resident of Illinois would probably be a
fact in favor of the appointment of the
Professor. Pingree ldkes to do the un-
usual thing He has said that a city
ought to hire its mayor just as a cor-
poration hires its manager. If the
mayor of Pecaltonlca is a good mayor,
and Chicago wants a good mayor, Pin-
gree says there is no reason why the
city should not go into the open mar-
ket and bid for the services of the
mayor oí Pecatonica.
The same principle applies to a labor
commissioner. All Michigan knows
how its governor-elect feels on1 this
matter, and in consequence it is told
all over the state that Professor Bemis
Will go into the cabinet of Pingree.
Pingree is firm Ira (his hatred oí of-
ficial "flapdoodle" at inaugurations. He
says it is not fit with men going with-
out food that any state should spend a
lot of money for "frills." He suggests
the same money be spent for pork and
potatoes, and the willing but starving
unemployed 'be fed. He insists the
ceremony shall not cost Michigan 1
cent and he will pay the notary public
for administering the oath out of his
own pocket.
Pingree estimates that it will cost
about 50 cents to inaugurate him. He
had hoped to see Mr. Tanner, and tell
the governor of Illinois that it was an
outrage to make a string of commit-
tees as long as a yard, who will want
their expenses, and will proceed to
spend money for "tomfoolery"—money,
which the tax-payers have saved only
by the most rigid economy.
"It did not take me long to put my
foot down on) the parade of white
horses, a big dance and a rich feed to
get me into office. I would not have
allowed such extravagance in running
our shoe factory. There is no reason
why the election to a public office
should make me willing and anxious to
do with other people's money what I
am not anxious and very unwilling to
do with my own. There are too many
starving men for me to ride comforta-
bly in a carriage of state.
""Having sworn to watch the public
interests, I shall then walk up to the
capítol and begin business. There are
a great many reforms that need imme-
diate attention. Ring rule and barna-
cles have too long directed the state's
affairs. It may not be possible to do
much this legislature, but we will make
it so warm for both houses that there
will be the hottest election two years
from now that Michigan ever held. I
propose that each man shall stand
plainly on the side which he prefers.
Tiiere Will be no dodging of voting.
It will be necessary for the man to vote
either with the trusts or against them,
and if he dodges the people shall hove
a chance to learn of it. We are going
to try to give the people a chance for
once to the history of the state, and we
are getting ready to do U without any
ttfpa#ojit4 deolaj-ation or exercise Qt
unfair and absurd means. We are go-
ing to be plain, everyday, honest folk.
'"Michigan railroads will either sell
tickets for 2 cents a. qolle or they will
have their charters taken away. There
can be no compromise. There is not
one of the corporations which can go
into court and sustain its present dis-
criminating practices. They allow the
rich men who can afford to advance
the money to ride for less thain the
poor mam. The farmer pays the same
freight rates that he did when his
wheat was worth nearly double its
present value. Everything has fallen
in price but railroad rates and railroad
fares. It is time the government was
taking a hand In this matter and stand-
ing between the people and the trusts
which are sapping the very life blood
of the nation. The fact that the rail-
roads sell some tickets for 2 cénits a
mile is proof they would not lose any-
thing by selling all tickets at the same
price. There is no one Who will claim
that any railroad ever sold any ticket
at a loss. We propose to set the exam-
ple in Michigan.
'"Mayor Swift ought to veto the 4-
cent fare ordinance. I am in favor of
a 3-cent fare, and think we Shall soon
have a 2-cent fare. It seems to me that
should the mayor conclude It was pos-
sible to enforce the law for a 4-cent
fare he would go the people one better
and veto it with a recommendation that
the price be made2 cents.
'"I have studied the matter and I
know that on a 2-cent fare basis the
companies can pay fair and just divi-
dends. They can give a fair return tor
the actual money they have tied up in
the plant. It would be the duty of any
mayor to veto this ordinance and de-
mand a further reduction.
"My old companion and interesting
foe—'vested right'—seems to have mov-
ed from Detroit to Chicago. He is a
monster which needs severe treatment.
Mayor Swift will need to sit up all
night and fight with a two-edged sword
to beat him as we did. It makes me
tired to hear the corporations talk. I
have held that people are always su-
preme. They gave tHe franchise and
they can take It back. It is nothing
more than a license, anyhow. I never
believed that any council had any right
to give away the streets for all time,
and we won on the insistence that the
franchise was nothing but a license,
the license subject to regulation in all
things by the grantors.
"Hackmen and cabmen have as much
'vested rights' ais the man who owns
the street car lines. You never hesitate
to take the license from the cabman or
the hackman as soon as he overcharges.
There is no doubt that the street car
companies are overcharging. Their
Stocks are watered to fill the ocean.
They are robbing the public and rob-
bing the people who are least able to be
robbed. It would be too bad for the
mayor to accept 4 cents, when if 4 cents
is right and possible, he might as well
get 3 or 2 cents. I hope he will do it
"Prosperity? Fiddlesticks! There
can be no prosperity so long as the
country is at the mercy of the money
lenders. The social system is out of
joint. We need a law ¿against great for-
tunes. Men form combinations and put
their hands into the sockets of the
poor. They never take from those who
have, but steal from those who have
not. We need men willing to stand
for equal rights, and we want men who
howl for equal lights to take a hand at
practicing equal rights. The public is
twjnf wilfcpd tor the s&Ke of the few,
and the thing has got to stop before
there can be any relief.
"Gold standard talk has had its day.
There will never be another republican
convention which will write that Word
in its platform. There Will next time
be a strong bimetalic platform, and
this is What the people want. They
will 'have learned by that time that
prosperity does not necessarily come by
the election of any one man to the
presidency, and that prosperity cannot
come until the laws are radically
changed. Michigan would have gone
for free silver, but the gold men scared
the people to death with their calamity
howling and the promises of prosperi-
ty Whose sunshine is that of Paradise
alley.
"Cuba?" asked the mayor in response
to a querry for his opinion on that mat-
ter. "Spain ought to be spanked. We
ought to buy the old island and make it
a state. ' They have been butch-
ering and killing down there
long enough and it is time
for us to take a hand in the mat-
ter. Spain can't subdue the insurgents
and the insurgents are not powerful
enough to establish a government of
their own. C^iba ought to be opened
for the use of Americans, either by pur-
case or by the use of guns to force a
purchase."
The mayor then' told about the men
who 'want to get him out of the mayor-
alty chair while he is governor.
"They'll have to drag me out with a
hook," he said in language which can
not be printed. "The only way they
can get me to resign my position as
mayor is by twisting some decision of
the supreme court. I had 10,000 better
majority at the last election than I did
at the last time I ran for mayor. Thla
is a pretty good sign the people don't
want me to resign.
"I won't resign: There is a corpora-
tion ring that is trying to force me out.
I won't be forced. They want to get in
and resume the stealing from the city.
They will have to drag me out by force,
and in the dragging we will get each
member of the combination on record
and know Where he Stands."
The mayor went back to Detroit last
night and he only said he "guessed
not" when he was asked if Professor
Bemis was to be labor commissioner
for Michigan.
OFFICIAL VOTE FOR STATE OFFICERS
• AND CONGRESS.
We clip the following from the Dal-
las New?
Austin, Tex., Dec. 19.—(Staff corre-
spondence.)— The state returning
board has now completed the count of
the votes for state officers and con-
gress and the vote on the constitution-
al amendments. The county returns
are Incomplete, and in several instances
there is manifest inaccuracy due to
carelessness. In some cases thig care-
lessness is so gross and inexcusable as
to appear willful. In the case of the
vote for presidential electors seven or
eight county judges failed to make the
returns, and in the case of .the vote for
state officers at least two county judges
have been derelict.
The returns are in some cases evi-
dently incorrect. For instance, the re-
turning officer writes the name, S. 0.
Davis, quite plain and legible, and
gives him the vote of the county, in one
case as much as 3,000 for state treas-
urer, when, in fact, the vote was for S.
O. Daws. I happen to know that Daws'
liaoie was the one printed on the tick?
ets of a certain courtty that sends Up
returns giving the vote to Davis. Prob-
ably 10,000 votes for Daws have, by
this way of substituting another name,
been counted as "scattering."
Attorney general—
M. M. Crane 308,119
W: O. Hutchinson 228,042
J. B. Goff 2,148
Scattering 1,155
Comptroller—
R. W. Finley 311,580
K. O. Meifczen 222,00it
W. T. Clayton 1,762
Scattering 5,954
Treasurer—
W. B. Wortham 310,472
S. O. Daws 204,991
J. W. Henderson 1,800
Scattering 22,491
Commissioner general land office—
A. J. Baker 307,210
S. C. Cranberry 223,734
H. G. Damon 1,516
Scattering 1,564
Superintendent public instruction—
J* M. Carlisle 307,646
A. B. Francisco 226,174
Scattering 3,784
Associate justice supreme court—
L. G. Denman 303,178
T. J. McMlnn 208,700
Scattering .' 11,797
Judge court criminal appeals—
W. T,. Davidson ♦ V r •• ■v-*é'*é*+ 4- « •■••• 309,938
R. V. Bell 222,699
Scattering 334
Railroad commissioners—
John H. Reagan 304,997
L. J. Storey 301,600
Allison Mayfleld 300,986
Evan Jones 223,860
W. W. Nelms 219,948
B. P. Alsbury 213,094
For amendment to article 6, sec-
tions 2 268,262
Against amendment to article 6,
section 2 51,648
For amendment to article 4, sec-
tion 7 101,121
Against amendment to article 4
section 7 188,574
Chief justice first supreme district—
C. C. Garrett 91,536
T. J. Russell 30,381
Scattering 1,671
Associate justice court civil appeals,
second supreme judicial district—
Sam J. Hunter 44,301
J. L. L. McCall 25,220
Scattering 6
Associate justice court civil appeals,
third Rupreme judicial district—
W. M. Key 47,088
George W. Glasscock 81,184
Scattering 189
Associate justice court civil appeals,
fourth supreme judicial district—
W. S. Fly 30,850
Scattering 748
Associate Justice court civil appeals
fifth supreme judicial district—
Anson Rainey 82,369
J. S. Woods 35,498
Scattering '09
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.
First district—
T. H. Ball 19,161
Joe H. Eagle 15,189
A. C. Tomkln® 168
Scattering 6
Second district—
S. B. Cooper 25.198
J. M. Claiborne 5,186
B. A. Calhoun 12,822
Soattering - ®
Third district—
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 53, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 31, 1896, newspaper, December 31, 1896; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185692/m1/1/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .