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JCbe Conservative.
A
cry for the safety and comfort of their
workmen.
Incorporated labor organizations le
gally authorized have in the same penod
brought about a legal Labor Day and
made it a national holiday. Commis
sioners of labor , state and national , have
been designated to gather statistics and
to do all in their power to ameliorate
the condition of the working classes.
Laws have been provided against poor
men being blacklisted or threatened by
postal cards as to the collection of al
leged debts due by them.
The public mails and the post routes
of the United States have been prevented
by law from carrying lottery matter and
other devices for getting money from
the unsophisticated.
Postage has been reduced so that the
people get county newspapers free of
any carrying cost.
Foreign laborers have been forbidden
to come into the United States under
contract and Chinese emigrants have
been entirely shut out. Boards of arbi
tration , state and national , have been
created for the settlement of labor dis
putes. In the same forty years home
steads aggregrating more than three
millions in number have been gratuit
ously donated by the government to
those who would enter upon and culti
vate them. In the same time more than
a million of other farms have been given
away to the poor by the government
under the operation of the timber cul
ture law.
Free public libraries have been estab
lished by statute in nearly every state
in the Union. Institutions for the indi
gent , blind , feeble minded , the insane ,
the deaf and dumb , have been multiplied
all over the country in every state in the
Union.
Hospitals and infirmaries for the sick ,
aged , and distressed have been improved
and increased a thousand fold under
this terrible gold standard during the
last forty years.
What other forty years since man be
gan a lu'storic career can show that any
nation has created a pension list by
which its veteran soldiers are awarded
160 millions of dollars per annum ?
Under this same gold standard despot
ism hundreds of millions of dollars have
been expended for free public schools
and universities. And did not the rich ,
the so-called " classes"
- "capitalistic those
who own the money and the wealth of
the country advocate the establishment
of these beneficent institutions ?
Are not all these eleemosynary , educa
tional and benevolent institutions the
result of acquired capital ? These evi
dences of a bountiful , abundant and
generous charity are visible in every
state , county and city of the American
Union. With what truth , with what
common sense , with what justice can
any public man then endeavor to array
the poorer against the richer citizens of
the Republic ?
How can any honest citizen , whether
a candidate for office or otherwise , de
clare in the face of these tremendous
truths that the gold standard has cursed
and shrunken the civilization of the last
half century ?
Under the gold standard , since 1850 ,
the population of this Republic has more
than doubled. The wealth of the people
of the United States in that period has
multiplied itself NINE TRIES ! I
Had the preceding two hundred years
recorded on a phonograph all their in
ventions , improvements and labor-saving
machines for production and distribu
tion , they could not have equalled the
showing which the last twenty-five
years in the United States under the
gold standard makes ! !
How has Nebraska been shriveled , and
tortured under the gold standard since
civil government first found a lodgment
within its boundaries on the Missouri
river in 1854 ? Then it was more than
three hundred miles to a railroad. Then
there were not two thousand men ,
women and children in all the seventy-
six thousand square miles which make
up the area of this commonwealth. But
iu. forty-four years , under the gold stand
ard , the material , mental and social con
ditions of Nebraska have advanced from
the crudities , discomforts and asperities
of the furthermost frontier to the eii-
virouments , conveniences and luxuries
of the most refined modern civilization.
The acre of land which would buy
only $1.25 iu gold in 1856 will now pur
chase from ten to one hundred dollars of
the same coin ! !
These are some of the sorrows which
the gold standard has brought to the
American people in general and to people
ple inhabiting the transniissouri country
in particular. In another issue this sad
ness will be continued. Meantime the
prophets of evil and the forcasters of
disasters who see so much misery iu the
gold standard may look for calamity
comforts in some other state than Ne
braska.
Nearly all healthy and honest Amer
ican men and women who think and
work acquire character and , fortune
which they desire to conserve. Such
men and women have faith in the value
of permanent institutions. Old and
satisfactorily tested customs and laws
under which this country has prosper
ously developed ought not to bo aban
doned or repealed. The frugality and
moderation of the lives of our ancestors
should bo renewed and perpetuated in
their posterity. Plain , economical and
just management of public affairs is
needed in every part of this republic.
Such administration of government will
give peace , prosperity and permanence.
But ostentatious , extravagant and par
tisan management will evolve discon
tent , misery and desolation.
TJIKK PLANTING The first 11U111-
ix NKUUASKA. ber of THE CON
SERVATIVE contained an interesting arti
cle from a former governor of Ne
braska , the Honorable Robert Wil
kinson Purlins. In that instructive
contribution Governor Furnas states
that :
"From the date of first practical tree
planting to the present there have been
planted in Nebraska , two billions , seven
hundred and seventy-five millions , eight
hundred and thirty-six thousand , two
hundred (2,775,836,200) ( ) forest trees.
This includes both deciduous and ever
green trees , planted purely for forest
purposes , parks , cemeteries and streets
in cities , towns and villages ; but does
not include four million , one hundred
and thousand hundred
eighty-four , seven
dred and ninety-one (4,184,791) ( ) fruit
trees , of all lands , together with nine
hundred and eighty-four thousand , four
hundred and sixty-four (984,464) ( ) grape
vines. "
Those bewildering figures are furnished -
nished the lovers of arboriculture and
forestry for the purpose of inspiring
them to practical efforts in tree planting
all over the American Union. What
has been accomplished in Nebraska
towards afforestation can be dupli
cated by each of the older states in re
afforestation.
There are many black walnut trees in
Otoo county and other fertile parts of
Nebraska , which were planted thirty to
tliirty-six years ago , that are already
valuable for lumber. Tin's nut-bearing
tree thrives best when planted in rows
running north and south and between
rows of cottonwoods or soft maples.
The latter act as nurses for the walnut.
They shade it from the morning and
the afternoon sun. Thus the cottonwood -
wood and maple tutors tench the young
walnuts to grow upwards perpendicul
arly in pursuit of light. And so a
better tree , a stroighter body and longer
cuts of clear stuff lumber are secured.
Trees grown from black walnuts ,
planted by Colonel Albert Tuxbury
thirty-five years ago , along the eastern
boundary of the J. A. Ware farm , are
splendid memorials , in solid close-
grained walnut , to the far-sightedness
of that old-stylo Vermont gentleman.
Some of them are twenty to twenty-two
inches in diameter and of the finest fibre
and toughest texture. Too many black
walnuts cannot be planted in Nebraska.
They always do well hero.
The big black walnut grove which Dr.
George L. Miller planted , and which
now flourishes so beautifully at Sey
mour Park , is a monument to his faith
in forestry and a perpetual reminder of
his intelligent zeal in behalf of Nebraska
arboriculture.
The largo walnut trees along the north
line of the William Hawko farm were
planted nearly forty years ago by the
original pre-omptor of that quarter sec
tion George P. West. And today
those trees have a largo monetary value.
Plant walnuts ; plant trees 1
