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VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , AUGUST 11 , 1898. NO. 5.
PUHLTBHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
, T. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per ycnr , in advance ,
postpaid , to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Reliable advertising and subscription agents
wanted.
Entered at the postofllco at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 20th , 1898.
\VESTEUN TRANS- The pioneers of
POKTATION Nebraska will
THKN AND NOW. never f fc fche
transportation rates that obtained be
tween the Missouri river and the Rocky
mountains prior to the construction of
the Union Pacific railroad. Those rates
then averaged $2.50 per hundred pounds
per hundred miles. The wagon rate for
merchandise from Denver to North
Platte , when the latter point was the
terminal of the Union Pacific , was from
5 to 8 cents per pound. The rate from
Julesburg to Denver was from 8 to 5
cents per pound. The rate from Chey
enne to Denver was from 1 to S cents
per pound.
During the years 1862 to 1805 inclu
sive , the summer , or grass , season rate
from Missouri river points to Denver , by
ox wagons , was 12 } > cents per pound.
During the same period of the year the
rate by mule wagons was 15 to 18 cents
per pound.
But during the winter months the
rate from all Missouri river points to
Denver by mule teams was 25 cents per
pound. All the United States govern
ment supplies wore transported across
the plains into the mountains by wagons
at an average cost of 2 } cents per pound.
Upon those government rates the rates
for the general public seem to have been
based.
Contrast the corporate avarice of the
railroad with the individual avarice of
the freighters who dominated the traffic
between the Missouri river and the
Rocky mountains prior to the construc
tion of railways !
During the period from 1870 to 187E
; ho Union Pacific railway company
scaled rates from the Missouri river to
lolorado , Utah and the Pacific coast
points so that while the average rate per
ton per mile earned in 1870 was $4.01 ,
; he average rate per ton permilo in 1879
was $1.70.
In 1880 rates opened at an average of
$2.06 per ton per mile and they closed in
1894 at the rate of $1.08 per ton per mile.
During the first period above men
tioned the total transportation by the
Union Pacific was 5,458,551 tons. Dur
ing the second period it carried 48,407,904
tons. But the Union Pacific system , in
cluding lines from Kansas City to Chey-
omie and Council Bluffs , and Omaha to
Ogden , and all branches , carried during
the fifteen years from 1880 to 1894 in
clusive 756,494,018 tons of freight.
The foregoing shows how rapidly the
business of the transcontinental road
has grown. It also demonstrates the
fact that passenger and freight rates are
dependent largely upon local traffic. A
railroad like the Now York Central ,
which has a population of about 1500 to
each mile of its line , can afford to do
business at far smaller rates than can
the Union Pacific , or the Burlington in
Iowa where the population to the mile
of line will average less than 400 persons.
The railroad in a sparsely settled country
does a retail local passenger and freight
business. A railroad in a densely
settled country , like New England or
New York , does a wholesale local pas
senger and freight traffic. Wholesale
rates in all services and commodities
are and ought to bo less than retail rates.
In another number of THE CONSERVA
TIVE the rate question will bo again dis
cussed and more in detail.
COMMUNAL The state of Kansas
HKHKOITY. conclusively demon
strates that there is such a thing as com
munal heredity. The Kansas prairies
were settled in an abnormal way. Blue
lodges from the South and Beechor
Bibles and rifle combinations from the
North struggled with each other as to
whether Kansas should bo slave or free.
Thus the territory began its existence in
contention and tumult. The political
paroxysms from the beginning of civil
government in Kansas down to the pres
ent moment have completely verified
the theory of communal heredity. No
other state than Kansas could give a
republican majority of 80,000 in a presi
dential election and within eighteen
mouths thereafter send an ox-confeder
ate soldier ( the Hon. Win. A. Hams ) to
; ho national capital as coiigressinnii-at ?
argo. No other commonwealth in the
American Union can revolve as rapidly
in a political way , probably because 110
other commonwealth has so many heads
containing wheels within its borders.
Kansas first attracted attention by
starving , and sending James H. Lane
and S. O. Pomoroy as emissaries and
solicitors to every state and asking alms
in the way of wheat , beans , com etc.
for food and for seed. Many state leg
islatures made direct cash appropriations
for starving Kansaus , and wicked people
were vicious enough to subsequently de
clare that much of the money thus
raised and some of the cereals and other
seeds thus secured were used in a sena
torial election. In fact , Pomeroy was
reviled by the incredulously wicked people
ple of his day and generation as "Old
Beans Pomoroy" and "Starvation Seed
Pomeroy. "
Besides shrieking and starving , Kan
sas appeared as the "bleeding" member
of the American Union , and everyone
may remember or read of the internal
broils , the fights , the rapine , the arson
and the vendettas of early Kansas.
But in these modern days the state
has been particularly distinguished for
its idiosyncracies as expressed in all
modern isms. It has indulged in prohi-
bitionism , free-coinageism , spiritualism ,
populism and MaryLeaseism. In short ,
Kansas has been constantly in a sort of
civic hysterics and political St. Vitus
dance from the day of its birth into the
union of states. Kansas as a territorial
ombyro seems to have been so marked
mentally , morally and politically by its
pro-natal conditions that the state of
Kansas will never be able to outgrow its
paroxysmal tendencies. Kansas pre
sents a question in sociology worthy of
the most serious attention and profound
study of those who believe in evolution.
The great question is : Can Kansas
over emancipate herself from the power
of her hereditary tendencies ?
HAiMtoAi ) COMWill someone
MISSIONKKS. kindly contribute
to THE CONSERVATIVE a statement show
ing what expense the board of railroad
commissioners or the board of transpor
tation for the state of Nebraska has been
to the taxpayers and also what the afore
said board has accomplished in the way
of the reduction of passenger and freight
rates in Nebraska ?
