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VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , AUGUST 18 , i NO. 6.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
Ono dollar and a half per year , 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 , Nob.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Reliable advertising and subscription agents
wanted.
Entered at the postofflco at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898.
PIONEERS AND The pioneers of
WORK. Nebraska began
work when they started for the new
territory , just opened up to settlement ,
in 1854. There were no railroads across
Iowa and Missouri then. The trip
from the Mississippi to the Missouri
was made in wagons. The asperities of
frontier life were not mitigated by Pull
man sleepers nor assuaged by a dining-
car service.
Work , effort , deprivation , self-denial
were companions to every traveler seek
ing this unknown and untried domain
in which to found and complete a new
home. And when these treeless prairies
had been reached , when the Missouri
river had become our eastern boundary ,
work became master-director and tute
lary genius of this picket guard of
Americans. There was no loafing.
There was no loafing place. Every
man , woman and child worked because
work was a condition precedent to the
privilege of living and the necessary
preface to any possible comfort. Every
tissue , muscle and fiber was at full ten
sion among those who came to remain
and to establish homes of permanence
and attractiveness. The fact that the
term pioneer is derived from a French
word signifying "a pickaxe" indicates
its close relation to hard work. The
pipneers of a new coiiiitry are the sen
tient pickaxes of Almighty God. With
them He delves into and opens up new
and untested soils for tillage and occu
pation. The work of the ordinary pick
axe is to get into , dig out , and utilize
that which is good and valuable. All
the precious metals , and coal and iron
are unlocked and handed out to the
commerce , manufacture and agriculture
of the globe by the unhonored and
unsung pickaxe.
And all the first fruits of the newly
opened lands of frontiers are supplied
to the world by those animated and
sentient pickaxes of humanity the pioneers
neers which the omnipotent arm of
God swings into the wilderness. Those
pickaxes with their work cleave out
new kingdoms new granaries , new
markets , and new civilizations all the
world over.
"ENGLISH AS SHE Mr. Richard
is WROTE. " Harding Davis
tells in the August Scribner what nice
men the other war correspondents in
Cuba are , and how much he admires
them all. He gives a picture too of a
group of them , including himself , which
really leaves one no choice but to ad
mire the entire party as fully as Mr.
Davis does. But when he says that
some 01 them have just been shooting
rhinoceri in Africa , we are compelled to
think that Mr. Davis' memories of his
schooldays have played him false , and
that he has confused the pachyderm in
question with that other hard beast to
the . It used to
spell , hip-po-pot-a-mus.
be represented that the hippo had his
toes in individual hoofs and his plural
in mi , but that the rhino shared in
neither of these advantages. It may be ,
however , that Mr. Davis has decided to
abolish these troublesome distinctions.
POPULISTIC A much beloved
THEORY. and fervidly advo
cated theory of populism is the govern
ment ownership of all the railroads.
Another "is the
theory non-contracting
of another dollar of interest-bearing
indebtedness.
But how the populists propose to pur
chase the railroads for cash , or to pur
chase them subject to their more than
eleven billions of dollars worth of inter
est-bearing liabilitieswithout borrowing
any money , and without incurring
any debt to bear interest , has never
been explained.
Will some statesman who knows how
to governmentally acquire and own and
operate all the railroads in the United
States , without expending any money
or incurring any liability , kindly en
lighten the property owners and tax
payers as to the methods by which they
shall get so much of something for so
little of nothing ?
SCARCITY. In 1897 the
world added two hundred and forty
millions of dollars to its gold currency.
The year 1898 will , unless all signs fail ,
increase the amount of gold coin two
hundred and seventy-five millions of
dollars. Since 1888 the production of
gold and silver for each year has been :
Year. Gold. Silver.
1883 $ 05,40J,000 115,800,000
1880 IW.OOJ.OUO 120,600,000 ,
1888 IIO.IWI.MJO 140,700,400
1890 118,848,700 103,032,000'
Ib91 1W,050,000 177,852,800
1892 140,651,500 198,014,400
1893 157,494,800 218,944,400
1894 181,175,600 212,829,600
1895 199,804,100 210,292,500
1890 202,950,000 218,463,700
1897 240,000,000 220,000,000
1898 275,000,000 220,000,000
Constantly growing is the world's
annual output of gold. Why is it insuf
ficient to furnish a steady standard of
value ? Africa and Australia , and Can
ada , and California , and Alaska , are
throwing more and more gold into the
channels of commerce every day. The
refrigerated stomach of the Klondike
and the torrid interior of Africa are
heaving up gold. And California with
Australia contributes constantly to the
auriferous flood. Why is there not
gold enough ? Where is there not gold
enough ? Keep the above tabulated
statement as to the annual production
of gold and silver. It is true.
THE INDIANS The exhibit of
AT OMAHA. the Indian con
gress at the Trans-Mississippi exposition
is doubly interesting , in that on the one
hand it is the first representative gather
ing ever attempted of our swiftly-passing
forerunners in our continental arena ,
and on the other it is something genuine
in a wilderness a howling wilderness
of Midway fakes. There is howling with
in that fence , but it is the utterance of
savage man forgetting himself ; there
are no doubt points not altogether true to
the red man's home customs , but impos
ture and extortion have no place there.
The grounds are opened to the public
at 8 o'clock in the morning. One who
outers the Indian enclosure for the first
time at that hour is likely to feel some
bashfulness. He is alone with the sav
ages and their white custodians. He
sees tents , fires , family groups , domestic
business going on ; here are three young
squaws sitting on the grass , combing
their hair , which hangs in a mop , glossy-
black , all around their heads ; it is very
thick and heavy , and must be ample
protection from cold ; each one holds her
comb in a full grip , like a ohopping-
knife , and combs by main strength. .
The grass is wet with dew , and the day