T
. , ,
Jt * <
Conservative.
now questions , now fields , fresh hopes , broader
viu\VH , wider influence all these will conn1 , us
well HH troubles and disappointments and tem
porary failures and discouraKements , which
will but serve to call forth renewed energy
and effort until they are finally overcome. "
Now this is meant , mid is well calcu
lated to give ignorant , and unthinking
people the idea that , when we get the
Philippines and Cuba , wo shall not any
more have to occupy ourselves with the
questions which now beset us with the
tariff , with the currency , with the negro
problem , with political corruption , with
bossism , with blackmail by bosses , with
the civil service , with transportation ,
with our system of education , with the
effect of elections on our administration.
Then who , O amusing Griggs , is going to
take charge of these problems and solve
them ? You are clearly not going to do
it , because your mighty mind will , by
your own admission , be entirely occu
pied with the affairs of the Cubans and
the Tagnls. We presume the same thing
will be true of all your fellow-statesmen ,
those profound thinkers who are occu
pied just now with the elevation of
mankind at Washington. Who , then ,
after you have become occupied in "ex
panding , " is to look after our domes
tic interests.
You possibly hold , in fact you inti
mate , that you and your colleagues are
so broad - minded and so many - sided
that , after settling these interests , you
will have plenty of time to spare for
the affairs of the Cubans and the Tagals.
Well , now , if our affairs are so insignifi
cant that you and the like of you can
easily dispatch them in the tag ends of
your time , why have not you dispatched
them already ? Take the condition of
our finances , for instance. That is con
sidered in all other countries , as well as
by all intelligent persons in our own ,
one of great disorder. This condition
has lasted now for thirty-five years. If
you will look in your Burke , you will
find a very fine passage , which you will
not dispute , that the very first concern
of every civili'/ed nation is its finances ;
that we may safely jiidge of the progress
which any nation has made in civiliza
tion by the condition of its treasury ,
and the amount of attention its people
give to it. Two years ago you and your
colleagues at least pretended to bo fear
fully wrought up about ours. You rent
the air with supplications to men of all
parties to elect your candidate to the
presidency , and yoii swore that , if wo
would only do so , you would put our
finances on a sure and lasting foun
dation.
Wo believed you and elected your man.
What have you done about the finances ?
Just as we expected to see your great
minds buried in schemes of currency ,
and banking , and taxation , wo found
you were charging and sabring and bom
barding in Cuba. When you last pre
sented yourselves to the people for a
renewal of your commission to govern
us , did you ask us , or did we give you
the smallest permission to substitute the
elevation of mankind in distant parts of
the earth for attention to our monetary
affairs ? You know very well the subject
was never mentioned between us at all.
We knew nothing about your raslcs
IH'iiHCCH or your lont/s rspoh'H. Wo did
not dream of your thinking your mis
sion so great. We did not know you
as a conqueror. We thought you a plain
Jersey lawyer , who was not even equal
to the task of taking charge of the
American treasury. Who told you that
our domestic affairs wore so insignifi
cant ? Who authorized you to describe
the business of the American people as
"artificial and transient , " and a "tread
mill round" ? If you thought so , why
did you take office ? Why did so mighty
a mind descend to the humble duties of
attorney-general ? Why did you not
consider in time the vast expanses of
the earth's surface which still sit in
darkness awaiting your attention and
Alger's and Davis's and McKinley's and
Morgan's and Platt's and Murphy's ? If
our affairs are so petty as you say , who
made them so ? Is not their apparent
pettiness and insignificance wholly due
to our unhappy practice of selecting men
like you for their management men
who never give one hour's thought to a
, men who are occupied solely
with the distribution of state and fed
eral offices , men who would consider
time spent on any real problem of gov
ernment time wasted , men whose solo
idea of "politics" is the getting or losing
of offices by people who have no fitness
or experience for them ?
And wo now ask yoxi the most impor
tant question of all. Do you not know
perfectly well that offices are the very
subjects which will occupy you if we let
you have your foreign possessions ; that
you will never bestow a single thought
on the happiness of the people or their
interests ; that as soon as you have gulled
us , you will turn eagerly to see "what
there is in this" for you , how many
offices you have got to divide , and how
you can best make them "go round"
and help the party ? Moreover , you will
practise your little games all the more
successfully because you will be so far
away that we cannot watch and expose
you. And , O Son of Thunder , why
should the affairs of the Tagals bo more
worthy of your mighty mind than those
of your own countrymen , except in
being more trivial , more barbarous ,
more technical ? Why should they
afford higher employment to a great
man than those of a people of 70,000,000
"heirs of all the ages , foremost in the
files of time ? " The Nation.
No other city on
JS'JSW YOKK ANJ > , , . , . / ,
. * U1S continent depends -
THIS WJSST.
ponds so much as
does Now York upon the successful and
prosperous development of the Trans-
Mississippi country. Now York day at
the Great Omaha exposition will demons-
trate the interest which Now Yorkers
take in Nebraska and the whole North
west. Doctor Dopew will speak for the
Empire state. All Nebraskans , lowans ,
Missourians , Kansans and the tribes of
the Rooky Mountains shotild assemble
and listen to the big Medicine Man of
the Vanderbilts. And while ho talks
lot all remember that Chauncoy Dopow
is a farm-bred man who from an indi
gent and ambitious boyhood evolved , by
his own intellectual efforts , the present
successful and efficient counsel for cor
porate capital and that he is now , as in
his youth , the friend and product of
plain people and good citizenship.
The bridge over
OKI ) imiDGKS.
South Table Creek ,
just north of the Starch Works , is receiv
ing a new floor. This was the first iron
bridge built in Nebraska City. It was
built in 1872 , and the iron-work remains
just as it was first put up. This is the
site of the first bridge built across Table
Creek ; there had been several at this
point before the present structure , the
first one being a log bridge , built forty
years ago or more to reach the steam
boat landing. Two bridges were erec
ted in 1872 , the other being on the-street ,
running west from the Starch Works ,
which was closed Avhen the Missouri
Pacific yards were established on the
west bank of Table Creek in 1888.
When the street was closed , the bridge ,
which was a combination truss , or iron
below and wood above , was removed to
North Table Creek on Eighth street , ,
where it now stands. ;
Before there were any bridges here
the South creek was crossed at the sing-i
ular little hollow below Sixth street ,
where the .government very early made
a stone ford , for the convenience of
teams passing between this point and
Fort Leaveiiworth.
The Mirror welcomes to its exchange
table THE CONSERVATIVE , a neat weekly
publication established at Nebraska City
by ex-Secretary of Agriculture J. Sterl
ing Morton. As is well known through
out the length and breadth of the land
Mr. Morton has decided opinions on all
questions of public import , and welding
as ho does a trenchant , vigorous pen ,
THE CONSERVATIVE will doubtless prove
a success in all that the term implies.
We would advise every populist , demo-
pop and silver republican in this neck o'
prairie to subscribe for THE CONSER
VATIVE. Arapahoe Mirror.
i
A copy of the first issue of THE CON
SERVATIVE , published at Nebraska City
by J. Sterling Morton , was received at
tin's office tins week. The paper is pub
lished weekly , is something of the style
of the Economist , is-devoted to the dis
cussion of pfibh'c questions , is hand
somely printed and brilliantly edited ,
has sixteen pages and is sold for $1.50 a
year , and is worth it. Stool City ' ( Neb. )
Standard.