s >
Conservative.
like this govennncnt ; and then the czar
or nil the Russias , with fear of Uncle
Sam tugging at his hearb strings , ad
vised the whole of Europe to put itself
on a peace footing and to everlastingly
abandon arms , forswear war and forever
avoid battles because Major McKinley
had mounted the American throne !
The vivid portrayal of the quaking
and shaking of the crowned pates of
Europe when the lusty importance of
the election of a tried soldier like Major
McKinley dawned upon the charcoal
darkness of their despotic understand
ings captivated a large and very enthu
siastic partisan portion of the assem
blage.
The description of the hot haste which
Great Britain made to form a friendship
and even an alliance with the United
States just as soon as the news of Mc-
Kinley's success reached London aroused
patriotic pride to the yelling point and
the speaker was encouraged to picture
the potentates of Europe generally as
trembling and paling because Major McKinley -
Kinley was to be the commander-in-chief
of the army and navy of this republic.
The bubonic plague , the Asiatic
cholera , the smallpox , leprosy and diph
theria combined and amalgamated in
one dread disease , contagious and in
fectious , sweeping through all European
countries , could not have inspired the
dread and developed the shudder which
the election of McKinley developed in
England , Russia and Germany 1
Such eloquence and such truthfulness
and logic refresh the mind of the voting
man !
To those of us
SKXATOR TIIUKS- who remember the
TON OX SII/VER.
fluency and flaccidity -
ity of Orator Thurston when ho poured
out his soul in behalf of the free and nn-
limited coinage of all the silver product
of American mines at the ratio of 16 to
1 , his post-election interview of a day
or two ago is exceedingly refreshing.
The eloquence of Senator Thurston has
always been rather of the soft summer-
drink style of sparkle , fizz and foam
than of the more substantial brandy and
soda or straight-whiskey variety of pub
lic speaking. In other words , ho has
been more ornate than logical , more
flamboyant than practical , more given
to cornices , frescoes and decorations in
general than , to solid and substantial
foundations.
In view of the foregoing , Mr. Thurs
ton , in this last interview , when he de
clares that "The battle was fought on
the straight gold standard platform and
the result , in my judgment , absolutely
eliminates free silver as a national issue
in 1900 , " is charmingly unconscious of
his own inconsistency upon the question
of finance.
An outsider unacquainted with the
self-adjusting monetary views of 'Sena
tor Thurstou , might conclude from this
that this practical statesman , who has
filled the fetatutp books of his country
with the impress of his constructive
genius , had always been a gold standard
advocate. But the members of the leg
islature who elected him to the United
States senate must certainly recall the
fact that even after his election , in re
turning thanlcs for the honor thereof ,
Thurston proclaimed his faith in the
free coinage , in unlimited quantities , at
the ratio of 10 to 1 , of the product of all
the American silver mines then discov
ered or hereafter to bo discovered.
However , all new converts arc zealots
and all now converts have a happy facul
ty of forgetting their sayings and doings
before they met with a change of heart.
It is to bo hoped that Senator Thurs
ton will remain true to the gold stand
ard iuring the balance of his statesman
like career. Few publicists have shown
so much capability for soaring along the
mountain-tops of verbosity and fewer
still have so often and deftly made
sonorous melody out of mere breath.
The flights of Mr. Thurstou have been
wonderful but one who flies so high
must understand the art of lighting and
it is generally conceded that Mr. Tlmrs-
ton's flights have been more brilliant
than Mr. Thurston's lights. THE CON
SERVATIVE is an admirer of Mr. Thurs
ton and can not at times refrain from
expressing its enthusiasm for his fluffy
and feathery rhetoric and his rotund
oratory which is always so innocent of
premeditation , so perfectly guiltless of
thought.
PROSPERITY. A great'many
old-fashioned
people
ple believe that disaster and prosperity
are alike attributable more to natural
than to political causes. Corn crops
and wheat crops have been known to
flourish and to produce well even before
the McKinley administration was in
augurated.
And God , in his fatherly goodness
permitted the rains and the sunshine ,
the dews and the fertile earth to render
consummate satisfactions to the farmer
in the way of fruits and foods even be
fore McKinley was born.
But in recent republican oratory the
source of all good , all fertility , all pros
perity , was depicted as domiciled in
McKinley. Never before have speakers
presumed so much on the credulity and
ignorance of audiences.
On the other hand the populists have
demonstrated that the drouths , chinch-
bug , grasshopper and cut-worm are the
direct and logical results of the gold
standard and the republican adminis
tration. Nevertheless a large and re
spectable percentage of Americans hold
that disaster and distress in affairs
come generally from extravagance , in
dolence and mismanagement. And the
same people really think that prosper
ity is born of industry , frugality and
good management. Politics and pros
perity are not partners. .
Many organs of
PARADOXICAL
the populist party
in Nebraska are explaining the diminu
tion of the calamity vote at the recent
election by stating that the populists
were all so industriousl3r at work in
fields and factories that they could not
spare the time to attend the election.
This is a queer excuse to bo unani
mously circulated by a press which for
months has unanimously declared that
the unemployed wore all over Ne
braska and that relatively very few citi
zens had anything to do.
The paradoxes of populism are many
and this is one of the most stalwart.
The defeat of
Ata-tamLIn- -
coin by Stephen
A. Douglas in the senatorial campaign
of 1858 made Lincoln a presidential can
didate and elected him in 1860. Doug
las and Lincoln held relatively the same
position then in Illinois that Bryan and
Allen now occupy in Nebraska ; one had
been for a long time , pronouncedly , in
candidature for the presidency. The
other , Mr. Lincoln , had served one term
in congress and was not then nearly as
well known as Senator Allen is today.
And Allen's defeat for the senate may
make him the most prominent and
available , as ho is the most force
ful and able , among all the popu-
listic candidates yet mentioned for
that high office. Of course Mr. Bryan ,
nominally a democrat , could not
and would not accept the nomination of
a strictly populistic convention in 1900
any more than Mr. Douglas could have
taken a republican nomination away
from Mr. Lincoln in 1860.
THE CONSERVATIVE still asserts that
"William Vincent Allen is the biggest ,
brainiest and most dangerous populistic
candidate for the presidency in the
United States.
NOT AIXBN.
returns
that the legislature of Nebraska will not
be a populist legislature and that the
United States senator whom it will
elect to succeed William Vincent Allen
will not be William Vincent Allen.
And upon this point the commonwealth
is congratulated by all conservative citi
zens. Senator Allen is an able man.
Ho is a man of strong prejudices and
tremendous will. There is nothing
which Allen would not do , that could
be done with impunity , to accomplish a
political end. His genius and his ambi
tion for public office are vigorous and
self-assertive. Senator Allen is by na
ture and by intellectual training and de
velopment an intellectual athlete with
whom his colleague , Senator Thurston ,
ought never to wrestle. Allen was
born with more physical and mental
stamina than Thurston and while both
men have often changed views upon
political or economic questions Allen has