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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1900)
Conservative * cheer into hard work nud good temper into all the relations of human beings. It tends to impart permanent strength , sanity and order to the mind and to de velop that firmness of will without which , particularly in the great crisis of life , the most gifted of mortals become the sport of fate. As already hinted , the benefit of sound physical education roaches be yond the body. Many sports prevalent in universities are of extraordinary in tellectual value. Football excels in this respect. Good play proceeds much more from brain than from muscle. The same is true to a considerable ex tent of baseball and tennis. Nearly all earnest sport properly carried on also has immense moral value for all partici pants. It develops independence of action , the sense of individual responsi bility and at the same time fits for joint activities , cooperation and obedience to authority. It cultivates the will , par ticularly the power of instantaneous decision. It trains the sense of fair ness. It imparts moral poise , the abil ity to be fair when under powerful provocation to take advantage. On the whole , then , while the non intellectual features of higher educa tion are to some extent out of 01 der in universities , the shortcoming is less serious than many suppose , while the best institutions are rapidly remedying and removing it. Meantime a good part of what is blamed is not blame worthy , but deserving of praise. There are some criticisms of another stripe which perhaps we cannot quite so successfully meet , those , namely , al leging faults in the mental work done at universities ; teachers' halting and wry modes of presenting truth , errors into which pupils are suffered to fall in connection with their choice of studies ; and various distempers mental and moral of which it is said pupils are per mitted to become the victims through their intellectual pursuits. There is a widespread belief that uni versity teaching on certain subjects is hero and there biased , perverted , dis honest , not reflecting the best results of scientific investigation , bat shading , ig noring or suppressing these at the be hest of powerful interests , social , mone tary or political. That a university may get pus in its blood in this way profes sors need not be thrust out of their chairs or formally muzzled therein. Pressure so silent that the victim is unconscious of it will suffice , and it is in this quiet way that freedom in teach ing is most often destroyed. This evil has not gone far and there is no dauger of its becoming general in the United States ; but the malady is in its nature so terrible that a single case of it or even the threat of such may well prompt precaution , like the rumor thai a cholera ship has cleared for America from a foreign port. How ineffably important , how vital iberty of teaching is I need not set forth here. Even the most arbitrary governments have sought to guard it in 'heir ' schools. The argument has been ably gone over point by point hundreds of times. But there are two remarks which I beg to emphasize. One is that the entire community needs to have university teaching unbiased and cannot but suffer from a ? ag policy. When shall we learn what all history so clearly teaches , that the real foe of progress is never the inno vator the man wishing to force into belief and practice his mistaken new idea. The quack , the hairbraiued , gab- gifted fellow has little power. Like the wind , he bloweth where he listeth ; ye hear the sound thereof , but cannot tell his point of departure or whore he will bring up. Why should such a man be tormented before his time ? The real foe of progress is the well-meaning , stolid , insightless , leaden-minded con servative , who deems each new idea a crime , the creature against whom Shakespeare warns us in the passage : "What custom wills , in all things should we do't , The dust of antique time would lie un swept And mountainous error be too highly heaped For truth to o'erpeer. " The professor's privilege of declaring in a proper manner what he believes to be the teachings of science this per sonal prerogative is , therefore , not the main thing. The regnant , the towering consideration is the public welfare. The world cannot afford that any truth or any representation which an intelligent and honest teacher believes to be the truth should be forcibly kept under cover. Part of what professors teach may be false of course. All the more let it be aired that it may be refuted and we know its untruth. If the teaching is the truth , all agree that it ought to be published , though the whole world at first deride the prophet who lifts his voice to proclaim it. The more any theory snubs our preconceptions the more ought wo to wish it opened to the world and put to proof. There is no trust A CONSISTENT TRUSTEE.or combination in money equal to the fusion trust and combine in politics The free silver democrats , the free silver republicans and the populists combine to prevent competition in seeking public office. They are welded together for the avowed purpose of securing political positions as against any and all competi tors. There never was a more perfeo trust formed for the declared purpose of personal prominence and profit than the fusion of democrats , republicans and populists. William Jennings Bryan , the gen era ! manager and principal bene ficiary of this combination to control _ , _ , _ , public salaries and The General Manager. , , emoluments spoke n Nebraska City Wednesday evening , September 26 , against combinations of capital. This illustrates the consistency and the logical ability of Bryanarohy. The man who with his attorney-general would crush out here in Nebraska City a legitimate , wage paying industry be cause it is an alleged combine of capital : o make money , is exceedingly strenuous m his maintenance of a combine of office seekers to get place and profits. No other man in the United States ever represented a perfect trust or combine so consummately as William J. Bryan represents it in his candidature of the political combination and trust for office. Regardless of antagonistic theories , pol icies , tenets and traditions that combine proclaims itself a consolidation only for offices and emoluments "not for honor but for the money. " ammany Hall GOOD WOBDS. which now howls for Bryauarchy and rejoices in an Ice Trust , never loved Grover Cleveland and never supported him. for the Presi dency. It is now raising millions of dollars with which to elect Bryan , make Edward Murphy his Secretary of the Navy and confer the disposal of all federal patronage in the Empire State upon the professional gambler , Boss Oroker. The esteem in which General E. S. Bragg , the heroic commander of the Iron Brigade , held Tammany Hall and its political pirates was made known in the Democratic National Convention in 1884. Gen. Bragg then said , referring to the Tammany denunciators of Cleve land : "His name is upon their lips ; his name is in their hearts ; and he is the choice , not only of that band of young- men , but he is the choice of all those who desire for the first time as young men to cast their votes in November for the candidate nominated by this Conven tion. They love him , gentlemen , and they respect him , not only for himself , for his character , for his integrity and judgment and iron will , but they love him for Hie eneinicn that he has made. " Those enemies are the friends , support ers and natural apostles of Bryan. T' THE SILVER TRUST. . . , ' intends to punish all corporations that engage in politics , why has he neglected to order his attor ney general to proceed against the silver smelter trust at Omaha , that has been unusually active in politics , that has openly sought to influence legislation , that has contributed generously to the campaign funds of the silver propa ganda ? The Fusion Office-holder's Trust en joined the middle of the road populists from using one of their trademarks.