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VOL.. 9. No. 3!.
LINCOLN, NBB., SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1894.
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
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In this county, whcro republican
nominations carrv assurance of elec-
' 4 LjL Kr 'on a' e PNB ho people have
i Jr '&$$ 3lD y time to count their chickens before
i" " k thnv are hatched and this vear es
pecially they are counting them.
The timely resolutions passed by the
republican county convention were in this line and they were oppor
tune and to the point. The Jegislative delegation stands pledged to
them and if they are faithfully carried out, some past wrongs will be
righted and come needed legislation for better things in municipal
governmentr will come.
In addition to the action of the republican convention, the people
of the city are already discussing needed legislation in municipal
affairs and, when the time comes for the amendments to the city
charter, there will be some radical changes proposed. There is a
very prevailing opinion among tax-payers that a reduction of muni
cipal expenses and the number of city officers, is eminently in order.
It is discussed by many that a needed reform in the changing of the
charter so as to elect in the city a board of four councilmen, electing
them at large, and paying a salary of 81500 or 81800 each annually so
as to command their entire time, secure business men who can afford
to give their time for the compensation given. In this plan is in
volved the doing away of the excise board and the board of public
works, the business of the latter being, very largely, transacted by
the city engineer at all times.
Another change under discussion is in the manner of assessing
property and there are many advocating the plan of electing one as
sessor for the city entire, paying a suitable salary and supplying him
with the clerical help necessary to transact the entire business.
Under present assessment laws the expense is greater than it would
be with one man, and the difficulties in getting an equitable assess
ment of the eutire city, is most apparent. With seven different men
doing the work and as many as four different assessors valuing pro
perty on O Btreet, the present system certainly cannot be in
many instances satisfactory.
There is another side to the question of these proposed changes
and that is the fact that it would greatly reduce the number of
office-holders and destroy a great many political pulls. It is a ques
tion, too, when it comes to the effort to legislate these reforms, if
the office holding and office seeking element will not interpose a
lobby of such proportions as to pratically put a stop to the changes
advocated. The discussion of these changes however is profitable
and may bring good results.
The man who has paid his sixth assessment on . wood paving in
this city and is hustling tosccur? the wherewith to meet the seventh,
is confronted with a condition and not a theory. If he critically ex
amines the wood paving before his property he will find that three
years more is all that he can expect of it. By that time he will have
it paid for and then he will have the pleasure of commencing over
again to pay for paving. In the meantime an interesting question
of an increase in the bonded indebtedness of the city presents itself,
when the question of repaving the intersections comes up for action.
While you are waiting wait for the Nebraska state fair.
The article by ex-Governor 1'hayer in The Cockier two weeks
ago, in which the general paid his respects to Benjamin H. Bristow,
a conspicious member of Grant's Cabinet, has attracted considerable
attention. The World-Herald republished the larger part of the
article with editorial comment, mildly critising some of General
Thayer's statements. In Sunday's World-Herald Patrick O'Hawes
comes to the front with the following letter:
Omaha, July 13. My attention was this day called to an article in
your editorial columns headed "Thayer on Bristow." I cannot
understand what General Thayer means by assailing, through the
press and on the stump, as pure a character as that of Ben Bristow.
General Thayer is not only mistaken in a good many assertions in
his article, but he seems to have forgotten nearly all the facts touch
ing the relations between Grant and Bristow at the time of the
Iatter's resignation as secretary of the treasury, To begin with,
General Thaj er says that when General Grant appointed Bristow as
United States district attorney for the district of Kentucky he was
a third-rate lawyer, The fact is that General Grant never appointed
Bristow as the United States attorney for the state of Kentucky.
He was appointed by Mr. Lincoln, United States attorney. He
prosecuted and procured the conviction in the United States court
of the only man that was ever found guilty of treason in a civil court
Warranted the BEST FLOUR in America.
None Genuine without cut
of Indian on back of sack.
Any Grocer can get it for you.
J. K Ives & Co., WTliolesale Agtf:s.
LINCOLN.
NEBRASKA