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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1902)
THE COTJKIEK 3 which nominates him a unique price for making speeches recommending' his own election. Yet after conscientious ly reading the Commoner for six 'months I can not find that the editor approves of any other way of making money. All men connected with railroads or trusts, all republican office holders, all brokers, everybody who does business on Wall street, all bankers, some edit ors, most manufacturers, all members of any kind of a company that is not qo-operative. are robbers, and "rank and file republicans" are Implored to form a kind of villgance association and drive them out of Mr. Bryan's way. The-wealth possessed and accumulat ed by any other means, than running for the presidency is predatory, that Is, it has been made by ravening, plundering and rapine. There Is one other legitimate means of earning a livelihood. The miner of Colorado, not the gold miner but the silver miner. a pattern, a noble-minded, mag nanimous gentleman, through whose efforts alone this country has been kept in the hands of the people and out of the maw of ravening- republi cans. Their silver is the product of honest toil. In Mr. Bryan's fluid editorials, plu tocracy has at least fifteen repetitions to the page. The young son or daughter whose father takes the Commoner gets the impression that plutocratic Is a state attained as a punishment by the cruelest robbers. A dictionary and the habit of Its use should be cultivated by-jthe subscribers to the Commoner In "order that their children and their children's children may be still capa ble of naming things correctly. The Bryan editorial employs a few words without regard to the subject the edi tor is treating: plutocracy, predatory, monarchical institutions, imperialism, .Thomas Jefferson and standing army. A scholar In the sixth grade can write one If he uses these words. There are no directions as to form. Mix to taste. A Sprinj; Bluff Every spring, the municipal official whose business it Is to remind the citi zens of this little city that they have elected persons in power over them who have the right to assess them for keeping dogs that roam about biting calve?, and annoying all kinds of stock; every-spring-this functionary Issues a command that the dog tax must be paid or the dog" captured, imprisoned for afew days, and then killed. Those who have, read the minutes of the council meetings for several years remember other springs and other dog tax demonstrations. These people are wise in their generation and they, will wait till a dog-catcher has been em ployed. Then, especially if the catch er's salary depends upon the number of dogs-lmpouiidedrthe"tlmehas come to visit'he city treasurer's office. When the world-was young a solitary citizen of Lincoln offered the city treasurer's clerk a dollar for a brass tag with the city's receipt for the dol lar engraved on it. The deputy was a singularly scrupulous attache of the treasurer's office and he refused the dollar, because It would be the only liar in the treasury paid in for that cause. Meanwhile the dogs are Increasing in number and in viciousness. There is nothing except this periodical bluff from the chief of police to prevent Lin coln from becoming a Turkish town In respect to the number of pariah dogs that are allowed to race over lawns and flower beds, snap at passers-by, collide with bicycles and make night hideous with their howls. There is one other and more effective means of re pression than the city ordinance on this subject. " The cars of the traction company kill about fourteen dogs a year. Fourteen dogs a year is only a drop in the bucket, If one may be al lowed ,the license In the use of Eng lish enjoyed by the most distinguished citizen of Lincoln. The traction cars kill off the most inveterate snappers and snarlers, dogs with not enough sense to guage the superior fighting qualities of a traction car. In the interest of the survival of the fittest it Is well that these dogs be killed. They are the Idiots among ca nines and it will be well for the race If they and all their relations could be killed. But human beings do not seem to be able to pick out the able dog from the Imbecile. Each one of these poor dogs killed by the traction cars is some one's darling, some one who re gards his death as a calamity. T1& reflection that he had not. sense enough to keep out of the way of something as big and as noisy as a street car has no effect upon his in fatuated mistress or master. If every dog-owner, black or white, rich or poor had to pay a dollar a year, It would be an advantage to the race of dogs and It would effect a partial cure of what is becoming an intolerable nuisance. Of course the same argumentmay be applied to the human race. But it la against the law to impound and chlo roform useless and troublesome human beings. The Lincoln System The machine and the dictation of the oily machinists who run it is the most objectionable concomitant of a demo cratic form of government. On election day it frequently happens that pa triotic and intelligent voters must lake their choice between two evils; one a democratic, and the other a republican evil. In municipal or state elections the disgusted voter generally finishes by voting for the nominee of his party, thereby confirming nominating con ventions In their arbitrary and un democratic habit of conspiracy against the people. The cure for the evils of democracy Is more democracy. A system which removes the boss from the path of the candidate is very much bett'e? than the one In operation In most of the cities and states. The resident' of this county who desires to be treasurer or one of the county commissioners Is obliged to see the bosses of this county and ask their permission. Otherwise his name will not be mentioned In the convention. The so-called Lincoln system (in New York It is called the Crawford county system), permits any candidate to announce himself for election. Any republican candidate for the office of city treasurer or mayor can announce his candidacy by getting fifty residents of his ward to sign his petition. There may be as many candidates as there are groups of fifty voters In a given ward. The system is so democratic that it encounters constant opposition from the machine politicians who find greater difficulty in obliging their friends and electing "men who can be depended upon." Public-spirited citi zens who do not attempt to make any money out of politics but who never theless like to vote for honest and able men are by the operation of this system given the privilege. And the boss can no longer prevent his betters from asking for the votes of their fel low citizens. The county central committee of Lancaster county will meat on May second and among other things will consider the plan of extending the operation of the Lincoln system to the county. The extension of the Lincoln system to the county will be more apt to give the residents of this county the benefit of the services of strictly honest offi cials. The machinists are alarmed for fear that this stronghold of patronage Is to be practically taken away from them by the adoption of the Lincoln system. It has worked well In the city. By Its help the council gang was disposed of without much trouble. As long as it remains in force it is doubtful if there Is danger of a mayor like Gra ham. With the aid of the Lincoln sys tem in county nominations a reform would radically change the personnel of the county commissioners. I mean a change not from Jim to Joe, but a change In quality. It Is likely that the acceptable candidate brought before the people at election day by the op eration of the Lincoln system will be a scrupulous man with a deserved rep utation for honesty. Weak candidates, grafters of various kinds are obliged to stand In too strong a competitive light when they appear in the direct pri maries. Men whose lives invite scrut iny do not object to taking their places in line before their fellow men. If the county central committee is uninflu enced by the remonstrances of the machine politicians the present system will be replaced by the newer and more democratic system. NOTED BRITISH SCIENTIST IN AMERICA 2 f i m m ' ' ' " i j vvxikk !l! !!'!!' BBilbfc, lack-' TJfr " l vp p ( tfiiiiif vAi i (.'bbbbYzS SZ' s.bw 1) A Wi'0'';''9 it '?-' '' ' f v A) h'f ,fjk i t h V vL ,aBBKftlBfc?-iUvF -BBBh VI la 2iBBBBBBWlIr '" rnft HBBBBBM t wL. BBBBBBBBBBBBBBfW " JvwtM. i-wrs 33BBBBBBBBBBBBB1b f J illlllllllllBEli?&!Ek Ai'-- .jMlHHHHHMk' I Lr K?i--;K& r&tM' 9Jllllllllllllllk j . jLOD KLVJV n Here is Lord Kelvin, the famous British scientist, past president of the Royal Society, who is In this country on a visit. Lord Kelvin comes to America to make a careful study of our electrical and scientific de velopments. He Is very much Interested In wireless telegraphy. Five ThouMHd MU Away It is not magnanimous to condemn either General Smith or Major Waller unheard. The Nebraska legislature once condemned a brave and chivalrous and tender-hearted officer who was serving on the firing line near Manila, while the Nebraska legislators, after listen ing to the testimony of a few poor sol diers who had been allowed to resign and come home after the fighting be gan, voted for a resolution of censure. To be sure the hard and dangerous fighting Is over, but it is to be hoped that General Smith will be heard In his own defense before he is court martialed. Five thousand miles is long range In which to determine a man's guilt. If It Is proven that General Smith in structed Major Waller to "kill every thing over ten years" he should be courtmartlaled and dismissed from the service of the United States. If the republic means anything to us or to the world It can not be served by offi cers who treat prisoners of war with officers are frequently restive under the oversight and restraint of the civil power, but It Is a fortunate arrangement of the departments of government that the military is and forever must be under civil direction. War hardens and brutalizes. The knowledge that there must be a re port of every victim tortured, every Innocent child massacred, every rustic village burned is annoying to the offi cer in the field followed by a red-handed band of soldiery, bent on pillage and the excitement of killing. To be sure the president In supreme command of the army Is a man on horseback; but the warfare that press reports say Is being carried on against the Filipinos will be censured by him as quickly as though he had spent his whole life In a library and sickened at the sight of blood. President Roosevelt has the ordinary sense of justice and propriety and add ed to that an acquired historical sense of the development of mankind and the means "by which the evolution has been wrought. If American soldiers are guilty as charged they will receive no mercy from the man on horseback. They will have sinned against their time; against the meaning of the re public and against the great, still un broken wave of evolution which Is about to Anglicize the orient. Perhaps more than any other president of the United States President Roosevelt has the historical sense; the feeling of passing time and Its meaning, the rev erence for epochs and the ability to look back on present time and Judge it freed from the passion and interest of the present. The world Is getting further and further away from savage warfare, and the president who allows his soldiers to torture and kill prisoners will receive severer criticism from the future than from the present. This Is one of the reasons why all citizens of this country may be sure that the American soldiers in the Philippines will be called to strict account for their actions in the field. They may be sure, also, that the president will investigate the charges and if the men are inno cent he will have the courage to stand by them. "The Rights of Man" "Democracy Is one step In the march of destiny toward an end unknown, and neither merits the praises it has evoked nor the fears it has Inspired." Dr. Lyman Abbott's book. The Rights of Man, is a study of democ racy. He believes with Mr. Edmund Scherer, the author of the sentence Just quoted, that the chief function of. government is the protection of per son, property, family, reputation and liberty. He believes that it Is not nearly so Important that people should have a share In the government as that their rights of person, property, family, reputation and liberty should be secured. In other words a. poor de mocracy in which none of these essen tials are safe is a less desirable form of government than a monarchy whose monarch insures the rights of the humblest. At best, only a very small per cent of the governed can have a share In the government. President McKInley received fourteen thousand votes out of a population -of seventy five million. And his election Is con sidered more than usually unanimous. The blessings enumerated are essen tials. It Is not essential to a man's happiness that he should vote, though P Vl u