lit AUUmrr Hrralft
m:nn ruiMiNu ro., Owner,
Fnlpred ut tlic xi. toiricc at Alliance, Npb., for
transmission tluom;h t ho m:iil mm rconl class
matter. I'ullish (l 'J uc.-ikj s and Friday.
GTio iuTirnHn uinri iCSITSS. i;iitor
KinVIN M. lJUKIt Husinrss Manager
Official newmjor of the (Tit y of Alliance;
official now. i;i.er of I!o Ilutto County.
Owned nnd published by Tho Ilurr l'rintinff
Company, Ooruc I.. Uurr, Jr., President; Fdwin
M. Huir, Vice l'i evident.
SOBFR SFCONI) THOUGHT
Judc Wcstover'a decision not to call a grand jury
cession, despite the lengthy petition from citizens of this
County asking for one, will be received in various ways in
Various quartern, but in Kcnerul the feeling is that the
diBtrict Judge is better able to judge the necessity than
the average citizen who signet! the petition.
Mr. Wcstover has had a pretty problem facing him in
this petition. It requires couruge of conviction for a man
lected by popular vote to refuse a request made by any
Urge number of his constituents. In view of the fact that
Mr. Westovcr aspires to the supreme bench it is still more
to his credit that ho failed to be influenced by popular
clamor. However, this is or.e of the attributes of a just
Judge, and Mr. Westover's experience has extended over
o long a period that he can refuse a request from the
oters, when he thinks it should be refused, as easily as
he can overrule a motion for a new trial.
In the first flush of public indignation following the
McEIhaney murder trial, the cry went out for a grand
Jury. People in general have the wrong idea of these
bodies. The belief is that a grand jury is a sovereign
remedy for every public ill. This really isn't the case. It
baa no authority to investigate rumors of law breaking,
It may act only upon such evidence as is placed before it
Usually a grand Jury will indict upon less evidence than
court needs to convict, and in some instances, due to its
method of procedure, the otrenders will plead guilty when,
if the case came to trial, it would be extremely difficult to
secure a conviction.
Judge Westovcr has been dealing with crime and law
breaking for a number of yeurs. He is, therefore, less
easily swayed by indignation over any one offense or series
f offenses. He is able to see the other side of the argu
ment, and that is, that while a few indictments might be
returned, a grand jury session would be nothing more than
n. aid to good government Again, the cost is something
uiai snouid be considered m these days of high taxes.
The last grand jury, impaneled something like ten years
mgo, cost tne county $2,000. A grand jury now would cost
at least twice that sum.
County Attorney Ilasye has, in the past twelve months,
.prosecuted nearly one hundred state cases. Twenty-five
per cent of these were for criminal offenses. The county
attorney is willing to prosecute at any time he has secured
ufficient evidence to warrant the belief that he can secure
conviction. Every day there is at least one violation of
the law. Many of the men who signed the petition for
the fcrand jury know 0f tnese vj0iatons and vet not one
of these men has volunteered to come forward and testify
r give any assistance to the authorities in cleaning up
finance, a grand Jury, in the face of such an attitude,
would accomplish but little more than the county attorney.
It has a little more authority it may subpoena witnesses
nd force them to testify under oath. This the county
prosecutor may not do.
There is but one way to cleun up a community, and that
is to enlist the support of every citizen. This support
must be active, not moitih support alone. When the time
comes that every citizen who knows of the violation of
law will do his duty and take the matter up with the
proper au.horu.es, ami do everything in his power to help
ecure a conviction, then, and then only, will the boot
leggers and kindled scum begin to realize that other fields
re more inviting. Alliance doesn't need a grand jury half
much as it' m eds an awakened civic conscience.
taining at least twenty-five names of electors, and not
more than fifty. Five councilmen are to be elected, anu
petitioners are cautioned rot to Mirn more than five nom
inating petitions. As many mn-lidatei will be placed in
nomination its there are petition filed, and at the primary
'i ten receiving-the highe.-t vote will be rnt'tled to have
tite r names placed on the ballot for the c.'ty election,
which w.ll 1 held the first Tuesday in May.
Ton onow is the first day on uhYh nominating pt;tion
may be filed. Those who are interested In good govern
ment should take the Initial ticp in getting good men inio
the race. It is hoped that the city manager plan will to
lighten the du'ics of councilmen that the best men in the
city will consent to be connected w'lh the council. While
it is true that any man has a right to make the race, it
should be understood that the plan has no chance of suc
cess unless public spirited men, of ability, are chosen for
the council. No man to whom the salary is the chief in
ducement should be elected.
Alliance has plenty of good men who fhould be drafted
for service, if they will not consent to make the race.
1'etitions may be filed for them. The time is at hand
two weeks hence will be too late.
The Herald suggests that every organization in the city
which is interested in good government sponsor one or
more candidates. The league of women voters, the welfare
council, the American legion, the Rotary club, and all the
others should be vitally interested in better government
for Alliance. This is an opportunity to show that interest
in a constructive way. Unites the voters take an iictua'
interest, the city manager plan cannot succeed any ln tt r
than the old system. We have the plan with us for at
least four years if it does not succeed, every taxpayer in
Alliance will be the loser. The selection of good men is
an insurance against failure.
A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT
t THE WELFARE ORDINANCE
City Attorney Mete, Councilman Johnson and a com
mittee from the. local welfare organisation are how en
gaged in paring down the proposed welfare ordinance,
which was submitted to the council following a series of
meetings held in Alliance by the Rev. Theodore Hanson,
State organizer. The ordinance, as originally introduced,
' drawn to cover the activities of a city the size of
Chicago, ami while in time Alliance will doubtless be large
enough to make every one of the provisions applicable,
the passage of this ordinance would be almost as feasible
m the hunting of wild goose with a twelve-inch mortar.
The Herald has not a single objection to the welfare
rdinance as proposed or as it will read when amended.
There are a number of good provisions in it, and provided
the right persons are in charge of it, will undoubtedly
have a great effect. We wonder, however, if pome of the
feminine supporters of the measure realize just what pow
ers they have been willing to give to the city superintend
ent of public welfare through the measure they have
endorsed. It's a long ordinance, and legal phraseology is
eotoriously difficult to read,
People, as a rule, are perfectly willing to endorse legis
lation that does not affect them. All of us are anxious to
nave other people's children placed under proper rules of
conduct, but somehow or other, wo dislike to have either
orselves or our offspring subject to moral regulations
which others have proposed.
Let us hope that the committee now revising the welfare
rdinance will do their work thoroughly. It la possible,
f course, to so cut and amend the document as to emas
culate It, and deprive it of all force, and this should not be
done. But the citizen of Alliance, the mothers of children
and the children themselves, may be spared considerable
humilation later on if the measure has been properly
edited before it is made a part of the city's law.
BRING ON TnE CANDIDATES
An Alliance professional man has received word from
a friend in the state senate that it is apparent that the
moving picture producers and the newspapers of Nebras
ka are opposed to the movie censorship bill. Naturally
enough, he wants to know why it is that the newspapers
should be almost a unit in taking that sort of a stand.
Conceding that the state senator in question is correct
in his assumption that a big majority of the newspapers
do not favor the move, it is but natural there should be
some impelling motive for their opposition. The motive
is easily discerned after a slight study of the proposed
law. The freedom of the press is threatened by this pro
posed legislation, and the newspaper men. who know that
freedom of writing was gained only after a long and bitter
struggle, are the first to recognize encroachments upon
their prerogatives.
The proposed law provides for a bureau of inspectors
of motion pictures in the state department of public wel
fare. The child welfare council of the state child welfare
bureau has the sole nominating power. This council
the membership of which is not generally known will
place six names before the secretary of the state depart
ment of public welfare, from which he is to choose three,
not more than two to be of the same sex.
Into the hands of these three persons, chosen in this
way, is to be committed the supervision of every moving
picture house in Nebraska. They are to examine, or sup
ervise the examination, of all films shown in the state,
and are to approve such as are moral and proper, and
disapprove such as are sacreligious, indecent, obscenp. im
moral, or bad, or such as tend, in the judgment of the
board, to debase or corrupt public morals, or tend to incite
to the commission of crimes, ever bearing in mind tW
children attend exhibitions of such films and that they are
peculiarly susceptible to such impressions. Under such a
classification, the mental and moral standard of children
is to be set up as the standard for adults.
It may be questioned as to just where the freedom of
the press is involved in all this. The answer is found in
another section, which provides a copy of all newspaper
advertising must be passed upon by the board and be sub
ject to its examination and approval before it may be
printed.
These three inspectors are to be permitted, in the name
of public morals, to dictate what shall go into the adver
tising columns of every newspaper in the state. If they
succeed, every other bureau may demand the same right
of supervision. From this it is only a slight step to say
ing what shall be printed in the news columns of a news
paper. With the least abridgement ot the freedom of the
press will go a right, essential for the protection of the
public, that it required centuries to gain.
Freedom of the press is not an especial privilege to
newspaper men. It is a constitutional guarantee and
applies to every man, woman and child in the nation. The
press is the greatest power on earth, and is open to rich
and poor, the oppressed. There is no cause so helpless that
it may not find a champion. The newspapers are responsi
ble under the law. They do not abuse their privileges, and
if they do step across the line, there is a ready remedy
in the courts.
It has been argued that if the newspapers do not ap
prove of this feature of the bill, they should have it
eliminated, and let the rest of the bill stand. It is but
just to conclude that if the bill is drawn up without re
gard to the constitutional rights of newspapers, it is not
intended to protect and preserve the rights of others.
Drawn as it was, by salaried reformers and fanatics of
one sort and another, the bill should be amended in the
way that Senator Lodge proposed to amend the league of
nations covenant. "Strike out all below the enacting
clause," said the senator, "and write a new league."
. House roll-No. 113 6eeks reform of the moving picture
industry at the wrong end. With state censorship, just
as with state divorce laws, there is bound to be a silly
jumble of requirements. A film that will pass the Penn
sylvania board will not be permitted to be shown in
Kansas; the picture as passed by Kansas will not be al
lowed in Nebraska; the Nebraska rules may not suit the
dispositions of the guardians of public morals in Iowa.
And in Montana, a sane state, the changes proposed by
all of these boards will probably be regarded as unneces
sary. If there shall be censorship and there should be,
undoubtedly pressure should be brought to bear upon
congress, and have it done thoroughly. Make it nation
wide. Then inspectors may camp at the film studios, and
the average moving picture house not be worried to death
because of old-maidish restrictions imposed by the prudish
and the narrow-minded.
The city manager form of government will go into effect
la Alliance, unless some of the opposition are able to
bring an injunction suit to prevent the city clerk from
calling the primary election, which is the first step. The
primary election, under the new plan, will be held on
March 15. Nominations for councilmen must be filed
between February 2 and 12.
la order to nominate a man for councilman, a petition
must be filed by him or for him, with the city clerk, eon-
The first community "mixer" given by the chamber of
commerce was an eye-opener. More of such affairs are
Indicated by the tremendous success of the first. Such
gatherings will do more to develop a real community spirit
than pages of advertising, hundreds of speeches or thou
sands of wastebaskets full of circular letters. "Mixers,"
with their friendly atmosphere, belong particularly to the
west One of the regrettable things about living in a
growing city is that it is impossible for men and women
to know only a few of their neighbors.
RED CROSS IS SEEKING A
WHITE MAN 30 YEARS 010
"White, thirty years old" is not thp
mo t contplc'p description on puith,
but that is all the home tervice bureau
of the Red Cross has received to work
n;on. Mr. Elizabeth Coleman of
Hurley, Miss., is seeking: her son,
Oliver Colpman, who, at the 1,'st time
he wo'e her, in February. 1019, was
employed in one of the Artioch pot
ash plants. In that last letter her
son told her that on the day he was
writing, the plant was closing down
and that he intended to tro to Lake
side. Since then his mother has Int
all trace of hi-n, ami as she is an old :
lady, is greatly worried and has ap
pealed to the Red Cross in the hope
of finding her son. i
Tha postmasters at Antioch and ;
Lakeside say they have no record of
Oliver Coleman pvpr having been in
either of the two towns. It is possi
ble, however, that rome of the work
men in the potash plants might recall
Mr. Coleman, and if they can furnish
any news of him, it will be rratefully
received by h-'s mother. Those who J
can give any information are request- j
ed to communicate w;th Miss Joseph-.
ine Ganson of the Red Cross home
service bureau in this city.
Broadwater News: Mr. and Mrs.)
IT. T. Brown journed via railroad to
Alliance last week, and Saturday, at;
that place, Mrs. Brown was operated i
upon for gall stones, and at the pres-1
rut unit; is Kmmjr aionp niceiy. jvir.
Brown expects her home the latter
part of next week.
Baby Carriages, Gondolas
ind English Pullmans
Fibre and Reed
L TjfZ
GENUINE
m n n n n n
fehl
WW
DURHAM
tobacco makes 50
good cigarettes for
10c
ARE REDUCED IN
PRICE.
You can Now Buy a
Vehicle for the Baby
at Fully
20 LESS
than the prices of
Last Year.
Former Price $90.00, Now. . . .$70.00
Former Price $75.00, Now. . . .$59.00
Former Price $65.00, Now. . . .$50.00
Former Price $00.00, Now. . . .$47.00
Wc Have Fifteen Styles to Select From.
Confidence Begets Confidence
We are FIRST ALWAYS to tell you publicly
of the reductions in prices of our lines of
merchandise. WHY NOT do your trading
at the one store -that gives you the immediate
benefit of lower prices?
George D. Darling
FURNITURE and HOUSEFURNISHINGS
113-117 West Third Street -:- Alliance, Nebraska
Km
Too Many Pure-Breds?
Grandpap had his chance to go in for pure-breds.
"No," he said, "too many already."
Again opportunity knocked at father's door. "The
breeding business is being overdone," father declared.
Today the same chance is presented to you. Many
persons will still tell you there are too manv pure-breds.
Don't believe them. It is the same old bogey the
scarecrow with a heart of straw that fooled grandpap
and father. LESS THAN TWO PER CENT OF
OUR CATTLE ARE PURE-BREDS. . These are
the facts the 98 are scrubs or grades!
It is too late for Grandpap; and for
father his chance maybe gone; but
the road is open to YOU. Join those
who have become independent by
breeding good cattle. Thousands of
men in the United States who went
in for pure-breds ten years ago are
now independent. Tens of thousands
- who go in now will become indepen
dent during the ensuing decade. Our
hope is that you will be one of them.
Now is the time to buy, when all prices
are low. Get ready to share in future
high prices.
For instances showing what pure
breds have done for farmers in average
circumstances we refer you to the
week-by-week articles in THE COUN
TRY Gentleman. It combs the
country for every sort of news of in
terest nd profit to farmers, and this
very ad is due to its desire to be of
service. It is really hard to contrive
more pleasure and profit than $1.00
spent for a year's subscription (52 is
sues) toTHECOUNTRYGENTLEMAN
will bring you. You'll want it event
ually why not order it TODAY?
NEBRASKA SIIORTHORN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION
a 11 MCCARTHY, Secretary, York, Nebraska
THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. Philadelphia. P.
I'm glad to tee you pushing our organization with good advertUing. And here's my dollar for a ubecription
for one year, fifty-two issues. The two go well together.
(My Name).
(My AddrcwV
(Town)
.(SuteX.