The Frontier
Published by D. H. CBONIN.
KOMAINE SAUNDERS, Assistant Editor
and Manager.
II 50 the Year 75 Cents Six Months
Official paper of O'Neill and Hnlt county.
ADVERTISING RATES:
Dismay advertlsmonts on pages 4, 5 and 8
re charged for ou a basis of 50 cents an Inch
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vertisements, 5 cents per line each Insertion.
Address the office or the publisher.
John Golden didn’t land the chair
manship, but he is still a member of
the board.
Any way, the New York World
seems to be worried a little over what
it said about the Panama canal.
-<•♦->
♦
Senator Ransom of Douglas, chief of
corporation henchmen, has just
about got the legislature by the
throat.
That fellow from New York who
had a brain storm in congress the
other day must have read a campaign
copy of the local senior yellow.
. “In Texas,” says a railroad report,
“there are fifty-live counties in which
the whistle of a locomotive has never
been heard.” They are probably
familiar, however, with the whistle
of bullets.
At any rate the Texas lire of $1,623,
000 stands against the Standard. The
great octupus fought to the last ditch,
but has been beaten. The decision of
the supreme court of the United
States sustaining the ouster and fine
will probably bring courage and cheer
to other states which are after the
oil trust.
It is a little early to pass judgment,
but the democratic legislature will
have to do better than has been done
the first three weeks of the session if
they expect to impress the voters
with the wisdom of continuing Ne
braska in the democratic column. The
first three weeks of democratic con
trol has witnessed a scramble for
spoils and plunder not seen since the
days of populist supremecy.
Men are peculiar. About two years
ago everybody was clamoring for a
primary law and condemning the
party convention. The law was en
acted and already murmurs for a
change are heard here and there. The
protest hasn’t ripened into a general
demand yet, although the new gov
ernor recommends a change. The
principal objection to the primary Is
the added burden to election expenses.
There is little liklihood that the pres
ent legislature will make any change
in the law.
Our democratic board of supervisors
are starting in on a campaign of econ
omy in rather peculiar fashion. They
adopted a resolution, signed by every
member of the board, to have the
counsy printing done where the lowest
rates could be secured. But in spite
of this evident intention at economy
the first contract let for printiag
supplies is a repudiation of the reso
lution. This paper submitted a lower
bid for the supplies known as “Class
D” than the one to whom the con
tract was awarded. We have no dis
position to criticize the board and in
fact are ready to commend any policy
intended to curtail county expenses,
but in all candor would ask how much
economy may be effected if the same
policy is pursued in purchasing all the
supplies that they have started out
on? That resolution ought to count
for something or be repealed.
The outburst of the Tammany con
gressman in the house of representa
tives the other day was probably the
most disgraceful affair that ever oc
curred in congress and should have
been forced to take his seat long be
he was denied the floor. This repre
sentative of Tammany, and others in
congress, have not dared before to
openly oppose the president’s policies
in regulating railroads, prosecuting
outlaw corporations and running down
land and timber thieves. Now that
he is about to retire they make bold
to let out their pent-up feelings.
Speeches like that of the fellow from
New York will please the class whose
course of lawlessness has been inter
ferred with, but no president ever
went out of office enjoying a larger
share of the esteem ofjhis countrymen
at large than will mark the “passing
of Roosevelt.”
■4«»
THE LEGISLATURE.
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 18.—(Special
Correspondence.) —The Thirty-tTrst
session of the legislature of Nebraska,
with its overwhelming democratic
majority, has completed the second
week of its life and a fair judgment of
its general tendencies may now be ad
vanced with reasonable accuracy.
From the transactions of the last
week, the action of the joint session
on January 12th aud the nature of
reveral measures introduced in both
houses is is very apparent that the
democratic majority has come here to
play politics for partisan advantage
rather than to legislate in thelinterest
of the people and to overthrow repub
lican officials and republican influen
ces wherevever the slightest oppor
tunity to do so can be found.
This is proven by the action of the
joint session of January 12th where
the democratic majority, by a pretend
ed canvass of the vote cast on consti
tutional amendments last fall, started
a scheme to oust from the supreme
court the four justices appointed to
the bench by Governer Sheldon, also
by the bill presented in the senate by
Ollis (democrat), of Valley, which is
aimed at the republican newspapers
of the state taking away from them
any possibility of publishing constitu
tional amendments submitted by the
present session by designating the
governor as the authority to place the
publication of amendments, several
bills aimed at the reduction of the
pay of the clerk of the supreme court,
that office being held by a republican,
and a bill in the senate by Howell
(democrat) of Douglas, which will per
mit the senate to put as many demo
crats on the senate pay roll at the ex
pense of the state as it may see tit.
All this is purely partisan and intend
ed to bolster up the continued rule of
democracy in Nebraska.
The joint session of January 12th
was the most exciting day of the pres
ent session. On the previous an
nouncement of the democrats under
the leadership of Senator Ransom, a
corporation lawyer of Omaha, that
they intended a recanvas of the vote
on the constitutional amendments
and thus attempt to overthrow the
appointments to the court made by
Gov. Sheldon and open the .way for
the appointment of four other J udges
by Governor Shallenberger, a large
crowd of spectators gathered to wit
ness the proceedings. Ransom opened
the tight by a motion demanding that
Secretary of State Junkin produce the
election returns of the amendment
vote. As they had been legally can
vassed by the state board according to
law and the result announced in the
proclamation of Gov. Sheldon, the
issue was vigorously contested by the
republican minority under the leader
ship of Senators King, Myers and
Brown and Representatives Nettle
ton, Killen, Brown and Taylor of
York who tore to shreds the un
founded assertions of Ransom who led
the democratic light, aided by Wil
son of Polk and Kelley of Furnas who
weakly trailed in the wake of the cor
poration attorney from Omaha. Tay
lor of Custer, democrat, would not
stand for the attack of his party on
the Supreme Court and spoke against
it, some of the hottest shot that
struck Ransom in the debate coming
from him. But fairness and reason
ing had little effect with the demo
cratic majority and Ransom carried
his point by a vote of 74 to 53, a few of
the democrats in the House voting
with the republicans, and the demand
for the returns was made on Secretary
Junkin. In reply Secretary Junkin
asserted that the vote had been legally
canvassed and refused to produce the
returns uutil requested to do so by a
court of competent jurisdiction.
Senator Ransom then proceeded to
make the foundation for a democratic
court to be appointed by Gov. Shal
lenberger, by offering a printed ab
stract of the vote on the amendments
and a long motion covering all the
technicalities of a “canvas” of the
vote. This was adopted by a vote of
74 to 50, a few democrats still voting
with the republicans who voted solidly
against it. The joint session was
then over and the “democratic
method” of makiug seme new Judges
well under way. Gov. Shallenberger
will now issue a proclamaton declar
ing the amendments adopted and
will follow by naming four Judges.
The new Judges will have to bring a
suit in the Supreme Court to secure a
decision on the matter finally. So
plain is the rights of the matter to
to the ordinary mind that no one ex
pects the Court to seat Gov. Shallen
berger’sappointees but the Ransom
brand of democrats hope to make
political capital out of the whole pro
ceeding.
Up to Saturday night the Senate
and House was “neck and neck” in
the matter of introducing bills for new
laws, the Senate having 90 bills to its
credit and the House 91. The “road
laws” of the state must be in very un
satisfactory condition as many of the
bills in both houses are amendments
to roads laws, particularly changing
the size of road districts. One of the
really important measures before the
Senate in the interest of the farmers
is the “pure seed” law introduced by
Senator Myers of Rock. Th is measure
will protect the farmer in the pur
chase of agricultural seeds to a degree
never before attempted in the state
and he will not have to await a “short
crop” or mature growth with attend
ing loss, to know the quantity and
kind of seed he has purchased. Ne
braska is one of the dumping grounds
for poor and mislabeled seed and this
fact costs the farmers of the state
millions of dollars annually. If
Senator Myers’ bill becomes a law the
conditions will be radically changed
for the better. Senator King of Polk
has presented several highly import
ant measures dealing with discrim
ination in the purchase of grain, live
stock and dairy products; annual
license fee to be paid by corporations;
divorce and statistics of marriage
and divorce: severe fine for sale of
liquor to dipsomaniacs and regula
ting sleeping-car rates.
Both houses have before them re
ciprocal demurrage bills calculated
to make railroads more prompt in
furnishing cars to shippers and both
have bills permitting the playing of
baseball on Sunday.
Many bills in each house are
amendments to the revenue laws
changing the law in various ways
from the election of precinct asses
sors to the subtraction of the mort
gage from land values for taxation
when real estate carries such incum
brance. Few sections of the revenue
law have so far escaped some pro
posed amendment.
The “Oregon plan” for the selec
tion of U. S. Senators is before the
House and two or three kinds of
“guarantee of bank deposits” are
psoposed. Wilson of Folk has pre
sented a banking law in the House
which covers all known phases of
the banking business and some that
are guessed at. Wilson is for “de
ferred payment” of depositors, his
bill permitting a year to pay in full
the depositors of a failed bank, the
fund being provided by a tax on gross
deposits amounting in total to three
per cent collected on a series of
months and years. This, is not Mr
Bryan’s “immediate” payment plan
and may strike the rocks in conse
quence. All banks must incorporate
and have at least $15, 000 capital and
cannot make investments in excess of
eight times its capital and surplus
The “guarantee” is compulsory and
National banks are permitted to
voluntarily comelin.
The county option issue is before
the House in two bills but the Senate,
over which Mr. Ransom of Douglas
holds an iron hand, has no such
measure in its files, there is a bill to
increase the salaries of county attor
neys, a bill to abolish capital punish
ment, to regulate the profession of
nursing, to prevent drinking liquor on
trains, to create a tire commission to •
investigate all tires and their cause,
to prevent assignment of wa„es to be
earned in the future,.to repeal all
wild animal bounties, to reduce the
size of freight trains to 50 cars and as
many other “issues” as a 133 active
men anxious for a legislative record”
can think of.
Representative Young of Madison
has a bill to circumvent the bonding
companies who have been raising the
rates on guarantee bonds. The bill
provides that banks may give other
security for state funds on deposit
than the guarantee bonds formerly
required these securties, being nation
al and state bonds, city and village
bonds and real estate mortgages on
Nebraska lands up to 40 per cent of
their appraised valua.
The petty “sniping” at the state
treasury under the forms of law has
already begun by the action of the
democratic majority. The House has
voted its members 15 cents each in
postage-stamps per day, which will
amount to the fat sum of $900 for the
entire session. The Senate did the
same thing under cover; it did not
vote an amount of postage outright,
but passed the word that all mail left'
with the secretary of the body would
be stamped and sent on its way, this,
perhaps, meaning more money in the
end than the flat-footed lump sum
authorized by the House. Further,
the Senate has up tor repeal the
statute placing the number of Senate
employees at 49. The upper house
has already more than that number
on the “payroll” and no donbt wants
to get “square” with the law but also
to fix things to give every democrat a
job at the expense of the state. The
Senate has voted its employees pay
from the 5th day of January when
many of them were not in town un
til the 10th or later and but very
few did any service from the date
paid for. All this is “democratic
economy” for which misguided citi
zens voted last fall.
The Senate with its heavy demo
cratic majority is under the domina
tion of Senator Ransom of Omaha,
the well known corporation attor
ney. The republican minority of 13
senators are powerless alone, but
will wage a good fight for progress
ive and equitable legislation. Should
Ransom be able to continue to hold
leadership and control of the demo
cratic majority through the session
as he most probably will, the chances
for progressive legislation and the
further curbing of the corporations
in Nebraska are decidedly slim.
In the House today 12 new meas
ures were offered and in the Senate
23. Senator Yolpp of Dodge intro
duced a banking bill, Senator Tan
ner of Douglas a bill for the begin
ning of a new capitol building at
Lincoln and Senator Bartos of Saline
a resolution for the removal of the
state capital to Kearney. Volpp’s
banking measure covers the whole
range of the banking business, pro
vides for “involuntary” guarantee
but that public funds can be de
posited only in a “guaranteed” in
stitution. Other Senate bills were
Laverty, road law, joining state,
county and abutting lands in expense
of improvement; establishing state
board highway commissioners; Ran
dall, modified woman suffrage permit
ting women to vote at municipal
elections on all excepting officers
named in constitution; relating to
vacation of streets; permitting party
of interest to designate newspaper to
publish legal notices and a bill to
raise salary of secretary of state board
of equalization to $2,000 per annum.
Wiltse, a law to compel prompt settle
ment by railways on claims for dam
age or overcharge. King, amend
ment to mechanics lien law. Dono
hoe, amend primary law to make non
partisan nominations of judicial and
school officers. Tanner a new charter
for South Omaha and a bill for a
new capitol building at Lincoln.
Ollis, amendment of the school book
law; election of precinct assessors
and valuation of real estate yearly
and amendment to primary law
making an “open primary” with all
names on one ticket. Miller, per
mitting regents to add new depart
ments to the State University. Klein,
broviding for insurance of school
buildings. Buck repealing “Sheldon
law” levying tax of 1 mill to pay
state debt. Raymond, amending
procedure in impaneling juries. Bar
tos, covering mutual insurance and
providing regulation thereof. The
new laws offered in the House were:
Howard adding Feb. 12 and Mar. 17
to list of legal holidays; Beelts, per
mitting carrying of concealed weapons
on license from county judge; Raines,
establishment bacteriological labora
tory and appropriating $12,000; Shoe
maker, auditing department for
Douglas county; Butt, providing for
woman probation officer for juvenile
courts; Kraus, for publication of all
claims filed with railway commission
and unpaid 00 days; Butt, providing
a majority of users of country road
may resist its vacation; Bushee, pro
viding for resurvey of county or part
thereof on majority vote; Bygland,
establisment of binding twine factory
by state at penitentiary and appro
priating $50,000 for equipment and
Coming, What?
THE
Exhibit* on Sale
OF THE
PRESO ITT MUSIC C. .’s
j PIANOS L
OF LINCOLN, NEB.
AT CRAVES’ JEWLERY STORE O’NEILL, NEB j
SALE OPENS MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1909
This is not a “fire,” “bankrupt” or “forced-to-sell” sale, but a sale where
we exhibit and sell some of our finest pianos at greatly reduced prices to
further introduce them in this territory. We can not advertise these prices
I as it might hurt the small dealer who has to get big prices owing to the sell
ing ot an occasional piano. Remember, WE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL.
Fathers who are going to buy their children a piano some time come in.
Husbands who have promised their wives a piano for the last five or ten
years “get busy.”
School teachers who wish to own their own piano come in and ask the
man about our Special Payment Plan with no payments to be made during
vacation. DO IT NOWJ
REMEMBER THE PLACE:
Graves' Jewelry Store, O'Neill
Sale opens Jan. 25, Closes Jan. 30,10 p.m. Store Open Every Evening.
PRESCOTT MUSIC CO.