Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Plattsmouth herald. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1892-1894 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1892)
THE WEEKLY HERALD: WATTSMOUTH. NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 29, 1892. THE HEIJLID. PfHUSHEO I1AILV KXCE1T SUNDAY xtroTT xxoa. RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION. DAILY EDITION. One Yrnr (iii advance) - Woo Six months 3 00 By Carrier, per week 15 WEEKLY EDITION. ne Year-ln udvnnce, . $1 50 If not puiil In advance, fi 00 81s munthH, 73 Three mouths, 40 Telephone NumlK-r 38. The Plattsmouth merchants en joyed a large Christmas trade. THE grand jury returned thirty nine indictments Saturday after noon. Nineteen were against J. Dan La tier. TllB police pension fund of New York city has been enriched by a ChriHtmas gift from CorneliuH Vanderhilt. The gift in. a check for $5,000. TllBcoiiticil last night liyn vote of Bix to two decided to carry the injunction case to the supreme eourt. Tub Nebraska legislature will convene one week from next Tues day. And in the mean time the light f jr the speakership goes mer rily on. Any democratic congressman has the right to introduce a bill to repeal the McKinley bill; but no democratic congressman has the tqmnk to do ho. Speaker Crisp is eoing to have another chance for a square meal and decent treatment. The ban quet will be at Philadelphia where mugwumps sing low. TliosKjwho hung up their stock ing Saturday night, and especially those at Lincoln were presented with several presents by the grand jury that were not very acceptable. Mk, BLAND favors ou income tax. So do two out of every three demo crats in congress. Apparently the next congress will send an income tax bill to President Cleveland to either sign or vote. If the B. A M. depot had caught fire Sunday (iiight instead of Mon day night the firemen would have been powerless to save it. The H. A M. should now build a decent deput at this place. HlLL will not resign when Cleve land nominates meujfor the federal offices in New York who are dis tasteful to him. Hejhas a different view of the course to be pursued in order to make things unpleasant for men whom he does not like. The large number now under eeuteuce of death, as well as the number indicted for murder, in New ..York has alarmed empire statesmen, and they propose to re peal the law of death by electrocu tion and substitute imprisonment for life. Two classes, the silver mine own ers and the speculators, .would profit by the reduction of the mon etary system to a silver basis. The rest of the people, however, would be harmed by the change, and they are numerous enough to prevent the change. The democratic party is in great luck at present.. It has just got a lease of four years on all the offices here below, and its comfort in the next world is assured by an ortho dox writer of emmenceiwho has just declared thatthere is happi ness in hell. TllE democratic steering commit tee of congress will not steer up against the rock of the McKinley law until they feel that they are compelled to. They are a good deal more skittish than they were on the stump two or three months ago. They begin to see what a genuinenstatesuian-like act the Jaw is. The scheme toelect a successor to M. B. Murphy last night was cut and dried; the newly elected mem bers knew just how to vote. While Mt. Graves may be well qualified for the position, there, were older members of the council who were entitled to the honor, a good deal more so than is Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves should have withdrawn in favor of J. C. Petersen. Senator Mcpherson has intro- duced a joint resolution" directing tuc secretary or the treasury to Kuspcua all silver bullion ptirch ases until otherwise ordered by congress. Aa such representative democrats as McPherson and such representative republicans as Slier- man ore against the silver law of 1890, congress ought to be able to either repeal it or render it harm Jess. CHOLERA AND IMMIGRATION. The announcement that cholera is on the Increase in Hamburg will strongly impress the United States with the necessity of promptly adopting all practicable measures to bar out this malady. At no time since the pestilence first se cured a foothold in that city five or six months ago has it been absent from the place says the Globe-Democrat. With the advent of cold weather, of course, the number of cases declined, but it is understood that there have been some cases all along. In Russia, too, the malady has been present from the time that it has passed into that country from its breeding grounds in Asia. Kven now, when the pest-stricken region of Kussia is having severer weather than this country as far north as the latitude of New York has felt, uccounts are frequently published of deaths from this dis ease. It will remain there through out the cold months, undoubtedly, and will break out with greater violence in the spring than it re vealed last summer. This is the usual course f procedure in all countries where cholera secures a chance to develop itself. In one or two points in Italy and France seven or eight years ago this hap pened, and the utmost vigilance and skill of the authorities failed to root it completely out until after it had manifested itself for two or three consecutive years. The duty of congress, therefore, is so plain and so imperative that it cannot be ignored or dodged with out leaving that body open to the charge of criminal stupidity or incapacity. The Chandler immi gration bill, or some measure as drastic and effective, must be passed at the earliest practicable moment. We know that the cholera has been present in Hamburg and at several points in Russia all through the cold season thus far. Our diplomatic agents in those lo calities have reported this to the state department at Washington, and as these officials were late in reporting on its original appear ance, its presence must be manifest enough to be seen by everybody on the ground, or else they would hardly note it. Immigration from Kurope must be entirely suspended for a year, or until the malady dis appears altogether. It is reason ably certain that Hamburg will have a worse Biege from cholera next spring and summer than was known last summer. It will un doubtedly pass to other places on the continent, and perhaps to the British Islands, and all these points will be distribution centers to menace the rest of Kurope as well as the United States. Under the present conditions of unre stricted immigration it would be absolutely impossible to keep chol era out of this country, even by the exercise of the greatest vigilance and intelligence at our seaports. The wise course for us in this cri sis, and the only course that prom ises any satisfactory results what ever, is to cut off all immigration from Europe to this country for the time being. This measure of de fense agaitist the pestilence the public safety demands should be adopted by congress promptly after the clone of the holiday recess. BLAINE ON GARFIELD. New York Press: Maine's tender ealogy of Garfield just ten years ago is recalled with pathetic inter est now. It was delivered in the house of representatives before both houses of congress, and it closed with this eloquent perora tion, Garfield's last day: "As the end drew near his craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the weari some hospitial of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stiflling air, from its homeless and its hope lessness. Gently, silently the love of a great people bore the pale suf erer to the longedfor healing of the sea, to live or die as God should will within sight of its having billows, with sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the . cooling breeze he looked out wistfully upon the sea's changing wonders; on its far sails whitening in the morning light; ou its restlesa waves rolling shore ward, to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the. red clouds ol eveningarchiug low to the horizon on the serene and shining pathway of the stars.- Lot us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on the further shore, and felt already upon his brow the breath of the eternal morning." It may be taken for granted that Cleveland has practically Detected all the members of his cabinet, and there is no reason to believe that hi mind can be changed by visit ing delegations of men whose names are not on the list. It is not surprising that the mis sionary societies which exercise eo powerful an influence in English politics should have strained every nerve to prevent the British govern ment from abandoning Uganda. Since 1870, says the New York Tri bune when mission stations were first established in the Nyanza dis trict, no less than eighteen mis sionaries, including two bishops, have lost their lives in carrying out their work of propagating Chris tainty and civilization. The native Christians in Uganda, where sever al millions of dollar have been spent by the missionary societies, number many thousands, and for the English to evacuate the country would be to abandon them to perse cution and annihilation. Under the circumstances the annouce ment that the British government has consented to reconsider its de termination and to retain, at any rate for some time to come, posses sion of the country, will lie received with satisfaction by all people in terested in the spread of civiliza tion. KALlsi'EL, the city of Northern Montana, on the Great Northern railroad, is not two years old, but its growth is marvelous. It is lighted by electricity, is just com pleting water work which will fur nish an unlimited supply of pure mountain water, and has a well or ganized city council and board of trade, and public buildings and res idences that would be a credit to cities fifty years old. It has in Flat head Valley Reservation the finest body of farming land in the state, while the mountains and hills are rich in mineral wealth. A great im migration is expected along this new line of the great northern in the early spring, when the road will be completed to the Pacific coast. The Herald takes pleasure in presenting the name of Prof. Geo. R. Chatburu of Wymore as the proper pei son for principal of the institute for the blind at Nebraska City. Mr. Chatburn is now super- intendent of the public schools at Wymore and was for a number of years superintedent of the public schools of Plattsmouth city. Mr. Chatburn is eminently qualified for the position and if he should se cure the appointment would dis charge hia duties in an able and satisfactory manner. The Herald, therefore, submits the name of Mr. Chatburn to Governor Crounse for his consideration. Russian authorities acknowledge that the cholera the past year took off 270,000 persons. The probabil ities are that it was fully one-third larger than this. The cold weather has checked its ravages, but the disease still shows itself alive in every infected district. If the United States congress refuse to take warning, and prevent its en trance into the country, they will be false to the best interest of the couutry. Senator Palmer says that he op- posed the anti-option bill when he made his campaign for office two years ago. The senator remembers a good many things now that were not heard of before. He will after a while remember that he has always been the warm personal friend and admirer of Horizontal Bill Morri son, if that gentleman gets into Cleveland's cabinet. The next administration must be conducted from the white house, and not from Tammany hall, says the New York Herald. That is just what the republicans said during the campaign, but the Herald was then very quiet about Mr. Cleve land's pledges to Tammany leaders. The Herald should have made its protests about four months ago. The late Senator Gibson, of Loui siana, was one of those, exception ally competent men whom the South occasionally sends to Wash ington, and it is to be hoped that his successor will be of the same class, though the chances are all against such a selection. Probably the democratic bosses in the western states which have senatorial contests on hand are equal to the rascality which the ex- egencies of their party demand, yet the national bossess officiously in terfere in these lights. The popular sentiment in favor of a national quarantine is practic ally unanimous, and congress has no excuse for delay in the matter of providing such a safeguard against a possible visitation of cholera. It is strange about Cleveland. Be fore the election he answered every letter by return mail. Today a let signed with an A. M., LL. M., M. D gets no response. it ine popunsis can eieect a sen ator in Kansas, Mrs. Lease is uu doubtcdly the strongest man, THE SWEATER SYSTEM. It may be recalled that a sub committee of the committee on manufactures of the house of re presentatives visited this city some months ago to investigate the sweater system as it exists in Chi cago. The same committee visited other cities for the same purpose. Testimony has been taken in Wash ington also, and a statement was made public yesterday which ought to stimulate reform. It shows a bicitening condititlon of affair. There is just one bright side to the picture, and that is the n'usence of evidence of immorality. "I have the greatest respect," says Chair man Warner, "for the manliness and the womanliness of the persons employed." Well he maj, for it appears thai they work from 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning until 9 or 10 at night. The temptation for such people to abandon industry for vice or crime as a nource of livelihood must be very strong. Drudge from early morning far into the night for the meerest kind of a living won't make a life of leisure and plenty peculiary attractive. But there is a dark side to this feature of the system. Mr. Wagner and his committee did not meet the men who had turned habitutal criminals and the abandonded the effort to make a respec table living. If the statistices of the slums could be taken it would be found, no doubt, that overwork and underpay, going hand in hand, were the great recruiting officers for the predatory ranks of society. Thomas Hood sang with tenderest pathos the song of the shirt and the re quiem of the "One More Unfortu nate" in the same breath. The sweater system, in its essential character, is found wherever labor is excessive and wages inadequate to frugal comfort, and is the whip with which vice drives its vicitims into its pens. Chicago is not quite as bad as New York and Philadelphia. This difference is probably due to the fact that this city has not the same residence district in the old part of the city. In those other great cities the down town districts are congested by large tenement houses, occupied by the poorest class, but in Chicago the cheapest rents are to be found remote from the center, and as a consequence darkest Chicago is streaked with light as compared with New York or Philadelphia. But here it is bad enough to be revolting. Dingy rooms, reeking with a stench more intolerable than the filthiest sta les, are crowded with men, women and children, taking in poison at every pore and sowing the seeds of disease aud death. Says Chairman Warner: Children in every condition of filth and health swarmed in most of the shops. In the last one we visited every one had gone except two wornout fellows, who had made a pile of the bundles of goods ready to be made up, upon which, with out bed-clothes they proposed to sleep, without change of the filthy condition of their persons or their clothes. The "sweater" and the "sweated" peifectly agreed as to the miserably low wages paid. The problem is to find a remedy. There are a great many employers who care only to get their work done at the cheapest possible rate, but even if all were sincerely anxi ous to secure reform it would stilt be very difficult to bring about a change. For one concern or all concerns in that line in one city or a few cities to turn a new leaf with the New Year, while others in the business kept on the old way, would defeat its own end. The margin of profits is narrow; at least it is not wide enough to admit of any very great change in the wage scale, except through some concert of action. The people would be willing to pay a little more for their ready made clothing if that would help matters, but some way must be devised for concerted action. Perhaps congress can pass some law having in it practical relief. The practical end of the report of this sub-committee will be awaited with interest. A mere diagnosis is not a cure. It simply shows what there is to be cured. SIX YEARS FOR PRESIDENTS, The proposition before congress for an nmemjnient to the Constitu tion lengtluuiing the terms of pres idents to sij years has often been brought forward, says the Globe Democrat, yet it does not seem to gain much in the popular favor. The scheme has its champions, as it has had for many years past, but it has not p nough of them to give it the faintest chance of adoption. Perhaps the men nt the head of it think this is a favorable opportu nity to place congress on record ou the question and to test public sen timent. Such a view, it must be conceded, has some reason for be ing. There is more loose thinking on grave political questions going on than has been known since the early greenback party days. The people's party, which is a lineal de scendant of the old greenback par ty, is as ardent and outspoken in the cause of "reform" as its pred ecessor ever was, and is as reckless regarding means and results. It boldly challenges established judg ments and vigorously and persist ently assaults established usages and institutions. If that party were powerful enough to accomplish its purposes much of the social and most of the political fabric would be overturned and refashioned out of the new. Therefore, this is as fa vorable a time as the cranks and impracticables are ever likely to have to gain consideration for their hobbies. Many of the members of the con vention which framed the constitu tion were in favor of a six-year term for presidents, and a few of the ar guments urged in advocacy of the project than are available now. On the whole, however, the plan which was adopted has served its purpose well. After a century's experience with the four-year the country is not at all anxious to change it. Al though thinking people are natur ally averse to altering the constitu tion, they would not hesitate to do so where the necessity was obvious and when the alteration would be a manifest and important improve ment. But the case here referred to it is not a case of this kind. The plea that quadrennial elections seriously disturb trade and arrest the development of the country is not very impressive. Trade was not disturbed in any harmful de gree by the canvass which recently ended, and the work of opening up new industries and extending old ones was not materially retarded. At all events, the political educa tion which these four year cam paigns confer ou the people is worth far more than it costs. Such a schooling voters and to think of drilling them in the duties of citizenship. It does not come too often. Four years, with or with out the privilege of re-election, may or may not be too short for a good president, but a six-vear term, or even a one-year term, would be too long for a bad president. THE INTERSTATE COMMISSION' the annual report of the Inter state commerce commission was submitted to congress Monday. It deserves says the Inter Ocean, more than usual attention on account of the proposed changes in the law. lhe act as it now stands is a mere shred of its original self. The courts have torn and rent it until there is hardly enough left for a sample of the cloth. This report savors somewhat of Mark Tapley, for it is brierht and cheerful in the face of all discoura gement. Salaries go on all the same The commission is gratified at be ing able to report that many rail road managers of. the highest standing now concede the neces sity of government regulation and avow themselves in favor of further enactments that will make the regu lation effective. This is a clear case of small favors thankfully received. The great railroads back from cut ting rates, but when it tomes to giving rebates to big shippers they snap their fingers at the law. The rate-cutting lines "pirates," but the rebate form of robbery is doing business on business principles, The grievance of the public is not so much extortion as unjust dis crimination, and the relief deman ded is protection from favoritism. The report is entirely right in one important respect. It insists that the recent decisions agaitist the in terstate commerce act do not inval idate the principle on which the law stands. That is the one encour aging feature of the case. The Brewer, Riner and Greshani de cisions have very nearly destroyed the state as a power in its present form, but the foundation stands se cure, and congress can build upon it a statute effective in character. The appliances for carrying out the taw have been almost destroyed. Such destruction is a very different thing, however, from undermining the basis of operation. The Gresh ani decision camethe nearestof any of the three to being hostile to the fundamental idea of the law, but it fell just a little short of that. While that decision denies the power of congress to require the federal courts to use the process to compel the production of testimony h ere fore a non judicial tribunal, it does not question the right of such a re quirement before a judicial body, and the statute cau be adjusted to meet the variations in detail. The shortness of the session ought not to prevent the passage of a new bill. Every committee has its day in congress, and an amend ed bill should be agreed upon and pressed Vigorously. There is ur gent need of such legislation as the decisions of the court and the ex perience of nearly six years unite in indicating and recommending. C. W. Sherman is still in the lead for the Plattsmouth postoflice. THE CRISIS IN FRAMCE. If France, without recourse to revolution, can extiicate herse from her present disgraceful mud cue in winch are involved legisl tors, ministers, journalists, socie itself, it will be because Paris is n as iriflamtunhlo aa t. ,t ----". in me uaBoi r The outrages of Louis did not ex ays of not e ople the cpositloft French , . i ceed in wrong to the peool : . - - j uare-:acea swinaies the expos i ot which has incensed the people to such a decree that thev already coufound the mal-adminis-tration of the government with the character of the government itself, says the Inter-Ocean. The excite ment of having a minister, four ex ministers ami Rva ,1. .,,:,.., ..v . . v, uifULlca 1UI 111 (1 ly charged with the worst noasiM, jui in oi political corruption might oe oi nseit enough to foment evil passions in the hearts of the dis turbance loving Parisians; but when to this is added the popular outcry against the universal gov ernment, the cry that-, ."all are guilty," it is easy to understand that there is a crisis impending if r-reneh affairs. ic question is, can it be averted peacefully? That result ' might be Tl. . attained by a proceeding to deter mine who are guilty and by prompt action to the fitting punishment of those convicted but for the fact that there are so many interests hostile to the existing form of gov ernment operating in every way possible to reactionary 'frenzy. At this time public -v sen timent is so strong against the re resentatives of the government it self is practically under trial. , The wholesale plundering has involved so many men of eminence .that the public seems to be unwillinc- to discriminate in favor of any. and imperialists, royalists, Boulanc-ists and radicals alike see in the .airing oi tne scandal the opportunity for a coup d'etat that may give One of mese over-hopeful fadtions the supremacy. The wife of one of the Panama " directors in unrr...wl.,-:., i,..tr .. I -"- UM.IVUUilU lllOCll U prisoner is quoted as saying: "Should the trial take place M. Car not will not be president lonirer than two months." The trial i ordered to take place, and this pre diction may be construed into the assurances of revelations that will overwhelm the government. Fortu nately Curnot is a man of excellent judgement and sound courage. It is believed, too, that he is a man of integrity. He will meet the issue fearlessly, we doubt not'calmly. He will be a tower of strength to the happily if he prove sufficient. But at best the world can but regard the rrench situation as one of grave international consequence.. The dogs of revolutional war may not be shipped.it is true; but the possibility of their breaking loose is great and not to be lightly, con-' sidered. The French populace, urban aud rual, is not given to being swindled with impunity to the swindlers. To. be robbed heartlessly, shamefully,. and to iuceredible extent is mad dening to the French, who are easily worked up to a frenzy. While it is hoped the public will leave Ui? investigation and the punishment to the law, it is feared the constan tly enlarging revelations may pre cipitate an insurrection with a cry ot A bas! to everything existent in the form of republican eovernment The greatest assurance of a quiet settlement by legal procedure is, - the danger that threatens France from without. A France revolution would be the signal for foreign in- vasion, very likely. The peace of Europe is concerned in the proeress of the Panama Canal scandal. From present signs there is no forecast ing with certainty the outcome of tue disgraceful affair. WALL street's recent irold flnrrv n - J s not expected to reappear this- winter. The January' settlements abroad took out from this country all the gold which will be sought for here at the present time, and heavy exports of the metal are not looked for again until the spring or summer months. Still it must be remembered that the balance of trade in our favor in our dealings- with Europe is smaller than usual for this time of the year. Therefore, the stock of gold in the treasury and the banks is not likely to in crease largely in the near future. The treatment of Chili by. the present administration a ytar ago calUd out sharp criticism and a multitude of sneers from political opponents. But the critics are all modestly quiet now. Chili has paid her bill in solid cash, and her re lations to the government are pleas ant and friendly. Uncle Sam not only demanded justice, but he got it, and made a friend of Chili in the . bargain. Chili will lose nothing by her promptness and courtesy. It is only a very few days until people will begin to make new reso lutions only to be broken in a few days at the least.
