vested interests that give them their life
tenure positions;
The interstate commerce commission hav
ing denied the railroads the privilege of in
creasing rates, the railroads now assert that
they ' must reduce wages in order to play
even. All of which is to laugh. The first
move towards wage reduction would result
in a strike that would cost the railroads
more than they could make in several years
under an increased schedule of rates. The
trouble is not with insufficient rates, but
with insufficient management. Time was
when railroad men managed our railroads;
today they are managed by financiers. Yes
terday railroads were of themselves busi
ness institutions ; today they are mere pawns
in the game of "big business." A railroad
that cost $50,000 a mile to build and equip,
and is paying 11 per cent on a stock and
bond issue of $275,000 a mile, is not in a
good position to make a pitiful plea that it
is losing money under the present rates.
The railroad managers will now turn their
attention to efficiency, rather than to at
tempts at making the people pay dividends
on swollen stock issues. A member of the
commission is quoted as saying that the re
cent rate hearing will be the last great case
before that body.
Discouraged because her husband brought
home a roast of beef full of bone for her to
cook, a Kansas City woman drank carbolic
acid. That is carrying hopelessness too far.
This sort of thing must be discouraged. The
first thing we know women will be com
mitting suicide because their back hair will
not stay up, or their husbands kick the cat,
or the kiddies track in mud on the front
room rug. Instead of feeling hopelessly
blue because the Sunday roast is full of
bone, any wife in these strenuous days ought
to be glad that there is enough meat on a
bone to dignify it by the name of "roast."
Those Mexican rebels are sure raising
thunder with the benevolent old tyrant,
Diaz. While deprecating the existence that
impels men to take up arms and engage in
bloody strife, Will Maupin's Weekly is fond
ly hoping that those Mexican rebels chase
the Diaz administration into the Gulf ot
California. Every time we hear anyone
speaking of our "sister republic of Mexico"
we feel our collar growing real sultry. If
ever there was an autocratic, plutocratic old
tyrant, his name is Diaz. And if ever there
was a country ruled by an iron hand for
the benefit of a chosen few, that land is
Mexico. Every time Mexico is referred to
as a "republic" the name of republic is
dragged in the dirt.
The investigation into the fraud charges
connected with the election in Omaha goes
merrily, if slowly, forward. When the moun
tain has labored sufficiently the usual mouse
will be brought forth. It is to be feared
that the whole investigation was conceived
more with an idea to political advantage
than with a view to the public good. But
let us hope that at least a verdict will be
reached that will forever set at rest our won
der whether Omaha is really as bad, politi
callv, as some folk would have us believe.
Will Maupin's Weekly is of the opinion,
based upon a fairly wide acquaintance with
Omaha, that the city on the Missouri is
fully as well governed, peopled by quite as
good a class of people, and quite as moral,
as any city of its size in America. We are
not potimistic enough to believe the time
will ever come when a city as big as Omaha
will be conducted orl a Sunday school basia.
Governor Aldrich does well to call the at
tention of the legislature to the publicity
bill introduced by Representative McKelvie.
Aside from the initiative and referendum
bill, Will Maupin's Weekly believes the
publicity bill to be the most important, to
the state at large, of all the bills thus far
introduced. The fact that Nebraska is not
making the forward strides she should be
making, and is not known to the world as
she should be known, is ample evidence of
the need of some such method of publicity
as provided for in the bill in question. We
hope Governor Aldrich will pound away on
that question until the legislature makes
suitable response.
Senator Gore of Oklahoma made charges
that bribery was being used to secure con
gressional influence in the matter of the
sale of Indian lands in that state. A con
gressional committee was appointed to in
vestigate the charges. Naturally the ma
jority of the committee were republicans,
and as usual the majority played politics.
Instead of investigating the charges it seems
that the committee proceeded to investigate
Gore. The committee's progress has been
just about rapid enough to indicate the lib
eral application of whitewash to the men
implicated by Gore. This sort of thing is
by no means confined to republicans. Had
Gore been a republican and the majority o
the committee democrats, the proceedings
would have reached about the same end.
But no matter if the committee does dis
credit Gore by whitewashing the men he
implicated, the American people will be
lieve that Gore knew what he was talk
ing about, and that his charges were well
founded. No man in America stands bet
ter with the masses of the people than the
gifted but afflicted senator from Oklahoma.
Speaker Cannon is quoted as saying that
the most notable statesmen, aside from
Lincoln, whom he has known in an active
political career of fifty years, have been
Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and Senator
Joseph W. Bailey of Texas. Had "Uncle
Joe" used the word "remarkable" instead
of the word "notable," we might have agreed
with him in the main. Morton was a re
markably strong man ; Bailey is remark
able in divers and sundry ways, but thought
ful students of political affairs will hardly
agree that his ways entitle him to rank
among the statesmen whose first thoughts
have been for the public welfare.
"One of the most remarkable things about
graft," remarks Judge Ben Lindsey, "is the
eminently respectable pockets' that it finds
v its way into." The longer one studies that
statement the more enlightenment is thrown
upon present-day legislation and the present-day
industrial affairs.
WHAT THE OFFICE BOY SAYS
If I ever go t' preachin' I ain't goin' t'
waste my time tellin' about th' evil effecks
o' sin. I'll spend me time talkin' about de
good effecks o' right livin'.
actin' good 'cause dey air afraid o' goin' t'
hell if dey don't. De devil has got a cinch
oh dem.
De feller dat ain't got nuthin' much t' do
demselves air mighty apt to' t'ink dey have
a right t' tell me how I shall spend me
time.
De diffruence between me an' some fellers
is dat I t'ink Sunday is a day o' rest, an'
dey t'ink it is a day o' worship.
W'at gits me is dat de feller w'ot don't do
nuthin' six days a week should insist on
tellin' me what I shall do on de only day
w'ot's mine.
About de only fellers I ever heard talkin'
in favor o' personal liburty was de fellers
dat t'ought dey had a right t' make holy nui
sances o' demselves.
De meanest t'ief on earth is de feller dat
steals playtime frum de kids.
I've been readin' a book about animuls
an' diskovered dat man is de only animal
dat makes his young work f 'r him.
Politiks wouldn't be half so durty if we
took omre pains t' ptu clean men into it.
After hearing a lot of conservation talk
I've come t' t'ink dat maybe afterwhile hu
man life won't be cheaper dan machines.
Life is w'ot we make it, but some uv us
has a hard time makin' it.
Dere wouldn't be so mutch evil arisin'
frum de saloon if dere wus enuf work t' keep
men busy. It's poverty dat drives' men f
drink,- not prosperity.
De future will begin worryin' me just as
soon as I kin make de present secure.
A lot o' people are goin' t' chiifeh an"
The "Jim Crow" Law.
There is no especial reason why Nebraska
should have a "Jim Crow" law, there being
comparatively few negroes in Nebraska, and
they not much given to travel. But our
colored friends and brothers will have to find
a better argument than the one asserting
lack of accommodations if they expect to
make a showing in' opposition, .... The ia:t
of the . matter is, in the states where the
"Jim Crow" laws are in vogue the colored
people have all the best of it. Their depot
waiting rooms are seldom crowded, while
the waiting rooms for whites are usually
full of sweltering humanity. When the
coaches for whites are jammed to the doors
the "Jim Crow" compartments are always
comfortable. And the rooms and compart
ments are just as clean, too, as the sections
reserved for whites. The only objection the
negroes can offer to the "Jim Crow" laws
is that they smack of discrimination. So
far as comfort and convenience are con
cerned, negroes who travel are better off
because of them.
As one who marvels at the progress the
negro race has made during fifty short years,
and who wishes- them well, Will Maupin's
Weekly would advise Nebraska negroes not
to fool away any time opposing or com
plaining about "discrimination." Social
equality is as much an impossibility between
whites and blacks as it is between whites
themselves. And the regro who has a dol'ar
in his clothes to spend for groceries or shoes
will never have any reason to complain be
cause of a. dealer refusing to'take the afore
said dollar on because it was earned and
proffered by a' negro. If the negro can re
quire bilsijress-equality he will not have any.
Cause to complain because of a lack of social
equality. He' won't even think about it,