Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912, March 10, 1911, Image 4
CURT COMMENT OF THE TIMES It is a great pity that when Senator Bailey of 'IVxas seized his doll rags and threatened to go home, that he was not allowed to do so without let or hindrance. The vanity of the man. coupled with his failure to realize his duty, make him peculiarly out of place in the senate of the United States. Claim ing to be a democrat, he is utterly out of line with the trend of modern democratic thought, and equally out of line with the democracy of the fathers of the party. In plain language. Bailey is the mere mouth piece of special privilege. He wears with elegance and grace the lion's skin of democ racy, but the ears of the ass of special priv ilege stick out like a sore thumb. It is said by good authority that his resig nation once written and in the hands of the governor of Texas ended his service as a senator. Let us fondly hope that this con tention will be pushed to the limit, hoping that it is well founded. Nebraska has reason to feel proud of the stand taken by her two senators, Brown and Burkett, .on the Lorimer question. Their votes represented the practically unanimous sentiments of Nebraskans. If Lorimer can see in the vote which allowed him to hold his money-purchased seat a vindication of himself, he is gifted with wonderful eyesight. And the reception tendered him at Chicago by the "Bath House" and Hinky Dink" ele ment of Chicago politics merely serves to prove the truth of all that was said about the dirty deal which gave him the privilege of wearing a senatorial toga. But there never was a senatorial toga big enough to cover the dirty spots on the Lorimer hide. As was expected the senate refused to adopt the joint resolution submitting a con stitutional amendment providing for the di rect election of senators. But the mere fact that such a resolution even came to a vote in that body notoriously controlled by priv ilege, is a healthy sign. When to that fact is added the further fact that the resolution was defeated by a scant majority we may feel assured that one more attempt at this reform will end in victory. There will be some new faces in the senatorial chamber next time, and some of them are faces of senators elected by practically a direct vote of the peoples They will replace men who opposed direct election, knowing full well they wouldn't stand any more chance be fore the people than the sheep stood before the butcher. So far as general delivery of mail is con cerned the Lincoln postoffice will hereafter be closed on Sunday. The opposition to this order of things was nil. And why not go a bit further? Very few of us would die or go bankrupt if we gave the whole post office department force a complete Sunday rest. About eleven-tenths of the Sunday work is wholly unnecessary, anyhow. We are the victims of habit, that's all. "Uncle Joe" Cannon says he is satisfied to step down. But what else could "Uncle Joe" say under the circumstances? He re minds us of the intoxicated cowboy who wandered into the dance hall and was gent ly led to the door. He climbed the stairs again and was thrust out of the hall. Again he entered, and this time he was picked up and thrown down the stairs. Aris ing he brushed the dust from his garments, felt to see if he had any broken bones, and then remarked in a positive-tone of voice: "I know what's the matter with them fel lers ; they don't want me up there." "Uncle Joe" is down, not because he wanted to get down, nor because he is satisfied to be down. He is down because the people of this coun try didn't want him up there, and said so in unmistakable tones. If all depends upon the point of view, The partisan republican organs tell us that the Omaha investigation vindicated Governor Aldrich, and the partisan democratic organs declare that it discredited him. Being wholly unprejudiced Will Maupin's Weekly hereby decides that it was a dog-fall. Con ditions were not nearly so bad as the gov ernor painted them, and lacked a blooming sight of being as wholesome as the Omaha opponents of the governor declared them to be. Now let's once more take up the good work of boosting for Nebraska. The house of representatives has refused to abolish the garnisheeing of wages. We are not making any particular objection, nor does objection to the enactment of a gar nishee law come from men who seek to avoid paying their honest obliagtions. A -garnishee law is a bad law for many reasons. Let's be fair all around and make the gar nishee universal. If a wage earner owes a grocer money his wages are garnished ; if the grocer owes the laborer money, let it be possible for the laborer to garnishee the grocer's bank account, or the money that a creditor may have and about to be paid to the aforesaid grocer. A little of the sauce intended for the goose would taste just as good on the gander. March came in with lamb-like playfulness good to see. But March will have to be on its good behavior if it beats February's rec ord. No zero weather, copious doses of moisture and conditions that promise well for the coming growing season that was February's record, which is hereby given our official endorsement. It is now proposed to give a condemned murderer his choice of hanging or taking a dose of hydrocyanic acid, which acid pro duces painless and instant death. Our ob jection is that the field of choice is too lim ited. We suggest enlarging it giving the condemned man his choice of hanging, hy drocyanic acid and conmpulsory perusal of the effusions of one Poulson. We submit the proposition with fear and trembling, lest some one put forth the claim that we ad vocate cruel and unusual means of punishment. The minute baseball becomes infested with the gambling mania, that minute base ball is as dead as the late lamented Julius Ceasar. It is impossible to stop betting on ball games, for there always will be men so eager to wager that they will bet on which of two flies will fly first or which of two frogs can jump the furthest. But what we mean is that if bookmaking is permitted at ball parks like bookmaking has been permitted at the race track, baseball will swing at three wide ones and retire to the bench for good. Secretary Richard Achilles Ballinger has resigned on account of ill health. The country would have benefited greatly had his illness been of greater severity and of a date about two years and eleven months, back. The man who appointed this man should be given a due share of the blame for the fact that a secretary of the interior who was the special atorney for the men against whom the government should be waging a bitter fight was appointed. Taft did it knowingly. Taft is as much to blame as Ballinger. Do not forget that fact. And isn't it interesting to vise a very mild term to hear President Taft talking about the "hyprocrisy" and the "hysteria" of the men and of the newspapers that ex posed to connections and the schemings of this discredited secretary of the interior? What "hysterical" newspapers and men sought to do injury to Ballinger? Collier's Weekly, than which there is not an abler or more fearless defender of the people; Pinchot, Bristow, LaFollette, Garfield, Pepper, Brandeis, Hitchcock, all men in whom the people have the utmost confidence. Who is it forms the "sob squad" that sheds such odeans of tears over these "unjust attacks" on Ballinger? The Guggenheims, the Morgans, and all the other land-grabbing, mineral snatching, trust boosting gangsters of the nation, and their tears mingle with the tears of William Howard Taft. . Lovely spectacle for the trust ridden and monopoly oppressed people of the country, isn't it? It need surprise no one if Uncle Sam intervenes in that Mexican trouble and helps Diaz crush the Mexican . patriots who are seeking relief from oppression that makes the oppression visited upon our revolution ary sires look like a May day outing. Foxy old Diaz has lined his pockets and cinched his czardom by giving exploiters from the United States some rich picking down there. While the money has been rolling in to him the big American interests have attended to the little matter of making sure that Uncle Sam would never allow their inter ests to be put in jeopardy. American pris oners may rot and died in Mexican and South American prisons, and Uncle Sam contents himself with diplomatic corre spondence without limit. But let an Amer ican dollar be threatened, either in Mexico or some little James Raven republic in South America, and Uncle Sam hastens to send his ships and his soldiers to rescue it. This republic has fallen into the habit of cutting some queer capers since the day if first embarked on a policy of governing others without their consent. The Nebraska Federation of Teachers has decided by referendum vote to hold the next convention in Omaha. Isn't that rather rubbing it in? Were we not told that be cause Lincoln was clean and decent since the voting out of saloons we would get the conventions made up of the intelligent, the moral and the truly good? And now the teachers of Nebraska, the educators of our children, pass us up and go to wicked Om aha, where' the red lights abound and the merry clink of the stein and the glass is heard on every side. Wouldn't you nat urally think that the school teachers, of all people, would select a "dry" town for their conventions? There's something wrong somewhere, and we'd like to know what and where it is. Lansing, Mich., recently went "cfry," and now the water commissioner of that city is complaining that the consumers use too much water and he wants authority to limit the supply. Now what is a poor man to do? First they take away his beer, then they refuse to give him all the water he wants. Life is just one durned thing after another. "March came in like a lamb, and the re publican congress went out roaring like a