elected, Will Maupin's Weekly has confi
dence enough in him to believe that he will
obey the will of the people and enforce the
law to the best of his ability. Should Mr.
Armstrong or Mr. Malone be elected, and
Lincoln go "dry" we have enough confi
dence in their patriotism and civic pride to
believe that the one elected would enforce
the policy to the very best of his ability.
The question is, therefore : Whom do you
think would give Lincoln the best admin
istration? It is not a question of whether
this or that candidate is "wet" or "dry."
That is a question to be settled by the vot
ers, not by the officials we elect.
That there should be a radical change in
the methods of the water department is evi
dent to all who have given the matter at
tention. The department as at present con
ducted has given ample evidence that its
managers are not big enough to cope with
the situation. There are sections of the city
that are absolutely without water service;
other sections with 'service so abominably
poor as to be worse than nothing a goodly
share of the time, and other sections where
the service could be vastly bettered by a
little intelligent management. Not all the
blame is due the comissioner, for the water
committee of the council seems to have a
dropsical affliction in the cranium that be
tokens the pjrfcsence of more water on the
brain than in the mains. There are two
candidates before the republican primaries
that Will Maupin's Weekly believes well
qualified for commissioner better qualified
than the incumbent. Mr. Rudy has had a
practical experience as an electrical worker
that would stand him in good stead as com
missioner of water and electric light, and
he has also had a practical business educa
tion in the school of experience. Mr.
Sprague is a business man, and he is one of
hundreds of sufferers by reason of the mis
erable policy of "economy" and habit of
negligence that have characterized the
water department during recent years. The
department is sadly in need of new blood."
For personal reasons Will Maupin's Weekly
is inclined to favor Mr. Rudy, although Mr.
Sprague would be equally satisfactory as a
candidate.
Bartos of aline, in opposing the Ollis sub
stitute, grew rather personal, and this drew
a hot rejoinder from Skiles of Butler. Ollis
remained in his seat and took the grilling.
Alberts of Platte threw oil upon the troubled
waters in a humorous speech, but no sooner
had the oil spread than he touched a lighted
match to it. Hoagland of Lincoln "also
spoke." Then the democratic majority ap
plied the steam roller to the minority run
ning it back a couple of times over the pros
trate forms of Ollis and Skiles. It was a
circus for the gallery, but it was another
evidence of the fact that no sooner do demo
crats get into power than they proceed to
fight among themselves very much like two
cats tied together by the tail and hung over
a clothesline.
There were fireworks galore in the senate
last Monday afternoon. They were touch
ed off when the senate started upon the
work of selecting a sifting committee. Ollis
of Valley tried to put one over on his demo
cratic colleagues, and came mighty close to
doing it. He would, too, if the little scheme
had not been exposed. He framed up a
deal' whereby a sifting committee of seven;
four democrats and three republicans, was
to be elected, with himself as the fourth
democrat. By getting the right republicans
on. the committee Ollis would have had
things his own way. Skiles of Butler was in
on the. deal. But the democratic majority
sat down upon these two democrats and
the sitting process was accompanied with"
nineteen dull, sickening thuds. The ma
jority decide tipon a committee of nine six
democrats aand three republicans and the
democrats selected the republicans. This
was a concession, and in its way, a preced
ent. Four years ago the republican ma
jority in the senate elected a sifting com
mittee and there wasn't a democrat on it.
Two years ago the democratic majority
elected a sifting committee, and there wasn't
a republican on it. This year the demo
cratic majority gave the republicans three
of out of nine, but it was careful to select
republicans to its liking. Senator Ollis tried
to have democrats selected who were wholly
satisfactory to the republicans.
Funny, isn't it? Issue a call for the in
surance committee to meet, and the commit
tee is right there. Issue a call for the com
mittee on labor and it is impossible to hold
a quorum, and next to impossible to get it.
Committee on miscellaneous corporations
and it's right there. But the committee on
labor. O, whatn'll the use of wasting any
time on a bunch of mere wage earners?
Human life is about the cheapest thing on
the market, but hogs cost money.
Bills a plenty will die a-bornin' during
the next two or three weeks, But what
(Laurie J. Quinby in The Chancellor.)
. Recently there was held a land show in
Omaha. The real object of this land show
was to exploit the great possibilities of the
Northwest, and thereby induce emigration
thereto and settlement therein. Primarily,
of course, the impulse back of it all, was the
prospective sale of lands. But there was a
side issue to this show, which was not ex
ploited in the papers. That side issue was
a conference of five governors, or their rep
resentatives, from that many of the North
western states, the purpose of which was
to devise means of checking the emigration
of population from those states over into
Canada and British Columbia.
You see, as the population of those states
ceases to grow, or if it does not grow fast
enough, there is a stoppage in the increase
of land values in those sections. Then the
land-grabbers there strive to stimulate im
migration in order to boost these land
values, and they call a conference for the
further purpose of trying to hold those who
are there from emigrating farther away. It
is difficult to discover what particular plans
were devised to check this emigration from
there, but it is safe to say that the only prac
tical plan that could hold out any promise
of succes was not considered by those en
gaged primarily in boosting land values.
In other words it never occurred to them
that a simple change in the system of taxa
tion in those Northwestern states would
change the entire course of their destiny.
For here is the entire story in a nutshell :
Over in Canada and British Columbia they
have discovered how idle and unjust it is
to tax industry and thrift. The farmers in
that section for some years have been free
from any other taxation than that upon the
bare value of their lands, and now some of
the cities, notably Vancouver, have followed
that very wise course. They derive their
entire revenues from a tax on the value of
the land alone, entirely exempting from tax-
would have been the result if the legislature
had spent five or six weeks wrangling ovei
the election of a United States senator?
Lincoln, wet or dry; but wet or dry, our
Lincoln !
With this issue Will Maupin's Weekly,
born The Wageworker, closes its seventh
volume. Next week it will enter upon its
eighth year, a pretty lusty youngster, thank
you.
Colonel Roosevelt is swinging around the
circle and talking a lot. But to date he has
been unable on this trip to break back into
the triple-column headlines on the first page.
Save only when the telegraph editor is hard
up for a slug-head the colonel's best is a
two-line head, bottom of column.
While the "Hinky Dinks" and "Bath
House Jones" were tendering a reception to
the unspeakable Lorimer, quite another
crowd was extending a welcome to W. J.
Bryan in the same city. The crowd wel
coming Bryan was quite as large, if not
larger, as the crowd welcoming Lorimer.
In all candor, and for the purpose of get
ting at the facts, Will Maupin's Weekly de
sires to ask this question : Had you been
in Chicago on the date in question, with a
well-filled purse, in which crowd would you
have felt safest?
ation every form of enterprise, improve
ments, mercantile or manufacturing stocks
and personal property.
In view of that fact is it any wonder that
several hundred thousand of the population
of those states have emmigrated to a land
where their efforts will not be taxed to
death, where they may enjoy the fruits of
their toil without fear of a tax collector or
an extortionate landlordism ? They are
the problem of poverty. They are aiming
fast solving the problem of poverty.
They are aiming toward a higher civ
ilzation where thrift shall follow in
dustry and enterprise, and where none
shall reap where they have not sown.
But when these facts are . mentioned
just notice some low-browed, thickTnecked,
wide-headed, "practical" man rise up and
say "Oh, that's the single tax, Henry
George, a dream." Good Lord, preserve us
from the ignorance of these so-called "prac
tical" men, these fellows who conceal their
own stupidity, their own mental inertia, be
hind the cry against those whose vision and
understanding grasps the great fundamental
problems of life, with the charge, "Vision-,
ary dreamer."
Dream or not, these states are wasting
their efforts in trying to retain their popula
tions until they discover this simple remedy
and apply it. Let them cease the taxation
of enterprise and thrift and industry and
sustain their revenues by a tax upon the
value of the land, a social and not a private
product, and then, not only will their popu
lation cease to dwindle, but it will grow and
prosper. But this remedy could hardly be
expected favorably to be considered by an
aggregation seeking to profit through the
private appropriation of those values created
by all. However, Oregon is on the verg
of applying this remedy, and when' she does,
the other states will have to follow her ex-"
ample or become desert wastes.
STRIVING NOW TO SAVE THE POPULATION
