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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1911)
CURT COMMENT OF THE TIMES There is something suspicious about the alleged attempt to dynamite the new court house at Omaha last Saturday night and the suspicion is by no means directed wholly to the structural iron workers. Of course every attempt will be made in certain quar ters to implicate the union iron workers, the contracting firm of Caldwell & Drake hav ing had trouble with that organization. But it is possible that parties financially in terested stand to lose under the present con tract for erection, owing Lo these same labor troubles. And what more likely than that these parties should seek to "cover" by fak ing -up an attempted "dynamite outrage?" Such things have happened. And early in the erection of the building there were rumors of "rotten work" in the matter of steel erection. What more natural than a "dynamite outrage" to cover up the afore said poor workmanship? The coincident dynamiting of the contracting firm's. Indi ana plant instead of being corroborative evi dence of union complicity is really the con trary. We are reminded in this connection that General Otis and his union busters of Los Angeles have not yet cinched the "dyna miters" of the Times plant, although we were to see the criminals in jail inside of a week, and three months and more have passed. This "Boy Scout" foolishness ought to be nipped in the bud by watchful parents. It would be easy to teach the boys habits, of obedience without cultivating in them the martial spirit. And it is not necessary toj cultivate the martial feeling in order toget. boys out of doors and interest them in many1, sports. The men who originated this move- merit are men who think war and dream war and want war. The Christian parent who ' countenances this "boy scout" tommyrot has no business to waste his time in pray ing for the era of universal peace. The Omaha woman whose cat, "King Thomas," won the sweepstakes prize at the Omaha dog and cat show, is receiving the congratulations of her many friends. Not being acquainted with the lady Will Mau pin's Weekly does not feel impelled to add its congratulations to the chorus. But if some one will kindly furnish us with the name of the mother whose baby won first prize at the baby show given under the aus pices of Brandeis &,Sons of Omaha, we'll risk committing a breach of etiquette by addressing a total stranger and send her a letter couched in our most complimentary language. This paper has no time to waste in congratulating a cat raiser when there are women to congratulate on having be come mothers of the future men and women of this republic. Of course somebody is responsible for the death of those 150 girls who were cremated in the fire which destroyed a garment fac tory in New York last week. And of course nobody, will be punished. Human life is the cheapest thing on the market today 150 lives being cheaper than a couple of fire es capes. One girl was identified by her pocketbook "containing $3, her week's wages." Yet there are those who wonder why the "white slavers" in New York' se cure so many victims. It strikes Will Mau pin's Weekly that it would be a good idea to take a vacation on this foreign mission ary business and put in a year or two of effort and money in trying to convert the heathen of our own land who worship the almighty dollar so sedulously that they care not a rap for the lives of the thousands of working women. As between the heathen who worships a god of wood or stone and refuses to live off the labor ofliis little ones, and the heathen who bows down to the gold dollar and lives off the sweat and toil of innocent childhood as between these two we prefer the heathen who worships the god of wood and stone. , By the way, we've heard a lot about us ing bloodhounds to track down criminals, but so far as we can recall the hounds haven't performed any real service. The bloodhounds used to be all right, but there's a lot of difference between trailing a splay footed slave through a canebrake and trail ing a , leather-shod footpad or dynamiter through the paved streets of a big city. Nebraska spends approximately $3,000,000 a year on her roads, and each spring finds the roads as poor as they were the spring before. The present conglomeration of road laws is ridiculous, wasteful and inefficient. The roads are too wide, they are worked in a haphazard fashion by men more anxious to get back into their fields than to make good roads, and the overseeing is usually done by men who wouldn't know a good road from a cord of wood. There Is just one thing that prevents Nebraska from having the best dirt roads in the world the fact that the King road drag is too cheap. If D. Ward King had patented the drag, made 'em out of mahogany, polished them till they shone, trimmed them with silver and sold them for $700 each on the installment plan, there would be a hundred in use where there is only one now. The King drag is so sim ple and so cheap that little attention is paid to it, yet its intelligent use would give Ne braska roads that would equal the maca dam roads of the east or the concrete roads of France. Lieutenant Governor Hopewell has a few acres of wheat up in Burt county about 540 acres in fact. It is growing on land that was a swamp most of the time up until three years ago. When Judge Hopewell announ ced that he was going to tile that piece oi bottom land he met up with neighbors whose words reminded him very much of the neighbors of Puddiirhead Wilson who wondered what'n thunder Wilson wanted with the other half of that dog. They said the land wouldn't raise a crop ; that it was "sour ;" that it wouldn't drain. But Judge Hopewell and his son went right ahead and drained it, just the same. They have had two crops of wheat off of that former swamp and the returns have paid for the draining and repaid the original cost of the land twice over. The fact of the matter is, Nebraska soil will produce anything if intelligently handled. And there a re sixteen million acres of Nebraska soil every acre fertile that await the intelligent application of agri cultural methods. The nomination of Mr. Armstrong to be mayor was something of a surprise to those who imagined that a campaign of misrepre sentation would suffice to defeat him. It was also a sufficient answer to the holier-than-thou bunch whose membership believes that all who disagree with it are hell-bound and tied to Satan. Mr. Armstrong owes his nomination to several causes, not the least of them being his personal popularity. Another contributing cause was that the people have come to the conclusion that a. big, growing city like Lincoln should have its affairs ad ministered by a big, broad-minded, practical man of wide business experience. And still another contributing cause was the vile abuse heaped upon Mr. Armstrong by persons who make every pretense of, being fair and de cent. : Fair-minded people people who are not so prejudiced that they fail to see good in those who hold different opinions are com ing to resent the imputation that those who favor license and regulation as opposed to prohibition and bootlegging are all, saloon advocates or tools of the brewery combine. The attempt to put Mr. Armstrong in the attitude of being for un bridled license because he favors license and regulation, failed, as it should have failed. Briefly, the people of Lincoln have tired, riot so much of the "dry" policy as of the policy of nagging and prying and interference in those sacred privileges that belong to every citizen. But it must not be understood that the re sult of the primaries means a cinch for the advocates of the "wet" policy at the coming May election. The excise question yet re mains to be voted on, and the result of Tues day's primaries means that the "drys" will immediately set about perfecting, .their or ganization. They were caught napping be cause they did not imagine it possible to nominate Mr. Armstrong. .They2 simply misjudged the temper of the people.' It is certain that a number of men who ar'e' opposed to open saloons voted for JMLf; Arm strorig and his associates running for excise men, and did so because they resented the prying and nagging methods that have been in vogue, and which has resulted in actual invasion of private home's and private af fairs. These men voted for Mr. Armstrong because they want a change in some of these methods, not because they favor open sa loons. Last August "wet" republicans came over into the democratic primaries and nominated the democratic candidate for governor. Last Tuesday the "wet" democrats of Lincoln played the same game: The difference is that last year the "wets" nominated the weakest possible man for the governship, while last Tuesday they nominated the strongest man for the mayoralty . The whereabouts of a gentleman named Graham, who came to Lincoln a few months ago and started what he declared was to be a populist newspaper of national importance is a matter of considerable mystery just now. He bought a newspaper plant, solic ited some advertising, advertised quite ex tensively and secured some subscriptions, but to date he has seemingly failed to issue the paper. About three weeks ago he' left town, saying he had business in Chicago, and set the date of his return a few days later. Since then several anxious inquirers have shown up, but all queries as to his pre sent abiding place remain unanswered.' Mr. Graham may return, and we sincerely hope he will. It would be interesting to know whether it is possible to resurrect the once powerful populist party.