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.
