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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1911)
TALKING OF M E.N AND THINGS When the extra session of congress open ed Champ Clark of Missouri assumed the duties of speaker. For relief from Joe Can non let us all be duly thankful. And for the election of Champ Clark let us be doubly thankful. It would have been easy and very natural, for the democratic majority to have blundeed at the start by electing to the speakership some tool of the "interests." Champ Clark is one of those democratic democrats who may be trusted to stand by the people. The democratic congress will not be able to grant much relief to the peo ple, a republican senate controllled by the "interests" standing in the way. But the democratic majority in the house can put needed reforms up to the senate, and if the senate kills them the people will know where to fix the blame. There will naturally be considerable spar ring for position during the extra session, next year being presidential year. The dem ocratic house will endeavor to make demo cratic capital, and the republican house will endeavor to make republican capital. Be tween the two of them the people who are more interested in securing needed reforms than they are in partisan advantage will probably get the worst of it. Whoever said Willian Howard Taft is not a politician has another guess coming. His Canadian reciprocity measure shows the handiwork of a man who knows something about the subtleties of the political game. The democrats demand a revision downward and most especially on articles of necessity. President Taft offers the way. Immediately the agricultural interests of the insurgent west protest because it reduces their "pro tection" without hitting the protected in terests of the manufacturing east. Hence the opposition from the quarter that has been loudest in demanding tariff reduction. The president retorts that it is the first step. The reply is that the step should be taken at the other fellow's expense. There you are. And while the west is fighting reduc tion on agricultural products, the east goes right ahead profiting by the old tariff game. President Taft has every reason to lean back in his chair and softly cachinnate up his sleeve. The Nebraska legislature has accepted the Carnegie pension scheme. Two reasons may be given for thus gigging back on the de cision of two years ago: Mr. Bryan op posed it, and the majority party is not feel ing very friendly to Mr. Bryan just now. The republicans, after giving Mr. Carnegie an opportunity to amass his enormous for tune by tariff favoritism, now want to get back a part of the swag. Between the two the Carnegie pension was accepted. And it was a sorry day for the University of Ne braska when it happened. The greatest sin is the sin of ingratitude. Which horn of the dilemma will a Nebraska university profes sor take when confronted with the necessity of making a choice between his pension and the real interests of his pupils? If he stays with the pension he has betrayed the in terests of the students. If he stays by the students and throws Carnegie's idea over the transom he has been guilty of ingrati tude. This Carnegie pension scheme is only a part of the great general scheme to get control of our educational institutions. The trail of the slimy serpent of corporationism is slowly but surely being dragged over our schools. In the death of Capitain H. E. Palmer of Omaha, Nebraska, loses a foremost citizen, the west a brave pioneer, the country a good citizen and a gallant soldier. Captain Pal mer was one f the poioneers who made the west. He became identified with it in the earliest days, and he was spared to assist in its development down to the present time. In every way he measured up to the full standard and left his impress for good upon the state and the west. One by one the pioneers are passing across the Great Di vide, but their splendid works survive them, and a grateful state will hold their memories in reverence. And among those who have rendered conspicuous service in the' work of development, the name of Captain H. E. Palmer will rank high. Will Maupin's Weekly has no particular knowledge of James A. O 'Gorman, the senator-elect from New York, but as he has been a supreme court justice for years it may safely be said that he has the ability and the disposition to represent the state as a whole. At any rate, whatever Senator elect O 'Gorman's limitations may be, his election is preferable to the election of Shee han. Tammany Hall may have, and doubt less has, a hold on Senator-elect O 'Gorman, but it is hard to imagine that a man who has been a justice of the supreme court could be as servile a tool of that organization as Sheehan a creature of the organization. New York may not be represented by its best man, but it os quite certain that he is a far better man than the one who at first the court, a lot of interested politicians met and discussed ways and means of securing seemed likely to land the senatorial toga. The Fairbury Journal announces that it is for Champ Clark for president in 1912. So it Will Maupin's Weekly under certain conditions. This little newspaper is not a partisan organ, although its editor nomin ally affiliates with the democratic party. But the candidate of the democracy in 1912 must have somethig more than a demo cratic nomination to recommend him to this newspaper. It is very easy to eonceive of conditions that would impel this newspaper and its editor to support a republican or even a socialist. As between a democrat of the Parker brand and a republican of the LaFollette brand, it wouldn't take this little newspaper a minute to decide. Nor would it take longer to decide between a democrat of the Champ Clark brand and a republican of the Taft or Aldrich brand. There are some thing like twelve or thirteen months inter vening between today and the national con ventions, and a whole lot of things may transpire between now and then. "Dick" Metcalfe's speech at the Bryan banquet is still the subject of discussion in certain quarters. On the one side he is roundly denounced, and on the other side he is warmly complimented. It depends on the point of view. Will Maupin's Weekly is not taking sides. It merely seizes this oc casion to remark that it admires Metcalfe for his courage in coming to the front and saying what he believes ought to be said. His judgment may have been wrong, al though that is open to argument. But his courage is not questioned. We have heard "it said that "Met's" speech queered him in democratic councils. Maybe it did. But the day that the Nebraska democracy rejects the advice and counsel of Richard L. Met calfe, that day it will make a serious mis take. The democracy of Nebraska owes "Met" a whole lot more than it can ever pay. Two years ago Beatrice went "dry." A year later it went "wet." Last Tuesday it went "dry" again. In heaven's name is there not some way to get this question set tled one way or the other ? It is disrupting business, parting friends, arousing bvisiness animosities and getting nowhere. Towns that went "dry" a year ago Tuesday went "wet" last Tuesday, and vice versa. Ques tions of vital importance are lost sight of in this eternal wrangle over "wet" and "dry." This is foolish, costly and of no permanent effect. Let's either make Nebraska a pro hibition state or a "wet" state, and after we have decided it let's get down to real business. Carter Harrison has been elected mayor of Chicago for the fifth time. If a city likes that kind of a mayor, then Harrison is the kind of a mayor that such a city likes. If there is a vicious element in Chicago that failed to rally to Harrison's flag, we haven't heard of it, and we know a thing or two about Chicago. He was supported by all the tin horn gamblers, dance hall promoters, special privileges and thieving corporations and by a goodly proportion of the "moral element," The Almighty would have trouble in beating the combination. Harrison could have been defeated with ease if the really good people of Chicago had voted. But a little downpour of rain kept thousands of them at home. Others salved their con science by not voting at all, pleading that it "don't make much difference who is elect ed." It is a safe bet, always, that vice and crime will get out their full vote, and that decency and morality will fritter away their opportunities. Harrison's victory is the re sult of the failure of Chicago's decent ele ment ftret to the polls.
