WHAT NEBRASKA. IS DOING FOR THE WORLD
In 1910 the agricultural products of Ne
braska aggregated in value upwards of
$350,000,000.
In 1910 the live stock products of Ne
braska aggrregated upwards of $200,000,000.
In 1910 the manufactured products of Ne
braska aggregated upwards of $2,000,000.
IN 1910 THE STATE OF NEBRASKA
PRODUCED AND ADDED TO THE
WEALTH OF THE NATION UPWARDS
OF $700,000,000.
This is more than the gold and silver pro
duction of the United States and its de
pendencies for eight years.
No other state yielded so much wealth per
capita. No other state can show so great- a
production of wealth in proportion to popu
lation. No other state made such rapid
strides forward in the development of agri
culture and manufacturing.
No other state produces as much wheat,
corn, oats and rye per acre as Nebraska.
Nebraska's development has been great
it should be greater, and would be if Ne
braska's resources and possibilities were
made known to the world. The legislature
failed to make provision for advertising Ne
braska to the world. This was a criminal
mistake a mistake that will be realized ere
another legislature meets.
The thing now for Nebraska's newspapers
and commercial bodies to do is to get busy
in advertising as far as possible what Ne
braska has to offer to the homeseeker and
the investor.
It offers the following:
The finest climate in the temperate zone.
The best educational and religious facil
ities. The cheapest homes wherein the indus
trious and the frugal may become prosper
ous and independent.
The best opportunities for investment in
manufacturing enterprises.
A warm and hearty welcome to everybody
who wants to be somebody.
Sixteen million acres of land that await
cultivation and promises bountiful rewards
to those who intelligently cultivate.
In everything good Nebraska offers the
best and the most. Of things bad Nebraska
has the least.
Let all the world know the truth about
Nebraska ! .
SOME THINGS THE LEGISLATURE WORKED OUT
As this issue of Will Maupin's Weekly
comes from the press the thirty-second ses
sion of the Nebraska legislature is in the
throes of dissolution. The value of its work
is not to be measured by hasty judgment.
Adherents to the party having majority con
trol will violently insist that it was "the best
legislature in the state's history." Oppon
ents of the majority partly will just as vio
lently insist that it was the most profligate,
wasteful, inefficient and blundering legisla
ture in the state's history. It requires no
stretch of conscience to declare off-hand
that the thirty-second session was quite up
to the average of former sessions. But that
is not enough. It should have been far above
the average. Whether it was or not, time
alone can tell.
The majority party has carried out in fair
measure its platform pledges. It has given
us a workable initiative and referendum law.
Not what the extremists wanted, to be sure,
yet more than the ultra-conservatives want
ted to give. That a workable law would
have been denied had it not been for re
publican assistance must be conceded by
fair-minded men. Other platform pledges
have been carried out.
It is quite true that this session appro
priated more money than any previous ses
sion. And why not? The state is larger, it
has more wards to care for, it has heavier
clerical expense as the departments grow.
The wonder is, not that the appropriations
are so large, but that they are so small.
The time has come to measure appropria
tions by the needs of the state, and not by
the total of dollars and cents appropriated.
Taken as a whole the session has been
productive of good results. Just how good
we shall know in the fullness of time.
But granting that the legislature has per
formed good work, it is a certainty that it
it could have performed better if it had "not
been for the ever-present and always
trouble-breeding "wet" and "dry" scrap.
That made a fight on the speakership that
bred ill feelings. And good measures were
killed because "wets", would not side with
th? "drys" anc "dry's" would not side with
the "wets." Too many bills were killed be
cause of this disagreement, and not because
the bills merited death. The fool capital
removal bill took up a lot of valuable time.
It was engineered, honestly by some, but
chiefly by men who wanted a club with
which to hammer Lincoln over the head.
At no time did any levelheaded Lincoln citi
zen lose a moment's sleep over Mr. Bailey's
very able but very ridiculous "capital re
moval" scheme. Lincoln may lose the state
capitol some day, but if she does it will not
be because of her decision on the excise ques
tion. It should be noted carefully that the
loudest shouters for "local self-government"
and the, widest measure of personal liberty,
are the same gentlemen who tried to punish
Lincoln for exercising self-government and
giving the personal liberty decided as best
by a big majority of her voters.
Will Maupin's Weekly is of the opinion
that in the little difference between Repre
sentative Bailey of Buffalo and Representa
tive Bassett of Buffalo, the latter came
through with much the best of it. Mr.
Bailey is a very able man, and had he at
tended to the business upon which he was
sent, instead of frittering away his time and
the time properly belonging to his constit
uents upon an impossible capitol removal
scheme, he would have made a better record.
Also he would have been of vastly more ser
vice to his district. '
In the opinion of this newspaper the most
important work of the legislature, next to
the initiative and referendum amendment,
was the provision for the establishment of an
agricultural college in southwestern Ne
braska. Time and again Will Maupin's
Weekly has asserted that the State Agricul
tural college at Lincoln is the biggest asset
of the state. It still is of that opinion. In
due time the southwestern agricultural
school will be a valuable asset.
University removal was killed, as it should
have been. There is no reason for combin
ing the two institutions on one campus;
argument against a crowded campus. It
might be a good thing for the university to
move it to the state farm, but in the opin
ion of this newspaper such removal would
be very injurious to that state farm school.
And as between the two Will Maupin's
Weekly feels greatest concern for the future
of the State Agricultural college. That in
stitution is making the men and women that
this state most needs. The other one is mak
ing the kind of men and women that may
be, and are, turned out of a hundred similar
institutions all over the country. This state
needs scientific farmers and dairymen and
vastly more than it needs more physicians
and lawyers.
Our humble judgment is that the state
should have taken over the Fremont normal.
Not because the state has any particular
need of another normal school, but because
the state has ruined a big private school,
and a most successful one, by practically
isolating it. Nebraska can make use of five
normal schools as easily as it can four. And
four is two too many. A hundred norma?
schools will not keep up the supply of teach
ers under present conditions. Two good
schools would supply the demand if the state
would pay decent wages to its teaches.
The fact is, that the most important factors
in the state's progress the teachers are
paid wages that the average skilled mechanic
would turn up his nose at.
It is to be regretted that the legislature
did not see fit to provide for the completion
of the state historical building. But this
omission is in part compensated for by the
fact that the legislature did provide liber
ally for the unfortunate wards of the state.
Needed buildings have been provided for,
and extensive improvements taken into con
sideration. Of course county option was killed. That
was a foregone conclusion. But it is not to
the credit of the opponents of county option
that after killing that measure they proceed
ed to kill some really meritorious measures
simply because they were advocated by men
whergupported county option. The patriotic
citizen will pray for the speedy coming of
the day when each bill will be considered
oil its merits alone,