CURT COMMENT OF THE TIMES
Robert Manley, the famous advertising expert
of Omaha who has charge of the advertising de
partment of the Brandeis stores, has conceived a
plan whereby "fake" and objectionable medical
advertisements may be driven from the newspa
pers. He suggests that all reputable advertisers
stipulate that their advertisements shall not ap
pear on the same page with "medical ads." The
idea is a good one. The better class of daily
newspapers no longer carry the flaunting and
nauseous "weak men" and "of interest to wom
en" ads that were wont to fill up so much space
and make the daily newspapers a menace to every
home. But these same quacks still manage to
get into too many papers with less sensational
stuff. The average patent medicine ad is a bald
fake. They have made drunkards and invalids
by the millions by playing on the morbid fears of
the people. Reputable advertisers would do
themselves and the decent public a favor by
adopting Mr. Manley's sensible suggestion and
forcing these disreputable charlatans out of business.
In this connection Will Maupin's Weekly
takes pleasure in calling attention to the fact that
in the eight years it has been a newspaper for
seven and a half years under another name it
has never carried a patent medicine advertise
ment; has never advertised a quack doctor, and
has never advertised a "medical school" or "ma
ternity hospital." Its advertising columns have
been as clean as its reading columns and the
reading columns have been as clean as they could
be made by a newspaper man who has a family
of his own and would no more think of risking the
mental pollution of another family circle than
he would of polluting his own.
Among those who compain that Omaha is un
justly accused by the people of Nebraska outside
of Omaha is the editor of the Omaha Examiner.
The Examiner's editor is forever having an
abdominal convulsion over the abuse heaped upon
Omaha by outsiders. And it really is too bad. -But
there is an old saying to the effect that people who
are domiciled in glass residences should turn off
the light, or words to that effect. Here is a sample
of how the Examiner refers to other cities than Om
aha: "It's a fact that Lincoln has more 'dead ones'
more stiffs than any other city of its size on
the map" And the newspaper that thus refers
to a sister city is grouching because his own city
is "knocked" so hard and so often. We great
ly fear that our good friend Sorensen does not
love Lincoln. But while losing no occasion to
vent his hatred upon this modest and unassuming
little city he should not deny to his fellows an
equal right to express their opinion of Omaha.
Will Maupin's Weekly desires to say in passing
that it knows Omaha to be one of the most pro
gressive, enterprising and hustling cities in the
country, and on quite as high a moral plane as any
city of its size in America. Its chief trouble is
that its enterprising citizens have been so busy
building a city that they have allowed a noisy
bunch of narrowminded praters about "personal
liberty" to become so vociferous and pestiferous
that the people are to be pardoned for believing
that a big majority of Omahans imagine that the
city's whole business future is wrapped up in
booze and beer. We who know the real Omaha
know better but Omaha isn't as well known as
she should be. We mean the real Omaha.
Among other good laws enacted by the thirty
second session was the one increasing the fee for
filing waterpower rights. Heretofore all a man
had to do to acquire a "prior right" was to re
mit $2 to the state engineer, together with his
claim. The thirty-second session put a stop to
that game. Hereafter it requires a fee of $5 for
each 50-horsepower proposed. And the law
was signed just in time to prevent a New Yorker
from filing on 1 ,220,000 horsepower and claim
ing prior rights on using the Platte and Niobrara
rivers from the Colorado and South Dakota lines
clear through to the Platte's junction with the
Missouri. If the New York man gets his certifi
cates he will have to remit about $130,000 more.
Will Maupin's Weekly is in favor of a law
that, will permit a municipality to sue for criminal
libel. Under the provisions of such a law any
man who denounced a city as a "sink hole of cor
ruption" or "just three miles from hell," or some
other such term so much in vogue among a cer
tain class of reformers, would have to prove his
assertions or go to jail. And why not? An
Omaha clergyman recently delivered a pulpit
tirade against the city in which he lives. If one
tenth of what he says is true, and he knows what
he is talking about, he should be compelled to
come forward with the proof. If it is not true he
should be punished for the crime of libeling a
municipality. With such a law on the books
and enforced, we might have an opportunity to
arrive at a rational solution of some vexed prob
lems without being harassed by the mouthings of
a lot of self- consecrated reformers who are
mighty free with statistics of their own manufac
ture and entirely too careless with the truth.
For genuine snobbery commend us to the av
erage army or naval official and his underlings.
Recently a midshipman at the Anapolis academy
attended a "navy function" in company with a
young lady who happened to be officiating as
governess in one of the best families of that city.
The . matron of the family was an old school
friend of the young lady's mother, and the young
lady is the daughter of a Yale professor. But
she is a "hired servant," and the snob who has
charge of that particular branch of naval instruc
tion reprimanded the midshipman for bringing the
snobs and snobesses of the school into social con
tact with her. We hope the democratic young
midshipman stands pat and tells the prize snob in
authority to take a running jump at himself, or
words to that effect. As for the prize snob him
self, he should be gently bent over a barrel and
have applied to him divers and sundry applica
tions of large, earnest cowhide boots. As be
tween a self-respecting young woman earning an
honest livelihood and a uniformed snob living in
ease on a governmental salary, our admiration and
respect goes out to the young woman. The
governess in question is complimented by receiving
the condemnation of that egotistical ass who hap
pens to be at this moment disgracing the democ
racy he pretends to serve.
More than 300 mine workers killed in mine
disaster since the beginning of the present year.
Yet there are those who would deny these mine
workers the right to organize in order to secure
better working conditions and a wage somewhere
near commensurate for the dangers under which
they must labor. The disregard for human life
that prevails in the United States is at once the
sin and shame of the republic.
John J. Egan, writing to the New , York
World, explains the so-called "crime waves" in
the large cities and ; of fers the simple ana only
remedy. He says: "The wave is caused by hu
man wrecks in the struggle for existence. The
idle rich are dangerous, and the idle poor are des
perate. Society must find a way of putting both
to work."
That is the best, and truest word yet spoken
on that subject. Think it over: "The idle rich
are dangerous, and the idle poor are desperate.
Society must find a way of putting both to work."
Lord Lansdowne of England offers a famous
painting by Rembrandt to the national gallery at
London for the modest sum of $450,000, inti
mating that the sum asked is $25,000 less than
an American art lover stands ready to pay for an
opportunity of bringing the picture to New York,
The picture cost the Lansdowne family $4,000
about a century ago. It strikes us that a noble
man who insists on being pampered because he is
.noble, shows a decidedly yellow streak" in mak
ing such a proposition.
Apropos of the Lansdowne proposition is the
story of the tramp who was caught by the lord
of the manor trespassing upon the manor grounds.
"Sir, these are private grounds and you must
get off," said the lord.
"Whose grounds are they?" asked the tramp.
'They are mine," said the landlord.
"Where'd you get 'em?" queried the tramp.
"From my father."
"And where did he get 'em?"
"From his father, and he from his father, and
so on back to the first lord of the manor."
"And how did the first lord of the manor get
'em?" asked the persistent tramp.
"Sir, he fought for them," said the landlord
wih great pride.
Immediately the tramp shucked off his coat,
rolled up his sleeves, threw his fists to the front-and :
shouted :
"Then, by cripes, I'll fight you for them." .
And if it was all right for the first lord of the
manor to acquire title by force of superior might, -why
would it not be right now for some of the
landless to acquire land the same way from men ;!
who have more of it than they need or can pos-'
sibly use? We merely ask for information, in
because we would advocate force or condone the :
wresting of property from rightful owners by
physical force. But who really owns he land,
anyhow?
For platitudinizing and phrasing, commend us
to Theodore Roosevelt. In the Outlook for
February 25 he says: "Justice is based upon
law and order." As usual it sounds good
Rooseveltian, in fact but means nothing.
Analyzed it reveals the untruth that lies behind it.
Justice is not based on law and order. Quite the