TALKING OF MEN AND THINGS
County Judge P. James Cosgrave has
announced his candidacy for district
judge, subject to the decision of the re
publican primaries. As police judge
and as county judge, in which capacities
he has served with credit to himself and
satisfaction to the people, Judge Cos
grave has evidenced his ability. In these
two offices he has received the training
that will qualify him for the higher ju
dicial place to which he aspires. One of
the young, progressive and enterprising
citizens, Judge Cosgrave has made a
name for himself, and he has surrounded
himself with an army of friends who will
lend him every assistance in his laudable
ambition to take a step higher. lie is a
candidate upon his record, and he is will
ing to abide the result. Without at
tempting prophecy in this connection
Will Maupin's Weekly will venture the
assertion that the gentleman who beats
Judge Cosgrave for the nomination will
have' to hit up a pretty fast gait.
that Governor Aldrich has vetoed the
Bushee bill, which would have made it
possible for creditors to garnishee 10 per
cent of a debtor's wages, Nebraska retail
merchants will have to depend upon
themselves for protection against dead
beats." Of course, and to be sure. And
why not? Why should the wage earners
be singled out as the only class contain
ing a "dead beat" element? And Avhy
not make it possible to garnishee the fee
of a dead beat lawyer that may be in the
hands of the client ? Or the monev vou
owe the groceryman who refuses to pay
his bills? And why should the state be
made a collection agency against one par
ticular class? Repeal all exempion laws
and put everybody on the same level. The
wage earners will not object to that any
more strenuously than anybody else.
But they will object to being singled out
as a class. And is there any reason why
retail merchants should have advantages
not granted to others?
Trust the average young Nebraskan
to make good when he goes to a new
country. Scattered all over the coun
try, and even in far away South America,
are former Nebraska boys who are mak
ing their mark. It gives Will Maupin's
Weekly great pleasure to record the suc
cess of all of them. Now here comes our
friend P. P. Duffy, formerly of Colum
bus, but now of El Reno, in the hustling
new state of Oklahoma. He went down
there and engaged in the newspaper busi
ness, after working his way through the
University of Nebraska. Being the son
of his father he naturally mixed up in
politics as soon as he landed. A few
weeks ago the democrats of El Reno
looked about for the best man to nomi
nate for mayor, and they picked on
Duffy. The way he sailed into the cam
paign was characteristic of his Nebraska
training as a hustler. When the votes
were counted Dufly was the winner of
course over five candidates. And
those of us who know Duffy know that
El Reno made no mistake when it elected
him to the office of mayor.
The last legislature enacted one law
that has been needed for years. It is
known as Senate File 271, "and it puts
Nebraska more in line with progressive
commonwealths that are approaching
the revenue question in a sensible man
ner. It divides the tax upon real estate
between the holder of the title and the
holder of the mortgage. In other words,
the owner of the property pays the tax
on his equity; the man who holds the
mortgage is taxed on the amount of his
lien. . Such a law should have been en
acted years ago, and would have been
had not the interests of the people been
lost sight of in the effort to legislate in
the interests of "capital."
The Omaha Trade Exhibit says ; "Now
It is high time a lot of Nebraska peo
ple eradicated from their minds the im
pression that all the valuable farming
land in the state lies east of the first
guide meridian. Also the impression
that all of the land lying west thereof
is in the "short grass" country and prac
tically worthless save for grazing. As a
matter of fact the most valuable land in
the state lies nearer the Colorado line
than the Missouri river. How many
know that? The best farm in Lancaster
count3r, if for sale at all, may be bought
for less than $200 an acre, and that will
mean that the land is well improved.
There is land in far western Nebraska
that can not be bought for less than $250
an acre, and the improvements amount
to practically nothing. Why is this?
Irrigation! And that is what is going
'to make increasingly valuable an im
mense area of land that has for years
been looked upon as "desert" not worthy
of attention. The last legislature passed
some good irrigation laws, and under
them the western part of Nebraska will
develop at a rate that will astonish the
world.
The country is being flooded with the
cheapest and most degraded labor pos
sible to imagine. The railroads are the
guilty parties. Mexicans, the lowest or
der of Italians and Slavs the offscour
ings of Europe and the alleged republic
to the south of us are being poured in
upon us. and the Americanized laborer is
offered the alterative of working for
wages that will merely postpone starva
tion for a time, or starving to death in
the shortest possible time. We rather
admire George Thompson and his son,
Lennie, of Riverton, Nebraska. They
were foremen of the two Burlington sec
tions joining at Riverton. A few days
ago the Burlington authorities dis
charged the native sectionmen and im'
ported some Mexicans and Italians to
take their places. Thompson refused to
take them out on his section, and his son
promptly followed his father's example.
We suggest that if the Burlington wants
to pay its money to that class of workers
it should be allowed to depend for its
revenue upon the same class.
curred to you that while the American
manufacturers were pleading for pro
tection against the pauper made goods of
Europe, they were importing those same
pauper laborers to this country by the
millions and forcing American working-
men to compete with them right here?
And wouldn't you, Mr. Workingman,
rather compete with the foreign laborer
when he is on his own soil, than to com
pete with him when he comes over here
and applies tor your -job: Think it
over.
The Nebraska State Association of
Commercial clubs will meet at Kearney
on April 26 and 27. An interesting pro
gram has been arranged and the meeting
will not only be interesting but will be to
the great advantage of the state. The
legislature having failed and neglected
to make an appropriation to advertise
the state, the associated Commercial
Clubs ought to arrange some harmonious
and comprehensive plan of doing it until
such time as the lawmakers may be pre
vailed upon to do their full duty to the
state. It is not enough that each Com
mercial club advertise its own particular
locality. Each one should help in the
development of the state at large, and
this may best be done by working upon
a plan adopted by all alike.
The United States circuit court of ap
peals has reversed the judgment against
the United Hatters of North America.
This is the case wherein Lowe & Co.,
violent antagonists of organized labor,
sued the Hatters' Union under the Sher
man anti-trust law and secured judgment
against individual members in the aggre
gate sum of $232,000. Only those mem
bers of the organization who had homes
of their own or money in the bank were
molested, but these were enjoined from
withdrawing their money or disposing of
their homes. The verdict against the
unionists was an outrage on justice in the
first place. The reversal of the judg
ment is m line witli justice. It strikes
the average man as strange that the only
convictions under the Sherman anti-trust
law have been of organized wage earners.
The well known gentlemen who have or
ganized trusts in restraint of trade have
not been molested.
Principal A. E. Davisson, of the Uni
versity School of Agriculture, died on
April 14 md was buried at Wyuka on
