WITH OUR ESTEEMED CONTEMPORARIES
Ah, ha! And oh, ho! And hurrah! Our
legislature did one thing and its very
best tiling it adjourned, for which the
entire state, is profoundly and everlast
ingly grateful. May its like .never hap
pen again. Juniata Herald.
There speaks the purblind partisan,
who doesn't know what the legislature
accomplished, doesn't care and wouldn't
give it credit because its political com
plexion did not suit him. As a matter of
fact the last legislature was one of the
best the state has ever had, measured by
the reform legislation it enacted. It gave
us the initiative and referendum; it gave
us a non-partisan judiciary, but the gov
ernor, disregarding a party pledge,
vetoed it; it gave us a state board of con
trol for the state's institutions; it struck
a death blow at the "white slave" traffic;
it reinforced the laws whereby the state
railway commission is given greater op
portunity to serve the people ; it re-apportioned
the state a duty that has been
neglected for twenty-five years; it gave
us a bettered system of irrigation laws;
it preserved the water powers of the state
in the hands of the people; it paved th ;
way whereby cities may make their own
charters; it systematized our road laws;
it gave us a better system of drainage
laws; it enacted more legislation in the
interests of the life and limb of the way:
earners than any legislature during he
past twenty-five years; it paid more at
tention to the needs of the state's wards;
it provided for a new agricultural school
in a section that needs it; it was liberal
with appropriations for educational pur
poses. Viewed from an unprejudiced
standpoint the thirty-second legislature
of Nebraska made a splendid record. It
is easy for ignorant partisans to misrep
resent and criticize unjustly and that
is what they usually do.
When in all its history did Nebraska
ever have a governor with the courage
and fidelity of Aldrich? Holcomb, you
say? Not on your life. Populist though
he was, he was a politician first and a
statesman afterward. Like Shallenber
ger he was a trimmer. We do not want
the tree of evil merely trimmed we want
a man to reach for the axe and cut it
down. His name is Aldrich of Nebraska.
Ulysses Dispatch.
Governor Aldrich has been in office too
short a time to make a just estimate of
what his record will be. So far he has
made a good one, and he has shown that
he has the courage of his convictions.
"Courage of his convictions" is all right,
but a man may have wrong convictions.
For instance, has Governor Aldrich
shown more courage than Governor Boyd
did when he vetoed the Newberry bill?
And did ever a man show greater courage
than Governor Shallenberger did when
he signed the 8 o'clock law? Or, when he
declared at Grand Island that he would
sign a county option bill if the legislature
passed one? Is there anybody with nor
mal judgment who will believe that such
a man is a 'trimmer?" Speaking of cour
age and fidelity what governor showed
them in greater degree than Lorenzo
Crounse? In order to give Governor
Aldrich all the credit that is due him it is
not necessary to -be unjust to other chief
executives who have made good.
One day last week the lower house of
the Nebraska legislature put in a few
hours killing the last of a job lot of capi
tal removal bills. It was time, well spent.
The majority of the people of our state
are well satisfied to have the capital r
main where it is Howells Journal.
Capital removal was a "stockingful of
mush" that a few illiberal liberals
thought was a sandbag with which Lin
coln could be waylaid and punished for
having exercised the right to make her
own excise rules. There never was a min
ute when capital removal worried Lin
coln the least bit. The only result of the
agitation was to prevent very intelligent
and industrious legislators from being of
any service whatever to their constituents.
Senator Volpp is author of a bill that
may double the salaries of the members
of the next legislature. What has Sena
tor Volpp done for his constituents that
makes him think the job is worth such
a salary raise as that? Fremont Tri
bune. Senator Fred Volpp, a successful busi
ness man twice chosen to represent his
senatorial district, made a good record.
He . knows, and everybody else knows,
that it is unwise and unfair to expect men
to give the state their best service on the
paltry- pay now allowed. He sought to
enable the state to get the best service,,
and pay a fairly decent salary therefore.
Evidently Senator Volpp's services were
satisfactory to his constituents, else they
would not have re-elected him. The
Tribune's question might not have been
propounded had the senator's politics
squared with the politics of that paper.
A Record to Emulate
Every cloud has a silver lining. While
the democrats assemble in an extra ses
sion of congress this week, the Nebraska
legislature will adjourn. Cheer up !-
Pawnee Republican.
There speaks again the editor blinded
by partisanism. If the extra session of
congress performs as good work as that
performed by the thirty-second session of
the Nebraska legislature the people
may well be satisfied. S.ome of these days,
maybe, the people will welcome good leg
islation regardless of what party enacts
it. And the last legislature kept up the
good work inaugurated six years ago by
a republican legislature. The last four
sessions, two republican and twodenio
cratic, have put Nebraska in the fore
front of progressive states. Only blind
partisans will dispute the statement.
raged. Will Maupin's Weekly, is not
fearful of the final result of the suit. Ne
braska, up to date and thoroughly pro
gressive on all sound economic lines, will
not take a backward step.
Fourteen civilized nations of Europe
bound themselves to treaty in 1906 to
abolish night work for women and put
the principle in practice on January 1 of
the present year. Three of our states
have reached a similar conclusion in line
with modern judgment and modern con- ?
science, Massachusetts, Indiana; Ne- i
ka. You can not tell what the courts in J
this country will do. In New York about
three weeks ago, they upset an employers'
liability act, which they admitted was
well drawn, as ignoring what they are
pleased to call "due process of law," an
arbitrary and unreal interpretation of
the idea, such as the New York court of
appeals has put forth before, in the bake
shop case and other cases. Ethical
progress in industry will not be stopped
by judicial folly. One way or another it
will reach its end. This question of
woman's work is to be faced by a Nebras
ka court this month. The legislature
passed a law called for by the experience
and intelligence of mankind. Will the
court find an asinine way of interpreting
some constitutional clause having no pos
sible bearing on the present issue, or will
it . show that it realizes that American
legislatures have the right to do what all
the civilized nations of Europe have just
done. Collier's Weekly.
The Nebraska ten-hour law for women
has been declared constitutionals by the
supreme court of the state. The editor of
this paper, while at the head of the state
bureau of labor, prosecuted two Omaha
employers on the charge of employing
women after 10 p. m., in violation of law.
A conviction was secured, the defendants
admitting the facts charged and setting
up the defense that the law does not pro
hibit the employment of women at night,
providing they are not worked more than
ten hours in any one day, nor more than
sixty hours in any one week. The intent
of the law is plain, although it may be
admitted that the section is somewhat
loosely drawn. After prohibiting the em
ployment of women in certain lines of
industry more than ten hours a day, the
statute says that the hours of work may
be so arranged as to permit of employ
ment between the hours of 6 a. m and 10
p. m., but does not specifically prohibit
their employment between 10 p. m. and
6 a. m. The defendants claim that the
language is merely advisory and not pro
hibitive of employment between 10 and 6.
If the state loses in the district court ap
peal will be taken to the supreme court
of the state, and if necessary from there
to the supreme court of the United
States. This much is assured, for the Ne
braska State Federation of Labor, the
Woman's National Trades Union League
and the National Consumers' league will
see to it that no effort is spared -to pre
vent a plain., intent of the law to pro
tect workingwomen from being out-