tion to slip by that was neither wise nor
wanted, and it failed to enact some leg
islation that is needed. But being made
up of fallible men no one with common
sense expected perfection of it. But
measured by results, by the rules of jus
tice instead of the rules of blind partisan
ship, the legislature of 1911 will lose
nothing by comparisons with other sessions.
The Kearney Hub, than which a more
bitterly partisan organ cannot be found
within the confines of Nebraska, declares
that an honest revision of the tariff can
not be made by democrats and that "in
telligence goes to the dogs when demo
crats begin to manufacture political
tariff buneome." Really, some men seem
willing to seriously indict their own in
telligence in return for a postoflice. But
what is to be said of the intelligence of
a people who will allow a tariff law to be
made for them by a small coterie of men
who are the only ones to profit by that
tariff, and make their profit wholly at
the expense of a supine people who per
mit it? What about the intelligence of
a Nebraska farmer on the treeless plains
who boosts for a tariff of 2 a thousand
on lumber, and then sells his wheat in
the free markets of the world in order
to get the money to pay that added trib
ute of $2 to the protected lumber barons?
What about the intelligence of a man
who will advocate a wool tariff like that
of schedule K of the Payne-Aldrich
tariff and willing fine himself $7 a year
for each member of his family in order
to "protect" the one-sixth of a sheep for
each inhabitant of this republic? W
hasten to assure the esteemed Hub that
schedule K will not make wool grow on
the back of a hydraulic ram, nor the lum
ber schedule make sawmill timber out of
the spindling saplings so laboriously
planted on the plains of Nebraska. The
present tariff law is not a credit to the
intelligence of the American people not
by a long shot. It is merely a proof that
a few shrewd, conscienceles men are still
able to pull tariff-protected wool over the
eyes of a majority of the people, often
through the partisan bigotry and parti
san support of such newspapers as the
esteemed Kearney Hub.
Through the death of Lieutenant Gov
ernor Hopewell, John H. Morehead of
Richardson, president of the senate, be
comes lieutenant governor, and acting
governor during the absence from the
state of Governor Aldrich. This is, we
believe, the first time this has happened
through the death of a lieutenant gov
ernor of Nebraska, although not the first
time a president of the senate has become
acting lieutenant governor. When Lieu
tenant Governor Savage became gov
ernor through the election of Governor
Deitrich to the senate, the president of
the senate stepped up. It is the first time,
however, that a democratic president of
the senate has stepped into the place of
a republican lieutenant governor. It is
rather a curious coincidence that at the
first time such a thing has happened the
man who steps up seems to be first in line
for the democratic nomination for the
governorship.
Senator Lorimer seems destined to a
term of trouble coincident with his sena
torial term. He "got away with it" dur
ing the last session through the vol;s of
"special interest" senators who had
themselves been discredited and were
about to step down and out at the re
quest of the people. If he thought the
decision of the old senate ended the mat
ter he was mistaken. The new senate is
rather different from the old senate in its
make-up, although still republican by a
safe majority. Bui there is no longer a
safe margin for the "special interests" so
unhappily long continued. Senator La
Folle.tte is taking the lead in pressing for
a real investigation, and new develop
ments having come to light since the
former action of the senate, it is evident
that Lorimer is going to have vastly more
trouble in getting the next vindication
than he had in getting the other one.
Col. C. B. Edgar, formerly editor and
publisher of the Lincoln Daily Star, has
purchased the Oklahoma City Daily
Times. This means that Oklahoma City
has gained a newspaper man who will
give the community and state a conserva
tive, clean, well edited and newsy paper.
A contract has been let for the con
struction of an interurban railroad from
Omaha to Sioux City, with branches
from Elk City to Norfolk and Madison on
the west, and from Bertha east to De
catur and west to West Point. There will
be 285 miles of track, and the electric
power will be generated by water near
Elk City on the Platte river. There are
many reasons for hoping that this road
will be constructed with speed. In the
first place a start is needed in the work
of ribbing the eastern part of Nebraska
with interurban lines. In the second
place we need a practical demonstration
of the fact that Nebraska is allowing
thousands of horsepower to go to waste
in her unharnessed streams.
In times past this newspaper has made
some rather harsh critcisms of Governor
Woodrow Wilson. It therefore gives it
great pleasure to pay him a tribute. Gov
ernor Wilson's views of the liquor ques
tion as it touches upon politics, so exact
ly accord with our own that we cannot
fail to endorse them. He says: "I can
never consent to have the question of
local option made an issue between po
litical parties in this state. I do not be
lieve that party programs of the highest
consequence ought to be hopelessly em
barrassed for long periods together by
making a political issue of a great ques
tion which is essentially non-political
and non-partisan."
This is exactly the position assumed
by this paper then under another name
last year in Nebraska. It is exactly
the position always held by this editor.
Since being drawn from the field of acad
emic discussion to the field of active pub
lic and politcal life, Governor Wilson has
developed some unexpected and wholly
welcome traits. He is a much bigger man
than he was a year ago, and he seems to
be growing bigger all the time.
Serious labor troubles threaten in vari
ous large industrial centers. The viris
dictional troubles between the plun 'ers
and steamfitters in Chicago threatei 1 to
tie up building operations and throw 0,
000 building tradesmen out of emj. ty
nient. Of course this is a rank injufc 'ce
to the contractors and the public, an is
one of the several fool things that organ
ized labor is doing to its own eternal dis
advantage. Maintenance of way em
ployes we used to call them "sectiou
hands" in the employ of Chicago termi
nal roads are striking for recognition f
their union, and shopmen on the Pe
sylvania lines are striking for the so
thing and an increased wage. The Penn
sylvania's importation of professional
strikebreakers, who are merely thugs,
thieves, porch climbers and highwaymen
under another name, is resulting in the
usual trouble. Chicago brickmakers are
on strike against a wage reduction and
to enforce a demand for better working
conditions. The indications are that the
spring of 1911 will have more than tl
usual amount of labor disputes.
Representative Quackenbush of Ne
maha, one of the "dry" democrats in the
last legislature, has been mentioned in
connection with the nomination for gov
ernor nex year. He very modestly re
marks that it is a bit too early to begin
talking of candidates. Mr. Quackep
bush introduced some thirty bills, the
high mark of the session. Mostpf them
had to do with relieving the pressure on
the supreme court. He and Hardin of
Harlan were co-authors of the bill to re
codify the statutes.
COME OUT OF IT!
The two bills organized labor was
strongly interested in down at the leg
islature failed to pass. They were the
plumbing inspection bill and the bill
which provided for the protection of the
lives and limbs of the building trades me
chanics. We have no complaint to make
on the Douglas county delegation. It
was not their fault that the bills did not
pass. Omaha Western Laborer.
Come out of it ! The bill providing for
the protection of the lives and limbs of
building trades mechanics did pass, anl
it was signed by Governor Aldrich, and it
is now a law. Its enactment into law is
due to the earnest work of the legisla
committee of the State Federation of
Labor. True the plumbing inspection bill
did not pass, but these two bills wer, by
no means the only ones organized labor
was interested in. How about the bill
providing for factory inspection? That