TALKING OF MEN AND THINGS
Second Assistant Postmaster General
Stewart, testifying; before the congres
sional committee investigating the post
office department, admitted that faithful
and efficient postal clerks had been sum
marily dismissed because they dared to
exercise their constitutional rights and
joined an organization, of postal clerks.
In other words the postal clerks
Avere discharged for joining a union.
'ODIA.TOS & pajnsKour st oji ji -ifaoiiiaui
The object of the organization was
similar to that of all trades unions
to secure better working condi
tions, to be able to assist one another, to
prevent unjust discrimination and to
safeguard their lives and limbs. The
postmaster general issued the order for
bidding the clerks to organize. With
equal right he could have issued an order
forbidding them to join the church of
their choice or the fraternal society of
their choice. The constitution of the
United States declares that the right to
petition congress for the redress of griev
ances shall never be denied. The post
office authorities have denied the em
ployes of that department the right to so
petition. It is high time that congress
take a few haughty postoffice officials by
the slack of their official trousers and
throw them over the office transoms.
There is altogether too much czardom
and too little efficiency about the "P. O.
D." It is high time that political manipu
lators be ampu ted from place and power
and the department put upon a business
basis.
doubly valuable to the municipality. Her
reappointment makes Lincoln indebted
to the new board.
President Gompers of the American
Federation of Labor lias issued a call for
15,00,000 for the defense of John J. Mc
Namara. There can be but one reason
for the raising of such an immense sum
for that purpose furnishing an object
lesson of the solid front of organized
labor. No such sum os needed for the ac
tual defense of McNamara. Under no
circumstances must organized labor be
put in the attitude of trying to secure
acquittal by the use of money. It will be
sufficient to provide McNamara with the
best legal talent that money can secure,
and defray the expenses incident to his
trial. This will be afforded McNamara,
never fear. He. will not be allowed to be
come a sacrifice to prejudice and hate. He
may not get a square deal in Los Angeles,
but the courts of that district are not
courts of final resort. His comrades will
stand by him until he is either proved
guilty beyond a peradventure, or ac
quitted. If guilty he will be repudiated
by union men everywhere, and he should
be. If innocent his fellows will see that
he has every opportunity to prove it.
The appointment of Ernest Hunger (o
be chief of police was a surprise to many.
That he will render the city faithful ami
efficient service is beyond question. Al
though without experience as a member
of the police force, he is not unacquainted
with that class of work, having been a
constable and game warden for many
years. He will maintain the discipline so
well established by Chief Malone, and
may be trusted to inaugurate some re
forms that come only with the injection
of new blood into such a department.
Mayor Armstrong would do a graceful
act, and at the same time render a ser
vice to the city, by appointing ex-Councilman
Mike Bauer to the councilmanic
position made vacant by the resignation
of Councilman Hardy. Mr. Bauer's ac
quaintance with municipal affairs makes
him a valuable man to the city.
When the work of remodelling the
Mayer Bros, store front is completed
Lincoln will have something just a 0:1
ahead of anything of the kind in this sec
tion of the country, and equal to any
thing in store fronts anywhere. A de
tailed description of this improvement
would be entirely too technical, therefore
the lovers of the artistic are advised to
view it in person. It will repay a long
look.
E-Chief of Police Malone is justly en
titled to great credit for the work he ac
complished while at the head of Lincoln's
police force. At no time during the past
ten years has the force been adequate.
Owing to internal dissensions and politi
cal manipulation it was lacking in dis
cipline when Malone was made acting
chief. He immediately set to work to en
force discipline and it was not long un
til Lincoln had a police force that looked
like a police force, small as it was. Think
of a city of 4.5,000 people with seven pa
trolmen! But Chief Malone managed to
spread it out and get from it better ser
vice than forces many times its size are
giving cities of Lincoln's size. He won
all the compliments that have been paid
him for his services as chief, and he re
tires with the consciousness of having
performed his duty well and faithfully.
The new excise board of Lincoln has
started off well by retaining the services
of Mrs. Dora Doyle as police matron.
Mrs. Doyle's experiences and her knack
for that sort of work make her services
Ex-Mayor Love takes with him into
private life the consciousness of having
given Lincoln a clean administration. He
was unfortunate in that he was com
pelled to undertake the task of meeting
almost impossible situations. On the one
side was an element that demanded that
he try to do what no man has ever yet
come anywhere near accomplishing, and
on the other side was an element that
damned him because he tried to do his
best in that direction. A man of ad
vanced ideas along municipal lines, for
he was a close student, lie made the mis
take of trying to get too far in advance
of public sentiment and experience. In
other words, it is the opinion of Will
Maupin's Weekly that Mayor Love was
impractical in many ways. Yet there is
no gainsaying the fact that because of his
advanced ideas of municipal government
Lincoln is better educated today than it
was two years ago, and more likely to
move forward along reform lines ad
vocated by the retiring mayor. It is Mr.
Love's misfortune, if he thinks of con
tinuing to take an active interest in po
litical affairs, that he lacks about all of
the elements of the successful politician.
Apart from practical politics this may,
after all, be a compliment to the ex-,
mayor. As a representative of the city
on public occasions Mayor Love was a
credit to the municipality, and as chief
executive he gave Lincoln the unselfish
service of a man who honestly and sin
cerely tried at all times to do that which
he thought was best for the city and its
people.
A lot of snobbish papers are slobbering
over Queen Alexandria of Great Britain
because she has announced that hobble
skirts and harem skirts will be taboo at
the coronation. That sort of rot gives
us a feeling of lassitude in the lumbar re
gion. What did people expect of her?
Did they imagine that she would an
nounce that fleshtights and chiffon
clothes and Sappho attire would be on
regale at the coronation?. Queen Alex
andria impresses us as being a woman of
average intelligence who may be trusted
to carry herself properly. . But the mere
fact that she is a queen does not make her
a bit better than a million or two Ameri
can women who are equally queens, with
a somewhat smaller kingdom over which
to reign. As the consort of the head of
an imperial government she is entitled 10
recognition and due deference ; as a
woman she is no better than a million
and more other women right here in this
republic and not entitled to a bit more
reverence than the good wife of any
workingman who is a devoted mother to
her children and a helpmate to her hus
band. This Democratic uewspaper and
we use the big "D" in Democratic, is
woefully tired of this "first lady of the
land" tommyrot. We want it distinctly
understood that the "first lady of the
land" does not preside at White House
functions, nor does the "first lady of the
state" preside over the executive mansion
at Fifteenth and H. Splendid women
they are, to be sure. But the "first lady
of the land," who is also "first lady of the
state of Nebraska' presides over a
modest little cottage at Thirty-third and
Q, and puts in something less than twenty-four
hours a day taking care of a big
bunch of healthy, frolicsome, hungry kid-
