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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1911)
tive ability" in all that goes to make a state great and grand Nebraska has all the rest of them distanced. Twenty-five rears ago a drouth would have put Nebraska all to the bad. That was before the dar of diversified farming, when coin was the only farm product worth mentioning, and when the home steaders had no reserve. It's different now. While corn reu.nins our largest crop it isn't the only crop. The corn may show up with a shortage, but our farmers merely thresh their wheat and stack their alfalfa and think no more about it. Failure of the corn eroi) would hurt a bit, of course, but it wouldn't be fatal. It would be a passing injury. Hut this year's corn crop will lack 175, 000,000 bushels of being a failure. It looked bad in June and the fore part of July, but such is Nebraska soil and cli mate that a timely rain or two early in August put another aspect upon the sit uation. In May we heard woeful tales about the wheat. Three months later we were threshing one of the biggest wheat crops in history. And while threshing the wheat and watching the corn come to the front we were cutting alfalfa galore, gath ering small fruit in immense quantities and getting ready for an apple crop that will break all records. And did you take notice of the people who came to the fair not by hundreds, but by the tens of thousands? Ever see them looking more prosperous? Every see anybody looking more prosperous? Or happier? Or more thoroughly contented with their lot? They didn't wait for trains either. They cranked up their automobiles and came from farms an hundred miles and more away. Their pockets bulged with mone' and their faces were wreathed in smiles. There wasn't a discordant note in the whole affair. For once the voice of the calamity howler was silenced. The finest of cattle and of kine; the finest specimens of grain and fruit, the most beautiful samples of art the great est display of everything good ever made by a single state all this was to be seen at the Nebraska State Fair. Would that we could bunch the whole thing, load it on a special train and display it in every congested center, in every country of Europe. What a shame it is that a state so blest of Providence and so wonderful in re sources should be lagging behind in the duty of making the facts known to the world? With more good things to adver tise than any other state or section, Ne braska is doing nothing in that line. Her splendid resources are being developed at a snail's pace while other and less fav ored states are developing by leaps and bounds. Daily we see the spectacle of de sirable citizens rushing across Nebraska to settle upon less fertile lands elsewhere, lured there by advertising. Nebraska ought to stop them east of her western border. It can be done by intelligently advertising Nebraska's resources and pos sibilities. Does advertising a state pay? Ask Texas. Ask Oregon. Ask Washington. Ask California. Ask Colorado. Ask our Canadian friends of the northwest terri tory. Instead of gaining new citizens of industry and thrift to help develop this state, Nebraska is actually losing some of her best blood, to say nothing of mil lions of moiie" taken elsewhere to develop less favored territory. It is time to catch up with the business procession. It is time that Nebraska adopt modern business methods. Let us all work together for the great er development of Nebraska ! And as the first step, let us make provision for the adequate advertising of the state's won derful resources and unparalleled oppo--tunities. STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR. The fourth annual convention of the Nebraska State Federation of Labor will convene in Omaha next Tuesday morning. The Federation has already justified its existence by compelling the enactment of two good laws, the needed amendment of another and by securing the appointment of a commission to study the question of workmen's compensation. It secured tha enactment of a law requiring safeguards for workers on buildings, bridges and via ducts. It secured the enactment of a fac tory inspection law and the safeguarding of dangerous machinery. It has aroused public interest in the great problem of compensation for injuries, and it is caus ing workers to study more earnestly and intelligently the problems that have a direct bearing upon themselves. It is not striving to secure for workers an unfair advantage. Its sole aim is to secure justice, to seek out paths of honorable peace, to minimize the struggle between capital and labor a struggle that can never be ob viated while present social and industrial conditions remain. It is an organization of working-men and working women who are seeking to raise their standard of liv ing, thus building better for the republic. It deserves the support of men and wom en honestly desirous of the social uplift. The Omaha convention promises to be the largest gathering of -representatives of organized labor in the history of Ne braska. Its sessions will be open to the public. It has nothing to conceal. MR. METCALFE' '8 POSITION. Richard L. Metcalfe has addressed sev eral Old Settlers' picnics this season, and everywhere he has appeared the local newspapers have spoken highly of his ad dresses. The peculiar thing about their comment is that they seem to have dis covered a new Metcalfe. We never could understand why so many people classed "Met" as a purblind partisan, nor can we understand wiiy people should just be discovering that "Met" is built on lines entirely too broad to ever be a partisan. He is a democrat, to be sure, but so is every progressive, " patriotic citizen democratic in the broad sense. He has, it is true, given yeoman service to the democratic party, but not to make it the party of the Belmonts, the Parkers, the Baileys and the Underwoods. Time was when he nniy have thought that to oppose a republican was to render service to the people, but if so it was a long time ago. And, by the same token, if republicanism is to be measured by its Lorimers, its Aldriches, its Paynes, its Penroses and its Cannons, Metcalfe wasn't so awfully far wrong if he held to that opinion. But those who profess to see a new Metcalfe are merely those who can not understand how a man may broaden his vision while acquiring years. He is the same "Met" we knew a quarter of a cen tury ago, with the wisdom added of years, the softening of experience and the broadening influence of more intimate study of contemporaneous events. He has not abated one jot or tittle of Ids belief in the fundamental principles he advocated then, and advocates now. Ex perience has taught him, perhaps a bet ter way of presenting those principles to the public. The cock-sureness of youth has been displaced by tolerance. A pen never steeped in gall now more often writes appeals to the mind and heart than to political prejudice. The only change in "Met" is his choice of methods in reaching men. As for "Met" the man God forbid that there should ever be a change in him. EXIT SHOTWELL. Mr. Franklin A. Shotwell, the verbose secretary of- the Progressive Republican League, is extinct, officially. Mr. Shot- well went down to W ashington recently, and while there fell among not thieves, but very seductive gentlemen. As a re sult he relieved himself of an interview that put him all to the bad with the pro gressives. In that interview Mr. Shot well out-standpatted the old-time stand patters. The League met the other day, for the first time since Mr. ShotwelFs re turn from AVashington, and it consumed about a minute in throwing Mr. Shotwell over the transom. We are somewhat in terested in the success of the League, hence we advise it to make sure that its new secretary, Mr. E. P. Corrick, does not visit in Washington. The influences of that city have ruined a lot of good men. NOTICE TO TAFT. President Taft vetoed the Arizona statehood bill because he feared that with the recall of judges the people might pos sibly make a mistake some day. As if the president never made a mistake. The people couldn't possibly beat Taft's mis take record in three short years. And they will use the recall on him, too, in 1912. Blair Pilot.