K
v
K
THE QUESTION AT ISSUE
When Farmer Oatcake came to town he made a call on me,
A fact that pleased me greatly men like him I like to see.
So I shook his hand and gave him my oirn good revolving chain
iAndl asked him, "Howis business?" and he answered, "Party fair."
'How are you upon the question ofLaFollette or Bill Taft?"
I hquired of Farmer Oatcake, and he just leaned back and laughed.
" Well" he said, "tuLxt Bob and Billy I don't worry nary mite,
But rm gettin mighty anxious 'bout my seed corn bem' right"
Then I tacked about and took him in a little different way
By inquiring how he figured on reforming "Schedule K,"
And concerning money matters like the mooted Aldrich plan
Which I thought was quite sufficient to arouse most any man.
And "progressives" and "standpatters," and a lot of things like that;
But old Farmer Oatcake sat there merely twirling his old hat
Then he said, "Well honest, Billy; them's big questions I don't doubt,
But the biggest one, I reckon, is will that there seed corn sprout?
"A re you posted on the tariff?" I inquired somwhat dismayed
A t the seeming lack of interest Farmer Oatcake had displayed.
"Just a bit," he answered slowly with a twinkle in his eye.
"Or upon the money question?" "Just a bit," was his reply.
Then he leaned across and gently laid his hand upon my knee
And he said: "Them things arepressin, but they ain't a pressin' me"
Near so much as are some others; and the most important thing
That's before us tanners, Billy, is good corn for seed, b'jing!"
Then old Farmer Oatcake left me, and I pondered there alone
Till it struck me pretty forceful that some things Td never known
Were of vastly more imortance at this time than tariff dope,
Or the stuff that ofUceseekers hand us labeled "good soft soap;
That it isn't Taft or Harmon, Bob LaFollette or Champ Clark,
We must look to if the future doesn't get almighty dark;
But that vastly more important at this time is just to know
That the seed corn that that is planted is the kind that's going togrou
PARTISAN BLINDNESS.
Will Maupiu s Weekly, says the
democrats got the worst of it last year
the whiskey question was in
jected into polities. Yes indeed, and
w all got the worst it, lor it re
sulted in electing a democratic legis
lature, Fairbury News.
Tut, tut! Do not be so blindly par
tisan. The last legislature really made
a better record than the average legis
lature. Of eourse it appropriated a
lot f money, but will any sensible
man deny that it was necessary? Will
any humane man denounce as extrav
agance the appropriation of money to
care for the feebleminded and the
insane in a decent and humane man
ner ? Is it extra vaganve to appro
priate money to prevent ttisease, or to
educate our boys and girts properly?
Is it nothing that the last legislature
gave us the opportunity to adopt the
initiative and referendum? Of eourse
the legislature made mistakes and
that is to be expected of 133 men
brought together from all walks of
life to accomplish a big task inside
of ninety days. But isn't it fact
that the legislature in question gave
us some almighty good laws, made
better some laws that needed better
ment, and repealed some laws that
merely cumbered the statute books?
Isn't it true that it made comparative
ly decent appropriations for the maiii
tenance of state institutions and the
proper support of the inmates? Does
the esteemed News begrudge a dollar
of the money appropriated for the
better housing of the feebleminded
boys and girls in the Beatrice institu
tion, or the men and women r cloud
ed minds in the Hastings, Lincoln and
Norfolk asylums, or the blind pupils
of the Nebraska Oty institution, r
the deaf and dumb children in the
Omaha institution who are barred
from the public schools by reason of
their affliction?
With feebleminded children sleep
ing in garrets and basements, herded
like pigs in a pen, is it extravagance
to provide for their better care and
treatment? The increased appropria
tion made by the last legislature for
the support of the state s institu
tions should redown to the credit of
its members, and men not blinded by
prejudice or bessed with the idea
that dollars are more than human
beings, will give the legislature credit.
The esteemed Fairbury News is liv
ing in the dark ages of Nebraska poli
tics. It ought to tear a couple of
hundred leaves from its monthly cal
endar.
A POOR PRESS AGENT.
King George of Great Britain ought
to make haste to secure the services
of a first-class press agent. Not be
ing able to write hooks or edit a maga
zine Kim? Georee is therefore unable
to do much tooting of his own horn,
hence his need of a good publicity
man. It is now given out that on a
recent hunting expedition King George
bagged thirty tigers, thirteen rhin
oceri, a score of elephants and some
smaller game. That is the extent of
the information. Now imagine what
one American hunter of note would
have made of that record! With every
rhinoceros we would have had a thrill
ing tale of "charging, with every
elephant a bloodcurdling account of
narrow escapes, and with every tiger
a hair-raising narrative of ferocious
man-eaters. Every record of a shot
at a wild animal would have been a
tribute to the nerve and the niark
manships of the firer, and every death
would have been the end of the most
ferocious member of the "fireeV
tribe or kind.
King George has overlooked a bet.
Perhaps he feels bound by tradition
and by divinity which is supposed to
hedge kings, but if so he is wrong,
sadly wrong. He should burst tradi
tions, knock the idea of kingly divin
ity galleywest, hurl anathema at all
who oppose him, organize Ananias
Clubs and issue orders that all spot
lights be trained upon himself.
A GREAT Bid BOOST FOR
GRAND YOUNG NEBRASKA
Will Maupin's Weekly, the
best single-handed booster Ne
braska has or ever had, came
out in & blase of glory last
week with its "Nebraska In
dustries Number." Twenty
four pages carried an immense
amount of highly interesting
matter regarding the resources,
attractions and opportunities of
Nebraska, and also numerous ad
vertisements of m&nuf actnrmg
concerns who make good goods
in Nebraska and are not afraid
to let people know it, Omaha
Trade Exhibit.
NOT FOR HAVELOCK.
Of course the Ilavelock Commercial
Club, and the Ilavelockonians in gen
eral, object to having their pestofSee
degenerate into a mere sub-station.
And small blame to them. They have
a right to feel proud of their pro
gressive little city, and they ought
to be jealous of its well earned fame.
Will Man pin's Weekly would regret
to see Ilavelock submerged in any such
way. Some time, doubtless, Lincoln
will grow all around Ilavelock and
bring about annexation, but there are
Havelockanians who insist that when
that time comes it will be Ilavelock
that will do the annexing. That's
the kind of spirit that makes a city
grow.
THIS IS THE TIME FOR COMMONSENSE TO RULE
The daily newspapers of January 9
contained a dispatch from San Fran
cisco wherein Ernest L. Reguin, presi
dent of the Federated Shop Employes
of the Harriuian lines, was quoted as
predicting a strike of the 300,000 shop
employes, including every road in
Texas, the Denver & Rio Grande and
the Ilill lines.
We have come to look with, some
suspicion upon daily newspaper re
ports of interviews with, labor lead
ers. The interviews are too often dis
torted for purposes of sensationalism.
But if President Requin is correctly
quoted it is high time that he and the
men whom he represents, and sup
posedly leads, pause to take several
second thoughts. To call a strike
now, under all the conditions weath
er, financial, industrial and social
for anything short of absolute oppres
sion, would be little less than criminal
Indeed, such a strike would be but a
very short step removed from the
criminal, for men who would deliber
ately plunge the country into deeper
depths of oppression, would threaten
wives and children with hunger and
cold, and further increase the already
huge army of unemployed men who
would do such a thing for any reason
short of rebellion against tyranny and
oppression of the medevial type, would
be criminals in effect if not in pur
pose.
There are conditions under which it
is folly to strike, but we take time to
mention but two; First, when there
is nothing worth while to win, and
much worth while to lose. Second,
when the conditions of employment
are such that there are two hungry
men waiting to take the place of every
men who awes out on strike. Some
thing very akin to both these situa
tions now present themselves. The
Federation of Shop Employes are, if
we are rightfully informed, demand
ing chiefly the recognition of their
Federation. The qeustion of hours or
of wages do not enter largely into the
matter at this tune, although it is
evident that they are the real things
at issue but put off to the future.
Now, just pause for a moment and
think what it means to call out an
army of 300,000 men. now steadily em
ployed at fairly remunerative wages,
to add more than a quarter of a mil
lion men to the army, of the unem
ployed, to interrupt business already
staggering, to throw out of gear the
immense transportation lines, to force
thousands of women and children to
face privation and want and cold, to
injure a great public that is in no wise
concerned about "recognition, and
further plunge the country into finan
cial ' depression !
Talk about striking lor "recogni
tion when there are 2,000,000 men
out of employment. Talk about strik
ing in the dead of winter when a week
would exhaust the reserve of every
affiliated craft in the country! Talk
about a strike when business is de
pressed and every local union pushed
to its limit to care for its own!
What are officials of the Federation
of Shop Employes thinking about,
anyhow? It is all very fine for men
without families to stand up and talk
about fighting for recognition, or for
this or for that- But what about the
men who have given hostages to for
tune and are striving to feed and
clothe wives and children? What
about the wives and children? The
writer, whose union card is clear and
who has been a union man for thirty
years, has been through more than one
strike enough to make him fight shy
of any more if one may be avoided
with honor. And even honor would be
stretched a long ways before he would
consent to making sacrifice of the wife
and the babies. This writer knows
something of officialdom in union labor,
circles. It is one thing to sit in a
comfortable office and draw good
money while directing a strike, and
quite another to be on the outside,
wageless and penniless, dependent
upon "strike benefits that seldom
last long, and watching the faces of
wife and children growing more
pinched each day. It is one thins to
prate about "honor" while spending
the per capita tax, and quite another
to pay the per capita tax out of a
wage envelope already too small to
make proper provision for the family.
The writer knows practically noth
ing about managing a railroad, but it
appears to him that if the railroad
managers were compelled to choose a
time when a strike would least hurt
them, that time would be right now.
And it strikes him that if the em
ployes were to scheme for a year to
pick a time when a strike would avail
them the least, they would select the
present.
The labor union official who advises
or even countenances a strike at this
time for anything short of absolute
tyranny is an unsafe leader. Em
ployes who will urge or vote for a
strike under present conditions, for
anything short of absolute oppression,
are shortsighted. For railroad em
ployes to strike now and further de
press general business by tying up the
would be absolutely foolish, for it
would alienate public sympathy, with
out which no strike of consequence can
succeed.
Let's have done for the present
with all this talk and rumor of a
strike. Let's get down to business
and work to bring about an industrial
condition when a strike might be
worth , undertaking because there
would be some show of winning. This
is no time for the agitator and the
prattle of the "square man." It is
time for the sedate, thoughtful and
prudent union man to assert himself.
Let 300,000 shopmen strike now and
tie up the railroads, forcing a fuel
famine with the thermometer hovering .
around the zero point, and public in
dignation would overwhelm the strik
ers instead of the railroads.
Strike now, and a fortnight would
exhaust every avenue of strike bene
fits and offer to cold and starvation the
wives and the babies. Strike now,
with 2,000,000 idle men in the country,
and hunger would force enough,
"scabs" into the shops to break the
strike before a month passed.
Why not act sensibly? Why play
into the hands of the opposition? Why
alienate public sympathy? Why sacri
fice the comfort of loved ones in an
effort to gain something that is neith
er meat nor drink, bu only salve for
wounded "honor!"
Three hundred thousand men on
strike! How long could they stand
outside without strike benefits? Say
a month then what? Say a strike
"benefit of $4 a week for 200,000 single,
men, and 8 a week for 100,000 mar
ried men 41,600.000 a week. How
many weeks could organized labor
stand the strain?
Think it over, men; and in God's
name don't commit this awful blunder.
The writer believes in strikes, if
called for just eause and after every
possible effort at arbitration has
proved futile. But to call a strike
when everything points to hopeless
failure; when the burden of suffering
will fall upon the innocent and the
helpless; when the thing sought for is
not worth the sacrifice of a single
comfort by those we love to strike
under such conditions is criminally
foolish. We believe the proposed strike
mentioned by President Requin, under
present conditions, would be worse
than foolish. -
Is the writer qualified to speak with
some knowledge of suck questions?
Let the record show. He has been,
and still is, an active member of the
International Typographical Union for
many years; three times a delegate to
the American Federation of Labor con
ventions, and organized, and was
twice president of, the Nebraska Fed
eration of Labor. He has never
shirked a union assessment, never
drew a dollar of benefits, and never
received an official salary from any
labor organization. For more than
seventeen years he has not earned a
dollar working at his trade, but there
has not been a day in all that time
when his card was not clear. His in
terests are all with the men who toil;
not with those who would exploit
labor. In making this appeal he is
concerned only for the best interests of
the employes, knowing full well that
the employers are amply able to take
care of themselves.
Organized labor is not at this mo
ment in a good position to talk about
strikes. Industrial conditions, and re
cent developments within the ranks,
are all against success. Let us have
a short spell of common-sense and
discretion.
BOURBONISM RUN MAD.
Labor Commissioner Gnye has fav
ored ns with a copy of bulletin No.
23 A. issued in November giving a
review of the state's resources. It
appears to be very eomprehensve,
but whether it is "worth the price" we
are not sure. The best advertisement
the state ever can put out is general
good health and prosperous condition
of all its people. This is very "fetch
ing"'' to all those living in other states,
who want some of both. But why ad
vertise Nebraska? She is known the
world over now and the young Ne
braska ns want a chance to get a "st
in' at home. Crowd the state fall of
people and then what opportunity is
there for your children? They will be
forced to go west or occupy a less fav
orable position than you do; or do
yon want to see every acre of the
state worked to its full capacity frora
this time on till it is impoverished as
nearly all countries have been? Let
us husband our own resources i Crei
Democrat.
It is just a bit hard to find words
to express one's -opinion of the above.
But as a sample of bourbonism ran to
seed we submit that it is entitled
the premium. Wouldn't Nebraska be
a "wonderful state'" at this time if
the early settlers had adopted thai
sort of policy? What good does it do
Nebraska as an advertisement to pos
sess healthful climate and fertile sofl
if we don't let the people of the
world know it? And with 15,000,000
acres of fertile soil awaiting cultiva
tion, and hundreds of Nehraskaxts go
ing elsewhere every year, is there any
likelihood that our children will have
no opportunity to get a 'set in?"
And the idea that working the soil
to its full capacity is suicidal belongs
to the dark ages. The soil ought to
be worked to its full capacity, and
every year should find it richer. They
raise three times as much wheat "per
acre in England as we do in Nebraska,
and on soil that has been producing
wheat for a thousand years. But the
English farmer has sense enough- to
put back into the soil the fertility
that he takes out of it- We have that
yet to learn in Nebraska.
What this state needs is more culti
vated acres cultivated with braiss
and more production per acre without
exhausting soil fertility. The trouble
is that we have been mining a few
acres and neglecting the raajsy acres.
The wheat and corn lands of Nebras
ka ought to be more fertile and pro
ductivity the 15,000.000 acres of land
are today. Under present eonditk&s
the soil is being exhausted. Let tee
have a campaign of education a eaaa
paign that will not only teach ccr
people how to conserve soil fertility,
but teaeh people how W put into pro
duetivit ythe 15,000,000 acres of land
that are now idle. More cultivated
acres and more acres better cultivated!
Let that be the rallying cry. N dag
ger that there will ever be more tillers
than there is room for in this ssale.
No danger that oar children will not
have opportunities. The trouble is no?
lack of opportunities, but lack of
young men and women capable of
measuring up to the pportctIe
The esteemed Crete " Democrat -using
an 112 calendar. It ought t
jump forward just an even hundreu
years.
NEBRASKA'S ANNIVERSARY.
March. 1 will be the forty-fifth,
niversary of Nebraska's admission in
to the Union, and Will Jfaupia's
Weekly proposes a novel method of
celebrating the event. It is to make
it "Nebraska Post Card Day," and en
that day have every patriotic ehiteu
who will send out as many postcards
as possible to friends in other states,
the cards containing facts and figures
about Nebraska's resources and pos
sibilities. It is also suggested tat
Governor Aldrich issue a proclamation
making March 1 'Nebraska Post Card
Day, urging all good citizens to join
in an effort to make up in some
measure for the failure heretofore to
properly advertise this wonderful
state.
.J