A WEEKLY
JOURNAL
OF
CHEERFULNESS
Printed primarily for people
who look upon life cheerfully and
hopefully. Also for people who
ought to do so. The promotor of
all good things and good people,
of which first Nebraska is chief
and of which second Nebraskans
are mostly.
DOLLAR A YEAR
VOLUME 8
TALKS NONSENSE
TT A Curtis of Fairfield offers an"
explanation of the present high prices
of food products what he calls the
fact that "the limit of production has
about been reached, while consump
tion is steadily on the increase." Mr.
Curtis is only half right consumption
is steadily increasing. But when he
asserts that the limit of production
has about been reached he must be
joking. The truth is that we haven't
made even a good start at producing.
Nebraska is the third largest wheat
producing state in the Union with an
average 01 less mu
acre for the last ten-year period.
England has averaged upwards of 35
bushels an acre during the same period
and on land that has been farmed for
a thousand years. What is the an
swer t Intelligent and intensive culti
vation. Is an average, of 25 bushels
of corn to the acre the limit of corn
productivity of Nebraska cornlandt
Don't you believe it. The trouble is
not that we have about reached the
limit of production. Our trouble is
that we are not producing enough
rvwnopro Eighteen million acres of
idle land in Nebraska alone, and Mr.
Curtis talks about "limit of produc
tion!" One Nebraska farmer grow
ing rich on a 30-acre farm, not even
as good as the average Nebraska
farmland and here comes a gentle
man who asserts as a fact that we
have about reached the limit of pro
duction. All we need is more produc
ers we've got plenty of the material
at hand whereby mey may uegiu in
ducing.
"While the Kansas bank commission
er was working to protect Kansans
against grafters selling "blue sky"
securities, the banking board of Ne
braska was wrangling over who should
hold the jobs. What Nebraska needs
is fewer jobholders and more public
servants.
Of course Champ Clark refused to
consent to dividing the Missouri, dele
gation with Folk. 01' Champ Clark
was not born day before yesterday.
BREEDING UP HUMANITY.
Rev! John Williams of Omaha is
strongly opposed to the enactment of
a law requiring applicants for a mar
riage license to show clean bills of
physical and mental health. As usual,
when espousing an idea, Rev. Dr. Wil-
makes out a strong case. He in-
v iigiinij, iuui tuvu niiu u'u v
be made moral by legal enact-
those Who would reform mankind,
physically andratally, by statutory
law. But we fMr that Dr. Williams
misses the point. Some of us who
advocate physical and mental examina
tion of those contemplating matrimony
are not so advocating because we aim
solely at the reformation of mankind.
We are not actuated by moral senti
ment but by the instinct of self-preservation.
We put it all on a purely
physical basis, , leaving the rest to the
Almighty. Fundamentally, we would
make it just as profitable and just
as possible to breed a superior race of
men and women as it is to breed a su
perior strain of cattle, or horses, or
hogs. We believe there is a law pro-
the runnjjg "at large of male
species not be
L- )i
cause their roaming at large is im
moral, but because it is financially un
desirable. Yet we allow indiscrimin
ate marriage, which is about as fruit
ful of evil results to the human species
as would be the results of allowing
r
WHAT
v.
In Munsey's Magazine for March
the progressive -and enterprising state
of Kansas comes in for page after
page of the best advertising imagin
able advertising that money could
not buy for the simple reason that
advertising space is not sold in the
editorial departments of reputable
magazines tike Munsey 's. For a decade
past Kansas has been advertised as no
other state has ever been advertised,
with the result that Kansas, not so
good an agricultural state as Nebras
ka, has a half-million more people, 35
per cent more cultivated acres and a
reputation that has reached every nook
and corner of the world.
And during all this time, while Kan
sas was being made known every
where, Nebraska, with better soil, bet
ter climatic conditions and better busi
ness opportunities, has been standing
still in population. Every effort to
organize an advertising service such as
had made Kansas famous and added
millions to her wealth, has been met
with oposition and indifference. So
it is that every time you pick up a
newspaper or a magazine you see Kan
sas exploited Nebraska never. You
hear every day of Kansas' trouble in
getting harvesters during the wheat
season and Nebraska raises more
wheat per acre than Kansas and har
vests her crop without fuss or feath
ers. If Nebraska were made as well
known everywhere as Kansas, this
great state of ours would be the won
der of the world. It is interesting to
one who has made a careful study of
comparative statistics to note what
Kansas brags about, and then look to
see how Nebraska stands on the same
product. "Why Kansas Grows and
Prospers" is the title of an editorial
in the March Munsey. It is an inter
esting article, and Kansas deserves
every word therein contained with
one or two exceptions.
For instance and we quote the
words of Munsey's editor "According
to her own figures Kansas has the
largest per capita wealth of any state
in the Union. Her arithmeticians base
their estimate on the assessed valua
tion of property, which shows an aver
age amount of $1,642.30 for each one
of the state's seventeen hundred thou
sand inhabitants."
Splendid figures, and indeed a won
derful record for Kansas. But the
claim of Kansas to the largest amount
of property per capita is not well
founded.. The total assessed valua
tion of Nebraska is $2,002,157.45. This
is an average of $1,668.46 per capita,
or $24.16 per capita more than Kan
sas two-thirds of the per capita cir
culation of money in the United States.
And against this enormous value
in Nebraska there is not chargeable a
single dollar of state bonds, for Ne
braska has no state bonds outstanding.
There is not chargeable against this
a dollar of state floating indebtedness,
for Nebraska state warrants are paid
in cash now, and with the exception
of about ninety days have been paid in
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FEBRUARY 2,
scrub males of the animal species to
run at large. . .
Far be it from us to discourage
matrimony. On the other hand, we
would encourage it. But we are strong
ly opposed to this modern idea of pro
NEBRASKA
cash upon presentation for upwards
of ten years.
But there is one assertion in the
Munsey editorial to which we give
hearty assent. Again we quote: "What
lies behind this spectacle?. Two sim
ple things the people of Kansas are
mentally alert as well as industrious,
and there is team-work among her pub
lic officials. Few of our American
commonwealths present such a kind
ling example of unified public service.
Usually a state is satisfied if it can,
point to one conspicuous activity; in
Kansas almost every branch is a sort
of star performance."
Note that one assertion "THERE
IS TEAM-WORK AMONG HER PUB
LIC OFFICIALS." A few months
ago Nebraska accepted from the con
tractors a new building-ind for
weeks there was bucking and bicker
ing, among members of the board of
public works over the. matter of an
inscription on the cornerstone. A
year or so Nebraska had a democratic
governor, the rest of the state officials
being republicans. And , whatever a
republican official could do to discredit
the democratic governor was done, re
gardless of the effect upon the state.
Later a democratic legislature and a
republican governor locked horns over
non-essentials, and again the state suf
fered. Kansas has a bank commission
er who believes that his first duty is
to the people. ' Nebraska, under an
archaic constitution has a "state bank
ing board, " with a secretary appointed
largely for political reasons. . And a
year or so ago the whole commission
was up in the air, one set of examin
ers claiming the right to examine and
another set invoking the writ of in
junction. While they were fighting
over the spoils of office the bank com
missioner of Kansas was giving the
people real service. You bet they
have team-work in Kansas! And that
is what Nebraska needs a whole lot
more than she needs the political mess
she is constantly stirring up.
As we were writing this the mail
carrier laid upon the editorial desk a
Kansas postal card, issued by the
Kansas publicity department. It shows
a scene in a Kansas alfalfa field, and
bears this wording: Three, four or
five cuttings in a season, of hay like
that (the most valuable in the world)
look pretty good, don't they? 'Out
there in Kansas' is where they do it,
and it makes 'em rich."
The Kansas publicity bureau will
flood the country with cards like that,
and with other Kansas literature. Yet
Nebraska is a better alfalfa state than
Kansas, raises more, has more land
capable of raising alfalfa and is in
creasing her alfalfa acreage more
rapidly. But all the world knows
about the Kansas alfalfa industry,
while Nebraska seems content to "let
15,000,000 acres of her , land lie idle,
see thousands cross her domain to
find homes in the northwest, and even
to see hundreds of her best producers
packing up and leaving.
What Nebraska needs is more team
1912
gressive- adultery which brings the di
vorce, court within the shadow of the
church. A -little more thorough super
vision of the marriage business would
relieve us of much of the burden s of
divorce. ! -
NEEDS
j
work t jr vVublic officials. She
needs r K action on the part
of her pcw needs to come out
of this cotan3ondition of smug self
complacence and get into the develop
ment game with vim and energy. She
needs to set in motion some plan of
action that will call the attention of
homeseekers and investors to the won- -derful
oportunities awaiting them
within the borders of this common
wealth. She needs to advertise her
soil fertility and her climate until'
millions of her idle acres are brought
under cultivation, and countless fac
tories dot her landscape, working her
raw material into the finished pro
duct. It's an old story, but a good, one,
and applicable to Nebraska. A man
put a couple of pigs in . a sack and
told his boy to take them to town" and
sell them. In the evening the boy re
turned home with the pigs in the sack.
"Why didn't you sell 'em?" asked the
father. "Nobody asked me what I
had in the sack," replied the boy. It
is high time that Nebraska began tell
ing people what she has in the sack.
What has she in the sack? Fifteen
million idle acres capable of produc
ing record-breaking crops of corn,
wheat, oats, rye, alfalfa, sugar beets,
kaffir, millet hungarian, hemp and
flax. Unexcelled facilities for dairy
ing. Undeveloped water power suf
ficient to turn the wheels of ten times
more factories than she now possesses.
Marvelous opportunities for profitable
investment in manufacturing indus
tries. Magnificent opportunities for
the industrious homeseeker who wants
to own a bit of land upon which he
may live in comfort from the proceeds
of his honest toil. A public school sys-.
tern that is the wonder of the world,
and a system "of higher education
universities, academies and colleges
that has won words of praise from the
best educators of the time. She has
more in the sack than any other state
and to date hasn't opened her mouth
,to let the world know what she has to
offer.
Is not the time ripe for an educa
tional campaign a campaign that will
teach the world that Nebraska is in
truth the greatest producer of agricul
tural wealth in all the sisterhood of
states, and that, too, with less than
one-half her fertile acreage under cul
tivation? Is it not time to make known
the fact that Nebraska offers the home
seeker and the investor better oppor
tunities than any other state?
Let us banish the hammerman and
the chronic grouch. Let us put the
kibosh on the pessimist and the man
who pulls back in the breeching every
time he sees some other man leaning
up against the collar. Let us have
more team-work and less penny poli
tics among our public officials and
greater unity of action among our citi
zens. In short,' let us set to work to
let all the world know what we know
that of all good things Nebraska of
fers the most; that of things evil she
has the least.
A MERRY HEART
DQETH GOOD
LIKE
MEDICINE
But a broken spirit drieth the
bones. That's what the Good
Book says, and we'll bank on it,
sure. Will Maupin's Weekly
works to make cheerful the hearts
of its readers, and thus do medi
cal duty. Fifty-two consecutive
weekly doses for a dollar.'
GUARANTEED
NUMBER 45,
A few years ago we Nebrasskans
were inclined to congratulate our
selves upon the fact that we were be
coming some pumpkins an the world
of fire insurance. . We, saw fire insur
ance companies organized, and saw
them prosperous, to all seeming.
"But where are these companies of
yesterday? '
The winds have swept them ; all
away." ' ' ... ; . '
At any rate they've been gobbled
up, and with the exception of a few
mutual companies .' we , are bereft."
x nere may De a reason ior tnis. Out
we are ignorant thereof.
But through all the stress and storm
that has swept our little sea clean of
Nebraska fire insurance companies, .
we've, still kept our ' life ' insurance
crafts going. We can still point with
pride to such a magnificent organiza-'
tidn as the 'Olct Line Bankers Life of
Lincoln, with its five millions of as
sets and its splendid office building
that would be a credit to any city in '
America, bar none; with its splendid
record of achievements and its every
evidence of stability. Its results have
not been achieved in a day, nor in a '
year; they have been achieved by years
of steady, persistent effort, marked by
square dealing and perfectly kept '
faith with its policyholders. The
value of such an institution to a city
or to a state is hard to measure in
dollars and cents, but the value is
there, always in evidence.
AN UNUSUAL ANNIVERSARY.
On Monday evening, February 5,
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Sizer will . re
ployes of Lincoln, together with other
friends, the occasion being the tenth
anniversary of Mr. Sizer 's appoint
ment as postmaster at Lincoln. Such '
an anniversary celebration is a bit out
of the usual orderj postmasters seldom
lasting that long in cities the size of
Lincoln. That Mr. Sizer has rounded
out a decade in that capacity is at
once a tribute to his efficiency and a
tribute to a better 1 era in American
politics. Time was when posfmAsteprf'
were appointed solely with a view to
their ability to play politics ; today
their retention depends vastly more
upon their ability to serve the people
well. It will be cheerfully admitted
by all . who are acquainted with Ne
braska's political history for the past
twenty-five or thirty years . that Mr.
Sizer is not lacking in ability as a
political manager ; indeed, his reputa
tion as such is vastly wider than the
bounds or tne state. Hut it must be
just as cheerfully admitted that since
assuming his duties as postmaster he
has been even more successful in that
line than he was in political manage
ment and that means Mr. Sizer has
abundantly made good as postmaster.
Will Maupin's Weekly is not going to
congratulate 'Mr. Sizer upon having
rounded out ten years as postmaster,
for that would mean congratulating
him upon the fact that his years are
accumulating. It is, however, going to
congratulate Lincoln upon having
had for ten years a postmaster so ef
ficient, so courteous and so enterpris
ing, and follow it up by expressing the
wish that we will all be- here to par
ticipate with Mr. and Mrs. Sizer in the
celebration of the second- yea, the
tenth-V-decade of the services of Lin
coln's ipresent postmaster.
" ONE BY ONE"
