1
CURRENT COMMENT
Three times has an effort been made
in the Omaha police court to secure a,
conviction under the Alberts law. Each
time a regularly summoned juror
failed to show up and three times a
policeman on duty summoned a man
standing conveniently by. And each
time this convenient man has hung the
jury. Of' course, this is' merely a
series of coincidences. Far be it from
us to intimate that Judge Foster was
unduly influenced, or that Col. Denni
son lias a hold upon any police ' court
official whereby he can secure the sum
mons of one of his handy men. Coin
cidences, merely.
Time and again Will Maupin's
Weekly has bluntly stated its belief
that Theodore Roosevelt was schem
ing and planning to force his nomina
tion for a third term. Every day con
, firms that belief. He is appealing to
that element of the population who
were wont to. go wild over the per
formances of John L. Sullivan, and he .
is being backed by that element that
fears men like LaFollette and Bryan.
Always blustering ' ' and thundering
against the trusts, ne came to, the
rescue of the biggest trust of all and
connived at a violation of the anti
trust law under pretense of averting a
panic. There is no use denying Roose
velt's wonderful popularity., Mighty
good men are for him, and a lot more
who are neither so good nor so well
intentioned. If he should take a trip
across the country he -would be fol
lowed by immense throngs, but honest
ly, wouldn't the crowds remind you
of those -that followed Sullivan and
Corbett and Jeffries, more than those
that flock to hear men' like LaFollette
and Bryan and Heney and Brandeis?
Who is the main spoke in the pres
ent Roosevelt wheel!. George W. Per
kins. Who is Perkins! The trusted
lieutenant of J. Pierpont. Morgan and
the steel trust crowd. Another one is
John Hays Hammond, who is another
steel trust and copper trust lieutenant.
The Roosevelt candidacy is being
urged, , quietly,, of course, by . every
"big business" ipterest in the coun
try, and it seems strange that the
people can not recognize the truth.
W. , R. Mellor, secretary of the
State Boar of Agriculture, declares
that this newspaper's statistics rela
tive to Nebraska production do not tell
all the facts. Some have charged as
with exaggerating the figures. But
Mr, Mellor says we err on the side
of conservatism. We plead guilty to
Mr. Mellor 's eharge, and offer in ex
tenuation the plea that we are afraid
to tell the whole truth. Even one-half
the truth about Nebraska is so stupen
dous that it is hard to make people
believe it. And if we told$he whole
truth we'd be clased with Ananjas and
Baron Munhcausen and put in a con
spicuous position on the Toll of a
Roosevelt Ananias Club. Every time
we get to figuring "on Nebraska's pro
ductivity we have to stop and rub our
eyes and go over the figures again to
make sure we haven't multiplied when
we . should have divided and added
where we should have subtracted.
In all our statistical reports of Ne
braska we have confined ourselves 10
the principal crops. When we get
down into the smaller crops we find
urselves in a maze of figures, for Ne
braska produces so many things that
it would keep a man busy to enumer-j
ate them. And when we mention the
fcig things it fairly exhausts the maga
aine of the linotype to furnish the fig
ures. Take eggs alone. In 1911 Ne
braska hens laid 268,531,014 dozen.
That s is three billion, two hundred
twenty-two million, three hundred seventy-two
thousand, one hundred sixty
eight eggs. That is 537,062,028 feet of
eggs, laid end to end. That would
mean a string of eggs more than
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILES
LONG 1 That would make an egg side-
walk twenty-five eggs wide reaching
from Omaha to the Wyoming state
line. Is it any wonder.that a man is
afraid to tell the whole truth about
Nebraska?
In 1911 Nebraska produced 1,345,805
tons of alfalfa. That doesn't sound so,
' awfully, big, because we don't think
in terms of millions. But when alfalfa
is baled and loaded into standard
freight cars there is ten tons to the car.
Now we are getting at; it. The 1911;
crop of Nebraska" alfalfa would fill
134,580 standard freight cars. That
would make 2,691 trains of fifty cars ;
! each and there isn't a railroad in the.
United States with engines enough, to
haul it to market all at one time. Put
into one train, the engine would be
ONE THOUSAND AND NINETEEN
MILES from the caboose! Of course,
a man risks his reputation for truth
and veracity when he tells the whole
facts about Nebraska!
And if we loaded the wild hay, and
tame hay other than alfalfa into stand
ard freight cars in the same way
O, what's the. use! Why, the 1911
crop in Nebraska would make a train
three times longer than the alfalfa
train.' In other , words the engine on
such a train would be more than
THREE THOUSAND MILES from the
caboose ! In other words, if the en
gine were in New York City the ca
boose would be tottering over the
edge of some wharf on the Bay of San
Francisco! And it wasn't Nebraska's
best hay year, either.
Or, put it in another way. Ne
braska's 1911 egg crop was worth half
as much as the nation's output of iron
ore, and her hay crop was worth more
than the nation's output of petroleum.
Th'e two together were worth more
than the nation's output of gold, in
cluding the output of Alaska. Her
1911 output of corn and it was a
poor corn year1 was worth more than
the nation's output of copper in the
same year. She produced more" agri
cultural wealth per capita in 1911 than
any other state, bar none. But when
a man interested in making these
great facts known undertakes to do so,
& lot of would-be-wises stand around
and grin and -say : " Ain't- tie the
durnedestf: liar-that -ever lived t n t.'!
Here 's the truth in a nutshell : In
1911 Nebraska produced agricultural
products to the amount of $406,209,111,
and live stock to the value of $203,
013,355 a grand total of $609,222,466
And we challenge "any other state to
equal the record.
When Robert M. LaFollette lai his
charge against the daily press, of the.
United States he made the grave ..mis-,
take of telling the truth at the wrong
time and place. This is a mistake that,
no politician should make. It is not a
mistake to tell. the .truth, but it is not
always necessary ' to tell all of the
truth. Everybody with a grain of
sense knows that our huge metropoli
tan dailies are commercial institutions,
conducted with a view to financial
returns, and as a rule they are owned
by men who have interests in , cor
porations and in other branches of
business. This applies chiefly, how
ever, to the great dailies, not to the
smaller dailies in cities of from 25,000
;to 100,000 people. But it wasn't
necessary for LaFollette to say it ;
the people know it already. It only
served to unloose upon him a foe that
exerts a tremendous influence. Not by
appealing to the intelligence of the
people, but by using the forces of in
timidation. We greatly fear that La
Follette . cooked his own goose and
paved the way for Roosevelt.
A lot. of corporations that either
failed to make returns to the govern
ment, or through ignorance did not
make them correctly or on time, have
been sued for $10,000. Most of these
corporations did not come anywhere
near reaching the exemption of $5,000
in net returns, and a lot of them
never had any net returns at all. But
the suits make a lot of fees for deputy
marshals and witnesses, all of which
the people must pay, and a lot of good
business men forced to. undergo great
inconvenience. . ', :
You may make all the .- fun you
Royal
2.:'
4' .'
please of Mr. Groundhog, but. we are
of the . opinion that he knows as
much about the weather as any of the
r government. prognosticators." We still
cling to our faith in the' goosebone and
the cornhusk and' the activity of the
squirrel. . If Mr. Squirrel is unusually
busy we figure on a hard winter. Say
what you please, the animals have a
. Way unknown to man of foretelling
some things. '.. '.' ;;
We do hot pose as a grand, old .
farmer,. for..we never . farmed inL our .
whole life. We really wouldn't know
how to hitch up a team, and, pur aero,
batics trying to guide a cultivator
would be worth going miles to see
But we do know a few things, "anil
among them is the fact that too many
Nebraska farmers are prone to ' be -discouraged
about their wheat and get
too eager to plow it up in the spring
and -plant the field into corn. Nebras
ka soil beats anything in the world
for recuperative power. We've-seen
wheat fields in the spring that looked
as if they were absolutely dead, and
later, after the spring rains, they've
come across with bumper yields. Don't
be in too big a hurry to plow up your
winter wheat. Give it a chance up
to the last possible minute.
John Brisbane ' Walker is of the
opinion that a new political party is.
the nation's only hope. We have a
great admiration for M. Walker, but
really he ought to take; something fa
that feeling. We do nofe.need' a neV .
party nearly so much as --we, need hon-.
est and patriotic men in "commanding
position in our' old parties. Fiind.i'
. WJL-
Th
T I f8 1
Under the provisions of the insurance jhws of the .state of
Nebraska, every fraternal beneficiary society must file a sworn
report with the State Auditor each yeaf Showing the business
transacted for the past twelve months, j 0 j. '.-
Complying with the provision, The Royal Highlanders has
just filed its annual report.. As this isS3 Nebraska society; the
showing made is of more than passing interest
The report shows that the total assets, ot,he society is $1,322,
074.43, a net gain of $100,000.00 for the year.
. The reserve fund of the society is rereiferfted . by first mort
gages on farm lands, $1,089,000.00. The value of these lands is a
total of $4,091,740.00, or a loan of only 26,6-lQ per cent of value, a
most remarkable showing. j .
The interest collected in this department is as follows:
Interest on mortgages ...... t $5 697. 51
Interest on bonds ........ e ...1,720.00 ,
Interest on bank balances UJ1,117.47
Total.,..................... $55,934.98
In addition to this income $7,021.00 commissions on loans was
collected, and went into the funds of the"sbciety.
. The largest membership is in the s home state and of the
$236,126.00 of claims paid,, $155,556.00. ,$g$5paid. to Nebraska
beneficiaries. 81
The average' age of the membership of the society is 36.54
years.. ...:.''"': '..,;; rv;-: . ., m'fagl.' ;...;.,'-. V .'.', ',
- The society maintains a field office inthe Fraternity Building
in Lincoln, and owns its own home office Bunding in Aurora, Neb.!
valued at $45,000.00. This building is one -of -r the best of its kind
in the state, and was built by and for The Royal Highlanders.
The, membership of the society is distributed in the healthful
parts of the western states, the eastern border being at the pres
ent time, Illinois and Kentucky, with one organization in Wash
ington, D. C.
Thirty thousand members are in good standing, and an effic
. tent corps of deputies is rapidly increasing-.tiitememberahip. .
- -.This is a splendid showing for this youngvigorous ( Nebraska
societyrand must be, most pleasing to its ousandsol mmbe;x
T'.l-'.i . .. : . . ' -' - : .v..
..,,- .. i .. ' ' ,' '..f'.f -:K' KrW ' "-
f: 'V- ' " V A.' '.: . -
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i H
Ml
TO IT' dOL
mentally the parties are, all.? right
the trouble is that 'bad men have cut
them loose from . their mowjjtagve-and
caused them to drift. ; . Parfresliave
been used selfishly instead1 of for- the
public good. What , is, needed, is a re
generation of our old .p.arties,'7' ' , ,
SUGAR BEETS IN NEBRASKA. .
: The sugar beet industry in Nebras
ka has undergone some extreme vis
eissitudes in the years gon4 bbtit it
now seems to . her coming into-it-jown.
At any rate, the figures of the industry
. as now existing- and growing Jtrj the
North Platte valley are very gratify
ing. From the Bayard Trnsc,rjp we
take some very interesting figures.
They show that during the 1911 cam
paign the sugar factory at Scottsbluif
paid the farmers of the vaUeyTi639,000
for beets.. It is expected that this
year will .see the beet raisers receiv
ing almost a million dollars ,,,:
That the industry is profitable is. evi
denced by the fact that the average
, . . - ., -
production per acre was in excess of
16 tons, and the price, per ton $5.50.
This means a gross income per; ace of
$88, and . the average net return1' per,
acre was $46. Results show that the
North Platte valley is unusuaHywell
adapted to beet growing. - The soil is
just right, and with irrigation passible
almost everywhere the beets growell
, and ' test unusually - high:- 'S'jrigi'. Suge
factory at Scottsbluff is ndw&fitig
up its first campaign and itrimanagefs
express themselves as . wefl3 tfied '.
with results and with the outlook.
ers
I ' f
With the building of the new branch
..of the Union Pacific up through the'
North Platte valley the 'beet raisers .
; will have better facilities for shipping,
i thus increasing their net revenues from
the crop. It is easy to be seen .that
beet raising in .Nebraska has received
a tremendous impulse, and that front ,
now on the industry is destined tOf
, grow at a .rapid rate. . . '
A TAST REPLY.
Fire Commissioner Randall makes a
tart reply to the esteemed World?'' .
Herald's intimation that state officials
are sloughing. We opine that the'
World-Herald had no reference to the
: fire commissioner's department, for if
' - .- -'I ' ' ' 1
active that. it.. Mr Knnitnll id an
enthusiast at his work, and he keeps
everlastingly at it. The good effects'"
of his enthusiasm are to be seen on all
' sides. Of course, '. Mr. Randall was
hardly fair in comparing his adminis
tration of the office with that of A. V.
Johnson, the first commissioner. Mr.
Johnson had to start from the bottom, -being
compelled to organize his force,
' get his card index arranged and out- '
line the plan of work. That takes '
time, and just about -the time Mr.
J ohnson had ' things ; running nicely :
he was supplanted by Mr. Randall: We. '
..are not prepared to say that the '
JWorldrHerald's criticism 'was not in':
..the main correct, but insofar as the H
jfire..;commissioneis's offie is; concerjaed:
;.it' was not. That department is all to'
the good under Commissioner Randall.
It.i. :t t.-i.''