PROCLAMATION
The laying wide of the swaddling clothes of a
territorial existence and aiitiming the habiliment
of a state ii a period worthy of definite registra
tlon in history. It is an event that should be re
membered at all proper intervals ever after. Ne
braska came to the inheritance of statehood and
was the first to enter the Union soon after the elose
of the Civil War. She was fortunate in that tens
of thousands of the young men who had rendered
service to the government in the capacity of sol
diers during the war and were inured to the fatigue
on the field, came to this territory prepared to
undergo the hardship incident to the life of a pioneer.
With them came thousands of others from the
several states and from homes across the sea, all
for the purpose of establishing and reclaiming the
soil from a state of nature and making it respond
to the demands of civilization. ,
These hardy sons of toil, unwilling to longer re
main in the relation of dependents on the general
government and preferring to take upon themselves
the obligation of a free and independent state,
asked for and received admission to the Union on
the first day of March, 1867, adopting as a motto
' Equality before the law," and engraving the
same on the Great Seal of the state.
Two score and five years have passed, since by
the will of the people and the authority of law, we
became an independent factor , in the galaxy of
states that constitute the strongest and the freest
republic on earth. Such has been our progress
that we stand second to none in point of general
intelligence, and the peer of any in agricultural
and other industrial achievements wherein the soil
is the principal factor.
In view of these facts and in order that our peo
ple may be reminded of the near approach of our
forty-fifth anniversary, I have thought it wise, as
chief executive of the state, to suggest that as citi
zens of the commonwealth, we in some manner
observe this occasion; for example, that the schools -take
up the subject and ask one or more of each
school to prepare and read a paper involving the
growth of the state in population, churches, schools,
railroads, number of farms and amount produced,
instituting comparisons between certain dates as to
numbers and values. As instance the fact that up
to the 10th day of July, 1865, there was not one
rail of railroad iron laid in Nebraska.. Now we
have 6,135 miles of direct line in the state. In 1867
only 48,800 people, now 1,192,214.
; On March 1st next, write a letter to some one or
more of your friends in other states, telling them
something of what you know of the state's develop
ment. Thus, in this modest 'way, we can observe
the day and help spread important facts touching
the resources and progress of our beloved state. -s
CHESTER H. ALDRICH,
Governor.
CURRENT COMMENT
, The Harmon conference at Fremont
was merely a forerunner of what is
destined to be an epoch in democratic
history in Nebraska. It is the begin
ning of a fight to the finish to see
whether Mr. Bryan shall continue to
e the dominant figure in Nebraska de
mocracy , or whether he shall be re
tired. Some Harmon supporters a
majority, perhaps are supporting the
Ohio executive because they really
believe him to be the strongest candi
date democracy could name. But
there are those in the Harmon group
who don't care a rap about Harmon,
their chief interest being to throw
Bryan over the transom, even though
in the throwing they make it impossi
ble for Nebraska democracy to win a
victory in the next generation.
Those who keep in touch with state
politics will readily admit that the
Harmon boom is in charge of some
mighty expert political managers. They
know how to organize, and they have
the means at hand whereby to perfect
an organization speedily and effective
ly. And they love to play the po
litical game because it is their way
of having fun.
The fight against Wilson in this state
is going to be made on a number of
grounds. First, he will be opposed in
some quarters because he is presumed
to be Bryan's first choice. Second, he
will be charged with being a prohibi
tionist. Third, he will be charged with
preferring Chinese emigration to .the
emigration of men from southern
Europe, and Nebraska .has several
thousand voters who came from that
section of the world. Fourth, he will
be charged with too sudden conversion
to democratic principles, being actu-.
ated by an ambition to get something
for it. And the emblem of the Wil-
... ' -
Named for and Made in Lincoln
From Selected Nebraska Wheat Best Wheat in the World
Best
By
The
Oven's
Test
IDEtTTYf
IM.OBARBER SWSOhI
2ae
LIBERTY
A
Nebraska
Product
worthy of
Nebraska
H. O. BARBER & SONS, LINCOLN
son opponents will be a "eeeked hat,"
which will be flaunted in the 'faces of
the Wilson supporters. While all this
is going on the republicans will be
solidifying their ranks. During the
sixty days intervening before the pri
maries enough democratic animosities
will probably be aroused to make it
possible for the republicans to carry
the state by a majority anywhere be
tween 25,000 and 50,000. ,
When Judge Parker, during the
campaign of 1904, charged' that "big
business" was putting up money for
the republican campaign, 1 Theodore
Rosevelt shouted "you're a liar!'
Within two years it was clearly shown
that Judge Parker told the truth,
and that Theodore Roosevelt knew that
Judge Parker was telling the truth.
The "My Dear Hariman" letter and
the insurance investigations " showed
beyond a doubt that Judge Parker was
right. If Theodore Roosevelt is such
a great reformer, and so opposed to
the interference of "big business" in
our political affairs, why did he invite
Harriman to call at the back door after
night for a discussion of the situation?
It is very common tor men who do
not know the first thing about the col
lection, of statistics, nor the methods
of those whose duty it is to collect
them, to criticise the Nebraska Bureau
of Labor and Industrial Statistics.
Frank Odell is the latest critic. Mr.
Odell ought to investigate beforeTIe
suggests how it should be done. Had
he made a little investigation he would
have discovered that the very, method1
he sugests is the one pursued by ' the
labor commissioner of Nebraska, and
the one pursued by every collector of
agricultural statistics in the United
States, including those employed by
the federal government. After several
years experience in the work of col
lecting agricultural statistics in Ne
braska we are prepared to assert that
Nebraska's statistics, gathered by the
labor bureau, are far more reliable
than the average and more to be de-
pended upon than those collected by .
the , government ' for this state. Ne
braska 's trouble is not the ability to
gather reliable statistics; that she
does. Her trouble is being too niggard
ly or too careless to make an appro
priation sufficient to permit of making
those statistics known to all the world.
Every two years for the past six
teen or eighteen, the voters of Ne
braska have been called upon to vote
upon from one to half a dozen consti
tutional amendments. The time is
come when Nebraska should have a
1 new and up-to-date constitution one
fitted for a state of a million and a
quarter of people. Our present consti
tution was made by men who never
dreamed that Nebraska would see the
time when a half -million people would "
'live within her borders. They made
a constitution while laboring under a
fit of blues brought about by grass
hopper visitations, by drouths and by
Indian scares. It was a good constitu
tion in its day, but it fits Nebraska
now about as well as a two-year-old
boy's clothes will fit him after he has
grown to be a man.
We may talk all ' we please about
revering the constitution, but here in
Nebraska we have played football
with the constitution until it is bat
tered out of all semblance of a "char
ter of our liberties." We have evaded
it, ignored it and snubbed it until the
poor thing is in no shape to appear
in good society. But instead of send
ing it to the junk heap and getting a
new one worth while ,and in keeping
with our progress, we continue to
patch it when not ignoring it. : We,
have got around the constitutional pro
hibition against increasing the num
ber of state officers by creating a horde
of deputies, making them responsible
to the governor, already overloaded
with responsibilities. Then we gel
around the pitiful salary limitation of
the governorship by the subterfuge of
of an "executive mansion" and "main
tenance" and "traveling expenses.".
Of course it would cost, money to
hold a constitutional convention, but
the drafting and adopting of a new
constitution would enable us to save
enough money in a decade to pay all
the expenses, and then we would have
an instrument that would permit us to
grow and make provision for future
contingencies. Instead of holding off
against a constitutional convention on
the ground of expense the taxpayers
of Nebraska ought to be demanding
one on the ground of economy 1 and
good business sense.
A few years ago Goevrnor Aldrich
tried to buy 3,000 acres of land in
what is now Scottsbluff county, but
couldn't raise the money, although
$25,000 or $30,000 would have been
sufficient. Today the busy little city
of Scottsbluff is on that same tract,
and land in the immediate vicinity is
worth from $150 to $300 an acre. But
the experience of Governor Aldrich is
the experience of thousands. Most of
Nebraska's rich men of today are rich
because they thought they were being
forced into bankruptcy a few years
ago when they had to foreclose farm
mortgages and take the land.' A few,
however, had the foresight and the grit
to buy the land when it was deemed
practically worthless, and hold oh to
it. ; ' ,
More than a quarter of a century
ago the Oberf elder boys located in Sid
ney. Every dollar they could scrape "
and save they invested in Union Pa
cific land at from $3 to $5 an acre.
Friends laughed at them and said they
were suckers of the first water. But
the Ob'erfelder boys kept right . on
banking their money that way, a few
dollars at a time, but often. Now the
Oberf elder boys are doing the laugh
ing. They can go to Europe any old
time they want to,' winter in Florida
or on the Pacific coast and spend their
summers in the mountains. They can :
maintain automobiles without mort
gaging their homes for the upkeep
and they have a few thousand acres of
land left which they can sell for from
$25 to $50 an acre without a bit of
trouble. They had faith in western
Nebraska and backed that . faith with
their money.
Between 1887 and 1899 a Massachu
setts woman loaned $20,000 on west
ern Nebraska farm mortgages until she
had mortgages on 100 quarter sections,
in what is now Scottsbluff, Duel, Mor
rill and Garden counties. Along came
the drouth of 1890 and knocked every
thing western into a cocked hat. The
Massachusetts , woman became almost
crazy at the thought of losing her alL
She had to foreclose on four-fifths of
the land, and, lost about half of it be
cause she couldn't pay taxes. ; Be
tween 1898 and 1908 she sold enough '
of the land to get back her $20,000 and
she still 'owns eight or ten quarter
sections, and one of which is worth up
wards of $10,000.
. We have a pretty thorough acquaint
ance with a Nebraska newspaper man
who took a quarter .section in Perkins
county off the hands of his brother-in-law
paying $150 in cash, and assum
ing a mortgage of $150. The newspaper
man lifted the mortgage,, held the land
for eight years and sold it for $950. He
thought he was making a splendid
real estate bargain ' when he " sold.
Within six years after he sold the
quarter section for $950 it was . re
sold for $35, an acre, and today
couldn't be bought for $50 an acre.
' There is farm land in Nebraska to
day that couldn't be bought for $200
an acre that wouldn't have brought $25
an acre twenty-five years ago. ..' And
there is vacant land in Nebraska to
day that can be bought for from $25
to $50 an acre that will be worth $150
an acre twenty-five years from now.
A PRETTY PUZZLE.
Richardson county is a mighty good
apple growing bit of territory. The
finest apples in "the world are raised
down there ,and in counties ' round
about.; And it is not necessary to ir
rigate the orchards, either. We have
seen apple displays in Oregon, Wash
ington and New York, and fine ones,
too. ,; But they were not a bit better
than the apple display we! saw. a few
weeks ago at the annual meeting of
the Nebraska Horticultural society.
As a matter of fact, if we wanted to.
to go into the apple growing business,
. and the growing of -apples were the
only, thing to be' considered, we
wouldn't give a ten-acre orchard in "
southeastern Nebraska for any ten-acre
orchard in Oregon or Washington ory
New York. But it happens that more
than' the mere growing of apples is to
be considered. .
After raising your apples you must
find a market for them. And to se- -cure
a market you must have just
freight rates rates that will permit
you to ship your apples at a fair profit
and sell them at a price that the con
sumer can afford to pay. From Roches
ter, New York to North Platte, Nebr.,
is approximately 1,200 miles, and a car
of New York apples shipped from
Rochester to North Platte will have to
be handled by at least three railroads.
From Falls City to North Platte is ap
proximately 350 miles ,and apples may
be shipped oyer but two roads. - '
v The rate on apples from Rochester -to
North Platte, 1,200 miles, is 35
cents. From Falls City to North Platte,
,350 miles, the rate is 38 cents;
That's what puzzles the Richardson
county apple grower, and a 'lot of
northwestern Nebraska ' people vwho
, really like apples but can-not ' afford
them, even though the' be- rotting 'on
the ground at the place of produe- "
tion. . 1
Maybe it costs 3 cents more to haul '
apples 350 miles than it does to haul"1
apples 1,200 miles, but if it does we'd''
be almighty glad to have some one'
show us the whys and wherefores.'
DAFFODILS.
If Adams and Humpe should get to
gether and agree to kill competition,
would the resultant agreement kilo-.
watt .. - ; - '"
If P. L. Hall and E. H Dunn made
a pile of all their financial plans would
Silas Burnham? ' i '
j If Hans Boegh failed to keep - .'em
moving" would Ernest Hunger?
If Metcalfe had Morehead would
Barton be a Prince, or would Victor
Eosowater Howell t
If the Roosevelt- Taft delegates can't
readily agree upon a proper designa
tion how long will Addison Waitef
If talk is cheap who will cough up
when Charley Bills t . ;
If John G Maher continues to boost
for Harmon will it make the Wood
rough for Wilson! . - , J.
i If Colton of York can pull through,
how much can Tom Hallf
