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VOLUME 9
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MAY 24, 1912
NTJMBEB 10
OT&T OTT.'.fOUILOJ) RSI
ff If Nebraskans loyally stood by their state's industries it would mean the addition of thousands
of home building wage earners. j
m If Nebraskans bought all their insurance of jNebraska companies it would mean keeping
$10,000,000 a year at home to be invested in Nebraska developement.
T If Nebraska advertised to the world what Nebraska has, and is, arid is to be, it would mean
the addition of thousands to Nebraska's list of home builders, of millions to her working capital,
and of greater developement of her marvelous resources.
UBED DILL DEBBASIZaDS HITCHES MTV T.8
CURRENT COMMENT
Because the editor of Will Maupin's Weekly has a profound
reverence for the Christian religion as it was taught to him by a
preacher father and the best mother a boy ever had, he protests,
emphatically, against the slush and gush and sacrilege surrounding
the last hours of Rev. Clarence Richeson. "Are you willing to die
for Jesus' sakef" asked his spiritual advisor. In the name of
common sense, of decency and of revealed religion, we insist that
this sort of thing stop. Richeson did not die "for Jesus' sake."
He died because he was a foul, murdering fiend, who deceived and
betrayed an innocent girl, then deserted her for a woman with a
million, and to cover his -tracks murdered his victim. If Clarence
Richeson 's soul is not this day suffering the torments of the
damned, then the Bible is a lie. If the murderer and the murdered
the foul betrayer and the trusting betrayed are together in heav
en, then the Christian religion is a mockery and the moral and up
right life of no avail for future happiness.
The sacreligious gush of Rev. Herbert S. Johnson, Richeson 's
"spiritual advisor," serves only to make a jest of religion. "I for
give everybody," canted the doomed murderer. Pray tell us whom
he had to forgive ? The innocent girl whom he ruined and mar
tferef A religion that he betrayed and besmirched T Society that
he outraged? If there is a hell-and we believe there is, whether
it be one thing or another then as surely as there is a divine ruler
tof the universe Clarence Richeson is there. No sane man who
cherishes faith in ultimate justice can believe that any repentance
of which Richeson was capable would suffice to make it possible
for him to partake of the joys and happiness of those who have
served their time and their fellows well and justly; least of all
believe that Richeson could be admitted to the presence of poor
little Avis Linnell. Again we protest against such outrageous rot.
such mockery of religion, such desecration of the Christian faith.
" The Lincoln Evening News undertakes to explain that More
head carried the dry county of York because a majority of York
county democrats are "wets," and that 'Metcalfe carried the "wet"
county of Saline because Morehead opposed the 'reform insurance
bills introduced by Senator Bartos" during the last legislative ses
sion.' The explanation may satisfy the esteemed News, which is
always very esaily satisfied when looking for some ground upon
which to oppose a democrat, but it will not satisfy observant men.
Morehead opposed the Bartos bills on good grounds, as the News
may learn by a careful study of the bills and various incidents
surrounding their consideration. Senator Bartos, who is a political
power in Saline, seems to have opposed Morehead because Morehead
opposed his bills, but does the News believe that Bartos is more
interested in "insurance reform" than he is in the success of his
brewery at WilberT The truth of the whole matter is that the
democratic contest was between two splendid men, and Mr. More
head won, and won because a majority of democrats thought that
under existing circumstances he was the better man for the posi
tion. The liquor question cut very little figure save in the feverish
imaginations of men who would rather keep the liquor question
stirred up in order to have an issjue than to see it settled and be
left without an issue.
newspaper can conceive of but two classes who wil oppose the
amendment those who are ignorant and those who sge in its
adoption an end to their shirking of their just share of the tax
burden. '
The two Lincoln policeman who stopped a young woman and
compelled her to take them and a drunken man to the police sta
tion in her automobile, were very properly removed from the force.
We do not expect a great deal of intelligence for $60 a month, but
we at least have the right to expect a glimmer of it. If we show
little respect for police authority it Js because we have so many
examples of it that show nothing more than bullheadedness, arro
gance and stupidity.
Men who declare that there is no cheap land left in Nebraska
simply do not know what they are talking about. True, there is
no land worth while that is to be had free, but there is a lot of it
that is to be had at a low price. . Land that may be had for $50
an acre today on . easy terms is in many respects cheaper than the
free lands the homesteader secured a generation ago. First, because
the returns are assured and speedy; second, because the buyer does
not have to endure the hardships of pioneering ; third, because a mar
ket is ready and close at hand. It is a lot easier to stick around town
and complain about the lack of opportunities than it is to get out
and hustle like the mischief, enduring toil and hardships now in
order to win a competency after while. And the land opportunities
are going to be even better when Nebraskans become wise enough
to enact laws that will take speculative values out and put a stop to
the present system of fining thrift and enterprise.
MEN AND MATTERS
One of the live commercial clubs of Nebraska is doing busi
ness every day in Havelock. The shop city was represented at the
Hastings convention by a wide-awake delegation. The club is now (
going after parks and playgrounds, but will keep right on looking
for industries to locate on the" free factory sites offered. A mighty
busy, hustling city is growing up alongside Lincoln.
We listened with some, interest to Prof. "J." Lawrence Laughlin's
explanation and defense of the Aldrich currency plan, not because
we consider Prof. Laughlin a political economist of particular
weight, but because we are seeking light on that subject. As a
matter of fact, Prof. Laughlin was not recognized as a political
economist until he was picked out of Philadelphia and put in the
chair at Rockefeller university, so as to give him a bit of prestige
and afford the advocates of the single standard an opportunity to
point to one great political economist who did not favor the double
standard. After digesting the gentleman's remarks we are prepared
to assert our ability to pick a half-dozen practical bankers out of
Lincoln and Omaha who can put up a better defense of the reserve
association plan, and a score who are able to meet him on the plat- '
form and confute his arguments. Eliminate the words "elasticity"
and "inelasticity" from the Laughlin vocabulary and -very little
is left. - " .
An acre of ground contains approximately 43,000 square feet.
At $50 an acre this is a fraction over l'cent a square foot. And
there are hundreds of men in Lincoln and other cities, always com
plaining because they can not get hold of a piece of land, who
swallow from 30 to 75 square feet of fertile Nebraska soil every
day, or send from 15 to 30 feet of it skyward in the shape of cigar
smoke. The man who takes four drinks of booze a day swallows
an acre of fertile Nebraska farm land every 100 days, or three and
a half acres every year. In eight years he swallows a farm equal
in size to that of Arnold Martin in Pawnee county, and Arnold
Martin is today the most successful farmer in the United States.
Yet, despite these figures, our ears are constantly being dinned with
the 'doleful wail that "there ain't no chance for a poor man to
get a piece of land any more, nohow."
Will Maupin's , Weekly hopes to see the grand old state of
Missouri lead off in the adoption of what this newspaper considers
the greatest reform proposed in recent year,s the abolition of all
forms of taxation upon enterprise and thrift. Missouri is preparing
to vote upon a constitutional amendment gradually abolishing the
personal property tax. If that amendment is adopted Missouri is
going to become a Mecca of the investor and the builder. Com
munity made values will pay community expenses, and the fruits
of individual effort will be left for the individual to enjoy. This
Now that Prince, murderer of Deputy Warden Davis, is under
sentence of death, we expect tovsee the usual amount of gush and
flowers and sympathy wasted upon him by hysterical people. We
are opposed to capital punishment under any conditions, but so
long as it is the law of the land we insist that a condemned mur
derer be treated as such. . All the flowers and tears and sympathy
this newspaper has to bestow will be bestowed upon men and
women who are trying to live honestly and uprightly. People who
gush and mush over a murderer ought to be examined by the lunacy
commission.
We insist that the prize "bonehead" in Nebraska is the road
overseer who refused to let the state use the road district tools
in order that convicts might build a stretch of good road. Failing
to hear of any other entries for the prize we will bestow it if we
can find anything applicable to the case in point.
Frankly, gentlemen, we are not so much interested in an elastic
currency as we are in an adhesive currency. -
The effort to inject the liquor question into ' the state cam
paign seems to have died a bornin'.
The bankers of Group 1 who met in Lincoln the first of the
week spent considerable time in discussing the best methods of as
sisting the farmers While they were worrying about the" farmer's
condition Mr. Farmer was marketing $9 steers, $7.50 hogs, . $1.10
wheat, 79 cent corn and $20 alfalfa. If there is any one thing we've
quit worrying about it is the condition of the poor, downtrodden
Nebraska farmer. ,
Will Maupin's Weekly is loath to believe that any Nebraska
newspaper is to be bought by the proffer of some or all of the
printing incident to the publication of the five constitutional amend
ments. This newspaper serves notice now that it is going to prefer
a request that it be given at least one of hte amendments to adver-,
tise being a newspaper of general circulation and becoming more
general every week but in order that there may be no misunder
standing in the future it seizes this occasion to state that it , will
advocate the election of John H. Morehead. We do not expect to
publish any of the amendments.
Nebraska is rapidly becoming the leading dairying state of the
Union. Already she is producing more butter per capita than any
other state, and in good time she will be producing more pounds of
butter than any other state. Two things are' operating to this end
- alfalfa and the silo. The enterprising farmer is building a silo
because it is a demonstrated necessity. It keeps the dairy herd pro
ducing as much, or more, profit in winter as in summer, when pas
tures are fresh. It is profitable because it means more returns and
less expense. It is so simple that the wonder is that we haven't
been using it universally for centuries. We can peaches and cher
ries and corn and tomatoes for human use during the winter. - The
silo simply cans the fresh and succulent summer food and offers it
to stock during the winter. Just as we pack ice in the winter to
use in summer, so we now pack forage in summer for use in winter.
The more silos we erect in Nebraska the more dairy herds we wilJ
raise and the more dairying the more prosperity. The farmer who
makes one silo to grow where none grew before is. a public bene
, After considerable fuss about nothing in, particular, Nebraska
democrats have settled the Baltimore train matter. The "official"
train will run over the Burlington to Chicago, then to Baltimore
