IN.
BA8E BALL
BOOSTER DAY
JULY 16
BE A BOOSTER
' BASE BALL
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JULY 16
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VOLUME 9
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, JULY 19, 1912
NUMBER 18
THE WONDERFUL. RECORD OF NEBRASECA
Do you remember the old story of Alladin and his wonderful (
lampf Remember how he rubbed, it ana summoned a genii wno
obeyed his every command f
Well, it isn't so difficult to believe that old tale told in Arabia
. thousands of years ago when one pauses long enough to think what
is being done right here in Nebraska every year. Nebraska farmers
-do not rub lamps to summon geniis; they merely "rub the soil"
and summon the geniis of the sun and the Tain to do their bidding,
and as a result enough wealth is poured into the lap of Nebraska
every year to make the tales of treasure trove told by the wily wife
of the blase Sultan of Turkey sound like boys' tales of recovered
marbles.
' In the period represented by the years 1901 to 1911, inclusive,
Nebraska produced 1,546,065,473 bushels of corn. The human mind
simply can not grasp the immensity of those figures. A billion
. bushels means absolutely nothing because we can not comprehend it.
But when we reduce it to smaller terms we may begin to grasp the
truth. For instance, if all the corn raised in Nebraska since 1901
were shelled and loaded into standard freight cars, it would require
2,730,095 such cars. There are not enough freight cars in the world
to make up this number. If these cars were made up into trains of
fifty cars each, it would require 54,602 engines to put all the trains
under motion at once. There are not enough freight locomotives
capable of getting up steam to haul that many freight trains. One
hundred and seventeen freight cars, with locomotive and caboose,
will make a train a mile long, the freight cars that would be neces
sary to transport to market at one haul the corn raised in Nebraska
since 1901 would make a freight train 22,750 miles long. You could
not get them all on a seven-track railroad reaching from New York to
San Francisco. It would reach from San Francisco around the
globe to Boston, with a few miles of cars left over for good measure.
But we raise more than corn in Nebraska. "We raise wheat. In
fact Nebraska is the third largest wheat producing state, producing
more bushels per acre than any other state, and increasing her
annual acreage and output more rapidly than any other state. Since
1901 Nebraska has produced 402,447,852 bushels of wheat another
inconceivable amount. To transport that amount of wheat to market
by rail would require 574, 954 standard freight cars, making a train
of wheat 4,788 miles long a distance equal to that between New
York and San Francisco and back again to the Missouri river.
But corn and wheat are not the only grains Nebraska produces
in profusion. This state is a wonderful oats producer. Since 1901
Nebraska has produced 540,954,537 bushels of oats. To transport
this production of oats to market by,, rail would require 772,793
standard freight cars, making a freight train 6,440 miles long more
than twice the distance between New York and San Francisco.
Now take all three of these grain crops, corn, wheat and oats,
since 1901, load them into standard freight cars ,and we would have
a freight train 33,978 miles long once and a half times around the
globe at the equator. A thirty-track railroad between New York
and San Francisco would not hold all the cars. That train would
fill every mile of a railroad track in Nebraska, including switches
five times over.
And we raise rye and barley and speltz and sugar beets, to say
nothing of potatoes and onions and cabbage. And then, again,
there is hay and live . stock. Try reducing all these products to
terms of car loads if you want to play an interesting game that
will be full of startling information concerning the wonderful pro
ductivity of Nebraska..
"Know Nebraska Better!" That should be the slogan of every
loyal Nebraskan. Nebraska and Her Resources should be a compul
sory study in the public schools of the state. Nebraska school chil
dren should know more about their state than merely to bound it,
name her principal cities and rivers and enumerate her chief pro
ducts. ' They ought to know her as they know their alphabet. The
more we know about Nebraska the prouder we will be that we are '
Nebraskans. , -. ' '
And the more we know about this grand young state the more
eager we will be to advertise her glories abroad.
"Wonderful as her development has been during the past forty
years, it is but an earnest of the development that is to be during the
next four decades. No other state has equalled her in development,
just as no other state can equal her in agricultural productivity. Let
us tell all the world about Nebraska. , But in order that we may be
able to tell it intelligently we must first learn about Nebraska.
BRYAN AT TOE BALTIMORE COMVEMTIOM
1 James "W. Faulkner, special correspondent of the Cincinnati
Enquirer on duty at the Baltimore convention, draws this pen pic
ture of Bryan at that historic gathering. It is the most interesting
recital of the events of that convention that we have been privileged
to read :
If any person pretending to the possession of knowledge gives
it out oracularly that in the late fracas at Baltimore, Md., "William
Jennings Bryan as run over by a steam roller, had his tail feathers
pulled out or lost his hold on the party, bet him one million dollars
in pennies that he is full brother to the monkey of the jungles. It is
true, possibly, that "William lost the consideration and respect of
certain politicians whose little game he blocked most beautifully, but
it is not true that he lost anything else. And do not let any one,
however high his brow may be, get away with the story that the
bosses ran the convention. That is one of lion. Theodore Roosevelt's
hallucinations.
The politicians were like the celebrated pack of fox-hounds
that a misguided man imported into a country infested with wolves.
He took them out for a trial run and they disappeared in the
timber. Whipping up, he followed the trail until he came to a
cabin by the roadside in front of which sat a man with sandy chin
whiskers, who was meditatively smoking a corncob pipe.
"Neiehbor." said the foxhunter. "Did you see anything ot a
pack 6f dogs around here?"
The smoker nodded.
"How were they doing t" asked the owner, with pardonable
pride.
"Wa-al, it appeared to me they were a leetle bit ahead of the
wolf," was the answer. And that's the way the bosses won at
Baltimore. They nominated Governor Woodrow Wilson after
Bryan was through with the job. The houn' dawgs, the Tammany
Tisrer and all the other forelooping animals of politics were the
fox-hounds, and the Nebraskan was the wolf of the story.
The gentleman from Lincoln outmaneuvered the whole crowd of
them. Like a first-class checker player, every time he lost a "man
he jumped two of their pieces and landed in the king row. When
they started they had a majority of the convention, they had the
machinery, the money, the crowds and the claque. When they
finished he had everything they began with except the money. So
deftly did he work his plays that all the money outside the United
. States Treasury couldn't have bought the nomination for one of the
Twelve Apostles. The convention was clean in that respect, and he
made it so. The gathering may have been noisy and rough at times,
but it was on the level. His opponents fought hard, but he fought
harder, and while they may be sore over his triumph, they certainly
were impressed with his prowess.
His winning was simple enough in its methods. He appealed to
the great mass of the democratic voters outside the convention,
while the leaders of the opposition were operating upon the thou
sand delegates within the hall. Reduced to ordinary arithmetic, he
offset the thousand with the six million and a half voters. His
tactics were bound to win in the end if he could get sufficient time.
Enmeshed in their own foolish devices, they gave him more time than
he needed. They seemed to forget that there was such a thing as
the magnetic telegraph or the daily newspaper in existence. The
limit of their field of operation was the city of Baltimore. His
extended from ocean to ocean and from Canada to Mexico. Like
the muscular party at Donnybrook air, with the blackthorn shil-
lalagh, his work was "beeyoutiful." It showed what one plucky
man with sense could do with a clutch of fat-headed politicians who
were playing the game under the rules of 1860. It wasn't until the
avalanche of indignant telegrams descended upon them, propelled by
aroused sentiment at home, that they began to discern how skill
fully he had trapped them.
To begin with, he knew every card they held in their hands
when the game began, and they weren't aware of what he was
holding. They thought he was a candidate for President and he
let them think so! To smoke him out they put up Judge Alton B.
Parker for Chairman and chuckled. The Nebraskan sought out a
private room and did a Highland fling in exceeding great joy. He
had them. Reappearing with a face that resembled that of an under
taker at a $500 funeral, he appeared to be very much concerned for
the safety of the Republic. In the language of the sporting world,
they fell for it, and fell hard.
"Here's where we hang the binger on Bill," they chortled as
they proceeded to push Parker over the line. Right then and there
he won the game. ,
Inside of an hour the country was ringing with his declaration
that the predatory interests were endeavoring to seize the high par
liament of the democracy and sell it into bondage to . Wall street.
Daringly enough, he singled out those two shocked persons, Thomas
Fortune Ryan and August Belmont -and used them as Exhibits A
and B, respectively, to prove- that the money devil and his imps
were merely modest delegates, but William had them on exhibition
in an entirely different guise. Inside of 12 hours the telegraph
companies began to reap a golden , harvest from the frightened
democrats "back home," who sent messages to their chosen repre
sentatives to resist with all their power this fiendish attempt to
throttle liberty. If they couldn't see their way clear to do this, the
messages said, they were requested to remain in Baltimore the rest
of their days or run the risk of being tarred and feathered and
carried on 'a rail if they dared to show their faces in Cohosh or
wheresoever they hailed from.
Just as they were breathing easier. after the first batch of tele
graphed indignation and peremptory orders, William delivered the
second installment by offering his now memorable resolution, inviting
Messrs. Ryan and Belmont to go away from there and pledging the
party not to nominate any one who owed them money, marbles or
chalk or who believed that they were otherwise than direct de
scendants of the Accuser of the Brethren. That finished them for
all offensive purposes and then he landed the knockout or bacon
producing punch by leaving Hon. Champ Clark for having accepted
the support of New York. They couldn't get away from his blows.
Like the more or less punk pugilist who was receiver-general for a
fine fusillade of wallops, "their feet stuttered." Hon. Champ fell
exactly 1,000 feet and 6 inches straight down into oblivion, emitting
loud cries as he whizzed bottom ward. Now, Bryan was on to Clark's
game for months and months. He was aware that there was a deal
on right here in Ohio with the Harmon outfit which kept the
Speaker's name off the preference primary ballot. The proof came
when Clark came rushing over from Washington and in his rage !
demanded to know "why Ohio had not kept; that agreement," What
agreement f For an answer please address a postal card to the now
closed Harmon headquarters here. Clark's action was water, on his
wheel. So was the blistering attack of John B. Stanchfield, of New
York, referring to him as a lot of things that were extremely "un
nice." William simply smiled inscrutably. Inside the' convention
hall John B. was hailed as a hero. Outside of it he was regarded
by the now raging rank and file as a demon with pronged horns, a .
cloven hoof and a long and prehensile taiL 'General result: More
telegrams in bunches, baskets and bales.
After it was a cakewalk. The bosses whose heads were not com
pletely swathed in adipose tissue began to take counsel with them
selves. They were hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning ,
If there is anything the politician despises and fears it is getting '
caught out in a shower of popular indignation. Up went the um
brellas one by one, and one by , one the bosses began scooting for
shelter. -:';' , ''.::'.'"')
Like the penitent thief on the cross they sent word to Bryan '
to remember them when he came "into his kingdom." On the
exterior they pretended to be brave, but on the interior their cow
ardly natures were at work. "Bryan or Wilson" was the. ultimatum
that the people were sending, and their teeth were chattering lest
the chances to act would get away. They saw to it that it did not.
There was a fine "bunk" play over "releasing delegates from their
obligations." That was the slapstick number on the program. The '
fact was that the delegates were releasing themselves, and doing it,
doing it, doing it. Each boss, bosslet and bossikin was watching the
other so that there shouldn't be any advantage gained in hopping
across the line. So all at once, on the forty-sixth ballot, Mr: Bryan
calmly fanning himself with an evening newspaper, watched with
twinkling eyes the whole herd bolting through the gap in the fence
he had opened. All the power of the bosses, all their tricks and all
of their money had resulted in naught. One man with gumption
and sand whipped the entire gang. And that man laughed at them I
MISTAKEN AGAIN.
Col. Fletch Merwin's Beaver City Times-Tribune remarks that
Will Maupin's Weekly is to an extent the organ of the labor unions
of Lincoln. Of course Col. Merwin is mistaken. Will Maupin's
Weekly was never the organ of the labor unions, nor of any other
set of men.' It is merely the organ of its editor, whose name appears
in rather modest type at the head of the editorial columns. Col.
Merwin intimates that this newspaper fails to enthuse over Mar
shall's nomination because of his action in the McNamara case.
That isn't the real reason, but even that would be reason enough for
any thoughtful citizen who believes in the supremacy of law and the
sacredness of human rights. The fact that the McNamaras were
guilty does not obviate the fact that Governor Marshall defied the
laws of bis own state, and set at nought the constitutional rights of
a citizen. It would be just as easy for a governor to ignore the
rights of an innocent man charged with crime. We refuse to enthuse
over Marshall simply because we do not believe him up to presiden
tial size, and our vice presidents ought to be of presidential size.
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