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VOLUME 9
LTXCOL., !N EBKASKA, AVGVST 2, 1912
NUMBER 20
MEN AND MATTERS
Colliers pays a fine tribute to Colorado's agricultural pro
ductivity in its issue of August 3. Says Collier's: "Colorado in
1911 sold more apples than Oregon, Washington, Utah, New Mexico,
Wyoming and Idaho combined." Good for Colorado. But in 1911
the four counties, Richardson,. Nemaha, Johnson and Pawnee, m
Nebraska, sold more apples than all Colorado, and in that year
Nebraska as a whole raised more apples than all the states named
by Collier's including Colorado. Collier's further remarks that
in Colorado "alfalfa can be raised wherever irrigation is possible."
That's good for Colorado, but Nebraska raises five tons of alfalfa
to Colorado's one, and irrigation is not necessary on 1 per cent of
the Nebraska acreage of alfalfa.
We have a great admiration for the productivity of Colorado
both agricultural and' mineral. But if Collier's wants to make
mention of a state that really amounts to something as a producer of
agricultural wealth we would call its attention to Nebraska as
compared with Colorado. There is but seven years difference in the
ages of the two states, Nebraska being that much older. Colorado
exceeds Nebraska in area by about 27,000 square miles an area
greater tnan any one oi eigm or ume siaies.
Nebraska has no mines of any description. Colorado mined in
1910 about $27,000,000 worth of gold and silver just about half
enough to buy Nebraska's production of hay in that year, and
not half enough to buy Nebraska's 1910 production of poultry, eggs
and butter. In 1910 Colorado mined coal approximating in value
at the mine mouth about $20,000,000 which wouldn't have bowght
half of Nebraska's 1910 crop of wheat on the farmsteads. Colo-one-half
of Nebraska's 1910 crop of wheat on the farmsteads. Colo
rado's 1910 production of precious minerals and coaL amounted in
one-half of Nebraska's 1910 corn crop, amounting to 205,000,000
bushels. The corn that Colorado produced in 1910 would scarcely
have provided the seed planted the following year in Nebraska. In
1910 Nebraska produced nearly 13 per' cent of the potatoes raised
that year in the United States, and one-third more than Colorado.
Of course we are-.not "knocking" .on Colorado. A mighty fine
state is Colorado. But we would have Collier's know a few firings
about the greatest producer of agricultural wealth in the sisterhood
of states Nebraska. Colorado's mine output, including oal, in
any one year would not buy either Nebraska's alfalfa crop, wheat
crop or butter and egg crop. Two years of her mine output wouldn't
buy an average Nebraska corn crop. Colorado's agricultural pro
ducts in any one year would not be worth as much as the agricul
tural products of fifteen Nebraska counties we can name any time
we are called upon. Nebraska produces more agricultural wealth
per capita every year than any other state, and we'll leave it to
the census bureau at Washington. Bless you, Collier's, Colorado
would have to give us "boot" before we'd swap Nebraska's annual
output of eggs for Colorado's annual output of gold and silver say
about $12,000,000. Colorado doesn't raise enough corn to feed Ne
braska's chickens, and the annual wheat output of the Centennial
state wouldn't seed the wheat fields of Nebraska one season not by
about a million bushels.
The county board of assesment acted well when it cancelled the J
taxes of the Labor Temple Association of Lincoln. The Labor Tern- j
pie is not maintained lor commercial purposes, xz is purely iraternai
and charitable. Even that portion devoted to a cigar stand and pool
room is not conducted for profit, but for the purpose of enabling the
organizations holding stock in the association to better carry out
their plans of helpfulness. .
Ernest-Seton Thompson says that animals are like some folks.
We are not a naturalist, but we incline to the belief that Mr. Thomp
son has the thing reversed. He should have said that folks are like
some animals. Every day we meet men who remind us of that
useful animal famous for being without pride of ancestry or hope
of posterity. Every day we meet men who remind us of the omni
verous and none too neat supplier of our pork chops and breakfast
bacon; men who remind us of the sneaking and treacherous feline,
the snarling cur, the mangy pup and the slimy snake. But, thank
the Lord, every day we meet a lot more men who remind us that
God "made man in His image." So we don't pay any attention to
the men who remind us of beast or reptile, but seek to know those
who show by their daily walk that they are proud of the image in
which they are created and evidence a desire to live worthy of it.
CURRENT COMMENT
Bigger in area than Nebraska, and practically as old; with mines
of gold and silver, quarries of stone and inexhaustible seams of coal,
Colorado's output of products, agricultural and otherwise, for three
years would not exceed the value of Nebraska's agricultural and live
otock wealth production in one year. Merely as a hint as to Ne
braska's live stock production we pause to remark that the output
of Colorado's gold mines in a single year wouldn't pay for the hides
skinned from the Nebraska steers slaughtered every twelve months
in the packing houses of South Omaha.
There is more than one reason why a "public market" will be
hard to establish, even if it is possible to establish one. The chief
reason is founded on our changed methods of living. No longer do
we take the basket upon our arm and go marketing. Not much!
We step to the telephone and order our groceries, then wait for
the market gardner to come around with the fresh vegetables. We
trust tne grocer to give us what we order, fairly weighed and fairly
priced, instead of making personal inspection and getting prices at
first hand. Then, again, comparatively few housewives would carry
home a basketful of groceries or vegetables. Not so! That's entirely
too "countrified," not au fait, or any other old thing like that. We
must nave our telephones and our quick deliveries and all that
then we sit around and holler about the high cost of living. It
wouldn't cost us much more to live than it cost our fathers and
mothers to live, provided we were content to live as they did.
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We can remember the time when father put the washboiler on
the kitchen stove Saturday night, heated a lot of water and then
took his weekly bath in the washtub. ot any for us! We've got
to have a porcelain bathtub, with hot and cold water attachments.
Father's house was heated by a cook stove in the kitchen and a
barrel-shaped stove in the family sitting room. The only bedroom
heated was the one above that sitting room, and it got its heat from
the pipe from the stove below. We've got to have a furnace in the
basement and a thin g-a-may-jig attached to it so we can regulate
the draft from upstairs without leaving our comfortable rocking
chair. Father and mother were content to hitch up a faithful old
horse to a democrat wagon when they wanted to take a spin, but
we want an automobile and won t have anything else. They thought
nothing of walking a mile or two miles when thev wanted to eo
from one side of town to the other, but we hop a street car and
cough up a nickel rather than walk three or four blocks.
We do not know who is the prettiest saleslady in Lincoln.
There are so dad-blamed many handsome ones among the. number
that we wouldn't waste time looking for the very prettiest. It is
joy enough to be privileged to see them in their aggregate loveliness,
without worrking one's mind about which is the prettiest one. The
young saleslady awarded the Ad Club diamond ring for being the
prettiest among her army of sisters has our congratulations, of
course. But as for us, we are content to call them all friends, con
tent to look upon them in the aggregate as about the handsomest,
best trained and most business-like corps of salesladies in these
United States, and . count it a joy to be able to look upon their
loveliness whenever we happen to have a dollar or two we can
spend in the stores of Lincoln.
Of course the claim that Nebraska raised 262,000,000 bushels of
corn in 1896 is absurd. And to still hold to that claim is injurious
to Nebraska. Why? For the simple reason that it gives color to
the assertion that our corn lands are wearing out. That 1896 claim
was about on a par with the claim that the census of 1890 showed
Lincoln to have a population of 50,000 and Omaha a population of
150,000. The 1896 crop of corn may have been Nebraska's largest
corn crop, but it lacked a whole lot of being 262,000,000 bushels.
Some gentleman writes to the World-Herald complaining that
the wheat reports furnished the newspapers by the Burlington are
misleading, and that they result in depreciating the price of wheat.
He tries to prove it by calling attention to the faet that wheat
fell off 30 cents a bushel in less than three weeks, the decline be
ginning about the time the crop reports were published. Of course
the gentleman is mistaken. The crop condition reports of the Bur
lington, or any other railroad, had nothing to do with the drop in
prices. Buyers have their own means of securing information.
Old wheat was high because it was scarce; the supply of new wheat,
being abundant and thrown upon the market as quickly as it could
be threshed and hauled, naturally brought down the price. , ,
Again;- old wheat, ruled pretty-high for the simple reason that
the early reports of crop conditions were pessimistic,, especially the
wheat conditions. Nebraska's wheat crop is usually a failure about
March 1; a half crop on June 1, and always a good crop when
harvest time comes. We are increasing our wheat acreage every
year, increasing our production thereby, and also by raising more
wheat to the acre.
Our state is rich in natural resources not yet developed,
a condition due to the lack of public knowledge of such
wealth. We therefore, favor a liberal appropriation by the
legislature. for the purpose of giving publicity to the state's
resources. From the Nebraska Democratic Platform.
Collier's may take it from this humble little newspaper and it
knows that Nebraska beats the world in the production of wealth
from the soil. We started out to say a few words about Nebraska's
apple crop, and that really furnished a good text for this little
permon about Nebraska.
Mention is made elsewhere of the fact that the progressive
republican platform the platform of the "Bull Moosers" pledges
the enactment of an equal suffrage law. The editor of this news
paper happens to be affiliated with the democratic party. He hereby
announces that under no consideration will he vote for any candi
date for the legislature who refuses to pledge himself to vote in
favor of equal suffrage.
We would warn Congressman Maguire and his campaign man
agers not to underestimate either the strength or the campaigning
ability of Paul Clark. It is true that Mr. Clark is a "Bull Mooser"
aud somewhat in the attitude of a bolter, but the First district
republican vote is very largely in sympathy with Roosevelt. Besides
the administration republicans are hardly likely to bolt a candidate
for congress, even though they may stick the knife into the ribs of
the "Bull Moosers" running on the state ticket. It must be remem
bered that Mr. Clark is wise to all the political tricks that the admin
istration element may undertake. He learned them under the tute
lage of some of the present administration supporters.
The retirement of the Mayer Brothers, Charles, Henry and
Simon, from active business, is to be regretted from one angle, and
rejoiced in from another. Regret that men so successful and
enterprising should retire from active business; rejoicing that they
have reached a point here they can take life easy. The Mayer
Brothers have been engaged in business for thirty years. Beginning
in rather a small way--small compared with the business they have
just sold, large in comparison with the Lincoln of that time they
have grown with the city. Their faith in Lincoln's future was great
from tho beginning, and to that faith is due much of their financial
huccess. As they made money in their business they invested it in
Lincoln real estate, with the result that today their holdings are
extremely valuable. This newspaper rejoices in their success, and
wishes for them in their retirement from active business all the
enjoyment they anticipate.
When you and I, middle aged men and women, were boys and
girls we were tickled to death at the opportunity to hop into bed
and sleep on a straw tick, but now we insist upon a bed with springs
and one of those high-faulting mattresses costing from $10 to $30.
Father walked around with his feet shod in a pair of boots that he
polished himself when they got a polishing, but we must have tans
and patent leathers and scuffers and canves shoes, and we would
rather cough up a nickel to a Greek kid than to apply the brush
ourselves. Now isn't it the truth? And wouldn't it be mighty
easy to solve the problem of "increased cost of living" by simply
making up our minds to get along without a lot of things we have
come to believe we have just got to have?
STILL WE SMILE.
' ' Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth ! ' ' There 's always a wad
of comfort to be extracted from every trying situation if one only
has the faith to believe. And although Will Maupin's Weekly was
not among those designated as recipients of constitutional amend
ment pie from the hands of Governor Aldrieh, yet it can smile, even
through tears, and find solace in the comforting words of Holy Writ.
We could have . used to good advantage the piece of money
coming as payment for the publication of one or more of those
constitutional amendments, but it is not to be. Being somewhat given
to speaking freely and frankly, and whollv ignorant of the art. of
J dodging and trimming; and not at' all given to flattery or "bending
me pregnant ninges or me Knee," we didn't expect even a look-in
when the eonstitutional amendment pie was handed out. Hence we
were not at all disappointed when it was made known that this
Tireless Booster of Nebraska was among those left pastryless. This
fact puts us even further up in the list of the blessed, for is it not
written "Blessed is he that expeeteth nothing, for he shall not be
disappointed?"
To some who have generous slices of the pastry we extend our
congratulations. To a few we extend our sympathy. We always
feel sorry for any man or newspaper that will consent to silence
honest conviction or desert party in order to revel in the fleeting
pleasures of the palate. Pieless, we still pursue the even tenor of
our way, conscious of the fact that we are safe, because is it not
written, "Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread!" Give us a steady supply of bread and we'll not
miss an occasional deprivation in the way of pastry, constitutional
or otherwise.
The editor of Will Maupin's Weekly missed'' a chance to make a
very profitable investment and missed it for identically the same
reason that the fellow didn't buy the whole state of Texas when it
was offered to him in exchange for a pair of boots. The first week
in May we happened to get out into the country, some twenty miles
west of Lincoln, and visited over night at the home of a farmer
friend. He had in forty acres of wheat, and he was about as blue
over the prospects as a man could be. "It won't go ten bushels lo
the acre," he said. "It's mighty spotted." We recalled some former
experiences with "spotted wheat fields," and knowing something
about the peculiarities of Nebraska soil, we ventured the prediction
that it would make a lot more than ten bushels to the acre. "Well, -I'll
take $500 for the forty acres of wheat, and cut and thresh it,"
said the friend. Lacking considerably more than 30 cents of having
$500 we could not accept the offer. Time passed and the forty
acres were harvested. Last week it was threshed. By machine
measure it kielded 977 bushels, and was sold immediately for an
average of 92 cents a bushel, a little matter of about $1,000. And
we know right where we could have used that $500 profit to .mighty
good advantage. 1
Of course all this talk about a "bumper corn crop" this year is
tommyrot. Will Maupin's Weekly never loses an opportunity to
sing the praises of Nebraska, but it would err upon the side of con
servatism if it errs at all. There are several reasons why this year's
crop will not be a record breaker. First, because the weather condi
tions have not been all they might have been. Second, because of
poor seed and this, too, despite the splendid campaign in advocacy
of the seed corn test. What might have been without that cam
paign we shudder to contemplate. But a good corn crop is prac
tically assured about equal to the ten year average. If it goes
160,000,000 bushels we'll rejoice and be exceeding glad. And even
that is quite a bit of corn, if you please.
As a matter of fact, Nebraska is not making advance as a corn
producing state. Less attention is paid to corn raising every year,
for the reason that more and more attention is being given to wheat
and alfalfa and dairying. Nebraska will always be a great corn pro
ducing state, but she has passed the one crop stage. Twenty years
ago corn was about the only crop put in. We've been a real wheat
producing state for less than twelve years, and in that time Ne
braska has risen from the ranks of the "and others" to third place
in the list of wheat producing commonwealths. That's going some!
Some wonderful wheat yields are being reported these days.
From lower Gage comes a report of a field that yielded 61 bushels
per acre. Yields of 35 and 38 bushels are common, , with here and
there reports of yields of 40 to 45. And it is seldom one hears of
yields of less than 22 or 25. We still stick to it that Nebraska will
produce upwards of 50,000,000 bushels of wheat this year.
Something like one-half of the Nebraska National Guard is out
of the state, leaving only about 600 militiamen to guard us against
the invasion of the Goths and Vandals.- But we refuse to grow
excited over the situation. Were this fair commonwealth to be
invaded from the north by hungry Goths and Vandals they would
be over-fat and easily captured ere they had gotten as far south
as the lower edge of Keya Paha. As for any danger of rebellion at
home it's too all-fired hot. Solaced by these thoughts we sleep
sound o' nights despite the fact that one-half of our kahki-clad
defenders are absent in another state.