Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912, September 20, 1912, Image 1
Nebraska's wheat and corn crop this year will be worth more than $125,-000,000. ' ' f ' 3 1 will be" . worth -nore than $75,- 000,000. . I I VOLUME 10 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SEPTEMBER 20, 1912 NUMBER 25 j THE EXPERIENCES OE A BOOSTER There is a lot of joy in being a "Booster" for something worth . while but mixed in with it is a lot of grief and anxiety. One is met on every hand by congratulations upon one's enterprise and public spirit but, unfortunately, the man who devotes himself to boosting for some big public enterprise can not eat congratulations. And if be were to appear on the streets clothed in nothing but the congratu lations he receives he would be arrested. So, also, if he undertook to feed the wife and babies, and clothe them, with nothing but the aforesaid congratulations he would be haled up for failing to provide for his own. About two years ago I conceived the idea that a publication do voted to telling the truth about Nebraska's wonderful resources and trying to arouse a state pride and loyalty that would lead to a solidified support of Nebraska industrial and business institutions, would be welcomed. I was not mistaken about the welcome. That part of it has been cordial in the extreme. Where my mistake came in, seemingly, was in believing that the people would take, enough interest in learning about their own state and boosting it, to make uch a publication profitable enough to warrant me in devoting my time to it. I believed that the Nebraska industrial and business institutions that I tried to benefit by encouraging the home patronage idea would join with me to a liberal extent. That was, to all appear ances, another mistake. I did find many Nebraskans who evidenced their willingness to co-operate by putting up the price of a subscription. I did find a few manufacturers and business men who heartily approved of my idea and manifested it by advertising. But I found more men who aid something like this : "You are doing a splendid work, old man, and it ought to be ap preciated." "Thank you," I replied. "How about becoming a subscriber?" r Mj can't do it. I'm getting more papers now than I have time to look at.' Later, perhaps, 111 subscribe, but I can't afford it now." Or some manufacturer, seeking to convince Nebraskans that a Nebraska-made article was equal to the best and better than most, would say : "You've got the right idea, old man; keep it up. We ought to be building up industries right here in Nebraska instead of sending our good money abroad." , That's right," I replied. "How about advertising your product in my paper, and thus help me continue the propaganda in favor of home patronage t" . ' ' "I'd like to do it, but we have already exceeded our advertising appropriation. Maybe a little later we'll do something, but right now we are unable to do it." This has not always been true but it has been the case often enough to make such into a pretty big majority. Still I am not complaining, mind you. I have cheerfully accepted the situation and gone ahead as best I could. The work and worry incident to trying to keep up the boosting game have been made lighter now and then by some funny incidents. Once I printed a pretty good article or thought it was on the advantages of pat ronizing home institutions ,and among numerous congratulations I received one from a manufacturer who wrote a strong letter in which he commended the article and asserted that if all Nebraskans would join in the movement we'd soon build up a big industrial system. The letter was written on a letterhead printed in St. Louis. Another i manufacturer stopped me on the street to congratulate and thank me, and in his enthusiasm asked me in to have a cigar. Without asking me to express a choice he called for a particular brand one made in Philadelphia. One Omaha man refused to advertise in my paper because it is published in Lincoln, and a couple of L'neoln men refused to advertise because I took advertising from Omaha concerns. I have said good words for republicans and been charged by my democratic friends with "selling out." And because I have said good words about my democratic friends I have been charged with running a "partisan paper." ' But mixed in these experiences have been some that were quite to the contrary. An ex-Nebraskan, living now in New York, saw one of my articles about Nebraska and liked it so well he not only subscribed for himself but for five friends. A Lincoln banker was so enthused over my efforts to boost Nebraska that he subscribed for ten years in advance, and an Omaha business man exceeded that limit by several years. However, these instances were so rare as to enable me to keep them in mind without undue effort. The gratifying part of the whole thing has been the number of ' people who have expressed themselves as heartily in favor of a publication that would devote itself to advertising the great re sources and possibilities of Nebraska but the disappointment has been in the number of people who seem to have failed to grasp the fact that it takes money to run a newspaper of any kind. Tt has been a joy to write the stuff, but, speaking as plain as the English language and the postoffice authorities will permit, it has been h 1 to put the stuff into print. I haven't been publishing Will Maupin's Weekly because I couldn't find anything' else to do. I have been doing it becaus-3 I Thought it a good work to engage in, hoping all the time that it would strike a popular chord with enough vigor to bring a fairly good financial return. That it struck a popular chord I still believe; that it struck it hard enough to make it worth "while to continue the effort is a question' that I have just, about decided in the negative. Maybe the gloomy weather of the past week or so has affected me like it has some of my acquaintances. Maybe I'm suffering from a temporary fit of the blues. Maybe not, for I rather pride myself on being more optimistic than the average. But frankness compels tht statement that it is mighty discouraging to keep boosting and boost ing and boosting, and then have men who ought to be most inter ested in the boosting game, hand out nothing but words of congratu lation upon the booster's efforts, leaving the booster to foot the bills as best he can. , . - Yet, after all, I believe that my idea is well founded, and that in time it will "pan out." The trouble right now is my inability to keep "shaking the pan." I've been up against it several times, but have always managed to wriggle away; this time I'm jammed up against it so hard I'll have to scrape myself off with a trowel. I would be as cheerful as a cricket and as free from worry as a clam if those who have been reading my paper for a year or two, unmindful of the fact that every copy costs money, would sit right down and send in the dollar they know they owe or ought to know they owe. But if they neglect it any longer they'll not get anymore copies of Will Maupin's Weekly nor will anybody else. A dollar invested in a subscription will serve three good purposes. First, it will help keep going , a publication whose chief mission Is to make known the truth about Nebraska. Second, it will provide the investor with a liberal' education concerning his own state. Thirdly, and by no means lastly, it will help one man with a pretty big family all born in Nebraska to solve the problem 'of the "high cost of living." No matter what happens, personally I'll always be boosting for Nebraska. It is the best state in the Union. But I deemed it the proper time to sit right down at my trenchant typewriter, and write plainly about matters as they stand. " In the language of Grover Cleveland, "It is a condition, not a theory, that confronts WHAT IS HURTING LINCOLN NOV me, ONE ON JUDGE ENGLAND. Judge England was conversing with Dr. Hall in the Central Na tional bank the other day, and the topic of conversation turned to early financial experiences. "I dropped into Anamoosa, Iowa, a number of years ago," said Judge England. "I expected to meet the agent' of my company there and get some money, but the agent failed to show up and I couldn't find him. I didn't have a cent in my pocket, was mighty hungry and wanted to get out of town on an early train. Finally I walked into one of the banks, stepped up to the cashier and said : 'My name is England and I am the adjuster for the Nonesuch In surance Co. of Council Bluffs. I expected to meet our agent, Mr. Blank, but he is not here. I'm broke and I want to know if you'll take chances on this face of mine and let me have $25.' The cashier looked at me and said: 'Yes, sir; IH let you have $25, or any other amount you want, on that face.' I tell you that made me feel mighty good. Do you know any bankers in Anamoosa, Doc?" "No, I don't," replied Dr. Hall. "But I remember reading some years ago that an. Anamoosa banker had been swindled on the old gold brick game. Was it the one you transacted business with?" The subsequent lunch for two was put on one check, and once more Judge England transacted business with the cashier. NEBRASKA MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION The manufacturers of Nebraska have been called to meet in con vention in Omaha on November 14, the purpose being to organize a state association. David Cole, president of the Omaha Manufactur ers' Association, is chairman of a committee having the matter, in charge. The move is a wise one) and should have been made long ago. There has never been enough "team work" on the part of Nebraska manufacturers. They have been lamentably lacking, in educational work looking to. the cultivation of the "home patronage" idea. Some fifteen or eighteen years ago a- start was made and an organization founded which purposed working along that line, but it died prematurely because of the panic that struck the country about that time, and since then it has been every fellow for himself. We do not know what the promoters of the coming convention. are planning to do, but we are of the opinion that it should not neglect the starting of & thoroughly live propaganda in favor of "home patronage" and "stand up for Nebraska." Of course they will be charged with having a selfish motive, and the charge will be true. But they will have very little difficulty in proving that the benefits will not be one-sided by any means, and that the stronger grows the "home patronage" idea the better it will be for everybody in the state. Let Nebraska manufacturers first convince the people that, what they offer is as good as the best, better than most and worth the price asked, and then proceed to point out the mutual benefits to all concerned of keeping Nebraska money at home to the largest extent possible. We of Lincoln have been boasting about our "culchaw" and our wonderful interest in matters educational for a long time, but it rather takes the wind out of our sails to' learn that South Omahaf about half the size of Lincoln, with not a tithe of Lincoln's wealth and making no pretense of especial interest in education, has spent ten dollars to Lincoln's one during the last few years to provide school facilities. There isn't a city of 5,000 or more population in Nebraska that has a high school building as mean and as inadequate as the one that disgraces Lincoln. And now that we have at last set the machinery in motion to secure a decent, up-to-date and adequate high school building, along comes somebody and throws a monkey wrench into the cogs. Of course the flinger of the monkey wrench insists that he is actuated, by disinterested motives. Far be it from us to impugn those motives. But then we look about and see the miserable school facilities provided by this self-satisfied community we Wonder that any man would have the heart to throw any obstacle whatever,, and from whatever motive, in the way of bettering them. Any man who has grown rich .because thousands of workers have builded a city here, making his property valuable or his services worthy of high remuneration, ought to be ashamed to obstruct ' the move because it may increase his taxes. The man who has no children to educate ought to be ashamed of himself if he opposes the needed im provements because of that fact. 1 - t With possibly two exceptions there isn't a school in Lincoln with adequate recreation grounds. The main building on the high school grounds should have been condemned as unsafe and torn down fifteen years ago. One-half of the ward schools are unsanitary, tin safe and wholly inadequate.- Not one is capable of allowing the best results because of over-crowding, lack "of apparatus and general -unfitness, v 1 . , . ' " ; . .-"; -v We might just as well face the situation as it is and 'admit tne facts. We've been boasting about our high standard of morality, ..." priding ourselves upon our superior virtue and swelling up at the thoughts of how artistic we are,' until we have fallen so far behind in the educational procession that we have difficulty in following the trail of more progressive municipalities. And just when we awaken to the facts, and set about remedying the situation- crash! slam!? Bang! Into the machinery goes a monkey wrench! : ; : Lincoln has a corps of teachers in her schools who are as good as the best. But were they, ten times as proficient they couldn't' produce the best results under present conditions. Imagine a teacher trying to instruct 60 boys and girls, no two alike mentally,, and get ting results worth while. A community that is content to crowd 60 or 70 pupils into one room under the guidance of one teacher, or compel a thousand students to crowd into an unsanitary and unsafe high school building, would easily become content with no schools at all. We don't know a thing about the legal technicalities of the pres- ' ent suit at law relative to the proposed building of new school houses. But we do know that a city that is in as dire need of new buildings as Lincoln is right now and has been for ten years ought to say "to helj with legal technicalities" and get the buildings with- , out delay. - -'; : ' :--" " We believe that the board of education is made up of men and women who are thoroughly honest, pretty levelheaded and inspired with a desire to improve conditions. And we do not think much of the man, whoever he may be, who seeks to obstruct the movement calculated to remedy the present disgraceful situation. ISN'T IT THE TRUTH? The easiest thing in the world to give is advice. . The easiest thing in the world to make is criticism. The easiest thing in the world to take is offense. . . . During the state fair we, wandered, down among the hog pens , in company with a friend from Fremont who is interested in hogs. We stopped to look at a mighty fine boar of the Duroc-Jersey per suasion, and while doing so chanced to overhear a conversation be tween a middleaged farmer and his wife. They were discussing the advisability of purchasing the aforesaid boar for $3Q0. -After dis cussing it pro and con 'they decided that it would be a profitable investment and moved away to make thej deal. My Fremont friend, who is interested in other things than hogs, followed the- old couple , with his eyes until they were lost in the crowd, then hie turned to me and said: . , . ..' , ."v"';".: , "Billy, they talked an hour about paying $300 for a boar pig to improve their herd, and I'll bet four dollars their daughter is go ing with and is engaged to some red-eyed, receding chinned, thin blooded fellow who isn't worth the price of a charge of powder big enough to blow him to Hades, and without their ever having taken the trouble to ascertain his pedigree or learn whether he is fit to mate with their daughter. " A lot of care to see that their hogs are mated right, and not a bit to see that their daughter is!" y And if you will take the trouble to carefully, observe the boys . and girls who crowd the streets of Lincoln at hours when they ought to be either in bed or deep in study, you'll admit that my Fremont friends put his finger on a mighty sore spot on the body politic. -)