V
s
Nebraska's
wheat and corn
crop this year
will- be worth
more than $125,-000,000.
IS
Nebraska's hay
crop this year
will be worth
more than' $75,
000,000. .
-0
VOLUME 10
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, OCTOBER 4, 1912
NUMBER 27
WHY THIS INTERMINABLE DELAY?
Two weeks ago the state board of irrigation and drainage stip
ulated that on September 28 the final arguments should be made
and briefs filed in the now more or less celebrated contest over
prior rights on the Loup river for power purposes. But instead of
listening to the arguments and receiving the briefs, and proceeding
to render a decision upon the facts and the law as presented, the
board, presided over by Governor Aldrieh, announced through the
chairman that it would ask' Robert Howell of Omaha to prepare a
brief touching upon the question of public policy. We take it that
Mr. Howell is to argue from the side of the general public.
Personally we have the greatest respect for Mr. Howell's abil
ity ns an engineer, and esteem it a privilege to be accounted one
of his friends. But Mr. Howell is not better fitted to discuss that
phase of the question than ten thousand other men are, and the
proposition to postpone action until 'he can discuss the "public policy'-'
phase of the question appears to us to be simply another move
on the part of dominant members of the board to shirk responsi
bility until after election. This newspaper has no choice between
the parties contending for prior rights .on the Loup river; it is ad
vocating only that te board of irrigation and drainage quit quib
bling and evading and paltering ; quit playing politics, and make
a fair and honest decision. It doesn't make a bit of difference how
the board decides, for the matter will be carried to the highest
courts, but it does make a great deal of difference to Nebraska
whether this development of natural power is speeded or retarded.
The delay of the board is deceiving no one who knows the real sit
uation. All this pretense of heartfelt desire to "protect the dear
pee-pul" is a waste of time as well as a mighty thin cloak behind
hich to hide a palpable evasion of the law. The law upon the
establishment of prior rights is clear and explicit. It requires that
the board shall within a specified time announce a decision based
unonthe renort oftlie state engineer. That report has been in the j
hands of the board many months and now comes. a paltry excuse
for a further delay of perhaps three or four months or until after
election, at least.
Men with millions of money at their command are anxious to
begin the great work of developing a magnificent water power in
Nebraska a water power that will make a great industrial con -monwcalth
of Nebraska; that will hasten the building of muli
needed interurban roads; that will furnish employment to thou
sands of men, and give an impetus to business such as Nebraska
has not yet seen. What men build it or whose money builds it is
.of small consequence; the great thing is to have the power devel
oped. The state has power to regulate and control. There is no
danger of exploitation if the voters of Nebraska will exercise care
in the selection of public officials and if they do not exercise due
care they deserve to be jobbed and robbed and exploited.
Millions have been spent in Keokuk, Ia.f in developing a water
power that it not to be compared with the power that can be devel
oped on the Loup river, and the men who invested their millions
there were welcomed with open arms, not harassed by interminable
delay at the hands of politicians. . The White river project of the
northwest is not to be compared with the Loup river project, yet
when capitalists offered to invest their millions in that project the
people gave them a welcome and lent every possible assistance.
The same is true of the great project at Atlanta, Ga. Yet here in
Nebraska, where we have no natural fuel, and where we raise a
wealth of raw material that must be shipped far east to be worked
up into the finished product, we have a natural water power that
will make us independent of steam, but instead of encouraging men
of means to develop that power to our mutual advantage we harass
them, delay them and discourage them.
Great water powers are being developed all around us. Other
states are taking advantage of their opportunities while Nebraska
is frittering her opportunities away. .It is time for thoughtful eiti
zents to arise in protest and insist that the men who want to in
vest their millions in Nebraska be encouraged to do so instead of
being driven away by . constant naggings and the imposition of
impossible conditions. ,
The editor of this paper has given considerable study to water
power possibilities in Nebraska. He. has written about them, inter
viewed engineers, walked over the ground . and investigated the
possibilities such development offers along industrial lines. He
realizes to some small extent what it would mean to Nebraska to
: have at her command cheap power in practically unlimited quan
tity. And knowing the situation as he does, he is insistent in his
demands that those in authority quit "playing horse" and make
it possible for the work of development to begin.
enterprise by starting the movement,: but it is too much to ask o
them that they carry the entire burden when .all classes alike benefit
The idea can be carried to a much greater length than originally
designed, a length that will permit of all elements of our varied
citizenship taking part, with the result that the affair will become
of state wide interest and importance. The state fair is a state
institution; German-American day as now established can be made
larger and become a great Lincoln event. The men who have so
willingly given of their time and meaiis in the past to make these
occasions a magnificent success are deserving of the hearty thanks
of our entire citizenship. f
We favor the creation of an immigration agent and pub
licity bureau, to the end that our vast areas of tillable land
in the western part of the state may be brought to the atten
tion of the landless people elsewhere. From the platform of
the progressive Republicans of Nebraska.
YOU SIMPLY CAN'T BEAT NEBRASKA.
The man who attempts to tell the truth about wonderful Ne
braska merely puts himself in a position to be pointed to as yearn
ing fori the laurels of Ananias, or of Baron Munchausen, or Tom
Mulhatton. No need to draw on the imagination the real facts
are too big to be grasped. Maybe you have read about big yields
of oats in some section of the country. Well, we'll back Nebraska
against the world, when it comes to raising that grain or any
other. Here is a yield of oats we would like to see beaten : T. N.
Fults of Furnas county had a small field of oats this summer." It
was 420 feet wide by 698 feet long 6.7 acres. From this field he
threshed 637 bushels, an average of 95 5-6 bushels per acre. But
that isn't all. With the oats he sowed alfalfa seed, and now, after
having harvested and threshed the onjs, he has a magnificent stand
of alfalfa. T
IN WONDERFUL YOUNG NEBRASKA
It is possible now to make some definite assertions as to what
Nebraska has produced during this good year 1912. In tons and
bushels it may be that other years have exceeded this one; in dol
lars and cents we maintain that this is Nebraska's best year. We
further . assert that when comparisons are made it will be found
that Nebraska stands at the head' in many things, among them":
She will produce more agricultural wealth per cultivated acre
than any other state.
She will produce more live stock wealth per thousand of inhabi
tants than any other state.
She will produce more wheat per acre than any other state,
and her average yield per acre will beat the average yield of the
country at large by more than nine, bushels.
She will produce more oats' per acre than any other state.
She will produce more butter per capita than any other state;
more eggs per capita than any other state; more pounds of live and
dressed poultry per capita than any other state.
When the final accounting is made it will be disclosed that as
an apple producing state Nebraska has got Washington, Oregon,
Idaho and Colorado backed off the map. Nebraska's apple crop this
year will be worth more per capita than that of any other state.
The total output of manufactured products of a dozen states
will "exceed that of Nebraska. But we venture to assert that not a
state less than fifty years old will produce as muck manufactured
wealth per capita as Nebraska, and that no state will excel Nebras
ka in the showing of increase in the manufacturing industry.
The records of 1912 will show that Nebraska is the fourth
largest wheat producing statr if not the largest and that she is
the largest producer of winter wheat. These same records will
show that Nebraska is the fourth largest corn producing state if
not the third largest, and that she is excelled in the production of
sugar beets by only two states perhaps only one.
The trouble with Nebraska people is that they do not fully
realize what a wonderful state Nebraska is. It is time they studied
up on the subject and set about making the most of the opportuni
ties afforded them.
A HANDSOME EDITION.
THE GERMAN-AMERICAN CELEBRATIONS.
Too much credit can not be given to the enterprising German
American citizens of this community for their efforts to furnish
a fall festival in Lincoln with educational parades that will arouse
patriotism and civic pride and prove of financial benefit to the
city. Every possible assistance should be given the commtitee by
the people of the city. The German-American citizens showed their
The "booster edition" of the Norfolk Press for September
26 was not only a credit to its editor, Marie O'Donnell Weekes,
but was a credit to the busy little city of Norfolk. A newspaper
like the Press is a credit to any city, and the contents of this
special edition gose a long ways towards proving that Norfolk is
worthy of such a newspaper. Filled with splendid illustrations,
the advertisements of enterprising firms and entertaining facts and
figures about Norfolk and Madison county, this edition of the
Press ought to have a wide circulation. The wider the circulation
the better it will be for Norfolk.
THINGS THAT MAKE US VERY WEARY
Rev. "Kid" Wedge, late of Genoa, erstwhile prize-fighter and
later a minister of the gospel, has. been re-?instated by the Kear
ney Presbytery. Rev. Mr. Wedge was accused, among other things,
of having knocked the block 'off of a Genoa lawyer who had gross
ly insulted him and also said cruel "and unjust things about the
minister's family. Rev. Mr. Wedge denied all the charges save
the one of insubordination and the one wherein he was accused of
having whipped the lawyer. The Kearney Presbytery issues a'
statement exonerating Rev. Mr. Wedge and re-instating him, where
in it says, apropos of the Genoa incident: "Last January he gave
a Genoa lawyer a thrashing, under great provocation though, as he
himself admits, it was not becoming in a minister of the, gospel."
If Rev. Mr. Wedge made any such admission we have lost a bit
of our great respect for him. When he knocked the block off of the
Genoa lawyer who sought to take advantage of the fact that his
opponent wore the cloth, we patted the reverend gentleman on the
back and applauded him for his manhood. ; We like that minister
who acts on the assumption that the fact that he is a minister of
the gospel makes him no iess a man. And the man who 'will not
defend himself or his loved ones, even to the extent of doubling,
up his fists and sailing into it, isn't worthy the name of man, be
he minister or layman. This editor happens to be the , son of a
minister who never forgot that he was a man, and who allowed no
man to abuse him or his family. More than one man made the
mistake of assuming that because the preacher-father was a preach-
er he would stand for any old kind of "abuse. Of course the
Nazarene advised that if a man smite thee on one cheek, turn the
other; but He didn't advise us not to push in the other fellow's
cheek if he smote the other cheek. And while He advised us to go
two miles with the man who compelled us to go one, He didn't
tell us not to smash the slats of that other fellow at the end of 'the
second mile. And if we remember rightly even the Master wasn't '
always meek and forbearing. . We have a distinct recollection that ;
He once knotted a whip of cords and went after the money changers
much like Rev. Mr. Wedge went after that eowardly Genoa lawyer.
We have a huge admiration for the big, two-fisted, red-blooded
minister of the gospel who never forgets that he is a man as well
as a priest, and who is as quick to resent imputations upon his man
hood as he is to oppose sin in high place or low place. : Meekness
does not necessarily mean that one must crawl in the dirt and sub
mit to all kinds of insults.. We'll think all the more of fRev, Mr.
Wedge if he will treat' other dirty enemies like he treated Hhat
Genoa lawyer. There will be more respect for the ministry when
ministers earn it by proving that they are men as well as min
isters. ' . , ' .
MOTION OUT , OF ORDER.
We are heartily in favor of and would advocate a measure in
the next legislature to appropriate sufficient funds to enable the
establishment of a Nebraska official paper, the object of which
would be to tell ,the world at large of the vast resources and ad
vantages of this great state. We further designate Will Maupin
as its editor and his Weekly as THE paper. Do I hear a second?
Naponee Herald. . . . .-: ' - . . . - , : , '
. A thousand thanks for the compliment, but the motion is out
of order. But we will heartilv second a motion that Nebraska es
tablish and provide for a Bureau of Publicity and Immigration
whose purpose it shall be to advertise the resources ot JNeDrasKa
to all the world and assist in bringing to the state industrious and
thrifty men and women to till rhe idle lands, and men of capital .
and .enterprise to establish factories and mills to wcrk up into the
finished product the vast amount of raw material raised in Ne
braska. -If the Naponee Herald wants to help boost for Nebraska
and we know it does let it lend its influence to the establish- ,
ment of such a bureau as above outlined. Do, we hear its assent?
A MIGHTY FDTE "EATS."
Hog killing time will soon be here. Of course butchering at
home isn't what it used to be, but a lot of people still kill a hog '
for family use. And a lot of them fail tb make the most of it.
Those who butcher 'their own hogs render out the lard, of course.
They know what "cracklings" are. Now save your "cracklings'
and mix; them up with corn meal and make what we Missouri-born
folk used to call "cracklin' bread." Don't put too many "crack-'
lings" in, for they make the old-fashioned corn loaf mighty rich.
Try it, then thank us for putting you next.
THE EASIEST THING TO DO.
During his Nebraska tour, Theodore Roosevelt devoted most of
his time to abusing Dr. Victor Rosewater. That was much easier,
you know, than defending his own record or explaining his failure
to do in seven years what he promises to do in four years more if
given a chance. If Roosevelt ever did anything for Nebraska the
fact has been hidden from mortal ken. The history of Nebraska
is full of good service rendered to the state by the Rosewaters and
the Omaha Bee.