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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1909)
IHtlXJflPJQtM&FWf'WWJ fr - "pT' - " -. APRIIi 9, 1909 The Commoner. - , :rWfciWi'TP', Work of the Nebraska Legislature Tlie bills of general interest passed by Ne braska's democratic legislature, which has just adjourned, are as follows: House Roll No. 1. Oregon plan of selecting United States senators. H. R. No. 36. Appropriating $20,000 for the erection of a monument to Abraham Lincoln on the state house grounds. H. R. No. 80. Forbidding the use or sale of giant firecrackers or dynamite caps for Fourth of July celebrations. H. R. No. 89. Providing that the material and weight of binding twine be stamped on each ball together with the date of manufacture. H. R. No. 118. Providing for examining in to the Banity of persons condemned to death by a board composed of the superintendents of the state's asylums for the insane. H. R. No. 127. Fixing penalties for adver tising false pedigrees of animals. H. R. No. 131. Forbidding the intimidation of voters by threats of loss of employment. H. R. No. 140. Putting paints under the pure food law so that contents and ingredients must be labeled on the cans. H. R. No. 144. No judgment may be re vived after it has lain dormant for more than ten years. H. R. No. 201. Providing for the vestment of title to homestead in minor children on death of parents. H. R. No. 242. Providing for the publication of campaign contributions fifteen days prior to election day. H. R. No. 374. Prescribing the number of men in a railroad train crew. H. R. No. 423. Guaranteed bank depos'its law. H. R. No. 533. Providing for the admission of national banks to the benefits of the state guaranty fund. H. R. No. 192. Permitting railroad passes to be issued to the dependents of those em ployes who .die in the service. H. R. No. 66. Providing for an annual grand jury in every county except where especially ordered otherwise by the court. H. R. No. 130. Providing that warehouse receipts shall bo negotiable. H. R. No. 163. Providing that the attorney general may call on county attorneys for aid in criminal cases appealed from their counties to the. supreme court. . H. R. No. 358. Fixing the maximum freight rate on crude and fuel oil in carload lots. .' H.. R. No. 464. Regulating the practice of professional accounting and providing for a licensing board. ,. H. R. No. 474. Providing for licensing of dentists under the supervision of the state. H. R. No. 486. Making the branding of net weight compulsory on certain kinds of goods products of wheat and(corn and allowing the manufacture of bleached flour. H. R. No. 578. Regulation of the issuance -of stock and bonds by corporations under the supervision of the state railway commission. Senate File No. 136. Memorial asking con ing congress to appropriate $500,000,000 for harbors And waterways. S. F. No. 159. Forbidding the organization of fraternities in high schools. S. F. No. 65. Requiring clerks of district courts to furnish divorce statistics to state -board of health. S. F. No. 130. Decrees of divorce to become effective in one year. S. F. No. 315. Providing pension for teach ers in the cities of the metropolitan class after they have served thirty-five years in the pro fession and twenty-five years in the particular city from which the pensior is to come. . ' S. F. No. 71. Reciprocal demurrage law. S. F. No. 95. Railroads must pay damage claims within sixty and ninety days under penalty. S. F. No. 18. Establishes an osteopathic ex amining board. S. F. No. 143. Requiring railroads to equip depots with telephones. S. F. No. 408. Stock Issued by corporations to be void unless authorized by the railway com mission and preventing the issuance of watered stock. S. F. No. 152. Authorizing regents of state university to establish a school of citizenship. S. F. No. 123. Authorizing accident insur ance companies to pay old age Indemnity. S. F. No. 262. Providing for the branding of milk cans and making it unlawful for any but the owners to use them. Sf' No 10, Prviding an annual stato oc cupation tax to bo paid by corporations on cap ital stock. Tax ranges from $5 for $10,000 capital stock to $200 for $2,000,000 capital stock. S. F. No. 81. Forbids the sale of liquor on railroad trains, except in dining cars. S. F. No. 109. Establishes the open pri mary law and allows voters to write in names on ballot. Candidates to select committeemen and committees to select state dolegates for state convention (to write platform) to be held prior to the primaries. s- F- No. 240. For cleanliness of bakeries, packing houses, creameries, groceries and other places where food is prepared. S. F. No. 100. Forbidding political parties to nominate candidates for judges, regents of the state university, state superintendent of educa tion, or county superintendent of schools. All such candidates must go on the ballot without party designation and be placed there by petition. S. F. No. 225. Forbidding non-resident agents to write fire, accident and fidelity insur ance policies. S. F. No. 133. Providing for the physical valuation of railroads and bther companies. S. F. No. 283. Daylight saloon bill. Fixing hours from 7 o'clock a. m. until 8 pm. throughout the state. S. F. No. 235. Providing for the indeter minate sentence of persons convicted of certain felonies. NEBRASKA'S DAYLIGHT SALOON LAW In the enactment of a law providing that all saloons must close by 8 o'clock p. m. opening no earlier than 7 o'clock a. m. Nebraska has taken the lead in conservative temperance legis lation. It Is distinctly to the credit of this great state that it is the first to enact a law so in keeping with the calm, intelligent thought of the country. It is distinctly to the credit of a democratic legislature that a daylight saloon law is among the important reforms brought about through its deliberations and Governor Shallenberger is to bo congratulated upon hav ing given It his approval. It may well bo be lieved that the thoro-igh enforcement of the daylight saloon law will result in such good to society, to the the state and to all the cities thereof that even many who now bitterly oppose it will be brought to realize its excellence. Letters From the People L. E. Perkins, Denver, Colo. I would like to see The Commoner re-open the fight for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1. H. Stillman Doubleday, Brooklyn, N. Y. Is it not evident that the American voter has not kept pace with the cunning or wisdom of his exploiter, and that he needs to be educated out of his indifference, prejudices and mental lethergy and into a realization of his duty and his personal responsibility for the existence and persistence of every civic injustice and enor mity that exists with the sanction of this United States government? He should educate himself into knowledge of righteous government and the way to secure it. Such education Is my need and yours it is the universal common need. James K. McGuire, Syracuse, N. Y. The Italian shoe shiner, near our New York office, said to me shortly after election: "Me demo crat, but vote for Taft. 'Why,' customers say: Tony, bad business, more hard times Bryan, much good times Taft; so Tony votes, more business, more shines." An Italian laborer at Camillus, N. Y., near here makes his wedding depend on the defeat of Mr. Bryan. Another draws out $600 from the savings bank before election, ready to return to Europe in the event of Bryan's election, redeposlts the money the day after election. I know personally of fifty men, at least, mostly union workers, who believed they would fiud themselves out of em ployment after election if democracy triumphed. "What fools these mortals be." Dr. J. M. De Veiling, Ridgeland, Miss. I was very sorry November 4, 1908. But I am now glad. Why? Because Bryan would have been caused to suffer the equal tortures .of Galileo The people arc not yet ready for Bryanism. neecussirsmWOr thy r"ea'dy fr GaI1Ie0'a copor- . SJiw iE tJohn8011' Pittsburg, Kan. This is a pocket book ago not a conscience age. Tho great wonder Is that wo do as well as we do with apparently nothing but defeat and only expenso and finally humiliation for our reward. hmv ??? can e.xplaIn why thcro aro 80 my brave and conscious voters who will come up year after year for their whole life and vote our ticket only to bo defeated HHnir- 'n"' PrIofnd8h!p, N. Y. I Used to think as Mr. Bryan does when ho says ho be lieves like Lincoln in tho "plain people." I a. l, ?Ut, ' !mv? about come t0 the conclu sion that about nine out of ten aro "fools." When they know just how things are, they had fSPhfaV0 10 :i,r?tml80" of a clay's work now than "eternal salvation horeaftor." They live so near the hunger line that a promfso of a day s work does tho "business." The democratic party can never win when a few traitors can Jl ! W 10l 8t,ate 1Ik0 Now York- This stato should always bo democratic and would bo but for deals and sell outs. In my opinion tho Bwmi? ,de2la that 80ld thIs 8tat, were accom plished the same way and tho same time that the middlo west states were fixed. L. C. Long, St. Paul, Minn. I sorved three years in tho union army under a colonel who was a West Pointer and a democrat. Ho taught me nevor to consider myself whippod as long as there was a chanco for another fight. Stephen G. Price, Marshall, Mo. Some plan must bo devised to have our circulating medium rreo from any commodity value or any other value save a representative value, such as a piece of paper upon which a deed is written. iplp! has no value yQt as a deed it carries with It the value of tho property It represents, no more no less. Human ingenuity thus far has Jfi . pr,ovIde such a circulating medium and until this is done genulno democracy can not thrive except In tho formative period of a na tion. Graft and commercialism will ultimately undermine all ideas of equal rights, patriotism, morality and in fact spirituality. "A COMIN' AND A COIN' " The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal says: "With the confidence of both the public and 'the big interests' tho Taft administration should be in advantageous position to make progress." Does the editor of the Sioux City Journal really be lieve that progress under such conditions will be substantial so far as public interests aro concerned? "RATHER A CHILD" Rather a child would pray for me Than some one in a marble shrine, For the love that lisps at a mother's knee . Is so wondrously fair and fine That the words go straight and the words go far With a grace that they have alone Go out and onward past star and star Till they tremble unto the throne. Rather a child should lisp my name In a blessing when comes the night Than to hear it breathed while the candle flame Lends the altar a holy light, - ;. For the shrill-sweet voice of a child can rise On the mystical wings of love .. '&. And cleave the silence beyond the skies .y To the listening ear above. The bedtime prayer, the white, white gown, And the light that Is low and dim, The fair, wee head that is bowjng down, And the message sent up to Him! Then you know somehow that the pure child heart Is anear to the Soul of Things; For sighs that rack and for tears that smart A Gllead-balm it brings. Wonderful, too, the simple trust Of the child in the boon It asks It can lift us up from the shreds and dust With a strength to renew our tasks For a child asks not as we older ones, '", But It asks with a heart that knows The hand that fashioned tho farthest suns ,, " Lent the grace to the climbing rose. Rather a child should pray for me Than the godliest man on earth, .' For the prayer made in th childish key Is the prayer of greatest worth t And I sometimes think that the good God sees How we trust, and has gravely smiled At the simple words and the bended knees ' And the faith of a little child. Wilbur D. Nesbit in Chicago Record-Herald. i m Hi a m mi feteJt'viF-!;J'','J'a":