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VOLUME 7
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 15
NUMBER V7
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A FEW STRAY BITS OF GOSSIP
HAVE TO DO WITH RUNNING THE CITY, COUNTY AND STATE
There are those who are very bitter
at Sir. Bryan because he has, as they
declare, injected the county option
fight into this campaign. It might be
well to hark back a little and see about
this. We have given voice to our own
convictions that the injection of the
county option question into partisan
olitics is ill-advised, and Mr. Bryan,
with all of his persuasive eloquence
has as yet failed to convince us of our
error. And yet, if county option be
came the burning issue in this cam
paign, as now seems likely, we hold
that Mr. Bryan is not primarily to
blame. According to our view point
-the men responsible for the present
lamentable situation insofar as it re
lates to democratic organization, are
the democratic senators who refused
to vote for the initiative and referen
dum bill in the last legislature. These
men surely were not actuated by
democratic motives to vote against
that bill, for 90 per cent of the people,
republicans and democrats alike, fa
vor that policy. There are two inter
ests violently opposed to the initiative
and referendum the liquor interests
and the railroad interests. There you
have the explanation in a nutshell. The
democratic senators who voted against
the initiative and referendum bill were
representing other interests than those
of the people. Had the initiative and
referendum amendment been submit
ted the present trouble would have
been obviated.
On the other hand Mr. Bryan's sup
porters insist that he was forced to
his present position by Governor Shal
lenberger's refusal to convene the leg
islature in extraordinary session for
the purpose of passing an initiative
and referendum bill. It might be well
o consider that phase of the question
for a moment. . I
Mr. Bryan sprung the extra session
idea while Governor Shallenberger
was absent from the state. Upon his
return Governor Shallenberger held a
conference with some of Mr. Bryan's
supporters and declared that it would
be idle folly to convene the legislature
unless there was an assurance that
enough votes could be mustered to
pass the bill. The advocates of the
extra session said they would get
enough pledges if given time, and the
governor told them to go to it. They
began their work, but to this date
they have not succeeded in getting
enough pledges. A dozen or more at
tempts to amend the constitution fail
ed in this state, although the need was
great, because of the negligence of the
voters.. Not until the adoption of the
primary law was it possible to carry
an amendment, and this was made pos
sible by so arranging it that when state
conventions of either party formally
endorsed an amendment it then became
a party question and could be voted
for by merely marking a cross in the
circle for a straight ballot. In order
to get an amendment upon the straight
ballot in this way it would be neces
sary to have it submitted in time to
get into the primary call and upon the
primary ballots. Governor Shallen
berger waited until it was evident to
all fair-minded men that it was no long-
er possible to do this, and then an
nounced his decision not to call an ex
tra session. The date that this decision
was announced Mr. Bryan still lacked
three of having enough senatorial
yotes pledged to pass the bill in the
y upper house.
f No one who desires to be fair will
deny that it. would have been extrava
gant iouy to can a special session ior
the purpose of considering the initia
tive and referendum 'unless there was
positive assurance that it would pass
both branches. That assurance is still
lacking. Who would advise the ex
penditure of $15,000 or $20,000 on a
special session that was foredoomed
to be useless t Neither Mr. Bryan with
all of his influence, aided and abetted
by the Direct Legislation League and
its powerful machinery, could secure
i
vm 1 1 vru- x 11 J-
I
CONCERNING MATTERS THAT
pledges of enough votes in time to
get the amendment endorsed properly
and without that endorsement it is
well known to observant citizens that
an amendment to the constitution can
not hope to carry.
Senator Patrick, in his speech be
fore the Lancaster county democratic
convention, made many assertions that
were unworthy of him. He asserted
that the liquor trust controlled the
party machinery, and further declared
that the "pie biters' " brigade stood
in the way of reform along the lines
sought by him.. There is not an ap
pointee of Governor Shallenberger 's '
who has drawn as much money from
the public treasury as this same Mr.
Patrick. Nor has Nebraska ever had
a governor who showed himself so
free from liquor trust domination as
Governor Shallenberger. The only
progressive liqiior legislation enacted
in twenty years in Nebraska was en
acted by the last legislature. The
brewers and distillers sought to se
cure the repeal of the law prohibiting
saloons within a certain distance of
Fort Crook. Governor Shallenberger
prevented it, and the prohibition still
stands. The brewers and distillers
fought the passage of the bill prohib
iting drinking on trains, but the demo
cratic legislature passed the bill and
Governor Shallenberger signed it. If
ever the liquor interests put up a
fight against a measure designed to
cripple them, they put it up when the
daylight saloon bill was shot through
the legislature and sent to Governor
Shallenberger without warning. If
Governor Shallenberger was in any
wise dominated by the liquor trust
' Hoes everi Senator Patrick imagine
that he would have signed that bill f
The statesman from Sarpy county
merely discounts his own intelligence
and indicts the intelligence of the peo
ple when he declares by inference that
Governor Shallenberger is dominated
by the liquor interests. If that were
true, why is Mayor Dahlman the self
confessed candidate of the brewers and
distillers? And Patrick's assertion
that the liquor interests spent $40,000
to defeat him for state senator from
Sarpy county well, that sounds so
much like a joke that one is inclined to
smile and let it pass.
It is only justice to Senator Patrick
to say that his record as a member of
the senate is as straight as a string.
His vote was always recorded on the
side of the people, and he has a right
-to resent the fact that he was turned
down. Perhaps the liquor trust did
effect that result. But Senator Patrick
should realize that his personal victory
or defeat is not sufficient to force it
self upon a great party as a matter
that must be taken cognizance of to
the detriment of the party as a whole.'
Only once in a generation arises a man
who is bigger than his party, and Sen
ator Patrick was debarred from get
ting that distinction by reason of the
fact that another stood forth while the
Patrick political prominence was still
an eventuality of future time.
The speech made by J. H. Harley
at the Lancaster county democratic
convention was a revelation to even
his most intimate friends. It was not
eloquent in the respect that it appealed
by reason of dramatic effect or elocu
tionary perfection. It was eloquent of
deep conviction couched in forceful
phrase and homely illustration. Not
even, Mr. Harley had hopes that his
appeal would fall on other than un
heeding ears. He realized, as did every
other delegate, that the result was a
foregone conclusion. It did not need
the personal appeal of Mr. Bryan at
the close of the debate to carry the
county option endorsement through.
Long before the convention met the re
sult was known. Democrats who have
testified to their democracy by un
swerving and unselfish devotion to it
in times of stress and storm, were in
formed at their caucuses that they
couldn't be considered as delegates be
cause they did not "stand with Mr.
Bryan" on the county option question.
Heretofore it has been customary to
select delegates because of their dem
ocracy and then adopt a platform in
structing them how to vote to meet the'
wishes of those whom they repre
sented; this time men were called to
one side and asked how they "stood
with Mr. Bryan on county option,"
and if they were not in hearty accord
with his views they were kept off the
delegation to the county convention.
That policy made it easy to secure a
county convention in accord with Mr.
Bryan's views, and neither Mr. Harley
nor any other delegate opposed to in
serting county option in the state plat
form was foolish enough to believe that
their views would have any weight.
There were present upon the floor
of that convention men who have been
fighting for the initiative and referen
dum for more years than Mr. Bryan
has been prominent in politics. There
were present men who personally favor
county option and were outspoken in
their beliefs befor.e Mr. Bryan began
the study of it, but Who did not, and
do not now, believe that it is a matter
to be taken into the domain of party
politics. Certainly such men are en
titled to fair play, and to dub them
tools of the whiskey trust, as Senator
Patrick did by inference in his speech
and by direct language in private con
versation, is unjust, yea wicked. Men
who worked with the legislature of
1909 to secure the passage of a county
option measure were denied the right
to sit as delegates because, forsooth,
they were opposed to making county
option a tenet of the democratic faith.
And this, too, when these men were
outspoken in favor of county option
before Mr. Bryan had, according to
his own statement, taken his atten
tion from national issues long enough
to consider such a purely local ques
tion. .. ' j
It is certainly a peculiar situation.
What the result will be at Grand Is
land no human being knows. That a
big majority of the delegates to that
gathering will be personally opposed
to putting county option in the plat
form is admitted. But what will hap
pen when Mr. Bryan takes the floor!
We have lively recollections of a con
vention in Grand Island a few years
ago that was not friendly to Bryan.
For fifteen hours it balked on his pro
gram, and all that time Bryan sat
silent. Finally, at 4 o'clock in the
morning the storm broke. Bryan took
the platform, and in twenty minutes
a change could be noticed. At the end
of forty minutes the leaders of the op
position to him began sneaking from
the hall. At the end of an hour of im
passioned oratory the convention was
.on its feet yelling for Bryan. At 5:05
o'clock everything was lovely and
peace reigned, at least on the surface,
and Bryan had triumphed again. But
history records the fact that in the
following election the democratic
ticket went down to overwhelming
defeat.
But if the democrats are rowing
among themselves in the democratic
front yard, you ought to see the repub
lican fracas in the republican back
yard ! The g. o. p. in Nebraska has
been so successful in dodging the liq
uor question for thirty years that it
is interesting to watch it now when it
must either fish or cut bait. The fact
of the matter is that while the demo
cratic party has had to bear the odium
of being the "whisky party," the re
publican party has been getting the
support of the liquor interests. If the
liquor interests have such a powerful
hold on Nebraska politics, and the
democratic party is the "whisky par
ty," in heaven's name why was it left
to a democratic legislature to enact the
only progressive liquor laws in a quar
ter of a century? And why was it
left to a democratic governor to sign
those progressive liquor laws? The re
publican legislature of 1907, of which
our republican friends so often boast,
took no progressive step along liquor
legislation lines, and Governor Mickey
is not recorded in history as having
(Continued on page 5)
BILLY MAJOR'S
THE SAME CONTAINING A FEW
MATTERS OF MORE OR LESS
Here goes the Journal again, weep-
ing over the sidewalk issue with all
the sobbing and sighing necessary to
make people believe that the whole in
dustrial future of Lincoln" rests upon
whether sidewalks were built just so.
I want a beautiful city just as much,
as anybody, but I am forced to con
fess that I am so fully occupied getting
the grub and the clothing for a fam
ily of eight that I haven't much time
to spend in considering the question
of a "city beautiful." And to me the
question of keeping the larder filled is
of vastly more importance than the
question of keeping our sidewalks on
straight. If the Journal will join with
a lot of us unartistic, unappreciative
and sordid workingmen in solving a
few questions of the immediate present,
we'll cheerfully agree to come across
when they are solved and join in the
crusade for a city beautiful. Just now
we are engrossed in the question of
eats.
Last week I made a few remarks
about our educational system. I have
before me right now a letter written
on a typewriter by a graduate of the
Lincoln high school who is also a grad
uate of a Lincoln business college. The
letter is one in which the writer makes
application for a position as stenog
rapher. There are 154 words in the
letter, exclusive of address and signa
ture. There are five misspelled words
in the letter, and the punctuation is
worth going miles to see. And to cap
the climax the writer spelled my name
wrong !
' I have a personal grievance against
Alderman William Schroeder, and .
there are some twenty-five or thirty
others just like me along North Thirty
third street. Economy is all right, but
there is a vast difference between econ
omy and penuriousness, a difference
that Mr. Schroeder seems unable to
understand. )
We sympathize with the citizens of
Wymore, who are threatened with the
loss of the Burlington shops because
the sheriff of Gage county did not fol
low the illustrious example of the sher
iff of Lancaster and appoint a lot of
Burlington sluggers to protest the
"scabs." Funny, isn't it, that rail
road corporations never take any re
markable interest in the lives and bod
ies of their employes until it so hap
pens that those employes are a lot of
"scabs" and strikebreakers and porch
climbers. When that comes to pass the
railroad managers are awfully con
cerned about protecting life and limb.
But is it better to have the shops
and sacrifice manhood, or to have man
hood and lose the shops? It strikes me
that the railroads are going a little bit
too far when they arrogate to them
selves not only the right of life and
death but also the right of property
and opportunity.
It is to laugh ! I mean that it is
laughable the way the newspapers all
join in agreeing that it is quite satis
factory to have a negro wear the belt
as the champion fighting .brute. A few
short weeks ago and the sporting writ
ers of those same papers were pointing
to Jeffries as the man on whom "the
hopes of the white race were pinned."
AH right, all right! Jack Johnson
seems to have knocked out vastly more
than Jim Jeffries ; he seems to have
knocked prize fighting over the ropes.
The man who claims to be able to
swing the labor vote is a liar. But he
isn't as big a liar as the man who wil
fully charges another man who is try
ing to . advance the cause of organized
labor is also claiming to be able to
"swing the labor vote." No man owns
the vote of organized labor, nor is
every man who is trying to advance the
cause of organized labor1 trying to
swing the labor vote. The trouble with
the voters in the ranks of organized
labor is that when either too independ-
DOPE CARD
UNBIASED OPINIONS ABOUT
INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC
ent or too partisan "it is too suspicious.
The minute some union man steps out
and advocates a line of political action,
he is immediately charged with trying
to lead the labor vote into some politi
cal camp. And often that is the case,
too. But we know of no such effort
in this section. As a union man I don't
care what political party enacts the
laws that organized labor is most in
terested in securing, just so long as i
those laws are secured. And that is
the policy that this little labor paper .
has pursued for seven years, and will
continue to pursue.
Speaking of signs, in Omaha the oth
er day I saw several stretched across
the sidewalks.. I saw one permanent
sign stretched clear -across Farnam
street. Does anybody deny that Om
aha is a great city? It is just witness- .
ing the completion of a sixteen-story
building and as yet I haven't seen a
single newspaper that objected on the
ground of "sky line." I know Omaha
like a book. I worked there for up
wards of ten years. It has many fea
tures I do not like, but they are fea
tures that seem inseparable from ;
every hustling, growing metropolis.
But when it comes to enterprise, hus
tle, faith in the future, and willingness
to invest money in large enterprises,
Omaha has got 'em all backed off the
boards. I wish we could strike an av
erage between Lincoln and Omaha
give Omaha some of the moral features
of Lincoln, and get from Omaha some
of her public spirit.
A number of the democratic newspa
pers of the state are publishing a let
ter under a Lincoln date. line. The
Wageworker is in receipt of this letter
every week, but not being a democratic
newspaper it decline to give it space.
A couple of weeks ago the letter con
tained a reference to the only meeting
of the anti-saloen league held in recent
months and mentioned the fact that
about the only business transacted at
the meeting was to increase Chairman
Poulson 's salary from $1,800 a year to
$2,500 a year. By reason of a typo
graphical error two or three papers
made it read "from $18,000 a year to
$25,000 a year." Of course any one but
a paretic would have instantly recog
nized the typographical error, but
Chairman Poulson seizes upon it to
make the foundation for a charge of
"liar" and to get himself a little pub
licity. Reference is made to this matter
iD this place merely to give further evi
dence as to the mental and moral cali
bre of Mr. Poulson.
What a pestiferous lot those social
ists are, to be sure. Here is the socialist
mayor of Milwaukee actually making
ability the test of public appointment,
exacting honest work from city con
tractors and compelling the city's ser
vants to render a full equivalent ,for
the salaries they draw. How'n thunder
do they expect to keep a political ma
chine greased and in running order?
Out upon all this socialistic rot! The
first thing we know the public gener
ally will get acquainted with what soc
ialism really means, and forget what
they have been led to believe it means,
and when that time comes there'll be
a political awakening that will jar the
country from center to circumference.
And, after all, isn't it about time that
union men quit knocking on the men
who are trying to happen to"diff er from
them on some minor matters? The man
who can not sink his personal differ-,
ences when the good of the whole
movement is concerned isn't worthy of
the card he carries.
And President Ta'ft says it has been
the greatest congress the country has
ever had. The sentiment is endorsed
by every trust and tariff monopoly in
the country.
