WHAT WILL THE NEW YEAR BRING TO LINCOLN?
What does the year 1911 hold in store for Lincoln? Does it hold erty too blamed far. Having deprived the common workingman of
much of good and little of evil, or does the evil promise to be equal to his glass of beer, while the club man with money can get his any old
or greater than the good? hour of the day, it is now proposed to go after the cigaret, which
These are questions that many of us would like to have an- means that in time the Puritans will get after my beloved pipe or your
swered now, but all of us will have to wait until the year progresses, favorite cigar or brand of chewing tobacco. Most of us want to be
But many of us know, at any rate, what we would like to see the good, but a lot of us do not want to be goody-goodies, and we do not
coming year bring to Lincoln. And here are some of them : want things to become so all-fired good in Lincoln that all days will
A commission form of government, based upon approved and be fast da-s because, perforce, there'll be nothing for us to do to earrf
well-tried lines, free from the petty ideas of visionaries who yearn to a living, therefore nothing for us to eat.
perpetuate their names in history as authors of something new in the We want 1911 to bring some things that will provide innocent
way of municipal government. A commission of five men, each hav- amusement to take the place of some things not so all-fired innocent
ing charge of a specified department of city affairs, and each one di- as they might be. We would like to see free moving pictures once or
rectly responsible for the conduct of his department. And an early twice a week in every school hovtse. The pictures at the moving pic
demise for the unsatisfactory and uncalled-for scheme of a one man ture houses of Lincoln are all right, but there are a lot of parents who
government assisted by fourteen little councilmen-at-large to keep should get wise to the fact that there is a mighty lot of nasty carry
petty politics boiling all the time. ings-on in the semi-darkness of those same houses. Parents who are
This is one of the best things that the new year could bring bring allowing their joung daughters to visit -these picture houses after
to Lincoln, but there are others : For instance, let the new year bring night, without accompanying them, are storing up a few barrels of
a cessation of the spirit of reprisal that moves men to fight progress shame for themselves and the daughters in the very near future. Let
because, perchance, the men advocating a progressive measure op- 1911 bring us the municipal picture show supervised by public school
posed some pet scheme of the men attempting reprisal. Let us have teachers.
a cessation of bickering and fault-finding; of snarling and backbiting. And by all means let 1911 bring a settlement of the vexed traction
Let us have a short session of relief from the activities of the Utopian problem. It has been a source of anoyance too long. It is hurting
dreamers who, having inherited their little fortunes from hard-work- business, preventing the development of new property and creating
ing or forunate fathers, now forget that there are a lot of us who animosities that will hinder the progress of the city for years to come,
find it necessary to hustle like merryhell for a bare livelihood. We The citizens demand what they think is fair; the Traction Co. says
love things beautiful, and far be it from us to deprecate the artistic, it wants only what is fair and just. In heaven's name let us get busy
But please let some of us be our own judges of art for a little bit. and quickly ascertain what is fair as between the city and the com
Just now there are several thousands of us who can see more beauty pany. and then settle it once for all. If we cannot do it that way, then
in a baked potato and a slab of crisp-fried bacon than we can in uni- let's buy the blooming works and run 'em until we either make a suc
form sidewalks, and Lincoln statues and ornamental lighting poles, cess of it or go bankrupt in the attempt. Anything to end the present
We would like to see the new year gently put to sleep a lot of people turmoil.
who seem nnable to realize that there are strenuous times, for Then, too, let 1911 bring to Lincoln a park system worthy of this
the men who have to hustle like all get out and then make $12 a week good city. Let it bring a recognition of the needs of the workers who
support a family of six or seven. If such will gently ooze away and are making Lincoln, and provide them with recreation grounds, and
give us a chance to catch up on our eats, we'll feel more like listening music, and amusements. Let it bring an end to the years of disgrace
to them with patience when next they come around. brought about by the shameful neglect to provide parks and boule-
We hope the new year will bring to a lot of well-meaning people' vards.
a realization of the fact that it is impossible to make a perpetual Let the new year bring peace and harmony, and an end to strife
Iwenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, Sunday school out of a and discord.
city of 45,000 people. Some of us like to go to church when we want Let it usher in a year of hearty co-operation in all efforts to make
to go, but there are a lot of us who are just independent enough to Lincoln a bigger, better, more beautiful city a city where the wage
believe we have a right to decide for ourselves how we shall spend earners will have a show for their white alleys, where the capitalist
our rest day, and we are just a bit tired of having some would-be may be assured of a reasonable return upon his investment, where the
dictators and self constituted censors of conduct settling the mat- drone is shunned by all good men, where business men are not ham
ter for us without our consent. We promise that if the church serv- pered by dreamers of strange dreams, and where morality is of the
ices are made more interesting than the park concerts or the ball heart and not by the fear of the law.
games, we'll be at the church services. We do not care to see the What will 1911 bring to Lincoln? God alone knows, but as He
saloons brought back to Lincoln in 1911, but neither do we care to will not reveal the future to us, let us all hope for the best, pray for
have some people carrying this thing of curtailment of personal lib- the best and work for the best.
CURT COMMENT ON TOPICS OF COMMON INTEREST
The Omaha World-Herald has pulled off some splendid works short of fourteen years, and its activity makes "Old Hundred" sound
during its existence, as for instance its Cuban Relief Train, its relief like a quickstep. No one with any regard for his reputation as a
headquarters during the awful winter of 1S94-95, its special train to prophet would predict what the decision will be when it is handed
return the First Nebraska from :an Francisco and others, but not , , , . .. . , , . ,. . . . .
r . t i i u c ii i down, but there is little hazard m predicting that it will be another
one of these came so close to the hearts of us all as the one it is just v &
now briniging to a finish its "Good Fellows" club. It made itself Hve-to-four decision.
a clearing house and called on all "Good Fellows" to come across and
pgree each to make some poor little child happy on Christmas. Not Te Avish a few careless and misguided parents would venture
by sending in money or gifts, but by agreeing, each one of them, to forth from their warm firesides any of these fine winter evenings and
go right out and make a personal call on some designated child of trail their innocent little daughters who are supposed to be spending
the poor and carry to that child visible messages of Christmas cheer, the evenings with some neighbor girls. The result would be the
As a result of the World-Herald's efforts this year several hundred opening of some almighty blind parental eyes. Every evening sees
poor kiddies will experience their first real Christmas. This will a lot of short-skirted girls who are scarcely dry behind the ears,
make several hundred children happy, and at the same time will prove "catching on" to adolescent youths with pimply faces and cigarette
to a lot of "Good Fellows" that there's a bushel of fun in making scented breaths, and prancing down street, or spooning in the dark
the children happy. recesses of the high school grounds. Many a girl who ought to be
at home in bed, and who is supposed to be at the home of a neighbor.
Tom Pratt will find a majority of the citizens behind him in his is down town learning lessons that will make it easy to take the fatal
attack upon the proposed city charter. Mr. Pratt understands the step a few months from now. And when the fatal step is taken some
temper of Lincoln voters as well as any other man in the city, and father and mother will wonder how it happened. It will not "hap
when he says that the proposed charter is an abortion and will not be pen." It will be the natural result of parental blindness,, careless
tolerated, the framers thereof should pause and take notice. The and criminal neglect of parental authority,
time to spike that scheme is right now. and Mr. Pratt will find that
the people will willingly hand him the spike and the hammer. . We know a few fathers of young daughters who ought to arm
themselves with water-elm clubs and chassez down O. street some
Dollar gas will, after all. have to await the decision of the su- evening, prepared to knock the everlasting stuffing out of young
r.reme court of the United States. That may come next year, or fellows who thing it smart to "mash" little school girls. And after
the vear after, or sometime around 1920. The supreme court is so rsing the water-elm club they ought to march their silly and way
slow that it couldn't get through an attack of the seven-year itch ward daughters home and wallop them so hard with a stiff-soled
