Tha Nebraska t Independent
'tit
-4 nittiiH
JULY 12, 190
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
ESTABLISHED 1889
J. M. DEVINE, Editor
FREDERIC O. BERGE, Business Mgr.
Published Every Thursday
1328 O Street
Lincoln, Nebraska
Entered at the postofflce at Lincoln,
Nebraska, aa second-class mall matter.
Under the act of Congress of March S, 1879.
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THE INDEPENDENT,
Lincoln, Neb.
A WARNING v
The railroads of Nebraska are mak
ing the fight of their lives -to retain
their grip on the state government as
the means of continuing to collect ex
tortionate freight and passenger rates,
and to escape just taxation. The
Eastern capitalists who own the roads
are railroading in Nebraska for what
there is in it. Their political agents
are required to show results for the
princely salaries they are paid. Their
work in the past has been done with
consummate skill and their positions
and incomes are at stake in the con
test that is now approaching. Results
are what are demanded of them by
their employers, and to secure such
they are putting forth strenuous ef
forts.
The railroads know no political
principles aside from earnings and
dividends. They employ tools to work
upon the political bias of their vie
tims and thus disguise their hands,
in order to secure maximum results
with minimum outlay. The railroad
political agents are neither republi
cans nor democrats other than for
railroad purposes, and are both, ;.in
proportion as it serves their ends to
be such. But, they have in both po
litical parties agents and tools who
do their bidding with the utmost ser
vility and feast upon the crumbs from
their masters' tables with a canine
"relish.
Whatever there, may be of terror
to the railroads in the opposition that
Is manifesting itself againct them in
the republican party is due to the
dread of 1 its effects in the future,
rather tL.an in the present, because the
oposition in that party has not yet
developed a leadership that need give
them any concern. It is true that
Senator Sheldon fired one shot that
was a ringer and immediately after
wards sank from the public view,
while the scattering shots of Norris
Brown, are too indefinite and mean
ingless to do him any good or the
railroads any harm. To the exper
ienced observer it is evident that the
railroads have matters well In hand
bo far as the republican party is con
cerned, and for the present at least
apprehend no serious trouble from that
quarter.
But, with the democrats the case is
different and is causing the railroad
political agents no end of trouble. All
would be smooth sailing with them
If it were not for the candidacy of
George W. Berge for the governor
ship. The marvelous powers as a
campaigner demonstrated by Mr.
Berge two years ago, when practically
single handed and alone, when the
democratic leaders generally preferred
the security of their cyclone cellars
to the exposure to the political ele
ments.' hie divided the attention of the
state with the Roosevelt tidal wave
and received 102,568 votes against 51,
876 for the democratic candidate for
presidency, warns the railroad polit
ical agents that the candidacy of Mr.
Berge is the only real menace to the
interests they represent.
They do not fear, nor do they need
to fear the candidacy of any other
aspirant for the democratic nomina
tion this year for the reason that, in
the first place,' the republicans norm
ally have a majority in the state, and
in the next place, if Berge is not
renominated nothing will suffice to
convince from thirty to fifty thousand
independent voters in the state that
he was not turned down through rail
road influence which will prove to be
a handicap sufficient to defeat the
party. On the other hand the nomi
nation of Mr. Berge will satisfy the
voters of the state at large that the
democratic convention was free from
railroad influence in which case, with
a "campaign such as Mr. Berge will
make, not only will the independent
voters be held in line, but thousands
of independent republican voters will
be drawn to the support of the ticket
which will practically insure the elec
tion of the entire democratic ticket,
including a legislature and United
States senator. :
What Is the secret of the opposi
tion to the renomination of Mr.
Berge in the democratic convention?
In the first place the opposition, so
far as has been discovered, is con
fined to a very few party manipula
tors, while the sentiment among the
rank and file of democrats in the state
is overwhelmingly for Berge. Again
we ask what is the secret of this ex
ceedingly small but mysteriously ac ive
opposition to the renomination of Mr.
Berge by the democrats? The public
has not yet been taken into their
secret That which has been given as
a reason is biit a pretext for opposi
tion, while the real reason is conceal,
ed. That we are unable to view this
matter differently is because we are
unable to relegate the opponents of
Mr. Berge's nomination to the shades
of a biggotry that is technical and
senseless.
The railroads are opposing the nom
ination of Mr. Berge because they
fear the verdict of the people at the
polls if given a candidate in whom
they have confidence, and whose char
acter and record is unassailable. And,
they well know that if they can com
pass the defeat of Mr. Berge in the
democratic convention, that act itself
will so discredit the party and disap
point the voters that they can easily
elect a republican governor and legis
lature. .The republicans in their state con
vention will give Roosevelt a ringing
endorsement, and will undoubtedly
nominate Rosewater for the senate,
In which case a discredited democratic
ticket may expect to receive only a
strictly partisan vote which will be
found insufficient to elect the state
ticket, or a majority of the legisla
ture. In this connection we desire to warn
those who oppose the nomination of
Mr. Berge of the true position they
thus place themselves in before the
people of the state. The railroads
are putting forth a strenuous effort,
and are leaving" no stone unturned to
prevent the renomination of Mr. Berge
by the democrats. The democrats who
are openly opposing his nomination
are few in number and over zealous
giving a reason for their opposition
that is utterly lacking in substance
and is too shadowy to constitute a
motive for such action by men of
normal and average intelligence. Men
who are actuated by pure motives
should hesitate and give serious
thought to a matter like this, involving
as it does the success or defeat of the
people in their battle for justice
against the treason and depotism of
railroad government. They should not
be influenced by causes that are triv
ial and shadowy in matters of the
highest importance to themselves and
their fellows, because in so doing they
will invite upon their 'acts the in
evitable verdict of public opinion,
which when finally made up is always
right and rigid, knowing no charity.
PERSONALITIES VERSUS POLIT
ICAL PARTIES "1
.Two great personalities loom up
above all others in our politics that
of Roosevelt and Bryan. A session
of congress has just closed that is
distinguished from any other in our
history as a session devoted to as
serting the supremacy of the people
over capalistic combinations and in
dividuals occupying certain relations
to the public, by placing them under
regulation and restrictions necessary
to justice . and the s public good.
In all fairness it must be ad
mitted that much good has been
accomplished, and the individual
is wanting in patriotism who
does not rejoice in the progressive
steps that have been taken and in
the good work that has been . done.
There are none so lacking in in
telligence as not to know that the
credit for what has been done be
longs to Theodore Roosevelt, presi
dent of the United States. He has not
done all that he might have done.
He has disappointed the people by his
shortcomings in ways that are gre
vious, but only because he has under
taken to do good things that were
not expected of him, or of his party,
and then failed to meet in full meas
ure the expectations that were kindled
in the minds of the people by his
own acts. ' It is known of all men
that the president did not have the
full sympathy of an individual mem
ber of his own political household,
and it is doubtful if there were a
half dozen republican members of
both houses of congress in accord
with him. Yet, with a republican ma
jority of 112 in the Louse of repre
senatives and of 22 in the senate.
President Roosevelt through his own
individual initiative forced legisla
tion through an unwilling congress
through the relentless application of
the whip and spur that his high office
gave him. Roosevelt's power is de
rived from the people, whose will ha
sought to understand, and in a meas
ure, to comply with. During his first
term he incurred the hatred of the
politicians of his own party, and won
f Vl ri Iatta t 1 1 1 -r-r
nomination in 1904 was a political
necessity with politicians that de
spised him, but who chose to renomi
nate him rather, than go down in de
feat themselves. With the people
at his back, the federate patrpnage at
his disposal and the loyal assistance
of the democrats in congress he has
been able to make the politicians of
his own party eat a dish of nauseating
political crow, and between smothered
curses for himself, pronounced the
crow good eating.
Roosevelt's success was the result
of adopting principles that the popu
lists forced upon . the democrats in
1896, and which Bryan stands as the
most conspicuous embodment of in the
nation.
When the democratic party in pow
er from 1892 to, 1896 demonstrated
its utter lack of democratic prin
ciples the scales . dropped from the
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THE INDEPENDENT,
V ' Lincoln, Neb.