JANUARY 17, 1907
15
The Nebraska Independent
Summary of News
(Continued)
The" Northern Express company,
Mont., planned to rob Its wagons, hire
armed guards. - -
"'. J
Virtually nothing is being done to
ward counting the votes cast by pol
iyholders in the elections held by New
York and Mutual Insurance compa
nies, although the expense to 'policy
holders is heavy daily.
Capital stock of the Standard Oil
company, an afficial says in New York
may be increased to a figure more
In keeping with the dividends, and
it is believed the stock may be raised
; to $600,000,000.
The headless and armless body of
a man dug up from the East river,
New zone, may ieaa u me uiseuvery
of a murder.
Felix Adler in a lecture in New
York says philanthropy does not ob
viate the evils of sumlus wealth, the
holders of which have no right to
distribute their rcihes according to
their' judgment.
An invalid New York child of two
1 i.T . 1 -.JF
vears is curea Dy me remuviu ut a
rusty nail from his bronchial tube.
Some women in , St. Louis society
are eligible for membership in the
"Ananias Club." say3 Postmaster Wy
man of that city when told invitations
to a reception were lost in the mails.
Members of the conference of for-
J I I 1, 3 V TT ttA
States, and" uanaaa at tneir meeting
in Philadelphia, draft a petition to
President Roosevelt and King Edward
asking them to right the wrongs in-
i mctea on me natives oi tne jongo
State. '
1 Oliver and Bangs the lowest bid-
their ability to do the work.
House committee cuts ten per cent
the amount of the appropriation to
pay the railroads for carrying the
mails.
Friends of reciprocity plan to seek
indorsement of their views at the na
tional convention for the extension of
foreign commerce at Washington.
James J. Hill in a letter to Gov
ernor Johnson of Minnesota, declares
that the railroads must spend $1,100,
000,000 annually for five years on new
tracks to handle the business now in
sight, and raps public hostility, which
frightens Investors.
Tho Standard Oil company, John D.
Rockefeller, H. U. Rogers and others
are indicted 93D times by a grand
Jury nt Flndlny, Ohio, for conspiracy
In restraint tf trade, and may be
fined 5s million dollars.
Justice Levcntrltt of the New York
pupremo romt older & Attorney Git
crnl Jackson to give back tho ballots
case In tho rcent mayoralty election
nnd which ho neled hist week, Into
the custody of the board of flections.
A fanner waited for thf return of
hlrt wlfa at St. Joseph, Mich., shoot.;
her and the .officer who accompanies
her, makes three vain attempts to end
his own life, and expresses regret
because he failed in all three at
tempts. .v -; ' -, ,
i r : . ' '
' Saloon keepers in Milwauke are tak
ing no chances of violation of liquor
law and refuse to serve all persons
who may not be of legal age.
Important laws to regulate railroads
and other corporations, wide primary
law and other reform measures are
recommended by Governor Cummins
in his message to the Iowa legisla
ture, which convened at Des Moines.
Colorado state senate at Denver
defends Simon Guggenheim, republi
can nominee for United States sena
tor, by voting down a resolution to
investigate the smelter combine.
Senator Elkins was nominated for
re-election by the republican members
of the West Virginia legislature,
which is equivalent to re-election.
The president has sent a second
message on the Brownsville affair to
the senate, with report of Secretary
Toft, additional evidence and exhib
its including shells and bullets picked
up after the shooting.
House committee on merchant ma
rine is reorganized to break the, dead
lock on subsidy bill and measure will
be reported.
Minister to Norway Pierve, former
ly assistant secretary of state, is
charged, while representing the Uni
ted States before The Hague .tribu
nal, with acting as counsel forowners
o f pelagic selling vessel.
NOT PRIVATE BUSINESS
(From the State Journal.)
Mr. Hill doubtless intends to use
every dollar of the sixty million dol
lars of capital which he proposes to
add to the resources of the Great
Northern in enlarging the capacity of
the system or in making needed ex
tensions. It is a healthful sign of the
times, however, that he is not to be
permitted to make the deal, if the
state of Minnesota has its way, with
out giving proof of the legitimacy of
his intentions. The new issue of stock
is promised to pay seven per cent
dividends. This is over four million
dollars a year. One day this might
have been regarded as the railroad's
private business, but it is understood
now that a railroad has no private
business. The people of Minnesota
see that this four million dollars in
extra dividends must be paid by the
public, and they do not propose to be
saddled with any such liability with
out lirst being assured that they are
to get their money's worth. When
people have learned that this right
applies to pas, telephone, street rail
ways, express, water and electric light
Ins; companies us wi ll as to railroads,
thoHo able gentlemen who make for
tunes by ballooning public service cor
porations will bo forced to exert their
j'j iiIuh In some wpim' paid, perhaps,
but mere ueftl business.
LINCOLN'S FAMOUS PHRASE
Known for Over Five Centuries, and
Used by Many Men
In his world-famous "Gettysburg
speech" . Lincoln declared that the
men whose monument they were then
dedicating had died in order that
"government of the people, by, the peo
ple and for the people should not per
ish from the earth."
Like lightning the phrase electrified
the nation, and from that day to this
it has remained the most celebrated
saying in the most celebrated speech
of modern times.
But fame always has to pay a big
price for itself, and repeatedly since
Lincoln's brief, but immortal, address
was delivered it has been intimated
that .the martyred president was a
plagiarist, having taken from another
the most striking phrase in his speech
without making any acknowledgment
of the fact.
, To these intimations have pome the
counter claims that Lincoln's cele
brated phrase was strictly original
with himself, and that to Lincoln alone
belongs the honor and glory of having
coined it.
About the fact that the phrase in
dispute was in existence" long before
Lincoln spoke it at Gettysburg there
is no room for doubt. '
Five centuries and a half before
the day of the martyr, president there
lived in old England one of the stanch
est democrats that the race has ever
produced. The name of that old dem
ocrat was John Wickliffe, the celebrat
ed theologian.
Now, in the preface to Wickliffe's
translation of the Scriptures 1324
may be found these" words: "This
Bible is for the government of the
people, by the people and for the
people," which is identical, word for
word, with the famous expression
from Lincoln. . t -
In the year 1830, at a public meet
ing held at Olten, Switzerland, a
speaker named Schinz, in the course
of his address, used this language:
"All the governments of Switzerland
must acknowledge that they are sim
ply from the people, by the people and
for the people."
In an address before the Anti-Slavery
Society of New England, Theo
dore Parker, the celebrated Unitarian
divine, on May 29, 1850, used these
words: "Democracy is a government
of all the people, by all the people,
and, of course, for all the people."
To go a great deal further back than
we have yet gone, we find a Greek
demagogue, of the age of Pericles,
Cleon by name, saying, about the year
420 B. C.j "Men of Athens, I am in
favor of the democracy that shall be
democratic, that shall give us the
rule which shall be of the people, by
the people and for tho people."
The similarity between all these
phrases Is perfect, and it goes without
saying that Mr. Lincoln could not,
therefore, have originated tho famous
expression as found in hia Gettysburg
oration.
It does not by any means follow,
however, that Lincoln was a conscloui
plagiarist. Mr. Lincoln had an ln
quiring mind, and knew a great many
things, hut n man can know every
thing; and It li more than likely that
he had never heard of the phrase un
til his own mind had conceived it.
But even if it was proven that Lin
coln had appropriated the phrase, as
charged, the fact would militate in
ho serious way against his fame.
The greatest of the Germans, the
immortal Goethe, declared one day
to an intimate friend that if every
thing in his works that he had got
from others should be stricken out
he would not have a dozen pages left,
. The greatest of the great in the
fields of literature, philosophy and elo
quence have pillaged right and left,
and that, too, without stopping to
make any acknowledgment of the
things appropriated.
- If the martyr president appropriated
the celebrated phrase in question
without going to the trouble of men
tioning the person - who was kind
enough to have helped him to it, he
only did what the majority of the
kings of thought had done before hiss.
Thomas B. Gregory, in New York
American.
( More Money In It
-
J. H. Hale, the millionaire fruit
grower of South Glastonbury, onn.,
who is known all over the country as
one of the largest peach growers in
the world, is perhaps the only man
in the country who ever "turned
down" a unanimous election as United
States senator. Mr. Hale owns
something like 350,000 fruit trees In
Georgia. It cost him last year nearly
160,000 merely to put his enormous
crop on the market, but . he Is one
of the most delightefully unastenta-
tious men in onnecticut.
He has always been interested in
movements for the betterment of his
town and state. Some few years ago
he was tendered the election as sen
ator "on a silver platter" as he aptly
put it. When waited upon by the
legislative committee, Mr., Hale liter
all held up his hands.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I don't want
to be elected to your august senate.
Really I don't. I'd rather be a far
mer. Besides there's more money in
it." And Mr. Hale, who has gained
considerable prominence as a public
speaker, says he is still "close to the
soil." Boston Herald.
Satisfied
In the taking of testimony, an Irish
man, who was a witness, had been
bully-ragged, by the opposing coun
sel, to the extent that he left the
room furious, and after the meeting
declared: "He wud smash the bla
garrad in th face."
The attorney, whose witness tho
Irishman was, mildly remonstrated
and said: "Why. Pat. If you would
do that you would oon bo sorry
for It."
Pat meditated a few seconds and
then replied;
"Woll. whlnlver Ot d" anything
Mko I hot. thot Ol'm rry for-oi'r.i
dom glad of it." Life.
