THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
FEBRUARY 14,1907
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
ESTABLISHED 1889
rabllahed Every Thursday
OOO V St.,
Lincoln, Nebraska
Entered at tho postofflce at Lincoln,
Nebraska, as second-class mall matter,
under the act of congress of March 3, 1879.
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THE INDEPENDENT,
Lincoln, Neb.
During the year ending" February 1
the money supply of the country In
creased by over $322,000,000. This brings
tho per capita circulation up to $33.9(5,
the greatest in our history. Yet tho
volume of business and speculation Is
fo great as to absorb it all and call for
more.
The movement toward a general two
cent railroad fare is steadily gathei
Ing momentum this winter. The Iowa
house has passed such a bill by a vote
of 100 to 0. In West Virginia the house
has passed the senate bill to the samt1
effect. This is the record made yester
day, with a good many state capitals
yet to hear from.
Nebraska people are not forgetting
that an effective pure food law is one
of the things expected of the present
legislature. The platform of the ma
jority party numbers among the note
worthy achievements of the party in
congress the enactment of a pure food
law. Equally noteworthy in its smaller
sphere will be a Nebraska pure food
law of like tenor.
It required three months to em
panel a jury In the recent Shea trial
In Chicago which ended in a hung
Jury. The second trial of this case
has now begun, and a Jury was em
paneled In just one-tenth the time
taken In the first case. The difference
is said to be due in part to the severity
of the presiding judge in dealing with
the quibbling of lawyers and the eva
sions of talesmen. Public disgust with
the previous performance also had
something to do with the change.
Mrs. "Stonewall" Jackson, widow of
the greatest general but one of thn
confederacy comes into notice in a
pleasant way following the l'ecent
celebration in honor of the centenary
of tho confederacy's greatest general,
Lee. The legislature of North Carolina
proposed to grant Mrs. Jackson a pen
sion ef $100 a month. Mrs. Jackson
Is by no means wealthy, tut -me wrote
a letter asking that tho appropriation
be not made, since that would be a dis
crimination against others more in
need- In this connection it is inter
esting to remember that there arc
100.0'jO living .veterans of tho union
army of the civil war who are ellgilt.e
to pensions but buve never applied.
As noon fi;i the alienists have settled
the Thaw ta.se their attention Is needed
in Arizona. An entire leg-Mature has
apparently iffy. Business has
been deliln-rately sacrilUed. people
driven tit other statcH to trade, one of
the HMUtexl institutions 'f ttu terri
tory drivel out, by a rdngle simpleton
act of h-mMalion. Tit" K'eluture ha
prohibited Kntnbllitg. Thu the ,iy
rplce of life ha been eliminated from
ur most tin onvt tiil'th.t! territory.
ow the leKUU'tote tun Justify It.
rvtulttlonary utt hi ) Mn) Injj one
of the territory's chief enterprises Is
a mystery. Perhaps It expects that
something better will come In to take
the placo of the sacrifice, something,
perhaps, that will create prosperity in
stead of merely transfer it from one
man's pocket to another's.
Under the patronage of the Japanese
government $300,000 worth of cotton
was grown in Korea last year and ex
ported. The area in cotton in India is
this year to be a million acres greater
than last year, with an anticipated
yield of five million bales, about half
the yield of cotton in the United
States. This last report would tax our
credulity but for the fact that the In
dian yield in 1D04 was nearly four mil
lion bales. In 1899 India and China to
gether produced but 607,000 bales of
cotton. That year the world crop of
cotton was 13,110,000 bales, of which
this country produced 11,189,000. Last
year the total was 17,944,000 bales of
which our southern states produced 13,
420,000. We still control the field in cot
ton production, but under the persist
ent efforts of other countries, such as
Japan in Korea, our proportion to the
total yield has temporarily at least,
lessened.
Receiver Gifford of the local land of
fice calls attention to one of the farm
delights of the present season. Mr.
Gifford remembers when hogs sold on
the market in Nebraska for two cents
a pound. lie has just held a salo of
Duroc Jerseys that brought an average
of $43.56 a head. This is no isolated
case, for about the time of his Pawnee
county sale a Washington county
farmer held a sale in which the aver
age price paid was $58.46, one animal
going to a Boone county bidder for
$250. These sales were of fancy stock,
but the market price is in strict keep
ing. It does not take much of a porker
this winter to bring better than 'twenty
dollars on the scales, for Nebraska
hogs are not bred for speed as is said
to be necessary in some parts of the
south. In spite of the continued high
price of corn Nebraska farmers are
producing these high priced swine at
a cost probably little if any higher
than in the earlier day of cheaper feed.
Better stock to begin with and alfalfa
hay and pasture to grow on make the
difference. With hogs quoted close
around seven cents on the Missouri
river markets the price of Nebraska
land does not tend to fall.
Theorizing that the vitality of the
high school fraternity indicates a need
of high school human nature that must
be met, a Chicago patrons' association
proposes a fraternity minus the ob
jectionable features as they now ex
ist. The two leading objectionable
features are the want of democracy
since only a limited few can gain mem
bership in fraternities; and the danger's
involved in their irresponsible secrecy.
The Chicago patrons propose to meet
the social demand for the fraternity
by a properly equipped club for high
school boys, the club to be sustained
by dues, to be in the main under con
trol of the members, and open to all
students of the school. The experi
ment is worth making, perhaps, but
it must be observed that the plan
leaves out the mainspring in human
nature of the fraternity, namely, i's
exelusivcness. If there were enough
fraternities so that tverybody could
belong to one or more, it is n question
whether they would not fall by reason
of their very commonness, their fail
ure to satisfy the demand for personal
distinction and exelusiveness.
Twtnty years ago a considerable
portion of the people of the I'liiled
States awaited the announcement of
the K'ait'l winners- In the monthly
Ioiillaiui drawing with more than
I.. 1.. t .n . t ..ill. k . .
, Hie IIIM'I rm lIIH'll ilOOIIl JC
name proportion of the people now
f await lb 1"som of t prize light. The
j winners wvrv Invested with column of
j fain.-, at the exM-ti of the loiter
I company. Inter lew wer. printed in
the tpr and Uy ttlw.t) (old In
these interviews what use they in
tended to make of their new wealth.
They woudd build a house for Molly
and the baby, of course, but always
received first a generous amount with
which to buy more of those beneficent
lottery tickets. Finally the govern
ment sat down on this form of gamb
ling, and the people turned their at
tention to bucket, shops and mining
stocks. But not all. The Louisiana
lottery, operating from Central Amer
ica, sells still, it is alleged, $200,000
worth a month of lottery tickets in
the United States. We never hear of
it, for the press is not allowed to ad
vertise nor the mails to carry any
lottery business. Tho business is done
mainly by express. Which reminds us
that express companies are now sub
ject to the interstate commerce laws
as common carriers.
Socrates, son of Sophronlscus and
husband of Xantippe, synonym of phil
osophy, prototype of ugliness and the
original interrogation point, was in
the year 399 B. C. condemned to death
in Athens on the charge "firstly, of
denying the gods recognized by the
state and introducing new divinities,
and secondly of corrupting the young."
As Professor Lees points out in his
masterly defense of Xantippe, So
crates prized freedom too greatly not
to be poor. Accordingly he was a
stranger to shoes cr shirt. Moreover
he was in such vogue in Athens as to
threaten to set the fashion. Despite
the virtue sounding charge of impiety
and miseducator made against the
greatest personality of his age, there
fore, a sinister suspicion creeps upon
the student when he reads that one
of bare foot Socrates' accusers was
Anytus, a tanner. And so a news item
of the present week carries us back
these twenty-three hundred years. "A
firm in Athens imported five hundred
pairs of American shoes last year and
sold them readily," says the report.
"The Greek shoemakers became
alarmed, besieged their legislators and
succeeded in forcing the imposition of
a prohibitive tariff duty on American
shoes." They did things more blood
ily at Athens in the days of Socrates
and St. Paul, it seems, but they get
there just the same even now.
Little is said of the matter abroad,
but congress, which is the city council
of the town of Washington, is not a
little troubled by race problems inci
dent to that capacity. Washington is
a southern city, and its adult popula
tion is more than a third colored. Of
course in a national city equality be
fore the law cannot be winked at, and
so the colored people have never had
to complain of any Curtailment of their
privileges. Indeed, some of the white
folks have at times complained that
the usual case tends to be reversed.
The problem that now arises is not,
however, a clash of white and black,
but an attempt to subdivide the race
question on the part of those of inter
mediate race. In fine, the mulattoea
are said to be making objections to at
tending the same school with "black
niggers." The justice of bunching all
negroes of all shades together in the
"Jim Crow" class ha not heretofore
been discussed, but there is evidently
a matter to discuss. Can It be we are
coming to separate schools for mulat
toes, for quadroons, for octoroons, and
for whites, with special compartments
in street cars for each class? Pour;
Isn't that the number of castes In In
dia? Much h s been said against the pro
tection of the infant wolf Industry by
placing bounties on wolf scalps In Ne
braska. So little has been said tn an
swt r exeept to explain that this h one
way to get money Int.. Hr. til.it om,
that many people hate formed the idea
, inai mere h nany no good nt nil In
j th. nystem. They forget the line of
i ivpe, "And pit of pride. In rrrlrm
ii:fnn h'mv, oii iriun is pi in, what,
ever I". I.S light, " In Wlscoiooti the)..
U a bounty of $.. on t, , j,u(r (lf W
. .X -M 11... .lit l - 1
j....-, e i k v v iar county v ,14
recently approached by an Indian from
near Chippewa Falls, who had five
pairs of wolf ears. This called for $100,
an order for which was promptly
handed over. After the Indian had
gone the elerk noticed a strong resem
blance in shape and color among the
five pairs of ears, and a close investi
gation revealed that they were all
made out of a single wolf skin sewed
into ear shapes with wonderful skill
and taste. A man of fine sensibilities
would have been enchanted to think
that so sordid a thing as a wolf boun
ty could be the means of developing
in the untutored savage such artistic
conception and skill , together with
business instincts that a white man
might envy; but this county clerk
lacked in the finer instincts. He sent
the enterprising needlework genius to
jail.
Socialists are fond of saying that the
Rockefellers, Ryans, and other prom
inent examples of money making by
grace of special privilege differ from
their critics only in degree; that prac
tically everybody is fighting for ad
vantage in exactly the same spirit
and by the same methods, but with
less success, hence the comelaints.
This explains, the socialists say, why
special privileges can not be done
away with under the present system.
Every man hesitates to destroy an
other's privilege because he hopes
later to gain it himself.
The Clay county farmers refute this
theory. Under the pretense of dis
tributing rare and costly seeds for the
benefit of agriculture, congress has
u. d government funds to bid for the
friendship of the farmers by presents
of cheap and common garden seeds.
This places a low estimate on the price
of the average farmer's friendship, but
it seems to have given results, for
congress clings to the practice with
all the warmth with which the rail
roads hold on to the right to be gen
erous with railroad passes. Clay
county farmers resent the free seed
distribution as an insinuation that
they are ready to sell their citizenship,
for a nibble at the public spoils, and
in their farmers' institute request that
the practice be stopped. It must be
said in justice to the Nebraska con
gressmen that one of them announces
that he will send no seeds unless
specially requested, and that several
have consistently voted against the
free seed appropriation.
THE FEDERATION OF TEACHER.'
"To obtain for those sen leg and for
those served, all the rights and bene
fits to which they are entitled," is the
announced aim of the Lincoln teach
ers' federation. The movements of the
organization if it prove an active body,
will bo observed with profound inter
est at home and abroad. The pioneer
order of this sort, the Chicago
teachers' federation is a prominent is
sue in trie politics of that much vexed
town. Organized first for the purpose
of bringing the big tax dodgers to
book in order that tax money might
be forthcoming to pay their own
meager salaries, the Chicago teachers
have retained their organization, allied
themselves with tho labor unions, and
under the lead of valiant Maigaret
Haley have wrested the privilege r
saying a few things for t hems-elves re
garding the "rights and benefits" to
which the "servers" are entitled. Tre
mendous opposition has been manifest
ed to the idea of unionizing the tent ti
ers. Nicholas Murray Butler objects 011
the ground that public servant can
not safely hi; trusted to organize for
stilish 1 tnK 'If the teachers im to or
gan! ," h.. says, why n.it the firemen,
ami If the firemen, why not the police,
and If the police, why n.it the army?
Tlon we iiilnht li.Ui the ssctatl- 01
an army striking upon th- ev- ,,r a
battle t, defend the country," t M,
iloilblleN. l,t Would HIV, oil sonic M .11-
day In pt. iid.t r ,. iht find the
machinery t education h!o, k. d l .1
fctu ral teach. rV Mnk. .
lr. Ai..t.-w H. It, ,,.., r iN YrIt
admit H,.. t-aehe,, r,. i,n(s ,, ,
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