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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 1907)
8 THE 27EBRASKA INDEPENDENT MARCH 14,1907. THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT ESTABLISHED 1889 Pabllshed Every Thnnday 000 P St., Lincoln, Nebraska Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, as second-class mall matter, under the act of congress of March 3, 1879. ONE DOLLAR A YEAH Subscriptions All remittances should be sent by postoffice money order, ex press order, or by bank draft on New York or Chicago. Change of Address-Subscribers re questing a change of address must give the OLD as well as the NEW address. Advertising Hal en furnished upon ap plication. Sample Copies sent free to any ad dress upon application. Send for samplo copies and club rates. Address nil communications, and make all drafts, money orders, etc., payable to THE INDEPENDENT, V Lincoln,' Neb. Reports from Kansas Indicate that the legislature at Topeka thinks It has passed a drastic anti-pass law. The persons allowed to go free "are about the same as provided In the national railroad act." Things are In such shape In Nebraska that It would be regarded as something of a railroad victory were the legislature here to pass bo lax a law as that. Although the railroads are opposing the extension of freight carrying privi leges to trolly lines in Pennsylvania and other states where the question is up, it remains to be proved that the freight-business of the railroads would be greatly injured by allowing subur ban trolley lines to carry freight. It would probably be rather a saving of horses, and would perhaps injure the trade "in wagons and buggies. Alter Dauoomng stocks io a point where a reaction was Inevitable, the railroad managers are pointing to the present depression as a sign of the trouble that is certain to follow further "radical legislation." But if the decline in stock could be traced directly to two-cent fares and other legislative acts, the country would not be fright ened. A decline in stock values to something approaching the real value of the properties is rather to be de sired than otherwise. Attorney General Jackson of New York i3 engaged in an effort to head off a supposed movement of the Bell Telephone company to absorb all the telephone business of the state, in cluding the Independent companies. It was to be assumed that the rival in terests Avould consolidate as soon as It became evident that one could not destroy the other, but the consolida tion era arrived sooner than was ex pected. The defeat of the Sunday baseball idea in the legislature will naturally givo an impetus to the movement to make the Saturday half holiday,, gen eral in Nebraska. Instead of increas ing the number of days when men are required to work the present day ten dency is to give nil classes of workers a full day on Sunday for rest, and as much time during the week as possi ble for recreation and amusement. The Saturday half holiday is an almost necessary feature - of this program. Eastern financial writers predict that Ave per cent for western farm loans, the rate current in '.Nebraska now. will bo too low before long If railroad and other corporation paper ts to continue at lx Pr cent. This assumes that the money now In the weft will be drawn eastward to meet tho demand at higher rates from thoe source. To date In Nebraska there has been no sign of such a thing. I.ong time Uims at live per cent n eastern Nebraska land wilt by many people be preferred to any other security tven at slightly higher rats. It should not escape notice that the head of the weather department, Pro fessor Moore, went through a hostile investigation at the hands -of the mi nority of a congressional committee and came out with a substantial en dorsement. The principal point of at tack was the creation of a station called Mount "Weather, Va., for the advanced study of meteorology. Con gress has agreed with the chief of the bureau that it is time for- a serious at tempt to extend the boundaries of our knowledge of the weather, and that an institution of this kind promises to be effective in that direction. Assistant District Attorney Hehey who is trying to try Ruef in San Fran cisco, declared his undying contempt for Judge Ilebbard's court, alleging that the Judge was. drunk and In col lusion with Ruef's attorneys in making a certain ruling. In case Judge Hebbard cites the attorney for contempt the case, will be a worthy spectacle. Senator Patterson through his news papers accused the Colorado su preme court of corruption, and was fined for contempt, being refused op portunity to prove his charges.' Judge Hebbard, as soon as he gets over his last spree, might with equal facility, it would seem, make Heney sweat for his attack on the judiciary. The railroad managers never seem to overlook an opportunity to rasp the public with petty annoyances like the decision of the Union Pacific to charge three cents a mile all the way to west ern Nebraska just because the main line dips down into Colorado for a few miles. This is held to make a journey that begins and ends in Nebraska an interstate affair. The railroad men who grasp at these opportunities to make trouble for themselves succeed admirably in showing that they have neither the capacity nor the breadth of view to make them fit stewards for so important a matter as the transpor tation of the people. The manufacturers of ingrain car pets are suffering from the prosperity of the country, and the prevailing taste for higher priced carpets and hard wood floors and rugs. They are form ing an organization to standardize their goods and sell them through a New York agency under a uniform label. This tag they are arranging to make familiar to the public through a newspaper advertising campaign. It is hoped in this way to restore the old time popularity of this sort of floor covering. The battle seems to have been lost in the cities and towns, and this campaign is to be conducted in the country. The rural newspapers are to receive the bulk of the first advertis ing appropriation. Chinese coolies will not be employed by contract on the Panama canal, at least not now. Until the army engin eers have had time to grasp the situ ation presented by the determination to have the engineer corps manage the digging of the canal no important changes In policy could well be adopted. This and the fact that there arc now 25,000 men at work on the Culebra cut, enough to make surpris ingly rapid progress, are no doubt among the factors leading to the re jection of the bids. Should it prove possible eventually to get all the labor needed from the United States and the West Indies It may safely be as sumed that there will be no resump tion of that plan. Marshall Field was not satisfied to relinquish control of his fortunte at death. Under an Illinois law provid ing that the absolute ownership of property must vest within thd period of a life or lives In being and twenty one years thereafter, he was able to tte up the bulk of his property for a pniod f something llks fifty year. Hence thers Is to bs a great ertate automatically adding to Itself and to puss ultimately an enormous amount to same remote heir. The legUUturs has tiWen a hint from this and pro poses a law forbidding the disposal of property In such manner as to al low It . to accumulate for a period of over twenty-one years, or during the minority of any person living at the time of the death of the devisor. The change is a mild one,, but It indicates the drift toward a closer examination of the social meaning of inheritance laws. Observers In the south claim that 200,000 northern people have settled there in the past twelve months Whether the number Is correct or not, it Is inevitable that the pressure of high priced land In the corn belt must in a measure overcome the re luctance of migration to -take a di rection transverse to the parallels of latitude. It has in fact done so to some extent in connection with the Canadian migration, and now that there is little left to that movement it can hardly fail to extend southward. Some of the best land in the United States lies uncultivated or half cul tivated in southern states. No doubt the president will give Mr. Harriman and other railroad magnates plenty of additional opportunities to "be good" before the expiration of his term of office. It is intimated in a recent dispatch from Washington that "The president has some very positive ideas about further reform in the postal service, especially in the second tation contracts are handled. The con ditions prevailing there are said to be little short of scandalous. The rail roads have been greatly favored. The president wants a'change in the thou sands of contracts. This matter will have much of Mr. Meyer's attention assistant's office, where mail transpor for the next'few months." . Nine million acres of corn are planted in Iowa every year, estimates an Iowa paper. It adds that each acre produces not less than ten tons of corn stalks and every ton of corn stalks will yield 130 pounds of alcohol. There is here then 1,844,000.000 gallons of alcohol to be gained in Iowa from what would be otherwise a waste product, enough to run all its factories, steam cars, stoves and traction engines. All this is very pretty and the western farmers will be foolish not to advance as fast as pos sible to the utilization of this force. But commercial methods change slow ly, and it will be long before there is a market for all the alcohol to be made from all the corn stalks in the state of Iowa. There is still found occasion ally a man who writes with' a quill pen, and some farmers in Iowa still swing a pump handle for hours every week because they have not the apti tude to harness the winds for pumping their water. There will be farmers to burn corn cobs long after there is al cohol enough to heat their houses cheaply and do their cooking a thou sand times more conveniently. Will J. Davis, proprietor of the Iro quois theater which burned over three years ago with a loss of six hundred lives, is now on trial at Danville, Illi nois, for manslaughter. His failure to obey the regulations for the safety of theater patrons in building the Iro quois theater is the ground for the charge. Two years after the original indictment was found the process of drawing a jury is beginning, tho in tervening time having been consumed in legal quibbling. Some advantages may bo discerned in the long delay. In tho heat of feeling following tho dis aster of December 30, 1903, it would have been well nigh Impossible to secure a Jury of the requisite Ignor--ance and want of opinion to try tho cane. Moreover, public opinion has cooled sufflckntly by this time to ad mlt of a trial without an outside de mand for the. punishment of some body, anybody. Had the trial been de layed a few years longer till a new generation of theater builders arrived on the stage, the additional rnt would be served of saving tht expense of a trial altogether. An ancient Greek book makes two of its characters, strangers, meet in a social way. "Are you a pirate?" asks one courteously by way of opening the conversation. So we see how standards change, for pirates of the maritime sort are no longer welcomed In polite so-- ciery. Anotner mnstrafion even more striking because of the quickness of the change, is afforded by. last week's proceedings in the Nebraska senate. Hardly more than two years ago to ask a man, "have you a railroad pass?" was equivalent to asking, "are you a man of Influence, are you prominent in society and politics and business, do your neighbors hang upon your words and follow your advice, and can you deliver your ward or county in the con vention?" Then men flashed their passes as now they flash their dia monds or their honorable titles and now the senate has voted to make the possession of a free p,ass the mark of a criminal. When the United States supreme court held the Nebraska flag law to b valid Illinois was given a glimpse of what she misses by not being allowed to appeal from the decisions of her own courts. The state of Illinois once had a law of the same purport as the Nebraska flag law. As in the case of the Nebraska law, the act was assailed in the state courts. The Nebraska su preme court sustained the law, giving the suitor a chance to appeal to the federal supreme court. The Illinois court decided against the law, and as the state could not appeal from the de cision that ended it. According to the present status of the case, the United States admits the authority of the state of Illinois to protect the flag from defacement, while the state's own courts deny that it has that power. In case Illinois should re-enact '.he flag law .it would be a matter of some interest whether the state supreme court would reverse itself and sustain the decision of the highest court. While the Rhode Island legislature is entering uton the third month of a senatorial deadlock the Missouri' legislature is completing the passage of a direct election, law. With the two deadlocks of the winter a warm mem ory, no state in which the inhabitants nave any considerable political influ ence or intelligence the two com monly go together can well refrain from doing as Missouri Is doing and as numerous states .have already done in thisrespect. In New Jersey the de feat of an objectionable candidate was, as usual in such exigencies, not re lated to the success of an opposition candidate, but resulted merely in the election of the next best friend, politi cally, of the defeated candidate. In Rhode Island where thirty-odd ballots have been taken they are considering throwing over all candidates who were known as such before the election and selecting a dark horse, as was done in New Jersey. Meanwhile, since Mon day noon Rhode Island haa had but one senator. Teamster Hamilton of Omaha, who pulled a horse's . tongue out in order to stimulate its movements, owes the resentment of the law and public opinion very largely to a man who is yet living. George T. Angel of Boston began to plead against cruel ty to animals before public sentiment had fairly set Itself against cruelty to human slaves. With several associates be founded the Massachusetts society for the prevention of cruelty to animals in 1868, and his little paper, "Our Dumb Animals," which Is still devoted to de fending the rights of dumb creatures, was established In that same year. Not long sgo a scheme mi broached In the Massachusetts IcgMatiire to Increase the lleepe on do t live and ten dollars according t s. A hearing was called on the bill, pa In being taken that Mr. Angell should not know of it. in some way h- re ceived n hint f what was ung on. and dragged hi elKlity ven. year-old hotly, to the garret of the rnpltol to eonfuM ths scheme by his opposition.