8
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
MARCH 28, 1907.
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
ESTABLISHED 1880
" .mini I 1 j
Published Every Thursday
000 P St., '
Uncoln, Nebranka
Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln,
Nebraska, as second-class mail matter,
under the act of congress of March 3, 1879.
OMR DOLLAR A YKAH
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TJIK ISDEPISaDKIVT,
Lincoln, Nek.
The threatened abdication of King
Leopold is one of the newest sensations
which the world Is reflecting upon with
magnificent unconcern.
Whatever happened to those lost
plans of the battleship Nebraska, Cal
ifornia will always believe - that an
emissary of the mikado stole them.
Great Britain proposes to abate not a
Jot of the tightness of the tight little
Isle. The war lords In parliament voted
against the tunnel beneath the English
channel in fear pf invasion by that
route. The peace advocates voted
against it in fear that such a subway
would give excuse for more battle
ships. That made it practically unani
mous. Mosquito extermination by the use
of petroleum has not proved the suc
cess it at first promised to be. In
New Jersey the expense of keeping
the stagnant pools coated with oil has
been found prohibitive except in mil
lionaire localities. Drainage, the
method of permanent extermination,
is regarded as the only genuine way
of escape.
American workmen who clamor for
more Sunday amusements may be in
terested in the strike now in progress
In Paris among shop employes to se
cure the Sunday rest promised in the
new French regimen. In the end, the
man to suiter most heavily from a
general abandonment of the old-fashioned
American Sunday is the one who
works with his hands.
Horace George Raynor requested
William Whitely to lend him some
needed financial assistance. Mr. White
ly refused. Thereupon, according to
Raynor's evidence, he felt his blood
surge to his head and the next thing
he knew Whitely was dead. Here was a
"brain storm" if ever there was one,
but three months later Kaynor is un
der sentence of death for murder. This
occurred, in England, of course.
Boss Ruef avers that the present at
tack upon him and his San Francisco
officials is nothing more than on at
tempt to seize the municipal govern
ment. This Is unquestionably the true
analysis. Ruef has it. Somebody Is try
ing to "seize" it away from him. That
Homebody may be merely another crew
of pirate like hi own, as sometime
happen. But It looks more like an at
tempt to "selae" it for its rightful pos
sessors. A chuckl of antlsfactUm will follow
the publication of the news that im
mediately after the Krte road an
nounced a suspension of improvements
on account of the attitude of the leg
islature at Albany It Hock began a
plunge down the toboggan. Inveatoi
and speculator alike eem to have con.
eluded that the road wa badly nun
atcd or wm Jo a critical condition U U
could not stand the mild degree of
regulation proposed by the New Tork
assembly.
Fifty thousand dollars is being
raised by subscription in Portland,
Ore., to secure the services of F. J.
Heney and Detective Burns to do to
Portland graft what they have done
to Jand graft and are now dofhg tto
San Francisco graft Is the time com
ing when cities in search of settlers
will have to , produce character cre
dentials stamped something like this:
"Investigated and guaranteed free
from graft and official mismanage
ment by the Heney bonded good gov
ernment guarantee company?"
Seventy-nine out of 125 republican
members of the Massachusetts legisla
ture announce themselves in favor of
Roosevelt for another term. This sen
timent will grow and continue to find
expression throughout the country as
long as a fear exists that the move
ment to nominate an anti-Roosevelt
candidate has a chance to succeed. The
interests that would least like to con
tinue Roosevelt in oflice should write
it in their check books that the surest
way to force him to run is to create
an alternative between Roosevelt and
a candidate of their picldng.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who died last
week at the ripe age of seventy, prob
ably belongs with' the number who,
while not ruined by wealth, were at
least prevented by it from achieving all
that their natural abilities seemed to
warrant. In his later life, when the
time seemed ripe for greater work than
he had already done, easy circum
stances and a reduced activity of pen
came together, Of course it is only
conjecture to say that had he been
pressed by necessity int6 greater ac
tivity he might have won rank as one
of the major American authors.
t
Pine for the warm spring days as
we may, the warm wave that has
visited Nebraska, and most of the
country besides, has been any
thing but welcome to those who
look into the future. Fruit buds
are confiding things, and respond
to the advances of a fervid March
sun and and south wind as readily
a3 to the coaxing warmth of May.
After the forcing weather of the last
week April colu snaps will be regarded
with a great deal of apprehension by
people who depend for their winter
pleasure on a cellar full of apples.
That famous pulp ceiling in the Al
bany capitol has apparently been out
done in the Pennsylvania state house,
where it has been found that lacquer
was substituted for gold plate on the
electrical fittings, and where domestic
glass costing $27,329.00 was used on a
piece of work calling for French cut
glass for which the state paid the con
tractor $138,757. " The architect seems
to be in hot water over this glass item,
for he certified that the imported arti
cle had been supplied. The American
manufacturer identifies the glass, and
tells to a cent what he received for it.
Since January 1 the price of oil of
lemon has advanced 50 per cent. A
like increase has taken place in the
price of vanilla beans. This seems to
bear out the contention of the oppon
ents of the pure food law that the law
would be a blow to the poor. The
fact Is that the poor and the rich
can now buy somewhat cheaper than
they could then what sold at low prices
as vanilla and lemon extracts before
the law was passed. Only it is not
labeled vanilla or lemon. A cfcuvasu
of the drug trade disekwe that tho
Improvement In the quality of drugs
sold now Is on the average more
noticeable than the increase in price.
Under the provllon of the law es
tablishing the Philippine agricultural
bank Inventors are guaranteed a 4 per
cent profit by the government. Not
withstanding, American Investor are
falling to tike up the project, and the
rai.lc b apparently to be established
with Eng!Hh capital. ThU mAn that
AtiMMkiui investment are still attract
ive of American capital, notwithstand
ing the alleged damage to railroad in
vestments by regulative legislation. It
seems to mean moreover that Ameri
cans are indifferent to or skeptical of
the value of Philippine trade. They will
find that British capital in the Philip
pine bank will tend to draw Philippine
trade to Great Britain.
Mr. Evans suggests permitting voters
at the direct primaries to act directly
with reference to proposed platform
principles, as a "means of bringing the
platform nearer the people than a plat
form made by delegates or candidates
might be. This verges so closely upon
direct legislation that the thing to do,
granted it were , desirable to go the
length suggested by Mr. Evans, would
be to provide the initiative and referen
dum in its completeness as Oregon and
Oklahoma have done. So long as we
are to trust iaw making to representa
tives, however, there seems no safer
way to piocee'd than to elect or defeat
them on their own promises as to what
measures they ' will favor or oppose,
that is, on a platform made by them
selves. Thomas F. Ryan leaches solid ground
when he declares that the railroads
"should be taken out of Wall street and
the stock quotation tickers should be
taken out of the railroad olCces. The'
practical railroad men who are charged
with the responsibility of operating the
railroads should be in absolute con
trol." -
One of the stinging charges made by
Albert Shaw against the men who con
trol the railroads of the United States
is that they spend their days in pro
moting their private fortunes in. Wall
street and their nights in pleasure in
the city of New York. Mr. Ryan is
right and Mr. Shaw is right. The time
is at hand for a complete reorganiza- j
tion of railroad management in the
United States.
Karl Klein, an Auburn butcher, pro
posed to ship a quantity of lard to a
Missouri customer. The railroad com
pany refused to take the shipment, on
the ground that under the packing
house inspection law the lard would
have to be inspected and approved by
the government before it could legally
be made an interstate shipment. The
national government seemed all at
once an exceedingly impertinent
meddler in people's private affairs, and
Mr. Klein appealed to the secretary of
agriculture for relief. He has re
ceived notice that shipments by farm
ers and retailers made directly to con
sumers do not come under the inspec
tion law. Ah opposite ruling would
have created no end of inconvenience
to communities near state lines.
Senator McKesson's bill requiring a
large degree of nublieity in grain prices
has met with some opposition, but of
a character to commend . the measure
to the average farmer. It is a short bill
requiring grain dealers to send on a
postal card to the state department of
commerce and labor a statement of the
prices they are paying per bushel for
the principal cereals. The tax imposed
upon the dealers is not more than one
cent a day for the postal card required
for the report. If it were necessary to
pay tl:is expense out of the public
treasury it would prove a good invest
ment, for nothing will do more to curb
the ambition of dealers and railroads
than the publicity involved in this sys
tem of reports. When the railroad rates
arc published in comprehensive and un
derstandable form and the prices paid
for grabi at each station are put into
tables by the labor bureau it will be
possible to do away with many discri
minations that have been allowed to
exist In the pat under the shelter of
general Ignorance of th ubjct. The
bill looks la the right dilution.
Injunction proceedings av been
undertaken In Ohio to prevent stock
and bond Inflation of a number of
K"- companies, Including the one
Mrvtnfr Nebraska City. A holding
rompar) Im leen fonred which It Is
alleged Intends to bond the various
companies at more than their value
and sell these bonds to the public.
Should this deal go through and the
cities affected afterward attempt to
base the price of gas on the cost of
furnishing it these purchasers of in
flated bonds would lose and the cities
would be charged with assailing the
rights of property. The man who
takes a mortgage on a farm or a town
lot of more than the property is worth
shamefully pockets his- loss in quiet,
hoping nobody will hear of his fool
ishness. When he takes a - mortgage
on a gas plant or other public service
property of more than the property
is worth he calls it a bond and ex
pects the public to underwrite . his
venture by making rates high enough
to make him whole. That, at kast,
was the system until lately. Both
cities and bond buyers tend to learn
tftter nowadays.
Nominations by the voters only in
extraordinary cases is the ideal of the
opponents of the direct primary in
Iowa. It seems they do not dare de
feat a direct primary law and yet can
not btfng themselves to favor a direct
primary that is such more than in
name. It is the Illinois trick over
again. In the state senate the bill has
been amended to provide that nomina
tions shall be by convention wnen the
highest candidate receives less than a
given percentage of -the total vote.
By bringing out a sufficient number of
favorite sons a political machine could
then nearly always throw the nomina
tion into a convention whose action
they could manipulate with almost all
the eclat of old times. In a conven-
tion a candidate with one-twentieth of
the delegates instructed for him can
swing a nomination in case there are
candidates for ten other offices each
with a twentieth of the delegates to
use as trading stock. A ticket can
thus be made up of men not one
of whom has received the endorse
ment of over five per cent of his
party. The advocates of this system
are nevertheless profoundly shocked at
the thought of candidates being nomin
ated by direct vote with anything less
than a full majority of all the voles.
Secretary Taft, the statesman who
has legitimized the junket, will start
from Charleston today on one of his
justly celebrated tours. Three exceed
ingly important problems of x states
manship now confront the administra
tion from tho outside and Mr. Taft is
trusted as no one else to cope with
them. The canal work is one, and the
canal is one of the big war secretary's
objective points. Either going or com
ing he will visit Cuba and lqnd the
great strength of his personal presence
to the second problem, that of getting
the crippled republic on its own legs
again. He will doubtless glance in on
Porto Rico en route. He will barely'
have time for these chores when it will
be necessary to start for the Philip
pines. He has promised the people over
there, who regard their former gover
nor as their best American friend, to
be present and help at the christening
of the new representative assembly
which is to be born in September. Pos
sibly the secretary will stop at Samoa,
certainly at Hawaii, and perhaps at
Alaska on the way. This .will make his
trip cover all of the American posses
sions. Needless to say the next presi
dent will have a great grasp of col
onial affairs if his name is Taft.
It is not quite a Phoenix which we
eoe rising from the ashes of the Boer
republic. The assembling- of a half Boer
legislature within five years of the exile
of Oom Paul Kruger may be said to be
a esse of Thoenix minti a few tail
feathers and with Its wings clippod.
In place of Oom Paul there Is Lord
Selbourne, representing- a British hlirh
commissioner the exting-utehrs of the
Boer nation. But beside him stan.M
General Botha, the best general of thn
Bor In that struggle, and Bo
tha as prime minister will wield
nn Influence which while not
a great a that of the al
most dtjapotlc Kruirer, will yet proba
bly be greater on the whole thau that