Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1907)
fa fa m mm SJESffg. HOME LIFE, AGRICULTURE AND POLITICS r ft fi. Twentieth Year. CURING OF INEBRIATES Hardly less than a public calamity is the failure of the legislature to see the importance of providing for an en largement of the work of the state dipsomaniac hospital and provide the necessary equipment. Probably no other institution of the many in the ' state is calculated to do more real practical good than the dipsomaniac hospital under proper conditions and with proper equipment. While great stress is being laid upon the obligation of society to prevent the making of drunkards, there has al ways seemed to be . a surprising lack of enthusiasm in the work of redeem ing drunkards once made, and yet the one process seems just now as im portant, and a great deal more effec tive, than the other. Ever since the dipsomaniac hospital was established there has been mani fest an unaccountable opposition to it and its work. This opposition has come from most unexpected sources. County commissioners have sought to nullify the law by refusing to send to ..the hospital dipsomaniacs whom, under the law, it is their duty to send thither. Courts have found trifling flaws in the measure and" out at the insane hospital there has been a disinclination to take patients in for treatment. The later condition, however, may be attribut able solely to the lack of facilities and conveniences for such treatment. v Yet that hospital, poorly as it has been endowed and equipped by the slate, has dne some wonderful work in the redemption of men and women from servitude to drug and liquor habits. Many testimonials of its ! efficacy could be produced were the oc casion such as to seem to demand it. It has performed and is performing a real reformatory work that bearsNrich fruit in restored manhood and womanhood, and hos perhaps a " better reformatory record than any 'other institution in the stats. There is no good reason why this dipsomaniac hospital work should not be as important and alluring a part . of philanthropic temperance work as is any other phase of the work which now receives so much commendable attention. It is the most practical work of temperance yet discovered, and it really effectively turns besotted crea tive into useful men and women, re lieving society of the burden of their maintenance and the loathsomeness of their practices and example. Perhaps the sum suggested for the erection of the projWd dipsomaniac building was much larger than was ru-i-ensarv. If It is certainly a tnls- fortune. The tendency In seeking ap- ,,,i,iiutW.ns 14 to nk too much, for which venson one good work N too it. n allowe d to crowd out another. It . tainlv -.-m as If, with compara tively slight expense, room might have i,(,. i,iu ld' 'l lu re or elxewheiv for tho cure of those unfortunate wluitcrure menu fo much lo ih.ui u Individual and to tic xtato us an ci'tnmy, Sunly an lonij to' state uuthoi u. Hi.' of liquor for th making of .It uiiW it N. an I of dniK lhat take in ty lh" lit !tU'M:'f 'd inaiihowl of ji p'''' U l- "' uiiri,ii.iii:ili!.' to ui It at a orl o( duty "f h X v t.i ! 1 v hat It cm to .!I.V" tl- ptihlle t the t'M!d-h that ail-' Iron the H j..lt 1 ft fc'l ".iM t! !Ul. the Itiii! f lh Uobrlil'J W oii of Urn LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, APRIL 4, 1907. things, and the most practical and hu mane of all, that it can do In that direction. It Is perhaps now too lata to Impress upon the legislature the importance of this work, and perhaps the pres sure for appropriations is so strong that it will be unable to accomplish anything, but it would seem as if this work is one that ought to impress it self upon benevolent men and women as one worthy of popular and state support. It is just as important to protect society from the evils of drunk enness in one way as it is in "another, and no way yet suggested has proven Itself so effective and practical as this method of curing drug and liquor ine briates by scientific treatment. THE COST OP LAWS. What does it cost the state to get a law passed? The problem looks easy. Given the cost of electing legislators, of their salaries and all other legisla tive incidentals, divide by the number of laws passed, and the quotient is the average cost of each law. But a different answer Is obtained when we trace individual bills through the legislative mill. At the beginning of the present legislative session a bill for the reform of certain legal pro ceedings was defeated. It was gener ally regarded as a worthy and needed measure. "I could have got it through," said Representative. E. P. Brown, its author, "but I didn't feel like mortgaging my voice and vote for the ret of the session in order to do it." To get the bill passed its cost, in addition to the direct money cost so easily figured out, would have been Mr. Brown's support for other bills regard less of their merit. That Is, he would have bought votes for his bill, paying for them by his own vote for bills which he otherwise would not have favored. This system receives a frank illustra tion in the speech of Representative Clarke of Omaha, whose special care this session has been the terminal tax ation bill. Speaking on the stock yards bill he said: "I have not before during this session taken any part in the discussion of these bills because I was interested in something that meant very much to me and the interests of which I did not desire to jeopardize by antagonizing any member advocating the postpone ment of this bill." That was to say, for the sake of a perfectly righteous and urgent measura thH representative had felt obliged to forego his right to be heard on some other measures. This is not a criticism of the Ne braska legislature nor of any member of It. With public opinion alert, 1cm log rolling has been required in thin legislature to get good laws than prob ably any other In the country. The lo;j rolling method of passing bills in uni versal In state It ijlslatures, and is not unknown In congress. In the eighty million dollar rk bill panned by the lut 1'inutrxK was hidden the pay tor not a Utile of lite xupporl necessary to tho i a ttiini of homo of tho reform law of tho year Itefore, ThU aystem of panning laws will continue, expensive at It It. no lonif tit the luiUitltueaU of a n. mher rare little for hi action with i( feivece to other matter no long tn they K"t thtr own Jlttla "wldHrm k." There l. ftomettilng periomi the mat ter ultli n boy wlt I careful of hl t lotion. PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY A year and a half ago the Philippine people were promised that if they would be good at the end of two years they should have a representative as sembly to make their laws. The Philip pine commission has now been in structed by the president to report whether the conditions have been met. In case the answer is in the affirma tive, elections will he called for some time in July, and the first assembly will meet in September while Secretary Taft is In Manila." There is little doubt that the report of the commission will recommend proceeding with the elec tions. This will place the Philippines on a political footing very similar to that of our other colony, Porto Rico. The Philippine congress will consist of two bodies, the representative assembly chosen by the Filipinos, and an upper chamber -comprising the Philippine commission. This commission consists of seven members, four Americans and three Filipinos, all appointed by the pi-evident. The Filipinos will still bo In ieaciing strings, for nothing the repre sentative assembly does can take effect without the consent of the upper house, which is controlled from, the ' United States. It is. this limitation under which the Porto Rieans chafe. Still more reason have the Filipinos to ask for more power, for the Porto Ricans are not suffering the tariff Injustice from which our "American senate has refused to release the Filipinos. European colonizing powers will take deep interest in this experiment in the Philippines. Most of them have given up all attempts to manage tropical de pendencies by this method. England, for example, tends to the belief that there is no satisfactory stopping place between the colony governed directly by the home government, as the Philip pines have been thus far, and the col ony given practical control of all but its foreign affairs, as In the case of Canada and the Australasian countries. Englishmen will be slow to believe that a people in the heat belt can attain to satisfactory self government, and will expect the United States to be -forced back to the old ground. This experi ment lias not been undertaken as a leap in the dark, however. The Fili pinos have been given increasing influ ence in local affairs from the first. Tho last report of the Philippine bureau of civil service showed four times as many Filipinos as Americans appointed to of ficial positions in the period covered 'jy the report. The Philippine assembly in but one forward step in w hat has been a steady movement, and the hope if not the confidence of this country will be in a gradual progress to a point where it can be trusted with the fur ther ..uthotity for which it will un doubtedly soon be a-sklng. t THK l'OOH MVKnOII, "Jo:in ltrialiri, seventy-three yearn old. blind oral u weU known Inventor died from a broken heart. alleged to hdo been brought on by revenue kuj Ulnod by llUiwtlou brought by him to control hlH patent. Mr. HriMln waa the loveiitio of the famous Itrlslln vln n.te tablo now in um in rolling tui!l throughout tho wort J." This dHp'ttc-h friiri tfttahur doe not r-Utti thi exi.et nature nt Mr. lltitltn' cl.ln. but It -;UM attention I i tt'e ti'irit. norn. n' and Inrqulty of nut' a t.t y.tt .u, Mjnopotiwi uo Subscription $1.00 granted by the government to invent ors theoretically In order that they may have a chance to reap a reward for their fiklll and enterprise. In prac tical operation a reward for invention goes hardly one time in a dozen to tho inventor, who is usually a poor maa and unversed In business ways. Pittsburg is crowded with million aires made out of the steel trust. Th steel trust, according to Mr. Carnegia owes its advantages to patent monopo lies rather than to tariff favors or railroad discriminations. Yet not ona in a dozen of these millionaires ever invented anything. The inventors aro better represented by Mr. Brlslln, whose inventions, they acquire for a song. This cannot be prevented altogether, as it would be unjust to inventors to forbid them to assign a patent; but It would bo entirely fah- to inventor and assignee, while a manifest advantage to the public, If the amount of monop oly advantage that could be enjoyed under a patent were to be restricte'd. Not one inventor in a thousand but would feel amply encouraged in his efiorts were the possible monopoly ad vantages of a patent limited to, say, $100,000, while the public would ba saved being saddled with many long time monopoly exactlpns. This is th'j more desirable now that tho "great in- ; terests watch the patent files in readi ness to buy up in order to suppress patents that would interfere with their monopoly or tend to force them to In stall the improved machinery contem plated by the new device. The evils of the patent system could be eliminated without hurting any le gitimate interest. They cannot remain without doing Incalculable harm to th people of the Ts'nlted States. THK PIUMARY LAW. When candidates for county and state offices come to be named this year and succeeding years, the voters of Nebraska will go to the polls and register their preference for candidates for each office. The candidate for a nomination will submit his claims and make hi.s promises to the man in the fields, on the street, in the shops, for the decision of these men will be final. The citizen with an ambition to serve the public in an official capacity will have to go before the people and con vince them of his fitness. Every man will be a boss, his own boss. No man will be the boss In tho old sense of con. trolling the distribution of offices. This, in a word, is the meaning of th new direct primary Jaw. The act agreed upon gives a genuine direct primary. Very many of the best friends of di rect nominations would have liked It better with the party test eliminated, some claiming that It dlsfranc-hUe4 the Independent voter, but this objection li a qutlou of principle rather than practlre. So long an the president of the I billed States Is elected by the peoplo und exerts his present groat power, government In th United Stale must tm by parties. The only way a cltlx.m can enfranchise himself, therefore, in any case U by exerting hia Influence In tho control of pur tie. .m.i then voting Independently at the polls. There Is nothing to prevent thU lit the direct nrimary law ni now pi.ed. it may offend the Voter of ladepi'n.l-nt .anlniri to have to aiinoun. fonnady a party limitation, but he can afford t ovtMconio tli'M Kcmple for th .;k of the Intln. me lo public affair which dirwt nomination! give hint. After amhlU, when th ldi hxs dh4 tfaw
