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SJESffg. HOME LIFE, AGRICULTURE AND POLITICS
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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