An Open Letter
to Omaha Crowd
Notwithstanding we are told \
that county option is not an
issue, the “Merchants and Man
ufactures Association" » ?) of.
Omaha is tiooding Richardson
county with circulars, one of
which reached the hands of
George Watkins of Verdon.
Now, tiiere is only one man on
earth that knows more of the
census report than George and
he is the man that wrote the
book. The Merchants and
Manufactures fake undertake to
prove their case by the census
reports, how well they succeed
is shown by the following letter
which we gladly publish:
“Verdon, Neb., Sept. 21, 1908
—J. B. Haynes, Sec. Mer. &
Man. Ass'n., Omaha, Nebr
Dear Sir:—Either by mail or
through some citizen T have re
ceived a large amount ot litera
ture from you regarding tue
saloon and its traffic and the
best way to manage it. In in
troducing myself permit me to
say I am entirely opposed to a
traffic in alcohol in any form as
a beverage. It may be presump
tious in me, a farmer too old to
work, to criticise your conclu
sions, yet this tact remains, if
you are sincere in wishing the
welfare of humanity as I am,
you will respect my opinion as
I do yours.
So, let us reason together.
I wish first to call your atten
tion to some errors in your leaf
let entitled ‘How Prohibition
Destroys Farm Values.’ The
first error is under the iieading,
’Iowa was hit hard.' Iowa
adopted prohibition twenty-six
years ago and tried to enforce
it up to 1894.’
The fact is that Iowa adopted
prohibition in the fifties, and I
think in 1856, excepting wines
and beer, which law was in
effect until' 1882, when tuey en
acted and submitted an amend
ment to the constitution prohib
iting the sale of alcohol in all
forms. This amendment was
knocked out and her present
law enacted in 1884. Ten years
later, to the shame and disgrace
of the state, she enacted a law
granting the liquor vender the)
right to violate aud set aside
the law of 1884 by paying $000.
Just a word regar dag yor
statement, ‘Tried to enforce,' If
Iowa had a prohibitory law and
tried to enforce it, and did not
then, this is a fact, the liquor
tratic is bigger than the state of
Iowa, and Iowa is entitled to
the aid of the national govern
ment under that clause of the
constitution, granting to every
state a republican form of gov
ernment.
You state the point which de
cided me on this question viz:
The traffic has always set itself
above the law. Grant said,
‘The best wray to get rid of au
obnoxious law is to enforce it,’
They say any law to govern
them shall be defied.
Your statement regarding the
effects of the law on farm values
is still more erroneous. In all
the statements I shall make I
will take my statistics from cen
sus or other government reports.
Just why, if you wanted to cor
rectly inform your readers, you
went to the state auditors re
port in Iowa and went to the
census in Nebraska 1 will leave
you to explain. Iowa like Ne
braska assesses at one-fifth its
actual value. In order to give
you the benefit of the time
when you say Iowa farm values
were so hard hit by prohibition
I will quote from abstract 11th
census page 68. ‘Value of farms
including buildings and fences
1880, $567,430,227 in 1890 the
same were $857,581,022, shaving
an increase of a trifle over 50
per cent. The same authority
gives the value of farms, fences
and buildings in Nebraska for
1^90, $4o2,85*,918, and the ab
stract of 12th census gives ttie
value of the same property tor
1900 at $577,660,020, an increase
of practically 11 per cent.’ So,
you see Iowa was not so badly
hit after all. You ask why I
tike she decade from 1890 and
1902? I aswer because it is the
tirst decade under our present
high license law.
To be sure Iowa shows better
results in that decade than Ne
braska, her farms etc. increased
to the enormous sum of $1,497
554,790 or practically 75 per cent
increase-in spite of the fact that
a few places stultified them
selves and sold the right to vio
late a wholesome law.
As I have shown your error
regarding Iowa, lets turn to our
sister state on the south of
which you say under the head
‘Withering effects upon Kansas’
You say, its rural population
lias decreased, and quote from
the 12th census to prove it. If
you use the abstract, which you
probably did, it is strange that
you did not turn over a few
pages to Nebraska. I concede
your figures so far as Kansas is
concerned. In 51 counties there
is a decrease of 50,000 people
but here are the figures for Ne
braska during the same period,
to-wit; from 1890 to 1900.
COUNTY
Adams, decreased. 5,500
Banner, decreased. 1,300
Blaine, decreased. 500
Buffalo, decreased. 1.900
Burt, decreased. 200
Cass, decreased . 2.750
Chase, decreased. 2.250
Clay, decreased . 500
Custer, decreased. 1,900
Dawes, decreased .3,500
Duell, decreased .'. 200
Douglas, decreased.17,400
Dundy, decreased.1,600
Fillmore, decreased. 1,500
Gage, decreased. 6,200
Hamilton, decreased. 700
Hayes, decreased .. 1,200
Hitchcock, decreased. 1,300
Holt, decreased . 1,400
Keith, decreased. 600
Keya Paha, decreased. 800
Fyimball, decreased. 200
Lancaster, decreased.11,500
Logan, decreased. 400
Otoe, decreased.3,100
Perkins, deceased. 2,600
Polk, decreased . 200
Hock, decreased . 200
Saline, decreased. ... 1,800
Seward, deerrased . 490
Sheridan, decreased. 2,600
Sioux, decreased . 400
Wheeler, decreased. 300
Here is a list of 33 counties
in Nebraska, just two-thirds of
the number that you give for
Kansas, and there is a loss of
about one halt more than you
give for Kansas. You say,
these figures show that an exo
dus of Kansas took place, some
came to Nebraska. If they did
they surely did not settle in
Douglas county. Say, where
did they stop? If you had tak
en the trouble to look you sure
ly would have saved yourself
the humiliation of that state
ment. Page 156, abstract 12th
census gives the population of
Kansas in 1890 at 1,427,096 and
in 1900 at 1,470,495, an increase
of at least 3 per cent. Page 162
same work gives population of
Nebraska in 1890 at 1,058,910
and in 1900 at 1,066,300 or about
three-forths of one per cent in
crease. I should of liked to
have saved us the humiliation
of this exposure. Even poor
old decrepit Vermont in spite of
her sterility, prohibition added,
did better than we did. If you
are not ashamed of our pitiable
increase, 1 am.
Now gentlemen, if you cannot
controvert my statements, and
you cannot, then please come
out in the open and say we want
saloons in spite of its blighting
law defying effects, or we will
join hands with every clean,
honorable man, woman or child
to exterminate it.
Hoping you may see your way
to join with us, l am yours for
the right.
In trying to do this I will
strike it with any club 1 can.
If it is county option, I will use
that, if it is Patrick’s bill, to
make all signers of saloon peti
tion- responsible, l will use
that. Hoping that the right,
may prevail, 1 am yours very;
truly Gkokge Watkins.
FROM THE SOUTH
An Interesting Letter From Swift's
P. O., Alabama
Swift l\ o., Ala- bept. l'», ‘OS. j
-—Elberta Settlement. Calls City
Tribune. Your paper is a wel
come visitor to us every week and
don’t like to miss it because we
are interested in the-affairs of old
Richardson County.
As I promised to write you how
I get along in the south so I will
write you a few lines. We are all
well and like it fine down here
because the climate is excellent,
and farm work is easier than up
north, we don’t get all our field
work together as we did in Ne
braska. 1 find if a man has
money enough to get a good start
he can make good money and take
farm work easy,the same time he
has a much nicer climate than in
northern states. We had good
crops here. Irish potatoes in the
spring made a good yield, corn
made a fair crop, oats was fine,
cotton is good also, and sweet
potatoes will make from 150 to
ISO bushels to the acre.
Some of my friends up there
didn’t believe me when I told
them last year that a man can
make more from a acre than we
can in Nebraska, for instance 1
mention J. Coons,a German farm
er living six miles from my place,
he made $468 clear money from
four acres of Irish potatoes, now
he has sweet potatoes in the same
land, will yield about ISO to the
acre for some of them he got $1 a
bushel, but now they are only 65c
a bushel, yet that man used high
graae fertilizer but he got two
good crops from it this vear.
When I left Nebraska some peo
ple told me a man can make noth
ing in the south because he has to
spend too much money for fertili
zer, this'would be true if we could
raise only one crop from it like in
the northern states, but we can
raise two crops of most of the
crops we raise here. Oranges
and lemons do well here. I saw
some lemons on the trees here
that were as bigftsmy fist. We
had nice figs at our own place
this year. Land is advancing
fast now. We get a new railroad
to Elberta this winter and the
prospects for oil are good. The
oil company is getting their ma
chinery up now and will commence
to operate boring soon. If oil is
found then it is hard to tell how
high our land will be in a short
time. The oil expert which the
company had here before they
commenced operation said that
he is satisfield that oil is here in
paying quantities. The experi
ence with Samatra tobacco was a
great success here and tobac
co will be raised now on a big
scale. Politics are different down
here as I expect them, I thought
everything down here was demo
cratic, but I was badly mistaken.
Most of the natives in the coun
try are republicans and they are
all crazy for Roosevelt. I believe
if Roosevelt had been nominated
again that Alabama would go re
publican this year. Mobile is
strong republican too. We organi
zed a republican party in Baldwin
County and if it were not
that a man has to live in Alaba
ma for two years before lie can
vote, Baldwin County would go
republican this year. The north
ern people come in so fast that it
don’t take very long to throw off
the democratic yoke. The Bald
win County Col. Company sold 75
forty acre farms last month and
15 families settled that time.
Five families came this week
and fifteen homeseekers, so you
see that Baldwin County is set
tling quick. I don't know how
fast other land companies sell, but
our company has sold most of
their land already. Wishing you
much success, I remain your
friend, Herman Koehler.
Women’s Tailored
SUITS
If you have any intention of buying a Suit
this season, do not delay it a day. Our
sale of Suits has surprised us and our
assortment is being very rapidly depleted.
Only about 40 Suits left, but there re
mains a splendid choice. Remember we
have a first class dessmaker now in our
department, who insures PERFECT
FITS on all our Ladies' wear.
Women's Winter Coats
A complete display in Cloth, Plush. Velour, Imitation Fur and Fur Coats, in all the
variation of style is now ready for your inspection and purchase. Any purse can be
suited, as we are showing Coats at almost any price, from $5 up to $50.
Our Cloth garments represent the best values ever offered by
us, at $10 to $20. We have some superb styles. Black will be
tlie prevailing color, as nearly all wear for
women is in dark shades.
i Plush, Velour and Imitation I;ur will be in
k favor and offer not only elegance and beauty,
Pi but the largest measure of wearing value that
Ua money will buy.
spicuous demand.
I Fur Reefers
in 24, 26 and 30 inch lengths, are assuming a
prominent place in this season's vogues. Seal
I Skin has returned to its own and is now the
most wanted Fur among exclusive trade. This
places Electric and Near Seal garments in con
We are showing those at $25, $28, $30, $35,
$40 and $50.
New Shirt Waists
New Tailored Net and Silk
Waists, in latest designs,
are just in.
Underwear
Women’s Vests and Pants, all sizes, 25c, 35c, 50c, 75c, $1
Women’s Union Suits, 50c, 65e, 90c, $!, $1.25, $1.50,
$2 and $2.75.
Children’s Wear in full assortment, in medium weight,
white; heavy weight, white; extra heavy, white and
grey cotton; and medium and heavy weight Sanitary wool, in Pants, Vests and
Union Suits.
| Men’s Shirts and Drawers and Union Suits in all the wanted weights and qualities.
Misses’ and Children’s Coats
Child’s Bearskin, in Copenhagen, brown, champagne, white, green,
red, three, four and five years old, at $2 to $6
Children’s Cloth Coats, in plain and fancies, $1 to $4
Misses’ Cloth Coats, six to fourteen, d* O 50 Sift 50
navy,brown, red, green, fancies....
Misses' Bearskin Coats, natural, brown, CA 1 ^ fffl
red and Copenhagen colors, from.l*w tPlMtJv
Floor Coverings
The largest stock of Floor Coverings in Richardson county is shown in
our up-stairs section. We are prepared to fit out any home in first
class style. Our prices on Rugs, large and small, Ingrain Rugs and
Carpets, Linoleums and Oil Cloths, are decidedly lower than will be
found in citv Department Stores.
Lace Curtains
A very new and beautiful assortment of
medium and low cost Lace Curtains have
just come in. When you “clean house”
come in and see these.
Outings and
Flannelettes
All the very best makes are represented.
Our prices are lower than last year. We
are giving some very remarkable values.
V. G. LYFORD
