Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1898)
22 Conservative , on In Otoo county CULVERTS. and nil through Nebraska , in fncfc , in nearly nil of the Northwestern states the important sub ject of roads and bridges is seldom in vestigated or comprehended. Illustra- tivc of this general and expensive ignor ance Otoo county stands preeminent. Otoe county is eighteen miles wide on the Missouri river and has n depth of from thirty-two to thirty-six miles. It lias been organized forty-tlireo years. In that time the sum of more than a million dollars has been expended in bridges that are now partially or entirely worn out. There is n bridge to every two miles of road in this county. Many of these bridges ought never to have been constructed. In their stead there should have been good , strong masonry culverts , with filling on either side. With the splendid paving brick now made at Nebraska City culverts ought to be put in wherever it is practicable. The county surveyor and county com missioners ought to attend to tin's im portant matter seriously , frugally and in a businesslike way. These officials cannot wake up to their duties in this respect too speedily. And what is true of this county npplies equally to Fre mont county , Iowa , on our east ; to Atchison - chison county , Missouri , on the south- cast ; to Cass county on our north and to Nemaha county on the south of us. Thousands and tens of thousands of dollars can be , and must be , saved to the taxpayers by an intelligent adminis tration of the road and bridge question. iKi ) The cheap style STOCK. of denouncing cor porate capital is always resonantly ex plosive when it discourses of "wa tered stock. " The state may assess a railroad , for revenue purposes , higher and higher each year , because of en hanced earning capacity. This enhanced earning capacity is an evolution of the denser settlement and better cultivation of the lands tributary to the line of road. These lands are constantly enhanced in value because the railroads are con stantly carrying their products to mar ket at useable and reasonable rates. There are lands all through Nebraska which , prior to the advent of the rail road , could have been purchased for one dollar an acre , or taken as a gift by homesteaders , that today readily sell for $50 an acre. This advanced price in lands finds no critics among the farmers who own them , nor do politicians de nounce the farmer for having watered his stock by demanding $50 for an acre of land which the government presented to him in his homestead. The states assesses this land as it does the railroads at a steadily enhancing value. If the state enacts laws forbid ding the issuance of additional stock to represent increasing value in lines of railroad , should it not accompany that legislation with statutes prohibiting the raising of the value of the railroads foi taxable purposes ? In other words , ii the state may , for revenue purposes , pui up the price of a mile of road , why may not the owners of that mile also issue n certificate of stock to represent tl'o same enhancement ? CURRENT COMMENT. Dr. George Shrady , in an article in the New York Sun , has called attention to the danger of ptomaines in food. The ptomaine , it is scarcely necessary to explain - plain , is a poisonous product of decom position , which may come in almost any kind of nitrogenous food when it has been kept too long. During the sum mer season , among the poorer classes , who do not have a sufficiency of ice , the danger is one to bo seriously cousidered. It is not in every case that odor reveals the mischievous agent. Strange to say , too , articles of food , like poultry and game , which have been kept in cold storage , are particularly prolific of the poison. As these forms of food are rare ly eviscerated before going into the re frigerating room , the soft parts decay quickly when they are thawed and the ptomaines find their way into the hard flesh. Oysters and shellfish in general , unless quite fresh and good , are very apt to develop very poisonous elements , even more fatal than meat and ordinary fish. While due care is exercised by the proper officials in the larger cities to inspect the markets and condemn sus picious food , the peddlers and street market men often evade scrutiny. As this is the class which the poor are very apt to patronize for the sake of economy , the threat becomes a dangerous one. Physicians and health officials are dis posed to think that many unnecessary deaths are to bo traced to this cause. In aot weather particularly great care should bo exercised , for many tricky dealers have a way of deodorizing meat , or even the more perishable fish , so as to neutralize the smell of decay. One of the most amusing features of the present war has been the extreme alarm of owners of summer villas along the Atlantic scacoast and of persons or dinarily bent on an outing by the "sad sea waves. " Spain was a terrible giant n few weeks ago , and her fleet big enough to eat that of Great Britain in spite of the statistics of the blue books. Our English cousins have been so eager to keep au couraut with war news that a number of Sunday newspapers , some addenda of the dailies , some inde pendent , have been started. Great wails in consequence have arisen from the nonconformist clergy at this imitation of bad American ways. Queen Christina. The most pathetic figure in the Span ish tragedy now playing before the World is that of the queen regent. She is rather the helpless victim than the agent of the tremendous forces which are rending her adopted country. She became the consort of Alfonso XII with some reluctance , but has filled the role of royal wife and mother admira bly. In every souse this Austrian lady commanded the esteem of the world as a high minded and noble woman. Since necessity made her queen regent her po litical tact in dealing with the difficul ties of government , so far as they were presented to her , in reconciling the al most irreconcilable difficulties of fac tions , has been no less notable. It i& now well known that , so far as Queen Christina dared at the opening of the Spanish-American difficulty , she favor ed peace oven at a sacrifice. Yet patriot ism and prudence combined to make her accord with the passionate pride of the Spanish people. Again and again since the situation assumed a more desperate phase this royal lady has declared her self willing to retire from the regency , to do anything short of sacrificing the rights and interests of her sou , if there by she could remove an obstacle which would lead to peace. Hopeless of Span ish success , all her predilections have been for a prompt and prudent settle ment before American arms should make the ultimate price that fatal "pound of flesh" cut from over the heart. She is the puppet and plaything of destiny , with but little if any control over the factors of the situation. Yet her position makes her the innocent scapegoat of misfortune , though she has had no hereditary responsibility for the blunders and sins of centuries now cul minating to their penalty. The Austrian part in the ruling ac tivities of other lands has been peculiar ly unfortunate. Marie Antoinette per ished on the scaffold under the knife of Sausou. Maximilian expiated his rash ambition before a firing squad at Quero- taro. The last Hapsbnrg contribution to international tragedy is not likely to meet such a fate even at the worst to be expected. But should she retain the throne as trustee for l er son it will bo over a humiliated nation , which will have lost its most precious possessions , a decadent power reduced to the posi tion of a Portugal or a Greece. However innocent she may have been in her share in these woos , she will suffer more in heart and happiness than any one in Spain. Jubilant over our victories pres ent and to come , wo may well accord a generous portion of commiseration for Queen Maria Christina. It is difficult to say whether the volunteers - untoors or the regulars have carried off the honors of the desperate fighting at Santiago. They all fought like heroes in the teeth of an intrenched and des-
