The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902, July 28, 1898, Page 2, Image 2
> , * arpx ri ' * 7 JCbe Conservative. A cry for the safety and comfort of their workmen. Incorporated labor organizations le gally authorized have in the same penod brought about a legal Labor Day and made it a national holiday. Commis sioners of labor , state and national , have been designated to gather statistics and to do all in their power to ameliorate the condition of the working classes. Laws have been provided against poor men being blacklisted or threatened by postal cards as to the collection of al leged debts due by them. The public mails and the post routes of the United States have been prevented by law from carrying lottery matter and other devices for getting money from the unsophisticated. Postage has been reduced so that the people get county newspapers free of any carrying cost. Foreign laborers have been forbidden to come into the United States under contract and Chinese emigrants have been entirely shut out. Boards of arbi tration , state and national , have been created for the settlement of labor dis putes. In the same forty years home steads aggregrating more than three millions in number have been gratuit ously donated by the government to those who would enter upon and culti vate them. In the same time more than a million of other farms have been given away to the poor by the government under the operation of the timber cul ture law. Free public libraries have been estab lished by statute in nearly every state in the Union. Institutions for the indi gent , blind , feeble minded , the insane , the deaf and dumb , have been multiplied all over the country in every state in the Union. Hospitals and infirmaries for the sick , aged , and distressed have been improved and increased a thousand fold under this terrible gold standard during the last forty years. What other forty years since man be gan a lu'storic career can show that any nation has created a pension list by which its veteran soldiers are awarded 160 millions of dollars per annum ? Under this same gold standard despot ism hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended for free public schools and universities. And did not the rich , the so-called " classes" - "capitalistic those who own the money and the wealth of the country advocate the establishment of these beneficent institutions ? Are not all these eleemosynary , educa tional and benevolent institutions the result of acquired capital ? These evi dences of a bountiful , abundant and generous charity are visible in every state , county and city of the American Union. With what truth , with what common sense , with what justice can any public man then endeavor to array the poorer against the richer citizens of the Republic ? How can any honest citizen , whether a candidate for office or otherwise , de clare in the face of these tremendous truths that the gold standard has cursed and shrunken the civilization of the last half century ? Under the gold standard , since 1850 , the population of this Republic has more than doubled. The wealth of the people of the United States in that period has multiplied itself NINE TRIES ! I Had the preceding two hundred years recorded on a phonograph all their in ventions , improvements and labor-saving machines for production and distribu tion , they could not have equalled the showing which the last twenty-five years in the United States under the gold standard makes ! ! How has Nebraska been shriveled , and tortured under the gold standard since civil government first found a lodgment within its boundaries on the Missouri river in 1854 ? Then it was more than three hundred miles to a railroad. Then there were not two thousand men , women and children in all the seventy- six thousand square miles which make up the area of this commonwealth. But iu. forty-four years , under the gold stand ard , the material , mental and social con ditions of Nebraska have advanced from the crudities , discomforts and asperities of the furthermost frontier to the eii- virouments , conveniences and luxuries of the most refined modern civilization. The acre of land which would buy only $1.25 iu gold in 1856 will now pur chase from ten to one hundred dollars of the same coin ! ! These are some of the sorrows which the gold standard has brought to the American people in general and to people ple inhabiting the transniissouri country in particular. In another issue this sad ness will be continued. Meantime the prophets of evil and the forcasters of disasters who see so much misery iu the gold standard may look for calamity comforts in some other state than Ne braska. Nearly all healthy and honest Amer ican men and women who think and work acquire character and , fortune which they desire to conserve. Such men and women have faith in the value of permanent institutions. Old and satisfactorily tested customs and laws under which this country has prosper ously developed ought not to bo aban doned or repealed. The frugality and moderation of the lives of our ancestors should bo renewed and perpetuated in their posterity. Plain , economical and just management of public affairs is needed in every part of this republic. Such administration of government will give peace , prosperity and permanence. But ostentatious , extravagant and par tisan management will evolve discon tent , misery and desolation. TJIKK PLANTING The first 11U111- ix NKUUASKA. ber of THE CON SERVATIVE contained an interesting arti cle from a former governor of Ne braska , the Honorable Robert Wil kinson Purlins. In that instructive contribution Governor Furnas states that : "From the date of first practical tree planting to the present there have been planted in Nebraska , two billions , seven hundred and seventy-five millions , eight hundred and thirty-six thousand , two hundred (2,775,836,200) ( ) forest trees. This includes both deciduous and ever green trees , planted purely for forest purposes , parks , cemeteries and streets in cities , towns and villages ; but does not include four million , one hundred and thousand hundred eighty-four , seven dred and ninety-one (4,184,791) ( ) fruit trees , of all lands , together with nine hundred and eighty-four thousand , four hundred and sixty-four (984,464) ( ) grape vines. " Those bewildering figures are furnished - nished the lovers of arboriculture and forestry for the purpose of inspiring them to practical efforts in tree planting all over the American Union. What has been accomplished in Nebraska towards afforestation can be dupli cated by each of the older states in re afforestation. There are many black walnut trees in Otoo county and other fertile parts of Nebraska , which were planted thirty to tliirty-six years ago , that are already valuable for lumber. Tin's nut-bearing tree thrives best when planted in rows running north and south and between rows of cottonwoods or soft maples. The latter act as nurses for the walnut. They shade it from the morning and the afternoon sun. Thus the cottonwood - wood and maple tutors tench the young walnuts to grow upwards perpendicul arly in pursuit of light. And so a better tree , a stroighter body and longer cuts of clear stuff lumber are secured. Trees grown from black walnuts , planted by Colonel Albert Tuxbury thirty-five years ago , along the eastern boundary of the J. A. Ware farm , are splendid memorials , in solid close- grained walnut , to the far-sightedness of that old-stylo Vermont gentleman. Some of them are twenty to twenty-two inches in diameter and of the finest fibre and toughest texture. Too many black walnuts cannot be planted in Nebraska. They always do well hero. The big black walnut grove which Dr. George L. Miller planted , and which now flourishes so beautifully at Sey mour Park , is a monument to his faith in forestry and a perpetual reminder of his intelligent zeal in behalf of Nebraska arboriculture. The largo walnut trees along the north line of the William Hawko farm were planted nearly forty years ago by the original pre-omptor of that quarter sec tion George P. West. And today those trees have a largo monetary value. Plant walnuts ; plant trees 1