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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1898)
Conservative * i stilting prostration of Western property- values , has brought mo to the brink of financial ruin. None the less I have honestly tried to keep my eyes open to the truth and to resist the specious , de lusive arguments which self-interest is always so ready to suggest. Every for ward evolutional change in life and in civilization has brought disaster and suffering to some. Its ultimate effect , however , is to multiply the happiness and the wellbeing of the many. Like their brethren in the South who but a few years ago were eager to sacri fice life and all for their "lost cause , " the men of the West , redeemed from error , will yet live to bless their defeat in this monetary battle. And the younger men , breaking away from the wiles of politicians , and from the soph isms of deceived deceivers , will open their minds to the clear , impressive facts of financial history will realize that the advent of the single gold stand ard had become an inexorable necessity in our advanced and higlily progressive civilization and will appreciate and unreservedly admit the folly and futil ity of fighting evolution. During uncount- ' * ? " ? Htsront globe has been in dustriously revolving among other worlds and stars. During millions of years it has witnessed , and perhaps felt as a dog feels fleas the human race crawling and strutting over its diversi fied surfaces. And if inanimate matter can enjoy a joke , or laugh at a farce , how the rock-ribbed sides of the earth must have shaken and its big bowels undulated in mirth and its whole face wrinkled with laughter at the attempts of the children of men to establish governments. Autocracies in the persons of mou- archs , emperors , despots , tyrants , kings , princes , czars and whatnots ; oligarchies aristocracies , democracies , dulocracies in the form of republics have germin ated , flourished , flowered , fruited and vanished. Long processions of the failures in human government have belted the globe time and again am filled the world with the woes of war But any form of government honestly and wisely administered is a good thing for the people. " Nothing is so bad as no government. Perfect justice can never bo attained by mortals in any form of government God alone can do absolute justice. Mai can only hope to approximate justice And such approximation can only bo attained where- liberty and order are conserved by law. The liberty to labor to aspire , to strive for the best and high est levels in the intellectual and ma terial life of this Republic is the privil ege and duty of every American citizen And those who will not aspire , who wil not make efforts to improve iutellec tually , to acquire wealth of mind , and ; o accumulate material wealth , ought lot to have the same rights and powers 11 government which inhere to the in- ; elligont , the industrious and the suc cessful. The individuals who best im- irove themselves and best care for them selves are best qualified to improve and administer human government. Thrifty and thoughtful integrals , called citizens , are best constituted for ; ho formation and management of that concrete or composite which wo call a epublic , when we talk of governments. And the sooner Americans place a premi um upon ability and acquirements , ipon fitness and adaptation to the per formance of specific duties when they seek public servants the better for our government. Voluble ignorance is too often quoted above the par of modest and reticent merit. The walking , talking delegate is the worst of all the walkers who ever walked and the most pernicious of all the talkers who over talked. He belongs to all trades , is common in all profes sions and is useful in none. He will not work. Ho will not permit others to work except to pay him for showing them how. He denounces all capital. But he yearns to loot the wages-fund , which is the treasury of the laborers , by strikes. He preaches war against capital to all wage-earners. He declares a demand for money universal when it is a mere desire he construes as demand. The walking delegate is a disturber of industrial energies. Ho is a promoter of social and political antagonisms. He may sometimes be an honest idiot. He is oftener a selfish scheming knave. Ho is frequently a real anarchist when ho thinks and calls himself only a Bryau- archist. The original gold A I GKADED DEMOCRACY.bnsls democracy of which Andrew Jackson , Samuel J. Tilden and Grover Cleveland are illustrious examples has ceased for the moment to bo a political organization of great national force. In its stead there poses a party repre senting the massed and disciplined dis content of the Republic. It is fused with the vagaries of all those who op pose the courts , all those who desire more money and less work , all those who believe the government can create values and all those who wish to have government do sometliing to support them , instead of being themselves obliged to do anything to support the government. And yet this deluded and demented mob calls itself the democratic party , notwithstanding the fact that it daren not in 1890 and will not dare in 1900 to name national candidates whom populism would repudiate. In all the northern states this sham democracy takes its candidates and adopts its plat forms in accordance with the dictates of populists. Nowhere except in the south ern states is this foul fusion refused by an organized and alleged democracy. And now Jones of Arkansas distin guished as "an Arkansas gentleman of the olden time" throws up the job of being chairman of the national commit tee and as an attorney in fact , with the power of substitution , sublets his contract - tract for welding democracy to all the fallacies of populism to Coin Harvey and christens the said Coin Harvey "the " while Allen general manager ; , Teller , Altgold and other bimetallic apostles stand solemnly by as sponsors and godfathers for the "General Man ager" of the degraded democracy. The quantitative theory of money is beautiful. According to Towno , Bar- tine , and Monsinger of Indiana , money can bo made so plentiful that one hour's labor will bring more than a whole day of hard work fetches now. And at the Ire / end of a year the wages of a man who re now carries all his money in a trousers' pocket will fill a wheelbarrow. The quantitative theory is delightful to contemplate. Think of the heavenly condition of the dear plain people , when the quantity of money shall have been increased , by the free and unlimited coinage of silver at sixteen to one , so that the heavy wagons , now used for hauling coal and other base products of the earth , will bo loaded with glorious silver dollars with which to pay the _ farmers for cows and corn and pigs and wheat exchanging even up , load for load. Tliink of paradise ! think of the gor geous garden of Eden and all the glor ious luxury and deshabille of Mr. and Mrs. Adam in that home of splendid indolence and ravishing bliss ! Then think of the quantitative theory of money in full practical play in Ne braska ! Money plenty ! Money every where ! Money so abundant and redun dant that men who have no credit now will have unbounded lines of discount then ! Money franked homo to each constituent by Senator Allen as that same great , good and self-adjustable man now sends them squash seeels ! Given the full logical result of the quan titative theory and there will bo free distribution of dollars as there is now of letters by government agents in every town ! More money ! More money ! is the song of Towno , Allen and all the other quantitative theory advocates. In business affairs men get salaried positions because they can do and have done useful work. But in political life they frequently are nominated and elected to salaried offices because they have proved themselves useless every where else. Why not adopt the meth ods of business when voting for public officers ? Why not pick out men who have merit , and records of usefulness , to perform the duties for the people ?
