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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1898)
i * . < - - ! Che Conservative. Yf T VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , OCTOBER 27 , 1898. NO. 16. 0 PiniLlSIIKD WEEKLY. OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE 3LOUK. .T. STERLING MORTON , EUITOK. A .1OUHNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OK POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One dollar and a half per year , in advance , postpaid , to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made payable to The Morton Printing Company. Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Neb. Advertising Rates made known upon appli cation. * Entered at the postollico at Nebraska City , Neb. , as Second Class matter , .Tuly 29th , 18t8. ! There are so discourses de nunciatory of the money power issued and uttered every day in the United States that one who believes them must shudder at the idea of that persistent industry and frugality which at all times and in all places are founding wealth for their disciples. No man or woman of intelligence and good health vho is industrious and self-denying from the beginning of adult life can fail of competence in the United States when middle life or age lias been reached , except by accident or misfor tune. And all self-respecting persons are anxious to achieve a competence seas as to be not dependent. Consequently all such 'self-reliant citizens are by deeds constantly invoking the power of money for their own protection against want in old age. Life insurance perhaps better than any other development of modern times il lustrates how beneficent the power of money may be made in repairing the loss of the father and husband whoso earnings supported the wife and children from whom death has suddenly separ ated him. The great life companies of the United States expend annually mil lions upon millions of dollars in caring for widows and orphans. Each year they cause the power of money to pre vent suffering , to assuage desolation and bring comforts and competency to fami lies that would otherwise bo in the depths of destitution and despair. Who is so widely partisan and populistic as to desire to drive out of business in Ne braska , Iowa and Kansas , and in fact out of existence in the United States , these vast stores of money the power of which is always exerted for the alleviation of human suffering and sorrow V Read proposed legislation in nearly all the Western states regarding these benevo lent incorporations and .you will find what political organization is endeavor ing to annihilate sound life insurance ! Colleges and universities also repre sent the power of aggregated capital. During the year 1897 there was be queathed to these institutions in the United States more than a hundred mil lions of dollars for their firmer establish ment and maintenance. These bequests were possible because somebody had been industrious and self-denying enough to accumulate them and make them to illustrate the danger of the money power to "the plain people" for whom it seeks to provide the means of higher education. But our common schools in Nebraska which have also a most liberal perma nent school fund , which is drawing in terest , night and day , out of which teachers and other expenses are at least partially paid , likewise illustrate the operation of the money power and its re lation to the plain people. Without these vast accumulations of money how could life insurance and ed ucation for "tho plain people" be so in expensively provided , and placed within the reach of all who desire and deserve ? Without incorporated capital how could railroads be constructed and op erated ? Without railroads how could trans- Missouri river farms be cultivated and their teeming surplus sent to market ? Without the money power how would invention , authorship , skilled labor , ag riculture and manufacture bo stimulated and rewarded ? Without the power of steam or water applicable to its machinery of what value is a grist mill oven in the midst of abundant cereals ? And without the power and push of money to reward it of what use is intel ligent labor and skill and industry ? May the money power and intelligent labor power remain forever partners in prosperity ! Self-forgetfulness is the first duty of the patriotic public man when ho dis cusses a question involving the institu tions and permanent welfare of the Re public. No statesman can consider first his own personal popularity and the needs of his countrymen and the Repub lic afterwards. Man's first duty is to his native laud and his second to human ity in all lands. A marked weak- TIIKY miKAU TO UK ALONK.11(3SS m the Public men of the United States is their almost universal dread of being alone. Nothing frightens the average statesman in this country so much as to find himself alone in the sup port of a great truth or principle , which in a moment of uncontrollable vehe mence , he may have proclaimed to his party or the whole people and had re jected. This idea of being with the crowd herding with the majority per meates all the politicians of the partisan organizations of the different states. And never until the present discussion as to whether the Republic had better or better not add to its citizenship , besides the already secured lepers of the Sand wich Islands , millions of half civilized , hybridized and inferior beings in the Philippine and West India Islands , has this fear of being found alone with a principle or a truth which the multitude repel , been so visible amidst the official ism and officeseekingism of the United States. Moral courage seems to have been pretty thoroughly bred out of the male mass of humankind. The custom of ascertaining the trend and tone of the mob and following the same , while pos ing as a leader , has so long obtained that it has become a sort of second na ture among American politicians. And the voice of the slums and sins of great cities , although known to be the utter ance of ignorance and crime has been and continues to be accepted as the Vex Jni for patriots in pursuit of ballots that may place them in offices. The oft- repeated lie that "a majority is always right" has come to bo regarded as a social and political axiom. And as a majority are sinners , tinconnected with any religious faith , many have seem ingly concluded that wickedness is therefore , especially in public matters , more popular and valuable than straight forward truth and honesty. In view of the above plainly stated and generally admitted facts , and while the country is elated with its victories , by sea and by land , over the stalwart and splendid soldiers and sailors of Spain , why not take up the necessity of moral courage for the preservation of a free and useful government ? West Point and Annapolis perfect the youth of the country who are there schooled in all the arts of war. Physi cal courage is coached , exercised and