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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