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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1898)
"the Conservative. ( those only excepted , who are not able to support -themselves in any | < t community ) may live within his income , and thereby preserve his inde pendence. If a man is poor , his taxes are small , unless he holds an estate which he cannot pay for. In such case he docs not own it , and therefore ought to let the owner take it. "Industry and economy will forever triumph over hard times , and disap point poverty. Therefore , the general cry , that we cannot pay the taxes and live , is absolutely false. "It is true , wo feel , and we ought to feel , some difficulties in paying for the glorious prize , independence. The ! taxes will bo only temporary but the prize immortal. And he is unworthy of freedom , wrho repines at paying his money , when so many patriots and heroes have laid down their lives to pur chase it for their country. "I shall conclude with an extract from a sermon preached by a sound divine : " 'The scarcity of money is the only thing that will save this people. This alone can produce industry and eco nomy , without which no people can be virtuous and happy. This is an univer sal truth , applicable to all people in every country. It is impossible to be happy without industry , economy , and virtue ; and as experience evinces that these are produced by what we call hard times , or the scarcity of money , we ought certainly to be thankful when we see the causes of public happiness oper ating.Therefore , let this circumstance excite in us gratitude to a kind Provi dence , for connecting future prosper ity with present scarcity , and so order ing causes and events , that good shall come out of evil , necessity produce re formation , and hard times , good times. ' " The science of EUGENICS. improving stock , whether human or brute , is one which should be taught in all the higher insti tutions of learning in the United States. This science is called eugenics. To observe carefully the fact that like begets like , and to avoid intensifying faults , weaknesses , or perverse tenden cies , by studying and obeying the law of heredity , is a duty. If half the care bo taken , during the fifty coming years in properly perpetu ating the best traits of physical and in tellectual character of the American people , that has been given to the breed ing of trotting horses during the fifty years which make the last half of the nineteenth century ; the middle of the twentieth century will show men and women superior in beauty of body and intellect to any individual Americans now living. Galton says"Euergy is the capacity foi labor. It is consistent with all the robust virtues , and makes a largo practice of them possible. It is the measure of full ness of life ; the more energy the more abundance of it ; no energy at all is death ; idiots are feeble and listless. # # * # Energy is an attribute of the higher races , being favored beyond all other qualities by natural selection. Wo arc goaded into activity by the conditions and struggles of life. They afford stim uli that oppress and worry the weakly , who complain and bewail ; and it may be succumb to them , but which the energetic man welcomes with a good- humored shrug , and is the better for it in the end. "The stimuli may be of any descrip tion ; the only important matter is that all of the faculties should bo kept work ing to prevent their perishing by dis use. If the faculties bo few , very simple stimuli will suffice. Even that of fleas will go a long way. A dog is continually scratching himself , and a bird pluming itself whenever they are not occupied by food , hunting , fighting , or love. In those blank times there is very little for them to attend to besides their varied cutaneous irritations. It is a matter of observation that well washed and combed domestic pets grow dull ; they miss the stimulus of fleas. If ani mals did not prosper through the agency of their insect plagues.it seems probable that their races would have long since been so modified that their bodies should have ceased to afford a pasture ground for parasites. It does not seem to follow that be cause men are capable of. doing hard work they like it. Some , indeed , fidget and fret if they cannot work off their superfluous steam ; but on the other hand there are many big lazy fellows who will not got up their steam to full pres sure except under compulsion. Again the character of the stimulus that in duces hard work differs greatly in dif ferent persons ; it may be wealth , am bition , or other objects of passion. The solitary hard workers , under no encour agement , or compulsion except theii sense of duty to their generation , are unfortunately , still rare among us. It may be objected that if the race were too healthy and energetic there would be insufficient call for the exercise cise of the pitying and self-denying vir tues and the character of men would grow harder in consequence. But it does not seem reasonable to preserve sickly breeds for the solo purpose of tending them , as the breed of foxes is preservec solely for sport and its attendant ad vantages. There is little fear that misery will over cense from the land or that the compassionate will fail to fine objects for their compassion ; but a present the supply vastly exceeds the demand ; the land is overstocked witl the listless and the incapable. In any scheme of eugenics , energy is the most important quality to favor ; i is , as wo have seen , the basis of living action , and it is eminently trausmissable by descent. 4 V A PANIC BY , bov nild woman who drinks malt , 'inous , or spirituous beverages in the United States should swear off tomor- , - ' ' 'ow morning and abstain from their > ' iso forever there would bo an immed- , b ate and very gigantic diminution of the / evonues of the general government and ' of state governments while many nm- Ls , licipalities would bo bankrupted. If all the men and boys of the United States stop smoking tobacco tomorrow morning and all stop chewing at the same time the revenues of the United c States would bo still further reduced. And if the American people should permanently and altogether abstain from the use of whiskey , beer , wine and tobacco there would be a general panic. Upon stimulants and narcotics the na tional treasury depends very largely for its income. Upon two vices the American republic rests with unctuous self-complacency and in oleaginous phrases talks of extending the blessings of our superior civilization and exalted Christianity to the Spanish-oppressed savages of the Pacific. Is a civilization which expends two or three times as much money every year for tobacco and drinks as it does for food justified in self-glorification and its newspapers in a universal Chadband- ism ? Where righteous reform would mnke a panic and re venues rest on vices , why brag ? TUE THE OMAHA EXPOSITION.T1VE rejoices in the triumphs achieved by the Omaha Exposition. , It was a complete and perfect representation of the industrial capabilities of the mid- continent West. Its success was due , very largely , to the ability and executive - tivo force which managed its "promotion and publicity" bureau. And it will not be charged that the writer hereof is moved by either personal relations or political obligations in declaring that , to Mr. Edward Rosewater , editor and pro prietor of The Omaha Bee , more than to any other one man , the Omaha Exposi tion owes its phenomenal success. Mr. Rosewater has brains , pluck and seem ingly the tirelessness of metal moved by steam. ° f fche mosfc A. vn i . .J . . . , , INCIDENT.forcible and sensi ble addresses de livered at the auditorium during the Peace Jubilee at the Exposition was that of the Chinese minister. No other man's oratory on that occasion elicited such universal and continuous applause as did that of the eminent Chinaman at that particular moment when , with im pressive earnestness and eloquence , ho declared that "tho oldest nation" was for peace. Whether the vast audience appreciated the evident rebuke intended by the Heathen from Peking to the sur rounding glorification of wholesale mur der which the modern Christian nations sometimes call war , and at other times "hell , " remains an unsettled .question.