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Cbe Conservati
VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , DECEMBER 29 , 1898. NO. 25.
WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOU.
A JOUItNAI , 11KVOTEU TO THE 1MBCUS8ION
Ofc' POMTIOATj , ECONOMIC AN ! ) SOCIOI-OOICAT ,
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 15,122 COPIES.
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 nindo known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflco at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898.
This edition of
CONSERVATIVE
BUSINESS. THE CONSERVA
TIVE exceeds fif
teen thousand copies.
But the regular weekly issue is ouly
between five and six thousand copies.
The large number published this
" week is to supply the demands and
orders of business men and zealous
friends who regard THE CONSERVATIVE
as a readable , sensible and attractive
periodical and also esteem it as an ef
fective medium of advertising.
THE CONSERVATIVE is independent ,
non-toadying , non-partisan , and a mili
tant advocate of the gold standard.
THE CONSERVATIVE antagonizes
money fallacies and all other economic
vagaries frequently advocated to secure
public place , plunderer applause.
THE CONSERVATIVE believes and
urges that the law ought to protect the
* capital and property of corporations ,
X railroads , banks , and manufactories
' with the same vigilance and efficiency
that it conserves the capital and pro
perty of individual citizens.
THE CONSERVATIVE fights frauds of
whatsoever kind , and wheresoever
found.
THE CONSERVATIVE is an adversary of
jingoism.
THE CONSERVATIVE continues and
prospers because it is strenuously endeav
oring to be useful , interesting and in
structive to all those readers and pat
rons who really love home and country.
All business communications and re
mittances for THE CONSERVATIVE must
continue to bo addressed , as heretofore ,
to The Morton Printing Company , Over-
laud Theatre block , Nebraska City ,
Otoe County , Nebraska.
The organized
tonal acquisiti
among the islands of the Pacific is vor
acious and seemingly insatiable. The
arguments in favor of expansion are
drawn almost exclusively from the past.
When the United States began business
as a government it dominated only a
small strip of land on the Atlantic. It
has reached its present magnificent pro
portions by expansion and "old fogies"
all along opposed that expansion , we are
told , just as they now antagonize the
absorption of acquisitions which are ,
it is said , a normal result of the war
with Spain.
This is the stereotyped talk of all the
jingo advocates. But there is such a
thing as proving too much.
Suppose now that this appetite should
crave Mexico solely for the philanthropic
purpose of civilizing and Christianizing
its people. Or imagine the American
government in its zeal for human lib
erty , and with a very depreciating opin
ion of the moral and mental status of
their people , attempting the absorption
of Brazil or Peru. And then unsym
pathetic , non-emotional and deliberately
patriotic citizens of the United States ,
in that case , might also arise and protest
against such acquisition as dangerous to
the best interests of this republic.
Would not the same reasoning be used
that is now put forth in favor of an
nexing the Philippines ? Would there
be any difference in the application of
those reasons now set forth and those
which would then be set forth ?
Once the United States was prolific in
citizens who proposed to fight England if
we were not permitted to expand to 54 °
40' ' latitude. But the sober second thought
of the American people put all those
jiugoists to sleep.
In the early fifties we craved Cuba
and American filibusters were invading
that island and also Nicaragua. But the
national conscience aroused itself and all
solid citizenship revolted at the plan and
the means employed until the expansion
and annexation projects of those adven
turers failed.
Sometimes an appetite for Canada has
developed among our citizens and feeble
attempts to annex it have been made
from time to time , but always with a
very different regard for the power of
Great Britain from that entertained for
the prowess of Spain.
Forgetting , for a moment , the wisdom
and far-sightedness of George Washing-
ton and his contemporaries and all of
their patriotic teachings , THE CONSER
VATIVE would have the good citizens of
this republic recall the many times
when wo have been spared and saved
from disastrous experiments of expan
sion in the last half century.
And the men who put down the greed
and avarice for territorial expansion in
these more modern times were among
the purest and most exalted of our
statesmen. They were nevertheless the
advocates of the expansion of our intel
lectual , moral and industrial influence in
all parts of the globe. One of the most pat
riotic utterances along this line of expan
sion was made by President McKinley ,
from the executive mansion , April 11 ,
1898 , when he said : "I speak not of
forcible annexation , for that cannot be
thought of. That by our code of morality
would be criminal aggression. "
And , since April 11 , has "our code of
morality" been revised ? And when the
insurgents of the
CRIMINAL
Philippines , now
AGGRESSION.
freed from Spanish
rule , demand that we let them alone and
permit them to form and administer
their own government and wo insist
upon their annexation to the United
States , are we not doing an act , which
last April , the president of the United
States said "can not be thought of ? " If
this be not "forcible annexation" with
out regard to the wishes of seven to ten
millions of human beings whom the
United States has no more right to buy
than it has to sell , then what is it ?
But President McKinley in a message
to congress quite recently talked of "a
just , benevolent and humane govern
ment created by the people of Cuba ,
capable of performing all obligations. "
This is mellifluous. When will this
beatific future touch and sanctify Cuba ?
Until it arrives the president declares ,
"our occupation will continue ; " and so
it may be safe to predict that unlike
Othello the United States government
may never declare its "occupation gone ! ' '
This message compared with the ut
terance of April 11 indicates a change
of convictions which permits the presi
dent to think of things now which were
not "to be thought of" then.
You can now get a bicycle propelled
by a petroleum engine for $190. The
whole thing weighs 5G pounds , and it
will run at a speed of 20 miles an hour.
Ten years ago a plain bicycle weighed
40 pounds and cost $150.