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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1899)
K > 4 12 The Conservative , If FAKMEH LAW- , ' . Cftu 8he ° P i : , oi'omo. over had an ad mirer more fervid or a guardian more protective than the Hon. William Law rence , formerly an inmate of congress from Ohio , no mortal eye has seen and no human ear heard him. Mr. Law rence is now president of the National Wool Growers' Association. Ho dis tinguished himself and made luminous his knowledge of farming and wool gathering , as well as wool-growing , some years ago by recommending a cross of the hydraulic ram with the Southdown ewe. His most recent fulmination for pro tection is thus commented iipon in the New York Evening Post of January (5. ( ISO ! ) : " 'The vile , iniquitous , and unjust dis crimination made by the Dingley law. ' Pause a moment , excited protectionist reader , until you learn who sa3Ts this. It is not some infuriated foreigner , no maddened free-trader , but a rock-ribbed protectionist , none other than the Hon. William Lawrence of Ohio , president of the National Wool-Growers' Associa tion. He is out , as we knew he would be in time , furiously denouncing 'the low , inadequate Dingley wool tariff. ' How does he prove that it is too low ? Why , by the fact that carpet wools continue to be imported , and that 'it is a mockery , a delusion , to talk of prosperity for wool-growers unless prices are increased. ' As long as a pound of wool is imported Lawrence will not cease to rage for higher duties. As long as fine medium defective do mestic territory and pulled scoured sells for only 40 to 42 cents , Lawrence will be at his post. He threatens the republi can party with ruin ; he is going ever lastingly to smash the manufacturers ; he is going to deluge the country with free silver , unless the solemn pledge of the St. Louis platform to give 'full and adequate" protection to the wool industry be at once redeemed. Such are the pleasing ways of Gentle Shepherd Wil liam. They are an old story now. Ho always takes a republican congress by the throat , forces it to give him a wool tariff , which he vows is just the thing , only to be denouncing it with fury a twelvemonth later , and calling for doubled rates on pain of scuttling the party ship. While the roaring Ohio sheep is thus going about seeking whom he may de vour , the blessed Diugloy wool tariff is also getting a banging from the organ of the wool manufacturers. 'The Dis honest Wool Duties' is the title of an able article in our innocent but valued contemporary , The Wool and Cotton Reporter. It reveals a terrible state of things in our purest and most high- minded protectionist circles. It seems that 'when the present Diugley tariff law was framed , ' a wicked woollen manufacturer , one William Whitman ( who has since broken the market by dumping a lot of his goods upon it at low prices ) , employed'his lobbyist , S. N. D. North , ' to 'secure the adoption of certain phraseology in Whitman's interest as usual. ' This is painful read ing to us. We , in our simplicity , had thought of Mr. North only as an emi nent wool expert and secretary of the Wool Manufacturers' Association. Is it true that he was all the while lobbying certain phraseology into the Dingley bill ? The Reporter asserts it roundly , and even names the 'honorarium' of $5,000 which he took for the job , on the specious plea that he 'needed it to edu cate his children. ' In fact , in the bit terness of its soul it declares that 'there has not been an honest schedule of wool and woollen duties since 1882 , ' all on account of the wicked Whitman and his lobbyist North. Oh , Wool , as Madame Roland said , how many crimes have been committed in thy name ! " AKTJFICIAI , KYKS. The Lancet publishes some curious facts with regard to the number of false eyes which are turned out annually by different factories in Germany and France. The total of these ornamental appendages made in the German em pire is said to amount to the enormous total of two millions yearly ; and. , at the same time , one French factor/ , out of many , makes three hundred thousand in the same period. But we must not jump to the conclusion that these figures indicate in any way the number of hu man beings who have been deprived of the sight of one eye , for the artificial eyes include those used by wax-figure makers , by taxidermists , and even by the doll manufacturers. It is note worthy that the totally blind never wear false eyes. The person who has been deprived of the sight of one eye sees his disfigurement whenever he looks into a glass , and his sesthetic sense or per haps his vanity leads him to make good the deficiency in the best way ha can. In the case of the wholly blind such feelings die out , or are submerged in the immensity of their loss. Cham ber's Journal. In another place . THE CONSERVA TIVE mention is made of our important , inestimable , and enduring interest as a people in the cultivation of winter wheat in this state. It is not many years ago that this great food-grain was relegated to the rear by our farmers , and the judgment was that , in the absence of snow for protection of the seed against the natural elements of wind and storm , winter wheat could not be raised here. It is only about five years since that great promoter of population and progress , with George W. Holdrege in the lead , the B. & M. railway , under took , of that able manager's own per sonal motion , the promotion of experi ments at points along its lines distant from each other to make practical tests of winter wheat production. It was confidently believed by Manager Hold- rego that , by using good seed and sowing deep by drill , this great thing might bo done. With characteristic energy , he sought and obtained the cooperation of responsible farmers in making the ex periment. It is believed that Mr. Hold rege furnished seed in many instances for the purpose. Assistant General Passenger Agent Smith warmed up the telegraph lines and mails with a lively correspondence , and was charged with the work of giving general direction to the undertaking. A meeting of farmers ors , railway managers , and others , was held at Lincoln for a better discussion and understanding , and the work went forward to what has finally resulted in proving Nebraska to be rapidly rising to the distinction of being one of the lead ing states for winter wheat production in the Union. The writer once heard the late Mr. Jay Gould say that the day would not bo so very long in coming when the neces sities of the bread-consuming millions would cause the exhausted wheat-lands from the Hudson river westward to be restored by science to their old office to supply the world's demand for bread , upon the well-known principle that western soils for wheat-culture are be ing exhausted. Unless a good many signs fail , the granite wash from the Rock } ' mountains by which our vast plains have been enriched with this superior pabulum for wheat of the finest quality , postpones Mr. Gould's day of necessity to a very remote period. The legislators UKAi.iHJKKK. now doing busi ness at Lincoln and at other state capi tals , too , for that matter , should read and remember this much , if no more , of Burke : "People crushed by laws , have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies , they will be enemies to the laws ; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dan gerous , more or less. " In Nebraska we have a number of laws which are enemies of the people and advantageous only to political para sites. All those laws which provide public money for unnecessary officials ought to be abolished. All those laws which make taxes taken from the many mere emoluments and annuities for the few , who perform as philanthropists on various boards like that of transporta tion , oil inspection , agriculture and horticulture ticulture , should bo wiped off the stat utes. The Scientific American says : "the United States are. "