Cbe Conservative.
VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , JANUARY 26 , 1899. NO. 29.
WKEKTiY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
, T. STERLING MORTON , EniTOit.
A .lOimNAfj DEVOTED TO TIIK DISCUSSION
Of 1'OMTIOATi , ECONOMIC AND SOOIOI.OOIOAT ,
yUESTlONR.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 5,439 COPIES.
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Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postottice at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898.
AN INTKKNATIOXAI , COMl'MMKNT.
Some years since , in a conversation ,
relative to the sale of American meats
in Germany , Baron Von Thielman ,
then representing that country at Wash
ington , was informed that it was diffi
cult to portray a more exalted confi
dence reposed by one nation in another
nation than the generous and wholesale
consumption of its sausages. The
Baron smiled and said :
"You know we have a very witty pro
verb among our people which runs thus :
'The sausage is food fit for the gods because -
cause only the gods can tell what it is
made of. ' "
Then , as now , all the charges against
American pork , pork products , and
American beef and beef products , origi
nated with the protectionists of Ger
many. The producers of meats in that
country denounced pork and beef as in
fested with parasites , because they
wished the German market a monopoly
for themselves ; they thus endeavored to
shut out competition. Trichinae and
other long Latin-named parasites were
the disguise of German McKinleyism
European tariff for protection.
T ° become verv
. . , , ,
popular and to at
tract and retain , even for a short time ,
the unanimous acclaim of the multitude
in the United States , negativism is es
sential. The complaisant , non-comba
tive man who can agree , or seem to
agree , with almost everybody , on almost
every question , is always a popular man.
The public life of the United States dur
ing the last seventy-five years has been
luminously illustrative of the success of
negative men.
Colliding was a positive , able , accomp
lished statesman and as a student of
statecraft had few equals among his
contemporaries in congress , either while
he was a member of the house or senate.
To Colliding all the tricks and compli
ancy , the pretense and the subserviency
of the more place-hunting politician
were disgusting and nauseating. He
never descended to the level of the nega
tive class of statesmen. B\it his bitter
rival , James G. Blaine , seldom rose
above it. Blaine was never anything
else than negative at the dawn of a new
question or condition. Blaine oi.ly be
came positive after a seemingly strong
public sentiment had concentrated and
expressed itself among members of the
repiiblican party. In that way he some
times posed quite successfully as a posi
tive character. But as a rule ho never
intended to be positive upon any question
which had not been positively answered
either affirmatively or negatively by the
republican party.
Even today there are men before the
American people who , though naturally
negative , seem very positive. Men
sometimes misinterpret the mind , trend
and intentions of the people and com
mitting themselves in accordance with
the erroneous interpretation are too
negative to recant. Such men hang on
to all sorts of fallacies , long after their
repudiation by the mass of the people
whom they first sought to conciliate and
to follow , while posing as their leaders.
The men who have no records are
usually the most successful in partisan
politics. The man who has a life as
blank as a sheet of unwritten paper is
not so easily criticized as one whose en
tire existence has been of strenuous en
deavors and ceaseless struggles.
A lawyer without a client , a states
man without a statute , a soldier without
a battle , a financier without a dollar , a
philanthropist without a single human
being bettered by his works , or a gen
eral counsel and solicitor giving advice
never asked for , is always invulnerable
to assaults , because ho has made no pos
itive and only a negative record.
Encouraged no doubt by the example
of Colonel John Hay , the pope an
nounces that ho will write a poem. His
theme , however , will be a religious matter -
tor and ho will express himself in the
Latin language.
Many populists
.
AVATKKKI ) STOCK.
and communists
constantly talk , write and publish the
wickedness of watered stock. They
never define it. None of them over tells
just what the iniquity consists of nor
why it is so malevolent and unpardon
able. _ - -
THE CONSERVATIVE , however , is in
formed that the owners of railroad and
other corporate property sometimes is
sue new mortgage bonds or new certifi
cates of stock to represent increased val
ues in their property. These increased
values have boon evolved by increased
capabilities for earning money by carry
ing freight and passengers or by other
improved earning capacities. Fre
quently the state has 'marked up the
values of corporate property by assess
ments and collections of taxes for the
public revenue and there has never been
any reason given as to why the state
should not do that. And if the state
may see , recognize and fix an enhanced
value for the purposes of its revenues
no reason has been assigned as to why
the owners themselves may not also
have certificates representing the greater
selling value of the property.
In Nebraska , Iowa , Kansas , Illinois ,
Missouri and other "Western states laiul
owners along the
Lmxl Owners. . . . .
lines of many rail
roads have also marked up the values of
their real estate. In Nebraska THE
CONSERVATIVE has witnessed the rise of
raw prairie land from ono dollar and
twenty-five cents to twenty-five and
fifty dollars an acre. And this enhance
ment has come not because of any effort
or expenditure upon , or about , these
lands on the part of their owners. In
fact THE CONSERVATIVE has observed
lands mortgaged to secure cash loans for
sums aggregating ton and twelve times
more than their owners paid for those
lands. Have laud owners then differed
very much from the owners of railroads
in raising their values for the purposes
of borrowing money ? Have they or
have they not been watering their stock 'i
Along every railroad track in Nebraska
lands have steadily advanced in selling
prices for more than twenty years. And
this advance has been largely founded
upon the fact that the products of those
lands could be and would bo taken to
market at a reasonable rate of transpor
tation.
Hero in Otoe county within twenty-
five miles of Nebraska City in 1800 lauds
were offered for sale , by advertisement ,
