*
Cbc Conservative * n
Tlio assessments
A HKGGAUKY , _ , ,
SHOWING. for otoc County
for real and per
sonal property have been , under the
present very inefficient and unsatisfac
tory system of revenue laws , completed
for the year 1898.
The returns show a valuation of real
and personal property for Nebraska
City of $745,009.00. The vote of the
city at the last election ( which was not
calculated to call out a full ballot ) was
1,229.
The total assessments of property in
Otoe County outside of Nebraska City
aggregate $3,421,477. The vote outside
of the city at the last election was 8,183.
The property in Otoe County , assessed
at its real selling value , as the law re
quires it to bo assessed , is worth at least
$20,000,000. This figure is rather an
under than an over-estimate of our
selling values.
In view of the beggarly statement
which is made under the system of leg
alized mendacity now provided for , the
county and all its inhabitants appeal-
poverty stricken. If there is no remedy
in legislation for this continued misrep
resentation of the wealth of the inhab
itants and the value of the property in
Nebraska City and Otoe County , it is
difficult to see how the real financial
character of this community can bo
justly and properly established.
But Otoo County is only one of
many counties that are thus damaged
by the present revenue laws of the state
and the present method of their adminis
tration.
The legislature should , in behalf of
common honesty and the good name of
the commonwealth , provide for a bettor
and more reasonable method of assess
ing property for taxation.
Some remarkable contemporary pic
tures , by natives , of the Spanish con
quest of Mexico , are reproduced in The
Open Court. From one of those , show
ing "How the inhabitants were con
verted to Christianity , " it appears
that the same method was employed
which is required to convert the Cubans
to cleanliness , and some of our fellow-
citizens to vaccination namely , a club.
SCHOOL LAXMS. " ; u"j ;
,
t h o u s a nds of
acres of the public school lands of the
state of Nebraska have been sold ?
To whom have they been sold and
when and at what prices ?
These are practical questions. They
are questions which will command an
answer if they are embodied in a joint resolution
elution and passed by the senate and house
of representatives. The public school
lands and the public school funds ought
to be described , specified and plainly set
forth in tabulated form at the assemb
ling of each successive legislature. The
tax-payers of Nebraska ought to be in
7
formed definitely and plainly as to how
ihe school lands' are leased , how much
lioy amount to in acres ; whore they are
ocated ; and how many have been sold ,
o whom , and at what prices. More
ihan that Nebraska tax-payers should
uiow what the permanent school fund
unounls to in cash and how the same is
low invested. There can not bo too
nuch light let on to school lands and
school funds. In the light they are al
ways safe.
Mr. J. Sterling Morton has for years
opposed the policy of making liberal
appropriations from public funds to
naintain state and county fairs. There
s no question that this custom has
grown into a rank abuse. In our own
county the people have paid nearly a
; housand dollars a j'ear for a cheap
nimpkin show that has been of no ben
efit whatever. The argument is that if
Beatrice does not have a fair , and got
the mono ) * some other town will. The
remedy is to repeal the statiite that per
mits such an abuse. Gage County
Democrat.
WOMKX OX ItOAlCDS OK IIKA I/I'll.
Why are not women appointed on the
joards of health of toner than they are ?
There 'are instances , it is true , where
; hey servo , but these are comparatively
rare , and yet they would bo most valu
able. If all the boards of health were
made xip solely of physicians , the need
of women would not be so apparent ,
but every one knows that , as a matter
of fact , almost any one will do on this
board. Even a doctor has not the
knowledge that the clever housekeeper
lias acquired ; he does not know where
to look for possible evils in the tene
ment house as well as she : ho has not
fathomed the possible iniquities of dark
closets , cupboards , hallways , refrigera
tors , and cellars as she has. In order to
make the board what it should bo , half ,
at least , should bo women. There is in
struction or condemnation to bo given ,
and the competent woman can show the
more often ignorant than wilful offender
how to do bettor ; can give practical les
sons in keeping clean ; in airing , cleans
ing , the care of meats , milk , clothes in
short a thousand and one things that a
man cannot and does not know.
In England , cities have what they call
"women health visitors , " who do jusl
what is so needed. In Manchester , for
instance , in the quarter ending in Sep
tember , the eighteen women visitors
made 8,170 inspections of houses. In
most of these tenements they left disen-
fectant powder , a great quantity of
soap , loaned brushes , and gave the lime
to have whitewashing done , and left be
hind them pamphlets as to the preven
tion of various diseases , and the care to
be exorcised in many ways. They also
reported unsafe and hopelessly fou
houses , neglected children ( after doing
what was possible themselves in sue !
ases ) ; they also carried food and cloth-
ng , showed poor women how to care
'or their little children , took care of sick
) ersons , cleaned dirty houses , and ob-
ained work for needy people.
This enumeration of services shows
learly enough the value and need of
vomon on the boards of health. If wo-
11011 are useful on the school boards ,
; hey would bo oven more so on the
lealth boards. Springfield Republican.
Books cm Charles
A Mnrci'vpiMv . _ . , , .
Dickens continue ,
and no doubt always will , to appear on
joth sides of the water. It is note-
vorthy that , the name of the writer in
question having been Dickens , people
who speak of him nowadays always
ncntion him as Dickens ; it is practi
cally , and very desirably , forgotten that
10 was once universally called Box , and
hat he willingly applied that appella-
ion to himself. The day of such things
las gone by ; a man who has a lawful
mine of his own no longer seeks to hide
t , merely because he is a public writer ,
under an absurdity. And yet an Arner-
oaii , a representative American , and
one of the wisest and brightest men that
ever wrote under that title , still goes
about foreign lands with his white hairs
under a disfigurement of that kind.
Will his countrymen wait until its
jearer is dead before they give the name
of Samuel Langhorne Clemens the full
loner that is duo it ?
Wo im ) ll11 a lifc'
I1A.1 lit . , ,
tlc shr of
SOCIALISM ? Br
ibing that goes by
the name of socialism , but probably
very few oi'us are quite sure what it
would do to us if it got us. The city of
Haverhill , Mass. , has just elected for
mayor a man who is an avowed social
ist , and his statement of the principles
of his school ought to be authoritative.
In his inaugural address , he declares ,
among other things , for two dollars for
eight hours' work on the streets ; free
land for the agriculturally inclined poor ;
free food and raiment for such poor
children as desire to wear clothes and
eat something occasionally ; and a bi
cycle track on every street.
Hon. J. B. Weston of Beatrice re
ceived a complimentary vote for U. S.
senator at Lincoln. Mr. Weston is the
ablest man balloted for as yet , and if
elected , would come nearer representing
the state than any other republican that
could be named. Gage County Demo
crat.
All men are equal before the law , but
all men are not equal as the makers
of law. No state need hope for a sym
metrical and just system of judicature
until it elects only men qualified by ed
ucation , experience and reflection to
construct statutes , enact them and pro
vide penalties for their violation.
