= . f. _ 'Tffff
2 Conservative.
twenty-thousand ncrcs in n lot , for one
dollar nn acre. And the same Innds
would sell readily for cash in hand ,
today , at twenty-live to thirty dollars an
acre , without having been improved one
cent's worth except by their nearness
and relation to lines of transportation
which connect them with Chicago , New
York and the world's markets. Why
then.if the lands.without efforts upon the
part of their owners , may honestly ad
vance in values and honestly be given
as security for ten times their original
cost , may not the railroads also have
honestly increased in value , and stock
representing honestly the amount of
that increase bo honestly issued there
for to the owners of railroads ?
The railroads have enhanced the lands
and the cultivation and productiveness
of the lauds have in turn enhanced the
value of the railroads.
Few citizens reflect sufficiently upon
the fact that private or personal capital
unincorporated could not have built and
would not have built the great trunk
lines which now penetrate and permeate
the United States in every direction. It
was only by the system of pooling capi
tal and incorporating capital that these
Western states were so speedily and suc
cessfully opened up to agriculture and
permanent settlement.
Therefore the legislators of Nebraska
and other favored states in the newer
port of this republic should deal fairly ,
without prejudice , and justly with all
lines of transportation which connect
producers with consumers and give us
the markets of the world.
The dividends declared on the stock
of railroads , banks , and all other cor
porations r e p r o -
Dividends mid
Crops. sent the profits of
capital. The prof
its of capital in all incorporations are
made up out of the leavings of labor
after it has been paid its wages. Labor
eats at the first table. Capital sits at
the second. If labor takes all for wages
there is nothing left of profits to capi
tal. Even when incorporated property
becomes insolvent and the courts put it
into the hands of a receiver wages go on
and without impairment. The dividends
upon stocks are the equivalent of the
crops upon the laud.
Some lands in Nebraska , which THE
CONSERVATIVE has known for forty
years , have frequently annually given a
crop from each acre two and three times
greater in value than the cost of the
original acre. Single crops have fre
quently paid for the farm in Nebraska.
Purchasers of railroad lands in this state
on six years' time have , as a rule , gen
erally paid for those lands in the time
stipulated , out of the crops grown upon
.the lands.
.Farms and splendid possibilities for
human homes have been sold all over
Nebraska during the last twenty-five
years upon the distinct and agreed un
derstanding that those farms were to be
paid for out of their own products , their
crop dividends. So certain has been the
security , because of the faith in this
soil , and its gigantic capability for pro
ductiveness , that the sellers of land in
Nebraska have always been willing to
base their deferred dues upon crop divi
dends.
Meantime has anyone heard of a faith
in railroad stocks or securities so great
that their owners would sell them to be
paid for out of their own earnings or
dividends in six or any other term of
years ? With all this hue and cry , which
windy statesmen have raised about the
poor soil-tillers , the down-trodden plow
men of the United States , is there any
other property , real or personal , to rank
with our soil in dividend power ?
Per acre , per dollar invested , the crop
dividends of intelligently tilled fertile
farms in the United States excel , in
values , the money dividends of a ma
jority of the best railroad stocks of this
continent.
This watered stock business needs
more airing.
General Victor Vifquain , the most
famous soldier of Nebraslca , is now
colonel of the Third Nebraska regiment
stationed in Cuba. Private dispatches
say that Colonel Vifquaiu is acting as a
general interpreter for a large number
of distinguished friends who have been
forwarded to Cuba for the purpose of
holding remunerative official stations
under commissions from "William the
Reluctant. "
And this gallant soldier is the same
whom congress , during the civil war ,
recognized for bravery at Blakely , an
out-post of Mobile , by passing a resolu
tion of thanks and awarding him a
medal. He is the same Victor Vifquain
whom Abraham Lincoln commissioned
a brigadier general ; whom Grover
Cleveland made consul in his first ad
ministration ; whom Benjamin Harrison
superseded with a confederate captain ;
whom Grover Cleveland in his second
administration made consul general at
Panama ; and whom William McKinley
removed in order to make place for an
other confederate officer from North
Carolina. Vifquain's Spanish-speaking
ability in peace and diplomacy no re
publican administration could recognize ,
but in war and the occupation of Cuba
they seem to see it.
TIIK TItAlI , OF 1811) AND TIIK KAIL
or i8i ) .
Fifty years ago the prairies from the
Mississippi to the Missouri and from the
Missouri westward to the mountains
were alive with the great gold-seeking
caravan which in the spring of 1849 was
wending its way towards the deposits of
California. At that time Iowa , Ne
braska and Kansas were almost a perfect
solitude. Only in Iowa and along the
banks of the Mississippi had civilization
found a lodgment. From the crest of
Iowa westward there were scarcely any
settlements before reaching the east
bank of the Missouri. Crossing that
river into Nebraska there was not a sin
gle habitation of civilized man outside
of the forts and trading-posts. Vast
herds of buffaloes grazed all over the
plains from Texas on the south to the
British possessions on the north. All
this section of country had been de
scribed by Mr. Webster , in a speech de
livered before the senate of the United
States , as worthless , uninhabitable
desert. Prior to the California emigra
tion these plains had been traversed by
only a few Mormons representing the
vanguard of that church , which reached
Salt Lake City in 1846 and 1847 , with
their great leader , Brigham Young , in
charge of the pioneers. Already that
baud of explorers had zealously tinder-
taken the upbuilding of a new Zion in
the valley of the great Salt Lake. Al
ready the sage brush and the alkali val
leys along the Wosatch range had been
broken up , irrigated and , to a limited
extent , placed in cultivation by the Lat
ter Day Saints. In fact , the California
emigration of 1849 found no other settle
ment between the Missouri river and the
Pacific than the one at Salt Lake.
Since that time the trail of 1849 has
been obliterated by the plow of the pie
neer. Miles and miles of its hard , wagon-
wheeled surfaces have been plowed up ,
put into tillage and lost amidst culti
vated fields , blooming orchards and com
fortable and contented homes. The
change from wilderness , solitude and
barbarism to agriculture , horticulture
and manufacture has been as magical ,
speedy and inexplicable as the visions of
a dream.
And now the rail of 1899 usurps the
trail of 1849. Instead of the slow-
jogging ox-trains of the emigration to
California , we have the swiftly gliding
passenger and freight carriages of the
Union Pacific , Burlington & Missouri ,
the Atchison , Topeka & Sauta Fe , the
Northern Pacific , the Canadian Pacific
and the Southern Pacific railroads cross
ing the continent inside of five days.
But in the olden time of the trail the
journey consumed from three to five
mouths. The discomforts of that period
contrasted with the comforts of today
make an antithesis in transportation in
spiring and majestic. There has never
been in all the history of the race such
another speedy transformation in the
conditions , climate and character of
such a vast area.
Until 18GG the railroad followed the
plow. But in that year the plow began
to follow the railroad. Pioneering by
steam power began with the building of
the railroads across Iowa to the Missouri
and thence across the plains to the Pa
cific. Prior to the construction of the
transcontinental lines freight rates upon
these plains were $2 per hundred pounds
per hundred miles sometimes more
