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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1899)
ir * Cbe Conservative. E materialized July 14 , 1890. This law is named after the greatest acrobat iu finance which this country has produced John Sherman of Ohio. The Sherman act says : "The secretary of the treasury is directed to purchase from time to time silver bullion to the aggregate amount of 4,500,000 ounces or so much thereof as may be offered each month at the market price thereof , not exceeding one dollar for 871.25 grains of fine silver , and to issue in payment for such silver bullion , treasury notes of the United States , to be prepared by the secretary of the treasury , in such form and of such denominations not less than one dollar nor more than one thousand dollars lars as he may prescribe. " And this act constituted the second active cause of the panic of 1898. And it was brought into being because of the laxity of the ethics of politics in the United States. This subject will be further elaborated in coming numbers of THE CONSERVATIVE. Spectacles upon children , spectacles upon youth and spectacles everywhere in American society show how thor oughly well the specialists have gotten in their work upon the credulity of this generation. Whenever a child has a headache either from a disordered stomach or a fall , or a fight , the specta cles are the antidote. Hundreds of boys and girls have been sentenced , doomed to go through life with spectacles on their noses when not , in the first in stance , required at all. The oculist and optician pull together. The itinerant optician and oculist combined , in one humbug , infests every little and big city of the republic. He is busy everywhere. Credulity and a desire to be in fashion pay him five , ten and fifteen dollars a pair for spectacles worth from twenty- five cents down to nothing. The habit of wearing glasses once formed is diffi cult to break. Seventy-five per cent of the spectacles put upon children are unnecessary. They invariably impair the eyes. They engender catarrh. They spoil noses. They mutilate nature. They are a wicked fraud upon youth and beauty and vigor. Aguinaldo is the zssssvs : f h ° and leader of the Philippines. All attempts to belittle and berate him or his influence with his own people will fail to alter the fact that he is , for the time , at least , the master spirit of the islands. Respect for him and confidence in his abilities auc prowess as a soldier amount to a super stition , if credit may be given to observ ers who have had opportunity to form , intelligent judgment. Thus far in his war on Spain , and in his steady resistance to American assumptions , ho has exliib ited tact , firmness , and that kind of reso lution which does not look much like onciliation , and still less like surrender. Evidently doing his part in preventing armed collision with the forces of the Tinted States , it is equally clear that ho s busy with preparation for it. The lieory propounded by Mr. Fryo and in- iniated by Mr. Platt in the senate that opposition and consequent delay in the ratification of the treaty of Paris are causing the next war , if the next war shall come , may answer the purposes of debate , but it is the next thing to being 'rivolous in accounting for the deter mined attitude of resistance by Aguin aldo to any attempt by this country to assert control of the government and people of the Philippine Islands. The snown and plain truth is that before a word had been spoken for or against rat ification on the floor of the senate , the determination of the leaders and people of the islands had been proclaimed to the world. If it shall occur , the next war will bo a dazzling spectacle for gods and men. A great and free people will bo found engaged in the slaughter of a half civil ized and fighting rrtco of men who have never harmed our country , and who are simply struggling to be free. This will be the naked truth about it , whatever may be the specious pleas and disguises under which such a slaughter shall bo inagurated. But will this slaughter be all on one side ? Far from it. The deadly Mauser in the hands of the arm ies of Aguiualdo , who can recruit them from millions of men fighting on the de fensive from tropical jungles and in re gions inaccessible to our own armies on account of impassable roads , will mean a long contest and a great loss of life in actual conflict. Add to this the suffer ing and death which will be sure to come to our troops from the high heats of a tropical climate , and the situation threatens consequences which are appal ling to contemplate. Cui bono ? MOUE EXCURSION MONEY. tke Cltv ington , dated January 80 , announce : "Ferdinand W. Peck , United States commissioner-general to the Paris ex position , has arrived here accompanied by Secretary Brackett. They will bo joined by Fred Skiff , director of the mining bureau , and other members of Mr. Peck's staff , and will appear before the house committee on appropriations to urge an increase of the amount se aside by congress to provide for a gov ernmeut exhibit at the exposition. "The first appropriation was $650,000 but Mr. Peck and his associates will asl for additional appropriations amounting in the aggregate to about $1,000,000 Mr. Peck says the amount available a present is entirely inadequate for the purpose and if there is to be a representation sentation at Paris next year in keeping vith the wealth and resources of the Jnited States , congress must provide money for it. " The "show business" of the United States grows apaco. Who is benefited ? Anyone except the promoters and man agers ? By what authority is money be- onging to all of the people bestowed upon a few of the people , like Peck and iis co-promoters , ostensibly to muko an exhibit at Paris of the products of cer- ; ain manufacturers and planters of the United States ? During the last thirty years more than ; eu millions of dollars have been swiped 'rom the federal treasury to support expositions at Philadelphia , at New Orleans , at Chicago , at Atlanta , at Nashville , at Omaha and now St. Louis , Niagara Falls and Detroit are seeking each an appropriation for an exposition at government expense ; while Omaha having been very successful financially with its exposition last year , feels like Oliver Twist after partaking of soup and importunately cries for more , more. It is easy to be generous with public money. It requires no great ability to run an exposition where the govern ment furnishes the bulk of the capital as a gratuity. How many mendicants shall visit Paris at the expense of the federal treasury ? The principal AGRICULTURAL farm products exported EXPOHTS. ported from the United States are cotton , wheat ( grain and flour ) , bacon , lard , corn , cattle , to bacco , fresh beef , hams , and oleomar garine ( the oil ) . Of all these products except the last , by far the largest quan tity is shipped to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The other principal customers are of cotton : Germany , France , Spain , and Italy ; of wheat : Canada , Netherlands , Portugal , Brazil , China , and Belgium ; of bacon : Belgium , Brazil , Germany , Netherlands , and Canada ; of lard : Germany , Nether- lauds , France , Belgium , Cuba , and Brazil ; of com : Germany , Netherlands , Denmark , and Canada ; of tobacco : Germany , Franco , Spain , Belgium , Italy , and the Netherlands. Live cattle and fresh beef are almost exclusively sent to the United Kingdom. Oleomar garine ( the oil ) finds its principal mar ket in the Netherlands and Germany. Nobody can belittle the presidency of the United States except the man who holds that exalted position. And that exalted position cannot enlarge the judgment of a small man nor increase the intellectual capacity of mediocrity. A gnat , a beetle , a chinch bug may be quite visible on the ground , but perched upon a mountain peak the insect IB hardly discernible.
