Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1899)
'Cbe Conservative * Ifc iB STATESMEN _ READY MADE. true ° f States that it con tains regiments of men who , if called upon to discharge the higher duties of government , are equal to the responsibility. Ex-Secretary Day , of Ohio , a man of ordinary character and equipment as a lawyer and a man , illustrates - trates the fact that , from one end of this country to the other , barring Ne vada and Alaska , there are thousands of men of various callings who are the equals of Judge Day and of the presi dent himself , in fitness for the highest responsibilities in the government of the country. Illinois , Ohio , New York , and other states , could produce such men by the score fifty years ago "on call , " as the financiers would say. They could do it now in greater numbers. There is scarcely a town of 50,000 people ple in any part of the country which cannot produce a half dozen Judge Days , and , with all due respect for the present incumbent , occasionally a McKinley - Kinloy , or something steadier and stronger. The fact must be due to the influence of the political freedom which gives all men a chance on equal terms to rise in the world from any station , however humble it may be , and to that inboni strength for de velopment which belongs equally to the ruling races of men , and especially to the Anglo-American. administration - SAMOAN ROYAI/TY. ministration of President Benjamin Harrison the gov ernment of the United States entered into a tri-partite agreement with Ger many and England regarding the gov ernment of the Samoau islands. By that agreement the three powers were to maintain a king on a little wooden throne at Apia. Before seating this king in whom the United States has a one-third interest , , by this treaty agree ment his rival had to be deported to the Marshall islands. The discomfitted rival , like the successful potentate who was enthroned by the order of Germany , England and the United States , was a polygarnist and together with his nine wives was conveyed to the Marshall islands in a German man-of-war. The recollection of THE CONSERVATIVE is that this potentate of Samoa is paid $90 a mouth for being king and the people of the United States contribute $30 of that stipend every thirty days. It is agreeable to know that we have a dollar-a-day interest in maintaining a sovereign of such great powers. It is well enough to recall the fact that he was crowned and enthroned under the republican administration of Mr. Harri son and by the same party which in veighed so vigorously against the Clove- laud administration because it was not in favor of overthrowing , by naval power of the United States , the dynasty of Queen Liliulokalani. It seems that their re gard for a republican form of govern ment is intermittent ; it breaks out whenever it seems possible that by hav ing the disease they may irritate their opponents or inflame their disciples with proper zeal for establishing heathen uionarchs. American interests in Samoa are very inconsiderable. The trade of those islands has for a generation been almost exclusively absorbed by the Germans , England herself getting only a very small proportion. The recent demand which , according to the newspapers , has been complied with , that the govern ment of the United States should send down there man-of-war at vast a - - ex pense , to protect American interests which do not exist , merely illustrates the extravagant craziness of the jingo ism which expansion and annexation have developed in the United States dur ing the past twelve mouths. Nebraska has the honor of having fur nished , in Judge Norval , of Blair , the American minister to the court of his royal and imperial majesty , Mataafa. This mighty monarch indulges in nose rings , ear rings and a large assortment of wives. The American people pay one-third of his salary and his business is to govern other barbarians , "without the consent of the.governed. " This King Mataafa is one of the glori ous products of republican diplomacy to which the petty partisan may "point with pride. " Mataafa is the one regal result of the Harrison administration which attests the statecraft of the then secretary of state. THE OLD CRY. for Mr. Dolhver to shout "treason" in the house at Mr. Johnson whom he could not answer in argument upon a great national ques tion. Intelligent , patriotic opposition tea a dangerous policy respecting the Phil ippines arouses the same passions and intolerance that marked the inception and progress of the civil war. Mr. Johnson , of Indiana , a republican of high standing and conceded abil ity , sees fit to arraign the presi dent and his party for attempting the conquest of a people on the other side of the globe who have just emerged from a long struggle for freedom and in dependence of Spanish rule. He gives his reasons for doing it with a fearless ness and force which arrest the atten tion of the country. Mr. Dolliver puts himself forward to repel the attack for this reason , and , preached to the wall by a question put to him by Mr. Johnson in debate , this champion of expansion by armed conquest evades reply auti shouts "treason , " as though the freedom of debate in the American congress is ranked as a crime for which men are to be branded as traitors to their country. Men who still live to recall the experi ences of the civil war will recognize it as the old cry against all men who dare : o differ from the ruling dynasty. Mr. Cannon , of Illinois , more moderate than the autocrat of Iowa , intimates what ho laclcs the boldness to declare , in plain words. The indictment of such men as Johnson as traitors because they oppose what Grover Cleveland and Senators Boar and Halo , and millions more , de nounce as a great and dangerous blow at our own liberties , harmonizes completely with the brutal course of Ben Wade , Stevens of Pennsylvania , and'all the Leadership of the republican party dur ing the civil war , and the worse than civil war that followed Appomattox. Any man who pleaded the rights of ioyal citizens of the Northern states un der the constitution was denounced as a "traitor , " a "copperhead , " and by every other vile name that malignity could in vent. The lives of men were not only threatened , but taken , by the followers of these leaders for these reasons. Any man who dared to oppose granting equal suffrage to the liberated slaves on the plantations of the South was branded as an enemy of his country. THEARIIITRA- .T1J ? le ° TION TREATY , gloating triumph with which the republican party voted down the arbi tration treaty by which Great Britain and the United States , the two great English-speaking nations , were to be come the associated sponsors of the peace of the world , will never be for gotten by Americans who love peace and seek the permanent prosperity of their country. The defeat of that noble agreement by a purely partisan and bigoted vote is recalled now by the loud denunciations which the administration press is pouring upon all men who an tagonize the Spanish-American treaty made at Paris. The Same editors , orators tors and swashbucklers who denounced the English-American arbitration agree ment are now wildly supporting the. arrangements for buying eleven millions of Filipinos with their real estate appurtenances thrown in. Then to oppose a treaty which meant peace was patriotism. Now to antago nize a treaty which means war , and the beginning of the end of self-government for the citizens of the United States , is treason. Then to abolish war was wicked. Now to perpetuate conflict is Christianity. M. Emilo Zola is learning to read English. He is not wise ; ho is likely to run upon some things that will hurt his feelings. Other people have pension troubles. Waterloo was fought 84 years ago , but | Franco has just paid her last pension tea a soldier of Napoleon. And the French do not pay salaries , to young girls who marry old dotards , either. , , I ,