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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1899)
I tbe ; Conservative. 9 FROM A CONSKRVATIVE FRIEND. Dcinolln's Hook Criticized. CHICAGO , April 7 , 1899. MY DEAR MK. MORTON : lu a recent number of THE CONSERVA TIVE yon promised a review of Edmoud Demolin's recent work. While the clenr and attractive style of Domoliu is sure to win many admirers for him and to bo of much interest to the minority of man kind who think for themselves ; never theless I am not convinced that ho has done anything more than to prove that the people of Great Britain and of the United States have shown themselves to be the greatest traders in the world and have evolved the best and most enduring forms of government known to history. This is something which all of us know before and it is something quite differ ent from the statement that the Anglo- Saxon is a superior being to the Celt. By what right does Demolin conclude that the superiority of the people of Great Britain and of the United States is due solely to the fact that there is much German blood in the English- speaking race ? If the German strain bo the predominant one , and contains all the excellencies , why have not they of the pure blood made themselves the first people in the world ? It seems to me that Demolin has either lost sight or en tirely ignored the great question , / . e. of what blood the so-called are - Anglo- Saxons ? They are a people composed not of Angles and Saxons and their de scendants alone ; but on the contrary they are a mixture of Germanic and Celtic people , of which no one can say what the proportions are. If I assert water is a more wholesome drink than wine I do not prove my assertion by saying that brandy and water is a better drink than wine. What I do prove is that the mixed drink is the better of the two What Doinolin really attempts to prove is that the Celtic people are now inferior to Anglo-Saxons. That they were once the superior race hardly any person will deny. He convinces you that the purely Celtic peoples of the world are probably retrograding and are now inferior ( in matter of trade and conquest ) to a mixed race made up of Germans and Celts. But that does not prove that the Celt is the inferior race of the two1. It is time to correct the prevailing notion that most English-speaking people are de scended from a purely Anglo-Saxon an cestry. How little glory would remain to the "Anglo-Saxons" if they could claim among the great men of history none that were not in part Norniau , Scotch , Welsh or Irish I It would not be a grand history nor one to boast of. As well might you omit from our own history all those in whose veins ran Celtic blood. Three men , Alexander Hamilton , John Jay and Gouverneur Morris , were as much Celts as they were Anglo-Saxons , yet the history of New York would lose its brightest pages if the names of these men and their work should bo erased. I think the English-speaking people the greatest race in history , and their destiny - tiny but begun , but such is the fact not because they descended solely from the savage races of Germans who overran England but because such people inherit the vigorous and uncorrupted blood of all the European races. Demolin attempts to prove no more than that the "Anglo-Saxons" are sup erior to other people in the accumulation of wealth and the conquest and reten tion of territory ; but that is merely su periority in materialistic matters. Is there no higher work on this earth than trade or conqiiest ? I am prepared to believe that the most prosperous people in the world may bo the most moral and therefore the happiest , but a philosophy that contents itself with the treatment of materialistic matters only has not en during qualities. Yours very truly , D. E. ANNEK. Arbor Day pre- J l ARHORKAL. , . parations are very visible in every portion of Nebraska. The proclamation of Governor Poynter naming April 22 which comes one week from next Saturday as the legal holiday for tree planting was issued on March 22. It is of a character to chal lenge attention and promote thought as to the vital importance of arboriculture and forestry. When Arbor Day was born and christ ened at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture in Lincoln , on January 4 , 1872 , a motion was made to amend the name by striking out "Arbor" and in serting "Sylvan. " But the originator of the idea , the day , and the name , for it objected and argued that "Sylvan" could be technically applied only to "forest" trees while "Arbor" covered all trees and so the phrase and the anniversary came into universal favor. Before that the phrase "Arbor Day" had never , so far as THE CONSEUVATIVE can ascertain , been uttered or printed. For any auth entic or irrefutable evidence of its prior existencj and use THE CONSERVATIVE will bo truly grateful. De-pulpiti/ed preachers who write for populist newspapers in Nebraska seem particularly bitter as to the editor of THE CONSERVATIVE and never skip an opportunity for assaulting him. And for this one should be exceedingly re joiced and truly grateful. Nothing can better speak for one's fidelity and courage than the denunciations of apostates and cowards. In hybridizations curious and peculiar results are frequently obtained. But the cross of a pulpit-pounding , bigoted preacher upon a populist politician has given Nebraska a mental and moral mule of unsurpassable stupidity and vice TIIK LOGIC OF TRUSTS. Will They Give ail Imputiu to SocinlUm In Thlt Country ? The object of a trust , whether itu ad vocates admit it or not , is to eliminate competition. The whole theory of mod ern business is based upon competition as a benefit to the community. Once renounce the theory of competition and where does the logic of the situation land us ? The direction of that logic is very evi dent if wo accept the theory on which trusts are practically founded , that com petition is a bad thing for the commun ity. The basis of such a theory is socinl- ism , although the advocates of trusts may not recognize this. Socialism , as it is practically understood , means the do ing by the community of something which is usually left to private perform ance. The reason that people argue that thing's should be loft to private per formance wherever it was possible , is that , on the whole , the public will bo better served because of competition , as rivalry will lower costs and prices. Strike out the idea that such competi tion is to be encouraged , substitute the idea that a little group of individual should be allowed to get together and control a particular business , and you have as the ba is of such a theory the basis of socialism ; only in the case of socialism it is the community as a whole which reaps the advantage and not n group of individuals. The thing which has prevented the growth of socialism in America has been individual freedom , or in other words , the principle of competition. It is not difficult of discernment , should the ten dency toward trusts keep its present pace , and should the trust method prove on sufficient trial successful business wise , that individual freedom which is involved in competition would bo , to a large extent , lost. The result would be , of course , that people would say to themselves : Why , if competition is elim inated , should the benefit go to a group of individuals as a whole ? In other words , the logic of trusts , once popularly appreciated , will give a great impntus to the tendency toward socialism , which has hitherto taken but little hold here in America. We do not suppose that the men who are so active in forming trusts are think ing at all of the ultimate results or of the logic of what they are doing. They are after present profits. Very likely they will overreach themselves , in which case the trusts , falling to pieces of their own weight , would restore the system of competition naturally and without government or other intervention. But should the trusts prove , on the whole , successful , should the new theories of business supersede the old , it takes no gift of prophecy to foresee that a reflex result will be a great impetus to- social ism. Waterbury American.
