Cbe Conservative.
Bpeoohmado
DR. BRYAN *
September 15 ,
1896 , Dr. Bryan ,
with that peculiar ability for correct
diagnosis which has distinguished him
as a political practitioner from his ear
liest dawn iu statesmanship , proscribed
a remedy for the declining gold circula
tion in the Um'tod States.
The erudite economist and doctor of
finance said :
"The only way to stop the outflow of
gold is to have bimetallism and raise the
price of wheat and cotton and pay our
debts in produce instead of gold. "
But the prescription was not taken.
The [ flow of gold outward did stop.
And the flow of gold inward began.
This influx continues. Read in THE
CONSERVATIVE of this date how much
more gold there is now in the United
States than there was when Doctor
Bryan proscribed free silver to remedy
an impoverished circulation.
The former gov-
DAVID K. ITKANCIS. „ , , . fa .
ernorof Missouri ,
David R. Francis , who served as secre
tary of the interior during the latter
part of the second administration of
President Cleveland , is an able man. In
all the relations of life he has proved
himself honest , honorable and conscien
tiously industrious. His quick percep
tion , and good logical powers , combined
with splendid executive ability and his
long career of usefulness make him a
possible candidate for the presidency of
the United States. Many men in Mis
souri , Iowa , Nebraska , Kansas and Col
orado think that in nineteen hundred
with a sound money platform and David
R. Francis the reunited democracy could
defeat any republican. Nothing , how
ever , but the renunciation of the silver
heresies can make the reunion.
In a large way
e
FROM FLORIDA. . ,
The Tampa Her
aid , edited by J. D. Calhoun , formerly a
prominent and universally esteemed cit
izen of Nebraska , is an improvement
upon Southern newspapers in general
But Mr. Colhouu , who likes to be just
and fair , seems somewhat warped when
he treats of money in corporations and
particularly frenzied when he touches
"trusts. " In a very recent deuuncia
tion Mr. Calhoun uses the following
fervid language :
"Among boasts the tiger lives more
certainly and successfully than the ga
zelle. And so among trusts and corpor
ations. The eager , the ferocious , the
gluttonous , the powerful survive. The
law is the same for men and animals.
"The newspaper which goes gunning
I for man-eating trusts and corporation
jj is engaged in as righteous a pursuit a
the man who seeks the lair of the tiger
to exterminate him. The consuming
preying , depredating corporation mus
be hunted down just the same as the
iffW'iJIBlS '
predatory animal. The simple .fact
ihat both are at enmity with the best
nterests of the creatures surrounding
makes them alike illegitimate
) ut they both live and flourish regard-
ess. "
Tigers and trusts are parallels. But
; igers have never reduced the dangers
of the jungles to a minimum while the
oil trust has mitigated jeopardies from
explosions and diminished the price of
coal oil to consumers. The tiger is not
governed by an enlightened selfishness
and cannot reason. The Standard Oil
Company is so governed and does reason.
The tiger would destroy and devour the
last gazelle on earth if opportunity per
mitted. The Standard Oil Company
would decline to destroy any consumer
of its output and refuse absolutely to
nil any goose laying golden eggs for it.
The law of the survival of the fittest
is , as Mr. Calhoun wisely remarks , "the
same for animals and men" and is also
the same for incorporations. The
wisely managed do not destroy their
business by crippling or destroying their
patrons. Corporations whether called
"trusts , " or banks , or railroads , are not
generally owned and directed by idiots.
The operators of capital embodied in
corporations know as much averagedly
as the men who run farms , or stores , or
any other private business. This being
the case , they know enough to know
that the public will not support nor en
dure extortion and that competition is
always alert to enter the field whenever
there are even signs of extortion.
"Gunning for man-eating trusts and
corporations" would prove an irksome
and fruitless hunt unless one was piloted
by a scout of known capability for find
ing those terrible carnivora.
"The consuming , preying , depredat
ing corporation must be hunted down. "
Will Colonel Calhouii kindly name a
few of the variety he so lucidly depicts ?
"Will the colonel also prescribe the best
way of invading their "lairs" and tell
how the brutes themselves may be most
easily entrapped , slain , extirpated , ex
terminated , pulverized and their diabol
ical dust distributed to the four winds
of the earth ?
In short , will Colonel Calhoun file a
bill of particulars and specify a few , say
half a dozen , of those more voracious
beasts of incorporations which he portrays
trays as "man-eating , consuming , prey
ing , depredating corporations" which
pious sportsmen of the economic field
should proceed to immediately hunt
down ?
The first Ameri-
PERIODICALS.
PERIODICALS.Cannew8paperwas
published in Boston in 1C90. Here , as
in the mother country , the press met
with a cold welcome. This pioneer , the
"Publiok Occurrences , " although it
promised to appear once a month or
oftensr , did not redeem the promise.
It never went beyond the first issue ,
being strangled iu its birth by the pub
lic authorities. In 1722 , James Frank
lin was forbidden to publish the "New
England Courant , " and to evade this
order the paper was brought out under
the name of his brother Benjamin as
publisher , although Benjamin at the
time was but sixteen years old.
The early publishers in America
pretty generally had a hard time of it.
Relief came in 1735 with the trial of
Zeuger's case. The law became settled
in favor of the liberty of speech , but
there was nothing in it peculiar to the
newspaper. Publishers have rights only
as they are men , and what they may
print in their journals , any one else may
put into a pamphlet , post on a bill
board or write in a letter to a friend.
If the newspaper is a public institu
tion , then everybody has a right to its
continuance and use. Companies which
have undertaken the operation of rail
roads , have been compelled to operate
them ; companies that assume to carry
freight and passengers commonly for
hire have been required to make good
that assumption. Nearly three hundred
years have passed since newspapers
came into existence in England. Two
hundred years is the span of their life in
America. During that period they have
been the object of many legal proceed
ings in both countries , but never in the
view that they belonged in the Bame
category with common carriers or inn
keepers.
Whether a man should publish a pa
per at all , whether having begun its
publication he should continue it , how
many should be published , to whom
they were to be sold , what of editorial ,
news or advertising should atroear in
any issue , have all been left at all times
to the free will of the publisher.
It was the boast of a country editor
more than forty years ago that
"Wo do not belong to our patrons ,
Our paper is wholly our own ;
"Whoever may like it can take it ,
Who don't can just let it alone. "
FRED. W. LEHMAN.
Evangelists from Nebraska now gun
ning for heathen in the Philippines , are
known as the First Regiment of Volun
teers from Nebraska for the Spanish
war. But their cousins , then : sisters
and aunts , besides their wives , mothers
and sweethearts , cable them not to reenlist -
enlist but to come home when present
enlistment expires. Can it be that there
are women , good women , Christian
women in Nebraska who do not approve
of "benevolent assimilation ? " And
why did the censor of messages to the
military of the United States intercept
and not permit the delivery to the Ne
braska soldiers of that message ?
The rainfall for the mouth of April ,
1899 , as recorded by the Arbor Lodge
weather bureau observer , amounted to
4.63 inches.