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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1899)
- < t" Conservative * 11 ARMY 11UUF. Comment on tlm Hoard's The court determined the fiicts by refusing to hc-itr the testimony. The I only excuse for this extraordinary resort. is that the oiflro of the court , in exoner ating the wnr department , could not have been fulfilled in any other way Philadelphia Telegraph ( rep. ) The issue was a plain one ; the court had to declare against Alger or General Miles , and it chose the man who cham pioned the cause of the men who did the fighting and to whom the beef was issued. It will bo hard to convince the men who did the fighting that General Miles did not prove his case. Ho offered to bring scores of witnesses to substanti ate his charges , but the court would not hear them. Baltimore American ( rep. ) The reflections upon General Miles are obviously dragged iu under official pressure and are not really germane to the report ; and yet they serve not only to divert attention from the actual substance of the report , but by their evident special pleading to discredit it entirely and the officers who sign it. Philadelphia Times ( ind. ) "Supposing" that the testimony of hundreds of regular and volunteer officers proved that the beef was unfit for food oven for a dog , "what of it ? " The report has been made , all who were held culpable by the people are exonerated , and only those who made the charges are censured. "What of it ? " Boston Traveler ( rep. ) While the report of the court of inquiry does not contain as much white wash as that of the army commission , it is a disappointment. It seems to be ani mated more by a desire to get even with | . General Miles than it does to got at the ( truth of his charges. Nevertheless it is a distinct and most encouraging im provement upon that of the war com mission. Should the subject be investi gated again by a congressional commit tee , as we trust that it will bo , a report would probably be obtained that would correspond more nearly with the facts. Rochester Post-Express ( rep. ) The beef report bears the ear-marks of Mr. McKinloy's harmonizing temper. It scatters its criticism and rebuke all around , and without pleasing anybody refrains from offending anybody very seriously and pacifies the offended with the thought he is scolded no worse than others. Waterbury American ( ind. ) There has been a studied attempt from , the beginning to cover up an out rageous scandal , and the report of this court of inquiry is the last clumsy act in the farce. Utica Observer ( dem. ) Probably the most significant portion of the report is the finding that the packers were "not at fault ; " that the meat refrigerated and canned sup- plied to the army was the same as is supplied to the trade , and the recom mendation that this subject shall bo pur sued no farther. Here is the milk in the cocoanut. The packers must bo ex onerated at all hazards , and their truth and honor uphold oven if it does involve giving the lie to several hun dreds of gallant officers and several thousands of bravo soldiers who faced the dangers of battle , the greater dangers of climate and the greatest danger of bad beef , in the service of their coun try. Pittsburgh Dispatch ( rep. ) It is a sad day for the discipline and the character of the United States army when four officers of long experience and supposed high standing can bo found who will lend themselves to such an outrage as this report of the beef court of inquiry. The object of these officers has been to render a personal and political service to the president and the secretary of war not to bring out the truth or to vindicate the honor of the army. Hartford Times ( dem. ) The findings must be regarded as un satisfactory , illogical , and inadequate by all fair-minded men. Philadelphia Bulletin ( rep. ) . fcA TIC WAIF.brought into THE CONSERVATIVE of fice a few days since a manuscript of which the following is a verbatim copy. If we had the means for producing a fac simile this would be presented iu its ori ginal sweetness. As it is , we give be low , verbatim , the headline and disquis ition so far as completed , when the iti nerant commercial man picked it off from the seat of a car running between Kansas City and Nebraska City. But the manuscript should be seen. IS POPULISM DYING ? IP SO IS THEKK ANY WAY TO STOP ITS DYING AND GIVE IT INCREAS ING LIFE AND HEALTH , AND VIGOROUS GROWTH ? Editor Nonconformist : I think the unwelcome truth stares us in the face that in the present congress now elected , there is not half as much populism as there was iu the last con- gross. I think it plain also that for two two years in number and genuine popu listio tone our populist newspapers have greatly decreased. What is the cause of all this ? The readers accuse the fusiouists of destroying the party by fusion. But certainly the readers do not get along as well or manifest as much life as the fusionists. If I am to say what the real matter is with the party I must say that it is not dying because of fusion or roadism , but for want of life. The leading populist doc trines are not brought forth in their strength and purity as formerly. Is there no help for this ? I know that outside of these leading populist doc trines there is nothing but darkness and lespair for the rights and liberties of the icople. It is evident that the author of the 'oregoing is in a depressed frame of mind. There is nothing exuberant and virile in ii thought , nothing buoyant in his stylo. Ho seems to regret particularly the lack of a genuine "populistic tone in populist newspapers. " The charge that this pure and patriotic ) ortiou of the press of the United States should have betrayed any body is entirely absurd. THE CONSERVATIVE regrets that "there is nothing outside of the leading populist doctrines except darkness and despair , " and trusts that some of the brain-work ing journalists of fusion and confusion will soon restore intensity to the zealotry and fanaticism of that conglomerate organization. The fusionists never fire up to a pressure of one hundred pounds to the square inch until they mark the prophetic stage . When a genuine sin cere and enthusiatic orator begins to make forecasts of coming calamities , lepict disaster and wreck and ruin as inevitable and close at hand , there is an ardor and odor of sainthood about him which fills the eyes and warms the liearts of the deluded and discontented. Let prophecy assume its power among populists. The kindly and 1JIX1JY. confiding daily poet of The State Journal expresses doubts as to the ago of the poem of Troubadour Thurston upon which that meteoric bard rose into luminous and incandescent eminence. Bixby even goes further and endeavors to plant in the young and guileless nature of THE CONSERVATIVE a grain of scepticism evidently with the hope that it may grow into a weed of noxious unbelief as to when the Troubadour evolved Rose , Rose , Oh , Rose ! But the pernicious activity of pare dists who poetize , nioro and more , upon the ravishing rose of the Troubadour is like the insects of an evening in summer which flit around big electric lights to show themselves. These little bugs do not make the coruscating car bon visible but the carbon so illuminates the air that the eye detects the bugs. In poetry Troubadour Thurston is to his feeble imitators as the largest and most luminous arc light is to a sputtering Juno bug , or as the blazing noon-day : sun is to a tallow-dip. When Troubadour Thurston declared at the Philadelphia symposium that on the inspiration of a moment , just a day or two before he had reeled off the roses in verse , THE CONSERVATIVE be lieved him. And now , when ho avers that the rosy verses bloomed and blazed in the erotic days of his youth , THE CONSERVATIVE also believes him. Nebraska soil is inexhaustible. It made corn and potatoes and prairie flowers in 1855. It makes them now in 1899. Nebraska poets are like her fertile soils , repeatiugly inexhaustible.
