Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 1899)
13be Conservative 111' the funeral will proceed with duo celer ity and solemnity. The amalgamation- ists in Nebraska have produced as pro geny some very freckled tickets. The freckles were less last fall than over be fore. Constantine , T. Smytho was the only nominal democrat on the ballot and he could hardly be recognized as the regular brand , old style , sound money , free trade and economical adminis tration. Adam and Eve fell because they had all the wealth of Eden concentrated in the hands of the Man s lull. . - _ . , few. Whatever else you may read or hear upon vile and wicked wealth remember Birkott , who in long-distance-telephone style said : "History will belie itself , if a people can remain free after the wealth of the coun try has drifted into the hands of the few , for it is then the grasping landlord lays claim to the soil and denies the husband man the right to compel mother earth to yield him sustenance , except upon the most exacting terms ; it is then giant corporations absorb and consolidate thousands of miles of railroad traversing an empire in domain and compels the producer to pay 'all the traffic will bear1 before the consumer is reached ; it is then capital combines in all the mining enterprises , mechanic arts and avenues of trade and commerce and utterly crushes individual enterprise , skilled labor and the small dealers ; it is then the hideous money octopus assumes ab solute control of the finances of the country , and by a skillful but heartless manipulation of its concentrated mil lions , dictates the price of all commodi ties , paralyses trade and creates panics , which invariably result in depreciation of property values and untold loss to the small home owners and men of moder ate means. " Congress has been propagating pov erty. The legislative , judicial and ex ecutive depart- Truinp Iiioiilwtors. , , , ineiits of the gov ernment are incubators which hatch tramps , taxes and homelessness. Hear Birkett : "By these iniquitous proces ses , tolerated and encouraged by the powers that be and have been since the civil war , thousands upon thousands of our industrious population are yearly dropping into the ranks of the homeless unemployed. " ; It seems hardly possible that hero in Nebraska there is to be no more fusion between the silver No More Fusion. . , , smelter democracy and the good old-fashioned populists like Levi G. Todd and Uncle Jacob Wolfe. THE CONSERVATIVE cannot conceive of a disagreement between the leaders of the silver smelters trust and the leaders of the populist office holders trust. Here tofore in Nebraska tranquillity , harmon ious satisfactions and ambitions gratified to repletion , have characterized the fused and compounded , amalgamated and emulsioned populism and democracy. It can not bo that they will separate now. It is impossible by any sort of analysis to disintegrate the incarnate ap petite for jobbery and offices which Poyntor's party , Bryan's party , Allen's party and the party of Clem Deaver and the Omaha World-Herald and Attorney- General Smythe represent. There can bo no voluntary disagreement , no disin tegration on purpose , any more than there can be voluntary disagreement and forced disintegration by the chopped-up remains of twin puppies encased in the same sausage skin. But alas , "It is fish or cut bait , " said Milton Park , chairman of the executive committee. "We will , lofc Cominittccman. . . . . , , . miso with the fusionists - sionists , although wo are anxious to solidify and harmonize the party. The fusiouists must join us or leave the party. " And this is the edict of the ihairmau and of the national populist committee. "Fixt fate , free FATI2 , OK . " . ; an old puz zle , often supposed to lead the mind into mere blind alloys and insoluble tangles. Yet there never was occasion for any such despair ; the question is answered , as all such ques tions are , by merely reaching a higher level. The lower piano , that discredits the power and divinity of the soul , with great apparent cause regards the course of events , like that of Nature , the world like the worlds , as a subject of immov able law and destiny. But the higher order of minds have always risen above this view , into a far nobler and truer one. "They who have gone to the bet torn in their reasoning , always have recognized our liberty innate. " The Bible teaching simply ignores the di lemma , and appeals throughout to man as free and responsible. The loftier and deeper philosophy , ancient , modern or midway , invariably assigns the idea of fate to a cruder and material stage of thought , which supposes all to bo gov erned as matter ; a sphere of human freedom and divine beneficence in real ity existing beyond its range. It is curious to observe , in the present phase of our national affairs , how nat urally and by its own gravitation a cer tain doctrine falls right into this fatalis tic rut. Statesman , editor , or resolution monger , when his island appetite hap pens to be awake , in his most consider ate utterance gently rolls the whole bur den of our doings upon destiny. "A course of events which when ouco in stituted has moved in irresistible se quence to the present situation , " ho re solves. No responsibility upon our selves , no more freedom of action left us , no use for judgment or conscience. Destiny is so big , it can bear our deeds on its broad back and show nothing of their moral nature. Yet the time has been when wo liked to have a little hand in our own destiny. So far as wo Imvo observed , such disguising generalities have not been found on the lips of those who Imvo sought to keep the country to the only destiny it ovpr justified. They have appealed to right and wrong , to enlightened interest , to soberness , ac countability and sense , to the glory our fathers won ; to principles and stand ards in which wo are all agreed. They do not ask their countrymen to follow any lights of their own ; but only to do justly , to love mercy , and attend to their own very lucrative business , which may bo the most available form of the reniainintr nronnnf. . Some branch of this political "deter minism" it must bo , which could ac count for the endless blather of the "flag-nevor-lmul-down , " rather the tightest combination of idiot and ignor amus wo can anywhere remember ; as if the beautiful textile could be anything to respect except where it ought to bo , or as if in all our foreign wars and deal ings there had not been continual plant ings of this glorious tree which wore never to grow , but wore duly plucked up or down , on further consideration. To bo sure , our president has indulged in the sentiment , whom wo do not want to "nominate" as above ; but a presi dent has to lot himself down occasion ally to the shouting level of his aud ience ; not like a virtuous journal. And just here wo are encountered with one final instance of our overruling Kismet , and the strangest one , since it questions whether wo are Turks or Anglo-Saxons ; whether wo are rational beings at all. The government surely knows , it is there where it must know , better than wo ; and wo are not quite at liberty to condemn its proceeding. The conduct of a national affair by our exe cutive , on the broadest stage of the world , attracting the eyes of all the world , may not bo properly a subject of our criticism. We mean no sarcasm , we are trying to state this solemn pro position of duty and humility exactly as it is stated by those who advance it. Was a trust on a candidate for the presidency formed in 189 ! ] ? Did that syndicate consist of Bellamy Storer , Mark Hanua , H. H. Kohlsaat and other gentlemanly patriots potent in cash ? Did they collude , consult and agree to pay the personal liabilities of a failed protectionist in Ohio with the distinct understanding that they would each and every one do all in his power to nominate and elect the bankrupt afore said to the presidency ? Placard a dwelling "Smallpox here" and it will not be freer from callers than that town which supports and endorses a genuine sixteen-to-one Bry anarchistic newspaper will be from iiicdining capital seeking investment.