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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1899)
lg 2 Conservative * Few men thiuk JtKV. JKNKIX . . . M.OYD JOSKS. with more force and fewer still ex press their thoughts with more lucidity and terseness than Rev. Mr. Jones of All Souls church , Chicago. The follow ing is one of his recent , utterances and is commended by THE CONSERVATIVE to all of its thoughtful and patriotic renders : "Many are asking ever'dny'What is militarism , anyhow ? ' It is the incor poration into modern statecraft of the primitive dictum that 'might makes right. ' It is the trusting of national power and prosperity to the keeping of standing armies. It is the assumption that the physical arm of the state is its measurement in the councils of the world. It is a new exaltation of the soldier.a fresh apotheosis of the warrior. It is subordination of the arts of peace to the triumphs of battle , the application of modern enginery and scientific phys ics to the art of destruction. It is re ducing killing to an exact science and hiding the atrocities of legal and na tional murder behind the high-sounding words and highly polished instruments of precision that represent the activities of the arsenal , the fortress and the bat tleship of today. More than this , it is a revival of the cheapest heroism , the heroism represented by physical bravery , the love of parade , the glitter of gold lace and the inspiration of martial music. " The Grand Army PENSIONS AND J5VANS. of the Republic has now developed such an inordinate voracity for pensions and jobs in offices that the present com missioner of pensions , Hon. Henry Clay Evans , of Tennessee , finds himself in capable of giving it satiety. "A dozen years ago The Evening Post said of the Grand Army of the Republic that 'it is no longer a benev olent institution working for unselfish ends ; it has become a machine for the procuring of pensions and offices. ' The truth of this characterization has be come more clear during the interval , and is now put beyond the possibility of dispute by the raid which this machine has organized upon a thoroughly effi cient commissioner of pensions , simply because he has enforced the laws. The New York department of the organiza tion has been holding its annual encamp ment at Syracuse this week , and it adopted a resolution yesterday declar ing that 'it is the sense of this depart ment that the administration of the pension department by H. Clay Evans meets the emphatic disapprobation of this department and of every veteran who is entitled to a pension under the law , and we ask that he be removed and the office filled by a man who will administer the pension law according to the intent of the framers of the law , the congress that passed it , and the president who signed it. ' This action by the largest department of the Grand Army in the notion is not a hasty or ill- considered performance. It is plainly only part of a carefully planned scheme by the malingers of the organization , as similar resolutions have recently lieou adopted by other bodies of the order. The Grand Army evidently means to drive Commissioner Evans out of ollico. "There is absolutely no excuse for this assault. Commissioner Evans is warmly in sympathy with all just claims of the old soldiers , and he has administered the pension law with fair ness alike to the deserving applicant and to the government. But such fair ness has of course compelled him often to reject claims which were neither meritorious nor justified by the law. The consequence is that ho has incurred the enmity of the pension attorneys , who have grown rich upon the laxity of administration which has prevailed in the pension bureau in the past. These attorneys have organized a 'combine' to secure the removal of Mr. Evans , and they are going to 'work the Grand Army for all it is worth. ' They hope to play upon the dread of offending 'the Grand Army vote' which most politi cians feel , and there is real danger that their raid may succeed. All citizens who believe in an honest administra tion of the pension laws should come to the support of an excellent official in this emergency. " An observer and IT KAINSt . . . , . _ . . , friend of the Third Nebraska regiment was along with that collection of game and patriotic volun teers before they sailed for Cuba and at their camp either in Georgia or Florida when an order came from the command ing general to break camp and move. Immediately Lieutenant-Colonel Vif- quain , a tried and trained soldier , be gan the work which obedience to the order required. But after some time Vifquain noticed that there was no stir about the tent of Col. William Jennings Bryan. Therefore the lieutenant-colo nel courteously , and with due regard to his superior experience and rank in the world of war , called upon Colonel Bryan and with some fear and much de sire for more military science and dis cipline inquired : "Colonel Bryan , why are you not carry in gout the order to break camp ? " Whereupon with soldierly sagacity and with most patriotic sincerity Colonel nel Bryan replied : "It is raining ! " And now while orders are out by that potent commander , General Opinion , that the nonsense of another battle for sixteon-to-ono must not be indulged and that the fusion forces must break camp , "It is raining ! " It rains facts and fig ures which drown out all the fancies in finance which appeared so gaily in ' 'The First Battle. " TllKK BROWNVILLE , Neb. , May 25 , 1899. MY DEAR MR. MORTON : I herewith hand you a copy of a letter received from Professor Swezey , our state meteorologist. You will observe his theory is in harmony with mine , given you -heu last we met , viz : That the February (18S ( ! ) ) ) freeze did the dam- ago. ago.Possibly Possibly it may bo of interest to your readers to publish the letter in TIIE CON SERVATIVE. My theory if any bo possible of the vagary in injury adjoining plants , with seeming same conditions , one killed and the other not injured , I find only consolation by reference to Bibli cal record. See Matthew , chapter 24 , verses -10 and 41. Yours sincerely , ROH'T W. FURNAS. HON. ROIJ'T. W. FURNAS , Brownville , Nebraska. Dear Sir : Your favor of the IGth is at hand and I am sorry to learn that the loss in your vineyard and orchard is so serious , although as you say , you are not a solitary sufferer. I do not know , however , that the win ter killing is very surprising. It seems to me that there has been a combina tion of conditions that does not often repeat itself. In the first place the period of two cold weeks in February was one of ex cessive cold. It was the coldest Febru ary on record , and the coldest mouth with four exceptions , viz : Mean toinp. January , 1880 11.9 January , 1S8S 10 ti January , 1881 10.8 January , 18S3 11.2 i'Wuary , 1809 12.1 The minimum temperatures ran below - low zero nearly every night for two weeks , falling as low as from 25 to J5 below zero in the southeastern part of the state and 47 below in the western. In the second place the low tempera ture was not , as sometimes happens , of brief duration , but continued almost without intermission for nearly two weeks. Again it occurred while the ground was generally barren of snow so that 110 protection was iurnished the soil from the accumulating ell'ect of the low tem perature. Finally I presume that the rather dry condition with which the spring opened has tended to aggravate the evil. I do not know how to account for the different effect upon plants growing near each other. I realize , however , that the sum total of climatic conditions which determine the life or death of a plant is a complicated matter and that we ordin arily grasp only the more prominent fac tor of the problem. Very truly yours , G. D. SWEZEY.