Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 15, 1899)
Cbe Conservative * VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , JUNE 15 , 1899. NO. 49. PUBMBIIED WEEKLY. OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK. J. STERLING MORTON , EuiTOii. A JOUUNAIj DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 5,809 COPIES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One dollar and a half per year , in advance , postpaid , to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made payable to The Morton Printing Company. Address , THK CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Neb. Advertising Rates made known upon appli cation. Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City , Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898. An American NO swiss . , DEWEY. citizen , resident 111 Switzerland , is said to have been refused a certificate of the birth of his infant sou , whom he desired to call George Dewey , ou the ground that no such name was found in any of the four languages officially current in Switzerland. It was supposed that the word Dewey had gained currency , as a noun or verb , or both , wherever suspenders are worn and contributions taken up for the heathen. Still THE CONSERVATIVE is informed on good authority that Swit zerland has no navy to speak of and that probably accounts for it. THE tfREMONT MYTH. The statement has been made in THE CONSERVATIVE that certain honors are popularly accorded to the explorer Fre mont to which he is not justly entitled. The accuracy of this statement has been questioned. It is of course not possible to tell how widely an apparently popu lar belief really prevails , but when those who should be the people's teachers say the thing that is not , it is reasonable to suppose that the people may be misled. In Volume V of the published Papers of the Nebraska State Historical So ciety , on page 48 , the following passage occurs in a paper by Hon. J. A. Mac- Murphy : "Fremont * * * had acquired the title of 'The Pathfinder' because * * * he was the first white man known to have crossed this then untraoked wilderness" * * * from the Missouri to the Rooky Moun- tains. An a matter of fact , Fremont was of course neither the first nor the thousandth white man to cross the plains. Another fallacy which has the appar ent endorsement of the same authority , is the allegation that Fremont bestowed the name of "Great American Desert" on this part of the country. Statements to this effect are found in several places in the Society's reports , as on page 267 of Volume V , in a paper by Joel Hull , and on page J9 of Volume I , second ser ies , in a paper by B. J. Johnson. No doubt Fremont may have used that ex pression , just as he called the mountains and the ocean that he came to respec tively the Rockies and the Pacific ; but he certainly originated none of those names. Without attempting , for the present , to go further back , wo will point out that school-atlases of 1837 , one of which is in THE CONSERVATIVE'S possession , have all the trans-Missouri country marked in large letters "Groat American Desert. " THE TORRENS LAW. There is evidently much activity in Illinois in bringing real estate under the provisions of the Torrens Law , that be neficent system which enables a man who has tlie price to buy a piece of land with as much security as he would a pound of butter , and which has been commented on from time to time in THE CONSERVATIVE. The Chicago pa pers contain occasional mention of con troversies in respect to its application being adjudicated by the courts , for there is fierce opposition to it by inter ested parties , as was to be expected. For instance , an occupant of certain land to which another man claimed title , and the ownership of which this second man wished to have established by the machinery of the Torreus sys tem , refused to appear before the official charged by it with such investigations , to testify as to what he know of his right to the property he was holding. The matter being taken to the higher courts , it was there held that the official in question , who is known as the Examiner of Titles , had no power under the act to enforce attendance and testimony , such as other courts of judicature pos sess ; and it looked very much as if the Torrens Law had received a black eye. But the Examiner going about it in a different way , the court decided that while he could not compel any obstinate party to display his title , it was within his powers to proceed , after duo notice , as if such party had not existed , and to issue the indefeasible certificate of ownership which is the main feature of the system , regardless of any rights which ho might have. This , one may suppose , will prove rather more efflca- cious in procuring prompt testimony than oven the fines which ordinary courts can impose on parties in con tempt. . The St. . Louts- AMERICAN CORN. Globe Democrat and The Atchison Globe are paroxys- mally energetic in their patriotic efforts to increase the sale of Indian corn raised in the United States , and to cul tivate a voracious appetite for corn food , in Europe. These two distinguished journals are loud in praising an exhibit of Indian maize , and food made therefrom , at the Paris exposition. But Europeans will not. soon become willing eaters of corn bread. They eat cold broad and stale bread al most exclusively. Johnny cake , pone. , cake or corn bread in a state of chilliness - ness is not very palatable. Even Afri can-Americans must be very nearly famishing to eat cold corn bread and I white people never eat it. Indian corn grown in Rouuiania is a . rival and competitor with that grown i in the United States and so is Indianj corn which India produces and exports to England. It seems strange that high-tariff jour nals desire to secure foreign markets when they know that products for pra- > ducts make the trade of the world and. that every time the United States , by law , shuts out a dollar's worlh of for eign product it shuts in a dollar's worth of domestic. A pressure has been put upon Presi dent McKiuley ( in the civil service matter ) , and , as in other instances , he has yielded to it. It needed a year or more to bring the change about , but at last it has come , which merely means that , if one wishes to carry a point with the chief executive , his best course is to keep pegging away , realizing that his mental and moral make-up is such that an impression is made each time he is appealed to , and hence , if appeals are sufficiently frequent and persistent , a victory will be scored in the end. Boston - , ton Herald ( ind. )