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
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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. )
