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Che Conservative.
BENEFACTOKS VE1JSUS HEKOES.
The nmrtiol spirit has been BO devel
oped and praised in the United States
that corpse-making upon those inter
national battlefields which modern civ
ilization deluges in blood for the sake of
Christianity is , by many , considered
the highest evolution of moral and men
tal excellence. The killing of an indi
vidual in a duel is called murder. But
the killing of thousands in the inter
national duellos called war is glory and
renown. To destroy life upon the field
of carnage is benevolent assimilation.
But to provide for the prolongation of
life by tilling the fertile fields of the
farms of the United States is rustic ob
scurity and rural inutility.
McCormick and his reaper were a
benefaotiou to all the hungry humanity
of the globe. But McCormick is not
applauded as were Gatling and his gun
with which death reaps and garners great
armies in the grave. The hero uses the
gun. The benefactor runs the wheat-
gathering machine. The former is
praised by the multitude who love con
tention and blood-letting whether there
be or be not bread for the famishing.
Edison is a benefactor. His genius
has blessed mankind with its products
of invention. He is an illustrious ex
ample of the constructive in civilization.
But how many receptions , how much of
laudation has Edison as compared to
Schley or Dewey ? These game and
gallant gentlemen represent the de
structive element in civilization. Those
most adept as destructionists command
more popular acclaim than those who ,
with unlimited constructive energy and
genius , have invented the foremost
labor-saving machinery of modern
times.
Robert Fulton is not mentioned once
where Napoleon is biographed a hun
dred times.
The discoverer of anaesthetics to allev
iate suffering and mitigate human
agony is almost unknown. But the
man who invented the rapid-firing gun
to facilitate the infliction of pain and
death is a familiar with the masses.
Professor Morse , whose telegraphy
finally enabled the continents and is
lands of the globe to whisper to each
other under the untamed waves of seas
and oceans is not in the race for the
prize of mankind's praise with the in
ventors of iron-clad ships , smokeless
powder and ten-mile firing cannon.
Those who can best provide for kill
ing off men , are , if successful in slaugh
tering enemies , exalted far above those
who have founded asylums and hospit
als for the indigent , the sick and the
incurable.
As between the hero and the benefac
tor the most men side with and run to
the former.
Howard and Peabody , and Baron and
Baroness Hirsch , and Montefiore are ,
notwithstanding their incalculable be-
quests to philanthropy , almost forgotten ,
while the names of "Wellington , Napol
eon and hundreds of other military
chieftains blaze in history with over-
increasing incandescence.
WAS AN1 > IS. ,
who are everlast
ingly talking of dead statecraft , dead
conditions and dead statesmen and ask
ing the Present to be guided and con
trolled by them are lacking in thinking
and reasoning powers. If man makes
no mental or moral advancement , as
cends no intellectual elevation , then
that which i's today , was yesterday , and
will continue forever.
New and alive questions require new
and alive statesmen for their solution.
The thoughts of our ancestors were
evolved from their conditions , ambi
tious , hopes and reasonings. They
were better adapted to their needs thane
: o ours. Wo are ; they were.
* he Omaha
Daily Bee of June
12 , contains an article copied from the
Nebraska Independent , which is the ac
credited advocate of populism in Ne
braska , very severely derogatory to law
yers in general and especially severe
upon Nebraska lawyers in particular.
The first paragraph from the Inde
pendent's excoriation of lawyers is :
"This country has raised up a breed
of lawyers that have been an unmiti
gated curse to the whole land. In their
practice they have abandoned all the
principles of the common law and in
their lives been guided by no principle
of morality known to Christian nations.
Big fees , regardless of how or in whose
service they were obtained , have been
the only object sought after. "
Is that true ? If it is true does it not
follow that the people of this country
like that breed ?
Who is to blame ; the people who will
not discriminate between make-believe
lawyers and real lawyers ; who will not
consider character and acquirements ,
good name and ability , or the better and
higher grade of lawyers themselves ?
The Bee commenting upon the whole
sale calumny of the legal profession re
marks :
"Our populist contemporary has hit
the nail squ arely on the head. The law
yers ought to take a back seat for a
while and let the farmers , merchants ,
mechanics and other producers have a
voice in the affairs of government.
"But reform should have been begun
long ago by the reformers. Yet what
have they done ? Up to date they have
injected more lawyers into office in Ne
braska than any of the old parties.
"With the exception of Kem every
man elected by them to represent Ne
braska in congress has been a lawyer.
Senator Allen was a lawyer. So are
Holcomb , Neville , the Harringtons and
nearly all the lesser and bigger popo-
cratic lights , including William J.
Bryan.
"If the policy of retiring lawyers to
the rear advocated by the Independent
is to be adopted , new blood will have to
be infused among the leadership of the
reform forces. "
With perhaps one or two exceptions
; he gentlemen enumerated by the Bee as
awyers could be cleared of the charge in
almost any court in Nebraska. Some of
; hem could easily and successfully chal-
.euge the Bee to show wherein they have
over been practicing attorneys. They
may have had now and then a cause in the
lower courts. But there has been noth
ing like a periodicity in their appear
ance before the bar of justice with cli
ents in whose behalf they were about to
exercise their minds and legal lore.
They may have had sporadically a client
liere and there but their practice has
never been epidemic. And if all law
yers were shut out from heaven , by St.
Peter at the golden gates , most of the
gentlemen named by the Bee would be
let in on the ground that they were not
enough lawyers to hurt lawyers only in
name but not in fame.
ME TOO.
On a thousand voices comes to us the
exhortation , that we also of America
should do the great things that other
peoples have done , in foreign overflow
and exteution of our blessings through
the distant world. For our own private
part we have often been so moved by
these glowing representations , of wax
ing greatness and benefit to mankind ,
that we have shaken ourselves from
time to time , to see whether we were
well awake , or something had stolen a
march and left us far behind. Then ,
duly accustomed long of old to find our
selves but erring mortals , we have faced
the expansionist positions set before us ,
by all the light they could offer. The re
sults are imparted to our readers ; and
we find a curious tendency , of one same
principle to reappear in many forms.
In the last Forum a well-known writer
"Side Issue of "
presents a Expansion ,
being that of the character likely to be
developed by colonial government ,
among the officers who will have charge
of it. A few years ago he had met a
fine young Englishman , who at first con
veyed only a general impression of up
per class , but proved to be a colonial
ruler , of immense executive power and
virtue , lifting swarthy millions to a
higher plane ; with an intimation , that
the like are almost as blackberries on the
British soil. If there were only such a
class of young Americans 1 Of course
potentially there may be ; but they lack
opportunity that is colonies ; for ob
serve "Our political life is so foulmouthed -
mouthed and grimy , that few who are
not already foul-mouthed and grimy
care to enter it. " But even while the