i-i 5
Conservative *
'I16 ° ° f
wlu BtfaJ
VIOLENCE. Wyoming there
are nt present
many placards advertising that $ .5,000
will bo paid for the capture'alive or
dead , " of any person who shall prove to
be one of the men who robbed a certain
express train not long ago. Of this
large sum , a portion is offered by pri
vate parties and a portion by the gov
ernment. No names are mentioned of
the men wanted , and their identifica
tion is apparently left to individual en
terprise.
Now , assuming what is very probable ,
that applicants for this reward are more
likely to produce their captures in the
dead than the living state , in what ma
terial respect does this proceeding dif
fer from the lynchings in the South ,
that are so much deplored ; where citi
zens known , or reasonably suspected , to
be guilty of crimes , are taken by the
neighbors and hanged out of hand ?
What would be the legal standing of a
man who should shoot another for the
sake of this money , if the victim proved
to bo innocent ? And in what position
towards its own laws does it put the
government , to offer cash payment for
the dead bodies of men whom it cannot
name and who have not been convicted
of any offense ?
ENGLISH CHEAP MONEY.
ST. Louis , Juno 9 , 1899.
EDITOK THE CONSERVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Neb.
In the early part of this evening I re
ceived THE CONSERVATIVE of June 8 ,
and noticed with amusement the article
entitled "A Certain Preventive , " which
refers to Bryan's prescription : "Take
the free coinage of silver at the ratio of
IG-to 1. " Later I was deep in "The
English Government and Constitution , "
by Earl Russell , originally published in
1823 , but re-edited in 1865. My edition
is the one of 1865. At page 142 of this
work I suddenly came upon something
which brought nie back to your article
on Bryan's prescription ; it is this :
After tracing the history of the rise
of public credit in England , showing
the history of the establishment * of
the Bank of England , how exist
ing evils were remedied in England
by Mr. Montague , chancellor of the exchequer -
chequer , and the finances of England put
on a sound basis , the author then con
trasts the then finances of England with
those of France and refers to the des
perate expedients which the king of
France resorted to at that time. This
is what I find in a note at the foot ot
page 142 of above named book :
"Among other schemes , the king of
France ordered that every coin should
pass for a nominal value higher than it
had hitherto passed for. Addison wit
tily said that he might as well have or
dered that every grenadier of six feet
3E
should in the future pass for seven feet
ligh , and thus think to increase the
strength of his army. Freeholder. "
It was rather odd that I should find
; his so soon after reading the article
in your paper.
By the way , as I am on this subject ,
[ wish to call your attention to some
thing with which you are no doubt
familiar but which has heretofore es
caped my notice. The earliest instance
in this country of the fallacy upon
which the doctrine of the free coinage
of silver at the ratio of 16-to-l rests is , I
think , that referred to in Bancroft's His
tory of United States , Vol. 1 ( edition of
1854) ) , page 202. The author is there
speaking of the year 1640 and of the
conditions existing in this country then ,
he says :
' 'History has recorded many instances
where a legislature has altered the scale
of debts ; in modern times , it has fre
quently been done by debasing the coin ,
or by introducing paper money. In
Virginia , debts had been contracted to
be paid in tobacco ; and when the article
rose in value , in consequence of laws
restricting its culture , the legislature of
Virginia did not scruple to provide a
remedy , by enacting that 'no man need
pay more than two-thirds of his debt
during the stint ; ' and that all creditors
should take 'forty pounds for a hun
dred. ' " PAUL BAKEWELL.
Ex-Secretary of Agriculture Morton ,
in his paper , THE CONSERVATIVE , makes
a pretty good point on William J. Bryan
in commenting upon his present decla
mations against the trusts. The princi
pal effect attributed to the trusts is the
raising of prices , and this , Mr. Bryan
thinks , is very wrong when it is done by
that agency. But in 1896 Mr. Bryan
was preaching the doctrine that the fall
in prices , supposed to be due to the gold
standard was ruining the country , and
that its only hope lay in the free coinage
of silver , the effect of which was going
to be to advance prices rapidly all along
the line. Mr. Morton calls on Mr. Bryan
to reconcile these positions , if he can.
Whether due to the trusts or to increas
ing demand , the prices of nearly all pro
ducts agricultural , mineral and man
ufactured are going upward with
alacrity , the advance in iron prices being
over 8 per cent in a single week. Oak
land ( Cal. ) Inquirer.
< * Mday even-
A riONEEK .
June 16' 1899
TALKS. 1US' '
Dr. George L
Miller of Omaha delivered a lecture al
the Overland theatre in Nebraska City
which was distinguished for honest
practical thought. The audience was
not large but it was attentive , interested
and responsive.
Every father and mother in Nebraska
and all knowledge-seeking and ambitious
youth who wish to ascertain and do the
right ought to hear this W&yand useful
discourse 6 * /
The intelligence , experiences ftnd'pb- ' '
servations of Doctor Miller duriu rf' s
*
residence in Nebraska of more thairV - /
forty-four years entitle him to the most * * J'
respectful and attentive hearing. His
high character as a citizen of great
spirit for public good , as a pioneer who
was always altruistic and philanthropic
commands the affectionate regard of
all who know him and remember the
unceasing efforts of nearly half a cen
tury which he has made for the mental ,
moral and material development of the
commonwealth.
THE TOURERS LAAV.
The Now York Commercial , which is
distinguished authority on business mat
ters , is watching the workings of the
Torrons land system in Illinois with in
terest. It calls attention to the increased
facility with which an owner of land
can use his property as a collateral for
securing loans of money under this
system :
"Landowners find that one advantage
of the new system is that it makes their
property easily available as an asset on
which loans may be secured with but
slight loss of time. Formerly , as a rule ,
none but loans having a long time to
run were made on laud , because the
searching of titles involved so much
labor , time and expense , but under the
Torreus system , it is claimed , sixty or
ninety-day loans may be made on real
estate as easily and simply as on stocks.
The Chicago Record reports that re
cently a loan was made on a Torrens
certificate of title , and that the time
devoted to the transaction in the re
corder's office was only 15 minutes. It
is expected that the number of registered
titles will increase very rapidly as the
advantages of the system come to be
more generally understood.
A very hungry ,
A COALITION
CANINE. sheep-killing dog
met a starving
wolf and though they were both mem
bers of the ancient family of canines
they had never harmonized together nor
spoken to each other before. But the
wolf opened the conversation on this
occasion , saying :
' 'Cousin , you look gaunt and famished ;
you love mutton and so do I. You are
however too feeble to catch sheep alone
but together we can capture enough for
our wants. " To which the despondent
dog replied :
"I think you are a wise wolf. What
is your name ? "
"My name is Populism and yours is
Bryanarchy. Together we shall surely
get some mutton , though the best and
most of the flocks may escape us. "
"Well , " said the wolf , "we will call
ourselves Fusion. "
"Offices are our Mutton , "
v