Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1899)
/ * ' 8 The Conservative. THE LIVING OF LIFE. If when the Spring hath kissed the Earth so warmly That , Pinning , it breaks forth in blushing flower , Thou dost not feel , each year , Life's deepest yearning , And Love's ecstatic , magic-wielding power , Thou hast not lived. If when each season comes in turn so strangely. Unfolding Nature's laws in beauty shrined , Thou art not thrilled with full , profound con viction That these are thoughts of an Eternal Mind , Thou hast not lived. If Music never spolce to thee so sweetly A poet's thought , some dream of painter's eyes But thou hast found thy soul in rapture trem bling And taking wing , as 'twere , to Paradise , Thou hast not lived. If Friendship whispered not to thee so fondly But that tium wast a brother to thy friend , Uplifting and enshielding him in trouble , So far thy power and fortune might extend , Thou hast not lived. fcn,1 ! If thou hast never loved a soul so deeply , That for its peace thou would'st not glad have died. If thought or mem'ry of that loved one's vision Hath not o'er since theo blest and purified , Thou hast not lived. Vv- If Duty no'er hath called to thee so strongly That thou would'st not have battled on its side , And , standing bravely all alone if need bo , y8 Defied what fortune might for theo betide , Thou hast not lived. If joy or grief of man hath loft theo coldly , The pain of beast , the song of bird above. If thou hast not the tender , pitying , heart throb , Proclaiming kinship of a deep world love , Thou hast not lived. If thou hast schooled and trained thy soul so nobly , Exalting it with each refining grace , That thou might'st yield each thought and each emotion In consecration to the human race If thou hast grasped the truth of God so clearly That thou dost see Him in each atom's strife If thou hast ear for what all Nature's speaking : That Lifo is Love and Love is quivering Life , Then hast thou lived. Then hast thou lived. Louis R. Emticii. Colorado Springs , Col. INDUSTRIAL HARMONIKS. During the middle ages all Europe was in a seething state of constant war fare between petty feudal rulers. The country had become sufficiently settled for one baron's interests to impinge on another's , and the result was fierce and chaotic competition. Men's lives were mostly spent in protecting their own territory or trying to snatch that of their neighbors. Finally , out of this chaos of unscrupulous individual strug gle , cities wore evolved , and out of the cities principalities , and out of the prin cipalities kingdoms. Thus was syste matic and civilized government evolved , though with a terrific waste of life , time and wealth. Our own country hns escaped this savage process as far as government is concerned , but its industries have been going through the same evolution. As long as our industrial beginnings were still small and isolated , there was com parative peace. As soon as they began ; o bo organized sufficiently to interfere with each other's territory , there began : o bo attacks and reprisals. The feudal era Imd begun. The last quarter of a century has constituted the middle ages of American industry. There has been a constant and bitter struggle between factory owners , mill owners , and foun dry owners for the ricli trade territory close to the producers. There has been a jangling chaos of cut-throat competi tion. The industrial waste of this con dition of things has been almost beyond computation. Our industrial development has also been retarded by strikes , lockouts , and labor wars. There has been friction and irritation between capital and labor. Overproduction has been another source of weakness and another cause of mis understanding between employers and workers. Thirty or forty factories in ; he same line of production , scattered over the country and running in blind independence of each other , naturally often overproduced their commodities. Their products had to be unloaded at a serious loss to the producer. Then the crippled manufacturer or foundry owner naturally , though unwisely , tried to recoup himself by cutting the wage scale of his workmen. Of course , this resulted in more strikes , lockouts and labor wars. The tinio will come when this era will be looked upon as the dark ages of American industry. Today our vast productive forces seem to be rapidly organizing into something like industrial civilization. They seem to be reaching a position where we may reasonably hope for less friction , less overproduction , and less trouble be tween labor and capital. Labor unions and federations are being strengthened and are wielding an increasing in fluence. They are becoming more re sponsible , are getting 'more intelligent men and ideas , and are choosing more conservative leaders. On the other hand , the employers are also passing out of their feudal stage , and are about to find a better way of living than by cutting each other's throats. This is the real significance of the pres- seut momentous movement in the in dustrial world. Men of large responsibilities are cau tious about going into any great enter prise that is likely to cause loss to them selves or hardship to those whose des tinies they control. The combines now forming , if honestly capitalized and leg itimately conducted , will be in the inter ests of peace and harmony. Our pro ducing industries , organized into great trading companies , combines , trusts call them what you will will be in a position to avoid overproduction and the terrific waste of murderous compe tition. If they try to raise prices ille gitimately on the consumer , there are natural laws that will quickly intervene to punish the evil. Meanwhile , if the labor leader will meet the industrial leader intelligently and fairly there is reason to believe that wage wars , with all the miseries they entail , are uearing an end. Seen from an economic view point , the combining of companies into com pact and well-officered bodies should place us in a position to enjoy industrial harmony and ultimately to command the industrial markets of the world. The conquests of the future are to be won by industrial armies. We lead the world in our knowledge of labor-saving machinery and in the intelligence of the workmen who operate them. The pres ent swift evolution may be destined to place us as far ahead of the rest of the world as civilization is ahead of feudal ism. The so-called trust movement has its evils , but so had the evolution of European kingdoms. It is not a thing to be condemned offhand , but to be regarded as a product of natural forces , as a thing to be studied closely , candidly , fearlessly , with the realization that we may be building wiser than we know , for consumers and wage-earners as well as for capitalists. during a A PLUTOCRATIC IMPORT. snort sojourn in London THE CON SERVATIVE became acquainted with the efficient general agent , in the United Kingdom of Great Britain , for The Standard Oil Company of the United States. It was in the month of Septem ber and during the course of a most in teresting and instructive discourse upon oils , their markets throughout the world and the intensity of competition between American and Russian oils , the agent said that with "the field" against oils from the United States he had , by close attention to business , strict eco nomy and an alert vigilance , managed to sell enough oil , during the previous ninety days , so as to remit an average of one hundred thousand dollars a day to the New York office of The Standard Oil Company ! Will Bryauarchists submit to this con tinued influx of pauper money from Europe ? Shall the "plain people" of the United States permit this flood of plutocratic import to inundate the toiling , sweating laborers of North America ? Where are the leaders of populism ? Why do they sleep while foreign gold thus invades our beloved country ? It is said that there are 1,400 persons in New York city worth a million dollars lars and upwards , and 820 in Chicago. 0 Nail biting in children is said to be a sign of degeneracy.
