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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1899)
: - * . . . . R 'Cbe Conservative * charged with assault and battery , claimed this privilege , and a jury of six , among whom wore John Lorton , A. F. Mollring and James Fitchey , deliberated on his case until three o'clock in the morning , when , being no doubt con sumed with such a horrid thirst as over came the gods of Olympus , in adjudi cating the case of the dog and the fox , they "declared that they could not agree and were discharged. " A second jury acquitted. Not so in the case of Rich ard Williams , charged with "selling in toxicating liquors and keeping drain shop ; " his jury's verdict was , "We the Jury find the Defendant Guilty of giv ing John Nash one drink of Whiskey on Tuesday the 29th , " and so on through the other counts. The hospitable Rich ard was accordingly filled twenty dollars lars , and ordered to abate the nuisance of his dram shop. He complied appar ently by departing for some settlement where they were not so strict ; for the record shows further that the nuisance was abated , but that no property was found. A year could not pass in Nebraska at that period without offenses against hu man life coming Crimes. before a magis trate , and in fact our justice's brief record contains three such entries. He soberly commits the offenders to jail and passes them on to the higher courts ; and his connection with their cases being ended , his minutes show nothing further in regard to them. Old-timers can no doubt tell what came of the Har- gus and Bidleman murder cases , but Justice Reeves' docket has been closed for forty years. THE OUTLOOK OI ? THE TUUST. It is still too early to make any ade quate forecast of the ultimate solution that will be found for the trust question , but certain general symptoms indicate that this industrial phenomenon is to be the main political issue in the next pres idential campaign. One political party appears to be ready to take an extreme , radical position on the question. Though there is a slight checking of the abnormal activities of the trust movement , the industrial combination continues to be the chief feature of the age , demanding the calm and close study of every thoughtful man. The subject seems to fall naturally into two distinct divisions the unsound and the sound. The trust , pure and simple , is a speculative enterprise. A number of shrewd and more or less un scrupulous men , under the leadership of a clover manipulator , pool their capital and properties and issue preferred stock to the total value of the combined plants , to which they add an equal amount of common stock based on noth ing tangible. This common stock is sold to any one gullible enough to buy it. The officers are given high-sound ing titles and higher salaries. Trusts of this typo are unquestionably of mushroom growth and will pass away , They have no real justification or sound economic foundation. They will go as all other economic vagaries and delu sions have gone in the past , and their passing will bo much like that of a cy clone. Thousands will bo ruined and tens of thousands crippled in the shock and downfall. The second division of the present in dustrial phenomenon seems to be based on sound economic principles. Trade organizations capitalized at the actual value of their business , officered by ex perienced and skillful men , operated by expert subordinates , and created prim arily for the purpose of economizing in operating expenses , are a natural and inevitable result of commercial evolu tion. The desire for economy in pro duction and distribution is a normal motive for combination. Waste is the enemy of profit and of success. If a half dozen or more independent and competing properties can be amal gamated and placed under skillful man agement and caused to cooperate with each other in the production and distri bution of their product , a great saving of waste to the producer and consumer will occur. The saving will bo in cut ting off unnecessary expenses. If a federated industry finds it can dispose of its product with five traveling sales men instead of the twenty-five formerly required , twenty salesmen's salaries will be saved. The working of the economic law is exactly the same as when a ma chine is invented that will enable five men to make as many shoes in a day as twenty-five could make before. The superfluous twenty workmen are under the hard necessity of hunting other work , but no intelligent man will deny the economic soundness and general value of the change. In this legitimate aspect of the indus trial combine illustrates the inevitable tendency of the times. Skilled brains are under an irresistible law that urges them to economize in the management of methods and machines , in the use of capital , in the production and use of raw material , and in a hundred ways that are difficult to explain to the uniniti ated. The result must necessarily bo a lowering of the price to the consumer. The wise merchant cares less for a large profit than for a wide and active market. What are the remedies to prevent the evils of the trusts and preserve the good features ? A national law if one would be constitutional requiring all trade combinations engaged in interstate com merce to take out national incorpora tion papers , and restricting the total of preferred and common stock to the act ual value of the plant , ought to be a strong restriction to overcapitalization. The power placed by congress in the hands of the president or a national in dustrial expert commission to withdraw the protection of the tariff from any trust abusing it , would probably be a valuable restraining force. A law wresting from great shippers the dis criminating railway rates they now al most universally enjoy would assist in placing the large and small trader on an even keel. In other words , let us con trol the trusts as carefully as the na tional banks are now controlled. The political party that will work out these three suggestions scientifically withdrawal of the power to overcapital ize , withdrawal of the ability to got railway discriminations , and a limited withdrawal of tariff protection when necessary will stand on solid ground and solve the worst of the trust evils without injuring the onward movement of industrial evolution. Chicago Dry Goods Reporter. A 1JLOW TO GOOD GOVERNMENT. The order issued by President McKinley - loy withdrawing ten thousand posts in our national government from the pro tection of civil service reform , is a ser ious injury to the country , to the party the president represents , and to the pres ident's own reputation and influence. The order not only takes this myriad of offices from the classified service , but it legalizes a thousand appointments ir regularly made , permits the future em ployment without examination of any of the thousands appointed without ex amination during the emergency of the Spanish war , permits the'transfer to another position of a person in office , without competitive examination , and regardless of the question whether or not an examination was given before he took his first office. It allows a person that leaves the service to be admitted again without examination. Worst of all , possibly , in its influence on the fu ture , it excludes Alaska from all partici pation in civil service reform methods. A manifesto of the National Civil Service Reform League declares that this action is only the culmination of many acts of unfaith towards the reform it represents , and asserts that the presi dent's order will "undo much of the progress made in the past , and intro duce a spirit into the service , the iuflu- * ence of which it will hardly fail to pro duce general demoralization. " We do not believe that the American people will tamely submit to so great a wrong. Christian Endeavor World. beats in Corn-stalking deer-stalking the West just now. Stalks as an article of commerce are but a few years old , and yet they bring farmers millions of dollars annually. New York Commer cial Advertiser. Hon. James L. Blair , of St. Louis , was correct when ho said that Missouri would bo the storm center of the free silver agitation. Sound Currency.