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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.
