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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1899)
si . Conservative. In the year nine- THE PARIS tcon hundred tliere EXPOSITION. . . . , . . will open the Pans exposition. To aid this foreign enter prise the congress of the United States has given directly , nud indirectly , with out any constitutional right , more than a million of dollars. The show-business earned on by the United States is alto gether an extra-constitutional and non governmental business. The following tabulation of THE CONSERVATIVE may be of interest to citizens who still cling to the idea that the sole business of gov ernment is to protect life , liberty and property and that for the rendition of that service the citizen must pay a compensa tion and that therefore he must be taxed. Appropriations by Congress in Connection with tin ; Principal Expositions in the United States , lioginniiiK with the Centennial , 1870. < * * * ; x. . The above table does not include the sum of $250,000 appropriated by congress for the Paris Exposition of 1889 , nor various small amounts expended in connection with other expositions at homo and abroad. The educational argument , and the as rk sumption that such governmental ex penditures inspire patriotism , and the assertion that they exalt , refine , and sublimate humanity in general , by tax ing everybody to enable relatively no body to have salaries and profits , see pleasant things and enjoy life intensely if , at the expense of the great majority who are not in attendance , are constantly re iterated by those voluble promoters of personal enterprises that are always masked as the "general welfare. " But it is unnecessary to elaborate or enumerate the evils of the government show-business. It is only one of many modern methods of buncoing our com mon Uncle Sam out of the taxes which he has harvested from his full and ap plauding field of nephews. The govern ment waxwork business , menagerie and general show-business can only be de stroyed by sending men to the national legislature for the purpose of doing something for the people , instead of try ing to get everything possible out of and away from the people. The last congress very unwisely and Congress loaned the Centennial Exposition $1,500,000 , which was repaid. ill,000,000 of this amount was a loan ; it was not repaid ; and congress had to appropriate a further sum of $350,000 to extricate the exposi tion from its embarrassments. JActual disbursements by treasury depart ment. extravagantly appropriated directly , and , , . , indirectly , the Possible Paris Panic. , , sum of nearly two millions of dollars to stimulate the Paris exposition and encourage paternal ism and dependence in the United States. It is estimated that five hundred thousand Americans may visit Paris next summer. It is reasonable to place the average expenditure of each at one thousand dollars in goldwhich means five hundred millions of gold may be tnkon out of this country by tourists and sight seers in 1900 ! Reduce the number of people going abroad one half and the gold export , by Paris exposition patrons , amounts to two hundred and fifty mil lions of dollars next year 1 Reduce the expenditure of each one half and allow the number going to stand at five hun dred thousand and the output of Ameri can gold remains the same for 1900 ! Will this create a financial cyclone ? Under our present imperfect and in congruous monetary system with an Panics. enormous . . . . per , . cap- , , ita circulation , all of which is convertible on demand with gold , the Paris exposition seems quite capable of precipitating a panic in the United States during the year 1900 ! Panics are often born of looting legisla tion. The looting of the public treasury by piratical politicians in behalf of ex positions ought to bo stopped and stopped permanently and forever. The continued raid for pensions which is commanded by representatives and senators who seek support from old sol diers is enough to prevent congestion of the treasury. After paying any and all pensions demanded and improving rivers and harbors and liquidating the costs ol benevolent assimilation in the Philippine islands the United States need not sent its people to Paris to precipitate the panic in 1900 ! FIGURES AGAINST COIN HARVEY. The very day that Coin Harvey said in Nebraska Oity that there were no signs of real prosperity anywhere among the people of Nebraska or any other state , records of Otoe county were pub ished showing that during the last iwelvo mouths the mortgage indebted ness of its citizens had been reduced more than one hundred and twenty-five liousaud dollars. And upon the same date money , in abundance , was offered on long time , upon personal security , to THE CONSER VATIVE at five per cent per annum ! This offer was made by the Mutual Life .nsuranco Company upon its own poli cies to the amount of their cash value. Before "the crime of 1873" the Union Mutual Life of Maine was getting iwelvo per cent interest from the same party in Otoe county who is now offered money on New York Mutual Life poli- ies at five per cent ! Figures and facts stand up before the mendacity of the Bryauarchists and il- ustrate the strength and glory of truth ! Out of four hundred thousand acres in Otoo county fifty thousand acres , except for purchase money , have never at one and the same time been under mortgage. "ACADEMIC FREEDOM. " The action of Professor Laughlin of Chicago university in taking part in a iopperhead political meeting not long ago has caused the authorities of the university a good deal of embarrass ment. The institution has been blamed for the views of one professor , and not a few of its friends have been led to be lieve that Professor Laughlin really spoke for the university on that uufor- * tunate occasion. At a meeting of the university congregation held on Friday it was felt advisable to pass the follow ing resolution : "Resolved , 1. That the principle of complete freedom of speech on all sub jects has from the beginning been re garded as fundamental in the university of Chicago , as has been shown both by the attitude of the president and the board of trustees and by the actual prac tice of the president and the professors. 2. "That this principle can neither now nor at any future time be called in question. 8. "That it is desirable to have it clearly understood that the university , as such , does not appear as a disputant , on either side , upon any public question ; and that the utterances which any pro fessor may make in public are to be re garded as representing his own opinions only. " This is of course sound doctrine. It will be accepted generally by college people as a safe and desirable rule to fol low everywhere. It is a guarantee that the professor shall have the right uni versally granted to scientists to tell what he considers the truth without let or hindrance. The principle of aca demic freedom must be accepted every where , but with it must go the under standing that it does not give a col lege man the privilege of making a feeler or a nuisance of himself and being ex empt from discipline at the hands of the president or the trustees. A man with enough dignity and balance to deserve a university chair will rarely bring him self into unpleasant notoriety , no matter how radical or unusual his personal views may be. Academic freedom does not and cannot secure immunity and
