*
Conservative. * > 4
long tenure to the crank and mischief
maker. State Journal.
The term "academic freedom" has be
come quite a fad in American literature
of late. It is a pretty thing to talk
about. It is an ideal "spirit that fails
to materialize. " The only universities
where there is any approach to it are
Harvard and Johns Hopkins. The very
places where it should flourish most
radically , the state universities and pub
lic schools , are where there is the least of
it. In point of fact they are the only
institutions where , by law , "free
speech" should exist. Intellectual free
dom and freedom of speech are two en
tirely distinct things. Orthodox
inind can enjoy freedom of speech at
Princeton and many other places , but
an orthodox mind is as far from intel
lectual freedom as the North Pole from
the South. Intellectual freedom is for
eign to the traditional mind.
The action of the "university congre
gation" of the Chicago university is
most decidedly American. It is strong
in resolution but is it so in action ? If
the governing body of the university
believes in "complete freedom of speech"
they are asked will they allow an
atheist that privilege as a member of
their faculty in the instruction of stu
dents ? No one believes they would nor
should it be expected of them I If they
believe in the principle of "complete
freedom of speech" why did they force
Bemis out , why is it necessary to pass
resolutions declaring that they do ? The
fact is they do not.
The erudite editor of The State Jour
nal says "the principle of academic free
dom must be accepted everywhere , but.
with it must go the understanding thai
it does not give a college man the priv
ilege of making a fool or nuisance o :
himself and being exempt from the dis
cipliue of the trustees. " Under such
conditions "academic freedom" is hn
possible. Will the editor of The Jour
nal affirm that one scintilla of true aca
demic freedom exists in the state uni
versity of Nebraska ? Will he affirm
that under the management of Caufielc
and MacLeau the university has no
been carried "horse , foot and dragoons'
into the camp of Christianity and Chris
tian socialism of the most anarchistic
character ? The editor of The Journa
again says : "Academic freedom does
not and cannot secure immunity and long
tenure to the crank and mischief maker. '
"But , " as the editor says , of the man
who makes "a nuisance of himself" who
is to judge ? One Jesus once made
quite a "nuisance of himself" and wore
He to come on earth today , and preacl
as He did of the rights of property and
the celestial perils of the rich , He would
bo called quite a "crank" and be sub
ject to "discipline at the hands of the
trustees" as even his true disciple , Pro
fessor Herron , is. Darwin was looked
upon as quite "cranky ; " not over long
ago and the "trustees" made mighty big
nuisances of themselves over Gallileo at
no time , Bruno at another. It is
.oubtful if the "trustees" wore not
ornowhat cranky over Vesalius , Harvey ,
Newton and Spencer and some others
now honored as decidedly solid men.
Aristotle did not have a very pleasant
ime of it toward the latter end of his
ife. The "trustees" of the Unitarian
church got decidedly cranky over a fol-
ow named Emerson and another named
Parker , both of whom were strong be-
ievers in academic freedom. A man
named Briggs has had a little singeing in
; ho same direction. Science means only
; he endeavor to read the reactions
which the external cosmos makes or
causes in the mind of man. If the man
s absolutely free from all pietist pollu-
; iou , all attachment to anything by
; he naval cord of tradition ; if he
stands alone as if no one preceded him
and no one was to succeed him , and
Nature reacts directly in him uninflu
enced by anything held sacred in the
past , or by others , that man is "free"
all others are intellectual slaves. If
there is an educational institution that
will admit such a man to its faculty and
let him speak "God's thought , " as it is
in him , will it come to the front and let
it be known ? In none other is there
"academic freedom. "
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Graf ton , Mass.
An editor in the
. .
MAI.KVOI.KNT norfchern section of
AND IDIOTIC. _ . . . . .
Nebraska , at the
town of Lyons , Burt county , gives an
instance of the malevolence of "the
money power. " The editor aforesaic !
had completed negotiations , with an
agent of plutocracy , for a loan of sixteen
hundred dollars , for a term of years , at
ten per cent interest. The editor put up
incidentally for security a hundred
thousand dollars worth of property. But
just at the moment when the agent of
the money fiends was about to pass the
filthy money and its diabolical power
over to the guileless , industrious auc
frugal borrower , he was "notified by
Wall Street" whose wicked and malig
nant eyes had fixed their pitiless gaze
upon the case to break his promise
withhold the money and let the confid
ing editor go to the devil !
Nothing more conclusive as to the
malevolence of "the money power" has
been printed from the personal experi
ence of any man in Nebraska and THE
CONSERVATIVE congratulates Mr. Warner
nor , of the Lyons Mirror , upon having
given to the world such an unanswerable
argument against money and its power
both of which he desired to secure.
But the transaction is not withou
further interest. The abandoned and
servile agent of the plutocratic oligarchy
of Wall street , after refusing to loan
sixteen hundred dollars , on a hundred
thousand dollars worth of security , a
ton per cent , began to look around for
something safer and more profitable. f t (
But after searching some mouths with f
that identical sixteen hundred dollars
asleep , unloancd , earning no interest at
all , the idiocy of the money power be
gins to show up as the equal of its male
volence. For that sixteen hundred dollars
lars is still rotting , sweltering in idiotic
indolence.
TIIE CONSERVATIVE was never more
intensely interested in a description of
the devilisms and atrocities of "the
money power" than while perusing the
fervid and terse , the logical and conclu
sive , the convincing and entirely undo-
batablo article referred to , in the Lyons
Mirror of Juno 29 , 1899 , from the piorc-
ng pen of Mr. Warner , whose ink is to
; ho gold standard and the money trust
and the cash power as is prussic acid to
human , or other animal life. The arti
cle is among editorials like Pike's Peak
among the Rocky mountains without
a parallel.
Wool-growers
. -mpete thfUh-
erinen in their ca
pabilities for Munchausenisin. In strong ,
long and wrong stories the angler may
defeat the flock-master. But here is a
tester :
"F. D. Coburn , secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture of Kansas , tells
us of a fifty-two pound fleece from a
four-year-old Merino ram , the ram after
shearing weighing 120 pounds. The
same ram sheared 87) pounds when two
years old , and 44J pounds when three
years old. He says and wo never
doubt what he says this ram was born
and raised in Kansas.If any of our
Merino breeders in Nebraska are to run
up against such figures as these , we
would be very glad to hear from them ,
with such facts and figures as they have
to submit. It will certainly not hurt
Nebraska to give publicity to some of
our best clips , and also some of our best
weights for mutton lambs. We have a
good state for sheep , both of the wool
and mutton breeds , whether we have
any 62 pound fleeces or not , and to re
port the best we haye , and discuss it
will have a stimulating effect upon the
industry , and if we fail to produce as
heavy a fleece as Kansas maybe we con
produce a much finer and better quality.
Report what you have.
"Remembering my being called in
question , as to an 8 pound wool fleece
before the farmers of the Cooper Insti
tute in New York City in 1878 , when
you wore present , leads me to inquire ,
How's this ? ' R. W. FURNAS. "
THE CONSERVATIVE remembers the
meeting at the Cooper Institute , to which
Governor Furuas alludes , with great
pleasure. At that meeting Governor
Furnas did a great work in making Ne
braska better known , for its horticulture.
He was telling then of our now.