VOL. II. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , JULY 27 , 1899. NO. 3.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 6,032 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
Ono dollar and a half per year , In advance ,
postpaid , to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 2flth , 1808.
There is a fervid
REVENUES
FROM VICE. and unquenchable
yearning to civil
ize , Christianize and benevolently as
similate the heathen of the Philippines.
It permeates and saturates the pious and
patriotic who believe that international
contests at corpse-making are the high
est consummation of an ideal civiliza
tion. They are ardently ambitious to
extend American benefactions to all the
savages of the globe and to indoctrinate
them with the exalted morality and
lofty principles of the government of the
United States.
The delight of showing heathen how
an intensely religious republic derives
its revenues from the vices of its people
would be enjoyed by every war-teaching
clergyman. The pleasure of explaining
"the half-devil half-child"
to - , - Filipino
the facility with which the vices of to
bacco and whiskey are transmuted into
revenues to sustain the government
would extend to our missionaries almost
supernal beatitudes.
The great fact that a gigantic part of
the revenues of the United States would
be obliterated , wiped out , if all Ameri
cans should quit the use of wine , beer ,
rum , and whiskey , would make even a
heathen Chinese smile at that Christian
consistency which is searching the earth
and exploring the seas to find chances to
inoculate barbarians with pure piety
while running a government on the
vices of the people.
If all Americans this day swear off
forever from the use of tobacco in all its
forms what a fall will revenues exper
ience ! Vice vice in its most disgusting ,
demoralizing and destructive form the
national vice of whiskey and tobacco is
the corner stone of the revenues of this
saintly and boastful republic.
In nearly every town as large as Ne
braska City the common council and the
mayor levy fines upon brothels , upon
gambling houses and slot machines and
thus replenish municipal revenues.
These reprehensible concerns violate the
law openly. They are fined openly.
City governments are , like the federal
government , as to revenues dependent
upon continued vices.
What a blessing to barbarians to be
inoculated with our civilization and
morality !
COMBINES FOR GAIN.
The vehement denunciation of the
combinations which capital is making
in the United States continues with
ever-increasing intensity. These combi
nations are anathematized as conspira
cies against the general welfare. The
alleged wickedness of these aggrega
tions of vast sums of money is that they
are solely and entirely in the interests
of producers and exclusively for their
gain. The orators of populism and the
journals of political parties continuously
call them "trusts" and depict them as
the deadly enemies of the plain people.
They are portrayed as without princi
ples and without motives save of avarice
and cupidity. They are , however , at
their worst , merely emulations and imi
tations of fusion in politics.
FuslniilHts Also lor Giiin.
Men who differ widely as to the func
tions of government and the methods of
administration combine for the sole and
declared purpose of gaining the offices
and the patronage of the federal and
the state government. The political
combine is an attempt to corner and
monopolize offices and their emolu
ments. Morally it is , when all princi
ples are abandoned for spoils , no better ,
if as good , than the combinations capital
ists make for the purpose of cornering
markets and securing a monopoly in
trade. The men who fuse voters to
gether merely to get offices are no bet
ter than those who fuse dollars together
into large corporations merely to get
markets and kill off competitors.
With what propriety can a candi
date representing a combination of men
who are for an irredeemable paper cur
rency and men who are also for the un
limited coinage of silver , at the ratio of
16 to 1 utterly adverse policies in fi
nance condemn combinations of capi
tal for the purposes of reducing the cost
of production and distribution ? What
is there better or nobler in fusing to
gain offices and the honors and emolu
ments thereof than there is in fusing
capital to gain greater profits ?
One man , a few men , a copartnership ,
cannot furnish capital to build a trans
continental railroad or to construct a
national canal. Neither can modern in
dustrial plants be established and oper
ated without combinations of vast mon
etary resources and credit. In view of
these facts , with what distrust should
the American people regard the leaders
in politics who advocate a fusion , a com
bine , a trust of all the discontent in the
United States , for the purpose of as
saulting banks , ' railroads , manufactor
ies , and all other incorporated capital
for the sole purpose of procuring pat
ronage and offices for themselves !
The reasons for
CAUSES FOR WAR.
even personal an
tagouisms are seldom truthfully given
to the public. Pretended causes are
nearly always alleged. And the real
causes of inteinational conflicts are not
generally revealed in history. But Vol
taire in an autobiography relates that
Frederick III of Prussia said to him ,
over his own name , in writing of his
war against Maria Theresa , queen of
Bohemia and Hungary :
"Ambition , interest , and a desire to
make the world speak of me , vanquished
all , and war was determined on 1"
Then , upon that statement , Voltaire
declares :
"From the time that conquerors , or
fiery spirits that would be conquerors ,
first were , to the present hour , I believe
he is the only one who has ever done
himself thus much justice. Never man ,
perhaps , felt reason more forcibly , or
listened more attentively to his passions ;
but this mixture , of a philosophic mind
and a disorderly imagination , has ever
composed his character. "
When the historian writes fifty years
hence of the Spanish-American war , and
the battles in the Philippines , what
causes will he assign for then ? having
taken place ? Benevolent assimilation ?
A weak executive ? An unprincipled
congress ? Greed of gain ? The mis
sionary spirit ? The desire to evangel
ize the world by consecrated shot , shell
and sanctified slaughter of the dark-
skinned barbarians ?