"Che Conservative.
allow the trustees to elect a now execu
tive for this institution until both board
and president have solemnly promised
that from this time on , in funds , in fac
ulty , in buildings , in equipment , in live
stock , and in everything that pertains to
agriculture , the University of Nebraska
shall be a leader. Boards of trustees
and presidents , no matter what private
opinions they may hold , are after all but
representatives of the people and will
not go far from the right when the people
ple speak in an unmistakable voice. In
half a dozen states a wronged people
have risen in their might and wrested
the agricultural college from the state
university , placing it on a separate
foundation. Let the trustees of Ne
braska university look to Connecticut ,
Rhode Island , New Hampshire , South
Carolina and Mississippi to see what
has already been accomplished by abso
lute separations from universities and
the foundation of new agricultural col
leges. In each of these states the people
ple would not tolerate the abuse any
longer and the establishment of entirely
new institutions was the result. In Il
linois only last winter the people , unable
to longer withstand the perversion of
the funds belonging to the college of
agriculture , directed through the legis
lature that hereafter one-half of all the
income from , the several government
grants should go specifically to the col
lege of agriculture.
Will the farmers of Nebraska awaken
to the situation and place their agricul
tural college where it belongs or are
they content to trail on in mediocrity
and allow president and trustees to per
vert and misuse their inheritance as in
the past ? Breeder's Gazette.
TIIK FUTURE OF THE RAILROADS.
Paul Morton , vice president of the
Atchison , Topeka & Santa Fo railroad
company , suggests three possible solu
tions of the problem of transportation in
the United States : The railroad com
panies must be authorized by law to
pool and divide business. All the rail
roads must be combined in a few enor
mous non-competitive systems , or they
must pass under the ownership of the
nation.
The sentiment of the country is so
averse to allowing the railroads to agree
on rates and divide business that there
is hardly the slightest likelihood that
congress will legalize the pooling
method which the railroad managers
desire. Hence , only two of the contin
gencies named by Mr. Morton are with
in the range of probability. Either the
government must own the railroads or
they will ultimately bo merged into a
few vast systems so powerful that com
petition will bo out of the question and
the transportation business will become
a monopoly. Judging from present
tendencies , that is what will happen
before the sentiment of the people
reaches the stage which would make
government ownership possible. But
such a concentration of railroads in a
few hands will never bo permitted with
out the strictest kind of governmental
supervision. The three possible devel
opments named by Mr. Morton seem to
bo merged into one by the logic of pre
vailing tendencies , and the thing which
at the present moment seems most prob
able is a half dozen , or oven fewer , vast
corporations owning all the 247,000
miles of railroad tracks and the million
and a half of cars and engines that
are in use in the coxiutry today , these
corporations in turn to bo so completely
under the control and regulation of the
government that they will have little or
nothing to say about rates , but will be
practically agents of the government ,
operating the railroads , distributing a
reasonable amount of the profits of the
business to their security holders and
paying all excess of earnings into the
national treasury.
Such an arrangement would be pre
ferable to government ownership , for it
would leave the railroads in the hands
of business men instead of politicians.
It would avoid the necessity of an enor
mous increase in the civil service , and
give the country all the benefits of
stable and uniform rates , as well as the
advantages of individual and corpor
ate enterprise in the development and
extension of the transportation system
of the country.
The objection will be urged against
this method that it would immensely
increase the influences that corporations
wield in the government of the country.
But that plea may be mot by the ques
tion whether such an influence would
be as bad as the danger of partisan con
trol of the million employees of railroads
under absolute government ownership.
Kansas City Star.
TlIE CoNSERVATIVE -
.
TIVE has known
Russell A. Alger personally long and
well. Ho is an honest man. He is a
very competent business man. By
nature ho is a stronger and better man
than McKinley.
The former secretary of war will be
untrue to himself , his family and
friends if he fails to candidly and truth
fully tell the real reasons that brought
about his resignation from McKinley's
cabinet. All Michigan , especially De
troit , awaits General Alger's statement
with the perfect conviction that it will
bo forcible and truthful.
To the brother
THANKS. . . , . , „
and the nephew of
the late Governor Roswell P. Flower
the editor extends thanks for a very
truthful , largo and skilfully executed
portrait of that honest , earnest and able
man. It has been handsomely framed
and will be preserved among the
choicest pictures of departed and es
teemed friends.
FREE SILVER IN NEBRASKA CITY.
Nebraska City is famous for its manu
facturing plants , for the hundreds of H
contented men and women employed in
making cereal goods like corn starch ,
rolled oats , corn flour and meals. Be
sides the cereal industrial plants the
Chicago Packing and Provision Com
pany is putting up bacon at the aver
age rate of fifteen hundred hogs a day.
And the Canning Company is working
a lot more people while the Press Drill
Company and other establishments are
running full head. There has never
been a strike in any Nebraska City fac
tory , or any serious disagreement be
tween employers and employees. All
are satisfied , contented and prosperous.
But since Coin Harvey's visitation and
exhortation a now industry has begun
development at Nebraska City.
ISoi'Ing for Silver.
The first prospecting for silver in the
pockets of the plain people during the
present season at Nebraska City began
with the advent and protracted meeting
of Rev. Coin Harvey. He "drifted" in
and "bored" until by dint of hard labor
he made , according to The Omaha
World-Herald of Sunday , July 23 , the
following opulent clean-up of seven dollars
lars in cash and one hundred and ninety-
seven dollars in "deferred payments. "
H. H. Hanks , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $16.
W. T. Sloan , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $1(5. (
W. M. Clary , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $10.
J. "VV. Tice , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $16.
J. J. Card well , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $10.
J. E. Harris , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $16.
W. "W. Wilson , cash , $1 ; deferred pay
ments , $16.
Dr. M. A. Carriker , deferred pay
ments , $17.
H.M.Boydstoudeferred | payments$17.
H. Northcutt , deferred payments , $17.
0. P. Lloyd , deferred payments , $17.
F. M. Golden , deferred payments , $17.
The fact that not one of the above
generous citizens holds any office , ever
hold any office , ever aspired to any of
fice or could , under any circumstances ,
be induced to accept any office , empha
sizes the purity of their purposes and
the intensity of their patriotism. It is
barely possible , upon reflection , that
TIIE CONSERVATIVE may bo mistaken as
to the aversion to office which seems to
characterize the subscribers to the free
silver fund in general , but it will wager
largo doughnuts against silver dollars
that no officeholder or officeseeker can
bo found in the Nebraska City donors to
the free silver fallacies of Bryanarchy.
No persona connected with the indus
trial plants of Nebraska City gave a
cent.