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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 1899)
Conservative * 11 ff Th ° THESTANDABD of turn- OIL COMPANY. purpose iug votes to popu lism inspired Attorney-General Smythe to begin proceedings in Nebraska against The Standard Oil Company. This great commoner and defender of the common people pronounces The Standard Oil Company a trust. Ho does not recog nize it as an incorporation , nor does he call the Union Pacific and its numerous feeders and branches nor the B. & M. and its subsidiary lines of transportation a ' ' trust. ' ' "Why not ? Before The Standard Oil Company in vaded Nebraska the prices of petroleum were lofty and gorgeous. Before the blight of the "Money Power" touched and tainted coal oil in Nebraska that oleaginous necessity cost consumers on these plains one dollar a gallon. Now , under the accursed despotism of Stan dard Oil monopoly , the same quality of oil is so cheapened that it sells for nine and ten cents a gallon. This wretched combination of parsons and pirates began life in a mild and _ , , , , . . mewling way. _ . Buying ! Buying ! , But at an early period of its existence it cultivated a respect for brains , business ability , and Pcience ; and very soon commenced to employ men to attend to its business who had capacity for management and brains for the development of the com pany's affairs. The Standard Oil Co. went into the open markets where ser vices , mental and manual , were for Bale , and bought the use of cultivated , alert brains. It hunted for the skilled and most efficient wage-earners employed in any of the industrial pursuits of thriv ing and laboring Americanism. It found cultivated heads , with good judg ment. It discovered skilled hands deftly guided by first-quality brains. It selected for its business the very best of men and remunerated them with the very best of compensation ; that is , with high positions in the trade-world and with commensurate salaries. Thus its inception was a combine of money , enterprise , brains and good bus iness management. The "combine" discovered new and general demand for the possible by-products of petroleum. Its paid investigators , its skilled chem ists and analysts invented and brought into general use vaseline , cosmoline , paraffine , Easter eggs and soap from coal oil residuums. The savings of science thus employed in producing hundreds of other useful things have enabled The Standard Oil Company to sell a gallon of good oil , in a tin can covered by a wooden jacket , for less money than one can buy a pint of Apollinaris water. Admit that individuals in the oil trade have been crushed out by the gigantio , energetic and despotic competition of The Standard Oil Company. But the multi tude of consumers have been getting cheaper and better oil. The few have suffered. The many have been bene fited. The Standard Oil Company brings into the United States each day , by , , , , selling oil in all Oil Gold. , . , , , the world's mar kets , in competition with Russia and all the rest of the earth , more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand del lars. The United Spates is thus getting into its gold circulation more money each day than from any other source of inter national trade. Perhaps that is why Smythe and other Bryanarchists pro pose to prosecute The Standard Oil Company in Nebraska. The Grange talked about the abolition of middle men. The Standard Oil Com pany emancipated consumers from the charges , profits and wages of thousands of middle men and introduced produc tion to consumption face to face. THE CONSERVATIVE , in another article , will continue the further discussion of the value to Nebraska of The Standard Oil Company on the one hand and of The Standard Office-Hunting Company of Allen , Bryan , House-Rent Holcomb , and the Sleek and Smooth Constantine J. Smythe on the other hand. Whether oils or offices are most op pressive to Nebraska taxpayers is a beau tiful and attractive puzzle. In its solu tion there may be found instruction , amazement and infinite delights. A * ° s brok1er PJLUTOCKATS. from Oufc ln tne state , Mr. A. B. Christian of York , was in the city this week on his way to Macinac , and stopped in at The Excelsior office to pay his respects. Our natural inquiry was [ concerning the condition of the farming element of the state and we found him well posted and very enthus iastic on the subject. His business is almost altogether with the farmers , to whom he is now making larger loans than ever. These loans are being effected principally , he says , to increase their holdings. Where but a few years ago these same men , or many of them , were anxious to close out , they are now equally anxious , not only to hold on , but to take up more land than they have. Mr. Christian thinks that this fall will see the greatest boom in farm lauds that the state has ever had , and ho is going East to get more money to make ready for it. As to the old mort gages , he says that they are nearly all cleaned up and many men are willing to pay now and save interest , but have not that saving clause in their instrument , and the holder prefers to let his money remain as an investment and will not accept payment. These capitalists would have accepted payment , if of fered , quick enough a few years ago. But times do change. In order to force payments on these loans some farmers who have got the money in the bank are allowing their interest to default in hopes that foreclosure will be begun , in which event they file a Us pendena and then the amount , principal and interest , is due and the mortgagee has to take it whether ho will or no. When Nebraska farmers are so anxious to pay their debts that they have to resort to all manner of tricks to do it there should bo no trouble about getting good money down East to loan those who wish to buy moro property or improve that they havo. As to those that have ready cash , which is piling up so in the banks that they have refused to pay interest on the deposits ( which in many coses ore ten times greater than their capital ) , Mr. Christian says that many of them are taking the money to improve their places , putting up newer and larger granaries , building barns , improving their dwelling houses , or moving the old house off and putting up a bettor one , laying in improved machinery , or making investments in town. The farmer , now that ho is flush , is not wasting his money , indeed he buys more shrewdly than he did a dozen years ago , but he demands a bet ter class of goods. So the country stores are stocking up wonderfully , and in place of much of the shoddy stuff that occupied their shelves when the community was first opened up there has appeared a finer and moro substantial class of goods in all lines. And the prospects of a tremendous crop this fall makes things still brighter with them all. Mr. Christian says that farm laud in the vicinity of York cannot bo bought for less than $85 an aero and from that up to $50 , according to location. Ho sold a quarter near the city just before leaving , rolling land without improve ments , at $60 an acre. This is a class of information that should bo disseminated through the East by the Commercial Club , or through some other interested channel. Clement Chase in The Omaha Excelsior. Edward Rowland Sill , California's poet-prophet , whose genius burned itself out so early , has left among his verses an exquisite little poem , which , in half a dozen lines , tells us how to make all human life divine : "Forenoon , and afternoon , and night I Fore noon , And afternoon , and night 1 Forenoon , and What ! The empty Hong ropeatn itself No more ? yea , that iB life ; inaho this forenoon fmblime , Thin afternoon a pnalm , this night a prayer , And time is conquered , and thy crown in won. " "Lot not your right hand know what your left hand doeth" is a precept of conservative stoicism. Friendship is invariably intellectual , while , acquaintance should always be materially utilitarian.