Jd.
tlbe Conservative *
Nebraska h a s
THE ELECTIONS. , . , , . ,
elected a populist
to the supreme bench who has neither
reputation as a great lawyer nor high
standing , as a judge of risks , among the
presidents of fire insurance companies.
Kentucky is reported republican and
GO are Now York , Pennsylvania , Ohio ,
Iowa , New Jersey and a few other
inconsequential members of the Ameri
can republic.
Every indication cheers the preachers
of free coinage of silver at 16 to 1 to
continue their blessed work of humilia
tion until not a vestige of real demo
cracy , as taught by Jackson and other
advocates of honest money , is left to
encumber the earth.
The marvelous prouunciameuto of
paroxysmal politics put forth at Chicago
in 1896 "is for all time , " saith Colonel
Bryan. That being the fact , the defeat
of the alleged democracy will also con
tinue "for all time. " No counsel for ,
no exhorter for , a debased standard of
value will ever bo president of the
United States.
TH *
A NATIVE aUHGE.
TIVE has lived to
see a native born citizen of Otoe county
elected judge of the district court for
the counties of Cass and Otoe. Paul
Jesseu has been chosen by a majority of
about seven hundred. Ho was born 011
a farm adjacent to Nebraska City ,
September 16th , 1805. He has grown
up , been educated , and admitted to the
practice of law , and now raised to the
judiciary , amidst a people who knew
and esteemed his estimable parents and
have now recognized and rewarded the
character for temperance , industry , in
tegrity and justice developed by their
worthy son. Blood in men who are to
become judges is as essential as blood in
horses which are to be become winners.
"Justice has no bandage about her
eyes , and weighs not with scales , but
with her own hands ; and weighs , not
merely the shares and remunerations of
men , but the worth of them ; and finding
them worth this or that , gives them
what they deserve death or honor. ' '
For the first time
ASHAMED. ,
since the settle
ment of Nebraska the sun diffidently ,
and in a very embarassiug sort of way ,
declined to shine upon the state , on
Wednesday morning , November 8th ,
1899. Solar inquiry , by skilled astrono
mers , discovered that the dense and
impenetrable fog which hung between
the sun and Nebraska was composed of
tears shed by angels over the election of
House Rent Holcomb to a place 011 the
supreme bench. The sun availed itself
of this veil for two or three hours. It
was ashamed to shine on a people who
chose a mutual fire insurance officer for
a justice of its supreme court instead of
a jurist learned in the law and respected
for his wise administration thereof.
Tin : CONSEKVATIVE cannot censure the
sun for being too ashamed to shine
under such adverse conditions.
EXPANSION. . bf.G °
rather
joyous , or
so the very nature of joy itself ? A man
but ho feels ' - . "
never gets happy feelslarger.
Growth and progress ; enlargement of
one's self or one's sphere ; without these ,
what scope of life , what inspiration for
living ?
We cannot swell always , but we can
always expand. "While the body is
growing fastest , the mind is getting
along as it may ; it is when the mere
physical process is about finished , jiud
the stature sufficient , that the more
essential part of man begins to approach
its fulness , and to show for what it is
in the world. But this is only opening
a vista of infinite expansion , for the
finite ouo that is closed.
Nothing has borne greater part in the
exultation with which Americans have
regarded their country , than its mighty
growth ; it has always been such an ex
panding country. It has waxed in. terri
tory , waxed in population , waxed in
riches and resource of every sort. The
extension of territory has gone far
beyond the requirement of population ;
we are about the thinliest settled of
civilized nations , though hardly second
to any in capacity of soil. Meanwhile ,
there has been expansion elsewhere , too ,
iu the world ; other countries , crowded
in their narrow bounds , or bordering on
vast and comparatively unoccupied ter
ritory , have extended over such dispos
able regions , till now the habitable globe
has been effectively parcelled out.
Africa , the great "unexplored region"
of our youth , which bore all its civilized
settlement as a mere horn about its bor
der , is now to all intent preempted. No
more grand prizes of new acquisition ,
unless by spoliation , now remain. The
world is a farm fenced in.
But it will bear a vast deal of improve
ment. The old increase in breadth will
more and more want to give place to an
increase in depth as it were , and fulness ;
the expansion of matter to that of mind.
The United States perhaps beyond all
other peoples it behooves to consider ,
whether the stature be not fairly filled ,
and the lines of expansion henceforth to
be somewhat higher and less restricted.
No huge domain , which could urge our
outward growth hereafter iu emulation
of other posvers , is now available , save
by mere aggression ; we should but
clutch their leavings , like a famished
dog. But in the grander aims of growth ,
iu objects worthy of a far nobler ambi
tion , in things that distinguish King
Alfred from Genghis Khan , our field is
as wide and open as the ocean or the
sky.
sky.The
The mere material occupation and
development of our favored laud , with
all its capabilities above and below , is
incentive such as few peoples can share
in such measure. Still more the ad
vancement of interests which would
make us the beacon light of mankind ,
the expansion of ideals , might well fire
the soul of every American with noblest
aspiration. Thus alone we may carry
on the work of our fathers , and not fear
to fall short of them. Washington
glows with the light of this high destiny
seen from afar , when he writes : "It
will be worthy of a free , enlightened ,
and at no distant period a great nation ,
to give mankind the magnanimous and
too novel example of a people always
guided by an exalted justice and bone-
voleuce. " He seems , however , to distinguish
this "benevolence" from
tinguish as
similation. The crisis of decision is
on us now , whether to advance upon
this glorious path , or basely retreat. Are
we to lower the standard of national
righteousness and true glory which has
been raised so high , or bear it on to ever
loftier heights ? The air is full of back
ward cells , to the ways of the post ; to
foreign domination , aggressive war ,
contraction of our national character
and mission. But there are those who
think it the very occasion to assert and
advance that character.
Edward Atkinson wrote : "President
McKiuley has the opportunity to make
himself the great man of the century ,
could he comprehend his true mission
and take advantage of the existing con
ditions. All nations to have their cool
ing stations , all nations to land their
cables , all to have equal rights and no
hostile shots to bo fired upon the land ,
and no contest upon the waters thereof.
We can make the Philippine Islands the
sanctuary of commerce ; we can aid the
inhabitants to bring order out of chaos ;
we can help them to work out their own
national salvation ; and joined with the
Czar wo can take the first measures for
abating the hell of war upon the earth. "
Edgar Howard
IIITTKB BUT .
HONEST. 1S a blfcter bufc
honest editor and
goes wrongly or rightly with great vigor.
Going rightly he denounces Cornell and
Holcomb and declares the former "has
disgraced democrats by his official con
duct. "
Endorsing the paper of scalawags at
bank is not more dangerous nor half as
disastrous as endorsing populists for
office when they seek it "for the money
that is iu it. "
Edgar Howard should study and ponder
der the fact that from the day when
political bigamy and trigamy were insti
tuted and consecrated "for Bryan's
sake" in Nebraska , the per cent of the
vote opposing republicanism has steadily
declined. It lost between 1892 and
1890 more than two per cent. Bryan's
vote was that much less of the whole
vote than the vote of Cleveland and
Weaver in 1892.
"Tl nfr
( M"iMl'
