Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1899)
10 Conservative. The pica for SI'AltKTliKTIlKKS. . . , , piue and fir trees nmdo by Mr. , T. Sterling Morton in THE CONSEUVATIVI : deserves considemtiou. In every city in the country in the fort night before Christinas trees are piled up before the fihops so that the crowd is forced onto a few feet of sidewalk next the street or struggles between an aisle of rootless young irees intended for the houses and ships of the next generation. The fragrant lir hung with presents , glittering with lights , and surrounded by the beautiful , happy faces of children is a pleasant sight. But it costs the life of a tree and wo cannot afford it. The destruction of the trees means a decreas ed rainfall and the increase of the un fruitful arid area. More than to anyone else Nebraska owes the present vigorous timber growth iu Nebraska to Mr. J. Sterling Morton. Twenty-five years ago he was like one who had received a message which ho must deliver. The impulse has not failed and ho is still preaching the gos pel of trees and the penalties of their destruction. Ho is now exhorting the country to spare the trees for the sake of those who will need them for houses , whose souls will need the medicine of the forest , whose crops will perish for the lain that falls not , for their sakes whose bones will ache under the midday sun when ours ore crumbled into dust. Children will bo happy anyway at Christmas time. They are not exacting and they are quicker than grown people to realize the presence and the expres sion of love. Tree or no tree the mysteries , the gifts , and the joy of Christmas are theirs. The children will not miss the trees so much as the grown people who are accustomed to the Christinas symbol of the tree. Anyway the trees would not ba cut down if it were neb for the grown-up people. The Lincoln Courier , December 9 , 1899. CONSEKVATJSMS. Freedom is the ability to maintain one's Eelf. An idealist is a person who sees falsely or blindly. Utility is the scale by which human intelligence is weighed. Herrouism has already brought the country to that kind of a single tax. The Herron much resembles Ignatius Loyola in that it has but one idea , and that idea is standing still. The Herron bears a strong resemblance to the modem socialistic reformer iu that its work is easy and its burden light. The two great rival taxes are the George Herrou single tax of ability for the support of inability , and McKinley's war tax to buy stuffing for politicians. The Herron is a uselosi kind of a bird which spends most of its time balancing itself on 0110 leg and gazing into futurity. The Herron is a bird of small brains from which little is to be expected , but the McKinley war-buzzard is a bird with a stomach of limitless expansibility. The idealist is 0110 who sees through a glass darkened by tradition and mis conception while the realist sees them face to face , illuminated by the sun of intelligence. "Birds of a feather flock together , " which accounts for the large number of Herrons in the social swamps of today. The innocent laborers are the fish they catch and live upon. Things are good or bad accord ing to our ability to make use of them or protect ourselves from them. The bloom of some plants may be deadly poison to the ignorant while the wise mny make a saving medicine of it. The Herron says : "Each man shall have an equal inheritance with every other man iu all natural resources and in all the accumulations of the cen turies ; " but we never heard of' the Herrou dividing his fish with any other bird. The realist may be likened to a captain who navigates his ship by his own obser vations , while the idealist steers his by the compass of ignorance. The realist is constantly watchful over the bow , while the idealist is as constantly look ing over the stern at the passing wake. The sun does not shine nor the flowers bloom for good or bad alike , as the idealists say ; but the sun shines because it is its nature to , and the flowers bloom because it is their nature to bloom in sunshine ; and the sunshine and the bloom of the flowers are good or bad for man as he takes advantage of them. Nature does nothing for man , but man does everything for himself. The Herrou otherwheres advocates "a method of economic forces to take from every man according to his ability , " but where all men have not "an equal in heritance" in ability , what is it going to do with those who have none ? That is a question the Herron never essays to answer , except to assert that from him who has ability shall be taken all that is necessary to support him who has none. That is what the "single tax" actually means. FHANK S. BILLINGS. Sharon , Mass. There are few clearer-headed men in the country than J. Sterling Morton , erstwhile of Cleveland's cabinet and now editor of an able periodical pub lished at his home in Nebraska City. As to his views upon many of the major questions of the day , The Herald re radiates him along with the devil and all his other works , but on local econo mies he is not only a sound counselor and guide , but an eminent authority j and to be trusted. In the latest issue of THE CONSERVATIVE ho discusses local matters in a way and with a tone that is pertinent and truthful , and with a force ; hat should bo oftener heard in our own city and county. We therefore take the liberty of borrowing his remarks entire , with the suggestion that each reader substitute Hillsborongh county for Otoe and Tampa for Nebraska City : "Tho time for reducing expenses in the administration of local government is not during a political campaign. Systematic business is never inaugurated during a riot. But iu the cool and calm of winter evenings the best citizenship of a community can got together and form a combine of tax payers. This combine can consider the ways and means of lessening the expenditures of common councils and county com missioners. These representative taxpaying - paying citizens can , should and must # devise methods of lowering the rates of taxation. "The annual estimates for running Otoe county are needlessly exorbitant. They can be reduced. "How ? "By having every tax-payer residing within its limits acquainted with its thoroughly itemized expenditures. "How shall such general knowledge of its finances and business methods be brought to the public ? ' By means of the tax-payers' trust , combine or conspiracy for the over hauling , criticising and correcting the lax , extravagant and wasteful methods of transacting the public business. "The tax-payers' combine will be organized in Nebraska City. It will employ a good business man and ac countant to go through county and city records. This combine means business. It will do business in a business-like way. Many of its members are large tax-payers and some of them propose to attempt to provide for the liquidation of outstanding evidences of debt against both county and city by paying up now , in advance , their full respective shares of such debt and to ask others to do likewise. "Taxes must be lowered. The cost of city councils and county commissioners' is extravagant , unnecessary and de structive to the people. " Tampa ( Fla. ) Herald. The symmetrical and beautiful pines , firs and spruces now being shipped in car loads and train-loads to all parts of the United States for Christmas trees are cottages cut down and destroyed in embryo. Billions of feet of the lumber of the future is foolishly wasted in Christmas trees every year.