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.
