6 TTbe Conservative.
open. True conservatism gives every
man a clinnce. It seeks not to stop
tongue or pen.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Sharon , Mass.
A sensible state-
"SHOULD IIAVK. " . . . ,
nient as to the
profit which would accrue to Nebraska
if all its surplus raw products were re
duced in bulk and enhanced in value by
being manufactured into commodities
here , at home , recently appeared among
the editorials of the Grand Island Inde
pendent.
THE CONSERVATIVE quotes therefrom :
"This state should have twenty such
starch and cereal mills as are found in
Nebraska City ; it should have more
sugar factories ; it should have more
creamorieH , more canning factories ,
more pickling works , more straw paper
manufactories , using up our own raw
products. "
"Should have. " But how can it se
cure foreign or other capital to incor
porate for the purposes enumerated , and
carry on business subject to the capri
cious and inimical legislation advocated
by populists now controlling Nebraska ?
After witnessing a partisan attorney-
general endeavoring to drive out of
business , in Nebraska , the Standard Oil
Company which has reduced the price
and improved the quality of oil to all
the citizens of Nebraska , while at the
same lime he cooperates with the Silver
Smelter trust which was organized with
the proclaimed intention of raising the
price of silver , who will bring money
and organize industrial plants in
Nebraska ?
The leading free silver advocates of
populism and economic fallacies in
general , all over Nebraska , and the re
mainder of the United States , denounce
combined capital as a menace to the
people. Each of a dozen good citizens
may , by industry , self-denial and good
management acquire a surplus capital
of ten thousand dollars and receive the
commendations of Bryanarchy as citi
zens worthy of emulation by the youth
of their locality. But each of the twelve
men discover that with ton thousand
dollars he can build no industrial plant
big enough to make a living. Then the
twelve incorporate say the "Grand
Island Canning and Pickling Works"
and joining together all their funds ,
make a paid-up stock company of one
hundred nud twenty thousand dollars.
Immediately the dogs of demagogy are
let loose upon them. They ore a bloated
corporation. They are "a trust. " They
are a combine in the interests of pluto
cracy ! They are the diabolism of greed
and ought to be taxed or legislated into
bankruptcy. Every envious and malig
nant loafer in the neighborhood joins
with the orators and newspapers of
discontent in denouncing this new and
dreadful incarnation of "the money
power" this newly spawned reptile of
the octopus variety !
Who wishes to bring money into
Nebraska for the logical and laudable
purposes of which the Independent so
ably writes ? Who , that is in , would
not gladly get out if the persecution and
unequal taxation of capital are to domi
nate the state ?
EXPANSION VS. INTEKNAI , IMPROVE
MENTS.
It seems that "President McKinley
thinks it advisable to go slow in matters
calling for large expenditures , and it has
been by his advice that the Nicaraguan
appropriation has been reduced to $10-
000,000 for the first year , and that the
shipping bill may bo laid over until the
next session. It is possible that work
will be done upon a river and harbor bill
at the present session in order to have it
ready for passage early next December ,
after the presidential election. "
This is a serious question. Leaving log
rolling politics entirely out of the consid
eration , and assuming that the bills in
question represent actual national neces
sities , such as the deepening of the chan
nels of some of our sea-port cities so as
to allow the safe passage of the great
giants of commerce , the modern steam
ships , is it not evident , as it should
have been all along , that Mr. McKinley
cares more for the success of his uncon
stitutional aggressive war policy than
for the internal development of the na
tion , on which all true prosperity de
pends.
McKinley No Patriot.
A government organ recently said :
"Readiness to fight for the honor and
integrity and safety of your country is
the only safeguard of liberty and law ,
is all that stands between the most civil
ized government in the world and uni
versal rapine and anarchy. The man
who snarls at this noble human trait of
patriotism that induces the bravest and
best in all lands to sacrifice comfort and
risk life and limb in the public cause
whenever his government is put to the
hazard of war , is either a monstrous
hypocrite or a snivelling degenerate. "
It is surely evident that Mr. McKin
ley's patriotism is "either that of a mon
strous hypocrite or a snivelling degener
ate , " for it is to be seen that he displays
no "readiness to fight for the integrity
of the country" which is unequivocally
dependent on its internal development ,
as the prosperity of the people is depend
ent on our internal and foreign com
merce.
Does any one doubt that had the
hundreds of millions of dollars this un
called for and unconstitutional war has
cost , and is going to cost this country ,
been devoted to the deepening of abso
lutely necessary sea-channels , or the
building of a ship canal between some
point on the great lakes and the sea-
board , that it would not have been and
ever be money better invested than the
insane squandering of our resources in
this needless war of bombastic aggres
sion ?
Scarcely a person or newspaper editor
denounces this extravagance but what
a howl would be raised at the appropri
ation of the same amount of money for
the purposes mentioned , or any other
system of internal improvements ? The
government seems to have gone daft on
foreign improvements. It has neither
eye nor intelligence for internal necessi
ties. It can see a Nicaragua canal pro
ject with both eyes , but has not brains
enough to see that a ship canal between
the lakes and the seaboard is of far
greater necessity. It can see money
squandered by the millions to destroy
lives and property in the Philippines ,
but has no eye for saving life and prop
erty at homo. Money spent , even if ex
travagantly , for internal improvements
gives labor to Americans , and must ben
efit the people in general. Money spent
in aggressive foreign war is at the cost
of American lives and national prosper
ity. The latter is the McKinley policy.
If condemning that policy is "snarling
at the noble trait of human patriotism , "
if standing on the impregnable law of
war for national defense only , if stand
ing on the Constitution , hallowed in the
blood of the fathers , is being a "mon
strous hypocrite or a snivelling degen
erate , " then I am willing to be classed
as both , and to be looked upon as a vile
and a malicious traitor , as opposed to
the laws of nature , the reign of peace
on earth , and an enemy of the human
race.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Sharon , Mass.
Whatever high-
A TRUST FOB
MANKIND.WflV mav be C0a'
structed across the
barrier dividing the two greatest mari
time areas of the world must be for the
world's benefit , a trust for mankind , to
be removed from the chance of domina
tion by any single Power , nor become a
point of invitation for hostilities or a
prize for war-like ambition. An engage
ment combining the construction , owner
ship and operation of such work by this
government , with an offensive and defen
sive alliance for its protection with the
foreign state whose responsibility and
rights we would share , is , in my judg
ment , inconsistent with such dedication
to universal and neutral use , and would ,
moreover , entail measures for its real
ization beyond the scope of our national
polity or present means. The neutral
ization of any interoceanic transit can
only be accomplished by making the
uses of the route open to all nations and
subject to the ambitions and warlike
necessities of none. Cleveland's Mes
sage to Congress , December 8 , 1885.