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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1900)
Che Conservative VOL. II. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , FEBRUARY 22 , 1900. NO. 33. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK. J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR. A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 7,169 COPIES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One dollar and a half per year , in advance , postpaid , to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made payable to The Morton Printing Company. Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Neb. Advertising Rates made known npon appli cation. Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City , Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898. A railroad could .MANAGERS. not be well-run by a man milliner who had no stock in the property. A bank managed by inmates of the county poor-house , with officers selected from a board of directors made up of street beggars , would not command financial success nor the confidence of the public. A Sunday-school superintendent who kept a string of race horses and ran a faro bank together with epidemic slot- machines would not secure the children of orthodox families as pupils. A butcher who sticks pigs and cuts the throats of veals and lambs for an hour or two every day could not at tractively lecture upon kindness and tenderness for the innocent and helpless before refined and intelligent audiences. A government can only be properly administered by honest men of ability who.have studied and analyzed the func tions and the duties of governments. No government can endure if its administration is left to dishonest and incompetent men. Whenever the in- competency , extravagance and knavery of those managing the aifairs of a coun try , whether the form of government be monarchial or republican , becomes generally known and its burdens of in creasing debt and taxation generally felt , there must come a change. It will come in peaceful ballots or in revolution ary bullets. Only the best should govern , that id , only the wise and the honest. Govern ments are merely compacts by which it is sincerely proposed that all shall be one- minded in the honest determination to T" ' establish and protect the rights of each. All that government can legitimately attempt in a republic is to guarantee the right of each citizen to life , to liberty and to the earnings of his own efforts. And the management of governmental affairs , like the management of the affairs of agriculture , commerce and manufacture , should be entrusted to only those who have studied them diligently , with an intention of honestly attempting to improve them. The most obscure usefulness in any decent and industrious citizen is of more value to his kind and to the common wealth than the most spectacular , oracu lar and resplendent inutility of any walking , talking delegate whom this day and generation have seen arraying class against class and kindling discon tent in every section. Who is best for the country the honest and intelligent laborer who de velops its resources ; or the flippant , shallow and self-seeking declaimer who fishes for votes and prominence ? When a citizen asks his fellows to do much for him the great multitude should reply : "What have you ever accom plished for the state for us ? " KIGHT. ver democrats to combine , fuse and amalgamate with alleged silver republicans , notwithstand ing the latter believe in protection and the former in free trade , for the purpose avowedly of electing a populist to office is "all right" saith the advocates and organs of Bryanarchy. But if alleged gold standard demo crats fuse , weld and miscegenate with , alleged gold stand- ° ° . Wrong. . ard republicans , the first being free traders and the second protectionists , for the purpose of electing a man to office who is in favor of honest money , it is all "wrong" saith the saintly politician of the fiat faith. If gold democrats and gold republi cans should fuse and form tickets , county , state or national , the anguished howl of the conscientious devotees to principles , who seek nominations from three distinct and , in many respects , antagonistic political parties , would rend the skies. They would be so shocked , so terribly conscience stricken by such a wicked "ballot trust" that they would fT even invoke the use of the writ of iii junc tion to prevent its consummation. That community EXCHANGE ABILITY. which produces a surplus of staple articles which the world demands , and ships them to markets where consumers await them , will be always relatively a prosperous community. The manufac ture of raw products , where they are grown , into commodities whereby bulk is reduced and value enhanced , is a legitimate method of beneficence. The one element which inevitably gives value to a product is its exchangeability. Those things which are in almost universal demand are always exchange able. Therefore they have value. In this fertile state are the possibilities of furnishing , in condensed form , meat , _ , , bread and fruits in T . Nohrnsku. , almost endless and attractive variety. To develop the in dustrial plants in Nebraska which shall in the never-satisfied demand supply , part , - mand for such exchangeable things , large capital is necessary. Therefore it is the duty of that portion of the public press which places prosperity above politics to invite capital and capitalists to Nebraska instead of repelling them. No legislators and no editors who seek constantly to array public sentiment against incorporated money can possibly add to the annual output of exchangeable commodities from this capital-needing and very capable food-producing com monwealth. The Richmond Dispatch ( dem. ) thus concludes an editorial designed to arouse the white democrats of Virginia in the matter of a constitutional convention : "In a nutshell the1 question is , do we desire to get rid of the negro as a voter , or not ? What do the white people say ? " Kentucky conditions prompt the Charleston ( S. 0. ) News and Courier ( dem. ) to suggest that "perhaps we should not judge all our unwilling wards , in respect of any matter or condition , by the conduct of some of them , and should not require of them a higher standard of citizenship as the price of self-government than is observed by the members of the imperialistic adminis tration's own party in one of the states of the nation itself , " ' *