VOL. II. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , MARCH i , 1900. NO. 34.
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 7,180 COPIES.
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Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898.
I n t h e Chicago
EXPLANATION _ , . , , ,
DEMANDED. Record of the 19th
instant that gen
erally truthful and accurate correspon
dent , W. E. Curtis , says :
"The rapid progress of legislation in
the senate during the last few days has
been due to the absence of Senator
Pettigrew , who is ill , and Senator Allen ,
who is indulging in one of his periodical
diversions. "
Now , Nebraska indulges in no petty
grewsomeness and is therefore not
sensitive as to the fling about the states
man from Dakota. But when W. E.
Curtis or any other critic , writes ' 'and
Senator Allen , who is indulging in one
of his periodical diversions" an in
dignant and wrathful Commonwealth
rises , in its composite might , and de
mands an explanation. The phrase
"periodical diversions" is fraught with
a diabolical possibility of misinterpre
tation. Does it mean long periods in a
long speech ? "Diversions" may mean
much or little. They may be a pouring
out of words or a pouring in of liquids
by any great statesman.
The stockholders
COW VS. STEER. . . . _ . .
in the Butter-
makers association of the United States
were in session at Lincoln on February
20 , 1900. They numbered three thousand
and four hundred and their avowed pur
pose of enhancing the price of butter
did not excite people any more than
would a declaration to raise the price ol
fence-wire by the American Steel Co.
The bnttermakers claim the sole right
of purveying an oleaginous bread-
spreader to the American people. They
regard any invention to take the place
of butter as an evolution from the satanic -
ic mind and denounce all substitutes for
cow-udder-originated butter as a menace
: o human liberty and the pocketbooks of
juttermakers. They proclaim undying
hostility to oleomargarine and denounce
is manufacture as a wicked and
malignant trust.
President Boardmau , in addressing
the buttermakers who are not farmers
remarked with
Meditate Destruction. . . . . . , „
the impetuosity of
a revolving "churn" and the elegance of
a smoothly running "separator" that
"the oleomargarine interest is a gigantic
trust which threatens the existence of
the dairy industry. "
But the buttermakers are not farmers
any more than are the oleomargarine
manufacturers. The former buy cream
of the farmers who milk cows and , in
great butter plants , convert the raw
product into a commodity called butter.
In doing this some of the creameries
grense their butter with neutral lard.
THE CONSERVATIVE has known of large
consignments of a splendidly pure arti
cle of lard from a packing house in Ne
braska shipped to a creamery in
Illinois. What did the buttermakers of
Illinois want of four cars of neutral
lard from Nebraska ?
Are the buttermakers living in a glass
house and slinging rocks at their com
petitors ? Is there immunity decreed
for those who enrich butter with lard
and a penalty proposed for those who
enrich lard with bovine oleo and sell it ,
under a truthful nomenclature , as a
wholesome and cheap substitute for the
product of the big butter plants ?
President Boardman of the butter-
makers trust which invokes congression
al legislation to
How ? , , , . , i
pull down the oleo
margarine and build up the butter man
ufacturers , says oleo "threatens the
destruction of butter. " How ?
Can an inferior and an unwholesome
bread-greaser take the market unless
there is a very degraded taste prevalent ?
Can a superior article be really threat
ened with destruction by an inferior in
the markets of an intelligent people ?
If oleomargarine is not good , is nol
wholesome and is not demanded it can
not be sold. If it is good and whole
some and cheaper than butter the de
mand for it will grow and consumers
will have it in spite of miserable legis
lative restrictions , which , when an
alyzed , are merely laws antagonizing
the products of the leaf tallow of good
'at steers against the products of the
cream of the milk of well-bred and
comely cows.
The buttermakers convention was in
the intents of the manufacturers of
butter. It did not directly represent
the owners of cattle.
A convocation of all the packing
house magnates of the United States
might call itself the
Pork Miikero.
porkmakers asso
ciation. It would be such in the same
sense that the buttermakers at Lincoln
were representative of farmers' dairies.
The latter raised not a live cow now on
earth and the porkmakers never owned
and fattened a pig. The people wish a
palatable and not deleterious substance
with which to smear bread and other
edibles. If oleomargarine suits them
and it is cheaper and as good , in their
judgment as butter , nobody but a knave
or a fool will invoke legislation to pre
vent their getting it.
"The plain pee
REJOICED.
ple" will be re
joiced when they see that Senator Clark
of Montana , under oath , declares that
he expended only a trifle over one hun
dred thousand dollars in his campaign
among the legislators of his state , for
votes to make him a statesman.
This is the same disinterested patriot
who "put up" a few hundred thousand
to carry 16 to 1 in 1896 and who now
advocates Bryanarchy and all that term
implies. In the language of that
unctuous politician , that political Chad-
band : "Oh , my friends , the people of
this nation , sitting as a high court , must
render judgment in the cause which
greed is prosecuting against humanity. "
Greed in abnormal potency , with a
voracity that is insatiable , animates Mr.
Clark to become a Bryanarchic 16 to 1
U. S. senator. And he only pays out
between one hundred thousand and
two hundred thousand dollars. Has
Clark , as a representative of silver and
16 to 1 , been correctly and populisticly
righteous in establishing the per capita
circulation among Montana law-makers ?
The two great political parties of the
United States are now in a life and
death struggle to see which shall nomi
nate the weakest candidate for the presi
dency. The chances are in favor of the
success of the republicans , but some
democrats will bet against them.