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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1900)
Vv/ | , ' 1 ? 10 Conservative * THE AMERICAN MAN WITH THE HOE. Buoyed up by every hope that animates The human breast ho stands erect and firm , Amidst thu fertile empire of his fields ; Upon his face the light of promise like The burnished sun ; within his armored limbs The pent-up earnest for all future time. Who built so wide and high the shell of bone , Which holds his teeming brain ! who sot his eyes So wldo apart ? 'twas liberty , 'twas she Who ran the wires of energy along His sturdy legs and put the fires of hope Like blazing torches in his lifted eyes. Behold him as ho treads the loamy soil With independence such as kings might crave ; The dawn to sound his reveille ; the dusk To bring him peaceful rest ; his only lords The changing seasons as they come and go ; The gentle spring ; the summer with her warmth To woo the harvest , and that russet time The autumn with lmr rich rmvards , and last Old winter with her snowy months of rest. By every mark of toil within his hands ; By every bead of sweat upon his brow The world may know ho lias the right to eat His honest bread and look to none for aid. Ho holds the keys to all the riches packed Beneath the generous sod , and wider still , He finds within the heart of nature hid The secrets , ages long have sought , and deans The heavens with knowing eye to read the clouds Like open pages of a printed book. This man of brawn and brain with upward face Bees visions in the stars and dreams his dreams That kiss the gates of God ; with eagle wings His strong imaginings leap up the skies , And o'er the face of all the earth , and deep Within her hidden mines , and yokes with toil The cheering comfort of a poet's song. Nay , but Markham , the sodden man you sing , Was never whelped beneath the floating folds Of yonder flag , but bred in empires old , And crumbling to decay , whose walls were built Upon the craven necks of slaves ; but wo Have reared a nation towering high upon The willing shoulders of such men as these As strong as rocks that rib this changless earth ; Nor all the blatant tongues of anarchy , Nor fostered discontent , nor serpent wiles Of oily demagogues , can move the state Deep founded on this mighty adamant. WILLIAM REED DUNIIOY. Hon. Peter Jensen JENSEN JESTS. sen , in an open letter , replied to an editorial of THE CONSERVATIVE , entitled "Decline of Me- Kinleyism" . THE CONSERVATIVE re spects Mr. Jensen but disputes the cor rectness of his criticism. Mr. Jensen asks whether we should have left the Philippines in he hands of Spain. The ratification of the treaty of peace made that impossible. The ques tiou is whether this extension of sovereignty eignty shall be construed as in former purchases of territory , whether the constitution is to extend to the people with its guarantees of civil liberty or they be ruled by on inconstant and ir responsible congress , unbridled by con stitutional restraint ? The administra tion , in the case of Puerto Eico , has tak en the position that the islands are not a part of the United States , and that hey are subject dependencies. This is imperialism. Mr. Jensen may call it by a different name and find consolation in so doing. Speaking of THE CONSERVATIVE'S cri ticism of the presideut.relative to Puerto Rico , Mr. Jensen inquires : "does he not know that the president from the begin ning advocated free trade with and for the island ? " The President did , in the following message to congress , recom mend free trade for Puerto Rico : "Since the cession Puerto Rico has been denied the principal markets she had long enjoyed , and our tariffs have been continued against her products as when she was under Spanish sovereignty. The markets of Spain are closed to her pro ducts except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is subjected. The island of Cuba , which used to buy her cattle and tobacco without customs duties , now imposes the same duties up on these products as from any other country entering her ports. She has therefore , lost her free intercourse with Spain and Cuba without any compen sating benefits in this market. Her cof fee was little known and not in use by our people , and , therefore , there was no demand here for this , one of her chief products. The markets of the United States should be opened up to her pro ducts. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Puerto Rico , and give her products free access to our markets. " Mr. Jensen's isolation , upon his Jef ferson County ranch has no doubt pre vented his perusal of the daily bulletins indicating the variable mental weather in the executive brain basin. Only a few days after the now famous presenta tion of the "plain duty , " the president was working most tactfully for the pas sage of the tariff bill , or as Tom Reed said , "to make Puerto Ricans 75 per or % citizens. " The Chicago Tribune says : "At the last minute the influence of the President was thrown into the scale and it undoubtedly passed the bill. " The Chicago Times-Herald , owned by Mr. H. H. Kohlsaat , whose loyalty to the president is well known , under the caption , "The President's Momentous Mistake , " says : "Responsibility for the reversal of the Republican policy towards Puerto Rico is laid directly at the door of the Presi dent. The press dispatches from Wash ington all testify to the fact that one word from the White House reaffirming the President's declaration of last Dec ember would have rallied Republican Congressmen from every section of the Union to the performance of 'our plain duty' to Puerto Rico. The President failed to utter that word , which , like a blast from the horn of Roderick , would have carried dismay and consternation through the lobbies of sugar and tobac co in Washington. Instead of preserv ing what might have been pardoned as " a dignified silence , the President permit ted it to be understood that he wished to see free trade with the United States denied to Puerto Rico. In this we think President McKiuley committed the first almost irreparable mistake of his administration. " Either the republican press of the country or Mr. Jensen is in error. The newspapers all know that the president in the beginning advocated free trade. Ho reversed himself at the command of his directors , Hauna & Co. Mr. Jensen further asks TiiE CONSER VATIVE : "Why attack an administra tion which will faithfully keep every promise made in regard to the territor ies just acquired ? " THE CONSERV ATIVE attacks an administration which kept no promise made at the outset of the war with Spain. The presi dent began insular government by breaking promises.by trampling upon the constitution , by failing to do what he himself declared to be a "plain duty. " Is it not reasonable to suppose that a similar disregard of moral and constitu tional obligations will continue and that he will persist as a breaker of promises ? Mr. Jeusan proclaims that in a choice between McKiuleyism and Bryanarohy he will take the former , "even if mixed with a little expansion. " Thereby in dicating that he would prefer his Mo Kinleyism without the new brand of ex pansion and fully corroborates all THE CONSERVATIVE has said about the de cline of McKinleyism. The forecast of THE CONSERVATIVE was that the people might possibly come to their senses and that a man might he nominated repre senting neither Bryanarchy nor McKin leyism , a citizen who stood for Consti tutional government. Mr. Jensen's rniiid may be enlighten ed as to the decliae of McKinleyism , by pensively perusing the opinions of very prominent republicans and many famous republican newspapers , which THE CONSERVATIVE patriotically repro duces from time to time. Mr. Jensen , while attending to his onerous duties as a Commissioner to the Paris Exposition , next summer , will find great solace and infinite consolation in such choice liter ature. Ex-Senator Edmunds : I believe that the Puerto Rican tariff bill is clearly unconstitutional and violates all our agreements with and pledges to the Puerto Ricans. If I were in the senate I should certainly vote against it. A. P. Kent , of Indiana , who declined to permit the congressional convention to elect him delegate to the National Republican convention , says : "I do not believe in the administra tion's stand on the Puerto Rico affair , and I do not want to accept the respon sibility of going to Philadelphia. " The same congressional convention declined to endorse the policy of the ad- i ft
