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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1900)
'Che Conservative , " 'J. ing the people accepted American sovereignty eignty , not only without opposition , but with joyful trust and confidence. The present issue is simply this. Shall we repudiate , or shall wo fulfill , the nation al engagements ? Shall this great repub lic break faith with the little island of Porto Rico ? Having secured the fruit of General Miles' promise , shall wo now renounce the promise ? The American people will not toler ate any paltering with solemn obliga- , , , tions. Recoguiz- Should he 110 . . , , . i iircnchorFnitii.in& the national good faith as the nation's chiofest good , they will con demn any violation of it as the blackest crime. All over the country this Porto Rican question has stirred to the deeps the national heart and conscience ; leg islation inspired by a breach of good faith will bring a terrible Nemesis. It is said that a tariff is needed be tween Porto Rico and the United States to provide a case for the courts , to deter mine the extent of our jurisdiction over the new dependencies , especially the Philippines. I answer that no conveni ence , no expediency , no other obligation ever justifies a breach of the national good faith. Let me add , toothat this Porto Rican legislation is testing us before the eyes , , of the Filipinos , . . Filipinos , . 1 wiitcuiiiff u . who keep well in formed of our do ings. They will judge by this legisla tion of the value of American promises. When the ablest and most statesmanlike of Aguiualdo's emissaries to the Philip pine Commission once expressed the fear that the American government might not keep the promises it was making for Spain ( said he ) made promises and broke thorn I silenced him with the re ply : ' -Senor , the United States is not Spain. " Is he now to learn , are all the Filipinos now to learn , that in the first legislation for our new dependencies we prove faithless to our pledges and re creant to our obligations ? Such an ex hibition of ourselves will strengthen the hands of Aguiualdo and the insurgents , because unhappily it can be used to sup port their persistent statement that the Americans are no more trustworthy than the Spaniards. At the very moment when we need to inspire confidence in the minds of the conquered Filipinosshall we commit an act which will confirm their distrust of us , quicken their suspicious , and breed new and , perhaps , ineradicable anti pathies ? God forbid ! Very sincerely yours , J. G. SCHUUMAN. In the "Arena" for the current mouth , Albert Watkius institutes a comparison between New York , Illinois and Kansas , for the purpose of showing that in New York and Illinois "far more radical , socialistic and paternalis. tic legislation has been enacted than in Kansas , where the legislatures were controlled by the Populists during the greater part of the past ton years. " Mr. Watkius makes his statement espec ially emphatic in regard to what is called auti-corporation and anti-capitalistic legislation. All of which is true , and for this reason. The legislation in the eastern states above mentioned is effec tive. It was not framed by ignorant men maddened by an emotional hyp nosis. In Kansas the laws wore passed by populists in a spirit of epi leptic rnge. In the other states the laws were passed as a result of a sane demand among business men for a reg ulation of capital. No one questions the fact that laws controlling the ac tions of men operating capital are need ed ; just as laws controlling the actions of men operating their hands are need ed. But to go at corporation laws in wild wrath , is folly and the result is folly , as the Kansas statute books will prove on the populist pages. To go af ter corporation laws as other laws should be approached , sanely and in good faith , is a duty that faces every American. Emporia Gazette. The Oakland En- BRYAN AS A TRAVELER. quirer , speaking of the roving charac teristics of Mr. Bryan and the house-to- house canvas he has been making for the presidency , says : "William J. Bryan has supplanted Daniel Pratt as the great American traveler. He traveled 88,000 miles lost year and he expects to travel much further this year , because he will have the excuse of being a presidential nom inee for making stumping tours. Last year Mr. Bryan was compelled to in vent ostensible reasons for his speak ing tours a visit to Yosemite , a hunt in Texas , etc. but he always got in his speeches , even when they had to be wedged between the heats of horse races , as at Sacramento. This year no apologies will be needed , and Mr. Bryan will fire speeches from the ends of railroad trains at such a rate that no one will question his preeminence as the rapid-fire orator of Columbia the Maxim-Viokers gun of sentimental politics. "But , really , can the country expect wisdom from a man who is always on , _ . , . . , , the go ? Is not wis- Wlsuom HIIU Wheels. , . , . , , dom the [ product of reflection , and is not reflection the laughter of solitude ? Does it promote solidity of statesmanship to be forever tearing about the country at limited- express speed ? Is there not some con nection between a fixed dwelling place and sound conclusions ? Is not travel for observation while quietude is for thought ? Of old wisdom dwelt in a grove or some other quiet place ; the sage or the philosopher or the oracle had a fixed place of residence , and students traveled from afar to secure the advan tages of instruction ; but Mr. Bryan is so afraid the people will not come to his school of wisdom that he determines to push his political philosophy on the Market by something like a house-to- louse canvas. He will not allow his wisdom to gather dust on the shelves 10 will peddle it out and see to it per sonally that it is introduced into every lousehold. He is the oracle on wheels , the seer turned commercial traveler , the sage who has become a tramp. "Mr. Bryan differs as much from Jef ferson and Jackson , the earlier leaders . . , . , , , , of his party , who A .T " nr . . "Rustling" Alosns. , , , . bided quietly in Mouticello or the Hermitage till the voice of the country called them forth , as he differs from the grove-inhabiting wise men of old. He has no notion of waiting to be called on ; he is altogether and not unjustifiably skeptical concern ing the chances of getting a call if he waitt for it. Ho proposes to go out and rustle up' a summons from the Ameri can people to be their Moses. Ho stands ready to quote cut-rate prices on poli tical philosophy , and next November he will have a grand sacrifice sale which will be the culmination of his grand bar gain offerings. " The POSTAL ABUSES. . _ vice of the United States has since its establishment been operated at a loss and the deficiency has been met out of the general revenues of the government. In most countries the postal system is operated on business principles and made to pay for itself. The chief item of expense is the distri bution of second-class matter. It costs for transportation alone $24,000,000 and probably $10,000,000 more annually for handling , while the government receives but $3,500,000. Pamphlets and the cheapest kind of literature are distribut ed by the government at but a fraction of the actual cost. Congressman Loud introduced a bill to correct a few of these abuses and make the department approach a paying basis but it was over whelmingly defeated. Our experience in the postal business should deter us from taking hold of other business en terprises , now carried on by private in dividuals , until state officials have a higher conception of public duties and a wider knowledge of business methods. TAINTED , "WARTS AND ALL. " When Oliver Cromwell had his portrait painted he said to Lely , the artist : "Paint my face as it is , warts and all. " Every public man in time gets painted as he is. The people come to know him. His char acter is illuminated , his mind is explored and charted , every vertebra of his spine is tested. There ho is , finally , "warts and all. " President MoKinley is being painted these days just as ho is. The "warts" are beginning to show on the canvas. More people have been disillu sioned concerning important phases of his character during the past few weeks than ever before. Springfield ( Mass. ) Republican ( ind. ) .
