; * ? *
r
< j
'Cbe Conservative , 11
man , a member of a community , has
any such right , and the liquor business
is entirely unwarranted. It has been
said that the citizen is to bo compared tea
a partner in a business. How long do the
other partners put up with a partner who
weakens himself through the liquor hab
it and becomes a burden on them ? Not
long ? Ho has the same 'individual right"
to drink under those conditions as under
the constitution. Why does not the law
force his partners in business to support
him as it does his partners in govern
ment ? "But the schools must bo sup
ported. " Supporting the schools on the
blood money wrung from the victims of
the liquor habit , and those victimized
by them , the license money is sanctified
by the blood of the innocents is as rat
ional and moral a proceeding as it would
be to turn the denizens of the saloon ,
the jail and the asylum loose in some
Utopia of ethical self-supporting men
and women , and expect it to remain a
fit abode for decent people. Where the
saloon is there is hell. Everyone who
votes for and suppr > ts the liquor busi
ness is ethically insane , is an upholder
of suicide , poverty , crime. Glorious
trinity ! The most flourishing product
of American civilization ! ' 'The good
people of the town are largely for lic
4 ense. " Why call ye them "good ? "
"The majority of them are Christians. "
"What ! Christians ? " "Christians" ,
and support suicide , poverty and crime ?
"Preposterous ! " How can a man "love
his brother" and license him to the "in
dividual liberty" of ruining himself , his
family and often become a criminal ?
A criminal is one who throngli his own
act weakens or destroys his self-main
taining ability. The confirmed drunkard
and the murderer are on the same level.
But why this support of license to main
tain the schools by Christian people ? To
save the small increase of personal tax
ation that would be required to support
the schools ! There is no other reason !
Yes , there is one ! General ethical ig
norance and profound moral indiffer
ence ! If the liquor business is based on
"individual liberty" , so is all business
founded on individual necessity. That
being so , the singling out of the liquor
V business for a special and penalizing tax
is unconstitutional. If regulation is
aimed at ( it is not ) that can be done
without penalizing the liquor dealer.
The primary idea of a high license may
have arisen with the public on the as
sumption that the business is immoral
and should pay for some of the harm it
does. Were that so instead of support
ing the schools with the license fund it
should be used to maintain the families
of those who pay the blood money. In
point of fact the license is in favor of
the saloon keeper , if the public protects
him as it in honor is bound to do. It
limits the number of saloons and is a
guarantee to the saloon keeper that the
public will aid him in suppressing oppo-
sitiou and giving him a degree of mon
opoly. The public is unethically insane.
It burdens itself with expense. It lays
itself open to the dangers of crime. It
encourages breach of public poaco. It
is false to itself , false to its duty as in
dividual citizens , and false to the con
stitution as members of a common
country. The public is the criminal in
the liquor business.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Graf ton , Mass.
ANI > 11KWS IIHPLIKS.
EDITOU THE CONSEUVATIVE :
Most butter makers , the writer in
cluded , know there has boon legislation ,
both state and national , restricting oleo
margarine and other adulterations , in
tended to protect the consumer , and also
know .that the present laws do not
"suffice , " and that oleomargarine is
being sold all over the world as butter ,
and at genuine butter prices , and enter
no complaint against the manufacturer
so long as ho complies with the laws , but
hope to remodel them or construct new
ones in such a manner that ho cannot
become a party to the deceptions
practiced. You have wonderfully ex
panded your "limitation on butter
makers , " and when you include those
who have and will continue to contribute
to the legitimate expense required for
the enactment of laws to protect the
consumers of butter , yon overdo the
matter , yet he will not resent the impu
tation , but when you class him who
works for $40.00 per month in the list
with Senator-Clark-of-Moutaua bood-
lers , he simply smiles in derision at your
feigned ignorance ; he knows you know
better.
Your list of ingredients proves that it
was not the beef market you were so
deeply interested in as you would wish
us to think , for last , and least , if you
would say so , is the oil from beef fat.
Possibly lack of space deterred you from
giving the per cent of each ingredient ,
and why was the per cent of cream
given and not the per cent of beef fat ,
which you are so much interested in ? Is
it not a fact that the more cream the
inoro respectable the cause , and the
greater the cost of the finished article ?
Keep on increasing the per cent of cream
and in time no legislation will be re
quired.
Neither the writer nor Hoard's Dairy
man charged the manufacturer of violat
ing the law of branding or taxation , but
do say that by the time it roaches most
consumers all brands or birth marks
have vanished , and it is sold as genuine
butter. The writer's personal opinion
is , that a ten cent per pound tax is un
important compared to prohibition of
coloring to imitate Nature's June tinted
cream made article , for without that
color its brand or birth mark is in
delible.
Did THE CONSERVATIVE never see
those beautiful rolls of butter made by
the good mother long before "butter
coloring" was known ? Does it not
know that eighty per cent of creamery
butter is not colored ; that the coloring
substance that will como the nearest to
producing the natural June tint is the
one that oleomargarine manufacturers
are using" , and the nearer that tint the
more delighted his heart , the greater the
sales and the profits ; and does it not
know that millions of dollars have been
spent in the endeavor to produce a
"substance" that would impart that
tint ? If it does , it must on second
thought , bludh at its assertion that
"oleomargarine is not colored to imitate
genuine butter. "
N. S. ANDREWS.
Dubuque , la.
The bishops of
MKTnODISM
UKCL.INING. the Methodist
Church have issu
ed an appeal to the membership , calling
attention to the decrease in attendance
and account for this decline in the
creed in this way :
"Tho decline in our membership is
not an accident. It comes from a suffi
cient cause. The cause is the slipping
cog in our oxperieuco , our lack of spirit
ual power. The gulf between capital
and labor threatens us both sides. On
one side , 'not many mighty , not many
noble , are called. ' On the other , strange
forces are alienating the poor. The lab
or unions , organized most compactly ,
are much influenced by men hostile to
the church. Their gatherings are gen
erally on the Sabbath , thus keeping the
men out of our reach. We seem in some
places above our business. "
A P011TO KICAN PLATFORM.
First Free trade with the United
States.
Second Territorial government.
Third Good roads. San Juan News.
In the District Court of Otoo County , Ne
braska.
In the ni lit tor of the 1
Guardianship of Goo. In the District Court
F. WilBon , Daniel P. of Otoo County , No-
Wilson and Herman braska.
P. Wilson , Minors. J
THIS cause camn on for hearing on the peti
tion of Thomas Wilson , guardian of Goo. P.
Wilson , Danlol P. Wilson and Herman P. Wil
son , minors , praying for a license to soil real
estate owned by said minors , towit , the north
half of the northeast quarter of Section thirty-
four. Township ten , north of Range ton , east ,
in Cass County , Nebraska , for purpose of
bettor investment , and it appearing to the
court that it would bo for the best interests of
the said minors that said heroin described real
estate should be sold on the terms and at the
price mentioned in said petition , it is therefore
ordered and directed that the next of kin , and
all persons interested in said estate appear
before mo in open court at the court honno in
Nebraska City , Otoo County , Nebraska , on the
seventh day of May , 1000 , at two o'clock in the
afternoon of said day , to show cause why
license should not bo granted to said guardian
to sell said real estate for the purpose sot forth
in said petition , and to invest the money re
ceived for the sale of said lands and other
money on hand belonging to said wards as
prayed for in said petition , and that a copy of
this order bo published for four consecutive
weeks in TUB CONHKHVATIVE.
Dated this ! ) rd day of April , 1000.
PAUL JKBSKN ,
Judge of the District Court of Otoo County ,
Nebraska.
BATON & TIMIIMN ,
Attorneys for Petitioner.