i TAKIFF TKUST EXAMPLES.
The following tnblo is a supplement to
the letters which have already appeared
iu this series and little explanation is
therefore needed. All the prices are
recent , having been obtained during the
past mouth. Great care has been used
to present prices that are fairly to be
compared ; that is , to select correspond
ing grades and dates in each instance.
In every case the protective tariff fosters
a "trust : "
I'l-lccs In United States nnil England.
A much longer list might be made ,
containing other articles on which the
protective tariff enables "trusts" to tax
the American people in the same way.
The above were selected as fair examples
of great importance because they enter
largely into our industries and greatly
increase the cost of production. Some
of them are exported and sold abroad at
the foreign price , while our people pay
extra. "Of course they do , " said one
manufacturer , "what else is a protective
tariff for ? "
If the promises of party leaders who
imposed the protective duties are to be
honored , then protection upon the above
articles and on many others like them
must bo removed.
HENRY W. LAMB.
The church of
THE MORMONS.
Latter Day Saints
is said to have found the year just closed
its banner year , having acquired no less
than sixty thousand new adherents , an
increase of twenty per cent ; and there
are editors , of the careful and troubled
class , who see in this fact a portent of
grievous calamity to the nation.
THE CONSERVATIVE , however , sees
nothing more alarming in it than the
prospect of a rapid further occupation
of the semi-arid region by an industrious
and ably-directed class of settlers ; and
is of opinion , moreover , that any organ
ization , religious or otherwise , that were
in position to offer to the needy of older
communities material aid toward the
acquisition of a farm , with the personal
attention of a strong and capable bishop ,
would speedily be able to show just as
miraculous a growth.
If the Mormons are bad citizens or bac
neighbors , it must be by reason either of
their beliefs or of their conduct. Their
aeliefs are certainly harmless. A man
is no less a good man , whether he hold
a greater or less number of books con
cerning the Jews to be divinely inspired.
And it may be doubted whether succeed-
ng generations of public-school Mor
mons will retain their fathers' beliefs ,
as to the goings-on of certain translated
Canaauites in North America in pre-
Columbian times. The early Mormons ,
at least , were not drawn from the best-
educated classes. President Brigham
Young notoriously avowed the material
granted him to be remarkably crude and
unpromising in appearance. To have
made what ho did out of them is what
proves him a great American and a
great man.
Still it is certainly their religion that
causes them to be looked upon so gener
ally with suspicion and disfavor , and
not alone because it is popularly supposed
to consist mainly in the practice of
polygamy. Our people are somewhat
intolerant of novelties in religion , though
wo might have learned through ex
perience that letting them alone is the
most effective treatment. As soon as
our fathers ceased to burn the witches ,
no more witches were found among
them. When they consented to the co
existence of the pestilent Quakers , the
latter speedily lapsed into innocuous
desuetude. And we ourselves , as soon
as we stopped throwing stones at the
Salvation Army , did not the reverbera
tion of its bass-drum die away in our
streets ?
As to the holding of a plurality of
wives , the attitude of the Mormon
church toward this practice is , it is true ,
shrouded in mystery. But while the
thing has existed , there is little room for
doubt that it must die out. We are a
Germanic people , after all , Mormons
included , and polygamy is not in our
blood , for the reason that it never was.
One man to one woman is the plan by
which the Creator has evolved the
English-speaking race , and it does not
seem likely that we will soon depart
from it.
The confusion of these people's domes
tic eccentricities with religion is what
has caused the mischief , for try to
dictate to a man of our stock on what
he considers his religion , and you have
an intractable subject on your hands at
once. To call polygamy religion , how
ever , is little short of the ridiculous. It
reminds one of a certain highly-cultured
foreigner who once dwelt in an eastern
town , who allowed it to be understood
that religious persecution was respon
sible for his absence from his native
laud. But to a friend he once confided
that he had left it in consequence of
intolerable pressure exerted upon him
by the authorities to compel his ad
herence to the eighth commandment ;
and that was what he called religious
persecution.
MR. MORTON'S LECTURE.
The lecture delivered at the opera
liouse on Friday evening by J. Sterling
Morton upon the "Beginnings of a
State , " was the rarest gem yet con-
iributed to the history of Nebraska.
The lecture was given as the closing
one of the literary course , and was given
respectful attention by a very large and
appreciative audience.
Mr. Morton commenced at the birth
of Jefferson , the Louisiana purchase ,
and the legislation that led to the for
mation of Nebraska territory , and gave
an interesting and graphic description
of the characters who first settled Ne
braska , and who started it upon its era
of future development.
He gave a sketch of the first governor
and officers , of the election of the first
territorial council and the laws that
were made , and the peculiarities of the
men comprising the population at the
time.
It would be an injustice to attempt to
review the lecture. It must be heard to
be appreciated. Mr. Morton is recognized
as an able orator , and no one is so well
equipped to speak upon the beginnings
of this state as he who was here among
the first and has been actively engaged
in making the history of Nebraska , for
nearly half a century. Gage County
Democrat.
That J. Sterling Morton so far forgot
the restraints of good breeding as to in
troduce politics into his "lecture" to a
promiscuous public audience , is not at
all surprising. As an educated crank ,
J. Sterling stands preeminent. He can
evolve more vagaries out of a political
proposition than any man alive and can
juggle the English language to perfec-
tion. Beatrice News.
During the stay of J. Sterling Morton
in the city last week , a number of old
settlers , J. B. Weston , Nathan Blakely ,
H. J. Dobbs , the editor of the Democrat ,
and others , formed a little circle with
him and there was more early history
reviewed than would make a volume.
There is nothing that the old-timers so
much en joy as meeting and talking over j
traditional history of the territory. The
men in that group hod all resided in
Nebraska for over 40 years and had seen
the sparsely settled river counties of a
territory spread out and become a great
agricultural and stock state , with possi
bilities equal to any in the Union.
Gage County Democrat.
LITERARY NOTE.
Ex-President Cleveland's two ad
dresses on the "Independence of the
Executive" at Princeton , April 9th and
10th , will be notable contributions to
political literature. They will appear in
authoritative form only in the June and
July issues of the Atlantic Monthly ,
fully copyrighted by Hough ton , Mifflin
& Company.
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