- ' . V\ > .
Che Conservative.
IN TIIK BEGINNING.
Tun CONSEUVATIVE lias the pleasure
"i ! of reproducing below a relic of BO rare a
nature that it should bo seized upon aud
preserved by every collector of historical
matter. It is taken from a little yellow
four-page sheet , the "Nebraska Palla
dium , " Vol. 1 , No. 1C ; published by
D. E. Reed & Co. at "Belleviow , "
Douglas Co. , Nebraska , Wednesday ,
November 15 , 3854. There are signs
that the Palladium's proof-reader was
not fully alive to the responsibility of
his position on that day , but far be it
from TIIC CONSERVATIVE to lay the pre
sumptuous hands of correction on so
sacred a document as this. We have
copied it with strict literal accuracy.
[ This is the nusT COLUMN of reading
matter set in the Territory of Nebraska.
This was put in type on the 14th day of
November , 1854 , by THOS. MORTON. ]
The IIiiHlmmliimn.
Earth , of innn the bounteous mother ,
Feed him still with corn and wine ;
Ho who best would nid a brother ,
Shares with him these gifts divine.
Many a power within her bosom
Noisless , hiddin , works beneath ;
Hence are seed , and leaf , and blossom ,
Golden ear and clustered wreath.
These to swell with strength and beauty
Is the royal task of man :
Man's a king , is throne is Duty ,
Since the work on earth began.
Bud and harvest , bloom and vintage ,
These , like man , are fruits of earth ;
Stamped in clay , a heavenly mintage ,
All from dust receive their birth.
Barn and mill , and wino-vat's treasures ,
Earthly goods for earthly lives ,
These are Nature's ancient pleasures ,
These her child from her derives.
What the dream , but vain rebelling ,
If from earth we sought to flee ?
'Tis our stored and nmplo dwelling ,
'Tis from it the skies we see.
Wind and frost , and hour and season ,
Land water , sun and shade
Work with these , as bid thy reason ,
For they work thy toil to aid.
Sow thy seed and reap in gladness !
Man himself is all a seed ;
Hope and hardships , joy and sadness ,
Slow the plant to ripeness lead.
Is not the spirit of this little poem
very like that which has actuated the
people of Nebraska to the present day ?
It seems curiously prophetic ; and though
the repeated commendation of a certain
alcoholic beverage would bar it from the
Ladies' Home Journal , still its doctrine
seems to be a comfortable human
philosophy , such as the mass of man
kind would bo likely to understand and
approve.
THE CONSERVATIVE would like very
much to learn who wrote this poem.
As to this being No. 16 of the "Palla
dium , " we would explain that the
previous issues , like those of the ' Omaha
Arrow , " were printed iu Iowa.
THE RATIONALE OFFIKE INSURANCE
The Rationale of Fire Insurance is the
uaino of a now book by A. F. Dean.
The scope of the work is indicated by
the following from the introductory :
A critic has been defined as one who
icnows how to make it uncomfortable
'or people who are able to do things ho
does not know how to do himself. There
s no evidence that the people who are
constantly carping at the injustice of
fire insurance rates ever made a rate or
saw one made , or even suspected that it
could not bo made by the same easy
mental process through which they
make assertions. Without knowing ,
apparently without caring , and certainly
without enquiring what it is , these cen
sors seem to have agreed , by common
consent , that the fire rate can be none
the worse for systematic bleeding , strait-
jacketing and close watching.
Fire insurance is performing its
functions in other countries peaceably
aud acceptably , and the people of those
countries are enjoying its protection at
rates very much lower than the Ameri
can people have been able to secure
through a system of drastic treatment
which ignores diagnostics. Why ?
What is the fire rate ? What makes it ,
and what is the matter with it ? What
lias all this doctoring of fire insurance
done for us ? Has it lessened the burden
of fire taxation , or distributed it more
fairly , or made life or property more
safe ? These are all reasonable ques
tions , which intelligent people seeking
information on the subject would
naturally ask.
Off the coast of Peru , a number of
barren islands have for ages been the
habitat of sea-fowl. These islands arc
a vast repository of the guano of com
merce which serves to fertilize the im
poverished soils of Europe. Guano is
not a pleasant thing to the sense of
sight or smell , but a minute speck of it
placed under a microscope becomes a
vision to linger in one's memory
for many a day. The speck hardly
visible to the naked eye becomes a
mound of startlingly beautiful sea shells ,
lipped , scalloped , whorled in every im
aginable convolution , and gleaming with
the prismatic tints of the rainbow. This
malodorous substance , which yields up
its imprisoned wonders of form and
color to the fragrant meadows and
flowering closes of civilized lauds , bears
a curious analogy to the fire rate , at
which people are so ready to sniff their
noses. The fire rate , as a tax , is also an
unpleasant compound that serves to
replenish and adorn the waste places of
earth ; it , too , is a composite effect that
cannot be understood or intelligently
controlled until its parts have been
separated and studied one by one under
the lens of analysis , and this analysis
reveals innumerable factors correlated
by the potentialities of law and equity
and even irradiated with faint gleams oJ
71
the romance which lies deep down in
the heart of things. The most cursory
examination shows the fire rate to bo a
result of diverse influences , physical
aud personal , or more properlypsychical.
Physical influences are definite , separ
able , and limited. Personal influences
are indefinite , confluent , and unlimited
unlike the physical influences they are
lot susceptible to analysis or classifica
tion ; they can bo estimated only in their
entirety , causing an increment to fire
cost which must be cast bodily into a
msis rate that every policy holder must
iclp to pay , hence they are the concern
of every citizen.
Fire underwriters have long made a
study of the physical influences which
enter into fire rates , and the results of
; his study have slowly shaped themselves
into an established system of basis
schedules which embodies the consensus
of modern underwriting judgment , but
; hese physical influences are constantly
jecomiug more and more entangled in a
network of personal influences which
: iave become a more important factor in
; he fire rate than even the physical in
fluences , against which it is the real
function of fire insurance to furnish its
protection.
These personal influences , internal and
external , which play a part so impor
tant in creating the fire rate are , like
most things , a mixture of good and
evil. The solo office of criticism is to
detect the good and the bad in things ,
but the physical influence manifesting
itself iu the fire rate is not a thing of
good and evil , but a thing of cause and
effect. "The only argument with an
east wind is to put on one's overcoat" ;
and it is as futile to rail against the
physical element in the fire rate as to
upbraid the thermometer or say ill-
natured things about the law of gravita
tion. The fire rate contains nothing
amenable to criticism , excepting that
portion which is the result of personal
influences , and honest criticism cannot
ignore the good and the evil among
these influences , whatever their source
or motive. The influence that tends to
reduce the burden of fire taxation for
all , and equalize this burden so that
every shoulder shall bear its share and no
more , is a wholesome influence ; and the
influence , whatever its source or motive ,
that tends to increase this burden , or
distribute it unfairly , is an unwholesome
influence. No amount of sophistry can
expunge or obscure the broad line of de
marcation between the good and the
evil in this personal equation.
It is a noteworthy coincidence that
the fire tax and the duties on imports
collected by the national government
each aggregate about one hundred and
fifty million dollars per annum. There
have been few presidential campaigns in
which "the tariff question" has not
occupied the centre of the stage , yet
there is no real economic question iu-