Conservative. 11
greeubackisin. Such a course was un
popular in "Wisconsin then and long
after.
Coming west I advocated free trade
for some twenty years. This doctrine
was unpopular it seems to me because
it was so simple and plain. An exclu
sively agricultural country , like these
western plains , palpably has everything
to gain and nothing to lose by unlimited
and unrestricted markets for its vast
surplus of food staples. By the time a
resolute baud of doctrinaires , as they
were contemptuously called , had
changed a small minority of tariff re
formers into a large majority , but who
in the meantime had barred themselves
out of congress and all other elective
offices , the money question came along.
Of course those of us who had impaled
ourselves on the principle of free trade
repeated the self-immolation , with the
gold standard as a weapon and here we
are. A "gold democrat" has just the
same chance of being elected to any
thing in Nebraska now as a tariff re
former had thirty years ago.
Our self-eacrifice , however , has not
been without compensation. Wo have
the leisure of private life in which to
enjoy the present contention of repub
licans that expanded trade is good and
necessary , and their writhing in the
toils of the trusts which we long ago
warned them would be a result of the
protective system. As wo are nothing
if not unselfish , we have also enjoyed
the restoration of business which was
facilitated by the sudden abandonment
of their silver principles by the repub
licans , and usurpation of our gold plat
form , "the way of holiness" to which
we pointed them by our precept and
example. Our humorous faculty was
entertained by the spectacle of repub
lican delegates journeying to the St.
Louis convention of 1896 intent on
"doing something for silver , " and rais
ing hosannas to birnetalism , and return
ing denouncing it as "crazy populism , "
while they held aloft our gold standard
as an eternal principle of economics ,
' Rook-ribbed and ancient as the sun. "
So far as political honors and emolu
ments are concerned , however , we have
held the bag for our more "practical"
and shifty opponents most of the time
for a generation. Commonly , men of
shifty principles , of meager equipment ,
of common-place mental , and not high-
grade moral ability , get into congress.
Indeed a part of these qualities are re
quisite for getting there. Whether I
might enjoy going to congress or not , at
home I enjoy the company of those who
are superior men , and bettor fitted , not
to get in , but to be in congress , than
most of those who are there.
This bad condition results largely
from our bi-party system , in which all
men are expected to conform to all the
grotesquely discordant or contradictory
tenets of one or the other of the two
great parties. Presently , I think wo
shall develop a new and logical system ,
in which many groups of men may
advocate and push to an issue , one or
more important and consistent principle
which they believe in , without profess
ing allegiance to a mixture of hetero
geneous principles , many of which they
may not believe in. Our present bi-
party system stultifies men and de
moralizes politics. We adhere to it
because wo have been taught that it is a
fixed and necessary institution. An
institution so bad and inefficient as this
has proved to be is not necessary , and
ought not to be fixed.
To recur to myself : My republican
friend , the editor of The State Journal
of this place , sang my congressional
requiem as long ago as 1894 , in this
conclusive , but withal very gracious
fashion :
"Albert Watkius has been frequently
mentioned as a man who would run for
congress to advantage in this district ,
since Bryan has pulled out of the way.
Mr. Watkins is a clear-eyed , clear-
brained man , with twice the intellectual
ability of the present congressman. He
has been a student all his days , and has
come as near living the intellectual life
as any working editor or lawyer in Lin
coln. For that reason he wouldn't defer
for a democratic nominee for congress.
A man must be an out and out dema
gogue to succeed as a democratic candi
date in anything in Nebraska ; and
Watkins is too much addicted to the
habit of having ideas and expressing
them to be a demagogue under any
circumstances. "
Strike out the qualifying words ,
"democratic" and "Nebraska , " making
the application universal , and you have
the truth , to which the exceptions in
practice are , I think , so few as to prove
the rule.
Yours very serenely ,
ALBERT WATKINS.
The Mineral Point ( Wis. ) Democrat.
A BYGONK LUMINARY.
The writings of the late Hon. Jeffer
son Davis , of Mississippi , are not com
monly quoted from to any extent ,
neither for political speeches , in public-
school text-books nor for any other
purposes. And yet he was an American ,
who in his day and among his neighbors
was held to have ability of the first
order.
Here are his observations concerning
the chief magistracy of the nation :
"I had been so near the office for four
years , while in the cabinet of Mr.
Pierce , that I saw it from behind the
scones , and it was to mo an office in no
wise desirable. The responsibilities
were great ; the labor , the vexations , the
disappointments , wore greater. Those
who have intimately known the official
and personal life of our presidents cannot
fail to remember how few have left the
office as happy men as when they
entered it , how darkly the shadows
f * '
gathered around the setting sun , and
how eagerly the multitude would turn
to gaze upon another orb just rising to
take its place in the political firmament.
"Worn by incessant fatigue , broken
in fortune , debarred by public opinion ,
prejudice or tradition , from future em
ployment , the wisest and best who have
filled that office have retired to private
life , to remember rather the failure of
their hopes than the success of their
efforts. Ho must , indeed , be a self-
confident man who could hope to fill the
chair of Washington with satisfaction
to himself , with the assurance of receiv
ing on his retirement the meed awarded
by the people to that great man , that he
had 'done enough for life and for glory , '
or even of fooling that the sacrifice of
self had been compensated by the ser
vice rendered to his country. "
It is curious to find in Mr. Davis'
inaugural address of 1861 a sentiment
usually attributed to a statesman of a
later age ; that "all offices are but trusts
held for the people. " COM.
REPUBLICAN OPINIONS.
The Republican Club of Harvard
University , on Wednesday , May 16 ,
1900 , adopted a platform approving
various measures , among them the fol
lowing :
' 'Publicity of the affairs of trusts and
removal of all duty on commodities con
trolled by trusts , "
Rookford , (111. ( ) Republic , January
29 , 1900 :
"At few at Denver
a meeting a days ago
ver the Colorado Editorial Association
adopted resolutions demanding the re
peal of the tariff on wood pulp and all
other materials entering into the manu
facture of print paper. * * * There
are many other trusts entrenched
securely behind tariff duties which shut
out foreign competition and enable
American monopolists to rob consum
ers. * * * There should be a sweep
ing repeal of protection which is made
the opportunity for such merciless
exactions as the print paper trust has
laid on the newspapers of the United
States. "
Hartford Oouraut , December , 1899 :
This paper declared that the president
should have closed his trust discussion
in his message , "with a straight-from-
the-shoulder recommendation for the
immediate repeal of any and every pro
tective customs duty behind which a
price-raising monopoly is squatted. "
Dubuque , ( Iowa ) Times , January 20 ,
1900 :
"Tho paper trust is making hay while
the sun shines. * * * The simple
remedy lies in the repeal of the tariff
used to suppress competition and to rob
the publishers and through them the
public. Congress should lose no time in
wiping it off the statute books and
should not stop until every other duty
which operates to suppress competition
or enhance the value of the bounties of
nature in private hands is repealed. "
