VOL. II. NEBRASKA CITY , NEBOTHURSDAY , JUNE 21 , 1900. NO. 50.
PUUMSnED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF. POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOOIOGOOIOAIj
QUESTIONS.
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Address , TOE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
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Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 20th , 1898.
THE OREGON .
ELECTION. tlOU last W6ek m
Oregon was of
more than local interest because of Mr.
Bryan's identification with the cam
paign. He journeyed to Oregon and
made several speeches , making special
reference to silver. There was complete
fusion of all the Bryan elements , the
democrats , silver republicans and popu
lists.
lists.The
The combined vote , however , was less
than that of the democrats alone a year
ago. It was also less than that received
by Bryan in 1890. If Bryan has become
weaker in the western states , where the
silver sentiment has always been the
most pronounced , where is he to gain
the electoral votes required to make him
president ?
°
CONSISTENT. ' . .
" "
Bryan-"Ohump"
Clark style of statesmanship which
brought on the Spanish war , and boasted
of its intimidation of McKinley in that
regard , is now , with resolutiouary wrath ,
denouncing the fruits of its own im
petuous idiocy. Precinct , county and
state conventions are denouncing Mo-
Kiuley's administration as responsible
for the Spanish war and all of its ex
pensive and unpleasant consequences.
These conventions are made up of the
followers of the boasting law-makers
who vehemently declared that their
courage , their insistent demand for war
with Spain , and not the republicans had
made that war. These consistent men
never forget to denounce the Philippine
war , its cost in blood and dollars. They
attribute all calamities arising from the
Philippine Islands as a direct result of
, ! T- . " " " * ' " ' ' "Si'i *
. ' k' A
; & ; > - -
wicked and blundering MoKiuleyism.
But these same denunciators declared ,
only a few months ago , that the treaty
with Spain , by which' the United States ,
for twenty millions of dollars , got the
islands and slavery and polygamy with
ten million brown-skinned people and
the bubonic plague would never have
been ratified except for the efforts of
Colonel Bryan , among senators. The
Bryanarchists all over the country
glorified their leader for the pathos and
bathos with which he implored , threat
ened and , at last , forced United States
senators to vote for the ratification of
the Paris treaty. ' Then alliance with
McKinleyism.on the part of Bryanarchy
for the purposes of expansion and possi
bilities for imperialism , was patriotic.
Now for the maintenance of the gold
standard , any alliance , between republi
cans and gold democrats , is treason.
Bryauarchy , however , is always con
sistently inconsistent.
Tue ProbinS of
CUBA.
Cuban postal af
fairs reveals a worse condition than first
reported. The Noeley defalcation thus
far amounts to a cash shortage of $85-
000 , together with $411,000 surcharged
stamps. It is reported that the lavish
outlay for expenses , alleged to have been
made by Rathbone , will not account for
the entire sum charged against the
Cuban treasury. In order to effect even
a partial restoration of public confidence
in his administration , President McKinley -
ley should make some sweeping changes
among those entrusted with the manage
ment of affairs in Cuba. He will , in a
measure , compensate for past blunders
by recognizing , in future appointments ,
individual fitness and worth instead
of yielding to personal and political
pressure exclusively. He could not do
better than to extend to Cuba the rules
governing the civil service at home and
make merit the basis for all appoint
ments.
Allen , Pettigrew ,
, . , , . . , .
anl in short all the
leading populists and Bryanarchists in
the United States , denounce banks and
bankers as menaces to the plain people.
All of the large-brained , experienced
and mature statesmen of the discontent
school in the United States favor the
policy of government itself doing all
the bill-issuing for the people. These
learned and philanthropic benefactors
would place the power to make paper-
money in the hands of the congress of the
United States and nowhere else. Under
their scheme of finance there would be no
plutocratic possibility of "a contraction"
for the purpose of putting up the rates
of interest. The plain people would be
protected forever against the incursions
and ravages of the omnivorous octopus.
_ , , , . But the members
The Despot.
of the house of re
presentatives and of the senate of the
congress of the United States would
have unlimited power over the currency
of the country. This power could be
used and would be used by each succeed
ing congress to either expand or contract
the monetary circulation. The caprice
of congress and not the commerce of the
country would determine the volume of
circulating money that the American
people might need.
Talk of imperialism , of centralized
power , of despotism ; where on earth
can be found a more potent concentra
tion of power than in the vested right to
say how much money may circulate in
a given country at any time ? Congress
would be a czar. It could limit or in
crease the currency at will. It could be ,
and would be , the vilest , crudest ,
wickedest despotism on the globe. For
it the populist party and all its allies
labor.
In his speech at
ANOTHER
PKOPIIECY. Hornellsville , N.
Y. , Aug. 25 , 1890 ,
Mr. Bryan thus declaimed against the
gold standard :
"They know the gold standard en
courages the hoarding of money , instead
of expanding it in the development of
the resources of the country. And now
this policy of hoarding is driving thous
ands and tens of thousands , and hun
dreds of thousands of workiugmen out
in the streets , where they beg for the
privilege of working for their daily
bread. "
It was not the gold standard that
created the conditions to which he re
ferred , but the fear of repudiation and
depreciation drove capital from the
usual channels of investment. If there
was any doubt about this at the time it
has been removed by later events. The
defeat of Mr. Bryan , the consequent
restoration of public confidence in our
financial integrity brought the gold
from hiding and employed it "in
developing the resources of the country"
and thus gave employment to labor.
