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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1900)
'Cbc Conservative * fellow mon , while the engineer in his professional work deals mainly with the inanimate world. The engineer has little opportunity to get into intimate re lations with other men either through the study of history , economics , and sociology , or through personal contact. The engineer usually possesses strong character , sound judgment , thorough knowledge of his business j but fre quently , because of lack of that knowl edge which other men consider essential in a liberal education , he is ranked as a relatively uncultivated man , and there fore is unable to exercise the influence that his training justifies , and fails to secure the reward thajb his abilities merit. Can the instructors in engineering create in the mind of the engineering student such a hungering for the knowledge of the humanities that ho will secure it after graduation by private study and personal intercourse ? Ira O. Baker , president , Society for the Promotion of Engineering , iu Railway Age. THE HON. CARL SCHUHXI. Probably no other man in the United States who is endowed with the intel lectual ability of the Hon. Oarl Schurz , ever possessed the capacity to en j oy the variegated political principles that have been his fortune. The "matchless leader" from Ne braska may in time become his rival in erratic politics , but must be considered without hope of attaining his mental acquirements. It is only four short years since no one in this country went before Mr. Sohurz in his zeal to prevent the election of Mr. Bryan to the presidency , and no one used abler logic or stronger argument to that end. Now it seems that with the same leader at hand the same declara tion of principles , by absorption , with the addition of some fustian about a paramount issue , owing to a condition brought upon this country aided and abetted by the same leader , Mr. Sohurz sees a new light and proposes to follow the leader. It certainly cannot be asking too much to suggest to a man who has been buf feted on the political waves of this country for the past forty years , that he should have some charity for those who are less versatile. i / What ? What history has the young man of Nebraska made since Mr. Sohurz so ably and vigorously condemned him ? Has he not devoted his time for the last four years , excepting a small portion devoted to spectacular soldiering , in tramping the country to the mueio of the presidential bee in his bonnet , upon the basis of silver av the ratio of 16 to 1 ? Has he ever mani fested any tendency to subordinate his sixteen-to-ono slogan to any other prin ciple or policy of government , until he was forced by the Kansas City convention - ' tion to pretend that anti-imperialism must bo made the paramount issno in this campaign , and this , too , after he had insisted that his pet theory on silver must be specifically stated in the plat form , as well as by endorsing in whole the repudiated Chicago platform of 1896 ? Does this show a comprehensive mind capable of grasping the necessary executive requirements of this great country ? Bather does it not evince an incapacity to deal with anything beyond a groove hidden hobby ? UryJIM'S Responsibility. Mr. Schnrz's experience in politics , aided by his keen sense of comprehen sion and analysis , cannot leave him in doubt as to the causes which have made possible the present conditions , which he so much deplores. Does not Mr. Schurz know that Mr. Bryan's following in congress , and especially from the South , was potent in forcing Mr. McKinley from a conserva tive course in the treatment of the Cuban question ? Is it not true that the element referred to forced the war with Spain ? Is it not also true that Mr. Bryan's following in the senate , aided by his personal importunity , alone made it possible to ratify the treaty with Spain iu its original terms assent to the senate ? Does not the logic of events since that inconsidered action prove conclusively the necessity then existing for the exer cise of a careful , wise and considerate statesmanship in dealing with , and so amending the treaty in proper terms , by declaring to the world the purposes and intentions of our government in the treatment of the territory and its inhab itants involved in the same , instead of a boyish eagerness to ratify it under the pretense that immediate ratification was necessary to close a war with a govern ment that had become utterly powerless to make further resistance ? Is it not possible that Mr. Sohurz has taken counsel of his prejudices , and exagger ated his fears in considering the possi bility of any man elected to the office of president in this country , subverting the constitution and establishing any form of imperialism ? Is it not safer to trust congress and the chosen interpreters of our constitu tion , where the questions involved in our present difficulties must be finally settled , than to turn to a man who has been forced by political expediency , and convention tactics , to temporarily smother his free silver mania and preach anti-imperialism for the purposes of this campaign ? I am too much of a demo crat to become a populist with anarch istic tendencies. JOHN I , THOMPSON. Fen du Lao , Wis. , Sept. 15 , 1000. AN OPEN LETTER FROM J. 11. COREY. WM. J. BRYAN , Lincoln , Neb. MY DEAR SIR : Will you pardon mo for intruding myself on your attention at this time and in this public manner ? I notice in your indictment of the Republican administration of our gov ernment of the past four years and of President McKinley's own acts , you charge the republican party in general , and William MoKinley in particular , with trampling under foot the great Magna Oharta of American liberty. In your bill of particulars yon lay great stress upon the McKinley administra tion's denial of the right of self govern ment to the Philippine insurgents. Now , dear sir , without intending to espouse the defense of the republican party or Wm. MoKinley or his adminis tration , nor the defense of the American people and their government in their war with Spain and the results of that war , but only with a desire to learn your sentiments as a candidate for the presidency of the United States , as to the "paramount" issue in the question of the right of self government , I take the liberty of asking you in this public manner the following questions : First , do you believe the negroes of Cuba , Porto Rico , Hawaii and the Philippine negroes who never enjoyed the right of suffrage , are more capable of self government than our American negroes are who have enjoyed the right of suffrage for the past 05 years more or less ? If not , do you ap prove of the white people's acts in our southern states in depriving our Ameri can negroes of the right of suffrage and self government ? If so , on what prin ciple do yon condemn the administra tion of Mr. MoKinley foi depriving the Philippine negroes of self government , who never had the right of suffrage or experience in self government , and approve of our southern states in taking from our American negroes the right of suffrage after enjoying the same forever over one-third of a century ? Hoping you will not regard me as being impertinent and will vouchsafe an unequivocal answer to my interroga tions , I am with respect , Very truly yours , J. B. COREY. Pittsbnrg , Pa. , Sept. 10 , 1900. RAILROADS AND THINGS. There is only one thing which the legislature to be elected in November will certainly do before it adjourns. It may fail to tackle the trusts , it may not wrestle with the Money Devil ; it may have a bout with the insurance compa nies , but it will as surely as the sun rises on the day of the legislature's assembly , pass a new railroad law. There is no law now. There will be one. But the people are not being pestered