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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1900)
Conservative. STAND VI1 FOR NI3IJUASKA. CITV. The farmers of Otoo county will cer tainly uphold , by their ballots , Nebraska City , the best corn market in the state. The cereal mills and the Argo starch factory have paid tens of thousands of dollars to farmers for corn and oats in Nebraska City , mouth after month and year after year. Every vote favoring fusion candidates and their political doctrines assaults these incorporations and aids in the Bryan and Smyth attempt to destroy Nebraska Oity as a manu facturing center and a grain market. The following letters purely nonpartisan - partisan from tax-payers to tax-payers explain themselves. Bead , reflect , re solve and vote : NEBRASKA OITY , NEB. , Oct. 15,1900. MR. JOY MORTON , I. O. PIER No. 1 , CHICAGO , ILL. DEAR SIR : As citizens and taxpay ers , vitally interested in the prosperity and continued growth of Nebraska Oity , we are very solicitous for the contin uance and enlargement of the starch works , the cereal mills , the packing houses and the cannery , and likewise anxious to secure other industrial plants at this point. Recently , however , it has been rumored that you and your friends who control the National Starch Co. , contemplated shutting up the Argo fac tory and ceasing to make starch at this place. Some have even intimated that the recent suit brought against your concern with the intention of closing it and destroying that much market for corn at Nebraska Oity and putting out of employment between 200 and 800 people , was brought about at your in stance , so as to give an excuse , if one was needed , for drying up the manufacture of starch at this place. Of course we do not believe any such wild and unreasonable yarns. Nevertheless , we write to ask you frankly whether you think it may be made profitable to continue the Argo starch factory in full operation at Ne braska Oity and to enlarge its capacity to , say , 4,000 bushels of corn per day. We understand perfectly well that your company never asked or received any subsidies. We know that the company has conducted its business in a legiti mate , fair-minded and perfectly satis factory manner. We know that its em ployees are attached to it. We know that they have been well paid. We realize that the perpetuation of starch manufacture at Nebraska Oity and the enlargement of the capacity of the fac tory would be a great benefit to all of our people , and therefore we ask yon to tell us what there is that we can do to dissipate all doubts as to the perman ency of this plant. Assuring yon of the good will of the best property-owning and tax-paying citizens of the town and of the county ; in fact , guaranteeing to you the best wishes of all the corn-growers , corn-sel lers , laborers and business men of this immediate vicinity , we remain , hoping to have an early reply , Very truly your friends , JOHN.W. STEINIIART , L. WESSEL , H. Y. BIRKBY , L. ENYART , W. S. CORNUTT , O. N. NELSON , N. S. HARDING , O. N. KARSTENS , AND OTHERS. CHICAGO , 111. , Oct. 18 , 1900. Messrs. John W. Steinhart , L. Wessel , H. Y. Birkby , L. Enyart , W. S. Cornutt , O. N. Nelson , N. S. Har ding , O. N. Karsteus and others : Gentlemen : Yours of the 15th re ceived. Until attacked by the attorney- general of Nebraska in the state supreme court , and by that officer and Mr. Bryan at a public meeting in Ne braska Oity , on September 26th. , the officers of the National Starch Co. , owner of the Argo factory , had no thought of closing the plant permanent ly ; on the contrary , plans had been pre pared for enlargement of the works , supplementing extensive improvements which were made during the past sum mer. mer.Now the questions which confront the company are : First. Can your state officials , or their successors in office , confiscate its Nebraska City factory either by litiga tion or legislation ? Second. Are the people of Nebraska City in sympathy with the action of the attorney-general who has filed a petition in the state supreme court as follows : "Wherefore the plaintiff prays that the agreement by which the Argo Man ufacturing company sold and transferred all its property and rights as aforesaid to the United Starch Co. , and the deed of conveyance to said United Starch Co. from the said Argo Manufacturing Co. , be adjudged null and void , and that said property and rights , with the right of immediate possession thereof be restored to and confirmed in the Argo Manufac turing Co. " The records of Otoe county show that in the summer of 1899 the property of the Argo Manufacturing Co. was law fully transferred by deed to the United Starch Co. , without protest from your attorney-general , and those citizens of Nebraska City who were stockholders in the Argo company may be called into court to testify as to whether or not they received cash or "trust" certificates for their share of the proceeds of this sale. The United Starch Company owned and operated the plant until August 1st , 1900 , when , by deed , also duly recorded without objection on the part of your attorney-general , it was transferred to the National Starch company , its pre sent owner , and has been since date of transfer , in full operation , employing upwards of 250 people. Now , both the Argo Manufacturing Company and the United Starch Com pany have gone out of business , neither of them can again become going concerns unless their former stockholders are will ing to reinvest their money , or your attorney-general or Mr. Bryan , who approves of his action , can compel them to reinvest it for the purpose of opera i ting the Argo factory as it was operated prior to the first sale above referred to ; even if this were done your city would not be benefited , since the works have run just the same since the first transfer as they did before. Is it likely that these old stockholders of the Argo Com pany will willingly reinvest their money at Nebraska Oity should the attorney- general win his suit ? Would any of you care to put your money into an enter prise that could be "regulated" to serve the ends of politicians ? If they refuse to reinvest and the National Starch Company is debarred from operating the factory , it seems to me that it will surely be closed and its operatives thrown out of employment , unless the attorney-general or his friends furnish the necessary working capital and , possibly , a little cash to buy the National Starch Company's equity in the property , should it then have any. I have said to my associates in the National Starch Company that I believed the people of Nebraska Oity were dis posed to be friendly to and would loyally support all industrial concerns located in the town , that heretofore the two concerns in which I have been largely interested for many years , the Starch Works and the Cereal Mills , had been fairly treated , but I have refused to recommend at present the expenditures necessary to complete the contemplated improvements referred to in the first paragraph of this letter , deeming it best to wait until after election day before deciding as to the Company's future operations in Nebraska. In view of the fact that no other little corporation in the country has received so much special attention from populist candidates , both national and state , as has the Argo factory , I trust you will agree that this is a proper course for me to pursue , however much I may desire to promote the welfare of Nebraska Oity. You ask if I "think it will be profitable - able to continue the Argo factory in full operation. " Until quite recently I thought it would be , now I do not know what to think about it. You also state that you ore "anxious to secure other industrial plants" and ask how to get them. I believe that the first thing for you to do is to protect the concerns already located in Nebraska Oity j con demn at the polls the attack which has been made upon them , an attack which has been advertised from one end of the country to the other ; condemn it hard
