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
