Conservative *
feel safe. Even the state university
may lose * its new chancellor , onr E
Benjamin Andrews , as soon as its board
of regents shall again come into repub
lican hands. Now , the board , elected in
the odd numbered years , has a fusionist
majority. These fusion regents brought
Andrews to Nebraska , and the republi
cans will find in that fact , and in
Andrew's old sympathy with Bryanism
and his attendance this year at Bryan
meetings and indorsement of the
speeches there delivered , an excuse for
his removal when they secure control of
the board. Such an action will not be
condoned by many fair-minded men ,
but it is a part of the strenuous , bitterly
partisan public life of Nebraska , Per
haps the state , after its storm-tossed
political existence of the last ten years ,
will settle down into calm and sedate
ways and become more mellow and
tolerant in its views. If this should
happen , populism may have been worth
almost as much as it cost. F. B. T. in
Boston Transcript.
CATTLE ON THE HOOF AGAIN.
.General Miles may now look on and
profit by the lesson which , in his effort
to have 7,000 live cattle shipped from
this country to China , the Czar of Russia
is teaching the military world. The
cattle we have , at a price , but the
ships with which to transfer them to
Ohina are hard to get because they must
be suitable for transporting live stock.
You can't ship Miss Oow or Mr. fcteer ,
thousands of miles over water in passen
ger steamers , because they will not
sleep in the berths. The'safety of four
cow legs and the food and water with
which to keep cattle alive must be pro
vided for. Then again , 7,000 cattle will
not feed even 50,000 people very long ,
so another and another fleet must follow
in quick succession with more beeves.
When these cattle land a food base of
supplies must be provided for them , and
a boiling down , crematory or some
other destroyer of the offal of the thous
ands of cattle must be provided for get
ting rid of the excrement and putric
matter which will otherwise infect the
camps with disease.
In the meantime the problem is to get
the boats in which to ship about 10,000 ,
000 Ibs. of live beef , which will slaughter
into about 6,000,000 Ibs. of fresh beef.
While a great packinghouse in this
country , capable of working out any
feasible proposition , is moving every
possible peg to fill the order of the Ozar
the ' ' beef on- the hoof' ' advocates
might ponder on the almost insurmount
able difficulties which the contractor i
trying to overcome to get even a herd
of 7,000 cattle to Russia's army in Ohina
. Luckily our own government knows the
sense of shipping cured meats and othe
stuffs in the manufactured form. They
take lesss space , and are more easily
mobilized. They are better in every
way ,
Right here we might say that in
South Africa and in this Ohinese affair
canned roast beef is as popular as
canned corned beef , and is being nearly
as largely ordered by those buying of
us.
us.Will
Will our Generals please study these
foreign situations not from a strategic
but from a commissary standpoint ? It
s a question of the soldiers of the world.
Russia is feeling the great trouble of
rying to feed an army on a foreign
shore with live cattle from a distance.
She frankly eays she cannot do it her
self. So she has delegated to an
American house the herculean task. In
doing this Russia remembered some
thing from our operations in Cuba.
The day of marching soldiers and
cattle together , with the cattle sand
wiched between two armies for protection
is past. The Boers had a sad lesson of
this ancient and cumbersome handicap
to rapid movement. The stench of the
improvised army abattoir is a matter of
the past. The sanitary camp is an ad
vancement. We mobilize our foods at
onr factories , and forward , to order ,
healthful supplies to the front. We
respectfully draw the above thoughts to
the attention of General Miles. The
National Provisioned
THE BOOM IN WAM. STREET.
Eighteen months have passed since
the last great Bull movement took place
on the Stock Exchange. Its character
istic feature was the manufacture and
sale of Industrial securities , or , as they
are commonly called , "Trusts , " but it
was not confined to these. There were
many reorganizations of railroads that
had broken down in the panic of 1893 ,
and the hard- times following it. The
new securities issued in pursuance
thereof had a much better foundation
than the old ones retired. The water
had been largely squeezed out , and there
was real room for improvement. The
new industrials and the reorganized rail
roads gave a tremendous impetus to the
trading , and the fire spread to the ad
joining property , so that for some
months there was a tremendous " boom
in stocks. " The buyers were of all
classes and from all sections of the
country. Yet every boom must stop
somewhere. The boom of the early
months of 1899 did stop , but it did not
end in a panic. There were heavy losses
but they were so widely distributed
that there were few insolvencies and no
bank failures of importance.
Concurrently with the boom in Wall
Street there was a boom in business
generally. The two things almost al
ways go together. The one depends
upon the other. Stock Exchange se
onrities are worth more or less , accord
ing to their earning capacity. The im
agination of dealers may momentarily
lift up the market , but nothing can sus
tain it except income which can be seen ,
felt and deposited in the bank. The
approach of good times or of bad times
is felt in Wall Street before it is ap
preciated elsewhere , because Wall Street
is the focus where all the rays of light
are most speedily assembled and where
the keenest observers of the country are
watching them. Nothing can take
place having business significance in
any part of the country without making
a record in Wall Street , the import of
which is passed upon by some hundreds
or thousands of experienced men who
are eager to turn it to profitable account.
Wall street felt the oncoming of the
business boom in the early months of
1899 and sought to profit by it.
Wall Street , in like manner , felt the
oncoming of the reaction after the up
ward movement had exhausted itself ,
and being quite as ready to make a
profit on a decline as on an advance ,
"sold short. " In both coses the street
merely anticipated the course of busi
ness in the country at large. After the
boom of 1899 had collapsed , the general
business boom slowly subsided , and
merchants and manufacturers found
themselves , early in the present year ,
facing slackened sales and a declining
market. The prices of iron and steel
went off heavily ; some of the largest
mills were closed. The cotton industry
was greatly depresssed , and the Presi
dential campaign was entered with
gloomy forebodings. The campaign it
self was a cause of depression , but it
was not the only cause and not the chief
one. . It added to the apprehensions of
the business community , especially
after the Kansas City convention re
peated the free-silver programme of
1896 , but the mischief had been done
before. It existed outside of. politics.
This is evident from the fact that the
course of trade was the same in Eng
land and Germany as in the United
States the same in respect to the Loom
of 1899 and the reaction of 'the present
year.
Now , what about the boom of to day ?
Is it .permanent or transitory ? Is it
wholesome or otherwise ? Does it pre
figure business prosperity or is it a mere
flash in the pan , a mere display of fire
works after the presidential election ?
Nobody is wise enough to answer this
question dogmatically. We can only
look at what has gone before , and draw
such lessons as we may from past ex
perience. Of course every upward
movement of prices , whether of stocks
and bonds or of goods , has its limits. It
cannot go on for ever. The eagerness
of buyers will probably carry Stock Ex
change securities higher than the facts
justify. Yet , guided by the facts and
principles sketched above , we are war
ranted in thinking that the Wall Street
movement does signify a real revival of
trade , and that the relations of demand
