The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902, January 03, 1901, Page 6, Image 6

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    6 'Cbe Conservative.
stock were left to their peaceful arts in
the lovely valleys of the Republican ,
Loup and Platte until the seventeenth
century when , as we shall see , the
Dakotos or Sioux Indians began a con
quest of extermination.
Mr. Brower's Harahey mentions this
northern branch and he will doubtless
acquiesce in this statement. There is
nothing in Mr. Brower's memoirs to
conflict with the condition which we
believe existed f. c. , that there was a
peaceable , pastoral people in a high
state of civilization farther north than
Coronado explored. Of course , he makes
the positive statement that Goronado
reached the end of Quivera. This would
of necessity conflict with the theory that
he was only in the ou1 lying villages era
a community consisting only of a branch
from the Quivera stock.
IiiIIan Characteristics.
Let us notice the Indian characteristic ,
or , we may say , the human proclivity to
advance their own importance and labor
for their own aggrandizement. Coronado
nado was probably at the end of their
Quivera , if you wish to take this precise
view of it , if you wish to consider
Coronado a model of truth in every re
spect ; but if he was so truthful in this
matter which , at best , would not be
easy to understand when told by these
people who spoke a strange language
but on the contrary might be very
easily misunderstood , why do you doubt
him when he says : "I have reached the
fortieth parallel of latitude. " I think
we should allow our common sense a
little liberty and agree that he might
have been mistaken in the "end of
Qaivera. " Bight here let us note that
the name Quivera would have belonged
equally to both branches and both
would be likely to use it. Mr. Brewer
admits there is nothing in the Wichita
language to compare with it nothing
which gives a shadow of evidence upon
which to hang a theory of its origin.
The American Indians seldom desig
nated a neighboring tribe by the name
which the tribe called itself. The
branch from the great Pawnee nation
would scarcely have admitted that the
other or northern branch had a Qaivera ,
although from the fame of this other
Quivera came all the insigna and far-
reaching romance in the light of which
they were basking and whose cast-off
feathers of wonder they were wearing.
If the relics left showing the highest
degree of civilization and art were found
in the Kansas village , we would not
question for a moment but the highest
civilization centered there that the
branching faction , or Pawnee Picts ,
were the most important part of the
nation of Pawnees. But when wo find
the highest degree of art , the largest
village sites and the most enlighten
ment shown in the Nebraska field , we
must logically conclude that the north
ern branch was the greater of the two.
We shall see by the documentary evi
dence that the true site of the great
capital of the far-famed empire of
Quivera was in Nebraska at the junc
tion of the Platte and Loup rivers.
E. E. BLACKMAN.
Roca , Neb.
IU.latest
PATERNALISM IN .
NEW ZEALAND. sociological work ,
"Newest Eng
land , " Mr. Henry D. Lloyd says that
New Zealand offers to the world "the
antitoxin of revolution and the cure of
monopoly. " New Zealand is a splendid
example of a paternal government. The
state owns and operates the railroads ,
provides insurance and pays old age
pensions. Large tracts of land have
been resumed or bought in by the
government and leased in small sub
divisions to the people. In no other
country has the state attempted to do so
much for the individual. But are the
people as happy and contented as Mr.
Lloyd would have us believe ?
If it is agreeable to the people of New
Zealand to be relieved of individual responsibility -
, , , , , , . sponsibility and
Individual , . , , ,
Responsibility. the rl8ht to ° n
and control prop
erty why do they not stay there ? Why
do they migrate in such large numbers
to countries where the competitive
system is in vogue ? In 1895 , 21,000
people moved away and but 845 went to
this halcyon place. People are leaving
New Zealand in spite of paternal legis
lation , in spite of the face that the
goveinment has expended large sums of
money in the construction of railways ,
the improvement of roads , pensions to
toilers , and has spared no effort to
accommodate itself to the physical com
fort of the individual.
The manner in which New Zealand
has done all this is a forcible reminder
, , , , . . that the govern-
„ „ . , ° .
Public Debt. , ,
ment has nothing
of its own to give away and that which
it would contribute to all or a part of its
citizens it must take from them. A debt
of $800 per capita reminds the people of
Now Zealand that it does cost something
even to have the government do things
and that it is a mistake to assume that a
thing costs nothing because the govern
ment does it. The national debt amounts
to one-third the value of the realty of
the island.
Mr. Lloyd is right when he says New
Zealand is a country without strikes.
There are noNe
No Strikes. . . . .
strikes because
the government must keep everybody
employed and , if there is no other way
to do it , they must be set at work im
proving the roads or constructing public
works. This must be paid for out of
the public treasury and hence means
additional taxation. Instead of operat
ing the railroads at the lowest possible
expense and reducing the number of
employees to a minimum they are run
to employ as many men as possible and
if a deficit results the public debt is to
this extent enlarged. Every man feels
that the government owes him a living
and if the government does not provide
employment for the unemployed the
latter would strive to overthrow the
government.
All of the enterprises now under
public control are operated at a loss and
as a consequence the national debt is
constantly increasing. Perhaps the
thrifty and industrious classes of New
Zealand are leaving the country because
they are tired of being taxed to sustain
the shiftless and the indolent. Under
these circumstances does the New
Zealand experiment justify the claims
Mr. Lloyd so enthusiastically makes
for it ?
At a re ° ent ban
LOGIC AND ;
ELOQUENCE. < luet m the city of
Lincoln , in the
presence of the leading sixteen-to oneites
of the populist party , the standing
candidate of that party for the presi
dency , very eloquently remarked after
a residence in Nebraska of about ten
years :
"At this banquet surrounded by
neighbors who have been my political
friends for ten years , I may be pardoned
for saying a word of a personal nature.
Five times you have voted for me for
public office twice for congress , once
for the United States senate , and twice
for the presidency and no candidate
ever received more loyal support than
you have given. "
A tenderer , more touching tribute
to the ballot-casters of any propinquity
could not be constructed in all this
wicked world and the modesty and
meekness with which it was delivered
make it a classic in the literature of
self-sacrifice. No other man could have
uttered this truthful , beautiful and
arithmetical summary of a useful ,
industrious and purely unselfish life. It
is eloquence and mellifluence , so sweetly
mixed , that the soul is chloroformed in
ecstacy and the emotions bathed in
beatitude.
And in the next paragraph , but one ,
the recent candidate of the Sioux Falls
, populist conven-
Logic Next. 7. .
tion tersely pro
claims : "The holding of public position
should be an incident and not the aim of
the citizen. "
The logic of five "incidents" which
have been visible to his many friends in
ten years show how the "aims" of a
great and good man may be absolutely
upset by mere "incidents" over which
he has no control and which no effort of
his can possibly avert. The inexorabil
ity of "the incident" and the ephemeral
potency of "the aim" in a career of
triumphant verbosity could not be more
forcefully illustrated.