The Conservative *
At that time Joseph French Johnson
was financial editor of the Chicago
Tribune. He , too , liked Vanderlip , and
directed him in a course of study on
money , banking , and economics at large ,
partly by himself and partly in connec
tion with a special course at the Uni
versity of Illinois. Vanderlip presently
succeeded Johnson on the Tribune.
"When President McKinley invited
Mr. Gage into the cabinet , Mr. Vander
lip applied for the position of private
secretaiy to the secretaiy of the treas
ury , and came with Mr. Gage to Wash
ington. From his first post he was
raised to bo assistant secretaiy of the
treasury , and then cast his eyes towards
New York. On the advice of his old in
structor , Mr. Johnson , now professor of
finance at the University of Pennsyl
vania , he determined to go abroad and
study some more ; so the two friends
sailed March 11,1901. When lie returns
he will step into a business berth in New
York which is now making ready for
him. Meanwhile he has supported a
widowed mother and two sisters , and
extended aid to several young men , as
ho had been helped himself. "
The well-known
FORTHCOMING , publishing house
of Jacob North &
Co. , of Lincoln , Neb. , will soon bring
out the "History of Nebraska , " of which
Dr. Geo. L. Miller and J. Sterling
Morton are the supervising editors.
These volumes will contain biographies
of prominent citizens in each county ,
and record as faithfully as possible the
development of Nebraska from its earli
est settlement down to 1901. All citi
zens having historical data supposed to
be of value are requested to send the
same to the address of Mr. Morton , care
of Jay Amos Barrett , State Historical
Society , Lincoln , Neb. The publication
will be hurried up and all data to be
used must be sent in at once.
Col. Bowlby , in
NOT CLOSED. his valuable Crete
Democrat of the
18th instant , bewails the shutting down
and the shutting up of the Argo starch
works at Nebraska City. But the
Colonel is entirely divergent from the
facts and a long ways from the actual
truth.
The Argo starch factory is running
now and has been running all winter
and will be running until the time for
the annual pause for repairs and clean
ing xip comes during the spring or sum
mer. But the eloquent speakers to
whom Col. Bowlby pathetically alludes
in the same article are "shut up. " And
unless the supreme court of Nebraslav
interferes , the Argo plant will bo en
larged during the next twelve months.
Wages are paid promptly. They are
more nourishing than the speeches of
Oldham , J. Ham Lewis , ex-Attorney
H ;
;
General Smyth nncl the Peerless One to
whoso efforts against the Argo owners
Col. Bowlby refers with gushing tender
ness. The kindly complimentary
references to the Mortons which Gol.
Bowlby weaves into his article are ac
cepted with gratitude , humility and
thanks.
Senator Proctor
PROCTOR. of Vermont is now
i 11 O n b a , as a
special envoy of the president , to investi
gate the political and civil affairs of the
island and particularly to report the
feeling in regard to the limitations
congress has proposed to place upon the
Cuban constitution. This trip recalls
another made by Senator Proctor to the
same place. Three years ago , in com
pany with several other senators , ho
wont to Cuba to investigate the reports
of Spanish cruelty and inquire into the
justice of Cuban demands for inde
pendence.
Upon his return to the United States
the senator thus expressed himself in re
gard to the wishes of the islanders :
"There is no doubt that General Blanco
is acting in entire good faith ; that he
desires to give the Cubans a fair measure
of autonomy * # *
"I inquired in regard to autonomy of
men of wealth and men as prominent in
business as any in the city of Habana ,
Matauzas , and Sagua , bankers , mer
chants , lawyers and autonomist officials ,
some of them Spanish born but Cuban
bred , one prominent Englishman , several
of them known as autonomists , and
several of them telling me that they
were still believers in autonomy , if prac
ticable , but without exception they re
plied that it was 'too late' for that.
"Iam not in favor of annexation ; not
because I would apprehend any particu
lar trouble from it , but because it is not
wise policy to take in any people of
foreign tongue and training , and without
any strong guiding American element.
The fear that if free the people of Cuba
would be revolutionary is not so well
founded as has been supposed , and the
conditions for good self-government are
far more favorable. The large number
of educated and patriotic men , the great
sacrifices they have endured , the peace
able temperament of the people , whites
and blacks , the wonderful prosperity
that would surely come with peace and
good home rule , the large influx of
American and English immigration and
money , would all be strong factors for
stable institutions. "
In view of the above summary of
Cuban wants TIIE CONSERVATIVE is un
able to see why
Why ? Mr. Proctor should
again go to Cuba.
Did ho not state to the American people
three years ago that the offer of auton
omy and homo rule by General Blanco
was made in "good faith ? " Didho not ,
then , state that the Cubans would de
cline all overtures short of absolute and
unconditional independence ? Did ho
not also report to his government that
the Cubans were capable of indepen
dence and that the "conditions were
favorable for good self-government ? ' ' In
fluenced by the advice and counsel of
men who , like Proctor , had personally
investigated the conditions upon the
ill-fated island , our country was plunged
into a war with Spain to "free Cuba. "
Congress , acting upon the advice of
Proctor , incorporated in the war resolu
tion the declaration that "the people of
Cuba are and of right ought to bo free
and independent. " Is Proctor now in
Cuba to accumulate evidence to show
why the promise , made upon his recom
mendation , should be broken ? Is he to
report that he did not tell the truth upon
his first visit and that the war with
Spain was undertaken , and the promise
of Cuban independence given , as a
result of unreliable information supplied
by himself ? And if Proctor makes such
a humiliating report and repudiates
former utterances , should we trust im
plicitly the judgment of one confessedly
prone to err ?
THE STATE LIBRARIES.
It is certainly to be hoped by all
means that the present legislature will
deal generously with the State Histori
cal Society , granting it the full amount
of money that has been asked for ; to
the end that the society may at last be
able to buy some of the books that form
the very rudiments of western history.
If any inquiring legislator should visit
the library of the University of Nebras
ka in search of information concerning
the Greeks , he will find abundance of
maps of Athens and Hellas generally at
all periods , as well as accounts of trav
els and explorations any time in the last
three thousand years. But if he should
ask for the explorations of Lewis &
Clark , Pike , Long , Mackenzie , Carver ,
Faruham , Murray , Wyoth or any other
of the men who opened up unknown
regions of North America within the
last hundred years , he will learn that
the library has nothing in that line.
The reason is that the state maintain
ing a special library of-Nebraska history
in the same building , 'the two institu
tions have divided the field between
them ; the one is to gather a collection
dealing with the history of the state and
the west , while the other devotes itself
to the Greeks and other matters of that
class , at which the young idea of Ne
braska is , whether wisely or not , en
couraged to shoot.
Then , since the Historical Society is ,
or has been hitherto , left without funds
for the purchase of the few needful
books , the result is that our next genera
tion of fathers and mothers may be
vastly wise concerning the Greeks , but
know nothing of the process whereby
the wilderness of the Louisiana Pur
chase was converted into the western
states of the union. A. T. R.
