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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1901)
Conservative * s - Holloday was running the Brownville Democrat at the time. I wrote up the speeches for him , which write-up ho published as the leading editorial in his next issue. Of course Poppleton , being the candidate , was given most promin ence , but that article shows that both speeches carried me almost off my feet and showed my estimate of the speakers. Soon after that the republican candidate , ( John Taffe , I think ) spoke in Brown ville and spent most of his time replying to that article and abusing the editor , Dr. Holloday. That was fun for me and I enjoyed a front seat. If you will get that article , I submit to your judgment , whether it is not a fair write-up of the two foremost Ne braska , democrats of that day , worthy of a place hi your history , which , I think , will be the standard for the ground it covers , for generations to come. Yours truly , J. H. BROADY. Lincoln , Neb. , April 1 , 1901. Send us the article and THE CONSER VATIVE will print it , in part , as to Pop pleton , with pleasure. WHAT SPAIN LOST BY THE WAR. Spain and her foolish pride , having got into an untenable and impossible position to remain , has in her fruitless war with this country not only lost Cuba , Porto Rico and the Philippines but her great trade with those islands as well. The blowing up of the United States cruiser , "Maine" may have been brilliant from a "Smart Alec" point of view , but it has proved disastrous to Spain in more ways than one. Hardly before the smoke of the explosion had cleared away and the noise of the treacherous act silenced in the hills about Havana , the Spaniards had met our army and our navy in action and had her own destroyed. The rest is Impwn , the treaty of peace is signed , and the belligerents are , diplomatically , friends. Spain is still paying the terrible penalty of her act of war. She is paying in trade. In less than two years her richest commerce has slipped from her grasp , and it is gone for all time. Here is the terrible trade penalty which war with us has inflicted upon our late foe. Read and think : Spain's annual export trade to Cuba amounted to $186,000,000. In 1898 this was cut down to $60,000,000 , a loss of $76,000,000. The trade to Porto Rico which was flourishing at the $44,000,000 mark , fell to $18,000,000 , a loss of $81,000,000. The export trade to the Philippines , which was up to $49,000,000 dropped to $27,000,000 , an annual loss oJ $22,000,000. The total annual loss of her export trade to Spain because of the loss of these fruitful possessions is $129- 000,000 , or nearly as much as her whole trade with Cuba. "This state of the Spanish trade , ' 'fibs' ays a government report , "requires that our tariff be revised from , the point of view of exports , allowing free entry for , or , at any rate , reducing the duty on , all products used by our export trade. " Spain must , naturally , expect a further shrinkage in her export trade to Cuba , Porto Rico and the Philippines when American methods are in full swing ; hero ; especially so , if our own tariff walls are thrown around these now possessions and their and our mainland doors are left open to each other. This is natural. The Oastillian is paying the fearful debt of his folly but he is paying it gallantly and heroically. The National Provisioned BRYAN IS LEARNING. It always pleases a veteran in the newspaper business to see a young j ournalist' ' catching on. " That Colonel Bryan's Commoner is taldng lessons from J. Sterling Morton's CONSERVA TIVE may bo doubted by some , and wo could hardly credit the statement , were the truth , in black and white , not look ing up at us from the printed page. In Morton's CONSERVATIVE of Jan. 81 , the following drive is made at Bryan : "Common platitudes served hot in populistio orations , become commoner when fed out cold in plain type 011 cheap paper. And the commonest appetites cannot relish warmed over and rehashed inanities served frozen. Cold flabbergasl is not as edible as that , sizzling hot , from a silver tongue , which is propelled by a peerless pair of lungs , and garnished with a musical voice. " Now , that is classic. But along comes Bryan with a roast of Cleveland last week , in which ho plainly borrows Mr. Morton's idea , and clothes it in the fol lowing language : "If Mr. Cleveland's recent admonition had been spoken instead of written it might have been explained by a wink 01 by a gesture suggesting that ho himself was the embodiment of the principles to which the party should return , but when the words appear in cold typo they re quire a key. " If that isn't imitation , what is it ? Rather frail , we confess , but imitatioi just the same. Bryan is learning. Hayes County Republican. ATTENTION ANCIENTS. EDITOR THE CONSERVATIVE : I would like a re-union of the mem hers and officers of the territory in the year 1859 when Gen. Strickland was speaker of the house and Taylor , ' . think , of the council. Will you fine time to communicate with those stil living and see if wo cannot got together for an evening. Yours etc. , Major J. E. BURBANK , U. S. A. Maiden , Mass. , March 81,1901. Good suggestion. All write the Major to above address. AN INSTRUCTIVE ALFALFA FIELD , ' It is well to know that alfalfa succeeds n the alluvial valleys of the state like hose of the Platte , Republican and Beaver. Excellent success has also been attained in growing alfalfa in the eastern portion of the state , notably in the fields of the State Agricultural Farm at Lin coln. It is not generally known that alfalfa can be successfully grown enrolling rolling uplands in the central portion of the state , or on lauds that have usually been considered too dry to bo safe for general farm crops. A notable illustration of what can bo douo on lands of this character is to bo found five miles west of Kearney. The H. D. Watson ranch has some 5,000 acres of valley land of which nearly half has been seeded to alfalfa. This ranch also contains between 2,000 and 8,000 acres of rolling hills and table laud , lying above the level of the Platte , which was broken six years ago , re-plowed , disced , and finely harrowed in August with the thought of conserving summer moisture , roughly plowed in November and allowed to lie rough for winter to catch the flur ries of snow. In early spring this field was thoroughly disced , pulverized , har rowed and made into a fine seed bed , and in April at the proper time for seeding , was seeded to alfalfa , drilling half the seed each way. Sufficient of the rain fall of the previous year and of the frost moisture of the preceding winter had been conserved so that there was enough moisture in the soil to rise to the surface and insure prompt germination of the seed. This field has yielded fair crops of alfalfa for five years in succession. In the driest seasons , one cutting and some grazing , and in the more favorable years two cuttings. While the yield of alfalfa from this dry hillside is not nearly so largo as from the sub-irrigated valleys , the amount of hay cut and pasturage secured has been sufficient to make it a profitable experiment. This is also inter esting as showing what may bo done with hundreds of thousands of acres of similar lauds that have boon thought to be useful only for the limited amount of prairie grass grown thereon for graz ing. It should bo berne in mind , how ever , that the soil referred to is a yellow ish clay loam that holds moisture better than the average western table land. E. F. STEVENS. Ore to , Nob. A good sentiment merits planting. Without planting it will never grow. A little energy spent in behalf of spread ing good seed when multiplied by the number of hands that are able to sow it , yields a harvest. If every reader of THE CONSERVATIVE who subscribes to the sentiments which he finds in its col umns would endeavor to increase its circulation , he would in that way assist in propagating his own ideas. Every man of ideas is not in a position to edit a newspaper , but every man is able to further the good work of others. " ' I
