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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1901)
if 'Cbe Conservative. Because some citizens SALARIES , have acquired , by studying their own ex periences , the art of doing certain things , in the industrial world , with skill , economy of production , and almost per fectly , they are in demand and at big salaries. Corporations , for gainful purposes , are criticised by common day laborers , who are unskilled , and by com moner blatherskites , who are ignorant of economics , as very extravagant in salaries paid to some of their managers of departments , and to some general managers. But there is no corporation which does not pay as little salary as possible and secure efficiency. The supply of men , skilled and equipped , in a business , which can be learned only by years of hard study and hard work , in the school of the business itself , is hardly ever up to the demand for such men. However , those vocations which require little application , few in tellectual giftsj and only a short ser vice for proficiency , are generally crowded. The supply of stablemen is always in excess of the demand , while the supply of engravers upon steel is always limited. Almost anybody has brains enough to easily learn the duties , and perform the work of a stable boy. But to become an engraver upon steel , requires ability , application and patient industry. It is easy to become a switchman for a rail road , but it is difficult to become a good traffic manager. Human nature gener ally seeks the easiest and quickest route for livelihood , and is content to take that livelihood with the least possible effort , and the least possible luxury and comfort , rather than to begin a career which can lead up to influence , only through years of persistent , patient and intelligent labor. Human nature is to be blamed , and not the gainful corpora tions , because the soon-learned , and least brain-requiring callings are crowded so as to make wages lower ; and the hard-to-understand and - - , a-long- time-to-learn duties of the higher and niore-mind-requiring places are avoided so as to make salaries higher. The schools are free Schools. to all. The paths to the highest salaried places in manufacture , commerce and the professions , beset as they are , with asperities , are open to all. But 'schools cannot make brains , ambition , and that persistent pluck , for fools , which wins success. The system of education , which the state furnishes , is as incap able of making indolent dunces equal to hard working , bright students , as a horse trainer is incapable of making draft horses trot in the same class with the standard bred. Government is an in- Public Salaries , corporation for the pro tection of life , liberty and property. But the government pays relatively , very meagre salaries for the highest character of services , and rela tively , for common services , the most ex- ; ravagant compensation. A door-keeper may get eight hundred dollars a year , and a bacteriologist twenty-two hun dred dollars in the agricultural depart ment at Washington. Doorkeepers are never called to higher pay in non-gover- mental places. But each bacteriolo- jist is called to Yale , Cornell or some other institution , as soon as his skill and scientific attainments have made lim known to the country. Public salaries are too small for those services , which can be rendered only by men of irreproachable , moral character and great experience and attainments , and for the and watchman ; oo large door-keeper man class. The absurdity of the schedule of sal aries by the state is grotesquely illus trated by the supreme court of Nebraska , whose judges get twenty-five hundred dollars a year , and their clerk some where between ten and fifty thousand dollars a year. Few men are really well-qualified for supreme court judges. But there are scores and scores of men able to do the duties of the clerk of that court. The pay of judges should be quad rupled , and the pay of clerks reduced. Then , the most experienced and ablest members of the legal profession may be induced to accept judgeships , and then the chances in litigation may be reduced , the expenses of the court lessened , and the reputation of the state judiciary exalted. When the corporation , called govern ment , copies the gainful corporation , and , by paying big salaries , gets big men into its service , taxes will be lessened , laws better administered and prosperity prolonged. The false notion EDUCATION. that a college or university can be stow education upon a dunce or convert the hereditary , moral and mental im becile into a strenuous and useful man , is very strong among the newly-rich , and quite dominant among a large class who send their progeny to the state uni versity because it costs nothing. The teachings , most valued and most useful in this world , are inculcated in the school of ex- Experience , perience which is superintended by inexorable laws in nature and in econo mics. The sooner a young man or young woman can be made to fully understand that , for the violation of either , there is a penalty which nothing can avert , the better the chances o : that human being to attain a satisfactory success and consummate termination of endeavors. The heights of triumph and luxury are in reach of all the youth of America who will look up , Look upl and aspire , and work industriously and persistently to scale and hold them. Chose who teach vagaries in economics , warn the youth against trying to accom plish anything at all , and are therefore , amenable for encouraging discourage ment everywhere. Lookup ! Go ahead ! Work and win 1 THE CONSERVATIVE CHARACTER OF has attracted to its CONSERVATIVE a d v e r t i s i n g col- ADVERTISERS. umns , some of the best banking and manufacturing concerns in the United States. THE CONSERVATIVE has not 'made careful inquiry as to the standing and business methods of those who ad vertise in its columns , " because , it is as unnecessary , and as much a work of supererogation , as to enquire whether ight and heat come from the sun. But , "readers are asked to report any dis- lonesty or unfairness practised by the commoner advertisers herein , " and the cadavers of all persons bludgeoned , sand-bagged , or otherwise murdered by advertisers in THE CONSERVATIVE , are especially requested to report , and to always mention THE CONSERVATIVE when corresponding with different sec tions of this globe. The towns and EMBELLISHMENT , all suburban and rural homes in Ne braska are needing decoration in the way of landscape gardening. There is no state in the Union which will respond more readily to intelligent arboriculture and floriculture than our own. The gently undulating lands of eastern Ne braska present possibilities in adornment which should stimulate every lover of the beautiful to create a public senti ment and popular movement towards village and home improvement. THE CONSERVATIVE congratulates Nebraska City upon being the first in this field of usefulness , as it was in the founding and upbuilding of a free public library. Let efficient and judicious activity along these lines be increased and intensified. Aaron Burr RECOMMENDATION , came within eight votes of beating Thomas Jefferson for the presidency , and then , he went out "to serve his coun try and his God under some other flag. " But history does not very strenuously recommend Mr , Burr as a model for young statesmen in America to emulate. After his defeat for the presidency , Mr. Burr , although a gifted and enchanting orator , became quite infamous among the commoner classes of the discontent ed and adventurous. The Burr style of statesmen is not entirely out of date nor fully lacking in popular recommenda tion.
