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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1901)
* Col. Bowlby , of NOT LOGICAL , the Crete Dem ocrat , is always in tense but not always logical , In a re cent review of a CONSERVATIVE editorial Col. Bowlby refers , in lachrymose lan guage , to an episode in the last cam paign wherein "the peerless , " Attorney- General Oldsmith , J. Ham Lewis , and one or two other spellbinders , let loose a flood of oratory at Nebraska City for the purpose of drowning out the gold bugs , submerging the starch factory and exterminating other plutocratic plants. Col. Bowlby says : "Morton is an enigma in politics , with many republican symptoms , and an in ordinate desire to aid those who have grown rich , by and through robber tariff laws , which he has always fought , to form combinations that will make it next to impossible for them to lose their loot in business and thus make it per manent in the hands of those who have taken from the many , more than a reasonable profit. " The unreasoning of the colonel is certainly unique. He does not define "republican symptoms , " nor specify any that are visible. Nor does he tell why 1 "those who have grown rich by robber tariff laws" need "aid" from anybody. Nor does lie tell how to "moke it next to impossible" to lose money in "com binations. " It is absolutely true that Morton has always fought protective tariffs. He never sanctioned or supinely submitted to the doctrine of legislated , or statute- established prices. He vigorously an tagonized a protective tariff because , by law , it placed an artificial price upon certain commodities , and he , therefore , unlike Colonel Bowlby , antagonized the free coinage of silver worth sixty-seven cents an ounce in bullion into 412JK grain dollars at $1.29 an ounce as coin. The artificial price proposed for silver , to be put there by law , was as obnoxious as the artificial price of iron , sugar , or salt put there by a protective tariff law. Col. Bowlby further declares : "Morton knows , and so does every other intelligent man , that neither of the senators selected at Lincoln would have been thought of , but for the money and corporation influence they repre sent. The republican party has many men , brainy , able , and anxious to repre sent the party in the senate , yet they must not be thought of. Two men are chosen , whose only ability lies in the line of acquisitiveness and whose only backing was some rich corporations. " THE CONSERVATIVE has not the knowl edge attibuted to it as to corporation power in the last legislature. On the contrary , THE CONSERVATIVE had been led to believe that Thompson and Rosewater - water were the men whom corporate interests yearned to elect United States senators. The Crete Democrat , and every other populist paper in the state , taught that belief and prayed and pre dicted and hoped for its verification by votes in the legislature. Cowin , Crouiibo , Weston , Green , Fran- cis Martin , Hainer , Henshaw , and other able republicans , "were thought of" and named for the senate , but they were defeated. It is not fair , nor is it just , to depict Dietrich and Millard as "men whose only ability lies in the line of acquisitiveness. " Each of those gentle men has acquired a good' name for honesty , integrity and ability. Out of good character , by hard work , they have evolved competencies and , for this , Col. Bowlby illogically damns them both. But he would not shed tears if his own sons achieved similar reputations and fortunes by the same honest and honor able methods not a tear ! Then why abuse our senators because they are Jirifty men , self-made , earnest , and in ; he enjoyment of moderate means of their own earning ? The aged idiocy GRATUITOUS of the promiscuous SEED. and gratuitous dis tribution of seed by the Department of Agriculture , and the representatives and senators of the American congress , is again exploiting itself before the public. The Chicago Inter Ocean , is , among the reputable daily papers of the country , the only zealous advocate of this dilapidated , expensive , and inexcusable fraud. Its issue of April 14th , 1901 , con tains expand ed headlines and glaring sub-headlines calling attention to the fact that the government will , this year , send out donations of seeds to helpless citizens presumably the farmers amounting to five hundred and sixty tons in weight. And it rejoices in the fact that next year our beloved paternal government will give away one thousand tons of seed. The farmers aggregate several millions of people. They are all indirectly taxed to maintain this government. A few of them a small per cent of the millions may receive each a package of seeds valued , at the highest , at ten cents and valued , at the lowest , worth nothing at all. They cost the government , for their purchase and putting up , and their distiibution through the mails , more than they can be bought for of reputable dealers who sell seeds always germina- tive and always true to name. To tax all of the people to raise money with which to buy poor seed to give a few of the people is not the business of an honest and just government. The Inter Ocean "Washington correspondent pendent remarks : ' 'In former years the contract was let to seedsmen without regard to the char acter or quality , and they put up , in a haphazard way , packages containing any kind of seeds without regard to whether they were adapted to the subtropical climate of the South or the granite hills of New England. The appropriation made by congress was spent without any practical benefit , except 'to the contrac tor , and made the government seed dis tribution anything but popular. " The Inter Ocean correspondent evi dently is ignorant or mendacious. The records of the department show that , under President Cleveland's last admiu- stration , the contracts were let under ; he direction and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture and Senator Proctor , chairman of the agricultural committee in the United States senate , and James "W. Wads worth , chairman of ; he agricultural committee of the house of representatives. ' The first contract thus let went to the reputable and well-established house of Landreth & Sons , in Philadelphia , where , for more than a hundred years , that name among seedsmen and citizens generally has been the synonym for fair and honest dealing. The political char acter of the house and the military char acter of one of its leading members should silence slander in the mouths of republicans. The seeds were marked from "Landreth & Sons for distribution by the United States Department of Agriculture , " and not one complaint , as to quality or misnomer , was ever made by the donees who got those seeds. The second contract let in the same way under the immediate supervision of the two republican chairmen named above went to the famous firm of W. Atlee Burpee & Company , another re publican house noted for its honesty and fair dealing , but no complaint was ever heard of those seeds , all packets of which bore the name of the contractor who could not , any more than Landreth & Sons , afford to disseminate unger- minative or mis-named seed. And now , saith the Inter Ocean : "Secretary Wilson has changed the plan and made it practical. He has gained the confidence of the farmers. They all clamor for garden seeds , and this spring the Agricultural department is distributing 5(50 ( tons of garden seeds , in small packages , which are sent through the mails. Next year he will double the quantity , if congress gives him the appropriation , and send out more than one thousand tons. The first care of the farmer secretary is to see that the seeds will grow. He compels the bidders for the contract to submit samples of the seeds to be tested in the department , and then he binds them by contract to guarantee the seeds they de liver. His second care is to go over the list and select seeds that will supply the garden with the best of vegetables , use ful varieties as well as popular , and divide them into groups for different sections of the country , so that the South will receive such seeds as are adapted for the soil and climate , and , at the proper planting time , each section of the country has its proper class of garden seeds. " The plan has been changed. The principle of paternalism and wasteful ness has not been changed. There is no more reason for sending seeds gratu itously , to a few citizens at the expense of all citizens than there is for sending boars , bulls and stallions. It is not the business of government to do for the people , but merely to protect the people while they do for themselves. The free seed which are promiscuously distribu ted by congressmen and others now frequently "do" the government and also "do" those who plant them.
