*
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.
