4 Conservative ,
guilty , a practical working civil service
law , and you will have a fairly good
city administration or the administra
tion can be changed within thirty days.
Let the people elect their mayor and
their city council only and hold both to
the strictest accountability.
Simplicity Desired.
An imperative need of the modem
American city is the direct primary law
which will effectually prevent delegate
trading , either for nominations or ap
pointments , and will force each party to
nominate the man whom the body of
the party believe to bo best fitted for the
position to be filled.
We need much to have our system of
l3H city government simplified. There can
be no excuse for a city government and
a county government covering the same
territory and doubling much of the
expense.
That form of government is always
best which is simplest. The complexity
of many of the present local systems is
one of the worst , and , in operation ,
most perplexing difficulties with which
we are met. When we find in one city
and over parts of the same people a
city government , a county government ,
a town government , a park government ,
a sanitary district government , and so
along the line until , as in some of our
great cities , there result as many as
three hundred different governing and
taxing bodies , the wonder is , that the
officials themselves , in their brief term
of office , can become conversant with
their own duties and powers. To the
investigating tax-payer , the tangle is
simply appalling.
Municipal Ownership.
Without discussing municipal owner
ship in its various phases , municipal
socialism or communism , or many other
kindred municipal problems , it is
enough to say that whatever their mer
its , they do not belong to this branch of
the subject , as this discussion is limited
to those changes , simple in form , ready
of application and along the lines of our
present organization.
It is not expected that the ideas hero
set forth would , if applied , euro all our
social ills or make men good or add
greatly to the happiness of mankind , but
they are changes in our city govern
ment , desired and needed , capable of
speedy and easy application , requiring
no elaborate machinery of constitutional
amendment. They have all , in one
form or another , stood the test of actual
experience , and , it is believed that their
application will , at least , serve to clear
the way and make ready for those other
and greater reforms which the mind and
conscience of the American people will
surely evolve in the years to come.
EDWIN A.
Chicago , May 28 , 1901.
The New Republic
TEMPERANCE , and Patriot , organ
of Nebraska Prohi
bitionists , endeavors to explain why the
Slocnm Law is not enforced by people
who believe in the doctrines it teaches.
But the explanation fails to explain.
Not one prohibitionist in Nebraska has
ever bought a particle of wine , beer or
liquor for analyxation. The law declares ,
whenever a reputable chemist testifies
that a dealer has sold an adulterated
sample of any malt , vinous or spirituous
liquor that the dealer aforesaid shall be
deprived of his license and be forever
after ineligible for a re-license in Ne
braska ! Has anybody tried to enforce
the law ? If this cannot be enforced ,
what will you do with prohibition itself
when you get it ? What does Maine do ?
Runs three wide-open saloons within a
stone's throw of the State Capitol at
Augusta.
If any thing more
NOT A CANDthan the declara-
IDATE. tion of "the peer
less" were needed
to prove non-candidature , the following
from the New York Evening Post , of
May 20th , would be abundantly con
clusive :
"I want some papers for Mr. Bryan , "
an old man told R. J. Burke , of the
City Record , today. As Mr. Burke has
charge of sales of the Record , he offered
anything in stock , from a bound volume
of the paper down to a copy of today's
issue. As lie was apparently on the
point of taking a volume containing the
issues for the last three months , the
stranger was asked to tell what Mr.
Bryan was expected to do with the
papers. 'Oh , he wants the names of
some New York democrats , so he can
send them sample copies of the Com
moner. ' With this as a guide , a set of
Records containing frhn dfiinonraHo RII-
rollment in all five boroughs , was made
up eighty-two copies , with lists com
prising about 180,000 democrats. "
The friendship of Mr. Croker , who
was riding down Broadway with his
aspiring , chummy and political con
federate , about the time that the popu
list candidate for the presidency in
1900 , said , "Great is Tammany , and
Croker is its prophet ; " should have
supplied the lists spontaneously and
gratuitously. In all collections of the
purest gems of patriotic oratory , that
scintillating brilliant should be con
served. Thus , forever , should bo il
luminated the discreet eloquence of a
very wise and very large statesman.
THE FREMONT MYTH.
It is really singular how many un
founded and inaccurate stories have
been , and are still being , told , to which
the name of the late General J. 0. Fre
mont is attached. THE CONSERVATIVE
has , on a number of occasions , com
mented on cases of this peculiar phe
nomenon : but they continue to come to
notice , and the more one browses among
literature of this class , the more of them
does he observe. It is not easy to under
stand why this should bo the case with
this particular explorer , more than with
any one of a dozen others that might be
named : unless General Fremont was es
pecially endeared to the people during
his active career , or unless perhaps the
persecutions to which he was subjected
by the regularly ordained army officers
of his time ( he not being a West Pointer )
had resulted in a precisely contrary ef
fect to that which the gentlemen in
question had designed. It is an uufor-
tuuate state of things , that one should
feel constrained to regard with suspi
cion every new anecdote of a man whose
actual services were really so menu
mental.
For some fresh instances ; The late
Colonel Homy Inmaii , on page 888 of
"The Old Santa Fe Trail , " says of the
well-known pioneer , Jim Baker , that
"next to Kit Carson , Baker was General
Fremont's most valued scout. " This is
no misprint , for it occurs in a detailed ,
( but mostly borrowed ) account of the ) (
man ; but I think it is safe to say that J
'
Baker never was with Fremont. The '
latter's guides were Carson , Maxwell ,
Fitzpatrick , Walker , Owens and Wil
liams : Baker's name is not mentioned {
in any account of his various expeditious
that has come to my notice.
Colonel Iimian's books are , if the
truth be told , not as reliable in a great
many places as some books that are not
nearly so handsome to look at.
Another : Mrs. Elvira Gastoii Platt ,
in her reminiscences in volume III of
the Nebraska Historical Society's papers ,
speaks as follows : "One of the most
notable events of that autumn (1848) ( )
was the privilege our little community
had of entertaining Fremont on his re
turn from his mountain trip ; though lit
tle did we know what germs of great
ness , that would bring him great re
nown , lay hidden behind the rough
garb , the uncut hair and the uutrimmed
beard of our stranger guest. " Now this
is simply impossible , for the reason that
at the time mentioned Fremont was
making his way down the Snake and
Columbia rivers , on his way westward
on his second expedition. It is hard to
explain , because the author is eminently
reliable ; she must have entertained Fre
mont , at the Pawnee village on theLoup
Fork , some time , but when ? It could
not have been on his homeward way in
1842 , for she did not come to Nebraska
until 1848 ; it could not have been in
1844 , for , besides that her chronology is
continuous and orderly , Fremont did not
come down the Platte that time , but
came home by the Arkansas route. One
is sometimes tempted to attribute to the
great explorer an astral body and a mul
tiple presence.
Again : In a paper by O. W. Bishop ,
in Volume IV of the same publications ,
it is said that the stage station known
as Oak Grove , in Nuckolls county , was
named by Fremont. This is a gratui-