Cbc
VOL. IV. NO. 4. NEBRASKA CITY , SINGLE COPIES , 5 CENTS.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
3. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOOIOLOQIOAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 13,500 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year in advance ,
postpaid to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Nebraska.
Advertising rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29 , 1898.
Some religions
PRAYER. and devout men
think that they
can obtain results in matters over which
they have no personal control by fervid
and earnest prayers. And equally sen
sible and reverent men do not believe
that supplication can be potential in get
ting results. Has prayer ever produced
rain ? If so , when and where ? This is
a statistical inquiry , and if , during the
last five centuries , at any time , univer
sal praying has brought about the down
pour of needed.rain , church histories
and church almanacs have certainly
recorded the facts.
An argument in favor of the efficacy
of prayer may be drawn , from the gen
eral use of it. The greater part of
mankind , during all historic ages , has
been accustomed to pray for temporal
advantages. How vain , it may be
urged , must be the reasoning that
ventures to oppose this mighty consen
sus of belief ! Not so ! The argument
proves too much , and is consequently
suicidal. It either compels us to make
the monstrous admission that the prayers
of pagans , of fetich worshippers , and of
Tibetans who turn praying-wheels , are
recompensed in the same way as those
of orthodox believers ; or else the con
census proves that it has no better foun
dation than the very general tendency
of man to invest his God with the char
acter of a human despot , who can be
swayed by entreaties -and mollified by
supplications.
The collapse of this argument leaves
us solely concerned with the simple
statistical question : "Are prayers
answered , or are they not ? "
There are two lines of research , by
either of which we may purs'iipthe
inquiry. Let us fpllow that one whusl/
promises the most trustworthy results ;
that is , examine large classes of cases
and be guided by broad averages. Do
those who pray get the results they
seek of tener than those of the same or
similar ability and industry who do not
pray attain their objects ? THE CON
SERVATIVE opens its columns to all who ,
with sincerity , desire to discuss the
efficacy of prayer in producing rain ,
restoring health or bringing about any
desired result in human affairs !
The Patriot , of
PROHIBITION. Lincoln which is
the authorized
and aggressive mouth-piece of pro
hibition in Nebraska , in its issue of July
25th , has something to say about the
editor of THE CONSERVATIVE , and his
action as a mediator to bring about
peace between beer-drinking and non-
beer-drinking citizens , who have been
litigating over Sunday laws and saloons
with much asperity and bitterness. But
the Patriot fails to tell the truth as to
the danger of riot and blood-shed aris
ing from the "spotters. "
The "spotters" were men furnished
with money , by the "Law and Order
League" with which to lure saloonists
to sell to them malt , vinous or spirituous
liquors on Sunday. The rage against
these hired spies made the danger , and
the employers of the spies were the di
rect cause of the peril.
A man can not be called honest
merely because he sees nothing to steal ,
nor temperate because he can get noth
ing to drink. Ninety men out of a
hundred can taste or not taste , drink or
not drink , as they will to do. Ten out
of a hundred can not safely taste or
drink any stimulant. Prohibition
promises to make a law to save the ten ,
no matter how much it may incon
venience or wrong the ninety. Men can
not be made honest by legislation ,
neither can legislation make them tem
perate. To abolish all horses because
horse-stealing is such a common crime
would be as logical as to abolish all
stimulants because drunkenness is like
wise a common crime. Because , in
Utah , there was an epidemic of polyga
mous matrimonyand some saints had the
veiy delirium tremens of uxoriousness
is no reason for prohibiting marriage.
But our prohibition friends reason in
such a way that , logically and consist
ently , they would prohibit anything
which , under any possible conditions ,
can bring , by its abuse , harm , crime or
sorrow to the human race.
No law-making can confer brain and
will-power upon those born without it.
As free agents , men may drink to drunk
enness or not drink to drunkenness.
When they do get drunk nature puts the
penalty of head-aches , sickness and
crime upon them. Nature grants no
pardons. Nature commutes no senten
ces for the violator of her laws. Pro
hibitionists propose to punish those who
do not get drunk , by taking from them
all beverages containing alcholic stimu
lants , thus to prevent from drinking
those who do get drunk. The drunkard ,
say the prohibitionists , is not to blame.
Society is to blame. The social structure
is imperfect. We divide on the drink
habit into two classes One class can and
does use but never abuse stimulants.
Another class does abuse them and get
drunk and commit crime , and ac
cording to prohibition doctrines , the
class which does not get drunk is the
cause of the class which does get drunk.
The paper by
BOWLBY IRRI Col. Bowlby in
GATION. favor of the stor
age of the spring
surplus of water in the state
of Nebraska , for irrigation pur
poses , is getting more and more
approval as the hot sun and un
mitigated drouth continue to wither the
hopes of the farmers and their corn
fields.
Col. Bowlby wrote wisely and well.
His plans can easily be carried out by
nine farmers out of ten in Otoe county
and , by a very large proportion of
farmers throughout the entire state.
Water storage in every gully and gulch
should henceforth be provided by every
farmer who can control a water-shed
and save its rain-catch in these natural
reservoirs.
Many populists
WATER. believe that the
great drouth pre
vailing throughout the north-west and ,
in fact , all over the United States , is
caused by the big financial combines and
corporations called "trusts. " They
have used all the "water" in getting
their stocks sufficiently irrigated to sell
to grangers and other lambs who oc
casionally estray into Wall Street.
