The Conservative.
Coin Harvey con-
INCOMPETENT. donms J. K. Jones
as incompetent and
unfit to run a presidential campaign.
To this Arkansas Jones , Mr. Coin Harvey
attributes the defeat of Colonel Bryan
in the two last struggles for the presi
dency. But if Coin Harvey is no better
judge of men than he is of the cur
rency his opinion is not valuable. It is
sixteen to one that he knows no more
about Jones and his capabilities than
Jones knows about finances and the
science of government.
THE CONSERVATIVE thinks that Coin
Harvey himself ought to be made chair
man of the Conglomerate National Com
mittee for 1904 and given full authority
to elect the nominees of Bryauarchy in
that campaign.
In the autumn
HOT WIND of 1900 , during
TRUST. the presidential
campaign , "A
trust in hot wind" blew against the
starch factory and the National Starch
company , at Nebraska City , with great
violence and velocity. The directors
and managers of that "combine" in
superheated flatulency , appeared at
Nebraska City , on the evening of
September 26,1900 , and foremost among
them stood the peerless Bryan , announc
ing that even in the shadow of the
starch works , he was not afraid to talk.
Then he quoted some very sensible
views from THE CONSERVATIVE and
talked ; then he read what Morton had
declared , and talked some more ,
Finally he prophecied the destruction of
starchmaking at Nebraska City. And
now before a year has passed , the works
of Nebraska City , are expanded fifty
thousand dollars worth , and not even
"the hot air trust" of 1900.hitched up
with the drouth of 1901 , can cause
them to shut down.
In the years gone ,
HORATIO when the moderate
SEYMOUR'S t a r i ff began to
PROPHECY. climb the mount
ain of high pro
tection , of which bounties to infant in
dustries , under the McKinley law ,
marked the summit , Horatio Seymour
predicted in the hearing of the writer
of this statement that the time would
surely come when foreign nations would
meet us with dangerous retaliation.
Germany's proposal of a high tariff
on foodstuffs , makes good the prediction
of the New York statesman , the truest
and broadest in the democratic galaxy.
Austria is menaced by the retaliatory
attack upon the importation of Ameri
can foodstuffs into Germany , and a war
of tariffs is threatened which , in the not
far future , threatens something much
more serious. If the agrarian element
in the German empire ever controlled
the Reichstag , which seems more than
likely , with the stiff-necked Kaiser
bending the knee in that direction , the
man is not born yet who can forecast
the possible consequences of the war of
the tariffs which impends between the
contending trading nations.
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER.
EDITOR CONSERVATIVE :
In the August 1st. issue of your journal
you "open your columns to all who , in
sincerity , desire to discuss the question
of the efficacy of prayer in producing
rain , restoring health , or bringing about
any desired result in human affairs. "
This is a deep and far-reaching ques
tion , and its solution might properly be
left to experienced men of great learn
ing and deep thought. But a few of
my own thoughts and observations of
past years may servo as ft drop in the
bucket of "solutions" that will probably
pour in upon you in the near future.
The admission of the efficacy of
prayer in the sen so understood , certainly
carries with it the admission of the pos
sibility of miracles ; the power of the
Supreme Ruler to violate the laws of
nature , to cause rain to fall when other
wise there would be drouth ; also to
withold rain and cause drouth when
otherwise there would be rain in plenty
and crops in abundance. People who
ascribe to God such powers , certainly do
not realize the great and grave responsi
bility they are putting upon the Ruler
of the universe. According to their
own teaching , the same Power that
gave suffering Nebraska rain so promptly
after prayer , could have witheld the
floods that swept disaster and destruc
tion in West Virginia some weeks ago ,
or could have prevented the terrible
Johnstown incident , still fresh in our
minds , or the Charleston ( S. 0. ) earth
quake , or any other like terrible exhi
bition of nature's power , saying nothing
of the drouth in Kansas and this state
in years past , and the grass-hopper af
fliction ; and could have said , "peace , be
still , " to the cruel winds and waves be
fore they swept with such relentless
fuiy , over the hapless and helpless city
of Galveston.
To give God special credit for any
good thing done , either through nature's
laws or their supposed violation , is to
also hold Him responsible for any evil
done through these same agencies.
Viewed in this light , will any one dare
to accuse the Almighty with evil-doing ?
When President Garfield was assassi
nated , and Ms life hung in the balance ,
the prayers of the people were invoked
for his recovery , and there went up sup
plications in number and sincerity as
there probably never had before in the
world's history. But he died , neverthe
less. The chief magistrate of a great
Christian nation , whom people loved
and trusted and honored , and needed
was not permitted to live. Yet ,
according to believers in prayer , his
life could have been saved as easily as
the sending of a half-inch of rain to the
heat-aud-dust tormented people of
Lincoln.
Some years after the Garfield incident
the Prince of Wales ( now King Edward )
was taken sick. This of itself was not
specially remarkable , since princesses
and even kings , nowadays , are not
altogether immune to danger
and disease. But the Prince , in
stead of recovering or oven im
proving in the time expected , steadily
grew worse , and grave fears for the
worst were entertained. Seeing , then ,
that "something religious" had to he
done , the Queen , through her minister ,
appointed a season of fasting and
prayer for the recovery of the heir to
the world's greatest Christian kingdom.
Lo , the proclamation , as in the Garfleld
case , was faithfully carried out in all
Great Britain's dominions , "over which
the sun never sets , " and the prince re
covered.
And who was this wonderful prince ,
so providentially saved to his people ?
A wise , righteous , virtuous man , the
prince of a great and henefioieut ruler
of a great nation ? No ! emphatically
no ; as any intelligent man of fifty or fif
ty-five years , who has taken any note of
Albert Edward's earlier career , can tes
tify. But having no real purpose in
saying aught against him , I will say all
I honestly can for him. He was the
eldest son of the late Queen , and is now
the king of England. Aside from the
incident of birth and the opportunities
afforded royalty , he is and always was
the most ordinary person imaginable.
How , then , can any sensible man believe
that an omnipotent God stretched out
his hand and saved this person from the
fate provided for him , and yet witheld
needed succor from the noble Garfield ,
and thereby cruelly permitted a whole
nation to be plunged into sorrow and
gloom ?
Hundreds of instances could be given
showing the evident folly and futility of
prayer , but just one more must suffice
for the present , lest I should monopo
lize space and weary the reader.
In or about the year 1878 , when that
most dreaded scourge , yellow fever , was
devastating and almost depopulating
many southern cities , ( Memphis in par
ticular ) , a period of fasting and prayer
was observed all over the Union ; be
sides , much praying had been in
dulged in ever since the epi
demic had assumed a serious as
pect. Did the ravages of the epi
demic cease as a result ? Yes , at a time
when it always ceases , prayers or no
prayers that is , when the frost came ,
and not before. And , as a writer re
marked , "when there was nothing left
for if ; to feed upon. "
The more people learn of the phe
nomena and laws of nature , the less
they believe in miracles ; and when be
lief in the miraculous is gone , the fun
eral of superstition will be announced.
H. H.
Lincoln , August 8,1901.