' ' 7'tfflS
TJbe Conservative *
An agglomeration
OFFICE GETTING , of politics for of
fices only is au
abomination in the sight of patriotism.
The welding together of the fragmen
tary odds and ends of discontent , and
calling them "the people's party" or the
fusion party , is au ancient practice.
There ore statesmen who seek offices
only , who have no views , policies or
principles which they can not smother
in their ambition for place and plunder ,
or hide under a party name ! The state
of Nebraska has an annual crop of that
sort which drouth , grasshoppers and
heat can not diminish or destroy.
There are many
BY LAW. people who make
the mistake of
thinking they think when they merely
dream. These theorists , as to thoughts ,
believe that nearly all the ills of life and
all the inequalities of its social and legal
features can be remedied by legislation.
Because men with better brains , better
opportunity , and better application to
sound methods of business , get rich
quicker , or attain social , political , or
literary heights sooner than those with
poorer brains , poorer opportunities , and
less power of persistent effort , dreamers
propose legislation to level down the dis
criminations which natural laws have
established.
The common
ROADS. wagon roads of
Nebraska need re
vision and overhauling generally. Roads
IM-foet-iu-width will be in
- - - kept good
order with greater ease and at less expense
thau the 6G-feet-iu-width-
pense present - - - -
gardens-for-weeds , which we call roads.
By narrowing the roads of Nebraska
one-half , there can be put into cultiva
tion , nearly , or quite , 500,000 acres more
fartilo lands in this commonwealth.
Even put into trees that area would bo
a vast blessing to the whole people.
There is no argument in favor of sixty
six-foot-iu-width highways for Nebraska
that cannot be overthrown.
We wish the newspapers in each
county would find out and publish the
number of acres now in roadways within
its limits. It may be that there are
more than 500,000 acres now propagating
weeds in this State , which might be
turned to good account if the roads were
reduced to one-half their present breadth
No tax should bo
A PUBLIC levied except for
PURPOSE. the purpose of get
ting mouej11 into a
public treasury with which to pay the
public debt , provide for the common de
fence and to promote the general wel
fare. Therefore , all taxes for subsidis
ing steam-ships , railroads and other
private enterprises , ought to bo declared
unconstitutional , and then utterly
1ST
abolished and imperatively forbidden.
The editor of THE CONSERVATIVE
has steadfastly hold to these views for
more than forty-five years. Therefore ,
he never advocated and never voted for
the issuance of county , city or precinct
bonds to any railroad or other private
enterprise.
Recently , however , Mr. Edgar How
ard a former candidate for congress in
the Omaha district published : "I have
often heard Mr. Morton in the days
when he was preaching pure demo
cratic gospel , warn the people against
the evils of bond voting , but somehow
I could never harmonize his good talk
on the stump with his bad movements
at the time the railroad bonds were
first voted in Nebraska. ' '
Does Mr. Howard mean that Morton
over advocated or voted bonds to rail
roads ? Why innuendo ? Why not a
straight statement of the truth or the
untruth ?
The lif e-possibil-
OUR ities for the Ameri-
CONTRIBUTORS. can young man of
tomperauce.ability
and industry were discussed in THE CON
SERVATIVE recently by gentlemen who
without inherited wealth had under
"the competitive system" worked their
own way from obscurity and poverty to
prominence and affluence. Not a man
of them who has not made his own fort
une and fame unaided by the state and
uuhelped except by his own brains and
brawn. And this is the Christian gentle
ness in which a Beatrice periodical speaks
of them :
"The symposium of The Conservative ,
selected from , the ranks of the hirelings
of plutocracy , without a discordant note
sounds the praises of the present monop
olistic control for private profit , of nil
the avenues of business , as ideal for suc
cess to the rising generation.
And through the whole opera 'suc
cess' has but the brutal meaning of get
ting gold.
The pictures drawn are the pictures of
men devoid of souls , mere automatons' ,
with the spirit of abject slaves , ready to
bow the knee to the priests of Mammon ,
to gain Mammon's reward.
It is heart-breaking to read that mass
of groveling , selfish , egotistic laudation
of a transitory and evil condition , which
has come upon men as the necessary out
come of a competitive systembased upon
a selfish theory of exclusive individual
ownership , so fundamentally at variance
with human nature , that its breakdown
is inevitable. " Ashby's Crucible.
PRAYER.
As a portion of the universe , the United
States for instance , is controlled by an
intelligent , being or beings , and as the
laws of nature are universal , we con
clude that the universe is governed by a
general intelligence or intelligences.
If the humblest person were to write
to William McKinley and convince him
that it would be better to change his ad
ministration in a certain part whore it is
causing suffering , no doubt the desired
change would be made.
Wo have a very limited knowledge of
the Supreme Intelligence. We suppose
it is somewhat like our own , only reach
ing perfection. As the ocean is father to
the clouds and the rain , so is the Supreme
remo Intelligence father to Our Intelli
gence.
Would MoKiuley have stopped the
Spanish war at the request of some one
whose son was in the army and liable to
be killed ? Does God ( Good ) answer
prayer ? Is God merciful , in the way
some people take it ? Think of the earth
quake at Lisbon , when his people were
ardently worshiping according to their
best intelligence. Whole families , in
nocent children who knew no evil , in
gulfed in utter destruction.
History and observation teach that
every being , man or beast , is punished
for wrong-doing , whether the individual
know it to be wrong or not. The people
of Galvestou did wrong not to flee to the
main land ere the storm came. They
did not know the storm was coming.
They were punished , notwithstanding.
There are a great many truths in the
bible. The Golden Rule is good. Relig
ion plays its part in the development of
man. Gradually , it will be stripped of
superstition as people become more in
telligent.
Formerly , people believed the sun
moved around the earth. Astronomy
was just as correct then as now , biit the
people did not understand it. The trouble -
ble with the preachers , they do not leave
their first works and go on to perfection.
They hold on to the superstitious until
the truths drop out and are picked up
by the people outside. And when the
people outside present the stray truths ,
they denounce them as heresy.
God is not above nature. God is in
nature. A theory contrary to nature is
false. Jesus is represented as saying :
"Search the scriptures , for in them ye
think ye have eternal life. " "The letter
killeth. " Too much "letter" in modern
Christianity. "Give us this day our daily
bread. " A person might utter this
prayer continually and starve to death.
If he act the prayer , i. e. , plant corn ,
and if nature furnishes no rain , irrigate
it , the prayer will be answered.
There will soon bo a prayer by the
people of the semi-arid regions. It will
bring forests in the sand-hills and shrub
bery on the divides. It will fill out cribs
with corn. It will be the effectual fer
vent prayer , with pick and shovel , with
ploiagh and scraper.
By all means , pray for rain , and every
other good thing , using the talents and
strength bestowed to the end sought.
JOSEPH MAKINSOX.
Holdrege , Neb. , Sep. 2 , 1DOJ.