The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902, September 26, 1901, Page 9, Image 9
Conservative * NEWSPAPER HISTORY. The first newspaper published in northern Nebraska was the St. Helena Gazette , of St. Helena , Cedar County , published and owned by Lewis E. Jones. The date of the first issue was March 10 , 1858. It was printed ten days ahepd of date at St. Louis , Mo. , up to and in cluding the issue of May 22,1858. When so issued most of the issue was mailed by way of Sioux City , la. , St. Helena then receiving its mail via monthly ser vice on a route between Sioux City , and Dakota City , then the seat of the land office for that" District and Niobrara. The subscrip tion list was very slender , and it is not within the recollection of the proprietor whether , even of the few , any one paid for the paper. In the spring of 1858 , Mr. Jones bought a small outfit of sec ondhand material without a press ; also a steam sawmill , all which I deter mined to take up to St. Helena. About that time I happened to make acquaint ance of a brother typo , Augustus Netle , who volunteered to buy a secondhand press and embark with Mr. Jones in the paper enterprise. The mill , the print ing outfit , and a lot of provisions were shipped on the steamer Omaha. Owing to some cause , instead of landing these goods at their destination , they were dumped off at Sioux City , together with Mr Jones , Mr. Netle and Jacob Branch and family , the latter being an engineer engaged by Mr. Jones to run the saw mill. Nothing daunted by the awkward situation , Mr. Jones hired seventeen men with teams at fancy prices , laid in a supply of shovels and axes and loaded the entire outfit , crossed the ferry at Sioux City and started for the destina tion over about sixty-five miles of wild , new country. The teams all consisted of oxen , there being seven yoke of them hitched to the truck carrying the boiler for the sawmill. It took a whole week to reach the end of the journey , owing to being compelled to make bridges anc do the other pioneer work that was nec- > essary. The expense of transporting the outfit clear through was over $500. In the fall of 1858 Mr. Jones returned to St. Louis , leaving Mr. Netle in ful charge of the paper ; Mr. Jones remit ting sustaining power from time to time in order to enable Mr. Netle to hold out In the spring of 1859 Mr. Jones returnee to his .family and from then until the present time has made Cedar County his permanent home. Owing to war clouds thickening and the bursting o the bubble of western , wildcattown-site speculation , the St. Helena Gazette BUS pended publication sometime during the summer of 1859 , Mr. Netle selling ou his interest to Mr. Jones and returning to St. Louis. The outfit was sold by Mr. Jones to a Mr. Clark of Sargent' Bluffs , Iowa , in 1861 , who had aspira tions to become the first delegate to Congress from the then-to-be-organizec erritory of Dakota. And ho gave birth o and established the "Vermillion Re- mblioan" at Vermillion , South Dakota. From what I can gather , this is the brief history of the first newspaper all ) rintecl at homo in Nebraska north of Omaha. WILL FELBER. Omaha , Neb. NEW LIGHT ON LABOR PROBLEM. Editor THE CONSERVATIVE Sir : So many things are reported in these days of industrial combinations and industrial disturbances as having been said or done by Mr. J. P. Morgan , that one is cautious about crediting him , or charging him , with any of them. Two of the sugges tions recently ascribed to that much dis cussed gentleman , however , are so in teresting on their own account as amply to deserve careful examination by all thoughtful citizens. Neither of these suggestions is now made for the first time , but their merit is none the less for that ; and from them , it may well be : ioped , the country may have something of which it is in urgent need new lighten on the labor problem. One suggestion is that the labor un ions ought to be incorporated , to become what the law will recognize as respons ible bodies , before they can be negoti ated with or permitted to discuss terms and scales and rules. The benefits of such incorporation , on the side of the capitalist and manager of industrial en terprises , are obvious enough ; but there are no less marked benefits on the side of organized labor , and something very similar was advocated in a Forum arti cle nine years ago by Hon. Ohauncey F. Black , who is a well-known champion of the labor cause. By formal incorpor ation the labor unions would acquire a standing and a dignity that they haven' ! heretofore had ; their control over the supply of human muscle would be regu larly acknowledged , and their voice would have greater force than now. Objections can come only from leaders who want power without responsibility and thrive upon agitation ; or , on the other hand , from such as look on labor organizations as altogether evil am dread any measure looking to giving them greater permanence. But the time for discussing whether the unions shall exist or not , has gone by. Foi good or ill , they have come to stay , anc we have no duty so pressing as that of making the best of them. In no way it is my firm belief , could these organ ! zations bo made less mischievous , anc more capable of power for good , than by the general plan of incorporation that Mr. Morgan is reported as favoring Independence of Capital and Labor. The fact that the proposition origin ates from the capitalists' side is not , o course , so conclusive against it as labo leaders will try to make it out. If cap talists and workmen were enemies , it might be proper enough or one side to reject without debate every suggestion from the other ; but it must never bo forgotten that in their most important interests the two are allies and not enemies. The workman vho has already committed so much of lis interests to a corporation as to do- > end on it for his daily wages , has > roved that he deems it worthy of some confidence , and the corporation that de pends essentially on its laborers for power to produce will on that account ) e likely to protect those laborers when ; hey become stockholders. If workmen wish to become capital- sts and to control the profits of their abor , they have it in their power to do so. Nothing is to prevent their pur chasing railroad or trust stock , which is sold on the open market for any one to buy who chooses. For instance , had the 150,000 coal miners each saved enough to buy one share of stock , at the end of the year , they would be powerful enough to choose a Director on the Board to serve their interests' ; in a very few years they could control the mines. By such means , within a com paratively few years , they might own most of the railroads , and even the great Steel Trust , itself. From every point of view there is nothing to be said of this project but in its favor. Its adoption would create a community of interests and tend to in crease of sympathy between employer and employee. It would tend to make workmen do better work. It would dis courage wasting wages in drink and en courage independent and higher lives. It would help to teach them , by making them capitalists themselves , that capital is stored only through self-denial , and is a blessing to all classes , because the great conservator of society. It would help at the same time to hold directors of corporations to a better sense of their responsibilities. Its tendency would be good in every way. All good citizens may well join with the newspaper al ready quoted in the hope that so prom ising an experiment will actually and in good faith be made. A. B. FARQUHAR. York , Pa. , Sept. 11 , 1901. J. Sterling Morton , who will go down in history as the original tree-man in Nebraska , who has done more than any other man in America , perhaps , to ad vance practical forestry , particularly in the treeless states of the West , is now leading an active campaign in Nebraska in the interest of a unique reform , if not a revolution , in public roads. Sixty- six feet constitutes the legal width of a road in Nebraska He would cut down the width to thirty-three feet , dedicat ing the other half of the road to trees , which trees are to be planted , cultivated and guarded by the road authorities. The necessary legislation will be asked for at the next meeting of the legis lature. Unity , Sept. 12,1901.