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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1901)
" ' ' v , > 3 . . . # -iv < ' * * i * 4. , ' V t > be Conservative. There are so many THE POWER diatribes and discourses OF MONEY , denunciatory of the money power issued and uttered every day in the United States that one who believes them must shudder at the idea of that persistent industry and frugality which at all times and in all places arc founding wealth for their dis ciples. No man or woman of intel ligence and good health who is indust rious and from the self-denying begin ning of adult life can fail of compe tence in the United States when mid dle life or age has been reached , ex cept by accident or misfortune. And all self-respecting persons are anxious to achieve a competence so as to be not dependent Consequently all such self-reliant citizens are by deeds con stantly invoking the power of money for their own protection against want in old age. Life insurance perhaps better than any other development of modern times illustrates how beneficent the power of money may be made in re pairing the loss of the father and hus band whose earnings supported the wife and children from whom death has suddenly separated him. The great life companies of the United States expend annually millions up on millions of dollars in caring for widows and orphans. Eacli year they cause the power of money to prevent suffering , to assuage desolation and bring comforts and competency to families that would otherwise be in the depths of destitution and despair. Who is so widely partisan and popu- listic as to desire to drive out of busi ness in Nebraska , Iowa and Kansas , and in fact out of existence in the United States , these vast stores of money the power of which is always exerted for the alleviation of human suffering and sorrow ? Read proposed legislation in nearly all the "Western states regarding these benevolent in corporations and you will find what political .organization is endeavoring to annihilate life insurance ! Colleges and universities also repre sent the power of aggregate capital. During the year 1897 there was be queathed to these institutions in the United States more than a hundred millions of dollars for their firmer establishment and maintenance. These bequests were possible because somebody had been industrious and self-denyng enough to accumulate them and make them to illustrate the danger of the money power to 4' the plain people' ' for whom it seeks to provide the means of higher edu cation. But our common schools in Ne braska , which /have also a most liberal permanent school [ fund , which is drawing interest , night . and day , out of which teachers and other ex penses are at least partially paid , likewise illustrate the operation of the money power and its relation to the plain people. Without these vast accumulations of money how could life insur ance and education for "the plain pee ple" be so inexpensively provided , and placed within the reach of all who desire and deserve ? Without incorporated capital how could railroads be constructed and op erated ? Without railroads how could trans- Missouri river farms be cultivated and their teeming surplus sent to market ? Without the money power how would invention , authorship , skilled labor , agriculture , and manufact ure be stimulated and rewarded ? Without the power of steam or water applicable to its machinery of what value is a grist mill even in the midst of abundant cereals ? And without the power and push of money to reward it of what use is intelligent labor and skill and in dustry ? May the money power and intelli gent labor power remain forever partners in prosperity ! The science of EUGENICS. improving stock , whether human or brute , is one which should be taught in all the higher institutions of learning in the United States. This science is called eugenics. To observe carefully the fact that like begets like , and to avoid intensifying faults , weaknesses , or perverse tenden cies , by studying and obeying the law of heredity , is a duty. If half the care be taken , during the fifty coming years , in properly perpetu ating the best traits of physical and in tellectual character of the American people , that has been given to the breed ing of trotting horses during the fifty years which make the last half of the nineteenth century , the middle of the twentieth century will show men and women superior in beauty of body and intellect to any individual Americans now living. Gal ton says "Energy is the capacity for labor. It is consistent with all the robust virtues , and makes a large prac tice of them possible. It is the measure of fullness of life ; the more energy the more abundance of it ; no energy at all is death ; idiots are feeble and listless. * * * * * "Energy is an attribute of the higher races , being favored beyond all other qualities by natural selection. We are goaded into activity by the conditions and struggles of life. They afford stim uli that oppress and worry the weakly , who complain and bewail and , it may be , succumb to them , but which the energetic man welcomes with a good- humored shrug , and is the better for it in the end. "The stimuli maybe of any descrip tion ; the only important matter is that all of the faculties should be kept work ing to prevent their perishing by disuse. If the faculties be few , very simple stimuli will suffice. Even that of fleas will go a long way. A dog is continu ally scratching himself , and a bird pluming itself whenever they are not occupied by food , hunting , fighting , or love. In those blank times there is very little tor them to attend to besides their various cutaneous irritations. It is a matter of observation that well washed and combed domestic pets grow dull ; they miss the stimulus of fleas. If ani mals did not prosper through the agency of their insect plaguesit seems probable that their races would have long since been so modified that their bodies should have ceased to afford a pasture ground for parasites. "It does not seem to follow that be cause men are capable of doing hard work they like it. Some , indeed , fidget and fret if they cannot work off their superfluous steam ; but on the other hand there are many big lazy fellows who will not get up their steam to full pressure except under compulsion. Again the character of the stimulus that induces hard work differs greatly in different persons ; it may be wealth , ambition , or other objects of passion. The solitary hard workers , under no encouragement , or compulsion ex cept their sense of duty to their genera tion , are , unfortunately , still rare among us. "It may be objected that if the race were too healthy and energetic there would be insufficient call for the exer cise of the pitying and self-denying vir tues and the character of men would grow harder in consequence. But it does not seem reasonable to preserve sickly breeds for the sole purpose of tending them , as the breed of foxes is preserved solely for sport and its'attend- aut advantages. There is little fear that misery will ever cease from the laud or that the compassionate will fail to find objects for their compassion ; but at present the supply vastly exceeds the demand ; the hind is overstocked with the listless and the incapable. "In any scheme of eugenics , energy is the most important quality to favor ; it is , as we have seen , the basis of living actionand it is eminently transmissable by descent. " Self distrust SELF DISTRUST , is the cause of most human fail ures. In .the assurance of strength there is strength , and they are weak est , however strong , who have no faith in themselves or their powers.
