" ' ' 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.
