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VOL. IV. NO. 15. NEBRASKA CITY. NEBRASKA. . ER17.1901. / SINGLE-COPIES. 5 CENTS.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 13,873 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year In advance ,
postpaid to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Nebraska.
Advertising rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29 , 1808.
The last and most
M'KINLEY , impressive speech
SEPT. 5 , 1901. ever made , by Wil
liam McKinley was
at Buffalo , N. Y. , Sept , 5 , 1901.
In that deliverance he said :
"The period of exclusiveness is past.
The expansion of our trade and com
merce is the pressing problem. Com
mercial wars are unprofitable. A
policy of good will and friendly trade
relations will prevent eprisals. Bee -
iprooity treaties are in harmony with
the spirit of the times ; measures of
retaliation are not. If , perchance ,
some of our tariffs are no longer needed
for revenue or to encourage and protect
our industries at homewhy should they
not be employed to extend and promote
our markets abroad ? "
"Exclusiveness" brought about by
a prohibitory protective tariff is a thing
not to be tolerated in the future commer
cial career of the Republic. And to that
sentiment thoughtful citizens of all par
ties , who have no special interest to
governmentally foster , will cheerfully
assent. Hereafter legislating high
prices upon commodities by shutting
out competition from abroad , through
th schedules of a prohibitory tariff , can
not be made to appear a purely patriotic
proceeding.
The famous free-trade report made by
Robert , T. Walker , Secretary of the
Treasury , during
February , 1845. the administration
of James K. Polk ,
is dated February 5 , 1845. It is the first
out and out plea for commercial free
dom ever officially filed by an executive
officer of either the American or British
government.
It ought to bo read in all the public
schools of the United States and placed
in every village , city and
of the country. It demonstrates i ,
the first movement in favor of free
trade was made in the United States of
North America and not in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain. Like lib
erty of speech and liberty of the press ,
liberty of trade is an American thought ,
not an English one.
On the fifteenth day of May , 1840 ,
more than one year after the report of
Robert J. Walker-
May 15 , 1846. which was addressed -
* ed on February 5 ,
1845 , to George M. Dallas , Vice-Presi
dent of the United States at four o'clock
in the morning the repeal of the Corn
Laws was passed by 827 votes to 229.
And on June 25,184Gthe Customs Duties
Bill and the Corn Bill were passed by
the House of Lords and on the 2Gth of
June , the next day , received the Royal
approval.
Sir Robert Peel , who had been a pro
nounced and active protectionist , alien
ated many of his
June 29 , 1846. ardent friends by
his support of the
repeal of the Corn Laws. He had
changed conscientiously from the side
of "exclusiveness" to the side of free
dom. Like President McKinley , Sir
Robert had , in effect ; declared : "The
period of exolusiveness is past. " And
in replying to his assailants he patriot
ically proclaimed :
"In proposing those measures of com
mercial p5licywhich disentitled us to the
confidence of many of our former sup
porters , we were influenced by no other
desire than that of promoting the inter
ests of the country. * * * The love
of power was not the motive for the
proposal of those measures ; for I had
not a doubt that , whether these meas
ures were attended with failure or suc
cess , one event must certainly occur ,
and that was the termination of this
administration. "
Then with fervor and candor , Sir
Robert Peel avers that the success of
the measure is due to "a man acting , I
believe , from pure , and disinterested
motives , who has advocated this cause
with'untiring energy , and by appeals to
reason , enforced by an eloquence the
more to be admired because it is unaf
fected and unadorned the name which
will be , and ought to be associated
with the shccess of these measures , is
the name of Richard Cobden. * * #
I shall surrender power , severely cen
sured , I fear , by many honorable men
_ ,
"r'io. from uo interested motives , have
, . ,0 the priiSoiples -protection ,
becauo they look$6n them as im
portant to the interesfe and nv&lfare of
the country. I shalKleliye a name ex
ecrated , I know , by overy/'lfiouopolist ,
who would maintain protection for his
own individual benefit. But it may be
that I shall leave a name sometimes re
membered with expressions of good will
in the abodes of those whose lot it is to
labor and to earn their daily bread by
the sweat of their brow , when they
shall recruit their exhausted strength
with abundant and uutaxed food , the
sweeter because it is no longer leavened
by a sense of injustice. "
And so the English tariff on Ameri
can corn died. History repeats itself.
Prohibitory duties will die in the
United States. Robert J. Walker , the
American , and Robert Peel , the English
man following as Walker's pupil
in free trade , struck the first
blow for untramrneled markets in
all the civilized countries of
the globe. The reciprocity talked about
now by those who recently were ardent
protectionists is only the first symptom
of free trade the world over.
Appeals to the
ENVY. envy of the unfor
tunate , the indolent -
lent , the intemperate and improvident
are the chief power-agents of those
demagogues in American politics who
generate , nourish and organize discon
tent. The'se desperate place-hunters
and power-seekers who assault all who
have acquired even a competency , and
who condemn as dishonest and disrep
utable all who have accumulated large
fortunes , teach the less fortunate that
they have been wronged and robbed by
the well-to-do and the rich. Those elo
quent sophists instruct the plain people
that wealth has seldom been honestly
obtained in the United States and that
there ought to bo redistribution , di
rectly or indirectly , of all the personal
and real property of the country. The
appeals to envy , malice , jealously , eovet-
ousness and indolent greed which have
been made to the American people
since 1890 by uneasy vagarists , by the
moulders of discontent and by ambi
tious and conscienceless agitators , seek
ing high political positions , have
spawned anarchy and nerved anarchists
to assassination. Yellow statesmanship
and yellow journalism have inspired to
arson , to robbery and to murder.