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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1901)
cbe Conservative. In a majestic and HOGS UP. nmstorful outburst of oratory , the late peerless populist candidate for the presi dency , at Broken Bo\v , remarked : "I hate to think that a farmer who be lieves in silver , independence of govern ment , and is against imperialism , will vote the republican ticket because hogs are up and wheat is high. " But how long is it since , by declaring that hogs would bo down and wheat low if a gold standard was adhered to , he sought votes , by bearing the markets ? And now that hogs are up and corn , wheat , oats , and hay high , why should the farmers , manufacturers , mechanics and well-paid laborers generally be in favor of a fallacious monetary system' , an untried experiment in finance , recom mended to them by a statesman of so many words and so few deeds ? Why should the American voter bo led into new and untried financial paths by a prophet in pin-feathers whose attempts at forecasting have invariably resulted in conviction for mendacity , mediocrity as a truth-teller , or general incapacity for correct statement of facts ? The farmer who believes in silver at 16 to 1 as expounded in 1896 and 1900by the talkingist of all the talkers who have ever talked , is as rare in Nebraska as native grown bananas. The farmer who believes in a debased currency is not doing business in this common wealth. The farmer who "believes in inde pendence of government" is , however , very numerous hereabouts and he disbe lieves in Bossooraoy either by Croker or the man who said"GreatisTammany and Oroker is its prophet ! " and he seems to have been out on election day , Novem ber , 1901 , all over Nebraska , depositing ballots against all the vagaries , all the utopianisms , all the sophisms which are embodied in Bryanarchy , too independ ent to be led by the nose or driven with a switch in order that gain and glory may accrue to the leader or driver. The Nebraska farmer is against all sorts of imperialism and especially in imical to that pinchbeck kind , tnat silver-plated variety of upstart imper ialism which in a kingly way would set up an empire of mere words and en throne a despotism of platitudes to govern the politics of this state. The vote which elected Sedgwick to the Supreme Court last week is a guar antee that the dynasty of vainglorious egotism and perpetual tongue-wagging is tottering and that reason and patriot ism may resume sway. The whirlwind MORE SPEAKING. campaign of the peerless one dur ing the ten days preceding the election , seems to have boon efficient in elimin ating votes from the bologna-sausage ticket at the rate of sixteen apostates to each prophetic proclamation. Nature is pretty INDIAN QUESTION , sure in time to take care of the most troublesome problems. The Indians have been bothering us and we have been bothering them for nearly throe hundred years ; but nature Indian nature and white nature has been working out a solu tion all the time. In individual cases wo have usually compromised on the extermination of the Indian ; on a largo scale , we have allowed that law of nature to work which General Sher man recognized , when he suggested leaving unlimited quanities of whis key whore the Indians could steal it , saying that they would all be dead in a couple of years. Living at a dist ance , as we do , wo are rather sorry just at present for the Wiunebago tribe in northern Nebraska , who it seems are likely to be wiped out this winter by the smallpox ; that same agency that some 20 years ago removed the "gentlemanly" Maudaus from the list of existing nations. The Winuebagos are dying pretty fast , and as they refuse to be vaccinated , it is not likely that anything will stop the disease until there are no more Indians on that reservation. We made some friends among them in Omaha in 1898 ; and we hate to think of them , stripped of their finery , dying in misery in their dingy dwellings. We acknowledge , of course that we know of no good that they do in the world , and that our in terest in them is purely sentimental. Some scientific CURIOUS IDEA , feller down east is said to have fig ured out , from statistics which he has gathered , that we are all tending towards the physical type of the Amercian Indian. We don't believe he knows what he is talking about , if there is any such man , because we don't believe any such tendency would be perceptible in any period for which there are records ; the curve is too largo to be apparent. But there might be reason at the bottom of his idea , neverthe less. If the American Indian type was produced by its environment , the same soil and climate would again bring forth the same type , one would imagine , out of any fresh material im ported ; and our descendants of a thous and years hence would have straight black hair , high cheek bones and cop per-colored hides. At the same time our cousins who have settled in Afri ca will have turned black and those in Asia yellow. Is it more than a coincidence that the late Bishop Whipplo , lifelong mis sionary to the Indians , had such strik ingly Indian features as his pictures representPaint him up and any body would call him a remarkably fine look ing Sioux chief. It seems queer AN AMERICAN to anyone famil- IDEA. iar with factory methods in this country to read of the trouble foreign employers have to keep their men sober. . Apparently there is no thought of employ ing men who don't get drunk all they can hope to do is to keep enough of them sufficiently sober part of the time to get their work done. Holidays mean two or three days off ; long enough to get good and drunk and sober off again. One British firm estimates its time-loss from this cause at 20 per cent. This must be very discouraging to a continental man ufacturer , when added to his other troubles. It explains a large part of the advantage that American men and methods have over their foreign competitors. Every American work ing man understands that he can't hold his job long if he gets drunk ; and it is no longer thought wonderful if an employer , as some of the rail roads do , refuse to hire any drinking men at all. * Is the State going TOO FAR. too far when it pays for producing doctors and lawyers at the University and certificates them as ready and com petent to practice ? Is it the duty of the State to expend five hundred dollars in preparing a man to practice law or medicine any more than it is the duty of the State to present another man five hundred dollars with which to begin the grocery business or purchase ten acres of land for a home ? Since the repub- IOWA. lican majority in Iowa has been about doubled by the religions adher ence of the alleged democracy of that state to the free coinage of silver , at the ratio of sixteen to one , each member of that bologna-sausage-like aggregation may truthfully exclaim : "I owe a debt of defeat to peerlessness in a leadership of blab , gab and blather 1" Shall we try fusion until confusion and refnsion are made everlasting ? Every town in NEEDED. Nebraska needs one or more citizens of mature judgment who will cheerfully take time and make efforts to guide , di rect and aid decent young men and self-reliant women to secure repu table and remunerative employment. The Conservative counts the satisfac tion of thus aiding any capable persons just starting in the fight of life , more precious than much gold and great wealth. It is infinitely solacing to quietly enumerate the people whom one has aided and a real comfort to admire those whom one has helped to complete success.