ft Conservative
m *
t IV *
The Nebr a s k n
A NEBRASKA patrons an cl a d
ARTIST. mircrs of "Puck"
will be pleased to
observe that among the best caricaturists -
ists employed upon that wonderfully
instructive and amusing periodical , is
the name of John Cassol an Otoe
County man , who was born and
raised on the old Cassel farm just be
low Nebraska City , where his respect
ed parents still reside. His work is a
credit to his family and the state
which produced him.
In the New York
C. J. SMYTH AND Evening Post of
THE OCTOPUS. December 17,1901 ,
the Hon.Constant
ino J. Smyth , formerly attorney-gener
al of the State of Nebraska , appears as
a defendant of himself and his adminis
tration of the office in which he so long
rattled around. Mr. Smyth's plea is
exceedingly puerile. He says that the
Standard Oil Co. is a trust and that it
was his duty as attorney-general to
move against that trust ; that he did so
move ; that the aforesaid octopus re
sisted the action and attacked the anti
trust statute upon every conceivable
ground , and that Mr. Woolworth , ex-
president of the American Bar Associa
tion , headed an array of counsel repre
senting the trust ; that the court listened
to their contentions for a year ; that it
resulted in a complete victory by Smyth
over Wool worth , of the state over the
Standard Oil octopus , and the estab
lishment of the validity of the anti
trust law in all of its parts.
Then , saith Smyth , the case was sent
to referees to take testimony , and he
( Smyth ) tried to get the depositions of
certain officers of the company , but
failed ; and then , as a substitute for
the testimony which was desired , he
took the deposition of one George Rice ,
with which he was not satisfied. Then
he applied to the court for an order on
the trust to permit him to inspect its
books , and this application was singu
larly enough resisted by the Standard
Oil Co. Nevertheless , the Court grant
ed the application , and thus , according
to Smyth , the success of the state
in the contest was almost assured.
Smyth then declares that we have a
statute which provides that if the
party upon whom such an order already
made fails to comply with it in the
time limited , the other party may
present to the Court an affidavit show
ing what he claims the books contained ,
and this affidavit will be taken as true.
The time in which the Standard Oil
Co. might elect to pay the order ex
pired a few days hp -c Smyth's term of
office came to t , -iA , and this melan
choly fact , according to Smyth , dumped
the whole matter over into the hands of
his republican successor , Mr. Prout.
Now Prout , according to Smyth , has
done everything that he ought not to
have done and nothing which he ought
to have done , in regard to getting the
Standard Oil Co. to quit doing business
in the state of Nebraska.
One thing that Smyth fails to state in
his elaborate defense , dated at Omaha
on December 11 , 1901 , is the terrible
oppression and extortion which the
Standard Oil Co. has put upon the people
ple of Nebraska. This oleaginous octo
pus is selling oil pt from 9 to 20 cents a
gallon , for which we paid in the early
days $1.60. Another thing which Smyth
omits to mention is the great benefit
that would accrue to the people of this
state , provided the Standard Oil Co.
could be driven out of business herein
audtho _ market for oil be supplied by
retailers from one end of the common
wealth to the other.
And yet another thing that Smyth
omits to mention , is that this suit was
instituted , as was that against the Argo
Manufacturing Co. at Nebraska City ,
and the National Starch Co. , for the
sole and exclusive purpose of influencing
public opinion in order to get votes for
Bryanarchy and its candidates in this
and other states.
The Conservative
CHRISTMAS is in receipt of four
TREES AGAIN , numbers of the
Vermont Phoenix ,
published at Brattleboro in that state ,
each one of which contains an article
against the vandalism of Christmas-tree
dealers , and The Conservative with
great satisfaction reproduces th < i fol
lowing :
The Phoenix wishes to call attention
editorially to this paragraph sent last
week by its South Windham corre
spondent :
"There is one factor in cutting ever
green trees for the New York market
that has been over-
The Christmas looked in all dis-
Tree Vandalism , cussions that I have
seen , and that is
that those who cut them , jut only the
tops of the trees , cutting from one to
ten feet from the ground , leaving the
limbs belo\v where the tree is cut off to
grow , covering the ground and prevent
ing any thing else from growing , which is
positive damage. If those owning trees
will observe in how short time these
little trees will produce timber through
judicious trimming it would do more
than" anything else to correct the evil.
The practice of selling them as shrubs
is like killing the goose that laid the
golden egg , for on very much of the
land that grows spruces nothing else
will grow. "
This correspondent is a man of in
telligence , who knows what he is talk
ing about. He was born and raised
among our Vermont hills. His state
ment shows that there is nothing what
ever to the claim that the young spruces
and firs are sold because the farmers
want to get rid of them to clear and
restore their pastures. The trees are
sold , with no knowledge of their actual
value , because there is a present paltry
dollar in them , without regard to their
future worth and possibilities. The
vandalism is worse than we supposed ,
or at first charged. It gives one the
shudders to think of the old hills and
pastures covered with the desolation of
these sawed-off skeletons.
A large number of small spruces and
firs , at least 12,000 to 15,000 , cut in
Marlboro , have
Another Busibeen drawn to the
ness Proposition , railroad station at
Brattleboro this
week for shipment to Philadelphia for
the Christmas tree trade. The Phila
delphia dealer who makes the shipment
pays a stated sum for the trees on the
stump and hires them cut and drawn.
The trees are sawed off close to the
ground , and tied in bundles closely
bound with stout twine. A car piled
high will probably carry 2000 to 2500
trees. The men employed in the work
say that the farmers get' 'a dollar a
load , " which means a dollar for about
200 trees , half a cent apiece , five dollars
lars for a thousand. On a liberal esti
mate of the cost of cutting , drawing ,
shipping by rail , and storage and hand
ling in Philadelphia , or any other city ,
it is apparent that the cost per tree to
the dealers can hardly exceed 15 or 20
cents a tree. The Philadelphia dealer
said in conversation that he "should not
consider himself a salesman" if ho
could not get five dollars apiece for the
larger trees. A fair margin of profit
surely between grower and consumer !
The work of cutting these young trees
for the city Christmas trade has been
going on in other parts of the state for
several years. What this trade means
in the way of forest destruction the
country over is appalling to consider.
These young evergreens are cut in Ver
mont every year literally by the hun
dred thousand , and the work is doubt
less going on in every other section
where firs and spruces grow unless the
farmers in other sections are wiser than
those of Vermont. We are cutting off
the grown forests at wholesale to make
lumber and paper stock , and at the
same time are at work at the other end
destroying the young growth that would
otherwise replace them in part. It is
true that in many cases a judicious
thinning out of the young trees would
be advantageous to those remaining ,
but when the axe and saw take every
thing , as is the custom , the loss is irre
parable. And what any one farmer or
laud-o\vner gets in return for this van
dalism is hardly enough to pay him for
the tools to do the work with ! This is
sad degeneracy from the thrift and far
sightedness of the farmers who made
our hill towns and farms what they
used to bo.
While we are discussing in a peda
gogic way the profit there is in tree-
planting and tree-growing as a business
proposition , there is need also to discuss
this end of the proposition that of
destroying the young growth which na
ture herself has planted and given a ten
or fifteen years' start in life While
Audubon societies and nature classes
are showing commendable zeal in try
ing to save the birds and the flowers ,
suppose our practical men of affairs be
gin to consider what this wanton de
struction of young trees means ?
A few thoughtful men in the cities ,
who see what the trade involves , have
been calling a halt for two or three
years past against the unrestricted use
of evergreens at Christmas. The cru
sade may yet have to go hand in hand
with that against the wearing of bird
plumage in women's hats. Even when
it won't do any good unless the majority
of men prove more amenable to sense
and sentiment than the majority of
would-be fashionable women have done.
The Phoenix , in its article last week ,
greatly underestimated the number of
young spruces and firs which have been
cut in Marlboro and are being shipped
from the Brattleboro station to the
Philadelphia market for the Christmas
trade. It is apparent that the shipments
already made , and to be made , will
reaoli at least 20 car loads , making no
less than 80,000 to 40,000 of the young
trees. Probably 25 car loads have al
ready passed through Brattleboro from
the North. But this is only a small part
of the trees which have been cut in the
central part of the state , as the great
volume of those shipments goes down
the other side of the mountain by the
way of Benningtou.
The corporation
A VIRGINIA VIEW , is the embodiment
of the idea of or
ganization , and organization is the
handmaiden of civilization. When we
fight the corporate idea we fight civiliza
tion and progress , and it is to be hoped
that Virginia will not take any snoh
stand. Richmond Times.