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VOL IV. NO. 81. NEBRASKA CITY , NEBMSKA , FEBRUARY 6 , 1902 SINGLE COPIES , 5 CENTS. * v. .
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THIS DI80UBSION
07 POLITICAL , ECONOMIO AND 80OIOLOOIOAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 14,000'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 post office at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29 , 1898.
The delight with
AMERICAN which the average
FREE TRADE , protectionist exhorter -
er denounces free
trade , as English , and yells in paroxys
mal wrath about the Cobden Olnb , is
known of all men. Therefore , a his
torical fact which The Conservative
herewith submits , is refreshing and re
futing. The celebrated report of Rob
ert J. Walker , Secretary of the Treasury
of the United States during the admin
istration of James K. Polk , was pub
lished in December , 1845. On page 12
near the center is the following :
"Commerce , agriculture , and naviga
tion , harassed as they may be by foreign
restrictions , diminishing the amount of
exchangeable products which they could
otherwise purchase abroad , are burdened
with heavier impositions at home. Nor
will augmented duties here lead to a re
duction of foreign tariffs , but the re
verse , by furnishing the protected
classes there with the identical argu
ment used by the protected classes here
against reduction. By countervailing
restrictions we injure our own fellow-
citizens much more than the foreign
nations at whom we propose to aim
their force ; and in the conflict of op
posing tariffs we sacrifice our own com
merce , agriculture and navigation. As
well might we impose monarchical or
aristocratic restrictions on our own gov
ernment or people , because that is the
course of foreign legislation. Let us ,
with revenue duties only , open our
ports to all the world , and nation after
nation will soon follow our example. If
we reduce our tariff , the party opposed
to the corn laws of England would soon
prevail , and admit all our agricultural
products at all times , freely into her
ports , in exchange for her exports.
And if England would now repeal her
duties upon our wheat , flour , Indian corn
and other agricultural products , our own
restrictive system would certainly be
doomed to overthrow. "
( The italics ate The Conservative's. )
This report is invaluable as a reference
book , and particularly soothing to a
free trader , because it proves that the
United States preached free trade before
England advocated it or repealed her
infamous corn laws , which excluded , by
prohibitory tariffs , the products of our
farms from her markets.
Cicero , in his
PAGAN AR60RI"Tusoulan Disputa-
CULTURE. tions , " talks of tree-
planting. He de-
olares that the labors of the' man who
plants trees , "shall be enjoyed by after
ages. What is the purpose of the tree-
planter ? It is to benefit posterity. "
"Shall then the industrious farmer
plant trees , of which he shall never see
the fruit ? And , on the other hand ,
shall not the statesman plant laws , in
stitutions and republics ? "
This shows that long before the birth
of Christ , arboriculture was planning
for posterity and endeavoring to make
the world more beautiful and better.
The tree-planter of the Present arbor-
phones his affectionate solicitude for the
welfare of Posterity to all the coming
generations , whose Present will be made
out of our Future. Plant trees !
Elder Smith , who
OIL. lives just south of
Nebraska City , re
ports indications of coal oil , so strong in
a well of his 47 feet deep , that the
water is undrinkable because of the
petroleum flavor and smell. There are
others who report oleaginous symptoms
upon their lands in Otoe county , and it
is high time that the earth beneath us
should be perforated to a sufficient
depth to demonstrate that we have either
coal , oil or artesian water , Messrs.
Bodeiibrock and Buhlman are circu
lating a subscription paper for the
purpose of raising money for making
investigations as to what is concealed
beneath us. Already the subscriptions
amount to quite a sum of money , and it
is sincerely hoped that the woik may
be begun within the next sixty days.
The Fremont Tri-
BARTLEY'S bnne seems affection-
PRBDECESSORS. ately solicitous about
a long line of re
publican predecessors to Bartley in the
office of State Treasurer , and differs
trom The Conservative as to the pro
priety of the pardon of Bartley by
Governor Savage. The esteemed Tri
bune ignores the custom of former
State Treasurers , which permitted the
deposit of public funds in banks friendly
to the ruling party. It ignores the fact ,
that in republican state conventions , for
nearly a generation , promises of such
deposits did secure nominations. It is
either ignorant or forgetful that Wil-
lard was nominated for State Treasurer
of Nebraska years ago because of the
promise of a loan of twenty-five thou
sand dollars of public money to a certain
republican banker in Alma. And has
that money ever been repaid to the
state ? Did or did not that note pass
from State Treasurer to State Treasurer
as cash ? Could a custom like this do
otherwise than influence Bartley to ac
cede to and obey it ? The Conservative
does not ask the Fremont Tribune or
anybody else to take "Mr. Morton's un
supported testimony * * * * against
previous State Treasurers , " but it chal
lenges the records if they have been
kept intact to show that he has mis
stated their case ?
What Bartley did with the state war
rant proceeds , about which the Tribune
talks , nobody knows definitely. Per
haps United States Senator Millard , who
has stated that the said warrant came
into the Omaha National for pay
ment as the property of the Chemical
National , of New York City , is as well
posted as anybody except Bartley can
be ?
The Conservative has not endeavored
to exculpate Bartley because many of
his predecessors notoriously handled '
state funds just as he did , and happened
to escape detection and destruction.
But it has objected , and it does now ob
ject , to making Bartley a vicarious sac
rifice for all the sins of his party and its
representatives and agents. The Con
servative wishes to inculpate the other
guilty men of all parties who may have
mishandled or misappropriated state
cash or allowed partisan favorites to dose
so and screened them from punishment.
We have no excuse for Bartley except
that he was in bad company , surrounded
by bad influences and inspired by a long
line of bad precedents. And now we
