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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1889)
THE HESPERIAN congenial things of every day life and habit. Or they may find a pleasure in being in the mere vicinity of each other,and, not knowing how else to explain it, loudly imagine they arc in love, only to discover a little latter that they were entire ly mistaken. There is another way to explain this personal magnetism, and one should be very careful not to misunder stand it. CURRENT COMMENT. The scientific students have made themselves especially conspicuous around our sanctum ol late. Their hideous yell sounds more like the war whoop of a tribe ol Zulus than the hoot of a respectable band of students. It would be of inest imable advantage to such fellows to 'See themselves as others see them" for a short time. But it is an old saying that every one has a "forte," and wc suppose theirs is to expose their callow intellects to the world, and at the same time impose upon the rest of the University in a manner that is unbecoming even to a student reared in & laboratory. If they would get out into the sunshine of literary culture and there bask until the flush of civilization should again return to their cheeks, to take the place of the brazen hue that has so long enshrouded them in ignorance, we believe there would yet be some hope of bringing them back to, at least, a semi civil izalion. Several members of the Senior class are reading law in connection with their regular work here. We are informed that a class has been organized, consisting of all the law students in the city, to fit themselves for the senior year in eastern law schools. The pluck of the boys in this under taking is a verv forcible argument that a law department would flourish in this institution. The legislative committee appointed to look after our needs would do well to take this fact ibto consideration. Home grown men, it is said, make the most thrifty and successful citizens. Why, then, apply ing the same rule, would not men educated at home better understand and more readily adapt themselves to our condi tion? The argument that it is not the duty of the state to educate its citizens, is good in a pure democracy; but in a government like ours, where all citizens are considered children and the government the great parent whose dutv it is to protect and educate them, the argument fails. The leg islature need have no scruples against introducing something new, for their predecessors have already made training for a scientific education, which means professional education is one of the duties of the state. A post-graduate course in the sciences enables the student to obtain a professional educa tion. Since this is permitted by the stale there can le no argument against a law department except financial aid. Surely a slate that can afford to reimburse every man w ho has a claim against it, a stale that can and docs maintain a militia in pomp and splendor for the sole purpose of adding dignity to it, need hare no hesitancy in appropriating the small amount necessary to maintain a law school. The tax pay ei ol the ute will applaud any action of the legislature which denotes a move in the line of progress. .. mi. College politic arc on the wane. A few months ago the least disturbance in college affairs would cause the student politician to ami himself and prepare for the fray. This was as it should !c. A good friendly fight now and then is an indication of prosperity and a oIid growth. So long as the opposing forces do not indulge too deeply in personalities and resort to the vilest means to win in a contest for some unimportant office, then there can be no injurious results; but when college men so utterly forget themselves as to plunge headlong into the conflict without thought or consid eration of the record they are making, of the friends they are losing, or of the results to accrue from their actions in gen eral, then college politics cease to be anything but a nuisance. They arc injurious and degrading to the participants, and unworthy of the consideration or any student who values his reputation, his honor, or his manhood. Let the students of the University see to it that in the future no such petty, selfish and unmanly means be resorted to in our local politics as has been the case in the recent past. The motive of stud ents should not be to win unless they can do so fairly. Unearned laurels arc yalueless- A student may be clothed in a panoply of seemingly unapproachable honor and hiu reputation may be unsullied, but just as sure as he dips into college politics the poisoned darts of the ever watchful poli tician will le hurled at him from every direction. He will be charged wilh infidelity to his friends, with bribery, with falsification in fact, everything that is mean is balanced against him; his life is made a burden, and his former friends desert him. It is not our intention to wage war on college politics. There is no abler supporter of them than The HEsrr.Ri.w when they are rightly conducted. Friendly riv alry makes men ambitious and should be encouraged. A defeat is no disgrace when defeat comes honorably. We hold that it is belter to be defeated with honor and candor and courage than to wiu in the companionship of fraud and insincerity. Ijet the future course of our politics be made smoother so that after a class or society election students can greet each other as friends. Don't be found skulking in the background wailing for an opportunity to knife some one who did not vote for you, but on the other hand cast his vote for a better and more deserving one perhaps. All can't be winners in any game, and the contestants should consider well this fact before entering and be prepared to take defeat gracefully, for it will surely come sooner or later. The theory of a tax on land values alone, as advocated by Henry George, seems to be making lapid progress in many of our large cities. Xcw York, but a few years ago, was the only city that could lay claim to any single tax men. Now every city in the East can count them by the hundreds. The number of converts during the last year has been remarkable. As a rule the larger the city the more firmly is this idea being rooted. Looking at it through the eyes of a city laborer the doctrine is a good one, for it would necessarily raise the taxes on city lots to such a figure that it would be unprofit able for any man to hold more than was absolutely necessary to enable him to carry on his business. It would have a tendency to loner the value of land to a margin where every laboring man, if he erc industrious and saving, could pro vide a home for himself and family. It would do away with the immense speculation in city property and prevent capa talists from buying eery alternate lot.anJ holding them until the adjoining ones were covered with buildings, thus enhancing the price of the speculators, pioperty and gaining for him an increment which the toil of others wrought. It would do this and more; it would enable the laborer to get out of the dark, filthy, damp tenement houses, where a score or more of families dwell like so many hogs, into the broad, open sunlight that God inlcnded to be shared alike by all his creatures. It would tend to raise the morals and increase the health of every city in as speedy a manner as did the English reform legislation, which began in the early part of this ccn tury, purify and strengthen city life.