4 Z
THE BjiE: OMAHA. bUNUAY. Jima 19, lJl.
4
v,
t -
Some Statesmen Fought
Against Expansion of
Settlements in West
East and "South Wanted Nebraska Territorial Area
as Dumping Ground for Indians Rush to California
Helped Bring Realization of Possibilities of
the Great Plains Region.
(Costlnwd from Face Three.)
40 s, vouched chiefly by Thomas
H. Benton, for a Pacific railroad
was commonly coupled with a de
mand for the organization of the
territory to be called Nebraska,
From the first there was rivalry be
tween the northern and central, and
the southern sections over the loci'
tion of the prooosed Pacific road.
Official promotion of the organ-
zatiotwnto territory was Dcgun in
1844. Wi kins, secretary of war. ad
vocated it in his report for that year,
and Stephen A. Douglas, chairman
on the committee on territories of
the house of representatives, in
troduced the first bill for that pur
pfise. He persistently pushed the
enterprise to its accomplishment ten
years later. Mr. Wilkins proposed,
..(..
tor tne tirst time it is said, the name
Nebraska for the new territory.
Stephen A. Douglas. -
' Illinois and Iowa had just begun
to visualize the vast and promising
trans-Missouri plains as commercial
adjuncts. The east and south had, in
. its mind, preempted this territory as
;. a perpetual asylum of their Indians
of. whom hey were determined to
be rid, and accordingly about 100,
000 of them had already been pushed
across the Mississippi. Douglas aft
erward explained that the apparently
, premature introduction of his bill to
organize the "Territory of Nebras
ka" was to serve notice on the secre
tary of war to stop using it as a
dumping ground for Indians, v The
war departent had control ; of
Indian affairs until 1849. He also ex
plained that the Atlantic states were
jealous of any further territorial
expansion.
A few brief illustrations of the
irrational opposition to western ex
pansion are apropos. Discussing.in
.ilie house of representatives, on .De
cember,, 1828, the bill for the oc
cupation Oregon by the United
States, Mr. Bates of Mossouri, said:
"There was then the rvgged and
almost impassable belt of the Rocky
mountains,.' and nineteen-twentieths
of the space between the Missouri
and the Pacific ocean, beyond the
culturable prairies, which were not
above 200 or 300 miles, was a waste
and steril tract, no better than the
desert of ;Zahara, the traversing of
which, even during the best seasons,
was attended with the extreme of
difficulty and danger."
Ignorant Orators.
For, the southwest," Mr.' Mitchell
of Tennessee said:
"But let .gentlemen look at the
vast, wide-spreading fertile valley of
( the Mississippi; let them reflect upon
the thousands of acres yet untouched
by the axe of the settler. No, sir, I
will never encourage native born
American to leave their country, till
11 see the ioundary of our twenty
K'foutf states and territories irst filled
j But tli" promoters of the organiza
tion of the plains into a territory
m had visions of the commercial im-
portance of traffic over the Oregon
j; Trail, now fairly established. St.
! Louis was at first the direct benefic
; iary of this traffic, but the all-power-
ful Douglas represented the soon-toil
be all-conquering Chicago interests.
J; The rush to California from all
parts of the country east of the Mis
;.' souri, from 1849 on, brought those
; interests into direct touch with that
promising artery of trade. At this
J, time St. Louis newspapers were con
J fidently and complacently claiming
commercial supremacy over the new
. northwest, in perpetuity. But Chi
jji cago first, then the gret twin cities
of the north, and then Kansas City
l at her very back door, arose to
2' convince the southern metropolis of
J the vanity of human hopes, especial
, ly those fathered by the wish.
; The Price Douglas Paid.
j; In the final accomplishment of the
. political organization of Nebraska,
.J: Douglas yielded the repeal of the
Missouri compromise prohibition of
X slavery from all territory north of
latitude 36 degrees and 30 minutes
Enter The
Though the "Omaha Daily Bee"
was first printed on June 19, 1871, it
announced in the issue of July 27,
that theretofore it had been a
gratuitous advertising medium, but
thenceforth it was to be "a newspaper-
in the true meaning of the
word." Which it very truly was.
The multitudinous enemies it made
in keeping its pledge, which con
stituted, its . superlative - success,
'avowed that its chief characteristic
lay in vigorously stretching this true
meaning. , But the significant fact is
that conditions were such that this
way, and this only, lay success
which, as Balzac has it, "ruins more
men than it makes."
It serves my historical purpose to
point out that the powerful poltical
Nebraska cabal, mostly at Omaha,
by supporting the continued con
servative or reactionary regime,
which had now come to be called
Grantism. thus offered themselves up
to the Rosewater ruination. The
need of curtailing space is a sufficient
reason for passing by the more
speculative phase of the question
whether these reactionists, in Rose
water's sight, were righteously
ruined. However, the fact itself is
suggestive.
The Economic Phase.
- The economic urge of social con
ditions in 1871 is revealed in the con
test over the constitution in that
year, in which the Baby Bee took a
characterise part.
The first constitution of the state
was a barebones on which expectsnt
beneficiaries of the superior honors
and emoluments of statehood hung
their hopes.
Experience Estabrook made a
statement, printed in the Weekly
Herald, that it was compiled by a
committee of nine lawyers appointed
by the legislature. It was rightly
asserted by others that they were
self-appointed. The instrument was
made as near like the organic act of
the territory as possible, with the
same small number in the legislature
and meager salaries for state officers.
The enabling act passed by ton
rts and -signed by President Lin
to the demands of the slavocracy.
This precipitated, if it did not cause,
secession and the civil war through
the election of Lincoln, who had
most skillfully taken advantage of
the opportunity his chief rival had
given him to incite sectional divi
sion. '
In 1862, the more radical leaders
of the republican party eought to
strengthen its hold on congress and
to insure the election of the repub
lican candidate for president in 1864,
if perchance it should be thrown into
the house, by the creation of western
territories into states notably Colo
rado, Nebraska and Nevada. But
while this project was delayed by the
opposition of democrats and many
powerful rirepublican leaders, Presi
dent Lincoln had recognized :crtain
of the rebellious states, notably.
Arkansas, Louisiana and North Car-
olina, for reunion. . ,
Now came the clash between the
president ana the most intensely
"practical" republican partisans,
Thaddeus Stevens, Wade, Chandler
and others. Charles Sumner was not,
like the rest of the radicals, craving
power for the party's sake. He was
obsessed by the issue of suffrage
for the negroes upon equal terms
with the whites. , The suffrage ques
tion was the issue between "the two
most influential men in public life"
Lincoln and Sumnersays Rhodes,
the historian.
Eut Sumner and Stevens went so
far in impracticable harshness
against the rebels as to demand con
fiscation of their individual proper
ty. Sumner insisted on the extreme
tate suicide" doctrine, but Lin
coln's larger vision saw that it was
vain and orofitless to cavil over
sophisms like this, though he finally
decided that it would De dangerous
to admit that the seceding states
had succeeded in getting out.
Lincoln and Sumner.
The new constitution of Louisiana
had been accepted by Lincoln, but
because it only empowered the legis
lature to confer suffrage on negroes,
along limited lines laid down by Lin
coln, Sumner defeated its recogni
tion and incidentally Kept Arkansas
out also.
The radicals then passed the Davis
reconstruction bill which absolutely
prohibited slavery in the recon
structed states, which Lincoln and
his cabinet held congress had no
constitutional power to do, that
power belonging to the states alone.
So Lincoln "pocketed" the recon
struction bill. It was passed July 2,
and congress adjourned two days
later.
On July 8, Lincoln defended his
veto in a proclamation, and then
came the ' defiant Wade-Davis mani
festo which confirmed the breach.
On April 11, three days before his
assassination, Lincoln very power
fully defended his action-in the
Louisiana case. So he died defiantly
facing his so far successful radical
foes. That last speech is stamped
with greatness.
Nebraska's New Precedent
The Nebraska question had
destroyed Douglas," the great creator
of the territory, and its reaction un
horsed the greater Lincoln, who had
signed the enabling act, and pressed
the territory's admission to state
hood. The reckless .radicalism,
particularly touching negro suffrage,
which crushed Lincoln's reconstruc
tion policy, overrode Johnson's veto
of the audacious imposition of an
amendment of the constitution of
Nebraska after it had been adopted
by the people, denying them an op
portunity to vote upon the "change.
In an opinion as chief justice of
the supreme court of Nebraska,
Oliver P. Mason declared that "the
very best constitutional lawyers of
the land," who were members of the
congress which imposed the condi
tion knew that it was without force
or effect, and "until the case of our
state arose, no single instance ever
occurred of congress admitting a
state without the popular approval
of the constitution."
Omaha Bee
coin, April 19, 1864, provided for a
convention to form a constitution,
to be held July 4, of that year; but
the opposition to statehood was so
strong that, on assembling, the con
vention adopted a resolution to ad
journ, "without forming a consti
tution, by a vote of 37 to seven.
In violation,- or derogation, of the
enabling act, the' legislature submit
ted the committee's constitution to
a popular vote, and a doubtful ma
jority was counted for it.
The convention of 1871 was held
for the purpose of substituting for.
this inadequate instrument an ade
quate, progressive one. The new
constitution disclosed a new popular
political temper and the attitude of
The Bee toward it was the precursor
of its political career.
The Bee's Firm Policy.
The most effective feature of The
Bee's editorial page was the arsenal
of facts adduced in it, supplied or
inspired by its founder. This meth
od was employed, vividly, at the
outset, in opposition to the objec
tions, many of them specious, of
the Herald and the Republican to
the new constitution.
In, general, the North Platte sec
tion, largely dominated by Omaha,
was against the constitution and the
South Platte for it; but it was beat
en by the defection of Nemaha coun-
the total majority against it was
641; Nemaha county's majority
against it was 667 attributable main
ly to Senator Tipton, then the fa
vorite son, and in smaller part to
Furnas who began the not credit
able habit of going against his sec
tion in his notorious defeat, in 1857,
of the bill to remove the capital to
the South Platte.
The Bee declared that the United
States senators opposed the consti
tution because it was easier to con
trol 52 members of the legislature
the number under the old consti
tution for their own re-election,
than the 89 to 100 provided for in
the new one.
Answering the contention that Ne
braska could not'afford the more ex-
pensive proposed constitution or to
stand with maturer states, sucn as
Illinois and Iowa, in establishing the
principle and practice of railroad
regulation. The Bee of September 13,
1871, quoted the Chicago Tribune's
terse statement ot its novel econom
ic status and prospects;
"The opening of the Pacific rail
road through Its entire length, the
survey and conlmencement of other
rivals within and leading to the
State, the concentration near Omaha
of all the great trunk routes from the
East, has given Nebraska; within a
few years, the growth and maturity
for which other States have had to
wait a Quarter of a century.
The Tribune pointed out this other
important distinction: "The new con
stitution is perhaps the best matured
instrument of the kind ever proposed
in any state.' it cmoraced nearly
all of the wise antimonopolistic pro
visions of the new constitution of
the Tribunes state, which had been
adopted July 2, 1870.
Procession of The Bee.
The insistent and persistent mod
erate modernism to which The Bees
marvelous success was mainly due, is
reflected in its initial campaign for a
modern constitution, but especially in
its challenge of the ultra-conserva
tive opponents of such an instrument.
This temper and attitude, it seems to
me. illustrates the oolitical career of
the state, which took its progressive
steps gradually; on the whole, too
tardily.
The Be of . September 1, 1871,
pointed out that the main provision
of the constitution touching corpor
ations is that which gave the legis
lature, "the right to fix a reasonable
maximum rate of tariff on freight
and passengers." This, in a com
prehensive sense, was the principal
political issue in the state until it was
substantially settled by the adoption
at the general election of 1906 of an
amendment to the constitution pro
viding for an elective railway com
mission, and the passage by the leg
islature of 1907 of an anti-pass bill,
of a 2-cent passenger rate bill and
of a bill making a flat 15 pir cent
reduction of freight rates.
Death of E. Rosewater.
The dearth of the founder of the
Bee occurred a Jew months before
this full fruition of its planting and
its incessant watering for 36 years.
The pioneer period of the war, es
peciallydropping the too mild
metaphor against the most power
ful politicians of both parties, was
very ingenious' and equally relent
less, and more than a moiety of them
were either crippled or killed.
Like most capable captains, The
Bee's genius lay in seeing and seiz
ing the desperate opportunity which
the unique conditions offered. By
these tactics the audacious David
soon accomplished the immediate de
mand of necessity by destroying his
immediate rivals, the Republican and
the Herald, and it was not long until
the third Goliath, the State Journal,
which too tardily saw the signs of the
times, was brought to its knees.
I have always given the prescience
of the promoters of our early rail
roads, and especially Mr. Forbes and
Mr. Perkins, generous credit for
meeting the monster desert myth on
its own srround ' and courageously
creating confidence in its stead. On
May 23, 1872, however. The Bee
strongty endorsed, a criticism by the
neraid ot Mr. Doane s supercilious
attitude, as general superintendent
of the Burlington & Missouri Rail
road in Nebraska, toward the public.
The Herald had said: .
Except for horticultural and agri
cultural gatherings, long since held
upon these plains, by men who pion
eered the stage coaches, which have
pioneered the railroads, neither Mr.
Doane nor any other Bostonian
would now be railroading in Ne
braska. Except for such 'gatherings'
as that to which Mr. Doane, with
pure picayuntshness, now refuses
half-fare tickets, Boston would have
remained, to this day, in utter ignor
ance of the fertility and value of the
rich lands in Nebraska. .
- The Bee t Independence.
The personal challenge was this
of May 7, 1872: "Who Rules the
State?' a ring . of officeholders
directed by a man at Washington,
or the citizens of the commonwealth.
And it was fought out on that line
until the silver question and the
growing conservatism of , success
brought and held the frequently in
termittent insurgent well within the
party lines. In its formative period,
The Bee was singularly independent,
and its independence almost as sin
gularly consistent While it boldly
opposed the almost certain renomi
nation of Grant in 1872, it advocated
his election in preference to Gree
lev. contending that the democrats
would not support Greeley as liberal
republicans, but as democrats. It
maintained that the nomination, in
1872, of Crounse instead of Taffe for
congressman; ot f urnas tor gov
ernor, and Lake, Gannt and Maxwell
for judges of the supreme court, was
a "remarkable contrast to the ticket
two years agO; when Taffe and his
ringmasters foisted on this state for
governor, a man whose guilty
transactions were as well known to
them as they were made known to
the people shortly afterward."
Something tangibly more and bet
ter than a mere change of factions
had been won; and yet, on the publi
cation during th campaign of the
testimony in the Furnas-Herald brib
ery suit, The Bee reversed its prior
belief that its preferred candidate for
covernor was 'innocent: and it af
terward severely denounced him for
pardoning Weber, the Fremont
swindler.
The caper of 'the deadly sting
knew that either itself or the Repub
lican must go and its Roman resolve
was set to a Carthaginian execution.
It literally stung its adversary to
death and chiefly by attacks on "the
reactionary wealthy men" who were
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National
A Business Connection That
You Can Always Rely Upon
Call Us Up
Sometime!
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the owners of "the dying; concern."
Its singularly direct and apparently
unstudied assaults were so nearly and
naively void of humor as to lend
them a strikingly humorous effect
The Bee was quite true to its oppor
tunist policy also in supporting In
gersoll, who was nominated for gov
ernor at the Hastings antimonopoly
conference in 1882, in preference to
James W. Dawes, the very regular
candidate, and Silas A. Holcomb,
fusionist candidate for governor,
against Thomas J. Majors and John
H. MacColl in 1894 and 1896; also
in supporting Charles H. Brown,
antimonopoly democrat, for con
gressman in 1884, rather than Archi
bald J. Weaver, regular republican.
, Indeed, , The Bee s tactics were
shaped to its discernment, though
pernaps unconscious, uiai inc iwu
partv plan was no longer a fetish,
i i .1.-. .1. i .
and that the habitual devotion to it
could be broken down. "Its break
down everywhere no wseems immi
nent, if not practically complete.
The Bee was on pnncip e opposed
to such republican leaders as James
W. Dawes, James Laird, Church
Howe. "Jack" MacColl. Thomas J.
Majors and John M. Thurston.
The rest of this galaxy of political
stars The Bee condemned, but
Dawes it condemned: ("His public
career has been that of a trading
politician who never hesitates to sac
rifice principles or friends for per
sonal preferment") was its greeting
on his nomination tor governor in
1882. Among democrats, J. Sterling
Morton opponent of Dawes in 1882
and 1884 brilliantly resourceful and
aggressive (but "the notorious rail
road lobbyist"), was . its shining
mark.
There were two fundamental rea
sons for The Bee's unequivocal at
tack upon John I. Redick, Joel T.
Griffin, Phineas W. Hitchcock, St.
A. D. Balcombe, Edward B. Taylor
and Casper E. Yost their ultra-
conservatism, as The Bee chose to
appraise it, and the fact that they
were owners of the Republican. Per
force, this border warfare by The
Bee was often unfair and not al
ways or ultimately successful; but
in its temerarious adventures, the
balancing of inconveniences, which
chiefly constitutes life and wholly
the reformer's life, have far more
than the average marks to their
credit. Carlyle pictures the round
up: A heroic wauace, quartered
upon the scartoid, cannot ninaer
that his Scotland become one
day part of England, but he
does hinder that it become on ty
rannous, unfair terms part of it.
In that crude formative period lhe
Bee's corrective ministrations were
indispensable. Though far from a
classicist himself, the god of this
master newspaper quite clearly saw
the wisdom of first making mad
those whom it would destroy, and
it made them mad, very mad indeed,
and kept them constantly so. Of
all Nebraska's processional pageants,
this one stands out as most spectac
ular. Procession of the Crops.
At the beginning of The Bee,
there was much rather worse than
useless speculation by agricultural
pundits about what crops could be
successfully erown. In the report
of the president of the state board of
agriculture, submitted January 5,
1871. the planting of trees for lumber
had "prominent" advocates, the rais
ing of sugar beets was prematurely
pressed ana sun. cuuure was wmmsi
callv considered. From the first there
was among settlers a perftrvid senti
ment for planting shade trees, all
that was desirable in that line; and
the plain farmers could not be di
verted from their clear judgment
that Nebraska was made for the
production of the great agricultural
staples. The sequel has shown
abundantly the soundness of their
judgment From the very scant be
gining, in 1871, the state, with a
large area yet uncultivated, has
come to rank third in wheat, fourth
in corn, sixth in hay, fifth in hogs,
sixth in horses and well up in many
other staples.
To What End?
It is platitude to remark that the
material achievement of the com
monwealth pictured here has been
marvelous; but the question ob
trudes, "What are .we going to do
with it?" Can these present bruised
and broken bones live and how shall
they be properly articulated? Tak
ing counsel from common contem
porary feeling and especially of the
prophets press, ' priest, publicist
the system itself has broken down,
or at least has lost practical co-ordination.
In' muddling along to a new
firm footing, which we must assume
we are hopefully doing, our chance
of reaching it depends upon the
state's extraordinarily balanced con
dition to which I have adverted. Ne
braska is neither over-urbanized nor
over-industrialized nor over-rural
ized, nor over-alienized, but the com-
Iponents of urbanity of labor class
consciousness, ot rural me, iore.ign
people are so proportioned and of
such relatively sane, comcatable
temper, that it is yet practicable to
establish satisfactory and stable re
lations between them. Among our
most important states, Nebraska has,
I think, this fortunate distinction.
J.
M. HUBER
Manufacturer ot
Dry and Pulp Colors
Varnishes
, Lithographing Printing
Ink
ROGER 8. GALLUP, Mir.
0e 3. 13th Stmt, Omaha, Neb.
Nav York, Beaten, Baltimore, Chi
rac. Cincinnati, Lot Angelea,
Omaha, Philadelphia. San Franclaco,
St, Louis
AT Untie 0406
II
hinting m
406 South
Twelfth Street
1a.J, Li n n-tWMw
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Home of . , I 1
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Company J
Investments
Materials and Supplies. . .
Current Receivables, etc.
Cash and Deposits
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Lincoln, Nebraska
The Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company was or-'
ganized in January, 1909, taking over the properties of the
Lincoln Telephone Company, including the Automatic Tele
phone Exchange at Lincoln, built in 1903, also the long dis
tance lines of the Western Telephone Company. Its growth
has been steady from that time and in 1912 it purchased from
the Nebraska Telephone Company all of the Bell exchanges
and long distance lines south of the Platte River to the west
line of Adams and Webster Counties in Nebraska.
' It now owns and operates 121 exchanges, among the more
important being the cities of Lincoln, Hastings, Beatrice.
York, Nebraska City, Fairbury, Superior, Seward, Platts
mouth, Auburn and David City. In addition to its Central Of
fice Exchanges and a considerable number of Toll Stations,
the Company owns and operates a complete toll system with
22,000 miles of toll lines, covering 22 counties in southeastern
Nebraska, having an area of approximately 12,500 square
miles, with a population of over 500,000. ,
Its lines reach every community in the territory served and
connect with the lines of both the Independent and Bell Com
panies, including the Transcontinental line of the American
Telephone & Telegraph Company.
GENERAL BALANCE SHEltT DEC. 31, 1920
ASSETS ,
Physical Property $ 8,698,905
193,104
552,492
468,477
164,149
Total Assets ..,$10,077,127
The Company has an Annual Income of over. . $2,500,000
A force of employees of. 1,375 . , "
A monthly payroll of $100,000
Present number of Telephones 66,197
Number of Stockholders over 2,000
Nebraska Stockholders . 1,281 .
The common stock of the Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company has
paid regularly for the past 12 years Quarterly Cash dividends at the rate of 1.
per annum and the company is now offering a limited amount of this stock to
investors at its par and regular value of $100.00 per share. Send your check
for the amount you wish to purchase and stock will be mailed to you, or send
name of your bank, to which certificate will be sent, and you can pay for it
on receipt. . .
The Lincoln Telephone
& Telegraph Company
Lincoln, Nebraska
F. H. WOODS, President
C. P. RUSSELL, Sec.-Treas.
R. E. MATTISON, General Manager
. - . ... . it .'
LIABILITIES
Capital Stock 6,618,463
Funded Debt, bonds due
in 1946 1,500,000
Bills Payable None
Current Payables 246,080
Reserve for Depreciation. 1,112,073
Other Reserves 72,000
Surplus 528,511
Total Liabilities ..... .$10,077,127
S. H. BURNHAM, Vice-Pres.
L. E. HURTZ, Vice-Pres.
W. L. LEMON, Auditor
r ''
i. 1 .