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Lincoln, Neb., Saturday, August 18, 1894.
The republican candidate for congress in the Fifth district, W. E.
Andrews, has allowed himself to be influenced by populist clamor on
the silver question. Otherwise he is a rock-ribbed republican. He
is a good man and a strong candidate. So far as the eilvsr question
is concerned he will learn.
Tom Majors, who in the absence f Governor Crounse, was acting
governor, had an opportunity to demonstrate his capacity for gov
ernment in the recent disturbances at South Omaha; and it is due
to the lieutenant governor to say that he proved himself to be equal
to the emergency. He was fair and firm without being a demagogue
or a tryant.
There is a "breaking of home ties" now going on in this state in
finitely more pathetic than the incident represe nted in the paint
ing that provoked so much emotional consideration at the World's
fair. In certain portions of Nebraska where poor settlers pur
chased a hundred and sixty acres of land and set up their
household 'gods in a sod house or a rude shanty, mortgaging
their all to get money enough to put in a crop, and year by year
continuing the struggle for life for existence, in an arid region
never intended by nature for farming under ordinary conditions, a
total crop tailure has severed the strand of hope, and starvation
staring them in the face cries, "Move on." Stakes are pulled up.
the remnant of housekeeping paraphernalia is piled into a di
lapidated wagon, and with the horses' heads turned toward the
east, from whence tho.travelers came but a few years since, good
bye is said to the place where vain effort tried to establish a home.
Disappointed, jaded, poorer than when they came, they begin
to search for a new halting place, or push on to the parental
fireside which they left with so much courage. The years wasted,
with no anchoring they can call "home," enthusiasm gone, forced
to begin the battle all over again or else ground down to a
condition from which rescue is impossible, their lot is indeed
a sad one, well calculated to stir the sympathy of the more
fortunate. This yielding to adversity and breaking up of what
it was hoped would be a comfortable, happy home, may be seen
daily in a number of counties in Nebraska, where this year's
crop failure has taught the final lesson, to wit; that the land
must be irrigated or used for grazing.
The democratic party in its handling of the tariff question has
given the country an exhibition of its incapacity that will not soon
be forgotten. It has frequently been said that the democratic party
is not in any sense constructive; that it opposes and seeks to tear
down, but that it does not originate or construct. The last twelve
months have furnished the strongest possible illustration of this.
Against a measure, the workings of which brought to this country
the greatest prosperity it has ever known, and which embodies in
the most effective form the great and enduring principle of republi
canism, there were leveled for many long and weary months, the tiny
shafts of a picayunish policy of demolition. Democratic efforts to
undo the McKinley law were guided by no patriotic policy. Tariff
schedules were shaped by no hand of statesmanship. Back of the
attack on the republican measure there was a desire to overthrow
the work of the republican party; but there was also fear and discord
and local selfishness and incompetence. The end is what was ex
expected from the very beginning of the tariff struggle. The bill is
an example of democratic cowardice and inability. It is a miserable
compromise and makeshift, an attempt on the part of the democratic
party to meet the demands of the protectionists, free traders and
those who believe in a tariff for revenue only; and, consequently, it
does not fulfill the promise of the national democratic platform, or
satisfy any wing of the democratic party. The tariff bill in the
democratic congrrus may be likened to the witches' cauldron in the
dark cave in Macbeth. Democrats gathered around the bill, like
the witches around the pot, and threrf on protection, free trade, re
bate, bounty and piled up inconsistencies, while from the oppress
ed country came the angry murmer of "double toil and trouble." If
the witches emptied into the cauldron fillet of fenny snake, eye of
newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog; adder's fork
and blind worm's sting, lizard's leg and owlet's wing, the democrats
were not a whit behind them in loading onto the tariff measure a
mountain of absurdities; and the whole is quite as picturesque as the
witches' brew.
If Feargus O'Connor and Ernest Jones were alive today they
would feel a thrill of gratification at the announcement by Sir
William Vernon Harcourt that the Roseberry ministry will next
session introduce a bill "providing for salaries for members of the
house of commons. This was one of the six planks in the
platform of principles of a party of half a century ago of which
O'Connor and Jones were among th-2 leaders. The declaration
was called the people's charter, and the mombers of the party fav
oring it were known as Chartists. The rusade in which they
were engaged started in 1838 and lasted tea or twelve years. The
other planks in their charterwere maPood suffrage, vote by bal
lot, abolition of the property qualification for members of Parlia
ment, annual Parliaments and equal electoral districts. Practi
cally speaking, every one of the six reforms demanded by the
Chartists of 1838 50 have been granted except payment for mem
bers of Parliament The abolition of the property qualification
for members was brought about in 1858, and the ballot was in
troduced in 1872. In 1867 the basis of the franchise was broad
ened to such an extent that 1,000,000 new voters were created, and
this was supplemented by the act of 1884, which added nearly
3,000 to the electorate. This has made the number of electors
in the United Kingdom about one to every six and one-third of
the population, while it is in the neighborhood of one to five in the
United States. Thus a close approach to manhood suffrage has
been obtained. In 1885 a redistribution of seats in Parliament
occurred, which has gone a long way toward bringing about
equal electoral districts. The only demands of the Chartists stsH
ungranted are annual Parliaments and salaries for members,
and nobody asks for the former any more. The movement to se
cure pay for members of Parliament will, of course, encounter
strong opposition, as every other reform in England and most
other countries does. It has no chance at the outset to run the
gauntlet of the House of Lords. But that body in time will be
forced to accept it, as it has been bo many other meisurej which it
' hated and which it started out to obstruct. A great party will
push the project and what is called the democratic spirit has grown
so strong in the British Islands that it is sure to be indorsed in the
House of Commons. Before Hub sentiment the notion that honor
is sufficient compensation for membership in Parliament and that
a salary would vulgarize and degrade 'the office will have to give
way. This theory has lost its force since the great electoral re
forms of 1832, 1867 and 1880 made the House of Commons repre
sentative of the whole people and not merely of the aristocratic
u.d wealthy element, as before. To many of the present members
of that body, service without pay is a serious embarassment and
hardship, and the proper thing to do is to provide a stated salary
for all members, after the example of France and the United
States.
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