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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 1896)
.-.-W,- M-- rl- I 'V . KvAv fct" Ir t- : 81 i rvfway ,VOI, 11 ,NO.Jll.. ESTABLISHED IN 133G PRICE FIVE CENTb . J 'V - 5- xc iH 4' LINCOLN NEB., SATURDAY. MARCH 14 IMC 7 ENTERED IN THE POST OFFICE AT LINCOLN AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY THE GOURIER raiNTlllfi AND PUBLISHIN6 CO. Office 217 North Elerenth St. It is no exaggeration to say that tho federal court for the Nebraska district is a vast fee mill in which are ground farcical prosecutions for the benetit of the court officers, the clerk being tho chief grinder and greatest beLefieiury. Deputy United States marshals scour the state for opportunities to make fees. Every year hundreds of Indians are brought down to Omaha from the reser rations to go through a mockery of a trial that yields fees to court officers by the thousands of dollars. Officers make useless trips and mileage fees mount up with dazzling rapidity. J A favorite practice is to charge some poor unfortunate with having sold or 2k?JPy,fW- Editor and Manager given whiskey to Indians. An army of SARAH B. HARRIS Associate Editor . ' witnesses is brought to Omaha. The victim is brought before the court in Subscription Rates In Advance. the morning charged on four separate" Per annum 82.00 counts. He pleads not guilty to each Six months . 1.00 count, in the afternoon he reappears. Onemonth .?.!". ". '. ". . . ". ". ". ". ! ". . ". ". ". ".. 20 af ter havinR been reasoned with by the Single copies .................... 5 gaDR- He changes his plea to guilty on one count and not guilty on the other three. He says, at the suggestion of the gang, that he wanta a jury trial . A ORSFRVATIONS i b,anl rorm' already rilled out, is naaued ? rt tliA fnraman nf tfin iltn'ann tha W 9 .. m nw ;mj ... .. jury may be hearing another case who sitrns'it. and the victim is. Derchance Recently there has been Borne discus- fined 81 and costs. Generally he walks sion in congress over the proposed out without paying either. The whole amendment to the legislative, execu- proceeding is a farce from beginning to tive and judicial appropriation bill, to end, but the clerk gets a fee, the mar make the offices of United States mar- Bhal get8 a f the district attorney shale and district attorneys salaried getsafee; many witnesses are sum ones, instead or paying the incumbents m0ued, -more fees. And so the thing by fees. The amendment does not pro- g0e8 on, to the scandal of justice and pose to put the clerk of the court on great and unnecessary loss to the funds salary, the friends of the measure con- cf the government. Every lawyer who tending that it is inexpedient to at- ha8 busiDegs in Judge Dundy's court tempt to make too sweeping a reform at knoWB that many thousands of dollars the outset. Congressmen argued that are annuallv drawn from the govern abusesin the federal court under the ment in this one form of procedure present system cost the government and the rederal gang is fertile in ideas hundreds of thousands of dollars an- and ingenuity. There are many ways of Dually, starting the fee mill. MM No one who knows anything of the operations of the United States district court will doubt the truth of this asser tion. Most persons who have any knowledge of the manner in which the United States court for the Nebraska district is conducted are prepared to be' lieve the statements of advocates of the amendment. It is a face that Judge Dundy's court is responsible for a very large part of the several hundred thous and dollars every year needlessly ex pended under the present fee system. The practice in this court is a flagrant, violation of the intent of the law. The amount of money filched from the gov ernment by peculiar processes is so large that it sustains a gang of practic al! unlimited resources and vast power, a constant menace to justice and a last ing dipgrace to the state and govern ment. This court gang, fed by fees, and fattened by extortion, surrounds the court with an atmosphere of corrup tion; and there ascends at each teim of court an odor of evil and murmur of scandal most prejudicial to the interests of justice. decency have boen sent to the rear. In the namingof tickets there iB scarcely any consideration of questions affecting the welfare of the state and the party. Action is guided almost solely by the personal influence exerted by the self constituted bosses. The threat of po litical disfavor is held out, and at the crack of the practical politicians' whip the rtuk and tile of the party fall in line with hardly a murmur. 'The candidates of the party are seldom the choice of the republican voters. They are in most instances, men who have secured a place ou the tic et by the exercise of a politi cal 'pull,' who have practically beaten their way to the front. Just now there is a protest against this kind of repub lican management, or rather mismanage ment. and it will be a dangerous thing for the party to disregard the warnings that have been sounded. There is an eirnest and steadily growing appeal for honest, patriotic action it the state con vention. On the answer to that appeal depends, to a very large extent, the suc cess of the republican party in the com ing campaign. Without attacking any candidate cr indulging in personalities it can truthfully be said that neither of the two principal candidates is properly qualified for the discharge of the duties of governor of Nebraska. For this of fice, at this time, is wanted a public spirited broad minded, patriotic man, a man of experience in public affairs, and of irreproachable and unquestioned char acter. Neither a suspect nor a novicn will do. The party cannot afford to burden itself with a candidate who is under suspicion, or take up a man who, in public affaire at least, is an experiment."" The practice of the United States couit.in this district is such as to re flect everlasting disrepute upon the federal gang, and furnish the strong est possible reason for the adoption of the proposed amendment. A little over two years when attention was centered on gubernatorial politics The Courier made a few remarks con cerning the qualifications of candidates. The situation, so far as republican can didates is concerned, is practically the same now as it was then and the re maiks made ic these columns prior to the convention of 1891 are distinctly ap plicable at the present time. The re marks were as fallows: "Nebraska has seen enough of the 'Torn and 'Jack' brand of republican politics. The time hap come for the in jection of a little more dignity and a little more common sense and a little more honesty and a little more patriot ism into the management of the repub lican party in this state. The baser ele ment of the party has been allowed too tight a grip, and respectability and Two years ago republican politicians foiced upon the party a candidate ob viously unfit for the office of governor, a candidate who was opposed by the best element of the party. The result .vas a failure to elect. Will the mis take of two years ago be followed by another mistake this year thit will, in all probability, have a like result? Consider the qualifications of most of the men who are pushing themselves for the office of governor, and the ques tion will ask itself. Are they the sort of men who ought to be selected for this office? Let us have big men for the big offices. The republican candidate for gover nor is not going to have a walkaway. It is possible that he will have to contest for the office with W. J. Bryan. Mayor Graham will be a candidate for reelection. And yet he makes no effort to enforce the law against the most vicious of crimes. A paragraph in these columns last week was construed by some as an at tack on the Trans-Mississippi exposi tion. Nothing wa3 further from my in tention. What was said was merely an advertisement to push the exposition along. The people of Lincoln and Nebraska have every reason to hope that the Trans-Mississippi exposition will be a success. If held at all and there is no likelihood of anabandonmentof the pro ject it will be of inestimable benetit to tHo whole country west of the Missis sippi river. It will be of particular benefit to Nebraska and adjoining states, and whatever benefits Nebraska benefits Lincoln. The Trans-Mississippi exposition will bo an object les son to the people of this country and the world of the productiveness and mater ial resources of the west, a refutation of all slanders, an advertisement of lasting value. Omaha is the right sort of a place in which to hold such an exposi tion. Her people are enterprising and able and will do much to insure the suc cess of the project. A friend sends the following commun ication with tho request that it be pub lished: "Senator Cullom, a biggor man in Illi nois than is Manderson in Nebraska, is swept along by the irresistible tide of McKinley sentiment, and it is Btrange that Manderson is unable to see the utter hopelessness of his campaign, tie is courting certain defeat, a defeat that will carry with it lasting humiliation. The ex-senator is too good and great a man to be placed in this position. The candidacy of Mr. Manderson and the manner in which it is being con ducted suggest the thought that rail way companies have made many serious blunders when they have sought to con trol Nebraska politics. Looking back over the events of the past two years it is difficult to conceive bow a certain rail way company, through its officials, could have been so foolish as to force Tom MajorB on the people of the state as the republican candidate for governor a man earnestly opposed by the most re spectable element of the party, and rep resenting, personally, all that is object ionable in republican politics. The railway company courted certain defeat in its atteniDt to make Tom Majors gov ernor. It is novr courting certain defeat in the attempt to force Mr. Manderson as the choice of the republicans of Ne braska for the nomination for president Manderson, as has been said in your columns, is a worthy man whom the people of Nebraska have been glad to honor, but in the present instance his candidacy is, if anything, more distaste ful to the republicans of the state, tho' for different reasons, than was the can . didacy of Majors. The policy that dic tates it is shortsighted and blundering If persisted in it will engender a feeling that may cost the company a great deal of money. At the last session of the legislature there was no attempt to re duce railway rates or harass the com panies. But thi logical end of the Manderson candidacy will bo an antag onism to the railroad company at the coming legislative session that will prove to be expensive and annoying. In the language of Paul, 'I am not mad. but speak forth tho words of truth and soberness.' The other day the Baltimore fc Ohio railway company passed into the hands of receivers. One of the reasens for the failure of the company was its ill-advised participation in politics. It is said that this company! spent 83.0CO.C0O in the last two or three yeara trying to control -l y -- ;-