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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1897)
fife v '? t-jr" yM,,( ' -iV': .,j i :W! - SVv-- w .'t'rf VOL 12X0 io - ESTABLISHED IN1S8T, PKIGE FIVE OBNIS' & : I '. 5.1. . iw v f . , "tf In..; -: " -. V" ' .- ' ;!i3n " '. J&M mm LINCOLN. NEB., SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 0. 1807. EXTEBED IX THE POSTOFKICE AT L.1NCOUT A9t$ SECOND CLASS MATTER. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY nr THE COURIER PRINTING IND PUBLISHING GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs Telephone 384. SARAH l'. HARRIS. DORA DACHELLER Editor Itasiiiess Manager Subscription Rates In Advance. Per annum $2 00 Six months 1 00 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 OBSERVATIONS. Mr. Cleveland's retirement into pri vate life lias, for some mysterious reason, purified his cuglish. On the occasion of Princeton's 150lh anniver sary, Mr. Cleveland's sjieech on the duties of self made men was clear and IMiinted. His public utterances while he was president were weighted with meaning so profound that no one was able to accept, or defend his messages with, the assurance that a artizan r opponent should have. Hissentences. when he was chief executive of this magnificent country, were so tilled with parenthetical clauses, dejcndent sentences and adverbial clauses that the original subject and predicate were lost sight of. The Princeton ad dress is a witness of the return of the period to Mr. Cleveland's oracular speeches. He is no longer shaking to a nation. As citizen Clevelard, he is exhorting" the successful man to a sense of his responsibility to the country and community that has re warded his industry and invention with success. The passing of the co lons and semicolons from Mr. Cleve land's compositions and the triumph ant return of the period, is hailed by tne common people with humble gratitude. We can understand our prophet once again. It might have lieen far sighted diplomacy which caused the turgidity and verliosity of Mr. Cleveland's oflieial communica tions. They can be taken to mean almost anything or nothing, so that if at any future time the United States government should Hud it de sirable to elude the interpretation put iikiii Mr. Cleveland's state letters by foreign diplomats, it. will lie easy to do so. As citizen Cleveland, he still has long, deep thoughts which will take root in the American civic consciousness if he can make them plain and simple enough. His siieech at Princeton was only a shadow of the encyelo'iediae sieeches of President Cleveland, but it was full or sound doctrine in simple dignified euglish. It took a straight road from the brain of the speaker to the comprehension of those who listened to him. all be cause he eschewed adverbials, depen dents and parentheses. It is the cus tom of a self made man to worship his creator and Mr. Cleveland's sjieech was not without this tendency. Hut life long habit is not to lie broken up in a single effort. The man who has conquered circumstances is welcome to a little bravado. He is a hero com pared to that culpably useless class who." Mr. Cleveland says, "having educational acquirements and fitness for beneficial work, do no more I ban exploit their acquirements in the false and unhealthy sociability of club life or find in them onh aids to the selfish pleasure of constantly restless foreign travel and accessories toother profitless enjoyment. Such a waste of qualifications for valuable service is especially blameworthy in a country like ours, where so many national problems remain unsolved, and where vast development awaits the most strenuous activity and effort. Evi dence isconstantly accumulating that at no K)int can the self made man do more vitally useful work than in the field of jMilitics. The fact that this word signifying the science of govern ment and the administration of pul lic affairs is associated in the common mind with sharp manipulation and smooth deceit, plainly shows how bad ly it has lieeu 'soiled with all ignoble use. while the contempt with "Which self-eeking candidacy and party sul serviency, even in a canvass now pend ing, sjieaks of disinterested citizens who are organized tosecure good gov ernment: as 'a modern school of doc trinaires and a 'college professors,' startlingly illustrates how confidently arrogant partisanship dares to insult thoughtful and intelligent citizen ship." Since the first settlement of the Pur itans in this counrty, primogeniture has lieen almost a dead letter. In Eu rope such a will as the late George M. Pullman's is without a parallel. Even where an estate is not entailed and the eldest son is an incorrigiblesca'ie grace the largest share is invariably devised 'to him. In America the eld est sou has no greater claim to the father's estate than the youngest daughter. It is a tribute to the sense of justice Missessed by the early col onists that in leaving England they did not attempt to transplant a cus tom so firmly established as that of primogeniture. This side of the At lantic, from the first has exercised the paternal privilege of leaving projierty to deserving offspring irresective of age or sex. Mr. Pullman made his money by creating a new industry. He labored for a large part ofhis life with his hands, and all of his life with his head. He acquired a sense of the re ciprocal relations that one member f the. community, be lie laliorer or em ployer, bears to the community as a whole. His sons never earned any money and never gsiined that sense of resiMinsihility. orof beinga Kirt of a large whole which labor teaches. Mr. Pullman's will is a lesson toother in corrigible scajie-graces to learn the responsibility of wealth if they do not wish to live on a few thousand a year. I n this case however, there is but little doubt that Mrs. Pullman will leave her share of the seven million to the snubbed twins, who by that time may have learned the inconvenience of comparative iKiverty and may thus be willing to learn at last ''the resHnsibilities of wealth.' J J'cform and reformers haveattaiued unpleasant. significance in the mindsof Xeworkersand to citizens of other and smaller cities liecause a reformer, however honest can scarcely help, be coming u hit of a pharisee. To start with, his attitude of condemnation towards the administration, state or city as il happens to be. of his resi dence, presupiKises the ijsessioii of a higher grade of morality and intelli gence than the officials whom he con demns. Men who take things as they are. are generally convinced that re form is impossible and that a reform er is detestable liecause he is no bet ter than other people but pretends to lie. In practical politics" bribes are given and taken as a matter of course and as a matter of course with cen turies of historical precedent to Just i fy the barter when men like mayor Graham get into office they reimburse themselves for the exjH-iises of the campaign by selling appoint ments. From the point of viewof the practical iolitician the protest-, wnieh the newspajiers and reformers make on discovering what they call corrup tion is all iiotieire and the reformer is a fraud who is trying to work some scheme of his own. Tammany used the mistakes, which the reform ad ministration has made in New York, against reform itself. It is easy enough to create a sentiment airninst a reformer. A real one isseveral hun dred years ahead of his generation, he underestimates the dimVultfes in the way of overturning things as they are and overestimates bis own ability to convince the community that a change is necessiry. he mistakes hope for the power necessary to overcome inertia and altogether there are very few reformers who accomplish a rev olution. Those who succeed in bring ing alioiit a revolution come, like Lu ther at the end of an coch instead of at the beginning of a new one. Lucky Luther put himself at the head of the protesting party within the Catholic Church which had lieen forming ever since the abuses began and he succeed ed in establishing a new sect. A few years earlier he would havelccu put to death as a heretic and fanatic. Henry George contemplated a community where the law of selfishness and com petition is succeeded by the law of love and forbearance. If the Itihlu and evolution are true, such a social life is the only basis if existence for society but- the world takes its own time to establish that condition. Meanwhile it is questionable if the visonary. even if he lie a true seer makes a good mayor under the present law. because he will not use the means at baud to improve conditions of ex istence. They are like prohibitionists who would rather see a town honey coinlie'd with blind piga than allow utilitarians to regulate saloons hy n high licence and enforce- law? forbid ding tlie selling of liquor to minors etc. Yet the world moves onward with many backward slides because a. few 'always defeated reformers reveal their visions of a new earth to honest men who laugh at them as visionaries but who nevertheless, are inspired by the heavenly logic to more strenuous exertions for righteousness' sake. J When a man sends word to another to come to his house or ottlce or con nives to get him there without an ac tual invitation, the visitor, since the time when the nomad Abraham dis posed the hospitality of the desert, is-under the protection of the host. Only a nature more crude and baser (ban a savage can forget this law which was obeyed liefore the inven tion of letters. Students of Assyrian lorf who can read what man first pre served of legends hundreds of years old before they were thus recorded in pictures instead of wonK note the in sistanceon the law of protection by host of visitor. Of course in that early time, obedience to such a law was in sisted upon because then, even more than now. even- man's hand was against his brother. 'o one felt then that iie was part or :i pattern which misbehavior would spoil but every one T " v-1 4 -l V