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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1898)
" .-. -'-s.v- 'TgV1 -" - nr " !? '" 3- i- - VOL 13 NO 2 V , ESTABLISHED IN 1966 PRICE FIVE CENTS. ( y J' ' LINCOLN. NEB.. SATURDAY. JANUARY 8. I8l8. Entered is the rosTorricn at lijcoln as BECAXD CLASS MATTES. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BT ihe'CWR pimihud mmm go Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH i'. IIAR1US DORA BACHELLER Editor Cosiness Macaeer Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum 81 M Six months ?5 Three months One month. ........ Single copies & OBSERVATIONS. j There are many political and his torical reasons why the water pump ing. contract should not-bc given.to Mr. Thompson. In the first place it would strengthen his influence in city matters, and thatinfluence has already stunted the municipal development of liincoln. With an honest and effi cient mayor and a reduced number of councilmen, say two, there is reason to hope that the city could be run as economically as a private business. There are several concerns in the city which make their own electricity and operate their own pumps. If the Lin coln and the Lindell find it economical to run their own water and lighting plants, why not the city? Mr, Thomp son is not using every influence at his command to convince Dr. Hoover and Manager Humphrey that they would save money by accepting his services. The present council has among its membership an employe of the gas company and others who owe their positions to Mr. Thompson. These men arc gratefully endeavoring to convince their associates and the com munity that their patron lias only beneficent intentions towards the city which he needs only the oppor tunity to prove. The Courier's ex perience with city politics teaches that every movement towards purify ing the ballot, punishing corrupt city officials, obtaining fresher water and Various other non-partisan efforts to ameliorate the condition of our wretched city has met with a resist ance, impalpable at first, but event ually traceable to Mr. Thompson's office. In spite of all efforts city poli tics are not any better. In Lincoln at the present time they arc worse than ever. For that very reason there is hope that we are about to improve. We have had Bud Lindsey and Frank Graham and we know that their sorb means an inefficient administration. There are signs that the Spring pri maries will nominate men who move in an entirely diffcrentsfociety, unless we strengthen the influence which has created the present deplorable state of things. t Omaha is just strenuously trying to shake off the yoke which we are trying to slip overour necks. The heaviest taxpayers of that cityattended a mass meeting a few evenings ago and were of cne mind as to the inexpediency of renewing the contract with the water company. If there is anything in democracy it ought to have a fair trial, which it will neverget by shirk ing responsibility. If the city has the opportunity it will connect the sta tions and run all the pumps by elec tricity generated at one station. By using this method we shall save much more than ten thousand dollars and, besides, retain what autonomy is left us. If we fail immediately to run oui water works at the same expense or at less than Mr. Thompson has offered to do it for us, we will atjeast not.have. blocked future attempts at improve ment nor rewarded the heavy villain whose plots against the innocent de serve disappointment. Philadelphia's cession of her duties to a company is a favorite argument witli those who advocate Mr. Thomp son's wishes. They say that because the city has never conducted the de partment economically it never will. JSo city in this country has solved the problem of municipal government yet, but failures and experiments arc bringing the sure result nearer all the time. The contract system, if it be a good one, should not be limited to the water works, but should include all the municipal, functioos.of police, fire protection, strectclcaning, etc. Such an arrangement would destroy all sense of individual responsibility and the community would lose the power of united action. The French have never been able to colonize, while the English have colonized the world. The latter have the communal sense which, nevertheless, can be destroyed by dis use. The failures to accomplish geed government in the rities of the United Slates are not without their educa tional use. The fruit of a hundred years of mistakes is not to be de spised. If the people of Lincoln feel that they arc not capable of selecting men who can run the city with the success that Dr. Hoover and Mr. Humphrey have attained in running hotels, and the ability that Mr Thompson has shown in steering the Gas company, they will refuse to let Mr. Thompson pump the water. There is ro doubt that the large majority of the people of Lincoln are opposed to gambling but it Is noticea ble that very few of them are brave enough to say so over their own signa ture in a newspaper. One of the city papers has requested an expression of opinion from readers on the subject of gambling and received a number of anonymous replies which, very prop erly, the paper refused to print. AH publishers have the same experi ence. Indignant citizens who wish to anonymously upbraid the city govern ment or some other guilty object of disapproval are in the habit of send ing their wasted efforts to a publisher, perfectly willing that he should suffer vicarious punishment for their an athema. Before assuming charge of TiieCoukieu the publisher thought that all men were compound of bravery and chivalry. Individuals of the sex differed in mental power but to her imagination they had all the strong arm and the brave heart. Observation of the seamy side of life which is the only view obtainable in a newspaper office has shown that bravery is almost confined-to thcfermtle sex. 'Thcmale animal, who in a state of nature fought all intruders has Income such a refined diplomat that when a frank expression of opinion would benefit the whole community as well as him self and his family he is afraid to put his name 'to an expression of righteous wrath. He is afiaid of the withdrawal of patronage, or cf revenge from the gamblers, salcon-kecpers and mayors who arc breaking laws framed to pro tect the young. And because he is afraid he misses an opportunity to rid the city of a class he really detests. The grand jury is brave because it is com posed of sixteen men who arc protected from reprisals by the secrecy with which its proceedings are conducted. It'htts extraordinary powers of inves tigation not allowed the regular pros ecuting officers. Its star chamber methods are a terror to evil doers and the effect of its approaching investiga tion is already apparent. It is, of course, idle to predict whom it will indict, but the geed arc not alarmed. It will at least clear theatmespherc for a while. In the week preceding the Christ mas hoi idajs a poor woman was wan dering about the shops of Chicago lcoking enviously at the toys on dis p'ay. Her little crippled son had con. ceived a childish passion forawwjly dog on wheels. Not bebig able to get work and without any money she finally stole one cf the hundreds of wooly dogs in the shops. She was caught and taken to jail where she told her story. She was immediately pardoned. Her story of starvation and Illness was verified, benevolent people sent food and clothing and more wooly dogs than the lame lad could lead at once. All of which is just as it should be. But If the poor woman had resisted the temptation to steal, she and her boy would have probably starved and frozen Indefin iteljv As it is, as a direct result of yielding to temptation she found em ployment and friends and her boy spent a hilarious Christmas. Tterc is nothing wrong about this story ex cept the moral and that is dislocated. Improvements arc being made so rapidly in electric machinery that machines three or fouryearsold have lost much more than half their orig inal value. The first electric railways that were put in are operated at three or four times the expense re quired to run them now. The Lin coln Gas and Electric company proba bly has a quantity of antiquated an tiquated by the last three years of electrical discoveries machinery on its hands and it is very clever of Mr. Thompson to make an arrangement, so that if the city wishes to get rid of the-bargain with him it will buy his machinery. The chairman of the waterworks committee is the foreman of the gas works. There may and there may not be some connection between this and the fact that the expenditure exceeds the income of the water department. There may and there may not be some connection between this and the op position dircctedagainst every attempt of the council to lower the expenses of the department by concentrating the four pumping stations into one by the use of electricity and by makingevery user of city water pay his water tax. With the control of the water depart ment it would be easier to secure a re newal of the city lighting contract which in the not distant future will re quire to Im; renewed. If the city once finds out how cheap electricity is it gains a point of vantage very much to be deplored. jt Speaking of bravery it does not take much now to stand up for evolution but it did ten years ago. Today the batteries have- changed about. Only a man bigoted to the point of indura tion dare attack evolution and only then when he gets behind a pulpit. Dr. David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford university, in his lecture be fore the teacher's convention, would have been listened to ten years ago by the good people cf Lincoln in a pained silence instead of the hearty and sym pathetic applause which greetedhis V 1