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VOL 13 NO. 13
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i
g OBSERVATIONS. 8
Tlie grand jury which has lately
completed six week's patient hearing
of evidence has adjourned. It has re
buked hasty and undeserved criticism
by strict attention to the business for
which it was called. From the judge
and officers of the court one hears
nothing but praise of its wisdom, pa
tience and discriminating judgment.
It is hard for an individual or a news
paper to acknowledge having made an
egregious mistake but there are times
when the error is so palpable it is im
possible to avoid it. And this is a
case in point.
j
With the exvcption of one or two
names the republican ticket deserves
and will receive the suffrages of a peo
ple who have been bamboozled and
deceived by candidates of the machine
long enough. Not for many years of
the political history of Lincoln has so
good a ticket been presented to the
voters as the one under consideration.
If it be elected, even with the dead
weight of administration candidates
attached to it, the interests of the
taxpayers, for the first time in many
years, will have due consideration. As
for the first ward, all residents there
who are trying to bring up a family in
sobriety and righteousness, should do
what they can-to put a saloon keeper
out of the city council.
Among the consequences of a war
with Spain which would affect Ne
braska most sensibly would be the
diversion of national interest away
from the Trans-Mississippi exposition.
Those who have noted die progress
of the exposition buildings towards
completion can not help feeling the
greatest admiration for the result
which differs from the effect at the
world's fair only in degree. The
buildings and their grouping, with
the peristyle and arches recall 1 he van
ished dream of J93 in which the group
of buildings, esplanades and statues,
erected in memory of the discovery of
America compels everyone who saw it
to long to walk up and down its white
walled streets again. The Omaha peo
ple have persevered against many dis
couragements and have accomplished
splendid results with a vim that will
surely bring its reward unless pesti
lence or war or panic intervene.
The preparations for the iegenera
tion of the city administration by
members of the Hamilton club and
others have not been checked, unless
the failure of the council to impeach
the mayor may be so regarded. No
one, however, was much disappointed
at the verdict. Considering the com
position of the council the minority
could not, with consistency have voted
otherwise. But the investigation was
not without good results if only in the
collocation of testimony and witnesses
from which and from whom the grand
jury was able to vote an indictment.
It is hoped by all good citizens that
the mayor may be convicted as
charged. That there are great tech
nical difficulties in the way of convic
tion no one, with even a superficial
knowledge of law, will deny. In con
sideration of which fact good republi
cans Bhould do all in their power to
secure an anti-administration council.
Mr. Bob Malone has shown that he
can be depended upon for a consist
ent and unyielding opposition to
Mayor Graham. The ex-fire chief's
private grievances will keep him in
line with the anti-administrationists
if there were no other reason. On the
other hand the election of Mr. Pinley
strengthens the enemy whom the
Hamilton club was organized to fight.
It is said that there are no better men
in the first ward than the bar
keeper who holds the republican nomi
nation for councilman. On election
day, just enough better men will vote
against Finley to disprove this
assertion.
j
The disturbance at the university
last week was only another demon
stration by the professional agitators
who still infest that institution that
any efforts to inforce law and order
will be received by them with shouts
of derision and efforts to incite a rev
olution against the constituted
authorities. There is probably not
another college library in the country
where silence is not stringently en
forced. Librarian Epps' attempt to
drive the noisy flirtations out of the
library and to reduce the confusion
caused by the students' perversion of
it into a cloak room is wholly com
mendable, and Tub Courier wishes
liim eventual success. The experience
of a great many years with the pro
fessional agitators in the university
teaches that their judgment is poor,
their motives treacherous (instigated
by something or somebody besides the
ostensible cause of disturbance) and
their ultimate expufcion essential to
the welfare of the university. The
harm was done years ago when de
fiance of the authorities was allowed
to go unpunished and the impression
was made that the students were the
court of last appeal and that the
faculty and regents were only the
nominal agents of authority. Such
a presumption gives the Kearney type
of politicians among the student body
a position of advantage whenever
there is a conflict of opinion between
the students and members of the
faculty. The noisy demonstrations
led by the professional agitators do
not accomplish much and those who
are acquainted with the situation are
able to put the blame, where it be
longs, on the shoulders of a very few.
Still these disturbances which recur
about once or twice a year, injure the
reputation of what is admitted to be
one of the best schools in this country.
But the traditions of one set of sand"
hill orators are handed down to their
successors, and it will require a sur
prise in the shape of a suspension of
the leaders of the mob to discourage
the habit of revolution which gentle
and concilatory methods have culti
vated to thejr present strength.
Elsewhere in these columns there
is a reference to the unusual interest
which men who are not accustomed to
playing the game of politics with any
particular zeal, are taking in the
coming election. It is a fact that
men who have never thought it worth
while to exert what influence they
possess, who have never held any
oftice and who have no desire for polit
ical distinction have made up their
many minds as one mind to elect a
good council, that it may be of suffic
ient strength to overbalance the may.
or's veto and reduce his administra
tive influence to the minimum. These
plain, undecorated citizens hold the
balance of power but it is only once in
a decade that they see the necessity
of using it. They are too busy buying
goods at wholesale and selling them at
retail, feeding bunches of cattle and
sending them to market by the car
load, in storing and shipping grain,
preaching sermons, in teaching turbu
lent youth and in making out ab
stracts of real estate, to spend much
time in making up their minds in the
selection of councilmen, memlers of
the school board and the excise board
and police judge. Theyhaveonly been
turned aside from the exclusive con
templation of their own affairs by the
steady drop in real estate values
caused by a constantly increasing tax
assessment made necessary by the
misapplication of the city's income,
by brackish drinking water and evi
dence that it was kept brackish for
private gain, and lastly and least by
the late testimony of firemen and po
licemen regarding the mayors meth
ods of deciding upon the merits of
applicants for city jobs. These usually
uncomplaining voters are aroused and
the mayoi's conduct in dismissing
those who testified against him in
Giesler's court is exasperating them
still further. Even the first ward Is
expected to give expression to the
general indignation by not returning
bar-keep Finley to his seat in the coun
cil chamber. If the result shows that
the regenerating efforts have reached
the "foorst" there is indeed cause for
jubilation in the church and residence
districts.
J
Some of the critics who are now ob-.
jecting to the minstrel show given by
the girls at the university last week
are those who laughed loudest at the
Slayton jubilee singers who sang to
the audiences gathered at Lincoln
park last summer. These singers have
a repertoire of coon songs so old that
no amateur would dare to try them on
anything but a church audience. Yet
these professionals' old jokes and old
songs were received with the wildest
enthusiasm. The Slaytons. when
they left Lincoln park, where they had
received the adulation levied by
heaven born genius from the average
handiwork of the Creator, were almost
unmanageable. They did not under
stand why singers of such sweetness
and power should be forced to return
to a round of performances in little
country school-houses and the man
ager had to let them try themselves
on an ordinary opera house before he
could convince them of their sphere
in life. The critics of the university
girls' show evidently have accepted
the Slaytons as the standard and be
cause the girls called themselves min
strels instead of jubilee singers this
generation has to be warned against
them. The Courier can assure the