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THE COURIER
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sacrifice the city for their own profit,
who have opposed, Ineffectually, the
effort to get salt water instead of
fresh, because the latter was on the
east of the city and the salt on the
west, who, on one occasion after mid
night, induced the city council to
authorize the mayor to sign a contract
with the gas company, which, con
trary to all precedent, was signed by
that worthy before morning, men who
take a wholly selfish interest in the
affairs of the city, it is safe to conclude
that their support is based on a thor
ough knowledge of the candidate and
the liklihood of his response, to the
demands their large interests may re
quire them to make on him in the
future.
All men are selfish, but some have
no appreciation of society as a whole.
They aie like cx-Auditor Moore wh
never stole from anybody as long as he
was a private citizen, but who took
the money belonging to the people of
the state as soon at they placed him in
reach of it. They are lionest enough
when dealing with a man but regard
an aggregation of men as a pirate does
the merchant ships of the seas.
"Whenever the support of these land
pirates is unequivocally sincere it is
perfectly safe for the people to vote
the other way because the interests of
the pirate and other mariners on this
sea of troubles are never identical.
Taxation in Lincoln which has de
stroyed half of the value Of real estate
to pay for rotting wooden blocks, a
preposterous lighting contract, and
the expense of a water department
run for politics only is theresultof the
supremacy of these men . These three
functions improperly and extrava
gantly performed, according to the
dictation of a few men, have come near
bankrupting two-thirds of the popu
lation of this city. The two thirds, of
course, are in the majority and they
can throw off the burden which they
have been freighting for cute politi
clans as soon as they can agree to any
concerted action.
When Kaiser Wilhelm II ascended
the throne of Germany he addressed
his first words to the army. "We be
long together," he faid, "I and the
army. Thus are we indissolubly
united, whether God sends peace or
storm. I vow to remember that the
eyes of my ancestors are looking down
upon me from the other world, and
that it is to them I must be responsi
ble for the glory and honor of the
army."' The eyes of his ancestors,
according to Wilhelm, direct him to
throttle constitutional expression
wherever there is the slightest sign of
weakness; the eyes of his ancestors
direct him to reiterate the divine
right of kings, to. be Germany incorpo
rate, to deify himself, andtodefeat the
reichstag. The directing eyes do not
include a pair (if a spirit still has a
pair) belonging to the present emper
or's father, Frederick 111 who a hun
dred days before the accession of Wil
helm II, issued a proclamation em
phasizing in the most solemn way the
legal and constitutional limits of sov
ereignty. But even if they did, the
eyes of his ancestors would not
be selected as a guide for their
king- by a people who have
already secured a constitution. The
constitution, that record of the
slow experiments of a people in con
quering the privelege of governing
themselves, is a better guide for a
young king than the eyes ot ancestors
long dead and gone to dust. Poultney
Bigelow in "Ten Years of Kaiser Wil
helm" in. the current Century proves
the emperor's bravery but hardly his
judgment or statesmanship. Be aays
he is not sensitive to criticism, but
refutes it in the following: "At the
opening of this year (1888) Germans
have become so accustomed to seeing
men sent to jail on charges of Use
majeete that no riots occur when their
most esteemed editors are sent to
prison for havingexpressed sentiments
shared by the bulk of intelligent
readers."
The kaiser's exaltation of his own
position, even of his own person, above
that of the whole people, is an evi
dence of a common enough form of
insanity wherein the victim claims to
be the ruler of the universe. Over
here we shut these people up.
The popularity of Major Stotzen
burg among the soldiers of his com
many is a tribute to his thoughtful
ness for them. His education has
taught him the needs of a soldier's
life and the dangers wnich threaten
his health. and every private in the
command is in better condition by
reason of Major Stotzenburg's care.
The Nebraska boys, who are some
where the other side of Honolulu, ac
cording to the letters which, they
write, appreciate the major's unsel
fish watchfulness and ascribe their
good health to his precautions and
arrangements for their comfort. The
strife among politicians to secure a
commiss!ou which the privates have a
right to demand shall be bestowed on
a man who lias "been taught how to
look after a regiment, has resulted in
starvation and sanitary horrors at
Tampa and Chicamauga Luckily the
army of the west is better officered
and there have been few complaints
of the commissary or of the condition
of the camp grounds.
J
The immediate result of the Bour
gogne tragedy is the unpopularity of
the French line of passenger boats.
Travellers do not wish to give their
lives into the keeping of a captain
whose crew will not obey him in time
o.f an accident or who has not sand
enough to shoot everybody who re
fuses immediate obedience. The
American and English captains are
autocrats whose authority on board
ship is unquestioned. In calm or
storm there is no discussion about
their divine right to rule. The cap
tain who knows his business and the
dangers of the sea may be democratic
enough on dry land but when his feet
feel the spring and roll of the quarter
deck no absolutism so complete as his
rule. For abandoning discipline the
French line of steamers are deserted
even by Frenchmen who wish to re
turn to their own country. The
passengers who have heretofore been
content with a French boat, a French
captain and a French crew, are sud
denly Anglicised, or Americanised
and the French wharf is deserted.
J
The republican papers which have
been sanctimoniouslv advising presi
dent and congress that it is the duty
of the United States to give back what
territorv the army and navy have
conquered are, since the passage of
the Hawaiian annexation bill unde
termined as to the best way to get
back into entire harmony with the
administration and with the course of
events. They hate been forced to
recognize the inexpediency of making
expensive island presents to France or
Germany or Spain. But having an
nounced that it was inconsistent of
the United States to keep them and
finding themselves contradicted 'by
the policy ofougress and the presi
dent, events jpid by the best contem
porary authorities on what is best.for
America'ln thtese new circumstances,
they are at present unable to treat of
the Phillipines, Cuba and Porto Biro
with the authority of ignorance
which helped them in their first dis
quisitions on the tropic islands. -
The Courier, from the first has
realized the impossibility of doing
anything with the islands, when we
get them, except our United States
best. The worst would be to return
them to the country which has made
the lives of the inhabitants miserable,
or to present fliem to Germany,France
or England. The first would be cruel
and the inhabitants do not deserve it.
The second would be a voluntary con
fession that other nations had a bet
ter form of government than ours and
could administer an island more ac
ceptably to the inhabitants thereof
than Americans. Both of these
courses are unamericau, inconsistent
with the tenets of our government
and disgustingly unpalatable to our
national bird, the eagle.
We must hereafter keep a large
standing army and part of it might
just as well be sent to lean up against
the palmetto trees of Cuba, Porto
Rico and Manilla as to stand all alone
on the treeless plains of the west. The
troops will cost no more on'the islands
than they have on the plains and for
eign travel will give them an air
which will, in time, enable them to
lick the German soldiers, although
Mr. Petersen sajs it can't be done
now.
.
Public sentiment in England in re
gard to the rights of workmen, the
effectiveness of strikes, the duties of
employers, etc., in fact all questions
relating to industry and capitalists
is much in advance or American
opinion. An English manufacturer
is educated to the point where lie ad
mits that a single workman and he
are not in a position to make a free con
tract, and that the union raises its
members to within speaking and rea
soning distance of the employers. In
this country manufacturers and large
employers of labor are apt to regard
all unions as impertinent, anarchical
and unreasonable. The right of the
laborer to the largest share of the pro
duct of his labor is still an unreason
able demand. The steady growth in
membership and in the loyalty of the
members to the various trades unions
is one of the most hopeful signs of in
dustrial progress in this country. The
legislation which has withdrawn chil
dren from competition and placed
them in the public schools is inspired
by workmen ar.d is the direct resaltof
tradesunion discussion and study of
industrial conditions. The unions a-e
transforming the laboring man from a
drudge into a philosopher, from the
slave of capital to an intelligent
partner.
Yet there is rarely any sympathetic
treatment of the labor question in the
daily newspapers The man with the
dinnerpail has the press as well as the
capitalist against him when hestrikes
However fair his demand when a
strike is ordered the public is informed
that the tyrannical workmen have
seized a moment when production can
not be interrupted without great in
jury to the public and loss to the em
ployers, all of which'may be true with
out affecting the justice of the work
men's demands.
In the case of the stereotyper's strike
a greater numoerot extras were issued
than there was any demand for. News
paper rivalry, which is as reckless as
that which used to exist between the
captains of steamboats on the Missis
sippi, and causes as many explosions,
was the reason for the very unreason
able number of extras issued. The
news between the morning and even
ing editions does not accumulate so
rapidly that the general public can
not wait for its publication at ooe or
the other time. The demand of the
stereotypers to be paid in proportion to
their extra labor on the extras not
tyrannical or unfair. Everything else
on the extra is paid for by the pub
lisher, why not the stereotyping? The
publishers say the extras don't pay.
Then why get them out at the ex
pense of the stereotypers? They can
not afford it either and ought not to
be called upon to pay the price of pub
lishers' rivalry. To sum up the case
the publishers since the age of stereo
typing began have been in the habit
of issuing extras on the occasions of
war, fire, murder; or of any sudden or
unexpected calamity. Such extras
doubled the work of the day force of
stereotypers, such service has never
been paid for, therefore the stereotyp
ers' demand for work heretofore
donated, at a time when papers
can be sold every hour, though con
taining nothing really new. is pre
posterous, and the publishers of Chi
cago will not grant it. From the
workmen's point of view the length of
time they have submitted to the un
reasonable demands has nothing to do
with the case and they applied the
philosophy learned at the meetings of
the trades unions and through their
president ordered a strike at ai op
portune moment. An -unprejudiced
examination of the situation jmist re.
suit in the conclusion that the stereo
typers have their quarrel just. x "
The present war with Spain was
undertaken for a little starved and
tortured Cuban humanity It would
be inhuman on the part of the United
States, after subduing our enemy to
return theCubansor the inhabitants
of Manilla into the hands of their ex
asperated enemy. If we should give
their colonial islands back to Spain
we should have to keep an army there
to keep the Spanish soldiery from re
taliating their humiliations upon the
inhabitants. This being so we might
as -well keep an army of occupation
there on our own account and in rder
to help the inhabitants to the particu
lar kind .of freedom enjoyed in the
United States. Not that it lias
reached an ideal development yet, but
jt is the best on earth, and far in ad
vance of the sea island variety. George
Washington seems to be a stumbling
block in the minds of some, to the ab
sorption of inlands by tho. United
State?. George Washington was a
conservative. When the Revolution
began he had no idea that the disso
lution of our colonial relations to
England would be the result; but
events and his own victories con
vinced him that"we were sufficient
unto ourselves. It is given to no man,
not even to the Father of his country,
to define the boundaries of his country
after his death. Abraham Lincoln
committed himself to' no definitions
restricting the geographical extension
of the United States. But lie was
willing to give his life for the union or
the states however distant they might
be, from the capital of the country.
Having detached an island people fom
Spain it is humane, it is imperative to
see that those people have the Lest
form of government there is. It.can
not be found in Spain, nor in Fiance,
nor in Germany. The type which ex
ists in the United States is crude, it
has been corrupted, applied to cities
't is a tyranny, bul it is the best there
is and we have no right to offer the
islanders anything but the best, how
ever unsatisfactory that may be.
A few writers and orators urge that
this war is the only one since nations
began to fight, undertaken for un
mixed humanitarian ism and that, ir
we acquire any territory, the United
States will lose an idea! Sunday
school opportunity of teaching the
world a lesson. In the first place the
immediate cause of war was the sink
ing of the Maine. The antecedent
causes were the suffering of the Cuban
women, children and non-beligerents,
and the corrupt and oppressive colon-
" "nra-iirrtaTirii