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THE COURIER.
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present counsel. This year an im
mense expense lias been incurred in
the unnecessary grading of streets. As
an example of the expenditure of
money which cannot be justified or
defended, may be cited the grading
of Nineteenth street from A street
to D street, directly west of and adja
cent to the Fitzgerald property. There
are but three houses along the street
where the grading was done and the
condition of the street was not such
as to require the expendituie of a sin
gle doliar in grading, vet money was
there expended which ought to be re
covered from the members of the coun
cil who voted for the expenditure.
This is but one example of hundreds
that might be cited of reckless ex
travagance in the expenditure of pub
lic money by the council. The de
linquent tax list ought to admonish
the council to curtail expenses but it
has no such effect. Men charged with
the duty of administering municipal
affairs continue to expend money and
contract debts which raut be paid by
taxation in a manner that is inexcus
able if not criminal. Recntly a con
tract was let to pave Eleventh street
from the north line of O street to the
south line of M street, excluding the
M street intersection and so much of
the O street Intersection as is required
to be paved by the street railway com
pany. The contract calls for the pav
ing of approximately 2,400 y:'rds of
street aud alley intersections at a cost
of $2 yer yard, or a total of $4,800 for
intersections. When this contract
was let there was in the intersection
fund 12,400 in round numbers, and no
more which was applicable to the pay
ment of the expense of paving inter
sections, or one half the amount which
the city agreed to pay under the con
tract. It is reported that the city at
torney gave it as his opinion that the
road fund might be applied to paying
the cost of paving intersections, but
this is impracticable, because the
ceuncil insists on dissipating the road
fund by the unnecessary grading of
streets. The paving company is per
forming its contract and when it has
finished its work the entire intersec
tion fund will have been expended in
paving the intersections including in
repaving district No. 1 and the balance
will be collected by a general tax
levied to collect the judgment which
the paving company will get against
the city in the federal court. The re
paving of the streets is an absolute
necessity and it could be accomplished
without increasing the burdens of pub
lic taxation aside from special assess
'ments if the council would practice
economy. It is determined not to do
so. Upon the republican party, which,
by a large voting majority controls
the city council, must rest and doen
rest the responsibility for the prevail
ing recklessness in the expenditure of
public mosey. To that party, locally,
a stinging rebuke ought to be adminis
tered and the time to administer i; is
now. Every candidate on the county
republican ticket ought to be defeated
at the election in November. Not be
cause candidates on other tickets are
better men but because the men
whom the republican party have
elected have proved recreant to their
trust. They should be defeated as an
emphatic protest on the part of the
taxpayers against the criminal ex
travagance of republican officials. It
is no answer to say that now no city
oScialsare to be elected; the republi
caa party has its candidates before the
people and it is the party which de
serves castigatioB because its repre
seatatives intentioaally increase in an
ualawfal manner the hardens of taxa
tion. If the voters will now avail
themselves of the opportunity afforded
aad by defeating every republican can
eWateoa the county ticket the result
will be that the council will heed the
warning and will enter upon a system
of retrenchment that will bear fruit
in the future and entrench the repub
lican party in power so long as its
representatives perform their duty.
The Chicago Record- says: "It is
one of the happiest outcomes of the
peace celebration that it was the
means of bringing President McKin
ley to the west." That's funny. Ne
braska was under the impression that
the president came west to see our
sh'w and the people on the els Missis
sippi side. On his way back he stopped
in Chicago to help the citizens cele
brate, but without him the show was
only two or three hundred miles of
bunting and a few only comparatively
great men like Dr. Thomas, Bishop
Fallows, the Rev. Jenkins, Lloyd
Jones, the Rev.Hirsch and Booker
Washington. President McKinley
made a great speech in Omaha, the
best speech he ever made, and one of
the few long speeches worth 'eadicg
and preserving. If he bad come west
solely to see Chicago celebrate peace
be would have made his best speech
to the people on the lake. But he did
not. Our own truly great men, Sena
tors Thurston and Allen. Jlr. Mander
son and Mr. Wattles, invited him to
Omaha and he accepted the invitation
and stopped in Chicago on his way
home.
Pennsylvania is at last on the point
of ridding herself of a rascal who has
stolen state money and corrupted both
democrats and republicans for many
jears. Quay is a type of man unfor
tunately represented in every state
and more dangerous to free govern
ment than scores of anarchists. With
out any party affiliations, without
ideals, without- respect for humanity,
they deal in politics as better men do
in merchandise. When such a man
gets a hold in politics he is hard to
dislodge. All honest men have known,
since the New York World several
years ago published his life, that
Quay had embezzled public moneys.
Yet Harper's Weekly says that this
year both the republican and demo
cratic candidates are of his selection.
Of coarse such a condition of affairs
is the fault of the people who are too
cowardly to destroy a complicated re
gime established by a criminal. In
the beginning-Quay, like other small
traders, got control of the situation in
his own town, later the state felt his
power, and now at the national capi
tal, says Harper's Weekly, "he wields
a great influence, so that the whole
nation is interested in his downfall."
For the politicians of all parties in
Nebraska the bondage of Pennsylvania
from which the citizens have been
trying for so long to free themselves
is worth contemplating. Mr. Quay is
without personal friends or admirers
but his control was established and has
been prolonged by means which, when
employed ambitiously and cunning
ly, are of serious menace to personal
liberty. The steps by which Quay
mounted was upon the necks of waid
politicians. "Despise, ignore and cheat
the multitude, but put under con
tinued obligation every hundredth
man who controls his ward or pre
cinct. Make every one of these men
believe that his good living depends
upon me," has been Quay's rule of pro
cedure and so far it has brought him
rich returns. No vice so universal as
cowardice, not personal, but that
which springs from the fear of losing
or decreasing the means of livlihood.
If there is a man in Lincoln who
picks out this or that candidate for
his favor, without regard to party, who
cultivates and rewards and threatens
ward heelers, who has an inordinate
love of money, who has no friends in
LJJJJkJsJ&JJpw
1224 O St., Lincoln, Neb.
This fall we are showing' a very strong" line
of medium furniture, carpets, curtains and
draperies. Here are two of our leaders in din
ing room furniture.
Solid oak dining table,
top 42 inch square, very
heavy and will last a life
time. Six foot length,
$6.50;eight foot length $8.
FREIGHT PAID ONE
the real and poetical sense of the
word but only in the political and
commercial, who expresses contempt
for the ballot and the staple votes that
are put iato it, who boasts that he
never voted himself, who announces
that it is all one to him whether pop
ulists or republicans are elected, and
that the former's price is a little
lower, then by these signs, that man
is not a good American, he is an
enemy to American institutions and
a traitor to the high ideals of the
founders of this government. In the
stimulated patriotism caused by our
recent victories and the progress of
the president, such a man is seen in
his true light.
Until Quay got into office it was not
supposed that he had any such am
bition for himself, but when he got
control of the men that could swing
fifty or a hundred or two hundred
votes, he announced his designs upon
the United States senate and his
creatures in the legislature sent him
there.
The community's verdict of any
man can be trusted. If in a whisper
the timid elements say to each other
that such and such a citizen is en
tirely lacking in honor and morality,
such and such a citizen has received a
juster estimate than will be writ upon
his tombstone.
The editorial alluded to, which
amounts to a memorial of Quay, con
cludes with these words of striking
verisimilitude: "His silence under
the charges is significant. He enter
tains a cynical contempt for the people
of the state. He believes that they
have not virtue enough to punish
him. He feels safely intrenched in
his castle of vice."
Mr. H. W. Hardy's letter to the
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CO.,
Solid oak dining
chair, cane seat, brace
arm. A very good
thing. "We sell six of
them for $5.
HUNDRED MILES.
council is full of practicable sugges
tions as to how the city expenses may
be reduced so that they do not exceed
by one hundred dollars per day. as
they do now, the income It is un
fortune that some members of the
council pay so small a proportion of
taxes. Tneir constant endeavor is to
spend money rather than to save it.
The trouble is that the street com
missioner and his aids, firemen, po
licemeot, water department employes
and the city treasurer and his ex
employes stand at the ear of the
councilmen ever ready to raise a hub
bub of remonstrance when a salary
reduction is urged upon the council.
While the fifty thousand people who
pour an unjust and oppressive tax
into the city treasury to be expended
for foolish and uncessary purposes are
silent. No paper except the Coukiek
dares to urge that the city's income
and outlay shall Le made to balance.
Why? Because the men who absorb
the one hundred dollars a day excess
expenditure are political workers who
control a certain number of voters.
But the people pay for this patronage
that the council distributes so gener
ously and when election day comes,
their bankruptcy be upon their own
heads if the. voters do not remember
to rebuke the party which has refused
to save the city from ruin which "is as
inevitable as though it were a private
citizen who was spending a hundred
dollars a day more than he earned.
The street commissioner is paid to see
that the condition of the streets con
forms with the city ordinances. Does
he do it? Those who are familiar with
Mr. Lindsay's habits report that he
spends an undue proportion of his
time lounging about saloons and ho.
tels and leaving to two other employes
the duties of his position. The health
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