-&r?r
VOL.13. NO. 50.
BSTABL1SHBD IN 1886
PRICE F1VB CENTS.
-. ---
LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY. DECEMBER IT. 1898.
EhTZUDIH THB FOflTOmCK AT LINCOLN AS
SBCOMD CLASS MATTES.
PUBLISHED EVERT SATURDAY
BT
Iff COURIER PRIKTIIG AND PUBLISHIN6IG0
Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs.
Telephone 384.
SARAH B. HARRIS,
Editor
Subscription Kateo In Advance.
Per annum $100
8ix months 75
Three months 50
One month 20
Single copies 05
Thb Coubixk will not bo responsible for toI
untary communications unless accompanied by
return pottage.
Communications, to receire attention, must
be siamed bj ttie full name of the writer, not
merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for
publication if adrisable.
g OBSERVATIONS.
1
In last weet's fcsue of The Courier
a statement ws made that the county
taxes during three years on certain
pieces of property in Lincoln were
1,027.00, and that the city taxes for
the same time on the same properties
were 81,028.00. The properties re
ferred to are some thirty-three lots in
widely separated parts of the city and
an irregular tract of land known as
the Runyan place south of the city.
The county and city taxes on these
holdings in three years amounts to
the same, lacking one dollar. The
News of this city accuses these figures
of lying. But the tax receipts can be
inspected at this office by anyone who
cannot believe that the county gov
ernment costs as much as the city
and think? that the substitution of
an aristocratic or oligarchic form of
government would be an economical
change for the city. T1,e county tax
is supposed to be less than one-half
the city tax. Yet on these thirty
three lots in different parts of the city
the county and cit taxes are the
same, and the money has been paid
into the county feasury. It really
appears that reform is necessary in the
county government. The county com
missioners are supposed to be in ses
sion all the time. It is a matter of
record that they have cot allowed any
claims for several months. In the last
year the city has put in a new pump
ing station and has appropriated a
large sum for paving repairs, yet the
levy has been decreased to a trifling
extent. The county government made
an estimate of expenses which has
fallen short $19,000.00 of meeting the
expenses. That gave them a claim at
election time of having reduced the
exp nses 2i mills.
Before adopting the county form of
government as a municipal model it
should be shown that the county
commissioners are not tools of the
bosses, that the trust funds in their
care are administered conscientiously
and with a single eye to the interests
of the people who have contributed
them.
Why have the commissioners never
attempted to recover the 138,000 lost
by ex-cunty treasurer S. W. Burn
hani? Nobody has ever mentioned it
and it is with some hesitation
that I approach a subject appar
ently tabooed. It is said in ex
planation that the county commission
ers authorized Mr. Burnham to place
the money in the Capital National
bank, but this is irrelevant, the treas
urer had a bond and in a few years
the bond will be outlawed and it will
be too late for the county to recover
anything. There seems to have been
no sucli regard for ttie feelings of poor
Maxej Cobb and his heirs, or even for
E'mer Stevenson. As a matter of pub
lic interest the reasons .for this ret
icence on the part of the newspapers
and the failure on the part of the
county commissioners to make any
attempt to recover on the bond should
be investigated.
Every year the delinquent tax list is
printed in some newspaper in the
county. The Journal has always
printed one list and, as the paper of
the largest circulation in this county,
there are good reasons why it should
continue to do so. But readers of the
Journal and the News who are likely
to be misled by their praise of the
county commissioners' genius for ad
ministration should reflect that the
editors are speaking of their largest
patron The county paid about 82,
400 00 thisyear for the printing of these
lists and the contract is awarded by
the county commissioners. The city
is a much more modest patron of the
newspapers.
1 lie three councilmen plan is a bad
one for the very reason that it does
resemble the county government
The Courier is opposed to any
change in the city government which
will render it less democratic and
which will make it easier for the
bosses to direct the people's patronage.
Suppose the city council of Chicago
were composed of three men now,
when Mr. Yerkes is trying to obtain
from it a fifty-five year's exclusive
franchise to the streets of Chicago?
If every man has his price the affairs
of the people are safer in the hands of
fourteen men than in three, because
some men hold their honor many
thousand dollars dearer than other
men, and there are very few men or
corporations able to buy fourteen
counciimen (republican), at their own
price. The Courier believes that
the ordinary Lincoln citizen comes
high and so long as millionaire bood
lers are very scarce here our liberties
are safe if we retain the popular form
of government, which is a modifica
tion of the old town meeting.
In these last days of the last month
of the year The Courier is grateful
that during the year just past, the
council, in nearly fifty-two sessions,
has sturdily opposed a major whom
the courts are now trying for the
offense of selling appointments and
have for the first time defeated the
selfish plans of the local boss. The
wholesome sentiment which was
aroused by the discovery of the may
or's bargaining has not died out, and
it is this sentiment which will foil
any attempt to lessen the popular
character of the city council. Mem
bers of that body have been extrava
gant but they have shown that they
were sensitive to appeals and the
majority have at all times preserved
an irreproachable political integrity.
This eentiment should be fostered
and the virtues of the present council
should be recognized and not rebuked
by a rejection of the system which has
kept us out of the pitfalls laid for the
city by those who would batten upon
it. The hard work of arousing the
citizens to a consciousness that
the financial burdens laid upon them
by boss rule might be thrown off by a
more discriminating use of the ballot,
has been accomplished. The last two
years has witnessed a revival of in
dividual responsibility, which the sub
stitution of a more aristocratic form
of city government might quench.
There is every reason to conclude
from recent council history that a
cycle of development has commenced.
Contrariwise there is no sign of life in
the county government.
The decision of the United States
members of the joint commission of
Americans and Canadians now ar
ranging a reciprocity treaty between
this country and Canada, not to ad
mit Canadian lumber free is an in
stance of the influence of the money
power upon committees. If the vast
forests of Canada were thrown open to
this country only a very few large
lumber dealers would lose by such a
measure and the lumber business
of the rest of the country would be
stimulated. The forests of America
are being rapidly destroyed for the
benefit of a few lumber companies
whose directors care nothing at all
about the influence of forests upon
climate and rainfall, although the
two are intimately related and the
destruction of the forest means
drought and death to man and beast.
The companies do not study arbori
culture, but politics, and they keep
smooth agents at Washington who
have been instructing Ihe American
members of the Canadian American
commission about the necessity of
standing firm on the lumber tariff
when they reached that subject. The
same papers which have derided the
German emperor for the discrim.
(nation against American pork,
that has forced his people to
eat cats and dogs and horses
when it was necessary to satisfy their
carnivorous appetites, uphold the
decision of the commission in favor of
the retention of the lumber tariff,
though every humble workman who
owns either house or furniture, or for
that matter every one who rents a
lodging, furnished or unfurnished,
pays tribute to the lumber companies.
The only principle a protective tariff
relies upon is that It encourages home
industries, but in this case the raw
material, the lumber, is being rapidly
consumed at theexpenseof the climate
and fertility. There is therefore a
double reason why the American
market should be given free access to
the Canadian forests, reasons which
appeal to the most fanatical protec
tionists. The success of the lobby
with the commission in this item of
lumber, besides postponing the free
commercial intercourse which should
obtain between British Columbia and
Columbia, is an indication of the
ubiquity and power of the agents of
trusts at the capital of the nation.
In selecting the United States sen
ator the members of the legislature
will doubtless examine the record of
the lives of the candidates m far as
they have lived them. It will, in
effect, be a sort of civil service exam
ination. There are eight men, some
of whom are acknowledged candidates
before the legislature for the most
honorable office of United States sen
ator. These men are 3Ir. Hay ward of
Nebraska City, Mr. Field, Mr. Lam
bertson. Mr. Whedon, Mr. II. E. Moore
Mr. Thompson, of Lincoln, Mr. Web
ster of Omaha and Mr. nainer of
North Platte. All but one of these
men are leaders of the republican
party in this state. If any man can
be said to deserve such an expression
of confidence from a people, any one
of these men deserves such recogni
tion. To these men and others like
them the republican party owes its
standing and influence, not to the
overseers and whippers-in for the sake
of the offices and the fostering of pri
vate schemes by public patronage.
By able addresses on questions of
public policy, by studious h'abits, by
an acknowledgment of citizenship In
not seeking to evade any of the just
burdens of taxation, or any of the re
sponsibilities which a republic divides
among its members, these republican
leaders have demonstrated their worth
and eligibility to almost the highest
place an American can fill. Tiie hon
ors they have won have redounded to
the credit of the republican party and
they cannot be ignored and a man
selected outside of the succession with
out causing a mutiny which will de.
stroy the party in this state. Not the
defalcation of Bartley or Moore, nor
the revelations concerning corrupt
rings, can disrupt, discourage or dis
gust the party as completely as the
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