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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (March 18, 1899)
L- - VOL. XIV. NO. XI BSTABLISHBD IN 188G PRICE F1VB CENTS ? .; ?. 1 LINCOLN. NBBR., SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1800. Entered in the roBTomcE at Lincoln as SECOND CLASS HATTEB. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY Bt THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS, Editor Subscription Kateo In Advance. Per annum 1 00 8ix months " Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Coubieb will not bo responsible for vol. untary communications unless accompanlod by return postage Communications, to rocolve attontlon, must bo signed by ttiolull namo of thp writer, not moroly as a miarantoo of good faith, but for publication if advisable, 1 s OBSERVATIONS. 4oo'i The discovery that Mr. Thompson was willing to join the populist party or any other which would elect him to the senate undermines his inlluence with the professional politicians who, whatever their vices, are loyal to the party which has given them place and a certain amount of power. Thete are shocked by his offer to b3 a little American, to oppose the policy of the administration, in short, to accept, more or less succinctly, the Chicago platform. They wore not shaken by the evidence In regard to his use of the city water, while he was supposed to be using well water, and were unmoved by evidence in regard to his orders to the Mayor to plug the Mockett well. Nor wore they aroused by his connection with the Capital National Bank scandal. All such conduct, or worse, may be expected of a ward boss. But an offer to sell out the party is quite another thing. It is Impossible to have the friendship and support of two oppos ing parties. Nor does a traitor ever fully gain the confidence and respect of the party ho trades allegiance with. It is human nature to remember, and the man who has been willing to re nounce long-time friends and assocl. ates, may In turn find it expedient to renounce the new associates and break raith with them, for the gain of pel' or power. In the case of Mr. Thompson, in quiry even among the humblest and least particular of those he has count ed upon to work for his schemes, dis cover? a lack of enthusiasm fur their former guide, philosopher, and friend. In consequence, Lincoln republicans arc no longer divided into Thompson and anti-Thompson factions. Men of the former faith, who will avow it, arc hard to find, and the city schism is in the way of being healed. A statement of the results of Mr. Thompson's unsuccessful campaign would be Incomplete without a recog nition of the removal from city poli tics of this heretofore schismatic in lluence. Ills place will be taken, sooner or later by someone else ; but in the meantime, if the citizens really want an epoch of good government, they can secure it with less exertion now. Tiie testimony before the govern ment court of inquiry investigating the beef controversy has convinced ttiose who have read the reports, that an army going into a tropical country should be victualed with special re gard to the effects of heat upon foods, and especially upon fatty foods. Now the Cuban army commissariat was the same as if it had been an expedition to the North Pole, where the human tires must be fed almost exclusively upon fats, oils, and foods which make heat. It is because we have not had much of an army, and because we have kept what we had In the temper ate zone, that a daily beef ration is considered indispensable. Inhabitants of the tropics do not subsist on a meat diet, but if meat had not been fur nished the soldiers we sent to Cuba, the terrifying howl of the carnivora would still have startled the secretary in his office. The silkworm is not more prejudiced about the necessity of the mulberry leaf to his existence than is the ordinary American man convinced that hisstrength and work ing capacity depend upon the meat he eats three times a day. Therefore it would have been hard to convince the soldier of the tropics that he did not need meat. Chicago began it by twitting Kan sas City and Missouri about acquitting Jesse James for train robbery. Kansas City answered by saying that her butchers had not. formed the habit of boiling their wives in the sausage vat. Country people cannot see much dif ference in the quality, enormity and number of the crimes committed in any large city. Wherever people are herded together in unassorted crowds, the abnormal and the degenerate seem to be more frequent than the healthful, just as it seems as if there were more accidents and murders than there were fifty years ago, when the world was notsifted every twenty-four hours of everything except the unex pected and the morbidly interesting. The morning paper is a chronicle of the degenerate. We should be greatly encouraged that yesterday, among a billion people, only a few committed murder, arson, and robbery. Every morning we read the minutes of yes terday's world, kept by the Associated Press. Neither Chicago nor Kansas City nor New York, nor London, nor Paris Is as bad as it Is good. Hut the bad get into the police courts, and from there into the papers. Thus the record is a very black ono, and mem bers of the W. C. T. U. and other sooi ties which were organized to hinder the evil and help the good, frequently become exasperated and discouraged because they do not sec life whole. Kansas City is black in spots, and so Is Chicago. Neither is entitled to call names and throw stones. Though, to the outsider, the indignation of all Missouri when Jesse James was ac cused of train robbery, and the pecu liarly cold blooded wife murders com mitted by the Chicago butchers, Luet gert and Becker, seem characteristic of Kansas City and Chicago crime, both cities resent the conclusion so decidedly that we are forced to with draw the charges Public speakers who attack the ad ministration are running risks of los ing their audiences. The Piesident has moved slowly, and most of the people have kept up with him and the inevitable progress of events since the declaration of war against Spain. The boys who are fighting the treacherous insurgents in tliePhilippincs are quite likely to have friends and relatives in every audience, and the criticism of conceited preachers and of politicians whose popularity wanes because the people have small interest in a pana cea which failed, may be printed and reach the Insurgents, and encourage them to assassinate the brave young soldiers standing guard around the American flag in the Philippines. Most preachers profess to believe that the Lord rules. They believe Ho led the children of Israel into bond age and out of it was with Rome as long as the Empire represented the highest civilization, was against the Saracens at the battle of Tours, helped the Pilgrims to establish themselves on this Continent, was on die Ameri can side in the Revolution, and wason the Union side in the Rebellion. They profess to believe that in every strug gle of the past where right triumphed and a less spiritual religion than the Jewish wasdiscouraged, it was because of an overruling providence which was leading men by the most direct path to a higher development. Now, since the war began, there surely has been a leading, and it is a daily cause for gratitude that the President of this country has prescience enough and humilty enough to remember that he is only a man and, in consequence, can take orders and hints from a higher intelligence. There are many who believe that Secretary Alger Is a mistake, and that the commissary sys tem was unequal to the demands of a suddenly increased army upon it, and that untrained quartermasters made a mess of it; but nevertheless the Presi dent, since the war began, has made no mistake in policy or prudence, and while the American soldiers are fighting the battles of civili zation for America across the ocean, It is fiendishly, selfishly inconsistent for Americans to instil a distrust of thcr nd ministration into savage breasts. The President has said nothing and done nothing to give even the profes sional orator reason to say that he means todestroyautouomicaliinpulscH in the Philippines, and it is treason able and silly to preach rebellion against a policy as .yet unannounced. The Philippines must come to order before any policy can be announced, and Uncle Sam is Just the speaker to enforce It. If he retired from the howling, disorderly mob headed by Aguinaldo, he might have trouble to keep his possessions in Nortli America, let alone the Philippines. He would be scorned by England, Germany, and even Italy. From present appearances, it will take several years before we can turn over the Philippines in good order to the inhabitants who will have learned a system of government. In the meantime the heads of the commissary department might profitably study the foods of a tropical climate and their fitness to sustain the life and strongth of an American soldier brought up on beef and pork a soldier whose father, grandfather, and great grandfather were also fed on meat. An clastic menu composed of an assortment of foods to suit the temperate and frigid zones and the equatorial belt would produce greater harmony in the army and tend to the diffusion of that sat isfaction which sets in after a cooling and delicious meal on a hot day, and a warming and delicious meal on a cold one. The only trouble Is, that the army seems to have a system which, whether it conform to the needs of the officers and privates or not, Is fixed, and can be changed only by leg islation. The fixity of certain things which should be flexible is illustrated by the army rations under considera tion. It is meat and beans for an ex pedition to Alaska. It is meat and beans for Cuba and the Philippines. It is meat and beans for the stations in the United States, in spite of the degrees between Dallas arid Manitoba. There is little scientific adjustment between climate and diet in the army. Government contracts with the pack ers are made on the basis of so many men to feed, and thebeeflsscnttotho different posts regardless of climatic conditions, usually, It must be con fessed, in a good state or preservation. w Secretary Alger lias decided that the now law in reference to the canteen simply provides against liquor being sold by an officer or private. The ad mirable system of turning back the profits of the canteen into the regi mental fund would be Interrupted If the canteen should be destroyed! The control of all liquor sold to soldiers should be vested in the commandant,
