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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1899)
r, - -4 VOL. XIV. NO. XIII HSTABLISHBD IN 1880 PRICE F1VH CENTS. LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY, APRIIo 1, 1801). Entered in the pobtoffice at Lincoln as second clabb hatter. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY Bt M COURIER PRINTING UNO PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N Btreet, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. BARAH B. HARRIS, Editor Subscription Kate In Advance. Per annum - 9100 Six months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Courier will not bo responsible for vol. untary communications unless accompanied by return postage. Communications, to rocoivo attention, must bo sianod by tno full namo of tbo wrltor, not moroly as a guaranteo of good faith, but for publication if advisable : OBSERVATIONS. 1 L'V0O''3 It is reported that the saloon keep ers of Lincoln subscribed a certain sum of money and placed it in the hands of Messrs.Billingsley and Greene .with instructions to see that Excise men narpham and Brown were de feated and Messrs. Bartlett and Barth nominated to take their place. Bo hemians were brought in loads to the polling places and it is supposed that they voted for the choice of the saloons. Supported by sucli an ele ment the republican nominees for ex cisemen run a risk of being dofeated by the votes of all the poople who be lieve that saloons should be closed and opened and conducted as the law prescribes. Tlie impructical who bo lieve that saloons and all drinking can be abolished are not in sympathy with the Slocum law or wluh any law which seeks to mitigate the evils of the sa loon and prevent minors having any access to it, nevcrtkeleso there is no such thing as prohibition in fact in the states where it is a part of the law. On the other hand where the saloon law is rigidly enforced, minors are protected and drinking places are closed at reasonable hours. With a conscientious mayor, the disgraceful immunity enjoyed by the Llndell sa loon would be revoked. The public spirited have long hoped that a ndw regime would be inaugurated with a new mayor but with an excise board in sympathy with the saloons the most indefatigable and upright mayor can not enforce the law against the saloons or againstgumbllng or against anything else whlcli makes the mod ern city a Gomorrah. On another page of this issue a quo tation from an article on municipal misrule by Prof. Baldwin in the April Self Culture, is printed. Writers on economic subjects all 'over the coun try are trying to lind out why it is that American cities are run for the benefit of a few politicians willing to go to the trouble of scraping the low places at every primary for the votes they need. Many of these writers agree that it is because the enemies of society are united, while the good people are divided and vote for this or that exciseman or mayor under the impression that they are voting to sustain the national administration or against it, and that their vote will have an iniluence upon free trade, ex pansion or projection. The questions winch concern the city and the citi zens are let alone by the men who shout the loudest on the Fourth of July and arc frantically enthusiastic wtienever a procession of soldiers goes by or the achievments of the United States are rhetorically mentioned. They do not realize that when men like Mr. Barth are nominated at the primaries, it is because they lovers of law and order, faithful attendants at church and devoted to all kinds of ornamental goodness have stayed at home or In their olllcea and shops and allowed the rabble that hangs about saloons to nominate a man who will do their bidding. It makes very little difference what party such a man belongs to. The rabble is clever and rarely makes a mistake in choosing an instrument. The question that every man who thinks lie loves his country ought to settle before he votes for the nomi nees of the saloon crowd, Is whether such men as excisemen will run the town wide open or will enforce laws made to protect unsuspicious and in experienced youth from temptation. It is an auspicious sign when the ministers of any town begin to lament and denounce local iniquity. It is an unpopular thing to dp. Politicians have always insisted that a preacher should denounce sin in general terms and if he must particularize it is his business to select a Turkish or Ger man or English or Spanish sin. It was not so that Jeremiah or Jonah preached to the kings and prominent men of Israel, but then they were never very popular and they owed the discomfort of their days to the intense interest they took in purely local matters. The sermon of the Reverend Arthur Frost Newell last Sunday on corrup tion in Lincoln and the men and the ring responsible for it (aided by in different taxpayers) reminded me of the old prophets denouncing cruelty and robbery and lust. There is little doubt. that the ministers of Lincoln caamake it a better city if they will examine the state of tilings as they actually exist here and exhort the in different pewholders to lay aside na tional politics and vote for men in the coming city election who aro under no obligations to the enemies of society. The iinancial condition of the city is improving slowly. But the mayor has used his otlice to grant illegal favors to the saloon keepers and tlie gamblers. Reform was never more urgent, but it is questionable if it can be accomplished. The election of Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Barth would be a calamity, considering the condi tions of their nomination, but the men who elect them under such au spices will have no business to com plain when whiskey is sold to their minor sons and the saloons are run wide open all night and all day on Sunday. Democracy as extiibi ted In the mu nicipal government of America is, so far, a failure. Municipal democracy on this side the ocean is an oligarchy of tlie vicious and the dishonest. The residents of the city who pay the taxes, or tlie sum-collected from each one on the basis of what lie owns, have practically the least to say about how the money is spent. It is actually ppent In salaries 1o incompetent poli ticians whose one accomplishment is a knowledge of how to work the prima ries and in Jobs. It should be spent on public improvements and In wages to specialists in sanitation, city police government, and city leg islation. But so long as the idea is strongly imbedded that the tax contributions from the community belong to the boys, the taxpayers, many of tlie heaviest of whom in Lin coln are women, will continue to be robbed. If the funds were properly administered, there would be enough to pave the streets, to dismiss the drunken policemen and hire sober, intelligent men, to redeem the bonds, to build new schools, and after all tliis was accomplished to lower the taxes and make Lincoln a desirable city to emigrate to, Taking the de pression in real estate into considera tion witti the rate of taxation, Lincoln has been avoided by prospecting trav ellers, which fact has lowered the de mand and depressed values. The de pression is di'ectly therefore the re sult of maladministration and there is very little prospect, even when other property advances, that real estate will be perceptibly affected. It is said that seventy per cent of a people must become disaffected before a revolution can take place. Not un til the rule of the worst and the few has become so oppressive as to inter fere more seriously with the rights of the citizens than at present will enough of them be willing to discard national issues in local politics and destroy tlie system which has been de stroying them. The deatji of Clerk Sam E. Low, of the district court, in a health resort in New Mexico was not unexpected, as he lias been suffering with an acute pulmonary affection for months. In cipient tuberculosis Induced him to come to Nebraska twelve years ago and his health was greatly Impovert by the change, but lie disoboyed the essential condition of a complete cure, an open air existence, and lias been steadily falling for a year. Mr. Low was only thirty-three years old. He had a remarkable gift of friendship, a birthright as dllllcultof cultivation as tlie poetic Instinct. All men, except a few degenerates, loved him and Ills popularity was a tribute to his amiable character, his kindliness, probity and ability. Ills dark, sorrowful eyes, larger for the pain he suffered and the consciousness that his pilgrimage was nearly over, lighted a face of unusual beauty and strength. He was much beloved by his associates and the community which elected him district clerk had never any reason to regret it. He be longed to that small class of politi cians who are nominated because of a unanimous conviction whlcli some times seizes a convention that the candidate is all right and eminently fitted for the place lie asks for. In Mr Low's case, lie received the nom ination in spite of an evil Influence exerted against him, and his nomina tion and election was one of the first signs of the waning power of that influence. Mr. Low's intimate friends were perhaps few in number, (for, in spite of his large sympathies, he was re served and unlikely to make advances), but among the few who asked and to whom he gave confidence and affec tion, his loss is sharply regretted. Mr.' tow's parents live at Stuttgart;, Ark. ne has three brothers and one sister. Along witli the regret that Ameri can soldiers arc being wounded and killed in Luzon comes the conviction that the United States can do no less than reduce the natives to order. A policy which woufd leave the islands we have started to rescue in insurrec tlon and the prey of any nation which chooses to conquer them, is incompre hensible and would make us rcdlcu Jous to tlie world of nations. Tlie politicians who advocate so silly and vacillating a policy aro suspected of duplicity or self deception. If this is not what ails them It is something, worse, in the nature of softening of. t)ie brain or a deterioration of the gray matter that does the thinking. It is being proven by the army in vestigating board, that the great American stomach which rejected the canned productsof a great Ameri can Industry were Justlfledin so do ing. Tho soldiers who persisted in oating the canned meat In splteof the warning nausea, paid for It by sickness. The investigations of the board are conducted with a thorough ness and an absence of policy that en courages everybody, and especially friends of the private soldier, to be-.
