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VOL. XIV. NO. XIII
HSTABLISHBD IN 1880
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LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY, APRIIo 1, 1801).
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:
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-.
