VOL. XIV. NO. XIX.
BSTABLISHBD IN 1886
PRICE FIVK CENTS
H l iM m n - - - it iiin"fr Hw " fTmai jifiifck ii m miM B
LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY, MAY 13, 180!).
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second clah8 matter.
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8 OBSERVATIONS
i
1
r0O
The Traction company's case should
be considered by tho city council on
its merits and quite apart from any
other corporation engaged in public
service to the city. That the gas
company chose to increase its capital
stock has nothing to do with the
question of the rate charged the city
or rather it will have nothing to do
with it when the city tlnds out the
cost of supplylnggasand electricity at
the present time with the present
machinery. "What the Traction corn
any will do with the stock when suits
against it have been withdrawn is
not especially the business of the city
now. The gas company was compe
tent to bond its stock to the extent of
paying oh" the cost of construction
and the purchase price and at tho
time It was done, no criticism was
made, on the contrary only admira
tion for Mr. Thompson's method of
paying dividends was expressed. In
fact, this was the point in his career
where his reputation for shrewdness
began to expand, and against tho
transaction I can see no particular
objection.
Tho directory of tho Traction com
pany has shown no disposition to de
fraud tho city, nor to evade its just
obligations. On the contrary, it
Is willing to make concessions
which one of the best lawyers
in tills country advises against.
The Traction company lias also kept
out of city politics. No member of
the present directory can be accused
of attempting to use political influ
ence, though considering tho number
of employes and the value of Its prop
erty there Is the ordinary temptation
which Is presented to corporations.
Should the council refuse the oiler
of the Traction company, and should
the supreme court decide against the
city, as there is verv little doubo that
it will, every member of the council
will be criticised for his action. It
behoves then, each member of the
council to study the items in the suit
against the Traction company. Tho
city is in need of the money now and
can not afford to let prejudice deprive
it of so large a sum, as well as of the
prestige which new cars, a new track
and a completely equipped street
transit company confers upon a city.
The city Is more in need of money
than of the oratory and professions of
devotion ottered by the good Dr.
Farnham. The street railway ques
tion has been enveloped in prejudice
and oratory quite long enough. The
facts are that many citizens who
object to the Traction company's
taking advantage of the ordinance
reducing the penalty to delinquent
taxpayers have taken advantage of
the ordinance themselves. They have
come in and paid the taxes on prop
erty they had decided to relinquish.
The council passed the ordinance to
encourago the property holders to
pay their taxes, preferring tho money
to the long processes at law necessary
to get hold of the property. If any
one has a consistent cause of com
plaint it is the man who has paid his
taxes promptly, but singularly enough
the perfectly solvent citizen, from the
county clerk's point of view, are In
sisting that the Traction company
shall be dealt with without prejudice.
Confiscation of tho road on the
score of unpaid taxes is being urged
by our populist friends. They say it
can be run at a profit on two cent
rates. They do not suggest a general
manager. But how would Colonel
Pace or Mr. Schwlnd do the latter to
keep his own time card and hand it
in for his monthly saiary? If the
latter were selected street car fares
would soon be twenty cents a ride.
Seriously who is there among the
denouncers of the street railway com
pany that our fellow citizens would
consider capable of managing it as
ably as economically and as satis
factorily as the present management?
Meanwhile tho bondholders want
their money and if they do not get it
threaten to sue the city. Let the
council which is composed of good
business inen advlso together and set
tle this mutter with the Traction
company equitably.
The divorce and Immediate remar
riage of Mrs. Sloano of New York lias
stirred anew tho discussion concern
ing divorce. The subject Is so com
plicated and there are so many ag
gravated and incurable cases of con
nubial misery as well as numbers of
other cases which might be cured if
divorce wore not so easy and so popu
lar, that it is dllllcult as well as
apparently useless to say anything
about it. Most editors and preach
ers profess to believe that the increas
ing prevalence of divorce is a menace
to the family and the home and
hence of the greatest danger to
American institutions. Yet it hap
pens occasionally that editors and
preachers too fall out with the com
panion whom they have sworn to
love, cherish and protect while life
lasts and colncldently a more tract
able female Is apt to appear on the
horizon. In this conjunction, opin
ions on divorce are frequently revised.
If marriage is divinely instituted,
nevertheless the mistakes of human
judgement often applies it to a couple
who can not live contiguous lives
without poisoning them. They arc like
two harmless chemicals, only ex
plosively dangerous when com
pounded. The trouble Is that the
divorce deprives marriage of sanctity
and makes it a commonplace, tem
porary, housekeeping arrangement,
to be discontinued when convenient.
All precedent and reflection indicate
that, for the good of the race it is
better that matrimonial mistakes
should not be corrected during the
life of cither one of the parties to the
contract. Both because, every time a
social contract is broken, custom is
loosened and because there really Is
not much of a second chance for peo
ple who have made so gross an error
in so Important and vital a matter
once. They have hopelessly poor
judgement, and, unless, by mirac
ulous chance, will not do any better
next time. By resigning themselves
to misery.they can.at least refrain from
attacking the prestige and from pro
faning the sac redness of an institu
tion which lias been the largest
vehicle of civilization. By consider
ing themselves in relation to society
they may get a degree of satisfaction
unrecognized by tho purely selfish
men and women who correct their
mistakes by sacrificing society.
The most typical Americans are
the boys in tho Filipinos. In a for
eign land, they arc wearing the
American uniform and marching
under the American flag. The Indi
viduals are merged Into an organiza
tion and the organization is the best
example possiblo of the American
military system. Tho soldiers, all
foreign as well as American specta
tors say, are not so machine drilled as
the German, Frencli or English sol
dier, but as they wheel and march
and counter-march, tho energy force
and determination of the American
isoverpowerlngly apparent. America
is all around us and the savage Tagals
arc far away, but America embodied
in thousands of young men is in the
Filipinos on an unavoidable mission.
The bible says the children of Israel
were enslaved by the Egyptians on
their way to a better laud in order
that they might learn the ways of a
higher civilization. Bible students
deny man's instrumeutalisin and the
continuity of history when they re
fuse to accept the manifest destiny of
this Filipino business. The soldiers
in the Filipinos, the events there and
the turning of a new geographical
and constitutional leaf in our history
Is of so much more importance than
anything else in this country or con
cerning the movements of other prin
cipalities and powers that whatever
point we start from, we fetch up in
the Filipinos.
Abraham Lincoln's distinguishing
characteristic was neither patriotism
nor foresight, nor magnetic influence
over other men. It was sense which
includes them all. Ills opinions, after
other men had spoken, carried con
viction to all who heard and read
because inarticulate truth and unap
plied logic dwells in every one but
only once or twice a century a man is
born who can translate his inspira
tion and transmit it to dumb intel
ligences which confirm the message
as soon as received.
The little Americans have acquired
the habit of announcing that Mr.
Lincoln would have sided with them.
No one during Abraham Lincoln's
lifetime would have dared to inti
mate that he would not have been on
the side of the whole people as op
posed to a few cranks. Even in his
opposition to slavery Abraham Lin
coln was not factional. He was for
the union first and last, and the rabid
anti slavery mon were frequently dis
satisfied with him, because lie never
lost sight of the fact that the north
was fighting for the preservation of
the union and that slavery was es.
scntlally incidental. The historical
and critical judgement of the man
who has read the lifo of Lincoln and
still asserts that he would have taken
the side of a faction against the
United States, is worthless.
The destruction of the Spanish fleet
in Manila harbor was tho most bril
liant incident of the war and had
more influcnco than any other In
bringing it to a speedy conclusion.
By tho law of nations, of common
sense, of expediency, of Justice to u
weak and primitive people, and of
national self respect, wo are bound to
restore order in the Filipinos even if
wo must extirpate the Tagals in the
Filipines and displease Mr Clovoland,
Senator Hoar, and President Jordan
in this country, to accomplish it.
With tho retirement of Spain from
the Filipines, the government of that
country was up to us and by tho pro.
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