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OBSERVATIONS. 8
Justice to the Living.
On this Decoration Day the graves
of the nation's heros are strewn with
the Mowers of May. Eloquent words
recount to listening thousands the
noble deeds of those who risked and
those who (lost their lives' in their
country's service. What day more
appropriate for justice to the living?
On the 12th day of last January,
there was Introduced In. the state
senate by Senator Crow of Douglas
county, a resolution preceded by a
preamble which recited that It was
common report to the parents of Ne
braska sons serving in the Fil
pines, that Colonel Stotsenburg had
been guilty of unjust and unsoldierly
treatment of the men in the First
Nebraska then under his command;
and that tho charges had been oltlo
ially Hied with the secretary of war.
The resolution demanded that our
senators and representatives in con
gress request the secretary of war to
detach Colonel Stotsenburg from the
Kirst Nebraska and return him to
duty in the regular army. In re
presentative Fisher of Dawes county,
was found a man who possessed those
qualifications which enabled him to
introduce and champion a similar
resolution in tho house.
Cadet Taylor of Omaha was the
active coward outside tho legislature
who led this dastardly attack upon
an absent soldier then maintaining
the Hag of his country on the opposite
sido of tho globe.
At the time fixed for consideration
Representative Fisher who intro
duced tho resolution called it up and
the resulting legislative action is
without paralell in tho history of this
state. Charges of cruelty and ill
treatment of tho men under his com
mand which if true would have com
pelled the discharge from the service
of the commanding officer of the Ne
braska regiment were made and re
peated upon the Moor of the house.
Not a witness was called, not a word
of testimony produced. It was
charged that parents of members of
the regiment had letters which de
tailed acts of cruelty on the parlor the
commanding officer, which letters had
been exhibited to members of the
house. As an excuse for not pro
ducing these letters, it was said that
to make them public would in
juriously effect the writers who were
still under the command of the offi
cer upon whose head the maledic
tions of these legislators were laid.
At the same time a proposition to
refer the matter to a committee
where an investigation could be made
and if necessary the names of the
writers of the letters be concealed,
was rejected. Men drawing pensions
from the government sneaked about
legislative halls claiming to have
letters from relatives which formed
the basis of the charges made, but
who had not the manhood to exhibit
the documents they claimed to pos
sess. Representative Fisher had been an
officer in the second Nebraska and
bore the title of Captain. A brave
man who was worthy to bear such a
title would have stood in the breach
in defense of an absent officer then in
service. On the contrary this man led
the attack from a legislative am
bush which he knew protected him
from accountability for anything he
then and tiiere said. Possessing no
personal knowledge of the facts, he
proceeded to serve Cadet Taylor by
denouncing Colonel Stotsenburg as
a tyrant.
Representative Burns followed Re
presentative Fisher in the attack
upon the gallant soldier whose body
now takes its place among the hon
ored dead at Arlington, in a lachry
mose manner he declared that boys
who had been playmates of his boys
were subject to the tyranny of tho
commanding officer of the regiment,
yet lie produced nothing in support
of his charges. He had not the man
hood to demand that an investiga
tion be made; that Cadet Taylor who
for weeks had pestered tho war de
partment witli attempts to secure the
removal of this officer, should be re
quired to substantiate the charges he
had uttered, and that at least an
opportunity to be heard in his own
defense be offered the officer. He is
reported to have said lie favored an
investigation when the colonel was
back. Is he aware that the colonel Is
is back?
Representatives Wilcox of Lincoln,
Sturges of Douglas. Mann of Saline,
and others followed tho lead of Fisher
and Burns in their cowardly attack,
upon a man ten thousand miles away.
To the credit of the state there
were a few members of the house who
stood against the cry, "crucify him.
crucify him," and had the manhood
to denounce condemnation without a
hearing. Prominent among these
were Representatives Haller of Wash
ington, .lansen of .Jefferson, Weaver
or Ilicliardson, Hurc'y of Polk, Wheel
er or Furnas, and Easterllng or Buf
falo There was a member- of the
Lancaster delegalation who by rea
son of the position he occupied could
have prevented legislative action
which embittered the brief remain
ing period or the lire or as brave a
soldier as ever saluted tho flag or drew
a sword In Its derense. That man
was Paul F. Clark, Speaker or the
house. A graduate of the State uni
versity at which Colonel Stotsenburg
'was stationed when the volunteer
army was created; a lawyer by pro
fession and presumably familiar witli
the principle that every man is en
titled to a hearing before condemna
tion; in duty bound to see that the
house took no action which should
not remain a matter of public record,
he raised not his voice against this
attack, but when the roll was called
voted for the adoption of the resolu
lion. In the house not a member of
tho Lancaster delegation voted
against this action. Anderson, Lane,
Burns, Clark and Harkson, in the
absence of a line or a word which
warranted such action voted for the
condemnation of the soldier whose
body lay in state at the capitol build
ing last Sunday. Such pusillanimity
was not exhibited by either of the
senators for this county, both of
whom opposed the adoption of and
voted against the resolution in the
senate.
What followed? Without investl
gallon to show that the charges made
in legislative halls were false; the
officer attacked not removed from his
command; the apparent purpose of
the resolutions not accomplished the
entire record of this proceeding is
expunged. Why? No resolutions was
offered reciting that the legislature
had Acted upon misinformation. No
anology was offered to the one in
jured. Like a criminal the legisla
ture proceeded to destroy the evidence
of the crime. It is said that on that
fatal Sunday when the colonel of the
First Nebraska fell at the head of his
troops, after the battle was over men
of his regiment sat down in tho road
and cried. For what? At the loss of
an officer condemned without a hear
ing by the Nebraska legislature.
With the burial or Colonel Stotsen
burg the incident is closed save as it
shall affect tho future political career
of those who accomplished his con
demnation. Justice requires that
they be not forgotten.
w m
William the Mighty
Emperor William has a new visit
ing card. It is seven incites long, flvo
inches wide and in great, fat letters
in the centre is engraved the word,
"Wllholm.'' If the Emperor was a
private gentleman such a card would
make him the jest of chilis and fasten
upon him a suspicion or vulgarity
hard to dispel. Because lie is the
emperor tho Berlin bloods will begin
to deposite pasteboards the size or a
cabinet photograph at the homes or
the young ladles they honor by a call.
They will have to cany the cards in
portfolios and the width of pockets
must be increased. A gentlemen
with a large visiting list would really
need something like a caddie to carry
his cards of an afternoon. Since Wil
liam the funny ascended the throne
of Germany lie has been playing a
game of follow your leader. .There is
evidence that lie recognizes the ab
surdity of some or tno pranks ho
amuses hlmscir with, but he accom
plishes them quickly and turns to
watch tho courtiers come tumbling
arter.
Two Men.
In a speech at Danville, Illinois, on
the Twenty-sixth of this month, Mr.
Bryan, according to tho newspapers,
devoted his attention to the farmers.
He told them they were taxed beyond
their just proportions, that they
could not conceal a foot of ground or
a head of stock, that there were few
or no farmers, who were stockholders
in large corporations and trusts, and
the capitalists interested in trusts
entirely escaped taxation under re
publican rule and would continue
to do so. This last statement is
direct, those preceding Imply that
the farmer is unfortunate because he
can not hide his farm and his stock
when the assessor, who is gen
erally a farmer himself, visits him,
that stockholders in banks, corpora
tions and trusts, do conceal their
stocks from ttie assessor and that the
farmer has no chance to get even
with stockholders because there are
'few are no farmers who are stock
holders and directors in large cor
porations and trusts.' Most success
ful farmers, and the proportion of
farmers who succeed is larger than In
any other business, succeed by virtue
of attending to their business and
keeping out or tliLt to which they are
not bred. The farmers who can buy
bank stock rarely do so, not because It
is not offered them but because they
know their own business has fewer
risks and surer rewards than any
other. As to farmers being assessed
higher than stocks, the tax assessor's
book can be offered as an exhibit In
rebuttal to Mr. Bryan's statement.
It takes a brave political! to ad
vocate doing simple justice to a cor
poration. It is more popular as well
as cheaper and safer to appeal to a
mob's prejudices, to mouth its catch
words, and to inflame Its passions.
Governor Roosevelt does none of these
things, yet he is a clover politician.
He has won recognition by sheer
force of honesty and energy, and he
has never broken faith with himself.
More than any other soldier in poll
tics he represents the now politician,