v
VOL. XIV., NO. XXVII.
KSTABL1SHBD IN 1880
PKICEP1VEC-.NT
W
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3
O
OBSERVATIONS.
i
o
The Tariff and the Trusts.
It is frequently sulci tlmt the tarilT
is a dead issue. It was never more
all vc,aud anti-pro tectlonistsentiments
are growlngand keeping step with the
trusts. The 35,000 traveling men
whom the trusts have thrown out of a
Job are reinforced and outnumbered
by every country landlord, every pro
vincial theatre manager, every dealer
in goods, and every purveyor of amuse
ments which the traveling men patro
nize. A trust based on a protected
market is boundto charge a price for
its product as high as the trade will
stand. The price should be based on
the cost of production and distribu
tion. When the monopolies arc the
only dealers in the market, prices will
be entirely artlllcial. They can of
course be advanced to that price at
which consumers will use a substitute
or stop using the goods altogether.
Such a course is the only protection
consumers have, but it is only resorted
to as a matter of necessity except in
rare cases, such as the resolutions
against the use of tea (and its final de
struction In Boston harbor), which
were made by tlio Revolutionary pa
triots. Any artilicial combination in
tended to shut out the competition of
the world and enrich a few nt the cost
of millions of consumers can not last
because just as soon as the millions
Unci out what it is that is shutting off
their supplies and turning them into
the coffers of the promoters and mo
nopolists they are going to use thoso
constitutional rights which are said to
insuro liberty and an unobstructed
pursuit of happiness. "Not that the
trusts are to be destroyed. They con
serve energy, cheapen production and
distribution and prevent war which
is as wasteful in commerce as it is of
men. The conference at The Hague
is nothing but the consideration of
plans for a trust among the nations,
for the purpose of an amicable settle
ment of differences and the agreement
to a non-compulsory arbitration board
seems likely to be accepted. With the
linn establishment of the arbitration
principle tne Chinese wall we have
built around our country will be so
much in the way that we will probably
have the courage to tear it down
A New Chancellor.
In selecting a man to take Chancel
lor MaoLean's place, the. board of
regents has a task before it, com
plicated by the reasons which have
led to the resignation of the live
chancellors who have severally under
taken and resigned the leadership of
the State university. A mi.n of af
fairs, of experience, of scholarship, of
knowledge, of good judgement and
with magnetism and force enough to
convince a hundred or more legis
lators every two years that his Judge
ment and discretion arc infallible, is
the man the regents are looking for.
It is not certain they will find him.
A man so divinely gifted is worth
more than live thousand dollars a
year. And such a man, if he be will
ing to take the salary will hesitate
before accepting a mission in which
five men of very much more than
average ability and scholarship have
been misunderstood, have been the
victims of politics or of an animosity
as persistent as it, is undeserved.
The chancellorship of the university
of Nebraska, or of any State uni
versity. Is not an easy job, and the
man so heaven endowed as to be
qualified for the duties will hesitate
along time before risking thedwigcrs
of the position. 1 do not overesti
mate the difficulties which the board
of regents is looking for a man to con
quer. With an exigent faculty, two
thousand or more undergraduates
steeped in the doctrine that the uni
versity is theirs to be governed by
them either by resolutions, or in
mobs, with a public inclined and
urged to oppose tills chancellor or
that on political grounds by dis
charged employes, witli a legislature
whose composition changes every two
years, whoso knowledge of the needs
of a university is always limited and
crude, whose willingness to vote the
appropriations is tempered and some
times destroyed by a desire to bo
known as economical and opposed to
appropriations and which lias snub
bed Chancellor Canfield and Chanvel
lor MacLean because they wero so
anxious for the wellfare of the in
stitution that they were willing to
devote their whole time while the
legislature was in session to the en
ightincnt of the various committeesl
on the needs of the university, its
growth, services to the state, and
comparative rank among the uni
versities of the country, with all these
obstacles in the way of success, it is
only prudent In even a confident and
capable scholar to pause and relied.
On the other hand, to encourage the
man who will finally accept the in
vitation of the regents, there Is the
board of regents Itself a devoted
body of men who have loyally sup
ported Chancellor MacLean, who, so
far as I know lias never allowed poli
tics to influence cither its discus
dons or conclusions, and who are
absolutely and without reservation
to be depended on while it remains as
it is at present constituted. Hut the.
next election may effect a change.
The student body too, while lacking
the savolr falreof the more sophisti
cated eastern schools is composed of
earnest young men and women, whose
scholarship is as sound as that of the
undergraduates of any eastern school
in the same grade. Then the people
of the state are in favor of higher
education. Hundreds of high schools
arc accredited, which means that
their graduates enter the university
with no additional examination. At
the high school commencement ex
ercises all over the state, every year
the principals urge the members of
the class to enter the university and
the good will of the audiences towards
the university Is apparent. The fac
ulty of the university Is working liar
moniously and among its number is
an unusual proportion of distinguished
men as well as those whose youth Is
the only reason of their present and
temporary obscurity. With these
elements in accord, the development
of the university is sure and the man
who can stay long enough with us to
add the impetus of a powerful per
sonality to these forces will deserve
his inevitable reward. It is not sur
prising, however, in view of the num
ber of men who have tried the place
and have not entirely succeeded, that
the man of genius, who Is the only
man who can succeed, refuses when lie
reflects upon the number of his pre
decessors, to consider the advantages
of the invitation the regents will ex
tend to him.
There are certain characteiistics
which a chancellor, of all men, should
possess. The first of these is an
ability to get through with an over
whelming amount of business in a
short time. A man with a talent for
leaving out everything hut the es
sentials of a problem and presenting
the subject thus stripped, either to
an audience or to a legislative com
mittee or to the faculty, or to a
deputation of students, will have
already conquered the approaches to
the situation. Diplomacy is no
longer either so popular or so sue
cessful as it was before the entire
resources of language had been dis
covered and its limitations readied.
International diplomacy is no longer
astralnlng and coloring of words and
the plain United States minisetrs
have done as much as anyone to
demonstrate the value of plain and
frank statements. We have passed
the youthful stage when we can not
bear the truth and the man who
adopts, however honest and single
hearted he may be, the words and the
ways of diplomacy is sure to Incur the
suspicion of underestimating our No
braska intelligence. In short, there
are certain accomplishments which a
chancellor must possess, even If he be
lame in dead languages and shock
ingly uncertain about dates and first
editions He must, in addition to the
attainments mentioned, know men
and that which is neither a boy nor a
man, a girl nor a woman an under
graduate. He needs tact in modera
tion, (if lie uses it iutempcratcly he
will acquire the fame of a diplo
matist.) He needs courage, confi
dence and a modest degree of scholar
ship and an unselfish and constant
love of letters. 1 do not know that we
can hire such a man to come and live
among us, but whatever honest and
gifted man is elected let us determine
to encourage him with our loyalty, to
let ills enemies be our enemies, if
their enmity effects the institution,
and all iirordcrthat we may not add
another mortifying page to the his
tory of the chancellors of the uni
versity of Nebraska.
The Foot of the Class.
Children who arc slow in develop
ing need special attention. In a
schoolroom crowded with fifty or
sixty pupils it is impossible for even
the most conscientious teacher to
take the time necessary to quicken
the lazy brains Into average activity.
Superintendant Saylor in his fare
well report to the board of education
recommends that something should
be done for these children. It has
been frequently demonstrated that
the children to whom figures and
letters are mero abstractions, take
hold of the responsibilities of life
with unexpected firmness and ca
pacity when they leave the school
room to earn their own living. For
such children the manual training
which is slowly bolng introduced is of
great value. They lack imagination
and they can not sec what the multi
plication table and the spelling book
have to do with their own lives. To
be sure their parents are forever
warning them that they will be sure
to need Just the kind of knowledge
the teacher Is trying to teach them,
but parents are always exhorting and
in consequence their offspring be
comes blase and almost immune to
warnings, rebukes and urgings. But
through their fingeis, through the
actual experience with concrete phe
nomena, these children who arc at
the foot of the class, have learned
things that no one has taken any
pains to teach them. Through the
work of their hands they will com
prehend the relation of numbers to
their own activities and return from
