THE COURIER
and follow him loyally another mort
gaged delegation is quite likely to be
elected from Lancaster. In which
case Lancaster will again occupy the
anomalous relation to the delegation
that it did last winter. It will be
remembered that the representatives
of this county in the state legislature
were unanimously for Mr. Thompson,
while all the representative republi
cans in the county were conscien
tiously opposed to his election.
The vitality of every party is the
men who, for the sake of the princi
ples it represents are willing to work
for it without promise or surety of
personal reward. There are such de
votes in Lincoln and on the farms
which surround it, but nobody has
yet found a way to unite them before
it is almost too late.
When your enemy uses smokeless
powder, use it yourself and use it
first. Wlien your enemy has a defi
nite, clear purpose, have one yourself;
when he is straining every nerve to
attain a point of vantage, reach it
first, joursclf. The great mistake in
all the opposition to Mr. Thompson
is that we have not used smokeless
powder and modern methods of polit
ical warfare which are as different
technically, from the old methods as
are the new guns from the old ones of
the civil war. It is apparent that
the party needs a leader, who added
to the righteousness of his cause and
the purity of his character will pos
sess the energy and purpose and ex
hibit it, of the opposition.
The Courier is not aware that Mr.
Thompson is more scrupulous now
than he was while conducting his
campaign last year, no news of con
version and of an entire change of
plans from those employed when he
was the intimate of Frank Graham
and the men who have made the
political history of Lincoln a shame
ful record has reached this office.
But added to the ordinary cons-derations
of public morality, all of which
should defend the people against such
a senator, there Is the argument of
his offer to the populists after the
republican caucus whose decision he
and all other candidates had agreed
to accept, had decided upon Colonel
Ilayward. And the subsequent death
of the Colonel was due to the nervous
lesion produced by the news of Mr.
Thompson's intrigue with the popu
list members of the legislature.
These are only a few of the reasons
why The Courier under its present
management will remain opposed to
the elevation of Mr. Thompson to any
important place in the gift of the
republican party which cannot en
dure catanadromous candidates that
select a republican element in the
fall and a populist element in the
spring.
Gty Improvement.
The habits of the citizens them
selves arc the greatest and most im
movable obstacle in the way of city
improvement. Pedestrians going to
and from their important business of
selling peanuts, popcorn, legal opin
ions and pills, are absorbed in
thoughts of how to sell the most pea
nuts and popcorn, or of how to create
an artificially feverish desire for the
opinions and the pills. In thinking
and planning for their own prosperity
and distinction the pedestrians forget
their neighbors' inalienable rights
and tramp across his lawn until it is
as bare of grass as the school play
grounds. In passing, if flowers or
fruit arc handy they pluck them for
their button hole or their stomach,
quite without prejudice. They throw
paper bags and letters into dooryards
impartially. The delivervmen and
the army of hucksters and hawkers
select the front gate and tramp over
the carefully seeded lawn as though
the kitchen were not at the back of
the house and the inevitable depot
for potatoes, cabbage, Hour, etc. All
grocers are anxious for business but
they do not instruct their delivery
men to. ride up the alleyways and ap
proach the houses of their customers
from the rear. Yet such tenderness
and consideration for a housekeeper's
lawn would make ter a loyal cus
tomer of the grocer. Lincoln pedes
trians' feet are so accustomed to walk
ing on their neighbors' feelings and
on their most sacred plots that there
is no way of confining their depre
dations to the walks but by building
fences and even then they will un
latch the gate and trample the in
nocent, green blades of grass with
their large, repulsive but free Ameri
can feet. A policeman on every cor
ner might protect the trampled rights
of the householders, but policemen
are luxuriously confined to the busi
ness portion of this city. Blessings
are invoked on the man that makes
two blades grow, where before his
advent only one sprouted. Let us
hope there is adequate punishment
for the ruthless, useless man who,
kills the grass.
There are many plans made by the
city improvement society for the im
provement of the city. Some means
of suppressing this public, universal
nuisance must tirst be operated, for
with him passing six times a day it
is impossible to coax the grass to
grow.
Reorganization.
The minority and majority reports
printed in last week's Courier were
presented by the reorganization com
mittee after much discussion. After
a majority of seven had voted for a
plan which recommended the reten
tion of direct relations between local
c'ubs and the General Federation a
motion was made by Mrs. Lucia
Blount, that the five in favor of state
federation representation prepare
a minority report recommending it
and that the majority sign it with
them while they should also sign the
majority's recommendation. In other
words, that the whole twelve sign
everything. This motion was doubt
less prompted by a generous impulse
on the part of a member of the win
ning side, but upon a little considera
tion, it seemed clear to the mover, as
well as every other member of the
committee, that such a course would
render the entire action of the body
pointless.
For twelve women to say, '-I be
lieve thus and so" and, at the same
time, to say, "1, also, believe exactly
the opposite" would render their pro
ceedings meaningless and defeat the
object of their appointments.
So apparent was the justice of this
reasoning that the motion for every
body to sign both plans was lost, by a
unamious vote, the maker of the mo
tion and Mrs. Penozer L. Sherman, of
Chicago, voting aga'nst it.
What the Federation does on this
or any other question is the business
of the women who compose it: the
president does not expect to dictate
its po'.icy. As to reorganization, Mrs.
Lowe is in favor of any plan which
will draw all American women closer
together in the bonds of club frater
nity, and concerning the methods by
which this shall be accomplished
she is indifferent.
The Loud BUI.
Publishers of cheap books are ob
jecting much more strenuously to
some provisions of the Loud bill than
are the regular newspaper publishers.
The twenty millon dollar a year def
icit in the United States postal de
partment is due to the abuse of the
franking privilege, to the cheap books
which are issused monthly and are
listed as periodicals. A dry goods
manufacturer might as logically be
allowed to distribute his spring, sum
mer, autumn and winter goods
through the mails at one cent a
pound, on the ground that he sends
them out periodically. These books
are cheap reprints of stories first pub
lished a century ago.
Then there is n sound reason for
not charging the pound rate to the
country publisher for all subscribers
who live within the county limits.
There is also an insutlicient reason for
the privilege now possessed by news
dealers of returning at pound rates,
through the mails to the publishers
magazines, books and newspapers.
The title page and dates of unsold
newspapers may be returned to the
publisher by the newsdealer for pur
poses of checking or verifying ac
counts with the publisher.The heavier
magazines and books may be return
ed quarterly by freight. It is esti
mated that the cost of transporting
the cheap books and of the return of
unsold magazines to publishers in ex
cess of the rate paid for them was
524,000,000 last year.
Newspapers should be allowed to
send out sample and marked copies
of their papers. It is the only way in
which a new publication can be in
troduced. Owing to the peculiar na
ture of the product, manufacturers
of nev periodicals have no oppor
tunity of exhibiting their product
except by sample copies, and the
mails should he open to them at the
same rates charged for old, establish
ed newspapers. On the other hand,
when an editor of an old paper has a
particularly bright and useful idea
which the statesmen of his party are
anxious should be read by a larger
number than the regular subscrip
tion list, it is bad politics to prohibit
its distribution through the mails at
pound rates. It does not matter
what party distributes them. Tie
people should be reached as easily and
cheaply as possible by the greatest
and soundest thinkers of both sides.
Thus the demagogues and sophists of
both sides may be the more quickly
detected. The return of periodicals
from the newsdealers to the publish
ers is a matter of private bookeeping
the expense of which it does not seem
fair to ask the whole people to as
sume. In one important particular the
bill does not go far enough. It does
not attack the franking abuse, for the
obvious reason that it is so much
easier for congressmen, as well as for
other people to reform some other
person's abuse of power. The silly
packages of common garden seeds,
too ancient to germinate are still
franked through the mails an?,
upon the postal service is placed the
weight of helping the congressmen
to keep solid with the farmers. If
this abuse, andthe cheap book abuse
were reformed, and the newsdealers
privileges were revoked.the postal ser
vice would be relieved of the incubus
that produces the deficit and letter
postage might then be reduced.
Colonel Bryan's Eastern Trip.
Eastern editors of republican pa
pers now mention Colonel Bryan with
cordial esteem. He has succeeded in
melting their hearts in some way
which is still an oriental mystery.
Boston and New York papers now
write the mildest editorials about the
"man wno has made more speeches to
more people and shaken more hands
than any man that now is, or ever
was in the world.' Forty years from
March 19th, 1900, "Colonel Bryan,"
says The Sun, "was born in Salem,
Illinois, at sixteen minutes to one
A.M."
"He believes in the Chicago plat
form and in any additions to it that
may come handy. He is for congenial
annexation but finds the Filipines un
congenial. He holds that the Fil
pinos are capable of self-government
but not capable enough to belong to
the United States. Militarism makes
him sad, although he has been a war
rior bold. He trembles at Trusts and
will keep on shaking as long as they
are able to produce goose flesh in any
body else, and not one moment long
er. He has fits at the word "im
perialism," but what and where "im
perialism" is, so far as the United
States are concerned nobody has been
able to find. It is a good enough Mor
gan for the Colonel, and that is all.
"Colonel Bryan has called on Moses
to awake, rung the Liberty bell, ralli
ed around the Constitution, discover
ed the Declaration of independence,
wept over the wrongs of the 'produc
ing classes,' to which he does not be
long, lambasted the Crime of Gold,
thrown bricks at Mammon, Moloch
and Juggernaut, said Boo! to the Oc
topus, been dry nurse to the income
tax, bit his thumb at the plutocrats,
invaded the enemy's country and
there provisioned himself, prospected
for issues, excommunicated commer
cialism, ridden a bronco and blown a
cowliorn in the streets of Austin,
trained for the Presidency and an
ostrich race, written leading articles
with a pen of fire for the Omaha
World-Hearld, lectured, made a book,
and is believed by his friends and pro
bably by himself to be the Jefferson-Jackson-Webster-Clay-Lincoln
of Lin
coln, Nebraska. His voice is so sweet
that it swamped the Honorable Gam
aliel Bradford in his own tears. His
touch is so magical that, according
to some enthusiastic Bryanists, it
heals the sick; and according to the
Honorable Champ Clark he is touched
hopefully by the Missouri Democrat3,
probably for contributions to the cam
paign fund.
"In short, the Honorable William
J. Bryan is as busy as a bee, as lively
as a cricket, as industrious as an ant,
as talkative as a sparrow, as cheerful,
about his own prospects, as a blue
bird, and as despairing about the
country as the cow seems to be about
the scheme of things in general.
'Such is Colonel Bryan now he is
come to forty years; and he is a pretty
good fellow in the bargain, for all his
play-acting manner on the platform.
A man's fortieth birthday is not.
much to congratulate him about. It
is much better to be thirty, and very
much better to be only twenty. But.
we can and do sincerely felicitate the
Colonel. He never will be old. He
never will be older. Ever young and
ever fair to middling. The Sun.
The Pebble.
The Pebble is a new magazine of
Philistine size, edited and published
monthly at Omaha' by Mary D.
Learned and Louise McPherson. The
coat of arms is a shield with the
western sun on the horizon inscribed
on it, and supporting two side arms
one of which is the stylus and the
other a dagger or a sword, probably
the latter on account of its controver
sial relation to the pen. The contents
consist of bright commentary on the
war in Soutii Africa. Paderewski's
playing, Elbert Hubbard's visit, the
Persian Garden, and editorial mis
celany. Mr. Hubbard's happy talk
about his own magazine and how lie
started and lias since conducted it,
inspired these young women to pub
lish a small magazine. The Courier
X.
-A
-A
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