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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1900)
K VOL. XV., NO. XLIV ESTABLISHED IN 18S6 A r .-it. PRICE FIVE CENTS - - it . 7 -A' ' h ; r Sk 1 . THE COURIER, ik thx rosTorncx at liscolk as BCQND CLASS MATTKK. PUBLI8HEO EVEBY SATURDAY BT ik cmrier nmm IRD poblisbihg go Office 1132 N street, Up Stain. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS. Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum f 1 00 8ix months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 Tm Coram will not be responsible for to! vatarj communications unless accompanied by retain portage. Conmnnications, to receire attention, must be aumed by tne (nil, name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if adrisable. s OBSERVATIONS. OBSERVA The Lancaster Issue. Wellmeaning republicans keep re iterating the statement that a repub lican legislature is of more impor tance than the risk of D. E. Thomp son's election for six years to the United States sedate. This is the very sort of pleading which has given cor rupt politicians control of various sections of this country. A few years ago republicans were in absolute control of this state. How did they lose it? Not by any intrinsic virtue in the opposition, but because high-mindei republicans grew dis gusted with the action of county and state conventions, which nominated such men as Tom Majors and Tom Benton and Bud Lindsey. Republi cans have just this distinguishing characteristic: they will not continue, to vote, for an unworthy, dishonest, perjured candidate because be is called by the name, republican. Conven tions may be tied up; one respectable candidate is frequently only nomi nated by the agreement to accept some other candidate entirely unfitted for the duties of a representative of fice. A convention may be manipu lated and finally controlled by its im moral members. Its members, though composed of individuals vote in groups and the most righteous delegate by the strength of usage and convention, and the unpopularity attached to "kicking" often votes for an unde sirable nominee. Before the last Lan caster county convention assembled it was well understood that the ma jority of its membership was for Thompson and its recognition of and approval of his candidacy was fore seen. It is doubtful, if the conven tion had been confronted with the proofs of Thompson's agreement with the populists, if he would have been sb""""!-""Bw v. JHnv' zn.lL s S . LINCOLN. NBBR.. SATURDAY. NOVtMBER 3.1900. nominated. Nevertheless the candi dates since his political treason has been established, fall back upon the instructions from the convention and refuse to withdraw their support. Lancaster county has come to a parting of the ways. If the residents of this countv signify by their votes next Tuesday that, they appro e of a man who has denied every cardinal principle, of republicanism, wnose record for repudiation of duty and re sponsibility has been again and again brought to their attention, the re habilitation of republicanism will be again delayed. But on the contrary, if the Thompson candidates are de feated, it will be Dy republican votes. A defeat means republican disap proval of men of Thompson's charac ter. A defeat of the republican can didates for the legislature means an assertion of the best, elements in the republican party. Mr. Thompson's election to the senate of the United States will place at least half of' the federal patronage of Nebraska in his hands. Who will profit from such power? Who will in turn, rule this county of Lancaster and his half of the state? L. L. Lindsay, Tom Ben ton and other representatives of the sort of politics which has demoral ized this county and state and will continue to demoralize it, until re buked by republican votes. Six years of servitude and humiliation, under a man who has confessed, that he is willing to trade republicanism for a seat in the senate. 8ix years of ser vice to a man who has jo conception of duty or of any obligations whose performance is not paid for in money or place. Is it worth the price? Re publicans and democrats of New York are striving to free themselves from the contro1 of Flatt and Croker, but the state and city of New York are serving a sentence to both these bosses. Governor Roosevelt has pried Piatt's fingers loose from some of the state patronage but in New York city "Tammany is supreme and Croker is its prophet." New York is wide open; policemen receive a monthly rent from saloon keepers, procurers and gamblers. Part of this rent is paid to Tammany, part to the chief of police and the policemen keep a share. This is a new state. Nebraska was settled by the best men and women; emigrants, with the blood of the Puritans in their veins, a couragious, conscientious people who came west for love of freedom and to get away from conditions so long established that protests were without avail to change them. I deny that republican success in this county is more impor tant than a protest against the con tinuance of a policy which has de moralized Lancaster county, is insid iously working in the state and will finally exterminate the Puritan influ ence. This influence has made this country great and powerful. The Puritans who came West and are now trying to cleanse Nebraska of corrup tion cannot all claim Puritan ances SBSr tors. They belong with the Puritans because they are willing to desert the flesh-pots and to relinquish chances of preferment. In order to establish a high standard of party virtue. The election of the Thompson candidates in Lancaster county will be a severe commentary on republicanism In this county. It means the recognition of treason, and the firmer establishment of methods and of politicians whose supremacy is the chief misfortune of democracies. The depravity of Mr. Thompson's public denial of his agreement with the populists affirmed by the affidavits of fourteen, old and reputable mem bers of the last legislature, of Mr. Schwind and Mr. T.S.Allen Is an other demonstration of his unfitness for the exalted office he seek?. His denial shows that he is willing that all people should know how lightly he esteems his own word. The fact of the agreement has been fully estab lished and yet be is willing over his own signature to deny an authenti cated document thus proving that he does not respect himself. The legislators who convene in Lin coln sometimes comment upon the low moral tone of this city and its neighborhood. Disinterested legis lators from the various counties of the state have made this observation so many times that there must be some truth in it. On Tuesday the de votion of the rank and tile to the republican party will be tested. It is a paradox, but there is little doubt that the most devoted republicans will vote against the republican can didates for the legislature. It is a republican county and if they are de feated it will be Ly republican votes. If there are enough of these repub lican votes they will signalize the be ginning of a new and more exalted republican regime in this corner of the state and that is of far greater Im portance than the election of Richard O'Neill, John J. Trompen, A. W. Lane, John H. Mockett, Jr., C. R. Tefft, E. J. Shellhorn and Charles R. Warner to the legislature. Some City Functionaries and Their Services to the- Gty. Lincoln has a health officer, a few distrait policemeji and me ordi nances, all" for the purposfe-of sup pressing nuisances and securing to each American citizen his guarantee of life liberty and the vain pursuit of happiness. Ordinances, policemen, and health officer are however, ineffectual in suppressing nuisances, which not only make happiness impossible but which menace the health of whole neighborhoods. For instance a man on South Eleventh street in the down town district has been allowed to slaughter five hundred chickens a day in his basement where the live chickens are kept in such numbers that some of them have not standing room. The air of such a place is in describable and the neighbors have complained again and again without obtaining relief. The ordinances in regard to slaughtering animals within the city limits are specific, the health officer and the policemen wear the blue and brass of authority, but all three are only for show and to make Lincoln look like a city. The chicken slaughter house has been moved into another part of the city, a lucality just as thickly settled, with citizens who likewise possess noses and a de sire for healthful surroundings. Ihe chickens which this merchant buys are shipped from Lincoln to various buyers in Omaha and elsewhere. Be fore killing them they are detained in a crowded, reeking cellar long enough to catch all kinds of chicken maladies. The meat of such cruelly treated chickens is unwholesome and the butcher is shipping pestilence to Omaha as well as infecting his im mediate neighborhood. The health officer prepares a monthly report to the council which is of statistical value and be tacks yellow and scarlet cards on to houses that shelter pa tients with infectious diseases. His services are therefore indispensable, but occasions such as the foregoicg where one man perverts the comfort and menaces the health of a neighbor hood, indicate that Lincoln needs something more peremptory and more determined than the functionary called "health officer." Spelliajr. For three or four years The Courier has commented upon the poor spell ing and muddy composition of college graduates. The cause and cure of illiteracy among the under-graduates is now being considered by the fac ulty of the University of Chicago. Colleges and universities do ndl teach spellingand the commofPEn lish branches, but legitimate univer sity work is interrupted by the inabil ity of the under-graduates to express themselves lucidly either orally or oa paper. There is sufficient evidence that Sity years ago.the product of the public schools could both spell and write. ,The theme readers at the uni versity or the examiners of written examination papers at the western col leges of the United States will testi fy that the papers received from the under graduates would really disgrace a grammar school scholar. The causes of deficient English knowledge are variously ascribed, but the num ber of subjects taught and the at tempt to raise the accomplishment of each grade to a limit just beyond the ability of the average pupil, are two reasons which occur to me. The state university has established a certain standard of admission, un doubtedly based on the standard adopted by older state universities, who in turn, have followed the ex ample cf Harvard, Yale and the uni versities of the east which are fed by a highly developed system cf acade mies and high schools. It isgratify- ilL-fe..-