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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1901)
y s VOL. XVI., NO. XV ESTABLISHED IN 1886 PRICE FIVE CENTS LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 1901. THE COURIER, BXTSUOIH THS POaTOITICK AT LINCOLN AB BCOXD CLASS MATTBB. PDBLIBHED EVEBY 8ATUBDAY nECMBIER,raiHTI16 IMD P0BL1SHIN6 GO Office 1132 N Btreet, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARARB. HARRIS, : : : EDITOR Subscription Rates. Per annum H 50 Six months 1 00 Rebate of fifty cents on cash payments. Single copies 05 Thk Coubixx will not be responsible for toI nntary communications unless accompanied by retnra postage. Communications, to receive attention, must be stoned by the full name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, bat for publication if advisable, OBSERVATIONS. 8 Gratitude. It is said, and his appointments jus tify tbe conclusion, that Mr. Thomp son's friends are Governor Dietrich's friends. Mr. Thompson's people, his people, Mr. Thompson's proteges, his proteges. Yet Governor and senator elect Dietrich does not owe his election to Mr. Thompson, but to anti-Thompson. Mr. Thompson would have kept Governor Dietrich and everybody else out of the place he lias coveted so long, if he could have slipped into it himself, and from the beginning anti-Thompson was ready to elect anyone whom Thompson should name. Gratitude is a com mendable virtue, but it should be be stowed upon the real and not the fic titious benefactor. The anti-Thompson men really made Gov. Dietrich senator. Mr. Thompson used every resource, at his command to defeat the anti-Thompson men, but triumph ing over large odds theantis finally succeeded in electing Governor Diet rich and Mr. Millard to the United States senate. Therefore these men should be Senator Dietrich's confi dants, advisers and mediums through which the federal patronage is dis trlbutedand applied. No one famil iar with the circumstances of the late legislative struggle will deny that It was the anti-Thompson men that finally elected Gov. Dietrich and Mr. Millard. '-And to the victors be long the spoils." j J The System. During the late legislative dif ferences of opinion about who was worthy to be elected senator from Nebraska, it was frequently remarked that loyalty to Mr. Rose water and Mr. Thompson was considered a more worthy duty than loyalty to the state the legislators were elected to serve or to the citizens who elected them. Members of a fraternity swear a fool ish and unearned loyalty to each other. With a boyish magnanimity and devotion, members of a fraternity are quite apt to keep their vows of fealty, sometimes to the inconve nience of the outside world. But this loyalty at the capitol was not of this kind. The allegiance of grown-up people is secured by promises of what is known in politics as "pie." After it became certain that Mr. Thompson could not be elected, his supporters continued to vote for him knowing that if they voted independ ently and not according to his direc tion, the federal patronage would be distributed without regard to their outstretched hands. The intercourse between men is based solidly on a foundation of pie or self interest. All the romance of youth is gone and among politicians especially, personal devotion is for sale, sometimes for sale and sometimes for more remuner ative promises. These conditions intluenceevery elec tion, but if the people nominated the senators by the Lincoln system and elected them by the Australian ballot, such men as Mr. Thompson, Gas Ad dicks, Quay and Clarke would find it much more difficult to "get in touch with the people" they would serve. The Reward of Silence. Governor Dietrich of Nebraska vetoed the supreme court commission bill nominally to relieve the crowded docket of the supreme court. Lee Herdman is clerk of the court and the story of the bill, Lee Herdman, the veto and rescinding the veto, began fours years ago. Lee Herdman is the populist politician and friend of Thompson who circulated the peti tion among the fusionists, thepetition which contained Thompson's famous renunciation of republican principles and republican associations. After his failure to get enough fusionists to elect liis principal, and the election of Colonel Hayward, after lie had re turned Mr. Thompson's sworn word to him, gossip about the attempt to overthrow the caucus nomination and elect Thompson anyway was of gen eral circulation. After the county convention a number of populist legis lators swore that they had seen Thompson's recantation of republi canism and Mr. Thompson himself neglected to make use of an oppor tunity of vindication freely offered him. But there was a missing link in the chain of evidence: Neither re porters, fusionists nor anti Thomp son men could induce Lee Herdman, the custodian of the oath and the circulator of the petition, to admit that he ever was in charge of such a paper or that he was familiar with Mr. Thompson's signature. Mr. Herdman is now clerk of the supreme court. Like his predecessors lie absorbs fees which logica'ly be long to the state and which a frank interpretation of the constitution awards the state. It is estimated that the supreme court commission which will increase the number of cases tried by the supreme court will make the place worth to the clerk of the court about $25,000 per annum in fees. The republicans had a majority in the recent legislature and Mr. Herd man is a populist. Nevertheless the Thompson republicans defeated Gov ernor Dietrich's honest and sturdy efforts to induce the legislature to pass a bill restricting Mr. Herdman's emoluments to the average stipend paid to other state officers. That, the clerk of the court should receive one half the salary paid the president of the United States, five times the sum paid a senator, and about nine times the salary of the governor himself is monstrous. But the Governor's efforts to correct the impropriety was de feated by the steady opposition of the Thompson men of both fusionist and republican faith. Therefore when the bill creating the supreme court commission which would accelerate the business of the supreme court and also enrich Mr. Herdman by the increased volume of fees, was laid before the Governor, all the business training and sound judg ment which have enabled him to suc ceed in life, urged him to veto a bill which rewarded Herdman's fidel ity so disproportionately. Therefore he vetoed the bill and informed the newspaper reporters of what he had done. Next day the Thompson con nection and lawyers more interested in clearing the docket than in the adjustment of the rights of the state induced the Governor to reconsider and he signed the bill. The Supreme Court Commissioners. The composition of the new com mission guarantees effectiveness. Three of the commissioners: Mr. Ames, Mr. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Pound live in Lincoln. Mr. Ames reputation as a wise man and as a learned and sound lawyer was estab lished long ago. Of slow speech and slow movement, his mind moves with a certainty and inevitableness to conclusions which have made his ad vice to clients of great value. Pos sessing a mind of original keenness, rumination, study and more than a quarterof a century's practice in the courts have prepared him to serve as a judge with unusual distinction. . Mr. Roscoe Pound is a young man, a lawyer and a botanist of distinction among old men. Like the vice presi dent of this country he leads the strenuous life. Interested in athlet ics, in science, a successful lawyer, with an unlimited capacity for study and an inclination to acquire all the facts of a case and the application of the law to similar cases, before it comes up for trial, Mr. Pound has acquired the respect of the bar. And although he i9, young for a judge, nobody can say, who knows his pecu liar ability and acquirements that he i9 too young. o J "Ears, but They Hear Not." Truly, this world is a medley, and made up of all sorts and conditions of men. Nowhere is this fact more ap; parent than in a mixed audience list ening to a program of classical music, and never was a better opportunity for studying this human problem than at the Marine band concert in the auditorium last week. It was a well dressed and attentive audience. Yet there were found also the execptionr, and two or three of such "exceptions" are sufficient to destroy the enjoy ment of the entire program for those, who are so foolish as to prefer music to chatter. Common decency de mands that an audience he silent dur ing a performance, both as a courtesy to the performers and as a right due to the listeners. Chatterers at a con cert or recital are as out of place as the pig in the parlor, and the musical gems are literally "pearls cast before swine." Rival Cities. Tacoma and Seattle, the St. Paul and Minneapolis of the Pacific coast, have been having a dispute over the location of the government ware houses and docks on Puget Sound . After looking over the shipping facil ities and railroad connections, the quartermaster's department decided upon Tacoma. Of course that city is jubilant and Seattle correspondingly discomfited. The Klondike excite ment gave Seattle a large advantage over her rival, and the Great North ern and the line of immense freight steamers which Mr. J. J. Hill is build ing for the Pacific carrying trade will still make it an important commer cial port, but the citizens realize that all the local trade which grows out of the going and coming of the govern ment transports will now go to Ta coma. Seattle refused the request of the Northern Pacific for better ter minal facilities and the selection of Tacoma is partly a manifestation of an old feud. A Tattlctale. Officers of Queen Victoria's court following the'gun-carriage which was bearing her dust to Frogmore laughed and joked with each other, according to the unimpeachable biograph. The enterprising man with the biograph who took pictures of the procession from the time the remains were trans ferred to the royal yacht Alberta un til the body was deposited in the Frogmore mausoleum, is now reeling off his machine to thousands of Eng lishmen. It was not suspected until the biograph gave its report of the obsequies that court dignitaries, hab itues of the court for scores of years ia i