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VOL. XVI., NO. XV
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
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LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 1901.
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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
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