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VOL. XVI., NO. XXIX
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9 OBSERVATIONS.
The Young Man's Epoch.
A few months ago Richard Croker
said, in one of his few communicative
and epigrammatic moments, that
owing to trusts and commercial com
binations the youth of the land no
longer had a fair chance to earn a
living. This is a misleading state
ment. This is the day and this the
hour of the young man. All older
men who have tried to get jobs can
testify that everywhere the young
man blocks their way. Fifty years ago,
young men were just as brilliant but
they had not the same opportunities.
The young man Schwab with a news-paper-attested
salary of a million dol
lars a year, would have been an im
possibility in the earlier period.
Competent young men are scarce.
With the mills and factories running
overtime, with electricity filling ali
the nooks and crannies of heretofore
-waste space, young men with techni
cally qualified hands and heads are
more in demand than ever. Proof of
this was shown at the recent an
nual commencement exercises of
the Stevens Institute of Technolog
at Hoboken, New Jersey. Out of forty
graduates only a dozen were present
to receive their diplomas. President
LINCOLN. NEBR.. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1901.
the largest railroad combination in before tlie treasurer was arrested he he was arrested and finally sentenced
the world is said to be prejudiced began paying back into the state to the state penitentiary for twenty
against old men. After a man has treasury the money which the people
yielded up the overwhelming impetus elected him to take charge of.
and energy of youth, inspiration and He proposed to continue paying it
invention often fail and the young back but when he was arrested the
man who is waiting for his job some- payments ceased. It is supposed that
times gets it. He has a much greater Governor Savage has paroled him
years, an excessive sentenceconsider
ing how corrupt were the traditions
of the office he held and that all
his predecessors had sought to enrich
themselves, regardless of the law, and
had escaped without even the ex-
chance of displacing his superior hoping that a temporary and restrict- pressed contempt of the people who
than the youth of fift years ago had.
Then, the young man did not expect
to make a fortune before he reached
the age of fifty. Now he makes up
his mind that the times are opposed
to the advancement of young men un
less he acquires a competency while
the fires of youth are still alight. The
trusts and the organizations of cap
ital stimulate production. They have
also economized the cost of produc
tion to'such an extent that the com
petition of America is the most seri- still remaining silent on this
ous commercial problem which Eng- the Governor will be censured
ed freedom will induce the man who
is still a priaonpr of the state, to as
sist the state officers in recovering a
part of the half million dollars that
was not returned to the treasury of
Nebraska during Hartley's adminis
tration. Before receiving a pardon
elected them. The forty-five months
which this man has spsnt in prison is
in partial atonement not alone for the
money he stole himself, but for the
administration of the treasurer's of
fice by his predecessors. The people
were thoroughly exasperated and the
Mr. Bartley should tell the Governor sentence of Bartley to twenty years
who were the creditors of the state in the state's prison retlected the im
from whom he was receiving ten patience of a people repeatedly wrong
thousand dollars a day when he was ed. robbed and betrayed. Stoically,
arrested. If he is pardoned, while silently, he has borne his cumulative
point, sentence, although it has been bitter
by all and humiliating to so proud a man.
land, "the mistress of the seas," is
studying now. The market for our
products.indefinitely extended, means
increased production to supply that
market and the employment of more
men to handle the products. It is
often charged against the trusts that
by combining plants and destroying
competition they have thrown a very
large number of men out of employ
ment. It was undoubtedly true at
one time. The overwhelming expan
sion of the market due to an econom
ic system of production has made it
possible to enlarge the market and
compete with England. There is a
growing prospect, if the present con
ditions continue, that no truthful, in
dustrious man will for long be out of
a job. Immediately consequent upon
the organization of the trusts the
price of labor rose. The strikes,
based on a demand for higher wages,
area proof of this. During the hard
times, a period of restricted produc
tion, there were no strikes. But as
soon as the demand for labor is im
perative, as soon as the market is
expanding at an unprecedented rate
labor demands its share of the
its.
Considering all these tilings it is
easy to prove, a priori, that the de
mand for a keen intelligence has nev
er been so great. Richard Croker is
not an economist. In the minds of
his followers he is anything he pre
tends to be. They come to him with
all sorts of problems, though a black
smith can regulate a watch quite as
frank, unprejudiced minds. And the
pardon of Bartley will become a cam
paign issue of greater importance
than his defalcation immediately aft
er the disclosures which followed his
arrest.
Mr. Bartley succeeded to an oilice
that had been conducted for years
for the enrichment of politi
cians. The state funds entrusted to
the care of the state treasurer were
placed in this bank or that one for
the interest they paid the treasurer
and also to secure the intluence of the
favored banks for the second term
campaign of the treasurer. Mr. Bart
ley did not originate the system, but
he acquiesced in and adopted it. Ac
tually he was no better and no worse
than the ordinary politician who ex
pects to make a very good living,
which means more than his salary,out
of a public oilice. The treasurer un
der discussion incurred the liability
of a sentence to the penitentiary by
placing the funds in his care in depos
itories undesignated by law. Other
Nebraska state treasurers who now
walk the streets did the same thing,
prof- but they were not succeeded by a
treasurer elected by another party, as
Mr. Bartley was. Bartley is popular
ly supposed to have converted to his
own use about one half million dol
lars. Really part of that sum was
already lost when he assumed the of
fice. It was represented by certifi
cates of deposits in llirasy banks,
But it seems to me his punishment
should continue until he makes all
ptssible reparation to the people from
whom he has stolen half a million
dollars.
The old Jewish idea of atonement
by sacrifice is not obsolete. To the
sacrificial lamb it is absurd to keep
alive so old a custom. But vicarious
punishment is visited upon a criminal
now-a-days who is convicted of a
crime at the end of a sequence of like
crimes committed by men no less
vicious, but who have escaped. We
demand a sacrifice for sin and the
first man caught must expiate his
own crime and the crimes of the fugi
tives who have fled from punishment.
The twenty years' sentence visited
upon Bartley is in the way of an
lsraelitish atonement. He is guilty
as charged, but it he had been the
first offender, if his crime had not
entailed such severe consequences
upon so many innocent people, judg
ing by the law of parallelisms, he
would have escaped with a lighter
sentence.
Contemporary Justice.
Justice tempered with too much
mercy is cruel to the unaccused, to
the helpless, to men consumed by
hatred for some one whose life they
would take if it were not for the cer
tainty of punishment. Punishment
for breaking the laws of nature is
Nevertheless, such is the etiquette swift' and meted alike to the rich and-
existing between the new and the old
treasurers of the same party that in
(.ntUfimtfirilv ns Mr. Ornkfir can ans-
Morton explained that the twenty- wer questions which involve econom- every previous biennial settlement the
eight other young men had been of- i(. elements nis range is bounded by new treasurer receipted to the old
fered lucrative and responsible posi- tiie limitations of the political mar- treasurer for this paper as though it
tions within a month of commence- ket of New York city Whea con. was m0ney. Between a populist and
mentand had depurted to begin their fronted by tne actUal growing demand a republican treasurer there are no
professional duties at once. He add- fnr ti,0 enrnrp? nf vimny mpn. his ec- strict rules of etiouette and Mpsprvo.
W. W.w WW. ..-www w- J w wy J - - - - w,
me poor, ir -Mr. Piernont Monran
fell off a precipice he would break his
neck and crush his bones as com
pletely as though the fallen body
were that of a tramp. But if Mr.
Morgan killed a man the chances are
that he would not be hung for his
crime. So lomr as a man's rnn
ed that the whole forty could have ture on ti18 subject and his statement the populist treasurer, refused to play, is lare enough he is not likely to be
secured positions also if they had
chosen to consider the propositions
which had been made them. The tre
mendous expansion of the last five
years requires the energy and pro
fessional skill of all the young men
this country can produce, Croker to
the contrary, notwithstanding.
The president and joint-creator of
as all the other treasurers had, that uunj' Ior tne commission of the most
certain certificates of deposit were atrocious crime, that is, if he lives long
money. Besides.Mr. Bartley bad add- enough, after its commission, for the
ed to the sins of his predecessors and law?ers to reach him. When an en
made some eccentric and unauthor- raKed mo gets hold of him first, rich
ized loans. The hard times had stin- or Por it is likely his doom is senlori.
month of a twenty years' sentence, ped the free circulation of money and and that he will die by fire or stran-ex-state
treasurer Bartley has been it was impossible for Bartley to make gulation. Barring accidents, it is
paroled by Governor .Savage. Just a settlement with his successor. Then safe for the very rich to indulge in
that the demand for them is decreas
ing, is demonstrably inaccurate.
The Bartley Case.
After serving four years and one
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