4 I JffliVSlf Jts
VOL. XVIII, NO. XIX
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, MAY IT, 1902.
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
MAN FROM REPUBLICAN VALLEY
Southwestern Nebraska Presents as a Candidate for Governor
Before the Next State Republican
Convention J. P. A. Black of Bloomington, Lawyer and Banker
It is the good fortune of the republi
can party of Nebraska that within its
ranks may be found not only much of
the bone and sinew that go so far to
wards making: a democracy great and
enduring, but a perceptible preponder
ance of that brain and business talent
that make waste places glad and the
prairies to blossom as the rose. This
is a poetic way of putting a great
truth, but it is none the less true for
.all that.
With a clear field and excellent pros
pecfc? ahead, it is not to be wonder
ed at that so many men of such gen
eral acceptability have been brought
forward this year as candidates for
governor. Nebraska is a great state
with many "interests"' and unexampled'
resources. To be a governor of a com
monwealth such as this is an ambition
worthy of any man. It need not have
its root in the lust for power, but in
the sense of duty and the feeling of
pride that prompts men to offer them
selves as candidates for olTice Is found
Its ample justification.
The chief executive of a state should
be, first of all, a man of character so
well poised and so sure of himself,
that liability to error is minimized. He
should be a man sufficiently long with
in her borders and so intimately ac
quainted with all her manifold inter
ests as to be able to Intelligently grasp
and sanely solve those vexatious prob
lems of duty that come to men in high
official station. He should be a man .
capable of keeping In touch with those
things which form so large a part of
the life'of the people, the common peo
ple. He should be a man able to repre
sent the state In those functions which
the rulers, even of democracies, must
indulge in now'and then, not as dis
plays of power, but in keeping with
the dignity of a sovereign state.
This is not a formidable list of re
quirements, and there are doubtless
many men of standing and ability
who would measure up to them. The
selection of governor this year Is
largely a matter of individual choice
and availability. Precedent is as pow
erful in politics as in law, and long
ago it was decreed by good sound pol-
icy that the make-up of a state ticket
should be based in part at least on lo
cality. Thus it has come that we pick
a governor from one section, an audi
tor from another, a treasurer from still
another, and so, on down the list.
By reason of the great preponder
ance of population in the eastern por
tion of Nebraska it has been seldom,
-indeed, that the convention selected its
governor from another section. This
year, however, the opportunity will be
presented the republicans, at least, of
naming for this honor a man who for
a score and ten years has been closely
Identified with the southwestern por
tion of the state. That man is James
P. A. Black of Bloomington.
Mr. Black comes from the historic
Republican valley, a section that has
contributed much of wealth and power
to the state. From this fertile region
came the bumper crops of earlier state
history. From it have hailed men
whose names are indelibly writ in the
history of the state. In the good old
days before the wave of populism sub
merged the state. It was In the Repub
lican valley that the handsomest ma
jorities for the republican ticket were
cast. For several years these were of
the minus quality, but with the revival
of prosperity the republicans of the
valley are coming again into their
own.
No man has been more thoroughly
of Lincoln. This was nearly thirty
years ago. He was a young man then,
but the foundations he laid in the coun
ty of his adoption were strong and en
during. From the law it is an easy
gradation in a county largely agri
cultural to drift Into banking, farming
and the raising of stock. Mr. Black
has been engaged for many years In
all three of these pursuits. That he
has done them well Is a good recom
mendation for his present aspira
tions. It is a good enough guarantee
for a -public career that a man does
well the business of his private busi
ness. Mr. Black has not confined his ac
tivities to purely business matters. For
JAMES P. A. BLACK.
Of Bloomington, Neb.
identified with the material interests,
business, political and social, of the
Republican valley for a longer period
of years than has Mr. Black. As a
lawyer, banker, stock raiser and farm
er his time has been and is fairly well
occupied. To elect him as governor
would involve a financial sacrifice on
Mr. Black's part, but he is sufficiently
supplied with this world's goods to
submit where the reward is such an
honor as comes to the chief executive.
It is the best index of the man's capa
bility, It Is the best tribute to his tal
ents, that in each of these varied lines,
any one of which is In Itself a life
work, Mr. Black has been uniformly
successful. As a lawyer he ranks
high. He conned his first lessons and
received his initiation into the myste
ries of Coke and Littleton in the city
many years he has been recognized as
one of the strong men of the republi
can party of his section. For twenty
seven consecutive years he has at
tended the republican conventions of
this state, and has given freely of his
time and purse, as a member of state,
congressional and county committees
to advance the cause of the party.
He was one of the delegates to the
national republican convention in 4806,
yet this Is his first entrance into the
arena of state politics in the attitude
of a candidate.
Mr. Black is a doer of things. He Is
not merely a director. In every under
taking In which he has launched he
has taken an active and energetic part.
When he entered the profession of law
he put all of his great energy into the
task of achieving' a place at the bar.
As a banker he has been careful und
conservative and has acquired for him
self an enviable reputation in financial
circles In the state, while in farming
and stock raising he is practical and
progressive. In each of those lines
wherein his Interests lie Mr. Black Is
a practical man. If he should be nom
inated and elected governor he will be
a man easy of approach and open to
suggestion, but firm In his grasp of the
details of administration and strong In
his ability to plan and to execute.
Long experience in business and po
litical life has enubled Mr. Black to
become a good mixer. He Is a Jovial,
good-natured man, but behind the
"kindly look and the warm grasp llethe
Inflexibility of mind and the strength
of character so necessary In an ex
ecutive who must shape. In large part,
his own course, and whose patience
and poise are subjected to rude buffet
ings. A large portion of the Fifth congres
sional district Is already massed be
hind the candidacy of Mr. Black. The
man who stands well with his neigh
bors, who can pass the muster of dally
acquaintance and Intercourse and
emerge with the solid phalanx of
friendship behind him, has In that fact
alone the strongest claim upon public
confidence. Mr. Black is essentially a
man of the people. He came from their
ranks, he is still one of them. He is a
plain, unassuming man, shrewd yet
kindly, strong yet serene.
ffl Him Code
Presidents of the United States are
not worn out attending to great afTairs.
The men the president has to see, the
prayers he has to hear and the peti
tions he has to deny as well as to
grant wear him out. decrease his vital
ity, make him old before his time.
Governors, chancellors and various ex
alted officials spend their time over
other men's private and comparatively
trifling affairs in much the same way.
The large, cool, monumental periods
devoted to the meditation and discus
sion of the nation's affairs stimulate
statesmen. A large mind needs exer
cise of a co-ordinate kind. Continuous
attention to unimportant details
wearies and confuses the mind of the
most temperamentally patient. When
a man is sworn In to the presidency of
the United States his mind Is tense
for action; there if anywhere Is the
opportunity for great and memorable
deeds. It Is a disappointment to a new
president to find out that his daily
routine is made up of seeing sordid
office-seekers teasing for places either
for themselves or their friends. The
president's wife may have had dreams
(Continued on page seven.)