The Columbus journal., 1894-10-03
from the Chicago Tribune.1


Gen. John NJ. Thayer, ex-governor OF
Nebraska, makes reply to the attack
made upon him and other republican
leaders of his state by Editor Rosewa-
ter of the Omaha Bee. Gen. Thayer
has kept silent SO far, but being in Chi
cago Saturday he granted an interview
to a reporter for The Tribune in which
he makes an extended statement of the
state of political affairs in Nebraska.
Gen. Thayer has lived in Nebraska
forty-one years and ten months. Thir-
ty-six years ago he was one of a group
of men who met in a hotel in Omaha
and formed the republican party of Nc
braska. He has been a leader ever
since and has fought hard in every cam
paign. He was colonel of the First
Nebraska regiment during the early
part Of the civil war and afterwards at
tanned the rank of b%rigadier general.
He has sat in the senate of the United
States, representing Nebraska; he was
four years territorial governor of Wyo-
ming and five years governor of his own
state. So what Gen. Thayer has to say
of Nebraska politics may be considered
to have some weight lie thinks the
republicans will carry the state and
keep on carrying it despite internal
fights, or populists and democrats lie
says:
THE popolist party in Nebraska has
steadily declined in numerical strength
and political force since its first state
campaign four years ago. The partial
fusion of the pOpulists and democrats,
which has resulted in W. populist con
gressInen, one populist United States
senator, and the controlling power in
the lower house of the last W. legisla-
lures, has been unsatisfactory to both
the parties. The conduct of Senator
Allen and Congressman Mckeighan at
the national capital is CALLING to the
self-respecting democrats who assisted
in their election, and the disposition of
the populists. in the division of the
spoils, to have the whole hog or none,'
makes further fusion between them, to
any considerable extent, lmpractcable,
S that republicans will not only elect
a working majority for the next legisla-
ture and a republican successor to Ter.
Henderson, but the entire republican
state ticket with an increased plurality
over recent years.
1.-Two years ago republican state
officers were elected by pluralities
ranging from Il, 600 to 81, 900. The re-
publican plurality OF governor was
only 5000, owing to the fact that the
Omaha Bee, which generally handi-
caps any candidate which it assumes to
support, had made itself officious in his
behalf. This year., in the increased re-
publican pluralities, Thomas J. Majors,
republican candidate for governor, will
head the list There is a unity of
action and an enthusiasm for the whole
ticket, and especially the head of the
ticket, such as we have not seen for
years
MAJORS AN INTERESTING FIGURE.
''Col Majors is an interesting figure
in our state politics Like Jerry Rusk,
of Wisconsin, a plain-mannered man. a
thrifty farmer, public-spirited and kind
of heart. with a record of five years of
gallant service as an officer in the war
of the rebellion, with twenty years of
experience in public life as congress-
man, legislator, Acknowledgements;
a forceful and magnetic campaigner for
years over the state. knowing person.
ally nearly every voter, he occupies a
position of prominence and advantage
peculiar to himself. No other man in
Nebraska knows personally SO many of
our people, and no other man can go
out among our voters and call to his
aid SO many personal friends and SO
many loyal followers. His personal
following and political force have been
supplemented and emphasized from
year to year by the bitter personal at
tacks and Misrepresentation of the
Omaha Bee, which is a sort of free
lance politically, occupying about the
same position in politics as the gorilla
leader on the border line between the
north and South during the war. II
has no patriotic instincts that make it
loyal to any party or cause. Its in
stinct is to fight, to oppose, and it Sc
lects as the objects for its attack such
men. such measures, and such material
interests of the state as will make its
owner most conspicuous and best serve
the purpose of a sensational newspa-
per.
Nov, so far as Nebraska republic
canism is concerned and the result of
the coming election in hat state, it is
not necessary to refute any statement
the editor of the Be may make per-
sonally or anything he may publish in
his paper derogatory to our state ticket.
His sensational methods are SO we'll
known. charging bribery, fraud,
bOo6leiSm, r~ailrOadiSm and many other
such patent phrases on which his mind
seems to dwell. that he no longer has
power to influence votes and is a factor
in our politics only as one who carries
about from n campaign into another
a boarded mass of stale charges which
he has been accommodating for the last
twenty years
Il would not refer to his action in
opposing republicanism and supporting
the populist state ticket in this cam
paign only for the fact that he has seen
hit to air all his old grievances in a re-
cent interview in the Tribune and
put before the whole country a story of
boodleism. ~railroadiSm and corruption
in official life that grossly ISLANDERS cur
state and the character of our people.
Let me tell you something about Ne
braska and the kind of people we are.
have 4 million and 4 quarter peo-
Pile, gathered from Iowa. Illinois, Ohio.
Wisconsin and other states. equal in
intelligence. in common hon
in personal energy, thrift, public
spirit and patriotism to the people of
any state in the Union. In the systems
in vogue in our public schools, colleges
and universities we surpass many of the
older states. In Lincoln, the capital
of the state. where l live, we have not
only the state university. which ranks
as n of the foremost of its kind in the
but three other large secta-
rian universities, besides two Of the
best normal colleges in the west, and
many other smaller institutions of
learning, bringing together the youth
of our state from the farm and home of
of the people, 1000 to 5000 annually.
Lincoln is known as a city of UNIVERSE
ties and the state is known throughout
the entire Union as one representing in
the character of its people the best
types of American commonwealth.
Our material progress for the last
twenty years, the thrifty and substau-
tial character of our farmers. the en-
terprise and rapid growth of our cities.
-.