Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-09
WEST Y EAsT.
Real Cause OF Western Antipnthy
Toward Eastern rroVincinIiSm
Chicago pnst

fHN'1N AF@s
Senator Allen Of Nebraska has put with
grateful moderation the antipathy OF the
west toward the east In a magazine article.
Most western men and no. a few eastern
men who have taken pains TO investigate
the sentiments Of western people at close
range must know that, far from being the
exciting cause. the free silver and COM
munistic heresies now so stoutly maintained
in many parts OF the country beyond the
Mississippi are really but the consequence,
the perverted expression. Of hostility to any
thing on which the east, and especially New
York City. has set the seal Of its approval.
In some degree the feeling is aggravated
by the existing business relations of the two
sections. The western man who suffers by
reason of the extortion and oppression Of rail-
way companies traces the source of his woes
to Wall street. The rates at which his
produce Is carried, the markets which fix his
compensation, the cabal, which. by the man
ipulations of a single day, has swept away
his invested earnings, is situated in the
metropolis of the east.
But it would be unjust to the intelligence
of the west to assume that it measures his
wrath by the troy scale. The western man
bears about with him the feeling that the
east regards his people as an alien and
curious community, worthy of being plucked
by spectators and studied by amateur
travellers. but incnnsiderable as a factor in
the intellectual life of the country. The
feckless provincialism of New York is a
tradition in the west. Any Nebraska school
boy can bound" New York state; the New
York man who could bound Nebraska
would be considered a miracle of useless
information.
Hurt to the quick by Indifference and
contempt, the western farmer, not long
enough in possession of power to view inso-
lence with languor, has nourished his wrath
and kept it warm these twenty years. He
is not by nature a revolutionist. More than
any other man he cherlshes the traditions
of the renubliC. values the letter of the con-
'~stitution and abides by the law. II he has
be assured that he has no designs on the
integrity of the nation. He has proved
his faith by his works, His patriotism is
attested by a hundred battlefelds. There
is no need to protest 1t further. To insinu-
ate that his feeling against the east is the
groundwork of discomfort with the govern
ment is so libelous that even to seriously
combat the insinuation seems out of place.
To put the case in a word, the free silver
craze and every other chOre!c outbreak that
has confused the politics of the west are
the reflection of eastern intolerance, indiffer-
ence and contempt for the millions of Amer
leans who worship the flag in the light Of
the westering sun. None feel this more
than the patriotic and level-headed men of
the far west, who have set their faces
against their own neighbors in the unequal
battle for the national credit. The time
has come fer the east to know the truth, for
unless it ~enlarges it's vision beyond the
highlands of the Hudson the day is not far
distant when 1t, in its turn, will be the
region of discomfort and protest.