Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-24
CONCERNING suLAs uoLcoMp.
Breezy sketch OF the Career of the
nopus Rcformcr.


| Bopus Rcformcr.
Western Laborer COmaha).
When the people ask fellow citizen
to accept their nomination to any particular
office they are supposed to select the can
didate because OF hs clean character and
well proven honesty and integrity. In such
a man we expect to find self-respect and in
dividual dignity especially in a candidate
| for judge OF supreme court, but what
do we find in Sllas A. Holcomb? 1t is a
notorious fact that even before Holcomb's
| term as governor had expired he was set
ting his pins" for the supreme bench and
Tom, Peter. Joe and the whole tribe of
the state house gang of smallbore poll
ticians were grooming him at his own re-
quest for the office he now asks the people
to give him. Later the offlceholders and
papsuckers conceived the idea OF a dollar
dinner at Omaha, where Holcomb was to
be given the opportunity OF bringing
himself out" for the office Of supreme Judge
and he was allowed to bore that dinner
party to death listening to his tiresome
screechng on "the judiciary" Since that
night Holcomb has never ceased jawing on
the judiciary, and since his nomination he
has been on the stump in every little viii
lage where he could get any one to lstep
the people are to cothe with the dignity
of supreme judge, man who has not
sense enough to see his own want of self.
respect, without any native dignity, and
whose eager scramble for the place causes
him to demean himself and lower the Office
to the level OF ward assessorship? We
said in our last he lacked character" We
say now he lacks horse sense" or he
would leave 1t to his friends, II he has
any, to do his "stumping," and not trail
the judicial ermine in the mire of shame
less personal canvass.
In this campaign Holcomb claims to have
been a reform governor Let us see II that
Is so. T. H. Tibbles in riding between LIN
coin and Omaha was put to shame and con-
fusion when he saw so many reform legisla-
tors and state officers hand out passes to the
conductor, and delivered himself in the Lin
coin Independent in the following manner:
THE free pass system. 1t should be made
crime, and passenger fare reduced to
cents a mile. The railroad managers are the
criminals; they should be sent to the pen
for doing it, We don't know whether Tb
bles had a pass or not, but he must have
read in the papers that Edmisten charged
up 1000 miles to the state and put nearly
$500 in his pocket credited as mileage. We
called the virtuous Tibbles' attention to this
at the time and said: "These horrible, cor
rupting railroad managers furnished a car
for the governor his secretary and their
families and friends to Texas ard return,
and we fear these incorrupttble roformers
have yielded to the seductions of the rail-
road managers and lost their virtuous
reputation" 1t is little wonder that Tlb-
bles is angry and says the railroad mana
gers Should be sent to the pen for debauch-
ing such a reform governor and his vir-
tuous CD secretary, Benton Maret; but
where would he send the state auditor, who
has also fallen a victim to the seductive
wiles Of the railroad managers? In fact, the
whole state administration seems to have
been raped by the beastly railroad mana
gers
But now Holcomb comes before the peo-
pie and tells them he will sin no more, but
they are not likely to trust such an unre-
pentant sinner. The office did not seek the
man in Holcomb's case. He Is more hungry
for office than a starved dog would be for
a bone, and no man of sense with a record
like his would presume to come before the
people again-at least until a new genera
tion had arisen, when his rent peculations
from the state treasury and his railroad
bleeding for transportation had been forgot
ten His apologists say he mean. to do we'll,
but was influenced in all his actions by his
private secretary, Maret, who was the real
governor of Nebraska during Holcomb's in
cumbency, and that all his shortcomings
were due to Maret's rascallty. This is a
very lame apology and one that will not be
received by thinking people, as it proves
Holcomb's weakness. But surely Maret
didn't profit by the excessive rent that Hol-
comb charged up to the state while putting
it in his own pocket, and If he was weak
enough to be led by his secretary, how
would he Withstand the Establishments Of
railroad attorneys IL he was on the supreme
bench and anything in it for him?'
The political enemies of Judge Reese all
admit that it was because OF his integrity
and loyalty to his oath of office and the peo-
pies interest that the corporations turned
him down in convention. His party now
forces the nomination upon him without his
seeking, and what contrast there is be-
tween him and the man that hungcred
for it.!