Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-13
PROMISES TyAr ARR MELLOW PAR.

PROMISES THAT ARR BELOW PAR,
In an address just issued In the name
Of the populist state committee the FOL.
lowing eulogy is passed upon former
Governor Holcomb, who is again before
the people OF Nebraska as the fusion
candidate for supreme Judge, TO he
voted on at the coming election:
The magnificent record OF Hon. Silas A.
Holcomb as governor appeals to every
thinking man. His rigid adherence to
strict economy, yet not parslmony, in an
departments under his control while gov
ernor, his conservatism and eminent fair
ness in his every act, both public and pri-
waite, and, above all, his honesty and un-
doubted legal ability, combine TO mark him
as an ideal man for a seat upon the SUI
preme bench.
Like so many other doubtful state
ments cmanating from the same source,
this p%anegyric would be startling II
true. If Candidate Holcomb is to point
TO the record he made as governor for
his recommendation for n renewal of
popular confidence by elevation to the
supreme bench the people will find that
that record is not such as Will warrant
them in accepting his present promises
at par.
Going into the executive office upon a
strict pledge to defend the peoples
rights against the aggressions of rail
road and other corporate organizations,
he VIGOROUSLY succumbed in a few
short weeks to the insidious influence
of the free pass, Notwithstanding the
fact that his party had from the first
been unreservedly committed against
the pass bride. Today Holcomb openly
admits that as governor he accepted all
the passes that were offered to him and
drew acquisitions upon the railroads for
more, but he now promises to reform
and asks an opportunity to show that
as supreme Judge his promises will be
worth more than they were as gov
ernor.
In the face Of the position of the pop
ulists on the question of state regulation
of railroads. Governor Holcomb re-
placed three republican railroad COM
m~issioners, whom he and his party had
branded as railroad tools. with three
popocratic commissioners VIGOROUSLY
more subservient to the railroads than
any who had preceded them. Instead
of offering the relief the people were
demanding, Governor Holcomb's rail
road commissioners have played con-
stantly into the hands of the railroads
and in every controversy have been on
the side OF the railroads as against the
side of the people. But Governor Hol-
comb not only retained them in office,
but p%erpetuated them upon his success
sor when he should never have APP
pointed them in the first place, or, if i'm
posed upon, should have removed them
as soon as he discovered their duplicity.
the credit for the commendable acts Of
his administration he must be blamed
for its failures. After insisting for
years that the railroads Of Nebraska
were undervalued in their assessment
and were escaping their share Of the
burdens of government, thereby shift
ing them upon the farmers and other
taxpayers, Governor Holcomb's State
Board of Equalization accepted without
change the same. railway assessments
fixed by their predecessors. whom they
had denounced as inspired by railroad
influence.
1t Is unnecessary to refer except in
passing to the inexcIsable credulity. to
call it a mild name, of Governor Hol-
comb in accepting from Treasurer Bart
ley in settlement of his accounts a cigar
box full Of worthless papers without
an attempt to verify them. when he had
been warned against BARLEY and had
been informed that BARLEY threatened
to resign If compelled by the governor
to make a cash settlement.
The question is. Would Silas A. Hol-
comb on the supreme bench be any
truer to the people than he was in the
executive chair? Would Silas A. HOl-
comb as judge live III to his pledges
any better than did Silas A. Holcomb
as governor? Would Silas A. Holcomb
in judicial robes withstand the blun-
dishments of railroad corporations and
defend the rights of the common people
more vigorously than when as chief ex-
ecutive be accepted pass brides. ap-
pointed railway tools as railway
commissioners and reaffirmed a notori-
ously fraudulen, railway assessment?