Omaha daily bee., 1904-12-27

seed corn special" was an Improvement
upon its "tsx-shirking special anyway.
st. Paul Republican: II Is reported that
| the Burlington is about TO retire from poll
4 ties. The Nebraska legislature can ma
terially assist Il and any other railroads
that may be similarly inclined by enHctiug
stringent anti.pass law.
| Hodredge Progress: Suppose all the far
| mers and other taxpayers of Nebraska
| whose taxes have been raised. refused to
| pay the assessment. as have the railroads
/ in various counties And why should the
railroad corporations receive any more
Z consideration from the tax collector than
any individual taxpayer?
Springfield Monitor: There must be some
thing decidedly wrong down at the state
asylum at Lincoln when one patient kills
another and the fact is kept from the pub
lic for several weeks. II Is bad enough
to have friends there but when murder
is committed and kept hushed up what are
people to think? They surely want to
know what is going on IN that institution.
Benkleman News: The people Of east
ern Nebraska have little idea of what they
miss in the way of cheap telephone SER
vice by not living in the range country.
Think Of a monthly bill of SS1s cents for
the use of a telephone. The latest barb
wire line 10 go out of the village will be
twelve miles long and will include fifteen
phones. The only cost 20 the subscriber
will be that of the instrument he uses and
the trouble of making the connection. The
cost of maintenance Is expected TO amount
to 81 year. There is not an insulator on
the fence, yet messages are carried per-
fectly the whole distance.
Stanton Picket: The suppression of the
murder OF one patient by arother at the
Lincoln hospital for the insane, which oc-
CURED November Z, was a mistake. The
motive assigned for doing, that the
friends of the other patients might not be
worried over the circumstances, is a cred
liable one, but will not be accepted by all
as the true reason. The spirit of the OPP
position to make political capital out Of
each trivial circumstance will be stimu-
lated, not only by this unfortunate occur
renee, but to a greater degree by the sup
pressing OF the affair for long time.
Such happenings cannot be kept perma-
nently from the public. and even IL they
could. in this land of equal privileges the
public has right to know what transpires
at the state institutions they have paid for
and are paying to maintain. An open
course is always the wisest II not always
the best.
Grand Island Independent: meeting
Of the attorneys of the counties I'm the
state affected by the indispostion of the
Union Pacific and Burlington railroads at
Lincoln and the result of 1t was that the
burden of the working Of defending the
interests of the various counties will fall
on the shoulders of Attorney General-elect
Norris Brown As the state is. of course,
as largely interested as the counties this
is proper, though he should and unques-
tionably will have the hearty cooperation.
wherever possible. of all the attorneys. 1t
is a fight of the railroads against the peo- |
pie, and the latter should be united in the
matter 1t is believed that the case will |
drag through the courts several years, |
but when you come to think Of il, 1t is a
mighty poor case that cannot get a con- |
tinuance I'm the courts whenever either |
party to the suit wants It, Getting tied up |
In the courts Is becoming to be more of a |
search for trouble than settlement of
trouble.
Ord Quiz: The inmates OF the asylum for |
the insane at Lincoln have been doing busi-
ness lately according to the facts that have |
just come to light One inmate killed an |
other a month ago or more, and some time |
later an attendant was assailed by heavy |
maniac and nearly Drained before the crazy |
murderer could be overpowered. All the |
facts were kept from the public till now, |
which we think was a serious mistake. The !
superintendent gives as his reason for the |
suppression of the facts that the news |
would give the relatives of the inmates |
needless alarm IL they knew what had hap
pened. This is all wrong. The public will |
have far more apprehensions row since
they know II is the purpose of the super
intendent to suppress the facts much
a A nj of ba |
dies would assure the public that If moth
ing is heard from relatives in the asylum
mo news is good news" but now relatives
cannot know but that their kin have been
injured for months. We believe that the
public has a right to be promptly informed
as to all such things going on in the asy-
lum.
St. Paul Republican, 1t Is difficult TO
understand the process Of reasoning by
which the authorities justified themselves
in suppressing news of a murder at the
Lincoln insane asylum. The explanation
that 1t was done to spare the feelings OF
other patients relatives is not well taken
for the reason that in the ordinary course
of events the affair was sure to leak out
sooner or later, and when It did 1t would
be much worse than II a clean breast had
been made Of It in the first place. People
are now wondering how many similar deeds
of violence have been more successfully
covered up. and those who have relatives
or friends in the Lincoln institution are
subjected to grave fears concerning their
personal safety In view of the over
crowded condition of the asylum It seems
that no responsible person can be blamed
for the murder committed by DR.. Ancora
six weeks ago But the authorities are
subject to censure for attempting 10 cover
It up and their judgment is impeached by
the fact that they seem TO have imagined
that such a policy could be indefinitely
continued.