Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-23
What About This
"Committee of One
Hundred?"

Cowles. Neb., Sept. 20.-To the
Editor of The Bee, With one Ar
thur Weatherly acting as chief GEN.
turion, the Committee Of One Hun
dred seems to have accepted a self
imposed task to tell the candidates
and people Of Nebraska just what
kind Of state constitution should
be written. ...
This advice is gratuitously given;
to the candidates by means of let
tiers; to the people through the
newspapers, and Mr.. Weatherly as
secretary of this centipedal commit
tee has taken "a place in the sun"
that seems to quite monopolize the
field of admonition.
And what is the necessity for all
this counsel? What is the error into
which the unwary candidate or citi-
zen may fall? If we have read
Alright, there appears to be upon
the chest of the secretary, or the
committee, or the power behind the
throne, fear that the document
that may be submitted to the legis-
lature and the voters Of our state
for ratification may be possessed Of
a backbone-and teeth-and hair
and-and digestive viscera; a regu-
lar bear cat of a constitution. A
constitution that may turn and rend
you; a sort of Frankenstein, that
when set a going, would destroy it's
creators.
And what kind of constitution
does our advisory committee ad-
monlsh us to create? To use Mr..
Weatherly's favorite phrase it
should be Short and open" Should
1t be so short as his council we
might have some constitution yet,
and should it be open for the ad-
mission Of faults, or virtues, or
both? We are cautioned what it
must not interfere with, but are not
advised as to what it may touch.
A constitution Of the Mother Hub
bard style might. we infer be sat
lsfyng so long as it covered every
thing and touched nothing.
For fact the committee has not
endeavored to show wherein we
need any constitution, but labors to
convince us that, the production
should be an innocuous. meaning
less document. and we infer (for we
claim the right to seek a motive)
that the demand for a constitution
that presents no restrainst is de-
signed so that we may follow off
after the strange gods of North Da-
kota, or Russia, or Karl Marx, when
ever majority of such legislative
candidates might be camouflaged
into office. A preapproved plan of
nothing dom" or mot at home"
would doubtless meet the cordial
approval of this hundred headed
committee who would rejoice to
behold that the mountain hath la
bored and brought forth mouse"
On matters of constitutional law
one expects to find advisors or in
terpreters possessed of unusual abil-
ity and talent, so we have given the
names, fringing the letterheads of
the committees stationery, a care
full glimpse over. While not claim
ing a thorough knowledge of who's
Who" in Nebraska, yet we have
sort of general idea as to the identi-
ty of the leading spirits in the his
tory of the states development, and
we are bit shocked to find that SO
far as nine-tenths Of the committee
are concerned. why! we never even
heard of them To us they are
"two-spots." Once a petition was
addressed to the throne of Great
Britain beginning: 1--WE, the peo-
pie of England" and signed by
Three Tailors From Tooley Street"
Some ego-what
1t is but fair that we express
recognition of the few we are able
to identify, if we are to weigh the
personnel of the committee. Two
are editors Of county papers and so
far as "deponent knoweth" are like
Caesars wife, beyond SUSPICION"
However, let not Edgar Howard
cnlf y, IL,
this application. for Edgar has by
sheer personality. and persistency,
and ability, to always step off on
the wrong foot and then keep out
of step through the whole parade. |
put himself quite out of the ordinary
class. Edgar is a headliner, we ad-
NIT.
Then there's Laurie Ouinhy; we
remember him. Some fellow senator
singled him out for us one day in
the state senate chamber. His &C.
centricity is that he is a SINGLE
taxer (pure and simpleton). He
talks and writes, feely, but charges
union prices for work done in his
print shop.
Another Disciple to the Short
and open" constitution is ex-Popu-
list Senator w. V. Allen. The sena-
W 49, VI touISe, one OIL Ine Dlg
stars in this aggregation of 100
satellites. We have listened for
hours at time to the tintinnabula-
tons of his mellow voice, wept
when he was defeated and rejoiced |
when the wires carried the news
that the senator had broken all en- !
durance records by speaking some
70 hours without rest. But how |
have the mighty fallen, w. V. Allen |
wants short constitution. Verify !
"the world do move"
And now we recall another in this
centenary movement-there's c. F. |
Gustafson. We have glimpsed him
picketing the capitol building and !
sort of assisting dependent legisla- |
tors to mark their tickets (figura- !
lively speaking). Once we remem-
Der he did himself proud at legs- |
lative committee hearing. He had |
charge of Charlie Wooster and a |
bunch of understudies and malcon- |
tents ard the burden of their plant !
was for the state to reject some |
100000 rendered us by the fed !
eral government for the building of |
good roads in our commonwealth. !
But to the discontinue of Mr.. Gus
tafson, ct al, we got the money; |
now we are getting the roads.
Now these few of the committee |
are all that we are personally wise
to, yet mayhap our acquaintance |
is narrow, so we will draft assist
ance. A friend has a book, it is
captioned "Nebraskans-190 4-1914.'
We have it borrowed 1t purports :,
to feature and classify the men who