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Show THE CITIZEN If the people of Nebraska had started out with the intention of making themselves ridiculous and contemptible they could not have done better than to cause the arrest of this particular man. It transpired that he had served five years in the Marine Corps, that he had . fought beside Dewey at Manila bay, that he was in the first assaulting party that captured the land fortifications at Manila after the naval engagement, that he had served throughout the Spanish-Amer-icwar, that he had been awarded several medals for valor and that, as he testified at his trial, he had lost his health as a result of the hardships of the war. Because of his physical weakness he was unable to do manual labor and, moreover, he was beyond the draft age. But, of course, he was discharged as soon as the story of his life had been told. On the contrary, the examining magistrate bound him over for trial and had not some one furnished a bond he would have gone to jail to await the convening of the district court. And had the trial judge been as great a blockhead as the examining magistrate he might have so misguided the jurors as to force them to send the soldier patriot to prison for twenty years. Senator Norris does not tell the story to its conclusion, but we may presume that common sense reasserted its sway at this juncture, that the accusers and persecutors were overcome by shame and a sense of their own absurdity, and that the case was promptly dropped. The story has an impressive moral. It teaches us that in our fervor and vigilance for liberty we are apt to injure the cause of freedom an by becoming fanatical. THE BOOM THAT SAGGED have a hunch and we desire to share it with others. The hunch is an American institution, not quite as safe a guide as the constitution and the laws, or even the rule of reason, but a counselor and friend more reliable than Little Bright Eyes and the other nicknamed spirits that guide Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge. It is what table rapping is to. a medium or voices in the air to President Wilson. When an American gets a hunch from the mysterious center of his own intuition, he wants to gamble or take a flyer in stocks. But usually he does neither, for he has known hunches to be as treacherous as Little Bright Eyes. But to our own particular hunch. We have a hunch that Herbert Hoovers boom has sagged, that it is not what it was only four short weeks ago. If we might compare great things with small we think Herbert has arrived at that sad condition which afflicts a bad bod shortly after he has smoked his first cigarette. At all events, he looks that way to us. And what seems to ail Herbert Hoovers boom, which sailed out n into the empyrean with all the pride of a Zeppelin? The American people admire Herbert immensely. They would do a good deal for him on occasion. In fact, they have not withheld applause and cheers whenever he appeared in proper person or in the movies. But they could not stand for the ambitions of one who did not know to what party he belonged or even to what country? In our kindly fashion we tried to invent a country for Herbert and called it Unitania, but we realized when we did it that the Amer-- . ican colonies could hardly be returned to England before our next election. We attempted to provide a country for Herbert, seeing that he had none, but unfortunately no one took up our proposal to unite Great Britain and the United States for the benefit of Herbert Hoover. Our esteemed food dictator is a good fellow and we all like him, but how can we nominate and vote for a man who never nominated or voted for anyone in his native land ? Ever- since he left college Herbert has been an expatriate. For twenty years he lived in England and forgot so much about his country that when someone asked him what party he belonged to he replied, I am a Liberal. When he returned to this country he discovered that there were no and that he could not stand for parliament. The American people want a man to have a country and a party. WE high-blow- by-electi- ons 0 Hoover, however, thinks the party should adopt the man, and we cannot feel quite sure but that, if we fail to nominate him, he will go back home to Lunnon. But, of course, there are positions Herbert would shine, not to say dazzle in. The next President might attire Herby in short pants and send me as ambassador to the Court of St. James. Then everybody would be satisfied. BETRAYS HIMSELF HILLQUIT gave away the case of the Socialists while before the New York legislature. He said that after the workmen had acquired control of the country a little shooting might be necessary. And then he added that the shooting would be directed against the profiteering class. It is his obvious purpose to win sympathy by referring to the capitalist class as the profiteering class. The word profiteer was applied during war days in England to those who made excess profits. There is no such thing as a profiteering class. There are profiteers in all clasises and among our most prominent and esteemed since, have been the workprofiteers during the war, and occasionally " MORRIS men. Hillquit, like most of the Socialistic leaders who are perniciously active, likes to employ terms that will win with deceit the sympathies of the workmen and, at the same time, stir class hatred. What he really means is that the day will come when the workers will shoot their employers to overthrow the government and obtain the Russian economic system. If that day comes in this country both the labor and the capitalistic profiteers will suffer, for all of us will be reduced to the lamentable condition of the people of miserable Russia. Our present system is not perfect, but men who talk about a little shooting or much shooting are not apt to be safe guides. Hillquit will hardly argue that the Socialistic system is perfect, for if he has any wisdom left he must realize that every human system will be imperfect until man himself is perfect. THE BOND ISSUE city commissioners have rightly taken the position that a policy in providing for the future water needs of the city would be a blunder. The present project is to issue bonds for $3,300,000 and close contracts for all available water in Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, Mill Creek and Neffs canyons. Already the contracts have been made between the city and the farmers for purchase and for the supplying of the farmers with water after they have disposed of their rights. will be 'assured When the bonds have been issued the water-owneof their money and the city can then acquire all of the water rights. As the case is presented at this time it would seem the height of unwisdom to finance any project less comprehensive. Those who argue that only $2,000,000 bq issued and only some of the contracts closed are advocating a policy long ago proved to be fallacious. Had the city fathers of a generation ago been more they would have expended a few millions for water rights and works that have cost many times that amount. The present commissioners are seeking to avoid that mistake and they announce that their plans will avoid it. The commissioners declare that if any larger project is consummated it will be necessary to go outside the valley for water at a cost of not. less than $10,000,000. The question, therefore, is whether an adequate supply of water to meet the reasonable needs of the city for many years to come can be obtained by acquiring all available water in the streams near the city or whether the larger project should be carried out and water thereby obtained for a city of perhaps 750,000 or 1,000,000 inhabitants. The present project, according to the most conservative estimates of the city officials, will provide water for 400,000 inhabitants, which means that the system will not require THE rs far-sight- ed years. enlargement for perhaps twenty-fiv- e The city commissioners should promote the bond issue by laying |