NEBRASKA. 



593 



The Normal School shows a vigorous growth, 

 and the average number of pupils enrolled for 

 the past two years was 341. The Blind Asylum 

 contained 21 inmates on the 30th of Novem- 

 ber, and the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb 52. 



The penitentiary on the 30th of November 

 contained 128 convicts. The expense of the 

 institution to the State, for the two years pre- 

 ceding, was about $59,000. The prisoners are 

 let out on contract, which runs six years from 

 October 1, 1877. The contractor pays all ex- 

 penses of management and care, and receives 

 from the State 60 cents per diem for each con- 

 vict the first two years, 55 cents the second 

 two years, and 50 cents the last two. Before 

 the contract was made, the average cost of 

 maintaining the penitentiary was $1.25 for 

 each prisoner. 



The Greenback party of the State held a con- 

 vention at Lincoln on the 14th of August, and 

 adopted the following platform : 



1. The power to create money and regulate the 

 volume thereof belongs to the Government. 



2. We demand that the coinage of silver be placed 

 upon the same footing with gold. 



3. The repeal of the national banking law and the 

 substitution of legal greenbacks. 



4. That all Government paper money shall be legal 

 tender for all debts, public and private ; that the 

 Government redeem all bonds as fast as practicable, 

 and should issue sufficient money to supply the de- 

 mand of trade. 



5. The Government has power to issue absolute 

 paper money. 



6. We favor the improvement of the Mississippi 

 and Missouri Eivers. 



7. We demand the public lands for actual settlers. 



8. We protest against convict labor. 



9. We favor State legislation for aifording a rea- 

 sonable rate of transportation for our products. 



10. We demand an investigation of the finances of 

 the State, and the punishment of illegal use of public 

 money. 



11. We demand the abolition of the importation 

 of coolies. 



The candidates put in nomination were as 

 follows : For Congress, J. W. Davis ; for Gov- 

 ernor, L. G. Todd ; for Secretary of State, O. 

 T. B. Williams; for Treasurer, S. H. Cum- 

 mings ; for Attorney-General, S. H. Oalhoun ; 

 for Auditor, E. H. Benton ; for Commissioner 

 of Public Lands, James McCreery; for Asso- 

 ciate Justice, J. D. Howe ; for Contingent Mem- 

 ber of Congress, L. 0. Pace. 



The Democratic Convention was held at Lin- 

 coln on the 27th of September. There was a 

 warm contest between those who favored a 

 fusion with the Greenback party and those who 

 desired to take a stand for hard money. The 

 result was a virtual triumph for the former. 

 The ticket, which included three of the Green- 

 back candidates, was as follows : For Supreme 

 Judge, John D. Howe; for Congress, short 

 term, Alexander 0. Bear ; for Congress, long 

 term, J. W. Davis ; for Governor. J. R. Web- 

 ster ; for Lieutenant-Governor, F. J. Mead ; 

 for Secretary of State, Benjamin Parmenton ; 

 for Auditor, General E. H. Benton ; for Trea- 

 surer, S. H. Cummings ; for Superintendent of 

 VOL. xviii. 38 A 



Public Instruction, S. L. Barrett ; for Attorney- 

 General, S. H. Oalhoun ; for Superintendent of 

 Public Lands and Buildings, Joseph McCready. 

 The platform, to which the hard-money 

 members of the Convention refused to sub- 

 scribe, was as follows: 



The Democratic party of Nebraska reaffirm their 

 faith in the Constitution with all its amendments, 

 and declare strict construction of the home rule ; 

 supremacy of civil over military power; equality or 

 all citizens before the law ; liberty of individual ac- 

 tion, unvexed by sumptuary laws ; absolute acquies- 

 cence in the lawfully expressed will of the majority ; 

 elections free and untrammeled by Government ; 

 all the directions, except so far as obedience of the 

 law demands, are essential to the preservation and 

 due administration of free government. Further- 

 more, be it known that the Democracy of Nebraska 

 is against any and all protective tariffs, for the rea- 

 son that no one industry can be protected except at 

 the expense of all others, and for the reason that we 

 desire perfect commercial freedom wherein we may 

 sell where we can sell the highest and buy any- 

 where we can buy the lowest. 



Be it known further, that the Democracy of Ne- 

 braska declares itself unalterably adverse to subsi- 

 dies to railroads or other private corporations, either 

 in land, money, or bonds ; either municipal, county, 

 State, or national contributions, for the reason that 

 we have seen and experienced the evils and injus- 

 tice of such contributions, for the reason that it robs 

 the many to enrich the few, for the reason that it 

 inspires corporate capital to capture and control the 

 Legislatures of the State to elect United States Sen- 

 ators, and to corrupt the people and their represent- 

 atives, and for the reason that, in Nebraska, corporate 

 capital is endangering popular rights and subverting 

 popular will. 



Be it known, we are against the system of revenue 

 which discriminates in favor of the rich and adverse 

 to the poor. We are for honest men in all public 

 offices, and against professional place-hunters and 

 political jobbers everywhere, in and out of the par- 

 ty. We are for economy, exactness, and strict ac- 

 countability in the administration of public affairs, 

 and we denounce the Republican party of this State 

 because it has squandered the public lands; because 

 it has robbed the school funds ; because it has wast- 

 ed the public money in rotten contracts for rotten 

 public buildings, and levied a tax of half a million 

 dollars per year for tan years to enrich favorites and 

 feed imbeciles in office. We further arraign the 

 Republican party for the crime of defrauding the 

 nation of the President justly elected by a majority 

 of a quarter of a million popular votes, and its reck- 

 less disregard of all the rights and demands of the 

 people in this and other matters which involve their 

 best interests. We declare the commercial and indus- 

 trial stagnation that has so long prevailed through- 

 out the country, ar d consequent widespread want 

 and suffering, is due to the pernicious financial legis- 

 lation of the Republican party, and we hereby ar- 

 raign it for its acts and charge that by a sweeping 

 change in the measure of value wholly in the inter- 

 ests of moneyed capital, by the demonetization of 

 silver and the destruction of legal paper, it has 

 wrongly added in effect hundreds of millions to the 

 burdens of debt and taxes upon the people, and the 

 burden has as yet been only partially removed by 

 the act of our party in Congress, by the remoneti- 

 zation of silver. The policy of the Republican party 

 in the contraction of paper currency and hoarding 

 gold has increased the value of money and securities, 

 and decreased the value of capital designed for pro- 

 ductive use ; thus idleness and stagnation, instead of 

 industry and prosperity, have been fostered. As 

 measures of relief to the people, we insist that the 

 period of resumption be postponed beyond the 



