604 



NEBRASKA. 



plete the building under the term of the con- 

 tract will require an appropriation of $188,- 

 659.74. The Commissioner of Public Lands 

 and Buildings calls attention to needed changes 

 in the original plans of the building, and the 

 necessity of providing for them, as well as for 

 the finishing of the interior, and the laying 

 out and general improvement of the Capitol- 

 grounds. The amount asked for to carry this 

 into effect is $93,000. 



Railroads. Below is given an approximate 

 statement of the number of miles of railway in 

 operation in the State, Jan. 1, 1887 : 



Union Pacific Railway 470'8 



Omaha, Niobrara. and Black Hills 387 8 



Burlington and Missouri River 1,622-7 



Missouri Pacific Railway 134-6 



Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley 540-0 



St. Joseph and Grand Island 120-0 



Sioux City and Pacific Railway 26'9 



Chicago, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Omaha 243 5 



Total mileage 8,543'3 



The number of miles assessed in 1885 was 

 2,765; valuation, $18,534,789; in 1886, 2,984 

 miles; value, $19,458,144. 



Political. The Prohibition State Convention 

 met on August 24, and made the following 

 nominations: For Governor, H. W. Hardy; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, E. B. Graham ; Secre- 

 tary of State, E. J. O'Neil ; Treasurer, A. J. 

 Leach; Auditor, J. A. Hooper; Attorney- 

 General, Martin I. Brower; Commissioner of 

 Public Lands and Buildings, L. B. Palmer; 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. A. 

 Smith. The following are the important feat- 

 ures of the platform : 



We recognize the absolute necessity for enforcement 

 of the Sabbath-laws upon our statute-books, and we 

 pledge ourselves to such enforcement. 



We believe that the liquor-traffic is the greatest pro- 

 moter of ignorance, lawlessness, and vice which now 

 confronts our State and nation a foe waxing in 

 strength, cruelty, and defiance a foe which finds 

 shelter and support in both the Eepublican and Dem- 

 ocratic parties. 



The constitutional and statutory prohibition, in the 

 State and nation, of the manufacture, importation, and 

 sale of alcoholic liquors is the most vital issue before 

 the American people. 



License of the traffic, high or low, is public bribery 

 and a political crime of unequaled enormity, and all 

 political parties who favor licensing this appalling evil, 

 and all individuals who vote in support of such par- 

 ties, become accomplices to all the murders and myr- 

 iad crimes growing out of the traffic. 



We are in favor of the repeal of our statute which 

 permits foreigners to vote at our State and municipal 

 elections who are not full and complete citizens of the 

 United States in accordance with the naturalization 

 laws thereof. 



We are opposed to the present contract system of 

 convict-labor, which brings the products of the peni- 

 tentiary in direct competition with the honest labor of 

 the State, and we demand that all convicted felons be 

 confined within the prison-walls. We favor branding 

 all articles manufactured in penal institutions as pris- 

 on-made goods. 



We are in favor of the abolition of the appointment 

 system and the restoration of the elective power to 

 the people, thus removing a most corruptive element 

 of patronage from the executive and legislative depart- 

 ments of our Government. 



We favor abolishing the fee-system of compensating 

 public officers, and demand the enforcement of the law 



which makes it a felony to loan public moneys for 

 private gain. 



We condemn the Republican and Democratic parties 

 for foisting upon the people of Nebraska a worthless 

 and expensive railroad commission, in utter disregard 

 and brazen contempt tor the wishes of the people, as 

 expressed by their ballots at the general election of 

 1884. 



That while we condemn rioting and the wanton 

 destruction of property, we sympathize with every 

 proper effort of the wage-workers to improve their 

 moral and financial condition, recognizing the fact that 

 labor is the source of all wealth ; we therefore de- 

 mand such legislation as will provide for the settle- 

 ment of all differences between capital and labor, by 

 a board of arbitration elected by a direct vote of the 

 people. 



We demand that the rates for the transportation of 

 freights upon the various railroads in this State be so 

 adjusted that remuneration for the services performed 

 by them shall be just and equitable, but that they 

 shall not be permitted to establish rates to raise a rev- 

 enue for the purpose of paying dividends on illegal 

 and excessive issues of stock or interest on fictitious 

 indebtedness, and we pledge ourselves to support such 

 legislation as may be necessary to prohibit such prac- 

 tices ; and we are further opposed to monopolies of 

 every form and character, managed by the few to the 

 detriment of the many. 



We favor thorough', Hberalj and complete public ed- 

 ucation ; a more careful and just imposition of taxes ; 

 constant watchfulness against the increasing power 

 and exactions of individuals : a vigilant supervision of 

 the uses to which the franchises intrusted to corpora- 

 tions are put ; and a careful maintenance on the part of 

 the Government of a complete control of economic con- 

 ditions, in currency, in the ownership of land, and in 

 all other particular's on which the general diffusion of 

 prosperity may directly or indirectly depend. In all 

 public measures we insist on the common welfare as 

 the only criterion of sound legislation and wise social 

 policy. 



Inasmuch as the women of our country are of equal 

 intelligence and superior morals : Therefore, be it 



Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that the 

 ballot should be extended to them, and that their 

 rights, privileges, and immunities under the law 

 should be coextensive with those of men. We are 

 in favor of our State Legislature extending immediate 

 municipal suffrage to the women of Nebraska. 



The Republican State Convention was held 

 at Lincoln, on September 29. The following 

 were nominated : For Governor, John M. 

 Thayer; Lieutenant-Governor, II. H. Shedd; 

 Secretary of State, Gilbert L. Laws; Treas- 

 urer, 0. H. Willard; Auditor, H. A. Babcock; 

 Attorney-General, William Leese; Commis- 

 sioner of Public Lands and Buildings, Joseph 

 Scott ; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 George B. Lane. The platform denounces the 

 National Administration, and resolves as fol- 

 lows : 



The Republican party, having enfranchised the 

 workingman, and protected him from injurious com- 

 petition with pauper labor abroad, favors all further 

 practicable measures for the enhancement of his well- 

 being, the vindication of his manhood, and the se- 

 curity of his rights. 



It favors intelligent organization of wage-workers 

 for all lawful purposes, and especially for mutual pro- 

 tection from the encroachments of organized capital. 

 It demands stringent laws for the prevention of inju- 

 rious competition of contracted convict-labor with free 

 labor. It will not permit anarchism, or sanction the 

 settlement, by mob violence, of differences between 

 employers and employed, but pronounces for a fair sys- 

 tem of peaceful arbitration in all cases where the par- 



