Nebraskans

In 1881 Nebraska was an open prairie. For 430 miles from east to west long undulating plains stretched out like the level wheat lands of Russia. Slow-flowing, muddy rivers ran through the plains; villages were few and far apart, travel difficult. Nebraska was a state before there were people there; in 1860 the land where Lincoln, the capital, now stands was open plain. The first settlers found a continuous, nearly flat plateau, covered with long red, shaggy grass. Buffaloes ran the plains, wallowed in hardened out water holes. The winters were hard and short, the summers hot and long. In this land Germans, Scandinavians, Czechs, and Bohemians settled. Thrifty, industrious races they have made the whole state one enormous farm of stretching fields of grain and pastures. The people, nearly 90% of them of foreign stock, are sturdy, simple. Not only grain and livestock were bred in this fruitful farmland, but stalwart men as well. From Nebraska came William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued, foremost popular orator of his day; General John J. Pershing, first in command of the U. S. soldiery in the World War; Charles Bryan, Nebraska's idealist Governor (1923.-25); Gilbert M. Hitchcock, onetime Democratic leader of the Senate; Charles G. Dawes came out of Nebraska, went to the Vice President's chair; now Nebraskans boom him for President.

One more Nebraskan, George Wiliam Norris, Republican, is, with the possible exception of Senator Borah of Idaho, the foremost liberal in the U. S. Senate. Nearly a quarter century ago, his state sent this farmer lawyer from the plains to the House of Representatives. He was and is homely, unimposing, with bristling hair over a broad brow and keen deep-set eyes; he had and has courage, industry and a ready tongue. First in the House (1903-13), later in the Senate (1913-31) he bitterly fought favoritism and oppression in all its varied forms. Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Democrat, his fellow Senator from Nebraska, (1911-23) was his most cherished foe. But year by year his fire died down as he found the institutions he fought as impregnably intrenched as ever. In 1923, Senator Hitchcock, defeated, retired; Senator Norris, robbed of both foe and issues yearned for a quiet life on the Nebraskan plains. But, back to the Senate he went, disillusioned.

There, he spoke more in humor than in rage. He might have led a liberal party into power. But, upon him as upon his fellow regular irregular, Senator William E. Borah, "party ties lie lightly." Mr. Borah, ablest orator in the Senate,* Mr. Norris, dean of progressives, remained imposing might-have-beens.

They might have been party leaders, might have held the highest office in the land; both preferred to wage a lone fight.

Last week Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock announced his engagement, planned for a wedding in June. Tired, Insurgent Norris saw his friendly enemy turning to retirement and marriage; almost simultaneously he announced he would retire when his present term is up. But not to petty private life. For the Governorship of Nebraska he will set his aim; once in that office he intends to make Nebraska "the model state."

*In the coining of apt phrases, the Senator from Idaho has no equal. Speaking of Mexico, recently, in an attack on the foreign policy of the administration, he spoke words that many think will go ringing down the ages. He said: "God has made us neighbors; let justice make us friends."