University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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II. The Present QEBRASKA, m January, 1919, was a changed Nebraska, one that had knuwn bereavement and sacriticc. For two years the state had been workint; tirelessly for the nation, had given men and money, had sent grain and meat. And a Nebraskan by residence and schooling, John J. Pershmg, was the commander-in-chiet of the American Expeditionary Forces. Nebraska was glaJ to give, so men and grain were sent from clean agricultural fields to a land where the sky was smoke- clouded and the fields were bloody with the horrors of war. During these two years, Nebraska thought of nothing but war, and lived for nothing but war. Then, at the end of it, the fighting men returned, and Do your bit to help win the war became a discarded slogan. But m a country whose duty it is to aid her broken neighbors, Nebraska still had a share of the work to do. Starving nations had to be fed and Nebraska ' s agricultural resources could produce a large part of the necessar ' suppl Slowly, the state has recuperated and today industry is mi longer at a standstill. Farm production is increasing; unrest has almost disappeared. Other states boast of greater wealth, they have silver dollars instead ot copper pennies, they have valuable mines or factories, but Nebraska has agricultural land and grazing plains. Nebraska is an overalled, blue-shirted state — a working state — but it has the ruddy brownness of health. One hundred and twenty-five thousand farms, covering an area of forty-two million acres, are included in the fifty-five million acres of the state. Corn and wheat are the principal grains raised in the region. Corn is grown on about one-half of the cultivated area with a total production of one hundred and eighty-four million bushels last year. In 192?, Nebraska, ranking third as a wheat pro- ducing state, brought sixty million bushels to the markets of the world. Besides these grains, alfalfa is raised extensively and nearly every farm has a small plot of rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat. In the western part of the state where the rainfall is light there are two thousand four hundred miles of irrigation canals. Here potatoes and sugar beets are raised. At present, about twelve million Tlie I ' laltt Riit-r from Blujfi South of fremoiit Page 9

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i ■ xumjm.lr.ilrl ' The development of industry in Nebraska has paralleled rather closely that of agriculture. The census of 1860, which was incomplete, listed 107 estahlishments, of which forty-eight were lumber mills. Evidently there was no thought of conserving what little timber the countr ' possessed. For some years the young territory was obsessed with two golden dreams, coal and salt. The hope of pay- ing coal mines died fairly soon but there was a persistent belief that the salt beds near Lincoln were an inexhaustible source of wealth. They had been worked sporadically since the beginning of settle- ment. Numerous companies were formed to realize this wealth, and equally numerous were the peti- tions for state aid but with small result. In 1869 and 1886 borings proved that there was not enough salt present to permit of competition with the eastern sources of supply, and so the project was reluct- antly abandonetl On the other hand, the state acquired valuable industries when the shops of the Union Pacific, Burlington, and other railroads were Itx-ated. In 1S74 Omaha had the Union Pacific shops, flour mills, smelters, factories for farm implements, bricks, and linseed oil, and was already a wholesale center. Yet the State Board of Immigration deplored the lack of industry and called the attention of manufacturers to the advantages of proximity to the farm. In 1884 a group of Omaha business men founded the union stock yards, the beginning of the greatest single industry ' in Nebraska. Omaha became the great- est distributing point for feeder cattle in the world. In 1900 the value of packing products was S71, 018,399, and Nebraska took third place in meat-packing from New York. The census reports of 1902 list the chief industries of the state as meat-packing, flouring, printing, railroad shop work, the creamery business, and leather work. One of the first laws passed by the legislature of the Territory of Nebraska was an act establishing free public schtwls and prescribing their personnel and administration. At first school advantages were largely nominal, as may be inferred by the fact that in 18 9, of 4,767 children only 1,300 attended school at all, and that seven counties reported no schools whatever. Most of the district school houses were of sod, built by the labor of the patrons. Such an edifice was often school, church, meeting-house, and auditorium. But those schools were centers of learning, for, by 1890, Nebraska had reduced its illiteracy to . .11 pjer cent of its population, and stood at the forefront of the states in literacy. In time the state could boast of a number of authors, widely known, who wrote on the most varied subjects: Dr. George L. Miller, J. Sterling Morton, Dr. Charles E. Bessey, A. L. Bixby, W. J. Bryan, H. W. Caldwell, F. E. Clements, Roscoe Pound, Louise Pound, and Hartley B. Alexander, to mention a few. In more recent years such writers as Willa Gather, Dorothy Canfieid Fisher, and John G. Neihardt have made prominent a literature that seems worthy of Nebraska. When America ' s entr ' into the World War came suddenly on Nebraska, v. ' ar activity began im- mediately. Three regiments of the National Guard were called out. A special session of the legislature convened, passed an act prohibiting foreign language instruction in the public schools, and established a State Council of Defense. This council engaged in numerous activities, and, like its national counter- part, used numbers of four-minute speakers to keep the public in touch with its activities. The state food administration regu- lated the sale of food and en- couraged city dwellers to plant gardens or work on farms. In the Liberty loans, Nebras- ka greatly oversubscribed her quota of $240,000,000, and she bought more war savings stamps per capita than any other state. Nebraska sent 47,801 soldiers to war, and, as she considers it, supplied them with their gen- eral. Base Hospital Unit 49, consisting of four hundred Ne- braska doctors and nurses, had the best record of saving life of any American hospital in Europe. And foremost and most solemn of all, one thousand Nebraskans died upon the fields of France. State Capitol. Dismantied in 1925 Page 8 I 1 r » 1 I IT-

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. Omalia i ;vlme KEARNEY MIDWAY CITY );733™ FRISCO 1733 BOSTON ' ' bushels ot potatoes and one hundred .md twenty-seven milhon pounds of sugar are produced yearly. Closely related to the cultivation of the soil is the livestock industry. Every good farm has its herd of cattle. Some are kept for dairy purposes, some are raised for meat, some are petted animals which our proud breeder exhibits at county fairs as pedigreed stock. Swine are being raised to such an extent that Nebraska ranks second in the industry with two million head of hogs in 192. . Sheep are becoming more numerous and last year ' s report stated that there were about three hundred thousand scattered over the farms. It is in the western part of the state, however, that livestock raising becomes an industry-. The dry plains are especially adapted to supporting great numbers of cattle and a thou- sand head are often found on one ranch. Recent reports state that the annual shipment of beef cattle from the ranches to the packing houses and livestock markets averages about two million three hundred and seventy-five thousand head. This brings a need for transportation. There are seven rail- ways operating in Nebraska with six thousand seven hundred forty-two miles of track to carry this burden of traffic. Omaha, the leading city of Nebraska, is the blue- ribbon dairy produce market of the world. It ranks second as a livestock market and third as a meat curing and packing center with an annual expenditure of five million dollars in the packing houses alone. Nebraska has not become distinguished in other indus- tries. There are no mines, and the potash industry which flourished during the war has been shut down because of high cost of production. There are about four thousand factories in the state, the largest of which are the packing houses. Besides these there are flour mills, creameries, sugar refineries, candy factories, and bakeries. Clay beds also furnish material for the brickyards and for the tile factory in Lincoln. Then, there are factories turning out a variety of commodities. For instance, shoe strings and spark plugs are manufactured at Omaha, index tags are make at Exeter, and Kearney is the home of the dandelion rake. The cities are small, and numerous towns are scattered through the cultivated fields. The highways are being improved by state and county appropriations so that the automobile is the com- mon torm of .small scale transportation. The laborers of Nebraska arc well treated. They are not consumptive city dwellers, or pale men who go forth from gray huts with dinner buckets to the depths of dark mines. There is no menacing scx)ty mantle hovering above the heads of the people. Nebraskans live where the Tlic Higliesf Ponit in AJebras a, Scottsbluff Phec 1(1 Midu ' dy Betiyeen the CoasH; Highu ' fly ' May t T ear Kearney rrm i - rTT- ) J I I l l l rrrrrr l l ll l l mm ti rTtTi-rT r-i ir mi i r ■ ifl l