130 Years Ago -- 3/23/2008

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

   1878: Nebraska Sens. Algernon S. Paddock and Alvin Saunders secured an amendment to the federal timber claim law that reduced the required acreage of tree planting from 40 to 10 to qualify for a land grant.

   1888: The contract for erection of an Episcopal church in Lincoln was let to Hughes Bros. of Lincoln for $40,000.

   1898: President William McKinley sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding Cuban independence or threatening war. Gov. Silas Holcomb said that in case of war with Spain, Nebraska would furnish 1,500 National Guardsmen and 1,000 volunteers.

   1908: The Lincoln City Council agreed to a plan to give a half-block on the east side of 16th between H and J streets to the Nebraska State Historical Society, but a lack of funds resulted in delay and eventual abandonment of the society’s plans to build a museum there.

   1918: William Jennings Bryan urged the Nebraska Legislature to ratify the national prohibition amendment. His arguments were that prohibition was successful in other states, that the use of grain for liquor robbed the table and soldiers in Europe of food and that alcohol sapped the strength of men.

   1928: Scaffolds were being built on four sides of the transept of the tower of the Capitol for the use of stone carvers who were soon to begin reproducing gigantic figures modeled by Lee Lawrie, New York sculptor. Figures were to include Pentaour, Ezekiel, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, the Apostle John, Louis IX, Isaac Newton and Abraham Lincoln.

   1938: Sen. George Norris, the only remaining member of the Senate who voted against U.S. entry into World War I, said, “I do not think there is anywhere near justification for a declaration of war today than (in) 1917, and I would vote the same now as I did then. But we see outlawry replacing justice and reason in other parts of the world. Sooner or later we may have to face it. I pray not.”

   1948: Congressmen working out a compromise foreign aid bill agreed to strike Spain from the list of nations eligible. Nebraska’s four Republican congressmen voted against the Europe-China foreign aid bill.

   1958: Rep. Phil Weaver, R-1st District, announced that the U.S. Bureau of the Budget had authorized $1,097,000 for modernization and improvement of the Veterans Hospital in Lincoln.

   1968: Presidential aspirants Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (Democrat) and Harold E. Stassen (Republican) spoke at the University of Nebraska.

Five people died in a fire at the old Jackson Hotel in Omaha.

   1978: Nebraska farmers could get 10 cents a bushel more for their grain if enough freight cars were available to haul it to ports.

   Roger Sandman, Nebraska director of agriculture, said preliminary estimates of $18.5 million in damage to farms by recent flooding were well short of the actual loss.

   1988: A rash of grass fires in Lancaster County and eastern Nebraska kept firefighters occupied. Firefighters spent hundreds of hours in a one-week span dousing fires started by carelessly tossed cigarettes, people burning debris and field stubble, and sparks from passing trains.

   1998: Transcrypt International stock price plunged. Alleged rumors regarding bookkeeping practices had circulated earlier in the year, about the same time an anonymous letter was sent to Coopers & Lybrand, the accounting firm that had been auditing Transcrypt. The letter alleged that a pair of Transcrypt sales to a government customer worth $1.75 million were not properly recorded.