Newspaper Page Text
PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
TAFT, BRYAN, AND WATSON; STAND
ARD-BEARERS.
The Ohio and Massachusetts Democratic
Conventions joined the Bryan column last week,
as Texas and South Carolina had done a few
days before, and there are few now who doubt
that the Nebraskan will win the nomination
easily at Denver. Nor is there much reason
to doubt that Wm. H. Taft will be the Re
publican Presidential nominee, for although
he has not the long lead over his opponents
that Bryan has, it requires only a majority
to nominate in the National Republican Con
vention and not a two-thirds vote as in the
Democratic Convention. The Populists have
already nominated Thomas E. Watson of
Georgia.
We have no desire to curry favor with
Populists, Republicans or Democrats —one or
all —in this weekly review of the news: our
purpose is simply to tell the whole unvarnished
truth as we see it, for the purpose of enabling
even the man who reads no other paper to
form an intelligent idea about current events,
regardless of whether this truth helps or
hurts any party. Consequently it is with no
desire to tickle the winning sides, but only
the expression of our feeling as an American
citizen, that we say now that in Taft, Bryan,
and Watson we believe the parties have put
forward their strongest candidates and that
the country is to be congratulated that it is
men of such character who are chosen as the
factional favorites in the struggle for the high
office of President. Taft, Bryan, Watson:
each one a man of independence, honor, cour
age, and ability; in life and habit as clean as
a hound’s tooth; notably free from corpora
tion or machine influence —probably never be
fore, in fact, have the three leading Presiden
tial candidates come before the American
people with, less obligation to party machines
or to Wall Street influences. And this is a
condition in which Americans of all parties
may well take pride; it augurs well for the
future of our institutions and speaks well
for the character and ideals of the sturdy,
honest, every-day American citizen and voter.
—Progressive Farmer.
TAFT AND THE TRUSTS.
Each succeeding day strengthens the opinion
that Taft will become the nominee of the
republican party, and each succeeding day also
strengthens the opinion that he has secured
the support of the trusts and trust magnates.
H. B. Martin, national secretary of the Ameri
can Anti-Trust league, will close tomorrow his
argument against the Hepburn amendment to
the Sherman anti-trust law. He will charge
that it is a part —the basis, in short —of an
agreement between the trusts and the republi
can party whereby in return for the right to
form pools and combinations the trusts and
the trust magnates are to support Taft for
President.
It will not be possible to pass the Hepburn
bill at this session of Congress because the
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
democrats in the Senate would talk it to death,
but the republican leader's, including Taft,
stand pledged to pass it next winter. In the
meanwhile the trusts will support Taft, and
already a huge slush fund has been sub
scribed for in aid of his candidacy. Mr.
Martin says Andrew Carnegie contributes
$250,000 to the Taft fund. It thus becomes
plainer each succeeding day that William How
ard Taft is the candidate of the trusts, and
that they stand ready to roll up in his behalf
a huge* corruption fund. —Birmingham Age-
Herald.
MISSISSIPPI UNION ADVOCATE
PLATFORM.
We favor more appropriations for the rural
schools. We favor good roads, better postal
service, parcels post, postal savings banks,
legislative control of public corporations.
We favor legislation that will benefit all
alike, and if such legislation is unconstitu
tional, we favor a new constitution.
We favor honesty of purpose in all things.
We favor a just compensation to labor
whether on the farm, city, office, or wherever
found. We favor a better understanding be
tween labor and capital, each one understnd
ing the other’s condition; each respecting
each other’s rights as free people.
We oppose class interpretation of our law’s.
We oppose class legislation.
We oppose graft in low’ places as w’ell as
high places.
We oppose newspaper censorship. We
oppose the suppression of facts.
The unknown spake out of the firmament
and said, 4 ‘Let there be light.”
THE OUNCE OF PREVENTION.
One of the exhibits at the conference of
Governors at Washington next week will show
the value of the irrigation system of the
West. Incidental to the work of irrigation,
the accumulation of flood waters in mammoth
artificial reservoirs will be of great benefit
in preventing damage by flood, and in main
taining a steady flow of water and clarifying
the Missouri and other streams. Flood ram
pages on the Platte river do injury to the
amount of a million dollars a year. A govern
ment reservoir at the head of the North
Platte will avert this damage by caring for
all the flood water of the stream. Reser
voirs at the headwaters of the Missouri, the
Big Horn and the Cheyenne, will perform
similar services. In the dry season the gates
of these reservoirs will release water, not
used for irrigation, to maintain a normal
height in the rivers. With the elimination of
the annual floods will come prevention of the
washing of mud and silt into the Missouri.
Further use of these reservoirs will be made
in affording water power at reasonable cost
to the adjacent territory. The North Platte
reservoir and irrigation system alone will cost
a million dollars. The others will cost nearly
as much, in each instance. No one questions
the wisdom of the investment, the financial
return that will be made, or the right of the
federal government to undertake the work.
But why should the government do all this
and decline to preserve the forests on the
White mountains and the Appalachians'? If
these forests are not preserved, floods in the
rivers rising in these mountains will increase
and do immense damage; erosion will take
place; the waters of the streams will be laden
with mud and silt, and industry will be robbed
of its sources of- power. All that the ex
penditure of millions is expected to give the
West through the building of artificial reser
voirs is now afforded the East by its natural
reservoirs —the mountain forests. The West
asks the federal government to provide bene
fits by artificial means. The East asks the
government to prevent the loss of similar bene
fits. Shall the ounce of preservation be de
nied?—Boston Herald.
ENGLAND’S DIFFICULTIES IN INDIA.
A short time ago England and Russia —
each standing uneasily upon the hot and thin
crust of the Asiatic volcano —undertook to
dispose of the fate of a half dozen peoples
in the near Orient. England quietly assumed
the right to direct the future course of
Afghanistan, without consulting the Amir,
and Russia, unwarned by her melancholy
experience in Manchuria, undertook to play
the suzerain over Persia. Lord Curzon, who x
is perhaps more familiar with Asiatic con
ditions and aspirations than any other Eng
lish public man, warned the government that
it was taking grave risks in acting without
obtaining the consent of the Amir.
It has been swiftly proved that he was right,
and that they reckon ill who leave out the
Amir Habib Ullah. This little interesting
fact was demonstrated by the sudden appear
ance the other day of some 12,000 to 20,000
warriors of the Mohometan tribes at the Kliai
bar pass. There are at least two noteworthy
facts in connection with this expedition. In
the first place, it seems impossible for so large
a force to have assembled and moved against
the English in the Pass without the knowledge
and connivance of the Amir; and, in the
second place, the full strength of the Mohmand
tribes, as estimated by the British and Indian
authorities, is less than 10,000.
The demonstration may be only some
exhibition of displeasure on the part of the
tribesmen, which the angered Amir is willing
not to notice until it has had its effect*; or it
may be the more serious expression of the ill
will of tile Amir himself. In the latter case, the
English would have some difficulty is smooth
ing matters over. The Pathans are fiery and
effective fighters, and have inflicted more than
one disaster upon the British invaders. It
is decidedly probable that England, in the
present state of unrest in India, would hesitate
long before attempting to send an army into
Afghanistan to punish Habib Ullah, lest she
should find all India in arms behind it. —
Columbia State.