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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
THE HEARST LEAGUE.
The manifest weakness of the Independence
League, as exhibited this spring in Chicago
and last fall in New York, is easy enough to
understand. The League has been discovered
to be under the control of one man in whose
integrity of purpose the masses, from whom
votes must come, have lost confidence. This is
at any rate the explanation of Wie wreck of the
League in Chicago. As a democratic move
ment within the Democratic party, the Inde
pendence League would have had great
strength, and possibilities of a splendid tri
umph, which Mr. Hearst would have shared in
spite of the disagreeable personal 11 boosting”
his papers do for him. Had the League been
disinterestedly devoted to securing control of
the Democratic party and making it truly dem
ocratic, it would today doubtless control dem
ocratic politics in Chicago and be well on the
way to controlling the party in this and other
States. But the League appears to be only a
personal agency of Mr. Hearst, to whose aims
every larger consideration is subordinated.
Mayor Dunne’s election and administration in
Chicago, for instance, meant nothing to Mr.
Hearst and his immediate lieutenants but an
other rung in the ladder to the gratification of
his own ambitions. It was nothing to them
except as it might help, regardless of the inter
ests of the people of Chicago, in getting na
tional “delegates for Hearst.” Through a
multiplication of indications of this character,
for which the Independence League has become
responsible in the public mind, that organiza
tion is now a negligible factor in Chicago poli
tics. Similar considerations dating farther
back burden it in San Francisco, and later
ones in New York. It is consequently a rea
sonable inference that long before the Presi
dential vote is counted next November, the In
dependence League will consist principally of
Mr. Hearst’s personal representatives, if in
deed it should then have even a nominal exist
ence. —The Public.
THE EXTRA BUN.
“De udder kid got more buns ’n me and
got more sugar on his buns.” This was the
plea of little crippled Morris Walsh, fourteen
years old, charged with malicious mischief,
contrary to the peace and dignity of the State,
as per the statute in such case made and pro
vided. His mother had sent him to the bakery.
Another boy had entered on buns intent and
received more for his money. Argument and
remonstrance proved futile; Morris was eject
ed, with the baker’s dog in hot pursuit. Later
a wrecked window testified to the accuracy of
Morris’ escapade and the little tragedy of
Probably neither Morris nor his parents have
read the titles, much less digested the con
tents, of any of the philosophical treatises
which learnedly discuss social unrest and the
causes thereof. The reader of newspapers will
glance through a few lines of type that record
Morris escapade and the little tragedy of
childhood will be forgotten. Vital problems
press for solution.
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
National and State governments are strug
gling to put an end to railroad rebates. The
Interstate Commerce act prohibits unfair dis
crimination and the courts are trying to find
out what discrimination is unfair. Political
platforms proclaim “special privileges for
none.” Why? Is it fair that the other fel
low should get that extra bun with all that
sugar thereon?
A protective tariff enables domestic manu
facturers to charge American citizens prices
far in excess of those charged in Europe.
That extra bun goes elsewhere. A municipal
ity presents a franchise to a railroad com
pany. The public’s savings go for some of the
watered stock, but a good slice goes to the pro
moter and the unloader of intangible assets.
Who gets the bun ? The consumer pays an en
hanced price for his meat, the cattleman re
ceives less. The investor cannot understand
why his stock rises and falls at the bidding of
the manipulator. Where do the buns go?
The baker can hire counsel. Crippled Mor
ris will have to rely upon the court’s mercy.
The trust retains eminent legal luminaries.
The people are represented by prosecuting of
ficers and their assistants, whose average sala
ries are around $5,000. Those twin brothers
law and equity uphold the baker in his conten
tion that the sacred right of property has
been infringed. There are constitutional pro
visions against taking private property,
against impairing the obligations of contracts
and against self-crimination, which are found
very useful in other prosecutions, not in the
Children’s Court.
But Morris knows not of all this. Only one
question troubles him, but it troubles millions
of others as well: Why should the other b.>
get an extra bun? —New York World.
THE PEOPLE AND POLITICS.
A leading organ of one of the large parties,
published in the city where the national con
vention of the People’s party was held, says
editorially: “It might be well for the people
of Oklahoma to pay less attention to politics
and more to alfalfa.” In answer to that
gratitous bit of advice representatives of the
people from thirty states assembled in St.
Louis and made themselves heard on public
questions and public policies. It might, per
haps, have been better if there had been more
unanimity of opinion on some of the
matters passed upon, and more positive
evidence of cohesiveness of opinions in
the different sections; but it can be
at least said of the Populist convention
that its work was not of the machine-made or
der, nor were the speeches and votes of the
delegates the utterances of mere puppets,
whose mouths opened and eyes blinked at the
pulling of strings or the touching of springs
by self-constituted party bosses. In that re
spect, at least, the national convention of the
Populists differs from some of the national
conventions that have figured in history. The
men who gathered in the St. Louis convention
may have differed widely in their views, and
in thus differing may have even weakened the
cause for the furtherance of which they met
—the cause of the people against the inter
ests. But who shall say that there shall not
come strength out of this very weakness?
In this national convention, and in the state
and local convention of men and women who
have grown restless under the existing politi
cal rule, in and out of office, is seen the re
sponse of the people to such utterances as
that quoted from the great party organ. The
people—the great mass of the common people
everywhere —refuse to keep out of politics, so
far ag getting into politics means taking an
interest and lifting a voice in public affairs.
The day is rapidly passing, if it has not al
ready passed, when the affairs of this country
are to be controlled by a handful of men.
A hundred different agencies, not the least
among which is The Woman’s National Daily,
have brought the people at every cross-roads
neighborhood in such close connection with
public affairs and the men who figure promi
nently in them that it is impossible for the
people to longer listen to such advice as that
given by the party organ —to 1 ‘pay less at
tention to politics and more to alfalfa.”
The people are paying attention to their al
falfa, all right, and they are paying atten
tion to other grasses and growing things, not
only in Oklahoma, but in every state in the
Union; but they are also paying attention to
toher things, and that attention is an intelli
gent attention that is bound to bring good re
mits. The farmers of the land, the working
men and women all over the country, the vast
multitude who, as the figures show, produce
$lO in results every day they work, and are
allowed to consume only $2, are no longer to
be driven like sheep to the shambles, nor will
they blindly follow any old political wether
simply because the tinkling of the party bell
is heard. The people may deem it best to act
within old party lines in some sections, and
in others they may think it best to go be
yond those lines; but whichever their course,
they are no longer to be lashed into line by
such commands as that to “pay less attention
to politics and more to alfalfa.” —Woman’s
National Daily.
“In the South,” says the Arkansas Ga
zette, “1908 will be sorrowfully remembered
as the year of the big wind.” In other sec
tions it may also be remembered as such with
mixed emotions after the Presidential cam
paign is over. —Washington Post.
An inventor has perfected an instrument
by which he can photograph the bottom of a
pond. Hereafter people who commit suicide
by drowning should make a special effort to
look pleasant.—Washington Post.
Senator Depew is quoted as saying: “I’ll
live as long as the Republican party.” If
the Democrats could have their way, he would
live longer.— Washington Post.