Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE TWICE-A - WEEK TELEGRAPH THE UCto PUS'-EVERY MORNING ANO TWi f E * WEEK 3V THE MACON TE. t GRAPH PUBLISH ING COMPANY, 543 MULBERRY STREET. MACON. GA. c. R. PENDLETON, President DEATH OF SENATOR MORGAN. At the advanced age of S3 year*, senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama, paa<o>tl Into the beyond Tuesday night In Washington. Hr had been In the Senate for thirty years, and recently he was re-elected for another term of alx years. Until rerentlv he had been remarkably at rone and robust for one of his years end he died literally in harness. Dur ing the day Tuesday Senator Morgan was up. and looking after affairs con nected with his official position. He is survived in the Senate bythis colleague, Senator Pettus, who la several years h1s senior. Senator Morgan was a remarkable man, and he was on* of the few re maining Southern statesmen of the old school, so called, noted for bis candor, courage and well-defined conviction*. He had what nre now regarded as old- fashioned notions about honesty and faithfulness In the discharge of a pub lic trust. A long term in the great forum of political activities brought him no pecuniary fortune. He lived on his salary and scorned the Idea of speculating upon official position. His Democracy was of that good old brand which lived from Jefferson to Cleve land, and for that reason he was not In fall touch with the so-called new Dem ocracy of Bryan and Hearst. For' years be had made a special study of the lathmian canal project, and championed the Nicaragua route. Ho atoutly opposed the Panama route at last adopted by the President under the congressional action which put the matter in his hands. Tt Is to be hoped that his successor will measure tip to Senator Morgan’s size. AN EPIGRAMMATIC AND PRESENTMENT. ABLE The Bibb County grand Jury pre sentment published in full In yester day’s Issue of The Telegraph It a re markable paper. It Is a text book on local conditions which no citizen of ysibb can read without profit and en lightenment, however much he may qualify some of the views expressed and dissent from many of the deduc tions made. While many of the sub jects touched upon are treated from a partial standpoint, the light is always thrown on full and strong from the standpoint taken and leaves nothing to be said on the side of the question espoused. It will prove a surprise to many to learn how had we are In some respects, and on the other hand It will !><• .1 revelation to learn to what a stage of perfection and improvement we have progressed in our public affairs. There will be satisfaction felt in the assurance that the worst has been pre sented and that while much to the credit side of the ledger has been shown to offset the bad, all that might be said in that behalf has perhaps not been told. For the rest the paper Is couched In a style at once business-like, practical and literary, furnishing valuable In formation in frequently epigrammatic end interesting pellets which would stock a fresh page in a book of liandy nnd useful quotations. Here and there, in rare Instances, it betrays a touch of feeling somewhat too raw to be en tirely Judicial—a (ouch of cynicism not wholly Impersonal, to mar an otherwise able document expressed in language both virile and polite and dealing in matters purely pro bono publico. The presentment Is a paper of a character which to be appreciated j must be read as a whole. Its scope : Is almost coequal with our domestic 1 economy and local governmental affairs j and cannot be adequately treated of in parts. Its general tone, temper and style can only be indicated by repro ducing a few of the epigrams with which it so richly abounds. These are presented somewhat at random but nre In the main so striking and self- evident as to speak for themselves. Among its many wise observations the grand Jury says: —As is well known, during the ses sions of a grand jury, the worst ele- j ment of a city is always on its best behavior. —If it were possible, it would be well | for every man to serve one time on a grand jury, if for no other purpose than to find out how little his neighbors know. The man who knows the most and talks the loudest on the streets about the dominant ovile of hie city, , has the least to say when seated be* I fore a grand jury. —The streets and alleys of Macon 1 are more or lose crowded day and night with well-informed men and 1 men of the world, too, who have never heard of a gambling hell in Macon.I They have never enoountered the “tiger*’ in any of his dens, and would not know a “live sport” if they should 1 most him on the street. —As county officials wo are all in 1 the same boat, sailing under the same flag, and cleared for the same port. .... j —It may ba safely said that all roads leading to great reforms are covered with thorns. It will not bo a case of ; Smooth sailing when the fee system is j attacked in the Georgia Legislature. . —A man may pley the politician to J obtain an offee. but he should be re- j quired to conform to business princi- j pies when he gets it. | —We think it hardly possible to j over-estimate the importance of our j public schools. ! j —In order to deal properly with the j j question we must understand it. I —Our poverty is our only trouble. ! We have more bueinest than we have I capital, more children than we have | dollars. We are multiplying, if not I replenishing. i —Herein lies our present weakness. | We are long on population but short j on resources. I —It is a noticeable fact that the in- ■ crease of white and colored school population during the last thirty-five years has been very nearly the same— both being about five times greater than in 1872. —When public officials invite inves tigation and assist in making it, their duty is at an end, and the public rests satisfied. —It is a good businesa proposition that an enterprise is more apt to pros per under a continuous management. It eannot be thrown into disorder by new men who do not understand its details, howevsr competent, disinter ested and zealous they may be, —Maoon is peculiarly fortunata in the personnel and aquipment of the teaching force. —It is a well known fact that there is, perhaps, nowhere in this oountry a city that is more distinctly Amarioan than Macon. Her citizens are of the j true American type, they are conserv ative, and the school children oomo from a stock of people who aueceed wherever they go. —Our visit to these schools was not only a revelation, but an inspiration to tnose of us who had not previously en joyed that pleasure. Wo found much more than wo anticipated and found it much better than we expected. —Some of these things we were pre pared for, while others came to us in the nature of a surprise. Anything out of the ordinary always strike* the average man with peculiar force. —Expert testimony is valuable and cornea high wherever found. . . When this testimony is offered by a woman it becomes still more valuable, —No work is aver so completely satisfactory as whan correctly per formed and fully demonstrated by a woman. —Business is business always and everywherei but even the cold meth odical madness of a man relaxes itself when he enters the place where the noise of the hammer and saw it min gled and mixed up with the tempting eight of beaten biscuit and sponge cake,* and where under one and the same roof he meets the sweet smile in the kitchen and finds the soft hand in the machine shop. The combination is as rare as the objeot lesson is valu able. —Next to the church, the public school house is pointed to with the greatest pride. It is a great advertis ing medium. —There are two kinds of emigrants wanted in Georgia—one of good char acter from abroad and the other that is equally as good or better from our own country. —The two best emigrant agents in Georgia are a handsome school house and a splendid public road. The high reputation of our public sohooia, and the annual increase of good people who com# to Macon to enjoy the bene fit of those schools, is little less than remarkable. At one of our suburban schools there are to bo found the child ren of parents who have moved to Macon this year from twenty-throe different counties in the t^tate, while The very r, the ohildren from two other States arc attending school here.. —It is a mistake to suppose that all public taxation is necessarily a public burden without any resultant benefits. Every dollar of taxes properly expend ed on a public road reduces the ex pense of transportation while it in creases the values of all property ad jacent to the improved highway. —Self-denial it a great virtue only so long as it does not lead to self-do- atruction. Viewed from an educational standpoint, some white people in Geor gia are getting entirely too virtuous to be happy, now or hereafter. They are denying themselves too much. They need protection. —On the other hand, the negroes send their children to school under the most adverse circumstances and they are becoming educated as a race, —No compelling power is necessary to keep the negro boy in school. He is ever active and on the alert. We doubt if a law strong enough to force soma white boys into a school house would bo strong enough to keep some negro boys out. The activity of the one is only equalled by the inertia of the other. —The quickest, surest and chraiest way to reduce the pauper list nnd re lieve the taxpayers of the burden of misplaced oharity is to educate ignor ance and illiteracy out of the country. While ignorance is a crime in itself, illiteracy ia the spawning place for most vices. —The intelligent, educated and well- informed man fille but few prison colls and is seldom found in the charity wards of our public hospitals. We have quoted thus liberally if in spots from the presentment because of the innate merit of the paper, but we recommend It be read as a whole both for entertainment and profit. It con tains the food for a deal of thought and the germ of much public improvement. PLAIN TALK. Richmond News-Leader speaks itlnly tn^ Mr. Krvan an'! his en thusiastic but unreflecting followers. Referring to his presence in Richmond during the Confederate reunion, it says: "Mr. Bryan says his visit to the South at this time is not political. Wo have not observed, however, that he has done anything to discourage dem onstrations in his "honor. On the con trary. he has shown himself as pub licly and frequently as he possibly could, and we think we can observe signs of a purpose to make the coun try’ believe that he is the idol of the Southern people—which he is not.” In a way he seems to be an Idol of a part of the Southern people, but it Is magnetic personality and oratory, not statesmanship and sound reasoning, that has touched them. They also ad mire him because , they believe that, like Roosevelt he is a man and an hon est one. However all this may be, the News-Leader speaks to the point when it adds: “We can Imagine nothing more ridiculous than the Democratic party going into the next campaign on an issue of Governmental ownership of railroads, from which Mr. Bryan him self has sidestepped, and the Initiative and referendum, which ninety-nine one-hundredths of the people know nothing about and have no desire to know anything about To put us into a fight with some sciaps of political no tions which Mr. Bryan picked up cas ually on his travels through Europe would make us a laughingstock for the whole world.” Speaking along the same line, the Baltimore Sun as truly Jsays that “if Mr. iBryan is to commit the Democratic party to a change of our form of Gov ernment from a representative Gov ernment to the initiative and. referen dum because he saw it operate in Swiss cantons, where the whole popu lation can assemble in a ten-acre lot, tlieji the historic party, which has sur vived the changes and chances of a century will be put out of business by the derision of all sober American citi zens.” Both the newspapers quoted point out, as The Telegraph has done, that the policies Bryan would force to the front in most cases so nearly'resemble those of Roosevelt, which Roosevelt’s Republican successor will be compelled to espouse, that it will be impossible to convince the independent voter that there is any need of a change of party in power. Senator Raynor has ad vised that the issues put forward by the Democratic party next year be the revision of the DIngley tariff law, de fense of the rights of the States, re stralnt of Executive power, opposition to subsidies and opposition to colonial expansion. Some further planks may be desirable, but these are all Demo cratic and would show distinctly that the party is itself again and not a mere echo of Rooseveltism and Popu lism. railroad man on the commission, has shown greater knowledge and far sightedness than any man that has occupied that position in the history of our Railroad Commission, and yet he has been denounced all over Georgia on the stump, and in the newspapers, by those who have made cheap poli tics of business problems about which they knew little or nothing. The Telegraph does not pretend to know very much about transportation problems, but it has some old-fash ioned common sense notions about honesty and fair dealing between man and man. It can distinguish a spade from a graveyard pick. It is now’ clear that the usual crime has been com mitted In the name of "the common people,” who are still “paying the freight.” JAPANESE VANITY. Apparently the Japanese not only wish it known that they are invincible in war hut that their nobles and Gov ernment representatives are the princeliest of all princely tippers. No mere American multi-millionaire will be allowed to outdo a gentleman from Japan. In according to reports from that city, Baron Kuroki distributed more than four hundred dollars among the serv ants after a stay of a day or two. The items given are as follows: Head porter, who was responsible WILL NOT FEEL THE “JOLT.” According to the Philadelphia North American. Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Bryan "got an awful jolt” the other day at a sale of autograph letters in the Quaker City. Letters of -George Washington, it is stated, sold from $14 to $250; Lincoln letters from $15 single hotel of Chicago, to $S0; a McKinley letter. $32.50; Da vid Rittenhouse, $275; Alexander Ham ilton. $27; Israel Putnam, $45: Paul Revere, $13; John Paul Jones, $25; Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson, $37.50: Robert E. Lee, $25; Oliver Wendell Holmes. $15.50; Bayard Tay- '«’• «•= t** *>*•* T.n W $15 each 30 | The “Jolt” is thus indicated: "Ju THE "COMMON PEOPLE" STILL PAYING THE FREIGHT. Numprous times during the last two or three years The Telegraph warned the people of Georgia that the frantic efforts being made by the Atlanta papers, particularly the Atlanta Journal, to arouse class prejudice against corporations, and particularly the railroads, was a bold scheme to put money In Atlanta’s pocket at the ex pense of the balance of the State, and not for the good of the State, as, a whole, as they pretended. If we failed to convince the public of the truth of our contention It was not our fault. Atlanta won the fight and got a con siderable reduction in her freight rates. There was a slight reduction all round, but Atlanta got the big end of it The Telegraph showed that in car load lots it cost about one cent to pay the freight on a pair of shoes shipped distance of 1,000 miles—that If that rate was cut in two the retail pur chaser would not get that half cent off on his purchase of one pair. Mr. Joseph M. Brown, railroad com missioner, who is soon going out of office, now gives the public an Insight to how it has worked in Atlanta after a year or two trial. The Atlanta papers refer to it as "some startling statements” hut it is a true state ment, and it simply emphasizes the truth as previously printed in these columns. It gives the facts after try ing it on Just as we pointed them out before It was tried on. To use practically the language of an Atlanta paper, in the matter of men’s clothing, he shows that freight rates to Atlanta from Eastern points were reduoed $27 on a carload of 30,000 pounds, yet he estimates that instead of clothing being cheaper the price has advanced 7 per cent. On boots and shoes the rate from Boston to Atlanta was reduced $87 per car, but since that rate became ef fective in January. 1905. shoes are 40 per cent, higher than prior to that time. On flour the rate wa= reduced $6 per car. yet flour is no cheaper to the con sumer. Commissioner Brown calls attention to the fact that while the stove reduc tion circular of the commission was before the 'Supreme Court stove deal ers met and raised the prices 5 per cent. He estimates that since the re duced Interstate rates became effective it has saved jobers and manufacturers over $2,000,000, but that in that time prices have advanced to consumers in the aggregate about $4,000,000. H* asserts that no farmer, laborer or general buyer has been aided one cent by these enormous freight sav. Inge. Commissioner Brown, as ths expert HEARST’S ASSAULT UPON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. In the Sunday edition of the New York American Mr. Hearst’s "able ed itor” makes a broadside onslaught upon the Democratic party, and boosts his “Independence League” In the course of this broadside he says: What hope is there for a sincere Democrat to secure the success of Democratic principles and the elec tion of candidates devoted to true Democracy through the Democratic party? What hope is there for a minori ty party—the Democratic party— which can become a majority par ty only by declaring; for principles that will appeal to Independent Re publicans and to patriotic citizens generally, and which is knifed from within by Its own leaders, trust- ' owned, whenever it does declare through its candidates for progress and popular principles? What life is there in a Demo cratic party which does not dare advccato Democracy? What hope or honor is there in a party led by a band of political Molly Maguires, hired ruffians of the trusts, always ready to do the trusts’ dirty work and to destroy any measure or assassinate any candidate that corrupt political speculators have marked with their disapproval? Can a machine do honest and useful work If the engineers that direct its energies are fundament ally dishonest men? Can a party controlled by cor ruption benefit the people? Is not the Democratic party like a cannon that is turned against its owners instead of being turned against the enemy? A cannon with a traitor for a gunner is no more dangerous than a political party led by traitors to tHe people. The country demands a new par ts’. a part}’ of independence, one, that will work today for the people as the Democratic party of Jeffer son worked In the past. Throughout this country the In dependence League, made • up of independent men, is growing and organizing. A statement such as that made by the political criminal and “Democratic” leader, McCar- ren, should send hundreds of thou sands of Democratic voters into the Independence League. That Independent party offers a field of legitimate activity to Jef fersonian Democrats and to Lincoln Republicans. It Is" the party that will he able successfully to combat those Wail street Democrats and Wall street Republicans that have united in the past and that unite now to defeat all the people to favor a few plutocrats. Can any independent, honest voter in the United States deny that his vote and million others are outweighed by dishonesty of leadership in the old political par ties? No political party can be entirely clean any more than all the men in a given party can be clean. Parties are no better than the men who make them. Men vary in their opinions and they vary in their estimates and their practices of the virtues. So long as that is the case no political party can be entirely clean and virtuous, and that being so, there is always the oppor tunity for demagogues and mounte banks to make great pretentious to virtue, and assail the evil found in others. It is not a question whether not the Democratic party, is an ideal party, hut whether it is a better party than its opponent, the Republi can party; or better even than the much tooted Independence League. Sure It is that the two parties cannot, by dividing into opposition camps de feat the Republican party. But Hearst hopes to efface the Dem ocratic party, and absorb its individual $15 each Two chambermaids, at $10 each.. 20 Forty-seven bellboys, at $5 each.. 235 Twenty waiters, at $5 each 100 Four elevator boys, at $5 each.... 20 Total $425 Whether Baron Kuroki’s suite pub licly boasted of his largesse or the re porter acquired the information by in terviewing each of the hotel servants in turn, is not stated. In any case such lavish tipping looks like an exhi bition of mere vanity and a desire to dazzle the American public. We may be sure that neither Bar-on Kuroki nor any other eminent Jap does the like on leaving the hotels of his own coun try. where the scale of tipping is known to very modest. If many more distinguished Japanese oome to this country they will complete the demoralization of American hotel servants already begun by the free hand of some of our millionaires and their families. The evil result of ex cessive tipping is that the average gentleman who cannot afford the out lay is apt to be neglected and some times even treated insolently. The "Jolt” is thus indicated: "Just after one of President Roosevelt’s let ters, written when he was a Civil Ser vice Commissioner, had been sold for $47, a beautifully writteu epistle by- Grover Cleveland was offered. The best the auctioneer could get for it was 75 cents. Then came a long letter written by William Jennings Bryan, and it brought only 25 cents—hardly more than the paper was worth." We don’t think the “jolted” ones will lose any sleep over this affair. After all, real fame is not measured by the 'willingness or unwillingness of Phila delphia collectors to pay money for autograph letters, and, for our part, we do not think very highly of the appre ciation of greatness exhibited by- people who are willing to pay more for a let ter of David Rittenhouse than for one of George Washington, FOR MAYOR SMITH’S RETIREMENT. The Telegraph yesterday printed Mayor Bridges Smith’s card to the people of Macon announcing his de termination not to enter the primary campaign this year for renomination for mayor. It came eomewhat as a surprise, because it had been stated some weeks ago that he would prob ably’ stand for re-election. Twice The Telegraph- opposed the re-election of Mayor Smith, and the reasons for its action both times were set forth clearly and unmistakably in these columns; but at no time was his motive? or personal character Im peached. Now In justice to the retiring mayor, and to those associated with him, we are forced In all candor to say that the main reasons urged then are not pressing at this time. Whether the credit is due directly to him and them we shall not undertake now to discuss, but it is a fact that our mu nicipal problems are 'less distressful, and our city finances are in very much better condition than we have known them. It is well known in Macon that Mayor Smith, being an old newspaper man. has during the last three or four months been doing some special lines of reporting for this newspaper, for which he was paid quid pro quo—work that did not interfere with his official duties. It was a tentative arrange ment, and there was a distinct under standing that that arrangement would in no way affect or influence this news paper’s course toward the city admin istration. or the city administration’s course towards this newspaper. We paid him for what we got, and that ended it. But this patchwork arrange ment to tide over a dearth of news paper workers in Macon warmed up some of the little pots which boil at 90 In the shade, and Mr. Smith was made a target for our offending. Personally Bridges Smith is a lova ble man, and he is a capable newspaper worker. We arc glad that he will re tire from municipal politics, because we suspect that it will mean that he will return to his first love, where he belongs—to newspaper work. There is a position for him on The Telegraph if he wants it, but we do not know what his plans are, if he has any yet defined. Mayor Smith’s action leaves’the field as it stands at this writing to a choice AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. Congressman Richmond Pearson Hobson’s first session at the Capital will not begin till next December, but he has already- began work for his constituents. "It occurred to his orig inal mind,” relates an admiring editor, "that the Government has in it? ser vice In the Agricultural Department In Washington a number of scientific men who could be useful to the farmers of Alabama. He forthwith made arrange ments for some of these gentlemen to be sent down to "ills district to deliver a series of lectures to the farmers. The forest service sent down an ex pert who taught the farmers how to treat their forests so aa to get the greatest measure of use and profit from them. The Bureau of Soils sent a man to talk to the farmers of each county of the needs of their farms in the way of fertilizers. The Bureau of Plant Industry sent a man who taught the proper selection of seed and the methods of cultivation. Mr. Hobson met them and organize^ them into a kind of expedition, which he accom panied and which was received by the farmers with cordiality and a sincere desire to profit by the study and knowledge of these experts. AH were Impressed with the zeal and public spirit of their young Representative, whose popularity was greatly ad vanced.’’ If the Government is ready to send out experts for such a purpose; and the farmers are benefited as well as pleased, other Congressmen, including ours from Georgia, would do well to follow Mr. Hobspn’s example. But It is manifestly impossible for the Agri cultural Department to furnish the ex perts. except here and there as an ex periment members. To that end he Is now using between Hon. John T. Moore and Judge I ca ted.” MACON IS THE PLACE WANTED. Under the caption “Wanted: A School for Girls,” the Charleston News and Courier say’s: "Several days ago a letter was re ceived by' the editor of the News and Courier from a South Carolinian tem porarily sojourning in Washington, saying that he had a friend, the for mer Governor of one of the most pros perous of the Northwestern States and a man of very large means, who would like to place his daughter at a boarding school in Charleston next winter. The Governor had heard so much about the delightful winter climate of this city and the charming manners of its peo ple and their wide information upon all artistic subjects that he concluded there could be no more desirable place in which to have his daughter edu- all the power of his string of newspa pers, and paid agents, to break down the Democratic organization. Men like Watson in our own State are at tracted to him just as flies are at tracted to a molasses barrel. We ex pect to see Graves and the old Populist leaders fall behind him, but they are offering the gloved hand now to Bryan in the hope and expectation of guiding him into the new movement with them. In this they wiil probably fall because of Bryan’s ambition. If he surrenders to the Independence League he sur renders his leadership to the leader ship of Hearst, a thing he will not likely do unless he first loses his hold on the Democratic organization. But if Bryan wishes to preserve the Democratic organization, it is about time he was addressing himself to the assaults made upon It by Hearst, “It isn’t good form to write about the weather, of course,” says the Sa vannah Press. "But this weather is all the public can absorb Just now.” We have some weather here in Macon, too, hut the public is fortunately able to sit up and absorb mint juleps on the side. Suppose you try it for a while instead of the Chatham Artillery punch. A. L. Miller—both and able men. The new line-up puts the past be hind. We cannot see now what issues may be brought forward, but it looks as if it will be reduced to a question of per sonal choice between two mighty good men. Of course the gadflies will try to "blow" and “bot" the situation, but the great mass of the people are apt to recognize from the start that there is nothing (at least as yet manifest) to get greatly’ excited about. prominent, clean ; u u t Charleston has no school for i girls of the character desired and the News and Courier improves the occasion to advocate the establishment of such a school. Meantime we re spectfully suggest that Macon is the place that the Northwestern Governor is looking for. It has all the advan tages enumerated for Charleston, and in Wesleyan and. Mount De Sales It has two schools of the character de sired, in which our sister city is un fortunately lacking. President Roosevelt said at James town on Monday that "Georgia alone among the thirteen colonies and subse quent new States added thereto was founded with a consciously benevolent | clpllne of that institution purpose, with the deliberate attempt to benefit mankind by upbuilding a com monwealth along carefully planned lines of social, political and religious liberty and Justice." But the Phila delphia Record will not allow this "ex clusive claim” to be made for Georgia and cites William Penn’s “holy experi ment” made in Pennsylvania. The same "holy experiment” is mentioned If young Ayres is the proper sort of a boy to make a soldier of he must be pretty thoroughly disgusted at the rumpus his mother has kicked up at West Point, interfering with the dis- whatever may be its character as regards him self. "Certainly we have no ‘leisure sex,’” says the Louisville Courier-Journal. "While the one never has a thing fit to wear and is eternally' being fitted, the other never has a dollar to call its own and is eternally hustling to pay the fitter." But you forget the milliner “SELF-EVIDENT” TRUTH EDITORS. Georgia editors need not feel alarmed or otherwise excited because President Roosevelt chose Georgia day at James town as a fitting opportunity to urge journniists to do good and honest work and to give them instruction in their art. Even if no National Editorial As sociation had been assembled there, he would have intended his advice for all Americans who make a business of writing for publication. He always talks for the whole people to hpar. and the occasion which brings him forward is never made more than a starting point or introduction to a political or moral address for the benefit of the entire American public. The President remarked that "It is a mere truism to say that no other body’ of our countrymen wield as extensive an influence as those who write for the daily press and the periodicals." and that “such power implies the gravest responsibility, and the man exercising it should hold himself accountable, and should be held by others accountable, precisely as if he occupied any other position of public trust.” iBut as he was not thinking of the sins of omis sion and commission of Georgia jour nalists in particular, we may all. even those of us inclined to be a little “yel low.” still breathe freely. The longest and most Important passage reads as follows: "I do not intend ? to dwell upon your duties today, however, save that I shall permit myself to point ■*- out one matter where It seems to me that the need of our people is vital. “It is essential that the man in public life and the man who writes In the public press shall both ft them, if they’ are really good serv ants of the people, be prompt to assail wrongdoing and wickedness. But in thus assailing wrongdoing and wickedness, there are two con ditions to be fulfilled, because, if unfulfilled, harm nnd not good will result. In the first place, be sure ■ of ymur facts and avoid everything like hysteria or exaggeration: for to assail a decent man for some thing of which he Is innocent is to give aid and comfort to every scoundrel, while indulgence in hys terical exaggeration serves to weaken, not strengthen, the state ment of truth. In the second place, be sure that you base your judg ment on conduct and not on the social or economic position of the individual with whom you are dealing. There are good nnd bad men in every walk of life, and their being good or bad does not depend upon whether they have or do not have large bank accounts. Yet this elemental fact, this fact which we all accept as self-evident, when we think each of us of the people whom he himself knows in his bus iness and social relations. Is often completely ignored by certain pub lic men and certain public writers. The men who thus ignore it and who attack wickedness only when found In a particular class, are always unsafe, and are sometimes very dangerous leaders. Distrust equally the man who Is never able to discover any vices of rich men to attack and the man who con fines himself to attacking the sins and shortcomings of rich men. It is a sure sign of moral and mental dishonesty in any man if In his public assaults upon iniquity he is never able to see any Iniquity sav# that of a particular class; and this, whether he is able only to see the crimes of arrogance and oppres sion In the rich or the crimes of envy and violence in the poor. He is no true American if he Is a re specter of persona* where right or wrong are concerned, ’and if ho fails to denounce the demagogue no less than the corruptionist, to denounco alike crimes of organized greed and crimes of brutal violence. There is equal need to denounce the wealthy man who swindles investors or buys Legis latures or oppresses wage-workers, and the needy man who inflames class hatred or incites mob vio lence. We need to hold the scales of justice even, and to weigh them down on one side is as bad as to weigh them down on the other." In other words, and in brief, an ed itor should not be a scoundrel or a coward but a just, fair-minded, honest and courageous man. No one will, or can dispute this, for, as the President himself observes, it is “self-evident.". 1 1 in the inscriptions on the wajis of the j class, whose penchant for leisure” is | new State Capitol and is therefore not myth, however mythical it may Despite the national administration’s ! 6 ° und a monument in the building . . .. , of which Pennsylvania’s taxpayers experience in prosecuting the beef ; - j were bled by bold and unblushing trust"—or was it a masterly improve- thus doubly encouraged. ment on that experience—Harriman was given an "Immunity bath” when ! grafters. President Roosevelt has repaired to the public thought he was being made Oyster Bay for his summer rest. This to tell of his operations with a view to • should not be interpreted to mean a punishment ‘summer’s rest for the public. The best that can be said of Vice- President Fairbanks' allegation at Chattanooga that Joe Wheeler told President McKinley that he made a "mistake” in fighting for the Confed eracy is that it speaks well for Mr. Fairbanks’ discretion that he waited until the little fighter was dead before fee made us# of the alleged incident. A PERTINENT QUESTION. Mr. Frederic L. Hindekoper’s maga zine article, “Is the United States Pre pared for War?” which convincingly answers itself in the negative, is use ful and Instructive as well as interest ing at the present time. The author suggests that “history has recorded events far more improbable than that we may ultimately ha,ve to fight Japan In the Philippines.” and asks how long the dependable troops of this country could cope with the 800,000 veteran Japanese soldiers who served In Man churia. In an Introduction to Mr. Hindeko- per’s article. Secretary Taft -shows that our regular army, in view of the 90,- 000,000 people in the United States and its dependencies, is a small force. . "It is a less percentage." he says, "than was the army in Washington's time, in Jefferson’s time, or, indeed, in Mad ison’s time.” Secretary Taft reminds the oountry that time is required to make good soldiers, and pointedly de clares that a struggle with trained and disciplined foreign forces would pre sent more serious difficulties than were encountered in the first stages of the war of 1861-5, when both sides em ployed raw levies. Unless this country can conclude to retire from the “world-power” arena, and its people can extirpate their race prejudices, which are supposed to be instinctive and ineradicable, the cost of a larger and more thoroughly equipped and trained army will have to be met. The inevitable new burden would weigh less heavily if the long standing pension army could he cut down to reasonable proportions. If the Japanese Jingoes stir up qur Jingoes with the fool idea that they have a Russia to deal with, or that tha American will not fight, they have a lesson coming to them, despite the as tuteness and progress the littla yellow men hare made.