Newspaper Page Text
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Things Done and Doing Along the Line
THE SQUARE DEAL.
(The Fort Worth Telegram.)
Hereafter, in the state of Nebraska,
each passenger must pay the railroad
company 2 cents a mile, or walk.
The Nebraska lines have made an
end of all reduced rates —to the
preachers, disabled soldiers, objects of
charity and excursionists.
As to the preachers it may be said
the half fare rate was adopted at a
time when the preacher got only half
pay. In later times the concession has
derogated from the dignity of the min
istry. The preacher should receive a
salary sufficient to pay his fare like
other men, and ask no favors.
The excursion rate was always a
matter of business with the railroads
and there was no injustice in it. The
offer of the cut rate was open to all.
Nor is there any reason why rail
roads should carry objects of charity
free any more than that hotels should
feed them free.
It is said that the Nebraska roads in
their new ruling are trying to “get
even” with the people for passing a z
cent fare bill.
However that may be, they have
stumbled upon a righteous principle.
There has been no good reason why
one person should be carried on trains
for a less sum of money than another
person.
There has never been any sort of
justice or morality in the custom of
granting free transportation to legis
lators, lawyers, judges and public of
ficials. And the practice has led to
every kind of favoritism, corruption
and scandal.
Destroy the true principle that one
man’s money will buy as much trans
portation from a common carrier as
any other man’s, and there is no end.
Every exemption made for one class
puts added burdens upon the shoul
ders of another class.
The “square deal” in transportation,
as in government, is the dictum laid
down by Jefferson.
“Equal rights to all, special privi
leges to none.”
THE AUDIENCE DESERTED.
Washington, D. C. —Between seven
ty-five and eighty people witnessed the
first production of the “Beautiful Eng
lish Drama” by the Mixed Race Dra
matic Company, in True Reformers’
Hall, Twelfth and U streets, N. W.,
the other night.
The cast included two white boys,
four white women, a white girl about
14 years of age, and twelve colored
men and women, principally recruited
from this city, with Mary A. Pitt, of
New York, in the leading feminine
role.
The drama consists of three acts
and nine scenes. It depicts a white
man paying an enormous sum of
money to a white woman for the hand
of her mulatto daughter.
Captain Doyle and two patrolmen,
representing the majesty of the law,
and three or four colored people, were
all who were present to hear the “good
night, ladies” by the colored orchestra,
the rest of the audience having de
parted by twos and threes during the
course of the performance.
SAPPING THE STATE ROAD.
(The Augusta Herald.)
An alleged deep laid plot on the part
of the Louisville and Nashville rail
road to divert business from the West
ern and Atlantic railroad, thereby de
pressing the value of the state prop
erty so a lease may be renewed at re-
duced figures, is contained in a formal
complaint filed with the Atlanta
freight bureau.
This well laid plot, it is alleged, is
for the purpose of forestalling any ac
tion in the next legislature towards ex
tending the state property to the sea,
and that the Louisville and Nashville
may get another lease at low figures.
BRYAN IN CHATTANOOGA.
(The Chattanooga Times.)
The Hon. William Jennings Bryan,
the only man whom the Democrats of
the nation now have in mind as their
candidate for the presidency in 1908,
will be in Chattanooga April 10 and will
deliver a political speech. The Bryan
Anniversary club of Chattanooga has
postponed its banquet, usually given on
Mr. Bryan’s birthday, until the April
date so as to make it possible for its
distinguished patron to be here.
n
CURBING FAST MAIL TRAINS.
(Washington Telegram.)
The postmaster general has issued
instuctidns defining the attitude of the
postoffice department regarding fast
mail trains. He says the department
should not exert its authority to such
an extent as to compel the establish
ment of railroad schedules inconsis
tent with entire safety to all persons
carried on these trains.
HOBSON CITY IS DEAD.
Anniston, Alabama. —Hobson City
is now only a memory. The munici
pality passed out of existence when
Gov. Comer signed the bill affixing the
boundaries of Oxford so that Hobson
City became a portion of that city.
Hobson City was founded in 1899 and
was an exclusively negro town having
negro officials and being inhabited
only by negroes. It was a part of Ox
ford before being constituted a separ
ate corporation.
It has been very prosperous and
well governed, and the outside world
knew or heard little of it.
EDUCATION IN JAPAN.
(The Mexican Herald.)
It is the fixed policy of the enlight
ened government of Japan to give
every facility for primary education
to the masses, and to provide higher
education for the brighter youth of the
land. Great hope is entertained of
what may be accomplished in practical
life by an educated people. It is some
thing for the white nations to admire,
this devotion of Japan to the best
ideals of education. An Oriental na
tion has deliberately taken a leaf, from
the book of the most advanced of
white nations and is, in some respects,
improving on its instructions.
LUMBER AND RAILROADS.
(The Washington Herald.)
“The lumbermen of the United
States pay in freights to the railroads
the enormous sum of $400,000,000 a
year,” said Mr. Walter Willard Ross,
general counsel for the National As
sociation of Wholesale Dealers in
Lumber.
“One big item of expense that they
.shoulder is the cost of the upright
wooden stakes which confine the loads
of lumber on freight cars. This
amounts yearly to not less than $7,-
000,000. It is an imposition on the
shippers that the railway companies
should make them pay the cost of
these stakes, for they ought really to
be a part of the equipment of the cars.
I am here as counsel to represent to
the interstate commerce commission
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
THE COST OF LIVING.
(The Washington Herald.)
“When will this era of extreme cost
of living ever terminate?” queried Con
gressman-elect Parker, of South Dako
ta, at the Ebbitt house.
“There never was a time in the his
tory of the country when the consum
ers had to pay such terrific prices for
everything necessary to the mainte
nance of life. Out in my country, dis
pite the fact that cattle roam the near
by ranges by the thousands, we have
to pay 25 cents a pound for choice
beef, all of which, by the way comes
from the big packing houses east of us.
You may consider turkeys high in your
locality, but if we felt that our Thanks
giving dinner last November was not
complete without that noble bird, we
could indulge by giving up 40 cents
per pound. Everything else that goes
upon the table out our way is propor
tionately high.
“The general explanation has been
that the excessive prices were due to
the high freight rates charged by the
railroads, and there may be something
in this, for we know in South Dakota
that it now takes sllO to ship a car
load of cattle to Chicago, Omaha or
Kansas City, as against SSO a few
years ago. If the freight tariffs are
in reality the cause of such enormous
charges for all commodities, the quick
er the interstate commerce commis
sion gets busy the better for the Amer
ican public.”
AN EXPRESS COMPANY WRONG.
(The Fitzgerald Enterprise.)
Mr. C. L. Sibley, of Ocilla, was here
recently, in search of his father’s body,
which was entrusted to the Southern
Express Company, at Miami, Fla.,
Wednesday week, to be shipped to
Ocilla for burial. The casket reached
Cordele Thursday night, was taken to
Savannah and brought back to Abbe
ville and forwarded to Ocilla, reaching
its destination last Saturday night. If
there is a more irresponsible, arbitra
ry, unrestrained organization any
where in this trust-cursed country
than the Southern Express Company,
we have not found it.
THE NEGRO’S HELPERS.
(Pres. Mitchell, Richmond College.)
“Having been born in the black belt
of Mississippi, which contains a popu
lation of 232,000, of whom 200,000 are
negroes, I know whereof I speak when
I say that upon the 32,000 whites
depends the safety and prosperity of
the country. It is to them the negroes
must look for guidance, which will be
best assured by following in their
treatment of the blacks the teachings
of Christ.”
the justice of our demand that the rail
roads should be made to furnish all
the apparatus and equipment of the
dealers. There is no excuse for the
transportation companies not supply
ing their cars with adjustable steel
stakes, which will potect the lumber
from falling from the cars in transit.”
REBATES MADE STANDARD OIL.
Boston, Mass., March 22. —there are
too many rich men in the United
States.
Melville E. Ingalls, ex-president of
the Big Four, found this out about our
millionaires and told it to the mem
bers of the Economic club. Some of
them felt the loose change in thteir
pockets and wondered if Mr. Ingalls
were jesting. He said:
“J am pot in favor of taxing for de-
struction, but the question is whether
we have not too many millionaires for
the good of the republic. I believe one
of the greatest causes of the produc
tion of large and illegal fortunes is
the tariff.
“There probably never would have
been any Standard Oil Company if
there had not been railroad rebates.”
STICKNEY NOT SCARED.
(From a Press Dispatch.)
Washington, D. C. —President A. B.
Stickney, in discussing existing condi
tions in the railroad world, says:
“I hardly apprehend that the 2 cent
a mile proposition will, if adopted,
work so seriously as some people who
are connected with the roads antici
pate.
“I recall the time when the rate was
reduced from 5 cents to 3 cents. There
was, of course, quite a flurry at the
start, but pretty soon it was manifest
that more people were traveling.
“I wish that the 2 cent passenger
rate were the only trouble we had to
contend with.”
TRY TO SAY IT FAST.
• One-eight ounce sodium calcium or
magnesium salt of meta-axtetraethyl
diamidatriphenylcarbidrids is prescrib
ed by Commissioner Yerkes, of the in
ternal • revenue service, for denaturiz
ing alcohol. The prescription also
calls for five gallons commercially
pure methyl, 11-2 pounds cyanide of
potassium, together with the unpro
nounceable commodity, for 100 gallons
of alcohol. The order was issued Feb
ruary 21, 1907.
ABOUT PEOPLE.
Speaker Cannon claims that he has
the best watch in the world, and when
the big clocks in the house declared 6
o’clock while his watch lacked three
minutes of the hour, he reluctantly de
clared a recess, saying: “It seems to
be 6 o’clock, but it isn’t.”
Former Recorder Goff, of New York,
now supreme court justice, under
whose jurisdiction the famous Nan
Patterson case ended in acquittal on
account of the jury’s disagreement,
says: “The danger is that the Thaw
jury will go insane in trying to reach
a verdict.”
Richard Mansfield occasionally in
dulges in a jest, it appears. To an
irate old gentleman whose dog had
been tossed aside by Mr. Mansfield’s
auto, and who had angrily protested
that the animal was worth SSOO, Amer
ica’s leading actor, replied: “Well, the
dog evidently didn’t know it.”
Leslie M. Shaw’s change from the
national teasury to a New York trust
company with salary increased from
SB,OOO to $25,000, was mainly due to
the efforts of Robert B. Armstrong,
who was Shaw’s private secretary not
many years ago, and is now president
of the Casualty Company of America.
Os the distinguished contributors
whom the late Wendell Phillips Garri
son gathered to the service of the New
York Nation over forty years ago, in
cluding Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier
and Bayard Taylor, these three —Gold-
win Smith, Charles Eliot Norton and
ex-President Gilman —still survive,
and are constant contributors.
NEW YOR?' SHUNS BIBLE.
(The N. Y. Journal.)
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., rebuked the
members of his Bible class Sunday a
week ago because they did not devote
more time to the reading of the Bible.
"There are plenty of Bibles in New
York, but not enough readers,” he said.