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Public Opinion Throughout the Union
AN IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
(Youth’s Companion.)
For a time it was supposed that the
relations betwewen the states and the
nation had been permanently adjusted
by the Civil war. It has lately been im
pressing Itself on the minds of the
people that the war decided only the
indissolubility of the Union, and that
the old conflict between the national
power and state rights still continues.
It is of great importance that the
men of the present and coming gener
ations should give serious thought to
these things, so that when they vote
they may express their opinion with
intelligence. The general question is
between a centralized government, su
preme in all matters that concern the
people of the whole country, and con
trol in local concerns by the state
governments, even when the whole
people are interested in the decision.
How far can or ought the national
government to go in the regulation of
large corporations chartered by one
state, but doing business in other
states? Should it interfere in the
management of manufacturing as well
as transportation companies? If in
ternational complications arise be
cause a state refuses to exercise its
power over affairs within its borders,
shall the national government, acting
for the general good, step in and try
to set things right?
Such are some of the recent forms
in which the old political question
reappears for decision. It was the
issue on which Thomas Jefferson de
feated John Adams for the presidency
in 1800. The conflict over it led to
nullification in the time of President
Jackson, and finally to secession in
1860.
On the whole, the national power
has been greatly extended as the re
sult of successive contests, yet every
statesman will admit that there must
be a limit beyond which the national
authority cannot be carried, or the
jurisdiction of the state governments
restricted. The question is, where is
that limit, and it is upon that that
parties have divided from the begin
ning, and will long continue to con
front each other.
LOCAL OPTION AT THE SOUTH.
(Washington, D. C., Herald.)
The temperance movement at the
south is characterized by such per
sistence and intelligence that it can
not be placed in that category of spas
modic reforms which at times stir the
mercurial people of that section to
frenzied enthusiasm. Nearly every
state on the other side of the Potomac
has been perceptibly influenced by
the movement, and it seems not un
likely that before a great while the
entire south will be the stronghold of
the age-long fight against the evils of
intemperance. In Kentucky the only
counties that have not adopted local
option are those in which large cities
are situated, and in them the fight is
being kept up in a most determined
fashion.
In Texas quite as large a proportion
of counties has swung into the local
option movement as in Kentucky.
About the same condition exists in
Alabama. South Carolina’s dispen
sary law has recently been modified,
but not on the side of the opponents of
temperance. Tennessee is just now
the theater of determined activity
against the easy public drinking place,
and former Senator Carmack has been
offered, if he has not yet accepted, the
leadership of the fight for a more rigid
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
dispensation than has heretofore been
established in any other southern
state. Partisan politics is playing no
appreciable part in the movement any
where in the south, as it has in the
north and west.
THE FARMER FURNISHES IT.
We find the following floating
through the papers. We give the an
swer above:
“I want more,” cries labor, already
in enjoyment of the highest wages in
a generation.
“I want more,” cries capital, in en
joyment of the highest level of in
terest upon money invested in many
years.
‘‘l want more,” cries the merchant,
as he pockets the highest prices for
commodities.
“I want more,” cries the housewife
to her husband, as she compares her
allowance with the advancing costs of
living.
“More,” “more,” everywhere the de
mand is for “more.” Railroads want
more money for extension and equip
ment. Investors want more dividends,
wage earners more wages, society
more to spend in luxuries that are fast
becoming necessities, colleges more
endowments, and the government
more appropriations.
Where is “more” coming from?
WATSON AND FREE MAII,S.
(Cleburne, Texas, Watchman.)
On March 1, 1907, figures showed
there were in operation 37,323 rural de
livery routes and the end is not yet.
When Thomas E. Watson was in con
gress he secured the passage of the
first law to give the people of this
country this great blessing, and yet
at that time there were those who said
the scheme would bankrupt the postal
department.
RAILROAD RIDING IN KANSAS.
(Kansas City Times.)
The Noftzger 2 cent fare bill, which
finally passed both houses of the Kan
sas legislature, provides that a 500
mile ticket can be purchased for $lO.
The ticket is good over a single line of
road, and is not transferable. The
Kansas farmer with a family of five
can travel with his wife and children
for 2 cents a mile; but he must pay
the railroads SSO for the privilege of
doing it —thanks to the railroad
senate.
OUR DOLLARS NEEDED AT HOME.
(Springfield Republican.)
Washington’s strong intimation that
the agricultural bank in the Philip
pines will have been financed by Eng
lish capital should stir patriotic pride
among American capitalists to its bot
tomless depths, especially as it is re
ported that no American capitalists
have yet been discovered who will put
a dollar into the scheme. Is it possi
ble that the American dollar refuses
to follow the flag?
SOUTHERN IMMIGRATION.
(Charleston News and Courier.)
Under Attorney General Bona
parte’s interpretation of the new im
migration law, there is no reason why
South Carolina should not go right on
with its work of inducing the com
ing of aliens to this state.
MORE ROOSEVELT LUCK.
(Boston Herald.)
Burton’s shriek sounds very much
like another case of Roosevelt luck.
STILL A CHANCE FOR THE POOR
BOY.
(Kansas City World.)
Croakers are forever saying that the
average American boy with nothing
blit his two hands, his brains and his
pluck no longer has a chance. Gone,
so the croakers lament, are the good
old days when merit, with “Excelsior”
on its banner, could press upward
to the heights. Somehow, the path to
success is supposed to be fenced up
at its very starting point; and all that
the poor youth of today is expected
by the croakers to do is to sit down
outside the fence and bewail his sad
fate all his days.
isn’t it strange, then, that when a
conspicuous man dies and the story
of his life comes out, it is still so often
found that no silver spoon was in his
mouth at birth?
The beaten paths to success may be
fenced against the boy without cap
ital, but there are always ways across
lots and over the hills. He whose
ideals are stars swung high in the
heavens needs no beaten path to
guide him. He who has learned to
labor and whose heart thrills with as
piration and resolve has the best capi
tal there is—and the best chance.
The silver spoon in the mouth at birth
is greatly overrated as a factor either
for success or failure. There are lots
of rich young men whom wealth has
not deadened. And lots of poor ones
which it would not have helped.
PROSPERITY’S CONTINUANCE.
(Philadelphia Bulletin.)
Prophets and the sons of prophets,
prognosticators, star gazers, “financial
experts” and other persons who are
manifestly not in that class, are still
disputing as to the continuance of
prosperity during 1907. The alleged
lugubrious prediction of Rockefeller
and the gloomy views of Stuyvesant
Fish are quoted on the one hand. On
the other, the cheerful predictions of
a British Rothschild and numerous
American men of affairs are printed
to show that there is nothing what
ever the matter with the United
States.
The every day citizen may wisely
conclude that the opinion of one man
respecting the future is just about as
likely to be correct as that of another,
and that his own best course will be
to apply himself with diligence to
whatever trade or occupation he is en
gaged in, not forgetting the fact that
it is always advisable to keep a cer
tain amount of funds available for
squally weather. Worrying over the
possibility of “reactions” in advance
of definite signs of their coming is not
usually a remunerative habit.
Sticking at honest work is apt to be
much more conducive to useful re
sults.
808 TAYLOR’S GOURD.
(Washington Herald.)
It is not surprising to learn that
Senator Robert Love Taylor, the ge
nial successor to the brilliant Car
mack, has demanded that he be pro
vided with a gourd for use in his com
mittee room at the Capitol, in order
that he may quaff his aqua pura in
peace and some degree of comfort.
Senator Taylor long ago learned the
wisdom and philosophy of true happi
ness, and resolved, no doubt, to find
content without too much ado about
the fashions and the manners of the
times in which we live.
He knows that water sipped from a
gourd has a sweetness all its own —
matchless and incomparable! There
fore, he wisely decides to have one
ever handy in his committee room;
just as he was wont in boyhood days
down on the farm to keep one hang
ing on a peg about the spring, the
well, and the back porch of the old
home in Happy Valley. There, in rare
and radiant, youthful, dreamy days he
learned the language of the flowers
and held communion with mocking
birds and kindred fowls.
ROOSEVELT AND THE TARIFF.
(Milwaukee Journal.)
It is extremely unfortunate for the
country, and it should be said to the
Republican party as well, that the
president is so unconcerned about the
tariff. It is a public evil which over
shadows all the others —with all re
spect to the opinion of the president.
It is the great question of the day and
it will almost certainly be the predom
inating issue in the approaching presi
dential campaign, in spite of the ef
forts of the standpatters and the tariff
fed trusts to keep it in the back
ground. It is clear that to the great
mass of the people the moral, the ethi
cal side of the tariff as well as the
financial side, does appeal, and there
can be no question as to the response
they will make when the opportunity
to express their conviction comes to
them.
MISSOURI’S ONE-TERMER.
(Ozark Democrat.)
According to a Washington dispatch
in the Globe-Democrat, Tyndall came
out SII,OOO ahead as result of his sin
gle term congressional experience, in
cluding his extras on the side and his
'wife’s salary of $2,400 as his secre
tary, whether she was in Washington
or remaining at home attending to her
household duties and looking after the
statesman’s rising generation. He
considers his election a very happy ac
cident in his behalf, and he got to ride
in an elevator, too. It is stated he
will start a bank and become its presi
dent.
HIS SENSE OF HONOR.
(Ft. Worth Telegram.)
It is said that Senator Culberson re
fused to give a letter of introduction
to a Texan who had mules for sale to
a gentleman who was in the market
to buy mules for his government. Cul
berson did right. The only way for
an official to do is to so live and act
that no act of his can be misconstrued
or misunderstood.
SEEING OR HEARING.
(The Commoner.)
One child crying in the streets will
excite all beholders to sympathy. The
knowledge that thousands of children
are crying, freezing and starving in
the tenements, excites only a passing
thought.
A THOUGHT THAT TALKS.
(Tifton Gazette.)
If the government could not run the
railroads of the country on a more
businesslike system than it does its
postal service, government ownership
would be a very bad thing.
IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT.
(Boston Herald.)
Ex-Secretary Shaw’s suggestion that
nothing ought to be said, or done, or
threatened to hurt the credit of the
railroads is an eloquent reminder that
he is in the banking business for
himself now.