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2 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.