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Public Opinion Throughout the Union
SOUTHERN OPINION OF TILL
MAN.
(The Richmond News-Leader.)
What an ill-contrived, cross-grained,
porcupine kind of a surly brute this
man Tillman is! Here in Richmond
he was treated with the most careful
and elaborate courtesy. Gov. Swan
son, in his own carriage, drove the
visitor over the city in the afternoon.
The newspapers gave him ample no
tices and the audience was large and
representative. Yet he went out of
his way to insult the local Young
Men’s Christian Association by accus
ing it of neglect and discourtesy, and
his lecture itself was so coarse in
many of its allusions and illustra
tions as to shock the kindly and re
fined people who gathered to listen
and who had the right to expect that
their feelings and tastes would be re
spected. The poor strolling player who
performs in cheap houses and earns
S2O a week is courteous to his patrons
as a matter of instinct, training, prin
ciple and policy; but this senator from
South Carolina could not observe the
ordinary rules of decency.
The man leaves a trail of bad flavor
and bad temper wherever he goes. He
carefully advertises himself and his
show, very much as Tom Dixon does,
by disregarding the ordinary conven
tionalities and decencies of life and
making himself conspicuous for vul
garity, coarseness and ill-nature.
The southern gentleman is about the
most courteous, kindly, genuine and
loyal of all human beings; and, on the
other hand, the southern man who for
gets or disregards the traditions of his
section or is ignorant of them, and pre
sents himself as a sharper and trick
ster intent on making money at any
cost, is about the hardest, most cal
lous, most unscrupulous and grinding
proposition in existence; and the
southerner who for any reason or with
out reason, and merely in obedience to
instinct, is a tough, is the most insuf
ferable and offensive of all black
guards.
ONE MAN PARTIES.
(Nashville Banner.)
Mr. Bryan says in his Commoner:
“The Republican party is now in such
straits that it has just one man whom
it regards as popular enough to be the
candidate for president. Is there any
parallel in history to a situation in
which a party hinges its success on
one man, and when that man is one
who has had the courage to drop his
own platform and adopt that of the
opposition party?”
But, really, is not Mr. Bryan’s criti
cism of the Republican party as having
only one man popular enough to be its
candidate for president even more ap
plicable to the Democratic party?
BRYAN AND HIS PARTY.
(The Ohio State Journal.)
There is a quiet effort going on
among the Democratic chieftains to
eliminate Mr. Bryan from party prima
cy, especially when it comes to the
problem of nominating a candidate for
the presidency. There are two men
who are most talked of for that honor;
one is Judge Gray, of Delaware, and
the other Judson Harmon, the Cincin
nati lawyer.
Notwithstanding the devotion of the
party to Mr. Bryan, and its admira
tion of his many high personal quali
ties, there is a substantial belief that
he cannot carry the full party vote,
and either of the other men can.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
POPULAR ELECTION OF SENATOR.
(Worcester Evening Gazette.)
By an overwhelming vote the upper
house of the Illinois legislature yes
terday voted in favor of the direct
election of United States senators by
the people. This is a long way from
an amendment to the constitution of
the United States necessary to this
general result, but it shows the trend
and spirit of the times.
Were United States senators chosen
by popular vote do you think a senile
Platt and a doddering Depew would
represent the great Empire state at
Washington? There are others, too,
who would be missing. Even our own
Henry Cabot Lodge might have a
tougher road to travel if byway of a
state convention and the polls.
RAILWAY DEATH ROLL.
(Everybody’s.)
In the nineteen years since the in
terstate commerce commission began
the collection of facts about accidents,
nearly 6,000 passengers, more than
48,000 employes, and nearly 90,000 oth
er persons have been killed on Ameri
can railways and nearly 1,000,000 more
have been crippled or maimed, scalded
or crushed, disfigured or invalided, and
we still make no protest. For a coun
try that has pride in itself and its
“progress” this seems to be a humili
ating situation. But the still more hu
miliating fact is that conditions grow
worse year by year. In 1905 it was
twice as dangerous to travel on a rail
way train or to work for a railway
company in the United States as it was
in 1895.
THE OUTLOOK IN RUSSIA.
(From the London Times.)
M. Stolypin’s declaration of policy
on behalf of the Russian government is
a very remarkable pronouncement. He
announces a network of measures
which leaves hardly a single depart
ment of Russian life untouched. He
does not shrink from phrases that sum
up the significance of these reforms
in unmistakable fashion. Russia, he
says, must be transformed into a Con
stitutional state. It is a new regime
which the government are contemplat
ing in their measures. That a Russian
premier should stand before the Duma
and use words like these is surely
remarkable, and it is to be hoped that
the lesson will not be lost even on
the extremists.
MUST HARRIMAN GO?
(From the New York World.)
It was the interstate commerce com
mission’s exposure of Mr. Harriman’s
swindling stock-jobbing operations
which set the “panic” in motion. Noth
ing would contribute more toward still
ing the tumult than the retirement of
Mr. Harriman from the presidency of
the Union Pacific. If Mr. Schiff is in
the business of restoring public con
fidence there is his work already cut
out for him. He made Harriman. Now
let him unmake Harriman. He can do
it.
“LOGIC IS LOGIC.”
(The Boston Herald.)
Richard Olney, in defending trusts
as “an economic institution,” says that
“their right to exist is fairly to be
inferred from the complete failure of
all attempts to suppress them.” If this
is good logic, what shall we say of
burglary and other pursuits which the
world has decided it best to prevent
as far as possible? Does failure to
suppress establish their right to exist?
TARIFF THAT REALLY WILL PRO
TECT.
(The Pittsburg Post.)
Instead of having a tariff system
which enables our manufacturers to
charge the highest possible prices to
our own people for their products, and
to sell the latter to foreign customers
at much less figure, we should have
one which will really protect the Amer
ican consumers from extortion, and
make foreigners pay proper prices for
our goods. It is time that our na
tional lawmakers legislate on this sub
ject for the benefit of the masses of
the American people, instead of for
the trust magnates and the foreigners
to whom they sell some of their goods.
GOVERNMENT BY CORPORATIONS.
(The Detroit News.)
“Let us alone,” they say, until they
have involved the stock market in a
turmoil. Happily the country is no
longer run by Wall street and they
can pound down stocks as they please,
and take the consequences. As a mat
ter of fact, there seem but two cours
es to follow. It rests with the peo
ple to say whether they will govern
the corporations, or be governed by
them, and the wonder is that they
have deliberated so long over a pre
posterous proposition.
AMERICAN PROGRESS.
(World’s Work.)
We are going fast upon our way,
we people of the United States. We
have built higher, deeper, faster than
ever nation built before. Yesterday
we were as a pauper amid industrial
magnates, calling upon the gold of En
gland for the opening of our mines, our
lands, our forests; today the banners
of our commercial vanguards float
above the snows of Siberia, the jun
gles of the Amazon, the forests of the
Congo.
THE BANKER’S GRAFT.
(National Co-Operator.)
A national banker can borrow mon
ey from the government at one-half
of one per cent, and without security.
A farmer cannot borrow money at
even ten per cent, and with his crop
of grain or cotton as collateral to se
cure the payment. Why is this the
case?
THE ONE HOPEFUL ISSUE.
(The Philadelphia Record.)
If the Democratic party is to put
forward issues on which it has been
defeated, or socialistic ideas that the
country has repudiated, it might as
well save itself the trouble of making
a nomination. But the occasion is ripe
for putting forward the historic Demo
cratic issue of tariff reform —the one
issue on which Democrats are united
and Republicans divided.
THE CHIEF OBSTACLE.
(The Kansas Cinty Journal.)
As long as Col. Bryan’s chief ad
visers are the Tom L. Johnsons and
his chief boomers the George Fred
Williamses, the chief obstacle in his
road to the white house will be the
American people.
THE INVESTMENT CENTER.
(The New York Times.)
There is a Wall street which Is a
savings bank —the greatest and most
Important savings bank on earth. Don’t
confuse it with the celebrated gam
bling hell of the same name.
TENNESSEE KEY-NOTE.
(Chattanooga Times.)
Senator Carmack sounds the keynote
to the next gubernatorial campaign no
matter who may be the candidate —the
railroads must be kept out of offensive
meddling in state and local politics.
The senator says he has indubitable
proof that the Louisville and Nashville
railroad helped to log roll the Mem
phis “ripper” bill through the legis
lature. He made the charge openly
and boldly, and yet there has been nei
ther denial nor a demand by the legis
lature for an investigation.
UNCLE JOE IN CUBA.
(Nashville Banner.)
Uncle Joe Cannon has been having a
jolly good time in Cuba, where he is
said to have attracted as much at
tention as he would have done had he
been Czar of all the Americas. A
Havana special to the St. Louis Globe-
Democrat quotes Uncle Joe as saying,
“I feel like I could jump over a smoke
house. I have got rid of the grip; I
have never missed a meal, and I have
smoked more cigars than I thought had
been born.” The Cubans called the
lively old gentleman “one frisky mou
chacho.”
WHIPPING THE EDITOR.
(Arizona Republican.)
In the absence of a definite statute
like that sought to be enacted in Penn
sylvania, instances in which the editor
was whipped are not prominent in his
tory. In the last analysis there is the
immortal and constitutional right of
freedom of the press, which upholds
the defender of liberty and adds right
to his might; and besides, there is al
ways the office towel, which is a more
weighty weapon than the sling of Da
vid.
INSECTS IN THE OINTMENT.
(The Birmingham News.)
It is announced that the balmy win
ter has done much to encourage the
boll weevil family to get busy again.
From the same reason the mosquito
will operate earlier and more exten
sively than usual. Thus even agreea
ble weather conditions are more or
less expensive, too.
IS WASHINGTON JEALOUS?
(The New York Times.)
If through conspicuous and heroic
achievements on the part of the pres
ent governor of New York the atten
tion of the country should be center
ed upon Albany, there would be a
vexatious derangement of well-matur
ed plans and foreordination of the ev
ents of 1908 might be upset.
ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE.
(The Indianapolis News.)
But as to the government’s protect
ing the innocent investor —will the
innocent investor stand for anything
that interferes with his inalienable
right to buy gold bricks?
TOMMY’S AMBITION.
Congressman Hardwick is said to
be an aspirant to succeed Governor
Smith. Comes from the wrong end
of the state. —Americus Times-Record
er.
A SELF-EVIDENT TRUTH.
(The Chicago Record-Herald.)
Im challenging Taft, Foraker cannot
be accused of “picking on one who Is
smaller than himself.”