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Netos and Vie to s From All Around
"PARTY SPIRIT.”
(New York Times.)
Two horrible scandals, published on
the same day, warn us almost equally
against being too much “at ease in
Zion.” One is a state scandal, one a
municipal scandal. It is shown that
the state of Pennsylvania has been so
looted that if it had been a poor com
munity it would have been impoverish
ed by the depredations committed up
on it in the furnishings of its state
capitol. It is shown that the munic
ipality of San Francisco has been de
spoiled by the majority of its official
custodians. In the city and in the
state the causes of the corruption are
essentially the same. For a generation
the Republican party has almost con
tinuously ruled Pennsylvania, with
hardly a chance that any outrage it
might commit would in any extremity
be avenged through popular indigna
tion by its own displacement. The ex
ceptions do no more than prove the
rule. It is not the Republican party
which has been the fetich under which
San Francisco has been ruled and rob
bed and ruined.
A REAL LIVE ’RISTOCRAT.
(Manning Times.)
Senator Tillman is no longer one of
the common people. He has commenc
ed to boast of his pedigree. Nobody
ever did look upon him as a “gray
ne?k,” not even when he wore a sun
burnt alpaca coat and used the sleeves
as a handkerchief. He was not even
regarded a clod-hopper when he wore
brogans greased with tallow. True,
his public speeches were to arouse the
common people, one of whom he
claimed to be, against the Bourbons
or aristocrats, and everybody else that
failed to appreciate Tillman’s methods.
The glamor of the footlights and the
comfortable feeling of fat purses has
made a great difference; who would
not realize the difference between ped
dling eggs in Augusta at the market
price per dozen, and being the star
attraction at a talking function at
S2OO per night?
RYAN’S CONGO PEANUTS.
Thomas F. Ryan, the new “boss
of Wall street,” has entered upon a
new field of enterprise and probable
profit. Some time ago Mr. Ryan ac
quired possession of 70,000 acres of
land in Congo. Exactly what he in
tended to do with the tremendous tract
in that remote land even the shrewd
est of his friends could not guess. It
was known that the properties of the
soil were not such as to prove favora
ble for any of the ordinary crops of
the world. But Mr. Ryan is long
headed. Moreover, he is a southern
er. He knows several things about the
profitableness of certain crops raised
in the south —among these, peanuts,
He learned that the Congo land is just
the place for raising the biggeest, most
palatable and most desirable peanuts
in the world. So he intends to devote
the greater part of the 70,000 acres to
raising the favorite, popular "jumbo”
variety of nuts.
A SHAFT AT SHILOH.
Mrs. Alexander B. White, state pres
ident of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy of Tennessee, Issues a
stirring appeal for aid in the matter
of securing sufficient money to make
a great success of the project of erect
ing a magnificent monument to the
memory of Confederate soldiers who
fell in the battle of Shiloh.
FOR THE VETERANS.
The following is the official program
of the meeting of United Confederate
Veterans at Richmond, Va., May 30 to
June 3.
The program for each day is as fol
lows:
Thursday, May 30 —Meeting of con
vention in morning and parade of Vet
eran Cavalry Association, Army of
Northern Virginia, and unveiling of
Stuart statute in the afternoon. Night,
reception to veterans by Sons of Veter
ans, sponsors and maids of honor.
Friday, May 31 —Meeting of conven
tion in the morning, business session
and reception in the afternoon, ball
and entertainment of Confederate Vet
erans at night.
Saturday, June I—Business1 —Business session
in the morning. Entertainment of vet
erans, Sons of Veterans, sponsors and
maids of honor and the public in the
afternoon. Reception at the Execu
tive Mansion by the Governor of Vir
ginia at night.
Sunday, June 2 —Memorial services
at the Auditorium in the afternoon.
Monday, June 3 —Grand parade and
unveiling of Jefferson Davis monument
in the morning. Grand rally at con
vention hall of Veterans, Sons of Vet
erans, sponsors, maids of honor. Me
morial Association and United Daugh
ters of the Confederacy at night.
“THEOLOGICAL CURIOS.”
Cincinnati, April.—The Methodist
ministers had a sizzling session at the
Methodist book concern in the
regular meeting of the Methodist
preachers’ union, at which Dr. Davis
Clark retired after a two years’ term
as president of the union. All was
serene until the Rev. Mr. Clark declar
ed that theological dogmas are “curios
and could well be kept on the top
shelf.” Immediately there was a
storm, mostly of protest. • The sub
ject was so enthralling that nearly ev
erybody present desired to voice his
protest or defense of Clark’s words.
CALLED FORAKER’S BLUFF.
Mr. Charles P. Taft, of Cincinnati,
brother of the secretary, accepts the
gage Senator Foraker • threw down
when he demanded that the issue be
tween him and the president be left
to the people. If we are not mistaken
Senator Foraker has put his foot in
it. When he goes butting the Hon.
Theodore Roosevelt before the Repub
lican voters of Ohio his finish will
come speedily. In the meantime the
echoes from the fray are going to be
positively entertaining.
HUSBANDS BY WHOLESALE.
Washington.—A special to the Post
from Richmond, Ind., says:
Mrs. Polly Weed Baker, of Boonville,
widely known as the most married wo.
man in Indiana, has been granted a
divorce from her eleventh husband,
John Baker. Baker is the ninth of her
eleven husbands fro mwhom she has
secured a divorce, one having died a
natural death and another committing
suicide. Mrs. Baker is sixty-five years
old.
OVER A MILLION FOR PICTURES.
Brussells. —It is currently reported
that J. P. Morgan, of New York, has
acquired for $1,200,000 the unique col
lection of Jules Van Den Poreboom,
which comprises furniture, pictures,
arms, brasses, ancient engravings and
chimney pieces.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
TREATIES NOT SUPREME.
(The Indianapolis News.)
In his eagerness to magnify the
treaty-making power of the nation, Sen
ator Beveridge gives to treaties a su
premacy which they do not have. He
says that the constitution provides
that “all treaties made, or which shall
be made, under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme
law of the land,” etc. Which is true.
But there are other things which are
the supreme law of the land, too, so
that treaties have no special pre-emi
nence. The constitution provides that
“this constitution and the laws of the
United States which shall be made
in pursuance thereof, and all treaties
made,” etc., “shall be the supreme law
of the land.” The purpose was not to
give one form of law pre-eminence
over the others, but to make all fed
eral laws legally enacted paramount
throughout the country. The constitu
tion, and the laws enacted under it,
are quite as supreme as treaties are.
LIQUOR DEALERS’ RIGHTS.
Judge Artman, of Indianapolis, who
recently decided that civic powers
had no power to grant a license to
liquor dealers, has another case under
consideration which is causing much
nervousness in the saloonkeepers’
camp. We believe it has been decided
in that state that a saloonkeeper has
no right to vote on a liquor license
when he is a member of the city coun
cil, and this coming case is to decide
whether the saloonkeeper has any
right in the council at all or not. If
so decided, it will make cities a lot
of trouble, for acts and ordinances
passed by councils who have a saloon
membership will be illegal. In the
former case the decision made the
cities responsible for damages caused
by liquor selling. We believe that in
the city of Indianapolis there were
$200,000 in such cases where barns
were burned by men under the in
fluence of liquor, and for personal in
juries resulting from liquor drinking,
and a long list of those classes of
cases.
ATTRACTION OF COUNTRY LIFE.
(Cleveland Leader.)
The call of the country grows loud
er every year. It will yet be heard
above the hum and roar of the machin
ery of trade and industry in the cities
so clearly that there will be an equal
izing of the conditions of employment.
There will be a better supply of work
ers on the farms and less pressure for
places to earn a living as clerks in
stores and offices. The rural districts
of America grow steadily more attrac
tive, always more favorable for full
and rounded life. The country is
coming slowly but surely into its own,
for work and for residence.
THE WAY TO STOP TROUBLE.
(The Chicago Record-Herald.)
W. J. Bryan is not in favor of wip
ing out reasonable profits on railroad
investments. Neither is any other
sensible man. What the public wants
is a square deal, and by granting it
the railroad companies will find the
quickest and easiest way to stop
trouble.
SURELY NOT.
(The Portland Oregonian.)
A correspondent of a Birmingham
paper says that in the tropics Speaker
Joe Cannon wears a straw hat, a
linen duster and a green umbrella. Is
that all?
RAILROADS IN 1907.
According to the Railway Age there
is nearly as large a mileage of new
railroads projected for 1907 as was
the case last year at this time, but the
probability is that the present uncer
tainty as to federal and state inter
ference in the affairs of the railways
will hold in abeyance a very consider
able portion of these extensions and
improvements.
In March of 1906 13,000 miles of new
road were under contract, and about
half of this was completed before the
end of the year. At present the mile
age under contract is 11,912, and of
this about 8,700 miles are what the
Railway Age calls live projects and
explains as those “which probably
would be undertaken during the pres
ent year were the conditions more
favorable.”
AN IMPROVEMENT.
(The Boston Herald.)
They go at the thing in very sim
ple fashion in Texas. There is a two
cent-a-mile bill before the legislature
there and the railroads meet it with
an offer to spend $15,000,000 in ex
tensions and improvements within the
next fourteen months if the bill is de
feated. If the bill passes the projects
will be indefinitely postponed.
There is sense in this way of meet
ing objectionable legislation. It is
open, fair and above board. A great
improvement on the other way of
maintaining an expensive lobby of
shyster lawyers to work secretly and
underhandedly against any and every
measure the railroads regard as harm
ful. Why not copy Texas up north?
DON’T LET THE FARM LIE IDLE.
(Conway Field.)
We regret to learn that people in
some sections of the county will this
year abandon their farms mid cut
cross ties and other timber. There is
money in these commodities, but it
doesn’t pay to let a good farm lie idle
in order to produce a product which is
gone w r hen once produced. A farm is
better each year from having been
cultivated the former one and great
damage is done when it lies idle for a
year.
STATE GOVERNMENTS NECES
SARY.
(The Commoner.)
The states are even more needed
than they formerly w’ere for the ad
ministration of domestic affairs. As
a matter of theory, that government
is best which is nearest to the peo
ple. If there is any soundness at all
in the doctrine of self government, the
people can act most intelligently upon
matters with which they are most fa
miliar.
LOVES TAFT—AND ROOT.
(J. C. O’Laughlin, in The Outlook.)
The president recently said that he
would crawl on his hands and knees
from the White House to the Capitol
to bring about the election of Mr. Taft
to be his successor. He would do as
much for Mr. Root. Publicly and pri
vately he has expressed the highest
opinion of the intellectual and admin
istrative capacity of his secretary of
state.
NEW JOB FOR ROOSEVELT.
(The Cleveland Leader.)
Nobody has hazarded the guess yet
that Roosevelt will be asked to take
the presidency of a railroad when he
leaves the White House.
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