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Commentaries On The Week’s Nelvs
2,000 Ministers Wanted.
The Christian Church, through its
societies of propagation, has issued a
call for 2,000 young preachers to fill
vacant pulpits throughout the coutnry.
The growing indifference of young
Christian men to enter the ministry
is a significant sign of the times. It
does not, however, warrant the charge
that “commercialism” is sapping the
enthusiasm of Christian men for the
speeding of the work of Christianity
in the present age. It is not “commer
cialism” for a young man of talents,
graces and religious capacities to wish
to know that if he enters the ministry
he will be given the reasonable and
prompt compensation that his natural
necessities require.
That is not done, as a rule, in these
days. A man is &sked, in plain terms
almost, to gamble on the chances of
his proper ministerial support. One
year he may have S3OO, another year
SSOO promised and S4OO paid, another
year S7OO and SSOO paid. The experi
ences of the majority of ministers on
this salary question form the most rag
ged, pathetic and irreligious histories
with which we are acquainted. And we
know our subject.
When the churches get on a sure
and honest basis regarding this ques
tion of ministerial support, we think
they will find little difficulty in finding
young men of piety, power and self
sacrifice of a reasonable sort to fill all
their pulpits.
Using the Wrong Bait.
The Houston Post has discovered
that Foraker has a number of negro
emmissaries traveling in the south for
the purpose of working up his presi
dential boom. He wants the delegates
from the southern states and is rely
ing upon the negroes to get them for
him out of the several state Republi
can conventions. The Foraker negroes
are using the Brownsville incident
and Foraker’s defense of the discharg
ed negro troopers as argument in his
favor. But Foaker is not wise to the
ways of the negro. He can be stiired
emotionally by appeals to his racial
prejudice, but when it comes to get
ting political good from him a crisp
two dollar bill is the only argument
that makes Sambo come across.
Negroes in the Army.
The war department has instructed
the recruiting stations to accept no
more negroes for the army. This does
not mean that no more negro troops
are to be used in the army. We have
by law two regiments each of negro
cavalry and infantry and these are prob
ably now recruited to their minimum
strength for service in the Philippine
Islands, to which they are to be trans
ferred. In those mongrel islands the
negro troops will give less offense than
they do in the United States and as
long as we retain those over that
sea colony they should be kept busy
on the perpetual firing lines that we
will have there.
A Spasm of Virtue,
The San Francisco board of super
visors, after learning from the testi
mony In Abe Ruef’s case that he has
bribed them a number of times to pass
up his fat jobs of public plunder, has
suddenly become virtuous enough to
discharge Its secretary. But what the
public seem to think necessary Is that
the board itself should make restitu
tion of its graft money and then resign
In disgrace.
Carmack’s Ultimatum.
Ex-Senator Carmack is easily the
foremost figure today in the politics
of Tennessee. He is at the capital
fighting vicious legislation and promot
ing the people’s causes. He has tak
en up the fight against the longer dom
ination of Tennessee by the Louisville
and Nashville railroad combine and
has issued an ultimatum to them in the
following pungent sentences:
“These roads have grown so confi
dent of their power to control the poli
tics of this state that they have be
come brazen and shameless in their
methods.
“If this activity were purely defen
sive it might be excused, but it is not.
The railoads fight to escape jujst taxa
tion; to defeat just and proper regula
tion; to maintain extortionate rates
and practice unjust discrimination; to
protect themselves in gross neglect
of duty and to secure immunity for
The railroads fight to escape just taxa
violations of law. To accomplish this
they are at any time ready to deliver
the state or any community into the
hands of the worst elements. The
people have grown weary of their in
solence and the day of reckoning is
at hand.”
The Hague Peace Pow-wow.
Tn the middle of June at The Hague,
capital of The Netherlands, represent
atives of all the great powers, includ
ing the United States, are to meet
and discuss measures to promote the
peace of the world.
Russia, as at first, takes the initia
tive, but the program of the conference
is being expanded beyond the Russian
suggestions by the other powers.
The United States, Great Britain and
Spain reserve the right to introduce
disarmament proposals; the United
States will present the Drago Doctrine
for discussion; and England and Ja
pan reserve the right to abstain from
considering any points in the Russian
schedule that do not promise conclu
sions satisfactory to them as allied
powers.
It is probable that the duelistic for
mula for quieting international quar
rels may find favor by the conference,
but the limitation of armaments may
fail of success.
Mrs. Eddy’s Flanker.
To avoid the suit at law by her rela
tives to try her competency to manage
her estate and to appoint a receiver
for it, Mrs. Eddy, “The Mother of
Christian Science,” has deeded her
vast property to three trustees for the
benefit of the church she has estab
lished throughout the world. She ap
pears to have chosen men of affairs
who are her trusted friends, and by
this movement seems to have effectu
ally flanked her relatives, unless they
can go on and successfully attack her
mental competency to even make such
a deed of trust. Ex-Senator Bill Chan
dler, who represents the contenders
against her competency, is likely to
be interesting to those trustees and
entertaining to the nation at large.
A Great Southern Tornado.
Last week a great and destructive
tornado swept over the lower sections
of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Nearly a score of persons were killed
and a large number injured, while mil
lions of dollars of property was de
stroyed. The State Insane Asylum at
Jackson, La., was demolished and
many of the Inmates Injured.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
The President’s Mare’s Nest.
President Roosevelt, with a great
show of assurance, announces that he
has discovered a “rich man’s conspir
acy,” with a $5,000,000 campaign fund
attachment, to oppose his policies in
general and the succession to the
presidency of any Republican commit
ted to the continuance of them.
In newspaper language, “that would
be important—if true!” But the chanc
es are strong that the president has
been hoaxed by some ribald states
men who enjoy seeing him show his
teeth.
plutocrats, especially those in
the insurance and railway camps, are
not fools, and they know that the real
lion in their pathway is not the pres
ident, but the people acting through
their state legislatures. They are
probably telling the truth when they
deny the president’s story and claim
that his playing it up is his first move
to create a popular demand that he
should “take a third term.”
The Anti-Gambling Crusade.
Quite as remarkable as the tremen
dous wave of anti-saloon reform now
sweeping the south and west is the ac
tivity in suppressing gambling. Mon
tana, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Ten
nessee and other states are making all
forms of gambling felonies, punishable
with penitentiary sentences. The gam
blers are “on the hike” and only a
few out-of-the-way places in Nevada,
Wyoming and New Mexico afford them
room to rest their feet. Even Mexico,
the old, is enacting anti-saloon and an
ti-gambling laws, and threatening to
suppress bull fighting. Surely we are
seeing marvelous revivals of righteous
ness in our day!
The Defeat of Dunne.
The Republicans succeeded in secur
ing the defeat of Mayor Dunne and his
policy of “immediate” municipal own
ership of the traction lines in Chicago.
The fight was complicated by the sell
ing out of the Democratic city council
to the traction interests, and the pas
sage of an ordinance granting 20 year
franchises upon conditions, the ulti
mate one being the right of the city
at the end of 20 years to take over the
lines at a liquidatable price.
The result is only a brief postpone
ment of an inevitable end. It will not
be long before the mixed elements of
Chicago will unite and seize the street
traction lines of that great city.
2 Cents In Pennsylvania.
The governor of Pennsylvania has
signed the law fixing two cents per
mile as the maximum rate for railroad
fares in that state. President McCrea,
of the once omnipotent Pennsylvania
System, protested vigorously against
the signing of the bill, but without
avail. It must be a daily source of
jim-jams in the Penn’s headquarters
in Philadelphia to know that at last
that great commonwealth has a gov
ernor who is not a bell-boy in buttons
to fetch and carry for that cormorant
corporation. It is positively shocking
—this awakening of railway magnates
to the fact that they are no longer
the “Robinson Crusoes of the Repub
lic.”
Senator Taylor is Sick.
Senator Bob Taylor, of Tennessee,
fell sick at Dallas, Texas, last week
and was forced to cancel certain of
his lecture engagements in the Lone
Star state. His condition is not se
rious.
The Harriman-Roosevelt Row.
Harriman has “peached” on the pres
ident, accusing Roosevelt of seducing
him into raising $200,000 for the New
York campaign fund of 1904, of which
sum Harriman gave $50,000 himself.
The president replies that Harriman
is “a liar” as to some of the details,
but he does not deny the $200,000 con
tribution, or the charge by Harriman
that the money caused a change of
100,000 votes in favor of the Repub
licans in New York state in that year.
We do not see where either President
Roosevelt or Harriman gets any credit
from these revelations. The former
is shown up as one willing to use large
sums of corporation money to sway
an election and the latter as one will
ing to furnish the boodle to buy votes
“for the good that might follow.”
The Greene-Gaynor Case.
The United States circuit court of
appeals at New Orleans is now consid
ering the Greene-Gaynor case. The
claim was set up that they did not get
a fair trial before Judge Speer in
Savannah and that he seriously pre
judiced their rights by his conduct on
the bench. It may be possible that
this precious pair of rascals will yet
go free, but if they do justice should
rip the bandage from off her eyes and
hereafter go gunning for government
thieves with both eyes open and a
magazine revolver in each hand.
Thaw Is Not Crazy.
The expert commission appointed to
find out whether Harry Thaw is sane
enough to be continued on trial for
the murder of Sanford White, reported
that he is sane, and the trial proceed
ed on Monday. Counsel have since been
engaged in arguing the the case to the
jury and by the time we go to press
a verdict may have been reached. The
common opinion seems to be that the
“unwritten law” will be accepted by
the jury and Thaw acquitted.
The Czar to Abdicate.
There is news in London to the ef
fect that the Czar of Russia is about
to abdicate and turn over the troubles
of the throne to Grand Duke Michael
as regent during the minority of the
czarevitch, who is yet quite a small
child. It is said that the czar’s mind
is giving way—and could you blame
him, if it were, seeing all the troubles
that have been piled upon it for
years?
Hermann Fighting Hard.
Congressman Binger Hermann, of
Oregon, is making a hard fight to be
acquitted of fraudulent dealings in
ptlblic lands in the west while he was
United States land commissioner. He
is swearing hard against all the evi
dence produced to convict him.
If the railroad corporations had not
so often meddled with the business of
state legislatures they would not now
have to complain so much of legisla
tive meddling with their business.
That Wall street panic is already
neardly forgotten. It shows how really
little we care about the weather when
the wind don’t blow!
The fruit crop is safe and the frost
liar is out of a job for another year.
Governor Hughes’ Public Utilities
bill glares at the corporations like a
full set of Roosevelt teeth.
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