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EDITORIAL NOTES.
(Continued from Page 9.)
Frank says that the Tar Heel weeklies have
a prescriptive right to steal from one another,
and that he supposed he was borrowing from
a neighbor when he purloined the goods of the
Post.
The Washington Post is so tempting that
Stroud continues to copy from it, but when
ever he does so now he flags the train at both
ends.
The Socialists lost out in Germany, in Lon
don, in Wisconsin, and in Chicago, but they
gained ground in Finland. Hooray! ! !
We shouldn’t wonder if, in the next decade
or so, they swept victoriously over Iceland
and Terra del Fuego.
In the meantime, as the Demand for Labor
grows faster than the Supply, and wages go
up, up, UP, in obedience to Natural Law, So
cialistic nonsense is less and less heeded by
the working classes.
Flon. John W. Daniel, one of Tom Ryan’s
brace of Senators from Virginia, is going to
have opposition, just as A. O. Bacon, of Geor
gia, would have had it, if anyone had known
in advance that broken health would retire
Misleading Statistics of 'Raillvay 'Earnings
(The New York American.)
The Pennsylvania Railroad is to ap
peal to the supreme court against
the action of the legislature of Penn
sylvania in fixing the passenger rate
in that state at two cents a mile.
The argument which was made last
week to prevent Governor Stuart from
signing the bill will be repeated. This
is, as set forth by James McCrea, of
the Pennsylvania Company, and by Mr.
Baer, whose “divine rights” are begin
ning to be trampled upon, that at
two cents a mile the railroads cannot
make money.
In an attempt to prove this, the pas
senger earnings are given and suffi
cient railway expense piled up against
them to make it appear that passen
gers already are carried at a loss.
THE VALUE OF WATERWAYS.
(Continued from page 1.)
way had to be devised to reach an
end so pressing and desirable.
Providence provided the way. Rath
er than permit Britain to seize on
Louisiana, Napoleon sold the territory
to the United States. Through its
tributaries the Mississippi connects the
Appalachian mountains in the far east
with the Rockies in the far west. It
binds the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico. The whole nation is con
cerned in its development and improve
ment. Not a state but would benefit.
A RESTRICTED CONFERENCE.
(The New York Times.)
It seems very unlikely that either of
the two subjects which our govern
ment has signified a desire to dis
cuss, the limitation of armaments and
the limitation in the use of public
force to collect ordinary public debts
accruing from contracts, will be add
ed to the program for the conference.
In view of the fact that the criminal
wards of Chicago were unexpectedly
carried by the Republicans, Carter
Harrison Is free to claim that he could
have been elected mayor If he had
been the Democratic candidate. Car
ter Is a bird —a buzzard bird.
WATSON S WkkKLY JEFFERSONIAN. -
John Temple Graves from the senatorial race.
The man who is going up against the Tom
Ryan railroad machine in Virginia is State
Senator A. F. Thomas.
The Jeffersonian glories in his spunk and
wishes him success.
Let him go directly to the people as Hoke
Smith did in Georgia.
The common people, IN ALL THE
STATES, are eager to back those leaders
whom the corporations can neither buy nor
scare.
“DOWN WITH THE CORRUPT AND
GREEDY RULE OF NORTHERN AND
EASTERN CORPORATIONS!” is a slogan
which would sweep the West and South, over
whelmingly.
Every great combination of capital which
is plundering the South and the West is
owned and controlled in the North and East.
With headquarters in New York, these char
tered robbers are foraging, pillaging, plunder
ing the South and West without mercy.
THE STATES CAN PUT A STOP TO
IT!
Forfeit the Misused franchises, and save
the South and West from the New York buc
caneers !
That statement alone convicts the
presidents of insincerity.
Nothing could induce these big com
panies to conduct an elaborate pas
senger system if it did not pay, and
pay well. Mr. McCrea presents sta
tistical tables compiled by his ex
perts to show that the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, on its lines east of
Pittsburg and Buffalo, in 1905, lost
$3,260,000.
As a matter of fact, the total income
of the Pennsylvania lines in 1905
brought that company a great profit.
Last year the revenue, both gross and
net, was greater still. In 1906 the
total income was $6,650,000 MORE
THAN IN 1905.
After providing for interest, rentals
and taxes, the Pennsylvania Company,
DIVORCE IN OPEN COURT.
(The Baltimore American.)
Delaware is the first state to adopt
some of the more important reforms
in divorce procedure recommended by
the national divorce congress. Star
chamber hearings will no longer be
tolerated there. The trial must take
place in public. The argument in fa
vor of this change was that publicity
was the most effective preventive of
collusion between the parties, while
at the same time it acted in
many cases as a deterrent against the
permanent separation of married coup
les. There is undoubted force in the
claim that with compulsory hearings
in open court the tendency to seek
divorce on trivial grounds will be
checked, and that there will be a great
er effort at forgiveness and reconcil
iation.
THE BAR ON THE BAR.
(The Saturday Evening Post.)
For picturesque scenes and local
coloring the recorder’s court in Atlan
ta is a wonder. Recorder Broyles is
a keen analyzer of the foibles and
weaknesses of humanity, and is usu
ally able to get at the bottom of the
obscurest tangles.
A majority of the cases tried are
which its president says is losing mon
ey carrying passengers, had A BAL
ANCE OF $35,674,000.
In the year before the balance was
$35,000,000 in 1906, car trust and sink
s3o,lo2,ooo.
From the balance of more than
ing fund payments were deducted. A
dividend of 61-2 per cent was then
paid, amounting to more than $19,000,-
000, which left A SURPLUS IN THE
PENNSYLVANIA’S TREASURY of
$11,201,000:
When the passenger fares per mile
are to be reduced, the company says
that it is losing money on that part
of the service. When the shippers of
Cincinnati protest against the pro
posal of railways to increase freight
rates, the carriers reply that they
negroes, and the bulk of their erring
is in drinking too much.
Not long r since a shiftless-looking ne
gro man was arraigned for habitual
drunkenness.
The principal witness against him
was his wife. She was on the witness
stand with Recorder Broyles apply
ing his incisive scalpel.
“Does your husband stay drunk all
the time?” asked the recorder.
“No, suh, not all de time. Sometimes
I ain’t got any job.”
THE BEST MAN OF HIS HOUSE.
(The Washington Star.)
The yarn about the Czar’s abdication
lacks persuasiveness. Such a steu
might involve Russia in more trouble
than ever. Unequal as he is to his
great task, he is yet the best man of
his house, and the only one who in
spires respect and sympathy outside
of his country. The man for the emer
gency has not appeared. It is to be
doubted if he exists. For the present
therefore drifting and experiments
may continue for some time. If this
second duma fails a third may be
called, and so on until one is obtain
ed that will stick and do business. At
all events constitutional government
of some kind for Russia seems a cer
tainty.
The Government has decided to enlist no
more negro soldiers in the army. Good!
Now let the negroes be dropped from all
civil offices.
Let us have a government of the whites
This will be best for the negroes as well as
for ourselves.
Nobody wants to see our military, or our
civil service, carried on by Indians, Chinese,
Hindoos, or Japanese. We would raise an
outcry against the yellow man, the brown 1
man, the red man. Why. then, should we not
apply the same rule to the black man?
Let us give the negro his full legal rights,
withdrawing political privileges.
This will be best for both races.
Nine-tenths of the black race — being just
plain negroes—would be perfectly satisfied
with full protection in their legal rights.
The other one-tenth—being composed of
Afro-Americans—would howl, of course; but
they would be helpless to prevent what is the
wise course.
They would have to behave themselves, OR
GET OUT.
The bulk of the race would stay right here,
buckle down to work, and look to the white
man for guidance, protection and government.
are making no profit out of that branch
of the business.
Meanwhile, the total traffic of all
the companies, save on the lines that
have been wrecked through manipula
tion or gross overcapitalization, is
piling up colossal gains.
The quoting of segregated railway
figures to prove some desired deduc
tion is a favorite ruse of adroit offi
cials of big lines.
Fortunately, in the case of the Penn
sylvania Company, the legislature and
the governor were determined upon
a two-cent fare.
After all, the reduction on that sys
tem is infinistesimal. The average
passenger rate, according to the pres
ident’s statement, has been 2.055 cents
per mile.
PATIENCE WITH CUBA.
(The New York Tribune.)
There are, no doubt, some unpleas
ant facts in Cuba, and some conditions
which cause perplexity and call for
much thought. But things are not
half as bad as some lurid fancies
have pictured them, and it will be
well to possess our souls in patience
and not attempt to dictate or to an
ticipate the decisions concerning fur
ther policies in that island which Sec
retary Taft will presently make in his
his own good time, after he has seen
the state of affairs there for himself
with clear, straight and penetrating
vision.
TOO LARGE AN INVESTMENT.
(Boston Herald.)
Dr. Stone of the Harvard Medical
school states that 90 per cent of the
population have tuberculosis bacilli
in their bodies. He also said that
taking everything into account the
annual loss to the commonwealth
from this one’disease was $3,000,000.
Assuming the accuracy of his esti
mate the principal sum at 3 1-2 per
cent Interest which we have invested
in consumption is between $85,000,000
and $86,000,000. The means whereby
to reduce it are hospitals, clinics, in
spection and education.