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Our Commentaries on the Week's Nelvs
BY SAM W. SMALL.
The Jamestown Exposition.
On Friday, April 26, the three hun
dredth anniversary of the landing at
Jamestown of the first English colony
in this New World, the Jamestown
Ter-Centennial Exposition at Norfolk,
was officially opened. President Roose
velt, with a great retinue of official
and distinguished Americans, accompa
nied by the regular and special repre
sentatives of many nations, gave the
signal for the salute of honor and
the unfurling of the flags.
The president made a notable ad
dress, embracing a tribute to the good
men of all lands who have contributed
to the composite American nation and
character, reviewed brilliantly the
past three hundred years of our devel
opment, and ended with cogent pa
triotic suggestions of measures need
ed for the preservation and perpetua
tion of our national welfare.
The exposition is not yet in complet
ed form, but in a few weeks it will be
in admirable operation and during the
summer will be thronged by visitors
from all sections of America and from
abroad.
Jamestown was planted on the ear
lier foundation of San Miguel, a Span
ish settlement of 1526, which was soon
abandoned. Captain John Smith and
his adventurers landed at the Vir
ginia capes on April 26, 1607, and were
followed by the other colonists, who
arrived May 13 and made their camp
on the Jamestown peninsula, now an
island by the breaking through of the
James river. Jamestown was the Vir
ginia capital until 1698, when it was
defeated by Williamsburg on the main
land. The only remains of the original
settlement are the ruins of the church
tower and a few tombs. The exposi
tion grounds are at Norfolk fronting
on the historic Hampton Roads harbor.
Will Morgan Retire?
A rumor is printed that J. Pierpont
The Latest Netos "From All Nations
Oyster Bay—the national capital
after June 12!
John Mitchell, president of the Unit
ed Mine Workers, is ill in Chicago.
King Edward and King Alfonso have
agreed on a treaty of offense and de
fense.
Assistant Postmaster General Hitch
cock reports that the Roosevelt ma
chine is “all right in the south.”
The rumor of the “illness of the
Pope” still alternates with the “resig
nation of the Czar.”
Rufus B. Bullock, former governor
of Georgia, is reported to be critically
ill at Albion, N. Y.
The National Association of Cotton
Manufacturers agreed to attend an in
ternational conference in Atlanta this
fall.
Chief Engineer Goethals has written
the president recommending changes
in the plan of work on the Panama
canal.
Theodore P. Shonts has decMed to
give some of his wealth to Drake
University, Des Moines, lowa, which
was founded by his father-in-law, form
er Governor Drake,
Morgan, the great god Gog of the rail
way world, having passed his 70th
birthday, is about to retire from act
ive labors. The rumor is scarcely
credible, yet Morgan may be sensitive
enough to see that his longer promi
nence as the King of Railwaydom will
jeopardize all the interests he has la
bored so hard to create, and that pru
dence bids him do the disappearing
act. But Morgan’s retirement will not
end Morganism. He has set up a sys
tem that can thrive quite as well with
out him, almost, as with him. It
was built to survive even his death.
So that whether he backs off the stage
or stays on, it will continue to be the
duty of patriots to fight the system
and to use all the powers of constitu
tional government to destroy its pow
er to rob and spoil the people.
Taft is the Runner.
The Roosevelt horse has been
brought into the field and is Secretary
of War William Henry Taft, of Ohio.
The central west is to be the battle
field. Roosevelt feels absolutely sure
of the east. He has held “hands off”
the robber tariff and the robbers owe
it to him not to foul, not to flinch
and to hit the anti-Roosevelt line hard!
Foraker is to be attacked in Ohio.
There the Bull Run between the Big
Stick and the Corporation cormorants
is to be fought out. Unless Taft
wins there, a new deal will have to
be called. But if Taft wins in Ohio it
will mean the putting to sleep of
Fairbanks in Indiana, Cannon in Ill
inois, Cummins in lowa, and a clean
sweep of the southern states with
the aid of the office holders who have
all received their orders to bring up
their delegations solid for “the pres
ident.” It may be taken for certain
that all the powers of the administra
tion will be employed to prevent the
possibility of a fall down for Presi
dent Roosevelt in the convention of
next year.
Dennis Kearney, the sand-lotter, who
once dominated San Francisco, and
alarmed the nation with his labor ag
itation, is dead.
Labor leaders, eight in number,
were arrested this week in Goldfield,
Nevada, charged with conspiracy in
the Tony Silva murder case.
Sixty thousand union labor men will
parade in New York on May 4 in
protest against President Roosevelt’s
attack on Haywood and Moyer.
William Loeb, Jr., secretary to the
president, is to become president of
the Washington Railway and Electric
Co. after January 1, next.
Prince Eitel Fritz, second and fa
vorite son of Emperor William, had
an almost fatal fall from his horse at
the Potsdam maneuvers.
Baron Mayer Des Planches, the Ital
ian ambassador, stated that the cur
rent rumors as to his resignation from
his post are without foundation.
The “brain storm” shows signs of
abating. Only eight of sixty-four re
publican members of the lowa legisla
ture were of the opinion the other
day, that the country could not dis
pense with the guidance of President
Roosevelt after March 4, 1909.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
An Important Decision.
In a case from North Carolina the
supreme court of the United States
this week decided that a state rail
road commission has the right and
power to compel railways operat
ing in a state to make connections
with the trains of other roads, even
if additional or special trains are
necessary for the purpose. This is
one of the things railways have here
tofore most persistently refused to
do for the public accommodation and
it will be grateful to millions of Amer
ican citizens to know that the “Auto
crats of the Rail” can hereafter be
made to serve the public according
to the demands and obligations of
their charters. Many abuses of this
character exist here in our own state
of Georgia and when the people get
a railway commission of their own
making, not dominated by the rail
roads, many connections throughout
the state will be made that are now
denied to the traveling public.
The Lynching Season.
Reports are multiplying of attempts
by negro vagabonds to commit assaults
upon white women and lynchings are
being resumed. The winter is over
and the criminal negroes are now able
to wander about the country, sleeping
in woods and in outbuildings. They
no longer have to herd in towns and
hang around the fires of hospitable
cabins. The spring and summer is
the danger season, therefore, for wo
men left unprotected while their male
protectors are out on the farms.
In the absence of state police forces,
it seems that the grand juries of
many rural counties might take up
the patrol question and by employing
a few determined mounted officers,
end the tramping of vagrant negroes
in their counties and greatly dimin
ish the peril that menaces the women
of almost every rural community in
the south.
The growing belief that Thomas F.
Ryan is after a United States sena
torship is strengthened by his recent
activity in state politics in Vir
ginia.
Health conditions in the canal zone
are about as good now as they ever
will be, according to a report from
Col. Gorgas, Chief Sanitary Officer, for
the month of March.
Ben Tillman, at Pittsburg, voted a
great audience and all but a dozen
negroes declared that the white man
is the superior of the negro.
President Roosevelt is expected to
explain for the first time in public
his idea in regard to over-capitaliza
tion of railroads in his speech Memo
rial Day at Indianapolis.
The magistrate who is hearing the
case of Stenographer Hill and the
Webster letter has ruled that Harri
man must come before him if the law
yers insist.
James J. H. Gregory of Marblehead,
Mass., is a rival of Andrew Carnegie
in the giving away of libraries. He
has been doing this for years. His
libraries are smaller than Carnegie’s
gifts and are given to small communi
ties, to ministers and educators who
cannot afford to purchase them.
Memorial Day.
The Memorial Day, April 26, for
the honoring of the memory and
graves of the Confederate Dead was
generally celebrated throughout the
southern states. This year the proces
sions were even greater than in many
years and the orations were of the
highest patriotic order. The people
of the south thus annually make proof
to the nation of a splendid loyalty to
the best ideals and hopes of the re
public. While honoring the heroic
deeds of the dead soldiers of the over
whelmed Confederacy, they take this
annual occasion to voice and impress
the noblest love of the re-united na
tion and the duty of .the descendants
of the “Gray Legions” to support and
defend the constitution and institu
tions of our common country. We be
lieve the patriots of the nation realize
now that the south’s “Memorial Day”
is a sacrament of loyalty instead of
a lamentation of defeat.
Hearst’s Betrayal.
The real friends of William Ran
dolph Hearst felt sick at heart for
him last year when Max Ihnisen, his
fatuous campaign manager, made that
unholy deal with Murphy of Tammany.
They foresaw the defeat of Hearst
and suspected his betrayal by Mur
phy, and that has now come. Mayor
McClellan has just gone back to Tam
many Hall with a full surrender to
its demands and put the patronage
of his office once more at the disposal
of Murphy. Pilate and Herod have
made friends, and Hearst is to be
the sacrifice to celebrate the re-union.
The new alignment means an endeavor
to relegate Hearst to the rear in New
York politics and to defeat any en
deavor on his part to figure further
with New York backing in the field of
national politics. Mr. Hearst is evi
dently the victim of his “fool friends”
and Tammany’s usual treachery.
The building in New York which
Gen. and Mrs. Ballington Booth have
bought for headquarters of the Vol
unteers of America is worth $250,000
and is ready to use.
A proposition has been made to run
William Allen White for governor of
Kansas. Should Mr. White win, there
would be one gubernatorial message
that would be good reading.
Woodrow Wilson says that the mak
ers of the constitution would hardly
recognize some portions of the consti
tution if they saw it today. No, nor
of this expanded country, either.
State Senator A. W. Sandborn of
Wisconsin says that the Republicans
of his State are for Roosevelt in 1908,
and that Root is out of the question
with them.
The oldest minister in New Hamp
shire is the Rev. William Hurlin of
Antrim, who, in his 92d year, is still
preaching. He delivered his first ser
mon seventy-two years ago.
John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston,
is editor of the Republic, a weekly re
ligious newspaper. He is a Harvard
graduate, popular alike with working
men and business men.
(Continued on page 16.)
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