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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.) 5