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Our Commentaries on the Week’s Netos «T ■ -ts ■ ISSS* f i ~?>,’■ 'SsSfcfc,. <rgj / )nS^»->V<^ui'^fffflroWy3wiwj, 1 J vMi 'WI JBk?C''Wwß W wM J^WJspsffisras : V \ wkJpW IWf w I THEODORE E. BURTON. * Ohio congressman who leads the Taft forces in the Taft-Fora ker contest for presidential prefer ment. Taft’s Candidacy. Although Secretary Taft has not made any formal admission of his can didacy for the Republican nomination to the presidency next year, the coun try assumes that he is already in the race by the president’s initiative. The big secretary need hesitate no longer. Everybody knows that he is not jump ing into the swim, but is being pushed in by his chief in the White House. The other candidates are evidently . anxious for Taft to “say his say,’’ for then they will know who to fight and how to go about pooling their issues to prevent his getting the nomination with a whoop and hurrah. It is mani fest that if Taft gets the nomination he will have to fight for it all the way to the winning post. _ To Kill Gambling. .Judge Pendleton, of Atlanta, deliv-J ered a strong and eloquent charge against gambling to the Fulton Coun ty grand jury on Monday. So far, so good. But Judge Pendleton knows as well as he knows his name that charges to grand juries will not kill gambling in Atlanta or anywhere else.l If Judge Pendleton will use his influ-! once and power to stop the fining of gamblers and will send a bunch ofi them to the chaingang for twelve months, he will kill this damnable form of thievery deader than Hector. Atlanta judges used that club once and the city was practically free of gamblers for twenty years afterwards. Let Judge Pendleton try it again. Corporation Democrats. What the country might well ex pect if the Eastern Democracy could name a Democratic winner of the pres idency was illustrated the other day in New York. There are nineteen Democratic senators In the New York assembly and when the issue came on the removal of Kelsey, the insurance commissioner who was made by the grafter insurance companies, seven-1 teen Democratic senators joined the Republicans to - defeat Governor Hughes and keep the questionable Kelsey in office. Those were Belmont-, Ryan senators. Now wouldn’t a Bel mont-Ryan Democracy In power im Washington do a-plenty to the peo- . pie’ v ' I WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. Jones on Lynching. Judge Tom Jones, ex-governor of Alabama and present judge of a Uni ted States District Court in Alabama, has decided that the United States courts have jurisdiction to arrest, in dict and try persons accused of taking a prisoner from the lawful custody of state or federal officers and lynching, or attempting to lynch, such prisoner. If the Supreme Court of the United States upholds Judge Jones it will be hereafter an offense against the Uni ted States for any mob to take action against a prisoner in official hands. There are plenty of good men who would like to see the law stretched that far so that it may stop the stretching of men’s necks unlawfully. A Short Wheat Crop. The latest reports from the wheat fields of the nation indicate that weather conditions have cut down the possible yield by 100,000,000 bushels. There is no present prospect that this deficiency can be recovered, and it means that the flour market will rule high and folks who love wheat bread and biscuits will have to pay more for their enjoyment. Nobody doubts that a short wheat crop makes for dearer loaves of bread, but there are millions who yet cannot see that an overproduction of either wheat or cot ton makes for lower prices to the pro ducer. Here’s where the Farmers’ Union can get in good and profitable educational work. Watterson’s Wooziness. A good many Democrats are puz zled to explain the queer talk that Col. Henry Watterson has been handing out since his return from Europe. Judged on its face it means that he sees no hope whatever for a Demo cratic victory next year. His predic tion that Hughes will succeed Roose velt, and that only an epidemic of cholera and 40 cents wheat could bring about a Democratic year, seem to jus tify the conclusion that Uncle Henry has gone up against the wailing wall. Things don’t look well in Kentucky, either. If Yerkes is nominated for governor by the Republicans, his strength aided by the sulking of Sen ator McCreary’s friends and Joe Black burn’s exile on the Panama zone, may B; 'A: W- I HORACE PORTER. Ex ambassador to France and one of Uncle Sam’s delegates to The Hague peace conference in June. 5 1 ' ’“r- ""fuiai make it hard for the Democrats of Kentucky to hold the Blue Grass State in hand. Death of “lan MacLaren.” Dr. John Watson, of Liverpool, Eng land, died of blood poison Monday at Mt. Pleasant, lowa. His literary name was “lan MacLaren,” which he made famous with his first book, “Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush.” He has writ ten many notable books since, both stories and polemics, and in both fields won distinction. His splendid knowledge of Scotch life and his happy use of the dialect of his people made his works delightful. He was on a lecture tour in this country when stricken with tonsolitis and this ran into the malignant condition that pro duced his death. He will be greatly mourned in all English-speaking lands. A Jefferson Celebration. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial As sociation has conceived the celebra tion of Independence Day, July 4, at the Jamestown Exposition by a re union of the descendants of the sign ers of the original Declaration of In dependence. It is asked that all such descendants forward their names to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial As sociation, Washington, D. C., and re ceive formal invitations to the event. Many public men have approved the celebration and it ought to be a unique affair. But a greater event would be the union of all true Jeffersonians at the polls in 1908 to restore the prin ciples of the Declaration of Inde pendence in the conduct of the Fed eral government. COL. GAILLARD A DIPLOMAT. (The Columbia State.) To the Editor of The State: In your last Sunday’s issue, there was pub lished an article from your Washing ton correspondent relative to Uncle Sam’s engineers’ part in the undertak ing of building the Panama canal. Tn this article was a very well merited tribute to Col. D. D. Gaillard. This writer had the honor of serving during the Cuban war for independ ence on Col. Gaillard’s staff. During the life of that regiment, there hap pened an incident which, I believe, de serves to be chronicled. This incident also happened in Macon, Ga., where your Washington correspondent, Mr. McGhee, so vividly describes the dis- iwio < wia JOSEPH 11. CHOATE. Who will head the American delegation to The Hague peace conference in June. / I DAVID DU B. GAILLARD. Major in the United States ar my and first assistant to Lieuten t/ ant Colonel Goethals, chief engi neer of the Panama canal. armament of the Sixth Virginia regi ment. Os course, all soldiers are sup posed to be ready for battle, murder and sudden death, but few of them are supposed to be ready to rise to the oc casion of another kind of a call which requires not only courage and patriot ism. but certain decision of character. It, was in Macon that Col. Gaillard demonstrated the fact that he had not only all the courage of a soldier, ’but, also, all the finesse of a diplomat. The bandmaster of the Third regiment of engineers was a skilled musician and had trained, to an excellency which was unsurpassed, the band of our regi ment. When President McKinley came through the South on his tour of inspection he visited Macon, and our bandmaster, who was a “crank” on unification, had prepared a program of music to be played on this occasion. Among other numbers he had selected to be played as the Third regiment passed President McKinley’s stand, “Marching Through Georgia.” This came to the notice of Col. Gaillard, who sent his orderly to the bandmas ter with the request that he report. On his arrival, Col. Gaillard handed him a program of music and said, “You will please see that this is play ed tomorrow.” I do not now remem ber all the pieces which Col. Gaillard chose, but I do remember that his im plicit instructions were tnat as our regiment filed by the president’s stand, the band should play “Dixie,” and as we passed by the monument, erected by the women of Georgia to the dead Confederates, his orders wore that the band should play “Tenting Tonight.” As Mr. McGhee says, Col. Gaillard is not herculean, and I well remember his rising in his stirrups and see 9s* his throat swell and his breast he: ( ' as the regiment reached the m<K • ment, and I still hear his swelT) voice as he gave the order “port arms.” I do not know how far the sound of the human voice can reach, but I think from the hills of Haber ■ shaw down to the Valleys of Hall, the echo of those Maconite voices could have been hoard and there was no en gineer in the city of Macon for the bal ance of our stay who was not gener ously welcomed into every home of that place, and in my mind Col. Gail lard’s action in this little Incident is as worthy of notice as any of his other deeds which he has so well performed. AN ENGINEER. Columbia, S. C.» April 27, 19f• PAGE FIVE