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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
AMERICA LEADS IN COMMERCE.
(The Louisville Herald.)
America is making vast strides in
advance in respect of foreign trade.
Since 1891 Great Britain shows a gain
in all imports of 30.43 per cent and in
imports from the United States a gain
of 16.8. Germany shows, in the same
period, an advance in all imports of
71.75 and in imports from the United
States of 122 per cent. Russia has
made a gain in all imports of 65.30 and
in American imports alone a gain of
190 per cent. The imports of the Neth
erlands from all countries since 1891
show an increase of 92.08 per cent and
from the United States of 117. In the
case of China the advance has been
enormous. Imports from all countries
since 1891 have increased 110.66 and
from the United States 673 per cent.
Japanese imports from all countries
have gained by 397.59 per cent, while
the imports of the Mikado’s empire
from the United States show the stu
pendous gain of 1,069 per cent. Bel
gium showing a gain of 68.58 on all
imports registers but 2.4 per cent
gain from the United States. France
alone indicates a falling off in Ameri
can imports. The total gain in all
French imports in sixteen years is
.23 per cent and the decline in Amer
ican imports .012.
The United Kingdom now draws
20.45 per cent of her imports from
the United States, Japan 21.35, China
16.68, Denmark 16.08, Germany 13.91,
Italy 12.48, Australia 11.70, New Zea
land 11.21, Spain 11.21, France 10.70,
Russia 9.66, Austria 9.49 and the Neth
erlands 9.38. American exports since
1891 mark an increase of 96.95 per
cent; Germany is a good second with
80.50; the Netherlands third with
74.91; Belgium next with 52.28. Other
countries follow, the United Kingdom
indicating an increase of exports in
sixteen years of 33.40 per cent, France
36.34, and Russia 36.95 per cent.
Os Oriental nations Japan stands
first with a gain of 159.09 per cent and
China is second with a gain of 40.62.
Commerce is doing more to bring the
nations of the world together than all
other agencies. It is a more potent
influence for peace than even The
Hague Tribunal. It can do much, not
alone for peace, but for the extension
of that interchange of products be
tween teh nations which contributes
so powerfully to peace and brother
hood.
NOT YET, BUT—
(The Pittsburg Dispatch.)
Mr. Roosevelt says we are a good
many thousand years from the millen
nium. This will be a keen disappoint
ment to those who have been expect
ing him to usher it in.
OUR ANTIQUATED TARIFF
POLICY.
(The New York American.)
Most of the nations of Western Eu
rope have written their tariff laws.
They are prepared to traffic with the
world on a reciprocal basis, while
America, through the lack of initiative
on the part of the administration and
the inattention of congress, has failed
to adjust itself to the new economic
program in world traffic. Until some
international settlement is reached,
and made known to the business inter
ests involved, commerce will necessa
rily be threatened or disturbed by tar
iff wars.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
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EX-SECRETARY CHARLES S. FAIRCHILD, INDICTED FOR AL
LEGED FORGERY.
SOUTHERN DEMOCRACY.
(The New York Tribune.)
There is now. practically no opposi
tion party in most of the southern
states. The Democratic leaders of the
south are never harried by the fear of
local disaster. They can give all their
energies to the tasks of national poli
tics. But this sense of security at
home seems to have enervated them.
They have ceased to have a will and
purpose of their own in national poli
tics, and content themselves with tak
ing directions from others. They have
played the opportunist with cynical
complacency, swinging from Cleveland
to Bryan, from Bryan to Parker, and
from Parker again to Bryan without
the slightest inward or outward com
punction. They have accepted implic
itly the watch-word of Senator Ray
ner’s original and ideal Democrat, Ia
go—“1 am not what I am.”
THE LUMBER TARIFF.
(The Indianapolis News.)
We are destroying and consuming
our forests because naturally timber
men are eager to make the most of
the situation which grants them a
practical monopoly of the lumber mar
ket and enables them to command a
high price. With the end of our own
forests already in sight, and with lum
ber so high that many would-be build
ers cannot use it, it would seem to be
reasonably well established that the
time for the removal of the lumber
tariff has arrived.
JUSTIFYING THE POULISTS.
(The Joliet News.)
The initiative and referendum has
been adopted in New Jersey for the
towns, cities and other municipalities.
The principle has been adopted by
the city of Wilmington, Del., the low
er house of Pennsylvania has passed
the bill, and Maine will vote upon it
as a constitutional amendment.
SALOONS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
(The Joliet News.)
Still another Indiana judge has held
that all saloon licenses in Indiana
are unconstitutional. In a case be
fore Judge Ira W. Christian at No
blesville, he declared that saloons were
not permissible under the Indiana
constitution. The reasoning in his de
cision is as follows: “The saloon,
which has been repeatedly held to be
the prime source of all crime, has no
right to exist at common law, and
the license which grants it is the
granting of a right which heretofore
did not exist. 1 am therefore of the
opinion that a law creating a busi
ness dangerous to public morals, to
public safety, to public peace, to pub
lic health, is not within the police
power of the state. The liquor busi
ness legalized by statute, subverts
justice. I have arrived at the con
clusion that the license law is uncon
stitutional.” Judge Artman, of Leb
anon, Ind., on February 12, handed
down a decision that is practically the
same as that of Judge Christian and
the liquor interests of the state did
not appeal.
THREE TIMES AND OUT.
(The St. Louis Globe-Democrat.)
Col. Bryan has a new lecture enti
tled “Oratory, Ambition and Fate.”
Oratory refers to his first presidential
nomination, Ambition covers his sec
ond, and Fate will take care of his
third.
NOT ON YOUR LIFE.
(The Griffin News.)
From all accounts the Democrats are
not to have the support of the Popu
lists in the next presidential election.
President Roosevelt has captured that
crowd, lock, stock and barrel. The deal
was made through the chairman of the
Populist national committee, Marion
Butler, of North Carolina.
THE UNWRITTEN LAW.
(The Louisville Herald.)
Another instance of the unwritten
law’s popularity. The Alexandria (Va.)
Gazette reports that fifty-three men
out of a venire of 100 summoned there
for the third trial of a policeman
charged with killing his wife and her
paramour were excused by .the circuit
judge. They swore that they believed
in the unwritten law. Each of these
men said that he would vote to free
the prisoner if the unwritten law was
pleaded in his defense. The Gazette
adds: “Lex non scripta seems to be
gradually asserting itself, and it is
likely to become more firmly entrench
ed if certain crimes continue to grow.”
JURY REFORM.
(The Boston Herald.)
Under the provisions of the jury
reform act to which the governor has
just affixed his signature, no name
can hereafter be placed on a jury list
in this commonwealth until the au
thorities preparing it have thorough
ly and fully investigated the reputa
tion, character and fitness of the per
sons otherwise qualified to perform
jury service, and the authorities mak
ing up the list are given full power
to reject any person whom they may
deem unfit for such service. Intelli
gently and impartially administered,
this law should have an effect to im
prove the quality of our juries. There
is ample room for it.
TARIFF REFORM AS AN ISSUE.
(The Savannah News.)
In his recent Brooklyn speech Mr.
Bryan said: “On the great question of
tariff reform, there is not the slightest
indication that the Republican party is
going to do anything * ♦ ♦ There
is no tariff reform that means any
thing in the Republican party.” This
is undeniably true, and we repeat what
we have heretofore said, that in tariff
reform there is an issue upon which
all true Democrats can unite and pre
sent an unbroken and triumphant front
to the party of trusts, privilege, and
imperialism in 1908.
THE PRESIDENT AND LABOR.
(The Philadelphia Public Ledger.)
On every possible occasion, from the
anthracite settlement down to the
championing of every possible act of
congress, such as the act regulating
the hours of labor on railroads; in ev
ery possible connection, from berating
judges of the courts for their decisions
on the employers’ liability law to the
delivery of innumerable speeches ex
coriating “swollen wealth,” he has
“coddled” laboring men as carefully
as if they were “mollycoddles.” If
the president is not the friend of labor,
what does labor expect?
DEMOCRACY IN AN EMPIRE.
(The London Times.)
It has been often academically de
bated whether a democracy can gov
ern an empire. The experience of
history has been quoted, mostly
against the proposition; but one con
clusion is always certain, that igno
rance is a democracy’s besetting sin.
Our own imperial problem cannot be
exactly paralleled from history. It is
not one, but several, great democracies
which have to work in unison; but,
while decisions continue to be taken
in London, the heaviest responsibility
lies on the democracy at home.