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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
BRYAN FOR DIRECT VOTE.
The Populists and advocates of di
rect legislation—that is, the initiative
and referendum —were greatly pleased
with the spirit of Mr. Bryan’s Brook
lyn speech. The Brooklyn Eagle,
speaking of the speech, says:
"Mr. Bryan’s full statement on this
point is as follows:
"The doctrines of Jefferson are
marching on. Anything that makes
the government more Democratic,
more popular in form; everything
that gives the people more control
over the government will win.
"You may help it, you may retard
it, you may defeat it, but one of the
things that is coming, that is Jeffer
sonian, that is Democratic, is the In
itiative and Referendum for the con
trol of the government. No man will
make an argument against the ref
erendum who is not prepared to deny
the capacity of the people for self
government. You may differ from me
on every question, but if you do not
believe in the right of the people to
govern themselves. I will, if I can,
drive you out of the Democratic party
(loud applause), and if the Demo
cratic -party .does not believe in the
rule of the people it will have no
trouble in driving me out of the Dem
ocratic party (applause), but I do not
think it is coming to the test.
"The faults of our government are
not in the people themselves; they
are in those whom the people elect.
The faults of our government are in
the representatives of the people who
pretend to be friends of the people
but betray their trust and turn to
private account the authority placed
in their hands, for public purposes,
(applause). The initiative places it
in the power of the people to compel
the submission of any question upon
which they want to act, and the ref
erendum enables them to sit in judg
ment upon anything which the leg
islature has done. Your constitution
provides that the governor or presi
dent may veto what the legislature
proposes, and if any man has a right
to veto the legislature, who will say
that the majority of voters has not
the right to veto also (applause)?"
BUCKET-SHOP THIEVES.
(The Boston Herald.)
The action of the governor in sign
ing the anti-bucket shop bill closes
a most creditable chapter in the leg
islative history of the commonwealth.
Open gambling has been prohibited
for years. But this more insidious
and ruinous form of real, though co
vert, gambling went on unchecked.
Under the guise of "stock quotations”
the prices of so-called, as well as real,
securities were manipulated and "held
back” until the poor dupe who had be
come infected with the gambling fe
ver had no possible chance. The
sharks who preyed on him got his
all in time. At last the common
wealth has interposed. It now only
remains to enforce the law promptly
and relentlessly, and a long step for
ward w’ill be taken on the road to
public betterment.
SHOULD INCLUDE SCHNEIDER.
(The Cleveland Plain Dealer.)
The staute of Joseph Jefferson is to
be completed and ready for unveiling
a year from next June. Let's hope it
will Include a bronze duplicate of my
dog Schneider.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
1* "
Pwgl wftwtfcSrM I
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SENATOR WILLIAM E. BORAH, CONSPICUOUS IN THE PROSE-
CUTION OF WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD.
"THEM FURRINERS!”
(The Royston Record.)
The farmers of Georgia elected Mr.
Smith and they are not in favor of
foreign immigration. No foreigners
are needed in Georgia by the farmers.
Low wages are no more wanted or
needed on the farms than in the
cities.
The farmers are willing to pay for
their hire if they can get a legiti
mate price for their products and
this they propose to do.
Os course the railroads and corpo
rations want foreign immigrants. Thev
need them in their business, but the
farmers do not.
What do the serfs of Russia know
about a free and independent gov
ernment, and what do the people of
south Germany know of self-govern
ment?
If the people of the over-crowded
northern or other states of our own
country want to come south let them
come, but keep out the foreigners—
the cheap laborers.
The writer has been all over the
west and on the Pacific coast and
knows something about these cheap
laborers. A large majority of them
are socialists, anarchists and revolu
tionists of the lowest order. They
think no more of the country in which
they live than they do of the one they
left. They are used to bowing down
to power and greed and the south
ern people have no need for them.
THE “DRY” SOUTH.
(The Washington Post.)
For rigid political morality sugges
tive of old-time New England one
must go south. One after another
the New’ England states have tried
prohibition in the shape of state-wide
laws, and finding the experiment a
failure, all have given it up save
Maine, where it still stands, but with
great and growing disfavor. Mean
while, prohibition in the shape of local
option is rapidly covering the south
and governors of states and many oth
er influuential citizens, in and out of
office, are teetotalers. There is a
more general prevalence of extreme
temperance sentiment, of total absti
nence sentiment in the south today
than anywhere else in the country.
DECLINE OF PARTY LOYALTY.
(The Portland Oregonian.)
If they should succeed in placing
pliable nonentities at the head of both
paities next year, what would be the
result? Probably a Republican vic
tory, but not certainly. The times are
pregnant with change, and party
loyalty sits lightly in the breasts of
the people. There is the specter of
Hearst and his third party to be
reckoned with, and who can say with
confidence that the disgust of the
voters might not sweep him into
power?
IS THE PUBLIC JUSTIFIED?
(The Augusta Herald.)
The interstate commerce commis
sion has recently issued “accident
bulletin No. 22” which includes rail
way accidents during three months
ending December 31, 1906. If the
previous bulletin was astonishing in
the enormous number of accidents it
reported bulletin 22 is still more
startling. It shows the total num
ber of casualties to passengers and
employes while on duty to have been
20,944, an incrase of 1,094 over those
reported during the preceding three
months. A special dispatch from
Washington to the Journal of Com
merce continues a summary of the
bulletin as follows:
"The total number of collisions
and derailments was 3,965 (2,226 col
lisions and 1,739 derailments), of
which 391 collisions and 190 derail
ments effected passenger trains. The
damage to cars, engines and roadway
by these accidents amounted to $3,-
099,228.
"The number of passengers and em
ployes killed in train accidents was
474, an increase of 207 over the num
ber reported in the last quarter. The
number of passengers killed in train
accidents in this quarter, 180, is the
largest on record except passengers
killed in the quarter, 143, are attribut
able to three accidents, two collis
ions and one derailment.
"The number of employes killed in
coupling and uncoupling cars and en
gines was 84, as against 81 reported
killed in the last preceding quarter.
“The most disastrous accident re
ported in the present bulletin was a
collision between a passenger train
and an extra train haulin gempty pas
senger coaches in which forty-three
persons were killed and sixty-three in
jured.”
It would seem that to those who
decry present railway agitation as
"hostile” and unreasonable it should
be necessary only to point to the above
ghastly record to convice them that
long suffering public is justified in
seeking immediate and efficient rem
edies for such service. This record of
disaster to human life is alone enough
to create a demand for complete re
form in operating methods, and, cou
pled with the inadequate and inef
ficient freight service that is being
furnished on many lines, it is sur
prising that the demands of the pub
lic have not assumed a really radical
form.
REMOVE THE TARIFF.
(Virginian-Pilot.)
If the steel mills, from improper
rolling, or other causes, are turning
out defective rails, they cannot im
prove their methods and processes
too quickly. If, on the other hand,
the trouble really is in the weight of
the rail, then heavier ones should be
substituted as rapidly as possible. In
creased cost should not be permitted
to stand in the way of an improve
ment calculated to increase safety of
travel. But remove the tariff on steel
and iron and their products and there
would be no increased cost. The heav
ier rail could then be bought for
considerably less than is now exacted
for the lighter.
EXPLAINED.
(The Cleveland Leader.)
A Connecticut fisherman claims to
have seen a red-headed devil-fish
which stood on Its tall and hlrsed at
him. Too much bait!