Newspaper Page Text
lem is one for the utilities coiflmis
sion to settle; that—
“ That the passage of the bill whs
not preceded by legislative investiga
tion or suitable inquiry under the au
thoiity of the stale. Nor is the fix
• ing of this rate predicated on reports
or statistics officially collated which
would permit a fair conclusion as to
the justice of its operation with ref
erence to the railroads within i‘s
view. It plainly reflects dissa'isfac
tion witli existing conditions and an
effort to provide a remedy through
arbitrary action.
“The bill represents a policy se
riously mistaken and pregnant with
di aster. It is of the utmost impor
tance that the management of onr
railroad corporations should be sub
ject to strict supervision by the
state and that regulations compelling
the observance of the law and prop r
and adequate service should be rig
idly enforced. It is the duty of
these corporations to provide trans
portation of passengers and goods
at reasonable rates, and the state
should compel the performance of
this obligation.
“But injustice on the part of rail
road corporations toward the public
does not justify injustice on the part
of the state toward the railroad cor
p >rations. The fact that those in
control of railroad corporations have
been guilty of grossly improper finan
ciering and of i’legal ami imuiious
discriminations in charges, points
(dearly to the necessity of effective
state action, but does not require or
warrant arbitrary reprisals.
“It may be said that a two-cent
p iss: nger rate is not so extreme as
to have a very injurious result. B t
this is a debatable question. Large
and prosperous surburban communi
ties have been built up through the
offer of commutation rat' s much le-s
than the proposed maximum. Up m
the maintenance of these rates many
thousands of our citizens rely.”
Longshoremen’s Strike Off.
At a meeting of nineteen branches
of the dock longshoremen, held at
Hudson Hall, New York City, Pat
rick Conners, leader of the striking
longshoremen, announced that, acting
in the best interests of the men, he
would call off the strike against the
thirty-five transatlantic steamship
companies in New York and Hobo
ken. 12,000 men will return to work.
Death of Julia Magruder.
Miss Julia Magruder, the noted
Southern novelist, died in St. Luke's
Hospital at Richmond, Va., after a
protracted illness. Miss Magruder
was an ardent lover of all the tradi
tions of the South, and was an active
advocate of the ob'it erat ion of sec
tional lines. Her story, “Across the
Chasm,” was upon this subject, a' d
it was a masterful presentation of
her views. She was fifty-one years
of age.
Morgan Buys More Art Objects.
J. Pierpont Morgan has secured
the great Rudolph Kann art collection
and will bring it to this country. Ad
vices received from Europe indicate
that between $3,000,000 and $1,000,-
000 will be paid for the collection.
Degree for Gov. Hughes.
Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa.,
will confer upon Gov. Hughes, of
New York, the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Some Startling Parallels.
In a radical sermon, delivered in
the First Congregational Church at
Springfield, Mass., Rev. Dr. F. L.
Goodspeed declared that the “fill
of Rome may be repeated in Amer
ica.” He assailed high living, di
vorce and superstition. Dr. Good
speed said:
“Everywhere in America we see
the same excess of idle, useless and
reckless pleasure seeking.
“We have no longer true thought.
There is a darkness on the face of
learning and literature is no more.
There is the same lack of the p aver
of intellectual initiative and of the
desire for great moral under: akings.
All is now subserved to the physic 1
well-being.
“The same surfeit and disgust of
life is among certain classes of us as
was upon Rome. By drunkenness
and pleasure we fee d the beast with
in us. In some great crisis when we
essay to do a strong man’s task
we find ourselves helpless before the
foe.
“The decay of family life in an
cient Rome is paralleled in mode.n
America. Matrimony has become a
matter of money largely and divorce
is rampant. Women who ought to
blush without the use of paint ad
vocate trial marriages. The Moi mon
who drives his family team of four
or five is equalled by the Gentile who
drives a tandem.
“As the sway of superstition con
tributed to the fall of Rome, so it is
also having the same effect on Amer
ican society. What better evidence
of the decline of American life than
may b ■ found in clairvoyants, me
diums, Eddyism and other quacker
ies of superstition?
“A new tide of righteous faith is
needed to uplift America, the faith
to offer self-sacrifice and to bring
God down to the affairs of evervday
life.”
Taft Going to the Philippines.
Secretary of War William H. Taft
is going to the Philippine Islands
in September to inaugurate the new
National Assembly of natives that is
to be elected on July the 30th. It
is expected that the majority of the
members elected will declare for im
mediate independence, which will be
dmied by the United States. Sec
retary Taft said that he believed the
people of the island did not care to cut
adrift from this county, and that
they find it more to their prosperity,
their happiness and their well-being
to remain attached to the United
States.
Johnson Hung.
As William Johnson stood on the
gallows at Atlanta he confessed. He
said. “I am guilty of everything I
am charged with, and more.” He re
cited a series of crimes which led up
to the race riots of last September,
and confessed that he had committed
all of them.
Johnson confessed shooting J. A.
Moody, a fanner, from ambush, and
told where he hid the gun; he said
it was he who fired shots into the
home of J. W. Bryant, wounding
Bryant and his sister: also that he
assaulted the Misses Lawrence and
disfigured one of them for life.
Will Send Home 16.000 Chinese.
Premier Botha, of the Transvaal,
announced in Parliament that the
government will send home all the
Chinese minors when their present
contracts expire. Sixteen thousand
will go this year. In their places the
government proposes to secure native
workers.
Peace Congress Opened.
The second Peace Conference at
the Hague was opened Saturday. The
national colors of Holland, and the
orange standard of the House of
Nassau were hoisted at daybreak over
every public building.
M. Nelidoff opened the conference.
Tn his address he affirmed that uni
versal peace and disarmament were
unattainable. The deliberate utter
ances of the Russian statesmen, al
though pessimistic to the extent re
ferred to. were hopeful when later he
said he believed a better metln d fo>-
a judicial adjustment of disputes was
possible, even though all conflicts be
tween nations •were no more avoida
ble than conflicts between individuals.
M. Nelidoff greatly pleased the
American delegates in the high tri
bute he paid to President Roosevelt
and Andrew Carnegie—not mention
ing any other countries or rulers.
lYanco-Japanese Treaty Signed.
At Paris, Shin-ichiro Kurino, Jap
anese Ambassador to France, and M.
Pichon, French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, signed the Franco-Japanese
treaty.
Gen. Kuroki Thanks.
As Gen. Baton Kuroki sail 'd fr >m
Seattle for Japan, he sent the fol
lowing message to Acting Secretary
Newberry of the Navy Department:
“To his Excellency the Secretary of
the Navy, Washington, D. C.:
“I have the honor to express my
warmest thanks for the great cour
tesy and kindness you so generously
extended while I was in your coun
try. I leave your beautiful soil to
morrow morning with pleasant mem
ories. GEN. KUROKI.”
Schmitz Refused Bail.
Bail for Schmitz, former mayor of
San Francisco, convicted of extortion,
was refused by Judge Dunne when
formal application was made by the
mayor's counsel. Sent nee will b i
pronounced June 27.
Millikens Steel Co. Bankrupt.
With liabilities of $6,500,000. and
assets estimated at $8,000,000, Milli
kens Brothers (incorporated), one of
the largest steel concerns in the
country, engaged both in the manu
facture of structural steel and iron,
and in contracts for s‘n et lira I steel
construction, allowed themselves* to
be put in bankruptcy on the p‘tition
of four creditors. The company will
b • reoiganized and work will go on
as usual in their enormous steel plant
at Staten Island, New York.
Danish King in London.
King Frederick VII., and Queen
Louisa, of Denmark, visited the city
of London, and were entertained at
Guildhall.
Root to Visit Mexico.
Secretary of State Root will visit
Mexico late this summer t> p omete
harmony between Mexic > and the
United States. Ambassador Cred
called on Secretary Root and present
ed an autograph letter from Presi
dent Diaz, of Mexico, inviting Mr.
Root to become the guest of the na
tion.
Denounced Haywood Trial.
The International Socialist Con
gress met at Brussels, Belgium, and
adopted a resolution condemning the
pers cution of Socialists i i Japan
and the prosecution of members of
the Western Federation of Miners
in Idaho.
After President Baer.
The 500 women who have started
after President Baer because of the
slaughter of the school children on
account of a grade cressing over
which many fast trains on his road
run every day are in deadly earnest.
Tiiey declare that for years the
have been petitioning God's trustee
to make that crossing safe for the
school children and that he has paid
no attention to them. lien appear
ing before the coroner after the re
cent accident, one of them said: “We
decided at last that we could never
get anything done until we found a
way to make it hot for old Baer him
self. and I b dieve that we have
found away at last to get under his
hide. This is not an accident, but
murder, and we petition the coroner
and the next grand jury to hold
George F. Baer for criminal negli
gence in not providing gates ami oth
er warnings at this dangerous cross
ing.” Perhaps those poor women
think that a millionaire should be
held responsible for crime just as the
ordinary man is, but they will find
out their mistake when they get into
the courts.
Irate mothers have gone after
God’s trustee. President Baer, and
there is now likely something going
to happen. At one grade crossing < u
his road ten children have been killed
during the last year. The children
have to cross this death trap four
times a day to go to school. When
the last child was killed, fifty angrv
mothers marched to the coroner's of
fice and demanded vengeance on
Baer. They presented a petition t •
the coroner, signed by all fifty of
the mothers, demanding that Presi
dent Baer be held for criminal negli
gence for maintaining that death
trap. Baer s roads have been mak
ing greater net profits the last year
than ever before, ami the profits
amount up into the millions, but he
can t afford to abolish that grade
crossing. Ten mangled little diil
dren are nothing to him or anv oth
er plutocrat. That is the way it was
in France just before the French rev
olution.—The Investigator.
NEW SENATOR BLIND.
(Special to the Washington Post.)
Oklahoma City. June 13.—Thom
as Pryor Gore, who appears to have
been named for United States sen
ator from the new state, is blind, ami
has been since he was eleven years
old. when he accideiftally shot his
right eye out with an arrow gun.
At that time he was page in the
Mississippi senate. Three years be
fore a playmate, in a boyish passion,
blinded his left eye with a stone.
Gore has won laurels in politics and
law. He was a page at eleven, a
nominee for the legislature at nine
teen. a populist elector-at-large in
Mississippi three years later, and was
unanimously selected in 1900 for con
gressional standard bearer by the
same party in Texas, while absent in
South Dakota speaking for the fusion
ticket, but always was defeated.
lie has never held office since his
pageship. He has made stump -peeehe'i
in Oklahoma, and has been active in
all campaigns since he went there.
PAGE FIVE