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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