Newspaper Page Text
PAGE TWO
—O—O—O—■O—O—o—o—o—o—o—o—-o—o—o—o—o—o— *o—o—o—o—o—o—
Public Opinion Throughout the Union I
ONE PLAN FOR REVISING THE
TARIFF.
Failing to get specifications of the
tariff revision program from those
Republicans who say thev are willing
to revise the tariff in 1909 or at some
subsequent period, Senator Foraker
may obtain some interns, irg figures
from Henry M. Whitney, who is
making a vigorous gubernatorial cam
paign in Massachusetts on the tariff
issue. Mr. Whitney is in no uncer
tain frame of mind as to what he
would do to reduce the surplus and
relieve the people of unuecess n y
Federal taxation. He would begin
by taking the tariff off food *nppl es,
and then proceed to remove them
from the raw materials of manufac
tures. 4 ‘This,” he says, * 1 would in
a measure lessen the cjst of living
and increase the demand for Libor.”
To be specific, he would take off all
duties on the following articles, and
make a substantial reduction in the
duties on all the remaining protected
products, save wine, spirts and to
bacco :
Sugar and Molasses.. . sud,ooo,oooo
Fruits and nuts .. .. ... 4.500,000
Vegetables 1,000,000
Fish• ,000.000
Provisions 900,000
Breadstuffs 375,000
Salt 300,000
Hops 275,000
Seeds 600,000
Coal and coke 1.100,000
Total $72,050,000
Fibers, vegetables and textile.
unmanufactured.. ..$ 275,000
Iron and steel and iron ore 7,000,000
Leather and mans 4,100,000
Hides 2,250,000
Wood and mans 2,200,000
Clays and earths 340,000
Cement 500,000
Plaster rock 130,000
Plants and shrubs 300,000
Books and engravings.. .. 400,000
Works of art 425,000
T0ta1517,915,000
Grand t0ta1589,965,000
Sugar, it will be perceived, is the
crucial item in this formidable pro
gram of revision. That is the article
which wrecked the Wilson-Gorman
tariff bill, and its protection is a
prime feature of practical politics of
both parties. Once put sugar on the
free list, and all the rest would be
easy. But would the protection wing
of the Democratic party ever consent
to that, or would the stoutest Re
publican revisionist even think of it ?
With so sound a Democrat as Senator
Bacon declaring that a low tariff is
an impossibility, and a high tariff a
necessity, we fear that Mr. Whitney’s
revision program is much too radi
cal, even from a Democratic stand
point. We observe, however, that
Mr. Whitney is inclined to be tender
with the protective duties on cotton
goods, in which matter New England
and the South may find common
ground against revising the tariff too
seriously.—Washington Herald.
NO MORE CIGARETTES FOR
CHINA.
That Grand Old Woman of China,
the Dowager Empress Tsi-An has
given up cigarette smoking. It is
ture her renunciation of the prac
tice is traceable to a physician’s
warning that her heart was affected,
but it is said the decision of the ex
slave girl will have a national effect,
and that the great Middle Empire ex
pects to see soon a yellow and black
edict forbidding cigarette smoking t
all Chinese—weak heart or strong
heart.
With opium prohibited and the
cigarette denied to the Chinese, there
remain only the little thimble pipe
and the ‘‘hubble-bubble” as the
smoker’s slace, anod it is quite pos
sible that even these forms of devo
tion to Santa Nicotina will be placed
on the taboo list. Then will be seen
the new Asiatic marvel of 400,000,00!)
smokeless people.
The gravity of the anti-smoking
move in China does not lie in the fact
that Tsi-An can accomplish with her
hundreds of millions of people what
queer old tobacco-hating King James
could not do with his hundreds of
thousands of subjects, but, as show
ing w’hat the great new Power, China,
can be made to do by one authori
tative word.
By edict it can be led to revolu
tionize the habits of centuries; by
edict it can construct a vast modern
army out of unique relics; by edict,
it may be roused from the lethargy
of ages into a very alert and mod
ern Power. —N. Y. American.
A WEAK, UNSAFE LEADER.
Bryan’s latest acrobatic feat in
abandoning the government owner
ship issue inspires the Philadelphia
Press to indulge in some interesting
reflections regarding the man.
“The first,” it says, “is a fresh
and striking confirmation of the truth
that he is a singularly vacillating,
uncertain and irresponsible public
man. The second and the more se
rious reflection is that nearly half
the voters of the United States prac
tically recognize no political leader
but this shallow, voluble and unstable
demagogue.
“A year ago Mr. Bryan made a
spectacular home-coming from a tour
around the world on which he had
played the role of the student, the
observer and the sage. Withdrawn
from the immediate arena, he had
had ample time for meditation. He
knew the burning questions of his
country. Free from the tumult and
confusion of the direct forum of
contention he had formulated his
policies in the serener altitude and
atmosphere of distant observation.
He was returning to resume his lead
ership and define his platform as a
presidential candidate. He was re
ceived with great acclaim and pro
ceeded to make the elaborate speech
which was the treasured store and
sum of his experience, his wisdom
and his statesmanship. It was sim
ply an extended argument for gov
ernment ownership as the one pan
acea for all railroad corporation evils.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
“Immediately there was a great
storm of condemnation. Mr. Bryan
tried to defy and quell it but he utter
ly failed. And now, after a year of
criticism and within a year of the
presidential nomination, , he re
nounces his own offspring, tosses it
on the poorhouse doorstep and de
clares that government ownership is
not an issue! This is the portentous
product of all his meditation —this
the ripened fruit of his brilliant
statesmanship! And yet it is only
a sample of his shuffling! He puts
forward what under our federal sys
tem can only be a quack nostrum,
the wildest, of empiricism, ‘the ini
tiative and referendum,’ and pro
claims that he will drive out any
Democrat who does not accept it;
and then he turns about and aban
dons that chimera just as he aban
dons government ownership! He is
as changeable as the weather-vane, as
“ ‘Variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made.
“What shall be said of the man
who aspires to the leadership of a
party and to the presidency itself
who is thus shambling and irrespon
sible? He has no deep and abiding
convictions. He announces a plat
form today and renounces it - tomor
row. He is ready to teach that the
world is round or flat, as the school
trustees order. Not only has he no
fixed principles which anchor him,
but he has only the most superficial
grasp of public questions. He is
facile and fluent with great rheto
rical gifts, but without any large un
derstanding either of the problems
of the day or of the methods of deal
ing with them.
“Go back over our history and we
recall no time when any man of such
light caliber has held such an ascend
ancy over either of the two great
parties for any period as he has held
over the Democratic party with little
interruption for now eleven years.”
It is truly a remarkable state of
affairs. —Long Branch Record.
LACK OF MUSCLE.
Massachusetts tells the bureau of
immigration in Washington that she
is sorely in need of farm laborers;
that she has no hope of getting all
she needs. The whole world, in fact,
is lacking in men who work with
their thews and their sinews. The
Panama canal, the great fields of
labor in Russia and in Africa show
that the common laborer is hard to
obtain the world over, and enterprises
of great importance in transportation
and industrial development halt for
the lack of help. Brains are plan
ning much faster than human mus
cle can build and execute. —Boston
Herald.
A GOVERNOR RIGHT.
Mere governors like Mr. Hughes, of
New York, are needed. He is one
chief executive who did not sign acts
of the legislature simply because they
were passed. He scrutinized everv
measure sent to him and if he be
lieved it was vicious, special legisla
tion, harmful or injurious, he vetoed
it He vetoed 250 measures of the
regular session and it is said he was
responsible for the death of not less
than 484 bills. The lesson from his
action is that a man who accepts
the obligations appertaining to the
office of governor will, if he does his
duty, abandon personal machine mak
ing, attend to the people’s business
and not devote his time to fixing his
fences for re-nomination and re-elec
tion. We do not hear that Governor
Hughes has made it a rule to give
office or dispense favors to no man
who is not “for Hughes for gover
nor, first, last and all the time”; we
do not read of his punishing political
opponents nor are his newspaper
friends —he has no “organs”—con
stantly abusing those who do not
agree with him. Governor Hughes ap
pears to be a statesman and not a
ward politician, with no enemies to
punish or a lot of bootlicking friends
to favor. And besides he wasn’t
afraid to veto bills he did not ap
prove.—Chattanooga Times.,
THE DESCENT OF MAN.
Newport’s luckily exclusive set at
tended a monkey dinner yesterday.
The dinner called the chief guest
a simian, but he was a plain enough
monkey nevertheless. The parrot was
not present, but judging from the
press reports they had that kind of
a time.
Mr. Belmont was there, Mr. Elisha
Dyer, Jr., was there, and Mr. Lis
penard Stewart was there. Lispen
ard; the name looms large on the
• eastern social horison and we have
always loved it. So long as the
young women who are the chroniclers
of the doings of the best that the
country holds continue devoted to
'duty it never will be allowed to get
beyond the range of our affection.
Mr. Belmont is a direct descendant
of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry,
who at Lake Erie’s battle wrapped
the flag of the sinking Lawrence
about him and pulled through the
hell of the fight to the Niagara. If
the Oliver of that day could have
foreseen that his descendant was to
dine a monkey for the joy of himself
and others, he would have said a
few words—and then some.
Mr. Harry Symes Lehr was present
at yesterday’s function, but Mr.
Lehr turned an abrupt shoulder to
the chief guest of the day; neither
could he be induced to invite the
honored one to a second dinner. There
is still hope for Harry.—Chicago
Post.
One of our local politicians re
marked to the writer a few days
ago that he believed that a new
party would be formed next year
under the leadership of Hearst of
New York, and that thousands of
Georgians Would flock to it. He
predicts also that the party will
run Tom Watson for vice-president
if he will accept. As to Mr. Watson
we think that the gentleman is all
off. Tom Watson is today one \of
the strongest men in Georgia; in our
opinion he could be elected governor
to succeed Smith and he would be
foolish to chase rainbows with
Hearst. —Cordele Rambler.