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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.