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sures lhe payment of the teachers ’
salaries at once, but for the adop
tion of this amendment, the passage
of which in the senate is assured,
the teachers would be forced to wait
for their money until next Decem
ber.
As the gross earnings of the steam
railroads in Georgia last year were
$37,000,000, it will be seen that this
occupation tax will produce an an
nual revenue of $370,000 from the
steam railroads alone, to which will
be added the occupation tax to be
collected from all the street railroads
in the state. The payment of this
tax is to commence in January, 1908,
it being required that some officer of
such corporation shall by the 10th
of the month following the month
for which the tax is due pay the
same to the treasurer, at the same
time rendering to the comptroller
general a statement, under oath,
showing the gross receipts from bus
iness in the state for the month for
which payment is made.
Jap Poachers Repulsed.
Advices were received at Victoria,
B. C., of an attempted onslaught on
seals by the Japanese sealing schoon
ers Kaike and Midoli on June 1, on
the seal rookery at Copper Island
guarded by Russians. The schooner
Kaike returned to Japan and report
ed three sealing boats and twelve
men captured and one man shot by
Russians.
The Midori, which had been an
chored close to the Kaike, was fired
on by the Russian rookery guard.
Sad Fourth Anniversary for Pope.
The fourth anniversary of the
election of Pius X. was not an oc
casion for great (rejoicing by the
Church. The fact is, it is inflicted
with troubles such as it has not had
in more than five decades, and which
are the chief cause of the Pope’s
ill health. The main support of the
church in Germany, the Center party,
has divided on the question of the
censure issued by Rome against works
which are deemed undesirable from
a church point of view, and a portion
of the German Catholics, which in
cludes well-known Catholic personal
ities, have joined in asking the aboli
tion of the Congregation of the In
dex, and, from all appearances, in
tend to obtain it.
In France matters have been go
ing from bad to worse ever since the
suspension of diplomatic relations
between the Vatican and that govern
ment, nearly four years ago. No hope
is entertained at the Vatican that
the trouble will ever be mended in
that country unless a revolution takes
place. •
Italy is becoming more and more
anti-clerical, and in Rome itself,
which is supposed to be the center
of Catholicity, hardly one-tenth of
the population attends religious sei
vices. In Austria the “Out of
Rome” party has been making slow
but steady progress, and thousands
of Catholics have been lost to the
church within the past four years.
In South America, where religion
is just as superficial as, if not more
than, in Italy, the church has been
losing ground within the past few
months, as witnessed by the demon
strations against the Jesuit order in
Chili and the recent Protestant pro
selytizing among the Italians emi-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
grated to Argentina and Brazil,
which has proved highly successful.
Australia is not making so much
progress as it was hoped would be
the case when the present Cardinal
'Moran, Archbishop of Sydney, was
promoted to the Sacred College. In
fact, recent reports received from
there show a great falling off in
church attendance, as compared with
conditions a few years ago. The same
is the case in England, where the
Catholics, stanch as they always have
been in their allegiance to the church,
are beginning to draw away, so that
at the present moment, outside of
the members of the Catholic aris
tocracy and the servants employed
in their homes and the large number
of Irish Catholics who have emigrat
ed to England, there are hardly
enough people left to the Church to
support it properly.
This situation was made known to
the Vatican two or three years ago
by a group of English Catholics of
prominence, who feared Catholicity
in the British Kingdom would die
out. Their report was then turned
down at the Vatican as absurd, but
it is now a matter of public knowl
edge t'halt (the Vatican authorities
have since ascertained the alleged
facts to be correct.
garding which the Pope and the car-
There is only one continent re
dinals have sufficient reasons to con
- gratulate themselves, and that is
North America, in which it is use
less to deny that the church has
made rapid progress within the past
few years. At the same time, there
are pessimists who point out the
large number of losses suffered by
the church because of the fact that
thousands of Catholics, after emigrat
ing to the United States or Canada,
never set foot in the church, causing
the generation following to be lost
to the church. American bishops
have reported time and again to the
Vatican that the class of Italian im
migrants arriving in the United
States is utterly unavailable for the
support of the church.
Appeals for 50 More Police.
In an effort to put the police force
in a position to deal adequately with
crimes against young women and
girls, Acting Police Commissioner
O’Keefe, of New York City, called
upon Acting Mayor McGowan and
urged him to do all in his power to
get an appropriation sufficient to pay
500 new policemen. Mr. O’Keefe
wants to increase the patrol force by
that number at the earliest possible
date.
Moorish Port Shattered.
The Moroccan port of Casablanca
has been bombarded by French and
Spanish warships; hundreds of rebel
Moorish tribesmen have been killed,
the Moorish quarter has been reduced
to ruins, many Frenchmen have been
wounded and the first move in the
punitive policy of the powers has
beer vigorously and successfully car
ried out.
r-
The French cruiser Du Chauyla
and the Spanish gunboat Don Alvaro
de Bazan participated with the Gali
lee in the bombardment of the vil
lages surrounding Casablanca, which
were destroyed by the fire of the war
ships. During the bombardment
large reinforcements of tribesmen
came up and many of them were
killed or wounded. *
The French ships fired a total of
about two thousand shells. The num
ber of Moorish dead will run into
the hundreds. A single party of
marines killed 150 Moors.
The French wounded number about
twelve. No Frenchman was killed.
Venezuela Will Pay Belgium.
Venezuela advised Belgium last
Wednesday, July 31, that in recog
nition of the principles of arbitra
tion she would pay the disputed
cjaims of Belgian creditors, amount
ing to $2,000,000, in conformity with
the decision of The Hague tribunal.
Standard’s Boast a Lying Pretense.
Following the smashing blow de
livered to the Standard Oil Company
by Federal Judge Landis at Chicago,
the government made public a crush
ing array of figures gathered by Her
bert Knox Smith, the commissioner
of corporations. These figures show:
First, that the vast Rockefeller
monopoly since 1882 has paid out
$552,000,000 —more than half a bil
lion—in dividends, all the time piling
up, in addition, a surplus which as
long ago as 1896 had aggregated
nearly $80,000,000, and has since
grown to unknown proportions.
Second, that the oft-repeated boast
of the Standard, that it had reduced
the price of oil and thus had been of
benefit to the consumer, is false now
and always has been false.
“The Standard,” says Commis
sioner Smith, “has consistently used
its power to raise the price of oil
during the last ten years, not only
absolutely, but also relatively to the
cost of crude oil.”
The commissioner shows the profils
on illuminating oil to have advanced
per gallon as follows:
September, 1897, to December,
1899, 5 3-10 cents.
From 1900 to 1902, 6 cents.
From 1903 to June, 1905, 6 6-10
cents.
This was an increase, in profit, of
2 3-10 cents per gallon in eight years.
“When it is remembered,” says
the eommisjjjoner, “that from 7-10
of a cent to 1 cent per gallon con
stitutes a good profit, the meaning
of an increase of 1 3-10 cents is evi
dent. ’ ’
A much greater increase in profits,
he shows, has taken place in the ease
of the Standard’s by-products, such
as gasolene, lubricating oil and par
affin wax. Averaging them up into
illuminating oil, the net increase iu
the profit per gallon, from 1897 to
June. 1905, was 1 8 10 cents.
While the dividends from 1882 to
1906 were $532,000,000, the net earn
ings, the commissioner says, were
much more; at least, $790,000,000.
These enormous profits were based
on an investment worth at the time
of its original acquisition not over
$75,000,000. and not over $147,000,-
000 in 1896. From 1903 to 1905
the average net yearly earnings were
about 68 per cent.
Cortclyou Overrules Reform.
James R. Garfield, Secretary of the
Interior, some time ago issued a reg
ulation permitting officers and clerks
of his departments to file expense ac
counts without swearing to their ac
curacy at Washington. He figured
that he could save the government
thousands of dollars each year paid
out as fees to notaries. Every time
an employe of the government gave
a porter a rip of fifty cents, for in
stance, and bad not time to take the
porter’s receipt for it, he had to
go before a notary and swear that
he had really 'given the tip. Mr.
Garfield held that the government
could trust its officers.
But Robert J. Trace well, Comp
troller of the Treasury, who passes
on all questions of law relating to
disbursements, and George B. Cortel
you, Secretary of the Treasury, his
official superior, hold that the law re
quires verification under oath. Hence,
in putting out a new method of ac
counting for money disbursed by the
government, they set aside the Gar
field regulation, altlieugh without
mentioning it specifically.
Silk Mill Girls Inspire a Strike.
Four hundred silk mill workers
employed at the Wilkes-Barre Silk
Mill, and 150 of the Bamford Broth
ers’ Mill w r ent on strike, without no
tice to their employers. Later they
presented demands for an eight-hour
day and higher wages. The strikers
comprise about two-thirds of the
working force and to avoid trouble
both mills were shut down.
Judge Landis “Busts” Church and
School Furniture Trust.
Federal Judge Landis, at Chicago,
ordered the dissolution of the Church
and School Furniture Trust, which
was recently fined $43,000 for admit
ted violation of the anti-trust laws.
The court made permanent the in
junctions previously issued against
the constituent companies, restrain
ing them from further trust agree
ments or conspiracies to monopolize
and restrain trade in violation of
the law.
Negro Crimes Due to Pictures.
Suggestive pictures in saloons are
the chief cause of assaults on women
by negroes in the South. So said
Mrs. Nannie Curtis, of Texas, Na
tional Organizer of the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, in an
address delivered at Lincoln, Neb.
“The saloons have robbed us white
women of our loved ones, of our
homes, and now they have robbed us
of our clothes, and have hung us up
on the walls of saloons to inflame the
minds of drunken and black brutes,”
she said.
Catholics Seize Calvin’s Citadel.
A combination of Catholic, Social
ists, Free Tninkers and others who
advocate complete separation of
State from Church have succeeded in
stopping the appropriating of public
money in the Geneva Canton, Swit
zerland, for religious purposes.
The struggle has been on for years
in this “citadel of Protestantism,”
from which Calvin inspired the move
ment which gave birth to the Hugue
nots of France and Holland and the
Puritans of Scotland and America.
In 1873. the Swiss Constitution was
revised, reaffirming absolute liberty
of conscience. Jesuits and other
teaching orders were interdicted, the
founding of new convents or reli
gious orders was forbidden and it was
provided that the interdiction could
be extended to any other religious
order deemed dangerous to the State
or the peace of the different creeds.
The orthodox Catholics in Geneva
declined to accept any appropriation
under this regime. •In the recent
election in Geneva Catholicism held
(Continued on Page Twelve.)
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