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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
STATE VS. NATION.
An appeal to the federal supreme
court just made by the Missouri Pa
cific Railroad Company will test the
important question of whether under
the Hepburn bill the interstate com
merce commission has exclusive con
trol of the operation of railroads.
The railway contends that such is the
fact, and that a Kansas supreme
court’s decision ordering it to renew
certain traffic arrangements with a
milling company in a Kansas town is
without force.
Strife between governors of south
ern states and federal judges has be
come chronic, and arises from this
conflict of authority or jurisdiction
between nation and state, though on
a somewhat different line from the
one involved in this Kansas case. The
fact that the western railroad is
seeking to establish the superiority of
federal to state authority reflects a
desire not at all uncommon now with
railway administrators, who former
ly opposed extension of the author
ity of the interstate commerce com
mission, but now much prefer its
rules based on principles to the con
flicting, arbitrary and unreasoning de
crees of state Legislatures, which
law-abiding governors feel compelled
to enforce. —Boston Herald.
A NEEDED IMPROVEMENT.
Public opinion in favor of the es
tablisment of the parcels post con
tinues to grow. It is recognized as a
necessary adjunct of our postal sys
tem, to keep it abreast of the require
ments of advances in national inter
course and trade. Strong objections
to the parcels post are made in some
quarters, especially by the express
companies, but the indications are
that this opposition will soon be
overcome.
John Wanamaker, as postmaster
general, tried to arrange for the par
cels post in America. Mr. Cortelyou,
in the same office, moved indirectly
to the same end, says the New York
World, proposing to consolidate the
third and fourth classes of mail mat
ter and provide for a gradual in
crease of the weight limit with re
duction of the rates of postage.
The public desires a parcels post
system of course. The express com
panies do not desire such a system,
and up to the moment they have been
too strong for both the people and
the administration. Postmaster Gen
eral Meyer’s announcement of his
plans for an early extension of the
parcels mail service is to be regarded
with interest and hope.
Four pounds is the present mail
limit of weight in the United States.
Mr. Meyer suggests an increase to
eight or ten pounds. This is prog
ress in moderation. The limit in
Great Britain is eleven pounds, being
held down by railway influence in
parliament. France carries parcels
up to twenty-two pounds and Ger
many stops at 110 pounds, packages
to that weight being transportable
between the home country, Austria
and Switzerland.
When it comes to the question of
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
rates liberality also balances lor the
Old World. To carry a iour-pound
package anywhere within its limits
the United {States charges 64 cents.
Great Britain will carry a parcel to
Shanghai byway of Egypt, the Suez
Canal, India and Hongkong for 12
cents a pound. And anywhere in the
United Kingdom parcels travel tu
rates from 1 1-2 cents for one pound
to 25 cents for 11 pounds.
In Germany, Switzerland, France,
England, all about Europe, the tour
ist may send and receive promptly
by post his laundry and small lug
gage; the people may effect their
minor transfers of commodities safe
ly and quickly and cheaply by mail.
In a long lisf“ of world-powers the
United States alone, greatest and
richest of all, suffers its public to
pay in annoyances of uncertain ser
vice and excessive rates for the main
tenance of private monopolies in the
parcels tramc. —Augusta Herald.
THE TORRENS SYSTEM.
The committee appointed by Gov.
Hughes to investigate the working
of the Torrens system of land regis
tration, with power to prepare a bill
for submission to the Legislature at
its next session, has before it a prob
lem of some difficulty and of enor
mous importance. Devised original
ly by Sir Robert Torrens, Premier
of South Australia in 1858, and adopt
ed in Illinois, Massachusets, Califor
nia, Minnesota, Colorado and Ore
gon, the system destroys the peculiar
sanctity attaching to real estate since
feudal times and renders a piece of
land as easily transferred or mort
gaged as stock or bond.
Nowadays whenever a portion of
the earth’s surface is sold the tedious
labor of searching title must be un
dergone. Some years ago, when one
of the large estates was disposed of
in parcels, nearly three hundred pur
chasers are said to have employed
attorneys to conduct searches, and as
time goes on the records will be ov
erhauled with every new sale or mort
gage. Endless and useless expense
is entailed. Nor does the most care
ful search furnish protection against
such latent defects as infancy, undis
closed heirs, invalid divorces or rights
acquired by twenty years’ prescrip
tion. Though a policy of title insur
ance may be obtained, it inures only
to the benefit of the insured, and a
new policy must be taken out ac ad
ditional cost every time title is
passed.
Under the Torrens system these de
fects are obviated. A petition may be
presented by the owner to the proper
court, whereupon the matter is re
ferred to an examiner. Should the
latter find petitioner’s title to be
good a certificate is filed, a copy of
which is issued to the owner. All en
cumbrances upon the property are
noted and a memorandum of all sub
sequent liens or transfers is entered
upon this certificate. In no way may
the title be afterward attacked.
Should it be found that a mistake
has been made and that rights exist
whieh were not disclosed upon exam-
ination, resort is provided to an in
demnity fund created by the State
out of the fees paid to tne court.
Another important point to be tak
en into consideration is tnat the act
absolutely prevents one form of leg
alized blackmail. As things are at
present, one wno possesses an undis
closed interest in a vacant lot may
wait for any length of time short of
twenty years and then obtain his
share of the increased value from a
purchaser in good faith who has
erected valuable structures. By the
Torrens system the amount of his
recovery would be limited to the val
ue of his share at the time the certifi
cate was given. Mora important
still, this system is not compulsory.
No property-owner is obliged to have
his title registered. If he prefers the
present method he is at perfect lib
erty to conduct a private search.-
New York World.
GERMAN PEASANTS DEMAND
“LIFE.”
Reports from Germany Show that
rural America is not alone in its la
bor famine. The industrious and
tented peasantry of the past is rap
idly becoming a memory. For the
mines the laborers are imported from
-Poland, from Hungary and other.
eastern countries. Italians are doing
the heavy work of the railroads and
many forms of construction. The
young peasants, both men and wo
men, leave the villages for better
wages and a better time in the cities.
Consul Dunlap, who writes from
Cologne, accounts for the rush of
the peasant class to the cities as fol
lows;
“The drafting of the young men
into the army has a tendency to
draw them frcmi the country, for aft
er having lived in a large city the
small village, where life is much
slower and the opportunities for en
tertainment much less, has no at
tractions. The desire to return where
there are better pay, shorter hours
and more diversity in life usually ov
erpowers the home influence, and the
man hurries away. The same may
be said of the- young women, who hear
from the men the stories of city life,
which also has the effect of drawing
that class to the city, where the de
mand for female help is much great
er than the supply.”
A generation ago this condition of
things was not possible. Cities were
dead industrially except for the few
skilled workers. The discontented
peasant had no chance of improving
except by emigration to America.
By developing a new commercial pol
icy the government has made the
fatherland good enough for the mass
of its ambitious sons and daughtgrpL
Unless German prosperity takes a
slump we may look .for a continu
ance of the decline in German muni
gration so noticeable in late years.—
{Spartanburg Journal.
Mr. Bonaparte declares he will not
resign. Members of his family have
been known to do it—under pressure,
however.
THE HEARST APOSTASY.
Bryan may never learn and never
forget, but not so Hearst. Witness
the following from the Hearst Labor
Day address:
“In a country where all men are
workingmen there should be greater
community of interest, better mutual
understanding and sympathy.
“Capital is but the accumulation
of wealth which employer and em
ploye create together.
“Wages are but the division of
profits. Both employer and employe
are entitled to their share of the
profits, and as long as the division
is just and equitable there is no oc
casion for conflict.
“The true captain of industry is
the general of our industrial army.
He cannot do without soldiers,
and yet no matter how well the sol
diers fight the victory depends very
largely on the general’s skilful con
duct of the campaign.
“The legitimate object of honest
combinations of capital is to unite
the wealth of many individuals in
one great enterprise and to distrib
ute the profits of the enterprise among
the many investors. By means of
such combinations operations are con
ducted on a scale that would be be
yond the power of any single indi
vidual.
“The effectiveness of combinations
of capital is seen in their enormous
power for good, and their menace lies
in the misuse of that enormous pow
er for evil.”
To such gentle cooing is the once 2
fierce Hearst roaring reduced. Ry
an and Belmont, even John D. him
self, will have no quarrel with the
foregoing. Has there been a change
of heart, or merely an intellectual
conviction that there is nothing in
radicalism as an office-getting meth
od? Having failed to get anything
on one side of the street, is the other
side to be worked? Weeping and
wailing from the long-hairs are in
order as the news spreads that Hearst
is no longer a proletarian —has be
come bourgeoisie.—New York Globe.
King Edward how has the largest
diamond in the world, and the great
beauty about it is that no one will
suspect it is paste.
A number of Virginia Republicans
have declared for Mr. Cortelyou for
President, while a number of South
Carolinians of the same faith have
declared for Mr. Foraker. Thus are
things being kept balanced to a
nicety.
A news story tells of the beating of
a Chinaman by sixteen San Francis
co white men recently. What’s the
matter with the ratio and the colors?
We note in The Atlanta Georgian
that Messrs. Razor, Tank, and Boozer,
stars in the Gate City’s seal-brown
population, were recently arrested
and hauled into court for starting an
incipient riot on Decatur street.* It
is hard to see how that combination
could have kept out of trouble.