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CANNON RUNS CONGRESS, SO
TRUSTS NEEDN’T WORRY.
In a recent interview Speaker Can
non of the National House of Repre
sentatives shows himself very solic
itous for the future of the Republi
can party. In fact, he seems to have
little else on his mind than the bur
den of winning party success in 1908.
In discussing legislation for the com
ing winter he has nothing to say on
what would be best for the country,
but has much to say on what
would make political capital.
What Cannon wants Congress to
do is to do nothing. That is also
what the trusts want. He would have
it make a billion dollars of appro
priations and go home. Otherwise it
may disturb the trusts and jeopar
dize Republican success. “If it
does not act wisely,” says the boss
of the House, “if it is not actuated
by calmness * ♦ • there will not
be much need for the election of del
egates to the next National Conven
tion of the Republican party.”
There it is again. He cannot stop
talking about “my party.” Not one
word about what is just or right or
for the relief of the people, but all
about what is expedient and politic.
The only occasion for mentioning
Cannon at all is that he is typical
of the trafficking, side stepping, dem
agogic politicians that have been so
busy serving themselves an dtheir
corporation masters that they have
failed to see the needs or the wishes
of the great masses.
For these prophets of expediency
“my party” has meant the machine
and the trusts that oiled and ran the
machine. Beyond that and its nar
row and selfish workings their vision
does not extend.
Cannon as Speaker has been the
great obstructor. He has stood in
the way of every movement that
meant anything. He has been to the
House what the Senate has been to
the whole Government —the barrier
across the road of progress. More
of a Czar than Tom Reed, without
Reed’s brilliancy, he has pretended
to be one of the people, and yet has
blocked every bill in the interests of
the people.
• Cannon is one of those “practical”
statesmen who started comparatively
poor and now' has a fortune. “My
party” has done well by Cannon. No
wonder he is solicitous for its con
tinued success. •
With his outward pretense of be
ing a farmer and his inward reality
of being a trust politician, Cannon is
of the type of the most sinister tools
of special interests that have ever
threatened a republican government.
He is the brains of the House ma
chine that has throttled every gener
ous and disinterested move for the
public gcod. Through it he perpet
uated the railway mail graft and al
most succeeded in creating the ship
subsidy graft.
With a Cannon master of the low
er House and an Aldrich boss of the
upper, what hope can the American
people have from the sham reform
of the Republican party! Are not
these two sufficient indices of its
plans! So long as they and their
kind are in power tariff revision will
be blocked and there will be no legis
lation that means anything for the
relief of the common people of this
country.—N. Y. American.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
GETTING A POSITION BY MUR
DER.
“Lord” Seymour F. Barrington,
than whom there is no greater villain
unhanged, has been appointed as a
bookkeeeper in the Missouri peniten
tiary. His hours of work, according
to a St. Louis paper, are eight each
day. He has a comfortable cell and
good fare. Aside from the fact that
he cannot go out on Saturday nights
with his pay envelope in his pocket
and contract a headache, he is about
as well off as any other bookkeeper
in point of the actual comforts of
life.
Here is an example of how we do
not punish our criminals. “Lord” Bar
rington came to America from Eng
land to make a career as a swindler.
One of his crimes was that of repre
senting himself as an English noble
man to delude and marry a Missouri
girl for her money. His career cul
minated in murder. He was sen
tenced to be hanged. The sentence
seemed in every way just, it was
commuted to a life sentence “at hard
labor. ’ ’ The hard labor that has fall
en to his lot is equal in strenuosity
to that of a Government clerk at
Washington. The next possibility is
a pardon, although it has not yet
been announced as a possibility.
“Lord” Barrington was happy in
his selection of the theater of his
criminal activities. It is not at all
probable that a professional swindler
who committed murder in the course
of his day’s work would have been
so leniently treated in England.—
Weekly Courier-Journal.
THE STORY OF POOR BOYS.
John Adams, second president, was
the son of a grocer of very moder
ate means. The only start he had was
a good education.
Andrew Jackson was born in a log
hut in North Carolina, and was
reared in the pine woods for which
the state is famous.
James K. Polk spent the earlier
part of his life helping to dig a liv
ing out of a new farm in North Car
olina. He was afterwards a clerk in
a country store.
Millard Fillmore was the son of a
New York farmer, and his home was
an humble one. He learned the bus*
iness of a clothier.
James Buchanan was born in a
small town in the Allegheny moun
tains. His father cut the logs and
built the house in what was then a
wilderness.
Abraham Lincoln was the son of a
wretched poor farmer in Kentucky,
and lived in a log cabin until he was
twenty-one years old.
Andrew Johnson was apprenticed
to a tailor at the age of ten years by
his widowed mother. He never was
able to attend school, and picked up
all the education he ever had.
Ulysses S. Grant lived the life of
a village boy in a plain house on the
banks of the Ohio river until he was
seventeen years of age.
James A. Garfield was born in a log
cabin. He worked on the farm until
he was strong enough to use carpen
ter’s tools, when he learned the
trade. He afterward worked on a
canal.
Grover Cleveland’s father was a
Presbyterian minister with a large
family and a small salary. The boys
had to earn their living.
William McKinley’s early home
was plain and comfortable, and his
father was able to keep him in school.
—The Clifton (Tenn.) Mirror.
MR. BONAPARTE WANTS TO
JAIL TRUST THIEVES.
It has taken Attorney-General Bo
naparte a long time to be convinced
that trust criminals should go to jail,
but if he is at last a convert to that
doctrine, both *he and the people are
to be congratulated. The American
feels all the more ready to extend
such congratulations for the reason
that many years before Mr. Bona
parte arrived on the public stage
this paper and its editor were saying
just what Mr. Bonaparte now says.
A criminal penalty clause provid
ing for the imprisonment of dishon
est corporation officials was one of
the chief features of William Ran
dolph Hearst’s Anti-Trust bill in
Congress. The same idea has been
expressed in signed editorials and
speeches from the beginning of his
campaigns up to and including the La
bor Day address at Jamestown. One
of Mr. Hearst’s most familiar slo
gans in the canvass of last fall was
his declaration of the principle that
1 ‘ there should be an end of the sys
tem under which the little thief goes
to jail and the big thief goes to Eu
rope. ’ ’
The Attorney-General of the Unit
ed States wants a criminal clause in
the Anti-Trust law. In his next re-
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port to Congress he will recommend
legislation providing for the impris
onment of the “big thief.”
The way to stop crime is to pun
ish it. The mere assessment of fines,
however large, is inadequate. If we
imprison the thief that robs one man
why not lock up the thief that robs
millions ?
The $29,000,000 fine against the
Standard Oil Company seemed gigan
tic until the acknowledged profils of
that concern made it look puny. Even
that vast amount can be paid by the
few men at the head of the Trust
without their feeling the loss. But
if other like fines are assessed against
the corporations m w'hieh the people
are the investors, it is the small in
vestors who will suffer. The prop
erty of these companies will depre
ciate and the innocent stockholders
will pay the penalty rather than the
big criminals. The publie will also
be penalized by having to make up
the fines in higher prices. This sort
of punishment punishes everybody
but the wrongdoer.
Mr. Bonaparte is right. The only
way to reach the guilty trust officials
so that they and they alone shall suf
fer is to put these big offenders in
jail. A little heroic treatment of that
sort will do more to create respect
for the law than all the fines, politi
cal lectures and grandstand plays.—
N. Y. American.
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