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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- Berckmans Trees NONE BETTER \ - We offer an immense stock of Fruit and Shade Trees, Evergreen and Deciduous Shrubs, Conifers, Roses, Palms, etc. Our stock is free from disease or insects. Special Department for Landscape Work We are prepared to make surveys and plans for residential grounds, [parks, cemeteries, mill and sub urban villages. Consult us and our experts will help you. Catalogue on application . P. J. Berckman Co. inc. FRUITLAND NURSERIES Drawer 1070 AUGUSTA, GA. Established 1856. We do not sell through agents. FARM FOR SALE 100 acres In DeKallb county, Ga.,l mH® north of Clarkston. Well tim bered, good dwellings, good orchard,6o acres In cultivation, good bermuda pasture. Will sell cheap. Terms. Address J. H. TRIBBLE, Clarkston, Ga. 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. PAGE FIFTEEN