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Transfiguration; the Rev. Father Coppo, the Rev. Father S. Gianetto; fifty more priests, Civil Justice George F. Roesch, Dr. Isola, Alessan dro Caecio and Dr. Lorenzo Ullo. Poor Ores Cost Steel Concerns $60,- 000,000. Sixty million dollars must be spent by the steel concerns of the country in changing their Bessemer plants to the open-hearth process, owing to the slump in the quality of the Besse mer ores. That Bessemer steel rails will be advanced seems certain. The Steel Trust has begun its change to open-hearth furnaces by closing the big Bessemer department of the Duquesne, the Edgar Thomp son and the Homestead plants. Telegraphers Send Brief to Roose velt. The brief relative to the telegraph strike which was asked for by Pres ident Roosevelt has been sent by mail to Washington from Chicago. President Small, of the telegraphers’ Union, it was said, will later confer with Government officials regarding the brief. One leader of the telegraphers said recently that when President Small returns he will be asked to sanction a general strike of brokers’ operators In case he refuses his sanction, it is said, the mater will be put to a ref erendum vote. JUSTICE OF RAILWAY AGITA TION; HOW THE PEOPLE’S CAUSE HAS BEEN VIN DICATED. So convincing have been the proofs with which charges against railroad officials in this country have been backed up, and so overwhelming has been the cumulative evidence piled up against them, that the fight of the people against mismanagement and injustice on the part of rail way corporations in the United States has reached that point where there are practically no longer any persons who scoff at the efforts of the masses as unreasonable. What was but re cently called by some papers and a few people “railway agitation” is now 'regarded as a righteous cause, justice of which has been fully demonstrated. That part of the press which was bold enough to enter the fight at the outset and aid in the demands of the people followed by practipally all independent members of the press, and the efforts of the press as a whole have been thorough ly and entirely vindicated. It is interesting to note the change that has come over many reputable journals which at first hesitated to take the part of the people in a fight, the causes of which were not at first entirely understood and the final issue of which was not at all certain. There have been, of course, many papers which have not added their protest at all against railway discrimination and the hundred oth er forms of injustice and neglect that have been practiced by the railway corporations'of the country. There are various reasons for such hesitant cy, some being too eon-eivative to appear in behalf ofz popular agita tion and others being so controlled by railroad men that it was impos sible for them to enter into any tight, just or unjust, asrmmt railroad prac tices. But practically all newspa pers not in this last mentioned class have, during the past few months, swung to the side of the people and, though some of their voices have not been lifted with too great volume, all have voiced the sentiments of the people and have openly admitted the justice of their cause. As an instance of the change in attitude on the part of those news papers which have held back until the last, and until victory for the people was certain, we note a recent full page article entitled, “The Fight Is On Between the Railroads and the Government,” so plainly anti-railroad in its tone as to create surprise among those readers who have during recent months noted the evident reluctance of the paper in question to publish anything that might appear to be against the wishes of railway men. In this article we find the following interesting paragraphs: . “Here are some of the things which have been done by railroads since the new Inter-state Commerce act took effect last September. Some of them are in retaliation for that legisla tion, some for the regulative acts passed by the states, some are appar ently without especial motive but sim ply based .on the proposition that the railroads ‘need the money.’: “Freight rates on iron and steel products have been advanced prac tically throughout the entire country. “Freight rates on lumber have been advanced throughout an immense section of the northwest, m many cases, it is alleged, as much as 40 per cent, “The special low rates which have for years been given on manufactures intended for export are being with drawn. “A readjustment of the freight rates from the big central valleys, where most of the grain is raised, to the seaboard has been effected, which includes increases in most of the ter ritory east of the Mississippi. “A refusal to continue the commod ity rates on which the strawberry crop of Tennessee was moved in past years to points in the north resulted in immense losses to the raisers and the waste of a considerable part of this season’s crop.” With regard to two cent fare leg islation the article directly charges that the roads are seeking to inconve nience the people merely for the sake of retaliation and not from motives of an economical or infiancial charac ter. It states the situation in this regard as follows: “In lowa, because the State legisla ture has passed h maximum rate law applying within the state and adopted an official schedule of maximum rates covering the state railroads have in creased interstate rates into and-out of lowa so that they have franklv boasted that lowa was being severely punished for its effort to regulate. “In Nebraska, where a two cent fare bill passed last winter, the rail roads announced that they had taken off some of their best and fastest trains in retaliation. “In Kansas, because of a two cent and other retaliatory laws, the roads have taken off some of their trains, and are running others on slower schedules than before. “In Virginia, where there is a state law requiring that loaded freight ears must be moved at least twenty-five miles a day, the railroads have adopt ed the policy of setting out interstate freight op the side tracks and letting it wait indefinitely till the state WATSON'S WEnXY JIFFBMONIAN freight is moved the required mini mu#i. In the same state, because a two cent fare bill has passed, the rail roads have decided to pay no heed to it, but to litigate as long as they can and kill the legislation if possible. “In West Virginia the railroads sent an immense lobby to the capitol to fight a two cent fare bill, and a good deal of scandal developed, but the measure passed. Now the roads announce that they will decline to obey, and instead will fight it in the courts. ‘ ‘ In general, the threat has been in dulged by railroad lobbyists and even by responsible executive officers that improvements, extensions, the con struction of new lines, etc., will be stopped just as fastsiis possible unless the regulative hand of federal and state government is removed from the transportation business.” The above statement of the situa tion certainly does not make any ef fort to represent the attitude of rail way men as a benevolent one, or to indicate that they are at all repent ant for past abuses. On the other hand, it defines their attitude as open ly defiant and in accordance with the words of a well-known representative of corporate wealth, “The public be damned.” That a newspaper, which has hitherto carefully refrained from adopting a severe tone when discuss ing railroad subjects, should so state the existing situation, is no less en couraging than surprising.—The Au gusta (Ga.) Herald. AFRICA’S NEGRO REPUBLIC. Arthur Barclay, the president of Li beria, is at present in England, where he has gone, it is believed, to try to induce English capitalists to make further investments in his countrv. Liberia, with an area approximately >. equal to that of Holland and Belgium together, is bounded on the north west by British territory, and on the east afiff south by French territory. It was founded in 1822 as a place of settlement for emancipated Ameri can slaves, under the protection of the United States. Tn 1847 it was recognized by England and France as an independent republic, and in 1861 by the United States. The constitu tion imitales that of the United States, providing for a president, sen ate, house of representatives and su preme court. The “American” Li berians, who form the governing class, number, it is stated, about 12,060. Behind them, and content to be gov erned by them, are some 2.000.000 natives, who are still savages. ’Hie president is described by the London Times as “a full-blooded negro, a West Indian and a man of education and refinement.” He was elected in 1904, and is now serving his second term. Till recently the fact about Liberia best known in Europe was that it had contracted a public debt which it never tried to pay. Now that Sir Harry Johnston, the African traveler,- discovering the great natural re sources of the country, has interested himself in its development it is like ly to excite more attention. Under his anqnices the Liberian Develop ment Chartered Company has obtain ed concessions for prospecting, work in** minerals, hanking, nrnntring land, constructing roads and building rail way*. By January, 1906, the com- pany had invested $500,000 in Libe rian, and soon after two British offi cials were appointed to reorganize the finances and customs service of the country. Public improvements have been begun. Motor roads into the trackless interior are being made, and it is hoped that the American negroes will, after .a time, take kindly to the industrial era which it is desired to inaugurate. There is some jealousy of white people, it appears. They are allowed only on the frontiers, and are not permitted to have houses or do business in the interior. The trade done at present is limit ed. Liberia exports chiefly palm oil, palm kemals, coffee, rubber and fiber. The said to be of extremely fine quality. The imports consist of cotton goods, articles of iron and pro visions. The rubber exports in 190 C were worth $70,000, and the total value of exports sent to England was $291,000. This is a small showing for a republic, but it is expected that European enterprises, “conducted on reasonable lines, and with a proper regard for the interests of the na tives,” will give a fresh impetus to local effort. The Times expresses a hope that “the little State which has been for so many years in a condition of sus pended animation will rouse itself in to more vigorous life, and perhaps af ter all justify some of the expecta tions of its original founders who looked to it to demonstrate the capac ity of the negro race for self-govern pient. ” So far the experiment has virtually failed in Liberia, as it has done in Haiti, and in our Southern States.—Augusta Herald. FLAGLER LOSES $15,000,000 IN SEA RAILROAD. After having sunk $15,000,000. into his seagoing railroad across the Flor ida Keys, with Key West as the ter minal, Henry M. Flagler has been obliged to abandon the work which was the dream of his life. The millions spent by Mr. Flagler have seriously crippled him financial ly. Mr. Flagler finds himself in the same position as Henry M. Rogers, a brother chief in Standard Oil, with his Tidewater Railroad in Virginia. Millions must be advanced if the work is to go on, and neither can find the money. The blow falls harder on the man who has won the title of “King of Florida.” He has always looked up on this extension of the Florida East Coast from Miami to Key West, the southern tip of the United States, as the imperishable monument which he would leave to posterity. Financial worry over the ever in creasing cost of the road and the im possibility of securing, the necessary money was, his friends declare, the direct cause of the serious physical breakdown which he suffered last summer. Mr. Flagler caused to be issued a statement that the work had been abandoned temporarily on account of the tightness of the money market. GIVES $500,000 MORE. Andrew Carnegie has placed $500,- 000 to the credit of the trustees of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at Bal timore, to be used in building branch libraries in different parts of the city. PAGE FIVE