Nebraska Newspapers

    DISHONESTY IN ALL.
NO NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OR
BUREAU IS CLEAN.
Merely Partial Investigaticns Have
Revealed Astounding Conditions of
Affairs Drastic Action Needed Be
fore Reform Is Possible.
What little of the postoffice scan
dals that has been allowed to come
to light and the charges made of
official shortcomings In other departs
meat, makes it evident that the en
tire official machinery of the nation
lit clogged with dishonesty. Every
department and bureau that has been
even partially investigated teems with
loot and dishonesty that parallels, if
It docs not exceed, the era of robbery
that culminated in the election of
Tlldon. The Star Route frauds, the
Mulligan letters, the Credit Mobiller
ami the Pacific Mail subsidy were
crimes for which the people held the
Republican party responsible.
The voters are now confronted with
the postal scandals, the Cuban loot
ing, tho agricultural department rot
tenness, the land department frauds,
th? Porto Rican smuggling case and
the war department and Philippine
infamies, besides charges against the
other departments that have not yet
been investigated and which will
doubtless swell the unsavory record.
The old cry that aroused the coun
try, "Turn the rascals out." will again
b the slogan of the coming presi
dential campaign. The extortion of
the trusts and the robbery of tho
people by the protection granted to
the combines, under the tariff, bad
as it Is, does not compare with the
delinquencies of the officials who
have been placed in power to pre
serve the rights and pockets of the
people. Without an honest adminis
tration the government becomes but
pillage and piracy; back of alt econ
omic issues must be ordinary hon
esty In public service. To pass laws
to reform the tariff or control the
trusts will be worthless unless the
rascals, who seem to infest every de
partment, are turned out and honest
public servants installed to adminis
ter the reforms. The first and great
est reform is to -turn the rascals
cut." especially those who are in the
highest command and who. either by
collusion or incompetent mane
ment, have allowed the looting with
out an efTort to Etay it. Even now
they are trying to hamper the inves
tigations and, by refusing to give the
facts to the pnblic, are trying to di
vert the people's minds into other
channels. The interest of those in
charge of the fortunes of the Repub
can party is to cover up delinquen
cies for the good of the party and to
scrutinize as little as possible the
wrong doings of their subordinates.
It is therefore the leaders that must
be turned out and the punishment of
the lesser culprits will duly follow.
It is impossible for an administra
tion to reform itself. Every politi
cian, great and small, even the honest
snes, dislike to see disclosures made
that reflect on the party, and only
ust enough is allowed to come to
ngni to appear mac puniicauou ia in
tended. The evidence has been fur
nished that months before the post
office scandals were revealed. Pres
ident Roosevelt was Informed that
gross frauds were being perpetrated,
yet no investigation was ordered until
the newspapers took up the "Get-rich-quick"
frauds and these led to the
other exposures. For over two years
it was known and published that At
torney General Tyner and his asso
ciates were bleeding the publications
for permission to mail at the one-cent
a pound rate, but neither President
Roosevelt nor his postmaster general
ordered any investigation of the
charges, though appealed to for that
purpose.
A new deal is therefore necessary
and the rascals must be turned out
before reform is possible.
THAT OPEN DOOR.
The Russians Have Slammed It in
Cur Faces and Have the Key mn the
Inside.
The growl of the Russian bear has
bluffed Mr. Hay Into believing that
the brute may bite if too many liber
ties are taken with him. Mr. Hay, as
the diplomatic adviser of President
Roosevelt, has persuaded that impul
sive gentleman that he must be more
considerate of the feelings of the Rus
sians or the work of years and the
expenditure of thousands of lives and
millions of treasure in the Philip
pines will be -worthless.
The people of the United States
were induced to believe that the re
tention of the Philippines as a colony
would give the United States a key
:o the door of China and that after
spening it untold wealth would be
theirs. But somehow In the shuf
fling of the cards the little joker has
always fallen Into the hand dealt to
Russia and that gave her the com
mand of the game. It Is, therefore,
cot surprising to be officially informed
that the key to the open door has
been mislaid and that further diplo
matic arrangements about free ports
in Manchuria have been postponed to
a more convenient season.
In the language of diplomacy, the
incident has been clos?d for the pres
ent, but. in plain English, the door
ha3 been slammed in our faces and
Russia has the key on the inside.
Is our "matchless diplomacy" at
fault or has President Roosevelt been
too rash and hasty in his efforts to
conciliate a certain element in our
politics who could aid him in his am
bition to succeed himself? Which
ever horn of the dilemma the admin
istration asks us to take, it shows
that those who, by fate, are managing
our affairs are not equal to the occa
sion. It requires a gTeater man than
Roosevelt or John Hay to come out
even in the game of diplomacy .with
the Russian bear.
Compromising with Trusts.
The efforts of the administration to
control the trusts seems to have sub
sided with the suit against the rail
road merger and the beef combine.
Perhaps President Roosevelt and his
Attorney General have become dis
couraged by the" small results ob
UlP'. or have become converts to
the Harna plan cf "letting well
enough alone." It is quite probable
that the bad trusts, which Includes
nearly all of them. Lave found a way
to propitiate the trust-busting procliv
ities of the administration, as the pro
tectlonists found a way to emasculate
the Iowa Idea and render it harmless.
Reform has never been a strong card
with Republicans. At times they have
pretended their great desire to up
root political evils, but these virtuous
moments have always preceded elec
tions and have ever subsided and
ebbed when the crisis had passed and
they could point to the inorsement
that bad been given by the voters of
their conduct of affairs. The Repub
lican leaders have perpetually been
hankering for tho flesh pots that the
trusts and corporations hold out as a
bait to obtain immunity for their ex
tortion. The donations of the trusts
and corporations to Republican cam
paign funds have been reciprocated by
tariff protection that enabled the
trusts .to amply recuperate their de
pleted bank accounts from exorbitant
profits from the people.
Judging the future by the past, his
tory is repeating itself and the pres
ent Immunity that the trusts are en
joying is an arrangement naturally
satisfactory to them and to the Re
publican leaders. Attorney-General
Knox Is said not to favor any more
legal proceedings against the trusts,
and, as he was a trust attorney berore
ho bacame a member of the cabinet,
his reported lack of sympathy with
any further trust-busting is doubtless
a correct solution for his reason for
not acting. The President and his Attorney-General
are in a quandary
about further action against the trusts.
If they do not go on curbing them the
voters will rebel, and if they do really
try to curb the trusts the campaign
fund will suffer.
A Big Job for President Roosevelt in
the Postoffice.
The President and the Trusts.
That is a deep-laid scheme of the
trusts to appear to be cool and distant
to President Roosevelt and at the
same time allow him to be renomi
nated. The proof that the trusts are
satisfied with the present administra
tion is that Quay and Piatt have all
the time been its warmest supporters.
The further proof is that the Secre
tary of the Treasury has been running
the finances of the country in the in
terest of Wall street and a financial
bill is now being concocted to aid the
bankers and trust magnates by the
Republican leaders, who are active
friends of the President, and he ap
proves it and will recommend con
gress o pass it. Wall street and the
trust magnates know their cake would
soon be dough when the Democrats
are in power, for one thing they most
dread is tariff revision. The tariff
protects them and allows them to
charge high prices which fill their
pockets at the expense of the people.
Since President Roosevelt began to
talk like Hanna of "letting well
enough alone," the trust magnates are
for him to a man. In all his speeches
on his western trip the President said
nothing against the trusts.
The President and the Negroes.
The negro T. T. Fortune, whom
President Roosevelt sent on a special
mission to Hawaii and the Philip
pines to Investigate the condition of
labor there, has returned and is en
thusiastic over the Philippines as the
country for the negro to colonize.
Fortune is opposed to the Booker T.
Washington gospel of work, and
preaches what he calls the gospel of
dissention. His attitude shows him
to have been an admirable individual
to have kept at home, for he was
no sooner landed at Manila than he
got into trouble with the police. The
president certainly did not use good
discretion in selecting his envoy, but
at the time he was selected the dar
key vote was being struggled for and
Fortune is supposed to be a leader
of consequence. Having secured the
adherence of the Booker Washington
element by entertaining him at the
white house, the Fortune faction was
mollified by this mission to our colon
ies at the expense of the taxpayers.
Steel Trust's 40 Per Cent Profit
The quarterly report of the United
States Steel Corporation again re
minds us of what a heavy load we
are carrying in our protection baby
carriage. This great big, blubbering,
bulldozing beggar brat reports net
earnings for the quarter ending June
30, of $36,499,528. Just think of it
This protected infant i3 earning over
$400,000 a day, or over $130,000,000 a
year, and this, too, on total sales of
about $450,000,000. This means that
goods that cost $320,000,000 to pro
duce are sold for $450,000,000, or at
a profit of over 40 pper cent. This
trust can make this very high rate of
profit because Dingley tariff duties
prevent our people from going outside
of this country to buy steel goods.
Still Another Scandal.
Another Republican scandal has
come to light unexpectedly, by the
discovery that the fund of the Dis
trict of Columbia for special assess
mwt has been looted of $75,000. The
officers In charge of the district do.
not seem to have even taken the pre
caution to count the cash from time
to time, for the looting has been
going on for five years under Repub
lican management.
The Same Both Ways.
"G. O. P.. Grand Old Party," "P. a
G., Post-Offlce 'Graf L "Life.
w
Al
THE SACRED TARIFF.
REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS FALL
INTO LINE.
C ngressman Hemenway the Latest
to Join Hanna in His Support of
Monopoly All the Faithful Ready
to Stand by the Trusts.
How llko parrots some of the Re
publican politicians are. Here we have
Congressman Hemenway in an inter
view saying. "There is no sentlmeit
In Indiana for a change in the tariff
laws." Hanna having made a similar
declaration, all the smaller fry join
In the chorus, not merrily and from
the heart, but with the parrot-like
utterances of the automaton. The or
dinary Republican politician of the
Hemenway stripe never Invents any
thing, no law to reform abuses ever
emanates from him; no speech Is ever
heard denouncing crying evils frcm
such as he. And yet Congressman
Hemenway is no worse nor better
for that matter than the boss whose
lead he fellows. If the boss puts his
thumb down, the Hemenway tribe
all declare with one voice the same
decree, and vice versa. Congressman
Hemenway has been selected as the
chairman of the committee on appro
priations in the coming house of rep
resentatives, not because of his abil
ity, but because he is a faithful part
of the machine that obeys orders
without questioning and echoes the
edicts that resound from the High-Muck-a-Muck.
"There is no change
needed in the tariff law. Let well
enough alone."
Prices of trust production may soar
and the trusts grow fat at the ex
pense of the people, but the sacred
tariff must not be meddled with. All
the money necessary must be appro
priated to absorb the surplus, each
coterie must get its shade, every de
partment of the government puts in
its bid for its greater or lesser steals
and subsidies and gets them. The
representatives who attempt to stem
the tide of extravagance are sneered
and jeered at as small, mean and
parsimonious. Reform is bowled
down from every Republican throat,
and every Republican vote Is given
for the most lavish expenditures and
most prodigal appropriations. In
that way the sacred tariff is preserv
ed in all its iniquity and its bold rob
bery. Listen to the Hemenway echo of
the Delphic oracle who tells of the
evils to come if protection to the
trusts is disturbed.
"They have evidently come to the
logical conclusion that to touch one
item in a tariff bill means that others
and perhaps the whole fabric is to
be disturbed and distorted. Nothing
could be more serious to the business
interests, for the time being, at least.
"The whole industrial system of the
country would in that event be turned
topsy-turvy. Chaos instead of the
wonderful calm and equilibrium now
existing would reign, and the result
would be disastrous. Of course, it is
not possible to have a perfect tariff,
but we think that well enough should
be allowed to stand. We are doing
beautifully."
Possibly the people feel that way,
but if they do they are more easily
gulled and fooled than they used to
be and are more anxious to pay out
their hard earned money to the trusts
than it is possible to believe they are.
Opium Monopoly in Philippines.
Democrats and Republicans alike
have always denounced the English
policy of the opium monopoly in India
and the opening of the Chinese em
pire to the opium trade, but our ad
ministration appears now to approve
it, for even a worse opium system is
to be forced on the Philippines. The
exclusive right to run opium joints
in these islands is to be sold by auc
tion, a law for that purpose having
been prepared, and is now before the
Philippines commission. This bill is
coated so that the American people
will be able to swallow it. "In order
to prepare the American public for
the proposal the war department late
ly, has been jriving out vague informa
tion to the correspondents about new
opium laws designed to 'restrict the
use of opium and that the money- de
rived therefrom was to be used for
'educating young Filipinos in Amer
ican schools, as prospective teachers
for the islands.' "
A strong protest has been made to
President Roosevelt to stop the iniqui
tous traffic or at least not to make
this government a party to it by par
ticipating in the proceeds. The ne
farious plan seems to be a pet meas
ure of the Secretary of War, and it is
feared that the influence he exerts
over the President will more than off
set the protests that have been made.
Silenced.
When Mr. Roosevelt was in the far
west a postal scandal of some sort
was ventilated almost daily.
Everybody connected with the de
partment was talKing freely. A good
deal that was said was of no account,
but here and there was fou.:d a man
who knew something and v. hose dis
closures Were of value.
The president's return to Washing
ton was followed by an crder for
silence. Men who talked vvre given
to understand that they we.:'d scca
bo separated from their employment
in the service.
This is the method employed by
Messrs. Root and Long to Lush up
the scandals in the war and navy de
partments a year or tv.'o ago. This
is the method which Mr. Roosevelt
himself resorted to when he under
took to intimidate Gen. Miles.
In the case of the postoffice depart
ment the policy has been eminently
successful. There are no more dis
closures. The pursuit of the rogues
seems to have ended. There is si
'nee everywhere.
Things are pretty nearly quiet
enough to enable the president to
make a few more speeches instruct
ing his fellow citizens as to their du
ties to themselves, their families, the
state and the nation!
Wall Street and the Country.
"It is up to President Roosevelt to
say whether the country is to continue
prosperous or not. declares a Wall
street authority who wants Mr. Roose
velt to call an extra sessjoc cf con
gress to pass a currency Inflation bill.
This notion that a clique of stock
gamblers constitutes "the country" Is
by no means new. It remains to be
seen whether the president will ac
cept it after his vigorous and reiter
ated , expressions of independence of
Wall street influences.
Legislation in the Next Congress.
There has betn some discussion in.
authoritative circles about having no.
river and harbor bill at the session
of congress this winter. No final de
cision has been reached, but the views
of some prominent Republicans are
adverse to legislation that will take
many millions more from the treas
ury at an early day for improvement
of water ways. On all sides there
appears a sensitive attitude about
running up big expenditures by the
fifty-eighth congress. Many think the
time for retrenchment in government
expenses, which have been of the
most lavish character in the last six
years, is at hand. "Uncle Joe" Can
non, wielder of the gavel in the house,
is an economist and will undoubtedly
throw his influence that way. Then
a presidential election is near and the
country may develop decided views
for retrenchment.
Rogues Are Triumphant.
About one month has elapsed since
the President of the United State3
returned to Washington and issued
his order tiosinj; the mouth-: of eveiy
body connected with the postal ser
vice on the subject of the thieving
which as is now known, was going on
in the department.
Up to that t ire there wore Ievtlop
meats almost daily. Up to that time
some dishonest officer was exposed
and forced into retirement every
week. Up fo that time there appeared
to be a prospect that the honest men
in the postal service would get the
upper hand of the rogues. Up to that
time it seemed likely that there
would be a thorough exploration of all
the recesses of skulduggery and cor
ruption. Now all is silence; tne Postmaster
General is off on a government vessel
for a cruise and the President, who
recently lectured the people of twenty-two
states and territories on the
importance of i.dsing largo families
aid being Lcod citizens, i3 leadiDg
tho strenuous life at Oyster Boy.
Where Quay Is Useful.
The movement of the Republican
leaders to make Senator Quay the
party manager in the coming cam
paign would be quite appropriate.
President Roosevelt and the senator
are warm friends and he has always
been the leader of the presidential
clique in the United States senate
in opposition to the Hanna crowd.
Senator Quay is the most accomplish
ed master of the art of "frying the
fat" out of the trusts and corpora
tions and large contributions from
that, source will be necessary to con
tinue the Republican party in power.
Wood May Strike a Snag.
There is some reason to believe
that the process of boosting Leonard
Wood up the military ladder will suf
fer a check when his nomination to be
a major general comes up for confir
mation by the senate. Unfortunately
for the presidential chum, senatorial
investigations are not subject to the
veto of the secretary of war, and if
the history of the Havana satrapy is
ventilated the hero of the episode will
not wear the stars of a major general.
Extending Our Blessings.
At last our Filipino fellow citizens
are about to enjoy one of those bless
ings jind privileges of enlightened
American civilization so glowingly de
scribed by Gen. Miles. The colonial
government at Manila is making prep
arations to load them up with a nice,
big bond issue just like the happy peo
ple of the mother country.
Prospect of "Graft" Binds All.
Intelligence that Uncle Hanna and
the venerable Ship Subsidy Griscom,
on the latter's yacht, are to pay a
domiciliary visit to Oyster Bay indi
cates how much truth there is in the
stories of fierce executive antagon
ism to the steal which is the particu
lar pet of the two individuals men
tioned. Trade a Little Shy.
Complaint comes from the Philip
pines that trade is not following the
flag into our colonial possessions as
rapidly as was hoped. It may be sug
gested that trade is, perhaps, a little
shy about starting on a tour of that
kind without its valued traveling com
panion, the constitution.
Gov. Cummins' Reward.
Considering the raeek and lowly
manner in which Gov. Cummins sub
mitted to having his tariff plank splin
tered over his head the Republican
managers may indulge in justifiable
hopes of sawing off the vice-presidential
nomination onto him. He will evi
dently stand anything.
Cummins Completely Subdued.
As we ventured to predict, the Hon
orable Virus-of-Free-Trade Cummins,
having submitted to amputation of his
tariff idea, has now meekly agreed to
take the vice presidential nomination.
The Honorable Cummins evidently is
ro broken in spirit that he will not re
sent ary indignity.
Rccsevelt and the Newspapers.
Our liege lord Theodore declares
that there are only two newspapers
in the country with which he has any
quarrel a statement which indicates
either that his excellency is of a most
gracious and forgiving disposition or
that he does not read many news
papers. Poor Payne 1
Mr. Moody of the navy department
is going about making speechees on
the wickedness of treating a public
office as a private snap. Mr. Payne
of the postoffice department says
nothing, but wears a grieved expres
sion. .
Drawing a Natural Inference.
Senator Hanna told the Salvation
Army that he longed for the power to
touch men's hearts, from which we
infer that the campaign subscription
list will soon be in evidence.
An elephant's jaw bxs been Tinr
earthed in Halleck Canyon. Wyoming.
Jr ,feH you may cLJl!'- 11 '
PHILIPPINE COMMISSION "Never mind the nign:
Used by
LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD.
Insisting that the democratic party
must "throw both Bryan and Bryan
ism overboard," the Brooklyn Eagle
undertakes to state just what will be
the position of the democratic party
as well as of the republican parry in
the event the reorganizers have their
way. The Eagle says the republicnn
platform will be about as follows:
"No tariff revision is necessary;
none should occur until necessary;
none, when necessary, should be made
except by us; none, when made by us
alone, should affect articles produced
by trusts, whether those trusts are
monopolies or not. On the "expansion
question the republican platform v.ill
be in favor of taking expansion for
granted and of regarding the Phi'ip
pines, Hawaii and Porto Rico as col
onies always and states of the union
never. On the currency question the
republican party will seek to legislate,
on the basis of gold as the standard,
in the direction of making the supply
of currency through the banks auto
matically respond to the needs of lo
calities or of exigencies. The rest of
that party's platform will doubtless
comprise republican claims to have
produced all the good things which
have occurred and which have taken
the name of prosperity among politi
cians, promotors and the like, and of
inflation among philosophical econo
mists. Of course, the platform will
arraign democracy."
The democratic party, according to
the Eagle, while not admitting in so
many words that it has been entirely
wrong, will,. in the event the reorgan
izers gain control, admit that the
party has been wrong without directly
saying fo. The Eagle describes the
democratic platform in this way:
"The party will assume gol-1 to be
the standard. It will assume expan
sion to be permanent and unalterable.
It will omit all allusion to an incom3
tax, and it will not flatter mobs, in
the name of labor, or attack the se
curities of order by slurs at the ju
diciary. "The party will have a good deal of
trouble, even if It should get these
dangerous questions out of the way,
in dealing with the tariff matter. The
country has become used to protection.
It is opposed to free trade, or to what
can be truthfully or falsely called free
trade. It would, however, have a ra
tional and not a radical revision of
duties, and it does not believe that
the republican party can or will give
it."
According to the Eagle's plan, then,
the democratic party, like the repub
lican party, will be in favor of the
single gold standard; it will assume
expansion to be permanent and unal
terable; it will be opposed to the in
come tax, and will ignore the very
general complaint against government
by injunction. According to the
Eagle's plan, the democratic platform
will differ from the republican plat
form In tree particulars. The Eagle's
platform will not assert nor admit the
republican claims to have produced all
the good things which have occurred;
the Eagle's platform will not arraign
democracy; the Eagle's platform,
while leaning somewhat in the direc
tion of protection, will provide for "a
rational and not a radical revision of
duties."
In other words, after "throwing
Bryan and Bryanism overboard," the
Eagle and its associate reorganizers
would make the democratic party so
similar to the republican party that
the two organizations would differ in
Is it possible that President Roose
velt's slowness to act in the postoffice
corruption cases ia due to his fear of
the pillar pulling ability cf the men
who occupy the g. o. p. temple?
Governor Durbin of Indiana is rusti
cating in Yellowstone park. In the
meantime ex-Governor Taylor is stick
ing pretty close to Indiana sod.
Doubtless Perry Heath will recover
his hearth simultaneously with the
successful smothering of the charges
of corruption in the postal department.
Governor Durbin of Indiana has his
hands full these days protecting Tay
lor and Finley from justice and Evans
ville criminals from mob law.
The organs that pretend not to know
Judge Walter Clark' are not belittling
Judge Clark they are merely exposing
their own fatuous ignorance.
Postmaster General Payne's explana
tory department is running "hot in its
journals."
Of course the Iowa idea about revis
ing; the tariff is to revise it up. j
LIBERTY!
name only, and would make the plat
form as nearly like the republican
platform as It would be possible to do,
lecving at the same time sufficient mar
gin in the hope of hoodwinking the
voters and making them believe that,
after all, the democratic party had
not been completely swallowed up.
Perhaps it has not occurred to the
Eagle, although it will doubtless occur
to a great many people, that there will
be considerable difficulty even after the
democratic party shall have adopted
the republican platform, in educating
democrats up to a point where they
may grow enthusiastic in following re
publican methods and in advocating
the policies dear to the hearts of the
trust magnates.
BUT HE DID NOT.
The St. IxMiis Post-Dispatch, com
menting on the formal and insig
nificant message sent by President
Roosevelt on the opening of the Phil
ippine cable, says:
"Suppose, instead of the common
place greeting. President Roosevelt
sent to Governor Taft he had writ to
the people of the Philippines a message
like this:
"'I pledge all my energy, ability and
power as president of the United
States to the task of enabling the peo
ple of the Philippines to enjoy the
blessings of liberty and to secure a
government based upon the principles
of liberty and equality embodied in
the Declaration of Independence and
the constitution of the United States.'
"That would have been a memora
ble message and it would have made
the Fourth of July as blessed and
memorable to the Filipinos as it is to
Americans. It would have enhanced
the blessings of the day to Americans
because it would have been a notable
step toward the proclamation of lib
erty throughout all the possessions of
the United States.
, "A message like that would have
done more than merely go around the
world; it would have thrilled the
world with the spectacle of a great
man at the head of a great nation
placing the cause of human liberty
above all other considerations; it
would have cheered the lovers of liber
ty in all lands and struck a deadly
blow at imperialism. Air. uor.seveii
cculd well have given up all that the
presidency offers for the privilege of
sending such a message to a people in
bondage.
"It would have assured him the right
kind of immortality."
The president might have said some
thing worthy of tLe occasion but h?
did not. Why? Because he has been
paralyzed by imperiaUcm.
MEN ARE NEEDED.
Under this title the Columbus (O.)
Press has an editorial calling attention
to the importance of nominating
strong, clean men for the legislature
in Ohio. The Press is right. Only
men of integrity and good standing
should be selected as democratic can
didates for the legislature. This is
especially necessary in Ohio with Mr.
Hanna as a candidate. Those who
recollect the bribery resorted to at his
former election will understand how
necessary" it is to have Incorruptible
democrats in the legislature thi3 ywir.
But why should this caution be nec
essary? It ought to be apparent to
every member of the jOTy that the
reputation of the party and its useful
ness depend upon the selection of good
men all the time. It is a great mis
take to suppose that it is ever wise
Every time the Chicago Chronicle
prints an editorial telling what it con
ceives to be "true democracy," the edi
torial is printed with approval by the
leading republican organs.
There should be enough difference
between democratic and republican
platforms to render unnecessary plans
and specifications for the proper desig
nation of each.
Temporary defeat in a fight for the
right Is preferable to a hollow victory
on a meaningless platform.
Concerted attacks upon Mr. Brlstow
will not draw public attention from
the administration's failure to act
promptly upon Mr. Tulloch's charges.
The Berlin professor who declares
that alcohol is the source of life should
throw his reverse lever.
Young Mr. Rockefeller says he prays
for light and gets- it. But he charges
us 20 cents a gallon.
Governor Cummins has used the
"Iowa idea" as a groun-S wire for his
vice presidential boom.
TWRTEtNTH AM EN Of tNT
JO THE CONltrVTtON
OF THE UNITCD STATU "j
3C NrilHLK ilWIKf N0K
INVOLUNTWi U.RWVUI, tMttT A' A
ivni'smmint roKLKiw,wnrnror rut
PARTY SHALL hVWC bELN IHUt
C0NVIITLD, SHALL CtlbT WITHIN Vtf
UNtTtD 'jTATL OK ANY PLACE
SUBJECT TO THIR
this if r-bat counts."
courtesy of the Commoner.
to nominate men who are illwr In
competent or dishonest. The parly
suffers every time one of Its officials
betrays a trust. If tlif democrats
everywhera would take an Interevt In
politics, nominate their best men and
present the highest party Ideals to
the public the party would soon lie Ir
resistibly strong.
Eternal vigilance Is not only the
price of liberty, but it Is the price of
party success.
It is reported from the fast Hint
woodpeckers are deceived by the hum
ming wires and are attacking the tele
phone poles. Tliey mistake the buz
zing of the wires for the buz.lng of
insects. Those woodpeckers remind
one of those republicans who Ik Ileve iir
tariff revision and cling to the notion
that the men who control the repuh
lican ixiity will allow lh tariff to ho
revised.
If Secretary Moody is so awfully In
sistent upon Investigations, be might
Investigate that little matter of tho
tons of smokeless powder dumped Into
the ocean from an American warship.
If this will not. keep him busy, In
might put in the rest of his time In
vestigating the army transport pur
chases during the late scrimmage with
Spain.
A prominent army physician dec lares
that the American officers who re
main on duty in the Philippines for a
year are subject to mental and phys
ical deterioration. And this republic
suffers from moral deterioration while
it keeps them over there.
"Suppose we allow the national con
vention to nominate a vice president, "
suggests the urhane Mr. Piatt of New
York. To be; sure, but In the mean
time the proper g. o. p. authorities will
see to It that the proper selection N
made for the convention.
The San Francisco Star has just cel
ebrated its twentieth anniversary. The
Star lives' because it has a mission to
perform, and it is performing it val
iantly. As a champion of democracy
the Star stands well up at the htad of
the list.
The rumor that Mr. Hanna was ti
retire from business in order to de
vote his entire time to politics Is un
founded. Mr. Hanna finds it difficult
business to handle his politics since
Tom Johnson camped on his trail.
Editor Charles Emory Smith has
succeeded In giving ex-Postmaster
General Smith a clean I.I11 of health.
This may be satisfactory to the edited
and ex-postmaster general, but th;
people want something more.
If there is not a working democratic:
club in your precinct, go to work and
organize one. A little work on th
part of each loyal democrat will re
sult in frustrating the plans the re
organizers have for 1904.
Andrew D. White wants the collegia
to train young men for officehoidir:g.
This would be all right if the college
could devise some method of krepir-g
the office-seekers out of the way of
their trained young men.
Does anybody expect prosecution cf
the postoffice rascals at the hand.s of
an administration that owes its exist
ence to the scheming ability of the
men responsible for those rascals?
There is a big "guessing contest"
on in Washington. Those engaged are
guessing whether they will be jaibd
or permitted to go after making a few
feints at the pillars of the republican
temple.
President Roosevelt's cablegram to
Manila was sent In four minutes, but
the time was ample for all he had to
say concerning the Philippine problem.
Attorney General Knox might end
the postal scandal by getting out an
injunction against the "grafters."
Those Sulu slaves who have the
blessed privilege of purchasing their
freedom at "the usual market price,"
might try forwarding a protesL
The genuine "Iowa Idea" seems to
be to keep in close connection with the
gentleman wJio distributes the fat se
cured by the frylngpan.
Mr. Heath evidently believes that
his health will be benefited by "absent
treatment."
Evansvllle and KIshineff seem to
have trotted "a dead heaL"