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The Commoner.
Looks
Like
Aristocracy.
the couiltry into one great concern. Of all the
trustSjf that would he the most disastrous to busi
ness interests, and of all the burdens imposed by
the .trusts, that burden would be the, largest. It
may be that there are many people in this country
who, like the Missourian, must be shown. It is
not difficult to see that there are many railroad
magnates who are willing to show them.
American American farm machinery is
Goods shipped by water 8,000 miles
Abroad. and by rail from 500 to 1,000
miles and sold to English and
Scotch farmers for less than the American con
sumer 'nust pay. Ocean and railroad charges
must be .added to the article sold the Englishman
and the Scotchman and the 'machinery sold in
competition with English machinery. If Ameri
can implement men can pay all these freight bills
and compete on the foreigner's soil, why should
American consumers be deceived by their plea .
for protection against foreign competition?
The Editor of. Burke's Peerage,
London, says that he receives
more inquiries about questions
of precedence from, the United
States than he does from England. This is sig
nificant because it reveals a tendency toward the
forms and flummeries of aristooracy, which is
not only surprising but alarming. And yet how
can we expect to have imperialism and plutocracy
without the ceremony of the court. When once
we leave the broad foundation of political equal
ity, wo become involved in a never-ending con
troversy over relative rank and comparative importance-
Interesting: A commission should be appoint-
Dlscrlmlnatlon. ed to definitely fix the amount of
wealth one must possess before
being classed as a kleptomaniac instead of a thief.
The same commission could also fix the amount
which a man must steal before becoming a Napo
leon of finance instead of being a common embez
zler. There is 'now so 'much leeway afforded that
the public is often led to grievously wrong a man
' by calling lrim a thief or an embezzler when in
truth he is either a kleptomaniac or a financier.
This is because, of not having a definite amount
fixed from which to measure j udgment. This ap
pears to be one of the crying needs of the hour.
Torture The burning of another negro,
Indefensible. this time in Kansas, again calls
attention to the tendency to re
turn to the cruelties and torture of former times. ,
When a similiar incident occurred a few weeks
ago in Colorado, republican papers were quick to
connect the occurence; with a fusion majority in
the state. If retaliation were proper, democratic
papers might refer to the republican majority
rolled up in Kansas last November, but the
subjeot is too Berious to be made a theme for
partisan controversy. Such atrocities are inex
cusable, no matter' when or where they are.
practiced. Lynch law must be condemned on
general principles because it temporarily suspends
government and its enforcement amid excitement
and without a careful investigation of the evi
dence often leads to the doing of great injustice. ,
.The fact that good people, aroused to frenzy
.i
by a horrible crime, sometimes take the law into
.their own hands, is not a justification, but simply
shows that strong feeling will occasionally over
master the reason of the best of men. Before
lynching can be defended some tribunal must bo
authorized to decide when, under what circum
stances and upon what evidence individual
revenge should be substituted for the ordinary
methods of administering justice. But even if
lynching could be defended the addition of tor
ture is inexcusable. It is an indulgence of pas
sion, more hurtful to those who are guilty of it
than to their victim. Instead of lessening crime,
burning is apt to increase it by accustoming the
people to cruelty and by lessening their respect for
human life. Even those who in Kansas and else
where have joined in the mad cry for blood and
exulted in the agonies of a human' being will, in
calm and dispassionate moments, condemn the
act and deplore the weakness which temporarily
condoned it.
An unanswerable argument against such a
form of punishment is to be found in the fact
that no legislative body in Christendom would
deliberately provide for burning as a penalty for
any crime.
Hazing
Should be
Stopped.
The investigation of hazing at
West Point ought to result in
legislation which will forever put
an end to a practice as indefensible as it is brutal.
The indignities heaped upon now students of the
lower classes are neither necessary for the educa
tion of the victims nor beneficial to those who
find delight in wounding the feelings or the flesh
of others. There is nothing courageous, manly
or honorable about hazing and it is high time the
authorities were laying down an inflexible rule on
tlie subject. There is an old sayihg that a man
is not fit to command until he learns to obey, and
obedience to an anti-hazing law should be rigor
ously enfored.
The government should not send out men from
West Point to be officers until they are far enough
removed from barbarism to abandon the tortures
which, according to the evidence, are sometimes
inflicted at the academy.
An Expert "Flipflops of an ex-President" is
Opinion. the undignified caption the Chi
cago Tribune places above an
editorial dealing with the action of Mr. Benja
min Harrison. A scrutiny of the Chicago Trib
une's files for several years past will reveal that
it is an authority oh flipflops. And by the same
token, it is easy to see from present conditions
that the same caption might well be saved upon
the "live rack" for use a few years hence when
the Chicago Tribune is again at liber ty to say
what it honestly believes.
M
At Least Four; The British powers now prose
Perliaps More, cuting the Boer war may have
reached the conclusion that the
Boer is ubiquitous. The Boer has been so in the
habit of appealing in the most unexpected places
at the most inoppprtune times that the Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain is. to be excused if he has
long since reached this conclusion. But the Boer
is not ubiquitous, and in this fact lies the proof
that not less than four Boers were left under arms
not later than January,-for on the morning of
January 8 General Kitchner in one of his regular
"I regret to state" dispatches admitted that on
the night before his outposts were attacked simul
taneously at four widely separated points. This
could not have happened had there been but three
Boers left fighting for their liberty. It must bo
admitted, therefore, that there are at least four
Boers left in active service. And the indications
are that four Boers can be active enough to make
General Kitchener periodically regrctftil and cause
him to imagine that he is lighting a foo possessed
of some superhuman attributes.
AOood "Where is your good old cause
Old Cause. now?" is the question that was
put by republicans to democrats
after the last election. Thomas Harrison was a
lieutenant under Cromwell. lie was condemned
to death. He had been enthusiastic in his cause,
firmly convinced of its righteousness. As Harri
son walked to the scaffold, a bystander tauntingly
asked, "Where is your good old cause now?"
"It is right here," replied Harrison, striking
his breast with his list, "and I am about to seal
it with my blood."
A mere political defeat, temporary, because it
was unreasonable and unjust, can have no effect
upon a righteous cause. The triumph of a poli
tical party that is committed to wrong policies
does not disturb the principles nor destroy the
cause, neither should it seriously discourage the
man whose heart is in his cause.
Someone has said that defeat is merely educa
tion. "No just cause was permanently injured by
political defeat. The good cause as presented by
the principles set forth in the Kansas City plat
form yet exists in the hearts of millions of the
American people, and the time will come when
that cause will be vindicated by the votes of the
great majority.
Our
Allies.
If the re-organizers would spend
more time opposing republican
policies and less time denouncing
the populists they would serve the cause better.
The populists came to the help of the democratic
party when the re-organizers abandoned it and the
latter are not in a' position to boast of superior
attachment to democratic principles. What is
true of the populists is also true of the silver
republicans, who have for four years vied with the
democrats in their efforts to advance the doctrines
set forth in the democratic platform. It will be
an unfortunate day for the democracy if the bolt
ing element on the outside or the corporation ele
ment on the inside is able to so alter the party
creed as to make it less acceptable to our populist
and silver republican allies.
Revival that The newspapers of the country
Revives. are filled with predictions made
by clergymen to the effect that
there is to be a great revival of religion at the
beginning of the Twentieth century. An organ
ized effort is to be made on this line. An excel
lent plan, but we also need a revival that will apply
the principles of religion fo everyday life. The
Chinese heathen cannot obtain a very high idea
of religion when he sees that that religion does
not-operate upon our army .and does not protect
the heathen from the looting process. We also
need at home a revival that will prevent highway
robbery by monopolies and wars for the purchase
of trade.
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