cv
wanderer. To be true to life the picture ouht
to represent the ex-president a the prodigal son
in the act of inviting the father to share a dinner
of husks.
The fifteen thousand dollar dinner to be given
by .Tames Henry Smith, of New York, who
inherited fifty millions from his uncle a year ago,
will not create any hostility toward the inherit
ance tax. So long as heirs and legatees indulge
in expensive entertainments the public generally
will be able to tolerate a law which makes large
estates contribute to the revenues.
A Corallary of The Chicago Times-Herald re
Imperialism, fuses to endorse the practice of
deportation. It says:
Deportation is a proceeding- which Americans con
demn unreservedly in other governments than their
own, and we imagine that there are very few people
in this country who can take the slightest satisfac
tion in the banishment of Filipino prisoners to the
Island of Guam.
Deportation is one of the corollaries of impe
rialism. So long as wc insist upon a policy of
imperialism we must not be sensitive when we find
it necessary to adopt all the un-American habits
essential to maintaining that un-American policy.
The Height Of all the absurdities suggested
of Absurdity.- by administration politicians with
relation to the Cuban constitu
tion, the most thoroughly absurd is the state
ment, attributed to several republican United
States senators, that before CongreBs takes any .
action with respect to retiring from Cuba, a clause
must be inserted in the Cuban constitution "ex
pressing gratitude to the United States."
Cubans say they are willing to adopt an inde
pendent resolution thanking the United States,
but that it would be ridiculous to incorporate in
their constitution an expression of thanks. In
this they are eminently correct. We did not
place "God" in our constitution. "With what
reason shall we insist that the United States shall
be placed in Cuba's constitution.
The Utah The Salt Lake Tribune is charg-
Situation. ing that Mr. Koarn's election was
the result of a bargain made with the leaders of
the Mormon Church.
If this ip true, the situation is greatly to be de
plored. Both religion and politics suffer by a
union of the church and the state. The Salt
Lake Herald, which speaks for the democrats, re
fers to the charge and says the Tribune has prof
ited by such, combinations in the past and was
willing that its candidate should reap the fruits of
the bargain this time. Whether the Tribune will
be able to support its indictment with sufficient
proof, or whether its complaint arises from poign
ant disappointment, the injection of such afcques
tion into politics is sure to make trouble. When
religious prejudice enters a contest, reason retires
from the field.
A Sound but
Neglected
Doctrine.
A correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune suggests that the phrase,
"government of the peoplefor
the people, by the people," as
used by Mr. . Lincoln, was derived from Thomas
Cooper'i "Thoughts Concerning Americans,"
The Commoner.
published in 1705. Another Tribune correspond
ent says it is more than probable that Mr. Lin
coln obtained this phraso from Daniel Webster's
famous reply to Mr. Hayno wherein Mr. Webster
spoke of "the people's government, made for the
people, made by the people, and answerable to
the people." This samo tcorrcspondent further
points out that at the New England anti-slavery
convention, held in Boston in 1850, Theodore
Parker referred to the "American idea" as being
"a government of all the people, by all the peo
ple, for all the people." It is not vastly impor
tant although the discussion is interesting
where Mr. Lincoln obtained this phrase, but it is
important to noto that the republican party the
party of Lincoln is disregarding the doctrine
more and more.
A flanly
Surrender.
The students at West Point, at
the close of the investigation,
handed to the Congressional Com
mittee, through the Superintendent of the Acade
my, the following pledge:
Having become cognizant of the manner in which
the system of hazing as practised at the military
academy is regarded by the people of the United
States, we, the cadets of the United States military
academy, while maintaining that we have pursued our
system from the best motives, yet realizing that'tho
deliberate judgment of the people should, in a coun
try like ours, bo above all other considerations, do re
affirm our former action abolishing the exercising of
fourth-class men, and do further agree to discontinue
hazing, the requiring of fourth-class men to cat any
thing against their desire, and the practice of "call
ing out" fourth-class men by class action, and that we
will not devise other similar practices to replace those
abandoned. Respectfully submitted. For the first
class, W. R. Bettison, president class '01; for the second
class, B. O. Mahaffey, president class '02; for the third
class, Quinn Gray, president class '03; for the fourth
class, Joseph A. Atkins, representing class '04.
This manly surrender to public sentiment has
done much to soften the criticism which haz
ing had aroused. Their prompt recognition of
the right of the people to regulate the conduct of
cadets who are being educated at public expense
is in every way commendable, and, it may be
added, shows moral courage as well as sense of
duty.
It is significant that the republi
can newspapers insist that the
United States must be suzerain
to the Island of Cuba.
'The New York Tribune declares that the
United States acquired suzerain rights because
Mr. McKinley in a message to. Congress asked
that body to authorize him to proceed "to secure
in the island the establishment of a stable govern
ment, capable of maintaining order and observing
its international obligations."
The Tribune is pleased to overlook the fact
that subsequently Congress declared "that the
people of Cuba are and of right ought to be free
and independent;" and in behalf of the United
States Congress disclaimed "any disposition or in
tention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or
control Over said island except for the pacification
thereof."
Cuba's right to freedom and independence is
not affected by anything the United States said.
Our declaration that the Cuban people of right
ought to be free and independent was simply a
Looking
for a New
Insurrection
The Working
Democracy.
recognition of a right possessed by those people
against Spain, and a right that would continue to
exist even against the United States.
But when wo havo expressly recognised the
rights of the Cubans to freedom and followed that
recognition by a promiso that wo would not seek
"to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control
over said island except for tho pacification thereof ,"
wo aro estopped from making any pretense to
suzerain rights or arty othor authority in that
island.
The Washington correspondent of tho New
York World attributes to tho administration a de
liberate purpose to prevent the Cuban Republic
from having that complete independence that must
belong to a successful republic. One paper
aptly describes tho situation when it intimates
that the administration is "looking for a new insurrection."
Tho Democratic National Com
mittee has, during the past two
years, been perfecting a precinct
organization which is self-supporting and through
which literature is being distributed. It is ahap
py solution of tho difficult problem of continuing
work between campaigns.
Tho committee issues weekly a paper called
tho Working Democracy which is in itself worth
to tho members of the organization all that tho
organization costs. The committee is to be com
mended both for its effort to extend organized
work beyond tho campaign period and for the de
termination to defray tho expense of such work
by contributions from tho rank and file of the
party. There is a fact which the voters of
tho country ought to Icuoav and it is this,
that a party organization must be supported by
the people if the people are to control it. If tho
great corporations furnish the funds to carry on
campaigns and to circulate literature among the
people, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to
prevent these same corporations from controlling
party nominations and party administration3.
Mrs. Carrie Nation, as her name
i'i
Mrs. Nation's
Crusade.
would indicate, has succeeded in
making herself more than a state
affair. Her attempt to cure lawlessness by law
lessness has aroused discussion everywhere. She
has already reached a degree of eminence which
has excited the attention of cartoonists, and
hatchet brigades are being organized in various
cities in her honor. Kansas has a constitutional.
amendment as well as a statute prohibiting the ' .
sale of liquor, but, as is well known, prohibition
is not enforced in communities where the local
. sentiment is against it. Mrs. Nation acts upon
the theory that the saloon is an outlaw in Kansas
and that saloon keepers cannot invoke the protec
tion of the law when they themselves disregard
it. While no defense can be made of lawless
methods in enforcing law, those who condemn
Mrs. Nation mustj in order to be consistent, also
condemn the violation of the liquor laws. The
Kansas crusade has already served a useful pur-
. pose in that it has brought out the fact that
prohibition is a dead letter in that state, and now
that public attention has been directed toward
the subject, it is probable that tho law will either
be enforced or the question resubmitted. A law
that is not enforced breeds contempt for law.
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