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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1901)
a Two Brave Miss Haley and Miss Goggin, Young Ladles, 'two Chicago school teachers, have started otit to compel the Chicago corporations to pay their share of the taxes. It is said that about two hundred millions of property is escaping assessment. Judge O. P. Thompson is hearing the case at Springfield and the' prosecuting attorney charges that the sum of $88,000 was paid by the corporations to members of the state board of equalization. It was a plucky undertaking for the women and they will deserve the thanks of the state if their crusade results in increasing the assessment. The property that is found by the assessor always pays more than it should because it not only pays its own share but also the share which ought to be paid by the property which escapes. Perquisites of The New York Post calls at Imperialism. tention to the fact that" the Cecil Rhodes Company is to be relieved from the payment of the five mil lion dollars awarded against it in favor of the Transvaal. The Post says: It is hardly surprising that the first immediate gainer by the extinction of the Boer republics is to be the British Chartered South African com pany. Mr. Cecil Rhodes' company, it will be re membered, owed the Transvaal a matter of 1, 000,000 by way of indemnity for the Jameson raid. This great sum is simply to be stricken off the books, for Mr. Chamberlain finds that the claims of the Transvaal have not, in virtue of the conquest, passed to Great Britain. It all looks very much like a ."gentleman's agreement" between the Col onial Premier and the Colonial Secretary, who share the honor of bringing about the war. How the treasury will take the loss of amillion sterling remains to be seen; while as such instances make it clearer that the interests of the British em pire have turned out to be always those of the Chartered Company, we may hope to see, what England so much needs, a growing concentration of all liberal forces against the present "commer cialized" government. A Triumph of The St. Louis exposition prom Diplomacy ises to be one of the greatest, and Honor. if not the greatest, ever held in the United States. It will commemorate the purchase from France of what is known in history as the Loisiana territory. .That purchase was made openly and above board and ratified without bloodshed. The in habitants of the acquired territory were guar anteed all the rights, privileges and immunities enjoyed by the inhabitants of the other terri tories and the states. There was no cant about "benevolent assimilation," no hypocritical phrasing about "duty and destiny," no Peck sniffian pretense of "American valor." It re quired no immense armies, no great outlay of public money, no special stamp taxes, no re cruiting stations, no mother's tears, to make it binding upon all the people. It was a triumph of American diplomacy and American honor, not a breaking of American faith and a depar ture from American principles. Because of this every patriotic American citizen should join with the patriotic people of St. Louis in the' work of making the St. Louis exposition a magnificent success and worthy of the great event it celebrates. The Commoner. Harrison's Long Thomas Harrison, one of the Prayer. judges of Charles I and one of the signers of that mon arch's death warrant was a relative of the late Benjamin Harrison. A writer in the New York "World calls attention to an interesting passage in the life of Oliver Cromwell, which was written by Thomas Cromwell, one of his descendants, and printed in London in 1821. This relates to an incident in the execution of King Charles. It is stated that on the morning of the execu tion Lord Fairfax, the Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary Army, was much troubled in his mind about the legality and propriety of the pro cepdings so mucn so that he was suspected of an intention of interfering at the last moment to save tho life of Charles. While he was revolving his scruples and Charles was being" taken to the scaf fold the tradition says that Mr. Harrison, to ease General Fairfax's mind, suggested that they should "seek counsel of the Lord,'-' and Harrison prayed so long that as he said "Amen" a messenger ar rived with the news that the King's head was off, which is said to have been accepted by both Harrison and Fairfax as conclusive proof that the Lord's will had been done. 00 A Blow at the Representative Russell, a re Trust System, publican member of the Ways and Means Committee, , in a public interview says: "I cannot understand how it would be feasible to exempt from tariff protection trust made articles as proposed in the Babcock bill." Mr. Russell's objection is that this proposed change would mean the over hauling of the whole subject, and in his opin ion the business interests of the country do not desire this to be done. In the same interview Mr. Russell suggested that certain changes in the revenue might be made to great advantage. The internal taxes upon spirits and alcohol used in the arts might, he said, be reduced. Ho was also in favor of free alcohol for use in the arts. Mr. Russell overlooks the fact that the prop osition to exempt from tariff protection trust made articles. is not advanced out of consider ation for the revenue. It is one method of striking at the iniquitous trust system; and from the objections urged to this plan by trust magnates, one may well believe that it would be a very effective plan. The demand for the removal of tariff protec tion from trust made articles connot be met by any proposition to lower the internal taxes upon spirits. "That" in the language of Kip ling, "is another story." The Sun Do John Jasper, the negro preacli Move. cr, who became famous by the delivery of a sermon in which he sought to prove that the sun was not stationary, died at Richmond, Virginia, March 00. Jasper's sermon has been known as "The Sun Do Move Sermon." This sermon was de livered in the year 1870. Jasper contended that, in spite of the'popular notion, "the sun do move," and he fortified his position by many quotations from the bible. Jasper contended that the earth is square, flat and immovable, and that the sun rises" in the east and sets in the west. He took his text from Exodus, chapter 15, verse 3, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name." Jasper said, "Tlic biblo says the sun stood still. Is anybody going to say the sun was standing still before Joshua told it to stand still?' Do you think Joshua would have asked the privilege of stopping the sun if she had not been moving? This morn ing when tho sun rose it was over there, (point ing to tho cast.) How in tho name of God could the sun get from that side of the house over to this, (pointing to the west,) unless it moved? How Solomon was certainly a scholar. Do you know he was the man who said, 'The sun arisethand goeth down, and hastcnethback to the place ho moved from'? It is nonsense to say the sun does not move. The man who says the sun does not move does not read the bible." Jasper was in his 83 year when he died. For more than 02 years he had been a preacher. Both Nations. TheLond6nTimes,coininenting Pegging Away on the capture of Aguinaldo, says, "The United States will keep pegging away with the dogged tenacity that is in their blood and ours. We must keep pegging away in South Africa." It is very evident that the British must keep "pegging away" in South Africa if they hope finally to accomplish the subjugation of the two republics. It is also evident that, in spite of the capture of Aguinaldo, we must keep "pegging away" in the Philippines if wo liope to subjugate those people. But what are these two great nations accomplishing by this "pegging away" process? ' The British taxpayer already feels the heavy burden consequent upon the enormous war expenditures in South Africa, and because of its unholy assault upon the two helpless republics Great Britain has lost much of its prestige among the nations of the world, and much of the respect which intelligent and honest men have heretofore entertained for it. . What have we accomplished by our pegging away in the Phillippincs? We have violated our purest traditions; we have lost the con fidence of the freemen of the world; we have abdicated our place at the head of the lovers of liberty; we have lost our self respect; wc have spent millions of treasure and sacrificed thous ands of precious lives. The latest estimate of our expenditures in blood and money in the Philippines is as follows: Expenditures on account of military opera tions in the islands, 173,550,000. Paid to Spain under treaty of aris, $20,000,000. Paid to Spain for Cagayan and Sibutu, $100,000. Interest on war loan since June 30, 1899, $8, 423,Q00. Philippine Commissioners and mis cellaneous, $500,000. Total cost in money, $202;573,000. Army lost in killed and,deaths from wounds; Officers, 54, enlisted men 830; navy lost in killed and deaths from wounds, officers 2, en listed men 1G; Deaths from disease, officers 48, eulisted men 2,072. Total cost in lives, 3,028.