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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1901)
'- - f Editing by The latest attempt at editing a Injunction. newspaper by injunction was a failure, but the attempt is a straw indicating the trend of the times under present conditions. Samuel Cohen of Boston is a member of the social set and naturally averse to haying his name connected with any thing smacking of scandal. He was forced to become a party to a rather disgraceful suit at lawv and dreading publicity applied to the courts for an injunction preventing the news papers from mentioning his name in connection with the case. The application was denied, but the mere fact such an application was made is not an encouraging sign. In view of the fact that a complaisant judge enjoined a minis ter from praying with a lotof striking miners it was not too much to expect that Mr. Cohen would be able to find a judge willing to under take the task of editing a newspaper by injunc-tion- Experienced a Change of Heart. A Washington dispatch quotes Senator' William E. Mason as giving, in "a public speech de livered at Bloomington, 111., cordial approval to the administration's foreign policy. Can it be that Senator Mason approved the administration's foreign policy? Or imita ting, the custom of some of our illustrious jurists, has he adopted the plan of considering the Philippines foreign for the purpose of ad dresses and domestic for other purposes? In other words can it be possible that Senator Mason has given ;an omnibus approval of the administration's policies under the term "for eign policies"? If this bo true, Senator Mason's Bloomington speech would provide interesting reading when compared with some of the Senator's eloquent speeches delivered at the time he waB protesting against the policy of imperialism which the dispatches 'now inti mate has his candid indorsement. Trust Methods Illustrated. The Standard Table Oil Cloth Co., the combines capitalized at $10,000,000 that recently acquired seven "of the largest table oil cloth plants in the country, has issued a new price list, advancing prices 5c a roll of 12-yards, and will commence active operations today by starting its salesmen on the road. for business. The -officers of the seven constituent companies hai e been consolidated in seven rooms on the sev enth floor of the Central National Bank building, No. 320 Broadway. The selling forces of the var ious firms have been retained so far and it Is gen erally believed that it win not be greatly changed before the opening of the next season, December 1. Ihe contracts of the majority of the salesmen, managers, etc., do not expire until then. It is expected, of course, that the new company will not need a selling force larger than that of any two of the constituent firms, and further that not more than two of the eastern and two of the western plants will be operated by the combine. These are the Ohio Oil Cloth Co., Western Linol eum Co., A. H. Buchanan & Sons and the Good latta Oil Cloth Co. The above dispatch which appeared recently in the New York Commercial illustrates sev eral features of the trust. First, the seven firms consolidated will only need the selling force employed by two firms; second, three The Waiting Game Being Played. The Commoner. ' manufacturing plants out of seven will bo closed down, and, third, the price will bo rained. The trust discharges employes dismantles factories and instead of giving tho public tho advantage of the money thus saved, collects more money from the cpnsumers. This is per fectly natural and ought to bo expected, and yet some people seem rto think tho trust is a benevolent institution. The' reaction, will come some daywhy not at once? "Vyhilp Captain Oberlin M. Carter is languishing in jail for having stolen a sizeable sum of money from the gov ernment, no move has been made to make other beneficiaries of his speculations yield up their ill-gotten gains. It is evident that some-men with strong political pulls are working tho waiting game policy on the government, and preventing any further moves in the case until a more favorable time. Five of the chief wit nesses against Carter have died since the con clusion of his trial, and the men who divided the plunder with Carter appear to be confident that if they can postpone further consideration of the case long enough they will be able to secure a verdict without trouble. Tho same waiting game seems to be in force in the case of Neeley, whose friends appear to exorcis'e a mysterious power in Washington. Ifc has been something more than a year since the country was informed that Neoley was to be vigorously prosecuted, but that was while a national cam paign was on.' " - . Literary Bureau The political literary bureau is In Politics. not a new idea by any means, but if the Chicago Record-Herald is to bo believed tho republican administra tion of Illinois has carried the idea to the limit. The Record-Herald, which has long been deemed an authority on matters pertaining to republicanism, declares that the state employes are regularly assessed 5 per cent of their month ly salaries to maintain a literary bureau. The money is paid to a man who watches all tho state newspapers and clips out everything com plimentary to the state administration. This is made up into a six-column page of plate matter once every six weeks and supplied free of cost to about 450 republican newspapers of the state. Trouble is in sight because, as some of the officials claim, Governor Yates insists upon receiving the lion's share of the compli mentary notices. The employes assessed for the benefit of the party bosses arc beginning to think that they should receive a small-share "of the credit in the plate matter. A Qood The Democratic State Corn- Beginning, mittee of Ohio has made a good beginning. It has chosen as chairman of the central committee Hon. Wil liam J. Frey of Findlay, a Kansas City plafr form Democrat and the party's candidate for congress in the JEighth district last year. The committee also adopted-a resolution providing that in all counties where there is registration and where the city precincts exceed tbe coun try precincts the delegates to state conventions shall hereafter be elected by a direct vote of tho people. In tho futuro no county central committo or executive committee shall have power to appoint delegates to a state conven tion. This is an excellent rulo. The selec tion of delegates by committees enables tho organization to pack a convention and thus de feat tho will of tho people. The nearer party management is brought to tho voters tho bettqr; tho only people hurt by such a rulo arc party bosses who arc more interested in offices than in principles. This resolution had the support of the Kan sas City platform element of the committee and the Tom Johnson element. The Respectable The Chicago American pub Boodlcr. lishes a letter written by Mr. J. F. Howard on "The .Re spectable Boodler." Tho language used is not as respectful as it might be, but the per sons described are not entitled to very gentle treatment. Mr. Howard says: "I would like to protest against the 'respect able' boodler who occupies a seat In church on Sun day and wears a silk hat I mean tho tax dodger. He will advise his employes that honesty is the best policy and prosecute any transgression on ..their part, yet ho steals hundreds of uollars an nually from tho city, or rather from the poor, who make up tho deficit. The boodler appropriates tho city's money tho tax dodger beats the city and poor out of their dues. It's strange how common a" figure he is, considering twenty centuries of Christianity have .passed. We are half barbaric yet, but shame on the tax dodgery Who is a-thief or a largo scale and a criminal, as are all who in - any way lower public morality and opinion. It's the outcome of greed and a decent sense of the , obligation entailed by living in a free country and of enjoying prosperity protected by a stable gov ernment. The 'respectable' tax dodger is on a par with the embezzler, defaulter, bandit, debauchee and miser. He is a type of a past ago surviving in an age supposed to bo civilized. The future his toiian will have much to say about the barbarians of the nineteenth century and early part of tho twentieth century." A recent cablegram from Lon don to the New York World England. Enlisting Savages. says: Though Commandant Kritz- inger's shooting of General French's native "scouts" arouses a furious protest here, the avowal that England has enlisted savages 1 aid in exterminating the Boers has given the nation pause. This is not only a" violation of the express pledge giveri by Mr. Balfour at the outset of the war, but It is contrary to all civilized usages. Still the natives have rendered service after their kind to the British forces on the Swaziland brrder. They were employed both in the relief of Mafeking from the north and by General Baden-1-owell in defense of that place. None know better than the British in South Africa that when you put arms into the hands of the natives and send them to fight It means .that every rule of civilized warfare' will be abandoned, that no quarter will be given, that the wounded will be murdered, and that other and nameless horrors will be perpetrated. General French himself sent Zulus to harass the Boers in Northeastern Transvaal by raiding their cattle. He was shifted from that command in consequence of it, owing to the protest from the Natal government. r Both sides have used natives with their trans port trains, but General French has been the first tii acknowledge that he employed them as scouts. The Boers think they have enough to face In Eng land's 250,000 men without being placed at tho mercy of hordes of black barbarians. i 4 LbL,MjiJ?2&.4dJ-L?' ttr&tl&dmZ&kt2&l&.