n
5
u
.
Father "Tom" Burke delivered a speech In
New York in 1872 in which he said: "Mr. Froude
says that the parliament of 1872
The was a failure because'the Irish
Inheritance are incapable of self-legislation,
of Freedom. It is a serious charge to make
now against any people. I, who
am not supposed to be a philosopher, and, be
cause of the habit that I wear am supposed not
to be a man of very large mind I stand up here
tonight and I assert my conviction that there is
not a nation or a race under the sun that is not
capable of self-legislation and that has not a
right to the inheritance of freedom."
Caleb Powers has for the second time been
convicted of complicity in the murder of Gov
ernor Goebel of Kentucky. The fore
WHl They man of the jury which convicted Pow
Now Return era had been a schoolmate of the de
Tayior? fendant. "Will the republican gov
ernor of Indiana accept this second
conviction as a reason for the delivery of Mr.
Taylor to the Kentucky authorities, or will, the
, Indiana governor use this second conviction as
another reason "why he should continue to defend
a fugitiye from justice? If the republican party is
in truth the enemy of assassination, It cannot af
ford to protect a man charged with complicity in
assassination, simply because, the fugitive hap.
pens to be influential in republican circles.
The report of the superintendent of "West
Point Military Academy contains the cheerful in
formation that hazing has been abol
Hazlng: ished. For many years army officers
Atolished insisted that hazing could not be
at West Point, abolished, and successive superinten
dents acknowledged their inability to
stop the brutal practice. But the Cadet Booze
case brought on a congressional investigation,
and that investigation disclosed such brutalities
at the academy that the great American public
was aroused. It came to a point where the people
demanded the abolition of hazing or the abolition
of the a'cademy. As a result hazing was stopped.
When the people become aroused to the necessity
of a reform the reform comes.
An ex-bank robber, who has reformed, srrys
crusades against vice in great cities usually fail
because the reformers become weary
Reform of the activity necessary to success.
Too He is right in pointing to the spas-
Spasmodic modic character of reform as the weak
T)oint in the movements started by the
lovers of law and justice. Stealing from the gov
ernment is a regular business with some, and it
cannot be stopped until the honest people become
as much in earnest as the criminals are. The
commercialism which is lowering the political
Ideals of the nation is also sapping the purpose of
those who give so much time to chasing the dollar
that they have no time left for the prosecution of
those who offend against government and public
conscience.
W: R. Hearst, publisher of the Chicago Ameri
can, has been cited to .appear before Judge Hanecy
and show cause why he should not be
The Court punishcl for contempt of court. Mr.
Objects to Hearst's paper had the temerity to
Criticism. criticise Judge Hanecy's decision in
the gas and coke company case. This
attempt to muzzle the press will fall, as other at
tempts have failed. When the day comes that
the courts are above calm and unbiased criticism
it will be sad for the American people. But Judge
Hanecy has his hands full when he endeavors to
stifle the Chicago American. These judicial at
tempts to prevent criticism are becoming alto
gether too numerous. A year or two ago an Omaha
judge issued an order restraining the Omaha
World-Herald from printing certain matter
in its advertising columns. The World-
The Commoner.
Herald promptly defied the judge, printed the mat
ter and assured his honor that the World-Herald
was one institution that could .not be governed by
injunction. The judge made a great bluster and
Anally beat a graceful retreat. The Commoner
feels like saying to Judge Hanecy what James
Whitcomb Riley put into the mouth of one of his
characters: "Good-bye, Jim; take keer o' yer
self." It is reported upon what seems to be good
authority that Lady Roberts, wife of General
Lord Roberts, is responsible for tho
The Way of degradation of General Buller. The
a Woman story goes that Lady Roberts felt
With a nan. aggrieved because of some social
slight put upon her by tho wife of Gen
eral Buller before General Roberts became a lord.
When Fuller was restored to the command of an
army corp3 Lady Roberts arose in her wrath and
insisted that he bo retired. Her influence with
her distinguished husband was such that he ex
ercised his influence and authority and had Buller
retired. It was reported that Buller's disgrace
was visited upon him because of his Ladysmith
speech, but this seems to have been an excuse
seized upon for the purpose of disguising the real
cause. If the story is true It offers some explana
tion of the disastrous campaign management of
-the British in South Africa.
W
The man with a sure sign concerning the win
ter is with us once more, and numerously. Tho
goosebone, the cornshuck, the squirrel,
Gooscbone the chipmunk and other signs and
and wonders are cited to prove that it Is
Cornshuck. going to be a severe winter, and the
same signs and wonders are cited to
prove that it will be a mild winter. Every man
has a sure method of predicting what the winter
will be, and no matter how often or how far he
may miss it, he comes up smiling every year with
his faith in his signs unshaken. Last summer was
a record-breaker in point of prolonged heat, and
some wiseacres pretend to see in this a sure sign
that the winter will be unusually mild. Other
wiseacres insist that it portends a severe winter.
But tho wind bloweth where it listeth. No man
knows what kind of a winter we are to have.
But It is safe to act on the supposition that it will
be cold and get the heating stoves and furnaces
into working order. The man who puts his de
pendence in goosebones and cornshucks is not
wise. '
The administration seems to have settled its
course in relation to the Boers there will be no t
intervention. There is no hope held
Suffering out to the Boers who are looking to
at Our Own this great republic for sympathy
Poors. never before withheld. But we
may demonstrate the charity of
the nation by extending a helping hand
to 'the Foers who are suffering almost with
in sight of our shores. Hundreds of Boer men,
women and children are captives In Bermuda.
They are crowded into a comparatively small
section, their greater number being alloted to one
third the area devoted to the lesser number of
British soldiers guarding them. They are ter
ribly overcrowded. Their homes are floored tents
and their rations not at all what they havo been
accustomed to in their home. They have been
forced to make clothing from old sails and blank
ets. They suffer from tad water, and sickness is
devastating their numbers. They sleep on straw
beds and suffer untold hardships. The Christian
Register invites all good men and women to lend
a hand in helping these poor prisoners. Contri
butions 'sent "Lend a Hand," No. 1 Beacon street,
Boston, will be received and will help in the
work of mercy. The administration's attitude to
ward the nation that is assassinating two little
republics in South Africa reflects upon the sin
cerity of the people of this great republic. Great
Britain rules India with a rod of Iron, and Amer
ica foods tho starving people of India. Great
Britain Is assassinating republics In South Africa
let the American peoplo show their opposition to
this course by extending a helping hand to the
Boer prisoners In Bermuda.
VVVN
The Negro's
Position In
the North.
It was to have been expected that northern
papers would wax wroth and grow bitterly sar
castic in replying to southern stric
tures upon tho president for enter
taining Booker T. Washington at din
ner. But the southern papers are re
plying by asking some pertinent ques
tions and citing some pertlnont facts. They point
out tho fact that northern love for tho negro is
confined to election day. How many business
ofllces in tho north employ negro clerks? How
many negro trainmen aro employed on northern
railways? How many negroes havo been ap
pointed to postmasterships in the north? How
many northern states havo elected negro senators
or congressmen? How many negro mechanics aro
employed In northern mills and factories along
side white mechanics? North ho is limited to tho
position of porter in hotels and on trains, or to
waitershlps in hotels and restaurants. Is there a
negro linotype operator on any great daily news
paper in tho north that Is so roundly denouncing
the south for Its attitude toward tho Roosevelt
Washington dinner Incident? Does any one of
these northern republican dally newspapers em
ploy a negro pressman, a negro reporter or a
negro city editor? Some of these days the negro
will realize that he has nothing to gain from the
alleged friendship of men who seek to use him
for political purposes only.
Local Self-Government.
(Extract from an address made by Louis Kossuth at the
Congressional Banquet.)
"Sir, as once Cyneas, the Epirote, stood among
the senators of Rome, who, with an earnest word of
self-conscious majesty, controlled the condition of
the world and arrested mighty kings in their am
bitious march, thus, full of admiration and of
reyerence, I stand before you, legislators of the
new capitol that glorious hall of your people's
collective majesty. The capitol of old yet stands,
but the Bpirit has departed from it and come over
to yours, purified by the air of liberty. The old
stands a mournful monument of the fragility of
human things yours as a sanctuary of eternal
rights. Tho old beamed with the red lustre of con
quest, now darkened by oppression's gloomy night
yours beams with freedom's bright, ray. The
old absorbed the world by its own centralized
glory yours protects your own nation against
absorption, oven by itself. The old was awful with
irrestricted power yours Is glorious for having
restricted it. At the view of the old nations
trembled at the view of the yours humanity
hopes. To the old misfortune was only Intro
duced with fettered Hands to kneel at the triumph
ant conqueror's heels to yours the triumph of
introduction Is granted to unfortunate exiles, in
vited to the honor of a seat, and where kings and
Caesars will never be hailed, for their powers,
might, and wealth, there the persecuted chief of
a downtrodden nation Is welcomed as your great
republic's guest, precisely because he Is persecuted,
helpless, and poor. In the old, the terrible vao
victls was the rule In yours, protection to the op
pressed, malediction to ambitious oppressors, and
consolation to the vanquished in a just cause.
And while out of the old a conquered world was
ruled, you in yours provide for the common fed
erative Interests of a territory larger than the con
quered world of the old. There sat men boasting
their will to be sovereign of the world here sit
men whose glory is to acknowledge the laws of
nature's God, and to do what their sovereign, the
people, wills."
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