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v3
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5
Sauce for
the Goose
and the Gander.
" In a recent consular report, Frank' Mason,
United' States consul general at Berlin, said that
the business situation in Ger
many could not regain its former
prosperity as long as the future
respecting duties continues un
certain and the danger of for
eign reprisals remains. A German paper, the
Kreuz Zeitung, commenting upon Mr. Mason's
statement, declares that tariff duties in Germany
are no more uncertain than in the United States.
,The Kreuz Zeitung adds, "Let the United States
make and inaugurate a tariff reform favorable to
commercial treaties before accusing other coun
tries of endangering trade relations through pre
parations for tariff legislation." It will occur to
a great many people that this German paper has
come very near to hitting the nail on the head. For
a country that is so immovable on its high pro
tective tariff provisions as the United States, it
vtould seem we are indulging in considerable com
plaint concerning the tariff laws of other nations.
Senator Frye, who is one of the senatorial
leaders of the fight for the ship subsidy, announced
some time ago that he had
Atraid "worked out a new subsidy bill."
of When asked for its provisions
Publicity. he replied: "I am unwilling that
its features should become the
shuttle-cock of journalistic comment." Why should
the bill be shielded from public scrutiny? Why
should its features be kept in the dark? Truth and
justice do not fear the light; 'neither has any good
measure reason for avoiding the public gaze. It is
a significant fact that the republican leaders of
late years have refused to give any considenble
time for the discussion of their pet public meas
ures. When they want something done they spring
a bill upon congress and hurry it through. They
failed to get-the last subsidy bill through and it
was announced that it was going to be materially
changed, but the public has had no chance to con
sider the changes. Publicity has never defeated a
good measure, but tad measures have often been
passed hurriedly which could never" have been
passed if sufficient time had been given for consid
eration and discussion.
It is a mistaken notion that the postal depart
ment should produce a revenue. Its mission is to
serve the people at the smallest cost,
Express and when the department finds the re-
and ceipts equalling the expenditures It
Man. should immediately better the service.
It is undoubtedly true, as the post
master general claims, that the department is the
victim of mail abuses, but it is not true that the
abuse is confined wholly to a too liberal construc
tion of the second class mail privileges. The
greatest abuse is in the letting of mail carrying
contracts at exorbitant figures to railroads, and in
the payment of unreasonable rentals for mail cars.
II costs no more to haul an express -car than it
does to haul a postal car, yet the postoffice depart
ment pays from seven to ten times more for haul
ing postal cars than the express companies pay for
hauling their cars. It costs the railroads no mco
to ca'rry a ton of mail than it does to carry a ton
of express, yet the government pays from seven
to ten times more for mail hauling than express
companies pay for their express haul. Before the
benefits to the people are curtailed the exorbitant
sums paid for. carrying the mails should be brought
down to just and reasonable figures.
Governor-elect Cummins of Iowa, speaking be
fore the New York chamber of commerce, said:
"I know that the people of this
country will not stand for in
dustrial monopoly any more
than they would for a monarchi
cal form of government. If we
wish to preserve the manhood of our citizenship
The Commoner.
the lime will come when it will be necessary to
nationalize the questions now agitating the pub
lic mind in this particular domain." What Mr.
Cummins Intended to do was to Titter to the as
sembled republicans a warning against trusts.
Mr. Cummins, however, touch&d very gingerly
upon this question. If the "manhood of our citi
zenship" is threatened, then the time to act is at
hand rather than in the indefinite future, when
that "manhood" shall bo destroyed. The ques
tions now agitating the public mind in "this par
ticular domain" are already "nationalized." The
democratic party has taken a firm and unequivocal
position on those questions. The republican party
has deliberately and persistently encouraged the
processes of industrial monopoly ana when the
people become thoroughly awakened as to tho
dangers confronting them the republican party
will be. convicted upon its record.
Representative John S. Williams of Mississippi
has introduced a resolution providing for tho ap
pointment of a committee to in
vestigate the charges made by
Historian Maclay that Crownin
shield, Sampson and other naval
officers read tho proof-sheets of
Maclay's bitter attack on Admiral Schley. It can
not be doubt that Mr. Williams, who is one of
the forceful members of the house, will push hi3
resolution with all possible vigor, and yet it Is
not likely that republicans will permit the adoption
of any such resolution introduced by a democrat
They will perhaps prefer to adopt a similar resolu
tion introduced by a republican. At all events,
the American people will expect the charge that
Admiral Schley has been the victim of a con
spiracy, to be thoroughly investigated. There
seems, also, to be a disposition In congress to pre
vent the creat'ion of the grade of vice admiral un
less provision is made -for conferring that grade
upon Admiral Schley and restoring him to active
service. It required a long time for some of the
politicians. in the republican party to realize that
injustice was being done Admiral Schley, but it
is now probable in spite of the court of inquiry's
decision that many of them will compete strongly
with democratic members in the effort to do jus
tice to Schley.
Doing Justice
to
Admiral Schley.
The
Retirement of
rir. AlcLean.
Mr. Cumraln'5
Stern
Warning:.
If the Ohio campaign has served no other pur
pose, it has g'iven the democrats of Ohio - an in
sight into Mr. McLean's views
and plans. The Inquirer, which
reflects his sentiments, recently
contained the following: "A
kindly commentator says that
Colonel Kllbourne made as good a race as could
have been expected under the circumstances. Per
haps so. Not 'much was expected." The demo
cratic papers of Ohio are now calling attention to
the fact that Mr. McLean did not feel any inter
est in Mr. Kilbourne's election. He was interested
ici securing a repudiation of the Kansas City plat
form because he thought it would help the reor
ganizing element to get control of the party. The
adoption of tho Tom Johnson planks, however,
made the platform about as odious to him as the
Kansas City platform would have been, and having
no love for Mr. Kilbourne he did not take interest
enough in the election to return to Ohio to vote.
Mr. Kllbourne and Tom Johnson are growing fac
tors in Ohio politics and neither one of them is in
harmony with McLean's machine methods. At
present the Kilbourne men and the Johnson men
together control the state organization in Ohio.
In future fights it ought to be possible to com
bine the national principles entertained by the
Kansas City platform with the state policies
urged by the Johnson democrats and the clean poli
tics advocated by the Kilbourne democrats, and
thus put the democratic party of Ohio in good
fighting trim.
A London cablegram to tho Chicago Tribune
cays that keen interest has been excited by the re
port that tho ceremonies of do
Drench Them ing homage and annolnting with
intheniik oil will bo omitted from tho cor
of Kindness. onatlon service of King Edward.
Assurance is given, however,
that this report Is not well grounded. It is gen
erally admitted, so this cablegram says, that it Is
no longer necessary to kiss tho king's, foot, yet
oven this was done as late as tho coronation of
Edward VI. But tho coromonial of annolnting with
oil is a very old one. Tho annolnting Is to bo
made on tho hands, breast, shoulders, elbows and
head of tho king, and while It Is possible that
King Edward will not require that his foot be
kissed, ho will, it is said, adhere to all tho ancient
customs concerning annolnting. This, to bo sure,
is not the affair of outsiders, and if the English
people conclude to drown their king In oil, no ono
on this side of tho pond will have authority to
complain. If, however, wo were permitted to make
a suggestion, wo would say that if all tho men In
authority in Great Britain, from tho King -to the
humblest member of the British ministry, coulJ
bo thoroughly annointed with tho milk of human
kindness, tho coronation services would bo more
successful both from tho standpoint of tho loyal
Britisher and from tho standpoint of humanity
having in view the rcconcentrado camps of South
Africa.
The Independent of New York, which makes
somo pretensions to being Independent in politics,
is sometimes more partisan in
The Independent Its editorial comments than the
not most pronounced party organs,
independent In a recent issue it has the Im
pudence to remove all the im
portant questions from tho field of discussion by
declaring them settled on the republican side. For
Instance, it says: "There is no question of mili
tarism before the country, nor of imperialism. No
body defends either. Our army is very small, and
la being reduced. Nobody wants war. Nor Is
there any difference to amount to anything about
imperialism. Nobody complains that we have
Porto Rico, and nobody wants Cuba unless Cuba
should ask to como to us. The Philippines are
ours, and it cannot be helped. Everybody is
pleased with the way we are trying to give them
self-government, perhaps faster than the people
know what to do with it. The question of im
perialism, if there ever was one, is forgotten In
the pressing task of establishing schools and
courts and free government. If anybody has any
suggestions for better conditions there, let him
make them; tho administration will be glad. It
is of absolutely no use to try to make a party cry
of imperialism any more. It has gone to Lethe
with sixteen-to-one, and it is not strange that tho
new party never thought of it. And trusts? We
wait for practical working suggestions that will
differentiate parties." We now have in the Phil
ippines more soldiers than we had in the whole
United States four years ago, and there Is no pros
pect of our being able to materially reduce the
forces there. Instead of It being true that nobody,
wants imperialism, the republican readers not only
favor imperialism, but are today administering an
imperialistic government in the Philippines. The
Independent entirely ignores the real situation lu
Porto Rico, and makes no reference to the subject
of Cuba'3 representation in congress. It also as
sumes that we must necessarily hold the Philip
pine islands, anJ praises the manner In which the
government is being administered there. Its posi
tion on the trust question is In entire harmony
with its views on the other questions It simply ac
cepts tho position of the republican party, ana,
without trying to defend it, denies that there is
any necessity for defense. It would be difficult
for the most bitter republican partisan to prepare
a more misleading, untruthful or partisan edi
torial than the one above quoted, and yet it cornea
from a paper pretending to be independent.
