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Nov. 7, 190a
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He
Will Observe
the Wreck.
Joseph Chamberlain announces that he will
pay a visit to South Africa. This visit is made
necessary by the complication of
affairs under British administra
tion. Mr. Chamberlain may
find come satisfaction in the im
mensa work of construction bo-
Core him; but It would not be surprising if when
he gazes upon the wreck produced by his policies,
ho has one or two pangs of conscience.
Vice Admiral Charles Roresford In an inter
view recently given at Liverpool said that if Great
Britain and the United States
Fight, should unite, they could whip
Fight, tne rest of the world, "if the
Fight, rest of the world wanted to
fight" But, after all, are there
not more important duties, for civilized countries
than that of whipping the rest of the world, or
even of boasting that the conquest could bo mado
If the rest of the world wanted to fight?
Captain Richard P. Hobson In an address at a
New York banquet said: "Let us build a great
navy, bigger than any nation in
Europe. As the navy introduced
us to the Orient and the world,
the navy alone can give us world
influence and secure the peace
of the world, and our peace." It is strange that
the United States was able to prosper without an
enormous navy! It must.be interesting to the peo
ple of the republic to hear that "tho navy alone
can give us world influence."
Must
Depend
Upon Force.
It is related that when Booth Tarkington, the
novelist, who was a republican candidate for the
- legislature, undertook to make
Tarkington's mb Qmt political speech, he was
Stage attacked with a severe case of
Fright stage fright He was unable to
speak. In his next effort, how
ever, Mr. Tarkington managed to say something
and among the things he said was that the trust
question was "not a political issue." It would per
haps have been better for Mr. Tarkington if he
had been stricken with stage fright on his second
effort
Since tho crown prince of Siam has visited
tho United States, it is proposed by republican
leaders that congress invite tho
Can It young man's father to visit this
be country and become the guest
Possible? f the nation. If memory is not
at fault, it was proposed not
very long ago to have congress invite the presi
dent of a republic, whose people were struggling
to maintain their government, to visit this coun
try. Congress, however, did not extend the invita
tion. Can It be possible that in the present day
wo have grown fond of kings and princes and lost
our concern for simple republicans?
Governor General Taft of the Philippines has
announced that "the United States would retain
tne islands mueiiniteiy witu a
view of educating the Filipinos
to a state of self-government
and other conditions which
would enable them to decide
whether they desired to become Independent, or
be made into a'stato like Canada or Australia un
der Great Britain." Why should the United States
go to all this trouble to educate the Filipinos "to
a state which would enable them to decide whether
they desire to become Independent or be made
Into a state like Canada or Australia under Great
Britain?" ue Filipinos, inspired by the history
of our own forefathers, are right now able to de
cide that they desire to become independent Why
not grant them independence now?
Why Not
Independence
Now.
By Deeds
Not
By Words.
A reader of The Commoner sends In a re
port of a speech made by President Roosovelt In
lumtucKy in wnicn ne, tne pres
ident, expresses the hope and
tho belief that" there would not
be another war in our time.
And the editor was asked to
reconcile the president's Kentucky speech with
The Commoner's criticism of the West Point
speech. If any reconciliation Is necessary it falls
upon the president rather than upon the editor
of The Commoner. If the president hopes and
Wleves that there will be no more wars in our
jie, and yet believes, as he said to the students at
West Point, that a soldier should not only be will-
The Commoner.
Ing to fight, but anxious to fight, then the soldior
must be essentially different from the civilian in
his desires and hopes. It might be added, by way
of parenthesis, that if the president were very
anxious to prevent a war he would abandon tho
policy of Imperialism which always has led to
wars and always will be tho cause of Insurrection
and bloodshed.
Abram S. Howltt, of Now York, one of tho
gentlemen who distinguished himself in Wall
m- h it street circles by refusing to sup
mr. newitt port tho democratic tlckot in
With the 1896 and in 1900, espoused
Barons. the cause of the coal barons In
tho recent coal strike. Mr. Howltt
protended that ho could not follow the Chicago
platform because of its position on the money
question; and yet It is significant that these gen
tlemen who were so averse to bimetallism are
among tho first to rush to tho assistance of in
fluential men who are seoliing to do injustice to
their fellows.
yyy
The Philadelphia North American in a burst
6f righteous indignation says: "Tho anarchistic
coal operators have sown tho
seI wind. Now let them reap the
It in whirlwind of a dolled constitu-
Motlon. tin of the wrath of a con
temned people a porlshing peo
ple that hears In tho whistling winds tho cruel cour
iers of a deadly winter." Well, why not let them
reap the whirlwind? All tnat is nocessary is for
the republican president and tho republican gov
ernor of Pennsylvania to summon sufficient cour
age and independence to set tho whirlwind in
motion.
Mr. Fowler
and His
Story.
Congressman Fowler believes that tho Fowler
bill will become a law. Some other republican
congressmen differ with Mr.
Fowler and this recalls a story
which tho Dallas (Tex.) News
says Mr. Fowler himself has fre
quently told. This is the story:
"I had gone to see one of my constituents down
in Union county," said tho congressman, "and
found him trying to give some medicine to a young
son who had eaten too many green apples, while
a Christian science neighbor was assuring tho boy
that there was nothing at all the matter with
him. " 'I think I ought to know groaned tho
boy; I've got inside information.' "
A barber at Cold Springs Harbor, N. Y., of
fered his services to a show, one of the features
of which was the feat of shoot-
A Very ing an apple from the head of
Bad any person who would volun-
Practice. teor T apple was placed on
the barber's head and tho
marksman began shooting at a distance of twenty
feet The first two shots missed, but the third
struck the barber in the forehead and his death
resulted within an hour. Such exhibitions as these
are attractive simply because of the enormous risk
taken by the man who stands in front of the gun.
The risk Is altogether too great Life is too
precious and society will do well to frown severely
upon the practice.
Inimical
to the
People.
Referring to the statement showing tho
enormous profits of tho steel trust, the Chicago
Record-Herald says: "The one
important tale of the statement
Is the tale of a virtual monop
oly, which is coming more and
more to dominate various lines
of trade, and which represents a consolidated in
terest that is inimical to the people through tho
stifling of competition and the acquisition of a
concentrated power that may be felt In national
and state politics as well as in business." And yet
the republican attorney general reported that It
was not the part of wisdom to begin proceedings
against this monopoly; and this consolidated in
terest that is inimical to the people makes liberal
contributions to the republican campaign fund and
every suggestion made that the shelter which this
monopoly finds in the tariff be removed Is mot
by prompfand bitter protest in republican circles.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal says: "Im
perialism never really existed. It was a nebulous
figure, the creature of excited
imaginations. It was a spirit
called up rom the vasty deep,
impalpable, fugacious, and which
eluded muscular grasp. Like the
nephelococcygia of Aristophanes, it was designed
If Not
Imperialism
What?
to frighten the timorous and It was made to ap
pear in its most fearsomest guise by the master
conjurers and thaumaturgista of the land, la
Maine. Tho Commercial Appeal would find it
difficult to convince tho "citizons of Porto Rico,"
who. while boing required to pay allegiance to the
United States, are not permitted to idontlfy them
selves with this government, that "Imperialism
never really oxlsted." This Memphis paper might
also learn somothlng to advantage by oboorvlng
tho conditions in tho Philippines. If these pollciee
do not ropresont Imperialism, what do thoy represent?
In a recent issue tho Omaha Bco, a republican
paper, Baid: "Tho validity of tho Piatt araend
N mont to the Cuban constitution
llow does not depend upoq any action
Might of tho Cuban legislature or of
Makes Right tno' Cuban people, although the
latter seem to bo afflicted with
this hallucination. It simply depends upon the
power of tho United States to enforco It It Is ul
timately merely a question of physical forco. It
will bo too bad If tho Cubans shall fall to ace the
real point and misconduct themselves according
ly." It would indeed bo too bad if tho Cubans
failed to "sco tho real point nnd misconduct them
selves accordingly." And it would bo too bad,
also, if tho United States undortook to exercise a
power whoso authority depended upon "merely the
question of physical forco." In tho old-fashioned
days American statesmen, very goncrally, hold that
right made might, rather than that might makes
right
The Des Moines Register and Leader, a repub
lican paper, says: "Why should not Porto RIcans,
Hawaiians and Filipinos have4
tho same rights to travel about
that residents of our own terri
tories hav? If tho supreme
court rules that thoy are aliens.
and congress does not remedy their status a very
serious barrier will bo raised against any perma
nent friendly relations between them and the
United States." The Porto RIcans and Filipinos
are not given the same righto that residents of our
territories have because Porto Rico and tho Phll
iplnes are "colonies" and tho people of these isl
ands are governed according to tho rules of im
perialism rather than by tho laws of a republic.
The court has already ruled, in effect, that thoy
are aliens for sorao purposes and that the terri
tory is domestic territory for some purposes and
foreign territory for other purposes; and tho em
barrcssment of tho situation Is not so much that
It raises a barrier against any permanent friendly
relations betweon the colonists and tho people of
the United States, but rather that this policy of
imperialism places the American people at war
with the purest of American traditions and the
best of American principles.
At War
With
Ourselves.
O. C. Barber, president of the Diamond Match
company, which practically controls the match
industry of the world, was re
Water Curing cently interviewed by the Akron
the (O.) Beacon-Journal. In this in-
Rallroads. terview Mr. Barber said that
there was only one monopoly in
the United States and that was the railroad mo
nopoly. While Mr. Barber did not want his owa
trust Interfered with, he was willing that the rail
roads should bo regulated and on this point he
said: "I have had experience at home, In Eng
land and in other countries in the matter of freight
rates. One of Uo greatest advantages America
manufacturers have over English manufacturers,
Is that the rates of freight in England run fully
ten times as high on the great bulk of freight
moved, as Is charged by tho railroads in the United
States. Tho reason for this difference is that rail
roads of England are capitalized so high and their
facilities for moving freight are so much less effec
tive than railroading of the United States, that
In order to pay tho earnings on their capitaliza
tion the freight rates are like express charges i
America. The London & Northwestern railroad S
capitalized at SGSO.OLgfigr mile, and other roa4
In England at abouWSPfcame Tate. Tho bIzo oC
our Liverpool factory Is about equal to our Br
berton factory, and freight charges out-going a
incoming, in England, are as much In a month m
from our Barberton factory In a year. These are
Btartllng figures, and as an observer of railroad
methods, I am inclined to the opinion that It wom't
be many years before the capitalization of rail
roads In America will bo watered up to some
where near the capitalization of railroads In Ea
Iani. and the dear puMic will be aeked to 9.
ratee that will justify high dlvlfieeda 0 tke tltieV'
capltalizatlom of the railroade." '' '3
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.VI
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