The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, November 21, 1902, Page 6, Image 6

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THERE ARE MANY MEN IN THIS COUNTRj.
enjoying high reputation who object to mu
nicipal ownorshlp. it la true that the municipal
ownership idoa has grown in the United States at
a rapid rate during recent years and yet the posi
tion of antagonism en tuo part of influential men
in various communities throughout the country
has provonted tho municipal ownership plan be
ing very generally established in tho United States.
A largo number of towns in England have adopted
municipal ownership and tho London Times re
cently bogan a vigorous campaign against tho
plan. The London correspondent for the New
York Evening- Post says that the Times is being
laughed at for Its pains. According to this cbrr.v
spondont: "Roturns published show howprbvin
cial towns are securing better sorvico3 as regard's
gas, water and markets by municipal management,
while they are also relieving their rates out of "tho
profits. Darlington, after six years of municipal
enterprise, has made a net profit of $350,000, re
lieving the rates of each familj in the town to
an average amount of $7.50. Birmingham's profits
in flvo years are $G18,G40; Bolton's $1,002,325;
Leed's $872,015, Nottingham's $02u,000, Manches
ter's $2,210,000, while the water rate also has
boen reduced from 5d to Id in tho pound. The
Times is beating the air when it seoks to indnoo
tho ratepayers who thus benefit from their owi
municipal enterprises, to hand themselves ovor to
the kindly mercies of American trusts, lest the
sacred cause of industrial freedom be injured."
IN A RECENT INTERVIEW MR. BRISTOW,
fourth assistant postmaster general, declared
that from now, henceforth and forever Kansas
will be reliably republican. But the Kansas City
Journal, a republican paper, provides Mr. Bristow
with a warning. The Journal points out that in
1888 the republican candidate for governor re
ceived a plurality of more than 73,000 and a clear
majority of 37,000. In the election of 1890 the re
publican candidate for governor had a plurality of
8,000 and the opposition combine had a majority
of G3,000 over the republican party. Subsequently
this plurality was wiped out and Kansas was lost
to the republicaivparty. The Journal says that
this change was not entirely due to the farmers'
alliance. The Journal says it was due to a general
feeling of dissatisfaction with republican admin
istration and it explains: "The politicians at the
head of the republican party in Kansas had weak
ened their organization by paying more attention
to spoils than to principles, and when a new
party sprang up it carried away some 60,000 re
publican voters with very little trouble. Mr.
Bristow would be among the first to admit that
this is a true picture of Kansas conditions in 1888
00. Indeed, ho belonged to the anti-spoils wing
of the republican party and frequently protested
against tho methods of tho professional politi
cian who were In charge of things. And wo may
be assured that on second thought he would
qualify his recent utterance with respect to re
publican rule in perpetin.y would admit that no
party can long sustain itself in Kansas unless it
practices decent politios, obeys the will of tho
-people and keeps its spoilsmen down."
THE ATTENTION OP THE ATTACHES OP A
hospital in Philadelphia was recently at
tST;? to Peculiar association of names. Miss
Death was brought to the hospital to be operated
SSSShtSrfatoendl?lt?", Th0 patIent was the
2 i? an-under,taker. A Philadelphia paper
says: "The surgeon's name who was chosen to
perform the operation was Dye-Dr. Prank Hack
ett Dye. When the operation was over Miss
Death was placed in charge of two nurses. Miss
Payne is the day nurse; Miss Grone is the nlcnt
nurse. 'The patient is recovering rapidly, and in
a week or so Miss Death will bid good-bye to Dr.
Dye, Miss Payne and Miss Grone."
& a?
TN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE DESCRIBING
1 Gladstone's home life, the writer says that
soon after his marriage tho Grand Old Man sug
gested to Mrs. Gladstone that she was either to
know nothing and thus bo free of all responsibilitv
or to know everything and bo bound to secrecy.
Fifty years later Gladstone said, "My wife haa
known every political secret I evor had " and the
writer declares that "this remark points to the
choice-' Mrs. Gladstono made and also illustrates
her discretion."
THE PASTOR OP THE METHODIST CHURCH
at Trenton, Mo., spent his last vacation in a
way that was at once profitable and instructive to
his congregation. Tho name of this clergyman ia
Rev. J. O. Taylor. Tho roof of the church re
quired shingling and assisted by one of his flock,
Mr. Taylor, who, by the way, weighs 225 pounds
put. a now roof on tho church building." i
& a?
MISS WADSWORTH OF BOSTON RECENT
ly lectured in Kansas City. Miss Wads
worth's subject was "Shakespeare and the Bible."
The lecturer announced her desire to establish
two points, one being that Shakespeare Was fa
miliar with the Bible and the other that he firmly
belloved in tho doctrines that It teaches. The Kan
sas City Journal report of Miss Wadsworth's ad
dress says: "To, sustain the first point, she read
first from the Bible and then from Shakospeare
passages that showed marked similarity in both
thought and expression. In reference to this part
of her lecture Miss Wadsworth said the ministers
before whom she had read the lecture had fre
quently stopped to ask which passages were those
from tho Bible and which were Shakespeare's. To
sustain the second point she read portions of '
Shakespeare's will, which, she said, reveal true be
lief in tho orthodox Christian religion. In her '
introductory remarks Miss Wadsworth said that '
Hall Caino takes his situations from the Bible. '
Milton and Bacon make frequent allusions to"
Scripture and that Goethe drew his inspiration
from the Good Book. She cited the case of Fanny
Kerable who said that the profession of acting
had more pitfalls for humau beings in it than any
other but that she, in times of temptation, had
strengthened her soul with texts she had learned
in ctiildhood. And in her old age the actress was
accustomed to quell her rebellious servants by
quoting from Shakespeare and the Bible. Miss
Wadsworth believes that Shakespeare learned the
Bible thoroughly in his youth and that he depend
ed largely upon it for inspiration for material to
draw the great lessons of life and for consola
tion in the sorrows tnat 'ame to him."
THE ORGANIZATION OP A COMPANY TO
' control the peppermint and essential oil crop "
of- the world is reported from Kalamazoo, Mich.
The name of thi, concern is the A. M. Todd com
pany. This company is said to have secured con
trol of 95 per cent of this ctop. A dispatch to tho
New York American says: "The price of pepper
mint oil, which a month ago was $2.50 a pound, Is
now $5. As the total crop this year is about 190,
000 pounds, the total value will be $900,000, and
the advance amounts to nearly half a million. '
New York speculators have kept down the prices
and the gf owing of the essential oil plant has been
unprofitable. Tod, says that under the new ar
rangement the growers will reap profits. The crop
of the present sermon Is only two-thirds as large
as usual. The heavy rainfall has produced the
smallest crop in ten years.
NEEDLES AND PINS ARE VERY INSIGNIFI
cant articles, so far as appearance is con
cerned and yet what would the world do without
needles and pins? It is strange that the people
know but little of tae manufacture of many of the
things so necessary to heir convenience. A writer
in the Chicago Chronicle throws some light on this
particular subject Accoraing to this writer, the
mills of the United States practically supply the
whole world with pins in 1900 the 75,000,000 peo
ple in the United States used 6t,000,000 gross of
common pins which is equal to 9,500,000,000 pins,
or an average of "about 126 pins for every man,
woman and child in the country. During 1900 the
total number of pins manufactured in the United
States amounted to 68.S89.260 gross. There are
in this country 43 pin factories with 2,353 em
ployes. The 'business ha- grown rapidly during
the last twenty years, for, although there were
forty factories in 1880, they produced only half so
much, employed only about half the capital and
only 1,077 hands. There has been a considerate
increase in the number of women and children
employed in pin factories oi late years, which is
an indication that the machinery is being im
proved and simplified and that Its operation does,
not require so high an order of mechanical skill.
AMONG THE BY-PRODUCTS OP PINMAKING
are hooks and eyes, and according to this
same writer these, are produced at most of the fac
tories from material that cannot be used for, pins.
The output of hooks and eyes in 1900 amounted to
1,131,824 gross. This same writer describes the
Vrt.aNo.44.
process of manufacture in this Interesting wav '
' x ins and hooks and eyes are turned out by aul
tomatic niaehinos, in such quantities today that the
cost of manufacture U practically limited to the '
valje of the brass wire from which they arc made
A single machine does tho whole business. Coils
of wire, hung upon reels, are passed into ma
chines which cut them into proper lengths and
drop off into a receptablo and arrange themselves
in the line of a slot formed by two bars. Whoti
they reach tho lower end of the bars they are 1
seized and pressed between two dies, which form
the heads, and pass along into the grip of an
other steel Instrument which points them by pres
sure. They are then dropped into a solution of
sour beer, whirling as they go, to be cleaned, and
then into a hot solution of tin, which is also kept
revolving. They here receive their bright coat of
metal and are pushed along, killing time until
they have had an opportunity to harden, when
they are dropped into a revolving barrel of saw
dust, which cools and polishes them at the same
, time. Because of the oscillation of the bran they
work gradually down to the bottom of the barrel,
which is a metallic plate cut into slits just big
enough for tho body of the pins, but not big
enough for the head to pass through. 'Thus they
are straightened out into rows again, and, like
well-drilled soldiers, pass along toward the edge
of the bottom, and slide down an inclined plane,
still hanging by their heads, until -they reach
strips of paper, to which they are introduced by
a curious jerk of the machine. The first they
know they are all placed in rows, wrapped up and
on their way to the big department stores, where
they are sold at from o cents to 10 cents a gross.
A machine is expected to throw out several thou
sand gross an hour. Needles are made by a sim
ilar machine. In 1900 there were made 1,397,533
gross of machine needles, 212,689 gross for shoe
making, 324,476 gross for ordinary household sew
ing machines, 307,426 gross for knitting machine
and the rest for other kinds of sewing and knit
ting machinery, generally for factory use. We im-
ported $418,004 worth of ordinary needles, most of
them from England. Hairpins and safety pins and ;
other kinds of pins are manufactured in a similar
manner. We made 1,189,104 gross of hairpins lx
1890. Both needles and hairpins are manufactured
to a greater extent in Europe than plain pins.
Safety pins, however, are decidedly. American and
of these we make on an average l.OOO.OOOgross a -year.
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AN INTERESTING FEATURE PROVIDED Bi'
the Chicago Inter-Ocean is the publication
in the form of a cable dispatch from London of
interesting remarks made the preceding week
by public men. In a recent issue the London cor
respondent of the Inter-Ocean presents "some of
the bright remarks made by public men during tne
week," as follows: "The greatness of a nation is
made by its greatest men." Colonial Secretary
Chamberlain. "Unless a nation is morally,, healthy
as well as physically, there is but little hope for
its future." Sir William Blake Richmond, the '
painter. "Uneducated nations like uneducated in-
dividuals must be content to do tho rougher work
and take the lower places in the" world." Lord
Avebury, president Central Association of Bankers. -"Education
has been from the beginning to the
people of the United States their greatest interest -,
and most productive and happy investment."
Joseph Choate, American ambassador to England. .
"Landlordism in Ireland must go'-r-Thomas Wal
lace Russel, unionist M. P. for Tyrone. "Drunken
ness should be treated primarily and throughc 't
as a sin." Sir Thomas Barlow, King Edward's
physician. "I think precedent has been the curse
of this country." Lord Rosebery.
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"WJIIY THE DEAD SEA IS DEAD," IS THE
VV problem which a writer in the Chicago Record-Herald
undertakes to solve. Scientific obser
vations, according to this writer, justifies the esti
mate that the dally average of 6,500,000 tons of
water is received 1 j tae Dead sea from the Jor
dan and other sources during the year. During
the rainy season the amount is very much groat ;
during the dry season, It is, of cc rse, very much
less, but this average will be maintained year af
ter year. There is no outlet anu the level Is kept
down by evaporation only, which is very rapid
because of the intense heat, the dry atmosphere
and the dry winds are constantly blowing down
the gorges between the mountains. This evapora
tion causes a haze of mist to. hang over the lake
at all times, heavy clouds form and thunderstorms
sometimes rage with great violence in the pockef
between the cliffs, even in the dry season. A flood
of rain often falls upon the surface of the sea when
the sun is shining ami the atmosphere is as dry
as a bone half a mile from the shore. The moiin-
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