The Commoner.
MAHOH 25, 1904:
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IffrCURRGNT
REPUBLICAN circles in Ohio are in a
turmoil and it seenic certain that a bitter
fight will ensuo between the friends or the late
Senator Hanna and ihe supporters of Senator
Foraker, In a recent Intel view Senator Foraker
attacks the republican organization in Ohio and
Senator-elect Dick, Governor Herrick," George B.
Cox and other stalwart representatives of the
Hanna wing make it plain that they ars ready to
grapple with the senior senator from Ohio in a
light to the finish.
A REPORT lias bean circulated m London,
and it is attributed to the opponents of
Joseph Chamberlain, that that statesman is suf
fering from an incurable mental trouble. It is
claimed that Mr. Chamberliin is in the incipient
stages of softening of the brain. Th.3 rumor is
denied by Mr. Chamberlain's friends, but his
enemies point out that Mr. Chambsrlain went to
Egypt in the very midst of his fight, leaving bis
followers in the tariff camuaign practically with
out a leader. It seems to be believed by outsiders
that while the statement concerning Mr. Cham
berlain's trouble is not true, that he is, never
theless, a very sick man and may not be able to
resume an active part in political affairs for some
time to come.
JO JO
IT I S announced from Paris that thore is no
serious obstacle to the completion of the
transfer of the Panama Canal company's prop
perty to the United States. It Is asserted in Paris
cablegrams that the transfer will be completed
by April 25, every formality, legal and otherwise,
boing effected before that date. It Is explained
that the suits against the Panama Canal compauy
Involve questions resting entirely between Colom
bia and , the Panama Canal company, the United
States not being directly or indirectly Interested.
The assurance is given that the influence of the
French government is favorable to the comple
tion of the transfer and that French officials will
not encourage any obstacle to that end.
JO JO
GOVERNOR ODELL of New York has
all along been a stalwirt supporter of the
trust system, although it may be taken for granted
that just at this time, the governor is willing to
admit that there are defects in that system. The
New York American of March 9 says: 'Governor
Odell yesterday sold his $148,000 of United States
shipbuilding bonds at auction for $48,880, sus
taining a loss of more than $130,000. Tlie Shel
don reorganization committee announced that it
had refused to accept as deposits in favor of the
reorganization the bonds against which ad In
terim certificates w4ere issued to John W. Young.
For his common stock oZ the par value of $100,
000 he got $60. It has finally besn decided by
those in charge of the reorganization to ignore
all bona fide stockholders entirely, leaving these
unfortunates to bring personal suits against thir
vendors and to assist District Attorney Jerome
in the criminal actions." While Governor Odell
is plainly one of the victims of the shipyard
trust, it is 'aid that the governor has. dropped
the probe he intended to use on the wrecked
trust and that he will not encourage prosecution.
jo so
IT I S reported from Color by the correspondent
for the New York Herald at that place that
the Colombian government has definitely desisted
from any movement to recover its lost territory in
Panama and has prohibited any further attempts
to attach the Panamanian frontier. It is reported
that 900 Colombian soldiers have returned to Bo
gota and that all hostile movements on Colom
bia's part against Panama have been abandoned.
ar jo
A PECULIAR error was made by Senator
Stewart in a speech recently delivered in
the senate. Senator Bacon of Georgia had pro
tested against the proposed erection at the na
tional capital of a statue of Frederick the Great
of Prussia, which statue is the gift of Emperor
"William of Germany. President Roosevelt has
accepted this gift and Senator Bacon held that
the authority for accepting such, a gift re3ts witb
congress and not with the president. He declared
that Frederick the Great wos the last man in the
history of the German people whose life should
bo held up as an ideal to the American peoplo.
The Washington correspondent for the New York
American quotes Senator Bacon as saying: The
proposed monument will constitute a mockery of
every principle Americans have been taught lo
honor and revere. From the pedestal of that
statue, if it be erected, will look down the efllgy
of a sovereign who despised the multitudo; who
recognized no law save that of his personal cm
price; who believed, as utterly as ho behoved1n
the existence of light and air, that the peoplo wevo
created for his service, to live according to his'
pleasure, or to die for his ambitions, just as ho
might will." Senator Stewart, in reply to Senator
Bacon, said that Frederick the .Great was a man
.of the people; that he had gone as a young man
to Holland and learned the trade of shipbuilding
and become a mechanic in order that he might
.know the wants of the people he was to rule.
"Were learning some new history,' whispered a
senator on the democratic side. "Stewart' got
Frederick the Great mixed up with Peter the Great
of Russia." Senator Stowart's historical allu
sions amused senators on both sides of the cham
ber. JO so
IN HIS speech at the dinner of the Ohio So
ciety recently, Secretory of War raft said:
"I deny that the Declaration bf Independence,
when construed under the circumstances .under
which that instrument was signed, bear? any such
construction when applied to circumstances so
different from those which prevailed at the time
of our revolution. That instrument itself was
signed by men who themselves made the excep
tion of minors, of insane persons, of women, and
of slaves. That instrument was itself signed by
men who upheld the property qualification in many
of the states that did not permit a majority of
the citizens to vote and consent to a government
in those states."
JO JO
REFERRRING to Secretary Taft's state
ment, the correspondent for the New York
Times says that this is a remarkable argument to
come from a member of Mr. Roosevelt's cabinet.
-This- correspondent adds: "Mr. Taft would not
claim that it is original with him, but as a re
publican he would probably not care to avow
the sources from which it was borrowed. It is
the argument used by the southern men of ante
bellum days to meet the contention that slavery
could not exist in a republic. It is found most
clearly and forcibly stated in the speeches of
William Pirikney. In his incomparable speech
on the Missouri Compromise Pinkney said: 'But
if a republican form of government is that in
which all the men have a share in the public
power, the slave-owning states will not alone
retire from the Union. Tho constitution of some
of tho other states do. not sanction universal suf
frage or universal eligibility. They require citi
zenship, and age, and a certain anioun,. of prop
erty to give a title or vote or be voted for; and
they who have not those qualifications are just as
much disfranchised, with regard to tho govern
ment and its power, as If they were slaves. They
have civil rights, indeed, (and so have slaves in
a less degree), but they have no share in the gov
ernment. . . . That civil rights may bo qualified
as well as political is proved by a thousand ex
amples. Minors, resident aliens who are in course
of naturalization, the other sex, whether maids
or wives or widows, furnteh sufficient practical
proofs of this.'"
JO jo
THEN having laid down this basis the Times
correspondent hoists Mr Taft on his own
petard In this way: "The truth of all this seems
now' to have come home to tho republicans, at
least to the republican wIjo has had most ex
perience in the business of establishing a gov
ernment for men not fit to govern themselves.
Indeed, Mr. Taft was bound to accept these views
in order to justify the course of his party in the
Philippines. But as a logical man he cannot stop
with applying this principle to the Filipinos. He
must apply it at home as well as abroad. Will ho
or any other man who 5s not lost in 'hopeful ab
stractions' say that the negroes of the south, as a
class, are any more capable of self-government
than the-Filipinos? If it is right to exclude the
Filipino from participation in the government, pro
vided for him, then for oven stronger reason it In
right to debar tho negro from the same privilege;
for in the caso of tho Filipino he wouldharm him
self alono, while tho negro would not only injure
his own raco, but would involve ours in tho com
mon ruin."
. J
ACOMMITTE styling Itself "Tho Philip
pine Independence Committee" is encaged
in tho circulation of petitions addressed to tho
democratic national convontlon and also to the
republican national convention, asking that these
political parties pledge themselves to secure to
tho peoplo of tho Philippines indopondenco upon
terms similar to those under which Cuban inde
pendence -was obtained. Tho committee having
this work In chargo is composed of tha following
named gontjemon. Charles IC. Alams, Masso
chusetts; Dr. Felix Adlor, Now York; President
Edwin A. Alderman, Louisiana; James M. Allen,
California; W. H. Baldwin, Jr., Now York; Gen
eral R. Brinkerhoff, Ohio; George Burnham, .Jr.,
Pennsylvania; Andrew Carnegio, Now York; Pres
ident George C. Chase, Maine; R. Fulton Cutting,
Now York; President Charles W. Eliot, Massa
chusetts; Phillip C. Garrett, Pennsylvania; Judge
George Gray, Delaware; President G. Stanley
mil, Massachusetts; Chancellor Walter B. Hill,
Georgia; W. D. Ho wells, New York; Rev. W. R.
Huntington, Now York; President William De
W,. Hyde, Maine; Prof. William James, Massa
chusetts; President David Starr Jordan, Califor
nia; President Henry Churchill King, Ohio; Prof.
J. Lawrence Laughlin, Illinois; Charles F. Lum
mls, California; Samuel W. McCall, Massachu
setts; Wayne MacVeagh, Washington, D. C;
Bishop W. N. McVickar, Rhodo Island; Rev. C.
H. Parkhurst, New York; Gen. William J. Palmer,
Colorado; George Foster Peabody, New York;
Bliss Perry, Massachusetts; Bishop Henry C. Pot
ter, New. York; U. M. Roso, Arkansas; President
J. G. Schurman, New York; Prof. Edwin R, A.
Scligman, Now York; President Isaac Sharpless,
Pennsylvania; Hoke Smith, Gcorg'a; Judge
Rufus B. Smith, Ohio; Bishop J. L. Spalding, Il
linois; Prof. W. G. Summer Connecticut; Robert
Ellis Thompson, Pennsylvania; Prof. Henry Van
Dyke, Now Jersey; Horace White, New York.
90 JO
PREMIER BALFOUR'S government
was on March 15 defeated In the house of
commons by the combined liberalist and nation
alist vote. Referring to these proceedings a Lon
don cablegram to the Cincinnati Enquirer says:
"This reverse was due to tho prohibition by Mr.
Wyndham, chief secretary of Ireland, ot the teach
ing of Gaelic in the junior grades o tho Irish na
tional schools. Mr. Balfour, though defeated by
a majority of 11 on this question, does not regard
the vote as one of want of confidence, and he will
not resign on this account. His determination
not to resign was strengthened by the fact that
.shortly after the foregoing defeat he was able to
secure a majority of 25. The failure of tho gov
ernment to carry the house with It on a question
of purely adtalnistrative policy in its Irish de
partment is generally admitted to weaken greatly
Its already waning prestige with tho country, al
though it Is not thought probable that any imme-r
diate development will ensue.
J J
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT recently
received an interesting communication from
a rural mail carrier at Stanhope, la. This carrier
applied for the position now held by Mr. Brlstow,
saying: "I desire to securo a better paying posi
tion. I am coming 50 years of ago next birthday.
I am not a politician, but I trust I am an honest
man. I see the fourth assistant postmaster gen
eral has been convicted and the man acting for
him Is on the sick list, and I suppose there will
be an appointment to fill the vacancy. I have also
written Dolllver and Conner. While I am a small
potato politically, my ambition is as big as a
good-sized thunderstorm at least." William Loeb,
jr., the president's secretary, referred the letter
to Postmaster General H. C. Payne, who referred
it to A. W. Cooley, civil service commissioner,
after writing: "I think you will agree with me
that the writer, on account of his general informa
tion, Is entitled to rapid promotios..' .Mr. Cooley
referred the matter back to Mr. Payne, with the
following comment:. "The commission, entirely
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