T V" "
The Commoner.
MAT 25, 100G'
9
Tillman then declared that lie would not again
cross the threshold of the. "White House while
Mr. Roosevelt was president. Let these facts
ho kept in mind while reviewing another phase
of the situation. When the Hepburn hill came
up from the house Sena'cor Aldrich and other re
publican opponents of the bill thought it would
bo both strategy and joke to give the bill into the
charge of Senator Tillman. This would be a
covert blow to President Roosevelt, they thought,
and also hurt the bill's chances with a republican
majority. But Senator Tillman turned the tables
on the schemers and jokers. His ability to hold
his own with the self-constituted rulers of the
senate, both in a game of parliamentary tactics
and of wits, has been clearly demonstrated. Then
came the interesting spectacle of an "administra
tion measure" being handled in the senate by a
democrat who would not, under any circum
stances, consult the president. This forced the
president to secure an intermediary, and ex-Sen
ator Chandler, chairman of the Spanish claims
commission was selected. Senator Tillman, with
characteristic caution, had ex-Senator Chandler
put in writing his report of the president's ad
vice. The South Carolina senator's only part in
the issue of veracity is to quote what the presi
dent's intermediary had written down as the ad
vice of the president.
THE RAILROAD rate bill, as amended, passed
the senate Saturday, May 19. The vote
stood 73 yeas to 3 nays. Senator Foraker, re
publican, and Senator Morgan and Senator Pet
tus, democrats, voted against the measure. The
absentees were Senators Aldrich, Gamble, Bur
rows, Burton, Depew, Dubois, Gorman, Heyburn,
Kittridge, Money, Piatt, Patterson, Procter, Suth
erland, Warden. Senator Dubois sent a state
.ment to the effect that if present he would vote
for the bill.
A PHILADELPHIA DISPATCH carried by the
Associated Press, says: "Revelations of an
unusual character were made during, the investi
gation of the' interstate commerce commission in
to, the alleged discrimination by railroad 'compa
nies ,in the -distribution of cars to coal companies
in the bituminous region. Three important wit
nesses were heard in the persons of George W.
Creighton, general superintendent of the Penn
sylvania Railroad company; Robert K. Cassatt,
son of President Cassatt, of the Pennsylvania rail
road and eastern manager of the Keystone Coal
and Coke company, and John M. Jamison, of
Greensburg, Pa. president of the Jamison Coal
and Coke company. Mr. Creighton admitted that
he held stock in several coal companies and that
the stock had been presented to him. Mr. Jamison
testified that his company had presented - Penn
sylvania railroad officials with stock in his com
pany with the object of securing better treatment
and facilities from the corporation. He also said
that Robert Pitcairn, now assistant to President
Cassatt, had declined a proffer of stock, saying
that he preferred the money. Mr. Jamison bought
the stock back from him for $5,000. Another in
teresting witness was George W. Clark, Pennsyl
vania railroad car distributer at Altoona, who
told of having received a monthly check for- $50
from Captain Alfred Hicks, a mine operator, and
stated that he did not know why the money was
sent to him." Other dispatches say that Presi
dent Cassatt will resign, claiming that he was
deceived.
MISS MARY E. BIRD, a member of the fac
ulty of Smith College, Northampton, Mass.,
has resigned from the faculty of that institution.
Miss Bird has been identified with Smith College
for nineteen years. She severs her connection with
the school because of the acceptance of, gifts
from Rockefeller and Carnegie. A dispatch to
the Chicago Record-Herald says: "Two years
ago Mr. Rockefeller offered Smith College $200,000
on condition that a similar amount be raised, and
the gift was accepted. Last year Mr. Carnegie,
who has not acquired the Rockefeller habit of at
taching a string to donations, gave the institu
tion a large library, which was accepted and no
questions asked. Miss Bird was outspoken in her
opposition to the acceptance of these gifts for
she has never hesitated to express her opinion
that the fortunes of some latter day capitalists
are so besmirched that even the books which
tliey donate are unsafe reading for the sweet and
tender Smith girl. Miss Bird is an instructor in
the department of astronomy. She is the author
of several text-books and treatises in stellar
science. She came to Smith College nineteen
years ago from Carleton College, Minnesota, and
is a graduate of the University of Michigan, bev-
eral years ago she took an active part in the anti
imperialistic movement. Smith College ranks,
next to Wellesley and Vassar among the women's
colleges of the country. It is a very old insti
tution, and has attracted studious young women
from all over the country, many from Illinois
being on its lists of graduates. Dr. L. Clark
Seelye is president. Its annual income is $257,582,
and its productive funds " aggregate $1,249,240.
The donations made to it in the college year
which closed in Juno, 1905, aggregate $18,224.
Its faculty numbers ninety members and its stu
dent body 1,214."
DR. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON died recently at
Freeport, 111., and it has been alleged in
several newspapers that Dr. Livingston was Wil
liam A. Rockefeller, father of John D. The en
tire Rockefeller family was, of course, greatly dis
turbed by these reports. Frank Rockefeller,
brother of John D., speaking to the Cleveland
correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger,
said that Dr. Livingston was not his father, be
cause he was "absolutely certain that his father
yet lives in his North Dakota home." Frank
Rockefeller said that he received word from his
father only a few days ago. John D. is quoted
as saying that his father died before John D.
Rockefeller was born.
MISS IDA TARBELL, in her history of the
Standard Oil company, described Dr. Liv
ingston of Freeport, as William A. Rockefeller,
father of the oil magnate, and a Freeport dis
patch says: "Doctor Livingston repelled every
effort to obtain definite information regarding his
relationship to John D. Rockefeller, which was
directly alleged a few months ago by Miss Tarbell
in McClure's Magazine. The elder Rockefeller
was known as William A. Rockefeller. He mar
ried Eliza Davison, from whom John D. Rocke
feller received his middle name, in Moravia. N.
Y. John Davison Rockefeller was born two years
later. A portrait of William A. Rockefeller, which
accompanied Miss Tarbell's article, was that of
Dr. Livingston."
IN HER SKETCH of the elder Rockefeller,
Miss Tarbell said: "He was a famous trick
ster when he came to Richford. The reputation
he had built up in Richford as a 'sporting man'
was duplicated in Moravia. He is still classed
popularly in Moravia as one of the gang who
operated the 'underground horse railway' and ran
off horses from various parts of the country. The
conviction and sentencing to state's prison in
18GG of three of his closest pals for horse-stealing,
coupled with his bad reputation, made many
of .his disapproving neighbors fix the crime
equally upon him. There is an Indictment against
William A. Rockefeller for a more serious cr(ime
than horse stealing in the records of the county
for 1849, and it is quite probable that he left
Moravia under compulsion."
MISS TARBELL SAID that the Rockefeller
family moved to Cleveland shortly after
the war and that the business of the husband of
the family was of such a peculiar nature that
few persons knew much about him; that he was
continually moving about the country and ap
peared at home only at great intervals, while
his family was always maintained in good cir
cumstances. The Freeport correspondent says
that no one at Freeport is certain as to the ex
act date on which Dr. Livingston arrived in Free
port. At the time Miss Tarbell wrote, she said
he was living in a small town in Iowa. The Free
port correspondents say: "When he left there
is not known, but it is thought the notoriety that
came to him because of the articles of Miss Tar
bell made it necessary for him to leave in order
to lead the peaceful life which it was considered
would be in harmony with the wishes of his son."
MISS TARBELL when asked if she thought
the man who died at Freeport, 111., was the
father of John D., said: "I can not say posi
tively, but I am inclined to think that he was.
When I published my sketch of Mr. Rockefeller
you may remember that included was a picture
of his father. Since that time I have heard from
many sources that a man who resembled the pic
ture I had published lived at Freeport. When I
wrote my sketch I did not know precisely where
the elder Rockefeller lived. I knew that he was
alive. I had then heard that the last time he had
been recognized was in Iowa. Soon after I pub
lished my sketch the newspapers in Freeport and
adjacent places contained long accounts of the
man in that place, referring to him as Mr. Rocke
feller's father. I have never seen any denial
of those statements, and I am inclined to thinlc
he was the man, though I never followed tho mat
ter up. Tho kind of a practice this Dr. Livings
ton had would seem to resemblo that of tho
older Mr. Rockefeller. Ho was what was known
some years ago as a 'cancer doctor.' When I
last heard of him his medicines were being com
pounded somewhere iir the west I do not know
precisely where. I can not say why, if the man
was Mr. Rockefeller, ho lived under an assumed
name, any more than for the reason which I gavo
In my article."
GENERAL FREDERICK FUNSTON is some
v tiling of a record breaker. Proofs of this
point are provided by the Florida Times-Union,
to-wlt: "He was promoted for swimming a river
and tho promotion stood alter the proofs camo
out: First, another man swam the Bag-bag;
second, Funston couldn't swim; third, he wasn't
there; fourth, a reporter told the story as a joke
and Funston neglected to contradict it. After
wards he was sent to catch Aguinaldo and suc
ceeded but was sent home for succcbs, whereas
he had boon promoted for something he didn't
do. Then he was sent to San Francisco, where
he did good service and was superseded for it.
Now his neighbors In Kansas propose to make
him president on a martyr's ticket and may do it.
Moral: Advertise and you may win without tho
goods, but with the goods you can't win without
advertisement."
MR. ROOSEVELT ON "LYING" AND THE MEN
HE HAS ACCUSED
A writer in the New York World has taken
the trouble to compile from the writings of Theo
dore Roosevelt observations on "lying" as follows:
The liar is no whit better than the thief.
It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully
to attack an honest man or even with hysterical
exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
The men who, with stern sobriety and truth
assail the many evils of our times are
the leaders.
The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened
whenever an honest man is assailed or .even when
a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.
In tho long run the most unpleasant truth is
a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.
You can pardon most anything in a man who
will tell the truth, because you know where that
man is, you know what he mean.
If any one lies, if he has the habit of un
truthfulness, you can not deal with him, because
there is nothing to depend on.
Truth telling is a virtue upon which we should
not only insist In the schools and at home but in
business and in politics just as much.
The business man or politician who does not
tell the truth, cheats; and for the cheat we should
have no use in any walk of life.
We need in our public life, as in our privato
life, the virtues that every one could practice if
he would.
I do not- believe in a bluff. I feel jabout a
nation as we all say about a man; let him not
say anything that he can not make good, and
having said it, let him make good.
Nothing can make good citizenship in men
who have not got in them courage, hardihood, de
cency, sanity, the spirit of truth telling and truth
seeking.
We must have honest fearless and able ad
ministrators a square deal for every man, great
or small, rich or poor.
- The Washington correspondent of the World
says:
"The president has said that many a man
is a liar. He used the term freely, sometimes in
all its baldness and at other times as he did in
the case of ex-Senator Chandler, whose state
ment he designated as 'unqualifiedly false.' These
are some of the men he has accused of lacking in
veracity: Henry M. Whitney, of Boston, who he
said lied about a tariff conversation with him.
John F. Wallace, formerly at the head of the Pana
ma canal commission. Ex-Senator William E.
Chandler, now president of the Spanish treaty
claims commission. Herbert W. Bowen, formerly
minister to Venezulea. whom he rebuked for mak
ing charges against 'Loomis, acting.' Alton B.
Parker, the Democratic candidate for president in
1904, for saying the trust, corporations and insur
ance companies contributed to the Republican
campaign in 1904. George O. Shields, president of
the league of American Sportsmen, after a dis
pute about the use of automatic shotguns Jn the
southwest. Senator Thomas C. Piatt, very diplo
matically, for announcing that he had forced Rep
resentative 'Olcott for chairman of the New York
county committee." i
J
EZSS