Y
i
kvv '
4
4 .
8
Commoner.
.VOLUME B, NUMBER 37,
V
UMWNMiMimilii
CCURR8NT
1
V
xhtdH im.. " "wi i n,":'. "-ti . .fv.HbUHt iBraHh.
f
I
:'
frW
! W ;
i u?. ;
,--;a
IN ITS ISSUE OF September 17, the New York
World prints the following dispatch from
Mexico City: "It is generally understood that
one of the principal objects of Finance Minister
Limontour's trip to Europe is to bring about the
acquisition of the Mexican Central railway by the
Mexican government, and this supposition is
strengthened by the fact that Vice President Rich
ards, of the Central, has also gone to Paris. The
acquisition of the railroad would have great po
litical significance, as it is believed hero to be
the only .way that, the railroads can be regulated
in order to avoid discrimination in the matter of
rates;"
--T
-"CV
&ok
I
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY in Colorado is in
a bad way. The convention nominated
William H. Gabber t, now chief justice of the Colo
rado supreme court, for re-election. Six years
ago Gabbert was elected as a populist and it is
charged that he has been a faithful servant of the
corporations. Philip "B. Stewart, whom the con
vention nominated for governpr, has declined to
accept the nomination because of Gabbert's nomi
nation. Many of the republicans have urged Gab-
bert.to withdraw, but he refuses to do so. Refer--rLVlng
to the plight in which the republican party
'jirV-flnds' itself, the Denver News says: "The present
-.-' situation is but the culmination of years of cor-
poratlon dabbling in political affairs. It was an
alliance of corporations that elected Peabody. It
was the same band of corporations that dictated
the unspeakable outrages of his term of office.
It was corporation politics that saddled Colorado
-with the costly rhetoric of Sherman Bell. It was
. -i1; corruptive . politics that dictated the re-
nomination of Peabody. It was. corporation poli
r Utics that plunged Colorado in the long-drawn crime
.;.", that ended in the theft of the governorship, the '
. - crime that stole the senate, packed the supreme
. court and placed In the governor's chair a man
- who was never even a candidate for that office.
These things were corporation work."
'i.;,A NEW. YOI&C stenographer ..writing, to the
tV Herald of that. city, says: "In a restaurant
'ff today .othere was, a, group of stenographers who
V-were commenting with surprise on the fact that,
with the exception of a small paragraph in one
paper, the New York newspapers gave no space
to the death of James Munson, author of the sys
tem of phonography used by at least half a million
shorthand writers today. Munson was really a
great man, and every stenographer, whether he
used his system or not, will revere his memory.
There are 50,000 stenographers in New York alone
who use his system, and yet tho papers do not
even give him a line of obituary. As one young
man sarcastically remarked: 'If Mr. Munson had
robbed a bank, run away with another man's wife
or got into some real scandal he would have re
ceived a nice notice from the papers, with a big
picture of himself, the bank he robbed- or the
ZTan to1 way with; but, as it was, Mr.
Munson did a tremendous work for humanity
quietly and unostentatiously. Therefore, the pa
pers can not see anything in him.' I think there
is a great deal in this conversation which I over
heard, and I thought it wise to send it to you."
ON SEPTEMBER 15 Mr. Bryan spoke at the
Radford fair, Radford, Va., and the next
day, Sunday, was spent at Hollings Institute
Lynchburg, where his daughter, Miss Grace, will
attend school. In the afternoon Mr. Bryan ad
dressed tho students. September 17, Mr. Bryan
spoke in the afternoon at Raleigh, N. C and at
Greensboro at night. On the way from Raleigh
to Greensboro, Dr. Charjes Duncan Mclver, chair-
. ,. , wuuiujuuro reception committee, died
of apoplexy. Between Raleigh and Greensboro
Mr. Bryan spoke briefly at Durham and Burling-
ifnS?tGmoei; 18 short addresses were made
at Winston, Salem, Kensville, High Point Lex
ington Salisbury, Concord and Charlotte, N. C.
the address at Charlotte being the most extended!"
September 19, Mr Bryan spoke at Columbia, S.
C, the meeting being held on the state university
campus. After the speaking a reception was
held In the capitol building. September 20, At
lanta, Ga., was visited and a large audience ad
dressed. Mr. Bryan was introduced by President
-Lamar Hill, of the Young Men's democratic
league. September 21, a great audience at Bir
mingham, Ala., was addressed, and on the 22d
Mr. Bryan reached Jackson, Miss., where he spoke
in the evening and remained over Sunday. Mon
day, September 24, Mr. Bryan addressed a large
audience at New Orleans, La. In the afternoon
of the 25th he spoke at Nashville, and in the
evening at MtfEjaMs, -Tsss. Fhsm -fempmk- SS&
Jftyan went to Little Rock, Ark., where he spoke
on the 26th. September 27, 28 and 29 will be
spent in the Indian Territory, and on September
$0 Mr. Bryan will close the present tour at Kan
sas City, returning from there to his home in
Lincoln. - . ' .-
. 7
THE REVOLT IN Cuba has been shaping itself
for more than a year. A correspondent for
the New York World says- that President Palma
is the most thoroughly hated man in Cuba; that
the president has surrounded himself with old
time Spanish sympathizers and the islands feel
that as president he -was forced upon them by
the government at Washington. The World cor
respondent says: "To understand the present
revolt and the strong feeling against Palma and
his administration one must go back to 1902, when
Palma was first elected president of Cuba. The
occupation of the United States had oeen tedious,
and to the Cuban mjnd Palma was the Washing
ton government's choice for president of Cuba.
Had all his acts been Solomonid in their wisdom
he could not have escaped Cuban resentment of
what they, felt was the Imposed choice of an alien
power. His services in the ten years' war of the
'70s against Spanish dominion, his capture in 1876
and imprisonment in Morro Castle, and then the
final confiscation of his properties and banish
ment from Cuba for life, were forgotten. A new
generation had arisen which knew nothing of all
this. For twenty-four years he had been an exile
in; an obscure village in the United States; and
Cuba had lost touch with Palma and he with
Cuba. Any other man under these conditions
would have been as heavily handicapped. Palma
is the most bitterly hated person in Cuba. The
rebels against Spanish rule have no recognition
in his administration, no hope of relief through
elections. Palma, an ultra-conservative, is sur
rounded by the old pro-Spanish influence. His own
private secretary was, up to the Spanish evacua
tion in 1898, judge-advocate in the army of Spain
the man who prosecuted the Cuban patriots in
the field. Their lives and liberties were in the
hands of this Spanish prosecutor, and today- no
old Cuban fighter can gain access to the president
without permission of this man. Imagine the feel
ing of these hardy, bitter old campaigners as they
seek permission from the man who has ordered
their comrades out with a file of soldiers at dawn
or turned the keys of the dungeons of Morro." -
THE CUBAN ELECTION machinery is ex
plained "in this way: "Under the Cuban
election laws the mayor of a community appoints
the registration board of two members for an
election district, choosing from the voting-lists
one of the oldest and one of the youngest voters.
After the millenium, perhaps, some -.merely human
mayor may appoint one from each of the opposing
parties. At present he does notthey are both
of his own political complexion. This, however
is regarded on ail sides as perfectly fair, for the
mayor himself Js an elected official and his bias
is presumed to at least represent the majority of
tho community. The president has the "right to
remove a mayor on charges and appoint a new
one for the remainder of the term of office. Here
in Havana Juan Ramon O'Farrell was elected
mayor in the November elections of 1904. He was
a liberal and against the Palma administration.
In the August following Palma removed him and
appointed as mayor Elljio Bonachea, a partison
of Governor Nunez of Havana province and a firm
supporters of Palma and the moderates. The
registration, boards are appointed in September,
Two months ago Bonachea and the president dis
agreed, Bonachea was removed and Julio Carde
nas, a tory from the Spanish days of Governor
General Blanco, was appointed mayor of Havana,"
THE BITTERNESS OF feeling aroused by the
appointing to office of these men an-l many
owners who were royalists when Cuba was a colony
are likened by the World's correspondent to the
- situation that might be imagined after the Amer
ican revolution of 1776, Washington or Adams ap
- Whiting to high cabinet and judiciary positions
tho men tfJJ&Uadelphia and ew, Jtafc. who
tertained, sympathized arid" dined with the BritishB
forces and even served with them during tho
hardships of Valley Forge and the bitter work in
the trenches of Yorktown. This correspondent
further Bays: "Rafael Montoro up to 1898 was
secretary of the treasury under Governor-General
Blanco. For the past two years he has been
Palma's minister to England, France, Spain and
Germany, and was the Cuban delegate to the
Pan-American congress at Rio Janeiro last July.
Antonio Govin was secretary of iustioa tma tim
interior under Blanco up to 1898. For two years
he has been president of the criminal branch of
the Bupreme court of Cuba, ono of the highest
of the courts of Cuba,"
"A MILWAUKEE DISPATCH ,.to the Chicago
Jt- Record-Herald' follows: "Twenty years ago,
when W: H. Timlin was just a plain every-day
lawyer, an agent of the Equitable Life Assurance
society sold him a $1,000 policy which, he says,
was guaranteed to pay $1,106 at the end of twenty
years, provided all premiums were kept up. Now
Mr, Timlin is judge-elect of the supreme court and
tho policy has come due, When demand- was made
for the $1,106 promised, the reply came, he says,
that the, policy was worth only $241.. Judge Tim
lin responded by bringing suit today to secure tho
payment of the amount he was promised, assert
ing that he has kept his portion of the contract."
THE INTERSTATE Commerce Commission has
made public its interpretation of several im
portant provisions of the railway rate law. Tho
commission holds that nothing but pash may he
received by the railroad company in exchange for
transportation, and while this "destroys the free
pass it. will also do away with what is known as
newspaper mileage or railroad transportation to
newspaper men in exchange for newspaper advertising-.
The.commisipn also holds that joint rates
between two connecting carriers are legal and that
any change shall require thirty .days' notice to
the commission; that on new lines of road, includ
ing branches and extensions of existing roads, in
dividual and joint rates may be established, in
the first instance, without notice, on posting a
tariff and filing a copy with the commission; that
excursion rates limited to three days may be es
tablished without further notice than the posting
of a tariff one day in advance in two conspicuous
places where such tickets are said to be sold and
the mailing of a copy to the commission; that on
excursion rates for a period longer than three
days and up to thirty days three days' notice of
a similar character Is necessary, and that on ex
cursion rates extending over a period longer than
thirty dayg the full statutory notice is required.
JOHN P, GRUET, former secretary' of the
Waters Pierce Oil company, recently brought
suit against H. Clay Pierce, chairman of the
board of directors, for $25,000, which Gruet claims
to be due him as back salary. On the witness
stand at St. Louis on Saturday, September 15,
Mr. Pierce testified that he had obtained Gruet
from the Standard Oil offices In New York more
than sixteen years ago:. In' February, 1905,
Gruet was dropped from the company and later
appealed for re-employment. Ho was given a
clerical position with the Pierce Investment com
pany. "Immediately after Mr. Gruot's employ
ment, effective April 1, 1905," said Mr. Pierce, "Mr.
Gruet came to see me in New York. I told Mr
Gruet that the affairs of the Tennessee Central
Railway company, the Tennessee Construction
vV-J.-L - &.,
