i nw r a "
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SEPTEMBER 20, 1S07
The Commoner.
7 )
good. Wo do not know whether the grave Is
the end of this life or the door of another, or
whether- the night here is not somowhero else
a dawn. Neither can we tell which is the more
fortunate, the child dying in its mother's arms
before its lips have learned to form a word, or
he who journeys all the length of life's uneven
road, painfully taking the last slow steps with
staff and crutch. Every cradle asks us 'whence?'
and every cofiln 'whither?' The poor barbarian
weeping above his dead can answer the question
as Intelligently and satisfactorily as the robed
priest of the most authentic creed. The tearful
ignorance of the one is just as consoling as the
learned and unmeaning words of the other. No
man standing where the horizon of a life has
touched a gravo has any right to prophesy a
future filled with pain and tears. It may bo
that death gives all there Is of worth to life.
If those who press and strain against our hearts
could never die, perhaps that love would wither
from the earth. Maybe a common faith treads
from out the paths beneath our hearts the weeds
of selfishness, and I should rather live and love
where death is king than have eternal life
where love is not. Another life is naught, un
less we know and love again the ones who love
us here. They who stand with. breaking hearts
around this grave need have no fear. The larger
and the nobler faith in all that is, and is to be,
tells us that death, even at its worst, is only per
fect rest. We know that through the common
wants of life, the needs and duties of each hour,
their grief will lessen day by day until at last
these graves will be to them a place of rest
and peace, almost of joy. There is for them this
consolation: The dead do not suffer. If they
live again, their lives will surely be as good, as
ours. We have no fear; we are all children of
the same mother, and the" same fate awaits us
all. We, too, have our religion, and it is this:
'Kelp for the living, hope for the dead.' "
A WASHINGTON dispatch to the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat follows: "Immigration
officials are now collating and analyzing the fig
ures of the immigration movement to this coun
try for the fiscal year which ended on June 30.
That movement was the greatest in the history
of the country. , The total number of immigrants
was 1,285,349. The million mark was passed
for the first time in 1905. In 1906 1,100,735
were admitted. During the past nine years the
number of immigrants was: In 1899, 311,715;
1900, 448,572; 1901, 489,198; 1902, 648,743;
1903, 857,046; 1904, 812,870; 1905; 1,026,499;
1906, 1.100J.35; 1907, 1,2,85,349. The bulk
of these landed at New York. During the fiscal
year 1907 New York alone received 1,000,000
for the first time. The rush months were the
last four months of the fiscal year, when the
immigrants landed were over 100,000 per
month."
CANADIANS attacked Japanese in Vancouver
recently and it is estimated that during the
riot $100,000 worth of property was destroyed.
Dispatches say that the rioters destroyed prop
erty as follows: "General stores, thirteen; ho
tels, nine; candy and confectionery shops, seven;
bath houses, two; barbe? shops, five; shoe mak
ers, two; banking office, one; newspaper office,
one; employment offices, three; restaurant, one;
rice mill, one; hatters sHops, one; tailors, two;
watchmaker, one. Of these fifty stores, all the
windows and door glass were smashed. Two
Japanese 'were wounded." A Vancouver dis
patch to the St. Louis Republic says: "The
trouble began Saturday night when the Asiatic
Exclusion League held a parade and later a
meeting at which Lieutenant Governor Duns
muir, who vetoed. the bill introduced by the
present attorney general to enforce the natal
act in British Columbia, was burned in efflgy,
and a resolution was passed to ask the Dominion
government to allow this bill to become law.
It was after that the mob stormed Chinatown,
deliberately smashing the windows in all stores.
Street orators gathered crowds who even
Bwarmed up the telegraph poles, and a strong
cordon of police across the street had all they
could do to keep the mob from again entering
the Chinese quarter. As there had been threats
of burning, the fire brigade was ready with hose
to use this method, if necessary, to keep the
white mob back. While the speaking was going
on, the sound of breaking glass was acclaimed
with joyful yells by the hoodlums. Then the
mob broke loose on Howell street, a few blocks
away, in another direction, where the Japanese
reside. Hero windows wcro broken also, but
the Japanese resisted, and with bottles and
boards attacked their assailants. Several peo
ple were injured in the counter attacks. Prom
tho Canadian Pacific railway wharves a dozen
Japanese woro thrown into tho water, but wcro
rescued. Three white men wore stabbed by
Japanese and two others wcro cut with broken
bottles. A nowspapor man, going homo, was
held up by a Japanese, and when tho latter was
taken to the police station a search revealed a
murderous looking knife. All night bands of
armed Japanese walked the streets, keyed to
j)itch by the 'excitement, and bent on revenge."
U UNDER DATE of New York, Soptember 15,
the Associated Press carried this inter
view with Former Congressman Timothy T. Sul
livan: "Yes, I am 'for Lieutenant Govornor
Chanlor for the democratic nomination for presi
dent because I think. wo can win with him. I
don't know anyone else whose name has been
mentioned on our -Hide of tho fenco of which
this can be said. This is not said in disparage
ment of any of tho distinguished men who as
pire to lead tho democratic party in a national
campaign. They are all good men in their way,
but tho so-called psychological moment for them
in national politics, has not yot arrived. Their
time will come, but just now tho need of the
party Is for a young man whose personality is
strong enough to carry Now York state, and
whose name will Inspire confidence among the
business men throughout tho nation. Whether
we like it or not, we must admit that of lato
years the commercial interests of the country
have been arrayed against the democratic party.
I am one who believes that discrimination has
been most unjust and undeserved. In every
fight we have bee'n handicapped by this unrea
soning sentiment. As long as the party is en
veloped in this hoodoo we may expect to go down
to defeat. This is an opportuno time to cast it
off. Against Chanler not a word can be said.
He is strong in the south, where his family for
over a hundred years has been honored and re
spected. He has been tho architect of his own
political fortune in this state. Nominated on
the democratic ticket he wins for his party the
first time in a dozen years. He demonstrated
that this is a democratic, state if you give tho
people the candidates that they want. Chanler
ha& made himself stronger with the people
every day he has been In office. Ho has sup
ported every reform policy urged by Governor
Hughes. When Chanler said 'to do right is to
be a democrat,' he optimized the entire demo
cratic situation."
r
British colonics. To take any othor view, It n
pointed out horo, would moan a broach of the
alliance with England, of which tho Japano
nave been ho proud, and which they rogard na
so necessary to the development of tholr atnbl
tlous BchomoH for tho oxploltatlon of the onst.
For though the British government may and
doubtless will apologize for tho Vancouver af
fair, and oven pay an indemnity, a repetition
of the Incident Is believed to bo almont certain
unless the British government yields to the de
mands of tho Brltlah Columbiana In the mutter
of restricting Japanese immigration. A a mut
ter of fact negotiations aro already afoot be
tween tho BrltlBh and tho Japanoso govern
ments to regulate the influx of coollo labor Into
tho British coloulos. Tho Vancouver lnHdont
will, it Is belloved hero, hasten thone negotia
tions .to a conclusion and If Japan enter Into
treaty relations of that kind with Groat Britain,
It can not rofuao to do so with America. So that
there Is after all a prospect that Secretary Hoot
and Ambassador Aoki will soon again be In con
forenco on this subject."
-) EFERRING TO the advance In price of n
AY spool of thread the' Louisville (Ky.) Post
says: "The announcement has recently boon
made of tho advancement of spool thread to six
cents and in some cases to seven. Tho further
announcement Is made that there will bo other
advances until spool thread Is sold at retail for
ten conts. There Is no profit in spool thread to
tho retail merchants. It Is sold to tho consumer
at about cost. The profit goes to the spool
thread trust. Years ago Coatcs' spool thread
was the standard, then Clark's ,aftcr long years
of competition, then other factories, until there
has been a consolidation Into the 'American
Thread company.' These thread factories havo
been' the children of the tariff, so far as America
is concerned, though they always had tholr part
ners in England, Coatcs' being an English con
cern from the beginning, and Clark as well.
, Under the- McKinley act of 1890 the duty on
cotton thread was seven cents for evory dozen
spools. Under the Gorman-Wilson act, the duty
was reduced to 5 cents a dozen, and under
tho Dinglcy tariff, now in force, the duty was
put to six cents a dozen on cotton thread, con
taining not more than ope hundred yards lo a
spool. Cotton thread Is usually two hundred
yards to the spool, so it makes one cent the tax
for a spool of two hundred yards. The cprmo
rants are not satisfied with this, so they organ
ized a trust to destroy competition and put the
prices up to suit themselves. Of course, they
claim that it Is due to advance in materials and
advance In labor, and there has. been an ad
vance in both, but the advance in price covers
this and everything else."
GREAT BRITAIN will have some explaining
to do to the sensitive Japanese by reason
of the Vancouver riot. At the same time Wash
ington leaders think that the American govern
ment will be lifted out of some ofits alleged
embarrassments. An Associated Press dispatch
from Washington follows: "That a stringent
exclusion treaty between America and Japan is
measurably nearer realization than the most
optimistic administration official could have be
lieved forty-eighty hours ago is the judgment
of the members of the diplomatic corps here.
This long sought object is expected to be at
tained perhaps as an indirect result of the mob
bing of the Japanese at Vancouver in British
Columbia last Saturday night. Officials here
deplore what they view as an unfortunate and
unwarranted infraction of the treaty rights of
the Japanese, but they do not fail to perceive
at once tho Important bearing that this incident
will probably have upon the negotiations be
tween the state department and the Japanese
ambassador looking to the drafting of a treaty
that shall limit the incoming of Japanese
coolies, instead of allowing the subject to be
dealt with in the present loose fashion by what
amounts to semi-official undertakings on the
part of the Japanese government to withhold
passports to co6lies coming directly to the United
States. The belief that a treaty is now within
sight is basdd on the conviction of officials that
the Japanese government will now be brought
face to face with the fact that as It cannot dis
criminate between Great Britain and America
in the matter of demands for fair treatment for
its subjects, and must by this time be convinced
that the problem presented is really a racial one,
the only solution of which will He In the for
mal recognition by Japan of the right to re
strict coolie immigration not pnly Jn America,
but in British Columbia, Australia' and other
CHARLES WELCH writes to the Boston
Herald to say: "The statement that Mrs.
Vergoose of Boston was tho author of the famous
nursery rhymes of Mother Gooso Is so absurd
that I am not a little surprised that you gave
it currency again to mislead the visitors to Bos
ton during Old Home Week. There is no evi
dence of the existence of the book of which
you quote the title except a very vague bit of
hearsay. But there is ample evidence, which I
first brought to light nearly thirty years ago,
and which I furnished to the late Mr. W. H.
Whittemore the registrar of 'the city of Boston,
when he was compiling his book on the original
Mother Goose's Melody (Damrell Upham Co.,
Bpston, 1892), that the name of Mother Goose
in the title of a book was first used by John
Newbery 'the philanthropic publisher of St.
Paul's Churchard' London, as early as (circa)
1760, and there are strong grounds for belief
that Oliver Goldsmith and John Newbery col-
' laborated in the collection, writing and publi
cation of tho first collection of nursery rhymes
ever Issued, some time between 1760 and 1767.
Furthermore In the light of the knowledge that,
these rhymes and jingles of Mother, Goose are
'the debris of the folk-literature of England
which has come down to us from the far-off
past' centuries before Mrs. Vergoose lived it
is ridiculous to claim for this wife of a Boston
printer the authorship of any one of them. All
this is very clearly brought out by Professor
Charles Eliot Norton in the Notes at the end
of this 'Heart of Oak,' Book No. 1, and I have
set it forth at greater length in many articles
and lectures which I have written since I. pub
lished my 'Life of John Newbery' in 1885.
'Pretty history' which Is not true is not history
at all."
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