OCTOBER 11, 1807
The Commoner.
call, the senator returned to the White House
arid In the privacy of the executive office there
was a heart to heart discussion, the theme of
which the senator would not divulge, hut which
was learned to he that same anti-injunction
plank. The president has taken it much to
heart, and it is understood-that he said some
pretty sharp things about the Nebraska repub
licans. His frank declarations about a conven
tion that had given" the first formal state in
dorsement to his presidential candidate caused
a sensation and they have received much atten
tion and comment, both in the newspaper cor
respondence that went out of Washington to
night and the discussions among the public men
who are getting to town in considerable num
bers. There Is an impression that the criticism
of the Nebraska platform will develop into an
issue of much larger consequence than can be
bounded by Nebraska state lines. State's rights
people, democrats and republicans alike, think
the matter will become a large issue, that the
president will probably malce more detailed
statement of his opinions later 'in some public
utterance, and that he will try to force his party
to support his position. -.. he does so, it 1b pre
dicted, he will injure it in a good many states
where public opinion strongly indorses the Ne
braska declaration."
T. J. MEALS, former labor commissioner of
Ohio, but soon to become a resident of
Des Moines, la., recently gave to the Des Moines
correspondent for the Marshalltown (la.) Times
Republican this interesting political talk: "Sec
retary Taft will not, bo nominated for president
of the United States and Congressman Burton
will not be made mayor of Cleveland. Secretary
Taft has nine of the members of the Ohio com
mittee, and Foraker has five," said Mr. Meals,
"and any way you fix it you can't get those five
for Taft. Without Ohio Taft hasn't got it, of
course, and there is no way that he can get
Ohio, as fine a man as he is. When the end
comes you will see that Taft will not be nom
inated. Back in Ohio politicians are looking
to Knox, of Pennsylvania, and there are a great
many expecting his nomination. Pennsylvania
will come to the convention and say, ',We have
always given a good majority for the ticket, and
never asked .anything,' And Pennsylvania will
" get that nomination for Knox." "Will Burton
beat Tom Johnson fQr mayor of Cleveland?"
"No, he won't." "What's he running for, then?"
"Because he can't help himself. They put it
up to him and he had to, do it. It's an easy
way of letting him down. Burton is a very fine
man, an excellent gentleman, but cold like John
She'rman. Burton is a fine congressman. When
' he makes up his mind the way a thihg should
be it Is almost impossible to change him. Bur
ton hasn't been overly active in supporting the
president, for one thing, and he holds that" im
portant chairmanship on the rivers and harbors
committee, and it has simply been put up to him
to defeat Tom Johnson, and he can't do that.
Cleveland is the best governed city on earth.
, The people are riding there on three-cent fares.
When Tom Johnson first started his fight for
three-cent fares some years ago, people said he
couldn't do it. They would be glad if he did,
but they knew he couldn't. Now he has won
and they have universal transfers on a three
cent fare. You can ride thirty-two miles in
Cleveland for three cents. The three-cent fare
is "the issue in the Cleveland campaign. If Bur
ton is elected it means a return to the five-cent
fare, and the people are not going to vote to
'return to five-cent fares. It is simply impos
sible for Burton to defeat Tom Johnson. Roose
velt will never bo a candidate for president
again. He is as high now as he can possibly
be and if he retires now he will go to the sen
ate from New York, and that is just what he
wants to do. He can then remain in the senate
the rest of his days. If he is a candidate for
re-election as president there is the possibility
of his being defeated. It may be remote, but
it may not be so remote."
WHILE PAYING a tribute to Congressman
Burton, the republican nominee for
mayor of Cleveland, the Cleveland Plain Dealer
says: "By their opinions expressed at the polls
the people of Cleveland should intimate to Mr.
Burton their preference for his continued so
journ in Washington." Referring to the Plain
Dealer's statement, the Houston (Texas) Post
says: "That is the judgment of Mr. Burton's
friends and admirers throughout .the country.
.Mr. Burton is a stupendous'figure in, Washington
and his capacity fo: good in the federal congress
is undoubtedly great. If he remains in congress
until he dovolops his brilliant conception of a
vast system of internal navigable vaterways,
his namo will go down into history as ono of tho
country's greatest benofactora. -Thero is no con
dition in Cleveland that" can possibly inspire him
with tho notion that it is his duty to reorganize
that city's municipal government. According
to the Plain Dealer, which is moro independent
than partisan, Cleveland has enjoyed during
Tom L. Johnson's three terms the best and clean
est municipal government in the history of tho
city. 'Ho has says tho Plain Dealer, 'given
the city three administrations unequaled in effi
ciency, in Integrity and in common souse business
principles. Ho has been tried and has emphati
cally not been found wanting. Tho city
is his debtor for the work ho has already done.
In every department of municipal government
there has been marked progross under his direc
tion. He has been mayor in fact as well as in
name, and has assumed personal responsibility
for each of tho governmental departments.
Charges of machine politics, of corruption, of
fraud, of favoritism have invariably fallen fiat,
or have become boomerangs. If Mr. Johnson
has been a 'boss,' and he admits that ho has
sought and securod control of hid own party, he
has wielded his power invariably for tho good
of the city; and not to further any private ends
of his own.' Tho conclusion is irresistible that
Mr. Burton has been forced into tho Cleveland
mayoralty contest by considerations separate
and apart from that of tho city's welfare Tho
evidences are abundant that his determination
to oppose Johnson is but a part of a great politi
cal enterprise having for its object the undoing
of Foraker and the promotion of Taft's presi
dential interests. He could have resisted For
aker and aided Taft without leaving congress.
By his course, he has merely accentuated tho
spirit of faction among the Ohio republicans in
a way not calculated to obtain practical results
for his favorite or against his real adversary,
Senator Foraker, and it will be remarkable If
he does not sacrifice much of his own well de
served prestige."
O
ON AN AVERAGE two hundred and forty
murders are committed in New York City
every year, according' to a statement made by
the New York World. The World says: "Sixty
five arrests arc made for these murders. Thirty
three alleged murderers ard brought to trial.
Twenty convictions result. Two of the convict
ed men are sentenced to death. Three others
receive life sentences. A murderer in New York
City stands a chance of one In one hundred of
escaping the penalty of his crime. In the first
twenty-five years of the nineteenth century there
were only two unsolved murder cases in New
York. From 1900 to the present day there have
been over 300 unsolved murder cases in New
York City. These figures were furnished by
William C. Clemons, the criminologist, in a talk
to the members of Greeley council, National
Union, last night. The causes, Mr. Clemons
says, are inefficient and ignorant.detectives, men
who are excellent oatrolmeu, but who know
nothing of tho science of tracing crime and
criminals. Besides the known murders in this
city every year, he says there are at least twenty
five which are never heard of. These take place
in every walk of life and are usually accom
plished by the use of poisons, although frequent
ly a knife or a pistol inflicts a death wound, and
members of the family conceal the facts. Ap
pendicitis, hart failure or some similar cause
is marked down as the medium of death."
of this country don't want a protcctlvorta,rlff,
and it to an insult to tho Intel ligolicor this
class of tho peoplo to tell thom they tyro Jbono
fltcdby protection. If tho farmers arc, enjoying
such prosperity, why is It lhat tho manu'factur
ors, who have reaped such a harvest of wealth
under protection of tho tariff don't inveflt'Homo
of their surplus in farm property? Farm prop
erty Ib not worth fifty per cont of what it was
fifty years ago. Tho only thing which gives it
any value is tho timber growing onMt. Wo nco
every day something about tho great crops an
an ovldcnce of tho prosperity of tho farmers, as
if theso crops grow spontaneously and all' tho
farmer had to do was to take tho tnoifoy for
thorn. If tho crop costs all tho fanner gets
for it, in tho labor required to produce it, whero
does the prosperity come in? Tho prices of all
the staple products of tho farmer are no ra6ro
than they woro in ante-bollum times, but tho
labor necessary to produce them Is ono hundred
por cont moro than it was fifty years ngo. Tho
best farms aro being abandoned by their own
ers, who aro moving Into tho towns, because of
tholr Inability to make tho land pay tho ex
pense of cultivation, and this is tho .prosperity
afforded by' a protective tariff. Everything which
the farmer has to buy is protected by tho tariff,
and ho has no protection for what ho has to
sell, tho price being rogulntcd by foreign mar
kets. No government deserves tho support of
its people which compels its own peoplo to pay
twentyifivo to fifty por cont moro than it fur
nishes the same goods to citizens of foreign
countries. Tho farmers boliovo tho tariff is tho
Pandora's box from which all tho evils flow
that aflllct the great body of tho people, and
against which tho futile efforts of tho govern
ment are directed."
WRITING TO the Philadelphia Record, a
Snow Hill, Md., farmer says: "I have
been a reader of your paper several years, and
in your issue of the 11th I noticed the directors
of the Manufacturers' club passed a resolution
protesting against any change of our present
tariff, naming the farmers in the class of its
beneficiaries. Now I am a farmer, and old
enough to compare the condition of the farmers
under the present tariff with what It was prior
to our civil war, when we had a tariff for revenue
only. It is no exaggeration to say that under
the latter, a low tariff, the fanners of this part
of the country had a hundred dollars where
they have one now. The tanners look upon
the protectionists very much as highwaymen,
the only difference being that they are licensed
by the government to commit their robberies.
'It js inconceivable that classlegislation should
so corrupt and demoralize people as to lead
them to utter such palpabld, falsehoods as are
contained' in tho resolution adopted by the Man
ufacturers' club at this meeting. The farmers
qpIIE PHILADELPHIA Public Ledger Inuists
jl that Senator Knox's presidential boom is
only a blind. Tho Public Ledger says: "Scn
.ator Knox's candidacy for the republican nom
ination for president is not taken seriously,
cithor by tho party leaders who are booming
him on every occasion or by tho Independents,
who will probably organize a movement in tho
state to elect delegates in the interest of Presi
dent Roosevelt's choice. In keeping Senator
Knox to tho front as Pennsylvania's choice for
president, tho leaders aro aiming to prevent tho
sixty-eight delegates to tho republican national
convention going to the support of nnother can
didate or scattering their votes among many.
Besides, it is deemed wise politics to hold tho
republican voters to tho support of their party
state ticket this fall by making them boliovo
that if a big vote is polled In November Penn
sylvania will have a chance of capturing tho
presidential nomination next year. Even Gov
ernor Stuart, who gave an Impetus to the Knox
boom at tho republican club convention on Tues
day, and the delegates to that meeting who in
dorsed tho senator's candidacy, are not aware
that Knox is being put forward as a blind by the
state leaders to hold tho national delegates to
gether and to get as big a vote as possible for
the republican ticket this- fall. It is said that
Senator Knox is not a party to tho plana of the
leaders; that he is sincerely a presidential as
pirant, and that ho believes that a combination
of circumstances at the national convention vJll
make his nomination possible. According to
those on the inside of the republican state or
ganization Senator Knox does not seem to realize
that Pennsylvania, with its big republican ma
" Jorlty in presidential years, can present no claim
" for filling first place on "the national party
ticket that will appeal to the convention next
year, that all talk about capturing the presiden
tial nomination for him Is futile. Senator Pen
rose has no hope of Knox's nomination, though
he keeps Ws colleague's name to the front when
ever the subject is discussed, Knox's candidacy
is a political asset in Pennsylvania to Penrose
that the latter intends to use to advantage
until it loses its value after the national con
vention. Penrose is quoted as having remarked
to a political friend, recently: 'Knox's boom is.
a good thing; it will keep the voters from hatch
ing mischief.' "
Mr. C. J. Noel, of Marinette, Wis., is about
to remove to California Mr. Noel has played a
prominent part in Democratic politics in Wiscon
sin, being for a number of years secretary of the
state committee. He was thoroughly in sym
pathy with the party in the fights of 1896
and 1900, and in hia removal to California, the
. democrats of that state will find a reasoji;. for
: congratulation as the . democrats of Wisconsin
have reason to regret his departure.'' ;-.
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