W4 -T- 3f '"
9
JANUARY 1&, 1909
land the treasury department solemnly made
out a warrant fpr one cent to close the account
between the United States and Grover Cleve
land. He is determined he shall do nothing
of that kindjn the case of President Roosevelt.
Reynolds knows that every month he makes
out a warrant for $4,167.06 and twice a year
ho makes out one for $4,166.70. In that way
the books are kept straight. Not being bound
by the rules of the senate that the day begins
at noon, Mr. Reynolds is trying to figure whether
he" should pay the president for March 4 or only
for half of it and give the other half of the day's
wages to Mr. Taft. The senate, even if it liked
Mr. Roosevelt, which it does not, would pay him
only for March 3, because so far as it is con
cerned the outgoing president does not serve
on March 4 at all, his term ending with the
last session on March 3, which day comes to an
end at noon of the calendar day of March 4.
The treasury can not even take cognizance of
the fact that the president who signs bills on
the calendar day March 4 always dates his sig
nature March 3. No sir; the treasury does with
calendar facts, not finespun theories manufac
tured by the senate. Hence the troubles of the
clerks in Mr. Reynold's office."
UNDER THE headline "A Fame Which His
tory Must Preserve," the Christian Advo
cate says: "The echoes of the campaign are
quite monotonous. Some of them are simply
sarcasms, witticisms ,and jeering against Mr.
Bryan. One thing is certain: Since Henry Clay
no other personality among defeated candidates
for the presidency has accomplished as much
as William Jennings Bryan. One of the two
great parties has three times nominated him.
When they skipped him they nominated a dis
tinguished and accomplished lawyer, then chief
justice of the court of appeals of the state of
New York, the highest court in the country ex
cept the supreme court of the United States,
who did not do as well as Bryan. As a per
sonality, Bryan is loved by more people today
than any other man in the country. The people
that compelled his nomination three times did
so because they liked him. He is an orator of
high but not the highest grade. The latter
dominates all classes, . However, as a platform
orator he, ,has, no. superior, if an equal, in this
country. The London Times is not frequently
deceived in its criticisms of men. When Mr.
Bryan visited England, Joseph H. Choate was
our minister to that almost finical country. If
Mr. Bryan did not surpass, he was quite equal
to meeting the ambassador in the realm of post
prandial and platform oratory. The Times said
there was only one man in Great Britain that
could come into competition with either of theso
two men, and that was Lord Roseberry. Mr.
Bryan is a citizen to be respected and a pure
product of western oratory. Of late, time and
hard -work have moderated the incipient fury of
his speech. The. points of his oratory are clear
ness of language, clearness of enunciation, a
melodious voice, ingratiating attitude, and a
certain mysterious holding-attention power
(which is genius, whether what he is saying
is accepted or not. There is not a political
squint of any kind in this statement, but we
have steadily recognized the fact that Bryan is
an unusual orator, and aa at the present time
orators are exceedingly scarce in this country
as well as in England we can not afford to
cheapen any one of the few we have merely
because he falls df success at the polls."
-pESPONDING to a clergyman's appeal, 1,800
XL young people at Cleveland, Ohio, pledged
themselves to live for two weeks as they be
lieved Jesus would live were He on earth. A
Cleveland dispatch to the New York World tells
the story in this way: "The young people are
members of three church societies, the Chris
tian Endeavor, Epworth League and Baptist
Union. The entire membership will take part
i the experiment. When the Rev. W. B. Wal
lace made a' dramatic appeal to be earnest in
the experiment, some prayed and some cried
in their excitement. 'What would Jesus have
us do?' he exclaimed. 'Be a man. Be like a
burst of sunshine. Learn to smile, show your
joy in your hand clasp. Jesus was every inch
a man. He would shake hands like a-man, not
like a giraffe, were He here today. Fling sun
shine into the lives of others. Do not go to
work ten minutes late with a grouch. Be
sunny. Also, don't quit work ten minutes early
with a sour face, Christ' would not do that.
Be frank. If .you are a fifty-cent man do not
Pass oyurself off as a dollar man. There was
The Commoner.
fh vnn?!7 '? ChrIst's Renter shop. Be honest
in your business and be honest in your religion.
Lead a sustained life. Pray. Read your Bible,
urge others to read the word. Christ is the
world s gentleman. Ho would have you live as
ladies and gentlemen. The titles are often mis
used. Let us claim the right to the titles in
tlie coming two weeks. Christ worked. If
you haven't a job now, get one. Don't be a
loafer. When the temptation comes to bo dis
honest in business say no! no matter what comes.
Let us be honest in speech, too, in what we
say about our neighbors.' "
THE VESTRY of Trinity church, famous alike
in New York's real estate and theological
circles, have been taking the public into their
confidence. This board, for the first time in
ninety-five years, has made a detailed state
ment of its financial affairs. The board was,
it is said, prompted to make this statement by
reason of the criticisms aroused by the board's
proposal to close old St. John's chapel Re
ferring to this report the New York World says:
"Trinity's total income in 1907 was $827,151
a considerable sum. Of this there was spent
for special charities 'within the parish' $10,996,
or 13 per cint; charities outsido the parish are
lumped in accounting with gifts to churches.
Upon schools $63,756 was spent. The tax val
uation of Trinity's rented and productive
property is placed at $13,646,000. As most of
this is in poor condition and presumably as
sessed at a low rate, its selling value for im
provement may be nearer $20,000,000. Con
sidering Trinity, St. Paul's and other church
yards, and Trinity cemetery uptown, as merely
real estate like the endangered St. John's, the
parish would probably 'cut up for' $60,000,000
or more if it carried the St. John's precedent
to its grimly logical conclusion and gave up all
church activities. The poor condition of Trin
ity's rented property is apparent from its own
figures. Its rents are $752,741, from which is
deducted $344,179 for management, repairs,
taxes, elevator service, insurance, advertising
and sundries, leaving $407,562 for net return.
A small part of the office expense might properly
be charged against church administration, but
. on the most favorable showing the estates yield
only a trifle above three per cent on the assessJ
ment values and probably no more than two and
one-half per cent net upon the actual values,
without any allowance whatever for deprecia
tion of buildings. Trinity has been called the
worst landlord in New York. It describes it
self as the least business-like and most unsuc
cessful. By selling off its real estate and buy
ing bonds it could so Increase its revenue as to
be able to spare for charity more than one-fifth
of its office expenses. It might even . o able
to continue the work, and spare the dignity
and beauty, of St. John's."
T'lE PRESIDENT of France Is having lots
of trouble these days. The London Daily
Mail is authority for the following: "The
Christmas festivities at the Elysee are menaced
by an embarrassing contretemps, which places
M. Fallieres, president of the French republic,
in a curious dilemma. Socialism, it appears,
has invaded the precincts of the presidential
palace, and a few days ago, the head maitre
d'hotel presented a petition to the chief of
state, requesting permission on behalf of the
ushers, footmen, and other male domestics to
. wear a mustache. The petition set forth the
right of every citizen of the republic, no matter
what his station, to complete liberty and equality
in the matter of hirsute adornment, and main
tained that in a democracy founded by the sons
of the revolution, no man was entitled to inflict
a' badge of servitude upon his neighbor. M.
Fallieres is said to be much perplexed as to the
ronlv he will make to the petition. The liveried
menials of the Elysee do not hide their deter
mination to proceed to extremes if their request
is refused, and a strike in the servants' hall of
the presidential palace at this time of the year
would mean considerable inconvenience. At the
sime time 1.1. Fallieres realizes that he can not
peremptorily dismiss a petition which takes its
stand upon the rights of man, and asks for noth
ing more than equality for all citizens. Another
argument put forward by those who have signed
the petition is 'that M. Viviani, the minister
for labor, a post created by the present govern
ment, is a militant socialist and an active advo
cate of the rights of the proletariat. He is very
nroud of his handsome black mustach . and
the petitioners have urged him to use his in-
fluenco with the president of the, republic for
the abolition of the objectionable order, which
entails compulsory shaving. A' few years ago
a porter at the British embassy in Paris, a fdw
steps from the Elysee Palace, was given the
alternative of shaving his mustacho or being
dismissed. Ho bowed to tho Inevitable and sac
rificed his mustacho. All tho male domestics
at tho ministries and ombasslcs In Paris are
obliged to keep the upper lip free from hair,
and M. Fallieres can not accede to tho prayer
of his male servants without committing a grave"
violation of tho protocol."
o
THE STORY of a little hero Is told by tho
editorial writer in the Philadelphia Public
Ledger. Joseph Smith, a negro orphan eight
years of age, lived at tho House of tho Holy
Child in Philadelphia. Tho Public Lodger writer
tells tho story as follows: "On the morning of
New Year's day there was a fire at tho orphan
age. Little Joseph jumped from his cot, calling
to the other children: 'Get up, everybody!
Hurry!' and running to tho window lowered tho
i.ro escape. It was a job for his small, unaided
strength to handle the heavy counter-balancing
weight and chain, and since he could not man- .
age It with his arms alone, he jumped on tho
first section of the ladder, which his weight
brought slowly to tho ground. Then ho clam
bered back into the dormitory, and with stout
heart, as Little Nemo In Wonderland, marshaled
tho other children and led them single file down
the ladder to safety. That boy will some day
make a useful' man, the kind who Is 'all there'
In an emergency. There is no seve- ?r test of
one's ability to collect one's wits and keep a
clear, cool head than a fire interrupting a
sound sleep with its dreaded alarm. Many a
grown-up h scatter-brained on a similar occa
sion, and In the present Instance one of the
nurses rushed, hen-mlndedly, about the building,
her clothing aflame, eluding the grasp of those
who could and would have helped her. Oliver
Wendell Holmes ence wrote of a friend:
'And then there's a youngster of excellent pith, -Fate
tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.'
But this youngster of excellent pith will not be
lost to view as ho gets bigger and older, for '
he has the makings of a man In him." " ' '
TT-IE STATISTICS of lynching In the United
States are mainly the work of volunteer
and unofficial observers and there are some dis
crepancies In the totals but the general results
are sufficiently accurate for purposes of com
parison and comment. In this connection the
Philadelphia Public Ledger says: "During the
year 1908 there were in round numbers 100 of
these crimes of violence within tho confines
of tho United States, no less than ninety-seven
having been committed In the south, and ninety
three of the victims were negroes. As these
figures show an increase over the totals for the
four years immediately preceding, they hardly
mark an encouraging progress in respect for
law and order, nor in the decrease of those
crimes which chiefly provoke this form of sum
mary justice at the hands of mobs. The fol
lowing table will show, however,, that, compared
with some years, the record of 1908 is not with
out ground. for encouragement:
1882 114 1892 235 1902 97
1883 134 1893 200 1903 104
1884 211 1894 197 1904,... 87
1885 184 1895 180 1905 66
1886 138 1893 131 1906 68
1887 122 1897 165 1907 51
1888 142 1898 127 1908 100
1889.... 176 1899 107
1890 128 1900 115 Total 3709
1891 195 1901 135
Viewed In the aggregate, tho lynching phenom
ena are an appalling feature of American social
life, and justify in some measure the strictures
passed upon us by foreign critics and observers.
Whether tho recurrence of this form of violence
is to be attributed to the faults in the adminis
tration of criminal law in this country, or
whether it Is a result of the peculiar nature of
the race problem presented by the presence of
the negroes in the midst of a white population
occupying a different plane of- civilization, it
Temains a stain upon the fair name of the United
States which every patriotic citizen would see
eliminated. Compared with previous decades,
the record of the last undoubtedly indicates im
provement, but the condition revealed by these
statistics is far from satisfactory." "
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