" ' * < - AA > - V
! r
Conservative.
AT LAST.
When on my day of life the night is falling
And in the windf rom unsunned places blown ,
| I hear far voices out of darkness calling
My feet to paths unknown.
i ThouWho hast made my home of life so pleas-
1 ant ,
Leave not its tenant when its walls decay ;
! O Love Divine , O Helper over present ,
I Bo Thou my strength and stay 1
j Bo near mo when all else is from me drifting
1 Earth , sky , homo's pictures , days of shade
and shine ,
i And kindly faces to my own uplifting
The love which answers mine.
I have but Thee , my Father 1 Let Thy Spirit
j Be with mo then to comfort and uphold ;
j No gate of pearl , no branch of palm I merit ,
Nor street of shining gold.
, Suffice it if my good and ill ttnreckoned
1 j And both forgiven through Thy abounding
j j grace
| I find myself by hands familiar beckoned
j Unto my fitting place ;
1' ' Some humble door among Thy many mansions ,
Some sheltering shade where sin and striv
ing cease ,
And flows forever through Heaven's green ex
pansions
The river of Thy peace.
There from the music round about me stealing ,
I fain would learn the new and holy song ,
' And find at last , beneath Thy trees of healing ,
The life for which I long.
John Greenleaf Whittier.
COMMERCE Maiiy persons
ABOVE WAR. have read with iii-
- , terest the various articles recently con-
I-j I tributed to the press iu England on the
danger which the United Kingdom now
Ijj ' | incurs of a short food supply , especially
, [ of a short supply of wheat. The dis
cussion itself brings into very conspic
uous notice the interdependence of the
English-speaking people. You buy
from the United States fifty per cent of
all that we export. Our supply of food
is as necessary to you as your market is
necessary to us , and yet there are a few
noisy persons and presses in both coun
tries who have been idiotic enough to
provoke animosity in the past and who
might be so wanting in all that makes a
man fit to bo respected as to provoke a
war between the two great branches of
the English-speaking people. I do not
use the word Anglo-Saxon for the
reason that , with a few unimportant
exceptions , the members of other fam
ilies among the nations who have found
a way to welfare in the United States
are as true to the principle of liberty
and of common law as if they had not
been born under other conditions.
There are also people of some eminence
and of so little true insight into what
really makes nations great as to have
led them to treat commerce as if it were
a pursuit inferior to that of the army
and the navy ; or as if armies or navies ,
especially the latter , would have any
reason for their existence in modern
times except for the protection of the
commerce from wiiich they have been
generated and by which they are sup
ported. Thojjca power now rests upon
the commerce of which navies are the
national police.
"Wo observe that plans are proposed
for establishing national granaries in
Great Britiaii in which to store a re
serve of wheat , estimated to cost any
where from fifteen to twenty millions
sterling a singular reversion to the con
ception of semi-barbaric conditions.
Are there not easier and simpler ways to
give the people of England positive as
surance of the continuous supply of
grain from this country , which would
rot upon our fields if it were not for the
British market. Some of these writers
are so ill informed as to anticipate a fall
ing off in the supply from the wheat
fields of America. It is only necessary
to call their attention to the fact that
the potential of our wheat lands has
hardly been opened. Witness the fact
that part of the Indian reservation
north of Texas opened to settlement
under the name of Oklahoma but two
or three years ago will this year put
into market about four million quarters
or over thirty million bushels of wheat.
There is imoccupied land iu that immed
iate neighborhood sufficient for the pro
duction of the present entire wheat crop
of the United States whenever anybody
wants it , and will pay the cost of pro
duction and a small profit over.
In the plans for the national granaries
on your side it has been suggested to
build them of concrete in order to avoid
dampness. Why not continue to make
use of the ample granaries of our North
west , where the dry climate gives as
surance that the wheat will bo well pre
served ?
But , say the alarmists , the commerce
between the United States and Great
Britain might bo interrupted , first , by
other nations , second , by a quarrel
among themselves. How shall these ob
jections bo met ? There is a very simple
solution. Wo proposed in 1856 not only
to abolish privateering but to make
private property exempt from seizure
upon the high seas , as it is now upon
land. War upon the laud has ceased iu
some manner to be an opportunity for
rapine and plunder conducted under the
necessary conditions of the science of
war by lying , misleading , ambusliing
and spying , getting the advantage of
the enemy and striking him in the
back , and other military arts. The lat
ter elements are still necessary to the
conduct of war , but rapine and phiuder
upon the land without compensation
and bombardment of unprotected cities
is no longer tolerated. Why not renew
that proposal to establish immunity
from seizure of private property on the
ferry way or sea way between the ports
of this country and the ports of Europe
under the supervision of an interna
tional police consisting of the navies of
both countries ? If the other nations
did not choose to join they could re
main out at their peril. The navies of
the United States and Great Britian
combined are sufficient to maintain
peace , order and progress over the sea
way , which must necessarily bo kept
open for the mutual benefit of the En
glish-speaking people.
But , says an objector , "Suppose there
is a falling out between Great Britain
and the United States. " Well , suppose
there is. That could only bo brought
about by the reprehensible conduct of
small people commonly called jingoes
who might happen to have been put in
places of responsibility. Wo have had
and have now some examples of this
type of irresponsible people in the sen
ate of the United States , and there has
been a suspicion on this side that some
members of a similar class had oven secured -
cured position in your Parliament and
even in your cabinet. Wo can provide
both against and for them , and we can
also provide opportunities for officers of
the navy and aiithors who treat of the
naval power as the cliief consideration
to continue the development of the
fighting qualities which are considered
by them so necessary to national exis
tence. A little commonsense put in a
treaty will provide an arena at some
place on the ocean where a sea fight
would do no harm to anyone except
those who took part in it. It might
then bo arranged that in case the jingoes
of the two countries had come into col
lision , a certain part of the naval force
not required for the preservation of or
der , might bo sent out on each side and
have it out , and see which could mis
lead , deceive or get the bettor of the
other. On this fleet the men who had
not sufficient commonsense to keep the
peace , might leave their legislative halls
or respective cabinets , and take their
places 011 the ships of war for such ser
vice as they might bo competent to ren
der. It would take no more brain power
to shovel coal into the furnace or to
servo in binding up wounds in the ward
room that it had taken to got into the
difficulty which had made a fight of some
sort necessary. Of course these men
would not bo competent to do the tech
nical work of managing the ship any
more than they have proved to be com
petent to do the technical work of man
aging the government , and would there
fore be put into inferior positions.
I venture to submit this plan as a bet
ter one for insuring the food supply of
the British branch of the English-speak
ing people than the one of wasting fif
teen or twenty million pounds sterling
in building silo granaries , so-called , of
concrete , wholly unfit for the preserva
tion of wheat in a climate which is not
as well suited for keeping grain dry as
that in which the grain is now produced.
I think my plan may perhaps bo ac
cepted as the more sensible one of the
. Edward Atkinson , Boston.