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About The Nebraska independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1896-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1901)
h fTY VOL. XII. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FEBRUARY 14, 1901. NO. 38. Jpiwsw . v 1 ) FUBCHASED K&P rrt fU ea4 lb fh!lipr" lt Part f rmlHUml rnly THr are t IVWh for thlar a4 IWard TtutKMlr Tfc Brown family consists of John Crown. father; Mrt John Drowu. tucll.tr: James. Joseph and Josiah Crown, sons ever 21 years old; ana kerl jouzgr son and daughters rinjlcg from fire to fifteen years of are. All lire toother under one roof, tat at the use table and share in each other Joys and sorrow. The jouet children hare the wme rights to prtpr food and clothSnjc as are n Jorrd by tfc-ir parent and older brother. Parental control a to them eitndt further in a few respects than in ease of the crown-up eon. Yet the al! eontitGte one family. No one ever 4reaaed f referring to them as the Uron familr and dependencies." New York. IVnni ylvania, Virginia, Maryland, etc., raay te likened to the chirr Brown. Kana. Nebraska, etc., are the grown-up sons and daughter. Anxona. Nw Mexico and Oklahoma are the younger brothers and sisters. Collertlteiy. al! are known as the l'n!te4 State. They '.onstitute the United State family. This Is no Idle fancy, either. Chief Justice Marshall, in Lough borough vs. Ii!ake ( Wheatonl said: Certainly this qtiestion can admit of hut on answer. It (the United States) is the tame of our great republic, which Is composed of state and terri tories. The District of Columbia or the territory west of the Missouri i not less within the United States than Maryland or Pennsylrania. Cot where do the Porto Uicans and Filipinos ctnne In? Are they to become a rptM sous and daughters, or tre they merely -hired help." working for nothing and boarding themselves? WAR EXPENSES fader fteeU S2le They are Meaat les t Mhr4 f um They WIU Never lie t'sttt te Repnfc- rm rty 1 Overthrow Senator Hale announced on the floor of the senate the other day that the military budget of the United States including the expenses of the army and the nary and the payment on ac count of pensions would amount to f -nearly twice as much t said, "as Is paid by any European country. r" The cot of the new army can very aMy m estimated. Fortunately there i nothing about It that can le kept from the pabiic. It will cost the gov ernment considerably more than II,- to support each member of th new army of IOO.OmO men during the rossiag year. The appropriation bii: for the maintenance of the military es tablishment, which is now before the houe. call for a grand total of 1117. :4.ei3.10. mnd is x aside red the lowest mm on which the army can be main tained fr twtdte months. It Is likely that even this tremendous amount of money will prove insuffic ient tor the need of the army during the com Ins year, for the committee In framing the bill cut down the esti mate uf the army oflSeers by more than fl ;. v. the war department bair.g kM for a round f 130.000.000. However the appropriation carried by the present fcllli the largest ever of fered for the army sine the civil war, exceedlEg by several millions of dol lars the beavieft demand made during the year following the Spanish war. The average cost for the support of a soldier has been about ll.OoO for many years past, bat It has slightly increased since the Spanih war. The average appropriation for the military estab lishment when the army consisted of but 27.000 men was about 123.500.000. The appropriation in lb7 was I23.27S. and la the preceding year it wa3 f 3.2O09. For the year 1) it was $O.I3it.O". and for the current year the total was 1111.220 .Goo. The b's jset single Item of expense for the amy la the pending bill Is charged to the quartermaster's department, and I for transportation of troops and sup plies. For this purpose the depart ment Is allow! t34.OX.0OO, which Is J. J.).XJ more than was required for the support of the entire army live years ago. General Lodington. the juartermabrr general of the array, says that the great bulk of this money will be expended in sending troop to and from the Philippines. China. Alas ka and Porto Itico. He also says that pit cf It will f ) for chartering addi tional tfKi to help out the army tnn;orU in the work of bringing tatk troo;j from the Philippines. It look as though $34OO.OOQ would not be r cough for thi parpose, as te department fca. during the seven months of the current final year, spent Izu.uOo; In carrying troops back and forth, and General Ltidicgtoa has asked for an additional fS.ooO.OOO to help tide over the time between now and July I next- General Ludlngton his charge of the disbursement cf more thin half of all money appro priated for the upport of the artuy, i3.0.(J betng placed to his credit in, the new bill. F1SHT1S3 LURK HANHA JTere4 Ealec tewiM 4 X Work Oat tJ rwre4 by Stor Washington. I. C Feb. S. 1&01. I th'nk St is time for the ringmaster of this circus to let us go home. said Senator Tillman at It o'clock the first evening that the republicans forced nlgkt sections In order to push through fc;t-be!Mrs' combine each year for thirty year?, 9 It was turloua xi;ht. Mark liana had been confined at home with rheu matism all day. but be dragged him self out a bitter cold evening In order to keep tab on the republicans who had promised to be component por tions of the quorum Insisted upon by the democrats. Senator Frye walked up and down at the rear chamber doing voluntary po lice duty In order that no republican should escape. To such bulldozing tactics have llanna and Frye descended in order to consummate the nine million dollar loot of the treasury In behalf of th? ship-builders combine. Senator Jones of Arkansas gave the republicans a foretaste of what is to happen to their subsidy bill wheu, earlier that same day, he objected to consideration of the subsidy bill and It had to give place to an appropria tion bill. The republicans declared that the evening sessions would allow the dem ocrats to wear themselves out with speech-making and that the day ses sion would then suffice for routine bills end the subsidy measure also. Senator Nelson of Minnesota, just re-elected by a state which gave Mc Kinley 77.000 majority, gave the nrst sensational act in what promises to rival a continuous performance in in terest. He took advantage of the -evening session to deliver a scathing ar raignment of the administration for refusing to supply the senate with in formation In relation to the Lawshe report on Cuba. Senator Nelson seldom makes speeches, but this invective of his against the encroachment of imperial ist methods was worthy of the most bitter enemy of the president. Senator Jones led the democratic protest against the subsidy bill and sounded the keynote of the opposition debate. He showed clearly how out rageous a steal is contemplated and how contemptible are the tactics of tho majority In making its passage a test of the physical endurance of the mi nority. , The republicans will hardly succeed In this plan. The democrats will in sist on a quorum every minute of tha evening sessions and the first session not only have not advanced the sub sidy bill, but have given the minoritv a beautiful opportunity to put on record some sharp and well-merited criticism of the administration methods in var ious directions. The democrats feel that so great a principle Is involved in this subsidy steal that they will fight It to & finish and let the republicans take the re sponsibility of the results. - ' So far as McKlnley is concerned, he wants an extra session if this one can not take action on the Philippines and Cuba. Every day he has a string of repub lican senators and representatives at the White house Impressing upon them his desire to share the responsibility of governing our insular possessions with congress. That is the way the administration puts it. Cut there is not the slightest desire that congress should interfere with the Imperial policy now being developed. All the administration desires is the formal transfer of authority from the legislative to the executive branch of government. For instance he wants the Spooner resolution passed giving him absolute civil power in the Philippines until congress chooses to interfere. Similarly he wants congress to pass a resolution authorizing him to deal with the Cuban constitution as he sees fit. The administration sees no reason why a well-disciplined republican con gress cannot take ten minutes oft from consideration of the appropriation bills and the ship subsidy bill to pass a cou ple of blanket resolutions and then adjourn at the proper time. The administration can then go about its business of giving out fran chises and special privileges to spec ulators and subjugating the Filipinos by a dual civil and military govern ment and neither congress nor the peo ple need pay any further attention except that the latter are always o furnish the soldiers and pay the bills. The administration had rather risk an extra session, if necessary, than risk popular disapproval by carrying out the imperialist program alone. But here comes the trouble. Senators and representatives know the. temper fit their constituents and are loth to as sume responsibility for the new de parture In government. This is par ticularly the case with house mem bers. The Increase and reorganization of the army gives a splendid opportunity to give out various succulent plums to those who behave nicely and do what the administration tells them 1o. This indirect sort of bribe Is being very freely used. The congressman who displays independence and any thought for his country's welfare is go ing to come out very badly in the mat ter of appointments for bis constitu ents. There are so many enormous steals going on nowadays that it seems hard ly worth while to point cut that the navy department recently held a rum mage sale of vessels bought during the Spanish war. The n?t loss to the gov ernment in selling these vessels was 1281,000. Great Britain is obliged to send 20,000 mere troops to Lord Kitchener In South Africa. The Boers have over 19,000 men in the field and are gain ing fresh victories every day. Strange, isn't it. what pluck and determination men can show when fighting for their homes and for freedom. . ... The billion dollar steel trust is cne of the republican Infant Industries that must have protection against the pauper labor of Europe. Nine dollars a ton Is about what it wants and Aid rich. Allison and Mark Hanna will see that it gets it. PHILIPPINE DISEASES The Official Report llor Than Coiflrai th Statement Mad In The Re form Press. One of the most accurate and val uable correspondents who were sent to the Philippines was Mr. William E. Johnson. This gentleman is well known here in Lincoln where he was connected with the university. All the professors of the Nebraska university will willingly bear testimony to his honor and uprightness of character. He went to the Philippines as a cor respondent of the Voice and the first thing that he found out was that if he wanted to get at facts he must keep his Identity and purpose of publica tion In the background. In fact, noth ing of his writing was published until he was beyond the harsh hand of mili tary authority. As soon as his letters began to appear, the flunkey corre spondents at Washington, chief among whom was William E. Curtis of the Chicago Record, began to denounce him and publish articles from politi cal chaplains contradicting his state ments. Now that the official reports have at last been published, Mr. John son takes occasion to compile them and show him his statements were under the truth instead of being ex aggerations. He says: I have before me the annual report of the surgeon general of the army for the fiscal year 1900, which William E. Curtis, the Chicago Record savant, and other prophets announced was to utterly demolish the statements mad3 in the New Voice. This official report proves that in stead of this estimate of 60,000 being too high, it is actually less than half high enough to cover all the cases of ficially recorded the results, largely, of the army canteen and the licensed dens of drunkenness and vice that our officers allowed to open in Manila. In the army records, no man goes on the "sick list" unless he is sick enough to be disabled from duty. He is then seat to a hospital. This is sometimes to one of the regular mili tary hospitals, a field "division" hos pital or to a temporary "field" hos pital. In cases where there is no available hospital, the patient is some times taken care of by the army sur geons in his own or some tent prepared for that purpose. The estimate given by the New Voice included only the soldiers sent to the big division hos pitals and did not include the field and other temporary accommodations. The figures given officially by the surgeon general include the entire hospital business of the army in the Pacific islands. These figures include the sol diers stationed at Honolulu, but there is not a sufficient number of soldiers in Hawaii to materially affect the case. The basis for the table given below is the statistics found on page 350 of the report for 1899 and page 336 of the report for 1900. The "mean strength" for the first six months of 1900 is based upon General MacAr- thur's report issued during the 'sum mer giving the number of troops in the Philippines. For the purposes of making this estimate for this period, it is assumed that the "admission rate" will be the same as that for 1899. But supposing that there were absolutely no sickness at all during the first six months of 1900, even then the admis sions would reach the appalling num ber of 100,000, and my estimate of 60,000 would still be but a little more than one-half high enough. Religious editors who solemnly ex postulated and ignorant political newspaper writers who tried to hoot the New Voice out of court on this charge during the campaign are in vited to read the official figures given below and then repent of their sins: SICK RECORD OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS ARMY. Admission to Sick List Mean Strength of Army Calendar Year; Admissions per 1000 mean Strength Admissions 1898 1899 1J0 2,903 39,280 63,000t 5,557 94 096 72,559t 175,212 1914.23 2395.52 2395.52t First 6 mo. Total.... The New Voice charge that since the American occupation, 10,000 cases of venereal diseases had broken out in the army in the Philippines was also greeted with hoots and hisses. Re ligious editors joined the secular sheep dogs' in the chase. The New Voice was "slandering the soldiers." Notwithstanding the sloppy way in which the statistics of Surgeon Gen eral Sternberg are compiled, the black facts stare at the reader, from the pages of the report. The statistics from which the fol lowing table Is compiled are to be found on pages 356 and 278 of the re port for 1900 and page 335 of the re port for 1899. The figures for the first six months of 1900 are made up in the same way as in the "sick record" table given above. INFAMOUS DISEASE RECORD OP THE Admission to Sick List ' Mean for enerea Diseases Calendar Strength Year of Per 1000 Army Admissions mean Strength 1898a 2,903 210 106.78 "' 1398b 7,004 1,096 155.48 lfc99 39,20 4,587 116.78 1900 63.000c . 3,678 116.78c First 6 mo. Total 9,571 (a) regular army. (b) volunteer army. (c) estimated, i - In a former article, detailing the situation at Manila, I , explained the methods of those interested to evade having cases, of infamous disease en tered as such on the records; that when possible, some trivial ailment was recorded in place of the real trou ble or treatment taken of civilian doc tors. This statement is corroborated by Surgeon General Sternberg's re port for 1899. On page 304 of the re port, after giving statistics of this class of diseases, he said: "It is probable, however, that the prevalence of these diseases was great er than is represented by the recorded admissions. Many surgeons have re ported that men belonging to com mands camped or stationed in or near cities have sought medical treatment from civilian physicians to prevent the entry of venereal affections on their military record. But this does not render these records useless for purposes of comparison, as there ara probably similar suppressions of cases in all statistics of this kind." In view of the above tabulation of recorded cases and of this official state ment of Surgeon General Sternberg, the one who, in the future, will at tempt " to discredit this estimate will be sufficiently invulnerable to facts to warrant him in. applying for the posi tion at present filled by William E. Curtis. - , . This tsntire report for the year 1900 is streaked and befouled from end to end with evidences of. some appalling influence for , debauchery at work in the army. For instance, this same in famous . disease is the cause of more "discharges for disability" than any other single cause. Here is the official record for 1899: Number discharges for disability .2,320 w '. Discharges . Cause of Discharge per 1,000 . . mean strength. Venereal disease. .2.61 Injuries other than gunshot w'nds.2.33 Gunshot wounds. . ................2.14 Consumption 1 . 80 Rheumatism 1 . 52 Heart disease . . ; 1 .37 Malarial diseases . ................ 1 . 10 Diarrheal diseases ................ 0 . 90 It is not in order for Chaplain Mil ler and Chaplain Pierce to explain that the sole reason for this distressing state of affairs is; that there are not enough beer canteens in the army. It will be further in order for some gentleman of the cloth vwho has been preaching about "destiny" and "provi dence" in upholding McKinley's policy in the Philippines to call their follow ers together to hold a meeting of thanksgiving and praise because the a dministration has induced congress to send 60,000 more young men from American 'homes'" to be engulfed -in that moral hell that has been created in the island of Luzon. v TOO CONSERVATIVE Th Independent's Estimates of Mark Hanna's Subsidy far Blw What . the Bill Carries. The Independent is a conservative sort of a paper. That every one rec ognizes, but a letter has been received admonishing it because it is too con servative. The writer points out that the estimate of the appropriations car ried by Mark Hanna's bill are less than half what the bill will cost the taxpay ers. The estimate was made up after reading the bill and Mark Hanna's speech and was supposed to be sub stantially correct. It required a good deal of technical knowledge to make any estimate at all. It does not make any appropriation in dollars and cents, but provides for the payment of cer tain amounts of money to different classes of ships and one has to make a long calculation to arrive at any esti mate at. all. The other day Senator Morgan took the floor in opposition to the bill and asked Mr. Allison what would be the appropriations under the bill. Mr. Allison said he didn't know, but Senator Hale estimated them at a much higher figure than The Indepen dent has done. The probability is that if the bill ever becomes a law that it will cost the taxpayers half, a billion dollars. Not one cent of benefit will ever come to any farmer for the por tion of the bill that he will have to pay. It is simply a bill for giving money out of the treasury to men who are already millionaires some of them multi-millionaires.. The mullet heads like that sort of thing and as they are in the majority we will all have to pony up. Let the farmers plant some more corn and sow some more "wheat and make their contribution to the millionaiies without making any wry faces. It has to be done and there is no use to kick. The Armstrong Clothing Co. last week purchased the entire stock of Ludwig Bros.' clothing and gents' fur nishing goods and are disposing of it at 50 cents on the dollar. The public is showing its appreciation of such an opportunity to save money by taking the goods as fast as an army of clerks can tie them up. The Ludwig Bros.' stock was new and up to date and ev erything of the best quality. When the prices on such goods are cut in the middle it means real bargains such bargains as can be had only at the Armstrong Clothing Co. An Incomparable Paper Last week the Nebraska Independent of Lincoln, printed almost the entire contents of Mr. Bryan's paper, the Commoner, on two of its pages. This by comparison may give some idea of the amount of work done by The In dependent. ''Of all the papers coming to this office, there are none that com pare with The Independent in many respects. It has an individuality of its own and ought to be found in the home of every Nebraskan. Clipper Cirjzen. ; , . EASTERN TAX DODGERS Tana f Thousands of Paoplo UtIms; in Costly Mansions tTho Hsts Nerar Paid a cent of Taxes The injustice of the modern mode of assessments for taxation purposes will probably at some future time be beat en into the sulls of some of the mul let heads. There Is just at the pres ent time considerable of a stir in soma of the eastern cities over assessments. The fact is being made public that tens of thousands of the citizens of those cities who live in the highest style, are surrounded by every comfort and luxury have never paid a cent of taxes for local purpose. In rer uting this srete of thiugs, the Brooklyn Eaglf says: The tax officials have put on the per sonal lists thousands of people who have never paid personally before and who have had no idea they would be assessed this year. In Brooklyn alone, it is admitted by President Feitner, there are 30,000 names on the list, an increase which runs up into hundreds per cent. The Manhattan list is as large as that of Brooklyn and it contains, Mr. Feitner said today, 10,000 more names than last year. The commissioners have, the result shows, been at work quietly for months collecting informa tion for. the purpose of holding people for personal assessments. The new lists contain many thou sads of names never on prior lists, names of people whose general mode of life and business have given the deputy commissioners ' clews upon which to base their tentative assess ments. The proportion of new names is relatively much greater in Brook lyn than in any other section of the city, and the assessments imposed in many cases will astonish the people most interested. There will be h'owls of rage and protestations by thousands over the Work of the deputies, and the rush to swear off will probably far sur pass anything seen in former years. The number of personal notices to be sent out in Brooklyn is so great that it has practically swamped the office here. The notices were to have gone out today, but with men working all last-night there are still thousands to be prepared and all will not g-3t away before two days, it is expected. This alone will indicate the enormous length of the list. Another thing is practically certain. People living in the higher priced, more exclusive sections of the borough, as on the fashionable Heights streets, Clinton, and Washington avenues, will almost all be found on the list, many for the first time. The deputies who made the personal assessments took as the basis for their estimates as to any man his general style of living, house surroundings, occupation, amusements, in fact, anything that would serve to indicate his wealth out side of real estate. The real estate deputies were also in their , rounds to get much valuable in formation, useful for estimating per sonal assessments. . This was all turned into the bureau of information and records. President Feitner intimated today the possibility of the board making public personal assessments as a whole. He would say nothing definite on the subject, but the intimation was received as evidence that the board ex pects a storm of protests and vitupera tion to rise from the personal assess ments and is considering the advisa bility of defending itself and meet ing the storm by publishing the lists. Mr. Feitner would neither affirm nor deny this report. The deputies brought in the books last Friday. Supreme Court Justice Jenks took the oaths of the Brook lyn deputies and Justices Dugro and Giegerich those of Manhattan. No taries officiated in the other boroughs. It is perhaps true that a great many of these people are not subject to tax ation under the present laws. They have no property - either personal or real, except costly outfits of clothing. Thousands of them are salaried peo ple. Their salaries may run up into the thousands, but they spend it all. They may live in brown-stone fronts or at high-priced hotels. . They may spend vast amounts of money for costly apparel, but they have very lit tle if any property subject to taxa tion. That state of affairs will con tiaue to increase more and more '?s the trusts become more numerous anil powerful. This nation will become a nation of hirelings . working for the trusts. These people will draw, many of them, large salaries and live in grand style, but they will have no property for taxation. As our supreme court has decided that an Income tax is unconstitutional, there is no other way to make them pay taxes. But be sides these, there are undoubtedly very many thousands who have taxable property who pay no taxes at all. The worklngman who ownes a little cot tage or the farmer cannot escape tax ation, but this kid-gloved, silk-hatted crowd can and do escape. RAILROAD PASSES Why They are GlTen to Members of the Legislature and Why They are Sometimes Wltheld. The following story published in the editorial columns of the Chicago American points its own morel: A member of the Illinois legislature read on the floor of the house yester day the following letter from the gen eral attorney of a railroad: , "Your letter of the 22d to President Ripley requesting annual over the rail road of this company has been referred to me. A couple of years ago, after you had been furnished with an an nual over this line, you voted against a bill which you knew this company was directly interested in. Do you know of any particular reason, there fore, why we should favor you with an annual this year?" ; Two facts in connection with this letter stand forth for the painful re flection of the average citizen that does not desire to see his country ruled by absolution in the form of corporations, nor by greed in the form of hardened and insatiable legislators. 1. The man that read this letter had no compunctions about making it pub lic. He did not think it was disgrace ful for a member of the legislature to be a mendicant and proffered slave before a corporation. 2. None of the legislators that heard it thought it was remarkable or important that a railroad company should so brazenly avow its bribery of legislators. Incidentally a bill to stop the whole pass infamy was defeated by 115 to 22. This might be added to the brief catalogue of facts as the most sugges tive of all. Lay aside for a moment your parti san prejudice and your resolute and inveterate optimism, good citizen, and cast your eye over these acts. How do you really like them? - How do you interpret them? DEFENDERS OF LIDERTY The Great Debt That This Country Owe to Dutch Our Chart of Freedom 1 Copied Mainly From Them. A Chicago paper has been running columns of matter lately giving credit to England for all our liberties. It maintains that our constitution was wholly patterned after English models. While this is in a measure true, it is far from the whole truth. It was Hol land that furnished a home for the Pilgrim fathers, before they sought refuge in America. It was from Hol land that the ereat chart of liberty came. From Holland our forefathers took the idea of a written constitu tion, a body of legislators chosen by the neonle. a sunreme court, a capital situated in a district independent of one of the component states, lana laws .rpp-iRtrnHnn nf deeds and mort- eaees locatiself-s:overnment" from town and state to the government of governments ai wasmngiuii, me cum mon school system, freedom of relig ion and of the nress. as well as num erous other details of the Dutch sys tem. Yet many of the faults or the Nederland plan were avoided. .In the United States both difficulties are avoided, yet, politically, the Unit ed States of America are more nice Holland than any other country. . The Dutch declaration of indepen dence, called the "act of abjuration," was passed July 26, 1581, and -Is in many ways a remarkable document and one with which the American peo ple should be more familiar. Written at a time when the divine right of kings was unquestioned and the criti cism of the established religion was dangerous and heretical,' it contains many striking phrases. While more prolix than our own declaration and having not that pointed, direct, force ful diction that is so significant, it is unmistakable in its intentions. As it is anDarent to all that a nrince is constituted by God to be a ruler of a Deonle. to defend them from oppression and violence as a shepherd his sheep; and, whereas, uoa am not create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, whether right or worng, but rather the prince for the sake of his subjects (without which he could be no prince), to govern them ac cording to equity, to love and support them .as a father his children or a Rhenherd his flock, and even at the hazard of life to defend and preserve them. And when he does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppi-b3e them, seeking opportunities to la fringe their ancient customs and priv ileges, exacting from them slavish compliances, then he is no longer a prince, but a tyrant, ana tne suDjecis are to consider him in no other view, rticularlv when this is done de liberately, unauthorized by the states, they may not only disallow his au thority, but legally proceed to tho choice of another prince ror tneir ae- f ense. - "This -la the onlv method left for subjects whose humble petitions and remonstrances could never soften their prince or dissuade him from his ty rannical proceedings; and this is what the law of nature dictates for the de fense of liberty, which we ought to transmit to posterity even at the haz ard of our lives. Tt. is difficult to refrain from quot- ine- further Surely the same blood that flowed in the writers of this dec laration flowed in the veins of those vrho penned that other famous declar ation of independence two centuries later. Tird Somers. the Enelish statesman who framed the declaration of rights which nroclaimed the abdication of James II. and the divergence of suc cession from his sons to William ana Mary (under whom the crowns of Eng land and Holland were united) used thia declaration as his model. Snrelv this should be more familiar to every American who is proud of his own country's achievements, for here e finds much that prompted and sug gested it. Republican congressmen are a queer lot. One day . last week one of them rew eloquent in a Washington hotel denouncing the disfranchisement of nesroes in the south who could not read and write and a few minutes af terward, the subject being changed, he was denouncing In just as vigorous language the Cuban constitution be cause it provided , for universal man hood suffrage. How the thinking ap paratus of a republican congressman is constructed is a thing that no pop can understand. PUT HIS FOOT IN IT Resewater Is Always Doing Something tOi Make the Fight Against Xiim More Firece and Persistent The other day the Bee published an account of the taking over of the Can adian telegraph lines by the govern ment, seemingly In total unconscious ness of the fact that such talk would, bring the Western Union telegraph, trust down on him along with all th other corporations which enjoy spe cial privileges. vat made the mat ter worse was that the article ap peared as an editorial. The Bee said: "The information is given out that the Dominion government has mada all arrangements to purchase the tele graph systems of Canada, extend them; in all directions and operate them a part of its postofflce department. Ii pursuing this policy the Canadian:? will only be following the example of the parent government In Great Brit ain, which for many years has con ducted the telegraph as a branch of its postal service. One of the prin cipal objects aimed at in promoting government ownership of telegraphs in Canada is to satisfy the general desirci to have transoceanic communication by cables owned by Great Britain un der both the Atlantic and the Pacific and joined at each end by wires owned by the Dominion crossing that coun try, thus practically girdling the globa by a cable and telegraph service en tirely under British imperial control. "The Canadian government already owns several short telegraph lines and has had the foresight, in granting charters to private companies, to in sert in most, cases clauses providing for purchase of the lines on agreed valuations. At present the control of practically all the wires in Canada 1:1 in the hands of two great corporations, the Great Northwestern Telegraph Co. and the Canadian Pacific Railway Co., whose property is now being quietly appraised. Each has lines roughly estimated to cost from $7,500,000 to $8,000,000, while the Bell Telephone company of Canada has a capital of $5,000,000, so that the aggregate in vestment if all are taken would ex ceed $20,000,000. Of course, the Do minion government would have no dif ficulty, in. financing the transaction. "The same- forces that are making for the postal telegraph in Canada cannot fail to exert thelf Influence In the United States. If it is to the ad vantage, from commercial, milHary and civil noints of view, for Grftt... Brltain xU haveAelegraph and cabla service through all ts world-scattered possessions, It will be equally Impor tant for the United States to be sim ilarly equipped for current trade, as well as for emergencies. The success of the postal telegraph in Canada, moreover, will remove the ground for the objections urged in this country that it would be a hazardous and cost ly experiment foredoomed to failure, because no one will pretend that tha United States cannot establish a suc cessful postal telegraph if Canada can do so. Now that is a pretty sort of talk for a candidate of the republican party for United States senator. All these cor porations, whether controlling tele- graph lines, telephones or railroads have a community of interests and when the existence of one is threat ened all the rest fly to its aid. The cor porations live and move and have their being in the republican party and ev ery one of them will be up in arms against the author of such an article as that. Rosewater Is to be congrat ulated for not going any further than he did along that line. He well knows that the Western Union has bought ud and suppressed many patents in the last few years, both in this country and Europe, that had a tendency to cheapen telegraphy. He knows that those inventions would cheapen the sendlns: of telegrams perhaps 75 pr cent. He knows all that and he didn't say a word about it. Before the cor porations put up a fight against him they should take that fact into con sideration. Soim Sound Sense Senator Teller in SDeakine upon tho shin subsidy bill the other day made - the following sensible remarks: "The chairman of the committee sa a it cost 25 per cent more to build a ship here than it did in Europe, and it cost, annnrrH-ner to his account, more ths.n twice as much to manage and run it. if an vnn have eot to bring down the cost of building ships and you have got to bring down the cost of the labor on ships and the expense of running them . before you can compete with foreign countries. How Is it that tne aweauin merchant marine goes all over the world without any subsidy? Hav9 they got more brains than we, or have they got more wealth, or nave tr.;y got some advantage that we do not have? Not at all. "I do not agree with the chairman of the committee when he says It costs 25 per cent more to build a ship In American waters than it docs abroad But if he is right about it, I am not in favor of meeting that disadvantage bv takine out of the treasury the money of the people of the Unitid States, collected by such a bill as Re passed today, which taxes the mecii cine the sick man takes, which taxps practically everything that enters into the consumption of the American peo ple, and putting it into the pockets of a few shipowners, and some of thein shipowners who have not had patriot ism enough to run their ships under the American flag, but have been run ning them under foreign flags, and who, if they put them under the Am erican flag, will put them there only when they are paid to do so. Thsy will run, their ships not for the glory of the flag and the benefit of the coun try, but for the benefit of their pockets." i i