MY POPULIST FRIEND
DOMESTIC DISCUSSION CON
CERNING LABOR STRIKES.
HI* Wife Draws » Contrast Hs-twoen
Condition* of Use Labor Market Today
and Those Which Lxlsted Coder free
Tariff Tinkering;.
“There la some of your boasted Mc
Kinley prosperity," said my Populist
friend, as he came into the house, sat
down upon the couch and threw his
hat upon the stand. "I saw great gobs
of it hanging around the street cor
ners. Men, idle men, miners not
working, on a strike—ail they had to
do was to vote for the advance agent
of prosperity and everything would be
lovely, plenty of work, wages would
go up—beautiful, beautiful, beau-tl
ful. Strikes! You can read of them
just any time you want to. Every
miner in Burlingame is out. Why
don't you talk? Why don't you say
something, eh?"
‘‘Did you order your corn harvester
when in town today?" meekly asked
the Bttle wife.
"Corn harvester! Corn harvester!
Pumpkins and squash! That's it.” ho
exclaimed. ‘‘That's it; eternally try
ing to change the subject when you’re
cornered. Strikes are touchy subjects
with you Republicans. I don't won
der, for you have so many of them.
It's a sore spot.”
‘‘The men of the mines in town have
quit, have they?” she asked.
"Quit!” ejaculated my Populist
friend, “I should say so. They are out
In every town in the county. Y’ou
could see them hanging around on
rock pile and street corners. I sup
pose they were dilating on the beau
ties of a protective tariff for the bene
fit of the wage earners.
“I suppose, then, that you will not
buy that corn harvester?” she sug
gested.
“Come, stick to the subject,” he an
swered Impatiently. Don’t be always
flying the track when you are getting
the worst of it.”
The patient little woman only
smiled as she asked: “Many Idle
miners been along here hunting a Job
of corn cutting this fall?”
“N-n-o-o; none,” he replied.
“Oh, I only remember hearing you
eay,“ she asserted, "that if they were
as plenty this year as they were four
or five years ago, you would give them
a job cutting the big corn crop and
would not buy a harvester, so I
thought that as they are idle now
you’d probably change your mind as
to the harvester and let them do the
work.”
“Now what are you getting at, any
way?” he asked. “You are the hard
est woman to understand.”
“Oh, I think not,” she answered,
good naturedly. “Four or five years
ago, when we were under Cleveland’s
blessed policy of buying many manu
factured goods abroad, mills were
closed, factories idle, transportation
light, demand for coal slack, mining
dull, times hard, and how often we
used to see the miners from town
along here hunting corn-cutting Jobs?
Haven’t seen any of it this fall, have
you?”
“No, but we have strikes,” he re
torted.
“Didn't have any then,” she an
swered. ’It was pitiful. It was all the
same; strike or no strike, there <wa3
little for them to do.”
“But if times are so dreadfully
good," he demanded, "I'd like to have
you account for this strike, right here
at our homo town.”
“Account for it? Why, of course.
Be patient. Have you read their reso
lutions?” she inquired, and as he did
not reply she proceeded with, “Note
the commencement of them. That is a
whole chapter in itself. 'Whereas
there is a widespread business activ
ity,’ and then they demand a 20 per
cent raise of wages. The operators
offer them a 10 per cent advance.”
“That’s it. Try to argue out of it,"
Interrupted my Populist friend, almost
sneeringly.
wnat sort or resolutions were la
borers passing ‘four years ago?” she
proceeded, not noticing his interrup
tion. "Wouldn't they have com
meneed, ‘Whereas, there is widespread
business disaster;’ or 'whereas, we are
on the verge of moral, political, mate
rial and several other sorts of ruin;
therefore we demand a remedy.’
Why, husband! The ’Whereases’
alone ought to convince you of the
difference between the times that fol
low the free trade and those of McKin
ley prosperity. Then the miners here
were so anxious to get a little work
that they took what they could have
at what wages they could get without
thought of protests, thinking only of
un opportunity to change so that they
could get old times and wages again.
That opportunity came. The laboring
men of the country Joined the busi
ness Interests, voted down llryan and
his free-trade, free-silver theories,
voted In McKinley and his protective
policy. Mills open, factories start,
smokestacks belch forth, railroads
busy, demand fur coal great, miners
ask an advance in wagea If the rntue
owner Isn't as lively about giving It
to them as they think he ought to be.
they lay off to hurry him up a little,
and so we have a strike llut yuu will
nolle# that strike# in these times are
always for an advance uf wages, the
coal operators will give an advance,
they have already said they could
They must have the m*a hack at work
to All orders, orders ahich they did
not have and could not get under the
tariff reform administration *
"There It goes again," tie growled
‘ y«m always rua It into the tariff *
"That Is wkers all interests uf
American labor naturally lead a du
fumdoa.'* replied Ike good little
woman, but he answered her not
B. fl- I*!pp. In Ant-cb «g V. >,iwe« at
J
HE WILL BE AN EASY WINNER.
/r’J . -sT# > - -
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
Artlve in Tlielr Hatred of Protection
and Tlielr Frlrndtlilp for Agulimldo.
In its search Tor light on the trust
question the Civic Federation of Chi
cago lately sent out lcttera to a large
number of writers and thinkers, with
out regard to their party predilections,
inviting an expression of their views
as to the most effective manner of
dealing with capitalistic combinations
in the United States. Here was the
American Free-Trader’s chance. Ono
would have thought that our domestic
Cobdenites, who never cease to worry
over the wrongs suffered by foreign
producers, would have tumbled over
each other In their haste to take ad
vantage of such an opportunity to
ventilate tlielr pet theory that the
more money a country sends abroad
for the purchase of foreign commodi
ties and the less money it spends for
articles produced at home, the richer
that country will become.
But they did not spring to the front
with anything like common accord.
Far from it. Out of 155 letters re
ceived by the Chicago Civic Federation
only three prescribed the removal of
protective duties as the proper way of
dealing with trusts. Why only three?
Is the American Free-Trader growing
scared at the effect already produced
by the proposed abolition of defensive
duties at a time when the beneficent
effects of the prevailing economic pol
icy are so vividly impressed upon the
public mind? There is, to be sure,
seme reason for the exercise of cau
tion. In the presence of phenomenal
prosperity of a tariff system which
furnishes abundant revenues while at
the same time piling up huge trade
balances which threaten the world’s
financial equilibrium by transferring
the financial center from Europe to
America, the American Free-Trader
may properly pause in bis assaults
upon the general welfare of his coun
trymen. Has he paused, and will he
stay paused?
Probably not. Certainly the New
England Free-Trade league shows no
such signs. It is still lu the saddle,
booted and spurred. One of Its most
warlike members, Mr. William Lloyd
Garrison, has just been firing himself
off to the following effect:
“Each tariff must be more drastic
than its predecessor, calling for in
creased stimulant. Its purpose is con
stantly neutralized by the active law
of freedom, which it disregards. The
Dingley tariff, the latest and most out
rageous of the despotic acts of a
democracy, early develops signs of
failure, and a foreign war was pre
cipitated largely to cover high tarifT
shortcomings and Justify new edicts
for revenue. But the higher the tariff
wall, the more internal monopolies are
fostered."
"The active law of freedom" is not
a happy phrase in this connection.
Formerly it had a vastly different sig
nificance. .an ancestor of this same
Garrison used it to some purpose In
his warfare against free trade in hu
man flesh and blood. Then the princi
ple was invoked in the noble effort to
strike from LOOO.OOO blacks the shack
les of slavery. Now w* find a degener
ate scion advocating “the active law
of freedom" as a means of placing
shackles upon 20.000.tHM) of American
wage earners. Times have Indeed
changed when a man bearing the name
of William Lloyd Garrison divides bis
time about equally In shouting for free
trade and Aguinaldo—for Industrial
slavery at home and for the uncurbed
revolt of semi-barbariane In the Philip
pines. However, it must tie confessed
that the combination Is homogeneous
The two things go together extremely
well.
I Mielauer* I sStnlssil.
Mr. Klverton K Chapman. of the
prom inent stock exchange grin of
Moore A tt« hley, who has recently re
turned from Europe, report* that there
has been a decided improvement dur
ing the laat twelve maath* In the sen
timent in Englan d In rrgard to A inert
enn Investments "The Investing pub
lic in England." he aaye. “is again
looking to this country for safe and
proAtnblv Investment of capital ‘ Aa
illustrative of this Mr t'hapmaa tells
of a looker on tha London Ipk h E*
change who showed him bis memoran
dum booh of the day s trah*»< tio«< on
A kaage He bad ei»* ute.1 over thirty
eiders I v A met teas vtek*
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The increasing confidence shown by
foreign investors In the value of Amer
ican securities is merely a reflection of
the great industrial prosperity of this
country. The American people don’t
need any information as to the confi
dence of foreigners in American stocks
to tell them that we are in the midst
of great national prosperity. Every
one in this country has had personal
experience of prosperity since the pas
sage of the Dingley law. But the in
vestment of foreign capital in Ameri
can securities is a not unwelcome in
dication that our prosperity is so ex
tensive ami of such a character that
even the conservative British public
lias confidence in its stability and in
its lasting qualities. Free-trade fanat
ics may talk of making a winner of the
free-trade issue, but men who deal in
the practical affairs of life, either here
or abroad, don't have much idea that
the American people will throw away
prosperity again as they did in 1892,
Democratic Campaign Failure*.
The Democratic campaign in Ohio,
Iowa and Nebraska lias fallen fiat. In
1892, when there had been thirty years
of prosperity with scarcely a break, It
was easy to delude people with the
idea that they were not as prosperous
as they ought to be, and by promises
that free trade would benefit them, to
get them to vote the Democratic ticket.
The free-trade plea was a very plausi
ble one. It was not hard to make peo
ple believe that wherever a tariff was
imposed on any article the consumer
had to pay it. It was apparently be
yond a doubt that such was the case.
It was more difficult to show the in
fluence of home competition, the ef
fect of increased work on wages and
prices, and so the play “went.” The
cry “the tariff is a tax” won the elec
tion of 1892.
A Democratic tariff was tried, and
every one knows what a magnificent
failure it was. Its failure thoroughly
convinced the people, for a generation
at least, that a calamity cry was sim
ply an election dodge, and it will not
work again. The attempt to convince
the people that the country is on the
verge of dissolution because there is a
Philippine war, or because the United
States is enlarging its border, is worse
than useless. Iowa, Ohio and Nebras
ka will all give good Republican ma
jorities this fall.—Moline (111.) Dis
patch.
Typical Coliimlih.
We should not be surprised to And
that the American superiority lies la
the natiooal mastery of detail, which
is their note also in manufactures.—
London Daily News, Oct. 21, 1899.
This is a British newspaper's com
ment on the victory of a Yankee boat
over a British boat in the International
yacht race which ended Oct. 20, 1899.
"National mastery of detail" is only
another way of saying "national su
premacy in mechanical arts,” the prod
uct, as the British free-traders now ac
knowledge, of the American policy of
high wages. Steady and constantly in
creasing employment at what foreign
ers have called an extravagant rate of
compensation has developed in tha
United States a degree of skill and
efficiency fur beyond anything to he
found in the Old World. We show it
In everything we produce, front a steel
rail to a $350,000 sailing yacht. The
"Columbia" is a true type of the laud
whose name she bears and whose Aug
she tloats.
Wklt Itroiight II Aboat.
A lake steamer that eoat $210,000 to
hutld last year i a mint be duplleated
now for less than $200,000, Hut there
is no trust in the shipyards of the
Orest Lakes. The difference In rust Is
due to the scarcity of materials snd
the general advance In wages. The
rale per ton for freight has about
doubled alnce the beginning of the
season and veaar! owners are prosper
ou*. Neither the tariff nor trusts cut
any Agure, but Hipublienn "prosper
ity" has brought It about. Warren
iOhlot Chronicle.
What !»«♦« IbM lisamt
' livery wool grower of the country
should ash bis «"agreesntan «r sena
tor whether the c u-turns authort|l-*e
throughout the country are eoileetlag !
the duty on wool as ittteti led h/ the j
(tingley tariff ' This Is tbs elatewen*. i
mt a reliable authority In rtwse touch !
with d«me-tie Wool laureate, haal
d4 «a It m« cat
I
DETAILS OF ZEPPELIN AIRSHIP
For many months visitor* to Lake
Constance, on the German side, nave
wondered at a huge and curiously
shaped building which has floated
About one half mile from the shore olf
Frledrlchshafen. The structure 1
over 500 feet Ion?, 75 feet wide and 0"*
feet high. In the front the queer
building comes to a sharp point like
the wedgp.shaped ends of the locomo
tive' that have been built recently to
att-iri high speeds by being formed so
that there shall be little res'scince to
the air.
l’he building has been guarded night
amt day and none was allowed to ap
proach it. Whenever the doors were
open for any length of time the en
trances have been covered with heavy
curtains, so that even the most curious
of the Inhabitants of the surrounding
towns have failed utterly to find out
what was going on in the mysterious
place. The only thing that could h"
guessed was that some government
matter was concealed in the floating
house, for what little communication
there was with the mainland was by
means of government vessels.
A correspondent for the Sunday
Press lias discovered what has been
under way in this building. Jt is the
mammoth dirigible airship of Count
von Zeppelin, which is being construct
ed under the supervision of the Ger
man government. This is the great
balloon to which Major Baden-Powell,
brother of Col. Baden-Powell, the Brit
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perur William lias been enthusiastic
over the matter, and Count vou Zep
pelin has had ample and ready aid in
the last two years during will'll the
miloon has been under way.
The idea of building the airship in a
floating building wa° adopted for many
reasons. One was that It made se
crecy easy. Another, the more im
pel tant one, is that it will enable li e
makers to launch the balloon readily
and to make trial trips with it at will.
Therefore, the building was erected on
ninety-five exceedingly buoyant pon
toons, and so anchored that it can
swing with the wind, always turning
its»rear end to the breeze. It will be
possible, therefore, to launch the bal
loon in the direction of the wind at any
given time. In addition, the building
Is so arranged that the part which
holds the airship can he hauled out
like the drawer of a deck, and when it
is so hauled out it floats on separate
pontoons. This will give to the bal
loon a free start at any time, and will
make It ea-y to return it to the build
ing.
Phe balloon is 37.1 feet long, shaped
like a torpedo, and its diameter is 30
feet. The skeleton is of aluminum,
and its base consists of sixteen ribs of
aluminum shaped as polygons, with 24
angles. They arc fixed and braced in
their positions with aluminum wires,
which radiate from common centers
like the spokes of a wheel. This skel
eton is separated into seventeen sec
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engineers and two machinists. They
will he enough to handle the engines
and the weights which are to deter
mine the position and direction of the
craft. These weights are suspended
under the gondolas on a cable which
permits them to be moved from one
end of the balloon to the other. When
they are hauled to the stern the air
ship will point upward. If it 1b de
sired to sink the craft the weights are
sent to the bow. This arrangement
takes much unnecessary work from the
engines, and enables them to devote
their entire power to the great pro
pellers. of which there are four. They
are made of aluminum and made like
the screws of a ship, and they are at
tached to the sides, not the ends, of
the airship. The ends are given up
to immense rudders.
It is known that great sums of money
have been furnished from official
sources for the work, and the king of
W’urtemburg as well as the emperor
of Germany has visited the building
often in the last year. The first trip
is to he taken before the end of No
vember.
Perfect Confidence.
From the Philadelphia Record: Per
fect confidence is desirable between
couples engaged to he married, but it
is not always that the young woman
has as fine an opportunity to establish
it as did a Norristown belle, to whom
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VON ZEPPELIN AIRSHIP UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
Mi commander at Mafeking. has just
drawn his government's attention as
the most important efforts of recent
years. He describes it graphically as
saying that it resembles the slender
skeleton of a huge battleship made of
aluminum, containing a large number
of balloons.
Its total capacity Is about ten tons.
About $350,000 have been spent In the
construction, the plans having been ap
proved by the tier man government.
Major Haden-Powel! Mays it Is hoped to
drive the vessel at the rate of twenty
two miles un hour.
Humors have been beard from time
to time about thin ulr-hlp but details
were lacking aud none of those con
nected with Its construction could be
Induced to say a word. The picture
and description of the balloon which
are printed here make the first au
thentic and detailed new* to reach the
world about this the mo«t ambitious
attempt of modern times to solve the
greet problem of navigating the nlr.
fount Von Xeppelin te a Herman sol- '
flier famous for hie desperate ride In' * I
tee heart of the enemy e country In
ih« franco-Prussian war lie has been
working on the plana for the airship '
for years, aad long before he began
ft lull U| log nf h » mull. Ire h« t- I !
v ga mined and a qulred every patent
that seemed to him at all available
Thus, when he wea ready to begin
’ ■t iding he had at hla command hon
dr*da of improvement* and appttan-** ‘
wtthuut the embarraMMent of having
to dtr her with their yvwtoviv. Km
lions which are movable independently
of each other. The whole is enmeshed
with ramie filter netting, to hold It to
gether. so that the airship really Is 17
balloons fastened together with an out
side covering.
The texture with which each bal
loon skeleton is surrounded to hold the
gas is a new material made of cotton
and rubber combined.
Together the balloons have a capac
ity of 10,000 cubic yards. The carrying
ability is what Major Hadeu-IViwcll
says It la ten tons. Hut the inven
tor and builders say that this weight
run be carried even should one or
mure of the balloons become disabled.
The motive power will be furnlahrd
h> benxiue. This has been seta ted.
despite its Inflammatory qualities, be
• ause it was fottud that even the best
of electric accumulator* were loo
heavy. The engines fur utilising the
naphtha are wonderfully light, being
built of aluminum bronie. and they are
designed so that practically It will he
Impossible for lire to reach the ha I
long la addition the airship la to
be dressed with non •< om bust ltd* ma
terial.
The angle** and Ih# ptsseagsrs will
be carried la two aluminum gondolas.
»a«> a'Ktui thirt) foot long which will
be suspended under tee body ef the
balloon with Arm aluminum girders
The two gondolas will he r.iuaelrd
with a swinging platform of aluminum
aelHag
The tlve Is to consist of lir Meg.
t'«uhi von Seppelln, in n mmandt l*9
u wealthy bachelor had been paying
assiduous attention. After worrying
her a good deal about how mauy young
men had been in love with her, and
how many she had been attached to,
he asked her to marry him. adding
"Now let there he perfect confident*'
between us. Keep nothing concealed
from me” "Certainly,” replied the
giddy girl; "let us have no conceal
meant*." and. jumping up.she snatched
the wig he wore from his head and
danced around the room with it. In
spite of this levity, the couple mar
ried, and. from all account*, are living
very happily, more particularly as, by
mean* of using crude petroleum, a nice
little crop of soft brown hair is grow
ing all over the husbands head. The
man had never heard of crude petro
leum a* a hair tonic until hi wife told
him about It. so If the had Bed ess
forced his conSeleBce he would still ha
bald.
tv* i »«•*«»
Newspaper Man I should like to tel
egraph home that the eiiutiuaadittg
general la an Idiot? Censor I regret
to infterm you that we ran permit the
transmission of no military secrets —
Ufa.
Mte Am«*4w»eet.
Ikr - Ho you 4im with the stall'
men' th*t * weiiiiate >« a* old 4* ah
loohs? The Crusty Bsrbelor I should
Ihaert "at least before ’e* raid.
Tuck.
