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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1904)
Loup City Northwestern J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher. LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA. Rain tniy keep people away from ihurch sometimes, but from the cir cus—never. The California orange trust Is about to dissolve. What good does that do at this time of year? Speaking of fish, there must be some redeeming feature about the German carp. What is It? ‘ The man that beta on the races is an idiot,” says Charles T. Yerkes. Mr. Yerkes seems to be a hard loser. Just to satisfy plain curiosity, will somebody kindly report how work is progressing on The Hague palace oi peace? The discovery that the empress crown jewels are bogus is about the worst blow' yet to Japanese nationa. confidence. Those Boston girls who broke th< record as high jumpers will cause come of us to revise our notions ol Boston dignity. The General Federation of Women s Clubs has officially thanked Gov. Odell for saving Niagara falls. We stand right beside the ladies. Richard Strauss says Boston stands as high in musical taste as any city of Europe. Boston will call tha« damning with faint praise. A Zion City dentist claims that hr and his wife can live on $1.68 a week. It is to be understood, of course, thai he doesn't use an automobile. The government is going to try to reclaim 100,000 acres of arid lane ir. Washington. Determination will do almost anything, and we have the sand. The New Jersey judge who has ruled that a. boy's life is worth twice as much as a girl’s has probably changed his opinion since he was twenty. A St. Louis preacher now declares that Santa Claus is a myth. Some clerical iconoclast will be calling sa tan a figment of the popular fancy be fore long. There are 13,000,000 children en rolled in the Sunday schools of the country, and the parents of most ol them buy oil from young Mr. Rocke feller’s father. -— — ^ .- , Now that the season for thundei showers is open, remember how calm ing the statistics are, and make up your mind firmly that this year you won’t be scared. Of course it is more or less annoy ing to the emperor of Korea to have the Japanese take possession of his country, but then, he's used to trou ble. He has 100 wives. “Chicago presents no immoralities tc the visitor,” says Anthony Comstock, who is spending a few days in the Windy City. Certainly not. She chaiges an admission fee. It is to be hoped that, when the Jap anese get hold of Port Arthur, they won’t feel it necessary to change the name. It’s about the only one of the lot that’s at all pronounceable. We wonder whether the Yale wait er who, although he carried a rab bit’s foot, refused to wait on thirteen students at his table, is superstitious enough to refuse a tip of 13 cents. We doubt the authenticity of this story that Gen. Kuropatkin is carry ing his coffin around with him. His martial cloak would answer,all prac tical purposes and sound much better in the poems. A London court has held that a man is not liable for his wife’s dress making bills. Doubtless some soulless ?reature will now stamp himself with the mark of the beast by bringing a test case over here. A pitcher that is 2,000 years old is being exhibited at the St. Louis expo sition. We know of several ladies who would like to obtain the address of the girl whq worked for the familj that owned the pitcher. A Chicago woman was granted a divorce in just thirty-six minutes after filing her application. But if the thing has to be done, why delay? In some places the courts dawdle over thest matters for an hour or two. It’s as natural for a girl’s shoe strings to keep coming untied whet she has on fancy open-work stocking? as for a man to speak with a careless familiarity of his rich friends whet they are out of the country. A press agent story says that an en thusiaatic audience threw real jewelrj at an opera singer. The practice should be followed with care. The most avaricious person would object to having an eye put out, even with a diamond tiara. The Princess of Wales is one of the *?,ost expert typewriters in England She can rattle off 100 words a min ute. If anything ever happens tc make the British people quit support ing their royal family the princess needn’t worry. A manager has docked a grand op era prima donna’s salary because she did not do all the singing called foi by her contract. Expert opinion leans to the theory that this manager is entitled to the benefits of Mr. Car negie’B hero fund. After twenty years of blindness, Mrs. C. M. Kirk of Lansdale, Pa., re gained her sight when her three sons, whom she pictured still as little chil dren, called unon her. This is not the first time that grown boys \ ha\ a opened their mother’s eyes. THE AGE OF ALUMINUM. Ever since the separation of the metal* aluminum from its ores—and every daybank is an aluminum mine —inventors have dreamed of an “alu minum age,” whose mechanical mar vels should leave as far behind the present “age of steel” as we surpass the “age of stone” of the primitive man. Here was a beautiful metal that was only a third as heavy as iron; and what limit could there be to the won ders its use would make possible. The long-awaited airship was to become a reality and a revolution was to come at once in shipbuilding, railroading and automobiling. L'ut little can be done with a metal so soft that to secure the same strength as much aluminum in weight as of iron must be used. If only some way of tempering it could be found! Now the announcement comes from Germany that this problem has been solved. “Meteorlt” is a simple alloy of aluminum and phosphorus, and for it is claimed that it is six times as strong as aluminum itself, is noncor rosive, highly polishable, and may be soldered and galvanized with nickel or copper. If all that is claimed for it is true, then the “age of aluminum” may not be far distant.—Boston Globe. SUBMARINE WARFARE i Aa gunpowder eliminated the heav ily armored knight, so the rapid de velopment of submarine explosives points to the disappearance of great armored ships, which must always be defenseless under the water's surface. It is merely a logical development of the inventive genius of the race that so vulnerable a point in war ships should finally be yielded up to the inevitable assault of any enemy. Even now, with torpedo boats numerous enough and with crews of sufficient persistence and daring, the battle ships have met their match. In the future it seems certain that the tide of scientific progress will be on the side of the still imperfect submarine. There is but one possible outcome in such a struggle.—Springfield (Mass.) Republican. THE CRAZE FOR MONEY. At the bottom of all the too preva lent corruption, commercial and politi cal, is the prevailing idea that suc cess consists in the gaining of money. Joseph R. Burton of Kansas, the first United States senator to be convicted of crime while in office, testified that he used his official influence In con sideration of a salary of $500 a month from the Rialto Grain and Securities companies of St. Louis, because he needed the money. Those convicted of fraud in the postoffice department at Washington perpetrated the frauds in order to make money. Almost ev ery act of corruption in office is done to get money; and the money that is paid to induce official corruption is paid to obtain wrongful opportunities to make more money. All the dishon est bargains between business men and corporations are merely attempts to make money. People who have no need of more money keep on trying to make money, because that is their only ideal of success. Those who have more money than they can count or use in any way, try to add to it be cause they are lured on by the idea which has been burned into their minds that making money is success and nothing else is success. Corrup tion thrives on this false ideal, and will cease only when this false idol is thrown down from the high pedestal on which it stands before the minds of the American people.—Boston Watch man. BRAVE MEN ON BOTH SIDES. The fact Is frequently and pleasant ly observed that the soldiers on both sides in the Asian war are displaying valor. The Russians find in that some consolation for the grievous losses they have suffered. Their seamen at Chemulpo and their soldiers at the Yalu were beaten and perished, but at least they fought bravely and fell like heroes. The Japanese find in the same circumstance an added cause for exultation over their victories. Their seamen eagerly enlisting for a death errand at Port Arthur and th<*r sol diers storming intrenchment? -Jththe bayonet at the Yalu have ' Jed new lustre to the fame of Samurai hero ism. Nor is that all. Each side has learned to recognize the valor of the other and to pay it the tributes which are its due. Whatever may have been their opinions of each other before the war, these last three months have in spired them both with the respect which brace men feel for each other the w’orld around.—New York Trib une. LATIN-AMERICA. It is a curious fact that the Latin American countries have so little dip lomatic intercourse with one another. This does not tend to confirm the alle gation made every now and then that the Central and 3outh American na tions have a consuming jealousy and dislike of the United States and are Inclined to form combinations to re sist the assumed “aggression" of the Yankees. The Mexican Herald notes that there is but one diplomatic rep resentative of Latin-American govern ments at the capital of our nearest southern sister nation, and that Is the minister of little Guatemala, a next-door neighbor. Mexico has lega tions in the Argentine Republic. Bra zil, Chile, Peru, and in fact all the other countries on the isthmus and In South America, but there Is no re ciprocity, , for the habit of keeping ministers at the respective seats of government is more honored in the breach thfan in the observance. If the Latin-Americans are not thus friendly among themselves they are not likely to combine against the United States.—Troy Times. STATISTICS OF INSANITY. A bureau at Washington has pre pared some interesting statistics of the distribution of insanity through out the United States. In the whole country one person of every 528 is crazy. In New England, one in every 359; in New York and Pennsylvania, one in 424; in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan. Maryland, Virginia, Ken tucky and Tennessee, one in 610; in the Middle West, one in 750; in the Southern states, one in 935; in the Reeky mountain states, one in 1,263; in the Pacific states, one in 387. It will be seen that madness is more prevalent in New England than any where else, with the Pacific states a close second. The sanest part of the country is in the mountain region of the west, and the south comes next. In Kansas one person out of every 560 is crazy, and Missouri has one for every 602 of population. Some waiter, in commenting on these facts, says that if anyone can construct and de fend a theory to account for the va riation, he is welcome to the oppor tunity. Still, the report gives some basis for speculation as to causes or reasons. For example, it is shown that the proportion of insanity among foreigners is double that among na tives, and that the negro is only half as susceptible to madness as his white brother. This will account for the low rate in the south and the high rate in localities largely peopled by foreigners, but how are we going to account for the big rate in New En gland and on the Pacific coast?—Kan sas City Journal. EVIL TO HAZER AND HAZED. There is a sincere bgiief In the minds of some very intelligent men that hazing has good effect and if not carried too far is “good for the cub” and there is basis for this belief. But it is not easy to see how any good to the lads hazed can compensate for the evil almost inevitably done to hazers. Practically without exception the vic tim of hazing is helpless in the pres ence of superior numbers and strength. In other words, the action of the hazers is essentially cowardly. Their motives, if not so deliberately bad as sometimes represented, are in no sense good and to maltreat those who have nothing like a fair chance to resist and almost no chance to in flict injury on their tormentors is not manly, not gentlemanly—is, in fact, cowardly and cruel.—New York Times. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR. 'The question of the value of .wire less telegraphy in war has already Deen considered. Now it is supple mented by that of its legality. The Russian government has practically served notice that it regards it as il legal. At any rate, the use of such a device at the seat of war will be treated as a breach of neutrality. Cor respondents telegraphing without wires will be shot as spies, and ves sels equipped with wireless tele graphic apparatus venturing near the scene of war will, if caught, be con nscated as contraband of war. So far as correspondents accompanying the Russian army are concerned, we may unhesitatingly concede the Russian right of censorship. That is a matter of course. A belligerent power has the undoubted right to decide whether it will permit correspondents to ac company its army at all, of course, prescribe what matter may be sent through the lines, and how. Similarly, It may exercise a censorship over new vessels entering its territorial waters, or the waters implicated in the sphere of belligerent action. But a general outlawing of wireless tele graphy in that part of the world would be a much more extreme mat ter.—New York Tribune. PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE. Thinking to make an impression on the boys of London, the Times recent ly published a manifesto carrying an enormous show of great names, such as the duke of Fife, the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London and eleven leading lords of the realm, se verely enjoining all religious teachers to discourage cigarette smoking among the young, as it was rapidly sapping the vitality of the kingdom. It is to be feared that this method still lacks the power of example suf ficiently, for the greatest men in Eng land still smoke. The priests of In dia and Japan all smoke and the champion smoker of the world is prob ably the king of Portugal, who smokes forty cigars a day. Dean Swift used to smoke throughout his whole ser mon. What might not the boys quote as to great names?—Boston Globe. WORTH OF CHEERFUL WORK That which may truly be said of Americans is that they have not yet learned to rest from their labors be times, to *go upon a holiday in due season, to “loaf and invite their souls,” as Whitman counseled them to do. All work, not less than all play, makes Jack a dull boy or man. Work regularly, intelligently, no matter how energetically done, is rather more likely to promote health than to im pair it, or to prolong life, rather than to shorten it. The idle man, who lacks employment of body and mind, is more likely to suffer from nervous depression, or to discover, as Car lyle says, that he has within him that “infernal machine, a liver,” than is the man who has serious work to think about, and who, by doing it, keeps his physical organs in nbrmal condition. Indeed, the secret of health ful living seems to be a plenty of work cheerfully done—the maximum of inspiriting labor and the minimum of dull care.—Philadelphia Ledger. A good man is a man who knowa I how bad he ia. Central America; the Negro’s Eldorado A Country where the Black Han Knows No Sorrow and Free dom Reigns. By Frank A. Harrison, Special Staff Correspondent. jBelize, British Honduras, May 26. Tnis old English coion;, is a won derful place for a Nebraskan to be hold. Situated in the tropica, on low ground, and surrounded by all the lux uriant tropical vegetation, its climate is tempered by a steady breeze from the Caribbean sea, making it one of Ihe healthiest oi Central American towns. It contains about 8,000 inhab itants, three-fourths of whom are col ored. Belize w’as the principal port for the cuttera of logwood, mahogany and oth er valuable woods a hundred years ago, and was an important shipping point for the English trade. Still ear lier it was a rendezvous of the buccan eers and pirates that infested the Cen tral American coasts, and it is said many of the pirates settled here when their business was broken up and that they eventually became good citizens tfnd left many descendants of various colors. It is now a quiet, law-abiding place, and if the restless blood of the piratical ancestors affects the present population there is sufficient diversion in the handling of the hundreds of boats which carry the coast and river trade. The English have made Belize the mosf^progressive and best of the Cen tral American cities, and it is prob able that they have only been pre vented by the Monroe Doctrine from civilizing other parts of the country. One can not but think that the cele brated “doctrine" is wrong if its pur pose is simply to prevent progress in this part of the world. If the idea is to sometime Americanize the whole continent, then the doctrine is right, but the progress is long delayed. Here there are good stores, and pret ty homes. The harbor is full of ships and small craft and the river is crowd ed with boats. There is a bustle ap parent everywhere, and an evidence of constant contact with the outside ‘■world. There are five Protestant churches, and on Sundays the build ings are crowded- with the Sunday school pupils reciting the lessons and singing the songs that are familiar in the United States. In the matter of trade there is a closer observance of Sunday here than I have ever seen. The business houses are all closed except the restaurants, and the latter sell only ice cream. They would not sell lemonade, gum or can dy. Ice cream is termed a “necessary article,” and small cakes are served with it. The inhabitants will sell noth ing at their homes except strictly eat ables. All efforts to buy cocoanuts or fruit which hung in abundance in every yard were unavailing. They all said: “We sell nothing today. Come tomor row.” There is a wonderful public garden here, where all the tropical plants and ; fruits are grown, and It is probably | one of the most complete gardens In the world. It is cared for by colored gardeners, and is guarded by colored police. On,e notices here that the colored people who have grown up under the English rule are different from those in the United slates. They are more quiet and business-like. They have no recollections of “slavery days." and therefore do not find it necessary to go to any extreme to “show that they are free.” Many here are from Jamai ca and the Barbadoes, also English colonies. Most of them are able to read and write. They find it easy to make a living, and they dress mostly in white clothes, which are especially fresh and dean on Sundays. We see just enough “greasers” or Mexicans here to see how superior to them are j the English speaking colored people. It becomes plain to a visitor that there is plenty of room in Central America for all the colored people in America, that in any of these republics they would enjoy more social and political equality than they now do in the Unit ed States; that they could make a liv ing with one-half the work and worry, and that they would be a civilizing in fluence in any part of the rural coun try from the Rio Grande to Panama. Wholesale emigration south would solve the “Negro problem.” The money question which is such a mathematical study and constant worry In all the Spanish American republics, is no worry here. British Honduras silver stamped on ono side as it is with the profile either of Queen Victoria or King Edward, passes for its face value in gold, and American money circulates freely on the same basis. And in the surrounding repub lics with their depreciated silver and hopeless fiat paper money, the money of both the United States and British Honduras is called “gold,” and a sil ver dollar will buy two dollars and a half stamped by the other countries. Near here is a large coral reef, and boat loads of the coral are brought, to the city to be broken up for ballast on the swamp roads and streets. When broken up the coral looks like chips of porous marble. In the largo round chunks in its natural state it would sell for a hundred dollars a barrel in the United States as curios, as most of it is of very beautiful pattern. From here It is one day’s trip to Porto Cortez, in Spanish Honduras, the great banana port and the natural entrance to the country which is soon est to feel the civilizing influence of “How did they get into society?” “Oh, they were arrested three times ono morning for running their automo biles too fast.” _ It’s absolute proof to a woman that she is a good mother to her children when their uncles and aunts tell her that she is spoiling them. One swallow of bock beers doesn’t make a summer, but a sufficient num ber of them has been known to make u fall. When a man asks a girl to go to the theatre with him she goes around telling everybody that she has had an other proposal. Unless a, man is his own master he can’t master others. Little Tommy—Mamma, may I go over and play with Mrs. Nexdoors’ children? Mother—You have never cared to pj*y with them before. Little Tommy—But my ball went over into their yard, and they threw it back to me, and it was all sticky. I guess they’ve got some candy. tbe United States. The rush there now is constant because of the banana, cof fee and rubber plantations, and of the mineral possibilities in the mountain ous interior, already tapped by several paper railroads. Porto Cortez. Honduras. From a distance Americans are ’in pressed with the idea that the people and the governments are the piinclpal features of Centra! America, but hero on the ground on-? is impressed most by the -animal and plant life. The immensity and constantly changing forms of tropical growth is a cause tor continual astonishment. Here in Honduras, on the level land of low altitudes, the palm frees re cm to have at some time crowded out the other plant^. These palms now pre sent trunks of about a foot in diame ter, with long fern-like leaves branch ing out about fifteen feet from tho ground. These ’eaves are each at out thirty feet in. length un<l intermingle in such a way that the rays of the sun seldom reach the ground. Thus all ■mailer shrubs are squeezed out. But on every hand one may se« another tree stifling the palms. The seeds from the Giant tree, called by the na tives "Cieba,” are deposited up in the palms Just where the group of leaves branch out. The seed sprouts at once and sends up a shoot with leaves not unlike the oak, only larger. At the same time roots start toward the ground, entwining the trunks of the palms. The growth of the new tree and of its dangling and twining roots is rapid, and in j few years the palm has been chokfd to death and disap pears. The twisting roots of the Cieba grow together into a solid trunk, and I have seen many of the trees over ten feet in diameter that had their start in this way, the twist of what were once the roots being plainly seen up to twenty feet above the ground. Along in the valleys may be seen thousands of instances of this palm strangula tion in every stage, and may also be seen the long liana vines and orchid parisites In their turn attacking the Cieba trees and other giants of the forest that have been able to rear their heads above the shade of the palm. It is a constant struggle of all the plan’s to reach the sunlight, and In the scramble, like a human scramble, many are choked or trampled to death. There are many vines which crawl up the trunks of trees, and as they grow larger and squeeze harder the original | tree is killed and remains rigid only long enough for the vines to consoli dato into a common trunk to be able to hold themselves in the air. Then the original tree rots and disappears and the vines turn into a tree them selves, the trunk finally becoming solid and presenting an appearance not unlike that of the giant Cieba. Often parisites take root in the bark of a tree limb and extend vine-like roots to the ground. These grow into the ground and the circulation thus formed changes the vine into another trunk of the parent tree, supporting the outstretched limb. These and many other wonderful growths would require a volume for adequate descrip tion. Of course. In this jungle of battling plants there is a numerous and varied animal life. The eomman deer exist by the hundreds of thousands and as plantations and grass lands are ex tended by the chopping down and burning of the forests, the deer grow more numerous in spite of the fact that they are killed by the thousands, mak ing venison the common meat food of all the rural population. The large and spotted jaguars, the mountain lions, wildcats, coons, a minK as large as a coon, and many other land ani mals roam in countless numbers through the Jungles and over the mountains. Iguanas, or large lizards, ranging from four inches to four feet in length, are at every hand, and their big uncles, the alligators, infest the rivers and lagoons. In the swamps the huge boas and other snakes bang from the tree limbs. In the larger forests the monkeys race from limb lo limb, chattering like demented be ings. Everywhere are the parrots, macaws, and a thousand other richly plumed and harsh-voiced birds. Ants from minute forms to sizes like wasps are constantly in search of prey. Grasshoppers larger than Nebraska “natives” join with crickets in making the woods resound, while one lone locust In a Cieba tree could teach voice culture to a square mile of seven teen-year locusts at home and make itself heard above them all. Along the rivers are mosquitoes, and in the forests are ehiggers. each Intent on the “blood of an Englishman.” Tarantulas abound in the bananas and centipedes and scorpions come into the houses to show their sociability. The reader cannot but wonder what is attractive and pleasant in this coun try. Yet it in a fact that one visit to the tropics brings on a desire for more visits. A man occasionally takes his pen in hand, but the umbrella he takes in hand usually belongs to another. Occasionally a man Is so anxious to see his name in prin t that he gets on the delinquent tax list. Mrs. Newwed—What would you be today if it wasn’t for my money? Mr. Newwed—A bachelor. The result of the annual physical examinations of the midshipmen of the three classes at the naval academy at Annapolis, Md., shows that seven teen midshipmen are disqualified to continue in the service and their resig nations will bo handed in. Among the number is O. W. Howard of Oma ha, Neb., a member of the fourth class. The Little Sisters of the Poor, at Pittsburg, Pa., were robbed of $3,000 by a man who represented himself as a plumber. The man went to the insti tution in Penn avenue, where an addi tion to the home for the aged is build ing by the sisters, and represented himself as a sub-contractor for the plumbing work in the building. When the inmates of the home had all gone to the chapel for prayers, the fellow made his way to the office and carried away the §3,000, which represents the collections made by the sisters to pay for the new building. miso,r—o From “Whippoorwill Time.” Let down the bars; drive in the cows; The west is dyed with burning rose; Lnhitch the horses from the p'nws. And from the cart the ox that lows. And light the lamp within the house. „e .Whippoorwill is calling, "Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will.’’ \V here the locust blooms are falling On the hill. i he sunset’s rose is dying. And the whippoorwill is crying. Whlp-jjoor-will; whip-poor-will”; Soft, now shrill, ihe whippoorwill Is crying, “Whip-poor-will.” The cows are milked; the cattle fed; _The last far streaks of evening fade; The farm hand whistles in the shed, And in the house the table’s laid; The lamp streams on the garden bed. The whippoorwill is calling. " *» hip-poor-will; whip-poor-will,” \\ here the dogwood blooms are falling On the hill; The afterglow is waning. And the whippoorwill's complaining, "Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will’’; Wild and shrill. The whippoorwill’s complaining, "Whip-poor-will.” The moon blooms out, a great white rose; The stars wheel onward toward the U psf • The barnyard cock wakes once end crows; The farm Is wrapped in peaceful rest; The cricket chirs; the firefly glows, The whippoorwill is calling. "Whip-poor-will: whip-poor-will.” Where the bramble blooms are falling On the rill; The moon her watch is keeping, And the whippoorwill is weeping, “Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will”; Lonely still. The whippoorwill is weeping. ‘Whip-poor-will.’ —Madison Cawein. in the May Atlantic. NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD. Items of Interest Gathered from Many Sources. The closing day of the convention of the Amalgamated Association of Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers re-elected the old officers. Owing to differences over wage scale, about 250 bakers went on strike at Cleveland and the bread output will be decreased from 250,000 loaves to 125,000. Seven hundred carpenters, shut out since May 1, have returned to work, at Des Moines, all differences having been settled. It is believed the end of the big labor war is now in sight. Robert A. Callahan of Boston and Jere Sullivan of Cincinrati were re elected president and secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Employers' Na tional Alliance by the general conven tion at Rochester. The Loretto mine, at Loretto, Mich., shut down, throwing about 200 men out of employment. Many mines are closing and miners are leaving for Europe on account of the general de pression on the range. Chicago hotel cooks have made a demand for a ten-hour day and a closed shop agreement. Heretofore they have been working eleven hours a day. Their demand will be consid ered by their employers within a few days. Nearly all the striking miners, sev enty-nine in number, who were driven from Ludlow' to Trinidad. Colo., a dis tance of twenty miles, by a cavalry troop, have been released after hav ing been registered by the military authorities. Arbitration has settled the w’age scale of 7,000 union painters at New York, and the agreement has been signed. It grants an increase of 50 cents a day. making the scale $4 and $4.25 for plain and decorative point ers, respectively. As the result cf notices served on the Minneapolis trades unions, 5,000 men struck May 25. The open shop system will be started by the con tractors allied in the Builders’ and Traders* Exchange at that time, say the notices, regardless of what the unions do. The International Brotherhood of Papermakers adjourned, after electing officers and deciding to hold the next convention at Holyoke, Mass. Geo. Mackey of Watertown. N. Y., was chosen president and Frank E. Mace of Neenah, Wis., is one of the vice presidents. The strike of the freight handlers on the Fall River and Providence line of sound steamboats assumed serious proportions and a complete tieup of the sound fleet is threatened. The Norwich and New Haven companies’ men have gone out and the Stoning ton line is crippled. The Springfield. 111.. Federation of Labor has 6,000 paid up union mem bers and is steadily growing. The teamsters are divided into two local unions—those who own not more than one team and those who are hired by the day. All conditions are peaceful, the unions securing good agreements May 1 without strikes. In an interview at Cleveland Dis trict Captain Paul Howell of the Mas ters and. Pilots’ Association charged the members of the Lake Carriers' As sociation with conspiring to use the present controversy over the demands of the masters and pilots as an ex cuse to keep their boats out of com mission In order to force freight rates to an abnormal figure. A German professor named Schmol ler has been studying the question of wages for thirty years and has lately published the results of his re searches in a French magazine. He says that the four principal causes of high wages in modern times are as follows: 1. Trade unions. 2. Popular education. 3. Better social training. 4. More humanity among the wealthier classes. New wage scales of sixteen unions in the Chicago stock yards, with a membership of nearly 14.000, whose agreements with the packers expire soon, w'ere indorsed a* a meeting of the Packing Trades Council, and the unions will present them to represen tatives of the packers within a few days. Officials of the unions here do not anticipate any difficulty in secur ing their demands, as they ask for an equalization of the wages by all pack ers. Labor unions of Georgia are advo cating the establishment of a bureau of state labor statistics and mining There are now affiliated with the American Federation of Labor; Inter national unions, 118; state branches, thirty-one; city central bodies, fi$|; local trade and federal unlo*** having no International unions, 1.6\' fht«^ does not include the charters issued to local unions by affiliated interna tional unionc, the total of these locals being 26 400. At Cleveland. Way 21. behind clored doors votes were taken for officers by delegates to the convention of the Amalgamated Association of Iron. Steel and Tin Workers. Theodore J. Shaffer of Pittsburg, who has been president for several years, wav re elected. Other officers were re-elected as follows: Secretary-treasurer. John Williams, Pittsburg; assistant secre tary, M. F. Tighe, Pittsburg: ditar as sociation journal, Ben I. Davi Pitts burg. The convention adjourn d af» r choosing Detroit as the next plat t of meeting. The newest international union to establish its headquarters iD Chicago is the Hodcarriers and Building la borers’ International union. It \va formed in April, i903, at a convention called by Samuel Oompers, and held In Washington, D. C. When fir«t or ganized there were twenty-six local unions affiliated, with a membership of about 10,000, over one-half of which was from the Chicago locals. At the present time there are 173 local unions connected with the interna tional from all parts of the country, and the total membership is 38,000. “The state militia was degraded to the uses of corporations which con nived at the breaking of the law. The very men whom we used the troops to protect imported all-round bad men— the very men I ran out of their camps —to break the law in Denver and car ry the election in their interests.” With this statement Adjutant General Bell, heretofore the right-hand man of Gov. Peabody in his military methods of handling recent labor troubles, in Colorado, announced his purpose to re sign his position and have nothing more to do with what he considers an improper use of the state forces. Orlando H. Baker. Unite 1 States consul at Sydney, New South Wales, reporting on labor conditions there, says: “Hardjy a boat arrives here from the United States without bring ing some victims of the writer who has pictured New South Wales as ‘the paradise of the workingman.’ The unions have by law a monoply of the work to be done at fixed prices. While some are well paid—mostly employes of government works—thousands can find nothing or very little to do at any price. No encouragement is given for immigrants who are dependent ’ upon their labor for a living. These facts should be known to Americans.” Brass Molders’ union No. 83 has seceded from the Metal Polishers. Platers, Buffers, Brass Workers and Brass Molders’ International union, and propose to form an international union of brass molders alone. It is not likely that the brass molders will be given a charter from the A. F. of L.. as the Boston convention conceded the Iron Molders’ union jurisdiction over the brass molders. The seces sion was due to the failure of the re cent strike of brass workers. The molders say that the brass workers and chandelier makers returned to work, leaving the molders out in the cold. An event of vast importance to trade unionism occurred in the British house of commons on April 22. By a vote of 238 to 199 what was known as the “trade union bill” passed its sec ond reading In the house of commons, in spite of an adverse speech and an adverse vote trom the premier. Mr. Balfour. This bill legalizes peaceful picketing and amends the law of con spiracy in connection with trade dis putes. It also protects trade union bank accounts and other funds against legal process for damage caused by the action of members of such unions. The bill, as is there commonly known, was the outcome of the recent judg ment in the TafT Vale railway case, when the Railway Servants' Union was mulcted in heavy damages for picketing and alleged "interfering” with nonunionists. The labor editors of the state of Illinois, the men who publish the trades union journals for central bodies of organized laber in the small communities, have formed a state association. The meeting was held at Springfield, but it is expected to make the association permanent at a second meeting to be held at Peoria in June. The officers selected are: President, E. A. Whitney of the Ke wanee Labor Herald; vice president, S. W. Smalley. Galesburg Labor News; secretary-treasurer, R. e. Woodmansee, Springfield; executive committee, Eugene L*inxweiler, De catur Labor World; W. E. Corson, Danville Labor Herald; J. w. As pegren, Rockford Union Record; J. R. Ashuff, of the Streator Trade and l^abor Gazette. Of the fifteen editors of labor papers which are official or gans of unions in the state, twelve were represented. Since the great coal strike the em ployers of labor in all parts of the country have been preparing to break tne power of the labor unions. In Chicago and St. L^iuis the employers’ associations have emergency funds of over 11,000.000 in the banks, ready for immediate use. The method of attack is to establish what are called "open whops'"—shops in which the employer has the right to discharge without giving causes and the right to hire men who are not members of the union, On the part of the em ployers it is claimed that the "open shop" means no more than the equal treatment of union and nonunion men; but on the part of the trade unions it Is said that this is the thin end of u wedge which will be driven In until the unions are broken up. The employers’ associations are also establishing employment bureaus for the purpose of keeping track of the records of all wageworkers and mark ing out those who are active In the union. As a result, so it is claimed by labor men, a blacklist will be pre pared which will be used to punish and terrify the members of the unions. The railroads and banks are wM to be iy\»ml the new anti-unioa VfUlHTt.