a
Two Brave Miss Haley and Miss Goggin,
Young Ladles, 'two Chicago school teachers,
have started otit to compel the
Chicago corporations to pay their share of the
taxes. It is said that about two hundred millions
of property is escaping assessment. Judge O. P.
Thompson is hearing the case at Springfield
and the' prosecuting attorney charges that the
sum of $88,000 was paid by the corporations to
members of the state board of equalization. It
was a plucky undertaking for the women and
they will deserve the thanks of the state if their
crusade results in increasing the assessment.
The property that is found by the assessor
always pays more than it should because it not
only pays its own share but also the share
which ought to be paid by the property which
escapes.
Perquisites of The New York Post calls at
Imperialism. tention to the fact that" the
Cecil Rhodes Company is to
be relieved from the payment of the five mil
lion dollars awarded against it in favor of the
Transvaal. The Post says:
It is hardly surprising that the first immediate
gainer by the extinction of the Boer republics is
to be the British Chartered South African com
pany. Mr. Cecil Rhodes' company, it will be re
membered, owed the Transvaal a matter of 1,
000,000 by way of indemnity for the Jameson raid.
This great sum is simply to be stricken off the
books, for Mr. Chamberlain finds that the claims of
the Transvaal have not, in virtue of the conquest,
passed to Great Britain. It all looks very much
like a ."gentleman's agreement" between the Col
onial Premier and the Colonial Secretary, who
share the honor of bringing about the war. How
the treasury will take the loss of amillion sterling
remains to be seen; while as such instances make
it clearer that the interests of the British em
pire have turned out to be always those of the
Chartered Company, we may hope to see, what
England so much needs, a growing concentration
of all liberal forces against the present "commer
cialized" government.
A Triumph of The St. Louis exposition prom
Diplomacy ises to be one of the greatest,
and Honor. if not the greatest, ever held
in the United States. It will
commemorate the purchase from France of what
is known in history as the Loisiana territory.
.That purchase was made openly and above
board and ratified without bloodshed. The in
habitants of the acquired territory were guar
anteed all the rights, privileges and immunities
enjoyed by the inhabitants of the other terri
tories and the states. There was no cant about
"benevolent assimilation," no hypocritical
phrasing about "duty and destiny," no Peck
sniffian pretense of "American valor." It re
quired no immense armies, no great outlay
of public money, no special stamp taxes, no re
cruiting stations, no mother's tears, to make it
binding upon all the people. It was a triumph
of American diplomacy and American honor,
not a breaking of American faith and a depar
ture from American principles. Because of
this every patriotic American citizen should
join with the patriotic people of St. Louis in
the' work of making the St. Louis exposition a
magnificent success and worthy of the great
event it celebrates.
The Commoner.
Harrison's Long Thomas Harrison, one of the
Prayer. judges of Charles I and one
of the signers of that mon
arch's death warrant was a relative of the
late Benjamin Harrison. A writer in the New
York "World calls attention to an interesting
passage in the life of Oliver Cromwell, which
was written by Thomas Cromwell, one of his
descendants, and printed in London in 1821.
This relates to an incident in the execution of
King Charles.
It is stated that on the morning of the execu
tion Lord Fairfax, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Parliamentary Army, was much troubled in his
mind about the legality and propriety of the pro
cepdings so mucn so that he was suspected of an
intention of interfering at the last moment to save
tho life of Charles. While he was revolving his
scruples and Charles was being" taken to the scaf
fold the tradition says that Mr. Harrison, to ease
General Fairfax's mind, suggested that they should
"seek counsel of the Lord,'-' and Harrison prayed
so long that as he said "Amen" a messenger ar
rived with the news that the King's head was off,
which is said to have been accepted by both
Harrison and Fairfax as conclusive proof that the
Lord's will had been done.
00
A Blow at the Representative Russell, a re
Trust System, publican member of the Ways
and Means Committee, , in a
public interview says: "I cannot understand
how it would be feasible to exempt from tariff
protection trust made articles as proposed in the
Babcock bill." Mr. Russell's objection is
that this proposed change would mean the over
hauling of the whole subject, and in his opin
ion the business interests of the country do not
desire this to be done. In the same interview
Mr. Russell suggested that certain changes in
the revenue might be made to great advantage.
The internal taxes upon spirits and alcohol
used in the arts might, he said, be reduced. Ho
was also in favor of free alcohol for use in the
arts.
Mr. Russell overlooks the fact that the prop
osition to exempt from tariff protection trust
made articles. is not advanced out of consider
ation for the revenue. It is one method of
striking at the iniquitous trust system; and
from the objections urged to this plan by
trust magnates, one may well believe that it
would be a very effective plan.
The demand for the removal of tariff protec
tion from trust made articles connot be met by
any proposition to lower the internal taxes
upon spirits. "That" in the language of Kip
ling, "is another story."
The Sun Do John Jasper, the negro preacli
Move. cr, who became famous by
the delivery of a sermon in
which he sought to prove that the sun was not
stationary, died at Richmond, Virginia, March
00. Jasper's sermon has been known as "The
Sun Do Move Sermon." This sermon was de
livered in the year 1870. Jasper contended
that, in spite of the'popular notion, "the sun do
move," and he fortified his position by many
quotations from the bible. Jasper contended
that the earth is square, flat and immovable,
and that the sun rises" in the east and sets in the
west. He took his text from Exodus, chapter
15, verse 3, "The Lord is a man of war; the
Lord is His name." Jasper said, "Tlic biblo
says the sun stood still. Is anybody going to
say the sun was standing still before Joshua
told it to stand still?' Do you think Joshua
would have asked the privilege of stopping the
sun if she had not been moving? This morn
ing when tho sun rose it was over there, (point
ing to tho cast.) How in tho name of God
could the sun get from that side of the house
over to this, (pointing to the west,) unless it
moved? How Solomon was certainly a scholar.
Do you know he was the man who said, 'The
sun arisethand goeth down, and hastcnethback
to the place ho moved from'? It is nonsense
to say the sun does not move. The man who
says the sun does not move does not read the
bible."
Jasper was in his 83 year when he died.
For more than 02 years he had been a preacher.
Both Nations. TheLond6nTimes,coininenting
Pegging Away on the capture of Aguinaldo,
says, "The United States will
keep pegging away with the dogged tenacity
that is in their blood and ours. We must keep
pegging away in South Africa."
It is very evident that the British must keep
"pegging away" in South Africa if they hope
finally to accomplish the subjugation of the two
republics.
It is also evident that, in spite of the
capture of Aguinaldo, we must keep "pegging
away" in the Philippines if wo liope to
subjugate those people.
But what are these two great nations
accomplishing by this "pegging away"
process? '
The British taxpayer already feels the heavy
burden consequent upon the enormous war
expenditures in South Africa, and because of
its unholy assault upon the two helpless
republics Great Britain has lost much of its
prestige among the nations of the world, and
much of the respect which intelligent and honest
men have heretofore entertained for it. .
What have we accomplished by our pegging
away in the Phillippincs? We have violated
our purest traditions; we have lost the con
fidence of the freemen of the world; we have
abdicated our place at the head of the lovers of
liberty; we have lost our self respect; wc have
spent millions of treasure and sacrificed thous
ands of precious lives.
The latest estimate of our expenditures in
blood and money in the Philippines is as
follows:
Expenditures on account of military opera
tions in the islands, 173,550,000. Paid to
Spain under treaty of aris, $20,000,000. Paid
to Spain for Cagayan and Sibutu, $100,000.
Interest on war loan since June 30, 1899, $8,
423,Q00. Philippine Commissioners and mis
cellaneous, $500,000. Total cost in money,
$202;573,000.
Army lost in killed and,deaths from wounds;
Officers, 54, enlisted men 830; navy lost in
killed and deaths from wounds, officers 2, en
listed men 1G; Deaths from disease, officers 48,
eulisted men 2,072. Total cost in lives, 3,028.
