The Commoner.
rc
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A Possible
Surprise.
Talc of
Two Cities.
The supreme court recently
decided that the war tax on
export bills of lading was
unconstitutional. The attorney-general had
pointed out to the court that such a decision
would involve great embarrassment to the ad
ministration. Referring to this point, Justice
Brewer said: "It furnishes no reason for net
recognizing that which in our judgment is the
true construction of the constitutional limita
tions." Some of the administration politicians
would he greatly surprised and doubtless
considerably embarrassed in their schemes of
exploitation if the supreme court should con
clude that in considering the Porto Rican case
it should be guided by the constitution regard
less of the personal interests of administration
politicians.
Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, in a re
cent address, thus expressed
his opinion of New York City:
"If Sodom and Gomorrah were near New York -City
and I had to move, I'd move to one of them
in preference to living in New York City. The
only objection they have to the decalogue there is
that it is not longer so that they, could shatter
more of its commandments."
And then, by way of comparison, he men
tioned Pennsylvania:
"The only state that is worse than New York
is Pennsylvania. That is the crowning glory of
political baseness. There is not a place on earth
where the devil is happier. If it were not for
such men as John Wanamaker, God knows what
that poor, unfortunate state would come to."
The Pittsburg Post insists that Philadel
phia is worse than New Yo;rk. It is "a tale of
two cities," and if half true, there is room for
a great deal of improvement in.both.
The Tri-State Medical Society,
held at Keokuk, Iowa, recently
inaugurated a good and much
A committee consisting of Dr.
J. 0. Murphy of St. Louis, Dr. D. C. Brookman
of Ottumwa, la., and Dr. Prank P. Northury of
Galesburg, 111., was appointed to ask the next
legislature of the. three states to pass laws regu
lating marriage of degenerates and criminals.
The society unanimously passed the resolutions,
giving it as the sense of the Tri-State Medical
Society of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri that such
laws be passed. New officers were elected
and Chicago was chosen for the place of-meeting
in April, 1902. Dr. J. C. Murphy of St.
Louis was elected president .and Dr. Bayard
Holmes of Chicago, first vice president.
It is strange the intelligence of this country
has not long agp required such amendments to '
our marriage laws as would protect the char
acter of future generations. If one-tenth of the
care shown in the propagation of live stock was
displayed with reference to human beings, there
would bo more intelligence and happiness and
less insanity and misery in this world.
Entirely The Indianapolis News, corn-
Consistent, menting upon the appointment
of Mr. Knox, says:
"We are not disposed to judge Mr. Knox in
advance. But at the same time, as things go in
this world, it must be admitted to-be unfortunate
that tho man who may be called on to enforce the
Care for the
Human Race.
needed work.
anti-trust law should have such intimate relations
with the combinations against which that law is
directed."
Has the News failed to recognize the fact
that the appointment of Mr. Knox was an en
tirely consistent one? The News must know
that the combinations against which the anti
trust law is directed provided the sinews of war
for the republican party in the campaigns of
1890 and 1900. Mr. Knox's predecessor in tho
cabinet had intimate relations with the combi
nations against which the anti-trust law is
directed. Every department of the govern
ment is on intimate terms with these combina
tions and their representatives. Republican
congressional conventions nominate men known
to be favorable to these combinations. Re
publican legislatures elect men to the senate
who have intimate relations with these combi
nations. Republican newspapers to-day in
many instances openly and boldly uphold the
trust system and point to these combinations
as the natural result of progress and prosperity.
"Why, then, should the administration be criti
cised, because of Mr. Knox's appointment, by
newspajjers which helped to place this adminis
tration in power?
At Decatur, Alabama, the
President took occasion to de
fend the administration against
the charge that it favored mil
itarism and viewed blood and carnage with in
diiEerence. But in his anxiety to make tho de
fence complete he found it necessary to contra
dict what he had said during the negotiations
of the Paris Treaty. The conflict between the
speech made at Decatur and the instructions
given to the Peace Commission can best be
shown by presenting the two in parallel
columns:
The President
Contradicts
Himself.
Decatur Speech.
Wo have never gone to
war for conquest, for ex
ploitation or for territory,
but always for liberty
and humanity, and in our
recent war with Spain
the people of the whole
United States, as ono
man, marched with tho
flag for tho honor of the
nation to relieve the op
pressed people in Cuba.
-' ,-vV
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Extract from Correspondence
Between Day, of the Peace
Commission, and Hay, Sec
retary of State.
United States Peace
Commission, Paris, Nov.
3 189810 a. m. (For
the President. Special.)
After a careful exami
nation of the authorities,
the majority of the com
mission are clearly of tho
Qpinion- that our domand
for the Philippine Islands
can not be based on con
quest. DAY.
Department of State,
Washington, Nov. 3, 1898.
The President has re
ceived your dispatch of
this date and, awaits your
letter. Meantime, how
ever, the question may be
ultimately determined.
He assumes you have not
yielded the claim by right
of conquest. In fact tho
destruction of the Span
ish fleet on May 1 was
tho conquest of Manila,
the capital of the Philip
pines. HAY.
W
An Important
Admission.
Senator Depew, at the celebra
tion of his last birthday, admits
that the predictions made in re
gard to trusts during the last campaign have been
more that fulfilled. While he does not feel
any alarm, and misjudges public sentiment on
the subject, his words are worthy of consider
ation. After painting a rosy picture of tho
future, ho says:
"Tho animal mdst frequently seen upon tho
pages of a largo portion of the press of tho United
States during tho canvass of 1900 and brought out
upon the platform at overy meeting of one party
was the octopus. It frightened millions of voters
as to the dangers to themselves, with its tentacles
spreading over and enveloping the country, but
tho octopus of tho imagination of tho populist
writer and speaker of October, lOuU, was a lamb
compared with a Hon beside tho real octopus of
March, 1901. A billion-dollar corporation formed
in October might have reversed the November
verdicts. And yet such has been the march of
public opinion, owing to the marvelous conditions
which have come up within a few months, that
tho formation of a $1,100,000,000 company fright
ens nobody, and is not even tho subject of ex
tended editorial comment in the pages of the Com
moner. Tho processes and the procession up to
the present have so happily incluued,' for theirown
benefit, every profession,' trade, and occupation,
that people are looking for results instead of
criticising methods or listening to predictions of
disaster."
Mr. Depew's business connections are such
that he looks approvingly upon all consolida
tions of capital. He has such faith in men of
wealth that he is willing to entrust them with
a monopoly of production and the control of
prices; and ho is so far removed from the
laboring man and tho ordinary consumer that
he is unconscious of their needs or perils. lie
is near' the head of the banquet tabic and is en
joying himself, as indifferent to the interests of
those who toil as were the companions of Bel
shazzar. The readers of The Commoner have
been informed of the progress of consolidation
and of the objections thereto, but Senator De
pew's admission is an important one.
A Popular The May number of thcRc-
Engllsli Song. view of Reviews reproduces.
an excellent cartoon which ap
peared in the Westminister Gazette (London).
While this cartoon cannot bo exhibited to the
readers of The Commoner, they will be inter
ested in the ballad which Salisbury, Chamber
lain, and other government leaders are repre
sented as singing. It reads:
A Patter Song: for the Government Choir.
In the war we made a start
- - With a gay and gladsome heart,
And wo thought with little trouble
"We could prick the Boer bubble.
But we didn't know they'd horses,
And we didn't know they'd guns.
(Spoken): But they had yes, they had.
. , Yes, we found they'd guns and horses,
And we wanted larger forces x
But it really didn't matter,
' ' Didn't matter matter matter; '
It really didn't matter
Not a bit.
' We got up an election
And we talked of disaffection;"
"Votes given to the liberals
Were given to the Boers. t
For we thought the war was over,
And the army was in clover.
(Spoken): But it wasn't no, it wasn't.
Yes, we found it wasn't finished,
And the army had diminished
But it really doesn't matter,-
Doesn't matter matter matter;
It really doesn't matter
Not a bit
,