w r w"f w 'v T1 W
The Wages
of Sin.
Subscriptions
From South
Africa.
A man signing his namo "A.
Jenkins",sh6t himself at a Phil
adelphia hotel. Before doing
bo he wrote a note to hiB brother-in-law saying
"This ia the ultimate result of gambling and a
dissipated life and is a "warning to young men."
But will it he a warning? Or must each person
learn for himself by bitter experience the pen
alty of sin?
i
Among the subscriptions
which reached The Commoner
office last week were twenty-
five from the Transvaal Repub
lic in far away South Africa. It is gratifying
to the editor to know that this paper commends
itself to the people who are so bravely endur
ing hardships in defense of the doctrine of self
government. Whether they are rewarded with
victory, or doomed to disappointment and final
defeat their deeds will be preserved in story
and in song and their devotion to freedom will
be an inspiration in all lands.
The investigation of fraud in
the government service at
Manila has developed that cer
tain officers have been guilty
of the most fiagrant wrongs. Representatives
of business concerns have testified to the pay
ment of commissions to commissary officers in ,
return, for the purchase of their goods. It
also developed that complaints of shortages in
..deliveries of goods have been silenced by the
payment of' liberal sums of money and that a
shortage was covered by placing a number of
fictitious laborers on the pay roll. Evidence
accumulates each day that the administration
owes to Editor Rice a large apology, even
though it does not return him to Manila from
which place he was deported because he charged
the existence of fraud.
Should Apolo-
t
size to Editor
Rice!
Matthews on
Co-operation.
Chas. B. Matthews, whose fight
with the Standard Oil trust is
described in Henry D. Lloyd's
book, "Wealth vs. Commonwealth," in an in
terview in the Buffalo Times, gives his exper
ience with a co-operative telephone company.
He "says:
"I am connected with a farmer and village line
at Wyoming, N. Y. We have some 20 telephones
on the line and find it a great convenience. Our
telephones cost us four years ago $10 each. We
put up our own wire, and of course own our own
'phones. The first cost of wire, poles and 'phones
to us was ahout $14 to each telephone, and now
we get a good local service at a cost of ahout $2
per year to each subscriber. Of course the Bell
company, which is everywhere presenrTin our large
villages, will have no dealings with us, but we can
enjoy our little co-operative system, and we can
wait as well as anyono can for Uncle Sam to
take the telephone and telegraph service of the
country and operate them in connection with the
postal service"."
Save the It is proposed to put a new
Echoes. roof on Statuary Hall, in the
capitol at Washington, and the
guides in that famous old structure express the
fear that the result will be a loss of the echoes
that have long been an attractive feature to
The Commoner.
visitors at the national building. The New
York World says that tho appeal of the guides
is " Save tho Echoes," and the World adds:
Now this is an appeal that tho people might
well tako up In a broader sense. There have been
many sentiments ringing in tho legislative halls of
tho capitol that wo should desire to have pre
served. Let us save tho echoes
Of Bayard's voice, when ho proclaimed:
, "The oath I have taken is lo support the con
stitution of my country's government, not the fiat
of any political organization."
Of Webster's voice, saying:
"I moan to stand upon tho constitution. I need
no other platform."
Of Sumner's voice, declaring that
"The true grandeur of a nation is to be found
only in deeds of justice and tho happiness of its
people."
W
Illinois The editor of The Commoner
College. notes with interest that his
alma mater, Illinois College,
at Jacksonville, has been included among tho
institutions to be aided by the Chicago philan
thropist, Dr. D. K. Pierson. Fifty thousand
dollars is the sum promised to Illinois College
on condition that an additional sum of one
hundred and fifty thousand is raised. Presi
dent Clifford Barnes feels confident that the
amount can be secured, and" the endowment
thus inrceased two hundred thousand.
Illinois College was established seventy-two
years ago by some Yale College graduates, led
by Edward Beechor, Julian Sturfcevant, and
Truman Post.
Richard Yates, the war Governor of Illi
nois, and his son Richard, the present gover
nor, were graduates of the college, as was also
Dr. Robt. W. Patterson, founder of Lake For
est University, President Bateman, of Knox
College, and Doctor Hiram K. Jones, the pla
tonic philosopher.
Consulting It seems to be "destiny" that
Destiny." the United States should ac
quire the Danish AVest Indies.
A treaty of sale is now being' arranged between
Denmark and the United States for the sale to
this country of these islands, the consideration
being $4,000,000.
One consideration of the proposed treaty is
that Denmark must have, in these islands,
equal trade privileges, with the United States.
In other words, if the United States have free
trade with the Danish West Indies, Denmark
must also have free trade.
" A similar concession for a period of ten
years was made to Spain so far as the Philip
pines was concerned. The republican leaders
have told us that a mighty principle was in
volved in the tariff question; and yet in the
different arrangements the republican adminis
tration has made concerning our various "pos
sessions" in the matter of tariff it would seem
that no principle whatever is involved in this
question, and that as one distinguished Ameri
can said, the tariff is purely a local question.
If the United States acquires the Danish
West Indies it will be interesting to observe
the position the new territory and its people
occupy with relation to this country. Will
they be "citizens of the Danish Islands," and
will they be denied constitutional trade privi
leges with this country? No one may safely
make prediction on this subject. Tho clair
voyant of the administration must first ascer
tain the decreo of "destiny" on this matter,
and by that decreo the rights, privileges and
immunities of the people of the Danish Islands
will bo arranged. "Destiny" has usurped the
place of the constitution.
They Deserve Recently a ranch in a western
No Sympathy, state was "raflled off." It was
advertised that the ranch was
paying a generous dividend upon a valuation
of $40,000. Thirty thousand tickets were
sold at one dollar a piece. It developed that
this enterprise was a swindle and the lucky
number was held by the owner of tho ranch
the drawing not being made under the auspices
of a committee as advertised. While the man
agers of this scheme "were arrested on the
charge of fraud and will probably meet with
punishment, the men who bought chances do
not deserve any spmpathy. Their experience
will be cheap enough if it cures them of the de
sire to make a fortune by chance. The specula
tive spirit now abroad in the land has wrought
more misery than Could have been wrought by
a cyclone or a pestilence. Fortunes have been
wrecked, homes have been destroyed, hopes
have been blasted and hearts have been broken
by the anxiety of men already rich to multiply
their riches in a day,; or of poor men to obtain
through a single smile of fortune the wealth
they have so long covetpd.
t
DoIIIver vs.
Lincoln.
In "an article printed in the
Philadelphia Record, Jona
than P. Dolliver, the Republi
can senator from Iowa, says:
The figure of Abraham Lincoln, standing on
the field of Gettj.'mrg by the . -"aves of the Union
dead, instead of growing smaller and more indis
tinct with time has increased to the measure of
the colossal events which surrounded him, until
above the noises, clamors and tumults of the hour
all generations share in the assurance of his in
spired confidence that the government by the peo
ple, of the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
Of all the Republican statesmen, none have
been more earnest or more eloquent in the de
fense of the administration's policy of imper
ialism than Senator Dolliver of Iowa. Of what
value then, arc such words coming from such a
man?
Senator Dolliver supports a policy that de
nies the principle of government with the con
sent of the governed in the Philippines; that
denies to tho people of Porto Rico equal par
ticipation with the people of the United States
in the privileges and immunities guaranteed by
the Constitution; that denies to the people of
Cuba that absolute independence involved in a
government of, by and for the people. And
yet this eloquent and vigorous defender of this
un-American policy has the temerity to declare
that today all generations share in Lincoln's
assurance "that .government by the people, of
the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth."
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