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September 19 is a sad date in the history of
the republic. President Garfield was assassin
ated at the Baltimore & Ohio
A Sad Date depot in Washington, on July
In American 2, 1881. After suffering in
History. Washington for -weary weeks
. he was taken to Elberon, where
he could have the benefit of the sea air. He
thought he had a chance for life, but those who
had cared for him through all the long weeks
knew that he was going to Elberon to die. The
end came on September 19, 1881, and President
Garfield's soul wended its way to its maker. It
is a sad coincidence that President William
MoKinley, also the victim of an assassin's
bullet, was buried on the twentieth anniversary
of the death of President Garfield September
19, 1901. r
As I stated in an early issue of Tins Com
moner, I do not intend to do injustice to any
one and shall gladly correct
President . any mistake made. In the last
Harper Not ' number reference was made to
Quilty. a letter which, according to
the Chicago Tribune and other
papers, was addressed Jto President Harper by
a prospective lady student asking him to meet .
her at the depot. The Tribune editor is re
sponsible for the statement that the "letter was '
not addressed to President Harper but to Pro
fessor Parker, and that the University had no
part in giving5 out the story. It is also re-
ported that some one was sent to the depot to
meet the young lady. The blame for giving
out the letter, therefore, does not fall upon Dr.
Harper.. It is gratifying to know that the
president was not guilty of so rude and inex
cusable an act as that charged to his account.
The newspapers are now printing the
"dying words of the world's great men" and
among these Daniel Webster
Daniel ' is credited with, "I still live," '
Webster's as his last utterance. An in-
Last Words. teres ting explanation of Web
ster's last words isvgiven by
Ben: Perley Poore. School boys haye been
led to believe that Webster's last utterance was
an assertion of immortality or perhaps a decla
ration that though dead he would live in the
hearts of his countrymen, but Mr. Poore gives
an altogether different idea. Mr. Poore says
that Webster had a special liking for brandy.
Sometime before the distinguished patient
died his doctor called, felt his patient's pulse
and said to the nurse, "Give him a tablespoonf ul
of brandy and if at 11 o'clock he still lives,
give him.another tablespoonful of brandy." A
large clock occupied a place on the wall at the '
foot of the bed where the patient's eye could
'readily rest upon the time piece. When the
hands pointed to thchourof 11, Webster looked
at. the clock and then 'at the nurse. The nurse
made no effort to comply with the' doctor's in
structions and by way of reminder the great
statesman fixed liis eye upon his nurse and said:
"I still live." The doctor's instructions were
promptly carried out. This is presented by Mr.
Opportunity
For the
President.
Buried at
His Old
Home.
The Commoner.
Poore in all seriousness as the correct version
of Webster's last words and Mr. Poore adds
that the statement is verified by reliable author
ity. If Mr. Poore's version is correct the
words are robbed of the significance which has
generally been given to them.
President Roosevelt has it within his power
to put an end to a condition of affairs that has
made the American navy ridic
ulous in the eyes of the world.
The rank favoritism and out
rageous discrimination prac
ticed by bureau clerks who imagine themselves
to be the owners of the navy, should be stopped
at once. The Crowninshields, the Hacketts
and the Maclays are entirely too much in evi
dence. The navy is not the place to "play
favoritics.'1 In that department of the govern
ment it is essential that merit should be the
test. That is not the only department where
merit should be the test, but it is a fact that
this has been more openly violated in the navy
than elsewhere. The people are heartily sick
and tired of the small-bore politicians and self
ish naval under-strappcrs who haye been using
the department for their own purposes.
The old proposition that there should be
one burial place for American Presidents has
not received encouragement
from the incidents attending
the burial of the late President
near his Canton home. On
this point the Chicago Record
Herald says-:
"Tho man of the people goes back to the people
in death ns ho would have done in life had ho sur
vived his term of office. It is that close grip of the
neighborhood, of the old circle of friends and acquaint
ances of tho family, that habit of regarding his official
experience as but an incident of his American citizen
ship, that makes him in tho.. truest sense a national
character.
"A great pantheon at Washington would rather
separate him from tho people than bring him to
them. It would havo too much of tho official stamp,
would havo but ono narrow significance as regards
all its dead tenants, whereas the grave in tho distant
comotory gives to the idea of tho presidency tho
broadest significance possible. It is through belong
ing to his town, his county and hisstato that a Pres
ident belongs in the most intimate way to the nation."
Ex-Senator Manderson gives it as his opin
ion that anarchy and socialism must be stamped
out. The trouble with ex-Sen-
Socialism ator Manderson is that he, like
and thousands of others, fails to
Anarchy. distinguish the sweeping and
fundamental difference be
tween anarchy and socialism. The two are as
radically different as darkness and light. It is
not a compliment to the information of the
general public that the terms are so often and
so persistently confused. Anarchists would de
stroy all government; socialists seok the very
opposite. Anarchists would have government
do nothing; socialists would have govern
ment so enlarged that it would.direct and con
trol great business activities now carried on by-.
private individuals. Anarchists despise the
franchise; socialists believe that the intelli
gent ballot is the ono great -hope of society. It
is high time that men. learned to distinguish
between tho two.
The Commoner is not an advocate of so
cialism, but it wants its readers to know the
difference between socialists, who favor extend
ing the scope of government, and the anarchist,
who would destroy all government and geeks to
gain that end by the knife, the bullet, and the
torch.
I
The partisan prejudice of some men was
fittingly illustrated by an incident which oc
curred in a western city dur
Cnught ing the sad week of the presi-
Him dential obsequies. While the
Napping. campaign of 1000 was in pro
gress Democrats had great
sport reading a speech delivered by Abraham
Lincoln in 1858 and' intimating that it was a
portion of a speech delivered by Mr. Bryan.
Republicans readily fell into the trap and de
nounced it as "hogwash," "copperheadism,"
etc. An ex-congressman stood on a prominent
corner of a few days ago and denounced the
Democrats, and especially Mr. Bryan, for what
he termed "appeals to class prejudice." He
assorted that these appeals unsettled the minds
of people and made them discontented with
their lot, and further declared that the language
used by Democratic orators in discussing po
litical questions was indirectly, if not directly,
responsible for the assassination of President
McKinley. A young . man .standing by coin
cided with this view, and to prove the truth of
the assertion made by the ex congressman read
the following:
"Human rights and privileges must not be for
gotten in the mad race for wealth. The govern
ment of the people must he by the people, and not
by a few of the people. Power, It must be remem
bered, which is secured by oppression and usurpa
tion, or by any form of injustice, is soon over
thrown." "That," asserted the young man, "is the kind
of talk that is continually stirring up" trouble
between the different elements of our popula
tion. It is the doctrine of discontent."
"That's right!" asserted the ex-congressman.
"It is intended to make the poor hate
the rich. It is intended to make people be
lieve that our republic is rapidly becoming an
empire. It is "
"Oh, you ought to know better than to talk
that way about this speech," interrupted the
young man. "That is an extract from a speech
delivered by William McKinley only a few
years ago."
. The .republican ex-congressman looked
dazed, then hastily changed the subject.
The proposition to erect a Btatute of Na
poleon on the St Louis exposition grounds is
calling' out a great deal of adverse criticism.
Napoleon is the gentleman who sold the
Louisiana territory to Uncle Sam for any price
he could get in order to keep John 'Bull from
taking it for nothing. Otherwise he would
have held on to it and either demanded more
or used it to Uncle Sam's disadvantage. The
proposition to erect the statute seems to be out
of order.