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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1902)
Wiw'wlit'wifw,l - s &' r WW Ml I " ""' " . II'. Current Copies . - nm- ttao rrTTTTIT- ONE AMERICAN NlflWBJfArjuu oao u "" talcon to avoid the exactions of the paper trust Tho Kansas City Star Company has pur chased a block of ground and will erect a mill for tho purpose of manufacturing all tho white paper used in tho publication of the ICansas City BUur and the Kansas City Times. This mill will have a capacity of one thousand tons of whito paper per month and its cost is estimated at two hundred thousand dollars. It is reported that it will givo employment to one hundred persons. Thd managers of tho Star claim that they are tho first newspaper publishers in tho world to ongago in tho manufacture of their own paper. TT HAS BEEN GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD I that an unusually largo number of railroad accidents have occurred during tho present year, but a recent bulletin Issued by the interstate com merce commission throws new light on this sub ject According to this bulletin, .which to made to cover the months of April, May and June, 1902, the number of persons killed in railroad accidents was 140 and the number of injured amounted to 1,810. During thoso months there were collisions amount ing to 1,094 and derailments amounting to 91b, 157 of theso collisions and 101 of the derailment! affected passenger trains. The daniage wsulUng from these accidents amounted to ?1,813,833. ine average loss of each collision is estimated at .$824 and the loss of each derailment at $995. Aside from these accidents, others in which employes whilo engaged in their work and PW cetting on and off cars wore injured or killed, Sing the total number of deaths up to 616 and tho total number of injured up to 9,520. ONE OF THE RAREST OPERATIONS KNOWN to surgery, the sewing up of a severed ven tricle of a human heart, was recently performed at Bellevue hospital, New York The New York correspondent of the Chicago Record-Herald re lates the facts in this way!. "The patient was Annie Klngsley, who was stabbed ty her husband during a quarrel. She was thought to be dying when the ambulance reached the hospital. The blood was pouring from a long wound In the left ventricle. The surgeons knew the flow must be checked at once if tho woman was to be saved. The operation was decided upon. It was per formed by two surgeons, with fifteen more look ing on. 'me heart was laid bare. During inter vals between the beats the needle was inserted six times and the flow of blood was stopped. Tho wound was carefully dressed. Tho patient ral lied rapidly, and the surgeons expressed the belief that she will recover." . WHEN THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE MET .recently in convention at Boston, its secre tary received a letter from the president It read: "White House, Washington, Oct 16, 1902. Dear Sir: Your communication of recent date has been received and In reply I would state that while the president very much appreciates the cordial invita tion extended to him by your league, he regrets that his public duties will prevent him from being present on tho occasion to which you refer. Owing to the pressure upon his time incident to the preparation of his annual message to congress he is at present unable to accept any invitations. Permit me, in the president's behalf, to thank you and through you the members of your organi zation for this courtesy and believe me, very truly yours, George B. Cortelyou, secretary." IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON OCTOBER 22, William O'Brien called Premier Balfour's at tention to this letter. Mr. O'Brien asked if the premier had observed that the president had sent a letter to the United Irish league, and he desired to know whether in view of future friendly rela tions between the United States and Great Britain the premier could make any announcement "that this country was not indisposed to learn wisdom regarding their affairs from tho head of a great and friendly nation.'1 The speaker ruled the ques tion out of order, although Mr, O'Brien insisted that the president's letter was "an international fact of the first importance to the future of Great Britain." RECENTLrY THIS INTERESTING PARA graph has been going the rounds of the newspapers: "Persons who don't know that pros- The Commoner. parity to here are looking askance at the action of Secretary of tho Treasury fanaw in coming to tho wliefof Wall street This is rid culous. That Just what good old Uncle Sam is here or-to help tho deserving. Anybody who is short and want $4 to tide him over until next pay day can get it by addressing Mr. Shaw, treasury building, Washington. It is strange that this is,not .more generally known." The dispatches say that Mr. Shaw has latoly bee.n flooded with requests for holp. Following aro samples of the appeals. "St Louis, Oct 18, 1902.-vMr. Shaw.-Dear Sir: I saw in last night's paper that you would help tho deserving. I am not in the habit of asking any one for help, but I have been sick for a week and not able to work. My rent is due next week, and if I have not got it they will put me out on the street, and I don't know what to do. My rent Is $10 a month, and I have not got a cent toward getting it, but if you will help mo just ?4 I will try to borrow the rest, although my friends are all poor, too. You will be doing a kind act indeed if you will help me, a woman, in trouble. St Louis, Oct 18, 1902. Mr. Shaw: I saw in the pa pers last night that you would help the needy poor. I am a widow and have one little girl, and I have got to pay $5 in a home here to have her kept, and I have got behind last month. The ma tron said she would not let it run any longer. I would have to take her out, and I have no place to keep her. I am working in a private family and get only small wages. If you would send mo just a little money it would help me ever so much. I will appreciate your kindness very much. I want it to pay my little girl's board." OF COURSE THESE PEOPLE WERE UNABLE to see why the public money should be used for the purpose of tiding Wall street bankers when it cannot be used to aid other needy citi zens. There are, too, a great many people who would hesitate to ask for relief at the national treasury and who would hesitate, also, to uphold the giving of relief from the public funds, who are unable to understand how it is that Wall street bankers are permitted to speculate on the public funds and whenever they find themselves in a pinched condition, because of their frequent re sort to the water-cure method, are promptly helped out of their difficulties, : , THAT THE UNITED STATES CENSUS BU X reau is the real fountain of youth is a dis covery claimed to have been made by the Balti more American. A snort time ago the census bu reau issued a population age statement, showing that -whereas the medium age of the "American people that age at which one-half are over and one-half under it was 15.4 years in the year 181'). it "had increased to 22.4 in 1900. The causes of this Increase are stated thus: The rapid progress of medical and sanitary science, which has tended to increase tho average length of life; the decrease in the relative number of" children born, which has made the earlier age periods less preponder ant numerically in the total population, and tho influx, especially since 1840, of great numbers of adult immigrants, increasing the number in tho older age periods." Tne American says that "ac cording to the calculations of this bureau it will be only a matter of 11,730 years before the medium age of the American people will equal the age of Methuselah, beyond which even Pone de Leon would hardly have cared to live. The census bu reau proves it by facts and figures that youth is being prolonged at the rate of five-sixths of one year every decade. As a fountain, it is still some what backward, but if it only holds on and keeps its causes active me people who live 120 centuries hence will be youthful a good long while. And having enriched the world by this promise of per petual youth to our progeny 360 times removed, wo think the census bureau should now save its energies for the work it will have to do in the year 13632 A. D." CONSIDERABLE SURPRISE WAS CREATED in administration circles at Washington when King Oscar of Sweden and Norway, who had been chosen as arbitrator in tho controversy between the United States and Germany, had de cided in favor of tho latter government Tho cause submitted to King Oscar was known as the Samoan dispute. American and British forces were landed at Apia on April 1, 1899, for the pur pose of dispersing those who were in rebellion against the recognized government Claims amounting to $300,000 were filed by German, French, British and American residents, based on damages caused by the landing party. In Novem ber, 1899, an agreement was entered into whereby the dispute was to be submitted to King Oscar, the question being whether the military action of the ' Tol. a, No. 41; v United States and Great Britain had been wai ranted. Tho decision so far made by King Oscar is that tho United States government and the British government are responsible for the actual damages caused by their landing forces. The next step will be for tho arbitrator to. pass upon tho damages. It is announced from Washington that while the United States will accept tho result of tho arbitration and pay whatever damages may be assessed, the American authorities will declinb to be bound by tho principle sought to bo used as a precedent in King Oscar's decision. The American authorities contend that their naval forces can in terfere to preserve life and property in the pres ence of a specific treaty. THE FREQUENT REPORTS OF THE GENER OUS acts of some .of the beneficiaries of re publican legislation prompted a reader of the Chi cago Chronicle to direct attention to what Hugh, Arthur Clough, who lived at a time when tho spirit of rapacity had begun to dominate the ac quisitive classes In -England, said: "It is very fine, perhaps not. very difficult, to do every now and then some noble or generous act But what is wanted of us is to do no wrong ones. It may be, for instance, In many eyes, a laudable thing to amass a colossal fortune by acts not in all cases of quite unimpeachable integrity, and then " to expend it in magnificent benevolence. But the really good thing is not to make , the fortune. Thorough honesty and plain, undeviating integ ritythese are our real needs; on these sub structions only can the fabric of individual or na tional well-being safely be reared." This writer very pertinently adds: "The high protective tar iff has made it possible to some to 'amass a colossal fortune by acts not in all cases of quite unimpeachable integrity.' The masses are now Buffering from such unwise legislation. Let us" squash the head of this monster cobra, which is the republican party." ARGENTINA AND AUSTRALIA HAVE been referred to ar the great wheat-producing countries of the world. A writer in tho New York Sun seeks to correct this impression and makes the claim that there are twelve countries that produce more wheat than Australia, and ten,1 countries that surpass Argentina in their annual yield of this great grain. A an explanation of this statement, it is said that1 these countries are scarcely ever referred to as wheat-growing regions on account of their consumption of tho cereal in their own land, therefore exporting very little. Italy, Germany and Spain,for example, aro great wheat producers, but need all they raise at home, and France, in particular, iff surpassed only by the United States and Russia in wheat produc tion. Notwithstanding this, it is stated that a lit tle over forty years ago rye bread was the staple food of the French peasantry, but most of them have since joine- the wheat eaters, with the re-, .suit that the people cannot raise all the wheat they need. Franco's average crop is usually about one third larger than that of India, whose wheat seems to attract more attention than France's harvest for no other reason apparently than because, in good crop years, India is expected to help supply the deficiency of Europe. Except in famine years India has from 12,000,000 to 35,000,000 bushels of export wheat grown in our winter months when the climate in the best wheat .districts is usually as cool, at least, as a Minnesota summer. Though India Is the fourth largest grower, the wheat crop is far inferior in importance either, to tho rice of the lowlands or the millet of the drier -plateau of the Deccan, these two grains being tho great staples of vegetable food. There is an ex port tax on rice because tho country needs all it grows, but the ability to help supply Europe with wheat bread is a boon to me farmers of the Pun-, jab for which they have to thank the Suez canal.' They could not send wheat to Europe as long as It was necessary to double tho Cape of Good Hope, passing through the tropics both in tho Indian, ocean and the Atlantic, but steamship transporta tion through the canal made a new source of breadstuffs -tributary to Europe, and Ind'-n' ex port wheat is one of the most conspicuous Ih (ra tions of the influence a great ship canal may exert upon the economic conditions of a country. THE ANNOU1 .1ENT WAS RECENTLYi made that the great Sphinx of Egypt was in danger of being obliterated. Tnis ancient monu ment haff withstood the ravages of time for thou sands of years, but the sandstorms of the desert have worn away portions of the rock which sup ports the sculptured figure. Leading archaeolog ists of the world have boon interested in devising some means of preserving this ancient landmark, and the report comes from Franco that a method has at last been hit upon. This is nothing 'more nor less than tho erection of a huge umbrella-like shel- A T