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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1903)
CS&l - - -v yf'wwilj HJurn n 'wy wmjEiwawiM' OTMjH " " ' "' "-V KnwnHnMiMBllnMaH ' ' fc f-Tn" 7H Jan 9, 1903 r' share of Venezuela's exports. The imports of 'this South American republic amount to nearly -'$9,000,000 per year -while the exports amount to -nearly $18,000,000 per year. "Venezuela's annual ".revenue is in the neighborhood of $7,000,000. Its national debt is estimated at $40,000,000. Owing v to the largo number of revolutions which havo confronted the government in recent years, the an nual expenditure of the little republic has been about $9,000,000 per year for several years past. THE WIDOW OF THE LATE GEN. JOHN C. Fremont, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, died December 27 at her home in Los Angeles. At the time Qf her death Mrs. Fremont was seventy eight years of age. In her youhgeV days Mrs. Fremont was one of the best known of American women. She was a daughter of Thomas II. Ben ton and was only fifteen years of age when John C. Fremont fell in love with her. Fremont was then engaged in exploring the country between the Missouri and the north frontier and he held the position of second lieutenant of engineers. Benton was then senator from Missouri and young Fremont met his future wife at the national capi tal. Senator Benton objected to the marriage and used his influence to have the war department or der youhg Fremont to the west for the purpose of making an examination of the Des Moines river. This task accomplished, Lieutenant Fremont re turned to Washington and in spite of the objec tions of the senator from Missouri was united in marriage to Jessie Benton. HHO JAMES BOWEN LINDSAY, THE SCOTCH JL inventor, Marconi has given the credit for being the first advocate of long distance wireless telegraphy. Mr. Marconi says that fifty years ago Lindsay began experiments in the vicinity of Dundee and for ten years these experiments were continued. Lindsay obtained a patent for his method of wireless telegraphy, but Mr. Marconi says that Lindsay's system was not considered practical because of the enormous electrical en ergy required. He says, however, that there is good reason to believe that had Mr. Lindsay lived to the present time he would undoubtedly have made a success.' & a? SENATOR SCOTT OF WEST VIRGINIA HAS offered an amendment to the civil servico law. The Scott amendment limits to six years the tenure of all persons now or hereafter em ployed in the classified service, except railway mail clerks, whom it considerately permits to con tinue to work during good behavior. At the end of six years' service, however, the limited clerks are- to ba eligible for reappointment for a like term. The inference is left open that at the end of their second six years vthese persons go out and1 stay out They cannot even get their second six years without passing a non-competitive ex amination, and the same test is to bo applied to the choice of their successors when they finally do quit. The persons already in the service are to bo divided into groups to serve two, four, and six years and those who at the end of the period remaining to their group shall have passed the six year point are to be retired. AN INTERESTING ANALYSIS OF SENATOR Scott's plan is provided by the Washington - correspondent of the Des Moines Register and Leader. This correspondent says: "Anyone who scrutinizes this plan, which appears at a first glance wholly arbitrary, will discover a method in it. How are candidates selected for the non competitive test? By patronage, of course, like cadets for the armed services and other positions protected by this thin shield. Who is to exer cise such patronage? The great men whose terms of service put them into six-year groups. In other words, if Mr. Scott's plan should over come into operation, we would see the senators designating for examination, just prior to their own ordeal of re-election, these persons whoso friends and rel atives would help the campaign in the legislature along. A clerk whose first six-year term was ex piring, and who refused to help his senator to a re-election or to the privilege of naming his sue-. cessor, would be refused a designation for examin ation for another six years of service. By the end of twelve years, it might fairly be assumed that the political usefulness of the same lot of clerks wc Id havo exhausted itself, or that a senator would bo able to stand alone, or that fresh blood could bo brought most effectively into the leg islative campaign. The answer to this would be that not all the clerks from any one state would complete their six-year terms at the same time, The Commoner, and therefore that the scheme hero outlined would soon prove unworkable. That is a hasty conclu sion, in all except a very small handful of states, tno number of representatives who would havo need of .party aid every two years, exceeds con siderably the number of senators.' In distributing the congressional patronage of a state, therefore, the Cwo senators could take tho clerks whoso terms expired at tho proper dates for their uses, and the representatives could divide tho rest be tween them." WHEN THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN Venezuela and Great Britain and Germany comes before The Hague, it is probable that coun ter claims of an interesting character will be pre sented by tho South American republic. It is be lieved that because of tho wanton destruction of the Venezuelan neet as well as by reason of other things done in the name of tho British-German al liance in its operations against Venezuela, that re public will have some very material offsets to tho claims mado against tho republic by European governments. The consideration of tho European claims will provide immenso work for The Hague tribunal and when to this work is added the task of passing upon Venezuela's counter claims one may well believe that there are busy days be fore The Hague tribunal. ONE QUESTION WHICH THE VENEZUELAN authorities will probably seek to bring into the controversy relates to the title to tho island of Patos. In January, 1901, the officers of a Vene zuelan gunboat arrested several British subjects on this island. The British authorities asked for an explanation and Venezuela's representatives ro plied by reasserting their old time claim that the island of Patos really belonged to Venezuela. i? a? THE BRITISH TITLE TO PATOS RESTS upon the claim that when Great Britain conquered the island of Trinidad in 1797 sov ereignty over Patos was obtained, and so recog nized by the Spanish government. The British ministry say that Patos has remained In peaceful possession of Great Britain for moro than a cen tury and that during seventy years Venezuela ad vanced no claim. Venezuelan authorities point to a letter written by the Spanish minister for state in 1873 in which he says that royal sanction was never given to the concession of Patos as al leged by the British government. It is not like ly that the representatives of Great Britain will consent that this question shall bo submitted for arbitration because their position has been that Patos is so clearly a British possession that it does not furnish a suitable subject for arbitration. INTERESTING TIMES ARE LOOKED FOR IN Canada owing to the undeniable sentiment that has begun to form there against the policy of England as regards trade concessions. According to a correspondent in the Chicago Tribune Pre mier Laurier and scores of othor leading Canadian politicians have avowed over and over again that the continuance of Canada's political ties to Great Britain are conditioned absolutely on tho unques tionable right of Canada to govern itself. That this sentiment will go so far as to lead to an open lupture between Canada and the mother country is rather doubtful, but some authorities in Canada do not hesitate to express the opinion that there is a tendency in some quarters to look to Wash ington with an eye to closer relations. AN INTERESTING STORY IS RECALLED BY the recent death in Baltimore of the widow of Henry Winter Davis. Henry Winter Davis was elected to congress from Maryland in 1854. He was a brilliant orator and it is said could have been nominated for vice president on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln in 1860, but that he de clined to permit tho use of his name. He died in 1SG5. Tho enmity existing between James G. Blaine and Roscoe Conkling grew out of circum stances relating to a reference made to Henry Winter Davis by Mr. Blaine. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 1866 Mr. Blaine, then a member from Maine, engaged in a tilt with Mr. Conkling. The proud gentleman from New York attempted to dismiss the' gentleman from Maine with a fine bit of sar casm, but in reply to Conkling, Blaine made so cutting a speech that he was never forgiven. Ad dressing himself to Conkling, Mr. Blaine said: "As to the gentleman's cruel sarcasm, I hope ho will not be too severe. Tho contempt of that large-minded gentleman fa no wilting, his haughty disdain, his grandiloquent swoll, his ma jestic, suporemineut, overpowering, turkey gob ler strut, havo been so crushing to mysolf and nil tho members qf this house that I lenow it was an act of tho greatest tomcrity for mo to venture upon a controversy with him." Roiorrlng then to tho statement of a newspapor that tho mantlo of Henry Winter Davis, who had died in 1865, had fallen on Mr. Conkling (which ho interpreted sarcastically), Mr. Blalno continued: "The gen t oman took it seriously, and it has given hla strut additional pomposity. Tho resemblanco is great; it is startling. Hyperion to a Satyr, ihersites to Hercules mud to marble, dunghill to diamond, a singed cat to a Bengal tiger, a whining puppy to a roaring Hon. Shado of tho mighty Davis, forgivo tho almost profanation of that jocose satire!" THE SCULPTURES WROUGHT BY NATURE in tho great canyons of tho wost aro de scribed by a writer in tho Chicago Chronicle in this fascinating way: "Famous tho world over are the grand canyons of tho Colorado and of tho Yellowstone. In both thero Is wealth of color- . ing. Tho ravines aro abruptly countersunk in a plateau and both aro mainly the work of water. But tho Colorado's canyon is moro than a thou sand times larger and as a score or two now buildings of ordinary size would not appreciably change tho genoral view of a great city, so hun dreds of Ycllowstonos might be eroded in tho sides of tho Colorado canyon without noticeably aug menting its size or the richness of its sculpture. But it Is not true that tho great Yosemito rocka would be thus lost or hidden. Nothing of their kind in tho world, so far as I know, rivals El Capitan and Tissiack, much less dwarfs or in any way belittles them. None of the sandstone or limestono precipices of tho canyon that I havo seen or heard of approaches In smooth, flawloso strength and grandeur the granite face of El Capitan or tho Tonaya sido of Cloud's Rest. Theso colossal cliffs, types of permanence, aro about 3,000 and 6,000 feet high; those of the canyon that are sheer are about half as high, and aro types of fleeting change, while glorious domed Tis siack, noblest of mountain buildings, far from be ing overshadowed or lost in this rosy, splry can yon company, would draw every eye, and, in sereno majesty "aboon them a'," sho would take her place castle, temple, palace or tower. Never theless, a noted writer, comparing tho Grand canyon in a general way with the glacial Yosc mite, says: 'And the Yosemito ah, tho lovely Yosemlte! Dumped down into tho wilderness of gorges and mountains, it would take a guide who knew of its existence a long time to find it' This is striking and shows up well above the level of ' commonplace description, but it is confusing and has the fatal fault of not being true." THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS Ap plied the X-ray machine to a novel uso. It is said that mint authorities havo missed a large number of gold coins and that It has been discovered that some of the mint employes havo the habit of swallowing tho small coins and in this way remove them from the mints. Ono official suggested tho use of tho X-ray machine and a Philadelphia firm has recently filled an or der for such a machine to be used by tho Japan ese government It is the intention of the Ja panese mint masters to occasionally apply tho X-ray to employes In the mint and the genlua who devised this plan believes that the knowledge that the X-ray machine is at hand and likely to be applied at any moment will persuade even tho dishonest employe of the Japanese mint that hon esty Is the best policy. TT'E CITY OF KELBURG, NEAR CRACOW, Poland, is said to be one of the most re markable in the world. The town is situated un derground and is excavated entirely in rock salt A writer in tho Chicago .Chronicle, describing this strange city, says: "The inhabitants, to the num ber of over 3,000, are of course workers in tho famous salt mines, and all tho streets and houses are of tho purest white imaginable. One of tho most famous features of the city is tho cathedral, carved in salt and lit with electric light, and when the late Czar Alexander visited it eleven years ago ho was so fascinated with the magnif icent effect of the liht upon the crystal walls that he presented the cathedral with a jeweled altar cross. Such a thing as infectious disease la unknown in Kelburg in fact, the majority of the Inhabitants dio of old ago." jJMiiaitflliW')rti1idM'iiil'tiIIWilliliiiMi 'ir-rr m'tnir-Vr -fr-'T'"" -'--1 "m" f-afaMa8'iMiMiimiiainif n m iiiiiitfinijrjirtiriji iffirt ihiiti irmfciiiKariWiii Turin rmr fTTfftJfiilMiMWi" rrliWf.il