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The Commoner
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VOLUME 3, NUMBER Zfc
rcuRReisiT
Tjy i 'V "
K.
AN INTERESTING ADVERTISEMENT Ap
peared recently in a Pretoria newspaper, and
attention is directed to it by the London corre
spondent for the New York Herald: "To let n
ex-President Krugcr's late residence, a few nicely
furnished bed rooms with board," etc
A DEADER OF THE COMhOiNER, LIVING AT
A Midland Park, N. J., directs attention to an
amclo originally printed la the Chicago Chronicle
and reproduced in The Commoner of June 1J.
This reader says there arc several mistakes in
this article. It was said that the Swiss are
alone In having no language of their own. T h s
Commoner reader begs leave to say that the Bel
gians, too, have no language they can call their
own; there does not exist a Swiss tongue, neither
a Belgian tongue. This reader says that another
mistake is to be found in the statement that three
fourths of the Swiss speak German. He says that
the proportion is not so large as that; that French
i spoken in one part of Bern:; also In one. part
of Falais; also in one part of Fribourg, as well as
in other sections, covering in all two-fifths of the
population, leaving three-fifths, rather than thre
fourths, that speak German. This writer says
that as to Italian, it is only and exclusively
spoken in the Canton of Tessln, and that is of no
importance whatever. It was also said that four
other languages, besides German, are spoken in
Switzerland. The New Jersey reader says that
"this is a collossal error; in all, three languages
are spoken in Switzerland, to-wit; German,
French, and a little Italian in one Canton."
AN IMPORTANT RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT
occurred recently in the union effected at
Httsburg between the Congregationalists, num
bering 605,000, the United Bretnren, 250,000, and
the Methodist Protestants, 200,000. A writer in
the Chicago Tribune, describing this union, says:
"It has been said that the union of the Congre
gationalists, the United Brethren, and the Meth
odist Protestants is federal richer than organic
'mis is true. The general council of the three
denominations will not have legislative powers.
It is probable, however, that the United Brethren
and the Methodist Protestants, discovering a
strong common resemblance, will go on to tran
sqend the present federal union and t" reach a
real union of discipline and of government The
new church union will then consist of only two
elements, the Congregationalists on the one hand
and the United Brethren plus the Methodist Pro
testants on the other. The total membership of
the union will bo 1,100,000. This is no largo per
centage of the total population of the world, but
"a small fact may convey a big hint."
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, WHOSE SURNAME
is Signet, arrived July 3 at the home of
former Chief of Police Wm. H. Signet, at MoKees
port, Pa. According to the McKeesport correspon
dent for the Chicago Tribune, the president's
namesake is the twentieth child born to Mr.
and Mrs. Signet, and to mark the proud event the
boy will have the given name of Theodore Roose
velt. Mr. Signet has notified the president of his
new namesake. The father is a veteran of the
civil war and is 62 years old.
AN INTERESTING QUESTION, INVOLVING
the authority of the army contract surgeons,
has been disposed of by the war department. Re
ferring to this case, the Washington correspondent
for the Chicago Tribune says: "As a result Pri
vate Herbert P. Mark of the hospital corps, who
was convicted in the Philippines of disobeying
tho orders of Contract Surgeon James (J Rut
ledge and sentenced to three years' imprisonment,
will probably be released from confinement Mark
has already served nearly a year of his sentence,
having been tried and sentenced on August 29,
1902, at Santa Cruz, in Cavite province, island of
Luzon. Mark got into trouble with tho contract
surgeon at the Santa Cruz garrison, refused to obey
tho doctor's orders, and is said to have been
profane in telling tho doctor what he thought of
Kim. ior tuis no was tried by a general court
martial and convicted of insubordination .and dis
obedience of orders. According tn Hio nfflnfnia nf
,i the war department this conviction was not war
ranted by law, as a contract surgeon is not an
oihcer of the army, but only a civilian doctor
employed by the government.""
THAT THE MOMENT IS APPROACHING
when some power or combination of powers
must call a halt to Russian aggression, is the
statement made by the London correspondent for
the New York Sun in a dispatch under date of
July 4. In this dispatch, the Sun correspondent
says: "The conviction is rapidly growing that
nothing but the rtern certainty of war will check
the policy of Muscovite aggrandizement. In other
words, the Russian 'bluff' must be called. The
question most aiscussed the last few days is
whether the needlessly provocative course pur
sued by Russian diplomacy against the United
States, Great Britain, and Japan is a bluff or a
veiled challenge, which domestically has distracted
the administration. Commentator- confess them
selves much puzzled. They cannot conceive the
motive of shrewd diplomatists and the Russians
always have been the past masters in this line
in deliberately and unnecessarily forcing such a
triumvirate as America, Great Britain, and Japan
into a combination against them."
1
T JC
Trm RTPANrrrc stopv m? a nnv wrm rTTiyn
from excessive weeping, is told by the New
ork correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. John
Crdwley, 16 years old, whose home was at Brook
lyn, was strong and robust On the evening of
Wednesday, July 1, young Crowley learned of the
death of his uncle, Charles Crowley, who was
killed while attempting to jump from a train to
the platform. The lad cried without ceasing for
nearly three days. The Tribune correspondent
says: "From the time John Crowley was a baby
his uncle, who 'was a bachelor, had shown him
great affection. As the boy grew older the bond
between the two became stronger and after tha
boy's father died, four years ago, the uncle and his
nephew became inseparable. Immediately upon
learning of his uncle's death John was seized with
a fit of hysterical weeping and the efforts of his
mother, sisters, and brothers to soothe hLn were
in vdin. All night long and all day Thursday he
continued to moan and sob. Ho would not eat or
sleep and Thursday night he waa so weak he could
barely totter. Yesterday he attended his uncle's
funeral and while riding to the cemetery had an
other attack of convulsive soobing, finally becom
ing so violent that he had to be carried to his
carriage. He continued to weep through the
night until finally he was seized with another
burst of convulsive grief and died in his mother's
arms."
LONDONERS ARE JUST NOW ENGAGED IN
a discussion of that dread disease, appendi
citis. S. Kellett Smith, writing to the Lancet,
suggested that the increase in appendicitis might
possibly be due to the greater amount of refrig
erator meats eaten nowadays. Mr. Smith pointed
out that the indigestion of chilled or frozen food,
k being especially liable to rapid decomposition,
might result in a more septic sate oZ the intes
tines than prevailed before the days of cold
storage, and that this greater septicity might, in
its turn, account for the great virulence of those
irritations to which the appendix has always been
prone. The Lancet thinks this theory a plausible
one, but would like to know whether it can bo
shown that the intestine is in a more septic state
now than it was when frozen or chilled comesti
bles were not so largely in use.
tr if
THAT THE TRADE BETWEEN CANADA
and the United States as greatly increased
recently, is shown by an official bulletin issued at
Ottawa, Ont, July 2. In this bulletin it 1b shown
that for ten months of the present fiscal year, in
spite of the British preference, which it was ex
pected would do so much to reduce United States
imports under the headings referred to, Canada's
purchases of metajs and metallic manufactures
from the United States show an increase in two
years from $21,000,000 to .$27,000,000. Tho figures
for the last ten months are $27,002,826, and for
the corresponding period of lt , $21,103,866. For
tho same period last year tho total was $22,726
94L Of tho imports for tho present year be
tween 45 and 50 per cent were of tho classes that
come free of duty.
f? T
IN THE SAME BULLETIN, IT IS SHOWN THAT
Imports of British metals and metallic man
ufactures, though small in tho aggregate compared
with those from the United States, Increased at a
faster ratio in the same period. The total from
Great Britain for the ten months of the present
year was under $9,00v,000, compared with a trifle.
over $4,000,000 in the same period of 1901 and over
$6,000,000 for the same period of last year. Of the
British imports, however, the goods brought in
free 'of duty scarcely averaged over 30 per cent
of the whole.
WASHINGTON CITY IS ALREADY NEW
Jersey's rival, and if reliance is to be placed
in the prediction made by the New York World's
Washington correspondent, the capital City wih,
within five years, become the center of the trust
incorporating industry. This correspondent points
out that the laws of New Jer y, liberal thougn
they have always been regard'"3, are so much more
strict than those which congress aas enacted for
the purpose of enabling capitalists to incoiporate
themselves to do business as stock companies, thar.
New Jersey will soon lose prestige. It is pointed
out by this correspondent that the last congress
liberalized the corporation law for the purpose of
inviting the formation of companies to establish
factories in the District of Columbia. So far as
ascertainable, it had no idea of establishing a
corporation factory there. But that is what it has
done. A corporation has been formed, the sole
business of which is to incorporate companies that
find the laws of states too str: t to suit tneir no
tions as to stockholders' liability and things of
that kind. The company's fee . : only $50, and for
that sum it will look after the interests of a com
pany for a whole year. When the company is or
ganized it is necessary to have three residents of
the District of Columbia. It dees not require
them to remain on the board of directors.
ACCORDING TO THIS AUTHORITY, THE
practice is for the three local men to re
sign as soon as the promoters of the scheme find
the men they want for directors. Then they are
at liberty to do anything with tho corporation
their fancy or interest may d '.ate. The only re
striction on them i3 that they must not issue stock
in excess of the amount their charter authorizes
them to put out. They may issue bonds in as
great quantities as they can pay the printer for.
There are no fees to be paid graded according to
the amount of stock as there are in New Jersey
and in many of the other states. There is no sucii
thing as liability of stockholders except where
there is fraud and then they are liable for only tho
debts of the concern. There is no restriction on
the character of the business that may be done
by the company chartered under authority of con
gress in the District of Columbia. One that pro
fessed to teach men how t become skilled bur
glars might have trouble to get a certificate, but
if it did it would not be on account of what tho
act says, but because the officers Irre might think
the courts would hold sue a company to bo
against public policy. None of the capital stock
need be paid in before the company begins busi
ness, and only 10 per cent need be in the treasury
when the concern starts on its career. The othr
90 per cent need never be paid in. Nothing in the
way of an annual report or a list of the holders of
the stock is required. After the small fee required
for the issuance of the certificate of incorporation
has been paid, tl t District of Columbia is through
with its creature. It may rob the unsuspecting
or the worldly wise until there is not a dollar
left in the pockets of those who have trusted
the misleading legend: "Incorporated under tho
laws of the United. States in the Districtof Co
lumbia." IT SEEMS THAT SENATOlt HANNA ANTICI
pates a strenuous time during the coming
Ohio campaign. The Cleveland correspondent for
tho Chicago Record-Herald says: "For a long
time thei business affairs of Senator Hanna have
been a source of worry to him. It has been his
ambition to devote all of his time to public af
fairs, and even though hia business enterprises