The Commoner
'ZLL.
MARCH 4, 1904.
NT
TCURR
THE PANAMA TREATY WAS RATIFIED IN
the senate February 23 by a vojto of 66 to
14. All proposed amendments to the treaty were
voted down. Senator Bacon, who finally voted
for the treaty, offered an amendment providing
for a treaty with Colombia with a view to satis
fying any future demands that the country might
make on account of the secession of Panama.
This was rejected by a vote of 24 to 49.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DESCRIBES THE
vote in this way: "Fourteen democrat
voted for ratification and fourteen against. Two
democrats, Clark (Mont.) and Stone (Mo.), were
paired in favor of the treaty and three demo
crats, Overman, McLaurin; and Martin, were
paired against it, so in the total vote sixteen
democrats were for the treaty and seventeen,
against it. The democrats who were presont and
voted for the treaty were: Bacon, Berry, Clarke
of Arkansas, Clay, Cockrell, Foster of Louisiana,
Gibson, Latimer, McCreary, McEnery, Mallory,
Money, Simmons and Taliaferro. Senator Culber
son, who voted against the treaty, read from a
letter addressed to Dr. Albert Shaw by Mr. Roose
velt. This letter was dated October 10, 1903, and
Mr. Roosevelt said that ho saw no hone for any
negotiations with Colombia, and that he would
-be delighted should a revolution occur on the
isthmus."
SOMETHING OF A SENSATION OCCURRED
in the house of representatives February 22
when Representative Burton of Ohio, chairman of
the committee on rivers and harbors, attacked
the pending naval appropriation bill. Mr. Bur
ton declared that more battleships meant more
possibilities of war. He said it was not a political
question; that the republican party was not nec
essarily committed to a great navy; and that
congress was appropriating $178,000,000 for mili
tary purposes "all for war." The Washington
correspondent for the Chicago Record-Herald says
that Representative Dayton, replying to Mr. Bur
ton, "practically read him out of the republican
party by quoting all the republican national plat
form since 1884 which demanded substantial in
crease each year in the ..lifted .States navy.
WITHIN TWO DAYS AFTER SENATOR
Hanna died a dozen candidates were an
nounced for his place in, the senate, but soon it
was given out In an au'ttioritative way that Sen
ator Hanna had expressed (the desire that Charles
Dick, now a member of the lower house, and
also chairman of the Ohio republican state com
mittee, be chosen as his successor. By February
23, 88 out of the 117 republican members signed
an agreement pledging their support to Mr. Dick.
The Ohio legislature fixed March 1 and 2 as the
days for balloting for United States senator. On
the latter date Mr. Dick was formally elected.
NOAH RABY, SAID TO BE THE OLDEST
man in the world, is dying at the poor farm
near Plainfield, N. J. The Plainfield correspon
dent to the Chicago Tribune says that if Mr,
Raby lives until April he will celebrate his 132nd
birthday. For several years he has been blind,
jtaby-is a native of North Carolina where ho was
born in 1773.
THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH IS
treated in an interesting way by a writer
in the New York Sun. It is pointed out by this
writer that the south has a ten million bale
cotton crop, a twenty-five million ton coal out
put, a. 2,500,000 ton pig iron production, aside
from lumber, fruit, tobacco and other products.
Manufacturing enterprises have.. taken the place
of the old time plantations and have established
new channels of employment for the people. Af
ter describing . these conditions the Sun writer
says: "The results of all this are .manifest, not
alone in. the cities, but In almost every town, vil
lage and hamlet; New buildings appear every
where. Sewer systems, water works, electric
plants for lighting and for trolley lines are fast
becoming ag much of a necessity as thev ard in
the north and west, and the south has xh& money
to pay for -them:.." Municipal .bond Issues "have
reached a huge aggregate and have, in general,
found ready sale at good prices, often in the
immediate local market. Southern " ports have
done an enormously increased business, and
southern railways have been hard pressed to
handle their trafilc. Tho establishment of theso
now conditions upon a foundation of unquestion
able firmness opens a broad vista. Tho south
has not yet been an objective point for the homo
seeker, to whom it reaily offers so much that is
attractive, ft is to bo hoped that a day will soon
come when its many advantages for settlers will
command wider attention and draw to it a few
millions of those whose industry would con
tribute still further to southern development and
progress."
THE FIGHT AGAINST SENATOR SMOOT OF
Utah continues with unabated vgor. Tho
Washington correspondent for the New York
Times says that it is the intention of tho Smoot
opposition to summon as a witness tho head of
the Mormon church, and also each of tho twelve
apostles, including Senator Smoot himself. This
correspondent says that according to tho pro
gram when President Smith is called to tho
stand, as a first witness, an effort will be made
to proves by him that ho has not less than five
wives. The Times correspondent adds: "Sev
eral photographs have been secured in which
the,iead of the church has been pictured with a
wife, and the photographs, it is alleged, show,
that they are different women. One of them is
a photograph taken at St. Louis during a World's
Fair celebration, which shows Reed Smoot imme
diately behind the president of the church and
his wife. In the examination of the Mormon
apostle the effort will bo made to prove that no
less than seven of the twelve have cdntracted
polygamus marriages, and the contention is made
that It can be proved that since Utah has been
admitted as a state and the manifesto declaring
there would be no more plural marriages solemn
ized a new wife has been sealed to one of tho
twelve apostles."
JC IT
IT HAS GENERALLY BEEN UNDERSTOOD
that the retention by Senator Smoot of his
seat in the senate would depend on whether it
could be proved that the oath taken by a Mormon
apostle was such as to render void the oath ho
took as a senator. Referring to this point a
representative of the Smoot opposition, speaking
to the Washington correspondent for the New
York Times, says: "That phase of the question
will, of course, bo presented but it will not be
the one which will attract first attention. I think
I am prepared to state that the revelations in the
Smoot investigation will arouse the entire coun
try. We shall largely confine our inquiry into an
investigation of the' actual conditions that now
prevajl and have prevailed since Utah became a
state, and our first witnesses will be tho presi
dent of the Mormon church and his apostles. The
inquiry will begin about March 1, and our evi
dence is now complete."
IT IS CLAIMED BY THE 'REPRESENTATIVES
of Senator Smoot that they will be able to
show that no new wives haye been sealed to any
Mormon since the admission of the territory as a
state. It is said Senator Smoot "will testify that
he has only one wife and that the apostles who
have several wives will swear that they have
lived with only one wife during Tecent years, al
though they will admit that they have- separately
supported the others as dependents under the
solemn vow taken when the plurai wives were
sealed to them.
SIR JOHN SPRIGG WAS DEFEATED FOR
the premiership of Cape Color.y and subse
quently resigned. As a result Dr. Jameson was
chosen as Sprigg's successor. Jameson will be
best remembered because of the raid he led upon
tho South African republics. Prior to' the Boer
war the British ministry sought to wash Its
hands of all responsibilities for Jameson, but it
13 now regarded as significant by students of
events that Jameson has been chosen as Sprigg.'
successor. Sir John Sprigg was tor thirty years
a member of tho Cape parliament and for a nua
ber of years he had been prime- minister. He
undertook to occupy a conservative attitudo with
respect to the differences betweon tho British and
tho Boors, and as a result ho lost favor with both
elements and was finally defeated.
REFERRING TO THE NEW PREMIER
of Cape Colony tho New York Tribune says:
"He was Cecil Rhodes' lieutenant in tho old days,
the captain of tho Chartered Company's police
forco in Bechuanaland. Ho it was who id that
madman's raid across tho border to Johannes
burg, provoked suspicion and endless bad blood
between Boer and Briton, and by only a hair's
breadth missed sending himeolf and a dozen other
men of light and leading to tho scaffold. Railed
at, denounced, revllod, more than almost any
other man of his time, ho is now called to form a
government and to become prime minister or
Cape Colony! It Is strango, but not, after all,
unfitting; for there could bo no gi eater mistake
than to sot Dr. Jameson down as a mero ad
venturer, a Ireebooter, a filibuster. Those who
know tho man know him ns a dreamer, an Ideal
ist, an enthusiast, who may as indeed ho has
done make groat mistakes, but who is entirely
free from sordid self-seeking, and who even in
his maddest escapade, deserving of soverest cop
sure, was sincere and unselfish and believed him
self to bo serving a high and noble purpose. For
such a man, despite his former errors, there may
well be a future of usefulness and honor."
IT Jf
IN CONNECTION WITH REPORTS OF THE
Russia-Japanese war one hears much of
what is called "The Balkan Situation." In all of
these foreign affairs there is considerable that
perplexes the average American reader, and yet,
in order to be accurately informed as to the old
world situation ono should understand tho Baluan
affair. An interesting article on this point is
presented by a writer in the Chicago Tribune.
This writer explains: "Tho Balkans aro known
variously as the cockpit, the powder magazine,
and tho dirty risings of Europe. They seem once
again about to justify those epithets. Politically,
'the Balkans' comprise the four nominally inde
pendent kingdoms and princedoms of Servia, Bul
garia, Roumania, and Montenegro; the northern
part of European Turkey (Macedonia and Al
bania) and tho Austrian provinces of Bosula
and Herzegovina. Ethnically there is no Balkan
people. The inhabitants of these territories are
tho heterogeneous remnants of many races who
at different times have dwelt In or passed over
the southeastern corner of Europe. There arc
Slavs, Greeks, Gypsies, Serbs, Bulgars, Jews,
Turks, Albanians. These various races do not
occupy different, well defined sections of the Balk
ans, but aro scattered broadcast over the whole
Tegion. Next to a Bulgarian village will lie a
Greek one, on the other side a town of Mussel
mans, while tho Roumanian gypsy begs and
steals indiscriminately from all."
ACCORDING TO THIS AUTHORITY THE
Turks havo been misruling Macedonia most
shockingly. Tho misrule caused a rebellion of
the Bulgars In Macedonia, who constitute a large
and perhaps predominant element of tho popula
tion. The rebellion was almost openly fostered
by Bulgaria. The Turk would have liked to re
ply by making war on that kingdom, which is
nominally a vassal state, but tho European pow
.ers, and especially Russia, told him to do no
such thing. The powers were afraid to trust any
one of thOii number to quiet Macedonia, so the
task was intrusted to Russia and Austria jointly.
They were to reorganize the police inu the dis
turbed Turkish provinces and thus remove the
cause of the rebellion. This was last summer,
AT' THIS POINT THE SULTAN MANAGED
to prevent the Russian and Austrian com
missioners from accomplishing material results
and as a consequence reform in Macedonia, did
not make great progress, but the Tribune writer
says: "Now come the Japanese war and Russia's
preoccupation in Manchuria. The sultan becewea
defiant, practically announces he will chaitisfe
Bulgaria, for its insolence and treachery, ancl
mobilizes - hie troops o. its ' frontiers: Bulgaria,
responds !y a counter mobilization on the other
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