The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, June 10, 1904, Page 6, Image 6
7a 1 6 The Commoner, 'L &i r. e m B$ ? Pj boon projected, he had put up a bond to assure his elevating the buildings without cracking the walls or plastering anywhere. Well, ho explained that ho did not have quito money enough to build a Bleeping car. Ho told me, with that assuring nod of tho enthusiastic luvontor, that this scheme was the greatest of all and that Inside of three weelts ho would bo wortli $1,000,000. Ho said I could have a half interest if I would advance the money, but I told him I did not care to go into tho deal. As a matter of fact, I was afraid it would encour hgo him to ask for moro money. Ho was living in one of my houses then and paid ?8 a month' rental. But ho was not daunted by my refusal. Ho said ho would go down to Marshall, 111., to the railroad shops and get the" master mechanic to build his car and advance what money was lack ing. He said that when tho job was ilnished ho was going up to Detroit and invite my uncle, James F. Joy, president of the Michigan Central railroad, and his board of directors down to Mar shall to rido up to Chicago in the first sleeping car in America. Sure enough he did just what he said he would do, but ho did not sell his invention to them. Ho wanted ?1, 000,000 for 45 per cent of the stock. But a week later he sold tho stock for a cool $1,000,000 to tho Pittsburg & Fort Wayne rail road. From that day George M. Pullman was a rich man." DR. LALOY, writing in La Nature, a Paris pub lication, says that a man does not hear his own volco as the rest of the world hears it. Ac cording to a translation made by the Literary Di gest, Dr. Laloy explains: "If a person records on a phonograph a few sentences pronounced by him self, together with others by his friends, and causes the machine to reproduce these at the end of a brief period, it generally happens that ho easily recognizes his friends voices, but not his own. On tho other hand, the friends recognize his voice perfectly. This singular fact proves that every one hears his own voice differently from others. As is remarked by Professor Exner, the difference must lie in the quality of tone. It must bo remembered that one hears his own voice not only through the air, as do his auditors, but across the solid parts situated between the organs of speech and those of hearing. The sound thus pro duced has a different timbre from that conducted to tho ear by air alone. Wo may show this as fol lows: Take the end of a wooden rod between the teeth and pronounce a vowel continuously. Lot tho 'other end be alternately taken between the teeth and released by another person, who at tho samo time stops his ears. The, latter will llnd that every time ho seizes the rod in his teeth, the sound be comes stronger than when it reaches his ear through air alone, and has a different quality. Tho experiment may be varied by applying a wooden rod to tho larynx of the person observed and touch ing it, from timo to time, to tho observer's own larynx. As in the preceding case, it will be found that its passage through a solid body augments the intensity of tho sound and' modifies its qual ity." THAT naturo provides an antidote for every poison and for every insectiferous pest as promptly and effectively as tho wisdom of one provorb is provided with antidotal wisdom of an opposite, is tho opinion of a writer for tho Cincin nati Commercial Tribune. The boll weevil is cited as an example. This writer says: "In far-off Guatemala tho agricultural department has found an ant that jiiBt fairly revels in fighting tho boll weevil and exterminating him wherever found. The direct discovery was made in Guatemalan fields of cotton by Botanist Cook, and to him Sec rotary Wilson has cabled asking him to lndicato how many men and how much money ho will need in corralling, a sufficient number of ants and ship ping them to the cotton fields of their Uncle Sam. So far so good. But it is sometimes well to look upon exterminators of other insects as being very often in themselves something of nuisances. Tho Btory of the farmer who was discovered sitting on tho fence bemoaning that the worms had eaten his tomato plants, his chickens had eaten the worms, his cats had oaten his chickens, and ho was only Waiting for some sort of animal to come along and eat his cats, is a story in point. Tho English sparrow was importod and turned looso for the purpose of exterminating tree worms, and not only succeeded, but has about exterminated tho song birds and is a nuisance in many other re spectsprincipally in tho way of roosting on tele phone wires. Tho Australians imported the mon goose for tho purpose of ridding the bush of snakes, and are now praying vociferously for rid dance from the mongoose, and the line might bo extended indefinitely. However, it is up to Undo Samuel, whose head is level and whose intentions are always just right. Let the ant come to her uncle. The ratives of Guatemala are stuck on tho little darling, and no well regulated Guatemalan cotton field is without its presence, for when sho comes in sight the boll weevil just takes to tho woods and admits the jib is up. At least, that is what the Guatemalans say, and they are all Georgo Washingtons down there." A MECHANICAL ENGINEER who resided in Chicago and who was recommended by tho city engineer as being "sober, industrious, and a first-class mechanical engineer," committed sui ciao reccntl3 . This man's name was A. Wermillen. He was '15 years old. The man had been out of emj.loyment for several weeks and had spent his time in a fruitless search for work. Wherever he applied, he was asked his age and he was told that while hie skill was not doubted, they were not hiring Lien who were more than 45 years of age. No one seems to be able to explain just why 45 is tho fixed age limit, and yet, investigation dis closes that men who have passed that age have serious difficulty in obtaining employment. A STUDY of the fungus growth of trees is con tributed by Professor Schrenk to the "Genie Civil" and the translation of Mr. Schrenk's state ments made for the Literary Digest is summarized as follows: "Most of the maladies of trees are to be attributed to fungi, which attack sometimes tho roots orthe trunk, and sometimes the branches of tho leaves. A wound in the trunk is an open door to insects or fungi, unless the exudation of gum cicatrizes the injury. Certain fungi may thus penetrate even to the heart of the tree; their fila ments grow there at the expense of the plant cells, and the whole is finally changed into a spongy substance. The older tho tree is the greater its liability to fungeous attack; hence trees should be felled before they are too far gone, for disease al ways involves weakening of the mechanical prop erties of the wood. The signs of disease are well known to foresters. Thus, for conifers, the pres ence of a quantity of resin or turpentine shows that the tree is infected. Mr. Schrenck has made a detailed study of the divers species of fungi that must be fought and of the means for combat ing them. The injection of antiseptic salts under pressure is said, for instance, to be at present the best-known means of preserving railway ties, which fungi are destroying by thousands yearly." A NUMBER of Chicago's leading citizens have agreed upon a plan whereby the July 4th ac cidents may be reduced to the minimum. The plan is explained in an. address to the people of Chi cago recently issued by a committee of prominent citizens, as follows: "By the authority of the city council of Chicago the undersigned aldermen have been appointed by the mayor to act on behalf of the municipality in an effort to provide proper amusement for the children of the city on July Fourth. In accordance with a resolution of the city council, the Chicago Amusement association has been incorporated with the mayor as honorary president. The association is without profit and its affairs are administered by 255 trustees. The purpose of the association is to act as steward for those citizens who may wish to contribute to ward a proper celebration of Independence Day and provide the entertainment if sufficient funds are received for that purpose. A tentative program includes the distribution of fireworks, the gather ing of the children in various public paries, where there may bo military drills during the day and fireworks displays at night. It is also the plan to have in attendance an efficient corps of sur geons, firemen and policemen, and by pronerlv caring fo tho children on the Fourth of July re duce the number of casualties and minimize the fire loss, which is about $750,000 annually in Chi cago, due wholly to the improper use of fireworks M70,OC,atlon has establihed headquarters at 237 Fifth avenue and has already issued an ap peal for funds. Tho amount necessary to insure the success of the proposed plan is estimated a? $50,000. The charter of the associatiofdXincUy provides that no indebtedness shall be Incurred until the money to cover it is in the hand .of the treasurer. About ?2,000 has been raised, and the balance must be in sight not later than June 10 if the plan is to be successfully consummated,'' ALTHOUGH many people have thought it was settled that Mr. Hitt of Illinois wonl.i , nominated for tho vice presidency 2 ? too rennhH can ticket, Jesse Overstreet of Indiana 2 nounced that Senator Fairbanks will acct too" VOLUME 4, NUMBER 21 honor. Mr. Ovorstreot says ho is practically rr tain of Senator Fairbanks' nomination and tMn that by the timo the convention meets, all o w candidates will havo. retired. ' other JJJ Cleveland and the Strike. Ex-President Cleveland recently delivered an address at Princeton, N J., in 'which he discussed the action of his administration in connection with the Chicago strike. The fact that he is explain ing and defending his administration would indi cate that he is either very sensitive to the criti cisms that havo been directed against him or that he is trying to put himself in shape for' an other race. It is fortunate for him (even if not intentional) that ho has waited until after Gov ernor Altgeld's death to male his defense, becausa if the governor were alive ho would be able to analyze, as no other person can, the president's ac tion in that strike. On another page will be found Governor Alt geld's telegraphic protest, together with Mr. Cleveland's reply and Governor: Altgeld's rejoinder. These state the position of tho two men, and it will be noticed that Mr. Cleveland's telegram does not give any logical or legal defense for his ac tion. The point involved is not so much a mat ter of law as a matter of fact. If Mr. Clevelaad had had a proper regard for tho dual form of our government, and a proper conception of the im portance of local self-government, he would not have called out the federal army to do what state troops were ready to do. The position taken by Mr. Cleveland is that the federal government is entirely independent of tho state government a'd need not ask whether the state government is wii1 ing or unwilling to enforce the law and maintain order. Those who believe in local self-government and who prefer to have tho local means of presorv. iug order exhausted before a call is made for out side troops, are not the enemies. of law and order. They are, on the contrary, the best friends of law, and order, for they believe that the people of each commrnity are in tho best position to know what ought to be done, and are most interested in what is done. To assume thatTthe president, a thousand miles away, is either more interested in the local community, or better informed of its needs than the people themselves, and better informed than those officials directly responsible to the people, is an assumption entirely antagonistic to the theory of popular government. Mr. Cleveland pretends a deep interest in the enforcement of the law and In the preservation of order, but as a matter of fact he was simply in sympathy with the corporations and was using the powers of the government to assist them in a contest with their employes. All his information at Chicago came from railroad sources, and his efforts were inspired by his bias in favor of the syndicates and large corporate interests. If he had been in sympathy with democratic principles and with the interests of the people at large, ho would have had no difficulty in co-operating with Governor Altgeld and in preserving order without raising tho question of militarism.- Governor Alt geld, as stated in his telegram, had already called out soldiers where they were asked for; he had even called them out where he afterward found that they were not needed. It may seem to some a matter of indifference whether a riot Is sup pressed by state troops or by federal troops, but no one who understands the menace of a highly centralized government can ignore the difference. The right to ignore thq stato authorities, even in the suppression of a riot, involves the right to de cide, without consultation with local authorities, when outside troops shall be sent in. And when this right Is firmly established and fully recog nized a president can use the army to obliterate lo cal self-government and install imperialism. Mr. Cleveland has attempted to hide behind his reverence for law and order, but history teaches that imperialism Ib not tho friend of law and or der; that local self-government is the best and only protection against tho disorders that accom pany the exercise of arbitrary power. This is an indissoluble union of indestructible states," noc a federal government whoso authority can be used indiscriminately it the caprice of an ambi tious chief executive. . With men like Grover Cleveland, the federal government is omnipotent when it is backing up the demands of capital, but impotent when caiieu upon to protect the masses. Mr. Cleveland founa the law strong enough to punish a representative of a labor union, but not 'strong enough to Punls" the trust magnates who are constantly violating the federal statutes. i . .? EuJ ""' 'V!' iipiil.wVK qO...J.n