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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1904)
i"r- "wjW?J!t,l .v'".,.vr ". . ,.;' ( The Commdltef. " 'VOLUME 4, NUMBER 22 .&W ' It f ummm K I . a ' rl Yery,radlus at mo. Radius, a different kind of pooplo. . The radius of tho holo was fifteen feet deep1. F OUR men who are candidates for tho posi tion of assistant engineer in the Chicago llro department wore weighed and found to bo too light for their height to comply with tho civil sorvico requirements. They wero givon to Juno 3 to acqulro tho required weight. Tho Chicago Chronicle points out how all but one of them failod to obtain results: Weight Req. wt. Actual Gain Gain May 27. Juno 3. wt. Juno 3. req. made. Unterberg ....137 140 145- 2 7 Walsh 135 140 - 137 5 2 Maxwell 138 142 138 4 0 Cannon 135 147 140 12 4 Tho Chronicle says: "Tho interest in the con test is confined to Unterberg and Walsh becauso ono succeeded and tho other failed, because their methods arc known and becauso these methods are diametrically opposite to each other, Unter borg relying on reposo and Walsh on gymnastic oxorciso. As to Walsh, though it sounds like a joke ho actually went into training under a former prizo lighter prize lighters having no use for training oxcept to reduce flesh who scorns to heavy instead of too light. Dumbbells and cold water wero his prescription." -, , IF THIS was not tho cause of Walsh's failure, tho Chronicle thinks there is only one other way of explaining It and that Is that it was after stuffing himself In every conceivable way that Walsh weighed only 125 pounds on May 7. Tho Chronicle says: "Of course, if that was so, Walsh would not do any more than stuff himself for tho weighing on Juno 3. If this is not tho ex planation of his failure ho is not lit for an .en gineer anyway. A man who could not engineer a little mattor like Increasing his weight live pounds in a week could not engineer anything. Tho fav orito Is Unterberg, who, being required to increase his weight two and one-half pounds, increased it seven and one-half, and boasted that he could just as woll as not have increased it five pounds more. This champion of dietetics simply gorged himself with rich milk, preserved a masterly Inactivity and took particular pains not to worry himself. In doing so ho furnished another illustration of tho well-known fact that nothing interferes with tho assimilation of food and drink like certain states of mind, among which are anger, jealousy and anxiety." ON E result of this test, according to tho Chronicle, Is tho rule requiring men of tho flro and police department to look, ridiculous. Tho Chronicle says: "It is possible that after all Maxwell, who was four and one-half pounds short and could not pick up a pound, might bo a better engineer than Unterberg, who picked up seven and one-half pounds. On the other hand, it might bo just asNrIdiculous to hav$ no rule about it. The civil sorvico commission is disgusted with this weighing incident and threatens to put a stop in the future to tho stuffing process, but how it will . do so Is not clear to anyone but itself." WHEN Miss Alice Roosovelt visited the St. Louis fair recently she was tho observed of all observers. Enormous crowds of people were eager to see the president's daughter and a mem ber of the German commission to the exposition was prompted to say that ho was amazed that so much ado should bo made over a young woman who, ho said, received more popular attention and adulation than a princess would receive in Ger many or in any other monarchical country. Com menting upon this statement, tho St. Louis Post Dispatch says: "The Alice Roosevelt episode is merely tho culmination of a series of similar vul garities brought about by tho presence In St Louis of princes and representatives of the European and Oriental nobility. Men and women have fought and scrambled to get a glimpse of foreign ndtables without regard for their feelings or our own obligations of courtesy." THE labor disturbances in Colorado culmi nated Juno 6 by a terrible explosion at Crip ple Creole in which 13 men wero killed and a num ber of othors were injured. All the killed and injured men were non-union minors employed on the night shift of tho Flndley mine. The Crlpplo Creek correspondent for tho Associated press says: "Tho men had quit work at 2 a. m. and wore waiting to board a suburban train on the Florence & f ripple Creek railroad and return to their homes in Cripple Creek and Victor. Just after tho engineer of tho approaching train wow his whistle, as a signal to tho miners, according to custom, a terrible explosion occurred under neath tho station platform on and near which twenty-six men wero gathered. The platform was blown into splinters, tho station was wrecked and a nolo twenty feet in circumference and about as many feet in depth was torn in the ground. Frag ments of bodies wero hurled through space for several hundred feet and later wero picked up still quivering." THE same correspondent, referring to this terrible catastrophe, says: "Some of the bodies dropped into tho pit made by the explosion, but the head, hands, ears, legs, arms and trunks were strewn about on all sides. Pieces of flesh were found on buildings 600 feet away. The force of tho explosion was felt throughout the camp and tho crash awakened everybody. The ap proaching train was stopped and the train crew were the first men to .reach the scene of the dis aster. Thoy were joined in a few minutes by hun dreds of persons, and relief work was being done at once. A special train was sent from Cripple Creek, carrying physicians, nurses, officers and others, but when it reached Independence the in jured had already been placed on board the sub urban train and removed to the hospitals in Vic tor. The mangled bodies of the dead, pieced to gether as well as possiole, wero removed to the coroner's ofllce." AS A result of this trouble, Sheriff Henry M. Robertson resigned his position and Edward . Bell was selected by the county commissioners. Bell was a member of the .citizens' alliance. Tho military authorities are in control. At Victor, Colo., rioting broke out on tho evening of June 6, while a meeting was being held to discuss the killing of the non-union men in the explosion. In one riot forty shots were ilred, two men wero killed and several persons injured. It is an nounced that the Western Federation of Miners will investigate the explosion. THE citizens' committee of Telluride, Colo., has notified a number of labor leaders to leave the town. These labor leaders retained law yers and announce that they do not Intend to leave their homes. A telegram was sent to Presi dent Roosevelt, which telegram was as follows: "Have been ordered to leave our homes by June 7, but do not intend to go. We, as citizens of the United States, demand your protection under the constitutional rights. The civil courts would pro tect us, but they are powerless. The governor will not protect us." ON T H E same day that the rioting at Victor and the dynamiting at Cripple Creek took place, the supreme court of Colorado passed upon the application for a writ of habeas corpus made by C. H. Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners. It will be remembered that Moyer is hold a military prisoner at Telluride. The governor declared martial law in San Miguel county, imprisoning Moyer and other union men on the ground that they had Incited insurrection and rebellion, suspended the habeas corpus and refused to recognize tho authority of tho local courts. it IN T H E opinion delivered by the Colorado su preme court,, Chief Justice Gabbert and As sociate Justice Campbell, concurred. Associate Justice Steele dissented-. An Associated press re port says: "Tho opinion of the court was given by Chief Justice Gabbert. Its main points are as follows: Tho governor has solo power .to deter mine when a state of Insurrection exists in anv county in the state. The courts have no power to interfere with his exercise of this prerogative The governor has the right to use the militia force' of tho state to suppress insurrection. Ho also has the power to order tho imprisonment and the kill ing of insurrectionists, if in his opinion that ex tremity is necessary. Ho can detain militarv in force until ho decides the insurrection Is quelled The courts of tho state have no right to lnterfpr with the military and their handling of prisoners They have no power to attempt to discharge Xl tary prisoners. Tho contention of the annpiw that the military prisoners should bo turned S to the civil authorities is characterized by tho court as absurd. The question which the court was asked to decide was of such vast fmiSJt ance to the state that seven promiS liX were asked as advisory counsel to submit opinion Charles Hughes, one of these, It is understood did not send in any opinion. Tho other six snlit evenly. Those who sustained the position of tho governor wore: Attorneys L. M. Goddard Piatt Rogers and A. C. Field. Former Governor Chas &. Thomas, Leroy Stevlck and Harvey Riddle dis sented from the opinion of the court." BY ANOTHER five ip four decision, tho United States suprem'e. court returned an import ant opinion Juno 1. The case before the court was a libel suit in which the editors of a Manila paper had been convicted after being refused a ti ial by jury. Justice Day delivered the opinion of tho majority. He said that the government of tho Philippines r-ad been expressly left by the treaty of Paris in the hands of congress and that con gress, becaucr of the incapacity of the people of the islands, had . purp6sely withheld tjie right of trial by jury. The court further confirmed tho cbriyiction of the editors in the Manila court and held that the refusal of a jury trial was correct and that they were properly convicted."1 TH E, justices dissenting were Harlan, Peckham, ' Brewer, and Fuller. In his dissenting opin io Justice Harlan declared that the decision of the majority amounted to an amendment of tho constitution. He considered that a most danger ous (step. Justice Harlan said that tho right of a trial by jury was a fundamental one and neces sarily extends to any place owned by the United States, and that gives a privilege which could not be taken away by any power of congress. ANOTHER important opinion delivered by the supreme court and by a five to four vote was the case of Keppner against the United States. Keppner was tried before a lower court in Manila on the charge of embezzlement He was acquitted. The government took ah appeal to the supremo court of the islands and in that court Keppner was convicted. Keppner then appealed the case to the United States supreme court on the ground that by the process of appeal taken by the government he was put twice in jeopardy, contrary to the con stitution. The court held that Keppner was put twice in jeopardy and' overruled the opinion of the supreme court of the Philippines. Justices Brown, McKenna and Day dissented. A CURIOUS vessel has been recently built in Denmark. Referring to this vessel, the Lite rary Digest says: "It can travel on land as well as on water, crossing a neck of land on a railway track and then descending again into the waves. This curious boat, the Swan, runs between Lynghy and Foerum. Says tho Revue Scientllique:' 'Lynghy is a town in the neighborhood of the four, lakes of Lynghy, Bagswaerd, Fure and Foerum. Only, the first and third of these are connected; the others are separated by a strip of land 300 metres (about 1,000 feet) wide, which is crossed by the Swan. For this purpose lines of piling extend into the water, far apart at first, but as they near the shore approaching until they will just admit the boat between them. The 'boat is thus guided until it strikes the line of rails on which it crosses tho isthmus. Below the water line the boat has two pairs of wheels. As socn as these touch tho rails a lever stops the shaft that drives the screw and starts another that drives these wheels. After crossing the land an Inverse manipulation of tho lever stops the wheels and the propeller begins to turn again. The car has turned back into a boat." REPUBLICAN leaders are considerably perplexed because of the situation in Wis consin. It will be remembered that there was a bolt in the' republican convention and while thero will bo but ono republican electoral ticket in the state there will be two state tickets. The situa tion is described by a correspondent for the New York Evening Post as follows: "Both conven tions at Madison nominated the same electoral ticket, which was tho one first selected by the La Follette people. It is clear that there will be two republican tickets in the field, which ever one the courts may decide to be "regular." Under a law of that stjate, a man who receives a nomination from two parties elects tho one with which no shall run, and already Jthe two electors-at-largo and a majority of the other electors, have an nounced their decision to run on the La Foiietw ticket. It wilL thus require very careful individ ual marking of the ballots on election day to giy Roosevelt the benefit of the full party strength i" the state." - - .-. . 4 4 -i .11 n v ,' j i t HBC3E3EiJ i&flHKflt VI tL.