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NEWSPAPER dispatches report that Clay coun
ty, Ga., ownors of cotton havo'burned "a num
ber of bales In proof of their readiness to join in
the destruction of cotton in amount equal to tho
estimated surplus of tho crop. Referring to these
reports, Martin B. Calvin, of Augusta, writing to
tho Atlanta Constitution, says: "There i3 in such
a courso a suggestion of demoralization. Tho sit
uation which is today engaging the active atten
tion of tho civilized world is not new; it is not
without precedent. In 1894 tho crop was increased
over that of 1893, 2,351,431 bales, aggregating
9,901,261 bales. Tho price, wont from 8 to 5 cents.
Financial embarrassment was everywhere present.
But the cotton producers, extricated themselves
from that doloroua condition. How? They re
duced the acreage in 1895 by 3,603,142 acres, and
marketed a crop of 7,161,094. This was a reduc
tion of 2,740,157 bales. What was the result?
Prices became normal and remunerative. Tho
farmers are in much better condition in every
respedt than they were in 1894. Georgia farmers,
particularly, are in excellent condition. On the
floor of the convention at Shreveport I mentioned
the fact that there were 200 country banks in
Georgia and that $3 of every $4 in those banks be
longed to farmers. Te statement was received
with a round of applause I am not tendering ad
vice, but submitting indisputable facts for the en
couragement of the brethren. You can easily and
safely hold your cotton." -
THE "burned cotton" question Is attracting
wide-spread attention. Writing to the New
York World. L. J. Mclntyre of New York says:
"Can tho human mind conceive of a more atro
cious act than that of the Georgia cotton farmers
in deliberately burning up millions of bales of cot
ton so as to create a scarcity of that universal
necessity? Today there are hundreds of thous
ands of people in this prosperous (?) country
who are without sufficient clothing, and yet the
cotton raisers conspire to destroy that which a
bountiful nature has provided and for which so
many are suffering. Is not that act a restraint of
trade? Is it not a wilful and malicious destruc
tion of property and contrary to all law, human '
and Divine? And yet it is the logical consequence
of- our present anarchical system of free competi
tion on a par with the adulteration of food and
medicine and the restriction of the output of coal
when thousands are nearly perishing with cold.
If Southern farmers may thus destroy, their crops,
what i3 to prevent northern farmers from burning
the contents of their granaries or a manufacturer
from throwing the product of his mills into the
sea? Well may one ask, 'Does civilization civil
ize?'" THE preliminary figures on the production of
gold and silver in 1904 presented to the di
rector of the mint show large gains over the pre
ceding year, The Washington correspondent for
the Associated Press says: "Nearly every state of
important yield has increased its output. The
Colorado yield is about $2G,000,000 as' compared
with about $22,500000 in 1903 and its best record;
$28,800,000 in 1890. California has made the best
output for many years, due to a good supply of wa
ter and the work of dredges. Nevada and Utah
have made notable gains. South Dakota and Alaska
have beaten their previous best records. The Ap
palachian region shows improvement The Klon
dike shows a loss of about $2,000,000. The total
production of gold in the United States, $84,551,300;
silver, $53,603,00u. "
MAJOR GEORGE O. SQUIRES of the United"
States Signal Corps has, according to the San
Francisco correspondent for the New York World,
reached by his series of experiments, the origi
nal conclusion that living vegetable organisms
.may be used as a part of a circuit for electrical
oscillations, which in turn suggests the possibility
of using living tree3 as substitutes for masts and
- towers in the operation of wireless telegraphy. To
use a tree instead of a mast a balloon or a kite for
wireless telegraphy it if? only necessary, according
to Maj. Squires, to drive two ordinary iron nails
into the tree, one near its base tmd the other
where the main branches of the tree divert from
tho trunk, and to connect the receiving apparatus
between the two nails. With this simple arrange
ment the messages from a distant wireless sta
tion are read by means of a telephone.
REPRESENTATIVE BAKER, of New York has
introduced a resolution reciting that Traffic
Manager Biddle of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe, acording to his testimony before the inter-
The' Commoner
state commerce commission, permitted a secret
rebate to tho Colorado Fuel & Iron company; that
after that admission Morton said that Biddle was
exactly right. Baker wants to know, according
to the resolution, why Morton was not guilty in
allowing the -rebate and why steps should not bo
taken to prosecuto him for the act. Mr. Baker in
troduced another resolution asking tho president
. if it is in keeping with his message of Dec. 6 de
nouncing the rebate system and also conducive to
public interests that Mr. Morton be retained-in
the cabinet. ' . .
THE BAKER resolution is likely to attract con
siderable attention. It seems that the Atch
ison road, of which Mr. Biddle was traffic manager,
charged the Colorado Fuel and Iron company $1.10
per ton for carrying' coal from Trinidad, Colo.,
to Doming, New Mexico. Other shippers were
charged $2.25 per ton. Referring to this transac
tion, C. A Prouty of the interstate commerce
commission said: "In all my experience with rail
way operations I never saw such barefaced disre
gard of the law as the Santa Fe railroad and the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company have manifested
in this coal case. For yeara the railroad company
has received less than its published rates from the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, while its com
petitors have paid higher rates but not always
the published rates. The evidence in thi3 case
will be presented by the commission to the At
torney General."
REFERRING to this''expose the New York Times
says; "Mr. Paul Morton, now secretary of
the navy in President Roosevelt's cabinet, was for
six years after 1890 president of the Colorado Fuel
and Coal company, afterward reorganized as the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. He then be
came third vice president of the Atchison Com
pany, and was in general charge of the traffic of
the railroad. There appears to have been a close
financial or personal relation between the coal
company and the railroad company. When Sec
retary Morton was questioned concerning the
granting of this forbidden rebate to the coal com
pany of which he was formerly president by tho
railroad of which he was third vice president, he
3aid: 'What Mr. Biddle did was exactly right,
in my judgment, and if I had been in his place I
should have done the same thing. I had nothing
to do personally with the matter. "
THE TIMES maintains that there must become
mistake about Mr. Morton's defense and jus
tilication of the unlawful secret rate. He declares
that it is incredible that a cabinet member, -would
knowingly, intentionally and publicly comMehd
an act in violation of law. While expressing the
hope that Mr. Morton will be able to set the -matter
right by some further statement the Times adds:
"Mr. Morton was called into Mr, Roosevelt's cab
inet in order that the president might have at
hand a man of experience in railroad traffic, a
subject which greatly interests him. It is under
stood that he has asked Secretary Morton to give
a good deal of attention to this branch of adminis
trative policy, in order, that he may be ready to
give advice when uthe President requires it. "6f;
course a defender of illicit secret rebates wouldr
lack the. moral qualification demanded of those
who give counsel ,to the, president of the United
States."
G" EORGE H. WILLIAMS, mayor of Portland,
Ore., was indicted Jan. 4 by a Portland grand
jury on the charge of malfeasance in office. " It is
charged that Mayor Williams refused to enforce
the 3tatutes regulating gambling. ir. Williams
'has a national reputation. At one time he was
chief justice of Oregon territory, another time ho
represented Oregon in the United" States senate
and he served as a' rney general "during the
second term of President Grant. ' -
THEODORE THOMAS, tho famous orchestra
leader, died of pneumonia at Chicago Ho
was 69 years of age. Mr. Thomas was born at
Esens, Germany, Oct. 11, 1835. He was educated
in music by his father and other New York mu
sicians. He made his debut as a violinist in Gr
many at the . ge of 10. Ho came to the United
States in 1845, and playe'd for some years as a
solo violinist in New York. After making a two"
years' tour of the south he returned to New York
and l played in concert and opera. He inaugurated
orchestral concerts in 1804 and founded the Thomas
''; 'VOLUME 4. NUMBER 53
- - -
. orchestra in 18G7 and. maintained it until i
.In 1891 he moved to Chic, "go and had since bc
conductor of the ouicago orchestra. Ho was mn
' ?icaonirect0r of the World'3 Columbian exposition
in 1893.
f
A' FTER his' brave fight General Stoessel will bo
required to undergo a court martial. The
St. Petersburg correspondent for the Associated
Press, under date of Jan. 5, says: "Few instances
of the whole war have aroused more bitter criti
cism :than tho blunt announcement, officially is
sued by the general staff, that General Stoessel
, will have to' come home and stand court martial
for surrendering the fortress of Port Arthur. While
this is an incident regulation and quite accord
ing to law it is bitterly resented on all 3ides that
t such an announcement should have been gratui
tously made in the same bulletin containing Gen
eral StdeSseFs appeal to the emperor for "lenient
judgment on a garrison reduced to shadows who
have dono all that was possible for human beings
to uphold the honor of Russia in the face of her
enemies.' Stree't sales 6f the Russ liave been sus
pended by official order, owing to the tone of its
editorial articles since the fall of Port Arthur.
The Narshadney has received, first warning Tho
Novoe. Vremya, despite the example made by tho
suspension of the Russ yesterday, says: 'By all
mean3, let us have a court martial and make it, if
possible, severe The cruel judge will, perhaps,
deal leniently with those who have given their
blood and lives for their counry. Perhaps, also, tho
court will determine why a fortress known to ho
threatened with blockade is not supplied with nec
essary food and munitions to enable it to hold out.
Perhaps such a court will bring 'to light the creep
ing, underground enemies . of. Russia who are in
finitely more dangerous to the nation than tho
, foe who fights in the open.' "
SOME interesting- statistics .concerning the de
fense of Port Arthur are presented by the
Cnefu correspondent for the Cincinnati Enquirer.
This correspondent says: "Originally the army
numbered 35,000. Eleven thousand have been
" . killed; 16,000 are wounded or sick, and 8,000 re
mained in the forts, of which, however, 2,000 were
unable to light. . It was learned that wjien Gen
eral "Stoessel wrote to General Nogi regarding tho
surrender of the fortress, he said: 'I have 8,000
men in the forts, and- 6,0d0 of these are able to
fight. If you do not accept my proposal these
men will die fighting, but it will cost you three
times, their number to Mil them.' During the
siege, 2G.5 per cent of the garrison were put out
of action. This remarkable fact was duo to
wounded men returning to the. front. Cases have
been recorded where men have gone to hospitals
four times, returning convalescent to the forts.
. The number of officers killed was proportionately
greater than in any battle known in history. This
was due to the .frequent Jegtharic condition of tho
men, who, without food and without sleep, moved
only when ordered, by their officers.' Tho Rus
sians estimate that the taking of the fortress has
cost Japan $100,000,000."
t
AFTER being Unable to speak for fifteen years,
Miss Emma Rogers of Indianapolis, sud
S denly recovered her voice Dec. 27. The Indianap
olis correspondent for the Chicago Record-Herald
tells the story in this way:
"Miss Rogers had an r.ttack of the grip and
became very nervous, with the. result that she lost
her voice. She learned the. deaf-mute alphabet and
for years communicated with- members of tno
family in that way.
"The recovery of speech, according to the fam
ily, was the result of nervous shock. For several
months a young man has been boarding at her
father's house, becoming attached co the young
woman.. Yesterday .another man, who had had
trouble with the lover and had made threats
against him, applied to Mr. Rogers for board. Mr.
" Rogera was inclined to take him as a boarder,
but Miss Emma heard the' conversation and pro
tested violently by gestures and use of the sign
language against his admission.
"The parent grew more determined, and, it is
sald.v spoke disparingly of the daughter's lover.
r This excited her greatly, find she suddenly began
,- to protest with her -voice. She was so much af
fected by the Tecoyery ofg.peech that she becamo
ill, and a physician had to be called. An aunt or.
the young lady lostiTer voice several years ago,
. and six. months later recovered it as suddenly as
it had been lost." .'
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