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6
The Commoner.
VOLUME 6, NUMBER 14
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topics H
IV
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A STRANGE oxaraplo of raco merit reappear
ing la cited by tlio St. Louis Post Dispatch.
That newspaper says: 'It is well known that Field
Marshal Oyaina is the descendant of an Irish king
named O'Yama, who left the green Isle several
hundred years ago. Oku is a member of the fa
mous O'Keough family. Those are facts familiar
to antiquarians. But that Kuropatkin was any
thing but a Russian will be news even to students
of tho origin of things. In 1691 Sir Dermott Carew
loft Ireland and went to France. His son Patrick
Carew, became a general in the French army. His
eon Patrick Carew went into tho Austrian serv
ice, distinguished himself in battle with the Turks
and was granted largo landed estates In Hungary
by tho grateful emperor. This Carew had a son,
also named Patrick, who entered the Russian serv
ice. In Russia the surnamo is placed before tho
Christian namo. lie was known as Carew Patrick,
which readily yielded to phonetic requirements
and becamo Kuropatkin. The present general is
eighth or ninth in descent from Sir Dermott Ca
rew, 1691. It is a strange example of raco merit
reappearing. And rcmombor 'that, sinco tho Irish
are tho ten lost tribes, it follows that tho heroes
of the war in tho east, victors and vanquished,
aro of tho blood of Abraham, Isaac and "Jacob.
Truth is, indod, stranger than iletion. Happy is
ho to whom It comes in forms of pleasing sur
prise." TUB BAPTIST church manual contains the fol
lowing: "The moral tone of tho entire mem
bership may bo lowered by tho bad example. of one
momber. No opportunity, should bo afforded to
one guilty of misdemeanors to shield himsolf be
hind some gravqr, 4offondor who remajnsnin tho
church unrobuked.. , A further aim (of, church dis
cipline) Is to save, others In the church who may
1)0 temptod into sin or qbrrupted by the -evil exam
ple of ono already guilty .V
REFERRING to these provisions, the Now York
correspondent for the Denver News says
that certain oxponcnts of tho Baptist doctrine de
clare that tho heads of tho Fifth Avenue church
r.T?1?! ,ToIln D' Rckofollor helongs will not be
lalthful to tho church law if they do not institute
proceedings against their wealthy associate. These
persons furthor declare that it is the Imperative
duty of Mr. Rockefeller, according to tho law of
the Baptist church to domand tin investigation.
The News correspondent adds: "Those persons
who have made a study of church law, and have
followed tho Rockefeller case from the beginning
of the $100,000 gift controversy, are wondering
whether the members of tho Fifth avenue congre
gation will meet tho issuo boldly or dodge it. No
ono who knows Mr. Rockefeller and his dislike
for notoriety believes ho will court an investiga
t on. It Is more to his liking to be silent and let
time heal his troubles."
CA. PROUTY of tho interstate commerce
commission delivered an address in Chi
cago on the evening of April 12. Mr. Prouty said
that there had been groat discrimination prac--J?Sa
y.Ul? railroatls in making rates to shippers,
and that the greater part of this discrimination
had been effected by tho rebate system. Some
progress had been mado, ho declared, toward tho
eradication of the evil, but there must be an
amendment to the present law; and it mustin
- elude the private car lines, the terminal railroads
and tho olovators. He declared that six railroad
systems had control of 55 per cent of the total
mileage and two-thirds of tho gross receipts from
traffic throughout the country and that they were
practically a monopoly. A railroad monopoly, he
said, was the most injurious matter of its kind
contend0 wCith?enS f C0Untry C0Uld have to
ON THE SAME OCCASION, Georgo R. Peck
& qt ClEf1 fop, thG ChlcaS. Milwaukee
L? aV,! raIlr,oad' snoke on the subject of re
bates or discriminations. Mr. Peck declared that
rebates wore no longer given. He ad (led- -Bear
iA5md5 eiVlng Preference to ono shipper o?er
ftrioUier is not illegal at'eommon law. ComnetiHon
Is tho one thing favored, and comnMHnP on
. Vfemal advantages $ m$?ZSI
Is' In preferences. Tho anonmlv nf n, . ,n
nation that l6 CSalooTS
prohibits tho steps necessary to procure It. If
railways corapoto they are seized by tho interstate
commerco law if they do not compete they fall
Into the hands of tho anti-trust law; The reductio
ad absurdum is; that therefore th,e interstate com
merce commission should make rates."
MR. PECK brought forward tho constitutional
objections to government control as antici
pated in newspaper dispatches several weeks ago.
He said that the power to regulate commerce, con
ferred upon congress by tho constitution, was sub
ject to tho limitation that no preference should
bo given by any regulation of commerco to the
ports of ono state over the ports of any other
state. He contended that under this limitation it
was inevitable that government rate-making
could only bo carried out upon the basis of a dis
tance tariff, which, while it would be within the
provisions of the constitution, would be hopelessly
destructive of tho commercial and industrial fabric
of tho coimtry, which has been built up under the
adjusted systems of tariffs, under which a scien
tific attempt has been made to equalize the disad
vantages of geographical location, and place the
different producing sections of the country on as
near an equality in tho markets to which they
ship as possible.
TPIE prudential committee of tho American
board of foreign missions voted on April 11
to accept the $100,000 offered by John D. Rocke
feller. This action was taken by the full com
mittee. It will be remembered that several weeks
ago a sub-committee recommended the acceptance
of the money but the general committee postponed
final action until April 11 when the gift was form
erly Accepted. The committee issued a state
ment, 'which, after discussing the objections of
tho protestants, declares that they are not suf
ficiently strong to justify the board In refusing
tho money.
IT SEEMS that long before tho committee acted,
the board' representatives received the money
and in fact disbursed some of it and one of the
principal points presented in the statement made
by the prudential committee is that the American
board can not now legally return Mr. Rockefeller's
money because the decisions of the highest court
are to tho effect that trustees who have once 'ac
cepted a gift and assumed certain obligation!
have no power to return the gift and 'to absolve"
themselves from those obligations. The commit
tee holds that by returning the gift, as suggested
by the protesting clergymen, tlie American board
would bo made responsible not only to those for
whose benefit the gift was designed, tout also to
the present officers' successors. This 'statement
rofers to the fact that the board has already used
one-half of Mr. Rockefeller's gift which was actu
ally accepted on February 14.
TN ITS PUBLISHED STATEMENT, the cora
1 mittee holds that the return of the gift would
have been wrong, because it would have expressed
disapprobation and condemnation of a man when
he was doing an act of benevolence. The com
mittee says: "This would have been to confuse
the issue and to act contrary to the Christian
spirit. To prevent any man from doing good is a
wrong way in which to condemn him for doing
evil. It is as wrong to condemn him when he is
do ng a good deed as to commend him when he is
doing a bad deed." The committee also contends
that the board is not organized to decide ques
tions of temperance, economics or socialism. An
attempt at this it says, would be an assumption of
authority outside of its character. It is held that
the return of the money would be the passing of
judgment upon the character of the donor and tho
bus ness methods he is alleged to have used and
that this would be a wrong to the church of which
he is a member. The committee adds: "Any accu
ration against him could not, in Christian coun
tries, be acted upon until the case had I first been
tried before the church which indorses him as I
member in good and regular standing."
W' HEN informed pf the final actipp of the nrui
dential committee awnnffniyi t? s .
toller gift, Rev. Washington Seleader?
Protesting forces, said: hetotlS
has placed itself on the broad and Intelligible posl
tion that all gifts must be received, no matter
what may bo the character of tho giver, nor by
what immoralities or crimes his gains may have
been gathered. That is tho testimony from such
high authority. From this decision appeal will
now be taken to the conscience of the Congrega
tional churches and the conscience of Christians."
GENERAL FREDERICK D. GRANT delivered
a speech in Boston recently. According to the
Boston Herald, General Grant referring to tho
Philippines said: "You hear a great deal about
the force necessary to keep those degenerate peo
pie in subjection. There are 12,000 soldiers out
there. My department in tho east maintains
14,000 men to keep you citizens of New York
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other coast
places in the straight and narrow path." Further
more, ho leaked this information: "As a matter of
fact, there is one brigade mobilized in the Phil
ippines ready to strike, I think, in favor of the
open door in China, rather than against the Fili
pinos." The Herald makes bold to declare: "It is
a pity that this General Grant has not inherited
a portion of his illustrious father's discretion."
INDIANA has a new and novel marriage law.
Tho Indianapolis correspondent for the Cin
cinnati Enquirer says: "The state board lias pre
pared a form and is now sending it to the county
clerks. The day the acts are promulgated the
state board will hoia a meeting, approve the cir
cular and telegraph the county clerks to that ef
fect. There will be two separate forms for li
censes, one for women and the other for men.
Twenty-seven questions will be asked. The forms
are alike except that the man is compelled to
swear that he can support a family. This is
something new in Indiana. Otherwise the ques
tions are designed to get a statement of the whole
moral, civil and physical history 'of the applicants
In the form prepared the questions are whether or
not either of the contracting parties has been' an
Inmate of a .county poor farm or home for indi
gent women, whether either party is an imbecile,
feeble minded, idiotic or insane, or under guar
dianship as a person of unsound mind, and wheth
er or not either of the contracting parties is af
flicted with epilepsy, tuberculosis or any other
contagious or transmissable disease." . .
DON CARLOS MORALES, president of Santo
Domingo, occupies a Jiigh position in the es
timation of th Washington Post. The Post says: '
Formerly a priest, he soon saw the handicap of
that profession in pursuing his natural bent, that
of a bandit, and he doffed the spiritual robe. Pros
perity smiled 'upon him from thb first. From the
p, etty looter of a barrio he rose to the presidency,
with all its facilities for larger operations. When
with 'wise and far-seeing statesmanship' he in
duced the United States to rake his chestnuts out
of the fire, we perceived him to be an extraordi
nary man, but we did not know that he was prov
ing himself to be the financial wizard of the hemi
sphere. Reports now come frdm London that in
consequence of Morales' statesmanship the bonds
of South American republics are going skyward.
Stocks which a short time ago were spoken of as
rubbish, and to be avoided by any one but the
most hardened speculator, now apparently are re
garded as rapidly approaching the position of
gilt-edged securities, says a dispatch."
("1 OMMENTING upon this statement the Post
J says: "All this is due to the prudence and
foresight of Don Carlos Morales. He is the sa
vior of impecunious republics, and incidentally of
the Foreign Bondholders' corporation. It was his
bold initiative, his grasp of the situation, his
JS?0!.11 of a Psychological conjunction, that
Jilted him at a bound above the revolutionists who
administer the affairs of neighboring republics. A
statute of Don Carlos Morales should be placed in
the plaza of every southern capital, with this
inscription:. (The, man who maO.e the big stick
knock down, ttie persimmons.' f As,;fpr the Foreign
Bondholders!, cqrppration, if ifcoesnot send to
Don Carlos a batch Of frllt-nrtp-o1l'tt'nn,Wna linnil
at 9 as a 'gratification.' if R n aFwiiiraF tn P-rntl.
and sharper than a sornentVfl footti: v '
tude and sharper than a serpent's tootl
fl
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