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The Commoner.
VOLUME 5, NVIibei, 2)
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THE New York board of charities has recently
issued a statement showing that the num
ber of people dependent on public charity in New
York is increasing. According to these figures the
percentage of this class of the city's whole popu
lation in 187G was 3.22; in 1904 it was 8.69. The
secretary of the state charity board, speaking
to a newspaper reporter and referring to the
increase said: "It is due largely to the increase
in population, which has gone up from 1,041,886
in 1875 to 4,437,202 in 1900. It is due also to
what is evidently ..n increase in dependency which
has resulted from the great influx of immigrants
to New York, and finally the incrtase is in part
due to the more adequate methods of supplying
relief to the poor. In early years vagrants were
cared for at police stations, now they are cared
for at municipal lodging houses. The pub
lic medical relief is better organized today."
YELLOW FEVER s made its appearance in
Louisiana, but New Orleans authorities re
port that there are only a few cases and no alarm
need be felt. Adjoining states have adopted
quarantine methods, and it is believed that the
spread of the disease will be checked. The great
yellow fever epidemic occurred in 1878 when the
death list in two southern towns alone amounted
to 5,000. In 1888 the disease appeared in Florida.
In 1893 it appeared in Georgia, and in 1897 New
Orleans and certain sections of - ississlppi and
Alabama were again visited, although in these
later years there were few deaths.
THE Balfour ministry, it is announced by the
Associated Press, has no intention of re
signing on account of the adverse vote. In an
address to the house Balfour cited -the record
in tho effort to show that former administrations
had ignored defeats similar to that encountered
by the Balfour ministry, and declared that such
instances never had been regarded as general
for resignation. He said that the government
would not either resign or dissolve parliament.
Campbell-Bannerman, the liberal leader, and John
Redmond, leader of the Irish nationalists, re
plied to Balfour and according to the Associated
Press "the heated tone of both leaders indicated
that the government will 'have to face the most
determined opposition during the remainder of
the session."
ATTORNEY GENERAL MOODY recently ad- '
dressed the Lincoln club of Boston in which
address he had considerable to say concerning the
Indictments against the members of the Beef
trust. Mr. Moody said that the indictments
would probably be tried during the present year.
Referring to the merits of the case, he said:
"The action of tLe grand jury was the result of
an ex-parte investigation. The accused have iot
been heard. The are each and all to be pre
sumed innocent. That presumption for their x-o- .
tection follows them until the case has been
passed upon by the trial jury. Let us hope that
its verdict will be a declaration of truth in fact
as it is in name."
THE Interstate commerce commission in ses
sion at Kansas City is investigating the
charges that the big shippers of Kansas City
have received in the neighborhooJ of $225,800 a
year in rebates on freight shipped from the east.
It is claimed that these rebates were secured
through a transportation bureau in New York,
and that in the neighborhood of 300,000,000 pounds
of freight was annually routed to the one hun
dred shippers who belong to this transportation
bureau.
THE Milwaukee grand jury returned twenty
four indictments July 24. This makes a
tctal of two hundred and fifty-one indictments
returned in tie graft investigation. These in
dictments are against one hundred and six i ar
sons. The following table given by the Milwaukee
correspondent for the New York World illustrates
the wido flDld covered in these indictments:
"Supervisors 7, former supervisors 29, former al
dermen 12, fire department officials 3, state sen
ator 1, former county officers 6, former city em
ployes 5, contractors , real estate men, 1, archi
tects 1, newspaper reporters 2, miscellaneous 35.
Total 106."
THE investigation of graft in Milwaukee com
menced several years ago with the expos
ures made in connection with the Milwaukee
street railway company's twenty-five year fran
chise. It is charged that in nearly every de
partment of city and county government corrup
tion prevails. So far in prosecution thirteen have
been convicted; four have escaped. There are
one hundred and thirty cases now on the docket
involving fifty-five individuals.
THE REMAINS of Admiral Paul Jones ar
rived at Annapolis July 24. They were
deposited in a temporary vault and rill be finally
placed in the crypt under the new chapel now
being erected. The story of John Paul Jones is
told by a writer in the Columbus (Ohio) Press
Post in this way: "Jones hoisted on the Alfred,
in January, 1776, the first distinctively American
device, the snake flag, ever used on the seas.
Jones, by capturing the British brig Mellish and
her valuable cargo of military stores and uniforms
on November 13, 1776, enabled Washington to win
the battle of Trenton. Jones set sail for Ports
mouth, N.- H., November 1, 1777, and was the
first to fly the stars and stripes on
a regularly commissioned ship of war. Jones, on
the Ranger, at Quilberon bay, on December 14,
1777, secured from the French admiral, La Motte
Piquet, the first salute ever given the stars and
stripes by a foreign power. Jones, while cruis
ing in the Irish channel early in 1778, was pur
sued by British men-of-war and succeeded in mak
ing his escape by the most daring seamanship.
Jones, on April 23, 1778, fought and captured the
British sloop Drake, superior in tonnage, number
of men and weight of guns. Jones, on September
23, 1779, being then in command of the Bon
Hommie Richard, not only single-handed but in
spite of being fired into by his Trench consort,
fought to a finish the Serapis, of greatly superior
armament and general equipment, in the liveliest
battle that was ever fought on the seas."
A DISPATCH under date of St. Louis, July 24,
, .,and Printed in the Baltimore Sun follows:
On the body of L. M. Booth, about 60 years old,
who was found today in Forest Park dead from
chloroform, self-administered, was a slip of paper
containing these words. 'Heartily agree with Dr
Osier; an old man and a poor man has no busi
ness on earth. I am broke and no one will give
me work. They look at me with a smile and say:
"We've got a man." This is no temporary in
sanity on my part.' On another slip of paper the
Tg?d omaS Lad BCribbled: 'Forest Park Sunday,
July 22, 7:50 p. m The reason I single out thfs
S l?SSTe !t V0 far'away from a dispen
sary, so that I can be gone before they get me
to a dispensary. Dr. C ler is all right I do ho
no one will identify me.'- Clutched affectionate
in one of the cold hands was a babv'sXnpTS
Booth f had evidently carried Tlilt&X
T H? EfX LSION on the United States sun
1 boat Bennington resulted in the death of
fifty-eight persons. Forty-six were wmmdoS a
retary Bonaparte has MfuZZS.
gation and a public statement is promised ?w
no one will be made a scape goat hS? tS of ?
responsibility will be placed Swtfi wntre i?
belongs. Captain F. J. Drake of the Maym Ilni
navy yarJ, who has made an tnvCfS? island
that the accident wasTue to the be ers VdT
was one of those unfortunate accidents tl d !t
occur at any time and for wffno L fay
explanation can be ma:e satisfactory
WALTER, WELLMAN, Washing
pondent for the Chicago RecordrniS "
has seemed in the past to beTerv famn?' Wm
the secrets of the Roosovelt admiSstrn? With .
"Important ch ages havl occurred tauff'wffii
Hor circle and others are imminen? tL?11?
surprising of these is the flnsh of qlt!
of Massachusetts as a chum t confidential0?
viser of President Roosevelt. Lodce is ,wS d,'
out, and Secretaries Root and Ta'ft arSe
men of the present and the future. Secretin,
Shaw is out of favor and will soon retire S
the cabinet without any regret, on the nnrt S
President Roosevelt, though he will probably foi
low his usual course and give the retiring LZ'
tary of the treasury a handsome farewell Mr'
Roosevelt is exceedingly generous about such
things. Assistant Secretary of State Loomis 5
going to resign to co into business, and Commis
sioner of Corporations Garfield, one of the presi
dent's closest friends, lost a cabinet post when iio
gave to the public his infortunate report on tho
beef trust last spring. In good time he may se
cud a seat in the cabinet, but he will have to
wait, as the pixddv :t thinks this not an oppor-tU-
a time for his promotion. Secretary of Agricul
ture Y.'ilson is without doubt secure in his place,
despite the cotton report leakage and the bitter
fight that is being made on him by certain per
sons and newspapers. President Roosevelt thinks
Mr. Wilson far and away the best secretary of
agriculture the country ever had. He takes no
stock in the criticisms .f the secretarv that ..re
daily spread broadcast in certain circles!"
SENATOR LODGE 1ms seemed to be in such
high favor with Mr. Roosevelt that Mr. Well
man's statement will surprise many people. Mr.
Wellman says: "For many years he has been
Th:odore Roose It's closest friend. It was :ir.
Lodge who made Roosevelt a civil service com
missioner 'and gave him his first chance to win
distinction in the national field. It was Lodge,
too, who helped Roosevelt into the assistant sec
retaryship of the navy, where he won renown
as the man who did as much if not more than any
other to make the American navy the best in
the world in accurate shooting, and where ho
had the distinction of ordering Admiral Dewey to
sail from Hongkong to Manila to smash the Span
ish fleet."
THE INTIMACY between Messrs. Roosevelt
and Lodge has been so strong that some
explanation of present day differences is required,
and Mr". Wellman has the explanation. He says:
"It has been approaching for a year or more as
the president gradually discovered that his erst
while chum was altogether too grasping and pe
culiar properly to belong in the Roosevelt class.
H is one of the cleverest men in public life to
day. But he is all for Lodge, and he throws his
best friends down when it comes to a chc a
between serving them and his own interests. The
climax came last winter when Mr. Lodge joined
with other republicans in defeating the arbitra
tion treaties. Mr. Roosevelt never forgave him
for that. The president might have looked upon
Lodge's course in that l .atter with more com
placency if the senator had not explained his
attitude toward the treaties as being peculiarly
'delicate on account of his close personal rela
tio . with Je president. To flaunt his friend
ship with the occupant of the White House and
then go directly contrary to the president's
wishes, at the same time giving it out how vii.u
ous he was, proved to be the last straw. Mr.
Roosevelt does not believe in that sort of friend
ship." IF MR. WELLMAN himself stands as close to
the Roosevelt administration as is popularly
supposed, the news of the president's break with
the Massachusetts senator is given through an
authoritative channel in a very blunt way. "Ir.
Wellman says that he is not sure that Senator
Lodge is aware of it, but "President Roosevelt
has no. further use for him." Then the Massa
chusetts senator is by this correspondent given
a delightful hint in this way: "When the Massa
chusetts senator goes to the White House, if
ho ever does again, he will be treated with po
liteness. The dog will nox. be set on him. But
that is all. He has lost his status as one of the
charmed circle. Probably this will go pretty hard
with Mr. Lodge. For years a considerable part
of the capital of the Massachusetts boss for it
may surprise a great many people to learn that
while posing as the scholar in politics, Mr. Lodge
U about as. fine a specimen of the political boss as
they makehas been his influence with Theodore
Roosevelt. He has not enjoyed as much real
influence as he thought he had or as other people
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