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6
The Commoner.
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TOUJME 5, NUMBER ;,
Tm' I'Xjiii. ,
CURB6NT
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ASSERTING that Senator Lodge has lost favor
at the White House, Walter Wellman,
Washington correspondent for the Chicago Record-Herald
says: "The minute that Lodge went
down Taft came up. Mr. Roosevelt is so con
stituted that he likes to have two or three strong
men to lean upon. One at least He is self
reliaut enough hut he loves to have a confidant
with whom he can talk over everything he thinks
and proposes to do. Lodge was once in that re
lation. Then it was Taft Now it is to he Root
and Taft. It is safe to say that these two men
will have far more influence at the White House
than all the other members of the cabinet put
together during the next three years. Taft is
not ambitious. Shaw is. The secretary of the
treasury is crazy to be president. The president
likes Taft and doesn't care much any more for
Shaw. It is only a question of time when Mr.
Shaw retires to nurse his presidential ambition
in Iowa."
THE Home College Company has been incor
porated at Chicago. The "college" to be
maintained by this company is to be strictly" non
sectarian and is to be used as a home for men
and women of O years of age and over. The
scholarship in this college entitles the owner to
board and room and all privileges, together with
such studies as he may desire to pursue for the
balance of his natural life. Free medical at
tendance and funeral expeses at death are in
cluded. It is claimed that the cost of these
scholarships are about one-third the cost of ordi
nary life insurance. It is the purpose of the
college, whenever a sufficient number of scholar
ships have been sold in one state to justify the
erection of a home college in that state, to do so.
A college has been established at Chicago. A
board of regents was recently chosen, among
whom are Frank Gunsaulus, D. D., pastor Central
Independent church; Prof. Walter. W. Wood, su
perintendent of education, Y. M. C. A., Chicago;
James J. Barry, chancellor Holy Name cathedral;
Volney B. Cushing, national lecturer for prohi
bitionists; Mrs. Matilda B. Carse, Chicago, W.
C. T. U; Edwin M. Randall, secretary of the Ep
worth League; and Prof. Herbert Willets, Chi
cago university. The officers of the College com
pany are as follows: President, John M. Driver;
secretary and general manager, Hamilton White;
treasurer, 'C. S. Ennis.
THE Massachusetts State Bureau of Statistics
has made a report in favor of old age pen
sions, the same to be granted by the common
wealth from the public revenue. This recom
mendation appears in the bureau's annual report
for 1905. Referring to this report a writer in
the Springfield (Mass.) Republican says: "The
line of argument is that it would be quite as cheap
and economical, and "more satisfactory otherwise,
to provide an' old-age pension for those 65 years
old and over, who need help, as to continue the
present method of supporting them in public alms
and work-houses and through private benefac
tions. The bureau has made an effort, through
special inquiry, to obtain some notion of the
amounts contributed annually in charitable relief
by individual and corporate benefactions $4,179,
aloug with this total are given the state and local
government contributions for similar purposes, as
follows: By the state $1,368,317, by cities and
towns $4,016,055, for soldiers' relief $1,385,023,
by individual and corporate benefactions $4,179.
473; total U0,948,S68. These figures are for the
year 1900."
np HE PEOPLE of New Orleans are making a
JL gallant and successful fight against yellow
fever. The Philadelphia Ledger pays a deserved
tribute to New Orleans heroism and one that
taust provide encouragement to the brave people
of that city, particularly when they know that
the Ledger speaks, on this occasion, for Ameri
cans generally. The Ledger says: "The yellow
fever situation at New Orleans is likely to fur
nish another example of the courage of men and
women when put to the supreme test. Father
S)mimtZnf,fhe lepers: Stephea Girard Per
ioimmg the duties of a nurse when the vellow
STmSn PMas tteSrS'Tf
, xue smallpox and cholera-epidemics which have
ravaged the world, and of the plague of which
De Foe has graphically written, are typical ex
amples of the heroism of -which we speak. In
every such crisis men and women in whom the
heroic element had not been recognized or sus
pected braved every peril of contagion, kept cease
less vigil over the sick and the dying, and in the
vanguard fought the king of terrors until the
danger passed or they themselves were numbered
with the fallen. It is in these fateful periods
that we set true value on the dignity of human
nature, its capacity for self-sacrifice, its sublime
courage and fortitude. The New Orleans Times
Democrat says that, instead of running away in
the mad panic that frequently prevails when the
first suspicious case of yellow' fever in that city
is announced, 'many absent citizens have hurried
home to tender their assistance to the commit
tee which has undertaken to crush out the fever
Such instances of obedience to the ca'll of civic
duty and to the cry of stricken humanity cor
rect the impression which many of us have enter
tained that the present age is wholly given over
to materialism, to money-getting, to selfishness
and to forgetfulness of the teaching that we are
our brother's keeper."
IN THE same article the Philadelphia Ledger
says: "One of the compensations of such
anxious, troubled experiences as New Orleans
is confronting, is the altruism which shines forth
in the sacrifices of personal comfort, possibly of
health and life, now in evidence in that city.
Many of the heroes of former epidemics are laid
away in forgotten marble. Whoever they were and
in enduring marble. Whoever they were and
wherever they lie, all were martyr's of the finest
mold. Jean Paul Richter .says that the graves, of
the noblest martyrs are like 'the graves of the
Moravian brethren, level and nndistingnishable
from the universal earth; and if the earth could
give up her secrets our whole globe would ap
pear a Westminster Abbey laid flat.' In the days
when fever and pestilence walk abroad woman
faces the peril with the calm courage of the
ministering angel, of the nurse, of the various
Sisterhoods of Charity. Because history records
only the self-sacrifices of the male sex and be
cause she dips her pen only in blood is it that in
the eyes of the unseen spirits of the world our
annals appear doubtless far more beautiful and
noble than in our 6wn. The Archbishop of New
Orleans, stricken with "the fever, is an example
of the devotion in which the world will recognize
true heroism. Priest and minister, the devout
layman and the religiously unattached, physicians,
men and women, the great and the obscure, those
whose -official duty commands their presence at
the bedside of the stricken, and those who have
no official call to be there, will be 'found in the
hospitals and the homes and wherever the minis
try of help and sympathy may be needed. This
has been the history of all previous visitations of
the yellow fever and other scourges in this coun
try. Every crisis in the affairs of men breeds its
own heroes."
SPEAKING for the people of New Orleans the
Times-Democrat thanks the Ledger for its
kind words; and on its own account the Times
Democrat says: "Let us add to this, not with the
intention of lessening In the slightest degree the
heroism of those who have joined in this great
figlu for we have found no preventive or rem
edy for the fever-but simply to explain the
moral courage that now dominates New Orleans
in its struggle, that the discovery of the S
of the disease, in the petty and despised though
hated mosquito, has robbed yellow fever of its
oldtime horrors. It was the former mystery about
it that carried terror into many households as
people saw it creeking along from house to house
unlocking doors, breaking down barricades That
it was and how it traveled we did not know
whether n some poison floating In the air or
crawling in the earth. Man is. natural y terrified
by what he does not see and can not Sderetand
and it was the mystery of the yellow f vm. ?w
nindo it the most dreaded of aH disease! Now
ui jeans ana to restore courage and confidence
here. It has encouraged the peonle tn i-.
for the fray and to take the proper stew tf'l
out the fever forever. It will be "noted thatin
every town or city where the people have L,
a chance to inform themselves as to the rai
character of yellow fever, its origin and t
mission, this has put an end to the panicky fear
formerly prevailing and which sees no reason
and it has stirred them up to vigorous and iS.
gent action The panic is confined mainlv to the
ignorant, who cling to the old delusions and who
are still overcome by the mysterious terrors of
yellow fever. Nothing has been accomplished hi
panic. It is through courage, determination anil
energetic work that the country will be freed
from the yellow fever. It is the last epidemic of
yellow fever that will ever occur on the Gulf
coast, said Dr. John Guiteras, head of the Cuhan
quarantine service, and who had so much to do
with getting rid of the disease in the island re
public. No one doubts his prophecy; but it calls
for determination, courage and heroism to ac
complish that result."
RECENTLY it was announced that President
Roosevelt would call congress in extra ses
sion during November. It is said that this an
noimcement was made on the president's autho
rity, but a dispatch to the Denver News, under
date of Oyster Bay, August 13, says that the in
dications are now that no extra sessin will he
held. The News correspondent explains. "Strong
presssure is being brought to bear upon the pres
ident not to call an extraordinary session. The
president has received a large number of let
ters regarding -it. Many senators have urged
against an extra session. They point out that
practically nothing will be gained by an extra
session that will not begin not more than three
weeks before the opening of the regular session,
and that it will cause much inconvenience to
many members of congress in both branches.
Taking these things into consideration, the presi
dent has reserved a definite decision of the mat
ter, the chances as noted being that the session
will riot be called. Last spring it was the presi
dent's idea to issue at the proper time a call
for an extraordinary session of congress, to he
held in October, for the purpose of enacting if
possible railroad rate legislation. Incidentally,
it was expected that some recommendations
might be made by the president regarding pro
posed changes in the existing tariff law. The
idea of an October session finally was abandoned,
and subsequently the president made arrange
ments for a two weeks' trip through the south,
beginning on the 17th of October. It then was
announced that tlje proposed extraordinary ses
sion would not be held until after the November
elections. If finally the president should decide
to call congress together, the session will begin
on the first Monday after the November elec
tions, which will be just three weeks before the
beginning of the regular session in December. '
IN THE same report is given a census state
ment of the number of persons living in the
commonwealth during the same year, who were
65 years old or older. This number was 143 107,
and the life insurance tables tell us what the
expectations of life are for these ages. Assuming
that pensions to be paid are $260 a year, or $3 a
week, it would cost the state $37,207,S20 per jear
if all of these ages were pensioned; but if one
fourth were considered the cost would be $9,301,
955. The report says that it is not to be assumed
that more than one-fourth of the old folks would
apply for a state pension, and that the experience
of foreign countries is that only about out -fifth
apply.
COMMENTING upon the report made by the
Massachusetts Labor Bureau, the Spring
field Republican says: "We may deduct from the
total sum derived from the above table the
amount paid by the state for charitable purposes
mainly persons of the defective classes and
outside of an old age prision scheme and still
have left a local and private expenditure fully
equal to the cost of the old age pension. I.
therefore, the pension would provide for all the
present objects of local and private charity, the
substitution would be no more expensive to tbo