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The Commoner.
VOLUME 5, NUMBER U
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SEVERAL CABINET changes arc likely to oc
ciir during the early .part of 1906. In a letter io
. a friend in Iowa, Secretary Shaw says that ho
expects to retire from the treasury department in
Fohruary. Washington correspondents seem gen
erally to agree that Secretary of the Navy Bona
parte will succeed Mr. Moody as attorney general.
Several correspondents say that Mr. Bonaparte
accepted the position at the head of the navy
with the understanding that within a year he
would he-' transferred to the offlce of attorney
general
JOHN F. LUMPKIN OF KANSAS CITY .has
I received from his late father's estate a con
sular commission signed hy Andrew Jackson.
Referring to this relic the Kansas City Journal
says: "The chirography of the president is bold
and as fresh in appearance as though made but
a year or two ago. The document is dated Sep
tember -16, 1836, and was issued through the
office of John Forsythe, President Jackson's sec
retary of state. The commission was issued to
the late Thomas Lumpkin, grand uncle of the
present John E. Lumpkin. It was the credential
which Mr. Lumpkin took with liim to- Buenos
Ayres, to be 'consul of the port of Buenos Ayres
and such other ports as may be nearer thereto
than to the residence of any other consul or vice
consul within the said allegiance "
T OHN A McCALL, president of the New York
'J .Life Insurance company, has Issued to the
agents of that company a circular letter in which,
whiie seeking to justify his "unauthorized con
tributions to the republican campaign' fund, he
says: "The question' of similar contributions
cannot arise again, and he promises to ask the
board of trustees to pass a resolution prohibiting
such contributions. Referring to this McCall
letter, Louis F. Post, writing jn "The Public"
says: "McCall says he will ask his board to pre
vent h's ever doing it again; 'but If the law did
not serve to check him in the past, can a directors'-
resolution be depended upon to do it in the
future, -should economic questions affecting as
.sets, whether in the ledger or out of It, get into
politics?"
A PARIS PUBLICATION, Monde Ulustra,' de
scribes a relief service that has been es
tablished in Berlin and which, if it proves to bo
practicable, will be extended to all of the Rus
sian cities and probably throughout Germany.
.This is called the "Special Providence Service for
the Intoxicated." The description given, by the
Paris publication is translated by the Literary
Digest in this way: "The service is entirely in
.the hands of women, who wear a uniform similar
to that of the Salvation Army. The object of
the simple uniform is that the women shall be
entirely free in her movements, and at the same
time appeal to the intoxicated man or woman
entirely by virtue of her womanhood. The mem
bers of the service are constantly at work"; they
are assigned to certain sections of the city and
usually work in pairs. This, .however, is not an
.invariable rule, and when an intoxicated man or
woman is found by one of the officers alone, an
other member of the service is summoned by
means of a whistle. The intoxicated person is
then helped to his or her feet and guided to the
nearest station. If the degree of intoxication is
sucli that the person can not walk, then the
members of the service literally carry the h&ln
less creature to a place of shelter. As may be
readily understood, the work is beset with diffi
culties. A remark made by the Monde Ulustra
.is of interest: It is certainly significant that
rwomen should be chosen for this work for it i?
conclusive evidence of the fact that (he woWd is
s realizing more and more the value of appealing
An every case to the higher instincts. We be
jlieve this to be ihe. only course, in social re
formation and progress.'"
ROBERT E. RETES, of Guadalajara, Mexico,
writing to The Commoner says: "I have
f lately, peen in American newspapers many sneer
iingallusions to the supposed -'discomforture' of
Mr. -Bryan, when his -model sll'verltes' the Mexi
cans, adopted the gold standard. As a matter of
fact, the gold standard in Mexico was not adopted
by the people, but by a group of financiers headed
by J. Y. Limantour, the minister of finance. It
was purely a bankers' measure. Both silver and
gold mines are injured by it, the former because
the mint market for silver bars is gone,
and the latter because their product
no longer calls for a high price in
money that it did; many mines have i shut
down, and as mining is the principal industry 5t
the country, railroad freights on ores have di
minished greatly, and the smelters also receive
less product than formerly. The prices of im
ported commodities have not fallen. Already the
scarcity of coin in some parts Is driving the
people to the use of paper money issued by the
banks. All claims that the change to the g61d
standard has benefited Mexico are inventions."
EW. SWEELEY, a justice of the peace in
Royalsock, Lycoming county, Pa., claims
the record for offlce holding in that state. Refer
ring to Justice Sweeley a writer in the Kansas
City Journal says: "Altogether he lias held various
township and county offices whose terms aggre
gate 109 years during his life of sixty-eight years,
and he is, still adding to his record. Mr. Sweeley
is a democrat, and that he is popular is shown
by his record, as follows: justice of the peace,
thirty-five years; assessor, twenty-six years;
supervisor, eight years; school director, fifteen
years; overseer of the poor,. six years; township
auditor, twelve years; county auditor, four years;
jury commissioner, three years." ' " '
i
TT-ITH ALL MAN'S BOASTEDjAVISDOM tlie
VV question '"What is, Electricity" remains un
solved. Referring to this 'problem a writer In
the Scientific American says: "Some eminent
scientific men are befogged by the question, say
it is some ultimate unknowable thing, and hope
less as an inquiry. If it be a something it must
be described by its constant properties as other
things are. If it be unlike everything else then
it cannot be described by terms that apply to
anything else. A glowing coal is an incandescent
solid, a flame is an incandescent gas, but neither
glow nor flame exists apart from the matter that
exhibits the phenomenon. Both are conditions of
particular Idnds of matter."
COLONEL SIDNEY C. TAPP, a well known
Atlanta attorney recently delivered an ad
dress on the trust -question, which address has at
tracted widespread attention. In this address
Colonel Tapp said: "Every age has had menaces
to its civilization and it has been the burden
of every civilization to overcome these menaces
and to survive. The Romans were menaced with
the national pride to conquer other
people; the early French with their burning de
sire for crusades; the Goths with their barbarian
desire to destroy other peoples and human lives
in order bo conquer. All through, the ages the
human family- have suffered in its efforts to se
cure influence and power. This was the curse of
Charlemagne's empire, the curse of the Goths
.and the Northmen, the curse of the Slavonic peo
ples, the curse of Napoleon and the Latin races.
Some races have desired power in war, others
power in ecclesiastical affairs, other powers in
priestcraft and statecraft, but n all ages it has
been the desire for illegitimate powr that has
destroyed all the past civilizations. With us, the
American people, it is not the desire for power
at the point of the bavonet, It is not the dpsire
for power in priestcraft and kingcraft that is
killing us, but it is the desire for power in com
merce that is destroying our civilization. A few
men in -our age and civilization have become
more powerful than all the kings an.d monarch
of other ages and these same men have become
greater enemies of organized socletv than the
despots or tyrants of-all of the monarchies of the
old world."
CHARGING THAT "even the clergy of bur
generation are paying homage to -these
ho lAvLTn tn1n 'collector ..for, $19.50. , A $1- irolcL -piece of M
v Colone? Z LSS, Kdei?n-8rlhe ma8ses" bought 424. A-Bps on Collector, gut a 1
Colonel iapp'demanried-to know -whether we .piece, of -1793. for. W Sfiifetimea ritarface value.
had reached "that point in our civilization wh,
the mouth of the ministry is to be rio J k
filthy dollars and our institutions, the fon?
tain source of our civilization, are to be poisoS
and polluted with the . corruption of the unhriv
dollars t)f these men?" He declared that 'w"
-face to face with the issue," adding: "As ana
Uon and as a people we must destroy the n0wr
otahese men or they will destroy our civilization
The issue must be met. The laws of supply d
mand and competition must be restored in' our
civilization so 'that the wealth of the country
will take its natural channels and be distributed
among the masses of our people upon thin prin
ciple depends the stability 'of our government and
the perpetuity of our civilization. There can be
no compromise on this issue."
CONCLUDING HIS excellent address, Colonel
Tapp said: "It was a great dav the human
family reached that degree in civilization when
they discovered that one man did not govern a na
tion by Divine" right. It was a great day in the
world's history when the apostle Paul stood on
Mars hill and preached the doctrine of the Man of
Nazareth, that destroyed human slavery in the
Grecian states and in the Roman empire. Ir was a
great day when our Anglo-Saxon forefathers met
their Norman conquorers face to face in mortal
combat, that popular rights might survive and not
-perish. It "was a great day when our forefathers
demanded of King :Tohn, at Runnvmede. the
Magna Charta. It was a great day in the moral
force -of the' world -when Martin Luther rose up
and demanded individual rights in church as well
as state. It was a 'great day in the history of
oUr. civilization when "Oliver Cromwell and his
'Ironsides' demanded of King Charles and the no
liility, constitutional liberty for our ancestors.
It was a great day in the world's history when
the fathers of this republic caught up the in
spiration of the Anglo-Saxon conception of human
liberty and human rights and met in old Inde
pendence hall in Philadelphia and sounded the
death knell to kingcraft on this continent. It was
a great day with the French nation when Mirabeau
stood in the states general of France and shook
his mane and roared with his lion voice to the
representatives of Louis the Sixteenth: 'You pun
pets of the king, go tell- your master we have as
sembled' here by the authority of the people,' and
thus- turned the tide that destroyed monarchy in
France and 'established a democracy upon its
ruins. It was a great day in the world's history
when the fathers of this republic, in convention as
sembled, framed a constitution for- these sta'es
and thereby created a federal republic, where hu
man rights and personal liberty rest under the
palladium of constitutional liberty. It yill bo a
-great day in the world's history when the Ameri
can people shall rise Up in their sovereign power,
guided by a patriotic purpose and declare to such
men as Rockefeller, Morgan, the Vanderbilts and
the organized anarchists of this government that
they cannot and sh&ll not destroy this nation,
but that their criminal institutions shall be de
stroyed by the sovereem will of the people, and
that law and order shall prevail in this nation.
and that the republic shall be perpetuated as. a
guarantee of constitutional liberty t3 coming fen
erations. The issue is joined. These inur be
destroyed or our, free institutions and, our Hil
ization must perish."
A Nf OLD COIN SALE took place in New York
J recently, and nine hundred sets ot raro
coins, metals and paper money, were sold. An
Associated Press dispatch savs: "These ro
the property of prominent New England, N'tw
York, New Jersov and Michigan collectors, and
brought about $6,000, the highest simrle sale .
ing for $60.50. There was an esneclallv fin-4 ""
sortment of American coins of the colonial !
continental periods. Collectors bid bri&kl fur
the Oak Tree shilling of 1652 and the I.oru "'
timore shilling of 1659. These are extr"wlv
rare. A United States silver dollar of 1794. Ho
first year of issue was -sold for $60.50. In iw
private issues of gqld, a Mormon $5 piece J
.for the highest. amount. It was sold o a i'i.u
piecer of -1793. for .just' tloOitimes ritsfaee
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