Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 1906)
T V" " The Commoner. MAT 25, 100G' 9 Tillman then declared that lie would not again cross the threshold of the. "White House while Mr. Roosevelt was president. Let these facts ho kept in mind while reviewing another phase of the situation. When the Hepburn hill came up from the house Sena'cor Aldrich and other re publican opponents of the bill thought it would bo both strategy and joke to give the bill into the charge of Senator Tillman. This would be a covert blow to President Roosevelt, they thought, and also hurt the bill's chances with a republican majority. But Senator Tillman turned the tables on the schemers and jokers. His ability to hold his own with the self-constituted rulers of the senate, both in a game of parliamentary tactics and of wits, has been clearly demonstrated. Then came the interesting spectacle of an "administra tion measure" being handled in the senate by a democrat who would not, under any circum stances, consult the president. This forced the president to secure an intermediary, and ex-Sen ator Chandler, chairman of the Spanish claims commission was selected. Senator Tillman, with characteristic caution, had ex-Senator Chandler put in writing his report of the president's ad vice. The South Carolina senator's only part in the issue of veracity is to quote what the presi dent's intermediary had written down as the ad vice of the president. THE RAILROAD rate bill, as amended, passed the senate Saturday, May 19. The vote stood 73 yeas to 3 nays. Senator Foraker, re publican, and Senator Morgan and Senator Pet tus, democrats, voted against the measure. The absentees were Senators Aldrich, Gamble, Bur rows, Burton, Depew, Dubois, Gorman, Heyburn, Kittridge, Money, Piatt, Patterson, Procter, Suth erland, Warden. Senator Dubois sent a state .ment to the effect that if present he would vote for the bill. A PHILADELPHIA DISPATCH carried by the Associated Press, says: "Revelations of an unusual character were made during, the investi gation of the' interstate commerce commission in to, the alleged discrimination by railroad 'compa nies ,in the -distribution of cars to coal companies in the bituminous region. Three important wit nesses were heard in the persons of George W. Creighton, general superintendent of the Penn sylvania Railroad company; Robert K. Cassatt, son of President Cassatt, of the Pennsylvania rail road and eastern manager of the Keystone Coal and Coke company, and John M. Jamison, of Greensburg, Pa. president of the Jamison Coal and Coke company. Mr. Creighton admitted that he held stock in several coal companies and that the stock had been presented to him. Mr. Jamison testified that his company had presented - Penn sylvania railroad officials with stock in his com pany with the object of securing better treatment and facilities from the corporation. He also said that Robert Pitcairn, now assistant to President Cassatt, had declined a proffer of stock, saying that he preferred the money. Mr. Jamison bought the stock back from him for $5,000. Another in teresting witness was George W. Clark, Pennsyl vania railroad car distributer at Altoona, who told of having received a monthly check for- $50 from Captain Alfred Hicks, a mine operator, and stated that he did not know why the money was sent to him." Other dispatches say that Presi dent Cassatt will resign, claiming that he was deceived. MISS MARY E. BIRD, a member of the fac ulty of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., has resigned from the faculty of that institution. Miss Bird has been identified with Smith College for nineteen years. She severs her connection with the school because of the acceptance of, gifts from Rockefeller and Carnegie. A dispatch to the Chicago Record-Herald says: "Two years ago Mr. Rockefeller offered Smith College $200,000 on condition that a similar amount be raised, and the gift was accepted. Last year Mr. Carnegie, who has not acquired the Rockefeller habit of at taching a string to donations, gave the institu tion a large library, which was accepted and no questions asked. Miss Bird was outspoken in her opposition to the acceptance of these gifts for she has never hesitated to express her opinion that the fortunes of some latter day capitalists are so besmirched that even the books which tliey donate are unsafe reading for the sweet and tender Smith girl. Miss Bird is an instructor in the department of astronomy. She is the author of several text-books and treatises in stellar science. She came to Smith College nineteen years ago from Carleton College, Minnesota, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan, bev- eral years ago she took an active part in the anti imperialistic movement. Smith College ranks, next to Wellesley and Vassar among the women's colleges of the country. It is a very old insti tution, and has attracted studious young women from all over the country, many from Illinois being on its lists of graduates. Dr. L. Clark Seelye is president. Its annual income is $257,582, and its productive funds " aggregate $1,249,240. The donations made to it in the college year which closed in Juno, 1905, aggregate $18,224. Its faculty numbers ninety members and its stu dent body 1,214." DR. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON died recently at Freeport, 111., and it has been alleged in several newspapers that Dr. Livingston was Wil liam A. Rockefeller, father of John D. The en tire Rockefeller family was, of course, greatly dis turbed by these reports. Frank Rockefeller, brother of John D., speaking to the Cleveland correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, said that Dr. Livingston was not his father, be cause he was "absolutely certain that his father yet lives in his North Dakota home." Frank Rockefeller said that he received word from his father only a few days ago. John D. is quoted as saying that his father died before John D. Rockefeller was born. MISS IDA TARBELL, in her history of the Standard Oil company, described Dr. Liv ingston of Freeport, as William A. Rockefeller, father of the oil magnate, and a Freeport dis patch says: "Doctor Livingston repelled every effort to obtain definite information regarding his relationship to John D. Rockefeller, which was directly alleged a few months ago by Miss Tarbell in McClure's Magazine. The elder Rockefeller was known as William A. Rockefeller. He mar ried Eliza Davison, from whom John D. Rocke feller received his middle name, in Moravia. N. Y. John Davison Rockefeller was born two years later. A portrait of William A. Rockefeller, which accompanied Miss Tarbell's article, was that of Dr. Livingston." IN HER SKETCH of the elder Rockefeller, Miss Tarbell said: "He was a famous trick ster when he came to Richford. The reputation he had built up in Richford as a 'sporting man' was duplicated in Moravia. He is still classed popularly in Moravia as one of the gang who operated the 'underground horse railway' and ran off horses from various parts of the country. The conviction and sentencing to state's prison in 18GG of three of his closest pals for horse-stealing, coupled with his bad reputation, made many of .his disapproving neighbors fix the crime equally upon him. There is an Indictment against William A. Rockefeller for a more serious cr(ime than horse stealing in the records of the county for 1849, and it is quite probable that he left Moravia under compulsion." MISS TARBELL SAID that the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland shortly after the war and that the business of the husband of the family was of such a peculiar nature that few persons knew much about him; that he was continually moving about the country and ap peared at home only at great intervals, while his family was always maintained in good cir cumstances. The Freeport correspondent says that no one at Freeport is certain as to the ex act date on which Dr. Livingston arrived in Free port. At the time Miss Tarbell wrote, she said he was living in a small town in Iowa. The Free port correspondents say: "When he left there is not known, but it is thought the notoriety that came to him because of the articles of Miss Tar bell made it necessary for him to leave in order to lead the peaceful life which it was considered would be in harmony with the wishes of his son." MISS TARBELL when asked if she thought the man who died at Freeport, 111., was the father of John D., said: "I can not say posi tively, but I am inclined to think that he was. When I published my sketch of Mr. Rockefeller you may remember that included was a picture of his father. Since that time I have heard from many sources that a man who resembled the pic ture I had published lived at Freeport. When I wrote my sketch I did not know precisely where the elder Rockefeller lived. I knew that he was alive. I had then heard that the last time he had been recognized was in Iowa. Soon after I pub lished my sketch the newspapers in Freeport and adjacent places contained long accounts of the man in that place, referring to him as Mr. Rocke feller's father. I have never seen any denial of those statements, and I am inclined to thinlc he was the man, though I never followed tho mat ter up. Tho kind of a practice this Dr. Livings ton had would seem to resemblo that of tho older Mr. Rockefeller. Ho was what was known some years ago as a 'cancer doctor.' When I last heard of him his medicines were being com pounded somewhere iir the west I do not know precisely where. I can not say why, if the man was Mr. Rockefeller, ho lived under an assumed name, any more than for the reason which I gavo In my article." GENERAL FREDERICK FUNSTON is some v tiling of a record breaker. Proofs of this point are provided by the Florida Times-Union, to-wlt: "He was promoted for swimming a river and tho promotion stood alter the proofs camo out: First, another man swam the Bag-bag; second, Funston couldn't swim; third, he wasn't there; fourth, a reporter told the story as a joke and Funston neglected to contradict it. After wards he was sent to catch Aguinaldo and suc ceeded but was sent home for succcbs, whereas he had boon promoted for something he didn't do. Then he was sent to San Francisco, where he did good service and was superseded for it. Now his neighbors In Kansas propose to make him president on a martyr's ticket and may do it. Moral: Advertise and you may win without tho goods, but with the goods you can't win without advertisement." MR. ROOSEVELT ON "LYING" AND THE MEN HE HAS ACCUSED A writer in the New York World has taken the trouble to compile from the writings of Theo dore Roosevelt observations on "lying" as follows: The liar is no whit better than the thief. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. The men who, with stern sobriety and truth assail the many evils of our times are the leaders. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed or .even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed. In tho long run the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood. You can pardon most anything in a man who will tell the truth, because you know where that man is, you know what he mean. If any one lies, if he has the habit of un truthfulness, you can not deal with him, because there is nothing to depend on. Truth telling is a virtue upon which we should not only insist In the schools and at home but in business and in politics just as much. The business man or politician who does not tell the truth, cheats; and for the cheat we should have no use in any walk of life. We need in our public life, as in our privato life, the virtues that every one could practice if he would. I do not- believe in a bluff. I feel jabout a nation as we all say about a man; let him not say anything that he can not make good, and having said it, let him make good. Nothing can make good citizenship in men who have not got in them courage, hardihood, de cency, sanity, the spirit of truth telling and truth seeking. We must have honest fearless and able ad ministrators a square deal for every man, great or small, rich or poor. - The Washington correspondent of the World says: "The president has said that many a man is a liar. He used the term freely, sometimes in all its baldness and at other times as he did in the case of ex-Senator Chandler, whose state ment he designated as 'unqualifiedly false.' These are some of the men he has accused of lacking in veracity: Henry M. Whitney, of Boston, who he said lied about a tariff conversation with him. John F. Wallace, formerly at the head of the Pana ma canal commission. Ex-Senator William E. Chandler, now president of the Spanish treaty claims commission. Herbert W. Bowen, formerly minister to Venezulea. whom he rebuked for mak ing charges against 'Loomis, acting.' Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate for president in 1904, for saying the trust, corporations and insur ance companies contributed to the Republican campaign in 1904. George O. Shields, president of the league of American Sportsmen, after a dis pute about the use of automatic shotguns Jn the southwest. Senator Thomas C. Piatt, very diplo matically, for announcing that he had forced Rep resentative 'Olcott for chairman of the New York county committee." i J EZSS
