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The Commoner.
VOLUME 6, NUMBER 22
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CURR8NT TOPICS
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THE ESTABLISHMENT of distilleries for iho
manufacture of denatured alcohol may or
may not bo a dream in the opinion of the Cedar
Rapids (Jova) Gazette. The Gazette says:
"There has been a general supposition that the
alcohol was easy of manufacture, and that plants
could be installed at small expense. But now
comes some of the leading distillers of the coun
try with the statement that the people are build
ing air castles. The distillery managers ough't
to- know what they are talking about, and pos
sibly they do. But it should be borno in mind
that the most of these managers are members
of the whisky trust, ancf no one believes that
vthe combine will be anxjous to do or say any
thing that will encourage indiscriminate manu
facture of the product. There was something sus
picious about the suddenness with which certain
corporate interests withdrew opposition to the
.removal of the tax from denatured alcohol. If
Che combines, including the whisky trust and
the Standard Oil monopoly, can practically con
trol the output of commercial alcohol, they will
not suffer much loss of revenue through the cur
tailment of the sale of the oils produced by the
oil trust. Tho Standard magnates are a foxy
lot, and if they .are outwitted the people will
have to be up and doing. All statements from
irusjL sources regarding the cost of manufacturing
denatured alcohol and the difficulty, of operating
plants, should be taken with a good many ...grains
of salt." .
ALTHOUGH IT HAD tho endorsement of the
secretary of war, a bill leasing for coal
mining purposes the Batan Island Military Reser
vation in the Philippines, met defeat in the
house. The Washington correspondent for- the
Chicago Record-Herald says: "Chairman
- -Of "the coihinittesTbn vaprop?tutIsn
tack on the measure, which contemplated the
leasing of the coal mities on Batan Island, which
is distant by water route 450 miles from Manila,
to a private company for fifty years, with the
understanding that the company should sell coal
to the United States and the Philippine govern
ments at a price not to exceed 10 per cent above
the cost of mining.' A military expert had osti
. mated that the coal could bo mined and sold to
the -government at $2.20 per ton, as against $5
per" ton which it now costs the government to
buy Japan or Australian coal. Mr. Tawney at
tacked the principle of giving away the property
of the United States without a royalty. Mr.
Clark (Mo.) insisted that if we were going to
kdep the Philippine Islands, as the speaker inti
milted a short time ago, then he was unalterably
opposed to alienating a single island or a single
thing produced on tho islands, for in time of war
we would need every facility afforded."
TN AN ADDRESS delivered before a Kentucky
1 college Secretary of the Treasury Shaw said:
"I will represent Uncle Sam for a little while.
I have a neighbor that has caused me trouble
lor -years. One morning I say to my family 'I
am going across the way to settle th.it Yrmihio '
and my family says, 'Go.' I settle the disturb
ance, but when I come back I have a little babv
in my arms. 1 wish I had never seen it. I call
my family around mo and say, 'There will be
hnhv? !J0Ub1?' ,but whnt am l t0 wit this
baby? Their opinions differ. To keep and edu
cate him seems the only thing to do, and when
he is grown we can keep him or start him for
himself, as seems best, it will cost us something,
but tho good God has not given us all this for
ourselves alone. It will be a wonderful advant
age for him, and I say, 'AH right,' and the first
wihu i uiue mm ne uegms to yell and kick
squall and bite. Spank, spank, spank!"
and bite, did Secretary Shaw, regard it as a sign
that it was 'well satisfied?' He adds: 'When
he is grown we can keep him.' What for? Full
grown men are not retained except for slavery.
The parabolist does not enlighten us on this point.
But he adds: 'The other day when I recalled
his nurse, Judge Taft, he looked up and smiled.'
Who looked up and smiled? Was it the nurse,
because his efforts to get a low-tariff nursing bot
tle had been such a howling success? Or was it
the brown baby putting up a smile of derision
and irony? Has it come to this,1 that an unwill
ing infantile. ward shall not be permitted to raise
a note of protest when the milk is sour?"
TPIE "MUCK RAKER" is, according to a writer
in the New York World, by no means, a
newcomer in literature. This writer says: "The
yeaf of the publication of 'The Jungle' is the
semi-centennial of the appearance of Charles
Reade's 'It's Never Too Late to Mend,' a book
which the critics of the time found as 'revolting'
as they now find Mr. Sinclair's work ,and for
reasons much the same. Its fidelity to fact In
the portrayal of prison abuses shocked a con
servative sentiment which was later to demand
the very reforms in the treatment of convicts
of which it showed the need. The novel with
a purpose long ago became common in English
fiction. Reade himself, Oxford don that he was
and man of refined culture, handled the muck
rake without gloves. In 'Hard Cash' published
in 18G3, he exposed the evils of private lunatic
asylums, and in 'Foul Play,' in 1869, gave the
world that forcible arraignment of the traffic in
sailors' lives by ship-owners which was said to
have inspired Plimsoll's efforts for the
protection of British seamen from the risks of
rman Tawney ,, irn son worthy vessels."
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YEN BEFORE READE, Charles Dickens fig
ured conspicuously as a "muck raker.-"
The World writer says: "In 'Pickwick Papers'
in 1836, Dickens dealt a blow to prison evils.
In 'Nicholas Nickleby,' published In 1838, he laid
bare the petty oppressions of school life in York
shire with the thoroughness of a government
commissioner. In 'Oliver Twist,' in the same
year he laughed away the incompetence of parish
charity officials and greatly aided poor-law re
form. The Dickens gallery of grafters and swind
lers is a full one. In recent times in England
Walter Besant's 'All Sorts and Conditions of
Men,' by the light it threw on. the deplorable
social i conditions of London's East Side, jvas al
most directly responsible for the institution of
tho People's palace and gave a strong impetus
to settlement work for the reclamation of the
submerged. Our own great example of muck
rack fiction of a former time is 'Uncle Tom's
Cabin,' curiously enough from a feminine pen.
No one, least of all Mrs. Stowe herself, foresaw
the extraordinary influence which this tract in
the form of a romance, called forth by the fugitive
slave law, was destined to exercise in securing
the freedom of slaves. On its publication in
book form in 1852 the author despaired of its
success. ,'It seemed that there was no hope; that
nobody would read, that nobody would hear.'
Within five years 500,000 copies had been sold
and its place at the head of all novels of moral
motives established." ,
and
"QV-s.
WA. CROFFUT of New York, writing to the
New York World and referring to Secre
tary Shaw s "parahlo" says: "Some people may
hni H?nSidem,te and aiulaci0s enough to inquire
how the secretary came in possession of the. baby.
Whose baby is it? How did ho get If bid lie
kidnap it? Did he buy it of somebody who didn't
XI? i an,(1.C0UJd Slvo no bill of sale? And when
the chocolate cherub proceeded to kick and squall
V
SECRETARY SHAW has delivered several
speeches in opposition to the renominatlon
of Governor Cummins of Iowa. In one of these
speeches Mr. Shaw says: "There is not one
fourth the sentiment for tariff revision there
was threo years ago, and not a bit in the repub
lican party for immediate revision. I correct
that, statement. I do know two states that are
perfectly willing to remove all the protection'
that they have for their own benefit. The repub
lican party has never gone out of power, even on
the tariff issue, except immediately following a
revision of the tariff at its own hands, and neither
we nor the democrats have revised the tariff
and remained In powered year except in the case
of the Dingley bill. Since the' election of 1904
President Roosevelt has submitted three mes
sages to congress, in not one of which did he
recommend tariff revision. Are we Rossevelt
republicans? If so, why should we not be 'stand
patters?' He has made many speeches, but in
none has he recommended tariff revision. When
you tell the people they are robbed by the tariff,
which he does not recommend shall be revised,
you indict your president for not demanding that
revision. Since. the last republican platform was
adopted the committee on ways and means, which
must originate tariff legislation, has formulated
no revision, nor has iE considered the formula
tion of such a bill. Since that platform was adopt
ed the congressional caucus has met again and
again, but it has recommended no tariff revision.
Who is responsible for the policies of the party?
Does not the national convention speak with au
thority? Are we as republicans not bound by that
platform? Does not the republican president, the
leader of his party, speak with authority, and
as republicans are we not bound by his recom
mendations and by his failure to "recommend?
Is not the republican majority in congress
'clothed with authority to speak for the party, and
is it not clothed with authority to keep silence?
I say to you that the only phase of the present
contest in Iowa, which has attracted national
attention is revision, and the success of the can
didate who takes it upon himself to speak of the
effects of the Dingley tariff as robbery, will be
understood in every state of the union as -a party,
defeat."
THERE IS A HINT of graft in the expenses of
providing relief for the San Francisco
earthquake sufferers. A writer in the Joplin,
(Mo.) Globe, says: "Bills for $157,599 for auto
mobile service in the two weeks following tho
fire more than was spent for milk, butter, eggs,
bread, vegetables, drugs and clothing in the re
lief of 200,000 homeless persons were presented
to the finance committee today, and threaten
to cause a. scandal before the work of auditing
is completed. The charges average $35 a day,
and in some cases are much higher.
THE CHRISTIAN Scientists recently dedicated
what they call their "Mother Church" at
Boston. The structure cost $2,000,000, and Chris
tian Scientists from all over the world attended
the dedication ceremonies. The New York
World says: "Christian Science as a 'discovery'
is forty years old; as the creed of an associated
body of believers it is thirty. -In 1876 there were
one church and seven communicants. Now there
are 657 chartered churches, 277 organized mis
sions; 42,000 communicants and 1,000,000 adher
ents, according to the church figures. New York
had three recognized practitioners of the Scien
tist faith in 1889. Now it has 137. Chicago-has
232 and Boston 149. In London there are thirty
nine healers, and San Francisco before the earth
quake had the same number. Of New York's six
Christian Science church buildings one cost more
than a million dollars and another more than' a
quarter of a million. Chicago has four churches,
Buffalo and Kansas City have two each. Every
Scientist edifice is paid for in cash as it is built.
Out of its material progress Christian Science
furnishes an interesting chapter to the religious
history of .the times."
ARBITRATION IS displacing war in the opin
ion of Benjamin F. Trueblood. Writing for
the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Trueblood said: "Any
one .who has carefully followed the arbitration
movement during the decade since 1895, includ
ing the work and results of The Hague confer
ence, to say nothing of the nearly two hundred
cases of dispute settled by this means in the
previous eighty years, knows that
no longer fairly be spoken of as
Arbitration is not any longer
nor even a series of experiments,
settled practice of the civilised
disputes arise between them, and is universally
recognized in international ltiw. A government
which will not try arbitration before resorting to
arms is, in these days, scarcely considered re
spectable. War, instead of being the general
practice of nations, as it was a century ago,
when serious disputes arose between them, if
arbitration can
an experiment.
an experiment,
It is now the
nations when
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