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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1907)
TJPCr'rBPTiPWBpWF 8 The Commoner. VOLUME 7, NUMBER 15 It Is n pleasure to bo able to sny Unit never for a moment wis there, as between the government of the United States and tbe government of Japan, tlio sllghlest departure from perfect good temper mutual confidence, and kindly consideration; and that no sooner bad tbesvlews and purposes of the government of tbe United States, the state of Cal ifornia, and tbe city of Kan Francisco been ex plained by each to the other than entire harmony and good understanding resulted, with a common desire to exercise the powers vested In each, for the common good of the whole country of the state and of the city. The excitement has now subsided, so that It may bo useful to couslder what the ques tion really was, not because It Is necessary for the purposes of that particular case, but because of Its bearing upon copses which may arise In the future under the application of the treaty-making power of the United States to other matters and in other parts of the national domain." o AS A. WELCOME relief to the reports of the divorce courts comes a pretty story from the Philadelphia correspondent for the Now York World, the story follows: "Dying from anaemia, the life of Mrs. Peter Anderson has been saved by a remarkable surgical operation, In which her husband's blood -was pumped direct from his ar teries Into hors. Tho woman, who was in coma at the time, Is now on tho road to recovery, and her husband, though weak from the loss of blood, will bo restored to his normal condition. Tho opcr atlon, the second- of tho kind over performed In the United Slated and tho first In Philadelphia, was conducted by Dr. G. M. Dorranco and Dr. David Ucisman. Tho operation never had been attempted before as a means of curing anaemia. Mrs. Anderson, who Is thirty-five years old, had been suffering from extreme anaemia for several years. Palo, weak, she seemed almost bloodless. Ten days ago the disease took a turn for tho worse, and her attending physician, Dr. Relsmun, hud her moved to tho Polyclinic hospital. Satur day night she lapsed Into coma.- The surgeons gave her heart stimulants, but in vain. Then Dr. Relsmun thought of the experiments of Dr. Dor runco In 'blood transfer.' Dr. Dorranco was sum moned. He had experimented with animals with success, but novel' on human beings. Anderson ( nnil his wife wore placed on tho operating table ' together. Tho man was put under an anaesthetic. ' An artery In his- left arm was punctured, and through a tube blood was pumped Into an artery In his wife's arm. She rallied at once and rapidly gained In strength. After two quarts of Ander son's blood had flowed Into his wife's arteries, tho tube was removed and tho wounds of both pa- tlents dressed. Anderson wept with joy when he came from under the influence of tho ether and saw his wife restored to consciousness and strength." , o A DISPATCH from Washington says: "Fear ing that some of tho .$175,000,000 unsigned bunk notes in the vaults of the treasury may have been stolen, Secretary- Cortelyou today, at tho re quest of the comptroller of the currency, assigned experts to count the notes. This action is tho di rect result of the robbery of tho Chicago sub-treasury of $1S3,000. The task will require six clerks and eighteen export counters two weeks to per form. There has not been a count for more than five yours. There bus boon only two losses in the history of this bureau. The last was In 1S00, since -which time there hns been Issued to tho banks $3,000,000,000 without the loss of a dollar." rpHE county of St. Clair, Missouri, has for many JL years been regularly held in contempt of the federal court, and its county judges have, for thirty-one years, been sent to jail or required to "hide out," because of their refusal to pay the judgment granted on certain railroad bonds. The Now York World tells the story in this way: "I;i early days states as widely separated as Massa chusetts, Michigan and Georgia built at public cost railroads which wero thought essential to their development. Cities and towns were bonded to aid others. Farmors often bought stock as tbe only condition upon which capitalists would un dortako brunch lli.es. The farmers wero usually squeezed . out by stock assessments, state man agement -was In every cuse finally abandoned and bonding proved such u nuisance that many statc3 now forbid it in their constitutions. After the war the railroad fever struck Missouri and many coun ties bonded themselves to get lines built, us tho stute law then permitted. St. Clair county -made tho mistake of delivering $250,000 in bonds when a contract wus let for u line which it desired, In stead of waiting until the work was done. The promoters worked at grading u mile or two for track until they could Sell the bonds, and then stopped. The rond wus never built, mid it bus since oeen an article or religion in St. dull county thut neither principal wnor Interest on tho Jjonds shall be paid. The county judges are alwnys in contempt of court. They ure martyrs, honored in tho community. This is a ense whero justice Is now Impossible. The thieves liuvo escuped, and either flio presumably innocent bondholders or tho innocent tuxpuyers must suffer. In such cuses tho courts always hold that tho taxpayers must bear the burden because they authorized their officers to issue tho bonds and reasonable precautions against being cheated should have been taken. In tho famous New Haven railroad case bonds wero issued by a president and sold for his private profit. Tliey wero held good against tho corpora tion because tho president hud been empowered by the company to issue bonds. Purchasers hud no means of determining which of two bonds pre cisely alike had been honestly and which dishon estly acquired. They passed from hand to hand like a dollar bill, and a stolen dollar bill cunnot bo recovered from an Innocent person Into whoso hands It may have fallen. St. Clair county's dollar bill was stolen long ago, yet few readers can help sympathizing with tho spirit of the judges who go cheerfully to Jail ruther than yield themselves beaten in a contest Of wits between sharpers and honest men a generution ugo." THE Jeffersoniun Society of Spokane, Wash.; celebrated Jefferson's birthday April 13, by a banquet. The principal address was delivered by Governor Chamberlain of Oregon. His sub ject was "Jefferson's Theories Vindicated." Other well known speakers who took part in the program wore: Wm. Goodyear of the Colfax Commoner; A. W. Jones, vice-president of the State Federa tion of Labor; Fred E. Baldwin, member of the city council of Spokane; Del Cary Smith, Lester P. Edge and Judge Godmftn of Dayton. Ex Congrossman Jones was toastmaster. This was the fourth annual banquet given by the society. Those banquets are not of the formal Invitation order, but ure open to uny und ull who desire to attend. AT tho dinner given by "tho Nationul Demo crntic Club" at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel on the evening of April 14, Col. George Harvey, edi tor of Harper's Weekly, vigorously attacked Pros-, ident Roosevelt He said while the president is during and honest he is "boyish in mind??, and not a safe man for tho White House. Colonel Harvey attacked Mr. Bryan with equal energy, referring to him as "u peerless louder who hobbles like a cripple in the wake of his successful rlyul, guth ering us he goes the few scrups thut are left of his own fallacies." Colonel Harvey is, by tho way, editor of a publication which is believed "to be owned by J. Pierpont Morgan. ON the same evening the Independence League of New York gave u dinner which wus at tended by four hundred und twenty-five gentle men. Wm. It. Hours t, District Attorney Jerome of New York, District Attorney Morun of Boston, John Temple Gruves of Atluntn, were umong those present. In' his address Mr. Hearst said: "Neither one of tho old parties-stands today for any particular principle. There are trusts demo crats ajid nntl-trusf democrats; there ure trust re publicans and anti-trust republicans; there are high tariff republicans and tariff reform republi cans, and there ore democrats scattered all along the way from protection to free trade. In fact there are in both purtles those who profit by class distinction and special privilege and those who stand for popular rights and equal opportunities for all. Political battles today are not fought on tho real issues of today and these Issues will never be decided until some party Is formed that will stand boldly for definite principles that will col lect -within its ranks all those committed to those principles and that will rise or fall according to tho verdict of the people on those principles. The motto of the democratic party is 'Anything to get in.' The. motto of the republican party is 'Any thing to stay in.' Take tho two prlncnples now conspicuously before the country, the principle of public control of public utilities und tho principle of public ownership of public utilities. Both avos good, both ure practlcublo, but both ure dependent upon tho honesty und efficiency of the administra tion thut operates them. It bus been proven pos sible for corrupt or Incompetent men so to mls munnge the postul service of this country us to" nlmost discredit tho whole system of public own ership. The postoffice presents a deficit of $10, 000,000 a year, when it should produce a profit of ut leust thut amount. I say this condition of the postofllce finances is as much corruption as it is incompetency. The fraudulent weighing of tho mails Is thievery. The corrupt expenditure of the people's money in political subsidies is robbery. And the campaign contributions of the beneficiary corporations are bribery. In 1904 Mr. Perkins contributed $50,000. of the money of widows and orphans to Mr. Cortelyou, cumpnign collector of the republican purty. In 1005 Mr. Cortelyou, :is postmnster general, puid back to Perkins tbe party debt with public funds- He awarded Perkins a contract for his steamsliip line which pays him $500,000 u your more than other steamship lines are paid for a similar service. This contract ex tends over ten yours, und will net Mr. Perkins $5,000,000 nbovo a legitimate profit. Mr. Perkins has returned under tho-force of public exposure the $50,000 which he appropriated from the wid ows and orphans. But he is still ahead $4,050, 000 on the transaction. Mr. Cortelyou hast paid out $5,000,000 of tho people's money to get $50,000 for the republican campaign fund, and has as yet shown no disposition to return a dollar. So it seems that Mr. Roosevelt und Mr. Hnrrimun aro not the only practical men in this practical admin istration. Mr. Cortelyou and Mr. Perkins appear to be about us practical as men can be and remain at large. Not public contrornor public ownership will be successful until you elect faithful public officials, and you will not elect fuithful and; com petent men to office until you choose the managers of your government as you would the managers of your private business, with more consideration for their worth than for their party affiliation." . UNDER the leadership of John Sayles, the Dem ocratic Society of Erie county and western New York, has been formed. 'Referring 'to "this orgunizution, a newspaper dispatch says: "After the general meeting the executive committee elected tho following officers for the cdmingyear: President, John Sayles; secretary, J. B. Kennedy; treasurer, Edward E. Tanner. The constitution adopted provides us follows: The name of the society shall be the Democratic Society of Erie County und Western New York; its object shall be 'to exalt and proclaim democratic party princi ples and loyally support all regularly nominated democratic candidates.' The annual meeting of tho society shall be held on the 8th day of Janu-" ary in each year." EVEN President Schurmaj tX Cornell Univer-, sity, tukes a poke at Mt. Roosevelt, and -draws a .parallel between the president and Ty-'i berius Gracchus. The, Wall Street Journal .criti-'" cises the Post, for J attacking., the. president in aii address delivered at u memorial meeting! The occusion being a memorial meeting for the late Governor Higgins. The Wall Street Journal adds: "Never in all his long politcal career has Mr. Roosevelt confronted such a crisis us thut which he is now meeting with his customary courage and aggressiveness. From all. quarters his enemies and the enemies of his policy are gathering their forces to crush him. The fight of his life is before him. The question is whether the main work of his udminlstrutlon shall be de stroyed by the election of a reactionary as his successor, or whether it shall be carried to its le gitimate consummation by a successor in full sym pathy with his ideus. While his enemies are thus gathering, the evidences of Roosevelt's popularity ure also manifest In all parts of the country, anil those who look for the speedy decline of his po litical power may find themselves woefully dis appointed." . A. Commoner reader sends an extract from the editorial columns of the New York Sun, and asks that it be printed in this paper in order that Commoner readers may be Informed as to the sig nificance of the political movements. Tho Suu'a editorial is entitled "The- Real Problem of the " South," und is as follows: "It is probable that within the next twelve months Mr. Bryan's hold upon the iraaglnution of the southern democrats will be seriously weakened if not altogether de stroyed. The leaders of thought in that section, who if need be can make themselves also leaders in action, are gradually absorbing the conviction that if the south is to continue its career, of ma terial prosperity it musreonfide its destinies to a regime of conservatism. They have reached ah altitude of philosophy at which the party label of the future president is of far less importance than his patriotism, his common sense and his identifi cation with the purposes and methods of true democracy. Meanwhile, Avithout at all intending to chullenge tho sincerity of Mr. Roosevelt's re nunciation, muny of them entertain the belief that he will be the next candidate of the republican party, and they discover only a deeper alurm and apprehension in the alternative presented by the WS1I.am J 5rynn As "y praise the sit uation, it is for thorn n choice between Tweedle dum and Tweedlede6, with an .inlpasse for prog ress und development in both Toads:: They cannot perceive under the auspices of either the smallest assurance of that orderly and tranquil dispensation '. m Yl 1 y &., -jaJfr.',