Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1907)
myrr-'j!&-fi'-ry&tzrrm "yn ifa.wtrjI'V'V 1$'"Y1 s The Commoner. VOLUME VNUMBER 19 ' 'W HCOLJRKeNT Vopc Jit . h 4 J 1 tjl" 1 ! i HK11 N THOSE WHO THINK tho govornmont owner ship of railroads is an ontlroly now idea, should read some of tho old newspapers. Rogers Bros., tho manufacturers of silverware, pub lished a paper in 1847. Tho April numbor con tained an editorial announcing that "tho rail road had become a groat instrument of land commorco and trade' and then proceeding to argue In favor of constitutional power for con gress to construct railroads and tho necessity for such construction. The articlo goes so far as to propose six different lines of railroad ag gregating GjDOO miles to bo built at the cost of $5,000- a inllo.-- A READER OP THE New York Evening Post, writing to that newspaper,, says: "In answer to a roquost of the Maryland legis lature, that he. should bo a candidate for a third term, Jofferson said: 'If some termination to tho sorvides of the chief magistrate be not llxed by tho constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, normally four years' will In fact become for life,, and history shows how easily that de generates into an inheritance. I feel it a duty to uo no act which shall essentially impair that prlnciplo; and I should unwillingly be the per son who, disregarding tho sound precedent "Bet by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish tho first attempt of prolongation beyond the socond term of office.' " AN INCIDENT occurred in Ohio recently which sot many hearts a beating. Tho story is told by tho Columbus (Ohio) Press-Post in this way: "A little tot of a girl played be tween tho ties on an intorurbdn railway; a work train dashed toward it on a steep grade; tho motornian made frantic efforts to stop his car, and tho mother, crazed vith fear, rushed to the rescue too late. The car passed over the little one, laughing at the fun, and none the worse, save for the dust thrown over her by the car. On tho west side of Roynoldsburg, on the Buck oyo Lake interurban, is a small bridge, and from it to the street is a pretty steep grade. When cars descend it is at a high speed. Alongside resides Abner Grant, his wife and their five children. Two are twins, nearly five years old. One strayed away from tho eye of the mother and found a pretty place to play between a couple of ties on the railway track. Tho mother at her household duties heard the whistle of an approaching car and, , thinking of her children, ran to tho door to see tho tot on the track. The motorman was swinging at the brakes, but the speed was too great for him to stop, and ' tho car dashod over tho little one. He soon stopped expecting to find a horribly crushed little child. Realize, if you can, the revulsion of feeling to mother and carman when the child was sFill alive, unhurt and laughing." O A WASHINGTON dispatch to the Denver News says: "Justice Harlan of the United States supreme court, aged 74, made a homo run and won tho game in. a baseball con test at tho annual Bhad bake given by the Wash- ' ington Bar association at Marshall Hall, Md., yesterday. When Justice Harlan went to the bat the score was a .tie, and the umpire had called two-strikes and three balls. It was a critical and exciting moment, when Justice Har lan smashed tho sphore a wicked swat squarely on ther nose and drove it to deep center. Ho started around tho bases, and his leg work was really marvelous. The ball was lost in tho tall grass, and before It was recovered Justice Har lan had reached tho homo plate, where he stood Blpplng a mint julep, which had been prepared hurriedly for the agile Kontucklan as a reward for lining out a four-base hit and showing the younger element how to get around the bases." EMPEROR NICHOLAS has recently issued through tho new governor of St. Peters burg, General Dratchowskl, an edict which is calculated to have a lar more serious influence upon his Juture than any of his projects of political reform. Referring "to this order, a writer in tho New York Tribune says: "It IsV an euict, not merely for the suppression of gambling, but for the closlngvof all those social clubs whore playing cards foK money is found to prevail. Thoro havo boon previous manifes toes about the gambling mania at St. Peters burg during tho present and during the previous roign.' But hitherto tho imperial directions about tho matter havo remained to a great oxtont a dead letter. General Dratchowskl, how ever, has made It clear that on this occasion tho matter Is a very serious one; that he is de termined to obdy the Orders of tho czar very stringently, and that tho commands of the czar aro such as admit no misconstruction, both Nicholas and his consort being firmly resolved to stamp out that high play at cards which is tho curse of Russian life, and, responsible for nine tonths of the official 'dishonesty and for the ; social demoralization." - . , . IF RUSSIANS, says this same writer, werel content td play cards like Americans and western nations in general, that is to say, in a sensible fashion, keeping their wits about them and the stakes in relative moderation, no one would dream of offering any objection to the pastime.. But the Slay and Tartar characters, which together go to make up tho Russian na ture, are always prone to senseless extravagance in politics and sociology, nay, even in philos ophy, and particularly in tho matter of vices. Nowhere are dunkenness, immorality and gambling carried to more Insane lengths than in the dominions of the czar, of which the popu lation of the German speaking provinces con stitutes the leaven, and the Poles make the useless, frivolous froth. THE TRIBUNE writer concludes,: "Nicholas," who is a far more level headed man and infinitely more courageous than asserted by the malcontents of his own nation and by ignorant scribes abroad, baB-nad an opportunity of as certaining that the cause of nearly all that vbnallty and dishonesty which are the bane of Russia and the obstacle to reform is gambling; that when a naval, military or civil official ren ders himsolf guilty of embezzlement, of fraud and of corruption, it is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in order to obtain the "means to pay off thoso so-called 'debts of honor' con tracted at cards. He appreciates the fact that if ho can at once put a stop to gambling he will have done more to bring about administra tive integrity than anything else that he could deviso, and that It is hopeless to dream of any reform as long as the mania for high play con tinues to prevail. While the gambling mania pervades every class of tho social scale in Rusr sla, It Is at its worst in the highest ranks of officialdom and of the grand monde. Some of the members of the reigning family are 'the greatest offenders in this respect, particularly the German bornGrand Duchess Vladimir,, who is largely responsible for the inauguration of -the roulette wheel as an indispensable article of furniture in all 'the smartest salons of the aristocracy at St. Petersburg, having been warmly seconded therein by Princess Nellie Bariatinski. The late Emperor Alexander III often intimated to the grand duchess his dis approval of the encouragement which she gave to gambling in high life, and her conduct in tho matter led to her estrangement with her sister-in-law, . now the widowed czarina. This is a matter in which the empress mother and her daughter-in-law, the reigning czarina, are united, and if the Grand Duchess Vladimir spends so much of her time abroad it is be cause she has long since ceased to be on friendly terms with the emperor and the two empresses." THE LUCKY horseshoe is the subject of an interesting letter written to the Boston Herald. The letter follows: "I have noticed several communications in your paper about the 'horseshoe' as a symbol of good luck, and the discussion seems to center about its position when sot up, whether the toe should be up or down. It is in my mind that the origin of the idea that the horseshoe is emblematic of good ..luck is something like this: A mythological legend owns that a certain god, having fought a losing battle, was escaping on his good horse, being closoly- pressed by his enemies. He was confident of eluding them until his horse cast a shoe and soon went lame. In distress andv despair tho god and his horse came to a 'forgo in the forest.' Upon the god stating his plight, tho master of the forge fastened a shoo upon tho horse's foot with such skill and alacrity that the horse pranced for joy and pawed his grati tude, and was soon able to carry his master into safety. Before waving adieu, the god thanked the blacksmith and proclaimed that for all time the horseshoe, which had enable him to escape death, should be the emblem of 'good luck.' Al though I can not give the authority for the above story, I have no v doubt you will find that it ex ists, if you have 'inclination or,. time to' look it, up. The question of whether the shoe should be up or down is unimportant. The shoe is the emblem." ABRAHAM. REUF, for years known as the political' ioss pf San Francisco; created something of a sensation in pleading guilty in a San Francisco court to the charge of exer tion. It is said that Reuf will uncover the story of boodle in San Francisco. An Associated Press dispatch-says: "Reuf read his statement from a manuscript which lie had prepared in the presence of his attorneys a few moments before Judge Dunne's chambers opened. He showed in .his voice, in' the expression on his face, in his quiet and gestureless attitude, and by the tears that again and again overflowed his eyes, the great emotion and utter humiliation that ho suffered. The pathos of the scene was com municated to the crowd that thronged the court room. Tears sprang to the eyes of veteran news paper men who have been lifelong acquaintances and whose papers have conducted against him and his political associates a long and bitter campaign for the purification of municipal af fairs. The accused man was several times -all but overcome by emotion. When he reached the final words of his address--'I desire to with draw my plea of not guilty and' enter the con trary plea'- his voice -was sunk to a -whisper. But so intense was the silencer that it reached" to the far corner of the room. Though Abaham JReuf has formally declared himself to be guilty of. the charge on which he was about to be tried, he nevertheless proclaims his innocence. He-, confessed that he is guilty of having con nived in the corruption in municipal affairs, but he denies, with all the emphasis a man in his unhappy position can command, that he is not guilty of the crime of extortion charged against him. He declares that his sole motive in accus ing himself in Open court wjis to' save the lives of those who, are nearest and dearest to him, his aged father and mother, his maiden sister and a niece." O THE CALL FOR a republican love feast at Columbus, Ohio, has been abandoned for the reason, it is said, that the rank and file of the party do not take kindly to the Roosevelt Taft alleged tie-up with Foraker. In spite of the fact that the love feast has been called, off there is an impression that the result of the republican state convention will be an endorse ment of Taf t for president and an endorsement of Foraker forf senator. O - P ASSOCIATED PRESS dispatch from JX Cleveland says: "The rescinding of the call for the republican love feast at Columbus and the consequent failure of the Taft and Foraker fac tions to get together has greatly, encouraged democratic leadersirt Ohio. They are. of the opinion that they now have an excellent chance of-.electing Senator Foraker's successor and cite the existing legislative makeup as proof. The present Ohio house consists of sixty-two repub licans, fifty-seven democrats and two independ ents. The senate has eighteen republicans, eighteen democrats and one independent, who is classed as a democrat. This gives the repub licans eighty votes against seventy-eight for the democrats and independents. The next senator will be elected by. the legislature chosen at the next election and there are so many districts in which the voto is exceedingly close that it may be safely said that tho democrats havevat least as fair a prospect of overcoming the repub lican lead on joint ballot as the republicans have of increasing it. Five of the present republican . representatives were elected by plurality of less than 100. One had a margin of three vote" Trr wtfM&urij. ixditfgfS&l