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The Gommoner.
VOLUME T NUMBER 21
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G GOVERNOR CETMMINS of Iowa has declared
I" f favor of Mr. Roosevelt's nomination.
He says Mr, Roosevelt fa boand to accept- Ad
ding; "I believe well bare a red hot fight, an
because 1 believe the contest will be severe I am.
for Roosevelt. One ot the first reasons that I
am for Roosevelt fa that he fs more likely to be
elected than amy mant we coald nominate. Tariff
rcvMon will be involved. I hope the next con
vention will take it up by declaring for tariff
revfaion and a broader application of reciprocity.
That's one of the things I am working for."
IN THE ARCHIVES of the Pennsylvania rail
road has been found a letter from James
Buchanan, written when he was president of
the United States, declining an offer of a free
pass on the Northern Central railroad. The let
ter came Into the possession of the Pennsylvania
railroad when that road acquired control of the
Northern Central. The letter as given by the
Philadelphia correspondent for the New York
World follows: "Washington,-24 March, 1859.
Dear Sir: I return the tree ticket which Mr.
Gittings has directed to be forwarded to me for
the Northern Central railroad with as many
thanks for his kindness as though I had accept
ed. It has been the practice of my life not to
travel free on any railroad, being opposed to
the whole system of granting such privileges to
individuals not connected with these roads.
Your, very respectfully, James Buchanan; Rob
trt S. HoIIIns, Esq., Secretary."
A JULY FOURTH message from New York
by the Associated Press was to this ef
fect: "A brief message from William J. Bryan
was one of the features of the celebration of
the Fourth of July of the Tammany society to
day. Mr. Bryan was one ot the guests invited
to help the society celebrate, but was unable
to attend and sent a message from Lincoln, in
which he said: 'I trust you? 'celebration will In
crease the enthusiasm of the New York democ
racy and direct attention to the fact that the
economic questions now before the country
the trust question, the tariff question and the
railroad question all involve the same issue,
viz: Whether the government shall be admin
istered in the interest of a few favorites or in
behalf of the whole people. Other questions
will enter into the campaign, but these questions
emphasize the importance of applying to the
government the Jcffersonian doctrine of 'equal
rights to all and special privileges to none.'
William J. Bryan.' The Tammany exercises con
sisted of the reading of the Declaration of In
dependence and speeches by Congressmen
ErT$e ?ockran of New York, Henry L. Rainey
of Illinois and James M. Brinson of Colorado."
IN AN AUCTION sale in Philadelphia recently
where the Matthew A. Stickney collection
of rare coins was disposed of, a silver dollar of
1804 brought the sum of $3,600, and thereby
hangs an interesting tale which is "told by the
Wheeling (W. Va.) Register: "This particular
coin, of which there are only bIx known to be
in existence, was purchased by a Parisian col
ector, in 1874, for the sum of five francs a
little over a dollar. It was passed along to a
Berlin collector, where it changed hands, In
1885 for $200. It was then brought to this
$1,000 for it. That gentleman passed It alone
always at an advanced price, until it came into
the possession of Mr. Stickney, who frequently
refused offers of $3,500 for it. Finally it passed
under the hammer, and brought $3,600, as stat
?' j trJ!i0U,d nW Probably command in excess
i '??,?' ?Ven at auctIn r it Is the only
coin of the denomination and year, open to even
n ffrtCla8i,!g, Power of gold. Of the klx known
to bo in existence, three are In great public
w " ian(! tW0 are ln th0 hand of wealthy
private collectors. Ihero is a story about the
scarcity of this particular silver coVwhich is
worth repeating. It is to the effect that at
iJ0?.0!1!0 troubles wIth the Barbary States,
18 fl R riifrCa;, many tenB thousands of the
of the American ships of war for the payment
of the crew. Through some misfortune, as the
story goes, these dollars were lost overboard,
and cow remain in repose at the bottom of the
sea on the southern side of the Mediteranean.
And every one of them would under present con
dition, bring at least $500, making due allow
ance for the recovery of only a portion of the
treasure. At the Philadelphia sale under consid
eration, gold coins of the United States brought
these prices:
Gold eagle, 1804 $ 42.00
Half eagle, 1807 250.00
Half eagle, 1821 '. '. 560.00
Half eagle, 1821 .-. 200.00
lialf eagle 1824 120.00
Half eagle, 1827 : 350.00
Half eagle, 1828 ;". 360.00
Half eagle, 1829 360.00
Quarter eagle, 1797 . . . . : ; . . . 200.00
Quarter eagle, 1826 165.00
Quarter eagle, 1834 ; 320.00
Dollar, 1794 -...-. 190.00-
IN THE HAYWOOD case at Boise, Idaho, the
defense introduced a large number of wit
nesses who denied details of the stories told
by Orchard. Eugene Englee, former attorney
general for Colorado, testified that Orchard had
told him of the loss of a rich share in the Her
cules mine and of his intention to kill Steunen
berg. Englee told at great length how the mili
tary authorities at Cripple Creek defied the pro
cess of the civil courts, how he was himself de
ported from Telluride, where he went as counsel
for the federation, and how he was later de
ported from Cripple Creek the day the mob de
stroyed the union store at Goldfield. His entry
into extended descriptions and minute details
brought repeated objections from the prosecu
tion and finally the judge intervened to limit
him to the material facts to save the time of
the court and jury. The defense also produced
Thomas C. Foster, now a bartender of Bisbee,
Ariz., and who as a union miner was tried and
acquitted at Cripple Creek on the charge that
he had attempted to wreck a train on the Flor
ence & Cripple Creek railroad. Foster told of
his experience in the "bullpen," an attempt of
Detectives D. C. Scott and H. C. Sterling to
force a confession from him, which was fol
lowed by seventeen days' solitary confinement
and his final flight from the district, when he
walked thirty miles and fasted for over thirty
hours.
n OVERNOR HUGHES of New York has se
VJC lected ten men who are to comprise the
public utilities commissioners and are to have
jurisdiction over the street railways, steam rail
roads, gas and electric companies. The new
commissioners are as follows: First district
(Greater New York), William R. Wilcox of
Manhattan, chairman; William McCarroll' of
Brooklyn; Edward M. Bassett, of Brooklyn
Milo Roy Maltbie, of Manhattan; John E. Eustis
of the Bronx. Second district (all other coun
ties), Frank W. Stevens, Jamestown, chairman
Charles Hallam Keep, of Buffalo; Thomas Mott
Osborne, of Auburn; James E. Sague, of New
Hamburg; Martin S. Decker, of New Paltz. Re
ferring to these appointees the New York World
says: "Seven of these are republicans, three
are democrats. Of the seven republicans only
one, possibly two, can be called organization
men. Not one of the ten is a regular politician.
Six of the ten are lawyers, three are business
men, one is a corporation investigator. The
salary of each commissioner Is $15,000 a year."
THE POWERS of New York's utilities com
mission are described by the World In this
way: "The state utilities commission, which
was appointed yesterday and will begin work
Monday, has tbese powers: To regulate and
control' a 1 railroads, street railways, gas and
electric lighting companies; it can compel all
transportation corporations to give safe and ade
quate service at just and reasonable rates- it
can prevent rebates and discrimination in rates
between different classes of shippers, or nos
sengers, or kinds of traffic; it can compel all
common carriers to furnish sufficient cars and
motive power to meet all the requirements of
the public both as to passengers and freight; the
utilities commifsion law provides against the
giving of free passes except in a few limited
instances; no franchise shall be capitalized in
excess of the amount actually paid to the state
for the franchise; the capital stock of a corpora
tion formed by merger shall not exceed the sum
of the capital stock of the consolidated com
panies; no corporation shall purchase or hold
stock in another common carrier corporation
unless authorized by the commission."
ANEW YORK reader writes to the Houston
(Texas) Post as follows: "In reference
to your leading editorial entitled A Spectacle
?pan'' I wouId Iike to relate an incident
which ought to dispel some of your skepticism
of Japan's designs on us. A few days ago I
accidentally made the acquaintance of a Japa
nese gentleman in a Sixth avenue elevated train
He spoke English fluently, seemed to be well
educated and Impressed me as knowing a great
deal about naval matters so much that I now
suspect he was a former naval officer. Our con
versation turned to the possibility of war be
tween Japan and the United States, and he took
no pains to conceal his views or his knowledge.
He said he believed war would come in the near
future and would be begun by Japan, but only
under certain unique conditions; namely, only
if Japan can cripple at least half of our navy
with a single blow, as she had done at Port
Arthur. The Japanese naval staff was greatly
disappointed when our government recently
ordered home the battleships Ohio, Oregon and
Wisconsin, from the far east. They had hoped
that our feet there would be augmented by the
addition of the five new battleships of the Vir
ginia class and perhaps the two of the Louisiana
class, making ten in all, which they believed
they could destroy in a single night attack with
avout 200 torpedo boats. However, the Japa
nese naval officers, he said, were somewhat re
assured when we replaced the battleships with
the four cruisers, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Mary
land and West Virginia. He even went so far
as to declare that plans are ready for the capture
of these cruisers, the destruction of the dry dock
Dewey, and the conquest of the Philippines.
Further, in Japanese newspapers our admirals
Dewey and Evans are likened to Russian officers
and characterized as stupid and Incompetent.
The Russians are styled 'tea admirals,' while
Evans and Dewey are called 'cabin admirals
etc. I leave you to draw your own conclusions."
SENATOR THOMPSON of the New York as
sembly introduced a resolution providing
for the appointment of a committee to investi
gate the contributions made through George B.
Cortelyou to "the republican campaign fund in
1904. The resolution did not pass. The Hous
ton (Texas) Post tells the story in this way:
"Senator Raines, President Roosevelt's mouth
piece in the New York legislature,- imposed his
objection to the consideration of the resolution
and It goes to a standing committee that will
promptly pigeonhole it forever. The democrats
were unanimous for the resolution, but the pres
ident's closest friends were obdurate and pre
vented consideration. If Cortelyou's manage
ment of the Roosevelt campaign was clean as
the president asserted, it seems to us that the
proposed investigation would have served to for
.ever silence the ugly allegations which have
been made from time to time since Judge Par
ker first raised the issue during the closing days
of the last presidential campaign. The corpora
tions that contributed to the fund, the men who
acted for the corporations and the politicians
who represented the committee all reside in
New York City, with the exception of Secretary
Cortelyou. The books of the corporations are
available aud it would be easy to dispose of
the matter once for all. Could Senator Raines
possibly have represented the wishes of the pres
ident, who has spoken so strongly and so fre
quently on the virtue of publicity? Is it not
plain that so palpable an effort to suppress the
financial operations of the republican committee
,beaccei2ted by the Pubc as a republican
confession of cuilt? Why can not Mr.. Rom-
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