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The Commoner. -
JANUARY 29, 1909
9
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a moment to comfort her, but I knew there was
no hope for that. And through all my thoughts
there ran as a sort of undertone a feeling of
wonder why I hung suspended in the air and
could not get to my journey's end. My life
from boyhood days was reviewed. I saw every
act that I have done which I am ashamed of.
I saw the windows passing up and I know I
was not yet half way down. Then I felt the
rope in my hands burning and cutting my flesh.
The vibration of the rope, which was fastened
at both ends, had carried it inward twelve feet
at the middle, and in my lightning-like descent
I had happened to make about half of my fall
at the instant the rope came nearest me. I
would have reached the bottom in two-thirds of
a second more. I heard Pepperdine strike and
scream. The pain in my hands made me want
to relinquish my hold, for 1 thought that I would
be killed anyway. But I decided to be game.
Next I saw darkness illuminated with millions
of sparks. I knew then that I should see my
wife again. I know that if death came it would
not be immediate. Then I lost consciousness."
THE PRESIDENT'S barber is just now in the
limelight. The Omaha World-Herald says:
"Some comment has been excited by the dis
covery that the colored barber who shaves the
president is carried on the pay roll as an em
ploye in the office of the auditor of the navy
at a salary of $1,600. All he does is shave
the president, and that is all he has done for
years. He rarely if ever shows up at the audi
tor's office. This is a means of getting some
thing for nothing commonly practiced among
high officials at Washington. Men are hired by
the government at from $900 to $1,500 or more
a year, congress appropriates for their pay as
'laborers,' 'janitors,' 'gardeners,' etc., etc. and
then they are immediately assigned to act as
lackeys, valets, servants, of officeholders who
thus escape the necessity for paying their help
out of their own pockets. Similarly the presi
dent assigns a war vessel for the exclusive use
of himself and family in pleasure excursions and
traveling by water. Similarly appropriations
are made for horses for the army, and the
horses are used instead to draw someone's fam
ily carriage, while a 'gardener' acts as coach
man, a 'janitor' as footman, and a 'messenger'
as hostler. Senator Tillman franked a govern
ment typewriter from South Carolina to Wash
ington, and was branded before the world as a
desperate and vicious character in consequence.
Will the class in ethics please stand up and say
wherein Tillman's transgression was more cul
pable than that of his furious critic?"
THE GOVERNMENT made a profit during the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, of $10,
541,371 on the coinage of silver, nickel and
one-cent bronze pieces. This represents the
difference between the price paid by thev govern
ment for the metals and their coinage value.
The following is taken from the New York
Tribune: "Frank A. Leach, director of the mint,
gives these figures in his annual report. The
original deposits of gold bullion in the mints and
assay offices during the fiscal year amounted
to $207,415,984, and uncurrent United States
gold coin of the face value of $4,020,668 was
received for recoinage. Silver bullion pur
chased for subsidiary silver coinage during the
year aggregated 18,819,279 standard ounces.
The coinage executed by the mints during the
fiscal year 1908 amounted to $197,238,377 in
gold, of which $106,182,420 was in double
eagles and $4,829,060 in eagles of the designs
prepared by the late Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
the American sculptor. The amount of subsi
diary silver coinage executed was $16,530,477,
which is the largest subsidiary silver coinage
executed in any one year since 1877, when the
government was preparing for the resumption
of specie payments and issuing subsidiary silver
coins in redemption of fractional currency. The
director of the mint estimates the production
of gold in the "United States during the calendar
year 1907 to have been $90,407,700, and, silver
for the same period 56,514,700 fine ounces, of
the commercial value of $37,299,700 at the
average New York price of silver for the cal
endar year 1907, namely, 66 cents an ounce.
The director estimates the production of the
precious metals in the world during the calendar
year 1907 to have been $410,555,900 in gold
and 185,014,623 fine ounces of silver of the
commercial value of $122,090,000 at the aver
age price of silver for the year. The increase
in the production of silver for 1907 over that
of 1906 was 19,260,000 fine ounces. The stock
of gold coin in the United States on June 30
last is estimated at $1,535,169,328; silver coin,
$715,615,595, including $568,259,812 in silver
dollars; gold bullion held by the treasury, $79,
971,247, and silver bullion (cost value), $7,979,
000. The stock of gold coin in the world on
January 1 last is estimated at $7,014,600,000;
silver coin, $3,530,700,000, and the uncovered
paper, $4,302,500,000."
WA. CROUFET of Washington, D. C,
e and well known as a newspaper and mag
azine writer, contributes to the New York
World this interesting letter: "In his speech
on Monday and his explanation Senator Tillman
was betrayed by his southern origin into the
use of the word 'undertake' in the sense alto
gether different from its usual meaning at the
north and in Washington. lie declared thct he
had not 'undertaken' to buy any land at a cer
tain time, meaning that he had not entered
definitely into the undertaking. This was quite
correct in the old English use of the word.
Even today the surprised tourist sees in many
parts of London the word 'undertaker' in letters
two feet long across the front of buildings, and
on inquiry finds that the occupant is not a
'funeral director' at all, but simply an architect
and contractor who 'undertakes' to erect a row
of buildings. South Carolina retains more old
English pronunciations and definitions than any
other state except Rhode Island, and it is not
necessary for her senior senator to 'undertake'
to correct the interesting and harmless survivals.
The senator was also betrayed into rather an
unhappy use of the word 'disingenuous; In the
sentence 'J perhaps was disingenuous.' It is
quite too strong a word for the occasion and
entirely misleading. Indeed, ho says imme
diately afterward: 'I have not attempted to
deceive anybody. I have not told any false
hoods. I spoke to the attorney general about
it. I explained to the agent of the secret service
the whole transaction.' This is certainly as
frank and candid as anything can be. Wo all
know that the 'ingenue' of the stage is so called
because she is quite too ingenuous, lacking that
quiet reticence and reserve which result from
a wider knowledge of tho world, and which
are often Indispensable in dealing. with' the
'subtle and crafty." '
REFERRING TO the mystery surrounding tho
identity of tho prosecuting party In tho
proceedings against the New York World and
the Indianapolis News, tho New York Globe, a'
republican paper, says: "If it shall turn out to
be William Nelson Cromwell or Douglas Robin
son or any of the gentlemen whose names were
without just reason connected with insinuations
of Panama corruption, the grand juries and the
courts can be trusted to attend to the case in
the ordinary course of business. But if it is
the government which contends that it has been
libeled as an institution, it would seem that
the Roosevelt administration was seeking to
celebrate its approaching . departure by intro
ducing Its greatest Innovation. For a century
and more since the repeal of the sedition law,
whose enactment wrecked the Adams adminis
tration and destroyed the federal party the
country has quietly reposed in the belief that
the government could not be libelled that it
was perfectly safe to say all manner of dis
agreeable things concerning it. If this notion is
wrong, and anything said In disrespect or ridi
cule of these United States Is a crime, it is
manifest that the number of criminals has been
very large. If assault on men in office Is to
be construed as assault on the government, and
as such punishable, our political campaigns have
been one long orgy of crime. It may be sus
pected, when the lid is lifted, that it will be
discovered that the theory outlined by the presi
dent in his Pulitzer message has not been fol
lowed, and that the prosecution is on the old
and defensible ground that some person has
been lied about and that he has taken his
grievance to the authorities."
A WASHINGTON dispatch to the Houston
(Texas) Post says that an agreement has'
been reached among republican senators to con
firm no more of President Roosevelt's nomina
tions, especially those to judicial positions. On
this point the Post saysJ "The agreement in
effect not only serves notice upon the president
that the senate holds him in the utmost con
tempt, but that it proposes in tho most direct
way possible to make him feel some sense of
the humiliation he has brought upon himself
by his own perverse conduct. In no other way
could the senate so effectually make him feel
Its resentment as by turning down the appoint
ment of his favorites to office, many of whom
havo -not doubt been promised easy berths for
the future, upon the presumption that out of
gratitude for the support rendered him by tho
president in securing- the nomination, Mr. Taft
.would not rr.iso any objections to such unusual
exercise of tho .appointing power on tho part
of one about to rotlro from office. Though
humiliating tho confession, It is nevertheless
true that every day brings new developments
leading inevitably to the conclusion so accurate
ly expressed by ex-Governor George W. Peck a
few days since that 'Roosevelt will leave the
presidential chair cordially disliked by tho great
masses of the American people, even among the
members of his own party who have become
thoroughly disgusted with him.' Thus, In Mr.
Roosevelt is the observation of Solomon that
Pride gocth before destruction and an haughty
spirit before a fall' again strikingly verified."
QkCRErAR.. of the Interior Garfield declares
KJ that during tho past two years government
land worth $110,000,000 has Icon stolen. Tho
Washington correspondent for the Chicago
Rocord-Herald says: "Information of these
wholesale frauds has come into the possession
of tho secretary through special agents in the
field. These lands are situated chiefly in states
west of the Mississippi river and have been
fraudulently acquired by corporations and In
dividuals. With a view of recovering tho lands,
Secretary Garfield sent today letters to Chair
men Halo and Tawney of the senate and house
appropriation committees respectively, asking
for an additional appropriation of $500,000;
which if granted, with that already asked for
will givo the dopartment $1,000,000 for that
purpose. The specific purpose of tho appropria
tion requested is for preventing 'depredations
upon public timber, protecting public lands, ex
amining swamp lands, etc' It is stated that
there is reasonable prospect of recovering much
of this alleged fraudulently acquired land It the
appropriation is promptly made. It also is
pointed out that, while a million dollars may
seem large, it is not one per cent of the com
mercial value of the land which the government
may hope to recover. Secretary Garfield also
submits a statement of H. II. Schwartz, chief
of the field service, showing over 32,000 distinct
cases of alleged land frauds demanding further
investigation. The number of such cases await
ing investigation, by states, Is as follows: Ore
eon, 1,462; California' and Nevada, 1,409; Wash-
ington and North Idaho, 1,325; Montana, 3,605;
Colorado, 8,621; Arizona, 496; Wyoming, 21,
155; Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North and
South Dakpta, 5,894; Missouri, Louisiana and
Arkansas, 1,593; Utah, 1,482; Oklahoma and
Kansas, 1,012; New Mexico, 1,205, and Florida,
Alabama and Mississippi, 1,960."
ANEW YORKER, who signs his communi
cation "No Hero Worshipper," sends to the
New York World this letter: "In view of some
recent occurrences in the city of Washington,
and because of the fact that tho people of the
United States have seen fit to bow down in
abject homage to a fetish of personal grandeur,
it might bo well to direct their attention to an
abstract from a bygone and well-nigh forgotten
page of American history: 'Articles exhibited
by the house of representatives of the United
States, In the name of themselves and all of
tho people of the United States, etc., viz.: Art
icle X. That said Andrew Johnson, president of
the United States, unmindful of the high duties
of his office, and the dignity and proprieties
thereof, and of the harmony and courtesies
which ought to exist and bo maintained between
the executive and legislative branches of the
government of the United States, designing and
intending to set aside the rightful authority and
powers of congress, did attempt to bring into
disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and re
proach the congress of tho United States, and
tho several branches thereof, to impair and de
stroy tho regard and resnect of all the good peo
ple of the United States for the congress and
legislative powers thereof (which all officers of
the government ought inviolably to preserve
and maintain), and to excite the odium and re
sentment of all the good people of the United
States against congress and in pursu
anco of his said design and intent, did openly
and publicly make and deliver
certain intemperate, inflammatory and scanda
lous harangues as well against congress
as the laws of the United States duly enacted
thereby.' "
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