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JUNE 11, 1909
The Commoner.
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Mississippi recognized the propriety
of , the likeness of Missfssippi's
worthy son being upon the silver
service. 'We shall not deny the
memory of 'your departed chieftain,
the homage that is due him,' said
the young lieutenant commander, 'for
we believe that there should be ren
dered unto Davis a tribute that is
due Davis.' The address of the young
naval officer was greeted with a
storm of applause from Mississip-pians."
The Panama Canal libel case, on
trial before Federal Judge Anderson
at Indianapolis, was complicated by
the court's ruling that it vould be
necessary for the government to
prove express malice. Louis How
land, who wrote the editorials and
handed them to Mr. Williams, told
the court that hewrote them because
he thought -the subject was "the big
gest thing in the campaign," and he
should not have discharged his duty
if he had not discussed it. He had
made no public investigation into
the records of the senate inquiry,
and he did not know personally that
C. P. Taft was interested in the Pan
ama canal transfer. A newspaper
did not have the time to enter upon
such investigations, he said. "I
was suspicious, and I am yet suspi
cious," he said. "I think I had
good reasons for everything I wrote."
At the request of the United
States attorney the case was contin
ued to October 11 to permit the
prosecution to call Frank H. Hitch
cock, chairman of the republican na
tional committee; Norman E. Mack,
chairman of the democratic national
committee, and other witnesses.
A.Honolulu cablegram carried by
the Associated Press says: "After
some of them had pont twenty years
of their life in the leper settlement
on the island of Molokai, ten of
eleven supposed lepers who were re
turned here at the instance of the
territorial legislative committee, for
re-examination, have been declared
free of the disease. Of these, two
were boys of six and seven years,
but the others vary in age from
twenty-seven to seventy-nine. A pa
thetic feature of the re-examination
is the probability that some of the
older patients will petition to be re
turned to the island, as they have
been shut off from the world and
their friends so long that they have
no place else to go. A few of the
patients were sent to the settlement
before the bacterological test for
leprosy was discovered, and it is be
lieved that in some -cases a natural
cure has been effected. Nineteen
other supposed lepers will be brought
from the settlement for re-examination
in a short time."
Leo F. McCullough, president of
the Boston common council last
year, was sentenced to serve two
years at hard labor in the state
prison and James T. Cassady to serve
one year at hard labor, both having
been convicted of conspiracy to de
fraud the city of Boston, and of
stealing $200 by making out a false
order for a set of law books. At the
same session former Alderman
George H. Battis was sentenced to
serve three years at hard labor for
the laTceny of money in connection
with the purchase of prizes, for a
Fourth of July athletic contest, held
under the auspices of the city.
THE COMMONER
With W. J. Bryan's Lincoln, Neb.,
Commoner, a weekly, and Norman E.
Mack's Buffalo, N. Y., National
Monthly, the democrats of the na
tion will be well .supplied with liter
ature both hot and cold, with the
dally and weekly press as fillers.
Both of these publications are ably
edited by men of national reputation,
and it is to be hoped that they will
not only bring out the 6,400,000 men
who voted the straight ticket at the
last election, but in addition con
vince enough of the wayward politi
cal sinners to get in the right road,
to win both congress and the next"
presidency. Maury (Tenn.) Democrat.
BRITAIN'S RAILWAY PROBLEM
Aside from tho periodical scaro
over the progress of other nations in
building navies and tho proposed re
form of the poor laws, no measure in
Great Britain is attracting more pub
lic attention than tho bill before tho
house of commons, ordered to its sec
ond reading recently, which author
izes the consolidation of three British
railway systems into one. The roads
in question, tho Great Northern,
Great Central and Great Eastern,
have a capitalization of $815,000,000
about one-eighth of the entire capi
talization of railroads in the United
kingdom. The combined mileage of
the three roads is 2,670 miles, about
11.6 per cent of the 23,108 miles in
the United Kingdom.
Private ownership of railways has
awakened little opposition in Great
Britain for many years. But the
tendency of the times is toward con
solidation of lines, some of which are
parallel and competing. For such
consolidations an act of parliament
Is necessary. When it is recalled
that 145 companies are nominally
now operating railways in England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland, repre
senting about 250 owning companies,
the significance of the proposed con
solidation of the Great Northern,
Great Central and Great Eastern lines
becomes apparent.
Although the government is sup
porting the bill, much opposition has
been expressed in parliament to its
passage. Winston Spencer Churchill,
president of tho board of trado, dc-
lenuod it warmly, his chief argument
being that every union of tho pro
posed kind paved the way for a union
of all tho railways of tho kingdom.
umcers of tho organized railway em
ployes supported tho bill also on tho
ground that should the nronosod con
solidation not bo authorized by par
liament the companies would make
secret agreements which would bo to
tho disadvantage of the employes.
Tho theory of British legislators
concerning railways has been that
tnoy snoum Do sufficiently competi
tive to keep down rates and to nro-
vldo good service for the nation. But
with consolidation favored by states
men and advocated by tho officers of
the -railways tho question arises
whether governmental control of na
tionalization of the roads is de
sirable for tho future.
A society to promote tho national
ization of railways has boon formnrf
and a bttl has been introduced In par
liament by W. Thorno, one of tho
labor members, to confer unon tho
local government board powers to ac
quire the ownership of canals and
railways and to use, or lease for
operation only, such property. Last
October the Amalgamated Society of
Railway Servants passed a resolution
by an almost unanimous vote favor
ing tho nationalization of railways.
"The combination of tho companies. "
said tho resolution, "is a' further
menace to British trado and a stop
which may lead to low wages and
long hours. In tho interest of all
concerned it is essential that the
railways, like tho postofllco, should
be run for tho nation's welfare, and
not for dividends and profits."
In their crusado the advocates of
nationalization have received support
from one of tho foremost railway
manngcrs of tho nation, Sir George
Oibb, who has said that ho would
pvofor "a system of well regulated
monopoly, even in tho guiso of stato
ownership of railways, rather than
tho half-hearted and imperfect rail
way competition which exists in Eng
land." Botli Winston Spencer
Churchill and David Lloyd-George,
tho chancellor of tho exchequer, havo
expressed favor for tho nationaliza
tion of railways.
During tho protracted dobato over
tho consolidation bill one member of
parliament argued that tho proposed
combination was intended merely to
bolster up i fresh issue of. capital.
4Do not," said ho, "lot us bring upon
this country tho tremendous evils
against which President Roosevelt
struggled for years' Tho fear of
overcapitalization in constantly ox-4
pressed by tho British, advocates of
nationalization. It is claimed by them
that tho capitalization of $6,434,
000,000 for tho 23,000 miles of
British lines Is largely fictitious, rep
resenting only water. Thoy point to
tho state-owned railways of Prussia,
which for 21,500 miles have a capi
talization of only $2,188,000,000, as
an example of what ought to bo. Va
rious features of tho Prussian system
are held to show tho superiority of
national over privato ownership.
Commenting on tho existing situa
tion in Groat Britain, tho Nation of
London says in its last issuo:
"It is common knowledge that no
govcrnmontary control over tho rato
facilities and other public interests
has been obtained. Tho powers with
which tho interstate commission of
tho United States was recently in
vested, enabling it to determino and
impose a reasonable rato for tho va-'
rious sorts of carriage, aro not In.
fact, possessed by any government
authority in this country. Tho crudo
Well-Here we are again!
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