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The Commoner.
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 34
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AWILKESBARRE, PA., dispatch to the
Philadelphia North American says: "Tho
Rev. J. J. Curran, pastor of Holy Saviour Catho
lic church, this city, has informed his congre
gation that in tho future flowers sent by brew
eries will not bo admittod into tho church. Re
cently a momber of tho congregation died, and
ono of tho local breweries sent an elaborate
floral design with tho namo of tho firm, which
could bo seen all over tho church. Father Cur
ran says tho church is no place to advertise
breweries."
ARE WE TO havo national primaries? A
Des Moines (la.) dispatch carried by the
Associated Press says: "Asserting as a reason
tho fact that tho nominations for prcsidont and
vlco president may bo and actually have been
determined by the voto of delegates from states
which cast practically no voto for tho party
ttlckot and no r elect tho party electoral ticket,
Senator Albert B. Cummins today declared his
Intention. of introducing in the senate a bill
providing for the enactment of a natlon-wido
primary law. Senator Cummins points to tho
difficulty of making any change in the method
of procedure in national conventions relative
'to the basis of representation, and declares that
if congress does not act within a reasonable
.time upon his national primary bill, he will
.propose a law regulating national party conven
tions, making tho basis of representation tho
party vote instead of population. At tho re
cent republican state convention a plank was
adopted in favor of a national primary law,
and tho republicans of the state are committod
to it"
THERE WILL be introduced at the next ses
sion of tho Kansas legislature a measuro
prepared by C. W. Trickett, assistant attorney
general, which contains provisions which its
author believes will bring every man of twenty
ono or older to tho polls at both primary and
regular elections. These provisions are: One,
An. enforced holiday on days of primary and
regular elections of cities of tho first class, and
also for the primary and regular elections for
national, state and county officers. Two, A poll
tax of $3 on every male citizen above tho ago
of twenty-ono, with exemption for those who
voto, and collection to bo enforced against those
who do not vote at the national, state and
county elections. Referring to this measure,
the Oklahoma City Oklahoman says: "While
it is recognized that many of the governmental
ills from which tho country is suffering today
aro duo to negligence on the part of the voting
population, it is by no means certain that a law
making voting compulsory will havo tho effect
desired. It may bo readily seen that such a
penalty may have the effect of swelling tho
number of undesirable votes, for it is not to
bo expected that a matter of $3 penalty will
reform tho negligent well-to-do citizen who is
go often 'too busy' 10 attend to this duty of tho
good citizen. It is possible, however, that a
provision effecting disfranchisement in tho event
of continuous neglect of tho suffrage privilego
might stir this latter class to militant citizen
ship, but there is. no certainty that it would
do so."
NOW JOHN HAYES HAMMOND who recently
made a bitter attack upon republican in
surgency is on the rack. Tho Philadelphia
North American says: "Through a suit before
Supremo Court Justice Brady today, in which
John Hays Hammond and his son Harris aro
defendants, it came out that tho Hammonds
are associated with Henry Clay Russell Wade,
who has been in Sing Sing, in tho promotion of
an automobile machine gun. Mr. Hammond is
one of President Taft's personal friends. During
tho presidential campaign he became president
of tho League of Republican Clubs, and worked
very hard to elect Mr. Taft. Since tho inaugura
tion, Mr. Hammond has been ono of tho presi
dent's closest political advisers. Letters writ
ten by Wade to aid in the sale of stock havo
stated that through Hammond's friendship for
President Taft tho promoters expect to sell tho
gun to tho United States government for at
least $25,000,000. Tho letters do not name
Hammond but" refer to him as a man 'very
wealthy, of very high standing and closely asso
ciated with President Taft.' Tho letters state
that Hammond has purchased all the treasury
stock. It was learned that Hammond and his
son paid $40,000 in cash for all tho $75,000
treasury stock and $25,000 more that Wade
and ono of his associates turned over. The
other associate is Arthur M. Rose, formerly a
Pittsburg promoter, who was let into the com
pany by Wado because he asserted to be able
to interest Hammond. Tho present suit was
brought by William Rose, Arthur's brother, to
recover $8,000 from Wade, tho Hammonds and
Arthur Rose."
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, who died recent
ly in London, aged ninety-one years, be
came famous through her work for the relief
of suffering humanity. A writer in the Chicago
Inter-Ocean says: "Florence Nightingale had
just completed a course of training as a nurse
with the Protestant Sisters of Mercy at Kaiser
worth in Germany when the Crimean war began.
That was a very badly managed war. The
British military organization had fallen into a
rut and into dry rot during tho long peace that
followed the fall of Napoleon, when for over a
generation there was no real war in Europe.
Tho boggling nnd blundering in every depart
ment were such as to exclto a public indignation
which was not exaggerated by its reflections in
the press, tho most accessible specimens of
which now are to be found among the minor
writings of Charles Dickens. At this juncture
Florence Nightingale appealed to the women of
England to volunteer for nursing duty, not so
much in the field as in the baso hospitals at
Scutari, crowded with tho sick from an ill-provided
army exposed to the wet and cold climate
of tho Crimean peninsula. The sufferings of
war are always more from sickness than from
battle wounds, and this was notably the case in
the Crimean conflict, where the British supply
service simply went to pieces and in every
quality save personal courage the British army
exhibited the most abject Incompetence. The
British government was glad of anything that
would divert popular attention and give its men
of real power timo and a chance to straighten
out the tangles into which an incompetent mili
tary bureaucracy had brought the operations
against Russia. It gave Miss Nightingale and
the corps of nurses she enlisted practically a
blank card. Of course Miss Nightingale had her
troubles with official Btupidity at homo and at
tho front, and plenty of them. Fortunately for
her fame and for her backers in the high places
of government she had a genius for organiza
tion that enabled her to make the most of a
great opportunity."
THIS HEROINE knew how to appeal to the
public Imagination for her work as well
as how to do her work itself. Tho Inter-Ocean
writer adds: "She made the doing of what
medical science had said ought to be done in
the way of provision for tho casualties of war
a vivid interest of the man in the street to get
done. She put popular enthusiasm behind tho
demand of experts that England should be bet
ter prepared for war on the side of supply and
medical relief. The spectacle of this woman and
tho women with her freely giving their strength
and their lives to repair the blunders of men
who ought to havo had intelligence enough not
to make those blunders made her ideas an irre
sistible force. Florence Nightingale thus left
an ineffaceable mark on the military organiza
tion of England and of every civilized nation.
Before the Crimean war and her work the
thought of planners for war was mainly of sup
plies of arms and ammunition and that the
soldiers should somehow be fed. Since then
the plans have broadened. Tho soldiers must
be properly fed and competently cared for when
disabled, and not through the makeshifts of in
dividual sympathy and the sacrifices of religious
devotion alone, but as a distinct business and
t'f"- ' rmfm 'Yi--jjM
aim of government, to bo planned for and
thought out and provided for as carefully as
any other business of government. She had her
reward in the gift of a fortune from tho English
people, which she devoted to the endowment of
a school for nurses; in the love and honor that
followed her throughout her long life, and in
the renown that enshrines her name upon his
tory's pages."
CALIFORNIA'S insurgent leader is described
by a writer in the Los Angeles Examiner
in this way: "Hiram Johnson, the insurgent
who has been nominated for governor of Cali
fornia by tho republicans, is a native son of
California, having been born in Sacramento,
September 2, 1866. His father was Grove L.
Johnson, ex-congressman and himself, for years,
one of the leaders of republican politics in tho
state. After attending the public schools in
Sacramento, Hiram Johnson entered the Uni
versity of California when he was eighteen years
old. He did not graduate, however, leaving In
the middle of his third year to marry and
enter upon tho practice of law. ' For a long time
he was associated with his brother, the late
Albert Johnson, who identified himself with the
reform element of the republican party. Dur
ing his many years of practice in Sacramento
Mr. Johnson was an active opponent of tho
regular party organization, and on two occa
sions succeeded in swinging his county dele
gation to state conventions into the insurgent
ranks. He took an active interest in municipal
affairs in Sacramento, and was largely instru
mental, through his independence and origin
ality of campaigning, in. .the election of William
Clark as mayor of the capital city. During
Clark's administration, Johnson, in-the advisory
capacity of city attorney, was responsible for
tho legislation that closed the gambling houses
of Sacramento. In 1902 Mr. Johnson moved
to San Francisco. Here he quickly took a placo
in the front rank of the trial lawyers. One
of his first cases of note was as attorney fcr
Frederick H. Marriott in his suit for damages
against Thomas H. Williams, growing out of
the shooting of Marriott by Williams, as the
result of an alleged slanderous publication.
Johnson won for his client, who sued for $45,
000. As a prosecutor he achieved fame by con
victing George D. Collins, the San Francisco
attorney, who was accused of bigamy. Mr. John
son came into particular prominence through
his association with the graft prosecution, and
it was largely through his work, undertaken
after the shooting of Francis J. Heney, in court
in 1908, that the conviction of Abe Ruef was
brought about. Mr. Johnson first came Into
political notice in San Francisco when he took
part in the Taylor-Langdon campaign of 1907,
his efforts being devoted to the aid of Langdon.
He was also an effective factor in the last munici
pal campaign, and subsequently was chosen by
the Lincoln-Roosevelt league as the candidate
for governor."
IN A SPEECH delivered in New Hampshire
Former United States Senator William B.
Chandler declared that the work of the insur
gents alone has saved the republican party from
annihilation. In hlB argument against contin
ued rule of tho state by the Boston and Maino
railroad he quoted a speech formerly made by
United States Senator Galllnger, now the ablo
supporter of railroads. Mr. Chandler said in
part: "The need of continued reform is to pro
tect the people against the corporations which
had taken possession of nearly everything in
modern lifo. Especially have our railroad cor
porations become most pernicious in New Hamp
shire. Let us see what the railroad corpora
tions have done in New Hampshire; or rather
what the one railroad corporation has done. It
is best stated in the language of our able and
distinguished United States senator, Doctor Gal
llnger. Ho said: 'I regard the Invasion of our
state by the Boston and Maino corporation with
alarm. I believe it will be highly detrimental
to our best interests and it ought to be resisted
by every man who has at heart the welfaro of
New Hampshire, I stand by that declara-
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