t
l&Pftlii'li, Mil
The Commoner
7
U
RTCuRRieNT- Topics y&i
THE RELATIONS between Japan and the
United States would be all right but for
tho interference of the sensational press. A
disjmtch to tho Chicago Recold-Herald, under
date of Washington, April 2, says: "The
Japanese government, in an effort to carry out
all reasonable peace provisions and conventions
among the great powers, and desirous not to
stand in the way of pending negotiations for
arbitration treaties, will readily agree to a re
vision of the Hayachi-Lansdowne treaty of
1905, if this should be found to interfere with
the terms of the Anglo-American treaty. This
fact, cabled to Washington from Tokio, is tho
result of important and hurried exchanges be
tween the Japanese embassy and the foreign
office at Tokio. Tho circumstances that led to
it were purely theoretical, but notwithstanding
this they have resulted in an important de
cision. In taking the stand of being ready
to revise the Anglo-Japanese treaty the authori
ties of tho Japanese empire are acting on the
assumption that the convention of six years
ago may be found to clash with the arbitra
tion agreement between the United States and
Great Britain. As this contingency was widely
published, even if without color of official posi
tiveness, the Japanese embassy lost no time in
transmitting to the homo office the point of
view it sought to carry. It appears, according
to information about this matter that Japan
wishes to go. on record as being ready to sup
port, both in practice as well as in spirit, her
policy of good understanding and friendly
terms with both the United States and Great
Britain. Feeling that she has nothing to lose
by permitting the Anglo-American pact to go
through and that nothing in Japanese states
manship may suffer from its enactment, Japan
will inform the two principals through her am
bassadors of her intentions."
IN THE MUNICIPAL elections held through
out the country there wore many surprises.
The socialists in Milwaukee had a back-set. A
non-partisan judicial and school board ticket
having a complete victory. In Baltimore James
H. Preston, democrat, was elected mayor. Wil
liam Thum, socialist, was elected mayor of
Pasadena Cal. He is called "the millionaire
socialist." In Wichita, Kan., the socialists were
beaten, John M. Graham, independent, being
elected mayor. In Chicago Carter H. Harrison
was elected mayor for the fifth term, defeating
Charles E. Merriam, his republican opponent
by something over 17,000. Referring to the
result in Chicago, the Record-Herald says:
"Harrison's return to public life is interpreted
as heralding great changes in local politics.
His election puts Roger C. Sullivan and the
present democratic county organization out of
power. It will have an important bearing on
control of the state democracy. It will prob
ably determine the leaning of the Illinois dele
gation to the next democratic national conven
tion. Behind the scenes this was one of the
big stakes played for. It was a fight between
Sullivan and a Harrison-Hearst combination,
and Sullivan loses. Again, the election of a
democratic mayor in Chicago, following so
closely upon the election of a democratic county
ticket last November, may presage the election
of a democratic state ticket in 1912. For
weeks republican leaders have been frankly
avowing that the mayoralty election was being
closely watched as an index to what might hap
pen to the state at large in 1912. At Spring
field the talk has been open that the democrats
have an opportunity to overthrow the republi
cans two years hence."
HERE IS A STORY from life, from the Den
ver Times that ought to be read by every
man and woman in the country: "To take a
boy who has been convicted of three crimes into
your home and give him an equal place among
the, other children of the family is a thing that
many mothers might long hesitate to do. Yet
this is what Mrs. Jennie Stephens, a kind and
motherly woman did, for Harrell Martin, the
youth who wag found guilty In the district court
of tho charge of burglary, larceny and of hav
ing received stolen go.Qds. Through a friend
who had previously employed Martin, Mrs.
Stephens learned of tho boy's caso. Regardless
of the charges hanging over his head, she sought
to comfort him in his misfortune. She heard
his story. He was not a bad boy at all; ho
was merely one of the thousand victims of cir
cumstances. 'Come with me,' sho said to tho
lad. 'You shall not want for a home and it
will not be necessary to unlawfully take money
again.' Mrs. Stephens is not wealthy. Sho has
children, one of them a son about tho ago of
young Martin. Mrs. Stephens was surprised
when a representative of the Times asked her
if she did not fear to leave the boy with her
children. She seemed quite pained to think
that any one should regard the youth as a
criminal. 'Not a bit,' she exclaimed with ten
derness. 'Why should I? He is just an inno
cent boy and I believe him thoroughly when ho
says it was the first time he ever yielded to a
wrong impulse.' 'What are you going to do
with him?' was asked. 'I haven't outlined a
definite plan any more than I have for my own
children. I shall give him the same care that
I would a son. He bears all the marks of a
gentleman and I shall trust Implicitly in him.'
In speaking of the early life of Martin, she said
that he had been left an orphan at the age of
six years. Since then he has had to fight many
bitter struggles. He is just twenty-one years
old now. He loft Illinois where he was born,
soon after his mother died. Penniless and alone
he wandered from place to place, seeking em
ployment. He worked aa a bell 'hop,' porter
and anything he could get. Many times he
was compelled to sleep in doorways or a barn,
where he found a softer bed in a hay loft. Martin
has been in Denver two years. His arrest the
other day was the first black mark recorded
against him. 'To send such a boy to a reforma
tory among the worst boy criminals of the state
would be a crime declared Mrs. Stephens. How
many mothers can stand coldly by and watch a
young boy who happens to be at fault on a sud
den impulse, be left to the mercy of the courts
is intolerable. My only thought at present is
to make him a good and useful man. I have
no fears for the outcome.' "
SENATOR O'GORMAN, in a public statement
says: "I am in thorough accord with the
principles enunciated in the platforms of the
last democratic national and state conventions.
The need for an immediate downward revision
of the tariff is urgent and further delay in the
accomplishment of this much needed reform will
not be tolerated by the American people. I am
opposed to all special privileges and private
monopolies; to tho new nationalism and the
centralizing tendencies of the republican party.
I favor rigid economy in governmental expendi
ture and the passage of a constitutional amend
ment providing for an income tax free from
mischievous interference with the govermental
instrumentalities of the several states. I shall
earnestly support the proposed reciprocity treaty
with Canada. I am in favor of the parcels post,
and I have very strong convictions as to tho
duty of the government to fortify the Panama
canal. The democratic party, In national and
state conventions has declared in favor of tho
election of United States senators by the people,
and I unreservedly subscribe to that principle."
IN HIS SPEECH before the University of
California, Mr. Roosevelt said: "I am in
terested in the Panama canal because I started
it. If I had followed traditional, conservative
methods I would have submitted a dignified
state paper of probably two hundred pages to
congress, and the debate on it would have
been going on yet; but I took the canal zone
and let congress debate, and while the debate
goes on, tho canal does also." The New York
World, which has an old grievance against tho
former president contrasts this frank confes
sion of lawlessness with the message to congress
of December 15, 1908, in which Mr. Roosevelt
gaid: "Tho congress took tho action it did
after tho most minute and oxhaustivo examina
tion and discussion, and tho oxecutive carriocj
out tho direction of congress to tho letter. Every
act of this government, ovory act for which this
government had the slightest responsibility, waa
in pursuance of tho act of tho congress hero."
On this point tho World says: "Having ad
mitted that ho aoizod the Panama canal zone,
Mr. Roosevelt might properly proceod to toll
tho wholo truth about Panama how William
Nelson Cromwell, as tho paid lobbyist of tho
French company, year after year blocked tho
adoption of tho Nicaragua route because tho
French company would bo ruined unless it could
sell its property to tho United States; how Mr.
Cromwell, as attorney for tho French company,
was allowed by Mr. Roosevelt and tho state
department to initiate and draft tho treaty be
tween the United States and Colombia, tho
treaty which Colombia refused to ratify; how
tho Panama' revolution was bought and paid
for; how tho American forces, ordered to tho
isthmus by Mr. Roosevelt in advance of the up
rising, prevented tho Colombian troops from
suppressing tho revolt; how $40,000,000 was
then paid by tho United States government to
Mr. Cromwell's clionts and $10,000,000 moro
to the fake republic of Panama. Mr. Roose
velt's testimony before a congressional com
mittee of investigation might bo quite as in
teresting as Mr. Cromwell's."
REFERRING to Now York's new senator;
tho New York World, the paper that opr
posed Mr. Sheehan, says: "It Is. true that
Senator O'Gorman is a member of Tammany
Hall, but tho fact has never influenced his
course as a judge and it should never influence
his course as a senator. Ho has been elected
to the highest office within the gift of tho
state, an office that haB been hold by men Hko
Gouverneur Morris, Do Witt Clinton, Martin
Van Buren, Silas Wright, John A. DIx, William
H. Seward, Hamilton Fish, Roscoo Conkling
and William M, Evarts. It is an office which
Justice O'Gorman can fully measure up to in
charactor and ability. Nothing can prevent hia
being a really great United States senator except
failure to recognize his own opportunities."
GEORGE MORRISON SHAFROTII
George Morrison Shafroth, second son of
Governor and Mrs. John F. Shafroth, died at tho
Denver home of his parents, aged twenty years.
George had been an invalid for many years.
His suffering resulting from an accident hap
pening when ho was a child. Ho was a closo
student, possessing a fine mind, and In spite of
his affliction, a disposition that won him tho
lovo of everyone who came in contact with him.
Men and women in ever section of tho country
will sympathize deeply with Governor and Mrs.
Shafroth. Referring to young Shafroth, the
Denver News said:
'Ho was an invalid nearly all his life. For
the past two years ho has been unable to riso
from his couch. His feebleness was thrown into
yet stronger relief by contrast with tho sturdy
health of his father and brothers. Yet Georgo
Shafroth never brought the burden of illness
and peevishness into the homo. He was tho
life of his homo circle; always cheery, always
hopeful, always willing to take a soldier's chance
with his scanty equipment for life's campaign.'
'Don't bother about me, mother,' he used to
say. 'I can be just as good an office lawyer as
anybody. A man doesn't need to be an athlete:
for that. And there are lots of things a fellow .
can do, nowadays.' He had the courage and
mental capacity to make good; but his health
did not permit him to try."
NEWS
By Munroe Smith, professor in Columbia
University,
"The lie that speeds on wire and rail
Finds everywhere an open door;
Correction Hmpg along the trail.
Tripped up by every editor."
March, 1911. Tho Independent.
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