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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1913)
wyc" H.r l,. ir U w; 6 The Commoner. VOLUME 13, NUMBER 21 CURR8NT GOPICS 1" W I Snr lmsm&rJ "VJfe - iHK. qarkrsB YI Vr.vJ T31 L,. . j !fi Hi i lin 1 H i) r i. fei if. It ' i SPEAKER CHAMP CLARK expressed the opinion that it is time tho United States gov ornmont ought to concern itself about tho emi gration of its citizens to Canada and othor countries. Those emigrants, farmers generally, are among our host citizens, ho says, and the reason they are expatriating themselves is tho luro of cheaper lands and less stringent land laws aB to homestoading. Commenting upon tho speaker's statements, tho Houston (Tex.) Post says: It Is difficult to seo how tho United Statos can do anything to restrain such emigra tion, Theso movements of population are as old as tho human race. They are in response to natural laws, to human impulso and caprice, and they will continue so long as tho race ondures. Our own country has been settled as a result of the nomadic instinct accentuated by tho ambi tion for homo and fortune. Europo has emptied millions of her sons and daughters into our country and continues to do so, and our own countrymen are going to manifest their adven turous propensities, which, perhaps, wo might hotter call pioneer spirit, so long as there are tinsottled fortilo regions which offer opportuni ties for home and wealth. Tho emigration ques tion, it seems to us, is ono that will have to bo loft to settle itself. Of course, congress may find It feasible to ameliorate homestead conditions so far as the public lands are concerned, and may, by providing irrigation and drainage, open largo bodies of land within our own borders to settlement. In any event, It is certain that tho vast aroa of British America is to be, settled thickly In time, and it is inevitable that citizens of tho United Statos are going to furnish the vast majority of tho sottlors. These movements among our own people in tho past have resulted In greatly expanding our boundaries, and it is within the bounds of possibility that' the move ment so much deprecated by the speaker will In duo time tend to bring about what so many have dreamed of the continental republic of the United States of America. The land itself Is what is important to the man who has to make a living. National boundaries change with time, but tho people must get to the soil regard lessof national boundaries. There is little more reason to be alarmed because of tho emigration of our American fellow citizens to Canada than there is to fear the strong tide of European im migration that still pours in upon us. V t& iv HARRY J. Cantwell, of St. Louis, has written to Speaker Clark the following interesting lotter: I notice in tho Republic a statement by you on the migration to Canada. There are, between the 'Frisco and the Iron Mountain railroads, more than , 6,000,000 acres of un utilized hill lands, as good grass lands, all things considered, as there are in the world, that can yet be bought for from $8 to $15 per acre; and, considering difference in freights to market, are cheaper at that price than West Canada are if givon away. Wales and England, on no bettor soils, raise millions of sheep and tenants there pay a minimum annual rental of $10 per acre for sheep lands. Southern Missouri is near the markets, has an average rainfall of 40 inches, excellent grass soils, a mild climate and is an ideal sheep country, except for the timber, which may now be cut at a profit. I am glad to seo you are taking up tho consideration of means to stop this exodus of Americans, and I believe that, in your position, you may do much good by calling attention to the fact that while gov ernment lands are all gone, yet land in Missouri in tho hands of private individuals and corpora tions, is still attractively cheap; and I hope you will use your influence to have tho agricultural department give wide and authoritative publi city to this fact and induce tho department to got out a special bulletin on the value of the Missouri Ozarks for sheep and cattle raising Tho few people who try to raise sheep in that region turn the sheep out without a shepherd to graze upon tho range at the mercy of the dogs and wolves and of every pest. In England pasture Is planted for tho sheep, attention is paid to breeding and the sheep are guarded England thus raises mutton and wool in compe tition with the free ranges of Australia and tho Argentine, and Missouri may do the same. At a time when mutton is 300 per cent higher than it was a generation ago the neglect to utilize these lands seems almost criminal folly. It is strange Indeed that while much attention has been given to agricultural education, this primi tive and highly profitable industry should be so neglected in this largo southern area of our state. V t RUDOLPH SPRECKLES, visiting in Paris, made an interesting statement to the cor respondent for tho New York World. Mr. Spreckles said: The present appearance of un favorable symptoms in the American business world aro artificial. They are tho result of the large interests putting out pessimistic rumors In an attempt to discredit President Wilson's administration with the people by a hard times bluff. I regard Secretary McAdoo's recent an nouncement as absolute assurance that no un favorable business situation of any importance can possibly arise in the United States. The selfish large interests are desperately against Wilson. They aro doing everything in their power, by no matter what means, to create a wide impression that the popular new adminis tration will ruin business. Aside from the scares created by these artificial stimuli there is in the country no feeling worth mentioning that the new reform government threatens pros perity in any fashion. I am convinced that Bryan will make a record as the greatest secre tary of state in the nation's history. Wilson's withdrawal of government support from the American bankers in the Chinese loan was "a wise and just action, in no way endangering our diplomatic prestige or weakening tho defense of our legitimate foreign property Interests. It merely called a halt to government backing of bankers' extortions. & dt AN officer in the army below the rank of brigadier general, who ranks highest may be superseded by those below him whenever his record is such as to disqualify him. This opin ion, given to President Wilson by Attorney Gen eral McReynolds, opens the way for promotions over the head of Major Beecher B. Ray, whom the administration considers disqualified by the report of the committee on expenditures in the war department made last August An Associ ated Press dispatch says: This report was made the day after President Taft had nominated Major Ray to be deputy paymaster general with the rank of lieutenant colonel and the nomi nation failed of confirmation. The house com mittee findings were that Ray had been engaged in political activities in the interest of the re publican party and particularly in the interest of President Taft," and "that Major Ray had been shown personal consideration in assign ments and was stationed in Chicago during every presidential campaign." Inasmuch as Ray stood senior in his grade and directly in line for pro motion to an existing vacancy in the ranks of lieutenant colonel in the quartermaster's de partment, Secretary of War Garrison formally requested the attorney general to inform him whether the act of 1890 governing promotions in the army below the rank of brigadier genera "should be construed as mandatory upon the president to appoint tho senior officer in the grade of major to the vacancy, if in his opinion the record of the officer has been such as to indi cato that he was disqualified for promotion, but under the law can not be eliminated eitSS through the agency of a retiring board or a courtmartial." or a & ? UWILL T.HH IMPERATOR PAY?" is the xxr W question often asked. Tho New York World expresses it In this way: How can -i great steamship like the Imperator, costing ap proximately $7,500,000 all told, in which si?o and luxurious appointments rather than the highest speed aro prlmo considerations, be made to pay as a commercial investment? Assuming tho highest gross earnings of one voyage from passage money, mails and freight to be $350 000 and the lowest $150,000, with tho cost of S ning the ship at $160,000, it is estimated the?e would be a handsomo return on tho capital With net earnings of only $125,000 per voyaco during the season and $50,000 during the non season, the average would be $87,500. A three week itinerary and the allowance of one month a year for overhauling the ship would give a margin of over $1,250,000 to meet interest on capital at 5 per cent, $375,000; depreciation at 6 per cent, $450,000, and annual overhaul $150 000, with $275,000 to spare. This is a better return than most railroads can show. But obviously, the Germans, from their practical knowledge of the Atlantic shipping business worked out the problem to their own satisfac tion long before they laid the keel of tho Im perator, for two more steamships of even slight ly greater tonnage are to follow. , t t& t PENNSYLVANIA has substituted electrocution for hanging and the Philadelphia Public Ledger says: By the new law providing that electrocution shall be the penalty for the crime of murder in the first degree, Pennsylvania's legislation is brought into line with the en lightened enactments of other commonwealths. New York, in 1888, was the first state to adopt the modern method. The opposition to tho measure was strong, on the ground that it pro vided a "cruel and unusual punishment," for bidden in the constitution. Twenty-five years ago the development of electrical science was barely under way, and the deliberate barbarity of hanging was actually deemed more merciful than the instantaneous termination of life by a force misunderstood and mysterious. Ohio followed suit in 1896, Massachusetts two years later, New Jersey in 1906, Virginia in 1908. Today the state that still adheres to the former brutally primitive system is at least uneasily conscious of its legislative shortcoming. Elec trical engineers, in some cases, were opposed to what they considered a perversion of a force not destined to such ignoble uses. But by the time New Jersey adopted her law in 1906 there had been 115 successful electrocutions in New York, and it had been established by scientific observation that death by this means is "pain less and instantaneous." Pennsylvania has seen the last of an abhorrent anomaly and has strengthened an established precedent for other states to follow. V (v v DR. WILLIAM J. MAYO, the famous surgeon, startled tho medical fraternity by issuing the following statement: After eighteen years of special investigation of cancer of the stomach we are assured that it is a curable disease. Nearly one-third of all cancers occur in the stomach, so our investigation proves that cancer is a curable disease. Of course cancer of tho stomach can not be cured in all cases. Out of 1,000 cases operated on from 1894 to Dec. 31 last, 378 resulted in cures, 246 patients wero improved and their lives prolonged and 37 C were given up as hopeless after exploratory operations. Perhaps all of these cases could have been cured if the disease had been diag nosed in time. & t A LAW that Is "illuminating in effect" is what the Nashville Tennessean call's the news paper publicity law. The Tennessean says: There are some newspapers that very vigorously object to the federal law affording the readers of newspapers official information as to who own, or hold mortgages on, the newspapers that come into their families and teach many things to them, some wholesome and some unwhole some. The supreme court has held that the law is not an invasion of the liberty of the press, but on the contrary it is an official label setting forth to the public in plain terms the real character of the publication that is either serv ing the people or promoting some selfish interest. Large interests have been known to buy neW.s" papers and publish them to carry out certain designs that could not bo done without an organ. These newspapers have pretended to do one thing when they'were really another tmiu,. They have pretended to bo giving wholesome sei vice when really what they have been doing nn been unwholesome and sometimes venal anu corrupt, and now such newspapers may A ''- ij i-i-M,M'H ittUt-