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The Commoner
VOL. 14. NO. 5
12
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Ti!E TEMPER OP THE PEOPLE
Observers In Washington are noting the con
trast there between the enthusiasm in behalf of
wttr which showed itself at the outbreak of the
conflict with Spain and the more serious temper
'In which war with Mexico Is contemplated, says
the Springfield Republican. Commenting further,
'it says: . .
1 "What is true in the national capital is in
evidence throughout the country. The call for
war at any cost is little heard these days among
'grown-up folks. The average citizen has not
yet learned to hate the Mexicans enough to wish
rto kill them. On the other hand, the majority
of people seem profoundly convinced of the ex
treme desirability of averting an actual and de
clared war with our neighbors, however trouble-'s-ome
and unreasonable they may have been or
"'aid. It seems astonishing, all things considered,
that so few in this country have bscome-infiamed
'With a distorted notion of the glory of the battle
field to the extent that they forget the horrors
of disease, mutilation and death always insep
arable from active warfare. If there is any
'alternative short of bloody war, sensible people
are praying that it may be found. The serious
'temper prevailing in our seat of government is
'Vastly to be preferred to the jingo temper which
has been so far confined to a few newspapers.
The most welcome news that could come to the
'nation would be some turn of events by which
'the strain of a tense situation, so full of ugly
'possibilities,, might be materially eased to the
advantage of Mexico even more than the United
'States. This country does not desire war, but
"peace."
''
'STANDING BY THE- PRESIDENT
, ( Those who do not regard it the honorable
duty of this government to repeal the canal tolls
laiise, will have a hard time defending the ex
emption of American coastwise shipping on econ
omic grounds, says the Dubuque (la. J Telegraph
Tierald, commenting on the testimony of Pro
cessor S. S. Huebner of the University of Penn
sylvania, a recent witness before ro hearings
of the senate committee. The Telegraph-Herald
'says:
( "For two years Professor Heubner was em
ployed as an expert by the house merchant
marine committee, and data which he compiled
was laid before the committee.
" "'"Professor Huebner expressed no opinion on
vthe repeal issue, confining himself to the econ
omic discussion growing out of his statement
.jthat the house committee Investigation had
v8own over 90 per cent of the coast-wise ships
n, tbe Atlantic coast and 50 per cent of those
pp the Pacific coast were controlled by railroads
or "conferences" of steamship companies, so
far as rato making is concerned.
"Professor Huebner expressed belief that the
. tolls question would have little bearing on
freight rates. Shipping conferences, he said,
would charge 'all the traffic would bear,' and
Jf, tolls were remitted the ship owners, not con
sumers, would benefit.
,.. "The profit from tolls exemption will go, as
Professor Huebner has shown, into the pockets
pt the shipping combine, and shippers will de
rive no benefit whatever.
,. "If national honor and economic wisdom were
not enough to justify repeal of free tolls, the
final paragraph in the reasons advanced by Sec
retary Bryan for supporting the president's pro
gram ought to be conclusive. Said the secretary:
, " 'The chief executive speaks for the nation in
international affairs, and it is only fair to assume
that he speaks advisedly when he declares that
intercourse with other nations is seriously em
barrassed by the free tolls law. which he seeks
to repeal.' "
. SUMMER SCHOOL SESSIONS
Characterizing the practice of closing the pub
He schools during the summer months as "primi
tive and preposterous" and asserting that the
most important problem of today was to "keep
the boys from three months' contamination in
th streets" P. P. Claxton, commissioner of the
United States bureau of education, has recently
approved a plan which would mean continuous
school sessions and through which 2,000,000
children might be enlisted in vocational work.
A program for summer vocational work for pub
lic school work was submitted to Commissioner
Claxton by Clyde Alison Mann, secretary of the
American Society of Thrift. He approved the
idea and expressed the idea that one vocational
teacher in each school should be employed all
the year. Further he says:
"These teachers should teach nature study
and the principles of horticulture," Claxton said,
"going from home'to home, supervising the gar
den work and continuing work during the sum
mer vacation.
"It is important to consider the fact that the
public schools of the country represent an in
vestment of nearly $2,000,000,000, and that this
investment srands idle about one-quarter of the
time for no other reason than that in primitive
days both teachers and pupils were needed on
the farms three or four months in the summer.
"For school gardening, the equipment is a
small item and the vacant lots of the city now
idle, would be better for cultivation."
Commissioner Claxton points out that in
Europe the public school last year produced
$700,000,000 through their vocational work. He
estimated that probably 2,000,000 children could
be enl'sted in the United States for a few years
and that their labors would yield them $100,
000,000 annually.
THE NATION'S MOST PRECIOUS PRODUCT
"The man who can think is for any nation its
most precious product," says President David
Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford university.
Commenting on this, a writer in the New York
Mail says:
"It sounds well, but do people accept that?
Sometimes the fact is borne in upon us that the
man who can think is about the most uncomfort
able and disturbing product that any nation ever
brought forth. He is a trouble-maker from the
very start and what nation wants trouble?
What the nation wants is peace.
"But 'the man who can think begins at 4 years
of age to bother his parents with questions that
they cannot answer. When he goes to school
he makes trouble for his teachers with ques
tions that they cannot answer. And so it goes.
As a voter he disturbs caucuses and conventions.
By and by he sets up a political school of his
own and the nation begins to want to poison
him. as the Hellenic nation poisoned Socrates.
"We have had an awful lot of trouble with
thinkers in this country with men like William
Lloyd Garrison, Owen Lovejoy, Horace Greeley,
George William Curtis, Henry D. Lloyd and
Louis Brandeis. They are always disturbing the
calculations and arrangements of the politicians.
The duty of the citizens is not to think, but to
eat three meals a day and sleep nights.
"And as for the thinking woman why, she
must be suppressed with a firm masculine hand.
She threatens the very foundation of society.
Oh, yes; a woman should think, perhaps, but
never continuously of one thing. Let her think
of a thousand things in a minute and she is all
right. The danger begins when she keeps to
one track."
TOM JOHNSON'S ESTATE
Tom L. Johnson, -who before he became mayor
of Cleveland, Ohio, was reputed to be worth sev
eral million dollars, died leaving a total personal
estate of $41,4S3 and realty in New York state
valued at $90,881, according to a transfer tax
appraisal filed recently in New York. The New
York Herald says:
"Mr. Johnson died intestate April 10, 1911
and his widow, Mrs. Margaret J. Johnson; Lar'
tin E. Johnson, a son, and Elizabeth J. Mariana"
a daughter, each receives one-third of the estate'
"Mr. Johnson held an interest of $14 sin i
stocks and bonds; commissions due him from
the estate of Mrs. Helen L. Johnson, his mother
were worth $1,274; from the same estate for
money loaned $8,264, and from the estate of
Albert L. Johnson his brother, was duo $9,100
for bonds which through an inadvertence had
become mixed with the brother's holdings,
though belonging to Mr. Johnson.
"The total value o realty -in New York state
was $212,13G, the net valuo of $90,881 being
reached after deductions for debts and admin
istration expenses. The realty consists of fen
parcels in Brooklyn.
"Mr. Johnson's residence in Cleveland was in
the name of his wife and was sold for $195,000
the proceeds going to Mrs. Johnson. Subsequent
to the death of Mr. Johnson securities and notes
received as a part of the proceeds of the sale
were placed in a deed of trust, the income there
from to be paid to Mrs. Johnson during her life.
The report did not indicate that Mr. Johnson
possessed any property other than that men
tioned in the appraisal."
PRAISES PRESIDENT WILSON'S STAND
Andrew D. White, former American ambassa
dor to France, praises President Wilson for his
stand in insisting- upon the repeal of the section
of the Panama canal act giving free tolls to
American vessels. Mr. White was secretary of
the embassy at London in 139 8, and opened the
negotiations for the repeal of the Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, which the Hay-Pauncefote pact supplant
ed. According to Mr. White, American diplo
mats who negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty
had no thought of exempting the United States
when they agreed to the provision stipulating
that "all nations" should use the Panama canal
on equal terms. In a recent address before the
George Washington university students at
Washington, Mr. White said:
"Nobody not in touch with diplomatic affairs,
could realize what a deplorable thing it was to
Tniow that this cbuntry was going back on its
word. There never could be any doubt that the
words 'all nations' included the United States.
No one views with deeper humiliation the fact
that we have no merchant marine. I would
therefore do anything that could be done, with
propriety, for the resuscitation of our merchant
marine, but I do not believe in violating our
pledged word."
A TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH FELS
Joseph Fels, world leader of the single taxers,
is dead. During the later years of his life he
became a convert to the single tax doctrine, and
expended his wealth without stint to establish
the philosophy of Henry George in nearly all the
civilized countries of the globe. The following
tribute from the pen of Herbert Quick, appeared
in the Milwaukee Journal:
"A great soul has passed to the beyond the
soul of Joseph Fels. He was a Jew, but he be
longed to the world.
"The Hebrew world has served humanity great
ly and is giving us great men all the time. Its
greatest gift has been its nronhets. A nrophet
is one who sees clearly, truly, deeply, and not
one who fortells the future. The prophets lift
Israel above all other peoples.
"The spirit of Hebraic prophecy has been one
of protest against injustice. Moses gave us the
best land system ever put into law and until
Henry George wrote, no better was proposed.
Joseph Fels belongs to the great school of
Hebrew prophets.
" 'The land shall not be sold forever, saith the
Lord, for the land is mine wrote Moses, and
Fels lived to sow the world with this Mosaic
truth. 'The earth hath He given to the children
of men' did not mean to els some of the chil
dren of men, 'The earth belongs in usufruct to
the living; and the dead have no right or power
over it,' is Jefferson's way of putting it, and
Joseph Fels delighted in the power his wealth
gave mm to preach this truth.
" 'I've made a lot of money -and it troubles
me! Within one minute of the time I set eyes
on Joseph i els he spoke these words to me. And
his trouble about his wealth was not the trouble
of conserving it or increasing it. He felt,
though an employer whose liberality astonished
other employers, he was still in debt to his work
people.
" 'Behold, the hire of your laborers, who have
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept
Watte! .
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