Ufff Nobraoko. Indopondont
PAGE
MAY 25, 1905
At A
8
IN
WORLD OF .PROGR
THE
So far as has yet appeared, no special fault of
any railroad employe was responsible for the ex
plosion of a car of dynamite at'Harrisburg last
week, with the consequent terrible loss of life
among the passengers of a passing express train.
And yet' in a broad sense the railroad company
was to blame' because of the very presence of a
car load of dynamite In a freight train at that
time and place. While in a still broader sense,
it is not the railroad company that is to blame
so much as the laws of the nation which permit
shipments of this character to be made without
adequate regulation. Senator Elkins, when trav
eling in Germany a year or two ago, observed
the extreme care with which explosives were
handled on the railroads there, and in his jour
neys in this country he Las several times been
in dangerous propinquity to car loads of dyna
mite. Putting two and two together, he Intro
duced a bill in congress last winter regulating
the transportation of explosives, but the powder
manufacturers and some of the railroads object
ed, and the bill slumbere" in committee. The
Harrisburg accident should furnish the momen
tum that seems usually to be needed under our
established system of legislation for the enact
ment of a good law. Some of the suggestions
that have been made are that all dynamite and
other explosives should be specially packed under
prescribed rules ; that the cars in vhich they
are carried should be prominently labeled; that
these cars should have floors set with steel rails
to prevent crushing; that the cars slould be
carried only at the rear of short trains, or, better
still, as special trains of single cars, and that
the greatest care should be taken to have the
cars detached on sidings when other trains are
passing.
The Illinois freight rates which are now being
considered anew by the state board of railroad
and warehouse commissioners serve to call at
tention once more to the arbitrary manner in
which freight rates are fixed. Railroad officials
talk about their "scientific" tariffs, but nothing is
plainer than that while there is much method
in those tariffs there is very little principle. The
Illinois distance tariffs, as fixed by the commis
sion, average, we are told, 45 per cent higher
than the scale of rates now in effect in Central
Freight Association territory. We find, therefore,
such curiosities as the rates to Mattoon. From
Detroit, a distance of 345 miles, the rate is 43
cents, while from Chicago, 172 miles, it is 47
cents. Many similar instances are given. Chi
cago shippers, as a result, suffer under a serious
discrimination, which is esentially arbitrary in
its nature. They want the state board to revise
its former distance tariff to suit present needs.
Morepver, another kind of arbitrary dis
crimination Is well illustrated in this case. The
Illinois Manufacturers' Association is in favor
of the maintenance of the present rates. The rea
son is that the manufacturers of the state enjoy
low commodity tariffs on supplies and materials,
such as lumber and coal, which more than offset,
as far as they are concerned, the distance dis
criminations. They fear that if the distance dis
crimination is removed their special privileges on
the other line will be taken away from them by the
railroads. The discrimination here is between
commodity and commodity.
It was announced on May 10 that Count
Cassini, the Russian ambassador to the United
States, was to be "promoted" to Madrid, and
would be succeeded at Washington by Baron
Rosen, who was minister at Tokio until diplo
macy at that capital became super flu ju;. Baron
Rosen is understood to represent the party in
Russian that wished to keep the peace with Japan,
and Count Cassini is classed with the war party.
The. change appears, therefore, to have a certain
significance from the point of view of Russian
politics.
has been ended by the decision of -President
Roosevelt in favor of Annapolis, where the tomb
of the greatest hero of -our infant navy will
be a source of Inspiration to future generations'
of midshipmen. Rear Admiral Sigsbee has been
ordered to go to France for the body, with a
squadron consisting of the flagship Brooklyn and
the cruisers Chattanooga, Tacoma and Galveston.
Admiral sfesbee is to sail on Juno 20, and the
progress of his squadron will be an event calcu
lated to silence those critics who say that there
must have been something shady in the career
of Paul Jones or the American government and
people would not have treated him with such
persistent neglect.
General G. W. Davis, the retiring governor
of the Panama canal zone, and his two daughters
arrived a few days ago on the steamer Allianca
from Colon. General Davis, had been suffering
with malarial fever, but " he declined to leave
the canal zone pending the arrival of his suc
cessor, Governor Magoon, until formally ordered
to do so by Secretary Taft. General Davis said
that he had received great benefit from the sea
voyage and that the. malaria had practically dis
appeared. He talked freely about present con
ditions on the isthmus. He said that the ac
counts of sickness there during the past year
had been greatly exaggerated, and added: "I
can safely predict that by the end of July, when
the water and sewerage systems have been in
stalled, there will not be a case of y.llow fever
on the isthmus. I also believe that within a
month Panama will see its last case of yellow
fever. The people of Colon are now satisfied
with the American occupation." General ' Davis
admitted that a large number of canal commis
sion employes had returned, but said they, had
acted without waiting to investigate the true con
ditions on the isthmus. The Allianca also
brought about twenty-five employes cf the canal'
commission. Some of them had been on the
isthmus eight months and were returning home in
the regular order, while others left the canal
zone because of the health conditions there. The
Allianca was detained at the quarantine station
while her passengers and crew were examined
by the health authorities. Two of the crew were
removed to a detention hospital for further observation.
The rivalry among the various cities that
have been contending for the body of Paul Jones
A peculiar feature of trade unionism which -has
come to light in connection with the recent
agitation in North Carolina for a law forbidding
the employment of child labor is the adoption by
several unions in Charlotte of children who had
previously been compelled to work in the cotton
mills of that city, says the Journal of Economics.
The first to take action in the matter was tho
Typographical Union, which in July, 1902, autho
rized its secretary to find the most deserving
child and to place her name on the pay roll of
the union.- After some investigation he selected
a girl of 9 years of age, who was then working
from daylight till dark at $2.30 a fortnight. This
child was the breadwinner of a family consisting 1
of herself, an invalid mother and a brother too
young to work. For some time the union con
tinued to pay her an allowance equal to her for
mer wages, with the understanding that she was
to go to school instead of to the mill. Her spare
time was to be devoted to recreation. Besides
the allowance paid by the union, the members
supplied her with books and clothing bought by
voluntary contributions. The printers were so
well pleased with the result of their experiment
that her allowance was increased from time to
time until, according to the latest account, she
was receiving $4 a fortnight. Several other
unions soon followed the example of the print
ers, but none seem to have chosen more wisely
the object of their altruism. In no case does the
girl thus adopted appear to be the daughter of
a deceased member of the union or to have a
special claim of any sort upon it. In one in
stance the child has two sisters who work in the
mills, but are not members of any union. The
method of caring fo.- the children is the same
with all the unions. They continue to live at
home and receive an allowance which Is at least
equal to their former wages. In most cases the
children are expected to go to school, and In
any event they are not allowed to continue their
work in the mills. t V
"With the opening of the Flathead Indian
Reservation in Montana to settlement the com
ing summer the last large band of buffaloes in the
United States will be scattered to the four winds
or else removed to , the Blackfeet Reservation
further north, or into the Milk River country of
the Canadian provinces." This is the statement
made by Howard Eaton of Wyoming, who is in
terested in the largest, herd of buffaloes in the
world, mostly belonging to Michael Pablo, who
has a herd of about 350 on the Flathead reser
vation, according to the Helena Independent. "The
Pablo herd is the largest in existence," said Mr.
Eaton, "and comprises one-third of all the buffa
loes in the world. A few years ago, ' when ,
'Buffalo' Jones went broke on a big irrigating
scheme, he sold his bunch, which was then in
Kansas, to Pablo and Aard, making the largest
herd of pure bloods now in the world, and carry
ing the strains of the old herds of Texas, Indian
Territory, Western and Northern Montana, North
Dakota and Manitoba. ' Jones built the ditch all
right, but he "got no water, so that his venture
.was a disastrous failure. When I afterward pur
chased the Allard interests there were 400 in the
herd, and I secured four?fiths of the Allard hold
ings. I have been gradually selling them off,
and -this -year - I expect- to dispose of nearly
all of these." During the last summer Mr. Eaton
accompanied Count Ernest Bernstroff and hi3
son Arthur on an extended hunting trip through;
the Flathead country, and as the- count : wanted3
to secure a pair of buffalo heads to1 take to his
home at Ouaden, Schoenfeld, fiear Wiesbaden,
Germany, Mr. Eaton sold him two buffaloes from
his bunch on the reservation, and the count and
his son had the pleasure of stalking them for
a day-or two before they got a good chance to
shoot them, even at long range.
Between the two extremes,' opposition to all
expansion, on the one hand, and a lovo of con
quest and excitement, on the other, stand most of
the able statesmen of our day. If political leaders
want a forward movement in a particular direc
tion it is likely to be for some purpose not un
related to the country's ordinarr desires. Japan
apparently understands very well what new ter
ritory is useful to her and will not try for any
other. English imperialism, what there is of
it, is nowadays far from the imperialism of 1775.
It is led by reason. It is one thing in Canada,
another in Thibet, but everywhere it endeavors
to get along with no more arrogance cr despotism
than the conditions force. Russia more than
any other country is genuinely divided about all
the questions roughly grouped under the heading
of imperialism, but Mr. Witte and Baron Rosen
probably represent moi of the nation than Count
Cassini and the grand dukes. Germany, as rep
resented by her kaiser, is the most expressive of
mere 'old-time military assertion and aggression,
but even in William -reason guides. He knows
that Germany needs expansion almost anywhere,
and he also knows enough to keep his mailed
fist from hitting anybody. Collier's.
The women of Japan are no less ambitious
than their husbands and brothers, and during
the last month the movement for women's suff
rage has grown very strong in the island empire.
THE EDITOR WISHES TO DOUBLE THE
CIRCULATION OF THE INDEPENDENT BY
AUGUST 1. IF EVERY OLD SUBSCRIBER
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