Ci NobracZxa Independent
DECEMBER 14, 1905
PAGE I
mentary seats, which the conservatives had
practically considered as lost in case of an
immediate election,, were again looked upon .
as safe. The effect on the prime minister
was also evident, and had an influence on his
decision to resign. His resignation was
' placed in: King Edward's hands on Monday
of this week; and, immediately after the cus
tomary interview between the king and the
premier, the former summoned Sir Henry .
Campbeli-Bannerman. Mr. Balfour can now
act with more independence, and, on the one
side, rally home rule opponents with an Irish
program of his own; on the other, rally the
' conservative free-traders by not administering
an overdose of tariff reform. As to Sir Henry
Campbeli-Bannerman, British opinion, after
assuming that he would refuse to take of
fice if Mr. Balfour resigned without ordering
the elections, is now convinced, that he will
accept office, form a ministry, and appeal to -the
country, not with a constructive program,
not even with home rule for Ireland, as a nec
essarily prominent issue, but in a campaign
conducted against protection, school taxes
without public control of teaching, wasteful
expenditures, wrongful liquor legislation, the
suffering of the unemployed, rampant mili-
tarism as shown by Lord Kitchener's defeat
of Lord Curzon in India and finally, the
much-debated issue, Chinese labor in South
Africa. The Outlook.
What will be the effect of the revival of
the home rule issue on the alignment of the
voters is not,clear, but is likely soon to be
made bo;-for an early election is bound to be
the result of the present situation. An early
dissolution of parliament after it assembles
is down on the books. Had home rule for
Ireland been left 'out of the contest, there
seems to be little doubt that Chamberlainism
would have been well beaten, the liberals be
ing united in opposition to it, the great bulk.,
of the voters dreading any onslaught on the
free food idea, and a large section of even
the leading conservatives lending at least
negative aid to the enemy. The revival of the
home rule idea seems to be a bid for the
large nationalist vote in the house of com
mons; It will not greatly affect the thick and
thin liberal vote at the polls, but it may
alienate a great many of the more conserva
tive liberals and of the less liberal con
servatives. However, the issue will be sec
ondary to the assault on free trade which Mr."
Chamberlain has been so vigorously conduct
ing and to a decision on which Mr. Balfour's
resignation and the probable government of
Campbeli-Bannerman opens a way at last.
St. Paul Pioneer Press. ;
STEEL TRUST MORALITY
The report, that W. Ellis Corey, president
of the steel trust, who succeeded Charles Schwab
of Monte Carlo fame, is planning to divorce or
be divorced from his wife that he may be free
to marry Mabelle Gilman, an actress, has aroused '
much interest and has subjected him to almost
universal condemnation. Even his aged father
and his uncle who gave him his start in life have
repudiated him. His father said:
When a woman slaves and starves
through a $40-per-month period with a man,
when she mends his clothes and divides the
last crust with him, when she bears him
children and rears or buries them, as Laura
did for Ellis, it Is safe to say that she loves
him, and I know Laura did love him. The
actions of my son are beyond my finding out.
Why is Corey surprised? His own pre
decessor Is the best steel man in the country
but he gambled in Monte Carlo and he gam
bled worse In Wall street. Public opinion de
manded his resignation as head of the steel
trust, and he went. Six months ago Hyde
and Alexander and the McCurdys and Per
kins and McCall, and all those associated
with them in insurance looting, professed a
philosophic doubt as to the existence of a
higher law. They havo changed their minds.
Part of them have gone. The rest will go.
Senator Burton and Senator Mitchell may
havo thought that there was no higher law,
but it kept them out of tho United States
senate nfter they were Indicted. Mitchell In
dead and Burton is u ruined man, a political
pariah, whether ht goes to prison or not.
There U no man In tho republic ho great or
m powerful that ho can dhrcgnrd the edicts
of public opinion. -New York World.
Americans are a highly moral people.
This become more apparent dull v. Thero
is the head of the steel trust, for instance.
It is rumored that he may be asked to resign
on account of impending divorce proceedings.
The rumor may be unfounded. But even If it
is, it may be recalled that his predecessor re
signed on account of "ill-health" after a visit
to Monte Carlo. The gentlemen in control of
the steel corporation are extremely sensitive .
regarding moral issues and they don't pro
pose to shock the sensibilities of the Ameri
can people by permitting any latitude to the
executive officers who .are expticted to behave
like church members In good and regular
standing. At the. same time, it is difficult to
avoid reflecting on the fact that the organ
izers of the corporation vastly over-capitalized
it and maintained a-fictitious market in its
stock presumably to persuade investors of
the value of the securities. Of course a good
many unsuspecting people lost a lot of money
as a result of the deal and the insiders
pocketed the proceeds. But that was a per
fectly legitimate transaction. '. O, yes. The
American( people are intensely moral in
spots. Kansas City Times. . ;
PRESIDENT'S RATE PLAN ..'
President Roosevelt's recommendations with
reference to rate regulation have met with gen
eral approval. His suggestion that where a re
bate has been granted, the preferential rate be
made the maximum rate for all shippers, recalls
the words uttered In 1890 by Judge Thomas M.
; Cooley, then chairman of the interstate com
merce commission:
If these (tariff rates are secretly cut, or
if rebates are given to large shippers, the
fact of itself shows the rates which are
charged .to the general public are unreason- ,
able, for they are necessarily made higher
than they ought to be in order to provide
for the cut or to pay the rebate. It is a very
erroneous notion that the results of a cut
or of a rebate fall only upon the carrier; they
fall at last to a considerable extent upon the
public, and those who pay full rates largely
make up for every allowance that Is made
to those who do not; If the carrier habitually
carries a great number of people free, its
regular rates are made" the higher to cover
the cost; If heavy commissions are paid for
obtaining business; the rates are made higher
that the net revenues may not suffer in con
sequence; if scalpers-are directly or indirectly
supported by the railroad companies; the
" general public refunds to the companies what
the support costs, and in every one of these
cases the fact of improper drafts upon the
gross revenues, or of improper reductions of
what ought to go to swell these revenues, Is
proof that the rate sheets are too high.-1 It
would be perfectly legitimate and proper in
such cases to order such reduction as-would'
bring the published rates down to the "'aver
. age of,, what is received for railroad service
when the whole business, not merely that
which is done at full rates, but the aggregate
when that which is done at reduced rates or
done free is taken into account. No evidence
can be more conclusive that the carrier is
by his regular rate sheets charging something
more than . reasonable prices for his service
than the fact that either openly or Secretly
he violates the law to accept from favored
classes, or from individuals, a less compen
sation, or that he pays large sums for pro
curing business at the rates named, or that
he so manages his business that parties who
have no legitimate connection with It are
enabled to prey upon it, and thus indirectly
prey upon his patrons. A reasonable rate Is
-one1 that will make just and fair return to
the carrier when it is charged to all who are
to pay It without unjust discrimination against
any, and when the revenue it produces Is
subject to no improper reductions. No car
rier has any ground for jnst complaint if its
published rates are reduced by the public au
thorities to -the standard of tho average it
accepts, when by direct violation of law, or
by devices that aro Intended to evade Its
provisions, the published ratea are departed
from. Its own conduct In such a ease fixes
the maximum of tho claim It can with any
propriety make upon tho public.
Tho new recommendations arn riefluUlon
of the character of account books to bo kept
by tho railways, with authority for iho In
spection of theso books by tho federal govern
ment; provision for entering civil uttw for
tho collection from rebating shipper at leant
twice asi much as they have, received through
rebate, and the lficullilng of pooling after a
...
commission shall have been established to
adjust disputed rates. The first two of these
recommendations have been touched upon
in the president's" speeches, but were not be
fore embodied in a message to congress.
They are important and they are just. Kan
sas City Times.
POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE
The independent spirit in politics, which Is
sounding 'the knell of bosslsm in the . United
States, continues to attract the attention of in
telllgent commentators. In Men and Women for
December, Judge Edward F. Dempsey, to whom
is largely attributed the defeat of the Cox regime
in Cincinnati, writes:
In the last fe years, a new question
. has begun to agitate the American mind and
the American conscience. The question is
new in the sense only that the American
mind and the American conscience have but
recently begun to be disturbed by the con'
ditions which have given rise to the ques
tion. The conditions themselves have been
long existent. Politi&il "bosslsm" and . po
litical "Bosses" need no explanation in this
article. The theory underlying all American
government, both national and state, is that
government has its origin in the people,
and that it Is to be administered by the peo
ple for the people; and to carry this theory
into practical application we adopted the
principle of representation, whereby govern-,
mcnt in its various departments and branches,
was delegated to various representatives of
the people, called officers, who were to be
selected by the people as their representa
tives in the same manner previously pre
scribed. This principle of representation
seemed to be the only practicable way in
which a government of the people could.be
carried on successfully, since it appeared to
be impossible . for the people themselves" to
gather together in one whole and express
their will in laws, and then, as a whole,,,
execute or Interpret those laws. If carried
out faithfully and honestly, government by.
representatives of the people 1b and always
will be all right, but the trouble in the past
has been that the principle, has not been
faithfully and honestly , followed. The gov
ernment has not been administered by rep
resentatives, in, the. real sense, of the people..
, The great body of the people, engrossed in
money making, in pleasure seeking, or in
pursuit of some other diversion, has forgotten
its duty to itself, and has entirely, neglected
. to look after the individuals who sought to
become its representatives in the administra-.
. tion of its government. The consequence of
this neglect is seen in the autocracies of
bossism which have, been built up in the
various cities and states of the union, to
gether with their attendant evils and corrup
tion. The most demoralizing feature of all
the "boss" systems, aside from their domineer
ing and dictatorial spirit of handing out
nominations for office and controlling elec
tions, lies in the ramifications they make Into
the financial and social worlds, spheres here
tofore supposed to be free from the influence
of contaminated politics."
" BREAKING CHILD LABOR LAW
Speaking in Philadelphia at a meeting held
to discuss "The Protection of Children," Owen
Lovejoy of New York, assistant secretary of th
national child labor committee, told of his ob
servations while on a tour of the anthracite coal
regions In Pennsylvania. Ho said in part:
Children are employed below the age pre- '
scribed by law in every anthracite colliery In
Pennsylvania, investigated by this commit
tee during tho past eighteen months. It is
estimated that bofore the passage of the law
last year there were not Iocs than nine or
ten thousand boys under fourteen working
In the coal breakers, while some boroughs
would indicate an even greater number. This
was made possible by the false age state
menu by parents. With n sworn statement
a nine-year-old boy could be employed without
violation of the law on the part of tho em
ployer and there Is a general Indifference
throughout tho region and n widespread feel
ing that child labor Is not lnuriou. A ntudy
of the field lant month failed to ishow any
Important Improvement since the pafesugo of
the new law Wo urf that such Menu utmll
he taken- as Khali exclude fverr chill under
fourteen jears from tho co;U breaker of your
Mate.