THE DAY
"Letting Well Enough Alone , "
It Ii.'is become a political axiom that
partj'-changing is up-hill work during
years of plenty. Hard times are good
for the "outs ; " good times for the
"ins. " Jordan is a mighty difficult
stream to navigate against the winds
and tides of prosperity , Jericho is a
safe fortress when the gates of adver
sity are at rest and hushed the clamor
of the mob. Yet the line separating
the two conditions is often no wider
than a man's hand and sometimes in
visible. Hence is it that the aphorism
"to let well enough alone" the ultra-
conservative doctrine of the well-to-do
much in vogue with the rich lias
about it an air of wisdom when it may
be in point of fact most fallacious and
misleading.
"Intime of peace prepare for war , "
is a saying which might be translated
to read "in time of prosperity , prepare
for adversity. "
Eternal vigilance is equally the pice
of Good Government and Liberty. It
is not teven a safe rule of business to
leave things to take their course be
cause they seem to be going smoothly
and to make no provision for "the evil
day tliat surely cometh. " The saga
cious man of business looks ahead , he
puts this and that together and consid
ers what m'ay betide , to the end that.
I
the perils which .have hitherto beset
them , including a war of sections ; but
there stands before us , and right across
the national highway , a public question
as far-reaching , as deep and sinister ,
as that of African slavery itself , the.ii >
repressible conflict of the present and
the future , the issue between capital
and labor. Let no man dismiss this
lightly. Let no man fancy that it will
adjust itself. No more than the slavery
question will it down , or be settled
until it is settled right ; that is , until
there is such uniformity of law such
equal opportunities under the law
such enforced submission aud obedi
ence to the law as will disarm both
capital aud labor of their deadlier
weapons. As a party force , indeed , it
is but just arriving on the scene.
The Republican party can no more
deal with it adequately than the Dem
ocratic party , under the old slave
regime , could deal adequately with the
slavery question. The Republican
party represents the patrickrnism and
wealth of the North precisely as the
Democratic party of other days repre
sented the wealth and patriciauism of
the South. In those old days the South
ruled the country. Slavery was the
keynote. In these days the North rules
it. The protective S3"stem is the key
note. If the early emancipationists ,
"YOU'RE NEXT ! "
"
so
0t
A
I
"By direction of the President , officials will neither discuss nor give p
out any information regarding the annual estimates until further orders. " 4
New Yon. Telegram. A-
when the storm breaks , ho shall be
ready for it ; so the mariner ; so the
statesman.
The brains of America , the genius of
America , are not now in what is called
public life. They are engaged in for-
* une-building. They devote themselves
to works of construction. They are
money-makers. Few men of energy
and ambition , with the opportunities
of the time before them , are willing to
surrender freedom and affluence at
home to take poverty and slavery at
Washington. To men of the second , or
third class therefore is committed the
government of the country.
Inevitably , some of them are cor
rupt , whilst most of them ore the
merest hangers-on of fortune ; here to
day and gone to-morrow ; adri'ft from
one election to another ; ready to seize
and cling to whatever plank sems like
ly to carry them ; and , no matter
whether they call themselves Republi
cans , or Democrats , equally time-serv
ers and tide-waiters.
The circumstance gives a great
though temporary advantage to those
persons of brains and wealfh who have
an interest in taking , or who , for the
love of exploitation and power , put
themselves to the trouble of taking an
interest in political affairs. The tariff
lobby is an old and familiar figure in
the national capital , . So is the railway
lobby. Hence the power and at the
same time the unpopularity of the
trust.
' Thus far on our journey from the
cradle of political infancy to whatever
goal may lie before us , we have weath
ered the historic dangers common to all
( nations ; the struggle for existence : the
router assault ; the domestic broil ; the
Disputed succession. We are no longer
in baby in arms. We are at length a
world power. The story of mankind
teaches , if nothing else , that nations ,
; iike individuals , rise to their fullest
( stature through privation and against
.obstacles , that they fall through lux-
lury and wealth ,
i The United States have urvived all
with Clay at their head , had been lis
tened to , there would have been no
war of sections , slavery would have
been put in the way of gradual extinc Pia
Pib
tion , another labor system would have
b
been built up in the South , even the
negro might have been got rid of , cer mR
R
tainly got rid of as a disturbing fqrce.
But the slaveholders of the cotton
States , clinging to what had become an ar
it
oligarchism , would not have it. That itw
which was a moral question , and w
should have been settled on moral prin *
*
ciples , got into politics. Extremism
South bred extremism North.
Even as the slave-owner claimed his
rights in the Constitution of the United
States does the tariff-lord claim his fr
rights in the protective polity of the
Republican party. Originally slavery
was regarded at the South as an evil.
It became a "divine institution. " In pa
Vfl
like manner , protection was a provis
ional affair meant to aid our "infant ru
industries. ' It has befcome an article us
of faith , a fundamental doctrine , a m
C
part of the creed , o.l Republicanism.
Under each instance lay the same pri
mal cause excessive wealth , patri-
cianism , i and the arrogance of patri-
;
cianism and wealth the corner stones
th
of the party in power. Is it "letting
well enough 'alone" to relegate this ' °
question to the mob-spirit and the lead
fu
ers of the mob the first time the winds
of adversity blow , or to put it In the
course of gradual adjustment at the
hands of statesmen , whilst we may ? bomi
This is the question to which the mi
business men of the country so much in ;
preoivupied with tlieir own concerns
should seriously address themselves. ch [
Woe to the land when all conserva
tive opposition is laid low , the adminis ch
tration of its affairs given over to a
single political dynasty , the govern ph
ment a one-party affair , because that is Pr
a condition precedent to convulsions ]
waiting only the day of wrath to du
spring. COl
Even now the evil day may be near go <
er thau any man divines. Tiiirty dayg gn
before the fall of Snmtcr statesmen
were deluding themselves with the be-
lieC that there would be no war. We
may not be on the verge of any imme
diate danger ; but no country , no peo
ple , can bo safe who have given them
selves over to an organized body of ex
pert , self-confident , and more or less
corrupt , public men , destroying all
healthful opposition and opening the
way for the agitator and the mob.
No , gentlemen , men of business , you
cannot afford "to let well enough
alone , " with such things hanging in
the womb of time ! Louisville Courier-
Journal.
What the Maine Result Does Not Show.
Ill the exuberance of his joy at the
Republicans having carried Maine as
they have done year after year with
monotonous regularity and as every
one knew they would do this year as
usual Congressman Burleigh tele
graphed President Roosevelt congratu
lations upon the "complete and sweep
ing" victory which , he told the Presi
dent , is a "splendid omen of victory in
November. " The particulars given the
President in the same dispatch indicate
that the victory was not quite so "com
plete and sweeping" as the Congress
man would have the President under
stand it to be.
He says the "returns indicate a Re
publican plurality of 30,000. " Assum
ing Congressman Burleigh's claim to
be about the correct figure there has
been a falling off from the plurality in
the September election four years ago '
of about 4,000. The Republican plu-1
rality on the vote for Governor in that '
year was 34,132. Maine this year has
been thoroughly stirred up for the pur
pose of getting out every Republican
vote possible. The effort was so far
successful that large gains have been
made upon the vote of four years ago ,
but the Democratic gains were still
larger , and if it were at all likely that
the respective gains would be in the
same proportion in other States it
would be anything but a "splendid
omen" for a Roosevelt victory in No
vember.
Mr. Burleigh says : "We have car
ried fourteen and possibly fifteen of
the sixteen counties. " There is no
"complete and sweeping" victory in
that. At the best it is a mere holding
what had been their own right along ,
while the dispatch indicates a loss.
The Republicans carried fifteen out of
the sixteen counties in 1902 and 1900 ,
and the whole sixteen in 1898 and 1896.
The county carried by the Democrats
in 1900 was by so small a margin that
it hardly counted. If the Republicans
have now carried only fourteen coun
ties , which is all Mr. Burleigh makes
positive claiiii to , there is a Republican
loss. j
The Republicans , Mr. Burleigh told '
the President , "have elected an overk
whelming majority of the Legislature. "
No one doubts that , but Mr. Burleigh
unfortunately neglected to furnish par-
ticulars. The Republican majority in
the Maine Legislature has been "over-
whelming" for many a year. In the
election of 1896 it was 170 , there being
but six Democrats in the Legislature
then elected. In' 1S9S it was 132 ; in
1900 it was 142 ; in 1902 it was 139. So 6
far as returns have been received they
indicate a gain for the Democrats in a
both branches. There will still be an E
"overwhelming" Republican majority , j
but an "ominous" diminution of its
size. The Maine election cannot be re
garded as a safe indication of the drift
of the popular current on the presiden
tial question. Neither that nor the
Vermont election was ominous of the
November result. Cleveland Plain
Dealer.
-
fl
'
Sculptor's Roosevelt Joke. e
There came into the rooms of the Retl
publican State Committee at the Fifth c
Avenue Hotel , says the New York
Dimes , a man who carried under his
irm a plaster bust of President Roose-
relt.
relt."I
"I think , " he said , "that if the Re-
mblican State Committee would order
few thousand copies of this bust , to
e ( placed on exhibition , it would be
nost helpful to the candidacy of Mr.
loosevelt. "
He placed the bust on the mantel ,
ind Secretary Little walked up to look
over at close range. At the base
ras this inscription in large letters :
* * * * * * * * *
"The Apostle of Pence , * t
Arbitration Is Better Than *
c
Bayonets. " *
t
* * * *
When Secretary Little recovered ,
rom his swoon the sculptor had gone.
Squeezing : the Rural Mail Carriers.
If the plans of the Republican Cam-
aign Committee do not miscarry , a
ast sum will be collected from the
ural mail carriers of the State to be
sed in the campaign. To every rural
lail carrier in the State the Finance
lommittee has addressed a letter re-
uesting $30 to be used by the Republi-
an campaign managers. There are
50 rural mail routes in the State , and ;
only requires a little figuring to show ;
lie < amount of boodle the G. O. P. man ;
gers are going to squeeze out of the
arriers to pile up their corruption
iind. Maysville ( Ky. ) Bulletin.
The Ultimate Result.
Subbubs I suppose that new neigh- t1
or of yours was running his lawn t1t :
lower when you saw him this morn- t
" .
Backlotz No , ho was feeding the
lickens.
Subbubs Why , he doesn't keep i :
liickens.
Backlotz No , but I do. He was p >
lanting some seeds. Philadelphia ) * >
ress. n
It is said that a brick house is more
o
arable than one of stone. A well-
nstructed brick house , made with
aod mortar , will outlast one built of >
t tj
* &
* * T *
.
.x * * r &jyifcE * i iviY * \
'Tn-nrwrBW/fK-w aBT ' 4 ?
*
r * - >
Opinions of Great Papers on important Subjects.
4 > 4'4 4'49 4 4'404 4 44'4 4'
The Married and
HE census reports note a considerable decrease
in the number of births among the native pop
ulation of the United States. American ia n
and tyomen are not so much given to marrying
as formerly. Many who do marry , postpone
the event until youth has passed , and for this
and other reasons they rarely have large fami
lies , and very frequently no children at all.
Wihether this decrease in 'the number of fruitful mar
riages among the American-born population is the fault of
the men or the women has not yet been determined , but
very probably it is the fault of .both . if fault it be. The
bachelor maid is becoming as prominent a feature in our
social life as the bachelor man , and she has many apolo
gists. But those arguments which are advanced in defense
of her position are founded upon nothing noble. They are
taken from an epicurean philosophy o f pure selfishness ,
which , if widely adopted , would put an end to the nation.
The condition , however , is not so bad yet as to cause alarm.
There are more men than women in the United States , so
that if all were paired off a great many men would have re
mained unmarried. The 76,303,387 people within the area
of enumeration of the last census are divided into 39,059-
242 males and 37,244,145 females , giving an excess of males
of 1,815,097. Of the moles , 23,600,836 are single , 14,033,789
married , 1,182,293 widowers , 84,904 divorced , and 121,412
whose marital condition is unknown. Of the females ,
20,520,319 are single , 13,845,903 married , 2,721,564 widowed ,
114,965 divorced , and 41,334 whose marital condition is un
known. But the number of those classed as single includes
children and all persons under the marriageable age , so
it will be seen that marriage among adults is such a pre
vailing practice as still to be almost universal.
The reason for the decrease in the number of marriages
and the birth rate among native women might be found in
the statistics regarding the working classes. There are
6,319,912 | females engaged in gainful occupations other than
agriculture. These millions are made up in large part of
the girls and women in factories , stores and offices , and the
bachelor maid usually graduates from among them. Kan
sas City Journal.
The Maneuvers at Manassas.
OTHING is so soothing to the wounds produced
by the civil war as oblivion , ami nothing makes
them bleed afresh so quickly as the sight of a
battlefield on which the visitor or his relatives
once passed through the horrors of fratricidal
bloodshed. When an old soldier stands on the
heights of Gettysburg a profound melancholy
seizes him , and , compared with the scene before him , a
graveyard is a pleasure garden or a banqueting hall. It
takes weeks to shake off the depression.
How anybody could project a reunion of Northern and
Southern soldiers on a Southern battlefield , and , not con
tent with that , bring them together as hostile armies and
arrange for them to "fight over again in mimicry the bloody
encounter that took place on that spot forty years ago , is
Incomprehensible. It was asking entirely too much of hu
man nature , and it was in striking contrast with the wis
dom of Charles Sumner , who , pleading heartless Rome
even as an example , succeeded in excluding from the Capi
tol so much as a picture that would recall the civil war.
The location of the maneuvers should have bean in
some beautiful spot , 1,000 miles , if possible , from nny battle
field , and the pitting of a Northern army and a Southern
army against each other should have been avoided like a
pestilence. Chicago Chronicle.
Are Business Men Cowards ?
| RESIDENT ELIOT , addressing the St. Louis
alumni of Harvard , recently , called Americans
jcowards in that so few of them dared to stand
jagainst the crowd. . He spoke with special ref-
to business men in facing conditions
l that exist among the labor unions. It is easier ,
floubtless , for a college president to stand aloof and
say what ought or ought not to be done than to know
bhe entire situation of affairs and then to act with dis
cretion as well as bravery. The theoriesthat work ad-
:
.
It is probable that one never fully
credits the interdependence of wild
creatures , and their cognizance of the
affairs of their own kind and other
Idnds. Mrs. Mary Austin , in "Tha
Land of Little Rain , " says that the
scavengers of the desert all keep an
ye on one another.
Never a coyote comes out of his lair
to hunt , in the country of the carrion
: rows , but looks up first to see where
the crows are gathering. It is a suf
ficient occupation for a windy morn-
Ing , on the listless , level mesa , to
svatch the pair of them eying each
other furtively , with a tolerable as
sumption of unconcern , but no doubt
tvith a certain amount of good under
standing.
When the five coyotes that range the
Fyon from Pasteria to Tunawai
planned a relay race to .bring down an
mtelope strayed from the band. * an
> agle swung down from Mount Pinos ,
juzzards materialized out of invisible
ther , and hawks canie trooping like
mall boys to a street fight. Rabbits
at up in the chapparal and cooked
heir ears , feeling themselves quite
iafe for once as the hunt swung near
hem.
Nothing happens in the deep wood
tat the blue jays are not all agog
o toll. The hawk follows the badger ,
he coyote the carrion crow , and from
teir aerial stations the buzzards
vatch each other.
Very clean and handsome , quite be-
ying .his relationship in appearance ,
3 Clark's crow , that scavenger and
lunderer of mountain camps. It is
ermissible to call him by his common
lame , "Camp Robber ; " he has earned
t. Not content with refuse , he picks
pen meal-sacks , filches whole pcta-
oes , is a gormand for bacon , drills
lotes In packing-cases , and Is daunted
y nothing short of tin.
All the while h * does not neglect to
mirablyrithin 'the confines of university walls often h.av
little application In the outer world , and especially in the
"
business"world , for which constant training and alert watch
ing are absolutely necessary to success. It is certain that
.ao insn ever gained a high position in the commercial world i
without courage to face innumerable obstacles , enormous
risks and perils of which the scholastics never dreamed.
The successful business man carries a weight of re
sponsibility for himself and others which is comparable to
that of an able commander of a large army. He may pause-
in the face of the enemy , he may right about face , he may.
retreat , or even come to a truce , without being guilty of.
cowardice. The business man need not fly into the face ;
of labor unions in order to prove his courage to sit all over
them in order to prove his power.
The object of the business man Is not to displayhis -
valor or prove himself a hero. He wishes to make the best'
possible out of existing conditions , and many a strike has
been averted and many a problem solved by the cool cal
culations of the keen-sighted business man.
To the mere looker-on this may seem like cowardice
and the wish to avoid a fight To the practical man of af- "
fairs it is good business sense , and ought to be commended
as such.Chicago Chronicle.
The Cost and folly of War. l
HE war in the Far , East , according to the com
putation of a well-informed newspaper of Paris ,
is costing the Russian government at least
$1,000,000 a day , and the expense is increjtsing-
daily. If the war continues for years , as the ?
experts say it Is pretty sure to do , Russia will ,
accumulate a burden of debt that will rest'
heavily upon many future generations.
Of course , $1,000,000 a day Is not a surprisingly great
sum for a first-class power to pay for the conduct of a |
war. Russia has been throwing millions after millions' '
since the new policy with regard to the Asiatic portion of
the empire was put into operation. Nobody knows how
much the Trans-Siberlin railway has cost , but it is an enor- '
mous amount ; and the expenditures on Port Arthur , Dalny ,
Harbin , Vladivostok andthe other outposts have run into
the hundreds of millions. Indeed , it was pretty "well known
to the Japanese as well as to the rest of the world that
Russia's treasury was in an extremely bad way at the
time war was declared. ]
But the $1,000,000 a day is , after all , only a small part
of the bills Russia has to face. Her losses of battleships
have meant the destruction of hundreds of millions of dol- '
lars' worth of property that must be replaced , and the'
prospective capture of her great towns with their arma
ments must make the Czar's heart sick.
Considered as a plain business proposition , the war with
Japan does not seem to be a very good investment. Even
(
though Russia should win at last , she willhave to defend :
her possessions more expensively than ever , and how many
years of ownership of Manchuria will be required to make
up her losses ? Chicago JoumaL
Seiecting and Managing Men.
ANY men mistakenly think that because they
work hard and try hard they must eventually
succeed to some extent. This does not follow.
Some men carry on great enterprises with little
apparent effort. Their success is due to skill
in selecting efficient executive heads. Many a
business man breaks down trying to supple
ment the work of incompetent heads of departments simply
because he does not know how to choose the right men. A
man of commanding ability does not worry himself over de
tails. He makes out his program and then selects men
who can carry it out 'to the letter. Indeed , is Is a sign of
weakness for the head of a concern to bother about little
details. It shows that he lacks the insight , the business
sagacity , the ability to select and to manage men who can
do things efficiently.
It is a great art to duplicate one's self in another and
multiply one's self many times by selecting those who are
vastly superior to ourselves , but who did not happen to
have had our opportunity todo the thing themselves.
Success.
AN INTERESTING SCENE IN HOLLAND. I
The picturesque attire worn by the Dutch peasantry has a great attrac
tion for artists , and the American artist shown in the illustration is evident-
ly no exception to the ruie , for he is bargaining with a determined lookin *
peasant as to the value of the nether garment which he holds in his hands.
The more patches there are the greater becomes the value from an artistic
standpoint.
vituperate the chipmunks and spar
rows that whisk off crumbs of comfort
from under the camper's feet.
The Camp Robber's gray coat , black
and white barred wings and slender
bill , with certain tricks of perching ,
accuse him of attempts to pass him
self off as a woodpecker ; but his be
havior is all crow. He frequents the
higher pine belts , and has a noisy ,
strident call like a jay's ; and how
clean he and the frisk-tailed chip
munks keep the camp ! No crumb or
paring or bit of
egg-shell
goes amisg.
The cunningest hunter is hunted in
turn , and what he leaves of his kill fa
meat for some other.
A man has no right to give his wife
away when she boasts before company
considering that she never gives him , '
away by looking surprised when he
offers her the rocking chair when
pany ! present