ir
* Cbe Conservative. E
materialized July 14 , 1890. This law is
named after the greatest acrobat iu
finance which this country has produced
John Sherman of Ohio. The Sherman
act says : "The secretary of the treasury
is directed to purchase from time to
time silver bullion to the aggregate
amount of 4,500,000 ounces or so much
thereof as may be offered each month at
the market price thereof , not exceeding
one dollar for 871.25 grains of fine silver ,
and to issue in payment for such silver
bullion , treasury notes of the United
States , to be prepared by the secretary
of the treasury , in such form and of
such denominations not less than one
dollar nor more than one thousand dollars
lars as he may prescribe. "
And this act constituted the second
active cause of the panic of 1898. And
it was brought into being because of the
laxity of the ethics of politics in the
United States. This subject will be
further elaborated in coming numbers
of THE CONSERVATIVE.
Spectacles upon children , spectacles
upon youth and spectacles everywhere
in American society show how thor
oughly well the specialists have gotten
in their work upon the credulity of this
generation. Whenever a child has a
headache either from a disordered
stomach or a fall , or a fight , the specta
cles are the antidote. Hundreds of boys
and girls have been sentenced , doomed
to go through life with spectacles on
their noses when not , in the first in
stance , required at all. The oculist and
optician pull together. The itinerant
optician and oculist combined , in one
humbug , infests every little and big city
of the republic. He is busy everywhere.
Credulity and a desire to be in fashion
pay him five , ten and fifteen dollars a
pair for spectacles worth from twenty-
five cents down to nothing. The habit
of wearing glasses once formed is diffi
cult to break. Seventy-five per cent of
the spectacles put upon children are
unnecessary. They invariably impair
the eyes. They engender catarrh. They
spoil noses. They mutilate nature.
They are a wicked fraud upon youth
and beauty and vigor.
Aguinaldo is the
zssssvs : f h °
and leader of the
Philippines. All attempts to belittle and
berate him or his influence with his own
people will fail to alter the fact that he
is , for the time , at least , the master
spirit of the islands. Respect for him
and confidence in his abilities auc
prowess as a soldier amount to a super
stition , if credit may be given to observ
ers who have had opportunity to form ,
intelligent judgment. Thus far in his
war on Spain , and in his steady resistance
to American assumptions , ho has exliib
ited tact , firmness , and that kind of reso
lution which does not look much like
onciliation , and still less like surrender.
Evidently doing his part in preventing
armed collision with the forces of the
Tinted States , it is equally clear that ho
s busy with preparation for it. The
lieory propounded by Mr. Fryo and in-
iniated by Mr. Platt in the senate that
opposition and consequent delay in the
ratification of the treaty of Paris are
causing the next war , if the next war
shall come , may answer the purposes of
debate , but it is the next thing to being
'rivolous in accounting for the deter
mined attitude of resistance by Aguin
aldo to any attempt by this country to
assert control of the government and
people of the Philippine Islands. The
snown and plain truth is that before a
word had been spoken for or against rat
ification on the floor of the senate , the
determination of the leaders and people
of the islands had been proclaimed to
the world.
If it shall occur , the next war will bo
a dazzling spectacle for gods and men.
A great and free people will bo found
engaged in the slaughter of a half civil
ized and fighting rrtco of men who have
never harmed our country , and who are
simply struggling to be free. This will
be the naked truth about it , whatever
may be the specious pleas and disguises
under which such a slaughter shall bo
inagurated. But will this slaughter be
all on one side ? Far from it. The
deadly Mauser in the hands of the arm
ies of Aguiualdo , who can recruit them
from millions of men fighting on the de
fensive from tropical jungles and in re
gions inaccessible to our own armies on
account of impassable roads , will mean
a long contest and a great loss of life in
actual conflict. Add to this the suffer
ing and death which will be sure to
come to our troops from the high heats
of a tropical climate , and the situation
threatens consequences which are appal
ling to contemplate.
Cui bono ?
MOUE EXCURSION
MONEY. tke Cltv
ington , dated
January 80 , announce :
"Ferdinand W. Peck , United States
commissioner-general to the Paris ex
position , has arrived here accompanied
by Secretary Brackett. They will bo
joined by Fred Skiff , director of the
mining bureau , and other members of
Mr. Peck's staff , and will appear before
the house committee on appropriations
to urge an increase of the amount se
aside by congress to provide for a gov
ernmeut exhibit at the exposition.
"The first appropriation was $650,000
but Mr. Peck and his associates will asl
for additional appropriations amounting
in the aggregate to about $1,000,000
Mr. Peck says the amount available a
present is entirely inadequate for the
purpose and if there is to be a representation
sentation at Paris next year in keeping
vith the wealth and resources of the
Jnited States , congress must provide
money for it. "
The "show business" of the United
States grows apaco. Who is benefited ?
Anyone except the promoters and man
agers ? By what authority is money be-
onging to all of the people bestowed
upon a few of the people , like Peck and
iis co-promoters , ostensibly to muko an
exhibit at Paris of the products of cer-
; ain manufacturers and planters of the
United States ?
During the last thirty years more than
; eu millions of dollars have been swiped
'rom the federal treasury to support
expositions at Philadelphia , at New
Orleans , at Chicago , at Atlanta , at
Nashville , at Omaha and now St.
Louis , Niagara Falls and Detroit are
seeking each an appropriation for an
exposition at government expense ; while
Omaha having been very successful
financially with its exposition last year ,
feels like Oliver Twist after partaking
of soup and importunately cries for
more , more.
It is easy to be generous with public
money. It requires no great ability to
run an exposition where the govern
ment furnishes the bulk of the capital
as a gratuity.
How many mendicants shall visit
Paris at the expense of the federal
treasury ?
The principal
AGRICULTURAL farm products exported
EXPOHTS.
ported from the
United States are cotton , wheat ( grain
and flour ) , bacon , lard , corn , cattle , to
bacco , fresh beef , hams , and oleomar
garine ( the oil ) . Of all these products
except the last , by far the largest quan
tity is shipped to the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland. The
other principal customers are of cotton :
Germany , France , Spain , and Italy ; of
wheat : Canada , Netherlands , Portugal ,
Brazil , China , and Belgium ; of bacon :
Belgium , Brazil , Germany , Netherlands ,
and Canada ; of lard : Germany , Nether-
lauds , France , Belgium , Cuba , and
Brazil ; of com : Germany , Netherlands ,
Denmark , and Canada ; of tobacco :
Germany , Franco , Spain , Belgium ,
Italy , and the Netherlands. Live cattle
and fresh beef are almost exclusively
sent to the United Kingdom. Oleomar
garine ( the oil ) finds its principal mar
ket in the Netherlands and Germany.
Nobody can belittle the presidency of
the United States except the man who
holds that exalted position. And that
exalted position cannot enlarge the
judgment of a small man nor increase
the intellectual capacity of mediocrity.
A gnat , a beetle , a chinch bug may be
quite visible on the ground , but perched
upon a mountain peak the insect IB
hardly discernible.
