'Cbe Conservative *
Ifc iB
STATESMEN _
READY MADE. true ° f
States that it con
tains regiments of men who , if
called upon to discharge the higher
duties of government , are equal to the
responsibility. Ex-Secretary Day , of
Ohio , a man of ordinary character and
equipment as a lawyer and a man , illustrates -
trates the fact that , from one end of
this country to the other , barring Ne
vada and Alaska , there are thousands of
men of various callings who are the
equals of Judge Day and of the presi
dent himself , in fitness for the highest
responsibilities in the government of
the country. Illinois , Ohio , New York ,
and other states , could produce such
men by the score fifty years ago "on
call , " as the financiers would say. They
could do it now in greater numbers.
There is scarcely a town of 50,000 people
ple in any part of the country which
cannot produce a half dozen Judge
Days , and , with all due respect for the
present incumbent , occasionally a McKinley -
Kinloy , or something steadier and
stronger. The fact must be due to the
influence of the political freedom
which gives all men a chance on equal
terms to rise in the world from
any station , however humble it may
be , and to that inboni strength for de
velopment which belongs equally to
the ruling races of men , and especially
to the Anglo-American.
administration -
SAMOAN ROYAI/TY.
ministration of
President Benjamin Harrison the gov
ernment of the United States entered
into a tri-partite agreement with Ger
many and England regarding the gov
ernment of the Samoau islands. By
that agreement the three powers were
to maintain a king on a little wooden
throne at Apia. Before seating this
king in whom the United States has a
one-third interest , , by this treaty agree
ment his rival had to be deported to
the Marshall islands. The discomfitted
rival , like the successful potentate who
was enthroned by the order of Germany ,
England and the United States , was a
polygarnist and together with his nine
wives was conveyed to the Marshall
islands in a German man-of-war. The
recollection of THE CONSERVATIVE is
that this potentate of Samoa is paid $90
a mouth for being king and the people
of the United States contribute $30 of
that stipend every thirty days.
It is agreeable to know that we have a
dollar-a-day interest in maintaining a
sovereign of such great powers. It is
well enough to recall the fact that he
was crowned and enthroned under the
republican administration of Mr. Harri
son and by the same party which in
veighed so vigorously against the Clove-
laud administration because it was not in
favor of overthrowing , by naval power of
the United States , the dynasty of Queen
Liliulokalani. It seems that their re
gard for a republican form of govern
ment is intermittent ; it breaks out
whenever it seems possible that by hav
ing the disease they may irritate their
opponents or inflame their disciples with
proper zeal for establishing heathen
uionarchs.
American interests in Samoa are very
inconsiderable. The trade of those
islands has for a generation been almost
exclusively absorbed by the Germans ,
England herself getting only a very
small proportion. The recent demand
which , according to the newspapers , has
been complied with , that the govern
ment of the United States should send
down there man-of-war at vast
a - - ex
pense , to protect American interests
which do not exist , merely illustrates
the extravagant craziness of the jingo
ism which expansion and annexation
have developed in the United States dur
ing the past twelve mouths.
Nebraska has the honor of having fur
nished , in Judge Norval , of Blair , the
American minister to the court of his
royal and imperial majesty , Mataafa.
This mighty monarch indulges in nose
rings , ear rings and a large assortment
of wives. The American people pay
one-third of his salary and his business
is to govern other barbarians , "without
the consent of the.governed. "
This King Mataafa is one of the glori
ous products of republican diplomacy to
which the petty partisan may "point
with pride. " Mataafa is the one regal
result of the Harrison administration
which attests the statecraft of the then
secretary of state.
THE OLD CRY.
for Mr. Dolhver to
shout "treason" in the house at Mr.
Johnson whom he could not answer in
argument upon a great national ques
tion. Intelligent , patriotic opposition tea
a dangerous policy respecting the Phil
ippines arouses the same passions and
intolerance that marked the inception
and progress of the civil war. Mr.
Johnson , of Indiana , a republican
of high standing and conceded abil
ity , sees fit to arraign the presi
dent and his party for attempting
the conquest of a people on the other
side of the globe who have just emerged
from a long struggle for freedom and in
dependence of Spanish rule. He gives
his reasons for doing it with a fearless
ness and force which arrest the atten
tion of the country. Mr. Dolliver puts
himself forward to repel the attack for
this reason , and , preached to the wall
by a question put to him by Mr. Johnson
in debate , this champion of expansion
by armed conquest evades reply auti
shouts "treason , " as though the freedom
of debate in the American congress is
ranked as a crime for which men are to
be branded as traitors to their country.
Men who still live to recall the experi
ences of the civil war will recognize it
as the old cry against all men who dare
: o differ from the ruling dynasty. Mr.
Cannon , of Illinois , more moderate than
the autocrat of Iowa , intimates what ho
laclcs the boldness to declare , in plain
words. The indictment of such men as
Johnson as traitors because they oppose
what Grover Cleveland and Senators
Boar and Halo , and millions more , de
nounce as a great and dangerous blow at
our own liberties , harmonizes completely
with the brutal course of Ben Wade ,
Stevens of Pennsylvania , and'all the
Leadership of the republican party dur
ing the civil war , and the worse than
civil war that followed Appomattox.
Any man who pleaded the rights of
ioyal citizens of the Northern states un
der the constitution was denounced as a
"traitor , " a "copperhead , " and by every
other vile name that malignity could in
vent. The lives of men were not only
threatened , but taken , by the followers
of these leaders for these reasons. Any
man who dared to oppose granting equal
suffrage to the liberated slaves on the
plantations of the South was branded as
an enemy of his country.
THEARIIITRA- .T1J ? le °
TION TREATY , gloating triumph
with which the
republican party voted down the arbi
tration treaty by which Great Britain
and the United States , the two great
English-speaking nations , were to be
come the associated sponsors of the
peace of the world , will never be for
gotten by Americans who love peace
and seek the permanent prosperity of
their country. The defeat of that noble
agreement by a purely partisan and
bigoted vote is recalled now by the loud
denunciations which the administration
press is pouring upon all men who an
tagonize the Spanish-American treaty
made at Paris. The Same editors , orators
tors and swashbucklers who denounced
the English-American arbitration agree
ment are now wildly supporting
the. arrangements for buying eleven
millions of Filipinos with their real
estate appurtenances thrown in.
Then to oppose a treaty which meant
peace was patriotism. Now to antago
nize a treaty which means war , and the
beginning of the end of self-government
for the citizens of the United States , is
treason. Then to abolish war was
wicked. Now to perpetuate conflict is
Christianity.
M. Emilo Zola is learning to read
English. He is not wise ; ho is likely to
run upon some things that will hurt his
feelings.
Other people have pension troubles.
Waterloo was fought 84 years ago , but |
Franco has just paid her last pension tea
a soldier of Napoleon. And the French
do not pay salaries , to young girls who
marry old dotards , either. , ,
I ,
