10 Conservative.
The renders of
CUUKI/TY
. THE CONSEKVA-
TO KARAX.
TIVE have shud
dered more over the cruelty to General
Eagnn than over the degraded condition
of the quicksilver in their thermometers
during the last ton or twenty days.
That prominent officer in the United
States army said that his superior , Gen
eral Miles , lied ; lied generally and lied
particularly in every fibre and atom of
his corporeal and incorporeal individual
ity concerning "embalmed" beef for the
mastication of the militant army or
armies of the United States. And now
General Eagan is sentenced to suspen
sion from work , to be excused from
duty for six years on five thousand dollars
lars a year and whether Miles lied or
did not lie see'ms a matter of small
account.
The Chicago Record has a splendid
correspondent in Washington , William
E. Curtis , and in his letter of the 8th
instant , published in The Record of the
9th , concerning Eagan's suffering , Mr.
Curtis thus remarks :
"Leaving the disgrace and humilia
tion out of sight , many an officer in the
army or the navy would be glad to re
ceive the sentence that was passed upon
General Eagan. In fact , nine-tenths of
the population of the earth would grab
at his situation if they could get it ,
speaking from a financial point of view.
While it is true that ho is permanently
dishonored , and will bear the badge of
disgrace the remainder of his life , his
financial condition is assured to a de
gree beyond that of any other officer of
the army or navy , and it furnishes some
striking contrasts. General Eagan will
draw from the treasury of the United
States during the next six years while
ho is under suspension a salary of
$ .j,500 a year , without being called upon
to perform any duty or bear any respon
sibility. He will have his entire time
to himself. He will be free to engage
in business , and will probably go to
California , where he has a ranch. He
was born on the Pacific coast , where his
family still resides , and has spent most
of his life there. His pay will bo suffi
cient to support him in comfort and lux
ury. By the operation of his sentence
ho loses his allowance for quarters , for
age , fuel and other things that are fur
nished free to army officers by the gov
ernment , but ho will not need them.
"Captain Clark of the Oregon , while
awaiting orders at his old home in Mich
igan , received § 100 less than one-half
of the pay of General Eagan , or $2,700
a year. ' Having recovered his health ,
lie is to bo assigned to shore duty , and
his pajr with all his honors will be § 3,500
a year , or $2,000 less than Eagan draws
in disgrace.
"Commodore * Phillipwhom everybody
knows , is now commanding at the
Brooklyn navy yard , where his respon
sibility and cares and labors are very
great. Ho will receive a salary of
$4,000 a year , or $1,500 less than Eagau.
If he should go on waiting orders or
take a leave of absence or bo relieved
from duty he would receive only $3,000.
"Admiral Dewey at Manila is paid $500
more than Eagan while ho is in com
mand of the Asiatic squadron. When
ho comes home at the end of his cruise
and is assigned to shore duty he will be
paid $500 less than Eagau , and while he
is awaiting orders or on leave of ab
sence ho will bo entitled to $1,500 less.
"Admiral Schley is now in Washing
ton awaiting orders. It is proposed to
organize a fleet for him and send liiin to
Europe in command of it as soon ns
matters settle down in the Philippines
and West Indies , but until then , accord
ing to the iniles of the service , he is
'waiting orders' and is entitled to pay
at the rate of $4,000 a year , or two-
thirds of what he would receive while
at sea. He is therefore drawing $1,500
less than General Eagau. "
Over $500,000 will be spent during
1899 by the Burlington road in improve
ments to its track , road-bed and
bridges west of the Missouri river. Of
this amount over $200,000 will be put
into new iron bridges. One hundred
and miles of rails will
fifty 75-pound re
place lighter rails , and over 1,000,000
now ties will be put in.
A SOLIJJ \\AIjJ. , . Some _ _ _ weeks . . _ ago .
E. O. Wall of Wis
consin renounced the sixteen-to-oue
delusions of the advocates of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver by the
United States government single-handed
and alone. Since his declaration of
financial sanity Mr. Wall has been pelted
with letters and editorials denunciatory ,
defamatory and generally deprecatory.
These missives and 'missiles have been
shot at Mr. Wall with unceasing valor
from behind all the fortifications of Coin
Harvey and the entrenched assets of the
Arkansas Jones democracy , the Ne
braska Allen populism , and the Colorado
Teller republicanism. And at last , after
a bombardment of weeks duration , Mr.
Wall has replied. He says , in the be
ginning of his epistle to the sixteenites :
"From the tone of many letters I have
received and newspaper comments that
have been brought to niy attention , it
seems some people are so fanatical on
the silver question that to doubt the
wisdom , propriety or expediency of
retaining in the next national platform
the declaration of 16 to 1 is regarded as
disloyal , and that whosoever expresses
such a doubt must bo read out of the
democratic party and seek an asylum
with the republicans or the gold demo
crats. For ono I do not propose to bo
read out of the democratic party , and I
shall not join the republican party nor
cast my lot with the gold doniocrats. I
propose to stay on the democratic ship ,
and I challenge the right and deny the
power of any man or set of men to throw
ino overboard. There I will remain and
for the principles that I believe to bo
democratic I will lift up my voice , and
if I am overridden by a majority of my
fellow democrats I can acquiesce , but
claim the right to retire from active par
ticipation in promulgating views that I
regard as undemocratic , unwise , un
businesslike and inexpedient. "
Farther along in his wholesome and
instructive communication to the money
fallacy promoters , after recalling the
emotional and paroxysmal convention of
alleged democracy which met at Chicago
in 1896 , Mr. Wall forcibly and correctly
remarks :
"It is not so much a question of what
the standard of value shall bo as of
what the standard of value is. It is
established irrevocably by commercial
usages and the regular laws of trade ,
and cannot and will not bo controlled by
legislation contrary to those great laws.
Business could probably be done just
as well with silver as with gold as the
standard of value , if it were accepted by
all the business world. But it is not ,
and any attempt made by legislation to
force trade and commerce to a standard
that is not universally recognized will
create endless trouble , annoyance and
loss to the masses , and after all , if a now
basis were accepted and quiet restored ,
it would be found that the masses had
not become the gainers , and the control
of money as. firmly centralized under
the new system as under the old.
Between those who worship the golden
calf and those who worship the silver
calf there is little choice , except that the
former idol is looked upon with inoro
favor by the greater mass of the people
than the latter , and hence exerts a larger
influence.
Believing that while the democratic
party retains the silver issue as an
article of faith it will not retain the con
fidence of her people and be placed in
control of the government , I shall do
my best to prevent it. "
A1JOUT A AVEBSTEKIAN .ORATION.
It has been said by some persons in
the world that "there can never be but
ono Webster" in our country. The be
nighted persons who talk thus predicate
the melancholy refrain upon the fact that
the God-like Daniel was the greatest or
ator since Demosthenes chewed pebbles.
There is one man , at least , now living
who is convinced that there is another
Webster who can match the original
marvel as an orator , if he can only get a
hearing. He carries an oration around
with him in his trousers' pocket , fires it
at looking-glasses , rehearses it in solilo
quies , sleeps with it in his little bed and
expects to snort it at the senate if he
lives to the allotted ago of man. It is
hardly necessary to say that the subject
of this Webstorian oration is Expansion ,
with a big E.
