i
Cbe
try is arousing such distrust and hostility
among our naturalized citizens of Eu
ropean birth. Eepublican loaders affect
to believe that there is no danger to the
republican party from this feeling of
fear. They should take heed. In
Europe , militarism is a black and blight
ing shadow. Let it not fall across our
republic's onward way. Jerome A.
Hart , in Argonaut.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION.
The decision of the federal court , for
the district of Minnesota , that the con
stitution extends wherever new territory
is acquired , has been variously com
mented upon by the press of the country.
The following is from the National
Provisiouer and notes more particularly
the commercial phase of the question :
"A United States court in a matter
involving the liberty and status of a
native of Porto Rico has decided that
the moment this government acquired
the island of Porto Rico the constitution
of this country extended over the new
possession and that no further legislation
was necessary. It is to be regretted
that the question is involved in a matter
of murder in which the prisoner won
his contention , because that disbars an
appeal to the supreme court of the
United States which could , at this early
date , settle a vexed constitutional prob
lem that is going to jostle us in a legal ,
political and business way for some
time.
"If Porto Rico and the Philippines
upon the ratification of the treaty with
Spain became United States territory
under our constitution without the need
of further legislation and with full ter
ritorial rights , then the products of these
lauds must be admitted into this coun
try free and our goods must be admitted
in there duty free. That is a matter of
the organic law over which congress has
no control. If free trade must exist
between the states and our new terri-
toryexisting treaties with foreign powers
must apply to them as to any other part
of this country. Any new treaties or
tariff acts are unconstitutional and will
involve us in a string of awkward and
peculiar complications.
"In view of the decision already
rendered by a very high court of this
country a decision which stands until
overruled by the supreme court itself
any acts under the recent legislation of
congress are involved in unconstitution
ally and are liable to be gainsaid some
day by the final arbiter at Washington.
We do not believe that the new 'colonial
policy' of our government can hold. In
saying so we do not necessarily infer
that it is a wise or an unwise policy.
We simply say that it is not in keeping
with the traditions or the organic law of
this country. We believe that the
supreme court of the United States will
so hold and upset the recent legislation
of congress which provides for disorimi-
V '
nation against our now territory. Tjie
sooner this court is invited to pass upoir
this question the better for our peace of1
mind and the complications which are
likely to follow a pursuance of the
present policy in regard to our island
possessions. Our food interests are as
much involved in this constitutional
question as is any other trade. We ex
pect to ship the meats , lards , butters ,
oils and other edible goods which the
populations of our acquired laud require
in excess of their home production.
"It has been our historic boast that
everything is free under the American
flag ; that where floats the stars and
stripes there live liberty and freedom
of trade with every other part of our
land. We believe that the supreme
court will ultimately say so in regard to
Porto Rico and the Philippines. "
THE ECLIPSE.
Going away ? asked the editors ,
who stand guard at the entrance of the
town , to see that none pass or repass
without the worshipful public's knowl
edge. New Orleans. On busi
ness ? An engagement to meet a
party there.
An engagement indeed ; one made
years and years ago by the infinite labors
of the patient astronomers. And the
contracting party surely the strangest
that any man ever made appointment
with , even a visitant from interplanetary
space ; the tip of a shadow 240,000 miles
long , which , forever walking that cold
emptiness , was to stroke our continent
in a narrow path on the morning of the
28th of May.
It is a long journey or , as the really
up-to-date people say , a "far cry"
from Nebraska City to New Orleans.
One crosses eight of the states of the
Union ; one also passes twice through
the shadow of the earth. That is a cone
of blackness , so huge that it makes one's
hair rise to think of it , always lurking
close behind the shoulder of our globe ;
the reason we think so little of it is that
we spend half our lives iu it. Through
it two mighty trains plowed roaring
tunnels , each four or five hundred miles
in length. Twice we emerged from it
to confront the eternal pageant of the
rising sun. Once he appeared above a
misty laud that was Illinois , raising a
ruddy face surmounted by a lofty plume ,
like an Indian chief in his war-bonnet ;
between us lay the vague expanse of the
Mississippi , with woods and green
islands looming through the morning
vapors. It is like the Mississippi of
which the strange French genius Dore
dreamed , without ever having seen it.
And again the sun rose above the blue
and smiling level of Lake Pontchartrain.
There was a. day between , a long day.
Both the Burlington and the Illinois
Central railroad systems are among the
greatest of human organizations , and
every known appliance is employed to
make smooth the path of those who go
to view eclipses over their lines. And
fljiill it'is hard , undeniably hard , even
f 6r one who Joves to look upon his native
lautwn all its parts , to abide upon any
railroa'cTfrafu'W'hatsoever for many days
in succession" * , Double track , ninety-
pound railf" * locomotives of incredible
bulk and powder and cars of the best , do
not remove the weariness that settles
upon eye and brain as the caravan goes
on and always on. If it is a rapid train ,
one tires of the unvaried spsed main
tained hour after hour , and of seeing
one town after another whirl by undis
tinguished. If it is a slow train and
stops at the towns , one wearies of his
rural fellow-citizens and wishes that the
train would make haste and get some
where.
This is not one of the worst days. It
lies altogether in the Old South , and the
ways are full of confederate veterans
hastening to a reunion in Louisville. A
veteran it seems is a veteran , whether
north or south ; these differ to the eye
only in the lettering upon their badges
from the old soldiers familiar to us in
the northern towns , neither are their
wives and daughters more or less fair
than those who grace with their presence
the gatherings of the Grand Army. One
notices only that they are all elderly
men , and that some of them are not so
active as when they trudged , musket-
laden , along the miry path of duty ; and
everywhere one hears that , Thank God ,
there is no bitterness now.
Another class of fellow-citizens be
comes more conspicuous with every mile
of southing accomplished ; that is the
man and brother with the black , black
face. The villages came to consist of
the indispensable stores , and only a
cluster of whitewashed shanties besides ,
before each of which the "colored" are
taking their rest. Appears also the
separate waiting-room , and the Jim
Crow car as well. Looking forward
from his own seat , one may behold pro
jecting from a window far ahead certain
f et , which the Creator never caused to
grow upon the shanks of the white man ;
and at stopping places one may see
travelers alight from that vehicle , to be
welcomed by throngs of billowy black
dames with shouts of Dah you is.
The negroes are amusing at first , but
end by becoming annoying. They grow
and grow upon one , as their numbers
increase , until they grow into a kind of
black nightmare , and "more negroes"
becomes an unwelcome sight , from
which one willingly averts his eyes.
How quick the northeastern section of
our country was to judge the south
eastern in its difficulties , fifty years ago !
Further , there appears , as wherever
one goes at present , the process of
shortening lines by the avoidance of
curves , together with a scaling down of
grades , and all to the end that freight
and passengers may be conveyed more
