fc28 vsr "i iH o w
Conservative. if
district to start with 200 ballots already
marked before the polls are opened.
The average percentage for the , whole
United States of males of voting age
who voted in 1890 was 71.7 per cent.
The percentage for the north Atlantic
states was 70.8 per cent. , for the south
Atlantic , 71.4 per cent ; for the northern
central , 79.7 per cent. ; for the southern
central , 67.9 per cent. ; for the western
states , 47.8 per cent. The closer the
contest the larger the vote. In the
northern central group every state was
hotly contested. The high figures in
West Virginia , Maryland and North
Carolina , where similar conditions pre
vailed , brings the percentage of the
south Atlantic group close up to the
average , notwithstanding the low figures
of South Carolina , where contests are
practically determined at the primaries ,
which are much more generally at
tended.
In 189G in South Carolina the nine
presidential electors represented 68,907
voters and Pennsylvania's thirty-two
electors represented 1,194,355 voters. In
the former state there were 7,655 voters
to each elector and in Pennsylvania ,
37,823. According to the returns the
South Carolinian had five times
the iuflaence of the Pennsylvanian. If
the number of electors each state was
entitled to was proportioned to the vote
cost at the preceding presidential elec
tion perhaps there would be a more
general exercise of the franchise or an
elimination of those unjust provisions
which disfranchise so many citizens in
some of the southern states , or , better
still , an improvement of conditions
which will make intimidation impossible
Another suggested remedy is that of a
direct vote of the people for president
and vice-president. This would elimi
nate the possibility of a minority presi
dent and would substitute direction for
indirection always a desirable policy
in a democratic community. New York
Independent.
INSURANCE AGAINST STRIKES.
An insurance against strikes is the
latest idea in Austria. A number of
manufacturers have adopted the plan of
paying a certain percentage upon their
respective payrolls into a common fund.
In the event of a strike occurring in the
work i of one of them un investigation
is made by a committee representing
the association , and if it is decided the
strike was declared unjustly the idle
factory is idemnified from the fund. On
the other hand , if the committee finds
the cause of the strikers just there is no
indemnity.
The influence of this organization
should be good. Its direct effect will be
to cause workmen to ponder before
ordering a strike for doubtful griev
ances , because they cannot possibly win
against an indemnified employer. The
equally potent indirect effect will be to
.
> a II I ! ! ! ! Mill I i
make the manufacturer cautious about
resisting demands that are just. The
risk will not be merely the necessity for
supporting themselves through the
strike , but of having the moral weight of
an adverse decision of the committee
against them. Pittsburg Dispatch.
RAILWAY NOTES.
In the suit against the New York Cen
tral , in which a passenger claimed that
he was deprived of a seat which he had
reserved by putting his baggage into it ,
the counsel asserts the following self-
evident propositions : When a passenger
buys a ticket he presumes that he is to
get a seat , and unless there is some un
usual condition he is legally entitled to
it. If he enters an ordinary coach
where no seats are reserved and there is
no trainman to usher him to a seat it is
the custom of railway companies to
allow the passenger to choose his own
seat. This practically amounts to a
regulation of the company. Therefore ,
the court ruled , if a person occupied a
seat , and then for any reason left it
without in some 'way marking it as re
served by himself , and returned to find
it occupied by another passenger , he has
no right to ask that passenger to give up
his seat. If , however , he leaves his
cane , umbrella or handbag in his seat
when he goes to the platform to buy a
paper or for any other purpose , and finds
his baggage moved and the peat occu
pied by another , he has a legal as well
as a moral right to that seat.
The increasing popularity of tourist
sleeping cars for transcontinental travel
is a subject of much comment among
railroad men. It is said that 85 per
cent , of the passengers to and from
California travel in tourist sleeping cars.
These cars are comfortable and not
nearly so expensive as palace sleeping
cars. The Burlington railroad is doing
a great deal to encourage tourist car
travel , having increased its California
tourist car service this season from once
a week to three times a week.
A fast run was made on the Canadian
Pacific railway on the 12th inst. , with a
special train carrying Lord Strathcona
from Montreal to Ottawa. The train
left Windsor street station at 8 87 a. m. ,
and reached Ottawa at 10.27 a. m. , a
distance of 111.4 miles , in 110 minutes.
At least ten minutes should be deducted
from this , however , for slow running
through Windsor street station yard at
Montreal and the Central station yard at
Ottawa , and for reducing speed at four
interlocked grade crossings , and at
Sainte Annes and Vaudreuil to receive
and deliver electric train staff. The
train consisted of Atlantic type engine
" 310 , with Engineer J. Smith at the
throttle , and one coach and private car ,
"Metaphedia , " in charge of Conductor
A. Chapman.
The following facts have boon ascer
tained in connection with the reported
.
strike of the railway telegrapher on the
Atohison Topeka and Santa Fe railway ,
reference to which , with the usual sen-
sationol headlines , was made in the daily
papers of November 14. A thorough
examination of the documents in the
case shows the exact situation to have
been : That on Tuesday , November 6 ,
a committee representing the operators
on the Santa Fe lines west of Albuquerque -
erque submitted , for the consideration
of the officials of the road , a wage
schedule , together with rules and regulations -
lations governing the employment of
operators. Being doubtful of their
ability to agree with the committee it
was suggested by the officials that the
telegraphers request their president to
meet with them in conference. At this
meeting the committee was advised that
the road was willing to pay operators
west of Albuquerque the same wages as
were commonly paid by the other trans
continental lines under similar con
ditions , and was willing to apply , west
of Albuquerque , the rules and regula
tions adopted by agreement with the
operators on July 1 , 1900 , and which are
now in effect upon the lines east of
Albuquerque. No agreement was
reached at this conference. On Novem
ber 9 , a letter was addressed to the presi
dent of the order of telegraphers modi
fying somewhat the above proposition ,
but which also was rejected and the
president of the railroad , who was in
New York , was asked to arbitrate exist
ing differences. In reply to this demand
he wired that he dia not tmnK it neces
sary for outside aid to be called in to
settle such a matter , but before deciding
he would like to know what questions
were to be submitted for arbitration and
for how long the decision would govern.
The reply made to this by the president
of the telegraphers was : First , to order
a strike , and later , to submit a final
proposition. This proposition was
agreed to so far as wages were concerned ,
with the understanding that if the
parties could not agree upon the rules
they would be arbitrated. Upon this
conclusion the strike order was rescinded ,
but it so happened , owing to the distance
to be covered , that the hour set for the
strike had passed by a few minutes be
fore some of the operators received the
recall. As a matter of fact , therefore ,
there was no strike and no delay to trains
occurred.
Because it did not maintain a train
bulletin board in the station at Veeders-
burg , Ind. , the Big Four railway com
pany has been sued in the name of the
state of Indiana for $227,700 as penalty
for alleged violations of the state law
requiring railway companies to post
bulletins announcing the arrival and
departure of trains. The object of the
suit is evidently to make money for the
informer ; the result will probably be to
make the law ridiculous and cause its
modification or repeal. Hallway
