8 The Conservative *
THE TREELESS COUNTRY.
"I had n dream which was not nil a dream 1"
A great state was a desert , and the land
Lay bare and lifeless under sun and storm ,
Treeless and shelterless. Spring came and
went ,
And came , but brought no joy ; but in its
stead
The desolation of the ravine floods
That leaped like wolves or wildcats from the
hills ,
And spread destruction over fruitful farms ,
Devouring as they went the works of man ,
And sweeping southward nature's kindly soil
To choke the water-courses , worse than waste.
The forest trees that in the olden time
The people's glory and the pnet's pride-
Tempered the air and guarded well the earth ,
And under spreading boughs for ages kept
Great reservoirs to hold the snow and rain ,
From which the moisture through the teeming
year
Flowed equably but freely all were gone
Their priceless holes exchanged for petty cash.
The cash had molted , and had left no sign ;
The logger and the lumberman were dead ;
The axe had rusted out for lack of use ;
But all the endless evil they had done
Was manifest upon the desert waste.
Dead springs no longer sparkled in the sun ;
Lost and forgotten brooks no longer laughed ;
Deserted mills mourned all their moveless
wheels ;
The snow no longer covered as with wool
Mountain and plain , but buried starving
flocks
In Arctic drifts ; in rivers and canals
The vessels rotted idly on the mud ,
Until the spring floods buried all their bones ;
Great cities that had thriven wondrously
Before the source of thrift was swept away ,
Faded and perished , as a plant will die
With water banished from its roots and leaves ;
And men sat starving in the treeless waste ,
Beside their fruitless farms and empty marts ,
And wondered at the ways of Providence 1
New York Sun.
MUST THE PHILIPPINE WAR GO ON ?
We have been mistaken in the Filipino.
He is not an ignorant , passionate savage
who can be either frightened or whipped
into submission while there remains to
him a chance to fight for his native land.
The Filipinos have been fighting us
twice as long as the Boers have been
fighting England , and England's pros
pect of soon finishing her task is very
much brighter than onrs. The Filipino
is a man with a cause for which he is
willing to die. He may be weary of the
war , but he has made the American
people weary of it , too. As he has in
comparably more at stake in the struggle
than we have , it is to be expected that
his stubbornness will continue to be dis
heartening to the Jingoes.
It is a war from which this great
nation can reap no glory , even were
complete success assured , and the profit
of the enterprise is not perceptible. The
American republic can afford to do
what is best for itself , materially and
morally , even though that should in
volve the freedom of the Filipinos. The
democrats were quite right in their
campaign contention that tha attempt
to rule the Filipinos without their con
sent , and in spite of their fierce and
sanguinary protest , does violence to the
letter and spirit of the Declaration of
Independence. Had "Imperialism" been
the only issue , Bryan , and not McKinley -
ley , would today be the president-elect ,
for there are millions of republicans
who agree with the defeated rather
than the successful candidate on this
question.
To the North American it would seem
wise were President McKinley not to
ignore the significance of the marked
falling off of the party vote in the old
surely republican states where "Im
perialism" was most discussed. It
would be wise were he to take counsel
of snch republicans as Senators Hoar
(
and Hale and Representative McOall
and Littlefield. Their party standing
cannot be questioned , though they hold
to what has unfortunately become tem
porarily the democratic doctrine that
the constitution should follow the
flag.
flag.Why
Why should there not be an effort
made to end the war by means of nego
tiation ? Why should the Filipinos not
be asked to say through their leaders
what terms , if any , they will accept
short of the relinquishment of American
sovereignty and the recognition of their
independence ?
And if thus reasonably approached
they should reject every proposal which
refuses them independence , has not the
time arrived for rational Americans to
put the question to their common sense
whether it is worth while for this re
public to go on indefinitely with the
drudgery of slaughter in order forcibly
to annex a people who will hate us for
generations in the future , as they hated
Spain for generations in the past ?
Philadelphia North American ( rep. ) .
FATE OF THE GROUT BILL.
The Grout Oleomargarine bill , with
all of its un-American principles and its
selfish motives and hypocritical asser
tions , is before congress. It was not up
on schedule time but is being urged
with all of the uuscrupulousness that
characterized its advocacy during the
last session of this congress.
A steering arrangement on the Army
bill gave the hint of its death in the
senate. This intimation can hardly be
ignored or overcome.
If the butter sellers and the butter
trust have no better success in this final
fight than they had at the polls then the
bill is already dead and ready for the
journal morgue for identification and
burial. It should be killed.
If the butter interests really mean
what they say , viz. : "That oleomar
garine should be sold only as such and
that the anti-color feature in the bill is
only to accomplish that end" they
should jump at the substitute for the
Grout bill. This substitute says that
oleomargarine ( whether colored or
otherwise ) shall only be sold in one and
two-pound packages wrapped in tissue
paper , upon which shall be printed in
arge black or easily observed letters the
word "oleomargarine. " Around this
brick shall then be placed a ribboned
two cent internal revenue stamp , stuck
; o the paper so that it cannot be removed
except by the consumer.
Such a bill would win in a canter and
come nearer than any other method to
forcing the sale of oleomargarine in its
own name if , as some claim , it is not so
sold now.
One would think that the dairy inter
ests would jump at such a bill if they
were sincere in the statement that they
do not desire to kill the oleomargarine
industry and were simply desirous of
iiaving it sold as oleomargarine.
If the Grout bill should pass the house
we are reasonably assured that the
senate will strangle or kill it. If it
should pass congress we feel that the
president will find it so'vicious and un
constitutional as to veto so pernicious a
measure. Should the president affix his
signature the supreme court , upon
petition , should certainly declare such a
piece of legislation illegal and unconsti
tutional in many respects and subver
sive of healthful trade. The color line
alone would void such a statute. There
is a lane between the natural and the
artificial color of butter. Color is not
patented and one lawful product has an
equal right with another to artificial
coloring. National Provisioner.
AS THE GERMAN SEES US.
"A Self-Made Man. A Story for
Good Little Boys'is the caption of a
clever satire on American character
which appeared recently in the St.
Petersburg Zeitung , a German paper
published at St. Petersburg , Russia.
THE CONSERVATIVE is indebted to the
Literary Digest for the following trans
lation :
"There was once a little boy , and his
name was Freddie. He did much for
the entertainment of the neighborhood
by fishing in other people's private
ponds and picking other people's fruits.
When he was scolded for it he would
proudly say : 'I am a free citizen of a
free country. ' The neighbors wanted
his father to whip him , but the father
said he would not thus degrade a future
president of the United States. Such
things could be done only in enslaved
Europe. And Freddie grew and pros
pered. He always attacked boys who
were weaker than himself , beat them ,
and took away their pennies in the name
of civilization and humanity. For , in
Freddie's veins ran strong and pure the
undiluted blood of the noble Anglo-
Saxon.
"One day Freddie's father was told
that his son had swindled a friend of the
family with a bogus dollar , and had
gotten 85 cents change. And the father
was deeply moved , and said : 'I always
knew Freddie would some day be a