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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1907)
TIIE OMAHA DAILY BEE: THUKSDAY. FKNKUAKY 21. 1007. Tiie Omaha Daily Bee FOUNDED BT EDWARD ROSEWATEU. VICTOR ROSEWATER, EDITOR. . ; Entered at Omaha postofflce second class matter. TERMS OF KIBSCIUPTION. Ially Bee (without Sunday) one year M 00 Iillr llw a. id Hunday, one year 00 Fundsy He, one year t SO Saturday Bee, one jrrar 1.60 DELIVERED BT CARRIER. Dally Bee (Including Sunday), per week lSe Dally Bee (without Sunday), per week loe Fvenlng l!e (without Sunday), per week. e Evening Bee (with Sunday), per week lOo Add rem romplalnta of irregularities In delivery to City Circulation Department. OFFICE8. Omaha The Bee Building. F.uth Omnhn City Hall Building. Counrll Fluffs 10 Fearl Street. Chlrago l4rt fnltv Building. New York 1 SOU Home Life Inn. Bldg. Washington B01 Fourteenth Street. CO RR ES PON DKNCE. Communlratlona relating to news and editorial matter ahould be addressed: Omaha Bee, Editorial Department. REMITTANCES. Remit by draft, express or postal order, pnyahle to The Be Publishing Company. Only l-cent stamps received In payment pf mall accounts. Personal check, ec pt on Omnha or eastern exchanges, not accepted. THE BEE PUBLISHING COMPANY. STATEMENT OF CIRCULATION. State of Nebraska, Douglas County, as: Charles C. Rnsewater, general manager . Of The Bee Publishing company, being duly sworn, says that the actual number of full nd complete copies of The Daily. Morning. Evening and Sunday Bee printed during the month of Januarv, 1907, 'U as follows: i so.soo it si.tro t 38.680 II 31.M0 t 31,970 . II 81,700 4 tl.MO 10 30,300 ( 3160 11 31,900 30,000 12 33,030 7 31,950 It 81,040 1 33,800 14 31,760 1 33,980 SS 31.700 10 ....33,040 ' t 31,830 11 81470 .17 30,500 II 33,060 II 31,630 II .....30,400 II 31,653 14 81,730 10 31,390 II 31,980 II 81,630 11 38,180 Total 988,480 Less unsold and returned copies.. 9,134 Net total.. '....973,348 Dally average 81,390 CHARLES C. ROSE WATER. General .Manager. Subscribed In my presence and sworn to before m this, list day of January, 107. (Seal) . ROBERT HUNTER... Notary Publlo. WHEJI OIT OF TOWJJ. subscribers tearing; the city tem porarily should bar Th Be nailed to them. Address will be chaaaed as oftea aa requested. Wonder how many people "Jarred loose" as a result of Mayor "Jim's" proclamation. Some of these Russian generals light better with typewriters than they did with soldiers. Ocean steamships have added a new smell to the steerage by providing storage room for automobiles. The king of Italy spends his spare time tn collecting coins. So do the trust magnates In this country ' It will not be so very long now until the Nebraska legislators will have to walk out or stand a reduction in pay. Postmaster Oeneral Cortelyou might take a hand in that Thaw case on the theory that it Is a fast male problem. Kouropatkln's testimony that the Russian army was all right except for its leaders and soldiers Is still uncon troverted. . Mr. Hearst says that 'Abraham Lin coln was a democrat. The democratic papers of Mr. Lincoln's day did not seem to think ne was. In other words, the railroads insist there would be no car shortage if the farmers of the west would Quit raising so much stuff for market. Colonel Bryan did not make much of a sensation In his address, to the Iowa legislature. Governor Cummins bad already anticipated him. Another reason for the shrinking appearance of the Japanese war cloud Is that Richmond Peafson Hobson has 8 severe cold and cannot talk. It is doubtful If this new milking machine Just patented will do the work any better than the . kind the trusts have been using for years.' Women have been finally author ized to drive cabs in Pa,rls. The French woman ought to be1 satisfied, now that she has the whip hand. .A presidential boom has been started for Senator Culberson of Texas He appears' at least more available than any other senator from Texas. Theodore P. Shunts wants the rail road let alone lest the small investor should suffer. The small Investor is making no claim that he Is not suf fering now. That old "burn-this-letter" advice should aot bo followed too implicitly. Blnger tlermao, former commissioner of ithe general land office, Is now on trial for burning some official letter. A federal Judteihrp with a -fat sal ary and a life tenure does not heave In sight- In this bailiwick every day. No wonder the competition among Ne braska lawyers to cqnnect with the federal pay roll is so keen. The visiting Nebraska editors an nounce that they are here In Omaha "passleas, but not penniless." But they are In even better condition than that. If the pennies run ouVthey can ' get more from home by telegraph. An Arkansas girl who promised to marry any St. Louis man who would support her Is still 1 waiting at the church. The average St. Louis man may be waiting for some Arkansas girl who will promise to support him. The action of Attorney Oeneral Bo naparte directing that suits be institu ted against about a score of railroad for violations of the safety appliance law serves as a final notice to railroad companies that dilatory tactics, de signed to avoid compliance with the federal law on this point, will be tol erated no longer'. The law was passed years ago, in response to demand from trainmen and labor organizations throughout the nation, but the rail roads succeeded in bringing pressure upon congress which secured a num ber of postponements of the date for nmklng the measure operative. 'That time has long since expired, but a core or more of the railways of the country have as yet failed to comply with the provisions of the act. The Interstate Commerce commission, has reported seventy-eight violations of the law and the attorney general has decided to begin prosecutions. In face of the record that twice as many trainmen were killed or Injured In 1905 as in 1885 and that there was tn Increase of nearly 100 per cent In the number of passengers killed, based on the number of passenger miles, Jn the same ten-year period, the action of the Department of Justice would ap pear to be eminently Just, If tardy, in using, every precaution authorized b' law to reduce the growing total of human slaurhter in the operation of the steam railroads of the country. Reports submitted to the Interstate Commerce commission show that for the year 1905 one employe of the operating departments of the railroads was killed for erery 411 employed and one Injured for every twenty-one em ployed. Among the trainmen, one was killed for every 133 employed and one injured for every nine employed. In 1895 one passenger was killed for every 2.984,832 carried, while in 1905 one was killed, for every 1,375,856 carried. In 1895 one passenger was injured for every 213,651 carried, and in 1905 one passenger was injured for every 70,655 carried. In other words, it Is only half s safe to travel on steam roads now as a decade since. Safety in the operation of American railroads is about the only feature of" American development that shows re trogression instead of progress in the last ten years. " The solution of this problem must He with the railroads of the country. It will not do for them to argue, that they are carrying about eight times as many passengers as they did ten years ago, in face of the fact that the percentage of killed or injured, compared with the number carried, has nearly trebled in that time. Amer ican people travel more each year and will continue to do so as the . country becomes richer and more densely pop ulated. '-. Their care and safety and the protection of the men who operate the trains constitutes a tremendous re sponsibility and the railway managers must show improvement over the rec ord of the past, ten years or confess incompetency. No' plea, however, - of inability to meet existing conditions and emergencies will be accepted by the American traveling public so Jong as railroad managers fall o takead vantage of every opportunity for the adoption of safety appliances, whether prescribed by law or made possible in other ways, calculated to protect the lives and limbs of their employes or passengers. ANOTHER MKiZAOE FROM QARCIA- Col. Emanuel Garcia, one of the 33d degree patriots of Cuba, has been talk ing again and says that Cuba must, come Into the union of the United States of America in a mighty short time or gojnto the scrap heap. That announcement . would bring cheer to Senator Newlands and other ardent annexation advocates, were It not coupled with the assertion, that the tobacco fields of Cuba will absorb every drop of Cuban patriotic blood before any annexation scheme can be brought about jthat deprives the Cuban of his inalienable, right to home rule and the office. ' Right on the heels of Col. Garcia' talk comes theNnewa from Havana- that the leaders of the liberal party are demanding that the Ameri can provisional government in Cuba strike camp at once and get out, under penalty of a revolution and a possible invasion of the United States. Over his own signature. Gen. Elolnaz del Castillo' writes a piece to the organ of the liberal party at Havana in which he declares: Welcome peace, but with Independence and liberty." The' only peace -possible In Cuba la to strike dpwn the Imbeciles who place their fate In a dictatorship or who believe that with a protectorato or an nexation they can make sugar. Whit will be made Is war war colossal "end without quarter, sparing neither lives nor prpperty. These traitors to the fatherland, what must be thought of thernT We are resolved that wc stuiil not see our adorable republic of Cuba ruled by foreigners or the plaything, of ambition. That raises the issue squarely. Col Oarcla and Cn. Castillo have put the situation plainly up to the authori ties at Washington and asked them to shoot or give up the guns and the Question is what will the president and Secretary Taft and Governor Magoon do about it? It must be said for Gov ernor Magoon that be scented the bat tle from afar some time ago, and of fered a 'solution of the problem by In creasing the rural guard to an extent that would have given practically every Cuban patriot a horse, a gut and a place on the pay roll, but was turned dowm at Washington, and now the ad ministration must meet the emergency. The old swamp angels who escaped extermination at the hand of Spain are very hungry and very thirsty, anxious to join the discontented hot- spurs of lUvana who have been rest less since the American invaders sup pressed the cock fight and substituted the stock trchange for the Jal alai form' of gambling. Their numbers aro sufficiently large to cause a lot of trouble should they decide to adopt the actual instead of the oratorical form of warfare. In the mean time the conservative elements In Cuba, composed of natives and foreigners from all countries, want the United States to establish a pro tectorate over Cuba, looking to annexa tion which would give Amerclans per manent and effective control of affairs on the Island. The Piatt amendment makes It imperative upon the United States to protect the lives and property of both foreigners andjiatlves in Cuba. Without- antlelnpMng the decision of the administration at Washington, it is a Baf.i ivnser that this protection will be given, even if in the doing Gen. Castillo and Col. Garcia get their uniforms disarranged. LESSOS FROM AN FRAXC1SCO- The Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco has published a compre hensive report on the subject of In surance settlements, growing out of the losses by fire and earthquake, which contains many facts that must prove of Interest to all cities where Are insurance and fire protections are problems of annual, consideration. After setting out, at great detail, the story of the struggle over the "settle ment of the fire losses In San Fran cisco, the report says "the most dis couraging feature of the Are insurance situation in the United States is the Indifference of the American people to enormous annual fire loss, due princi pally to flimsy and meretricious con struction." Statistics show that the annual fire loss in the Vnited States Is about $300,000,000 a year, while the cost of maintaining the fire departments of the nation Is about $260,000,000 a year. Fire Insurance premiums cost the country nearly $300,000,000 a year, while the losses paid amount to less than $150,000,000. The net losses by Are and the maintenance of fire departments exceed $400,000,000 annually, .which must be set down as absolute waste of money and energy, forming a very serious handicap in the development of cities, as no prog ress can be shown until this enormous loss has been offset by new money in new buildings and enterprises. The share otf this loss' that might be prevented by stricter building lawB and better enforcement of existing laws for fire avoidance is undoubtedly very large, and other large cities niajf profit by taking a leaf from San Fran cisco's lesson in fire insurance ex perience. SCHOOL BOARD FIX A NCK 8. The action of the school . board, looking toward a reorganization of Its system of finances. Is a move In the Tight direction. It is notorious that for years there has been neither bead nor tail in our school board methods of accounting and auditing and that no two persons could arrive at the same result In attempting to ascertain Just how the board stood financially. The Juggle of a fiscal school year differing' from and overlapping the calendar year, which is the fiscal year for all the other Jurisdictions, has, , doubtless, been, chiefly to blame, but out of this discrepancy has arlben all sorts of shuffling of the funds and questionable practices for evasion of the law. The Bee recently called the board to task for disregarding the statutory prohibition against spending more than "$25, 0"00 out of current rev enues for the purchase of school sites and construction of new school build ings, which has been excused on the pretense of distributing the payment over three "calendar years," although, In fact, all paid out within fourteen or fifteen months. Another questionable practice of the board has been to draw warrants ad libitum against prospective revenues without regard to the legal Ifmltatlon holding N them within the money in hand and 85 per cent of the actual tax levied. As a consequence we bad a constant float ing debt of outstanding interest-bearing warrants, which, however, we are glad to say has been almost eliminated during the past year or two. There Is no good reason why the school bouVd finances Bhould not be managed upon as scrupulous business methods as the finances of any other part of our local government. The first prerequisite to reform, however, is full knowledge of the present con dition, which may be expected to be forthcoming as a result of the board's present action. The Investigation must then be followed up with a thor ough reorganization, if the taxpayers are to have any benefit out of it. One of the. pupils . of the Omaha High school writes to The Bee to ex plain the "worthiness of the cause" for which thy have been drawn Into a campaign to raise funds for a bronze statue of Abahaiu Lincoln. "The worthiness of the cause" will not be gainsaid by anyone, but tho propriety cf Bending public school children out to solicit money for any cause is being justly assailed. .It was supposed that the school board had established a rule against this demoralizing prac tice and that the rule was to be en forced without exception. Hundreds of "worthy causes" appealing to public Sympathy and support are presented every year, but to allow the schools to' be made the soliciting machinery would run counter to their purpose and tend to destroy their usefulness. Without criticising the scheme to erect a monument to Abraham Lin coln, we know we voice the' sentiment of a large part of this community In saying that no further exceptions of any kind should be made by the school board to Its prohibition against money-collecting campaigns waged though the public schools. The ordinance proposed by Council man 21mman to Ax the charges for rental of business telephones on the basis proposed by the telephone com pany Itself ought to pass. At the time the telephone company made this proposition to cut off a dollar a month from the charge for Its business tele phones, The Bee advised the council to accept it on the spot before it could be withdrawn and give us the benefit of that concession at least until a sec ond telephone system should have been Installed. The second telephone cannot be In working order short of a year and a half to two years, and we ought to have the benefit of the exist ing company's former proposition at least during that time. The legislature has passed a bill to, require the labeling of all packages containing Intoxicating liquor. The bill is aimed at what Is known as the, "Jug" trade, although it is general in its terms and applies to alL liquors, whether consigned in Jugs, bottles or barrels. When a beer' keg Is hereafter sent out in Nebraska with a sign on it, "Intoxicating liquors," people will, have a right to suspect that It contains beer. This will not apply, however, to champagne, as all of the champagne drunk in this state is Imported from abroad and the label law can not apply to interstate shipments. The Omaha Commercial club must have gotten its wires crossed. If the protest it sent to Washington against cutting down the mall-carrying subsi dies to the railroads received the same attention accorded Its protest sent to Lincoln against reducing the passen ger rate to 2 cents a mile, the railroad managers will not call upon It for as sistance again very soon. Good for the Young Woman's Chris tian association. Tjhe hustling , young women havepushed the subscription list for the building fund, out of which their new home is to be erected, over tne $100,000 mark which they had set up before 'them. It has ben a long pull, but also a strong pull, and a pull altogether.- And, after all, It Is results that count. The Lincoln correspondent of the democratic World-Herald has discov ered "a truly great day for the people such a day as this rallroad-rldden state has not seen in a legislative ses sion 'for years." Such a day, he should have added, as was never seen at any session when the democrats controlled the legislature. ' Illinois Is trying, to pass a law re quiring life insurance companies to furnish the state with a list of Illinois policyholders and the amounts of their policies. Has the state any more right to know how much insur ance a man is carrying than It has to know how much money he has In the bank or what he pays for neckties. The veterinarians of Iowa and Ne braska have combined with the veteri narians of Missouri in a new organiza tion to be known as the Missouri Val ley Veterinarian association. This ought to place the Missouri mule on a footing of equality with the cowboy's broncho. Does Bryan Take Notlref 'Cleveland Leader. ' One of the most notable advances In tho price of Important products is the rise In silver within the last few years. It has gone up much faster than wheat. Will Mr. Bryan please take notice? Shall We C heck, the Speed f Chicago Chronicle. When people shall be content to travel at the rate of twenty-flve miles an hour in stead of seventy-five miles an hour there may still be wrecks, but they will aot be catastrophes horrifying humanity. A Roatlne Daly. . .Pittsburg Dispatch.- n Preuldent Stickney of the Chicago Great Western railway has a reputation of blurt ing out the facta. Ilia lairt testimony leaven little room for doubt that stock watering is a recognised- part of a railroad presi dent's chorea. Pain of Tbrealeaed Cat. Portland Oregonlan. A cut of 12.0U0,C00 on the cost of mall transportation by the railroads la at once deep and significant the latter because the saving Is to come through a reform In weighing methods and not In a reduction of rates'. It looks very much as If there had been monkeying on a colossal scale with the government steelyards In the In terest of railroads. A Heal Rtrvaa.ua Job. Nem- York Sun. A resolution making the president a press censor hus been introduced In the house by young Mr. Wharton of Illinois. Exereite of the power p-oposed would require the president, If he took his duties seriously, to keep an eye upon every newspaper In the country reporting a murder trial or a social scandal. No doubt he would be will ing to respond to the call upon him both aa a moralist and a hustler, but we sub mit, for the consideration of the president's other well wishers, that there might be such a thing as killing- him with kindness. Projected Boost of Freight Rates. Ban Francisco 'Chronicle. It Is estimated that the contemplated Increase In railroad freight rates will add several hundred millions to the revenues of tha transportation companies. It la thus the clever managers of great cor porations pluck the fig of contentment from the nettle of adversity." ' Much ado waa made by them over the fact that thv' re cent raise In wages would add something over a hundred millions to the operating exjM-nses of the reads. : but . the. hundred millions additional to be paid out for wages will be- amply offset by the several hun dred millions to be extracted from patrons In the shape of an all round raUe of freight rater. ' DKIPHII MK H AF.L, PF.I.M . Stories .(heat the California' Lawyer "Jaw la Sew York's l.lmellaM. The Inability cf more than one of Marry Kendall Thaw's lawyers to cfowd In front of the spotlight with half the world for an audience has caused numerous wrangles, backfire, criticisms and retractions among the "learned counsel." In spite of all the California lawyer, Petphln Michael Delmnn, holds the center of the stage for the defense. Ever since the second day of the trial, when he picked up the wreckage of the case and rescued confidence from, a disastrous beginning, IVImas has scored point after point In . presenting to the jury evidence favorable to the prisoner. Mr. lelmas Is a Frenchman by birth, Is S3 years old and practiced law In Cali fornia for thirty year. Most of his prac tice has been In civil cases, and some con sider him at his best in that branch of. his profession. The suit which carried his fame all over the country was he contest over the millions of the late Senator Fair. He represented the contestant, Mrs. Craven, and mt one of his Infrequent defeats. He also defended a libel suit against Claus Bpreckels, and was recently sought for the position of general counsel for the Southern Pacific railway, but declined. While he never posed as a criminal law yer, some of his greatest victories have been won In such cases. He haa had sl teen, client accused of homicide, and all ' have been acquitted. He defended D.. J. Arnold, who shot Grannla after a street fight In San Francisco. Another noted criminal case In which he acted as advisory counsel was that of Truxton Beale, for merly In the dlplomatlo service, and one of the witnesses to the killing of Stanford White. Beale was chargod, with Thomae H. Williams, of killing Frederick Marriott, the editor of the Ban Francisco News Let ter. The case had some startling parallels with thnt of Harry K. Thaw. Marriott was snld to have made an insulting remark regarding the woman who afterward be came Beale'a wife. "The defense waa car ried to a successful Issue by "recourse to the "unwritten law." Apart from Delmas' native ability and the genius which he himself would define as hard work, he ewes his high position as the leader . of the California bar largely to the character of some of the most prominent cases which he has tried. Del mas Is the only big lawyer In California who has consistently espoused the cause of the people against the Southern Pacific railroad, and who haa beaten the railroad people to a standstill. The Southern Pa cific railroad, it should be explained. Is the worst-hated corporation west of the Rocky mountains. When Frank Norrls pilloried this corporation aa "the octo pus," he merely voiced the feelings of all the people about him. Delmas, from tho time that he fought Iceland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Collls P. Hunting ton In the great case of David 8. Colton', widow against these railroad barons of the past, down to the present day, has persistently championed all manner of legal suits, big or little, provided they were brought against the Southern Pa cific. The most annoying thing to the railroad Is that he has mostly won these suits. A former law partner of Delmas, who is now engaged In litigation with his former chief, said that . Delmas had a standing offer from the Southern Pacific of a I3QO.00O retainer, provided only he would handle no more damage suits against the railroad. "Delmas la such a fool," said his former partner, "that he never would take this offer, and yet he was always head over ears tn debt. Delmas would sacrifice anything fo: the sake of friendship, or food, hatred. As for women, he sees them 11 In a golden hase." i - . They tell this story cf his schoolboy days nt Santa Clara: Delmaa, the better to per fect himself In Greek, solicited the favor of private readings with Father White, thte best Greek scholar of the Santa Clara faculty. For the flrBt lesson he brought his own copy of Demosthenes' orations, whereas Father White brought none. -'Will you read from my book, father?" asked Delmas. "No," replied Father White; "I need no book; I know my text by heart." For the next lesson Delmaa came empty handed. "Where Is your book, my' son?'' asked Father White. "I need no bcok," said Delmas: "I have learned my text by heart." Any one who has ever tolled through Demosthenes' endless orations may we'l doubt this tale, but It comes from the lips of Father White himself. His story Is thoroughly characteristic of Delmas as a student and lawyer. In Delmas' own words, "there Is no such thing as genius. So-called genlue merely menns hard work." If this definition be true, then Delmas' Is a man of genius. His former partner. Bam Shortrldge, who Is now defending tho San Francisco boodlers, told me that Delmns never made a speech In court which he had not thoroughly written out before and memorlxed word by word. One of these speeches alone covers MS printed pages In the court records. In some of Delmas' Important cases his closing arguments lasted several days. Mr. Shottridge als told me that Mr. Delmaa never put a wit ness on the stand whom he had not previ ously examined and crose-examlned In per son. Some Idea how this lawyer prepares his eaaes may be gained from .'this reminis cence of one of his former law partners. Franklin J. Bull. One day, so Mr. Bull told me, Delmas showed him an old wal nut tree standing on the' banks of Coyote creek. In San Jose: "There stands my first Jury," sold Delmas. Then he, told how, many years ago, when he received his first retainer, he had anticipated all the possible points In this, h's first case, during long afternoon walks. In the course of which he used to Address himself to that walnut tree, as If it were a Jury box. When the case 'came up before the Judge It never came to trial, because the very first motion for dismissal was so forcibly argued by Delmaa that, the court granted the motion. As Delmas put It. "Mv whole campaign waa won In the first ekirmlgh." To his skill In the examinatlcn of wit nesses he Is said to add the gift of eloquent argument. In which Incisive analysis of evi dence Is mingled with ortory of a sOTt that appeals to the emotions. He belongs to the old schrol of orators, as distinguished from the strenuous, the rasuil anl the colloquial speakers In the more modern fashion. Yet, as one of his acquaintances said last week: "When Delmas wants to be esfeastlc his words are like vitriol In a cup of heney." The most striking of his mannerisms sre his flowing gestures and a habit of looking at si witness or Into the Jury box with his head bent forward and his eyes cist up wArd. He has a habit of holding his eye gUieses In hlg hand while gesturing. Aa he throws forward hla head and turns up his eyes he raises hla glasses horizontally end Irrfks across them, form'ng a picture that Is dlntinctive and striking. Beforsa All Alonsr the line. Pittsburg Dlspatuh. Two'cent-e.-nille fare bills- were passed on Tuesday by the Missouri senate, the West Virginia house and the Iowa house, and on Thuieday the Pennsylvania heuse fell Into line by the unanimous passage of a bill of the same sort The state legis latures seem to be doing their best to prtflt by Secretary Root's warning; but we do Dot know that some of the people who are protesting against federal encroach ments will be any the better pleased. PF.RSO!, SOTF.. Count Tolstoy's n has been Indicted In St. Petersburg on a charge of high treason for publishing hla father's latest po""""' pamphlet. Major Gordon W. IJIlle, otherwise known as "Fawnee Bill," refused to fulfill a con tract to deliver seven bull bisons to a Mex ican senor when he learned that thy were to be used In the arena. He proposes to contest the law suit. The only surviving cousin of Abraham Lincoln ,1s ElIJa Lincoln, who lives at Fort Branch,' Ind. He Is said to closely resem ble "The Great Emancipator" In appear ance. He la I Jeet I Inches In height and IS thin and muscular. 1 , Hon., William K. Borah, Idaho's new senator, has the prestige at home of great legal talent, of eloquence and of a fln personality. He Is but 42 years of age and next to Mr. Dixon of Montana, will be the youngest man In the senate. Senator McCumber of North Dakota was the only member present In the chsmber one evening last week! when HO private pension bills were rushed through. Vice President Fairbanks and Mr. McCumber had the field all to themselves. James K. Martine, the "'farmer orator" of New Jersey, enjoys the distinction of having been the candidate of his party the democratic for almost every office In Ms county and senate district for the last thirty years without ever having won. Eric Geddes, recently appointed freight manager of the Northeastern railway. In England, Is an American who fourteen years ago was agent at a small station on the Baltimore St Ohio road.J Later he was connected with railroad enterprises In India. The famous talking record of former Senator Willlaih, Vincent Allen of Ne braska is seriously threatened by 8enator Beverldge's latest performance. The former spoke In a continuous stream, while the Hoosler spread ovor four days with breath ing apella between. President Roosevelt, accompanied by Mrs. Roosevelt and their two daughters, will leave Washington on Washington's birthday for Massachusetts to spend one day with Theodore, Jr., at Harvard and another with Kermlt at Groton, returning to Washington on Monday morning. The president will make only one speech on his trip, and that will be before the Harvard union. Chief Justice Fuller of the United States supreme court and Associate Justice Har lan have been eligible' for retirement for four years past, but both are in sound health physically and mentally. Associate Justice Brewer will be eligible for retire ment In June and the old report baa been revived that Associate Justice Peckham may retire before November I, 1908, when he will have reached the allotted three score and ten. The other members of the court have more than five years to serve before any of them will be eligible for re tirement. "HOLD, ESOt'OHI" Railroads Beseech President' for Aid to Stop Legislatures. Washington Dispatch to New Tork Times. A mighty cry for help haa gone up from the railroad companies east And west. In their extremity they have appealed to the president of the United States to help them out. They want something said which will deter sitting legislatures from enacting pro posed legislation. The t cents a mile pas senger fare propaganda, has spread until It would appear that nothing now can be done to prevent that legislation In a majority of atatea. Not even the railroads In Pennsyl. vanla have successfully opposed the legis lation for reduced passenger rates In that stats. . ... . . It la the fear that freight schedules will be next considered and that the graft which haa been enjoypd by the railroads since 1871 In the mall-carrying contracts will be In terfered with that has caused the new alarm. Today there are present In Wash ington lobbyists, and lawyers who are noth ing but lobbyists, representing the Burling ton railroad, the St. Louis A Ban Francisco railroad, the Great Northern railroad, the Rock Island railroad, Baltimore & Ohio railroad, Pennsylvania railroad, New York Central railroad, the Southern railroad and numerous smaller lines. Pamphlets and newspaper publications are being utilized to show the awful things that are going to happen to the railroads and the people if the proposed legislation In the matter of mall transportation Is enacted. The railroads which will suffer the great est In the proposed legislation are the New York Central, the Pennsylvania und the Burlington. Pamphlets have been written by the attorneys for a half dozen lines and distributed among members of congress with the veiled threat running through them that the railroads will not carry the mall and make no effort to maintain sched ules If further Interfered with. Members of congress who understand the situation are Inclined to make merry with this threat. It has been but a short while since the Rock Island railroad, which had a shorter route, waa In a position to get the Postoffice department to give It a con tract for carrying the mall bttween Chi cago and Omaha. In order to retain the mall contract the Burlington offered to carry the mall for a lesser sum than the contract price and the postmaster gen eral gave the contract to that company. In the Name of Sense. that good common sense of which all of us have a share, how can you continue to buy ordinary soda crackers, stale and dusty as they must be. when for 5 you can get Uneeda Biscuit fresh from the oven, protected from dirt by a package the very beauty of which makes you hungry. t A I Ik m NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY There's WARMTH and COMFORT in Every Ton of SEEaD GOAL CLEAN AND HOT NO CLINKERS ALL BURNS UP VICTOR WHITE COAL CO., 1605 Farrurn-Tel. Ooua. 127 HOT WORK AT TIIE FMIMI. Railroad Lobbyists Workln oier time In Washlnatnn. . Kansas City Star. Thm railroad lobby seems to N dnlna quite well at Washington. Instead of hon est weighing of malls with a possible r, ductlon of tl!.rmo,onn the dishonest weighing win continue and tho reduction will not exceed I2.5n0.onn. while even this Amount is not certain. The railroads evidently knew what tfley were doing when thev sent to Washington the most expensive lobby that has ever represented them In congress. f,.r they can well afford the Increased cost, considering the results obtained. '" It Is rather discouraging to attempt regu lation to prevent gross frauds In S con gress which the railroads are so easily en abled to Influence. No wonder the train men's organisation, now meeting In Chi cago, announces that every time thev have a bill Introduced Into congress to Improve labor conditions on the railroads the rail way lobby defeats Its passage. Especially are the trainmen anxious to secure shorter hours. But the railroads are enabled to prevent the limitation of hours of work In the face of the declaration of the train men that the worst of wrecks occur be cause employes are forced to work from twelve to twenty hours consecutively. Often their eyes become so they cannot see signals and they are so exhausted that they fall asleep at their post. While the lobby goes on successfully thwarting the attempts of President RooSc. velt to force the railroads Into some sem blance of fair dealing with the public, the magnates are less successful In Wall street than at Washington. In spite of all their threats and misrepresentations the value of railroad securities sticks pretty well to the toboggan, sliding down a point or two nearly every day, which Is a plain token of the public demand that those who control railway corporations shall keep out of politics add speculation and devote more time to the Improvement of roadbeds and equipment. It may take some time to do It, but the pubUo wlll surely find a method of persuading railroads to do right, which even the United States senate cannot thwart or defeat. PASSIKO PLEASANTRIES, "You are letting your political rival make all the speeches." . "Yes," answered Senator Borghum. "It him talk. My party will adopt all his good ideas and hold him personally' responsible for all his bad ones." Washington Star. Euclid had Just announced that the part could not be greater than the whole. "Evidently," they cried, "he haa never had an auto repaired." In the face of this there were those who persisted in colling mathematics an exact science. New York Bun. The minister had preached to the grad uating class of a girls' college. The girls of the class were on the plotfbrm all round the pulpit and all dressed in white. "I felt," confessed the preacher to his wife when he got home, "like a crow on a snowdrift."--Pittsburg Press. Portly Damt'-Your face Is strikingly fa miliar. Have you ever done any work for me before? Chiropodist No, ma'am. You are prob ably thinking of my twin brother, who runs the shoe store on the ground door. Ho must have sold you these shiC8. A great many of his customers come here, ma'am, Chtcao Tribune. "Dis paper," said Weary Willie, "ses dat ver kin tell be de bark at de foot of a tree how old it Is."' "Huh!" snorted Ragson Tatters, "I guess de man w'at wrote dat wus never up a tree under dem circumstances. Dat ain't no wuy to tell a dog's age." Philadelphia Press. Judge The witness told all that happened on the second floor. Now, why do you ob ject to his telling what happened on the third floor? Counsel Because, If It plense your honor, that is another story. Brooklyn Eagle. "What kind of a picture do you think would best Illustrate this railroad song?" "I would suggest a car-tune." Baltimore American.. ' "There are lots of funny people In this world." "There aye?" "Yes." - "Well, I wish you could coax 'omo. of them to go on the stage aa comedians." Cleveland Plain Dealer. WHEN TIIE SI GOES DOWN. Milwaukee Sentinel. I have wondered what lies past the world's far rini, Where the great red sun goes down. Since the di earning of youth, so long ago, I have lunged, so longed, sometimes to go Over the slopes and tliu mountuln trails, The desTts and valleys, through wood and vales. To the land where the sun goes down. I have gazed in the desolate, tinted west. There where the sun go'S down, And wondered at strange and foreign lands, Of unknown tongues on other strands, And longed, so longed, sometimes to go That 1 might see, thut 1 might know There A'lere the sun goes down. I have looked at far-away, Jeweled skies, There wher the sun goes down, And longed for the deeps of a starry night, A trackless waste and a Polestar light, And wished that I had been born to see Those lands and know of their mystery .There where the sun goes down. . And I've turned, In the dusk, from the afterglow. After the sun went down. To the lights that gleamed In the city's heart, Tha lights In hall and throbbing mart. And longed, so longed, for the arms and breast That cradled me sweet to sleep and rest After the sun went down. 1 t