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THE COURIER
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his evangel 1st wanderings have per
manently converted sinne s from their
evil ways is doubtful. He himself baa
made a large fortune by bis travels,
assisted by unrewarded ministers
who prepare the way and collect his
per cent before he leaves for another
field.
The annual convention of the Cali
fornia State Bankers association
adoptod the following in regard to the
punishment of forgers, burglars and
counterfeiters: "Resolved, that tbe
best protection against forgers, burg,
lars and counterfeiters is the cer
tainty and durability of punishment.''
Tbe custom of governors to pardon
auch criminals is Ahown in a state
ment prepared by President Hep
burn of tbe New York Banker's asso
ciation. His figures cover a period of
five years and show that the execu
tives of tbe various states, for some
reason, are inclined to cut the sen
tences of safe crackers, defaulting
cashiers and betrayers of trust funds
1b two. According to bis tables in tbe
last five years, fifty nine bank crim
inals sentenced by '.be federal courts
to the penitentiary for the average
term of five years and eleven months,
have been pardoned af terservingan av
erage term of three years and six days.
Of course tbe effect of more leniency
to one than to another criminal tends
to multiply tbe number engaged in
making a living bv robbing, banks.
But so leng as the failure of a bank
causes such widespread loss, they
should be protected by extra, rather
than fewer, precautions. Tbe Finan
cial Review gives this subject due im
portance in tbe November number.
Perhaps no class of swindlers are more
culpable than those who rob banks
from the inside. Unlike burglars,
bank employes understand finance,
they are generally keen, well read men,
and they know bow large are their
chances of escape when tbey appro
priate funds,held in trust by tbe bank
which employes them. Therefore
tbey should receive double the sen
tence given to tbe lowbrowed, degen
erate burglar whose ancestors have
stolen as far back as family traditions
reach. Yet our notions and practice
of justice are so perverted that the
courts commonly give tbe born crim
inal, with tbe spatulate fingers and
thick malformed ears a lunger sen
tence than tbe man of refinement,
taste and knowledge, convicted of a
duplicity and treason impossible to
the undeveloped man. Though the
former knows beforehand that his
crime will shake the faith in human
ity that has never been steady enough
yet for its salvation.
The criminologists who advocate
prison reform are not generally tuose
who are ever beseeching governors for
the pardon of men who have received
a just sentence. They advocate with
out exception though, the equaliza
tion of sentences the awarding of the
same punishment to rich -and poor
convicted of tbe same crime. With the
more stringent rule contemplated by
the bankers of California tbe prison
reformer is therefore in sympathy.
Considering the unnecessary pic-
tanGqueness of tbe meetings of tbe
.wj .f wifiA9tian- which do not seem
P"v mmmra w '
tfl at all affected by tbe personelle
'af the boaro, it appeals iuai wc uui
mm of the puolic schools would be
facilitated by lessening tbe number of
the fortnightly debaters. Then, a
eaestioa concerning the action of tbe
. hoard under hypothetical circum
' stances would not consume the entire
time of tbe meeting as it did last
week. Because three men can say
whet they have to in less than half of
the time wquirei for seven men to
work a argument for the benefit of
the morning papers. Last week tbe
debate was over the question whether
if an applicant for a teacher's position
were a Catholic she would cot receive
tbe votes of tbe board on tbat ac
count. Disqualification for a secular
position on account of religion is, of
course, an impossible position for a
member of a democracy based on tbe
separation ofchurch and state, and it
was therefore curious that the school
board, a body supposed to be chosen
for evidences of culture and interest
in education discovered in them by
nominatirgconventions sbouldspend
a whole evening discussing it Espe
cially as. there was business demand
ing tbe board's immediate considera
tion tbat evening.
In all branches of tbe municipal
system in all cities of the United
States it is being conclusively demon
strated tbat large bodies, in which
responsibility is divided to the point
of individual irresponsibility fail in
the satisfactory performance of the
functions delegated to them by the
votes of the people. In the early days
when the makers of tbe republic were
planning a government for the people
and by tbe people it was evidently de
cided that- this end was to be reached
by dividing one good man's job and
his salary among just as many citizens
as possible. Accordingly this was done
and men of affairs and executive
ability are employed by cleverer cor
porations, while the public business is
commonly, not always, administered
by men who have not succeeded in
earning for themselves as large an in
come as the fraction of a salary repre
sented by tbe subdivided city or state
job referred to. Tbat such function
al ism is on the decrease may be seen
by a reference to old town records.
(See Howard's Constitutional History
of tbe United States, page 97.) There
were a large corps of offcials to regu
late l-cal trade and commerce, such
as sealers of weights and measures, a
tiresome number of inspectors and
measurers, overseers, warners of boys,
persons to keep dogs out ofchurch,
scavengers, viewers of land, judges of
delinquents and judges of boundary
disputes, blunders, of cattle, jurymen,
bailiffs, commissioners of small causes
and deputies innumerable. Many of
these officers, such as bog reere, dis
appeared with the practical disap
pearance of tbe common land or tim
ber owned by villages and most of tbe
others were absorbed by the consta
ble and police judge and we are slowly
approaching the time when city ad
ministrations will be in the hands of
a few men indivisibly responsible to
tbe people for their performance of
their delegated functions. The over
whelming success of trusts controlled
by a president and small board of
directors, is an example which the
people have been slow to follow, but
tbe system will unquestionably be
adopted, as it is more necessary tbat
tbe affairs of tbe whole people be
wisely administered than that a few
should receive a pension for services
inadequately performed.
Tsi An, the reactionary empress
dowager is, after all, not such a credit
to her sex. The emperor, yielding to
tbe influence and advice of young
men educated in this country and
England, planned some measures of
reform. He first decreed the aboli
tion of several obsolete and useless de
partments of the government, em
ploying, if man can be said to be
employed, who does nothing, 7,000 or
8,000 men. Other reforms cuntemp
lated tbe conversion of Budbist and
Taokt temples into schools, tbe eman
cipation of tbe press and tbe right of
petition. Reforms of such ancient
trial in the occidental world it is in-
I HIE
1224 O St.,
This fall we are showing1 a very strong- line
of medium furniture, carpets, curtains and
draperies. Here are two of our leaders in din
ing room furniture.
.naennmaaw ,
Solid oak dining table,
top 42 inch square, very
heavy and will last a life
time. Six foot length,
$6.50;eight foot length $8.
- FREIGHT PAID ONE
credible tbat for proprosing tbem and
for getting tbe emperor under their
influence six young men should have
been beheaded in the presence of tbe
supreme judges of tbe Chinese em
pire, tbe emperor deposed and many
more indirectly responsible for his
favorites and thelrdesigns imprisoned
or exiled. It may be said for the em
press, however, that in order to carry
out these reforms it was necessary
that she should be isolated in one of
ber distant country palaces far from
tbe forbidden city, tbat her nephew,
Jung Lu, be removed from his posi
tion as commander in chief of the
naval and land forces of tbe emperor,
and Yuan Shih-Kai substituted in his
place. It is plain to be seen there
fore, that the reform of tbe empire
meant the abolition of tbe empress.
The only part of the program whicb
was carried out was the dismissal of
tbe 8,000 employes in obsolete offices. .
After that Yuan Shih-Kae chival
rously informed the commander of
the empresses' navy that his behead
ing had been ordered twenty-four
hours from the time of his notifica
tion. Tbe latter was modern enough
to telegraph tbe empre&G,who took
tbe government back into ber own
bands and set it down bard in the
dark ages, whence the emperor and
his advisers had almost rescued it.
The plot is extravagant enough for the
comic opera stage, and it is impossible
not to admire'the alertness of the old
lady, but 1 would she had been on the
side of progress and truth, but there is
poetic justice tbat the nation which
has enslaved and despised woman
should baveto bonds riveted for an
other hucdred years or more after
briefest glimpse of freedom by a mem
ber of the mutilatedand disregarded
Lincoln, Neb.
Solid oak dining
chair, cane seat, brace
arm. A very good
thing-. We sell six of
them for $5.
HUNDRED MELES.
sex, even though she were assisted by
tbe 8,000 obsoletes and every officer
and official of the old regime.
cThe retailers of Omaha who insist
upon an exposition in 1899. will find "
that' without tbe help of the cis-Mis-'
sissippi states the trans-Mississippi-'
show would not have been able to
turn back 75 per cent to the stock
holders. The late festival wasacele-'
oration of the west, not of Omaha or'
Nebraska. A fete given by the dry
goods merchants, the milliners, tail-'
ore, hatters, grocers, hardware and "
chinaware men of Omaha will be about '
as interesting and transparent as any '
advertisement and no more. The
country newspapers will not advertise
it, the metropolitan papers will ignore'
it. To what degree 6uch a fair will be
successful without government or
atate aid, in the face of the opposition
of the railroads and Omaha jobbers is
prob'ematical so much so that good
business men will not subscribe much
to it.
The board of directors of a busted '
bank sit and look at each other in con
sternation and say they supposed
everything was all right. When the
first bank failed the directors met and
showed their grief and their surprise
by the expression of their eyes and
they did the same the other day in
Emporia after their president had shot '
himself, because his bank was empty '
and his friends and neighbors, even
his own family, thought him an hon
est man, and he was too sensitive to
live after they had begun to acknowl
edge their mistake. Yet depositors
never lose their faith in a board of
directors who look rich and exclusive, J
who ride in coupes, dress well and '
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