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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ea94d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67796 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67796) diff --git a/old/67796-0.txt b/old/67796-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f3aaac1..0000000 --- a/old/67796-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13808 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Watson's Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 1, -March, 1906, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Watson's Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 1, March, 1906 - -Author: Various - -Editor: Thomas E. Watson - -Release Date: April 7, 2022 [eBook #67796] - -Language: English - -Produced by: hekula03 and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images - made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATSON'S MAGAZINE, VOL. IV, -NO. 1, MARCH, 1906 *** - - - -[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN] - -was the radical of his day. Many of the views expressed in his letters -and speeches would strike a “good Republican” of today as extremely -radical. - -ARE YOU ACQUAINTED - -with the great commoner’s views on political and religious liberty, -on alien immigration, on the relation of labor and capital, on the -colonization of negroes, on free labor, on lynch law, on the doctrine -that all men are created equal, on the importance of young men in -politics, on popular sovereignty, on woman suffrage? - -All of his views are to be found in this edition of “LINCOLN’S LETTERS -AND ADDRESSES,” the first complete collection to be published in a single -volume. Bound in an artistic green crash cloth, stamped in gold. Printed -in a plain, readable type, on an opaque featherweight paper. - -For $1.95, sent direct to this office, we will enter a year’s -subscription to WATSON’S MAGAZINE and mail a copy of LINCOLN’S LETTERS -AND ADDRESSES, postage prepaid. This handsome book and Watson’s -Magazine—both for only $1.95. Send today. Do it now. - - TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE - 121 West 42d St., New York City - - - - -WATSON’S MAGAZINE - - -THE MAGAZINE WITH A PURPOSE BACK OF IT - - _THOMAS E. WATSON_ _Editor_ - _JOHN DURHAM WATSON_ _Associate Editor_ - _RICHARD DUFFY_ _Managing Editor_ - _ARTHUR S. HOFFMAN_ _Assistant Editor_ - _C. Q. DE FRANCE_ _Circulation Manager_ - _TED FLAACKE_ _Advertising Manager_ - -March, 1906 - - _Editorials_ _Thomas E. Watson_ _1-28_ - - _Down in Georgia_—_Pinkerton’s Report to Ye Bankers_—_Wayland’s - Mistake_—_Calhoun for Public Ownership_—_Judge Du Bose’s Letter - and the Public Debt_—_Dr. Talmage in Russia_—_A Prophet Whose - Voice Was Not Heeded_—_The Highest Office_—_Editorial Comment_ - - _Lookin’ T’wards Home_ _Helen Frances Huntington_ _30_ - - _Assessment Insurance_ _Michael Moroney_ _37_ - - _The People_ _John P. Sjolander_ _41_ - - _Back to Nature—Part the Way_ _Eugene Wood_ _42_ - - _The Philosophy of Money_ _J. B. Martin_ _50_ - - _The Little Path to Peace_ _Mary Small Wagner_ _54_ - - _The Captain, Davy, and General Kuropatkin_ _Robert Dunn_ _55_ - - _Where the Road Dips_ _Henry Fletcher Harris_ _63_ - - _Repeal the Land Laws_ _Hugh J. Hughes_ _65_ - - _The Triumph of Justice_ _Clarence S. Darrow_ _69_ - - _A Radical Corpuscle_ _Charles Fort_ _73_ - - _Election Reforms_ _J. C. Ruppenthal_ _76_ - - _Pierre, Sansculotte_ _La Salle Corbell Pickett_ _86_ - - _The New Party_ _C. Q. De France_ _88_ - - _The Municipal Boss_ _W. D. Wattles_ _91_ - - _The Silence of Johnny_ _Harriette M. Collins_ _93_ - - _Vanished Years_ _Helen A. Saxon_ _95_ - - _Letters from the People_ _97_ - - _Putterin’ Round_ _Cora A. Matson Dolson_ _111_ - - _Educational Department_ _Thomas E. Watson_ _113_ - - _In Passing_ _Lurana W. Sheldon_ _122_ - - _Home_ _Louise H. Miller_ _123_ - - _Books_ _Thomas E. Watson_ _133_ - - _The Say of Other Editors_ _139_ - - _His Grudge_ _Tom P. Morgan_ _146_ - - _News Record_ _147_ - - _Along the Firing Line_ _C. Q. De France_ _156_ - - _Chastened_ _Kate G. Laffitte_ _160_ - - Application made for Entry as Second-Class Matter, February 17, - 1906, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of - Congress of March 3, 1879. - - Copyright, 1906, in U. S. and Great Britain. Published by TOM - WATSON’S MAGAZINE, 121 WEST 42D STREET, N. Y. - - TERMS: $1.50 A YEAR; 15 CENTS A NUMBER - - - - -[Illustration: HONORABLE HOKE SMITH, OF GEORGIA. - -Photo by Russell, Atlanta, Ga.] - - - - -_WATSON’S MAGAZINE_ - - VOL. IV MARCH, 1906 NO. 1 - - - - -_Editorials_ - -BY THOMAS E. WATSON - - -_Down in Georgia_ - -CLARK HOWELL’S DEFENSE OF THE CORPORATIONS - -A national magazine can do no better work than to take a hand in a local -fight, when the issues involved are national. - -As explained in previous articles, the state of Georgia has been -completely conquered by a Wall Street combination. Morgan, Belmont and -Ryan are our masters. They rule Georgia through the Democratic party -just as they rule New Jersey through the Republican party, and New York -through both the old parties. - -In New York, the tools of this Wall Street combination are such men as -Murphy, Pat McCarren, Judge Parker, and Bill Sheehan. In Georgia the -tools are such men as Hamp McWhorter, Joe Terrell, Clark Howell. - -These men call themselves Democrats, but they work for Morgan the -Republican as earnestly as they work for Belmont the Democrat. The Wall -Street Railroad Kings rule and rob our state, and they do it by means of -the men who control the machinery of the Democratic party. - -Hoke Smith is leading a great revolt against this Wall Street domination, -and he is doing it superbly. He is going to win, because the people know -he is right. He is going to win, because the people know that they are -being foully mistreated by the railroads. He is going to win because the -people can no longer be driven by the party lash. He is going to win -because the people have at last determined to vote for _what they want_. - -In the January number of this magazine, I specified the wrongs which the -people of Georgia suffer at the hands of the railroads. Mr. Clark Howell, -the Corporation Candidate for Governor, tried to answer me, and probably -flatters himself that he did so. - -Let us see. - -I made the statement that the railroads had violated our Constitution by -“a joint ownership of competing lines, thus establishing the monopoly -which the Constitution forbids.” - -That is a serious charge. If it be true that the railroads have trampled -the Constitution under foot and established a monopoly in defiance -of law, that fact alone should damn them. No man, no set of men, no -corporation, no combination of corporations, should be allowed _to make -law for themselves_ in Georgia. We should compel all persons, natural and -artificial, to respect and obey our laws. - -Does Clark Howell deny the accusation brought by me against the railroads? - -Does he deny that the Morgan-Ryan-Belmont interests work together in -beautiful harmony in Georgia? - -By no means. On the contrary, he parries the blow by saying that if any -unlawful combination exists, Hoke Smith was the lawyer who represented -the law-breakers in court. - -That’s a pretty defense for the railroads, isn’t it? - -According to that kind of logic we must not enforce the law against -people who steal because Hoke Smith, as a lawyer, has actually defended -thieves. Logic of that sort would compel me to antagonize the law against -murder because as a lawyer, I defended dozens of men charged with that -crime. - -Hoke Smith’s position as a candidate for governor is one thing; his -position as attorney in law cases is another; and there is no use trying -to fool the people about it. If the railroads have made an illegal -combination we must smash it, no matter who the lawyers were that -represented the railroads at that time. - - * * * * * - -My editorial states that the railroads treated our Railroad Commission -with contempt by refusing to obey its rules, its decisions, its orders. - -As an example, I cited the case of the town of Flovilla, Georgia, where -the railroads had for two years refused to provide the accommodations for -passengers on their way to the Indian Spring. - -Mr. Howell jumped on this statement with the triumphant crow of a bantam -rooster. - -He had caught me telling what was not true. No wonder the little rooster -crowed. Not many men have upset statements made by me. - -Like many another little rooster, Clark crowed too soon. - -Listen: - -Clark says: “The truth of the matter is, the Railroad Commission _ordered -the building of a new depot at_ Flovilla, and the records of the -commission show that THE ORDER WAS COMPLIED WITH.” - -If the records of the commission show that, _Somebody_ has fooled the -Commission cruelly, for _there has been no new depot built at Flovilla_! - -Crow again, little rooster. - - * * * * * - -In 1904 the railroad made an addition _to its freight room_, at Flovilla, -and stopped. - -Hon. Pope Brown, Chairman of the Railroad Commission, had his talk with -me after we came back from the New Orleans Cotton Convention. I think -it was in the last week in January, 1905. It was not later than Feb., -1905. At that time the railroads had done nothing for _the passengers_ -at Flovilla. For a number of years the people of the community had been -clamoring for decent accommodations without success. The Mayor had tried, -and failed. The Railroad Commission had issued orders, and had been -treated with contempt. - -[Illustration: “Crow again, little rooster.”] - -Then what happened? - -The thunder of the Anti-Corporation Campaign began to rumble. Hoke -Smith’s stern voice began to be heard calling the Railroads to judgment. -The Corporation law-breakers and Commission-Scorners began to tremble in -their boots. - -And _in the Spring of 1905_, AFTER BROWN’S TALK WITH ME, the railroad -men got a move on and ran down to Flovilla, built a little shed for -passengers _near the old depot_ and put some water-closets in the old -depot. - -_Crow again, little rooster._ - - EX-CHAIRMAN BROWN’S LETTER - - HAWKINSVILLE, Ga., Jan. 5, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - DEAR TOM—Yours of the 3rd inst., just received. I have been - very busy of late winding up business of the old year and - arranging for the new year. You know this is about the busiest - time for the farmer. Therefore I have not read the papers - closely and have not seen the denial of Mr. Howell concerning - the improvements at Flovilla ordered some time ago by the - Railroad Commission. I do not recall exactly what I said to - you in regard to this matter, but I will give you the facts - according to my best recollection: - - While Judge Atkinson was Chairman, the Commission, on its - own motion, seeing the necessity of improved facilities at - Flovilla, ordered that a pavilion be built like the one at - Warm Springs, if my memory serves me correctly; also that - water-closets be put in, and other improvements be made in - connection with the passenger station. It was a considerable - length of time before any attention was paid to this order at - all. After so long a time, and continual nagging on the part - of the Commission, which no doubt the records will show, the - railroad put up a little shed there, which is but a make-shift, - and called it a pavilion. Upon one pretext and another they - delayed putting in the closets, and if they have been put in at - all I do not know it. - - In speaking about this matter on one occasion to a - representative of the Southern Railway, whom I happened to - meet on the train, I suggested to him that these improvements - ought to be made. His reply was, that the railroads did not - feel disposed to do anything for Butts County for the reason - that the juries were too ready to give verdicts against the - railroads. My reply to him was, that if the railroads would do - their duty by the people, the people would in turn be willing - to do justice to the railroads. - - Mr. Dozier, the Banker at Flovilla, and Mr. Duke, a lawyer - representing the Southern Railway at Flovilla, and others - there, will corroborate what I have said. In my report to the - Railroad Commission about the condition of depots in the state - I called attention to several instances where the railroads had - refused to comply with the orders of the Railroad Commission, - and there has never been any denial made by the railroad people. - - At Pitts, Ga., there was a little pigeon house built and - located, contrary to the orders of the Railroad Commission. - The records of the Railroad Commission will show this to be a - fact. Also it will be found by the records that while Judge - Atkinson was Chairman an order was made requiring the roads to - stop their passenger coaches at the station for the convenience - of passengers, rather than to have them stop one hundred or two - hundred feet away from the depots. This order has also been - absolutely ignored by all the railroads that have come under - my observation. - - There has not been an order regulating freight rates issued by - the Railroad Commission in some time, unless it was absolutely - satisfactory to the railroads, where the railroads have - complied with it. - - Mr. Ed. Baxter, who is Chief Counsel, as I understand, for - all the Southern Railways served notice upon the Railroad - Commission in the City of Atlanta before the Federal Court in - the following language as near as I can remember: - - [Illustration: “Poor little rooster—crowed too quick.”] - - “The Railroad Commission may well understand that they have - reached the length of their tether; henceforth we will put - ourselves under the ægis of the Federal Courts.” - - In other words, whenever the Georgia Railroad Commission, - or any other State Commission, or Inter-State Commission, - undertakes to put in a rate that is not satisfactory to the - railroads, then they would appeal to the Federal Courts. Again, - and in its last analysis, the meaning is plain enough to any - man who wants to understand it, that the railroads have taken - this position, as is evidenced by their opposition to the bill - now before Congress and advocated by President Roosevelt: - - “We propose to make rates without any interference from State - or Federal authority; we propose to fight any law, or any - authority to take this right away from us.” - - And that, it seems to me, is the great issue overshadowing all - other issues of the present time in this state and every other - state in the Union, as to whether or not the railroads shall be - allowed to make rates without any interference from any State - or Federal authority. Whenever we give them that power they are - absolutely masters of the situation, and they know it. They can - bribe legislatures, judges and jurors, and levy tribute upon - the people themselves to pay for this corruption. - - Now, the circumstances leading up to our meeting with Mr. Ed. - Baxter in the Federal Courts, are interesting and amusing. In a - few days I will give you the details in another letter. I hope - that I have not already trespassed upon your patience. - - Hoping that you are entirely restored to health, with kind - regards to each member of your family, and best wishes for - yourself, I am - - Your friend, - - POPE BROWN. - -In the letter just quoted, Hon. Pope Brown repeats the statement that -the railroads _did_ treat with contempt the order of the Commission; -and he relates a conversation he had with one of the representatives of -the Southern Railroad, in which that official gave, as a reason for not -making the required improvements at Flovilla, that _the people of that -county had given verdicts against the Railroad_. - -Yet the railroad candidate for Governor has deliberately tried to deceive -the people of Georgia into believing that when the Railroad Commission -ordered a new depot for Flovilla, the railroads promptly obeyed the order -and built a new depot right away. - -Poor little rooster—crowed too quick. - - * * * * * - -In my article, it was stated that the Flovilla case was but one out of -many that could be mentioned. Since Clark Howell undertakes to prove -to the people of Georgia that the railroads are good, law-abiding -citizens, I will mention some other instances in which they violate the -law every day of their lives, persistently, deliberately, insolently, -contemptuously. - -The law requires them to post bulletins of delayed trains _at every -station in advance of the delayed train_, in order that passengers may -be put upon notice. This law is of great consequence to the traveler. -If the train is one, two, or three hours late, and the traveler can -learn that fact upon his arrival at the depot, he can dispose of himself -to the best advantage during the interval. But suppose the train is -three hours late and the passenger does not know it? Suppose he asks -the agent, and gets his head bit off with a sharp, curt, offensive, -indefinite answer? He then hangs around in the waiting room; he is afraid -to leave the depot for fear the train will come while he is away; yet he -may have to sit there, anxious and suffering, for three mortal hours; -when, if the bulletin had been posted, he could have escaped some of the -inconveniences of the situation. - -The law puts a penalty of twenty dollars upon the railroad for each -violation of this rule; and there isn’t a day when hundreds of violations -of it do not occur in Georgia. Not ten per cent of the agents of the -railroads obey this law. Ninety per cent of them constantly violate it. -_Ask any drummer who travels through the state!_ Talk about obedience to -the little one-hoss Railroad Commission? Why, here is a statute of the -Code of Georgia, passed by the sovereign Legislature and signed by the -Governor, and the railroads treat it as a dirty piece of waste paper. - -In his letter, ex-Chairman Brown says that the railroads have never -put into operation an order of the Commission as to freight rates, -unless that order was absolutely satisfactory to themselves. He gives -an instance, at Pitts, Georgia, where the railroads went directly to -the contrary of the orders of the Commission. While Judge Atkinson was -Chairman of the Commission, an order was passed requiring trains to quit -stopping one or two hundred feet away from the depot, and to stop at the -station, for the convenience of passengers. - -Ex-Chairman Brown says that this order “_has been absolutely ignored by -all the roads_ that have come under my observation.” - -In Chairman Brown’s official report, he calls attention to instance after -instance where the railroads had ignored the rules, the decisions, the -orders of the Commission. - -_I challenge Clark Howell to deny the truth of that report._ - - * * * * * - -What Georgian doesn’t remember with indignant shame the threat of the -Southern Railroad, voiced by its lawyer, Mr. Ed. Baxter, when he “served -notice” on the Railroad Commission that the Railroads were tired of being -pestered by our little one-hoss Commission? - -Said Mr. Baxter: “The Railroad Commission _may well understand_ that -they have reached the length of their tether; _henceforth we will put -ourselves under the ægis of the Federal Court_.” - -That was nice, dutiful language, wasn’t it? - -That sounds like obedience to the Railroad Commission, doesn’t it? - -Here were these Wall Street law-breakers, who had for two years been -defying the Commission on the Flovilla matter, who had ignored their -rulings on the stoppage of passenger trains, who had continually refused -to obey the law requiring them to post bulletins of delayed trains, -who, at Pitts, had acted contrary to the orders of the Commission, and -who had never accepted a freight rate decision which was not just what -they wanted—and their lawyer had the insolence to serve notice on the -Commission that if it bothered his Wall Street clients further, he -would turn his back upon it and seek that unfailing haven of Corporate -rascality, the Federal Courts! - -CROW ONCE MORE, LITTLE ROOSTER! - - * * * * * - -[Illustration: “Some editors make editorial music that way.”] - -As to the illegal charges made by the roads, in the manner explained by -me in the 3rd specification of my article, I stand my ground, and I say -that the Supreme Court has never declared that such a discrimination -against a town on the main line was legal. On the contrary, it was held -to be illegal. - -As to specification number 4, that the Corporations rob the people of the -state by compelling them to pay dividends upon fictitious capitalization, -who can deny it? - -Every privately owned railroad in this state has had all the water -poured into it that it would hold. The fixed charges are based upon this -fraudulent capitalization. The people pay dividends upon it. The freight -and passenger rates are kept up, and accommodations kept down, and labor -squeezed, and safety appliances neglected, and bridges allowed to stand -till they fall beneath a load of screaming, bleeding, dying passengers, -because the Wall Street rascals who watered the stock demand dividends -upon the millions which they created out of ink and paper. - -Clark Howell dares to say that the Central is capitalized for less now -than before the war. - -For shame! For shame! - -One must be awfully hard up for an office before he can bring himself to -make a statement like that for a railroad. - -The Capital stock of the Central was $7,500,000 before the war; and -General Toombs declared that half of it was water. The Capital stock of -the Central proper is perhaps 75,000 shares, as it was before the war. It -may be even less. But that’s a matter of no consequence whatever. - -The really important question is, _How much capitalization does the -Central carry upon which it has to pay revenue?_ - -Everybody remembers how Pat Calhoun got control of the Central, and -everybody knows how thick Clark Howell was with Pat. Wanted to put him in -the Senate, you know. - -Well, Pat and his Wall Street friends slapped a debt of _sixteen million -dollars_ on the Central during the gay time they had control of it. - -Then the road was wrecked in the most approved Wall Street manner, and -many a genuine widow and real orphan wept bitterly in their grief, for -they had gone to bed in comfort and woke to poverty. - -It was one of the nastiest, cruelest, completest pieces of Wall Street -rascality that was ever worked upon an unsuspecting people, _and Clark -Howell could tell some queer things about it, if he would_. - -The Central fell into the Federal Courts, was put through the form of -a sale, and that international scoundrel, J. Pierpont Morgan, appeared -on the scene as “reorganizer.” When the Central had been properly -Morganized, it was laden with fictitious capital to the tune of -$55,000,000; and _upon this fictitious capital the people of Georgia are -made to pay revenue_. - -When Clark Howell stated that the Central was capitalized for less -than before the war, he did not, perhaps, tell a falsehood in a strict -technical sense; but, in the impression which he knew his language would -make, and which he intended it to make, he was as far from the truth -as when he pictured the railroads trotting down to Flovilla, promptly -and dutifully to build that town a nice, new depot—“one of the most -attractive and best equipped depots.” - - * * * * * - -As to the $10,000 campaign fund furnished by the railroads to elect -Terrell, Mr. Howell says “it’s denied by everybody involved.” Ah, indeed? -When did “everybody involved” deny it? Who are the “everybody involved”? - -Will Joe Terrell go before a notary and make oath that the railroads did -not contribute $10,000, or other large sum, to his campaign fund? - -Joe may not be _everybody_ “involved,” but he certainly is _involved_. - -If he can make an affidavit of that sort, let him do it. His own honor -and the honor of the state demand it. Let Joe swear it was not done, and -I will publish his denial prominently in this magazine. - -At the same time, however, I want him to explain to the people of Georgia -why he, their Chief Magistrate, offered a seat on our Supreme Bench to -that notorious railroad lobbyist and corruptionist, Hamp McWhorter. -I would like to have this explanation attached as exhibit A, to the -affidavit denying the railroad Campaign fund. - - * * * * * - -The other specifications in my article Mr. Howell meets with merely a -general denial. Of course, there’s nothing to discuss where a general -denial is made to a specific statement. - -So far from the record of the Legislature showing that the railroads do -not dominate it, those records prove that very thing. - -Can you pass the Anti-Free Pass bill? - -No. The railroads oppose it. It is the cheapest, most effective method of -bribery, and they mean to keep it. They will keep it. - -Can you pass a law compelling the railroads to equip all passenger -stations with water-closets; and to keep the waiting rooms open at night? - -No. It would cost too much. They couldn’t do that, and pay dividends on -watered stock also. - -If they had to spend money providing accommodations for passengers, such -“lawyers” as Hamp McWhorter and Tom Felder might lose fat corporation -fees. - -No indeed; you couldn’t pass a bill requiring the railroads to treat our -wives and daughters decently at the stations where they have to wait for -trains. It would cost too much. - - * * * * * - -Yonder sits an elderly lady on a pile of cross-ties. She is sick. She -has been brought to the station to take an early train to the city where -a specialist can be consulted about her case. It is cold. A heavy fog -almost as bad as a drizzle of rain, hangs in the air. The door of the -waiting room is locked. There is no fire, no light, no shelter at the -station. The aged woman sits upon the cross-ties awaiting the coming of -the train—sick, cold and suffering. - -Is that _your_ mother, my son? No. But it might be. Just such a scene -was witnessed by a friend of mine some weeks ago; and the railroad -which treats its customers in that beastly manner is one of these same -Wall Street gangs of thieves that rob the state of Georgia through the -Hamp McWhorters, the Joe Terrells, the Clark Howells who pose as the -Democratic Party. - - * * * * * - -Great God! Are the people _never_ to wake up to the fact that the -machinery of the Democratic Party in Georgia belongs to a lot of Wall -Street rascals? - -Don’t they _know_ that the platform of the Democratic State Convention is -never handed out till Hamp McWhorter marks it “O. K.”? - -Don’t they _know_ that the majority of the daily papers belong to the -railroads and _are controlled by the railroads_? - - * * * * * - -The Hon. Clark Howell closes his feeble editorial by making a side-thrust -at this Magazine as “a subsidiary company to _Town Topics_.” - -As to _that_, the answer is swift and to the point. - -_I am this Magazine._ - -Not a line can go into it to which I object. Not a line can be kept out -of it to which I put my approval. My contract gives the control of the -Magazine to me completely. What more could anybody exact? That _Town -Topics_ owns a majority of the stock is true. But _Town Topics_ has no -more rights over the Magazine itself than the _Atlanta Constitution_ has. - - * * * * * - -Tom Lawson, or H. H. Rogers, or Judge Parker, or W. J. Bryan might buy -a majority of the stock. I could not prevent that. _But nobody can -interfere with my control of the Magazine._ - -I have no doubt that Mr. Clark Howell envies me my independence. It is -extremely doubtful whether he can say for himself and his paper what I -have said for myself and the magazine. - -I shouldn’t wonder if he held his place upon the condition that his paper -must be _railroad_. He wouldn’t dare to have an opinion unfavorable -to _railroad_. When he sits down to write editorials, I compare him -in my own mind to the little girl going to the piano to practice her -music-lesson. She is a good little girl, and she follows the notes. She -improvises no music. She puts out her trained fingers and she touches, -one by one, with painful fidelity, the notes written down on the score. -She couldn’t think of striking any note which was _not_ written down on -the score. Dear little thing! - -Day after day, month after month, year after year, the trained fingers -strike the notes indicated in the lesson. If by chance she hits a chord -not on the book, there’s a rap and a sharp word of reproof from the -authority which presides over the “practice.” - -“_What’s that?_” comes the cry of the teacher or parent, and the little -girl, frightened at the false note, hurriedly gets back to the written -score. - -Dear little thing. That’s the way to learn to play by note. - -Some editors make editorial music that way, and the scores are written in -Wall Street. - - -_Pinkerton’s Report to Ye Bankers_ - -Accordingly to the report made by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to the -American Bankers’ Association, at its last meeting, there were arrested -and prosecuted _during the ten years preceding September, 1905_, five -hundred and fifty-four citizens who had committed crimes against these -banks. Some of these erring citizens had committed forgery, others -burglary, eleven were classified as robbers, and fourteen were called -sneak thieves. These last named probably stole the cashier’s umbrella, or -got away with the president’s gold-headed cane. - -_The Law_ came down, hard and heavy, upon the citizens who had sinned -against the banks, and the transgressors were given sentences aggregating -two thousand and one hundred years in prisons, chain-gangs and -penitentiaries. - -Think of it—2,100 YEARS! - -The sum total of the money which the banks lost by the operations of all -these criminals, during the entire period of ten years, appears to have -been _less than one hundred thousand dollars_. - -Yet the law-breakers who caused the loss must vindicate the law by a -penal servitude of more than two thousand years. - -There’s JUSTICE for you. - -During that period of ten years how many banks have gone to smash? How -many presidents and cashiers have looted the funds committed to their -care? - -How many millions of dollars have the common people lost by the rascality -of dishonest bank officers? How many times have we seen frantic crowds of -men and women gather about the door of some busted bank—men sick at heart -because of sudden ruin, women screaming in terror because robbed of every -dollar they had on earth? - -Yet when an infamous scoundrel like John R. Walsh of Chicago converts to -his use the millions of money held in his banks, Leslie Shaw, Secretary -of the Treasury, hastens into print to say that it was all right; Mr. -Walsh had done no more “than other bankers do.” - -There was a Savings Bank in the holy town of Boston, Mass. It gave itself -the comfortable name of the _Provident_ Savings Bank. Trusting common -people put $200,000 of their money into it. Thieves on the inside stole -the money. At one swoop, this particular bank robbed the people of twice -as much as the whole of rascaldom had got from the Associated banks _in -ten years_! - -Frank Bigelow robbed the First National Bank of Milwaukee, of $1,450,000. - -_He was President of the American Bankers’ Association._ - -He not only looted the bank, but falsified its books. He did not commit -the crime upon impulse or sudden temptation. He did it deliberately, -systematically, colluding with his cashier to plunder the fools who had -trusted him. - -[Illustration: The banker who stole $1,400,000; and a man who stole a -turkey and a duck.] - -_The Law_ went through the form of giving this million dollar thief _a -sentence of seven years_. His penalty is a sham; his “punishment” a -mockery. He will be “detained” in comfortable quarters a few months; his -health will then “fail”; he will then be pardoned, and will be ready to -steal trust funds again. - -So it is all along the line. - -Woe to the hungry tramp who steals bread to eat. Woe to the ragged woman -who snatches food for her starving children. - -Woe to the bad men who steal _during ten years_, one hundred thousand -dollars from the Members of the American Bankers’ Association. These -five or six hundred bad men will be sentenced, in the aggregate, to a -penal servitude of over two thousand years. - -But let the President of the Bankers’ Association steal one million and -four hundred thousand dollars from the men and women who trusted him -with their money, and the highly-connected thief gets off with a nominal -punishment and a seven-year term which will never be enforced. - -During the last twelve months, dishonest bank officers have stolen _more -than twelve million dollars_ from the depositors. - -How many of these rascals have been tried and convicted? - -Less than half a dozen. - -Yes; Frank Bigelow, sometime President of the American Bankers’ -Association, laid careful plans, in collusion with his cashier, and -_stole fourteen hundred thousand_ dollars of _Trust funds_. - -Nominal sentence, seven years. - -John Shannon, of Ohio, at about the same time, _stole a turkey and a -duck_; and John Shannon is now serving out in the Ohio penitentiary _a -penal sentence of five years_! - -John Shannon, my jo, John! - -Why _didn’t_ you wear a silk hat, and steal a million dollars _from the -inside_ of a bank? - - -_Wayland’s Mistake_ - -One of the most interesting and powerful men of this generation is J. A. -Wayland. - -He is a pioneer Socialist. - -He is a hard worker, a hard hitter, and a man who never quits. - -For the last fifteen years he has been a wonder of the world, to me. -Henry Gronlund was not more unselfish, John P. Altgeld was not more -intense, and Arthur Brisbane is not more effectively equipped. - -When I first knew of Wayland, he had come down to Tennessee to put his -beautiful dream into operation. He had founded a Colony on the basis of -Universal Brotherhood. He meant to demonstrate to mankind the ease with -which we could make angels out of one another, if we would only set about -it in the right way. - -As I remember, the name of Wayland’s Happy Land was _Ruskin_—the name of -an English dreamer who wrote many beautiful things and lived one of the -saddest lives imaginable. - -The vital spark in the Ruskin colony was Wayland’s paper. He called it -“The Coming Nation.” The circulation of this paper grew to be enormous, -and the soul of the paper was Wayland. - -But some of the angels who had drifted into the colony became jealous of -Wayland, and they made the point that the paper should not continue to -be the property of Wayland—the man who had made it—but should become the -common property of everybody who had drifted into the colony. - -If my memory serves me right, Wayland yielded to his angel-brothers, and -turned his magnificent property over to the Toms, Dicks, and Harrys who -had come into Ruskin from the four corners and elsewhere. - -After this, the angels found fault with Wayland about something else and -then something else; and then some other thing: until the great-hearted, -great-minded man threw up his hands in despair. - -He surrendered everything to the Colony—paper, shops, farms and all—and -went away from there, never to return. - -What became of the Colony? The smart fellows who knew so much more -than Wayland ran the whole thing into the ground. The brethren had -hardly kicked Wayland out before they began to kick each other out. The -master-hand and the master-mind being absent, the small men quarreled -among themselves, and chaos ensued. The Ruskin Colony went to pieces, and -one of the remnants strayed into South Georgia. There it lived a brief, -troubled life, and there it died an unlamented death. - -What became of the magnificent paper, “The Coming Nation?” - -Wayland’s genius had made it; by every law of common sense and common -justice it belonged to Wayland. - -His brethren did not think so. The paper was as much theirs as his. They -took it away from him. Then they didn’t know what to do with it. And it -died. - - * * * * * - -With a pluck which nothing could daunt, Wayland opened out in Girard, -Kansas, and modestly commenced another paper. This time he called it -the “_Appeal to Reason_,” but in spirit and purpose it was “_The Coming -Nation_” risen from its grave. Patiently, persistently, fearlessly, -Wayland hammered away at Girard until he built up a monster circulation, -and again was the owner of an extremely valuable property—the product of -_him_, the said Wayland. No other man could have made _that_ paper. No -other man could any more be Wayland, and do what Wayland does, than any -other man could be Edison, and do what Edison does. - -By every sane and just rule, the _Appeal to Reason_ was Wayland’s -property. He had gone into a desert, with a handful of type and a bottle -of ink, and by the force of _his_ genius had brought forth a finished -product—a successful newspaper. - -What happened to him then is only a matter of rumor. Conjectures can also -be made from some indignant, sorrowful sentences which he published over -his own signature. - -But it seems clear that his Ruskin experience was repeated. His -angel-brothers made him take his own medicine in heroic doses. The men -who had not created the paper, claimed an equal share in it—or something -of that sort; and there were the usual points made against Wayland which -the small would-be leaders make against _the leader_. - -Rumor had it that Wayland went through a Gethsemane of peculiar -bitterness, but just how it all was, the outside world was not given to -know. The great soldier in the cause of humanity covered the wounds his -own men had made, and was too proud to complain. - - * * * * * - -But Wayland is now making a mistake. - -He is offering land prizes for the largest number of subscribers. He -proposes that, as a premium, in a certain competition on subscriptions, -he will convey, by deed, a farm in Florida to the fortunate Socialist who -gets the greatest number of subscribers to the _Appeal to Reason_! I can -hardly believe what I see in Wayland’s own paper. - -What! Is it possible that Wayland has wickedly gone and bought a quantity -of land? - -Is it possible that he has “robbed” some honest citizen of his real -estate? - -And can it be true that other Socialists not only want to share in this -“robbery,” but want it so bad they will compete for it? - -Dear me! I didn’t know that Socialism was like that. If it is, I believe -I’ll take some stock in it myself. - -My impression has been that the Socialists were opposed to private -ownership of land. I have had forcible reminders of that fact in letters -which came hot from the enraged writers. Private ownership is “robbery”; -that’s the way they write to me. Did I not see a Socialist orator wave -his small, white hand gracefully at all the stores, factories and -dwellings in St. Louis, in the summer of 1904, and did I not hear him say -in his musical voice to the assembled laborers: “_All that is yours; go -and take it!_” Then, with a silk handkerchief he, with courtly gesture, -wiped the moisture from his marble brow, and continued: “_Don’t take a -part of it, take it all. Don’t be satisfied with a loaf, take the whole -bakery._” - -Then he froze me and Joe Folk with a glare of merciless severity, and -continued, “These men”—indicating me and poor Joe, with a supercilious -gesture—“_these men_ talk to you about shorter hours of labor, and the -Eight Hour day. _I don’t want any Eight Hour day_: what _I want_ is _to -live in the best possible manner on the least possible work_.” - -And now Wayland is going to spoil all this. He is going to quicken the -appetite of Socialists for private property. Instead of feeding a million -men on the definite expectation of getting a slice of the Astor Estate, -at some indefinite time, he is going to reverse the process and feed as -many as qualify, on a definite slice of Florida land _right now_. - -I make this prediction: As fast as Wayland makes home-owners out of his -followers he will lose crusaders. - -_Beware Capua_, friend Wayland! - -A zealous Socialist, who owns nothing, but who is spurred on by that -God-given desire for private property, will eagerly compete for Wayland’s -prize and will win it. He will pocket the deed, and move to his land. He -will find, perhaps, that it does not quite come up to representation; but -it is too late to back out. He settles on his seventy acre tract. If it -has no house, he builds. If he has one already, he does all that he can -to make it more attractive. _It is his._ When the storm beats without, he -snuggles close to his fireside, and thanks God that this is _his_ shelter -from the wild night. His wife will lay her loving touches here and there, -and the house will take on a look which reflects the individuality of the -owners. Flowers in the front yard, vines clinging about the porch, bright -pictures on the wall, ferns and grasses in the vase over the mantel, a -climbing rose, perhaps, to race for the cone of the house and to throw -out its crimson colors from the roof. Toil which one loves will be freely -spent on garden and field, for the toiler is working for those he loves -best. In a few years, under the care of home-owners, the neighbors will -say, “_It doesn’t look like the same place._” - -And it _isn’t_ the same place. The owners have transformed it. They have -put elements of value and beauty there which nature did not supply. They -have so directed their labor, their judgment, their good taste, their -tender interests, that the _home_ which they have created is as different -from the wild land, as the noble watch-dog at the door differs from the -gray wolf of the wilderness. - -Do you suppose that this man and his wife and his children can ever be -made to believe that they have “robbed” some body of that land, and that -it is wrong for them to hold it as _private property_? - -_Never in the world!_ - -Wayland has made a confession as well as a blunder. - -By offering such a prize, he knows he is appealing to one of the -strongest human passions—the passion for home-owning. - -Every full-sexed girl instinctively feels that her destiny is -Motherhood—and she plays with dolls, nurses them, kisses them, hugs them -to her little bosom, calls them pet names, fondly dresses them in every -beautiful way that her infant fancy can suggest, and rocks them to sleep -in the tiny cradle. _That is the God-given instinct of Motherhood._ - -Every full-sexed man, on the other hand, is born with a craving for _his -mate_, and next to that, _a home to put her in_. - -_Individualism_, crying aloud to me and to you, says “_choose your mate -and make her yours_.” The idea of promiscuous mating is abhorrent. -Collective mating would be hideous. You want individual mating. You want -to separate _your_ mate from every other woman and from every other -man—and if another man invades your individual rights, _you slay him like -a dog_. - -There’s the natural feeling, the natural passion, the natural -individuality—and everybody knows it. - -This craving for individual mating with women, bases itself firmly on -the _individual home_. Give me _my_ mate, and let me take her to _my_ -home:—and you have consistency, you have nature, you have a foundation -for home-life and all that flows from it—a foundation firm as the -everlasting hills. - -But _the two_ go together. They are parts of the same system. Surrender -one, and you endanger the other. - -If you are a Collectivist—your logic _will never stop at Collectivism in -property only_. - -If you believe in the one wife, believe also in the _home_, which shall -be yours _individually_, just as your wife is yours, _individually_. - - -_Calhoun for Public Ownership_ - -Through the never-failing courtesy of Senator Clay, of Georgia, it was -recently my good fortune to come into possession of two bulky volumes -issued by the Government, and entitled, “Annual Report of the American -Historical Association.” The second volume of this report contains the -Private Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, and a most interesting -collection of letters it is. - -Glancing through these letters hurriedly, I came upon one which Mr. -Calhoun wrote to William C. Dawson, of Georgia, in 1835, wherein he -declares himself strongly in favor of state-built railroads. - -It will be remembered that at that time there was a surplus of revenues -in the Treasury. - -This surplus was not given away in premiums to bond-holders as Mr. -Cleveland gave sixty million dollars a few years ago. - -It was not deposited with the National Banks to be used in their business -as Mr. Roosevelt now disposes of $56,000,000 of the public funds. - -In the days of Calhoun, governmental robbery of the taxpayer for the -benefit of the non-taxpayer had not been reduced to a science as it has -since been. - -In Mr. Calhoun’s day, it was believed that when the Government -had collected from the taxpayer a greater sum than was needed for -governmental expenses, the excess should, as a matter of common honesty, -be returned to the taxpayer. - -[Illustration: John C. Calhoun] - -It being impracticable, however, to restore the money in exact proportion -to each individual taxpayer, the Government did the next best thing—it -divided the surplus pro rata, among the states. - -In his letter to Dawson, Mr. Calhoun estimates the entire amount of the -surplus, extending over a series of years, at seventy or eighty million -dollars. - -The share of Georgia and South Carolina, he estimates at $3,500,000. - -Now what does he advise shall be done with this money which has been -drawn from the taxpayers of the two states? - -_He advises that it be spent by Georgia and South Carolina in building -railroads to connect those two states with the lines leading to the West -and Southwest._ - -Spent in that manner, the surplus taxes of the two states would be so -invested as to benefit all the people of Georgia and South Carolina. - -It wouldn’t go to fatten a handful of greedy, millionaire bond-holders. - -It wouldn’t go to a few pet National banks to be loaned out as private -capital. - -It being public money, it would be used for a public purpose; and the -great public roads which it would build would belong to and benefit all -the people of the two states which had paid the taxes into the Federal -Treasury. - -Says Mr. Calhoun: - -“To make this great fund available for so important an object, the -legislatures of the states interested ought to move forthwith. I hope -Georgia will take the lead. The action of no other state could have half -the influence.” - -Mr. Calhoun, with marvelous foresight, sketched the system of railroads -which has since been built. Just where he declared in 1835 that the -railroads ought to be, they are now to be found. - -Had his counsels been followed, those public highways would now be the -property of the public. Folly, stupidity, sordid franchise-grabbing had -their own way, however, and the magnificent system of highways which -Calhoun laid out for the people belongs to the corporations. - - _Judge Du Bose’s Letter and the Public Debt_ - - MONTGOMERY, ALA., JAN. 6, 1906. - - Hon. Thos. E. Watson: - - Dear Sir—It is not evidence of dissatisfaction with the common - infirmities of the human lot that discussion of the characters - of men in public office assumes the latitude of warning to - society. Servility of understanding reduces the individual - to prostitution of manhood. He can no longer be free, who is - dependent in mind and thought. The duty of the American citizen - is in the defence of his prerogative of “sovereign,” and upon - this principle only may reputation in a public officer become a - convertible term with character in public office. - - In the year 1769 “Junius” wrote fifty-four letters to the - _Public Advertiser_, a daily journal of London. The publisher - was indicted. “Junius” continued to write. He wrote to Sir - William Draper; to the Duke of Grafton; to the Ministry; to - King George himself. Who “Junius” was, none knew. The few - declared his writing turbulent and revolutionary; worthless for - the occasion. He held to the record. With indignant invectives - he proved the government corruptions. With high disdain he - declared he asked for no authority, when he had law and reason - on his side, to speak the truth. With keen and pungent retort - he exposed the lapse of society in the evidences of iniquity in - social leaders. - - I would not offend by flattering him “who would not flatter - Jove for his power to thunder.” But the beneficiary is ever a - debtor to his benefactor. I may write with confidence where - expression is due. - - The modest caption, “Editorials by Thomas E. Watson,” has - already attained to a decisive expectancy in the public mind. - In brief time the words that monthly come to us under it will - shed a wider and widening light. - - Revived iniquities which inspired “Junius” are come for - exposure. History repeats itself in facts and interpreters - of facts. “Junius” in immortal energy told the people of the - Gentlemen in the House of Commons, the Judges upon the Bench, - the Lords, and the Dukes, and the Ministry and the King; of - malfeasance in office and of decay in private virtue. - - The theme then is the theme now. Patrick Henry caught the - spirit of “Junius”; the “Editorials by Thomas E. Watson” draw - upon the glorious past to shed light upon the living day. - - Anxiously we await some words from you upon the most insidious - consumer of free institutions—_the bonded debt of the United - States_. Please answer these questions: - - 1. Is not the Government interest-bearing bond the true - foundation of the “trust”? - - 2. Can the “trust” be eliminated from commerce before the - government bonds are paid and extinguished? - - 3. As long as the bonds remain and money concentrates under - their influence and protection in New York, can money so - concentrated be redistributed from New York in the sources of - industry and commerce by any other process than by “trust” - industries process? - - Let me illustrate: In the Birmingham (Ala.) manufacturing - district there are three great iron manufacturers, to wit: The - Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; The Sloss-Sheffield Company; - The Republic Company and the Alabama-Consolidated Company. - - Continued effort is made to merge two or all of these powerful - forces. The Pontifex Maximus in the situation, the great bridge - over which the merger, if merger there is to be, must pass, - is a bank of issue—a national bank—willing and also able to - finance the movement in transit and after consummation. - - Now, the willing and capable bank in the premises must possess - an adequate supply of non-taxable, interest-bearing Government - bonds, upon which, to their full face value, it may issue paper - money equal to the exigencies of the great merged corporations. - Without the bonds, upon which to issue the money, the bank - could not finance the merger. - - If the iron manufactories be merged, the necessary sequence - must be the merging of the railroads that enter Birmingham. In - order to effect the merging of the railroads financing which - would duplicate the original example, here cited, must follow. - - Commerce, founded on the public debt, is founded upon - Government mortgages upon universal private industry. - - Must not that kind of commerce subvert free institutions? - - Yours truly, - - (Signed) JOHN WITHERSPOON DU BOSE. - -The writer of the letter on the public debt is the author of the “Life -and Times of William L. Yancey,” a book which is a treasure-house of -varied and valuable information. - -That this Magazine has made such a favorable impression upon so able and -representative a man, is of itself a great encouragement to us who are -devoting our lives to it. - -The question asked by the distinguished Alabamian is a spear-thrust -into the very vitals of our vicious system of Class-Rule and Special -Privileges. - -When Alexander Hamilton set out to make our government as English as the -Constitution would admit of, he laid the foundations of his work in the -English system of Protection, the English system of Finance, and the -English system of Funding the Public Debt. - -With his Protective system he meant to favor one class of industries at -the expense of others: thus rallying to the support of the government -those who shaped its laws to fill their pockets with the money which -belonged to other people. - -With his system of Finance, and his National Bank of issue, he meant -to form a co-partnership between wealth and government. To the favored -few was to be delegated that tremendous power to create currency which -had always been a prerogative of the Crown until Barbara Villiers, the -harlot, wheedled from the dissolute Charles II. that concession to the -bankers. - -With his system of Funding the Public Debt, Hamilton meant to mortgage -the Nation, in perpetuity, to the wealthy few, in order that they might -always hold their power over the masses, and their advantage over the -government. - -William Pitt is said to have remarked cynically, when he saw our -government copying the British system: “Their independence will not do -them much good if they adopt our system of finance.” - -We all remember how bitterly Jefferson combated the Hamilton measures. -We can turn to his writings now, and read the scathing terms in which he -denounced them. We can also read his predictions of the evils which would -come upon us if we allowed Hamilton’s class-law system to develop. - -_Haven’t the evils come?_ - -The great historic renown won by the Democratic Party and its leaders was -gained in combating this class-law system of Alexander Hamilton. - -Democrats, and the Democratic Party, _always_ stood in battle array -against the Protective System, contending that it was immoral, unjust, -oppressive, despoiling the many to enrich the few. - -Democrats, and the Democratic Party, _always_ went up against the -National Banks to fight them, declaring that such an institution was of -deadly hostility to the spirit of republican government. - -Democrats, and the Democratic Party, _always_ clamored against the -Funding System, and demanded that the Public Debt be paid off. - -Those were the memorable, historic principles of Democrats in the years -preceding the Civil War—in the years when the Democrats had a mission, -a creed; leaders who had convictions, champions, who loved ideas well -enough to cherish them more dearly than office. - -What was President Jefferson’s proud boast? - -That he had so cut down Government expenses that the Public Debt would -soon be a thing of the past. - -What was Jackson’s proud boast? - -_That he paid the Public Debt._ - -That was the golden era of American history. - -The National Bank had been abolished. - -The National Debt had been paid off. - -The Protective principle had been stricken out of the Tariff, and that -infamous system had been reduced to a moderate revenue basis. - -There was hardly a millionaire in the whole country. - -There was hardly a pauper in the republic. - -The individual citizen amounted to more, _as a man_, than he does -now. Wages were low, but the money commanded a larger amount of the -necessaries of life than the higher wages of today. - -Strikes and lockouts were unknown. “WE HAVE NO POOR,” was the -matter-of-fact statement made in Congress by Hugh S. Legaré of South -Carolina. - -“THERE ARE NO BEGGARS,” said the English visitor, Charles Dickens. - -In the whole world there probably was not a people more contented, -progressive, and generally well-off than we were in the Forties. - -_Which were the naturally wealthy sections?_ The South and West. - -_Which was the naturally sterile section?_ The East. - -Where is the bulk of all the immense wealth that has been produced since -the Civil War? _In the East._ - -How came it there? _Class-law took it from the sections where it was -produced_, and gave it to those who were more cunning and selfish in -framing national statutes. - -[Illustration: “I see signs of life and hope in the awakening of the -people.”] - -There is no fouler chapter in the history of crime than that which is -to be written concerning the manipulation of our National Debt. How -many hundreds of millions have been made out of the government by the -rascals who juggled with the bonds, it would stagger faith to state. -The starting point, where Belmont, Rothschild, Sherman and the Bank of -England compelled Congress to depreciate the Greenback, the exchange of -bonds at par for Greenbacks at their full face value, the change of the -terms of the bond from lawful money to coin, and from coin to gold, -the huge commissions paid to favored bankers, the colossal deposits -of public funds to be used in private speculations, the sudden and -mysterious fortunes accumulated by Secretaries of the Treasury, like -Sherman, and by Senators, like Gorman, the stealthy mission of Ernest -Seyd, the covert influence of the Haggard & Buell circulars—all these are -but high-points in a long journey of national shame, legalized robbery, -ruinous prostitution of the powers of government to gorge the few on the -life-blood of the many. - -Who does not know that our Public Debt could be paid off at any time if -the ruling class wanted it paid? - -Who does not realize the anomaly of the richest nation on earth bearing -a bonded debt as though it were a luxury? - -Who does not recognize the grim irony of wearing a bondholder’s chain as -though it were a string of pearls? - -Wipe out the Public Debt and there would be no foundation for the -National Banks. One form of privilege having been abolished, the other -would follow. _And then others would follow!_ The bonds are the keystone -to the arch. The Public Debt is the nucleus of the system by means of -which Wealth runs the Government for its own benefit. - -Who wants the Government to economize? Not the Privileged. By no means. -If the Government were to economize there would be such a surplus in the -Treasury that the Government, for very shame, _would have to pay itself -out of debt_. - -The Privileged are determined to keep the Government in debt, and hence -there will be no economy. - -The fields of expenditure shall widen, widen, and be kept on widening. -Salaries shall increase, and increase, and be kept on increasing. Offices -shall be multiplied, and multiplied, and be kept on multiplying. - -The Panama Canal can get all it wants; let the Philippines cost what they -may; give more to the Navy; give more to the Army; give more to Rivers -and Harbors; give more to Pensions; give the Railroads four times as much -as it is worth to carry the mails, and then give them a special subsidy -to keep the contract; give $45,000 for carrying mail to the Island Tahiti -when the “cussed foreigner” offered to do it for $3,500; give with so -lavish a hand that even the South will get a pull at the sugar-teat, and -shall join in the Hallelujah Chorus of “O, _ain’t_ it good!” - -A child ought to be able to see the profound policy which underlies the -extravagance of the Federal Government. - -The Tariff must _not_ be lowered; the Public Debt must _not_ be paid off; -the reign of the Trusts must _not_ be threatened: - -“STAND PAT!” - -That’s the watchword of heartless Plutocracy which has erected its powers -upon the three bed-rock measures of Alexander Hamilton. - -“STAND PAT!”—blares the bugle-note of Class-law leaders, for they know -that _a system_ depends upon all of its component parts. If there should -be a leak in the dike, _anywhere_, the angry ocean might come pouring in. - -Where are the Democrats, and the Democratic Party? - -What soldiers are pitching their tents upon the historic fields of -Democracy? - -What lines of battle are forming under the time-honored banners of -Jefferson and Jackson? - -Alas! The mighty strain and struggle of the Democratic Party during these -degenerate days, has been to imitate every bad habit of the Republicans. -Democrats vote with the Republicans to continue the National banks, to -continue the Public Debt, to continue the Protective system, to embark -upon an imperial colonial system, to perpetuate the rule of the Trust, to -multiply objects and amounts of National extravagance. - -Where do I see signs of life and hope? - -In the rapid awakening of the people to the fact that _in the name -of Party_ they are being stripped of everything that makes for the -independence and prosperity and happiness of the average citizen. - - -_Talmage in Russia: Fourteen Years Ago_ - -After the downfall of Beecher, Doctor Talmage became the most conspicuous -preacher in the United States. His sermons and his writings had an -immense audience. “Talmage’s Sermon” was a standing headline, in American -Monday morning newspapers, and they were widely known in Europe also. -No visitor to New York thought of returning home until he had attended -services at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and qualified himself to boast of -the fact that he had “heard Talmage.” - -The fact that Doctor Talmage had been engaged to furnish articles to -any periodical, was sufficient to boost its circulation into the tens -of thousands. No Lyceum, no Chautauqua, no Lecture Course was complete -without Talmage. Formal banquets, in quest of oratorical attractions, -never failed to urge the attendance of Doctor Talmage. - -Somehow the man became the fashion, the rage. He was the Caucasian Booker -Washington. Everybody having agreed that he was a wonderful man, the ball -kept on rolling by the law of inertia. - -Nobody could tell you wherein he was great; nobody could quote anything -remarkable from his writings or his sermons; nobody knew of anything -phenomenal that he had done, or was supposed to be able to do. His -capacity for the benevolent assimilation of an indefinite number of -voluntary donations was strikingly like Booker Washington’s power in the -same direction; but beyond the fact that Talmage preached to a large -congregation, and wrote books which many people read, his greatness was -hard to define. - - * * * * * - -However, Talmage had his day. He was the fashion. At home and abroad -he was a man whom it was the correct thing to treat with distinguished -consideration. Foreign potentates, princes and powers knew Talmage as a -mighty man of the pen; likewise as a man of infinite capacity for talk; -also as a man who traveled with a photographic outfit. Consequently a man -to be handled with care; “this side up,” as it were. - -His progress through a foreign land, was not merely an incident; it was -an event. He was greeted with dress-parade formalities. Foreign princes, -potentates and powers _knew_ that Talmage would write a book about them -when he got home; that the book would be read by hundreds of thousands; -that public opinion would be influenced by it; and that the photographs -of the princes, etc., would appear in the book. Consequently the smiling -faces which were turned toward the Talmage Camera by the helpless -potentates etc., were almost distressing in their laborious amiability. - - * * * * * - -As to Russia, Doctor Talmage seems to have gone there by imperial -invitation and prearrangement. - -“Stepping from the Moscow train on returning to St. Petersburg, an -invitation was put in my hand inviting me to the palace.... I had already -seen the Crown Prince in his palace.... The royal carriage was waiting, -and the two decorated representatives of the palace took me to a building -where a suite of three rooms was appointed me, where I rested, lunched, -examined the flowers and walked under the trees.” Then the royal carriage -came again, took him through the magnificent and beautiful grounds to -the palace of the Czar. During his stay, officials crowded around him, -lavished attentions upon him, stuffed his ears with glowing accounts of -the lovely conditions prevailing in Russia, and made Doctor Talmage feel -good generally. - -Russian autocracy laid itself out to capture Talmage, and it captured him -completely. - -From a picture on page 408 of his book, I infer that Russian enthusiasm -broke from every restraint, and that he was caught up in the arms of a -delirious populace, and borne triumphantly through the streets, on the -shoulders of his worshipers. The picture represents Russian citizens -(who bear a disconcerting resemblance to New York dandies), waving their -hats wildly—(Derby hats)—and shows Doctor Talmage sitting gracefully -upon the shoulders of two elegantly dressed enthusiasts; and the silk -hat of the Doctor is held aloft in his eloquent right hand, while his -left is extended in what I take to be his favorite gesture. The picture -represents all the Russians with their mouths shut. It also represents -Talmage with his mouth shut—a fact which arouses a suspicion that the -picture is spurious. Under _such_ circumstances, Talmage could no more -have kept his mouth shut than Bryan could. - -Other pictures show Doctor Talmage in the act of responding from his -carriage to a street ovation; also of rising to make a few remarks to -a grand gathering in a hall draped with the Stars and Stripes; also of -making a speech on the arrival of a ship from the United States bringing -bread to feed the Russian peasants. - -There are, also, pictures showing Talmage seated on one side of a small -table and the Czar seated on the other; Talmage in the act of being -received into the family circle of the Czar; Talmage standing erect in -his carriage, hat outstretched, in the act of returning the salutes -of hat-waving crowds which pause and look pleasant, apparently, until -Talmage’s picture man can draw his focus, spring his slide, and say, -“That’ll do.” - - * * * * * - -I state all this to show the readers how public opinion is sometimes made -to order. The Russian autocracy knew that Talmage was the best possible -press-agent they could use. He was intensely vain, easily flattered, a -snob to the core, a man whose very soul quivered with delight under the -smile of royalty. - -There had been a great deal of abuse heaped upon Russia. The newspapers, -magazines, political pamphlets had been telling the civilized world a -vast deal about the barbarities practiced by the Russian government. -George Kennan, the brave American traveler, had risked all the rigors of -Siberia to see for himself how prisoners were treated there. His reports -had thrilled the hearts of millions with furious indignation against -the Czar, and with profound pity for the victims of imperial tyranny. -Tolstoy, Stepniak, Kropotkin and many others had been heard. - -Russian autocracy was in bad odor throughout the Christian world, and -if such a man as Talmage could be enlisted for the defence, it would be -a fine thing to do. His voice would carry weight throughout Europe and -the United States. Therefore, it is reasonably certain that the Russian -government had an axe to grind when it made the Talmage visit an occasion -for a series of ovations. - -At any rate, the Russian government got from Talmage when he came -to write his book of travels, a chapter of the most fulsome, least -discriminating praise that you will ever read. - -Russia was all right, in every respect. Travelers were _never_ subjected -to vexatious delays or examinations—for Talmage had not been delayed or -vexed. He actually carried into Russia some books which criticised the -government, and the magnanimous officials made no objection. There was no -religious persecution in Russia! On the contrary, Jews and Gentiles, of -all descriptions, could worship God in any manner that pleased them. The -Government never interfered. - -If a nobleman conspired against the life of the Czar, he was arrested, -put into a carriage, blindfolded, driven about for many hours to make him -believe that he was on his way to Siberia, and he was then set down, at -his own door, safe, unharmed, free! - -If a poet wrote scurrilous verses about the Empress, he was brought into -the family circle of the Czar and asked to read the lines in the hearing -of the lady. That was the worst. - -Siberia was described as a country of Italian softness of climate; and -banishment to the Siberian prisons, mines, etc., was altogether better -for criminals than ordinary jails. - -Doctor Talmage defended Russian autocracy, Russian police, Russian -prisons, indignantly hurling back upon the slanderers of Russia their -foul accusations. - -Listen to him—Talmage: - -“But how about the knout, the cruel Russian knout, that comes down on the -bare back of agonized criminals? Why, Russia abolished the knout before -it was abolished from our American navy.” - -Think of reading this stuff at a time when the ears of the world are yet -tingling at the sound of the Cossack whips! - -Think of reading this _when we know_ that before Talmage’s book was -written, and while it was being written, and ever since it was written, -Russian peasants, by thousands, _have been flogged every year for -non-payment of taxes_! - -“The Emperor received me with much heartiness. And at the first glance, -seeing him to be a splendid gentleman, with no airs of pretension and as -artless as any man I ever saw, it seemed to me that we were old friends -from the start.” - -Doctor Talmage did not visit the Russian prisons which he defended; -did not go to Siberia, which he compared to Italy; did not make any -investigations of peasant-life; did not go among the working classes; did -not talk with Tolstoy, nor any man of the dissatisfied elements. In fact, -Talmage declares, in effect, that nobody was dissatisfied. - -Listen to Doctor Talmage, Page 422: - -“He who charges cruelty on the imperial family and _the nobility of -Russia_, belies men and women as gracious and benignant as ever breathed -oxygen.” - -Shades of von Plehve! - -When we read such lines as the above and recall how that gracious and -benignant nobility have drenched Russia with blood of peasants, Jews, -city workingmen, republican agitators—littering the streets with ghastly -heaps of murdered men and women and children—we may well stand amazed at -the success with which the wool was pulled over the eyes of the Rev. T. -De Witt Talmage, D. D. - -“There are no kinder people on earth than the Russians, and to most of -them cruelty is an impossibility.” - -[Illustration: “Dr. Talmage did not go to Siberia, which he compared to -Italy.”] - -Of the Czar, Doctor Talmage says: - -“He’s doing the best things possible for the nation which he loved, and -which as ardently loved him.... Things are going on marvelously well, and -I do not believe that out of 500,000 Russians you will find _more than -one person_ who dislikes the Emperor, and so that Calumny of dread of -assassination drops so flat it can fall no flatter.” - -[Illustration: “I prophecy for Nicholas the Second a long and happy -reign.”—Dr. Talmage] - -According to Doctor Talmage the story that the Czar dreaded the assassin -was a base Calumny, and he, Talmage, flattened it out in his book “so -flat it can fall no flatter.” - -I wonder what the present Czar would feel, think and say if he could -_now_ read Talmage’s comfortable assurances on the subject of “dread of -assassination.” - - * * * * * - -While in Russia, Doctor Talmage saw the Rulers, and no others. He talked -with the governing class, and no others. He saw a ship from the United -States bringing bread to the Russian farmers, but it never occurred to -his mind that a drouth in one portion of the huge Russian Empire was no -good reason why the New World should have to save Russian peasants from -starvation. - -Looking only on the surface, seeing only what his “old friend” the Czar, -wished him to see, he praised the Russian government in terms of the most -unqualified eulogy. - -Before the Talmage book was ready for the press, Prince Cantacuzene, -the Russian Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, summoned Doctor -Talmage to the deck of a Russian man-of-war, in Philadelphia harbor, -and presented to the enraptured American “a complete gold-enameled tea -service accompanied by a message of love which I cannot now think of -without deep emotion, since Emperor Alexander has disappeared from the -palaces of earth to take his place, as I believe, in the palaces of -heaven.” - -In behalf of the Czar, the formalities of a trial on Judgment Day, were -waived, it would seem; and the Czar went direct from Peterhof to his -mansion in the skies. - -The Emperor Alexander, it is well-known, was succeeded by his son -Nicholas, the reigning Czar. - -Talmage’s book was published in 1896. Here is what he predicted: - -“_I prophesy for Nicholas the Second a long and happy reign!_” - -That was a very natural inspiration. Talmage had delved into Russian -affairs and found conditions ideal. The government was mild, just, -progressive. The people were contented, and devoted to the Czar. There -was no cruelty in the administration, and no suffering among the -peasants, excepting the locality affected by the drought. The bread had -been sent to feed the peasants, and all would be well. The Knout had -been abolished. The serf, freed, was happy. Religious toleration was in -practice; the circulation of political literature unhampered. - -There was not a cloud upon the horizon. George Kennan, Stepniak, Tolstoy, -Kropotkin had been slandering vilely the most humane Government of -Europe—a Government which Talmage compared to ours, to our discomfiture -in various respects. - -With a Podsnapian wave of his hand, Talmage said to Europe, “_Let this -international defamation of Russia cease._” - -With that Royal welcome fresh in his memory, with those public ovations -still ringing in his ears, with that “complete gold-enameled tea service” -gladdening his eye, with the “message of love” conveyed by the Prince -Cantacuzene still warming his heart, how could Doctor Talmage prophesy -otherwise? - -The spirit of the occasion demanded prophecy, and there it stands -recorded, page 432: - -“_I prophesy for Nicholas the Second a long and happy reign!_” - - -_A Prophet Whose Voice Was Not Heeded_ - -Almost in sight of where I live, there is a heap of stones that marks the -spot where stood the hut in which George McDuffie was born. - -His folks were “poor folks.” Concerning his ancestry nothing is known. - -When I was a boy somebody told me a story to this effect: - -Little George McDuffie was at the cowpen where his mother was milking, -and he had a calf by the ears holding it away from the cow. A traveler, -in a buggy, drove up and stopped. Seeing the boy, and not realizing the -absorbing character of the boy’s job, the wayfaring man called out: - -“Come here, Bubbie, and hold my horse.” - -To which the lad replied: “If you’ll come here and hold my calf, I’ll go -there and hold your horse.” - -According to the story, the traveler was so tickled by the boy’s -readiness of wit, that he took a fancy to him and secured him a position -as clerk in a store in the city of Augusta. - -Well, George McDuffie wasn’t much of a clerk. He loved to read books -better than to wait upon customers. It came to pass that his fondness for -books attracted the attention of one of the Calhouns—_not_ John C., but -his brother, I believe—and Mr. Calhoun placed the boy at the celebrated -school of Dr. Waddell to be educated. - -The balance is history. McDuffie became one of the greatest legal -advocates and political orators this country has ever known. - -Later in life he became involved in a newspaper controversy which drew -him into two duels. In one of these he received a wound which injured his -spine and affected his brain. - -In his melancholy decline, and not long before his death, McDuffie was -moved by a yearning to come back to Georgia and visit the spot where -his boyhood home had stood. He came from South Carolina by private -conveyance, and spent the night with my grandfather. Next day he went on -down to the Sweet-water Creek neighborhood where the McDuffie hut had -been. My father used to tell me that when they led the broken statesman -to the spot, pointed out the remaining shade tree and the dismantled -chimney, they drew away, leaving him alone with his memories. After -awhile they returned to find Mr. McDuffie sitting upon the stones of the -ruined hearth, crying like a child. - -When the boy, George McDuffie, left the store in Augusta and went over -into South Carolina to go to school, he carried all of his earthly -possessions in one little pine box. - -When he became a man he made much money, owned large estates and moved as -a peer among the proudest leaders of his day. - -But he never parted with the little pine box. It was a souvenir of -the old days of youth and poverty. It was sacred in his eyes, and he -treasured it. When his mind was almost gone, he would put his arms about -the box, and tell again the story of how it had held all that he owned -when he came into South Carolina—a poor boy, on his way to the great -battle-field of life. - -Did you know that to this almost forgotten statesman, George McDuffie, -belongs the distinction of having made the most powerful and most -prophetic speech that was ever made in Congress against our damnable -Tariff System? - -Well, it does. Such men as Nelson Dingley and Joseph H. Walker were -good judges in such a matter, and they regarded McDuffie’s argument as -the strongest ever made against the New England scheme of enriching its -Capitalists by plundering other sections. Dr. Goldwin Smith should also -be a competent judge, and you will find that McDuffie’s speech is the one -he quotes from in his “Political History of the United States.” - -[Illustration: George McDuffie] - -Mr. McDuffie’s great speech against the protective system is too long to -be reproduced here; but in the concluding paragraphs he predicted with -such clearness of vision the reign of rotten business and rotten politics -which now afflicts us that his words read like inspired prophecy: - -“Sir, when I consider that, by a single bill like the present, millions -of dollars may be transferred annually from one part of the community to -another; when I consider the disguise of disinterested patriotism under -which the basest and most profligate ambition may perpetrate such an act -of injustice and political prostitution, I cannot hesitate, for a moment, -to pronounce this system _the most stupendous instrument of corruption_ -ever placed in the hands of public functionaries. - -“IT BRINGS AMBITION AND AVARICE AND WEALTH INTO A COMBINATION WHICH IT IS -FEARFUL TO CONTEMPLATE, BECAUSE IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST. - -“Do we not perceive, at this very moment, the extraordinary and -melancholy spectacle of less than one hundred thousand capitalists, by -means of this unhallowed combination, exercising an absolute and despotic -control over the opinions of eight millions of free citizens and the -fortunes and destinies of ten millions? - -“Sir, I will not anticipate or forbode evil. _I will not permit myself to -believe that the Presidency of the United States will ever be bought and -sold._ But I must say that there are certain quarters of this Union in -which, if the candidate for the Presidency should come forward with this -Harrisburg tariff in his hand, nothing could resist his pretensions if -his adversary were opposed to this _unjust system of oppression_.” - - * * * * * - -“Indeed, Sir, when I contemplate the extraordinary infatuation _which a -combination of capitalists and politicians_ have had the heart to diffuse -over more than one-half of this Union—when I see the very victims who -are about to be offered up to satiate the voracious appetite of this -devouring Moloch, paying their ardent and sincere devotions at his -bloody shrine; I confess I have been tempted to doubt whether mankind was -not doomed, even in its most enlightened state to be the dupe of some -form of imposture, and the victim of some form of tyranny. - -[Illustration: How American Capital Protects American Labor] - -“Sir, in casting my eyes over the history of human idolatry, I can find -nothing, even in the _darkest_ ages of ignorance and superstition, -which surpasses the infatuation by which _a confederated priesthood of -politicians and manufacturers_ have bound the great body of the people of -the farming States of this Union as if by a spell, TO THIS MIGHTY SCHEME -OF FRAUD AND DELUSION.” - - * * * * * - -Bear in mind that this speech was made in 1824. - -Then look around you and see how prophetically Mr. McDuffie pictured the -future. - -The Presidency is bought and sold. Congress is bought and sold. The -confederated priesthood of politicians and manufacturers do dominate an -infatuated people whom it deludes and plunders. - -The Trusts are nothing in the world but the legitimate children of -Privilege and Protection. - -Campaign boodle-funds are nothing in the world but the sop which the -Corrupt Combination of Capitalists pay to renew the lease which they hold -on the Government. - -And, as Mr. McDuffie said, the most astounding feature of the whole -diabolical system is the completeness with which the politicians and -the Privileged can dupe the victims of Protection into the belief that -_Privilege_ benefits the unprivileged. - -With the doors of immigration standing wide open vomiting into our -industrial world all the cheap white labor of the universe, our Protected -capitalists are still able to convince our wage-earners that American -capital protects American labor from the competition of foreign “pauper” -labor! - -Having ground down the price of factory labor to such a low point that -they can undersell foreigners in the foreign market, our Privileged and -Protected Capitalists can nevertheless convince American laborers that -the motive for high tariffs is to enable the Capitalist to pay big wages! - -And they swallowed it—the wage-earners swallow it, meekly, blindly, -trustfully. - -The record of a Century teaches them nothing. - -The evidences of their own senses are ignored. - -The very factory hands who at Fall River lived off the soup of the -Salvation Army devoutly believed that if it hadn’t been for the -Protective system they wouldn’t even have got the soup. - -The factory girl who is paid five dollars per week, and who, when she -complains that she cannot live on the wage, is sardonically advised to -get a gentleman friend, actually believes that were it not for Privilege -and Protection she would not get the five dollars. - -God in heaven! No wonder that George McDuffie expressed his doubt as to -whether the masses could ever be enlightened. No wonder his prophetic -speech vibrated with an undertone of despair. - -Less than one-tenth of the laborers of this country own their homes; yet -_they_ have been Protected for a hundred years. - -Less than a quarter million men own practically the entire wealth of the -whole United States; yet Privilege and Protection are _not_ for their -benefit. - -You go to the millions of Unprivileged and Unprotected citizens and you -point out to them how they are plundered by being made to pay twice as -much as they should on every article which they buy. - -They understand it; they admit the fact; but the corrupt politician has -taught them what to say. - -This is the lesson: - -“Yes; we pay twice as much as the goods are worth, but it is patriotic -and humane, because we thereby enable millions of American wage-earners -to get big wages.” - -Fine, isn’t it? - -If the man who repeats that little lesson, and believes it, would go -into the districts where Protection is and where the system has been at -work longest he will find himself in precisely the places where wages -are lowest, where Capitalists are harshest, where squalor and vice are -rankest, and where the maddened victims of our soulless wage-system are -nursing in their hearts the passions of hell. - - -_The Highest Office_ - -Let seasons come and go, let the sunlight and shadows fall where God’s -pleasure puts them—do your duty as conscience and reason reveal it to -you. Let no other man measure your work or your responsibilities; let no -artful sophistry, in favor of the expedient, veil from your steadfast -eyes the summits of Right. Let parties rise and fall; let time-servers -flop and flounder, let the heedless praise of the hour lay its withering -garlands at the feet of him who will purchase them by bending to every -passing breeze, every popular whim, every local prejudice. - -Do thou look higher if joy and strength and peace and pride are to be -thine. In this brief life (hardly worth the living) know this one thing: -that a man’s honor should be just as dear to him as a woman’s virtue is -to her. Did the Roman girls not go gladly to the lions, to the bloody -death in the arena, rather than to recant their Christian faith, or to -accept a lawless lover? Did not the Armenian woman, a few years ago, leap -to death over the precipice, rather than to apostatize or to be violated? -Isn’t the ground still wet with the life-drops of poor Else Kroegler, -who let her white throat be gashed, and gashed, and gashed, by the black -devil who assailed her, till her life was gone, rather than to live -dishonored? And shall a man be less heroic than a woman? Is there nothing -within us that cannot be bought? Is there no Holy of Holies of conviction -and principle, into which the corruptor shall not enter? Is there nothing -that we hold sacred as the citadel of proud, fearless, upright manhood? - -Once upon a time a barbarous peasant worked his way upward and onward, -until he wore the imperial purple of Rome; and he said: “I have gained -all the honors and none of them have value.” Did not Cæsar, himself, grow -sick at heart of the eminence he had wickedly won, and say that he had -lived long enough? - -If we must bow to what is wrong, flatter what we despise, preach what -we disbelieve, and deny what we feel to be true, is success thus won -anything but a gilded dishonor? - -To be a man, such a man as you know God would have you be—manly, -truthful, honest—scorning meanness, hating lies, loathing deceit, -meeting the plain duties of life, and shirking none of its plain -responsibilities—is not that the highest office you can fill? - - -_Editorial Comment_ - -The Washington Post is generally accurate in its statements of facts, but -it erred in saying that one of the legal grounds for divorce in Georgia -is insanity occurring _after_ the marriage. Our statute book is not -disgraced by a provision of that kind. - -Insanity is a misfortune for which, as a rule, the victim is not to -blame. Besides, it is a disease which is often cured, or a terrible -visitation which sometimes passes away as suddenly as it came. - -Suppose the Legislature deprives the afflicted wife of possibly her -only protector by granting the husband a divorce; suppose the wife then -regains her sanity—would not the situation be horrible? - -When I reflect upon the shameful things the Wall Street millionaires -have led our Legislature to do, I am by no means certain that some Ryan -or Morgan, tired of his old wife, might secure from the Hamp McWhorter -machine a legislative license to go and buy a fresh one—but such a deal -has not, as yet, been consummated. - - * * * * * - -Congress is beginning to catch on to the enormous frauds in the weighing -of the mails. In the first issue of this Magazine, I called attention to -the notorious fact that certain Congressmen, who belong to the railroads, -were in the habit of lending to their bosses the frank whose mark on mail -matter entitles it to go through the mails without payment of postage. - -For example: Suppose the Southern Railroad wants the use of the frank of -the Honorable Leonidas F. Livingston, whom “the Democratic Party” of the -Atlanta, Ga., District sends to Congress. In that case, the Honorable -Leonidas will lend his bosses his rubber stamp which, being inked and -pressed upon a sack of mail matter, leaves thereon this inscription: - - _L. F. Livingston, M. C._ - -This inscription being placed upon the sack, the postal authorities are -compelled by law to carry the sack to any part of the United States free -of charge. The magic letters “M. C.” which stand, of course, for “Member -of Congress,” are as good as gold in the postal service. Now why does the -Southern Railroad want to use the frank of the Honorable Leonidas? - -For this reason: - -The Government pays the railroads for carrying the mails, at so much per -pound; to get at the “average” for the whole year, the Government weighs -the mail for ninety days; therefore it is hugely to the advantage of the -railroads to make the “average” as high as possible; and consequently the -railroads themselves crowd into the mails, _during those ninety days_, -every God-blessed piece of old junk they can lay their hands on. - -See? - -But if the railroads had to pay postage on that old junk, their profits -would be cut down to just that extent. They would have to pay thousands -of dollars to the Government, in postage, during the ninety days. - -By getting from the Honorable Leonidas the use of his frank, the railroad -can escape payment of postage on the old junk. By the collusion of the -Honorable Leonidas, the Southern Railroad is not only enabled to swindle -the Government in the creation of a fraudulent “average,” but _they even -unload on the Government the expense of carrying the bogus mail which -constitutes the swindle_. - -In the first number of this Magazine, I gave Livingston’s name as that of -one of the rascals who help the railroad swindle the people. - -_I give it again._ - -The Honorable Leonidas is one of the unscrupulous knaves who covers the -multitude of his individual sins with the generous, rubber-coat mantle of -“the Democratic Party.” - -The time is rapidly approaching in this country when a scoundrel will -be treated as a scoundrel, regardless of his being a member of the -Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Thieves and corporation -doodles will not forever escape detection and infamy by crying out “I am -a Democrat,” or “I am a Republican.” - - * * * * * - -The gaping world is told that the Princess Ena, of the Royal House of -Great Britain, is about to marry Alfonso, the decadent lad who is King -of Spain. The Royal House of Great Britain holds the throne upon the -Parliamentary Condition that it shall be Protestant. The Act which -recognized the Hanoverian succession reads: “The Princess Sophia and the -heirs of her body _being Protestants_.” - -But the crown of Spain would not be allowed to rest upon the head of a -heretic. No, indeed! The King and Queen of Spain must be Catholics. - -But King Alfonso wants the fair Princess Ena, and the ambitious Ena wants -to become Queen of Spain. - -Is there any way out? Oh, yes. The Princess Ena, of the Royal House whose -Protestant faith is a matter of Parliamentary measure, being determined -to marry a King whose crown depends upon his being a rigid Catholic, -happily solves the problem by “turning” Catholic. - -Very well. If to Henry of Navarre “Paris was well worth a mass,” why -shouldn’t the throne of Spain be worth as much to the fair Princess Ena? - - * * * * * - -And, by the way, the Princess Ena has had some illustrious examples set -her in the matter of changing one’s creed. - -Did not unhappy little Anna Gould “turn” Catholic to ease the conscience -of her precious Castellane? - -And did not the daughter of the American “house” of Mackay “turn” -Catholic when she became an Italian princess? - -Human motives are pretty much the same everywhere, and to many people -religion is a mere matter of respectable conformity to the manners and -customs of those who make up the environment. - - * * * * * - -John D. Rockefeller is running about from one hiding place to another, -to keep from being found by the officers of the law. How silly. Why does -he not come into court with a shattered memory and a pack of perjuries -like some of the other high-rolling rascals who have been before the -courts recently? - -As to one-third of the things which might land him in the penitentiary, -if he admitted them, he can say, “I decline to answer on advice of -counsel.” - -To another third he can say that he does not remember. - -To the remaining third, he can make perjured replies. - -Then old John will be in line with Rogers, McCall, McCurdy, Depew and -some others who have recently figured in the New York legal proceedings. - - * * * * * - -While Rockefeller is hiding out like a common criminal, would it not be -appropriate for one of his high-priced preachers to come forth in another -sermon, or interview, or signed article, explaining to us common mortals, -what a good and pious, and benevolent man old John D. is? - -The Recording Angel must have a busy time trying to keep straight the -accounts of some of our high-priced city preachers. - -There was Bishop Potter, for instance, who choked off the Reverend Mr. -Chew when that subordinate divine wanted to give us a piece of his mind -concerning Life Insurance rottenness in New York. The high-priced Bishop -put himself in the attitude of warding off attack from the robbers of -widows and orphans. - - * * * * * - -The Constitution of the United States expressly declares that no money -shall be taken from the Treasury without an appropriation by Congress. - -Therefore, when Lyman Gage and Leslie Shaw, Secretaries of the Treasury, -took $15,000,000 out of the Treasury and placed it in the Standard Oil -Bank in New York City they violated the supreme law of the land. The -$56,000,000 which Mr. Roosevelt’s administration has been allowing the -National Banks to hold and to use is held and used in violation of the -Constitution. What do our big men care for the law? Nothing. The law is -for the small and the weak. - - * * * * * - -It was not _your_ mother or sister or wife, _but it might have been_, and -therefore the thing that happened to her should stir your blood. - -A lady who is every bit as good, so far as anybody knows or says, as Mrs. -Roosevelt, went to the White House to see the President on business. She -wanted to plead for her husband, who had been arbitrarily thrown out of -a good office at the instance of a very contemptible cur named Hull, who -happened to be a Congressman, and chairman of the House Committee on -Military Affairs. - -A swell-head White House official named Barnes, told the lady that the -President was engaged and could not see her. - -She remarked that she would wait until the President was disengaged—that -she meant to stay until she _did_ see him. - -In other words, she placed herself in the position of “the importunate -widow.” She was desperately in earnest; her husband had been foully -wronged; it was a matter of vital importance to her; and her wifely heart -made her brave the rebuff of asinine Barnes. - -Mr. Roosevelt had recently returned to the White House from a “progress” -through the Southern provinces, during which progress he had exhibited -himself to his admiring constituents as the most affable, approachable, -genial and generous of men. What was more natural than for Mrs. Morris to -think that a little persistence on her part would bring the gallant Teddy -to the front, beaming with that glorified grin and extending that cordial -hand which had so recently enraptured the people of the South? - -Stage-play, however, is one thing and “business” is another. Teddy is -a genial democrat when playing to the grand-stand, and a bumptious -autocrat in some of his White House moods. - -To cut the long story short, the lady was ordered out of the White House, -and when she kept her seat she was seized upon by three white men and one -negro and forcibly dragged out. Her silk dress was torn, her ornaments -scattered, her flesh bruised. The white men pulled her by the arms and -shoulders, the negro held her by the legs; she was dragged through the -mud to a cab, thrown into it like a common criminal and driven off to a -criminal’s resort, the House of Detention. - -A more shocking outrage has never been committed at the White House. It -was indecent, it was brutal, it was despotic, it was violative of all -democratic usage and of every human consideration. The poor lady was so -terribly frightened, so rudely handled, subjected to such a public and -unprovoked humiliation that she was thrown into a fever and confined to -her bed for many days. - -No—I have already stated that it was not _your_ sister, or _your_ mother -or _your_ wife whose legs were held by Roosevelt’s nigger while his three -white ruffians dragged her, screaming, through the mud, and flung her, -bruised and frantic, into a cab to be driven off as criminals are driven. - -_But it might have been._ - -And when you consider the incident from that point of view you will -admire the courage with which Senator Ben Tillman denounced the outrage, -while you regard with utter scorn the cowardly attitude of the great -majority in both branches of Congress who were afraid to say what they -thought. - -Mr. Roosevelt was not originally responsible for the outrage, but -he chose to become so by his refusal to express any regrets at the -occurrence, and by his failure to rebuke the brutes who were guilty of -such needless violence to a respectable visitor at a public office which -belonged as much to her as to anybody else on this earth. - -[Illustration: _Maximum and Minimum Benefits, at Least_ - - _There is talk of congress adopting the maximum and minimum - tariff plan. Haven’t we something of that sort in force now._ - - _Bart., in Minneapolis Journal_] - -[Illustration: _The Builder of the City_ - - _Tom L. Johnson_—“_That, sir, is the root of all municipal - mischief, and it must be dug out clean!_” - - _Bengough, in The Public_] - -[Illustration: “EVERYBODY WORKS FOR RYAN” - - _F. Opper, in N. Y. American_] - - - - -[Illustration: Lookin’ T’wards Home - -BY HELEN FRANCES HUNTINGTON] - - -“No, we ain’t a’needin’ any more hands right now,” said Polly Ann in a -brisk, business-like voice that discouraged prolixity on the part of the -loitering applicant whom Polly knew to be unreliable from a working point -of view, for he bore all the outward marks of shiftlessness which her -eyes had been trained to discern at one comprehensive glance. - -“I reckon I’d as well wait an’ see the boss,” was the hopeful answer. - -“It won’t do no good to wait, ’cause he ain’t got no work for you,” Polly -reiterated with dry patience. “’Sides, the boss is too busy to waste any -time outside o’ business.” - -“Oh, well, then I’ll call again,” the applicant observed amiably. He -shuffled out, hands in pockets, and Polly Ann eased back in her chair -behind the railed-in desk that overlooked the long rows of pallid, -expressionless faces bowed over the spindles that whirred monotonously -through the dull roar of machinery. Polly was used to the noise; its -absence, during the brief Sunday rests, made her nerves ache dimly as -if their rightful functions had been forcibly suspended, for she had -grown up within the mills. Her mother had been first to succumb to the -insidious fever which sooner or later fastens upon the unsound, poorly -nourished slaves of the great White Despot known to the world as the -Southern Cotton Mill industry. Polly’s young sister had followed their -mother to her quiet rest within a year, after which the overburdened, -inadequate father “aimed” to return to the upland, clayey farm which he -had so hopefully abandoned two years before; but before he could save -enough money to cover his debts he added to his burdens by marrying a -factory widow with four pallid, old-young children. Polly lived with -them until they moved to Atlanta in hopes of financial betterment, then -she assumed the brunt of home-making for her two undisciplined brothers. -Meanwhile, her industry had increased as her thin, deft fingers became -more and more proficient. Her interest in her fellow-slaves broadened -into a mute, protective supervision which the keen-witted boss recognized -and rewarded by placing her in a position of trust which, humble though -it was, relieved her of the bitter grind of mill labor. - -Spring was in the air. It looked in at the dim windows and drifted -through the open doors where the sunlight drenched the worn, splintered -floor with fine gold. Polly recognized something familiar—the sweet, -far-reaching scent of wild azaleas that grew thick and tall along the -distant Chattahoochee hill; she closed her eyes and let her fancy drift -back to the green pastures and still waters of the old haunts of her -heart’s desire, until her revery was shattered by a human appeal. - -It was a sunny young voice that recalled Polly to tangible things, and -it belonged to a very young girl of the “cracker” type, with a face -of spring-like innocence, who introduced herself as “Mis’ Lomux, from -Lumpkin,” with a smile of such irresistible sweetness that Polly’s thin, -sallow face lighted with answering pleasure. - -“You-all’s got a job fer me this time, ain’t you?” the stranger asked -anxiously. “I was here last Chuesday, an’ the boss said he ’lowed he’d -have a place fer me by today. I aimed to git here right soon this mornin’ -so’s to start work on time, but the chillun give out in spite of all I -could do, an’ I was jest obleeged to stop along with ’em at a house -where the folks promised to keep ’em till they got rested.” - -“The boss is right busy now,” said Polly in very kind voice. “I don’t -much believe he needs any more hands, ’cause he tuk in a new batch -Saturday, but you can wait an’ see what he says. Set down an’ rest -yourself till he comes along.” - -“He surely will give me _somethin’_ to do,” Mis’ Lomux said hopefully, -“’cause he done promised he would.” - -“Well, mebbe he will, then. Did you ever work in a mill afore?” - -“No’m, but I can learn real fast. They say ’tain’t hard.” - -“No, ’tain’t to say hard, but it’s turrible wearin’,” Polly answered. -“You don’t look real stout, nuther.” - -“That’s one reason why I come,” Mis’ Lomux admitted frankly, “though I’m -stout a’ plenty to putter all day without restin’ any bit. Last fall I -was tuk with a spell o’ fever an’ sence then I jest ain’t been able to do -like I uster. Plowin’ an’ sech-like beats me plum out in no time. I tried -my best to take Tobe’s place after he left, but I jest couldn’t make out -no way.” - -“Who’s Tobe?” Polly interrupted with deepening interest. “Your brother?” - -“No’m, he’s my husband.” - -“Your husband!” Polly echoed surprisedly. “You look dreadful young to be -married. How long _have_ you been married?” - -“Be ten weeks on Sunday,” the bride replied unenthusiastically. - -“An’ he’s left you a’ready!” - -“Yes’m.” Mis’ Lomux nodded her blond head solemnly. “He done broke his -promise an’—an’ I don’t aim to live with him no more, ever.” - -Polly Ann searched the flower-like face with something akin to pity. “You -ain’t a’ carin,’ are you?” she asked in a whisper. - -Mis’ Lomux’s denial was emphatic, but unconvincing. “I ’lowed all -husbands was like pa,” she admitted sadly, “an’ that’s why I married Tobe -so quick after he axed me. You see when pa died that throwed me an’ the -chillun onto the county, with me not able to do fer ’em like I would -a’ been if I hadn’t had the fever. What to do I didn’t know ’cause the -chillun couldn’t work by their selves to do any good. When Tobe Lomux -sent me word that he’d tak the hull lot of us if I’d have him, I was -glad enough to marry him on that account, no matter what come. Not that -I got ary thing agin Tobe—no one ain’t fer that matter,” she interrupted -herself to say extenuatingly, “for he’s a real steady, honest person. -Tobe’s high-tempered, though. Fust thing I knowed his folks come meddlin’ -round talkin’ about him havin’ to do fer a’ passel o’ lazy chilluns an’ -sech-like an’ it warn’t no time fore Tobe had put the chilluns to work -like a gang o’ niggers. Me! Why, I jest couldn’t stand that not fer a -minit! I up an’ told Tobe to hire his own niggers or quit us, ’cause -them pore chillun warn’t goin’ to be nobody’s slaves. An’ he went”; she -finished, growing very white and cold. - -“He warn’t much or he wouldn’t a’ acted that way,” was Polly’s stern -verdict. - -The bride winced. “I aim to show ’im we can git on without him an’ his -uppidy folks,” she retorted, with a flame of delicate color. “That’s why -I come here, jest to make a livin’ fer us all till I can stouten up agin -crap-making time next spring. By that time the two little boys’ll be big -enough to help with the plowin’. Boys grows a heap in a year.” - -“Did you say you brung the chillun along with you?” Polly wanted to know. - -“Yes’m, we all set out together yesterday mornin’. Tain’t to say so -dreadful fur—jest eighteen miles—but they ain’t used to travelin’ steady, -an’ they give plum out early this mornin’, so I left ’em along with some -folks while I come on ahead to git work.” - -Polly Ann’s interest was of a keenly personal order, which admitted of -vast concessions in favor of the second applicant for the already crowded -ranks of mill laborers. She had turned the first comer away almost at -sight, but Mis’ Lomux was different—her plaintive needs appealed to -Polly Ann’s warm, starved little heart in a fashion quite unknown to her -since her mother and sister had passed beyond her faithful care. - -“Where’s your things?” Polly asked after a museful pause. - -“We’re totin’ all we’ve got,” Mis’ Lomux answered frankly. “Pa didn’t -have much of anythin’ when he died an’ I sold what little there was to -git the chillun fit close to come down here in.” - -Polly rose and stepped from the little platform with an air of decision. -“You set there while I go hunt the boss,” said she. - -So Mis’ Lomux waited hopefully until Polly returned from the fore part of -the great building to say that there would be a vacancy in the spindle -department the very next day. “You’d better fetch the chillun right -along,” Polly advised, “’cause you’ll have to be ready to go to work at -seven o’clock tomorrow mornin’. There’s a’ empty shack at the end of -Factory Row that you can rent real cheap. I’ll see about rentin’ it while -you’re gone.” - -Polly saw them pass the mills late that afternoon, a dusty, tired band of -wayfarers, each carrying small, queer-shaped bundles which contained the -sum of their meager possessions, and felt herself glow with satisfaction -as she thought of what she had contrived to put into the rough little -shack, in the way of household furnishings. She went over after work -hours to assist with the setting to rights. - -By the end of the first week Mis’ Lomux and the two little boys, who were -to help with the next year’s crop, had obtained steady employment in the -mills. Their bright faces gleamed out among the listless, pallid, faded -faces of the “old hands,” with primrose freshness that attracted Polly -Ann’s eyes many, many times during the long noisy day; but soon their -morning glow waned and the difference grew less and less marked except -for Mis’ Lomux’s illuminating smile which never dimmed or wavered, early -or late, while the little loved faces turned towards hers. The delicately -rounded girlish figure grew thin, and Mis’ Lomux drooped more and more -just as Polly’s mother and sister had drooped before doom overtook them, -yet never a word escaped her patient lips. There was, indeed, no time -for self-pity, for all her thoughts were centered upon the children whom -she sheltered from every harsh word and look with a maternal zeal that -never failed of its loving purpose, in spite of the children’s wilfulness -apparent to every one but Mary Lomux. Polly realized shrewdly how it had -been with Tobe, whose judgment had lacked the softening influence of -love, for although the children were of naturally lovable disposition, -Mary had undeniably spoiled them from a man’s view-point. - -Every Sunday morning Mis’ Lomux piloted her little flock away to the -hills which seemed to beckon her far beyond the noise and smoke and -grime of Factory Row to the place of her heart’s desire. Polly Ann often -accompanied her friend because the occasion afforded opportunity to add -to the meager lunches in a manner that lapped over several succeeding -meals. On such occasions the girls talked continually of the tranquil, -humble joys of home, while the children lay in the grass, too tired to -play or chatter. Mary comforted their weariness with a promise of a -speedy reprieve. - -“We’re goin’ home in the spring, sure,” she would say with illuminating -smiles, “an’ when you’ve been there a day or two you’ll plum fergit about -ever feelin’ puny or tired. Jest keep lookin’ t’wards home.” - -But the event seemed to recede. Summer’s golden glory paled before -autumn’s riper loveliness, and the air grew pungent with harvest -fragrance that made Mis’ Lomux’s heart sick with longing. Polly noticed -that her friend was losing ground daily, but there was no help for her at -the mills, and Mary would not hear of returning to the fallow farm before -the growing season began. - -“I jest couldn’t bear to let the chilluns go to the poor farm,” she said -yearningly. “Folks’d always have that to throw up to ’em when they growed -up. An’ there’s them Lomuxes! They’d talk wuss’n anybody.” - -During the late autumn one of the boys met with an accident which kept -Mary from work for several days and drained her slender savings to the -last nickle. Then winter came with its chill continuous rains, when the -mills, always dull and somber, grew doubly gloomy. Doors and windows -were kept closed and the prisoned air grew more and more poisonous as -the workers exhaled it over and over. Mary protected her boys as well as -possible. She had made herself so well-liked by her fellow-workers that -no one interfered with her many little devices for the children’s comfort -and no one manifested the ill-will which is so generally exhibited -towards favorites; for it was impossible to be harsh toward the brave -little woman who fought so desperately against losing odds. Toward spring -Mis’ Lomux was obliged occasionally to take a day off on account of -blinding headaches. - -“’Tain’t nothin’ at all,” she invariably protested, in answer to Polly’s -anxious questions. “Folks that’s had the fever ginerally feel this way -every year about the same time. When the weather gits warmer I’ll be -stout as ever.” - -But Polly knew better. She had seen that look of deadly weariness too -often to be deceived. - -“Ain’t you never heard from Tobe?” Polly asked one evening when she sat -on the steps of Mary’s shack watching her friend’s strenuous attempts to -hold herself erect while she patched a pair of faded little trousers. - -Mary bowed her head very low as she answered, “No.” - -“Where’s he at?” - -“In Atlanta, workin’ in the engine shops, an’ doin’ well; his maw told -Billy Sanders a while back.” - -“An’ he knows you’re down here slavin’ like a nigger for all them -chillun?” - -“I reckon he does, ’cause his maw writes to him.” - -“Then all I’ve got to say is that he must be a turrible no-count feller -to let his wife—” - -“’Tain’t his fault,” Mary flung back, lifting her deathly pale face for -a moment. “It’s them Lomuxes that made all the trouble to start with. If -his maw hadn’t found fault with the chillun he never would a’ done what -he did.” - -“If you knowed that, what made you send him off?” Polly wanted to know. - -“I jest couldn’t stand the thought of Tom bein’ teched by nobody. None -of them chillun ever had a hand laid onto ’em afore, an’ I couldn’t bear -that they should—ever!” - -“Well, ’tain’t none of my business, of course,” said Polly drily, “but I -_will_ say that if Tobe was half a man even, he’d do his part now that -you need him so bad.” - -“He couldn’t—not after what I said,” Mary protested mournfully. “I -told him never to come back no more till Kingdom-come, an’ he said he -wouldn’t—not if I begged him on my dyin’ bed!” - -“My land, what a mean sperited feller he must be!” Polly exclaimed -contemptuously. “I wonder the Lord didn’t punish him for sech talk. In my -opinion, Mary, you’re a heap better off without him than you’d be with -him.” - -Mary’s head drooped very low over her work, but in spite of that Polly -saw the tears that fell on the little patched garments. There was a long -silence during which Polly hated Tobe Lomux as heartily as she pitied -Mary. Then she delivered herself of a bit of advice that had burned -within her heart for weeks. “If I was you, Mary, I’d give up an’ let the -county take care of me—jest for a little spell. You ain’t able to work -another day, an’ to tell you the truth I don’t believe you’ll be let work -much longer, ’cause the boss has noticed how bad you look. I’ll git the -circuit-rider to speak a good word for you at the poor farm so’s they’ll -give you a little shack off to yourself.” - -“Oh Polly, I couldn’t go—I couldn’t!” Mary cried chokingly. “For myself -it wouldn’t matter _what_ come, but the chillun—they would always be -looked down on fer livin’ at a poor farm.” - -“What’s to become of ’em if anything bad was to happen to you, I’d like -to know?” asked practical Polly. “You’ve done for ’em an’ humored ’em -till they’re sorter spoiled. They couldn’t git along with strangers. The -poor farm’s the only thing, Mary. I don’t doubt but that you’ll be stout -enough by next spring to go back to the farm an’ make a crop, but you -won’t if you stay here.” - -“I’ll rest up a bit,” said Mary dejectedly. “We can git along on what the -boys makes for a few days an’ by that time I’ll be stout enough to go -back to work.” - -But in that surmise Mary was mistaken. On the fourth day when she resumed -her place at the reels, outraged nature succumbed completely to the long -strain, and she dropped in a dead faint among her whirling spools. That -happened the day before Polly was to go on a long advertised excursion -to Atlanta, and, although Mary was quite ill on the eventful morning, -Polly did not offer to stay with her friend but hurried through her -gala preparations in great excitement. She looked thinner and paler and -smaller than ever in her unaccustomed finery. - -“I’ll fetch you a little somethin’ from Atlanta, if I git time to go to -the stores,” Polly promised, while she waited on Mary’s porch for the -hack to gather up its fluttering load along Factory Row. - -Polly left the crowded train at Atlanta and hurried off in search of the -engine shops. She had little difficulty in locating Tobe Lomux, whose -industry had made him quite a favorite there. He was a sturdy, well-built -young fellow with a good, honest face and a firm undimpled chin that -bespoke a will of iron. He looked at little frail, anxious Polly as if -she were something too insignificant for serious notice. - -“I’m a friend of Mary Lomux’s,” Polly began with a furiously beating -heart, for her hopes had dwindled discouragingly during her long, worried -ride, “an’ I’ve come to find out if you aim to leave her die without -doin’ a thing to prevent it.” - -“Mary—die!” Tobe’s head went back with a wrench that sent the blood -bounding to his face. “What’s that about Mary?” he asked gruffly. - -“Don’t you know that she’s killin’ herself at the cotton mills down at -Gainesville, workin’ for them chillun? Ain’t nobody wrote an’ told you -that, Tobe Lomux?” - -Tobe ignored the question. “Did Mary send you to me?” he asked in a voice -that Polly misinterpreted. - -“No, she didn’t. She’s got too much grit for that even if she is too sick -to hold up her head. I didn’t have much hopes of gittin’ any satisfaction -from you, judgin’ by the way you’ve acted, but I thought I’d try jest -onct. What I want to know, Tobe Lomux, is if you’re goin’ to let her -die—or not?” - -“Me! Why, good Lord, what can I do? If Mary wanted me I’d—I’d—Well, she -don’t, that’s all.” - -“Mary didn’t send for you,” Polly broke in eagerly, “but if you’re -any sort of a man you’ll drop that spike an’ take the fust train to -Gainesville. That’s what you’d do, if——” - -The tool dropped from Tobe’s grimy hand, and his head and shoulders went -back defiantly. “I’m goin’ right back along with you,” he said, jerking -off his leather apron and shaking down his sleeves. “Wait till I draw my -pay. We can talk on the train.” - -Polly remembered that homeward ride to her dying day, for it was the -first time in her defrauded life that she had been brought face to face -with a great passion whose very crudeness added to its strength. Tobe had -held himself with grim, fearful ardor to his labor, while his stubborn -aching heart yearned for one word of reconciliation from Mary. His -mother had written strange, slighting things relating to the blighting -factory life that Tobe abhorred, and he had waited and Mary had suffered -in silence. Before the train reached Gainesville Tobe’s busy brain had -evolved a plan which he confided to Polly while they stood on the station -platform waiting for the country stage which was to take Tobe up to -Lumpkin that very afternoon. - -“I’ll be down by noon tomorrer, sure,” was his parting promise. - -Polly paid a brief visit to Mary’s shack when she reached Factory Row, -fearing to stay long lest her secret should escape her eager lips. She -was tired, she explained so tersely that the sick girl felt hurt and -neglected. The following day Polly appeared at sunrise. - -“I don’t aim to work today,” she announced, “so I may as well set with -you, Mary. You jest lemme fix you up on the porch where you can git the -air while I red up the house a bit.” - -Mary was too listless to object, so she dragged herself out to the narrow -porch where the warm spring sunshine drenched the rough boards with a -golden flood, upon which the blossomed torches of the cypress vine made -small, dancing shadows. - -“Ain’t it a turrible pretty day!” Polly exclaimed glowingly. “Makes me -think of way up in Lumpkin, don’t it you?” - -“I jest can’t bear to think of it at all!” Mary wailed, with a yearning -glance toward the far, golden hills. - -“I’ll bet the honeysuckles is jest thick all over them river hills by -now. Don’t you rec’lect how blue the bottoms looked along about this time -when the dog vi’lets is out full?” - -“It’s time to lay off the cotton fields,” Mary murmured. “Polly, if -anything should happen to me, you’ll see that the chillun keeps together -at the poor farm, won’t you?” - -“Shucks, you’re goin’ to get well—that’s what’s goin’ to happen to you, -Mary Lomux. Now lie still and rest while I straighten up the house.” - -Mary lay quite still for a long, long while, looking toward home with -a great wistfulness in her weary eyes and a dark fear in her heart. By -and by a wagon turned across the bare, sun-baked flat that separated -Mary’s shack from the factory grounds and stopped at the head of -Factory Row. It was spotlessly new, even to the snowy bow-sheet, and -the household furnishings visible through the shirred opening were new, -also. Mary saw the driver spring down lightly and throw the reins over -a broken gatepost. Then Tobe stumbled up the steps, dully ashamed of -his unconquerable emotion, for he came of a race who count it unmanly -to betray any outward sign of feeling. But it was impossible for him to -speak calmly. - -“I didn’t have no idee you was sick, Mary,” said he shakingly. “I’m real -glad Polly come an’ told me about it. I thought I’d drop in an’ see how -you’s comin’ on, jest to be neighborly,” he added in a voice that seemed -to come from a great distance. - -Mary struggled up with a smothered cry, but fell back weakly among the -pillows and cried instead of answering, while Polly stared helpless from -the doorway and Tobe wrestled with his heart’s desire to take the poor -little woman in his arms and comfort her in love’s own way. And while -they waited a thin little voice came from the pillows. - -“I ain’t a bit sick,” it said, “jest that flustered I can’t help but cry. -Don’t mind me—Tobe. I’m real—glad to see you.” - -“Mary,” Tobe rose from the chair into which he had dropped and stooped -over the little trembling figure until his big, firm, strong hands rested -on her shoulders. “Mary, do you reckon you could make out to go on up to -Lumpkin with me? I’d love, the best kind to raise a crop this year.” - -A cry of inarticulate joy struggled up from the pillows and after a -moment a little tear-wet, lovely radiant face looked up at Tobe. “Do you -mean—Oh, Tobe, would you take the _chillun_ too?” Mary faltered. - -“Sure thing, an’ be only too glad. Land, how I’ve missed them young -’uns!” cried Tobe, every fiber of his being aglow. - -Mary’s joy brimmed over. “Oh Polly, did you hear that!” she called in -sheer ecstacy. “I couldn’t be happier—no, not if I was in heaven.” - -The young man lifted his head and looked straight at Polly with wet, -shining eyes. “Say, you’ve got to go long with us,” he said unsteadily, -“’cause I ain’t goin’ to leave Mary do a lick of work till she gits plum -strong agin, no matter what comes. Git ready, will you, Polly?” - -“Me! My land, how pleased I’d be. Why, it’d be like gittin’ to -heaven—mighty nigh,” said Polly growing hot and cold by turns. “Now that -the boys is both goin’ down to live with pa, too. Seem like things is -turnin’ out too good to be true.” - -“Don’t it! Tobe, can we go soon?” Mary asked breathlessly. - -“Soon as you’n Polly can fix what you want to take along,” Tobe answered -eagerly. “I’ll go over an’ fetch the chillun from the factory while you -all git ready. We’d oughter git home by dark.” - -Then he rose and strode buoyantly across the sun-baked hill to the -factory door and Mary rose, too, tremblingly, but without hesitation, -while Polly held herself in readiness to support her frail figure should -her strength desert her. But there was no further need of anxiety, for -Mary had tasted the elixir of life during that brief, transfiguring hour -when love had put to rout the dreariness of hope deferred and filled her -heart with joy unspeakable. - -[Illustration] - - -Bobby Jonks; His Hand and Pen - -Man is an animal, but you can easily detect him from the rest of them -when he has his hat on. He is of few days and full of things that the -doctors cut out if they get half a chance. My Uncle Bob is a bachelor. A -bachelor is a man who smokes in bed and burns himself up every once in -a while and goes to glory a-hollerin’, while everybody else says “Oh, -pshaw!” and “Did you ever?” - -All bachelors are wise, but my Uncle Bob knows ’most everything; he -says he believes he’d be in Congress right now if it wasn’t for his -modesty—no, honesty. But, says he, there is one thing he never could -fully make up his mind about, and that is whether clam-digging is fishing -or agriculture. A hog is a quadruped; the love of money is the root of -all evil—thus we see why the motto of a rich man so often is “Root hog or -die!” A man is either a biped or a cripple, according to whether he has -messed around in a sawmill or not. The difference between a biped and a -quadruped is two legs. A three-legged stool is a tripod, and is mostly -used by country editors. A turtle is a quadruped, but he can’t climb a -tree and get off a good joke about making a noise like a nut. Neither can -some people. - -On the only three occasions in a man’s history when he cuts any -particular mustard he is called “it”—when he is a baby, a bridegroom and -a corpse. And in all three instances he is said by his admiring friends -to look real natural. Man was made to mourn, but Uncle Bob says the -dad-dogged fool always thinks he can get out of it by marrying again. A -woman may be as handsome as a circus horse but she is never satisfied -to let another woman be handsome, too. It’s different altogether with a -hog—he is perfectly contented to let everybody else be hogs if they want -to. Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? - - - - -_Assessment Insurance_ - -A HOMILY ON THE ROYAL ARCANUM - -BY MICHAEL MORONEY - - -There is no real or true life insurance but the straight old line regular -life, where the policy is payable only at death. Term life insurance, -so called, is simply banking for the benefit of the company which takes -the risk. In regular life insurance the insured has a certain expectancy -at the time of taking out the policy. Payment for the amount he is to -receive at death is spread out over his expectancy, less four per centum -interest compounded, and he pays it in annual, semi-annual, or quarterly -installments, as may be agreed upon. If he lives out his expectancy, he -will have paid in all he is to receive at death, either directly, or -by the interest carried on his premiums. Of course there is a certain -amount of loading in the premiums he pays, but for the purposes of our -illustration, that need not be considered. In this plan, the policy -holder is really insuring himself, and when he dies his beneficiary, or -estate, simply receives back the money he has paid in. The fact that -there are so many life insurance companies and that they have become so -wealthy and powerful, illustrates the power of interest, especially when -it is compounded. - -The Royal Arcanum professes to give life insurance at actual cost, which -it does not and never did. It was organized from the top down. Fifteen -persons met in Boston on June 23, 1877, and constituted themselves -the Supreme Council. Twelve of them became officers, and three were -incorporators simply. This body reserved to itself all the power of -legislation and of receiving and paying out the moneys of the order. -Provisions were made for the organization of subordinate and grand -councils of the order, but they were simply wards of the Supreme Council. -Members were received on medical examinations from 21 to 55 years of age -and paid for $3,000 insurance, one dollar at 21 years, and up to four -dollars at 55 years. The rise from year to year was from 4 to 20 cents. -The assessments were to be paid when called for, after the death of a -member. The order grew and prospered from year to year until 1898, when -the management thought it saw the necessity of increasing the rates. It -made 21 at the rate of $1.76 and 54 rate of $7.00. The rise each year was -from 6 to 44 cents. At this time the order had 195,105 members, and the -loss in membership in the order in the next six months was about 10,000. - -However the order continued to prosper until after the annual meeting of -the Supreme Council in 1905, when it adopted a new table of rates, which -began at $1.89 at 21 and rose to $16.08 at 65, but from Oct. 1, 1905, all -the members were to be assessed at attained ages, whereas before that -all had been assessed at entrance ages. In other words, on Oct. 1, 1905, -each old member was required to reënter the order as a new member, and -pay at attained ages. New members after that date were to pay at entrance -ages, but all were to pay $16.08 per month on $3,000 when they reached -65 years. At the time of the making of this new rate the order had over -300,000 members. Since then it has lost 50,000 members, and a majority -of its members are opposed to the new rates. - -There was no occasion for the new rates, as, under the laws of the order, -additional assessments could have been made, at any time, to provide -for excessive mortality, and the order could have been worked out on -additional assessments until it failed, as it is bound to do. - -An organization within the order has been formed to contest the new -rates, and this has brought a suit in the Supreme Judicial Court of -Massachusetts to have them declared invalid. The protestants claim that -when each member entered the order he made a contract to pay assessments -at age entrance, and that while the Supreme Council may call extra -assessments, as mortality may require, it cannot increase the rates, -or compel members to pay at attained ages. Also that the new rates are -unreasonable and will create a surplus of $3,700,000 every year, which -is contrary to the laws of the order and of the State of Massachusetts. -The Supreme Council claims that each member when he entered the order -surrendered all his rights to protest or object to any action of that -body and agreed in advance to approve any action which it might take in -regard to rates. - -All of the old life insurance policies of every kind and character are -based on contract, and it was supposed that the rates at entrance in a -fraternal order constituted a contract between the member and the supreme -body of the order. Many of the courts of the several states have so -held, but it was for the Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum to defy -reason and common sense and to claim that they were the autocrats of the -order. All insurance should be like a deposit in a savings bank, that can -hardly be lost. The Royal Arcanum, however, has depended upon lapses. -Thirty-five is the age usually taken for illustration in insurance. At -that age the average of lapses per 1,000 lives is 37 per cent plus. In -May, 1905, there were 305,083 members in the order. That would mean that -out of 305,083 members if all were of the age of 36, in any year, 111,000 -would lapse. The average policy in the Royal Arcanum is $2,231.67 and -out of that there would be lost by lapse, $826.70. If all the members -were 36 years of age, on the whole $680,848,000 insurance in force there -would be lost by lapse, at thirty-six years, $251,923,760 annually. Now -in honest insurance there should be no lapses or forfeitures and in the -insurance of the future there will be nothing of the kind. But on this -plan, no matter how long one has paid, or how much he has paid in, if he -stops paying, he loses all. Misfortune or accident may compel him to stop -paying, but no matter what may be the cause, he loses, and other persons -dying quickly have had the benefit of the money he has paid in. A member -who entered in 1879 at the age of 36 will have paid in on September 1, -1905, about $800, or $30.72 per year. A person insured at the sum of -$3,000 would have to live to the age of 133 to pay that sum out at the -rate for the first 26 years. But assume the insured has paid $800 to -October 1, 1905, and remains in the order. He pays $97.20 the first year -of the new rates, $103.68 the second year and $192.96 the third year -and the same sum each year thereafter. His expectancy is 12.81 years at -63. If he lives out his expectancy, he will have paid into the order, -$3,277.12, or $277.12 more than he will receive. But suppose he should -live till 85 years of age, he will by that age pay in $5,205.72, or about -$2,205.75 more than he can draw out. - -Will any man join an order of that kind where he shall forfeit all by -the failure to make a single payment? So long as he can get into a -company which will give him paid-up insurance, extended insurance, or a -cash-surrender value, he will not. - -Every man insured in a fraternal association is in the condition of -Damocles. The sword suspended over his head is likely to drop at any -time. The moment confidence is lost the whole matter dissolves like a -rope of sand, and the insurance is gone. Suppose the Royal Arcanum had -ceased to do business on June 1, 1905, $680,648,000 of its insurance -would have terminated at that time, which would have been a loss of -about $2,231.67 to each member. That is, 305,083 persons would have lost -$2,231.67 insurance each. These same persons and their predecessors had -paid in $97,004,175.82 of which $94,790,627.86 had been paid out on death -losses. Since the new rates have been published the order has lost 50,000 -members carrying $111,583,500 insurance. Of the sum paid in, $36,090,650 -has been paid in by men who have dropped out and the balance of loss is -to be paid by the survivors. Thus it is ever with assessment companies. -They must and will fail as soon as it is demonstrated that the adopted -rates will not carry any organization for a generation. The new rates of -the Royal Arcanum have simply demonstrated the utter worthlessness of -assessment companies, and the value of regular life insurance where each -policy holder contributes a fund to pay his own policy. - -The Royal Arcanum is no better than a suicide club, for it is only the -suicides and the weaklings who can have any benefit of the order. The -new rates require the members to pay greater sums in premiums than in -old line companies, and at the same time the company insists upon the -old and exploded system of forfeitures, refuses any paid up or extended -insurance, and any cash-surrender values. Who will sit down to a feast -of this character? No one but an old member who has paid in too much to -stop, and no new man will join the order. The whole scheme of the new -rates was to drive the old members out so that the order would not be -compelled to pay their death losses. The order is an autocracy. There -are twelve life members in the Supreme Council who represent no one -but themselves. Three of these are original charterers and nine are -Supreme Past Regents. There are twenty-nine officers, who as such are -members of the Supreme Council. These thirty-eight by the aid of twenty -representatives can control the Supreme Council, and there is added a -new life member every two years in a new Supreme Past Regent. No one -should be a member of the Supreme Council but some one who represents a -constituency. Yet John Haskell Butler, of 244 Washington Street, Boston, -Mass., controls the entire Supreme body. In this he is ably supported -by W. O. Robson, Supreme Secretary. How these two gentlemen of eminent -talent could be imposed on in the adoption of the new rate, which in -the case of the old member who entered at thirty-six years, compels him -to pay a surcharge of $64.18 per annum more than necessary to carry his -risk, or in his expectancy a total of $1,226.98 more than he should pay, -or 70 per centum more than his equitable share, is more than we can -understand. - -The average of the surcharge on all the old members is 67 per centum, -and is 27 per centum higher than the new members pay. Naturally, if the -membership could be held together, these new rates would create and pile -up a surplus, or excess, of $3,700,000 per year over any sum that the -laws of Massachusetts permit the society to hold, which at the present -time is about $30,000,000. - -However, the society has never attempted to create any surplus or reserve -over and above about $2,000,000, nearly equal to the proceeds of three -assessments. What kind of financing is this which at one fell stroke -burdens the members with paying sums which will produce $3,700,000 per -year after paying over all mortuary calls? Heretofore the order has -preached for twenty-eight years that the surplus remains in the pockets -of its members and shall so remain. Now it is to be created and placed in -the control of Mr. Butler and his one hundred and fourteen associates who -are souls with a single thought. And what for? What kind of actuaries did -the Supreme Council employ to make these new rates that such a result is -brought about and that the policy of twenty-eight years is reversed at a -single session, without any notice to the members? The members of the -Royal Arcanum, the men who pay the money disbursed by Mr. Butler and his -associates, have no voice in proposing any new legislation for the order, -nor in approving or rejecting any enacted by the Supreme Council. They -must pay whatever the one hundred and fifteen guardians ask of them or -get out of the order. - -The $3,700,000 surplus exacted the first year, under the new rates, -is not to be used for paid-up or extended insurance or cash-surrender -values, but is simply to be kept on hand as a reserve. The reserve, which -has heretofore been carried in the pockets of the members, is now to be -transferred to the pockets of the Supreme Council. Why are the members -of the order, who have carried their insurance at great sacrifices, to -have an additional burden placed on them? Why must this great reserve be -created unless for the same reasons it was created in the three great -companies in New York City? What is the object of creating a reserve -when there is no paid-up or extended insurance and no cash-surrender to -be made, and when assessments are required to be called for as needed -to pay death losses? Why should any assessment company have a reserve -beyond a few assessments ahead? What kind of actuaries did the Supreme -Council have to make tables to produce such results? What fit guardians -of 250,000 people are the one hundred and fifteen members of the Supreme -Council who would adopt a table of rates producing such results? The -control of the funds must have driven these one hundred and fifteen -people mad to have produced tables which will so work. Would it not have -been better to have called extra assessments from time to time under the -authority of the laws of the order and of the State of Massachusetts, -until the order was compelled to fail, than to have adopted the new -rates, which are more expensive than old-line insurance and which if -approved in the legal contest now pending will insure the failure of the -order at once? - -The only true assessment insurance is to pay the death losses as they -occur, by assessments, and which must include a fund for management and -control. When the assessments become too great the company dissolves and -that is the end of it. All those who have not died during its existence, -or who have lapsed in the same time, have lost their bets, and those who -have died have won. - -I am not able to give the number who have been members of the order since -its origin. It could not have been more than 400,000. Of this number -35,000, or one-twelfth, have died. Over 33 per cent., or 133,333, have -lapsed, and if the institution fails, as it certainly will, 367,000 have -lost every dollar they have put in, in order that 35,000, or one in -twelve, might draw prizes. - -Such institutions are contrary to public policy and should be suppressed. -Each state insurance department should require such statistics as will -show all the facts any one might wish to know. - -If I had the exact statistics, I am satisfied the proportion of those who -pay in and lose would be much higher than I gave it. - -The laws of political economy must be evolved just as we evolve those of -nature, and they are as certain when we know them, but any institution -which requires a party to live beyond his expectancy in order to pay -in the amount of his benefit certificate is a fraud. At 21 a man’s -expectancy is 45 years. Now a man at 21 who entered the order June 23, -1874, would have paid in to December 31, 1905, $404. It would take him -over 166 years to pay in the $3,000 at the same rate. As he can never do -that, his death loss must be paid by some one else, and consequently his -insurance by others is a fraud and a gambling transaction. - -As eleven persons must contribute to pay the loss of the twelve and then -lose everything themselves, the whole scheme is an imposition contrary -to the interest of society. Eleven men contribute and lose $250 each -that one man’s beneficiary may gain $3,000, and these eleven men lose -every dollar they put in. After twenty-eight years of preaching to the -public that they had found the El Dorado of Insurance, that they were -furnishing insurance at cost and that the members carried the reserve in -their pockets, Messrs. Butler, Robson & Company now come to the front and -admit that all this time their scheme has been a fake and a failure. They -say the unclean spirit departed from them in May last, but I think he -returned to them with seven others worse and they have turned the Arcanum -into a madhouse. - -I do not have the personal acquaintance of all the seven, but two of -them might be called Landis and Barnard, because the condition of the -Arcanum is worse than before. Now every member must pay in his $3,000 in -the period of his expectancy, and if he lives beyond it he must pay till -he dies. The new rates indicate that members must die before reaching 65 -years, and if they decline, then they must be fined $192.96 per annum for -their refusal to do so. - -Any man who enters the order now, in view of what he must submit to at -and after the age of 65, ought to have his sanity inquired into. It is -high time the State should intervene and protect the public from the -schemes of these fraternal orders. The fraternity is humbug, and for -every loss paid there are many more losses to society from which it -should be protected. The correct scheme of insurance has not yet been -discovered or announced, but when it is it will not be gambling or -commercialism, but will be simply indemnity—which it should have been -from the start. - - - - -[Illustration: THE PEOPLE - -BY JOHN P. SJOLANDER.] - - - It is well with the world, my masters, - It is well with the world and you, - When we move along with a smile and song, - ’Mid the tasks we are set to do. - And the song and the smile of the People - Should be ever your compass and chart. - Oh! ’tis well with you when the song rings true - That comes from the People’s heart. - - It is ill with the world, my masters, - It is ill for the world and you, - When our eyes look down, and our faces frown, - ’Mid the tasks we are set to do. - Beware of the frown of the People, - Lest their wrath and their patience part! - Oh! let not a wrong ever burden the song - That comes from the People’s heart. - - - - -[Illustration: Back To Nature—Part The Way - -BY EUGENE WOOD.] - - -About once in every so often, we, as a race, all lay back our heads, shut -our eyes, and let out the shuddering shriek: “Back to Nature!” It is so -loud and heart-felt a cry that it makes you wonder why we have to go back -at all—why we didn’t stay there. If the Get-Strong-Quick professors are -right, this thing of our wearing clothes, and dwelling in houses, and -eating dainty cooked food three times a day is sheer tom-foolishness, all -the more tom-foolish in that once we led the healthy, happy life that -inevitably results from fasting three or four days in the week, then -dining on goobers and timothy hay; wearing nothing but a nose-ring and a -dash of paint, and sleeping in the hollow trees. - -For most of us, “Back to Nature” is too long a road to travel—all -the way. Nevertheless, the cry is so loud, and so general throughout -the civilized world that we cannot dismiss it as impracticable and -meaningless. It betokens something. I think I know what, and if it didn’t -look so much like serious thinking for you and me, I’d write out what -I think it means. I’ll say this, though: If we judge the future by the -past this universal impulse to touch the naked earth once more, and so to -gather strength and vigor from it, means that the world is pregnant with -a great event, and we must be fortified for the labor-pains of it. A new -age is struggling to be born. Mark my words. - -The timid venture, on the way back to Nature, of a two-weeks’ sitting on -the front stoop of a boarding house in the mountains or at the seashore -does not satisfy us now. Bold and daring spirits have even gone to live -in the wild woods, and have come back to tell us it was bully. We all -know it is great fun to play at being boys again, but for most of us -the problem is complicated by our having wives and daughters whom we -cannot well put in cold storage during our absence. I know that under the -pressure of the need to go back to Nature some have even taken the women -with them. I—I—I don’t know about that. It doesn’t look very alluring to -me. Mind you, I don’t know a thing about living in the wilderness except -what I have read and heard, but as near as I can come to it, there seems -to be considerable packing to be done. There’s the canoe in the first -place. If I were thinking of going into the woods, I shouldn’t stir a -stump unless I had a canoe. But you take one fifteen or eighteen feet -long, and carry it about three miles through thick-set timber, and I -should say along about the last half of the third mile you’d begin to -notice it. You’d have to have some kind of a tent, and even when they’re -made of silk, I should think they would make something of a bundle. You’d -want your gun and ammunition; you’d want your fishing tackle; you’d need -a small ax; you’d have to carry a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, a deep pot, -a plate, a knife and fork and cup; you’d need at least one blanket and -a rubber sheet of some kind; you’d need to pack your bacon and your -flour, and erbswurst, and matches, and quinine, and morphine, and rags -for bandages in case—you know—and saccharine, and whisky if there are -snakes around, and—oh, yes, tobacco; don’t let me forget tobacco—and, -oh, I don’t know what all. No women’s fixings in this partial list, you -see. I don’t know. I knew a man that took his wife along with him to the -woods—but then, don’t you see, it was on their honeymoon. Oh my! It makes -all the difference in the world when you’ve been married ten or fifteen -years. Yes, I should say so. - -I once read a most fascinating series of articles by a woman who had -this delightful experience. The intention was to chirrup: “Come on, -girls! It’s perfectly elegant!” But she didn’t fool me. I could see that -whenever there was anything that was arduous, or tedious, or mussy in the -housekeeping line “the gentlemen of the party eagerly volunteered.” Yes. -M—hm. I can just see ’em. Mind you, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a -woman in the woods is a darn nuisance. No indeed. Only—Well, I tell you. -Her husband may be eager to play Injun, but I don’t believe she would be -very keen to play squaw. That is, and “tote fair.” - -There is this in favor of taking ’em along: Not every man can cook. I -know that out there in the forest, when you make camp as the shadows -lengthen after a long day’s tramp, when every muscle aches, but aches -with glad fatigue; after a day in which your lungs have drunk in the pure -air thinly fragrant with the vague odors that the glazed leaves distill, -as it were offering incense to the god of day; when you have quenched -your thirst from a spring in the bottom of whose earthen bowl the sands -are reeling and staggering in the delirium of glee; when you have -hearkened to the wild beauty of some unknown bird-call echoing through -the lofty Gothic aisles; when the western sky flames into undreamed-of -glories and then fades away until the lonely stars come out, I know they -say that you can choke down any old mess and relish it. Maybe so. I am as -good a hand at eating pancakes as anybody else, but I don’t know about -them for every meal and every day; bacon is my favorite vegetable, but -there comes a time; fish once a week is all I care for. No. It doesn’t -seem alluring to me. - -They tell me hemlock boughs make a fine mattress. Yes? I know where I can -get better for less money. They tell me that sleeping on the ground with -the high sky for a ceiling is simply great. If it comes to that, I have -slept on the ground, and the morning after I knew exactly where my hips -and shoulders were. I don’t mind granddaddy long-legs tracking over my -face. They’re kind of interesting. But I have never been able to put away -the thought that if it should turn chilly in the night, and some snake -should come and crawl in bed with me, and smuggle his cool slimy body -down my back, it would probably break my rest. I shouldn’t fancy it, I’m -positive. - -I tell you. I compromised the matter thus last summer. I got back to -Nature—part the way. Not so far though as to get out of touch with the -milkman. I had things cooked to suit me; I slept high and dry upon a -Christian bed, and yet I wasn’t indoors a minute of the time the whole -enduring summer. And I’m never going to be another summer under a wooden -roof if I know how to help it. I’ll tell you about it if you like. - -There were five of us that wanted to live in the outdoor air for -twenty-four hours out of every twenty-four. There was the Honest Man who -went to gainful business every day; there was the Lazy Man who didn’t do -one tap the summer long, though often besought to do so, who now takes -his pen in hand to drop you these few lines; there was the Honest Man’s -wife; and there were the Lazy Man’s Wife, and his growing Daughter. - -The Honest Man already had in stock a 12 × 14 tent, and a small A-tent. -The Lazy Man bought a 10 × 12 tent for himself and wife, and the next -size smaller for his daughter. Each family brought bed-clothing and -personal apparel. (It was a first-rate opportunity to wear out old -clothes.) The communal property, dishes, oil-stove, egg-beaters, and all -such were paid for half-and-half. It stood the Lazy Man for outfit just -$49.27 all told, and the outfit is now down cellar waiting impatiently -for summer to come again, when it will be as good as new and won’t cost -anything. - -The summer previous, the Honest Man had gone exploring and found a spot -on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie within an hour’s ride on the steamer -from his business. A whopping big maple tree, thick and umbrageous, stood -a hundred feet or so back from the water’s edge, on a sand slope carpeted -with wild grape vines. The beach was of fine white sand, without a pebble -bigger than a moth-ball, and it slanted so slowly into the water that -breast-deep was fully a hundred yards from shore. This made it rather -poky for the men-folks when they went in swimming, but it was ideal for -the women, to whom a foot of depth is drowning depth. The lake being soft -water, nobody can adequately express the joy the women had in washing -their hair. This favored spot was a shade more than a mile away from the -steamboat pier at which, six or eight times a day, excursion steamers -unloaded revelers who sought the pallid ecstasy of a non-alcoholic -pleasure resort. (It was Canada, remember, and while you might go in -swimming on the Lord’s day, you could not ride upon the giddy-go-round. -A district attorney from the smoky city on the American side presumed to -fish on Sunday, and got sassy to the constable who said he shouldn’t. -Thereupon they snaked him off to a neighboring village to the hardware -store where the ’Squire kept court and fined him $20 and the costs.) We -were far enough away on the long board walk to miss the transients, and -by looking carefully through the trees you could just see one house from -our place, the castle of our landlord. I am aware that it’s nice to be -exclusive, and get away from common folks, but it’s so blamed expensive. -Even millionaires when they want to make sure of getting any place have -to travel with the cheap crowd. You can think that over. You will find -it’s so, although I haven’t time to work it out in detail. - -The Honest Man having lived on this spot the summer before, the floors -were laid of boughten lumber, and the frames were up. Also, the private -walks, made of such bits of board as the Good Lord had pleased to -send upon the rolling waves, nailed upon saplings from the wood back -of the camp, were still in place, so that there wasn’t much to do, a -circumstance that grieved the Honest Man no little. He liked to be busy. -The Lazy Man was patient under this affliction. He did help when there -were things to do. He got the nails and handed the hatchet, and generally -fetched and carried, knowing full well what are the drawbacks incident -to being a heaven-gifted literary genius, such as not being of the least -account about a place. - -Among the triumphs of the Honest Man’s saw and hammer were the tables, -prime among them being the dining-table under the same maple tree, -whereon we ate our every meal from July 2 until September 3. It is -fitting that in this public manner I should return thanks for our kind -and considerate treatment by the weather. I can cheerfully recommend -it to all and sundry. It rained at times, I won’t deny. It had to. I -can see that. But I must say it was most forbearing in the matter, and -rained only out of meal hours. Once or twice it was plain to see that it -strained a point in our behalf, for example, that time we had to have our -Sunday ice-cream in our tents, and the two or three occasions when the -breakfast dishes were practically storm-washed. - -This dining-table, the serving-table, the table in the cook-tent, and -the china-closet—Oh my yes! We had a china-closet. It was made out of -a packing box, had shelves in it, and four plank legs—these articles -of furniture were covered with marbled oil-cloth, and the door of the -china-closet was of the same rich material, being secured with loops and -nails. The cook-tent reared its lofty A on a frame with a waist-high -board-wall, lined with shelves. It was so studded with nails that for -once in their lives the women were speechless of complaint that there -weren’t places enough to bestow the junk without which, so it seems, life -in the kitchen is insupportable. - -Hard by the china-closet was the refrigerator, in whose construction, let -me say, the Lazy Man bore his part. He dug the hole in the sand in which -was sunk a barrel with a perforated bottom through which the melting ice -drained off. The women professed they lay awake nights listening for the -things piled upon the ice to topple over into smash. They had to worry -about something. There wasn’t a thing else for them to do but cook, and -make the beds and wash the dishes. - -I suppose that cooking by a camp-fire is the extreme of picturesqueness. -It is also mighty hard upon the back, to say nothing of its blinding you -with smoke, and frying the grease out of your face, even after you have -learned that it isn’t really necessary to have a conflagration big enough -to melt the nose off the coffee-pot, but that a cupful of live coals and -a tiny bunch of twigs will do the trick. You have to stand over such a -fire to keep it going, and when it rains it is the deuce and all. So we -had a blue-flame oil-stove with an oven, and had everything cooked in the -highest style known to the art, just as it was before we started on our -way back to Nature. There was just one thing the women missed. Endless -hot water laid on. Their heaviest burden was to remember “the dying -woman’s advice.” Don’t you know what that is? “Sally,” she whispered with -her latest breath, “always put on the dish-water before you sit down to -your victuals.” - -But if the Lazy Man could not bring his mind to penning deathless -Literatoor, he could at least tote water from the lake, so it wasn’t so -bad after all. - -The need of cooking was great indeed. In no spirit of carping criticism I -desire to say that I have seen the Honest Man, many and many’s the time, -wolf down six big potatoes at a meal and other things accordingly. We -others did our feeble best, but we never quite compassed that. I did eat -six ears of green corn once, but you must remember that they were right -off the vines, as you might say, and you know how good green corn is when -it’s fresh. - -This was no lonesome wilderness wherein we had to scuffle for our food. -The milkman came right after breakfast with the morning’s milk. The -morning’s milk remember, not the night before’s. Then came the iceman. I -want to tell you about him. I had seen him pushing the lawn-mower on a -green velvet lawn before a mansion up the beach a ways. I thought he was -turning an honest penny taking care of it for some one else. Bless your -heart, he lived there. He had a fine big farm behind it, but it was all -seeded down in grass, because the harvest of ice from the lake before him -in the winter brought him more money for less work than the rich loam -behind him could raise in summer crops. Then came the grocer from the -village back in the country. He always brought us kerosene, sometimes he -brought us groceries, and all too seldom he brought us the flat loaves -of the Italian baker in the village, flat and crusty loaves, which the -grocer scornfully called “dog-bread.” There was “the bearded lady” -that brought us home-made bread just once—just once. Evidently she had -confused the relative proportions of the yeast and flour. Then came the -old man with the broken hand, talk about which shortened the day for him -and us; also, his wife, a dear old soul, who sold us from time to time -bouquets picked from her garden, old-fashioned flowers made up so round -and hard that if a man were clouted on the head with a nosegay you’d have -to take him to the hospital. There was “the bonnet lady,” a sweet-faced -Dunkard in the habit of her faith. There were several whom we came to -know right well, and after they began to suspect that, like as not, we -weren’t as crazy as we seemed, living in tents—Did you ever hear the beat -of that?—they showed they were just folks, same as anybody else. But -the one I liked the best was the man that came on Saturdays to fetch us -eggs and butter. I aroused his interest by telling him that where I came -from they sold eggs by quarter’s worth; so many for a quarter, more when -eggs were cheap, fewer when eggs were dear. Well sir, he like to never -got over that. It was like the returned missionary, telling how the poor -heathens live in China. He was a very conscientious man. “I’m sorry,” he -would say, “but I’ve got to charge you 21 cents for them there eggs. They -ain’t worth it. No eggs is worth that much, no time o’year. They ortn’t -to be more’n 18 cents at any time. But the others is sellin’ ’em for 21, -and I s’pose I got to, too.” - -One and all, as soon as ever they could in decency get round to it, had -this one question to ask: “What do you do when it rains?” They’d ask it -with such a now-I-got-you look that it was funny to see how set-back they -were when we made answer: “We do the same as you, we go in out of it.” -But on the rebound you could notice the doubt forming itself in their -minds as to whether we knew enough to do that. I’m sure they drove away -thinking we were kind of be-addled in our intellects. I’ll have to own -up to having asked: “What do you do when it rains?” in the beginning; -and also, “What do you do when it blows?” But now I am convinced that a -canvas tent well staked is equal to any weather, and I believe that if it -had a red-hot stove in it, a body might be right cozy in a tent even in -zero weather. I am going to preserve that conviction unshaken by never -putting it to the test. - -I said that the grocer from the village inland stopped. You notice that -I didn’t say the butcher. He wouldn’t. You might go out and “holler” at -him: “Hay! Hay there! Hay you! I want to talk to you. Hold on a second.” -He never let on he heard you. I didn’t have a revolver, or I should have -held him up. I did corner him once down at the Grove, and he explained -to me he really could not be bothered with our money for his meat. He and -his two men had all they could attend to now, what with their regular -trade and the two hotels and the boardinghouses down along the beach. -If he sold to private customers, he’d have to hire more help. When I -suggested that he do that very thing and make more money, he smiled at me -as one smiles at the foolish prattle of a child. Nup. He was awful sorry -he couldn’t accommodate me, but—. And that ended it. - -So for awhile, whenever we paddled down to the Grove in the canoe for the -mail we stopped at the meat-shop. The Grove was where the giddy-go-round -was; the razzle-dazzle air-ship, the whistle of whose tiny engine -squealed like a frightened pig; the cake-and-coffee shop, the “red-hot” -stand; the high-class “vawdvill,” admission ten cents, children five; the -dancing floor, patronized by youth and beauty in duck jumpers and sleeves -rolled high on red and peeling arms, ragged with strips of tissue-paper -hide, each mouth distorted with an “all-day sucker” whose pine stem -appetizingly protruded; the combination barber-shop and post-office where -they were all out of two-cent stamps for weeks together, and “Joe’s.” -I’ll get round to “Joe’s” in a minute if you’ll just be patient, but now -I must tell you about the meat-shop. He was a fine fellow, the first -butcher, much sought after when he had got into people’s confidence. -There was the landlord that rented him the shop; there was the landlady -where he roomed and boarded; there was the man he bought his meat of; -there was the man he bought his twine and paper of; the man he borrowed -$20 of and the man he borrowed $5 of—all seeking him and not finding him. -He was—and then he was not. It was one of those mysterious disappearances -you read about. - -After he went away, we summer folks ungratefully conspired to ruin the -land that sheltered us. You know there is no quicker and surer way to -do that to a country than by shipping valuables into it. The more iron -and steel and wool and chinaware and diamonds—all kinds of things you -pay money for—the more of them are brought into a country, the poorer it -gets. If it were possible to cover the ground knee-deep with all that -heart could wish but brought from another country, the inhabitants would -have to give right up, and everything would go to smash. Conversely a -country which imports nothing is always immensely rich and prosperous. -You know how that is in private life. The man that raises everything he -eats; that does his own butchering, makes his own shoes, whose wife spins -all the flax and wool the family needs—such a man is always well-to-do; -he’s independent. While those who have to buy everything are always poor -and forlorn. We all know this, but such is the depravity of the human -heart, we want to buy things without asking whether they are made in -our country or not. If it wasn’t for our wicked hearts prompting us to -want things, we could easily keep out the foreign goods. So as to sort -of even up the injury we do our country, it is arranged that whenever -we thus sinfully buy foreign wares we pay a fine for it. The fine for -ruining Canada by bringing in fresh meat to eat is six cents a pound. Now -I want to tell you that when we had no butcher and the village butcher -wouldn’t stop for us, there were people so selfish that they not only -ruined Canada by bringing over fresh meat, but they smuggled it! Yes sir! -Smuggled it. And King Edward needing the money so badly, with all the -expense he is under. - -The United States is just as up and coming, though, as Canada. Every bit. -We don’t propose that our fair land shall be devastated by a flood of -cheap Canadian mutton (it is most mighty good mutton; I’ll say that for -it), so there is a fine on anybody that brings it over. The Beef Trust -has expensive families to send to college too. - -In response to popular demand, the baker consented to run the -butcher-shop. If you found the place locked up, you stamped on the stoop -and yelled awhile. He would come out, rolling the dough off his fingers -and cut you off some meat. Sometimes, though you’d have to wait until he -got those pies out. - -He was as good-hearted a man as ever lived, but he caused me many a -sleepless night. I’ll tell you how it was. One day I didn’t go for the -meat. The Honest Man’s Wife went. She got a roast, five pounds and a -quarter it was, at 18 cents a pound. The man figured on the cost. He put -it down 70 cents, but that didn’t look quite right to him, so he set down -a figure 1. - -“Dollar seventy,” he said. - -Now the Honest Man’s Wife had taught school, and was right good at -ciphering. - -“Would you mind,” she asked as innocent as a cat lapping milk, “would you -mind figuring that out for me?” - -“Sure thing, lady,” said the baker-butcher. “Five pounds and a quarter. -There’s your 5¼, at 18 cents. There’s your 18. Five tums 8 is 40. Put -down the aught and carry 4. Five tums one is 5, and 4 is—is—er—er—Five -times 8 is 40. Put down the aught and carry—Hold on. I guess I made a -mistake. Call it 97 cents.” He smiled pleasingly. - -“Seven cents,” mused she. “M—, won’t you please figure out for me how -one-fourth of 18 is 7?” - -Well now. I had been paying for meat without ever figuring it out. -Considering that with his limited arithmetical powers he was certain to -make mistakes, and considering that those mistakes were equally certain -to be all in his favor, can you wonder that I have tossed and tossed for -hours upon a sleepless couch trying to recall the times I bought meat of -him, how much it weighed and what I paid him? - -I promised to speak of “Joe’s.” Behold I show you a mystery. I saw a -billhead of his. His initial was M. Try my best I couldn’t make out to -spell Joe with an M. Yet everybody called him Joe. I asked the Signora, -his mother-in-law. She pressed her lips strongly together and wildly -shook her head. “Eena Cannodda dey gotta no sensea,” she exclaimed. “Eesa -nemma notta Joe. No. Eesa nemma Mike. Michaele. Seguro. Surea tinga. -Cannodda mans ee say: ‘Eh Joe? Youra nemma Joe? Eh?’ Ee know dey gotta -nuss sense a eena Cannodda. Ee say: ‘Sure a-tinga.’ Eesa neema notta Joe. -No. Eesa nemma Mike. Michaele. Seguro. Surea tinga.” - -At Joe’s you could buy all things necessary to support life from ham to -hairpins, including Canadian tobacco, which needs a protective tariff if -ever anything does in this world. Not because it is a weakling though. It -biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Funny thing about that -Canadian smoking tobacco. Sometimes it puts you in mind of sauerkrout, -and sometimes it puts you in mind of boneset. I don’t think it is quite -as bitter as boneset, though. - -Shelter, and food, and water and tobacco being thus accounted for, there -remains another prime necessity of life, and that is, sleep. I don’t -believe there is one person in a hundred that knows the real luxury of -sleep. Consider the uncounted hordes that live in terror of “night air.” -Consider the more enlightened that raise their bedroom windows just a -trifle, to calk them up as soon as ever it turns a little cool. But -even when wide open, a bedroom with a window in it is not by any means -the same thing as a tent to sleep in, a tent by the lakeside, its front -all flaring open, and its sides and top working like bellowses with the -breeze. We had regular wire springs and to the wooden frames we nailed -pieces of 2 × 4 for legs. On these were mattresses and bedclothes, plenty -of them. For when we read of city folk dying of sunstroke and rolling -off their roofs where they had gone to get a mouthful of the lifeless -air, robbed of its ozone before it reached them, we were snuggling under -one and sometimes two pairs of blankets. And then, I had the pleasure (a -small and tepid pleasure you may think it, but very real to me) of trying -to prop my eyelids open every night, as I lay stretched out upon my bed, -till I could thrust my hand out between the sidewall and the baseboard, -and feel the glossy leaves of the cool grapevine, and try to unkink a -tendril before I lost consciousness. Sometimes I couldn’t get that far. -We’d stay up till all hours, nine and even ten o’clock, fighting off -sleep. It was a nightly problem with us which we’d rather do, go to bed -and get that lovely sleep, or stay awake a minute or two longer staring -at the “friendship fire.” - -I have vainly tried to think which held the greater fascination for -me: The lake as it shifted its hues before my eyes from reddish brown -to vivid apple-green through leaded gray and royal purple, the farther -shore now so sharp and clear that you could see the houses on it, now -but a thin slice of pearl against a pearly sky, the water between us -and it now a floor veined and streaked like marble, and now ridgy with -billows, that practised, as it were, their scales upon the yellow beach, -their hand-backs remembering what the teacher said, “no knuckles,” and -their finger tips dancing in the white froth: or, the fire of evenings, -fluttering its ribbons of orange taffeta against the back log, snapping -its blank cartridges in sport at us, the red coals so many heaps of -glowing jewels in an Indian prince’s treasure-house. The lake enthralled -me in the day-time. It numbed my brain; it paralyzed my pen-hand, and -left me only the still and speechless joy of living. When the darkness -fell, the firelight drew me with the master-spell. From the lake I now -and then could turn my eyes. The fire was jealous. Not for a full minute -would it let me go. In its genial warmth and light our souls expanded, -and we sang the old songs that everybody knows, the songs that lie so -near the heart its strings must thrill in concord with them, but, through -all, our eyes were fastened on the fire. What magic it must be that thus -can charm unhaltingly through all the long, long centuries that have -drifted by like mist since first men gathered about the friendly flame! -The wonder of it! The wonder of it! Without the Fire there could never be -the Family, with all that means to us; no Hearth, no Home, with all that -means to us. The first priestess was she that kept the coals alive; an -altar is but a cooking-place. Lineal descendant of the first flickering -blaze fed with twigs is all our god-like industry, all that has made us -lords of earth and sea. Back to nature we may go, but farther back than -fire we dare not, lest we perish body and soul. - -Perhaps it was the dumb fear of this, the heritage of pre-historic -ancestry that made us sigh when the time came to tear the logs apart and -quench them for the night. - -How happy were those dear idle days! Happy, not only in the retrospect, -but each moment savoring pleasant to the taste. Once I thought that -Heaven must be rather bore-ous with nothing left to strive for, no -ambition, no anxiety. I know better now. I could live on and on forever -in that camp and never wish for anything but to live. As I write, the -pictures of the sweet, calm evenings out upon the placid lake in the -canoe return to me. It heaves in gentle swells, the umber water netted on -its ripple-crests with soft reflections of the flushed sky fading into -tints too delicate for words of color. Black against the lucent edge of -heaven march the slim poplars. The stars are struggling out, and taking -pattern from them, the riding-lights of yachts shine yellowly. The waves -plash gently on the shell that holds us, and the water gurgles against -the paddle that urges onward, or tinkles in drops like tiny bells. -Something catches in the throat. It is too beautiful, too heavenly for -earth-born. From far across the waters comes Caruso’s voice, by magic -reproduced, sweet to suffocation. - - “Un regal serto sul crin possarti - Ergerti un trono vicino al sol. - Ah! Celeste Aida! Forma divina.” - -On the taffrail of the departing steamer we leaned and watched the spot -until the darkness and the distance smothered the pale gleaming of the -tents where our friends lingered yet a little longer. We sighed; we could -not help it. A little more and tears would have flowed. - -I want to go back there. I want to go back! Back to Nature—or at least -part way. - - -A Difference - -“That long-whiskered, pompous gentleman over there, who is doing most of -the talking, is a prominent citizen, isn’t he?” inquired the tourist. - -“Ah-nah!” pessimistically replied the landlord of the tavern at -Polkville, Ark. “He’s a member of the Legislature.” - - -His Identity - -“Does any one know this poor fellow?” asked the Good Samaritan, -addressing the crowd which had quickly gathered at the scene of the -accident. “His mind seems to have become an absolute blank, and——” - -“Trust official! Trust official!” shouted the assemblage in one voice. -“Out of his head and thinks he’s on the witness stand!” - - - - -_The Philosophy of Money_ - -BY J. B. MARTIN - - -One of our Ohio martyred Presidents, James A. Garfield, in delivering -a speech in Congress, the last one, I believe, uttered this sentence: -“Whoever controls the volume of money in this country will be absolute -master of its industries and commerce.” - -A truer sentence was never uttered in our House of Representatives. But -to see clearly and forcibly its truthfulness and effects, one must have a -proper idea of what money is, by what power it is created, the factors or -elements of money, and its functions and use. - -Briefly stated, money is the debt-paying instrument in all civilized -nations, whose people are actively engaged in making contracts, buying -and selling. Every contract creates a debt, hence the necessity of a -debt-paying instrument. - -Barbarous nations resort to barter; that is, giving one product or -commodity for another, and yet with all of our boasted civilization we -have men—some prominent ones too—who claim that money is a commodity. - -I propose dealing in facts, as they are the stern sentinels of truth. -Every nation enacts laws compelling its citizens to tender certain -things, variously called “dollars,” “pounds,” “francs,” etc., as the only -legal means of payment of debts and taxes. This is the vital point of the -whole money question. Law, and law alone, makes money. Let us see what -money is, and how it comes into existence. - -Our gold, silver, and paper coins; also our nickel and copper coins, are -really made up of three distinct factors or elements, each of which may, -and often does, exist independently of the other two. This fact is one of -the central truths concerning money. - -What are these three constituents? First is the denominator or namer of -the unit—Dollar. This is an ideal or abstract term given to an intangible -thing. Second, some tangible or material substance to represent the -dollar, or some multiple of it; and third, its life, the _legal tender_ -function. - -No two of these can make money; they must all three be named by sovereign -power, Congress, or we have no money. Sovereignty is a unit and cannot -be divided, nor can it be delegated. This is why National Bank notes are -not a legal tender; they are simply the debt of the bank circulating as a -substitute for money, so as to gratify the greed of the money sharks, and -the “Power” that is aiming to be “master of our industries and commerce.” - -But we are told that Congress, sovereign power, cannot make money out of -nothing, that there must be _intrinsic value_ in our monetary tokens. Let -us analyze this proposition in the light of facts and logical reasoning. - -The second factor in money is the material substance used to represent -the dollar, or some multiple of it. This material substance does not make -the dollar. Remember this. - -The important factor in the dollar is its _life_—the legal tender -function—and sovereign power alone can grant this. - -Under our constitution, sovereign power is placed in the hands of -the American people—the whole people, not a part of them,—and their -representatives in Congress exercise that power; so that whatever -Congress says shall be money is money in the United States. So it can be -safely affirmed that law alone creates money. The fiat or decree of law -in the United States gives us our money. - -But we are told that paper money, greenbacks, is all right when they -are made redeemable in coin. The word “redeem” should never be used in -connection with our money here in the American Republic. According to our -big dictionary, redeem means “to purchase back,” “to ransom, liberate, or -rescue from captivity or bondage.” Now as we have seen, Congress issues -our money and puts it in circulation among the people. Is not Uncle Sam’s -stamp on a piece of paper just as good as it is on a piece of silver or -gold? If not, why not? Will some one please tell us? Then again I ask, -wherein is there any sense or logic in Uncle Sam, the sovereign power in -the United States, buying himself back? Where has our sovereign power -got to, that Uncle Sam must ransom, or rescue himself from captivity or -bondage? - -As we have seen, sovereign power alone can issue money. That being -a fact, Congress alone should issue all our money, whether coin or -paper, and it should all be made a full legal tender; and no one kind -“redeemable” in another kind; with no state or National note circulation -as a substitute for money. - -Another very important consideration is that it should be issued in -sufficient volume to effect all our exchanges on a cash basis, or as -nearly so as possible; for debt and usury, now called interest, is the -present curse of every civilized country on earth. - -This accomplished, the Government should establish Postal Savings Banks -in every city having a population of two thousand or more, where the -people could deposit their surplus money, until needed, in perfect -safety, paying a small per cent. just as they do for insuring their -buildings. - -There is always a ratio existing between the total volume of money, free -to flow in the channels of trade, and all things on the market for sale, -including labor. This ratio is called—price. Statistics show that we had -our largest volume of money at the close of the Civil War. In 1866 we -had $80.00 per capita. We then had high prices and every man willing to -work was employed. There were no tramps on the road begging for work or -something to eat. - -The accursed policy of contraction then commenced, at the instigation -of the “Power” that was aiming to “be master of our industries and -commerce.” Contracting the money volume continued until 1878, when we had -less than $20.00 per capita. Then our roads and city streets were full of -tramps, so-called. No work was to be obtained. Shops and factories were -closed and farmers did their own work. - -In 1866 there were but 520 failures in the United States with liabilities -amounting to $8,579,000. In 1878, there were 10,478 failures with -liabilities amounting to $234,383,132. Such were the effects of -contracting the debt-paying instrument of our country at the dictation of -Wall Street money tyrants. - -The Rothschilds in Europe are the “Power” that controls the volume of -money in every one of the European countries, and the result is they are -the “absolute masters of the industries and commerce” of every government -in Europe. - -Furthermore, it can be safely said that through their agent, August -Belmont, and his clique in New York, they are aiming to become the -“absolute masters of our industries and commerce” here in the United -States. - -Can it be possible that an American President would join in this crusade -against the best interests of the American people? It would really appear -so, for Theodore Roosevelt in his recent message to Congress recommends -retiring of the greenbacks and “redeeming” the silver dollars in gold. -That means that our gold coin shall be our only perfect money, with -National Bank notes (the debts of the banks, drawing double interest, -once on the bonds deposited to secure the notes, and again on the notes; -for no bank note passes over the counter of the bank issuing it, until -interest is paid in advance), as a substitute for money; thus giving the -banks the power to increase or diminish our volume of money, just as it -may suit their sweet will and avaricious purposes. - -At this point of the discussion we are told that we must have a standard -of value, and that gold is a never-varying standard of value the world -over. In reply to that I find in Sir Frederick Eden’s table of English -money, from the Conquest in 1066 down to 1601, that in 1551 gold was -worth only 4 shillings 7½ pence per ounce in London—a little over one -dollar of our money; and in Doubleday’s “Financial History of England,” -page 277, that in 1813 gold was worth 5 pounds 10 shillings an ounce in -London—twenty-seven dollars and a half in our money. Does that look as -though gold was a never-varying standard of value? - -Besides, there is and can be no such thing as a “standard of value.” We -can have a standard for quantity, gravity, and extension, but not of -value. We have the gallon, the bushel, the pound and ton, the yard, rod -and mile, but where is the unit for value? - -Some may say; “Why the dollar is the unit of value”—not correct. The -dollar is the unit in the expression of price; and, as we have seen, -price is the ratio, so the word dollar is not a unit of value. Not until -we can measure an idea with a quart cup, measure it with a foot rule, -or put it in the scales and weigh it, can we have a measure of value; -for remember, value is an idea, an action of the mind, and what has -civilization invented to measure an idea with? - -Value is human estimation of desirable things, which are limited in -quantity, or which require sacrifice to obtain. - -There we have a full, clear and scientific definition of value, “Human -estimation”—clearly an action of the mind—an idea. - -Whenever there is a general inability to pay debts on account of an -insufficient or low volume of money, we call it a—panic. We have had -five such periods in the history of the American Republic, viz: in 1819, -1837, 1857, 1873 and 1893. - -How much better it would have been for our Republic had our fathers, who -framed our Constitution and established the Government under it, given us -a safe, sound and scientific financial system; with all money, whether -coin or paper, issued by the Government, and in sufficient volume to -do a cash business; volume to be increased as population and business -increased; all made a full legal tender for all debts public and private, -and at no time to be a contraction or reduction in its volume. Then we -would have had none of the periods called panics and our advancement in -all branches of business and science would be far in advance of what it -now is. - -It may be said, and truthfully, that our fathers had no time to devote to -the money question; but there were a few in those days who did study it -and profited by it just as there are at the present time. - -If the farmers, the mechanics and wage-workers,—the creators of -wealth—in this country ever expect to get any relief from the tyranny -and oppression of this octopus that is “aiming to be master of -their industries and commerce,” they must go to work earnestly and -systematically in their various organizations—the Grange, The Farmers’ -Alliance, the Patrons of Husbandry and the various Labor Unions—to -studying the money question, and if they persevere they will see clearly -as President Garfield did over a quarter of a century ago, that “whoever -controls the volume of money in this country will be absolute master of -its industry and commerce.” - -There were a few men even at the time our Government was organized who -understood the money question. Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin -Franklin concurred in the theory that “good paper money, based on the -credit of the people is the best money ever invented by man.” “Equal and -exact justice to all men, special privilege to none,” was their motto. - -Let me quote further from Garfield. In that same speech he said: “But -I admit freely that no Congress is wise enough to determine how much -money the country needs. There never was a body of men wise enough to do -that. The volume of currency needed depends upon laws that are higher -than Congress and higher than Government. The laws of trade alone can -determine its quantity.” - -Demand for use is the natural law of money supply, and the Government -should furnish such an amount as may be legally demanded; the idea being -that the business of the country will absorb as much as it needs, and no -more. - -My opinion is, the volume ought not to be less than $50.00 per capita; -and, as I believe, $100 per capita would be none too much to effect all -our exchanges for cash, which is the proper way to do a safe business. - -According to the Treasurer’s Reports for 1864, 5 and 6, and Fawcett’s, -“Gold and Debt,” we had in circulation at the close of the Civil War -about $80 per capita, which was none too much. Then it was that we had -high prices and good times. - -Our present Comptroller of the Currency reports $31 per capita in the -various kinds of money and substitutes for money now in circulation. -This is altogether too small an amount for the production and exchanges -required in this broad land of ours. The result is debts are being made -and credits are expanding at a fearful rate, preparing the way for our -next great panic. - -As stated above, we have never yet passed beyond twenty years without -having a panic, and a moment’s thought will present to the mind the fact -that we are now on the last half of the twenty years since 1893. - -It is coming, for we all know that “like causes always produce like -results;” and the cause is an inadequate volume of the debt-paying -instrument—money—to do the business with. The result is that deferred -payments—debts—must be made, and, as we have seen, a panic is a -prevailing inability to pay debts. So look out for breakers in the near -future. - -Our present situation is no time to advocate commodity money, for the -defenders of hard money ought to know that hard money and hard times -always go hand in hand. - -Demand for use is the natural law of money supply; and, as the demand -now is far in excess of the supply, it is safe to say, that unless more -money is put into the channels of trade, there will be a severe money -stringency; if not a genuine old-fashioned panic. - -I have often wondered why $100,000,000 in gold is kept penned up in the -Treasury Building in Washington. So far as doing the people any good it -might as well be in the bottom of the ocean. - -Money performs precisely the same function in the social organism that -blood does in the animal organism. Blood is the vitalizing force in -the human body, and money is the vitalizing force in the body politic. -Everybody knows that the loss of blood causes weakness in a human person, -and just so the loss of money—a contraction of the money volume—causes -weakness in a government; hence no “Power” should be permitted to control -our volume of money. - -Every voter in this Republic has a head above his shoulders supposed -to contain a think-shop; and, if the “Power” now controlling our money -volume, and as a result our “commerce and industries,” is to be removed -and better times secured, every think-shop must get down to business, -with a full determination to see that our “commerce and industries” shall -not be interfered with, that the volume of money be increased enough to -effect rapid exchange of products and the payment of debts. - -The difficulty in accomplishing this lies in the fact that so many -think-shops are never used, and again, some never read any newspaper -except “my party paper,” containing nothing for think-shops to work at, -and the result is—ignorance. - -Thought is the mother of ideas, and ideas move the world. The reading man -will naturally be an observing man, a thinking man, always looking for -the cause of results which are transpiring around him, either in politics -or science. - -The election in several States last fall indicated very clearly that more -men were using their think-shops than in previous campaigns. The good -work has commenced and may it continue until our Republic be free from -any organization that dare attempt to be—“Master of our industries and -commerce.” - - - - -_The Little Path to Peace_ - -BY MARY SMALL WAGNER - - - Save for the pewee’s plaintive cry, - Along this way all sound doth cease. - We christened it, the breeze and I, - “The little path to peace.” - - The dusty highway far behind, - The vine-clad cottage as our goal, - There lies what many strive to find— - Peace for the heart and soul. - - A mother’s voice drifts down the stair, - Crooning a simple lullaby. - See Mistress Puss and Fido there, - In perfect amity; - - And over all the scent of flowers, - And over all the spell of home, - Though simple, for the asking ours, - Enthralling all who come. - - O comrade with the restless eyes, - And greater cares than I can name, - With weariness you ill disguise, - Plodding the road to fame— - - Pause—where the trees lap overhead, - Close the wee gate, nor seek release. - And hand in hand we’ll lightly tread - The little path to peace! - - - - -[Illustration: THE CAPTAIN, DAVY, AND GENERAL KUROPATKIN - -A STORY OF KOREA - -BY ROBERT DUNN.] - - -West from Ping-Yang, the old Korean capital, flows Tai-Dong River into -the Yellow Sea. Where in its mouth the flood tide weakens, and junks with -lumber slung over sides drop their brown mat sails; there, where the -clean sharp hills most beautifully are tricked with mirage and blue mist, -squats the town of Chinnampo. - -Kuroki’s army landed there on the March night early in the war when the -ice, as if by magic, ground out toward China. Oiled torches spiked to -rafts bobbed on the chill stream, and the winches of blacker transports -creaked and whistled to the snowy shore. From the holds swung aloft -rice and fodder and knock-kneed, shaggy ponies. Impish guards of the -Mikado in red and green, privates in long coats and spectacles, sprang -forth rigidly on land. No noise, no fuss; the brown invasion of Asia was -furtively begun. The long barracks were ready, and they that had watched -Jap coolie sappers a-building them—beer and sweet-cake sellers from the -islands, pioneers in the new westward hegira—sat proud and bland that -night in their paper-slat doors. Meanwhile, from his desert of filth and -thatched mud huts all about, crouched cousin Korean in the darkness, -unsurprised and cynical, smoking a yard-long bamboo pipe as he dropped -soft syllables of philosophy on the vanity of effort, and with disdain -drew his wadded white robes closer. - -Even when the red sun flag fluttered darkly up its pole, no cheers -followed. But from a hill overlooking the town an oath arose. - -“Damn these Japs, damn their mustard bellies,” growled Captain Cyrus -Brewster, chewing a stogie on the porch of his lonely bungalow. - -Isolated on his hill, the captain was just such a Yankee, thin-nosed, -blue-eyed and muffin-mouthed but with an imperishable look of youth -for all his curled gray hair, as you might find in a bungalow with a -flag-pole in front were you wrecked, for instance, off Patagonia; which -is to say he was an iconoclast, and hated the world. He shipped from -Chinnampo two million dollars a year in bullion from a gold mine near -the Yalu River, for which he was “agent;” passed white men’s food and -chemicals through the custom-house, and swore at coolies loading them on -the light-draught junks he ran to the head of navigation on the Tai-Dong, -whence carts trundled to the mines. - -But worse than the world he hated the Japanese, for they militantly -coveted for barrack joists the only pine grove in the region, which -adorned his homestead. They could not seize the land without stirring -diplomatic mud, since the captain had bought his stake from the Russians, -who had eked it from Seoul in ’96, when the Jap ambassador burned the old -Empress in kerosene, and her son fled to the Slav legation. Therefore -the Islanders had threatened eviction, with smiles and insults; dickered -blandly with bows, lies, and tissue documents inkily fly-tracked, as the -captain repulsed them with a fist blow on the table, and cable blanks -inscribed with fiery messages to Washington, which he never sent. - -“War news?” he’d exclaim to missionaries bound up river. “Don’t ask me, -by crotch! I don’t bother the monkeys in their damned town, and they -don’t come up here to me.” - -Thus being pro-Russian and a truly brave man, Brewster felt he must -vindicate his notions in action. Having heard that a Cossack captain -near Wonsan on the west coast would be pleased to know how many men and -rice sacks landed with Kuroki, he let a young Russian travel, dressed -as a Japanese, on his junks between the lines. This fellow’s name was -Davydoff, a machinist, who patriotically had quit the mine when the war -broke out, but being lame could not enlist. In disguise, he traveled -by the name of Ikeda. I do not know how the captain squared with his -conscience in abetting a spy, but that Yankee defect is an over-worked -myth, anyhow; and a world malevolent enough to land a man, aged fifty, -alone in Korea, with a past like an erasure in a pirate’s log, should -grant indulgence. - -This very hour tonight he awaited Ikeda, erst Davydoff. Now through his -night glass he searched the river, now the silent town distorted by no -flickering camp-fires, the torches, dying into iridescence, revealed -the black Tai-Dong as a covert serpent stealing across a world numb and -indifferent in white age. “Like them yeller oriental hearts, that river,” -he muttered, nodding at the stream, “reaching out acrost the world fer us -white men’s sceptres, learnin’ to smile whiles they suffer. Oh, they’ll -get the sceptres.” You see, the captain believed firmly in the Yellow -Peril. Soon he turned toward the angled thatches of the town, and a white -painted gable far from the barracks caught his eye. - -His sharp features softened with recollection. “I see yer hev yer -schoolhouse lit, young missy,” he murmured. “Night school. Workin’ -overtime civilizin’ Koreans.” For first the invaders had built the -barracks, then the school—copying the white man’s way in lifting a -yellow burden—which to the captain menaced a right regeneration of Korea. -The brown people thus handled the surest civilizing weapons of the white, -who were sealed meanwhile further north in their fortresses of privilege -and prejudice; so the bungalow on the hill and the schoolhouse among the -huts symbolized the passing of Asia. - -“Karin San’s there,” mused the captain, and a vision of the white clad -Korean boys with long hair parted in the middle, the girls in green -silk tunics, their snub noses buried in books of English and Japanese, -uprose before him as he had seen them through the doorway, repeating the -alphabet in unison, on a day he had passed the schoolhouse. Then Karin -San had bowed low on the threshold, saying, “It is a beautiful day, -You-think-yes? I am Karin-San-the-school-teacher-of-English,” and a big -red pin had fallen from the shiny convolutions of her oiled hair, as -she bowed so low. “Great Christopher!” the captain had gasped; the same -dizziness now touched his breast as he watched. - -Many times since he had visited Karin San, stealing down to the school -unknown to the Japs, or even Davydoff. He would sit beside her on her -platform, and she would turn to him for correction when her red lips -mistrusted how an English word should sound. After lessons they would -talk of Japan and America, for the captain had the reserve of age and -disappointment, and to Karin the war was no more a subject for discussion -than the coming of spring itself. - -“Shame me for lovin’ you, Karin San,” he muttered now tonight. “One of -the yeller-bellies I hates. Hypocrite!” and he turned toward a gigantic -sort of dog-house under his flag-pole, where hibernated in winter and -dozed in summer, the captain’s big brown Siberian bear, Kuropatkin, which -he loved even more than his twisty pine trees. He tapped on the house -with his bamboo stick, and wished the General “Happy New Year.” - -“It’s time ye waked and brushed yer teeth,” he said. “World’s a bit -livelier in these parts than when ye went to bed last year.” - -The rattle of a chain told the hibernation was over, while eight hundred -pounds of shagginess squeezed into the open; tested the ground for frost -with a paw, waved its head as a man sounds a stiff neck, and as if to -say, “My! but this is early in the summer to wake a fellow!” - -But the captain had stooped quickly and snatched at a red object in -Kuropatkin’s house. “Cuss them, Gen’ral!” he exclaimed, grasping a -shinbone hung with flesh. “The Japs has tried to pizen ye! Peach -kunnels,” he growled holding the meat to his nose. “But Mr. Jap -Mustard-belly ain’t so all-fired wise, and don’t know God A’mighty can’t -pizen a b’ar. He’ll learn a thing or two ’bout Rooshian b’ars some fine -day, though now he’s got the nerve and numbers to do most anything.” - -Kuropatkin, cocking his head on one side, raised an ankle, and, pointing -like a setter dog into the pine-grove, let out an “Oof!” - -“You see Mr. Mustard yonder?” drawled the captain, following the -General’s gaze. “You’re sayin’ you’re pretty wise, you b’ars, ain’t you? -I guess the’ ain’t no monkey law _yit_ about watch dog _or_ b’ar licenses -in this country. My timber’s lyin’ pretty loose about this hill. We’ve -likely got a vendetta on, General,” and having kicked away the poisoned -bone, the captain unhooked Kuropatkin’s ankle chain, thus freeing him. - -Quite right was the Yankee about Jap nerve and a vendetta. The Islanders’ -next militant move in the feud came that very night. In his French -bedstead—the only kind in Korea, with its thin iron mosquito-frame -aloft—he was wakened by a rasping, cracking sound out in his grove. Now -and then came a swish and a thump. Then—— - -“Yai! Yai! Eee! Eee! and a diabolical yeodle curdled the moonlight on the -hill-side. Presently a big brown object lolled from the shadows of the -pines, and stalked majestically toward the flag-pole. - -“Got the fisheatin’ Japs in the act, did yer, Pat?” whispered the captain -out the window, shaking with laughter. - -“Oofski!” grunted Kuropatkin, crowding into his house. Next morning -Brewster walked to his grove to find that three of his tallest pine trees -had been chopped and carted off, while two axes hung at hasty angles in a -half-felled fourth. After breakfast, Puk-Chong, his Korean “boy,” started -for the Jap headquarters with the copy of a telegram, declared in a brief -note to be then on its way to the American Minister at Tokio. Brewster -himself walked unnoticed down the hill to the cable office, which lies -far from the barracks. He actually despatched the message sent in copy -to the commandant, there being yet no war correspondents, and hence no -censorship in Korea. It was rather a more fire-eating complaint than any -he had pretended to send to Tokio before, and some time passed before he -knew the importance of his act. - -After tiffin, two Jap soldiers appeared on his veranda, mutely -inquisitive in their brown leggins, yellow shoulder-straps, and high -crowned caps. They drew white gloves from their hands, smiled, and bowed -three times till their long swords clicked on the floor. The shorter, -darker soldier—he with a wispy convex mustache and eyes like a dissipated -doll—handed the captain a letter bearing the long brown Korean stamp. -The captain whistled as he opened it. It was addressed in a round, -shaded hand suggesting steel pens and primary writing books. Reading it, -he glowered; then smiled, as if he discerned something pleasant on a -mountain across the river; frowned again and more deeply, coughed, and -put the letter gently into his left-hand breast pocket, where his heart -underneath beat faster. - -“So Korean postmen ain’t good enough to carry white men’s letters no -more?” demanded the captain. - -“We dare no longer trust the shiftless Korean with letters to so august a -person,” explained the taller soldier, and both bowed. - -“They won’t let you steam them open and read them, like you have this -one?” said the captain. “Hey?” - -“Your bear,” said the doll-eye, after each had stared with polite -blankness at the captain, “is he dangerous?” and the soldier indicated -the flag-pole. - -“Mebbe your pardner’s pants ken show that,” drawled the Yankee, taking -the other by the shoulder and turning him around. “Um, no,” he growled, -“but that b’ar knows pizen when he smells it.” - -“Pizen?” said the doll-eye vacantly, “What you call pizen?” - -“We feed it to b’ars regular in Americky,” replied the captain fiercely. -“We put it on shin bones and shove it in their kennels. It makes them -strong so they ken bust chains and plug axes inter trees.” - -“Ah, so, _so_,” gasped the pair, with the Jap stare which conceals -understanding. - -The captain knew the soldiers could never have called on so direct a -mission as to deliver a letter or complain of Kuropatkin’s attack; and -that to show anger to mere privates at losing his trees would yield him -only smiles of scorn and pity. What had they come for? Brewster had his -suspicions, which he started to test. He thrust his hands carelessly -into his pockets, observing that he guessed he wouldn’t “get no more -letters at all, steamed or unsteamed.” To which the emissaries replied -that he did them an injustice, that they had no desire to interfere with -the honorable foreigner’s business, but sought rather to safeguard his -privacy by official deliveries. - -“_So deska_,” said the captain with falling inflection, which means, -“Well, well, now, you don’t say.” “You mean then, any Jap can bring me -mail?” he challenged. - -“Yes,” said the tall one. “Indeed. Certainly. If he is in the army.” - -“Then I’d like your boss’s permission,” said the captain slowly, “to -detail that Jap boy Ikeda I have traveling to the mines for me to bring -my mail.” - -“Ah—he is expected back soon?” interrupted both at once, stepping -forward eagerly at mention of the spy, confirming Brewster’s suspicion. - -“No,” drawled the Yankee. “No. Ikeda’s welched—gone south to Seoul to -fight for the Korean Emperor.” - -“_So_,” said both with eager incredulity, “We have a great pity for you.” - -“Do you think yer boss could git him back fer me?” asked the captain -sadly. - -No answer. - -“You are telling the truth?” said the doll-eye suddenly. - -“No,” said the captain, “I ain’t—not altogether. Good morning.” - -The soldiers consulted one another with clever glances. The captain -whistled easily, for he was quite sure now that they had come to arrest -Davydoff. “Good morning,” he repeated. - -The pair started down the walk to the gate, but turned to bow. As they -did so, the Yankee seemed to see their stoop grow rigid. They gazed -over his head to the door of the bungalow. He turned. Behind him in the -doorway stood what seemed to be a Jap—a man wooden-shoed, in a gray -kimono, a derby hat squashed flat over his ears—Davydoff returned. - -“Your boss is pretty obligin’,” called the captain to the soldiers. -“Without my askin’ he seems to have telegraphed Ikeda in Seoul to come -back and carry my letters. An’ he’s come.” - -But the soldiers had started back up the garden walk on a run. - -“Hi! Pat,” called the captain, “Sic ’em, Pat, _sic ’em_!” he shouted. - -A chain in the big dog-house rattled, and before the emissaries had paced -ten yards, their twin brown gaiters were flying across the garden and -swinging over the rail fence, before the galumphing Kuropatkin. - -“I hev a great pity fer ye,” imitated the captain. “They expect all lies -or all truth,” he observed, turning to the bewildered spy. “Mix ’em, an’ -yer ken wig a yeller-belly—if ye hev an intelligent b’ar.” - -The youth exclaimed, trembling; “I have heard all. The two Japanese there -know me for an informer. It is danger to remain here.” - -“It’s a bullet fer ye on the bund tomorrow,” said the captain, -thoughtfully eying him, and “jail fer me.” - -The boy limped dazedly to the wash-basin in the dining-room, and a black -wig fell to the floor. In a moment a blue-eyed, yellow-haired youth -sat down to tiffin opposite the captain. A whitish beard curled thinly -over his chin, and except for the roundness of his head and his hair’s -creeping low on the forehead—as in all exiles’ and settlers’ sons of the -Siberian steppe—he would have passed in America for the second generation -of a Baltic immigrant, refined and sharpened by transplantation. - -“It would be but dying for my country,” he said with effort, but now -calm, after the two had eaten awhile in silence. “The great work is done. -Kosakin, the Cossack, has all the figure of the landing.” - -“Yes, Davy, but Rooshia ain’t the captain’s country,” explained the -Yankee. “We got to hide you.” - -The captain lapsed again into silence, listening absently to an excited -tale of suspicion, strategy, and escapes on a week’s trip from Wonsan, -told in the Russian’s queer, inverted English. As they rose from the -table, Brewster drew from his pocket the letter given him by the -doll-eyed soldier, and handed it to Davydoff. “Suppose you read this,” he -said. Davy took it, and read: - - Exalted Sir? The pupils Oyama school of primary, Chinnampo, - request being you the oneman English speak, observe the - try-on of drama given bye and after Red cross aid, in the new - school house of the night you get this. Appreciation would be - subgestion and correction English spoken. Drama, Uncle Tom’s - Cabin. - - Humbly to be yours, - - Most Honorific Sir, - - Tatso Karin. - -“I guess we’ll have to take in the show,” remarked the captain, as the -boy glanced up with a queer look of amazement. “We got to go somewheres.” - -“Is there no place else?” asked the boy excitedly, “I would myself -surrender rather than now to enter the schoolhouse.” - -The captain met his glance intently. “It’s our one chance, Davy,” he -said, searching the boy’s eyes. “I’ll tell ye. I know thet young school -missy pretty well. Unbeknown to you, I’ve helped her hearing class. She’s -the one friend I have in town. If the game’s up with us, as I believe, -I’d like to say good-bye to her,” and the captain with bent head turned -away. - -Davydoff sprang to his feet and paced up and down the room, clenching -and unclenching his hands, darting glances at the captain. “No, no,” he -cried. “Not there! Not there! Never, by my honor!” - -The Yankee turned to catch his eye. - -“It is ye suspicion the letter’s a trap?” he asked searchingly. “It -ain’t, I promise ye. Jap though she is, she’d never—never—” he stammered. -“Or——” - -The Russian stopped short and their eyes met. “No, no,” he answered, -“I apprehend no trap, not from Karin. Only if—” he checked himself. -Understanding glimmered in his blue eyes. Then—“If she is as well your -friend, I will go. I will go to the schoolhouse with you.” - -At dark, the captain followed by Davy, black-haired and derby-hatted, -with Kuropatkin swaying comfortably between, halted suddenly as they -entered the moon-lit pine grove. Looking back toward the bungalow, they -saw two-brown gaitered figures patter up the garden path and steal behind -the bear house, where one leaped monkey fashion on its roof. The other -with prehensile feet shinned the flag-pole and hurled a stone down upon -Kuropatkin’s roof. Finding he was not at home, they dashed on toward the -bungalow. - -“Jes’ caught the gang-plank in time, ain’t we?” laughed the captain. -“Dodged the yeller-bellies so far.” - -Emerging from the grove, they stole across frozen stagnant water, among -squalid red clay huts with tiny lattices under the thatching. Four -soldiers, singing with locked arms as they passed, kicked a fallen Korean -chimney—a tin kerosene can. Not a white-robed philosopher was in sight, -but through the huts’ straw fences, they could see long-haired hags -huddled over smoky braziers in which bubbled the head of a dog or hoof -of a bull. Through low door-ways in the haze of tiny, ill-trimmed lamps, -sore-covered children in soiled bright silks rolled on matless earth -beside chests clamped with iron. - -At last the schoolhouse, white, high-gabled, and awkwardly occidental, -faced them. They chained the bear to a rail of the steps, and without -knocking entered a long empty room of half a dozen glass windows, its -plain boards lit by two big swinging kerosene lamps, and decorated with -British and Japanese flags. From the platform at the far end, behind a -drawn red cotton curtain strung on a long wire, a spiral stair wound to -the loft under the gable overhead. Chairs and benches were piled in the -corners. - -Karin San tripped down the stair in her best iris kimono and big obi, -pausing at intervals as she crossed the floor to bow the glittering comb -in her black hair. Her powdered oval face resembled an enamel shell. -With half closed eyes and red lips parted, she seemed striving to speak -volumes of welcome, and to be intensely amused and overwhelmed by her -inability. - -“_Kombomoi kombomoi_,”[1] she gasped and the captain responded, his heart -beating faster, but his eyes suspicious of the vacant building. - -[1] “Good Evening!” - -“Very sorry, very sorry, Brewster San,” pleaded the little school -mistress. “Tonight, no Uncle Tom. No show.” - -Little Eva’s red shawl hung from a nail over the platform, also the gray -beard and spectacles of Uncle Tom, while on it rested a couple of buckets -filled with ice-cakes. From wondering how that spectacular scene of -Eliza’s crossing was to be portrayed—if a samisan could render the proper -jumpy music—the captain’s eyes fixed Davy’s in mute wonder. - -“Military authority—Major Kumoda—just now order me no show,” Karin -apologized, again bowing with a smile in which her visitors, though used -to oriental deception, could read no duplicity. “Mebbe soldier come.” - -The soft chords in her neck glistened like velvet, but again the captain -turned from them to his spy, saying, “Right you were in growlin’ to come -here. Better say yer prayers, boy, if you Rooshians is as good at prayin’ -as they tell. She’s snared us for the mustard-bellies.” - -“You shall not so accuse her!” burst out the spy. “May not her deed be -honorable? Did not the soldiers open and read her missive? Having not -found us on the hill, they have reason to look here at once.” - -But the schoolmistress had crept to a window and was looking out, her -snub nose pressed tight against the pane. From outside came the mutter of -voices, and crunch of feet on the lingering snow. - -“Damn us for fools!” broke out the captain. “And I’ve dragged ye down to -death, boy, for they dassent shoot a Yankee. Davy, blame me. I don’t ask -yer to forgive,” and his voice weakened. “I told yer I come to bid the -girl good-bye. It’s not the first time this cowardly fool heart o’ mine -hes ruined me with others. But after all these useless years o’ my life, -to find this yeller girl respond to all the stored-up sorrers—” he broke -off, gulping. - -“Then I am happy to come,” said the Russian with tense slowness, “if for -your sake, my captain. It is then not the forgiveness, I owe,” he added -bitterly, with set teeth, “but—” and he burst out laughing, shouting—“So -there was no place else to hide? As well here as elsewhere might one be -taken!” - -“Boy, I knew ye had no fear of death,” said the captain, laying a hand on -Davy’s shoulder. “An’ how I love her—Karin!” - -He walked to the bright little figure tremblingly preoccupied by the -window, and extended his arms. The Russian could stand it no longer. With -fierce Slavic impulse, he tore off his disguise with one dash of his -arm, and, erect with blazing eyes, checked the captain. - -“Captain! Fear of death? Never!” he cried. “Because the soldier -must think Karin in league with me, a vile spy, I would rather have -surrendered myself than come here to hide with her. Yet I go, because -you, my friend—dear to me—request, and jealously I think you also love -her. You confess, Captain, we have long been esteemed together, and to -you I owe more than my life; yet Karin you shall not seize from me, even -in the moment of my death. I love her better than my life or your own, -or her life. We have long loved. Yet may she love you the more. In this -hour, I leave to her to choose between us!” - -With a cry, the little schoolmistress threw herself into Davy’s -outstretched arms, and was smothered in a long embrace. - -The captain bent his head. “Davy, forgive me,” he whispered after a -silence. “I never guessed she was yourn a’ready, else I’d not—I do ask -yer forgiveness now.” - -The spy limped toward the Yankee to press his outstretched hand, and a -stone struck the schoolhouse door. “You hear,” laughed Karin, at the -window again with woman’s tact, but losing innocence of her lover’s -danger. “Major and two soldiers afraid of him. He very brave, but I think -soon soldier shoot him. They would come arrest you! You will hide? Go, go -upstair! My room!” she cried excitedly, pointing to the spiral. - -The captain looked out. “Hold yer ground, Gen’ral,” he called. “This -ain’t no picnic bitin’ wood thieves. He’ll hold on to the last, Davy. I -seen him nip the major’s sword, and wink at me—By crotch, they’re gaggin’ -him!” He turned to the lovers. “Go, Davy, go! Up them stairs with her. -It’s yer one chance. I’ll face the monkeys and take my medicine. It’s -the least I owe yer,” and a vain thought of his cable message and the -American gunboat at Chemulpo a hundred miles away flashed through him. - -Karin San seized the spy by the arm, and they vanished up the spiral -stairway. Immediately bayonets crashed upon the door, and it burst open. -The doll-eyed soldier and his companion of the morning, preceded by -the green-capped cavalry officer, hurled themselves into the room. The -officer seized the captain by both arms. “Brewster, American, we arrest!” -he cried, and turning to the doll-eye, delivered a rapid order to search -the house,—so judged the Yankee—for he smiled and bowed at his prisoner, -saying, “We find also you friend, Russki spy.” - -But the doll-eye and his mate were checked in ascending the stair by -Karin San descending with upraised arms and her sweetest smile. The -privates paused and bowed. The three at first spoke calmly back and -forth. Then the doll-eye began shouting at the schoolmistress, once with -what the captain was certain would be an oath in English. But always she -replied to them earnestly smiling, never pleadingly, gravely shaking her -head, her hand upon her heart; always quiet, determined, arguing with -utter self-possession, calmly appealing—to what? wondered the captain, in -such fanatics of patriotism. - -At length both soldiers turned and saluted the Major, uttered a short -sentence, and descended the stair. - -The officer turned to Brewster, elevating his long mustachios in a -sardonic smile. “You see,” he said, “the love of country of the Japanese. -Perhaps you think it is the respect for woman, wherefore my soldier do -not search the teacher room. It is not. Boy, man, woman, all labor for -the same end, our country. No one would betray; we trust one another -absolute. It is so we exist; we fight; we win. - -“We think the spy Russki enter here with you. But Karin San, as much -myself officer of the Emperor, declare he is not here,” he went on with -a self-satisfied smile. “We believe her. He has escape,” and turning to -the soldiers he gave them another sharp order—to search the town and the -hills about. - -Next morning, sitting cross-legged and politely silent with his captor, -at a breakfast of sweet chicken hash and cabbage, Captain Brewster sprang -to his feet. “_Bzoo-oo-oooo!_” groaned a whistle under the glittering -hills along the river. Away dashed his manikin host without word or -glance. Between the cedar slats of the captain’s prison—the major’s house -by courtesy—the Yankee sighted the long, thin funnel and squat deck of an -American gunboat. - -Two hours passed. Then the doll-eyed soldier who stood guard on the -veranda, slid open the paper house-door. Three tall Yankee tars followed -by a young lieutenant with sandy hair and a long upper lip, scraped heavy -feet on the major’s mats. - -“Brewster, are you responsible for this?” said the officer, handing the -captain a pink paper oblong. - -“Guess I be,” drawled the prisoner, taking the cable message. He read: - - State Department orders unconditional protection for Brewster, - American, Chinnampo. - -The telegram was addressed to the commander of the gunboat, dated Tokio, -and signed by the United States Minister there. - -The captain whistled a moment. - -“Say, what’s your state?” he inquired of his countryman. - -“Maine,” replied the lieutenant. - -“Aroostook County?” demanded the captain. - -“No, Skowhegan on the Amonoosuc. Born in Penobsticook myself, but my -folks was raised on the Allegash,” grinned the officer. - -When the captain had whistled again, he observed, “Like to be back there, -wouldn’t you, in a country where they have Christian names you can -pronounce?” And the lieutenant embellished his assent gracefully, with -expletives. - -“These young Napoleons,” he began soon, indicating the little major’s -green cap which bobbed in the rear, “are interfering with my orders. -They say that you’ve been running a spy ranch. Their chiefs have pulled -out for the Yalu, so they want to dicker with Tokio before I take you -cruising and talk over the spring fishing back home.” - -“Let me give you a tip on that, lieutenant,” said the captain, putting -his hand on the officer’s shoulder. Then he whispered awhile into the -young man’s ear. At first the lieutenant shook his head seriously; then -quite as gravely dug the captain in the ribs. And as the delegation, -including the manikin major, withdrew, Brewster called after to his new -friend, “Mind the boys use only blank shells. We want a bluff, not an -international war.” - -And so the little cavalry officer never came back to his prisoner at all. -In half an hour, “Boom-boom!” resounded guns from the blue Tai-Dong. The -doll-eye thrust his head into the paper door. “You hear? You hear?” he -cried pointing to smoke curling about the Stars and Stripes on the river. - -“America—Japan—cross—fight—so,” said Brewster, linking his two -forefingers. And the doll-eye dashed away. - -The captain’s ruse of firing blank shots to force the telegram had -worked. When he believed that the coast was clear, he stepped out on the -veranda. Only the lieutenant from Maine was walking up the hill. - -“I’ve got a Jap servant and his wife that I’d like to take abroad with -us,” said the captain to his savior, as they descended into the town, -where not even a Jap private was in evidence. “They’re over yonder in -that white building,” and he pointed to the schoolhouse. “And wait,” -added the captain, while the officer despatched an orderly from the -landing, “Could he fetch along my—my—pet Newfoundland dog, as well?” - -Remarked the younger man from Maine, as the two watched from the gunboat -the clean hills fold over the straw roofs of Chinnampo: “If there’s -trouble from all this, that’s for the dudes in Washington to fix. Spies -is spies, but them pine trees is pine trees, and valuable, as we ought -to know. Too bad about old Kuropatkin, though most orderlies _would_ be -afraid of bears—Hello! Look!” - -He pointed to the water. Aport, a black oblong rippled the surface of the -river—Kuropatkin swimming out to the vessel. - -“Hi, Pat! Sic ’em, sic ’em!” shouted the captain. - -When the ship had heaved to and started again, the captain’s face was -salt and wet against a shaggy brown coat. - -Also wet were the faces of a light-haired youth, and a little teacher of -English as she is Japped. - -[Illustration] - - - - -_Where the Road Dips_ - -HENRY FLETCHER HARRIS - - - Post-Oak and hickory talk in air, - And mutter where the roadway dips; - And tree-toads croak; and darkness drips; - And blackberries trail live fragrance there. - - Ragweed and horehound, sage and mint, - And many a nameless herb beside, - Work homely magic—at one stride - The Past returns the way it went! - - Chuckle of water greets the ear; - The light wind tries the brake and goes; - Far off the summer lightning shows, - But summer thunder comes not near. - - This tender darkness stills the heart - As with old music; and the stars - Drop coolness where the shadow-bars - Of many branches mix and part. - - A voice comes on the wind-thrilled night - Long drowned amid the roaring years; - My eyes are stung with blinding tears, - And fear and doubt dissolve in light! - -[Illustration: _How Long Will We Tolerate This Outrage?_ - - _Westerman, in Ohio State Journal_] - -[Illustration: _Why the People Love the Senate._ - - _McCutcheon, in Chicago Tribune_] - -[Illustration: _The Man Congress Should Go For_. - - _Westerman, in Ohio State Journal_] - - - - -_Repeal the Land Laws_ - -BY HUGH J. HUGHES - - -There remains something considerably less than 500,000,000 acres of -public land open to settlement. From this total amount careful and -conservative estimates deduct 300,000,000 acres as not suited to present -known methods of agriculture. The remaining 200,000,000 of the public -domain is passing into the hands of private individuals at a rate -exceeding 17,000,000 acres per year. At the present rate of diminution -the valuable public domain will be exhausted within the next decade and a -half. - -The public domain lies largely in the States and Territories of Arizona, -Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, -Colorado, South and North Dakota and California. In Texas, by virtue of -the agreement with the United States at the time of annexation, the title -to the public lands rests in the State. Liberal grants to the Western -States, of lands for school and institutional purposes, should be added -to the public domain in order to arrive at the total land available for -future settlement. These State lands are sold at prices somewhat below -the price of similar unimproved lands in the same locality, but on long -terms, and appeal about equally to the farmers and the speculators. -Their gradual disposal is placing in the treasuries of the Eastern -States a large school fund. The people are the beneficiaries under the -administration of the State land laws. A possible 50,000,000 acres of -farming land is available from this source after the National domain is -gone. It is well to note in passing that the value of the State lands -rises in proportion to that of surrounding lands. It is controlled and -disposed of with entirely different motives from those supposed to govern -the control and disposal of the lands of the general Government. It is -not free land in any sense of the word. - -There are many who, remembering how the Western limit of grain raising -has crept westward across Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, look for a -repetition, or, more properly speaking, a continuation of this phenomenon -across the remaining public domain. It is true that we are only on -the borderland of plant-breeding possibilities. Spelz, or macaroni -wheat, Kaffir corn, and other drought-resistant cereals are making a -marvelous change in Western farming conditions, and in the certainty -of crop maturity; but as was stated before, under known conditions, -only two-fifths of all this Western land is now or will ever be adapted -to agriculture. On the remaining three-fifths, grazing, limited in -amount, will continue to be profitable. Within this large area lie -the giant ridges of the Rocky Mountains. Great gulches channel their -slopes. Valleys are strewn with the debris of ages of erosion. Rain -fall is scanty. Water supplied from artesian wells has only a limited -possibility of use. Irrigation is local in application, and limited not -only by stream supply, but also by the topography of the country. We have -reached the limits of the immediate adaptation of agriculture to climatic -conditions. - -The area of the valuable public domain is measurable, but it is as yet -not measured. To the eastward of the area named there is some land still -open to settlement under the homestead act. What sort of land is it? -Land covered with glacial drift, swamps, hills, sandy land—the cast away -heritage of three generations of keen-eyed farmers. Greater stress of -need will bring some of this under the plow, but the fact remains that it -is undesirable land, viewed from the standpoint of the man who desires -not only a home, but a competence. - -Alaska, with unknown but probably limited agricultural possibilities, is -already beginning to attract the attention of the speculative public. -Farmers are not greatly interested in the development of agriculture in a -region so remote and where the season precludes farming on a broad scale. - -This somewhat lengthy statement of present day conditions is necessary in -order to understand the danger that menaces us as a people through the -alienation of the public domain from its legitimate uses. The land open -to settlement is passing, not into the possession of makers of homes, but -into the hands of speculators who are enriching themselves in the first -instance at the expense of the farmers, but ultimately at that of the -people at large. - -The vast grants to the transcontinental railroads, by means of which the -Government paid private parties royally for building roads that have, -since their construction, charged the people for services rendered “all -the traffic will bear,” threw open, wide open, the doors to the land -speculator. - -Railroad lands were bought up at a low figure by companies backed by -Eastern capital, just as today similar companies are buying up and -exploiting the Canadian Northwest. Settlers were sought for and brought -in by the car load. They were located on a quarter section of Government -land, and sold as much more of the adjoining speculators’ land as they -could be persuaded to buy. Under other firm names these same gentlemen -who exploited the public and corporation lands sold horses and farm -machinery to the new settler, taking mortgages as partial security on -crops not yet grown. The lean years came, and the land companies reaped -to the full their harvests. - -So passed away from the people millions of acres of land in the Dakotas, -Nebraska, Kansas and the bordering States. Today that land is selling -back to the people at prices ranging from $10 to $40 an acre—land which I -have seen sold under the sheriff’s hammer at less than $1.00 an acre. - -These land agencies are, in a thousand ways, busying themselves in the -securing of further lands for speculative purposes. The days of wholesale -grants having gone by, they are turning their attention to the lands of -the individual settler, and under their tutelage clerks, teachers, town -men and women, hired laborers, men who do not know wheat from barley or -rye from flax, are filing upon the last of the tillable public lands. -Under the homestead law, these settlers are allowed six months after -entry in which to establish homes on their land. This time is taken full -advantage of. Then a board shack is built and the law complied with by -the breaking of a few acres of sod. Eight months more of (constructive) -continuous residence, and the land becomes the property of the settler -upon a cash payment of $1.25 to $2.50 an acre, according to location. The -company furnishes the commutation money and “finds” a purchaser for the -claim. The shack is boarded up or moved off. The sod grows to weeds. The -settler, having made from $800 to $2,500 by a little enterprise and a -good deal of perjury, is eliminated from the problem. - -This cat’s-paw of organized land plunder is securing for his principals -a large, a very large, percentage of all the public lands passing under -private ownership. It would be safe to say that one holding out of every -four passes into speculative hands. Judged by conditions, past and -existing, in the two Dakotas, this estimate might be doubled, and yet -fall within the facts. On this point see the report of the Commissioner -of the General Land Office for 1905. The land companies immediately -list their newly acquired lands, and by an ingenious system of “booms,” -carefully nursed and let loose at the proper time, they advance the price -of their lands to a point sometimes double or treble the original market -value of the raw prairies. This is wholly, or almost wholly, a paper -increase in value. Roads, schools, markets remain as before save for the -change wrought by the actual settlers. - -This is, in essence, the same thing as the watering of railroad or -other stocks, and it is done for the same purpose—that the “ins”—the -land speculators—may fatten on the “outs”—the farmers. And if the land -valuations now obtaining in the fringe of settlement bordering the public -domain be from 25 to 75 per cent water, how about its effect on the land -values in older sections—say in Iowa, or Ohio, or Illinois? - -Obviously the price will be enhanced. And the immediate, discernible -effect of that is to render it more difficult for the landless man to -become an owner. I have seen land go from $25 an acre to $60 and over, -in Iowa and other States in the East. The land utility is the same as -in years gone by. It will raise no more—sometimes less than former -years. But every dollar added to the price has increased the rental, and -decreased the possibilities of a laboring man becoming owner of his own -farm. - -Someone will say that this is untrue; that the returns from an acre of -land are today greater than in former years. What I mean is that an acre -of land cropped for ten or fifteen or twenty years is no more valuable -today as a producer of grain or live stock than it was then. The added -value of the crop is due to better markets, better implements, better -knowledge of agriculture. In other words it is a net gain due to labor -and intelligence, and as such should go to labor. Instead of that it is -consumed in rent. With every advance in the values of Western lands and -the consequent narrowing of the opportunities afforded the landless man -of the Eastern and Central States, the values, or rather the prices, of -these older lands advance. - -And if the speculator is able at this time to force the price of land up -by leaps and bounds—if he can take raw prairie and, without adding to -its value by so much as one furrow of breaking or one bushel of ripened -grain, can make it double his money for him, how will it be when the last -of the tillable public lands are taken? How will it be when the only -desirable vacant lands are held for speculative purposes? How will it be -when there is no alternative between paying some farmer for a part of his -holding or paying some land company its price, based upon monopolistic -values? - -Today, in the West, favored by cheap land—$25 to $30 an acre—I am giving -$1.30 as rental for every $1.00 I receive as tenant. Here it still is -possible for a man to start single handed and win a farm, but the crops -remain about the same, the prices are slowly bettering, the cost of the -bare necessities of living is lowering, the price of land is rapidly -advancing, the rental is going up, and my wages as a tenant are becoming -relatively less. I can still say, “Unless you give me a living chance, I -will go to the free lands and make my own home.” I still can pay for a -home for myself here. But I know that a decade hence conditions will have -changed. There will be no ‘farther West’ in the sense in which we know it -today. The increased land values will shut out a great body of men from -becoming land owners, or they will achieve their aim only at the expense -of a life-time of grinding toil. The basis of a landed aristocracy on -the one hand, and of a landless tenant class on the other will have been -laid. And you do not live so far to the Eastward, nor are you so deeply -buried in the great cities that the thrill of that new birth of despotism -shall not reach you, and be a portent of danger to your independence as a -citizen and as a man. - -Repeal the land laws! Let the settlement of the public domain cease -until we know its capabilities. Better to deprive a few worthy men and -women of the advantage afforded by the laws than to throw away the -birthright of unborn millions. We do not know very much as yet about the -ability of the West to sustain population, but this we do know, that -no general land law can apply to this great semi-arid region and give -anything like equal justice. Investigate carefully the areas desired -for settlement. Make the unit of the homestead variable, according to -the amount needed to support a family. In irrigated sections but a few -acres will suffice. In even the drier districts it may well be questioned -whether more than 160 acres should be granted any one settler. We -cover altogether too much ground. Our Western farming has borne bitter -harvestings of the weed called “land hunger.” We need to concentrate. - -And whatever laws may be enacted, they should be of such a character as -will stop speculation in lands intended for the people. Let the lands -be sold, and no title pass until after a reasonably long term of years, -and after actual continuous residence and actual valuable improvements -have shown beyond question that home making was the primary object of the -settler. - -But the urgent present need is for repeal of the various laws that permit -this land plunder. We can settle details of future administration later -on. We cannot later on return to the people their stolen lands. - -[Illustration] - - -_Candid_ - -Mrs. NEWROCKS—If there’s anything I hate it’s writing letters. - -NEWROCKS—Do you? - -Mrs. NEWROCKS—Yes, indeed. I wish somebody would invent an easy -substitute for spelling. - - -_Proof_ - -FIRST COMMUTER—This is a one-horse railroad, anyhow. - -SECOND COMMUTER—Of course it is. Why, J. P. Morgan never tried to get -control of it. - - - - -[Illustration: THE TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE - -BY CLARENCE S. DARROW.] - - -It was in 1850 that William Henry came to Chicago. He was then a young -man of twenty-five and fresh from his father’s farm. While William was -still in his teens it was plain that the slow life of New England would -never satisfy his ambitions and desires and so his restless nature turned -him to the great, wide West. - -William had scarcely landed in the little, muddy, struggling town before -he knew that he and the city would grow up together. Even in its early -days, Chicago had that wonderful power which clings to it still—that -power of inspiring every one who touches it with absolute confidence in -its greatness and its strength. - -When William Henry came to Chicago it was a little village stuck fast -in the swamp and mud that bordered the great lake, while in every other -direction stretched the endless prairie with its black soil and its -green, waving grass. But William Henry was young and Chicago was young -and even then in his imagination he saw before him the endless stone -streets and the unnumbered stores and factories and homes that the future -years would bring. - -He had not long been in Chicago before he caught the spirit of its vigor -and they both marched rapidly toward wealth and power. He soon founded a -tobacco warehouse and salesroom on Lake Street, and his business steadily -increased with the growth of the city until he gained that imposing title -of dignity, influence, selfishness and narrowness, “a business man.” As -he left the busy years behind, his warehouse grew greater, and he moved -from place to place until he occupied a whole building on Lake Street -which he had bought and paid for from the incense that a generous people -was everlastingly sending up, if not to his glory, still to his profit. - -William Henry had come from the farm, and with all his city life and -training he kept the inborn love for the soil, for the blue sky, the open -air and a piece of land big enough for a cottage, a garden, a barn and a -chicken house—such necessities as he had known in his younger days. These -simple surroundings of a rural life which seem hard and bare while they -are living things, because of the toil and pains that all the necessities -of life impose—these simple companions of our youth seem, somehow, to -grow into the fiber of our being, and when we look back upon them from -our artificial surroundings and our worn out feelings, the mist of the -gathering years covers them with a glamor that makes us think that our -childhood was lived in a fairyland. - -So when business grew prosperous, Henry looked for a piece of land. He -did not want a twenty-five foot lot or even an acre, but he wanted a -fine, big “patch” on which he “could turn around.” He always kept a horse -and buggy, and every Sunday after his week’s work was done, he would -drive out into the country to find a “patch.” He drove out beyond the -brick stores; out beyond the houses and frame cottages; out beyond the -utmost limit of the place; out on the open prairie, covered with water -in the spring and rank with high weeds and waving grass in the summer -months, and out there in the country he found a “patch” of fifty acres -of raw prairie, which, like a herd of wild horses on the plains, had -never been subdued by man. His friends and neighbors laughed when he told -them of his “farm” clear out beyond the confines of civilization, almost -to the red man’s reservation, but he told them to wait and see. In his -prophetic brain there rose the scene of a great city, stretching out -along the lake, reaching far to the north and south and west—a wondrous -conglomeration of all the people of the earth drawn together by the magic -name “Chicago.” - -In his vision, he could see railroads and street cars, stone pavements -and brick houses covering the “patch” with teeming life. Poor Henry, he -was not a fool; he was too wise. For there are two men for whom the world -never has any use; one is the fool and the other the philosopher. The -fool believes that there is nothing but today; the wise man thinks that -there is nothing but tomorrow. So the fool toils and the wise man dreams, -and the mediocre man reaps the harvest—reaps the harvest born of the poor -man’s work and the wise man’s dreams. - -When William Henry bought this patch, he had a vision of a time when -relieved from business cares, he would build a house like the one his -father owned, only on a larger scale. He would have a garden, such as it -seemed to him was planted behind his father’s house. He would have a barn -with horses, and cows that gave real milk, and a chicken house where real -eggs were laid, and then, still further on in the magical future that he -knew was in store for the city that he loved, he saw his “patch” cut up -into building lots and covered with stores and factories and houses built -of brick and stone and standing firm and brave to verify his faith and -dreams. - -So Sunday after Sunday he drove to his “Farm”, week by week he carried -out his neighbors and his friends. He planted trees and he dug a well. He -worked and planned and planted and dreamed out on his “patch” beyond the -great town ever reaching farther and farther toward the cherished spot. - -Well, the dreams and plans of man all go for naught in the presence of -the blind forces that control the world, and one day Henry was startled -by the cry of fire. In the twinkling of an eye his warehouse was in -flames and all of his tobacco at once turned into smoke, without so -much as the aid of a single pipe. When Henry awoke from his stupor, all -Chicago was a smoldering heap of ashes, and he was a ruined man. The only -thing that escaped the flames was the little green patch so far away on -the prairies that even the fire scorned to search it out. - -Henry no longer had the strength and energy of twenty years before, but -he did the best he could. He built a little cigar store in place of the -great warehouse that was once his pride. He still went back and forth on -Sundays to his patch of ground, and now he dreamed only of a little house -out there on the farm where he might keep a cow and some chickens, and -return to the simple life that his childhood years had known. But there -was one man who found his patch, and this was the tax gatherer. No land -was ever yet too far away for him. Year by year, the assessor put a value -on his farm, and the little cigar store could not yield the revenue to -pay. Of course, he never dreamed of selling the land to some one else; no -one does. Deep in the soul of man is planted the old inborn desire to own -a portion of the earth. - -When Henry had no money to pay the tax, some of the “patch” was sold. -With never failing regularity the assessment came, and with almost equal -regularity a piece of the “patch” was sold to a buyer of tax-titles. -Finally, one Sunday in the early spring, Henry drove down to his little -farm. It was the first visit since the fall. Here and there a swale -filled with the rain of early spring stood in his path. Now and then the -black mud of the rich prairie held his buggy fast, but finally, after -much time and trouble, he reached the farm, and there, plain before his -eyes, was a high, tight board fence which barred him out. His first -impulse was to go back and get a gang of men to tear down the fence; his -next was to hire a lawyer. After some search he found a lawyer that he -thought would do. The lawyer knew more about the case when it was done -than when he started bravely in. Of course, Henry had no money, else the -taxes would have been paid, so the lawyer took the case on shares and -agreed to pay the costs, and then they started in to get the “patch.” - -No one familiar with the courts would expect me to tell the history of -this case. It is familiar to even the common lawyer who reads the State -reports. It was about the year 1880 that Henry’s lawyer filed the first -papers in the court. The lawyer was young and full of hope—full of the -hope that is the heritage of all the young; the hope that gives courage -to live and fight and endure in the vain belief that it all counts for -something; the hope that keeps alive while years and adversity, with -their deadening, staggering blows, teach that all strivings are equally -vain. But Henry’s lawyer was young. He had the money to commence the suit -and he thought that this would be enough. Both Henry and his lawyer could -see the fence fall down and the farm platted and sold and their money in -the bank, while Henry’s life was in the early autumn and the lawyer’s in -the first green of summer time. But the days and weeks and months and -years went by. - -At first they lost the case, but they were not cast down. There were -other courts that were better because they were higher up, and besides -all this, the law provided that in a contest for real estate each side -had the right to try his case twice, and the right to go each time to the -highest court of the State. Had Henry’s life been at stake he could have -had but a single chance and no right to go to a higher court, unless the -judges graciously granted him permission, and then only on the showing -that he was innocent of the crime. But land is one thing and life is -another. And this is quite right, for the amount of land upon the earth -is fixed, while there is no limit to human life. - -Well, in a year or two the Supreme Court reversed the case, and then -Henry and his lawyer had another chance. In the meantime two more years -were passed in waiting and the case came on again. This time Henry won. -It was the turn of the other side to find a higher court. But the Supreme -Court found a flaw and sent it back to be tried again. Two or three more -years were spent in waiting before the case was reached. At last it -came again. Henry had grown old and white and feeble; his clothes, too, -were shabby and unkempt. His little cigar store had dwindled until only -his old comrades came to loaf and talk of the grand old days “before -the fire.” Henry never doubted that he would win. Through it all he had -held the same faith in final victory that he had ever cherished about -the future of his “patch.” He had lived to see cable cars run past his -land, to see crosstown electric cars on each side of the little farm, and -to see the elevated road stretching slowly down in anticipation of the -sub-division that would one day come. - -Henry took the stand and told the story of his “patch,” of his early -years when he drove out on the raw prairie and fixed the stakes; of his -Sunday pilgrimages with his many friends; of his well, and grove and -green hedge; of the high board fence that he found on the spring day so -long ago. He looked like a patriarch as he sat bent over in the witness -chair, and his voice and story was that of some long-forgotten day. - -The jury could not resist the old man’s case and again he won. Once more -the other side took it to the higher court, but found no relief. Still, -under the rules of the law, they had the right to one more trial, because -a piece of real estate was involved. So, of course, they took the last -chance that the wisdom of the law held out to them. - -In the meantime, Henry’s lawyer had spent $5,000 and waited twelve long -years. He was no longer young, and most of the illusions and dreams of -early life had passed away. He was fighting now from habit, and because -he had learned that there was really not much else in life. He knew that -one fights for the sake of fighting, not for the hope of any reward that -falls to the victorious cause. Two years more dragged on. Henry, of -course, grew older and more shabby year by year; then, too, disease had -come with age; poverty and age and disease often travel hand in hand. -This is when poverty comes in the latter part of life. When it comes in -youth the lucky victim misses age. Henry had an iron will, and then he -had a life’s ambition which seemed to defy years and poverty and disease. -But time is the only warrior that never knows defeat, and it was plain -that age and sickness were to triumph even here. - -Finally, one day the long-looked-for trial came. If Henry won, this would -be the end. It was now fifteen years since the first paper was filed. -The lawyer sent a carriage for Henry on this long-to-be-remembered day. -It came back empty to the court. Henry had been taken to the hospital in -the morning before the carriage came. He had protested, and asked to go -to court, but it was of no avail, so they drove him to the great brick -building and carried him slowly to the elevator and took him to the top -floor and laid him on the bed. He asked for his lawyer, and was told that -he was busy with the case, which he had concluded to try without his -client’s presence in the court. - -Day after day dragged on; each night Henry asked about his case; each -day he was told that he was sure to win. The nurse knew nothing about -the case, she saw only the old sick man, as white as the spotless -coverlet that she smoothed tenderly above his wasted form. She knew that -he might as well spend his last few hours in peace, so she told him that -the case was coming along all right and that he was sure to win. Henry’s -mind was failing with his strength. The nurse could never tell when he -was asleep or awake. Sometimes he seemed to be back on his father’s farm, -a little boy. Again, he was driving out over the bare prairie looking -for his “patch.” Then he wanted to get out of bed and buy a cow and some -chickens for his “farm,” and then he sank to sleep. - -In the meantime, the lawyer fought valiantly along. Finally the case -was ended, and for the last time the jury gave the land to Henry. The -lawyer waited only to hear the verdict read, then rushed to the elevator -and down to the street. He took a carriage and told the driver to go -with all speed to the hospital. He ran to the wide approach, passed the -doorkeeper, went up the stairs two steps at a time and turned down the -hall. He stopped at Henry’s door, opened it softly and went in. - -The nurse was standing silent near the little iron bed. At the window -the setting sun was struggling through the smoke and grime of the great -city and painting the sky with a dull red glare. Its last beams struggled -through the dim window and fell upon the white coverlet, the worn, sad -face and the scattering hair. Henry was as still as the bed on which he -lay. - -The lawyer looked down at the old, white face, and saw the eyes staring -out at the red beams of the setting sun. He could plainly see that they -rested on nothing this side of the crimson sky. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration: A RADICAL CORPUSCLE - -BY CHARLES FORT.] - - -A white corpuscle, of venerable and intellectual appearance, dug a claw -into the lining of an artery and paused. - -Past him surged millions of his fellows, all intent upon doing what -they believed they had been sent into the Man to do, which was to earn -a living; tired mother-leucocytes, starting out upon the day’s work -dragging small leucocytes after them; young leucocytes, with not a -care in the world and never a thought for tomorrow; serious-looking -leucocytes, weighed down with responsibilities. - -Here and there were some whose individuality would attract attention—that -old fellow with the prominent proboscis, forced along in the rush, -as others were, but at the head of an association formed by him, so -benevolent to himself that he got all the white meat, while the workers -divided pickings, of every disease germ captured. There had been battles -with an invasion of diphtheria germs, skirmishes with germs of typhoid, -small-pox, and scarlet fever. The leucocytes had overcome every enemy, -and they were a triumphant, arrogant race. - -The venerable corpuscle might have clung where he was, all day, -without interfering with traffic, were it not for a peculiarity of the -corpuscles. A very hungry white corpuscle, coursing ravenously, noticed -the venerable old gentleman, and paused. Stronger than even hunger was -his feeling that he should have to learn why the old gentleman was -standing on a corner, instead of pouncing, grabbing, and struggling. -Small leucocytes, with messages to deliver, paused and gaped; and, -because they paused and gaped, such a crowd gathered that a burly -corpuscle, with a stout club, came along and growled: - -“G’wan, now! don’t be blocking up this artery.” - -But the wise old corpuscle had provided himself with a permit. - -He began: “Fellow leucocytes——” - -“Hooray!” from irresponsible, small leucocytes. - -“Fellow leucocytes, I look around and see among you some who may remember -me. These may recall that a long time ago I withdrew from the activity -and excitement of our affairs, and may wonder where I have been. I -have been secluded in the land of gray soil at the upper end of our -world. In a remote convolution of this gray matter I have lived and -have absorbed something of a strange spirit permeating it—the spirit -of intelligence—and I have learned much from it. I feel that I have a -mission among you. Let me start it abruptly with a question. Fellow -leucocytes, do you know why we are placed here in this Man?” - -“To get all we can out of it!” answered a sleek, shiny corpuscle. - -The others laughed good-naturedly, agreeing that this was their sole -reason for being. - -“Out of _it_!” cried the wise old corpuscle. “Why not out of _him_? Then -you don’t believe that the Man we inhabit is a living creature? You -think that because his life is not like our life, he has no life? And -you think that, when you can feel the element of him that we inhabit, -pulsate?” - -“Oh, that’s only the tide!” - -“You have never heard his voice?” - -“Nothing but thunder!” - -“You think he never moves?” - -“Nothing but a manquake, now and then.” - -“You doubt that he is kept alive by internal heat, just as we are? For, -without heat, there could not be life.” - -A studious white corpuscle had become so interested that he permitted -a fine plump pneumonia germ to pass him without pouncing upon it. He -stepped forward and said, learnedly: - -“Yes, there is internal heat in the world we inhabit, but we are taught -that the Man was once a ball of fire and is now gradually cooling off. -It is ridiculous to say it is alive like us. Look how fine and delicate -is our flesh; see the Man made of coarse, rough substance forming banks -along every river we navigate. Think of how tremendous its heat is, when -it is great enough to keep these teeming millions of us from perishing! -Could any living creature produce such heat? You say we can feel it move? -It must move very infrequently then, for these manquakes are far apart. -And you regard as a pulsating, the coming and going of the tide? Why, our -hearts beat thousands of times in the span of one ebb and flow of the -tide we are familiar with!” - -Said the wise old corpuscle: “I say that not only is this Man alive, but -that he, and millions like him, inhabit a world as vast to him as he is -to us.” - -“Oh, let the old fellow rave!” laughed good-natured leucocytes. - -But the financier-corpuscle, with the prominent proboscis, coming along -with a germ under each arm, rolling half a dozen others in front of him, -muttered, savagely: - -“Another of those cursed agitators!” - -“This wide Man of ours,” pursued the cursed agitator, “is between five -and six feet in length, according to his system of measuring. The world -that he inhabits is twenty-five thousand miles in circumference. -Telepathy has told me so; I have been able to interpret throbs of his -intellect to mine. He calls his world the Earth. I say that he is a white -corpuscle to the Earth, as we are to him. He will not accept this belief. -He argues as do you. Flesh that he lives upon is so gross that he calls -it rock and soil; as rivers and brooks he looks upon arteries and veins. -He knows of a tide and sees it pulsate. During one ebb and flow, his -own heart beats thousands of times. He says the Moon causes the tide. -Perhaps; then the Moon is the Earth’s heart. He feels agitations similar -to those we know as manquakes. They are very infrequent. He knows that -there is heat in the Earth, but can not conceive that it is a source of -life, because of its extreme degree. He has no sense of proportion. He -can not conceive that a tremendous creature with an existence of ages -must move, breathe, and throb in proportion to bulk and longevity, and be -sustained by heat that would consume him.” - -“Too deep for me!” cried a group of young leucocytes. “Oh, he’s some kind -of a fake! Start in advertising something, in a minute!” Each jumped on a -red corpuscle and went sliding down hill. - -But the studious white corpuscle again stepped forward. - -“Friends,” he said, “let us not deride this old person. Let us, rather, -point out his astonishing errors to him. Be tolerant, I say! Be -tolerant, by all means, even when we are opposed. Sir, we’ll admit that -there are many Men instead of only this one, and that all inhabit some -vast creature that they call the Earth. But what for? We are here for -pleasure, profit, and to store up germs.” - -“Are we? For a long time it has been my theory that we are here solely -for the welfare of the Man we inhabit; that our food and our enemies are -elements inimical to him; we remove them in his behalf.” - -“Vile agitator!” The financier-corpuscle, coursing round again, was so -agitated that he nearly dropped a germ. - -“Let him speak!” urged the studious corpuscle. “His views differ from -mine, but I will be tolerant! I have arguments that will silence him -soon. Now, then, my friend, if our reason for being is such as you -describe, and you liken men to us, these many men you speak of must -occupy a relation to their Earth similar to ours to this Man. Do they -pounce upon and destroy every organism malignant to their creature?” - -“I have no doubt of it!” cried the old corpuscle. “I believe that, -existing with those that are workers, are others, similar to them but -idle or weak, or, at any rate, of no value to the Earth. I do not say -that these worthless ones are pounced upon and eaten, but I do believe -that in some way those of no value are forced out of existence; perhaps, -besides weak and idle individuals, there are whole tribes who are being -exterminated, unable to survive in the struggle with the fit.” - -“What industrious, unselfish beings these Men must be to do so much for -their Earth!” sneered a doubter. - -“Now, let him speak!” urged the tolerant philosopher. “I have arguments -that will destroy his views, in a moment. Let there be freedom of speech, -by all means!” - -“Industrious and unselfish?” repeated the old corpuscle. “Are we? -Industrious, yes; but unselfish, no! For our own existence we are working -in this Man’s behalf. We are not philanthropists. For the necessities -of life we perform our appointed functions, most of us never dreaming -that we are laboring in the interests of the Man we inhabit. So it is, -I believe, with them! I can’t quite imagine what their beneficent tasks -are, but perhaps they till the soil, as we till the soil of this Man, -keeping the Earth’s system in good order, doing everything in the belief -that they are working only for themselves.” - -“Pursue your analogy!” cried the rival philosopher. “If we populate a -living creature, then the creature inhabited by Man must itself be a -corpuscle floating in the system of something inconceivably vaster. We -are leucocytes to Men; Men are to the Earth; then hordes of Earths are -to a Universe? You speak of many Men. Are there hordes of Earths?” - -“You have expressed a thought of my own! I believe that there are other -creatures like the Earth. Perhaps they are faintly visible to the Earth. -Perhaps they revolve and have orbits and course through a system just as -we do.” - -“There,” cried the old corpuscle’s opponent, “I’ve got you! Be tolerant -to him, my friends; I’ll silence him in a moment. My friend, then these -vast revolving creatures like the Earth are remote from one another? They -float in nothingness, then? But you have called them corpuscles, or tiny -parts of a whole. How can they be parts of a solid, when they are widely -separated bodies floating in nothingness?” - -“Take an object of any kind,” was the answer. “Of what is it composed? -You call it a solid, but I have lingered long enough in this Man’s brain -to catch glimmers of what he calls the atomic theory. This doctrine is, -that all matter is composed of ultra-microscopic particles known as -molecules. These molecules are not stationary; they revolve; they have -orbits; in everything you think solid and dead, tiny specks of itself are -floating and are never still. A myriad worlds like the Earth, are only -molecules floating in ether, forming a solid, just as the molecules of -any substance you are familiar with form a solid. Only comparatively are -they far apart, as to a creature microscopic enough, the molecules of a -bit of bone would seem far apart and not forming a solid, at all. To the -molecules nearest to him he would give names, such as Neptune or Mars; -like Men, he would call them planets; remoter molecules would be stars.” - -“Wretched nonsense!” cried the other philosopher-corpuscle. For he had no -argument left. “Subversive of all modern thought! You ought to be locked -up for promulgating your wild views! I’ll be the first to hang you, if -someone will bring a rope! You have it that all existence is a solid, -then? That a myriad worlds like your fancied Earth are molecules to an -ultimate creature? But there can, then, be no ultimate creature; he, in -turn is but a microscopic part of— Beware of him and don’t listen to him, -my friends!” - -Suddenly a number of rough-looking corpuscles began to circulate through -the crowd, paid in typhoid germs by the wrathful financier-corpuscle, -who, standing farther down the artery, could not control his excitement, -as he cried: - -“Vile agitator! Already there is too much murmuring against my invested -rights!” - -“You tell us,” shouted a rough-looking corpuscle, “that we, the -conquering inhabitants of this Man, fresh from a war in which we were -gloriously victorious, are placed in this Man only for his welfare?” - -The crowd muttered indignantly. - -“Fellow leucocytes,” said the old philosopher, earnestly, “I do tell -you that! Through our own selfish motives we do our best to benefit -him, but each one of us for himself only, haphazard and without system. -Then never mind what Man’s relation to his Earth may be, and never mind -what his Earth’s relation to its Universe may be; let us think only -of our relation to this Man. Let us have done with our grabbing and -monopolizing, and study and find out just what is best for us to do in -our appointed task of taking care of this Man. With that view, let us all -work together and overcome that egotism that makes the thought of our own -true humble sphere so repellent——” - -But, excited by the defeated philosopher-corpuscle and the emissaries of -the financier-corpuscle, the crowd had become a mob. Angrily it shouted: - -“And he says that we, with our great warriors and leaders, our marvellous -enterprises, our wondrous inventions, are only insignificant scavengers -of this Man we inhabit? Down with him! Or, if we’re too civilized to tear -him apart, put him away where he belongs!” - -And the fate of the wise old corpuscle would have been the fate common -enough in the tragedies of philosophy, were it not that a few disciples -hurried him away, seeking refuge in a tiny vein far from battle, -struggle, and selfishness. - -“He says we were made for the Man!” jeered the few leucocytes who gave -the distasteful doctrine another thought. “But we know, and have every -reason to know, that this Man was made for us!” - - - - -_Election Reforms_ - -THE TREND TOWARD DEMOCRACY - -BY J. C. RUPPENTHAL - - -Broadly speaking, election is simply choice. In a narrower sense the -term is limited to the choice of persons for political offices, or for -nomination to such offices, by the people, or by a somewhat numerous -body, as distinguished from appointment by a single person; or the -determination of other questions submitted by law to popular vote. - -This paper seeks to present the general features of American laws in the -nature of election reform, in the narrower sense, with especial reference -to the decisions of the highest courts thereon. - -When the thirteen original American Colonies revolted against the mother -country, their government was essentially that which had been evolved in -a thousand years of struggle and conflict in England. But in details, -there was as wide divergence as could well be imagined among people of -practically common origin, race, religion and language. With the more -permanent union under the Federal Constitution came an impulse to conform -much governmental procedure to a common standard. Especially was this -true in the matter of elections. - -After 130 years of trial and change, nearly all of the States vote on the -same day, choose representatives in Congress and Presidential electors, -as well as most other officers in the same manner, and do not differ -very widely in methods of voting. The qualifications of Electors are -somewhat diverse, though probably less so than at the beginning, and -everywhere the right of suffrage has been widely extended. The period -of active assimilation to common standards lasted to the time of the -Civil War. Then the universal, extended and heated discussion of human -rights, the fury of partisanship, the passions engendered in the great -internecine conflict, the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, -and following all this, the expansion of the nation in wealth and power, -together with the accumulation of colossal fortunes, and the growth -of corporate importance and influence, all these led to the trial and -testing of the most fundamental and long-established rights of man, while -every new measure in law, has had to run the gantlet from the preliminary -proposal in caucus, convention, primary, or elsewhere, to the final -decision thereon in the highest judicial tribunal. There was no final -judicial inquiry into the right of suffrage until in 1857 in New York and -in 1859 in North Carolina; but such became numerous in the reconstruction -period. From questioning new rights of black men, it was a short step to -attacking old rights of white men. - -How the matter of popular elections has grown in importance may in a -degree be illustrated by the court decisions. The syllabi up to September -1, 1896, in all State and Federal cases affecting elections, occupy -553 columns of a digest; for the eight and one-half years immediately -following, up to April 1, 1905, 396 columns are so filled. Seemingly -nearly four-fifths as many points relative to the elective franchise have -been passed on in less than a decade, as in the earlier 120 years of free -government. Except in the instance of Kentucky, 1889, on the Australian -ballot for the city of Louisville, no question reached a court of last -resort prior to 1890 on such matters as the Australian ballot, factional -nominations, and nomination papers, while in that year four such cases -were decided in the New York Court of Appeals alone, and others in -Montana and Missouri. - -In the earlier, simpler, primitive days an important aim was the securing -to each State its rights, real or fancied; latterly more attention has -been given to the rights of the individual to an effective share in -Government from its beginning in primary election, caucus, convention, or -otherwise, within a party or without it, and continuing until his wishes -are at last crystallized in the form of laws, and to protection against -fraud, violence and intimidation while exercising the prerogatives of an -enfranchised citizen. Not unknown are instances of denying rights already -possessed and restricting privileges long exercised. There has been -tyrannical suppression of individuals and classes. But the sweep of the -years, though slow-moving, has been in consonance with the Declaration of -Independence—“to secure these rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit -of happiness, governments are instituted among men deriving their just -powers from the consent of the governed.” - - Yet I doubt not, through the ages, - One increasing purpose runs, - And the thoughts of man are widened - With the process of the suns. - -In the recent movement for election reforms, four lines of advance are -marked: (1)—To secure the voter, by protecting him from evil influences, -as is the object of the various “corrupt practices acts” and kindred -laws; by guarding him against fraud, intimidation and overawing, by -means of an absolutely secret ballot, as under the Australian system; -and by preventing, as with voting-machines, any manipulation of ballots -or count. (2)—To extend the franchise by reducing the qualifications -of Electors, and so making suffrage more nearly universal, as in the -15th Amendment, and the laws enabling women to vote. (3)—To increase -popular control over officials and their acts, over law-making, and over -the initial steps in making nominations, as in making offices elective -instead of appointive, in adopting the initiative, the referendum, and -the recall, and in prescribing legal forms for primary elections and -making nominations. (4)—To secure more equitable representation of -every individual, class, party or interest; to avoid the despotism of -a majority, or worse yet, a plurality; and to prevent the practical -effacement of minorities. - -(1) To preserve the purity of elections, many states have “Corrupt -Practices acts” forbidding the purchase of votes, directly or indirectly, -by candidates, committees or others, with money, intoxicating liquors, -cigars, promise of office, or otherwise. Some limit the amount of -expenditures of candidates; others require detailed sworn statements of -campaign outlays to be publicly filed. President Roosevelt in at least -his last two messages urged Congress to enact stringent laws to prevent -bribery and corruption in Federal elections, and to secure publicity of -the expenses of candidates, parties and committees, and of the source of -contributions. - -Voting was doubtless at first _viva voce_. In some States, particularly -in the South, elections were so conducted for many years, and in Kentucky -this was in accordance with a constitutional provision. For a number of -reasons, however, voting by ballot was adopted in all the States, either -originally, or superseding the _viva voce_ method. - -The written or printed ballot was gradually perverted to such degree that -in 1857 the legislature of South Australia adopted an official secret -ballot, printed and paid for by the public, and wholly controlled and -handled by public officers. The idea was speedily carried to England, -spread over Continental Europe, and at a somewhat later date reached the -United States, where in some form, almost everywhere modified, it has -become part of the electoral machinery in every State, under the name of -Australian ballot. On first test in American courts, the system was held -to be unconstitutional, but it has later been sustained almost everywhere -as being merely regulative. The tendency of these laws has been to make -elections more formal, and less flexible. Changes on the ballot and -“scratching” are no longer possible with the ease of the old private -ballot system. But in general the voter’s choice is not restricted to -the names printed on the ballot. Constitutional guarantees of secrecy -are not impaired by those clauses which permit aid by election officers, -to the disabled or illiterate, in marking the ballot. In some States, -as Tennessee and Maryland, illiterates are indirectly or partially -disfranchised by laws which permit aid only to persons “that by reason of -blindness or other physical disability” are unable to mark their ballots. - -These laws have been sustained in the highest courts. Regulations, if -not too difficult in the opinion of the court, are upheld, and likewise -provisions that require a party to have cast a certain percentage of the -vote at the last preceding election, before it may be entitled to an -official ballot. Even forcing a citizen to choose between voting under -an obnoxious party heading, or not at all, is, at least in New Jersey, -viewed as no deprivation of his rights. - -In a number of States, voting machines which automatically register the -voter’s choice have been authorized, and to some extent used. - -At this point mention may be made of compulsory voting, which has been -seriously discussed as advisable to bring out otherwise good citizens -who are apathetic as to their civic responsibilities. In 1898 the people -of North Dakota adopted a constitutional amendment, permitting the -Legislature to impose a penalty for failure to vote. - -(2) Although the theory of the Declaration of Independence is broad, -the practice as to the “consent of the governed” was decidedly limited -at the time of the Revolution, and the ruling power in at least some -of the States was vested in so few persons as to be oligarchic rather -than popular. Property qualifications were often essential to the -right of suffrage. These no longer exist in any State. Also age, race, -sex, citizenship, residence and payment of taxes determined a person’s -eligibility either to vote, or to hold office, or both. A higher age is -set generally in Europe, but in America twenty-one years is universally -accepted as marking maturity for voting purposes. Race distinctions -were wiped out by the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the -United States. Religious tests were always few, and are probably wholly -abolished—the last effort being to bar Mormons in Nevada about twenty -years ago, but held unconstitutional. Sex is no longer considered -in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. While only males are fully -enfranchised in the other States, suffrage has been given to females in -many matters, particularly municipal and school. Only American citizens -may vote in a large number of States, but in others aliens also, who have -declared their intentions to become citizens by naturalization, have full -rights. In an anomalous position are Porto Ricans and Filipinos, who are -neither citizens nor aliens. Residence where the elector offers to vote -is always required, usually a year or more in the State, but sometimes -less; and a shorter time in the county and voting precinct, or city and -ward. - -The extreme mobility of our population, so different from conditions -in the Old World, or even earlier America, has led to a feeling that, -in some way, the good citizen should be enabled to express his choice -in National elections, though for any reason he may have moved from -one State to another shortly before election; likewise that he save -his vote for State and district officers and measures, though crossing -county lines; and on county matters, though removing from precinct to -precinct. An effort to avert this temporary disfranchisement was made -in Kansas, by a law permitting railroad employees to vote where their -occupation happens to take them on election day. The payment of taxes has -long been a pre-requisite to casting a ballot in Pennsylvania and other -Eastern States. In the South, this requirement, as well as educational -qualifications, appears to gain ground. - -(3) The extension of the subjects of popular decision has been most -marked, and the drift is increasingly in that direction. A further -innovation, rapidly growing, is the expression of a wish or preference by -the electorate where such vote is merely advisory and not binding. Office -after office, once appointive, is made elective, and when so gained by -the people is never surrendered again. In 1776-1783 only Georgia, among -the Colonies elected judges. Today thirty-one States elect them. Then -scarcely a governor was chosen by the people. At first presidential -electors were named in a variety of ways. But by 1832, the right had -everywhere been yielded to the people. The very many resolutions of -amendment offered in Congress, providing for the election of United -States Senators by direct vote, the passage of such measures repeatedly -by the House, and the persistent, reiterated requests for this reform by -various Legislatures, all show a deep-seated popular desire. - -Scarcely had America copied from Australia her ballot system, when, -becoming adept as Rome in absorbing from surrounding nations, she -borrowed from the Swiss the Latin terms _referendum_ and _initiative_, -although the principles thereby expressed are as long established on this -continent as English settlements. For centuries among Germanic peoples, -there has been a steady transition of power. The right to petition the -crown grew into legislation. Final power was transferred from king to -parliament, and now in turn it is passing from the legislative branch -directly to the electorate. - -None of the colonial charters, except those of Pennsylvania, had any -provision for amendment, and of the original States, only Massachusetts -and New Hampshire submitted their constitutions to the people for -ratification. By 1787, provision for amendment, thitherto wholly lacking -in all State constitutions, unless Pennsylvania’s, was added to eight -of them. The custom of amending constitutions by popular vote arose, -and is now established in every State except Delaware. Thus, changing -the organic law, upon legislative initiative, has become commonplace. -The next step—to permit the people themselves to initiate the change -and finally for them to ratify or reject and even to propose important -laws,—was slower of acceptance. Switzerland began this revolution in free -government in 1830 and by 1848 had the principle embedded in its federal -constitution. About 1886 discussions of the Swiss institutions, and -especially the initiative and referendum, as seen by American students -abroad, began to appear in leading American journals and magazines. -In 1898 South Dakota amended its constitution by adopting a provision -for initiative and referendum. In 1900 Utah followed this example. In -1902 Oregon by the decisive ratio of eleven to one in the popular vote, -adopted the most clearly expressed section yet developed in our country. -In 1904 Nevada added a similar feature to the organic law. - -In April, 1901, the matter of an initiative and referendum amendment -first reached a supreme court, coming up in South Dakota, regarding -acts to take immediate effect, passed under the emergency clause of -the amendment. The court held that the Legislature is sole judge as to -what laws are “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public -peace, health or safety, or support of the State government and its -existing institutions.” The fundamental principles involved were not -questioned on either side. But in December, 1903, the initiative and -referendum amendment was directly attacked in the Supreme Court of -Oregon, and unanimously sustained. The Court, per Bean, J., said: “Nor -do we think the amendment void because in conflict with Sec. 4, of Art. -4, of the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing to every State -a republican form of government. Now the initiative and referendum -amendment does not abolish or destroy the republican form of government, -or substitute another in its place. The representative character of the -government still remains. The people have simply reserved to themselves -a larger share of legislative power, but they have not overthrown the -republican form of government, or substituted another in its place. The -Government is still divided into legislative, executive and judicial -departments, the duties of which are discharged by representatives -selected by the people. Under this amendment, it is true, the people -may exercise a legislative power, and may effect veto or defeat bills -passed and approved by the Legislature and governor but the legislative -and executive departments are not destroyed, nor are their powers or -authority materially curtailed.” Although the question of the nature of -laws initiated, or otherwise adopted by the people, upon reference to -them, was not directly before the court, it said: “Laws proposed and -enacted by the people under the initiative clause of the amendment are -subject to the same constitutional limitations as other statutes and may -be amended or repealed by the Legislature at will.” - -Concerning that clause in the amendment which says: “the veto power of -the governor shall not extend to measures referred to the people,” the -court held that this applies to bills actually referred to the people, -and not to all that might be referred, and that all acts not submitted -to a referendum may be vetoed. The Utah and Nevada amendments have not -been tested in court. Indeed, that of Utah is not self-executing, and -the Legislature has not yet enacted a method of procedure to give it -effect. The South Dakota amendment specifically applies to municipalities -as well as the State. Nebraska in 1898 enacted a general initiative and -referendum statute for counties, townships, cities, villages and school -districts. - -Since the time when “popular sovereignty” was a party shibboleth in the -free or slave-State controversy, so many matters are frequently, if -not habitually, submitted to a vote that such course no longer excites -comment. The charter of Greater New York was adopted upon a referendum, -which method has become the rule rather than the exception in giving -charters effect. Within the charters themselves, the Initiative and -Referendum appears with increasing frequency. - -Many of the earlier acts referring matters to the people were assailed -as unconstitutional on the ground of delegating legislative power to -the people. The diverse decisions on the subject cannot be reconciled. -Beginning with Delaware in 1847 and continuing to as late date as 1902 -(in Ohio), various courts have pronounced such laws invalid. On the -other hand, the Supreme Court of Louisiana decided flatly in 1853 and -again in 1854 that conditional legislation, to take effect upon popular -approval, is not unconstitutional. Then began some subtle and attenuated -“distinguishing” among decisions. Many courts came round to the position -that “while the Legislature cannot delegate its power to enact laws, -it may provide that whether or not a law enacted shall be operative, -may be made to depend upon the popular will.” An interesting fact is -that the courts in the Southern States invariably upheld reference to -the people, and that adverse decisions are very numerous in the North. -A peculiar referendum was attempted in Massachusetts, but was declared -unconstitutional. The act provided for submitting the question of -extending municipal suffrage to women, but by a special section allowed -the women to vote on the proposition of their own enfranchisement. Where -there are constitutional clauses requiring some matters to be referred to -the people, the rule of _expressio unius est exclusio alterius_ has been -invoked in opposing the submission of other laws to the people, but in -vain. The failure of the proper officers to provide for taking a vote at -the first election after the passage of a referendum law, cannot defeat -the will of the people, or deprive them of the option of acceptance or -rejection. Until accepted by popular vote, the law takes effect only -for the purpose of submission, and at a later election mandamus will -lie to require the officials to hold the election properly. In 1900 a -movement began in Australia to make it obligatory to refer the matter to -the people in case of a deadlock between the two houses on any bill or -resolution. - -The latest development of the principle is the advisory referendum, and -advisory initiative. As the name indicates, these simply show to the -legislative and executive departments the will of their constituents, and -no legal obligation rests upon the officials to give form to the popular -expression. In 1901 Illinois enacted a “public opinion law.” Delaware has -pending a constitutional amendment to establish the advisory initiative -and referendum. In 1905 Texas enacted a very interesting experiment in -the way of a primary election law, which not only provides for nomination -of candidates by direct vote, but contains provision for the use of the -initiative and referendum within party lines to direct party policy, and -determine what principles shall be promulgated in the party platform. -Many city councils have voluntarily resorted to this method of learning -the people’s will. In Buffalo in the fall of 1905 three questions were to -be submitted. But the commissioner failed or refused to put the questions -upon the voting machines at the proper time. Mandamus was brought in the -Supreme Court. Thereupon Justice Krause granted the writ on one question, -that relating to public ownership of a light and power plant by the -city, but denied it on the other two, saying as to these: “They involve -questions of legislation over which the city council manifestly has no -power. Indeed, their very purpose is not to furnish information for the -guidance of the local authorities; but they are peculiarly matters for -the Legislature.” - -When the Federal Constitution was submitted for ratification, many -of the conventions in the several States, dissatisfied with certain -features and more often with omissions in, the new instrument, offered -amendments. These were numerous and varied, and some were later adopted. -In New York and Rhode Island the conventions offered an amendment for -the recall of United States Senators at the will of the Legislature, -and the substitution of others. In 1803 and again in 1806, the Virginia -Legislature passed resolutions in support of such amendment for recall. -A revival and much broader application of the principle has lately been -seen. In 1903 the city of Los Angeles, California, amended its charter -by popular vote, and in addition to the initiative and referendum, it -placed in the people’s arsenal another powerful weapon—the recall. A -few words in the charter clearly define the recall. In the special -election in September 1904, the councilman whose course in voting for two -certain ordinances was not approved by his ward, was defeated by another -candidate. The incumbent then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of -mandamus to compel the rest of the council and city government generally -to recognize him for the remainder of his term. Without deciding the -point, the court assumed the validity of the recall amendment, but -sustained the petitioner on the ground that the procedure in calling -the special election was not quite regular. Even on this point, Chief -Justice Beatty dissented. In an inferior court, the matter had come up in -another form, and Judge Ostler decided against the incumbent, holding -that the recall amendment is not obnoxious to either the State or Federal -constitution, that it was not necessary to make charges in the petition -for election, but simply to make statements of reasons to enlighten the -public; that the officer had no property in the office nor vested right -to hold to the end of his term; that it was no contract, but a mere -agency, terminable at any time by the principal, the sovereign people. - -With the general adoption of the Australian ballot, whether pure or -modified, a certain rigidity and official formality was introduced, which -makes independent action, or the rejection of “regular” party candidates, -however unworthy they be, increasingly difficult. This put a premium -upon the control of conventions and party machinery, and the naming -of party candidates by whatever means. To secure a fair, untrammeled -expression of popular will in the initiatory step of making nominations, -a system of primary election laws has been evolved, and now exists in -almost every State. The early forms applied where parties voluntarily, in -primary elections, made nominations, sometimes of candidates by direct -vote, but more often only of delegates to conventions, all under party -management and control, subject to such public laws; the later forms are -mandatory, requiring all parties to nominate candidates, or delegates, -at an official primary election, under public control. The usual course -of evolution has been to hold primaries for naming delegates, and then -to assume the nomination of all candidates without the intervention of -delegates. - -About 1879 or 1880 a primary election law was enacted in Kentucky, but -no obligation was imposed on any party or persons to nominate candidates -by primary election. In 1895, almost simultaneously, several States -adopted compulsory primary laws, limiting their operation at first to -one or several large cities, and later extending them over the State in -either a mandatory or an optional form. So widely do these enactments -differ, that it is hard to deduce general statements of their features. -Many have been upheld, and not a few overthrown. There has been a general -tendency to substitute mandatory for optional laws. After a bitter fight, -extending over a series of years, Wisconsin by a majority of over 50,000 -adopted a mandatory primary election law in 1904, that provides for -nomination by direct vote, of almost all officers from the smallest up -to candidates for United States Senators, by all parties upon the same -day at the same polling places and with the same election officers, who -are publicly chosen from the two leading parties in the State. In 1900 -California expressly recognized the primary election by a Constitutional -provision, and empowered the Legislature to prescribe conditions on -which voters may participate in such elections. The Constitution of -Mississippi, Section 247, declares that the Legislature shall enact laws -to secure fairness in primary elections. Where the primaries are official -and mandatory, all expenses are paid by the public; where they are -voluntary, the cost falls on the party holding them. Myriads of questions -have arisen out of these elections, and Legislatures have sought in a -variety of ways, to solve them. The proclivity of some voters to take -part in all primaries has been an ever-present problem in those States -that permit the several parties to hold their primaries at different -times and places. - -Where it is entirely optional with a party, whether or not to nominate -by primaries, having decided affirmatively the party must conduct such -election strictly in accordance with the statutes. The first primary laws -made past acts the test of qualification to take part in a party primary -election. But later laws incline to accept future intentions instead, -while New Jersey, at least, requires both faith and works. Kentucky’s -court has held that the Constitutional provisions relating to elections, -do not apply to primary elections, but most courts that have considered -the subject, take the opposite view. Massachusetts holds that a primary -law is not unconstitutional in authorizing printing on the ballots, the -names of candidates presented by a certain number of voters, if blanks -are left for the insertion of the names of other candidates not so -presented. But Minnesota denies this poor boon to voter and candidate, -and says that no blanks need be left in which to write a name. - -In many instances, only parties casting a certain percentage of the total -vote are privileged to avail themselves of the mandatory laws, and such -limitation has been upheld where ample provision is made for nominations -in other ways, by the minor parties. In some of the laws, the procedure -is minutely detailed; others are very brief and general. Some leave much -to the party rules and machinery already in existence, or that may be -provided, and even expressly declare that the party’s rules shall govern -in matters not provided for in the law. While the provisions of a primary -law may apply only to general elections, seemingly to the exclusion -of special elections, it is not therefore a special law, within the -Constitutional meaning of the term, and in all elections to which the act -does not apply, the old statutes will govern as before the passing of a -primary law. Nor is a law rendered special by requiring direct choice of -the candidates in a single ward or township, while for larger divisions, -delegates are selected to hold nominating conventions. A New York statute -distinguishes between municipal and other elections in determining party -affiliations, so that a man may claim party regularity, though voting -differently at will in city affairs. The inalienable right of the people -to call Cincinnatus and Putnam from their plows, when the office seeks -the man has been vindicated by the Supreme Court of Michigan. - -(4) Ever since man first espoused the doctrine of majority rule in -popular Government, students have been perplexed by the problems -presented when three or more candidates for one office, or three or -more solutions of one question, have been before the people. Likewise, -the utter elimination of the minority from a voice in affairs, and its -treatment as a wholly negligible factor, has troubled philosophers and -statesmen who desire justice and truly representative government. In the -early history of this nation, five or more of the original commonwealths -chose their representatives in Congress on a general ticket; five chose -by districts, and this system gradually spread, until in 1842 it was made -mandatory. Numerous constitutional amendments were offered, especially -in the early days, to elect Presidential Electors by districts, and -Representatives by districts. In 1877 and again in 1888, Maish of -Pennsylvania presented resolutions of amendment dividing the electoral -votes of each State in proportion to the popular vote for the several -candidates. Many States provide for the distribution of election boards, -and some few other offices among political parties, usually between the -two leading parties. In 1870 Illinois adopted a constitution with a -section to secure proportional representation, or more properly, minority -representation, in the legislature. Quite a number of proportional -measures have been passed in the different States, but most of them have -been pronounced to be unconstitutional. In March 1889, the Michigan -Legislature enacted a law embodying the “cumulative” plan to represent -the minority. It was held unconstitutional. In the opinion, Chief Justice -Champlin discusses the matter philosophically and historically, and -describes the four plans known as the “restrictive” or “limited vote,” -the “Cumulative,” the “Geneva,” “free vote,” or “Gilpin” plan, and the -“Hare” or “single vote” system. To this there has since been added -perhaps as, fifth—the “Gove” plan. - -The “restrictive” or “limited vote” plan has been used in American -elections more than any other method designed to assure representation -of a minority. The Pennsylvania Constitution prescribed the limited -vote for Judges of the Supreme Court, County Commissioners and some -other officers. The principle has been extended by simple statutory -enactment, in the Keystone State, and upheld there. But similar laws -in Ohio, New Jersey and Rhode Island, have been repeatedly pronounced -unconstitutional. In foreign countries, the system is much used. The -“cumulative” plan is much used in corporations, and some attempt has been -made to apply it in general elections, the Illinois selection of its -lower house, being the most prominent example. Beginning in 1874, Ohio, -too, used this method for a while in selecting Legislators. In 1889 it -was applied in Boston to choosing Aldermen. In Michigan the attempt so -to elect the lower house was held void, as has been stated. The “free -vote” has gained no foothold in our land, but is much used in Europe. The -Hare-Spence plan has been in use in some parts of Denmark since 1856, -also in Tasmania, parts of Australia and New Zealand. - -The “preferential ballot,” which is a prominent feature of the -Hare-Spence method of securing proportional representation, has also been -used where single candidates are to be chosen to office, in order to -assure a majority choice among three or more candidates. - -Even this simple survey of events shows strongly the steady advance of -the electorate in taking power into their own hands. If any mistrust the -people, if any have any misgivings lest the masses be incapable of using -wisely the powers they have assumed, he may find relief in the thought -that whereas the average mature American of the year 1800 had enjoyed but -82 days of schooling in his life, his descendant of today receives 1,034 -days’ public instruction. The trend toward democracy may be the result of -men’s conscious deliberate design; it may be unconscious destiny. - - States are not great, - Except as men may make them. - Men are not great, except they do and dare; - But States, like men, - Have destinies that take them. - That bear them on, not knowing how or where. - -[Illustration: _Our Sword of Damocles_ - - _Warren, in Boston Herald_] - -[Illustration: _Uncle Doesn’t Seem to be Going Anywhere_ - - _Wilder, in Chicago Record-Herald_] - -[Illustration: _The Jolly Rogers_ - - _Cory, in N. Y. World_] - - - - -[Illustration: PIERRE, SANSCULOTTE - -BY LA SALLE CORBELL PICKETT.] - - -You wonder why the world should be so fair to me today—to me, Pierre -of the People, the poor oppressed people, whose heart’s blood has been -crushed out until it rushed forth in floods that cover the streets of -Paris with a crimson stain? - -Even for me the sun shines today and the flowers bloom with a fragrance -they never breathed before—the red stains that clot the dust in the -street are great crimson roses blossoming with a glory never before worn -by flowers. - -“Pierre,” said Monsieur le Géneral, “you are not a traitor to France, are -you?” - -“No, Monsieur,” I said sturdily, setting my teeth and giving him as -steady a look as he was bending upon me. - -I told the truth. We who would free France from the rule of the -aristocrats are not traitors. Rather are they traitors who would make of -our nation a stagnant pool of slavery and corruption. - -Monsieur le Géneral looked at me again, keenly. - -“We may not agree upon definitions.” - -“My definitions are from the book of real life, Monsieur le Géneral. They -are always in agreement with the truth. Monsieur knows, though, that he -may trust me for himself, however my definitions may differ from his -own. He has not forgotten that I saved his life once from an English -sword. I know the memory is graven upon the mind of Monsieur le Géneral -as deeply as the scar is cut in my arm.” - -“I think you love me, Pierre,” he replied. - -I laid my hand on my heart, bowing till my head almost touched one of the -crimson roses in the velvet of Monsieur’s carpet. - -“More than my life, Monsieur.” - -What could I say fairer than that, for was not life the dearest thing to -me then? - -So matters stood with my lord and me on that morning when he sent me with -a missive to Mademoiselle Denise. To her or to another, what mattered -it to me? They were all young demoiselles and, as such, of far less -consequence than the silver mounting of my lord’s pistols or the flash of -his gold-sheathed sword. - -As I crossed the courtyard a dark-eyed page, idling by the fountain that -sparkled in the sun, was singing: - - “By the garden-wall the rose blooms red, - And lifts to the sun its royal head; - There’s never a flower of such sweet grace - As the blossoming rose on my lady’s face— - Rose-red, flower grace, - Never a rose like my lady’s face.” - -With that refrain ringing in my ears, “Never a rose like my lady’s face,” -I went from the shining flood of sunshine into a hall that seemed like -dusky twilight after the outside brilliance. But in the centre was a -space where the sunlight drifted down through an open window into a -circle of radiance and in the middle of it stood Mademoiselle, a shining -figure that dimmed all other light. She was clad in white and gold, and -the long folds of her robe lay in shimmering snow along the marble floor. -Her amber hair was like a river that the morning sun-rays cross. Her eyes -shone like great sapphires set under long lashes of gold and arched over -by golden brows. It was as if the light of a thousand suns had centered -in one fair woman. - -The scar, once a proud and happy place upon my arm, burned as if a coal -of fire had been dropped upon it and for one wild moment I could have -cut from me the arm that had interposed to save the life of my master. -Then I knelt before her, when she had waved her hand for my approach, and -presented the letter. She looked at it carelessly and turned her eyes -from it to me where I knelt and beckoned me to rise. - -“Tell me of yourself,” she said in a voice that was like the softest -strain of a lute. “Who are you?” - -Who was I? Yesterday I would have said a man. Had I not done a man’s part -in battle? Was it not a man’s right arm that had stretched itself forth -to save a great life? Now I was—nothing. There was not a grain of dust in -the streets of Paris smaller than I. - -“Nothing, my lady,” I said, not daring to lift my eyes to her face, nor -scarcely to look at her hand lying like a white lily on the snow of her -gown. - -“That proves you very much,” she said, “for a man never thinks himself -nothing till he has a standard of merit with which to compare himself and -the possession of such a standard is a proof of worth.” - -“I am only Pierre—the servant of Monsieur le Géneral.” - -With what pride I should yesterday have avowed myself the servant of so -brave a soldier and so grand a gentleman. With what hatred of him and -what contempt for myself did I make that statement today. Did not the -great gulf between the gold and white Queen of the World deepen and widen -infinitely with the significance of my words? - -“Monsieur le Géneral is fortunate.” - -She wrote a line on a leaf from a gold and white tablet and gave it to -me, sealed with a golden seal. - -I bowed low and went out from her presence with my face toward her. At -the entrance I lifted my eyes and looked dazzled at the spot of light -in the centre of the great hall. Thus I passed out into the courtyard -flooded with sunlight which seemed dim in comparison with that supernal -radiance. - -The dark-eyed page had seated himself on the rim of the basin into which -the fountain fell with a tinkling music that kept rhythm with the song he -was still singing. With the refrain yet ringing in my ears, “Never a rose -like my lady’s face,” I went back to Monsieur le Géneral with the missive -she had given me. - -A little later the blood of the Paris streets spattered to the gold robes -of the court. I saw the head of Monsieur le Géneral carried by me on a -spike and the dark-faced, ragged man who bore it sang a ribald song as he -looked mockingly up into the face, one word of which would have been his -death-warrant had it been uttered when that head yet sat upon the stately -shoulders. For a moment a sorrowful thought of the days when I loved him -lay like a cloud upon my mind, but what time was there then for thinking -of love—at least of that love. - -I left the crowd of raging demons and ran across the courtyard where -the fountain yet tinkled merrily down into the basin. No dark-eyed page -loitered there and sang of the red rose and his lady’s face to the music -of the falling water. I dashed past the fountain and ran into the great -hall. It was empty and there was the print of muddy feet trampled over -the marble floor. I went to the Leader of the People. - -“Where is Mademoiselle Denise?” - -His wicked eyes flashed vindictively. - -“Ah, Pierre, if you owe a grudge to the aristocracy of France you can -feed to it now the most luxurious viands of earth. Even she is offered to -the vengeance of justice and her head will grace a pike as none other has -ever done.” - -I threw myself down before him. - -“Citizen, what has she done to you or to France?” - -“Done? She has done nothing. She is. That is the crime of an aristocrat.” - -I pleaded with him for the life of that woman whose gold and white beauty -was the fairest thing I had ever gazed upon and whose beautiful heart -looked out from eyes that showed all its goodness and truth. Citizen -Beauget had received many services at my hands in the days when I was -near the powers of the court because the favorite of the king had owed -his life to me. - -“Eh!” he cried. “A citizen of France seeking to save the life of one of -the oppressors of France? Ah, I have it. If she will marry you, good -Pierre, her life is yours. Ha, the white and gold lily of the court marry -Pierre, the Sansculotte! Beautiful thought! Perhaps she will wish to save -her life.” - -Then I stood up before him and looked at him with a scorn before which he -dropped his gaze. - -“Citizen Beauget, Mademoiselle will marry where she loves or kiss the -cruel ‘Maiden of Liberty’ with pure lips and a brave heart.” - -But I took the paper he gave me and went straight to the prison where she -stood, and even there space was bright because of her. She turned and -looked at me and the glow that comes once to a woman’s face was in hers -when her eyes fell on me. - -“You have come to help me die,” she said reaching out her hand. - -I took the hand and fell upon my knees and pressed it to my lips. - -“Nay, not so, Mademoiselle. I come to bid you live, if I read truly what -is written on your face.” - -Hand in hand we went out into the night and neither the terror of the -living nor the faces of the dead staring up into the moon-lit sky marred -the peace that filled our hearts. - - - - -_The New Party_ - -_What Shall It Be Named?_ - -BY CHARLES Q. DE FRANCE - -_Secretary People’s Party National Committee_ - - -There are phenomena a-plenty, said the _New York World_ editorially -(December 31), “which unmistakably foretell a new party and a new issue -in American affairs. It comes in a multitude of shapes and clothed in a -multitude of garments.” - -Coming from the source it does, this utterance is significant. There is -no doubt about the existence of the phenomena, but your conservative -usually delights in playing ostrich. Personally I would like to question -the accuracy of the _World’s_ forecast—for I contend that we have now -more political parties than economic conditions warrant—but regard for -truth requires affirmation instead of denial. The new party is bound to -come. - -“Mr. Bryan,” the _World_ continued, “has already defined it (the new -party) in terms of triple state socialism—city ownership, State ownership -and national ownership of all public utilities.” - -Granting that this is correct, it is not hard to see that a new party -is superfluous, for the People’s Party now covers this ground; and the -Democratic Party has in places adopted a portion of the program. - -The public mind, however, is thinking of a new party—and that settles it. -The arguments of a few feeble individuals cannot change public opinion. -So let us accept the inevitable and try to make the best of it. - -The new party, it is safe to say, will pre-empt a large portion of the -ground now occupied by the People’s Party. It will declare for true -democracy. It will adopt one of two methods in making its declarations. -It may, in a few well worded paragraphs, state fundamental principles of -democracy, avoiding the peculiar isms of the various factions which will -be brought together in the new organization; or it may attempt to frame a -plank acceptable to each of the factions. It is needless to say that the -former will lay the foundation for success, while the latter will give -rise to dissensions and result, finally, in disintegration. - -But I do not wish to suggest a platform for the new party. Able men will -be present at its birth, and they will know what to do. I do wish to be -heard, however, on the question of name for the infant party. - -Populists well know that for the past four years I have fought -persistently against changing the People’s Party name. I have freely -admitted its faults, but have insisted that a faulty name is less -dangerous than a change. The organization of a new party presents a -different problem. A new name is necessary. - -What shall it be? - -Viewed superficially there are many good names which might be adopted; -but when subjected to careful analysis, the number dwindles down to a -very few. I take it that the name should indicate the predominant feature -of the party; that it should be but one word, and that word short, -preferably of three syllables, not explosive or difficult to pronounce, -but capable of being uttered easily; that whether used as noun or -adjective no change is necessary; that it should not be an unusual or a -newly coined word, but one the meaning of which, in its generic sense, is -now well understood by, or at least familiar to the public. - -A year or so ago a writer in _The Public_ (Chicago) suggested Isocrat, -one who believes in equal rule; and Orthocrat, one who believes in -good rule—both charming names but violating what I believe to be very -important: that the name should not be unusual, newly coined, or -unfamiliar to the public. Isocrat, isocratic, isocracy; orthocrat, -orthocratic, orthocracy. Ingenious inventions, but hardly suited to our -purpose. - -Several persons in the past few years, notably Rev. John V. Potts, -of Ohio, have made good arguments in favor of “The People’s -Democratic-Republican Party.” I shall not discuss this further than to -suggest that a 27-letter name is too long; and that to designate a member -of the party would require a hopeless amount of circumlocution. - -“Home Rule,” “American,” etc., have been suggested; but a little thought -will disclose their weak points. - -I suggest the good, old word RADICAL. - -Nine men out of every ten today—who would likely become affiliated -with the new party—will, when questioned as to their political belief, -generally preface their remarks by declaring, “I am a radical.” Why not -give them an opportunity to say it with a capital R? - -The Radical Party; a Radical; Radical measures; Radicalism. - -Not so many years ago the suggestion of this name would have aroused a -storm of protest—but it is different today. Then a radical was looked -upon as a rash man, if not, indeed, a revolutionist. Men coveted the -distinction of being regarded as conservative. To put a radical in an -important public office, as Governor, for instance, would “drive capital -out of the State.” Only a “con-ser-r-va-tive” (how they did roll that r) -could prevent things from going to the demnition bow-wows. - -Today it is almost criminally libelous to call a man “safe and sane,” -so great a change has come over the public mind. The words “radical” -and “conservative” have come to be understood in a new light. The -new meanings have quite obscured the old. A “conservative” is looked -upon today as the beneficiary, as principal or agent, of some special -privilege—franchise, tariff tax and the like—which gives him the -power to absorb wealth produced by others, without rendering an -equivalent therefor. Naturally, he desires to “conserve” this unfair -advantage—for civilization has by no means eliminated the wolf in man—and -is, therefore, opposed to radical change. He is a conservative, a -stand-patter, a let-well-enough-aloner. - -I make no claim of altruism for the radical, and am inclined to look -with suspicion upon the man who prates overmuch about doing everything -for others and nothing for himself. Self-preservation is the first law -of Nature, and man hasn’t learned how to repeal it. Besides, it isn’t -necessary, even if we knew how. But there is selfishness and selfishness. -Conservative selfishness means to build up one’s self at the expense of -others; radical selfishness has for its motto, “Live and let live.” In -other words, by promoting the general welfare, I can best advance my own -interests. - -But, for the sake of argument, let us admit that men are alike in -their selfishness; that all are wolfish, whether conservative or -radical. Common sense teaches us that only a comparative few can be the -beneficiaries of special privileges. If we all possessed equal powers -to rob, conferred by legislation, the result would be about the same as -though none of us possessed such powers. The former alternative is, of -course, impossible; for a special privilege would cease to be such if -made general. But the latter is possible. Let us frankly confess that the -radical would be a conservative if he could become the beneficiary of a -special privilege. Given the opportunity, I feel sure he would act much -as other legalized robbers do. - -I believe we have indulged in too much denunciation of the beneficiaries -of special privileges, the legalized plunderers, and paid too little -attention to the criminal ignorance of the great majority who permit -themselves to be robbed. I believe we should admit that the masses have -acted as “them asses”—and resolve to quit playing the fool. That’s why I -suggest the name Radical for the new party. It means a going to the root -of the trouble and uprooting it. It means a change which will hurt the -pride of a few, because they can no longer hoodwink and rob their tens of -thousands under guise of law—a change which will benefit the pockets of -the many, because they will no longer be picked by legal enactment. - -And this would be a radical change. Let it be made by a Radical party. - - -_A Wild Enthusiast_ - -“He——?” - -“Oh, he is the kind of a chap that would try to blow up a balloon with -baking-powder.” - - -_Unfinished_ - -Johnny—Mamma, I was having such a nice dream when I woke up. - -MAMMA—Were you? - -Johnny—Yes. I wish there was some way I could go ahead with that dream. - - - - -_The Municipal Boss_ - -By W. D. Wattles - - -The present revolt against bossism and the recent destruction of several -of the strongest and best constructed machines, naturally suggest the -question as to the permanence of the results. The vital problem now is -whether the boss will rise again, or whether a new one will come in his -stead. To know the answer we must understand the causes and conditions -which bring the boss into existence. - -The supposition that the boss arises by virtue of his strong personality; -that he is an organizer, a general, one born to command; that the -“machine” is the product of his skill and genius, and that no one who -does not possess the same elements of character can follow him, is wrong. -The municipal boss is an effect rather than a cause. He is the product -of certain forces, working under certain conditions, and so long as -the forces are unchecked and the conditions unchanged, a new boss must -inevitably be created to fill the place of every one the people may -dethrone. - -In municipal politics, the boss comes into being at the point where the -criminal rich come in contact with the criminal poor. The criminal rich -desire franchise privileges, which are among the most productive and -valuable of all forms of property. How valuable they are may be better -understood if we remember that a recent conservative writer estimates the -franchise values of Greater New York at four hundred and fifty millions -of dollars, a staggering sum, but the real market value of actual -property which has been virtually stolen from the people. Property, too, -of great earning power as compared with most other investments, capable -of paying almost unlimited dividends; and often giving its possessors -control over all other branches of business, even over life itself. And -this property, amounting to half a billion dollars in New York alone and -to an incalculable sum in the cities of the whole United States, has been -appropriated by the criminal rich through the agency of the municipal -boss. - -In order to consummate these thefts, the franchise grabbers must have -a purchasable city council. To elect and maintain a purchasable city -council two things are necessary: a division of the “good” citizens -against each other, and a boss to unify and keep solid the criminal poor -as a balance of power. - -The “good” citizens—by this term I mean the great mass of fairly -well-meaning people—are kept divided by the extension of national -political interests into municipal affairs. This division is the first -condition essential to the development of the boss. - -The criminal poor—meaning not merely professional criminals, but all who -gamble, get drunk, have occasional fights, and are liable to get into -trouble with the police—having with them the saloons, dives and all the -hosts of graft and shady business, hold the balance of power. The boss -maintains his hold upon them by means of his ability to help them out -of trouble. The first step of the boss must be to corrupt the police -force and the justices’ courts. This is not hard, for the police and the -justices are usually very anxious to be corrupted; it pays them much -better to be corrupt than to be honest. - -So the boss comes in as a business agent between the criminal poor and -the police, enabling the criminal to escape punishment, and the police to -get rich by sharing in the profits of crime. - -Under this régime the criminal poor are permitted to prey upon society -by dividing their spoils with the police. The power of the boss is in -his ability to withdraw his protection from any individual who may waver -in his political support. The boss never preys upon the poor, whether -criminal or not, he is always a friend in need, a refuge in time of -trouble to those who follow without questioning. - -By means of this following he elects his henchmen to the city council; -and so it is to him that the criminal rich must come when they want to -appropriate franchise property. The boss really steals the franchise and -sells it to the rich. - -Thus, under the boss régime, both the criminal rich and the criminal poor -are permitted to prey upon society. - -We understand, now, that the municipal boss is the product, first, of -the political condition which keeps the good citizens voting against -each other; second, of the condition which makes possible the private -ownership and control of municipal public utilities; third, of two -forces, equally desirous of preying upon society—the criminal rich and -the criminal poor. - -And it is evident that so long as the conditions continue and the forces -are permitted to operate, the creation of new bosses is inevitable. - -It is only possible to hold the good citizens together in independent -organizations in a very spasmodic and uncertain fashion so long as the -party system prevails in national politics, but it is always possible to -unite them on any one question by means of the referendum. Therefore, -the first condition may be changed by the enactment of laws requiring -the submission of all franchise questions to the popular vote. On a -referendum, the good citizens of all parties, if they vote intelligently, -will present a united front to the forces of graft. This will prevent the -consummation of new thefts, but it will not restore the property already -stolen, except by the slow process of awaiting the expiration of the -present franchise grants. - -The second condition may be removed by training the people in knowledge -of the practicability of the municipal ownership and operation of public -utilities. Until the people believe in municipal ownership as a practical -possibility, it is impossible; once they do believe, and are ready, it is -probable that the laws of the States for the recovery of stolen property -will be found sufficient to bring about the restoration to them of all -that is rightfully their own. - -At the end, we always come to the proposition that to check the forces of -evil we must eliminate the profits of evil doing. There is no other way. -By this plan, the social problems in which the municipal boss appears -will be found easy of settlement, and possibly those connected with the -state and national boss also. For they, like their prototype of the city, -are not the great personalities we have deemed them, but merely the -products of conditions easily changed and of forces amenable to control. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration: The Silence of Johnny - -BY Harriette M. Collins.] - - -“Is the letter from Johnny, Mary _agra_?” The pathetic appeal in Mrs. -Ryan’s quavering voice, and the heart-hunger expressed in her wrinkled, -parchment-like face brought a lump to the throat of her daughter as she -replied: - -“No, mother darlin’, it’s from Andy this time.” - -“Why doesn’t Johnny write, an’ why doesn’t he come an’ see his poor ould -mother afore she dies?” the old woman wailed. “Och, but me heart is sore -wid the longin’ for me darlin’ boy, an’ me ould arrums is achin’ to hould -him agin! Niver a word from him this three years, come Chrisymas! It’s -not like Johnny! It’s not like Johnny at all, at all!” - -“But, mother _achree_, Johnny doesn’t forget you,” Mary answered -soothingly. “An’ he never forgets to send you two pounds every three -months by Liza, or Andy, or Katie.” - -“I know it, Mary. Johnny was always a ginerous boy: but it’s not his -money I want, but himself back agin! Shure I’d rather beg wid Johnny than -own the wurruld an’ all wid-dout him!” Mrs. Ryan answered. “Read Andy’s -letter for me, Mary _acushla_.” - -While Mary Ryan read aloud the letter which she had just brought from -the village post-office, her mother gazed yearningly over the restless -expanse of dark blue ocean, which stretched away to the crimsoning west. -With dreamy eyes, which saw but heeded not, she watched the hovering, -screaming sea-gulls, the white-sailed fishing-smacks and the long, black -streak of smoke that, far away on the horizon, marked the course of an -outward-bound steamer. - -For many years Mrs. Ryan had been in the habit of sitting on the rude -bench by the door of the cabin, that was perched high up on the rugged -hill-side, and watching the steamers as they came and went. - -Four times during those weary years the mother’s heart within her had -grown numb with pain as she saw the black streak fade in the distance and -knew that one of her darlings was being borne away from her. - -Andy was the first to leave the overcrowded cabin and seek work in the -grand land of plenty across the water. In a year, Andy sent the passage -money for Liza, and, in another year, Liza sent the passage money for -Katie. Then Johnny, the idol of her declining years, kissed his mother -good-bye and, with cheery, hopeful voice, promised to return to her in -two, or at most, three years. With that dumb resignation, sometimes born -of a sense of hopeless inability to cope with circumstances, Mrs. Ryan -had watched him wend his way, with many a backward glance and wave of -the hand, down the narrow zig-zag path to the village and the train for -Queenstown, where the merciless steamer waited to bear him away forever -from her loving arms. She remembered still how the sunbeams had glinted -upon his auburn hair that morning, and how handsome he had looked in his -new tweed suit and green tie. She thought of the tears that had welled up -in his blue eyes when she gave him her parting blessing, and she recalled -the silent anguish with which she had sat by the cabin door and watched -the black steamer, silhouetted against the golden sunset and slowly -disappearing in the distance. It had been hard to see the others go, but -Johnny—what would life be without Johnny? - -That was five years ago. For two years Johnny had written regularly, -telling of steady work and good wages, and promising to come home for a -vacation as soon as possible. Then there came a short, badly-written note -enclosed with a letter from Andy, and after that—silence. - -Andy and Liza and Katie wrote regularly and sent money for the support of -their mother and Mary. It was Mary’s mission to remain in the Old Country -and take care of the feeble, aged mother. - -Every three months, Andy or one of the girls sent an order for two pounds -and wrote that Johnny sent it with his love. That was all. They never -answered the questions concerning Johnny, his doings and his whereabouts -which Mary repeatedly wrote at her mother’s behest. - -“Is that all, Mary? Is there nothing at all, at all about Johnny?” Mrs. -Ryan queried in disappointed tones, when her daughter had finished -reading Andy’s letter. - -“There’s not a word in it about Johnny, mother darlin’,” Mary answered -reluctantly. - -“Andy said Nancy Quin is comin’ home on the boat that gets in Saturday, -didn’t he?” - -“Yes, mother,” Mary replied, “Nancy is comin’ to spend a month with her -people.” - -“An’ Nancy Quin lives out in the same family as Liza?” - -“Yes, mother; she’s parlor-maid where Liza’s cook.” - -“Then, plaze God, Mary, when Nancy comes to see me I’ll larn the truth -about the onnatural silence of Johnny! Och, but he was the darlin’ -boy—always so gay and pleasant!” - -There was a brief silence, after which the old woman drew a worn and -yellow sheet of paper from beneath the plaid woolen kerchief that was -folded across her bosom. - -“Read it for me, Mary _agra_,” she said sadly, “read it for me agin—the -last letter from Johnny. God bless him, wherever he is, this day an’ -night!” - -Mary held the frayed and faded sheet before her eyes. The writing was -almost illegible and the paper was worn into holes where it had been -folded, but she knew the words by heart and, as if conning a familiar -lesson, repeated them slowly: - - “Dear Mother. Don’t fret if I don’t write. I will sind money - to you now an’ agin by Andy an’ the girls. Mebbe if it’s God’s - will we’ll meet before long. God bless you, mother darlin’. - Goodbye from Johnny.” - -“Three years an’ niver a word from him!” sighed the old woman, as she -again laid the long-treasured note in its accustomed place over her -heart. “Och, but me ould eyes is achin’ for a sight of him—me darlin’ -boy!” - -The sunbeams were glittering upon the wide, heaving expanse of ocean -which lay between Mrs. Ryan’s cabin and the great Western world whither -her children had gone. - -Sitting upon the beach by the open door, the aged woman watched Nancy -Quin laboriously climbing the steep, zig-zag path which led to the -cottage. When the visitor reached the door and the usual salutations had -been exchanged, Mrs. Ryan steadfastly fixed her eyes upon the girl’s face -and asked: - -“In the name of God, Nancy Quin, why doesn’t Johnny write an’ why doesn’t -he come home?” - -“Arragh, thin, Mrs. Ryan, darlin’, how should I know that? I haven’t -laid me eyes on Johnny these three years.” Nancy answered evasively, but -her embarrassment and the compassion in her voice were not lost upon her -questioner. - -“Don’t lie to a poor, ould woman, Nancy _acushla_,” Mrs. Ryan entreated, -“but tell me, God’s truth, where me boy is an’ why he doesn’t come to me?” - -For a moment Nancy Quin looked with infinite pity into the anxious, -wrinkled, pleading face, then, dropping her eyes before the old woman’s -wistful gaze, answered brokenly: - -“Don’t fret yourself about Johnny, Mrs. Ryan _agra_. You’ll soon see -poor Johnny; you’ll be wid your boy before long,” and turning away with -a stifled sob, she entered the cabin in search of Mary, while Mrs. Ryan -sat very still upon the bench and gazed with tearless, unnaturally bright -eyes out upon the bounding, white-crested waves of the Atlantic. - -“Oh, Mary _acushla_, she’s read it in my face!” Nancy cried in remorseful -tones, “an’ I promised I’d keep it from her.” - -“Keep _what_ from her?” Mary asked, anxiously. “Is it anything about -Johnny, Nancy _agra_?” - -“Yis, Mary,” Nancy answered sorrowfully, “Sure an’ it wrings me heart to -tell you. Poor Johnny was killed—run over at a crossin’ three years ago.” - -“An’ why didn’t they let us know?” Mary sobbed, “Where was the use of -deceivin’ us?” - -“It was the poor boy’s wish,” Nancy replied tearfully. “They took him to -the hospital and kept him alive for a day, an’ before he died, he made -Andy an’ the girls promise they’d never let his mother know of his end. -He had a hundred and fifty dollars saved to take him home an’ he bade -them sind it to her a little at a time wid his love. His last words were -‘Don’t let poor mother know! It would kill her! Don’t let poor mother -know!’” - -There was a long silence, broken only by the subdued sobbing of the -girls. At last Mary said, wiping her eyes with her apron: - -“By the help of God, Nancy, we must still keep it from mother. She’s not -long for this world, an’ Johnny, poor boy, was the light of her eyes!” - -Going out of the cabin, they found Mrs. Ryan still seated upon the bench. - -“Mother darlin’,” Mary said softly, “it’s growin’ cold, an’ you’d better -come in for your cup of tay.” - -There was no answer. A smile of ineffable peace lingered upon the aged, -care-worn face. In the faded blue eyes, whose unseeing gaze was fixed -upon the merciless ocean which had taken her darlings, one by one, from -her arms, shone the wondrous light “that never was on sea or land.” - -To his mother, the silence of Johnny was no longer a mystery. He had not -come to her, but she had gone to him. - - - - -_Vanished Years_ - -BY HELEN A. SAXON - - - She sitteth in the sunshine, old and gray, - Her faded kerchief crossed upon her breast, - Her withered form in sober colors drest, - Her eyes, deep-sunken with far memory, - See not the eager children at their play - But look beyond them to the crimsoning west, - And still beyond where everlasting rest - Remains to crown and close her little day. - - Yet all the fragrance of the vanished years - Is at her heart, and time hath left its trace - In lines engraved by joy no less than tears - Upon her tranquil and unconscious face. - For Youth, quick-flying, left his dearer part, - Imperishable love, within her heart. - -[Illustration: _King John Refusing to Sign the Magna Charta_ - - _Bart., in Minneapolis Journal_] - -[Illustration: _Perhaps some treatment of this kind would cause Mr. Roger -to answer questions in court_ - - _Handy, in Duluth News-Tribune_] - -[Illustration: _The Man from Missouri_ - - _Donahey, in Cleveland Plain Dealer_] - - - - -[Illustration: _Letters From The People_] - - -Our readers are requested to be as brief as possible in their welcome -letters to the MAGAZINE, as the great number of communications daily -received makes it impossible to publish all of them or even to use more -than extracts from many that are printed. Every effort, however, will -be made to give the people all possible space for a direct voice in the -MAGAZINE, and this Department is freely open to them. - - * * * * * - - _John Nill, Watertown, N. Y._ - -Your criticism on prevailing evil conditions is justly and emphatically -to the point. But I would call your attention to the world’s experience -that at no time has a reform taken place unless new ideas, new methods -for reform comprehensive to the public for relief and improved conditions -were introduced at the same time when the old deplorable affairs were -condemned. To excite the multitudes without a proper and thorough -education on social and national relations calculated to promote peace, -harmony and prosperity, is dangerous. Look at Russia. If you will add -as many correct and direct advices to the general public as you do -criticism, you may be successful in initiating a reform that may far -surpass any in the past ages. - - * * * * * - - _J. B. Phillebaun, Mountain Grove, Mo._ - -To say that I endorse the principles advocated by the magazine puts -it mildly. The old parties must be checked or we are politically and -financially ruined. You have started in the direction. You have got the -people thinking and that is half the battle. Push the good work already -started and I hope victory will crown your effort. I want to go on record -as a firm believer in _Tom Watson principles_. - - * * * * * - - _J. F. Winterbottom, Washington, Ind._ - -I have received every copy that has been printed. Just as soon as I have -read them I let others have them. I am well pleased with the Magazine. - - * * * * * - - _W. J. Alford, Molena, Ga._ - -The Magazine is fast eliminating political ignorance throughout America, -which, in fact, is the pillow upon which rests the great evils we suffer. - - * * * * * - - _William Putnam, Downing, Tex._ - -Your Magazine is a wonderful power because all classes of our people read -it, and its truth is so plain and reasonable no one can reject it, let -their politics be as they may. - - * * * * * - - _J. W. Oliver, Kissimmee, Fla._ - -I have read each issue of your Magazine and _all_ in each issue. -Sometimes I do not agree with you but you are trying to keep on the right -track, and come very near to staying in the “middle of the road.” I am a -native Alabamian and a Democrat of the “Moss Back” kind. - -Go ahead. I am with you and if _necessary_ will vote with you, -independent of my party. - - * * * * * - - _Edgar J. Hadley, Arkwright, R. I._ - -Have taken your Magazine from the first number and would not be without -it at any price. As an educator it is A No. 1. I wish that every wage -earner could be gotten to read it. No one can read the splendid articles -it contains without becoming a more intelligent citizen. - -The only alteration I would suggest is a little better cover. - - * * * * * - - _E. Simmons, Mt. Leonard, Mo._ - -I have read every number from the first number. I shall never vote either -of the old party tickets again. I am 83 years old next Tuesday. My health -is failing. I think we ought to unite with Prohibitionists, for the sale -of intoxicants is about as big an evil as we have and we have got the -great whiskey interest to overcome before we can get into power for both -the old parties are their friends. Yes, my dear brother, I am with you. -With my little influence I will do what I can. - - * * * * * - - _H. D. Cope, J. P., Rogers, Ark._ - -I received your copy of TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE and think she is a dandy. -I hope you succeed. I see some of the Pittsburg papers kicking on it and -asking why it is allowed to pass the mails. - - * * * * * - - _J. W. Murphy, Grove Hill, Ala._ - -I think TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE is a good one. The editorials are the -biggest things I ever saw. I don’t like such stories as “The Gray Weed,” -“The Tiger God,” etc., etc., but I like Tom Watson and all that I have -read from his pen. My wish is that Tom Watson may live long to ring that -“Liberty Bell” until the people shall awake and rise in their might and -throw off their shackles. - - * * * * * - - _Panola Watchman, Carthage, Tex._ - -We appreciate your magazine very much, especially the articles from the -pen of Mr. Watson and, while he lambasts the party to which we belong, -much of it is deserved and we hope he will continue to lay on until -prevalent evils are corrected. - - * * * * * - - _Sam J. Hampton, Durant, I. T._ - -I have been reading your magazine ever since the first issue and I think -it the clearest boldest and most fearless journal in America. I shall -continue to read WATSON’S. - - * * * * * - - _T. J. Anderson, Blossom, Tex._ - -I have never had the pleasure of meeting you personally, but have known -of you ever since you entered Congress in 1892. Since that time I have -eagerly sought to read all you have said and written. Being strictly in -accord with your political views, I greatly admire the firm stand you -have taken in alleviating the burden from the masses of people, your -honesty of purpose and the plain and outspoken way you have in presenting -your views. I have had the pleasure of voting for you twice and yet hope -to see you elected our national executive. The crowning act of your life -was your work in the last election when you took our banner from the dust -of fusion and confusion and unfurled it to the breeze, and fought the -battles of reform practically alone. May you yet receive your reward. - -As to your Magazine, I subscribed for it before it was ever printed. -Am well pleased with it. Have no improvement to suggest. I quit the -Democratic Party in 1890. Have only made one mistake since and that was -when I voted for Bryan in 1896. - - * * * * * - - _L. P. Sullivan, Emmet, Ark._ - -I like it splendidly and it gets better every copy. I could not do -without it. - -Long life to you. - - * * * * * - - _F. M. Martin, Mt. Moriah, Ark._ - -To say that I like the Magazine is only putting it lightly. It is the -only political gospel I know of being published at present. Love to -have it read in every home in the United States. Then have every one -act upon its teachings. I know of no way of making it better unless -advocating return to Africa by American Africans. That subject seems to -be neglected, though I don’t know that I could write on that subject to -any advantage. - -Go on with the great work. It will eventually accomplish the desired -result. - - * * * * * - - _Edward H. Hotchkiss, Seattle, Wash._ - -I am very much pleased with your Magazine. I have got it from the -news-stand from the first copy to the present. I don’t know how I would -get along without it for every number is better than the last. I think -it’s the best book of Education that is published. Its principles are -right and just to all, and I wish both of the old parties would take a -few doses of the medicine prescribed in your book. I think they might be -cured of some of their corruption. - - * * * * * - - _K. D. Strickland, Carlton, Ga._ - -I think TOM WATSON’S Magazine contains more profitable and really -more necessary information for the American citizen than any other -publication. It is a regular monthly feast to read his pieces. In reading -his pieces, I am made to feel as though I was communicating with the -supernatural. - -I wish to call Mr. Watson’s attention through his Magazine to his -physical health. Take care of your health, Mr. Watson. We need your -wonderful mental power with good health behind it. You are so completely -absorbed and enthused in your great work for the people, you might -over-tax the brain and bring on a collapse: that would be a national and -incalculable misfortune. - - * * * * * - - _Amos H. Edwards, Bentonville, Ark._ - -I think it a very able and valuable Magazine. - - * * * * * - - _Frank Holland, Cement, Cal._ - -Yours of recent date received. As I wrote to you some time ago, I am a -migratory cuss, and therefore rely upon the news-stands for my magazine. -I read WATSON’S, _Everybody’s_ and _McClure’s_, regularly, and any others -that in glancing over, interest me. I have no time to read stories. What -I want is political and scientific. - -I like WATSON’S. Prize it highly and after reading it, treat it as I do -all the others, i. e., hand it to someone else to read. I cannot suggest -any way in which your work can be improved. I will do what I can to -induce others to read your Magazine. - - * * * * * - - _S. M. McDougal, Arkinda, Ark._ - -I think it all right. Just what we need. I don’t see that I can add -anything better to it. I am doing all I can for you. - -I am 60 years old, and have been a reformer ever since Tilden ran for -President. I said then there wasn’t a hair’s length difference in the old -parties. - - * * * * * - - _John S. Van Dyck, Van Dyck, Tenn._ - -Your Magazine is simply grand, glorious, rich and racy. It makes ’em -wiggle. - -I consider Tom Watson the grandest, greatest and most brilliant man of -this or any other age, and may God grant him strength to continue the -fight for human liberty and human right until the fight is won. - - * * * * * - - _C. E. Skinner, Modoc, Ind._ - -I am very much interested in the wave of reform that is sweeping over our -country as indicated by the recent elections. Keep hammering away, Bro. -Watson, you have my entire sympathy and support. - - * * * * * - - _M. E. Rose, South Rutland, N. Y._ - -I think your Magazine is doing a great deal of good in waking up the dull -minds of the common people, which I hope in 1908 will sweep the cussedest -set of rascals into—well, say the penitentiary. - - * * * * * - - _George S. Harley, Laurel, Ind._ - -I think it is “just about right.” It just suits me. I can’t see how it -could be made any better. The last number (December) is worth the price -of a year’s subscription. It is full of good things. - - * * * * * - - _E. E. Ropes, Deland, Fla._ - -I am a Massachusetts Yankee, a Republican. I served under Jim Lane in -Kansas; under Sherman in Georgia. When I first received your magazine I -told your old school-mates Alex and Lee Morris that I might vote for you -for President. It seems, however, that you oppose protection. That lets -me out. I believe every honest, intelligent, patriotic American is a -protectionist. - - * * * * * - - _Jonas Welch, Oakdale. La._ - -I do not think that it could be improved. All it needs is for the people -to read it more and educate themselves on the reforms that the Populists -advocate. - - * * * * * - - _A. H. Ellis, Hayward, O. T._ - -I have been a reader of your splendid Magazine from the first issue. I -saw by the papers prior to the time you commenced your publication that -you were going to edit a magazine. I immediately began to plan to stop -the circulation of a 50-cent dollar long enough to get it to you for one -year’s subscription, but son beat me to it, he having no taxes to pay, -nor no overalls to buy, went barefooted, wore a seven cent straw hat and -a thirty cent hickory shirt and saved his money and sent it in to you -while I was sweating blood trying to pry a money lender loose from one of -his idols. - -I’m glad to know that I am not disappointed in the character and make-up -of your magazine. You call a spade a spade. You did that while you -were in Congress and it is a reproach to the grand old Commonwealth of -Georgia that a hide-bound, moss back, clay-eating democracy could not -have been broad enough to have let you stay in Congress. Who was the man -that defeated you? I don’t know. I doubt if his name is known outside of -the Congressional District. Georgia has produced but four men that have -challenged the serious attention of the people of the country. Viz:—Old -James Oglethorp, Alexander Stevens, Bob Toombs and Thomas E. Watson. - -I see that many of your correspondents hope to see you President. No, -Thomas, you will never be President of the United States. Why? First, you -are too big, have convictions and the honesty and courage to express -them. Second, too many fools (with an adjective prefixing “fools”). -Your editorials are very fine. I have seldom read anything finer than -“Dropping Corn,” “A Tragedy in a Tree-top.” Then there is your insurance -policy which is a source of joy. “Monarchy Within the Republic” by Mr. -Fox was instructive. The cartoons are superb. The McCurdy family, in your -last, conveys the idea that the McCurdy’s are “agin” race suicide, but -you must remember that sapsuckers are more numerous than eagles. You very -skillfully put the good to Bryan, but say what you will, he stands head -and shoulders above any other Democrat of this day. Compare him, if you -please, to Alton B. Parker. When I hear the name of Bryan, I think of the -American Eagle soaring the blue ether of Heaven. When I hear the name of -Parker, I think of a tomtit sitting on a watering trough. - -Best wishes for THOMAS WATSON’S MAGAZINE and a long life for its brainy, -honest and fearless editor. - - * * * * * - - _Orlando K. Fitzsimmons, Buffalo, N. Y._ - -I have taken your magazine from the first number and am much pleased with -the good work you are doing. - - * * * * * - - _Warren Beebe, Burlington, Ia._ - -Of several magazines which I read, I like yours the best. - - * * * * * - - _Katharyne Clarke, North McGregor, Ia._ - -I have read every issue of your Magazine since the beginning and would -like to say a word of praise. Your work and efforts are casting seed that -will surely cause “two blades of grass to grow where before there was -only one.” Success to you. - - * * * * * - - _H. V. Hill, Kell, Ill._ - -I like your Magazine above all others. Keep up the good work. - - * * * * * - - _An Old Reformer._ - -Your magazine read and reread in my home every month by myself and -five grown sons. We all admire the principle set forth in your grand -editorials and know that what you say is truth, but I do think that -you are a little too harsh and a little too personal when you speak -of Cleveland, Rockefeller, Ryan, Belmont, Morgan, McCarren, Taggart -and others of that class. You know that poor human nature is the same -the world over and if we were to kill out these men whom you handle so -roughly, others would soon take their places. So then the system which -brings this state of affairs about in our government is to be blamed more -than these men. Therefore, let’s strive (in the right spirit) to remove -the evils which beset us as a Christian people. “Vengeance is mine, saith -the Lord.” And besides, I want you to live long and lead this grand fight -for reform, but when I read your cutting editorials I shudder for fear -some of these people may have you assassinated. - -I address you as “dear comrade” because I am getting to be an old man now -and enlisted in this movement for reform away back in the palmy days of -the Grange, and myself on the “Ocala Platform”, believing it to be just -and in line with the principles later on, under the Alliance banner, -planted our Revolutionary sires fought for, and I am proud to say that -out of fifty odd Congressmen who were elected on that platform, Tom -Watson is the only one who remained true, and I admire every red hair on -your head for your loyalty and bravery, and have always voted for you -when an opportunity was offered, and if I were called upon to make a -national ticket of men whom I believe to be true, it would be, - - Tom Watson, - Theodore Roosevelt, - Gov. Folk, - Frank Burkitt, - Gov. Vardaman, - Scott Hathorn, - W. R. Hearst. - - * * * * * - - _D. L. Anderson, Soochow, China._ - -My son was on a visit to the States last summer and he sent me your -books—“The Story of France,” “Napoleon” and “The Life of Thomas -Jefferson.” The books reached me during the summer holidays, and as new -books are somewhat scarce out here and yours moreover looked so inviting, -I began to read the day after their arrival, and day after day this -reading continued until I had gone through the four volumes. - -On finishing the last volume I purposed to write and thank you for the -pleasure you had given me through your books, but the fall term of the -University opening about that time I was very busy and so did not write. -But now I wish to thank you for a very pleasant summer, for the enjoyment -and instruction I received from your excellent books. New light has -been thrown on France and her relations to the other powers of Europe, -especially to England. Napoleon becomes, to me at least, a new man in -your hands. Your “Thomas Jefferson” is a much needed antidote to much -of the history that has been written and gives a clear view of the man -and his times. Especially would I thank you for your statements with -reference to the formation of the Constitution of the United States, also -for your explanation of the “Genet Affair.” - -In one or two allusions that you make to affairs out here, you have -evidently been misled by the newspapers. In your “Napoleon,” page 215, -you say: - -“In the year 1900 Russians, Germans and other Christians invaded China to -punish the heathen for barbarities practiced upon Christian missionaries.” - -I don’t think that you state correctly the real object of this invasion -of China. The missionary’s part in this Boxer affair was to suffer. Not -only were many murdered, but both those who were murdered and those who -escaped were made the “scape goats” in the eyes of the world. I enclose a -slip that recently appeared in one of the Shanghai papers that gives the -true genesis of this Boxer trouble. The armies of the different nations -did not “invade China to punish the heathen for barbarities practiced -on Christian missionaries,” but they came to rescue their respective -ministers, who by their blundering policy had gotten themselves shut up -in Peking. If these officials had not been in Peking the armies would -never have come. I don’t know of any Government that cares quite that -much for a missionary, though they all seem quite ready to use a murdered -missionary to advance their land-grabbing schemes. - -Again on page 218 you mention that Admiral Seymour ordered his wounded -killed, etc. This was published in the papers at the time, but there -never was any truth in it. It was simply one of the many horrid stories -that went out from Shanghai during those dark days—manufactured in -Shanghai. - -And now, Mr. Watson, I trust that you will pardon me for inflicting you -with this, but I felt that I ought to write and thank you for those -books. I trust your pen will not rest. I sincerely wish that you would do -for Germany or for Italy what you have done for France. - - * * * * * - - _W. E. Brown, Gainesville, Fla._ - -It is a splendid work you are doing. Your Magazine is a live wire and -you are a powerful dynamo. The good you and Bryan are doing can never -be reckoned or measured. You are right, and right is the most powerful -force in existence, because God himself is the author and is behind all -right. May you live to see your work crowned with success. While touching -up other things, don’t forget we poor farmers of Florida. Between high -freights and commission merchants we catch it. I am what you might call -a one-horse farmer, but every year I pay the railroad $2,000 to $3,000 -freight on stuff I make to get it to market to say nothing about the -freight I pay on what I buy. I would like to make a trade agreeing to -give one-half my stuff to get the other half to market and sold. And when -on account of delays or for want of ice or any cause not traceable to -downright negligence our truck arrives in bad condition and is sold for -freight the railroad takes it all. I had one year 102 baskets shipped -over one line and 15 over another. The 15 sold for $3.00 per basket, the -102 were refused because the car was not properly iced on the way to New -York and arrived rotten, and I never got a penny. A piece of negligence, -but could not be proved. This is by no means an unusual case and every -truck farmer in the state, I guess, could make such a complaint or one -equally unjust to the shipper. But the railroad agent for the A. C. -L. at this place, so it is commonly talked on the streets, absconded -with $2,000 of rebate paid to him by the railroad to be paid to a big -phosphate concern here, and there is nothing doing. They say he won’t -even be arrested and, of course, the railroad and the receiver of stolen -money will not be punished, although I was told by an attorney of this -city that the railroad commissioners were notified of the facts in the -case. - -So I say, God speed you, and may you be the means of accomplishing great -good for this, our glorious country—too good to be wrecked by sordid -greed. - - * * * * * - - _J. S. Pearson, McEntyre, Ala._ - -I had a sack of one bushel of oats (32 lbs.) price 75 cents and 20 cents -worth of seed (all in one cash) sent by express from Birmingham, Ala. -to Thomasville, Ala. (a few hours run by rail). I had to pay $1 charges -and part of the oats were eaten (I suppose) by rats. I shipped a box of -pears (50 lbs.) from Thomasville, Ala., to Braidentown, Fla. I was told -by clerk or agent the express charges were $2.00. I told him I would not -pay such a charge. Another clerk or agent looked in a book and said the -charges were $1.00. I paid it. That was on Friday. The pears reached -Braidentown, Fla. Tuesday. They should have been in Selma or Mobile -Saturday morning, and where they were from then until Tuesday we know -not. A letter saying the box had been opened and a part of the pears -taken out was received yesterday. Have I no redress? I wrote to the Mayor -of Birmingham to know if such thieving was allowed in his city. - - * * * * * - - _N. W. Rogers, N. Y. City._ - -I have read, with increasing interest, all the issues of your very -excellent Magazine, and it gives me pleasure to express my appreciation -of the effort you are making to educate the public. - -The task of one who is endeavoring to expose corruption and corporate -greed is, as I know from personal experience, a discouraging one; -nevertheless I have a firm conviction that justice must finally be -meted out to the smug respectability that has been robbing the whole -country. The loathsome and criminal devices resorted to by our would-be -aristocracy, in their greedy desire to acquire money, merits a more -active opposition than that brought about by a public exposure of their -crimes. Complete restitution of all funds wrongfully acquired in the -exercise of an extortionate monopoly would be but a small punishment. - -I wish you all success in your endeavors and only regret that I cannot at -the present time take an active part in the campaign. - - * * * * * - - _F. Schweizer, Woodlawn, Nebr._ - -Even Diogenes with his lantern would in vain search justice in this -country. To tell the truth in this country is punished as lese-majesty. -Therefore I may be hung for lese-majesty, but I don’t care. - -I was born and raised in free Switzerland and I will die as a free man -who dares to express his honest opinions. If I am wrong, show me my -errors. It really seems that people never will hear and accept the truth, -until some fellows have been hung for telling the truth. - -Let us be honest and acknowledge that our so high praised Christian -civilization is a total failure. Might is right. The greatest hypocrite -and most brutal beast is the absolute master, who dictates the terms by -which he will rule. Their mottos are: - -“Everyone for himself and the devil takes the hindmost and—The people be -damned.” - - * * * * * - - _F. Hodgman, Climax, Mich._ - -I find in the literary department much to commend and little, if -anything, to find fault with. In the editorial and political department, -I can not say as much. You advocate many things which men of all -parties have always been agreed on—that is, honest men of all parties. -If you could only get the people to take you seriously and make the -ten commandments a partisan issue, you would win out hands down, for a -big majority of the people are honest in principle and want an honest -Government. I dissent from very much that you are trying to teach in the -way of political economy and you make many assertions and statements -which I believe to be errors. But that does not count. The greatest -fault I find with it as a magazine is the tendency toward being a common -scold—with a good deal to denounce and little or nothing to commend. - - * * * * * - - _C. E. Hedgpath, Centralia, Mo._ - -Mr. Watson, allow me to say that while I admire your talent and much more -your honesty, I cannot agree with you that the “great middle class” are -the only ones needing protection. There is a party in the field fully -organized and standing for “all the people”. “Government ownership”, -with the Government as it now stands, would only add to our burdens. But -first—Let the people own the Government. For this the Socialist Party -stands. - - * * * * * - - _O. E. Samuelson, Kiowa, Kan._ - -I have received two numbers of your Magazine and have studied them when -I could spare time. I was in the Populist movement one time. It was -all right in its time, but its time is past and now we have something -better—Socialism. So your Magazine is not enough revolutionary. - - * * * * * - - _P. R. Richardson, Gardi, Ga._ - - “Hon. Hoke Smith, Atlanta, Ga. - - “Dear Sir: There are so many high-flying silver-feathered - Democratic office-seekers that unless a man is well posted - he can never tell the real man from the political tool. But - seeing that Thomas E. Watson has promised you his support for - Governor of the great State of Georgia, it explains away and - clears up all doubts. So around our fireside cane-grindings we - will talk and drink to your health, and when the day of the - primary comes along we will roll in our votes. - - “Yours very truly, - - “P. R. RICHARDSON.” - -Being a subscriber to the Magazine, I offer the above letter for -publication in the Magazine. - - * * * * * - - _D. C. Pryor, Uvalde, Tex._ - - I send you a “legal tender,” - A thing you have often seen, - For which, please send to me, “dear Tom,” - Your splendid Magazine. - - Whilst I am a Democrat - Its ranks I’d hate to leave, - But I’d vote for you, “dear Tom,” - Before I’d vote for Cleve. - - * * * * * - - _Dr. H. P. Boyce, Los Angeles, Cal._ - -Your editorial “Peonage in Panama” published in the December number, -was read by me with a great deal of interest, as I have lived for seven -years in Central America and am thoroughly familiar with labor conditions -there, having during my residence there had constantly in my employ on -plantation work from 15 to 50 laborers, or mozos, as they are called. - -Of course, I do not know the exact conditions under which these laborers -were contracted in Martinique, but am confident the conditions were -similar to those under which all labor in that country is contracted. -The employer of labor signs up a number of men and the men ask for, -expect and receive an advance of money against their future services of -an amount equal to from two to four months’ wages. There is a form of -contract signed in which the laborer acknowledges the receipt of so much -money paid him for future work to be done by him under the contract, -by which he also agrees to work for the employer for a specified time -at the rate of so much per month. This is the general custom in those -countries and with the class of labor available is the only way in which -the employer can be reasonably certain of securing and retaining his -laborers, as the law forces the mozo to live up to his contract and also -makes him secure in obtaining his money after he has worked out the -amount advanced. - -It was unquestionably the case with the Martinique negroes that they -had all received advances of money against their future services, and -that the money had all been spent before leaving their homes and, such -being the case, where would the employer have found himself if he had -submitted without any resistance and allowed the laborers to nullify -their contracts and return home? - -The Martinique and Jamaica negroes are as a rule a very unruly, -unreliable and impertinent class and it requires strenuous measures to -keep them in subjection and make them live up to their contracts. They -cannot be compared to the American negro, who is much easier to manage. - -I appreciate your feelings in the matter, but do not think you thoroughly -appreciate the conditions of affairs as they exist in regard to the -relations of employer and employee. - -When the Martinique negro claims he does not know conditions as they -exist at Panama, or other points on the Central American coast, he is -lying, as they are all of them more or less familiar with the entire -coast from personal visits to it or information acquired from friends who -have been on the coast. - -I know nothing from personal observation of the Peonage system in the -Southern States but I do know that the contract labor system is the -only way to handle labor in Panama, for you cannot get them without the -advance of money and if you do not protect yourself by the contract, the -chances are 9 out of 10 that your man will never show up to work it out. - -A gang of those negroes numbering 500 or 600 are not easily handled by -any means, and force must be used at times, or at least a strong display -of it made or discipline would not be maintained twenty-four hours. -Conditions are altogether different from anything existing here and -matters must be judged differently. Existing conditions must dictate the -line of action to be pursued in any given case and from my knowledge -of the character of the men and the conditions, I do not see how the -authorities could have acted otherwise than in using force, if necessary, -to persuade these negroes to disembark. You certainly would not consider -it just that these negroes take the contractors money, spend it, have -their fare paid on the steamer to Colon and then on arrival deliberately -say they would not land and work out what they had already been paid, but -were going to return home. There would be no justice in such a course and -if the employer had to use force to obtain what was coming to him, the -man’s labor in exchange for his money which the man had already spent, -it seems to me he was entirely within his rights. These laborers owed -this money to the employer just as much as a man owes money that he has -borrowed from another and given his note for, and, just as much as the -borrower should expect to pay his note, just so much should this laborer -expect to give his services in payment of the money advanced to him. As I -have stated before, the laws of these countries recognize this condition -of the field of labor and uphold the employer just as our laws recognize -a man’s liability when he signs a note agreeing to repay money advanced -to him. When the laborer has repaid by his services the money advanced to -him he can no longer be held to his contract, but just so long as the -laborer demands the advance of money before doing any work, just so long -must he expect to be forced, if necessary, to carry out his agreement, -and his services as laborer being his only asset he must give those -services. - -In those countries you only have your laborer as long as you keep him in -your debt, for as soon as he gets a month’s wages in his pocket, he is -ready to loaf and get drunk. - -I think if you were thoroughly acquainted with conditions there, as I am, -you would take a different view of the matter. I have been a constant -reader of your Magazine since the first issue and enjoy it very much, but -felt I must give you my views on this question. - - * * * * * - - _John C. Sanner, Redding, Cal._ - -“Who Are The Rabble?” - -It is _de rigeur_ nowadays for a “genteel” personage travelling along -a country road in a buggy or automobile to address any casually met -pedestrian as “my man” when seeking local information. This seems boorish -to my old fashioned notions. We are evidently becoming very aristocratic -along with our tremendous increase in national wealth. It is a very -great exhibition of gall for a large employer to so bespeak an humble -subordinate. - -I will present to the editor of the TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE, if he can find -space, an article addressed mainly to the uneducated and unthoughtful -hard working men and voters of our United States. The writer is an -uneducated man and a life-long hard toiler and acquainted with grief, -sorrow and adversity and has lived over three score and ten years. My -mother being left a widow with four little dependent children, she -was forced to hire me at seven years old for bread and hence I feel -interested in millions of men, women and children that are dependent -and in grief and sorrow, that if they had equal rights and justice in -this government, they would be a prosperous and happy people, and a -just principle that presides in my heart prompts me to write an article -addressed to that dependent, unthinking army of men in this government. -Though I am forced to write from the hand of an uneducated man or from -the language of my mother’s tongue, I hope my position will be understood. - -In the first place I want to draw your minds to the man that has no equal -in this government to wit: Thomas E. Watson. The day before the national -election of 1901 I heard him make a speech in the city of Gainesville, -Ga. He said that there was no chance for the Populists in this election, -but that he would commence the fight the next day after the election -for 1908 and now you see he is true to his word. He has begun with an -educational school by offering his school-book or magazine in the house -of every family in the United States that wants it, when each monthly -book or magazine is worth more than the year’s subscription to any -thinking man, and I feel greatly astonished that every workingman of the -nation does not take it, for I am sure it is the greatest educator as -to how the world has moved on in the great governmental ways since the -creation until the present day, and especially the last forty years of -the government of the United States. Then I earnestly beg and solicit -all men to take the magazine, and especially the workingmen, that you -may learn that this little delicate man, Tom Watson, is the workingman’s -friend and is making a fight for you and your weary wife and children -that they may be freed from slavery and brought from under the greedy -law of the privileged few that are now corporated into a thievish and -robbing body, that they may steal and rob the workingman of his hard -earnings. Yes, he has taken this greedy lion or corporation by the throat -with a cry that he surrender to the working people their rights and that -they must be equal to you. Then, my brother workingman, I appeal to you -with all my earnest and honest heart to rally to this honest and brave -man, Watson, and stand by him and vote for him and aid him to devour the -greedy lion that you may have your liberties and rights for yourself, -wife and children. Now, in conclusion I will say I have been a hard -laboring man all my life and I am now standing on the bank of Jordan and -may, before you read my little message to my brother working voters that -I am so much interested in, be across the river. Though I am in eternity -at the election of the next President I have three sons and seven -sons-in-law and grandchildren that will vote for the hero, Watson, for -the interest of workingmen. - - * * * * * - - _J. N. Hale, Cairo, Ga._ - -Forty-eight years ago I was born a Democrat and I have been one ever -since. I love true democratic principles now, but find it impossible to -work and vote for these principles and remain true to the party as it is -now organized and run. I have been a member of the State Dem. Ex. Com., -was Chairman of the 5th Congressional Committee when you were being -cursed, abused and robbed and was glad of your defeat because I thought -you wrong. I thought the fight for reform should have been made within -the party; but, alas! there is no reform and never will there be reform -so long as the Belmonts, Gormans, Clevelands and other trust tools are in -control. - -I now believe that you are right. The only hope for the people is to -rise up and hurl from their rotten pedestals both of the old parties and -take the reins of government into their own hands. Never before were -the people more ready to act. Here in the new County of Grady, which -was “officially born” today, the people are overwhelmingly in favor of -cutting loose from the old parties and marching under a new banner. I -will advocate in my paper which I have just started, new, clean methods, -and fight for democracy as you see it and so ably preach it. - -The people are now with you and pure democracy is going to win. - - * * * * * - - _J. F. Laman, Arp, Tenn._ - -I have been a subscriber to TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE from first to last and -expect to continue as long as the light holds out to burn and I believe -it is getting brighter. I hope and pray for Tom Watson to live to see the -good day when he can realize that his work has been crowned with complete -success. - -You ask me to give my views concerning the Magazine. I know it is the -best I ever saw, and I have seen a good many. As to improvement, I have -no suggestions to submit in regard to the make-up of the Magazine, but I -do suggest that you make it hotter, if possible, for the scoundrels who -rob honest toil of the fruits of its labor. - -I have been a Populist as long as anybody I know of and the older I -become the deeper my belief is in the justice of our cause and our -principles. I was an admirer of Tom Watson when he was a member of -Congress years ago and I am for him now and will remain for him as long -as he travels in the road he is now in and I have no fear that he will -apostatize. - -With best wishes for you and all your co-workers, I remain your friend to -the end. - - * * * * * - - _T. A. Thompson, Guntown, Miss._ - -1 am a Populist and have been one since 1880 and opposed to Fusion -first, last, and all the time. I have been receiving your Magazine since -November. I have three brothers that live in Alabama that have been -voting the Democratic ticket all their lives, and I want them to read -something that will open their eyes for I consider them politically -blind; and I want to help you in your gallant fight for the right. I -like your Magazine. I wish I was able to send you 100 dollars to have it -sent to men that think that they cannot afford to spend one dollar for a -paper. But the trouble with them is that they don’t think at all. They -use their heads to hang their hats on only. In the Presidential election -of 1876 I voted my last Democratic vote for President. I hope to live to -see a reformer elected President of our Government. I believe that time -is near when the people will get their eyes opened. Bossism is dying -slowly but surely. Populism is not as dead as the two old twin parties -would like to see it. - -Success to your Magazine and to the People’s Party and its principles. - -A Happy New Year to you. - - * * * * * - - _J. W. Waite, So. Hadley, Mass._ - -I have much enjoyed the Magazine; but have for sometime been in doubt as -to whether I should be warranted in letting you continue to send it. Its -good strong meat has not disarranged my digestion; it’s not that, but it -comes near—very near—to being a lack of circulation of the life current -of the country on the little corner I occupy. - -I was a railroad man over 20 years and was discharged, not for -incompetency, but for propagating Populist doctrines. Vocally and with -the pen I spread the words of Jefferson, Lincoln and many others. I -posted them on bulletin boards and wrote some articles for the Dedham -_Transcript_—near Dedham, Mass. I was laboring the last few years of -my railroad service. However, my story is not so interesting as that -of many. I have three sons railroaders—all scattered, and I have been -living here alone on a little corner belonging to the oldest, locomotive -engineer for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. He reads your -Magazine occasionally and I send one occasionally to the others. - - * * * * * - - _A. C. Hillman, Salina, Kan._ - -I am one of the nineteen that voted for you in the 3rd ward of our city -in the last Presidential election. I am of the same opinion still. - - * * * * * - - _J. H. Vandegrift, Branchville, Ala._ - -I desire to say to you that I have been reading your Magazine carefully -ever since it was put in print and I am proud to say that it is a great -eye-opener to our common laboring people. - -Now, I will say to you that I am 78 years of age, was born in St. Clair -County, Ala., was raised a farmer and I certainly know how to sympathize -with our laboring farming people all over the country. - -I am proud to see that we have such patriotic men as Thomas E. -Watson going over our country educating our people in the cause of -righteousness. Now I am happy to know that the people are waking up -to know that justice and righteousness will prevail against fraud and -rascality. I feel happy to believe that Tom Watson will be our next -president. Now let us all get to work by showing up the light of truth to -our misguided laboring people. Our forefathers taught us the principles -of self-government—equal rights to all and special privileges to none. -I would say that every voter should read WATSON’S MAGAZINE and vote for -Watson for President. - - * * * * * - - _W. V. Edwards, Lewisburg, Tenn._ - -It is the best paper published. I don’t know how you could improve it. I -have been handing out my paper so you see I have obtained four old yellow -dog subscribers. I hope to send more soon. I am one of the Old Guard. I -am for Tom Watson against all comers. Tom and Hearst would make a team, -so put me down for them. - - * * * * * - - _J. R. Murdock, Dallas, Tex._ - -TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE is the best educator that I read. I learn more by -reading it than I do from all the daily papers I can get. Mr. Watson’s -editorials are worth the subscription price. I believe Tom Watson is -the greatest and grandest statesman in America today. With Watson for -President we can smash the present National Banking system and abolish -corporate railroad robbery and regain our freedom stolen from us through -corrupt legislation both State and National. I am for Watson in 1908 for -President. Can vote for him with a clear conscience without fear of ever -regretting casting my vote. I am still proud I voted for him November, -1904. Give it to old Grover and the wiggle tails and trust. As ever I am -for Watson and Liberty. - - * * * * * - - _J. E. Reed, Collinsville, Tex._ - -I have read every number of your most wonderful Magazine. I say wonderful -because it has no equal in championing the cause of the people and in -denouncing the big thieves who go scot free because they have plenty -of money with which to bribe both judge and jury. For the last decade -there has been a huge suspicion in the minds of the masses that both the -old parties are dominated by the same Wall Street influences and your -brilliant editorials have confirmed this suspicion. There was a huge -suspicion that the leaders of the so-called Democratic Party in 1904 -betrayed the people into the hands of Wall Street, and your editorials -have certainly confirmed this suspicion. Indeed the “magazine with a -purpose back of it” is having a mighty influence with every honest and -fair-minded man. The literary features of your Magazine are excellent. -The “Educational Department” alone is worth more than the subscription -price. In fact your Magazine has no peer for the price in America. - -Dear Tom, we trust your health will continue good, that you may continue -to expound those sacred principles that have emanated from the Sage of -Monticello. - - * * * * * - - _J. R. P. Wall, Rutland, Fla._ - -I desire to express my appreciation of your superb Magazine. I have read -every number and shall continue to read it as long as you are at the head -of it. The only way to improve the Magazine is to put more of your own -writings in it—say “The Life and Times of Jefferson” in serial form. - -May your health be preserved that you may continue the good work. - - * * * * * - - _T. A. Calhoun, Mansfield, Ga._ - -“The Life Worth Living” expresses my opinion of your Magazine. It teaches -the true idea of scholar, statesman and patriot. Let us make a sacrifice -of ourselves for the good of mankind and then we will be led out of the -wilderness. - -I have been in the fight 39 years and will be to the end. I am for -principle and not party. - - * * * * * - - _Hart Henley, Dallas, Tex._ - -Public opinion should be so modified that a man desiring peace could -remain peaceable without being branded coward. Had such been the case, -young Branch’s life might have been spared. - -Deduced from the papers it seems a dread of opprobrium had as much to do -with young Merriweather’s acceptance of Branch’s challenge as irritation -or resentment. - -Have read your Magazine. Admire it very much and like the way the -opinions of the people are voiced. Being one of them, I send you an -opinion to voice. - - * * * * * - - _T. L. Wheeler, Staunton, Ind._ - -I like your Magazine and realize that you are doing a great work for the -people. - - * * * * * - - _L. D. Riggins, Clanton, Ala._ - -I consider that TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE is doing a Godly work for humanity -in teaching them to know how to discriminate between a democratic and an -aristocratic government. - - * * * * * - - _A Subscriber, Petaluma, Cal._ - -My husband and I have read your Magazine since its first issue, and we -would not be without it. There is often a conflict as to who shall read -it first though perhaps half a dozen other new magazines are lying about -unread, for we take many. My husband, busy high-school teacher, says Tom -Watson refreshes him after his hard day’s work. As he reads it, I can -hear him chuckling occasionally, sometimes laughing heartily. We enjoy -the editorials, especially, but it is all good. The fiction is of a high -order. I hope to see your Magazine in our public library. Many more would -like it if they knew of it, and a great many do most of their reading -here in the public library. - -My husband has his life insured in the Equitable—I hate the word. He did -it to protect me and the children in case of his death. But now we are -undecided whether to keep up the thing or not. Do you think the Equitable -might fail to fulfill the contract in case of death? I should like to -know your opinion. We have just paid three premiums and another will be -due next spring. I have two little children and if my husband should be -taken we should be in a dreadful plight. But we are trying to make other -provisions. It is simply outrageous the way the people are treated. It -fills one with helpless rage. - -I was interested in the article “Phases of the Peonage Question.” Was the -planter who “had to kill a negro” ever tried for it? I would like to know -that planter’s name and address, so that I can follow his suit when it -comes off. I am interested in this question. Won’t you request the author -to give me this information, if you cannot give it. I prefer to have it -through the pages of the Magazine. With best wishes for your success in -trying to bring about more just conditions. - - * * * * * - - _Charles Burbage, Row, I. T._ - -I have read and reread every copy of TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE from cover to -cover and like each number better than the proceeding one. It is far the -best of the fifteen magazines that I read each month and I would not do -without it for twice the price. - -Your editorials are convincing. Just keep on pumping the hot shot into -the trusts and corporations for, if they are let alone, they will soon -be taking the house and lot while the old man and boys are at home. They -would not wait for the old lady to become a widow. - - * * * * * - - _Matilda Magley, Green Ridge, Mo._ - -I have been one of your true friends, since I got acquainted with you as -a Congressman. I love your style of calling things and people by their -right names. Your paper is doing a noble work now, while the people are -being confused over the late insurance frauds, railroad and banking -scandals, trust, corporations and thefts from the honest common laborer, -and they see it is worth while to do a little of their own thinking. I -hope the day will soon dawn, when people will see the folly of relying on -other men’s views not in accord with true reform. - -Yours till victory is won. - - * * * * * - - _W. O. Robinson, Smyrna, Ga._ - -I regard your magazine as one of the grandest magazines of the day and -I, with many other loyal Georgians, regard it as a great privilege to do -honor to the illustrious name of Tom Watson as the South’s Greatest Son. -I voted for Watson for President, and am proud of my vote. - - * * * * * - - _G. S. Ward, Island, Ky._ - -I regard Tom Watson’s Magazine as one of the best magazines published -today for truth telling and divulging the hypocrisy of high official men. -It now has plenty of cartoons. In fact it is the best I ever read. - - * * * * * - - _G. W. Crook, Camden, W. Va._ - -I have a fixed arrangement with our news-dealer, T. P. Wright and Co., -of Weston, by which I get it promptly; but for that, of course I would -subscribe. I think, as some others do, that it is all right to encourage -news-dealers, as many copies in this way pass into the hands of persons -who otherwise would not become readers of it. - -I have no suggestions to offer as to improvement. Tom will attend to -that. What he don’t see “ain’t” worth discussing. His last reply to -Keely, was worth to me all the magazine has cost me from March to January. - -My chief regret is that Tom and W. J. B. are not pulling the same line. -Hope they will soon. - - * * * * * - - _George G. Bryson, Gallatin, Tenn._ - -I was among the first subscribers to your magazine. If spared by Father -Time, will be among the last of its readers. Nothing better in point -these days than Tom’s editorials. - - * * * * * - - _George Heywood, Binghamton, N. Y._ - -I think 15 cents more appropriate price and think most who read it at -all, or buy it, feel the same way. I would like to be on your list, but I -move about so I must get it at news stands. - -Seemingly few people have time for anything but getting a living. It -is such a “bread and butter” world, do you wonder at the enthusiastic -Socialists? There is plenty produced and the distribution is so unjust -and cruel. - - * * * * * - - _C. C. Edmonson, Grand View, Ark._ - -Populist is the synonym of right. Success to your magazine. - - * * * * * - - _John Medert, Indianapolis, Ind._ - -The million and a half of voters who were freed from party thralldom by -the Populist movement have made it impossible for the Democratic Party to -get back to Clevelandism, or for the Republican Party to “stand pat” on -anything. The Senators who “grinned like Cheshire cats” at Senator Allen -when he made charges against them, are having troubles of their own. The -outlook is hopeful, and the law of disintegration is still at work. - - * * * * * - - _Thomas Wybrants Lodge, Ha Ha Tonka, Mo._ - -I am, and intend to remain, a regular subscriber and reader of your -fearless and honest Magazine, which, along with Post’s _Public_, are -the only papers I care to read, and see you also consider Post’s paper -“excellent.” I do not think you are just to Tolstoi, and so enclose -you his own letter of April 27, 1894. In your editorial of October you -confound “ownership” with “possession.” If you will read chapters XVIII -and XIX of “Social Problems” the great essential difference will be -clear to you. Neither George nor Tolstoi ever proposed any division or -partition of the land—nothing of the sort. George indeed, in chapter -II, book VIII of “Progress, and Poverty” makes this most plain, saying -“I do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate private property -in land.” But surely, Mr. Watson, if you have not, carefully, without -bias read these incomparable works, you ought to do so; he expressly -disclaims his “fundamental reform” as being any “panacea;” he fully -recognizes and so does Tolstoi “that even after we do this, much will -remain to do.” I am an old and very poor man of 73. Had I the means I’d -buy and send you George’s “Condition of Labor.” No honest Christian after -reading that little, but truly logical and ethically admirable “Open -Letter to the Pope,” could say, much less maintain, that Nature (God) -did not intend the Rent of Land—Land values—for the use and the support -of human Governments. I hope you will honestly “read, mark, learn and -inwardly digest” George’s works. You then would see and own that “The -Land Question is the Labor Question” and far more important than “The -Money Question,” serious though that certainly is. I subscribe myself -your earnest and true admirer. - - * * * * * - - _Dorrance B. Currier, Hanover, N. H._ - -Frankly—I enjoy reading TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE, especially his editorials, -more than anything else I read, for I agree with them and have for the -past thirty years advocated them. - -If the Magazine can be improved you know how to do it better than I do, -but we readers should supply you the means by a united effort to double -your subscription list. Whatever may be the alignment of political -parties two years hence, the principles advocated by Mr. Watson will -be represented by one of them. To you, then, reader of this letter -in California, Florida, Minnesota or among the granite hills of New -Hampshire, what will you do to help and do it NOW? - -I will pay for four copies. - -One for my self to read over and over. - -One to be placed in the local barber shop, to catch the eye of a waiting -customer. - -One for Dartmouth College’s reading room. - -One for my farmer friend, with the request that he lend it to his -neighbor. - -As nothing succeeds like success, please inform your readers of it, from -time to time, for the cause is quite as much ours as yours. - - * * * * * - - _D. T. Mitchell, Woodlandville, Mo._ - -I have always been an admirer of Tom Watson and am yet, as I am of W. J. -Bryan. But while I am an admirer of these men I have no faith in their -proposed remedies for the ills, both political and social, from which the -proletariat of this great nation are suffering. - -They both lean, and in a certain sense lead, in the right direction, as I -think, but, alas, stop short of any effective measures for the permanent -and general well being of the great mass of wealth creators in this great -big trust-governed nation. - -The leaning and leading of these men that I admire is in the primer of -Socialism. But there it stops, and as long as it stops there it will, -in my humble judgment, eventuate in no permanent good to the great body -of our citizenship today so sorely in need of deliverance from the -wealth-absorbing institutions and processes of these U. S. of Trustdom. - -Equality of opportunity to grow and develop the very best there is in -each child born into this world ought to be the certain inheritance of -every American born child, and that you can never have with our present -system of inheritance. Every worker ought to have free access to nature’s -store house of wealth and then be guaranteed in the certain possession -of what he brings therefrom and this can never be had with individual -ownership of land. - -Yours for Truth and Justice. - - * * * * * - - _George R. Murray, Greenwich, Conn._ - -I have been reading your Magazine since your first issue and I can assure -you it is like good wine—it improves with age. You have got the right -spirit of independence and you are putting practical issues before the -public in a manner never before attempted. Keep up the good work and your -efforts will soon be appreciated by the toilers who have been blind to -their interests in the past, and kindly devote as much of your valuable -time and space to organized labor and their interests as possible, and I -can assure you it will be highly appreciated by a large number of your -admirers, “union men.” - -Yours for Right and Truth. - - * * * * * - - _John S. Iszard, Georgetown, S. C._ - -I have been reading your Magazine for three months and I find it is the -best one that I have ever read and I will continue reading them. Of all -the magazines that sell for ten cents, give me TOM WATSON’S. - - * * * * * - - _Mrs. George Peters, Prescott, Ariz._ - -I have just finished reading in your valuable Magazine, “Is Money to Rule -Us?” a subject that greatly interests me. What is money? It is nothing -more than a little glittering dirt, taken from the bowels of the earth -by man, rolled in little flat round pieces, and given the name of money. -And we, who consider ourselves civilized, allow that glittering dirt to -influence us far more than principle. - - * * * * * - - _A. D. R. Hamby, Ava, Mo._ - -I have one of your first copies and would not enter any serious -objections, but as to my own taste there are some of the fictitious -articles that are not conducive to good information and might be -substituted with better literature. I believe that the people have too -many fancy fictitious falsehoods and long and tedious explanations which -could be reduced to plain and simple facts. - -I am a native of Georgia and I like the name Tom Watson and the cause he -espouses a great sight better. Here is my motto: “Unity, Unity, Unity, -Unity.” - - * * * * * - - _Robert Heriot, Little Rock, Ark._ - -I have read each number of TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE since its -publication—buying it at the book store. - -Being a Democrat in politics, of course, I think it is the most -interesting periodical published in the United States. I don’t know which -to admire most—the principles it advocates or the brilliant manner in -which they are presented. I hope some day to be able to read “The Life of -Napoleon,” “The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson,” and “The Story of -France” by the editor of the Magazine. I will say though, that I believe -if all the reforms advocated by the Populists (who are nothing more or -less than real Democrats) and the best plank in the platforms of the two -old parties that do not conflict with the former, were adopted into law, -that the condition of the lower strata of society would be benefited very -little. - -The reasons therefor would take up too much space in this letter but -they are ably set forth in “Progress and Poverty” by Henry George, and -in chapter nine, Social Statistics. In one of the early editions by -Herbert Spencer, George’s remedy, explained in a few words, provides -for confiscating rent for the purposes of governmental expenses and -abolishing all taxation on labor. If anyone thinks the above change -would hurt the farmer, he should read what Tom Johnson, the Mayor of -Cleveland, O., has to say on the subject. A perfect monetary system and -a transportation system run at cost, would only make much more wealth to -be absorbed by the earth owners. The writer has been a loyal member of -organized labor (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) since 1872, and he -has come to the conclusion that no permanent relief can be expected in -that direction even without taking taxation from productive effort. - - * * * * * - - _M. C. Read, Tampa, Fla._ - -All your editorials are well suited in style to interest the masses—all -stubborn facts beyond contradiction. If the masses could be properly -politically educated the great difficulty would be removed. In the way -of reformation there are many obstacles to change our governmental -affairs by a vote of the people. They seem to be hypnotised by the great -money power of corporations. The press is almost entirely subsidized. -The reader gets but one side of the question discussed by writing or -orations. Each candidate of his party makes his speeches without joint -debate, generally, and the result—but very few have but a vague idea of -present conditions. Today is my birthday. Born the 9th of January, 1820, -but I hope and trust I am to pass another Presidential election and I -assure you, sir, it would be the grandest desire of my long life to see -you seated in the Presidential chair in 1908. - - * * * * * - - _From T. E. W., Ohio._ - -In the January number of WATSON’S MAGAZINE, among the items of home news -from November 9 to December 7, I notice that the Standard Oil Co. raised -the price of refined oil ½ cent a gallon. That is equivalent to 21 cents -a barrel. That was only one half of the story. They dropped the price of -Crude Oil at the same time 3 cents a barrel, or from $1.61 to $1.58 per -barrel, and not a paper or a magazine in the country as far as I have -seen has a word to say about it. I do not think it of any use to comment -on it to you. I have no idea you knew of it, or you would have been after -them with a hot stick. - -On page 268 in commenting on John D., you say he is the man who compelled -the railroads, etc. It has always been a surprise to me that some of our -statesmen as well as Ida Tarbell, Tom Lawson and other writers, talk -about the Standard Oil Company compelling the railroads. I have had -twenty-five years’ experience in the business and I say it is nothing of -the kind. _The railroads are the Standard Oil Co._ Rockefeller, as far -as the oil business and the railroads are concerned, is only a _stool -pigeon_. If you want proof of it look at Pullman. When Pullman was alive -everything was Pullman. When he died it was found he had only a one-sixth -interest. If he could make the money he did on his one-sixth interest, -what must the gang back of him have made? Now oil can be carried cheaper -for long distances by rail than by pipe-line. What is the use of talking -about the railroads being compelled? I do not believe this country has -any more idea of what it is up against than a lot of babies. - -I should like to see you. I know you are in New York often. Some time -when I am in the city I will call at your quarters and see if you are -there. - - * * * * * - - _Reddin Andrews, A. M., Tyler, Tex._ - -I have read every number of WATSON’S MAGAZINE. It is immense. There is -nothing like it in the whole realm of literature. It is the only magazine -dealing with political, social and economic questions, that tells the -whole truth. It is the only one that is in position to afford indulgence -in such a luxury as telling the whole truth. - -It seems to me that WATSON’S MAGAZINE has met with greater favor than you -could have anticipated. I wish that it had a million subscribers. I do -not now take time, nor tax your patience by reading further, to mention -some special excellencies of the Magazine. - - * * * * * - - _A. C. Ditty, Appleton City, Mo._ - -Am still a Populist, but Populists are few here. The most of them got -such a dose of Bryanism in ’96 that it killed the most of them and that -was just what Bryan and his bunch wanted, and it worked well in these -parts; yet some of the fools say Bryan is a good Populist. If Bryan is a -Populist, I am not—no, not by a d—n sight! He stands for anything to get -a big name and make a big blow. That’s all, and if the Populists ever -expect to do anything they must let such cattle as W. J. alone. Nothing -in him but wind and not Pop wind either. He is plumb full of plut. wind -and that isn’t good for a Populist; or that is my view of the orator from -the Platte. I hope to see a new revival along Populist lines in the near -future. - -I will try to convert some of the old fellows. They all admit we are -right, but yet they still vote the old ticket. That is mighty poor logic. -The great trouble, as I see it, is this. The prejudice that grew out -of the War still sticks in the people, and as long as the Democrats and -Republicans can hold the reins, just so long will that prejudice remain -with the people either one killed. I was a Confederate soldier but I have -no love for either of the old parties. I claim it was the war Democrats -that licked us Johnnies—no, not licked, but overpowered us. - - * * * * * - - _H. N. Holmes, Hemple, Mo._ - -I am one of the charter members of your Magazine and I have been handing -it out to some mighty good men for them to read. I am forty-eight years -old and have read a heap and I believe that I will be inside of the truth -when I say that there is more good sound sense in one of your Magazines -than in all of the newspapers that I ever read outside of the _Missouri -World_ and the paper that you used to publish. I took it as long as you -ran it. I have followed you ever since you were in Congress. I got a -couple of your campaign books at that time, voted for you every time I -got a chance to. I would rather cast ten thousand votes for Tom Watson -than one for the sainted Bryan. I wouldn’t give Tom Watson for all the -Bryans that could stand on Nebraska soil. I don’t think he is good stuff -for reform, or for the plutocrats either. I will close by saying that I -think TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE is the finest in the world, and I have never -seen anything that would equal it for an educator. Give it to them, Tom. -I believe the boys are leaning your way. - - * * * * * - - _J. L. Reynolds, North Augusta, S. C._ - -I thought enough of your Magazine to send you a renewal of my -subscription which will carry me through to April, 1907. I have always -admired Mr. Watson as a writer, and as long as he writes as well as -during these last two or three years I shall continue to read his stuff. - -I admire some of his politics but am not a third party man, nor am I -populistic in my views. I am an independent, I presume, or “on the fence” -ready to fall in line with an honest party, one foreign to the present. - -I see no reason why the Magazine should not reach into the millions. It -is good enough, fair enough, bold enough, and honest enough to give each -and every one a fair deal. Tell Tom to hit Roosevelt and he’ll please me. - - * * * * * - - _F. C. Gibbs, Waterville, Minn._ - -You are doing splendid work with the Magazine. I was chairman of the -State Central Committee of this State in 1896, the year Bryan ran the -first time, and the year he destroyed the People’s Party. When he -swallowed the gold standard, Parker, gold telegram, boots and all, he -lost the last vestige of respect I had for him. He has been weighed in -the balance and found wanting. - - * * * * * - - _S. A. Hauser, Winston-Salem, N. C._ - -I have never stated to you my position on the money question. You say -“Mr. Hauser seems to think that there is substantially no difference -between the Socialist position on money and that taken by the Populist.” -Yes, there is some difference. The Pops are wedded to the legal tender -system which is the only sane system, too safe and sound and just -for the exploiters. I am a Socialist and my position is this on the -money question. I would have legal tender only till the co-operative -commonwealth is established. Then I would use labor checks to denote the -price of a given article. For instance, if it took John Smith 30 minutes -to make a hat, 30M. would be the cost in labor, and hence would be the -price of the hat. So Dick Jones, who labors 30 minutes and makes a pair -of shoes, could take his time check and exchange it for the hat. In Rev., -18 chap. and 11 verse, you will find this: “For no man buyeth their -merchandise any more.” That time is coming and it looks as if it was -nearly here. The Ethics of Socialism are the same as the Bible and are -therefore right. Therefore Socialism is irrefutable. - -I know the Pops and Soc. ought to unite, but whether they will or not is -the question. If the Pop Party represents the workingman’s interest then -the working people in that party and the working people in the Soc. Party -should harmonize their differences. When they become sensible enough they -will. The capitalists have laid the example for the workingman. He must -do or be done forever. - - * * * * * - - _Charles R. Long, Bedias, Tex._ - -I want to work to get all the plain people to concentrate forces -regardless of party lines. - -Hurrah for Tom Watson, Tom Lawson, Tom Paine and Tom Jefferson. - - * * * * * - - _A. M. Brannan, Guy, Ark._ - -I reckon the Lord only knows how much I rejoice while reading the -_Missouri World_ and WATSON’S MAGAZINE, and in each of them see that we -yet have men who have the wisdom and ability to turn on the light and are -not afraid to do it. Yes, men who are veteran patriots, worthy of all -the honor that has ever been conferred on them and to whom this American -government will owe lasting praise and gratitude for its salvation. -Now, sir, I don’t believe I have said too much so far and what I say -more than this is real. I now feel like repeating the words of Paul -Jones when asked if he was not ready to surrender, “I have just begun to -fight,” and I tell you the truth when I say that I have been saying this -for thirteen years. But let me tell you, and all who may see this, the -meanest, dirtiest thing I have done politically in all these thirteen -years. Right now some of the Old Guard are ready to say “He voted for -Bryan and Fusion.” Well, yes, I did. The fact is I didn’t know as much -then as I do now and I wanted relief, and I got it. Yes, got relieved of -a chance to vote for reform until the last Presidential election when I -got to vote, and not only to vote but work also for the election of our -gallant, patriotic, country-loving, people-serving and never-surrender -Thomas E. Watson. And if it is the Lord’s will I pray that he may not, as -our brave L. L. Polk, fall before the great battle is fought, or rather -finished, but that he may live to see his ambition realized and all the -down trodden and corporation ridden laborers and producers once more free -and enjoying the fruits of their labors, and this government once more in -the hands of the people. - -I have just returned from Foulkner Co., a county south of where I live, -and while there I met one of my old Populist friends and he began to tell -me about receiving one of Watson’s Magazines, and, said he, “It is the -best thing politically I ever saw,” and, “In a short while after that -they registered my name as a subscriber and I have been reading it ever -since.” He then went on to say that Dr. Snoddy of Saltillo has received -the November number, and said the doctor says it is the richest and -ablest political magazine he ever saw. So I see how much good we all may -do by sending out Populist literature among the people. - -Ed. J. Chastain, and I went to work and got 5 subscriptions for that -champion of the people’s cause. If I was able to I would send, or -have sent, TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE to 20 men here in this country. Yes, -and I believe if Congress was creating money and regulating the value -thereof as the Constitution says they should, I would be able to do -this. Yes, and not only that, but 20 men would have the money if we had -a just division of the wealth that we produce, but when I ask a man to -subscribe for the Magazine he says, “I would love to have it but I am -not able,” and so it is. So now, you poor man, see where we are at. -The money changers and money creators have got us now where we can’t -afford to spend a little of the little money, we can get for something -that will tell us how to find where we are at. I believe the day is now -dawning on our American land. Our great chiefs and hypocritical leaders, -who have been looking across the briny deep with pitying eyes, are now -beginning to feel a little muddled and puzzled at the turn things are -taking on this side, and I feel like the dirt will be finally scraped -off deep enough so that enough of the deceived wealth producers, real -government supporters, can see the greatness of our (Populist) claims and -the injustice of the favoritism that does now exist as shown up by our -noble watchmen, and elect men to steer the ship of state once more so as -to save this one glorious American government to the people who pay the -tax to run it. And now, in conclusion, let me say that it seems like we -are doing nothing here in Arkansas; at least it appears so to me. Yet I -think if we had an organizer to go ahead, that many of the bewildered -Democrats, and Republicans too, would fall into line and march with us -to victory. I see that Benty has been appointed national organizer. If he -should see this I hope he will let us know when we may expect him in our -part of Arkansas. I live in Van Buren County. - -I am aiming to take and read and study the inestimable TOM WATSON’S -MAGAZINE just as long as I can raise a dollar to pay for it, and I am -going to get all to subscribe for it I can, and sometime in the future I -want to write something for the benefit of preachers, as there is much -depending on them just now. - - * * * * * - - _Owens Miller, Gatesville, Tex._ - -I have been purchasing the Magazine from our news agent since the -publication began, and have all the back numbers up to and including the -November issue. I can’t afford to lose a single issue as I desire to keep -them for reference in the future. Our news agent sold all of his December -supply before I called. - -I quit the Democratic party when Cleveland demanded and compelled -a Democratic Congress to finish the Republican financial policy by -repealing the Sherman Silver law, and selling bonds to supply a gold -reserve in the treasury, and I have been a Populist from that day to this. - -Of course, I have been left almost alone since W. J. B. and his followers -appropriated the bulk of our platform timbers and in that way captured -and allured thousands of our good reformers back into the so-called -Democratic fold, and things have looked gloomy and lonesome around the -old camp-fires most of the time, but I can’t get my consent to undertake -to keep up with the shifting peregrinations of the Democratic band-wagon -under its latter-day leadership. So I am content to remain with the -faithful mid-roaders who have had the courage to resist the allurement of -the fleshpots of modern Democracy. - -I am by profession a lawyer and while I voted the old party ticket and -supported all of its nominees, regardless of their fitness for the -positions they were running for, I had a good patronage and was doing -fairly well, but when I threw off the shackles and refused to obey -the party lash, scores of my old friends withdrew their patronage and -suddenly concluded that I had lost my influence with the courts and -juries of the county, and joined in a hue and cry to ruin my business -and by this means to force me to at least be quiet in reference to my -political convictions. Some of my ancestors were Irish and some Scotch -and I was born and grew to manhood in Kentucky, and of course the blood -that runs in my veins and the atmosphere that I breathed in my young life -combined has developed a disposition that revolts at coercion in matters -of conscience and the right to speak and vote as I see the right to be. - -However, I have lived these things down in a measure, and am still -earning a living for myself and family in spite of persecutions, and I -enjoy the privilege of occasionally reminding the hide-bound Democrats -of their inconsistencies and of asking them what position their party -occupies today and what its position will be in 1908. Of course they -don’t know just where they are at now and no prophet could afford to -predict where they will be even next year, and so they are mute and can -only reply by a sickly smile. - -I often wonder how much longer this rotten fabric can hold together. Of -course a party with no fixed principles or common policies, can never -succeed in gaining control of the government machinery and they ought -not to, for no one can foresee or even surmise what the results would be -with such a mass of inharmonious elements undertaking at the same time -to steer the course of the ship of state. The Populo-Democrats would -pull hard on the oars in one direction and the Republico-Democrats would -strive to pull the vessel in the opposite direction, and of course the -results would be “confusion worse confounded.” - -I can see but one way of hope and that comes from the wide-spread -disposition to condemn crimes in high places, and to break away from -partisan bossisms throughout the land. This may be the breaking of old -party chains that will ultimately result in independent political thought -and action, and culminate in an era of honesty in the administration of -public affairs and also in private dealings among men. At least I hope -so. - - - - -[Illustration: PUTTERIN’ ROUND. - -BY CORA A. MATSON DOLSON.] - - - “Pretty old for work, I am! - Though I used to till my ground - In good shape as any one— - Now, I only putter ’round. - - Way I used to swing a scythe - Was a caution, tell you, though! - Down my acre any day— - But I’m gettin’ old and slow. - - Still, I keep the burdocks out, - And the grapevines up and trim; - And this great-grandson of mine— - Takes my time a-watchin’ him. - - He’s the cutest little chap, - Like his Grandpap, and his dad— - And that boy of mine I lost - When he was an eight-year’s lad! - - I make out to split the wood, - Like this—little at a time. - There’s that baby, top the gate! - Beats all, how the feller’ll climb! - - “Here, let’s stay with Grandpa now; - Build a cob house on the ground,” - “Keeps me pretty busy?” Yes, - Guess it does, a-putterin’ ’round!” - -[Illustration: _Should the Publicity Bill Pass?_ - -“_There should be a law passed to absolutely forbid corporation gifts to -political parties_”—_President’s Message_ - - _Kemble, in Collier’s Weekly_] - -[Illustration: _That’s the Question_ - -_The Investigated_—“_What we want to know is, who’s going to investigate -Congress?_” - - _Bart., in Minneapolis Journal_] - - - - -[Illustration: _Educational Department_] - - - * * * * * - - STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLO. DECEMBER 29, 1905. - - _Honorable Thomas E. Watson_, - - DEAR SIR: - - (1) Are the Greenbacks all retired, and if so, when retired? - - (2) Are the Greenbacks legal tenders? - - (3) Are National Bank bills legal tender paper, and if not, on - what basis do they have circulation? - - (4) What is meant by “free coinage” as advocated by silver men? - - (5) Could the holder of greenbacks during the War convert them - into Government bonds at their face value? - - (6) Did the United States Government ever propose to pay the - National Debt in silver or gold at its option, and when? If - not, why not? - - (7) If silver coin is not a legal tender, why do silver dollars - pass current at their face value, and why do National Banks pay - out their silver at their counters and refuse to exchange them, - as is usually the case, for gold? - - (8) Who determines the value of foreign coins? - - Yours, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -(1) No. $346,000,000 still circulate, much to the annoyance of the -National Bankers. - -(2) Yes. Except for Import dues and interest on Bonds. - -(3) The law declares that they are “money” and guarantees their payment; -hence they pass as money, but are not, strictly speaking, Legal Tender. -The basis of their circulation is the Credit of the Government. The -people have to pay taxes to meet the interest on the bonds in order that -the National Bankers shall have the vast profit and power of using the -Government Credit for their private gain. - -(4) The privilege of taking silver bullion to the mint and having it -turned into coin on the same terms that are granted to the owners of gold -bullion. - -(5) Yes. - -(6) The Public Debt, at the time it was contracted, was payable in lawful -money. The same motives which led the money-Kings to impair the credit of -the Greenback with the “Exception Clause,” led Congress to change the law -to the effect that the bonds should be payable _in Coin_. This of course -meant either silver or gold, at the option of the Government. Another -step was taken and the bonds are now payable in gold. - -(7) Because, under the rulings of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Gold -Reserve can be drawn upon to keep silver and paper currency up to the -Gold Standard. I presume that National Bankers prefer to keep their gold -because it is the money of final payment. - -(8) Commercial usage, and the banks. Foreign coins have no legal status. -Their value and currency is a matter of private agreement. - - NEW YORK, DECEMBER 24, 1905. - - * * * * * - - _Honorable Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: In your “A Call to Action” in January issue, you have - forstalled my wish, in part only. - - As soon as a reasonable number respond by sending their names - to Mr. Forrest, I want you to sink all personal desires by - asking Messrs Hearst, La Follette, Folk, Douglass of Mass., - Johnson of Minn., Garvin of R. I., and such other men as you - know to be loyal and true, and insist upon their coming to the - conference, as it is high time that all good men and true, - combined to destroy the Grafters. - - This meeting should be held about the time of debate on the - question of opening of the ballot boxes in New York and having - a fair count; this will give us a chance to hang the members of - the Legislature who refuse to give us an honest count of the - ballots cast on November 7th last. - - Every leader like Hearst, Folk, La Follette, and possibly - Watson—et al, has the Presidential Bee in his bonnet, and each - is afraid that the other fellow will get it; but do you not - agree with me, that in a issue like this, all personal feelings - should be secondary? Let us by some means get all of these men - to line up at the conference. - - Sincerely yours, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -Yes: I fully agree with you. The Presidential Bee which buzzes in my -bonnet is a feeble little thing, and with the help of a few stalwart -friends I think it can be controlled. - -I am willing to line up any time. - -Yes: I looked into your book and think it is great. As you say it is the -only book which intimates that there are two sides to Fire Insurance. - -I have been thinking here of late that it is highly probable that some -Fire Insurance Companies are grander rascals than some Life Insurance -Companies. Your book deepens that suspicion. $25.00 is little enough for -the book. - - * * * * * - - MILLEDGEVILLE, GA. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: Will you please answer the following in the - Educational Department of your Magazine? - - (1) Where can I get a McEllicott’s “Debater?” I have been to my - book store and they haven’t got it, and do not know where to - order it from. - - (2) I want to be a first class lawyer, and I want to know if - it would be better to go on and get a High School and College - education, and have all of those dead languages to learn, or - get a High School education and read and learn all necessary - studies at home, and state what books and where I can get them, - which to study first, second, third and all the rest until I - have finished my course. - - Yours for success, - - ⸺ ⸺. - - P.S.—Is there any use of studying ancient history? - -ANSWER - -(1) I find that McEllicott’s Debater is out of print, but if you will -send fifty cents to F. E. Grant, 23 West 42nd street, New York City, he -will mail to you an excellent, up-to-date book which covers about the -same ground as the McEllicott Debater. - -Mr. Grant is an unwearied, indefatigable, never-say-die bookseller, and -he makes a speciality of getting all sorts of books for all sorts of -people. - -(2) Get a thorough High School Education and let the dead languages go -to thunder. If you want to learn any other language than English, study -French. - -P.S. Yes: there is a good deal of use in studying ancient history. It is -worth a great deal for a man to have a clear general idea of what was -done on this earth before he got here. - -You don’t want to feel bad because of your ignorance when gentlemen with -whom you may be talking refer to Semiramis, Alcibiades, Cyrus, Alexander, -Cæsar and the rest of those ancient celebrities. Oh, yes: read up on -history, ancient and modern, so that when you associate with intelligent -people you will know what they are talking about. - - * * * * * - - BELFAST MILLS, VA., Jan. 1, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: What are some of the distinguishing features of the - “Code Napoleon?” - - Which do you consider the half-dozen most important and - significant events in the history of the world in 1905? Ditto - in the history of the United States for 1905? - - Who were the ten or twelve greatest statesmen in the South - during the Reconstruction Period? - - Dividing the history of the United States from 1860 to 1905, - into epochs, what periods would you name? - - Does not Roosevelt’s administration mark a new period or epoch? - - Yours truly, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -(1) To answer with any fulness would require more space than we can now -spare. The Code Napoleon follows, in a general way, the Roman Civil Law, -while most State Codes in the United States are founded upon the Common -Law of England. - -(2) The war between Russia and Japan; the separation of Norway and -Sweden; the defeat of Clericalism in France; the quasi-alliance between -Great Britain and France; the overthrow of the Tory ministry in England -and the appointment of a Labor Agitator as a member of the Cabinet; the -“butting in” of the German Emperor in Moroccan affairs; the labor and -peasant revolutionary movements in Russia. - -(3) The Hearst campaign in New York City; the Roosevelt peace; the Life -Insurance revelations; the Lawson articles on Frenzied Finance; the -President’s declaration for Federal regulation of railways; the set-back -to political Bossism in the State and City elections last Fall; the -establishment of this Magazine. - -(4) Zebulon Vance of North Carolina; George G. Vest of Missouri; L. Q. C. -Lamar of Miss., John. T. Morgan of Ala., Benj. H. Hill of Ga.; James Z. -George of Miss.; Roger Q. Mills of Tex.; James B. Beck of Ky. - -(5) The War Period is a distinct epoch; the Reconstruction Period is -another, and this period may be said to have ended when President Hayes -withdrew the troops from the South. - -The election of a so-called Democrat (Cleveland) over a Republican -(Blaine) may also be said to have marked the advent of another epoch. - -The McKinley-Mark Hanna dispensation was also an epoch and will take -its place in history as the high-water mark of class-legislation, Trust -making and rotten politics. - -Yes; Roosevelt seems to be making himself an epoch—just what sort of one -neither he nor anybody else seems to know. - - * * * * * - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson_, - - DEAR SIR: Would you kindly inform me through your Educational - Department: - - Whether there has been adopted by any nation the 8 hour law? - - And what change would have to be made in our Constitution to - put such a law into effect in this country? - - Thanking you in advance for the desired information. - - Respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -New Zealand has what is practically the 8 hour law. In other words, from -one end of the colony to the other 8 hours is recognized as the Standard -Working Day, both in public and private service. - -In the United States, 8 hours is the legal working day on public works. - -No change would have to be made in our Constitution to make such a law -general in this country. - -Congress and the States have just as much legal right to make an Eight -Hour Day as they have to make a Thanksgiving Day, or other Holiday. - - * * * * * - - ROCKHAM, S. D., Jan. 1, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: There it is, in WATSON’S MAGAZINE for January 1906, - page 276. Report of Wm. H. English; “a large sum to our credit - for lost and destroyed bills.” - - Now the question I would ask—tried to ask once before, - but failed to make it plain—is: By whose authority and to - what extent or per cent. do National Banks profit by bills - _supposed_ to be destroyed through the carelessness of you and - I and others, not accustomed to handling money? - - We know many bills _are_ lost, and it seems to me that, if the - value cannot be restored to the original losers, it ought to - result in profit to the general public, the Government. Why - should the bank get any credit, did I not have to pay them for - my loan? - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -Referring to page 108 of November number of the Magazine, I find that our -correspondent was informed that the Government made good to the National -Banks all old notes which were worn out, mutilated or destroyed, and that -this was done by virtue of Section 24 of the National Bank Law. - -I really do not know how to give a plainer answer. - -Old bank notes which become worn out, mutilated, or destroyed are -replaced by new notes. The Comptroller of the Currency issues the new -notes under and by virtue of the law. The entire National Bank act is a -disgrace to the Statute Book, and section 24 is simply one of its clauses. - - * * * * * - - PASSAIC, N. J., DECEMBER 17, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: Every month your Magazine grows better and your - editorials are great in their unborrowed simplicity, power and - naturalness, and in their humble consciousness of truth and - right. - - (1) _But how do you manage to call Napoleon a Democrat?_ I - reverence the word Democrat, it is my religion as well as - my politics, and I don’t like to hear such an unquestioned - authority as you call him a Democrat. It will be an interesting - article, I think, if you answer my objection. - - (2) In an answer to a correspondent in regard to the best - English histories _you omit the favorite_—my favorite—and I - think the best—John Richard Green’s _Shorter History of the - English People_. _Why did you omit it?_ Another interesting - article. - - (3) I can’t understand what you mean by saying that the “cry - of the people ground down by their masters, was what brought - Napoleon back from Elba.” I have read your history of Napoleon, - too. _Was it not solely his ambition, and he saw in the - disaffection of the people a chance to swell his armies?_ - - Let me congratulate you on Clarence Darrow’s story. It has the - element that made Burns and Wordsworth. - - Please accept my congratulations. Wishing you a Merry Christmas - and you and your Magazine a Happy and Prosperous New Year. - - Yours very truly, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER. - -(1) I call Napoleon a democrat because he made war upon caste and -privilege, upon Kings and aristocracies, and because he favored universal -education, equal opportunities for all, and equal rights for all. - -In judging any man, great or small, you must allow for environment. - -Born in Corsica, and coming to France to be educated for the army in a -royal school, Napoleon could hardly be the kind of democrat the average -American boy so naturally becomes. - -France was ruled by a King and aristocracy, just as other European -nations were. Monarchical institutions, hundreds of years old, stood on -every hand. - -The Revolution crashed through them all, and prostrated them all, but -the Revolution could not sustain itself. Reaction set in, and there was -danger of a Bourbon restoration. - -Napoleon struck in at “the psychological moment,” and became the people’s -King. Personally he became despotic, but _his work_ was always democratic. - -I call him a democrat because he made it possible for the poorest boy in -France to advance to the highest pinnacle of glory; because he lifted -the boycott against men of obscure birth and made _merit_ the test of -distinction; because he abolished the outrageous privileges of feudal -nobility in every part of Europe which came under his control; because -he rebuked the bigotry of priesthood and punished a clerical Ass who -had insulted the corpse of an actress; because he scornfully repulsed -the flatterers who wished to “make up” a fine ancestral tree for him, -and proudly dated _his_ nobility from the date of his first great -achievement; because he studied to improve the condition of the common -people; because he tried to make school-teaching practical—that is he -tried to have his schools fit every boy for the career which _that_ boy’s -talent was suited for; because he equalized taxation; because he based -his administration and his Code upon the broad righteous principle of -“Equal Rights for all and special privileges for none.” - -(2) An oversight. Green’s “Short History” is a classic and every library -should contain it. - -(3) The Bourbons had broken the pledges which they had made as a -condition precedent to their being restored. Not until Talleyrand and the -other traitors had besought the help of the Czar Alexander, would Louis -XVIII even go through the form of granting the reforms which had been -promised. - -When the Allied armies withdrew, the Bourbon reaction set in with a -headlong rush. The veteran soldiers of the army were affronted brutally -by young aristocratic officers who had never smelled gunpowder. -Napoleon’s officers who had won renown on scores of battle-fields were -contemptuously maltreated. The _wives_ of the officers were snubbed by -the high-born dames of the old nobility. - -The revolutionary and Napoleonic system was being uprooted in various -directions, and _the people_ of France realized that the Bourbons -meant to restore the Old Order with all of its brutal inequalities and -injustice and oppression. _The people_ saw that the Bourbon restoration -meant once more the galling chains of _the noble and the priest_. Hence, -when Napoleon came from Elba, the masses of the French hailed him wildly. -They followed him with mad cries of “_Hang the priests!_” _The Masses_ -clamored for arms, asking to fight and die for _The Man_, Napoleon. Even -after Waterloo, they clung to him frantically, tumultuously rallying -to him, and begging him to give them guns. Had Napoleon frankly thrown -himself into the hands of the masses of the French people, he could have -hung the Talleyrands, Fouchés and Marmonts, and driven the Allies out of -France. - -But Napoleon was a soldier of the Military Academy. He had no faith in -the fighting quality of “the mob.” - -Another hundred years had to elapse before the Boers of South Africa -could show to the world that if your mob is the right sort of mob, and -has the best guns, and can shoot with the best aim, it can knock your -painfully disciplined army into a cocked hat. - -Yes: Clarence Darrow is a writer of marvelous power. Read his “An Eye for -an Eye,” and you will realize that the Chicago lawyer has all the genius -of Tolstoy when it comes to making a story of thrilling interest out of -the commonest human materials. - - * * * * * - - VAN DYCK, TENN. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson_, - - DEAR SIR: I have seen it stated that the working people of - this country make or create $7 worth of wealth for each day - in the year. For every man engaged in gainful pursuits do the - statistics justify such a statement. If so, we do not get our - share. My father is a very great Populist and I aim to make - some speeches in the future and will take it as a very great - kindness if you will let me know if I will be perfectly safe in - making that declaration. - - Thanking you in advance I remain your great admirer. - -ANSWER - -There are 29,000,000 people in this country engaged in gainful pursuits. - -An author (Bolton Hall) who has devoted much study to our economic -situation states these producing citizens annually create wealth to the -amount of $19,000,000. - -You can figure out for yourself how much each worker creates. Ten per -cent of our population get almost all the annual production of wealth. - - * * * * * - - GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS, JANUARY 1, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - MY DEAR SIR: A Republican here claims that the tariff shuts - out the cheap labor of the European countries and on that - account, the laborers here in our factories get high prices. - He says that the factories of England pay their laborers - twelve to fifteen cents per day on account of free trade in - England. He says children work for five cents per day, and - railroad engineers get only $4 per month. He says that if - this country were to adopt free trade, the factories of the - European countries could come over here and buy our cotton and - raw products, ship them to England, manufacture them, ship them - back here and sell them cheaper than our factories could do it, - and the result would be that our factories would be compelled - to close down, thus throwing thousands of people out of - employment. I think his claims are extravagant. I want you to - explain this fully. I want to be loaded for him the next time - I meet him, and if I can get “loaded up” on your ammunition, I - will dead sure knock him out. - - I have read all you have written about the Bank system and am - prepared to put up a very fair argument. I don’t understand - this, Mr. Watson. In a recent issue of your Magazine, you say - there is no reason on earth why the Government should not loan - the money direct to the people instead of the 5000 bankers. - Please explain fully just how this could be done. How much - per share did Cleveland get for the bonds that he sold on the - midnight deal? I have heard it said that he sold them for $125 - per share. - - Thanking you for the great work you are doing for the common - people and with kindest regards to you personally, - - I am, very truly, - - ⸺ ⸺. - - P. S.—I am a Georgian. I met you personally on two occasions - at Athens. Perhaps you have long since forgotten me. I would - consider it an honor to be known by you, and to know you as a - personal friend. In ’96 I wrote you from Athens for a copy of - the P. P. P. I had misplaced my copy wherein you showed up the - littleness of Bill Arp’s school history of Georgia. You sent me - a copy from Thomson; I have it yet. - -ANSWER - -The Republican who told you those things about English wages did not know -what he was talking about. The idea of a railroad engineer getting four -dollars per month, and factory hands being paid five cents per day! The -figures are so ridiculous that even a Protection-soaked Republican ought -to know better. - -If high Tariffs benefit the laborer, why is it that workmen get better -wages in free-trade England than in high-Tariff France, Italy and -Germany? If high-Tariffs give the benefit to the laborer why is it that -the Salvation Army had to save the factory hands at Fall River, Mass., -from starvation, by ladling out free soup? The best paid laborers in the -United States are the negroes of the South who raise cotton, a free trade -product. The laborer gets a larger share of the cotton he produces than -any employee in any protected industry. - -In England the wages paid to factory hands are at least equal to those -paid in the United States when the amount of the wage is compared with -the amount and quality of the product. - -Ask your Republican friend if he does not know that his great Apostle, -James G. Blaine, made this assertion some twenty years ago. - -The statement was not denied then and cannot be denied now. - -There is a huge army of the poor and the unemployed in England, but it -is not due to Free trade. - -It is the natural result of three things. - -(1) Land monopoly. - -(2) A diabolical financial system. - -(3) The host of non-producers who use the government as a means of -getting their support and their wealth by oppressing the producers. - -The Government could easily establish a Bureau of Loans, and could adopt -a business-like system of lending money direct to the people. - -This principle has been put in successful operation in Great Britain, -Norway, Greece and other foreign countries. - -Not long ago, the firm of N. A. Harris & Co., of Chicago, New York and -Boston, put out a Circular offering for sale “Sanitary District of -Chicago” bonds to the amount of $500,000. As a recommendation of these -bonds, Harris & Co., declared in the Circular that the United States -Government had accepted the bonds as security for Government deposits. - -In other words, the National Banks have been borrowing the people’s money -out of the Treasury on the faith of these bonds. Of course, the banks -paid no interest. - -Now does it not occur to you that the Government could as well lend -some of that money to you at four or six percent interest upon security -equally good, as to lend it to a favored few without interest? - -I do not believe that Mr. Cleveland profited personally by the sale of -the bonds. He acted stupidly and he acted in violation of law. The whole -transaction had an ugly look because Morgan had recently been his client -and Stetson (who drew the contract) had recently been his partner. But I -do not think he acted corruptly. - -Mr. Cleveland did not get 125 for the Bonds. - -Oh, no. He sold them for 103½, and Morgan, Belmont, Rothschild & Co. -_immediately realized_ 112¼. - - * * * * * - - SAVANNAH, GA., December 18, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson._ - - DEAR SIR: I have been a constant reader of your eminent - Magazine from the first issue and have become converted to your - Populist principles of which I will stand by as long as I have - the liberty of voting. - - Tonight we have organized a club in the city of Savannah, Ga., - principally of working men, so that we might study politics, - and thoroughly understand how to cast our ballot intelligently, - and for the best of our interest; we think the day is fast - approaching when if the workingman doesn’t wake up and take - hold of the reins of government, he will find in the near - future that his liberties have flown never to be regained. My - object in writing to you is for information in your Educational - Department. How would you advise as to the most intelligent way - to do this? - - They don’t seem to understand how to get together, and I - believe you can give us the desired information. - - Respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -I would advise the reading, by the members of the club, of such books as -the following: “Politics in New Zealand,” “Poverty,” by Robert Hunter; -“The Menace of Privilege,” by Henry George; “Letters and Addresses of -Thomas Jefferson,” recently published by The Unit Book Publishing Co., -New York, “Bossism and Monopoly,” by Spelling. - -These books will not cost a great deal, and they will give you a very -complete survey of our political and economic condition. - - * * * * * - - WASHINGTON, D. C., January 17, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: As you will notice in the wording of the question - printed above, which we shall debate with the University of - Cincinnati, the entire discussion will probably hinge on the - term “Capitalistic combinations called trusts.” - - In order to get the consensus of authoritative opinion as to - what capitalistic combinations are called trusts by those - who are most competent to use the term intelligently, we are - taking the liberty of asking the editors of a dozen of the most - prominent monthlies, weeklies and dailies in the United States - to give us their definition of this term. - - Will you, therefore, be kind enough to sacrifice enough of your - time to state briefly what capitalistic combinations, in your - opinion, should be called trusts. - - Very respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -My conception of a Trust is: A combination of individual or corporate -capital which practically establishes such a monopoly that it can control -the output, dictate the price, and crush competition. - - * * * * * - - BLUE HILL, NEB., November 29, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson._ - - DEAR SIR: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, having bought - the first one ever sold in our town. I like it very much. It - speaks my sentiments better than I know how to express them - myself. I have never heard but one thing said against your - Magazine—one party thought you were a little hard on the darky. - - I want to ask one question. If you were elected President of - the United States, and had a House and Senate of your own - faith and political belief, and you were to abolish the gold - standard and the national banks, what effect would it have upon - the country? Would not the banks totter and fall and ruin many - depositors? Banks have become a necessity. In your message to - Congress, what kind of banks and what kind of money would you - recommend? - - At present, corn husking is the issue of the day, but that will - soon be over. Then I will take your subscription blanks and - go out among the farmers and see what I can do for the best - Magazine on earth. - - Yours respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -(1) I don’t think I have been “too hard on the darky.” - -Doctor Booker Washington, spoiled by too much praise, got too gay in his -statements concerning the rapid progress of the negro in civilization. -The Doctor’s idea seemed to be that as soon as you caught a young -African, washed him, combed him, put clothes on him, and taught him how -to read, write and cipher, he was at once civilized. - -I knew better than this, and the Doctor does now. He will be more -particular how he claims superiority for the negro race, hereafter. -Especially since his brethren in Santo Domingo have given that “Republic” -another push hellwards. - -On that island, one of the most favored spots on the globe, the negroes -had the advantage of beginning with an elegant civilization which the -French had taught them. - -The negroes expelled the French, set up a government of their own, and -the record of their _republic_ has been one of the foulest blurs on the -history of the human race. They get worse and worse and worse. There are -not a sufficient number of whites in Santo Domingo to keep the negroes -straight: in this country there are. _That makes all the difference._ - -(2) If I were President and could do away with the Gold standard, -restoring the currency to the constitutional status, depriving the -National Banks of the privilege of creating paper currency, and -exercising that power directly by the use of Treasury Notes, why should -the banks “totter and fall?” - -A good many of them have tottered and fallen; many more of them are going -to “totter and fall.” Why? Because the system is rotten. Thousands of -individual banks and bankers are as sound as gold dollars, but the system -isn’t, for the reason that too much bank-made currency, of various sorts, -is afloat; the line of credits has been lengthened until it is about -to snap; wild-cat speculation is rampant; and thousands of banks are -dabbling in business which isn’t legitimate banking. - -I am in favor of Banks of Deposit and Discount—so long as we cannot get -Postal Savings Banks. - -But I am opposed to Banks of Issue—that is, banks which issue their -promises to pay and get rich on what they owe. These are the National -Banks. Render to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; restore to the -Government the sovereign power of issuing paper currency. - -Depositors would not be endangered by our policy of expanding the -currency; the more money in circulation, the more certain the depositors -would be to get paid. - -(3) In my Message to Congress, I would recommend Postal Savings Banks, -for the reasons stated in the December issue of this Magazine, page 231. - -The kind of money I would recommend would be that which the Fathers fixed -in the Constitution, and which the practice of a hundred years seemed -to render “irrevocable”—a system which had the sanction of Washington, -Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Jackson and Lincoln. - -The Constitutional system of currency, as shown by the law and the -practice of Presidents, and the decisions of the Supreme Court, is -_Silver_, _Gold_, _Treasury Notes_, and the silver dollar was _the unit -of money_. - -Congress sold itself to Bank of England agents, and changed our system of -currency to suit European financiers. - -Mr. August Belmont, of New York, could tell you how much Rothschild money -his bank spent to bring about the change. - -_And I hold in my desk sworn evidence that Ernest Seyd, Bank of England -Agent, spent $484,000 for the same purpose._ - -The fight for reform will never stop till you have wiped out that shame, -and have put our financial system back on the sound basis built by the -Fathers. - -If the Corn husking issue has been settled, please hustle for those -subscriptions if you would make us happy. - - * * * * * - - WESTMINSTER, S. C., Jan. 3, 1906. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: I am very much interested in the Educational - Department of your excellent Magazine, and glean much valuable - information from it. - - The inductive or interrogatory style, so often and - advantageously used by yourself in your editorials, is the - best method of teaching on any subject. Questions are easily - asked—any one can do this. - - Answering is sometimes more difficult. - - (1.) If National Banks should be abolished, and the Government - issue the money used by the people, how would it be put in - circulation? - - (2.) If the National Banks were abolished, would it not be a - matter of convenience in business transactions, be necessary, - to have private banks? - - (3.) Can you furnish back-numbers, from the beginning of your - paper? - - These questions are frequently asked by the common people, and - some of us are puzzled to know how to answer satisfactorily. - - Grover Cleveland, I think, once said, that however money - might be created, the middle-man, by trusts, monopolies, and - speculations, would take the advantage and oppress the poor and - needy, just the same. - - If you think the above questions worthy of notice, please - answer in your February number. - - I am glad to note the contemplated improvement in your - Magazine. I will do my best to get you more subscribers. - - Yours respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -The National Banks now have outstanding notes to the amount of -$550,000,000 in round numbers. If the privilege of issuing these notes -as money were taken away from the National Banks, the paper money now in -circulation would be reduced to $550, 000,000. Suppose the Government -should issue an equal sum in its own notes to take the place of the -National Bank notes—how could the Government put its own notes into -circulation? - -(1) It could _immediately_ put the entire amount in circulation by -applying it to the part payment of the public debt. We are the richest -nation on earth: the richest that history knows anything about—yet we -keep ourselves mortgaged with a perpetual National Debt because the -favored few demand bonds to bank on. If National Banks were abolished, as -real Democracy always sought to do, there would be no further excuse for -keeping the Bond-Mortgage on the National estate. - -(2) It could put the entire amount $550, 000,000, in circulation -_gradually_ by paying the national expenses with it. - -(3) It could put the money in circulation by building Government -railroads with it. - -(4) And my opinion is that the whole sum could be benevolently -assimilated by that Panama Canal business which the sleek Cromwell and -his Varilla unloaded on the impulsive Roosevelt. - -Second Question: Yes. We wage no war on private banks. As long as banks -confine themselves to legitimate banking, loans, discounts &c., they -are not a source of national danger. It is only when a certain class of -bankers, like the National Bankers, usurp the Governmental function by -supplying the country with money, that they are, as Jefferson said, more -dangerous to Republican institutions than standing armies. - -Question 3: Yes. - - * * * * * - - MEMPHIS, TENN., Nov. 30, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, which I find - very interesting and instructive. I believe in the Public - Ownership of Public Utilities, but fear that does not go far - enough to cure the land of the evils that now curse it. With - Government banks, Government railroads, Municipal Ownership of - Public Utilities, there would still be that awful strife of - the many for bread and butter. If we may ride cheaper on the - “Railhighways,” if we get our Water, Gas, and Electric Light - cheaper, will not the wages of the workers go down as the cost - of living decreases? Will not then as now, the “iron law” of - wages be operative? - - Please answer in your Educational Department. - - Yours, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -As the cost of living decreased, the purchasing power of wages would -increase, and every dollar now paid to Labor would command for the -laborer a greater quantity of necessaries, comfort and luxuries of life. - -How could you suppose that the wages of workers will go down when the -masses of the people wrest the Government out of the hands of the -plutocrats? Public ownership of public utilities cannot be brought about -until the people rout the Privileged Few at the polls, when that day -comes do you fear that _the people_ will cut down _their own wages_ as -the Privileged Few have done? - -Not many weeks ago the price of cotton advanced. The farmers of the South -had suffered so long and so much from low prices that they organized. The -result was a rise in the price of raw cotton. - -How did the Protected Manufacturers of New England meet this increase in -the cost of raw material? - -The Government reports show that the manufacturers have been earning -twice as much on their invested capital as the farmers had earned. It -was fair for the farmers to contend for a juster division. Hence their -organization. - -The manufacturers saw that they would lose a part of the unjust profits -which they were reaping from the Protective system, and they promptly cut -down—their fat dividends? Heavens! No. They cut down the wages of the -factory boys and girls, men and women, who are _protected_ by our blessed -Tariff. - -Now if _the people_ ruled this country, if there was no Privilege, no -Monopoly, no taxing of some to enrich others, no granting of Governmental -powers to private Corporations, no corrupt alliance between Commerce and -Government, you may bet your bottom dollar that _fat dividends would be -cut_, before men, women and children would be desolated by a reduction of -wages. - - * * * * * - - GALION, OHIO, Dec. 21, 1905. - - _Watson’s Magazine_, - - GENTLEMEN: Please give me some suggestions in your interesting - Educational Department on the negative side of this question: - Resolved, that the United States is retrograding in morality - and righteousness. - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -The negative side of that question might draw arguments of facts from -“Social Progress” by Dr. Josiah Strong, “The History of the People of the -United States” by McMaster. To keep your mind clear from haunting doubts, -however, avoid such books on the other side as “The Tramp at Home,” by -Lee Meriwether, “American Pauperism,” by Isidor Ladoff, “The Menace of -Privilege,” by Henry George, “Poverty,” by Robert Hunter. - -It would be well also, _not_ to read of the Life Insurance revelations, -nor the facts which disclose how corporations corrupt and control the -politicians. - - * * * * * - - TEMPLE, GA. Dec. 8, 1905 - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: Please answer the following questions in the - Department of Education. - - Would you advise me to study the following books with the hope - of getting a thorough knowledge of law? - - 1. How to Study Law. - - 2. Constitutional Law, Federal and State. - - 3. Personal Rights and Domestic Relations. - - 4. Contracts and Partnerships. - - 5. Agency and Bailments, including Common Carriers. - - 6. Negotiable Instruments and Principal and Surety. - - 7. Wills and Settlements of Estates. - - 8. Personal Property and Equity or Chancery Law. - - 9. Public Corporations and Private Corporations. - - 10. Real Property and Pleading and Practice. - - Very truly yours, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -There are ten different books indicated in this formidable list, whereas -the subjects enumerated are all treated with sufficient fullness in the -text-books which I have heretofore suggested to law students, viz: - -(1) Blackstone’s Commentaries, - -(2) Kent’s Commentaries, - -(3) Greenleaf on Evidence, - -(4) The State Code. - - * * * * * - - DYSON, WILKES CO. Ga. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: Will you please tell me in your Magazine the - principal object you had in leaving the Democratic party and - going into the People’s party? - - Have the Republican or Democratic parties ever advocated the - Government ownership of public utilities? If so, which one and - when? Has that question ever been agitated in Europe? When and - who by? - - Truly yours, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -My election to Congress was due to my support of the Ocala Platform of -the Farmer’s Alliance, and when the Indianapolis Convention of 1891 -instructed all Congressmen so elected to stand by the principles of the -Alliance regardless of the Caucus dictation of political parties, I -declined to enter the Democratic Congressional Caucus in Washington. - -(1) I was immediately denounced in the bitterest terms by nearly every -Democratic paper in Georgia; yet I could not have done otherwise without -betraying the Alliance-men who had elected me. - -I did not join the Alliance as so many time-servers did; I remained -on the outside, but they trusted me so implicitly that I received the -solid Alliance vote. How, then, could I walk into the Caucus trap, to be -silenced and tied by a majority vote which was dead against the Alliance -demands? - -During the summer of 1891, I had held a series of great public -meetings throughout my District, and these Conventions of the voters -overwhelmingly and enthusiastically instructed me to stand by the -principles rather than the party, if the time came when it was necessary -to choose the one course or the other. Then came the organization of the -People’s Party, after it had become plain that neither of the old parties -meant to give the people relief. - -I went with the People’s Party because my election had been due to those -principles, and because the same overwhelming majority of Democrats who -had elected me had gone into the People’s Party, and because I had no -hope whatever of getting the reforms inside the Democratic Party. - -(2) Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has ever advocated -“Government Ownership of Public Utilities.” - -In Europe the principle is almost universally recognized and _practiced_. - -Government ownership of Railroads is the rule on the Continent. In -England the Imperial Government owns the Telegraphs and Telephones. The -Government Parcels Post does the work of an Express Company. Municipal -railroads, telegraphs, telephones, lighting plants, water systems, -laundries, bathing establishments, bakeries, etc., etc., are in operation -all over Great Britain and all over Europe. - -_We_ are the laggards, we smart folks of the United States. We are the -only nation of civilized cattle on earth which the Corporations find easy -prey. - - * * * * * - - MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, December 18, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga._ - - DEAR SIR: TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE contains more sound principles - and good common horse sense, (just what the people need) than - any other paper published in the United States, and I wish you - would answer the following questions, to wit: - - (1) Does it not look like the North, East and West are - determined to adhere to their hellish, reconstruction policy to - the end of time? - - (2) What material difference does it make to Georgia, or the - Common people in her limits whether she has six or eleven - representatives in Congress? - - (3) Is it not true that the only material benefit in being - represented at all in these times, accrues to the fellow who - draws the five or six thousand salary annually? - - (4) Is it not true that the Northern, Eastern and Western - Democrats vote as a unit with the Republicans whenever any - question affects the South is the issue? - - (5) Why is it that the Southern Democrats do not stand as a - unit and vote for whatever is best for the whole country, - regardless of party, and thereby hold the balance of power in - the Government? - - (6) How can the North, East and West be convinced and made to - understand that the negro lives in the South, is part of the - South, and that the white people of the South are going to say - and dictate what the negro’s political and social status shall - be while he remains in the South? - - (7) Are there not thousands of white people in every State of - the Union who are as incompetent to cast a vote intelligently - as the negro is, and why not reduce the representatives in - Congress from each State accordingly? - -ANSWER - -My opinion is that a majority of the people of the North, East and West -have become satisfied to let the South exercise the same right to settle -her domestic affairs that they practice in settling theirs. - -Only a minority—some members of which try to make up in noise what it -lacks in numbers—cling to the old prejudices, passions, and policy of -interference. Mr. Ernest Crosby—a hot partisan for negro rights—has -recently published a “Life of Garrison,” and very boldly admits that -while Slavery was wrong the war which was waged upon the South was also -wrong. - -Ten years ago such a sentiment would have drawn volleys of protest from -the North, the East and the West. - -There are no protests now; and I shouldn’t wonder if a majority of the -intelligent people of those sections would admit that while Slavery was a -moral wrong, that it had been practiced by both sections, given a solemn -Constitutional sanction as a condition precedent to the Union, that the -South had a right to withdraw from a voluntary compact whose terms had -not been kept, and that the war which was made upon her to force her back -into the Union was a colossal mistake and wrong. - -(2) None whatever. - -(3) It is. - -(4) If it is a question where sectional interest or feeling is -aroused—yes. - -(5) Because of the tyranny of party name and party organization. Southern -Democrats dare not vote independently. - -(6) I think they begin to understand it. The more they see of the negro -_in Mass_, the better they will realize our problem. As long as they seem -to think that all the Southern negroes are as nice and wise as Booker -Washington, they will, of course, find it difficult to get our point of -view of the race question. But they will gradually come to see that there -is only one Booker Washington and that _he_ isn’t doing anything more -than running a large school which any ordinary white College President -could run on one half the money which Doctor Washington rakes in—why -opinion will change. The doings of the negroes in San Domingo—where there -are no mean Southern whites to beat, cheat, or lynch them—will also have -influence in opening the eyes of the world as to what the negro, _in -Mass_, actually is. - -The idea that the negro is merely a white gentleman whom the Almighty -inadvertently painted black will disappear, in time. - -(7) The “suppressed vote” in some of the states of the Union appears to -be quite large and the number of illiterate, criminal and incompetent -voters is likewise great. A square deal would demand that whatever rule -is applied to the South should be applied to the others. - - * * * * * - - IDALIA, COLO., December 29, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York._ - - DEAR SIR: Will you kindly print in your next issue of your - Magazine the names of Presidential candidates of the Democratic - and People’s party of 1896 and 1900. - - Most respectfully, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -1896, Democratic Candidates, Bryan and Sewall. People’s Party Candidates: -Bryan and Watson. - -1900, Democratic Candidates: Bryan and Stevenson. People’s Party -Candidates: Barker and Donnelly. - - * * * * * - - GILMORE CITY, MO., December 2, 1905. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson._ - - DEAR SIR: I am a reader of your Magazine and am highly - entertained by its editorials especially, also by its - Educational Department. Am a member of the Old Guard and I take - the liberty to ask you a few questions in the line of Populism. - - (1.) Does England call her navy to a certain point from - thousands of miles distant to fire a salute on George - Washington’s Birthday, or that of any of our noted Presidents, - as we did eighteen vessels a month ago for King Edward? How - ridiculous for a republic! - - (2.) Why has not the Census of 1900 been given to the public, - as were former ones, within two years after being taken? It was - the disclosures of the 1890 Census that tripled the Populist - vote in ’92. - - (3.) Has the $900,000,000 of farm mortgage indebtedness been - increased or diminished in the ten years following 1890? - - (4.) Are the free holdings of the people increasing on a ratio - with the increase of population in these U. S.? - - Yours very truly, - - ⸺ ⸺. - -ANSWER - -(1) No. - -(2) You can get the Census Reports of 1900, by spurring up your -Congressman. - -(3) The “encumbered” homes show an increase, as do the “hired” homes. - -(4) No. Concentration of wealth in the hands of a few goes on at a more -frightful rate than ever. _Five thousand men_ now own one-sixth of the -entire wealth of the Union. One man, J. D. Rockefeller, could buy the -State of Georgia, give it away, and then have enough to buy it back. - - * * * * * - - COOLEDGE, TEXAS. - - _Hon. Thomas E. Watson._ - - DEAR SIR: I received your August number of Magazine. I don’t - know exactly what it is you propose. It is perhaps the dull - apprehension of an old hayseed from down at the fork of the - Creek. - - (1.) Is the money you propose for the Government to issue to be - redeemable Treasury Notes, or is it to be absolute Fiat money? - - (2.) Do you propose the free and unlimited coinage of gold and - silver at 16 to 1? If not at that ratio, what ratio do you - propose? - - (3.) Is it not a fact that from 1792 to 1834 we were - practically on the silver standard and that after 1834 we were - practically on the gold standard, and that this change was the - effect of the change of ratio, made by the act of 1834? Why - was it that in 1853 the Government coined fractional silver of - lighter weight in proportion to value than the standard dollar? - - (4.) You claim for the Government the power to create money. If - that be so, why clamor for gold and silver only? Let us suppose - that the United States Treasury is now full of such money as - you propose, Gold, Silver or Fiat. I want some of it. How am I - to get it? - - I agree with you heartily that the making of our Federal - Government is all out of joint, and I think that it is the - unwarranted meddling with affairs over which it has no rightful - control. The remedy, as I think, is _not_ in enlarging and - extending its powers, for every step taken in that direction - makes worse conditions possible. Let us say to her in plain - language: “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. Get back to - the track marked out for you and stay there.” - - What is here written is in all honesty and in a controversial - spirit and should you see fit to refer to them, I will be glad - to have the number. - - I am not a subscriber now. May be soon. - - Best wishes. - -ANSWER - -(1) Money that is “redeemable” in other money is not my idea of money. -A dollar is not redeemed by swapping another dollar for it. The only -redemption of the dollar which amounts to anything beneficial is when a -debt, public or private, is redeemed by paying it off in legal tender. I -redeem my promissory note by paying the amount of money it calls for: I -redeem all my other dues and debts in the same way. Nothing is redeemed -when a gold dollar is given for a silver dollar, or a metallic dollar -exchanged for a paper dollar. That method of fooling the people will go -out of fashion as the people become educated. All money is absolute fiat -money. That is, the law makes the money. God made no money. Nature made -no money. Evolution made no money. The law takes raw material and makes -money out of it, just as the lumberman takes a log and makes plank or -shingles out of it. - -The Government fiat makes gold money, makes silver money, makes nickel -money, makes copper money. It would with equal ease and certainty make -iron or paper _money_. - -Whenever _the law_ says that a paper dollar shall go just as far, as _a -legal tender_, as the gold dollar goes, the paper will suit me and you -just as well as the gold. - -(2) Yes. - -(3) No. See page 275, January issue of this Magazine. - -(4) I do not clamor for gold and silver only. We demand the money of the -Constitution which has been taken away from us by venal Congressmen who -were bribed by Wall Street and the European financiers. - -How could you get some of the fiat money? - -This is but another form of the old question of getting the paper money -into circulation. - -There are several ways. - -(1) The Government could pay off the National debt. - -(2) The Government could build new railroads, or buy those already built. - -(3) The Government could pay current expenses with it. - -(4) Could build the Panama Canal with it. - -(5) Could establish a Department which would lend it to the people, -direct, at a low interest, as is done in Europe. - -In Norway and Sweden the Government lends money to the farmers on -their land, on long time, at low interest. These banks have been most -beneficial and successful. - -In France and in Russia the Government makes loans upon produce. - -In Germany the Government bank lends money on land security, directly to -the land-owner. - -In Greece, the farmers can get money from the Government banks. - -In Great Britain, the Government lends money to the citizen to buy land. - -The only reason in the world why our people cannot secure similar -advantages, is that we are cruelly oppressed by corporation tyranny and -greed. - - - - -_In Passing_ - -BY LURANA W. SHELDON - - - A nod, a smile, perchance a word, - Where road meets road on life’s broad way; - The pilgrim’s heart with joy is stirred; - More brightly glows the weary way. - - A word, a glance, a subtle thrill - Of sympathy for brother woe, - And from the fount of human ill - The sweetest drops of pleasure flow. - - Though nevermore our paths may meet, - Nor heart greet heart with welcoming kiss, - An instant makes the sad world sweet; - One passing fills the soul with bliss. - - - - -[Illustration: _HOME_ - -_BY Mrs. Louise H. Miller._] - - -Last month I spoke of how easy it is to let a light day tire you as much -as a heavy one. If you can do three-thirds in one busy day why does it -take all another day to do two-thirds and tire you about as much in one -case as in the other? Why didn’t you have a third of it for your own -amusement or improvement? What became of that third? It is all just -another proof that it pays to do a thing with all your heart, with all -your mind, and with all your body. If you had worked as earnestly the -second day as you did the first, you would have done the day’s work, -had a third of it to yourself, and been no more tired than you were the -first. It wasn’t because you were lazy—you just “had the time” and put it -all on the daily work instead of taking some of it for yourself. - -I can hear a small chorus of objections to the above. Wait a minute. No -one knows better than I that the housework for one day is often different -in kind and amount from that of the day before; that one’s strength is -often not the same two days in succession; that there are extras and -specials and interruptions; that the baby may sleep most of one day and -cry most of the next; that many things depend on the mother; that some -women really have all they can do day in and day out and year after year -and work at high speed all the time until they die of it; that often what -fits one case does not fit another. I know all that. _But the principle -is true!_ And nine times out of ten that principle applied to your own -case would help you physically, mentally and morally. And those about you. - -“I know all that,” says some one. “There’s nothing new in that.” - -I venture that this person, however well she knows it, hasn’t been -_applying it_. No there’s nothing new in it. That’s just where the danger -lies—it is so old a principle that we forget all about it. - -“Yes,” say a dozen more, “you are right. That person ought to apply it -and profit by it. If we had work like hers we could accomplish a lot by -it. But we haven’t, more’s the pity, and _our_ work is such that we can’t -do that way with it.” - -There lies the real trouble. As in everything else, we can see how -_others_ can make an improvement, but when it comes to our own case, -why, that is quite different, because this and because that and because -the other. The funny part of it is that these other people, while they -are blind about themselves as we are about ourselves, can see very easily -how we could improve matters. Of course other people generally think they -could improve our methods much more than they really could, but it is -equally true that we think they could improve it less than they really -could. Two heads are better than one, and it does help to see ourselves -as others see us. - -I don’t believe many busy women can save as much as a third from their -lighter days, but I do firmly believe that nearly every one of you can -save some part of it. Maybe it is only half an hour, but much can be done -in even that little space several times a week. What we need in our daily -work is more generalship. Your body is like an army blundering around -without a leader unless you guide it with your head. That is what your -head is for—to save your body and help it accomplish more. The trouble -is that we all get into a rut too easily and go on doing our work in the -same old way for years. We quit thinking, quit using generalship. - -What each of us needs to do many times a year is to sit down and -carefully consider her own work. Does too much time go to one thing and -too little to another? Can we omit any of it without harm to anybody? -Is there some way of doing this duty more quickly without slighting it? -Would such a simple thing as changing the height of the sink, the kitchen -table, the wash-bench, save time, strength and aching back? Will a plain -shelf or two along the kitchen wall make work easier? Would an hour -spent on a carefully planned rearrangement of the kitchen utensils and -supplies save many hours during the coming months? There is no end to the -useless things one can buy for a kitchen, yet there are many appliances -and arrangements that, some in one household, some in another, will pay -for themselves many times over in a year. Read advertisements, papers, -magazines—you can glance through the advertisement pages in a very few -minutes—perhaps go to demonstrations by agents of practical devices for -lightening housework. Notice what your friends are using. Look much and -buy little. But keep yourself awake to new ideas, and now and then when -you are sure of your ground adopt some of them. Where there is no outlay -of money necessary try frequent experiments, but not many at a time. If -any of your family or friends are of an inventive turn of mind, call them -in for consultation. The most valuable inventions are the simplest ones. - -You cannot believe all you read or hear about, but you can generally -believe your own eyes if you use them carefully. Go to those of your -friends who seem to manage their work well. If they have any utensils -or appliances that actual experience has proved good investments, note -them carefully. Maybe you or some of your family can make something that -answers the same purpose. If not, sleep on the question and if your -judgment still says that it will pay in the end to get it, try hard to -raise the money. Even on a basis of dollars and cents it may pay in the -long run. And it is generally a question of more than money—a question of -body, mind and soul. - -Note carefully how other good housekeepers manage their work. There is a -practical study for you! You have probably watched them many times before -this, but now watch them with seeing eyes. - -Turn your attention to the tasks that burden you heavily. Here reforms -are needed most. You will hardly be ready to assert that you are doing -these tasks in the very best way in the world. Find out why not, and then -try to improve on the old method. - -After you have thought over your work in general sit down some evening -and plan out the duties of the next day as far as you know them. Forget -how you used to manage. Maybe you will be able to make only one or two -small changes the first time. That is a good beginning. Try again later. -Keep your wits about you and your thinking-cap on all the time. It will -pay. - -As the world grows older it accomplishes more in a given time than it -used to do. They can make a hundred things now in the time it took to -make one fifty years ago. Are you a part of the world and its progress or -are you something left behind in the onward march? Not your fault? Well, -you can be pretty sure that it is _partly_ your fault and that you can -remedy some of it if you only will. - - * * * * * - -_FREE SUBSCRIPTION_ - -_Besides the prize for the best story of “heroism at home,” every month -another free year’s subscription will be given for the best item or -paragraph of any kind for the Department. The two subscriptions will not -be given to the same person. The subscription may begin with any number -you please._ - - * * * * * - -Someone says that the world’s progress doesn’t concern her off in her -little corner—that she has her work to do and that’s all there is to it. -Well, perhaps it doesn’t in one way of speaking, but her life is both -less happy and less useful than if she let the world’s progress concern -her a little. She says it wouldn’t help her any in making biscuit or -sweeping the floor if she did know some of the stories of history, how -the revolution in Russia is getting on, about the great writers and -painters, about anything outside her work. Well, it wouldn’t—in a way. -The biscuits wouldn’t be any better nor the floor any cleaner. But any -one that isn’t half-witted can learn to sweep a floor or even to bake -biscuits. You are, or ought to be, more than a cook and a housemaid. You -are a _home-maker_, and though good biscuits and clean floors are very -necessary things in any house, they are _not_ enough to make a _home_ -out of it. In a true _home_ there must be mental and moral, as well as -physical, comfort. You are still something more. You are a woman and a -free human being. You have your duties to other people, as everyone has, -but, like everyone, you have a duty to _yourself_. You were given a brain -and a soul, as well as a body. You can easily see the need of feeding -your body: the need of feeding your brain and soul are equally necessary. -Why were they given to you? To starve? - -No pen, however powerful, no voice, however eloquent, can present in -the full force of its true colors the value of intellectual and moral -development to the housewife, the woman, the home-maker. Religion is -not a subject for our Department. The matter of creed is for each one -to settle for herself. But in those questions of ethics and social -morals that arise in any household and generally have, after all, their -foundation in religion, and in all those questions of intellectual living -and growth, this Department of ours does have its field and its purpose. - -Why? Because, as I said, a _home_, a _real_ home, has its moral and -intellectual sides as well as its material side. Because even its -material side, the everyday round of duties, cannot be made what it -should be unless brain and soul are made fit to direct the body. Because -as wives, mothers, daughters, sisters we are responsible for the members -of our family, and for ourselves as human souls. It is not enough to -bring a child into the world and then feed it, wash it, dress it, give -it a place to sleep, and one day say to it: “We have raised you. Go -forth and make your living.” Of course not. We all know that, though -goodness knows there are plenty of people who don’t do even that much. -It is not enough to furnish a clean, warm house and three meals a day -to the bodies of your husband, parents, brothers or sisters. They could -get that much at a boarding-house or hotel. They, and you, must have -moral and mental food, baths, clothes and beds as well as physical ones—a -_home_—not merely a house. We cannot give what we don’t have. To furnish -these things to them we must first get them ourselves. - -Then we should give heed to moral and intellectual living and growth -because it is our _duty_. There is another reason—because it is for our -own happiness and pleasure. - -It was once my privilege to go over a thousand or two letters from people -who, after becoming members of a great and good system of education by -correspondence, had written in the fullness of their hearts to tell how -it had made their lives brighter and happier and to thank the school, -not as much for the knowledge they had acquired from their reading -and study at home, but for the great pleasure and joy the _having_ of -this knowledge had brought them—for the _new intellectual, social and -moral life_ that had come to them with it. The letters came from all -over the English-speaking world, but I was most struck by the fact that -a large part of them came from housewives. The following is a fair -sample of hundreds from farmers’ wives, laborers’ wives, clerks’ wives, -business-mens’ wives: - - “Life has been a new thing to me since I took up your course. - My housework used to be an awful drudgery—a never-ending grind. - Now it is easy and I do it better, for my mind has _something - outside to think about_ and be interested in.” - -The wording wasn’t alike in any two, but, in every one of the hundreds -written, there was the same idea—“something outside to think about and be -interested in.” This was the note sounded in nearly every one of all the -letters from men and women both. Some were women living many miles from -the nearest neighbor, some were bed-ridden invalids, some factory girls, -some servants, a few fashionable “society women,” some of the men, lonely -sheep-herders on the Western plains, some naval officers, some this, some -that, but one and all gave thanks from grateful hearts for a lift out of -the rut of daily drudgery, for a broader horizon, for greater usefulness. -I cried over some of those letters. They came straight from the heart if -ever anything did. - -That was the voice of _experience_, not the voice of theory. What they -could do, we can do. We are not going to have any study courses or any -lessons to learn. There will be nothing any of us _has_ to do. But I -believe each of us is going to think things over, talk it over and then -make herself some spare moments, if she hasn’t some already, and set to -work to make life a better thing for herself and those dear to her by -getting “something outside to think about.” - -How am I going to bring this about? Oh, _I_ am not going to do -it—_we_ are! I have no idea of going into any house and saying, “Do -that this way, and do this that way.” All of us are going to help by -making suggestions, by giving experiences, by offering interesting -bits of information. It is for you to decide which of these _you_ can -use. The thing to be desired above all others is that each of us may -learn to _think for herself_. Many think for themselves very keenly -already—perhaps more keenly than I do—and these are the very ones that -can help the rest of us most; but we can all think better, if we all -think together. - -By the next number, April, which will come out March 25, there ought to -be a fair number of questions and suggestions from our readers. Don’t -forget that the best suggestion or bit of information sent in each month -entitles the sender to a year’s free subscription, to any name and -address desired. And remember that another free year’s subscription goes -every month to the person, man or woman, who sends us the best true story -of heroic living in common everyday life. The notices elsewhere in our -Department give the particulars. - -How are we going to get “something outside to think about?” Well, there -are plenty of things outside and there are plenty of ways of bringing -them into our lives. Each of us will find some things and some ways—all -by herself if she will try and then she can tell the rest of us about -them—but in our Department each month we can take one set of things, see -whether there isn’t something of value there for us, ask questions, make -suggestions, try experiments, offer bits of information, talk about it -with our families, think about it while we are working and while we are -resting or amusing ourselves, bring new things into our lives. I am not -going to set up as a teacher and there isn’t going to be any course of -study. There is only one thing I claim to know that some of you don’t -know—that we, any of us, can make our lives brighter and more valuable by -feeding our minds as well as our bodies. I know this by experience—not -only by my own experience and that of my two daughters but also by the -experiences of scores and hundreds of other women I have known and, -perhaps, helped a little. I never talked to anyone in print before, but -for many, many years, ever since one golden day when I discovered that I -was actually making my own life happier and fuller and less ugly by an -effort to feed my starving mind in my few spare moments, I have never -missed a chance to do what I could to show other women how they could -get the same blessing for themselves. - -In this number we will talk and think about reading and what it can do -for us if we go about it right. Next month we will consider woman’s -interest in politics. After that there are many more subjects—flowers, -trees, gardens, stock, other animals, history and women in history, -business and women in business, painting and women artists, women’s -clubs and study circles, customs of other nations, food, correspondence -courses, music and women musicians, and hundreds of other subjects. I -want you to help me select the subjects as we go along. - - * * * * * - -_IS READING WORTH WHILE?_ - - “In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in - literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always - modern. New books revive and redecorate new ideas; old books - suggest and invigorate new ideas.”—_Bulwer._ - -What is reading worth to a busy housewife? “Well,” says one, “it may be -worth a good deal, but I haven’t time to find out.” If this woman knew -there was a twenty-dollar gold-piece to be picked up at the end of a few -minutes walk, would she have time to stop her housework long enough to go -and get it? - -What can we get by reading? Maybe only rest, amusement and a “change.” -Maybe this and also some knowledge. Maybe some valuable experience. Are -any of these worth taking time from housework for? - -There is surely no need of saying that rest, amusement and change are -necessary in the long run for any kind of work. You save time by taking -a vacation. Somebody has said that anyone can do twelve months work in -eleven, but that no one can do eleven months’ work in twelve, meaning -that we can accomplish more in a year by devoting one month of it to a -sensible vacation. - -There can be no doubt that we can gain much knowledge from books. It is -one of the chief sources from which the world gets all that it knows. But -is any of this knowledge worth while for a housewife? If anyone doubts -it, stop and think. How about the Bible, the newspapers, the cook-book? -Is this the only reading from which we can profit? In your own experience -surely you can recall at least a few other books that told you something -you were glad to know. - -How do you get _experience_ from reading? Isn’t it safer to learn human -beings and their ways by studying them direct? Yes, and no. It depends on -the book. Perhaps the author can tell you in a few hours more real truth -about men and women than you can learn alone in years. - -We have heard so many queer things about “literature” that we are likely -to think of it as fancy things written by a lot of delicate, long-haired -men and masculine women and having very little to do with our own -everyday lives. Well, there are many over-cultured and over-educated -people who would define literature that way. But they are mightily wrong! -The _best_ literature is generally simple, not “fancy.” - -Literature is the spoken or written record by which each generation -of mankind is enabled to preserve the knowledge and experience of the -generations before it and to begin where the last one left off instead of -having to begin all over again. - -It doesn’t matter whether it is written or only spoken. Indeed, before -man invented the alphabet or even learned to transmit his ideas and -feelings by crude, rough pictures there wasn’t any literature except what -was spoken or recited. The “Iliad” and “Odyssey” of Homer were sung or -recited, long before they were put down on parchment. Our fairy-stories -and legends generally date back hundreds and hundreds of years and were -preserved only by each generation telling them to the next. In later -days, especially during the Middle Ages, many valuable poems and stories, -and even more of history, would have been lost to us forever if wandering -bards and minstrels had not recited or sung them and taught them to -others. There is no way, except literature, by which we can learn from -the past. Did you ever think that our generation has, by itself, added -only a very, very tiny bit to the knowledge existing in the world when -our generation was born? All our great inventions would be impossible -without this previous knowledge. - -Of course, literature in its stricter sense is more limited than all the -material covered by the definition above. A dictionary, for example, can -hardly be called literature. A bit of writing or talking to be literature -must show the imprint of the author’s personality and it must have in it -something valuable enough to make it worth preserving. But, in general, -the definition as given gets at the root of the matter, and that is all -we need be concerned with. It shows that literature is not a fad or an -amusement of too highly cultivated people, but one of the biggest and -most valuable things in the world. _We_, no matter who or where we are -or even whether we can read or write, are dependent on literature in our -everyday lives. - -How can we tell good literature from bad? Well, it is often pretty hard -to tell about the books and stories of today, but there is a very easy -way of telling about what was written a hundred or a thousand years ago. -Nowadays, when most people can read and write and the printing-press -makes it possible to produce great numbers of books and papers, there -are thousands of people writing all the time and naturally a lot of them -write very poor stuff. We talk about the “best selling books” and go wild -over some new novel. We did the same last month and we’ll do the same -next month. - -“What is the most popular novel this month?” - -“Oh, ‘So-and-so’ by So-and-so. It’s simply grand!” - -“What was the most popular novel last month?” - -“Let’s see. Oh, yes—‘So-and-so,’ by So-and-so. It’s a perfectly charming -story.” - -“What was the most popular novel a year ago?” - -“A _year_ ago? Mercy, I don’t know! There are so many novels now.” - -There it is. All the time people are raving about the “latest” book. Like -as not in a year they can’t even remember its name. Why is that? Because, -hardly any of these books are really _good_ literature. Many of them are -interesting and amuse us while we read them, but that’s all. In a year, -or less, we have forgotten them. - -Then what _is_ good literature? We can find out this way. Consider -all the books that were written a thousand, a hundred, fifty or even -twenty-five years ago. How many of them are read now? Comparatively very, -very few. Now _why_? Because they weren’t good enough. There is a sure -test for you—if a book lives on after its author is dead and buried you -can be pretty sure that it is good literature. It had something to say -that did more than amuse people for a month. The author had put into -it some little bit of _human nature_, of _human life_, that is as true -for people a hundred years later as it was for those who first read it. -(Mind you, I am talking about novels, stories and plays, about fiction -and poetry, not just about such things as histories which are generally -preserved anyway because of the cold facts in them.) The authors of such -novels or poems have written into them some of their own experience and -observation of _life_. The characters in them are real human beings, and -the feelings, thoughts, passions, sentiments, actions of the characters, -or those expressed by the author without the aid of his characters, -are, in general, the same feelings, thoughts, passions, sentiments and -actions that you and I and our acquaintances have in us today. Therefore -we understand the people in those books and sympathize with them, even -though they may have lived centuries ago, in a foreign land, dressed -in strange clothes, bound by strange customs and outwardly having very -little in common with us. There is only one thing that people are -_always_ interested in—human nature. It is according to whether a book -gives us a true picture of human nature that it lives or dies, that it is -good literature or bad. - -With new books now appearing by thousands it is almost impossible to tell -which will live and which will die, which are really good and which are -not. Time is the only sure test. The men talk about Dr. Conan Doyle’s -“Sherlock Holmes” stories now and some of us women like these tales -equally well, but will they be alive in 1975 or not? Emile Gaboriau died -only twenty-three years ago. His detective stories are better ones than -Dr. Conan Doyle’s, but they are no longer read except by the few. Wilkie -Collins wrote novels that made you hold your breath with interest and -were widely read. He has been dead only seventeen years, yet already “The -Moonstone,” “The Woman in White” and his other books are of the past. -Both Gaboriau and Collins have some real merit and will probably always -be read at least slightly, but what of the thousands of other authors who -wrote books twenty-five years ago and whose very names are forgotten? - -Among the books that have come down to us from the past we can choose -pretty safely. If they have lived this long we can be sure there is -something worth while in them. I know a few sensible women, some of them -with both time and money, who make it a rule never to read any book until -it has been published a year. If at the end of that period it is still -interesting other people, then they buy it, being pretty sure that it -must have at least some small merit. They say it is surprising how very -few books do remain in the public attention that long. - -Now I know just what will happen. Some of you know all I have been saying -as well as I do, but some one is sure to say: - -“Oh, yes, that’s all true enough, I suppose, but when I find time to -read, I don’t want to wade through anything heavy.” - -Nobody asked you to. Books aren’t “heavy” just because they are good. -Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “Marjorie Daw” and “The Story of a Bad Boy,” -Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry Finn” and “Innocents Abroad” are -certainly far, far from being heavy; so are Charles Kingsley’s “Water -Babies,” De Foe’s “Robinson Crusoe;” so are Dr. Brown’s “Rab, and His -Friends,” Ouida’s “A Dog of Flanders,” though both bring tears to the -eyes; so are the poems of Robert Burns and Longfellow; so are Æsop’s -“Fables,” the stories of Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas Nelson Page; so -are hundreds of others. Yet all these just named are good literature. -If by “heavy” you mean only things that are dull or hard to understand, -the list of good books that are not “heavy” grows tremendously, and -there are still others that may be hard to understand in places but are -nevertheless interesting enough to “amuse” you all the way through. -Shakespeare, George Eliot, Hawthorne, Poe, Tennyson, Stevenson, Dickens, -Thackeray, Whittier, Helen Hunt Jackson, Hugh Conway, Bret Harte, -Augusta J. Evans, Louisa M. Alcott and scores besides are more than -“worth while.” If there are now and then dull or difficult pages in some -of them yet they are all the world away from being “heavy.” - -Reading for amusement only is much better than not reading at all. We -need amusement. But there is one danger. If what we read for amusement -happens to be poor literature it is _not true to life_ and you are -learning things about yourself and others that are not true and may lead -you into mistakes some day. You know what dime novels—Wild West and -detective stories—will do to young people. It isn’t only because they -are exciting and deal with crime, but because they give false ideas of -life and false ideals. There are thousands of books, apparently harmless -enough, that will hurt grown people as much as dime novels hurt the -children. There are plenty of books you can read “just for amusement” -which are also very good literature and very good teachers of life. Why -waste time on the poor ones? - -When I say a book is good or bad I am not referring to its morals but to -its merit as literature. A hopelessly poor piece of literature may have -excellent morals, and a book that is good literature may be very unsafe -from a moral point of view. The relation of literature to morals is too -big a question for me to discuss. Each of us must steer her own course -in regard to this question. It is, however, helpful to remember that if -the purpose and main lesson of a book are morally good, even though it -may deal a little with questionable subjects, its reading may tend toward -good rather than evil. - - -_SHOULD WOMEN BE INTERESTED IN POLITICS?_ - -Next month in the April number we will take up woman’s interest in -politics. Is there any reason for her being interested in them? What -effect do city, state and national laws and law-makers have on her own -personal welfare or that of her family? If she raises children what -effect does that have on future politics? What two great questions now -before the country bear directly on the price she pays for food and -clothing and on the price her husband receives for what he sells or for -his labor? What about the men the voting members of your family help -elect to the state legislature or the national Congress or White House? -(Perhaps if you live in Colorado, you vote for President yourself.) What -about the wives and children of these men? What about the candidates who -were not elected and their families? If there is an election on, ought -you to know which of the candidates are rascals, which represent wrong -principles, which will vote for measures that will make the things you -buy more expensive? Ought you to use your influence against such men? - -Let us each see who can send in the best reason for a woman’s being -interested in politics. The answers must be very short, and they must -reach our office before March 10, for the April number, as you know, -appears March 25, and by March 10, at the very latest the printer should -be working on whatever is to go in it. This seems like working a long -ways ahead of time, but the Editor tells me that most magazines by that -time, will be all done with the April number and working on May or June! -So you see you will have to write very quickly to be in time. - - -[Illustration: _THE INTEREST OF EVERYDAY THINGS._] - -We had a glimpse last month at some of the interesting things connected -with bread and bread-making. The house is full of things we have known so -long that we scarcely think of them except as parts of the daily routine, -but which, if we turn our attention to them, prove veritable mines of -information, history, travel and even romance. This month we’ll consider -some of the things concerned in bread-making. - - -_Wheat_ - -Wheat, for example, takes us all over the earth and back to the days -before there was any history at all. Wheat, like our other grains, -belongs to the Grass Family and its scientific name is _Triticum -vulgare_. It is the most valuable of all the cereal grasses and, next -to maize, or Indian corn, the most productive. Rice is really its only -rival as a human food. It is generally supposed that it originally came, -like so many of our grains and fruits, from the plains of Central Asia, -but it has been found that a certain wild grass of Western Asia and the -Mediterranean regions, can be cultivated into what we call wheat. It -is the bread-food of most European nations (who, by the way, call it -corn) and is supplanting maize in America. In our country alone 40 or 50 -million acres are devoted to it every year, and the yield is a million -or so over half a billion bushels. Generally, one-fifth to two-fifths -of this is sent to other countries. Russia, Canada and other countries -produce large quantities of it. - -Wheat was widely grown in the pre-historic world. As far back as there -is any record of languages there was a word for wheat. We know that -the Chinese (who knew about gunpowder, printing, glass, spectacles -and many other things centuries before we “invented” them) cultivated -wheat as far back as 2,700 B. C., and regarded it as a direct gift from -heaven. The Egyptians attributed wheat to their heathen goddess Isis. -The Greeks believed that Ceres, their goddess of agriculture, gave it to -her favorite, Triptolemus, and lent him her miraculous chariot to drive -over the earth and distribute the new grain to the sons of men. There -is a pyramid in Egypt, which scientists estimate was built 3,359 years -before Christ was born, more than 5,000 years ago, and in one of the -bricks of this pyramid they found imbedded a little grain of wheat. How -much that single grain told the world! The lake-dwellers of Switzerland -and Italy also left traces showing they knew the use of wheat, as did the -inhabitants of what is now Hungary, in the Stone Age. - -There are more cultivated varieties of wheat than of any other grain, the -number running up into the hundreds. New varieties are generally secured -by taking the pollen from tiny flowers of one variety and putting it on -the pistil of another, so that the resulting seeds, while they take after -both parents, produce a new variety unlike either of them. This process -of cross-breeding has been made to produce marvelous results not only -in other grains, but in fruits, nuts, flowers and trees, as any of you -who are familiar with the work of Mr. Luther Burbank, the “California -Wizard,” know. - - -_Flour_ - -Flour, being generally a product of wheat, has had much the same history, -but the process of milling has a little story of its own. The earliest -mills consisted merely of two stones, one round, the other hollowed -out. The grain was placed in the hollow and then crunched into small -bits by the round stone. Later on, man thought of putting a handle on -the round stone, making something like a mortar and pestle. Another and -later way of improving this crude mill, was to groove the round stone -and make it fit into a fairly deep hole in the under stone, with a place -for the ground meal to come out. This is called a quern. You have heard -of someone’s being “caught between the upper and nether mill-stones.” -In Deuteronomy (XXIV, 6,) we find this: “No man shall take the upper or -nether mill-stone to pledge, for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.” In -Numbers (XI, 8), “ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar” shows that -the children of Israel, knew both kinds of mill, and other passages show -that they had at least two kinds of meal or flour. - -The Romans used only the mortar and pestle, and until 173 B. C. the poor -woman did all the work. Then baking became a regular occupation, and the -bakers were called _pistores_, which means “pounders.” When the Romans -conquered Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Britain -they took their customs with them. The hand-mill was followed by one -with animal power, and later by one with water-power. As late as 1800 A. -D. there were to be found in remote parts of Scotland and Ireland crude -mills made of two large stones ground against each other by running or -falling water. - -The wheat grain is really not a seed, but a fruit, for it is composed -not only of the true seed, but of the seed and its husk or covering. The -two considered together, make what botanists call a “fruit.” In modern -milling this husk is generally separated from the seed and made into -bran, while the seed becomes flour. When the two are mixed we have “whole -wheat” flour. - -Good flour, should be a pure, uniform white powder, only faintly tinged -with yellow, free from grits and lumps, should show some adhesiveness -when pressed, should have no smell of damp and moldiness or any acidity -of taste. - -Most flour now, is “new process” flour, made by a gradual crushing -between sets of rollers revolved by water-power, steam or electricity. -The “new process” originated in Hungary and France and began to be -generally adopted about 1880. - - -_Yeast_ - -Yeast is a vegetable. Strange as it may seem, yeast is a tiny fungus -growth, though it takes a microscope to see it. In brewing (particularly -with hops), in wine-making and in any other process of fermentation -where the liquid contains some sugar and some albuminous matter, the -clear liquid becomes “muddy.” Then the minute things that made it muddy -collect into a foaming, bitter mass which is yeast. This yeast has the -power of setting up fresh fermentation when put with other things. It is -fermentation that makes bread-dough “raise.” Oh, yes, there is alcohol -in bread-dough, but it doesn’t stay there. As I told you last month, -12,000,000 gallons of alcohol are made and lost in bread-making every -year in Germany alone! Some day scientists will learn how to save it. - - -_Hops_ - -We generally think of hops when yeast is mentioned. I wish any of you who -can tell us the story of hops would send it in to our Department. - - -_Salt_ - -How could we cook, or eat, or live without salt? It is an absolute -necessity for people and animals. Also, it is very valuable as a -fertilizer, and was used as such centuries and centuries ago by the -Hindoos and Chinese. Further than this, soda is derived from salt, and as -soda is necessary in making both glass and soap, these two useful things -could not be made if it were not for salt. Most of our modern textile -fabrics are more or less dependent on chlorine, which is made from salt. -We all know how valuable salt is as a preservative for butter, meats and -other animal food, and now they are learning a way to preserve timber -with it. We know, too, its use in freezing ice cream, but may not realize -how much it is used for refrigerating other things. In short, even if we -could live at all without it, life would be pretty miserable. - -The chemists call salt _chloride of sodium_ and use this symbol for it—Na -Cl, which shows what it is composed of, but doesn’t mean anything to me. - -We get salt in three ways—from rock-salt mines, from natural brine -springs and from evaporating sea water. The world’s biggest rock-salt -mines are in Gallicia, upper Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, Transylvania, -Wallachia; at Vic and Dienze, France; at Bix, Switzerland; at Cadrona, -Spain, and at Cheshire, England. That at Wieliczka in Gallicia is a mile -long, three-fourths of a mile wide and over a thousand feet deep. Some -of its chambers are 150 feet high—as high as a sky-scraper—and one of -them is fitted up as a chapel to St. Anthony, the altar, statues and -everything being solid salt. In this mine is a lake 650 feet long and -40 feet deep. There are horses there that have never seen the light of -day, and men, women and children who live in salt houses and never see -the outside world above their heads. It is a small village buried down -under the ground. When the emperor and his family visit the mine, it is -brilliantly illuminated and a grand festival is held in a great hall. - -In Africa are large beds of salt land, beds of rock-salt and a lake -covered at times with a shining white crust of pure salt two feet thick. -France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and some Mediterranean islands are the -chief producers of sea-salt. In China there are salt wells of great depth -and number. - -In Spain, France and other countries salt is a government monopoly, and -no one else can sell it. Travelers tell me they have seen salt lakes in -Spain where the people living along the shores were prevented by the -_guardia civile_, or national police, from picking up the salt deposited -in large quantities at the water’s edge. They had to buy it of the -government. The poor use salt sparingly over there even now, and you may -remember that the heavy tax on salt was one cause of the awful French -Revolution. - -In our country nearly every state has salt deposits of some kind. -Virginia furnishes lots of rock-salt. The most important salt springs are -in Onondaga County, New York, and furnish nearly half of what the country -uses. The state owns them and gets a royalty of one cent a bushel. -Michigan produces about twenty million bushels a year. - - -[Illustration: _VARIOUS HINTS._] - - -_Removing Grease Spots_ - -To remove a grease-spot from cloth, lay a piece of clean blotting paper -over the spot and then pass a hot iron back and forth over blotter. As -the grease is melted and soaked into the blotter, cover the stain with a -fresh part of the blotter and continue the operation until the stain has -disappeared. - - -_Dish-Mop_ - -The little dish-washing mop is a comparatively recent invention, but its -use is increasing as its advantages are learned by experience. It is -merely a handle about ten inches long with a miniature mop, smaller than -your clenched fist, at the end. With very little trouble a home-made one -can be arranged, which is practically as good as the store ones, though -the latter can be bought for ten or fifteen cents. The little mop saves -the hand from going into the water so much, answers every purpose of the -old dish-rag, and can, like the cloth, be cleaned by vigorous boiling. - - -_Spice Cabinets_ - -The little tin or wooden cabinets, now on sale in large quantities at the -bigger stores, with from four to twelve small drawers for spices, are -great space-savers and time-savers. The only objection is that, despite -the label on each drawer, the busy cook is sometimes likely to get hold -of the wrong one. - - -_Soup-Stock_ - -If soup-stock is put to cool in an earthware vessel, instead of a metal -one, much better results are obtained. It is claimed that this is one of -the secrets of the excellent soups the French are famous for. - - -_A Fuel Saver_ - -If one uses a gas stove, a single burner can be made to do several -times its ordinary work by means of a thin sheet of iron, about a foot -square, placed directly over it. The flame spreads out against this sheet -and renders its whole area available for cooking, so that two, three -or even four small vessels can get from this one burner enough heat -to boil water, or at least to keep the contents warm against the time -for serving. No more gas is used than when a single vessel is allotted -to each burner. It is possible to buy a sheet of iron, an eighth or a -quarter of an inch thick, made expressly for this purpose, the edges -being turned down to raise it about half an inch from the surface of the -stove. - - -_Table Mats_ - -Asbestos, bought in large pieces, cut into round, oval or square mats, -and either covered daintily or placed under regular table-mats, makes -not only an economical protection for a polished table against hot -dishes, but a very sure one. - - -_Coal Oil and Gasoline_ - -If you are in the habit of starting a fire by pouring coal-oil on the -kindling, break yourself of it. You may do it safely fifteen hundred -times and be blown up the next. Coal-oil will not even burn if you drop -a match in a barrel of it, but if you spread it out in any way (as on -a lamp-wick) it will not only burn but the gas thus formed will often -explode with terrific force. Never fill a coal-oil lamp while it is -burning. - -Gasoline is still more dangerous. If the fire insurance inspector finds -out that you keep even a small bottle of it in the house, he will have -your policy cancelled immediately, unless you have paid extra for a -special clause permitting you to keep a small amount on the premises. -I knew a physician who was killed and blown clear across the street by -the explosion of gasoline in a saucer, which was being used for cleaning -spots on the carpet of a house he was visiting. The vapor caught fire -from an open grate two rooms away from where the saucer had been left. -Gasoline is an excellent cleaner, but if you use it, do so out of doors. -Let no one come near with a lighted match or cigar, and throw away any -of the liquid that may be left. As an explosive, gasoline is much more -powerful than gunpowder. - - -_A Cheap Shower Bath_ - -Five feet of rubber tubing and a ten-cent spray will make as good a -shower-bath apparatus for the bath-tub as any one could ask. The stem -of the spray will twist into one end of the tubing and if the bath-tub -faucet has the right kind of attachment it will twist into the other end, -making a long flexible shower-spray that will prove an unending comfort. -If the faucet hasn’t the right kind of nozzle to fit a hose, one can be -purchased from the plumber or hardware store for very little. Besides -the pleasure and comfort a spray gives, there is the added satisfaction -of thoroughly cleaning the body with perfectly clean water before drying -with the towel. - - -_A Warmer Bed_ - -If you continue to feel cold in bed even after piling on a mountain of -covers, turn your attention underneath. A feather-bed lets no cold reach -you from below, and a box-mattress is often nearly as good a protection, -but an ordinary mattress, even a good one, is very likely to let the cold -through. If you don’t use a comforter under the sheet, for the sake of -the mattress and for greater softness to the body, put one there for -warmth. If this is not enough, spread several layers of newspaper or -wrapping paper between this comfort and the mattress. It will crackle -under your weight for a time, but it will keep you warm and cosy. - - -_Hanging Pictures_ - -If you are hanging a picture from a nail in the wall instead of from the -picture-molding, you can save the wall by using a very small, thin wire -nail. If it is driven in without “wobbling” and downward at a narrow -angle with the wall a small nail will hold a surprisingly large picture. - - -_Save your Eyes_ - -Do not sleep with a strong light shining into your eyes. In sleep the -eyes are relaxed and, closed though they are, suffer from too strong -a light. The sun shining into them before you wake in the morning is -especially bad. Never read or put the eyes to a strain before breakfast. - - -_To Reduce Weight_ - -A physician gives the following foods as a broad and common-sense diet -for those wishing to reduce their flesh: lean mutton and beef, veal and -lamb, soups not thickened, beef-tea and broth, poultry, game, fish and -eggs, bread in moderation, greens, cresses, lettuce, etc., green peas, -cabbage, cauliflower, onions, fresh fruit without sugar. - - -_Peeling Onions_ - -It is said that if when peeling onions one holds a needle or any small -piece of polished steel between the teeth, the steel will attract the -acid fumes of the onion and save the eyes. - - -_To Keep Lemons_ - -1. Cover with buttermilk or sour milk and change once a week. This will -also freshen dry lemons. - -2. Put in clean white cask or jar, cover with cold water, change every -other day and keep in a cool place. This method will keep lemons fresh -for months. - - -_To Clean Knives_ - -Many are unfamiliar with this old-time method: Take even portions of fine -coal ashes and soda, mix with a little water, rub the knives briskly with -the preparation, wash in tepid water without soap, and wipe dry. - - -_Floor Polish_ - -One quart turpentine, six ounces yellow beeswax, four ounces white resin. -Melt the beeswax and resin together over a _slow_ fire and when partly -cool add the turpentine. Bottle for use. - - -[Illustration: _HEROISM AT HOME._] - - -_A PRIZE FOR THE BEST TRUE STORY._ - -_Every month the Department will publish a little story of heroism in -the home—not any one act of heroism, but the tale of how some one lived -heroically, lived self-sacrifice, in everyday life. It must be true and -must be about somebody you know or have known or know definitely about. -It must not have over 500 words. The shorter, the better. Whoever sends -in the best story each month will not only have it printed but will -receive a year’s subscription to WATSON’S MAGAZINE sent to any name you -choose. Tell your story simply and plainly._ - - -[Illustration: _THE MONTH’S MEMENTO._] - -The Wickedness of Worry - -“Worry is one of the worst curses of modern life. I say of modern life, -not because people a thousand years ago did not worry, because as -civilization advances men become more highly strung, more sensitive, and -less capable of detachment. Thus, we often say, in a very expressive -phrase, that a thing ‘gets upon our nerves.’ Something distressing -happens to us, and we cannot shake it off. Some one treats us rudely, -harshly, or unkindly, and the word or deed rankles in our minds. We think -it over until it is magnified into a grievous and intentional insult. -We take it to bed with us, and no sooner is the light put out than we -begin to recall it, and turn over in our minds all the circumstances -that occasioned it. We sleep feverishly, haunted all the time with the -sense of something disagreeable. We wake, and the accursed thing is still -rankling in our minds. This is one form of worry, which is very common -among people of sensitive minds. - -Another form of worry is the tendency to brood over past errors. The -business man, or the public man, is suddenly overwhelmed with the -conviction that he has made an awful mess of things. The worst of all -calamities is the lack of energy to grapple with calamity, and in most -cases it is worry that breaks down a man’s energy. - -A third, and perhaps a more common form of worry, is the gloomy -anticipation of future calamities. There are some men who, however -happy they may be today, are perpetually frightening themselves with -the possibilities of a disastrous tomorrow. They live in terror. When -actual sorrow comes upon us, most of us discover unexpected resources of -fortitude in ourselves. But nothing sickens the heart so much as imagined -sorrow. Of this form of worry we may well say, “It’s wicked!” - -I have no doubt that most of my readers know by experience what some of -these things mean. No doubt also many of them have many real causes for -anxious thought, and they will ask me how I propose to deal with it. -One of the best ways is to be content to live a day at a time. Sydney -Smith counsels us with rich wisdom to take short views of life. Each day -is an entity in itself. It is rounded off by the gulf of sleep; it has -its own hours which will never return; it stands separate, with its own -opportunities and pleasures. Make the most of them. - -Another good and simple rule is never to take our griefs to bed with -us. ‘Easy to say, but how difficult to do,’ will be replied. But it is -largely a matter of will and habit. - -John Wesley once said that he would as soon steal as worry, for each -was equally a sin. To worry is wasteful and foolish; we have also to -recollect that it is wicked.”—_W. J. Dawson._ - - -[Illustration: _RECIPES, OLD AND NEW._] - - -_Lemon Pie (Old)_ - -Two lemons, five eggs, two teaspoonsful of melted butter, eight large -spoonsful of white sugar. Squeeze the juice of both lemons and grate the -rind of one. Stir together the yolks of three eggs and the white of one, -with the sugar, juice and rind, beat well, add one coffee-cup of cream -and beat well for a few minutes longer. Pour the mixture into the waiting -crust dough. Bake until pastry is done. Meanwhile beat the remaining -whites of eggs to a stiff froth and stir in four spoonsful of white -sugar. Spread on top and brown slightly. This is enough for two pies. - - -_Simple Pudding_ - -(No eggs or milk needed) Slice some good bread rather thick, cutting away -the crust. Butter on both sides, lay in a deep dish and fill it up with -molasses after seasoning with ginger, cinnamon or lemon. - - -_Irish Potato Pie (Old)_ - -Two good pints of potatoes after they are boiled and mashed. Put through -a sieve while warm. Add small cup of butter, milk enough to make a -batter. Cinnamon, lemon, spices and sugar to taste. Four eggs beaten -separately, stirring in the whites after the yokes. This is enough for -four pies. - - - - -[Illustration: _BOOKS_ - -_BY Thomas E. Watson._] - - - =The Social Secretary.= By David Graham Phillips. The - Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis. - -An exceedingly clever novel, dealing chiefly with the effort of a -Congressional family to break into good society in Washington, D. C. The -Congressman is a Western man with a lot of money, and with a wife who has -lots of horse sense and a sound heart. - -They need a pilot to steer them into the realms of fashion and influence. -To this position comes a beautiful, spirited and accomplished girl who -belongs to a well-known family which is eminently respectable but is in -reduced circumstances. - -The campaign mapped out by the Social Secretary in behalf of the -Congressional family is finally crowned with success, and the heroine -marries the son of the Congressman, as a natural, logical result. - -In the course of the campaign, the author gives us many an enlightening -glimpse of what goes on in Washington “behind the scenes.” This little -item for instance: When President Roosevelt is called away from the -dinner-table by some urgent matter which requires instant attention, Mrs. -Roosevelt, all the ladies, and all the gentlemen rise as the President -rises and remain standing until he returns. - -I, for one, was quite surprised to know that our sturdy lion-hunter, -bronco-busting President had fallen into snobbery of that description. I -hope it isn’t so. - - - =A Maker of History.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Little, Brown & - Co., Boston, Mass. - -A book which catches hold of you and takes you right along. It is -original in its plot, dramatic in its incidents, absorbingly interesting -in its narrative. - -A young Englishman, by accident, happens to witness a meeting between -the Emperor of Germany and the Czar of Russia—a meeting which elaborate -precautions had been taken to keep secret. Another accident puts into the -possession of the young Englishman a page of the secret treaty between -the two Emperors. The scheme of this treaty is that Russia shall give -England a _casus belli_, that Germany shall come to the assistance of -Russia, and that Great Britain shall be despoiled. The young Englishman -is suspected, and his footsteps are dogged by German spies. Later he -talks imprudently in a Parisian restaurant, and becomes an object -of intense interest to the French Secret Service. He suddenly and -mysteriously disappears. His sister arrives in Paris, is astonished at -the disappearance of her brother, and starts out to search for him. Then -the sister disappears. - -After a time everything turns out happily for hero and heroine, but in -the meanwhile many an event of thrilling interest happens to keep the -reader wide awake and wondering what the outcome will be. - - - =The Greatest Trust in the World.= By Charles Edward Russell. - The Ridgway-Thayer Company, New York City. - -This book is made up of the articles which were published in _Everybody’s -Magazine_, and which created such a profound impression by their calm, -relentless exposure of the most cruel and most lawless and most despotic -Trust on earth. Not even the Standard Oil Company grinds the common -people as the Beef Trust does, for the latter deals with food products -which are indispensable to life, and the Beef Trust can and does say to -the people, “Pay my price or die.” - -The book treats of the might of this monopoly; of the great yellow car, -the bandit of commerce; of the manner in which the Trust intimidates the -railroads; of the manner in which the Federal Government white-washed the -Trust; of the union between rotten business and rotten politics. - -It is a book that all should study. - - - =American Diplomacy.= By John Bassett Moore. Harper & Brothers, - Publishers, New York City. - -My own impression has been that “American Diplomacy” has never amounted -to much, and I cannot say that Dr. Moore’s book has convinced me to the -contrary. - -The only apparent triumph of American Diplomacy was the securing of -French aid in the Revolutionary War; and as to that most students -will agree that “diplomacy” had nothing to do with it. France saw an -opportunity to strike at her hereditary foe, Great Britain, and she sent -an emissary to the American Congress to drop certain hints which led to -the sending of Dean, Lee and Franklin to Paris. Where France was already -so eager, “diplomacy” could claim no triumph. - -It is to be regretted that Dr. Moore fails to mention John Laurens in -connection with French aid. The fact is that Washington and Congress -became dissatisfied with Franklin, and that John Laurens was despatched -to France to hurry matters up. He did so. He got the money with which -Washington made the decisive Yorktown Campaign, and brought it home with -him. Surely Dr. Moore ought to have mentioned the name of John Laurens. - -In the famous Jay treaty, “American Diplomacy” made a craven surrender to -Great Britain, and in the Treaty of Ghent we certainly won no laurels. -Andrew Jackson and his Southern volunteers threw the only crumb of -comfort which the situation could boast when they shot the life out of -Wellington’s veterans at New Orleans. - -In the various negotiations concerning the Northwestern boundary, -“American Diplomacy” has yielded up an Empire to British bluff and -shrewdness. During the Civil War, “American Diplomacy” ate humble pie -with a vengeance more than once; and even in the Venezuelan affair when -Cleveland’s attitude seemed so heroic, England, it would appear, packed -the arbitration board and got pretty much everything that she wanted. - -In the last tilt between us and the mother country, touching the Canadian -boundary, we were assured that the arbitration was a mere matter of form, -and that Great Britain could not possibly get anything at all. Yet when -the award was made, it developed that Great Britain had got slices of -stuff all along the line—the land line and the water line. - -American Diplomacy? - -Bah! - -Look at the manner in which Great Britain used us as her depot of -supplies during the Boer War. - -She held John Hay in the hollow of her hand, and with our aid crushed the -republics of South Africa. - - - =Fables and Symbols.= By Clemence De La Baere, Sacramento, Cal. - -Those who love truth and humor served up in the literary form of the -fable, will find this an entertaining little volume. There is much wit -and wisdom packed away in these stories; and they reveal a thorough -knowledge of human nature and of present conditions. - - - =Garrison the Non-Resistant.= By Ernest Crosby. The Public - Publishing Co., Chicago. - -When a Southern writer eulogizes such a bitter foe to his people as was -William Lloyd Garrison, his words will bear the same discount as must be -given to the words of a Southern ex-Brigadier, when he goes North and -tells pleased audiences, “I am glad you whipped us.” - -The truth is the South does not love Garrison and is _not_ glad she was -“whipped.” - -When Mr. Crosby frankly states, as he does in this book, that Garrison -had no sympathy whatever for the sufferings of the white laborers of -the land, he put his finger upon the trait which caused Garrison’s great -unpopularity in the South. - -He was narrow and fanatical, and while he hated slavery for its own sake, -he hated the South about as much as he hated slavery. - -Wendell Phillips, after the negro was freed, went on broadening in the -scope of his sympathies and his work. He became one of the stalwart -champions of the rights of white labor. He studied its case, denounced -its wrongs, demanded better things for the millions of toilers who were -being exploited and destroyed by insatiable commercial greed. - -Not so Garrison. The negro freed, the South reeking with her own -life-blood, her homes in ashes, her soul crushed in utter desolation, -Garrison was happy. His work was done. White men, white women, white -children might groan and suffer and die in a worse slavery than had -afflicted the blacks of the South, but Garrison did not sympathize—did -not lift a finger, did not utter a word in their behalf. Another trait in -Garrison’s character was just the trait to stir the dislike of a Southern -man. He carried to such an extent his doctrine of non-resistance, that -he declared he “would not defend by force his own wife in case of an -assault.” In other words, rather than forcibly resist the criminal who -sought to violate his own wife, he would stand idly by and permit the -crime to be committed. I do not know how many Northern men endorse a -sentiment of that kind. In my judgment they are few, very few. But I -do know that there is not a respectable man in the South or West, who -would not feel disgraced by the utterance of such a doctrine. Mr. Crosby -deserves great credit for his courage and candor in admitting that while -slavery was wrong, the war waged upon the South was wrong. Of course it -was wrong. The whole negro race, here and throughout the earth, were not -worth the frightful cost of the Civil War. Mr. Crosby’s book would have -been more valuable had he omitted the last two chapters. The author is a -very talented man but he cannot get to know the true status of the South -by listening to the talk of loafers in the office of the hotel where he -happens to stop. - - - =Sidney Lanier.= By Edwin Mims. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, - Boston and New York. - -A more interesting biographical work than this it would be difficult to -name. - -The author is temperate in his estimate of the genius of his subject, and -relates the life struggles of the Georgia poet with sympathetic spirit. - -As the years go by the fame of Sidney Lanier will grow. That he -wrote some poems which have little merit is true; that his peculiar -and unfortunate mannerism mars the beauty of other poems which do -possess merit is also true; but after all this is conceded, it can be -confidently claimed that he sometimes rose to the heights of Keats and -Shelley, and that his art sometimes equalled the marvelous skill of Edgar -Poe. - -Here and there, throughout Lanier’s poems, can be found gems of thought -and expression which in loftiness, purity and exquisite form lose nothing -by comparison with the higher work of the best English poets. - -Nor will the story of his life ever lose interest. It is so full of -innate nobility; he met the most exacting duties so cheerily, so bravely; -he fought the battle for bread with such manly confidence, such sweet -sympathy for others; he gave to the world so much more than he asked from -it; he was so independent and yet so companionable; he so long held at -bay, with buoyant pluck, the ghastly White Terror, Consumption; he was -so refined and strong and lovable and valiant and nobly aspiring that -always and everywhere the simple facts in the life of this Georgia boy, -Confederate soldier, painstaking lawyer, aspiring author, heaven-endowed -musician, original poet, will move the hearts of men to respect, to -sympathy, to admiration and love. - - - =Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama.= By Walter L. - Fleming. The Columbia University Press, New York, Publishers. - The Macmillan Company, Agents. - -All things considered, this is the most valuable contribution that has -yet been made to the literature of the Reconstruction Era. - -The book contains some 800 pages, and the mass of important data is a -monument to the industry of the author. - -Not only are we given a full account of the manner in which Secession was -brought about, not only do we get the story of military operations during -the Civil War and Carpet-Bag operations afterward, but we are given -illuminating pictures of social and economic conditions, the unspeakable -rottenness of negro government; the cotton frauds and stealings; the -troubles in the churches; the movements of the Ku Klux Klan (which Tom -Dixon most unaccountably traces back to the clan life of Scotland); the -struggles of the native whites to throw off the carpet-bag and negro -yoke; the upbuilding of an educational system; the gradual creation of a -new industrial system; and the final triumphant vindication of Alabama of -the right of local self-government and white supremacy. - -Mr. Fleming has done a great and beneficent work in the gathering of the -mass of facts which he embodies in this volume. - -Compared to his, every other book on the same subject seems fragmentary. - - - =Frenzied Finance.= By Thomas Lawson. The Ridgway-Thayer Co., - New York. - -No matter what Mr. Lawson’s motive may have been, he has done a public -service in the exposure of the methods of Wall Street which cannot be -overestimated. For thirty years the story which Lawson has told has been -asking for an audience. Time and again, books and magazine articles were -published warning the people of the ways of the system. As far back as -the days of Peter Cooper, loud voices of clear-eyed men were raised in -the effort to rouse public attention. The literature of the Greenback -movement, of the Farmers’ Alliance movement, and of the People’s Party -movement was full of notes of warning, full of statements of fact exactly -on line with Lawson’s revelations. - -Why then did the revelations of Lawson sound like a new trumpet and rouse -the country so quickly and so universally? Because Lawson spoke from the -_inside_: because Lawson was one of the kings of finance himself: because -Lawson had played the game himself: because Lawson drew to himself that -peculiar attention which attaches to the witness who “turns State’s -evidence.” A robber who has worn the mask and ridden with the band on -many a midnight marauding foray is always listened to with breathless -interest when he enters the box and tells how the robbery was planned, -how the crime was committed, and now the spoil was divided. This is but -natural. No matter how much proof one may have to establish the guilt of -the accused, one feels, always, that there are details which none but the -criminal can supply. Here Thomas Lawson’s value is beyond dispute and -beyond price. That the methods of Frenzied Finance are substantially what -Lawson says they are, can no longer be a matter of doubt. - - - “=When You Were a Boy.=” By Edwin L. Sabin. The Baker & Taylor - Co., New York. - -It seemed impossible that another successful book on school-life and -boyhood days could be written, but the author has shown how easily -one may be mistaken about a thing of that sort. Here is no story of a -fascinating but impossible “Little Lord Fauntleroy”; here is no coarse, -witless, stupid “Stalky & Co.,” here is no “Huckleberry Finn” or “Tom -Sawyer,” or “Tom Brown,” or “Peck’s Bad Boy,” or “Master William Mitten.” -The hero of “When You Were a Boy”—is you. The author has looked into his -own heart and drawn your picture to life. You had your little “fist and -skull” fights—and here they are in this book. You had a pet dog who did -all sorts of funny, aggravating, endearing things, and then died while -you were off from home; and the author tells of it, intimately. Your -first experience with your father’s shot-gun, your savage rapture over -the first thing you killed—here it is in the book. And the first fishing -trip, the first “party” you attended, the first girl you “saw home,” -the first sweetheart—it is all put down, accurately, vividly. Even that -time—you mean little whelp!—when you determined to punish your parents by -“running away from home,”—the author found it out on you, and you will -hang your head once more, and your eye will dim, as you read about it, -in the book. The author does not preach and does not prose, and does not -sentimentalise—but “When You Were a Boy” is one of the most life-like -delineations of the American boy—his character, his feelings, his habits, -his fun and frolic, his passions, his standards—that has ever been put in -a book. - - - =Bossism and Monopoly.= By Thomas Carl Spelling. D. Appleton & - Co., New York. - -An exposition of the evils of the twins—Bossism and Monopoly. Mr. -Spelling brings the record of trust robbery and boss despotism down to -date, and while he necessarily has to treat the same facts and conditions -which so many other writers have handled, none of them has a firmer grip -upon the subject than he—nor have any of them produced a more essentially -useful book. He is the only writer who has seized upon and utilized the -tremendously important facts set forth by Albert Griffin in the financial -articles which he wrote for this MAGAZINE some months ago. What Mr. -Griffin calls Hocus Pocus Money another may call fictitious values, -unsupported credit, wild-cat inflation, or any other name, but the fact -as first pointed out by Mr. Griffin is that the Privileged Few in the -Banking world are taxing the people to an enormous amount for the use of -bogus money. - -Mr. Spelling also deals with the Railroad problem in a masterly way, -advocating, as all sane men will soon be found doing, Government -Ownership. - - - =The Coming Crisis.= By Gustavus M. Pinckney. Walker, Evans and - Cogswell Co., Charleston, S. C. - -This is a book to read closely and to think about. It is full of solid -fact and sound reasoning. Its tone is calm, but its thought is deep, and -it deals with matters of gravest import. - -A quotation will give some idea of the scope of the work: - -(1) “Society under government naturally tends to fall into two parties, -one attached to the consumption of taxes and increase of power, the other -attached to the decrease of taxes and to the limitation of power. - -(2) The tendency of the first party is to absorb the rights and property -of the second: the tendency of the second is to resist the process. - -(3) Remaining unchecked, the first will steadily encroach and absorb -until the second is compelled in self-preservation to resist by tendering -the issue of force.” - -That’s a clear bold statement and a true one. - -Illustrating the method by which the one party appropriates the property -of the other, Mr. Pinckney cites our infamous Tariff System. - -“The amount of prices advanced under a 40 per cent. tariff and -_transferred from one private pocket to another_, would ... soon extend -to figures to _dwarf the national debt_.” - -Some one has calculated that from Independence to 1861, the amount thus -transferred from private pockets to other private pockets, without -consideration, was something like $2,770,000,000. - -The sum so stolen from private pockets by the damnable Tariff, since -1861, and put into other private pockets is a great deal more than the -colossal figures mentioned above. - -Mr. Pinckney likewise takes up the National Banker and shows how the -Government allows him advantages over his fellow man that are “utterly -without right, reason, or justification.” After explaining the juggle -which takes place over the bonds, and the notes, he sums it up thus: - -“_The people are taxed in order that the privilege of issuing money may -be farmed out to the banks._” - -Nobody has ever summed up the iniquity of the National Banking System in -a more startling sentence, and a good Democrat, like Mr. Pinckney, must -have been sorely grieved when he saw every Democratic Senator and every -Democratic Representative unite with the wicked Republicans in 1893-1894 -to renew the charters of the National Banks for twenty years. - -Space forbids the extending of these comments further. I will only add -that no student of present conditions can afford to miss Mr. Pinckney’s -book. - - - =Letters and Addresses of Thomas Jefferson.= Edited by Wm. - B. Parker, of Colombia University, and Jonas Viles, of the - University of Missouri. The Unit Book Pub. Co., New York. - -When two college professors start out to give the world a new book on -_Thomas_ Jefferson, the world has a right to expect an unusually valuable -book. - -Professors Parker and Viles did not undertake an original composition. -Theirs was the simpler task of making a good selection from the letters, -State papers and addresses of Mr. Jefferson. That such a selection should -be a success, it was necessary that the compilers acquaint themselves -intimately with all that Jefferson wrote, and that the selections made -should fairly represent _Jefferson himself_—Jefferson the man, the -scholar, the farmer, the builder, the inventor, the advanced thinker, the -man of bold speculative ideas, the statesman, the student of social and -industrial problems. - -Have our learned professors done this? - -Mr. Jefferson’s book, “Notes on Virginia,” contains more than 300 -pages. It is full of his most characteristic thinking. It displays the -working of his mind on matters great and small, social, racial, historic -practical and speculative. - -Our Professors quote eight pages from the book, wherein Mr. Jefferson -discusses Religion, Slavery and American Genius—three subjects only. -These are important quotations, but what a pity it is that the Professors -did not quote Jefferson’s profound study of the Indians, their physical -and mental peculiarities, their mode of life, their love of their -children, their fortitude under suffering, their undying loyalty to -friends, their skill and bravery in war, their eloquence in council, -their system of tribal government. Mr. Jefferson wrote nothing more -interesting than this account of the Indians of Virginia. It was in this -that he reproduced and handed down to posterity that gem of oratory which -we boys used to “speak” at school—“Logan’s speech” sent to Lord Dunmore. - -On page 166 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson gives a concise and -comprehensive statement of the wrongs which the colonies suffered at -the hands of the King. Inasmuch as we have developed a school of Tory -historians who make light of the American grievances, it might have been -a good thing had the Professors quoted Mr. Jefferson’s summary of those -grievances. - -On page 172 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson makes a remarkable prediction -of the manner in which abuses will creep into our Government, and he -solemnly warns his countrymen to combat these abuses “before they shall -have gotten hold on us.” - -Inasmuch as the abuses which Mr. Jefferson dreaded have gotten hold on -us, his prophecy, published more than a hundred years ago, deserves a -place in any collection of Jefferson’s works. - -On page 216 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson has a word to say on popular -self-government which every American boy should read as soon as he -becomes a voter. I am sorry the Professors left it out. - -The most powerful chapter in the “Notes on Virginia,” is that beginning -on page 228 and ending on page 235. As it stands written, it is a -masterpiece. To spoil a good thing is easy; and the Professors spoilt the -best chapter in Jefferson’s book by cutting out only a portion of it for -use, and not the best part at that. - -On page 240 of the “Notes” is Mr. Jefferson’s splendid tribute to the -working classes of the rural communities—but the Professors seemingly -attached no value to it. - -What could have been more timely than the re-publication of Mr. -Jefferson’s magnificent plea against War, and against Militarism, which -covers pages 253, 254, and 255 of the “Notes”? The Professors could not -have embraced in their collection anything of greater intrinsic and -eternal value than this, and they have given much space to matter which, -compared to this, is mere trash. - -I have neither the time nor the patience to compare the letters which -these Professors have collected with those which they have left out. -If they selected the letters in the same spirit that they culled from -the “Notes,” their compilation is just as far from doing justice to Mr. -Jefferson as “The True Thomas Jefferson,” by W. E. Curtis, was from the -truth. There is no American book of the same size that contains more -errors than Curtis’s “True Jefferson;” and when I saw that these two -Professors had named that book as one of their authorities—well, you can -see for yourself how it stimulated my attention. - - - =Democracy in the South Before the Civil War.= By G. W. Dyer, - M. A., Pub. House of the M. E. Church South. Nashville, Tenn. - -The author modestly calls this a compendium of a more comprehensive work -which will be published later. - -It is an exceedingly valuable study. The author has dug up a lot of -buried treasure. His refutation of many unfounded opinions concerning -social economic and political conditions in the South prior to the Civil -War is supported by a diligence of research that gather all the necessary -evidence. - -Among other facts of importance which Mr. Dyer establishes, Prof. John -Bach McMaster to the contrary notwithstanding, are: - -(1) There was no land monopoly in the South. On the contrary there was a -better pro rata distribution of land than in the free States. - -(2) Manual labor was not a badge of disgrace. On the other hand, the -white population of the South was engaged in all kinds of manual labor, -excepting menial service. - -(3) The South had a larger number of miles of railroads in 1860 in -proportion to her free population than the rest of the country. - -(4) In 1860, Southern people were engaged in almost all kinds of -manufacturing. - -(5) In 1860 the South was the richest section of the country, and her -wealth was increasing with greater rapidity than that of the other -sections. - -It will be remembered that in one of his great speeches in Congress -William L. Yancey demonstrated this truth. - -(6) Wages were higher in the South than in the North in 1860. - -So they are even now. The laborer who produces that free trade product, -cotton, gets nearly one-half of the value of the cotton produced. In the -Protected industries of the North the laborer does not receive an average -of twenty-five percent of the product of his labor. - -Mr. Dyer proves another fact worth mention: - -The idea of a State fund for the education of those who were not able to -pay their tuition originated in the South. In other words, the present -American system of State free public schools was born in the South. If -Mr. Dyer’s more comprehensive work increases in value as it increases in -size it will deserve to be a most successful book. - - - “=Sonnets to a Wife.=” By Ernest McGaffey. William Marion - Reedy. St. Louis, Mo. - -Mr. McGaffey makes his Sonnets a continuous hymn of the beautiful in -Nature. The clean atmosphere of the open world is in every sonnet. All -the airs of heaven blow pureness about these lovers. The spiritual -significance of the great Nature, of which husband and wife and their -love for each other are a part, is always strongly suggested, and this -without cant either of orthodoxy or of the dolorous minor poet lamenting -the loss of himself to the world. - - - =The Eternal Spring.= A Novel. By Neith Boyce. Fox, Duffield & - Co., New York, $1.50, postpaid. - -The story opens at an Italian villa, overlooking Florence. Elizabeth -Craven is wearing “second mourning” for a deceased husband who was too -old for her, and who had never satisfied her womanly cravings for male -companionship. Elizabeth is thirty-eight years old, but is still in the -flush of health and strength and beauty. Hers is the villa, and to her -comes Barry Carlton, who has been stock-gambling for several years in -Chicago, and has quit because he had won a modest competence and had -brought himself to the brink of nervous collapse. - -Barry Carlton had known Elizabeth intimately five years before and had -become warmly attached to her. Poor Elizabeth! She had loved Barry all -the while, and she loves him yet. - -She is radiantly happy as she welcomes Barry to her villa. She knows that -he has come from America to ask her to become his wife. He is thirty -years old, and while worn down to a painful thinness she has no doubt -whatever that rest and loving attention will soon restore his robust -youth. - -_Then_ she will live. She has never known life; she has been cramped and -confined all these years; when she marries her young lover, she will know -the passion of _living_. - -But alas! Barry wooes tamely. Elizabeth is coy, expecting more heat. -Barry cannot give it, the wooing lags, no engagement occurs, and then -comes the shipwreck of Elizabeth’s hopes. Barry falls in love with a -divinely gifted and lovely young creature who is also a guest at the -villa. - -A strange thing happens to the reader. Elizabeth has won _his_ heart, -and she holds it to the end. She is so womanly in her devotion to Barry; -so womanly in her grief at losing him, so majestic in her renunciation -of her own hopes, so beautifully generous and helpful to the man and the -girl who have broken her own heart, that the reader feels himself about -to say: - -“One Elizabeth were worth a dozen Claras.” - -For the reader does not fall in love with Clara. She is a bit unnatural -and uncanny. - -Her mother, the bad but magnificent Mrs. Langham, is far more real and -interesting. - -As to Barry himself, the reader never does quite understand why the women -find him so irresistible. It does not appear that he is very handsome, or -very accomplished, or very anything else, excepting that he is abominably -selfish in his dealings with Elizabeth. The women who fall in love with -him rave about his “honesty,” but that is a quality which seldom carries -women off their feet. Decidedly Elizabeth remains the heroine and next -to her in interest comes the bad, beautiful Mrs. Langham. The author -tells the story with superb art. There are no incidents, no thrills, no -dramatic climaxes, and yet there is not a dull page in the book. - - -_Cause for Joy_ - -“Well, now, which do you think is correct, ‘measles is’ or ‘measles -are’?” chucklingly inquired the landlord of the Torpidville tavern. -“Also, would you say, ‘The Glee Club are’ or ‘the Glee Club is’?” - -“D’know!” replied the patent-churn man, shortly. “Those old -catch-questions don’t interest me a little bit. But what I’d like to know -is why everybody looks so pleased and smiling today? Is there a picnic or -celebration or something of the sort on the tapis?” - -“No, skurcely that. It’s the relief that is tickling ’em, not -anticipation. You see, the Glee Club of the village Academy was going to -give a concert and cantata tomorrow night, assisted by our best local -talent, and now the measles have, or has, as the case may be, broken out, -up there in the temple of learnin’, and every member of the Glee Club -have, or has, got it, or them, good and plenty and the entertainment has -been indefinitely—haw! haw!—postponed.” - - - - -[Illustration: _The Say of Other Editors_] - - -The Democrat has no axe to grind, no scores to settle nor heads to whack -in advancing the erection by the city of an electric lighting plant. From -every standpoint it is right.—_Grand Ireland (Neb.) Democrat._ - - * * * * * - -Paul Morton, president of the Equitable, says he is not going to pay any -more money to legislators to protect his insurance company. This reminds -the _Syracuse (N. Y.) Herald_ of the story of the old darkey, never -regarded as being at all particular about how or where he gathered up a -penny, who dropped his pocketbook in a crowd one day. As the nickels and -dimes scattered about, the old man began to scramble for them, shouting, -“Befoh de Lawd! Let evahbody be honest now.”—_Leeton (Mo.) Times._ - - * * * * * - -Democracy means always independence of thought, and unless the party -leaders treat the people fairly they will find it also means independence -of action. This was fully demonstrated last year in both National and -State campaigns, and it is time the Democratic leaders in Missouri should -heed the warning.—_Ozark (Mo.) Democrat._ - - * * * * * - -Congress is now asked to appropriate $16,500,000 in one lump to the -Isthmian Canal. This nice little sum will only serve to grease the -skillet for a short time.—_Panola Watchman, Carthage, Tex._ - - * * * * * - -It has been only a few weeks since Mr. McCall of the New York Life -Insurance Company was standing on his dignity and trying to make a joke -of the insurance investigation—just as Mr. Rogers of the Standard Oil -Company tried to make a joke of the investigation in New York last week. -But today Mr. McCall is a disgraced man in the public eye, and another -man signs as president of the New York Life. And it may be only a short -time until Mr. Rogers is holding an unenviable seat with Mr. McCall and -a lot of other unscrupulous fellows who a short time ago imagined that -they were practically the whole financial show. These money grafters are -up against an aroused public sentiment which in America today spells -destruction for whatever it may be directed against. In America there -is no system that can stand against the will of the people, and Mr. -Rogers and his Standard Oil crowd will yet live to see the day—and that -soon—when they will put off their arrogant airs in answering a criminal -investigation by the legal representatives of a great state.—_Darlington -(Mo.) Record._ - - * * * * * - -The Department of Agriculture is now undertaking to show the farmers how -they can raise better tobacco. What the farmers would much prefer would -be for Secretary Wilson to show how to get more than 34 cents for it from -the Tobacco Trust.—_Tarboro (N. C.) Southerner._ - - * * * * * - -The steamer _America_, from Honolulu for San Francisco, carried $750,000 -in coin sent by registered mail by local bankers, in order, it is -alleged, that the money might be at sea, and beyond the territorial -jurisdiction on December 31st, when a tax of one per cent. is levied on -all money on deposit by the banks on that date. It is understood that the -money will be returned immediately. Deducting the charges of shipment, -the saving made will be approximately $7,000.—_Argonaut, San Francisco._ - - * * * * * - -The attention of the public is unpleasantly attracted to the position -of Henry H. Rogers, active head of the Standard Oil trust, in relation -to the testimony sought by the supreme court of Missouri. The Missouri -court, in seeking the enforcement of the anti-trust law of that State, -has undertaken to procure testimony upon the allegation that the Standard -company is violating the law. Among the witnesses is Mr. Rogers. He -dodged service of the subpoena until outwitted by an officer and in the -witness chair he refuses to answer questions propounded by the attorney -general of Missouri. He refuses with a supercilious air that asserts his -contempt for such humble affairs as courts and officers of the law. The -world’s greatest trust, the world’s richest men, tell the world that they -are not amenable to the regulations to which the balance of the world is -bound to conform. This is the anarchy of wealth. Recently representatives -of the oil trust told Commissioner Garfield that the Standard Oil was -greater than the government; that John D. Rockefeller was a bigger man -than the President of the United States; that he owned the Senate and -the House and was able, by the mere passing of the word, to cause the -removal of Secretary Metcalf and Commissioner Garfield. A few years back -in history the Standard Oil corporation defied the Supreme Court of Ohio -and caused the political defeat of the presumptuous attorney who brought -an action against it and won because his case was just. Now comes Henry -H. Rogers, second to John D. Rockefeller, bristling with defiance because -a Western court proposes to make him and his associates obey the same law -that common persons have to obey. It is greatly to be feared that the oil -magnates are invoking a test of strength—feared because some one is going -to be roughly handled should there come a popular adjustment between -the forces of wealth and government. The American people have been very -patient and are still patient. But if they are called upon to pass upon -certain points raised by the contumacy of Mr. Rogers and the rest, the -controversy will be short, sharp and decisive.—_Howard (S. Dak.) Advance._ - - * * * * * - -Let those with a sense of humor laugh now, while the game is barely on, -at such naïve expressions of alarm as those of Secretary Taft in a recent -speech wherein he feared that the “dangerous classes,” such as populists -and socialists, might succeed in arraying the masses against capitalism -to the injury of the latter. Secretary Taft fears that the ninety per -cent of our population are going to demand the right to rule. Awful, -isn’t it? - -This fat sow of the system with its nose in the trough, its distended -guts groaning and still filling, sounds the warning that the razor-backs -are preparing to assume control of the swill. Wough! Secretary Taft -believes that this country is only safe when every bank, the House, the -Senate, every State legislature, and every public office is manned and -controlled by a McCall, McCurdy, Hyde, Armour or Rockefeller; that is, -safe for the system. We say this country is not safe when ten millions of -its inhabitants live in dire poverty and two hundred and seventy thousand -people fill its jails. - -We say there is something radically wrong with our educational and -economic systems. We say the multi-income grafters must be hurled back -to one man power, for there is not a banker nor so-called financier in -America that has not for years been in collusion with Hyde, McCall and -McCurdy, and consciously participated in their stealing. - -Come, now, Secretary Taft, would men who have been brought up to do -real work be any more dangerous in high places?—_Parker H. Sercombe in -To-Morrow._ - - * * * * * - -And now it is announced that all three of the big life insurance -presidents in New York are down with nervous prostration. Sounds from -testimony as though it ought to be the policy holders.—_Alma (Neb.) -Record._ - - * * * * * - -With the arraignment of Standard Oil officers, life insurance fakirs, -Panama Canal investigations, United States senators losing their -dignity, and being tried like other criminals, and all manner of “big -bugs” having to shudder at the majesty of the law, we are made to wonder -what is going to happen next.—_Durant (I. T.) Farmer._ - - * * * * * - -Announcement is made of another donation by John D. Rockefeller to the -University of Chicago. This time it is $1,450,000. Where did he get -it?—_Granville (Ia.) Gazette._ - - * * * * * - -Rockefeller may fire Rogers for talking too much. Rogers admitted that he -knew his own name and had heard of Standard Oil.—_People’s Voice, Norman, -Okla._ - - * * * * * - -Now that railroad passes are abolished and the franking privilege is to -be stopped, what will Congressmen do, poor things? They have been sending -their soiled clothes back to their district and having them returned -free, have been getting beef, butter, eggs, and vegetables in the same -way, and to cap the anticlimax of their perquisites Hon. Shepard of -Arkansas has discovered that their mileage allowance of twenty cents -per mile made in the old stage-coach era, is a gross over-allowance -and has introduced a bill to cut it down to six cents a mile, which is -quite enough for the Pullman car accommodations nowadays.—_Luck (Wis.) -Enterprise._ - - * * * * * - -The State of New York which has a population of 8,000,000 and wealth far -in excess of any state in the Union has had no representative in the -Senate since the holiday opening of Congress. Its two Senators, Platt and -Depew, are prevented by ill-health from attending the sessions and it -is not known when they will be able to take their places in the Senate -Chamber. Senator Platt with his new wife is at Virginia Hot Springs, -looking in vain for the fountain of youth. He is palsied with age and he -is so feeble that he cannot walk about unsupported. On the daily drives -and outings that Mrs. Platt is obliged to take to maintain her vigorous -health she is never accompanied by the aged Senator, who remains in his -room nearly all of the time. The situation with Senator Depew is scarcely -more agreeable. Instead of the triumphant, jovial Depew of old he is now -a man broken in health and spirit by the revelations of the New York -insurance companies which have placed him in such a questionable light -before the public.—_Kiowa (Colo.) Record._ - - * * * * * - -As this country becomes more and more a manufacturing country, it -needs to give more heed to this fundamental problem. Urged by purely -selfish motives, commerce and industry are ever tending to exploit the -labor of the child because it is low priced, and to oppose restraining -legislation. This, observes the _Chicago Tribune_, is why the child -labor laws of England are considerably less stringent than those of -progressive countries on the Continent. The latter, pressing upon -each other’s frontiers, realize that child labor impairs the military -efficiency of a nation. Military considerations may not weigh so heavily -with the people of this country as they do with continental Europe. -But child labor should be prevented in America with a view to securing -for children that better preparation for life and that worthy type of -ultimate citizenship which American ideals demand. In the interest of -social and civic efficiency, and so of our national future, the rising -generation, both North and South, should be protected against premature -toil.—_Bath (N. Y.) Plaindealer._ - - * * * * * - -The new officials in Philadelphia should see that their predecessors get -their just dues—a long term in the penitentiary.—_Winona (Minn.) Leader._ - - * * * * * - -When the People’s Party first submitted its platform of principles to the -people, the soundness of its principles was questioned and doubted by -many, and even by some who recognized the soundness of the principles, -yet had not lost hope, or were not convinced, that reforms could not -be brought about swifter through their old parties than through a new -party organization, and for this reason never aligned themselves with -the People’s Party; but the last ten years of endeavor to secure reforms -through the old parties has convinced them that reform through the old -parties was like tracing the rainbow to find a pot of gold hanging on the -end of it.—_People’s Voice, Norman, Okla._ - - * * * * * - -The state legislators certainly cannot now have any reason for flinching -on the question of railroad rates. The Pennsylvania road showed that -while one third of their passengers rode on passes they were able to -pay a nice dividend to stockholders. Now that nobody rides on passes -the public certainly should secure the benefit by a reduction to two -cents per mile for travel. The law makers can also consider the right of -eminent domain for the trolley lines, as well as the right of electric -lines to carry freight. The latter propositions would mean thousands of -dollars in the pockets of the people. Instead of the discontinuing of -the passes being a detriment to the people, it will undoubtedly become a -benefit.—_Roscoe (Pa.) Ledger._ - - * * * * * - -Hon. Ezekiel S. Candler, Jr., a member of Congress from Mississippi, -recently delivered a speech before the House of Representatives in which -he favored legislation that would abolish hazing in the United States -Naval Academy at Annapolis. Mr. Candler very justly ridicules the idea -that hazing is necessary to make a boy courageous and keep him from being -a “sissy boy.”—_Grand Cane (La.) Beacon._ - -From what can be learned of the dispatches concerning the punishment -of grafters under the present administration, it seems that those who -were brought in guilty, have invariably been men who were opposed to -some of Roosevelt’s pet hobbies. Burton of Kansas, you must remember, -strenuously opposed Roosevelt’s plan to reduce the duty on Cuban raw -sugar, and made a brilliant speech in opposition to it. Poor old Senator -Mitchell, of Oregon, also opposed some of Teddy’s pet schemes. He was -pursued unmercifully and maliciously, yet the beef trust goes unpunished. -Teddy’s investigators are now busy defending them. Those men arrested in -Nebraska for the illegal fencing and use of Government land received but -a nominal fine and a sentence of six hours in the custody of the United -States Marshal. Secretary Shaw, another of Teddy’s proteges, has declared -that John Walsh of Chicago is innocent of any statutory crime, and has -only done what many other bankers have done. Just as soon as the failure -of the Walsh banks was wired to Washington, plans were at once set on -foot to protect them, also to protect Walsh. Teddy will have to shift his -bearings a little or the people will soon begin to believe that he is not -the Simon-pure reformer, graft crusher and trust buster that the press -agents are claiming him to be.—_Ex Porte, Florence, Colo._ - - * * * * * - -The grain trust of Nebraska fixes the price of every bushel of grain in -the state. Not an elevator in the state pretends to begin operations -till the price of grain fixed by the trust comes, and it comes every day -very early in the morning. Supply and demand! Who said supply and demand -regulate prices?—_Broken Bow (Neb.) Beacon._ - - * * * * * - -Germany is putting the tariff question squarely before the “stand pat” -Republican clique in the Senate. That country proposes to bar American -goods by a prohibitory tariff unless this country reduces the Dingley -tariff for Germany. This is a fair proposition and one that the people -generally in this country would gladly welcome, but the eight or nine -Republican bosses would rather see this country sink than give an inch on -the present tariff.—_Vandalia (Ill.) Democrat._ - - * * * * * - -H. Clay Pierce, president of the Waters-Pierce Oil company, who has been -holding up the people of the Indian Territory and Texas for a great -many years past, pays $25 a day for seven rooms the year round at the -Waldorf-Astoria, one of New York’s big hotels.—_Rush Springs (I. T.) -Landmark._ - - * * * * * - -The Standard Oil Company has during the past year gobbled up about -twenty gas plants in various parts of the country. Having an income of -about forty millions a year. John D. Rockefeller must put his money into -something that will bring him more interest.—_Delphi, (Ind.) Citizen -Times._ - -Senator Burton has dismissed his private secretary, because there was -nothing for him to do. There is also very little for poor Burton to do -unless it is “doing time.”—_Princeton (Ky.) Chronicle._ - - * * * * * - -The Congressman, who, with his wife, aunts, and mother-in-law, franks -their clothes home once a week to be washed, is going to be the -loser by the investigation of the Congressional franking privilege -pending.—_Delton (Mich.) Graphic._ - - * * * * * - -Tom Watson wants to know if Bryan will try to buy the throne of Peter -the Great or the second-hand coat of Peter the Great. Mr. Bryan set the -entire Japanese nation against him when he tried to buy the “war chair” -that Togo had sat in, and the Watson inquiries suggest nothing more out -of place than this foolish and very improper episode.—_Rushville (Ind.) -American._ - - * * * * * - -The reply of Thomas E. Watson to Clark Howell is such a long letter that -we cannot get it in this issue of the Rambler, but will give it Tuesday. -The weakest of all the weak things that Howell’s advisers have let him do -is the stirring up of Watson.—_Cordele (Ga.) Rambler._ - - * * * * * - -And so “I am a Democrat, D. B. Hill” has also been receiving a large -sum of money ($5,000) each year for a long time from the Equitable Life -Insurance Company. Mr. Hill says his salary was for his services as a -lawyer and not for his political influence. Mr. Hill may have thought so, -made himself think so. But to a man up a tree the salaries the insurance -companies paid Hill, Depew and other men of great political influence -were to make friends of them so that the graft of the insurance officers -could continue. We presume most of the men of great political influence -in the ruling parties are on the pay roll of one or more of the big -grafting corporations. A list of the congressmen, governors, etc., who -are getting salaries as attorneys for the railroads, trusts, etc., would -be very interesting reading.—_Missouri World._ - - * * * * * - -The Georgia gubernatorial campaign has reached the letter-writing stage, -apparently, though it must be confessed that the man who sprung the -trigger isn’t profiting very much by the result of his action. The secret -of the Sibley correspondence was carefully guarded until the Columbus -debate, and then thrown upon the public in the form of a bombshell, the -expectation being that Mr. Smith would be swept from his feet by the -explosion. - -The result was anything but what was anticipated. While Mr. Smith knew -nothing of what was coming, he did exactly as he has done in the face of -all the charges that have been brought against him—made no explanation -whatever, because he had nothing to explain. - -The matter was explained, however, and by the man who knew more about the -whole business than any one—excepting, of course, Mr. Howell, and that -man was Hon. Thomas E. Watson. And Mr. Watson’s explanation does just -what it was intended to do—it explains. - -Attempts have since been made by Mr. Howell to give further enlightenment -on the Sibley and McGregor episodes by publishing the entire -correspondence, but like a man in quicksand, every struggle to extricate -himself only sinks him the deeper. - -At no time has it been shown that Mr. Smith sought an alliance with Mr. -Watson, or that one was ever made. Mr. Watson has no political ambition -at the present time, and, in fact, states in one of his letters that -instead of seeking the election to the United States Senate, he is -supporting, and will cast his vote for Hon. John Temple Graves for the -same reason that he is supporting Mr. Smith—because Mr. Graves stands for -the same principles Mr. Watson has always advocated.—_Dublin (Ga.) Times._ - - * * * * * - -Howell and McGregor are trying hard to make it appear that Tom Watson -and Smith made a firm trade before Smith announced for Governor; and in -the next breath Clark says Sibley offered him Watson’s support six weeks -after Smith announced. Funny how he could support both of them!—_Bullock -(Ga.) Times._ - - * * * * * - -Mr. Howell is lustily calling to the “Loyal Democrats” to save him -from Tom Watson and the bow-wows. Loyal to what? To Clark and the -corporations? But a few weeks ago “Boss” Murphy was calling (and buying) -both “Loyal” Democrats and Republicans to save him from Hearst and the -penitentiary. Honest Democrats, by the Eternal, be loyal to yourselves, -your wives and children, and to the God that made you.—_Dalton (Ga.) -Herald._ - - * * * * * - -Why should ex-Populist Hon. Thomas E. Winn be allowed to use the columns -of the only Democratic paper in the state, the Constitution, to advise -ex-Populists to vote for Howell, and Hon. Thomas E. Watson be refused to -say whom he is for and why. Tell us, Clark.—_Lawrenceville (Ga.) Journal._ - - * * * * * - -H. Clay Pierce, of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, a branch of the -Standard, has been in hiding at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, in New York, -to prevent the serving of a summons to appear before Attorney-General -Hadley, of Missouri. Pierce has had his private yacht steamed up for -days, ready to leave the country at a moment’s notice. Old John D. -Rockefeller is also dodging around, keeping out of the way of the -officers. The fact that the Standard Oil fellows are afraid to go into -court, and are continually on the lookout for officers, ought to be -sufficient proof to the people that they are guilty. Honest people are -not afraid of law or officers.—_Garnett (Kan.) Independent Review._ - - * * * * * - -It seems that conditions down on the isthmus, where the Government is -engaged in digging a big canal, will not stand much probing. A Republican -paper, friendly to the administration, sent a representative down there -to report on the conditions, and his report has caused an investigation -to be begun by Congress. President Roosevelt will be fortunate if he -saves himself from this Congress, and he can afford to keep on friendly -terms with the Democrats.—_Malad (Idaho) People’s Advocate._ - - * * * * * - -The Federal Senate of the United States is becoming more and more like -the House of Lords in England. It is clearly not of the people. Wealth -is the title that makes membership possible. A man without money, in -these later days, can no more enter this American House of Lords than a -camel can pass through the eye of a needle. No matter how a man may have -acquired his riches, even though every one of his dollars be tainted, -this “honorable” position as the head of our Government is his—providing -he has the “dough to go around.” Oh! the shame of it all! Why is it that -the common people, the masses, those who earn their bread by the sweat -of their brow—and they are in the majority—do not rise up in their might -and make this office an elective one by all the people instead of a few -subsidized purchased legislators, that it might come from the people, -and in coming from them, represent them instead of the selfish money -interests of the country?—_Detroit (Mich.) Courier._ - - * * * * * - -Common mortals have an awesome fear of the majesty of the law, but not so -with Rogers, the Standard Oil lord lieutenant. They are regarded by him -as but minions of the people; something far beneath his lofty station. -Let’s hope he is taught a wholesome respect for courts of justice before -this Standard Oil rottenness is all suppressed.—_Prescot (Wis.) Tribune._ - - * * * * * - -Of all the thin political tricks that have been attempted to be put off -on the people of Georgia, that Sibley-Howell correspondence, sprung by -tricky Clark in the Columbus debate, was the thinnest. Why they didn’t -have sense enough to date their letters two months earlier, so as to -antedate Hoke Smith’s announcement, is an evidence of the weakness of -political trickery. There was never a meaner nor more transparent job, -for it could deceive only fools.—_Sparta (Ga.) Ishmaelite._ - - * * * * * - -It is said that the various corporations of the country have employed -and almost monopolized all of the best legal talent of the land. Be -that as it may; no lawyer that is, or for the last ten years has been, -employed by a corporation should ever be elected or appointed to a -public office. Especially should they not be sent to Congress or state -legislature.—_Cass (Tex.) Sun._ - - * * * * * - -Two insurance companies that have defied the state law requiring licenses -and who have other charges laid at their doors have been taken into the -civil courts by the State Insurance Department. It is to be hoped that -they will not escape upon any technicality as they did in the criminal -action. It’s time the insurance companies were made to understand that -the laws, weak and incomplete as they are, must be enforced.—_Cortez -(Colo.) Journal._ - - * * * * * - -The year 1906 is an off year in politics. No National tickets will be in -the field; but National issues will be emphasized and direction given -to the next campaign. It will be well for us to look the field over and -examine our bearings. For many years we have trusted the great political -parties to make up the issues that we, by ballot, are to decide; but -experience has taught us that political parties make up blind issues, -in which the people are not interested. The great issue before the -people of this Government today is the enforcement of the law. The great -monopolies, who are law defying in their tendencies, must be compelled to -obey the law. The law-defying elements that are moved by selfish motives -alone, must be made to bend to the will of the people.—_Lockwood (Mo.) -Times._ - - * * * * * - -Berlin, the capital of Germany, has solved the vexed sewage problem in -a way that should commend itself to American cities, where we are away -behind in the disposal of harmful and polluting refuse. The municipality -of Berlin purchased thousands of acres of unproductive sand land near -the city and fertilizing this with the sewage, raises big crops for the -city’s benefit. Of course the plant is costly, but the proceeds of the -farm repay all cost, besides a good profit.—_The American Farmer._ - - * * * * * - -The Citizen regrets very much the domestic infelicity which seems to -exist under the roof of the _Atlanta, Ga., News_. It is unfortunate. -Hon. John Temple Graves, as the Rome Tribune puts it, “is the Atlanta -News.” We would not give a thrip of our finger for it without him. He is -the life of it, and his brain and energy have made it. He has kept it -free from furtherance of his political ambitions, and has made it these -years the impartial commentator of men and affairs. The whole trouble is, -no doubt, the result of corporate greed, and the desire on the part of -certain influences to control its policy.—_Dalton (Ga.) Citizen._ - -The next political campaign in this county will be more than interesting. -Neither party has a “walkover” any longer. No candidate has a “cinch,” -but those who win will have to work and satisfy the people. Moreover, our -people are not going to vote for men they know to be bad, merely because -nominated by their party. The object of our system of ballots is to give -every voter a chance to exercise his individual opinion and our people, -Democrats and Republicans, will do it.—_Bloomfield (Mo.) Courier._ - - * * * * * - -If there are 80,000 populists in Georgia, Clark Howell had just as well -come out of the race, for his attack on Tom Watson is an attack on each -of them, and the result will be that every one of them will vote with -him. They follow him wherever he leads with that same spirit of loyalty -exhibited by the grenadiers who followed the matchless Napoleon. It is -a bad political move to disturb this sleeping lion, who is, perhaps, -the matchless master of the Queen’s English in Georgia. His store of -information seems inexhaustable, and his logic irresistible. True, -regardless of his politics.—_Marietta (Ga.) Courier._ - -Right, you are, neighbor. Watson’s reply to Howell on the Sibley letter -was the hottest, the strongest, the most cutting and most biting -political epistle that we have ever read. - -Every word in it was as sharp as a two-edged sword and went as straight -to the mark as a rifle ball. - -We care but little what some writers say about us, but there are two -people in Georgia, Mrs. Felton and Tom Watson, with whom we hope forever -to keep on terms. - -And Tom Watson is a man of convictions. He isn’t afraid of abuse when it -comes to taking a stand for what he considers right. - -Smart as he is, he sees through the political scheme being worked in -Georgia to defeat Hoke Smith and he denounces it in no uncertain terms. - -Listen to him: “If Hoke Smith succeeds, if the people will but realize -that Hoke Smith is the only anti-ring candidate in the field, if they -will but realize that the candidacies of Clark Howell, Jim Smith, Dick -Russell, J. H. Estill, Jack Robinson, and Hiram-Fat-and-Go-Last all -tend to the same object; if they will but realize that these different -candidates are jumping-jacks which Hamp McWhorter has strung upon the -same string, and that when Hamp strikes the string with the straw they -all dance in the most diverting and uniform manner: if the people will -but use their common sense and refuse to be divided, then Hoke Smith’s -triumph is assured.” - -Listen again to this patriotic paragraph: “And in my purpose there is a -motive so dominant, and a plan so full of the promise of glorious results -for Georgia and the South, that I shall not allow the rigid limits of -party lines to tie my hands; but shall hold myself perfectly free to -serve my people in the best way that circumstances allow, and as duty -directs.” - -And nobody will close Watson’s mouth. On that score he says: “One-horse -politicians devoted to the ring need not think that their permission is -necessary for me to advise with the people of Georgia. Their consent will -not be asked. As a Georgian I have a right to be heard. My people came -here when the Indians still roamed in the woods, and have been a part of -Georgia ever since, serving her dutifully in the time of peace, fighting -for her manfully in the time of war. There never lived a man who was -more devoted than I to the best interests of my state and of the South. -As a Southern man, I resent from the depth of my heart the political -degradation into which our state has fallen, and I am going to do my -level best to help Hoke Smith redeem it.”—_Lawrenceville (Ga.) Gwinnett -Journal._ - - * * * * * - -The bankers want more “currency”—so did the farmers a few years ago. At -that time it was a crazy scheme—today it is sound finance!—_Penns Grove -(N. J.) Record._ - - * * * * * - -Senator Depew is reported to be in failing health, owing to the storm of -criticism which has forced him from many places of honor, and which may -lose him his Senate seat. And this is the witty Chauncey who was wont to -laugh away opposition and carry his points so easily! “Great will be the -fall thereof.”—_Hogansville (Ga.) News._ - - * * * * * - -We move to amend Secretary Shaw’s motion for an elastic currency by -striking out elastic and substituting adhesive.—_Republican City (Mo.) -Ranger._ - - * * * * * - -Secretary Shaw’s scheme for an elastic currency is to authorize the -national banks to strike from their notes as now issued the words -“secured by United States bonds deposited with the treasury of the United -States,” and to issue 50 per cent more notes whenever the demand seems -to exist. Thus, if the National City Bank of New York had issued all the -notes it could against Government bonds, and a big stock gambler asked -for a loan of $1,000,000, the bank would issue notes in that sum, charge -him, say 10 per cent, retire the notes when the loan was paid, and pocket -the interest in excess of the 6 per cent tax to the Government. Very nice -arrangement that for the national banks. Little wonder that Wall Street -takes kindly to the candidacy of Mr. Shaw for the presidency.—_Rushville -(Ill.) Times._ - - * * * * * - -Let’s see: Does this country lead the civilized world in progress? -Well, hardly, since every other civilized country on the face of the -earth, with the exception of Honduras and Costa Rica, own and operate -their own telegraph lines and give a far more satisfactory service to -the public for a far less consideration than it costs the dear people -in this country of progress, where corporations, have, by robbing the -people, accumulated untold wealth with which they are enabled to evade -such laws as prove obnoxious to them, and can buy law-makers and have -odious laws repealed and new ones made, giving them all the powers they -seek.—_Cloverdale (Ind.) Graphic._ - - * * * * * - -The Standard oil magnates have been again showing their contempt of law. -Their attitude hatches more anarchists than all the Herr Most brand of -incubators. The lawless rich and powerful are the real enemies of the -republic.—_Pennsboro (W. Va.)_ News. - - * * * * * - -The _American_ agrees most heartily with Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president -of Harvard University, when he says the great movement of the world is -toward democracy. This is the natural result of an advancing civilization. - -America overthrew the false doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule -when she wrote the Declaration of Independence and declared that all men -were born equal. Since then we have created by law a person as great, as -arrogant and tyrannical as the king—the Public Corporation. - -How can all men have an equal footing in law when we give special -privileges to the corporate person and enable that person to levy tribute -at will on the wealth of the nation? - -How can all have equal rights, when the corporate person can spend -millions of dollars to corrupt our city councils, our state legislatures, -our Congress and our courts? - -The movement against these legalized law-created individuals is the -awakening of the spirit of democracy, and it means the eventual wiping -out of these public service corporations which occupy relatively the -same position in this country that the king does in a monarchy. It -means that genuine democracy, the rule of the people, will supplant the -rule of the corporation. It means the public ownership of all public -utilities.—_Creston (Ia.) Morning American._ - - * * * * * - -Whatever is said of Tom Watson, no one will deny that he has convictions -and the nerve to stand by them. He knows no party lines when it comes to -fighting for the principles he has so long advocated, and that is the -reason he is now supporting Hoke Smith.—_Dalton (Ga.) Citizen._ - - * * * * * - -The Philippine tariff is a characteristic act of the present régime. We -first shot and beat the poor savages into submission. We then took away -the market for their goods and compelled them to sell to, and buy of, us. -We followed this with the Dingley tariff both coming and going. The fact -that this was simple highway robbery did not shame us. At the point of -a gun they are compelled to stand and deliver. The House has now passed -a bill providing that we will stop robbing these “wards” of ours except -the poor Sugar Trust and Tobacco Trust and they shall only continue their -robbery until 1909. And do you know that some Republicans are actually -claiming some credit for such a law as that?—_Frankfort (Ind.) Crescent -Standard._ - - * * * * * - -The author of our “Washington Letter” slops over this week in fulsome -praise of Paul Morton, who at one time admitted his long-continued -violation of the anti-rebate law—a crime which no honorable man would -commit under any circumstances. The _Herald_ approves of no such -condoning of crime on the part of any man from the President down to the -lowest.—_Waseca (Minn.) Herald._ - - * * * * * - -Burton cares not who makes the laws of the country, provided he gets his -salary and mileage.—_Cumberland (Md.) Independent._ - - * * * * * - -By stepping inside of the door of the Senate chamber so that the journal -clerk could view him for half a minute, Senator Burton of Kansas was -enabled to claim attendance on the 59th Congress and draw $1,000 mileage -therefore. No, Senator Burton will not resign while he can draw his -salary of $5,000 a year and mileage, even though his reputation does rest -under a cloud. That cloud has a silver lining.—_Alva (Okla.) Renfrews -Record._ - - * * * * * - -A few years ago there was considerable riot in the subsidized press about -the “disgrace” that had been heaped upon Kansas by the “Pops.” All manner -of fun was poked at Peffer’s whiskers—but he was never sent to jail. This -country had a good deal of fun over “Sockless Jerry,” but he was never -accused of working any get-rich-quick concern. No “Pop” state officer has -ever involved the state in such a scandal as has been hanging over the -state treasury for the last three years. The “Pop” state secretary never -loaded the state school fund up with a batch of worthless bonds. Honest -now, how much has the reputation of Kansas been improved by the crowd -that “redeemed it from Populism.”—_Mankato (Kan.) Advocate._ - - * * * * * - -It is an honor, not a crime, to hold a public office. It is a proper -reward for activity in politics, but he who accepts an office should -never forget that the moment he enters upon the discharge of his duties -he becomes then an officer for all the people, not only those who -voted for his election, but those who opposed it.—_Indianola (Miss.) -Enterprise._ - - * * * * * - -As an evidence of the wide extent of the reform sentiment among Oregon -voters of today, one has but to notice how anxiously eager the would-be -candidates for Congress are to get into the reform band-wagon. At least -two of the Republican aspirants are old-time ring politicians and -probably care but little for most of the reforms demanded by the people -further than to ride into office on the reform wave. But reform is in -the air, gentlemen, and if you keep in the swim you will have to join the -throng, and be honest about it, too.—_Scio (Oregon) Santian News._ - - * * * * * - -H. H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company the concrete expression of the -rank insolence of a hundred millions of ill-gotten wealth.—_Rush Springs -(I. T.) Landmark._ - - * * * * * - -All cities which have adopted municipal ownership of their lighting -plant are glad they did it, and would not think of going back to private -ownership. Why should Grand Island be a back number in the progress of -the world?—_Grand Island (Neb.) Democrat_. - - - - -_His Grudge_ - -BY TOM P. MORGAN - - -“The Ladies’ Aid Society of the church have undertaken the task of -collecting half a mile of pennies,” said the Old Codger’s niece, “for the -purpose of sending our pastor on a vacation trip.” - -“Humph!” answered the veteran, with all the suavity of a hyena. - -“A row of cents half a mile long,” persisted the lady, “will amount, so -Sister Eunice Tubman has figured out, to $420.00, and—” - -“I don’t care what they amount to!” doggedly declared the venerable -curmudgeon. “While I’ve got any sense nobody will get any cents out o’ -me for any such purpose! I don’t care a contaminated drat whether ‘our -pastor’ stays at home or goes to the Whangdoodle Islands—whatever he does -won’t be at my expense, lemme just rise to remark!” - -“But, Uncle, you know the laborer is worthy of his hire, and—” - -“Yuss! And the less they labor the higher they want their hire to be! -Labor!—_huh!_ If more preachers would—aw, well, I won’t give an inch of -that ’ere half mile of cents, and that settles it!” - -“Why, Uncle, how _can_ you talk so? You are generally ready to give to -good causes, and—” - -“Ah-yah! But _his name is Bertram_!” - -“To be sure, it is! And he is in every way such a worthy young man, and -so intellectual, too! What possible grudge can you have against him?” - -“Just told ye!—his name is Bertram! He also says ‘eyther’ and ‘nyther’, -which pronunciations cheat me out of all the good his sermons might -otherwise do me. I could overlook that, though, if his name wasn’t -Bertram. For years that’s been pretty nearly a fighting word with me. -When I was a freckle-nosed schoolboy in the old Head-o’-the-River -district, there was a boy named Bertram there, who had a swifter sled -than mine, and didn’t have to wear his Pa’s cut-down-to-fit-him clothes -like I did, and who spelt me down the last day of school, and took from -me the bashful affection of the pantaletted little girl who was all the -world to me at that particular time. I couldn’t get even with him then -for he could lick me, and did. And ever since I’ve—” - -“But, my goodness! This isn’t the same Bertram!” - -“No, but he’s a Bertram, and somehow all Bertrams have looked alike to me -ever since. All these years I’ve been hostile to Bertrams, and have never -been able to conquer the feeling, try as I might. Any Bertram affects -me the same way—a Bertram is a Bertram, to me, and I simply can’t help -it. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, and as I couldn’t any more give -cheerfully to this or any other Bertram than I could sing a hymn while -sitting down on wet ice, I won’t add a cent to that ’ere half-mile of -pennies. That’s all there is to it.” - - - - -[Illustration: _News Record_] - -FROM JANUARY 8 TO FEBRUARY 8, 1906 - - -_Home News_ - -January 8.—Senator Rayner, of Maryland, attacks President Roosevelt’s -attitude on the Santo Domingan question. He declares the President has -twisted the Monroe Doctrine into a “Roosevelt Doctrine.” - - President Roosevelt transmits the report of the Panama Canal - Commissioners and the Panama Railroad directors to the Senate. - The reports are accompanied by a letter from the President in - which he challenges an investigation of the canal work. - - Senator Bacon, of Georgia, introduces a resolution in the - Senate asking President Roosevelt why the United States is - mixing in the quarrel over Morocco, which threatens to bring - about a European war. - - A resolution is introduced in the House for a committee to - investigate the treatment of Mrs. Minor Morris at the White - House. On Jan. 4, Mrs. Morris was forcibly ejected by order of - Secretary Barnes. - - Standard Oil interests organize a Glucose Trust to control the - entire glucose business of the country. - - H. H. Rogers again testifies in the investigation of the - Standard Oil Co. brought by the State of Missouri. He follows - his tactics of refusing to answer questions, and expresses - contempt for the laws of Missouri, and the Missouri Supreme - Court. - - A landslide at Haverstraw, N. Y., kills 22 persons. - -January 9.—The treatment of Mrs. Minor Morris at the White House -brings severe criticism on Mr. Roosevelt. Prominent senators and -congressmen condemn the President’s treatment of them at the hands of his -secretaries. The newspaper correspondents claim that he exerts a press -censorship over the Departments and allows nothing to be given to the -press except what suits him. Many acts of misconduct in the Departments -have been kept a secret. A large force of secretaries and secret service -men prevent officials from seeing the President on official business, -unless the President cares to attend to such matters. - - The House Committee on Postoffices and Post Roads requests - Postmaster General Cortelyou to supply the Committee with all - information he may have on the franking abuses. - - The National Bank of Commerce, New York City, drops J. H. Hyde, - J. W. Alexander, Senator Depew and Richard A. McCurdy from its - board of directors. - - Judge J. H. Paynter is elected United States senator from - Kentucky to succeed Senator Blackburn. - - The Senate accepts the President’s challenge, and orders an - investigation of the Panama Canal affairs. - - Speaker Cannon succeeds in winning John Sharp Williams’s - support for the Philippine Tariff bill. This insures its - passage. - - A judge of the New York Supreme Court issues a writ ordering - H. H. Rogers to show cause for not answering the questions - of Attorney-General Hadley, of Missouri, in the Standard Oil - investigation. - -January 10.—Secretary Taft replies to Poultney Bigelow’s charges of -maladministration in Panama. He virtually calls Bigelow a liar, but -admits that negro women were sent to the Isthmus to be distributed as -wives among the laborers. The charge that a boat-load of negroes from -Martinique were clubbed is also admitted. - - The Federal Grand Jury at Utica, N. Y., indicts the New York - Central and Delaware and Hudson railroads for rebating. - - Mrs. Minor Morris, the woman who was ejected from the White - House, is in a critical condition. - - Dr. William R. Harper, President of the University of Chicago, - dies at his home in Chicago. - -January 11.—The Senate committee, which has the Panama investigation in -charge, subpœnas Poultney Bigelow to testify about mismanagement of the -Canal affairs. - - President Roosevelt declares that it will be the fault of - Southern senators if the treaty with Santo Domingo is not - ratified. - - Ramon Caceres, who succeeded Morales as President of Santo - Domingo, declares that he favors the Roosevelt treaty, and - that peace will soon be restored. - - Senator Bacon’s resolution of inquiry into the Moroccan - question is shelved. - -January 12.—The House and Senate leaders reach an agreement to meet the -retaliatory legislation of foreign countries with a maximum and minimum -tariff. The minimum tariff is to be the Dingley law. The maximum is a 25 -per cent. addition to the Dingley schedule. - - Congressman Longworth, of Ohio, addresses the House on the - Philippine tariff bill, and declares the Philippines to be a - shiftless, worthless lot of people. - - The Insurgent Congressmen, that is, the Republicans who - oppose Speaker Cannon on the joint statehood bill, claim that - they have 51 votes and will defeat the bill. Two of them are - from Missouri. The President sends for the entire Missouri - delegation and tries to whip the two members into line, but - fails. - - Mrs. Cassie Chadwick begins her term of imprisonment in the - Federal Penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. - - Congressman McCall, of Massachusetts, warns his Republican - colleagues that they must revise the tariff, or the Republican - Party will be defeated at the next election. - - District Attorney Jerome, of New York City, prepares to - prosecute the guilty officials of the big life insurance - companies. - - The Clyde Line steamship _Cherokee_ goes ashore on Brigantine - Shoals, off Atlantic City, N. J. Tugs and life-saving crews - have gone to the aid of the passengers and crew. - -January 13.—President Roosevelt holds a conference with prominent New -York Republicans with reference to ousting Odell from the leadership of -New York State. - - The President has a conference with Representative Hepburn and - indicates that he favors the Hepburn bill on railroad rate - regulation. - - The notice to make H. H. Rogers testify in the Standard Oil - investigation is argued before Justice Gildersleeve in the New - York Supreme Court. - - The debate on the Philippine tariff bill continues in the House. - - Troops in the Philippines are being held in readiness to sail - for China in case the feelings against Americans cannot be - controlled by the Chinese Government. - - Attorney General Mayer, of New York, prepares to bring suit - against the McCurdys and the directors of the Mutual Life - Insurance Co. for the restitution of illegal salaries and - commissions. - -January 14.—All of the passengers and a part of the crew are rescued from -the stranded steamer _Cherokee_. The captain, two mates and the ship’s -carpenter refused to leave the vessel. - - According to statistics gathered by insurance men, 17,700 - persons were killed or wounded in the factories and steel - plants in Allegheny County, Penn., in 1905. - -January 15.—Private Secretary Loeb denies that the President stated, -while trying to whip the Missouri delegation into line on the Statehood -bill last Friday, that money was being freely used by corporations to -defeat the bill. About the time the denial is made, a delegation from -Arizona returned from the White House, and stated that practically the -same charge was made to them. - - Secretary Taft declares that the Southern Pacific Railway, - through its ownership of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., is - responsible for the congestion of freight on the Isthmus of - Panama, and consequent hindrance of canal work. The steamship - company refuses to move the freight on the Pacific side, hoping - to keep the blockade on the Atlantic side so great that no - Government boats can land there with more supplies. This will - force shipment via the Southern Pacific to San Francisco, and - from there to Panama via the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. - - The captain with the remaining members of his crew abandons - the _Cherokee_. The rescue of passengers and crew was made by - Captain Casto, of Atlantic City, N. J., with his crew in his - schooner _Alberta_. - - The debate on the Philippine tariff bill is brought to a close - in the House of Representatives. - - The President prepares a message to Congress, favoring a lock - canal. The Canal Commission asks for $5,000,000 to continue the - work during the balance of the present fiscal year. - -January 16.—Marshall Field, Chicago’s millionaire merchant, dies of -pneumonia in New York City, at the age of 70. - - The Panama Canal Commission decides to build the Canal by - contract. The President has approved the plan. - - Congressman Hermann, of Oregon, who is under indictment for - participating in land frauds, takes the oath of office, and - begins to draw his salary. - -January 16.—The House of Representatives passes the Philippine tariff -bill. The bill admits goods the growth or product of the Philippines -into the United States free of duty, except sugar, tobacco and rice, on -which a tariff of 35 per cent of the Dingley rates is levied. Philippine -goods coming to the United States are exempted from the export tax of -the islands. The bill further provides that after April 11, 1909, there -shall be absolute free trade each way between the United States and the -Philippines. - - The vote on the Statehood bill is indefinitely postponed - because Speaker Cannon fails to secure a sufficient number of - pledges to make its passage certain. - - The annual meeting of the United Mine Workers of America is - held at Indianapolis. - - The Senate debates the question whether Congress has the right - to delegate to the courts its power to fix railroad rates. - - The resolution introduced in the New York State Senate, asking - Senator Depew to resign, is lost by a vote of 34 to 1. The - Democrats refused to vote on the resolution. - -January 17.—Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, bitterly attacks -President Roosevelt on account of Mrs. Minor Morris’ treatment at the -White House. Senator Hale, of Maine, alone makes a protest, and that on -the ground of propriety. - - The House of Representatives passes 166 private pension bills. - - Ex-Senator David B. Hill, of New York, asks that his connection - with the Equitable Life Assurance Society be investigated by - the New York State Bar Association. - - Three midshipmen are dismissed from the United States Naval - Academy at Annapolis for hazing. - - The 200th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin is - celebrated in Philadelphia and Boston. - - Suits for $2,000,000 are filed by the city of Chicago against - two street railway companies for running cars overcrowded with - passengers. - -January 18.—Poultney Bigelow refuses to answer questions about conditions -as described by him in an article on the Isthmus of Panama, before -members of the Senate Committee. He is arrested for contempt, but is -later released. - - Secretary Root states that the United States has no political - interest in the Moroccan conference, but has a trade interest, - and for that reason the United States is represented. - - Senator Tillman’s resolution, calling for an investigation of - the expulsion of Mrs. Minor Morris from the White House is - tabled. - - Secretary Taft advocates the construction of a direct cable - connecting the United States with Panama. The Secretary - declares this cable indispensable to the military control of - the Gulf of Mexico in time of war. - - Eighteen miners are killed by an explosion at Paint Creek, W. - Va. - - Congressman Sulzer, of New York, introduces a bill to increase - the President’s salary to $100,000 and the Vice-President’s to - $25,000 per year. - - The Keep Commission, appointed by the President to investigate - the method of gathering statistics for crop reports, recommends - that the reports on the cotton crops be restricted to monthly - reports showing the condition of the growing crop during the - growing season. The acreage planted and the ginning statistics - of the Census Bureau should be the only Government reports on - those matters. - -January 19.—Luke E. Wright, former Governor of the Philippines, is -appointed first Ambassador to Japan. - - Representatives of the insurance departments of several states - confer with Armstrong Committee, which conducted the recent - insurance investigation in New York, with a view to bringing - about uniform insurance laws. - -January 20.—The Senate Committee on the Philippines takes under -consideration the Philippine tariff bill. - - Robert H. Todd, Mayor of San Juan, Porto Rico, appears - before the House Committee in behalf of the Larrinaga bill - to reorganize the Porto Rican civil government. He declares - that American members of the executive council are doing the - insular Government a great injustice by occupying as residences - Government buildings needed for the housing of courts and - departments of the Government. - -January 21.—Eighteen negroes are killed and fifty injured in a stampede -following the discovery of fire in a church in Philadelphia. - - The thermometer registers 86 degrees in Pittsburg. One person - is overcome by the heat. Cities all over the country report - much suffering from the heat. - - Congressman Sulzer, of New York addresses a mass-meeting of - citizens at Washington, D. C., and declares that the Powers - must end Russian cruelty. Congressman Rainey, of Illinois, in - addressing the same meeting, said that the United States had - saved Russia from the victorious Japanese and ought now to save - her from herself. Congressman Towne, of New York, introduced a - resolution thanking the President for his efforts in bringing - about a cessation of the unspeakable crimes against the - oppressed people of Russia. - -January 22.—Senator Burton, of Kansas, who has been convicted of -malfeasance, appears in the United States Senate for thirty seconds. This -entitles him to collect his $1,000 mileage. - - Secretary Taft denies that any member of the Philippine - Commission or any army or naval officer owns directly, or - indirectly, any lands in the Philippine Islands. - -January 23.—Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, attempts to defend the -President’s Santo Domingan policy in the Senate. Senators Tillman, of -South Carolina, and Culberson, of Texas, make strong replies. - - Both Republican and Democratic members of the House Committee - on Interstate and Foreign Commerce unanimously agree on the - railroad rate bill introduced by Congressman Hepburn, of Iowa. - The bill will be sent back to the House for passage at once. - - Chief Engineer Stevens, of the Panama Canal Commission, appears - before the Senate Committee, and advocates a lock canal. - - The Government opens its case against the Beef Trust at Chicago. - - Kansas oil refiners appeal to Commissioner Garfield against - impositions of the Standard Oil Co. - - A plot of anarchists to assassinate some of the leading men - of the country is unearthed at Washington, Pa. Governor - Pennypacker was one of the doomed number. - -January 24.—Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, addresses the Senate in -defence of President Roosevelt’s Moroccan and Santo Domingan policies. - - A rule for consideration of the Joint Statehood bill is passed - by the House of Representatives. This practically assures the - passage of the bill. - - The Imperial Chinese Commissioners visiting this country are - received at the White House by President Roosevelt. - - State Senator Raines, introduces a bill in the New York - Legislature providing for a recount of the vote cast in the - recent New York City mayoralty election. - -January 25.—The Joint Statehood bill, providing for the admission of -Oklahoma and Indian Territory as the State of Oklahoma, and New Mexico -and Arizona as the State of Arizona is passed by the House. - - Senator Mooney, of Mississippi, criticises President - Roosevelt’s Moroccan and Santo Domingan policies. - - Attorney General Hadley, of Missouri, who is in Cleveland, - Ohio, taking testimony in the Standard Oil investigation, - charges the Standard’s officials with forgery committed in New - York City, and offers to submit the proof to District Attorney - Jerome in order that he may prosecute. - - General Joseph Wheeler dies at the home of his sister in - Brooklyn, N. Y. - - Stephen Decatur, great-grandnephew of the famous Stephen - Decatur, is expelled from the United States Naval Academy, at - Annapolis, for hazing. - - Stuyvesant Fish, of New York, President of the Illinois Central - Railroad Co., declares that corporations need the knife of - reform. - -January 26.—President Roosevelt makes a public statement that an attorney -for the Beef Trust paid a Chicago newspaper reporter to write accounts of -the Beef Trust Trial favorable to the trust. - - The members of Wisconsin’s legislative committee to investigate - life insurance companies visit New York to confer with members - of the Armstrong Committee about points to guide them in their - investigation. - - Luke Wright, former Governor of the Philippines, appears before - the Senate Committee on the Philippines, and advocates the - passage of the Philippine Tariff bill, recently passed by the - House. - - Chairman Shonts of the Panama Canal Commission appears before - the Senate Interoceanic Canal Committee and tells what work - is being done on the Canal. He declares that a great amount - of work in the way of improving sanitary conditions and - building houses has been completed, and that the actual digging - will begin about July 1. Mr. Shonts admits that he is still - President of the Clover Leaf Railroad, at the salary of $12,000 - per year. - - Mayor Billock and the chief of police of Monongahela, Pa., - request Gov. Pennypacker to send troops to that place to aid - in the capture of a band of anarchists. This is the same band - which planned the assassination of Gov. Pennypacker and many - other prominent men. - - Attorney General Hadley, of Missouri, examines men engaged - in the independent oil business at Cleveland, Ohio, in the - investigation of the Standard Oil Co. by the State of Missouri. - - The New York Legislature proposes investigation of the - banking system similar to the insurance investigation made - by the Armstrong Committee. The Iowa Legislature proposes an - investigation of Iowa insurance companies. - -January 27.—The Panama Canal Commission decides in favor of a lock canal. -The final decision will be made by Congress. - - The House passes the Urgent Deficiency bill making the - appropriation to meet the present demands of the Panama - Commission. The eight hour law is eliminated so far as foreign - labor is concerned. - - Insurance Commissioner R. E. Polk, of Tennessee, notifies all - of the insurance companies which made contributions to campaign - funds to return such funds or discontinue their business in - Tennessee. - - Counsel for the Beef Trust denies the statements that money - was paid newspapermen to write accounts of the present trial - favorable to the Trust. - - William H. Van Shaick, who was captain of the steamer _General - Slocum_, which was burned in the East River, New York City, - on June 15, 1904, causing the death of more than one thousand - persons, is found guilty of neglect of duty and sentenced to - ten years in the penitentiary. - -January 29.—The House of Representatives passes the following resolution: -“That the President is hereby requested to report to the House all -facts within the knowledge of the Interstate Commerce Commission which -show or tend to show that there exists at this time, or heretofore -within the last twelve months has existed a combination or arrangement -between the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Pennsylvania Company, the -Norfolk and Western Railway Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad -Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company, -the Northern Central Railway Company and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway -Company, or any two or more of said railroad companies, in violation of -the act of July 2, 1890.” The resolution was introduced several days -ago by Mr. Gillespie, of Texas, and had been referred to a committee -which had failed to make a report on it. Seeing that a majority of the -railroad congressmen were absent from their seats, Mr. Gillespie put the -resolution before the House and had it passed before the railroad men -could be rallied. - - Senator Heyburn charges that a press agency is maintained at - Government expense in the Forestry Bureau. He also states that - mining and agricultural interests are being interfered with in - Idaho by the Forestry Bureau. - - Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, calls up his resolution - asking for an investigation of the Chinese boycott. The - resolution is referred to a committee. - - Secretary Taft asks for a reserve army of 50,000 men, at a cost - of $2,000,000 per year. The reserves are to consist of men who - have served one term of enlistment in the regular army. They - are to be allowed to live wherever they wish in the United - States, but to be subject to call by the President of ten days - each year for instruction, and on the outbreak of a foreign war - to be called into active service. - - Attorneys for the Beef Trust testify that Commissioner of - Corporations Garfield promised members of the Trust immunity - from criminal prosecution if they would give certain - information about Trust methods. - - At Ormond Beach, Florida, an automobile is driven two miles in - 58⅘ seconds. - - General Wheeler’s body is buried at Arlington, the National - cemetery near Washington, D. C. - - The Senate Committee on Territories reports favorably on the - Joint Statehood bill. - - Secretary Taft states that it will be several years before any - contracts for Canal work are let. - -January 30.—In response to Congressman Gillespie’s resolution, President -Roosevelt asks the Interstate Commerce Commission for a report on the -Pennsylvania Railroad merger. - - The Hepburn Railroad Rate Regulation bill is taken up by the - House of Representatives. A vote on the bill is expected by - February 6. - - A resolution is introduced in the New Jersey Senate directing - the Attorney General of that state to bring suits to forfeit - the charters of the Standard Oil and its subsidiary companies. - - The earnings of the Steel Trust for the quarter ending December - 31, are $35,278,688. - - Edward Morris, of Nelson Morris Co., testifies that - Commissioner Garfield promised the beef packers immunity from - prosecution when he inspected their secret accounts. Samuel - McRoberts, Treasurer of Armour & Co., testifies to the same - effect. - -January 31.—Senator Patterson, of Colorado, a Democrat, makes a speech in -the Senate in support of President Roosevelt’s policies in Santo Domingo, -Morocco and railroad rate regulation. - - The debate on the Hepburn railroad rate regulation bill is - continued in the House of Representatives. - - Justice Gildersleeve, in the New York Supreme Court, hands - down a decision in which he refuses to make H. H. Rogers - answer certain questions asked by Attorney General Hadley, in - the investigation of Standard Oil methods, until the Missouri - courts have decided on a similar case. - -February 1.—Republican Senators deny that the President has issued an -ultimatum to them on the railroad rate question. - - The House of Representatives passes a resolution calling on the - Director of the Census for all cotton statistics. - - The debate on the Hepburn bill continues in the House. - - Lieutenant General Adna R. Chaffee retires from command of the - U. S. Army. Major General John C. Bates is nominated to succeed - him. - - The Democratic Senators are alarmed by Senator Patterson’s - speech in favor of the Santo Domingo treaty, and call a caucus - for Saturday. - -February 2.—The President holds several conferences with Senate leaders -on a compromise railroad rate regulation bill. Some of the Republican -Senators are opposed to the Hepburn bill which is now before the House. - - The Democratic senators threaten to bar all Democrats from - future caucuses who support the Santo Domingan treaty. - - The joint conference of coal operators and miners, held at - Indianapolis, adjourns without reaching an agreement on a wage - scale. The failure to reach an agreement is almost sure to - result in another great strike, beginning April 1. - - The Government wrings an admission from the Beef Trust that the - National Packing Co. is simply a “holding” concern. It buys all - the cattle, but does all of its business through constituent - corporations. - -February 3.—The caucus of Democratic senators at Washington adopts a -resolution that it is the duty of every Democratic senator to oppose the -Santo Domingan treaty. - - The National Executive Board of the United Mine Workers decides - on a plan to raise $5,000,000 with which to carry on the strike - of the coal miners, beginning April 1. - - The Panama Canal Commission decides on an 85-foot level lock - Canal. It is estimated that a lock Canal will cost $100,000,000 - less than a sea-level canal. - -February 5.—John F. Wallace, former chief engineer of the Panama Canal -Commission, appears before the Senate Committee and explains why he -resigned. He claims that incapable men were given greater authority than -the chief engineer. - - The leaders of the Pennsylvania coal miners are divided on the - question of ordering the great strike. - - The Democratic members of the House Committee on appropriations - make a minority report opposing the appropriation of $600,000 - for fortifying Manila and other cities in the Philippines. - - The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that the - Pennsylvania Railroad really controls the Baltimore and Ohio - and several other roads. - -February 6.—President Roosevelt urges a modification of the hazing laws -at the United States Naval Academy. - - Thos. W. Lawson asks Gov. Cummins, of Iowa, to serve on a - committee of five to vote New York Life and Mutual Life - insurance proxies, given to Lawson by policy-holders. - - There seems to be general dissatisfaction among the coal miners - over the proposed strike. The miners ask the resignation of - the president of the Pittsburg district, and the National - President, John Mitchell, is called on to settle the dispute. - The mine owners are laying up a reserve supply of 6,500,000 - tons to meet the demand in case the strike takes place. - - The House of Representatives continues to discuss the Hepburn - Railroad Rate bill. - - District Attorney Jerome orders witnesses to appear before the - New York City Grand Jury with a view to criminal prosecution of - the officials of life insurance companies. - - The Standard Oil Co. is considering a plan to increase its - capital stock from $100,000,000 to $600,000,000. - -February 7.—A large number of amendments to the Hepburn Rate Regulation -bill are rejected. The bill stands as the House Committee reported it. - - The Senate hears evidence against Senator Reed Smoot, the - Mormon from Utah. Professor Wolfe, a former Mormon, testifies - that the Mormon oath contains the “seed of treason.” - - M. Taigny, former French chargé d’affaires who was forced to - leave Venezuela, reaches New York City. - - Senator Patterson, of Colorado, who bolted the Democratic - caucus on the Santo Domingan treaty, introduces a resolution - declaring party caucus dictation unconstitutional. Senator - Bailey, of Texas, replies to Senator Patterson, and severely - criticises the President, the senator and the treaty. - -February 8.—John A. McCall, former President of the New York Life -Insurance Co., is seriously ill at Lakewood, N. J. - - Richard A. McCurdy, former President of the Mutual Life - Insurance Co., plans to leave the United States and make his - home in Paris. - - The New York Life Insurance Company’s “house cleaning” - committee reveal that Judge Andrew Hamilton has received - $1,347,382 from that company since 1892. This is $283,383 - in excess of the total payments disclosed by the Armstrong - Committee. The committee recommends legal action against John - A. McCall for the recovery of the amount. - - Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, introduces a bill in the - Senate making it a penalty for any Government officer, official - or employee to accept a railroad pass or franking privilege - over telegraph lines. - - By a vote of 346 to 7 the House of Representatives passes - the Hepburn Railroad Rate Regulation bill just as it came - from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and - declared by Chairman Hepburn to be exactly in accordance with - recommendations of President Roosevelt on the subject. - - The House of Representatives passes the General Pension bill - for the year ending June 30, 1907. The bill appropriates - $140,245,000. Congressman Gardner, of Michigan, declares - that when the last pensioner on account of the civil war has - disappeared from the rolls, $12,000,000,000 will have been - expended. - - -_Foreign News_ - -January 8.—Another plot to kill the Czar of Russia is discovered. - - The massacre of Jews in Russia is denounced at a public meeting - in England. - - King Edward dissolves the existing parliament, and orders the - polling for the new one to begin January 13 and end January 27. - - Negotiations for a settlement between the Bermudez Asphalt Co. - and Venezuela again fail. Secretary Root will probably ask - Congress to settle the dispute. - - A few minor disturbances occur in Russia. Many arrests are made - by the police. - - St. Pierre-Miquelon agrees to aid Newfoundland in her campaign - against American fishermen. - -January 9.—A general uprising in Siberia is feared by the Russian -Government. Martial law is being extended to more provinces. The peasants -continue to burn and pillage in the Baltic provinces. Russia pledges some -of her railroads to secure a loan from Paris bankers. - - The Japanese Government plans to give $75,000,000 in pensions - and bonds to the soldiers and sailors who fought in the war - with Russia. - -January 11.—The cost of the Russo-Japanese war to Russia reaches -$1,050,000,000. - - Premier Witte states that the Government will not yield to the - revolutionists’ demand for transforming the National Assembly - into a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of formulating a - constitution. - - Russian troops kill 65 revolutionists who attempt to wreck a - military train in Livonia. The revolt in Esthonia ends. - - The feeling against foreigners is growing stronger in the - Southern part of China. - - Dispatches from Madrid, Spain, state that there is little fear - of a serious difficulty between Germany and France over the - Moroccan question. - -January 12.—General Morales resigns as President of Santo Domingo, and -prepares to leave for Cuba on the U. S. gunboat _Dubuque_. - - Venezuela and France sever diplomatic relations. France - will push her claims against Venezuela until they are fully - recognized. - - The worst of the insurrection in Siberia seems to be over. - The leading members of the Warsaw revolutionary committee - are arrested. Cossacks shell an Armenian seminary at Tiflis, - killing more than 300 persons. - - German Socialists prepare to hold meetings in Berlin to - commemorate the Red Sunday in St. Petersburg, and to protest - against suffrage restrictions in Prussia. - - Dispatches from London state that the European Powers will - aid France in her contentions against Germany on the Moroccan - question. - -January 13.—A. J. Balfour, former Premier of England and leader of -the Unionist party is defeated for re-election to Parliament by T. G. -Horridge, Liberal and Free Trader. So far the Liberals and Labor Party -have gained eighteen seats over the Unionists in the present election. - - Fears prevail in Paris that the Emperor of Germany will be too - aggressive in the Moroccan dispute. - -January 14.—France recalls her Minister from Venezuela. The French -interests are placed in the hands of the American Minister. - - The delegates are gathering at Algeciras, Spain, for the - conference on the Moroccan question. - - Carlos F. Morales, former President of Santo Domingo, reaches - San Juan, Porto Rico. He declares in favor of the treaty - between Santo Domingo and the United States now before the - Senate for ratification. - - The Santo Domingan troops rout the rebels in a battle at - Guayubin, Santo Domingo. - - M. Durnovo is made Minister of the Interior by the Emperor of - Russia. - - General Nogi is enthusiastically welcomed home by the people of - Tokio. - -January 15.—The election of members of the British Parliament up to -date shows a landslide. The Liberals have elected 132 members while the -Unionists have elected thirty. - - The peasants are said to be committing all manner of horrible - crimes in Orel, Russia. Maj. Gen. Lisooiki is assassinated - at Penza. Assassins kill three sergeants of police at Riga. - The revolutionists continue to resist the Government in the - Caucasus. - - Dispatches from Paris state that France will send warships to - coerce Venezuela into paying France’s claims. - - The Czar starts a movement to reorganize the Church in Russia. - -January 16.—The Moroccan conference begins at Algeciras, Spain. The Duke -of Almodovar, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, is elected President -of the conference. - - The Liberals continue to gain over the Unionists in the - election now being held in England. John Burns, President of - the Local Government Board and a prominent labor leader, is - re-elected by 1,800 majority. - - St. Petersburg Police raid a meeting of the Workman’s Council - and capture 22 members. Revolutionary documents, correspondence - and the headquarters from which propaganda is conducted to - the army and navy are discovered. In the Caucasus the rebels - continue their resistance to the Government. - -January 17.—Joseph Chamberlain and his seven candidates are returned to -Parliament from Birmingham, England. - - M. Fallières, President of the French Senate, is elected - President of the French Republic to succeed M. Loubet. - - Venezuelan officials prohibit M. Taigny, the French chargé - d’affaires, from landing in Venezuela. The heads of the French - cable officers at Caracas and La Guayra are also expelled. - -January 18.—Delegates to the Moroccan conference agree that the shipping -of contraband arms into Morocco must be stopped. - - After giving M. Maubourguet the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires, - his passport, the French Government has him escorted to the - Belgian frontier by special police. - - Serious riots occur in Hamburg, Germany, between the police and - Socialists. About 20 policemen and 15 Socialists are wounded - when the police attempt to disperse a crowd of Socialists - erecting a barricade in the street. - - The Constitutional Democrats of Russia meet in convention in - St. Petersburg. - - Trouble continues in the Baltic and Southern Provinces, and the - Czar is still afraid to leave his palace. - -January 19.—The Constitutional Democrats of Russia vote to take part in -the elections to the duma. - - Dispatches state that three French warships have appeared off - the coast of Venezuela. - - The insurgent forces capture Quito, the capital of Ecuador. - Vice-president Baquerizo Moreno assumes executive power and - will appoint a new Cabinet. - - According to advices received at the Japanese Embassy, at - Washington, 680,000 persons are starving in the Northern - Provinces of Japan. The condition is due to the short rice - crops, which is only 15 per cent of the average. - -January 20.—The new Government of Ecuador lasts one hour. Baquerizo -Moreno is overthrown and General Eloy Alfaro made President. About two -hundred persons were killed or wounded during the fighting. - - The Venezuelan Government continues to garrison the ports and - collect supplies for the troops. - -January 22.—Two hundred and twelve men were killed and thirty-six injured -by an explosion on the Brazilian warship _Aquidaban_. - - After winning a battle in which three hundred men were killed - and one hundred wounded, General Alfaro is recognized by all - factions as president of Ecuador. - -January 23.—The United States leaves France free to act as she sees -fit in the Venezuelan case. French warships are reported under way to -Venezuela. - - The Powers are all using their influence to bring about a - reconciliation between France and Germany over the Moroccan - dispute. - - The steamship _Valencia_, from San Francisco, is driven ashore - on the coast of Vancouver Island. Grave fear is felt for the - ninety-four passengers and crew of sixty, as the storm is too - severe for any vessel to go to the rescue. - - Fighting continues in the provinces of Southern Russia, where - the rebels are holding their own. - -January 24.—Reports state that 139 persons lost their lives in the wreck -of the steamer _Valencia_ near Cape Beale, Vancouver Island. - - Reports from Algeciras, Spain, indicate that the Powers are - inclined to favor Germany’s contention. - - The Russian troops are restoring order in the Caucasus, Black - Sea and Sidonia district. - - The returns of the English elections show 578 members elected - to the House of Commons. Of the total, the Liberals returned - 312, the Laborites 48, the Nationalists 81, and the Unionists - 137. - - The revolution in Ecuador spreads. Two provinces are in the - hands of the revolutionists. - -January 25.—President Castro, of Venezuela, claims that the French -Minister, M. Taigny, violated the laws of port in denying Venezuelan -police and boarding a French vessel for protection. - - Report from the Russian Baltic provinces show that the - revolution is by no means suppressed. As soon as the troops - capture one town, fighting breaks out in another. - -January 26.—General Selivanoff, commander of the Russian troops at -Vladivostok, is seriously wounded. The revolution has taken on new life -at that place. Count Witte opposes giving any more concessions to the -people. - - The Cuban Senate appropriates $25,000 with which to buy Miss - Alice Roosevelt a wedding present. - - Dispatches from French West Africa state that the Sultan of - Morocco is endeavoring to get the natives of the Soudan to - organize a holy-war against France. - - Thirty-seven persons are saved from the steamer, _Valencia_, - which was wrecked near Cape Beale, Vancouver’s Island. All 154 - persons left on board the vessel were drowned. - - The revolution in the Russian Caucasus continues to spread. - - France decides to boycott all Venezuelan products before making - a naval demonstration. - - French and German envoys to the Moroccan conference are holding - meetings in hopes of reaching an agreement on the points in - dispute. - -January 27.—Reports from Vladivostok show that the revolution has not -been crushed. St. Petersburg dispatches claim that the revolution in the -Russian Baltic provinces is drawing to a close. A fight between troops -and revolutionists takes place at Gomel and the town is burned. - - Discussion of the dispute of Germany and France continues at - Algeciras, Spain. - - Twenty-five members of the diplomatic corps at Caracas send a - note to the Venezuelan Government disapproving of the treatment - of M. Taigny, the French Minister. - - Fighting between Raisuli and the Anjera tribesmen is renewed - near Tangiers, Morocco. - -January 28.—General Linevitch reports that the mutinous sailors at -Vladivostok have been disarmed. Reports from Viatka show that school -children held a fort against a battalion of Russian soldiers for fifteen -hours. - - Fighting continues in Morocco. The rebels are victorious in - several fights. - -January 29.—King Christian IX of Denmark dies suddenly at Copenhagen. -The King was the father of Crown Prince Christian Frederick, of Denmark, -Alexandra, Queen of England, Dagmar, Dowager Empress of Russia, King -George, of Greece, Thyra, the Duchess of Cumberland, and Prince Valdemar -of Orleans. He was the grandfather of the Czar of Russia and of King -Haakon of Norway. - - The Russian authorities again claim that the Vladivostok - trouble has been terminated. - - President Castro is making active preparations for a war with - France. - -January 30.—The Russian revolutionists assassinate Gen. Griaznoff, Chief -of Staff of the Viceroy of the Caucasus at Tiflis. Tiflis is placed under -martial law. Fighting is said to be in progress between the Armenians and -Tatars in the Caucasus. - - Frederick VIII, eldest son of the late King Christian, is - proclaimed King of Denmark. - -January 31.—Japan urges England to reorganize her army. - - 1,000,000 persons are reported starving in Japan - - Fierce fighting continues in the Caucasus between Tatars and - Armenians. - - Russia is seriously divided over the elections to the Duma. - Censorship of the press is rigidly enforced. - -February 1.—Serious fights take place in Paris between the police and the -congregations of Roman Catholic churches. The operation of the new law -separating the Church and State causes the trouble. - - British policy-holders in the Mutual Life Insurance Co. pass - resolutions demanding representation, and that the company - increase its securities in that country. - - The conference on the Moroccan question continues at Algeciras, - Spain. - - The entire Italian Cabinet resigns because the Chamber of - Deputies refuses it a vote of confidence. A new Cabinet will be - formed at once. - - Fire destroys buildings in Panama valued at $500,000. - -February 2.—Church riots continue in Paris. China is reported on the -brink of a revolution. Anti-foreign feeling grows, and trouble is feared. - - The Czar of Russia receives a deputation of peasants and - promises them assistance. - -February 3.—Reports from Venezuela state that President Castro has -ordered any French warship seen in Venezuelan waters to be fired upon. - - The German Government declares that the failure of the - Algeciras conference to reach an agreement on the Moroccan - question will not lead to war between Germany and France. - - Dispatches from Santo Domingo indicate that absolute peace has - been restored. - - Chinese loot the home of Rev. Dr. Beattie at Fati, China. - - Fights over the separation of Church and State continue in - France. - -February 4.—The boycott of American goods continues in China, and another -massacre of foreigners is feared at Canton. - - Japan plans to increase the tonnage of her navy to 400,000 tons - by the end of 1908. - -February 6.—The agitation against Americans increases in China. - - The elections to the Russian National Assembly are set for - April 7. The opening session will be held April 28. - - Advices from Vladivostok show that the Russian revolution has - not been stamped out. - -February 7.—The Emperor of Corea asks the Powers to exercise a joint -protectorate over Corea in respect to her foreign affairs. - - Conditions in the Eastern provinces of Russia show little - improvement. Fighting continues. - - Fifty men are killed in a riot at Oruro, Bolivia. - - Recent events in China led the Powers to reconsider withdrawing - their troops acting as legation guards. - - Chinese revolutionists loot missions at Changpu, near Amoy. The - missionaries escaped to the home of the local Governor. - - The betrothal of King Alfonso, of Spain, to Princess Ena, of - Battenberg, is officially announced at Madrid. - - Dispatches from Algeciras, assert that the Moroccan conference - will reach an agreement. It is understood that Germany will - concede most of France’s claims. - - Yin Tchang, the Chinese Minister to Germany, states that the - anti-foreign outbreaks in China are evidence of the awakening - of a new national spirit. He says China will no longer tolerate - foreign aggression, and will not allow the Chinese abroad to - be treated as an inferior race. The Minister thinks no one - power will care to force a war with China, as she can now put a - modern army, of 200,000 men, in the field. - - - - -_Along the Firing Line_ - -BY THE CIRCULATION MANAGER - - -There isn’t much to say this month about circulation work except that -results have been highly satisfactory. We appreciate the loyalty and -energy of our friends, and extend sincere thanks for their help. January -was our best month, but at this writing (Feb. 8) the indications are that -February will be still better. A great many subscriptions expired with -the February number. Some weeks ago we sent out a postal card notice -asking for renewal and one new subscriber. The prompt replies to this -card made us throw up our hats and give three cheers for the Old Guard. -Nearly every one who replied sent one to four new subscriptions with his -renewal. - - * * * * * - -Remember that the subscription price is now $1.50, but as a favor to our -present subscribers we will accept renewals and new subscriptions at the -dollar rate until March 31. Get in before the time limit expires. - - * * * * * - -I made reference last month to Mr. Forrest’s advertisement and the -results up to January 4—only a few days after the January number was -placed on sale. Since then Mr. Forrest has received several thousand -coupons, and more are coming in every mail. He writes me that the -conference is assured, and that it will be a grand success. Mr. Bentley’s -club organization movement is going right along and he expects to call -a conference at St. Louis about May 1. I have suggested that he and Mr. -Forrest join forces and hold but one conference. I can give no details of -Mr. Bentley’s work, except that he is in touch with Populists in 1,800 -counties out of some 2,800. - - * * * * * - -Organizations on a smaller scale are springing up all over the country. -In Pennsylvania the Referendum Party is beginning active operations. A -preliminary committee on organization has been appointed, consisting of -the following gentlemen: - -Clarence V. Tiers, chairman, Pittsburgh, Pa., - -Clement V. Horn, Wilkinsburg, Pa., - -H. F. Lea, Bellevue, Pa., - -H. W. Noren, Allegheny, Pa., - -Walter Becker, Allegheny, Pa., - -John C. Innes, Pittsburgh, Pa., - -George D. Porter, Philadelphia, Pa., - -John E. Joos, Allegheny, Pa., - -Nathaniel Green, Swissvale, Pa., - -J. Ludwig Koethen, Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa., - -Hon. W. F. Hill (Master State Grange), Chambersburg, Pa., - -James William Newlin (Member of Constitutional Convention 1873), -Philadelphia, Pa. - -Headquarters are located at Pittsburgh. Address communications to Lock -Box 305, Pittsburgh, Pa. The Referendum Party requests the active -co-operation and financial support of all who favor: - - First.—The calling of a Constitutional Convention to revise the - State Constitution; - - Second.—Granting to the people the right to veto unjust laws or - ordinances by direct vote; this right to be exercised only if a - vote is demanded on any law or ordinance, by petition signed by - two per centum of the voters of the State or locality affected. - - Third.—Granting to the people the right to enact, by direct - majority, needed laws which their Legislature fails or refuses - to enact. - -Regarding candidates it is announced that— - - It is the intention of the Referendum Party to nominate for the - election of November 6, 1906, a complete state ticket including - candidates for the Legislature (Senators and Representatives) - but the State Executive Committee suggest that, unless - exceptionally strong, aggressive, independent candidates for - either branch of the Legislature can be nominated, it would - be advisable for local committees to indorse (by filing - nomination papers) candidates of some other party who would - pledge their support to the principles of the Referendum Party - as stated above. - - After the election the Referendum Party will be entitled to a - regular place on official ballots in every district where it - polled two per centum of the largest vote cast. For this reason - it is most desirable that it nominate a candidate in every - Legislative district within the State. The forming of local - organizations in the Referendum Party should therefore begin at - once. - - * * * * * - -The People’s Party State Central Committee of Kansas met at Topeka, -February 2, and directed Chairman Babb and Secretary Fowler to call a -State convention some time in July. Chairman Babb and some other members -of the committee favored the organization of a voters’ league to question -and secure pledges from candidates on the old party tickets, making -no third party nominations—something on the plan devised by George H. -Shibley, editor of the _Referendum News_, Washington, D. C. The committee -was not, however, a unit on this point, several of the members insisting -upon making straight People’s Party nominations. This, it seems likely, -will be done. - - * * * * * - -“Union for the Common Good” is the name of a new organization just -starting in Kansas. Rev. O. H. Truman, La Crosse, is one of the moving -spirits. In the manifesto sent out by this new aspirant for political -honors the committee say: - - _Whereas_, undisputed proofs of corporate greed, unscrupulous - and law-defying, have recently multiplied; and certainties - that “Boss” domination has largely prevailed in city and state - politics, frequently dictating to the people from low resorts, - encouraging graft and other corruptions to fester and flourish; - and also the great exchanges for disposing of stocks and bonds - and grain have long displaced the law of supply and demand - by their gambling methods, resulting in frequent failures, - suicides, and loss to all but the unscrupulous few; and - - _Whereas_, the people, at last aroused and indignant, are now - demanding redress and prevention of further wrong; - - _Therefore_, we deem it timely to organize into a society those - having a strong definite purpose to reclaim all monetary, - political, and other rights and interests from the greedy grasp - of the few to the promotion of the Common Good. - - Civilization advances by evolution and revolution. Evolution - makes slow progress over a long period of time, while - Revolution advances rapidly in a short space of time. - - Revolutions are caused by giant evils which must be overthrown - suddenly or not at all. - - America has passed through two revolutions, and we are now - entering a third, equal in importance and greater in character - than either of the others. - - The great evils that now threaten our existence are - intemperance, trusts, and political corruption. - - We are to choose between Socialism and Christian Government; - nothing else is presented and nothing else is worthy of our - attention. - - Socialists have gathered much valuable information; but their - leadership would dethrone God from our nation and overturn all - our history. - - Christian Government would fulfill prophecy in giving Christ - the kingdom of this world, and would be in line with national - experience. - - Socialism is an ideal as yet untried, without a code of morals - to preserve from corruption. In Christian Government the - legislative, executive and judicial powers would be directly - tested by the teachings of Christ. - - The demands of complete Socialism are too radical for this - crisis or for any single movement. Masses of men can be moved - only so far at any one time; and revolutions are no exception - to this universal rule. To attempt more is to cause reaction - and loss. - - Christian Government would accept the possible while striving - for the Christ ideal of perfection. - - Nearly all revolutions have resulted in war and we believe that - complete Socialism for this crisis would be no exception to - that rule. - - The Christian and moral sentiment of the nation is now - sufficiently strong, if aroused and united, to accomplish its - work by the moral power of the ballot without resorting to war. - - What measures do we propose for the present crisis, and what - remedies do we suggest for existing evils? - - American society may be roughly divided into three great - classes: A small, wealthy class at the top; a great mass of - laborers at the bottom; and a medium Christian and moral class - in the middle. The church middle class thus holds the balance - of power, and is responsible for safe leadership and moral - results. - - The Christian and moral forces of the nation must now be - organized into a moral society for the express purpose - of leading this reform movement and developing Christian - Government. - - At the outset of our organization we need consider only those - remedial measures to which all research and all demands are - now pointing; and our specialty as a society is to urge and - aid the careful testing of the best means of relief from a - dangerous condition, and also to aid in fullest adoption and - application of measures approved after trial. The key phrases - or watch words for our organization are these: “Thorough - Testing” and “The Common Good.” - - We favor a fair and safe trial of municipal and other Public - Ownership, as it seems to be in harmony with the destiny of our - country and the spirit of the age. - - State incorporation having been tested and found wanting, we - urge national incorporation instead, including reasonable - restrictions, and also liability to forfeiture if lawless. - - We favor the election of United States Senators by direct vote - of the people; also a thorough test of the initiative and - referendum and the imperative mandate. - - Any person of good moral character may become a member of this - society by accepting the constitution and paying one dollar - a year to the national society, or a life membership fee of - twenty dollars. - - Each member of the society shall have a vote, by mail or - otherwise, for all officers of the national society, and on all - principles and policies adopted. - - O. H. TRUMAN - J. M. McARTHUR - J. ORVILLE WALTON - BELLE FORD WALTON - E. H. H. GATES - - Committee. - - Men and women are requested to send names and fees for - membership. The money will be used for organizing and reported - to the society. Direct to - - O. H. TRUMAN, La Crosse, Kan. - - * * * * * - -Our Advertising Manager, Ted Flaacke, is one of the Old Guard -greenbackers; but not until recently could I convince him that _some_ -advertisers would “turn him down” because of the politics of WATSON’S -MAGAZINE. Even then I didn’t do the convincing—but Ted knows now that I -was right. He tried to get an ad. from a certain baking powder concern -that was mixed up in a scandal over in Missouri not so long ago. Its -product is claimed to be “absolutely pure,” but the Missourians were -“shown” that some of its agents couldn’t truthfully say as much of -themselves or their concern. - -I’m right glad Ted got the icy stare. We need the money, no doubt—but -“alum baking powders” won’t seriously impair our digestion. And we’ll -feel better not to have had the ad., after all. - -“Why, Flaacke,” said the man who places the advertising, “if WATSON’S -MAGAZINE had a million circulation and the rate was a dollar a page, I -doubt if we would use it.” - -Yet some poor, simple souls still think business men—big, brainy, -successful business men—never mix politics and business. They do. And I -trust our people will not forget it. - - * * * * * - -Ever notice how a late train keeps falling behind and getting later and -later the farther she goes? - -Well, we had an experience similar last month with the February number. -A combination of circumstances made it certain that we should be a few -days late—say two or three. But in our wildest dreams we never imagined -being over two weeks late. One after another something new arose to still -further delay us. - -I can sympathize now with the railroad station agent who is obliged to -tell passenger after passenger that “No. 23 is 40 minutes late.... Yes, -she’s due here at 11:44.... Yes, that would bring her here about 12:24.” -And so on and on and on. From Mr. Watson’s editorials, however, I take -it that station agents on the Southern Railway give out no information -regarding late trains. Maybe they will after Hon. Hoke Smith is -inaugurated governor. - - * * * * * - -Anybody inquire why the February WATSON’S didn’t come? My dear friend, -you would think so if you could see the stacks of letters and postal -cards which poured in—hundreds and hundreds; yes, thousands, I believe. -It made us a great amount of additional work and worry, but— - -On the whole, we’re rather glad the February number was late, because it -gave us conclusive proof of the high esteem in which WATSON’S MAGAZINE -is held. People don’t worry and write postal cards and letters about -publications in which they are not interested, that’s a cinch. - -A few of the Old Guard were frightened. They thought we’d suspended! -I can’t blame them for that. It has always been a rocky road for any -radical publication, and especially so if it advocates Populism. But -WATSON’S MAGAZINE will be an exception. Nothing but the accomplishment of -the reforms for which it stands could kill it. That might, by removing -the necessity for such a magazine, but not necessarily. The discontent -of the masses is too great now not to furnish a most fertile field for -Mr. Watson’s teachings—and his influence is growing at a tremendous pace. -Even his enemies admit that. And that means a pronounced success for -WATSON’S MAGAZINE. - - * * * * * - -Thanks to the Old Guard, Watson’s Magazine gets subscribers at less -cost than any other publication. Everywhere these old veterans are -plugging away for subscribers and scarcely one of them will take a cent -of commission for his work. Some of the other magazines are spending a -fortune in newspaper advertising, and, of course, building up big lists; -but we are well satisfied with a slower growth of subscriptions that will -stay with us year after year. February is forging to the front in fine -style and we shall more than double our list by the end of March. - - * * * * * - -“Figures won’t lie,” asserts the oracle. “Thet’s so,” retorts the plain, -old, common-sense man, “but liars kin figger.” And the old fellow is -right. Witness some of the stunts done by Carroll D. Wright as to the -increased cost of living, and young Garfield’s showing of a net profit -to the Beef Trust of a dollar, “marked down to 99 cents,” on each steer -slaughtered. - -My old colleague, T. H. Tibbles, Mr. Watson’s running mate in 1904, and -now editor of a 25-cent-a-year Populist weekly at Omaha, Neb., _The -Investigator_, was editor of the _Nebraska Independent_ when young -Garfield made that justly famous report. As I recollect, Tibbles figured -that the Beef Trust must have a secret railroad (not a rebate) to Mars -and had smuggled in countless thousands of beef cattle from that little, -old red planet, contrary to the Dingley Bill “in such case made and -provided,” because— - -There weren’t enough beef steers on this old earth of ours—and haven’t -been since the days when Christ drove the “System” out of the Temple—to -account for the Beef Trust’s fortune at 99 cents per. - -I have never examined Tibbles as to his proficiency in arithmetic, -but I’m willing to bet a hat—a wide-brim “Cady” (Eugene Wood, please -analyze)—that Tibbles either made a Sherlock Holmes “deduction” regarding -that Martian railroad, or— - -Perish the thought, that the martyred President’s son—well, had been -doing some “figgerin’” and other things. - - * * * * * - -I’ve been doing some real hard figgerin’. The P. O. D., which means in -proper spelling, Post Office Department, insists that because we change -to WATSON’S MAGAZINE, dropping the “Tom,” that we must apply for a new -entry as second-class matter. Of course, as a matter of fact, as our -legal friends remark—no, I won’t say that, in view of what Abe Hummel -did and what Jerome is failing to do—our _lawyer_ friends, rather, we -never have been “second-class.” That’s a way Madden has of irritating -publishers. TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE always was _first-class_—now, wasn’t it? - -At any rate, we have to tell the P. O. D. how many subscribers we have; -how many we sell at news-stands, etc. Of the subscribers, we must show -how many came direct, how many took a premium, how many subscribed -through an agent or a newspaper clubbing with us. - -It’s a big job to get this correct, because right now we’re swamped with -new subscriptions and renewals. I think I got it right, however, and as -the figures may interest you, I shall give you an idea what each State is -doing. - -Georgia still keeps far in the lead. Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska, -New York, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Kansas follow in -the order named, ranging from two to fifteen per cent of the total. - -Florida, North Carolina, California, Louisiana, Indiana, South Carolina, -Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oklahoma—in the order named—have -less than two and one or more than one per cent. of the total. - -Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, West -Virginia, Montana, Massachusetts, Indian Territory, Idaho, Wisconsin, -Oregon, North and South Dakota (tied), Connecticut, New Mexico, Maine, -Arizona, Maryland, District of Columbia, Wyoming, Nevada, New Hampshire, -Vermont, Canada and Rhode Island follow in the order named, each with -one-tenth of one per cent. or more up to nine-tenths of one per cent. - -And three-tenths of one per cent. of the total goes to Alaska, Cuba, -Delaware, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, Utah -and a number of European countries. WATSON’S MAGAZINE is not only -national but international. Up in Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Northwest -Territory the radicals are enthusiastic over it. Uncle Sam’s soldiers and -sailors are taking it in the far corners of the earth. The War Department -has asked for subscription rates. - -Yet WATSON’S MAGAZINE reaches more people in the Sunny Southland than -most any other magazine, whether published south of Mason and Dixon’s -line or north of it. - -And it will bring business for the advertiser who wishes to break into -the Southern field, because every subscriber and news stand buyer has -confidence in Mr. Watson. Oh, dear, I forgot. Advertising isn’t my line -at all. See Ted Flaacke about that. He knows. But I know I’m right, -nevertheless. - -[Illustration: _C. Q. de France_] - - - - -_Chastened_ - -BY KATE G. LAFFITTE - - - I knew no love but hers, nor cared to know, - She grieved and did not hide from me her grief that this was so. - I shut my heart with jealous care about her glowing face, - Her voice, her eyes, her lips, her woman’s sweet and tender grace. - I snatched her hands away when she caressed a wounded dove, - I envied all she looked on, grudged each smile, and called it love. - - She died, I saw her lying there so still and cold and sweet. - Her roses flung their fragrance unheeded at her feet; - I laid my face against her own, her white soul spoke to mine - And warm across my frozen heart a bright light seemed to shine. - With aching arms I drew a suffering world into my life - And, chastened, learned too late that I had never loved my wife. - - * * * * * - -Of Vital Importance to Patriotic Citizens - -National Documents - -a collection of notable state papers chronologically arranged to form a -documentary history of this country. It opens with the first Virginia -Charter of 1606 and closes with the Panama Canal Act of 1904, and -comprises all the important diplomatic treaties, official proclamations -and legislative acts in American history. - -Settle All Disputes Intelligently - -You can trace from the original sources the development of this country -as an independent power. Never before have these sources been brought -together for your benefit. The volume contains 504 pages and a complete -index enabling the reader to turn readily to any subject in which he may -be interested. Bound in an artistic green crash cloth, stamped in gold. -Printed in a plain, readable type on an opaque featherweight paper. - -[Illustration] - -_As a Special Offer to the readers of WATSON’S MAGAZINE, we will send -this book postpaid and the Magazine for one year for $2,20._ Your order -and remittance should be sent direct to =TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE, 121 W. -42d St. N.Y.= - -[Illustration] - - * * * * * - -LEARN HOW TO EARN FROM $3,000 TO $5,000. - -YEARLY IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS - -$20,000 earned by one Chicago graduate last November. Another in North -Dakota made over $8,000 the first year after taking our course. 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It is applied to the brush without the waste -attending the use of powder. That you may know by experience its value we -will send you free a sample tube of Dentacura and our booklet, “Taking -Care of the Teeth.” Write at once. Offer expires Apr. 15th, ’06. - -Dentacura may be had at most toilet counters. Price 25c. If your dealer -does not have it we will send it on receipt of price. - -DENTACURA COMPANY, 192 ALLING ST. NEWARK, N. J. - - * * * * * - -MENNEN’S BORATED TALCUM TOILET POWDER - -When March Winds Blow - -and outdoor life roughens the skin, use Mennen’s—it keeps the skin soft -and the complexion clear. A positive relief for =Chapped Hands, Chafing, -and all Skin Troubles=. Mennen’s face on every box. See that you get the -Genuine. For sale everywhere, or by mail, 25 cents. Sample free. - -Try Mennen’s Violet Talcum. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATSON'S MAGAZINE, VOL. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Watson's Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 1, March, 1906</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editor: Thomas E. Watson</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 7, 2022 [eBook #67796]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: hekula03 and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATSON'S MAGAZINE, VOL. IV, NO. 1, MARCH, 1906 ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - -<img src="images/ad-lincoln.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> - -<p class="center larger">ABRAHAM LINCOLN</p> - -<p class="noindent">was the radical of his day. Many of the views expressed in his letters and -speeches would strike a “good Republican” of today as extremely radical.</p> - -<p class="center larger">ARE YOU ACQUAINTED</p> - -<p class="noindent">with the great commoner’s views on political and religious liberty, on alien immigration, -on the relation of labor and capital, on the -colonization of negroes, on free labor, on lynch law, -on the doctrine that all men are created equal, on -the importance of young men in politics, on popular -sovereignty, on woman suffrage?</p> - -<p>All of his views are to be found in this edition -of “LINCOLN’S LETTERS AND ADDRESSES,” -the first complete collection to be published -in a single volume. Bound in an artistic green -crash cloth, stamped in gold. Printed in a plain, -readable type, on an opaque featherweight paper.</p> - -<p>For $1.95, sent direct to this office, we will enter -a year’s subscription to WATSON’S -MAGAZINE and mail a copy of LINCOLN’S -LETTERS AND ADDRESSES, postage prepaid. -This handsome book and Watson’s -Magazine—both for only $1.95. Send today. -Do it now.</p> - -<p class="center"><b>TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE<br /> -121 West 42d St., New York City</b></p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<h1>WATSON’S MAGAZINE</h1> - -<p class="center">THE MAGAZINE WITH A PURPOSE BACK OF IT</p> - -<table summary="The staff of Watson’s Magazine"> - <tr> - <td><i>THOMAS E. WATSON</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Editor</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>JOHN DURHAM WATSON</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Associate Editor</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>RICHARD DUFFY</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Managing Editor</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>ARTHUR S. HOFFMAN</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Assistant Editor</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>C. Q. DE FRANCE</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Circulation Manager</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>TED FLAACKE</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Advertising Manager</i></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class="center larger">March, 1906</p> - -<table class="contents" summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td><i>Editorials</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Thomas E. Watson</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Editorials"><i>1-28</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="ed"><i>Down in Georgia</i>—<i>Pinkerton’s Report to - Ye Bankers</i>—<i>Wayland’s Mistake</i>—<i>Calhoun for Public - Ownership</i>—<i>Judge Du Bose’s Letter and the Public Debt</i>—<i>Dr. - Talmage in Russia</i>—<i>A Prophet Whose Voice Was Not Heeded</i>—<i>The - Highest Office</i>—<i>Editorial Comment</i></td> - <td class="tdr"></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Lookin’ T’wards Home</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Helen Frances Huntington</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Lookin_Twards_Home"><i>30</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Assessment Insurance</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Michael Moroney</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Assessment_Insurance"><i>37</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The People</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>John P. Sjolander</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_PEOPLE"><i>41</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Back to Nature—Part the Way</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Eugene Wood</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Back_To_Nature"><i>42</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Philosophy of Money</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>J. B. Martin</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_Philosophy_of_Money"><i>50</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Little Path to Peace</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Mary Small Wagner</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_Little_Path_to_Peace"><i>54</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Captain, Davy, and General Kuropatkin</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Robert Dunn</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_CAPTAIN_DAVY_AND_GENERAL_KUROPATKIN"><i>55</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Where the Road Dips</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Henry Fletcher Harris</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Where_the_Road_Dips"><i>63</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Repeal the Land Laws</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Hugh J. Hughes</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Repeal_the_Land_Laws"><i>65</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Triumph of Justice</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Clarence S. Darrow</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_TRIUMPH_OF_JUSTICE"><i>69</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>A Radical Corpuscle</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Charles Fort</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#A_RADICAL_CORPUSCLE"><i>73</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Election Reforms</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>J. C. Ruppenthal</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Election_Reforms"><i>76</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Pierre, Sansculotte</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>La Salle Corbell Pickett</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PIERRE_SANSCULOTTE"><i>86</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The New Party</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>C. Q. De France</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_New_Party"><i>88</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Municipal Boss</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>W. D. Wattles</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_Municipal_Boss"><i>91</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Silence of Johnny</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Harriette M. Collins</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_Silence_of_Johnny"><i>93</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Vanished Years</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Helen A. Saxon</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Vanished_Years"><i>95</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Letters from the People</i></td> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Letters_From_The_People"><i>97</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Putterin’ Round</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Cora A. Matson Dolson</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PUTTERIN_ROUND"><i>111</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Educational Department</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Thomas E. Watson</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Educational_Department"><i>113</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>In Passing</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Lurana W. Sheldon</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#In_Passing"><i>122</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Home</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Louise H. Miller</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#HOME"><i>123</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Books</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Thomas E. Watson</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#BOOKS"><i>133</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>The Say of Other Editors</i></td> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#The_Say_of_Other_Editors"><i>139</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>His Grudge</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Tom P. Morgan</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#His_Grudge"><i>146</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>News Record</i></td> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#News_Record"><i>147</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Along the Firing Line</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>C. Q. De France</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Along_the_Firing_Line"><i>156</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Chastened</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Kate G. Laffitte</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Chastened"><i>160</i></a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class="center smaller">Application made for Entry as Second-Class Matter, February 17, 1906, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.</p> - -<p class="center smaller">Copyright, 1906, in U. S. and Great Britain. Published by <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine, 121 West 42d Street, N. Y.</span></p> - -<p class="center smaller">TERMS: $1.50 A YEAR; 15 CENTS A NUMBER</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;" id="Frontispiece"> -<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">HONORABLE HOKE SMITH, OF GEORGIA.</p> -<p class="caption">Photo by Russell, Atlanta, Ga.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap"><i>Watson’s Magazine</i></span></h2> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Vol. IV</span> <span class="spacer">MARCH, -1906</span> <span class="smcap">No. 1</span></p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Editorials"><i>Editorials</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY THOMAS E. WATSON</span></h2> - -</div> - -<h3><i>Down in Georgia</i></h3> - -<p class="center smaller">CLARK HOWELL’S DEFENSE OF THE CORPORATIONS</p> - -<p>A national magazine can do -no better work than to take a -hand in a local fight, when the -issues involved are national.</p> - -<p>As explained in previous articles, -the state of Georgia has been completely -conquered by a Wall Street combination. -Morgan, Belmont and Ryan -are our masters. They rule Georgia -through the Democratic party just as -they rule New Jersey through the Republican -party, and New York through -both the old parties.</p> - -<p>In New York, the tools of this Wall -Street combination are such men as -Murphy, Pat McCarren, Judge Parker, -and Bill Sheehan. In Georgia the tools -are such men as Hamp McWhorter, Joe -Terrell, Clark Howell.</p> - -<p>These men call themselves Democrats, -but they work for Morgan the -Republican as earnestly as they work -for Belmont the Democrat. The Wall -Street Railroad Kings rule and rob our -state, and they do it by means of the -men who control the machinery of the -Democratic party.</p> - -<p>Hoke Smith is leading a great revolt -against this Wall Street domination, -and he is doing it superbly. He is going -to win, because the people know he -is right. He is going to win, because -the people know that they are being -foully mistreated by the railroads. He -is going to win because the people can -no longer be driven by the party lash. -He is going to win because the people -have at last determined to vote for -<i>what they want</i>.</p> - -<p>In the January number of this magazine, -I specified the wrongs which the -people of Georgia suffer at the hands of -the railroads. Mr. Clark Howell, the -Corporation Candidate for Governor, -tried to answer me, and probably flatters -himself that he did so.</p> - -<p>Let us see.</p> - -<p>I made the statement that the railroads -had violated our Constitution by -“a joint ownership of competing lines, -thus establishing the monopoly which -the Constitution forbids.”</p> - -<p>That is a serious charge. If it be -true that the railroads have trampled -the Constitution under foot and established -a monopoly in defiance of law, -that fact alone should damn them. No -man, no set of men, no corporation, no -combination of corporations, should be -allowed <i>to make law for themselves</i> in -Georgia. We should compel all persons, -natural and artificial, to respect -and obey our laws.</p> - -<p>Does Clark Howell deny the accusation -brought by me against the -railroads?</p> - -<p>Does he deny that the Morgan-Ryan-Belmont -interests work together in -beautiful harmony in Georgia?</p> - -<p>By no means. On the contrary, he -parries the blow by saying that if -any unlawful combination exists, Hoke -Smith was the lawyer who represented -the law-breakers in court.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span></p> - -<p>That’s a pretty defense for the railroads, -isn’t it?</p> - -<p>According to that kind of logic we -must not enforce the law against people -who steal because Hoke Smith, as a -lawyer, has actually defended thieves. -Logic of that sort would compel me to -antagonize the law against murder -because as a lawyer, I defended dozens -of men charged with that crime.</p> - -<p>Hoke Smith’s position as a candidate -for governor is one thing; his -position as attorney in law cases is -another; and there is no use trying to -fool the people about it. If the railroads -have made an illegal combination -we must smash it, no matter who the -lawyers were that represented the -railroads at that time.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>My editorial states that the railroads -treated our Railroad Commission -with contempt by refusing to obey its -rules, its decisions, its orders.</p> - -<p>As an example, I cited the case of the -town of Flovilla, Georgia, where the -railroads had for two years refused to -provide the accommodations for passengers -on their way to the Indian -Spring.</p> - -<p>Mr. Howell jumped on this statement -with the triumphant crow of a bantam -rooster.</p> - -<p>He had caught me telling what was -not true. No wonder the little rooster -crowed. Not many men have upset -statements made by me.</p> - -<p>Like many another little rooster, -Clark crowed too soon.</p> - -<p>Listen:</p> - -<p>Clark says: “The truth of the matter -is, the Railroad Commission <i>ordered the -building of a new depot at</i> Flovilla, and -the records of the commission show -that <span class="smcap">the order was complied with</span>.”</p> - -<p>If the records of the commission -show that, <i>Somebody</i> has fooled the -Commission cruelly, for <i>there has been -no new depot built at Flovilla</i>!</p> - -<p>Crow again, little rooster.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>In 1904 the railroad made an addition -<i>to its freight room</i>, at Flovilla, and -stopped.</p> - -<p>Hon. Pope Brown, Chairman of the -Railroad Commission, had his talk with -me after we came back from the New -Orleans Cotton Convention. I think -it was in the last week in January, 1905. -It was not later than Feb., 1905. -At that time the railroads had done -nothing for <i>the passengers</i> at Flovilla. -For a number of years the people of the -community had been clamoring for -decent accommodations without success. -The Mayor had tried, and failed. -The Railroad Commission had issued -orders, and had been treated with -contempt.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“Crow again, little rooster.”</p> -</div> - -<p>Then what happened?</p> - -<p>The thunder of the Anti-Corporation -Campaign began to rumble. Hoke -Smith’s stern voice began to be heard -calling the Railroads to judgment. -The Corporation law-breakers and -Commission-Scorners began to tremble -in their boots.</p> - -<p>And <i>in the Spring of 1905</i>, <span class="smcap">after -Brown’s talk with me</span>, the railroad -men got a move on and ran down to -Flovilla, built a little shed for passengers -<i>near the old depot</i> and put some -water-closets in the old depot.</p> - -<p><i>Crow again, little rooster.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="center">EX-CHAIRMAN BROWN’S LETTER</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Hawkinsville</span>, Ga., Jan. 5, 1906.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Tom</span>—Yours of the 3rd inst., just -received. I have been very busy of late -winding up business of the old year and arranging -for the new year. You know this -is about the busiest time for the farmer. -Therefore I have not read the papers closely -and have not seen the denial of Mr. Howell -concerning the improvements at Flovilla -ordered some time ago by the Railroad Commission. -I do not recall exactly what I said -to you in regard to this matter, but I will -give you the facts according to my best recollection:</p> - -<p>While Judge Atkinson was Chairman, the -Commission, on its own motion, seeing the -necessity of improved facilities at Flovilla, -ordered that a pavilion be built like the one -at Warm Springs, if my memory serves me -correctly; also that water-closets be put in, -and other improvements be made in connection -with the passenger station. It was -a considerable length of time before any attention -was paid to this order at all. After -so long a time, and continual nagging on the -part of the Commission, which no doubt the -records will show, the railroad put up a little -shed there, which is but a make-shift, and -called it a pavilion. Upon one pretext and -another they delayed putting in the closets, -and if they have been put in at all I do not -know it.</p> - -<p>In speaking about this matter on one occasion -to a representative of the Southern Railway, -whom I happened to meet on the train, -I suggested to him that these improvements -ought to be made. His reply was, that the -railroads did not feel disposed to do anything -for Butts County for the reason that the -juries were too ready to give verdicts against -the railroads. My reply to him was, that if -the railroads would do their duty by the people, -the people would in turn be willing to do -justice to the railroads.</p> - -<p>Mr. Dozier, the Banker at Flovilla, and -Mr. Duke, a lawyer representing the Southern -Railway at Flovilla, and others there, -will corroborate what I have said. In my -report to the Railroad Commission about the -condition of depots in the state I called attention -to several instances where the railroads -had refused to comply with the orders -of the Railroad Commission, and there has -never been any denial made by the railroad -people.</p> - -<p>At Pitts, Ga., there was a little pigeon -house built and located, contrary to the orders -of the Railroad Commission. The records -of the Railroad Commission will show -this to be a fact. Also it will be found by -the records that while Judge Atkinson was -Chairman an order was made requiring the -roads to stop their passenger coaches at the -station for the convenience of passengers, -rather than to have them stop one hundred -or two hundred feet away from the depots. -This order has also been absolutely ignored -by all the railroads that have come under my -observation.</p> - -<p>There has not been an order regulating -freight rates issued by the Railroad Commission -in some time, unless it was absolutely -satisfactory to the railroads, where the -railroads have complied with it.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ed. Baxter, who is Chief Counsel, as -I understand, for all the Southern Railways -served notice upon the Railroad Commission -in the City of Atlanta before the Federal -Court in the following language as near as I -can remember:</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“Poor little rooster—crowed too quick.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“The Railroad Commission may well understand -that they have reached the length -of their tether; henceforth we will put ourselves -under the ægis of the Federal Courts.”</p> - -<p>In other words, whenever the Georgia -Railroad Commission, or any other State -Commission, or Inter-State Commission, -undertakes to put in a rate that is not satisfactory -to the railroads, then they would -appeal to the Federal Courts. Again, and -in its last analysis, the meaning is plain -enough to any man who wants to understand -it, that the railroads have taken this position, -as is evidenced by their opposition to the bill -now before Congress and advocated by -President Roosevelt:</p> - -<p>“We propose to make rates without any -interference from State or Federal authority; -we propose to fight any law, or any authority -to take this right away from us.”</p> - -<p>And that, it seems to me, is the great issue -overshadowing all other issues of the present -time in this state and every other state in -the Union, as to whether or not the railroads -shall be allowed to make rates without any -interference from any State or Federal authority. -Whenever we give them that -power they are absolutely masters of the situation, -and they know it. They can bribe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> -legislatures, judges and jurors, and levy tribute -upon the people themselves to pay for -this corruption.</p> - -<p>Now, the circumstances leading up to our -meeting with Mr. Ed. Baxter in the Federal -Courts, are interesting and amusing. In a -few days I will give you the details in -another letter. I hope that I have not already -trespassed upon your patience.</p> - -<p>Hoping that you are entirely restored to -health, with kind regards to each member of -your family, and best wishes for yourself, I -am</p> - -<p class="center">Your friend,</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Pope Brown</span>.</p> - -</div> - -<p>In the letter just quoted, Hon. Pope -Brown repeats the statement that the -railroads <i>did</i> treat with contempt the -order of the Commission; and he relates -a conversation he had with one of the -representatives of the Southern Railroad, -in which that official gave, as a -reason for not making the required improvements -at Flovilla, that <i>the people -of that county had given verdicts against -the Railroad</i>.</p> - -<p>Yet the railroad candidate for Governor -has deliberately tried to deceive the -people of Georgia into believing that -when the Railroad Commission ordered -a new depot for Flovilla, the railroads -promptly obeyed the order and built a -new depot right away.</p> - -<p>Poor little rooster—crowed too quick.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>In my article, it was stated that the -Flovilla case was but one out of many -that could be mentioned. Since Clark -Howell undertakes to prove to the people -of Georgia that the railroads are -good, law-abiding citizens, I will mention -some other instances in which they -violate the law every day of their lives, -persistently, deliberately, insolently, -contemptuously.</p> - -<p>The law requires them to post bulletins -of delayed trains <i>at every station in advance -of the delayed train</i>, in order that -passengers may be put upon notice. -This law is of great consequence to the -traveler. If the train is one, two, or -three hours late, and the traveler can -learn that fact upon his arrival at the -depot, he can dispose of himself to the -best advantage during the interval. -But suppose the train is three hours late -and the passenger does not know it? -Suppose he asks the agent, and gets his -head bit off with a sharp, curt, offensive, -indefinite answer? He then hangs around -in the waiting room; he is afraid to -leave the depot for fear the train will -come while he is away; yet he may -have to sit there, anxious and suffering, -for three mortal hours; when, if the -bulletin had been posted, he could have -escaped some of the inconveniences of -the situation.</p> - -<p>The law puts a penalty of twenty -dollars upon the railroad for each violation -of this rule; and there isn’t a day -when hundreds of violations of it do not -occur in Georgia. Not ten per cent of -the agents of the railroads obey this -law. Ninety per cent of them constantly -violate it. <i>Ask any drummer who -travels through the state!</i> Talk about -obedience to the little one-hoss Railroad -Commission? Why, here is a -statute of the Code of Georgia, passed -by the sovereign Legislature and signed -by the Governor, and the railroads treat -it as a dirty piece of waste paper.</p> - -<p>In his letter, ex-Chairman Brown -says that the railroads have never put -into operation an order of the Commission -as to freight rates, unless that order -was absolutely satisfactory to themselves. -He gives an instance, at Pitts, -Georgia, where the railroads went directly -to the contrary of the orders of the -Commission. While Judge Atkinson -was Chairman of the Commission, an -order was passed requiring trains to -quit stopping one or two hundred feet -away from the depot, and to stop at the -station, for the convenience of passengers.</p> - -<p>Ex-Chairman Brown says that this -order “<i>has been absolutely ignored by all -the roads</i> that have come under my observation.”</p> - -<p>In Chairman Brown’s official report, -he calls attention to instance after instance -where the railroads had ignored -the rules, the decisions, the orders of the -Commission.</p> - -<p><i>I challenge Clark Howell to deny the -truth of that report.</i></p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>What Georgian doesn’t remember -with indignant shame the threat of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> -Southern Railroad, voiced by its lawyer, -Mr. Ed. Baxter, when he “served notice” -on the Railroad Commission that -the Railroads were tired of being pestered -by our little one-hoss Commission?</p> - -<p>Said Mr. Baxter: “The Railroad Commission -<i>may well understand</i> that they -have reached the length of their tether; -<i>henceforth we will put ourselves under the -ægis of the Federal Court</i>.”</p> - -<p>That was nice, dutiful language, -wasn’t it?</p> - -<p>That sounds like obedience to the -Railroad Commission, doesn’t it?</p> - -<p>Here were these Wall Street law-breakers, -who had for two years been -defying the Commission on the Flovilla -matter, who had ignored their rulings -on the stoppage of passenger trains, -who had continually refused to obey -the law requiring them to post bulletins -of delayed trains, who, at Pitts, -had acted contrary to the orders of the -Commission, and who had never accepted -a freight rate decision which was -not just what they wanted—and their -lawyer had the insolence to serve notice -on the Commission that if it bothered -his Wall Street clients further, he -would turn his back upon it and seek -that unfailing haven of Corporate rascality, -the Federal Courts!</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Crow once more, little rooster!</span></p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="700" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“Some editors make editorial music that way.”</p> -</div> - -<p>As to the illegal charges made by the -roads, in the manner explained by me<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -in the 3rd specification of my article, I -stand my ground, and I say that the -Supreme Court has never declared that -such a discrimination against a town on -the main line was legal. On the contrary, -it was held to be illegal.</p> - -<p>As to specification number 4, that -the Corporations rob the people of the -state by compelling them to pay dividends -upon fictitious capitalization, -who can deny it?</p> - -<p>Every privately owned railroad in -this state has had all the water poured -into it that it would hold. The fixed -charges are based upon this fraudulent -capitalization. The people pay dividends -upon it. The freight and passenger -rates are kept up, and accommodations -kept down, and labor squeezed, -and safety appliances neglected, and -bridges allowed to stand till they fall -beneath a load of screaming, bleeding, -dying passengers, because the Wall -Street rascals who watered the stock -demand dividends upon the millions -which they created out of ink and paper.</p> - -<p>Clark Howell dares to say that the -Central is capitalized for less now than -before the war.</p> - -<p>For shame! For shame!</p> - -<p>One must be awfully hard up for -an office before he can bring himself -to make a statement like that for a -railroad.</p> - -<p>The Capital stock of the Central was -$7,500,000 before the war; and General -Toombs declared that half of it was -water. The Capital stock of the Central -proper is perhaps 75,000 shares, -as it was before the war. It may be -even less. But that’s a matter of no -consequence whatever.</p> - -<p>The really important question is, -<i>How much capitalization does the Central -carry upon which it has to pay revenue?</i></p> - -<p>Everybody remembers how Pat Calhoun -got control of the Central, and -everybody knows how thick Clark -Howell was with Pat. Wanted to put -him in the Senate, you know.</p> - -<p>Well, Pat and his Wall Street friends -slapped a debt of <i>sixteen million dollars</i> -on the Central during the gay time they -had control of it.</p> - -<p>Then the road was wrecked in the -most approved Wall Street manner, -and many a genuine widow and real orphan -wept bitterly in their grief, for -they had gone to bed in comfort and -woke to poverty.</p> - -<p>It was one of the nastiest, cruelest, -completest pieces of Wall Street rascality -that was ever worked upon an unsuspecting -people, <i>and Clark Howell -could tell some queer things about it, if he -would</i>.</p> - -<p>The Central fell into the Federal -Courts, was put through the form of a -sale, and that international scoundrel, -J. Pierpont Morgan, appeared on the -scene as “reorganizer.” When the -Central had been properly Morganized, -it was laden with fictitious capital to -the tune of $55,000,000; and <i>upon -this fictitious capital the people of Georgia -are made to pay revenue</i>.</p> - -<p>When Clark Howell stated that the -Central was capitalized for less than -before the war, he did not, perhaps, -tell a falsehood in a strict technical -sense; but, in the impression which he -knew his language would make, and -which he intended it to make, he was -as far from the truth as when he pictured -the railroads trotting down to -Flovilla, promptly and dutifully to -build that town a nice, new depot—“one -of the most attractive and best -equipped depots.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>As to the $10,000 campaign fund -furnished by the railroads to elect -Terrell, Mr. Howell says “it’s denied -by everybody involved.” Ah, indeed? -When did “everybody involved” deny -it? Who are the “everybody involved”?</p> - -<p>Will Joe Terrell go before a notary -and make oath that the railroads did -not contribute $10,000, or other -large sum, to his campaign fund?</p> - -<p>Joe may not be <i>everybody</i> “involved,” -but he certainly is <i>involved</i>.</p> - -<p>If he can make an affidavit of that -sort, let him do it. His own honor -and the honor of the state demand it. -Let Joe swear it was not done, and I -will publish his denial prominently in -this magazine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> - -<p>At the same time, however, I want -him to explain to the people of Georgia -why he, their Chief Magistrate, offered -a seat on our Supreme Bench to that -notorious railroad lobbyist and corruptionist, -Hamp McWhorter. I would -like to have this explanation attached -as exhibit A, to the affidavit denying -the railroad Campaign fund.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>The other specifications in my article -Mr. Howell meets with merely a general -denial. Of course, there’s nothing to -discuss where a general denial is made -to a specific statement.</p> - -<p>So far from the record of the Legislature -showing that the railroads do -not dominate it, those records prove -that very thing.</p> - -<p>Can you pass the Anti-Free Pass -bill?</p> - -<p>No. The railroads oppose it. It is -the cheapest, most effective method of -bribery, and they mean to keep it. -They will keep it.</p> - -<p>Can you pass a law compelling the -railroads to equip all passenger stations -with water-closets; and to keep the -waiting rooms open at night?</p> - -<p>No. It would cost too much. They -couldn’t do that, and pay dividends -on watered stock also.</p> - -<p>If they had to spend money providing -accommodations for passengers, -such “lawyers” as Hamp McWhorter -and Tom Felder might lose fat corporation -fees.</p> - -<p>No indeed; you couldn’t pass a bill -requiring the railroads to treat our -wives and daughters decently at the -stations where they have to wait for -trains. It would cost too much.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Yonder sits an elderly lady on a pile -of cross-ties. She is sick. She has -been brought to the station to take an -early train to the city where a specialist -can be consulted about her case. -It is cold. A heavy fog almost as bad -as a drizzle of rain, hangs in the air. -The door of the waiting room is locked. -There is no fire, no light, no shelter at -the station. The aged woman sits -upon the cross-ties awaiting the coming -of the train—sick, cold and suffering.</p> - -<p>Is that <i>your</i> mother, my son? No. -But it might be. Just such a scene -was witnessed by a friend of mine -some weeks ago; and the railroad which -treats its customers in that beastly -manner is one of these same Wall -Street gangs of thieves that rob the -state of Georgia through the Hamp -McWhorters, the Joe Terrells, the -Clark Howells who pose as the Democratic -Party.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Great God! Are the people <i>never</i> to -wake up to the fact that the machinery -of the Democratic Party in Georgia -belongs to a lot of Wall Street rascals?</p> - -<p>Don’t they <i>know</i> that the platform -of the Democratic State Convention -is never handed out till Hamp McWhorter -marks it “O. K.”?</p> - -<p>Don’t they <i>know</i> that the majority -of the daily papers belong to the railroads -and <i>are controlled by the railroads</i>?</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>The Hon. Clark Howell closes his -feeble editorial by making a side-thrust -at this Magazine as “a subsidiary -company to <i>Town Topics</i>.”</p> - -<p>As to <i>that</i>, the answer is swift and -to the point.</p> - -<p><i>I am this Magazine.</i></p> - -<p>Not a line can go into it to which I -object. Not a line can be kept out of -it to which I put my approval. My -contract gives the control of the Magazine -to me completely. What more -could anybody exact? That <i>Town -Topics</i> owns a majority of the stock is -true. But <i>Town Topics</i> has no more -rights over the Magazine itself than -the <i>Atlanta Constitution</i> has.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Tom Lawson, or H. H. Rogers, or -Judge Parker, or W. J. Bryan might -buy a majority of the stock. I could -not prevent that. <i>But nobody can -interfere with my control of the Magazine.</i></p> - -<p>I have no doubt that Mr. Clark -Howell envies me my independence.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -It is extremely doubtful whether he -can say for himself and his paper what -I have said for myself and the magazine.</p> - -<p>I shouldn’t wonder if he held his -place upon the condition that his paper -must be <i>railroad</i>. He wouldn’t dare -to have an opinion unfavorable to -<i>railroad</i>. When he sits down to write -editorials, I compare him in my own -mind to the little girl going to the -piano to practice her music-lesson. -She is a good little girl, and she follows -the notes. She improvises no music. -She puts out her trained fingers and -she touches, one by one, with painful -fidelity, the notes written down on the -score. She couldn’t think of striking -any note which was <i>not</i> written down -on the score. Dear little thing!</p> - -<p>Day after day, month after month, -year after year, the trained fingers -strike the notes indicated in the lesson. -If by chance she hits a chord not on the -book, there’s a rap and a sharp word -of reproof from the authority which -presides over the “practice.”</p> - -<p>“<i>What’s that?</i>” comes the cry of -the teacher or parent, and the little -girl, frightened at the false note, hurriedly -gets back to the written score.</p> - -<p>Dear little thing. That’s the way -to learn to play by note.</p> - -<p>Some editors make editorial music -that way, and the scores are written in -Wall Street.</p> - -<h3><i>Pinkerton’s Report to Ye Bankers</i></h3> - -<p>Accordingly to the report made -by the Pinkerton Detective Agency -to the American Bankers’ Association, -at its last meeting, there -were arrested and prosecuted <i>during -the ten years preceding September, -1905</i>, five hundred and fifty-four -citizens who had committed crimes -against these banks. Some of these -erring citizens had committed forgery, -others burglary, eleven were classified -as robbers, and fourteen were called -sneak thieves. These last named -probably stole the cashier’s umbrella, -or got away with the president’s gold-headed -cane.</p> - -<p><i>The Law</i> came down, hard and heavy, -upon the citizens who had sinned against -the banks, and the transgressors were -given sentences aggregating two thousand -and one hundred years in prisons, -chain-gangs and penitentiaries.</p> - -<p>Think of it—<span class="smcap">2,100 years</span>!</p> - -<p>The sum total of the money which the -banks lost by the operations of all these -criminals, during the entire period of -ten years, appears to have been <i>less than -one hundred thousand dollars</i>.</p> - -<p>Yet the law-breakers who caused the -loss must vindicate the law by a penal -servitude of more than two thousand -years.</p> - -<p>There’s <span class="smcap">Justice</span> for you.</p> - -<p>During that period of ten years how -many banks have gone to smash? How -many presidents and cashiers have -looted the funds committed to their -care?</p> - -<p>How many millions of dollars have -the common people lost by the rascality -of dishonest bank officers? How many -times have we seen frantic crowds of -men and women gather about the door -of some busted bank—men sick at heart -because of sudden ruin, women screaming -in terror because robbed of every -dollar they had on earth?</p> - -<p>Yet when an infamous scoundrel like -John R. Walsh of Chicago converts to -his use the millions of money held in his -banks, Leslie Shaw, Secretary of the -Treasury, hastens into print to say that -it was all right; Mr. Walsh had done no -more “than other bankers do.”</p> - -<p>There was a Savings Bank in the holy -town of Boston, Mass. It gave itself -the comfortable name of the <i>Provident</i> -Savings Bank. Trusting common people -put $200,000 of their money into it. -Thieves on the inside stole the money. -At one swoop, this particular bank -robbed the people of twice as much as -the whole of rascaldom had got from -the Associated banks <i>in ten years</i>!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span></p> - -<p>Frank Bigelow robbed the First National -Bank of Milwaukee, of $1,450,000.</p> - -<p><i>He was President of the American -Bankers’ Association.</i></p> - -<p>He not only looted the bank, but falsified -its books. He did not commit the -crime upon impulse or sudden temptation. -He did it deliberately, systematically, -colluding with his cashier to -plunder the fools who had trusted him.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">The banker who stole $1,400,000; and a man who stole a turkey and a duck.</p> -</div> - -<p><i>The Law</i> went through the form of -giving this million dollar thief <i>a sentence -of seven years</i>. His penalty is a sham; -his “punishment” a mockery. He will -be “detained” in comfortable quarters -a few months; his health will then “fail”; -he will then be pardoned, and will be -ready to steal trust funds again.</p> - -<p>So it is all along the line.</p> - -<p>Woe to the hungry tramp who steals -bread to eat. Woe to the ragged woman -who snatches food for her starving children.</p> - -<p>Woe to the bad men who steal <i>during -ten years</i>, one hundred thousand dollars -from the Members of the American -Bankers’ Association. These five or -six hundred bad men will be sentenced, -in the aggregate, to a penal servitude of -over two thousand years.</p> - -<p>But let the President of the Bankers’ -Association steal one million and -four hundred thousand dollars from the -men and women who trusted him with -their money, and the highly-connected -thief gets off with a nominal punishment -and a seven-year term which will -never be enforced.</p> - -<p>During the last twelve months, dishonest -bank officers have stolen <i>more -than twelve million dollars</i> from the -depositors.</p> - -<p>How many of these rascals have been -tried and convicted?</p> - -<p>Less than half a dozen.</p> - -<p>Yes; Frank Bigelow, sometime President -of the American Bankers’ Association, -laid careful plans, in collusion -with his cashier, and <i>stole fourteen -hundred thousand</i> dollars of <i>Trust -funds</i>.</p> - -<p>Nominal sentence, seven years.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> - -<p>John Shannon, of Ohio, at about the -same time, <i>stole a turkey and a duck</i>; -and John Shannon is now serving out -in the Ohio penitentiary <i>a penal sentence -of five years</i>!</p> - -<p>John Shannon, my jo, John!</p> - -<p>Why <i>didn’t</i> you wear a silk hat, and -steal a million dollars <i>from the inside</i> of -a bank?</p> - -<h3><i>Wayland’s Mistake</i></h3> - -<p>One of the most interesting and -powerful men of this generation is -J. A. Wayland.</p> - -<p>He is a pioneer Socialist.</p> - -<p>He is a hard worker, a hard hitter, -and a man who never quits.</p> - -<p>For the last fifteen years he has been -a wonder of the world, to me. Henry -Gronlund was not more unselfish, John -P. Altgeld was not more intense, and -Arthur Brisbane is not more effectively -equipped.</p> - -<p>When I first knew of Wayland, he -had come down to Tennessee to put his -beautiful dream into operation. He -had founded a Colony on the basis of -Universal Brotherhood. He meant to -demonstrate to mankind the ease with -which we could make angels out of one -another, if we would only set about it -in the right way.</p> - -<p>As I remember, the name of Wayland’s -Happy Land was <i>Ruskin</i>—the -name of an English dreamer who wrote -many beautiful things and lived one of -the saddest lives imaginable.</p> - -<p>The vital spark in the Ruskin colony -was Wayland’s paper. He called it -“The Coming Nation.” The circulation -of this paper grew to be enormous, -and the soul of the paper was Wayland.</p> - -<p>But some of the angels who had drifted -into the colony became jealous of -Wayland, and they made the point that -the paper should not continue to be the -property of Wayland—the man who -had made it—but should become the -common property of everybody who -had drifted into the colony.</p> - -<p>If my memory serves me right, Wayland -yielded to his angel-brothers, -and turned his magnificent property -over to the Toms, Dicks, and Harrys -who had come into Ruskin from the -four corners and elsewhere.</p> - -<p>After this, the angels found fault -with Wayland about something else -and then something else; and then some -other thing: until the great-hearted, -great-minded man threw up his hands -in despair.</p> - -<p>He surrendered everything to the -Colony—paper, shops, farms and all—and -went away from there, never to return.</p> - -<p>What became of the Colony? The -smart fellows who knew so much more -than Wayland ran the whole thing into -the ground. The brethren had hardly -kicked Wayland out before they began -to kick each other out. The master-hand -and the master-mind being absent, -the small men quarreled among -themselves, and chaos ensued. The -Ruskin Colony went to pieces, and one -of the remnants strayed into South -Georgia. There it lived a brief, troubled -life, and there it died an unlamented -death.</p> - -<p>What became of the magnificent -paper, “The Coming Nation?”</p> - -<p>Wayland’s genius had made it; by -every law of common sense and common -justice it belonged to Wayland.</p> - -<p>His brethren did not think so. The -paper was as much theirs as his. They -took it away from him. Then they -didn’t know what to do with it. And -it died.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>With a pluck which nothing could -daunt, Wayland opened out in Girard, -Kansas, and modestly commenced -another paper. This time he called it -the “<i>Appeal to Reason</i>,” but in spirit -and purpose it was “<i>The Coming Nation</i>” -risen from its grave. Patiently, -persistently, fearlessly, Wayland hammered -away at Girard until he built up -a monster circulation, and again was -the owner of an extremely valuable -property—the product of <i>him</i>, the said -Wayland. No other man could have -made <i>that</i> paper. No other man could<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> -any more be Wayland, and do what -Wayland does, than any other man -could be Edison, and do what Edison -does.</p> - -<p>By every sane and just rule, the -<i>Appeal to Reason</i> was Wayland’s property. -He had gone into a desert, -with a handful of type and a bottle of -ink, and by the force of <i>his</i> genius had -brought forth a finished product—a -successful newspaper.</p> - -<p>What happened to him then is only a -matter of rumor. Conjectures can also -be made from some indignant, sorrowful -sentences which he published over -his own signature.</p> - -<p>But it seems clear that his Ruskin -experience was repeated. His angel-brothers -made him take his own medicine -in heroic doses. The men who -had not created the paper, claimed an -equal share in it—or something of that -sort; and there were the usual points -made against Wayland which the -small would-be leaders make against -<i>the leader</i>.</p> - -<p>Rumor had it that Wayland went -through a Gethsemane of peculiar -bitterness, but just how it all was, the -outside world was not given to know. -The great soldier in the cause of humanity -covered the wounds his own -men had made, and was too proud to -complain.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>But Wayland is now making a -mistake.</p> - -<p>He is offering land prizes for the -largest number of subscribers. He proposes -that, as a premium, in a certain -competition on subscriptions, he -will convey, by deed, a farm in Florida -to the fortunate Socialist who gets the -greatest number of subscribers to the -<i>Appeal to Reason</i>! I can hardly believe -what I see in Wayland’s own -paper.</p> - -<p>What! Is it possible that Wayland -has wickedly gone and bought a quantity -of land?</p> - -<p>Is it possible that he has “robbed” -some honest citizen of his real estate?</p> - -<p>And can it be true that other Socialists -not only want to share in this -“robbery,” but want it so bad they -will compete for it?</p> - -<p>Dear me! I didn’t know that -Socialism was like that. If it is, I -believe I’ll take some stock in it myself.</p> - -<p>My impression has been that the -Socialists were opposed to private -ownership of land. I have had forcible -reminders of that fact in letters -which came hot from the enraged -writers. Private ownership is “robbery”; -that’s the way they write to -me. Did I not see a Socialist orator -wave his small, white hand gracefully -at all the stores, factories and dwellings -in St. Louis, in the summer of -1904, and did I not hear him say in his -musical voice to the assembled laborers: -“<i>All that is yours; go and take it!</i>” -Then, with a silk handkerchief he, -with courtly gesture, wiped the moisture -from his marble brow, and continued: -“<i>Don’t take a part of it, take -it all. Don’t be satisfied with a loaf, -take the whole bakery.</i>”</p> - -<p>Then he froze me and Joe Folk with -a glare of merciless severity, and continued, -“These men”—indicating me and -poor Joe, with a supercilious gesture—“<i>these -men</i> talk to you about shorter -hours of labor, and the Eight Hour day. -<i>I don’t want any Eight Hour day</i>: -what <i>I want</i> is <i>to live in the best possible -manner on the least possible work</i>.”</p> - -<p>And now Wayland is going to spoil -all this. He is going to quicken the -appetite of Socialists for private property. -Instead of feeding a million -men on the definite expectation of -getting a slice of the Astor Estate, at -some indefinite time, he is going to -reverse the process and feed as many -as qualify, on a definite slice of Florida -land <i>right now</i>.</p> - -<p>I make this prediction: As fast as -Wayland makes home-owners out of -his followers he will lose crusaders.</p> - -<p><i>Beware Capua</i>, friend Wayland!</p> - -<p>A zealous Socialist, who owns nothing, -but who is spurred on by that -God-given desire for private property, -will eagerly compete for Wayland’s -prize and will win it. He will pocket -the deed, and move to his land. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> -will find, perhaps, that it does not quite -come up to representation; but it is -too late to back out. He settles on -his seventy acre tract. If it has no -house, he builds. If he has one already, -he does all that he can to make -it more attractive. <i>It is his.</i> When -the storm beats without, he snuggles -close to his fireside, and thanks God -that this is <i>his</i> shelter from the wild -night. His wife will lay her loving -touches here and there, and the house -will take on a look which reflects the -individuality of the owners. Flowers -in the front yard, vines clinging about -the porch, bright pictures on the wall, -ferns and grasses in the vase over the -mantel, a climbing rose, perhaps, to -race for the cone of the house and to -throw out its crimson colors from the -roof. Toil which one loves will be freely -spent on garden and field, for the -toiler is working for those he loves best. -In a few years, under the care of -home-owners, the neighbors will -say, “<i>It doesn’t look like the same -place.</i>”</p> - -<p>And it <i>isn’t</i> the same place. The -owners have transformed it. They -have put elements of value and beauty -there which nature did not supply. -They have so directed their labor, their -judgment, their good taste, their tender -interests, that the <i>home</i> which they have -created is as different from the wild -land, as the noble watch-dog at the door -differs from the gray wolf of the wilderness.</p> - -<p>Do you suppose that this man and -his wife and his children can ever be -made to believe that they have “robbed” -some body of that land, and that -it is wrong for them to hold it as <i>private -property</i>?</p> - -<p><i>Never in the world!</i></p> - -<p>Wayland has made a confession as -well as a blunder.</p> - -<p>By offering such a prize, he knows he -is appealing to one of the strongest human -passions—the passion for home-owning.</p> - -<p>Every full-sexed girl instinctively -feels that her destiny is Motherhood—and -she plays with dolls, nurses them, -kisses them, hugs them to her little -bosom, calls them pet names, fondly -dresses them in every beautiful way -that her infant fancy can suggest, and -rocks them to sleep in the tiny cradle. -<i>That is the God-given instinct of Motherhood.</i></p> - -<p>Every full-sexed man, on the other -hand, is born with a craving for <i>his -mate</i>, and next to that, <i>a home to put -her in</i>.</p> - -<p><i>Individualism</i>, crying aloud to me -and to you, says “<i>choose your mate and -make her yours</i>.” The idea of promiscuous -mating is abhorrent. Collective -mating would be hideous. You want -individual mating. You want to separate -<i>your</i> mate from every other woman -and from every other man—and if -another man invades your individual -rights, <i>you slay him like a dog</i>.</p> - -<p>There’s the natural feeling, the -natural passion, the natural individuality—and -everybody knows it.</p> - -<p>This craving for individual mating -with women, bases itself firmly on the -<i>individual home</i>. Give me <i>my</i> mate, -and let me take her to <i>my</i> home:—and -you have consistency, you have nature, -you have a foundation for home-life -and all that flows from it—a foundation -firm as the everlasting hills.</p> - -<p>But <i>the two</i> go together. They are -parts of the same system. Surrender -one, and you endanger the other.</p> - -<p>If you are a Collectivist—your logic -<i>will never stop at Collectivism in property -only</i>.</p> - -<p>If you believe in the one wife, believe -also in the <i>home</i>, which shall be yours -<i>individually</i>, just as your wife is yours, -<i>individually</i>.</p> - -<h3><i>Calhoun for Public Ownership</i></h3> - -<p>Through the never-failing courtesy of -Senator Clay, of Georgia, it was recently -my good fortune to come into possession -of two bulky volumes issued by the -Government, and entitled, “Annual -Report of the American Historical Association.” -The second volume of this -report contains the Private Correspondence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> -of John C. Calhoun, and a most -interesting collection of letters it is.</p> - -<p>Glancing through these letters hurriedly, -I came upon one which Mr. Calhoun -wrote to William C. Dawson, of -Georgia, in 1835, wherein he declares -himself strongly in favor of state-built -railroads.</p> - -<p>It will be remembered that at that -time there was a surplus of revenues in -the Treasury.</p> - -<p>This surplus was not given away in -premiums to bond-holders as Mr. -Cleveland gave sixty million dollars a -few years ago.</p> - -<p>It was not deposited with the National -Banks to be used in their business -as Mr. Roosevelt now disposes of -$56,000,000 of the -public funds.</p> - -<p>In the days of Calhoun, -governmental -robbery of the taxpayer -for the benefit -of the non-taxpayer -had not been reduced -to a science as it has -since been.</p> - -<p>In Mr. Calhoun’s -day, it was believed -that when the Government -had collected -from the taxpayer a -greater sum than was -needed for governmental -expenses, the -excess should, as a -matter of common -honesty, be returned to the taxpayer.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">John C. Calhoun</p> -</div> - -<p>It being impracticable, however, to -restore the money in exact proportion -to each individual taxpayer, the Government -did the next best thing—it -divided the surplus pro rata, among -the states.</p> - -<p>In his letter to Dawson, Mr. Calhoun -estimates the entire amount of the surplus, -extending over a series of -years, at seventy or eighty million -dollars.</p> - -<p>The share of Georgia and South Carolina, -he estimates at $3,500,000.</p> - -<p>Now what does he advise shall be -done with this money which has been -drawn from the taxpayers of the two -states?</p> - -<p><i>He advises that it be spent by Georgia -and South Carolina in building railroads -to connect those two states with the -lines leading to the West and Southwest.</i></p> - -<p>Spent in that manner, the surplus taxes -of the two states would be so invested -as to benefit all the people of Georgia -and South Carolina.</p> - -<p>It wouldn’t go to fatten a handful of -greedy, millionaire bond-holders.</p> - -<p>It wouldn’t go to a few pet National -banks to be loaned out as private -capital.</p> - -<p>It being public money, it would -be used for a public purpose; -and the great -public roads which -it would build would -belong to and benefit -all the people -of the two states -which had paid the -taxes into the Federal -Treasury.</p> - -<p>Says Mr. Calhoun:</p> - -<p>“To make this -great fund available -for so important an -object, the legislatures -of the states -interested ought to -move forthwith. I -hope Georgia will -take the lead. The -action of no other -state could have half the influence.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Calhoun, with marvelous foresight, -sketched the system of railroads -which has since been built. Just where -he declared in 1835 that the railroads -ought to be, they are now to be -found.</p> - -<p>Had his counsels been followed, -those public highways would now -be the property of the public. -Folly, stupidity, sordid franchise-grabbing -had their own way, however, -and the magnificent system -of highways which Calhoun laid -out for the people belongs to the corporations.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span></p> - -<h3><i>Judge Du Bose’s Letter and the Public Debt</i></h3> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 6, 1906.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent">Hon. Thos. E. Watson:</p> - -<p>Dear Sir—It is not evidence of dissatisfaction -with the common infirmities of the -human lot that discussion of the characters of -men in public office assumes the latitude of -warning to society. Servility of understanding -reduces the individual to prostitution of -manhood. He can no longer be free, who is -dependent in mind and thought. The duty of -the American citizen is in the defence of his -prerogative of “sovereign,” and upon this -principle only may reputation in a public -officer become a convertible term with character -in public office.</p> - -<p>In the year 1769 “Junius” wrote fifty-four -letters to the <i>Public Advertiser</i>, a daily journal -of London. The publisher was indicted. -“Junius” continued to write. He wrote to -Sir William Draper; to the Duke of Grafton; -to the Ministry; to King George himself. -Who “Junius” was, none knew. The few -declared his writing turbulent and revolutionary; -worthless for the occasion. He held -to the record. With indignant invectives he -proved the government corruptions. With -high disdain he declared he asked for no authority, -when he had law and reason on his -side, to speak the truth. With keen and -pungent retort he exposed the lapse of society -in the evidences of iniquity in social leaders.</p> - -<p>I would not offend by flattering him “who -would not flatter Jove for his power to thunder.” -But the beneficiary is ever a debtor to -his benefactor. I may write with confidence -where expression is due.</p> - -<p>The modest caption, “Editorials by Thomas -E. Watson,” has already attained to a decisive -expectancy in the public mind. In -brief time the words that monthly come to -us under it will shed a wider and widening -light.</p> - -<p>Revived iniquities which inspired “Junius” -are come for exposure. History repeats -itself in facts and interpreters of facts. -“Junius” in immortal energy told the people -of the Gentlemen in the House of Commons, -the Judges upon the Bench, the Lords, and -the Dukes, and the Ministry and the King; -of malfeasance in office and of decay in private -virtue.</p> - -<p>The theme then is the theme now. Patrick -Henry caught the spirit of “Junius”; -the “Editorials by Thomas E. Watson” -draw upon the glorious past to shed light -upon the living day.</p> - -<p>Anxiously we await some words from you -upon the most insidious consumer of free -institutions—<i>the bonded debt of the United -States</i>. Please answer these questions:</p> - -<p>1. Is not the Government interest-bearing -bond the true foundation of the “trust”?</p> - -<p>2. Can the “trust” be eliminated from -commerce before the government bonds are -paid and extinguished?</p> - -<p>3. As long as the bonds remain and money -concentrates under their influence and protection -in New York, can money so concentrated -be redistributed from New York in -the sources of industry and commerce by any -other process than by “trust” industries -process?</p> - -<p>Let me illustrate: In the Birmingham -(Ala.) manufacturing district there are three -great iron manufacturers, to wit: The Tennessee -Coal and Iron Company; The Sloss-Sheffield -Company; The Republic Company -and the Alabama-Consolidated Company.</p> - -<p>Continued effort is made to merge two -or all of these powerful forces. The Pontifex -Maximus in the situation, the great -bridge over which the merger, if merger -there is to be, must pass, is a bank of issue—a -national bank—willing and also able to -finance the movement in transit and after -consummation.</p> - -<p>Now, the willing and capable bank in the -premises must possess an adequate supply of -non-taxable, interest-bearing Government -bonds, upon which, to their full face value, it -may issue paper money equal to the exigencies -of the great merged corporations. -Without the bonds, upon which to issue the -money, the bank could not finance the -merger.</p> - -<p>If the iron manufactories be merged, the -necessary sequence must be the merging of -the railroads that enter Birmingham. In -order to effect the merging of the railroads -financing which would duplicate the original -example, here cited, must follow.</p> - -<p>Commerce, founded on the public debt, is -founded upon Government mortgages upon -universal private industry.</p> - -<p>Must not that kind of commerce subvert -free institutions?</p> - -<p class="center">Yours truly,</p> - -<p class="right">(Signed) <span class="smcap">John Witherspoon Du Bose</span>.</p> - -</div> - -<p>The writer of the letter on the public -debt is the author of the “Life and -Times of William L. Yancey,” a book -which is a treasure-house of varied and -valuable information.</p> - -<p>That this Magazine has made such a -favorable impression upon so able and -representative a man, is of itself a great -encouragement to us who are devoting -our lives to it.</p> - -<p>The question asked by the distinguished -Alabamian is a spear-thrust into -the very vitals of our vicious system of -Class-Rule and Special Privileges.</p> - -<p>When Alexander Hamilton set out to -make our government as English as the -Constitution would admit of, he laid -the foundations of his work in the English<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -system of Protection, the English -system of Finance, and the English system -of Funding the Public Debt.</p> - -<p>With his Protective system he meant -to favor one class of industries at the expense -of others: thus rallying to the -support of the government those who -shaped its laws to fill their pockets with -the money which belonged to other -people.</p> - -<p>With his system of Finance, and his -National Bank of issue, he meant to -form a co-partnership between wealth -and government. To the favored few -was to be delegated that tremendous -power to create currency which had always -been a prerogative of the Crown -until Barbara Villiers, the harlot, -wheedled from the dissolute Charles II. -that concession to the bankers.</p> - -<p>With his system of Funding the Public -Debt, Hamilton meant to mortgage -the Nation, in perpetuity, to the wealthy -few, in order that they might always -hold their power over the masses, and -their advantage over the government.</p> - -<p>William Pitt is said to have remarked -cynically, when he saw our government -copying the British system: “Their -independence will not do them much -good if they adopt our system of -finance.”</p> - -<p>We all remember how bitterly Jefferson -combated the Hamilton measures. -We can turn to his writings now, and -read the scathing terms in which he denounced -them. We can also read his -predictions of the evils which would -come upon us if we allowed Hamilton’s -class-law system to develop.</p> - -<p><i>Haven’t the evils come?</i></p> - -<p>The great historic renown won by the -Democratic Party and its leaders was -gained in combating this class-law system -of Alexander Hamilton.</p> - -<p>Democrats, and the Democratic Party, -<i>always</i> stood in battle array against -the Protective System, contending -that it was immoral, unjust, oppressive, -despoiling the many to enrich the -few.</p> - -<p>Democrats, and the Democratic Party, -<i>always</i> went up against the National -Banks to fight them, declaring -that such an institution was of deadly -hostility to the spirit of republican -government.</p> - -<p>Democrats, and the Democratic -Party, <i>always</i> clamored against the -Funding System, and demanded that -the Public Debt be paid off.</p> - -<p>Those were the memorable, historic -principles of Democrats in the years -preceding the Civil War—in the years -when the Democrats had a mission, a -creed; leaders who had convictions, -champions, who loved ideas well enough -to cherish them more dearly than office.</p> - -<p>What was President Jefferson’s proud -boast?</p> - -<p>That he had so cut down Government -expenses that the Public Debt -would soon be a thing of the past.</p> - -<p>What was Jackson’s proud boast?</p> - -<p><i>That he paid the Public Debt.</i></p> - -<p>That was the golden era of American -history.</p> - -<p>The National Bank had been abolished.</p> - -<p>The National Debt had been paid -off.</p> - -<p>The Protective principle had been -stricken out of the Tariff, and that -infamous system had been reduced -to a moderate revenue basis.</p> - -<p>There was hardly a millionaire in the -whole country.</p> - -<p>There was hardly a pauper in the -republic.</p> - -<p>The individual citizen amounted to -more, <i>as a man</i>, than he does now. -Wages were low, but the money commanded -a larger amount of the -necessaries of life than the higher wages -of today.</p> - -<p>Strikes and lockouts were unknown. -“<span class="smcap">We have no poor</span>,” was the matter-of-fact -statement made in Congress by -Hugh S. Legaré of South Carolina.</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">There are no beggars</span>,” said the -English visitor, Charles Dickens.</p> - -<p>In the whole world there probably -was not a people more contented, progressive, -and generally well-off than -we were in the Forties.</p> - -<p><i>Which were the naturally wealthy -sections?</i> The South and West.</p> - -<p><i>Which was the naturally sterile section?</i> -The East.</p> - -<p>Where is the bulk of all the immense<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> -wealth that has been produced since -the Civil War? <i>In the East.</i></p> - -<p>How came it there? <i>Class-law took -it from the sections where it was produced</i>, -and gave it to those who were -more cunning and selfish in framing -national statutes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="700" height="600" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I see signs of life and hope in the awakening of the people.”</p> -</div> - -<p>There is no fouler chapter in the history -of crime than that which is to be -written concerning the manipulation -of our National Debt. How many -hundreds of millions have been made -out of the government by the rascals -who juggled with the bonds, it would -stagger faith to state. The starting -point, where Belmont, Rothschild, -Sherman and the Bank of England -compelled Congress to depreciate the -Greenback, the exchange of bonds at -par for Greenbacks at their full face -value, the change of the terms of the -bond from lawful money to coin, and -from coin to gold, the huge commissions -paid to favored bankers, the -colossal deposits of public funds to be -used in private speculations, the sudden -and mysterious fortunes accumulated -by Secretaries of the Treasury, -like Sherman, and by Senators, like -Gorman, the stealthy mission of Ernest -Seyd, the covert influence of the -Haggard & Buell circulars—all these -are but high-points in a long journey -of national shame, legalized robbery, -ruinous prostitution of the powers of -government to gorge the few on the -life-blood of the many.</p> - -<p>Who does not know that our Public -Debt could be paid off at any time if -the ruling class wanted it paid?</p> - -<p>Who does not realize the anomaly -of the richest nation on earth bearing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> -a bonded debt as though it were a -luxury?</p> - -<p>Who does not recognize the grim -irony of wearing a bondholder’s chain -as though it were a string of pearls?</p> - -<p>Wipe out the Public Debt and there -would be no foundation for the National -Banks. One form of privilege having -been abolished, the other would -follow. <i>And then others would follow!</i> -The bonds are the keystone to the arch. -The Public Debt is the nucleus of the -system by means of which Wealth runs -the Government for its own benefit.</p> - -<p>Who wants the Government to economize? -Not the Privileged. By no -means. If the Government were to -economize there would be such a surplus -in the Treasury that the Government, -for very shame, <i>would have to pay itself -out of debt</i>.</p> - -<p>The Privileged are determined to -keep the Government in debt, and -hence there will be no economy.</p> - -<p>The fields of expenditure shall widen, -widen, and be kept on widening. Salaries -shall increase, and increase, and be -kept on increasing. Offices shall be -multiplied, and multiplied, and be kept -on multiplying.</p> - -<p>The Panama Canal can get all it -wants; let the Philippines cost what -they may; give more to the Navy; give -more to the Army; give more to Rivers -and Harbors; give more to Pensions; -give the Railroads four times as much -as it is worth to carry the mails, and -then give them a special subsidy to keep -the contract; give $45,000 for carrying -mail to the Island Tahiti when the -“cussed foreigner” offered to do it for -$3,500; give with so lavish a hand that -even the South will get a pull at the -sugar-teat, and shall join in the Hallelujah -Chorus of “O, <i>ain’t</i> it good!”</p> - -<p>A child ought to be able to see the -profound policy which underlies the extravagance -of the Federal Government.</p> - -<p>The Tariff must <i>not</i> be lowered; the -Public Debt must <i>not</i> be paid off; the -reign of the Trusts must <i>not</i> be threatened:</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Stand Pat!</span>”</p> - -<p>That’s the watchword of heartless -Plutocracy which has erected its powers -upon the three bed-rock measures of -Alexander Hamilton.</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Stand Pat!</span>”—blares the bugle-note -of Class-law leaders, for they know -that <i>a system</i> depends upon all of its -component parts. If there should be a -leak in the dike, <i>anywhere</i>, the angry -ocean might come pouring in.</p> - -<p>Where are the Democrats, and the -Democratic Party?</p> - -<p>What soldiers are pitching their tents -upon the historic fields of Democracy?</p> - -<p>What lines of battle are forming under -the time-honored banners of Jefferson -and Jackson?</p> - -<p>Alas! The mighty strain and struggle -of the Democratic Party during -these degenerate days, has been to imitate -every bad habit of the Republicans. -Democrats vote with the Republicans -to continue the National banks, -to continue the Public Debt, to continue -the Protective system, to embark -upon an imperial colonial system, to -perpetuate the rule of the Trust, to -multiply objects and amounts of National -extravagance.</p> - -<p>Where do I see signs of life and hope?</p> - -<p>In the rapid awakening of the people -to the fact that <i>in the name of Party</i> -they are being stripped of everything -that makes for the independence and -prosperity and happiness of the average -citizen.</p> - -<h3><i>Talmage in Russia: Fourteen Years Ago</i></h3> - -<p>After the downfall of Beecher, -Doctor Talmage became the most -conspicuous preacher in the United -States. His sermons and his writings -had an immense audience. “Talmage’s -Sermon” was a standing headline, in -American Monday morning newspapers, -and they were widely known -in Europe also. No visitor to New -York thought of returning home until -he had attended services at the Brooklyn -Tabernacle and qualified himself<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> -to boast of the fact that he had “heard -Talmage.”</p> - -<p>The fact that Doctor Talmage had -been engaged to furnish articles to any -periodical, was sufficient to boost its -circulation into the tens of thousands. -No Lyceum, no Chautauqua, no Lecture -Course was complete without Talmage. -Formal banquets, in quest of oratorical -attractions, never failed to urge the -attendance of Doctor Talmage.</p> - -<p>Somehow the man became the fashion, -the rage. He was the Caucasian Booker -Washington. Everybody having agreed -that he was a wonderful man, the ball -kept on rolling by the law of inertia.</p> - -<p>Nobody could tell you wherein he -was great; nobody could quote anything -remarkable from his writings or -his sermons; nobody knew of anything -phenomenal that he had done, or was -supposed to be able to do. His capacity -for the benevolent assimilation of -an indefinite number of voluntary donations -was strikingly like Booker Washington’s -power in the same direction; -but beyond the fact that Talmage -preached to a large congregation, and -wrote books which many people read, -his greatness was hard to define.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>However, Talmage had his day. He -was the fashion. At home and abroad -he was a man whom it was the correct -thing to treat with distinguished consideration. -Foreign potentates, princes -and powers knew Talmage as a mighty -man of the pen; likewise as a man of infinite -capacity for talk; also as a man -who traveled with a photographic outfit. -Consequently a man to be handled -with care; “this side up,” as it were.</p> - -<p>His progress through a foreign land, -was not merely an incident; it was an -event. He was greeted with dress-parade -formalities. Foreign princes, potentates -and powers <i>knew</i> that Talmage -would write a book about them when he -got home; that the book would be read -by hundreds of thousands; that public -opinion would be influenced by it; and -that the photographs of the princes, etc., -would appear in the book. Consequently -the smiling faces which were turned -toward the Talmage Camera by the -helpless potentates etc., were almost -distressing in their laborious amiability.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>As to Russia, Doctor Talmage seems -to have gone there by imperial invitation -and prearrangement.</p> - -<p>“Stepping from the Moscow train on -returning to St. Petersburg, an invitation -was put in my hand inviting me to -the palace.... I had already -seen the Crown Prince in his palace.... -The royal carriage was waiting, -and the two decorated representatives -of the palace took me to a building -where a suite of three rooms was -appointed me, where I rested, lunched, -examined the flowers and walked under -the trees.” Then the royal carriage -came again, took him through the magnificent -and beautiful grounds to the -palace of the Czar. During his stay, -officials crowded around him, lavished -attentions upon him, stuffed his ears -with glowing accounts of the lovely conditions -prevailing in Russia, and made -Doctor Talmage feel good generally.</p> - -<p>Russian autocracy laid itself out to -capture Talmage, and it captured him -completely.</p> - -<p>From a picture on page 408 of his -book, I infer that Russian enthusiasm -broke from every restraint, and that he -was caught up in the arms of a delirious -populace, and borne triumphantly -through the streets, on the shoulders of -his worshipers. The picture represents -Russian citizens (who bear a disconcerting -resemblance to New York -dandies), waving their hats wildly—(Derby -hats)—and shows Doctor Talmage -sitting gracefully upon the shoulders -of two elegantly dressed enthusiasts; -and the silk hat of the Doctor is -held aloft in his eloquent right hand, -while his left is extended in what I take -to be his favorite gesture. The picture -represents all the Russians with their -mouths shut. It also represents Talmage -with his mouth shut—a fact -which arouses a suspicion that the picture -is spurious. Under <i>such</i> circumstances, -Talmage could no more have -kept his mouth shut than Bryan could.</p> - -<p>Other pictures show Doctor Talmage -in the act of responding from his carriage<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -to a street ovation; also of rising -to make a few remarks to a grand -gathering in a hall draped with the Stars -and Stripes; also of making a speech -on the arrival of a ship from the United -States bringing bread to feed the Russian -peasants.</p> - -<p>There are, also, pictures showing -Talmage seated on one side of a small -table and the Czar seated on the other; -Talmage in the act of being received -into the family circle of the Czar; -Talmage standing erect in his carriage, -hat outstretched, in the act of returning -the salutes of hat-waving crowds -which pause and look pleasant, apparently, -until Talmage’s picture man can -draw his focus, spring his slide, and say, -“That’ll do.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>I state all this to show the readers -how public opinion is sometimes made -to order. The Russian autocracy knew -that Talmage was the best possible -press-agent they could use. He was intensely -vain, easily flattered, a snob to -the core, a man whose very soul quivered -with delight under the smile of -royalty.</p> - -<p>There had been a great deal of abuse -heaped upon Russia. The newspapers, -magazines, political pamphlets had been -telling the civilized world a vast deal -about the barbarities practiced by the -Russian government. George Kennan, -the brave American traveler, had risked -all the rigors of Siberia to see for himself -how prisoners were treated there. -His reports had thrilled the hearts -of millions with furious indignation -against the Czar, and with profound pity -for the victims of imperial tyranny. -Tolstoy, Stepniak, Kropotkin and many -others had been heard.</p> - -<p>Russian autocracy was in bad odor -throughout the Christian world, and if -such a man as Talmage could be enlisted -for the defence, it would be a fine -thing to do. His voice would carry -weight throughout Europe and the -United States. Therefore, it is reasonably -certain that the Russian government -had an axe to grind when it made -the Talmage visit an occasion for a series -of ovations.</p> - -<p>At any rate, the Russian government -got from Talmage when he came to -write his book of travels, a chapter of -the most fulsome, least discriminating -praise that you will ever read.</p> - -<p>Russia was all right, in every respect. -Travelers were <i>never</i> subjected to vexatious -delays or examinations—for Talmage -had not been delayed or vexed. He -actually carried into Russia some books -which criticised the government, and -the magnanimous officials made no objection. -There was no religious persecution -in Russia! On the contrary, -Jews and Gentiles, of all descriptions, -could worship God in any manner that -pleased them. The Government never -interfered.</p> - -<p>If a nobleman conspired against the -life of the Czar, he was arrested, put into -a carriage, blindfolded, driven about -for many hours to make him believe -that he was on his way to Siberia, and -he was then set down, at his own door, -safe, unharmed, free!</p> - -<p>If a poet wrote scurrilous verses -about the Empress, he was brought -into the family circle of the Czar and -asked to read the lines in the hearing of -the lady. That was the worst.</p> - -<p>Siberia was described as a country -of Italian softness of climate; and banishment -to the Siberian prisons, mines, -etc., was altogether better for criminals -than ordinary jails.</p> - -<p>Doctor Talmage defended Russian -autocracy, Russian police, Russian -prisons, indignantly hurling back upon -the slanderers of Russia their foul accusations.</p> - -<p>Listen to him—Talmage:</p> - -<p>“But how about the knout, the cruel -Russian knout, that comes down on the -bare back of agonized criminals? Why, -Russia abolished the knout before it was -abolished from our American navy.”</p> - -<p>Think of reading this stuff at a time -when the ears of the world are yet tingling -at the sound of the Cossack whips!</p> - -<p>Think of reading this <i>when we know</i> -that before Talmage’s book was written, -and while it was being written, and -ever since it was written, Russian peasants, -by thousands, <i>have been flogged -every year for non-payment of taxes</i>!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span></p> - -<p>“The Emperor received me with -much heartiness. And at the first -glance, seeing him to be a splendid -gentleman, with no airs of pretension -and as artless as any man I ever saw, -it seemed to me that we were old -friends from the start.”</p> - -<p>Doctor Talmage did not visit the -Russian prisons which he defended; -did not go to Siberia, which he compared -to Italy; did not make any -investigations of peasant-life; did not -go among the working classes; did not -talk with Tolstoy, nor any man of the -dissatisfied elements. In fact, Talmage -declares, in effect, that nobody -was dissatisfied.</p> - -<p>Listen to Doctor Talmage, Page 422:</p> - -<p>“He who charges cruelty on the imperial -family and <i>the nobility of Russia</i>, -belies men and women as gracious and -benignant as ever breathed oxygen.”</p> - -<p>Shades of von Plehve!</p> - -<p>When we read such lines as the above -and recall how that gracious and benignant -nobility have drenched Russia -with blood of peasants, Jews, city -workingmen, republican agitators—littering -the streets with ghastly heaps -of murdered men and women and -children—we may well stand amazed -at the success with which the wool -was pulled over the eyes of the Rev. -T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.</p> - -<p>“There are no kinder people on -earth than the Russians, and to most -of them cruelty is an impossibility.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="700" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“Dr. Talmage did not go to Siberia, which he compared to Italy.”</p> -</div> - -<p>Of the Czar, Doctor Talmage says:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span></p> - -<p>“He’s doing the best things possible for -the nation which he loved, and which as -ardently loved him.... Things -are going on marvelously well, and I -do not believe that out of 500,000 -Russians you will find <i>more than one -person</i> who dislikes the Emperor, and -so that Calumny of dread of assassination -drops so flat it can fall no flatter.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> -<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I prophecy for Nicholas the Second a long -and happy reign.”—Dr. Talmage</p> -</div> - -<p>According to Doctor Talmage the -story that the Czar dreaded the assassin -was a base Calumny, and he, Talmage, -flattened it out in his book “so flat it -can fall no flatter.”</p> - -<p>I wonder what the present Czar -would feel, think and say if he could -<i>now</i> read Talmage’s comfortable assurances -on the subject of “dread of -assassination.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>While in Russia, Doctor Talmage -saw the Rulers, and no others. He -talked with the governing class, and -no others. He saw a ship from the -United States bringing bread to the -Russian farmers, but it never occurred -to his mind that a drouth in one portion -of the huge Russian Empire was -no good reason why the New World -should have to save Russian peasants -from starvation.</p> - -<p>Looking only on the surface, -seeing only what his -“old friend” the Czar, -wished him to see, he -praised the Russian government -in terms of the -most unqualified eulogy.</p> - -<p>Before the Talmage book -was ready for the press, -Prince Cantacuzene, the -Russian Minister Plenipotentiary -at Washington, -summoned Doctor Talmage -to the deck of a Russian -man-of-war, in Philadelphia -harbor, and presented -to the enraptured -American “a complete gold-enameled -tea service accompanied -by a message -of love which I cannot now -think of without deep -emotion, since Emperor -Alexander has disappeared -from the palaces of earth -to take his place, as I believe, -in the palaces of -heaven.”</p> - -<p>In behalf of the Czar, -the formalities of a trial -on Judgment Day, were -waived, it would seem; and -the Czar went direct from -Peterhof to his mansion in -the skies.</p> - -<p>The Emperor Alexander, it is well-known, -was succeeded by his son Nicholas, -the reigning Czar.</p> - -<p>Talmage’s book was published in 1896. -Here is what he predicted:</p> - -<p>“<i>I prophesy for Nicholas the Second -a long and happy reign!</i>”</p> - -<p>That was a very natural inspiration. -Talmage had delved into Russian -affairs and found conditions ideal.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> -The government was mild, just, progressive. -The people were contented, -and devoted to the Czar. There was -no cruelty in the administration, and -no suffering among the peasants, excepting -the locality affected by the -drought. The bread had been sent to -feed the peasants, and all would be well. -The Knout had been abolished. The -serf, freed, was happy. Religious -toleration was in practice; the circulation -of political literature unhampered.</p> - -<p>There was not a cloud upon the horizon. -George Kennan, Stepniak, Tolstoy, -Kropotkin had been slandering -vilely the most humane Government of -Europe—a Government which Talmage -compared to ours, to our discomfiture -in various respects.</p> - -<p>With a Podsnapian wave of his hand, -Talmage said to Europe, “<i>Let this international -defamation of Russia cease.</i>”</p> - -<p>With that Royal welcome fresh in his -memory, with those public ovations -still ringing in his ears, with that “complete -gold-enameled tea service” gladdening -his eye, with the “message of -love” conveyed by the Prince Cantacuzene -still warming his heart, how could -Doctor Talmage prophesy otherwise?</p> - -<p>The spirit of the occasion demanded -prophecy, and there it stands recorded, -page 432:</p> - -<p>“<i>I prophesy for Nicholas the Second a -long and happy reign!</i>”</p> - -<h3><i>A Prophet Whose Voice Was Not Heeded</i></h3> - -<p>Almost in sight of where I live, -there is a heap of stones that marks -the spot where stood the hut in which -George McDuffie was born.</p> - -<p>His folks were “poor folks.” Concerning -his ancestry nothing is known.</p> - -<p>When I was a boy somebody told -me a story to this effect:</p> - -<p>Little George McDuffie was at the -cowpen where his mother was milking, -and he had a calf by the ears holding -it away from the cow. A traveler, in -a buggy, drove up and stopped. Seeing -the boy, and not realizing the absorbing -character of the boy’s job, the wayfaring -man called out:</p> - -<p>“Come here, Bubbie, and hold my -horse.”</p> - -<p>To which the lad replied: “If you’ll -come here and hold my calf, I’ll go -there and hold your horse.”</p> - -<p>According to the story, the traveler -was so tickled by the boy’s readiness -of wit, that he took a fancy to him -and secured him a position as clerk in -a store in the city of Augusta.</p> - -<p>Well, George McDuffie wasn’t much -of a clerk. He loved to read books -better than to wait upon customers. -It came to pass that his fondness for -books attracted the attention of one -of the Calhouns—<i>not</i> John C., but his -brother, I believe—and Mr. Calhoun -placed the boy at the celebrated school -of Dr. Waddell to be educated.</p> - -<p>The balance is history. McDuffie -became one of the greatest legal advocates -and political orators this country -has ever known.</p> - -<p>Later in life he became involved in -a newspaper controversy which drew -him into two duels. In one of these -he received a wound which injured his -spine and affected his brain.</p> - -<p>In his melancholy decline, and not -long before his death, McDuffie was -moved by a yearning to come back to -Georgia and visit the spot where his -boyhood home had stood. He came -from South Carolina by private conveyance, -and spent the night with my -grandfather. Next day he went on -down to the Sweet-water Creek neighborhood -where the McDuffie hut had -been. My father used to tell me that -when they led the broken statesman -to the spot, pointed out the remaining -shade tree and the dismantled chimney, -they drew away, leaving him alone with -his memories. After awhile they returned -to find Mr. McDuffie sitting -upon the stones of the ruined hearth, -crying like a child.</p> - -<p>When the boy, George McDuffie, -left the store in Augusta and went over<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> -into South Carolina to go to school, he -carried all of his earthly possessions in -one little pine box.</p> - -<p>When he became a man he made -much money, owned large estates and -moved as a peer among the proudest -leaders of his day.</p> - -<p>But he never parted with the little -pine box. It was a souvenir of the old -days of youth and poverty. It was -sacred in his eyes, and he treasured it. -When his mind was almost gone, he -would put his arms about the box, and -tell again the story of how it had held -all that he owned when he came into -South Carolina—a poor boy, on his -way to the great battle-field of life.</p> - -<p>Did you know that -to this almost forgotten -statesman, George -McDuffie, belongs the -distinction of having -made the most powerful -and most prophetic -speech that was ever -made in Congress -against our damnable -Tariff System?</p> - -<p>Well, it does. Such -men as Nelson Dingley -and Joseph H. Walker -were good judges in -such a matter, and they -regarded McDuffie’s -argument as the -strongest ever made -against the New England -scheme of enriching -its Capitalists by plundering other -sections. Dr. Goldwin Smith should -also be a competent judge, and you -will find that McDuffie’s speech is the -one he quotes from in his “Political -History of the United States.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">George McDuffie</p> -</div> - -<p>Mr. McDuffie’s great speech against -the protective system is too long to be -reproduced here; but in the concluding -paragraphs he predicted with such -clearness of vision the reign of rotten -business and rotten politics which now -afflicts us that his words read like inspired -prophecy:</p> - -<p>“Sir, when I consider that, by a -single bill like the present, millions of -dollars may be transferred annually -from one part of the community to -another; when I consider the disguise -of disinterested patriotism under which -the basest and most profligate ambition -may perpetrate such an act of injustice -and political prostitution, I cannot -hesitate, for a moment, to pronounce -this system <i>the most stupendous instrument -of corruption</i> ever placed in the -hands of public functionaries.</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">It brings ambition and avarice -and wealth into a combination -which it is fearful to contemplate, -because it is almost impossible to -resist.</span></p> - -<p>“Do we not perceive, at this very -moment, the extraordinary -and melancholy -spectacle of less than -one hundred thousand -capitalists, by means -of this unhallowed -combination, exercising -an absolute and -despotic control over -the opinions of eight -millions of free citizens -and the fortunes -and destinies of ten -millions?</p> - -<p>“Sir, I will not anticipate -or forbode -evil. <i>I will not permit -myself to believe that -the Presidency of the -United States will ever -be bought and sold.</i> -But I must say that -there are certain quarters of this -Union in which, if the candidate for -the Presidency should come forward -with this Harrisburg tariff in his hand, -nothing could resist his pretensions if -his adversary were opposed to this -<i>unjust system of oppression</i>.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>“Indeed, Sir, when I contemplate the -extraordinary infatuation <i>which a combination -of capitalists and politicians</i> -have had the heart to diffuse over more -than one-half of this Union—when I see -the very victims who are about to be -offered up to satiate the voracious appetite -of this devouring Moloch, paying<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -their ardent -and sincere -devotions at -his bloody -shrine; I confess -I have -been tempted -to doubt -whether mankind -was not -doomed, even -in its most enlightened -state -to be the dupe -of some form -of imposture, -and the victim -of some form -of tyranny.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">How American Capital Protects American Labor</p> -</div> - -<p>“Sir, in -casting my -eyes over the history of human idolatry, -I can find nothing, even in the -<i>darkest</i> ages of ignorance and superstition, -which surpasses the infatuation -by which <i>a confederated priesthood of -politicians and manufacturers</i> have -bound the great body of the people of -the farming States of this Union as if -by a spell, <span class="smcap">to this mighty scheme of -fraud and delusion</span>.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Bear in mind that this speech was -made in 1824.</p> - -<p>Then look around you and see how -prophetically Mr. McDuffie pictured the -future.</p> - -<p>The Presidency is bought and sold. -Congress is bought and sold. The confederated -priesthood of politicians and -manufacturers do dominate an infatuated -people whom it deludes and plunders.</p> - -<p>The Trusts are nothing in the world -but the legitimate children of Privilege -and Protection.</p> - -<p>Campaign boodle-funds are nothing -in the world but the sop which the Corrupt -Combination of Capitalists pay to -renew the lease which they hold on the -Government.</p> - -<p>And, as Mr. McDuffie said, the most -astounding feature of the whole diabolical -system is the completeness with -which the politicians and the Privileged -can dupe the -victims of -Protection into -the belief -that <i>Privilege</i> -benefits the -unprivileged.</p> - -<p>With the -doors of immigration -standing -wide open -vomiting into -our industrial -world all the -cheap white -labor of the -universe, our -Protected -capitalists are -still able to -convince our -wage-earners that American capital -protects American labor from the competition -of foreign “pauper” labor!</p> - -<p>Having ground down the price of -factory labor to such a low point that -they can undersell foreigners in the -foreign market, our Privileged and -Protected Capitalists can nevertheless -convince American laborers that the -motive for high tariffs is to enable the -Capitalist to pay big wages!</p> - -<p>And they swallowed it—the wage-earners -swallow it, meekly, blindly, -trustfully.</p> - -<p>The record of a Century teaches -them nothing.</p> - -<p>The evidences of their own senses -are ignored.</p> - -<p>The very factory hands who at Fall -River lived off the soup of the Salvation -Army devoutly believed that if it -hadn’t been for the Protective system -they wouldn’t even have got the soup.</p> - -<p>The factory girl who is paid five -dollars per week, and who, when she -complains that she cannot live on the -wage, is sardonically advised to get a -gentleman friend, actually believes -that were it not for Privilege and -Protection she would not get the five -dollars.</p> - -<p>God in heaven! No wonder that -George McDuffie expressed his doubt -as to whether the masses could ever<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> -be enlightened. No wonder his prophetic -speech vibrated with an undertone -of despair.</p> - -<p>Less than one-tenth of the laborers -of this country own their homes; yet <i>they</i> -have been Protected for a hundred years.</p> - -<p>Less than a quarter million men own -practically the entire wealth of the -whole United States; yet Privilege and -Protection are <i>not</i> for their benefit.</p> - -<p>You go to the millions of Unprivileged -and Unprotected citizens and -you point out to them how they are -plundered by being made to pay twice -as much as they should on every -article which they buy.</p> - -<p>They understand it; they admit the -fact; but the corrupt politician has -taught them what to say.</p> - -<p>This is the lesson:</p> - -<p>“Yes; we pay twice as much as the -goods are worth, but it is patriotic and -humane, because we thereby enable -millions of American wage-earners to -get big wages.”</p> - -<p>Fine, isn’t it?</p> - -<p>If the man who repeats that little -lesson, and believes it, would go into -the districts where Protection is and -where the system has been at work -longest he will find himself in precisely -the places where wages are -lowest, where Capitalists are harshest, -where squalor and vice are rankest, -and where the maddened victims -of our soulless wage-system are -nursing in their hearts the passions of -hell.</p> - -<h3><i>The Highest Office</i></h3> - -<p>Let seasons come and go, let the -sunlight and shadows fall where -God’s pleasure puts them—do your -duty as conscience and reason reveal -it to you. Let no other man measure -your work or your responsibilities; -let no artful sophistry, in favor of -the expedient, veil from your steadfast -eyes the summits of Right. Let parties -rise and fall; let time-servers flop and -flounder, let the heedless praise of the -hour lay its withering garlands at the -feet of him who will purchase them by -bending to every passing breeze, every -popular whim, every local prejudice.</p> - -<p>Do thou look higher if joy and -strength and peace and pride are to be -thine. In this brief life (hardly worth -the living) know this one thing: that a -man’s honor should be just as dear to him -as a woman’s virtue is to her. Did the -Roman girls not go gladly to the lions, -to the bloody death in the arena, -rather than to recant their Christian -faith, or to accept a lawless lover? Did -not the Armenian woman, a few years -ago, leap to death over the precipice, -rather than to apostatize or to be -violated? Isn’t the ground still wet -with the life-drops of poor Else Kroegler, -who let her white throat be gashed, -and gashed, and gashed, by the black -devil who assailed her, till her life was -gone, rather than to live dishonored? -And shall a man be less heroic than a -woman? Is there nothing within us -that cannot be bought? Is there no -Holy of Holies of conviction and principle, -into which the corruptor shall -not enter? Is there nothing that we -hold sacred as the citadel of proud, -fearless, upright manhood?</p> - -<p>Once upon a time a barbarous peasant -worked his way upward and -onward, until he wore the imperial -purple of Rome; and he said: “I have -gained all the honors and none of them -have value.” Did not Cæsar, himself, -grow sick at heart of the eminence -he had wickedly won, and say that he -had lived long enough?</p> - -<p>If we must bow to what is wrong, -flatter what we despise, preach what -we disbelieve, and deny what we feel -to be true, is success thus won anything -but a gilded dishonor?</p> - -<p>To be a man, such a man as you -know God would have you be—manly, -truthful, honest—scorning meanness, -hating lies, loathing deceit, meeting the -plain duties of life, and shirking none -of its plain responsibilities—is not -that the highest office you can fill?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span></p> - -<h3><i>Editorial Comment</i></h3> - -<p>The Washington Post is generally -accurate in its statements of facts, -but it erred in saying that one of the -legal grounds for divorce in Georgia is -insanity occurring <i>after</i> the marriage. -Our statute book is not disgraced by -a provision of that kind.</p> - -<p>Insanity is a misfortune for which, -as a rule, the victim is not to blame. -Besides, it is a disease which is often -cured, or a terrible visitation which -sometimes passes away as suddenly as -it came.</p> - -<p>Suppose the Legislature deprives -the afflicted wife of possibly her only -protector by granting the husband a -divorce; suppose the wife then regains -her sanity—would not the situation -be horrible?</p> - -<p>When I reflect upon the shameful -things the Wall Street millionaires -have led our Legislature to do, I am -by no means certain that some Ryan -or Morgan, tired of his old wife, might -secure from the Hamp McWhorter -machine a legislative license to go and -buy a fresh one—but such a deal has -not, as yet, been consummated.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Congress is beginning to catch on -to the enormous frauds in the weighing -of the mails. In the first issue of this -Magazine, I called attention to the -notorious fact that certain Congressmen, -who belong to the railroads, were -in the habit of lending to their bosses -the frank whose mark on mail matter -entitles it to go through the mails without -payment of postage.</p> - -<p>For example: Suppose the Southern -Railroad wants the use of the frank of -the Honorable Leonidas F. Livingston, -whom “the Democratic Party” of -the Atlanta, Ga., District sends to -Congress. In that case, the Honorable -Leonidas will lend his bosses his rubber -stamp which, being inked and pressed -upon a sack of mail matter, leaves -thereon this inscription:</p> - -<p class="center"><i>L. F. Livingston, M. C.</i></p> - -<p>This inscription being placed upon -the sack, the postal authorities are -compelled by law to carry the sack to -any part of the United States free of -charge. The magic letters “M. C.” -which stand, of course, for “Member -of Congress,” are as good as gold in the -postal service. Now why does the -Southern Railroad want to use the -frank of the Honorable Leonidas?</p> - -<p>For this reason:</p> - -<p>The Government pays the railroads -for carrying the mails, at so much per -pound; to get at the “average” for -the whole year, the Government weighs -the mail for ninety days; therefore it -is hugely to the advantage of the railroads -to make the “average” as high -as possible; and consequently the railroads -themselves crowd into the mails, -<i>during those ninety days</i>, every God-blessed -piece of old junk they can lay -their hands on.</p> - -<p>See?</p> - -<p>But if the railroads had to pay postage -on that old junk, their profits -would be cut down to just that extent. -They would have to pay thousands of -dollars to the Government, in postage, -during the ninety days.</p> - -<p>By getting from the Honorable Leonidas -the use of his frank, the railroad -can escape payment of postage on the -old junk. By the collusion of the -Honorable Leonidas, the Southern -Railroad is not only enabled to swindle -the Government in the creation of -a fraudulent “average,” but <i>they even -unload on the Government the expense -of carrying the bogus mail which constitutes -the swindle</i>.</p> - -<p>In the first number of this Magazine, -I gave Livingston’s name as that of one -of the rascals who help the railroad -swindle the people.</p> - -<p><i>I give it again.</i></p> - -<p>The Honorable Leonidas is one of -the unscrupulous knaves who covers -the multitude of his individual sins -with the generous, rubber-coat mantle -of “the Democratic Party.”</p> - -<p>The time is rapidly approaching in -this country when a scoundrel will be -treated as a scoundrel, regardless of -his being a member of the Democratic -Party or the Republican Party. Thieves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -and corporation doodles will not forever -escape detection and infamy by -crying out “I am a Democrat,” or -“I am a Republican.”</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>The gaping world is told that the -Princess Ena, of the Royal House of -Great Britain, is about to marry -Alfonso, the decadent lad who is King -of Spain. The Royal House of Great -Britain holds the throne upon the Parliamentary -Condition that it shall be -Protestant. The Act which recognized -the Hanoverian succession reads: “The -Princess Sophia and the heirs of her -body <i>being Protestants</i>.”</p> - -<p>But the crown of Spain would not be -allowed to rest upon the head of a heretic. -No, indeed! The King and Queen -of Spain must be Catholics.</p> - -<p>But King Alfonso wants the fair -Princess Ena, and the ambitious Ena -wants to become Queen of Spain.</p> - -<p>Is there any way out? Oh, yes. -The Princess Ena, of the Royal House -whose Protestant faith is a matter -of Parliamentary measure, being determined -to marry a King whose crown depends -upon his being a rigid Catholic, -happily solves the problem by “turning” -Catholic.</p> - -<p>Very well. If to Henry of Navarre -“Paris was well worth a mass,” -why shouldn’t the throne of Spain be -worth as much to the fair Princess Ena?</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>And, by the way, the Princess Ena -has had some illustrious examples set -her in the matter of changing one’s -creed.</p> - -<p>Did not unhappy little Anna Gould -“turn” Catholic to ease the conscience -of her precious Castellane?</p> - -<p>And did not the daughter of the -American “house” of Mackay “turn” -Catholic when she became an Italian -princess?</p> - -<p>Human motives are pretty much the -same everywhere, and to many people -religion is a mere matter of respectable -conformity to the manners and customs -of those who make up the environment.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>John D. Rockefeller is running about -from one hiding place to another, to -keep from being found by the officers of -the law. How silly. Why does he not -come into court with a shattered memory -and a pack of perjuries like some of -the other high-rolling rascals who have -been before the courts recently?</p> - -<p>As to one-third of the things which -might land him in the penitentiary, if -he admitted them, he can say, “I decline -to answer on advice of counsel.”</p> - -<p>To another third he can say that he -does not remember.</p> - -<p>To the remaining third, he can make -perjured replies.</p> - -<p>Then old John will be in line with -Rogers, McCall, McCurdy, Depew and -some others who have recently figured -in the New York legal proceedings.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>While Rockefeller is hiding out like a -common criminal, would it not be appropriate -for one of his high-priced -preachers to come forth in another sermon, -or interview, or signed article, explaining -to us common mortals, what -a good and pious, and benevolent man -old John D. is?</p> - -<p>The Recording Angel must have a -busy time trying to keep straight the -accounts of some of our high-priced city -preachers.</p> - -<p>There was Bishop Potter, for instance, -who choked off the Reverend -Mr. Chew when that subordinate divine -wanted to give us a piece of his mind -concerning Life Insurance rottenness in -New York. The high-priced Bishop -put himself in the attitude of warding -off attack from the robbers of widows -and orphans.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>The Constitution of the United -States expressly declares that no money -shall be taken from the Treasury without -an appropriation by Congress.</p> - -<p>Therefore, when Lyman Gage and -Leslie Shaw, Secretaries of the Treasury, -took $15,000,000 out of the Treasury -and placed it in the Standard Oil -Bank in New York City they violated -the supreme law of the land. The $56,000,000 -which Mr. Roosevelt’s administration -has been allowing the National -Banks to hold and to use is held and -used in violation of the Constitution.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> -What do our big men care for the law? -Nothing. The law is for the small and -the weak.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>It was not <i>your</i> mother or sister or -wife, <i>but it might have been</i>, and therefore -the thing that happened to her -should stir your blood.</p> - -<p>A lady who is every bit as good, so -far as anybody knows or says, as Mrs. -Roosevelt, went to the White House to -see the President on business. She -wanted to plead for her husband, who -had been arbitrarily thrown out of a -good office at the instance of a very contemptible -cur named Hull, who happened -to be a Congressman, and chairman -of the House Committee on Military -Affairs.</p> - -<p>A swell-head White House official -named Barnes, told the lady that the -President was engaged and could not -see her.</p> - -<p>She remarked that she would wait until -the President was disengaged—that -she meant to stay until she <i>did</i> see him.</p> - -<p>In other words, she placed herself in -the position of “the importunate widow.” -She was desperately in earnest; -her husband had been foully wronged; -it was a matter of vital importance to -her; and her wifely heart made her -brave the rebuff of asinine Barnes.</p> - -<p>Mr. Roosevelt had recently returned -to the White House from a “progress” -through the Southern provinces, during -which progress he had exhibited -himself to his admiring constituents -as the most affable, approachable, genial -and generous of men. What was -more natural than for Mrs. Morris to -think that a little persistence on her -part would bring the gallant Teddy to -the front, beaming with that glorified -grin and extending that cordial hand -which had so recently enraptured the -people of the South?</p> - -<p>Stage-play, however, is one thing and -“business” is another. Teddy is a -genial democrat when playing to the -grand-stand, and a bumptious autocrat -in some of his White House moods.</p> - -<p>To cut the long story short, the -lady was ordered out of the White -House, and when she kept her seat she -was seized upon by three white men -and one negro and forcibly dragged -out. Her silk dress was torn, her ornaments -scattered, her flesh bruised. -The white men pulled her by the arms -and shoulders, the negro held her by -the legs; she was dragged through the -mud to a cab, thrown into it like a common -criminal and driven off to a criminal’s -resort, the House of Detention.</p> - -<p>A more shocking outrage has never -been committed at the White House. -It was indecent, it was brutal, it was -despotic, it was violative of all democratic -usage and of every human consideration. -The poor lady was so terribly -frightened, so rudely handled, -subjected to such a public and unprovoked -humiliation that she was -thrown into a fever and confined to her -bed for many days.</p> - -<p>No—I have already stated that it was -not <i>your</i> sister, or <i>your</i> mother or <i>your</i> -wife whose legs were held by Roosevelt’s -nigger while his three white ruffians -dragged her, screaming, through -the mud, and flung her, bruised and -frantic, into a cab to be driven off as -criminals are driven.</p> - -<p><i>But it might have been.</i></p> - -<p>And when you consider the incident -from that point of view you will admire -the courage with which Senator Ben -Tillman denounced the outrage, while -you regard with utter scorn the cowardly -attitude of the great majority in both -branches of Congress who were afraid -to say what they thought.</p> - -<p>Mr. Roosevelt was not originally responsible -for the outrage, but he chose -to become so by his refusal to express -any regrets at the occurrence, and by -his failure to rebuke the brutes who -were guilty of such needless violence to -a respectable visitor at a public office -which belonged as much to her as to -anybody else on this earth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/illus11.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Maximum and Minimum Benefits, at Least</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>There is talk of congress adopting the maximum and minimum -tariff plan. Haven’t we something of that sort in -force now.</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Bart., in Minneapolis Journal</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus12.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Builder of the City</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Tom L. Johnson</i>—“<i>That, sir, is the root of all municipal mischief, -and it must be dug out clean!</i>”</p> -<p class="caption"><i>Bengough, in The Public</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 675px;"> -<img src="images/illus13.jpg" width="675" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“EVERYBODY WORKS FOR RYAN”</p> -<p class="caption"><i>F. Opper, in N. Y. American</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="Lookin_Twards_Home"> -<img src="images/heading1.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>Lookin’ T’wards Home<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY HELEN FRANCES HUNTINGTON</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>“No, we ain’t a’needin’ any more -hands right now,” said Polly -Ann in a brisk, business-like -voice that discouraged prolixity on -the part of the loitering applicant -whom Polly knew to be unreliable -from a working point of view, for he -bore all the outward marks of shiftlessness -which her eyes had been -trained to discern at one comprehensive -glance.</p> - -<p>“I reckon I’d as well wait an’ see -the boss,” was the hopeful answer.</p> - -<p>“It won’t do no good to wait, -’cause he ain’t got no work for you,” -Polly reiterated with dry patience. -“’Sides, the boss is too busy to waste -any time outside o’ business.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, then I’ll call again,” the -applicant observed amiably. He shuffled -out, hands in pockets, and Polly -Ann eased back in her chair behind the -railed-in desk that overlooked the long -rows of pallid, expressionless faces -bowed over the spindles that whirred -monotonously through the dull roar -of machinery. Polly was used to the -noise; its absence, during the brief -Sunday rests, made her nerves ache -dimly as if their rightful functions had -been forcibly suspended, for she had -grown up within the mills. Her -mother had been first to succumb to -the insidious fever which sooner or -later fastens upon the unsound, poorly -nourished slaves of the great White -Despot known to the world as the -Southern Cotton Mill industry. Polly’s -young sister had followed their mother -to her quiet rest within a year, after -which the overburdened, inadequate -father “aimed” to return to the upland, -clayey farm which he had so -hopefully abandoned two years before; -but before he could save enough money -to cover his debts he added to his burdens -by marrying a factory widow -with four pallid, old-young children. -Polly lived with them until they moved -to Atlanta in hopes of financial betterment, -then she assumed the brunt of -home-making for her two undisciplined -brothers. Meanwhile, her industry -had increased as her thin, deft -fingers became more and more proficient. -Her interest in her fellow-slaves -broadened into a mute, protective -supervision which the keen-witted boss -recognized and rewarded by placing -her in a position of trust which, humble -though it was, relieved her of the bitter -grind of mill labor.</p> - -<p>Spring was in the air. It looked in -at the dim windows and drifted through -the open doors where the sunlight -drenched the worn, splintered floor -with fine gold. Polly recognized something -familiar—the sweet, far-reaching -scent of wild azaleas that grew -thick and tall along the distant Chattahoochee -hill; she closed her eyes and -let her fancy drift back to the green -pastures and still waters of the old -haunts of her heart’s desire, until her -revery was shattered by a human appeal.</p> - -<p>It was a sunny young voice that recalled -Polly to tangible things, and it -belonged to a very young girl of the -“cracker” type, with a face of spring-like -innocence, who introduced herself -as “Mis’ Lomux, from Lumpkin,” with -a smile of such irresistible sweetness -that Polly’s thin, sallow face lighted -with answering pleasure.</p> - -<p>“You-all’s got a job fer me this time, -ain’t you?” the stranger asked anxiously. -“I was here last Chuesday, -an’ the boss said he ’lowed he’d have -a place fer me by today. I aimed to -git here right soon this mornin’ so’s to -start work on time, but the chillun -give out in spite of all I could do, an’ -I was jest obleeged to stop along with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> -’em at a house where the folks promised -to keep ’em till they got rested.”</p> - -<p>“The boss is right busy now,” said -Polly in very kind voice. “I don’t -much believe he needs any more hands, -’cause he tuk in a new batch Saturday, -but you can wait an’ see what he says. -Set down an’ rest yourself till he comes -along.”</p> - -<p>“He surely will give me <i>somethin’</i> to -do,” Mis’ Lomux said hopefully, -“’cause he done promised he would.”</p> - -<p>“Well, mebbe he will, then. Did -you ever work in a mill afore?”</p> - -<p>“No’m, but I can learn real fast. -They say ’tain’t hard.”</p> - -<p>“No, ’tain’t to say hard, but it’s -turrible wearin’,” Polly answered. -“You don’t look real stout, nuther.”</p> - -<p>“That’s one reason why I come,” -Mis’ Lomux admitted frankly, “though -I’m stout a’ plenty to putter all day -without restin’ any bit. Last fall I -was tuk with a spell o’ fever an’ sence -then I jest ain’t been able to do like I -uster. Plowin’ an’ sech-like beats me -plum out in no time. I tried my best -to take Tobe’s place after he left, but I -jest couldn’t make out no way.”</p> - -<p>“Who’s Tobe?” Polly interrupted -with deepening interest. “Your -brother?”</p> - -<p>“No’m, he’s my husband.”</p> - -<p>“Your husband!” Polly echoed surprisedly. -“You look dreadful young -to be married. How long <i>have</i> you -been married?”</p> - -<p>“Be ten weeks on Sunday,” the -bride replied unenthusiastically.</p> - -<p>“An’ he’s left you a’ready!”</p> - -<p>“Yes’m.” Mis’ Lomux nodded her -blond head solemnly. “He done broke -his promise an’—an’ I don’t aim to -live with him no more, ever.”</p> - -<p>Polly Ann searched the flower-like -face with something akin to pity. -“You ain’t a’ carin,’ are you?” she -asked in a whisper.</p> - -<p>Mis’ Lomux’s denial was emphatic, -but unconvincing. “I ’lowed all husbands -was like pa,” she admitted -sadly, “an’ that’s why I married Tobe -so quick after he axed me. You see -when pa died that throwed me an’ the -chillun onto the county, with me not -able to do fer ’em like I would a’ been -if I hadn’t had the fever. What to do -I didn’t know ’cause the chillun -couldn’t work by their selves to do -any good. When Tobe Lomux sent -me word that he’d tak the hull lot of -us if I’d have him, I was glad enough -to marry him on that account, no matter -what come. Not that I got ary -thing agin Tobe—no one ain’t fer -that matter,” she interrupted herself -to say extenuatingly, “for he’s a real -steady, honest person. Tobe’s high-tempered, -though. Fust thing I -knowed his folks come meddlin’ round -talkin’ about him havin’ to do fer a’ -passel o’ lazy chilluns an’ sech-like an’ -it warn’t no time fore Tobe had put the -chilluns to work like a gang o’ niggers. -Me! Why, I jest couldn’t stand that -not fer a minit! I up an’ told Tobe -to hire his own niggers or quit us, -’cause them pore chillun warn’t goin’ -to be nobody’s slaves. An’ he went”; -she finished, growing very white and -cold.</p> - -<p>“He warn’t much or he wouldn’t a’ -acted that way,” was Polly’s stern -verdict.</p> - -<p>The bride winced. “I aim to show -’im we can git on without him an’ his -uppidy folks,” she retorted, with a -flame of delicate color. “That’s why -I come here, jest to make a livin’ fer -us all till I can stouten up agin crap-making -time next spring. By that -time the two little boys’ll be big enough -to help with the plowin’. Boys grows a -heap in a year.”</p> - -<p>“Did you say you brung the chillun -along with you?” Polly wanted to -know.</p> - -<p>“Yes’m, we all set out together yesterday -mornin’. Tain’t to say so dreadful -fur—jest eighteen miles—but -they ain’t used to travelin’ steady, an’ -they give plum out early this mornin’, -so I left ’em along with some folks -while I come on ahead to git work.”</p> - -<p>Polly Ann’s interest was of a keenly -personal order, which admitted of vast -concessions in favor of the second applicant -for the already crowded ranks -of mill laborers. She had turned the -first comer away almost at sight, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> -Mis’ Lomux was different—her plaintive -needs appealed to Polly Ann’s -warm, starved little heart in a fashion -quite unknown to her since her mother -and sister had passed beyond her -faithful care.</p> - -<p>“Where’s your things?” Polly asked -after a museful pause.</p> - -<p>“We’re totin’ all we’ve got,” Mis’ -Lomux answered frankly. “Pa didn’t -have much of anythin’ when he died -an’ I sold what little there was to git -the chillun fit close to come down here -in.”</p> - -<p>Polly rose and stepped from the little -platform with an air of decision. -“You set there while I go hunt the -boss,” said she.</p> - -<p>So Mis’ Lomux waited hopefully -until Polly returned from the fore part -of the great building to say that there -would be a vacancy in the spindle department -the very next day. “You’d -better fetch the chillun right along,” -Polly advised, “’cause you’ll have to -be ready to go to work at seven o’clock -tomorrow mornin’. There’s a’ empty -shack at the end of Factory Row that -you can rent real cheap. I’ll see about -rentin’ it while you’re gone.”</p> - -<p>Polly saw them pass the mills late -that afternoon, a dusty, tired band of -wayfarers, each carrying small, queer-shaped -bundles which contained the -sum of their meager possessions, and -felt herself glow with satisfaction as -she thought of what she had contrived -to put into the rough little shack, in -the way of household furnishings. -She went over after work hours to -assist with the setting to rights.</p> - -<p>By the end of the first week Mis’ -Lomux and the two little boys, who -were to help with the next year’s crop, -had obtained steady employment in -the mills. Their bright faces gleamed -out among the listless, pallid, faded -faces of the “old hands,” with primrose -freshness that attracted Polly -Ann’s eyes many, many times during -the long noisy day; but soon their -morning glow waned and the difference -grew less and less marked except -for Mis’ Lomux’s illuminating smile -which never dimmed or wavered, early -or late, while the little loved faces -turned towards hers. The delicately -rounded girlish figure grew thin, and -Mis’ Lomux drooped more and more -just as Polly’s mother and sister had -drooped before doom overtook them, -yet never a word escaped her patient -lips. There was, indeed, no time for -self-pity, for all her thoughts were -centered upon the children whom she -sheltered from every harsh word and -look with a maternal zeal that never -failed of its loving purpose, in spite -of the children’s wilfulness apparent -to every one but Mary Lomux. Polly -realized shrewdly how it had been -with Tobe, whose judgment had lacked -the softening influence of love, for -although the children were of naturally -lovable disposition, Mary had -undeniably spoiled them from a man’s -view-point.</p> - -<p>Every Sunday morning Mis’ Lomux -piloted her little flock away to the hills -which seemed to beckon her far beyond -the noise and smoke and grime -of Factory Row to the place of her -heart’s desire. Polly Ann often accompanied -her friend because the occasion -afforded opportunity to add to -the meager lunches in a manner that -lapped over several succeeding meals. -On such occasions the girls talked -continually of the tranquil, humble -joys of home, while the children lay in -the grass, too tired to play or chatter. -Mary comforted their weariness with -a promise of a speedy reprieve.</p> - -<p>“We’re goin’ home in the spring, -sure,” she would say with illuminating -smiles, “an’ when you’ve been there a -day or two you’ll plum fergit about -ever feelin’ puny or tired. Jest keep -lookin’ t’wards home.”</p> - -<p>But the event seemed to recede. -Summer’s golden glory paled before -autumn’s riper loveliness, and the air -grew pungent with harvest fragrance -that made Mis’ Lomux’s heart sick -with longing. Polly noticed that her -friend was losing ground daily, but -there was no help for her at the mills, -and Mary would not hear of returning -to the fallow farm before the growing -season began.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span></p> - -<p>“I jest couldn’t bear to let the chilluns -go to the poor farm,” she said -yearningly. “Folks’d always have -that to throw up to ’em when they -growed up. An’ there’s them Lomuxes! -They’d talk wuss’n anybody.”</p> - -<p>During the late autumn one of the -boys met with an accident which kept -Mary from work for several days and -drained her slender savings to the last -nickle. Then winter came with its -chill continuous rains, when the mills, -always dull and somber, grew doubly -gloomy. Doors and windows were -kept closed and the prisoned air grew -more and more poisonous as the workers -exhaled it over and over. Mary -protected her boys as well as possible. -She had made herself so well-liked by -her fellow-workers that no one interfered -with her many little devices for -the children’s comfort and no one manifested -the ill-will which is so generally -exhibited towards favorites; for it was -impossible to be harsh toward the -brave little woman who fought so -desperately against losing odds. -Toward spring Mis’ Lomux was obliged -occasionally to take a day off on account -of blinding headaches.</p> - -<p>“’Tain’t nothin’ at all,” she invariably -protested, in answer to Polly’s -anxious questions. “Folks that’s had -the fever ginerally feel this way every -year about the same time. When the -weather gits warmer I’ll be stout as -ever.”</p> - -<p>But Polly knew better. She had -seen that look of deadly weariness too -often to be deceived.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t you never heard from Tobe?” -Polly asked one evening when she sat -on the steps of Mary’s shack watching -her friend’s strenuous attempts to hold -herself erect while she patched a pair -of faded little trousers.</p> - -<p>Mary bowed her head very low as -she answered, “No.”</p> - -<p>“Where’s he at?”</p> - -<p>“In Atlanta, workin’ in the engine -shops, an’ doin’ well; his maw told -Billy Sanders a while back.”</p> - -<p>“An’ he knows you’re down here -slavin’ like a nigger for all them chillun?”</p> - -<p>“I reckon he does, ’cause his maw -writes to him.”</p> - -<p>“Then all I’ve got to say is that he -must be a turrible no-count feller to -let his wife—”</p> - -<p>“’Tain’t his fault,” Mary flung back, -lifting her deathly pale face for a -moment. “It’s them Lomuxes that -made all the trouble to start with. If -his maw hadn’t found fault with the -chillun he never would a’ done what -he did.”</p> - -<p>“If you knowed that, what made you -send him off?” Polly wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“I jest couldn’t stand the thought -of Tom bein’ teched by nobody. None -of them chillun ever had a hand laid -onto ’em afore, an’ I couldn’t bear that -they should—ever!”</p> - -<p>“Well, ’tain’t none of my business, -of course,” said Polly drily, “but I -<i>will</i> say that if Tobe was half a man -even, he’d do his part now that you -need him so bad.”</p> - -<p>“He couldn’t—not after what I -said,” Mary protested mournfully. “I -told him never to come back no -more till Kingdom-come, an’ he said -he wouldn’t—not if I begged him on -my dyin’ bed!”</p> - -<p>“My land, what a mean sperited -feller he must be!” Polly exclaimed -contemptuously. “I wonder the Lord -didn’t punish him for sech talk. In -my opinion, Mary, you’re a heap better -off without him than you’d be with -him.”</p> - -<p>Mary’s head drooped very low over -her work, but in spite of that Polly -saw the tears that fell on the little -patched garments. There was a long -silence during which Polly hated Tobe -Lomux as heartily as she pitied Mary. -Then she delivered herself of a bit of -advice that had burned within her -heart for weeks. “If I was you, Mary, -I’d give up an’ let the county take -care of me—jest for a little spell. -You ain’t able to work another day, -an’ to tell you the truth I don’t believe -you’ll be let work much longer, -’cause the boss has noticed how bad -you look. I’ll git the circuit-rider to -speak a good word for you at the poor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> -farm so’s they’ll give you a little shack -off to yourself.”</p> - -<p>“Oh Polly, I couldn’t go—I couldn’t!” -Mary cried chokingly. “For myself -it wouldn’t matter <i>what</i> come, but -the chillun—they would always be -looked down on fer livin’ at a poor -farm.”</p> - -<p>“What’s to become of ’em if anything -bad was to happen to you, I’d -like to know?” asked practical Polly. -“You’ve done for ’em an’ humored ’em -till they’re sorter spoiled. They -couldn’t git along with strangers. The -poor farm’s the only thing, Mary. I -don’t doubt but that you’ll be stout -enough by next spring to go back to -the farm an’ make a crop, but you -won’t if you stay here.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll rest up a bit,” said Mary dejectedly. -“We can git along on what -the boys makes for a few days an’ by -that time I’ll be stout enough to go -back to work.”</p> - -<p>But in that surmise Mary was mistaken. -On the fourth day when she -resumed her place at the reels, outraged -nature succumbed completely to -the long strain, and she dropped in a -dead faint among her whirling spools. -That happened the day before Polly -was to go on a long advertised excursion -to Atlanta, and, although Mary -was quite ill on the eventful morning, -Polly did not offer to stay with her -friend but hurried through her gala -preparations in great excitement. She -looked thinner and paler and smaller -than ever in her unaccustomed finery.</p> - -<p>“I’ll fetch you a little somethin’ from -Atlanta, if I git time to go to the -stores,” Polly promised, while she -waited on Mary’s porch for the hack -to gather up its fluttering load along -Factory Row.</p> - -<p>Polly left the crowded train at Atlanta -and hurried off in search of the -engine shops. She had little difficulty -in locating Tobe Lomux, whose industry -had made him quite a favorite there. -He was a sturdy, well-built young fellow -with a good, honest face and a firm -undimpled chin that bespoke a will of -iron. He looked at little frail, anxious -Polly as if she were something too insignificant -for serious notice.</p> - -<p>“I’m a friend of Mary Lomux’s,” -Polly began with a furiously beating -heart, for her hopes had dwindled discouragingly -during her long, worried -ride, “an’ I’ve come to find out if you -aim to leave her die without doin’ a -thing to prevent it.”</p> - -<p>“Mary—die!” Tobe’s head went -back with a wrench that sent the blood -bounding to his face. “What’s that -about Mary?” he asked gruffly.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you know that she’s killin’ -herself at the cotton mills down at -Gainesville, workin’ for them chillun? -Ain’t nobody wrote an’ told you that, -Tobe Lomux?”</p> - -<p>Tobe ignored the question. “Did -Mary send you to me?” he asked in a -voice that Polly misinterpreted.</p> - -<p>“No, she didn’t. She’s got too -much grit for that even if she is too -sick to hold up her head. I didn’t -have much hopes of gittin’ any satisfaction -from you, judgin’ by the way -you’ve acted, but I thought I’d try -jest onct. What I want to know, -Tobe Lomux, is if you’re goin’ to let -her die—or not?”</p> - -<p>“Me! Why, good Lord, what can -I do? If Mary wanted me I’d—I’d—Well, -she don’t, that’s all.”</p> - -<p>“Mary didn’t send for you,” Polly -broke in eagerly, “but if you’re any -sort of a man you’ll drop that spike -an’ take the fust train to Gainesville. -That’s what you’d do, if——”</p> - -<p>The tool dropped from Tobe’s grimy -hand, and his head and shoulders went -back defiantly. “I’m goin’ right back -along with you,” he said, jerking off -his leather apron and shaking down -his sleeves. “Wait till I draw my -pay. We can talk on the train.”</p> - -<p>Polly remembered that homeward -ride to her dying day, for it was the -first time in her defrauded life that -she had been brought face to face with -a great passion whose very crudeness -added to its strength. Tobe had held -himself with grim, fearful ardor to his -labor, while his stubborn aching heart -yearned for one word of reconciliation -from Mary. His mother had written<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> -strange, slighting things relating to the -blighting factory life that Tobe abhorred, -and he had waited and Mary -had suffered in silence. Before the -train reached Gainesville Tobe’s busy -brain had evolved a plan which he -confided to Polly while they stood on -the station platform waiting for the -country stage which was to take Tobe -up to Lumpkin that very afternoon.</p> - -<p>“I’ll be down by noon tomorrer, -sure,” was his parting promise.</p> - -<p>Polly paid a brief visit to Mary’s -shack when she reached Factory Row, -fearing to stay long lest her secret -should escape her eager lips. She was -tired, she explained so tersely that the -sick girl felt hurt and neglected. The -following day Polly appeared at sunrise.</p> - -<p>“I don’t aim to work today,” she -announced, “so I may as well set with -you, Mary. You jest lemme fix you -up on the porch where you can git -the air while I red up the house a bit.”</p> - -<p>Mary was too listless to object, so -she dragged herself out to the narrow -porch where the warm spring sunshine -drenched the rough boards with a -golden flood, upon which the blossomed -torches of the cypress vine made small, -dancing shadows.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t it a turrible pretty day!” -Polly exclaimed glowingly. “Makes -me think of way up in Lumpkin, don’t -it you?”</p> - -<p>“I jest can’t bear to think of it at -all!” Mary wailed, with a yearning -glance toward the far, golden hills.</p> - -<p>“I’ll bet the honeysuckles is jest -thick all over them river hills by now. -Don’t you rec’lect how blue the bottoms -looked along about this time -when the dog vi’lets is out full?”</p> - -<p>“It’s time to lay off the cotton -fields,” Mary murmured. “Polly, if -anything should happen to me, you’ll -see that the chillun keeps together at -the poor farm, won’t you?”</p> - -<p>“Shucks, you’re goin’ to get well—that’s -what’s goin’ to happen to you, -Mary Lomux. Now lie still and rest -while I straighten up the house.”</p> - -<p>Mary lay quite still for a long, long -while, looking toward home with a -great wistfulness in her weary eyes -and a dark fear in her heart. By and -by a wagon turned across the bare, -sun-baked flat that separated Mary’s -shack from the factory grounds and -stopped at the head of Factory Row. -It was spotlessly new, even to the -snowy bow-sheet, and the household -furnishings visible through the shirred -opening were new, also. Mary saw -the driver spring down lightly and -throw the reins over a broken gatepost. -Then Tobe stumbled up the -steps, dully ashamed of his unconquerable -emotion, for he came of a -race who count it unmanly to betray -any outward sign of feeling. But it -was impossible for him to speak calmly.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t have no idee you was sick, -Mary,” said he shakingly. “I’m real -glad Polly come an’ told me about it. -I thought I’d drop in an’ see how you’s -comin’ on, jest to be neighborly,” he -added in a voice that seemed to come -from a great distance.</p> - -<p>Mary struggled up with a smothered -cry, but fell back weakly among the -pillows and cried instead of answering, -while Polly stared helpless from -the doorway and Tobe wrestled with -his heart’s desire to take the poor -little woman in his arms and comfort -her in love’s own way. And while -they waited a thin little voice came -from the pillows.</p> - -<p>“I ain’t a bit sick,” it said, “jest -that flustered I can’t help but cry. -Don’t mind me—Tobe. I’m real—glad -to see you.”</p> - -<p>“Mary,” Tobe rose from the chair -into which he had dropped and stooped -over the little trembling figure until -his big, firm, strong hands rested on -her shoulders. “Mary, do you reckon -you could make out to go on up to -Lumpkin with me? I’d love, the best -kind to raise a crop this year.”</p> - -<p>A cry of inarticulate joy struggled -up from the pillows and after a moment -a little tear-wet, lovely radiant -face looked up at Tobe. “Do you -mean—Oh, Tobe, would you take the -<i>chillun</i> too?” Mary faltered.</p> - -<p>“Sure thing, an’ be only too glad. -Land, how I’ve missed them young<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> -’uns!” cried Tobe, every fiber of his -being aglow.</p> - -<p>Mary’s joy brimmed over. “Oh -Polly, did you hear that!” she called -in sheer ecstacy. “I couldn’t be happier—no, -not if I was in heaven.”</p> - -<p>The young man lifted his head and -looked straight at Polly with wet, -shining eyes. “Say, you’ve got to go -long with us,” he said unsteadily, -“’cause I ain’t goin’ to leave Mary do -a lick of work till she gits plum strong -agin, no matter what comes. Git -ready, will you, Polly?”</p> - -<p>“Me! My land, how pleased I’d -be. Why, it’d be like gittin’ to heaven—mighty -nigh,” said Polly growing -hot and cold by turns. “Now that the -boys is both goin’ down to live with -pa, too. Seem like things is turnin’ -out too good to be true.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t it! Tobe, can we go soon?” -Mary asked breathlessly.</p> - -<p>“Soon as you’n Polly can fix what -you want to take along,” Tobe answered -eagerly. “I’ll go over an’ -fetch the chillun from the factory -while you all git ready. We’d oughter -git home by dark.”</p> - -<p>Then he rose and strode buoyantly -across the sun-baked hill to the factory -door and Mary rose, too, tremblingly, -but without hesitation, while Polly -held herself in readiness to support her -frail figure should her strength desert -her. But there was no further need -of anxiety, for Mary had tasted the -elixir of life during that brief, transfiguring -hour when love had put to -rout the dreariness of hope deferred -and filled her heart with joy unspeakable.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer1.jpg" width="500" height="125" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2>Bobby Jonks; His Hand and Pen</h2> - -<p>Man is an animal, but you can easily detect him from the rest of them when -he has his hat on. He is of few days and full of things that the doctors -cut out if they get half a chance. My Uncle Bob is a bachelor. A bachelor is -a man who smokes in bed and burns himself up every once in a while and goes -to glory a-hollerin’, while everybody else says “Oh, pshaw!” and “Did you ever?”</p> - -<p>All bachelors are wise, but my Uncle Bob knows ’most everything; he says -he believes he’d be in Congress right now if it wasn’t for his modesty—no, honesty. -But, says he, there is one thing he never could fully make up his mind -about, and that is whether clam-digging is fishing or agriculture. A hog is a -quadruped; the love of money is the root of all evil—thus we see why the motto -of a rich man so often is “Root hog or die!” A man is either a biped or a cripple, -according to whether he has messed around in a sawmill or not. The difference -between a biped and a quadruped is two legs. A three-legged stool is a -tripod, and is mostly used by country editors. A turtle is a quadruped, but he -can’t climb a tree and get off a good joke about making a noise like a nut. Neither -can some people.</p> - -<p>On the only three occasions in a man’s history when he cuts any particular -mustard he is called “it”—when he is a baby, a bridegroom and a corpse. And -in all three instances he is said by his admiring friends to look real natural. -Man was made to mourn, but Uncle Bob says the dad-dogged fool always thinks -he can get out of it by marrying again. A woman may be as handsome as a -circus horse but she is never satisfied to let another woman be handsome, too. -It’s different altogether with a hog—he is perfectly contented to let everybody -else be hogs if they want to. Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Assessment_Insurance"><i>Assessment Insurance</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">A HOMILY ON THE ROYAL ARCANUM<br /> -BY MICHAEL MORONEY</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>There is no real or true life insurance -but the straight old line -regular life, where the policy -is payable only at death. Term life -insurance, so called, is simply banking -for the benefit of the company which -takes the risk. In regular life insurance -the insured has a certain expectancy -at the time of taking out the -policy. Payment for the amount he -is to receive at death is spread out over -his expectancy, less four per centum -interest compounded, and he pays it in -annual, semi-annual, or quarterly installments, -as may be agreed upon. -If he lives out his expectancy, he will -have paid in all he is to receive at death, -either directly, or by the interest carried -on his premiums. Of course there -is a certain amount of loading in the -premiums he pays, but for the purposes -of our illustration, that need not -be considered. In this plan, the policy -holder is really insuring himself, and -when he dies his beneficiary, or estate, -simply receives back the money he has -paid in. The fact that there are so -many life insurance companies and that -they have become so wealthy and powerful, -illustrates the power of interest, -especially when it is compounded.</p> - -<p>The Royal Arcanum professes to -give life insurance at actual cost, which -it does not and never did. It was -organized from the top down. Fifteen -persons met in Boston on June 23, -1877, and constituted themselves the -Supreme Council. Twelve of them -became officers, and three were incorporators -simply. This body reserved -to itself all the power of legislation and -of receiving and paying out the moneys -of the order. Provisions were made -for the organization of subordinate and -grand councils of the order, but they -were simply wards of the Supreme -Council. Members were received on -medical examinations from 21 to 55 -years of age and paid for $3,000 insurance, -one dollar at 21 years, and up to -four dollars at 55 years. The rise -from year to year was from 4 to 20 -cents. The assessments were to be -paid when called for, after the death -of a member. The order grew and -prospered from year to year until 1898, -when the management thought it saw -the necessity of increasing the rates. -It made 21 at the rate of $1.76 and 54 -rate of $7.00. The rise each year was -from 6 to 44 cents. At this time the -order had 195,105 members, and the -loss in membership in the order in the -next six months was about 10,000.</p> - -<p>However the order continued to -prosper until after the annual meeting -of the Supreme Council in 1905, when -it adopted a new table of rates, which -began at $1.89 at 21 and rose to $16.08 -at 65, but from Oct. 1, 1905, all the -members were to be assessed at attained -ages, whereas before that all had been -assessed at entrance ages. In other -words, on Oct. 1, 1905, each old member -was required to reënter the order -as a new member, and pay at attained -ages. New members after that date -were to pay at entrance ages, but all -were to pay $16.08 per month on -$3,000 when they reached 65 years. -At the time of the making of this new -rate the order had over 300,000 members. -Since then it has lost 50,000<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> -members, and a majority of its members -are opposed to the new rates.</p> - -<p>There was no occasion for the new -rates, as, under the laws of the order, -additional assessments could have been -made, at any time, to provide for excessive -mortality, and the order could -have been worked out on additional -assessments until it failed, as it is -bound to do.</p> - -<p>An organization within the order -has been formed to contest the new -rates, and this has brought a suit in -the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts -to have them declared -invalid. The protestants claim that -when each member entered the order -he made a contract to pay assessments -at age entrance, and that while the -Supreme Council may call extra assessments, -as mortality may require, it -cannot increase the rates, or compel -members to pay at attained ages. Also -that the new rates are unreasonable -and will create a surplus of $3,700,000 -every year, which is contrary to the -laws of the order and of the State of -Massachusetts. The Supreme Council -claims that each member when he -entered the order surrendered all his -rights to protest or object to any action -of that body and agreed in advance to -approve any action which it might take -in regard to rates.</p> - -<p>All of the old life insurance policies -of every kind and character are based -on contract, and it was supposed that -the rates at entrance in a fraternal -order constituted a contract between -the member and the supreme body of -the order. Many of the courts of the -several states have so held, but it was -for the Supreme Council of the Royal -Arcanum to defy reason and common -sense and to claim that they were the -autocrats of the order. All insurance -should be like a deposit in a savings -bank, that can hardly be lost. The -Royal Arcanum, however, has depended -upon lapses. Thirty-five is the age -usually taken for illustration in insurance. -At that age the average of -lapses per 1,000 lives is 37 per cent plus. -In May, 1905, there were 305,083 members -in the order. That would mean -that out of 305,083 members if all were -of the age of 36, in any year, 111,000 -would lapse. The average policy in -the Royal Arcanum is $2,231.67 and -out of that there would be lost by -lapse, $826.70. If all the members -were 36 years of age, on the whole -$680,848,000 insurance in force there -would be lost by lapse, at thirty-six -years, $251,923,760 annually. Now -in honest insurance there should be no -lapses or forfeitures and in the insurance -of the future there will be nothing -of the kind. But on this plan, no -matter how long one has paid, or how -much he has paid in, if he stops paying, -he loses all. Misfortune or accident -may compel him to stop paying, but -no matter what may be the cause, he -loses, and other persons dying quickly -have had the benefit of the money he -has paid in. A member who entered -in 1879 at the age of 36 will have paid -in on September 1, 1905, about $800, -or $30.72 per year. A person insured -at the sum of $3,000 would have to live -to the age of 133 to pay that sum out -at the rate for the first 26 years. But -assume the insured has paid $800 to -October 1, 1905, and remains in the order. -He pays $97.20 the first year of the new -rates, $103.68 the second year and -$192.96 the third year and the same -sum each year thereafter. His expectancy -is 12.81 years at 63. If he lives -out his expectancy, he will have paid into -the order, $3,277.12, or $277.12 more -than he will receive. But suppose he -should live till 85 years of age, he will -by that age pay in $5,205.72, or about -$2,205.75 more than he can draw out.</p> - -<p>Will any man join an order of that -kind where he shall forfeit all by the -failure to make a single payment? So -long as he can get into a company -which will give him paid-up insurance, -extended insurance, or a cash-surrender -value, he will not.</p> - -<p>Every man insured in a fraternal -association is in the condition of Damocles. -The sword suspended over his -head is likely to drop at any time. The -moment confidence is lost the whole -matter dissolves like a rope of sand, and -the insurance is gone. Suppose the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -Royal Arcanum had ceased to do business -on June 1, 1905, $680,648,000 -of its insurance would have terminated -at that time, which would have -been a loss of about $2,231.67 to each -member. That is, 305,083 persons -would have lost $2,231.67 insurance -each. These same persons and their -predecessors had paid in $97,004,175.82 -of which $94,790,627.86 had been -paid out on death losses. Since the -new rates have been published the -order has lost 50,000 members carrying -$111,583,500 insurance. Of the sum -paid in, $36,090,650 has been paid in -by men who have dropped out and the -balance of loss is to be paid by the -survivors. Thus it is ever with assessment -companies. They must and will -fail as soon as it is demonstrated that -the adopted rates will not carry any -organization for a generation. The -new rates of the Royal Arcanum have -simply demonstrated the utter worthlessness -of assessment companies, and -the value of regular life insurance -where each policy holder contributes -a fund to pay his own policy.</p> - -<p>The Royal Arcanum is no better -than a suicide club, for it is only the -suicides and the weaklings who can -have any benefit of the order. The -new rates require the members to pay -greater sums in premiums than in old -line companies, and at the same time -the company insists upon the old and -exploded system of forfeitures, refuses -any paid up or extended insurance, and -any cash-surrender values. Who will sit -down to a feast of this character? No -one but an old member who has paid -in too much to stop, and no new man -will join the order. The whole scheme -of the new rates was to drive the old -members out so that the order would -not be compelled to pay their death -losses. The order is an autocracy. -There are twelve life members in the -Supreme Council who represent no one -but themselves. Three of these are -original charterers and nine are Supreme -Past Regents. There are twenty-nine -officers, who as such are members -of the Supreme Council. These thirty-eight -by the aid of twenty representatives -can control the Supreme Council, -and there is added a new life member -every two years in a new Supreme -Past Regent. No one should be a -member of the Supreme Council but -some one who represents a constituency. -Yet John Haskell Butler, of -244 Washington Street, Boston, Mass., -controls the entire Supreme body. -In this he is ably supported by -W. O. Robson, Supreme Secretary. -How these two gentlemen of eminent -talent could be imposed on in the -adoption of the new rate, which in the -case of the old member who entered -at thirty-six years, compels him to pay -a surcharge of $64.18 per annum more -than necessary to carry his risk, or in -his expectancy a total of $1,226.98 -more than he should pay, or 70 per -centum more than his equitable share, -is more than we can understand.</p> - -<p>The average of the surcharge on all -the old members is 67 per centum, and -is 27 per centum higher than the new -members pay. Naturally, if the membership -could be held together, these -new rates would create and pile up a -surplus, or excess, of $3,700,000 per -year over any sum that the laws of -Massachusetts permit the society to -hold, which at the present time is about -$30,000,000.</p> - -<p>However, the society has never attempted -to create any surplus or reserve -over and above about $2,000,000, -nearly equal to the proceeds of three -assessments. What kind of financing -is this which at one fell stroke burdens -the members with paying sums which -will produce $3,700,000 per year after -paying over all mortuary calls? Heretofore -the order has preached for twenty-eight -years that the surplus remains -in the pockets of its members and shall -so remain. Now it is to be created and -placed in the control of Mr. Butler and -his one hundred and fourteen associates -who are souls with a single thought. -And what for? What kind of actuaries -did the Supreme Council employ to -make these new rates that such a result -is brought about and that the policy of -twenty-eight years is reversed at a -single session, without any notice to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> -the members? The members of the -Royal Arcanum, the men who pay the -money disbursed by Mr. Butler and -his associates, have no voice in proposing -any new legislation for the order, -nor in approving or rejecting any -enacted by the Supreme Council. -They must pay whatever the one -hundred and fifteen guardians ask of -them or get out of the order.</p> - -<p>The $3,700,000 surplus exacted the -first year, under the new rates, is not -to be used for paid-up or extended -insurance or cash-surrender values, but -is simply to be kept on hand as a -reserve. The reserve, which has heretofore -been carried in the pockets of -the members, is now to be transferred -to the pockets of the Supreme Council. -Why are the members of the order, who -have carried their insurance at great -sacrifices, to have an additional burden -placed on them? Why must this great -reserve be created unless for the same -reasons it was created in the three -great companies in New York City? -What is the object of creating a reserve -when there is no paid-up or -extended insurance and no cash-surrender -to be made, and when assessments -are required to be called for as -needed to pay death losses? Why -should any assessment company have -a reserve beyond a few assessments -ahead? What kind of actuaries did -the Supreme Council have to make -tables to produce such results? What -fit guardians of 250,000 people are the -one hundred and fifteen members of -the Supreme Council who would adopt -a table of rates producing such results? -The control of the funds must have -driven these one hundred and fifteen -people mad to have produced tables -which will so work. Would it not -have been better to have called extra -assessments from time to time under -the authority of the laws of the order -and of the State of Massachusetts, -until the order was compelled to -fail, than to have adopted the new -rates, which are more expensive than -old-line insurance and which if approved -in the legal contest now pending will -insure the failure of the order at once?</p> - -<p>The only true assessment insurance -is to pay the death losses as they occur, -by assessments, and which must include -a fund for management and -control. When the assessments become -too great the company dissolves -and that is the end of it. All those -who have not died during its existence, -or who have lapsed in the same time, -have lost their bets, and those who -have died have won.</p> - -<p>I am not able to give the number -who have been members of the order -since its origin. It could not have -been more than 400,000. Of this -number 35,000, or one-twelfth, have -died. Over 33 per cent., or 133,333, -have lapsed, and if the institution fails, -as it certainly will, 367,000 have lost -every dollar they have put in, in order -that 35,000, or one in twelve, might -draw prizes.</p> - -<p>Such institutions are contrary to -public policy and should be suppressed. -Each state insurance department -should require such statistics as will -show all the facts any one might wish -to know.</p> - -<p>If I had the exact statistics, I am -satisfied the proportion of those who -pay in and lose would be much higher -than I gave it.</p> - -<p>The laws of political economy must -be evolved just as we evolve those of -nature, and they are as certain when -we know them, but any institution -which requires a party to live beyond -his expectancy in order to pay in the -amount of his benefit certificate is a -fraud. At 21 a man’s expectancy is -45 years. Now a man at 21 who -entered the order June 23, 1874, would -have paid in to December 31, 1905, -$404. It would take him over 166 -years to pay in the $3,000 at the same -rate. As he can never do that, his death -loss must be paid by some one else, -and consequently his insurance by -others is a fraud and a gambling -transaction.</p> - -<p>As eleven persons must contribute -to pay the loss of the twelve and then -lose everything themselves, the whole -scheme is an imposition contrary to -the interest of society. Eleven men<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -contribute and lose $250 each that -one man’s beneficiary may gain $3,000, -and these eleven men lose every dollar -they put in. After twenty-eight years -of preaching to the public that they -had found the El Dorado of Insurance, -that they were furnishing insurance at -cost and that the members carried the -reserve in their pockets, Messrs. Butler, -Robson & Company now come to the -front and admit that all this time their -scheme has been a fake and a failure. -They say the unclean spirit departed -from them in May last, but I think he -returned to them with seven others -worse and they have turned the -Arcanum into a madhouse.</p> - -<p>I do not have the personal acquaintance -of all the seven, but two of them -might be called Landis and Barnard, -because the condition of the Arcanum -is worse than before. Now every -member must pay in his $3,000 in -the period of his expectancy, and if he -lives beyond it he must pay till he -dies. The new rates indicate that -members must die before reaching 65 -years, and if they decline, then they -must be fined $192.96 per annum for -their refusal to do so.</p> - -<p>Any man who enters the order now, -in view of what he must submit to at -and after the age of 65, ought to have -his sanity inquired into. It is high -time the State should intervene and -protect the public from the schemes of -these fraternal orders. The fraternity -is humbug, and for every loss paid -there are many more losses to society -from which it should be protected. -The correct scheme of insurance has -not yet been discovered or announced, -but when it is it will not be gambling -or commercialism, but will be simply -indemnity—which it should have been -from the start.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="THE_PEOPLE"> -<img src="images/heading2.jpg" width="700" height="650" alt="" /> -<h2>THE PEOPLE<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY JOHN P. SJOLANDER.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It is well with the world, my masters,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">It is well with the world and you,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When we move along with a smile and song,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Mid the tasks we are set to do.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the song and the smile of the People</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Should be ever your compass and chart.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh! ’tis well with you when the song rings true</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That comes from the People’s heart.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It is ill with the world, my masters,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">It is ill for the world and you,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When our eyes look down, and our faces frown,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Mid the tasks we are set to do.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beware of the frown of the People,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lest their wrath and their patience part!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh! let not a wrong ever burden the song</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That comes from the People’s heart.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="Back_To_Nature"> -<img src="images/heading3.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>Back To Nature—Part The Way<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY EUGENE WOOD.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>About once in every so often, we, -as a race, all lay back our -heads, shut our eyes, and let -out the shuddering shriek: “Back to -Nature!” It is so loud and heart-felt -a cry that it makes you wonder why we -have to go back at all—why we didn’t -stay there. If the Get-Strong-Quick -professors are right, this thing of our -wearing clothes, and dwelling in houses, -and eating dainty cooked food three -times a day is sheer tom-foolishness, all -the more tom-foolish in that once we led -the healthy, happy life that inevitably -results from fasting three or four days -in the week, then dining on goobers -and timothy hay; wearing nothing but -a nose-ring and a dash of paint, and -sleeping in the hollow trees.</p> - -<p>For most of us, “Back to Nature” is -too long a road to travel—all the way. -Nevertheless, the cry is so loud, and so -general throughout the civilized world -that we cannot dismiss it as impracticable -and meaningless. It betokens -something. I think I know what, and -if it didn’t look so much like serious -thinking for you and me, I’d write out -what I think it means. I’ll say this, -though: If we judge the future by the -past this universal impulse to touch the -naked earth once more, and so to gather -strength and vigor from it, means that -the world is pregnant with a great -event, and we must be fortified for the -labor-pains of it. A new age is struggling -to be born. Mark my words.</p> - -<p>The timid venture, on the way back -to Nature, of a two-weeks’ sitting on -the front stoop of a boarding house in -the mountains or at the seashore does -not satisfy us now. Bold and daring -spirits have even gone to live in the wild -woods, and have come back to tell us it -was bully. We all know it is great fun -to play at being boys again, but for -most of us the problem is complicated -by our having wives and daughters -whom we cannot well put in cold storage -during our absence. I know that -under the pressure of the need to go -back to Nature some have even taken -the women with them. I—I—I don’t -know about that. It doesn’t look very -alluring to me. Mind you, I don’t -know a thing about living in the wilderness -except what I have read and heard, -but as near as I can come to it, there -seems to be considerable packing to be -done. There’s the canoe in the first -place. If I were thinking of going into -the woods, I shouldn’t stir a stump unless -I had a canoe. But you take one -fifteen or eighteen feet long, and carry -it about three miles through thick-set -timber, and I should say along about -the last half of the third mile you’d begin -to notice it. You’d have to have -some kind of a tent, and even when -they’re made of silk, I should think -they would make something of a -bundle. You’d want your gun and -ammunition; you’d want your fishing -tackle; you’d need a small ax; you’d -have to carry a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, -a deep pot, a plate, a knife and fork and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> -cup; you’d need at least one blanket -and a rubber sheet of some kind; you’d -need to pack your bacon and your flour, -and erbswurst, and matches, and quinine, -and morphine, and rags for bandages -in case—you know—and saccharine, -and whisky if there are snakes -around, and—oh, yes, tobacco; don’t -let me forget tobacco—and, oh, I don’t -know what all. No women’s fixings in -this partial list, you see. I don’t know. -I knew a man that took his wife along -with him to the woods—but then, don’t -you see, it was on their honeymoon. -Oh my! It makes all the difference in -the world when you’ve been married -ten or fifteen years. Yes, I should say -so.</p> - -<p>I once read a most fascinating series -of articles by a woman who had this -delightful experience. The intention was -to chirrup: “Come on, girls! It’s perfectly -elegant!” But she didn’t fool -me. I could see that whenever there -was anything that was arduous, or tedious, -or mussy in the housekeeping line -“the gentlemen of the party eagerly -volunteered.” Yes. M—hm. I can -just see ’em. Mind you, I wouldn’t go -so far as to say that a woman in the -woods is a darn nuisance. No indeed. -Only—Well, I tell you. Her husband -may be eager to play Injun, but I -don’t believe she would be very keen to -play squaw. That is, and “tote fair.”</p> - -<p>There is this in favor of taking ’em -along: Not every man can cook. I -know that out there in the forest, when -you make camp as the shadows lengthen -after a long day’s tramp, when every -muscle aches, but aches with glad -fatigue; after a day in which your lungs -have drunk in the pure air thinly fragrant -with the vague odors that the -glazed leaves distill, as it were offering -incense to the god of day; when you -have quenched your thirst from a spring -in the bottom of whose earthen bowl -the sands are reeling and staggering in -the delirium of glee; when you have -hearkened to the wild beauty of some -unknown bird-call echoing through the -lofty Gothic aisles; when the western -sky flames into undreamed-of glories -and then fades away until the lonely -stars come out, I know they say that -you can choke down any old mess and -relish it. Maybe so. I am as good a -hand at eating pancakes as anybody -else, but I don’t know about them for -every meal and every day; bacon is my -favorite vegetable, but there comes a -time; fish once a week is all I care for. -No. It doesn’t seem alluring to me.</p> - -<p>They tell me hemlock boughs make a -fine mattress. Yes? I know where I -can get better for less money. They -tell me that sleeping on the ground with -the high sky for a ceiling is simply great. -If it comes to that, I have slept on the -ground, and the morning after I knew -exactly where my hips and shoulders -were. I don’t mind granddaddy long-legs -tracking over my face. They’re -kind of interesting. But I have never -been able to put away the thought that -if it should turn chilly in the night, and -some snake should come and crawl in -bed with me, and smuggle his cool slimy -body down my back, it would probably -break my rest. I shouldn’t fancy it, -I’m positive.</p> - -<p>I tell you. I compromised the matter -thus last summer. I got back to -Nature—part the way. Not so far -though as to get out of touch with the -milkman. I had things cooked to suit -me; I slept high and dry upon a Christian -bed, and yet I wasn’t indoors a -minute of the time the whole enduring -summer. And I’m never going to be -another summer under a wooden roof -if I know how to help it. I’ll tell you -about it if you like.</p> - -<p>There were five of us that wanted to -live in the outdoor air for twenty-four -hours out of every twenty-four. There -was the Honest Man who went to gainful -business every day; there was the -Lazy Man who didn’t do one tap the -summer long, though often besought to -do so, who now takes his pen in hand to -drop you these few lines; there was the -Honest Man’s wife; and there were the -Lazy Man’s Wife, and his growing -Daughter.</p> - -<p>The Honest Man already had in -stock a 12 × 14 tent, and a small A-tent. -The Lazy Man bought a 10 × 12 tent -for himself and wife, and the next size<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span> -smaller for his daughter. Each family -brought bed-clothing and personal apparel. -(It was a first-rate opportunity -to wear out old clothes.) The communal -property, dishes, oil-stove, egg-beaters, -and all such were paid for half-and-half. -It stood the Lazy Man for -outfit just $49.27 all told, and the outfit -is now down cellar waiting impatiently -for summer to come again, when -it will be as good as new and won’t cost -anything.</p> - -<p>The summer previous, the Honest -Man had gone exploring and found a -spot on the Canadian shore of Lake -Erie within an hour’s ride on the steamer -from his business. A whopping big -maple tree, thick and umbrageous, -stood a hundred feet or so back from -the water’s edge, on a sand slope carpeted -with wild grape vines. The -beach was of fine white sand, without -a pebble bigger than a moth-ball, and -it slanted so slowly into the water that -breast-deep was fully a hundred yards -from shore. This made it rather poky -for the men-folks when they went in -swimming, but it was ideal for the women, -to whom a foot of depth is drowning -depth. The lake being soft water, -nobody can adequately express the joy -the women had in washing their hair. -This favored spot was a shade more -than a mile away from the steamboat -pier at which, six or eight times a day, -excursion steamers unloaded revelers -who sought the pallid ecstasy of a non-alcoholic -pleasure resort. (It was Canada, -remember, and while you might -go in swimming on the Lord’s day, -you could not ride upon the giddy-go-round. -A district attorney from -the smoky city on the American side -presumed to fish on Sunday, and got -sassy to the constable who said he -shouldn’t. Thereupon they snaked -him off to a neighboring village -to the hardware store where the ’Squire -kept court and fined him $20 and the -costs.) We were far enough away on -the long board walk to miss the transients, -and by looking carefully through -the trees you could just see one house -from our place, the castle of our landlord. -I am aware that it’s nice to be -exclusive, and get away from common -folks, but it’s so blamed expensive. -Even millionaires when they want to -make sure of getting any place have to -travel with the cheap crowd. You can -think that over. You will find it’s so, -although I haven’t time to work it out -in detail.</p> - -<p>The Honest Man having lived on this -spot the summer before, the floors were -laid of boughten lumber, and the frames -were up. Also, the private walks, -made of such bits of board as the Good -Lord had pleased to send upon the rolling -waves, nailed upon saplings from -the wood back of the camp, were still -in place, so that there wasn’t much to -do, a circumstance that grieved the -Honest Man no little. He liked to be -busy. The Lazy Man was patient under -this affliction. He did help when -there were things to do. He got the -nails and handed the hatchet, and generally -fetched and carried, knowing -full well what are the drawbacks incident -to being a heaven-gifted literary -genius, such as not being of the least -account about a place.</p> - -<p>Among the triumphs of the Honest -Man’s saw and hammer were the tables, -prime among them being the dining-table -under the same maple tree, whereon -we ate our every meal from July 2 -until September 3. It is fitting that in -this public manner I should return -thanks for our kind and considerate -treatment by the weather. I can -cheerfully recommend it to all and sundry. -It rained at times, I won’t deny. -It had to. I can see that. But I must -say it was most forbearing in the matter, -and rained only out of meal hours. -Once or twice it was plain to see that it -strained a point in our behalf, for example, -that time we had to have our -Sunday ice-cream in our tents, and the -two or three occasions when the breakfast -dishes were practically storm-washed.</p> - -<p>This dining-table, the serving-table, -the table in the cook-tent, and the -china-closet—Oh my yes! We had a -china-closet. It was made out of a -packing box, had shelves in it, and four -plank legs—these articles of furniture<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -were covered with marbled oil-cloth, -and the door of the china-closet was of -the same rich material, being secured -with loops and nails. The cook-tent -reared its lofty A on a frame with -a waist-high board-wall, lined with -shelves. It was so studded with nails -that for once in their lives the women -were speechless of complaint that there -weren’t places enough to bestow the -junk without which, so it seems, life -in the kitchen is insupportable.</p> - -<p>Hard by the china-closet was the refrigerator, -in whose construction, let -me say, the Lazy Man bore his part. -He dug the hole in the sand in which -was sunk a barrel with a perforated bottom -through which the melting ice -drained off. The women professed -they lay awake nights listening for the -things piled upon the ice to topple -over into smash. They had to -worry about something. There wasn’t -a thing else for them to do but cook, -and make the beds and wash the -dishes.</p> - -<p>I suppose that cooking by a camp-fire -is the extreme of picturesqueness. -It is also mighty hard upon the back, -to say nothing of its blinding you with -smoke, and frying the grease out of -your face, even after you have learned -that it isn’t really necessary to have a -conflagration big enough to melt the -nose off the coffee-pot, but that a cupful -of live coals and a tiny bunch of twigs -will do the trick. You have to stand -over such a fire to keep it going, and -when it rains it is the deuce and -all. So we had a blue-flame oil-stove -with an oven, and had everything -cooked in the highest style known to -the art, just as it was before we started -on our way back to Nature. There -was just one thing the women missed. -Endless hot water laid on. Their heaviest -burden was to remember “the -dying woman’s advice.” Don’t you -know what that is? “Sally,” she -whispered with her latest breath, “always -put on the dish-water before you -sit down to your victuals.”</p> - -<p>But if the Lazy Man could not -bring his mind to penning deathless -Literatoor, he could at least tote -water from the lake, so it wasn’t so -bad after all.</p> - -<p>The need of cooking was great indeed. -In no spirit of carping criticism -I desire to say that I have seen the -Honest Man, many and many’s the -time, wolf down six big potatoes at a -meal and other things accordingly. We -others did our feeble best, but we never -quite compassed that. I did eat six -ears of green corn once, but you must -remember that they were right off the -vines, as you might say, and you know -how good green corn is when it’s fresh.</p> - -<p>This was no lonesome wilderness -wherein we had to scuffle for our food. -The milkman came right after breakfast -with the morning’s milk. The -morning’s milk remember, not the night -before’s. Then came the iceman. I -want to tell you about him. I had seen -him pushing the lawn-mower on a green -velvet lawn before a mansion up the -beach a ways. I thought he was turning -an honest penny taking care of it for -some one else. Bless your heart, he lived -there. He had a fine big farm behind -it, but it was all seeded down in grass, -because the harvest of ice from the -lake before him in the winter brought -him more money for less work than the -rich loam behind him could raise in summer -crops. Then came the grocer from -the village back in the country. He always -brought us kerosene, sometimes -he brought us groceries, and all too seldom -he brought us the flat loaves of the -Italian baker in the village, flat and -crusty loaves, which the grocer scornfully -called “dog-bread.” There was -“the bearded lady” that brought us -home-made bread just once—just once. -Evidently she had confused the relative -proportions of the yeast and flour. Then -came the old man with the broken hand, -talk about which shortened the day for -him and us; also, his wife, a dear old -soul, who sold us from time to time bouquets -picked from her garden, old-fashioned -flowers made up so round and hard -that if a man were clouted on the head -with a nosegay you’d have to take him -to the hospital. There was “the bonnet -lady,” a sweet-faced Dunkard in the -habit of her faith. There were several<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -whom we came to know right well, and -after they began to suspect that, like as -not, we weren’t as crazy as we seemed, -living in tents—Did you ever hear the -beat of that?—they showed they were -just folks, same as anybody else. But -the one I liked the best was the man -that came on Saturdays to fetch us eggs -and butter. I aroused his interest by -telling him that where I came from they -sold eggs by quarter’s worth; so many -for a quarter, more when eggs were -cheap, fewer when eggs were dear. Well -sir, he like to never got over that. It -was like the returned missionary, telling -how the poor heathens live in China. He -was a very conscientious man. “I’m -sorry,” he would say, “but I’ve got to -charge you 21 cents for them there eggs. -They ain’t worth it. No eggs is worth -that much, no time o’year. They ortn’t -to be more’n 18 cents at any time. -But the others is sellin’ ’em for 21, and -I s’pose I got to, too.”</p> - -<p>One and all, as soon as ever they could -in decency get round to it, had this one -question to ask: “What do you do when -it rains?” They’d ask it with such a -now-I-got-you look that it was funny -to see how set-back they were when we -made answer: “We do the same as you, -we go in out of it.” But on the rebound -you could notice the doubt forming itself -in their minds as to whether we knew -enough to do that. I’m sure they drove -away thinking we were kind of be-addled -in our intellects. I’ll have to own up to -having asked: “What do you do when -it rains?” in the beginning; and also, -“What do you do when it blows?” But -now I am convinced that a canvas tent -well staked is equal to any weather, and -I believe that if it had a red-hot stove in -it, a body might be right cozy in a tent -even in zero weather. I am going to -preserve that conviction unshaken by -never putting it to the test.</p> - -<p>I said that the grocer from the village -inland stopped. You notice that I -didn’t say the butcher. He wouldn’t. -You might go out and “holler” at him: -“Hay! Hay there! Hay you! I want -to talk to you. Hold on a second.” -He never let on he heard you. I didn’t -have a revolver, or I should have held -him up. I did corner him once down at -the Grove, and he explained to me he -really could not be bothered with our -money for his meat. He and his two -men had all they could attend to now, -what with their regular trade and the -two hotels and the boardinghouses down -along the beach. If he sold to private -customers, he’d have to hire more help. -When I suggested that he do that very -thing and make more money, he smiled -at me as one smiles at the foolish prattle -of a child. Nup. He was awful sorry -he couldn’t accommodate me, but—. -And that ended it.</p> - -<p>So for awhile, whenever we paddled -down to the Grove in the canoe for the -mail we stopped at the meat-shop. The -Grove was where the giddy-go-round -was; the razzle-dazzle air-ship, the whistle -of whose tiny engine squealed like a -frightened pig; the cake-and-coffee shop, -the “red-hot” stand; the high-class -“vawdvill,” admission ten cents, children -five; the dancing floor, patronized -by youth and beauty in duck jumpers -and sleeves rolled high on red and peeling -arms, ragged with strips of tissue-paper -hide, each mouth distorted with -an “all-day sucker” whose pine stem appetizingly -protruded; the combination -barber-shop and post-office where they -were all out of two-cent stamps for weeks -together, and “Joe’s.” I’ll get round -to “Joe’s” in a minute if you’ll just be -patient, but now I must tell you about -the meat-shop. He was a fine fellow, -the first butcher, much sought after -when he had got into people’s confidence. -There was the landlord that rented him -the shop; there was the landlady where -he roomed and boarded; there was the -man he bought his meat of; there was -the man he bought his twine and paper -of; the man he borrowed $20 of and the -man he borrowed $5 of—all seeking -him and not finding him. He was—and -then he was not. It was one of -those mysterious disappearances you -read about.</p> - -<p>After he went away, we summer folks -ungratefully conspired to ruin the land -that sheltered us. You know there is -no quicker and surer way to do that to -a country than by shipping valuables<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> -into it. The more iron and steel and -wool and chinaware and diamonds—all -kinds of things you pay money for—the -more of them are brought into a -country, the poorer it gets. If it were -possible to cover the ground knee-deep -with all that heart could wish but brought -from another country, the inhabitants -would have to give right up, and everything -would go to smash. Conversely -a country which imports nothing is always -immensely rich and prosperous. -You know how that is in private life. -The man that raises everything he eats; -that does his own butchering, makes his -own shoes, whose wife spins all the flax -and wool the family needs—such a man -is always well-to-do; he’s independent. -While those who have to buy everything -are always poor and forlorn. We all -know this, but such is the depravity of -the human heart, we want to buy things -without asking whether they are made -in our country or not. If it wasn’t for -our wicked hearts prompting us to want -things, we could easily keep out the foreign -goods. So as to sort of even up the -injury we do our country, it is arranged -that whenever we thus sinfully buy foreign -wares we pay a fine for it. The fine -for ruining Canada by bringing in fresh -meat to eat is six cents a pound. Now -I want to tell you that when we had -no butcher and the village butcher -wouldn’t stop for us, there were people -so selfish that they not only ruined Canada -by bringing over fresh meat, but they -smuggled it! Yes sir! Smuggled it. And -King Edward needing the money so -badly, with all the expense he is under.</p> - -<p>The United States is just as up and -coming, though, as Canada. Every bit. -We don’t propose that our fair land shall -be devastated by a flood of cheap Canadian -mutton (it is most mighty good -mutton; I’ll say that for it), so there is -a fine on anybody that brings it over. -The Beef Trust has expensive families -to send to college too.</p> - -<p>In response to popular demand, the -baker consented to run the butcher-shop. -If you found the place locked -up, you stamped on the stoop and -yelled awhile. He would come out, -rolling the dough off his fingers and cut -you off some meat. Sometimes, though -you’d have to wait until he got those -pies out.</p> - -<p>He was as good-hearted a man as -ever lived, but he caused me many a -sleepless night. I’ll tell you how it -was. One day I didn’t go for the meat. -The Honest Man’s Wife went. She got -a roast, five pounds and a quarter it -was, at 18 cents a pound. The man -figured on the cost. He put it down 70 -cents, but that didn’t look quite right -to him, so he set down a figure 1.</p> - -<p>“Dollar seventy,” he said.</p> - -<p>Now the Honest Man’s Wife had -taught school, and was right good at -ciphering.</p> - -<p>“Would you mind,” she asked as -innocent as a cat lapping milk, “would -you mind figuring that out for me?”</p> - -<p>“Sure thing, lady,” said the baker-butcher. -“Five pounds and a quarter. -There’s your 5¼, at 18 cents. There’s -your 18. Five tums 8 is 40. Put -down the aught and carry 4. Five -tums one is 5, and 4 is—is—er—er—Five -times 8 is 40. Put down the -aught and carry—Hold on. I guess I -made a mistake. Call it 97 cents.” -He smiled pleasingly.</p> - -<p>“Seven cents,” mused she. “M—, -won’t you please figure out for me how -one-fourth of 18 is 7?”</p> - -<p>Well now. I had been paying for -meat without ever figuring it out. Considering -that with his limited arithmetical -powers he was certain to make mistakes, -and considering that those mistakes -were equally certain to be all in -his favor, can you wonder that I have -tossed and tossed for hours upon a -sleepless couch trying to recall the -times I bought meat of him, how much -it weighed and what I paid him?</p> - -<p>I promised to speak of “Joe’s.” -Behold I show you a mystery. I saw a -billhead of his. His initial was M. Try -my best I couldn’t make out to spell -Joe with an M. Yet everybody called -him Joe. I asked the Signora, his -mother-in-law. She pressed her lips -strongly together and wildly shook her -head. “Eena Cannodda dey gotta no -sensea,” she exclaimed. “Eesa nemma -notta Joe. No. Eesa nemma<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -Mike. Michaele. Seguro. Surea -tinga. Cannodda mans ee say: ‘Eh -Joe? Youra nemma Joe? Eh?’ Ee -know dey gotta nuss sense a eena Cannodda. -Ee say: ‘Sure a-tinga.’ Eesa -neema notta Joe. No. Eesa nemma -Mike. Michaele. Seguro. Surea -tinga.”</p> - -<p>At Joe’s you could buy all things -necessary to support life from ham to -hairpins, including Canadian tobacco, -which needs a protective tariff if ever -anything does in this world. Not because -it is a weakling though. It -biteth like a serpent and stingeth like -an adder. Funny thing about that Canadian -smoking tobacco. Sometimes -it puts you in mind of sauerkrout, and -sometimes it puts you in mind of boneset. -I don’t think it is quite as bitter -as boneset, though.</p> - -<p>Shelter, and food, and water and tobacco -being thus accounted for, there -remains another prime necessity of life, -and that is, sleep. I don’t believe -there is one person in a hundred that -knows the real luxury of sleep. Consider -the uncounted hordes that live in -terror of “night air.” Consider the -more enlightened that raise their bedroom -windows just a trifle, to calk them -up as soon as ever it turns a little cool. -But even when wide open, a bedroom -with a window in it is not by any means -the same thing as a tent to sleep in, -a tent by the lakeside, its front all flaring -open, and its sides and top working -like bellowses with the breeze. We had -regular wire springs and to the wooden -frames we nailed pieces of 2 × 4 for legs. -On these were mattresses and bedclothes, -plenty of them. For when we -read of city folk dying of sunstroke and -rolling off their roofs where they had -gone to get a mouthful of the lifeless -air, robbed of its ozone before it reached -them, we were snuggling under one -and sometimes two pairs of blankets. -And then, I had the pleasure (a small -and tepid pleasure you may think it, -but very real to me) of trying to -prop my eyelids open every night, as -I lay stretched out upon my bed, till -I could thrust my hand out between -the sidewall and the baseboard, and -feel the glossy leaves of the cool grapevine, -and try to unkink a tendril before -I lost consciousness. Sometimes -I couldn’t get that far. We’d stay up -till all hours, nine and even ten o’clock, -fighting off sleep. It was a nightly -problem with us which we’d rather do, -go to bed and get that lovely sleep, or -stay awake a minute or two longer -staring at the “friendship fire.”</p> - -<p>I have vainly tried to think which -held the greater fascination for me: -The lake as it shifted its hues before my -eyes from reddish brown to vivid apple-green -through leaded gray and royal -purple, the farther shore now so sharp -and clear that you could see the houses -on it, now but a thin slice of pearl -against a pearly sky, the water between -us and it now a floor veined and -streaked like marble, and now ridgy with -billows, that practised, as it were, their -scales upon the yellow beach, their -hand-backs remembering what the -teacher said, “no knuckles,” and their -finger tips dancing in the white froth: -or, the fire of evenings, fluttering its -ribbons of orange taffeta against the -back log, snapping its blank cartridges -in sport at us, the red coals so many -heaps of glowing jewels in an Indian -prince’s treasure-house. The lake -enthralled me in the day-time. It -numbed my brain; it paralyzed my pen-hand, -and left me only the still and -speechless joy of living. When the -darkness fell, the firelight drew me -with the master-spell. From the lake -I now and then could turn my eyes. -The fire was jealous. Not for a full -minute would it let me go. In its genial -warmth and light our souls expanded, -and we sang the old songs that -everybody knows, the songs that lie -so near the heart its strings must thrill -in concord with them, but, through all, -our eyes were fastened on the fire. -What magic it must be that thus can -charm unhaltingly through all the long, -long centuries that have drifted by like -mist since first men gathered about the -friendly flame! The wonder of it! -The wonder of it! Without the Fire -there could never be the Family, with -all that means to us; no Hearth, no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -Home, with all that means to us. The -first priestess was she that kept the -coals alive; an altar is but a cooking-place. -Lineal descendant of the first -flickering blaze fed with twigs is all our -god-like industry, all that has made us -lords of earth and sea. Back to nature -we may go, but farther back than fire -we dare not, lest we perish body and -soul.</p> - -<p>Perhaps it was the dumb fear of this, -the heritage of pre-historic ancestry -that made us sigh when the time came -to tear the logs apart and quench them -for the night.</p> - -<p>How happy were those dear idle -days! Happy, not only in the retrospect, -but each moment savoring pleasant -to the taste. Once I thought that -Heaven must be rather bore-ous with -nothing left to strive for, no ambition, -no anxiety. I know better now. I -could live on and on forever in that -camp and never wish for anything but -to live. As I write, the pictures of the -sweet, calm evenings out upon the placid -lake in the canoe return to me. It -heaves in gentle swells, the umber -water netted on its ripple-crests with -soft reflections of the flushed sky fading -into tints too delicate for words of color. -Black against the lucent edge of heaven -march the slim poplars. The stars are -struggling out, and taking pattern from -them, the riding-lights of yachts shine -yellowly. The waves plash gently on -the shell that holds us, and the water -gurgles against the paddle that urges -onward, or tinkles in drops like tiny -bells. Something catches in the throat. -It is too beautiful, too heavenly for -earth-born. From far across the waters -comes Caruso’s voice, by magic reproduced, -sweet to suffocation.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Un regal serto sul crin possarti</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ergerti un trono vicino al sol.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! Celeste Aida! Forma divina.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>On the taffrail of the departing -steamer we leaned and watched the -spot until the darkness and the distance -smothered the pale gleaming of the -tents where our friends lingered yet a -little longer. We sighed; we could not -help it. A little more and tears would -have flowed.</p> - -<p>I want to go back there. I want to -go back! Back to Nature—or at -least part way.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2>A Difference</h2> - -<p>“That long-whiskered, pompous gentleman over there, who is doing most -of the talking, is a prominent citizen, isn’t he?” inquired the tourist.</p> - -<p>“Ah-nah!” pessimistically replied the landlord of the tavern at Polkville, -Ark. “He’s a member of the Legislature.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2>His Identity</h2> - -<p>“Does any one know this poor fellow?” asked the Good Samaritan, addressing -the crowd which had quickly gathered at the scene of the accident. -“His mind seems to have become an absolute blank, and——”</p> - -<p>“Trust official! Trust official!” shouted the assemblage in one voice. “Out -of his head and thinks he’s on the witness stand!”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Philosophy_of_Money"><i>The Philosophy of Money</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY J. B. MARTIN</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>One of our Ohio martyred Presidents, -James A. Garfield, in -delivering a speech in Congress, -the last one, I believe, uttered this sentence: -“Whoever controls the volume -of money in this country will be absolute -master of its industries and -commerce.”</p> - -<p>A truer sentence was never uttered -in our House of Representatives. But -to see clearly and forcibly its truthfulness -and effects, one must have a -proper idea of what money is, by what -power it is created, the factors or elements -of money, and its functions and -use.</p> - -<p>Briefly stated, money is the debt-paying -instrument in all civilized -nations, whose people are actively engaged -in making contracts, buying and -selling. Every contract creates a debt, -hence the necessity of a debt-paying -instrument.</p> - -<p>Barbarous nations resort to barter; -that is, giving one product or commodity -for another, and yet with all of our -boasted civilization we have men—some -prominent ones too—who claim -that money is a commodity.</p> - -<p>I propose dealing in facts, as they -are the stern sentinels of truth. Every -nation enacts laws compelling its citizens -to tender certain things, variously -called “dollars,” “pounds,” “francs,” -etc., as the only legal means of payment -of debts and taxes. This is the vital -point of the whole money question. -Law, and law alone, makes money. -Let us see what money is, and how it -comes into existence.</p> - -<p>Our gold, silver, and paper coins; -also our nickel and copper coins, are -really made up of three distinct factors or -elements, each of which may, and often -does, exist independently of the other -two. This fact is one of the central -truths concerning money.</p> - -<p>What are these three constituents? -First is the denominator or namer of -the unit—Dollar. This is an ideal or -abstract term given to an intangible -thing. Second, some tangible or material -substance to represent the dollar, -or some multiple of it; and third, its -life, the <i>legal tender</i> function.</p> - -<p>No two of these can make money; -they must all three be named by -sovereign power, Congress, or we have -no money. Sovereignty is a unit and -cannot be divided, nor can it be delegated. -This is why National Bank -notes are not a legal tender; they are -simply the debt of the bank circulating -as a substitute for money, so as to gratify -the greed of the money sharks, and -the “Power” that is aiming to be “master -of our industries and commerce.”</p> - -<p>But we are told that Congress, sovereign -power, cannot make money out -of nothing, that there must be <i>intrinsic -value</i> in our monetary tokens. Let us -analyze this proposition in the light of -facts and logical reasoning.</p> - -<p>The second factor in money is the -material substance used to represent -the dollar, or some multiple of it. This -material substance does not make the -dollar. Remember this.</p> - -<p>The important factor in the dollar is -its <i>life</i>—the legal tender function—and -sovereign power alone can grant this.</p> - -<p>Under our constitution, sovereign -power is placed in the hands of the -American people—the whole people, -not a part of them,—and their representatives -in Congress exercise that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -power; so that whatever Congress says -shall be money is money in the United -States. So it can be safely affirmed -that law alone creates money. The -fiat or decree of law in the United -States gives us our money.</p> - -<p>But we are told that paper money, -greenbacks, is all right when they are -made redeemable in coin. The word -“redeem” should never be used in connection -with our money here in the -American Republic. According to our -big dictionary, redeem means “to purchase -back,” “to ransom, liberate, or -rescue from captivity or bondage.” -Now as we have seen, Congress issues -our money and puts it in circulation -among the people. Is not Uncle Sam’s -stamp on a piece of paper just as good -as it is on a piece of silver or gold? If -not, why not? Will some one please -tell us? Then again I ask, wherein is -there any sense or logic in Uncle Sam, -the sovereign power in the United -States, buying himself back? Where -has our sovereign power got to, that -Uncle Sam must ransom, or rescue himself -from captivity or bondage?</p> - -<p>As we have seen, sovereign power -alone can issue money. That being a -fact, Congress alone should issue all -our money, whether coin or paper, and -it should all be made a full legal tender; -and no one kind “redeemable” in -another kind; with no state or National -note circulation as a substitute -for money.</p> - -<p>Another very important consideration -is that it should be issued in sufficient -volume to effect all our exchanges on a -cash basis, or as nearly so as possible; -for debt and usury, now called interest, -is the present curse of every civilized -country on earth.</p> - -<p>This accomplished, the Government -should establish Postal Savings Banks -in every city having a population of -two thousand or more, where the people -could deposit their surplus money, -until needed, in perfect safety, paying -a small per cent. just as they do for insuring -their buildings.</p> - -<p>There is always a ratio existing between -the total volume of money, free -to flow in the channels of trade, and all -things on the market for sale, including -labor. This ratio is called—price. -Statistics show that we had our largest -volume of money at the close of the -Civil War. In 1866 we had $80.00 per -capita. We then had high prices and -every man willing to work was employed. -There were no tramps on the -road begging for work or something -to eat.</p> - -<p>The accursed policy of contraction -then commenced, at the instigation of -the “Power” that was aiming to “be -master of our industries and commerce.” -Contracting the money volume continued -until 1878, when we had less -than $20.00 per capita. Then our roads -and city streets were full of tramps, so-called. -No work was to be obtained. -Shops and factories were closed and -farmers did their own work.</p> - -<p>In 1866 there were but 520 failures -in the United States with liabilities -amounting to $8,579,000. In 1878, -there were 10,478 failures with liabilities -amounting to $234,383,132. Such -were the effects of contracting the debt-paying -instrument of our country at -the dictation of Wall Street money -tyrants.</p> - -<p>The Rothschilds in Europe are the -“Power” that controls the volume of -money in every one of the European -countries, and the result is they are the -“absolute masters of the industries and -commerce” of every government in -Europe.</p> - -<p>Furthermore, it can be safely said -that through their agent, August Belmont, -and his clique in New York, -they are aiming to become the “absolute -masters of our industries and commerce” -here in the United States.</p> - -<p>Can it be possible that an American -President would join in this crusade -against the best interests of the American -people? It would really appear so, -for Theodore Roosevelt in his recent -message to Congress recommends retiring -of the greenbacks and “redeeming” -the silver dollars in gold. That -means that our gold coin shall be our -only perfect money, with National -Bank notes (the debts of the banks, -drawing double interest, once on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span> -bonds deposited to secure the notes, -and again on the notes; for no bank -note passes over the counter of the bank -issuing it, until interest is paid in advance), -as a substitute for money; thus -giving the banks the power to increase -or diminish our volume of money, just -as it may suit their sweet will and avaricious -purposes.</p> - -<p>At this point of the discussion we are -told that we must have a standard of -value, and that gold is a never-varying -standard of value the world over. In -reply to that I find in Sir Frederick -Eden’s table of English money, from -the Conquest in 1066 down to 1601, -that in 1551 gold was worth only 4 -shillings 7½ pence per ounce in London—a -little over one dollar of our -money; and in Doubleday’s “Financial -History of England,” page 277, that in -1813 gold was worth 5 pounds 10 shillings -an ounce in London—twenty-seven -dollars and a half in our money. -Does that look as though gold was a -never-varying standard of value?</p> - -<p>Besides, there is and can be no such -thing as a “standard of value.” We -can have a standard for quantity, gravity, -and extension, but not of value. -We have the gallon, the bushel, the -pound and ton, the yard, rod and -mile, but where is the unit for value?</p> - -<p>Some may say; “Why the dollar is -the unit of value”—not correct. The -dollar is the unit in the expression of -price; and, as we have seen, price is the -ratio, so the word dollar is not a unit of -value. Not until we can measure an -idea with a quart cup, measure it with a -foot rule, or put it in the scales and -weigh it, can we have a measure of -value; for remember, value is an idea, -an action of the mind, and what has -civilization invented to measure an idea -with?</p> - -<p>Value is human estimation of desirable -things, which are limited in quantity, -or which require sacrifice to obtain.</p> - -<p>There we have a full, clear and scientific -definition of value, “Human estimation”—clearly -an action of the mind—an -idea.</p> - -<p>Whenever there is a general inability -to pay debts on account of an insufficient -or low volume of money, we call it -a—panic. We have had five such periods -in the history of the American -Republic, viz: in 1819, 1837, 1857, -1873 and 1893.</p> - -<p>How much better it would have been -for our Republic had our fathers, who -framed our Constitution and established -the Government under it, given us a -safe, sound and scientific financial system; -with all money, whether coin or -paper, issued by the Government, and -in sufficient volume to do a cash business; -volume to be increased as population -and business increased; all made -a full legal tender for all debts public -and private, and at no time to be a contraction -or reduction in its volume. -Then we would have had none of the -periods called panics and our advancement -in all branches of business and -science would be far in advance of what -it now is.</p> - -<p>It may be said, and truthfully, that -our fathers had no time to devote to the -money question; but there were a few -in those days who did study it and -profited by it just as there are at the -present time.</p> - -<p>If the farmers, the mechanics and -wage-workers,—the creators of wealth—in -this country ever expect to get any -relief from the tyranny and oppression -of this octopus that is “aiming to be -master of their industries and commerce,” -they must go to work earnestly -and systematically in their various -organizations—the Grange, The Farmers’ -Alliance, the Patrons of Husbandry -and the various Labor Unions—to -studying the money question, and if -they persevere they will see clearly as -President Garfield did over a quarter of -a century ago, that “whoever controls -the volume of money in this country -will be absolute master of its industry -and commerce.”</p> - -<p>There were a few men even at the -time our Government was organized -who understood the money question. -Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin -Franklin concurred in the theory -that “good paper money, based on the -credit of the people is the best money -ever invented by man.” “Equal and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> -exact justice to all men, special privilege -to none,” was their motto.</p> - -<p>Let me quote further from Garfield. -In that same speech he said: “But I -admit freely that no Congress is wise -enough to determine how much money -the country needs. There never was a -body of men wise enough to do that. -The volume of currency needed depends -upon laws that are higher than Congress -and higher than Government. The -laws of trade alone can determine its -quantity.”</p> - -<p>Demand for use is the natural law of -money supply, and the Government -should furnish such an amount as may -be legally demanded; the idea being -that the business of the country will -absorb as much as it needs, and no more.</p> - -<p>My opinion is, the volume ought not -to be less than $50.00 per capita; and, -as I believe, $100 per capita would be -none too much to effect all our exchanges -for cash, which is the proper -way to do a safe business.</p> - -<p>According to the Treasurer’s Reports -for 1864, 5 and 6, and Fawcett’s, “Gold -and Debt,” we had in circulation at the -close of the Civil War about $80 per -capita, which was none too much. -Then it was that we had high prices and -good times.</p> - -<p>Our present Comptroller of the Currency -reports $31 per capita in the various -kinds of money and substitutes for -money now in circulation. This is -altogether too small an amount for the -production and exchanges required in -this broad land of ours. The result is -debts are being made and credits are -expanding at a fearful rate, preparing -the way for our next great panic.</p> - -<p>As stated above, we have never yet -passed beyond twenty years without -having a panic, and a moment’s thought -will present to the mind the fact that we -are now on the last half of the twenty -years since 1893.</p> - -<p>It is coming, for we all know that -“like causes always produce like results;” -and the cause is an inadequate -volume of the debt-paying instrument—money—to -do the business with. -The result is that deferred payments—debts—must -be made, and, as we have -seen, a panic is a prevailing inability to -pay debts. So look out for breakers in -the near future.</p> - -<p>Our present situation is no time to -advocate commodity money, for the -defenders of hard money ought to know -that hard money and hard times always -go hand in hand.</p> - -<p>Demand for use is the natural law of -money supply; and, as the demand -now is far in excess of the supply, it is -safe to say, that unless more money is -put into the channels of trade, there -will be a severe money stringency; if -not a genuine old-fashioned panic.</p> - -<p>I have often wondered why $100,000,000 -in gold is kept penned up in -the Treasury Building in Washington. -So far as doing the people any good it -might as well be in the bottom of the -ocean.</p> - -<p>Money performs precisely the same -function in the social organism that -blood does in the animal organism. -Blood is the vitalizing force in -the human body, and money is -the vitalizing force in the body -politic. Everybody knows that the -loss of blood causes weakness in a -human person, and just so the loss of -money—a contraction of the money -volume—causes weakness in a government; -hence no “Power” should be -permitted to control our volume of -money.</p> - -<p>Every voter in this Republic has a -head above his shoulders supposed to -contain a think-shop; and, if the -“Power” now controlling our money -volume, and as a result our “commerce -and industries,” is to be removed and -better times secured, every think-shop -must get down to business, with a full -determination to see that our “commerce -and industries” shall not be interfered -with, that the volume of money -be increased enough to effect rapid exchange -of products and the payment of -debts.</p> - -<p>The difficulty in accomplishing this -lies in the fact that so many think-shops -are never used, and again, some -never read any newspaper except “my -party paper,” containing nothing for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -think-shops to work at, and the result -is—ignorance.</p> - -<p>Thought is the mother of ideas, and -ideas move the world. The reading -man will naturally be an observing man, -a thinking man, always looking for the -cause of results which are transpiring -around him, either in politics or -science.</p> - -<p>The election in several States last fall -indicated very clearly that more men -were using their think-shops than in -previous campaigns. The good work -has commenced and may it continue -until our Republic be free from any -organization that dare attempt to be—“Master -of our industries and commerce.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Little_Path_to_Peace"><i>The Little Path to Peace</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY MARY SMALL WAGNER</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Save for the pewee’s plaintive cry,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Along this way all sound doth cease.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We christened it, the breeze and I,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">“The little path to peace.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The dusty highway far behind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The vine-clad cottage as our goal,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There lies what many strive to find—</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Peace for the heart and soul.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A mother’s voice drifts down the stair,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Crooning a simple lullaby.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">See Mistress Puss and Fido there,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">In perfect amity;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And over all the scent of flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And over all the spell of home,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though simple, for the asking ours,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Enthralling all who come.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O comrade with the restless eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And greater cares than I can name,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With weariness you ill disguise,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Plodding the road to fame—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pause—where the trees lap overhead,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Close the wee gate, nor seek release.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hand in hand we’ll lightly tread</div> - <div class="verse indent6">The little path to peace!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="THE_CAPTAIN_DAVY_AND_GENERAL_KUROPATKIN"> -<img src="images/heading4.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>THE CAPTAIN, DAVY, AND GENERAL KUROPATKIN<br /> -<span class="smaller">A STORY OF KOREA<br /> -BY ROBERT DUNN.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>West from Ping-Yang, the old -Korean capital, flows Tai-Dong -River into the Yellow -Sea. Where in its mouth the flood tide -weakens, and junks with lumber slung -over sides drop their brown mat sails; -there, where the clean sharp hills most -beautifully are tricked with mirage and -blue mist, squats the town of Chinnampo.</p> - -<p>Kuroki’s army landed there on the -March night early in the war when the -ice, as if by magic, ground out toward -China. Oiled torches spiked to rafts -bobbed on the chill stream, and the -winches of blacker transports creaked -and whistled to the snowy shore. -From the holds swung aloft rice and -fodder and knock-kneed, shaggy ponies. -Impish guards of the Mikado in -red and green, privates in long coats -and spectacles, sprang forth rigidly on -land. No noise, no fuss; the brown invasion -of Asia was furtively begun. -The long barracks were ready, and they -that had watched Jap coolie sappers -a-building them—beer and sweet-cake -sellers from the islands, pioneers in the -new westward hegira—sat proud and -bland that night in their paper-slat -doors. Meanwhile, from his desert of -filth and thatched mud huts all about, -crouched cousin Korean in the darkness, -unsurprised and cynical, smoking -a yard-long bamboo pipe as he dropped -soft syllables of philosophy on the vanity -of effort, and with disdain drew his -wadded white robes closer.</p> - -<p>Even when the red sun flag fluttered -darkly up its pole, no cheers followed. -But from a hill overlooking the town -an oath arose.</p> - -<p>“Damn these Japs, damn their mustard -bellies,” growled Captain Cyrus -Brewster, chewing a stogie on the porch -of his lonely bungalow.</p> - -<p>Isolated on his hill, the captain was -just such a Yankee, thin-nosed, blue-eyed -and muffin-mouthed but with an -imperishable look of youth for all his -curled gray hair, as you might find in a -bungalow with a flag-pole in front were -you wrecked, for instance, off Patagonia; -which is to say he was an iconoclast, -and hated the world. He shipped -from Chinnampo two million dollars -a year in bullion from a gold mine -near the Yalu River, for which he was -“agent;” passed white men’s food and -chemicals through the custom-house, -and swore at coolies loading them on -the light-draught junks he ran to the -head of navigation on the Tai-Dong, -whence carts trundled to the mines.</p> - -<p>But worse than the world he hated -the Japanese, for they militantly coveted -for barrack joists the only pine -grove in the region, which adorned his -homestead. They could not seize the -land without stirring diplomatic mud, -since the captain had bought his stake -from the Russians, who had eked it -from Seoul in ’96, when the Jap ambassador -burned the old Empress in -kerosene, and her son fled to the Slav -legation. Therefore the Islanders had -threatened eviction, with smiles and insults; -dickered blandly with bows, lies, -and tissue documents inkily fly-tracked, -as the captain repulsed them with a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> -fist blow on the table, and cable blanks -inscribed with fiery messages to Washington, -which he never sent.</p> - -<p>“War news?” he’d exclaim to missionaries -bound up river. “Don’t ask -me, by crotch! I don’t bother the -monkeys in their damned town, and -they don’t come up here to me.”</p> - -<p>Thus being pro-Russian and a truly -brave man, Brewster felt he must vindicate -his notions in action. Having -heard that a Cossack captain near Wonsan -on the west coast would be pleased -to know how many men and rice sacks -landed with Kuroki, he let a young -Russian travel, dressed as a Japanese, -on his junks between the lines. This -fellow’s name was Davydoff, a machinist, -who patriotically had quit the -mine when the war broke out, but being -lame could not enlist. In disguise, -he traveled by the name of Ikeda. I -do not know how the captain squared -with his conscience in abetting a spy, but -that Yankee defect is an over-worked -myth, anyhow; and a world malevolent -enough to land a man, aged fifty, alone -in Korea, with a past like an erasure in -a pirate’s log, should grant indulgence.</p> - -<p>This very hour tonight he awaited -Ikeda, erst Davydoff. Now through -his night glass he searched the river, -now the silent town distorted by no -flickering camp-fires, the torches, dying -into iridescence, revealed the black -Tai-Dong as a covert serpent stealing -across a world numb and indifferent in -white age. “Like them yeller oriental -hearts, that river,” he muttered, nodding -at the stream, “reaching out -acrost the world fer us white men’s sceptres, -learnin’ to smile whiles they suffer. -Oh, they’ll get the sceptres.” -You see, the captain believed firmly in -the Yellow Peril. Soon he turned toward -the angled thatches of the town, -and a white painted gable far from the -barracks caught his eye.</p> - -<p>His sharp features softened with recollection. -“I see yer hev yer schoolhouse -lit, young missy,” he murmured. -“Night school. Workin’ overtime civilizin’ -Koreans.” For first the invaders -had built the barracks, then the -school—copying the white man’s way in -lifting a yellow burden—which to the -captain menaced a right regeneration of -Korea. The brown people thus handled -the surest civilizing weapons of the -white, who were sealed meanwhile further -north in their fortresses of privilege -and prejudice; so the bungalow on the -hill and the schoolhouse among the huts -symbolized the passing of Asia.</p> - -<p>“Karin San’s there,” mused the captain, -and a vision of the white clad Korean -boys with long hair parted in the -middle, the girls in green silk tunics, -their snub noses buried in books of English -and Japanese, uprose before him as -he had seen them through the doorway, -repeating the alphabet in unison, on a -day he had passed the schoolhouse. -Then Karin San had bowed low on the -threshold, saying, “It is a beautiful -day, You-think-yes? I am Karin-San-the-school-teacher-of-English,” -and a -big red pin had fallen from the shiny -convolutions of her oiled hair, as she -bowed so low. “Great Christopher!” -the captain had gasped; the same dizziness -now touched his breast as he -watched.</p> - -<p>Many times since he had visited Karin -San, stealing down to the school unknown -to the Japs, or even Davydoff. -He would sit beside her on her platform, -and she would turn to him for -correction when her red lips mistrusted -how an English word should sound. -After lessons they would talk of Japan -and America, for the captain had the -reserve of age and disappointment, and -to Karin the war was no more a subject -for discussion than the coming of spring -itself.</p> - -<p>“Shame me for lovin’ you, Karin -San,” he muttered now tonight. “One -of the yeller-bellies I hates. Hypocrite!” -and he turned toward a gigantic -sort of dog-house under his flag-pole, -where hibernated in winter and dozed -in summer, the captain’s big brown Siberian -bear, Kuropatkin, which he -loved even more than his twisty pine -trees. He tapped on the house with -his bamboo stick, and wished the General -“Happy New Year.”</p> - -<p>“It’s time ye waked and brushed yer -teeth,” he said. “World’s a bit livelier<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> -in these parts than when ye went to bed -last year.”</p> - -<p>The rattle of a chain told the hibernation -was over, while eight hundred -pounds of shagginess squeezed into the -open; tested the ground for frost with a -paw, waved its head as a man sounds a -stiff neck, and as if to say, “My! but -this is early in the summer to wake a -fellow!”</p> - -<p>But the captain had stooped quickly -and snatched at a red object in Kuropatkin’s -house. “Cuss them, Gen’ral!” -he exclaimed, grasping a shinbone hung -with flesh. “The Japs has tried to pizen -ye! Peach kunnels,” he growled -holding the meat to his nose. “But -Mr. Jap Mustard-belly ain’t so all-fired -wise, and don’t know God A’mighty -can’t pizen a b’ar. He’ll learn a thing -or two ’bout Rooshian b’ars some fine -day, though now he’s got the nerve and -numbers to do most anything.”</p> - -<p>Kuropatkin, cocking his head on one -side, raised an ankle, and, pointing like -a setter dog into the pine-grove, let out -an “Oof!”</p> - -<p>“You see Mr. Mustard yonder?” -drawled the captain, following the General’s -gaze. “You’re sayin’ you’re -pretty wise, you b’ars, ain’t you? I -guess the’ ain’t no monkey law <i>yit</i> about -watch dog <i>or</i> b’ar licenses in this country. -My timber’s lyin’ pretty loose -about this hill. We’ve likely got a -vendetta on, General,” and having -kicked away the poisoned bone, the captain -unhooked Kuropatkin’s ankle -chain, thus freeing him.</p> - -<p>Quite right was the Yankee about -Jap nerve and a vendetta. The Islanders’ -next militant move in the feud -came that very night. In his French -bedstead—the only kind in Korea, -with its thin iron mosquito-frame -aloft—he was wakened by a rasping, -cracking sound out in his grove. Now -and then came a swish and a thump. -Then——</p> - -<p>“Yai! Yai! Eee! Eee! and a diabolical -yeodle curdled the moonlight on -the hill-side. Presently a big brown -object lolled from the shadows of the -pines, and stalked majestically toward -the flag-pole.</p> - -<p>“Got the fisheatin’ Japs in the act, -did yer, Pat?” whispered the captain -out the window, shaking with laughter.</p> - -<p>“Oofski!” grunted Kuropatkin, -crowding into his house. Next morning -Brewster walked to his grove to find -that three of his tallest pine trees -had been chopped and carted off, -while two axes hung at hasty angles -in a half-felled fourth. After breakfast, -Puk-Chong, his Korean “boy,” -started for the Jap headquarters with -the copy of a telegram, declared in a -brief note to be then on its way to the -American Minister at Tokio. Brewster -himself walked unnoticed down the hill -to the cable office, which lies far from -the barracks. He actually despatched -the message sent in copy to the commandant, -there being yet no war correspondents, -and hence no censorship in -Korea. It was rather a more fire-eating -complaint than any he had pretended -to send to Tokio before, and some -time passed before he knew the importance -of his act.</p> - -<p>After tiffin, two Jap soldiers appeared -on his veranda, mutely inquisitive in -their brown leggins, yellow shoulder-straps, -and high crowned caps. They -drew white gloves from their hands, -smiled, and bowed three times till their -long swords clicked on the floor. The -shorter, darker soldier—he with a wispy -convex mustache and eyes like a dissipated -doll—handed the captain a letter -bearing the long brown Korean stamp. -The captain whistled as he opened it. -It was addressed in a round, shaded -hand suggesting steel pens and primary -writing books. Reading it, he glowered; -then smiled, as if he discerned -something pleasant on a mountain -across the river; frowned again and more -deeply, coughed, and put the letter -gently into his left-hand breast pocket, -where his heart underneath beat faster.</p> - -<p>“So Korean postmen ain’t good -enough to carry white men’s letters no -more?” demanded the captain.</p> - -<p>“We dare no longer trust the shiftless -Korean with letters to so august a -person,” explained the taller soldier, -and both bowed.</p> - -<p>“They won’t let you steam them<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -open and read them, like you have this -one?” said the captain. “Hey?”</p> - -<p>“Your bear,” said the doll-eye, after -each had stared with polite blankness -at the captain, “is he dangerous?” and -the soldier indicated the flag-pole.</p> - -<p>“Mebbe your pardner’s pants ken -show that,” drawled the Yankee, taking -the other by the shoulder and turning -him around. “Um, no,” he growled, -“but that b’ar knows pizen when he -smells it.”</p> - -<p>“Pizen?” said the doll-eye vacantly, -“What you call pizen?”</p> - -<p>“We feed it to b’ars regular in Americky,” -replied the captain fiercely. “We -put it on shin bones and shove it in their -kennels. It makes them strong so they -ken bust chains and plug axes inter -trees.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, so, <i>so</i>,” gasped the pair, with -the Jap stare which conceals understanding.</p> - -<p>The captain knew the soldiers could -never have called on so direct a mission -as to deliver a letter or complain of -Kuropatkin’s attack; and that to show -anger to mere privates at losing his -trees would yield him only smiles of -scorn and pity. What had they come -for? Brewster had his suspicions, -which he started to test. He thrust -his hands carelessly into his pockets, -observing that he guessed he wouldn’t -“get no more letters at all, steamed or -unsteamed.” To which the emissaries -replied that he did them an injustice, -that they had no desire to interfere with -the honorable foreigner’s business, but -sought rather to safeguard his privacy -by official deliveries.</p> - -<p>“<i>So deska</i>,” said the captain with -falling inflection, which means, “Well, -well, now, you don’t say.” “You mean -then, any Jap can bring me mail?” he -challenged.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said the tall one. “Indeed. -Certainly. If he is in the army.”</p> - -<p>“Then I’d like your boss’s permission,” -said the captain slowly, “to detail -that Jap boy Ikeda I have traveling -to the mines for me to bring my mail.”</p> - -<p>“Ah—he is expected back soon?” interrupted -both at once, stepping forward -eagerly at mention of the spy, -confirming Brewster’s suspicion.</p> - -<p>“No,” drawled the Yankee. “No. -Ikeda’s welched—gone south to Seoul -to fight for the Korean Emperor.”</p> - -<p>“<i>So</i>,” said both with eager incredulity, -“We have a great pity for you.”</p> - -<p>“Do you think yer boss could git him -back fer me?” asked the captain sadly.</p> - -<p>No answer.</p> - -<p>“You are telling the truth?” said the -doll-eye suddenly.</p> - -<p>“No,” said the captain, “I ain’t—not -altogether. Good morning.”</p> - -<p>The soldiers consulted one another -with clever glances. The captain whistled -easily, for he was quite sure now -that they had come to arrest Davydoff. -“Good morning,” he repeated.</p> - -<p>The pair started down the walk to -the gate, but turned to bow. As they -did so, the Yankee seemed to see their -stoop grow rigid. They gazed over his -head to the door of the bungalow. He -turned. Behind him in the doorway -stood what seemed to be a Jap—a man -wooden-shoed, in a gray kimono, a derby -hat squashed flat over his ears—Davydoff -returned.</p> - -<p>“Your boss is pretty obligin’,” called -the captain to the soldiers. “Without -my askin’ he seems to have telegraphed -Ikeda in Seoul to come back and carry -my letters. An’ he’s come.”</p> - -<p>But the soldiers had started back up -the garden walk on a run.</p> - -<p>“Hi! Pat,” called the captain, “Sic -’em, Pat, <i>sic ’em</i>!” he shouted.</p> - -<p>A chain in the big dog-house rattled, -and before the emissaries had paced ten -yards, their twin brown gaiters were -flying across the garden and swinging -over the rail fence, before the galumphing -Kuropatkin.</p> - -<p>“I hev a great pity fer ye,” imitated -the captain. “They expect all lies or -all truth,” he observed, turning to the -bewildered spy. “Mix ’em, an’ yer -ken wig a yeller-belly—if ye hev an intelligent -b’ar.”</p> - -<p>The youth exclaimed, trembling; “I -have heard all. The two Japanese -there know me for an informer. It is -danger to remain here.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a bullet fer ye on the bund tomorrow,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> -said the captain, thoughtfully -eying him, and “jail fer me.”</p> - -<p>The boy limped dazedly to the wash-basin -in the dining-room, and a black -wig fell to the floor. In a moment a -blue-eyed, yellow-haired youth sat -down to tiffin opposite the captain. A -whitish beard curled thinly over his -chin, and except for the roundness of -his head and his hair’s creeping low on -the forehead—as in all exiles’ and settlers’ -sons of the Siberian steppe—he -would have passed in America for the -second generation of a Baltic immigrant, -refined and sharpened by transplantation.</p> - -<p>“It would be but dying for my country,” -he said with effort, but now calm, -after the two had eaten awhile in silence. -“The great work is done. Kosakin, -the Cossack, has all the figure of -the landing.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Davy, but Rooshia ain’t the -captain’s country,” explained the Yankee. -“We got to hide you.”</p> - -<p>The captain lapsed again into silence, -listening absently to an excited tale of -suspicion, strategy, and escapes on a -week’s trip from Wonsan, told in the -Russian’s queer, inverted English. As -they rose from the table, Brewster drew -from his pocket the letter given him by -the doll-eyed soldier, and handed it to -Davydoff. “Suppose you read this,” -he said. Davy took it, and read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>Exalted Sir? The pupils Oyama school of -primary, Chinnampo, request being you the -oneman English speak, observe the try-on -of drama given bye and after Red cross aid, -in the new school house of the night you get -this. Appreciation would be subgestion and -correction English spoken. Drama, Uncle -Tom’s Cabin.</p> - -<p class="center">Humbly to be yours,</p> - -<p class="center">Most Honorific Sir,</p> - -<p class="right">Tatso Karin.</p> - -</div> - -<p>“I guess we’ll have to take in the -show,” remarked the captain, as the -boy glanced up with a queer look of -amazement. “We got to go somewheres.”</p> - -<p>“Is there no place else?” asked the -boy excitedly, “I would myself surrender -rather than now to enter the schoolhouse.”</p> - -<p>The captain met his glance intently. -“It’s our one chance, Davy,” he said, -searching the boy’s eyes. “I’ll tell ye. -I know thet young school missy pretty -well. Unbeknown to you, I’ve helped -her hearing class. She’s the one friend -I have in town. If the game’s up with -us, as I believe, I’d like to say good-bye -to her,” and the captain with bent -head turned away.</p> - -<p>Davydoff sprang to his feet and -paced up and down the room, clenching -and unclenching his hands, darting -glances at the captain. “No, no,” he -cried. “Not there! Not there! Never, -by my honor!”</p> - -<p>The Yankee turned to catch his eye.</p> - -<p>“It is ye suspicion the letter’s a -trap?” he asked searchingly. “It -ain’t, I promise ye. Jap though she -is, she’d never—never—” he stammered. -“Or——”</p> - -<p>The Russian stopped short and -their eyes met. “No, no,” he answered, -“I apprehend no trap, not from -Karin. Only if—” he checked himself. -Understanding glimmered in his -blue eyes. Then—“If she is as well -your friend, I will go. I will go to the -schoolhouse with you.”</p> - -<p>At dark, the captain followed by -Davy, black-haired and derby-hatted, -with Kuropatkin swaying comfortably -between, halted suddenly as they -entered the moon-lit pine grove. Looking -back toward the bungalow, they -saw two-brown gaitered figures patter -up the garden path and steal behind -the bear house, where one leaped monkey -fashion on its roof. The other -with prehensile feet shinned the flag-pole -and hurled a stone down upon -Kuropatkin’s roof. Finding he was -not at home, they dashed on toward -the bungalow.</p> - -<p>“Jes’ caught the gang-plank in -time, ain’t we?” laughed the captain. -“Dodged the yeller-bellies so far.”</p> - -<p>Emerging from the grove, they stole -across frozen stagnant water, among -squalid red clay huts with tiny lattices -under the thatching. Four soldiers, -singing with locked arms as they -passed, kicked a fallen Korean chimney—a -tin kerosene can. Not a white-robed -philosopher was in sight, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -through the huts’ straw fences, they -could see long-haired hags huddled -over smoky braziers in which bubbled -the head of a dog or hoof of a bull. -Through low door-ways in the haze of -tiny, ill-trimmed lamps, sore-covered -children in soiled bright silks rolled on -matless earth beside chests clamped -with iron.</p> - -<p>At last the schoolhouse, white, high-gabled, -and awkwardly occidental, -faced them. They chained the bear to -a rail of the steps, and without knocking -entered a long empty room of half a -dozen glass windows, its plain boards lit -by two big swinging kerosene lamps, -and decorated with British and Japanese -flags. From the platform at the far -end, behind a drawn red cotton curtain -strung on a long wire, a spiral stair -wound to the loft under the gable overhead. -Chairs and benches were piled -in the corners.</p> - -<p>Karin San tripped down the stair in -her best iris kimono and big obi, pausing -at intervals as she crossed the floor -to bow the glittering comb in her -black hair. Her powdered oval face -resembled an enamel shell. With half -closed eyes and red lips parted, she -seemed striving to speak volumes of -welcome, and to be intensely amused -and overwhelmed by her inability.</p> - -<p>“<i>Kombomoi kombomoi</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> she gasped -and the captain responded, his heart -beating faster, but his eyes suspicious -of the vacant building.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<div class="footnote"> -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> “Good Evening!”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Very sorry, very sorry, Brewster -San,” pleaded the little school mistress. -“Tonight, no Uncle Tom. No show.”</p> - -<p>Little Eva’s red shawl hung from a -nail over the platform, also the gray -beard and spectacles of Uncle Tom, -while on it rested a couple of buckets -filled with ice-cakes. From wondering -how that spectacular scene of Eliza’s -crossing was to be portrayed—if a samisan -could render the proper jumpy -music—the captain’s eyes fixed Davy’s -in mute wonder.</p> - -<p>“Military authority—Major Kumoda—just -now order me no show,” Karin -apologized, again bowing with a smile -in which her visitors, though used to -oriental deception, could read no duplicity. -“Mebbe soldier come.”</p> - -<p>The soft chords in her neck glistened -like velvet, but again the captain -turned from them to his spy, saying, -“Right you were in growlin’ to come -here. Better say yer prayers, boy, -if you Rooshians is as good at prayin’ -as they tell. She’s snared us for the -mustard-bellies.”</p> - -<p>“You shall not so accuse her!” -burst out the spy. “May not her deed -be honorable? Did not the soldiers -open and read her missive? Having -not found us on the hill, they have reason -to look here at once.”</p> - -<p>But the schoolmistress had crept to -a window and was looking out, her snub -nose pressed tight against the pane. -From outside came the mutter of -voices, and crunch of feet on the lingering -snow.</p> - -<p>“Damn us for fools!” broke out the -captain. “And I’ve dragged ye down -to death, boy, for they dassent shoot a -Yankee. Davy, blame me. I don’t -ask yer to forgive,” and his voice weakened. -“I told yer I come to bid the -girl good-bye. It’s not the first time -this cowardly fool heart o’ mine hes ruined -me with others. But after all -these useless years o’ my life, to -find this yeller girl respond to all the -stored-up sorrers—” he broke off, -gulping.</p> - -<p>“Then I am happy to come,” said -the Russian with tense slowness, “if -for your sake, my captain. It is then -not the forgiveness, I owe,” he added -bitterly, with set teeth, “but—” and -he burst out laughing, shouting—“So -there was no place else to hide? -As well here as elsewhere might one be -taken!”</p> - -<p>“Boy, I knew ye had no fear of -death,” said the captain, laying a hand -on Davy’s shoulder. “An’ how I love -her—Karin!”</p> - -<p>He walked to the bright little figure -tremblingly preoccupied by the window, -and extended his arms. The -Russian could stand it no longer. -With fierce Slavic impulse, he tore off -his disguise with one dash of his arm,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> -and, erect with blazing eyes, checked -the captain.</p> - -<p>“Captain! Fear of death? Never!” -he cried. “Because the soldier must -think Karin in league with me, a vile -spy, I would rather have surrendered -myself than come here to hide with -her. Yet I go, because you, my friend—dear -to me—request, and jealously I -think you also love her. You -confess, Captain, we have long been -esteemed together, and to you I owe -more than my life; yet Karin you -shall not seize from me, even in the -moment of my death. I love -her better than my life or your own, -or her life. We have long loved. Yet -may she love you the more. In this -hour, I leave to her to choose between -us!”</p> - -<p>With a cry, the little schoolmistress -threw herself into Davy’s outstretched -arms, and was smothered in a long -embrace.</p> - -<p>The captain bent his head. “Davy, -forgive me,” he whispered after a -silence. “I never guessed she was -yourn a’ready, else I’d not—I do ask -yer forgiveness now.”</p> - -<p>The spy limped toward the Yankee -to press his outstretched hand, and a -stone struck the schoolhouse door. -“You hear,” laughed Karin, at the -window again with woman’s tact, but -losing innocence of her lover’s danger. -“Major and two soldiers afraid of him. -He very brave, but I think soon soldier -shoot him. They would come arrest -you! You will hide? Go, go upstair! -My room!” she cried excitedly, pointing -to the spiral.</p> - -<p>The captain looked out. “Hold -yer ground, Gen’ral,” he called. “This -ain’t no picnic bitin’ wood thieves. -He’ll hold on to the last, Davy. I -seen him nip the major’s sword, and -wink at me—By crotch, they’re gaggin’ -him!” He turned to the lovers. “Go, -Davy, go! Up them stairs with her. -It’s yer one chance. I’ll face the -monkeys and take my medicine. It’s -the least I owe yer,” and a vain thought -of his cable message and the American -gunboat at Chemulpo a hundred miles -away flashed through him.</p> - -<p>Karin San seized the spy by the arm, -and they vanished up the spiral stairway. -Immediately bayonets crashed -upon the door, and it burst open. The -doll-eyed soldier and his companion -of the morning, preceded by the green-capped -cavalry officer, hurled themselves -into the room. The officer seized -the captain by both arms. “Brewster, -American, we arrest!” he cried, -and turning to the doll-eye, delivered -a rapid order to search the house,—so -judged the Yankee—for he smiled -and bowed at his prisoner, saying, “We -find also you friend, Russki spy.”</p> - -<p>But the doll-eye and his mate were -checked in ascending the stair by -Karin San descending with upraised -arms and her sweetest smile. The -privates paused and bowed. The three -at first spoke calmly back and -forth. Then the doll-eye began shouting -at the schoolmistress, once with -what the captain was certain would -be an oath in English. But always she -replied to them earnestly smiling, never -pleadingly, gravely shaking her -head, her hand upon her heart; always -quiet, determined, arguing with utter -self-possession, calmly appealing—to -what? wondered the captain, in such -fanatics of patriotism.</p> - -<p>At length both soldiers turned and -saluted the Major, uttered a short sentence, -and descended the stair.</p> - -<p>The officer turned to Brewster, elevating -his long mustachios in a sardonic -smile. “You see,” he said, “the -love of country of the Japanese. Perhaps -you think it is the respect for -woman, wherefore my soldier do not -search the teacher room. It is not. -Boy, man, woman, all labor for the -same end, our country. No one would -betray; we trust one another absolute. -It is so we exist; we fight; we win.</p> - -<p>“We think the spy Russki enter here -with you. But Karin San, as much -myself officer of the Emperor, declare -he is not here,” he went on with a self-satisfied -smile. “We believe her. He -has escape,” and turning to the soldiers -he gave them another sharp -order—to search the town and the -hills about.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span></p> - -<p>Next morning, sitting cross-legged -and politely silent with his captor, at -a breakfast of sweet chicken hash and -cabbage, Captain Brewster sprang to -his feet. “<i>Bzoo-oo-oooo!</i>” groaned a -whistle under the glittering hills along -the river. Away dashed his manikin -host without word or glance. Between -the cedar slats of the captain’s prison—the -major’s house by courtesy—the -Yankee sighted the long, thin funnel -and squat deck of an American gunboat.</p> - -<p>Two hours passed. Then the doll-eyed -soldier who stood guard on the -veranda, slid open the paper house-door. -Three tall Yankee tars followed -by a young lieutenant with sandy -hair and a long upper lip, scraped -heavy feet on the major’s mats.</p> - -<p>“Brewster, are you responsible for -this?” said the officer, handing the -captain a pink paper oblong.</p> - -<p>“Guess I be,” drawled the prisoner, -taking the cable message. He read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>State Department orders unconditional -protection for Brewster, American, -Chinnampo.</p> - -</div> - -<p>The telegram was addressed to the -commander of the gunboat, dated -Tokio, and signed by the United States -Minister there.</p> - -<p>The captain whistled a moment.</p> - -<p>“Say, what’s your state?” he inquired -of his countryman.</p> - -<p>“Maine,” replied the lieutenant.</p> - -<p>“Aroostook County?” demanded the -captain.</p> - -<p>“No, Skowhegan on the Amonoosuc. -Born in Penobsticook myself, -but my folks was raised on the Allegash,” -grinned the officer.</p> - -<p>When the captain had whistled -again, he observed, “Like to be back -there, wouldn’t you, in a country -where they have Christian names you -can pronounce?” And the lieutenant -embellished his assent gracefully, with -expletives.</p> - -<p>“These young Napoleons,” he began -soon, indicating the little major’s -green cap which bobbed in the rear, -“are interfering with my orders. They -say that you’ve been running a spy -ranch. Their chiefs have pulled out -for the Yalu, so they want to dicker -with Tokio before I take you cruising -and talk over the spring fishing back -home.”</p> - -<p>“Let me give you a tip on that, -lieutenant,” said the captain, putting -his hand on the officer’s shoulder. -Then he whispered awhile into the -young man’s ear. At first the lieutenant -shook his head seriously; then -quite as gravely dug the captain in the -ribs. And as the delegation, including -the manikin major, withdrew, Brewster -called after to his new friend, -“Mind the boys use only blank shells. -We want a bluff, not an international -war.”</p> - -<p>And so the little cavalry officer never -came back to his prisoner at all. In -half an hour, “Boom-boom!” resounded -guns from the blue Tai-Dong. The -doll-eye thrust his head into the paper -door. “You hear? You hear?” he -cried pointing to smoke curling about -the Stars and Stripes on the river.</p> - -<p>“America—Japan—cross—fight—so,” -said Brewster, linking his two -forefingers. And the doll-eye dashed -away.</p> - -<p>The captain’s ruse of firing blank -shots to force the telegram had worked. -When he believed that the coast was -clear, he stepped out on the veranda. -Only the lieutenant from Maine was -walking up the hill.</p> - -<p>“I’ve got a Jap servant and his wife -that I’d like to take abroad with us,” -said the captain to his savior, as they -descended into the town, where not -even a Jap private was in evidence. -“They’re over yonder in that white -building,” and he pointed to the -schoolhouse. “And wait,” added the -captain, while the officer despatched -an orderly from the landing, “Could -he fetch along my—my—pet Newfoundland -dog, as well?”</p> - -<p>Remarked the younger man from -Maine, as the two watched from the -gunboat the clean hills fold over the -straw roofs of Chinnampo: “If there’s -trouble from all this, that’s for the -dudes in Washington to fix. Spies is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -spies, but them pine trees is pine trees, -and valuable, as we ought to know. -Too bad about old Kuropatkin, though -most orderlies <i>would</i> be afraid of bears—Hello! -Look!”</p> - -<p>He pointed to the water. Aport, -a black oblong rippled the surface of the -river—Kuropatkin swimming out to -the vessel.</p> - -<p>“Hi, Pat! Sic ’em, sic ’em!” shouted -the captain.</p> - -<p>When the ship had heaved to and -started again, the captain’s face was -salt and wet against a shaggy brown -coat.</p> - -<p>Also wet were the faces of a light-haired -youth, and a little teacher of -English as she is Japped.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer2.jpg" width="500" height="125" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Where_the_Road_Dips"><i>Where the Road Dips</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">HENRY FLETCHER HARRIS</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Post-Oak and hickory talk in air,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And mutter where the roadway dips;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And tree-toads croak; and darkness drips;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And blackberries trail live fragrance there.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ragweed and horehound, sage and mint,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And many a nameless herb beside,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Work homely magic—at one stride</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Past returns the way it went!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Chuckle of water greets the ear;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The light wind tries the brake and goes;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Far off the summer lightning shows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But summer thunder comes not near.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This tender darkness stills the heart</div> - <div class="verse indent4">As with old music; and the stars</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Drop coolness where the shadow-bars</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of many branches mix and part.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A voice comes on the wind-thrilled night</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Long drowned amid the roaring years;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">My eyes are stung with blinding tears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And fear and doubt dissolve in light!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus14.jpg" width="700" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>How Long Will We Tolerate This Outrage?</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Westerman, in Ohio State Journal</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"> -<img src="images/illus15.jpg" width="475" height="600" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Why the People Love the Senate.</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>McCutcheon, in Chicago Tribune</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/illus16.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Man Congress Should Go For</i>.</p> -<p class="caption"><i>Westerman, in Ohio State Journal</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Repeal_the_Land_Laws"><i>Repeal the Land Laws</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY HUGH J. HUGHES</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>There remains something considerably -less than 500,000,000 -acres of public land open to settlement. -From this total amount careful -and conservative estimates deduct -300,000,000 acres as not suited to present -known methods of agriculture. -The remaining 200,000,000 of the public -domain is passing into the hands of -private individuals at a rate exceeding -17,000,000 acres per year. At the present -rate of diminution the valuable -public domain will be exhausted within -the next decade and a half.</p> - -<p>The public domain lies largely in the -States and Territories of Arizona, Nevada, -New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, -Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, -Colorado, South and North Dakota -and California. In Texas, by virtue -of the agreement with the United -States at the time of annexation, -the title to the public lands rests -in the State. Liberal grants to the -Western States, of lands for school -and institutional purposes, should be -added to the public domain in order to -arrive at the total land available for -future settlement. These State lands -are sold at prices somewhat below the -price of similar unimproved lands in the -same locality, but on long terms, and -appeal about equally to the farmers -and the speculators. Their gradual -disposal is placing in the treasuries of -the Eastern States a large school fund. -The people are the beneficiaries under -the administration of the State land -laws. A possible 50,000,000 acres of -farming land is available from this -source after the National domain is -gone. It is well to note in passing -that the value of the State lands -rises in proportion to that of surrounding -lands. It is controlled and -disposed of with entirely different motives -from those supposed to govern -the control and disposal of the lands -of the general Government. It is not -free land in any sense of the word.</p> - -<p>There are many who, remembering -how the Western limit of grain raising -has crept westward across Kansas, Nebraska -and the Dakotas, look for a repetition, -or, more properly speaking, a continuation -of this phenomenon across -the remaining public domain. It is -true that we are only on the borderland -of plant-breeding possibilities. Spelz, -or macaroni wheat, Kaffir corn, and -other drought-resistant cereals are making -a marvelous change in Western -farming conditions, and in the certainty -of crop maturity; but as was -stated before, under known conditions, -only two-fifths of all this Western land -is now or will ever be adapted to agriculture. -On the remaining three-fifths, -grazing, limited in amount, will continue -to be profitable. Within this -large area lie the giant ridges of -the Rocky Mountains. Great gulches -channel their slopes. Valleys are -strewn with the debris of ages of erosion. -Rain fall is scanty. Water supplied -from artesian wells has only a -limited possibility of use. Irrigation is -local in application, and limited not only -by stream supply, but also by the -topography of the country. We have -reached the limits of the immediate -adaptation of agriculture to climatic -conditions.</p> - -<p>The area of the valuable public domain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> -is measurable, but it is as yet not -measured. To the eastward of the area -named there is some land still open to -settlement under the homestead act. -What sort of land is it? Land covered -with glacial drift, swamps, hills, sandy -land—the cast away heritage of three -generations of keen-eyed farmers. -Greater stress of need will bring some -of this under the plow, but the fact remains -that it is undesirable land, viewed -from the standpoint of the man who -desires not only a home, but a competence.</p> - -<p>Alaska, with unknown but probably -limited agricultural possibilities, is already -beginning to attract the attention -of the speculative public. Farmers -are not greatly interested in the development -of agriculture in a region so -remote and where the season precludes -farming on a broad scale.</p> - -<p>This somewhat lengthy statement of -present day conditions is necessary in -order to understand the danger that -menaces us as a people through the -alienation of the public domain from -its legitimate uses. The land open to -settlement is passing, not into the possession -of makers of homes, but into the -hands of speculators who are enriching -themselves in the first instance at the -expense of the farmers, but ultimately -at that of the people at large.</p> - -<p>The vast grants to the transcontinental -railroads, by means of which the -Government paid private parties royally -for building roads that have, since -their construction, charged the people -for services rendered “all the traffic -will bear,” threw open, wide open, the -doors to the land speculator.</p> - -<p>Railroad lands were bought up at a -low figure by companies backed by -Eastern capital, just as today similar -companies are buying up and exploiting -the Canadian Northwest. Settlers -were sought for and brought in by the -car load. They were located on a quarter -section of Government land, and -sold as much more of the adjoining speculators’ -land as they could be persuaded -to buy. Under other firm names these -same gentlemen who exploited the public -and corporation lands sold horses -and farm machinery to the new settler, -taking mortgages as partial security on -crops not yet grown. The lean years -came, and the land companies reaped -to the full their harvests.</p> - -<p>So passed away from the people millions -of acres of land in the Dakotas, -Nebraska, Kansas and the bordering -States. Today that land is selling back -to the people at prices ranging from -$10 to $40 an acre—land which I have -seen sold under the sheriff’s hammer -at less than $1.00 an acre.</p> - -<p>These land agencies are, in a thousand -ways, busying themselves in the securing -of further lands for speculative -purposes. The days of wholesale -grants having gone by, they are turning -their attention to the lands of the -individual settler, and under their -tutelage clerks, teachers, town men and -women, hired laborers, men who do not -know wheat from barley or rye from -flax, are filing upon the last of the tillable -public lands. Under the homestead -law, these settlers are allowed -six months after entry in which to -establish homes on their land. This -time is taken full advantage of. Then -a board shack is built and the law -complied with by the breaking of a few -acres of sod. Eight months more of -(constructive) continuous residence, -and the land becomes the property of -the settler upon a cash payment of -$1.25 to $2.50 an acre, according to -location. The company furnishes the -commutation money and “finds” a -purchaser for the claim. The shack is -boarded up or moved off. The sod -grows to weeds. The settler, having -made from $800 to $2,500 by a little -enterprise and a good deal of perjury, -is eliminated from the problem.</p> - -<p>This cat’s-paw of organized land -plunder is securing for his principals -a large, a very large, percentage of all -the public lands passing under private -ownership. It would be safe to say -that one holding out of every four -passes into speculative hands. Judged -by conditions, past and existing, in the -two Dakotas, this estimate might be -doubled, and yet fall within the facts.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -On this point see the report of the -Commissioner of the General Land -Office for 1905. The land companies -immediately list their newly acquired -lands, and by an ingenious system of -“booms,” carefully nursed and let loose -at the proper time, they advance the -price of their lands to a point sometimes -double or treble the original -market value of the raw prairies. This -is wholly, or almost wholly, a paper -increase in value. Roads, schools, -markets remain as before save for the -change wrought by the actual settlers.</p> - -<p>This is, in essence, the same thing as -the watering of railroad or other stocks, -and it is done for the same purpose—that -the “ins”—the land speculators—may -fatten on the “outs”—the farmers. -And if the land valuations now obtaining -in the fringe of settlement -bordering the public domain be from -25 to 75 per cent water, how about its -effect on the land values in older -sections—say in Iowa, or Ohio, or -Illinois?</p> - -<p>Obviously the price will be enhanced. -And the immediate, discernible effect -of that is to render it more difficult for -the landless man to become an owner. -I have seen land go from $25 an acre to -$60 and over, in Iowa and other States -in the East. The land utility is the -same as in years gone by. It will -raise no more—sometimes less than -former years. But every dollar added -to the price has increased the rental, -and decreased the possibilities of a -laboring man becoming owner of his -own farm.</p> - -<p>Someone will say that this is untrue; -that the returns from an acre of land -are today greater than in former years. -What I mean is that an acre of land -cropped for ten or fifteen or twenty -years is no more valuable today as a -producer of grain or live stock than it -was then. The added value of the crop -is due to better markets, better implements, -better knowledge of agriculture. -In other words it is a net gain -due to labor and intelligence, and as -such should go to labor. Instead of -that it is consumed in rent. With -every advance in the values of Western -lands and the consequent narrowing of -the opportunities afforded the landless -man of the Eastern and Central States, -the values, or rather the prices, of these -older lands advance.</p> - -<p>And if the speculator is able at this -time to force the price of land up by -leaps and bounds—if he can take raw -prairie and, without adding to its -value by so much as one furrow of -breaking or one bushel of ripened -grain, can make it double his money -for him, how will it be when the last -of the tillable public lands are taken? -How will it be when the only desirable -vacant lands are held for speculative -purposes? How will it be when there -is no alternative between paying some -farmer for a part of his holding or paying -some land company its price, based -upon monopolistic values?</p> - -<p>Today, in the West, favored by cheap -land—$25 to $30 an acre—I am giving -$1.30 as rental for every $1.00 I receive -as tenant. Here it still is possible for -a man to start single handed and win a -farm, but the crops remain about the -same, the prices are slowly bettering, -the cost of the bare necessities of living -is lowering, the price of land is rapidly -advancing, the rental is going up, and -my wages as a tenant are becoming -relatively less. I can still say, “Unless -you give me a living chance, I will go -to the free lands and make my own -home.” I still can pay for a home for -myself here. But I know that a decade -hence conditions will have changed. -There will be no ‘farther West’ in the -sense in which we know it today. The -increased land values will shut out a -great body of men from becoming -land owners, or they will achieve their -aim only at the expense of a life-time -of grinding toil. The basis of a landed -aristocracy on the one hand, and of a -landless tenant class on the other will -have been laid. And you do not live -so far to the Eastward, nor are you so -deeply buried in the great cities that -the thrill of that new birth of despotism -shall not reach you, and be a portent -of danger to your independence as a -citizen and as a man.</p> - -<p>Repeal the land laws! Let the settlement<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> -of the public domain cease until -we know its capabilities. Better to -deprive a few worthy men and women -of the advantage afforded by the -laws than to throw away the birthright -of unborn millions. We do not -know very much as yet about the -ability of the West to sustain population, -but this we do know, that no general -land law can apply to this great semi-arid -region and give anything like equal -justice. Investigate carefully the -areas desired for settlement. Make -the unit of the homestead variable, -according to the amount needed to -support a family. In irrigated sections -but a few acres will suffice. In -even the drier districts it may well be -questioned whether more than 160 -acres should be granted any one settler. -We cover altogether too much ground. -Our Western farming has borne bitter -harvestings of the weed called “land -hunger.” We need to concentrate.</p> - -<p>And whatever laws may be enacted, -they should be of such a character as -will stop speculation in lands intended -for the people. Let the lands be sold, -and no title pass until after a reasonably -long term of years, and after actual -continuous residence and actual valuable -improvements have shown beyond -question that home making was -the primary object of the settler.</p> - -<p>But the urgent present need is for -repeal of the various laws that permit -this land plunder. We can settle -details of future administration later -on. We cannot later on return to the -people their stolen lands.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer3.jpg" width="500" height="125" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2><i>Candid</i></h2> - -<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Newrocks</span>—If there’s anything I hate it’s writing letters.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Newrocks</span>—Do you?</p> - -<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Newrocks</span>—Yes, indeed. I wish somebody would invent an easy substitute -for spelling.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2><i>Proof</i></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">First Commuter</span>—This is a one-horse railroad, anyhow.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Second Commuter</span>—Of course it is. Why, J. P. Morgan never tried to -get control of it.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="THE_TRIUMPH_OF_JUSTICE"> -<img src="images/heading5.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>THE TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY CLARENCE S. DARROW.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>It was in 1850 that William Henry -came to Chicago. He was then a -young man of twenty-five and -fresh from his father’s farm. While William -was still in his teens it was plain -that the slow life of New England would -never satisfy his ambitions and desires -and so his restless nature turned him to -the great, wide West.</p> - -<p>William had scarcely landed in the -little, muddy, struggling town before -he knew that he and the city would -grow up together. Even in its early -days, Chicago had that wonderful power -which clings to it still—that power of -inspiring every one who touches it with -absolute confidence in its greatness and -its strength.</p> - -<p>When William Henry came to Chicago -it was a little village stuck fast in -the swamp and mud that bordered the -great lake, while in every other direction -stretched the endless prairie with -its black soil and its green, waving grass. -But William Henry was young and -Chicago was young and even then in his -imagination he saw before him the endless -stone streets and the unnumbered -stores and factories and homes that the -future years would bring.</p> - -<p>He had not long been in Chicago before -he caught the spirit of its vigor -and they both marched rapidly toward -wealth and power. He soon founded a -tobacco warehouse and salesroom on -Lake Street, and his business steadily -increased with the growth of the city -until he gained that imposing title of -dignity, influence, selfishness and narrowness, -“a business man.” As he -left the busy years behind, his warehouse -grew greater, and he moved from -place to place until he occupied a whole -building on Lake Street which he had -bought and paid for from the incense -that a generous people was everlastingly -sending up, if not to his glory, still to -his profit.</p> - -<p>William Henry had come from the -farm, and with all his city life and training -he kept the inborn love for the -soil, for the blue sky, the open air and a -piece of land big enough for a cottage, a -garden, a barn and a chicken house—such -necessities as he had known in his -younger days. These simple surroundings -of a rural life which seem hard and -bare while they are living things, because -of the toil and pains that all the -necessities of life impose—these simple -companions of our youth seem, somehow, -to grow into the fiber of our being, -and when we look back upon them -from our artificial surroundings and our -worn out feelings, the mist of the gathering -years covers them with a glamor -that makes us think that our childhood -was lived in a fairyland.</p> - -<p>So when business grew prosperous, -Henry looked for a piece of land. He -did not want a twenty-five foot lot or -even an acre, but he wanted a fine, big -“patch” on which he “could turn -around.” He always kept a horse and -buggy, and every Sunday after his -week’s work was done, he would drive -out into the country to find a “patch.” -He drove out beyond the brick stores;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -out beyond the houses and frame cottages; -out beyond the utmost limit of -the place; out on the open prairie, covered -with water in the spring and rank -with high weeds and waving grass in -the summer months, and out there in -the country he found a “patch” of fifty -acres of raw prairie, which, like a herd -of wild horses on the plains, had never -been subdued by man. His friends and -neighbors laughed when he told them of -his “farm” clear out beyond the confines -of civilization, almost to the red -man’s reservation, but he told them to -wait and see. In his prophetic brain -there rose the scene of a great city, -stretching out along the lake, reaching -far to the north and south and west—a -wondrous conglomeration of all the people -of the earth drawn together by the -magic name “Chicago.”</p> - -<p>In his vision, he could see railroads -and street cars, stone pavements and -brick houses covering the “patch” with -teeming life. Poor Henry, he was not a -fool; he was too wise. For there are -two men for whom the world never has -any use; one is the fool and the other -the philosopher. The fool believes that -there is nothing but today; the wise -man thinks that there is nothing but -tomorrow. So the fool toils and the -wise man dreams, and the mediocre -man reaps the harvest—reaps the harvest -born of the poor man’s work and -the wise man’s dreams.</p> - -<p>When William Henry bought this -patch, he had a vision of a time when -relieved from business cares, he would -build a house like the one his father -owned, only on a larger scale. He -would have a garden, such as it seemed -to him was planted behind his father’s -house. He would have a barn with -horses, and cows that gave real milk, -and a chicken house where real eggs -were laid, and then, still further on in -the magical future that he knew was in -store for the city that he loved, he saw -his “patch” cut up into building lots -and covered with stores and factories -and houses built of brick and stone and -standing firm and brave to verify his -faith and dreams.</p> - -<p>So Sunday after Sunday he drove to -his “Farm”, week by week he carried -out his neighbors and his friends. He -planted trees and he dug a well. He -worked and planned and planted and -dreamed out on his “patch” beyond -the great town ever reaching farther -and farther toward the cherished spot.</p> - -<p>Well, the dreams and plans of man all -go for naught in the presence of the -blind forces that control the world, and -one day Henry was startled by the cry -of fire. In the twinkling of an eye his -warehouse was in flames and all of his -tobacco at once turned into smoke, -without so much as the aid of a single -pipe. When Henry awoke from his -stupor, all Chicago was a smoldering -heap of ashes, and he was a ruined man. -The only thing that escaped the flames -was the little green patch so far away -on the prairies that even the fire scorned -to search it out.</p> - -<p>Henry no longer had the strength and -energy of twenty years before, but he -did the best he could. He built a little -cigar store in place of the great warehouse -that was once his pride. He still -went back and forth on Sundays to his -patch of ground, and now he dreamed -only of a little house out there on the -farm where he might keep a cow and -some chickens, and return to the simple -life that his childhood years had known. -But there was one man who found his -patch, and this was the tax gatherer. -No land was ever yet too far away for -him. Year by year, the assessor put a -value on his farm, and the little cigar -store could not yield the revenue to pay. -Of course, he never dreamed of selling -the land to some one else; no one does. -Deep in the soul of man is planted the -old inborn desire to own a portion of the -earth.</p> - -<p>When Henry had no money to pay -the tax, some of the “patch” was -sold. With never failing regularity -the assessment came, and with almost -equal regularity a piece of the “patch” -was sold to a buyer of tax-titles. Finally, -one Sunday in the early spring, -Henry drove down to his little farm. -It was the first visit since the fall. -Here and there a swale filled with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> -the rain of early spring stood in his -path. Now and then the black mud of -the rich prairie held his buggy fast, -but finally, after much time and trouble, -he reached the farm, and there, plain before -his eyes, was a high, tight board -fence which barred him out. His first -impulse was to go back and get a gang -of men to tear down the fence; his next -was to hire a lawyer. After some search -he found a lawyer that he thought would -do. The lawyer knew more about the -case when it was done than when he -started bravely in. Of course, Henry -had no money, else the taxes would -have been paid, so the lawyer took the -case on shares and agreed to pay the -costs, and then they started in to get -the “patch.”</p> - -<p>No one familiar with the courts would -expect me to tell the history of this case. -It is familiar to even the common lawyer -who reads the State reports. It was -about the year 1880 that Henry’s lawyer -filed the first papers in the court. -The lawyer was young and full of hope—full -of the hope that is the heritage of -all the young; the hope that gives courage -to live and fight and endure in the vain -belief that it all counts for something; -the hope that keeps alive while years -and adversity, with their deadening, -staggering blows, teach that all strivings -are equally vain. But Henry’s lawyer was -young. He had the money to commence -the suit and he thought that this would -be enough. Both Henry and his lawyer -could see the fence fall down and the -farm platted and sold and their money -in the bank, while Henry’s life was in -the early autumn and the lawyer’s in -the first green of summer time. But -the days and weeks and months and -years went by.</p> - -<p>At first they lost the case, but they -were not cast down. There were other -courts that were better because they -were higher up, and besides all this, the -law provided that in a contest for real -estate each side had the right to try his -case twice, and the right to go each -time to the highest court of the State. -Had Henry’s life been at stake he could -have had but a single chance and no -right to go to a higher court, unless -the judges graciously granted him permission, -and then only on the showing -that he was innocent of the crime. -But land is one thing and life is another. -And this is quite right, for the -amount of land upon the earth is fixed, -while there is no limit to human life.</p> - -<p>Well, in a year or two the Supreme -Court reversed the case, and then Henry -and his lawyer had another chance. -In the meantime two more years were -passed in waiting and the case came on -again. This time Henry won. It was -the turn of the other side to find a higher -court. But the Supreme Court found a -flaw and sent it back to be tried again. -Two or three more years were spent in -waiting before the case was reached. -At last it came again. Henry had grown -old and white and feeble; his clothes, -too, were shabby and unkempt. His -little cigar store had dwindled until only -his old comrades came to loaf and talk -of the grand old days “before the fire.” -Henry never doubted that he would -win. Through it all he had held the -same faith in final victory that he had -ever cherished about the future of his -“patch.” He had lived to see cable -cars run past his land, to see crosstown -electric cars on each side of the little -farm, and to see the elevated road -stretching slowly down in anticipation -of the sub-division that would one day -come.</p> - -<p>Henry took the stand and told the -story of his “patch,” of his early years -when he drove out on the raw prairie -and fixed the stakes; of his Sunday -pilgrimages with his many friends; of -his well, and grove and green hedge; of -the high board fence that he found on -the spring day so long ago. He looked -like a patriarch as he sat bent over in -the witness chair, and his voice and -story was that of some long-forgotten -day.</p> - -<p>The jury could not resist the old man’s -case and again he won. Once more the -other side took it to the higher court, -but found no relief. Still, under the -rules of the law, they had the right to -one more trial, because a piece of real -estate was involved. So, of course,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -they took the last chance that the wisdom -of the law held out to them.</p> - -<p>In the meantime, Henry’s lawyer had -spent $5,000 and waited twelve long -years. He was no longer young, and -most of the illusions and dreams of -early life had passed away. He was -fighting now from habit, and because -he had learned that there was really not -much else in life. He knew that one -fights for the sake of fighting, not for -the hope of any reward that falls to -the victorious cause. Two years more -dragged on. Henry, of course, grew older -and more shabby year by year; then, -too, disease had come with age; poverty -and age and disease often travel hand in -hand. This is when poverty comes in -the latter part of life. When it comes -in youth the lucky victim misses age. -Henry had an iron will, and then he had -a life’s ambition which seemed to defy -years and poverty and disease. But -time is the only warrior that never knows -defeat, and it was plain that age and -sickness were to triumph even here.</p> - -<p>Finally, one day the long-looked-for -trial came. If Henry won, this would -be the end. It was now fifteen years -since the first paper was filed. The -lawyer sent a carriage for Henry on this -long-to-be-remembered day. It came -back empty to the court. Henry had -been taken to the hospital in the morning -before the carriage came. He had -protested, and asked to go to court, but -it was of no avail, so they drove him to -the great brick building and carried him -slowly to the elevator and took him to -the top floor and laid him on the bed. -He asked for his lawyer, and was told -that he was busy with the case, which -he had concluded to try without his -client’s presence in the court.</p> - -<p>Day after day dragged on; each night -Henry asked about his case; each day -he was told that he was sure to win. -The nurse knew nothing about the case, -she saw only the old sick man, as white as -the spotless coverlet that she smoothed -tenderly above his wasted form. She -knew that he might as well spend his -last few hours in peace, so she told him -that the case was coming along all right -and that he was sure to win. Henry’s -mind was failing with his strength. The -nurse could never tell when he was -asleep or awake. Sometimes he seemed -to be back on his father’s farm, a little -boy. Again, he was driving out over -the bare prairie looking for his “patch.” -Then he wanted to get out of bed and -buy a cow and some chickens for his -“farm,” and then he sank to sleep.</p> - -<p>In the meantime, the lawyer fought -valiantly along. Finally the case was -ended, and for the last time the jury -gave the land to Henry. The lawyer -waited only to hear the verdict read, -then rushed to the elevator and down to -the street. He took a carriage and told -the driver to go with all speed to the -hospital. He ran to the wide approach, -passed the doorkeeper, went up the -stairs two steps at a time and turned -down the hall. He stopped at Henry’s -door, opened it softly and went in.</p> - -<p>The nurse was standing silent near -the little iron bed. At the window the -setting sun was struggling through the -smoke and grime of the great city and -painting the sky with a dull red glare. -Its last beams struggled through the -dim window and fell upon the white -coverlet, the worn, sad face and the -scattering hair. Henry was as still as -the bed on which he lay.</p> - -<p>The lawyer looked down at the old, -white face, and saw the eyes staring out -at the red beams of the setting sun. -He could plainly see that they rested -on nothing this side of the crimson -sky.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer4.jpg" width="500" height="125" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="A_RADICAL_CORPUSCLE"> -<img src="images/heading6.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>A RADICAL CORPUSCLE<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY CHARLES FORT.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>A white corpuscle, of venerable and -intellectual appearance, dug a -claw into the lining of an artery -and paused.</p> - -<p>Past him surged millions of his fellows, -all intent upon doing what they believed -they had been sent into the Man to do, -which was to earn a living; tired mother-leucocytes, -starting out upon the -day’s work dragging small leucocytes -after them; young leucocytes, with not -a care in the world and never a thought -for tomorrow; serious-looking leucocytes, -weighed down with responsibilities.</p> - -<p>Here and there were some whose individuality -would attract attention—that -old fellow with the prominent proboscis, -forced along in the rush, as -others were, but at the head of an association -formed by him, so benevolent to -himself that he got all the white meat, -while the workers divided pickings, of -every disease germ captured. There -had been battles with an invasion of -diphtheria germs, skirmishes with germs -of typhoid, small-pox, and scarlet fever. -The leucocytes had overcome every -enemy, and they were a triumphant, -arrogant race.</p> - -<p>The venerable corpuscle might have -clung where he was, all day, without -interfering with traffic, were it not for a -peculiarity of the corpuscles. A very -hungry white corpuscle, coursing ravenously, -noticed the venerable old gentleman, -and paused. Stronger than even -hunger was his feeling that he should -have to learn why the old gentleman -was standing on a corner, instead of -pouncing, grabbing, and struggling. -Small leucocytes, with messages to deliver, -paused and gaped; and, because -they paused and gaped, such a crowd -gathered that a burly corpuscle, with a -stout club, came along and growled:</p> - -<p>“G’wan, now! don’t be blocking up -this artery.”</p> - -<p>But the wise old corpuscle had provided -himself with a permit.</p> - -<p>He began: “Fellow leucocytes——”</p> - -<p>“Hooray!” from irresponsible, small -leucocytes.</p> - -<p>“Fellow leucocytes, I look around -and see among you some who may remember -me. These may recall that a -long time ago I withdrew from the activity -and excitement of our affairs, and -may wonder where I have been. I have -been secluded in the land of gray soil at -the upper end of our world. In a remote -convolution of this gray matter -I have lived and have absorbed something -of a strange spirit permeating it—the -spirit of intelligence—and I have -learned much from it. I feel that I -have a mission among you. Let me -start it abruptly with a question. Fellow -leucocytes, do you know why we -are placed here in this Man?”</p> - -<p>“To get all we can out of it!” answered -a sleek, shiny corpuscle.</p> - -<p>The others laughed good-naturedly, -agreeing that this was their sole reason -for being.</p> - -<p>“Out of <i>it</i>!” cried the wise old corpuscle. -“Why not out of <i>him</i>? Then -you don’t believe that the Man we inhabit -is a living creature? You think<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> -that because his life is not like our life, -he has no life? And you think that, -when you can feel the element of him -that we inhabit, pulsate?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that’s only the tide!”</p> - -<p>“You have never heard his voice?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing but thunder!”</p> - -<p>“You think he never moves?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing but a manquake, now and -then.”</p> - -<p>“You doubt that he is kept alive by -internal heat, just as we are? For, -without heat, there could not be life.”</p> - -<p>A studious white corpuscle had become -so interested that he permitted a -fine plump pneumonia germ to pass -him without pouncing upon it. He -stepped forward and said, learnedly:</p> - -<p>“Yes, there is internal heat in the -world we inhabit, but we are taught -that the Man was once a ball of fire and -is now gradually cooling off. It is ridiculous -to say it is alive like us. Look -how fine and delicate is our flesh; see -the Man made of coarse, rough substance -forming banks along every river -we navigate. Think of how tremendous -its heat is, when it is great enough -to keep these teeming millions of us -from perishing! Could any living creature -produce such heat? You say we -can feel it move? It must move very -infrequently then, for these manquakes -are far apart. And you regard as a -pulsating, the coming and going of the -tide? Why, our hearts beat thousands -of times in the span of one ebb and flow -of the tide we are familiar with!”</p> - -<p>Said the wise old corpuscle: “I say -that not only is this Man alive, but that -he, and millions like him, inhabit a -world as vast to him as he is to us.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, let the old fellow rave!” -laughed good-natured leucocytes.</p> - -<p>But the financier-corpuscle, with the -prominent proboscis, coming along -with a germ under each arm, rolling -half a dozen others in front of him, -muttered, savagely:</p> - -<p>“Another of those cursed agitators!”</p> - -<p>“This wide Man of ours,” pursued -the cursed agitator, “is between five -and six feet in length, according to his -system of measuring. The world that -he inhabits is twenty-five thousand -miles in circumference. Telepathy has -told me so; I have been able to interpret -throbs of his intellect to mine. He -calls his world the Earth. I say that -he is a white corpuscle to the Earth, as -we are to him. He will not accept this -belief. He argues as do you. Flesh -that he lives upon is so gross that he -calls it rock and soil; as rivers and -brooks he looks upon arteries and veins. -He knows of a tide and sees it pulsate. -During one ebb and flow, his own heart -beats thousands of times. He says the -Moon causes the tide. Perhaps; then -the Moon is the Earth’s heart. He -feels agitations similar to those we -know as manquakes. They are very -infrequent. He knows that there is -heat in the Earth, but can not conceive -that it is a source of life, because of its -extreme degree. He has no sense of -proportion. He can not conceive that -a tremendous creature with an existence -of ages must move, breathe, and -throb in proportion to bulk and longevity, -and be sustained by heat that -would consume him.”</p> - -<p>“Too deep for me!” cried a group of -young leucocytes. “Oh, he’s some -kind of a fake! Start in advertising -something, in a minute!” Each jumped -on a red corpuscle and went sliding -down hill.</p> - -<p>But the studious white corpuscle -again stepped forward.</p> - -<p>“Friends,” he said, “let us not deride -this old person. Let us, rather, point -out his astonishing errors to him. Be -tolerant, I say! Be tolerant, by all -means, even when we are opposed. Sir, -we’ll admit that there are many Men -instead of only this one, and that all -inhabit some vast creature that they -call the Earth. But what for? We -are here for pleasure, profit, and to store -up germs.”</p> - -<p>“Are we? For a long time it has -been my theory that we are here solely -for the welfare of the Man we inhabit; -that our food and our enemies are elements -inimical to him; we remove them -in his behalf.”</p> - -<p>“Vile agitator!” The financier-corpuscle, -coursing round again, was so -agitated that he nearly dropped a germ.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span></p> - -<p>“Let him speak!” urged the studious -corpuscle. “His views differ from -mine, but I will be tolerant! I have -arguments that will silence him soon. -Now, then, my friend, if our reason for -being is such as you describe, and you -liken men to us, these many men you -speak of must occupy a relation to -their Earth similar to ours to this Man. -Do they pounce upon and destroy every -organism malignant to their creature?”</p> - -<p>“I have no doubt of it!” cried the -old corpuscle. “I believe that, existing -with those that are workers, are others, -similar to them but idle or weak, or, -at any rate, of no value to the Earth. I do -not say that these worthless ones are -pounced upon and eaten, but I do believe -that in some way those of no value are -forced out of existence; perhaps, besides -weak and idle individuals, there -are whole tribes who are being exterminated, -unable to survive in the struggle -with the fit.”</p> - -<p>“What industrious, unselfish beings -these Men must be to do so much for -their Earth!” sneered a doubter.</p> - -<p>“Now, let him speak!” urged the -tolerant philosopher. “I have arguments -that will destroy his views, in a -moment. Let there be freedom of -speech, by all means!”</p> - -<p>“Industrious and unselfish?” repeated -the old corpuscle. “Are we? -Industrious, yes; but unselfish, no! -For our own existence we are working -in this Man’s behalf. We are not philanthropists. -For the necessities of life -we perform our appointed functions, -most of us never dreaming that we are -laboring in the interests of the Man we -inhabit. So it is, I believe, with them! -I can’t quite imagine what their beneficent -tasks are, but perhaps they till -the soil, as we till the soil of this Man, -keeping the Earth’s system in good -order, doing everything in the belief -that they are working only for themselves.”</p> - -<p>“Pursue your analogy!” cried the -rival philosopher. “If we populate a -living creature, then the creature inhabited -by Man must itself be a corpuscle -floating in the system of something -inconceivably vaster. We are -leucocytes to Men; Men are to the -Earth; then hordes of Earths are to a -Universe? You speak of many Men. -Are there hordes of Earths?”</p> - -<p>“You have expressed a thought of my -own! I believe that there are other -creatures like the Earth. Perhaps -they are faintly visible to the Earth. -Perhaps they revolve and have orbits -and course through a system just as we -do.”</p> - -<p>“There,” cried the old corpuscle’s -opponent, “I’ve got you! Be tolerant -to him, my friends; I’ll silence him in a -moment. My friend, then these vast -revolving creatures like the Earth are -remote from one another? They float -in nothingness, then? But you have -called them corpuscles, or tiny parts of -a whole. How can they be parts of a -solid, when they are widely separated -bodies floating in nothingness?”</p> - -<p>“Take an object of any kind,” was -the answer. “Of what is it composed? -You call it a solid, but I have lingered -long enough in this Man’s brain to catch -glimmers of what he calls the atomic -theory. This doctrine is, that all matter -is composed of ultra-microscopic -particles known as molecules. These -molecules are not stationary; they -revolve; they have orbits; in everything -you think solid and dead, tiny -specks of itself are floating and are -never still. A myriad worlds like the -Earth, are only molecules floating in -ether, forming a solid, just as the molecules -of any substance you are familiar -with form a solid. Only comparatively -are they far apart, as to a creature microscopic -enough, the molecules of a bit -of bone would seem far apart and not -forming a solid, at all. To the molecules -nearest to him he would give -names, such as Neptune or Mars; like -Men, he would call them planets; remoter -molecules would be stars.”</p> - -<p>“Wretched nonsense!” cried the -other philosopher-corpuscle. For he -had no argument left. “Subversive -of all modern thought! You ought to -be locked up for promulgating your -wild views! I’ll be the first to hang -you, if someone will bring a rope! You -have it that all existence is a solid,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> -then? That a myriad worlds like your -fancied Earth are molecules to an ultimate -creature? But there can, then, -be no ultimate creature; he, in turn is -but a microscopic part of— Beware -of him and don’t listen to him, my -friends!”</p> - -<p>Suddenly a number of rough-looking -corpuscles began to circulate through -the crowd, paid in typhoid germs by -the wrathful financier-corpuscle, who, -standing farther down the artery, could -not control his excitement, as he cried:</p> - -<p>“Vile agitator! Already there is too -much murmuring against my invested -rights!”</p> - -<p>“You tell us,” shouted a rough-looking -corpuscle, “that we, the conquering -inhabitants of this Man, fresh -from a war in which we were gloriously -victorious, are placed in this Man only -for his welfare?”</p> - -<p>The crowd muttered indignantly.</p> - -<p>“Fellow leucocytes,” said the old -philosopher, earnestly, “I do tell you -that! Through our own selfish motives -we do our best to benefit him, -but each one of us for himself only, -haphazard and without system. Then -never mind what Man’s relation to -his Earth may be, and never mind -what his Earth’s relation to its -Universe may be; let us think -only of our relation to this Man. -Let us have done with our grabbing -and monopolizing, and study and find -out just what is best for us to do in our -appointed task of taking care of this -Man. With that view, let us all work -together and overcome that egotism -that makes the thought of our own true -humble sphere so repellent——”</p> - -<p>But, excited by the defeated philosopher-corpuscle -and the emissaries of -the financier-corpuscle, the crowd had -become a mob. Angrily it shouted:</p> - -<p>“And he says that we, with our great -warriors and leaders, our marvellous -enterprises, our wondrous inventions, -are only insignificant scavengers of this -Man we inhabit? Down with him! Or, -if we’re too civilized to tear him apart, -put him away where he belongs!”</p> - -<p>And the fate of the wise old corpuscle -would have been the fate common -enough in the tragedies of philosophy, -were it not that a few disciples hurried -him away, seeking refuge in a tiny vein -far from battle, struggle, and selfishness.</p> - -<p>“He says we were made for the -Man!” jeered the few leucocytes who -gave the distasteful doctrine another -thought. “But we know, and have -every reason to know, that this Man -was made for us!”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Election_Reforms"><i>Election Reforms</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">THE TREND TOWARD DEMOCRACY<br /> -BY J. C. RUPPENTHAL</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Broadly speaking, election is -simply choice. In a narrower -sense the term is limited to the -choice of persons for political offices, -or for nomination to such offices, by the -people, or by a somewhat numerous -body, as distinguished from appointment -by a single person; or the determination -of other questions submitted -by law to popular vote.</p> - -<p>This paper seeks to present the general -features of American laws in the -nature of election reform, in the narrower -sense, with especial reference to -the decisions of the highest courts -thereon.</p> - -<p>When the thirteen original American -Colonies revolted against the mother -country, their government was essentially -that which had been evolved in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -thousand years of struggle and conflict -in England. But in details, there was -as wide divergence as could well be imagined -among people of practically -common origin, race, religion and language. -With the more permanent union -under the Federal Constitution came -an impulse to conform much governmental -procedure to a common standard. -Especially was this true in the -matter of elections.</p> - -<p>After 130 years of trial and change, -nearly all of the States vote on the same -day, choose representatives in Congress -and Presidential electors, as well as most -other officers in the same manner, and -do not differ very widely in methods of -voting. The qualifications of Electors -are somewhat diverse, though probably -less so than at the beginning, and everywhere -the right of suffrage has been -widely extended. The period of active -assimilation to common standards -lasted to the time of the Civil War. -Then the universal, extended and -heated discussion of human rights, the -fury of partisanship, the passions engendered -in the great internecine conflict, -the adoption of the 13th, 14th and -15th amendments, and following all -this, the expansion of the nation in -wealth and power, together with the -accumulation of colossal fortunes, and -the growth of corporate importance and -influence, all these led to the trial and -testing of the most fundamental and -long-established rights of man, while -every new measure in law, has had to -run the gantlet from the preliminary -proposal in caucus, convention, primary, -or elsewhere, to the final decision -thereon in the highest judicial tribunal. -There was no final judicial inquiry -into the right of suffrage until -in 1857 in New York and in 1859 in -North Carolina; but such became numerous -in the reconstruction period. -From questioning new rights of black -men, it was a short step to attacking -old rights of white men.</p> - -<p>How the matter of popular elections -has grown in importance may in a degree -be illustrated by the court decisions. -The syllabi up to September 1, 1896, in -all State and Federal cases affecting -elections, occupy 553 columns of a digest; -for the eight and one-half years -immediately following, up to April 1, -1905, 396 columns are so filled. Seemingly -nearly four-fifths as many points -relative to the elective franchise have -been passed on in less than a decade, as -in the earlier 120 years of free government. -Except in the instance of Kentucky, -1889, on the Australian ballot -for the city of Louisville, no question -reached a court of last resort prior to -1890 on such matters as the Australian -ballot, factional nominations, and nomination -papers, while in that year four -such cases were decided in the New -York Court of Appeals alone, and others -in Montana and Missouri.</p> - -<p>In the earlier, simpler, primitive days -an important aim was the securing to -each State its rights, real or fancied; -latterly more attention has been given -to the rights of the individual to an -effective share in Government from its -beginning in primary election, caucus, -convention, or otherwise, within a party -or without it, and continuing until his -wishes are at last crystallized in the -form of laws, and to protection against -fraud, violence and intimidation while -exercising the prerogatives of an enfranchised -citizen. Not unknown are -instances of denying rights already -possessed and restricting privileges -long exercised. There has been tyrannical -suppression of individuals and -classes. But the sweep of the years, -though slow-moving, has been in consonance -with the Declaration of Independence—“to -secure these rights, to -life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, -governments are instituted -among men deriving their just powers -from the consent of the governed.”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet I doubt not, through the ages,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">One increasing purpose runs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the thoughts of man are widened</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With the process of the suns.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the recent movement for election -reforms, four lines of advance are -marked: (1)—To secure the voter, by -protecting him from evil influences, -as is the object of the various “corrupt -practices acts” and kindred laws; by -guarding him against fraud, intimidation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> -and overawing, by means of an -absolutely secret ballot, as under the -Australian system; and by preventing, -as with voting-machines, any manipulation -of ballots or count. (2)—To extend -the franchise by reducing the -qualifications of Electors, and so making -suffrage more nearly universal, as in -the 15th Amendment, and the laws -enabling women to vote. (3)—To increase -popular control over officials and -their acts, over law-making, and over -the initial steps in making nominations, -as in making offices elective instead of -appointive, in adopting the initiative, -the referendum, and the recall, and in -prescribing legal forms for primary -elections and making nominations. -(4)—To secure more equitable representation -of every individual, class, -party or interest; to avoid the despotism -of a majority, or worse yet, a plurality; -and to prevent the practical -effacement of minorities.</p> - -<p>(1) To preserve the purity of elections, -many states have “Corrupt Practices -acts” forbidding the purchase of -votes, directly or indirectly, by candidates, -committees or others, with -money, intoxicating liquors, cigars, -promise of office, or otherwise. Some -limit the amount of expenditures of -candidates; others require detailed -sworn statements of campaign outlays -to be publicly filed. President Roosevelt -in at least his last two messages -urged Congress to enact stringent laws -to prevent bribery and corruption in -Federal elections, and to secure publicity -of the expenses of candidates, -parties and committees, and of the -source of contributions.</p> - -<p>Voting was doubtless at first <i>viva -voce</i>. In some States, particularly in -the South, elections were so conducted -for many years, and in Kentucky this -was in accordance with a constitutional -provision. For a number of -reasons, however, voting by ballot was -adopted in all the States, either originally, -or superseding the <i>viva voce</i> method.</p> - -<p>The written or printed ballot was -gradually perverted to such degree -that in 1857 the legislature of South -Australia adopted an official secret -ballot, printed and paid for by the public, -and wholly controlled and handled -by public officers. The idea was speedily -carried to England, spread over -Continental Europe, and at a somewhat -later date reached the United States, -where in some form, almost everywhere -modified, it has become part of the -electoral machinery in every State, -under the name of Australian ballot. -On first test in American courts, the -system was held to be unconstitutional, -but it has later been sustained -almost everywhere as being merely -regulative. The tendency of these -laws has been to make elections more -formal, and less flexible. Changes on -the ballot and “scratching” are no -longer possible with the ease of the old -private ballot system. But in general -the voter’s choice is not restricted to -the names printed on the ballot. -Constitutional guarantees of secrecy -are not impaired by those clauses -which permit aid by election officers, -to the disabled or illiterate, in marking -the ballot. In some States, as Tennessee -and Maryland, illiterates are -indirectly or partially disfranchised -by laws which permit aid only to persons -“that by reason of blindness or -other physical disability” are unable -to mark their ballots.</p> - -<p>These laws have been sustained in -the highest courts. Regulations, if -not too difficult in the opinion of the -court, are upheld, and likewise provisions -that require a party to have -cast a certain percentage of the vote -at the last preceding election, before -it may be entitled to an official ballot. -Even forcing a citizen to choose between -voting under an obnoxious -party heading, or not at all, is, at least -in New Jersey, viewed as no deprivation -of his rights.</p> - -<p>In a number of States, voting -machines which automatically register -the voter’s choice have been authorized, -and to some extent used.</p> - -<p>At this point mention may be made -of compulsory voting, which has been -seriously discussed as advisable to -bring out otherwise good citizens who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> -are apathetic as to their civic responsibilities. -In 1898 the people of North -Dakota adopted a constitutional -amendment, permitting the Legislature -to impose a penalty for failure to vote.</p> - -<p>(2) Although the theory of the Declaration -of Independence is broad, the -practice as to the “consent of the governed” -was decidedly limited at the time of -the Revolution, and the ruling power in -at least some of the States was vested in -so few persons as to be oligarchic rather -than popular. Property qualifications -were often essential to the right of suffrage. -These no longer exist in any -State. Also age, race, sex, citizenship, -residence and payment of taxes determined -a person’s eligibility either to -vote, or to hold office, or both. A -higher age is set generally in Europe, -but in America twenty-one years is universally -accepted as marking maturity -for voting purposes. Race distinctions -were wiped out by the fifteenth amendment -to the Constitution of the United -States. Religious tests were always few, -and are probably wholly abolished—the -last effort being to bar Mormons in -Nevada about twenty years ago, but -held unconstitutional. Sex is no -longer considered in Wyoming, Idaho, -Utah and Colorado. While only males -are fully enfranchised in the other -States, suffrage has been given to females -in many matters, particularly -municipal and school. Only American -citizens may vote in a large number of -States, but in others aliens also, who -have declared their intentions to become -citizens by naturalization, have -full rights. In an anomalous position -are Porto Ricans and Filipinos, who are -neither citizens nor aliens. Residence -where the elector offers to vote is always -required, usually a year or more -in the State, but sometimes less; and -a shorter time in the county and voting -precinct, or city and ward.</p> - -<p>The extreme mobility of our population, -so different from conditions in -the Old World, or even earlier America, -has led to a feeling that, in some way, -the good citizen should be enabled to -express his choice in National elections, -though for any reason he may have -moved from one State to another shortly -before election; likewise that he save -his vote for State and district officers -and measures, though crossing county -lines; and on county matters, though -removing from precinct to precinct. -An effort to avert this temporary disfranchisement -was made in Kansas, -by a law permitting railroad employees -to vote where their occupation happens -to take them on election day. The payment -of taxes has long been a pre-requisite -to casting a ballot in Pennsylvania -and other Eastern States. In the -South, this requirement, as well as -educational qualifications, appears to -gain ground.</p> - -<p>(3) The extension of the subjects -of popular decision has been most -marked, and the drift is increasingly -in that direction. A further innovation, -rapidly growing, is the expression -of a wish or preference by the electorate -where such vote is merely advisory and -not binding. Office after office, once -appointive, is made elective, and when -so gained by the people is never surrendered -again. In 1776-1783 only -Georgia, among the Colonies elected -judges. Today thirty-one States elect -them. Then scarcely a governor was -chosen by the people. At first presidential -electors were named in a variety -of ways. But by 1832, the right had everywhere -been yielded to the people. -The very many resolutions of amendment -offered in Congress, providing -for the election of United States Senators -by direct vote, the passage of -such measures repeatedly by the House, -and the persistent, reiterated requests -for this reform by various Legislatures, -all show a deep-seated popular desire.</p> - -<p>Scarcely had America copied from -Australia her ballot system, when, becoming -adept as Rome in absorbing -from surrounding nations, she borrowed -from the Swiss the Latin terms <i>referendum</i> -and <i>initiative</i>, although the principles -thereby expressed are as long -established on this continent as English -settlements. For centuries among Germanic -peoples, there has been a steady<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> -transition of power. The right to petition -the crown grew into legislation. -Final power was transferred from king -to parliament, and now in turn it is -passing from the legislative branch -directly to the electorate.</p> - -<p>None of the colonial charters, except -those of Pennsylvania, had any provision -for amendment, and of the original -States, only Massachusetts and -New Hampshire submitted their constitutions -to the people for ratification. -By 1787, provision for amendment, -thitherto wholly lacking in all State -constitutions, unless Pennsylvania’s, -was added to eight of them. The custom -of amending constitutions by popular -vote arose, and is now established -in every State except Delaware. Thus, -changing the organic law, upon legislative -initiative, has become commonplace. -The next step—to permit the -people themselves to initiate the change -and finally for them to ratify or reject -and even to propose important laws,—was -slower of acceptance. Switzerland -began this revolution in free government -in 1830 and by 1848 had the principle -embedded in its federal constitution. -About 1886 discussions of the -Swiss institutions, and especially the -initiative and referendum, as seen by -American students abroad, began to -appear in leading American journals -and magazines. In 1898 South Dakota -amended its constitution by adopting -a provision for initiative and referendum. -In 1900 Utah followed this example. -In 1902 Oregon by the decisive -ratio of eleven to one in the popular -vote, adopted the most clearly expressed -section yet developed in our -country. In 1904 Nevada added a -similar feature to the organic law.</p> - -<p>In April, 1901, the matter of an initiative -and referendum amendment -first reached a supreme court, coming -up in South Dakota, regarding acts to -take immediate effect, passed under the -emergency clause of the amendment. -The court held that the Legislature is -sole judge as to what laws are “necessary -for the immediate preservation -of the public peace, health or safety, -or support of the State government and -its existing institutions.” The fundamental -principles involved were not -questioned on either side. But in December, -1903, the initiative and referendum -amendment was directly attacked -in the Supreme Court of Oregon, -and unanimously sustained. The -Court, per Bean, J., said: “Nor do we -think the amendment void because in -conflict with Sec. 4, of Art. 4, of the -Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing -to every State a republican -form of government. Now the initiative -and referendum amendment does -not abolish or destroy the republican -form of government, or substitute -another in its place. The representative -character of the government still remains. -The people have simply reserved -to themselves a larger share of -legislative power, but they have not -overthrown the republican form of -government, or substituted another in -its place. The Government is still divided -into legislative, executive and -judicial departments, the duties of -which are discharged by representatives -selected by the people. Under this -amendment, it is true, the people may -exercise a legislative power, and may -effect veto or defeat bills passed and approved -by the Legislature and governor -but the legislative and executive departments -are not destroyed, nor are -their powers or authority materially -curtailed.” Although the question of -the nature of laws initiated, or otherwise -adopted by the people, upon reference -to them, was not directly before -the court, it said: “Laws proposed -and enacted by the people under the -initiative clause of the amendment are -subject to the same constitutional limitations -as other statutes and may be -amended or repealed by the Legislature -at will.”</p> - -<p>Concerning that clause in the amendment -which says: “the veto power of -the governor shall not extend to -measures referred to the people,” the -court held that this applies to bills -actually referred to the people, and -not to all that might be referred, and -that all acts not submitted to a referendum -may be vetoed. The Utah<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> -and Nevada amendments have not -been tested in court. Indeed, that -of Utah is not self-executing, and the -Legislature has not yet enacted a -method of procedure to give it effect. -The South Dakota amendment specifically -applies to municipalities as well -as the State. Nebraska in 1898 enacted -a general initiative and referendum -statute for counties, townships, cities, -villages and school districts.</p> - -<p>Since the time when “popular -sovereignty” was a party shibboleth -in the free or slave-State controversy, -so many matters are frequently, if not -habitually, submitted to a vote that -such course no longer excites comment. -The charter of Greater New York was -adopted upon a referendum, which -method has become the rule rather -than the exception in giving charters -effect. Within the charters themselves, -the Initiative and Referendum -appears with increasing frequency.</p> - -<p>Many of the earlier acts referring -matters to the people were assailed -as unconstitutional on the ground of -delegating legislative power to the -people. The diverse decisions on the -subject cannot be reconciled. Beginning -with Delaware in 1847 and continuing -to as late date as 1902 (in -Ohio), various courts have pronounced -such laws invalid. On the other hand, -the Supreme Court of Louisiana decided -flatly in 1853 and again in 1854 -that conditional legislation, to take -effect upon popular approval, is not -unconstitutional. Then began some -subtle and attenuated “distinguishing” -among decisions. Many courts came -round to the position that “while the -Legislature cannot delegate its power -to enact laws, it may provide that -whether or not a law enacted shall be -operative, may be made to depend upon -the popular will.” An interesting fact -is that the courts in the Southern -States invariably upheld reference to -the people, and that adverse decisions -are very numerous in the North. A -peculiar referendum was attempted in -Massachusetts, but was declared unconstitutional. -The act provided for -submitting the question of extending -municipal suffrage to women, but by -a special section allowed the women -to vote on the proposition of their own -enfranchisement. Where there are -constitutional clauses requiring some -matters to be referred to the people, -the rule of <i>expressio unius est exclusio -alterius</i> has been invoked in opposing -the submission of other laws to the -people, but in vain. The failure of the -proper officers to provide for taking a -vote at the first election after the passage -of a referendum law, cannot defeat -the will of the people, or deprive -them of the option of acceptance or -rejection. Until accepted by popular -vote, the law takes effect only for the -purpose of submission, and at a later -election mandamus will lie to require -the officials to hold the election properly. -In 1900 a movement began in -Australia to make it obligatory to -refer the matter to the people in case -of a deadlock between the two houses -on any bill or resolution.</p> - -<p>The latest development of the principle -is the advisory referendum, and -advisory initiative. As the name indicates, -these simply show to the -legislative and executive departments -the will of their constituents, and no -legal obligation rests upon the officials -to give form to the popular expression. -In 1901 Illinois enacted a “public -opinion law.” Delaware has pending -a constitutional amendment to establish -the advisory initiative and -referendum. In 1905 Texas enacted -a very interesting experiment in the -way of a primary election law, which -not only provides for nomination of -candidates by direct vote, but contains -provision for the use of the -initiative and referendum within party -lines to direct party policy, and determine -what principles shall be promulgated -in the party platform. -Many city councils have voluntarily -resorted to this method of learning the -people’s will. In Buffalo in the fall of -1905 three questions were to be submitted. -But the commissioner failed -or refused to put the questions upon -the voting machines at the proper -time. Mandamus was brought in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> -Supreme Court. Thereupon Justice -Krause granted the writ on one question, -that relating to public ownership -of a light and power plant by the city, -but denied it on the other two, saying -as to these: “They involve questions -of legislation over which the city -council manifestly has no power. -Indeed, their very purpose is not to -furnish information for the guidance -of the local authorities; but they are -peculiarly matters for the Legislature.”</p> - -<p>When the Federal Constitution was -submitted for ratification, many of the -conventions in the several States, dissatisfied -with certain features and more -often with omissions in, the new instrument, -offered amendments. These -were numerous and varied, and some -were later adopted. In New York and -Rhode Island the conventions offered -an amendment for the recall of United -States Senators at the will of the -Legislature, and the substitution of -others. In 1803 and again in 1806, -the Virginia Legislature passed resolutions -in support of such amendment for -recall. A revival and much broader -application of the principle has lately -been seen. In 1903 the city of Los -Angeles, California, amended its charter -by popular vote, and in addition to -the initiative and referendum, it placed -in the people’s arsenal another powerful -weapon—the recall. A few words -in the charter clearly define the recall. -In the special election in September -1904, the councilman whose course -in voting for two certain ordinances -was not approved by his ward, was -defeated by another candidate. The -incumbent then petitioned the Supreme -Court for a writ of mandamus to compel -the rest of the council and city -government generally to recognize him -for the remainder of his term. Without -deciding the point, the court -assumed the validity of the recall -amendment, but sustained the petitioner -on the ground that the procedure -in calling the special election was not -quite regular. Even on this point, -Chief Justice Beatty dissented. In an -inferior court, the matter had come -up in another form, and Judge Ostler -decided against the incumbent, holding -that the recall amendment is not -obnoxious to either the State or Federal -constitution, that it was not necessary -to make charges in the petition for -election, but simply to make statements -of reasons to enlighten the public; -that the officer had no property -in the office nor vested right to hold to -the end of his term; that it was no -contract, but a mere agency, terminable -at any time by the principal, the -sovereign people.</p> - -<p>With the general adoption of the -Australian ballot, whether pure or -modified, a certain rigidity and official -formality was introduced, which makes -independent action, or the rejection of -“regular” party candidates, however -unworthy they be, increasingly difficult. -This put a premium upon the control -of conventions and party machinery, -and the naming of party candidates -by whatever means. To secure a fair, -untrammeled expression of popular -will in the initiatory step of making -nominations, a system of primary -election laws has been evolved, and -now exists in almost every State. The -early forms applied where parties -voluntarily, in primary elections, made -nominations, sometimes of candidates -by direct vote, but more often only of -delegates to conventions, all under -party management and control, subject -to such public laws; the later forms -are mandatory, requiring all parties -to nominate candidates, or delegates, -at an official primary election, under -public control. The usual course of -evolution has been to hold primaries -for naming delegates, and then to -assume the nomination of all candidates -without the intervention of -delegates.</p> - -<p>About 1879 or 1880 a primary election -law was enacted in Kentucky, -but no obligation was imposed on -any party or persons to nominate -candidates by primary election. In -1895, almost simultaneously, several -States adopted compulsory primary -laws, limiting their operation at first -to one or several large cities, and -later extending them over the State<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> -in either a mandatory or an optional -form. So widely do these enactments -differ, that it is hard to deduce -general statements of their features. -Many have been upheld, and not a -few overthrown. There has been a general -tendency to substitute mandatory -for optional laws. After a bitter fight, -extending over a series of years, Wisconsin -by a majority of over 50,000 -adopted a mandatory primary election -law in 1904, that provides for nomination -by direct vote, of almost all officers -from the smallest up to candidates for -United States Senators, by all parties -upon the same day at the same polling -places and with the same election officers, -who are publicly chosen from the -two leading parties in the State. In -1900 California expressly recognized -the primary election by a Constitutional -provision, and empowered the -Legislature to prescribe conditions on -which voters may participate in such -elections. The Constitution of Mississippi, -Section 247, declares that the -Legislature shall enact laws to secure -fairness in primary elections. Where -the primaries are official and mandatory, -all expenses are paid by the public; -where they are voluntary, the cost -falls on the party holding them. Myriads -of questions have arisen out of -these elections, and Legislatures have -sought in a variety of ways, to solve -them. The proclivity of some voters -to take part in all primaries has been an -ever-present problem in those States -that permit the several parties to hold -their primaries at different times and -places.</p> - -<p>Where it is entirely optional with a -party, whether or not to nominate by -primaries, having decided affirmatively -the party must conduct such election -strictly in accordance with the statutes. -The first primary laws made past acts -the test of qualification to take part in a -party primary election. But later laws -incline to accept future intentions instead, -while New Jersey, at least, requires -both faith and works. Kentucky’s -court has held that the Constitutional -provisions relating to elections, -do not apply to primary elections, but -most courts that have considered -the subject, take the opposite view. -Massachusetts holds that a primary law -is not unconstitutional in authorizing -printing on the ballots, the names of -candidates presented by a certain number -of voters, if blanks are left for the -insertion of the names of other candidates -not so presented. But Minnesota -denies this poor boon to voter and candidate, -and says that no blanks need -be left in which to write a name.</p> - -<p>In many instances, only parties casting -a certain percentage of the total -vote are privileged to avail themselves -of the mandatory laws, and such limitation -has been upheld where ample -provision is made for nominations in -other ways, by the minor parties. In -some of the laws, the procedure is minutely -detailed; others are very brief -and general. Some leave much to the -party rules and machinery already in -existence, or that may be provided, and -even expressly declare that the party’s -rules shall govern in matters not provided -for in the law. While the provisions -of a primary law may apply -only to general elections, seemingly to -the exclusion of special elections, it is -not therefore a special law, within the -Constitutional meaning of the term, and -in all elections to which the act does not -apply, the old statutes will govern as -before the passing of a primary law. -Nor is a law rendered special by requiring -direct choice of the candidates in a -single ward or township, while for larger -divisions, delegates are selected to -hold nominating conventions. A New -York statute distinguishes between -municipal and other elections in determining -party affiliations, so that a man -may claim party regularity, though -voting differently at will in city affairs. -The inalienable right of the people to -call Cincinnatus and Putnam from their -plows, when the office seeks the man -has been vindicated by the Supreme -Court of Michigan.</p> - -<p>(4) Ever since man first espoused -the doctrine of majority rule in popular -Government, students have been perplexed -by the problems presented when<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> -three or more candidates for one office, -or three or more solutions of one question, -have been before the people. -Likewise, the utter elimination of the -minority from a voice in affairs, and its -treatment as a wholly negligible factor, -has troubled philosophers and statesmen -who desire justice and truly representative -government. In the early -history of this nation, five or more of -the original commonwealths chose their -representatives in Congress on a general -ticket; five chose by districts, and -this system gradually spread, until in -1842 it was made mandatory. Numerous -constitutional amendments were -offered, especially in the early days, to -elect Presidential Electors by districts, -and Representatives by districts. In -1877 and again in 1888, Maish of Pennsylvania -presented resolutions of amendment -dividing the electoral votes of -each State in proportion to the popular -vote for the several candidates. Many -States provide for the distribution of -election boards, and some few other -offices among political parties, usually -between the two leading parties. In -1870 Illinois adopted a constitution -with a section to secure proportional -representation, or more properly, minority -representation, in the legislature. -Quite a number of proportional measures -have been passed in the different -States, but most of them have been pronounced -to be unconstitutional. In -March 1889, the Michigan Legislature -enacted a law embodying the “cumulative” -plan to represent the minority. -It was held unconstitutional. In the -opinion, Chief Justice Champlin discusses -the matter philosophically and -historically, and describes the four plans -known as the “restrictive” or “limited -vote,” the “Cumulative,” the “Geneva,” -“free vote,” or “Gilpin” plan, -and the “Hare” or “single vote” system. -To this there has since been added -perhaps as, fifth—the “Gove” plan.</p> - -<p>The “restrictive” or “limited vote” -plan has been used in American elections -more than any other method designed -to assure representation of a -minority. The Pennsylvania Constitution -prescribed the limited vote for -Judges of the Supreme Court, County -Commissioners and some other officers. -The principle has been extended by simple -statutory enactment, in the Keystone -State, and upheld there. But -similar laws in Ohio, New Jersey and -Rhode Island, have been repeatedly -pronounced unconstitutional. In foreign -countries, the system is much used. -The “cumulative” plan is much used in -corporations, and some attempt has -been made to apply it in general elections, -the Illinois selection of its lower -house, being the most prominent example. -Beginning in 1874, Ohio, too, -used this method for a while in selecting -Legislators. In 1889 it was applied in -Boston to choosing Aldermen. In -Michigan the attempt so to elect the -lower house was held void, as has been -stated. The “free vote” has gained no -foothold in our land, but is much used -in Europe. The Hare-Spence plan has -been in use in some parts of Denmark -since 1856, also in Tasmania, parts of -Australia and New Zealand.</p> - -<p>The “preferential ballot,” which is a -prominent feature of the Hare-Spence -method of securing proportional representation, -has also been used where -single candidates are to be chosen to -office, in order to assure a majority -choice among three or more candidates.</p> - -<p>Even this simple survey of events -shows strongly the steady advance of -the electorate in taking power into their -own hands. If any mistrust the people, -if any have any misgivings lest -the masses be incapable of using wisely -the powers they have assumed, he may -find relief in the thought that whereas -the average mature American of the -year 1800 had enjoyed but 82 days of -schooling in his life, his descendant of -today receives 1,034 days’ public instruction. -The trend toward democracy -may be the result of men’s conscious -deliberate design; it may be unconscious -destiny.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">States are not great,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Except as men may make them.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Men are not great, except they do and dare;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">But States, like men,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Have destinies that take them.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That bear them on, not knowing how or where.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus17.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Our Sword of Damocles</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Warren, in Boston Herald</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus18.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Uncle Doesn’t Seem to be Going Anywhere</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Wilder, in Chicago Record-Herald</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;"> -<img src="images/illus19.jpg" width="625" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Jolly Rogers</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Cory, in N. Y. World</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="PIERRE_SANSCULOTTE"> -<img src="images/heading7.jpg" width="700" height="250" alt="" /> -<h2>PIERRE, SANSCULOTTE<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY LA SALLE CORBELL PICKETT.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>You wonder why the world should -be so fair to me today—to me, -Pierre of the People, the poor -oppressed people, whose heart’s blood -has been crushed out until it rushed -forth in floods that cover the streets of -Paris with a crimson stain?</p> - -<p>Even for me the sun shines today -and the flowers bloom with a fragrance -they never breathed before—the red -stains that clot the dust in the street -are great crimson roses blossoming -with a glory never before worn by -flowers.</p> - -<p>“Pierre,” said Monsieur le Géneral, -“you are not a traitor to France, are -you?”</p> - -<p>“No, Monsieur,” I said sturdily, -setting my teeth and giving him as -steady a look as he was bending upon -me.</p> - -<p>I told the truth. We who would free -France from the rule of the aristocrats -are not traitors. Rather are they traitors -who would make of our nation a -stagnant pool of slavery and corruption.</p> - -<p>Monsieur le Géneral looked at me -again, keenly.</p> - -<p>“We may not agree upon definitions.”</p> - -<p>“My definitions are from the book -of real life, Monsieur le Géneral. They -are always in agreement with the truth. -Monsieur knows, though, that he may -trust me for himself, however my definitions -may differ from his own. He -has not forgotten that I saved his life -once from an English sword. I know -the memory is graven upon the mind -of Monsieur le Géneral as deeply as the -scar is cut in my arm.”</p> - -<p>“I think you love me, Pierre,” he -replied.</p> - -<p>I laid my hand on my heart, bowing -till my head almost touched one of the -crimson roses in the velvet of Monsieur’s -carpet.</p> - -<p>“More than my life, Monsieur.”</p> - -<p>What could I say fairer than that, for -was not life the dearest thing to me then?</p> - -<p>So matters stood with my lord and -me on that morning when he sent me -with a missive to Mademoiselle Denise. -To her or to another, what mattered it -to me? They were all young demoiselles -and, as such, of far less consequence -than the silver mounting of my -lord’s pistols or the flash of his gold-sheathed -sword.</p> - -<p>As I crossed the courtyard a dark-eyed -page, idling by the fountain that -sparkled in the sun, was singing:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“By the garden-wall the rose blooms red,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lifts to the sun its royal head;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s never a flower of such sweet grace</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As the blossoming rose on my lady’s face—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rose-red, flower grace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Never a rose like my lady’s face.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>With that refrain ringing in my ears, -“Never a rose like my lady’s face,” I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> -went from the shining flood of sunshine -into a hall that seemed like dusky -twilight after the outside brilliance. -But in the centre was a space where -the sunlight drifted down through an -open window into a circle of radiance -and in the middle of it stood Mademoiselle, -a shining figure that dimmed all -other light. She was clad in white and -gold, and the long folds of her robe lay -in shimmering snow along the marble -floor. Her amber hair was like a river -that the morning sun-rays cross. Her -eyes shone like great sapphires set -under long lashes of gold and arched -over by golden brows. It was as if -the light of a thousand suns had centered -in one fair woman.</p> - -<p>The scar, once a proud and happy -place upon my arm, burned as if a -coal of fire had been dropped upon it -and for one wild moment I could have -cut from me the arm that had interposed -to save the life of my master. -Then I knelt before her, when she had -waved her hand for my approach, and -presented the letter. She looked at it -carelessly and turned her eyes from it -to me where I knelt and beckoned me -to rise.</p> - -<p>“Tell me of yourself,” she said in a -voice that was like the softest strain of -a lute. “Who are you?”</p> - -<p>Who was I? Yesterday I would -have said a man. Had I not done a -man’s part in battle? Was it not a -man’s right arm that had stretched -itself forth to save a great life? Now I -was—nothing. There was not a grain -of dust in the streets of Paris smaller -than I.</p> - -<p>“Nothing, my lady,” I said, not daring -to lift my eyes to her face, nor -scarcely to look at her hand lying like -a white lily on the snow of her gown.</p> - -<p>“That proves you very much,” she -said, “for a man never thinks himself -nothing till he has a standard of merit -with which to compare himself and the -possession of such a standard is a proof -of worth.”</p> - -<p>“I am only Pierre—the servant of -Monsieur le Géneral.”</p> - -<p>With what pride I should yesterday -have avowed myself the servant of so -brave a soldier and so grand a gentleman. -With what hatred of him and -what contempt for myself did I make -that statement today. Did not the -great gulf between the gold and white -Queen of the World deepen and widen -infinitely with the significance of my -words?</p> - -<p>“Monsieur le Géneral is fortunate.”</p> - -<p>She wrote a line on a leaf from a gold -and white tablet and gave it to me, -sealed with a golden seal.</p> - -<p>I bowed low and went out from her -presence with my face toward her. At -the entrance I lifted my eyes and looked -dazzled at the spot of light in the centre -of the great hall. Thus I passed out -into the courtyard flooded with sunlight -which seemed dim in comparison -with that supernal radiance.</p> - -<p>The dark-eyed page had seated himself -on the rim of the basin into which -the fountain fell with a tinkling music -that kept rhythm with the song he was -still singing. With the refrain yet ringing -in my ears, “Never a rose like my -lady’s face,” I went back to Monsieur -le Géneral with the missive she had -given me.</p> - -<p>A little later the blood of the Paris -streets spattered to the gold robes of the -court. I saw the head of Monsieur le -Géneral carried by me on a spike and -the dark-faced, ragged man who bore it -sang a ribald song as he looked mockingly -up into the face, one word of -which would have been his death-warrant -had it been uttered when that -head yet sat upon the stately shoulders. -For a moment a sorrowful thought of -the days when I loved him lay like a -cloud upon my mind, but what time -was there then for thinking of love—at -least of that love.</p> - -<p>I left the crowd of raging demons and -ran across the courtyard where the -fountain yet tinkled merrily down into -the basin. No dark-eyed page loitered -there and sang of the red rose and his -lady’s face to the music of the falling -water. I dashed past the fountain -and ran into the great hall. It was -empty and there was the print of muddy -feet trampled over the marble floor.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -I went to the Leader of the People.</p> - -<p>“Where is Mademoiselle Denise?”</p> - -<p>His wicked eyes flashed vindictively.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Pierre, if you owe a grudge to -the aristocracy of France you can feed -to it now the most luxurious viands of -earth. Even she is offered to the vengeance -of justice and her head will -grace a pike as none other has ever -done.”</p> - -<p>I threw myself down before him.</p> - -<p>“Citizen, what has she done to you -or to France?”</p> - -<p>“Done? She has done nothing. -She is. That is the crime of an aristocrat.”</p> - -<p>I pleaded with him for the life of that -woman whose gold and white beauty -was the fairest thing I had ever gazed -upon and whose beautiful heart looked -out from eyes that showed all its goodness -and truth. Citizen Beauget had -received many services at my hands in -the days when I was near the powers of -the court because the favorite of the -king had owed his life to me.</p> - -<p>“Eh!” he cried. “A citizen of -France seeking to save the life of one of -the oppressors of France? Ah, I have -it. If she will marry you, good Pierre, -her life is yours. Ha, the white and -gold lily of the court marry Pierre, -the Sansculotte! Beautiful thought! -Perhaps she will wish to save her life.”</p> - -<p>Then I stood up before him and -looked at him with a scorn before -which he dropped his gaze.</p> - -<p>“Citizen Beauget, Mademoiselle will -marry where she loves or kiss the cruel -‘Maiden of Liberty’ with pure lips -and a brave heart.”</p> - -<p>But I took the paper he gave me and -went straight to the prison where she -stood, and even there space was bright -because of her. She turned and looked -at me and the glow that comes once to -a woman’s face was in hers when her -eyes fell on me.</p> - -<p>“You have come to help me die,” -she said reaching out her hand.</p> - -<p>I took the hand and fell upon my -knees and pressed it to my lips.</p> - -<p>“Nay, not so, Mademoiselle. I come -to bid you live, if I read truly what is -written on your face.”</p> - -<p>Hand in hand we went out into the -night and neither the terror of the -living nor the faces of the dead staring -up into the moon-lit sky marred the -peace that filled our hearts.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_New_Party"><i>The New Party</i><br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>What Shall It Be Named?</i><br /> -BY CHARLES Q. DE FRANCE<br /> -<i>Secretary People’s Party National Committee</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>There are phenomena a-plenty, -said the <i>New York World</i> editorially -(December 31), “which -unmistakably foretell a new party and -a new issue in American affairs. It -comes in a multitude of shapes and -clothed in a multitude of garments.”</p> - -<p>Coming from the source it does, this -utterance is significant. There is no -doubt about the existence of the phenomena, -but your conservative usually -delights in playing ostrich. Personally -I would like to question the accuracy -of the <i>World’s</i> forecast—for I contend -that we have now more political -parties than economic conditions warrant—but -regard for truth requires -affirmation instead of denial. The new -party is bound to come.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Bryan,” the <i>World</i> continued, -“has already defined it (the new party) -in terms of triple state socialism—city -ownership, State ownership and national -ownership of all public utilities.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span></p> - -<p>Granting that this is correct, it is not -hard to see that a new party is superfluous, -for the People’s Party now covers -this ground; and the Democratic Party -has in places adopted a portion of the -program.</p> - -<p>The public mind, however, is thinking -of a new party—and that settles it. -The arguments of a few feeble individuals -cannot change public opinion. -So let us accept the inevitable and try -to make the best of it.</p> - -<p>The new party, it is safe to say, will -pre-empt a large portion of the ground -now occupied by the People’s Party. -It will declare for true democracy. It -will adopt one of two methods in making -its declarations. It may, in a few -well worded paragraphs, state fundamental -principles of democracy, avoiding -the peculiar isms of the various -factions which will be brought together -in the new organization; or it may -attempt to frame a plank acceptable to -each of the factions. It is needless to -say that the former will lay the foundation -for success, while the latter will -give rise to dissensions and result, finally, -in disintegration.</p> - -<p>But I do not wish to suggest a platform -for the new party. Able men -will be present at its birth, and they -will know what to do. I do wish to be -heard, however, on the question of -name for the infant party.</p> - -<p>Populists well know that for the -past four years I have fought persistently -against changing the People’s -Party name. I have freely admitted -its faults, but have insisted that a faulty -name is less dangerous than a change. -The organization of a new party presents -a different problem. A new name is -necessary.</p> - -<p>What shall it be?</p> - -<p>Viewed superficially there are many -good names which might be adopted; -but when subjected to careful analysis, -the number dwindles down to a very -few. I take it that the name should indicate -the predominant feature of the -party; that it should be but one word, -and that word short, preferably of three -syllables, not explosive or difficult to -pronounce, but capable of being uttered -easily; that whether used as noun or -adjective no change is necessary; that -it should not be an unusual or a newly -coined word, but one the meaning of -which, in its generic sense, is now well -understood by, or at least familiar to -the public.</p> - -<p>A year or so ago a writer in <i>The Public</i> -(Chicago) suggested Isocrat, one who -believes in equal rule; and Orthocrat, -one who believes in good rule—both -charming names but violating what I -believe to be very important: that the -name should not be unusual, newly -coined, or unfamiliar to the public. -Isocrat, isocratic, isocracy; orthocrat, -orthocratic, orthocracy. Ingenious inventions, -but hardly suited to our purpose.</p> - -<p>Several persons in the past few years, -notably Rev. John V. Potts, of Ohio, -have made good arguments in favor of -“The People’s Democratic-Republican -Party.” I shall not discuss this further -than to suggest that a 27-letter -name is too long; and that to designate -a member of the party would require a -hopeless amount of circumlocution.</p> - -<p>“Home Rule,” “American,” etc., -have been suggested; but a little -thought will disclose their weak points.</p> - -<p>I suggest the good, old word <span class="smcap">Radical</span>.</p> - -<p>Nine men out of every ten today—who -would likely become affiliated with -the new party—will, when questioned -as to their political belief, generally preface -their remarks by declaring, “I am -a radical.” Why not give them an -opportunity to say it with a capital R?</p> - -<p>The Radical Party; a Radical; -Radical measures; Radicalism.</p> - -<p>Not so many years ago the suggestion -of this name would have aroused a -storm of protest—but it is different today. -Then a radical was looked upon -as a rash man, if not, indeed, a revolutionist. -Men coveted the distinction -of being regarded as conservative. To -put a radical in an important public -office, as Governor, for instance, would -“drive capital out of the State.” -Only a “con-ser-r-va-tive” (how they -did roll that r) could prevent things -from going to the demnition bow-wows.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p> - -<p>Today it is almost criminally libelous -to call a man “safe and sane,” so -great a change has come over the public -mind. The words “radical” and -“conservative” have come to be understood -in a new light. The new meanings -have quite obscured the old. A -“conservative” is looked upon today -as the beneficiary, as principal or agent, -of some special privilege—franchise, -tariff tax and the like—which gives him -the power to absorb wealth produced -by others, without rendering an equivalent -therefor. Naturally, he desires -to “conserve” this unfair advantage—for -civilization has by no means eliminated -the wolf in man—and is, therefore, -opposed to radical change. He is -a conservative, a stand-patter, a let-well-enough-aloner.</p> - -<p>I make no claim of altruism for the -radical, and am inclined to look with -suspicion upon the man who prates -overmuch about doing everything for -others and nothing for himself. Self-preservation -is the first law of Nature, -and man hasn’t learned how to repeal -it. Besides, it isn’t necessary, even if -we knew how. But there is selfishness -and selfishness. Conservative selfishness -means to build up one’s self at the -expense of others; radical selfishness -has for its motto, “Live and let live.” In -other words, by promoting the general -welfare, I can best advance my own -interests.</p> - -<p>But, for the sake of argument, let us -admit that men are alike in their selfishness; -that all are wolfish, whether conservative -or radical. Common sense -teaches us that only a comparative few -can be the beneficiaries of special privileges. -If we all possessed equal powers -to rob, conferred by legislation, the result -would be about the same as though -none of us possessed such powers. The -former alternative is, of course, impossible; -for a special privilege would -cease to be such if made general. But -the latter is possible. Let us frankly -confess that the radical would be a conservative -if he could become the beneficiary -of a special privilege. Given -the opportunity, I feel sure he would act -much as other legalized robbers do.</p> - -<p>I believe we have indulged in too -much denunciation of the beneficiaries of -special privileges, the legalized plunderers, -and paid too little attention to -the criminal ignorance of the great -majority who permit themselves to be -robbed. I believe we should admit that -the masses have acted as “them asses”—and -resolve to quit playing the fool. -That’s why I suggest the name Radical -for the new party. It means a going to -the root of the trouble and uprooting -it. It means a change which will hurt -the pride of a few, because they can no -longer hoodwink and rob their tens of -thousands under guise of law—a change -which will benefit the pockets of the -many, because they will no longer be -picked by legal enactment.</p> - -<p>And this would be a radical change. -Let it be made by a Radical party.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2><i>A Wild Enthusiast</i></h2> - -<p>“He——?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he is the kind of a chap that would try to blow up a balloon -with baking-powder.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2><i>Unfinished</i></h2> - -<p>Johnny—Mamma, I was having such a nice dream when I woke up.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Mamma</span>—Were you?</p> - -<p>Johnny—Yes. I wish there was some way I could go ahead with that dream.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Municipal_Boss"><i>The Municipal Boss</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">By W. D. Wattles</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>The present revolt against bossism -and the recent destruction -of several of the strongest -and best constructed machines, naturally -suggest the question as to the -permanence of the results. The vital -problem now is whether the boss will -rise again, or whether a new one will -come in his stead. To know the answer -we must understand the causes -and conditions which bring the boss -into existence.</p> - -<p>The supposition that the boss arises -by virtue of his strong personality; -that he is an organizer, a general, one -born to command; that the “machine” -is the product of his skill and genius, -and that no one who does not possess -the same elements of character can -follow him, is wrong. The municipal -boss is an effect rather than a cause. -He is the product of certain forces, -working under certain conditions, and -so long as the forces are unchecked -and the conditions unchanged, a new -boss must inevitably be created to fill -the place of every one the people may -dethrone.</p> - -<p>In municipal politics, the boss comes -into being at the point where the criminal -rich come in contact with the -criminal poor. The criminal rich desire -franchise privileges, which are -among the most productive and valuable -of all forms of property. How -valuable they are may be better understood -if we remember that a recent -conservative writer estimates the franchise -values of Greater New York at -four hundred and fifty millions of -dollars, a staggering sum, but the real -market value of actual property which -has been virtually stolen from the -people. Property, too, of great earning -power as compared with most -other investments, capable of paying -almost unlimited dividends; and often -giving its possessors control over all -other branches of business, even over -life itself. And this property, amounting -to half a billion dollars in New York -alone and to an incalculable sum in the -cities of the whole United States, has -been appropriated by the criminal -rich through the agency of the municipal -boss.</p> - -<p>In order to consummate these thefts, -the franchise grabbers must have a -purchasable city council. To elect -and maintain a purchasable city council -two things are necessary: a division -of the “good” citizens against each -other, and a boss to unify and keep -solid the criminal poor as a balance of -power.</p> - -<p>The “good” citizens—by this term -I mean the great mass of fairly well-meaning -people—are kept divided by -the extension of national political interests -into municipal affairs. This -division is the first condition essential -to the development of the boss.</p> - -<p>The criminal poor—meaning not -merely professional criminals, but all -who gamble, get drunk, have occasional -fights, and are liable to get into trouble -with the police—having with them -the saloons, dives and all the hosts of -graft and shady business, hold the -balance of power. The boss maintains -his hold upon them by means of -his ability to help them out of trouble. -The first step of the boss must be to -corrupt the police force and the justices’ -courts. This is not hard, for the police -and the justices are usually very anxious -to be corrupted; it pays them<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> -much better to be corrupt than to be -honest.</p> - -<p>So the boss comes in as a business -agent between the criminal poor and -the police, enabling the criminal to escape -punishment, and the police to get -rich by sharing in the profits of crime.</p> - -<p>Under this régime the criminal poor -are permitted to prey upon society by -dividing their spoils with the police. -The power of the boss is in his ability -to withdraw his protection from any -individual who may waver in his political -support. The boss never preys -upon the poor, whether criminal or not, -he is always a friend in need, a refuge -in time of trouble to those who follow -without questioning.</p> - -<p>By means of this following he elects -his henchmen to the city council; and -so it is to him that the criminal rich -must come when they want to appropriate -franchise property. The boss -really steals the franchise and sells it -to the rich.</p> - -<p>Thus, under the boss régime, both -the criminal rich and the criminal poor -are permitted to prey upon society.</p> - -<p>We understand, now, that the municipal -boss is the product, first, of the -political condition which keeps the -good citizens voting against each -other; second, of the condition which -makes possible the private ownership -and control of municipal public -utilities; third, of two forces, equally -desirous of preying upon society—the -criminal rich and the criminal -poor.</p> - -<p>And it is evident that so long as the -conditions continue and the forces are -permitted to operate, the creation of -new bosses is inevitable.</p> - -<p>It is only possible to hold the good -citizens together in independent -organizations in a very spasmodic and -uncertain fashion so long as the party -system prevails in national politics, -but it is always possible to unite them -on any one question by means of the -referendum. Therefore, the first condition -may be changed by the enactment -of laws requiring the submission -of all franchise questions to the popular -vote. On a referendum, the good -citizens of all parties, if they vote intelligently, -will present a united front -to the forces of graft. This will prevent -the consummation of new thefts, but -it will not restore the property already -stolen, except by the slow process of -awaiting the expiration of the present -franchise grants.</p> - -<p>The second condition may be removed -by training the people in -knowledge of the practicability of the -municipal ownership and operation of -public utilities. Until the people believe -in municipal ownership as a -practical possibility, it is impossible; -once they do believe, and are ready, -it is probable that the laws of the States -for the recovery of stolen property -will be found sufficient to bring about -the restoration to them of all that is -rightfully their own.</p> - -<p>At the end, we always come to the -proposition that to check the forces of -evil we must eliminate the profits of -evil doing. There is no other way. -By this plan, the social problems in -which the municipal boss appears will -be found easy of settlement, and possibly -those connected with the state -and national boss also. For they, like -their prototype of the city, are not the -great personalities we have deemed -them, but merely the products of -conditions easily changed and of forces -amenable to control.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer5.jpg" width="500" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="The_Silence_of_Johnny"> -<img src="images/heading8.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2>The Silence of Johnny<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY Harriette M. Collins.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>“Is the letter from Johnny, Mary -<i>agra</i>?” The pathetic appeal in -Mrs. Ryan’s quavering voice, -and the heart-hunger expressed in her -wrinkled, parchment-like face brought -a lump to the throat of her daughter -as she replied:</p> - -<p>“No, mother darlin’, it’s from Andy -this time.”</p> - -<p>“Why doesn’t Johnny write, an’ -why doesn’t he come an’ see his poor -ould mother afore she dies?” the old -woman wailed. “Och, but me heart -is sore wid the longin’ for me darlin’ -boy, an’ me ould arrums is achin’ to -hould him agin! Niver a word from -him this three years, come Chrisymas! -It’s not like Johnny! It’s not like -Johnny at all, at all!”</p> - -<p>“But, mother <i>achree</i>, Johnny doesn’t -forget you,” Mary answered soothingly. -“An’ he never forgets to -send you two pounds every three -months by Liza, or Andy, or Katie.”</p> - -<p>“I know it, Mary. Johnny was always -a ginerous boy: but it’s not his -money I want, but himself back agin! -Shure I’d rather beg wid Johnny than -own the wurruld an’ all wid-dout him!” -Mrs. Ryan answered. “Read Andy’s -letter for me, Mary <i>acushla</i>.”</p> - -<p>While Mary Ryan read aloud the -letter which she had just brought from -the village post-office, her mother -gazed yearningly over the restless expanse -of dark blue ocean, which -stretched away to the crimsoning west. -With dreamy eyes, which saw but -heeded not, she watched the hovering, -screaming sea-gulls, the white-sailed -fishing-smacks and the long, black -streak of smoke that, far away on the -horizon, marked the course of an outward-bound -steamer.</p> - -<p>For many years Mrs. Ryan had -been in the habit of sitting on the rude -bench by the door of the cabin, that -was perched high up on the rugged -hill-side, and watching the steamers -as they came and went.</p> - -<p>Four times during those weary years -the mother’s heart within her had -grown numb with pain as she saw the -black streak fade in the distance and -knew that one of her darlings was being -borne away from her.</p> - -<p>Andy was the first to leave the overcrowded -cabin and seek work in the -grand land of plenty across the water. -In a year, Andy sent the passage money -for Liza, and, in another year, Liza -sent the passage money for Katie. -Then Johnny, the idol of her declining -years, kissed his mother good-bye and, -with cheery, hopeful voice, promised -to return to her in two, or at most, -three years. With that dumb resignation, -sometimes born of a sense of -hopeless inability to cope with circumstances, -Mrs. Ryan had watched him -wend his way, with many a backward -glance and wave of the hand, down the -narrow zig-zag path to the village and -the train for Queenstown, where the -merciless steamer waited to bear him -away forever from her loving arms. -She remembered still how the sunbeams -had glinted upon his auburn<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span> -hair that morning, and how handsome -he had looked in his new tweed suit and -green tie. She thought of the tears -that had welled up in his blue eyes -when she gave him her parting blessing, -and she recalled the silent anguish with -which she had sat by the cabin door -and watched the black steamer, silhouetted -against the golden sunset and -slowly disappearing in the distance. -It had been hard to see the others go, -but Johnny—what would life be without -Johnny?</p> - -<p>That was five years ago. For two -years Johnny had written regularly, -telling of steady work and good wages, -and promising to come home for a vacation -as soon as possible. Then there -came a short, badly-written note enclosed -with a letter from Andy, and -after that—silence.</p> - -<p>Andy and Liza and Katie wrote -regularly and sent money for the support -of their mother and Mary. It was -Mary’s mission to remain in the Old -Country and take care of the feeble, -aged mother.</p> - -<p>Every three months, Andy or one of -the girls sent an order for two pounds -and wrote that Johnny sent it with his -love. That was all. They never -answered the questions concerning -Johnny, his doings and his whereabouts -which Mary repeatedly wrote at her -mother’s behest.</p> - -<p>“Is that all, Mary? Is there nothing -at all, at all about Johnny?” Mrs. -Ryan queried in disappointed tones, -when her daughter had finished reading -Andy’s letter.</p> - -<p>“There’s not a word in it about -Johnny, mother darlin’,” Mary answered -reluctantly.</p> - -<p>“Andy said Nancy Quin is comin’ -home on the boat that gets in Saturday, -didn’t he?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, mother,” Mary replied, -“Nancy is comin’ to spend a month -with her people.”</p> - -<p>“An’ Nancy Quin lives out in the -same family as Liza?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, mother; she’s parlor-maid -where Liza’s cook.”</p> - -<p>“Then, plaze God, Mary, when -Nancy comes to see me I’ll larn the -truth about the onnatural silence of -Johnny! Och, but he was the darlin’ -boy—always so gay and pleasant!”</p> - -<p>There was a brief silence, after which -the old woman drew a worn and yellow -sheet of paper from beneath the plaid -woolen kerchief that was folded across -her bosom.</p> - -<p>“Read it for me, Mary <i>agra</i>,” she -said sadly, “read it for me agin—the -last letter from Johnny. God bless -him, wherever he is, this day an’ night!”</p> - -<p>Mary held the frayed and faded sheet -before her eyes. The writing was almost -illegible and the paper was worn -into holes where it had been folded, -but she knew the words by heart and, -as if conning a familiar lesson, repeated -them slowly:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Dear Mother. Don’t fret if I don’t write. -I will sind money to you now an’ agin by -Andy an’ the girls. Mebbe if it’s God’s -will we’ll meet before long. God bless you, -mother darlin’. Goodbye from Johnny.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Three years an’ niver a word from -him!” sighed the old woman, as she -again laid the long-treasured note in -its accustomed place over her heart. -“Och, but me ould eyes is achin’ for a -sight of him—me darlin’ boy!”</p> - -<p>The sunbeams were glittering upon -the wide, heaving expanse of ocean -which lay between Mrs. Ryan’s cabin -and the great Western world whither -her children had gone.</p> - -<p>Sitting upon the beach by the open -door, the aged woman watched Nancy -Quin laboriously climbing the steep, -zig-zag path which led to the cottage. -When the visitor reached the door and -the usual salutations had been exchanged, -Mrs. Ryan steadfastly fixed -her eyes upon the girl’s face and asked:</p> - -<p>“In the name of God, Nancy Quin, -why doesn’t Johnny write an’ why -doesn’t he come home?”</p> - -<p>“Arragh, thin, Mrs. Ryan, darlin’, -how should I know that? I haven’t -laid me eyes on Johnny these three -years.” Nancy answered evasively, -but her embarrassment and the compassion -in her voice were not lost upon -her questioner.</p> - -<p>“Don’t lie to a poor, ould woman,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> -Nancy <i>acushla</i>,” Mrs. Ryan entreated, -“but tell me, God’s truth, where me -boy is an’ why he doesn’t come to me?”</p> - -<p>For a moment Nancy Quin looked -with infinite pity into the anxious, -wrinkled, pleading face, then, dropping -her eyes before the old woman’s wistful -gaze, answered brokenly:</p> - -<p>“Don’t fret yourself about Johnny, -Mrs. Ryan <i>agra</i>. You’ll soon see poor -Johnny; you’ll be wid your boy before -long,” and turning away with a stifled -sob, she entered the cabin in search of -Mary, while Mrs. Ryan sat very still -upon the bench and gazed with tearless, -unnaturally bright eyes out upon the -bounding, white-crested waves of the -Atlantic.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Mary <i>acushla</i>, she’s read it in -my face!” Nancy cried in remorseful -tones, “an’ I promised I’d keep it from -her.”</p> - -<p>“Keep <i>what</i> from her?” Mary asked, -anxiously. “Is it anything about -Johnny, Nancy <i>agra</i>?”</p> - -<p>“Yis, Mary,” Nancy answered sorrowfully, -“Sure an’ it wrings me heart -to tell you. Poor Johnny was killed—run -over at a crossin’ three years ago.”</p> - -<p>“An’ why didn’t they let us know?” -Mary sobbed, “Where was the use of -deceivin’ us?”</p> - -<p>“It was the poor boy’s wish,” Nancy -replied tearfully. “They took him to -the hospital and kept him alive for a -day, an’ before he died, he made Andy -an’ the girls promise they’d never let -his mother know of his end. He had -a hundred and fifty dollars saved to -take him home an’ he bade them sind -it to her a little at a time wid his love. -His last words were ‘Don’t let poor -mother know! It would kill her! Don’t -let poor mother know!’”</p> - -<p>There was a long silence, broken only -by the subdued sobbing of the girls. -At last Mary said, wiping her eyes with -her apron:</p> - -<p>“By the help of God, Nancy, we -must still keep it from mother. She’s -not long for this world, an’ Johnny, -poor boy, was the light of her eyes!”</p> - -<p>Going out of the cabin, they found -Mrs. Ryan still seated upon the bench.</p> - -<p>“Mother darlin’,” Mary said softly, -“it’s growin’ cold, an’ you’d better -come in for your cup of tay.”</p> - -<p>There was no answer. A smile of -ineffable peace lingered upon the aged, -care-worn face. In the faded blue -eyes, whose unseeing gaze was fixed -upon the merciless ocean which had -taken her darlings, one by one, from -her arms, shone the wondrous light -“that never was on sea or land.”</p> - -<p>To his mother, the silence of Johnny -was no longer a mystery. He had not -come to her, but she had gone to him.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Vanished_Years"><i>Vanished Years</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY HELEN A. SAXON</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She sitteth in the sunshine, old and gray,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her faded kerchief crossed upon her breast,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her withered form in sober colors drest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her eyes, deep-sunken with far memory,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">See not the eager children at their play</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But look beyond them to the crimsoning west,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And still beyond where everlasting rest</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Remains to crown and close her little day.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet all the fragrance of the vanished years</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is at her heart, and time hath left its trace</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In lines engraved by joy no less than tears</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon her tranquil and unconscious face.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Youth, quick-flying, left his dearer part,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imperishable love, within her heart.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/illus20.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>King John Refusing to Sign the Magna Charta</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Bart., in Minneapolis Journal</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/illus21.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Perhaps some treatment of this kind would cause -Mr. Roger to answer questions in court</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Handy, in Duluth News-Tribune</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus22.jpg" width="700" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Man from Missouri</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Donahey, in Cleveland Plain Dealer</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="Letters_From_The_People"> -<img src="images/heading9.jpg" width="700" height="200" alt="" /> -<h2><i>Letters From The People</i></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>Our readers are requested to be as brief as possible in their welcome -letters to the <span class="smcap">Magazine</span>, as the great number of communications -daily received makes it impossible to publish all of them or even -to use more than extracts from many that are printed. Every effort, -however, will be made to give the people all possible space for a direct -voice in the <span class="smcap">Magazine</span>, and this Department is freely open to them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>John Nill, Watertown, N. Y.</i></p> - -<p>Your criticism on prevailing evil conditions -is justly and emphatically to the point. -But I would call your attention to the -world’s experience that at no time has a reform -taken place unless new ideas, new -methods for reform comprehensive to the -public for relief and improved conditions -were introduced at the same time when the -old deplorable affairs were condemned. To -excite the multitudes without a proper and -thorough education on social and national -relations calculated to promote peace, harmony -and prosperity, is dangerous. Look at -Russia. If you will add as many correct and -direct advices to the general public as you do -criticism, you may be successful in initiating -a reform that may far surpass any in the -past ages.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. B. Phillebaun, Mountain Grove, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>To say that I endorse the principles advocated -by the magazine puts it mildly. The -old parties must be checked or we are politically -and financially ruined. You have -started in the direction. You have got the -people thinking and that is half the battle. -Push the good work already started and I -hope victory will crown your effort. I want -to go on record as a firm believer in <i>Tom -Watson principles</i>.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. F. Winterbottom, Washington, Ind.</i></p> - -<p>I have received every copy that has been -printed. Just as soon as I have read them I -let others have them. I am well pleased -with the Magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>W. J. Alford, Molena, Ga.</i></p> - -<p>The Magazine is fast eliminating political -ignorance throughout America, which, in -fact, is the pillow upon which rests the great -evils we suffer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>William Putnam, Downing, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>Your Magazine is a wonderful power because -all classes of our people read it, and its -truth is so plain and reasonable no one can reject -it, let their politics be as they may.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. W. Oliver, Kissimmee, Fla.</i></p> - -<p>I have read each issue of your Magazine -and <i>all</i> in each issue. Sometimes I do not -agree with you but you are trying to keep on -the right track, and come very near to staying -in the “middle of the road.” I am a native -Alabamian and a Democrat of the “Moss -Back” kind.</p> - -<p>Go ahead. I am with you and if <i>necessary</i> -will vote with you, independent of my party.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Edgar J. Hadley, Arkwright, R. I.</i></p> - -<p>Have taken your Magazine from the first -number and would not be without it at any -price. As an educator it is A No. 1. I -wish that every wage earner could be gotten -to read it. No one can read the splendid articles -it contains without becoming a more -intelligent citizen.</p> - -<p>The only alteration I would suggest is a -little better cover.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>E. Simmons, Mt. Leonard, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I have read every number from the first -number. I shall never vote either of the old -party tickets again. I am 83 years old next -Tuesday. My health is failing. I think we -ought to unite with Prohibitionists, for the -sale of intoxicants is about as big an evil as -we have and we have got the great whiskey -interest to overcome before we can get into -power for both the old parties are their -friends. Yes, my dear brother, I am with -you. With my little influence I will do what -I can.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>H. D. Cope, J. P., Rogers, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I received your copy of <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s -Magazine</span> and think she is a dandy. I hope -you succeed. I see some of the Pittsburg -papers kicking on it and asking why it is allowed -to pass the mails.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. W. Murphy, Grove Hill, Ala.</i></p> - -<p>I think <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> is a good -one. The editorials are the biggest things I -ever saw. I don’t like such stories as “The -Gray Weed,” “The Tiger God,” etc., etc., -but I like Tom Watson and all that I have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -read from his pen. My wish is that Tom -Watson may live long to ring that “Liberty -Bell” until the people shall awake and rise -in their might and throw off their shackles.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Panola Watchman, Carthage, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>We appreciate your magazine very much, -especially the articles from the pen of Mr. -Watson and, while he lambasts the party to -which we belong, much of it is deserved and -we hope he will continue to lay on until -prevalent evils are corrected.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Sam J. Hampton, Durant, I. T.</i></p> - -<p>I have been reading your magazine ever -since the first issue and I think it the clearest -boldest and most fearless journal in America. -I shall continue to read <span class="smcap">Watson’s</span>.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>T. J. Anderson, Blossom, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>I have never had the pleasure of meeting -you personally, but have known of you ever -since you entered Congress in 1892. Since -that time I have eagerly sought to read all -you have said and written. Being strictly -in accord with your political views, I greatly -admire the firm stand you have taken in -alleviating the burden from the masses of -people, your honesty of purpose and the plain -and outspoken way you have in presenting -your views. I have had the pleasure of voting -for you twice and yet hope to see you -elected our national executive. The crowning -act of your life was your work in the last -election when you took our banner from the -dust of fusion and confusion and unfurled it -to the breeze, and fought the battles of reform -practically alone. May you yet receive -your reward.</p> - -<p>As to your Magazine, I subscribed for it -before it was ever printed. Am well pleased -with it. Have no improvement to suggest. -I quit the Democratic Party in 1890. Have -only made one mistake since and that was -when I voted for Bryan in 1896.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>L. P. Sullivan, Emmet, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I like it splendidly and it gets better every -copy. I could not do without it.</p> - -<p>Long life to you.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>F. M. Martin, Mt. Moriah, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>To say that I like the Magazine is only putting -it lightly. It is the only political gospel -I know of being published at present. Love -to have it read in every home in the United -States. Then have every one act upon its -teachings. I know of no way of making it -better unless advocating return to Africa by -American Africans. That subject seems to -be neglected, though I don’t know that I -could write on that subject to any advantage.</p> - -<p>Go on with the great work. It will eventually -accomplish the desired result.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Edward H. Hotchkiss, Seattle, Wash.</i></p> - -<p>I am very much pleased with your Magazine. -I have got it from the news-stand -from the first copy to the present. I don’t -know how I would get along without it for -every number is better than the last. I think -it’s the best book of Education that is published. -Its principles are right and just to -all, and I wish both of the old parties would -take a few doses of the medicine prescribed in -your book. I think they might be cured of -some of their corruption.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>K. D. Strickland, Carlton, Ga.</i></p> - -<p>I think <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s</span> Magazine contains -more profitable and really more necessary -information for the American citizen than -any other publication. It is a regular monthly -feast to read his pieces. In reading his -pieces, I am made to feel as though I was -communicating with the supernatural.</p> - -<p>I wish to call Mr. Watson’s attention -through his Magazine to his physical health. -Take care of your health, Mr. Watson. We -need your wonderful mental power with good -health behind it. You are so completely -absorbed and enthused in your great work -for the people, you might over-tax the brain -and bring on a collapse: that would be a -national and incalculable misfortune.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Amos H. Edwards, Bentonville, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I think it a very able and valuable Magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Frank Holland, Cement, Cal.</i></p> - -<p>Yours of recent date received. As I wrote -to you some time ago, I am a migratory cuss, -and therefore rely upon the news-stands for -my magazine. I read <span class="smcap">Watson’s</span>, <i>Everybody’s</i> -and <i>McClure’s</i>, regularly, and any others that -in glancing over, interest me. I have no time -to read stories. What I want is political and -scientific.</p> - -<p>I like <span class="smcap">Watson’s</span>. Prize it highly and after -reading it, treat it as I do all the others, i. e., -hand it to someone else to read. I cannot -suggest any way in which your work can be -improved. I will do what I can to induce -others to read your Magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>S. M. McDougal, Arkinda, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I think it all right. Just what we need. -I don’t see that I can add anything better to -it. I am doing all I can for you.</p> - -<p>I am 60 years old, and have been a -reformer ever since Tilden ran for President. -I said then there wasn’t a hair’s -length difference in the old parties.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>John S. Van Dyck, Van Dyck, Tenn.</i></p> - -<p>Your Magazine is simply grand, glorious, -rich and racy. It makes ’em wiggle.</p> - -<p>I consider Tom Watson the grandest, -greatest and most brilliant man of this or -any other age, and may God grant him -strength to continue the fight for human liberty -and human right until the fight is won.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>C. E. Skinner, Modoc, Ind.</i></p> - -<p>I am very much interested in the wave of -reform that is sweeping over our country as -indicated by the recent elections. Keep<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -hammering away, Bro. Watson, you have -my entire sympathy and support.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>M. E. Rose, South Rutland, N. Y.</i></p> - -<p>I think your Magazine is doing a great deal -of good in waking up the dull minds of the -common people, which I hope in 1908 will -sweep the cussedest set of rascals into—well, -say the penitentiary.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>George S. Harley, Laurel, Ind.</i></p> - -<p>I think it is “just about right.” It just -suits me. I can’t see how it could be made -any better. The last number (December) is -worth the price of a year’s subscription. It -is full of good things.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>E. E. Ropes, Deland, Fla.</i></p> - -<p>I am a Massachusetts Yankee, a Republican. -I served under Jim Lane in Kansas; -under Sherman in Georgia. When I first received -your magazine I told your old school-mates -Alex and Lee Morris that I might vote -for you for President. It seems, however, -that you oppose protection. That lets me -out. I believe every honest, intelligent, patriotic -American is a protectionist.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Jonas Welch, Oakdale. La.</i></p> - -<p>I do not think that it could be improved. -All it needs is for the people to read it more -and educate themselves on the reforms that -the Populists advocate.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A. H. Ellis, Hayward, O. T.</i></p> - -<p>I have been a reader of your splendid Magazine -from the first issue. I saw by the papers -prior to the time you commenced your -publication that you were going to edit a -magazine. I immediately began to plan to -stop the circulation of a 50-cent dollar long -enough to get it to you for one year’s subscription, -but son beat me to it, he having no -taxes to pay, nor no overalls to buy, went -barefooted, wore a seven cent straw hat and -a thirty cent hickory shirt and saved his money -and sent it in to you while I was sweating -blood trying to pry a money lender loose -from one of his idols.</p> - -<p>I’m glad to know that I am not disappointed -in the character and make-up of your -magazine. You call a spade a spade. You -did that while you were in Congress and it is -a reproach to the grand old Commonwealth -of Georgia that a hide-bound, moss back, clay-eating -democracy could not have been broad -enough to have let you stay in Congress. -Who was the man that defeated you? I -don’t know. I doubt if his name is known -outside of the Congressional District. Georgia -has produced but four men that have -challenged the serious attention of the people -of the country. Viz:—Old James Oglethorp, -Alexander Stevens, Bob Toombs and Thomas -E. Watson.</p> - -<p>I see that many of your correspondents -hope to see you President. No, Thomas, -you will never be President of the United -States. Why? First, you are too big, have -convictions and the honesty and courage to -express them. Second, too many fools (with -an adjective prefixing “fools”). Your editorials -are very fine. I have seldom read -anything finer than “Dropping Corn,” “A -Tragedy in a Tree-top.” Then there is your -insurance policy which is a source of joy. -“Monarchy Within the Republic” by Mr. -Fox was instructive. The cartoons are superb. -The McCurdy family, in your last, -conveys the idea that the McCurdy’s are -“agin” race suicide, but you must remember -that sapsuckers are more numerous than -eagles. You very skillfully put the good to -Bryan, but say what you will, he stands head -and shoulders above any other Democrat of -this day. Compare him, if you please, to -Alton B. Parker. When I hear the name of -Bryan, I think of the American Eagle soaring -the blue ether of Heaven. When I hear -the name of Parker, I think of a tomtit sitting -on a watering trough.</p> - -<p>Best wishes for <span class="smcap">Thomas Watson’s Magazine</span> -and a long life for its brainy, honest and -fearless editor.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Orlando K. Fitzsimmons, Buffalo, N. Y.</i></p> - -<p>I have taken your magazine from the first -number and am much pleased with the good -work you are doing.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Warren Beebe, Burlington, Ia.</i></p> - -<p>Of several magazines which I read, I like -yours the best.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Katharyne Clarke, North McGregor, Ia.</i></p> - -<p>I have read every issue of your Magazine -since the beginning and would like to say a -word of praise. Your work and efforts are -casting seed that will surely cause “two -blades of grass to grow where before there -was only one.” Success to you.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>H. V. Hill, Kell, Ill.</i></p> - -<p>I like your Magazine above all others. -Keep up the good work.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>An Old Reformer.</i></p> - -<p>Your magazine read and reread in my -home every month by myself and five grown -sons. We all admire the principle set forth -in your grand editorials and know that what -you say is truth, but I do think that you are -a little too harsh and a little too personal -when you speak of Cleveland, Rockefeller, -Ryan, Belmont, Morgan, McCarren, Taggart -and others of that class. You know that -poor human nature is the same the world -over and if we were to kill out these men -whom you handle so roughly, others would -soon take their places. So then the system -which brings this state of affairs about in our -government is to be blamed more than these -men. Therefore, let’s strive (in the right -spirit) to remove the evils which beset us as -a Christian people. “Vengeance is mine, -saith the Lord.” And besides, I want you to -live long and lead this grand fight for reform, -but when I read your cutting editorials I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -shudder for fear some of these people may -have you assassinated.</p> - -<p>I address you as “dear comrade” because -I am getting to be an old man now and enlisted -in this movement for reform away -back in the palmy days of the Grange, and -myself on the “Ocala Platform”, believing -it to be just and in line with the principles -later on, under the Alliance banner, planted -our Revolutionary sires fought for, and I am -proud to say that out of fifty odd Congressmen -who were elected on that platform, Tom -Watson is the only one who remained true, -and I admire every red hair on your head for -your loyalty and bravery, and have always -voted for you when an opportunity was -offered, and if I were called upon to make a -national ticket of men whom I believe to be -true, it would be,</p> - -<ul> -<li>Tom Watson,</li> -<li>Theodore Roosevelt,</li> -<li>Gov. Folk,</li> -<li>Frank Burkitt,</li> -<li>Gov. Vardaman,</li> -<li>Scott Hathorn,</li> -<li>W. R. Hearst.</li> -</ul> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>D. L. Anderson, Soochow, China.</i></p> - -<p>My son was on a visit to the States last -summer and he sent me your books—“The -Story of France,” “Napoleon” and “The Life -of Thomas Jefferson.” The books reached -me during the summer holidays, and as -new books are somewhat scarce out here and -yours moreover looked so inviting, I began to -read the day after their arrival, and day after -day this reading continued until I had gone -through the four volumes.</p> - -<p>On finishing the last volume I purposed to -write and thank you for the pleasure you had -given me through your books, but the fall -term of the University opening about that -time I was very busy and so did not write. -But now I wish to thank you for a very -pleasant summer, for the enjoyment and instruction -I received from your excellent -books. New light has been thrown on -France and her relations to the other powers -of Europe, especially to England. Napoleon -becomes, to me at least, a new man in your -hands. Your “Thomas Jefferson” is a -much needed antidote to much of the history -that has been written and gives a clear -view of the man and his times. Especially -would I thank you for your statements with -reference to the formation of the Constitution -of the United States, also for your explanation -of the “Genet Affair.”</p> - -<p>In one or two allusions that you make to -affairs out here, you have evidently been -misled by the newspapers. In your “Napoleon,” -page 215, you say:</p> - -<p>“In the year 1900 Russians, Germans and -other Christians invaded China to punish -the heathen for barbarities practiced upon -Christian missionaries.”</p> - -<p>I don’t think that you state correctly the -real object of this invasion of China. The -missionary’s part in this Boxer affair was to -suffer. Not only were many murdered, but -both those who were murdered and those -who escaped were made the “scape goats” -in the eyes of the world. I enclose a slip -that recently appeared in one of the Shanghai -papers that gives the true genesis of this -Boxer trouble. The armies of the different -nations did not “invade China to punish the -heathen for barbarities practiced on Christian -missionaries,” but they came to rescue -their respective ministers, who by their -blundering policy had gotten themselves -shut up in Peking. If these officials had not -been in Peking the armies would never have -come. I don’t know of any Government -that cares quite that much for a missionary, -though they all seem quite ready to use a -murdered missionary to advance their land-grabbing -schemes.</p> - -<p>Again on page 218 you mention that Admiral -Seymour ordered his wounded killed, -etc. This was published in the papers at -the time, but there never was any truth in -it. It was simply one of the many horrid -stories that went out from Shanghai during -those dark days—manufactured in Shanghai.</p> - -<p>And now, Mr. Watson, I trust that you -will pardon me for inflicting you with this, -but I felt that I ought to write and thank -you for those books. I trust your pen will -not rest. I sincerely wish that you would -do for Germany or for Italy what you have -done for France.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>W. E. Brown, Gainesville, Fla.</i></p> - -<p>It is a splendid work you are doing. Your -Magazine is a live wire and you are a powerful -dynamo. The good you and Bryan are -doing can never be reckoned or measured. -You are right, and right is the most powerful -force in existence, because God himself is the -author and is behind all right. May you -live to see your work crowned with success. -While touching up other things, don’t forget -we poor farmers of Florida. Between high -freights and commission merchants we catch -it. I am what you might call a one-horse -farmer, but every year I pay the railroad -$2,000 to $3,000 freight on stuff I make to -get it to market to say nothing about the -freight I pay on what I buy. I would like -to make a trade agreeing to give one-half my -stuff to get the other half to market and sold. -And when on account of delays or for want -of ice or any cause not traceable to downright -negligence our truck arrives in bad condition -and is sold for freight the railroad takes it -all. I had one year 102 baskets shipped -over one line and 15 over another. The 15 -sold for $3.00 per basket, the 102 were refused -because the car was not properly iced on the -way to New York and arrived rotten, and I -never got a penny. A piece of negligence, -but could not be proved. This is by no means -an unusual case and every truck farmer in -the state, I guess, could make such a complaint -or one equally unjust to the shipper. -But the railroad agent for the A. C. L. at this -place, so it is commonly talked on the streets,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span> -absconded with $2,000 of rebate paid to him -by the railroad to be paid to a big phosphate -concern here, and there is nothing doing. -They say he won’t even be arrested and, of -course, the railroad and the receiver of -stolen money will not be punished, although -I was told by an attorney of this city that -the railroad commissioners were notified -of the facts in the case.</p> - -<p>So I say, God speed you, and may you be -the means of accomplishing great good for -this, our glorious country—too good to be -wrecked by sordid greed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. S. Pearson, McEntyre, Ala.</i></p> - -<p>I had a sack of one bushel of oats (32 lbs.) -price 75 cents and 20 cents worth of seed (all -in one cash) sent by express from Birmingham, -Ala. to Thomasville, Ala. (a few hours -run by rail). I had to pay $1 charges and -part of the oats were eaten (I suppose) by -rats. I shipped a box of pears (50 lbs.) from -Thomasville, Ala., to Braidentown, Fla. I -was told by clerk or agent the express charges -were $2.00. I told him I would not pay such -a charge. Another clerk or agent looked in -a book and said the charges were $1.00. I -paid it. That was on Friday. The pears -reached Braidentown, Fla. Tuesday. They -should have been in Selma or Mobile Saturday -morning, and where they were from then -until Tuesday we know not. A letter saying -the box had been opened and a part of the -pears taken out was received yesterday. -Have I no redress? I wrote to the Mayor of -Birmingham to know if such thieving was -allowed in his city.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>N. W. Rogers, N. Y. City.</i></p> - -<p>I have read, with increasing interest, all -the issues of your very excellent Magazine, -and it gives me pleasure to express my appreciation -of the effort you are making to -educate the public.</p> - -<p>The task of one who is endeavoring to expose -corruption and corporate greed is, as I -know from personal experience, a discouraging -one; nevertheless I have a firm conviction -that justice must finally be meted out -to the smug respectability that has been -robbing the whole country. The loathsome -and criminal devices resorted to by our -would-be aristocracy, in their greedy desire -to acquire money, merits a more active opposition -than that brought about by a public -exposure of their crimes. Complete restitution -of all funds wrongfully acquired in the -exercise of an extortionate monopoly would be -but a small punishment.</p> - -<p>I wish you all success in your endeavors -and only regret that I cannot at the present -time take an active part in the campaign.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>F. Schweizer, Woodlawn, Nebr.</i></p> - -<p>Even Diogenes with his lantern would -in vain search justice in this country. To -tell the truth in this country is punished as -lese-majesty. Therefore I may be hung for -lese-majesty, but I don’t care.</p> - -<p>I was born and raised in free Switzerland -and I will die as a free man who dares to -express his honest opinions. If I am wrong, -show me my errors. It really seems that -people never will hear and accept the truth, -until some fellows have been hung for telling -the truth.</p> - -<p>Let us be honest and acknowledge that -our so high praised Christian civilization is -a total failure. Might is right. The greatest -hypocrite and most brutal beast is the -absolute master, who dictates the terms by -which he will rule. Their mottos are:</p> - -<p>“Everyone for himself and the devil takes -the hindmost and—The people be damned.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>F. Hodgman, Climax, Mich.</i></p> - -<p>I find in the literary department much -to commend and little, if anything, to find -fault with. In the editorial and political -department, I can not say as much. You -advocate many things which men of all -parties have always been agreed on—that is, -honest men of all parties. If you could -only get the people to take you seriously -and make the ten commandments a partisan -issue, you would win out hands down, for a -big majority of the people are honest in principle -and want an honest Government. I -dissent from very much that you are trying -to teach in the way of political economy -and you make many assertions and statements -which I believe to be errors. But -that does not count. The greatest fault I -find with it as a magazine is the tendency -toward being a common scold—with a good -deal to denounce and little or nothing to -commend.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>C. E. Hedgpath, Centralia, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>Mr. Watson, allow me to say that while -I admire your talent and much more your -honesty, I cannot agree with you that the -“great middle class” are the only ones -needing protection. There is a party in -the field fully organized and standing for -“all the people”. “Government ownership”, -with the Government as it now -stands, would only add to our burdens. But -first—Let the people own the Government. -For this the Socialist Party stands.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>O. E. Samuelson, Kiowa, Kan.</i></p> - -<p>I have received two numbers of your -Magazine and have studied them when I -could spare time. I was in the Populist -movement one time. It was all right in -its time, but its time is past and now we -have something better—Socialism. So your -Magazine is not enough revolutionary.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>P. R. Richardson, Gardi, Ga.</i></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="noindent">“Hon. Hoke Smith, Atlanta, Ga.</p> - -<p>“Dear Sir: There are so many high-flying -silver-feathered Democratic office-seekers -that unless a man is well posted he -can never tell the real man from the political -tool. But seeing that Thomas E. Watson -has promised you his support for Governor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span> -of the great State of Georgia, it explains -away and clears up all doubts. So around -our fireside cane-grindings we will talk and -drink to your health, and when the day of -the primary comes along we will roll in our -votes.</p> - -<p class="center">“Yours very truly,</p> - -<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">P. R. Richardson</span>.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Being a subscriber to the Magazine, I -offer the above letter for publication in the -Magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>D. C. Pryor, Uvalde, Tex.</i></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I send you a “legal tender,”</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A thing you have often seen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For which, please send to me, “dear Tom,”</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Your splendid Magazine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whilst I am a Democrat</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its ranks I’d hate to leave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I’d vote for you, “dear Tom,”</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Before I’d vote for Cleve.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Dr. H. P. Boyce, Los Angeles, Cal.</i></p> - -<p>Your editorial “Peonage in Panama” published -in the December number, was read by -me with a great deal of interest, as I have -lived for seven years in Central America and -am thoroughly familiar with labor conditions -there, having during my residence there had -constantly in my employ on plantation work -from 15 to 50 laborers, or mozos, as they are -called.</p> - -<p>Of course, I do not know the exact conditions -under which these laborers were -contracted in Martinique, but am confident -the conditions were similar to those under -which all labor in that country is contracted. -The employer of labor signs up a number of -men and the men ask for, expect and receive -an advance of money against their future -services of an amount equal to from two to -four months’ wages. There is a form of -contract signed in which the laborer acknowledges -the receipt of so much money -paid him for future work to be done by him -under the contract, by which he also agrees -to work for the employer for a specified time -at the rate of so much per month. This is -the general custom in those countries and -with the class of labor available is the only -way in which the employer can be reasonably -certain of securing and retaining his laborers, -as the law forces the mozo to live up to his -contract and also makes him secure in obtaining -his money after he has worked out -the amount advanced.</p> - -<p>It was unquestionably the case with the -Martinique negroes that they had all received -advances of money against their future services, -and that the money had all been spent -before leaving their homes and, such being -the case, where would the employer have -found himself if he had submitted without -any resistance and allowed the laborers to -nullify their contracts and return home?</p> - -<p>The Martinique and Jamaica negroes are as -a rule a very unruly, unreliable and impertinent -class and it requires strenuous -measures to keep them in subjection and -make them live up to their contracts. They -cannot be compared to the American negro, -who is much easier to manage.</p> - -<p>I appreciate your feelings in the matter, -but do not think you thoroughly appreciate -the conditions of affairs as they exist in regard -to the relations of employer and -employee.</p> - -<p>When the Martinique negro claims he -does not know conditions as they exist at -Panama, or other points on the Central American -coast, he is lying, as they are all of them -more or less familiar with the entire coast -from personal visits to it or information acquired -from friends who have been on the -coast.</p> - -<p>I know nothing from personal observation -of the Peonage system in the Southern States -but I do know that the contract labor system -is the only way to handle labor in Panama, -for you cannot get them without the advance -of money and if you do not protect yourself -by the contract, the chances are 9 out of 10 -that your man will never show up to work -it out.</p> - -<p>A gang of those negroes numbering 500 or -600 are not easily handled by any means, -and force must be used at times, or at least -a strong display of it made or discipline -would not be maintained twenty-four hours. -Conditions are altogether different from anything -existing here and matters must be -judged differently. Existing conditions -must dictate the line of action to be pursued -in any given case and from my knowledge -of the character of the men and the conditions, -I do not see how the authorities -could have acted otherwise than in using -force, if necessary, to persuade these negroes -to disembark. You certainly would not -consider it just that these negroes take the -contractors money, spend it, have their fare -paid on the steamer to Colon and then on -arrival deliberately say they would not land -and work out what they had already been -paid, but were going to return home. There -would be no justice in such a course and if -the employer had to use force to obtain what -was coming to him, the man’s labor in exchange -for his money which the man had -already spent, it seems to me he was entirely -within his rights. These laborers owed this -money to the employer just as much as a -man owes money that he has borrowed from -another and given his note for, and, just as -much as the borrower should expect to pay -his note, just so much should this laborer -expect to give his services in payment of the -money advanced to him. As I have stated -before, the laws of these countries recognize -this condition of the field of labor and uphold -the employer just as our laws recognize a -man’s liability when he signs a note agreeing -to repay money advanced to him. When -the laborer has repaid by his services the -money advanced to him he can no longer be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> -held to his contract, but just so long as the -laborer demands the advance of money -before doing any work, just so long must he -expect to be forced, if necessary, to carry -out his agreement, and his services as laborer -being his only asset he must give those -services.</p> - -<p>In those countries you only have your -laborer as long as you keep him in your debt, -for as soon as he gets a month’s wages in his -pocket, he is ready to loaf and get drunk.</p> - -<p>I think if you were thoroughly acquainted -with conditions there, as I am, you would -take a different view of the matter. I have -been a constant reader of your Magazine -since the first issue and enjoy it very much, -but felt I must give you my views on this -question.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>John C. Sanner, Redding, Cal.</i></p> - -<p class="center">“Who Are The Rabble?”</p> - -<p>It is <i>de rigeur</i> nowadays for a “genteel” -personage travelling along a country road in -a buggy or automobile to address any casually -met pedestrian as “my man” when -seeking local information. This seems boorish -to my old fashioned notions. We are -evidently becoming very aristocratic along -with our tremendous increase in national -wealth. It is a very great exhibition of gall -for a large employer to so bespeak an humble -subordinate.</p> - -<p>I will present to the editor of the <span class="smcap">Tom -Watson’s Magazine</span>, if he can find space, an -article addressed mainly to the uneducated -and unthoughtful hard working men and -voters of our United States. The writer is -an uneducated man and a life-long hard -toiler and acquainted with grief, sorrow and -adversity and has lived over three score and -ten years. My mother being left a widow -with four little dependent children, she was -forced to hire me at seven years old for bread -and hence I feel interested in millions of men, -women and children that are dependent and -in grief and sorrow, that if they had equal -rights and justice in this government, they -would be a prosperous and happy people, -and a just principle that presides in my -heart prompts me to write an article addressed -to that dependent, unthinking army -of men in this government. Though I am -forced to write from the hand of an uneducated -man or from the language of my -mother’s tongue, I hope my position will be -understood.</p> - -<p>In the first place I want to draw your -minds to the man that has no equal in this -government to wit: Thomas E. Watson. -The day before the national election of 1901 -I heard him make a speech in the city of -Gainesville, Ga. He said that there was no -chance for the Populists in this election, but -that he would commence the fight the next -day after the election for 1908 and now you -see he is true to his word. He has begun -with an educational school by offering his -school-book or magazine in the house of -every family in the United States that wants -it, when each monthly book or magazine is -worth more than the year’s subscription -to any thinking man, and I feel greatly astonished -that every workingman of the -nation does not take it, for I am sure it is the -greatest educator as to how the world has -moved on in the great governmental ways -since the creation until the present day, and -especially the last forty years of the government -of the United States. Then I earnestly -beg and solicit all men to take the magazine, -and especially the workingmen, that you -may learn that this little delicate man, Tom -Watson, is the workingman’s friend and is -making a fight for you and your weary wife -and children that they may be freed from -slavery and brought from under the greedy -law of the privileged few that are now corporated -into a thievish and robbing body, -that they may steal and rob the workingman -of his hard earnings. Yes, he has taken -this greedy lion or corporation by the throat -with a cry that he surrender to the working -people their rights and that they must be -equal to you. Then, my brother workingman, -I appeal to you with all my earnest -and honest heart to rally to this honest and -brave man, Watson, and stand by him and -vote for him and aid him to devour the -greedy lion that you may have your liberties -and rights for yourself, wife and children. -Now, in conclusion I will say I have been a -hard laboring man all my life and I am now -standing on the bank of Jordan and may, -before you read my little message to my -brother working voters that I am so much -interested in, be across the river. Though -I am in eternity at the election of the next -President I have three sons and seven sons-in-law -and grandchildren that will vote for -the hero, Watson, for the interest of workingmen.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. N. Hale, Cairo, Ga.</i></p> - -<p>Forty-eight years ago I was born a Democrat -and I have been one ever since. I love -true democratic principles now, but find it -impossible to work and vote for these principles -and remain true to the party as it is -now organized and run. I have been a member -of the State Dem. Ex. Com., was Chairman -of the 5th Congressional Committee -when you were being cursed, abused and -robbed and was glad of your defeat because I -thought you wrong. I thought the fight for -reform should have been made within the -party; but, alas! there is no reform and never -will there be reform so long as the Belmonts, -Gormans, Clevelands and other trust tools -are in control.</p> - -<p>I now believe that you are right. The -only hope for the people is to rise up and hurl -from their rotten pedestals both of the old -parties and take the reins of government into -their own hands. Never before were the -people more ready to act. Here in the new -County of Grady, which was “officially -born” today, the people are overwhelmingly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> -in favor of cutting loose from the old parties -and marching under a new banner. I will -advocate in my paper which I have just -started, new, clean methods, and fight for -democracy as you see it and so ably preach it.</p> - -<p>The people are now with you and pure -democracy is going to win.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. F. Laman, Arp, Tenn.</i></p> - -<p>I have been a subscriber to <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s -Magazine</span> from first to last and expect to -continue as long as the light holds out to burn -and I believe it is getting brighter. I hope -and pray for Tom Watson to live to see the -good day when he can realize that his work -has been crowned with complete success.</p> - -<p>You ask me to give my views concerning the -Magazine. I know it is the best I ever saw, -and I have seen a good many. As to improvement, -I have no suggestions to submit -in regard to the make-up of the Magazine, -but I do suggest that you make it hotter, if -possible, for the scoundrels who rob honest -toil of the fruits of its labor.</p> - -<p>I have been a Populist as long as anybody -I know of and the older I become the deeper -my belief is in the justice of our cause and -our principles. I was an admirer of Tom -Watson when he was a member of Congress -years ago and I am for him now and will remain -for him as long as he travels in the road -he is now in and I have no fear that he will -apostatize.</p> - -<p>With best wishes for you and all your co-workers, -I remain your friend to the end.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>T. A. Thompson, Guntown, Miss.</i></p> - -<p>1 am a Populist and have been one since -1880 and opposed to Fusion first, last, and -all the time. I have been receiving your -Magazine since November. I have three -brothers that live in Alabama that have been -voting the Democratic ticket all their lives, -and I want them to read something that will -open their eyes for I consider them politically -blind; and I want to help you in your gallant -fight for the right. I like your Magazine. -I wish I was able to send you 100 dollars to -have it sent to men that think that they cannot -afford to spend one dollar for a paper. -But the trouble with them is that they don’t -think at all. They use their heads to hang -their hats on only. In the Presidential election -of 1876 I voted my last Democratic vote -for President. I hope to live to see a reformer -elected President of our Government. -I believe that time is near when the people -will get their eyes opened. Bossism is dying -slowly but surely. Populism is not as dead -as the two old twin parties would like to see -it.</p> - -<p>Success to your Magazine and to the People’s -Party and its principles.</p> - -<p>A Happy New Year to you.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. W. Waite, So. Hadley, Mass.</i></p> - -<p>I have much enjoyed the Magazine; but -have for sometime been in doubt as to -whether I should be warranted in letting you -continue to send it. Its good strong meat -has not disarranged my digestion; it’s not -that, but it comes near—very near—to being -a lack of circulation of the life current of -the country on the little corner I occupy.</p> - -<p>I was a railroad man over 20 years and -was discharged, not for incompetency, but for -propagating Populist doctrines. Vocally -and with the pen I spread the words of Jefferson, -Lincoln and many others. I posted -them on bulletin boards and wrote some articles -for the Dedham <i>Transcript</i>—near Dedham, -Mass. I was laboring the last few -years of my railroad service. However, my -story is not so interesting as that of many. -I have three sons railroaders—all scattered, -and I have been living here alone on a little -corner belonging to the oldest, locomotive -engineer for the New York, New Haven & -Hartford Railroad. He reads your Magazine -occasionally and I send one occasionally to -the others.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A. C. Hillman, Salina, Kan.</i></p> - -<p>I am one of the nineteen that voted for you -in the 3rd ward of our city in the last Presidential -election. I am of the same opinion -still.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. H. Vandegrift, Branchville, Ala.</i></p> - -<p>I desire to say to you that I have been -reading your Magazine carefully ever since it -was put in print and I am proud to say that -it is a great eye-opener to our common laboring -people.</p> - -<p>Now, I will say to you that I am 78 years -of age, was born in St. Clair County, Ala., -was raised a farmer and I certainly know how -to sympathize with our laboring farming people -all over the country.</p> - -<p>I am proud to see that we have such patriotic -men as Thomas E. Watson going over -our country educating our people in the -cause of righteousness. Now I am happy to -know that the people are waking up to know -that justice and righteousness will prevail against -fraud and rascality. I feel happy to -believe that Tom Watson will be our next -president. Now let us all get to work by -showing up the light of truth to our misguided -laboring people. Our forefathers -taught us the principles of self-government—equal -rights to all and special privileges to -none. I would say that every voter should -read <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> and vote for Watson -for President.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>W. V. Edwards, Lewisburg, Tenn.</i></p> - -<p>It is the best paper published. I don’t -know how you could improve it. I have -been handing out my paper so you see I have -obtained four old yellow dog subscribers. I -hope to send more soon. I am one of the -Old Guard. I am for Tom Watson against -all comers. Tom and Hearst would make -a team, so put me down for them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. R. Murdock, Dallas, Tex.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> is the best educator<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -that I read. I learn more by reading -it than I do from all the daily papers I can -get. Mr. Watson’s editorials are worth the -subscription price. I believe Tom Watson -is the greatest and grandest statesman in -America today. With Watson for President -we can smash the present National Banking -system and abolish corporate railroad robbery -and regain our freedom stolen from us -through corrupt legislation both State and -National. I am for Watson in 1908 for President. -Can vote for him with a clear conscience -without fear of ever regretting casting -my vote. I am still proud I voted for -him November, 1904. Give it to old Grover -and the wiggle tails and trust. As ever I -am for Watson and Liberty.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. E. Reed, Collinsville, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>I have read every number of your most -wonderful Magazine. I say wonderful because -it has no equal in championing the -cause of the people and in denouncing the -big thieves who go scot free because they -have plenty of money with which to bribe -both judge and jury. For the last decade -there has been a huge suspicion in the minds -of the masses that both the old parties are -dominated by the same Wall Street influences -and your brilliant editorials have confirmed -this suspicion. There was a huge -suspicion that the leaders of the so-called -Democratic Party in 1904 betrayed the people -into the hands of Wall Street, and your -editorials have certainly confirmed this suspicion. -Indeed the “magazine with a purpose -back of it” is having a mighty influence -with every honest and fair-minded man. The -literary features of your Magazine are excellent. -The “Educational Department” alone -is worth more than the subscription price. -In fact your Magazine has no peer for the -price in America.</p> - -<p>Dear Tom, we trust your health will continue -good, that you may continue to expound -those sacred principles that have emanated -from the Sage of Monticello.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. R. P. Wall, Rutland, Fla.</i></p> - -<p>I desire to express my appreciation of your -superb Magazine. I have read every number -and shall continue to read it as long as -you are at the head of it. The only way to -improve the Magazine is to put more of your -own writings in it—say “The Life and Times -of Jefferson” in serial form.</p> - -<p>May your health be preserved that you -may continue the good work.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>T. A. Calhoun, Mansfield, Ga.</i></p> - -<p>“The Life Worth Living” expresses my -opinion of your Magazine. It teaches the -true idea of scholar, statesman and patriot. -Let us make a sacrifice of ourselves for the -good of mankind and then we will be led out -of the wilderness.</p> - -<p>I have been in the fight 39 years and will -be to the end. I am for principle and not -party.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hart Henley, Dallas, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>Public opinion should be so modified that -a man desiring peace could remain peaceable -without being branded coward. Had such -been the case, young Branch’s life might -have been spared.</p> - -<p>Deduced from the papers it seems a -dread of opprobrium had as much to do with -young Merriweather’s acceptance of Branch’s -challenge as irritation or resentment.</p> - -<p>Have read your Magazine. Admire it -very much and like the way the opinions of -the people are voiced. Being one of them, -I send you an opinion to voice.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>T. L. Wheeler, Staunton, Ind.</i></p> - -<p>I like your Magazine and realize that you -are doing a great work for the people.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>L. D. Riggins, Clanton, Ala.</i></p> - -<p>I consider that <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> -is doing a Godly work for humanity in teaching -them to know how to discriminate between -a democratic and an aristocratic -government.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A Subscriber, Petaluma, Cal.</i></p> - -<p>My husband and I have read your Magazine -since its first issue, and we would not be -without it. There is often a conflict as to -who shall read it first though perhaps half a -dozen other new magazines are lying about -unread, for we take many. My husband, -busy high-school teacher, says Tom Watson -refreshes him after his hard day’s work. As -he reads it, I can hear him chuckling occasionally, -sometimes laughing heartily. We -enjoy the editorials, especially, but it is all -good. The fiction is of a high order. I hope -to see your Magazine in our public library. -Many more would like it if they knew of it, -and a great many do most of their reading -here in the public library.</p> - -<p>My husband has his life insured in the -Equitable—I hate the word. He did it to -protect me and the children in case of his -death. But now we are undecided whether -to keep up the thing or not. Do you think -the Equitable might fail to fulfill the contract -in case of death? I should like to know your -opinion. We have just paid three premiums -and another will be due next spring. I -have two little children and if my husband -should be taken we should be in a dreadful -plight. But we are trying to make other -provisions. It is simply outrageous the way -the people are treated. It fills one with -helpless rage.</p> - -<p>I was interested in the article “Phases of -the Peonage Question.” Was the planter -who “had to kill a negro” ever tried for it? -I would like to know that planter’s name and -address, so that I can follow his suit when it -comes off. I am interested in this question. -Won’t you request the author to give me -this information, if you cannot give it. I -prefer to have it through the pages of the -Magazine.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -With best wishes for your success in trying -to bring about more just conditions.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Charles Burbage, Row, I. T.</i></p> - -<p>I have read and reread every copy of <span class="smcap">Tom -Watson’s Magazine</span> from cover to cover -and like each number better than the proceeding -one. It is far the best of the fifteen -magazines that I read each month and I -would not do without it for twice the price.</p> - -<p>Your editorials are convincing. Just keep -on pumping the hot shot into the trusts and -corporations for, if they are let alone, they -will soon be taking the house and lot while -the old man and boys are at home. They -would not wait for the old lady to become a -widow.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Matilda Magley, Green Ridge, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I have been one of your true friends, since -I got acquainted with you as a Congressman. -I love your style of calling things and people -by their right names. Your paper is doing a -noble work now, while the people are being -confused over the late insurance frauds, railroad -and banking scandals, trust, corporations -and thefts from the honest common -laborer, and they see it is worth while to do a -little of their own thinking. I hope the day -will soon dawn, when people will see the folly -of relying on other men’s views not in accord -with true reform.</p> - -<p>Yours till victory is won.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>W. O. Robinson, Smyrna, Ga.</i></p> - -<p>I regard your magazine as one of the grandest -magazines of the day and I, with many -other loyal Georgians, regard it as a great -privilege to do honor to the illustrious name -of Tom Watson as the South’s Greatest Son. -I voted for Watson for President, and am -proud of my vote.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>G. S. Ward, Island, Ky.</i></p> - -<p>I regard Tom Watson’s Magazine as one -of the best magazines published today for -truth telling and divulging the hypocrisy of -high official men. It now has plenty of cartoons. -In fact it is the best I ever read.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>G. W. Crook, Camden, W. Va.</i></p> - -<p>I have a fixed arrangement with our news-dealer, -T. P. Wright and Co., of Weston, by -which I get it promptly; but for that, of -course I would subscribe. I think, as some others -do, that it is all right to encourage news-dealers, -as many copies in this way pass into -the hands of persons who otherwise would -not become readers of it.</p> - -<p>I have no suggestions to offer as to improvement. -Tom will attend to that. What -he don’t see “ain’t” worth discussing. His -last reply to Keely, was worth to me all the -magazine has cost me from March to January.</p> - -<p>My chief regret is that Tom and W. J. B. -are not pulling the same line. Hope they -will soon.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>George G. Bryson, Gallatin, Tenn.</i></p> - -<p>I was among the first subscribers to your -magazine. If spared by Father Time, will be -among the last of its readers. Nothing better -in point these days than Tom’s editorials.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>George Heywood, Binghamton, N. Y.</i></p> - -<p>I think 15 cents more appropriate price -and think most who read it at all, or buy it, -feel the same way. I would like to be on -your list, but I move about so I must get it at -news stands.</p> - -<p>Seemingly few people have time for anything -but getting a living. It is such a -“bread and butter” world, do you wonder at -the enthusiastic Socialists? There is plenty -produced and the distribution is so unjust -and cruel.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>C. C. Edmonson, Grand View, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>Populist is the synonym of right. -Success to your magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>John Medert, Indianapolis, Ind.</i></p> - -<p>The million and a half of voters who were -freed from party thralldom by the Populist -movement have made it impossible for the -Democratic Party to get back to Clevelandism, -or for the Republican Party to “stand -pat” on anything. The Senators who “grinned -like Cheshire cats” at Senator Allen when he -made charges against them, are having troubles -of their own. The outlook is hopeful, and -the law of disintegration is still at work.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Thomas Wybrants Lodge, Ha Ha Tonka, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I am, and intend to remain, a regular subscriber -and reader of your fearless and honest -Magazine, which, along with Post’s <i>Public</i>, -are the only papers I care to read, and see you -also consider Post’s paper “excellent.” I -do not think you are just to Tolstoi, and so -enclose you his own letter of April 27, 1894. -In your editorial of October you confound -“ownership” with “possession.” If you -will read chapters XVIII and XIX of “Social -Problems” the great essential difference -will be clear to you. Neither George nor -Tolstoi ever proposed any division or partition -of the land—nothing of the sort. -George indeed, in chapter II, book VIII of -“Progress, and Poverty” makes this most -plain, saying “I do not propose either to purchase -or to confiscate private property in -land.” But surely, Mr. Watson, if you have -not, carefully, without bias read these incomparable -works, you ought to do so; he expressly -disclaims his “fundamental reform” -as being any “panacea;” he fully recognizes -and so does Tolstoi “that even after we do -this, much will remain to do.” I am an old -and very poor man of 73. Had I the means -I’d buy and send you George’s “Condition of -Labor.” No honest Christian after reading -that little, but truly logical and ethically admirable -“Open Letter to the Pope,” could -say, much less maintain, that Nature (God) -did not intend the Rent of Land—Land values—for -the use and the support of human<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span> -Governments. I hope you will honestly -“read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” -George’s works. You then would see and -own that “The Land Question is the Labor -Question” and far more important than “The -Money Question,” serious though that certainly -is. I subscribe myself your earnest -and true admirer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Dorrance B. Currier, Hanover, N. H.</i></p> - -<p>Frankly—I enjoy reading <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s -Magazine</span>, especially his editorials, more -than anything else I read, for I agree with -them and have for the past thirty years advocated -them.</p> - -<p>If the Magazine can be improved you know -how to do it better than I do, but we readers -should supply you the means by a united -effort to double your subscription list. -Whatever may be the alignment of political -parties two years hence, the principles advocated -by Mr. Watson will be represented by -one of them. To you, then, reader of this -letter in California, Florida, Minnesota or -among the granite hills of New Hampshire, -what will you do to help and do it NOW?</p> - -<p>I will pay for four copies.</p> - -<p>One for my self to read over and over.</p> - -<p>One to be placed in the local barber shop, -to catch the eye of a waiting customer.</p> - -<p>One for Dartmouth College’s reading room.</p> - -<p>One for my farmer friend, with the request -that he lend it to his neighbor.</p> - -<p>As nothing succeeds like success, please -inform your readers of it, from time to time, -for the cause is quite as much ours as yours.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>D. T. Mitchell, Woodlandville, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I have always been an admirer of Tom -Watson and am yet, as I am of W. J. Bryan. -But while I am an admirer of these men I -have no faith in their proposed remedies for -the ills, both political and social, from which -the proletariat of this great nation are suffering.</p> - -<p>They both lean, and in a certain sense -lead, in the right direction, as I think, but, -alas, stop short of any effective measures for -the permanent and general well being of the -great mass of wealth creators in this great -big trust-governed nation.</p> - -<p>The leaning and leading of these men that -I admire is in the primer of Socialism. But -there it stops, and as long as it stops there it -will, in my humble judgment, eventuate in -no permanent good to the great body of our -citizenship today so sorely in need of deliverance -from the wealth-absorbing institutions -and processes of these U. S. of Trustdom.</p> - -<p>Equality of opportunity to grow and develop -the very best there is in each child -born into this world ought to be the certain -inheritance of every American born child, -and that you can never have with our present -system of inheritance. Every worker ought -to have free access to nature’s store house of -wealth and then be guaranteed in the certain -possession of what he brings therefrom and -this can never be had with individual ownership -of land.</p> - -<p>Yours for Truth and Justice.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>George R. Murray, Greenwich, Conn.</i></p> - -<p>I have been reading your Magazine since -your first issue and I can assure you it is -like good wine—it improves with age. You -have got the right spirit of independence -and you are putting practical issues before -the public in a manner never before attempted. -Keep up the good work and your -efforts will soon be appreciated by the toilers -who have been blind to their interests in -the past, and kindly devote as much of your -valuable time and space to organized labor -and their interests as possible, and I can -assure you it will be highly appreciated by a -large number of your admirers, “union -men.”</p> - -<p>Yours for Right and Truth.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>John S. Iszard, Georgetown, S. C.</i></p> - -<p>I have been reading your Magazine for -three months and I find it is the best one -that I have ever read and I will continue -reading them. Of all the magazines that -sell for ten cents, give me <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s</span>.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Mrs. George Peters, Prescott, Ariz.</i></p> - -<p>I have just finished reading in your valuable -Magazine, “Is Money to Rule Us?” a -subject that greatly interests me. What is -money? It is nothing more than a little -glittering dirt, taken from the bowels of the -earth by man, rolled in little flat round -pieces, and given the name of money. And -we, who consider ourselves civilized, allow -that glittering dirt to influence us far more -than principle.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A. D. R. Hamby, Ava, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I have one of your first copies and would -not enter any serious objections, but as to -my own taste there are some of the fictitious -articles that are not conducive to good information -and might be substituted with -better literature. I believe that the people -have too many fancy fictitious falsehoods -and long and tedious explanations which -could be reduced to plain and simple facts.</p> - -<p>I am a native of Georgia and I like the -name Tom Watson and the cause he espouses -a great sight better. Here is my motto: -“Unity, Unity, Unity, Unity.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Robert Heriot, Little Rock, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I have read each number of <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s -Magazine</span> since its publication—buying it -at the book store.</p> - -<p>Being a Democrat in politics, of course, I -think it is the most interesting periodical -published in the United States. I don’t -know which to admire most—the principles it -advocates or the brilliant manner in which -they are presented. I hope some day to be -able to read “The Life of Napoleon,” “The -Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson,” and -“The Story of France” by the editor of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -Magazine. I will say though, that I believe -if all the reforms advocated by the Populists -(who are nothing more or less than real Democrats) -and the best plank in the platforms -of the two old parties that do not conflict -with the former, were adopted into law, that -the condition of the lower strata of society -would be benefited very little.</p> - -<p>The reasons therefor would take up too -much space in this letter but they are ably -set forth in “Progress and Poverty” by -Henry George, and in chapter nine, Social -Statistics. In one of the early editions by -Herbert Spencer, George’s remedy, explained -in a few words, provides for confiscating rent -for the purposes of governmental expenses -and abolishing all taxation on labor. If anyone -thinks the above change would hurt the -farmer, he should read what Tom Johnson, -the Mayor of Cleveland, O., has to say on the -subject. A perfect monetary system and a -transportation system run at cost, would -only make much more wealth to be absorbed -by the earth owners. The writer has been a -loyal member of organized labor (Brotherhood -of Locomotive Engineers) since 1872, -and he has come to the conclusion that no -permanent relief can be expected in that -direction even without taking taxation from -productive effort.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>M. C. Read, Tampa, Fla.</i></p> - -<p>All your editorials are well suited in style -to interest the masses—all stubborn facts -beyond contradiction. If the masses could -be properly politically educated the great -difficulty would be removed. In the way of -reformation there are many obstacles to -change our governmental affairs by a vote -of the people. They seem to be hypnotised -by the great money power of corporations. -The press is almost entirely subsidized. The -reader gets but one side of the question discussed -by writing or orations. Each candidate -of his party makes his speeches without -joint debate, generally, and the result—but -very few have but a vague idea of present -conditions. Today is my birthday. Born -the 9th of January, 1820, but I hope and -trust I am to pass another Presidential election -and I assure you, sir, it would be the -grandest desire of my long life to see you -seated in the Presidential chair in 1908.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>From T. E. W., Ohio.</i></p> - -<p>In the January number of <span class="smcap">Watson’s -Magazine</span>, among the items of home news -from November 9 to December 7, I notice -that the Standard Oil Co. raised the price of -refined oil ½ cent a gallon. That is equivalent -to 21 cents a barrel. That was only one -half of the story. They dropped the price -of Crude Oil at the same time 3 cents a barrel, -or from $1.61 to $1.58 per barrel, and not a -paper or a magazine in the country as far as I -have seen has a word to say about it. I do not -think it of any use to comment on it to you. -I have no idea you knew of it, or you would -have been after them with a hot stick.</p> - -<p>On page 268 in commenting on John D., -you say he is the man who compelled the -railroads, etc. It has always been a surprise -to me that some of our statesmen as well as -Ida Tarbell, Tom Lawson and other -writers, talk about the Standard Oil -Company compelling the railroads. I have -had twenty-five years’ experience in the -business and I say it is nothing of the kind. -<i>The railroads are the Standard Oil Co.</i> -Rockefeller, as far as the oil business and the -railroads are concerned, is only a <i>stool pigeon</i>. -If you want proof of it look at Pullman. -When Pullman was alive everything was -Pullman. When he died it was found he had -only a one-sixth interest. If he could make -the money he did on his one-sixth interest, -what must the gang back of him have made? -Now oil can be carried cheaper for long distances -by rail than by pipe-line. What is -the use of talking about the railroads being -compelled? I do not believe this country -has any more idea of what it is up against -than a lot of babies.</p> - -<p>I should like to see you. I know you are -in New York often. Some time when I am -in the city I will call at your quarters and see -if you are there.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Reddin Andrews, A. M., Tyler, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>I have read every number of <span class="smcap">Watson’s -Magazine</span>. It is immense. There is nothing -like it in the whole realm of literature. -It is the only magazine dealing with political, -social and economic questions, that tells the -whole truth. It is the only one that is in -position to afford indulgence in such a luxury -as telling the whole truth.</p> - -<p>It seems to me that <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> -has met with greater favor than you could -have anticipated. I wish that it had a million -subscribers. I do not now take time, -nor tax your patience by reading further, to -mention some special excellencies of the -Magazine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A. C. Ditty, Appleton City, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>Am still a Populist, but Populists are few -here. The most of them got such a dose of -Bryanism in ’96 that it killed the most of -them and that was just what Bryan and his -bunch wanted, and it worked well in these -parts; yet some of the fools say Bryan is a -good Populist. If Bryan is a Populist, I am -not—no, not by a d—n sight! He stands -for anything to get a big name and make a -big blow. That’s all, and if the Populists -ever expect to do anything they must let -such cattle as W. J. alone. Nothing in him -but wind and not Pop wind either. He is -plumb full of plut. wind and that isn’t good -for a Populist; or that is my view of the -orator from the Platte. I hope to see a new -revival along Populist lines in the near -future.</p> - -<p>I will try to convert some of the old fellows. -They all admit we are right, but yet they -still vote the old ticket. That is mighty poor -logic. The great trouble, as I see it, is this.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> -The prejudice that grew out of the War -still sticks in the people, and as long as the -Democrats and Republicans can hold the -reins, just so long will that prejudice remain -with the people either one killed. I was a -Confederate soldier but I have no love for -either of the old parties. I claim it was the -war Democrats that licked us Johnnies—no, -not licked, but overpowered us.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>H. N. Holmes, Hemple, Mo.</i></p> - -<p>I am one of the charter members of your -Magazine and I have been handing it out to -some mighty good men for them to read. I -am forty-eight years old and have read a heap -and I believe that I will be inside of the truth -when I say that there is more good sound -sense in one of your Magazines than in all of -the newspapers that I ever read outside of the -<i>Missouri World</i> and the paper that you used -to publish. I took it as long as you ran it. -I have followed you ever since you were in -Congress. I got a couple of your campaign -books at that time, voted for you every time -I got a chance to. I would rather cast ten -thousand votes for Tom Watson than one for -the sainted Bryan. I wouldn’t give Tom -Watson for all the Bryans that could stand -on Nebraska soil. I don’t think he is good -stuff for reform, or for the plutocrats either. -I will close by saying that I think <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s -Magazine</span> is the finest in the world, -and I have never seen anything that would -equal it for an educator. Give it to them, -Tom. I believe the boys are leaning your -way.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>J. L. Reynolds, North Augusta, S. C.</i></p> - -<p>I thought enough of your Magazine to -send you a renewal of my subscription which -will carry me through to April, 1907. I have -always admired Mr. Watson as a writer, and -as long as he writes as well as during these -last two or three years I shall continue to -read his stuff.</p> - -<p>I admire some of his politics but am not a -third party man, nor am I populistic in my -views. I am an independent, I presume, or -“on the fence” ready to fall in line with an -honest party, one foreign to the present.</p> - -<p>I see no reason why the Magazine should -not reach into the millions. It is good -enough, fair enough, bold enough, and honest -enough to give each and every one a fair deal. -Tell Tom to hit Roosevelt and he’ll please me.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>F. C. Gibbs, Waterville, Minn.</i></p> - -<p>You are doing splendid work with the Magazine. -I was chairman of the State Central -Committee of this State in 1896, the year -Bryan ran the first time, and the year he -destroyed the People’s Party. When he -swallowed the gold standard, Parker, gold -telegram, boots and all, he lost the last vestige -of respect I had for him. He has been -weighed in the balance and found wanting.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>S. A. Hauser, Winston-Salem, N. C.</i></p> - -<p>I have never stated to you my position on -the money question. You say “Mr. Hauser -seems to think that there is substantially no -difference between the Socialist position on -money and that taken by the Populist.” -Yes, there is some difference. The Pops are -wedded to the legal tender system which is -the only sane system, too safe and sound and -just for the exploiters. I am a Socialist and -my position is this on the money question. -I would have legal tender only till the co-operative -commonwealth is established. -Then I would use labor checks to denote the -price of a given article. For instance, if it -took John Smith 30 minutes to make a hat, -30M. would be the cost in labor, and hence -would be the price of the hat. So Dick -Jones, who labors 30 minutes and makes a -pair of shoes, could take his time check and -exchange it for the hat. In Rev., 18 chap. and -11 verse, you will find this: “For no man buyeth -their merchandise any more.” That -time is coming and it looks as if it was nearly -here. The Ethics of Socialism are the same -as the Bible and are therefore right. Therefore -Socialism is irrefutable.</p> - -<p>I know the Pops and Soc. ought to unite, -but whether they will or not is the question. -If the Pop Party represents the workingman’s -interest then the working people in that -party and the working people in the Soc. -Party should harmonize their differences. -When they become sensible enough they will. -The capitalists have laid the example for the -workingman. He must do or be done -forever.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Charles R. Long, Bedias, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>I want to work to get all the plain people -to concentrate forces regardless of party -lines.</p> - -<p>Hurrah for Tom Watson, Tom Lawson, -Tom Paine and Tom Jefferson.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>A. M. Brannan, Guy, Ark.</i></p> - -<p>I reckon the Lord only knows how much I -rejoice while reading the <i>Missouri World</i> and -<span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span>, and in each of them -see that we yet have men who have the wisdom -and ability to turn on the light and are -not afraid to do it. Yes, men who are veteran -patriots, worthy of all the honor that has -ever been conferred on them and to whom -this American government will owe lasting -praise and gratitude for its salvation. Now, -sir, I don’t believe I have said too much so -far and what I say more than this is real. I -now feel like repeating the words of Paul -Jones when asked if he was not ready to surrender, -“I have just begun to fight,” and I -tell you the truth when I say that I have -been saying this for thirteen years. But let -me tell you, and all who may see this, the -meanest, dirtiest thing I have done politically -in all these thirteen years. Right now -some of the Old Guard are ready to say -“He voted for Bryan and Fusion.” Well, -yes, I did. The fact is I didn’t know as -much then as I do now and I wanted relief, -and I got it. Yes, got relieved of a chance to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span> -vote for reform until the last Presidential -election when I got to vote, and not only to -vote but work also for the election of our -gallant, patriotic, country-loving, people-serving -and never-surrender Thomas E. -Watson. And if it is the Lord’s will I pray -that he may not, as our brave L. L. Polk, -fall before the great battle is fought, or rather -finished, but that he may live to see his ambition -realized and all the down trodden and -corporation ridden laborers and producers -once more free and enjoying the fruits of -their labors, and this government once more -in the hands of the people.</p> - -<p>I have just returned from Foulkner Co., a -county south of where I live, and while there -I met one of my old Populist friends and he -began to tell me about receiving one of Watson’s -Magazines, and, said he, “It is the best -thing politically I ever saw,” and, “In a -short while after that they registered my -name as a subscriber and I have been reading -it ever since.” He then went on to say -that Dr. Snoddy of Saltillo has received the -November number, and said the doctor says -it is the richest and ablest political magazine -he ever saw. So I see how much good we -all may do by sending out Populist literature -among the people.</p> - -<p>Ed. J. Chastain, and I went to work and -got 5 subscriptions for that champion of the -people’s cause. If I was able to I would send, -or have sent, <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> to 20 -men here in this country. Yes, and I believe -if Congress was creating money and regulating -the value thereof as the Constitution says -they should, I would be able to do this. Yes, -and not only that, but 20 men would have -the money if we had a just division of the -wealth that we produce, but when I ask a -man to subscribe for the Magazine he says, -“I would love to have it but I am not able,” -and so it is. So now, you poor man, see -where we are at. The money changers and -money creators have got us now where we -can’t afford to spend a little of the little -money, we can get for something that will -tell us how to find where we are at. I believe -the day is now dawning on our American -land. Our great chiefs and hypocritical -leaders, who have been looking across the -briny deep with pitying eyes, are now beginning -to feel a little muddled and puzzled at -the turn things are taking on this side, and I -feel like the dirt will be finally scraped off -deep enough so that enough of the deceived -wealth producers, real government supporters, -can see the greatness of our (Populist) -claims and the injustice of the favoritism -that does now exist as shown up by our noble -watchmen, and elect men to steer the ship -of state once more so as to save this one -glorious American government to the people -who pay the tax to run it. And now, in conclusion, -let me say that it seems like we are doing -nothing here in Arkansas; at least it appears -so to me. Yet I think if we had an organizer -to go ahead, that many of the bewildered -Democrats, and Republicans too, -would fall into line and march with us to -victory. I see that Benty has been appointed -national organizer. If he should see this -I hope he will let us know when we may expect -him in our part of Arkansas. I live in -Van Buren County.</p> - -<p>I am aiming to take and read and study -the inestimable <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> -just as long as I can raise a dollar to pay for -it, and I am going to get all to subscribe for it -I can, and sometime in the future I want to -write something for the benefit of preachers, -as there is much depending on them just -now.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Owens Miller, Gatesville, Tex.</i></p> - -<p>I have been purchasing the Magazine from -our news agent since the publication began, -and have all the back numbers up to and including -the November issue. I can’t afford -to lose a single issue as I desire to keep them -for reference in the future. Our news agent -sold all of his December supply before I -called.</p> - -<p>I quit the Democratic party when Cleveland -demanded and compelled a Democratic -Congress to finish the Republican financial -policy by repealing the Sherman Silver law, -and selling bonds to supply a gold reserve in -the treasury, and I have been a Populist from -that day to this.</p> - -<p>Of course, I have been left almost alone -since W. J. B. and his followers appropriated -the bulk of our platform timbers and in that -way captured and allured thousands of our -good reformers back into the so-called Democratic -fold, and things have looked gloomy -and lonesome around the old camp-fires most -of the time, but I can’t get my consent to undertake -to keep up with the shifting peregrinations -of the Democratic band-wagon under -its latter-day leadership. So I am content -to remain with the faithful mid-roaders who -have had the courage to resist the allurement -of the fleshpots of modern Democracy.</p> - -<p>I am by profession a lawyer and while I -voted the old party ticket and supported all -of its nominees, regardless of their fitness for -the positions they were running for, I had a -good patronage and was doing fairly well, -but when I threw off the shackles and refused -to obey the party lash, scores of my old -friends withdrew their patronage and suddenly -concluded that I had lost my influence -with the courts and juries of the county, and -joined in a hue and cry to ruin my business -and by this means to force me to at least be -quiet in reference to my political convictions. -Some of my ancestors were Irish and some -Scotch and I was born and grew to manhood -in Kentucky, and of course the blood that -runs in my veins and the atmosphere that I -breathed in my young life combined has -developed a disposition that revolts at coercion -in matters of conscience and the right -to speak and vote as I see the right to be.</p> - -<p>However, I have lived these things down -in a measure, and am still earning a living for -myself and family in spite of persecutions,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -and I enjoy the privilege of occasionally reminding -the hide-bound Democrats of -their inconsistencies and of asking them -what position their party occupies today -and what its position will be in 1908. Of -course they don’t know just where they are -at now and no prophet could afford to predict -where they will be even next year, and -so they are mute and can only reply by a -sickly smile.</p> - -<p>I often wonder how much longer this rotten -fabric can hold together. Of course a -party with no fixed principles or common -policies, can never succeed in gaining control -of the government machinery and they -ought not to, for no one can foresee or even -surmise what the results would be with such -a mass of inharmonious elements undertaking -at the same time to steer the course of the -ship of state. The Populo-Democrats would -pull hard on the oars in one direction and the -Republico-Democrats would strive to pull -the vessel in the opposite direction, and of -course the results would be “confusion -worse confounded.”</p> - -<p>I can see but one way of hope and that -comes from the wide-spread disposition to -condemn crimes in high places, and to break -away from partisan bossisms throughout the -land. This may be the breaking of old party -chains that will ultimately result in independent -political thought and action, and culminate -in an era of honesty in the administration -of public affairs and also in private dealings -among men. At least I hope so.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="PUTTERIN_ROUND"> -<img src="images/heading10.jpg" width="700" height="800" alt="" /> -<h2>PUTTERIN’ ROUND.<br /> -<span class="smaller">BY CORA A. MATSON DOLSON.</span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Pretty old for work, I am!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Though I used to till my ground</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In good shape as any one—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Now, I only putter ’round.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Way I used to swing a scythe</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was a caution, tell you, though!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Down my acre any day—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But I’m gettin’ old and slow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Still, I keep the burdocks out,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the grapevines up and trim;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And this great-grandson of mine—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Takes my time a-watchin’ him.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He’s the cutest little chap,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like his Grandpap, and his dad—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And that boy of mine I lost</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When he was an eight-year’s lad!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I make out to split the wood,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like this—little at a time.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s that baby, top the gate!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beats all, how the feller’ll climb!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Here, let’s stay with Grandpa now;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Build a cob house on the ground,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Keeps me pretty busy?” Yes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Guess it does, a-putterin’ ’round!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;"> -<img src="images/illus23.jpg" width="625" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Should the Publicity Bill Pass?</i></p> -<p class="caption">“<i>There should be a law passed to absolutely forbid corporation gifts -to political parties</i>”—<i>President’s Message</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>Kemble, in Collier’s Weekly</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus24.jpg" width="700" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>That’s the Question</i></p> -<p class="caption"><i>The Investigated</i>—“<i>What we want to know is, who’s going to investigate Congress?</i>”</p> -<p class="caption"><i>Bart., in Minneapolis Journal</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="Educational_Department"> -<img src="images/heading11.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2><i>Educational Department</i></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Steamboat Springs, Colo. December 29, 1905.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Honorable Thomas E. Watson</i>,</p> - -<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:</p> - -<p>(1) Are the Greenbacks all retired, and if so, -when retired?</p> - -<p>(2) Are the Greenbacks legal tenders?</p> - -<p>(3) Are National Bank bills legal tender paper, -and if not, on what basis do they have circulation?</p> - -<p>(4) What is meant by “free coinage” as advocated -by silver men?</p> - -<p>(5) Could the holder of greenbacks during the -War convert them into Government bonds at -their face value?</p> - -<p>(6) Did the United States Government ever -propose to pay the National Debt in silver or gold -at its option, and when? If not, why not?</p> - -<p>(7) If silver coin is not a legal tender, why do -silver dollars pass current at their face value, and -why do National Banks pay out their silver at their -counters and refuse to exchange them, as is usually -the case, for gold?</p> - -<p>(8) Who determines the value of foreign coins?</p> - -<p class="center">Yours,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) No. $346,000,000 still circulate, much -to the annoyance of the National Bankers.</p> - -<p>(2) Yes. Except for Import dues and -interest on Bonds.</p> - -<p>(3) The law declares that they are -“money” and guarantees their payment; -hence they pass as money, but are not, strictly -speaking, Legal Tender. The basis of -their circulation is the Credit of the Government. -The people have to pay taxes to meet -the interest on the bonds in order that the -National Bankers shall have the vast profit -and power of using the Government Credit -for their private gain.</p> - -<p>(4) The privilege of taking silver bullion -to the mint and having it turned into coin -on the same terms that are granted to the -owners of gold bullion.</p> - -<p>(5) Yes.</p> - -<p>(6) The Public Debt, at the time it was -contracted, was payable in lawful money. -The same motives which led the money-Kings -to impair the credit of the Greenback -with the “Exception Clause,” led Congress -to change the law to the effect that the bonds -should be payable <i>in Coin</i>. This of course -meant either silver or gold, at the option of -the Government. Another step was taken -and the bonds are now payable in gold.</p> - -<p>(7) Because, under the rulings of the -Secretary of the Treasury, the Gold Reserve -can be drawn upon to keep silver and paper -currency up to the Gold Standard. I presume -that National Bankers prefer to keep -their gold because it is the money of final -payment.</p> - -<p>(8) Commercial usage, and the banks. -Foreign coins have no legal status. Their -value and currency is a matter of private -agreement.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">New York, December 24, 1905.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Honorable Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: In your “A Call to Action” in -January issue, you have forstalled my wish, in -part only.</p> - -<p>As soon as a reasonable number respond by -sending their names to Mr. Forrest, I want you to -sink all personal desires by asking Messrs Hearst, -La Follette, Folk, Douglass of Mass., Johnson of -Minn., Garvin of R. I., and such other men as you -know to be loyal and true, and insist upon their -coming to the conference, as it is high time that -all good men and true, combined to destroy the -Grafters.</p> - -<p>This meeting should be held about the time of -debate on the question of opening of the ballot -boxes in New York and having a fair count; this -will give us a chance to hang the members of the -Legislature who refuse to give us an honest count -of the ballots cast on November 7th last.</p> - -<p>Every leader like Hearst, Folk, La Follette, and -possibly Watson—et al, has the Presidential Bee -in his bonnet, and each is afraid that the other -fellow will get it; but do you not agree with me, -that in a issue like this, all personal feelings should -be secondary? Let us by some means get all of -these men to line up at the conference.</p> - -<p class="center">Sincerely yours,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>Yes: I fully agree with you. The Presidential -Bee which buzzes in my bonnet is a -feeble little thing, and with the help of a -few stalwart friends I think it can be controlled.</p> - -<p>I am willing to line up any time.</p> - -<p>Yes: I looked into your book and think -it is great. As you say it is the only book -which intimates that there are two sides to -Fire Insurance.</p> - -<p>I have been thinking here of late that it -is highly probable that some Fire Insurance -Companies are grander rascals than some -Life Insurance Companies. Your book -deepens that suspicion. $25.00 is little -enough for the book.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Milledgeville, Ga.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Will you please answer the following -in the Educational Department of your Magazine?</p> - -<p>(1) Where can I get a McEllicott’s “Debater?” -I have been to my book store and they haven’t got -it, and do not know where to order it from.</p> - -<p>(2) I want to be a first class lawyer, and I want -to know if it would be better to go on and get a -High School and College education, and have all -of those dead languages to learn, or get a High -School education and read and learn all necessary -studies at home, and state what books and where -I can get them, which to study first, second, third -and all the rest until I have finished my course.</p> - -<p class="center">Yours for success,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -<p>P.S.—Is there any use of studying ancient -history?</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) I find that McEllicott’s Debater is -out of print, but if you will send fifty cents -to F. E. Grant, 23 West 42nd street, New -York City, he will mail to you an excellent, -up-to-date book which covers about the -same ground as the McEllicott Debater.</p> - -<p>Mr. Grant is an unwearied, indefatigable, -never-say-die bookseller, and he makes a -speciality of getting all sorts of books for all -sorts of people.</p> - -<p>(2) Get a thorough High School Education -and let the dead languages go to thunder. -If you want to learn any other language -than English, study French.</p> - -<p>P.S. Yes: there is a good deal of use in -studying ancient history. It is worth a -great deal for a man to have a clear general -idea of what was done on this earth before -he got here.</p> - -<p>You don’t want to feel bad because of -your ignorance when gentlemen with whom -you may be talking refer to Semiramis, Alcibiades, -Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar and the -rest of those ancient celebrities. Oh, yes: -read up on history, ancient and modern, so -that when you associate with intelligent -people you will know what they are talking -about.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Belfast Mills, Va.</span>, Jan. 1, 1906.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: What are some of the distinguishing -features of the “Code Napoleon?”</p> - -<p>Which do you consider the half-dozen most important -and significant events in the history of the -world in 1905? Ditto in the history of the United -States for 1905?</p> - -<p>Who were the ten or twelve greatest statesmen -in the South during the Reconstruction Period?</p> - -<p>Dividing the history of the United States from -1860 to 1905, into epochs, what periods would you -name?</p> - -<p>Does not Roosevelt’s administration mark a new -period or epoch?</p> - -<p class="center">Yours truly,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) To answer with any fulness would require -more space than we can now spare. -The Code Napoleon follows, in a general way, -the Roman Civil Law, while most State -Codes in the United States are founded upon -the Common Law of England.</p> - -<p>(2) The war between Russia and Japan; -the separation of Norway and Sweden; the -defeat of Clericalism in France; the quasi-alliance -between Great Britain and France; -the overthrow of the Tory ministry in England -and the appointment of a Labor Agitator -as a member of the Cabinet; the “butting -in” of the German Emperor in Moroccan -affairs; the labor and peasant revolutionary -movements in Russia.</p> - -<p>(3) The Hearst campaign in New York -City; the Roosevelt peace; the Life Insurance -revelations; the Lawson articles on Frenzied -Finance; the President’s declaration for -Federal regulation of railways; the set-back -to political Bossism in the State and City -elections last Fall; the establishment of this -Magazine.</p> - -<p>(4) Zebulon Vance of North Carolina; -George G. Vest of Missouri; L. Q. C. Lamar -of Miss., John. T. Morgan of Ala., Benj. H. -Hill of Ga.; James Z. George of Miss.; Roger -Q. Mills of Tex.; James B. Beck of Ky.</p> - -<p>(5) The War Period is a distinct epoch; -the Reconstruction Period is another, and -this period may be said to have ended when -President Hayes withdrew the troops from -the South.</p> - -<p>The election of a so-called Democrat -(Cleveland) over a Republican (Blaine) may -also be said to have marked the advent of -another epoch.</p> - -<p>The McKinley-Mark Hanna dispensation -was also an epoch and will take its place in -history as the high-water mark of class-legislation, -Trust making and rotten politics.</p> - -<p>Yes; Roosevelt seems to be making himself -an epoch—just what sort of one neither -he nor anybody else seems to know.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson</i>,</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Would you kindly inform me through -your Educational Department:</p> - -<p>Whether there has been adopted by any nation -the 8 hour law?</p> - -<p>And what change would have to be made in our -Constitution to put such a law into effect in this -country?</p> - -<p>Thanking you in advance for the desired information.</p> - -<p class="center">Respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>New Zealand has what is practically the -8 hour law. In other words, from one end of -the colony to the other 8 hours is recognized -as the Standard Working Day, both in public -and private service.</p> - -<p>In the United States, 8 hours is the legal -working day on public works.</p> - -<p>No change would have to be made in our -Constitution to make such a law general in -this country.</p> - -<p>Congress and the States have just as much -legal right to make an Eight Hour Day as -they have to make a Thanksgiving Day, or -other Holiday.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Rockham, S. D.</span>, Jan. 1, 1906.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: There it is, in <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> for -January 1906, page 276. Report of Wm. H. English; -“a large sum to our credit for lost and destroyed -bills.”</p> - -<p>Now the question I would ask—tried to ask -once before, but failed to make it plain—is: By -whose authority and to what extent or per cent. do -National Banks profit by bills <i>supposed</i> to be destroyed -through the carelessness of you and I and -others, not accustomed to handling money?</p> - -<p>We know many bills <i>are</i> lost, and it seems to me -that, if the value cannot be restored to the original -losers, it ought to result in profit to the general public, -the Government. Why should the bank get -any credit, did I not have to pay them for my loan?</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>Referring to page 108 of November number -of the Magazine, I find that our correspondent -was informed that the Government -made good to the National Banks all old -notes which were worn out, mutilated or destroyed, -and that this was done by virtue of -Section 24 of the National Bank Law.</p> - -<p>I really do not know how to give a plainer -answer.</p> - -<p>Old bank notes which become worn out, -mutilated, or destroyed are replaced by new -notes. The Comptroller of the Currency issues -the new notes under and by virtue of the -law. The entire National Bank act is a disgrace -to the Statute Book, and section 24 is -simply one of its clauses.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Passaic, N. J., December 17, 1905.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Every month your Magazine grows -better and your editorials are great in their unborrowed -simplicity, power and naturalness, and in -their humble consciousness of truth and right.</p> - -<p>(1) <i>But how do you manage to call Napoleon a -Democrat?</i> I reverence the word Democrat, it is -my religion as well as my politics, and I don’t like -to hear such an unquestioned authority as you -call him a Democrat. It will be an interesting -article, I think, if you answer my objection.</p> - -<p>(2) In an answer to a correspondent in regard -to the best English histories <i>you omit the favorite</i>—my -favorite—and I think the best—John Richard -Green’s <i>Shorter History of the English People</i>. -<i>Why did you omit it?</i> Another interesting article.</p> - -<p>(3) I can’t understand what you mean by saying -that the “cry of the people ground down by -their masters, was what brought Napoleon back -from Elba.” I have read your history of Napoleon, -too. <i>Was it not solely his ambition, and he -saw in the disaffection of the people a chance to -swell his armies?</i></p> - -<p>Let me congratulate you on Clarence Darrow’s -story. It has the element that made Burns and -Wordsworth.</p> - -<p>Please accept my congratulations. Wishing -you a Merry Christmas and you and your Magazine -a Happy and Prosperous New Year.</p> - -<p class="center">Yours very truly,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER.</p> - -<p>(1) I call Napoleon a democrat because he -made war upon caste and privilege, upon -Kings and aristocracies, and because he -favored universal education, equal opportunities -for all, and equal rights for all.</p> - -<p>In judging any man, great or small, you -must allow for environment.</p> - -<p>Born in Corsica, and coming to France to -be educated for the army in a royal school, -Napoleon could hardly be the kind of democrat -the average American boy so naturally -becomes.</p> - -<p>France was ruled by a King and aristocracy, -just as other European nations were. -Monarchical institutions, hundreds of years -old, stood on every hand.</p> - -<p>The Revolution crashed through them all, -and prostrated them all, but the Revolution -could not sustain itself. Reaction set in, -and there was danger of a Bourbon restoration.</p> - -<p>Napoleon struck in at “the psychological -moment,” and became the people’s King. -Personally he became despotic, but <i>his work</i> -was always democratic.</p> - -<p>I call him a democrat because he made -it possible for the poorest boy in France to -advance to the highest pinnacle of glory; -because he lifted the boycott against men -of obscure birth and made <i>merit</i> the test of -distinction; because he abolished the outrageous -privileges of feudal nobility in every part -of Europe which came under his control; because -he rebuked the bigotry of priesthood -and punished a clerical Ass who had insulted -the corpse of an actress; because he scornfully -repulsed the flatterers who wished to -“make up” a fine ancestral tree for him, -and proudly dated <i>his</i> nobility from the date -of his first great achievement; because he -studied to improve the condition of the -common people; because he tried to make -school-teaching practical—that is he tried -to have his schools fit every boy for the -career which <i>that</i> boy’s talent was suited for; -because he equalized taxation; because he -based his administration and his Code upon -the broad righteous principle of “Equal -Rights for all and special privileges for -none.”</p> - -<p>(2) An oversight. Green’s “Short History” -is a classic and every library should -contain it.</p> - -<p>(3) The Bourbons had broken the pledges -which they had made as a condition precedent -to their being restored. Not until -Talleyrand and the other traitors had besought -the help of the Czar Alexander, would -Louis XVIII even go through the form of -granting the reforms which had been promised.</p> - -<p>When the Allied armies withdrew, the -Bourbon reaction set in with a headlong -rush. The veteran soldiers of the army -were affronted brutally by young aristocratic -officers who had never smelled gunpowder. -Napoleon’s officers who had won renown on -scores of battle-fields were contemptuously -maltreated. The <i>wives</i> of the officers were -snubbed by the high-born dames of the old -nobility.</p> - -<p>The revolutionary and Napoleonic system -was being uprooted in various directions, -and <i>the people</i> of France realized that the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> -Bourbons meant to restore the Old Order -with all of its brutal inequalities and injustice -and oppression. <i>The people</i> saw that the -Bourbon restoration meant once more the -galling chains of <i>the noble and the priest</i>. -Hence, when Napoleon came from Elba, the -masses of the French hailed him wildly. -They followed him with mad cries of “<i>Hang -the priests!</i>” <i>The Masses</i> clamored for arms, -asking to fight and die for <i>The Man</i>, Napoleon. -Even after Waterloo, they clung to -him frantically, tumultuously rallying to -him, and begging him to give them guns. -Had Napoleon frankly thrown himself into -the hands of the masses of the French people, -he could have hung the Talleyrands, Fouchés -and Marmonts, and driven the Allies out of -France.</p> - -<p>But Napoleon was a soldier of the Military -Academy. He had no faith in the fighting -quality of “the mob.”</p> - -<p>Another hundred years had to elapse -before the Boers of South Africa could show -to the world that if your mob is the right -sort of mob, and has the best guns, and can -shoot with the best aim, it can knock your -painfully disciplined army into a cocked hat.</p> - -<p>Yes: Clarence Darrow is a writer of -marvelous power. Read his “An Eye for -an Eye,” and you will realize that the -Chicago lawyer has all the genius of Tolstoy -when it comes to making a story of thrilling -interest out of the commonest human -materials.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Van Dyck, Tenn.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson</i>,</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I have seen it stated that the working -people of this country make or create $7 worth -of wealth for each day in the year. For every -man engaged in gainful pursuits do the statistics -justify such a statement. If so, we do not get our -share. My father is a very great Populist and I -aim to make some speeches in the future and will -take it as a very great kindness if you will let me -know if I will be perfectly safe in making that -declaration.</p> - -<p>Thanking you in advance I remain your great -admirer.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>There are 29,000,000 people in this country -engaged in gainful pursuits.</p> - -<p>An author (Bolton Hall) who has devoted -much study to our economic situation states -these producing citizens annually create -wealth to the amount of $19,000,000.</p> - -<p>You can figure out for yourself how much -each worker creates. Ten per cent of our -population get almost all the annual production -of wealth.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Grand Prairie, Texas, January 1, 1906.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: A Republican here claims that the -tariff shuts out the cheap labor of the European -countries and on that account, the laborers here in -our factories get high prices. He says that the -factories of England pay their laborers twelve to -fifteen cents per day on account of free trade in -England. He says children work for five cents -per day, and railroad engineers get only $4 per -month. He says that if this country were to -adopt free trade, the factories of the European -countries could come over here and buy our cotton -and raw products, ship them to England, manufacture -them, ship them back here and sell them -cheaper than our factories could do it, and the -result would be that our factories would be compelled -to close down, thus throwing thousands of -people out of employment. I think his claims are -extravagant. I want you to explain this fully. -I want to be loaded for him the next time I meet -him, and if I can get “loaded up” on your ammunition, -I will dead sure knock him out.</p> - -<p>I have read all you have written about the -Bank system and am prepared to put up a very -fair argument. I don’t understand this, Mr. -Watson. In a recent issue of your Magazine, you -say there is no reason on earth why the Government -should not loan the money direct to the people -instead of the 5000 bankers. Please explain -fully just how this could be done. How much per -share did Cleveland get for the bonds that he sold -on the midnight deal? I have heard it said that -he sold them for $125 per share.</p> - -<p>Thanking you for the great work you are -doing for the common people and with kindest -regards to you personally,</p> - -<p class="center">I am, very truly,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -<p>P. S.—I am a Georgian. I met you personally -on two occasions at Athens. Perhaps you have -long since forgotten me. I would consider it an -honor to be known by you, and to know you as -a personal friend. In ’96 I wrote you from Athens -for a copy of the P. P. P. I had misplaced my -copy wherein you showed up the littleness of Bill -Arp’s school history of Georgia. You sent me a -copy from Thomson; I have it yet.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>The Republican who told you those things -about English wages did not know what he -was talking about. The idea of a railroad -engineer getting four dollars per month, -and factory hands being paid five cents per -day! The figures are so ridiculous that even -a Protection-soaked Republican ought to -know better.</p> - -<p>If high Tariffs benefit the laborer, why is -it that workmen get better wages in free-trade -England than in high-Tariff France, -Italy and Germany? If high-Tariffs give -the benefit to the laborer why is it that the -Salvation Army had to save the factory -hands at Fall River, Mass., from starvation, -by ladling out free soup? The best paid -laborers in the United States are the negroes -of the South who raise cotton, a free trade -product. The laborer gets a larger share -of the cotton he produces than any employee -in any protected industry.</p> - -<p>In England the wages paid to factory -hands are at least equal to those paid in the -United States when the amount of the wage -is compared with the amount and quality -of the product.</p> - -<p>Ask your Republican friend if he does not -know that his great Apostle, James G. -Blaine, made this assertion some twenty -years ago.</p> - -<p>The statement was not denied then and -cannot be denied now.</p> - -<p>There is a huge army of the poor and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -unemployed in England, but it is not due to -Free trade.</p> - -<p>It is the natural result of three things.</p> - -<p>(1) Land monopoly.</p> - -<p>(2) A diabolical financial system.</p> - -<p>(3) The host of non-producers who use -the government as a means of getting their -support and their wealth by oppressing the -producers.</p> - -<p>The Government could easily establish -a Bureau of Loans, and could adopt a business-like -system of lending money direct to -the people.</p> - -<p>This principle has been put in successful -operation in Great Britain, Norway, Greece -and other foreign countries.</p> - -<p>Not long ago, the firm of N. A. Harris & -Co., of Chicago, New York and Boston, put -out a Circular offering for sale “Sanitary -District of Chicago” bonds to the amount -of $500,000. As a recommendation of -these bonds, Harris & Co., declared in the -Circular that the United States Government -had accepted the bonds as security for -Government deposits.</p> - -<p>In other words, the National Banks have -been borrowing the people’s money out of -the Treasury on the faith of these bonds. -Of course, the banks paid no interest.</p> - -<p>Now does it not occur to you that the -Government could as well lend some of that -money to you at four or six percent interest -upon security equally good, as to lend it to -a favored few without interest?</p> - -<p>I do not believe that Mr. Cleveland profited -personally by the sale of the bonds. He -acted stupidly and he acted in violation of -law. The whole transaction had an ugly -look because Morgan had recently been his -client and Stetson (who drew the contract) -had recently been his partner. But I do not -think he acted corruptly.</p> - -<p>Mr. Cleveland did not get 125 for the -Bonds.</p> - -<p>Oh, no. He sold them for 103½, and -Morgan, Belmont, Rothschild & Co. <i>immediately -realized</i> 112¼.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Savannah, Ga.</span>, December 18, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I have been a constant reader of -your eminent Magazine from the first issue and -have become converted to your Populist principles -of which I will stand by as long as I have the liberty -of voting.</p> - -<p>Tonight we have organized a club in the city of -Savannah, Ga., principally of working men, so that -we might study politics, and thoroughly understand -how to cast our ballot intelligently, and for -the best of our interest; we think the day is fast -approaching when if the workingman doesn’t -wake up and take hold of the reins of government, -he will find in the near future that his liberties -have flown never to be regained. My object in -writing to you is for information in your Educational -Department. How would you advise as to -the most intelligent way to do this?</p> - -<p>They don’t seem to understand how to get together, -and I believe you can give us the desired -information.</p> - -<p class="center">Respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>I would advise the reading, by the members -of the club, of such books as the following: -“Politics in New Zealand,” “Poverty,” -by Robert Hunter; “The Menace -of Privilege,” by Henry George; “Letters -and Addresses of Thomas Jefferson,” recently -published by The Unit Book Publishing -Co., New York, “Bossism and Monopoly,” -by Spelling.</p> - -<p>These books will not cost a great deal, -and they will give you a very complete -survey of our political and economic condition.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span>, January 17, 1906.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: As you will notice in the wording -of the question printed above, which we shall debate -with the University of Cincinnati, the entire -discussion will probably hinge on the term “Capitalistic -combinations called trusts.”</p> - -<p>In order to get the consensus of authoritative -opinion as to what capitalistic combinations are -called trusts by those who are most competent to -use the term intelligently, we are taking the liberty -of asking the editors of a dozen of the most prominent -monthlies, weeklies and dailies in the United -States to give us their definition of this term.</p> - -<p>Will you, therefore, be kind enough to sacrifice -enough of your time to state briefly what capitalistic -combinations, in your opinion, should be -called trusts.</p> - -<p class="center">Very respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>My conception of a Trust is: A combination -of individual or corporate capital which -practically establishes such a monopoly that -it can control the output, dictate the price, -and crush competition.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Blue Hill, Neb.</span>, November 29, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, -having bought the first one ever sold in our -town. I like it very much. It speaks my sentiments -better than I know how to express them -myself. I have never heard but one thing said -against your Magazine—one party thought you -were a little hard on the darky.</p> - -<p>I want to ask one question. If you were elected -President of the United States, and had a House -and Senate of your own faith and political belief, -and you were to abolish the gold standard and the -national banks, what effect would it have upon the -country? Would not the banks totter and fall -and ruin many depositors? Banks have become -a necessity. In your message to Congress, what -kind of banks and what kind of money would you -recommend?</p> - -<p>At present, corn husking is the issue of the day, -but that will soon be over. Then I will take your -subscription blanks and go out among the farmers -and see what I can do for the best Magazine on -earth.</p> - -<p class="center">Yours respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) I don’t think I have been “too hard -on the darky.”</p> - -<p>Doctor Booker Washington, spoiled by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> -too much praise, got too gay in his statements -concerning the rapid progress of the -negro in civilization. The Doctor’s idea -seemed to be that as soon as you caught a -young African, washed him, combed him, -put clothes on him, and taught him how to -read, write and cipher, he was at once civilized.</p> - -<p>I knew better than this, and the Doctor -does now. He will be more particular how -he claims superiority for the negro race, -hereafter. Especially since his brethren -in Santo Domingo have given that “Republic” -another push hellwards.</p> - -<p>On that island, one of the most favored -spots on the globe, the negroes had the advantage -of beginning with an elegant civilization -which the French had taught them.</p> - -<p>The negroes expelled the French, set up -a government of their own, and the record -of their <i>republic</i> has been one of the foulest -blurs on the history of the human race. -They get worse and worse and worse. There -are not a sufficient number of whites in -Santo Domingo to keep the negroes straight: -in this country there are. <i>That makes all -the difference.</i></p> - -<p>(2) If I were President and could do -away with the Gold standard, restoring the -currency to the constitutional status, depriving -the National Banks of the privilege -of creating paper currency, and exercising -that power directly by the use of Treasury -Notes, why should the banks “totter and -fall?”</p> - -<p>A good many of them have tottered and -fallen; many more of them are going to -“totter and fall.” Why? Because the -system is rotten. Thousands of individual -banks and bankers are as sound as gold -dollars, but the system isn’t, for the reason -that too much bank-made currency, of -various sorts, is afloat; the line of credits -has been lengthened until it is about to snap; -wild-cat speculation is rampant; and thousands -of banks are dabbling in business -which isn’t legitimate banking.</p> - -<p>I am in favor of Banks of Deposit and -Discount—so long as we cannot get Postal -Savings Banks.</p> - -<p>But I am opposed to Banks of Issue—that -is, banks which issue their promises to pay -and get rich on what they owe. These are -the National Banks. Render to Cæsar the -things which are Cæsar’s; restore to the -Government the sovereign power of issuing -paper currency.</p> - -<p>Depositors would not be endangered by -our policy of expanding the currency; the -more money in circulation, the more certain -the depositors would be to get paid.</p> - -<p>(3) In my Message to Congress, I would -recommend Postal Savings Banks, for the -reasons stated in the December issue of this -Magazine, page 231.</p> - -<p>The kind of money I would recommend -would be that which the Fathers fixed in the -Constitution, and which the practice of a -hundred years seemed to render “irrevocable”—a -system which had the sanction of -Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, -Madison, Monroe, Jackson and Lincoln.</p> - -<p>The Constitutional system of currency, -as shown by the law and the practice of -Presidents, and the decisions of the Supreme -Court, is <i>Silver</i>, <i>Gold</i>, <i>Treasury Notes</i>, and the -silver dollar was <i>the unit of money</i>.</p> - -<p>Congress sold itself to Bank of England -agents, and changed our system of currency -to suit European financiers.</p> - -<p>Mr. August Belmont, of New York, could -tell you how much Rothschild money his -bank spent to bring about the change.</p> - -<p><i>And I hold in my desk sworn evidence that -Ernest Seyd, Bank of England Agent, spent -$484,000 for the same purpose.</i></p> - -<p>The fight for reform will never stop till -you have wiped out that shame, and have put -our financial system back on the sound basis -built by the Fathers.</p> - -<p>If the Corn husking issue has been settled, -please hustle for those subscriptions -if you would make us happy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Westminster, S. C.</span>, Jan. 3, 1906.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I am very much interested in the Educational -Department of your excellent Magazine, -and glean much valuable information from it.</p> - -<p>The inductive or interrogatory style, so often -and advantageously used by yourself in your editorials, -is the best method of teaching on any subject. -Questions are easily asked—any one can -do this.</p> - -<p>Answering is sometimes more difficult.</p> - -<p>(1.) If National Banks should be abolished, and -the Government issue the money used by the people, -how would it be put in circulation?</p> - -<p>(2.) If the National Banks were abolished, would -it not be a matter of convenience in business transactions, -be necessary, to have private banks?</p> - -<p>(3.) Can you furnish back-numbers, from the -beginning of your paper?</p> - -<p>These questions are frequently asked by the common -people, and some of us are puzzled to know -how to answer satisfactorily.</p> - -<p>Grover Cleveland, I think, once said, that however -money might be created, the middle-man, by -trusts, monopolies, and speculations, would take -the advantage and oppress the poor and needy, just -the same.</p> - -<p>If you think the above questions worthy of notice, -please answer in your February number.</p> - -<p>I am glad to note the contemplated improvement -in your Magazine. I will do my best to get -you more subscribers.</p> - -<p class="center">Yours respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>The National Banks now have outstanding -notes to the amount of $550,000,000 in -round numbers. If the privilege of issuing -these notes as money were taken away from -the National Banks, the paper money now -in circulation would be reduced to $550, -000,000. Suppose the Government should -issue an equal sum in its own notes to take -the place of the National Bank notes—how -could the Government put its own notes into -circulation?</p> - -<p>(1) It could <i>immediately</i> put the entire<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span> -amount in circulation by applying it to the -part payment of the public debt. We are -the richest nation on earth: the richest that -history knows anything about—yet we keep -ourselves mortgaged with a perpetual National -Debt because the favored few demand -bonds to bank on. If National Banks were -abolished, as real Democracy always sought -to do, there would be no further excuse for -keeping the Bond-Mortgage on the National -estate.</p> - -<p>(2) It could put the entire amount $550, -000,000, in circulation <i>gradually</i> by paying -the national expenses with it.</p> - -<p>(3) It could put the money in circulation -by building Government railroads with it.</p> - -<p>(4) And my opinion is that the whole -sum could be benevolently assimilated by -that Panama Canal business which the sleek -Cromwell and his Varilla unloaded on the -impulsive Roosevelt.</p> - -<p>Second Question: Yes. We wage no -war on private banks. As long as banks -confine themselves to legitimate banking, -loans, discounts &c., they are not a source of -national danger. It is only when a certain -class of bankers, like the National Bankers, -usurp the Governmental function by supplying -the country with money, that they are, as -Jefferson said, more dangerous to Republican -institutions than standing armies.</p> - -<p>Question 3: Yes.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Memphis, Tenn.</span>, Nov. 30, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, -which I find very interesting and instructive. I -believe in the Public Ownership of Public Utilities, -but fear that does not go far enough to cure the -land of the evils that now curse it. With Government -banks, Government railroads, Municipal -Ownership of Public Utilities, there would still be -that awful strife of the many for bread and butter. -If we may ride cheaper on the “Railhighways,” if -we get our Water, Gas, and Electric Light cheaper, -will not the wages of the workers go down as the -cost of living decreases? Will not then as now, the -“iron law” of wages be operative?</p> - -<p>Please answer in your Educational Department.</p> - -<p class="center">Yours,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>As the cost of living decreased, the purchasing -power of wages would increase, and -every dollar now paid to Labor would command -for the laborer a greater quantity of -necessaries, comfort and luxuries of life.</p> - -<p>How could you suppose that the wages of -workers will go down when the masses of the -people wrest the Government out of the -hands of the plutocrats? Public ownership -of public utilities cannot be brought about -until the people rout the Privileged Few at -the polls, when that day comes do you fear -that <i>the people</i> will cut down <i>their own wages</i> -as the Privileged Few have done?</p> - -<p>Not many weeks ago the price of cotton -advanced. The farmers of the South had -suffered so long and so much from low prices -that they organized. The result was a rise -in the price of raw cotton.</p> - -<p>How did the Protected Manufacturers of -New England meet this increase in the cost -of raw material?</p> - -<p>The Government reports show that the -manufacturers have been earning twice as -much on their invested capital as the farmers -had earned. It was fair for the farmers to -contend for a juster division. Hence their -organization.</p> - -<p>The manufacturers saw that they would -lose a part of the unjust profits which they -were reaping from the Protective system, -and they promptly cut down—their fat dividends? -Heavens! No. They cut down -the wages of the factory boys and girls, men -and women, who are <i>protected</i> by our blessed -Tariff.</p> - -<p>Now if <i>the people</i> ruled this country, if -there was no Privilege, no Monopoly, no taxing -of some to enrich others, no granting of -Governmental powers to private Corporations, -no corrupt alliance between Commerce -and Government, you may bet your bottom -dollar that <i>fat dividends would be cut</i>, before -men, women and children would be desolated -by a reduction of wages.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Galion, Ohio</span>, Dec. 21, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Watson’s Magazine</i>,</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: Please give me some suggestions in -your interesting Educational Department on the -negative side of this question: Resolved, that the -United States is retrograding in morality and -righteousness.</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>The negative side of that question might -draw arguments of facts from “Social Progress” -by Dr. Josiah Strong, “The History -of the People of the United States” by -McMaster. To keep your mind clear from -haunting doubts, however, avoid such books -on the other side as “The Tramp at Home,” -by Lee Meriwether, “American Pauperism,” -by Isidor Ladoff, “The Menace of Privilege,” -by Henry George, “Poverty,” by -Robert Hunter.</p> - -<p>It would be well also, <i>not</i> to read of the -Life Insurance revelations, nor the facts -which disclose how corporations corrupt and -control the politicians.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Temple, Ga.</span> Dec. 8, 1905</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Please answer the following questions -in the Department of Education.</p> - -<p>Would you advise me to study the following -books with the hope of getting a thorough knowledge -of law?</p> - -<p>1. How to Study Law.</p> - -<p>2. Constitutional Law, Federal and State.</p> - -<p>3. Personal Rights and Domestic Relations.</p> - -<p>4. Contracts and Partnerships.</p> - -<p>5. Agency and Bailments, including Common -Carriers.</p> - -<p>6. Negotiable Instruments and Principal and -Surety.</p> - -<p>7. Wills and Settlements of Estates.</p> - -<p>8. Personal Property and Equity or Chancery -Law.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span></p> - -<p>9. Public Corporations and Private Corporations.</p> - -<p>10. Real Property and Pleading and Practice.</p> - -<p class="center">Very truly yours,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>There are ten different books indicated in -this formidable list, whereas the subjects -enumerated are all treated with sufficient -fullness in the text-books which I have heretofore -suggested to law students, viz:</p> - -<p>(1) Blackstone’s Commentaries,</p> - -<p>(2) Kent’s Commentaries,</p> - -<p>(3) Greenleaf on Evidence,</p> - -<p>(4) The State Code.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Dyson, Wilkes Co.</span> Ga.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Will you please tell me in your Magazine -the principal object you had in leaving the -Democratic party and going into the People’s -party?</p> - -<p>Have the Republican or Democratic parties ever -advocated the Government ownership of public -utilities? If so, which one and when? Has that -question ever been agitated in Europe? When -and who by?</p> - -<p class="center">Truly yours,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>My election to Congress was due to my -support of the Ocala Platform of the Farmer’s -Alliance, and when the Indianapolis -Convention of 1891 instructed all Congressmen -so elected to stand by the principles of -the Alliance regardless of the Caucus dictation -of political parties, I declined to enter -the Democratic Congressional Caucus in -Washington.</p> - -<p>(1) I was immediately denounced in the -bitterest terms by nearly every Democratic -paper in Georgia; yet I could not have done -otherwise without betraying the Alliance-men -who had elected me.</p> - -<p>I did not join the Alliance as so many -time-servers did; I remained on the outside, -but they trusted me so implicitly that I -received the solid Alliance vote. How, -then, could I walk into the Caucus trap, to -be silenced and tied by a majority vote which -was dead against the Alliance demands?</p> - -<p>During the summer of 1891, I had held a -series of great public meetings throughout -my District, and these Conventions of the -voters overwhelmingly and enthusiastically -instructed me to stand by the principles -rather than the party, if the time came -when it was necessary to choose the one -course or the other. Then came the organization -of the People’s Party, after it had -become plain that neither of the old parties -meant to give the people relief.</p> - -<p>I went with the People’s Party because my -election had been due to those principles, -and because the same overwhelming majority -of Democrats who had elected me had -gone into the People’s Party, and because I -had no hope whatever of getting the reforms -inside the Democratic Party.</p> - -<p>(2) Neither the Republican nor the Democratic -party has ever advocated “Government -Ownership of Public Utilities.”</p> - -<p>In Europe the principle is almost universally -recognized and <i>practiced</i>.</p> - -<p>Government ownership of Railroads is -the rule on the Continent. In England the -Imperial Government owns the Telegraphs -and Telephones. The Government Parcels -Post does the work of an Express Company. -Municipal railroads, telegraphs, telephones, -lighting plants, water systems, laundries, -bathing establishments, bakeries, etc., etc., -are in operation all over Great Britain and -all over Europe.</p> - -<p><i>We</i> are the laggards, we smart folks of the -United States. We are the only nation of -civilized cattle on earth which the Corporations -find easy prey.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Milledgeville, Georgia</span>, December 18, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: <span class="smcap">Tom Watson’s Magazine</span> contains -more sound principles and good common horse -sense, (just what the people need) than any other -paper published in the United States, and I wish -you would answer the following questions, to wit:</p> - -<p>(1) Does it not look like the North, East and -West are determined to adhere to their hellish, reconstruction -policy to the end of time?</p> - -<p>(2) What material difference does it make to -Georgia, or the Common people in her limits -whether she has six or eleven representatives in -Congress?</p> - -<p>(3) Is it not true that the only material benefit -in being represented at all in these times, accrues -to the fellow who draws the five or six thousand -salary annually?</p> - -<p>(4) Is it not true that the Northern, Eastern and -Western Democrats vote as a unit with the Republicans -whenever any question affects the South -is the issue?</p> - -<p>(5) Why is it that the Southern Democrats do -not stand as a unit and vote for whatever is best -for the whole country, regardless of party, and -thereby hold the balance of power in the Government?</p> - -<p>(6) How can the North, East and West be convinced -and made to understand that the negro -lives in the South, is part of the South, and that -the white people of the South are going to say and -dictate what the negro’s political and social status -shall be while he remains in the South?</p> - -<p>(7) Are there not thousands of white people in -every State of the Union who are as incompetent -to cast a vote intelligently as the negro is, and -why not reduce the representatives in Congress -from each State accordingly?</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>My opinion is that a majority of the people -of the North, East and West have become -satisfied to let the South exercise the same -right to settle her domestic affairs that they -practice in settling theirs.</p> - -<p>Only a minority—some members of which -try to make up in noise what it lacks in -numbers—cling to the old prejudices, passions, -and policy of interference. Mr. Ernest -Crosby—a hot partisan for negro rights—has -recently published a “Life of Garrison,” -and very boldly admits that while Slavery -was wrong the war which was waged upon -the South was also wrong.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span></p> - -<p>Ten years ago such a sentiment would -have drawn volleys of protest from the -North, the East and the West.</p> - -<p>There are no protests now; and I shouldn’t -wonder if a majority of the intelligent people -of those sections would admit that -while Slavery was a moral wrong, that it had -been practiced by both sections, given a -solemn Constitutional sanction as a condition -precedent to the Union, that the South had -a right to withdraw from a voluntary compact -whose terms had not been kept, and -that the war which was made upon her to -force her back into the Union was a colossal -mistake and wrong.</p> - -<p>(2) None whatever.</p> - -<p>(3) It is.</p> - -<p>(4) If it is a question where sectional -interest or feeling is aroused—yes.</p> - -<p>(5) Because of the tyranny of party -name and party organization. Southern -Democrats dare not vote independently.</p> - -<p>(6) I think they begin to understand it. -The more they see of the negro <i>in Mass</i>, the -better they will realize our problem. As -long as they seem to think that all the -Southern negroes are as nice and wise as -Booker Washington, they will, of course, -find it difficult to get our point of -view of the race question. But they -will gradually come to see that there is only -one Booker Washington and that <i>he</i> isn’t -doing anything more than running a large -school which any ordinary white College -President could run on one half the money -which Doctor Washington rakes in—why -opinion will change. The doings of the -negroes in San Domingo—where there are -no mean Southern whites to beat, cheat, -or lynch them—will also have influence -in opening the eyes of the world as to what -the negro, <i>in Mass</i>, actually is.</p> - -<p>The idea that the negro is merely a white -gentleman whom the Almighty inadvertently -painted black will disappear, in time.</p> - -<p>(7) The “suppressed vote” in some of the -states of the Union appears to be quite large -and the number of illiterate, criminal and -incompetent voters is likewise great. A -square deal would demand that whatever -rule is applied to the South should be applied -to the others.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Idalia, Colo.</span>, December 29, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Will you kindly print in your next -issue of your Magazine the names of Presidential -candidates of the Democratic and People’s -party of 1896 and 1900.</p> - -<p class="center">Most respectfully,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>1896, Democratic Candidates, Bryan and -Sewall. People’s Party Candidates: Bryan -and Watson.</p> - -<p>1900, Democratic Candidates: Bryan and -Stevenson. People’s Party Candidates: -Barker and Donnelly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Gilmore City, Mo.</span>, December 2, 1905.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I am a reader of your Magazine and -am highly entertained by its editorials especially, -also by its Educational Department. Am a member -of the Old Guard and I take the liberty to ask -you a few questions in the line of Populism.</p> - -<p>(1.) Does England call her navy to a certain -point from thousands of miles distant to fire a -salute on George Washington’s Birthday, or that -of any of our noted Presidents, as we did eighteen -vessels a month ago for King Edward? How -ridiculous for a republic!</p> - -<p>(2.) Why has not the Census of 1900 been given -to the public, as were former ones, within two -years after being taken? It was the disclosures -of the 1890 Census that tripled the Populist vote -in ’92.</p> - -<p>(3.) Has the $900,000,000 of farm mortgage -indebtedness been increased or diminished in the -ten years following 1890?</p> - -<p>(4.) Are the free holdings of the people increasing -on a ratio with the increase of population -in these U. S.?</p> - -<p class="center">Yours very truly,</p> - -<p class="right">⸺ ⸺.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) No.</p> - -<p>(2) You can get the Census Reports of -1900, by spurring up your Congressman.</p> - -<p>(3) The “encumbered” homes show an -increase, as do the “hired” homes.</p> - -<p>(4) No. Concentration of wealth in the -hands of a few goes on at a more frightful -rate than ever. <i>Five thousand men</i> now own -one-sixth of the entire wealth of the Union. -One man, J. D. Rockefeller, could buy the -State of Georgia, give it away, and then have -enough to buy it back.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Cooledge, Texas.</span></p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Hon. Thomas E. Watson.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I received your August number -of Magazine. I don’t know exactly what it is -you propose. It is perhaps the dull apprehension -of an old hayseed from down at the fork of -the Creek.</p> - -<p>(1.) Is the money you propose for the Government -to issue to be redeemable Treasury Notes, -or is it to be absolute Fiat money?</p> - -<p>(2.) Do you propose the free and unlimited -coinage of gold and silver at 16 to 1? If not at -that ratio, what ratio do you propose?</p> - -<p>(3.) Is it not a fact that from 1792 to 1834 we -were practically on the silver standard and that -after 1834 we were practically on the gold standard, -and that this change was the effect of the -change of ratio, made by the act of 1834? Why -was it that in 1853 the Government coined fractional -silver of lighter weight in proportion to -value than the standard dollar?</p> - -<p>(4.) You claim for the Government the power -to create money. If that be so, why clamor -for gold and silver only? Let us suppose that -the United States Treasury is now full of such -money as you propose, Gold, Silver or Fiat. I -want some of it. How am I to get it?</p> - -<p>I agree with you heartily that the making of -our Federal Government is all out of joint, and -I think that it is the unwarranted meddling -with affairs over which it has no rightful control. -The remedy, as I think, is <i>not</i> in enlarging and -extending its powers, for every step taken in -that direction makes worse conditions possible. -Let us say to her in plain language: “Thus far<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> -shalt thou go, and no farther. Get back to the -track marked out for you and stay there.”</p> - -<p>What is here written is in all honesty and -in a controversial spirit and should you see fit -to refer to them, I will be glad to have the number.</p> - -<p>I am not a subscriber now. May be soon.</p> - -<p>Best wishes.</p> - -</div> - -<p class="center">ANSWER</p> - -<p>(1) Money that is “redeemable” in other -money is not my idea of money. A dollar is -not redeemed by swapping another dollar for -it. The only redemption of the dollar which -amounts to anything beneficial is when a -debt, public or private, is redeemed by paying -it off in legal tender. I redeem my promissory -note by paying the amount of money -it calls for: I redeem all my other dues and -debts in the same way. Nothing is redeemed -when a gold dollar is given for a silver dollar, -or a metallic dollar exchanged for a paper -dollar. That method of fooling the people -will go out of fashion as the people become -educated. All money is absolute fiat money. -That is, the law makes the money. God -made no money. Nature made no money. -Evolution made no money. The law takes -raw material and makes money out of it, just -as the lumberman takes a log and makes -plank or shingles out of it.</p> - -<p>The Government fiat makes gold money, -makes silver money, makes nickel money, -makes copper money. It would with equal -ease and certainty make iron or paper <i>money</i>.</p> - -<p>Whenever <i>the law</i> says that a paper dollar -shall go just as far, as <i>a legal tender</i>, as the -gold dollar goes, the paper will suit me and -you just as well as the gold.</p> - -<p>(2) Yes.</p> - -<p>(3) No. See page 275, January issue of -this Magazine.</p> - -<p>(4) I do not clamor for gold and silver -only. We demand the money of the Constitution -which has been taken away from us -by venal Congressmen who were bribed by -Wall Street and the European financiers.</p> - -<p>How could you get some of the fiat money?</p> - -<p>This is but another form of the old question -of getting the paper money into circulation.</p> - -<p>There are several ways.</p> - -<p>(1) The Government could pay off the -National debt.</p> - -<p>(2) The Government could build new -railroads, or buy those already built.</p> - -<p>(3) The Government could pay current -expenses with it.</p> - -<p>(4) Could build the Panama Canal with it.</p> - -<p>(5) Could establish a Department which -would lend it to the people, direct, at a low -interest, as is done in Europe.</p> - -<p>In Norway and Sweden the Government -lends money to the farmers on their land, on -long time, at low interest. These banks have -been most beneficial and successful.</p> - -<p>In France and in Russia the Government -makes loans upon produce.</p> - -<p>In Germany the Government bank lends -money on land security, directly to the land-owner.</p> - -<p>In Greece, the farmers can get money from -the Government banks.</p> - -<p>In Great Britain, the Government lends -money to the citizen to buy land.</p> - -<p>The only reason in the world why our people -cannot secure similar advantages, is that -we are cruelly oppressed by corporation tyranny -and greed.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="In_Passing"><i>In Passing</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY LURANA W. SHELDON</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A nod, a smile, perchance a word,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Where road meets road on life’s broad way;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The pilgrim’s heart with joy is stirred;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">More brightly glows the weary way.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A word, a glance, a subtle thrill</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Of sympathy for brother woe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And from the fount of human ill</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The sweetest drops of pleasure flow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though nevermore our paths may meet,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Nor heart greet heart with welcoming kiss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An instant makes the sad world sweet;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">One passing fills the soul with bliss.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="HOME"> -<img src="images/heading12.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2><i>HOME</i><br /> -<span class="smaller"><i><span class="smaller">BY</span> Mrs. Louise H. Miller.</i></span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>Last month I spoke of how easy it is to let -a light day tire you as much as a heavy one. -If you can do three-thirds in one busy day -why does it take all another day to do two-thirds -and tire you about as much in one case -as in the other? Why didn’t you have a -third of it for your own amusement or improvement? -What became of that third? -It is all just another proof that it pays to do a -thing with all your heart, with all your mind, -and with all your body. If you had worked -as earnestly the second day as you did the -first, you would have done the day’s work, -had a third of it to yourself, and been no -more tired than you were the first. It -wasn’t because you were lazy—you just -“had the time” and put it all on the daily -work instead of taking some of it for yourself.</p> - -<p>I can hear a small chorus of objections to -the above. Wait a minute. No one knows -better than I that the housework for one day -is often different in kind and amount from -that of the day before; that one’s strength is -often not the same two days in succession; -that there are extras and specials and interruptions; -that the baby may sleep most of -one day and cry most of the next; that many -things depend on the mother; that some women -really have all they can do day in and -day out and year after year and work at high -speed all the time until they die of it; that -often what fits one case does not fit another. -I know all that. <i>But the principle is -true!</i> And nine times out of ten that principle -applied to your own case would help -you physically, mentally and morally. And -those about you.</p> - -<p>“I know all that,” says some one. -“There’s nothing new in that.”</p> - -<p>I venture that this person, however well -she knows it, hasn’t been <i>applying it</i>. No -there’s nothing new in it. That’s just where -the danger lies—it is so old a principle that -we forget all about it.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” say a dozen more, “you are right. -That person ought to apply it and profit by -it. If we had work like hers we could accomplish -a lot by it. But we haven’t, more’s -the pity, and <i>our</i> work is such that we can’t -do that way with it.”</p> - -<p>There lies the real trouble. As in everything -else, we can see how <i>others</i> can make an -improvement, but when it comes to our own -case, why, that is quite different, because -this and because that and because the other. -The funny part of it is that these other people, -while they are blind about themselves -as we are about ourselves, can see very easily -how we could improve matters. Of course -other people generally think they could improve -our methods much more than they -really could, but it is equally true that we -think they could improve it less than they -really could. Two heads are better than -one, and it does help to see ourselves as others -see us.</p> - -<p>I don’t believe many busy women can -save as much as a third from their lighter -days, but I do firmly believe that nearly -every one of you can save some part of it. -Maybe it is only half an hour, but much can -be done in even that little space several -times a week. What we need in our daily -work is more generalship. Your body is like -an army blundering around without a leader -unless you guide it with your head. That is -what your head is for—to save your body -and help it accomplish more. The trouble -is that we all get into a rut too easily and -go on doing our work in the same old way for -years. We quit thinking, quit using generalship.</p> - -<p>What each of us needs to do many times a -year is to sit down and carefully consider -her own work. Does too much time go to -one thing and too little to another? Can we -omit any of it without harm to anybody? -Is there some way of doing this duty more -quickly without slighting it? Would such a -simple thing as changing the height of the -sink, the kitchen table, the wash-bench, save -time, strength and aching back? Will a -plain shelf or two along the kitchen wall -make work easier? Would an hour spent on -a carefully planned rearrangement of the -kitchen utensils and supplies save many -hours during the coming months? There is -no end to the useless things one can buy for -a kitchen, yet there are many appliances and -arrangements that, some in one household, -some in another, will pay for themselves -many times over in a year. Read advertisements, -papers, magazines—you can glance -through the advertisement pages in a very -few minutes—perhaps go to demonstrations -by agents of practical devices for lightening<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> -housework. Notice what your friends are -using. Look much and buy little. But -keep yourself awake to new ideas, and now -and then when you are sure of your ground -adopt some of them. Where there is no outlay -of money necessary try frequent experiments, -but not many at a time. If any of -your family or friends are of an inventive -turn of mind, call them in for consultation. -The most valuable inventions are the simplest -ones.</p> - -<p>You cannot believe all you read or hear -about, but you can generally believe your -own eyes if you use them carefully. Go to -those of your friends who seem to manage -their work well. If they have any utensils -or appliances that actual experience has -proved good investments, note them carefully. -Maybe you or some of your family -can make something that answers the same -purpose. If not, sleep on the question and -if your judgment still says that it will pay in -the end to get it, try hard to raise the money. -Even on a basis of dollars and cents it may -pay in the long run. And it is generally a -question of more than money—a question -of body, mind and soul.</p> - -<p>Note carefully how other good housekeepers -manage their work. There is a practical -study for you! You have probably watched -them many times before this, but now watch -them with seeing eyes.</p> - -<p>Turn your attention to the tasks that burden -you heavily. Here reforms are needed -most. You will hardly be ready to assert -that you are doing these tasks in the very -best way in the world. Find out why not, -and then try to improve on the old method.</p> - -<p>After you have thought over your work in -general sit down some evening and plan out -the duties of the next day as far as you know -them. Forget how you used to manage. -Maybe you will be able to make only one or -two small changes the first time. That is a -good beginning. Try again later. Keep -your wits about you and your thinking-cap -on all the time. It will pay.</p> - -<p>As the world grows older it accomplishes -more in a given time than it used to do. -They can make a hundred things now in the -time it took to make one fifty years ago. -Are you a part of the world and its progress -or are you something left behind in the onward -march? Not your fault? Well, you -can be pretty sure that it is <i>partly</i> your fault -and that you can remedy some of it if you -only will.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="center"><i>FREE SUBSCRIPTION</i></p> - -<p><i>Besides the prize for the best story of “heroism -at home,” every month another free year’s -subscription will be given for the best item or -paragraph of any kind for the Department. -The two subscriptions will not be given to the -same person. The subscription may begin -with any number you please.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Someone says that the world’s progress -doesn’t concern her off in her little corner—that -she has her work to do and that’s all -there is to it. Well, perhaps it doesn’t in -one way of speaking, but her life is both less -happy and less useful than if she let the -world’s progress concern her a little. She -says it wouldn’t help her any in making biscuit -or sweeping the floor if she did know -some of the stories of history, how the revolution -in Russia is getting on, about the great -writers and painters, about anything outside -her work. Well, it wouldn’t—in a way. -The biscuits wouldn’t be any better nor the -floor any cleaner. But any one that isn’t -half-witted can learn to sweep a floor or even -to bake biscuits. You are, or ought to be, -more than a cook and a housemaid. You -are a <i>home-maker</i>, and though good biscuits -and clean floors are very necessary things in -any house, they are <i>not</i> enough to make a -<i>home</i> out of it. In a true <i>home</i> there must be -mental and moral, as well as physical, comfort. -You are still something more. You -are a woman and a free human being. You -have your duties to other people, as everyone -has, but, like everyone, you have a duty -to <i>yourself</i>. You were given a brain and a -soul, as well as a body. You can easily see -the need of feeding your body: the need of -feeding your brain and soul are equally necessary. -Why were they given to you? To -starve?</p> - -<p>No pen, however powerful, no voice, however -eloquent, can present in the full force of -its true colors the value of intellectual and -moral development to the housewife, the -woman, the home-maker. Religion is not a -subject for our Department. The matter of -creed is for each one to settle for herself. -But in those questions of ethics and social -morals that arise in any household and generally -have, after all, their foundation in religion, -and in all those questions of intellectual -living and growth, this Department of -ours does have its field and its purpose.</p> - -<p>Why? Because, as I said, a <i>home</i>, a <i>real</i> -home, has its moral and intellectual sides as -well as its material side. Because even its -material side, the everyday round of duties, -cannot be made what it should be unless -brain and soul are made fit to direct the -body. Because as wives, mothers, daughters, -sisters we are responsible for the members -of our family, and for ourselves as human -souls. It is not enough to bring a child into -the world and then feed it, wash it, dress it, -give it a place to sleep, and one day say to it: -“We have raised you. Go forth and make -your living.” Of course not. We all know -that, though goodness knows there are plenty -of people who don’t do even that much. It -is not enough to furnish a clean, warm house<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span> -and three meals a day to the bodies of your -husband, parents, brothers or sisters. They -could get that much at a boarding-house or -hotel. They, and you, must have moral and -mental food, baths, clothes and beds as well -as physical ones—a <i>home</i>—not merely a -house. We cannot give what we don’t have. -To furnish these things to them we must -first get them ourselves.</p> - -<p>Then we should give heed to moral and -intellectual living and growth because it is -our <i>duty</i>. There is another reason—because -it is for our own happiness and pleasure.</p> - -<p>It was once my privilege to go over a thousand -or two letters from people who, after becoming -members of a great and good system -of education by correspondence, had written -in the fullness of their hearts to tell how it -had made their lives brighter and happier -and to thank the school, not as much for the -knowledge they had acquired from their reading -and study at home, but for the great -pleasure and joy the <i>having</i> of this knowledge -had brought them—for the <i>new intellectual, -social and moral life</i> that had come -to them with it. The letters came from all -over the English-speaking world, but I -was most struck by the fact that a large -part of them came from housewives. The -following is a fair sample of hundreds from -farmers’ wives, laborers’ wives, clerks’ wives, -business-mens’ wives:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Life has been a new thing to me since I took -up your course. My housework used to be an -awful drudgery—a never-ending grind. Now it -is easy and I do it better, for my mind has <i>something -outside to think about</i> and be interested in.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The wording wasn’t alike in any two, but, -in every one of the hundreds written, there -was the same idea—“something outside to -think about and be interested in.” This -was the note sounded in nearly every one of -all the letters from men and women both. -Some were women living many miles from -the nearest neighbor, some were bed-ridden -invalids, some factory girls, some servants, a -few fashionable “society women,” some of -the men, lonely sheep-herders on the Western -plains, some naval officers, some this, -some that, but one and all gave thanks from -grateful hearts for a lift out of the rut of -daily drudgery, for a broader horizon, for -greater usefulness. I cried over some of -those letters. They came straight from the -heart if ever anything did.</p> - -<p>That was the voice of <i>experience</i>, not the -voice of theory. What they could do, we -can do. We are not going to have any study -courses or any lessons to learn. There will -be nothing any of us <i>has</i> to do. But I believe -each of us is going to think things over, -talk it over and then make herself some -spare moments, if she hasn’t some already, -and set to work to make life a better thing -for herself and those dear to her by getting -“something outside to think about.”</p> - -<p>How am I going to bring this about? Oh, -<i>I</i> am not going to do it—<i>we</i> are! I have no -idea of going into any house and saying, “Do -that this way, and do this that way.” All -of us are going to help by making suggestions, -by giving experiences, by offering interesting -bits of information. It is for you -to decide which of these <i>you</i> can use. The -thing to be desired above all others is that -each of us may learn to <i>think for herself</i>. -Many think for themselves very keenly already—perhaps -more keenly than I do—and -these are the very ones that can help the -rest of us most; but we can all think better, -if we all think together.</p> - -<p>By the next number, April, which will -come out March 25, there ought to be a fair -number of questions and suggestions from -our readers. Don’t forget that the best suggestion -or bit of information sent in each -month entitles the sender to a year’s free -subscription, to any name and address desired. -And remember that another free -year’s subscription goes every month to the -person, man or woman, who sends us the -best true story of heroic living in common -everyday life. The notices elsewhere in our -Department give the particulars.</p> - -<p>How are we going to get “something -outside to think about?” Well, there are -plenty of things outside and there are plenty -of ways of bringing them into our lives. -Each of us will find some things and some -ways—all by herself if she will try and then -she can tell the rest of us about them—but in -our Department each month we can take -one set of things, see whether there -isn’t something of value there for us, ask -questions, make suggestions, try experiments, -offer bits of information, talk about -it with our families, think about it while we -are working and while we are resting or -amusing ourselves, bring new things into -our lives. I am not going to set up as a -teacher and there isn’t going to be any -course of study. There is only one thing I -claim to know that some of you don’t know—that -we, any of us, can make our lives -brighter and more valuable by feeding our -minds as well as our bodies. I know this -by experience—not only by my own experience -and that of my two daughters but also -by the experiences of scores and hundreds -of other women I have known and, perhaps, -helped a little. I never talked to anyone -in print before, but for many, many years, -ever since one golden day when I discovered -that I was actually making my own life happier -and fuller and less ugly by an effort to -feed my starving mind in my few spare -moments, I have never missed a chance to -do what I could to show other women how<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> -they could get the same blessing for themselves.</p> - -<p>In this number we will talk and think -about reading and what it can do for us if we -go about it right. Next month we will consider -woman’s interest in politics. After -that there are many more subjects—flowers, -trees, gardens, stock, other animals, -history and women in history, business and -women in business, painting and women -artists, women’s clubs and study circles, -customs of other nations, food, correspondence -courses, music and women musicians, -and hundreds of other subjects. I want you -to help me select the subjects as we go along.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h3><i>IS READING WORTH WHILE?</i></h3> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“In science, read, by preference, the newest works; -in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always -modern. New books revive and redecorate new ideas; -old books suggest and invigorate new ideas.”—<i>Bulwer.</i></p> - -</div> - -<p>What is reading worth to a busy housewife? -“Well,” says one, “it may be worth -a good deal, but I haven’t time to find out.” -If this woman knew there was a twenty-dollar -gold-piece to be picked up at the end -of a few minutes walk, would she have time -to stop her housework long enough to go and -get it?</p> - -<p>What can we get by reading? Maybe -only rest, amusement and a “change.” -Maybe this and also some knowledge. Maybe -some valuable experience. Are any of -these worth taking time from housework -for?</p> - -<p>There is surely no need of saying that -rest, amusement and change are necessary -in the long run for any kind of work. You -save time by taking a vacation. Somebody -has said that anyone can do twelve months -work in eleven, but that no one can do -eleven months’ work in twelve, meaning -that we can accomplish more in a year by -devoting one month of it to a sensible vacation.</p> - -<p>There can be no doubt that we can gain -much knowledge from books. It is one of -the chief sources from which the world gets -all that it knows. But is any of this knowledge -worth while for a housewife? If anyone -doubts it, stop and think. How about -the Bible, the newspapers, the cook-book? -Is this the only reading from which we can -profit? In your own experience surely you -can recall at least a few other books that told -you something you were glad to know.</p> - -<p>How do you get <i>experience</i> from reading? -Isn’t it safer to learn human beings and -their ways by studying them direct? Yes, -and no. It depends on the book. Perhaps -the author can tell you in a few hours more -real truth about men and women than you -can learn alone in years.</p> - -<p>We have heard so many queer things -about “literature” that we are likely to think -of it as fancy things written by a lot of -delicate, long-haired men and masculine -women and having very little to do with our -own everyday lives. Well, there are many -over-cultured and over-educated people who -would define literature that way. But they -are mightily wrong! The <i>best</i> literature is -generally simple, not “fancy.”</p> - -<p>Literature is the spoken or written record -by which each generation of mankind is -enabled to preserve the knowledge and experience -of the generations before it and to -begin where the last one left off instead of -having to begin all over again.</p> - -<p>It doesn’t matter whether it is written -or only spoken. Indeed, before man invented -the alphabet or even learned to transmit -his ideas and feelings by crude, rough pictures -there wasn’t any literature except -what was spoken or recited. The “Iliad” -and “Odyssey” of Homer were sung or -recited, long before they were put down on -parchment. Our fairy-stories and legends -generally date back hundreds and hundreds -of years and were preserved only by each -generation telling them to the next. In -later days, especially during the Middle Ages, -many valuable poems and stories, and even -more of history, would have been lost to us -forever if wandering bards and minstrels -had not recited or sung them and taught -them to others. There is no way, except -literature, by which we can learn from the -past. Did you ever think that our generation -has, by itself, added only a very, very -tiny bit to the knowledge existing in the -world when our generation was born? All -our great inventions would be impossible -without this previous knowledge.</p> - -<p>Of course, literature in its stricter sense -is more limited than all the material covered -by the definition above. A dictionary, for -example, can hardly be called literature. -A bit of writing or talking to be literature -must show the imprint of the author’s personality -and it must have in it something -valuable enough to make it worth preserving. -But, in general, the definition as given -gets at the root of the matter, and that is all -we need be concerned with. It shows that -literature is not a fad or an amusement of -too highly cultivated people, but one of the -biggest and most valuable things in the -world. <i>We</i>, no matter who or where we are -or even whether we can read or write, are -dependent on literature in our everyday -lives.</p> - -<p>How can we tell good literature from bad? -Well, it is often pretty hard to tell about -the books and stories of today, but there is -a very easy way of telling about what was -written a hundred or a thousand years ago. -Nowadays, when most people can read and -write and the printing-press makes it possible -to produce great numbers of books and -papers, there are thousands of people writing -all the time and naturally a lot of them -write very poor stuff. We talk about the -“best selling books” and go wild over some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> -new novel. We did the same last month -and we’ll do the same next month.</p> - -<p>“What is the most popular novel this -month?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, ‘So-and-so’ by So-and-so. It’s -simply grand!”</p> - -<p>“What was the most popular novel last -month?”</p> - -<p>“Let’s see. Oh, yes—‘So-and-so,’ by -So-and-so. It’s a perfectly charming story.”</p> - -<p>“What was the most popular novel a -year ago?”</p> - -<p>“A <i>year</i> ago? Mercy, I don’t know! -There are so many novels now.”</p> - -<p>There it is. All the time people are raving -about the “latest” book. Like as not -in a year they can’t even remember its -name. Why is that? Because, hardly any -of these books are really <i>good</i> literature. -Many of them are interesting and amuse us -while we read them, but that’s all. In a -year, or less, we have forgotten them.</p> - -<p>Then what <i>is</i> good literature? We can -find out this way. Consider all the books -that were written a thousand, a hundred, -fifty or even twenty-five years ago. How -many of them are read now? Comparatively -very, very few. Now <i>why</i>? Because -they weren’t good enough. There is a sure -test for you—if a book lives on after its -author is dead and buried you can be pretty -sure that it is good literature. It had something -to say that did more than amuse people -for a month. The author had put into -it some little bit of <i>human nature</i>, of <i>human -life</i>, that is as true for people a hundred -years later as it was for those who first read -it. (Mind you, I am talking about novels, -stories and plays, about fiction and poetry, -not just about such things as histories which -are generally preserved anyway because of -the cold facts in them.) The authors of such -novels or poems have written into them some -of their own experience and observation of -<i>life</i>. The characters in them are real human -beings, and the feelings, thoughts, passions, -sentiments, actions of the characters, or -those expressed by the author without the -aid of his characters, are, in general, the -same feelings, thoughts, passions, sentiments -and actions that you and I and our -acquaintances have in us today. Therefore -we understand the people in those -books and sympathize with them, even -though they may have lived centuries ago, -in a foreign land, dressed in strange clothes, -bound by strange customs and outwardly -having very little in common with us. There -is only one thing that people are <i>always</i> interested -in—human nature. It is according -to whether a book gives us a true picture -of human nature that it lives or dies, -that it is good literature or bad.</p> - -<p>With new books now appearing by thousands -it is almost impossible to tell which -will live and which will die, which are really -good and which are not. Time is the only -sure test. The men talk about Dr. Conan -Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” stories now and -some of us women like these tales equally -well, but will they be alive in 1975 or -not? Emile Gaboriau died only twenty-three -years ago. His detective stories are -better ones than Dr. Conan Doyle’s, but -they are no longer read except by the few. -Wilkie Collins wrote novels that made you -hold your breath with interest and were -widely read. He has been dead only seventeen -years, yet already “The Moonstone,” -“The Woman in White” and his other -books are of the past. Both Gaboriau -and Collins have some real merit and will -probably always be read at least slightly, -but what of the thousands of other authors -who wrote books twenty-five years ago -and whose very names are forgotten?</p> - -<p>Among the books that have come down -to us from the past we can choose pretty -safely. If they have lived this long we can -be sure there is something worth while in -them. I know a few sensible women, some -of them with both time and money, who -make it a rule never to read any book until -it has been published a year. If at the end -of that period it is still interesting other -people, then they buy it, being pretty sure -that it must have at least some small -merit. They say it is surprising how very -few books do remain in the public attention -that long.</p> - -<p>Now I know just what will happen. -Some of you know all I have been saying -as well as I do, but some one is sure to say:</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, that’s all true enough, I suppose, -but when I find time to read, I don’t -want to wade through anything heavy.”</p> - -<p>Nobody asked you to. Books aren’t -“heavy” just because they are good. -Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “Marjorie Daw” -and “The Story of a Bad Boy,” Mark -Twain’s “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry -Finn” and “Innocents Abroad” are certainly -far, far from being heavy; so are -Charles Kingsley’s “Water Babies,” De Foe’s -“Robinson Crusoe;” so are Dr. Brown’s -“Rab, and His Friends,” Ouida’s “A Dog -of Flanders,” though both bring tears to the -eyes; so are the poems of Robert Burns and -Longfellow; so are Æsop’s “Fables,” the -stories of Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas -Nelson Page; so are hundreds of others. -Yet all these just named are good literature. -If by “heavy” you mean only things that -are dull or hard to understand, the list of -good books that are not “heavy” grows tremendously, -and there are still others that -may be hard to understand in places but are -nevertheless interesting enough to “amuse” -you all the way through. Shakespeare, -George Eliot, Hawthorne, Poe, Tennyson, -Stevenson, Dickens, Thackeray, Whittier, -Helen Hunt Jackson, Hugh Conway, Bret<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> -Harte, Augusta J. Evans, Louisa M. Alcott -and scores besides are more than “worth -while.” If there are now and then dull -or difficult pages in some of them yet they -are all the world away from being “heavy.”</p> - -<p>Reading for amusement only is much -better than not reading at all. We need -amusement. But there is one danger. If -what we read for amusement happens to be -poor literature it is <i>not true to life</i> and you -are learning things about yourself and others -that are not true and may lead you into -mistakes some day. You know what dime -novels—Wild West and detective stories—will -do to young people. It isn’t only because -they are exciting and deal with crime, -but because they give false ideas of life and -false ideals. There are thousands of books, -apparently harmless enough, that will hurt -grown people as much as dime novels hurt -the children. There are plenty of books -you can read “just for amusement” which -are also very good literature and very good -teachers of life. Why waste time on the -poor ones?</p> - -<p>When I say a book is good or bad I am -not referring to its morals but to its merit -as literature. A hopelessly poor piece of -literature may have excellent morals, and -a book that is good literature may be very -unsafe from a moral point of view. The -relation of literature to morals is too big -a question for me to discuss. Each of us -must steer her own course in regard to this -question. It is, however, helpful to remember -that if the purpose and main lesson of -a book are morally good, even though it -may deal a little with questionable subjects, -its reading may tend toward good rather -than evil.</p> - -<h3><i>SHOULD WOMEN BE INTERESTED IN POLITICS?</i></h3> - -<p>Next month in the April number we will -take up woman’s interest in politics. Is -there any reason for her being interested in -them? What effect do city, state and national -laws and law-makers have on her own -personal welfare or that of her family? If -she raises children what effect does that have -on future politics? What two great questions -now before the country bear directly -on the price she pays for food and clothing -and on the price her husband receives for -what he sells or for his labor? What about -the men the voting members of your family -help elect to the state legislature or the national -Congress or White House? (Perhaps -if you live in Colorado, you vote for President -yourself.) What about the wives and -children of these men? What about the -candidates who were not elected and their -families? If there is an election on, ought -you to know which of the candidates are rascals, -which represent wrong principles, which -will vote for measures that will make the -things you buy more expensive? Ought you -to use your influence against such men?</p> - -<p>Let us each see who can send in the best -reason for a woman’s being interested in -politics. The answers must be very short, -and they must reach our office before March -10, for the April number, as you know, appears -March 25, and by March 10, at the very -latest the printer should be working on whatever -is to go in it. This seems like working a -long ways ahead of time, but the Editor tells -me that most magazines by that time, will -be all done with the April number and working -on May or June! So you see you will have -to write very quickly to be in time.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/heading13.jpg" width="500" height="40" alt="" /> -<h3><i>THE INTEREST OF EVERYDAY THINGS.</i></h3> -</div> - -<p>We had a glimpse last month at some of -the interesting things connected with bread -and bread-making. The house is full of -things we have known so long that we scarcely -think of them except as parts of the daily -routine, but which, if we turn our attention -to them, prove veritable mines of information, -history, travel and even romance. -This month we’ll consider some of the things -concerned in bread-making.</p> - -<h4><i>Wheat</i></h4> - -<p>Wheat, for example, takes us all over the -earth and back to the days before there was -any history at all. Wheat, like our other -grains, belongs to the Grass Family and its -scientific name is <i>Triticum vulgare</i>. It is the -most valuable of all the cereal grasses and, -next to maize, or Indian corn, the most productive. -Rice is really its only rival as a -human food. It is generally supposed that -it originally came, like so many of our grains -and fruits, from the plains of Central Asia, -but it has been found that a certain wild -grass of Western Asia and the Mediterranean -regions, can be cultivated into what we call -wheat. It is the bread-food of most European -nations (who, by the way, call it corn) -and is supplanting maize in America. In -our country alone 40 or 50 million acres are -devoted to it every year, and the yield is a -million or so over half a billion bushels. -Generally, one-fifth to two-fifths of this is -sent to other countries. Russia, Canada and -other countries produce large quantities of it.</p> - -<p>Wheat was widely grown in the pre-historic -world. As far back as there is any -record of languages there was a word for -wheat. We know that the Chinese (who -knew about gunpowder, printing, glass,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> -spectacles and many other things centuries -before we “invented” them) cultivated -wheat as far back as 2,700 B. C., and regarded -it as a direct gift from heaven. The -Egyptians attributed wheat to their heathen -goddess Isis. The Greeks believed that -Ceres, their goddess of agriculture, gave it to -her favorite, Triptolemus, and lent him her -miraculous chariot to drive over the earth -and distribute the new grain to the sons of -men. There is a pyramid in Egypt, which -scientists estimate was built 3,359 years -before Christ was born, more than 5,000 years -ago, and in one of the bricks of this pyramid -they found imbedded a little grain of wheat. -How much that single grain told the world! -The lake-dwellers of Switzerland and Italy -also left traces showing they knew the use -of wheat, as did the inhabitants of what is -now Hungary, in the Stone Age.</p> - -<p>There are more cultivated varieties of -wheat than of any other grain, the number -running up into the hundreds. New varieties -are generally secured by taking the -pollen from tiny flowers of one variety and -putting it on the pistil of another, so that the -resulting seeds, while they take after both -parents, produce a new variety unlike either -of them. This process of cross-breeding has -been made to produce marvelous results not -only in other grains, but in fruits, nuts, -flowers and trees, as any of you who are -familiar with the work of Mr. Luther Burbank, -the “California Wizard,” know.</p> - -<h4><i>Flour</i></h4> - -<p>Flour, being generally a product of wheat, -has had much the same history, but the process -of milling has a little story of its own. -The earliest mills consisted merely of two -stones, one round, the other hollowed out. -The grain was placed in the hollow and then -crunched into small bits by the round stone. -Later on, man thought of putting a handle -on the round stone, making something like a -mortar and pestle. Another and later way -of improving this crude mill, was to groove -the round stone and make it fit into a fairly -deep hole in the under stone, with a place -for the ground meal to come out. This is -called a quern. You have heard of someone’s -being “caught between the upper and -nether mill-stones.” In Deuteronomy -(XXIV, 6,) we find this: “No man shall -take the upper or nether mill-stone to pledge, -for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.” In -Numbers (XI, 8), “ground it in mills or beat -it in a mortar” shows that the children of -Israel, knew both kinds of mill, and other -passages show that they had at least two -kinds of meal or flour.</p> - -<p>The Romans used only the mortar and -pestle, and until 173 B. C. the poor woman -did all the work. Then baking became a -regular occupation, and the bakers were -called <i>pistores</i>, which means “pounders.” -When the Romans conquered Spain, Italy, -France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and -Britain they took their customs with them. -The hand-mill was followed by one with -animal power, and later by one with water-power. -As late as 1800 A. D. there were to -be found in remote parts of Scotland and -Ireland crude mills made of two large stones -ground against each other by running or -falling water.</p> - -<p>The wheat grain is really not a seed, but a -fruit, for it is composed not only of the true -seed, but of the seed and its husk or covering. -The two considered together, make what -botanists call a “fruit.” In modern milling -this husk is generally separated from the -seed and made into bran, while the seed becomes -flour. When the two are mixed we -have “whole wheat” flour.</p> - -<p>Good flour, should be a pure, uniform -white powder, only faintly tinged with -yellow, free from grits and lumps, should -show some adhesiveness when pressed, -should have no smell of damp and moldiness -or any acidity of taste.</p> - -<p>Most flour now, is “new process” flour, -made by a gradual crushing between sets of -rollers revolved by water-power, steam or -electricity. The “new process” originated -in Hungary and France and began to be -generally adopted about 1880.</p> - -<h4><i>Yeast</i></h4> - -<p>Yeast is a vegetable. Strange as it may -seem, yeast is a tiny fungus growth, though -it takes a microscope to see it. In brewing -(particularly with hops), in wine-making and -in any other process of fermentation where -the liquid contains some sugar and some albuminous -matter, the clear liquid becomes -“muddy.” Then the minute things that -made it muddy collect into a foaming, bitter -mass which is yeast. This yeast has the -power of setting up fresh fermentation when -put with other things. It is fermentation -that makes bread-dough “raise.” Oh, yes, -there is alcohol in bread-dough, but it doesn’t -stay there. As I told you last month, 12,000,000 -gallons of alcohol are made and lost -in bread-making every year in Germany -alone! Some day scientists will learn how to -save it.</p> - -<h4><i>Hops</i></h4> - -<p>We generally think of hops when yeast is -mentioned. I wish any of you who can tell -us the story of hops would send it in to our -Department.</p> - -<h4><i>Salt</i></h4> - -<p>How could we cook, or eat, or live without -salt? It is an absolute necessity for people -and animals. Also, it is very valuable as a -fertilizer, and was used as such centuries and -centuries ago by the Hindoos and Chinese. -Further than this, soda is derived from salt, -and as soda is necessary in making both -glass and soap, these two useful things could -not be made if it were not for salt. Most of -our modern textile fabrics are more or less -dependent on chlorine, which is made from -salt. We all know how valuable salt is as a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> -preservative for butter, meats and other -animal food, and now they are learning a way -to preserve timber with it. We know, too, -its use in freezing ice cream, but may not realize -how much it is used for refrigerating -other things. In short, even if we could live -at all without it, life would be pretty miserable.</p> - -<p>The chemists call salt <i>chloride of sodium</i> -and use this symbol for it—Na Cl, which -shows what it is composed of, but doesn’t -mean anything to me.</p> - -<p>We get salt in three ways—from rock-salt -mines, from natural brine springs and from -evaporating sea water. The world’s biggest -rock-salt mines are in Gallicia, upper Austria, -Bavaria, Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia; -at Vic and Dienze, France; at Bix, Switzerland; -at Cadrona, Spain, and at Cheshire, England. -That at Wieliczka in Gallicia is a mile -long, three-fourths of a mile wide and over a -thousand feet deep. Some of its chambers -are 150 feet high—as high as a sky-scraper—and -one of them is fitted up as a chapel to St. -Anthony, the altar, statues and everything -being solid salt. In this mine is a lake 650 -feet long and 40 feet deep. There are horses -there that have never seen the light of day, -and men, women and children who live in salt -houses and never see the outside world above -their heads. It is a small village buried -down under the ground. When the emperor -and his family visit the mine, it is brilliantly -illuminated and a grand festival is held in a -great hall.</p> - -<p>In Africa are large beds of salt land, beds -of rock-salt and a lake covered at times with -a shining white crust of pure salt two feet -thick. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and -some Mediterranean islands are the chief -producers of sea-salt. In China there are -salt wells of great depth and number.</p> - -<p>In Spain, France and other countries salt is -a government monopoly, and no one else can -sell it. Travelers tell me they have seen salt -lakes in Spain where the people living along -the shores were prevented by the <i>guardia -civile</i>, or national police, from picking up the -salt deposited in large quantities at the water’s -edge. They had to buy it of the government. -The poor use salt sparingly over -there even now, and you may remember that -the heavy tax on salt was one cause of the -awful French Revolution.</p> - -<p>In our country nearly every state has salt -deposits of some kind. Virginia furnishes -lots of rock-salt. The most important salt -springs are in Onondaga County, New York, -and furnish nearly half of what the country -uses. The state owns them and gets a royalty -of one cent a bushel. Michigan produces -about twenty million bushels a year.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/heading14.jpg" width="500" height="40" alt="" /> -<h3><i>VARIOUS HINTS.</i></h3> -</div> - -<h4><i>Removing Grease Spots</i></h4> - -<p>To remove a grease-spot from cloth, lay a -piece of clean blotting paper over the spot -and then pass a hot iron back and forth over -blotter. As the grease is melted and soaked -into the blotter, cover the stain with a fresh -part of the blotter and continue the operation -until the stain has disappeared.</p> - -<h4><i>Dish-Mop</i></h4> - -<p>The little dish-washing mop is a comparatively -recent invention, but its use is increasing -as its advantages are learned by experience. -It is merely a handle about ten inches -long with a miniature mop, smaller than -your clenched fist, at the end. With very -little trouble a home-made one can be arranged, -which is practically as good as the -store ones, though the latter can be bought -for ten or fifteen cents. The little mop -saves the hand from going into the water so -much, answers every purpose of the old dish-rag, -and can, like the cloth, be cleaned by -vigorous boiling.</p> - -<h4><i>Spice Cabinets</i></h4> - -<p>The little tin or wooden cabinets, now on -sale in large quantities at the bigger stores, -with from four to twelve small drawers for -spices, are great space-savers and time-savers. -The only objection is that, despite the label -on each drawer, the busy cook is sometimes -likely to get hold of the wrong one.</p> - -<h4><i>Soup-Stock</i></h4> - -<p>If soup-stock is put to cool in an earthware -vessel, instead of a metal one, much better -results are obtained. It is claimed that this -is one of the secrets of the excellent soups -the French are famous for.</p> - -<h4><i>A Fuel Saver</i></h4> - -<p>If one uses a gas stove, a single burner can -be made to do several times its ordinary -work by means of a thin sheet of iron, about -a foot square, placed directly over it. The -flame spreads out against this sheet and renders -its whole area available for cooking, so -that two, three or even four small vessels can -get from this one burner enough heat to boil -water, or at least to keep the contents warm -against the time for serving. No more gas -is used than when a single vessel is allotted -to each burner. It is possible to buy a sheet -of iron, an eighth or a quarter of an inch -thick, made expressly for this purpose, the -edges being turned down to raise it about -half an inch from the surface of the stove.</p> - -<h4><i>Table Mats</i></h4> - -<p>Asbestos, bought in large pieces, cut into -round, oval or square mats, and either<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> -covered daintily or placed under regular -table-mats, makes not only an economical -protection for a polished table against hot -dishes, but a very sure one.</p> - -<h4><i>Coal Oil and Gasoline</i></h4> - -<p>If you are in the habit of starting a fire by -pouring coal-oil on the kindling, break yourself -of it. You may do it safely fifteen hundred -times and be blown up the next. Coal-oil -will not even burn if you drop a match in -a barrel of it, but if you spread it out in any -way (as on a lamp-wick) it will not only -burn but the gas thus formed will often explode -with terrific force. Never fill a coal-oil -lamp while it is burning.</p> - -<p>Gasoline is still more dangerous. If the -fire insurance inspector finds out that you -keep even a small bottle of it in the house, -he will have your policy cancelled immediately, -unless you have paid extra for a special -clause permitting you to keep a small -amount on the premises. I knew a physician -who was killed and blown clear across -the street by the explosion of gasoline in a -saucer, which was being used for cleaning -spots on the carpet of a house he was visiting. -The vapor caught fire from an open grate -two rooms away from where the saucer had -been left. Gasoline is an excellent cleaner, -but if you use it, do so out of doors. Let no -one come near with a lighted match or cigar, -and throw away any of the liquid that may -be left. As an explosive, gasoline is much -more powerful than gunpowder.</p> - -<h4><i>A Cheap Shower Bath</i></h4> - -<p>Five feet of rubber tubing and a ten-cent -spray will make as good a shower-bath -apparatus for the bath-tub as any one -could ask. The stem of the spray will -twist into one end of the tubing and if the -bath-tub faucet has the right kind of attachment -it will twist into the other end, -making a long flexible shower-spray that -will prove an unending comfort. If the -faucet hasn’t the right kind of nozzle to fit -a hose, one can be purchased from the -plumber or hardware store for very little. -Besides the pleasure and comfort a spray -gives, there is the added satisfaction of -thoroughly cleaning the body with perfectly -clean water before drying with the towel.</p> - -<h4><i>A Warmer Bed</i></h4> - -<p>If you continue to feel cold in bed even after -piling on a mountain of covers, turn your attention -underneath. A feather-bed lets no -cold reach you from below, and a box-mattress -is often nearly as good a protection, -but an ordinary mattress, even a good -one, is very likely to let the cold through. -If you don’t use a comforter under the -sheet, for the sake of the mattress and for -greater softness to the body, put one there -for warmth. If this is not enough, spread -several layers of newspaper or wrapping -paper between this comfort and the mattress. -It will crackle under your weight -for a time, but it will keep you warm and -cosy.</p> - -<h4><i>Hanging Pictures</i></h4> - -<p>If you are hanging a picture from a nail -in the wall instead of from the picture-molding, -you can save the wall by using a -very small, thin wire nail. If it is driven -in without “wobbling” and downward at -a narrow angle with the wall a small nail -will hold a surprisingly large picture.</p> - -<h4><i>Save your Eyes</i></h4> - -<p>Do not sleep with a strong light shining -into your eyes. In sleep the eyes are relaxed -and, closed though they are, suffer -from too strong a light. The sun shining -into them before you wake in the morning -is especially bad. Never read or put the -eyes to a strain before breakfast.</p> - -<h4><i>To Reduce Weight</i></h4> - -<p>A physician gives the following foods as -a broad and common-sense diet for those -wishing to reduce their flesh: lean mutton -and beef, veal and lamb, soups not thickened, -beef-tea and broth, poultry, game, -fish and eggs, bread in moderation, greens, -cresses, lettuce, etc., green peas, cabbage, -cauliflower, onions, fresh fruit without -sugar.</p> - -<h4><i>Peeling Onions</i></h4> - -<p>It is said that if when peeling onions one -holds a needle or any small piece of polished -steel between the teeth, the steel will attract -the acid fumes of the onion and save -the eyes.</p> - -<h4><i>To Keep Lemons</i></h4> - -<p>1. Cover with buttermilk or sour milk -and change once a week. This will also -freshen dry lemons.</p> - -<p>2. Put in clean white cask or jar, cover -with cold water, change every other day -and keep in a cool place. This method -will keep lemons fresh for months.</p> - -<h4><i>To Clean Knives</i></h4> - -<p>Many are unfamiliar with this old-time -method: Take even portions of fine coal -ashes and soda, mix with a little water, rub -the knives briskly with the preparation, -wash in tepid water without soap, and wipe -dry.</p> - -<h4><i>Floor Polish</i></h4> - -<p>One quart turpentine, six ounces yellow -beeswax, four ounces white resin. Melt -the beeswax and resin together over a <i>slow</i> -fire and when partly cool add the turpentine. -Bottle for use.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/heading15.jpg" width="500" height="40" alt="" /> -<h3><i>HEROISM AT HOME.</i></h3> -</div> - -<h4><i>A PRIZE FOR THE BEST TRUE STORY.</i></h4> - -<p><i>Every month the Department will publish -a little story of heroism in the home—not any -one act of heroism, but the tale of how some -one lived heroically, lived self-sacrifice, in -everyday life. It must be true and must be -about somebody you know or have known or -know definitely about. It must not have over -500 words. The shorter, the better. Whoever -sends in the best story each month will not only -have it printed but will receive a year’s subscription -to <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> sent to any -name you choose. Tell your story simply -and plainly.</i></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/heading16.jpg" width="500" height="40" alt="" /> -<h3><i>THE MONTH’S MEMENTO.</i></h3> -</div> - -<h4>The Wickedness of Worry</h4> - -<p>“Worry is one of the worst curses of modern -life. I say of modern life, not because -people a thousand years ago did not worry, -because as civilization advances men become -more highly strung, more sensitive, and less -capable of detachment. Thus, we often -say, in a very expressive phrase, that a thing -‘gets upon our nerves.’ Something distressing -happens to us, and we cannot shake -it off. Some one treats us rudely, harshly, -or unkindly, and the word or deed rankles in -our minds. We think it over until it is magnified -into a grievous and intentional insult. -We take it to bed with us, and no sooner is -the light put out than we begin to recall it, -and turn over in our minds all the circumstances -that occasioned it. We sleep feverishly, -haunted all the time with the sense of -something disagreeable. We wake, and the -accursed thing is still rankling in our minds. -This is one form of worry, which is very common -among people of sensitive minds.</p> - -<p>Another form of worry is the tendency to -brood over past errors. The business man, -or the public man, is suddenly overwhelmed -with the conviction that he has made an awful -mess of things. The worst of all calamities -is the lack of energy to grapple with -calamity, and in most cases it is worry that -breaks down a man’s energy.</p> - -<p>A third, and perhaps a more common form -of worry, is the gloomy anticipation of future -calamities. There are some men who, however -happy they may be today, are perpetually -frightening themselves with the possibilities -of a disastrous tomorrow. They -live in terror. When actual sorrow comes -upon us, most of us discover unexpected resources -of fortitude in ourselves. But nothing -sickens the heart so much as imagined -sorrow. Of this form of worry we may well -say, “It’s wicked!”</p> - -<p>I have no doubt that most of my readers -know by experience what some of these -things mean. No doubt also many of them -have many real causes for anxious thought, -and they will ask me how I propose to deal -with it. One of the best ways is to be content -to live a day at a time. Sydney Smith -counsels us with rich wisdom to take short -views of life. Each day is an entity in itself. -It is rounded off by the gulf of sleep; -it has its own hours which will never return; -it stands separate, with its own opportunities -and pleasures. Make the most of them.</p> - -<p>Another good and simple rule is never to -take our griefs to bed with us. ‘Easy to -say, but how difficult to do,’ will be replied. -But it is largely a matter of will and habit.</p> - -<p>John Wesley once said that he would as -soon steal as worry, for each was equally a -sin. To worry is wasteful and foolish; we -have also to recollect that it is wicked.”—<i>W. J. Dawson.</i></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/heading17.jpg" width="500" height="60" alt="" /> -<h3><i>RECIPES, OLD AND NEW.</i></h3> -</div> - -<h4><i>Lemon Pie (Old)</i></h4> - -<p>Two lemons, five eggs, two teaspoonsful of -melted butter, eight large spoonsful of white -sugar. Squeeze the juice of both lemons -and grate the rind of one. Stir together the -yolks of three eggs and the white of one, -with the sugar, juice and rind, beat well, -add one coffee-cup of cream and beat well -for a few minutes longer. Pour the mixture -into the waiting crust dough. Bake until -pastry is done. Meanwhile beat the remaining -whites of eggs to a stiff froth and -stir in four spoonsful of white sugar. Spread -on top and brown slightly. This is enough -for two pies.</p> - -<h4><i>Simple Pudding</i></h4> - -<p>(No eggs or milk needed) Slice some -good bread rather thick, cutting away the -crust. Butter on both sides, lay in a deep -dish and fill it up with molasses after seasoning -with ginger, cinnamon or lemon.</p> - -<h4><i>Irish Potato Pie (Old)</i></h4> - -<p>Two good pints of potatoes after they -are boiled and mashed. Put through a -sieve while warm. Add small cup of butter, -milk enough to make a batter. Cinnamon, -lemon, spices and sugar to taste. Four -eggs beaten separately, stirring in the whites -after the yokes. This is enough for four pies.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="BOOKS"> -<img src="images/heading18.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2><i>BOOKS</i><br /> -<span class="smaller"><i><span class="smaller">BY</span> Thomas E. Watson.</i></span></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p class="book"><b>The Social Secretary.</b> By David Graham -Phillips. The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis.</p> - -<p>An exceedingly clever novel, dealing chiefly -with the effort of a Congressional family to -break into good society in Washington, D. C. -The Congressman is a Western man with a -lot of money, and with a wife who has lots -of horse sense and a sound heart.</p> - -<p>They need a pilot to steer them into the -realms of fashion and influence. To this -position comes a beautiful, spirited and accomplished -girl who belongs to a well-known -family which is eminently respectable but -is in reduced circumstances.</p> - -<p>The campaign mapped out by the Social -Secretary in behalf of the Congressional family -is finally crowned with success, and the -heroine marries the son of the Congressman, -as a natural, logical result.</p> - -<p>In the course of the campaign, the author -gives us many an enlightening glimpse of -what goes on in Washington “behind the -scenes.” This little item for instance: When -President Roosevelt is called away from the -dinner-table by some urgent matter which -requires instant attention, Mrs. Roosevelt, -all the ladies, and all the gentlemen rise as -the President rises and remain standing until -he returns.</p> - -<p>I, for one, was quite surprised to know -that our sturdy lion-hunter, bronco-busting -President had fallen into snobbery of that -description. I hope it isn’t so.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>A Maker of History.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim. -Little, Brown & Co., Boston, -Mass.</p> - -<p>A book which catches hold of you and takes -you right along. It is original in its plot, -dramatic in its incidents, absorbingly interesting -in its narrative.</p> - -<p>A young Englishman, by accident, happens -to witness a meeting between the Emperor -of Germany and the Czar of Russia—a -meeting which elaborate precautions had -been taken to keep secret. Another accident -puts into the possession of the young Englishman -a page of the secret treaty between -the two Emperors. The scheme of this -treaty is that Russia shall give England a -<i>casus belli</i>, that Germany shall come to the -assistance of Russia, and that Great Britain -shall be despoiled. The young Englishman -is suspected, and his footsteps are dogged by -German spies. Later he talks imprudently -in a Parisian restaurant, and becomes an object -of intense interest to the French Secret -Service. He suddenly and mysteriously -disappears. His sister arrives in Paris, is -astonished at the disappearance of her brother, -and starts out to search for him. Then -the sister disappears.</p> - -<p>After a time everything turns out happily -for hero and heroine, but in the -meanwhile many an event of thrilling interest -happens to keep the reader wide awake and -wondering what the outcome will be.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>The Greatest Trust in the World.</b> By -Charles Edward Russell. The Ridgway-Thayer -Company, New York City.</p> - -<p>This book is made up of the articles which -were published in <i>Everybody’s Magazine</i>, -and which created such a profound impression -by their calm, relentless exposure of the -most cruel and most lawless and most despotic -Trust on earth. Not even the Standard -Oil Company grinds the common people -as the Beef Trust does, for the latter deals -with food products which are indispensable -to life, and the Beef Trust can and does say -to the people, “Pay my price or die.”</p> - -<p>The book treats of the might of this monopoly; -of the great yellow car, the bandit of -commerce; of the manner in which the -Trust intimidates the railroads; of the -manner in which the Federal Government -white-washed the Trust; of the union between -rotten business and rotten politics.</p> - -<p>It is a book that all should study.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>American Diplomacy.</b> By John Bassett -Moore. Harper & Brothers, Publishers, -New York City.</p> - -<p>My own impression has been that “American -Diplomacy” has never amounted to -much, and I cannot say that Dr. Moore’s -book has convinced me to the contrary.</p> - -<p>The only apparent triumph of American -Diplomacy was the securing of French aid -in the Revolutionary War; and as to that -most students will agree that “diplomacy” -had nothing to do with it. France saw an -opportunity to strike at her hereditary foe, -Great Britain, and she sent an emissary to -the American Congress to drop certain hints -which led to the sending of Dean, Lee and -Franklin to Paris. Where France was already -so eager, “diplomacy” could claim no -triumph.</p> - -<p>It is to be regretted that Dr. Moore fails -to mention John Laurens in connection with -French aid. The fact is that Washington<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> -and Congress became dissatisfied with Franklin, -and that John Laurens was despatched -to France to hurry matters up. He did so. -He got the money with which Washington -made the decisive Yorktown Campaign, -and brought it home with him. Surely Dr. -Moore ought to have mentioned the name of -John Laurens.</p> - -<p>In the famous Jay treaty, “American -Diplomacy” made a craven surrender to -Great Britain, and in the Treaty of Ghent -we certainly won no laurels. Andrew Jackson -and his Southern volunteers threw the -only crumb of comfort which the situation -could boast when they shot the life out of -Wellington’s veterans at New Orleans.</p> - -<p>In the various negotiations concerning -the Northwestern boundary, “American -Diplomacy” has yielded up an Empire to -British bluff and shrewdness. During the -Civil War, “American Diplomacy” ate -humble pie with a vengeance more than -once; and even in the Venezuelan affair -when Cleveland’s attitude seemed so heroic, -England, it would appear, packed the arbitration -board and got pretty much -everything that she wanted.</p> - -<p>In the last tilt between us and the mother -country, touching the Canadian boundary, -we were assured that the arbitration was a -mere matter of form, and that Great Britain -could not possibly get anything at all. Yet -when the award was made, it developed that -Great Britain had got slices of stuff all along -the line—the land line and the water line.</p> - -<p>American Diplomacy?</p> - -<p>Bah!</p> - -<p>Look at the manner in which Great Britain -used us as her depot of supplies during -the Boer War.</p> - -<p>She held John Hay in the hollow of her -hand, and with our aid crushed the republics -of South Africa.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Fables and Symbols.</b> By Clemence De La -Baere, Sacramento, Cal.</p> - -<p>Those who love truth and humor served up -in the literary form of the fable, will find -this an entertaining little volume. There -is much wit and wisdom packed away in -these stories; and they reveal a thorough -knowledge of human nature and of present -conditions.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Garrison the Non-Resistant.</b> By Ernest -Crosby. The Public Publishing Co., -Chicago.</p> - -<p>When a Southern writer eulogizes such a -bitter foe to his people as was William Lloyd -Garrison, his words will bear the same discount -as must be given to the words of a -Southern ex-Brigadier, when he goes North -and tells pleased audiences, “I am glad you -whipped us.”</p> - -<p>The truth is the South does not love -Garrison and is <i>not</i> glad she was “whipped.”</p> - -<p>When Mr. Crosby frankly states, as he -does in this book, that Garrison had no sympathy -whatever for the sufferings of the -white laborers of the land, he put his finger -upon the trait which caused Garrison’s great -unpopularity in the South.</p> - -<p>He was narrow and fanatical, and while -he hated slavery for its own sake, he hated -the South about as much as he hated slavery.</p> - -<p>Wendell Phillips, after the negro was -freed, went on broadening in the scope of his -sympathies and his work. He became one -of the stalwart champions of the rights of -white labor. He studied its case, denounced -its wrongs, demanded better things for the -millions of toilers who were being exploited -and destroyed by insatiable commercial -greed.</p> - -<p>Not so Garrison. The negro freed, the -South reeking with her own life-blood, her -homes in ashes, her soul crushed in utter -desolation, Garrison was happy. His work -was done. White men, white women, white -children might groan and suffer and die in a -worse slavery than had afflicted the blacks -of the South, but Garrison did not sympathize—did -not lift a finger, did not utter a -word in their behalf. Another trait in -Garrison’s character was just the trait to -stir the dislike of a Southern man. He carried -to such an extent his doctrine of non-resistance, -that he declared he “would not -defend by force his own wife in case of an -assault.” In other words, rather than forcibly -resist the criminal who sought to violate -his own wife, he would stand idly by and -permit the crime to be committed. I do not -know how many Northern men endorse a -sentiment of that kind. In my judgment -they are few, very few. But I do know that -there is not a respectable man in the South -or West, who would not feel disgraced by the -utterance of such a doctrine. Mr. Crosby -deserves great credit for his courage and -candor in admitting that while slavery was -wrong, the war waged upon the South was -wrong. Of course it was wrong. The whole -negro race, here and throughout the earth, -were not worth the frightful cost of the -Civil War. Mr. Crosby’s book would have -been more valuable had he omitted the last -two chapters. The author is a very talented -man but he cannot get to know the true -status of the South by listening to the talk -of loafers in the office of the hotel where he -happens to stop.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Sidney Lanier.</b> By Edwin Mims. Houghton, -Mifflin & Company, Boston and -New York.</p> - -<p>A more interesting biographical work than -this it would be difficult to name.</p> - -<p>The author is temperate in his estimate -of the genius of his subject, and relates the -life struggles of the Georgia poet with sympathetic -spirit.</p> - -<p>As the years go by the fame of Sidney -Lanier will grow. That he wrote some -poems which have little merit is true; that his -peculiar and unfortunate mannerism mars -the beauty of other poems which do possess -merit is also true; but after all this is conceded,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span> -it can be confidently claimed that -he sometimes rose to the heights of Keats -and Shelley, and that his art sometimes -equalled the marvelous skill of Edgar Poe.</p> - -<p>Here and there, throughout Lanier’s -poems, can be found gems of thought and -expression which in loftiness, purity and -exquisite form lose nothing by comparison -with the higher work of the best English -poets.</p> - -<p>Nor will the story of his life ever lose interest. -It is so full of innate nobility; he -met the most exacting duties so cheerily, so -bravely; he fought the battle for bread with -such manly confidence, such sweet sympathy -for others; he gave to the world so -much more than he asked from it; he was -so independent and yet so companionable; -he so long held at bay, with buoyant pluck, -the ghastly White Terror, Consumption; -he was so refined and strong and lovable -and valiant and nobly aspiring that always -and everywhere the simple facts in -the life of this Georgia boy, Confederate -soldier, painstaking lawyer, aspiring author, -heaven-endowed musician, original poet, -will move the hearts of men to respect, -to sympathy, to admiration and love.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama.</b> -By Walter L. Fleming. The Columbia -University Press, New York, Publishers. -The Macmillan Company, Agents.</p> - -<p>All things considered, this is the most -valuable contribution that has yet been -made to the literature of the Reconstruction -Era.</p> - -<p>The book contains some 800 pages, and -the mass of important data is a monument -to the industry of the author.</p> - -<p>Not only are we given a full account of -the manner in which Secession was brought -about, not only do we get the story of military -operations during the Civil War and -Carpet-Bag operations afterward, but we -are given illuminating pictures of social -and economic conditions, the unspeakable -rottenness of negro government; the cotton -frauds and stealings; the troubles in the -churches; the movements of the Ku Klux -Klan (which Tom Dixon most unaccountably -traces back to the clan life of Scotland); -the struggles of the native whites to throw -off the carpet-bag and negro yoke; the upbuilding -of an educational system; the -gradual creation of a new industrial system; -and the final triumphant vindication -of Alabama of the right of local self-government -and white supremacy.</p> - -<p>Mr. Fleming has done a great and beneficent -work in the gathering of the mass -of facts which he embodies in this volume.</p> - -<p>Compared to his, every other book on -the same subject seems fragmentary.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Frenzied Finance.</b> By Thomas Lawson. -The Ridgway-Thayer Co., New York.</p> - -<p>No matter what Mr. Lawson’s motive may -have been, he has done a public service in -the exposure of the methods of Wall Street -which cannot be overestimated. For thirty -years the story which Lawson has told has -been asking for an audience. Time and -again, books and magazine articles were published -warning the people of the ways of the -system. As far back as the days of Peter -Cooper, loud voices of clear-eyed men were -raised in the effort to rouse public attention. -The literature of the Greenback movement, -of the Farmers’ Alliance movement, and of -the People’s Party movement was full of -notes of warning, full of statements of fact -exactly on line with Lawson’s revelations.</p> - -<p>Why then did the revelations of Lawson -sound like a new trumpet and rouse the country -so quickly and so universally? Because -Lawson spoke from the <i>inside</i>: because Lawson -was one of the kings of finance himself: -because Lawson had played the game himself: -because Lawson drew to himself that -peculiar attention which attaches to the witness -who “turns State’s evidence.” A robber -who has worn the mask and ridden with -the band on many a midnight marauding -foray is always listened to with breathless -interest when he enters the box and tells how -the robbery was planned, how the crime was -committed, and now the spoil was divided. -This is but natural. No matter how much -proof one may have to establish the guilt of -the accused, one feels, always, that there are -details which none but the criminal can supply. -Here Thomas Lawson’s value is beyond -dispute and beyond price. That the -methods of Frenzied Finance are substantially -what Lawson says they are, can no -longer be a matter of doubt.</p> - -<p class="book">“<b>When You Were a Boy.</b>” By Edwin L. -Sabin. The Baker & Taylor Co., New -York.</p> - -<p>It seemed impossible that another successful -book on school-life and boyhood days -could be written, but the author has shown -how easily one may be mistaken about a thing -of that sort. Here is no story of a fascinating -but impossible “Little Lord Fauntleroy”; -here is no coarse, witless, stupid “Stalky & -Co.,” here is no “Huckleberry Finn” or -“Tom Sawyer,” or “Tom Brown,” or -“Peck’s Bad Boy,” or “Master William Mitten.” -The hero of “When You Were a Boy”—is -you. The author has looked into his own -heart and drawn your picture to life. You -had your little “fist and skull” fights—and -here they are in this book. You had a pet -dog who did all sorts of funny, aggravating, -endearing things, and then died while you -were off from home; and the author tells of it, -intimately. Your first experience with your -father’s shot-gun, your savage rapture over -the first thing you killed—here it is in the -book. And the first fishing trip, the first -“party” you attended, the first girl you -“saw home,” the first sweetheart—it is all -put down, accurately, vividly. Even that -time—you mean little whelp!—when you -determined to punish your parents by “running<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> -away from home,”—the author found it -out on you, and you will hang your head once -more, and your eye will dim, as you read -about it, in the book. The author does not -preach and does not prose, and does not sentimentalise—but -“When You Were a Boy” -is one of the most life-like delineations of the -American boy—his character, his feelings, -his habits, his fun and frolic, his passions, -his standards—that has ever been put in a -book.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Bossism and Monopoly.</b> By Thomas Carl -Spelling. D. Appleton & Co., New York.</p> - -<p>An exposition of the evils of the twins—Bossism -and Monopoly. Mr. Spelling brings -the record of trust robbery and boss despotism -down to date, and while he necessarily -has to treat the same facts and conditions -which so many other writers have handled, -none of them has a firmer grip upon the subject -than he—nor have any of them produced -a more essentially useful book. He is the -only writer who has seized upon and utilized -the tremendously important facts set forth -by Albert Griffin in the financial articles -which he wrote for this <span class="smcap">Magazine</span> some -months ago. What Mr. Griffin calls Hocus -Pocus Money another may call fictitious values, -unsupported credit, wild-cat inflation, -or any other name, but the fact as first pointed -out by Mr. Griffin is that the Privileged Few -in the Banking world are taxing the people -to an enormous amount for the use of bogus -money.</p> - -<p>Mr. Spelling also deals with the Railroad -problem in a masterly way, advocating, as -all sane men will soon be found doing, Government -Ownership.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>The Coming Crisis.</b> By Gustavus M. -Pinckney. Walker, Evans and Cogswell -Co., Charleston, S. C.</p> - -<p>This is a book to read closely and to think -about. It is full of solid fact and sound -reasoning. Its tone is calm, but its thought -is deep, and it deals with matters of gravest -import.</p> - -<p>A quotation will give some idea of the -scope of the work:</p> - -<p>(1) “Society under government naturally -tends to fall into two parties, one attached to -the consumption of taxes and increase of -power, the other attached to the decrease -of taxes and to the limitation of power.</p> - -<p>(2) The tendency of the first party is to -absorb the rights and property of the second: -the tendency of the second is to resist the -process.</p> - -<p>(3) Remaining unchecked, the first will -steadily encroach and absorb until the second -is compelled in self-preservation to resist by -tendering the issue of force.”</p> - -<p>That’s a clear bold statement and a true -one.</p> - -<p>Illustrating the method by which the one -party appropriates the property of the other, -Mr. Pinckney cites our infamous Tariff -System.</p> - -<p>“The amount of prices advanced under a -40 per cent. tariff and <i>transferred from one -private pocket to another</i>, would ... soon -extend to figures to <i>dwarf the national debt</i>.”</p> - -<p>Some one has calculated that from Independence -to 1861, the amount thus transferred -from private pockets to other private -pockets, without consideration, was something -like $2,770,000,000.</p> - -<p>The sum so stolen from private pockets by -the damnable Tariff, since 1861, and put into -other private pockets is a great deal more -than the colossal figures mentioned above.</p> - -<p>Mr. Pinckney likewise takes up the National -Banker and shows how the Government -allows him advantages over his fellow man -that are “utterly without right, reason, or -justification.” After explaining the juggle -which takes place over the bonds, and the -notes, he sums it up thus:</p> - -<p>“<i>The people are taxed in order that the -privilege of issuing money may be farmed out -to the banks.</i>”</p> - -<p>Nobody has ever summed up the iniquity -of the National Banking System in a more -startling sentence, and a good Democrat, -like Mr. Pinckney, must have been sorely -grieved when he saw every Democratic Senator -and every Democratic Representative -unite with the wicked Republicans in 1893-1894 -to renew the charters of the National -Banks for twenty years.</p> - -<p>Space forbids the extending of these comments -further. I will only add that no -student of present conditions can afford to -miss Mr. Pinckney’s book.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Letters and Addresses of Thomas Jefferson.</b> -Edited by Wm. B. Parker, of Colombia -University, and Jonas Viles, of the -University of Missouri. The Unit Book -Pub. Co., New York.</p> - -<p>When two college professors start out to -give the world a new book on <i>Thomas</i> Jefferson, -the world has a right to expect an -unusually valuable book.</p> - -<p>Professors Parker and Viles did not -undertake an original composition. Theirs -was the simpler task of making a good -selection from the letters, State papers and -addresses of Mr. Jefferson. That such a -selection should be a success, it was necessary -that the compilers acquaint themselves -intimately with all that Jefferson -wrote, and that the selections made should -fairly represent <i>Jefferson himself</i>—Jefferson -the man, the scholar, the farmer, the -builder, the inventor, the advanced thinker, -the man of bold speculative ideas, the -statesman, the student of social and industrial -problems.</p> - -<p>Have our learned professors done this?</p> - -<p>Mr. Jefferson’s book, “Notes on Virginia,” -contains more than 300 pages. It is full -of his most characteristic thinking. It -displays the working of his mind on matters -great and small, social, racial, historic -practical and speculative.</p> - -<p>Our Professors quote eight pages from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> -the book, wherein Mr. Jefferson discusses -Religion, Slavery and American Genius—three -subjects only. These are important -quotations, but what a pity it is that the -Professors did not quote Jefferson’s profound -study of the Indians, their physical -and mental peculiarities, their mode of -life, their love of their children, their fortitude -under suffering, their undying loyalty -to friends, their skill and bravery in war, -their eloquence in council, their system -of tribal government. Mr. Jefferson wrote -nothing more interesting than this account -of the Indians of Virginia. It was in this -that he reproduced and handed down to -posterity that gem of oratory which we -boys used to “speak” at school—“Logan’s -speech” sent to Lord Dunmore.</p> - -<p>On page 166 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson -gives a concise and comprehensive -statement of the wrongs which the colonies -suffered at the hands of the King. Inasmuch -as we have developed a school of -Tory historians who make light of the American -grievances, it might have been a good -thing had the Professors quoted Mr. Jefferson’s -summary of those grievances.</p> - -<p>On page 172 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson -makes a remarkable prediction of the -manner in which abuses will creep into our -Government, and he solemnly warns his -countrymen to combat these abuses “before -they shall have gotten hold on us.”</p> - -<p>Inasmuch as the abuses which Mr. Jefferson -dreaded have gotten hold on us, his -prophecy, published more than a hundred -years ago, deserves a place in any collection -of Jefferson’s works.</p> - -<p>On page 216 of the “Notes,” Mr. Jefferson -has a word to say on popular self-government -which every American boy -should read as soon as he becomes a voter. -I am sorry the Professors left it out.</p> - -<p>The most powerful chapter in the “Notes -on Virginia,” is that beginning on page 228 -and ending on page 235. As it stands -written, it is a masterpiece. To spoil a -good thing is easy; and the Professors -spoilt the best chapter in Jefferson’s book -by cutting out only a portion of it for use, -and not the best part at that.</p> - -<p>On page 240 of the “Notes” is Mr. -Jefferson’s splendid tribute to the working -classes of the rural communities—but -the Professors seemingly attached no value -to it.</p> - -<p>What could have been more timely -than the re-publication of Mr. Jefferson’s -magnificent plea against War, and against -Militarism, which covers pages 253, 254, -and 255 of the “Notes”? The Professors could -not have embraced in their collection anything -of greater intrinsic and eternal value -than this, and they have given much space -to matter which, compared to this, is mere -trash.</p> - -<p>I have neither the time nor the patience -to compare the letters which these Professors -have collected with those which they -have left out. If they selected the letters -in the same spirit that they culled from -the “Notes,” their compilation is just -as far from doing justice to Mr. Jefferson -as “The True Thomas Jefferson,” by -W. E. Curtis, was from the truth. There -is no American book of the same size that -contains more errors than Curtis’s “True -Jefferson;” and when I saw that these two -Professors had named that book as one of -their authorities—well, you can see for -yourself how it stimulated my attention.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>Democracy in the South Before the Civil -War.</b> By G. W. Dyer, M. A., Pub. -House of the M. E. Church South. -Nashville, Tenn.</p> - -<p>The author modestly calls this a compendium -of a more comprehensive work which -will be published later.</p> - -<p>It is an exceedingly valuable study. The -author has dug up a lot of buried treasure. -His refutation of many unfounded opinions -concerning social economic and political -conditions in the South prior to the Civil -War is supported by a diligence of research -that gather all the necessary evidence.</p> - -<p>Among other facts of importance which -Mr. Dyer establishes, Prof. John Bach McMaster -to the contrary notwithstanding, are:</p> - -<p>(1) There was no land monopoly in the -South. On the contrary there was a better -pro rata distribution of land than in the free -States.</p> - -<p>(2) Manual labor was not a badge of disgrace. -On the other hand, the white -population of the South was engaged in all -kinds of manual labor, excepting menial -service.</p> - -<p>(3) The South had a larger number of -miles of railroads in 1860 in proportion to -her free population than the rest of the -country.</p> - -<p>(4) In 1860, Southern people were engaged -in almost all kinds of manufacturing.</p> - -<p>(5) In 1860 the South was the richest -section of the country, and her wealth was -increasing with greater rapidity than that of -the other sections.</p> - -<p>It will be remembered that in one of his -great speeches in Congress William L. Yancey -demonstrated this truth.</p> - -<p>(6) Wages were higher in the South than -in the North in 1860.</p> - -<p>So they are even now. The laborer who -produces that free trade product, cotton, -gets nearly one-half of the value of the cotton -produced. In the Protected industries -of the North the laborer does not receive an -average of twenty-five percent of the product -of his labor.</p> - -<p>Mr. Dyer proves another fact worth -mention:</p> - -<p>The idea of a State fund for the education -of those who were not able to pay their tuition -originated in the South. In other -words, the present American system of -State free public schools was born in the -South. If Mr. Dyer’s more comprehensive<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> -work increases in value as it increases in size -it will deserve to be a most successful book.</p> - -<p class="book">“<b>Sonnets to a Wife.</b>” By Ernest McGaffey. -William Marion Reedy. St. Louis, Mo.</p> - -<p>Mr. McGaffey makes his Sonnets a continuous -hymn of the beautiful in Nature. -The clean atmosphere of the open world is -in every sonnet. All the airs of heaven -blow pureness about these lovers. The -spiritual significance of the great Nature, -of which husband and wife and their love -for each other are a part, is always strongly -suggested, and this without cant either of -orthodoxy or of the dolorous minor poet -lamenting the loss of himself to the world.</p> - -<p class="book"><b>The Eternal Spring.</b> A Novel. By -Neith Boyce. Fox, Duffield & Co., New -York, $1.50, postpaid.</p> - -<p>The story opens at an Italian villa, overlooking -Florence. Elizabeth Craven is wearing -“second mourning” for a deceased husband -who was too old for her, and who had never -satisfied her womanly cravings for male -companionship. Elizabeth is thirty-eight -years old, but is still in the flush of health -and strength and beauty. Hers is the villa, -and to her comes Barry Carlton, who has -been stock-gambling for several years in -Chicago, and has quit because he had won -a modest competence and had brought himself -to the brink of nervous collapse.</p> - -<p>Barry Carlton had known Elizabeth -intimately five years before and had become -warmly attached to her. Poor Elizabeth! -She had loved Barry all the while, and she -loves him yet.</p> - -<p>She is radiantly happy as she welcomes -Barry to her villa. She knows that he has -come from America to ask her to become his -wife. He is thirty years old, and while worn -down to a painful thinness she has no doubt -whatever that rest and loving attention will -soon restore his robust youth.</p> - -<p><i>Then</i> she will live. She has never known -life; she has been cramped and confined all -these years; when she marries her young -lover, she will know the passion of <i>living</i>.</p> - -<p>But alas! Barry wooes tamely. Elizabeth -is coy, expecting more heat. Barry -cannot give it, the wooing lags, no engagement -occurs, and then comes the shipwreck -of Elizabeth’s hopes. Barry falls in love -with a divinely gifted and lovely young -creature who is also a guest at the villa.</p> - -<p>A strange thing happens to the reader. -Elizabeth has won <i>his</i> heart, and she holds -it to the end. She is so womanly in her -devotion to Barry; so womanly in her grief -at losing him, so majestic in her renunciation -of her own hopes, so beautifully generous -and helpful to the man and the girl who have -broken her own heart, that the reader feels -himself about to say:</p> - -<p>“One Elizabeth were worth a dozen -Claras.”</p> - -<p>For the reader does not fall in love with -Clara. She is a bit unnatural and uncanny.</p> - -<p>Her mother, the bad but magnificent Mrs. -Langham, is far more real and interesting.</p> - -<p>As to Barry himself, the reader never does -quite understand why the women find him -so irresistible. It does not appear that he -is very handsome, or very accomplished, or -very anything else, excepting that he is -abominably selfish in his dealings with Elizabeth. -The women who fall in love with him -rave about his “honesty,” but that is a -quality which seldom carries women off their -feet. Decidedly Elizabeth remains the heroine -and next to her in interest comes the -bad, beautiful Mrs. Langham. The author -tells the story with superb art. There are -no incidents, no thrills, no dramatic climaxes, -and yet there is not a dull page in -the book.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h2><i>Cause for Joy</i></h2> - -<p>“Well, now, which do you think is correct, ‘measles is’ or ‘measles are’?” -chucklingly inquired the landlord of the Torpidville tavern. “Also, -would you say, ‘The Glee Club are’ or ‘the Glee Club is’?”</p> - -<p>“D’know!” replied the patent-churn man, shortly. “Those old catch-questions -don’t interest me a little bit. But what I’d like to know is why everybody -looks so pleased and smiling today? Is there a picnic or celebration or something -of the sort on the tapis?”</p> - -<p>“No, skurcely that. It’s the relief that is tickling ’em, not anticipation. -You see, the Glee Club of the village Academy was going to give a concert and -cantata tomorrow night, assisted by our best local talent, and now the measles -have, or has, as the case may be, broken out, up there in the temple of learnin’, -and every member of the Glee Club have, or has, got it, or them, good and plenty -and the entertainment has been indefinitely—haw! haw!—postponed.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="The_Say_of_Other_Editors"> -<img src="images/heading19.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2><i>The Say of Other Editors</i></h2> -</div> - -</div> - -<p>The Democrat has no axe to grind, no -scores to settle nor heads to whack in advancing -the erection by the city of an electric -lighting plant. From every standpoint -it is right.—<i>Grand Ireland (Neb.) Democrat.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Paul Morton, president of the Equitable, -says he is not going to pay any more money -to legislators to protect his insurance company. -This reminds the <i>Syracuse (N. Y.) -Herald</i> of the story of the old darkey, never -regarded as being at all particular about how -or where he gathered up a penny, who -dropped his pocketbook in a crowd one day. -As the nickels and dimes scattered about, the -old man began to scramble for them, shouting, -“Befoh de Lawd! Let evahbody be -honest now.”—<i>Leeton (Mo.) Times.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Democracy means always independence -of thought, and unless the party leaders treat -the people fairly they will find it also means -independence of action. This was fully -demonstrated last year in both National and -State campaigns, and it is time the Democratic -leaders in Missouri should heed the -warning.—<i>Ozark (Mo.) Democrat.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Congress is now asked to appropriate -$16,500,000 in one lump to the Isthmian -Canal. This nice little sum will only serve to -grease the skillet for a short time.—<i>Panola -Watchman, Carthage, Tex.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It has been only a few weeks since Mr. -McCall of the New York Life Insurance -Company was standing on his dignity -and trying to make a joke of the insurance -investigation—just as Mr. Rogers -of the Standard Oil Company tried to -make a joke of the investigation in New -York last week. But today Mr. McCall -is a disgraced man in the public eye, and -another man signs as president of the -New York Life. And it may be only a short -time until Mr. Rogers is holding an unenviable -seat with Mr. McCall and a lot of other -unscrupulous fellows who a short time ago -imagined that they were practically the -whole financial show. These money grafters -are up against an aroused public sentiment -which in America today spells destruction -for whatever it may be directed against. -In America there is no system that can stand -against the will of the people, and Mr. Rogers -and his Standard Oil crowd will yet live -to see the day—and that soon—when they -will put off their arrogant airs in answering -a criminal investigation by the legal representatives -of a great state.—<i>Darlington -(Mo.) Record.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Department of Agriculture is now -undertaking to show the farmers how they -can raise better tobacco. What the farmers -would much prefer would be for Secretary -Wilson to show how to get more than 34 -cents for it from the Tobacco Trust.—<i>Tarboro -(N. C.) Southerner.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The steamer <i>America</i>, from Honolulu for -San Francisco, carried $750,000 in coin sent -by registered mail by local bankers, in order, -it is alleged, that the money might be at sea, -and beyond the territorial jurisdiction on -December 31st, when a tax of one per cent. -is levied on all money on deposit by the banks -on that date. It is understood that the -money will be returned immediately. Deducting -the charges of shipment, the saving -made will be approximately $7,000.—<i>Argonaut, -San Francisco.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The attention of the public is unpleasantly -attracted to the position of Henry H. -Rogers, active head of the Standard Oil -trust, in relation to the testimony sought -by the supreme court of Missouri. The -Missouri court, in seeking the enforcement -of the anti-trust law of that State, has undertaken -to procure testimony upon the allegation -that the Standard company is violating -the law. Among the witnesses is Mr. Rogers. -He dodged service of the subpoena -until outwitted by an officer and in the witness -chair he refuses to answer questions -propounded by the attorney general of Missouri. -He refuses with a supercilious air -that asserts his contempt for such humble -affairs as courts and officers of the law. The -world’s greatest trust, the world’s richest -men, tell the world that they are not amenable -to the regulations to which the balance -of the world is bound to conform. This is -the anarchy of wealth. Recently representatives -of the oil trust told Commissioner Garfield -that the Standard Oil was greater than -the government; that John D. Rockefeller -was a bigger man than the President of the -United States; that he owned the Senate and -the House and was able, by the mere passing -of the word, to cause the removal of Secretary -Metcalf and Commissioner Garfield. -A few years back in history the Standard<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> -Oil corporation defied the Supreme -Court of Ohio and caused the political -defeat of the presumptuous attorney who -brought an action against it and won because -his case was just. Now comes Henry H. -Rogers, second to John D. Rockefeller, -bristling with defiance because a Western -court proposes to make him and his associates -obey the same law that common persons -have to obey. It is greatly to be feared -that the oil magnates are invoking a test of -strength—feared because some one is going -to be roughly handled should there come a -popular adjustment between the forces of -wealth and government. The American -people have been very patient and are still -patient. But if they are called upon to pass -upon certain points raised by the contumacy -of Mr. Rogers and the rest, the controversy -will be short, sharp and decisive.—<i>Howard -(S. Dak.) Advance.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Let those with a sense of humor laugh -now, while the game is barely on, at such -naïve expressions of alarm as those of Secretary -Taft in a recent speech wherein he feared -that the “dangerous classes,” such as populists -and socialists, might succeed in arraying -the masses against capitalism to the injury -of the latter. Secretary Taft fears that the -ninety per cent of our population are going -to demand the right to rule. Awful, isn’t -it?</p> - -<p>This fat sow of the system with its nose -in the trough, its distended guts groaning -and still filling, sounds the warning that -the razor-backs are preparing to assume -control of the swill. Wough! Secretary -Taft believes that this country is only safe -when every bank, the House, the Senate, -every State legislature, and every public -office is manned and controlled by a McCall, -McCurdy, Hyde, Armour or Rockefeller; -that is, safe for the system. We say this -country is not safe when ten millions of its -inhabitants live in dire poverty and two -hundred and seventy thousand people fill its -jails.</p> - -<p>We say there is something radically wrong -with our educational and economic systems. -We say the multi-income grafters must be -hurled back to one man power, for there is -not a banker nor so-called financier in -America that has not for years been in collusion -with Hyde, McCall and McCurdy, and -consciously participated in their stealing.</p> - -<p>Come, now, Secretary Taft, would men -who have been brought up to do real work -be any more dangerous in high places?—<i>Parker -H. Sercombe in To-Morrow.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And now it is announced that all three of -the big life insurance presidents in New York -are down with nervous prostration. Sounds -from testimony as though it ought to be the -policy holders.—<i>Alma (Neb.) Record.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With the arraignment of Standard Oil -officers, life insurance fakirs, Panama Canal -investigations, United States senators losing -their dignity, and being tried like other criminals, -and all manner of “big bugs” having -to shudder at the majesty of the law, we are -made to wonder what is going to happen -next.—<i>Durant (I. T.) Farmer.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Announcement is made of another donation -by John D. Rockefeller to the University -of Chicago. This time it is $1,450,000. -Where did he get it?—<i>Granville (Ia.) Gazette.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rockefeller may fire Rogers for talking -too much. Rogers admitted that he knew -his own name and had heard of Standard -Oil.—<i>People’s Voice, Norman, Okla.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Now that railroad passes are abolished -and the franking privilege is to be stopped, -what will Congressmen do, poor things? -They have been sending their soiled clothes -back to their district and having them returned -free, have been getting beef, butter, -eggs, and vegetables in the same way, and -to cap the anticlimax of their perquisites -Hon. Shepard of Arkansas has discovered -that their mileage allowance of twenty cents -per mile made in the old stage-coach era, is a -gross over-allowance and has introduced a -bill to cut it down to six cents a mile, which -is quite enough for the Pullman car accommodations -nowadays.—<i>Luck (Wis.) Enterprise.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The State of New York which has a population -of 8,000,000 and wealth far in excess -of any state in the Union has had no representative -in the Senate since the holiday -opening of Congress. Its two Senators, -Platt and Depew, are prevented by ill-health -from attending the sessions and it is not -known when they will be able to take their -places in the Senate Chamber. Senator -Platt with his new wife is at Virginia Hot -Springs, looking in vain for the fountain of -youth. He is palsied with age and he is so -feeble that he cannot walk about unsupported. -On the daily drives and outings that -Mrs. Platt is obliged to take to maintain her -vigorous health she is never accompanied by -the aged Senator, who remains in his room -nearly all of the time. The situation with -Senator Depew is scarcely more agreeable. -Instead of the triumphant, jovial Depew of -old he is now a man broken in health and -spirit by the revelations of the New York -insurance companies which have placed him -in such a questionable light before the public.—<i>Kiowa -(Colo.) Record.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As this country becomes more and more a -manufacturing country, it needs to give -more heed to this fundamental problem. -Urged by purely selfish motives, commerce -and industry are ever tending to exploit the -labor of the child because it is low priced, -and to oppose restraining legislation. This, -observes the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, is why the -child labor laws of England are considerably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> -less stringent than those of progressive countries -on the Continent. The latter, pressing -upon each other’s frontiers, realize that child -labor impairs the military efficiency of a -nation. Military considerations may not -weigh so heavily with the people of this country -as they do with continental Europe. -But child labor should be prevented in America -with a view to securing for children that -better preparation for life and that worthy -type of ultimate citizenship which American -ideals demand. In the interest of social and -civic efficiency, and so of our national future, -the rising generation, both North and South, -should be protected against premature toil.—<i>Bath -(N. Y.) Plaindealer.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The new officials in Philadelphia should -see that their predecessors get their just -dues—a long term in the penitentiary.—<i>Winona -(Minn.) Leader.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When the People’s Party first submitted -its platform of principles to the people, the -soundness of its principles was questioned -and doubted by many, and even by some who -recognized the soundness of the principles, -yet had not lost hope, or were not convinced, -that reforms could not be brought about -swifter through their old parties than through -a new party organization, and for this reason -never aligned themselves with the People’s -Party; but the last ten years of endeavor to -secure reforms through the old parties has -convinced them that reform through the old -parties was like tracing the rainbow to find a -pot of gold hanging on the end of it.—<i>People’s -Voice, Norman, Okla.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The state legislators certainly cannot now -have any reason for flinching on the question -of railroad rates. The Pennsylvania road -showed that while one third of their passengers -rode on passes they were able to pay a -nice dividend to stockholders. Now that -nobody rides on passes the public certainly -should secure the benefit by a reduction to -two cents per mile for travel. The law -makers can also consider the right of eminent -domain for the trolley lines, as well as the -right of electric lines to carry freight. The -latter propositions would mean thousands of -dollars in the pockets of the people. Instead -of the discontinuing of the passes being a -detriment to the people, it will undoubtedly -become a benefit.—<i>Roscoe (Pa.) Ledger.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hon. Ezekiel S. Candler, Jr., a member -of Congress from Mississippi, recently delivered -a speech before the House of Representatives -in which he favored legislation that -would abolish hazing in the United States -Naval Academy at Annapolis. Mr. Candler -very justly ridicules the idea that hazing is -necessary to make a boy courageous and -keep him from being a “sissy boy.”—<i>Grand -Cane (La.) Beacon.</i></p> - -<p>From what can be learned of the dispatches -concerning the punishment of grafters under -the present administration, it seems that -those who were brought in guilty, have invariably -been men who were opposed to some -of Roosevelt’s pet hobbies. Burton of Kansas, -you must remember, strenuously opposed -Roosevelt’s plan to reduce the duty on -Cuban raw sugar, and made a brilliant -speech in opposition to it. Poor old -Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, also opposed -some of Teddy’s pet schemes. He was pursued -unmercifully and maliciously, yet the -beef trust goes unpunished. Teddy’s investigators -are now busy defending them. -Those men arrested in Nebraska for the illegal -fencing and use of Government land -received but a nominal fine and a sentence of -six hours in the custody of the United States -Marshal. Secretary Shaw, another of Teddy’s -proteges, has declared that John Walsh of -Chicago is innocent of any statutory crime, -and has only done what many other bankers -have done. Just as soon as the failure of the -Walsh banks was wired to Washington, plans -were at once set on foot to protect them, also -to protect Walsh. Teddy will have to shift -his bearings a little or the people will soon -begin to believe that he is not the Simon-pure -reformer, graft crusher and trust buster -that the press agents are claiming him to -be.—<i>Ex Porte, Florence, Colo.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The grain trust of Nebraska fixes the price -of every bushel of grain in the state. Not an -elevator in the state pretends to begin operations -till the price of grain fixed by the trust -comes, and it comes every day very early in -the morning. Supply and demand! Who -said supply and demand regulate prices?—<i>Broken -Bow (Neb.) Beacon.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Germany is putting the tariff question -squarely before the “stand pat” Republican -clique in the Senate. That country proposes -to bar American goods by a prohibitory tariff -unless this country reduces the Dingley tariff -for Germany. This is a fair proposition and -one that the people generally in this country -would gladly welcome, but the eight or nine -Republican bosses would rather see this -country sink than give an inch on the -present tariff.—<i>Vandalia (Ill.) Democrat.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>H. Clay Pierce, president of the Waters-Pierce -Oil company, who has been holding -up the people of the Indian Territory and -Texas for a great many years past, pays -$25 a day for seven rooms the year round -at the Waldorf-Astoria, one of New York’s -big hotels.—<i>Rush Springs (I. T.) Landmark.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Standard Oil Company has during -the past year gobbled up about twenty gas -plants in various parts of the country. Having -an income of about forty millions a year. -John D. Rockefeller must put his money into -something that will bring him more interest.—<i>Delphi, -(Ind.) Citizen Times.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span></p> - -<p>Senator Burton has dismissed his private -secretary, because there was nothing -for him to do. There is also very little for -poor Burton to do unless it is “doing time.”—<i>Princeton -(Ky.) Chronicle.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Congressman, who, with his wife, -aunts, and mother-in-law, franks their -clothes home once a week to be washed, is -going to be the loser by the investigation of -the Congressional franking privilege pending.—<i>Delton -(Mich.) Graphic.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Tom Watson wants to know if Bryan will -try to buy the throne of Peter the Great or -the second-hand coat of Peter the Great. -Mr. Bryan set the entire Japanese nation -against him when he tried to buy the “war -chair” that Togo had sat in, and the Watson -inquiries suggest nothing more out of place -than this foolish and very improper episode.—<i>Rushville -(Ind.) American.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The reply of Thomas E. Watson to Clark -Howell is such a long letter that we cannot -get it in this issue of the Rambler, but will give -it Tuesday. The weakest of all the weak -things that Howell’s advisers have let him -do is the stirring up of Watson.—<i>Cordele -(Ga.) Rambler.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And so “I am a Democrat, D. B. Hill” -has also been receiving a large sum of money -($5,000) each year for a long time from the -Equitable Life Insurance Company. Mr. -Hill says his salary was for his services as a -lawyer and not for his political influence. -Mr. Hill may have thought so, made himself -think so. But to a man up a tree the salaries -the insurance companies paid Hill, Depew -and other men of great political influence -were to make friends of them so that the -graft of the insurance officers could continue. -We presume most of the men of great -political influence in the ruling parties are -on the pay roll of one or more of the big -grafting corporations. A list of the congressmen, -governors, etc., who are getting -salaries as attorneys for the railroads, -trusts, etc., would be very interesting reading.—<i>Missouri -World.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Georgia gubernatorial campaign has -reached the letter-writing stage, apparently, -though it must be confessed that the man -who sprung the trigger isn’t profiting very -much by the result of his action. The secret -of the Sibley correspondence was carefully -guarded until the Columbus debate, and -then thrown upon the public in the form of a -bombshell, the expectation being that Mr. -Smith would be swept from his feet by the -explosion.</p> - -<p>The result was anything but what was -anticipated. While Mr. Smith knew nothing -of what was coming, he did exactly as he -has done in the face of all the charges that -have been brought against him—made no -explanation whatever, because he had nothing -to explain.</p> - -<p>The matter was explained, however, and -by the man who knew more about the whole -business than any one—excepting, of course, -Mr. Howell, and that man was Hon. Thomas -E. Watson. And Mr. Watson’s explanation -does just what it was intended to do—it -explains.</p> - -<p>Attempts have since been made by Mr. -Howell to give further enlightenment on -the Sibley and McGregor episodes by publishing -the entire correspondence, but like -a man in quicksand, every struggle to extricate -himself only sinks him the deeper.</p> - -<p>At no time has it been shown that Mr. -Smith sought an alliance with Mr. Watson, -or that one was ever made. Mr. Watson has -no political ambition at the present time, -and, in fact, states in one of his letters that -instead of seeking the election to the United -States Senate, he is supporting, and will cast -his vote for Hon. John Temple Graves for -the same reason that he is supporting Mr. -Smith—because Mr. Graves stands for the -same principles Mr. Watson has always advocated.—<i>Dublin -(Ga.) Times.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Howell and McGregor are trying hard to -make it appear that Tom Watson and Smith -made a firm trade before Smith announced -for Governor; and in the next breath Clark -says Sibley offered him Watson’s support six -weeks after Smith announced. Funny how -he could support both of them!—<i>Bullock -(Ga.) Times.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mr. Howell is lustily calling to the “Loyal -Democrats” to save him from Tom Watson -and the bow-wows. Loyal to what? -To Clark and the corporations? But a few -weeks ago “Boss” Murphy was calling (and -buying) both “Loyal” Democrats and Republicans -to save him from Hearst and the -penitentiary. Honest Democrats, by the -Eternal, be loyal to yourselves, your wives -and children, and to the God that made -you.—<i>Dalton (Ga.) Herald.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Why should ex-Populist Hon. Thomas E. -Winn be allowed to use the columns of the -only Democratic paper in the state, the Constitution, -to advise ex-Populists to vote for -Howell, and Hon. Thomas E. Watson be refused -to say whom he is for and why. -Tell us, Clark.—<i>Lawrenceville (Ga.) Journal.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>H. Clay Pierce, of the Waters-Pierce Oil -Company, a branch of the Standard, has been -in hiding at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, in -New York, to prevent the serving of a summons -to appear before Attorney-General -Hadley, of Missouri. Pierce has had his private -yacht steamed up for days, ready to -leave the country at a moment’s notice. -Old John D. Rockefeller is also dodging -around, keeping out of the way of the officers. -The fact that the Standard Oil fellows are -afraid to go into court, and are continually<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span> -on the lookout for officers, ought to be -sufficient proof to the people that they -are guilty. Honest people are not afraid -of law or officers.—<i>Garnett (Kan.) Independent -Review.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It seems that conditions down on the -isthmus, where the Government is engaged -in digging a big canal, will not stand much -probing. A Republican paper, friendly to -the administration, sent a representative -down there to report on the conditions, and -his report has caused an investigation to be -begun by Congress. President Roosevelt -will be fortunate if he saves himself from this -Congress, and he can afford to keep on friendly -terms with the Democrats.—<i>Malad -(Idaho) People’s Advocate.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Federal Senate of the United States -is becoming more and more like the House of -Lords in England. It is clearly not of the -people. Wealth is the title that makes membership -possible. A man without money, in -these later days, can no more enter this -American House of Lords than a camel can -pass through the eye of a needle. No matter -how a man may have acquired his riches, -even though every one of his dollars be -tainted, this “honorable” position as the -head of our Government is his—providing -he has the “dough to go around.” Oh! -the shame of it all! Why is it that the common -people, the masses, those who earn their -bread by the sweat of their brow—and they -are in the majority—do not rise up in their -might and make this office an elective one by -all the people instead of a few subsidized -purchased legislators, that it might come -from the people, and in coming from them, -represent them instead of the selfish money -interests of the country?—<i>Detroit (Mich.) -Courier.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Common mortals have an awesome fear of -the majesty of the law, but not so with Rogers, -the Standard Oil lord lieutenant. They -are regarded by him as but minions of the -people; something far beneath his lofty -station. Let’s hope he is taught a wholesome -respect for courts of justice before -this Standard Oil rottenness is all suppressed.—<i>Prescot -(Wis.) Tribune.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Of all the thin political tricks that have -been attempted to be put off on the people -of Georgia, that Sibley-Howell correspondence, -sprung by tricky Clark in the Columbus -debate, was the thinnest. Why they didn’t -have sense enough to date their letters two -months earlier, so as to antedate Hoke -Smith’s announcement, is an evidence of the -weakness of political trickery. There was -never a meaner nor more transparent job, -for it could deceive only fools.—<i>Sparta -(Ga.) Ishmaelite.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It is said that the various corporations -of the country have employed and almost -monopolized all of the best legal talent of the -land. Be that as it may; no lawyer that is, -or for the last ten years has been, employed -by a corporation should ever be elected or -appointed to a public office. Especially -should they not be sent to Congress or state -legislature.—<i>Cass (Tex.) Sun.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Two insurance companies that have defied -the state law requiring licenses and who have -other charges laid at their doors have been -taken into the civil courts by the State Insurance -Department. It is to be hoped that -they will not escape upon any technicality as -they did in the criminal action. It’s time -the insurance companies were made to understand -that the laws, weak and incomplete as -they are, must be enforced.—<i>Cortez (Colo.) -Journal.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The year 1906 is an off year in politics. -No National tickets will be in the field; but -National issues will be emphasized and direction -given to the next campaign. It will be -well for us to look the field over and examine -our bearings. For many years we have -trusted the great political parties to make up -the issues that we, by ballot, are to decide; -but experience has taught us that political -parties make up blind issues, in which the -people are not interested. The great issue -before the people of this Government today -is the enforcement of the law. The great -monopolies, who are law defying in their tendencies, -must be compelled to obey the law. -The law-defying elements that are moved by -selfish motives alone, must be made to bend -to the will of the people.—<i>Lockwood (Mo.) -Times.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Berlin, the capital of Germany, has solved -the vexed sewage problem in a way that -should commend itself to American cities, -where we are away behind in the disposal of -harmful and polluting refuse. The municipality -of Berlin purchased thousands of acres -of unproductive sand land near the city and -fertilizing this with the sewage, raises big -crops for the city’s benefit. Of course the -plant is costly, but the proceeds of the farm -repay all cost, besides a good profit.—<i>The -American Farmer.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Citizen regrets very much the domestic -infelicity which seems to exist under the -roof of the <i>Atlanta, Ga., News</i>. It is unfortunate. -Hon. John Temple Graves, as the -Rome Tribune puts it, “is the Atlanta -News.” We would not give a thrip of our -finger for it without him. He is the life of -it, and his brain and energy have made it. -He has kept it free from furtherance of his -political ambitions, and has made it these -years the impartial commentator of men and -affairs. The whole trouble is, no doubt, the -result of corporate greed, and the desire on -the part of certain influences to control its -policy.—<i>Dalton (Ga.) Citizen.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span></p> - -<p>The next political campaign in this county -will be more than interesting. Neither -party has a “walkover” any longer. No -candidate has a “cinch,” but those who win -will have to work and satisfy the people. -Moreover, our people are not going to vote -for men they know to be bad, merely because -nominated by their party. The object of -our system of ballots is to give every voter a -chance to exercise his individual opinion and -our people, Democrats and Republicans, will -do it.—<i>Bloomfield (Mo.) Courier.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>If there are 80,000 populists in Georgia, -Clark Howell had just as well come out of -the race, for his attack on Tom Watson is an -attack on each of them, and the result will -be that every one of them will vote with him. -They follow him wherever he leads with that -same spirit of loyalty exhibited by the grenadiers -who followed the matchless Napoleon. -It is a bad political move to disturb this -sleeping lion, who is, perhaps, the matchless -master of the Queen’s English in Georgia. -His store of information seems inexhaustable, -and his logic irresistible. True, regardless -of his politics.—<i>Marietta (Ga.) Courier.</i></p> - -<p>Right, you are, neighbor. Watson’s -reply to Howell on the Sibley letter was the -hottest, the strongest, the most cutting and -most biting political epistle that we have -ever read.</p> - -<p>Every word in it was as sharp as a two-edged -sword and went as straight to the -mark as a rifle ball.</p> - -<p>We care but little what some writers say -about us, but there are two people in Georgia, -Mrs. Felton and Tom Watson, with whom -we hope forever to keep on terms.</p> - -<p>And Tom Watson is a man of convictions. -He isn’t afraid of abuse when it comes to -taking a stand for what he considers right.</p> - -<p>Smart as he is, he sees through the political -scheme being worked in Georgia to -defeat Hoke Smith and he denounces it in no -uncertain terms.</p> - -<p>Listen to him: “If Hoke Smith succeeds, -if the people will but realize that Hoke -Smith is the only anti-ring candidate in the -field, if they will but realize that the candidacies -of Clark Howell, Jim Smith, Dick -Russell, J. H. Estill, Jack Robinson, and -Hiram-Fat-and-Go-Last all tend to the -same object; if they will but realize that -these different candidates are jumping-jacks -which Hamp McWhorter has strung upon -the same string, and that when Hamp -strikes the string with the straw they all -dance in the most diverting and uniform -manner: if the people will but use their -common sense and refuse to be divided, then -Hoke Smith’s triumph is assured.”</p> - -<p>Listen again to this patriotic paragraph: -“And in my purpose there is a motive so -dominant, and a plan so full of the promise -of glorious results for Georgia and the South, -that I shall not allow the rigid limits of party -lines to tie my hands; but shall hold myself -perfectly free to serve my people in the best -way that circumstances allow, and as duty -directs.”</p> - -<p>And nobody will close Watson’s mouth. -On that score he says: “One-horse politicians -devoted to the ring need not think -that their permission is necessary for me to -advise with the people of Georgia. Their -consent will not be asked. As a Georgian -I have a right to be heard. My people came -here when the Indians still roamed in the -woods, and have been a part of Georgia ever -since, serving her dutifully in the time of -peace, fighting for her manfully in the time -of war. There never lived a man who was -more devoted than I to the best interests of -my state and of the South. As a Southern -man, I resent from the depth of my heart -the political degradation into which our -state has fallen, and I am going to do my -level best to help Hoke Smith redeem it.”—<i>Lawrenceville -(Ga.) Gwinnett Journal.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The bankers want more “currency”—so -did the farmers a few years ago. At that -time it was a crazy scheme—today it is sound -finance!—<i>Penns Grove (N. J.) Record.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Senator Depew is reported to be in failing -health, owing to the storm of criticism which -has forced him from many places of honor, -and which may lose him his Senate seat. -And this is the witty Chauncey who was wont -to laugh away opposition and carry his -points so easily! “Great will be the fall -thereof.”—<i>Hogansville (Ga.) News.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We move to amend Secretary Shaw’s -motion for an elastic currency by striking -out elastic and substituting adhesive.—<i>Republican -City (Mo.) Ranger.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Secretary Shaw’s scheme for an elastic -currency is to authorize the national banks -to strike from their notes as now issued the -words “secured by United States bonds -deposited with the treasury of the United -States,” and to issue 50 per cent more notes -whenever the demand seems to exist. Thus, -if the National City Bank of New York had -issued all the notes it could against Government -bonds, and a big stock gambler asked -for a loan of $1,000,000, the bank would issue -notes in that sum, charge him, say 10 per -cent, retire the notes when the loan was paid, -and pocket the interest in excess of the 6 -per cent tax to the Government. Very nice -arrangement that for the national banks. -Little wonder that Wall Street takes kindly -to the candidacy of Mr. Shaw for the presidency.—<i>Rushville -(Ill.) Times.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Let’s see: Does this country lead the -civilized world in progress? Well, hardly, -since every other civilized country on the -face of the earth, with the exception of Honduras -and Costa Rica, own and operate their -own telegraph lines and give a far more -satisfactory service to the public for a far -less consideration than it costs the dear people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span> -in this country of progress, where corporations, -have, by robbing the people, accumulated -untold wealth with which they are enabled -to evade such laws as prove obnoxious to -them, and can buy law-makers and have -odious laws repealed and new ones made, -giving them all the powers they seek.—<i>Cloverdale -(Ind.) Graphic.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Standard oil magnates have been -again showing their contempt of law. Their -attitude hatches more anarchists than all -the Herr Most brand of incubators. The -lawless rich and powerful are the real -enemies of the republic.—<i>Pennsboro (W. Va.)</i> -News.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The <i>American</i> agrees most heartily with -Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard -University, when he says the great -movement of the world is toward democracy. -This is the natural result of an advancing -civilization.</p> - -<p>America overthrew the false doctrine of -the divine right of kings to rule when she -wrote the Declaration of Independence and -declared that all men were born equal. -Since then we have created by law a person -as great, as arrogant and tyrannical as the -king—the Public Corporation.</p> - -<p>How can all men have an equal footing in -law when we give special privileges to the -corporate person and enable that person to -levy tribute at will on the wealth of the -nation?</p> - -<p>How can all have equal rights, when the -corporate person can spend millions of dollars -to corrupt our city councils, our state legislatures, -our Congress and our courts?</p> - -<p>The movement against these legalized law-created -individuals is the awakening of the -spirit of democracy, and it means the eventual -wiping out of these public service corporations -which occupy relatively the same position -in this country that the king does in a -monarchy. It means that genuine democracy, -the rule of the people, will supplant -the rule of the corporation. It means the -public ownership of all public utilities.—<i>Creston -(Ia.) Morning American.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Whatever is said of Tom Watson, no one -will deny that he has convictions and the -nerve to stand by them. He knows no party -lines when it comes to fighting for the principles -he has so long advocated, and that is the -reason he is now supporting Hoke Smith.—<i>Dalton -(Ga.) Citizen.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Philippine tariff is a characteristic act -of the present régime. We first shot and -beat the poor savages into submission. We -then took away the market for their goods and -compelled them to sell to, and buy of, us. -We followed this with the Dingley tariff both -coming and going. The fact that this was -simple highway robbery did not shame us. At -the point of a gun they are compelled to stand -and deliver. The House has now passed a -bill providing that we will stop robbing these -“wards” of ours except the poor Sugar Trust -and Tobacco Trust and they shall only continue -their robbery until 1909. And do you -know that some Republicans are actually -claiming some credit for such a law as that?—<i>Frankfort -(Ind.) Crescent Standard.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The author of our “Washington Letter” -slops over this week in fulsome praise of Paul -Morton, who at one time admitted his long-continued -violation of the anti-rebate law—a -crime which no honorable man would commit -under any circumstances. The <i>Herald</i> approves -of no such condoning of crime on the -part of any man from the President down to -the lowest.—<i>Waseca (Minn.) Herald.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Burton cares not who makes the laws of -the country, provided he gets his salary and -mileage.—<i>Cumberland (Md.) Independent.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>By stepping inside of the door of the Senate -chamber so that the journal clerk could -view him for half a minute, Senator Burton -of Kansas was enabled to claim attendance -on the 59th Congress and draw $1,000 mileage -therefore. No, Senator Burton will not resign -while he can draw his salary of $5,000 a -year and mileage, even though his reputation -does rest under a cloud. That cloud has -a silver lining.—<i>Alva (Okla.) Renfrews Record.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A few years ago there was considerable -riot in the subsidized press about the “disgrace” -that had been heaped upon Kansas -by the “Pops.” All manner of fun was -poked at Peffer’s whiskers—but he was never -sent to jail. This country had a good deal -of fun over “Sockless Jerry,” but he was -never accused of working any get-rich-quick -concern. No “Pop” state officer has ever -involved the state in such a scandal as has -been hanging over the state treasury for the -last three years. The “Pop” state secretary -never loaded the state school fund up with a -batch of worthless bonds. Honest now, how -much has the reputation of Kansas been improved -by the crowd that “redeemed it -from Populism.”—<i>Mankato (Kan.) Advocate.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It is an honor, not a crime, to hold a public -office. It is a proper reward for activity in -politics, but he who accepts an office should -never forget that the moment he enters upon -the discharge of his duties he becomes then -an officer for all the people, not only those -who voted for his election, but those who -opposed it.—<i>Indianola (Miss.) Enterprise.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As an evidence of the wide extent of the -reform sentiment among Oregon voters of -today, one has but to notice how anxiously -eager the would-be candidates for Congress -are to get into the reform band-wagon. At -least two of the Republican aspirants are -old-time ring politicians and probably care -but little for most of the reforms demanded -by the people further than to ride into office<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> -on the reform wave. But reform is in the -air, gentlemen, and if you keep in the swim -you will have to join the throng, and be -honest about it, too.—<i>Scio (Oregon) Santian -News.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>H. H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company -the concrete expression of the rank -insolence of a hundred millions of ill-gotten -wealth.—<i>Rush Springs (I. T.) Landmark.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>All cities which have adopted municipal -ownership of their lighting plant are glad -they did it, and would not think of going -back to private ownership. Why should -Grand Island be a back number in the progress -of the world?—<i>Grand Island (Neb.) -Democrat</i>.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="His_Grudge"><i>His Grudge</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY TOM P. MORGAN</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>“The Ladies’ Aid Society of the church have undertaken the task of -collecting half a mile of pennies,” said the Old Codger’s niece, “for the -purpose of sending our pastor on a vacation trip.”</p> - -<p>“Humph!” answered the veteran, with all the suavity of a hyena.</p> - -<p>“A row of cents half a mile long,” persisted the lady, “will amount, so Sister -Eunice Tubman has figured out, to $420.00, and—”</p> - -<p>“I don’t care what they amount to!” doggedly declared the venerable curmudgeon. -“While I’ve got any sense nobody will get any cents out o’ me -for any such purpose! I don’t care a contaminated drat whether ‘our pastor’ -stays at home or goes to the Whangdoodle Islands—whatever he does won’t -be at my expense, lemme just rise to remark!”</p> - -<p>“But, Uncle, you know the laborer is worthy of his hire, and—”</p> - -<p>“Yuss! And the less they labor the higher they want their hire to be! Labor!—<i>huh!</i> -If more preachers would—aw, well, I won’t give an inch of that ’ere -half mile of cents, and that settles it!”</p> - -<p>“Why, Uncle, how <i>can</i> you talk so? You are generally ready to give to -good causes, and—”</p> - -<p>“Ah-yah! But <i>his name is Bertram</i>!”</p> - -<p>“To be sure, it is! And he is in every way such a worthy young man, and -so intellectual, too! What possible grudge can you have against him?”</p> - -<p>“Just told ye!—his name is Bertram! He also says ‘eyther’ and ‘nyther’, -which pronunciations cheat me out of all the good his sermons might otherwise -do me. I could overlook that, though, if his name wasn’t Bertram. For years -that’s been pretty nearly a fighting word with me. When I was a freckle-nosed -schoolboy in the old Head-o’-the-River district, there was a boy named Bertram -there, who had a swifter sled than mine, and didn’t have to wear his Pa’s cut-down-to-fit-him -clothes like I did, and who spelt me down the last day of school, -and took from me the bashful affection of the pantaletted little girl who was -all the world to me at that particular time. I couldn’t get even with him then -for he could lick me, and did. And ever since I’ve—”</p> - -<p>“But, my goodness! This isn’t the same Bertram!”</p> - -<p>“No, but he’s a Bertram, and somehow all Bertrams have looked alike to -me ever since. All these years I’ve been hostile to Bertrams, and have never -been able to conquer the feeling, try as I might. Any Bertram affects me the -same way—a Bertram is a Bertram, to me, and I simply can’t help it. The -Lord loves a cheerful giver, and as I couldn’t any more give cheerfully to this -or any other Bertram than I could sing a hymn while sitting down on wet ice, -I won’t add a cent to that ’ere half-mile of pennies. That’s all there is to it.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="News_Record"> -<img src="images/heading20.jpg" width="700" height="175" alt="" /> -<h2><i>News Record</i></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">FROM JANUARY 8 TO FEBRUARY 8, 1906</p> - -</div> - -<div class="news"> - -<h3><i>Home News</i></h3> - -<p class="day">January 8.—Senator Rayner, of Maryland, -attacks President Roosevelt’s attitude -on the Santo Domingan question. He -declares the President has twisted the -Monroe Doctrine into a “Roosevelt -Doctrine.”</p> - -<p>President Roosevelt transmits the report -of the Panama Canal Commissioners -and the Panama Railroad directors to -the Senate. The reports are accompanied -by a letter from the President -in which he challenges an investigation -of the canal work.</p> - -<p>Senator Bacon, of Georgia, introduces a -resolution in the Senate asking President -Roosevelt why the United States is -mixing in the quarrel over Morocco, -which threatens to bring about a European -war.</p> - -<p>A resolution is introduced in the House -for a committee to investigate the treatment -of Mrs. Minor Morris at the White -House. On Jan. 4, Mrs. Morris was -forcibly ejected by order of Secretary -Barnes.</p> - -<p>Standard Oil interests organize a Glucose -Trust to control the entire glucose business -of the country.</p> - -<p>H. H. Rogers again testifies in the investigation -of the Standard Oil Co. -brought by the State of Missouri. He -follows his tactics of refusing to answer -questions, and expresses contempt for -the laws of Missouri, and the Missouri -Supreme Court.</p> - -<p>A landslide at Haverstraw, N. Y., kills -22 persons.</p> - -<p class="day">January 9.—The treatment of Mrs. Minor -Morris at the White House brings severe -criticism on Mr. Roosevelt. Prominent -senators and congressmen condemn -the President’s treatment of them -at the hands of his secretaries. The newspaper -correspondents claim that he exerts -a press censorship over the Departments -and allows nothing to be given to -the press except what suits him. Many -acts of misconduct in the Departments -have been kept a secret. A large force of -secretaries and secret service men prevent -officials from seeing the President -on official business, unless the President -cares to attend to such matters.</p> - -<p>The House Committee on Postoffices and -Post Roads requests Postmaster General -Cortelyou to supply the Committee -with all information he may have on the -franking abuses.</p> - -<p>The National Bank of Commerce, New -York City, drops J. H. Hyde, J. W. -Alexander, Senator Depew and Richard -A. McCurdy from its board of directors.</p> - -<p>Judge J. H. Paynter is elected United -States senator from Kentucky to succeed -Senator Blackburn.</p> - -<p>The Senate accepts the President’s challenge, -and orders an investigation of the -Panama Canal affairs.</p> - -<p>Speaker Cannon succeeds in winning John -Sharp Williams’s support for the Philippine -Tariff bill. This insures its passage.</p> - -<p>A judge of the New York Supreme Court -issues a writ ordering H. H. Rogers to -show cause for not answering the questions -of Attorney-General Hadley, of -Missouri, in the Standard Oil investigation.</p> - -<p class="day">January 10.—Secretary Taft replies to -Poultney Bigelow’s charges of maladministration -in Panama. He virtually -calls Bigelow a liar, but admits -that negro women were sent to the -Isthmus to be distributed as wives -among the laborers. The charge that -a boat-load of negroes from Martinique -were clubbed is also admitted.</p> - -<p>The Federal Grand Jury at Utica, N. Y., -indicts the New York Central and -Delaware and Hudson railroads for -rebating.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Minor Morris, the woman who was -ejected from the White House, is in -a critical condition.</p> - -<p>Dr. William R. Harper, President of the -University of Chicago, dies at his home -in Chicago.</p> - -<p class="day">January 11.—The Senate committee, which -has the Panama investigation in charge, -subpœnas Poultney Bigelow to testify -about mismanagement of the Canal -affairs.</p> - -<p>President Roosevelt declares that it will -be the fault of Southern senators if the -treaty with Santo Domingo is not -ratified.</p> - -<p>Ramon Caceres, who succeeded Morales -as President of Santo Domingo, declares<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> -that he favors the Roosevelt -treaty, and that peace will soon be -restored.</p> - -<p>Senator Bacon’s resolution of inquiry -into the Moroccan question is shelved.</p> - -<p class="day">January 12.—The House and Senate leaders -reach an agreement to meet the retaliatory -legislation of foreign countries -with a maximum and minimum tariff. -The minimum tariff is to be the Dingley -law. The maximum is a 25 per cent. -addition to the Dingley schedule.</p> - -<p>Congressman Longworth, of Ohio, addresses -the House on the Philippine -tariff bill, and declares the Philippines -to be a shiftless, worthless lot of people.</p> - -<p>The Insurgent Congressmen, that is, the -Republicans who oppose Speaker Cannon -on the joint statehood bill, claim -that they have 51 votes and will defeat -the bill. Two of them are from Missouri. -The President sends for the -entire Missouri delegation and tries to -whip the two members into line, but -fails.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Cassie Chadwick begins her term of -imprisonment in the Federal Penitentiary -at Columbus, Ohio.</p> - -<p>Congressman McCall, of Massachusetts, -warns his Republican colleagues that -they must revise the tariff, or the -Republican Party will be defeated at -the next election.</p> - -<p>District Attorney Jerome, of New York -City, prepares to prosecute the guilty -officials of the big life insurance companies.</p> - -<p>The Clyde Line steamship <i>Cherokee</i> goes -ashore on Brigantine Shoals, off Atlantic -City, N. J. Tugs and life-saving -crews have gone to the aid of the passengers -and crew.</p> - -<p class="day">January 13.—President Roosevelt holds a -conference with prominent New York -Republicans with reference to ousting -Odell from the leadership of New York -State.</p> - -<p>The President has a conference with -Representative Hepburn and indicates -that he favors the Hepburn bill on -railroad rate regulation.</p> - -<p>The notice to make H. H. Rogers testify in -the Standard Oil investigation is argued -before Justice Gildersleeve in the New -York Supreme Court.</p> - -<p>The debate on the Philippine tariff bill -continues in the House.</p> - -<p>Troops in the Philippines are being held in -readiness to sail for China in case the -feelings against Americans cannot be -controlled by the Chinese Government.</p> - -<p>Attorney General Mayer, of New York, -prepares to bring suit against the McCurdys -and the directors of the Mutual -Life Insurance Co. for the restitution of -illegal salaries and commissions.</p> - -<p class="day">January 14.—All of the passengers and a part -of the crew are rescued from the stranded -steamer <i>Cherokee</i>. The captain, -two mates and the ship’s carpenter refused -to leave the vessel.</p> - -<p>According to statistics gathered by insurance -men, 17,700 persons were killed or -wounded in the factories and steel -plants in Allegheny County, Penn., in -1905.</p> - -<p class="day">January 15.—Private Secretary Loeb denies -that the President stated, while trying -to whip the Missouri delegation into line -on the Statehood bill last Friday, that -money was being freely used by corporations -to defeat the bill. About the -time the denial is made, a delegation -from Arizona returned from the White -House, and stated that practically the -same charge was made to them.</p> - -<p>Secretary Taft declares that the Southern -Pacific Railway, through its ownership -of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., is responsible -for the congestion of freight on -the Isthmus of Panama, and consequent -hindrance of canal work. The steamship -company refuses to move the -freight on the Pacific side, hoping to -keep the blockade on the Atlantic side -so great that no Government boats can -land there with more supplies. This -will force shipment via the Southern -Pacific to San Francisco, and from there -to Panama via the Pacific Mail Steamship -Co.</p> - -<p>The captain with the remaining members -of his crew abandons the <i>Cherokee</i>. -The rescue of passengers and crew was -made by Captain Casto, of Atlantic -City, N. J., with his crew in his schooner -<i>Alberta</i>.</p> - -<p>The debate on the Philippine tariff bill is -brought to a close in the House of Representatives.</p> - -<p>The President prepares a message to Congress, -favoring a lock canal. The Canal -Commission asks for $5,000,000 to continue -the work during the balance of the -present fiscal year.</p> - -<p class="day">January 16.—Marshall Field, Chicago’s -millionaire merchant, dies of pneumonia -in New York City, at the age of -70.</p> - -<p>The Panama Canal Commission decides to -build the Canal by contract. The -President has approved the plan.</p> - -<p>Congressman Hermann, of Oregon, who is -under indictment for participating in -land frauds, takes the oath of office, and -begins to draw his salary.</p> - -<p class="day">January 16.—The House of Representatives -passes the Philippine tariff bill. -The bill admits goods the growth or -product of the Philippines into the -United States free of duty, except -sugar, tobacco and rice, on which a -tariff of 35 per cent of the Dingley -rates is levied. Philippine goods -coming to the United States are -exempted from the export tax of the -islands. The bill further provides that -after April 11, 1909, there shall be absolute<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span> -free trade each way between the -United States and the Philippines.</p> - -<p>The vote on the Statehood bill is indefinitely -postponed because Speaker Cannon -fails to secure a sufficient number of -pledges to make its passage certain.</p> - -<p>The annual meeting of the United Mine -Workers of America is held at Indianapolis.</p> - -<p>The Senate debates the question whether -Congress has the right to delegate to the -courts its power to fix railroad rates.</p> - -<p>The resolution introduced in the New -York State Senate, asking Senator Depew -to resign, is lost by a vote of 34 to 1. -The Democrats refused to vote on the -resolution.</p> - -<p class="day">January 17.—Senator Tillman, of South -Carolina, bitterly attacks President -Roosevelt on account of Mrs. Minor -Morris’ treatment at the White House. -Senator Hale, of Maine, alone makes a -protest, and that on the ground of propriety.</p> - -<p>The House of Representatives passes 166 -private pension bills.</p> - -<p>Ex-Senator David B. Hill, of New York, -asks that his connection with the Equitable -Life Assurance Society be investigated -by the New York State Bar -Association.</p> - -<p>Three midshipmen are dismissed from the -United States Naval Academy at Annapolis -for hazing.</p> - -<p>The 200th anniversary of the birth of -Benjamin Franklin is celebrated in Philadelphia -and Boston.</p> - -<p>Suits for $2,000,000 are filed by the city -of Chicago against two street railway -companies for running cars overcrowded -with passengers.</p> - -<p class="day">January 18.—Poultney Bigelow refuses to -answer questions about conditions as -described by him in an article on the -Isthmus of Panama, before members of -the Senate Committee. He is arrested -for contempt, but is later released.</p> - -<p>Secretary Root states that the United -States has no political interest in the -Moroccan conference, but has a trade -interest, and for that reason the United -States is represented.</p> - -<p>Senator Tillman’s resolution, calling for -an investigation of the expulsion of -Mrs. Minor Morris from the White -House is tabled.</p> - -<p>Secretary Taft advocates the construction -of a direct cable connecting the United -States with Panama. The Secretary -declares this cable indispensable to the -military control of the Gulf of Mexico -in time of war.</p> - -<p>Eighteen miners are killed by an explosion -at Paint Creek, W. Va.</p> - -<p>Congressman Sulzer, of New York, introduces -a bill to increase the President’s -salary to $100,000 and the Vice-President’s -to $25,000 per year.</p> - -<p>The Keep Commission, appointed by the -President to investigate the method of -gathering statistics for crop reports, -recommends that the reports on the -cotton crops be restricted to monthly -reports showing the condition of the -growing crop during the growing season. -The acreage planted and the ginning -statistics of the Census Bureau -should be the only Government reports -on those matters.</p> - -<p class="day">January 19.—Luke E. Wright, former Governor -of the Philippines, is appointed -first Ambassador to Japan.</p> - -<p>Representatives of the insurance departments -of several states confer with -Armstrong Committee, which conducted -the recent insurance investigation -in New York, with a view to -bringing about uniform insurance laws.</p> - -<p class="day">January 20.—The Senate Committee on the -Philippines takes under consideration -the Philippine tariff bill.</p> - -<p>Robert H. Todd, Mayor of San Juan, Porto -Rico, appears before the House Committee -in behalf of the Larrinaga bill to -reorganize the Porto Rican civil government. -He declares that American -members of the executive council are -doing the insular Government a great -injustice by occupying as residences -Government buildings needed for the -housing of courts and departments of -the Government.</p> - -<p class="day">January 21.—Eighteen negroes are killed -and fifty injured in a stampede following -the discovery of fire in a church in -Philadelphia.</p> - -<p>The thermometer registers 86 degrees in -Pittsburg. One person is overcome by -the heat. Cities all over the country -report much suffering from the heat.</p> - -<p>Congressman Sulzer, of New York addresses -a mass-meeting of citizens at -Washington, D. C., and declares that -the Powers must end Russian cruelty. -Congressman Rainey, of Illinois, in addressing -the same meeting, said that -the United States had saved Russia -from the victorious Japanese and ought -now to save her from herself. Congressman -Towne, of New York, introduced -a resolution thanking the President -for his efforts in bringing about a -cessation of the unspeakable crimes -against the oppressed people of Russia.</p> - -<p class="day">January 22.—Senator Burton, of Kansas, -who has been convicted of malfeasance, -appears in the United States Senate for -thirty seconds. This entitles him to -collect his $1,000 mileage.</p> - -<p>Secretary Taft denies that any member of -the Philippine Commission or any army -or naval officer owns directly, or indirectly, -any lands in the Philippine Islands.</p> - -<p class="day">January 23.—Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, -attempts to defend the President’s -Santo Domingan policy in the Senate. -Senators Tillman, of South Carolina,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span> -and Culberson, of Texas, make strong -replies.</p> - -<p>Both Republican and Democratic members -of the House Committee on Interstate -and Foreign Commerce unanimously -agree on the railroad rate bill -introduced by Congressman Hepburn, -of Iowa. The bill will be sent back to -the House for passage at once.</p> - -<p>Chief Engineer Stevens, of the Panama -Canal Commission, appears before the -Senate Committee, and advocates a lock -canal.</p> - -<p>The Government opens its case against the -Beef Trust at Chicago.</p> - -<p>Kansas oil refiners appeal to Commissioner -Garfield against impositions of the -Standard Oil Co.</p> - -<p>A plot of anarchists to assassinate some -of the leading men of the country is unearthed -at Washington, Pa. Governor -Pennypacker was one of the doomed -number.</p> - -<p class="day">January 24.—Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, -addresses the Senate in defence -of President Roosevelt’s Moroccan and -Santo Domingan policies.</p> - -<p>A rule for consideration of the Joint Statehood -bill is passed by the House of -Representatives. This practically assures -the passage of the bill.</p> - -<p>The Imperial Chinese Commissioners -visiting this country are received at the -White House by President Roosevelt.</p> - -<p>State Senator Raines, introduces a bill in -the New York Legislature providing for -a recount of the vote cast in the recent -New York City mayoralty election.</p> - -<p class="day">January 25.—The Joint Statehood bill, providing -for the admission of Oklahoma -and Indian Territory as the State of -Oklahoma, and New Mexico and Arizona -as the State of Arizona is passed -by the House.</p> - -<p>Senator Mooney, of Mississippi, criticises -President Roosevelt’s Moroccan and -Santo Domingan policies.</p> - -<p>Attorney General Hadley, of Missouri, -who is in Cleveland, Ohio, taking testimony -in the Standard Oil investigation, -charges the Standard’s officials with -forgery committed in New York City, -and offers to submit the proof to District -Attorney Jerome in order that he -may prosecute.</p> - -<p>General Joseph Wheeler dies at the home -of his sister in Brooklyn, N. Y.</p> - -<p>Stephen Decatur, great-grandnephew of -the famous Stephen Decatur, is expelled -from the United States Naval Academy, -at Annapolis, for hazing.</p> - -<p>Stuyvesant Fish, of New York, President -of the Illinois Central Railroad Co., declares -that corporations need the knife -of reform.</p> - -<p class="day">January 26.—President Roosevelt makes -a public statement that an attorney for -the Beef Trust paid a Chicago newspaper -reporter to write accounts of the -Beef Trust Trial favorable to the trust.</p> - -<p>The members of Wisconsin’s legislative -committee to investigate life insurance -companies visit New York to confer -with members of the Armstrong Committee -about points to guide them in -their investigation.</p> - -<p>Luke Wright, former Governor of the -Philippines, appears before the Senate -Committee on the Philippines, and advocates -the passage of the Philippine -Tariff bill, recently passed by the House.</p> - -<p>Chairman Shonts of the Panama Canal -Commission appears before the Senate -Interoceanic Canal Committee and tells -what work is being done on the Canal. -He declares that a great amount of -work in the way of improving sanitary -conditions and building houses has been -completed, and that the actual digging -will begin about July 1. Mr. Shonts -admits that he is still President of the -Clover Leaf Railroad, at the salary of -$12,000 per year.</p> - -<p>Mayor Billock and the chief of police of -Monongahela, Pa., request Gov. Pennypacker -to send troops to that place to -aid in the capture of a band of anarchists. -This is the same band which -planned the assassination of Gov. Pennypacker -and many other prominent men.</p> - -<p>Attorney General Hadley, of Missouri, -examines men engaged in the independent -oil business at Cleveland, Ohio, in -the investigation of the Standard Oil -Co. by the State of Missouri.</p> - -<p>The New York Legislature proposes -investigation of the banking system -similar to the insurance investigation -made by the Armstrong Committee. -The Iowa Legislature proposes an investigation -of Iowa insurance companies.</p> - -<p class="day">January 27.—The Panama Canal Commission -decides in favor of a lock canal. -The final decision will be made by Congress.</p> - -<p>The House passes the Urgent Deficiency -bill making the appropriation to meet -the present demands of the Panama -Commission. The eight hour law is -eliminated so far as foreign labor is -concerned.</p> - -<p>Insurance Commissioner R. E. Polk, of -Tennessee, notifies all of the insurance -companies which made contributions to -campaign funds to return such funds or -discontinue their business in Tennessee.</p> - -<p>Counsel for the Beef Trust denies the statements -that money was paid newspapermen -to write accounts of the present -trial favorable to the Trust.</p> - -<p>William H. Van Shaick, who was captain -of the steamer <i>General Slocum</i>, which -was burned in the East River, New -York City, on June 15, 1904, causing the -death of more than one thousand persons, -is found guilty of neglect of duty -and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span></p> - -<p class="day">January 29.—The House of Representatives -passes the following resolution: “That -the President is hereby requested to report -to the House all facts within the -knowledge of the Interstate Commerce -Commission which show or tend to show -that there exists at this time, or heretofore -within the last twelve months has -existed a combination or arrangement -between the Pennsylvania Railroad -Company, the Pennsylvania Company, -the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, -the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad -Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore -and Washington Railroad Company, the -Northern Central Railway Company -and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway -Company, or any two or more of said -railroad companies, in violation of the -act of July 2, 1890.” The resolution -was introduced several days ago by Mr. -Gillespie, of Texas, and had been referred -to a committee which had failed -to make a report on it. Seeing that a -majority of the railroad congressmen -were absent from their seats, Mr. Gillespie -put the resolution before the House -and had it passed before the railroad -men could be rallied.</p> - -<p>Senator Heyburn charges that a press -agency is maintained at Government -expense in the Forestry Bureau. He -also states that mining and agricultural -interests are being interfered with in -Idaho by the Forestry Bureau.</p> - -<p>Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, calls -up his resolution asking for an investigation -of the Chinese boycott. The -resolution is referred to a committee.</p> - -<p>Secretary Taft asks for a reserve army of -50,000 men, at a cost of $2,000,000 per -year. The reserves are to consist of -men who have served one term of enlistment -in the regular army. They are -to be allowed to live wherever they -wish in the United States, but to be -subject to call by the President of ten -days each year for instruction, and on -the outbreak of a foreign war to be -called into active service.</p> - -<p>Attorneys for the Beef Trust testify that -Commissioner of Corporations Garfield -promised members of the Trust immunity -from criminal prosecution if they -would give certain information about -Trust methods.</p> - -<p>At Ormond Beach, Florida, an automobile -is driven two miles in 58⅘ seconds.</p> - -<p>General Wheeler’s body is buried at Arlington, -the National cemetery near -Washington, D. C.</p> - -<p>The Senate Committee on Territories reports -favorably on the Joint Statehood bill.</p> - -<p>Secretary Taft states that it will be several -years before any contracts for Canal -work are let.</p> - -<p class="day">January 30.—In response to Congressman -Gillespie’s resolution, President Roosevelt -asks the Interstate Commerce Commission -for a report on the Pennsylvania -Railroad merger.</p> - -<p>The Hepburn Railroad Rate Regulation -bill is taken up by the House of Representatives. -A vote on the bill is expected -by February 6.</p> - -<p>A resolution is introduced in the New Jersey -Senate directing the Attorney General -of that state to bring suits to forfeit -the charters of the Standard Oil and its -subsidiary companies.</p> - -<p>The earnings of the Steel Trust for the -quarter ending December 31, are $35,278,688.</p> - -<p>Edward Morris, of Nelson Morris Co., -testifies that Commissioner Garfield -promised the beef packers immunity -from prosecution when he inspected -their secret accounts. Samuel McRoberts, -Treasurer of Armour & Co., testifies -to the same effect.</p> - -<p class="day">January 31.—Senator Patterson, of Colorado, -a Democrat, makes a speech in the Senate -in support of President Roosevelt’s -policies in Santo Domingo, Morocco and -railroad rate regulation.</p> - -<p>The debate on the Hepburn railroad rate -regulation bill is continued in the House -of Representatives.</p> - -<p>Justice Gildersleeve, in the New York Supreme -Court, hands down a decision in -which he refuses to make H. H. Rogers -answer certain questions asked by Attorney -General Hadley, in the investigation -of Standard Oil methods, until -the Missouri courts have decided on a -similar case.</p> - -<p class="day">February 1.—Republican Senators deny -that the President has issued an ultimatum -to them on the railroad rate -question.</p> - -<p>The House of Representatives passes a -resolution calling on the Director of the -Census for all cotton statistics.</p> - -<p>The debate on the Hepburn bill continues -in the House.</p> - -<p>Lieutenant General Adna R. Chaffee retires -from command of the U. S. Army. -Major General John C. Bates is nominated -to succeed him.</p> - -<p>The Democratic Senators are alarmed by -Senator Patterson’s speech in favor of -the Santo Domingo treaty, and call a -caucus for Saturday.</p> - -<p class="day">February 2.—The President holds several -conferences with Senate leaders on a -compromise railroad rate regulation -bill. Some of the Republican Senators -are opposed to the Hepburn bill which -is now before the House.</p> - -<p>The Democratic senators threaten to bar -all Democrats from future caucuses who -support the Santo Domingan treaty.</p> - -<p>The joint conference of coal operators and -miners, held at Indianapolis, adjourns -without reaching an agreement on a -wage scale. The failure to reach an -agreement is almost sure to result in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span> -another great strike, beginning April 1.</p> - -<p>The Government wrings an admission -from the Beef Trust that the National -Packing Co. is simply a “holding” -concern. It buys all the cattle, but -does all of its business through constituent -corporations.</p> - -<p class="day">February 3.—The caucus of Democratic -senators at Washington adopts a resolution -that it is the duty of every -Democratic senator to oppose the -Santo Domingan treaty.</p> - -<p>The National Executive Board of the -United Mine Workers decides on a plan -to raise $5,000,000 with which to carry -on the strike of the coal miners, beginning -April 1.</p> - -<p>The Panama Canal Commission decides on -an 85-foot level lock Canal. It is estimated -that a lock Canal will cost -$100,000,000 less than a sea-level -canal.</p> - -<p class="day">February 5.—John F. Wallace, former chief -engineer of the Panama Canal Commission, -appears before the Senate -Committee and explains why he resigned. -He claims that incapable men -were given greater authority than the -chief engineer.</p> - -<p>The leaders of the Pennsylvania coal -miners are divided on the question of -ordering the great strike.</p> - -<p>The Democratic members of the House -Committee on appropriations make a -minority report opposing the appropriation -of $600,000 for fortifying Manila -and other cities in the Philippines.</p> - -<p>The report of the Interstate Commerce -Commission shows that the Pennsylvania -Railroad really controls the -Baltimore and Ohio and several other -roads.</p> - -<p class="day">February 6.—President Roosevelt urges a -modification of the hazing laws at the -United States Naval Academy.</p> - -<p>Thos. W. Lawson asks Gov. Cummins, of -Iowa, to serve on a committee of five -to vote New York Life and Mutual -Life insurance proxies, given to Lawson -by policy-holders.</p> - -<p>There seems to be general dissatisfaction -among the coal miners over the proposed -strike. The miners ask the resignation -of the president of the Pittsburg -district, and the National President, -John Mitchell, is called on to -settle the dispute. The mine owners -are laying up a reserve supply of 6,500,000 -tons to meet the demand in case -the strike takes place.</p> - -<p>The House of Representatives continues -to discuss the Hepburn Railroad Rate -bill.</p> - -<p>District Attorney Jerome orders witnesses -to appear before the New York City -Grand Jury with a view to criminal -prosecution of the officials of life insurance -companies.</p> - -<p>The Standard Oil Co. is considering a -plan to increase its capital stock from -$100,000,000 to $600,000,000.</p> - -<p class="day">February 7.—A large number of amendments -to the Hepburn Rate Regulation -bill are rejected. The bill stands as the -House Committee reported it.</p> - -<p>The Senate hears evidence against Senator -Reed Smoot, the Mormon from -Utah. Professor Wolfe, a former Mormon, -testifies that the Mormon oath -contains the “seed of treason.”</p> - -<p>M. Taigny, former French chargé d’affaires -who was forced to leave Venezuela, -reaches New York City.</p> - -<p>Senator Patterson, of Colorado, who -bolted the Democratic caucus on the -Santo Domingan treaty, introduces a -resolution declaring party caucus dictation -unconstitutional. Senator Bailey, -of Texas, replies to Senator Patterson, -and severely criticises the President, -the senator and the treaty.</p> - -<p class="day">February 8.—John A. McCall, former President -of the New York Life Insurance -Co., is seriously ill at Lakewood, N. J.</p> - -<p>Richard A. McCurdy, former President of -the Mutual Life Insurance Co., plans to -leave the United States and make his -home in Paris.</p> - -<p>The New York Life Insurance Company’s -“house cleaning” committee reveal that -Judge Andrew Hamilton has received -$1,347,382 from that company since -1892. This is $283,383 in excess of the -total payments disclosed by the Armstrong -Committee. The committee -recommends legal action against John A. -McCall for the recovery of the amount.</p> - -<p>Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, introduces -a bill in the Senate making it a -penalty for any Government officer, official -or employee to accept a railroad -pass or franking privilege over telegraph -lines.</p> - -<p>By a vote of 346 to 7 the House of Representatives -passes the Hepburn Railroad -Rate Regulation bill just as it came -from the Committee on Interstate and -Foreign Commerce and declared by -Chairman Hepburn to be exactly in -accordance with recommendations of -President Roosevelt on the subject.</p> - -<p>The House of Representatives passes the -General Pension bill for the year ending -June 30, 1907. The bill appropriates -$140,245,000. Congressman Gardner, -of Michigan, declares that when the last -pensioner on account of the civil war -has disappeared from the rolls, $12,000,000,000 -will have been expended.</p> - -<h3><i>Foreign News</i></h3> - -<p class="day">January 8.—Another plot to kill the Czar of -Russia is discovered.</p> - -<p>The massacre of Jews in Russia is denounced -at a public meeting in England.</p> - -<p>King Edward dissolves the existing parliament, -and orders the polling for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span> -new one to begin January 13 and end -January 27.</p> - -<p>Negotiations for a settlement between the -Bermudez Asphalt Co. and Venezuela -again fail. Secretary Root will probably -ask Congress to settle the dispute.</p> - -<p>A few minor disturbances occur in Russia. -Many arrests are made by the police.</p> - -<p>St. Pierre-Miquelon agrees to aid Newfoundland -in her campaign against -American fishermen.</p> - -<p class="day">January 9.—A general uprising in Siberia is -feared by the Russian Government. -Martial law is being extended to more -provinces. The peasants continue to -burn and pillage in the Baltic provinces. -Russia pledges some of her railroads to -secure a loan from Paris bankers.</p> - -<p>The Japanese Government plans to give -$75,000,000 in pensions and bonds to -the soldiers and sailors who fought in -the war with Russia.</p> - -<p class="day">January 11.—The cost of the Russo-Japanese -war to Russia reaches $1,050,000,000.</p> - -<p>Premier Witte states that the Government -will not yield to the revolutionists’ demand -for transforming the National -Assembly into a Constituent Assembly -for the purpose of formulating a constitution.</p> - -<p>Russian troops kill 65 revolutionists who -attempt to wreck a military train in Livonia. -The revolt in Esthonia ends.</p> - -<p>The feeling against foreigners is growing -stronger in the Southern part of China.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from Madrid, Spain, state that -there is little fear of a serious difficulty -between Germany and France over the -Moroccan question.</p> - -<p class="day">January 12.—General Morales resigns as -President of Santo Domingo, and prepares -to leave for Cuba on the U. S. -gunboat <i>Dubuque</i>.</p> - -<p>Venezuela and France sever diplomatic -relations. France will push her claims -against Venezuela until they are fully -recognized.</p> - -<p>The worst of the insurrection in Siberia -seems to be over. The leading members -of the Warsaw revolutionary committee -are arrested. Cossacks shell an -Armenian seminary at Tiflis, killing -more than 300 persons.</p> - -<p>German Socialists prepare to hold meetings -in Berlin to commemorate the Red -Sunday in St. Petersburg, and to protest -against suffrage restrictions in -Prussia.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from London state that the -European Powers will aid France in her -contentions against Germany on the -Moroccan question.</p> - -<p class="day">January 13.—A. J. Balfour, former Premier -of England and leader of the Unionist -party is defeated for re-election to Parliament -by T. G. Horridge, Liberal and -Free Trader. So far the Liberals and -Labor Party have gained eighteen seats -over the Unionists in the present election.</p> - -<p>Fears prevail in Paris that the Emperor of -Germany will be too aggressive in the -Moroccan dispute.</p> - -<p class="day">January 14.—France recalls her Minister -from Venezuela. The French interests -are placed in the hands of the American -Minister.</p> - -<p>The delegates are gathering at Algeciras, -Spain, for the conference on the Moroccan -question.</p> - -<p>Carlos F. Morales, former President of -Santo Domingo, reaches San Juan, Porto -Rico. He declares in favor of the treaty -between Santo Domingo and the United -States now before the Senate for ratification.</p> - -<p>The Santo Domingan troops rout the -rebels in a battle at Guayubin, Santo -Domingo.</p> - -<p>M. Durnovo is made Minister of the Interior -by the Emperor of Russia.</p> - -<p>General Nogi is enthusiastically welcomed -home by the people of Tokio.</p> - -<p class="day">January 15.—The election of members of -the British Parliament up to date shows -a landslide. The Liberals have elected -132 members while the Unionists have -elected thirty.</p> - -<p>The peasants are said to be committing all -manner of horrible crimes in Orel, -Russia. Maj. Gen. Lisooiki is assassinated -at Penza. Assassins kill three -sergeants of police at Riga. The revolutionists -continue to resist the Government -in the Caucasus.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from Paris state that France -will send warships to coerce Venezuela -into paying France’s claims.</p> - -<p>The Czar starts a movement to reorganize -the Church in Russia.</p> - -<p class="day">January 16.—The Moroccan conference begins -at Algeciras, Spain. The Duke of -Almodovar, Spanish Minister of Foreign -Affairs, is elected President of the conference.</p> - -<p>The Liberals continue to gain over the Unionists -in the election now being held in -England. John Burns, President of the -Local Government Board and a prominent -labor leader, is re-elected by 1,800 -majority.</p> - -<p>St. Petersburg Police raid a meeting of the -Workman’s Council and capture 22 -members. Revolutionary documents, -correspondence and the headquarters -from which propaganda is conducted to -the army and navy are discovered. In -the Caucasus the rebels continue their -resistance to the Government.</p> - -<p class="day">January 17.—Joseph Chamberlain and his -seven candidates are returned to Parliament -from Birmingham, England.</p> - -<p>M. Fallières, President of the French -Senate, is elected President of the -French Republic to succeed M. Loubet.</p> - -<p>Venezuelan officials prohibit M. Taigny, -the French chargé d’affaires, from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span> -landing in Venezuela. The heads of -the French cable officers at Caracas and -La Guayra are also expelled.</p> - -<p class="day">January 18.—Delegates to the Moroccan -conference agree that the shipping of -contraband arms into Morocco must be -stopped.</p> - -<p>After giving M. Maubourguet the Venezuelan -chargé d’affaires, his passport, -the French Government has him escorted -to the Belgian frontier by special -police.</p> - -<p>Serious riots occur in Hamburg, Germany, -between the police and Socialists. -About 20 policemen and 15 Socialists -are wounded when the police attempt -to disperse a crowd of Socialists erecting -a barricade in the street.</p> - -<p>The Constitutional Democrats of Russia -meet in convention in St. Petersburg.</p> - -<p>Trouble continues in the Baltic and -Southern Provinces, and the Czar is -still afraid to leave his palace.</p> - -<p class="day">January 19.—The Constitutional Democrats -of Russia vote to take part in the -elections to the duma.</p> - -<p>Dispatches state that three French warships -have appeared off the coast of -Venezuela.</p> - -<p>The insurgent forces capture Quito, the -capital of Ecuador. Vice-president -Baquerizo Moreno assumes executive -power and will appoint a new Cabinet.</p> - -<p>According to advices received at the -Japanese Embassy, at Washington, -680,000 persons are starving in the -Northern Provinces of Japan. The -condition is due to the short rice crops, -which is only 15 per cent of the average.</p> - -<p class="day">January 20.—The new Government of -Ecuador lasts one hour. Baquerizo -Moreno is overthrown and General -Eloy Alfaro made President. About -two hundred persons were killed or -wounded during the fighting.</p> - -<p>The Venezuelan Government continues to -garrison the ports and collect supplies -for the troops.</p> - -<p class="day">January 22.—Two hundred and twelve men -were killed and thirty-six injured by an -explosion on the Brazilian warship -<i>Aquidaban</i>.</p> - -<p>After winning a battle in which three hundred -men were killed and one hundred -wounded, General Alfaro is recognized -by all factions as president of Ecuador.</p> - -<p class="day">January 23.—The United States leaves -France free to act as she sees fit in the -Venezuelan case. French warships are -reported under way to Venezuela.</p> - -<p>The Powers are all using their influence to -bring about a reconciliation between -France and Germany over the Moroccan -dispute.</p> - -<p>The steamship <i>Valencia</i>, from San Francisco, -is driven ashore on the coast of -Vancouver Island. Grave fear is felt -for the ninety-four passengers and crew -of sixty, as the storm is too severe for -any vessel to go to the rescue.</p> - -<p>Fighting continues in the provinces of -Southern Russia, where the rebels are -holding their own.</p> - -<p class="day">January 24.—Reports state that 139 persons -lost their lives in the wreck of the steamer -<i>Valencia</i> near Cape Beale, Vancouver -Island.</p> - -<p>Reports from Algeciras, Spain, indicate -that the Powers are inclined to favor -Germany’s contention.</p> - -<p>The Russian troops are restoring order in -the Caucasus, Black Sea and Sidonia -district.</p> - -<p>The returns of the English elections show -578 members elected to the House of -Commons. Of the total, the Liberals -returned 312, the Laborites 48, the Nationalists -81, and the Unionists 137.</p> - -<p>The revolution in Ecuador spreads. Two -provinces are in the hands of the revolutionists.</p> - -<p class="day">January 25.—President Castro, of Venezuela, -claims that the French Minister, M. -Taigny, violated the laws of port in denying -Venezuelan police and boarding a -French vessel for protection.</p> - -<p>Report from the Russian Baltic provinces -show that the revolution is by no means -suppressed. As soon as the troops capture -one town, fighting breaks out in -another.</p> - -<p class="day">January 26.—General Selivanoff, commander -of the Russian troops at Vladivostok, -is seriously wounded. The revolution -has taken on new life at that place. -Count Witte opposes giving any more -concessions to the people.</p> - -<p>The Cuban Senate appropriates $25,000 -with which to buy Miss Alice Roosevelt -a wedding present.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from French West Africa state -that the Sultan of Morocco is endeavoring -to get the natives of the Soudan to -organize a holy-war against France.</p> - -<p>Thirty-seven persons are saved from the -steamer, <i>Valencia</i>, which was wrecked -near Cape Beale, Vancouver’s Island. -All 154 persons left on board the vessel -were drowned.</p> - -<p>The revolution in the Russian Caucasus -continues to spread.</p> - -<p>France decides to boycott all Venezuelan -products before making a naval demonstration.</p> - -<p>French and German envoys to the Moroccan -conference are holding meetings in -hopes of reaching an agreement on the -points in dispute.</p> - -<p class="day">January 27.—Reports from Vladivostok -show that the revolution has not -been crushed. St. Petersburg dispatches -claim that the revolution in the -Russian Baltic provinces is drawing to a -close. A fight between troops and -revolutionists takes place at Gomel and -the town is burned.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span></p> - -<p>Discussion of the dispute of Germany and -France continues at Algeciras, Spain.</p> - -<p>Twenty-five members of the diplomatic -corps at Caracas send a note to the Venezuelan -Government disapproving of -the treatment of M. Taigny, the French -Minister.</p> - -<p>Fighting between Raisuli and the Anjera -tribesmen is renewed near Tangiers, -Morocco.</p> - -<p class="day">January 28.—General Linevitch reports -that the mutinous sailors at Vladivostok -have been disarmed. Reports from -Viatka show that school children held -a fort against a battalion of Russian soldiers -for fifteen hours.</p> - -<p>Fighting continues in Morocco. The -rebels are victorious in several fights.</p> - -<p class="day">January 29.—King Christian IX of Denmark -dies suddenly at Copenhagen. The -King was the father of Crown Prince -Christian Frederick, of Denmark, Alexandra, -Queen of England, Dagmar, -Dowager Empress of Russia, King -George, of Greece, Thyra, the Duchess -of Cumberland, and Prince Valdemar -of Orleans. He was the grandfather of -the Czar of Russia and of King Haakon -of Norway.</p> - -<p>The Russian authorities again claim that -the Vladivostok trouble has been -terminated.</p> - -<p>President Castro is making active preparations -for a war with France.</p> - -<p class="day">January 30.—The Russian revolutionists -assassinate Gen. Griaznoff, Chief of -Staff of the Viceroy of the Caucasus at -Tiflis. Tiflis is placed under martial -law. Fighting is said to be in progress -between the Armenians and Tatars -in the Caucasus.</p> - -<p>Frederick VIII, eldest son of the late King -Christian, is proclaimed King of Denmark.</p> - -<p class="day">January 31.—Japan urges England to reorganize -her army.</p> - -<p>1,000,000 persons are reported starving -in Japan</p> - -<p>Fierce fighting continues in the Caucasus -between Tatars and Armenians.</p> - -<p>Russia is seriously divided over the elections -to the Duma. Censorship of the -press is rigidly enforced.</p> - -<p class="day">February 1.—Serious fights take place in -Paris between the police and the congregations -of Roman Catholic churches. -The operation of the new law separating -the Church and State causes the trouble.</p> - -<p>British policy-holders in the Mutual Life -Insurance Co. pass resolutions demanding -representation, and that the company -increase its securities in that -country.</p> - -<p>The conference on the Moroccan question -continues at Algeciras, Spain.</p> - -<p>The entire Italian Cabinet resigns because -the Chamber of Deputies refuses it a -vote of confidence. A new Cabinet -will be formed at once.</p> - -<p>Fire destroys buildings in Panama valued -at $500,000.</p> - -<p class="day">February 2.—Church riots continue in Paris. -China is reported on the brink of a revolution. -Anti-foreign feeling grows, and -trouble is feared.</p> - -<p>The Czar of Russia receives a deputation -of peasants and promises them assistance.</p> - -<p class="day">February 3.—Reports from Venezuela state -that President Castro has ordered any -French warship seen in Venezuelan -waters to be fired upon.</p> - -<p>The German Government declares that -the failure of the Algeciras conference -to reach an agreement on the Moroccan -question will not lead to war between -Germany and France.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from Santo Domingo indicate -that absolute peace has been restored.</p> - -<p>Chinese loot the home of Rev. Dr. Beattie -at Fati, China.</p> - -<p>Fights over the separation of Church and -State continue in France.</p> - -<p class="day">February 4.—The boycott of American -goods continues in China, and another -massacre of foreigners is feared at -Canton.</p> - -<p>Japan plans to increase the tonnage of her -navy to 400,000 tons by the end of 1908.</p> - -<p class="day">February 6.—The agitation against Americans -increases in China.</p> - -<p>The elections to the Russian National -Assembly are set for April 7. The -opening session will be held April 28.</p> - -<p>Advices from Vladivostok show that the -Russian revolution has not been -stamped out.</p> - -<p class="day">February 7.—The Emperor of Corea asks the -Powers to exercise a joint protectorate -over Corea in respect to her foreign -affairs.</p> - -<p>Conditions in the Eastern provinces of -Russia show little improvement. Fighting -continues.</p> - -<p>Fifty men are killed in a riot at Oruro, -Bolivia.</p> - -<p>Recent events in China led the Powers to -reconsider withdrawing their troops acting -as legation guards.</p> - -<p>Chinese revolutionists loot missions at -Changpu, near Amoy. The missionaries -escaped to the home of the local -Governor.</p> - -<p>The betrothal of King Alfonso, of Spain, to -Princess Ena, of Battenberg, is officially -announced at Madrid.</p> - -<p>Dispatches from Algeciras, assert that the -Moroccan conference will reach an agreement. -It is understood that Germany -will concede most of France’s claims.</p> - -<p>Yin Tchang, the Chinese Minister to Germany, -states that the anti-foreign outbreaks -in China are evidence of the -awakening of a new national spirit. He -says China will no longer tolerate foreign -aggression, and will not allow the Chinese -abroad to be treated as an inferior -race. The Minister thinks no one power -will care to force a war with China, as -she can now put a modern army, of -200,000 men, in the field.</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Along_the_Firing_Line"><i>Along the Firing Line</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY THE CIRCULATION MANAGER</span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>There isn’t much to say this month -about circulation work except that -results have been highly satisfactory. -We appreciate the loyalty and energy -of our friends, and extend sincere -thanks for their help. January was -our best month, but at this writing -(Feb. 8) the indications are that February -will be still better. A great many -subscriptions expired with the February -number. Some weeks ago we sent -out a postal card notice asking for renewal -and one new subscriber. The -prompt replies to this card made us -throw up our hats and give three cheers -for the Old Guard. Nearly every one -who replied sent one to four new subscriptions -with his renewal.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Remember that the subscription -price is now $1.50, but as a favor to our -present subscribers we will accept renewals -and new subscriptions at the -dollar rate until March 31. Get in before -the time limit expires.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>I made reference last month to Mr. -Forrest’s advertisement and the results -up to January 4—only a few days after -the January number was placed on -sale. Since then Mr. Forrest has received -several thousand coupons, and -more are coming in every mail. He -writes me that the conference is assured, -and that it will be a grand success. -Mr. Bentley’s club organization movement -is going right along and he expects -to call a conference at St. Louis -about May 1. I have suggested that -he and Mr. Forrest join forces and hold -but one conference. I can give no details -of Mr. Bentley’s work, except that -he is in touch with Populists in 1,800 -counties out of some 2,800.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Organizations on a smaller scale are -springing up all over the country. In -Pennsylvania the Referendum Party is -beginning active operations. A preliminary -committee on organization -has been appointed, consisting of the -following gentlemen:</p> - -<p>Clarence V. Tiers, chairman, Pittsburgh, -Pa.,</p> - -<p>Clement V. Horn, Wilkinsburg, Pa.,</p> - -<p>H. F. Lea, Bellevue, Pa.,</p> - -<p>H. W. Noren, Allegheny, Pa.,</p> - -<p>Walter Becker, Allegheny, Pa.,</p> - -<p>John C. Innes, Pittsburgh, Pa.,</p> - -<p>George D. Porter, Philadelphia, Pa.,</p> - -<p>John E. Joos, Allegheny, Pa.,</p> - -<p>Nathaniel Green, Swissvale, Pa.,</p> - -<p>J. Ludwig Koethen, Jr., Pittsburgh, -Pa.,</p> - -<p>Hon. W. F. Hill (Master State -Grange), Chambersburg, Pa.,</p> - -<p>James William Newlin (Member of -Constitutional Convention 1873), -Philadelphia, Pa.</p> - -<p>Headquarters are located at Pittsburgh. -Address communications to -Lock Box 305, Pittsburgh, Pa. The -Referendum Party requests the active -co-operation and financial support of -all who favor:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>First.—The calling of a Constitutional Convention -to revise the State Constitution;</p> - -<p>Second.—Granting to the people the right -to veto unjust laws or ordinances by direct -vote; this right to be exercised only if a vote -is demanded on any law or ordinance, by -petition signed by two per centum of the -voters of the State or locality affected.</p> - -<p>Third.—Granting to the people the right -to enact, by direct majority, needed laws -which their Legislature fails or refuses to -enact.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Regarding candidates it is announced -that—</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>It is the intention of the Referendum -Party to nominate for the election of November -6, 1906, a complete state ticket including -candidates for the Legislature (Senators and -Representatives) but the State Executive -Committee suggest that, unless exceptionally -strong, aggressive, independent candidates -for either branch of the Legislature can be -nominated, it would be advisable for local<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span> -committees to indorse (by filing nomination -papers) candidates of some other party who -would pledge their support to the principles -of the Referendum Party as stated above.</p> - -<p>After the election the Referendum Party -will be entitled to a regular place on official -ballots in every district where it polled two -per centum of the largest vote cast. For -this reason it is most desirable that it nominate -a candidate in every Legislative district -within the State. The forming of local organizations -in the Referendum Party should -therefore begin at once.</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>The People’s Party State Central -Committee of Kansas met at Topeka, -February 2, and directed Chairman -Babb and Secretary Fowler to call a -State convention some time in July. -Chairman Babb and some other members -of the committee favored the organization -of a voters’ league to question -and secure pledges from candidates -on the old party tickets, making no -third party nominations—something on -the plan devised by George H. Shibley, -editor of the <i>Referendum News</i>, Washington, -D. C. The committee was not, -however, a unit on this point, several -of the members insisting upon making -straight People’s Party nominations. -This, it seems likely, will be done.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>“Union for the Common Good” is -the name of a new organization just -starting in Kansas. Rev. O. H. Truman, -La Crosse, is one of the moving -spirits. In the manifesto sent out by -this new aspirant for political honors -the committee say:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p><i>Whereas</i>, undisputed proofs of corporate -greed, unscrupulous and law-defying, have -recently multiplied; and certainties that -“Boss” domination has largely prevailed in -city and state politics, frequently dictating -to the people from low resorts, encouraging -graft and other corruptions to fester and -flourish; and also the great exchanges for -disposing of stocks and bonds and grain have -long displaced the law of supply and demand -by their gambling methods, resulting in frequent -failures, suicides, and loss to all but -the unscrupulous few; and</p> - -<p><i>Whereas</i>, the people, at last aroused and -indignant, are now demanding redress and -prevention of further wrong;</p> - -<p><i>Therefore</i>, we deem it timely to organize -into a society those having a strong definite -purpose to reclaim all monetary, political, -and other rights and interests from the greedy -grasp of the few to the promotion of the -Common Good.</p> - -<p>Civilization advances by evolution and -revolution. Evolution makes slow progress -over a long period of time, while Revolution -advances rapidly in a short space of time.</p> - -<p>Revolutions are caused by giant evils -which must be overthrown suddenly or not -at all.</p> - -<p>America has passed through two revolutions, -and we are now entering a third, equal -in importance and greater in character than -either of the others.</p> - -<p>The great evils that now threaten our existence -are intemperance, trusts, and political -corruption.</p> - -<p>We are to choose between Socialism and -Christian Government; nothing else is presented -and nothing else is worthy of our -attention.</p> - -<p>Socialists have gathered much valuable -information; but their leadership would dethrone -God from our nation and overturn all -our history.</p> - -<p>Christian Government would fulfill prophecy -in giving Christ the kingdom of this -world, and would be in line with national -experience.</p> - -<p>Socialism is an ideal as yet untried, without -a code of morals to preserve from corruption. -In Christian Government the legislative, -executive and judicial powers would -be directly tested by the teachings of Christ.</p> - -<p>The demands of complete Socialism are -too radical for this crisis or for any single -movement. Masses of men can be moved -only so far at any one time; and revolutions -are no exception to this universal rule. To -attempt more is to cause reaction and loss.</p> - -<p>Christian Government would accept the -possible while striving for the Christ ideal of -perfection.</p> - -<p>Nearly all revolutions have resulted in -war and we believe that complete Socialism -for this crisis would be no exception to that -rule.</p> - -<p>The Christian and moral sentiment of the -nation is now sufficiently strong, if aroused -and united, to accomplish its work by the -moral power of the ballot without resorting -to war.</p> - -<p>What measures do we propose for the present -crisis, and what remedies do we suggest -for existing evils?</p> - -<p>American society may be roughly divided -into three great classes: A small, wealthy -class at the top; a great mass of laborers at -the bottom; and a medium Christian and -moral class in the middle. The church middle -class thus holds the balance of power, and -is responsible for safe leadership and moral -results.</p> - -<p>The Christian and moral forces of the nation -must now be organized into a moral -society for the express purpose of leading -this reform movement and developing Christian -Government.</p> - -<p>At the outset of our organization we need -consider only those remedial measures to -which all research and all demands are now -pointing; and our specialty as a society is to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span> -urge and aid the careful testing of the best -means of relief from a dangerous condition, -and also to aid in fullest adoption and application -of measures approved after trial. The -key phrases or watch words for our organization -are these: “Thorough Testing” and -“The Common Good.”</p> - -<p>We favor a fair and safe trial of municipal -and other Public Ownership, as it seems to -be in harmony with the destiny of our country -and the spirit of the age.</p> - -<p>State incorporation having been tested -and found wanting, we urge national incorporation -instead, including reasonable restrictions, -and also liability to forfeiture if -lawless.</p> - -<p>We favor the election of United States -Senators by direct vote of the people; also a -thorough test of the initiative and referendum -and the imperative mandate.</p> - -<p>Any person of good moral character may -become a member of this society by accepting -the constitution and paying one dollar a -year to the national society, or a life membership -fee of twenty dollars.</p> - -<p>Each member of the society shall have a -vote, by mail or otherwise, for all officers of -the national society, and on all principles -and policies adopted.</p> - -<ul> -<li>O. H. TRUMAN</li> -<li>J. M. McARTHUR</li> -<li>J. ORVILLE WALTON</li> -<li>BELLE FORD WALTON</li> -<li>E. H. H. GATES</li> -</ul> - -<p>Committee.</p> - -<p>Men and women are requested to send -names and fees for membership. The money -will be used for organizing and reported to -the society. Direct to</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">O. H. Truman</span>, La Crosse, Kan.</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Our Advertising Manager, Ted -Flaacke, is one of the Old Guard greenbackers; -but not until recently could -I convince him that <i>some</i> advertisers -would “turn him down” because of the -politics of <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span>. Even -then I didn’t do the convincing—but -Ted knows now that I was right. He -tried to get an ad. from a certain baking -powder concern that was mixed up -in a scandal over in Missouri not so -long ago. Its product is claimed to be -“absolutely pure,” but the Missourians -were “shown” that some of its agents -couldn’t truthfully say as much of -themselves or their concern.</p> - -<p>I’m right glad Ted got the icy stare. -We need the money, no doubt—but -“alum baking powders” won’t seriously -impair our digestion. And we’ll -feel better not to have had the ad., -after all.</p> - -<p>“Why, Flaacke,” said the man who -places the advertising, “if <span class="smcap">Watson’s -Magazine</span> had a million circulation and -the rate was a dollar a page, I doubt if -we would use it.”</p> - -<p>Yet some poor, simple souls still -think business men—big, brainy, successful -business men—never mix politics -and business. They do. And I -trust our people will not forget it.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Ever notice how a late train keeps -falling behind and getting later and -later the farther she goes?</p> - -<p>Well, we had an experience similar -last month with the February number. -A combination of circumstances made -it certain that we should be a few days -late—say two or three. But in our -wildest dreams we never imagined being -over two weeks late. One after -another something new arose to still -further delay us.</p> - -<p>I can sympathize now with the railroad -station agent who is obliged to -tell passenger after passenger that “No. -23 is 40 minutes late.... Yes, she’s -due here at 11:44.... Yes, that -would bring her here about 12:24.” -And so on and on and on. From Mr. -Watson’s editorials, however, I take it -that station agents on the Southern -Railway give out no information regarding -late trains. Maybe they will -after Hon. Hoke Smith is inaugurated -governor.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Anybody inquire why the February -<span class="smcap">Watson’s</span> didn’t come? My dear -friend, you would think so if you could -see the stacks of letters and postal cards -which poured in—hundreds and hundreds; -yes, thousands, I believe. It -made us a great amount of additional -work and worry, but—</p> - -<p>On the whole, we’re rather glad the -February number was late, because it -gave us conclusive proof of the high -esteem in which <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> -is held. People don’t worry and write -postal cards and letters about publications -in which they are not interested, -that’s a cinch.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span></p> - -<p>A few of the Old Guard were frightened. -They thought we’d suspended! I -can’t blame them for that. It has always -been a rocky road for any radical -publication, and especially so if it advocates -Populism. But <span class="smcap">Watson’s -Magazine</span> will be an exception. Nothing -but the accomplishment of the reforms -for which it stands could kill it. -That might, by removing the necessity -for such a magazine, but not necessarily. -The discontent of the masses -is too great now not to furnish a most -fertile field for Mr. Watson’s teachings—and -his influence is growing at a tremendous -pace. Even his enemies admit -that. And that means a pronounced -success for <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span>.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>Thanks to the Old Guard, Watson’s -Magazine gets subscribers at less -cost than any other publication. Everywhere -these old veterans are plugging -away for subscribers and scarcely -one of them will take a cent of commission -for his work. Some of the -other magazines are spending a fortune -in newspaper advertising, and, of -course, building up big lists; but we -are well satisfied with a slower growth -of subscriptions that will stay with us -year after year. February is forging -to the front in fine style and we shall -more than double our list by the end of -March.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>“Figures won’t lie,” asserts the oracle. -“Thet’s so,” retorts the plain, -old, common-sense man, “but liars kin -figger.” And the old fellow is right. -Witness some of the stunts done by -Carroll D. Wright as to the increased -cost of living, and young Garfield’s -showing of a net profit to the Beef -Trust of a dollar, “marked down to 99 -cents,” on each steer slaughtered.</p> - -<p>My old colleague, T. H. Tibbles, Mr. -Watson’s running mate in 1904, and -now editor of a 25-cent-a-year Populist -weekly at Omaha, Neb., <i>The Investigator</i>, -was editor of the <i>Nebraska Independent</i> -when young Garfield made that -justly famous report. As I recollect, -Tibbles figured that the Beef Trust -must have a secret railroad (not a rebate) -to Mars and had smuggled in -countless thousands of beef cattle from -that little, old red planet, contrary to -the Dingley Bill “in such case made -and provided,” because—</p> - -<p>There weren’t enough beef steers on -this old earth of ours—and haven’t -been since the days when Christ drove -the “System” out of the Temple—to -account for the Beef Trust’s fortune -at 99 cents per.</p> - -<p>I have never examined Tibbles as to -his proficiency in arithmetic, but I’m -willing to bet a hat—a wide-brim -“Cady” (Eugene Wood, please analyze)—that -Tibbles either made a Sherlock -Holmes “deduction” regarding that -Martian railroad, or—</p> - -<p>Perish the thought, that the martyred -President’s son—well, had been -doing some “figgerin’” and other -things.</p> - -<hr class="stars" /> - -<p>I’ve been doing some real hard figgerin’. -The P. O. D., which means in -proper spelling, Post Office Department, -insists that because we change -to <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span>, dropping the -“Tom,” that we must apply for a new -entry as second-class matter. Of -course, as a matter of fact, as our legal -friends remark—no, I won’t say that, -in view of what Abe Hummel did and -what Jerome is failing to do—our <i>lawyer</i> -friends, rather, we never have been -“second-class.” That’s a way Madden -has of irritating publishers. <span class="smcap">Tom -Watson’s Magazine</span> always was <i>first-class</i>—now, -wasn’t it?</p> - -<p>At any rate, we have to tell the P. O. -D. how many subscribers we have; -how many we sell at news-stands, etc. -Of the subscribers, we must show how -many came direct, how many took a -premium, how many subscribed through -an agent or a newspaper clubbing with -us.</p> - -<p>It’s a big job to get this correct, because -right now we’re swamped with -new subscriptions and renewals. I -think I got it right, however, and as -the figures may interest you, I shall -give you an idea what each State is -doing.</p> - -<p>Georgia still keeps far in the lead.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span> -Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska, -New York, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, -Illinois and Kansas follow in the -order named, ranging from two to fifteen -per cent of the total.</p> - -<p>Florida, North Carolina, California, -Louisiana, Indiana, South Carolina, -Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Iowa -and Oklahoma—in the order named—have -less than two and one or more -than one per cent. of the total.</p> - -<p>Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, -Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, West -Virginia, Montana, Massachusetts, Indian -Territory, Idaho, Wisconsin, Oregon, -North and South Dakota (tied), -Connecticut, New Mexico, Maine, Arizona, -Maryland, District of Columbia, -Wyoming, Nevada, New Hampshire, -Vermont, Canada and Rhode Island -follow in the order named, each with -one-tenth of one per cent. or more up -to nine-tenths of one per cent.</p> - -<p>And three-tenths of one per cent. of -the total goes to Alaska, Cuba, Delaware, -Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, Philippine -Islands, Porto Rico, Utah and a -number of European countries. <span class="smcap">Watson’s -Magazine</span> is not only national -but international. Up in Nova Scotia, -Manitoba, and Northwest Territory -the radicals are enthusiastic over it. -Uncle Sam’s soldiers and sailors are -taking it in the far corners of the earth. -The War Department has asked for -subscription rates.</p> - -<p>Yet <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span> reaches -more people in the Sunny Southland -than most any other magazine, whether -published south of Mason and Dixon’s -line or north of it.</p> - -<p>And it will bring business for the -advertiser who wishes to break into -the Southern field, because every subscriber -and news stand buyer has confidence -in Mr. Watson. Oh, dear, I -forgot. Advertising isn’t my line at -all. See Ted Flaacke about that. He -knows. But I know I’m right, nevertheless.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/signature.jpg" width="300" height="60" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>C. Q. de France</i></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Chastened"><i>Chastened</i><br /> -<span class="smaller">BY KATE G. LAFFITTE</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I knew no love but hers, nor cared to know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She grieved and did not hide from me her grief that this was so.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I shut my heart with jealous care about her glowing face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her voice, her eyes, her lips, her woman’s sweet and tender grace.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I snatched her hands away when she caressed a wounded dove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I envied all she looked on, grudged each smile, and called it love.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She died, I saw her lying there so still and cold and sweet.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her roses flung their fragrance unheeded at her feet;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I laid my face against her own, her white soul spoke to mine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And warm across my frozen heart a bright light seemed to shine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With aching arms I drew a suffering world into my life</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, chastened, learned too late that I had never loved my wife.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - -<img src="images/ad-documents.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> - -<p class="center larger">Of Vital Importance to Patriotic Citizens</p> - -<p class="center">National Documents</p> - -<p class="noindent">a collection of notable state papers chronologically arranged to form a -documentary history of this country. It opens with the first Virginia -Charter of 1606 and closes with the Panama Canal Act of 1904, and -comprises all the important diplomatic treaties, official proclamations -and legislative acts in American history.</p> - -<p class="center">Settle All Disputes Intelligently</p> - -<p>You can trace from the original sources the development of -this country as an independent power. Never before have these -sources been brought together for your benefit. The volume -contains 504 pages and a complete index enabling the -reader to turn readily to any subject in which -he may be interested. Bound in an artistic green -crash cloth, stamped in gold. Printed in a plain, -readable type on an opaque featherweight paper.</p> - -<p><i>As a Special Offer to the readers -of <span class="smcap">Watson’s Magazine</span>, we will send -this book postpaid and the Magazine -for one year for $2,20.</i> Your order -and remittance should be sent -direct to <b>TOM WATSON’S -MAGAZINE, 121 -W. 42d St. -N.Y.</b></p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - -<img src="images/ad-page.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Learn how to Earn from $3,000 to $5,000.</span></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Yearly In the Real Estate Business</span></p> - -<p>$20,000 earned by one Chicago graduate last -November. Another in North Dakota -made over $8,000 the first year after taking our course. -Hundreds or others are successful, and we will be pleased -to send you their names. This proves you can make -money in the REAL ESTATE BUSINESS.</p> - -<p>We want to teach you by mail the best business on earth -(REAL ESTATE, GENERAL BROKERAGE AND -INSURANCE) and help you to make a fortune.</p> - -<p>By our system you can make money in a few weeks -without interfering with your present occupation.</p> - -<p>All graduates appointed special representatives of leading -real estate companies. We furnish them lists of -readily salable properties, co-operate with them, and -assist them to a quick success.</p> - -<p>All the largest fortunes were made in Real Estate. There -is no better opening today for -ambitious men than the Real -Estate Business.</p> - -<p>The opportunities in this business -constantly increase as proven -by a glance at the newspapers and -magazines. Every business man -engaged in or expecting to engage -in the Real Estate Business should -take this course of instruction. 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