THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
Tuesday, April 7, 1903.
A
. I ......
GENERAL NEWS
WHAT THE DISPATCHES TELL.
The News Boiled Down and Presented in
Convenient Form for Busy Readers.
An extra session of Congress be
fore next December is a certainty,
according to a cablegram received
March 2G by the chairman of the
Cuban Senate's Committee on For
eign Relations from Secretary Hay.
Secretary of the Navy Moody and
the Congressional Committee have
selected Guantanamo, Cuba, as the
site of the principal United States
naval station in the West Indies.
Twenty square miles of land and sev
eral small islands will be used.
The Mississippi River continues
to fall at Memphis and at several
points below. A break has occurred
in the levee below Greenville, Miss.,
and it is three miles wide, and work
ing great destruction. Some lives
have been lost. A second crevasse
has also occurred.
Hon. William J. Bryan aspires to
the position of Chairman of the
Democratic National Committee in
the next presidential campaign. Mr.
Bryan has, it is stated on apparently
good authority, confided the fact
that he entertains this ambition to
several prominent Democratic lead
ers in Washington.
The polar-exploration habit is
strongly fixed upon Commander
Peary. It was understood that his
long effort to reach the pole, which
ended last spring, was to be his last
appearance as an explorer. He had
promised his wife not to go again,
the papers said. But such meagre
tastes of frost as we have had this
winter seem to have sapped his reso
lution, for it is now reported that
he is ready to make another farewell
tour of the Arctic regions, provided
that the Peary Arctic Club can raise
$150,000 to send him. The verdict
of his last trip was that he was an
exceedingly well-qualified explorer.
Unless he is thought to be past the
polar-expedition age, there is proba
bly no American who is so likely as
he to conduct a successful expedi
tion. Exchange.
The London Times of Monday
morning led its foreign news with
two New York dispatches of 200
words, headed "By Marconigraph."
In an editorial the Times says that
the nfessages are the first received in
a contract with the Marconi Com
pany to regularly transmit daily dis
patches across the Atlantic without
the use of wires. It further says
that the event marks an epoch in the
development of wireless telegraphy,
and we may well believe that it does,
if the experiment proves a success,
and the Times continues to get its
news from America in this way with
out difficulty. It is said that the
wireless telegrams go Tight through
the teeth of storms, and it will be
interesting to see if this contention
for theNaew invention is borne out
in the Times' experience. If it is,
then after the system comes into
more general use it will enable news
papers to get news on stormy days
and nights when wires are down. In
spite of the degree of perfection to
which Mr. Marconi has brought his
invention there has been some doubt
as to its commercial value. The
Times' news service will serve to
show what there is in a wireless tel
egraphy. Charlotte Observer.
The titanic struggle which is in
evitable between what may be called
the Old Democracy and the New
Democracy, (the former represented
by Cleveland, Hill and Gorman; the
latter by Bryan, Teller and Tom
Johnson,) already is on, and the elec
tion of Gorman to be the leader of
the Democratic forces in the Senate
and his immediate choice of a ma
jority of the steering committee suit
ed to his own financial purposes, em
phasizes how keen to take advantage
of conditions are the opposing
forces. Mr. Gorman is a strong
man,- but the appellation fastened
upon him years ago of "The Fox,"
expresses exactly what is in the mind
of millions of his fellow-citizens as
they contemplate his methods of
work. No other man in the party
understands the arts of political
wire-pulling better than he, and he
has a commanding view of the whole
situation as-well. But wielding for
years the power of a corrupt politi
cian in a State filled for a long time
with commercio-politics well-nigh as
bad as that of Delaware, Mr. Gor
man comes to the field of national
politics with a vision none too clear
as to the moral purposes of the peo
ple; nor does he comprehend the
wonderful strides we have taken
lately toward better politics a fact
that is not to be denied, bad as
things still are. Chicago Rural
Voice.
Trial of Tillman.
Charleston, S. C, April 4. The
trial of James II. Tillman, former
lieutenant governor of South Caro
lina, for the murder of N. G. Gon
zales, editor of the Columbia State,
will probably begin in Columbia,
April 13.
Tillman is still in jail, but he is
chafing under the restraint of prison
bars. Members of his family have
called frequently to see him. The
most significant visit was that of
Senator Tillman, who went from
Washington to have a talk with his
nephew. It is said that the differ
ences between them have been ad
justed and the feeling is that Sena
tor Tillman will do what he can to
secure the acquittal of the younger
Tillman. His efforts in this direc
tion will be confined, however, to con
sultation with the lawyers in outlin
ing a plan of defense.
$200,000 to Jamestown Exposition.
Richmond, April 2. The House
to-day by a vote of 58 to 30 appro
priated the sum of $200,000 for the
Jamestown Ter-Centenary exposi
tion to be held at Norfolk in 1907.
The wildest scenes of enthusiasm
followed the announcement of .the
vote, five hundred tidewater boomers
being in the capitol.
The Anti-Rebate Act.
One of the measures passed by
the recent Congress, which is looked
upon as anti-trust legislation, is an
act to prevent railway corporations
from making rebates in their freight
charges. This is commonly called
the Elkins Act. As Senator Elkins
is a wealthy man and prominently.
connected with several corporations,
there is a sort of grim satire in the
very name. Moreover, the discus-.
sions that have taken place concern
ing this enactment make it tolerably
clear that as trust legislation it is
hardly more than a tub to the whale.
It is true that the railways are very
powerful corporations. Perhaps as
nearly as any other corporations do,
they approach the nature of trusts.
But the trouble with this enactment
is principally in the enormous prac
tical difficulty of enforcing it. As
is very well understood -by all per-
sons in the least familiar with rail
road business, there is practically
no possibility of preventing the man
agers of these railways and the ship
pers who utilize their trains from
having private understandings as to
freight charges. It is very well
known, for example, that even when
the presidents of several railways
agree on a freight schedule, and this
schedule is duly printed and publish
ed, nevertheless these agreements
are violated, and that in such a way
that even the rival railways, much
as they would like to do so, are un
able to detect and denounce these
violations. We cannot help feeling
that, after all the talk in favor of
anti-trust legislation, this, act and
one or two others equally offensive,
which are supposed to put arms into
the hands of the new Secretary of
Commerce and his assistants, are of
little worth. Nashville Advocate.
The Drunkard and the Saloon.
By a law which went into effect
in England on January 1st, any per
son found drunk and incapable of
taking care of himself in a public
place or on any licensed premises
may be arrested, and punished by
fine or imprisonment or both. Then
if he succeeds in buying any liquor
within three years after his convic
tion, or if any one treats him to li
quor, both he and the person from
whom he obtains the drink are lia
ble to fine. Under the old law he
was exempt from arrest unless he
was disorderly as well as drunk.
The prohibition against providing
liquor to a convicted drunkard or
to a person already intoxicated ap
plies not only to saloons, but to so
cial clubs of the highest standing.
It places the rich drunkard on the
same plane with the poor one. The
law . also assumes that the presence
of a drunken person in a saloon is
prima facie evidence that he ob
tained his liquor there, and the saloon-keeper
must prove the contrary
or suffer the penalty provided. Thus
the accused saloon-keeper is assumed
to be guilty until he proves himself
innocent, reversing the usual rule.
As drunkenness is made a pun
ishable offense, it is regarded as suffi
cient ground for the separation of
husbands and wives, and the law
makes elaborate provisions for the
relief of the wives or husbands of
convicted drunkards, through sepa
rate maintenance.
The provisions of the new law are
much more stringent than any that
have ever been tried in England, and
the effect of the enforcement of
them will be watched closely by all
who are interested in the suppression
of the evil of intoxicating drinks.
Boston Youth's Companion.
The Delaware Situation.
The ordinary differences of politi
cal conviction between Republicans
and Democrats are too trivial to be
mentioned in the face of such po
litical dangers, as honest men now
have to face in the State of Dela
ware. The Democrats, who were
twice as strong in the Legislature
as the regular Republicans, were
willing to make a complete party
sacrifice on the altar of sound po
litical morals and common decency.
There are a great many Republicans
all over the United States who would
much rather see their party defeat
ed in the next National election than
have it assume such responsibilities
as that of Addicksism in Delaware.
Apart from the moral aspects of the
case, nothing could be a cheaper or
more fatuous kind of politics than
for the Republican National Com
mittee to go partners with xiddicks
in the scheme to make a Republican
State out of Delaware at the risk of
losing the independent Republican
vote throughout the country. Mr.
Addicks has already begun to sound
the glorious Republican slogan for
1904 with that irrepressible hilarity
which has characterized his auda
cious career. He proposes to "car
ry the State in 1904 for the Presi
dent," but frankly admits that his
object in doing so is to create a
wave upon which he himself may be
borne triumphantly into the United
States Senate. There are some vic
tories which cost too dear; and if
Mr. Dick, of Ohio, were a wiser pol
itician, he would know that the pros
pect of carrying Delaware in 1904
under present circumstances is not
a happy omen for the Republican
party at large. Tammany Hall, in
New York, is a model of political
virtue when compared with Addicks
ism in Delaware. Even a dull po
litical intelligence can understand
the reasons why the National Demo
cratic Committee might be tempted
to conspire with Tammany Hall,
even at the risk of some odium, when
the thing at stake is the great block
of electoral votes cast by the hnpe"
rial and pivotal State of New York.
But for the National Republican
Committee to incur the odium of
plunging boldly into the mire of Ad
dicksism in Delaware, with no V0s
sible prize to be won except the elec
toral vote of a State that has only
one Representative in Congres3
looks like a reckless bid for the na
tion's ridicule and contempt.-jP
"The Progress of the World," in t
American Monthly Review ol
views for April.
7