ENTEBPRISE.
'THE RALEIGH ENTERPRISE.
An Independent Newspaper Published
Every Thursday
by
J. L. RAMSEY, Editor and Prop.,
Raleigh, N. O.
Office of publication, Law Build
Ing, 331 Fayettevllle Street.
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Enterprise. -
Entered as wnd'Class matter May 12,
1904, at the poatofflce at Bale gh, N . 0., under
the Aotof Congress of March 8, 1879.
TRADE8l;?rjC0UNcjL
The panic is over! Now let's get
ready for Christmas.
Those who do not own an automo
bile can now sport an airship, even
if it doesn't fly.
The panic was over before some
people thought to look in the diction
ary and find the meaning of the
word. -' -;:'.:?':'''.;;':y vv',:','::
The Weather Bureau hit it about
the beautiful snow Wednesday. But
it had not happened very often
lately. y
George Washington was father of
his country. But he never could
write long messages like his great-grand-son,
Mr. Roosevelt.
So far as we can judge, William
Jennings Bryan will make as good
a run as any of them and defeat will
not be painful to him.
We trust that the State Treasury
will manage to stand up under the
"legal" run that has been made upon
it during the past few years.
If Mr. Roosevelt can find a real big
bear and kill It business will soon
revive. The welfare of this country
is based on confidence and bear
hunts. , .. ',.
About 3,000 actors are said to be
out of employment in New York. If
they are willing to work the North
Carolina cotton mills will negotiate
with them.
Sister Carrie Nation says she will
not kiss a man who chews tobacco.
And we will not kiss a woman who
goes around making speeches like a
blamed politician.
According to the Supreme Court
of the State of Mississippi to tell a
man to "Go to h ll'Ms not profan
ity. But such ' expressions are very
ugly, do no good, but do much harm.
. The Union Republican has learned
somehow that the flesh of the musk
rat is just as ' good as that of 'pos
sums. Possibly. But we have never
yet been hungry enough to eat 'pos
sum. i
, THE KALEIQH
FOR AN IMPERIAL NAVY.
The annual report of the Secretary
of the Navy Is a reminder of the high
cost of imperialism. If the United
States is to be an empire, with wide
ly disconnected possessions, it must
be prepared to protect them, and the
only expect! ve agency for the pro
tection of distant islands is a strong
navy. After the close of the war be
tween France and Prussia there was
a race among the powers of
Continental Europe to increase the
strength of their armies until the
military establishments became a
staggering burden upon the tax-payers.
England, by reason of her in
sular position, was exempt from this
necessity. But England has her
shores to protect and islands and
continental possessions in every
quarter of the globe to be guarded.
It has been her traditional policy
to maintain a navy sufficient to over
power the combined navies of any
two European nations. This she has
been enabled to do because of her
exemption from the cost of such
great armies as those of Germany,
France, Russia. At the present time
the effective warship tonnage of Eng
land is nearly as great as that of all
the other great Powers of Europe
combined; that is to say, of France,
Germany, Russia, Italy and Austria.
The question of the future is wheth
er the United States will finally as
pire to rival England as a naval pow
er. At the present time the effective
warship tonnage of the American
navy is 611,616 tons, being nearly
double that of Japan, largely in ex
cess of that of Germany and only
inferior among the navies of the
world to that of England, says the
Baltimore Sun.
But the tonnage of the British
Navy amounts to the enormous fig
ure of 1,633,11 6 tons. To rival that
vast fleet would take many years of
construction and an almost incalcula
ble treasure. And in the meantime
England is building new ships at a
much faster rate than we are. It also
has the advantage of being able to
build a battleship and put it in com
mission in less than half the time
that it requires an American ship
yard to build one, and for less
money. During the last fiscal year
no less than nine new battle ships
of the first class 15,000 and 16,000
tons have been added to the United
States Navy, besides four armored
cruisers, increasing enormously our
naval strength. Two more battle
ships and two more armored cruis
ers will soon go into commission, and
six other battleships, two armored
cruisers and eight small craft are
under construction. Of the battle
ships now building two, the Dela
ware and North Dakota, are to be of
20,000 tons displacement, with a
speed of 21 knots. They will be as
powerful as the vessels of the Dread
nought type in the British Navy, and,
in respect to the arrangement of the
turrets and guns, superior to them.
The recommendation of Secretary
Metcalf is for an expenditure of $69,
270,000 for construction to be au
thorized at this session of Congress.
This recommendation includes four
great battleships of the Delaware
type, to cost $9,500,000 each; four
scout cruisers, to cost $2,500,000
each, and about twenty other vessels.
In the eager competition Of the na
tions in battleship building the
United States cannot long maintain
the second place, the Secretary de
clares, unless liberal V expenditures
for, more ships are authorized now so
as to keep pace with the rapid con
struction by Germany and France.
France is now building ten battle
ships of 14,865 and 18,350 tons dis
placement, four armored cruisers of
12,550 and 13,644 tons and a fleet
of destroyers and submarines. Ger
many builds each year two battle
ships, those now building being of
19,000 tons; one armored cruiser,
two protected cruisers, twelve de
stroyers and a number of a sub
marines. Her estimates for 1907
were about $25,000,000 for con
struction. If the United States is to engage
in warship construction at the rate
of nearly $70,000,000 a year, as
suggested by Mr. Metcalf, our navy
will soon far outstrip that of any
other country, except England, and
will be large enough to have a fleet
in the Pacific without leaving the
Atlantic seaboard defenseless.
Old-fashioned people may look
back with regret to the good old days
when the United States was mere
ly a republic, and not an empire; but
if the majority of Americans favor
imperialism, they must be prepared
to accept all the consequences, which
imperialism involves. One of those
consequences is a navy large enough
not only to protect this country from
attack, but to defend its distant pos
sessions. We cannot have one with
out the other. It costs more money
to be a world power than to be a
simple republic and if the new gen
eration of Americans prefer the
pomp and circumstance of imperial
ism to the old order of things, they
must not grumble at the bills.
POLITICAL ROGUES.
Mr. Thomas E. Watson, of Geor
gia, recently had the following in his
weekly paper:
"Roosevelt makes motions like a
Populist, and Bryan accuses hom or
borrowing his ideas, but Bryan and
Roosevelt, as well as Senator La Fol
lette, Governors Folk, Comer, Glenn
and Hoke Smith, have appropriated
those principles for which you and I
contended in days that tried men's
souls."
This stirs up the Statesville Land
mark and it comments thusly:
"Neat, isn it, and isn't It the
truth? Verily, it Is a nice, mess and
a mix-up that is to cause one to
laugh. The whole push has been
stealing from the Populists let any
body deny it who can." .
Just what we have been telling you
all the time. The "old parties" ridi
culed and did even worse to put the
Populists out of business a few years
ago. But each of the old parties
have ridden on the wreck ever since
have stolen every clap of thunder
the Populists ever had and have
added to it. Deny it, if you can.
United States Bonds to the amount
of $35,000,000 have been sold and
Secretary Cortelyou has notified the
public that no more will be offered.
Treasury notes to that amount will
at once be added to . the circulation.
It is but 50 cents per capita. But
that means a great deal. ' '
IThursday, December 5, 1907.
THE EDGE HAS GONE OFP.
The popularity of the crusades
against the railroads in seyeral of the
States of the South , has quite worn
out and there is a manifest revulsion
of sentiment in their favor. Yet re
vulslon is scarcely the proper word,
for it would imply- that there had
been some considerable public senti
ment behind this agitation, which is
not the case, nor is it exactly accu
rate to say that the agitation has
lost its popularity, for that would
Imnlv nermaTifitiftV of favor whlr.h
it never enjoyed. In North Carolina
the people were not concerned about
railroad rates except the dlscrlmina
tlve freight charges, which have al
ways been a grievance to our people,
until the legislation was enacted, and
eventhen it attracted little attention
until the railroads went into the
United States Circuit Court, when a
temporary sentiment was worked, up
against them on this account rather
than on account of the passenger
rate. But the palpable persecution,
especially in Alabama, has brought a
modification of this' sentiment every
where and the prosecutions have lost
the edge of public favor, says the
Charlotte Observer. Deep down in
the hearts of 4he people is implanted
the sense or lair play and they are
rapidly arriving .at the conclusion;
that the railroads are not getting
this and that personal and political
reasons rather than any zeal for the
public welfare have prompted the
baiting. The promoters of it have
over-reached themselves " and have
made the people tired. If anyone
does not believe this he has only to
talk to business men, to intelligent
farmers to intelligent men of any
class. Under the best conditions the
railroads have been discharging their
functions none too well and the peo
ple have no desire to see them fur
ther hampered and their capacity
for usefulness to the public further
I I v nnlA fPli ftTt MAAAirAffAil fwAwi
the shock attendant upon the taking
of the cases to 'the Federal Court,
having realized that they are there
by right, and have no stomach for a
contest with the Federal Government
on account of the litigation. The
The longer it is protracted the more
unpopular it will become and the
more certain are some of the politi
cal hopes founded upon it to be dis
appointed. The situation in North
Carolina now is as it is in Georgia,
as defined by the Augusta Chronicle:
"For some time it has been apparent
that the people were beginning to
feel the effects of their overdose of
'reform.' Slowly but surely a change
In public sentiment has been setting
in, and to-day a hundred will speak
out boldly and emphatically against
the politicians who brought on the
recent epidemic of agitation against
corporations, where not a dozen , of
them would chirp a year ago."
Ex-Senator Henry G. Davis, oi
West Virginia, agefl 84, and worth
$30,000,009, will give each of his
children $200,000 and marry the
balance to a young girl in Washing
ton. He had better try to spend his
few remaining days in peace.