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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1900)
THE MORNING OgEGONIAN, THURSDAY. JANUARY 4, 1900. Entered at the Pcstoflice at Portland, Oregon, as escond-class matter. TELEPHONE3. Editorial Booms.. .. 168 Business Office 5GT REVISED SUBSCRIPTION BATES. By Mall (postage prepaid), la Advance Dally; with Sunday, per month.,... ...$0 S5 Daily, Sunday excepted, per year.......... 7 50 Dally, wlta Sunday, per year.. ,....'.. ,9 Oo Sunday, per ear 2 00 The Weekly, per year... 1TW The Weekly. 3 months CO To City -Subscribers Dally, per week, delivered, Sundays xcepted.lCe Dally, per week, delivered. Sundajs lr.cluaed.20c News or discussion Intended for publication In The Oregonian should be addresied Invariably "Editor The Oregonian," not to tne name of anr Individual, letters relating- to adertishig. Bubscrlptions or to any business matter should be addressed simply "The Orceonlan." The Oregonian does not buy poems or stories from Individuals, and cannot undertake to xe turc any manuscripts tent to It without solicita tion. No stamps should he inclosed or this pur pose. Paget Sound Bureau Captain A. Thompson, office at 1111 Pacific avenue, Tacoma. Box 955. Tacoma postoffice. Eastern Business Office The Tribune building, New Tork city; -"Tne Bookery." Chicago; the E. C Beckwith special agency. New Tork. Per cale la Sxn JTranclsco by J. K. 3ooper, 746 Market street, near the Palace hotel, and at Goldsmith Bros . 236 Sutter street. Per sale In Chicago by the P. O. News Co., S17 Dearborn street. TODAY'S WEATHER. Occasional rain, -with southerly "winds. PORTLAND, THURSDAY, JANUARY 4. G. A. R. ASD PENSION" HOLL. "We publisli elsewhere communica tions from members of the G. A. IL who do not agree -with The Oregonian in its conviction that the present pen sion roll. If purified of all persons who are in moral -equity illegitimate claim ants,: woud -not exceed -$i5jp00,000. The position of The Oregonian has always teen, and Is today, that there is need of amendment of the pension laws so that It shall be impossible for a man of pecuniary means sufficient for his own support and that of his family to draw a pension. There are thousands of men today possessed of full capacity for self-support who are qn -the .pension roll, and have been pai&a'large lump sum m arrears of pension. These men have a legal right to a place on the pension roll, but they liave tio moral right to a pension. Nevertheless, the G. A. B, will not even favor the listing of such pensioners and the publication of their names, so that every state may know who these men are who are so destitute of pride as to swell the numbers on the pension roll. Our crit ics dodge the real point -of the matter by asking, "What has the G. A. R. done?" The trouble is that the G. A. E. bas done nothing absolutely noth ing, officially, by the -use of 4ts organ ized influence, to prevent -enactment of vicious pension legislation. The G. A. E. sits with its tpnds. folded and al lows tluViegisIatIdn 'to" be enacted through pension attorneys, -and then, after a legal extravagance has been enacted through their quiescence, they -ask, "Why are the G. A. E. responsi ble?" They are responsible to the ex tent that their passivity has permitted all this loose, vicious legislation to be enacted without effective protest. Does anybody suppose our present -vicious pension legislation could have been enacted if the congressmen of both parties had been notified officially by the G. A. E. that all that the honest soldiers of the country ask is that the nation will provide for those of their comrades who are really unable to pro vide for themselves or their families, 0 that no soldier -shall be obliged to beg his bread or find f efuge in an alms house? Tae.pensiGnspaidito deserving o)diers; tae not arge. Inwsome cases they are "not large enough. But the pension roll is loaded down with the "burden of pensions paid to men who nave no moral right to a pension, and ought to have no legal right to one. These men have a legal right to a pen sion today, because of the indifference, the apathy, of a minority of the G. A. E., and because of the tacitassent of a majority of that order, who seem to be infatuated with the immoral idea that because xl man has performed a duty in defense of his country that could be ex acted of Mm by law, he is entitled to alms from the state all the rest of his days. Now, The Oregonian is not a crank on this 'jsubject; it rests its convic tion that "the pension rll at present is largely patljed with 'pensioners Tvho nave in moral equity no claim to pen sion, on the testimony of men of high military distinction, of the highest personal character, -who were dur ing life members of the G. A. E. To illustrate: General H. W. Slocum, a graduate of West Point, an exceed ingly able anI trustworthy soldier, who iought with distinction in the Peninsu lar campaign oiTlB2, who was distin guished at Gettysburg, where he com manded our right wing, who was so distinguished for his services before Atlanta that General Sherman selected liim for the leadership of half his army of 60,000 men that marched from At lanta to Savannah and from Sa vannah to Ealeigh, N. C, was a war democrat of the Douglas fac tion, but he was an absolutely hon est man, as w ell as a very able soldier. After the war Slocum broke with his own party in Brooklyn, N. ST., because he detested Tammany and believed in civil service reform. This General Slo cum, a member of the G. A. E., be lieved with The Oregonian that there are thousands of persons on the rolls that have no claim, in right or equity to a pension. General Francis C. Bar low and General John Gibbon, both members of the G. A. E., and both dis tinguished division commanders of the Second oorps of the Army of the Poto mac, agreed with General Slocum that the pension roll was in severe need of purgation. There are today on the pension roll nearly 1,000.000 names. Making due al lowance for the 6C00 widows of the war of 1812, for the 15,000 survivors of the Mexican war, and 7000 Mexican war widows, we still have a pension, roll so enormous as to forbid the idea of its honesty. There cannot be today more than a million veteran survivors of the Union army. Allowing for the very large number that are not dependent and are not applicants for pensions, there is no way of accounting for the size of our pension roll except upon the assumption that thousands of pension ers on the Toil have no moral right to be there. Evary honest Union veteran can name at least one fraudulent recip ient of a pension, and it would not trou ble our local critic to find more than one ex-Union soldier who has for years been drawing a pension. to which he had no moral title, and would have had no legal title if the G. A. E. had in Elstsd that no penslon.sliauld oe grant ed to a man able to support himself. 'Tens of '"thousands, moreover, have pensions who saw no real service; and there Is no old soldier who does not know many such. SLANDERS THOROUGHLY HEHJUTED. It was one of the proud boasts of the antis that the country they belong to has no capacity for administration of colonial dependencies. tBecause .the Indjan is still a problem and the, negro a care, therefore we shall inevitably make a mess of Cuba, Puerto EIco and the Philippines. Whatever hope In that direction may have been entertained must be dashed by the record that has been made up to the present time. Things in Cuba have been almost revolutionized. Sufficient demonstra tion, if there were nothing"-else, would be afforded, in the reception pf General Wood at Havana and the enthusiasm with which all factions there are sup porting his programme. The full mean ing of this support can only be grasped by recalling the Latin-American con ception of politics, which nevef contem plates the acquiescence in the result of elections and support of the de facto government that have become second nature to us. To be out of power in Latin-America, outside of Mexico, is to be plotting revolution. General Wood has triumphed over this untoward tendency by simple virtue of his dem onstration in good government made at Santiago. Havana welcomes him and pledges co-operation with his new cab inet, because It can already discern honest use of taxes, sanitary Teforms, road and bridge construction, peace 4 and order. It is even likely that in many of these things examples will be set for us to copy here at home. This is a blessing The Oregonian has pre dicted from the first. Just this,sprt of work General Otis Is doing in IJuzon. HnV "repdris from there, overshadowed by the campaign's more showy vicissitudes, show unmis takable achievement of sagacity and benefaction in the work of peace. Schools and courts, taxation systems and municipal organization, are appar ently proceeding in good order "in the path of victory and occupation. He adapts American institutions to the different capacities of the local field. He takes counsel 'jot the wisest Fili pinos. Customs" ingrained in habit heJ retains and modifies as seems neces sary, and procedure that is manifestly Iniquitous he plans to displace through gradual substitution of better things. The splendid progress of the schools there under American teachers is re vealed in frequent letters from Manila to The Oregonian. Honesty Is replac ing extortion, and the inhabitants are becoming convinced that our concern" is not their spoliation, but their wel fare. It need not surprise us that this work is done under the army. The military force of this republic Is little more than one manifestation of our civil life. Militarism in the European sense Is un known, and our great soldiers are not so much versed in arms as they are in affairs. In Wood and Otis alike we see not so much the fighter as the states man organizing the forces of peace and order, repairing as fast as they tear down. What they call peace is the farthest possible remove from the soli tude Eome made in Britain. Their work is the final answer to the slan ders that have been heaped upon the American arms. It is a demonstration in the adaptability of the American genius for work, the mobility of the forces the American people must bring to bear on the waste places fallen to their charge. GROSS DERELICTION IN COOS. A precinct meeting of the people's party at Coquille City" a center of pop ulism was called a few evenings ago, to elect delegates to a meeting for re organization of the Coos county cen tral committee, to be held in Coquille City.. One would expect such a meet ing, in that community, where the local town would-reap the benefit of a pros pective gathering,, to arouse great in terest and draw a orowd. - But the populist paper at Coquille reports that "the attendance was not large," and after the selection of two delegates, the small meeting wound up with a "social chat." Such a lack of popullstic .interest in public affairs is saddening. For many years,itnecountry has received its warnings of impending disaster from the, patriots of populism, and no one more vociferously prophesied the ruin of the republic from the aggres sions of the money power and the usur pations of the courts than the profound butcher of Coos county, who came so near election to congress in June of 1896. Yet the country is further along the road to ruin now than when Mr. Yanderburg, leaving' his meat block and sausages, pointed us to the gaunt wolf of poverty that was stalking be hind the gold standard, and the des potism that was creeping along to de vour our liberties under the delusive guise of government by injunction. But . the- pojd narty wort 3 be election, and has taken no backward step It has not even restrained ' 'the courts from interfering with the liberty of citizens. In Idaho for example, who want to take life and destroy property. More than ever, the courts without waiting for the commission of crime and then gently reproving the perpe tratorsare given to granting Injunc tions against actions' ndyfgatherirtgs which presag lawlessness,,- and1 'the party in power Is fastening the gold standard, upon the nation. Yet the pop ulists of the very center of popular liberty In Coos county negjectto cry an alarm in clarion tones, and are content to indulge in "social chat," instead of ringing resolutions against the villain ies that menace our beloved common country. Nero fiddled ,while Eome was burn ing, and has been duly execrated by all lovers of liberty and justice for some 1800 yeais; but was he more recreant than they who sit supinely by and see our ship of state flounder toward the rocks of gold, with never a rocket to indicate the 'terrible dan ger? What's the matter with the pop ulists of Coquille, 'anyhow? Are they too busy, under, a stable monetary standard and the security of property rights maintained by our courts, to at tend to their old-time function of warning the country against the oppo site political party? Or have they, since the settlement of the litigation over its railway and coal properties, gone to work to aid in the era of growth and progress that seems now at hand in Coos county? The loosemanner in which much of the probate business of Multnomah county ,has,rbe.en..,jtransacte3 in past years is strikingly illustrated in the an nouncement that a list of about 250 estates, dating back as far as 1860, are found upon the record journals" of tne county court, the accounts of which are still open. In closing these ac counts, as he proposes to do," -Judge Pake will make a general, clean-up of the business of his many predecessors In office covering a period of more than a third of a century. The un earthing, so to speak, of this vast v61 ume of unfinished business provea conclusively (if proof of a proposition so thoroughly demonstrated in ofncial' life may be considered necessary), that men do not always do faithfully and conscientiously what they are elected to do and are paid for doing. WEAK POINT IN REGISTRY-LAW. The prpcess,of registration under the new1" state law discovers at least one grave difficulty in its enforcements This arises in registration of foreign born citizens who have since been nat uralized or through "declaration of in tentions" have acquired-right to vote, under the state constitution. The reg- istry law, ' approved 'February 17, 1899; specifies the facts to be enumerated "bV the registration officers concerning the voters. One of these specifications reads: 8. If naturalized, the time, place and court of naturalization or declaration, as evidenced 'fay the legal proof thereof, exhibited by the elector. The naturalized Voter, therefore, or the roan who. lias declared lii2inten' tions, must exhibit "legal proof whion can only be Interpreted to meair dofcu mentary evidence, in the -shape of the "first papers" or "final papers" them selves, or else in the form of certified transcripts of court records. It is not stiange that numbers have failed to preserve these papers, and are unable even to recall the time, place and court "'where' they were naturalized or' made declarations. Most would probably re member the place, some would even re member the time, very few could name the court. Even this information is in adequate, without the written records, and if the records are lost or unob tainable, there's an end of the man as a voter, no matter how many years he has voted, no matter how generally accepted and lndlsputed may be his right to vote or his desirability as a citizen. Papers of this sort are not kept by the average man, for the ade quate reason that hitnerto there has been no need to keep them; and the court records from which transcripts might be obtained, in case the court were remembered by thevoter, are doubtless difficult of access, perhaps stored away in forgotten receptacles, possibly even in some cases destroyed. It is possible, though not at all prob able, that this clause could be made the basis of overthrow of the whole regis try law by the courts. The new law does not prescribe qualifications other than those outlined in the constitution, but merely calls into operation a method of ascertaining whether the constitutional qualifications are pos sessed by the applicant. This is the general view of this point, and though a decision of the Oregon supreme court in 1886-has been cited against it, there are good reasons for believing reasons which it is needless to go over now, as they have been fully discussed here ror years that a registry law properly framed is constitutional. But it is also true that the' operation of the act1 as drawn works a hardship on many of our best citizens and' is inimical to pub lic policy. If any way can be found by which the apparent intention of the act can be interpreted so as to admit to registry citizens clearly entitled to vote but denied registration under the letter of the law, it should be applied. If that fails, the law should be amended by the next legislature. A MERCANTILE TAX IrAW. A new mercantile tax law went into effect in Pennsylvania January 1. Un der constitutional provisions existing in Oregon, such, law could not be put Jn operation here; yet the system is worth attention. Under the Pennsylvania law any person who sells goods of any'kind not manufactured on the premises where1 sold must pay a mercantile license tax to the state, and that, instead of" a mercantile assessor making appraise ments, according to his best judgments, each person who sells goods must sup ply.a sworn -statement of the amount of business actually transacted. In the first place, a $2 retail vendor tax wilL be collected. Then there Is a city fee of 50 cents. In addition, by the new mercantile license fax, the retail dealer must pay to the state 1 mill on every dollar's worth of goods sold during the previous year. A wholesale dealer must pay the wholesale tax of $3 and one-half mill on every dollar of Jus total sales. The whole tax on a mer chant making sales to the amount of $5000 a year will be $7 50; if the retail business runs up to $5,000,000, the tax will be $5002 50. Mercantile houses are required to produce their books, when -called for, so that the returns may be vennea; ana tnere"are heavy-penalties for false returns. The London Dally News says: "Wars In countries that offer the advantage of position to the defenders are bound to be tedious affairs." So.it seems to John Bull, from his experience in South Africa. We have a similar lesson in the Philippine islands; only the Fili pinos play their game differently. TJiey don't "defend" very much, but when the American army appears" they "hide their rifles ana play "amigo." Then when the Americans are gone they take their arms again and start out on their campaigns of loot and murder, putting to death, often with torture, natives who are supposed to have been friendly to the Americans. When there is but a small force of Americans left in a place, these "amigos" sneak up and try to kill or capture Individuals. Every effort ought to be made to snatch up these cowardly scoundrels and make examples of them. Only the court martial and the gallows will put a stop to such outrages. It requires extreme hardihood to as sert that in the pension legislation of the country there is no abuse or excess. Yet The Oregonian is often censured for saying there Is. And more legisla tion, carrying the excess and abuse much further, is threatened. Here is an expenditure so colossal that it can nqt possibly be ignored. The root of the abuse is that vast sums are paid to persons who are in no need of them, and other vast sums to persons who were but a short time on the army rolls and never saw real service. The Ore gonian's position is that pensions are due only to service and need. But the .law goes-much further, and- there- are j those who propose legislation that shall go-much-jfurther still. This is The Ore-, gonlan's- criticism? It has to say, more over, that every article on the subject that has appeared in its columns has been written by a soldier who' served three years with the army of the 'Po tomac, and who, though poor, never has applied for a pension. Generals MacArthur-and Young, who have been nominated for brigadier-generals irfthe regular army; are both volunteer veterans of the civil war. General MacArthur entered the Union army sls first lieutenant of the Twenty fourth Wisconsin infantry in August, 1862i and Was mustered out as lieutenant-colonel of his regiment In June, 1865. He was appointed second Jtettteh ant of the Seventeenth United States Infantry in February, 1866; became captain of the Thirteenth Infantry in 1870;- major and assistant adjutant- general in July, 1889; lieutenant-colonel in May, 1896; "brigadier-general of vol unteers in May, 1898, and major-general of volunteers in August, 1898. Gen eral MacArthur was twice brevetted for personal gallantry in the civil war. Colonel. Ypung, of e Third United States caValry; enlisted in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Infantry in April, 1861; Wasjrhlistered out in July, 1865, as colo nel of the Fourth Pennsylvania cavalry and brevet brigadier-general of volun teers. He entered the regular army as second lieutenant of the Twelfth infan try in May, 1866; became major of the Thirdcavalry in April, 883, and colonel in June, 1S97, and major-general of volunteers in" July, 1898- " The president is said to desire that Hanna shall continue to hold the chair manship of- the 'republican '-national committee, shall bepresident of the national-convention, andshalr conduct or .direct the presidential campaign. If these are the' president's- wishes, they will "go." The men who direct party action and want' the 'offices 'will have no opinions, or Wishes contrary to those of the president. Mr. McKinley is the republican partj And not merely1 that; but, "owing to the impotence of the democratic party, the result of It3 un speakable follies, Mr. McKinley is the eiitire country. -r ) Aman is on trial in Olympia for vio lation of the compulsory education law of Washington, he haying refused to send his children to7 school. His de fense, if well based, should jiOt only exonerate ,lum, but should result in closing; under its present management, a c6rtam district"' school in Thurston county. He meets the arraignment of the school officer for violation of the law -with the assertion that he with holds his children on account of "the Immorality of the school." -The burden of proof, of course, rests with the de-' fendant, and public interests demand that the investigation be" most search ing. The further extension of sixty days to MCDaniel's counsel to prepare for and argue a motion for a new trial savors strongly of California methods in dealing with criminals of this stamp. Tragedies frequently grow out of the law's delay as thus exemplified, and there is not the slightest reason to t suppose that justice will profit by it. Sixty days from the date of the com mission of a crime so abhorrent as-tha't of. which. McDaniel nas.iVbjeenQconvicted should suffice to lancL theperpetrator upon the gallows, orallignjg circum stances being foundry the jury, in the penitentiary. " "e , The promise of a'ctlvitjrTthe log ging camps of the' Northwest, unpar alleled for a number of years, and of a magnitude 'greater than ever before known, bespeaks great activity in our lumber export and building operations. It also indicates a great and substan tial demand in the labor market which says clearly, no able-bodied man in the community needs to be idle during the coming months. If we are, as some confidently assert, a-creditor nation, ( another argument of Bryanism .is gone. It was well enough for England, a creditor country, the Bryanltes said, to desire the gold standard, out not for us, a -debtor na tion. The wholesale scallngvddwn of debts one-half will therefore wear a dubious aspect to us, to say the least. The doctors attendant on Eepresent ative Boutelle and Boland'Beed are not making the mistake of promising re covery and thus taking chances on im pairment of reputation. They talk gloomily at first and Jay thearfpijiada fion for glory if they are lucky. 'THey know their business. " " The"Xawton fund grows steadily and substantially. Unlike the Dewey home fund, which resulted in such general dissatisfaction, this contribution lepre sents a need as well as a patriotic Im pulse. - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTING. "Louisville Cotn-Jef-Jooraal, gold dem. There is not the slightest reason why there-should be any contention about the authorship of the financial plank of the republican platform of 1896. The truth is, that "plank" was a good deal of a rig marole. It wrote all around the finan cial question in a way that plainly be trayed tihat the writer was afraid of say- Infc r,toov much. The vital part of It was the plain declaration that the gold stand ard Should be preserved, until an interna tional agreement for the free and unlim ited coinage of silver could be obtained. As most of the sound-money men be lieved that such an International agree ment would be postponed till the Greek calends-the Greeks never haying had any calends this assurance was satisfactory to them, as far as any platform deliver ance' could be satisfactory, and on the strength of this Major McKinley was elected. But why should any one claim as an honor the authorship of the resolution? There was nothing In the framing of it "but irresolution, cowardice and Insincer ity.,, That It meant the preservation of l the existing ' standard could only be arrived at by an intricate process of reasoning. It would have been easy enough to say: "We faVor'the existing gold standard and will maintain It," and that would have been clear to everybody. It would also have been brave and outspoken. But It was months afterward before the nom inee upon that platform felt safe in utter ing the word gold. Under these circumstances the contro versy as to the authorship of the financial plank seems altogether superfluous. The real author of it might not be justified in J trying to lie out of It, but modest still -new and humility would be very beconv ingr to hira. Why any one should try to claim It without rlght-oan only-beex- plained by the prevalence of paresis among "politicians. - 'a g ' - BANK NOTES ARE SAFE. And Assertions to the Contrary Are "'Beiieati Contempt. New York- Times. Prejudice dies hard, and hardest of all when it is inspire! by envy and covetous ness and basedon-lgnorance. - During the late -debate, in the house of representatives on the currency bill, several members or the opposition denounced the national banks for their possession of a monopoly of note issues, and declared that these notes, were a source pf great profit to the banks and of real peril to the noteholders. The. first statement Is grossly erroneous, , the second is "palpably false. That there is mot much profit in Issuing notes at pres ent is shown by the fact that the Issues do not Increase. That every note Issued by a national bank 13 absolutely safe, as safe as the notes of the United -States or the bonds of the United States, -"aha sven a little surer to be instantly re deemed, is a matter of law, and every con Cressman ought to know it. In- the first place the notes are secured by the deposit of United States bonds with the treasury to the amount of ?l(Xi bonds at par for $90 of notes, and these bods at present aro Worth from $110 to $113. In the second place, the moment a bank fails to redeem Its notes on presen tation, and the fact Js made known in duo form to the controller of the currency, ne proceeds to declare the 'bonds.. deposited for the security of the notes forfeit. "'Thereupon," in the language of the law, "he shall immediately giye notice to the holders of the notes of such association to present them for payment at the treas ury of- the United States, and the same sh,all be paid as presented in la'wf ul money ofjne United States " For the reimburse ment of the United States for such re demption the United States is given "a first and paramount lien on all the assets of such association," and this lien covera not only the property of the bank, but the personal liability of all the sharehold ers for an amount equal to the par value of jthefchares; n , , JCn brjef. Jf.'the bank ,dqes,no redeenv its .notes n on-demand, ..the, treasury -will,- and to enable, it to do so, 'it has security worth more than the face of the notes and a first lien on all assets, Including the property f of shareholders up to the oar of the capital of the bank. For se curity, there is nothing-better in tne country, and cannot be. 4 a 4WBQSREJHAS THE GOLD GOXE? Mint Directors. Endeavor to liocate ,. An Odd $300,000,000. Chicago Tribune. "Lost or strayed, 5300,000.000 in Amer ican gold coin. Any person who has in formation as to its whereabouts -will please communicate with the director of the mint," This is the substance of "a cir cular which is about to be sent out by the director" "io "manufacturers of jewelry, to gold-le?fi-suppTy houses -"and all dealers and manufacturers 'who dse the Drecibus "metals In their work. ' Let it not be supposed that the treasury or the mint has lost $300,000,000 in gold coin and wants to recover it." Nothing so serious as that has happened. What troubles the director of the mint Is that; while ha knows the whereabouts of the greater part of the gold coined in this country since 1879, as large a portion of it as $300,000,000 has eluded his search. It has -disappeared frorcf circulation, and he does not know where It is. If it has- been melted down, then the mint statistics of the amount of gold coin in the country are at fault The accuracy of those statistics was questioned recently by Professor Faulkner. He doubted whether the stock of coin outside the treasury and the banks was what it has been assumed to be. Mint THrector Roberts-seems to have been Impressed by Professor Faulkner's state ments, and is going to find out' whether there has been a flaw in the customary mode of calculating the" amount of gold in the country. ' TB.mmtvofflclals have been able to keep close track of the 'gold in bars used by Jewelers, '-dental bouses and others. They have guessed that- gold coin, to the value lof "$1,500,000, was melted down annually ana "Ufeed Irf the arts. It occurs to them nbw that that guess may have been far out of the way. Hence, 20,000 circulars are to be sent out to firms using gold in the arts, asking them to say how much gold coin they have melted down during the present year. If their replies Indicate an annual consumption of, say. $10,000,000, Instead of $1,500,000, then the director of the mint willlcnow where a good part of his missing $300,000,000 has gone, and he rwill have to revise and cut down his es timate of the amount of gold in circula tion. But if the replies show that the million and one-half guess is about right, fhenthe nftstery'as to the whereabouts. of' "that V$3JX),000,000 of gold coin will be darker than ever. . , fa Dempsey In Another Vleve. Chicago Times-Herald. "There Is a movement here," says the Brooklyn Eagle, "to have a monument erected over Jack Dempsey's grave or to have the body removed to Brooklyn -if Ms relatives would consent." The writer Hi An Eroa on to inform the public that Dempsey ought to have a noble monument, provided by public subscriptions, and sets forth in the following verses the condition of his present resting-place: DEMPSEY'S GRWE. Far out in the wilds of Oregon, On a lonely mountain side, Where Columbia's mighty waters Holl down to the ocean's tide; Where the iant flrrf and cedars I .ThraWsHadowa on tho wae? "",7' 1.. nO'ergfownilh ferns-anilmosse?, ' j-"1 I found -poortDCmpsey's grae. ' - ' That man of honor and of Iron, That man of heart and steel, That man who far outclassed hlsrclass, And niade the world to feel That Tempsey'e name and Iropsey's fame "Would llye in storied stone, Is now at rest far in the West, In the wilds of Oregon. Forgotten by ten thousand throats That thundered his acclaim, Forgotten by his vanquished foes, Forgotten e'en his name. But shall New1 Tork so econ forgot Its bravest of the brave, And In the wilds of Oregon JJeave unmarked poor Dempsey's gra e? It seems to us that there is room for a imr -mnra i(nf here, and we have taken the liberty to furnisn them in our own, poor, weaK way: And -who. Tnetlilnks I hear-you ask. Was this exalted man? Give heed and I'll explain hia worth As briefly as t can: He never drew a flashing blade Against his c6untry's foe. But with his bony flst he laid Full sixty bruisers low. He won In more than sixty fights Before he met defeat, He made three-score of hoses look Like freshly served meat, And-when, at last, he got the punch That sent him o'er the rope, He nobly put the mitts away And went to selling dope. Ah, shame upon the people who Have honored Grant, that they Should let great Dempsey lie unmourned Three thousand miles away! He was by far too strongNto work, And whisky broke him down Let's raise a monument to him , And ghe him new renown! English Press jComment. If -the -victory isto be purchased at a dearer price than1 we anticipated, Its cost will strengthen the national deternflnation to rean the fruits of victory to the last grain. Politicians and humanitarians will not be allowed to Klve -away what soldiers 'have fought and died to win .for queen and empire. Birmingham Post. There Is good reason to believe that the war office is somewhat repentant of the Ignominious slights it has persistently placed -upon the South African, Canadian and Australian offers of volunteers for the- war--Some of the-authorities, it is said have begun to think It possible that men trained -to the life of the veldt, the prairie and the bush have certain advan tages In the kind of -warfare In which the Boers have proven themselves so adroit, and there is talk, but talk only so far, of a change of plan with regard to the colonials. London Mail. This much Is clear, that the general com manding at the Cape would at this mo ment give anything to have 10,000 or 20,000 men in hand for unforseen emergencies, such as the Stormberg mishap, and that they are not there. Two rules of war. Inculcated by the experience of centuries, art never ta begin by exposing fractions: of your force to the enemy's attack, and to keep an uninterrupted stream of rein forcements" moving towards your army in the field. The government broke the first rule when, after sending Sir G. "White it sent no more troops for- many weeks. It broke the second" rule when it made a -pause after the dispatch of the army corps. Are not the events tnat have nap-' pened object lessons enough? If there Is a seventh division ought it not to begin embarking before the whole of the "Sixth has left? London Post. BY SEATING CLARK The Senators Cnn Help Decree Their Election, by Popular Vote. Philadelphia Press. The Montana bribery case opens a seri ous Issue which the United States senate cannot dodge and on which it cannot maintain its. familiar doctrine that where bribery is proved a direct connection be tween the elected senator and the man paying the bribe must be proved. .The English election law long since tore up this legal Action. If any valuable consideration Is proved to have been paid for the purpose of gaining votes- by any one associated with the candidate, on nis committee, in his-employ or in his family,, the English law ju3tly holds that this 'is. corruption, and the election is void accord ingly. This is common sense, and it ought to' ber commdn election law. The cloud of friends, backers and supporters are al ways ready to take the risk of .bribery if irwill not" reach the benefited, candi date, who-fkeeps conveniently deaf and, blind. His1 benefit is and ought to involve his complicity. -Bribery of JoluxJB. TVellcame, con5Plcu ous as the agent of the senator, William A. Clark, has been judicially established. The supreme-court of Montana-has decided that by disbarring him. Evidence which satisfies a court of last appeal on such an issue Is enough to-satisfy any man of candor and common sense. The one hope of the principal for whose election and In whose beneflt.$30,000 was paid, is to deny a direct connection with an act which, un der the English election laws, would leave him without standing In court. If the senate refuses to unseat, except where a direct personal connection ia proved, it will do much to convice the entire country that senate elections by leg islatures must cease and senate elections by the voters begin. Bribery exists In some of these elections now. No one doubts that- If this- bribery Is never to be held a bar to a seat in the senate unless a direct personal connection is proved, no elected senator can be excluded for bri bery. He can always, by simple precau tions; let his friends bribe for him, escape all responsibility and reap all the rewards of the act. Establish the conviction In the public mind that this technicality is always to protect bribery and the mode of electing senators is certain to be changed. Greater reforms have come for less cause. The senate is on trial in the Montana case, and Its judicial action will be jealously watched. The Imperturbable British Soldier. St. James's Gazette. A correspondent rode outto meet the force falling back from Dundee. The. track (he says) went steep down hill to a sparuit where the water lay in pools. And there on the opposite hill was that gallant little British army, -"halted in a position of extreme danger, absolutely commanded on all sides but one, and pre paring for tea as unconcernedly as it they were in a Ldckhart's shop in Goswell road. Almost as unconcerned, for, in deed, some of the officers showed signs of their long anxiety and sleeplessness. The British private was even here imperturb able, as usual. He sat on the rocks, sing ing tho latest he knew from the music halls. He lighted his fires and made his tea and took an Intelligent interest in the slaughter of the oxen, for all the world as if he were- at maneuvers on Salisbury Plain. Filthy from head to foot, drenched with rain, baked with sun, unshorn and unwashed for five days, his eyes bloodshot for want of Sleep, hungtry and footsore, fresh from terrible fighting and the loss of many friends, he was still the same unmistakable British soldier, that queer mixture of humor and blas phemy, cherfulness and grumbling, never losing that imperturbability which has no mixture of any other quality at all in it. The camping ground was arranged almost as though they were going to stay there forever. Here were the guns in or der, there the relics of the Eighteenth hussars; there'the Lelcesters, the Sixtieth, the Dublins, the -Royal Irish fusiliers and the rest. The guards" ware set and the sentries posted: But only two hours later the whole moved off again for three miles further advance to get them well out of the mountains. Why on that perilous march through unknown and difficult country" the Dutch did not spring upon them in some pass and blot them out is one of the many mysteries of this strange campaign. e 'His WoricvUnsatIsfactory. Philadelphia. Press. " "Did you -ever get 'the money D'Auber owed you?" "No. He wanted to square accounts by painting my house Inside and out." "Well, that would have evened things up. "Why didn't you let him?" "I was going to until I saw one of his pictures." The Comlo Opera. Syracuse Herald. Librettist I don't like that new prima donna. Manager Why not? -Librettist Her enunciation Is so perfect that everybody will be able to understand what I have written. " 1 c ' ' Not That Kind. Chicago News. Cleric "What do jou wish ma'am? Mrs.-O'TooIe OI want to sae'some mir rors. Clerk Hand mirrors? Mrs. O'Toole No; some thot ye kin sae yerface in. s Bears Them in Hind. Philadelphia Catholic Standard. TIggSHe's very charitable, isn't he? Waggs Who, Pincher? -riggSYes. He says he always remem bers the poor. Waggs Well, that's all. It's a matter of memory. JOB Unendurable. Philadelphia Record. Mrs. Buggins Why did you move in from the country? Did you find it too lbnesome? Mrs. Muggins Yes; there wasn't even anybody to inquire how much we paid our cook. t Question for the "Antis." "Washington Post. The antI-expansionIst3 have discovered that the life of a man like General Lawton Is worth more than the whole island of Luzon. Then why do these gentlemen con tinue to encourage the Filipinos to take such, lives? 1 i 0 p Shouldn't Have Said It. Yonkers- Statesmen. She I'm, one of her oldest friends. He You look it. NOTE- AND-COMMENT. The Boers are evidently nott yet on to Pitcher's curves. If the Fenians rise, It will be by virtue of the buoyancy of gas. Two milk trusts -are fighting1 for1 the cream of the trade In Chicago. Properly enough, the Cuban cabinet seems to consist chiefly of Wood. The rise in the price of hemp may make it cheaper to electrocute Agulnaldo. The gallantry of the- Canadian troops !n South Africa may be easily explained. They qame from America. Hanna wants McKinley to want Hanna for chairman of the national committee, and McKinley wants" what he Is wanted to want. "What the local democrats want Is a dec laration of principles that shall dodge every issue that stands the remotest chance of coming up In the next campaign. The Wisconsin, being nearly ready for her trial trip, the Badger will be sold. Too many namesakes are likely to make a. state think It is entitled to a presi dential candidate. Congress ought to get the currency bill, the Roberts matter and the little unpleas antness over in the Philippines off ltd hands before it launches Into that Samp-son-schley affair again. Pension-office statistics show that just one-half the members of the Seventy-first New York and Ninth Massachusetts regi ments are applicants for pensions on the ground of alleged injuries received during the recent war with Spain. Probably the 'Invalids are victims of the unripe banana. A woman,, drunk and frequenting saloons with & babe in her arms, while two little girls pleaded with her to control her appetite was a sight at The Dalies last Sunday! The family took a train for the West. The Times-Mountaineer says it is a case thatmight well have the attent on of the Boys' and Girls? Aid Soolety. At Cascade Locks a young man whose head was cut in astreet fight was patched up by a doctor, who declined to charge him for the service, as the fellow was hard up. Tho fighter wanted to know what a man who was not broke would be charged, and was told. This angered him, and he abused the 'doctor Until the latter had to settle matters by sending him sprawling with his .fist. The last seen of the Ingrate he was on the run down. the street. .. Kansas understands that advertising is valuable to a state as well a3 to a merphant. The secretary of -Its board of agriculture has sent out,, under instruc tions, a handsomely engraved card, which shows the agricultural and livestock prod ucts of the state for the current year. The aggregate value of wheat, corn, oats, to bacco, wool and other farm, garden and horticultural products for the period cov ered was $169,747,037; that of horses, mules, cows and other livestock, $133,037,002, mak-ing-a grand total of $302,304,129, an Increase of $37,652,367 over the returns from these sources for 1898. And now, when people ask "what is tho matter with Kansas," they may very properly be assured that "she ia all right," depression and populism having had their day. . s v A few day's ago the driver of an auto mobile was thrown from his carriage on a street in New York. As he fell his hand set the machinery going at full speed, and set the steer-wlgger so the vehicle went round and round. After breaking one man's leg and creating a general panic, the carriage was captured and the power reduced to submission. The incident has aroused much discussion upon the danger of the vehicles thus propelled upon tho streets of cities. The sufficient answer ta criticisms of the automobile on this score is that horses are prone to run away, ani in so doing they generally make a much worse job of It than does the wild electrical carriage. The latter is automatic and can not be scared. wherea3 the longer a horso runs the more frightened he gets, and more capable of serious mischief. There Is better and worse even in runaways, and the automobile seems to have the better part.. v The Indianapolis Press publishes a let ter to a friend from an American business man in Johannesburg, in which he says: "I do not agree at all with the statements I see in some American papers about Eng land having no real cause for war with the Transvaal. It should have come- to this point long before it did. England took slap after slap from the wretched little country which she would not "have taken from any other, I am sure, and had the United States been so treated by another nation our whole people would have been up In arms months ago and the question set tled. I have heard many Englishmen say this, too, and many of them in Johannes burg said they wished the United States had the settling of affairs. The great mis take England made was in ever giving the country back to the Boers I have heard people say ever since I have been here, 'Never trust a Boer,' and I am afraid I must believe It. A3 a nation I certainly do, and that must mean they are individually untrustworthy. They have been greatly misrepresented as a 'God fearing people There is an overwhelm ing amount of 'lip service,' tot be sure, and the speeches of the volkaraad mem bers were sickening to U3 living here, as we knew the hollowness of It all." 9 Indorsed by the Gallery. Philadelphia. Jlecord. "Aha!" exclaimed the heavy villain, "the plot thickens." "It's about time,"" remarked the occu pant of the gallery; "it's been pretty thin so far." B His Style. Ybnker3 Statesman. Bacon You say your son at college writes a bold hand? 'Egbert I should say so. He's just -written for $150 more. 4 0 ' - The English Language. New York Sun. A farmer was trying to plough With a Jackass hitched up to anepujeb. When they kicked up a terrible rough. Said the farmer: "It's hard, tfallbugh I could do near as well with a sough: I will rest 'neatli the shade or this bough: "Such driving for me ia too rough; I've had of it nearly enough; r11 give thla old Jackass a. cough And quit, for I'm. quite in a hough,. And ploughing is almighty tough. "With farmingrm glad to be through My wife, she fa tlrsd of it, tough; We're wet wlthraln and the dough. And ploughing has made me quite bloush. "I'll sell out and pocket the dough. To the city 111 glad enough gough, ril" through down the shovel and hough; In'Wall street iriy money I'll blough. "My wife has contracted a cough. 'TIs-tiaie for us both to be oush!"