The voices that had frightened Mrs. March off were those of Sir Nelson
and Maxwell Fair, who now came round the corner of the tower, with heads
bowed in very earnest talk. The elder man had been the most intimate
friend of the younger man’s father, and on the death of the latter Sir
Nelson had assumed an informal guardianship of the erratic and wilful
son. But while others were disappointed and baffled during the earlier
years of Maxwell Fair’s manhood, Sir Nelson Poynter swore by him and
predicted that all would be well in time. Fully had Maxwell Fair’s more
recent career justified the confidence of his father’s old friend.
It was with the shock of surprise, as well as the natural sorrow of a
friend, that Sir Nelson had just been hearing Fair speak in indefinite
terms of some impending catastrophe that was to terminate in blight his
brilliant and successful life.
“By Jove, my boy,” Sir Nelson was saying as they reached the terrace
and began pacing up and down, “it distresses me unspeakably to hear
your father’s son talking in this way. Of course, I shall do all I
can—whatever you may ask of me—but don’t you think that you should make a
clean breast of everything? It is nothing new to see a Fair acting from
some high, compelling motive, which strikes us ordinary men as quixotic,
but your fathers always did whatever they did in the open. They may have
been enthusiasts and unpractical crusaders, but nobody could complain
that they fought under a mask. Their object may sometimes have seemed
chimerical, but in the struggle to reach it they wore their coat-of-arms
where men could see it, and proclaimed their principles with trumpet
blasts. Out with it, man! What in God’s name is it all?”
“I thank you, Sir Nelson,” quietly replied Fair, taking up his argument
and appeal at the point where Sir Nelson had interrupted him. “You
have relieved my mind by consenting to act as my executor. You will,
I think, find my affairs in tolerably good order. Everything goes to
Miss Mettleby—everything, so there will be little to do in the way of
settlement.”
“To Miss Mettleby?” exclaimed Sir Nelson, confronting Fair with perfect
consternation and disapproval. “To Miss Mettleby, you say? She is your
children’s governess, is she not? My God, boy, there has been no—your
wife and children, you know! What will be thought of this?”
“I have settled five hundred thousand pounds on Mrs. Fair and the
children—long ago, as I think you know, so I can leave the rest to Miss
Mettleby with justice and propriety,” answered Fair calmly.
“What if you have?” cried out Sir Nelson, growing vexed at the fellow’s
amazing stubbornness and lack of decency, as he thought. “What if you
have settled a considerable sum on your family? Do you suppose you can
leave the bulk of your estate to a dependent girl, a young woman in your
employ, without causing no end of evil surmises and comment reflecting on
your memory—yes, and the young person’s honor? What can you mean by such
a mad determination? Come, be reasonable, I beg of you. Make a suitable
provision for this girl, if you think it due her for her faithful service
in your family, but, for heaven’s sake, don’t leave the poor child a
legacy of defamation, as you most certainly will, if you persist in
carrying out such a preposterous course.”
“By the time that you come to settle my estate, sir, I shall have become
an object too contemptible for even malice to stoop to notice,” replied
Fair, poking his stick into the gravel and giving his words the tone
that meant that he had thought out all the objections which his old
friend had raised.
They walked back and forth once or twice before Sir Nelson responded with
a laugh, which he tried to make genuine: “My word, what arrant nonsense
we have been talking anyhow! Settling your estate, eh? Why, bless us all,
I shall have been under the chancel stones twenty years before you retire
from business to begin to enjoy middle age in the country. Come, come,
dear fellow, pull yourself together, do!”
“Ah, my best of friends,” answered Fair, with a voice full of sincerest
love and respect, but also of firmness and stem determination. “You
ought to know my father’s son better than to suppose that anything can
swerve me from a purpose once it has become a fixed idea—but,” he added,
suddenly turning to the old man with great tenderness, “by all that is
rational, I do suppose that it is unfair to keep you in the dark in this
way. I think that I should tell you plainly what is in my heart.”
“Depend upon it, Maxwell, it will be best for both of us if you will tell
me fully and honestly—everything,” eagerly returned Sir Nelson, slapping
Fair on the back in that hearty, old-fashioned way of his. “Come, now,
what the devil ails you?”
“Well, then, sir,” said Fair, taking Sir Nelson’s arm and pushing him
back toward the seat, “sit down while I tell you—I am too nervous to do
so.”
The old man sat as he was requested, and watched his young friend as he
walked up and down before him, formulating his ideas in order to present
them clearly and consecutively. It was some time before Fair had so far
shaped his thoughts as to be willing to speak. But when he had done so he
stopped on his next turn in front of Sir Nelson and said very quietly:
“Now I am ready. In carrying out the one compelling and absorbing purpose
of my life I have been made the most wretched and most misunderstood of
men. I have sternly brushed aside love, hope, joy—everything which means
life to a passionate and intense nature like my own. But this is an old
story. I had come to think that the dwarfing and cramping restraints of
my self-imposed life-work were second nature—more, that the life I was
leading was the only life possible to me. I would have died fighting for
the triumph of my idea—they would have found my body in the last trench
after the battle was done, and nobody had been the wiser, no one would
ever have known what a falsely-true life had been mine, had not this last
horrible sacrifice been required by the insatiable purpose which has
sucked away my life.
“I had asked for nothing from fate, but the right to live and die with
my secret unbetrayed. I had begged of God nothing more than that I be
suffered to seal with my death the loyalty to poor Janet that I had
striven to make of my whole life. But no. Even this beggarly scrap of
comfort has been denied to me—and by the most unspeakable irony of fate,
I find myself confronted with the damnable necessity of throwing away all
these dumb years of denial and self-effacement in order to do Janet and
the children the only service which still remains possible for me to do.
Is it not horrible, Sir Nelson? I had thought to make my life of some
little good by offering it to protect a woman and her children—and now,
lest they be buried by my own ruin, I must undo everything that I have
done during all these years.”
He paused and looked at his old friend, who showed a growing concern that
indicated he began really to believe Fair had lost his reason.
“Sir Nelson, I see that you do not comprehend me—perhaps I am beginning
at the wrong end. Yes, I am, of course. Let me give you some concrete
facts before asking you to follow me. Well, then, I tell you that I, your
old friend’s son, the man whom you have helped and watched over, as if
I were your son—I, Sir Nelson, have committed a crime against society,
against nature, against life!”
“Crime?” exclaimed the old Baronet, springing to his feet and grasping
Fair’s hand, thoroughly convinced that he was acting under some mental
and nervous excitement that had proved too much for his reason. “Crime?
Good God, boy, you are mad! I can’t believe this—I do not believe it!”
“Wait, wait,” pleaded Fair, again forcing Sir Nelson to the seat, and
trying to speak with the utmost composure. “Do not misunderstand me,
sir. If I had told you that I had wilfully and deliberately violated my
conscience or done some blackguardly thing, I should hope that nothing
would induce you to believe me. I have done this awful thing, of which I
now confess that I am guilty, with a clean heart—if you can understand
me. Society must and assuredly will wreak its sudden and fatal vengeance
upon me for my crime, but I want you, sir, to believe that when men are
reviling me for my act I shall be flinging that very deed at the feet of
my eternal Judge and asking Him to accept it in atonement for my blackest
faults—and if God fails to accept this thing that I have done, then am I
damned indeed forever. But you do not understand me?”
“On my word, I do not!” answered Sir Nelson, filled with very serious
misgivings. “You are ill—dangerously ill.”
“On the contrary,” replied Fair spiritedly, “I was never better in my
life. My mind was never so clear as it is at this moment. Listen, Sir
Nelson. When this crime is made public—which will be tomorrow in all
likelihood—I want you to shield Mrs. Fair and the children by announcing
that Janet is not my wife, that I never married her—and that the poor
children are not my children at all. Do this—it is the truth—and save
innocent beings from the disgrace of being thought to be my flesh and
blood.”
In spite of his efforts during this speech, Fair had yielded to the
intoxication of his sublime grief, and when he ceased speaking he was
holding the old man’s hand and the tears were streaming down his face.
“I sha’n’t put up with this,” declared Sir Nelson with much sternness,
rising like a very determined man. “I shall have Sir Porter Hope down by
special train at once. You are bad, on my honor, very bad indeed.”
“Spare Sir Porter Hope an unnecessary journey,” answered Fair, having
regained control of himself. He went on laughingly: “I tell you, I am
perfectly well. Have you a cigar? Thanks.”
He lighted the cigar, which poor old Sir Nelson was only too eager to
give him as an evidence that the fellow was not totally mad, and with
great deliberation puffed it slowly and carelessly, making rings of the
smoke and praising the quality of the tobacco. Not until he had got him
back to calmness and some measure of reassurance did he permit Sir Nelson
to resume the discussion of the question which both of them felt was the
last one they would ever discuss—the final question of Fair’s complex and
much agonized life.
“But in heaven’s name,” began Sir Nelson, pulling Fair down on the seat
beside himself, “what is the meaning of all this? Think what rubbish you
have been asking me to believe. Janet not your wife? The children not
your children? You don’t want me to believe this! You don’t ask me to
believe that Janet is your——”
“No!” roared Fair, jumping up and with so much warmth that Sir Nelson
was frightened; “no!—and don’t say the word either! On my honor as a
gentleman, I tell you, sir, that no daughter in her father’s house, no
sister under her brother’s roof, was ever safer, purer, more sacredly
held than Janet has been under mine. Her children have had more than a
father’s care and love from me, and it is only to save them all from the
disgrace and odium which will attach henceforth to my name that I now ask
you to proclaim the truth—to publish the fact that my polluting blood
does not run in their veins.”
“But,” protested the Baronet, with manifest disgust and irritation,
“what can be the explanation of this amazing state of affairs? If she is
not your wife—and not——”
“Don’t say it!” again commanded Fair. “I tell you, sir, I am not in a
mood to be exasperated just now—and the very word would madden me when I
think of what that woman has been to me and I to her.”
Sir Nelson always afterward remembered how noble and elated by an almost
supernatural uplift Fair had appeared as he stood there, warning him not
to profane the tabernacled secret of his life. The old man’s heart went
out to the tortured and defiant fellow.
“Never fear, dear boy,” he began with a feeble voice; “I shall not speak
or think it of her. But you ought to help me to speak the truth of all
this madness by telling me just what it is.”
Fair was deeply moved by his old friend’s sorrow and unwonted display of
feeling, so he sat down by him and warmly shook his hand. After a few
moments of quiet, he said in low, firm, deliberate tones:
“Sir Nelson, pardon my weakness in showing you my heart just now, but
the fact is, sir, that I have been under a strain—and on that one point
I have always been naturally sensitive. I owe you an apology also for
delaying to advise you fully and without emotion of the exact situation
in which I now find myself inextricably placed. Let me tell you the whole
story. It will seem incredible to you—until you recollect that I am the
son of my father and that my heritage was what you alone know that it
was.”
Sir Nelson blew his nose, and finding nothing particular to say, blew
it again; and Fair saw something over the terrace wall that took his
attention until the dear old chap said with considerable heartiness in
his voice again: “All ready, dear boy—forgive an old fellow—who loves you.
“I first met Janet in Rio Janeiro, at which port her father was British
Consul, and I was happily able to take the unfortunate gentleman for
a long cruise on my yacht when his health broke down. He died on the
yacht and we buried him at sea. Janet returned to England, and, although
I loved her madly, I did not speak, because that wretched Buda-Pesth
escapade of mine was still unsettled. So I completely lost sight of Janet
and the years passed.
“Six years ago I was in a small South American seaport acting as consul
for Jack Trowbridge, who was down with yellow fever. One day when I was
lazily killing time—and big flies—in the dusty, stuffy little consulate,
Janet, whom I, of course, thought in England, and whom I had not seen for
so long, came in.
“She was a wreck. She had a boy of two or three years clinging to her
skirts and a child in her arms. You may imagine, sir, my awful shock on
seeing her thus. Her story was short. She had married a Cuban planter of
very large fortune in Jamaica, and after two years of suspicion and dread
and suffering she had learned that the scoundrel had deceived her, that
he had a wife living in Cuba, and that, in consequence, she had no legal
or other claim upon him. She was penniless. Hearing that I was cruising
in those parts, she learned through the British consuls at different
places just where I then was, and she turned to me. I made investigation
and found the damnable story told her by her supposed husband only too
true. His wife in Cuba was his only lawful wife—and Janet was a nameless
and helpless victim of his lust and perfidy. I cabled for my yacht, which
was being renovated at New York, and soon had Janet and her two children
on their way to England.
“I scarcely saw them during the long and bitterly sad voyage, but at
night, as I stood at my trick at the wheel, and in the warm, dull days
as I sat smoking in silence on deck, a thought grew and grew upon me.
The little boat tossing about on the limitless waste of waters seemed
to become the symbol of my aimless, drifting, worthless life. And then,
one glorious tropical night, with the great stars burning sublimity and
eternity into my heart, the blood of all my fathers seemed to rush hot
and quick and insistent through all my being. I had it! I had at last
found the Purpose, the Object, the Aim for which my life yearned, the
Thing in waiting, for which all the common interests and passions of
young men had failed to hold me, the One Thing, which, by absorbing my
life, by becoming my way of defying and despising the world, would prove
me my father’s son.
“The next day I told Janet. We were standing alone looking out over the
sea—and to both of us it seemed that the sea and life and eternity were
alike trackless and tending nowhither. I told her, Sir Nelson, that she
should not land in England the outcast, nameless victim of a blackguard’s
infamy, but as my proclaimed wife. Her children would never know that
they were fatherless. I had been away from home so long that I could get
myself believed when I returned with a wife and family—and the world
would never know that I was a wretched man cut off by a vow like a monk’s
vow from the joys and the heart of life. That is all, Sir Nelson; that is
all.”
“All! All!” exclaimed Sir Nelson, grasping Fair’s hand and wringing it
hotly. “My God, man, I never heard of anything quite so great! My word,
sir, if you were not Tom Fair’s son, I could not believe such a sacrifice
of one’s life possible!”
“It is never difficult to do what one’s nature demands,” replied Fair
quietly, adding with less calmness: “But it is hard to see that all these
years of work are to come to naught. My life has been wasted.”
“Not at all,” retorted the old man eagerly. “Crime? Crime, you say. By
gad, boy, I’ll make you prove yourself guilty in a court of law—and if
you do, then we will all know that you are off your head!”
“The proofs of my guilt will not be far to seek,” answered Fair, with a
disheartening coolness and an air of ghoulish certainty.
(_To be continued._)
_Money and Prices_
BY E. L. SMITH
Money is a creation of law.
Money is a measure of valuable things or services.
Money is a measure of constant and ever-varying capacity.
Money is not value in itself.
The divisor measures the dividend by division.
Money measures property by division.
If the divisor increases as fast proportionately as the dividend, the
quotient will remain the same.
When the amount of money increases as fast proportionately as the
property to be measured or divided, the average of prices will remain on
a level; and, although there will be constant fluctuations in price among
the different articles to be measured or divided, the average purchasing
or measuring power of the measure or the unit of value will remain the
same.
When the divisor increases faster proportionately than the dividend, the
quotient will become smaller.
When the quantity of money increases faster than the property or things
to be measured or divided, the average of prices will rise.
When the average of prices rises, the measuring or purchasing power of
the unit of value becomes less.
When the average of prices rises, there is inflation of the money or
currency.
When the quantity of property increases faster proportionately than the
amount of money, the average of prices will fall.
When the average of prices falls, the money or currency is contracted.
All business interests are either produce interests or moneyed interests.
A produce interest is an interest in which the owner receives his pay for
his labor and the use of his capital in produce.
A moneyed interest is an interest in which the owners of the business
receive their pay for their labor and the use of their capital in money.
A farm is a produce interest.
A railroad is a moneyed interest.
If the owners of a produce interest wish any money, they sell their
produce and buy money.
If the owners of a moneyed interest wish any produce, they sell their
money and buy produce.
When prices rise produce interests gain.
When produce interests gain, moneyed interests lose.
When prices fall, moneyed interests gain.
When moneyed interests gain, produce interests lose.
Moneyed interests and produce interests cannot both gain or both lose at
the same time.
When prices are falling, money can be hoarded without loss.
When prices are rising, money cannot be hoarded without loss.
A hoarded dollar has never yet paid for a single day’s work.
If produce interests had not first existed, moneyed interests never could
have existed.
_An honest dollar is a dollar that is willing to help produce something._
_The Say of Reform Editors_
Until the people who want reform get together in an organization all
of whose members are substantially agreed, and with this organization
elect a President and Congress, they will never get from under the
heel of monopoly. Nothing can be done in a party which contains the
monopolists.—_The Missouri World._
* * * * *
The United States produces 319,000,000 metric tons of coal a year,
worth at the mines $485,000,000, and costing consumers nearly a billion
dollars.—_Exchange._
That little item of 515 millions, absorbed mostly by the big corporations
that own the railroads, is the people’s tribute to Our “_Chevaliers
d’Industrie_.” When you come to think of it, aren’t we a nation of
bloomin’ chumps?—_The American Standard._
* * * * *
_Teacher_—Johnny, how many legs has an octopus?
_Johnny_—Seven.
_Teacher_—Why, Johnny, you ought to know better than that. The meaning of
the word shows that it has eight.
_Johnny_—I know it used to have, but that was before dad was
elected to the legislature. I heard him say he pulled a leg off the
octopus.—_Wetmore’s Weekly._
* * * * *
Under government ownership alone will it be possible to make railroad
rates which shall be just to all the people, and this is now being
generally recognized.—_The Augusta Tribune._
* * * * *
What means this general onslaught, all along the line of the plutocratic
press, upon one William Randolph Hearst, Democratic Congressman and late
candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency? Republican
and Democratic advocates of plutocracy vie with each other in the work
of sticking pins into Mr. Hearst. Have these great newspapers been
informed that Mr. Hearst is sincere, is honest, in his fight against the
trusts? If so, their spontaneous and unanimous attempt to disarm him can
be accounted for. The man who attempts to tear down the screen which is
held up, mainly by these great newspapers, between the people and their
despoilers, is sure to get the vials of their wrath poured out upon his
head.—_The Dalton Herald._
* * * * *
One of these days there will be two Republican Parties: one for
government ownership of the Kansas oil refinery and one against it.
Which are you going to stay with?—_Smith Center (Kan.) Messenger._
* * * * *
People of similar interests should flock and work together, regardless
of party name or of past differences, either fancied or real. The
railroad people work together for their own interests; and their
party affiliations have been and will be according to railroad
interests, regardless of party name. So with corporationists in
general, capitalists, etc. Then why do not _the people_ unite according
to their interests? The people of New Zealand did, and routed the
capitalists.—_The Medical World._
* * * * *
During the big coal strike, when Saint Baer was obdurate, Mr. Roosevelt
threatened him with government ownership if he did not give in to the
strikers.
The threat was a regular pivot blow to Baer, as good as any Professor
Donovan will teach Mr. Roosevelt. Baer cried foul, but he went down and
out all the same.
The lesson from America of how to knock out an obstinate coal-mine
capitalist was not lost on the German Kaiser. Germany, too, has its
coal-mine Baers, and a big coal strike is now on.
The Emperor has not only threatened the owners with government ownership
of mines, but has gone to the extent of asking his bankers if Germany
would have any trouble in floating the $250,000,000 in bonds to make the
purchase.—_Wilshire’s Magazine._
* * * * *
Emancipate the farmer from the thraldom of manipulated markets and the
advice of his dear friends who know so much better than he does what he
ought to do.—_The Southern Mercury._
* * * * *
Bishop Berkeley’s poem being translated into Japanese, they pondered
for awhile on the words: “Westward the course of empire takes its way,”
then the little cherry blossom worshipers shouldered their knapsacks
and started after the setting sun. At last accounts they had got as far
as Tie Pass. None of them showed any intention of stopping there. How
much further their empire will take its way nobody knows.—_The Nebraska
Independent._
* * * * *
That labor and culture should go together, that sweat and science should
walk hand in hand, that art and harvest work should know each other for
brothers, or that the sense of beauty and the capacity to dig a ditch
should unite in the same personality, seems impossible to all those whose
capacities are of the hothouse variety, and who feel “lifted up above
common things by reason of their refinement.” But the changing order,
which is making or shaping a world of reality to take the place of the
world of seeming, is bringing just this thing to pass; and the time is
not far distant when the gardener’s shears and apron will be in the
possession of the man who writes art criticism, while the man who paints
masterpieces will often be seen building fences. The “superior person”
will then be chiefly interesting as an exotic, to be studied and duly
ticketed as “rare” by those who have blood in their veins. Work is the
very soul of life; and the idler, cultivated or other, has not lived in
the past, does not live in the present, nor will he live in the future.
When art and work are one and indivisible we shall not even ask for
philosophers to compensate us for the illusions of life. Then the common,
transfigured, will satisfy our every need.—_Tomorrow._
* * * * *
No real battle between public rights and special privileges ever comes
on in simple or unmistakable form. The crucial question is always so
complicated with other issues as to bewilder men of the best intentions
and of good judgment who happen to be interested on the right side of
those other issues. It is upon bewilderments like these that conscious
advocates of privilege depend for dividing the forces of their enemy when
such a division becomes vital to them.—_The Chicago Public._
* * * * *
It was an ill-advised move when Oklahoma joined the crusade against
Standard Oil. Mr. Rockefeller may decide not to give her statehood.—_The
South McAlester (I. T.) Capital._
* * * * *
Recent reports of big industrial concerns show that they are having a
good business year, thirty-seven companies paying dividends in March
aggregating $24,000,000, compared with $21,800,000 last year and
$19,800,000 the year before.—_From weekly circular letter of Henry Clews,
Banker, No. 35 Wall Street, New York, dated March 4, 1905._
Yes, the trusts are doing well. It is easy for anybody to make money if
he controls the buying and selling price of an article the people must
have. It may be a little surprising, though, to some, to learn that the
trusts are faring even better now than heretofore.—_The Missouri World._
* * * * *
We wish well of every public man who resolutely tries to do his duty. It
matters not what political party he may affiliate with, if he is a friend
of the people, we give him our word of encouragement and Godspeed. Among
Democrats we find some notable examples of progressive statesmanship
and some advocates of reform. The Republican Party is not without some
public men whose works and words give evidence of a desire to stand for
the best type of popular government. Yet every reformer in the Republican
or Democratic Party has to spend too much time, energy and ammunition in
fighting the enemies within the ranks of his own party. Mr. Bryan will
wear his life out in trying to overcome his enemies in the so-called
Democratic Party just as John P. Altgeld wore his life away. Governor La
Follette always has war on his hands with the corporation element in his
own party. And now that Mr. Roosevelt has outlined a radical course, he
is beset by powerful opposition from high-up Republican politicians who
represent special interests. He will not succeed in accomplishing much
so long as all his energy is taken up in fighting the enemy at home.
The very logic of events will force the radical reformers all into one
party, and then the people will have something to hope for.—_The Kansas
Commoner._
* * * * *
Politeness is the external part of gentility, but it is often the
principal weapon of rascality. A rude rascal is never as dangerous as a
polite one.—_The Seattle Patriarch._
* * * * *
Kansas will find it a big job fighting the Standard Oil trust, so long
as the trust is in the national banking business and controls the means
of transportation. Still, the people of Kansas, co-operating through
their state government, can make it hot for the trust. The state can put
$20,000,000 into the fight, and with this sum can build railroads, lay
pipe lines and establish dozens of oil refineries. Twenty million dollars
is a big sum, but is no more than the people of Kansas pay in national
taxes every two years.—_The Missouri World._
* * * * *
The magazines and big dailies are doing the country a great service. They
have writers of ability; apparently these have long chafed under the
galling chains of party manacles and are now glad to be free—glad to try
their strength and exercise their taste and talents. Populists should
secure every advantage possible, strengthen their organizations, keep
these patriots closely in touch, and at every possible point be ready
should a reaction come.
Again and again we have seen great waves of reform sweep over the land,
and again and again we have seen the monopolists catch a second breath,
spit on their hands and tie these good men down with party thongs and
convention rules and resolutions.
Once we felt sure of McKinley and Garfield. Tom Ewing, Carlisle, McLean,
Voorhees, David Davis, hundreds and hundreds of the brightest men in the
land came to the front for a time and then dropped back when a reaction
came.
Some of this reaction is due to the lack of true patriotism, to a lack of
courage, fortitude; but whatever the cause may be, Populists should be
prepared for the back-set and save as much advantage as possible. At the
present every man is our friend. Almost without an exception the great
statesmen and editors are with us. For the time being party lines are
wiped out, Democrat or Republican, North or South.
Populist, put your best foot forward! You have pointed the way, the crowd
has taken the road, now be kind, be true, speak carefully—do your level
best.—_The Joliet News._
* * * * *
The President does not want to injure the “System”; he only wants it to
“tote fair.”
But the “System” does not want to “tote fair.” Its authors did not create
it for any such commonplace purpose, and they will resist to the bitter
end the endeavor of the President to halt the exploitation of the people
by the trusts and combines.
What may grow out of this resistance by the “System”?
A split of the Republican Party into two factions—into the “square deal”
Republicans and the “System” Republicans.—_Berlin (Pa.) Record._
* * * * *
As long as boys read every week that John Doe or Richard Roe has made a
fortune in one day cornering wheat or corn, or some other commodity, the
gambling instinct in the young will hardly subside. Take away Mr. Doe’s
profession by law.—_The Smith Center (Kan.) Messenger._
* * * * *
THE MILEAGE ROLL OF DISHONOR
VOTED AYE
MEMBERS TO RETIRE
_Republicans_ _Democrats_ _Union Labor_
Daniels, Cal. Bell, Cal. Livernash, Cal.
Davis, Minn. Breazeale, La. Wynn, Cal.
Hunter, Ky. Dinsmore, Ark.
Kyle, O. Dougherty, Mo.
Morgan, O. Emerich, Ill.
Smith, N. Y. Foster, Ill.
Spalding, N. D. Griffith, Ind.
Van Voorhis, O. Hughes, N. J.
McAndrews, Ill.
Miers, Ind.
Richardson, Tenn.
Rider, N. Y.
Robb, Mo.
Robinson, Ind.
Shober, N. Y.
Shull, Pa.
Snook, O.
Wilson, N. Y.
Total 8 Total 19 Total 2
MEMBERS RETURNED
_Republicans_ _Democrats_
Adams, Wis. Aiken, S. C.
Beidler, O. Broussard, La.
Bishop, Mich. Davey, La.
Brandegee, Conn. Fitzgerald, N. Y.
Brooks, Col. Goulden, N. Y.
Brown, Wis. Hill, Miss.
Brownlow, Tenn. Hunt, Mo.
Burke, S. D. Legare, S. C.
Cromer, Ind. McDermott, N. J.
Crumpacker, Ind. McNary, Mass.
Cushman, Wash. Maynard, Va.
Draper, N. Y. Pujo, La.
Dresser, Pa. Rainey, Ill.
Fordney, Mich. Ryan, N. Y.
Gardner, N. J. Sullivan, Mass.
Gillett, Cal.
Graff, Ill.
Grosvenor, O.
Howell, N. J.
Howell, Utah.
Hull, Iowa.
Humphrey, Wash.
Jones, Wash.
Knopf, Ill.
Lorimer, Ill.
Loudenslager, N. J.
McCleary, Minn.
Mann, Ill.
Marshall, N. D.
Martin, S. D.
Minor, Wis.
Overstreet, Ind.
Patterson, Pa.
Rodenberg, Ill.
Sherman, N. Y.
Smith, Iowa.
Snapp, Ill.
Southard, O.
Southwick, N. Y.
Sterling, Ill.
Sulloway, N. H.
Tawney, Minn.
Wachter, Md.
Weems, O.
Total 44 Total 15
DODGED
_Republicans_ _Democrats_
Harrison, N. Y.
Scudder, N. Y.
Total Total 2
Birdsall, Iowa. Adamson, Ga.
Bonynge, Col. Bankhead, Ala.
Conner, Iowa. Bartlett, Ga.
Dovener, W. Va. Brantley, Ga.
Hamilton, Mich. Gilbert, Ky.
Hemenway, Ind. Goldfogle, N. Y.
Kennedy, O. Hopkins, Ky.
Lafean, Pa. Ruppert, N. Y.
Landis, Ind. Sims, Tenn.
Miller, Kan. Stanley, Ky.
Zenor, Ind. Stephens, Tex.
Wiley, Ala.
Total 11 Total 12
GRAND TOTAL—GRABBERS AND DODGERS
Republicans 63 Democrats 48 Union Labor 2
—_Collier’s Weekly._
* * * * *
The industrial barons pay the same sum for a large as a small cotton
crop. Just enough to keep the planters’ help alive.—The _Appeal to
Reason._
* * * * *
Alarmists who are forever crying about “the dangers of Socialism” remind
one of that Scripture that tells of the fellow who “fleeth when no man
pursueth.” There are comparatively few Socialists in the country. And if
certain reforms are consummated there will be a less number. And there
are mighty few Socialists who are “dangerous.”
In this connection may be noted an incident that occurred during the
Cooper Union lecture course at New York City. It was claimed that the
audiences, judged by their applause, were Socialistic. So a vote was
taken. In one audience of 1,200 people there were less than twenty
Socialists. Then this question was put to the audience: “Those who
believe the time has come for the community to assert a larger control
over the public enterprises, such as the trusts, railroads and public
utilities, please rise.” The entire audience arose.
There are no “dangerous classes” in such an audience—a typical,
intelligent public gathering. “The people will wobble right.” The people
are discovering the wrongs in government and they are finding that they
themselves are largely to blame for these wrongs. They find that they
have neglected their rights. They have conferred special privileges.
They have permitted aggressions. It is largely their own fault. They are
beginning to see that. They want to correct their mistakes. They will
correct them.
And those who cry “wolf” when the people are trying to get back their own
are more dangerous than any others.—_The Buffalo Times._
* * * * *
“Populist” is from the Latin word _populus_, meaning the people.
“Populite,” which is used to a considerable extent in the South instead
of Populist, is also from the Latin word populus. The original meaning of
the words “populist,” “democrat” and “republican” is substantially the
same.—_The Missouri World._
* * * * *
Without vision a people perishes. The need for “seers” is greatest in a
democracy where autocracy fails and the people must fall back upon broad
instincts, intuitive reasoning and average intelligence. The poet-seer
is the highest type of the visionary. His message comes in the form of
rhythmic speech which has the widest carrying capacity. Poets, however,
do not come into the world by accident. The poet comes only after
preparation is made and reception is assured. For support he can depend
no longer upon an indulgent king or upon patrons. Today the people stand
in place of these. But as yet the collective mind has not worked out the
problem of protection in spiritual properties. This is one of the main
problems America has to meet: to create and sustain a race of poet-seers
which will stand in right relation to the people and move in these broad
lands as broad as they.—_Tomorrow._
* * * * *
Monett, the Ohio lawyer, began the prosecution of the Standard Oil trust
when the Government was fostering the trusts and the courts knocked him
out. Now the Government begins to make signs that it is against the
trusts and another case has been begun in Ohio. The courts will change
their sides. Monett was downed by Rockefeller, beaten by the courts, and
kicked out of the Republican Party. A nod from the President changed the
whole situation.—_The Nebraska Independent._
* * * * *
Despite the fact that the Czar refused to permit a delegation of workmen
to present a petition to him, he, realizing the havoc that had been
wreaked upon the people, finally consented to have a delegation call upon
him and present their grievances. It may be true that the delegation
was not those chosen by the men engaged in the original movement, but
it is also true that even for appearance’ sake he had to go through the
formality of receiving a delegation of workmen, and, at least to that
degree, the new departure has been recognized.
It is also of interest to know that, though the Russian workmen have
had no organization, yet their strike has been declared at an end by
agreement, and that they are now engaged in the selection of their
representatives in a mixed commission to determine the following
questions: A shorter workday, an increase in wages, the right to
organize, and assemblage and freedom of speech.
Jointly, the people insist that the government shall be based upon
justice and the participation of the people therein, regardless of their
station in life, equality before the law, inviolability of domicile,
the freedom of association, of speech and of the press, and compulsory
education.
Thus, after all, out of the strikes of the Russian workmen, though many
of their dear ones have been killed and mutilated, their blood has
sanctified their cause and will make for the good, the progress and the
uplifting of all the people of Russia.—_American Federationist._
* * * * *
A revolution is on, and the attacking party has inscribed the Populist
principles upon its banners. The attacking party is not insurgents or
rebels. It is in power, the Government, the whole thing. Never before
has the prospect seemed at all discouraging for Standard Oil raids, Beef
Trust schemes and kindred despoliation of the land and the fulness and
the people thereof. Everything worth considering is now consolidated
against the robbers. Have good cheer, Populists. The day is breaking. Up
and don your armor. Whet your battle-axe.—_The Joliet News._
* * * * *
He alone is great who can suggest a thought in such a way that the other
man believes he originated it—_The Philistine._
* * * * *
A Wall Street victim, after squandering his own money and his wife’s,
committed suicide, and yet some of the New York clergymen who are so
active in denouncing the small gambling houses have not a word to say
against the New York Stock Exchange which slays its tens of thousands
where the small gambling houses slay their thousands.—_The Commoner._
* * * * *
The spirit of Populism has reasserted itself and taken the Sunflower
State by storm.
The shots fired by the Kansas Legislature, forced from it by a determined
demand of the people, at the trusts and monopolies have been heard around
the world. They sounded the death-knell of plutocracy in America.
Aimed at the Standard Oil octopus, these shots hit every political
and commercial scoundrel in the United States. The special privileged
class have been dealt a blow which staggers their fabric from centre to
circumference.
This is the beginning of the end of corrupt government. The people who
do the labor and produce the wealth of the world will be deceived and
plundered no longer. The revolution is on and it can’t be checked.—_The
Dalton (Ga.) Herald._
News Record
FROM MARCH 7 TO APRIL 7, 1905
_Government and Politics_
March 7.—George B. Cortelyou takes the oath of office as
Postmaster-General and announces that he will resign as Chairman of the
Republican National Committee.
The special session of the United States Senate considers the
Santo Domingo treaty.
Senator Elkins, Chairman of the Senate Railroad Committee,
announces that hearings on the freight-rate question will be
held during the recess, beginning in April.
Charles H. Treat, of New York, is appointed United States
Treasurer.
March 8.—The Senate confirms the President’s diplomatic and consular
appointments, chief of which are those of Whitelaw Reid as Ambassador
to Great Britain, Robert S. McCormick to France, George V. L. Meyer to
Russia and Edwin H. Conger to Mexico.
President Roosevelt announces his intention of appointing
ex-Representative F. C. Tate, a Georgia Democrat, United States
District Attorney.
Senator Hemenway, former Chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee, figures a national deficit of $18,000,000 for the
coming year; while Representative Livingstone (Dem.) says it
will reach $93,000,000.
March 9.—Commissioner of Commerce James R. Garfield spends the day in the
New York offices of the Standard Oil Company, investigating books and
reports.
The Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth, of New Haven, Conn., states before a
legislative committee that the sum of $150,000 was expended in
the recent senatorial fight resulting in the election of Morgan
G. Bulkeley.
March 10.—To avoid legislative investigation, the New York Telephone
Trust agrees to reduce its tolls 20 per cent.
March 12.—Government agents unearth great coal land frauds in Utah.
March 13.—The United States Supreme Court decides that the peonage laws
are constitutional.
March 14.—The President is informed that the treaty with Santo Domingo,
which has been radically amended by the special session of the Senate,
stands no chance of receiving the two-thirds vote necessary to its
approval by that body, as all the Democrats oppose it and some of the
Republicans are lukewarm.
The New York State Senate passes resolution directing an
investigation of the Gas Trust.
March 15.—Agreement is reached that the Santo Domingo treaty is to be
neither ratified nor rejected at the special session of the Senate, but
is to be left over to the next session.
Governor James B. Frazier, of Tennessee, is elected United
States Senator to succeed William B. Bates, deceased.
Harry S. New, of Indiana, is made Vice-Chairman and Acting
Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
March 16.—Secretary Taft states that the Administration policy is
indefinite retention of the Philippine Islands and that independence
cannot come during this generation.
The Colorado Legislature votes to seat James H. Peabody (Rep.)
as Governor, unseating Alva Adams (Dem.), whose majority on the
face of the returns was over 9,000. Peabody promises to resign
and let the Lieutenant-Governor occupy the office.
A New York legislative committee is appointed to investigate
the Gas Trust.
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, attacks the treaty with Santo
Domingo, charging that it was brought about through an improper
understanding between William Nelson Cromwell, a New York
lawyer, and President Morales of Santo Domingo.
March 17.—Mrs. Ella Knowles Reader, of New York, asserts that the present
situation in Santo Domingo is due to the interference of President
Roosevelt to prevent her plans for forming a treaty.
Governor Peabody of Colorado resigns and is succeeded by
Lieutenant-Governor Jesse F. Macdonald.
The Attorney-General of Missouri begins proceedings against the
Standard Oil Trust.
Senator Carmack, of Tennessee, predicts war between the United
States and Japan over the Philippines.
March 18.—The Missouri senatorial deadlock is broken by the election of
Major William Warner (Rep.) to the United States Senate.
The special session of the United States Senate adjourns
without a vote on the Santo Domingo treaty.
Edwin V. Morgan, of New York, is appointed Minister to Corea.
March 20.—By the order of a special Grand Jury, a Beef Trust
investigation is started in Chicago.
March 21.—In John D. Rockefeller’s home, North Tarrytown, N. Y., his
candidate for Mayor is overwhelmingly defeated by a butcher.
March 23.—Truman H. Newberry, of Detroit, is appointed Assistant
Secretary of the Navy.
The Delaware Legislature adjourns without electing a United
States Senator.
The Maryland Supreme Court orders the Governor to submit the
constitutional amendment for negro disfranchisement to popular
vote.
March 25.—The Government declares its intention to prosecute the Santa Fé
Railroad for giving rebates.
March 28.—President Roosevelt decides to accede to the request of the
Santo Domingo Government to appoint an agent to collect the revenues of
that country.
The Federal Grand Jury sitting at Louisville, Ky., indicts that
city on four counts for peonage.
Dr. Washington Gladden, Moderator of the Congregational Church,
enters formal protest against the Board of Missions accepting
the $100,000 gift from John D. Rockefeller. In spite of this
and other objections, the board accepts the donation.
March 29.—The President requests the resignation of all members of the
Panama Canal Commission, also of General George W. Davis, Governor of the
Canal zone. The request is complied with immediately.
W. E. Gould, of Baltimore, is appointed American agent to
collect customs in Santo Domingo.
The general counsel of the Panama Railroad Company purchases
for the Government all but five of the outstanding shares of
the company.
March 30.—The United States Government sends another warship to Santo
Domingo.
President Roosevelt appoints Judge Charles E. Magoon, of
Nebraska, Governor of the Panama Canal zone.
The Federal Grand Jury investigating the Beef Trust at Chicago
indicts T. J. Connors, an Armour director, for tampering with
Government witnesses, and it is reported that other indictments
of prominent trust officials will follow.
March 31.—The investigation of the Gas Trust in New York discloses that
the value shown on the books is over $15,000,000 more than that listed
for taxation. The secretary of the company says he cannot explain the
discrepancy.
April 1.—The Nebraska Legislature passes the Junkin Anti-Trust bill,
aimed at the beef packers.
Theodore P. Shonts, President of the Clover Leaf Railroad, is
appointed Chairman of the new Panama Canal Commission.
April 2.—Former Senators Frank J. Cannon and Thomas Kearns, of Utah,
declare war on the Mormon Church. Mr. Cannon denounces President Smith as
a “traitor.”
April 3.—The President completes the new Panama Canal Commission and
designates salaries as follows: Theodore P. Shonts, Chairman, salary,
$30,000; Charles E. Magoon, Governor of the Canal zone, salary, $17,500;
John F. Wallace, Chief Engineer, salary, $25,000; Rear-Admiral Mordecai
F. Endicott, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks, salary, $7,500;
Brigadier-General Peter F. Haines, U.S.A., retired, salary, $7,500;
Colonel O. M. Ernst, U.S.A., salary, $7,500; Benjamin F. Harrod, of New
Orleans, salary, $7,500.
President Roosevelt starts on a two months’ outing, his trip to
include a reunion of his old Rough Rider regiment and hunting
excursions in Texas and Colorado. He states that he leaves
Secretary of War Taft “sitting on the lid.”
Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of
Miners, sues ex-Governor James H. Peabody and others for
$300,000 for false imprisonment during the Colorado strike.
April 4.—At a municipal election in the city of Chicago Edward F. Dunne
(Dem.) is elected Mayor over John M. Harlan (Rep.) by a majority slightly
exceeding 24,000, thus reversing the immense majority of over 60,000 by
which Theodore Roosevelt carried the city five months ago. The issue in
the campaign just closed was that of municipal ownership of the traction
lines, Judge Dunne standing for immediate city ownership of these
utilities.
Rolla Wells (Dem.) is re-elected Mayor of St. Louis by small
plurality.
President Roosevelt is given an ovation in Louisville and other
cities on his way to Texas.
_General Home News_
March 7.—The strike continues on the New York Subway and Elevated
railways. The Subway trains are run intermittently by “strike-breakers,”
resulting in one accident, seriously injuring over a score of people.
March 8.—The Mayor of New York offers to arbitrate the Subway strike. The
workingmen accept the offer, but the company declines.
The Standard Oil Company, in retaliation for adverse
legislative action in Kansas, refuses to admit low-grade oil
from that state to its pipe lines, thus shutting off from the
market three-fourths of the output.
March 9.—After a conference of national labor leaders, Warren E. Stone,
national head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, declares the
New York Subway and “L” strike unauthorized, and advises the men to
return to work. He is supported in this by National Chief Mahon, of the
Amalgamated Street Railway workers. This practically ends the strike,
though the local unions still hold out.
For the first time in the history of medicine New York surgeons
succeed in grafting a finger cut from the hand of one person
onto the hand of another.
March 10.—The will of William F. Milton, of New York, gives to Harvard
University the sum of $1,000,000. James C. Carter’s will gives $2,000,000
to the same institution.
Whitelaw Reid announces his retirement as editor of the New
York Tribune.
March 11.—The New York Subway and “L” strike is officially declared
ended. The company announces that it will take back no motormen over
forty years of age.
Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick, the notorious “frenzied financier,”
who raised millions on forged notes bearing the signature
of Andrew Carnegie, is found guilty after a short trial in
Cleveland, O.
March 13.—Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor,
says that he will investigate the charge that the New York Subway and “L”
strike was sold out.
President Roosevelt addresses the National Congress of Mothers
at Washington and denounces race suicide.
The defection of one of the large mills threatens to dissolve
the Paper Trust.
The independent packing companies, with Schwarzschild &
Sulzberger, of Chicago, in the lead, organize to expose and
fight the Beef Trust.
Justice Kelly, of the New York Supreme Court, orders trial of
the suit brought by Hon. W. R. Hearst against the Gas Trust.
March 14.—Nineteen persons are killed in a New York tenement house fire.
The war in the Equitable Life Assurance Society is settled by
the factions agreeing on a plan to mutualize the company.
The Mormon Church excommunicates ex-United States Senator Frank
J. Cannon, of Utah, because of editorials in the Salt Lake
Tribune, of which Mr. Cannon is editor.
March 15.—A bull market in cotton is started by Daniel J. Sully, one day
after he is released from bankruptcy.
Andrew Carnegie declares that a Pan-American railroad would
be more effective for defense than all the battleships we can
build.
March 17.—Secretary of State John Hay sails on a European trip in an
impaired state of health.
President Roosevelt addresses the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
in New York, after the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the
history of the city.
March 19.—Twenty-four men are killed in a mine explosion near Thurmond,
W. Va.
The Panama Canal Commission issues a long statement denying
charges made against the body relating to the sanitation of the
Isthmus.
Senator Thomas H. Carter, head of the Government commission,
reports charges of wholesale bribery in connection with the
giving out of awards by the St. Louis World’s Fair officials.
John D. Rockefeller, George J. Gould and other prominent men
are reported to be implicated in the Utah coal land frauds.
March 20.—Over one hundred workmen are killed and wounded by a boiler
explosion in a shoe factory at Brockton, Mass.
Three thousand men are thrown out of work by the shut-down of
one of the Havemeyer sugar refineries at Brooklyn, N. Y.
March 21.—Twenty-seven New England Congregational clergymen enter
vigorous protest against the acceptance of a $100,000 gift from John D.
Rockefeller to the Board of Missions of that church.
March 22.—It is given out at Denver that the strike and contest over the
governorship have cost the state of Colorado $2,000,000.
More than 11,000 immigrants land at Ellis Island, New York, in
two days, thus breaking all former records.
March 23.—The Wyoming court decides against granting a decree of divorce
to Colonel William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”).
The ship with which Lieutenant Robert E. Peary will make
another attempt to reach the North Pole is launched at
Bucksport, Me., and is christened the _Roosevelt_.
March 25.—A plan to merge the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with
Harvard University is made public in Boston.
The New York Central Railroad announces that in the near future
it will supplant all its steam locomotives with electric motors.
March 27.—Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick is sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
Gessler Rosseau is found guilty at New York of having sent an
infernal machine to blow up the steamship _Umbria_.
Andrew Carnegie announces that henceforth he will give
donations to small colleges in preference to founding libraries.
March 28.—Governor Joseph W. Folk of Missouri, at a speech in New York,
declares that bribery is treason, and says that his state is leading a
movement to make it odious throughout the country.
March 29.—A disastrous fire over 100 feet underground is caused by a
wreck in the New York Subway.
March 30.—The New York legislative committee investigating the Gas Trust
develops the fact that the company has been paying 10 per cent. dividends
on watered stock.
Charges are made that James H. Hyde, First Vice-President of
the Equitable Life Assurance Society, used company funds in
paying expenses of spectacular balls of last winter; also his
private servants.
President Mellen, of the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad Company, tells a legislative committee that great
abuses have grown up in the railroad business, and says that
there should be stricter state and Government control.
March 31.—Harry N. Pillsbury, the American chess champion, attempts
suicide at Philadelphia, but is prevented.
Henry H. Rogers, of the Standard Oil Company, issues a defense
of John D. Rockefeller’s gift to missions, and incidentally
attacks ministers and deacons and defends railroad rebates to
his company.
April 1.—A mysterious epidemic of spinal meningitis, or “spotted fever,”
is ravaging New York and other cities and baffles the medical profession.
Over a thousand deaths have occurred since the first of the year.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Morgan Smith, brother-in-law and sister of the
notorious Nan Patterson, are located in Cincinnati, and letters
are secured which, it is said, will have an important bearing
on the trial of the actress for the murder of the bookmaker,
“Cæsar” Young.
In the Equitable Life Assurance Society war James H. Hyde, the
First Vice-President, denies the charges made against him and
retains Elihu Root, Samuel Untermeyer and others as counsel.
He announces that if President Alexander wants a fight he can
have it. The State Insurance Department of New York takes a
hand in the case, and an investigation of the company’s affairs
is ordered. The Alexander forces charge that loans have been
made out of the association’s funds to Edward H. Harriman, of
the U. P. R. R., that the dinner to French Ambassador Cambon
was paid from the company’s money, and that Vice-President
Hyde has usurped the President’s functions. Chairman John D.
Crimmins, of the committee of policyholders for mutualizing the
society, announces that the Hyde faction has conceded all the
committee’s demands and that the Alexander people alone stood
in the way. For this reason Mr. Crimmins, who was understood
heretofore to stand with Alexander, refuses to go further in
what he terms the personal fight on Hyde.
President Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor,
sends out a warning to the members that the Socialists are
attempting to disrupt the organization.
In the Gas Trust inquiry an official of the company admits that
there is $12,000,000 watered stock in the corporation.
At a meeting of the National Association of State Dairy and
Food Departments being held in Chicago, J. M. Hurty, Secretary
of the Indiana Board, states that 455,000 babies were killed
last year by adulteration of milk and other infants’ foods.
A threatened coal strike in Pennsylvania is averted by the
granting of the wage scale of last year.
April 2.—H. Rider Haggard, in an interview given to the New York
_Journal_, says that the poor of America are as miserable as those of
England.
April 3.—Fifty men are entombed in a mine explosion at Zeigler, Ill. Most
of them are believed to have been killed.
April 4.—Vice-President Hyde, of the Equitable Life, accuses President
Alexander of being in a conspiracy to ruin the company, and cites as one
of his proofs the fact that Second Vice-President George E. Tarbell,
one of Alexander’s supporters, disposed of his interests in the company
before beginning the present fight.
April 5.—J. G. Phelps Stokes, the New York millionaire philanthropist,
announces that he is soon to marry a poor East Side settlement worker,
the daughter of a Russian Jew.
April 6.—In a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Equitable Life
Assurance Society, Vice-President James H. Hyde wins a virtual victory
at all points over President Alexander. The Hyde-Crimmins two-year
mutualization plan is adopted and Hyde committees are appointed to
investigate the affairs of the company.
S. C. T. Dodd, chief solicitor of the Standard Oil Company,
defends John D. Rockefeller from the attacks of Congregational
ministers and others, which he terms “vile” and “doubly vile.”
_The Russo-Japanese War_
March 7.—General Kuropatkin stubbornly resists the Japanese advance about
Mukden, but the day generally goes against him. Fighting is heaviest west
and northwest of Manchurian capital.
March 8.—The Japanese crush the Russian eastern wing and cut off General
Rennenkampf’s division. They also continue vigorous attacks on the west
and northwest and reach a position directly north of Mukden.
General Kuropatkin retreats from his southern and centre
positions on the Shakhe River, abandoning siege guns and
burning stores.
It is reported that the Russian Baltic fleet starts on its
return, having gone no farther east than Madagascar.
March 9.—General Kuroki drives the Russians from Fushun and terrific
fighting continues all about Mukden. Marshal Oyama reports the cutting
of the railroad between Mukden and Tieling. The Japanese, after several
fierce onslaughts, succeed in taking a hill considered the key to the
Manchurian capital, and Oyama predicts that Mukden will fall tomorrow.
March 10.—At ten o’clock in the morning the Japanese capture Mukden,
and General Kuropatkin begins a demoralized retreat to the Northwest,
battling to save a remnant of his once great army. This is made the more
difficult by the almost complete circle that the forces of Marshal Oyama
have made about the Russians. Great numbers of prisoners, and immense
quantities of guns, ammunition, food and other supplies, fall into the
hands of the victors.
Count Tolstoi writes to the London _Times_ denouncing this as
a “reckless, disgraceful, cruel war instigated by a score of
immoral individuals.”
March 11.—General Kuropatkin reports that the remnants of his armies
are retreating on Tieling. They are still harassed by Japanese attacks.
The Russians have lost considerably more than 100,000 men. The battle
of Mukden, which has ended in such a disastrous Russian defeat, is the
greatest in history, having lasted twelve days and having involved nearly
1,000,000 men. It marks Field Marshal Oyama as one of the world’s great
commanders.
March 12.—The Russian losses in the battle of Mukden are now placed at
about 150,000; Japanese losses at about 40,000.
It is reported that the Czar will send another army to the Far
East and will order the Baltic squadron to go forward and give
battle to Admiral Togo.
March 13.—The main body of the Russian troops reach Tie Pass, hard
pressed by their foes. General Kuropatkin reports 50,000 wounded in the
past few days. Marshal Oyama reports the country swept clear of Russians
for a distance of twenty-five miles north of Mukden.
March 14.—The Russian War Council in session with the Czar votes to
continue the war.
Despite a repulse south of Tie Pass, the Japanese continue a
rearguard attack on the retreating Russians.
March 15.—A Japanese fleet of twenty-two warships going westward is
sighted off Singapore, India.
March 17.—The Czar curtly dismisses General Kuropatkin from his command,
and promotes Lieutenant-General Linevitch, heretofore at the head of the
first army, to be Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in Manchuria.
The Russian War Council decides to place a new army of 450,000
men in the field, and orders the Baltic squadron to proceed on
its way to the East.
The Russian army, having abandoned Tie Pass, continues its
flight northward, harassed by Japanese attacks from all sides.
March 19.—The Russians are still retreating and Kai-Yuan and Fakoman are
occupied by the Japanese.
March 21.—General Kuropatkin returns to the front to accept a
subordinate command under General Linevitch.
March 22.—All the Russian ministers but two are now said to favor peace.
March 24.—The Russian troops halt for a short rest at a point
seventy-four miles north of Tie Pass. The Japanese armies are believed to
be executing another flanking movement.
March 25.—It is given out from St. Petersburg that the Russians have sent
800,000 men to the front since the beginning of the war.
March 28.—The Japanese again attack the rearguard of the retreating
Russians. General Oku reports that the spring thaws make the movements of
both armies difficult.
It is no longer denied that the Russian Government is moving
for peace.
March 29.—A court-martial is designated to try General Stoessel, it being
customary in Russia to so try any officer that surrenders.
All Europe shows eagerness to invest in the new Japanese bonds.
March 30.—Both Russia and Japan deny that they are making any efforts to
bring about peace.
General Linevitch issues an address to his troops, closing with
the words, “May God help you in the coming battle.”
The Japanese continue their flanking movement and skirmishes
occur between them and the Russian outposts.
March 31.—General Sakharoff, former Chief of Staff, quits the Russian
army because of a quarrel with General Linevitch. General Stakelburg also
leaves, the reason assigned being ill health.
The Russian Baltic fleet, which left Madagascar on March 16, is
reported in bad condition.
April 3.—A bomb explosion at Harbin destroys seventy-five persons and an
immense amount of Russian supplies.
Prince Ouktomsky, deposed from the command of the Port Arthur
squadron, reaches St. Petersburg and demands a court-martial.
April 6.—Both the Russian Baltic fleet and the Japanese fleet under
Admiral Togo are reported approaching each other in the vicinity of the
China Sea.
_General Foreign News_
March 7.—Practically half of the workingmen of St. Petersburg are on
strike. The situation continues grave, though quiet, at Warsaw and at
other points in Russia.
Hon. George Wyndham, Chief Secretary for Ireland, resigns from
the British Ministry.
March 8.—The peasant revolt in outlying Russian provinces is rapidly
spreading.
Men at the Russian naval dockyard go on strike.
China decides to build immediately the Kalgan Railway and to
place it under a Chinese engineer, which is regarded as an
anti-Russian move.
On a fiscal policy division forced by Winston Churchill in
the British House of Commons the Government is sustained by a
majority of 42.
Both Premier Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain deny that they are
protectionists.
March 9.—Russia pushes troops toward her Indian frontier, in evident
opposition to Great Britain’s moves in Thibet, Persia and other Central
Asiatic territory.
The plague in India kills 34,000 in one week.
March 10.—It is reported that the Russian revolutionists have agreed to a
general uprising on May 1.
The rioting of the Russian peasants continues, and great
destruction of property is reported from Tchemigoff, Orel and
Hursk.
March 14.—French bankers refuse to negotiate a loan to Russia until more
is known of the intentions of the Russian Government.
The Canadian authorities serve notice on polygamous Mormons
that they must either leave the country or be prosecuted.
Russian peasants pillage the estate of the late Grand Duke
Sergius in the Dimitrov district.
The peasant uprisings spread to the northwest provinces of
Vilna and Kovno.
March 16.—William Marconi, the inventor, is married to Beatrice O’Brien,
sister of Lord Inchiquin.
March 17.—Mobilization orders lead to renewal of strikes in Russian
Poland.
France complains to the United States of the infringement of
the rights of the French Cable Company in Venezuela.
March 19.—An international conference at Vienna considers the proposal to
form a World’s Chamber of Agriculture.
March 20.—Governor Miasoredeff, of Viborg, one of the Russian provinces
of Finland, is shot and seriously wounded by a fifteen-year-old boy who
proclaims himself a “revolutionist.”
March 21.—After a great debate in the French Chamber of Deputies, a
motion to postpone the bill separating church and state is defeated by a
vote of 363 to 40.
March 22.—Many peasants are killed and wounded by Russian troops in the
provinces of Kutno and Ostrow.
The British House of Commons condemns the proposal of a
protective tariff by a vote of 254 to 2.
March 23.—It is announced in the British Parliament that up to March 11
of this year there have been 346,000 deaths from the plague in India.
President Morales of Santo Domingo declares that unless the
treaty with the United States is ratified there will be a
revolution in that country.
March 24.—President Castro of Venezuela curtly declines to arbitrate the
asphalt controversy with the United States.
March 25.—Under a tentative arrangement made with President Morales of
Santo Domingo, the revenues of that country will be collected by an agent
named by President Roosevelt.
March 26.—Baron von Molken, chief of the Warsaw police, is severely
wounded by a bomb which destroyed his carriage.
Internal disturbances are again on the increase throughout
Russia.
It is announced that King Alfonso of Spain is to marry the
Princess Patricia of England.
March 27.—Warehouses and shops at Yalta, Russia, are pillaged and burned
by rioting mujiks.
March 29.—The Swiss Bundesrath rejects the commercial treaty with the
United States owing to amendments made to that instrument by the United
States Senate.
March 30.—President Castro of Venezuela turns on his accusers and states
that he has documentary evidence that both the French Cable Company and
the American Asphalt Company are in league with the revolutionists.
Emperor William of Germany sails for Morocco.
Several prominent “terrorists” are arrested in St. Petersburg,
among them being two women.
Peasant outbreaks continue in Russia and the Kharkoff district
is laid waste.
Another meeting of the Zemstvo representatives is called at St.
Petersburg for the end of April.
The Italian Ambassador states that Italy would have taken
drastic measures to collect her debt from Santo Domingo, had
President Roosevelt not taken the matter in hand.
March 31.—Emperor William at Tangier gives assurance that Germany will
protect the integrity of Morocco and maintain the “open door.”
President Arnal, of the highest court of Venezuela, declares
that the French Cable Company has forfeited its contract.
The agrarian risings in Russia reach such proportions as to
overshadow the war. They render further mobilization of troops
impossible.
An important group of the Russian clergy declares for the
separation of church and state.
April 1.—The Federal District Court of Venezuela charges General Francis
V. Greene, an official of the New York and Bermudez Asphalt Company,
with having given $130,000 to the rebels in the Matos revolution against
President Castro.
Camille Flammarion, the celebrated French astronomer, predicts
a hot summer because of the sun spots.
The _Victorian_, the first turbine steamer to cross the
Atlantic, makes the trip in a little less than eight days.
The Police Commissioner of Lodz, Russian Poland, is severely
wounded by a bomb explosion.
April 2.—Four persons are killed and forty injured in renewed riots at
Warsaw.
April 4.—Severe earthquakes in Northern India cause much loss of life and
damage to cities.
H. B. Irving, son of Sir Henry Irving, wins a triumph in London
in his first appearance, playing Hamlet.
April 5.—A Russian medical congress at Moscow adopts peace resolution and
favors a constitution and other radical demands.
A newly appointed member of the British Cabinet is defeated for
re-election to Parliament in a district that has not before
gone Liberal in twenty years. Winston Churchill says it is the
beginning of the end of the present Government.
April 6.—King Edward of England and President Loubet of France meet
in extended interview at Paris. This is regarded as significant in
strengthening the understanding between France and England relating to
Morocco and as being a counter move to Emperor William’s assurance of
political integrity of that country.
The reform movement increases throughout Russia.
_Obituary_
March 7.—John H. Reagan, former United States Senator and State Railroad
Commissioner, dies at his home in Texas, aged 87.
Albert M. Palmer, veteran theatrical manager, dies at his home
in New York, aged 66.
March 8.—Henry A. Barclay, prominent New York business and race-track
man, dies at his home, aged 60.
Rear-Admiral Edwin S. Houston, United States Navy, dies at
Lausanne, Switzerland, aged 60.
March 9.—William Brimage Bate, United States Senator from Tennessee and
former Governor and Major-General, C.S.A., dies in Washington, aged 78.
March 12.—Caleb Huse, foreign purchasing agent for the Confederate
Government, dies at the age of 75.
March 14.—Henry R. Reed, millionaire sugar merchant, of Boston, aged 62,
dies under mysterious circumstances in a New York hotel.
Henry Cyril Paget, Marquis of Anglesey, dies at Monte Carlo,
aged 30.
March 16.—Meyer Guggenheim, prominent New York capitalist and head of
the Smelter Trust, dies at Palm Beach, Fla., aged 78.
March 17.—Lot Thomas, former Congressman from Iowa, dies at the age of 61.
Charles C. Cole, former Supreme Court Justice, District of
Columbia, dies at Washington, aged 64.
March 18.—General Joseph R. Hawley, former United States Senator from
Connecticut, dies at the age of 78.
Cyrus G. Luce, once Governor of Michigan, dies at the age of 80.
March 22.—M. Antonin Proust, French author and former member of Gambetta
Cabinet, dies at Paris.
Rev. Dr. Elmer H. Capen, former President of Tufts College,
dies at the age of 76.
March 24.—Jules Verne, the celebrated novelist, dies from a stroke of
paralysis at Amiens, France, aged 76.
Señor Manuel de Aspiroz, Mexican Ambassador to the United
States, dies at Washington, aged 68.
March 29.—Jacob L. Greene, President of the Connecticut Mutual Life
Insurance Company, dies at his home in Hartford, aged 67.
William Hammond, a prominent real estate man of Boston, Mass.,
commits suicide in the Hotel Astor, New York.
March 30.—Hugo Jacobson, the American representative of a French steel
firm, commits suicide at the Hotel Breslin, New York.
March 31.—The Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, grandmother of the Duke of
Marlborough, dies at London, aged 92.
William H. Muker, once well-known American actor, dies at New
Rochelle, N. Y., aged 83.
Dr. William Bodenhamer, once family physician of Commodore
Vanderbilt, dies at New Rochelle, N. Y., aged 97.
April 1.—James M. Seymour, former mayor of Newark, N. J., and Democratic
candidate for Governor, dies at the age of 67.
April 2.—William F. Potter, President of the Long Island Railroad
Company, dies of spinal meningitis, aged 50.
April 4.—William H. Delius, son-in-law of Chief-Justice Fuller, of the
United States Supreme Court, dies by suicide at Chicago, aged 53.
Bishop Alphonse Favier, Catholic Apostolic Vicar to China, dies
at Pekin, aged 68.
_Toll_
One fashions beauty into form, to shapes most wondrous fair;
There comes a stranger to his door and claims an equal share
Another plants the seed and sees the harvest spring—that day
Comes one whose face he does not know, and takes a third away.
A little child, whose plaintive mouth has never learned to laugh,
Sits stringing beads—to her appears the man who claims his half.
A woman with her needle sits—and one stitch out of three
She takes for him whose face perhaps her eyes shall never see.
And where the mighty merchant ships in the great harbors wait—
His is the service of the crews and his the share of freight.
And who is he, who walks abroad in all his pomp and pride,
Who takes his toll, and nothing gives, and will not be denied?
A wondrous miracle is he—but not of God because,
He can be banished as he came—by simple change of laws.
The laws that give to manikin dominion of the sod,
Appareled him in majesty, and made him as a god.
Oh, sad the tale and grim the tale, that now is almost told,
And but a little while, and then—the stupid drama’s old!
But strange we’ll seem to future times, with our fantastic tricks,
Who worshiped God one day in seven and cheated Him in six!
JOSEPH DANA MILLER.