Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 17, 1903, Page 6

e e o e\ st 10— e <. ‘VHE OMAHA DAI!,Y BEE. E. ROSEWATER, EDITOR. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, TERMS OF BUBSCRIPTION. DAfly Beo (without Sunday), One Year.$4.00 Daily Bee and Sunday, One Yea 500 Lllastrated Hee, O) Year... Sunday Bee r Saturday Bee, One Year g Twentleth Cefitury Farmer, One Year.. DELIVERED BY CARRIER. Dafly Bee (without Sunday), per copy... 2¢ Dally Bee (without Sunday), par week..l20 Dally Bee (nciuding SBunday), per weel d ay Bee, per copy...... Rntomey | Evenlng Bec (withoys Bunday), per week 6o b;wnl;-x Bée (ndliding Sunday), MW waek . Y A rheye 5. Complaiiits of Itreguihrities i délivery dhould be addressed 1o City Circulation De- Partment. OFFICES. Omaha—The Bes ‘Bullding. ' 83uth Omahas 'llyllull Fiutiaingy Twen- G-00th and M Strests. Cotnell Bluffa~ly Pear! 8 Chicago—1640 Unity Bullding. ork—228 Park Row ington—sl Fourtee CORBESPONDENCE. i Communications ‘relating to news and ed- ofjal matter ghould be addressed: Omaba ee, Editorial Department. STATEMENT OF CIRCULATION. # of PR Pl Keobies of The Datiy. :ul‘l:loflp ‘H‘\lnod“ Boe. 7 nted during the month of December, 1902, was as tollo‘:'v;m sggRNNRREER otal wie Less unsold-and returned coples Net total sales Net aver: GEO! Sibscribed in my presence and sworn to nzt;r:cn. this s1st da. of ?’&“fi?«":‘.{&‘- D. (Eeal) Notary Publ e ————— It seems safer after all down south to be a black postmaster than a white 4 SSpemsp— It's a trifle early yet to figure on the succession to Pope Leo, notvlmltpndlnz the pontif’s advanced age. ! From the work of the council as a bord of “equalfvation it i quite plain that there 18 a city election ahead. Viewed at long range, the fight of the cattle barons at Washiigton looks as if they weré merely sparriig fer wind in order to. stave off action. smeechegshehepiy 3 No wonder the ecoal operators prefer to pay minerg by the ton on estimatés rather than actual welght. Estimates eannot be checked up half as readily as the scales. g The idea that the. state must have money before it should undertake to nd 1t seeps t'w-‘ altogether foreign ‘the conceptio®of some of our braska lawmakemsl As the c-z are now stacked the republican ¢ity primaries are to be set for Friday, Febroary 13. Are not fel- lows who stack their cards for Friday, the 13th, llable to strike a streak of 11l luck? % E———————— Now, ‘that Joha N. Baldwin of Towa has’ Inspected the Nebraska legislature in person as head politiclan for the /nlon Pacific, the people may rest as- sured that the legislative rolling stock 1s 40 good running order. k Em——— Omaha has connected with the South- western Horse Show elrcuit, that in- cludes also Minneapolis, Milwaukee, In- dianapolls, Kansas City, Denver. The next thing s to make sure we bave a place to entertain the horses, E— - > It turns out t that Marconl-gram daily newspaper which was to be pub- lished simultaneously on all the ocean steamers that plow the deep is to be only a ticker service furnishing bulle- tins for the passengers to bet on. S Senator Dolliver's optimistie remarks about the trust magnates working them- selves to death were probably intended as a joke, but the danger is that the deadly effects of the trusts wil be felt more by the consumers of thelr products than by their owners and promoters, & e — The National Board of Trade has called upon congress for the adoption of an educational test to forelgn immi- grants, How much education must a man have in order to be able to break rock or handle dirt in subways and sewers, work In the coal mines, sweep streets or scrub floors? ep——— The question, “Has the government a right to_take possession of the coal mines?”" having been put to a number of eminent local attorneys, the consen- sus of opinion is unquestionably that the subject 18 one too deep and too vital to elleit an offhand opiglon—especially when there 18 no retainer in sight. m—— k (‘on’!u-mn Shallenberger wants it distinetly understood that the bill which be has introduced to regulate the trusts was not drawn by Colonel Bryan. This explanation is necessary because If it had the Bryad label on it too many democrats in congress might refuse sup- port for fear they would be bullding up more capital for their late leader. mpp——— One of the bills introduced into the legislature provides for a reduction in the interest payments on bank deposits of county funds from 8 per cent to 114 EVIDENCE OF CONSPIRAQY. There is abundant evidence of combi- nations and conspiracies to limit the coal output and withhold that fuel from the public. The testimony before the senate committee of investigation has shown conclusively that there was a perfect understanding among those en- gaged In the industry in regard to the distrfbution of conl and also in respect to prices, while Investigations made at various localities have developed the fact of combinations between raflronds and denlers fgr the purpose of keeping coal from the markets, These investiga- tioms have disclosed facls attesting the most culpable dfsfdgard of the public in- terests and the well knowh sufferings of hundreds of thousands of people, The facts presented to the grand jury at Chicago point unmistakably to a con- spiracy between ‘the coal operators and @ealers, in which the railroads are prob- ably Involved. The evidence shows that there would have been a suffi¢ient sup- ply of coal if it had been' placed on the market Instead of being sidetracked. Af Milwauikee it was found that some of the déalers had Jarge nmounts of coal whiéh they were halding for higher prices. A large store of coal was found at Terre Hante and other points in cars, the ‘preterise being that it Was not shippéd “to its destination because of the lack of motive power. These and other facts brought out by inquiry and Investigation prove beyond a question that there has been widespread com- bination. and ‘conspiracy, embracing both anthraette and bituminous opera- tors and dealers, with the coal trans- porting railroads as a party, to curtail the distribution of ceal and extort the highest prices possible from the con- sumers. % o Yet in the face of all this President Haer, at the conference a few days ago Wwith Mayor Low of New York, had thé hardihood to say that there is no coal combination and to assert that while he 1s responsible for the companles of which he is president, he 18 puwerless to contrel ‘the action of the other com- panies and of the individual operators. It is a matter of common knowledge, however, that most of the hard’ conl production is practically in the control of railroads ‘united on the community- of-interest pldn and that the prosidents of these ronds have been in the habit of meeting perlodically to regulate out- put, freight charges and prices. So far as the Ihdependent operators are con- cerned tliey have ‘annulled their con- M Wwith the railroads, but until very recently they were completely under the control of the ¢oal-carrying raflroads which are In possession of nearly all of the anthracite field. It 18 useless. for Mr. Baer or anyonme else to deny that there is a coal com- bination or that there has been con- spiracy to deprive the public of coal. The evidence Is overwhelmingly. hgainst them and there is every n to expeet that it will be made mg-onm by turther investigation™ *.° ¥, b — < THE PRESIDENT 1S EMPHATIC. Washingion reporis say that Presl- dent Roosevelt has been very emphatic in stating to memliers of congress who have coierred with. him, that if there Is not anti-tmst leglslation at the pres- <ot seasion he ‘will call-the Fifty-eighth ¢ongreks In extry sesston very soon after March 4. The president 18 quoted as saying: “If there Is not time to pass an anti-trust law at this session there will be enough time between March 4 and August 1 to do it, and there will be time for the ratification of the:Cuban reci- procity treaty. in that time, too.” “There 18 no doubt that Mr. Roosevelt 1s most earnest in the desire for early anti-trust legislation and probably would not- hesitate to call a speclal ses- slon of the new congress if the present one should fall to act. It appears prob- able, however, that this will not be necessary, the indications being that an antl-trust measure will be passed. This is fully assured so far as the house of representatives is concerned and repub- lican semators are showing a favorable disposition toward such a measure. The president is no less anxious that the recl- procity treaty shall be ratified and the prospect-is very good that this also will be done. As matters now look, it seems quite safe to say that there will not be an extra sesslon of the Fifty-eighth con- gress, SEp— AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS. There is a good foreign demand for wheat and corn, the exports of which during the present month from New York have been about 6,000,000 bushels. Thé actlve purchases, it is noted, are not the result of any material uc- tion In prices_of grain, but are rather the result of décreases in foreign stocks, rendering the foreign buyers less dis- posed to keep up the iudependent atti- tude they have manifested for some months. Aside from the smaller stocks abroad, the purchases have been stimu- lated to some extent by the wet weather delaying shipments from the Argentine. Another stimulant of active export pur- chases, says an eastern commercial pa- per, is the abnormally low ocean rates for transportation, due to the profit- able figures tramp steamers obtain for bringing full coal cargoes this way. Meantime It is stated that the freight congestion on western railroads is seri- ously affecting the export trade, partic- ularly of corn. Thé NeWw York Journal THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: ATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1903. west to the seaboard. The year opens well for agricultural exports and there I8 reason to expect that the record of the last few years will be maintained. ——mrrr—— NOT GREATLY ALARMED. It Howell has his way the city would be ¢ompelled to pay for the franehise as well a8 for the tangible property. On those terms the company, we feel sure, would cheerfully sell out, but the city might have to pay anywhere from bne to two millions mere than the plant could be duplicated for.—The Bee. 1t the company would cheerfully sell out on the terms prescribed by Mr, Howell, it is strange that the representatives ot the water works are not co-operating with the senator from Douglas.—World-Herald. Omaha representatives of the water company do not appear to be very much concerned about the com- pulsory. purchase bill and are not likely to show their hand by co-operating with Mr. Howell, but we have positive knowledge that the owners of the water works i New York would be yery much pleased with a compulsory purchase on the terms proposed by Mr. Howell, | There never was a time since the works were built when machinery and east iron pipes have commanded as high a price in the market as they do now. Water mains which could be bought five years ago at $18 per ton are selling today at $37 per ton, and the labor cost, computed at the present yage scale, would be equally in favor of the company and against the city. | An appraisement under the original contract excludessthe franchise. An ap- praisement under the compulsory pur- chase clause would include the franchise, or at any rate raise a question about the value of the franchise to be settled in the courts, with a possible judgment against the city. Under such conditions there is no doubt that the owners of the water works would cheerfully ex- change their bonds for an equal or larger amount of the bonds of the city of Omaha with a very liberal allowance for their watered water stock. i — CITY AND COUNTY MERGER. The charter committee of the Com- merclal club has decided to ask the legislature to submit a constitutional amendment to permit the enactment of a law authorizing the merger of the governments of Omaha, South Omaha amd Douglas county. The proposition is eminently sound and in the interest of more economic and better government, but the verbiage of the amendment is too ambiguous. It should be borne in mind that the, proposed merger of the city and county governments ‘was embodled in an amendment to the constitution by the legislature of 1895 and submitted with eleven other amendments 1n 1896, in the following language: R, e government of any cify\ot the metropolitan class and the government of the county fu which it is located may be merged, wholly or in ‘part, when the propo- sition so to do has been submitted by au- thortty- of 'law to the votersiof sald eity and” county and receives the assent of a majority of the votes cast in such city and also a majority of fhe votes cast in the |* county exelustve of those cast in such metropolitan eity at last election. It will be noted that this amendment permits not only the merger of the whole county government with that of thie city, but any part thereof, so that one board of commissioners, or one mayor and council, could managé the affairs of both city and county, or one treasurer and one auditor could make all the disbursements and collection of taxes and check up all the financial fransactions of the county and city without consolidating any other branch of government. The last clause in the amendment of 1895 would, doubtless, he most objec- tionable, as it would enable a small minority to defeat the will of the ma- Jority, but this clause was inserted as a compromise with Senator Noyes, who at the time declined to support the bill unless this provision was inserted. As a matter of fact, the legislature could provide for the merger of county and city treasuries without a constitu- tional amendment by requiring the eounty treasurer to collect all taxes within the county, thus doing away with all tke other treasurers. A county tax commisgloner could assess all the prop- erty in the county for state, eounty and city purposes. A separate amendment granting to cities of the metropolitan class the right to make their own charters was also introduced in (1895, but defeated by the lobby representing the franchised corporations. That the same influence will make itself felt at the present ses- sion nobody need doubt. It is barely possible, however, that the corporation managers no longer have any objection to home rule, by reason of the policy adopted In the mode of assessment and taxation through the tax commissioner and Board of Review. ‘While nobody has any serious objec- tion to the bill postponing the Omaha city election from the first Tuesday in March to the third Tuesday in May, the assertion that this change Is In the in- terest of better government. because “the roustabouts will get out at any time, while the business men are too busy or too delicate to go out in March,” is absurd. Retail merchants are just as full of business in the latter part of May as they are in the early part of March. In fact, most of them are more busy in May than in March, and many of the jobbers who .are at home In of Commerce says there has been a very active demand for export corn, but ex- porters have had no end of trouble in filling the orders and have sustalned per cent, or a reduetion of one-half the preseut requirement. With our banks paylng 2 cent -1 déposits of country corres| its and recelving 2 per cent on their bulances in Chicago and New York, why the couuty money should be given over for a smaller rate is hardly explainable. If the present rate of 3 per cent is t00 high, the proposed rate dlupcr-l"uwm.mymlow. considerable loss because shipments have pot come forward within specified time, thereby forcing them to go into the market again and fill their contracts a8 best they could, oftentimes at a ma- terlally higher’ price. “The trouble s in the shortage of cars aud lack of motive power, which when remedied, as is grad- ually being done, will be followed by an eBormous movewent ¢f graln from the March are llable to be away from home in the latter part of May. The true in- wardness of the move is that the mem- bers of the Douglas delegation want to take an active band in the primaries and some are ambitious to occupy places under the new administrgtion. That is the milk In the cocoanut. Smge——— Hawaiiaas ard much exercised over the report of the senate commwittee rec- ommending .ghe establishment of a national leper colony. It would naturally be supposed that they \ would be glad to have the national government offer to help care for this class of unfortunates. If the national government volunteered to take care of the dependents in any one of our states it would enter no protest against it Slashing the assessment returns, as made up by the fax commissioner and the Board of Review, means a corfe sponding Increase in the levy for every reduction in the total property valua- tion. The people have had their ex- pectations set on a low city tax rate for 1903 and ought not to be disappointed. Vagaries of Motion, Saturday Evening Post, It has required much more time for many a man to tofl up the stairway of fame than it has for. him to slide down the banister of obscurity. As It Looks to the Operators. Detroit Free Press. More testimony {s coming from the coal operators to show that the miners struck in order to get a little time to spend their accumulated wealth. Superfluous Explanation. Philadelphia Record. Some of {he operators say that they are not in the business for their health. fortunately they are in the business to the declded. detriment of the health of other people. . Arousing Dangerous Wrath, Buffalo Express, It is a large undertaking to hold up 76,- 000,000 people for one of the necessities of life. The coal trust has roused the wrath of the people énd must take the conse- quences. — Jollying John Bull Washington Post Mr. Charles T. Yerkes understands his business. He is throwing a big jolly into the English people about the superiority of their goods and workmanship. There is nothing Mke being polite to the con- tributors. Trying it on the Kk Baltimore American, The next experiment under government auspices is to be made by trying adulter- ated food on infants and dyspeptics. It woulda’t be much harm to kill off a few dyspeptics, but it does seem rather rough to get up a poison squad of infantry. No Difference in Results. Cinelnhat! Enquirer. Some coal dealérs will learn before the present investigation s completed that there is no difference in principle between ordinary highway robbery and that kind in which one takes advantage of people's help- lessness to overcharge them for the neces- sities of life. Each is but a different way of obtaining by force the money that does not rightfully belong to the procurer. A Beat that Was a Beat. New "York Tribune. Yankee jack tars still hold thelr ownm against challengers In oarsmanship. Never. theless, it is & ‘strange tale which comes from China that a boat's crew from Uncle Sam's battleship Kentucky beat the best rowers of John' Bull's man-o'-war Glory by a mile in 4 five-mile race at Hong Kong. A hundred yardf' victory would be emough for the Btars #nd ‘Stripes, afd to splfre, To dim the fdthe 6t the British rivals by rn}m mifle lg"fivi"qhm an jncredible ex- 10it. S0 ‘eXtrerie a tHumph 'might be thought ill-natured. R Perils of the Conl Squeese. Springficld Republican, The leading eitizens of another Illinols town have been selzing upon a trainload ot coal belonging to someone else and con- fiscating It to thelr own uses. From an Ohio city comes the report that prosecu. tions for petty fuel thievery have been sus- peiided, which means that anybody s at liberty to steal: coal it he does not steal much at onejtime. Thus we have in this orlsis what abpears to be a pretty distinct start in a reversion of soelety to anarchy. It 1s an experfence which the forces of law d order will do wall to see does not recur again, —_—— Stupendous Undertakin New York Press, While we boast of our big engineering feats let us look beyond the seas for a mo- ment. There is, the Siberian railroad, cost- ing $401,700,000. The Russians have planned other lines in various parts of the empire, private companies to build them. But the imperlal government will indorse thelr bonds to the extent of $250,000,000. The Simplon tunnel, now well under way, 1s to be fourteen miles long and will cost $1,000000 & mile. Enormous dificulties have been overcome. Water trickling down from the top of the mountains, 6,000 feet high, flows Into the tunnel at the rate of 15,000 gallons a minute, and at a tempera- ture of from f12 degrees to 140 degrees, rendering mot only work but life impos- sible. The engineer, by pumping cold air against the currents, has reduced the tem- perature to 70 degrees. He uses the water not only for power to operate the refriger- ating app: tus, but to compress air for use in th MORTGAGING THE CONTINENT. Steady Flow of American Dol Canada and Mexico. Philadelphia Bulletin. Not long ago an official report stated that not less than half a billion American dollaj had been recently invested in the railwa: mines, plantations and factories of Mexico. It 18 now declared that & decided movement of capital trom the United States over the Canadian border was witnessed during the last year, and the prediction is made that within & comparatively brief period the amount of American investments devoted to developing the great natural resources of the Dominion will reach a very high figure. A few ultra-British-Canadian newspapers have bewalled this tendency, just as they have deplored the steady increase of Ameri- can emigration northward. It does ot ap- pear, however, that these apprehensions are shared in any perceptible degree by Cana- dian business men who are intelligent enough to understand that thelr fairly pros- perous but as yet undeveloped country stands in urgent need both of Yankee capi- tal and enterprising Yankee farmers to in- crease its annual grain and meat produc- tion. As & matter of fact, the flow of funds trom this country over the frontiers of Mexico and Canada is simply an example of the economic law by which abundant capi- tal always seeks profitable investment without ‘much regard to arbitrary geo- graphbical lines, Within the last five years or o the amount of cash in the United States avallable for investment has in- creased enormously, and a considerable share of it was bound to find its way into the potentially rich regions adjacent to this republic. actual annexation of Mexico may never, 0ccur and that of Canada may be a lopg distance in the future, but there are net wanting indications that before the average American schoolboy reaches middle age the United States will hold a virtual mortgage on pretty nearly the whole North AWerican CoRUBSAL OTHER LANDS THAN OURS, The standing army of Russia in time of peace numbers over 1,000,000, rank and file, or 4 per cent of the male population ba- tween the ages of 21 and 60 years. It is divided as follows: 627,000 infantry, in 2 army corps, 52 divisions, 200 regiments and 117,000 cavalry, in 23 divi- 34 squadrons; 138,000 artillery, with 412 batteries of field artillery and 46 of horse artillery; 34,000 engineers, 34,000 commissariat, transportation, medical and other departmental troops, and 60,000 Cos- sacks. Liability to military eervice is gen- eral between the 22nd and 44th birthdays, the only exemptions being in favor of the Cossacks of the Caucasus, who have a spe- clal organization; the settlers in Turkestan and the territories of the Amur; the non- Russian population of Astrakhan, the Asi- treatment of nonunion miners could hardly | PROSPERITY OF WAGE EARNERS, show a greater lack of humanizing and re- | fining influences had the events described occurred in the wilds of Thibet They will, perhaps, be set aside as mot pertinent, on the ground that the riotous miners are not typieal Americane, but ignorant for elgners—an Assumption net easy to sup- fort, since a large proportion of native- born Americans are among them and an- other large element has lived in the region long enough to have imbibed something ot that finer civilisation of which we boast But, omitting them from the discussion, what is to be sald of coal operators, trans- portation companies and retailers who, re gardless of the sufferings and needs of mil- lions of their fellow-creatures, have, among | them, placed what is in many instances a | prohibitive price on one of the necessities of life? Not content with a fair and honest profit they have taken advantage of an atic provinces and Archangel. A million men have every October 1 attained the mil. itary age, but only 300,000 are required to bring the standing army up to its peace establishment. Every urban and rural dis- trict has its recruiting board, which is in~ formed of the number of recruits it must furnish to each arm. Selection is made between October 15 and November 15. Usually about 48 per cent of the conscript candidates are exempt or ineligible. e Chile and Argentine have signed condi- tions for the sale of all warships now build- ing for either country in European ship yards, and each has agreed to dismantle a number of its most powerful men-of-war in compliance with the treaty of July last, which provided for the limitation of arma- ments. Unqualified and practically com- pulsory arbitration having bhen made the subject of a convention of the same date, the two republics will hereafter have little use for. destroyers, battleships and other Jingo paraphernalia. They will have no occasion to fight each other, and their dis- tance from possible assailants ie their suffi- clent defense. The Chileans and Argen- tinans are wise in their day and generation. Other governments which confer together in peace congresses, but shy at the men- tion of arbitration and disarmament, prefer to postpone the practice of wisdom to the coming of the millennfum. o ‘Water works upon an immense scale are in course of construction in various parts of West Australla. Among those recently completed are those at Mundaring, twenty- three milcs from Perth, which are expected o have an imporfant influence upon the gold mining in the Coolgardie and Kal- goorlie districts. The Helena river has been entirely dammed by concrete weir rising 100 feet above the river bed, and baving its foundations at one point 100 feet below the river bed. It is 700 feet long at the top and fifteen feet wide there; ghty-five feet wide at the base, and pro- vided with a waste weir and a free over~ flow of five feet deep and 400 feet wide. The depth of water is 100 feet, and the river, which runs in a deep valley, feeds the dam for seven and one-half miles of its course. The capacity from twenty feet above the river level, the IGwest depth from which water will be pumped, is 4,600, 000,000 gallons. But it is one thing to col- lect the water at Mundaring’ 320 feet above the sea level, and another to force it through thirty-inch pipes to Coolgardie, 1,400 feet above the sea level and 325 miles distant, and to Kalgoorlle, 1,280 feet above the sea level and twenty-five miles fufther off. This is done by eight sets of pumping stations, each with extra ' engines and unusual situation to exact exorbitant prices for the product of the mines, have placed unnecessary difficulties in the way of pros curing sufficlent supplies of the fuel and all over the country are grinding the facea of the poor. Whatever the miners them selves may be, these mine operators and owners, these rallroad companies, these speculators, these retallers, most assuredly do represent the average intelligence, the average humanity and the prevailing’ Chris- tian sentiment of the country. They are educated men, eome of them cultivated men, 5o far as the schools go; some of them are professedly religlous men, and all of them have had the full benefits of the religious and moral instruction and influ- onces which, we so proudly assert, tend to place our clvilization on a higher plane than was ever. reached elsewhero in the history of the world. Yet, for greed of money, these types of the highest Christian | civilization ignore the instincts of the com. monest humanity. For a multiplied per. centage of gain they trade on the necessi- tes and sufterings of thelr fellow-beings and apparently divorce themselves frog all sense of moral responsibility. Some of these very men were loudest to complain when the exactions of the “‘beef trust” caused an increase in thelr butchers' bills, but high-priced beef and high-priced fuel are evils not to be compared. There are satisfactory and procurable substitutes for beef; there is no substitute for fire when the mercury is at zero. — POLITICAL DRIFT, Elder Smoot {s justified in restoring the “h” to his name. W. J. Balley was inaugurated governor of Kansas without a matrimonial halter, It took several years of litigation to in- duce the register of deeds of Milwaukegto loosen his grip on $22,000 office fees. khu supreme court gave the necessary jolt and the money dropped into the public treasury. Samuel Gruell of Wells county, Indiana, one of, the oldest democrats in that state, claims he originated the rooster as a party emblem by writing to an Indianapolis edi- tor to “cheer up” and print a rooster in his paper. Sixty-day pagses dd not pass current with the Montana legislature. ‘“‘Annuals or none” {s the slogan of the patriotic solons. Annuals they will have or the passenges department will accumulate several bunches of trouble. The Pennsylvania republican legislative caucus has. adopted a resolution for final adjournment of the legislature on April 16. It that resolution is adhered to it will as- sure the shortest session since biennial pumps, in case of breakdowns, each set of engines being capable of pumping 2,800,000 gallons a day; and a number of minor and regulating reservolrs are provided, besid service reservoirs at Coolgardie and Kal- goorlie, Admiral Makarov, the designer of the su cessful ice-breaker Ermak, which keeps the Neva open to St. Petersburg the greater part of thqgvinter, has not abandoned his intention of seeking the North Pole in his pet veasel. a recent lecture delivered before the St. Petersburg Imperial Geo~ graphical soclety he explained once more the grounds on which he base¢ his hopes of one day reaching the goal which h: cluded other adventurers. Ermak, in his opinion, is better adapted to withstana an ice squeeze than any wooden ship, and in its speclal work of breaking through ice flelds is more successful in operating upon the continuous flelds found in extreme north latitudes than sgainst the more mo- bile ice nearer home. Admiral Makarov did not succeed in getting very far north upon his last expedition, but he brought back & very valuable collection of photographs and specimeis of the flora and fauna of the Arctic regions. It is a distinctly German idea which antmated the Soclety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Berlin to give a dinner entirely of horse meat, to bufld up the public taste for that food, so that old horses will find thelr way to the butcheries instead of being worked to death. It requires an intricate German mind to hatch out a scheme ltke this in the name of charity. So many horses are already used for food In Germany that there is no reason why any man with au erstwhile Bucephalus should not sell him for meat. But heretofore horse has been eaten only by the poor, or the rich per- chance when they trade with a deceitful butcher. Now the polnt is to develop & taste for the rump steaks of draught ani- among all classes of the people and call it a specles of philanthropy. e The economic problem of Naples is just now perplexing the Italian government very serlously. Naples is a town of over 500,000 inhabitants and s without any staple industry, with the result that there are always at least 150,000 unemployed, and consequently distress and misery are never absent. All efforts to develop trades bave falled but it is now proposed to make Naples the Mecca ‘of all tourists to Italy, it belng recoguized that tourists are likely to prove its main source of sub- sistence. Among the plans proposed is one for the erection of a large gambling casino on the lines of that at Monte Carlo, It is further proposed to lne the shores of the famous bay of Naples with magnifi- cent hotels. By these measures it is hoped to solve the problem upon which the ex- istence of Naples depends. CIVILIZATION AND GREED. Instinets of Commom Humanity Ignored by “the Superior Race.” fang, makes, in & current periodical, some comparisons between Chinese and western civilizations by no means to the advantage of the latter. He defines civilization as the sum of man's efforts to advance from & lower to & higher level, and, while he admits that western nations have doj much to raise this level, he holds that the present tendency 0f Americans to devote thenselves (0 money-getting and to at- tempts to become rich by the shortest roads is lkely to cause the highest qualities of beart and intellect to suffer and so retard general progress. If Mr. Wu were in this country now he would see in the coal situation much to confirm him in his bellef. Even those thick-and-thin upholders of the “American \dea” and American methods as expressive of the highest development of mankind growths of the coal strike as manifestations of the best twentieth-century civilization. But how shall they avold 1t? The evidences of barbarity and brutality brought out by the coal commission Lo Jta laquiries Lato the sittings have been held under the present Pennsylvania constitution. The republiean majority In the New in Wa More Permanent Than Gains in Prices. San Francisco Chronicle. insatiable homo demand for staple gradually raising their An commodities s prices in spite of the counter effect of econ- omies reducing the cost of products. This rise of prices, however, is by no means so great as soclal agltators would have us be- lleve. Increased expenses®of households s mainly accounted for by the satisfaction of more costly desires. Few are now satisfied with what would have contented them a de- cade ago. But while prices are rising they do not yet even approach the lovel of twelve years ago, when all were happy and social agitators had not got falrly to work in the United States. On October 1, 1890, Brad- street’s Index number Indicating the rela- tive range of prices was 105,99, On Octo- ber 1, 1902, it was only 87,422—a difference of 18,672 polnts. It is only by comparing present prices with those of the lean years of the middle '90s that we discover a rise. On April 1, 1895, the indext number was 66,- 872, a fall of 39,124 points from the high- water mark of 1800. Since those dark days, when labor was unemployed and commodis ties were sacrificed at any price which would bring money, commodies have gained 60 points. And they ought to have gained. It is not to the interest of soclety that men should do business at a loss. The one commodity which has risen to the price level of the early nineties is labor. Accordlng to Carroll D. Wright, United States commissioner of labor, and our most rellable authority on labor stat- istics, wages in nearly all industries are higher than ever before—higher, wven, than at the high water perlod of 1892, for in the early nineties wages continued to rise even after commodities begdn to decline. Indeed, during the hardest times, day wages dld not fall in unison with commo- dities. The trouble was lack of employ- ment at any price. Now, not only a wages higher than ever before, but lavor was never so constantly employed. The annual receipts of the average working- man must now be nearly double those of 1895. There was never a time in the his- tory of any mation when the workingman could get so much comfort for his year's wages as ho can get today. He gets more money than he got even in the early nine- tles, and for a given amount of money he can buy far more than he could buy then. The gains in wages are more permanent than gains in’prices. They come rather more slowly, but they last much longer. They do not Huctuate like the prices ot commodities. When workingmen suffer it is not so much from a reduction of wages, as from the Inability of employers to pr: vide work. The prosperity of the work- ingmen 1s, therefore, bound up with the prosperity of the employer. When em- ployers make money on thelr output they employ all the labor which they can get When prices are low they discharge all who can possibly be spared. Soclety should therefore rejolce in that general prosperity, which Induces strong demand, which causes prices to rise, which en- courages all employers to employ all the help they can get and pay high wages for the service. PASSING PLEASANTRIES, “Johnny," said the teacher, “what fis Morocco famous for?" “For a certain kind of kid leather made % dog in; America."—Brooklyn o, ) York legislature on joint ballot is 84 votes. |- In Pennsylvania ft is 144. There are ni Tepublicans in the legislatures of Loufs- fana, Mississippl and South Carolina and only one republican representative in the legiblatiires’ of ' Florida and Texas. An enterprising promoter in Ohio pro- poses to swell the 1904 campaign fund of the democratic paily ihrough tho medium of soap. For every gross of bars sold the house will pay into'the treasury $1.20. The proposition is a happy one. It ought to in- duce the great unwashed to get busy. Managers of tHe democratic party in Phil- adelphia thought they had done a good day's work when they nominated John Cadwalader for mayor, The Cadwaladers were among the first settlers of the locality, rivaling the Penns as ploneers. Anclent lineage was regarded as a fine asset by the minority, but John spoiled all calculations by refusing to run. The New Hampshire constitutional con- vention has adjourned after ggreeing to certain amendments to the organic law of that state for subrhission to the voters. The last addition to the New Hampshire constitution was made in 1889 and the one prior to that in 1842. Substantially the' constitution is the same as when adopted in 1782, In New York City there are 7,600 police- men and 10,000 saloons; in Pittsburg, Min- neapolls, Providence and St. Paul the pro- portion between the two (three policemen to four saloons) is the same. There are in St. Louis 1,300 policemen and 2,100 sa- loor=, 500 policemen in Cincinnati to 1,700 saloous and 300 policemen fn Milwaukeo to 1,700 saloons. Boston has 1,200 policemen for less than 1,000 saloons. The republican leaders of Philadelphia have about agreed to the nomination of District Attorney John Weaver as their candidate for mayor at the February elec- tion of this year. The term of Mr. Weaver As district attorney does not expire until January, 1905. The salary of that office is $10,000 a year. The salary of the mayor of Philadelphla s $12,000. Philadelphia holds its municipal election in February and the mayor chosen at that time enters office in April. “I gee that the war between the rival base ball factions s ended,” \pgnder what they will do nowh: out of e ump! e Cleveland Fiain Dealer. " 0* e e “Some v pata o trys to bo pleasant, folks takes it fol ‘l't:rnl.d dat it's parcasm."—Washington Head Clerk—It seems t e that old Joblots s beginning Lo lose his lrlg Bookkeeper—Well, I don't lmo:o u’:(ynu A ugl a Hrhl He went out and u la yesterday.—Somerville Journal Caller—I've found that there dorg that ¥'r wife is advertisin' % reward fer. Gentleman—You have, eh? Goller—Yep; an' if veh_don't give me $10 T'll take it to ‘er.—New York Weekly. “My friend,” sald the fakir at the streat corner, “I can sell you a salve for 10 cents that will cure that big wart on the back our hand. of “1 don't want it cured,” the hollow-eyed man in the crowd responded. ‘“The baby uses it to cut his teeth o Tribune. “Your boy,” sald the college president, “has been very wild, the worst boy in his class fn fact.” “Indeed!” exclatmed the father, “and will you withhold his diploma on that account?" +.Oh, no! But it really should be & black sheepskin.”"—Philadelphia Press. MORSE ACROSS THE TABLE. New York Times. he taught me the code of telegraphy, The girl who alone has my heart, And over the table dinner I'd pass (By drumming with finger on plate or on ass) ‘What message 1'd wish to impart, But that which I best liked to say to her Ungu by whoever was nigh, ‘Was a sentiment which In three words I'd condense, Beginning, as sentences often commence, ith the personal pronoun The next word in order that followed it Must have come from Olympus above; L found it not easy my feeling to While 1 was transmitting that beautiful verb; No need to explain 1t was In the third word, and last, of this triplet Intensest devotfon I threw. By all unsuspected at being so bold, Clenr. over the table my ardor I toia s 1 rapped out the little word R — them entirely disappear. light weight wool fabrics. - THE WHY AND WHEREFORE Of the present opportunity to buy the finest of clothing at the lowest of prices, is to be found in the fact that the ma- jority of our lines are badly broken and we want to see We are already making ar- rangements to receive our spring shipment, and if pric is an object, and you are in need of a heavy weight suit or overcoat, you will never have a finer chance than now“to find one to your entire satisfaction, “ No Clothing Fits Like.Ours” REMEMBER-—One more day to make your selection of summer clothes for the small boys—providing you want to take advantage of our sample showing of washable and Brovning King §-3 R. 8. WILCOX, Manager. p Btore closes at 9 p. m,, Baturdays. v