The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 31, 1898, Page 4

.OCTOBER 31, 1898 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address All Communications. to W. S, LEAKE, Manager, | PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third Sts., S. F- :Telephone Main 1863 EDITORIAL ROOMS..........2(7 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1574, YHE 6AN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) Is served by carrlers In this city and surrounding towns for 15 cents @ week. By mail $6 per year; per montb 66 cents. 7 THE WEEKLY CALL. One year, by mati, $1.50 OAKLAND OFFICE. ...908 Broadway NEW YORK OFFICE.........Room I88, World Building DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE Rigge House C. €. CARLTON, Correspondent. CHICAGO OFFICE.... ..Merquette Building C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advert lngRepresentn(lv‘o. BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street, open untll | 930 o'clock. 621 McAllister street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 615 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. | 1941 Mission street, open until 10 o'clock. 2291 Market | street, corner Sixteenth, open until-9 o'clock. 2518 Mission street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh street, open untll 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open | untli 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second ena | Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. AMUSEMENTS The Transit of Leo.” wing the Wind." Vaudeville. ter—‘A Scrap of Paper.” nd Eddy streets—Specialties. ith, Vaudeville and the Zoo. - cert M ersary Ball, Rosenth: in December. . ANOTHER LULL IN TRADE. AST week in trade was hardly as favorable as L predecessor. True, the bank clearings howed a material gain, being 11 per cent over those for the corresponding week in 1897, and only two eities of importance—Philadelphia and New Or- Joss of any consequence. The count »ered 219, against 218 for the same week in 1897, so the honors were about even | but the general condition of trade | was T and uncertainty ‘ d reluctance to operate the | e Atla ies. | The main cause of this was the Fashoda incident, which at one time looked acute, and rendered the cs of trade a But that now pretty well died away, hence those leans—recorded a failures nu in this respect; considerable manifested ettled e u were in tic speculation dull. affair has lines that were affected by it ought to recover tone. The leading stapl did maintain the | improvement promised the week before. -Cotton fell | back again and quicted down, it being manifest that | the American and European mills both have surplus | stocks of last year's high-priced cotton that they can- | not profitably market in the present state of the trade. The crop is not too large, but it is handicapped by the free stocks on hand, and this of course depressés | the trade. Wool is in the same predicament. Stocks are | so heavy that it is no longer a question of profit with | manufacturers, but of avoiding loss. Concessions on the part of holders have resulted in a large increase in sales, but it is calculated by the National Wool Association that a full year will be necessary to work | off the abundant supplies. The iron trade shows little change, though the demand has certainly fallen off of late, and some descriptions exhibit a slight decline. In other lines of industry the.report is that work is more plentiful, and in the State of New York | there are 52,000 more persons employed in the g industries than a year ago, but the same ds that the margin of profit to the manufac- s, too, not alone re- i is smaller. | While the colder weather has served to stimulate | the distributive trade in the West and Northwest, | re for months it has been so active, bad roads, following rains, have offset this, so that this impor- tant factor is not making the showing-that it did. Still, business in these sections is by no means dull. The wheat trade is following the others in some respect. The outward movement is large, but the farmers are showing more disposition to sell than they did last vear, and there is. some apprehension as to the permanence of the foreign demand, though this is something which cannet be foreseen a week ahead. The feeling in Wall street is kept unsettied: by the foreign-complications and approaching donies- tic: elections, though tlie matket has made no_pro- nounced movement, either up or down ! The local situation is tame, but there is less monot- ony. Commodities which have been dormant for Some time are showing rather more movement. Pro- visiofis, “which have been uniformly dull for a long time, are reported in improved demand, though there | is no improvement in prices. Livestock of all kinds | is firm, and the tendency in quotations is rather up-| ward than otherwise. Hides have weakened under the proposed closing down of a number of Eastern tanneries by the leather trust, and several kinds are slightly lower. Canned fruits continue 'in demand, both for. Eastern and- foreign account, and in Eng- land the market is bare and very firm, with constant | call for replenishment of supplies. The reverse is to | be said of dried fruits, which continue very dull, with | a tendency in prices, downward rather than upward. | Apparently a halt has been called ir the wine market, | and, though grapes advanced to exceptionally fine prices, they were somewhat weaker again at the close. Wheat has been steadily weakening for some days, in svmpathy with the Eastern and foreign markets, and the demand is not as brisk as a week ago. There have been some changes in oils in the direction of higher quotations. | While the financial market is not materially | changed, the political campaign tends to render operators and financiers conservative until the out- | come is determined. Nothing makes capital warier | and more reserved than even the bare possibility that | fl've laws may be tinkered with by incompetent or | visionary theorists, who are always the reverse of | practical. Still, funds are in ample and aceessible | supply for solvent borrowers at the normal rates of | - | vention would put forth a platform interest, for the undercurrent of opinion is that com- mon sense will triumph over the gilded visions of | Getting ‘arrested on a ch: advertising dodge, and we are inclined to think well | of the innovation. The only fault to be found is that | With Maguire in the Governor’s cliair the State would" a&c of fraud is a new | the enterprising young woman would not stay ar- rested. R S Sharkey came near thrashing a lawyer in court at New York the other day. Between him and a mem- ber of the legal fraternity there is naturally a rivalry. Both live by the activity .of the organs of speech. @l | the temperate zone. | worthy of consideration. clouds THE WHITE MAN IN THE TROPICS. W E have received many inquiries and some criticism for our statement, in a recent series of editorials on “Our Tropical Colonies,” that the only kind of people who will ever be found under a vertical sun are those who are there now, and that white men cannot colonize there and rear families. Criticism of this’ statement is natural, since our ac- quisition of land in the American and Asiatic tropics | has been continually analogized by its advocates with our territorial expansion on this continent and within It is natural, under the circums stances, for our people to look upon the tropical islands as new territory, upon which they will settle and found states and Anglo-Saxon institutions. The Erglish Government has done everything to encourage marriage between English soldiers and white women in India, but Major General Bagnold, reporting on the result, says: ‘“We have never suc- ceeded in raising enough male children to keep the regiment supplied with drummers and pipers.” Dr. Orgeas reports from French Guiana that 418 mar- | riages were made there between Europeans from 1859 to 1882. Of these unions 215 were childless. The off- spring of the remaining 203 numbered 403 children, of whom only 141 survived to represent the posterity of 836 married Europeans! These survivors were almost uniformly creatures with small skulls, stunted in their growth, wrinkled and afflicted with manifold defor- mities. Max Nordau says: “The most virile and warlike white peoples degenerate in the tropics in a few gen- erations, until they become so:feeble and indolent, so stupid and cowardly, so incapable of any resist- ance to vice and ruinous habits, that they are in time scarcely more than shadows of their fathers and an- cestors, if they do not die out entirely from’ barren- néss and disease. This was the fate of the noble Van- dals in a hot climate. As Germanic giants they con- quered Carthage, and a hundred years later as whining weaklings they were driven out by the wretched By- zantines. The same phenomenon is observed to-day | whenever a tropical country is subdued by a people of | the Caucasian race. The Caucasian settlers between the ‘tropics, therefore, are doomed to deterioration; they not only fail to advance the civilization they brought with them, they even lose it entirely, and soon havé nothing left of their birthright but a de- based language and the self-conceit of the caste, none of whose distinctive features physical or intellectual, have been retained.” The same writer, supposing a progressive and con- tinuous yielding to the temptations of tropical con- quest, continyes: “In the presence of these degenerate starvelings the vigorous immigrants entertain .no scruples, and the feeble resistance the former are able to oppose is not A new stratum of human beings, needing land and therefore spreads out over these lands bathed in the sun’s most fervid rays, burying beneath it the previous layer which has been dried up, and resuming the ineffectual battle with the climate. The equatorial regions will therefore perform the same function in the history of man as in meteorology. In the same way as the cold waters of the poles flow toward the equator, evaporate there, and are sent back in the form of vapors and in the same way the ocean’s surface is low- sustenance, ered by this evaporation, which lowering must be counteracted by the arrival of new waters from the cold regions; in the same way, finally, as the waters of all the oceans are thus kept in constant motion, the respective rainfall upon the whole earth repulated and the remotest lands made fertile, so the st the older civilized countries will flow to t perish there, evaporate, as it were, and be r a constant, flowing stream. The equator a fearful caldron in which human flesh evaporate. It will be a revival of the anc of Moloch. The peoples of the temperat. cast a portion of their children into the jay fiery furnace; and thus manage to retain .4 .a in which-to prosper and dévelop themselves. ‘he pic- ture is horrible; the reality, however. ismot. For it is not a painful death to which the children of the nations are condemned. A life of luxurious ease smiles invitingly before them in the tropical climes; soft breezes and waves envelop them; field and fofest offer them food in abundance without compul- sion; existence seems easier and more delightful to them there than te their fathers and brothers on the refractory” home soil; and with sweet, burning kisses, to which they yield themselves in a volup- tuous ecstacy, the sun drains their life from - every pore. Itisa death which every-effeminate nature will prefer to the rude struggle for existence; it is a melt- ing and dissolving away, which is as delightiul as an cpium dream, and which is more likely . to arouse envy then pity.” Nordau, while indulging in speculation to a degree, it will be seen is guided by the known physical facts presented by the tropics. to die. The decay of Spanish virility and events enforce the lesson. Nordau wrote in 1883, thirteen years before our tropical war with Spain. We met her under a vertical sun, where she has as- serted empire for three hundred years, to find her blood mongrelized or degenerated, her language de- based-and her people incapable of resistance. If we try to take her place we take it with all the irrevocable curses of nature upon it, and under the peculiar law. that dominates the Anglo-Saxon, which forbids to his blood successful mongrelizing with the inferior races. Spain ‘has existed so long in the tropics by that pe- culiarity of the Vandalized and Gothicized Latin races, that their blood can flow with that of the lower, dark and tropical races. Ours cannot. s THE EFFECT OF MAGUIREISM. FTER reyviewing the issues precipitated in ihe /E\ campaign in this State by the nomination ot a single tax agitator for Governor, the Phila- delphia Inquirer says: “The importance of this cam- paign lies in the effect that its results will have upon national politics a few years hence. Should the Democratic candidates win this fight upon the issues indicated, the Pacific Coast will come to the Demo- cratic national convention with a single tax plank.” No man who gas paid sufficient attention to his- tory to note the development of political movements can doubt the accuracy of the forecast made by our Philadelphia contemporary. The election of Maguire in California would give an impetus to radical social- ism all along the line, and the next Democratic con- in comparison with which even the raving of the document adopted by the Bryanites at Chicago would seem like con- servatism. The effect upon the nation, however, would be slight in comparison with the effect upon California. become the storm center of all forms of radical and extravagant agitation. Every industry would be harassed, every interest threatened, every form of property assailed and capital' and labor alike would be incessantly menaced. % The Inquirer says of Maguire: “While protesting his adherence to the Chicago platform and his ad- | closed doors with the blinds pulled down. miration for Bryan, he is far, very far, ahead of both on the logical path that Democracy has opened up— namely, the commune.” Such is the view taken of the single taxer's cam- paign by the people of the East. Those who study the situation nearer at hand, however, know that before the commune there would be a period of lawless revo- lution and confiscation. The immediate effect of Ma- guireism would be a tendency to anarchy. A Governor of the sandlotter type would in a single term of office inflict injuries upon the State which it would require years to efface. THE CAT AND THE CANARY. pEOPLE who in the closin; week of the politi- cal campaign look about for the Phelan dickey- bird that has been so busy chirping his chicka- dee song of purity and reform will look in vain. Even if they follow his traces to the Harney headquarters they will hardly find more than the scattered feathers of him, for there sits the Rainey cat with a grin that means, “I have eaten the canary.” The catastrophe is not surprising. As long ago as September 18 the Examiner, which seems to have had the keen interest of proprietorship in the canary, foresaw the danger and uttered the warning: “The State Central Committee did an excellent thing in upsetting Rainey, but that did not complete the emancipation of the city.” On the next day it repeated the forebodings in another form, saying: “Rainey is politically dead, and the convention need not fear him unless by its own acts it puts life in the corpse and makes a con- vention of the Harneyites a possible thing.” That which the fond keeper of the canary fore- saw has come to pass. Yesterday the Examiner de- clared: “On Friday evening the campaign commit- tee of what is known as the Harney branch of the Democracy resolved that a meeting should be called to the entire Democratic ticket. Major Harney him- self advocated such a course, and there is no question that it will be followed.” On September 7 the Examiner, after declaring that a Democratic primary election in the city would af- ford an opportunity for base bosses and their hench- men to commit all forms of fraud, such as “repeating, false personation of voters, stealing ballot-boxes,” ctc.,, went on to say: “For the decent body of the party to go into a primary, therefore, in competition with the Rainey gang, would be as a man who should go into the ring bound by all the rules of the Queensberry code against 2 savage armed and free from all restraints.” The Rainey gang has shown now that it can win without a primary or even a voice in the selection of party nominees, and the Examiner surrenders the purity icandidate to their greed without a murmur. It even went so far yesterday as to say, “The action of these Democrats (the Harneyites) is both pa- triotic and consistent.” “There are certain differences within the ranks of‘ the Democratic party,” says the yellow organ in a burst of candor. “Those differences will be adjusted equitably. such adjustment.” Thus it appears the equitable adjustment is to be done in secret. The canary is to be eaten behind The ad- justment will be made, of course, at the expense of the taxpayers. So many sinecures for this boss, so much boodle for that. song— | The girl he permitted to live recéntly swore that she had been assaulted, and the unfortunate charged with the crime was sentenced to twelve years in the | penitentiary. Now this guileless lass makes oath that her testimony was perjured, a suspicion to this effect having been rzised by her threat to send a second man to the penitentiary on a similar charge unless he should advance a certain sum of money. . The conclusion is inevitable that-the Eubanks girl is a bad sort, but the question of what shall be done | with her arises, and the answer is not forthcoming. | There is no provision by which she can be elimin- ated. She has been born into the world, and the world must grin and bear it. She seems to have been born under a curse, with a taint in her blood. Perhaps she may be described as unlucky, but so may other people who chance to come into contact with her. The white race enters them | current |, N | He should have killed another daughter. ‘recall. the old In the meantime the 0915.:% A lady on the banMks of the Niger Went to ride, with'a smile, on a tiger. They returned.from the ride With the lady inside, = : And a smile on the face of the tiger. , @ TAINT OF THE BLOOD. OT long ago a man named Eubanks was hanged for having killed his daughter. It would ap- pear that he was a person of bad judgment. when, hardly out of short skirts, she begins exercising a power to deprive men of their liberty, it is plain that she is a dangerous element in society. What is society to do about it? She would ‘demoralize a re- form school, and a prison sentence, unless for life, would serve to make of her a worse criminal. The Eubanks creature constitutes a puzzle.” There is, of course, the hope that she may die, but it is faint. She does not belong to those who die yourg. O — The death of Colonel George E. Waring is to be regretted. Waring was one of the few men who, ap- pointed to a place of ‘responsibility, devoted to his duties the best efforts and the judgment of a ripened experience. He kept New York clean, something nobody else had ever done, and, being sent to Cuba to study the sanitary conditions, contracted the yel- low fever, of which he died, as truly a martyr as though he had given his life on the bloody field. 5 S LR s Word comes by telegraph that the Commissioners in Cuba have been instructed that the removal of im- movable property there must ce.se at once. We should certainly think so. Also that if the Commis- sioners observe an irresistible force about to collide _with some of this immovable property they swear out an injunction. The Non-Partisans are not any. deader than they ‘have been from the start, but they are beginning to realize the futility of mixing up in a campaign with live people. The wearing of a silk hat is in itself no po:ssible objection to any candidate, but voters have a right to inquire what is under the hat. Knivyes are out for Phelan, but the most dangerous blade in the lot is wielded by himself. - The Mayor seems bent on hara-kiri. 3 A Dutch reporter offered his arm to the Queen and’was hastily placed under arrest. They suspected him of being loaded. to consider the propriety of giving a united support |. But the field of battle is not the place for | When a mere child displays so vile a tendency, E Cubans remain in an ugly mood not so much be- cause they love war as that they hate work. - : 1898. 4HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, THROWING SAND IN OUR EYES.|***"™ "Corrivors NUMBER NINE. Editor The Cad: This is the chance of a lifetime. Perhaps never again in our day shall the issue be so clearly defined between good government and bad. On one side is Mr. Phelan and his subordinates, who are pledged to give us good government and a low rate of taxation. On the other side are the greedy corporations whose sole object is to bankrupt us with heavy taxes and to loot the city treasury. If we now vote for Mr. Phelan, and those who are pledged to let him have his own way, we will have a good government, if not of the people and by the people, at least for the people. We shall not have to pay taxes. The corporations have so much property that they can support the expenses of the municipality. These are arguments which Mr. Phelan is using every day, and which his Assessor, Mr. Dodge, has developed with praiseworthy industry and elab- orate charts. and to me. Politics come very close home to us when we have to pay taxes, and we are naturally with the party that promises to reduce the tax rate. In fact, no matter how we may enthuse about the Dcclaration of Indepen- dence, and about iiberty, we are inclined to make experiments not exactly in line with such enthusiasm when it is a question of saving several hard-earned dollars. It is a very difficult thing to hold up one's head high and swell one’s chest with the air of freedom when there is a leak in our pockets. But the plain citizen, like you and me, has very definite ideas about money and money-getting. We do not pretend to deal with high finance, or political economy, or the scientific basis of taxation. Single tax and double " tax do not make pleasant reading for us. We usually fall asleep. over the deep discussions that these matters occasion. The only literature on taxation that arrests ur attention and stirs our feelings is our own half-yearly tax bill. But, at the same time, as we are plain people who are accustomed to carn our money with hard labor, experience has taught us one fact, the funda- mental fact of political economy—you' can’t get something for nothing. As citizens of this city we demand streets, sewers, parks, schools, lighting, water,. gas, protection agairist lawbreakers, a convenient and sure method for securing title to our property, law courts, and the like. All these cost some- thing. They .are benefits, and we must have them. When even the disciples of good government come to us and tell us, “You can get them for nothing,” plain people like you and ‘me put on our considering caps and try to puzzle the matter out. - 5 NOW THE WAY IN WHICH ALL THIS IS TO BE ‘Is delightfully simple. There are several corporations engaged in.supply- ing public utilities to the people. Thus we have a water ccmpany, a gas com- pany, a street railway company. These companies make their money out of the people. If they are fairly taxed, the amount of money which they would turn into.the treasury would relieve the plain citizen, that is, you and me, of the necessity of paying ‘any taxes at all. But here again the plain citizen is met with that rock bottom fact of experience—you can’t get something for nothing. . Can there be anything in the glorious climate of California that changes the laws of nature, or has Mr. Phelan, or his Assessor, Mr. Dodge, discovered some kind of a financial Keeley motor that will runi a mint stamp when you whistle at it? The plain citizen is well aware, by sad experience, that the great, quasi- public corporations have no private mines from which to draw the money to run their system. Every time the conductor comes along with his inevit- able “Fare, please,” it is borne in upon us that it is the plain citizen, you and I, who must pay for the running of the motors, the repair of the tracks, the salaries of the officials—aye, even of the remorseless conductor whose ob- ject in life seems to be to work-off on us his stock of plugged quarters and Canadian dimes. Every cent of the money that these corporations earn comes from your pocket and from mine. Therefore every cent that they might, could, would or should turn into the treasury in taxes would come out of your pocket, and out of mine. Even were Mr. Phelan and Mr. Dodge sincere in their promises so to tax the corporations that the proceeds of such tax would run the city government, still it would be the plain citizen, you and I, who would pay these taxes in the end. You can’t get something for nothing honestly. % *The only effect of such a line of procédure as that held up by Mr. Phelan as a sure cure for all our woes would ge to bring back the ancient Rorhan system of taxation. In-that republic it was not the custom that the taxes should be collected by state machinery. The privilege of gathering taxes was put up at auction, and the highest bidder became official tax-gatherer. His bid paid all the expenses of the sovernment, and for his profit he squeezed all he could .out of the people. The system was not economical; it was not popular. It has long been rejected by all enlightened - communities. The plain citizen is not yet prepared to take the power of taxation from its own representatives. Now he has some control of the affair. He has not such confidence in the street railroad companies that he is prepared to turn over this important branch of the government to its hirelings. BUT NO DOUBT MR. PHELAN AND HIS ASSESSOR Will say we are going too far, and too fast. The prices of street car transportation, water and gas are regulated by law. Therefore the com- panies cannot increase the rates. and fhg extra taxation will come out of their profits. In other words, the plain citizen will get more for the nicke! he pays the car conductor—lie will get not only his transportation, but also a dividend from the city expenses. Now the plain citizen, like you and me, has no objections to getting more for his nickel. We wish to make our nickels go as far as possible; but, again, we are not fools. We scan very closely the machinery by which we are to get this increase in-value. We haye no desire to drop our nickel in the slot and then find that the machinery is loaded against us. To put the matter plainly, because the plain citizen believes that he must see plainly if he would understand, let us take the case of the street railroad. You and T pay a nickel for transportation from .one.point to another. = Let us suppose that of that nickel, under the present arrangement, two cents go to the expenses of the company, two, cents to the profits of the shareholders, etc., and one cent to the city in taxation. Now Mr. Phelan’s cry is that the proportion should be différent. As it now stands the plain citizen gets for his nickel two cents’ worth of transportation, and his share in the one cent’s worth of city work. Mr. Phelan says add another cent to the taxation and the citizen will réceive in effect four cents for his nickel, while the company will get only one.- 2 2 This is a very taking cry, but the plain citizen looks at it with consider- able suspicion. It'is too easy. Mr. Phelan says all this can be done and shall be done by electing him as Mayor, and his assistant, Mr. Dodge, as Assessor. The Assessor will simply say the word and the trick is done. Plain citizens fight shy of magicians. They may wonder atthe manwho can produce $5 gold pieces out of ‘an empty pocket, but they take nparticular good care to keep at a safe distance from his nimble fingers. it may do no harm, even though the subject is dry. to look a little closer at Mr. Dodge’s chart. 2 fetiihs His campaign cry is that he can reapportion the component parts of the nickel. Now two cents go to expenses, two cents to profit, and one cent to taxes. Hé will change it to two cents for expenses, two cens for taxes and one cent for profit. Now here is the funny part of it. The minute five-cent piece leaves the hands of the plain citizen it goes into the possession and control of the street railroad company. No one except the street rail- road company can henceforth lay a hand on it. d _tioned solely and enti-ely by the corporation. How one cent is allotted or where two cents are put is.décided, not by Mr. Phelan, not by Mr. Dodge, no by you or me, but by the officials 6f ~the company or combine. . Now Mr. Phelan and Mr. Dodge have worn out the English.language, in telling of the viciousness of corporations. The plain citizen, of course, takes their remarks with a grain of salt. but neither you nor I have much confi- dence in corporations. They are looking out for their. own interests, and where our interests and theirs clash, they. will take care of their own if they have the management of the affair. But Mr. Phelau and Mr. Dodge ate of such a mild and Christian char- acter that they : 2 NOT ONLY LOVE THEIR ENEMIES, THEY TRUST THEM. They hand over the. nickel of t!“’ plain _citizen_ to the corpora- tion, and they -expect the corporation so to '(.hwde it . as’ to lessen the corporation’s -rofits. The plain citizen ‘knows that there is anotiler combination possible with the cents of the nickel. Now it is two cents’ worth of transportation, two cents to profit, one . cent to taxes. Mr. Phelan imagines that by shaking a row of figures at the Octopus and saying “Shool” he can change the combination into a two cent ride, one cent profit and two cents taxes. The plain citizen knows very well that the result will inevitably be, as long as the corporation has the alloting of the cents—one cent’s worth of transportation, two cents’ worth of profit to the company, and two cents’ worth of taxation to the politicians. No matter how the assessment may be increased, it is the plain citizen that will bear the burden. . ‘ Now it may be objected that the companies cannot afford to cut down their running expenses. Can’t’they? The plain citizen would like to knaw anything in the shape of retrenchment that a corporation is not capable of if it wishes to save its profits. * You and I have no desire to go into long rows of figures. We can’t understand them ourselves, and we suspeet that the fellow who is talking so glibly daes not understand them, either. We go on the common sense proposition that once we let the nickel go out of our hands into the power of the railroad company,. the raiiroad company will take good care that if anv one is to suffer it will be the plain people, you and I. The taxes may be raised, but the profits will remain the same. The only difference will be.that we won’t get so much as before. Of course the plain citize: wants more for his nickel, but the way to get it is not by handing it over to a railroad company to divide, but by mak- ing the division himself. Let him hold on to his nickel, and if he thinks the ride is not worth five cents, he has, his Ixiislnure with power to make it four, or three, or two, or one. Plain people know well that if the railroad company is making illegitimate profits, and it may be for all we know, the way to fight it is by an agitation for lower fares, and not by electing Mr. Phelan Mayor or Mr. Dodge Assessor. ;5 at is true of the railroad is true of the water company and the gas company, and of every cuasi-public corporation. The plain citizen is anxious to get their services as cheaply as possible, and because of that anxiety he lends a ready ear to those who promise him great things for a little exertion. Mr. Phelan knows this is a popular cry, and he promises a relief from heavy burdens if we elect hirg and his Assessor. The plain citizen does not object to the relief, but he does object to the man who says he can do what every one kno— he cannot. Mr. Phelan is not sincere. He is using a false cry as a decoy. The plain citizen is afraid of hypocrite. who are looking for power. False in one thing, false in all, applies to professional purists as well as to liars. If they are throwing dust in the eyes of the public now it is because they wish the public to bend when their real designs are put in action. The plain citizen may not be a very great statesman, but he knows enough to detect a stalking horse. A PLAIN CITIZEN. They are arguments that appeal to the plain citizen, to you. the . It is divided and appor- . E. Blddle, a banker of Hanford, Is at the Lick. o . F. M. West, a banker of Stockton, is at the Grand. P. J. Murphy, a mining man of Flag- staff, Ariz., is at the Russ. D. C. Mitchell, a merchant of Moscow, Idaho, is a guest at the Grand. E. E. Bush, a real estate agent and land owner of Hanford, i8 at the Lick. Colonel F. M. Taylor, manager of the Hearst estate at- San Simeon, 15 at the Occidental. M. de Pous and M. Montaut of Paris, governmental agents of France, now on their- way to Tahitl, are guests at the Palace. E. F. Hutchins, John L. Hoasland_and Charles Hatch returned from the Klon- dike yesterday on the steamer Portland, each with his little pile NEWS. OF FOREIGN NAVIES. The Rio de la Plata, a small Spanish Gruiser of 15T5 tons, was launched last month at Havre, Her cost was defrayed by public subscription of loyal Spaniards in the Argentine Republic. The cruiser will have 7100 horse power and a speed of twenty knots, and carries a light bat- tery. The only Russian navy order given to England of the contracts distributed over Germany, France and the United States is one torpedo-boat destroyer of thirty knots, to be bullt at Laird's. She will be similar to those built by the-same firm for the British navy, and which have proved exceptionally speedy. The Philomel, British cruiser of 2875 tons and built eight years ago, has had a refit and passed through a -matural draught trial. She developed 4798 horse power and 16.3 knots, an improvement upon her original performance. The Sirino, on the other hand, also bullt in 1890, fell over ~ne knot short on a recent trial, as compared with her speed seven years ago. P A Cammell steel armor plate 118 inches thick and treated by the Krupp-Harvey process was tested last month at Sho- buryness, near Woolwich. Three Holtzer armor-plercing shells of twelve-inch di- ameter and 720 pounds weight were fired against the plate at 1860 feet per second velocity, but none of the shots penetrated the plate more than to a depth of four inches and the shells broke up. There were no cracks in the plate and only a fine hair line was visible after the third shot, extending from the point of impact toward the upper edge. The lot, of ‘which the plate tried was a test plece, was ac- cepted, the trial being considered highly satisfactory. An armored crulser of %17 tons and 19,600 horse power is to be built at I’Orient for the French navy. She will be 460 feet length, 63 feet 4 inches beam and have a draught of 24 fet 7 inches. The arma- ment will consist of two 7.6-inch breech- loaders, and the following rapid-firers: eight 6.4-inch, four 3.9-inch, sixteen six- pounders and six three-pounders, making a total of thirty-six guns, and there wiil be two underwater torpedo tubes. This new ship, to, be named La Gloire, is of the same displacement as the Guyedon, also building at 1'Orient, but is longer and has a little less beam. Their speeds are twenty-one knots, but in the La Gloire the horse power is 600 less than in the Guyedon, her finer lines enabling twenty- one knots to be reached with less power. The estimated cost is $4,043,000. Sweden is acquiring quite a navy, and all of its armored vessels are built in home yards, at Stockholm and Gothen- burg. The latest additions are Njord, Odin and Thor, coast defense turret ships. They are identical in dimensions and displacement, being 279 feet in length, forty-nine feet six inches beam and sixteen feet six inches draught and displacement 3400 tons. The Odin, built in 1896, averaged 16.8 knots during a six-hours’ trial. Their armor belt is of steel ranging from twelve to 7our inches in thickness, equal to a thickuess of iron from fifteen to five inches. The arma- ment consists of two 9.8-inch Carret guns, four 4.7-inch quick-firers, ten six-pounders and one torpedo tube, and their comple- ment is 210. Other armored vessels are undergoing refits and changes in batter- ies, the Swea having 4.7-inch quick-firers, taking the place of the old six-inch breech-loaders. - The John Ericsson, al- though built In 1865, has also been re- constructed and moSt of armored gun- boats have likewise been thoroughly re- paired and rearmed with modern ord- nance. Cal. glace fruit 50¢ per b at Townsend's* —_———— Genuine eyeglasses, specs, 10c, 40c. $1 4th. Look out for No. §1, next grocery. * e e Spectal information supplied dafly to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Maln 1042 ® —————— “There are no birds in last year's nests,” says a poet. True—and, by the wa‘)l' therc are no nests for next year's birds. ' “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup” Has been used over fiftv years by millions of mothers for their children while Teething with perfect sutcess. 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