The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 23, 1899, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1899. THE PANHANDLE EXTENSION.- VERYBODY has appreciated any improvement E that beautifies Golden Gate avenue as an.ap- proach to the park. With all their tendency to = = | differ about matters of public interest, the ptf.ople r)i JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. | San Francisco have been cordially joinedxin their Fpm e pride and pleasure in Golden Gate Park. The short- est road to the general good will of the masses has for a long time been found in the donations of private citizens for the adornment of the park. It is proposed now to acquire the property neces- sary to bring the park boundary down to Van Ness avenue by a-panhandle extension that will make an Columbia — “The Wrong Mr. Wright,” To-morrow Night, | ample, parked and beautified entrance to the main Californta—""A Hot Old Time. | body of that great popular pleasure-ground. Grand e e | As this will bring the park itself nearer to the peo- A Bad Lot.” | ple for whose use it is established and will in every gk e e rer—Vaudevills every afterncon | Way dignify it and enhance the attractions of the city, 3 it is to be hoped that the proposition will meet mth popular favor. 4 Opera House—Rosenthal, Tuesday atternoon, April %. | Golden Gate Park .is itself a monument to California n Park—Baseball, enterprise and initiative. Mayor McCoppin, who had g ‘{"".’:‘%’inf:?f."’ifi'v"rfi"firfiff' | a prevision of the necessities of the city in the direc- s’ Hall—Sauer, Thursday BEvening, April 21. tion of park and pleasure-ground facilities, was the ibra Theater—Lntercollegiate Concert, Ssturday NIEHG | ;) promoter of the original reservation on the sand- | S . st N ushiiente eYECY hills which has now become one of the noted parks of s e R | the world. But before it was developed very few — | people believed that a park could be made on this | peninsula. When a professional opinion in the matter | was sought, Olmsted, whose reputation as the ar- | chitect of Central Park in New York has since made | him a standard authority, gave as his judgment that | | landscape treatment of the location of Golden Gate | Park was impossible. Recognizing the desirability of recent order fixing gas rates at $1 1o | aD exit from the city to the ocean beach, he advised jassed by the Board of Su- | that Van Ness avcnue»b: excavated and' curved to the ’.‘1 Do DS . | beach, so as to furnish a sunken driveway to the is worthy of more attention, it seems to us, | : : ; e ', srded to it. In any event some- | ocean, and he believed that with such improvement - ‘,’L 25 e e the city must be content, because the sands of the park e m: t\ % fl;}: 3 g_-‘d 4 | site were impossible of treatment to make them sustain Court npitien s ‘,\“ S the lawns and flora necessary. But the difficulties ¢ interests involved are sufficiently i ? then believed to be insurmountable have been over- come, and we have a park that all the year round is the most attractive of any in the world, and the drive from any of the entrances on the city side to the ocean beach is through bosky ioliage, velvet lawns, | flowers and shrubbery that would have charmed Address Al Communications to W. S. LEAKE Manager. PLBLICATIO'\ OFFICE ......Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Maln 186S. EDITORIAL ROOMS 27 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1574, e AMUSEMENTS. { pia—Corner Mason and Fllis streets, Specialties. | Interstate Panorama Co., Market street, near Eighth—Bat- | Manila Bay. Park—Mission Zoo. April 2, RATES QUESTION. THE G@AS HE p\m t raised by Mayor Phelan in connection | e Supreme 1, for v the effort. r s that when the Board of <nper-‘ der fixing gas rates at $1 10 its | that, in other words, under thcr , wherein the board finds its power, ty to rescind a rate once adoptcd has expired. Upon the point whether is reasonable the Mayor says the Su- t compelled to allow the San Fran- ectric Company interest upon the e of its capital stock, but only upon the actual pl As to whether the board is bound igation and give the gas company y fixing rates, Mr. Phelan does not | on. the situation secem to contradict the by the gas company in this matter. | ett s that the corporation cannot | ce its $1 10 per thousand feet. notorious fact that the Equitable Gws hing illumination at $1 per thou- he monopoly concern is insisting upon a which will enable it to pay dividends upon a vast i watered stock, of course its contentions l not be considered. The gas consumers of isco are not to blame because the managers corporation have for stock-jobbing purposes ercapitalized their busines: In the face of the apetition which is now confronting them they should squeeze the water out of their stock and pre- I to transact a legitimate business. No other con- is logical in the premises. We do not believe there is anything in Attorney } tention that the act of 1878 is unconsti- true that that statute, which confers ard of Supe ors the power to regulate | ates at which gas shall be supplied to consumers, ssed prior to the adoption of the present con- there is nothing in the organic law enactment, and under the provision st in conflict shall remain in force, it is 2 under the new constitution. Section 33 of ar- ticle IV, in fact, expressly authorizes the Legislature to enact just such laws. are important promptly. ates to $ ch forbids i t all law The points at issue, however, | they very and should be settled INDUSTRIAL STOCKS LE the speakers at each and all of the Jef- uets found in the midst of their | > all other subjects a point m‘“ agreement in the denunciation of trusts, the promo- | control of the | great industries of the country goes briskly on, and | “industrial stocks” find no lack of in- n banq on tion of such combinations for the the so-called vestors. As has been pointed out by The Call, the investment | s been largely of a speculative nature, | and the stronger financial journals of the East have repeatedly warned the public to be careful in exam- ining the nature of the various companies that have | put shares upon the market. It is conceded, hov ever, that a considerable number of the new combina- tions are sound, and that fact keeps the whole market | | in such stocks ha buoyant despite the danger of the situation. It now app . moreover, from a report in the‘ New York Tribune, that much of the opposition (oi the boom in industrial stocks is due to persons who have railroad shares for sale, and who therefore are irous of turning the attention of investors from the In the light of that revela- | tion a new interest is given to the problem. It is; possible the warnings against the industrial compa- | nies may have been inspired by something other than { a pure desire to protect the public from error. It is reported that ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower was recently told by Pierpont Morgan that he must stop supporting industrial stock, but it does not ap- | pear from the report, as it comes to us, whether the | teliing was in the nature of advice or command. In | either case it was not heeded, for Mr. Flower has since | been quoted as giving a good Yeal of encouragement 10 the industrial movement. In a recent interview he is reported to have said: “I firmly believe that any concern organized for the | rurpose of manufacturing any product of prime ne- cessity, that is undertaken with the view of cheapening the cost to the consumer, must, in the nature of things, be a success, provided. of course, that it is in- telligently and honestly administered.” He went on to say, in effect, that these great enterprises are but the modern tools of commerce that bear the same relation to the smaller concerns that steam power beais to the old processes of hand labor. Ex-Governor Flower is one of the most eminent Democratic leaders in New York. In times‘past he has been a prominent candidate for nomination for the Presidency, and he still represents a strong element in his party. It is therefore interesting to note that he gives his commendation to the great in- dustrial trust movement at the very time when his party seems bent upon making a fight against that movement the chief issue of the campaign next year. Clearly Mr. Flower will have to banquet by himself. He is not fit to dine with either wing of the Jef- fersonians. de. industrials to railroads. will immeasurably enhance all the charms 6f the park by enlarging their footing and will increase the en- joyment of them all by making them more accessible. land for parks and pleasure-grounds. years New York, already in possession of Central | tracts, spent nearly twenty millions in securing park land on the Bronx, north of Harlem River, and ex- | tending mearly to King’s bridge. as old St. John's Park or Gramercy square had been | down toward the center of population by this pan- {dias no heirs of | Whenever they were needed they have been used by | the different oligarchies | proletarianism of the Chicago platform on the other. | Calypso. The extension of all this as far as Van Ness avenue Older cities have paid heavily for delay in securing Within a few Park, Washington square and numerous * smaller Every citizen sees now that it would have been economy if long ago an ample tract as far downtown reserved for park purposes, so that there would have been ample facilities for recreation Deautified breathing spaces at intervals from Castle Garden to | Central Park. But the opportunity was passed by and | the Canal-street region on the west side and “the swamp” were all overrun as business property, and the city was driven into Westchester County as the enly possible place for further park extension. It is not yet too late for San Francisco to econo- mize her opportunity to bring Golden Gate Park and handle extension. With this land acquired and parked in harmony with the general plan, and Buena 1 Park, already reserved, treated as its fine alti- tude and sightly slopes will permit, San Francisco will have a park system that will forever outrival any in the world and that will be a beauty and a joy forever to all the generations of her people. The Supervisors are inclined to take the initiative in the matter, and in the collateral necessity for a modern sewer system, and we are sure that the people will sustain them ifi these enterprises whenever they | are called upon to pass judgment upon the propo- sition. UNSUCCESSFUL GRAND LARCENY. HE attempt of the rag-tag and bobtail of the TDcmocralic party to pose as the representatives of the deep-s United corruptions dinner in a contrast Democrats, ated opposition throughout the monopolistic exactions and At the cheap was paraded as the white-tied said: “We have States is New to to actually York, the ORI D reached a point when Democracy must rule or the | heirs of the greatest republic that we know of must farcical. which feast Belmont of bow their necks to the most powerful plutocracy the world has ever known.” This republic is the heir of all the ages, but it is not yet dead, and, therefore, Taking Mr. Belmont's words, however, as they were obviously meant, it may be said that by striking out “Democracy” and inserting ‘“Americanism,” this quotation will be con- verted into an expression of popular sentiment that deserves respect. Political manipulation in the | United States is confined to no one party, but for many years has affected all parties. Historically the Democrats have been worse than the Republicans. its own. of which “greed”, is the watchword. In this State the railroad has never failed to secure Democratic advocacy, and, as has been often stated, the domineering effort, with the treacherous aid of the Examiner, to force Daniel M. Burns into a Federal Senatorship was merely a preparatory step to the proposed transfer of Califor- nia to the Democracy in 1900. The mass of Republicans throughout the Union greatly outweigh the Bryan Democracy in their an- tagonism to the extreme pretensions of monopoly because they are rooted in the American conception of seli-government and equally object to imperialistic tendencies on the one hand and fo the socialism and They represent the sound constitutional Americanism, through which and through which alone the integrity of the law can be maintained and the equality of its administration secured. The Jast and most dangerous expressicn of mon- opoly is imperialism, and essentially every expan- sionist is an imperialist. There are Democratic an- nexationists by the thousand. There are Republican opponents of that revolutionary policy by the ten thousand. The most effective exposures and de- nunciations of the treasonable scheme to impress a British character upon this Government have come from the Republican ‘party. Republicans can afford to laugh at the dinner cam- paign, in which it appears to be the peculiar office of William J. Bryan to enact the role of a boss po- litical bully. Having beaten the Examiner-Journal or Journal-Examiner into silence on its “national policy,” he and his newspaper ally are now engaged in the congenial work of kicking the gold Democrats out of the Democratic organization. Free silver at 16 to 1, which every one else has supposed to be dead, is still the daughter upon which the defeated candi- date for the Presidency harps. He also persists in forcing the Chicago platform into the disgusted American stomach, which spewed it up in the na- tional campaign of 1896 and in the State eléctions of 1808. This embalmed socialism and anarchy of the tin-can Democracy was the alimony of Mr. Bryan’s party when it was divorced from the genuine Democ- racy of the country, and in the campaign of 1900 may reverse Shakespeare’s order by furnishing a cold and rotten feast for its funeral. "Mr. Bryan and the Examiner-Journal need have no fear of the commission of bigamy by the sound- money Democrats. Their divorce is absolutely valid and they retain all the valuable property of the Jef- fersonian Democracy. They will either remain in a state of single blessedness or contract a new alliance with the sound Republicans of the nation that will be free from every meretricious element. American- ism is bound to be on top, and it will sit down pretty hard on dangerous monopolists and imperialists and on the demagogism of Mr. Bryan and his sup- porters, THE MAN WITH A SOUL. HE tremendous compression of broad generali- Tzalions in Edwin Markham’s poem, “The Man With a Hoe,” stamps it as one of the most re- markable productions of modern times. The picture by Millet, which gave Mr. Markham his inspiration, is a grand conception, splendidly executed. The picture and the poem represent a type of man- kind, bent and muscularly rigid, with a face brutal- ized by incessant labor and hardship, and fixed in a stolid expression of hopeless imbecility in which the faint stirring of rebellion against the oppression and the fraud of ages can be detected. This terrible shape, in which the light of intellect has been extinguished, is presented as a portent and a menace to “the judges of the world,” and to the “masters, lords and rulers in all lands.” As a work of art the picture resuscitates a dead past and should, as it will, endure. The poem, however, is a dangerous anachronism. It has no application to the age in which we live. It is wholly pagan in its scope. It is built upon a godless and a fatalistic as- sumption. It ignores the grand harmonies of human development from the age of Abraham to the birth of Christ. It disregards the greater triumphs, the un- intermittent chorus of progressive mankind from the dawn of the Christian era to the closing years of the nineteenth century. It assumes isolated exceptions to be the rule and reproduces failure wrapped in the cerements of the grave as if its shrunken distortions reproved the beauty, assailed the strength and shad- owed the exuberant hopefulness of modern civiliza- tion. In the age of Cyrus or of Xerxes imbruted pes- simism could have been typified by “The Man with a Hoe” The hordes of Egypt and of India, the Helots of Sparta, the black savages of Africa, might have been embraced within its range. But since the blended forces of Hebrew theism and Christian fra- ternity began their prolonged struggle with the ever diminishing barbarism of the world that type has dwindled until now it is virtually extinct. The Saxon | sullenly wore but soon broke his collar and threw his ponderous weight into the human march. The Nor- man struck the fetters from the limbs of Freedom and entrenched it in a perpetual charter. The Celt allowed no intermission in his upward struggle. The whole Caucasian race has ascended the slopes of advance- ment and toils on toward its higher peaks. There has been mno “silence of the centuries,” and the “dumb Terror” of antiquity has ceased its mute and unheeded appeals. When our Declaration of Independence was promulgated and the sovereignty of man became the endowment of a nation, the last physical or intellec- tual obstriiction to human progress was removed..| The imperfections, the inaptitudes, the degrading passions and appetites, the hard selfishness, of man- kind were still to be conquered, but opportunity, full, complete, universal, came, and where opportunity is open the “emptiness of ages” is a solecism and the burden of the world has fallen like the load that Chris- tian bore to the celestial gates. It is a marvel that “The Man With a Hoe” should have been written at all—it is a greater marvel that it should have been written in the United States—it is the greatest marvel of all that it should have been written in California. This man belongs to a past long interred. He exists nowhere on the globe, not even among the peasantry of Russia, the slavish toilers of China or the fierce tribes of the Philippines. Least of all is there any vestige of his existence in America. Bad as conditions are, low as the relative depths of misery and poverty still remain, though greed and false ambition yet infest even the citadels of brotherhood, the uplifting of the race by the up- ward pressure of civilization has ‘been .universal. Food, shelter, comfort, education, mental stimula- tion, are even now unequally distributed. Extremes of poverty and of wealth are visible even in our own favored land. But the standards of life are every- where raised far above the level of Mr. Markham's conception, and, physically and intellectually, man- kind are comparatively as enlightened as they are free. “The man with a hoe” has long been dead. The central question of this generation is moral and per- tains to the soul. While the human body has been nourished and the human mind expanded, is morality distanced, torpid or perishing? This is the text for the great poet, the mighty interpreter of mystery, as he views the signs and the portents that attend the expiring throes of this century. Charity sweetens the bitterest draughts of life. The tender influences of love surrotind or touch every phase of physical suffering and reach the craving of the agitated mind. Optimistic gleams pierce the deepest shadows that fall upon the pathway of the unfortunate and the unsuccessful. But, in the midst of unapproachable physical and mental advancement, in the ordinary and not the exceptional or eccen- trical business of the world, whete is the evidence of corresponding moral improvenient? Is the standard even of the past maintained? These are interroga- tories that appeal not merely to individuals, but to communities and to nations. They are suggested by the occurrences and the revelations of each tumul- tuous day. They arise spontaneously from common observation and experience. They include the multi- farious transactions of trade, commerce, finance and government. They are illustrated through all lati- tudes and longitudes from the equator to the poles, from Greenwich or Washington to the Philippines. It is the man with the soul, the perfected citizen, the nation governed by honor and by principle, that the latent sublimities- are to arouse and to inspire when priest or poet utters the intelligible word of solicitation or of command At a trial at San Rafael Dr. E. P. Dunn, insanity expert, declared that Dr. C. F. Buckley is a faker. This is one of the sad results of expert testimony on the witness-stand. —i ; California has been celebrated for years for green gages in the can. There is just one more. its 0*0*0*0*‘*0{0*0““iQ*@*0*0*0*0*0*@*@*@*0*0*0*0*0*@*@*@*O { EDITORIAL H @K BY JOHN McNAUGHT. VARIATIONS. & * o pe @ * @ * @ OROXOKOROKOA VX OKOA VXD ADK O OAOKOHOKOHOHOXOHOROROHOROKOXOND Mrs. Gertrude Atherton is not alto- gether adorable, for she has recently denied the authenticity of an interview, and whosoever does that is fit for trea- sons, stratagems and spoils; but none the less she is to be commended for the frankness with which she has publicly condemned the tone, the style, the man- ner, the matter and the method of the criticism that prevails in California. Even if her condemnation be madness there is reason in it. As she herself is reported to have said, British critics have treated her work seriously and to some extent sympathetically, and therefore have been helpful to her; while Californian critics, giving the subject no earnest thought at all, have either praised her books carelessly out of conventional courtesy to a woman, or have gibed and jeered at them for | the purpose of showing wit. It must be added that generally the criticisms have been of the latter sort; for as the opinion has prevailed among us that | wit is the chief qualification of a critic, and mockery the finest element in wit, nearly every man who has essayed criticism has practiced to acquire a style having in it as much of the mocker as strong drink or a cocktail, and most have been so successful that satire and criticism have become well nigh synonymous with us. Indeed, style that stings or bites or burns is seemingly so much admired that even politicians have taken it up as a popu- lar thing. Our present misgovernor, for example, announced in the first speech of his campaign before the people that he ‘intended to speak “caustic verbi- age,” and he has kept it up until sus- picion bas arisen that his tongue is forked and has its root In a gall bag. Ty That we have exaggerated the value of satirical wit in the domain of criti- cism, given it a rank altogether out of proportion to its worth, and carried it too far in every direction is indisputa- ble. We have flouted nearly every- thing that has been done in the State from the undertaking of a transconti- nental railroad to the writing of a poem. Society, art, letters, politics and oratory have all been sneered at with an impartial injustice. Indeed, so far have we carried our skill in that kind of thing that at one time.our chief critic was pictured in poputar imagina- tion as an incarnate ferocity, wearing a red shirt, carrying pistols in his pocket, a dripping scalp in either hand, a hatchet in his mouth, with his brow bound by a bloody rag—a Jack the Rip- per of literature with a mania for man- gling female poets. We have talked and written as if there were nothing good in California but prunes and cli- mate; and, in short, made such noises that Eastern people, listening from the distance, long since concluded there is nothing on this side the Rockies but Jaybirds. e What we need in California is an in- fusion of Boston culture—that kind of culture which men and women attain when they have been taught from youth upward to admire everything done in their State, in their town and in their set. Such culture is productive of that satisfaction with the environ- ment and its people, which furnishes about the surest basis for good man- ners and good morals the world afford Bostonianism is of course not exactly perfection. A mutual admiration so. ciety has always its ridiculous side; but under any aspect, it is pleasanter both to sight and to hearing than a dog fight with forty terriers in the pit. PR ‘When the Massachusetts Legislature meets, Boston treats it with as much respect as if it were truly an assembly of the virtuous and the wise; but when the Legislature of California meets, we lampoon it, exaggerate every ridiculous or offensive feature, exalt its fools and ignore its abler men until by the car- ricaturing process it is made to appear more like an outbreak of corruption in the blood of the commonwealth than a part of its healthful life. When grand opera is given in Boston and Mrs. Jack Gardner and the Beacon street and Commonwealth avenue set go down in rich array to listen, the social critics of the city neither gibe nor jeer, but await the outcome with the calmness of men who are assured that the opera is to be put to its supreme test; that Boston society is to revise the reviews of BEurope and rejudge its judgments and pronounce final verdict upon the performance.” But when grand opera comes to San Francisco thegchatter- ing of the wits is as satirical as if our dames and gentlemen of fortune had never seen an opera gown nor heard music before. When a man or woman of Boston makes public a book or a story, the work is discussed as if were a matter of historic and almost | religious importance, serious efforts are made to discover -the aims of the au- thor, to note the relations of the philos- ophy of the story to the problems ot life, and everything is done to impress the world with the belief that some- thing new and great has been accom- plished. It is different here. The re- sult is that, by reason of her style of criticising herself, Boston enjoys the reputation of a city of the highest cul- ture and refinement, while our city is. spoken of as a “jay town”—and then we wonder why. - leiie Could the Boston method of self-ex- alting criticism be introduced here, it would not be difficult to win for San Francisco the reputation of the most cultured city in America. We' have at present in California more talent and of a higher order than Massachusetts. Ina Coolbrith, Joaquin Miller and Ed- win Markham have written better po. etry than any other Americans now living. Mrs. Atherton and Mr. Vachel have written novels with more red blooded, live humanity in them than can be found in anything the East has produced in a long time. Mr. Morrow and Mr. Bierce are as far superior to the popular short story writers of the other side of the Mississippi as the pro- found problems of life and mind with which they deal are superior to the dia- lects of darky, Yankee and slumgul- lion which the Eastern populars are forever trying to reproduce by distor- tions of spelling. Charlotte Perkins Stetson has written the best satirical verse of the time in our language— slight in quantity to be sure, not above a dozen pieces or so—but of a quality “which as gentle as bright, never car- ried a heart stain away on its blade.” a e e Nor is it in literature only that we excel. We have musical composers and skilled, interpreters of music, artists who have learned how to reproduce { : a |imagine anything funnier. ipon canvas the splendor of the lights and the purple deeps of the shadows that make up the marvelous richness of our atmosphere. Boston hoasts of her architecture, but she has no mu- nicipal building with a facade so pic- turesque as that City Hall which we have shut out from sight of our main thoroughfares, and to which we close our eyes as if it were a den of thieves. ‘We have, Turthe re, a commendable groun of millionaires, for they have been munificent in giving as well as magnificent in taking. Why pursue the theme? We are in advance of Boston in everything except the gentle art of writing in such & way as to make the | world think we are criticising ourselves when we are really sounding our trum- | pets to all the winds that blow and ex- alting our horn to the highest heaven. SR T Were it not for the seriousness of the subject the announcement by Wash- ington officials that General Lawton's | expedition from Manila was intended not to suppress the insurgents and es- tablish order in the country, but mere- |1y to distribute broadcast the procla- |mation of the Philippine Commission, would be everywhere regarded as the bést contribution yet made to the hu- |mor of the day. No comic writer.could The pro- found respect we have for our Govern- ment enables us to receive the state- ment with something of the gravity with which it was uttered, and yet we |cannot but feel that our honored Presi- dent is moving toward the ridiculous. His “benevolent assimilation” speech at Boston was itself a hard trial to the gravity of a people who have a keener sense .of humor than any other on earth, and if our august chief execu- tive doesn’t look out he will be known as a great American humorist before long, and people will be hunting for jokes in his messages to Congress. %y Whatever may be the fate which 'awaits us under the new charter, we can find consolation in the assurance it cannot give us anything worse in the way of a Police Commission than we have been suffering under for some |time. 'When our municipal government was exposed to contact with the mag- netic Markham by reason of his official position as Governor of the State, it had the misfortune to catch Mose Gunst from him, and the thing seems something like the seven years’ itch, for it stays with us and keeps us scratch- ing in continual irritation. To make a police or any other kind of commis- sioner out of such a-Gunst was to in. flict upon us the worst ever imposed upon an American commonwealth. Burns in the Senate would have been bad, but the national capital is distant 'and Congress adjourns occasionally, so we should have had respites; but Gunst is local. To get rid of him it was neces- isary either to burn the town or adopr |a new charter, and we have chosen what seems to be the least expensive of the two remedies. When we begin a new era under the new charter the happiest shout of the time will bet “Mose Gunst has went!"” . e | ow Eastern femininity has been as con- spicuous during the past. week as the Easter bonnet, but not altogether so lovely. Mrs. Lease has announced a determination “to make money cheaper thanmenin thiscountry,” and Mrs. Sen- ator Frye has tried to make that emi- nent man, Dr. Jordan of Stanford, feel cheaper than any money known to our currency. Concerning the Lease prop- osition, little can be said at this time, as we cannot estimate the degree of cheapness she proposes to introduce into our monetary system until we know exactly what valuation she puts upon men. Mrs. Frye, however, is clearly open to discussion. In accusing Dr. Jordan of talking of things of which he was ignorant, she wrote of things of which she herself was igno- rant; and in putting her tongue into politics has put her foot in it also. The doctor’s reply was neat, and while Mrs. Frye is entitled to the last word she would do better to take a second thought than to take advantage of the privilege. e The proposal to bond the city for the purpose of providing funds for the ex- tension of the “panhandle” to Van Ness avenue is doubly commendable, inas much as the plan if carried out will not only open a spacious and beautiful way to the park, but will establish a precedent which will open a way for the improvement of the whole city. We {condemn our city officials from one generation of them to another, because !San Francisco is neither so well paved, so well sewered nor so well kept in its public places in any respect as are the large cities of the East. Bada as they may be, however, the officials of the city are not wholly to blame for its silurian condition. They may be plain hogs, but they are not the swine into whose bodies went to the devils whose name was legion. I have no doubt they would gladly improve the city if they had the monev and the lack of money is no fault of theirs, for they put taxes as high as the traffic will bear. The obstacle in the way of progress is that we have followed the methods of the dark ages and done patchwork im- provements as we:could pay for them outofannual revenues, instead of doing ! what is done in every enlightened city in the world, and borrowed sums suf- ficlent to make improvements on a | comprehensive scale. Permanent bet- terments of any kind will be enjoyed by future generations. and the pay- ment for them, therefore, may be justly extended over a considerable period. By taxation we take money from busi- ness where it is earning anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent, while by borrowing we could get it for less than 4 per cent. ! Finally, by the pay as you go process, !we have to wait years for improve- ments that are needed now, while by bonding the city we might have them at once. Nearly all municipal work when well done is economy in the true sense of the word, and by promptly fm- proving the city we would accomplish such a saving in wear and tear as would amount to more than the cost long before the bonds fall due. The “panhandle” proposition is clearly a handle to pan-San Franciscan prog- ress. Another Recital.. Sauer will give an addftional San Fran- clsco recital at the 0dd Fellows' Hall on Thursday night at §:15 o'clock. —_——— Cal. glace fruit 50¢ per b at Townsend's.* —_———— Special information supplied dally m buslneu houses and public men b Press Clipping Bureau . (Allen's), 510 ont. gomery street. Telephone Main 1042. ¢ [AN MACLAREN AS AN EXPANSIONIST We sat at one of the lxtt!e tables in the Palace courtyard, and Ian Mac- laren’s usual flyency of conversation was marred by just a trifle of languor. This was only to be expected, for he had been wrestling nearly a couple of hours with the pathetic story of Dr. William MeClure's life, reading his own creation with such an intensity of ex- pression that none in the audience were ashamed to weep. “California audiences? Yes, I have invariably found them cultured and ap- preciative. I have traveled through the whole southern portion of t'h': State, and everywhere I have met With the same subdued yet graceful recep- tion.” With a generosity worthyof a broad- minded minister of the Gospel, to | whom creed s little more the | empty-sounding word, lan on California’s to put it mild- len State have amount of en- thus heaps coals of fire unfortunate head. For, ly, the people of the Go not shown the proper thusiasm over this gifted exponent of the Kkailyard ivery one who | reads at all has laughed and wept over his pathetic or humorous pictures of Scottish peasant life. Kate Carnegie and Dr. McClure, Jemm Soutar and “Postie” are living characters wh Yet somehow the fame of his books \ll\l not induce people to & ever the English tongue is heard. lectures in sufficie numbers. w hlch adorus A\Luwl I‘und Cali- o § 3 sre you catch me As Major Pond's - the financial bur- ction, his annoyance “What are you about here in fornia, anyway?” the Major. will be a long time on this coast ample shoulde! den of the tra is_quite excusable. But Ian Maclaren has nothing but good words for us, for our climate, our scenery, our capacity for infinite deve opment. “Your cities are beautiful,” said. “Look at co, with its unsurpassed situation. Your Mayor has kindly shown me all over the t and, in passing, let ‘'me pay a s tribute to Mr. Phelan. I consider P-l 1 to be the ablest Mayor I have met in America. In all my travels through this country I have never come across a man who showed such an unselfish spirit of civic patriotism and devotion to the municipal idea. It surprises me that a person of suoh wealth and so- cial position should give himseif up so completely to the thankless task of serving his fellow citizens, “Your city, under good government, has unlimited opportunities sion. And what a magnific trade is opening up before you in the East! San Francisco should become the emporium ful the whole commerce of the Pacific. ‘But do you believe that the policy of territorial aggrandizement, inaug- urated the late war, is a wise one for the United States to adopt?” “That is a question which the peo- ple of the commonwealth must e for themselves. But as a Briton I of course, an imperial and belic that the true policy of a great nat is to extend its foreign trade by ev | legitimate means. And th ter method than the establis wealthy and prosperous colonie: “But do you think we are justi holding the Philippines permanently?” “Oh, that is a mere debating society question. The thing is a fait accompli, and whatever happens the United States cannot retire. She has made herself responsible to the nations of the world for the establishment of a stable government in these isles; she must maintain law and order at any cost. “Your country has taken up what Kipling has so happily styled the white man’s burden, and she can never lay it down. In my opinion not only the Philippine: so Cuba and Porto Rico, should be governed as our crown colonies. It is a great mis- take to grant independence to the Cu- bans, tb s so-called generals like Gomez in posts of power. It is simply aiding them to misrule the people. to repeat in the future all the corrup- tion and cruelty which have character- ized Spanish. administration in the past. “Why should a great free nation like the United States do this thing? She following such a cours: free Cuba will prove a constant and annoyance, a potential sov war. Revolution will follow revc for the Cubans are not strong e for self-government, and each time United States will be expecte in restore order. “The cost will be enormous, commercial developm s will be serious checked. The remarks apply to Porto Rico and the Philippines. The United States must, in her own interests, adopt a firm c lonial policy, based on the princip! which govern England’s administrat of her crown colonies. And see w you will gain by following this co It is not merely a question of t though that is important en gh is the vital part which the governm of colonies plays in the development a nation’s higher faculties. “The establishment of a highly: or- ganized, highly paid and thoroughly competent colonial civil service would provide an invaluable outlet for vour college graduates, men of culture and breeding, who at present have n¢ sphere for the proper exercise of their and the talents. All the home profe, overcrowded, but the prosp | orable: service in the nation would attract the best and br the land. Of course, I ume that such a service would be entirely inde- pendent of political influence, and tt by means of a severe competitive amination, only the fittest, both physi cally and mientally, would be selecte for the work. And to insure honest ad ministration, the men must be well paid. This is what Fngland has been doing in India, and, in fact, all over the world, for the past century. She has sent the p of her youth to serve their country as colonial administra- tors, and the result, as you know, has been unjualified success. “Think what an addition this civil service would be to the resources of the nation. Think of the effect it would ultimately have on the home admi tration. As'soon as the people of th country recognized that it was possi- ble to secure honest and capable ad ministratirs *for the colonies, the would be satisfied with nothing wors for their own use. American polities would be purifted, the office-seeker and the boss would be eliminated from na- tional life, and the ideal free Govern- ment aimed at by the founders of the republic would be realized.” “It sounds pretty, Dr. Watson” I said, ut how about the accomplish- ment ?” Unfortunately, Df. Watson was no longer the preacher, the shrewd. much- travelad man of theiworld. The ap- pearance of Major Pond had suddenly converted him into Tan Maclaren, the popular lecturer and writer of kailyard stories. An impatient audience awaited him across the bay, and there was no time to go into details. “All you have to do,” he said,.as he waved a well, “is to work out your poli colonial expansion on the lines T have suggested, and the nation will never regret the experiment.” J. F. ROSE-SOLEY. 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