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Miners' Wages In Germany.
Some years ago the miners of the
Ruhr coal district, one of the most
extensive in the German empire, suf
fered a reduction in pay and within
the past year have succeeded in getting
even better rates than those prevailing
in 1900, the period of high wages. Con
ditions are still unsettled, however,
according to a recent statement from
United States Consul Dunlap of Coview
logne.
Owing to the high prices for coal the
official reports regarding wages of
miners in the Ruhr district for the
third quarter of 1907 were awaited
with considerable expectancy, there be
ing close connection between the wages
paid miners and the prices at which
the product is sold. To the pub
lic demands for a reduction in the
price of coal the mine owners reply
that it is impossible, owing to the high
wages paid miners, which are still in
creasing. Besides that, the new laws
regulating the payment of sick benefits
and pensions to disabled miners and
their families will, even if rejected by
the miners, considerably increase the
expense to the mine owners by many
million marks. At the recent meeting
of the national miners' congress in
Berlin the leaders of the miners' un
ions In the Ruhr district complained
of much want and misery among their
members.
The German miners last year earned
approximately $1.50 a day and other
workers in the mines about $1. These
rates were an increase over those of
1905 of about 26 per cent for miners,
20 per cent for other workers under
ground and 14 per cent for laborers.
German mine workers are required
to pay large sums for the purpose of
invalid and accident insurance. To
these funds the mine owner Is required
by law to contribute as much or more.
Taking these facts into consideration
and also the fact that the new law reg
ulating these funds will add nearly
$2,500,000 to the expenses of the mine
owners in this district, an increase in
the cost of fuel to the consumer is
most probable.
The number of adult employees in
the Ruhr district increased during the
second and third quarters of 1907 from
288,833 to 292,309.
American Bights In Russia.
Recently the state department at
Washington declared officially that the
United States dissents from Russia's
well known views as to the criminali
ty of those of her subjects who have
or may become American citizens and
the right of the czar to punish them
when caught on Russian soil without
his express permission. This is a de
cision following upon another of the
same purport which has aroused pro
test in this country. Nearly a year ago
the state department issued a circular
to the effect that it would not "issue
passports to former Russian subjects
or to Jews who intend going into Rus
sian territory unless it has assurance
that the Russian government will con
sent to their admission." This cir
cular further explained that a pass
port under such circumstances was a.
document tending to mislead the holder
since it does not really protect from
hardship and even imprisonment.
In the recent note dissenting .from
the Russian view the secretary of state
added the warning that "an American
citizen formerly a subject of Russia
who returns to that country places
himself within the jurisdiction of the
Russian law and cannot expect im
munity from its operations." It is
made clear that the applicants for the
passports take all the risk as to wheth
er their return will be assented to by
Russia. There seems to be a .clash
here between the international and the
domestic law, and it will not be set
tled until there is a naturalization
treaty between the United States and
Russia.
The more the Japanese become ac
quainted with the resources of their
part of the island of Sakhalin the bet
ter they are satisfied with the bargain
that gave them possession of it The
fisheries are proving very profitable,
and coal mines of value are being de
veloped. The Japanese population now
numbers 30,000, and during the fishing
season i(j is much larger. The vigor
displayed by the new occupants of
Sakhalin indicates what will happen
in Korea when Japanese energy has
full play.
Among the fresh evidences of Spain's
revived commercial activity is a report
which states that Spanish trade with
South America is rapidly increasing.
In some lines of manufactures Spain
has captured already the lion's share
of the trade, and in other lines her
enterprise and energy are making in
roads upon the trade enjoyed by other
European countries and by the United
States.
The 108 young men who graduated
from West Point last week may find
"standing and waiting" to their liking,
but it might be advisable for them to
take a horseback ride occasionally to
keep in good standing with the com
mander in chief.
Work, said a clergyman the other
day, is the common lot of man. The
only trouble is that there is not a lot
of work for common man at present.
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Women's Strength.
It seems that the doctrine set up by
the United States supreme court in its
latest decision limiting the working
hours of women may become the pub
lic policy and practice of the whole
land. The court reached bed rock
when it declared that woman's "phys
ical structure and a proper discharge
of her maternal functionshaving in
not merely her own health, but
the well being of the racejustify leg
islation to protect her from the greed
as well as from the passions of man."
The particular law which the court
upheld had for its primary and its ex
clusive purpose the protection and wel
fare of the individual and society.
In twenty states of the Union laws
have been enacted to restrict the fac
tory hours of women to ten in one day.
In upholding these statutes the
suvigorreaders
preme court treats them as proper po
lice regulations, and it must be a rare
instance when such a law is conceived
with a view to limit freedom of con
tract. The court of appeals upset the
New York law making ten hours the
limit for women on the ground that it
discriminated with respect to the lib
erties of persons or of contract This
adverse ruling has yet to be reviewed
by the supreme court, which has retraitors
peatedly held in effect that private in
terest is subservient to public interest
and that all rights are subject to such
regulation as may be "essential to the
safety, health, peace, good order and
morals of the community." The ap
plication of this principle in the recent
decision makes woman the ward of
the state and places her under the fos
tering and special protection of the law
in the interest of the human race and
posterity.
A Good Stroke of Business.
The display of our sixteen warships
could not have been needed to impress
the thinking men of South America
that the United States will be able
when the time comes to uphold the
Monroe doctrine. All the world knows
that the position this country occupies
among the powers today is not an ac
cident and that what appears to be,
simply because of its magnitude, per
haps, ostentatious greatness is not a
sham. But the social visits between
the personnel of the navy and the peo
ple of South American cities opens up
another aspect of our relations with
the Latin Americans. We have here
tofore been almost industrial strangers
to the people south of Mexico. Some
of the European nations, notably Ger
many, have pressed their commercial
interests while we slept. In Chile and
Argentina the Germans in force .are
engaged in general trade and in bank
ing, while in Brazil these people exert
an Important influence in governmental
and trade affairs.
Now that the citizens of the bigplenty
ports have seen our representatives on
the social side it will be strange if
they do not wish for a further ac
quaintance. Trade follows the hand
shake and the cordial greeting, for peo
ple live by buying and selling, and
they always want something new. If
this government is to protect the polit
ical interests of the South American
states, this people should share equal
ly at least in the trade of those states.
The situation can be improved, and the
time to act is while the people down
there still cherish pleasant memories
of the visits of our sailors.
A Long Way to "the Woods."
An Australian corporation has just
received a concession from the Russian
government to take out 30,000,000 feet
of timber a year from a forest in Si
beria, 900 miles from Vladivostok, to
be delivered in Melbourne, Australia,
approximately 8,000 miles away. It is
likely that no lumbering operation of
recent years more strongly illustrates
the pinch in the timber supply in all
parts of the world.
The news of the concession, told in
an American lumber journal, is accom
panied with a suggestion of the diffi
culty that all countries may have to
encounter in getting the wood which
they need in the future. Every year
timber cruisers are going farther and
farther afield and cutting trees which,
in former times of abundance, they
passed because of the inaccessibility
of the forest Forest experts in this
country say that the hope of the Unit
ed States for a steady supply of timber
lies in the application of forestry to all
timber lands, private and public, and
the careful study of the economical and
better utilization of product. And at
best a severe shortage in twenty to
twenty-five years must be expected.
Not so many abusive valentines
were sent through the mails this year
as formerly. The peculiar form of
brain fag that has prompted their use
hitherto finds expression now in letting
loose an avalanche of picture portraits.
Skeletons now harbored in prohibi
tion territory will have to move over a
little closer to make room for a jug or
two in the closet
It is just a hundred years since hard
coal came into use. Other ways of
spending money may be older, but not
more effective.
'Every man has a right always to
live where he pleases, but not always
to live as he pleases.
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THE PRINCET ON TTHION: THTTBSDAT, MAKCH la, 1908.^
Unquiet China.
According to observers on the ground
in China, there is a mischievous spirit
of rebellion at work, and the so called
"awakening" of the natives gives the
malcontents an opportunity for poison
ing men's minds toward what is good
in foreign assistance and in the ruling
dynasty. The Celestial Empire, print
ed in English at Shanghai, says that
with all the spirit of progress mani
fested there is also a spirit of narrow
ness and revolt which threatens to im
peril the soundness and permanence
of the renaissance. Of the present op
position of the natives to foreigners
this journal says:
Their new found strength is running
with much force in the opposition to all
foreign aid in the development of rail
ways, mines or other natural resources
in China. It is not necessary to assure
our that a great deal of this
is misdirected. It must necessarily
be so. To men so utterly ignorant of the
practical working of railways and other
engineering works as all but one in a
million of Chinese are it could not be
otherwise than ridiculous for them to
presume to have any opinion at all. Yet
the opinion is there, strong and deter
minedly expressed. The papers are full
of the necessity of preventing foreign cap
ital from entering the country'at all, and
if the officials attempt, as the more en
lightened do, to show that help is desira
ble they are abused and cartooned as
allies of the "foreign devil," if not as
to their country.
A writer in the Chinese Recorder,
another Shanghai paper, says that not
only is there at work "a quiet and per
sistent antiforeign propaganda," but a
public sentiment which is strongly
"antidynastic." In other words, Chi
nese patriotism today stands for revolt
against things as they are, and the
empire is actually threatened with de
centralization and anarchy. To quote
from the Recorder article:
Of riots and of attacks against or even
abuse of foreigners there is a cessation.
The Jingoes have learned a better way.
They are using milder and much more
effective methods. For instance, many of
the popular songs that are being sung
so widely in the schools are saturated
with fire eating and antiforeign senti
ment. Many of the text books used in
the schools introduce the same sort of
thing. The native newspapers report many
adverse things concerning that "undesir
able citizen," the foreigner, and in so do
ing they take little care to distinguish
whether the given foreigner is a mission
ary or an adventurer or whether Roman
Catholic or Protestant. The length to
which the native papers go In their abuse
of the foreign office and of the govern
ment would be almost Incredible were it
not daily displayed before our eyes.
More Where the Last Came From.
It is generally conceded that our
prosperity came from the ground,
where nature's bounteous hand placed
the seeds if not the ripened product.
It is gratifying to be told that there is
more in the same treasure house to be
dug out in the same way. Not only is
there more of the same sort, but so
much more that our prosperity record
can be beaten and perhaps doubled.
From the perspective of barren years
it might be said that our enjoyment of
was riotous. Perhaps it was.
The lesson of it is worth heeding, but
caution should not go to the extent of
distrusting nature. Experts say that
what we have been taking from the
ground is but half what we might take
with proper attention to the science of
producing. They declare that our seeds
and fertilizers are not right, our meth
ods of tillage imperfect, our live stock
very imperfect and our losses by fire
and flood and the ravages of insect life
double or treble what they need be.
In other words, for every million of
dollars gained there might be two mil
lions gained if we would but make the
most of our resources and our labor.
Making money enough to be happy on
for a day is perhaps not the highest
good. But making money enough to
establish a reserve which would tide
over lean years so that all years might
look alike would constitute a complete
task, the complement of nature's thor
oughness.
In Germany a dealer in planchets
has been arrested for representing that
by means of this device hypnotism
could be practiced and the future re
vealed. His income is reported to have
been $1,700 a day. Thirty years ago
the planchet had a vogue in the Unit
ed States. It is now about due for a
return performance here along with
blue glass cures, the crinoline and oth
er discarded fancies of a former gen
eration.
The two companies of the Twenty
fourth infantry, colored, returning
from the Philippines, will be stationed
at Madison Barracks and Fort Ontario
in spite of the fact that protests have
been made from both places. "But it's
Mr. Thomas Atkins when the guns be
gin to shoot."
And there was Marshal Bazaine,
who surrendered Metz. He, too, was
condemned to death and had his sen
tence commuted to imprisonment for
twenty years. He escaped, only to die
in poverty in his place of refuge, un
wept, unhonored and unsung.
"They also serve who only stand and
wait," said Mr. Taf to the West Point
cadets. Which is apt advice to a
standing army that waits for trouble.
If at some future day the treasury
finds $29,000,000 and accrued interest
straying into the conscience fund it
will know whom to suspect
Indifference and carelessness are the
advance fools of failure.
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Tudor Hats
Hats that will make a homely man
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Hen's Shirts
Dress and negligee. Selected with
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Shoes and Rubbers
S~ From the best fabrics in the country.
E Shoes that are stylish and durable, and
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Laces
A fine assortment in beautiful and
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you inspect them.
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W Want to Figure with You
on the drill problem 1 If you are going to sow wheat
we want to tell you how to save a peck of seed to every
acre. How to use one less horse or do your seeding in
one-fourth less time. -How to increase your yield and
produce a crop that will grade higher. We waat to
show you the
Monitor Double Disc Drill,
which drops the seed (along the dotted line) in front
of the axle with the downward turn of the disc,
and to the bottom of the furrow. It deposits every
seed at a uniform depth and covers it with a uniform
amount of earth, so that it sprouts at the same time
with its neighbor, grow9 evenly and the entire crop
ripens uniformly. Sounds reasonabledoesn't it?
Better drop in and let ua figure out with you, just
how much you will owe a MONITOR BRILL at
harvest time. If you are not interested in a drill,
remember that we can figure with you on other imple
ments. Drop in anyway,
CALEY HARDWARE CO.,
Princeton Tiinnfsta.
(Advertisement.)
DOUBT CANNOT EXIST.
Investigation Will only Strengthen
the Proof We Give in Princeton.
How can doubt exist in the face of
such evidence? Read here the en
dorsement of a representative citizen
of Princeton: Mrs. Mary J. Chute,
living across the river, Princeton,
Minn., says: "About three years ago
I used Doan's Kidney Pills for a long
standing case of kidney trouble, they
cured me and that cure remained per
manent until about a year ago. At
that time I met with an accident and
was forced to remain in a stationary
position for so long that my kidneys
became disordered. My back began
to pain me severely and the least sud
den movement would cause sharp
pains to dart through my loins. My
head ached a great deal of the time
and I often suffered from dizzy spells.
My eyes got very weak and I was able
to read but little. The secretions
from my kmdeys were irregular in
action, at times giving me great an
noyance by their frequency. At times
I was in such a serious condition that
I could hardly get around, and in
spite of the use of many remedies,
failed to get any better. At last
Doan's Kidney Pills were brought to
my attention and I procured a box at
the Home Drug Store. They gave me
instant and permanent relief I and am
very thankful for what they have
done for me."
For sale by all dealers. Price 50
cents. Foster-Milburn Co., Buffalo,
New York, sole agents for the United
States. Remember the nameDoan's
and take no other.
For Sale Cheap.
Two fine lots of about 60 acres
each, bordering on Silver lake, for
sale cheap and on long time.
4tf M. S. Rutherford & Co.
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gmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm^
|New Spring Goods!
Arriving Daily
Goods which are the very best obtainable and at prices the
I most reasonable. Just a few of our new goods are hereunder
enumerated: =3"
Dress Goods Suitings
The variety is large and the patterns ~Z
are the latest productions of the looms. =2
Hosiery
Men's, women's and children's. The
finest line in town and the very latest
designs.
Embroideries
Pretty designs, extensive assortment.
Corset cover embroideries at per yd.
25c to 75c
Groceries
Always the freshest to be obtained
anywhere, and the very best selection.
ROADSTROMl
PRINCETON, MINNESOTA. 3
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Ads in The Union Bring Results
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We InvitIe AH
To visit our new quarters
in the opera house block
and inspect our stock of
Pianos, Organs,
Sewing Machines and
Phonographs.
If you need either we can save you
money on your purchase. "We carry
musical instruments in various
styles and grades, White, and
New Home Sewing Machines,
and Edison Phonographs and
Records.
A new line of Sewing Machines just in. Prices from
$20 to $50
J& & Insurance Agency. j& j&
ILwing's' Music Store
Opera House Block Princeton, Minn.
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