Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], October 12, 1911, Page 2, Image 2

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

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2
REPUBLICAN STATE CAMPAIGN.
The authoritative party deliverances at
the Massachusetts republican state con
vention represent the distilled wisdom of
the party leaders with respect to the issues
of the state campaign. In readme the
addresses of the chairman of the conven
tion. Mr Harris, and of Mr Frothingham,
the candidate for governor, in conjunction
with the party platform, one appreciates
the difficulties and embarrassments that
republicans encounter in making, this
year, a forceful appeal to the people.
Great emphasis is placed upon the tariff
guestion. When Chairman Harris declared
that, in purpose and effect, this is a cam
paign of national importance, he had in
mind tariff revision and its relation to
Massachusetts industries. When the plat
form proclaims "the still greater import
ance of this campaign in its bearing upon
•national issues." it immediately plunges
into a column discussion of free trade and
protection. There are some gratifying as
pects of the platform's tariff utterances.
Few people could quarrel with the declara
tion in favor of “downward revision." and
few will regret that a specific indorsement
of the Payne-Aldrich tariff is notable by
reason of its absence. But It is a pity
that this Massachusetts republican plat
form should have been so Indiscreet as to
class the insurgent-republican senators with
the democrats in having followed a certain
policy of tariff revision for "sinister pur
•posos.”
"We accuse the democratic party in Con
gress and their allies.” the platform pro
ceeds to say, “of narrow and blind sec
tionalism. We accuse them of flagrant
•disregard of the business and industrial
‘interests of the country. We accuse them
‘of playing politics when they sat in the
‘seats of statesmen.” Possibly this de
m.ncintion of “progressive" republicans
will do no harm in Massachusetts, al
though more republicans of that sort may
exist in this commonwealth than is com
monly supposed. But why so much heat :
President Taft himself, in his speech at
Denver the day before, was full of a con
ciliatory spirit. “The fact is," he said,
“that the defection from the republican
‘party in the last congressional election and
‘its defeat was not due to an increased
‘number of democrats. It was due to the
‘defection of republicans who insisted that
‘we had cot performed our promises. Now
‘if we go ahead, as 1 hope we may, and
‘show to them that that is just what we
‘are doing, acting on the tariff board’s
‘report, it seems to me that we may ex
‘poet that those republicans who did not
‘leave ns exactly, but who withheld their
•votes, will now return to the place where
‘they belong." If the president's leader
ship on the tariff issue is worth anything
whatever, there must evidently be patience
with the “erring brothers” of the Cum
mins and La Follette type for a while
longer. This is no time for denunciation
of them, after the style of the Massachu
setts republican platform.
It is very much to be doubted that the
republicans can conduct a winning state
campaign on the tariff issue, in view of
the chaos in their own party with respect
to tariff revision. Praise of the principle
of protection is academic in these days.
What will the tariff board recommend';
T--that is the question, according to the
present position of the republican ad
ministration. And the tariff board will
not report until weeks after our state
election. Meanwhile, there is a tremendous
popular sentiment for downward revision,
and the higher the cost of living goes the
more intense that sentiment becomes. Gen
eral political conditions at the present
time, with the republican party confessed
ly on the defensive concerning the last
tariff it made into law. are favorable to
democratic rather than to republican suc
cess on this issue, even in Massachu
setts.
The most effective parts of the plat
form are those which deal with state
affairs and with the stronger and
more successful phases of the Taft
administration. The republican party in
Massachusetts has, on the whole, an ad
mirable record of achievement along pro
gressive lines, and the platform makers
were justified in calling public attention
to the impressive fact that Gov Foss's ex
perts laid bare precious little of a scan
dalous nature in the administrative de
partments of the state government. The
platform promises of future legislation may
be accepted as sincere. The people would
like to sec the parlies competing in their
desire and purpose to moke Massachusetts
a leader in truly progressive causes, in ed
ucation, in the protection of the public
health, in “the reshaping of the laws to
‘meet new conditions and to apply new
knowledge." This is a state campaign
and the interests of the state ’should be
considered paramount to persona! or to
party ambitions.
THE PRESIDENT'S TOUR
Mr Taft's important speeches during his
overland journey have been addressed to
the natioD, rather than to local audiences,
and the local reception of these utterances
has not been pre-eminently significant. Yet
local political sentiment is being carefully
studied by the president's companions, as
his train moves across the continent. The
tour is undisguisedly a political progress,
and its effect upon the presidential contest
of the coming year is reeieving the spe
cial attention of the correspondents in
Mr Taft’s party. One might almost make
a temperature chart from the headlines
which appear over the reports from vari
ous cities and states. In lowa and Ne
braska the line rose perceptibly on the
strength of such captions as these: '‘Ne
braska for Taft,” "Tour of lowa cheers
‘his friends.” But down went the line as
one reud, "Denver cold toward Taft.”
and "Taft practically ignored by the Dan
ger public.”
Aa soon as he crossed the Mississippi
river, the president waa in the heart of
‘‘the enemy's country.” He found the po
litical situation exceedingly complicated
and uncertain in the three nrairie states
• of lowa, Kansas and Nebraska. For La
Follette, as the republican presidential
candidate. Senator Cummins of lowa, Sen
ator Bristow of Kansas and Gov Aldrich
of Nebraska had already declared them
selves, and the main subject of inquiry
by the traveling political experts was the
president s actual strength In that import
ant. region. The impression seems to be
that, in Nebraska, Mr Taft is still much
atronger than any possible rival. The re
• publican state convention In July last cor
dially indorsed hie administration and
since then 31 of tbe 83 members of the
republican state central committee bavo
i declared for Mr Taft's renomiuation. Kan
i sas republicans appear to be Sharp l }'
| divided, with the chances favoring In
Follette rather than the president in the
spring primaries.
In lowa, however, the indications are
that the Wisconsin senator would uot he
preferred, although it is conceded by all
sides that if Senator Cummins were to
become a presidential candidate the lowa
republicans would enthusiastically support
him. The present probability that Mr
Cummins could not control the state in
favor of Mr In Follette raises the ques
tion whether he may not yet decide to bp
a candidate himself: in any event, there
is a growing appreciation of the possibil
ity that, in ease the In Follette candi
dacy should become hopeless on account of
the distrust of him felt in the great states
of the East, Senator Cummins's friends
would push him forward as a compromise
candidate capable of harmonizing more
successfully than either the president or
the Wisconsin senator the radical and con
servative wings of the republican party.
Colorado was carried by Mr Bryan in
11108. and. in view of the political condi
tions in the adjoining prairie states, it
should surprise no one to learn that Mr
Taft’s prospects in the old free silver
stronghold are negligible. Denver was re
spectful but decidedly coo! this week,
when the president was there. While the
state delegation to the republican national
convention may he captured for the admin
istration. the democratic supremacy evi
dently is too strongly intrenched to be
overthrown. Roosevelt might carry the
state; I.a Folleltc would have better pros
pects than Mr Taft; the man who could
make the election a democratic landslide
is Gov Woodrow Wilson.
The question whether the president is
strengthening liis position by his journey
and speeches is, perhaps, incapable of de
termination at the present time. The
staff correspondent of the Chicago Tribune,
who is accompanying the party, thought
that ip lowa and Kansas Mr Taft had
“undoubtedly allayed opposition to his ad
'ministration. though to what extent it
‘would ht impossible to say.” The presi
dent is personally well ii'ged and his jovial
manner of meeting the most unsympathetic
audience wins for him a cordial reception
wherever he may go. He endured a se
vere test in his address before the public
lands convention in Denver, which was a
gathering of anticonservation extremists
and whose views he was obliged to op
pose. while at the same time conuseling
moderation on the part of the extremists
of ait opposite character. The number of
places where Mr Taft feels obliged to ex
press unpopular sentiments is remarkable.
At Cheyenne his announcement that the
wool tariff must be reduced "got little ap
‘plause," for the good reason that Wyoming
is a wool growing state. Yet the presi
dent constantly reveals his splendid cour
age in talking plainly of his intentions and
desires regardless of local opinion. If
there is even a whiff of popularity in be
ing “no politician," os the Massachusetts
republican platform this year character
izes the president, Mr Taft should get the
benefit of it sooner or later.
The president's main objective is the
corner-stone laying at the Panama canai
exposition in San Francisco. By the time
that interesting function has been per
formed. lie will have delivered all of his
important speeches on current issues of any
public consequence, and the natural con
clusion of the tour will have been reached.
If Mr Taft could then proceed directly to
Washington without a single stop and
without saying a word to the people, he
would surprise and delight his country
men. It is a pity that a president who
journeys to Ban Francisco by the pop
ular oval ion route always comes back the
same way.
IS A REACTION COMING?
No one who has observed the ebb and
Sow of public sentiment in this country
through a period of many years can believe
that the present situation with respect to
"big business” can long continue without
forcing a popular reaction against the anti
capitalistic radicalism of the day. The
industries of the nation sooner or later
must have peace. They must occupy no
doubtful position under the law. They
must know precisely where they are at,
relative to government attack or control.
It is folly, moreover, to attempt to lash
the. industrialism of the United States
back into the conditions that prevailed 25
or 30 years ago. The nation wili not tol
erate burdensome monopolies; nor will it
consent to have competition throttled by
unfair means. We are not on the verge of
state socialism, with its absolute govern
mental control of all business and indus
try. Y’et there is a legitimate place in
our industrial system for the principle of
combination, and simply because that
principle has been abused is no reason
why it should be outlawed altogether. The
experience of the past generation has re
vealed its wonderful possibilities; and
there remains the task of making it the
tractable yokefellow of the public welfare.
As the debate on the trust question, so
perplexing to many people, continues to
distract the public mind, to discourage
large business enterprises, and to irritate
investors, certain clear ideas will finally
begin to penetrate the popular intelligence.
People are going to say, first of all: “We
‘want tills uproar stopped. We want the
‘problem settled.” And, in the second
piece, they will insist that mere size in a
business corporation shall not condemn it
to death. We have some slight evidence
already that public opinion, in this part
of the country at least, is beginning to
move in that direction. The democrats of
Rhode Islaud, in their stute convention,
have adopted a platform notable among
the political platforms of the period for
the following declaration: "The dismem
’bern.ent of large industries is frequently
‘neither necessary nor desirable. Constant
'agitation, without clearly-defined purpose
'for the public good, is prejudicial to the
‘growth of industry."
The vicious feature of the present situa
tion is that none can he sure that any
gtent industrial combination is safe from
governmental assault on the ground that
it is in violation of a certain federal
Statute. The president lias said at Detroit
that the supreme court decision! in the oil
and tobacco cases mode things “clear.”
And being "clear,” things are what they
ore—a confusion worse confounded. For,
If only unreasonable combinations in re
straint of trade are now illegal, anti if
only the courts can decide what is rea
sonable in any particular case, it follows
that no large industrial corporation can
THF SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1911.
ibe entirely sure of its legal right to exist
until it has been prosecuted and tried for
its life.
George W. Perkins is not accepted ns a
| great economist or leader, yet in his De
] tvoit speech last week he has justly
reminded the president, and those who re-_
gat'd the present situation as quite ideal,
that the republican party only three years
ago was Seeking control of the government
on a platform whose trust plank declared
in favor of amendments to the antitrust
law such as “will give to the federal gov
'crnnient greater supervision and control
'over and secure greater publicity in the
'management of that class of corporations
'engaged in interstate commerce having
'power Hud opportunity to effect mono-
Tolies.” Even the Bryan trust plank
presented a policy that would have given
a legal status to any great industrial com
pany that did not control “more than 30
'per cent of the total amount of any
•product consumed in the United States.”
Yet Mr Taft's attorney-general has hut
lately announced that in a corporation
manual he found 100 corporations that
were, in appearance at least, doing a
lawless business. Will lie prosecute them?
Senator La Follette does not propose to
rest. He intends to have the trust act
amended in accordance with his special
ideas of rigid trust suppression. With the
agitation being thus continued, it is evi
dent that the country will soon demand a
definite settlement of the problem, in so
far as it can have a legal or political basis.
And it would be well if the problem
were settled without unnecessary delay,
in order that it may be settled without
prejudice to the public welfare by reason
of popular impatience over what may
come to seem an aimless, never-ending and
disastrous agitation.
BRYANS COUNTER CHALLENGE.
President Taft's challenge to Mr Bryan
that lie produce an example of restraint
of trade that would not come within the
scope of the supreme court decisions in
the oil and tobacco trust cases is not
well handled by the Nebraska statesman.
Mr Bryan says that the president is not
sincere, that 'he hopes by the aid of the
trusts to win another election by indors
ing the retrograde policy of the supreme
‘court." “He may tickle the truat ntag
'hates who elected him and who give him
'the ouiy hope he has of succeeding him
'self“—and so on, all of which is arrant
nonsense.
Bnt Mr Bryan becomes offensive, rather
than nonsensical and topsy-turvieal, as he
proceeds to say:—
And speaking of challenges, here's one
for the president: Mr Bryan challenges
him to make public the written und verbal
recommendations upon which he appointed
•Justice White to the position of chief
justice over Justice Harlan and the rec
ommendations. written and verbal, on
■which he appointed the justices whom he
has placed on the supreme bench. Did be
know how they stood on the trust ques
tion. or was it purely accidental that all
of his appointees took the trust side of
the question? He signed a publicity bill
that requires publicity as to campaign con
tributions. Wlty not have a little publicity
as to the influences that control the ap
pointment of United States judges?
The insinuation that the president de
liberately “packed” the supreme court in
order to obtain the recent trnst decisions
has appeared in print before. Mr Bryan's
apparent belief in its substantial fidelity
to the truth can be explained only on the
assumption that he suspects another man
of doing what he would have done him
self. Sensible people see in it a ridiculous,
if not an insulting, accusation.
COFFEE.
There can hardly be a fitter thing to dis
cuss at the breakfast table than the rise
in the price of coffee. You observe, while
passiug back your cup to be refilled, that
this brand is not so good as-it used to
be; it is time to speak to the grocer.
Very well, speak to the grocer; he will tell
you, being at heart an honest man, that
the difference is simply the addition of
"Rio” to the blend. And why the "Rio"?
Because at the new price the old "Mocha”
and “Java” mixture which the family has
patronized for many years can no longer
be supplied. But as a special favor, if
one cases to order a five-pound can at an
increased price, the old mixture can be
provided as usual. Habit is strong; the
five-pound can is ordered. But why is
coffee rising? Overproduction of gold and
the general increase of commodity prices?
Of course, but that does not explain the
case of coffee any more than the case of
sugar. Nor Is a bad season enough to
account for the sudden and excessive rais
ing of the wholesale and retail prices.
The truth seems to be that coffee is in
the control of a powerful international
syndicate which lias been gradually get
ting its grip on the markets and is just
beginning to show itE strength. In many
ways coffee ig an ideal crop for manipula
tion. The demand for the product is
large, world-wide, imperative and con
stant. The supply is restricted by Nature
to a few countries. Moreover, a sudden
demand cannot promptly be met, as in
the case of grain, by new planting. The
earliest possible itearing for young plants
is three years, and substantial resnlts
cannot be looked for in less than five.
The plantations of Porto Rico are only of
late recovering front the damage wrought
by the great cyclone that swept the island
just after the Spanish war. If, then, the
available crops can be cr.ntroled to such
a degree ns to produce scarcity or the im
pression of a scarcity, high prices may be
made to rule indefinitely.
The key to the situation is in Brazil,
which has more acreage suited to coffee
growing lhan the rest of the world put to
gether, and at present produces some
three-fifths of the total supply, including
all grades from the highest to the com
mon “Rio.” For three years those inter
ested in coffee have been forecasting the
present steady rise. In 1908 the Bra
zilian state of Sao Paulo, which is one
of the chief coffee-growing provinces,
adopted a policy of restriction on exporta
tion, the effect of which was to produce
an artificial scarcity. The immediate coat
of the scheme, to he covered eventually
out of the immenae profits looked for,
was met by an international syndicate of
I'ankers and coffee merchants. It is now
raid that despite the bull market, 3,00(i,-
000 bags of coffee are being withheld from
consumption. Hinc illae lachrymae!
What is to lie done about it? Neither
the Sherm#n law nor the Monroe doctrine
tan he stretched, apparently, to cover thla
conspiracy in restraint of trade. The de
partment of justice has begun an Investi
gation, but it Is difficult to see how each
an international conspiracy can be pun-
ished except by n retaliation which would
he painful tq the American breakfast table
and profitable mainly to the firms which
make imitation coffee out of alien sub
stances like wheat or delicious, appetiz
ing Michigan pine sawdust. But it might
be worth while to stimulate the production
of coffee in our colony of Porto Rico,
which enn rival Brazil in quality if not in
quantity.
THE McNAMARA TRIAL.
The Mo.ver-Hayward trial in Idaho a few
years ago is non to he repeated, in main
outline, at Los Angeles, Cal., where the
McNamara brothers await the opening to
day of the legal battle of which the
stake will be their own lives. The imme
diate issue is whether the McNamaras are
guilty of having deliberately blown up the
building of the Los Angeles Times on Octo
ber 1 of last year, and murderously sacri
ficed the lives of 21 employes of that news
paper. The remoter issue involves the
moral prestige of militant trade unionism.
The present ease strikingly resembles the
case against th leaders iff the western
federation of miners in that the executive
head of a great labor organization is
accused of having pursued a pro
gram of physical violence in the hope
of gaining ends by terrorizing the em
ployer class. The resemblance becomes
marked when one observes that the chief
witness of the prosecution, now as before,
is an informer, who alleges that he was
actively engaged in the dynamiting opera
tions. Substitute McManigal for Harry
Orchard and the legal situation at Boise
City is very closely paralleled at Los An
geles. McManigal. however, has confessed
to no personal participation in a dynamite
outrage that caused loss of life, while Or
chard's own story represented him as a
human monster.
Detective Burns, whose success in Ins
special line of work has made him the
most famous sleuth in America at the pres
ent time, has constructed from his investi
gations an impressive chain of evidence
against the accused. Burns says that the
real defense of the McNamaras rests upon
the proposition that capital and labor were
at war, by reason of the contest orer the
“open shop” between the international as
sociation of bridge and structural iron
workers and the structural iron erectors
of America, which began in 1905: and
that organized labor, through President
McNamara of the labor organization, was
moral!}- justified in using terroristic and
physical force methods to gain its ends.
This analogy between wars and labor wars
is not unfamiliar. If nations are justified
in adopting violent methods against each
other —in killing, blowing up and destroy
ing property—why are not trade unions?
Privately this theory of labor warfare is
held perhaps more widely than mav be sup
posed : but it can have no recognition what
ever in the courts of the land.
The counsel for the McNamaras will ad
dress themselves, like sensible lawyers, to
the task of showing that their clients are
not guilty of the destruction of the Times
building and the 21 men therein employed.
They will endeavor to prove that a gas ex
plosion wgs ,thp fl cause of the catastrophe ;
and if they do }iot . succeed iit that, they
will .resort to,.the steory that the, explo
sion was the result of a "plant”—that is.
a conspiracy concocted in the Intel est of
capital to throw discredit upon labor. The
prosecution will seek to establish fotir
points, to wit: —
That James B. McNamara was in San
Francisco ar the time 1000 pounds of high
power explosive were purchased from a
powder company.
That he was in Los Angeles q few hours
before the blowing up of the Times build
ing.
That he actually set the bomb which
caused the disaster, and likewise planted
the bombs at the.homes of Gen Otis and
Felix Zeehandelaar.
And that he committed the crime at the
behpst and under the direction of John J.
McNamara.
Gen Otis, editor of the Los Angeles
Times, has been for years a bitter enemy
of organized labor, and this fact doubtless
strengthens the suspicion in mauy minds
that organized labor was concerned in the
dynamiting of his building. We believe that
the question of guilt remains to be estab
lished by the court and that the avenged
should be held to be innocent until they are
proved beyond a reasonable doubt to be
guilty. That they will be ably defended and
that no expense will be spared in affording
them every facility for presenting their
case is assured by the attitude of labor
unions everywhere in aiding financially the
defense. And that the trial will be fair
and impartial the country has reason to
expect, particularly in view of the acquittal
of Moyer and Hayward in the Idaho trials
a few years ago.
PRESIDENT BENTON’S INAUGURAL
A more rhetorical note than is commonly
expected from a college president resound
ed in the inaugural address of the new
president of the university of Vermont,
Dr Guy Potter Benton. Yet while part
of his discourse* as for example the fervid
eulogy of the college yell, is rather over
done, the address contains much sound
advice. It may be questioned whether the
age at which men attain their highest
point of cflicienoy is increasing, as he
argues from insufficient data, as for ex
ample the youthfulness of “the Old Fath
ers wh.-. wrote the constitution.” A revo
lution always brings young men to the
fore. So far a« mental or physical powers
are concerned, there is no reason to sup
poae that there has been any perceptible
change in the brief space of a century or
two.
But it is probably true that rhe progresr
of the arts allows, or should allow, a
larger proportion of those who are past
their prime to find useful employment.
Even in the field of physical labor, thanks
to machinery, strength and activity are
not so essential as formerly. A larger
proportion of th* population, too, as Civ
ilization increases in complexity, is en
gaged in varied crafts and professions In
which the value of skill is cumulative and
postponea for a decade or for several dec
ade* the point et which decline begins. A
college iwesjdent may be doing hia best
work at 70, provided conditions do not
happen to call for those radical qualities
for which we look to youth.
Despite the complaints that the “dead
'line” is drawn at 40, I.)r Benton is prob
ably right In thinking that the period of
active work is on the average growing
longer rather than ahorter. More people,
at all events, are engaged In thoae em
ployments whet* knowledge and experi
ence are more essential than the verve
of youth. He is of course right in calling
attention to the need for more thorough
and prolonged preparation for work, as
knowledge and technic expand. We miss,
however, in his address any hint that the
work of serious preparation might well
begin a little earlier. On such a festive
occasion even a remote allusion to pain
ful subjects like aorists or logarithmic
functions might have cast a gloom over
the assembly, yet there is quite as much
need for a pronmiciamiento in regard to the
value of hard work as for such impas
sioned rhetoric on the spirit which ani
mates young manhood and womanhood.
“There is no music so sweet to me,” de
clares this university president, "as the
‘yell of the college student." Ter,
quaterque beams! He is likely, after so
broad a hint, to get enough to satisfy even
his robust ear:—
Every time n boy yells for his college
or his university, he is drawing its colors
about him a little more securely, and thus
he is laying the foundation for that larger
patriotism which, in later years, will ac
centuate his love of country. Let that
fossil who declaims against football he
relegated to the museum of the antiquities.
Let dumbness strike hint who would use
his voice against the songs anti shouts of
joyous college men when they triumph in
oratory or debate. Restrained be the arm
of the tyrant who would reach out a hand
to throttle class spirit. Blinded he the
eyes of him who will see nothing but evil
in devotion to fraternity.
Evidently in the university of Vermont the
fossils will hereafter he left to gather
dust in the museum.
/ "■ " " _ ' """"
ATTACK ON DIRECT LEGISLATION
The attack on the constitutionality of
the Oregon system of “direct legislation,"
has been pushed into the United States
supreme court by the Oregon corporation
which objected to a tax imposed upon it
through the working of the initiative; and
the country should soon have the benefit
of an authoritutive pronouncement on an
important question. The assumption that
the initiative and referendum are incon
sistent with that "republican form of gov
'ernnient," which is guaranteed to the
states by the federal constitution, or that
they seriously impair the constitutional
rights, of minorities, must seem to the
average citizen extremely far-fetched; and
it judicial decision against their validity
would be for many reasons a national mis
fortune.
It is difficult to see how the court could
sustain a conclusion adverse to the system
of direct legislation without resorting to
the narrowest and most technical con
struction of the meaning of the federal
constitution. Among those who were mem
bers of the convention of 1787 and played
an influential part in its deliberations may
be found some, probably, who entertained
what would now seem to be a very inade
quate conception of republican government,
and, by interpreting certain constitutional
clauses according to the meanings they
then gave to them, it is possible that a
groundwork could be constructed for a
decision that would make the initiative
and referendum impossible throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Yet such
a decision would surely seem unreason
able, overtechnical. highly strained and re
actionary in the extreme. It would do
mote tu arouse a public sentiment hostile
to the federal constitution and favorable
to its radical reconstruction than any for
mer decision since the supreme court's find
ings it the income tax cases 16 years
ago.
Direct legislation by the people is ultra
democratic, but it should not be unavail
able on that account in a country like the
United States. It should be at least one
of the resources of the. people in practicing
self-government, and the people should be
left to determine when and where it could
profitably be used. That is to say, con
stitutions should not prohibit a resort to
methods of this character in states where
the people are the supreme power. There
must he a certain elasticity and adapta
bility in government, whether it be mu
nicipal. state or national, in order that
administration may be adjusted to condi
tions, and in order that the people may not
be too narrowly limited in their choice of
lawful methods in reforming abuses and
meeting crises.
The agitation in favor of the initiative
and referendum in this country itself fur
nishes an excellent illustration of the
need of this sort of elasticity. Grave
abuses had developed in our representative
system. Legislatures had become venal, in
many states. The absolute control of certain
lawmaking bodies by party hosses acting in
the selfish interest of aggressive and power
ful corporations had tended to discredit all
legislatures in the popular mind. Scandal
after scandal, like that in New York,
Which was under public investigation at
Albgny a year or more ago, shocked the
nation. Under such circumstances, one is
well justified in believing that the mere
opportunity for the people to resort to
direct legislation must be a safety valve
for popular impatience and wrath. The
fact that Oregon actually resorts to it,
not without considerable success, tends to
reassure Massachusetts and New York as
to their resources in government, should
the need for a change in methods grow
imperative; while no one can overesti
mate the good effect which such an ex
periment as Oregon's may have in re
straining the aggressions of party ma
chines elsewhere upon popular rights.
Wherever a state, takes up direct legis
lutioH because its representative system
has become a byword, a warning reaches
home to every political trickster and bogs
and every corporation lobbyist and corrup
tionist iu th# republic. The result is that
there is less need than before of such ex
pedients as the initiative, the referendum
and the recall In other commonwealths.
Bad us the recent New York Legislature
has been in some particulars, no one lias
yet accused it of being venal. It has
probably been cleaner than any Legisla
ture at Albany within tha past 15 years,
in spite of Mr Murphy's great influence;
aud one cause of the improvement, wa
dare say, has been the popular revulsion
in various parts of the country against
the representative system.
One may hold these views concerning
the desirabilty of direct legislation as an
emergency system without In the least es
teeming It as Something which could ever
serve as a permanent substitute for the
representative system in the complicate and
highly developed democratic common
wealths of the 20th century Congressman
McCall is not in error in thinking that the
initiative and referendum, iu the long run,
could not compare in efficiency and prac
tical utility with representative govern
ment. Lawmaking In the main must be
delegated by the people to representatives
in whom the people have confidence, if
the best resnlts are to he gained. I.ife has
become so highly elaborated, technical
skill and expert guidance have become so
necessary in all directions in both privnte
and public affairs, that a modern democ
racy of huge population and enormous ma
terial interests would go to smash if cer
tain kinds of work were not delegated to
those best fitted to perform it.
IVhat it is to be anticipated, at least to
he hoped, is that the representative sys
tem will survive the present storm of
criticism in a purified and improved form
and that, with direct legislation in reserve,
it will perform its true function with an
efficiency hitherto unattainetj. That such
will he the outcome admits of little doubt,
if democracy is to hold its own, because
the more extended the trial given to di
rect legislation in large and populous
states the more will the people appreciate
its crude limitations and the more sensible
will they lie of the fact that, when purged
of its corruptions, representative govern
ment offers, on flip whole, the best means
for combining efficiency in administration
with the supremacy of the democratic
principle.
SEEING RED IN POLITICS.
One effect or by-product of the primary
system of nominating a state ticket In
Massachusetts is to give the platforms—now
the only real excuse for holding state con
ventions—a splendor of' oratorical setting
never before seen or attempted. Lawyer
Elder led off with the new fashion on
Wednesday last week for the re
publicans, and on Thursday Law
yer George Fred Williams fol
lowed with an effort much more flaming
and inclusive, fairly throbbing with woes
and warnings. Murh that is excellent and
desirable in legislation is called for and
will command the assent of all who desire
to see this state deal justly with all con
ditions of its population. As a matter of
polities, labor and the farmers are espe
cially appealed to; the one group of citi
zens being promised a department of labor,
while those who till the soil are to be al
lowed more of the public money. It almost
looks at this point as if the governor and
Mr- Williams, finding things honestly and
pretty efficiently managed, had set out to
win favor by means of large promises.
The appeal for votes—that is what plat
forms are built so takes the form
of charging the eminently respectable gen
tlemen who were to be seen in Treniont
temple on Wednesday, and most decorous
in their outward seeming, with high crimes
and misdemeanors. To the outward seem
ing the gathering might have been a re
ligious convention such as may frequently
be found there. Perhaps the delegates
failed to understand their own heinonsness
—we are disposed to give them the benefit
of the doubt. At all events, the platform
read in the Cradle of Liberty yesterday
exposed them to a shuddering democracy.
We imagine the world beyond will be less
impressed. This is what the republicans
represented:—
For the personalities of the excellent cit
izens who compose the ticket of our oppo
nents we hare happily no criticism; but
we condemn the system which they repre
sent. It is the system of privilege which
in the Massachusetts republican convention
steod defiant and unyielding, tolerating no
insurgency and suppressing all protest. Its
boundless treasures are drawn from the
toiling millions, held under the lash of
necessity. It threatens with poverty, pan
ics and industrial ruin those who question
its exactions and menace its supremacy.
Even now. if need be, there wili be shut
downs and wage reductions that the toiler
may see his ballot through tearful and
hungry eyes.
That is the hideous belief and practice
which these fair seeming republican dele
gates represented and stand committed to.
Panics and shutdowns are their play
things. and looking into “tearful and hun
'gry eyes” their delight.
More than all this, these embattled foes
of human society, our neighbors and
friends, are base, ignoble- slaves in the
grip of a terrible power. We cannot be
lieve for one moment that they understood
the situation, or those of them we know
would instantly have fled in terror from
a scene so unhallowed. Says the Mas
sachusetts democracy through Mr YVill
iams:—
We do not underestimate the power of
tliis system, when at hay; its treasury
is unlimited, it distrusts the people and
popular government; it purchases the
highest talent; masters of eloquence de
fend It; ambition seeks its rewards; social,
political and financial punishments are
terrible; it controls industrial armies and
the wealth }>f the republic; its leaders pos
sess fortunes unmatched in the history
of the world: it reaches into press, pulpits
and universities; it towers above the laws
anil governments: it has neither con
science nor patriotism; money is its god,
greed its religion, force its argument,
monopoly its weapon and humanity its
Victim.
In the name of common sense and sweet
reasonableness, what is the use of attempt
ing to strain a political campaign to such
tension as this? If people would ton
sent to be kept there, it would mean
madness. “Life is real, life is earnest”
—bnt let it not be made hysterical. The
popular welfare is not best advanced by
lurid fires that light up the night, but do
not mean a steady headlight in the train
of progress. Much there is to commend
in this platform, but Jet us all the time
be rational, and not see red when the
criminal intent on the part of our good
neighbors is all unbeknownst to them.
That sort of nightmare does not make
for the general welfare. YY’e are all hound
together and even campaign oratory will
better serve its purpose if under some
measure of restraint The democrats will
do well to keep in mind tlint they are to
need republican votes in order to win this
fall.
GOV DIX’S ACHIEVEMENT.
By passing a direct primaries bill which
Gov Dlx could sign, tile New York Leg
islature waa able to ndjourn Friday
without incurring the danger of being
called back for a special session. It i«
October. No other Legislature this year
has occupied so much time in doing its
work und few, perhaps, have incurred more
criticism. The senatorial deadlock early In
the year wasted several months, and the
poor product of legislative activity which
followed found an antidote only In the
governor's iinsparlng use of the veto.
The governor, however, now maintains
that h|s party’s pledges have been re
deemed. Certainly, so far sb this is true,
lie deserves the chief credit Inasmuch ns
he ha* been insistent thnt campaign prom
ises should not he ignored. The federal
income-tax amendment to the constitution
was ratified in spite of a strong opposition,
and thnt was an achievement of which the
governor may be proud. The Legislature
also went on record in support of the pop
ular election of United States senators.
Nor was the Murphy influence so powerful
as has been represented, for the Tammany
hoes failed utterly to jam through the new
charter for New York city, which he so
much desired.
The direct primaries act, which has at
lest been obtained after a struggle that
was opened by Gov Hughes at least five
years ago, is admittedly no more than a
half-loaf. It does not apply to state offi
cers, for whose nomination delegate con
ventions will still he required; and it
guards much too jealously the pow er and
authority of the party machines. The
New York Tribune declares that, under
the new act, “party committees will »e
---‘leet their own successors. They will put
‘the party emblem over their ticket on the
■primary ballot, and they may use the
‘party's funds to further their own inter
‘ests at the primaries. The party emblem
‘and the party's money thus belong to the
‘machine. Any element seeking to displace
'it wili labor under the handicap of having
‘to obtain a large number of signatures to
‘its petition, of having its candidates
'placed on the ballot without the party em
‘blem and of having the funds of the party
‘used against it.” Yet, even the bill finally
favored by Oor Hughes gave a preferen
tial position on the primary ballot to the
candidates of the organization, and it was
utterly hopeless to obtain from the New
York Legislature any primary law- in the
least comparable with the laws which have
revolutionized politics in so many western
states, or which have recently been enact
ed in New Jersey, Massachusetts and
some other eastern states.
Fair critics admit that in spite of its
glaring defects, however, this New York
direct primaries act is progressive in ten
dency. The New York Tribune concedes
that it embodies a plan which at least is
“an advance over the present system.”
And, consequently, with the republicans
voting solidly against the measure, it re
mains to be said that Gov Dix finally ob
tained from a democratic Legislature more
than so influential a governor as Mr
Hughes could obtain from a republican
Legislature. If the system works success
fully in a narrow field, it will become in
time truly “state wide.”
CHARTING THE OCEAN OF AIR.
An incidental result of progress In avia
tion has been a notable stimulus to the
study of the higher strata of the at
mosphere, in regard to which knowledge
was until a few years ago very meager.
The scientists who have been patiently
at work with kites and sounding balloons,
with wind gauge, thermometer and barom
eter, with inadequate public recognition
of their unostentatious services, are now
reaping their reward. Theirwork is even
more indispensable for aerial navigation
tliau the charting and lighting of the sea
is for the marine. With some added risk
a ship might get about, despite adverse
winds and currents, if such helps did not
exist. But it is plain that the key to the
mastery of the air must lie, when all that
is possible has been done In the way of
mechanical invention, in a more adequate
knowledge of the wind and its vagaries:'
For this kind of work the chief station,
so far as the United States is COndernetß
has been the Blue hill meteorological ob
servatory near Boston, and an interesting
example of the new applications of scien
tific knowledge is to be seen in the atlas
prepared by A. Lawrence Rotch, founder
and director of the ohservatory, and An
drew Hi Palmer, research assistant, which
is published by Jolm Wiley & Sons of
New Y'ork with the litle "Charts of tha
'Atmosphere, for Aeronauts and Aviators."
A few years ago the title would have
seemed like a joke; to-day the book may
he deemed indispensable to airmen. It
does not, it is trne, take the place of tha
beautiful accurate maps on which tha
navigating officer of a vessel, in the cozy
recesses of the chartroom, day by day
checks off the ship’s run ami lays his
course with protractor and parallel ruler.
If is not a book to carry aloft, like the
bird’s-eye maps of parts of France which
the French government is preparing, but
rather a book to study ns a preparation
for flight. It consists mainly of carefully
plotted curves showing temperature,
density, wind pressure, prevailing winds,
etc., and each curve will bear careful
technical study, yet there are certain gen
eral conclusions which are of popular in
terest.
Both entertaining and instructive is a
general map showing the extent of man's
small triumph "over upward space. In one
picture may be seen the dirigible aftd the
rainy nimbus floating at the bight of a
mile, tlm aeroplane and the alto cumulus
soaring at two miles (it is now, for the
aeroplane, more than 2 1 /£[), the highest
human habitation perching on nothing at
the altitude of three miles where the curve
of 32 degrees Fahrenheit crosses the
equator, the highest mountain climber
planting his flag at miles where the
zero Fahrenheit curve reacted the equa
tor and the eirro cumulus clouds float like
zephyr, the highest mountain peaks at 5V4
miles, then the cirrus clouds, and highest
of all, the spherical balloon, the 1901 rec
ord of which just grazes the 30 below
zero curve at 6V4 miles. At 3Vj miles the
density of the air is decreased to half that
of sea level, and the temperature drops
50 degrees. At seven mile* the density is
reduced to a fourth, and the temperature
falls about 110 degrees.
There is much valuable material, rep
resenting thousands of careful observations
made in the course of years, but it is
sufficient to note that the authors in psrt
support and in part question the project
for transatlantic aerial service. •‘Given a
'dirigible balloon capable of sustaining a
‘speed of 25 miles an hour and of remaining
‘four days at an altitude of half a mile
‘(qualifications not yet fulfilled) the At
lantic ocean can he crossed in summer, in
‘cither direction, in one or two days’ Jess
'time than by the fastest steamship." The
eastward route is from Boston to Londou
at a bight of 3300 feet, passing over Nova
Scotia and Newfoundland, and across
southern Ireland, the course being nearly
east northeast to latitude 53 degrees, a
distance of nearly 2000 mile*, and thence
nearly cast for thn remaining 1300 miles.
The course is not very different from the
maritime route save in passing freely over
land. The westward .route extends from
Lisbon 2200 miles southwest to latitude
18 degrees, longitude 40 degrees, thence
1400 miles west southwest to the leaser
Antilles, thus taking advantage of the trade
winds. East winds are shallow and tbarc-