Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], August 07, 1913, Page 2, Image 2

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

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EXPRESS AND POSTAL RATES.
The interstate commerce commission s
order reducing express rates and the post
tnaster-general's order that the weight
limit on parcel post packages be raised
from 11 to 20 pounds, with an accompany
ing reduction in the postal charges, were
announced the same day. Together they
may be said to make the express com
panies take notice. That they are worried
over the outlook is intimated in some
quarters, but it will not be possible to
tscertain how injurious the parcel post
competition has been since January 1 un
til the publication of the companies’ an
nual reports for the fiscal year ending
June 30 last.
Wheu the government undertook to
tarry parcels, the express companies had
Io anticipate a competition that would he
difficult to meet, to say the least within
Ihe limitations to which the government
service confined itself. Postmaster-General
Burleson's order demonstrates that every
sdministration of the post-office depart
ment will seek to gain the favor of the
public by extending the privileges of the
system. This has been the history of the
entire post-office department, which has
never been run on strictly business prin
ciples.
The sweeping reductions in express rates
now ordered by the interstate commerce
commission would have come, of course,
if the parcel post had not been established.
They were distinctly foreshadowed in the
report of the commission’s investigation of
the express business published a year ago.
In that report, which was mainly the work
of the present secretary of the interior,
franklin K. Lan* 3 , many reforms were
recommended in the handling of the ex
press business of the country, and not the
least notable of them was the block sys
tem in rate-making. By dividing the
country into 050 blocks, each bIoCK being
the square formed by one degree of lati
tude and longitude, the old chaos of 000.-
000,000 arbitrary express rates in the
United States is simplified into a coherent
and reasonable system of some 830 rate
statements. It is of much interest that the
new block system, which the commission
has used as the basis of its reductions, is
now regarded as practicable in the making
of freight rates and that the commission
may seek to apply it in railroad rate mak
ing in the near future.
The fact that the commission has lim
ited this reduction in express rates to two
years reveals a feeling that its rate mak
ing is in the experimental stage. The
companies, it is believed, will appeal to
the courts on the ground that they are
victims of confiscation. While the prob
lem of just treatment of shippers of ex
press packages is being worked out. public
sentiment will sustain the interstate com
merce commission in its efforts to stop the
extortion practiced on the people for many
years, until very recently, by the express
companies of the United States. It is
doubtful, in the last analysis, whether an
express company of the American sort
performs a service that could not be as
well performed directly by the railroads
themselves. As Mr Lane has stated, while
still a member of the interstate commerce
commission:—
The real asset of an express company is
the contract which it enjoys with a rail
road company. It has the monopoly in
the carrying of small packages on the pas
senger trains of the railroad, but it Las
no more of a monopoly than the railroad
itself has. It has no right to impose
unreasonable rates by reason of the ex
clusive contract which it enjoys with the
railroad. It must be treated as the
railroad itself would be treated. The rail
roads of the United States might do all
of this work without adding so much as
a million dollars to the value of their
equipment.
It is largely a railroad transportation
question, then, and, from the railroad
point of view, it matters little theoretically
whether the parcels and packages are car
ried for express companies, or for the gov
ernment, or for itself dealing directly with
the shipper, as in the carriage of freight,
so long as charges are just and reason
able. From a practical point of view, it
has mattered very much in the past, be
cause of the rich revenues the railroads
hare been able to derive from the express
business as hitherto carried on. The pub
lic interest now intervenes for the first
time in American railroad history in the
present order of the interstate commerce
commission.
M'CALL AND THE GOVERNORSHIP.
It were a pitiable condition, indeed, for
the republican party in Massachusetts this
next autumn to be forced to appeal to
the people with a candidate for governor
who was palpably below the standard that
the party has set for many years. Cer
tainly no more critical election has the
republican party faced in our time. To
finish third in the race might mean dissolu
tion, after last year's experience.
Samuel W. McCall would furnish a can
didacy and a leadership for the republican
party that would make it truly formidable.
He would attract the support of many
voters upon whom party ties rest so lightly
that they have bettome negligible. His long
experience in the national House of Rep
resentatives was a fit training for the
Massachusetts governorship; but before he
went to Congress he served in the Legis
lature with considerable distinction. The
strong support he received for the United
Stateo senatorship last winter testified to
his hold upon the right kind of public sen
timent in Massachusetts. As a republican
representing the best traditions and the
finest ideals of bis party in its years of
power and glory, he would meet the sever
est testa. If he is not drafted for the
crisis, it will not be because the party has
no such man to call upon, but because the
party lacks th- will and the concern in ita
own future sufficient to give it the fighting
power for its own preservation.
Mr McCall could conduct a vigorous
campaign, once he were nominated. He
%uld find issues. Mr Adams’s suggestion
of the reform of our archaic taxation sys
tem brings one of them into view, Of Mr
McCall's progressiveness, it can be said
that Joseph Walker left the republican
party and became a member of the
progressive party because Mr McCall was
not preferred for the United States sana
torahip by the republican Legislature.
Such a man ought to win back bull
moosers to their old allegiance.
This question of placing the strongest
possible republican candidate in the field
is up to the substantial men of influence
and also of means in the republican party
to-day. A primary campaign requires
money. It is one of the misfortunes and
one of the sorest weaknesses of the direct
nomination system that a candidate with
out large financial resources is at a great
disadvantage in the contest. If Mr Mc-
Call is to be the republican candidate,
he must be nominated in the republican
primaries, and if he is to be nominated
i_. the republican primaries he must evi
dently be generously supported with the
funds as well as the influence of re
publicans who have both to expend for
the salvation cf their party in this com
monwealth. It is a practical question of
inducing the republican voters in their
primaries, by wholly legitimate means, to
select the best available man as their
nominee.
A CHALLENGE FROM MR ADAMS.
The letter of Charles Francis Adams
which is printed on another pace touches
on an issue that is at the front in the minds
of all thoughtful people in Massachusetts
—the crying necessity for reforming our
antiquated system of taxation: and he
thinks the time has come for electing
a governor to take the lead in this
reform. He has a man in' mind, Samuel
W. McCall, and would have him drafted
for the service. Here is something more
nearly like statesmanship applied to ex
isting conditions of muddled mediocrity
in our politics than has appeared in all
the discussion of the year. The need
and the man—are the people of the state
ready to quit political fooling of a de
pressingly selfish sort and get down to
public business of a fundamentally vital
nature?
In the quality that awakens thought the
suggestion of Mr Adams is not of the
hot weather kind. Party ties are sitting
very lightly upon our voters just now—
which means that there is more fluidity
about public sentiment this year than we
have often seen, going back over the years
however far. Is it possible to turn such
a condition to the lasting benefit of the
state and her people? Here is the ques
tion which the letter of Mr Adams brings
to the people of Massachusetts. Has the
shaping of this campaign gone too far
to admit of the dominance of a big ques
tion and of the admission of a man fit
to inspire the handling of it?
EMBASSADOR WILSON.
In retiring from the diplomatic service
by virtue of the president’s acceptance
of his resignation as embassador to Mexi
co. Henry Lane Wilson credits the presi
dent and the secretary of state with the
possession of "the highest patriotism ’ in
their handling of the very difficult Mexi
can situation, and this is creditable to
him. He has not been used badly by the
present administration. He has been kept
in office five months after President Wil
son's inaguratiou. notwithstanding that in
March there were ugly attacks upon him
because of the alleged undue influence he
exerted in favor of the present Huerta
regime at the critical time of the down
fall of the Madero government in Mexico
City. It would seem that his resignation
is now accepted only because he differs
with his superiors in Washington as to
the recognition of the Huerta government.
Under such circumstances, it is not pos
sible for the president of the United States
to resign; and the embassadors resigna
tion becomes imperative.
It has n.ever been possible to determine
precisely what share Embassador W ilson
had in facilitating Huerta's rise to power.
This is one of the mysteries of the situa
tion. The charge that he acted beyond
his powers has come from Madero sympa
thizers. Secretary Bryan's public announce
ment yesterday appears to imply that the
embassador's activity at that time waa of
a sort to make him more or less a Huerta
partisan, for the secretary says that “the
■part which he felt it his duty to take in
‘the earlier stages if the recent revolution
‘in Mexico would make it difficult for him
‘to represent the views of the present ad
‘ministration, in view of the situation which
‘now exists.” It is well known that the
embassador is a strong advocate of the
recognition of the Huerta government; is
the country to suspect that one powerful
reason for his advocacy is the part he
played in creating that government? And
was his part an illegitimate one. in any
particular? We have hitherto seen no
proof of these accusations; it has been
our feeling that Embassador Wilson, pla-’ed
in a position of extraordinary complexity
and difficulty, acted with entire disinter
estedness and devotion to the essential
requirements of his diplomatic position.
Even his advocacy of the recognition of
the Huerta government has no little cold
reason back of it. Had this been done
months ago, the chances that American
intervention will be necessary might be
much diminished in the end.
Y’et no one can be insensible to the
moral sentiment which controls President
Wilson against recognizing a government,
not yet constitutionally sanctioned by the
Mexican people, which came into power
coincident with if not through the shock
ing assassination of the former ruler of
the country. On this issue, very likely,
American public sentiment sustains Presi
dent Wilson, and, accordingly, the coun
try may be expected to accord a fair trial
to his own Mexican policy.
ENGLAND AND SAN FRANCISCO.
The formal declination of the British
government to take part in the Panama
canal exposition, on whatever grounds it
may nominally be based, has been taken
at once as a form of protest against cur
violation of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty
by discrimination as to canal tolls in fa
vor of our coastwise shipping. This im
mediate construction of the matter, in spite
of disavowals of such intent on England’s
part, is in itself the confession of a bad
conscience. .As for its being a "childish”
performance on the part of the British
government and one that “will inevitably
■prove futile,” as the New Y’ork Times as
serts, time will tell; there is much room
for a contrary opinion.
The fact of the matter is that the toll
exemption, with all respect to a certain
estimable but very mistaken few who sup
ported it, was an outcropping of that
crass and heedless sort of Americanism
which Dickens satirized in ‘‘Martin Chuz
‘zlewit." About the only sort of argu
ment to which a certain type of mind is
susceptible is a demonstration, like that
which England possibly proposes to give,
that if treaties are violated there are
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1913.
peaceful but material ways of "getting
'hack.” That the fair can be carried out
and made a success without the participa
tion of England or Germany, and Russia,
too, la unquestioned, but the absence of
England would nevertheless be conspicu
ous. And. while the exposition is not of
vital importance to the whole country.
England’s course, whether so intended
or not. may well give pause to those
who would not otherwise consider se
riously the moral complexion of our atti
tude. If things work out in this way
there may be more reason to be grateful
for the San Francisco exposition than
ever seemed likely.
As for the ostensible and in itself very
plausible ground on which the English
declination is based, there may be ready
agreement that international expositions
have grown too numerous and that to
exhibit in them costs more than it is
worth. But the enterprising San Frau
eiscans, who apparently will "never take
‘no for an answer.” have much of an
argument in pointing out that this exposi
tion is ou a peculiar basis in celebrating
the opening of new trade routes and com
mercial opportunities. In that sense there
is more reason for it than for any expo
sition held since Columbus landed at San
Salvador, when an exposition would nave
been a trifle premature. The conclusion
to be hoped for is that the discrimination
in canal toils will be repealed and that
John Bull will be conspicuous by his pres
ence, and not by his absence, when the
San Francisco exposition finally opens.
THE SILENT CONCERT.
It is going too far to say, as some have
said, that the concert of Europe no longer
exists. For certain purposes it may even
be as efficacious as ever, and there is no
telling when some readjustment of com
ponent elements may neutralize the inter
nal stresses and strains which for the
past year have frustrated its efforts to deal
with the gravest problem which has con
fronted it in our time.
"The powers" have come in for a deal
of well-meant but quite futile scolding,
both in this country and in Europe, since
trouble began to brew in the Balkans last
summer. They have been treated rather
as though they were a board of aidermen,
called upon to stop a nuisance, and shock
ingly dilatory about it. That there can
be any limitation to the power of “the
•powers” it is difficult for many people to
realize; yet the very critics who treat
them as omnipotent nAke no bones of
calling them feeble, vacillating, cowardly,
etc. J the real case is very different from
that.
It matters not how great a force may
be, if it is neutralized by an equal force
acting in the opposite direction, and that
is the dilemma in which under certain con
ditions and dealing with certain questions,
the European concert finds itself. Under
its old organization, with shifting elements
that could at need be transferred this way
or that, a decisive conclusion could indeed
usually be looked for. and its assembled
embassadors constituted something like a
deliberative body. The treaty of Berlin in
1878 was a sorry muddle, the disastrous
consequences of which are now being har
vested. but it was arrived at by a free
play of forces, and the concert of the pow
ers exerted an authority- then which now
seems quite out of the question.
But the reason for this apparent degen
eration is very simple, and is to be found
in the single word deadlock. Free action
by the combined powers became automat
ically impossible on the day when a mobile
balance of power was replaced by two
great opposed alliances, each acting as a
unit in support of the claims of any of its
members. In such a confrontation there is
no give and take, no possibility of an ef
fective majority on an issue which any of
the six nations takes much to heart.
Of such issues the Balkan question is
full, and the limitations set upon the ac
tivity of the powers are therefore obvious.
Their helpless, dilatory, far niente course,
of which a reproach has been made, is not
to be ascribed to lack either of interest or
of good will, for all Europe wants the
wretched Balkan troubles settled; it is due
rather to the impossibility of finding a ba
sis for common action, while a common
inaction is both easy and relatively safe.
Much as the powers desire peace in the
Balkans, they desjre peace in Europe more,
and this anxiously pacific temper has
helped to neutralize action; it was simpler
to let the fratricidal war go on than to
risk Armageddon.
When the allies declared war on Turkey
the powers were indignantly called upon
to keep Montenegro and the rest from dis
turbing the peace. But to find a majority
for coercing the Christian states was quite
impossible; instead, the powers contented
themselves with favoring the status quo.
When the Turk was forced out, to at
tempt to restore the status quo would have
meant combined action, and was out of
the question; the utmost combined action
could stretch to was insistence upon Scu
tari and a pacific blockade of Montene
gro's pitiful bit of coast.
And now once more the need for com
bined action has come, and found the pow
ers unable to act. They could speak out
boldly enough in warnings to Turkey not
to set foot on the soil that had been taken
from the Turkish empire. But when
Turkey gave no sign of having heard and
invaded Bulgaria as insolently as Monte
negro had invaded Turkey the year before,
the old dilemma recurred. It had been
risky to coerce Montenegro; it was no less
risky to coerce Turkey; in each camp,
moreover, is a power which has special
reasons for not wishing to coerce Turkey.
For years Germany has taken over En
gland's role of "backing the wrong horse."
and a strong position at Constantinople is
the cardinal aim of German diplomacy;
while how little England can afford to
take the lead can readily be seen by a
glance at the immense Mohammedan popu
lation under the British empire.
Thus another deadlock has been the in
evitable result, with the usual sequel of
denunciation that fails to take account of
all that is at stake; it would have been
easy to order the Turk out of Europe
and send an invincible fleet to Constanti
nople. but it would have been dangerous
in the extreme. Europe has been for a
year playing for safety, and stands to
win: it would have been most unwise,
with the end almost in sight to risk any
rupture of the united front 'which only a
carefully negative policy has made pos
sible. The Balkan states now seem hap
pily in a way to. settle their bitter feud,
for the present at least, and when they
once more can act together and Rumania
with them, the problem of the Turkish
frontier will be comparatively simple. If
the concert cannot agree to make war on
Turkey, it has already shown itself able
to ratify a Turkish defeat.
MR WILSON AND NEW YORK.
Anvthing which threatens to break the
control of Tammany hall over New York
city and over the state democracy is of
interest to the whole country. Tammany
may have been worse in the days of
Tweed, or it may be only more clever now,
but its viciousness is accentuated by the
fact that to a large degree there has been
a rebirth of the democratic party and a
dedication to larger public service against
the fulfilment of which the Tammany in
fluence is conspicuously raised. It is now
reported that John Purroy Mitchel, col
lector of the port of New Y’ork, who has
been chosen as a fusion candidate
for the mayoralty, will hare behind
him all the strength of the administra
tion at Washington as “part of a plan to
‘wrest from Tammany its power over the
‘state democratic machinery and build up
‘an independent democracy which would
‘represent more truly the wishes of the
‘rank and file of the party.” It is added
that Mr Mitchel will go into the democratic
primaries and attempt to wrest the regu
lar democratic nomination from Tam
many.
There may be something in all this,
though it sounds like the efforts of a vivid
imagination working during the hot spell
to make facts out of more or less vague
possibilities. The declared position of the
progressives in New Y’ork has been that
they would not support a fusion candi
date too directly related to or identified
with the organization in either of the
older parties. Consequently such admin
istration support for Mi’ Mitchel would
apparently tend to make him unacceptable
in progressive eyes on the ground that the
progressives were being urged to join a
fusion movement not merely to elect a
mayor of New York, but to help rehabili
tate the democratic party in the state.
Naturally there are other things in which
the progressives would be more interested.
As the leader of the revitalized democracy
and wholly without memories of what hap
pened at Baltimore, President Wilson
could only rejoice in anything tending to
minimize the influence of Tammany hall
and Charles Francis Murphy, though
be obviously has not the reason for taking
a hand in New York politics that he had
in those of New Jersey.
But it has before now dawned upon
some who have opposed Mr Wilson that
he is a shrewd politician. It is obvious
at the present moment that an effort cy
the administration to take advantage of
the fusion movement in New York would
be very likely to prove, through rhe dis
sensions it might cause, the very thing
that would continue Tammany hall in con
trol of the city government. Mr Wilson
may safely be given credit for being quite
well aware of this.
A meeting of the fusion committee of 107
was to be held last night in the none too
confident hope of agreeing before morn
ing upon a candidate from the three in the
field, McAheny, Mitchel and Whitman.
Should the committee have surpassed ex
pectations and succeeded in making a
choice, and that choice have been other
than Mitchel, all these speculations will
have' been laid low. But as long as Mitchel
remains in the field his possible relation
to the administration will command atten
tion.
THE DEMANDS ON BULGARIA.
The reported demands of the allies upon
Bulgaria follow closely the lines suggest
ed by The Republican July 14 at the time
of the Rumanian invasion. It was then
pointed out that it would he needful, if
Bulgaria is not to be bottled up almost
as badly as Servia has been, to grant ter
a bit of coast on the Aegean, as an offset
to the strip of Black sea coast Rumania
wants. The concession cannot have been
easy, for Greece has an insatiable appe
tite for sea coast, but the report from
Bucharest is that the allies offer to yield
Dedeagatch for a Bulgarian port, with
some 15 miles to either side, provided the
Enos-Midia Turkish frontier is not al
tered.
This is a pitiful substitute for what
Bulgaria had expected, for she had clearly
counted upon seizing the whole Aegean
coast from Salonica to Enos, and it would
leave Greece not only the splendid port
of Salonica, commercially almost as im
portant as Constantinople, but Kavala,
which is the second best port on the coast
and in the heart of the tobacco country,
where the tobacco for “Egyptian” cig
arets is grown. Nevertheless, Dedeagatch
can be developed as a port and it would
give Bulgaria the Mediterranean frontage
which she commercially needs. Nor would
her net gain in territory be inconsider
able. always provided Rumania’s demands
are moderate and the Turk is forced to
give back the whole of the recaptured
territory in Thrace.
In fact, simply as a piece of map-mak
ing and ignoring ethnical issues, the terms
proposed by the allies have some strong
points. It would be a real gain for Ru
mania to have a scientific frontier near
the Black sea. Bulgaria would he left
strong and compact, its boundary line
trending southeast from its present south
west corner along the Rhodope mountains
to a point, on the coast 15 miles west of
Dedeagatch. With Thrace its accessions
would be greater than was counted upon
at the outset of the war with Turkey.
Greece would on the whole fare best,
not in extent of territory gained, but in
its value, and its gains in the Aegean
would more than offset what the powers
refused to allow in Albania. Servia would
get the whole of the debatable zone in
northern Macedonia, and a considerable
territory south of that, the frontier to
he settled with Greece, with whose co
operation Servia would have at Salonia
the outlet, she sought in vain on the
.Adriatic: perhaps the projected ship canal
in the Vardar valley, from the Danube
to the Aegean, might be put through,
giving ships of 1000 tons a route shorter
by 1600 miles from the Baltic to Suez
than the Gibraltar route.
If the countries concerned were mere
pawns on a chessboard it would be a
very pretty and symmetrical arrange
ment. The difficulty is in the popula
tion. Thrace, which Bulgaria takes, is
argely Turkish; the part of Macedonia
which Servia would take is largely Bul-
garian. On the other hand, if Bulgaria
had won it would have seized the coast
settlements, which are largely Greek,’ An
ideal settlement, in short, is not to be
looked for. These mixed populations sim
ply cannot be sorted out and recombined
into distinct nations. However the lines
are drawn, there must be many under
alien rule.
The only remedy, then, and it may be
slow and difficult, must be the evolution
of tolerance and fair dealing. Inflamed
patriotism, race prejudice, and religious
bigotry combine to make this difficult, and
the recent wars and massacres have
kindled new hatred that will not soon die
out. Yet this is the indispensable thing
in the Balkans, and if all the governments
concerned are wise enough to adopt a
liberal policy and strong enough to en
force it, a long forward step will have |
been taken. But it will require sharp
measures, for these rancors permeate the
whole people, and the outrages of the past
have largely been of popular origin, and
without strict governmental control the
feud would remain chronic.
That the settlement will precisely fol
low the terms of the announced draft
need not be assumed, and the general rule
in such cases is to be content with some
thing less than what is demanded. Fur
ther concessions would have to be mainly
at the expense of Greece, which must
have had a wrench in parting with even
30 miles of coast, but all could yield
something for the sake of making Bul
garia’s position tolerable. The necessity
for that has been felt by the allies, and
if the boundaries suggested have been
correctly reported from Bucharest, the
terms imposed, while severe, are less
harsh than many had been led to fear.
THE NEW STATE BOARD,
Gov Foss has taken some time to name
the five persons who are to constitute the
new board of labor and industries, and he
would appear to have made a good job of
it. It is less easy to perfect a rightly
constituted body of this sort than some of
the executive’s critics imagine. Not every
one wanted will consent to serve. tor
chairman James A. Lowell of Newton, a
lawyer and former member of the House,
is selected, term five years; the four-years’
member is James W. Crook, professor of
economics at Amherst; the employer of
labor, term three years, is Channing Smith
of Leicester, woolen manufacturer; the rep
resentative of labor, term two years, is
William Acton of Fall River; and the
woman member, Mrs Davis R- Dewey of
Cambridge. The Western Massachusetts
member of this state board is of the first
order of ability.
This board, when confirmed by the ex
ecutive council, is to have an important
mission. Upon it will devolve the en
forcement of the many labor laws of
Massachusetts. It is td appoint and stand
behind a commissioner 1 of labor, who will
devote all his : time to the work for which
the board is responsible, and receive a
salary of not Mess than SSOOO nor more
than S7OOO. Chairman Lowell will be
paid SISOO and the other members SIOOO
each. The commissioner, or executive
agent of the commission, will be given two
deputies. .
The delay in appointing this board has
left nobody since June 1. empowered to
enforce the laws regulating the employ
ment of women and children. That author
ity was taken away from the state board
of health on that date and reposed in the
nonexistent body now in the way cf being
established—but there is no reason for be
lieving that any harm has resulted in the
interval. The governor has been entirely
justified in proceeding with care sufficient
to produce results that were satisfactory
to him.
THE HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY.
More is at stake in the fight over the
Hetch-Hetchy valley than the preservation
of a single scenic wonder and natural
recreation ground which, as a part of the
Yosemite national park, now belongs to
the whole people. A principle is involved,
and if the effort of the San Francisco
city government to turn the beautiful val
ley into a reservoir should succeed, our
national parks and other reservations
throughout the country would be in jeop
ardy whenever a commercial spirit dis
covered in them something to be gained.
A recognition that park spaces are worth
far more to cities than the taxes they
might yield if turned to profit under pri
vate ownership has been established; nor
is there question that the sentiment of
the country, could it be fully awakened
to the facts of the case, would similarly
demand the preservation of those more ex
tended spaces which, as time goes on, will
mean increasingly to the nation at large
what, the smaller parks do to the crowded
thousands in the cities. In the wholly un
needed surrender of a wonderful heritage
of Nature there would be a lasting re
flection on the national idealism and an
ominous sign.
It has been fully appreciated by sane
participants in the general conservation
movement that sentiment must not be al
lowed to run away with common sense.
They have felt that the thing most to be
avoided is any well founded suspicion
that the movement is controled by senti
ment rather than reason. Consequently
when the question of the Hetch-Hetchy
valley first came up, such persons, not
yet familiar with the facts, were regret
fully inclined to the view that if a real
need cbuld be shown other considerations
must be waived. But the fundamental
fact is that no need has been shown. On
the contrary the army engineers, acting
as professional investigators- as in the
case of projected river or .harbor im
provements, have reported that there are
other water sources lying nearer Sau
Francisco that would prove adequate to
the city’s needs. Possibly it would cost
more to develop them; possibly it would
cost less; and very clearly it would be
less of an advertisement for the city than
the grandiose plan of the reservoir back
in the beautiful valley in the Sierras.
Final consideration of this matter has
now been begun before the House com
mittee. Representative Underwood's sug
gestion ■ that there should be an annual
payment from San Francisco to the fed
eral government for the privileges sought,
would have merit if there were any good
reason for granting those privileges. But
there is no such reason. The members
of the committee, and the members of
Congress, are the . trustees of the whole
people in this matter, and they should
study the case well before they sign away
the people’s rights. Let the protest of the
country be heard and heeded.
SITUATION IN THE WEST.
Another observer reporting upon busi
ness conditions is Charles P. Light, assist
ant to the president of the American road
| congress, who has been traveling through
i the western states rounding up exhibitors
for the annual convention in Detroit, the
latter part of September. Maj J. C. Hemp
hill writes the Philadelphia Public Ledger
from Washington about what Mr Light's
western trip revealed to him. He covered
seven states and tells a story of progress
and prosperity:—
Everybody is busy. Collections are a
little slow in some places, but business is
moving in a most encouraging way. There
is plenty of work, but there are not enough
workers. I heard a good many complaints
of a scarcity of labor; but there is a full
dinner pail for every man who will wo'k.
Five years ago the sales of Portland ce
ment aggregated 25,000,000 barrels; in the
fiscal year just ended, the sales reached
80,000,000 barrels. This one item will give
some idea of the constructive work going
on in the country. One of the automobile
manufacturers in Detroit, at whose fac
tory one complete machine ready for the
road is turned out every 40 seconds, has
been so much encouraged with the state
of the country and the growth of his busi
ness that he has placed an order for 125,-
000 barrels of cement for the extension of
his works and after the first of next April
expects to give employment to 35,000 men.
It was the same song of triumph every
where I went, and nobody was talking
hard times or bothering much about poli
tics, but everybody was talking business
and “big business” at that.
It has been said that a traveler sees that
which he is best qualified to observe, and
Mr Light’s mind was on roadmaking and
automobiles.
But when it came to politics Mr Light's
viewpoint was that of a republican who
voted for Mr Taft last November. He dis
covered no drawing together of the wings
which once constituted the grand old
party, and regards it as “a 2-to-l shot that
‘if Woodrow Wilson will accept the nom
ination for a second term he will be eiect
‘ed hands down. He is really ‘the whole
‘cheese,’ as Maj Hunter would say, and
‘I heard nothing but praise for him among
‘the men I talked to about the present ad
‘ministration at Washington, not as in any
‘sense a part of my own business, but just
‘to find out how the country felt”
The sum of this report concerning seven
western states therefore is that the peo
ple, without regard to party lines, have
formed a very favorable estimate of Presi
dent Wilson. Those who are disposed to
carry this inquiry anywhere throughout
the country will find the same feeling
among the people. It is clear that Mr
Wilson has impressed the country by his
high purpose and capacity for achieving
results. No man is infallible, but the
people like their president and are dis
posed to trust him.
REFORM IN EGYPT.
An important step has been taken to
ward correcting the anomalous and trying
position of Egypt, under which the people
have been increasingly restive. Nominally
it is a fief of the sultan of Turkey, under,
the rule of his viceroy, the khedive. Ac
tually it is a protectorate of England,
which does not own it but acts as if she
did; from the Turkish point of view it was
anomalous during the war with Italy not
to be able to send, reinforcements by land
through its own property. From the
Egyptian point of view, between landlord
and lessee there have been too many for
eign masters, and the native has had no
chance in his own country.
Plans for a new constitution have been
for some time on foot, and were outlined
by Sir E. Grey in the House of Commons
last June; on July 21 the formal announce
ment was made. The chief purpose has
been to give legal regularity to a govern
ment which has been a mere provisional
working arrangement, with little sanction
except the fact that England was there
and meant to stay. In a protectorate things
are rarely what they seem, but seldom
have the show and the substance been so
inextricably confused as in Egypt.
By the new plan a long step will be tak
en toward representative government. The
khedive’s legislative council and general
assembly are to be abolished and will be
replaced by a legislative. Assembly, with
66 elected members and 17 appointed. For
the first time Egypt will have, a Legisla
ture authorized to initiate legislation, con
stitutional questions alone being withheld
from its scope. Jhe next step sought will
doubtless be the extinction of the shadowy
remains of the sultan’s suzerainty, now
consisting chiefly of the payment of tribute;
and it is understood that negotiations to
that end have been going on between En
gland and Turkey.
With Turkish ownership must pass the
vexatious “capitulations” granted by the
sultan to foreigners in Egypt, special priv
ileges which are not only humiliating to
the Egyptians but a hindrance to English
government there, limiting authority at
many points, and interfering, for example,
with sanitary measures and with the sup
pression of the traffic in women for which
Egypt has been notorious. When these
more comprehensive measures have been
taken, of which the new constitution is a
part. Egypt’s position will be normalized,
and as a dependency of Great Britain, en.
joying an increasing measure of self-gov
eminent, there should be little cause for
seditiofi or complaint.
That in economic and financial matters
England has done very well by Egypt is
generally recognized. Its government has
been just except as justifiable discontent
has been dealt with in a harsh and arbi
trary way, the poor have been protected in
some measure from extortion, agriculture
and industry have been helped, the Soudan
hag been subdued, and the Assouan dam,
one of the engineering triumphs of the
age, has reclaimed a great area to agricul
ture and furnished subsistence for a vast
new population. If, on the political side
government has been Jess satisfactory, it
has been in great part because England
has only been a tenant, getting on as well
as might be With makeshift conditions.
There was the work to do, and English
men. did, it. with little concern fbr forms,
and not too much regard for the feelings
of natives. Yet the rising tide of popular
resentment in Egypt has been obvious, and
England has long been trying to find a
way to satisfy public feeling; this new
constitution will be helpful to that end.
The future of Egypt must depend, of
course, bn the future of English empire.
If anything should crack, Egypt might well
■
be the first to go. for its defense rests' ab
solutely ou sea power. In times of partic
there have been calls for a bigger gafrison.
but as cooler-headed strategists have
pointed out, that would merely mean the’
loss of. more men; Egypt cannot be defend,
ed by an army if the navy fails. By Tariff,
the chief source of possible attack is Tur
key. and German militarists, have fdr that
reason laid stress on Turkey as a possible
| ally, but danger from that soqrce is now
I unlikely. Egypt, however, has see.n many
proud empires to bed, and is likely to wit-”
ness the dissolution of many another- As
long as the Nile runs to the sea there will
be “corn in Egypt,".and it wquld fie rash
to suppose that its people who. have
changed masters so often, will see no' far
ther upheavals. For this is the land of
Ozymandias, king of kings.
A QUESTION FOR REPUBLICANS.
Charles F. Brooker of Ansonia, the
Connecticut member of the republican na
tional committee, is reported in a cable
gram from Paris to the Chicago Daily ‘
News as believing that the republican
party will change its name before the
next presidential election. Mr Brooker ,
is quoted as adding “if such a change
’is made the name probably will
’be the conservative party. That is the
‘word, anyway, that would best describe
‘it.” Coming from a veteran as cautious
in speech as Mr Brooker, this ranks
fairly well as political gossip in times
both hot and dull. Possibly much travel
among old ruins has been a stimulant to
his imagination. But after the political.,
upheaval of last year it will be well not
to be too dogmatie in declaring him a poor
prophet, even though his prophecy now
seems unlikely of early fulfilment, to. say
the least. All sorts of things may happen,
and it is well to have reservations as to
what the moon is made of.
The anomalous situation of American
politics which developed as an aftermath
of the civil war has long given rise to
speculation as to when and how a more
rational party division might be brought
about. Before the progressive party was
born as a result of that "stolen nomina
‘tion,” shrewd thinkers, noting the split
in republican ranks, had predicted the
eventual establishment of a new party, in
some cases giving it the name it has since
taken, which should appeal to those
southerners who remain democrats, not so
much through love of the democracy as
because of the prejudice and associa
tions which linger around the name of
“republican.” If the republican half
breeds of radical tendencies are able by ’
a change of party name to attract south
ern voters of their turn of thought, it
stands equally to reason that the re
publicans of conservative tendencies by
similar change of name might attract
to their standard southerners of another
type.
This idea evidently appeals to Mr
Brooker with considerable force, as he
observes that “this very name of repub
‘lican seems to antagonize a large south
‘ern element whose interests otherwise are
‘identical with ours.” But while he ex
pects to see the change he regrets it. . ,
Assuming that the adoption of the'
name “conservative” might bring into the
fold a number of southerners, it is pretty
certain that the dropping of the name .
“republican” would mean the loss of a.
much greater number of northerners. The
old democrat of the country district in
the South who goes to the polls regularly
to vote for Andrew Jackson, is a familiar
theme of caricature. But that blind de
votion to an institution or a name is no
stronger than that of many a republican
born and bred in the faith and nursed on
the traditions of the civil war. The re
publican party must find its strength and
fight for its existence, provided it is as
seriously menaced as some folks seem to
think, in the northern states at the next ‘
presidential election. The time for it
to adventure in the hope of gaining sup
port in the Sonth will not have arrived
until it has met and survived the test
in its home country. Still. Mr Brooker
must have had a pleasant trip.
THAT AMERICAN “TRICK.”
The charge of. an anonymous writer in
one of the London papers that the Ameri
can tennis team won the Davis cup through
a “trick,”—namely, McLoughlin’s remark
able development of the smash and serve
should not weigh against the notably cor
dial and sportsmanlike reception which the
American players have received. Those
who take the assertion as a text for the
counter charge that the English are poor'
losers will be showing as little judgment
as the complainant. It is always possible
to find a crank among a given number
of us.
At the same time it is true that Mc-
Loughlin’s play is in a sense overdeveloped
on one side and underdeveloped upon an
other. It would have been sufficient for
the English critic to point out that it was
this comparative weakness in the less
spectacular department of the game that
cost McLoughlin the victory in his match.
with Wilding for the All-England cham
pionship, as it did later in his Davis cup.
match with Parke. In tennis, as in most
other things, the highest success has con
sistently gone to the man Who, by a stu^y
of detail, has made himself a master in
all departments. It is to be hoped, how-,
ever, that the young American, whose
modesty in victory and good nature in de
feat seem Io have earned him exceptional
favor with British audiences, will patiently
develop bis play where it is now weak.
For if he should bring his other strokes
to a standard at all approaching that cf
his smashing and service, there would ap
parently be no question of his supremacy,,
even over that redoubtable New Zealander,
Mr Wilding.
A more telling criticism of McLough
lin’s game than that uttered by the some
what ill-tempered writer to the London
Standard, lids been that McLoughlin’s
play, if modeled wholly upon his present,
methods, could scarcely improve with the
passing years, since it primarily depends
upon an astonishing amount of the most
violent physical exertion. This he could
hardly hope to increase, or even to main
tain indefinitely. Yet one of the best qual
ities claimed for tennis as a sport bps
been that, given sufficient practice ahd
ordinary health, a crack player is qiiite
as likely to be at his best over 30 as un
der. In other years the honors in England
have been carried off by men over 40, add
Larned, possibly the most celebrated at