The qoestion of how Wheeler would voto 0...
The question of how Wheeler would vote on senator is settled. He voted for Burrows. He couldn't help himself.
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Gov Pingree advocates the income tax. An income tax is the fairest tax that can be levied and the legislature would do well to give heed to his recommendations.
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Undoubtedly Hon. A. J. Sawyer feels happy. He was going to Lansing to help elect a speaker and from the returns he evidently assisted. Speaker Adams is anti-Pingree.
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It is now intimated that Albert Pack will not be the Pingree candidate for senator in 1900 but that the candidate will be Pingree himself. Watch the fur fly when Pingree and McMillan lock horns, each for himself.
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Few office holders, it is said, die and none resign. This statement needs revision as Postmaster J. D. Shull, of Tecumseh, has just resigned after being postmaster for only a year. Evidently he did not find official life as much to his liking as he thought he would.
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It is alleged that Speaker Adams, while he was in the promising business, made about two promises of every place he has at his disposal. These promises are now like Banquo's ghost. The faithful are pressing for the rewards of their service and Adams' troubles are just beginning.
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It is said that 10 members of the house at Lansing gave their word in black and white that they would vote for both Adams and Carton. These documentary evidences have been compared and now it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for those 10 to get desirable committee appointments.
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According to the report of Commissioner of Railroads Wesselius, the Merriman railroad tax law added a little more than $200,000 to the state's exchequer the past year. That is a good beginning, but several more like increases should be added before these co porations will be bearing the same rate of taxation as private property.
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Pingree had 75,000 majority. The people knew his views on the question of the senatorship. He talked it from the stump. The people who voted for him still are with him and yet Burrows received a unanimous nomination for senator at the hands of the republican legislature. It will be hard, to reconcile this choice with the will of the people.
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There was a regular love feast at Lansing after the Burrows forces had knocked the stuffing out of hizzexcellency in his ambition to control the organization of the house and the election of a United States senator. Pack was voted a jolly good fellow, as was everybody else - no, not everybody else, one exception - and he was informed that he was not the game their were after at all.
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The Vermont Central railway, by the grace of Governor Smith of that state, now has a representative in the United States senate. The appointee; Mr. Fifield, has never held any public position, but has been the chief legal advisor of the above mentioned corporation for a long term of years. If this does not cause the shade of Justin R. Morrill to return to earth then it will furnish conclusive evidence that there is no such thing.
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There are strong indications that an electric railway will soon be built to Saline. Ypsilanti is making a strong effort to get this road. But it should not be built from that point and will not be, if Ann Arbor people get a hustle on them.
There is little occasion for an electric line from Saline to Ypsilanti. But Saline has close business relations with Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor being the county seat there is necessarily ranch to bring Saline people here.
A direct route would, therefore save them much time and expense in getting here. It is practically a two days' journey to get here now. unless you drive, but with the projected electric road it would be a matter of about 30 minutes.
If Saline has regard for her own interests, she will, in furthering this project, demand that the connection be direct
with Ann Arbor.
Senator Quay, of Pennsylvania, seems pretty sure of a good job for some time to come. He is under indictment by a grand jury. He has also been renominated for the United States senate by a majority of the republican membership of the legislature.
Fifty-five members bolted the canons, however, and swear long and loud that they will not vote for him if he is sent to the penitentiary.
If he escapes the pen, however, they stand ready to boost him into the senate again. He has not clearly indicated his preference as yet. Probably it matters little to him so long as he has a job.
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The New York Herald recently published interviews with 500 of the leading newspapers of the country relative to their attitude on the question of expansion. Of the 241 republican papers interviewed, 203 were for expansion and 38 against. One hundred and seventy-four democratic papers were interviewed. Fifty favored expansion and 124 opposed. Of the 55 independent papers interviewed, 35 favored and 20 opposed. In the division by sections, the south appears as the only one opposed to expansion, the vote standing 55 to 64 against. New England is for it by a vote of 61 to 42. The States of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania voted for expansion by 63 to 36. New York stood 43 for expansion to 17 against.
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The selection of Adams for speaker of the house at Lansing practically settled the United States senatorship. It meant the return of J. C. Burrows to the senate. Just why this result should surprise anyone, is not easy to understand. From the reports, as to senatorial preferences of the republican candidates for the legislature last fall, if any reliance was to be placed upon the newspaper classifications, this result was pretty plainly foreshadowed.
Those who claimed that Burrows' defeat was easy, were whistling to keep their spirits up. They certainly never really deceived themselves into that belief. In all probability this throw down of Pingree will extend far beyond the election of a United States senator who is antagonistic to him.
It probably means also the defeat of his taxation plans and Pingreeism in general. While Pingree has many good ideas which have attracted people to him, he is erratic and radical and not the kind of a man the people will tie to for any considerable time. He is a product of the peculiar time we have been passing through.
During such times the people turn to any expedient which promises relief. But what relief from any of their ills have they experienced from Pingreeism?
His administration has lacked dignity, if not decency. It has teamed with abuse of every other department of the government. It has been expensive beyond" compare. He has accomplished absolutely nothing to date in the people's interest. His claims to preferment rest entirely upon promises. The country is rapidly getting back to normal conditions.
Pingreeism cannot therefore last.
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As a result of the differences between the Chicago school board and Supt. Andrews, the city is likely to experience a revolution in the management of its school matters. Some time ago a committee of seven lawyers was appointed to draft a law which would best conserve the city's educational interests. This committee has reported a proposed law providing for a board of eleven members to be appointed by the mayor and hold office for four years.
The reduction in the number of members of the board is in itself an important improvement, but the most radical innovation is the purpose to divide the administration of school affairs between two responsible heads.
The superintendent of schools is to be appointed by the board . for a term of six years and he is to have full charge and control of all purely educational functions, including the arrangement of all courses of study and the appointment of all teachers from a properly certified list, that is, from a list of persons who have passed a prescribed examination.
A business manager is also to be appointed by the board for a term of six years and must give bond for the proper discharge of his duties. He is to have charge of purely business matters such as the employment of janitors and purchasing all supplies. He also awards contracts and makes repairs at any cost not exceeding $200.
If this proposition becomes law and is administered in its spirit it will work a very desirable change in the handling of school affairs. It will remove school matters from the domain of politics and place thein upon a sound business basis, thus insuring the highest efficiency and the greatest returns for the money expended upon them. An effort will no doubt be made at the present session of the legislature to repeal the beet sugar bounty law of 1897. Should the law be repealed an interesting and expensive question will be raised with those who have embarked in the beet sugar business under the promise contained in the law that the bounty should continue seven years.
There is probably little doubt but that the state would be stuck for the bounty. And judging from the cost to the state of the first batch of sugar turned out by the Bay City factory this will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Bay City factory was paid $13,000 in bounties. The bounty law never ought to have been passed. If the state desired information on the beet sugar question, it should have made its own investigations as has been done by some of the southern states.
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Evidences accumulate of a serious condition of things in the Philippines. It is apparent also that the administration hesitates to proceed to extremities with the Filipinos, because of some understanding between our officials and Aguinaldo whereby they were to be treated as allies.
If there was such an understanding, it is doubtful whether Gen. Miller would be justified in making an attack on Iloilo. This town was captured and is held by the natives, our officers having no hand in the matter. If the natives are, therefore, allies, it would be manifestly improper to attack them for assisting our cause, at least until we have acquired title to the islands. That there will be serious trouble with Aguinaldo before peace is restored, however, is becoming more apparent every day.
Having driven Spain out we shall now in all probability inherit her fight with the natives. If this proves true we shall need a much larger land force than we have there.
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Gov. Pingree submitted a strong message to the legislature yesterday and one of the longest ever written by a Michigan governor. The message praises the educational advantages offered by Michigan ; speaks well of state institutions and recommends a central board of control for them ; says more stringent laws are needed for the regulation of insurance companies, suggests a closer supervision over building and loan associations, advocates repeal of special charters of certain railroad companies, argues for equal taxation, suggests remedies for franchise grabbing ; tells of the results of trusts and combines; deplores expansion and imperialism; advocates - government ownership of railroads; takes the. side of commercial fishermen and would abolish the closed season ; would pay persons wrongfully convicted of crime and afterwards proved to be innocent; favors an eight-hour law ; recommends that all candidates be nominated by a direct vote of the electors ; pays big respects to tax-title dealers ; praises record of Michigan troops in the late war; congratulates Gen. Alger; urges the appointment of a fire warden for the state, and believes in having women members of advisory boards of state institutions.
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If it be true as reported that the United States government is endeavoring to enlist Prof. D. C. Worcester, of the university, in its service in the Phillipines, it reflects credit upon the administration.
If we are to hold these islands and govern them for the good of their people and our own credit, the more of such men as Prof. Worcester and Dr. Bourns, who is already in the service at Manila, that the government can induce to go there in an official capacity the better. They have spent much time on the islands and are familiar with the conditions there. They have been among the people and are acquainted with their habits and general characteristics. They are not politicians but scholarly, high toned, professional gentlemen who would labor for the highest good of the service.
Much of our success or failure in governing the Phillipines will depend upon the personal of the officials we send there. If they are of the silk of the carpet baggers who went into the southern states during reconstruction days we may expect the attitude of the islanders toward us to be the same as it has been toward their Spanish rulers.
On the other hand if the officials sent there are of the quality of the above mentioned gentlemen, the natives will be treated fairly and be given a just and equitable government, whereby their confidence will be secured and the problem of their control will be greatly simplified.
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We will invoice in a short time.
From now until then we offer our goods at lower prices to reduce stock. An investigation will prove to you that the above statement is a fact.
Respectfully Yours
MARTIN HALLER
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Old News
Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat