A great many persons would be glad to be...

A great many persons would be glad to be guilty of conduct unbecoming au officer and a gentleman if it wonldVelieve them from work and not interfere with their pay. - Detroit Tribune.

Caucuses and conventions are devices for robbing the people of their voice in the politics of the nation. They should be abolished. All preliminary steps to an election should be prescribed by law. Candidates for office should be selected at a primary election and by means of a secret ballot.

There is a very pretty three-cornered contest on at Lansing just now, with hizzexcellency at one corner, the legislature at another, and the lobbyists at the third. The good governor is using lurid language to warn the legislature against the lobbyists and the people against the legislature. The legislature seems to take kindly and tenderly to the lobbyists, but in vigorous English warns the people against hizzexcellency. The lobbyists in the meantime appear to be getting on well with the solons but they earnestly entreat them to keep their weather eye on Pingree. After all, it is the theory of our government to balance one department against another.

 Now the law offices of the government declare that the commutation of the sentence of General Eagan by President McKinley means simply that he is to continue to draw his salary for six years without having any duties to perform: that the duties will be performed by another general who will only receive the pay of his lower rank and that at the expiration of the six years Eagan will be reinstated without prejudice. The first reports of the president's action led to the supposition that the suspension for six years meant something more than relief from duty on full pay in fact that it means loss of all pay during the time of suspension. If the latter reports give the facts, then the president's action is an outrage. lt amounts to giving the disgraced officer a leave of absence for six years on full pay and places a premium on the disreputable conduct of Gen. Eagan. During his suspension, he will draw $33,000 without doing a stroke of work and will then go on the retired list at an annual salary of $4,125. All that he will lose will be his commutation of quarters amounting to $720 a year.

A court of inquiry has been ordered by the president to investígate the allegations of Gen. Miles as to the quality of beef furnished the army. From the persistency of Gen. Miles in reiterating these charges, it is safe to conclude that a court of inquiry is 'what he wanted. This persistence left but one course open to the president. General Miles has the evidence to back up his charges or he is a very foolish man. The responsibility he has assumed is a weighty one and he must prove his charges or his military career is ended. If his charges are true, the contractors who furnished the poisoned meat, to the army have a very thin partition between their act and treason. If Miles has not the proof, he should certainly be removed from the command of the army.

It is said that the findings of the commission that has been investigating the war are in effect that the beef was all right. This, however, will carry very little weight with a large number of people. There has been suspicion all along that this commission would find just what it was expected to find. The public is interested only in finding the truth and in having justice done in accordance herewith.

There is a fine exhibition in the house of representatives at Washington just now of Reedism. There are two bills in the hands of the committee providing for the construction of an interoceanic canal. According to reports, Speaker Reed is opposed to these measures. But he does not stop with his absolute right to oppose them. He goes further and proposes. to prevent their being considered by the house at all. How can he do it? This way: He has so constructed the committee on rules that he holds the balance of power. Now, no bill can be brought before the house except the committee on rules brings in a rule authorizing it. Reed will not permit such a rule to be brought in. Why don't the other members kick over the traces? They are afraid of the party lash. Then, such a course might give aid and comfort to the opposition. The principle involved has little weight with politicians under such circumstances.

Here is a fine exhibition of the working of popular government. The majority under our governmental system is supposed to rule. But the majority in the house has submitted its neck to the yoke of the committee on rules. This committee in turn dons the collar and chain of the speaker and the question whether the representatives of the people shall consider any bill or not rests in his gracious pleasure. The boss seems to be indigenous to democratic government. Occasionally the people rise up in virtuous indignation over the political wrongs they suffer and depose the boss, but they soon find themselves under the leadership of another. The authorities of the Michigan Agricultural College are recommended to take a view of the corresponding Minnesota institution. This school has attained that which the Michigan college has always lacked, a high standing and great popularity among the farmers, and has so impressed its work upon its students that 95 percent of them return to the farms. The institution has, in large degree, actually solved the problem of how to check the rush of young men from the farms to the cities. It is the most popular of the state schools of Minnesota. Tho university authorities state frankly that the popularity of the agricultural school is always depended upon as a very material help in pulling through the university appropriations. The school is connected with the university and any studies that the agricultural students take outside of the purely agricultural courses are taken in the university. Every opportunity is offered, therefore, for a liberal education. Any technical school which so impresses its work upon its students as to hold so large a percentage in its calling is certainly a success from the standpoint of the purposes leading to its establishment. Its instruction must be good and its methods up to date and such as have practical value. The success of the Minnesota institution evidently lies in its organization and management. There are 65 colleges of agriculture and mechanic acts in the United States but there are few, if any, that can make any such showing as this one. Many of them have various courses of instruction added on to draw students and appropriations, but few of them can make any such showing as the Minnesota college. They apparently educate their students away from agriculture instead of paring them better for it. Of course, it is always right for young men to make the most of their opportunities and do the best they can for themselves, and so, many will leave the calling in which they were brought up and seek their fortunes in others; but a school which educates away from the calling, preparation for which led to its creation. is certainly not a success from that point of view. But judged by bis standard the Minnesota agricultural school is deserving of high commendation.