Those people who are groaniug under the ...

Those people who are groaning under the burden of trusts- and they comprise nearly every consumer - should carefully consider Havemeyer's assertion that the tariff is the mother of this pestilent brood.

The new commander of the G. A. R., Albert A. Shaw announces that he is on the war path for higher pensions. What if the pension roll is large, he says. He declares that if the burden becomes too heavy then bonds should be issued so made that only the interest would be paid from year to year. He thinks it would be altogether proper for posterity to be saddled with the debt. More and higher pensions! Why not? With present legislation in full operation, can there be more than one side to this question?

Yesterday's proceedings of the Trust Conference indicate that there is to be a fight to a finish between the champions of the great evil and its opponents. The meet is apparently to be handled somewhat after the style of a political convention. There are students of the question in attendance who are able to throw much light on this important question, if the discussion can be conducted in a way to give enlightenment to the public; but if the conference is to be a purely partisan affair, the public will be little benefited.

It is reported that Gen. Otis has been reading the newspaper attacks upon him and that, as a result, he is furious and declares, if Washington does not relieve him, he will relieve himself. If he has just got on to the opinion of himself held in this country, it would seem that the papers reaching him must heretofore have been censored. If so, he now knows how it is to have the facts withheld. It is to be hoped he will persevere in his ambition to relieve himself in case Washington fails to do so. This would redoubt to his credit as much as anything he has thus far done in the Philippines.

A change seems to be coming over the minds of many as to the soundness of the old adage that "competition is the life of trade." This growing change has undoubtedly come out of the great combinations and trusts in their efforts to destroy competition. That the extreme of competition works harm is probably true. It destroys the profits of business and degrades labor. Competition is like most other principles in industrial affairs- when excessive, it becomes an evil. So the spirit of co-operation has arisen to take its place. But it is not yet demonstrated that the evils of combinations and trusts are not still greater. If the good of reasonable and proper competition can be retained along with the good features of the trusts, the result would be greatly to the advantage of the public, no doubt; but thus far the effort to avoid the evils of excessive competition by turning to trusts has apparently resulted in still greater evils.

Emile Zola has come to the front again in the Dreyfus case. He calls the second conviction a moral Sedan for France, a hundred fold more disastrous than the Sedan of September, 1870. His trenchant pen did much to awaken sentiment in France in favor of a new trial for Dreyfus, and he suffered for his boldness, being tried and convicted and sentenced to pay a heavy fine and undergo imprisonment. He left his country rather than suffer imprisonment as a result of such a trial as was given him. But he had aroused a sentiment which went on gathering force until the conspirators of the army were compelled to see a new trial accorded Dreyfus. But as the trial was by a court martial, the malignity of the military caste was still strong enough to prevent the doing of justice. Zola will continue to fight for justice.

The action of the British harbor department at Hongkong in holding the transport Tartar may be unprecedented, but, if reports of her overloading be true, their action is in the interest of human lives. It is said, according to the methods of determining capacity, the vessel should have been loaded with 750 men or, at the outside, 824 whereas it actually has on board 1,203 passengers. English law is much more exacting respecting all methods of transportation than American law. All sorts of conveyances here are greatly overloaded. Street cars are never considered loaded as long as there is room for another person to hang on the outside. Steam cars and steam vessels are often equally crowded.

This hold-up of the Tartar may prove a valuable lesson to the Washington authorities. It is said there has been gross overcrowding of transports throughout the war, and it is remarkable that no calamity has resulted. But if a calamity should result from such carelessness, somebody would have a fearful accountability. These greatly overcrowded transports, it is said, have no additional safety appliances, so if an accident should happen there would be an appalling loss of life. The Washington authorities should learn the lesson forced upon them by the British harbor department at Hongkong,