A Comprehensive Letter From John

Swinton's Washington correspondent on the subject of our financial legislation last winter, ends by saying: "The great question to the workingman is not whether he shall have a good or a poor dollar, but whether he shall have a dollar at all. The dollar is so good now that, aocording tothe report of the labor bureau, a nnllion capable working peo pie can 't get a chance to earn one. How much better must it be made before another million of workingrnen must be hung np." An impression has gone abroad that the studente in the law department were no better posted than if they had never attended a course of lectures. The reaeon for so much talk just now is because a person in this city who is correspondent for the Evening News and reporter on the Argus, has seen fit to malign the students and professors of the law department. As far as we have been able to get at the truth of the matter, the facts seem to be that this man was refused admittance to the senior class this year, for good and auflicient reasons, known to the faculty, and to get evon he has seen fit to scatter broadcast, through the News, a bare-faced lie, which has already reaoted with telling force on the author. K. F. Traveliok: The average wages paid a factory hand, a day laborer, or a mechanic, through the entire year, only amounts tp f rom $340 to $377. Now, if you turn to the United States census you will flnd that in collecting facts the census places the number of the average workingman's family at tive persons, two párente and three children. I tind that more than 50 per oent. of the laboring class in this grandest country of the world, which is only 119 years old. pay rent for their houses. Now, what is the average rent? (A voice says $6.) We'll oall it $6, whioh multiplied by twelve makes $72. Take off your fuel and light and you have the anngsum of $250 to share between father, mother, and three children, for clothing, hats, caps, medicine and food for 005 days, williuul giviug anytbing to the preaeher. Divide this up into three meáis a day and the result shows that the man and his family have less for each meal than it costa to feed the crimináis in the penitentiary of any state in the union. And yet you say that is being "well paid." The man who says it and the paper who says it lies, and the man who writes it is paid to lie, or he is a bom fooi. The French government favore the lottery scheme advanced by M. De Lesseps to raise 120,000,000 francs to complete the Panama canal. The stern moralista of old and New Enijland eoudemn thie method of raising monoy, but all the world will buy the tickets and take its chances of winning the big prizes. After all, it is hard to see why ït is not as reput.able to win or lose in a lottery as m Wall street. In Hannibal, Mo., the city council uudertook to cut telephone charges f rom $4 pany T;ïïrèaFen'Vitf wSfcu?ftd ÍÁW ?Sm: The council has therefore levied a heavy license fee on the company and threaten to Compel tt I'ciuuykI uf iklï tito pvlcn nuti wires if the service is suspended. Why should the telephone tax be $7 per month in Denver when four dollars is accepted in Hannibal? Humoroualy but truthfully the St. Louis Globe-Democrat thus describes the kind of exercise that commissioner Sparkstakes to keep his blood in motion: " The toe of Seoretary Lamar's boot has again been applied to the most conspieuous point of Commissioner Sparks' anatomy; but Sparks is so accustomed to thatsort of thmg that a few jolts,more or leas, can not disturb bis peculiar serenity. In fact there is some reason to think thut he considere it a part of his mission to afford amusement to his superiors by graciously permittmg them to kick him whenever they feel so dispoaed. He is a sweet boon, ia Sparks." There seems to be no reuson to doubt that the union switchmen in Chicago who struck because the Baltimore and Ohio and the Lake Shore railways employed a few non-union men in their yards in tbat city, have won a sustantial victory. Both companies have consented to find other work for their non-uuion hands, although at first they declared that a sound principie was in volved and that they would never surrender. Of couree, if any principie was involved it has been sacrificed by these corporations for the sake of profit, and the union switchmen only displayed natural thnft and shrewdness in forcing a surrender which they seem to have known was inevitable from the first. The Augusta, Ga., Chronicle reporta Mr. Lawrence Barrett, the actor, as making the following statement regarding President Cleveland: I spent a day with him a short time ago when I was in Washington, and really he presents a pathetic picture - u strong man fighting alone a great battle to which he is pledged ; ridiculed by his enemies and doubted by his frionds. He feels his position keenly. He said to me: - 'I have made mistakes; I see them, man y of them, and could kick myself when I think about them; but I am only human, and am as liable to err as other men. But I get no generous sympathy and honest patriotic counsel. All I hear is bickering and atrife and faultfiudiiig among scheming politiciana, who have no aim but to get themselves and friends in office. But for the occasional wave oi popular indorsement that breaks lts way over the reef of officeseekers and politiciana that hedge me about and comes to me like a season of refreshing and a cry of God-speed fresh from the people, ] should break down, heartsick and discouraged.' " It is poesible, of courae, that the reported interview with Mr. Barrett is untruthful or inaourate, but if it if. true the President must be in a very unhappy frame of mind. He saya that he has made mistakes, but is it not Ihut the most grievous mistake any man in his position can make is to imagine that he stands alone in the struggle for good govern ment? Surely any party that is strong enough to elect a president in thia country must be patriotic and politie enough to deaire the succes of ita own administration. Perhaps if President Clevelanc would ehut his ears to the "bicking anc strife and fault-rinding among scheminf; politicians" he would have more peace o: mind, and it is quite possible that demo cratd who approach him to seek appoit menta, either for themselves or their friends, are prompted by case and un worthy motivea. A deaire t ■ hold office is not irecessarily disgraceful and even mugwmmpa have been found to posses it If the President really feels that sense of isolation described by Mr. Barrett he ought to take the recogmzed leader of his party into his confidence and see if an honorable way conaot be found to rostore those relations of harmony and helpfulness between the party and the admicistration which are ao necessary to a continuance of the democracy in power