The Opportunities For Earning One's

living by the sweat of one's brow have exceeded the (Iemand this week. Mark Hanna and John R. McLean will match dollars for the seat in the United States Senate now warmed by the ringmaster of the McKinley show. As the itmosphere clears after the Fourth of July celebration, The Democeat is moved to reinark that G. Washington founded a pretty big enterprise when he launched these United States. Tiiings are not always what they seem but down in Ohio life will be real and it will be earnest until it is deter mined whether Bushnell or hapin shall do the executive prodding in that state for the next two years. The man who keeps a political scrap book for the iii-st two years of McKinley's administration will prove an unmitigated nuisanceto the orator who sallies forth to dispense popular education of the g. o. p. kind in 1898. Twenty years of profound peace and abundant harvests can not be the cause of universal distress. The dtcay of civilization follows the continuous increase of the purchasing power of money as surely as night follows day. Free hides have enabled the shoe industry to grow to immense proportions in this country, and leather manufactures forni a considerable proportion of our export trade. The Dingley tariff places a duty on hides. The effect up011 the shoe business will be watched with interest. The Argtjs is right about theward schools of this city. They aeed careful weeding and pruning. The great majori y of our youth do not get beyond the ward school and as the great majority of the people are footing the bilis they are entitled to have the most efficiënt service where it will do them the most good. Ma jok Howell, of Adrián, who was in command of the First Batallion M. jSF. G. in Ann Arbor last Saturday is every inch a soldier and not a toy soldier either. He earned his rank in the face of hostile bullets, and he has worn his military honors so graciously that soldiers and civilians alike swear by the handsome major. When the people grasp the economie truth that all commeree must be an exchange of commodities,that no country can sell without it buys or buy without it sells, and that a so-callad " balance of trade" is not under all circumstances a desirable thing, they will be able to ap proach the question of a tariff tax with hope of a rational solution. That country is most prosperous which confines its energies to those lines of industry which its soil. climate, natural resources and the temperament of its people best fit it to successfully pursue, and relies upon commeree to supply it with those things which it cannot produce to advantage at home. To such a country a protective tariff is an abomination. Otjr Kepublican friend Wedemeyer was compëlled to read a Democratie speech last Saturday - that grandly democratie document written by.Jefferson for the Continental Congress of 1776- and well did he discharge the duty; so well, in fact, that his success should er.courage him to handle more of that brand of eloquence. There's nothing like it. Go forth and kill the fatted calf , and let the relishes be sharp and the side dishes hot. A prodigal has returned to the Democratie camp. JohnV. Sheehan (known as Gen. Jack white he was with the guerillas) has acknowledged the error of nis ways and renounced the false gods he has been chasing and the fickle courtesans who beguiled him with the belief that confldence in their promises would bring the full measure of prosperity. The fellows who have an eternal cinch on something they have got in any other way than by honest toil are very solicitous about educating the people up to a belief that what is is right. and of right ought to be anyway, and that the fellow who kicks when he is hnposed upon liy some of these selfcoustituted "rights," is an enemy to good government. Popular education with such people consista in educating the masses into submiísion to the classes. Kaiil Haeriman is now sweating out copy in the sanctum of the Detroit Jim mal that can pass tlirough a Mergenthaler typesetting machine without tvvisting the keys or freezing the pot metal- something out of the usual order of imbecility with which that organ has been accustomed to fracture the truth and bid defianee to deeencyIt may have a soothing effect upon the uneven temper of the tories to eall the Democrats who voted for Bryan, "Popocrats" but the sting of this in tended oft'ensive appellation is drawn f rom the breast of the Prj anite by the reflection that the socalled" Popocrats" numbered 6,500,000 at the pols while the magniflcent array of tories counted up 138,000. " The farmer ahvays sells at wholesale and ahvays buys at retail. The burden of low prices always falls first upon the wholesaler and the producer. Henee a rise in the prices all along the line would be of obvious benefit to the farmer. ■ Bnt a rise in the price of manufactured goods incident to a rise in the tarifi" will not be a boon to the man whose product s must still be sold, tariff or no tariff, in open competition with the world. Just chalk this down and watch the effect of the lingley tariff. NiNETT-six per cont. of the business of this country is domestic Four per cent. is done with foreign countries. We have more manufactories and the value of our manufactures exceeds those of ;my other nation on earth. Were our manufactories to suspend,the surplus manufactures of the whole world could not supply our wants. With these facts in mind, it seems tliat the fellows who are restrieting commerce for the alleged purpose of protecting American industry are working a confidence game. Ome day last week the Detroit Journal in a leading editorial proved to the satisfaction of its editorial stalï, if to no one else, that prosperity is abroad in the land, and that those who have not vet secured this gnesi whom every one is so eager to entertain, are either frauds or imbéciles. The next day its news columns announced that 250,000 coal miners were out on a strike for decent wages f rom the coal trust whicli is robbing the producer on the one hand and the consumer upon the other. And vet the Jóurnai essays to be a leader of public opinión. Seymotjk Fosteii has beenappointtd postmaster at Lansing and that dod gasted political traitor, and guerrilla who fattened his hungry sides at the trough of Cleveland toadyism and Judas like, betrayed the party and the people who made it possible for him to hold down anything more remuner ative than a f ree lunch, must step down and out. The Demoeracy of Lansing may not rejoiee over the coming of Fuster, uut they certainly will view with approval the going of liowley. Such vermin requires heroic treatment. It is likely to get it. King George classed Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues with the enemies of organized society. Yet seventy millions of people celebrated the anniversary of the day that the continental patriots declared the exactions and usurpations of (Jeorge to be unjust Today the modern " (Jeorges" rise thtir voices in condemnation of those who protest against the exaetions and usurpations of organized wealth. Yet the time will come when those who lead the people in the impending struggle against the aggression of corporate power will be classed as public benefactors alongside of the héroes of 1776. Some miscreant or miscreants have been amusing themselves by driving horses upon the bicycle path to Whitinore Lake. The man who will thus wantonly destroy property, the destruction of whieh can in no way benefit himself, is too contemptible to run at large in a civilizecl comnmnity. tfome of those who, uni'ortunately for the public, are possessed of wheels are mean enongh, but we have yet to liear of a case charged up to a bicyclist which approaches the concehtrated eussedness of the man who wantonly destroys the very thing that is riestined to keep the wheels out of the way of other vehicles. Col. Henry Watteeson, he of Star eyed Godess and Louisviüe CourierJournal fame, has uncorked the"viles" of his wrath and when the forces that buni within him threaten to burst his shirt band he shovvers the ful] measure of a Kentucky libation upon 'the liead of that JJemocracy of which thecolonel has himself been an alleged membei for sonie years. liut the colonel is not to be judged to harshly. Like many others liis optie nerve is so constructed that all the good things which come within his purview are either iuthe and iorgotten past or out of sight in the future. The present has never met witli his approval and it is doubtful ii' his querulous app'-tite would endorse Kentucky bourbon of a later vintage than "70." ' The thanks of the business men of Ann Arbor are due to the newspapers of Washtenaw county which so generously advertised the Fourth of July celebration in this city. The Ann Arbor presa will not fail to return the courtesy. The ora' ion delivered by Judge Donovan in Ann Arbor last Satilrday was, to put it mildly, ill-timed and in extremely bad taste. People assemble upon an occasion like that not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as citizens of one common country who desire by recalling the memories of the heroic past to pledge anew their faith in the country's future. What. upon a day like that. can be more inspiring to the patriotic heart than the simple but soul-stirring language in which Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. AVhat inore contemptible than the cheap clap trap of the poütieian. Yet, af ter listening to the grand principies of liberty declared in that document, as they carne in f uil, resonant tones from the lips of the reader, the speaker of the day chose to descend to the level of the partizan and retail to his auditors, not a speech, bút a disjointed series of assertions which at least one half of them believed to be lalse. The speaker who can do no bette'r than s-tir v.p partizan rancor upon such an occasion can do his fellow citizens the best service by remaining in the seclusion of his home while patriotic exercises are in progress. The discussion of economie and sociological principies may very properly form the basis of a Fourth of July oration and when intelligently handled prove both interetting and instructive. We can forgive a man who, without originality dwella upon events of which every American is proud. But we have 110 admiration to waste upon one who seizes the opportunity to touch off a multiplicity of irrellevant partizan assertions which are not reinforced by argument nor clolhed with good sense. The man who has a decent respect for his position and his audience and a j healthy appreciationof the day hecommemoiales will not thus impose upon the good nature of his hearers.