Mr. Secretary, What Are You Going To Do About It?

MR. SECRETARY, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

The governor of Louisiana has informed the authorities at Washington that there is a British military camp in full organization in that state, but a short distance from the city of New Orleans. This camp is reported to be under the control of British officers and is established to facilitate the work of buying and shipping horses and mules to South Africa to be used in the war against the Boers. It is a part of the British military system used in furnishing remounts for the South African army which have been declared to be more necessary than men at this juncture of the conflict.

Again and again this charge has been made that our neutrality laws were being violated by British agents in this country, but the Washington authorities seem to have given the charges little attention. This latest charge, that a branch of the British military system is established here, under high officers of the British army who are engaged in open violation of our neutrality laws, has also been placed before our state department. Will Secretary Hay act? If all this does not prove the pro-British sympathies of the state department, what would show it? Does any one believe for one moment that if Germany, or France, or Russia occupied the places of the two Boer republics that this sort of thing would be permitted? Does anyone think England would even have been permitted, through authorized agents, to buy and ship horses and mules to the field of conflict, let alone establishing a regular camp under the direction and control of British army officers, for the systematic carrying forward of such flagrant violations of the laws of neutrality?

The fact that such a camp exists on our territory shows how thoroughly we have become imbued with the doctrine of might rather than right. The struggling Boer republics cannot make any show of force to prevent our unwarranted traffic with the British government and consequently it goes on, our laws to the contrary notwithstanding. Our moral obligations are thrown to the wind. There is no physical force to call us down and hence the laws are violated with impunity. It is a shame and a disgrace. Will the country permit this thing to continue now with this overwhelming evidence before it? We shall see.

Evidence accumulate every day that President Roosevelt is not destined to be a popular president with the political forces which are generally credited with the business of making the mare go in national political matters. it is quite as impossible for a man of his make-up to keep close to these forces as for water to run up hill. He believes in having his own hand on the throttle too firmly to suit the machine men and as a result he is very likely to find himself outside the machine's sphere of influence when the hunt for delegates really begins. His conduct of his great office has thus far, however, been reasonably satisfactory to the people. But whether he can pull strongly enough with them to gain re-nomination without the machine remains to be seen. Then there is the additional factor against him that he is an accidental president and none such have ever thus far in the history of the government been able to hand the prize before a national convention.

The oleo bill, now before the senate, is causing its friends all sorts of trouble. On the face of it it is a revenue measure, while in reality it is a measure to regulate commerce within a state. It is a bill making one wholesome food product subservient to another. It is an interference with one industry in the interest of another by the taxing power. It is an iniquitous measure, but is probably destined to pass for there is partisan need for it.