Whose Prosperity Would Be Impaired?

Speaker Henderson, in a letter to an Iowa constituent, described a number of the schedules of the Dingley tariff as "crying out for revision," so grossly abused had they been in sheltering monopoly at the expense of the consumer. In commenting on the schedules and the assertion of the republican leaders that a revision of the tariff would impair the prosperity of the country, the New York Post (Ind.) stirs up a little row in the republican party by the following:

"Whose prosperity would be impaired by cutting off those iniquitous duties? Not that of the general mass of the people. Yet it is their prosperity that the republican party professes to be anxious to promote. They would get their steel and glass cheaper, and would not have the rankling sense that they are being taxed for the benefit of odious monopolies. As for the trust beneficiaries, they might not feel either so prosperous or so secure; but an exclusive prosperity dependent upon special legislation is something which cannot be too soon impaired. We are bidden not to be envious at the prosperity of the wicked, and are assured that, even when they flourish for a time like a green bay tree, they will one day be found cut down and withered; but in this matter of a tariff stuffed with favoritism; We have the axe in our own hands, and the tree will be brought low as soon as the people determine to allow it to flourish artificially no longer.

"It is when we put such specific cases as the ones we have mentioned that we see how much sham there is in the republican unwillingness to injure prosperity by revising the tariff. If there is a rolling combine of plunderers, who have the party by the throat, and tell it that it must not remove unjust duties on peril of having the whole system upset and the business world convulsed, then, indeed, there is a reason for republican alarm and helplessness--though it cannot be confessed. But there Is no honest reason against such a correction of tariff blunders, and such a revision of tariff inequalities and injustices, as we have suggested. The excuse for doing nothing is really a condemnation for not wanting to do anything."

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The country will watch with the deepest interest the mission of Bishop Fallows in relation to the great coal strike. He goes as the representative of the Chicago American to study the strike and do anything that may come within his power to settle the same. He will study conditions among the striking miners as to the conditions of living, schools, the suffering that exists among them and other matters in which the public is interested. The result of his investigations will be given to the public through the press. He is a man in whom the public have the greatest confidence in whatever he may say about conditions in the strike center. The country would be pleased if his labors should result in a settlement of the strike, yet this will lie he may in a settlement of the strike, yet this is scarcely to be expected.

There is undoubtedly an ugly feeling rising in the country at large. It bodes ill to the mine owners and is bound to become more dangerous as times passes. As the business of the country approaches paralysis and cold weather comes on this feeling will be greatly intensified. Conservative men are already whispering of insurrection and the making of precedents where they are kicking. If the operators are so foolish as to tempt the anger of the people much farther, they will invite consequences for which no man can answer. The people are patient and long suffering under wrong, but nothing is more certain than that they will not forever bear the conditions that are being forced upon them by the few haughty and insolent millionaires who affect to believe that the public has no concern in the quarrel they are waging with their workmen. Thus far these men who consider themselves the divinely appointed owners of the coal fields have had matters all their own way. and the weakness of the government has been pitiable, but it must not be judged from this that there is no power anywhere to correct the intolerable conditions which this oligarchy of money kings has forced upon the people. If this issue is forced to that point where the people ally themselves with the miners as common sufferers, a precedent is likely to be established which will forever shatter the claim of divine sanction of private ownership of public utilities. If a crisis shall come, it will undoubtedly mark a long step in the direction of public ownership of all public utilities and natural monopolies, and the creation of a better democracy in all governmental matters.

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The Adrian Times, a strong Bliss organ, makes the following editorial remarks:

"The executive office of this great state demands the constant attention of a strong, vigorous, resourceful, clearheaded governor--a man who will measure up to the loftiest stature in intellect, sagacity, strength and clearness of mental grasp. He should be gifted in speech, keen in perception and alert in action."

Just how the Times squares its theory and practice is a mystery to the average reader. Certainly it will not pretend that its candidate for governor has any of the qualifications which it declares to be a requisite of proper gubernatorial timber. The man it is doing its best to induce people to vote for is neither strong nor vigorous, nor is he resourceful or clear-headed. The Times' candidate for governor is nearer the lowest stature in intellect than the highest. He lacks sagacity, strength, and clearness of mental grasp. He is not gifted in speech, nor keen in perception, or alert in action. He is undoubtedly one of the smallest governors the state has ever had in all these points, yet the Times is supporting him with all its might. The question naturally suggests itself under such circumstances, why this wide discrepancy between the theory and the practice of the Times? Has the Times been hypnotized? or has it yielded its principles to the same influences which enabled Gov. Bliss to secure his nomination to the governorship? When it supports a candidate so totally at variance in all essential qualifications with the Times' standard, some explanation is certainly needed.

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President Roosevelt has said many things in his speeches against the trusts and has offered suggestions as to how they may be controlled at some distant day In the future, provided an amendment is secured to the constitution, but never a word as to their control through removal of the tariff on those articles in which the tariff has created a practical monopoly. There are many men of quite as much ability and knowledge of the subject as the president who believes that the removal of the tariff on such articles, thereby permitting the entrance into the country of corresponding foreign articles free of duty, would result in great benefit to the people and relief from charges. But the president's desire to be president again is so much stronger than his strenuousness to secure relief for the masses that he has thus far entirely overlooked this fine opportunity. It would undoubtedly be very difficult to secure any modification of the tariff just now but certainly not more difficult than to the ammendment to the constitution which Teddy thinks necessary to enable the government to reach the trusts. His method of control seems to offer nothing to the sorely tried people for the present and this is what is discouraging.

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Hom. W. N. Ferris, democratic candidate for superintendent of public instruction, is one of the ablest educators of Michigan. He is a man of very strong personality, possesses great personal magnetism, and never fails to attach people to himself when they come in intimate contact with him. He is a fine orator, speaks rapidly and forcefully. There are few if any better speakers in Michigan than he Is. He is not only a scholarly man, but a great administrator. This is proven by his success in building up the Ferris Institute at Big Rapids. This institution, starting from the foundation under Mr. Ferris' leadership has grown to giant proportions, now numbering in the student body 1,500 students. The school includes sixteen departments. A man who can enter the educational field of Michigan with her excellent public school system, her normal schools, colleges and university, and in a few brief years develop such a private school in which all students are required to pay tuition, must not only offer the people something they want, but must have a high order of ability. To be convinced of the high regard in which the entire student body of the Institute, past and present, holds Mr. Ferris, one has but to meet the individuals of this army of young men and women anywhere he may run across them. They are always enthusiastic in his praise. And wherever these young men are located throughout Michigan, there will be found warm supporters of Mr. Ferris, no matter what their political affiliations may be.

Mr. Ferris has been the nominee for congress in his district and his popularity was attested in that all the opponents of the republican party united upon him. If he is elected superintendent of public instruction, the state will have at the head of her educational department a man who will be able to perform well his part anywhere and everywhere. Michigan will never have cause to feel belittled by her representative in any capacity in which he may be called to appear. In any of the great representative teachers' organizations of the nation, he will measure up among the leaders.

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The country enters upon the nineteenth week of the great coal strike without any indications of any change or prospect of the end being anywhere near. All those efforts which seemed to promise an ending to the strike have come to naught and the operators have refused to consider any concessions and the various unions have voted confidence in their leaders and for a continuation of the strike until concessions granted. In the mean time, the conditions draw nearer when the industries of the country will be paralyzed for the want of coal and the people will suffer for the want of fuel to keep them warm. And while the operators are forcing these conditions on the people, the people of the state of Pennsylvania are being forced to keep the militia in the field at great cost to protect the property of the coal mine owners and the arrogant operators continue to hold that it is none of the business of the public how long this quarrel lasts. This indicates the spirit of the money oligarchy which control the coal mines. It is high time that the government of Pennsylvania stepped in and performed its duty to the people. One of these days, if something be not done to bring this warfare to a close, the people may take matters in their own hands. The state of Pennsylvania undoubtedly has the right and the power through the right of eminent domain to proceed to condemn the property of these mine owners, take possession of them, and operate them in the interest of the people. There may be some difficulties in the way, but the proper determination on the part of the state authorities could--and would--bring the matter to a successful issue. The financing of such a deal would not be difficult.  The fight in the courts would possibly be a big one, but the state could and would win it. Whatever the cost of obtaining title to this property might be, it would be little compared with the cost of an insurrection, should the people be pressed to the point of resort thereto by the obstinacy of the operators.

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The president is silent as to the effect the tariff has upon the trusts. Like the Republican Campaign Text Book, he dodges the question, and, the presumption is that he will persist that it is no issue. But it is an issue. The people make the issues, and the tariff is an issue in every kitchen, where the housewife has to pay more than ever before for the things she uses. It is an issue in every grocery store where the small dealer is forced out of business through the exorbitant wholesale prices the trusts fix. It is an issue in every meat shop, where the retail butcher and the consumer is ground down by the arbitrary prices fixed by the meat trust. It is an issue with the people. It comes home to them. They have learned that they are paying more for their goods than it is right that they should pay. They have learned that the infant industries which through their paternal care were reared to strong manhood, are now proving themselves ingrates by charging their benefactors higher prices for their products than they charge foreign buyers--and by using the succor the American people gave them, to oppress those very people by charging them exorbitant prices, and by buying the legislation they could not get by fair, honest means. The tariff is an issue.

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Sunday was the first anniversary of the death of President McKinley and throughout the nation services were held and references made to the stainless life and purity of character of the nation's dead. Judge William R. Day delivered the most important address at Canton, in the dead president's church, and among other high tributes to his character he said:

"Resentments, he had none. He believed life was too short to give any of his time to cherishing animosity. Sensitive to criticism, no one ever heard him utter an unkind word of another He met calumny with silence and unfair criticism with charity. His was the gospel of cheerfulness. His presence was sunshine, never gloom; his encouraging word dispelled doubt and nerved others to their duty."

"If the youth of the country learn from his life that the surest foundation of success is upright character and that the path of duty is indeed the way to glory, then may this great life 'live beyond its too short living, with praises and thanksgiving that such a character was given to the world."