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The President's Message

The President's Message image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
December
Year
1902
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

THE ARGUS DEMOCRAT

AND 

YPSILANTI WEEKLY TIMES.

PUBLISHED BY

The Democrat Publishing Company.

G. A. HAMMOND, President.

S. W. BEAKES, Secy. and Treas.

PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY

for $1.00 per year strictly in advance.

Entered at the Post office in Ann Arbor Mich as second-class mail matter.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1902.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

President Roosevelt's second animal message is before the people and is in keeping with such documents in general. There is nothing startling in it and nothing new, nothing but what the country has heard from him in his various speeches heretofore. He starts out with high praise for the prosperity of the country, for from his point of view this means praise for the party of which he is the head. He does not go into the prosperity question far enough, however, to show the people that most of it is being absorbed and appropriated by the criminal trusts and combines. That he recognizes the fact, however, is evidenced by his discussion of the trust evil immediately his panegyric to prosperity. He is not particularly strenuous in his recommendations on this issue. Still he seems to stand by positions taken heretofore pretty consistently. There appears to be a slight change of front on the need of a constitutional amendment in order to reach the trusts. The president seems on this point to have adopted Attorney General Knox's view. He says, however, that if the law is not found sufficient, with such amendments and strengthenings as may be made to it, then a constitutional amendment bringing the criminal trusts under direct control of the general government should be passed. In advocating such an amendment, of course, no one knows better than the president of the practical impossibility of incorporating it In the constitution in opposition to the wishes of the great trust organizations. He would spare the good trusts and consequently thinks any action taken against the bad ones should be rather mild. If there be any good trusts, it would, of course, be too bad to in any way discourage them. The president agrees that the anti-trust law has not been very well enforced, but practically promises that more will be done to enforce it, if adequate appropriations are made for the department of justice.

The president believes it would not avail anything to revise the tariff in order to reach the trusts and he is against revision. Here again he is afraid of hurting the weaker competitors by removing duties in order to reach the strong. Consequently he does not want any tariff tinkering. His position upon these questions are hardly such as to satisfy either the people or the Morgans.

He recognizes the right of both capital and labor to organize, but holds that the interests of each must be made to harmonize with the greater interests of the general public.

He still stands tor reciprocity with Cuba. On the other matters included in his message he endorses the positions advocated by the heads of departments in his cabinet.

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General Alger is now United States senator from Michigan. He no doubt considers himself vindicated for what he suffered when forced to leave the cabinet of President McKinley on account of his weakness In the war department during the Spanish-American war. The secretary was as much sinned against as sinning then probably but he was made to take and bear his own sins and those of others. Probably General Alger's greatest fault as secretary of war lay in the fact that he was not large enough to meet the demands of his office in a time of war. He might have made an admirable secretary in time of peace. But the lime light of war brought into strong relief his unfitness tor his station. Michigan people never thought less of him because of anything which happened during the war for they knew him. They knew that he was not a great man, but loved him for his amiability and kindliness of heart. They were glad, therefore, when the opportunity offered to make the burden placed upon him by his experience in the war office a little lighter.

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Those who brave the great lakes at this season of the year take their lives in their hands. It would seem that this tempting of fate is altogether too costly in lives and property, still every year witnesses numerous tragedies of this kind. Tempted by the desire for gain one more trip is undertaken and that last trip proves the final one in more senses than one. Mothers are widowed, children orphaned and property destroyed, yet men continue to venture on just one more voyage for the season. And it will continue to be so no matter how much suffering and ruin is wrought.

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President Roosevelt may not be Morganized, but he don't look upon the trusts as being very bad after all. He may not be ready to embrace them but he is so tender of the really good trusts that he wants to be quite tender with the vicious ones. So far as he is concerned there is likely to be little interruption of trust prosperity due to his interference.

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Henry C. Smith, the statesman soon to be without a job, wants a revision of the tariff and he wants the trusts controlled. All this is dead easy for him. Still if his political life was to be prolonged, he would probably vote on as many sides of these questions as any other man.

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The president wants an extension of both the army and the navy. He recommends bigger appropriations for both. Of course he glories in the arts of peace, not of war. but he wants to be In proper form to fight if any one prods him under the fifth rib.

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It is said that Governor Bliss has advanced beyond the cigarette stage and that he will even add other recommendations in his forthcoming message.

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JINGLES AND JESTS

The Lady Giraffe

The lady giraffe for the ballroom was dressed

In the latest decollete style,

When a dashing young beau,

The good looking dodo,

Stepped up to her side with a smile.

"My dear Miss Giraffe," said he, with a bow,

"You're the fairest of maids at the ball,

And yet if your neck

Should grow longer a speck

You would need to wear nothing at all."

-Puck

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In the Days to Come

The quick puff, puff, puff of an automobile was heard in the back alley.

And then a plaintive, long drawn out voice pealed through the air:

"Ra-a-a-a-ags 'n' ole i-un!" - Chicago Tribune.

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Under False Colors.

"And you say he was no true son of Kentucky?"

"No, sah! The papah says he died of watah on the brain. He was an impostah, sah!" - Chicago Record-Herald.

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Various Routes.

Some men take the poison route,

While some jump in the lake,

And others get a gun and shoot,

And some gas treatment take.

By cigarettes some get them hence,

Some on the thin ice slide.

While others go to more expense

And take an auto ride.

-Montreal Herald.

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Presume She Did.

"Nell says she frowns upon all the men."

"Then I'll bet she heard some one say she looked her prettiest when she frowned." - Philadelphia Bulletin.

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He Got Better.

A very recalcitrant debtor

Received a calorified lebtor.

'Twas from his physician,

Who said, "I am wician

You'd pay me for curing your tebtor."

-Baltimore American

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The Charm Lost.

He--Shall we get a caddy?

She--We might as well. The links are so crowded there's no chance to do anything but play golf. - Boston Herald.

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Fairyland.

A bashful young fellow from Md.

Remarked to a fair one: "Oh, Dd.

A kiss on your brow?"

Well, he did, anyhow,

And he vowed 'twas a rare bit from Fd!"

-Baltimore News.

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Nerved Up.

Gladys--That poor young Snobleigh actually dared to kiss me! What could he have been thinking of?

Ethel--His debts probably. -Town Topics

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Economy in Eggs.

When eggs are expensive, it is well to remember that it is not necessary to boil a whole egg to get a yolk for garnishing. Separate white and yolk without breaking the latter and poach it hard in salted water. The white is saved for glazing or meringue, etc.

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A Great Bridge Span.

In the valley of Petruffe, in Luxembourg, Germany, stands the largest single span of any masonry bridge in the world, with a length of 277 feet and a height of 102 feet.

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A Monster Gold Nugget.

There is a monster gold nugget lying at the bottom of the Atlantic. It was shipped from Santo Domingo to the King of Spain 400 years ago as a tangible proof of the value of Columbus' discovery but was lost in a storm, together with 30,000 ounces of smaller golden specimens.

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A Valuable Badge.

The lord mayor of London wears a badge of office which contains diamonds valued at £120,000.