The Net Result

Venezuela seems to have worked a coup in the matter of the thirty percent of the revenues of her two ports which she is to turn over to the allies for the payment of their claims. No sooner had the protocols been signed than President Castro boosted the tariff rates thirty percent. Evidently he is a believer in the doctrine of the protectionists of our own country that the foreigner pays the tax. It is undoubtedly true that the merchants of Venezuela who import are the foreign merchants, principally English and German. An increase of thirty percent in duties will make their customers grumble and the merchants themselves are not likely to feel more kindly toward the allies who have been instrumental in bringing about this condition of things. 

Then there are other things possibly more directly concerning the allies which seem not to be entirely satisfactory. There seems to be high authority in Europe which holds to the idea that the European diplomats did not win so great a victory over Minister Bowen as Walter Wellman thinks they did. There is good German authority which holds that they were beaten and this because Great Britain particularly and other leading European nations, desired to today to the United States. These writers claim that the result of the scrap with Venezuela is to confirm the Monroe Doctrine and concede to the Great Republic the hegemony of the western continent. Such division of opinion among the experts would indicate that the victory is not entirely the victory of either side. 

Why does not the mayor sign those warrants which have been passed by the council? There would seem to be no good reason why those who are entitled to those orders should be kept from getting them. To hold these bills up to bring pressure to bear upon public opinion is anything but legitimate, if that be the purpose. Let those have the orders who are entitled to them to do with as they please. 

Official corruption and civic apathy go together. To stamp out the one by quickening the other is a most serious problem of today.- District Attorney Folk, of St. Louis. 

One of the results of the appointment of Tom Navin to a position on the prison board is said to be the producing of a kind of amiable feeling in the breasts of the Wayne rippers and their friends toward the proposed primary election bill for Wayne county. The senate had shelved the bill until March 12, but yesterday that champion of primary reform, "Cob Pipe" Goodell, otherwise known as "Pop," had the resolution deferring the consideration of the primary bill reconsidered and the arrangement completed for reporting it out aud placing it on the general order that it may passed without further delay. It seems a little strange that a reform measure should come out of this appointment, but such seems to be the case. 

Those who fear that the effect of the appointment of Torn Navin to the prison board may not be altogether wholesome in its effect on the republican majority in Michigan, might just as well put aside their fears. From fifty to a hundred thousand more than half the voters of Michigan will vote that ticket anyway, no matter what the party through its leaders may do. The bosses and machine manipulators understand this perfectly. They are just as safe in counting upon such a majority as are the bosses of Pennsylvania. There are probably fifteen or twenty thousand republicans in Michigan who cannot be induced to vote for any old ticket that the corruptionists put up, nevertheless the great majority will stand by the Blisses with the Navins or any other old ticket that the bosses dictate. 

If Senator Quay persists in his filibustering tactics long enough, the members of the United States senate ought to learn something about the constitutions of the various countries of the earth. In order to kill time and keep the senate busy he sent to the clerk the other day the constitution of Columbia and had it read. It is not stated what constitution he will have read next, but it will not matter particularly so long as the senators are being taught some of the fundamentals of government. It might not be a bad idea to take up the next constitution of the United States. Most of the senators rather than learn anything in this way will prefer to lounge in the cloak rooms, but some of them will be obliged to remain for instruction. Quay appears to think they need some of this kind of instruction to enable them to vote as he wants them to on his omnibus statehood bill. 

Why is it that the appointment of Tom Navin is so generally regarded as making the future of Frank Andrews, convict, more rosy? Tom can sympathize with Frank, of course, and sympathizing with him is the next thing to giving that sympathy practical form. Then with the powerful friends both men have in Detroit and a putty man in the executive office at Lansing, the going at large of Frank C. Andrews is the near future may not be an impossibility. And when he regains his liberty, it may not be out of keeping with the precedent just established by the governor to put Mr. Andrews on the prison board of control as a colleague of Mr. Navin. The two would make a strong team. They would have things in common which would tend to draw them together in any course of action upon which they might think the interests of the prison demanded of them to take up. The Argus commends this suggestion to the consideration of his excellency. 

The fact that while President Roosevelt has not gone far enough to please the great mass of the people in his anti-trust opposition, he has gone far enough to antagonize the great trust interests. The real merit of his course must lie somewhere between these two limits therefore. While he has not gone to the lengths many wish he had in his opposition to trust control of the industries of the country, the public has not been blind to the fact that the trusts are dead set against him as his own successor. The people reason, therefore, that there must be something in his course which is in their interest. On this account, as well as on account of their general liking for the mail, they are disposed to cling to him. The more the financial monopolies oppose him, the stronger will be his following among the people. While this may not be an entirely safe way of reasoning it undoubtedly has very great influence with thousands. Whether the financial power will dare to come out in the open and fight the president is doubtful, but that is influence is against him there is no doubt. 

Whatever may be said relative to executive encroachment upon the prerogatives of congress and the use of executive authority to influence congressional action, it is pretty safe to conclude that the people are with the president in his efforts to have the senate act on the Cuban treaty and the Panama canal treaty. There is probably a greater moral responsibility resting upon the senate in the matter of the Cuban reciprocity treaty and yet there is no good reason why the Panama canal treaty should not be passed upon. The senate should act one way or the other and that is all that the president asks and he says boldly that unless some action is taken he will call a special session very soon after the 4th of March. The Washington government is obligated to do something in the Cuban matter and it should have been done long ago. A national obligation being involved we believe the president is right in insisting that that obligation shall either be discharged or repudiated. Cuba and our own people have the right to know whether this government proposes to keep its pledges or not. The Cuban protocol has been renewed once and will expire again on the last day of Mareh and there is no reason for not taking action of some kind before that date. There is no good reason for not taking action in the matter of the Panama treaty either. The president is justified to the extent of his authority in insisting that some action be taken. Of course he cannot force congress to ratify either treaty and he does not intend to try, but he does insist and has the right to insist that some action be taken. 

If it be true in any degree whatsoever as reported that democrats in the east are planning to abandon the west to Roosevelt and unite with the Wall street financial interests in support of Judge Parker in the hope of carrying the conservative eastern voters for the democratic ticket next year, there is undoubtedly another crushing defeat in store for the democracy. Those interests in the east which are against President Roosevelt are the extreme protectionists and the trust interests. If the trust interests are to be with the democrats, along with the ultra element of the protectionists, why should there be any democratic ticket at all? Certainly the republican party will take care of those interests better than the democratic party could if it should try ever so hard. With those two questions eliminated from the campaign, or in other words, with both parties bidding for the support of these great interests of greed and selfishness, does any one doubt which party should and would win? Any democrat in favor with these interests could not be elected and ought not to be. The party they support will be the one that will pledge them the greatest degree of non-interference with their program of greed and law-breaking. 

Germany has requested Minister Bowen as the representative of Venezuela to pay the 5,500 pounds which the protocol specifies shall be paid at Caracas thirty days after the date of the agreement, or March 15th. In the meantime Germany has not returned the Venezuelan gunboats captured during the blockade. The significance of the dun is not clear. These happenings all tend to create suspicion. Public opinion in this country in its relation to Germany is undoubtedly a very different article today from that which obtained before the Venezuelan affair occurred. 

The Quay blockade in the senate is a disgrace to that body. His statehood bill has tied up that body completely. There is but one thing that reconciles the country to the do-nothing condition in the senate and its inability to do anything and that is a glance to the condition of the house of representatives resulting from the rules obtaining there. It is better with all the deadlocks in the senate to retain the deliberative qualities of the body than to get rid of the tie-ups at the expense paid by the house of representatives. 

The post-check currency bill is probably dead for this session. The senate committee has proven itself frank for once in saying they do not know enough about the proposed measure to act Intelligently on such an innovation at the present time. They think they may vote for it when they learn more about it. It would probably be a very convenient thing for the people if the senators learn enough about the measures to pass it in some form.

 “Existing Corporation laws, national and state, aside from banks, trust and Insurance companies, provide no asset basis for the issuance of stock. The Corporation launched may have little behind it, or much; but no one without, and few with full information at hand, would be competent to form a judgment respecting either its business prospects or the value of its stock. All this must some day be changed. There must be a known uniform basis for corporate organization. The public must be assured, by the mere fact of incorporation, that the assets and proposed stock issue have been adjusted to conform to the known legal basis.” - Judge Grosscup.

There is something beyond the individual quality that works for success in America. Our republican institutions are to be credited with much of the vigor with which we are going forward to the material supremacy of the world.” - Andrew Carnegie