Hon. Wm. Ball, Of Hamburg

dent of the Michigan senate! Well, that'e jnetj'as it ought to be. Thb direct tax bill which refunds to the states the money that was assessed by the general government during the war and was paid by only a part of the states, was passed by the house Dec. 20, yeas, 178, nays, 96. Michigan will have returned to her S.f,00,(i00. Rei-keêentative Diekema. of Ottawa, will be the speaker of the house of representetives of the Michigan legislature, and he deserved the election. He ia a very promising young man. Lew Miller.of Muskegon.willbe retained as secretary of the senate, and Dan Crossman as clerk of the house. The Michigan Press association will hold a special meeting af.Lansing next 'fuTBdayUind Wednesday ."L Questions of i'mTo"rtace"to-?ublishers will be considered, especially that pertaming to newspaper libel. An effort wi 1 be made to secure tbe passage by the legisUture of much more just libel laws than are now in our statute booke. Ir WIL1,eo7ícMman Ann rbor has no objection to offer but all to commend in the selection. If Senator McMillan.when be feels Hkeg.v.ng a few more thousands to eome good cause, will put the University m a fair way of having a first-class gymnasium, there will be no danger about Ann Arborfalling into line for his re-election six years henee. WuEïUERwe like it or not, it must be admitted that the advocates of feniale suffrage gained a point in the recent Boston', election. The women voted,-l 6,000 of them-and itresulted in electing the entire Republican ticket. The oíd ring rule in Boston was smashed. Tbe main question at the polls was sectarian iniluence with the schools, and the women were on the right side. Beother Woodrcff, of the Ypsilanti Sentinel, sat down to'write about Jadge Cooley and the inter-state commerce law when he had a particularly bad fit of indigestión. Most of his articles have a dyspeptic air, but this attack must h.ave been unusually painful. Judge Cooley recently'; expressed a favorable opinión of the law, and thereupon onr St-ntinel arose to remark that it is because he is drawing a good salary in its operaüon. Dyspepsia allo ws no room for facts and for charitable construction ; nothing but cynicism will satisfy its craving. The senatorial fight in New Jersey promises to be interesting. Mr. McPherson, the piesent senator, declined a re-election because he thought the legislature would be Republican, and because he thought he could get a place in the new cabinet which he expected Mr. Cleveland would have a chance to make. But the kgislature is Democratie, and Mr. Cleveland will not form another cabinet. So Mr. McPherson has reconsidered, and will try for the cenatorship. His opponent is Ex-Gov. Abbett. They are both rich men, and vorruption is expected before the fight 'ml?. Thb New York Mail and Express, vRepublican) turns"with weariness from cabinet making to consider the evils which beset their "great and glorious, but sadly misgoverned, metropolis." The local Democratie managers expended $1,200,000 in the campaign and election. Most of the contributors expect to get it back in some way out of the taxpayers of New York city. The Express says : "The facts that are so undeniable and appalling would be alarming enough to sür up a local revolution, if our taxpayers were not too carelees and indifferent about their own interestB. But when honest and intelligent Demócrata recollect that the government of this city is entirely in the hands of triumphant Tammany; that the Kepublican minority, containing most of the larger taxpayers, is entire. ly unrepresented in the boards that control taxation and expenditures, and that through these boards the $1,200,000 spent in the last democratie campaign can be got out of the taxpayers in two years - when the better class of democratie taxpayers realize all these startling and related facts, how can they fail to follow the example of those able Demócrata who helped the solid Republican organization to overthrow the Tweed ring, snd who fought hard for a city charter, based throughout on the principal of minority representations?" The Pennsylvania coal miners are agitated again. The 23,000 miners eraployed in 300 collieries between Shickshinny and Forest City, Susquehanna Co., use about $1,678,896 worth of powder each year. They are not supplied with this powder by the corupanies, but buy it themselves. The companies compel the minera to buy the powder of thena. In this way the companies have made on their sales of powder nearly a million dollars in one year. Their average retail price for powder for the past ten years has been not less than $3 per keg. The tetnptation to keep up the price of powder bas been too great to resist. The miners were powerless to resist. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western company in 188ü made $111,735.90 on powder, selling at $3 per keg. The miners are now kicking against that company, demanding that they be permitted to buy powder where they can get it the cheayest, or that the company let them have it at $2 per keg. It really can be furnished at 11.50 per keg, and henee the coal companies virtually rob the miners by making large g.iins out of their neeessities. The company has refused this reaeonable request, declaring that if they reduced the price of powder, they would raise the rent of the hout-es in which the miners live. The companies have the miners on the hip. The miners have the fear of eviction on short notice ever before them, and eviction to Pennsylvania miners meanssuffering and destitution just as rauch as to the Irish tenant. Pennyslvania' should tame the pride of the corporations that put the screws on the toilers in this way. _________