Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 May 1897 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1897. -• „ —.... ■ \Sash.nxton Office—l6o3 Pennsylvania Avenue Telephone Calls. Business office 23S | Editorial rooms...A 86 OF 81 BS< BIPTHJM. DAILY BY MAIL. Daily only, one month I•“ Daily only, throe months . 2.00 Daily only, one year *•'><) Daily, including Sunday, one year 10.00 Sunday only, one year 2.00 WHEN FURNISHED BY AGENTS. Daily, per week, by carrier 15 cts Sunday, single copy 5 cls Laily and Sunday, per week, by earner....2o cts. WEEKLY. . Per year H-00 Reduced Kates to Club*. Subscribe with any of our numerous agents or •end subscriptions to THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, Indianapolis, lad. Persons sending the Journal through the mails In the United stales should put on an eight-page paper a ONE-CEN'T postage stamp, on a twelve or sixteen-page paper a TWO-CEXT postage stamp. Foreign postage is usually double these lates. All communications intended for publication in this paper must, in order to receive attention, he accompanied by the name and address of the writer. If it is desired that rejected manuscripts be returned, postage must In all cases be Inclosed for that purpose. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can be found at the following places: NEW YORK—Windsor Hotel and Astor House. CHICAGO—PaImer House and P. O. News Cos., 217 Dearborn street. CINCINNATI—J. R. Hawley & Cos., 154 Vine stren. LOUISVILLE —C. T. Peering, northwest corner of Third and Jefferson streets, and Louisville Book Cc., 256 Fourth avenue. £T. LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot. WASHINGTON, D. C.—Riggs House, Ebbitt House, Willard's Hotel and the Washington News Exchange, Fourteenth street, between Penn, avenue and F 3treet. If all parties and factions in the Senate are telling the truth, the country may look for an early passage of a tariff bill. That sentiment which retains the pension agent in office with such a record as he has made in turning veterans out of clerkships may be labeled “snivel” service. The President will be indorsed for his refusal to appoint Dr. Hunter, of Kentucky, to an office until after the charges made against him for bribery shall be dismissed. After all, it will be safer to adopt the House sugar schedule, even if Senator Aldrich should make it appear that that which he has put into his bill is a fair one. The ad valorem duty is a treacherous contrivance. The retention of the two hundred supporters whom the astute Senator Gorman got into the Government Printing Office in the early days of the Cleveland administration is not essential to an ideal system of civil service. For years the Populists and Democrats in Nebraska have been denouncing the assessment of railroad property in that State, and promising that it should be taxed so as to bear its share of the burdens. The Board of Tax Equalization has just completed its work in that State, leaving the assessments of railroads just as it found it. And this is reform. The journeyman tailors of New York are asking that the House provision limiting the value of clothing which tourists may bring home from Europe to SIOO be inserted In the Senate bill, in which the figures are not named. The demand is a just one, and should be heeded. At the same time it shows that those who belong to organizations which ignore the value of a protective tariff acknowledge its value when it applies to industries in which they are interested.

The Journal’s industrial notes each week chronicle a steady improvement in local business of many kinds regardless of the delay in tariff legislation, and yet the complaint of hard times is quite as loud as at any former period. Is it that business men have fallen into a habit of grumbling and do not see when the time has come to stop? Perhaps a cheerful view of affairs would tend to still more rapid improvement of tiie industrial situation. The mindcure is as likely to affect inanimate as animate things. Mr. Johnson, lately banker at Logansport, declines to talk about the affairs of the bank, but does condescend to assure the public that he has never had other than honest motives and an honest heart. If Mr. Johnson were well advised he would decline to talk about himself. The public will hardly be much impressed by the honest motives of a man who engaged in a deliberate course of fraud and forgery. He has so juggled with the principles of honesty and uprightness that he no longer knows the meaning of the words. Several newspapers have spoken in commendation of the resolution which Senator Fairbanks presented in the Senate as a substitute for the Morgan resolution. Among the papers commending the resolution is the critical and independent Boston Herald. It commends the Fairbanks resolution because it offers a statesmanlike solution of the Cuban question and exhibits the wisdom and dignity which the representatives of a great nation should assume. Senator Fairbanks’s resolution was not substituted for tho Morgan declaration, but it is in accord with the policy of Gen. Grant in IS.„ and with the better and wiser sentiment of the American people. When the contention shall have been settled, it will be found that it would have been vi stly better for the Senate to have adopted the substitute offered by Indiana's senator. The much proclaimed interview of the Sultan is made up largely of the remarks of the distinguished person who did the interviewing. There is, however, one significant statement in what the Sultan said, and that is that the British embassador at Constantinople had so conducted himself that he has lost to Great Britain its former prestige in Turkey. The British embassador has been an autocrat, tho Sultan intimates, and has forced him into the arms of Russia and compelled him to regard Germany as a good friend. This remark leads Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, who did the interviewing, to observe with evident sorrow that "Germany has % supplemented England commercially in Turkey, and Russia has supplanted England politically.” And now thn the wily Sultan has confessed that tills Is true, he has no fear of the consequence.- and cures no longer for the support which Great Britain has given Turkey during many years. Word comes from Laporte that the people of that locality have lost all patience with tramps who have become lawless. This Is probably the case elsewhere. There are doubtless a few persons traveling about the country who are called tramps who would prefer to work if they could find the work to do. At this season of the year, however, very few people need beg, especially

in the country, who are willing to work for food. The tramp or hobo has declared war on all forms of useful labor. He is a parasite, is always a nuisance, and often worse. Society should turn against him and see to it that he earns his bread. Much more than the truant act connected with the law compelling children to attend school, the State needs a hobo law which will provide for the arrest of tramps after they have been given a chance to work for their food and the putting of them at work on the highways in periods of sixty days. If there are not enough of these persons convicted in one county, let them bo called from several and put at work on the roads where there is plenty of work to be done. The result might not be profitable to the community, but it would rid it of tramps who are a terror to women and a menace to property. The wonder is that a tramp law of this kind has not been adopted in several of the States in which they are numerous. VICTOR I A*S HIRTIID AV. Yesterday Queen Victoria was seventyeight years of age and when June 22 arrives she will have been on the throne of Great Britain and Ireland sixty years—nearly two generations. The empire over which she is the sovereign is live times as large as it was when, a girl of eighteen, she ascended the throne. During that period the aggregate property of the United Kingdom has trebled. The population of London has quadrupled and the city has become, in a large sense, the world's clearing house. There is an impression in this country that the sovereign of Great Britain is only a figurehead, without influence in the government or among the people. In a limited monarchy, with a constitutional government in which parties rule, the power of the sovereign is limited. The ministry makes the policy of “my" government, yet the sovereign has always had an influence upon the government. This is particularly true of Queen Victoria. If she has not shaped the policy of ministries, she has made her impress upon the character of the British people, and always for good. More than sovereign, she has been the good and wise woman of England for more than half a century. It has been fortunate —more fortunate than any one can estimate —that this self-contained woman, representing the highest virtues of womanhood, has been on the throne all these years. Great as has been the progress of the British empire in sixty years, there are indications that when the Queen shall have celebrated her diamond jubilee, the sixtieth anniversary of her reign, as she will if she shall live until June 22, the United Kingdom has reached its highest power. It will doubtless hold its own for many years, but British statesmen must realize that Great Britain is no longer dictator as it has been during the reign of Victoria. But, whether Great Britain has or has not reached the zenith of her power, whether foes or friends of Britain and British policy, all intelligent people must hold in high regard the noble woman who has so held the scepter over that great nation as to strengthen the moral purpose of the British people.

CHEAPNESS AND WRETCHEDNESS. The strike in the clothing trade in New York is based upon the claim that the thousands of people who work on ready-made clothing are able to earn only from $2 to $4 a week. Doubtless many receive much more than $2 or $4 a week, but those who receive such wages do not get enough to support life. The contractors who pay such wages aver that those who earn any wages to take home are better off than they are, since the close of the week otten finds them in debt. The manufacturers on their part claim that they have been losing money during the past year, that clothing is cheaper now than it has ever been before, and that it is impossible, with prevailing prices, to pay the present scale of wages and leave any margin for profit. Thus the cheapest clothing ever known is produced at the sacrifice of wages and profits. It is said that the chief cause of the very low wages paid in New York for making clothing is “the sweat-shop system.” Here it is that the worst effects of immigration are experienced. Poor families of foreigners are crowded into cheap rooms and subsist on the meager wages earned by working long hours. They can eat the poorest food and live in the wretchedest tenements. Natives and others who know something of decent living cannot compete with these people. And yet there are those who insist that it would be an injustice not to permit these people to come to this country, where the labor market is already crowded, and underbid a fair rate of wages. Mr. Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, states that one of the objects of the strike is to put an absolute end to this system. He does not state how it can be accomplished. He may know how to reach the clothing makers who have their goods made where they may be infected with disease. If he does, and can reach them, he will render a great service. The inadequate w r ages, the loss of profits and the consequent cheap clothing is the legitimate result of the heresy of free trade, which looks only to cheapness without regard to the sacrifices and wretchedness which it brings. The remedy is to close our ports as far as possible to immigrants who will swell the volume of labor, which is now in excess of the demand, and boycott those firms which directly or indirectly have their clothing made in sweat shops. Such a boycott will be a war upon a system which reduces wages to the level of wretched existence. The action of the Council in overruling the order of the Board of Public Works for the improvement of Indiana avenue is yet the subject of hostile comment. There is no street in the city which is in greater need of improvement, both from its condition and its importance. It is one of the leading avenues from the heart of the city to the country. Over few streets in the city is there so much travel to and from the suburbs. And yet its condition could scarcely he worse than it is. It would be dangerous to drive over it at anything like the rapid rate usual on improved streets. Indiana avenue is the only important street in the city which has not been improved. After the policy of general improvement begun, it should have been one of the first streets to be modernized. On one pretext or another the improvement has been postponed until this season, and now the Council, against ifie protest of those who should be most influential, has set aside the order of the board which would have made it a passable street. There could have been no reason urged against improvement which could not have been urged against the improvement of any street in the city. But for threats to defeat one or two members of the Council, the street would now be under improvement and would in three months be one of the handsome thoroughfares of the city. it was different with Walnut street. It is not a thoroughfare: the property owners have been assessed for street improvements and sewers time and again, and yet, be-

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1837.

cause two or three property holders desired to have that cross street, with little travel, asphalted, the improvement has been ordered in spite of the protest of nine-tenths of those who will pay the cost. There should be no such favoritism, because it is gross injustice. The London School Board offers an annual prize in competition by choirs made up from the public elementary schools. A London paper, commenting on the contests, says the singing was surprisingly good, and thinks England ought to be a musical nation some day, if ail the school children sing as well as these selected choirs. A New England conference of educational workers in session in Boston has been investigating the progress of musical instruction in the public schools, and found a surprising degree of efficiency even in the lower grades. What is true of Boston is true of most towns in the country—the employment of special teachers in music being quite general. It is the general education in music continued through several generations that has given Germans precedence in the art, not their original and inborn talent. The education that children are now getting in this and other countries will, in time, produce like results. The “musical atmosphere” will not be a thing found only by crossing an ocean, but will exist in every community. As it is, a rapid growth in musical taste ar.d sentiment within the past ten years has been noticed by the observant. TNere is mourning in Camden, N. J., which for years has been Philadelphia’s Gretna Green. Pennsylvania has a mar-riage-license law, and until now New Jersey has not, so that all young couples whose parents or guardians opposed their marriage had to do was to cross the river and hunt an obliging parson to perform the ceremony. The reverend gentlemen were not difficult to find, and did a thriving business, but now they are mourning their vanished opportunities. They should cheer up and consult the Jeffersonville, Ind., brethren and justices of the peace, who somehow manage to marry all the Kentucky couples who happen in, even though Indiana, too, has a license law. There has been some disposition to criticise the superintendent of the Statehouse because he has refused to permit the schoolchildren to assemble on the lawn about the Capitol. Those who will consider the matter candidly will be inclined to sustain the action of the superintendent. If permission should be given to use the lawn on one occasion it could be demanded for others. It is better to keep the grounds green and beautiful for ali. Winona correspondents are impressed by the early-to-bed habits of the staid assembly delegates. As summer hotels are seldom made with modern improvements in the way of heating facilities the chances are that the brethren go to bed to get warm. The illustrated papers are printing pictures of Senator Mason in the garb of a clown. Well, a clown has his uses, and will at least bring a little animation into that dismal body.

BUBBLES IX THE AIR. More Information. Tommy—Paw, what does it mean when a man is “in the hands of his friends?” Mr. Figg—Well, a barkeeper under arrest is a pretty fair sample. Not Entirely Idle. Mrs. Watts—Does your husband ride his wheel on these rainy days? Mrs. Potts—No. He just stays at home and works the cyclometer. The Belligerent Bee. Now doth the little busy bee Add much unto the woes Os Johnny, foot-bare on the lea, By getting ’twixt his toes. Among the Animals. “I fear,” said the Elephant, “that the Alligator is a little of a blackmailer.” “Really?” asked the Giraffe. “He only seems willing to keep his mouth shut when there is something in it.” ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. Paderewski gets $5,000 for one concert in London in jubilee week. Patti gets a like sum for three songs. F. Marion Crawford is at work upon a lengthy series of lectures upon Italian art, to lie delivered next winter. Ex-United States Senator Call is to be made state agent in Florida for the collection of an Indian war claim of $750,000. According to Professor Harnack, who is quoted as among the best and most accurate of the higher Biblical critics, the death of Christ and Paul’s conversion are separated by less than a year. Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, San Francisco, has, with a number of prominent men of that city, succeeded in raising the funds necessary to establish a zoological garden in San Francisco. The Duchess of Fife—nicknamed “Her Royal Shyness”—never attends the Queen’s drawing rooms, and the Princess Louise of Lome despises court functions and lives as far as she can the life of a quiet, country gentlewoman. Dr. Charles Frederick Wuillgohs, the oldest physician in Ohio, still keeps up his practice, despite his ninety-three years. Pie says every member of his family, for the past three hundred years, has lived over one hundred years, and his grandfather, ai the age of 106, cradled wheat for three days in succession. When Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, was deposed, Queen Victoria telegraphed to his captors in French, “Soignez le bien,” or “take good care of him;” the wires said, “Saignez le bien,” which means something very different, namely, “bleed him well,” an error of the wires which reads grewsomely in the light of the fate which befell that unhappy monarch. Market quotations for peers may be looked for soon in the London newspapers, as the Court of Queen's Bench has just decided that £SOO is a fair price for procuring a peer as a director in a stock company. The Earl of Westmoreland was the peer in question. Mr. Justice Day said in giving judgment: “I confess I do not understand this buying and selling of peers or any one else. It appears, however, to be a practice, and the plaintiff, having completed his part of the bargain, is entitled to judgment.” Somebody has remembered, what most of us had forgotten, that it is just four hundred years this coming June since John Cabot’s discovery of the coast of North America, and that the anniversary of this English discovery, on June 24, 1497, agrees almost to a day with the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession, which is to be celebrated on June 22. John Cabot was the first of the long line of English voyagers who opened the way for English settlement upon the northern shores of the continent, and it was through them rather than through the Spaniards, whose tendency was toward the south, that our own civilization had its origin. The increase in numbers and in wealth of the congregation of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, otherwise the oldest of the “Christian Science” churches in New York, has made its leader, Mrs. Augusta Stetson, who is technically called the “first reader” of the church, the most important woman pastor in the city. Apart from her eloquence as a pulpit orator. Mrs. Stetson is a woman of extremely interesting personality. She is perhaps fifty years old, keen, bright, well-poised and mentally alert, and as fashionably gowned and bonneted as any member of her fashionable congregation. She is a native of "Boston, but lived for many years in India, where her husband had an official position at a rajah’s court. She is well-versed in astronomy, and once navigated a ship across the ocean without the assistance of the captain, though subject to his direction. ”’A rolling stone gathers no moss,’ my son.” The elder remarked, with a frown; “The moss-back vocation,” the younger replied. “Is the most overcrowded in town.” —Jester.

IN SUPPORT OF POOLING A LONG LIST OF EMINENT AUTHORITIES WHO INDORSE IT. Its Adoption Urged—-Prof. Atwater and Others Contend that It Will Solve the Railway Problem. 1 Tc the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: The extent to which pooling has been considered by legislatures, trade bodies, state railway commissions and individuals, and the changes in the opinions of important persons and commercial bodies, constitute important testimony in the railway behalf. The Cullom committee of 1886 especially considered pooling, and of 149 persons whom it questioned, forty-two favored pooling generally, twenty-eix favored legalized pooling, forty-one pools with legal and other restrictions, and no witness offered any acceptable substitute. For these reasons that committee reported in 18S6: “It would seem wiser to permit such agreements rather than by prohibiting them to render the enforcement and maintenance of agreed rates impracticable.” Further: “The committee does not deem it prudent to recommend the prohibition of pooling,” and “The ostensible object of pooling is in harmony with the spirit of regulative legislation.” Still further: “The majority oi the committee are not disposed to endanger the success of the methods of regulation proposed for the prevention of unjust discriminations by recommending the prohibition of i>ooling.” The law that eommittee first submitted therefore provided: “Said Interstate Commission shall especially inquire into that method of railway management or combination known as pooling, and report to Congress what, if any, legislation is advisable and expedient upon the subject.” Senator Cullom says that Judge Reagan, of Texas, then chairman of the House committee of commerce, mainly defeated this majority of witnesses, the conclusions of his committee and the legalization of pools proposed in the act reported. Judge Reagan went thence to the United States Senate, and having thereafter become a railway commissioner of Texas, he frankly said:

“Further study has caused me to believe that the (fifth) section may be amended so as to benefit both the railroads and the people by allowing the railroads to enter into traffic arrangements with one another.” Among other prominent men who have as frankly changed their views are Hon. Charles S. Smith, late president of the New York Chamber of Commerce; Hon. Simon Sterne, the counsel of the New York Board of Transportation against the railways of New York and others. Mr. Smith said: “Pooling certainly has some good points for shareholders and the public; it does prevent to some extent unjust discriminations; it aims to treat all alike.” Mr. Sterne said of pools: “They have brought about a change for the better from that which prevailed before the pooling arrangements were made." PROF. ATWATER’S INDORSEMENT. Prof. Atwater, of Princeton, described pools as agreements among railways “for each to accept as its share of the competitive business at a moderately remunerative rate common to all what shall be judged to be its just proportion by an umpire or board selected by them to make the apportionment.” The attention of the first Interstate-com-merce Commission was promptly directed to this subject, and their first annual report said: “The scheme of pooling rates or the earnings from traffic was devised and put in force * * * as a means whereby steadiness in rates might be maintained.” The same report further said: “The scheme was one which was made use of in other countries and had been found of service to the roads;’’ 'and “* * * the absolute sum of the money charges exacted for transportation, if not clearly beyond the bounds of reason, was of interior importance in: comparison with the obtaining of rates that should be open, equal, relatively just as between places and as steady as in the nature of things was practicable.” In 18S5 the railway commissioners of Kansas said: “Since the violent confllctions of rates consequent on rate wars between rival lines result usually in discriminative benefits to a few at the ultimate expense of the public, means should be taken to at least moderate this disturbing element to the business interests of the country. Asa means to this end, we venture to suggest that contracts or agreements between rival companies to carry on interstate traffic upon common rates, providing those rates are reasonable and just, should be invested with a legal status and be enforceable with appropriate sanctions.” The average rate for freight in that year was 1.036 cent per ton per mile. It was .839 of 1 cent in 1895, or but 80 per cent, as much. Judge Cooley said: “The avowed purpose in pooling is to avoid ruinous competition between the several roads represented and the unjust discrimination between shippers which is found invariably to attend such competition. * * * It may therefore be taken as agreed that, so far as pooling arrangements have the correction of this subject in view, the purpose is commendable.” He said further: “Without the did of the law to enforce pooling arrangements it is not yet apparent that any scheme can be devised whereby the cutting of rates can he effectually prevented.” He said in an address delivered to the Boston Merchants’ Association Jan. 8, 1889: “The old pooling was never so harmful as some persons supposed, and was probably condemned by law more because of what it was feared it would become or might become than because of what it was.” He also said to a convention of state railway commissioners in Washington May 20, 1890: “It may seem altogether proper that tho government should make, or permit to be made, some provision whereby the comparatively feeble road may be supported, not entirely by the resources of the district which it serves, but to some extent, also, by a tax upon the business or resources of other roads. A provision to this end is not uncommon.” INDORSED BY MR. ADAMS. Charles Francis Adams said: “The practice known as pooling which the inter-state-commerce act inhibits was merely a method through which the weaker railroad corporations were kept alive. To prevent excessive and unequal competition business was divided that the less favored corporation had some share of traffic assigned it.” Ex-Commissioner Walker said, June, 1893: “The pooling of freights or of earnings is the only practice ever known in the history of the world, short of common ownership, by which such a resolute maintenance of rates as is justly required by law for the prevention of unjust discrimination can be secured. In other words, it is seen at last that a fair division of competitive traffic would be an aid and support to the regulative statute.” The Minneapolis Board of Trade, in its appeal to Congress in 1892. said: “The railroad pool honestly administered is the natural balance wheel of interstate commerce.” Prof. Hadley said to the Commercial Club, of Chicago, in April, 1894: “Pools were better administered in 1880 than in 1877, and better in 1886 than in 1880.” In 1893 the United States Senate referred the subject to the Interstate-commerce Commission for reconsideration, whereupon the latter asked commercial bodies and others as to the advisability of amending the interestate act so as to legalize “pooling contracts which would tend to diminish unlawful discriminations.” Eighty-nine answers favored that proposition or the entire repeal of the interstate act. In June, 1894, a conference of commercial interests in Washington, representing twen-ty-three states and eighty-seven trade bodies, unanimously recommended the passage of the Patterson bill, which has now been modified to more favor the public in the Foralcer bill. After seven years of experience under the interstate act pooling was also indorsed—in Washington, December, I>94—by all the state railway commissions, except Minnesota. at which time it was resolved: "That competing carriers may safely he permitted to make lawful contracts with each other for the apportionment of their traffic or the earnings therefrom, provided conditions and restrictions tire imposed which protect the public from excessive and unreasonable charges.” STATE RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS. The most recent authoritative expression upon this subject was that of the national convention of railroad commissioners held In Washington in May. 1896, when Hon. J.

H. Reagan, of Texas, chairman, reported as follows, after suggesting that "the Inter-state-commerce Commission” be empowered to “make, regulate and maintain rates on interstate shipments of freight:" "I have believed, and do believe, that the pooling of freights and divisions of earnings could be authorized by law and so regulated as to prevent, to a large extent, If not entirely, railroad wars and unjust discriminations in freight rates, with advantage both to the railroads and to shippers.” A separate report by Mr. Lappe, of the Illinois Railway Commission, said of pooling: * * * “it would be a great benefit to the entire public, as well as the railroads.” In the same report he further said: “I therefore give it as my opinion that a law should be passed legalizing the pooling of freight earnings by railroad companies, under the inspection and approval of the Interstate-commerce Commission. Because it would protect the weaker lines, protect railroad property as a whole, protect the smaller shipper as against unfair advantages possessed by the larger shipper and would secure first-class railroads and railroad service for both freight and passengers, and, in addition to all these advantages, the working classes would unquestionably be benefited to a great extent.” No objection was offered to these reports. The committee on government ownership, control and regulation of railways reported to the same convention without dissent: “Congress must legalize pooling in order to make it an effectual remedy for rate wars.” The National Board of 'Trade twice recommended such legislation. All these judgments received the approval of the House of Representatives in the fifty-third Congress by a majority of fifty-six, and the Senate committee on commerce reported the bill favorably at the same session. EXPERIENCES ABROAD. As to experiences abroad Mr. Acworth, of London, said in the New York Independent in October, 1892: “Certain it is'that rate cutting has been practically put an end to by an understanding between the companies which, like international law, has no sanction behind it except the agreement of the high contracting parties. * * * Over a considerable part of England the traffic is pooled. * * * “Some of these pools are subject to revision every ten years, others, 1 believe, to be agreements in perpetuity, but in this latter case they are perhaps more of the nature of partitions of territory than traffic pools.” He also said in the same article: “To pools, properly so called, there does not seem to be any popular objection; indeed. within the last year the two great Scotch companies, the North British and the Caledonian, have agreed to a twentyfive years’ pool of their traffic, and though there was a good deal of opposition in Glasgow when it was first announced, within the last few weeks the Glasgow traders have confessed that they were mistaken and that none of the ills which they anticipated has arisen. * * * But the fact is, the public see what looks like competition going on all around them. As traders they see the canvassers of the different companies coming to them, hat in hand, and begging for traffic, promising a later departure, more careful handling ana more prompt delivery—it may be, more generous settlement of claims. As passengers, they see the companies t > ing with one another in improvements, in accommodation, in frequency of service or increased speed, as well as in a score ol details which make up the. comforts of passenger travel. Accordingly, when tne theorist comes along with his assurance that competition is extinct and that pools have done the mischief they are apt to shrug their shoulders and take not much notice M One feature of American railway r atf;s is too often forgotten. It would appear tnat they are usually made arbitrarily and are excessive, whereas it is believed that, aside from the reduced tariffs due to natural competitive forces, and the changes wrought in local rates by the long-anu-short-haul clause of the interstate act, Jo per cent, of all other rates have been reduced to their present low basis by conterence, discussion, trial, change and ultimate agreement between the large production and consuming interests of the country and the railways, so that the interstate rates now published and filed substantially meet all the requirements of powerful competition and of the law and have the public approval. At all events, m> appreciable percentage of the rates are complained of on that score. Secret and preferential reductions from such rates should, therefore, the more promptly cease, yet w r hile asking means to that end from the national legislature there should also be a closer supervision of railway management by railway financiers, owners and officers. AMERICAN CONDITIONS. While many of the difficulties which embarrass the railways could be corrected by the sterling good faith which characterizes the management of English railways, the equality of their lines in distance and facilities, their short distances and dense traffic all make it easier to maintain their rates on faith, yet they have had their periods of distrust and wrong. The dissimilarities in our conditions, the vast extent of our country, our long railway distances and extended systems, the greater differences in the facilities and strength of American railways and the strong rivalries of interior and exterior w-ater carriers, etc., require that good faith be supplemented here by legislative sanction and safeguards. In the case of the Omaha Board of Trade against various railways, Judge Cooley said, with wisdom: “If a rate when made by one company as a single rate would in law' be objectionable, it would be equally so w'hen made by several as a joint rate. The policy of the law and the convenience of business favor the making, of joint rates, and the more completely the whole railroad system of the country can be treated as a unit, as if it were all under one management, the greater will be the benefit of its service to the public and the less the liability to unfair exactions.” This is all the most perfect pool could do. The foreign railway rate and pool policy accords with his utterance, and these articles will conclude with that review. GEORGE R. BLANCHARD.

Why Spencer’* Removal Is Asked. To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: I desire, through the medium of the Journal, to give a statement to the veterans and their friends throughout the State of the cause of the fight for the removal of Mr. Spencer as pension agent at Indianapolis. It was understood by every Republican and so stated in the press at the time, that, when a Republican President would be inaugurated in 1897, Spencer would go at once, for his course towards the clerks in the previous agency, and especially for his treatment of the veterans whom he found in the office. There were ten veterans in the office when he took charge, eight of whom he discharged, viz.: John R. Clinton, William Downey, David Durbin. James R. East, George Marshall, D. H. Olive, W. C. David and William H. Calvert. All of the above named were efficient clerks, performing their work faithfully and well; besides, they w'ere all disabled old soldiers, so certified to by their pension certificates, and entitled to the charitable consideration of every feeling person and loyal citizen. These old soldiers had to walk out to make room for a horde of hungry young hangerson from Fort Wayne. All of these veterans so turned out w’ere men of families, while, in a great many instances, their places were filled by unmarried men. Immediately after the election of Comrade McKinley the veterans and their friends demanded the immediate removal of Spencer from the position that he had disgraced by his treatment of our comrades, and they intend that he shall go, so that he will he an example to all fellows of his stripe, that the time has not vet arrived when they can treat the old soldiers as he has. At the time he was discharging the old crippled veterans from the service of their country that they had so faithfully served in the field, he was in great glee and went about and boasted to his Democratic friends that he was cutting off the. heads of Republicans every day. He also dismissed seven sons and daughters of veterans that w’ere in the service. I hope they will get up petitions and write letters to our comrade. President McKinley, from every community in the State, asking him to remove this man, so that he may have a dose of his own medicine. Os course, he does not like it, because he has just been asked to take it. ami he responds with tears and cries, hut he should he made to take it It will do him good, and probably teach him and others through him a much needed lesson. A Republican administration must set its seal of condemnation upon this man so as to show that it is now. as in the past, still the friend of the perpetuators of the Republic. and this can only be done by Comrade McKinley removing him from office at once, and not letting, him remain a day longer to give even a suspicion that the outrageous treatment of our comrades is winked at by this, our administration REPUBLICAN VETERAN. Indianapolis, May 24. The Scorcher’* Mite. Nc-w York Evening Sun. A woman scorcher with consideration for the wounded feelings of her victim has been discovered at last. This person ran down a poor old man of seedy appearance. She picked him up and insisted on his accepting not a dollar or so, hut her poeketbeok with its contents. Then she rode away. When the surprised recipient had recovered sufficiently to examine his prize he found that it contained nothing but tw’o postage stamps of the lowest denomination. In this case, however, the will had to be taken for the deed.

TRIAL OF VON TAUSCH — SENSATIONAL, GERMAN SCANDALS NOW BEING AIRED IN COIRT. Baron Von Lutznw Testifies He Wns Instructed to Spread Report* About the Kaiser’s Ear Troubles. BERLIN. May 24.—The trial of Herr Von Tausch. the former commissioner of the secret political police, who was arrested on Dec. 8 last at the close of the sensational Luetzow-Leckert trial, during which the imperial chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, the minister for foreign affairs, Baron Marsehal von Bierbersteln, and the German embassador to Austria, Count Philip von Eulenburg, were among the witnesses, commenced to-day and will probably last a week. Among the witnesses summoned are Baron Marsehal von Bieberstein. Count Philip von Eulenberg, ex-minister Von Koehler and General Bronsart von Schellendorf. Police President Windhcim, Herr Behel, the Socialist leader, and about fifty newspaper men, besides a number of officials belonging to the different ministries. At the opening of the trial the president of the court cautioned Baron Von Luetzow not to depart from the actual truth in the testimony which he might be called on to give against Von Tausch. The former chief of the secret political police w r as then examined. He made a statement relative to the employment of Von Luetzow and a newspaper man named Schumann by the secret political police and assured the court that he, Von Tausch, had never caused political interests to be served by his agents. Schumann, of Norman-Schumann, is said to have been much more guilty than Baron Von Luetzow. Schumann escaped from Berlin just in time to avoid arrest. He was charged in conjunction with Baron Luetzow' with having signed fictitious names to receipts for money given them to bribe newspaper writers or editors, or subordinate employes of the government to furnish secretly information of every kind wanted in the alleged campaign to discredit the existing Cabinet. Von Luetzow, during his examination, testified that he received definite instructions to publish reports about the ear troubles of the Emperor. The witness was asked if Von Tausch assigned these troubles to an alleged malady. He replied: “Certainly; Von Tausch said the malady had a cancerous basis, was inherited from his father and that the disease considerably affected his Majesty’s general health.” instead of the customary late night session the court rose at 4:30 this afternoon. Herr Von Tausch, who has been in prison since the close of the Leckert-Luetzow trial, early last winter, declared abruptly that he was physically and mentally incapable of a longer attendance to-day. It is probable that the case will occupy from six to ten days.

REVIEW OF THE CASE. One of the Most Sensational Chapters In Recent German History. BERLIN, May 24.—1f all the features of the programme are presented to the public, the trial of Herr Von Tausch, the former commissioner of the secret political police, will turn out to be one of the most sensational chapters in the recent history of Germany. The very highest names have, in some way or other, been dragged, rightly or wrongly, into the affair, and the result cannot fail to be the washing of much dirty linen in the courts and the strengthening of the discontented elements throughout Germany. Von Tausch is charged with four-fold perjury, and, incidentally, with treason. He threatens, if pushed to the wall, to make a clean breast of everything, and this may include establishing the identity of the authorship of the famous socalled Von Kotze letters, by which an anonymous writer, for over l a year, kept the court of Germany in a state of turmoil by making the most scandalous insinuations against male or female members of many aristocratic families, resulting in stormy scenes, separations, duels and deaths. Count Von Kotze, the former court chamberlain, according to general report, is certainly not the author of this series of venomous attack upon various members of the nobility, and it has been more than once hinted that the author of these scandalous missives is to be found in the very highest circles in Germany. Therefore, under all the circumstances, the very greatest interest is taken in the proceedings against Von Tausch, whose preliminary examination may he said to have commenced on Dec. 8 last, when he w T as arrested at the close of the sensational Luetzow-Leckert trial, during which the imperiaJ chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, and the minister for foreign affairs, Baron Marschall Von Bieberstein, were among the witnesses. The whole matter seems to date from the fall of Prince Bismarck from power and the accession of General Count Von Caprivi to the chancellorship. From that time on a merciless, underhand political warfare was waged against General Von Caprivi, and his enemies were eventually successful in causing his retirement. This w r as seemingly followed by another political campaign, this time against several other members of the government, two of whom, Dr. Koeller, minister for the interior, and General Bronsardt Von Schellendorf, minister for war, lost their portfolios, while others were in danger of the same fate. A climax in the campaign of political calumny and court intrigue was reached shortly after the Czar and Emperor William met at Breslau last year. Their majesties toasted each other, and the Emperor of Russia, replying to the Emperor of Germany, said he was “imbued with the same feelings as your Majesty.” But a version of the Czar’s toast was published in which it was stated that he said he was “imbued with the same feelings as my late father.” and it was further asserted that the Czar’s wording was altered in the report of the toasts at the instance of Count Von Eulenberg, the high court marshal, in British interests, and the editor of the paper in which this version of the toast appeared was induced to believe that the minister for foreign affairs, Baron Marschall Von Bieberstein, was desirous that this charge against Count Von Eulenberg should be published. Later Count Von Eulenberg and Baron Marschall Von Bieberstein commenced actions for libel against two newspaper men, Baron Vor. Luetzow, who bears one of the most honored names in German history, being a descendant of the famous Luetzow of the war of liberation, and Herr Leckert, alias Larsen, a young man who was clearly only a tool in the hands of powerful wirepullers. But. in reality, the action was taken against the political clique which for six years past has been directing the intrigues which have resulted in the overthrow' of chancellors and ministers, and w'hich have brought about a state of affairs W'hich it is impossible to even outline in this dispatch, culminating in the steady growth of socialism and a feeling of resentment and unrest throughout Germany. It was insinuated repeatedly that the intrigues originated from the Foreign Office, and the reports of alleged differences of opinion between the Emperor’s ititim* sand the members of the government were craftily fed by a series of malignant insinuations and mysterious hints. At the close of the Luetzow-Leckert trial Baron Von Luetzow and Leckert were sentenced to sixteen months’ imprisonment and the other and less important persons who w'ere on trial with them, were sentenced to shorter terms and fines. The trial left this question unsettled: Who is the man or men at the back of Von Tausch, who was so powerful that General Fount Von Caprivi, when imperial chancellor, was unable to secure his dismissal from the office of chief of the secret political police, although he earnestly tried To remove him? This may be determined during the trial of Von 'Tausch. But it is admitted that it all depends upon him. In addition to Chancellor Caprivi. the present chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, is known to have striven in vain to obtain the removal of Von Tausch. Who, then, is the man who is so powerful as to stand successfully behind the secret police commissioner against the influence of two chancellors, to say nothing of many Cabinet ministers? This is the question which people are asking themselves and which makes the trial of Von Tausch such an interesting chapter in history. Some idea of the methods followed by Von Tausch can be gathered from the following instance. Some time en vious to the visit of Emperor William to Thorn, about two years ago, Von Tausch was sent to inquire into the Polish movement. He took Baron Luetzow with him, and the latter succeeded in engaging himself, to the daughter of a prominent Pole, whose residence was frequented by the leaders of Polish society. When Von Leutzow found his mission was fruitless, he broke his promise and returned to Berlin. Since Caprivi’s fall, Von Tausch*s main political intrigues have consisted in attempting to drive from power the present Cabinet, especially Baron Marschall. whom he wished to lie replaced by Count Herbert Bismarck, who formerly held that office. It has been proven during the preliminary

investigation that Von Tausch has had regular and frequent meetings with Count Herbert Bismarck, and that he has had similar relations with the Eulenburgs, and also, in a lesser degree, with General Count Von Waldersee, especially just before and after Caprivi’s fall, when Waldersee was among the chief candidates for the chancellorship. It is quite certain that Von Tausch has not conducted his political intrigues for so many years on his own account, but for higher and more powerful persons. Although in receipt of but a small salary (3,200 marks—<Boo) he has lived at the rate of 50,000 marks per annum and his load of debts has been paid, from time to time, by somebody. Von Tausch is a Bavarian by birth. He comes from a family of impoverished nobles, served as a lieutenant in the Bavarian, army during the Franco-German war. being decorated with the Second Class of the Iron Cross for distinguished bravery during some engagements. In 1876. having been promoted captain, he was forced to leave the army because of pecuniary difficulties. After being employed by the Berlin Discouto Oesellshaft for a short while, he was appointed a subordinate officer in the Berlin police force, due to the influence of the Blsmarcks. For abofit fifteen years he has been the soul of the political police department. nearly all the important treason, espoinage and Anarchist cases being intrusted to him. Ho presented, too, tHo Schnaebele ease, which almost led to war with France at the time, by arresting Schnaebele, the French police commissary. Von Tausch has been the recipient of a number of high decorations. RIGHTS OF’"FRENCHMEN INTERESTING TALK WITH EX-EM-BASSADOIt JAMES R. EISTIS. Little Personal Liberty Enjoyed by tbe Freneb People—General Porter Received by >l. Hanotaux. PARIS, May 24.—The retiring United States embassador, James B. Eustis, drove to the Elysee Palace to-day and presenttd his letters of recall to President Faure. After the ceremony Mr. Eustis granted an interview to a representative of the Associated Press and gave the latter his impressions of France, expressed his admiration of the French people and gave his opinion of the rejected Anglo-American arbitration treaty. Mr. Eustis said: “My four years’ residence in France has afforded me a very favorable opportunity of studying French institutions and it has been a most interesting study, as it has enabled me to contrast the working of a republican government in France and constitutional government in the United States. There are some points of dissimilarity. They are called sister republics, but as to fundamental principles they are not very closely related. In advocacy of personal liberty, France has never produced a single great man, the fact being that no matter how ardent a republican a Frenchman may be, and how great may have been his devotion to the political rights of the people, he does not seem üblo to form the slightest conception of what are known in England and the United States as the fundamental rights of personal liberty. They made a revolution to destroy one bastile, but they have many to-day on the republican soil of France, owing to their system of arbitrary arrests, detentions and perquisitions, which exist only under the most autocratic form of government. To an American such a system would render life intolerable. It could he wijied out ip one day, hut no one seems to consider it sufficiently important to protect the personal liberty of the citizens. The French certainly deserve a great deal of credit for having maintained their republic in the face of such adverse circumstances, but they present the strange anomaly of a self-governing people being fond of the constant and unremitting interference of the government in their personal affairs and their personal relations and being supremely Indifferent to the rights of personal liberty. An eminent Frenchmen with w'hom 1 w T as discussing this question most truthfully declared: ’The ignorance of public men in France with regard to the working of our constitutional government lias often amazed us.’ “As regards the French people my residence in Paris has increased my admiration for them. I consider them a most marvelous people as regards their intelligence, their thrift, the habits of sobriety, their wonderful resources and their devotion to political 'liberty, and if, as we do, they allow their free invitations to develop instead of dwarfing tin individuals, their national power would he much greater than it is now.” “As you were for years a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, wffiat is your opinion of the rejected treaty of arbitration between Great Britain and the United States?” “I have always considered it a sentimental farce. It is based on a false idea, in the first place, that the intelligent processes of diplomacy are inadequate to adjust differences between the tw'o governments, and, secondly, that the amicable process of special arbitration will not be resorted to w'hen diplomacy fails. Both of these assumptions are falsified, even by our very late experience, and it is a humiliating confession by both governments to admit that these potent instrumentalities are not to he within their reach in the future as they have been in the past. If, on the other hand, it means that the feeling of hostility between the two countries is so pronounced that it is necessary to establish a disciplinary tribunal to keep them in order and to prevent them from rushing at each other’s throats (which is a preposterous supposition) any permanent tribunal of a. (ration would be brushed aside and utP.ly fail of its Intended purpose.” “What are your plans now?” “I have presented my letters of recall and, therefore, am a private citizen. I shall shortly leave Paris, settle in New York and practice law’ there.” General Horace Porter, the new United States embassador to France, was received to-day by the French minister for foreign affairs, M. Hanotaux. General Porter will have an audience with President Faure op. Wednesday. Mr. Henry Vignaud. secretary of the United States embassy to-day presented to M. Hanotaux tlje members of the United States bimetallic commission, Senator Edw'ard O. Wolcott, of Colorado; ex-Viee President Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, and Gen. Jackson Paine, of Massachusetts.

THE FAIRBANKS RESOLUTION. It Open* a Way for a Statexmanllke Solution of the* Cuban Ruestlon. Boston Herald. It strikes us that the resolution of Senator Fairbanks, offered in the United States Senate on Thursday, may well be rescued from the columns of exciting debate telegraphed at that time and seriously considered on its merits. We copy it below: “Resolved, That the Congress of the United States views with deep solicitude the deplorable civil strife in the Island of Cuba, which is so destructive to life and property, and which is embarrassing and destroying the commerce of the United States with Cuba. The highest motives of humanity and public interest require the immediate cessation of hostilities and the establishment of peace. And that the President shall in a friendly spirit tender the good offices of the United States to Spain, to the end that bloodshed may speedily cease and that honorable and permanent peace may be established in the Island of Cuba; and, further, that tne President, in a spirit of amity, tender the good offices of the United States to Spain, in an endeavor to secure the independence of Cuba, upon terms alike honorable and just to ail powers concerned. And if the President shall be unable, by such friendly intercession, to secure the independence of Cuba within a reasonable time, he shall communicate the facts to Congress, with his recommendations thereon.’ , We regard this as important, not only because it opens a method for a statesmanlike, Christian and humane settlement of the Cuban question, but because we believe it is the method in which this conflict in Cuba must be eventually ended, if sense and discretion are to be brought to bear upon the subject. It will meet with the opposition of hot-heads there, and still more, It may be, from Spanish pride la Spain. There is always danger that tho folly of jingoes from this side may involve the nations in war. and it should be earnestly and carefully guarded against. It is most fortunate that the President Is reliable at such a juncture, and when the question is projK-rly presented on the above basis there is little doubt that the reflecting portion of our people will be with him. Let the government be united and firm in taking this attitude, and it is not easy to see how Spain can hold out against it, especially* if the governments of Europe second our appeal, which it may fairly be expected the more Influential of them will do. Not at Homo. Philadelphia Record. The "Editors’ Home.” in Florida, has a somewhat striking title, considering that editors see so little of home.