OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 8717, 8 January 1892, Page 4

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Keokuk, lowa, U.S.A., December 6. THE AMERICAN CENSUS AND ITS RESULTS.; Superintendent Porter, in an addrea? before the American Statistical Association at Boston, talked about tb% laat American census and its results, and of bourse insisted on the general'accuracy of the work, as well as of its great value, The statement of lt< results will occupy 25.000 pages, and mi dude a digest of a thousand million state} ments. Among the features reported on are the average number of persons to a family and dwelling, areas of occupation, special classification of families per dwelling in the cities, natural residence in this country of foreign-born adults, facts M to their naturalisation and ability to speak the English language, division of the colored population by shades, and surviving war veterans. It is proposed to prepare a gigantic directory of the latter, who number some 1,500,000, if provision for that work in made by the coming Congress. The vital statistics will include marriages, births, and deaths, with the relation of tho latter to topography, drainage, and other environments. The statistics of crime and pauperism are full, if not complete; and the educational enrolment shows that 12,709,079 children attend the public schools, 11,351,983 of them being white, and 1,357.096 colored. The church iigures contain statistics of 135 sects, but the vast majority of church members belong to four or five sects. Those of mortgage indebtedness of individuals and private corporations have cost nearly L 200,000 to collect them, and it will require LIOO.OOO more to finish up the work. Mr Porter says that the inquiry has been thorough, in spite ,„f the undoubted opposition of the people, tie thinks, if tho averages thus far obtained hold good for the whole country, there is an existing debt of two and a-half billions of dollars on the farms and city homes of the United States occupied by owners and encumbered. The indebtedness occurred in buying land and lota and borrowing money to improve real estate. The number of families occupying and owning mortgaged farms and houses is thought not to ejcceed 2,250,000, leaving, perhaps, 10,250,000 families who occupy and own their homes free of encumbrance, or hire their homes and farms. The Agricultural Department takes in many subjects not previously considered, among which are horticulture, viticulture, and cultivation of the soil by freedmen in the South, irrigation of the arid lands, and the production of sugar. The statistics of manufacture take account of the items of credit and borrowed capital and cost of production, while the subjects embrace everything from paper mills to shipbuilding, hoot and shoe factories to brickyards, meat packing to salt works, and, iu fact, everything in which raw material is converted into a manufacturing product. Mining, transportation, and insurance have been well covered, and the railroad statistics include complete returns for the decennial period ending 1889. The most prominent among the additional matters which have been taken up in the eleventh census are the ownership of homes and farms, the amount of mortgages on real estate, and questions of sociology. Mr Porter will recommend that Congress provide for a permanent census bureau, and ha is now preparing a Bill to establish such a department. PHARISAISM IN LIFE. The current number of the ‘Arena’ contains an article under the significant heading of ‘ Pharisaism in Public Life,’ which will attract public attention, as ic deals in personalities by way of illustration, and handles them without gloves. The general basis of the article no one who is familiar with American society will care to dispute. The writer affirms that insincerity, hypocrisy, and pharaiaais.n in public life aie undermining the influence of our political fabric upon the popular mind. More than this, it places a dangerous degree of power in the .hands of pretentious, narrow, and bigoted individuals of small moral stature, who, in the exercise of their well-nigh despotic power, bring punishment on those who are less guilty than the officials themselves. Under such circumstances phariaaism is a menace to tli* stability of Government, and a sign of .national decay. The writer in question cites three prominent cases as illustrations of his positions. First is that of a lawyer named Britton, who was at one time the legal adviser of Anthony Comstock, but withdraw to establish a “ Society for the Enforcement of Criminal Law.” i(e began operations with the arrest of the president of the American News Company for selling the works of Balzac, Walter Whitman, and Count Tolstoi. When the case was called in court it was promptly dismissed, but the defendant had no redress. And yet a case of this kind couid be put upon the docket by a man who uses his position for blackmail, is himself a gambler, and who does not pay his debts. The second is that of the famous Anthony Comstock, who secured the arrest of Rev, J. B. Caldwell, editor of the ‘ Christian Life,’ published in Chicago, for publishing a airmen on ‘ Marital Purity.’ The Courts dismissed the case, but Mr Caldwell bad no and could secure no indemnity for the anxiety, vexation, and expense of defence.

The third case is that of the prosecution of the Louisiana State lottery, which gathers in vast sums from those who desire to get rich fast without working for it ; while Aha Wall street combination sweeps away fortunes, beggars’ homes, consigns men to penury, to suicide, and to prison unmolested, This is the indictment drawn by the writer“ In each instance it is purely « game of chance for all save those who are jvitkin the Wall street ring, who control ■aofficlent money and stocks to dictate the course of the game, and to whom there (s no dak. The Louisiana lottery is a positive ■evil* a cancerous sore on the body politic. But Wail street n a far greater evil; it is a cancer whose roots have already fastened upon the vitals of oar political, educational, and religious institutions an evil which oothing can remedy save a political revolution of the great, earnest masses of our people. The Pulpit is abashed in its presence because so many leading lights and pillars in each wealthy congregation are connected with the ‘ street,’ which is the polite way of designating ‘gamblers ’ who delve in stock speculation. The Press, with honorable and noble exceptions, wink at this plague spot, while loudly crying for laws to correct comparatively harmless evils. The political parties depend too much npon the kings of the ‘ street ’ for the sinews of war in great campaigns to lift a voice against it. The ‘ saloon ’ and the ‘ street, 7 two colossal curses, cast their swart and por£eatous shadow over the palaces and hovels jA aj great nation; yet by virtue of their power the Church and State, the clergy and d.e politicians, remain silent or temporise iin their presence. ’" PIPSOMANIA AND ITS CORK. The discussion begun in the September number of the ‘ North American Review ’ is continued all along the line. There are now twenty-fonr Keeley institutes in the United States, and every one of them is doing a grand work. The doctors are sneering at the cure and railing at the discoverer. ** Con any good come out of Nazareth ?” ihey cry oat against him because be refuses to reveal his secret. Doctor Keeley’s answer is in substance that he regards Dr Koch’s discovery as the grandest thing for the benefit of humanity since the day of /Christ. Yet it is lest to the world because Koch has retired from the Held, and with him the master-hand that guided the great work. The world would not wait, but squeezed the secret out of him, and the so-called remedy was manufactured everywhere, moat of it worthless and bogus. Popular curiosity waned as rapidly as it was aroused. The people rejected it, and jumped to the conclusion that Dr Koch was a quack, a charlatan, and a cheat. The doctor has retired to the /country heart-broken, humiliated, ruined, like a hunted creature, with none so poor to do him reverence.” Meanwhile the afflicted people are docking to the Keeley institutes, and returning therefrom happy and contented, with nothing but praise upon thslr lips and gratitude in their hearts. .John F. Minis, a college graduate, and Cor twenty years a New York journalist, tells liia experience in the October number at the 'North American Review. 1 He had tried every remedy offered and every Institution open for that purpose without help, until he came to Dwight and submitted to Dr Neeley’s treatment, and now bP says “that

the disease is out of my blood and out of my bones, and I know it is out forever.” Mr Minis tells the story of his going to Dwight in a simple, earnest way, of his and the absolute freedom allowed thq patients. He says: *' There Was no concealment, no jugglery, no suave or deceptive talk, but the simple medical treatment of out disease. As for me, it was a revelation tq find that my manhood was respected from the outset, and that not only were there no schoolboy ' bounds * for our walks, but that in that primitive community the town marshal, with whom I lodged, never locked his front door at night.” The outcome he states in his own exultant words:—“ That was the end of my drinking, and all that has passed my lips since the 31st day of January. Formerly a drink of whisky would have set my brain on fire, and in an hour’s time I would have walked ten miles to get the second one, and bad it at all hazards. When I saw that it had ceased to make me its victim and slave I could have cried for joy. I knew from that moment that the bichloride of gold had gotten the upper hand, broken the fetters of disease, and made me whole. Yet 1 was not entirely out of the woods. When this hour of temporary temptation had gone by I passed through such an experience as is apt to follow a prolonged debauch, and for two weeks could scarcely cat or sleep. Then, suddenly, as if I had stepped out of the blackness of an African jungle into the quiet sunshine of Central Park, I broke out of my living tomb and knew that 1 was cured. The knowledge came to me like a benediction from Heaven, No one who has not been similarly cursed with tho disease of drink can know the joy of the moment in which my cure came to me as a fact. I do not believe, I know that I am cured/ and am satisfied as to its permanency. 1 did not doubt twenty years ago that I was cured of chills and fever ; I did not doubt when this last May came around with its blossoms of spring that my cure was permanent, and that the appetite for drink was eradicated. I do not understand the processes, but I know the fact.” The writer does not pretend to understand the scientific side. He only “knows the fact " that be has been cured, and such knowledge far outweighs a volume of theories and speculations. He makes no argument from a medical atandpoint, but the situation as described by him cannot bo gainsaid by any amount of adverse criticism, THE STATE ELECTIONS. New York elected the entire Democratic ticket by a majority of from 30,000 to 45,000. The Senate will stand—Republican 18 and Democrats 14. Tho Lower House will stand a tie, with a Democratic Speaker. The issues were mostly local, mixed with resentment against some of the candidates for voting the World’s Fair to Chicago instead of New York. Ohio elected an entire Republican ticket, headed for Governor by Mr William M'Kinley, the author of the now femous M‘£inley Bill. The majority ranged from 15,000 to 20,000. The Senate and Lower House are largely Republican, Massachusetts elected a Democratic Governor by 1,500 majority, The Republicans elected the remainder of the ticket, and control the Legislature in both branches by small majorities.

lowa gave the Democratic State ticket a majority of from 5,000 to 7,000, but the Legislature in both branches is Republican. The issue iu this State was prohibition of the liquor traffic. The law is made odious in the border counties by its non-enforce-ment. That the law will be repealed I do not believe. Neither party will caie to assume the responsibility of its repeal. Doubtless it will be referred back to the people again, Pennsylvania Republicans elected their State officers by from 20,000 to 50,000 of a majority, and the Legislature in both branches by increased majorities. Maryland made a Democratic clean sweep by nearly 20,000 of a majority and the Legislature in both branches, which ensures the election of a Democratic Senator,

South Dakota —This young State elected the Republican ticket throughout by about 4,000 majority and a working majority in both branches of the Legislature, Mississippi. —T’his State, as was expected, went practically unanimously Democratic. The shot guns kept the blacks away from the polls, and the Farmers’ Alliance failed of strength enough to put in an appearance. Nebraska went Republican as usual, but by reduced majorities, Kansas.—The Republicans in this election recaptured the States from the Farmers’ Alliance men and tl.e Legislature in both branches by a good majority. Prohibition is in the constitution of this State, and thus practically out of the political arena, All parties are opposed to its reaubmission, and are committed to its enforcement.

Virginia elected a Democratic State ticket almost without opposition and a Legislature in both branches by two-thirds majority. Michigan.—The Republicans were again aucoessful by about 3,000 or 4,000 majority. Colorado developed a Republican majority of 7,000. New Jersey.—This little State went Democratic by a large majority, and will elect a Democratic Senator. The vote of the Prohibition party in the sever?! States is not yet announced.

THE JW'iCiMLEV TARIFF DILL. When Major M'Kinley, as chairman of the Committee of Waysand Means, reported his now famous Bill to Congress and to the country he represented that he desired to cut off foreign trade, and urged that Congress should pass his Bill speedily, so as to forestall importation. This is what led the American people to make such a sweeping rejection of the npw tariff as it was interpreted to them by the Republican leader. The noteworthy thing about this tariff is that it has done the very thing the Republican leader said it would prevent. It has extended our foreign trade, enlarged the free list, and made greater cheapness, and this result is making the Tariff Bill grow in public favor. The Tariff Bill went into effect last October. The trade statement for October of this year is one of the moat noteworthy ever made. Its facts are almost startling. The following is taken from Statistician Brock’s report, just submitted to Secretary Foster, of the United States Treasury' This is the first time in the history of this country’s commerce that the value of the export for any month has exceeded 100,C00,000d01, The two months of the largest value of exports prjor to this were the two months of December, 188Q, and December, 1890. In the firet mentipned of these two months the value of the exports was 98,890,214i}01. In December, 1890, they were of the value 98,451,752d0), fyat ip the month of October just passed American exports of merchandise reached the splendid figure of 102,923.296i01, or nearly 3,fi00,000d0l for day in the month. The imports of merchandise during the month of October were of the value of (16,706 239J01, It will be seen that the exports exceeded the value of the imports by the sum of 36,138,057d01. In other words, this was the value of the balance of trade in this country’s favor. Curing the twelve months ended with October 31 the value of American exports was 927,966,666d01. Daring the same twelve months the value of American imports was 818,961,760. It will be seen that the balance of trade in this country’s favor .dttjog this twelve months was 109,000,000 dollars. During the rwntfe o; October the imports of gold in this country omonoted to 16,897,947d01, while the exports of gold amounted to only 809,565. It will he seep that the balance of gold in favor of the United States was over 1H,000,000d01. During the month pi October this country exported 300,240,498d0J of silver, and imported 2,423,02/dol In silver, The Immigration to this country during October amounted in numbers to 54,182, as against 46,267 in the month of October, 1890. The immigration for ten months ended October 31 was 522,458, fg against 427,666 for the corresponding ten months pf IS9O. It will be seen there has bsen an increase In immigration during the twelve montba of nearly 100,000. THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF RECIPROCITY.

The validity of the reciprocity feature of the M'Kinley tariff is now before the Supreme Court for decision. One of the points made by the importers is that the reciprocity clause is unconstitutional, and that the entire law is thereby vitiated. This point is strongly supported by the Press of the £)emocratio party, because (they claim) it gives unlawful legislative power to the President; that ft givap him authority to decide, after a specified time, yjj.ejiher certain named articles, imported from a certain ,of countries, shall continue to be duty free as a£ present, or shall be made to pay certain specified duties. It is very evident that, whatever legislative powe; is granted, it Is hedged afeopf very closely.

REPORTS FOR CONGRESS. The indications are that the repotta in preparation for submission to the approaching Congress will be unusually complete and interesting. That from the Statistician of the Inter-State Commerce Commission will be especially so, though its figures do not cover a period later than the year ended June, 1890, except that it will include a statement of earnings, operating expenses, and fixed charges up to March, 1891. This report divides the oountiy into ten territorial gronpa, which will for the first time make It possible to note the difference in the rate of development of the several sections of our country. The total railway mileage seventeen months ago was 16,359,705 miles, being an increase of 603,060 miles. There is an average of ten freight and five passenger locomotives for every ten miles of operated lines and 744 oars. The total number of oars is 1,164,138, of which 26,511 are in the passenger service. Each freight locomotive averaged a draft of 4,721,627 tons per mile, and each passenger engine 1,413,142 persons one mile. The total capitalisation of railroad property is given at L 197,889,660. The casualties reported were 6,320 persons killed and 20,034 injured. Of those killed 2,451 were employes, 285 were passengers, and 3,584 classed as “ other persons.” A passenger riding continuously at the rate of thirty miles per hour has a fair expectation of immunity from death by accident for 1,700 years ; but the engineers, brakesmen, and conductors have a similar expectation of but forty years. The most common source of casualty to employes is from coupling and uncoupling cars. THE NICARAGUA CANAL. The Secretary of the Interior sets forth the progress already made by the Nicaragua Canal Company. The railway from the Eastern terminus to the divide has been equipped and in operation for eleven miles. The machine shops are in complete order. About 3,000 ft of actual excavation on the route has been accomplished, giving a channel of 17ft deep and from 150 ft to 250 ft wide. Of its finances, the Secretary says that since the organisation of the company 10,145 shares of the capital stock have been taken at par, amounting to L 202,900, while the receipts from other sources are L 5,443. The company have expended for current coat L 160,610 and 27,800 shares of their full paid-up capital stock, and are besides obligated for L 1,190,600 of first mortgage bonds. They have also issued I§o,ooo sharps of stock in payment for concessions, franchises, and other property. The liabilities consist of the amounts still due under concessions granted of the L 1,190,000 of bonds, due the construction company for labor and materials, and of other outstanding accounts about L 6,000. In concluding this item of the report the Secretary,says :—“lt seems appropriate that this great highway for the products and manufactures from and imports to the United States should be connected with the Department of the Interior. It is being built at the same time that the great waste places of the country are being opened to settlement, the factories inoreasing, the railroads extending, and the population rapidly multiplying. Soon our commerce must reach, not only the States of South America, but China and the East by this western route. It is gratifying to note that this short passage to some of the greatest commercial markets of the world will be ready by the time a demand for it becomes imperative ” The Secretary has discovered the commercial Importance of this highway, and is confident that it will be ready by the time “ a demand for it becomes imperative ”; and recent political complications in the South American States make the demand imperative now. OUR POSTAL SERVICE. The Postmaster-General’s report covers a wide range, giving in detail thd work of thp internal and foreign postal service, the amount of mail matter carried, and the cost of maintenance. Among the many recommendations made are the incorporation of the savings bank feature and an increase of subsidy to mail lines on the Pacific Ocean. On this he says:—“To carry out the present law on the Pacific Ocean will involve an immediate outlay of L 1,200,000, and the compensation is inadequate to tempt investment.” ABOUT SUGAR. A convention of 4 l ft er ‘ can BU B ar beetgrowers will assemble at Jjiopofn, Nebraska, December 17. In noticing this thp Council Bluffs 1 Nonpareil ’ gives the following interesting facts:—“ Our annual importations of sugar now amount to about two million tons, while we produce only about one hun. dred thousand tons. In other words, the annual consumption for eaob person in the United States is 451b each, while we produce only 81b per capita. The cost of sugar to each person hj about 5c per week, or 2dol 60c per year. There are now six beet sugar factories in the United States, of which two are located in Nebraska. It is estimated that it would require no fewer than 700 such factories to supply the present wants of our people without importation. There is therefore little danger at present that this industry will bo overdone. The world’s output of beet sugar has rapidly increased during the last thirty years from 387.000 tons in 1860-61 to 3,660,000 tons in 1890 91; while of cane sugar there was produced last year a total of 2,340,000 tons, showing an excess of the bpet product of 1.320.000 tons. The imports of sugar to the United States from April 1 to October 1, 1891, exceeded the highest in any period by 20,000,000d01. The principal producers of beet sugar are France, Germany, and Austria.” Ulysses,