OUR AMERICAN LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 1

OUR AMERICAN LETTER

CONFERENCE FOR THE PROMOTION *OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. An important conference for the promotion' of peace and the advocacy ot international arbitration was held recently at Lake Mohouk, New York, at which endorsements of the work of the conference were received from the officers of 120 organisations, including many of the strongest and most prominent men of our country. More than fifty organisations haw appointed committees or adopted strong resolutions in favor of international arbitration. Several have entered upon some form of active educational and propaganda work. Forty associations sent delegates to. this conference. Cardinal Gibbons was one of the principal speakers, and I make no excuse for presenting my leaders with an extract from bia powerful address: i When looking ,back and contemplating the wars that have ravaged the Christian world during the last twenty centuries, /some persons might be tempted to ex- . claim that the mission of Christ to bring peace-to the world was a failure. My purpose is to disabuse the faint-hearted of this, discouraging impression. It is by comparisons, and contrasts that "we can most effectually gauge the results of Christian civilisation. Let us compare the military history of the. Roman Empire with' the military record of our American Republic. In pagan Rome war was the rule, peace was the exception. The temple of Janus in Rome was always open in time of war, and was closed in time-of peace. From tho reign of Romulus to the time of Caesar, embracing 700 years, the temple of Janus was always open, except twice, when it was closed for only six rears. The United States has existed as a sovereign nation for about 120 years. During that time we have had four wars, the combined length of which was about ten years. I may remark, in passing, thai at" least three of these four military campaigns might have been averted "by peaceful arbitration, and that a large share of the responsibility rests at our doors. What is the history of the Hebrew people as recorded in the pages of the Old Testament but a narrative of warfare? The sacred chronicle, from Moses to tho Maccabees, comprising 1,400 years, presents an almost uninterrupted series of wars of defence, or invasion, or of extermination. But the blessed influence of our Christian civilisation has been experienced still more in mitigating the horrors of military strife. . Prior to tho dawn of Christianity the motto of the conqueror was "Woe to-the vanquished." Alexander the Great, after the capture of the city of Tyre, ordered 2,000 of the inhabitants to be crucified, and the remainder of tho population were put to death or sold into slavery. How different was the conduct of General Scott after his successful siege of the city of Mexico. As soon as the enemy surrendered not a single soldier or citizen was sacrificed. During the siege of Jerusalem, under Titus, the Roman general, more than a million" of Jews perished by the sword and famine. Nearly 100,000 Jews were carried into captivity. And yet Titus was regarded as a benevolent ruler, and was called the " delight of the human race." Let us contrast the conduct of. Titus towards the Jews with General Grant's treatment of the defeated Confederate forces. When General Lee surrendered his sword at Appomattox Courthouse, he and his brave army were permitted to return without molestation to their respective homes. I beg you to consider what progress already has been made in the beneficent work in which you are enlisted. A hundred years ago disputes between individuals were commonly decided by a duel. Thanks to the humanising influence of a Christian public opinion, these disagreements now ; are usually adjusted by. legislation or conciliation. Have we not reason to hope that the same pacific agencies will check the duel between nations? I can recall at least four instances within the last twenty years in.-which international conflicts have been amicably settled by arbitration. Let us cherish the hope that the day is not far off when the reign of the Prince of Peace, will be firmly ..established, and when international disputes will be decided not by standing jarmies, but by permanent courts of arbitration. . v. ■ ■ j THE TENDENCY TOWARDS | PATERNALISM. jAnyone who has cared to follow the proceedings of the American Congress will see. at\ once the drift and positive tendency towards paternalism. The Railroad Rate Bill, beiides covering express companies, Pulman cai.*lines, and pipe lines, prohibits common. carriers from engaging in or becoming stockholders in any other commercialenterprise, iniorder to rem6ve the temptation to partiality in the distribution of favors. The Puje Food Bill provides fbT the most explicit; inspection of food products, drinkables,' and medicines, • and imposes severe-! penaltiesi for aduHeration and false' label-] maj •. Tic Packmx-house Meat Insjoecftioa |

Bill, the Employers' Liability Bill, the Eight-hour Day Bill, the Anti-Injunction Bill, the Bill for Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephone lines, and other public service utilities are all occupying, the attention of Congress and of the people. The great trusts and commercial combinations are now before the .law courts, and must show cause why they should not be made to disband. SENATOR/ SMOOT AND AMERICAN - , WOMEN. Senator Smoot, of Utah, is not the first man by several millions who has been undone by women. There are women in the polygamy with which he is charged, but there are at least a half a million of American women petitioning tho American Senate to expel Smoat, one of the highest officials in tho Mormon hierarchy, which has broken every covenant by which the State of Utah was admitted into the Union. Quoting from their petition, which is bound in leather, they say: We ask that he be expeQed, as loyal patriotic, American citizens. We ask "for it for the protection of the land we love, and for tho protection of the children unborn, whose right to legitimate parentage should be protected. We ask it in the name of American womanhood. We ask it because the Mormon hierarchy has been proved to be perjured, disloyal, disobedient to the laws of State and nation, and defiant even of divine laws. We ask it because the presence of Reed Smoot in the United States Senate is an insult to every home and every woman in our free and enlightened republic. The charge against Smoot is that, notwithstanding the fact that polygamy in Utah has been made illegal, the Senator, as one of the chief officials of the Mormon Church, has countenanced its practice, in direct lation of both Federal and State law. If the cause of virtue in tho homo is to triumph, Smoot ought to be cast out from the Legislature of the nation. But will tie Senate rise to a performance of its duty ? THE LAWS DELAYS, Caleb Powers, Secretary of State of Kentucky during the brief regime of Governor Taylor, and accused of. complicity in the murdej, of Governor Goebel, is soon to be tried for the fourth time. In his case, at least, the law's delays seem for a good purpose. This is a political case. On the first and third trials the juries were drawn from the prisoner's political opponents. The second trial was held before a Judge who had publicly denounced Powers as guilty before a political meeting, and whose prejudice during the trial was so pronounced that the higher court censured him for not , vacating the bench. | The case of Mrs Botkin, sentenced to life imprisonment eight years ago for sending poisoned candy through the mails to procure the death of the wife of the man with whom.she was infatuated, is a striking illustration of the law's delays, especially in the sequel. She was.tried twice in California, the jury disagreeing at the first trial and bringing in a verdict of conviction at the second. Since then she has managed to evade her punishment by appeal after appeal from one. court to another, until last week, when she made formal application for commitment to San Quentin Prison to enter upon her sentence- Here is a case where the law's delays interfered with justice. Then there is the case of Lawyer Patrick, of New York, accused of the murder of Millionaire Rice six years ago, and four vears under sentence of death. Patrick insists that he is not guilty. Himself a shrewd lawyer, he has been aided by colleagues in discovering ingenious pretexts for defeating, the fulfilment of .sentenced H he is not guilty he will' have ; demonstrated the value of the law's delays so far as they concern his casei In the main, though, these delays operate more for the benefit of the guilty than for the innocent;. and, besides, they can only be invoked by those who have money, which provokes a feeling that there is bno law for the rich and another for the poor. A NEW MANUAL FOR UNION LABOR: The Drivers' Union of Chicago and Sk Louis, in a long memorial to their employers, made quotations from the Bible in support of their petition for Sunday rest. About 6,000 drivers connected with the grocery and market business, most of them boys under age, are obliged to work the greater part of the Sabbath day in the performouee of duties connected with their week-day business. Thus, they are led into haiwts of neglect of church and Sunday school. After their work at the barns they usually hang around the street cornem and smoke cigarettes, or go to base-ball games. The teamster officials profess to believe that the issue is more moral than economic. They therefore apneal.to religious sentiment in their demands for extra pay and overtime by quoting the Fourth Commandment, establishing six days for the limit of labor. The quick response of the employers was amother quotation from Scripture, which showed the necessity of giving proper care to all beasts on the day of rest, this provision being as important as the other laws upon the tables of stone. -The truth is that if the Bible were to be mado the manual of reference for settlements of disputes, and nothing but text 6 were used, it would be possible to support almost any position of toiler or employer. If both sides were to make careful study of Bible-teaching, and then to practice the precepts there enjoined, labor troubles would be materially lessened, and a much better feeling would exist. Unfortunate!it is generally true, that the contest for economic gain omits entirely the consideration of tlie moral questions involved. The drivers were entirely right in presenting the moral element their contention. The employers were to a certain extent right also. It is the spirit rather than the letter of the Bible which must have force and weight in the adjustment of moral and economic differences, EDUCATION AND ECONOMY.

An industrial school at Chicago has just turned out a class of young lady graduates, whose diplomas, couched in cookbook English, declare the holders to be capable of keeping house for a family of four on an income of £2 a week. Witi this amount a graduate is to satisfy the grocer, the botcher, the laundry, the landlord, the fuel dealer in winter, and the ice dealer in summer, besides laying aside a small sum each week as a reserve fund to be drawn on in the event of sickness or accident. Nor is this all. Tie owner of this diploma is assumed to be a fcride, tiat fcho bridegroom has saved nothing wherewith to feathefr his nest, and. that they; start in life with nothing save the dotbing on their backs; so allowance must be made for weekly remittances to the mstalroeni houses. - They may go to ahuroh and contribute, and after all bave something; left for tramway-fare. This, coating from Chicago, roads much like a fish or jungle story, and smacks somewhat of the articles yeflow journals print under such headings as " How to live on a dollar a day," or "A meal for seven for thirty-five cents." If such things cannot bt done- in Dunedin, send your girls to Chicago for instruction. Its school diolomas say that it can be done, and the diplomas have the school faculty behind them. We have, in mind a frugal couole who launched their matrimonial ship on an income of £4 a, month. They, were verv economical,•. but ; at the end of a year the young wife went back to her father, declaring that «be had starved long enough, and when tie husband sued the father for breaking un his home the jury awarded him a, judgment of one cent. But unfortunately this bride -was not a jsaduate-of this Chicago school.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE FAILS IN OREGON. . Contrary to general expectation, Woman Suffrage has failed in Oregon. The same elements, generally speaking, were aligned for and against it, and the same arguments were used pro and con as" have been adduced in nearly every State in the Union where the Suffrage issue has been submitted. Professional politicians and the liquor interests were amassed solidly against it. The friends of the movement ppt up a strong fight. Some of the best speakers of the country were imported to canvass the State, and the Press, without regard .to political faith, gave the cause liberal support. . The vote was defeated by the organised opposition of the woman societies. The antisocieties, while numerically weaker than the suffragists, had the popular and conservative side of the movement. Their voice was raised against a radical change in the State's Constitution, and as they were women, as well as the professionals, men. could vote against the proposition without incurring the stigma of being deficient in gallantry. THE PACKING-HOUSES.INVESTI-GATION. The investigation of the packing-houses of Chicago, conducted by Mr Charles P. Neil, the successor of ■Mr Carroll D. Wright as Commissioner of Labor, Mr James B. Reynolds, a New York lawyer who has devoted much of his time to social and sanitary reform work in New York City, and Mr Upton Sinclair, an enterprising newspaper man and novelist who has obtained some notoriety as the ''muck-rake man,'.' at the instance of President. Roosevelt, and their report submitted to Congress, has produced a genuine sensation. The sanitary condition of the premises and the processes by which meats are cured and handled bv ihe employees of the packing houses are described in such horrid detail that within two weeks the prices of live stock have gone down 50 per cent. The packing houses have begun a general housecleaning, and have in an open letter invited the President and the general public to come and see. . A HEW-METHOD OF REGULATING THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. Los Angeles, California, almost rivals New Zealand in experimenting with Socialistic problems. It now proposes to make a practical test of the Swedish system of regulating liquor saloons. The plan would abolish treating, would sell only the purest of liquors, give to bar-tenders a percentage on all soft drinks, would- sell no minors or to drunken men, would allow no woman to enter, and give to the city a share of the profits. At present Los Angeles has 200 saloons and over 200,000 of, a population. Saloons are confined to the business centre, and each pays a license fee of £ls per month. This scheme is ~*1 r ' y T oppos6d bjr the Prohibitionists, the YV.G.T.U,, the Anti-Saloon League, and the saloon-keepers and the liquor interests. Ihe outcome will be watched with interest. SCIENCE v. CRIME. A young woman who went shopping at Omaha recently, on being shown in a jeweller's store a tray of diamonds, slipped one' of the finest stones in her month, and on being surprised by detectives, she 'swallowed it Modern science is not to be baffled by so simple a trick. The X-ray was applied to the young woman, and the stolen diamond was located in her appendix. The police judge said to the jeweller : ' The. diamond is yours; take it. But if you resort to a surgical operation against the prisoner's will, and she dies, vou can be held for murder." The voong* woman said: -I will die before I let them oper- **?•'' A noted surgeon of Omaha therefore said that not over 3 per cent, of operations performed for appendicitis wen; justified. The appendix is supposed to bo an organ of no use, but one that catches a. £6O diamond has its virtues, and no one can blame the prisoner- for insisting on retaining it. A diamond in an appendix is of no use. But of what practical use is a diamond anyway? DENATURED ALCOHOL. Congress has passed the Bill removing the tax from denatured alcohol—that is, alcohol chemically denatured under Government supervision so as to make it undrinkable. It is claimed that the .purpose of this Bill is to obtain a cheap alcohol fur manufacturing and fuel purposes, purely as an industrial measure. Tests have been made by scientists showing that such alcohol would bo a great saving in lighting, heating, and motive power as compared with gasoline and petroleum. Great things are expected from its .The law will go into effect on January 1, 1907. The temperance people believe that' it. will segregate the industrial traffic and strengthen, the bond of amity between tie temperance reform and tho numerous manufacturing interests throughout the country, and for that reason is regarded as good law. The very name of alcohol ought to be sufficient to deter people from taking the mixture into their stomachs. A NEW STAR IN THE AMERICAN GALAXY. After years of persistent effort Oklahoma Territory is admitted to Statehood. Oklahoma was opened to settlement in April, 1889. Thocensus of 1900 gave thenewTemtory a population of 398,331, and the Indian Territory, which, together with Oklahoma, constitutes the new State, a population of 392,060.. The growth of both since has beenmarvellous. Tlie total area of tho twin territories now united is 70,230 square miles and the combined population 1,550,000. The amount of taxable proportv. is valued at £160,000,000, and 6,000 miles of railroad. It is a beautifuL country, with an ideal climate, unlimited natural resources, and a promising future before it. ODDS AND ENDS. Congress is preparing to adjourn. Many important Bills will bo left on file for the short session in December. Contrary to all expectation, the matter of expelling the Mormon Senator from Utah will bo laid over. Senator Burton, of Kansas, who was found guilty of corruption in office, has resigned af-tlie last moment, and presumably an honest statesman wfll be appointed in his place. According to a decision of a Brooklyn (New York) Court, a doctor contracting to attend a confinement for a sum fixed is unable to demand double if twins arrive. At Chicago a music teacher named Alfred Lange is suing for a divorce because his wife insisted on him taking a cold bath every day. A kiss has led to the expulsion of twenty students from Phillips-Andover Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts. One of the students kissed a waitress at an inn, and the landlord of the establishment is said to have informed the aoademy authorities of the indiscretion. A body of students seized the landlord and gave him a ducking in a pond. 'The twenty students were expelled. This will pass muster' along with, the best of " tall yarns." An old fanner named Devinney, residing at Duquesne, Pa., having become weary of the world, decided to quit it and hang himself. His last att was to embrace his .faithful horse "Old BUI" in the latter's stable. Then 'Devinney went round -behind the stall and knotted. the rope about his neck. He turned to fasten the other end round a rafter, and got a soap box ready to jump from. "Old Bill" turned just as the fanner was throwing the rope round the rafter. The animal scented trouble. With one good kick he landed lib hoof on Devinaey with such'forea tiut-tio ,«li jusa

tos knocked through the wcatherboarding | of the stable. He was badly hurt, but ho H has determined to remain in this vale of tears a while. . '

Hermgton, Kansas, UJSX, June 16,