OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2120, 11 October 1894, Page 14

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) San Francisco, July 26. GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE.

Five months after the people's representatives in the lower branch of Congress had so far responded to the demands of the people in passing a modified measure of M'Kinleyism the Senate was graciously pleased, by a vote of 39 to 34, to pass its own measure, which in its details differed from the Wilson bill far more than it differed from the M'Kinley bill. Of the appalling amount of distress and loss to the nation through this shameless dillydallying with the industries of the country it is needless to speak. But any measure of taxation, be it high or low, is infinitely better than living under the uncertainty which for so long has characterised the action of the Senate. No firm, or individual, will invest one cent more than is absolutely imperative until it knows exactly "where it is at." Hence, the dilatory tactics of the Senate have been angrily and continuously objected to. Nor has the heat displayed been in any way dissipated when it became known, beyond peradventure, that this delay and secrecy, and underground politics and jobbery, bribery, and what net, were carried on, not in the interests of the people, but for the especial benefit of a few trusts, the stockholdeis and directors of which are already filled to repletion with their 'stolen goods. I have previously referred to the charges of bribery, and the committee appointed to inquire into the charges made against senators of having used their knowledge of impending changes in the duties upon sugar to enrich themselves. The events of the past few weeks merely emphasise the extreme probability of the truth of such charges. When the GormanBrice concoction in the interests of trusts and corporations left the Senate, the next step to be taken was a conference between the two Houses. Had the changes in the Wilson Bill been but few or unimportant, this would not have been necessary. But the Senate Bill was an entirely new measure, and a conference wan the only way out of the difficulty. So representatives were appointed from each House and the members met. At the end of 10 days the conference came to naught, and both parties reported back to their respective Chambers their failure to agree upon the amendments made. This outcome was expected. Senators had been heard to declare, " There are two kills, ours and M'Kinley's, it is either take ours or continue with the last " ; and, on the other hand, the Democratic representatives from the Lower House, well knowing the danger to their party should they accept a bill the chief features of which were repellant to every tariff reformer, a violation of the patty's principles, framed ia the interests of the few, and a subservient bending of the neck to the yoke of the trusts — the Democrats knew it would be political suicide to agree, without, demur, to the audacious demands of the Senate measure. Popular feeling was further excited when Mr Wilson, from his seat in the House, read a letter he had received from Mr Cleveland and which letter declared the acceptance of the bill from the Senate, as it stood, would be a complete sacrifice of principle, and "an act of party perfidy and party dishonour." The House, therefore, declared with a shout in favour ef no compromise on the essential features of their own bill. The Senate, equally angry and eager, has done likewise, so that the chances for any adjustment in the interests of the people would seem to be very remote. Cleveland's letter fall like a bombshell. The potent, grave, and reverend advocates of the traits ware, for a brief period, dazed with astonishment. The President's action was unconstitutional, it was unprecedented, it was an arbitrary interference, it was contrasted With the dealings of Charles I and his "faithful" Commonsit was, is short, everything that was bad and conducive to the uprooting of the very foundations upon which onr liberties are based. At this hour of writing the matter remains in this interesting poiition. I imagine a second conference will be held and that the Democrats, seeing their very existence as a party depends npon it, will fix up some kind of a compromise measure, although it seems probable, as so many Senators, whose votes are necessary to its success, have publicly declared "We will vote for no other measure than that now before the conference," that the Senate Bill will carry the day. Naturally one asks, how it is in a country claiming to be governed by the people for the people, and whose people did in fact return in the year 1892 a large majority of men pledged to execute their will, that the people and not the plunderers of the people are the ones whose interests are not the primary motive and unfailing inspiration of those whom they have placed in positions of power. I can but again repeat what I have often repeated before, that the people do not count in this country. The history of Bfrery political campaign proves my assertion. The people are fooled through the system or machinery of government prevailing. The American Constition, with its endless checks and counter checks, robs the people of any real voice in the govera;msnt st _.the_.conntss___ JErue. the_ Renablican

Chronicle sagaciously remarked the other day, "the Government of the United States was the most powerful and nearest perfect of any on earth." Bub then opinions differ. I have read the opinions of far abler writers who speak in other tongue*. In truth a journalist, whose refutation is much greater than that of the Chronicle's editor, declared a few days since : " What the United States needs is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and an end as speedily as may be of the existing government of the people by money fcr money." I hope I shall be pardoned if I agree with the journalist.

THE LAST OF THE FAIR.

The "Glorious Fourth" marked tho official close of the Midwinter Fair. It remained open for some little time after, but the work of dismantling commenced on the morning of the sth. The attendance for a little over the five months it was in full swing was 2,239,000, aad the largest single day's attendance was 91,000 odd. It was a mistake keeping the entrance fee at two shillings, but professional jealousy would not permit of the director-general's lowering the price, save on the last seven or eight Sundays, when, at half the above cost, the crowds were trebled — a faot, one would imagine, sufficient to cure the most obstinate. Up till the end the entertainments provided were constantly varying, and kept at a high level of excellence. Music, tournaments, pageants, processions, and the like Were the chief sources of attraction. Of all the processions that of Germany was, I think, the largest and best, whilst the Chinese Was perhaps the most entertaining and uncommon. But looked at in any light, and speaking generally, the fair remains a pleasant memory, and an undertaking of which any community may feel prdttd. Toward the last, however, it sadly degenerated ia certain parts. Gambling was rife, and swindling was frequent, women and boys in particular showing their weakness and stupidity over some of the more open machines where the players got little and the * 'worker" took all. On the midway plaisance many of the shows became mere exhibitions of indecency and vulgarity, and counted for patronage, frankly and openly, on these grounds alone. But all will alike soon be a thing of the past. The ever-changing electric fountain, the myriad lights, the dazzling Bonet tower,' the gorgeous buildings, the varied tongues and garbs and faces, the cry of the " barker," the flutter of the nags, the shout of laughter and hum of thousands, all will give place to a dreary waste of sand dunes. Aladdin's palace will vanish, and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rock behind.

THE "GLORIOUS FOURTH."

To the credit of the intelligent and thoughtful amoflg the Americans, be it sstid, it was recognised how inoongrueus any " high falntin " nonsense upon the one hundred and eighteenth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence would be. Not that all tawdry rhetoric was dropped, the Vice-president of the United States in particular seeming to have an unlimited stock on hand of this infantile product; but there was a. distinct note of interrogation discernible "in much of the orating and outward demonstrations. One writer declared the times were scarcely less threatening for the country than in 1776, and the melancholy fact that the huge gaps in the ranks of the military from the processions were due to the absentees being at that very hour arrayed, with loaded carbine and pointed bayonet, before thousands of their friends, whom they might be ordered to shoot down like mad dogs at any moment, carried a feeling of shame and depression home to the least thoughtful. It had been determined to make the Fourth of July the most glorious day in the history of the Midwinter Fair. This last was to go out amid a blaze of patriotic fervour. Fate willed it otherwise. Even before the great strike was declared the organisers of the ceremonies met with little success in their efforts to raise subscriptions, and the procession was one of the poorest I have known. Nor was much interest taken in the literary exercises. Even the most obtuse must have recognised the irrelevancy of much of the business when telegrams of regret were read from the military officials announcing they could not participate owing to their being engaged with their men elsewhere. Even the "poet of the day," and who was to have recited his own poem entitled "An Ode to Freedom," was away at Sacramento armed cap -h- vie. However, over 70,000 people paid for admission to the fair, and gleefully fiddled away whilst the very foundations of their boasted liberties were beiog . battered and hammered at with gruesome persistency. .

Personally, I am inclined to think that Ambrose Bierce, when he reters to " the feeble and disgusting form of government under which the country groans," is nearer the naked truth than the platform orator, and the same writer's description of the American people may well be read side by side with the oceans of vapid spasms poured out from east to west. Bierce's remarks were called forth by the ebullitions of after dinner talk at the banquet given in London in honour of the Chicago's officers some weeks since. Like most sensible men he viewed this latter • business as unmitigated nonsense and as indicative of how utterly at sea public men are upon the actual feelings of the peoples whom they claim to represent. He says : " This fortuitous con2lom.era.tiQn of uncjiccsted and in-

digestible 'elements'; this mass of sodden human' dough compounded of all-sorts tailings from the world's mills, and unyetsted with so much as an aspiratibn to rise evenly ; this Unassorted and unsifted general rubbish dumpcarted upon what was once a sufferable vacant lot — this is • the American people ! ' — a ' division of the English race ! ' We go far when we call it a division of the hunr *> A i race."

carnot's death

was fitly celebrated by his countrymen in this distant part of the world. Large gatherings were held and messages of sympathy wired to the mourning ones in Paris. On the day of Carnot's burial service?, were held on the French warship now in port, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and in the huge Mechanics' Pavilion. This last was, for the occasion, converted into an enormous mourning chamber. A splendid catafalque was erected at the far end of the hall. Draperies of crape and cloth, interspersed with the tricolour, covered ceiling and galleries. A medallion of the late President was fixed upon the front of the funeral pyre and, owing to the strong calcium light thrown upon the features, this stood out in startling relief from its sombre background. At the foot of this structure were seated (he French soldiers, sailors, and lay officials. A splendid band, which had prior to the commencement of the services paraded through the city at the head of the Various French societies, played continuously Chopin's " Funeral March." There were eolcs smi part songs and orations, whilst not less than 10,000 people packed the hall in solemn silence. Nothing, in brief, was wanting to show the respect and esteem in wbich Carnot was held by his compatriots the world over.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Two American naturalists have just returned to this country from an extended tour in " the unknown parts of Otago and Canterbury," where they were searching for a living moa. They were unsuccessful ! The New York Sun had a brief article upon Premier Seddon's recent tour through the King country and the promise of the Maori chiefs to break down the barriers of exclusion till then existing. Canada's divorce record for 20 years is 116. Relatively to population that of the United States for a similar period should have been a trifle over 1500. Actually it was 328,000. Divorce " reformers " Will kindly explain the discrepancy and submit the " moral." The annual average of deaths from lightning in the United States is 400.

Lord Randolph Churchill landed in New York, on his way west, on July 4-. Time was when his name and presence aroused the curiosity of thousands ; now he passes unheeded.

The defeat of the Vigilant so many times in succession was received here with varied feelings. The first defeat was easily explained, and the second presented few difficulties ; but the third was a bit of a poser, whilst the fourth ! Well, let as change the subject.

Lord Churchill- is staving at a private physician's "home" in Chicago. It is reported he is addiobed to the morphine "habit." Other and later accounts, however, deny in totd the accuracy of such rumours.

Two ladies representing the D.undee Courier Arrived here from China a few weeks since. They have "done" Europe, Egypt, India, and China, and are now homeward bound. Their mission was to inquire into the social and moral status of women, and in an interview they declared emphatically the woman of the Orient was far happier than the woman of the civilised West. At the same time their recommendation that missionaries should in the future confine their attentions to the slums of our big oities and let the more favoured women of the Bast alone is, though satisfactory, hardly likely to be followed.

An American abroad, and whose opinion was cabled to this country, asserted that the recent social upheaval was due to the Democrats haying placed a tax npon incomes ! Evidently a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

The spectacle of the Governor of California humbly asking permission for a train to convey him to the State Capitol, and being curtly refused by the strikers, gives a touch of humour to a melancholy buiiness. The Governor had to travel by steamer. Reports of the United States Bureau of Labour show that the average American workman's yearly pay is only 550d01, whilst his expenses are 750d01. When your readers have satisfactorily explained where the discrepancy comes from — if it does come — much of that which is at present dark will be rendered clear.

Honsignor Satolli has issued an address in which he supports, and approves, the action taken by Bishop Watterion expelling liquordealers of all degrees and finds from Catholic societies.

No information of any moment in relation to the doings of the Intercolonial Conference at Ottawa has been furnished by the press. The conference was secret.

The rate war between the rival steamship companies has brought the steerage fare between New York and Europe down to £2. Nearly 3000 people have left by the Germanic, Paris, Columbia, and Teutonic at this rate. In fact there is a mad rush on the part of many to take advantage of an opportunity to clear oat of the greatest, grandest, freest country on earth at the shortest notice. This muleish disregard to _thj» bkssipfs jj| .liberty, and fererM desire t$

again fetter their limbs with the chains of despotism, tyranny, and slavery is appalling. In a two-column article on "The Bin and Fall of Lord Churchill," the Examiner informed its readers how Churchill once turned on the Conservative benches and cried: "You may not want to hear me now, but the time will come when you will have to do so ; " and how he told Gladstone " he was inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity ; " and how the fourth party was made up of Churchill, Wolff, Gorsfc, and George Balfour; and how he has a great penchant for wearing orchids in hii button hole ; all of which is hardly as accurate M it) i» mixed.