OCR Text |
Show ll4 II I j r , A2 Independent Paper Published Under :: the Management of J. T. Goodwin :: ! I, EDITORIALS BY JUDGE C. C. GOODWIN l 3 ,v Native Land IT is said that President Jefferson while om ,j day brooding over the country's complications 1 ' with foreign powers, exclaimed: 'I wish to God , that a sea of iflre rolled between our country and - f all foreign lands." i. If he said it he did not mean it, because, as r with men, so with nations, it is not good to dwell Y alone. x ? But looking the world over one cannot help, 1 J .sometimes, thinking what our country would be in twenty years, if left to itself. f F With factories enough to supply all needed t , furnlshments, with mines enough to supply the I needed leaven to keep the finances flourishing t and with an annual harvest, the products of i . which when reduced to a money basis can be J ' measured but not comprehended; what' Avould ' our country be in a brief time if all this could be confined to the work and the improvements re- - quired? What would the mighty reckoning be? ; Interest would fall to 3 per cent per annum and with that done what enterprise would be f started? There would not be hands enough, with machinery added to do the work. The paths would be made smoother; matchless structures would be upreared; the tourists would turn to f' the west and find greater attractions than the I old world can supply; the American people north and south and east and west would get ac- quainted with each other and And out at last that the spirit of Liberty having full sway, had created a new race on our soil not like any other race, but foremost among the nations in friendship and high purposes, the will to do and the courage to win, and that after all no other , raco was essential to the welfare of our own people. 5 In the meantime the old world would be i ri famished for bread; her cotton mills would bo ' closed down; the great market for her products ! would be closed; her ships would be corroding . a at her piers, no freights to carry, no freight and P I passenger money coming In; her resorts would ' 1 be closed there being no American tourists; her j. criminal classes would Increase greatly and she ' would have no land to unload them upon; her surplus of millions of people would have no out- 1 let, but would fester at home the dark ages V would bo again upon Europe, there would be no ' Galileo to find for It new stars In heaven, no Columbus to find a new world on earth. The l outside world would find at last how wh our I t' country had been to it, how much of the world's i advancement had been due to it. I Of Mexico f IT TJERTA has resigned and left his capital. L There was some bluff and some bitterness in his resignation, and some things that would sell awaken sympathy had not he begun his career as president by usurpation and violence and an appeal to force. It is not to be regretted that the forces turned against and crushed him. While he had much original ability as a soTHIer, he is utterly lacking in statesmanship and his acts during the past year confirm the statements so frequently made that he is the victim of a vice that prevents any concentration of thought or b&. the world will look anxiously to see what will happen now. Carbajal has been appointed temporary president, but there are three or four banditti chieftains, each of whom will claim that the victory was made possible because of his work. Will the exhaustion of the Republic and the influence of the Niagara commission be enough to cause these, men to agree to peace and accept ac-cept for the interim the man whom the commission commis-sion will name for temporary president? And if they do will they keep the agreement, or will the so-called peace be but an armed truce to tfe broken at the first opportunity by a new rebellion? rebel-lion? (Evidently there Will have to be more "watchful waiting." To pick up the tangled threads of government in Mexico and weave them into a narmonious fabric, that like the product of the Indian loom, will endure and grow more valuable as the years ebb and flow, seems to be an "almost hopeless hope-less task. But let us hope? Are Wars Soon to End? THE great Farragut visited England after the close of our war. Young British officers claimed and won the honor of rowing the admiral ad-miral out to his ship when he was about to sail for home. On the way the boat passed several of the crude ironclads that England hastened to build after the combat between the Merrimac and Monitor demonstrated that thenceforth wooden ships in battle would be merely as paper ships. Noting them the admiral waved his hand at them and said: "Young gentlemen, those ships will serve only a temporary purpose for a gun will be invented that will penetrate any armor that can be floated." Since then the building of armored ships has passed through several revolutions. The first was to build larger ships that thicker armor might be used. Then the armor itself was toughened and given more resisting power. Then came the Dreadnaught class of ships; then the super-Dreadnaughts. Then guns and explosives have passed through quite as many changes. One shot from a modern gun would be enough to destroy de-stroy such a- ship as was the Mevrimac. The contrast between the old wooden Hartford Hart-ford in which Farragut fought, and her guns and a modern super-Dreadnaught and her guns, would show such advancement In fifty years In .naval armament as the world had never dreamed of In all the rolling conturles of the past. Still, one of the highest oWlcors in the Brit ish navy expresses the belief that not many more great ships of war will ever be built; that sub- M marine fleets will, near shoro or in harbors be what a school of sword fishes is to a whale, and H that when at sea the warship of the air will 'be to them what the hawk is to a Shanghai chicken. It M is true that the submarine boat has become so H effective that It gives the sailor in a Dread- M naught bad dreams when on an enemy's coast, H and the airship has come to stay dv.CL to be im- H prbved. H And now another man claims that he lias in- M vented or discovered a ray that when its use' can M be perfected will do with an army what was M done with Senacarib's host that went to sleep at M night and never wakened. M The portents indicate that the time is draw- ing near when "the nations shall learn war no M more." H Is Ours a Nation of Crooks? H IN his Fourth of July speech in Independence H Hall, Philadelphia, President Wilson insisted H that our government and people must be honest H with the outside world and must keep all their H contracts even at a loss. This was wired to the H world as "a new high patriotism." H But, really, when has our government or peo- lM pie perpetrated any wrong upon any other nation . H or people? H What the president said was preliminary to H his declaration that our coast shipping must pay H regular tolls when passing through the Panama jH canal. H But has there ever been any evidence, pr the H hint of any evidence that when the Hay-Paunce- H fote treaty was being framed either ,SIr Pauncofote or Mr. Hay for one moment thought of Interfering H with our coasting commerce Ana has anyone H ever explained what legitimate interest any for- eign power has in our coast shipping? H It is natural for a schoolmaster to tell his H pupils of the satisfaction that comes through liv- ing an honest and honorable life, but do they be- M gin by assuming that the pupils are naturally M depraved and must reform? H The Pioneer Mother jH HP HE women of California are trying, appar- M ently in vain, to And an adequate design for M a monument to the Pioneer Mother. They may M find the design, but where is the artist that can V give the design full expression? The patience, M the toil, the self-abnegation; the immolation of self H on the altar of Duty; the suppression of hopes H that were sweet as life itself; the ceaseless H struggle from the cradle to the grave; the sor- H rows, the heartache concealed by smiles lest H they pain others; the privations that were ac- H eepted as a matter of course; the ministering H angel when others were in sorrow; the courage H that accepted a hard fate and bore It through H life without a plaint what artist can from the H dull stone kindle a realization of what the H pioneer mother was? H H j An Unscrupulous Eulogist H Y7 E flnd n tl,G New York Times the review HP W of' a book entitled: "The Victim." A ro- Bj mance of the real Jefferson Davis by Thomas B Dixon, in which from what the Times reviewer Hj says he pictures Mr. Davis as a hero, altogether B faultless. Further that all the successes of the B war for the (South were of his planning all the B failures due to the miscarriage of his plans B through the blundering of his generals; giving fl him but one criticism because through his "de- B voted patriotism and knightly magnanimity he did B not push on to Washington after Bull Run and B make the battle decisive. He revives the chargo B that Mr. Davis was most cruelly treated by Gen- B oral Miles when he was a prisoner. He repeats B . the stale old slander that the northern armies B went south with ropes and handcuffs to take B the southern armies back that they might add Bi to the festivities of a Fourth of July celebration. H 'From all of which we take it that Mr. Thomas H Dixoii carries in his soul an exaggerated case of B the measureless and monumental liar, a heredi- B tary liar whose claim to distinction should be B that the race has so improved through the cen- B turies, that the modern scion without effort, can BH make the best work of his great ancestor, An- B anias, look like the bungling job of an amateur B who had neither the imagination to frame nor Bl the mechanical skill to construct a real inac- M j ;uracy. B Three rather uo&omplished officers were in B command of the southern army at Bull Hun, B Bouregard, Joe Johnston and Stonewall Jack- m son. Perhaps one reason they did not follow the 1 1 retreating army into Washington was first that M ' they knew the result at Bull Hun was due to an 1 1 unexplained, sudden panic and that they would M t never get to Washington. Another reason per- ; haps was that as was explained by a southern H colonel to a northern man after the war, when H he said: "Our army at Bull Hun was the worst H ' frightened band of men that I ever saw except S ( yours." And then think of a writer, fifty years H after the close of the war, with the knowledge gB of what Libby prison and Andersonville were, Hl complaining of cruelty. But save the harm that H the Dixon book may do in the south it will not H matter. H We suspect the real history of Jefferson Davis H has not yet been written, but the impression he has H left is that personally he was a brave man but H so self-opinionated, so obstinate in clinging to his H own views and so impatient with all who would H not accept them as infallible, that he could not H have headed any great undertaking without H i wrecking it. He would have made a superb H showing as a brigadier general; but never could Bj have commanded an army. His senseless ob- H stinacy was seen, when after Vicksburg had fallen B and Gettysburg failed, and the North was filling B the seas with ironclads precluding the possibility BB of foreign intervention, he refused the advice of Bjfl General Lee to make terms of peace. B As he would have been a brigadier general of Bj note but not as an army commander, the same B Infirmities made his statesmanship rank as a B brigadier, but never a sovereign power. !ls the Colonel a Sleep Walker? OLONEL .ROOSEVELT has retired from the contributing editorship of the Outlook. But in doing so he startles an astounded world by the B declaration that when he assumed that editor- B ship it was his thought that thenceforth he would B "be entirely removed from all participation in H active politics." H That is a most solemn statement and anyone H who even feels like distrusting it will subject HI himself to the danger of being called a liar. H We read once of a man who in the trance of Hi somnambulism took and carried a treasure away from a place In which he had secreted It. Next day he denounced the whole family as thieves. A little later in a Blmilar trance, he returned the treasure to its old place. Then he charged that some one of the family had stolen the treasure but had repented. We fear that the Colonel is sometimes given to sleep walking. Col. E. P. Hardesty OL. HARDESTY, who died in Wells, Nev., on V Tuesday last, was a stalwart of stalwarts. For three score years he was a dominant figure on the frontier. He exulted in a its hardships and dangers; he was a natural ). ader of men. He had a distinct personality that was at onco persuasive and commanding, for civilization he was an avaunt courier, to announce the coming to heckon the advance. The savages acknowledged his sway; he was the kind of man who while blazing a trail would stop to help a brother man who had fallen under his burdens; at the same time had a lion risen to intercept his way, even as David of old did he would have fought the lion to a flnish. The lowliest man could come to him with his troubles and 'find comfort; he would have looked a king squarely in the eye aid defied him if ho found him trenching upon the right. He had a fibre of steel, he faced the storms of more thin four score years before they began to make Inroads In-roads upon his native texture. He lived ninety years and his last thoughts should have been: "It was a long, hard journey, but I did my best." We are sure that not one reproach followed him out into the beyond. When the Time Conies WE note that at the recent meeting of educators edu-cators in St. Paul a resolution was unanimously unan-imously passed that like wages should be paid men and women for like service. That is exactly right, only when that shall be accepted as the rule, the ladies must accept their full responsibilities. respon-sibilities. They will have to "chuck" with the boys for cigaretts and Ice cream, pay for their own theatre tickets; stand up half the time in the street cars; pay half the roof-garden tolls, half for the marriage license; and half for the Ting and the services of the justice of the peace at Farmington. When this comes about will they still retain their divinity and be all the world to the "boob" who is ready to make an affidavit that while there are women and women his girl is the only real angel. Jacob Greenewald POOH, great-hearted, generous, public-spirited "Jakie." God rest his soul! Not many knew how true a man he was. His patriotism was his grand passion. With him there was nover any other land like ours; to be a citizen of it was In his estimation greater than to be a king in any other. Next to his country were his friendships, beneath or above all was his high courage. He has been in the shadow of death since his attack last year, but no one ever heard a repining word from him. In the early days when the strain was pretty hard on people, he not only rang true always but over the clouds he could always discern a star of hope. He was always in politics. He was the conductor, commissariat and chief steward of the famous Pilgrim Train that in the "way back" went out and talked to the people. The friendships formed in those ten days were lasting last-ing and Jakie's death comes as a personal bereavement. be-reavement. We are glad that his summons was a painless one and we repeat, God reBt his soul! The First Civilization DESCRIBING Chicken Itza, the home of a forgotten for-gotten race on Yucatan Peninsula, Edward W. Thompson says: Within these mysterious American ruins are great books, with pages of stone, writ in characters char-acters that no man may yet read. Are the mys- S teries they hold, the wonderful facts that cer- tainly lie sealed and mute within them, hidden from us, less interesting to Americans than are the tales of Egyptian dynasties, the rJ'ces of Druids, Roman campaigns, or Saxon raidings? Maybe those American records are older than the oldest old world records or traditions. Maybe our continent was peopled first, that the first civilization of Egypt and Assyria went from this side prior to the cataclysm which sunk Atlantis and all the people on this continent, that a period of a few millions of years might be given this continent for rest and recuperation. It is clear that it was the same civilization that fashioned the monuments in the Nile valley and in Yuc- s ! atan. Did those in Yucatan go east or did those in Egypt come west? The ruins on this side seem to be much older than any found in Egypt. Classic Dancing i A cable from Paris tells us that "A new fad has come into life in Paris. It has been in- i troduced by a young Russian, and promises to create a revolution in the art of ballet dancing. "This new fad is nothing more than dancing to poems, instead of music. The artist who has thus defied the traditional custom is Mile. Nicol Ayeva, daughter of a famous Russian general, j who, driven by parental opposition to her art from her own country, has made her debut on the stage of the theatre at Enghien. "She Is to tour the United States, where she will be seen next winter together with Nicholas Legat, head ballet master of the Imperial opera house at St. Petersburg." That will not work because the punctuation points will be missing and the average dancer is obliged to have the music accented, in oj.'der to keep in step. But we have often thought that j could a fine reader read a fine poem and have j It accented or accentuated by loft music and j could the measure of the music fit exactly the rhythm of the poetry, and then be rounded full by dancing in exact accord with the music and the poetry, the effect would tbe exquisite. Andre Had the Right Idea THE Philistine of bone and flesh who guides the spirit of the Philistine believes that Dr. Cook found the North Pole, or if he did not Peary did not because as he analyses Peary's report of the finding, he declares that it is a subtile plagar-ism plagar-ism of Dr. Cook's report. All of which is a reminder re-minder that Andre had the right idea only he ' was premature in trying the experiment with his ' frail balloon. When the aeroplane shall be fin- i ally perfected, so that it can ride the air when a gale is blowing, as a ship now rides the big seas, some one will pass over the pole and report a few days later on the other side of earth the story. But speaking of Andre, the theory is that his balloon was borne far away and finally came dovn into the ocean or into some frozen j wilderness where Andre died. Who knows? When certain currents of water meet tha shore at the right angle a whirlpool is mado, and a boat caught in it simply circles round and round. f Why should there not be like whirlpools of air ' around the axis of the earth? Think of Andre's ship being caught in such a whirlpool with no power to break out. Of course it -would circle found and round and .finally fall exhausted. Who knows that Andre did not die on the very apex of the earth? i |