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them-remonstrate against the reappointment of Commissioner

Evans."

His belief in Mr. Evans's incompetency became so strong some time ago that when the Republican National Committee asked him to take the stump for McKinley last fall he declined to do so, it is said, until Senator Scott, of West Virginia, of the national committee of the Republican Party, promised that Evans should be removed. At this point another interesting controversy arises. General Sickles, in an interview published in the New York Herald on Thursday of last week, is quoted as follows: "President McKinley told me in March, that he would remove Mr. Evans, and told me the name of the man he had selected to succeed him, a General So-and-So, who is a thoroughly capable man, and would be most acceptable to the Grand Army. I am not at liberty to say who he was." The Washington correspondents say that the friends of the President refuse to credit this assertion; and as the general's statement is so positive, the retention or release of the commissioner will soon settle the controversy on this point.

The commissioner has had little to say in reply to the General's charges, but he has brought out two letters which General Sickles wrote to him in 1899, the first saying that "your office seems to me worthy of the highest commendation, and, above all, from the veteran soldiers," and the second referring to the "admirable administration" of his office, adding: "I have writ ten an earnest letter to the President, in which I have expressed the utmost confidence in you and the same measure of contempt for your critics." The commissioner remarks that the office force and policy of administration are the same now that they were in 1899, and says that "surely there is no lack of generosity on the part of the Administration when it distributes $140,000,000 per annum."

A Grand Army view of Mr. Evans may be seen in the following comment from The National Tribune (Washington) :

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POOR OLD JOHN BULL.

deal more money than he has intended to spend. Then all the soldier-hating papers have set up a great cry about the 'en

ormous expense of the pension roll more than a third of a century after the war.' Then from week to week he has filled their columns with stories of frauds he pretends he has discovered, of vicious schemers he has balked, the rare luck of the country in having a man of his altogether unprecedented shrewdness and honesty, and then makes a showing of several millions which he has rescued from the clutches of harpies.

"So the poor veterans and their widows catch it both ways. They are blamed for an amount of money which is never intended to be given them, and are jeered at because they are disappointed in getting any part of it.

"While getting bigger appropriations than ever, he is paring down the poor little allowances of veterans and their widows until the average pension under the act of June 27, 1890, is only $108.28, where it was $121.51 under Raum, eleven years ago, and eight out of every nine on the whole roll get but $3 a week or less. "This is the kind of a politician who makes game of the veterans and their widows in their old age."

THE

THE DAYTON STRIKE.

HE reports in regard to the labor troubles in the National Cash Register works at Dayton, Ohio, have been at the same time so few and so varied that it is not easy to arrive at a comprehensive idea of the situation. A few points, however, seem clear. The company has not only provided its employes with attractive surroundings in the factory and at home, and provided free lectures, entertainments, excursions, religious opportunities, etc., but has recognized the labor-unions, and treated with them as such on all occasions. The concessions to the unions, indeed, have sometimes gone so far as to be almost ridiculous. On one occasion, for instance, it was made a matter of complaint that the women who washed the factory towels did not belong to any union, so the company allowed the men to supply the towels themselves; at another time it was discovered that the springs on a certain door were made by non-union labor, so the company took the springs off and let the men do the work of the springs; again, a union insisted that two men, whom the company did not want, be kept on the pay-roll, so they were supported in idleness three months, until the union permitted the company to drop them. The company officials say that twentyfive unions are represented in the factory, and that a large part

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of the time of the management is occupied in listening to their demands.

On the men's side the principal complaint seems to lie against one McTag gart, foreman of one of the departments, who is said to be a systematic "laborcrusher." His attempt to oust, on the plea of a reduction of the force, several men who had been active in labor matters, and the demand of the union that they be taken back, is said to be the immediate cause of the present strike. The strike includes only the foundry and polishing room: the closing of the

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JOHN BULL: "Hold tight, Wilfred, there might be a kidnaper rest of the factory on May He is glad to hear the American hay crop is good. around here." -The New York Journal.

-The St. Louis Republic.

SNAP-SHOTS OF JOHN BULL AND UNCLE SAM.

3 was due to the fact, so the company announced, that the strike in the foundry

and polishing room cut off the supply of material for the rest of the factory. The company announced its willingness to arbitrate the cause of the strike, but the men insisted that their mates be taken back unconditionally. This the company refused to grant. The factory opened again on June 19, but, according to the New York Journal, "the strikes in the foundry and polishing room, the original cause of the trouble, have never been settled, and the company may find it neccessary to shut down again for the same reason as before."

What makes the strike notable is the fact that the unparalleled efforts of the company to make its employes contented and happy seem to have been not wholly successful. One of the workmen is quoted as saying, in an opinion that may or may not be typical of the general feeling in the factory:

"You know the allusion to the Dead Sea apples-fair to the eye, ashes to the tongue? Well, that's the 'model factory of the world' situation summed up. We couldn't eat the beautiful flowers, we couldn't wear the fine books, we hated to have it understood we were so dirty we needed signs reading, 'This way to the bath-rooms,' in front of our work-benches; we hated to be expected to go to religious services willy nilly. We are almost all of us born and bred Americans-sober, decent, and industrious, as our late employers will tell you, but we are not inmates of an institution, even if it is the model one of the sort in the world. We are sick of cant."

MILITARY SITUATION IN THE

I'

PHILIPPINES.

T was about a year and three months ago that General Otis, after many prior announcements to the effect that the end of the Philippine war was "in sight," declared that it was virtually over, and came home. On Monday of last week General Cailles, the last insurgent leader of any importance to hold out, surrendered; on Wednesday, the last of the volunteers reached San Francisco, leaving only regulars in the Philippines; and on Friday, the report was published that the government has stopped buying horses for military service in the islands. The war, after two and a half years of fighting, now seems to be over in reality. The Filipino generals who have given up are not to be punished, and hundreds of prisoners of war have been set free

THE GLORIOUS FOURTH IN THE PHILIPPINES.

-The Cleveland Leader.

in celebration of the surrenders. "These are rather joyous days for the Filipino prisoners of war," says the Manila New American, "and General MacArthur's name will be a household word in many Filipino homes for generations." The Chicago InterOcean gives a comprehensive sketch of the military situation in the following paragraphs :

"Since the capture of Aguinaldo over one hundred prominent officers of the old Filipino army have surrendered, among them Trias, Arejola, Pablo, Tecson, Colonel Aba, General Lukban, and General Tinio, leaving Cailles the only notable insurgent in

the field. Since negotiations were opened with General Cailles, General Trias has been made governor of Cavite, General Flores the governor of the new province of Cizal, and other insurgent officers have been appointed to important positions.

"At Zamboanga the most influential of the Moro chiefs and heir apparent of the Sultan of Mindanao is proceeding to abolish slavery in the district under his jurisdiction, and has offered to lead his soldiers against any insurgents that may offer resistance to the American government. Not only at Manila, but in all the provinces, the pro

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gress of reorganization has been rapid, and whenever there has been assurance of peace civil authority has been established.

"With General Cailles out of the field, there remain only a few bands of brigands resisting the Americans. Some of these bands are led, it is said, by American deserters who, in their own interest, will prolong guerilla warfare as long as possible; but, as these bands will be outside the pale of legitimate warfare, they will be treated as robbers by both natives and Americans, and their annihilation or suppres sion is a question of only a few months."

Not all the American newspapers believe that clemency

GENERAL CAILLES.

to the surrendered chiefs is a good or wise policy. The Minneapolis Times, for example, says:

"The Times believes in leniency to the utmost limit of propriety in dealing with the Filipinos who have been in arms against the government; but, unless Cailles has been the victim of the lie circumstantial and of the lie horrible, the fitting place for him is a dungeon, to be followed by a court-martial, to be followed by a volley of musketry. If he committed one tithe of the crimes of which he is charged by men who should have known, or if they did not know should have kept silent, the condonation of his offenses is of itself criminal when made either by a government that deprecates further war or by a court that seeks to forgive evil that good may come."

An opposite view of the matter may be seen in the following comment by the Baltimore American:

"In good truth, a whole host of the Filipino insurgents richly deserve drastic punishment. They had a right, of course, to make war upon us, and are not to be punished for that. But, having made war, they had no right to wage it according to the rules of uncivilized peoples. By permitting the leaders to live and making use of their services, however, we gain the friendship of a very considerable portion of the native population. On the other hand, were we to deal summarily with these, and the minor lights, we would fill the natives with added hatred toward We should remember that, after all, the Filipinos are much like children, requiring to be petted and pampered, else they become stubborn and rebellious. There is more truth than poetry in the old saw: 'Sugar catches more flies than vinegar.'"

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us.

The anti-expansionist press insist that independence for the

Filipinos is still desirable. Says the Indianapolis News, for in

stance:

"We think that the Administration will make a great mistake if it assumes that the people contemplate the permanent retention of the islands with pleasure or enthusiasm. It is a question on which they have not passed-possibly one on which they have not yet made up their minds. But we believe there is a very respectable element of our population-respectable both in size and intelligence-that would be glad to see some way open for getting rid of the responsibility that will be ours if we deny practical independence in the Philippines. The arguments which have prevailed in controlling our policy in regard to Cuba have no application whatever to the Philippines. An independent government in that distant region could not become a menace to us. We become their surer allies by granting independence. The Philippines are not within our natural sphere of influence. They have no relation to the political system of this hemisphere..

"It may be that it will be many years before we can wisely withdraw. But it seems to us that we ought to look forward to the ultimate independence of the Philippines, and to strive for that end."

SOME

AN INTERNATIONAL SALT TRUST.

OME alarm is expressed at the latest industrial combination-an international salt trust. This consolidation, which aims at control of one of the necessities of existence, includes the Salt Union of England (the British salt trust), the National Salt Company of this country, the Canadian Salt Company, and the trust that controls the Spanish and Italian output. If this great combination is successful, remarks the New York Evening Post, "it would seem that a universal salt tax might be laid on the human race, whether the laws of particular nations ordained it or forbade it," and it adds that such a thought is "disquieting." It continues:

"It is disquieting, because we have become used to relying, theoretically at least, on foreign competition as a remedy for domestic oppression. After all, we have thought, if worst comes to worst, we can abolish our protective duties, and then our trusts will have to meet the competition of the world, and will sell us their goods at fair prices. The mere talk of an international combination dispels this cheerful delusion. Such a combination can laugh at tariffs, and, in spite of protectionist theories, can make the consumer pay the tax. In countries enjoying protective duties salt would probably be sold at higher prices, but the salt monopoly would not need or be helped by a tariff."

The vast natural supplies of salt, however, lead a number of papers to believe that there is no danger. It will be time enough for alarm, thinks the Chicago Record-Herald, when the trust pockets the oceans. "The Atlantic," it remarks, "gives eightyone pounds of salt in a ton of water, and altho it has never been weighed, it is a very sure thing that it contains a good many tons of water." The Philadelphia Press, too, says that "as salt is produced in almost unlimited quantities in various States of the Union, there need be no fear of this 'combine.'" The New York Sun says:

"The international trust promised in salt need not frighten anybody. There has for a long time been some sort of an international trust in window-glass, or at least among the laborers engaged in window-glass-making. But assuming that the international salt trust would be far beyond comparison with its glass colleague in point of size and commercial effectiveness, it would still present no valid ground for anxiety, according to the lessons of our peculiarly ample experience.

"The industrial combinations in this country were built up against the most bitter opposition and frantic dread lest they should prove public calamities. But industrially we are stronger and more surefooted to-day than ever, and very largely through our unequaled development of the trust system.

"Economically, therefore, we can watch the trust acquire an international form with attention that has the great advantage of calmness. The political effect of the international trust is another matter."

TRADE WITH RUSSIA AT A STANDSTILL.

THE

HE reports current in many of the daily papers that our tariff tilts with Russia have not materialy affected our trade with that country are not in accord with the facts, if we are to take the word of American Trade (Philadelphia) in the matter. That journal says, in fact:

"As a result of the countervailing duty of 50 per cent. imposed by Russia on all American manufactured goods, the export trade with that country has come to a standstill. The only direct line from New York to St. Petersburg is the ScandinavianAmerican, and during the season of navigation in the Baltic every steamship carried from 400 to 1,000 tons of freight, chiefly machinery, for St. Petersburg. The steamship Alexandria sailed June 8, for Christiania, Copenhagen, and Stettin, and the only freight that was offered for St. Petersburg was 100 barrels of bark extract.

"Those interested in the Baltic trade say that there can be no

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hope for a resumption of Russian trade this summer. They believe that the levying of the import duty on the Russian sugars was a huge mistake, considering how infinitesimal the amount imported was and the vast export trade we had with Russia and Siberia. The attempt to boom the products of the sugar trust is costing manufacturers of iron and steel a vast sum of money, as the 50-per-cent. duty is simply prohibitive. It is intimated that these manufacturers will be heard from before long, and that there is a movement on foot to lay the whole matter before the Treasury Department. In consequence of the present conditions European manufactures are being rushed into Russia and the ports are crowded with vessels carrying them.

"American exports consist largely of general agricultural machinery to Russia, while vast quantities of railroad material, mining and general machinery have been exported to Vladivostock from Atlantic ports, much of it being shipped from New York."

The London Economist's St. Petersburg correspondent says that the entire foreign trade of the Russian empire is practically stationary. The imports over the European border fell off four per cent. last year, altho the exports increased 14 per cent. The foreign trade of the United States is about $30 per capita; that of Russia $5 per capita, a sum lower than the per capita foreign trade of the empire twenty years ago. In this country such a record would create concern, but in Russia it is considered excellent, as the Czar wishes his subjects to do their trading among themselves, so that they will not become dependent upon other

nations.

A SWEEPING MILWAUKEE INJUNCTION.

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NE of the most sweeping injunctions ever issued in a labor case was granted last week by a Milwaukee judge to the Vilter Manufacturing Company of that city. This injunction is directed against the International Association of Machinists, and prohibits the strikers "from in any way interfering with the men employed at the Vilter Works, from gathering about the plant, from posting pickets, from combining with tradesmen in order to boycott the Vilter Company, or to refuse to sell supplies to the men employed there and who have refused to quit," and, in short, forbidding the strikers from doing anything that will “in any way operate to damage the Vilter Company or its employees." The injunction is returnable to the circuit court of Milwaukee, and may, of course, be set aside. Says the news depatch:

"The suit is without a parallel, and is the first of the kind ever issued. If it proves successful, it will play a most important part in labor disturbances of the future. While the action is brought in the name of the Vilter Company, it is really the National Metal Trades Association that is the plaintiff, the Vilter Company having been selected to serve as plaintiff because, it is said, the equities existing were greatest in its favor and Milwaukee was considered as the best place in the country in which to fight the battle in the courts."

The Milwaukee Journal, in discussing the issues at stake, de

clares :

"It has come to be generally conceded that organization of employers, capital, and labor for purposes of mutual support and profit is legitimate and stands on equal footing for all. It is also 'conceded that workmen may quit work when they please and for any reason, or for no reason, save possibly in some cases where large interests involving public safety are concerned. And this is rather a question of comity and morals for the quitter than a definition of law. But the question of how far labor may go in preventing others who wish to work from replacing the strikers needs a clear definition. The claim of this right so to prevent any from taking employment has been strenuously resisted. It is argued that rights and duties are reciprocal; the right to quit work infers the right to take work with equal freedom. It is argued that if employers are subject to the one rule, they should have the benefit of the other. Our courts, laws, and public opin

ion hold that there is nothing approaching slavery in our system. Men must be free to follow their pursuits in their own way. A man's labor is his own absolutely. He may exercise the right by himself or voluntarily surrender a partial control to an organization, as he wills. But it is his personal right and there must be no compulsion on either side. This is the vital question at issue."

The Detroit Free Press maintains that the injunction is perfectly proper and legal. "We frankly confess," it says, "that we can not detect wherein the Milwaukee judge has in the slightest degree curtailed or trespassed upon the 'rights' of labor. The right to strike is not questioned. The holding of the court, as we read, is that when employees voluntarily lay down their tools and quit their employers, all preexisting relations are broken and the strikers have no more claims upon which to presume than have the veriest strangers. Within their rights as citizens they may do just what other citizens may do, and no more." The Chicago Evening Post, on the other hand, thinks the proceeding a very high handed one. It says:

"Is picketing unlawful in Wisconsin? We do not think it is. A court of equity has no power to forbid lawful acts. There are other things named in the injunction which are not necessarily unlawful, tho they may result in injury to the company. Under the recent able opinions of Judges Baker and Waterman injury, even if malicious, is no test of legal wrong. Public opinion will not tolerate one-sided application of the vague conspiracy law. If blacklisting is permissible, boycotting is equally so, provided it is peaceable.

"Peace between capital and labor will not be promoted by the abuse of the injunction remedy."

ΤΗ

AFRO-AMERICAN COMMENTS ON

DISFRANCHISEMENT.

HE comments of the Afro-American papers in these days of negro disfranchisement are marked by a sad and hopeless tone that is in sharp contrast to the usual cheerfulness and optimism of the negro race. The Savannah Gazette (Afro-American), for example, says:

"These be terrible times through which the Afro-American is now passing, but more terrible will they be upon the future Caucasian, for they are sowing what they must evidently reap.

"That the Caucasian is doing his utmost to subjugate the negro to the merest ownerless slave, crush out his manhood, destroy his race pride and self-respect is an evident fact by every move of the white man upon his checkerboard of current history. Whether he will succeed or not depends upon the wisdom and sagacity of the negro himself, aided by the nobler instincts and element of the royal-blooded white people of the South. Without their assistance we can accomplish but little.

"It seems that the South is at present dominated by a soulless, heartless, cracker element whose highest aim and ambition is to take away from the black man every vestige of hope and place beyond his reach all avenues to civilized citizenship. The accomplishment of this purpose will mean the chattel and charlatanism of the whole negro race.

"To defeat this plan we must enlist the sympathy and good will of every Christian white man and woman in America and interest them in our cause. We must get them to see the inequitable justice meted out to us by the various judges of our courts and the mean advantages taken of us by others very nearly as high in authority, and ask them to create a sentiment against the perpetration of such injustices upon a weak, docile, and defenseless people. We must make it plain to these good people that the unsympathetic and heartless ones of their race are inscribing on the pages of history in letters of flesh and blood the doom of our defenseless race and that while doing this they are thoughtlessly inditing their own damnation."

The Washington Bee (Afro-American) says in a similar strain : "Is there no one to come to the defense of the black man? Does he deserve the treatment that he is receiving from those

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"The constitutional convention that is now in session at Richmond, Va., will no doubt put itself on record depriving the colored man of his right to cast his ballot. If the action of the several state governments are right, the destiny of the negro is doomed. If they are wrong, then right will prevail and the lamentation of the negro will come to an end. There is a God, and a just one, who will right all things."

The New York Age (Afro-American) says:

"Some of the members of the Virginia constitutional convention want to have the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution repealed; and we suspect that some of these members were with Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomatox. They do not forget. They still remember the valor of the black troops at Newmarket Heights and Petersburg. They are sowing the seeds for more trouble. They should be wiser.

"The Fifteenth Amendment will not be repealed. The crazy people who want to repeal it should remember how much it cost to enact it in the fundamental law. Revolutions are not in the habit of going backward. It would be a sorry old world if they were. We are bound to move forward to a broader and juster citizenship on national and not race lines."

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robbed." The New Orleans Picayune (Dem.) says that "it may be doubted if anything quite the equal of this Philadelphia affair has ever yet been recorded"; while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Rep.) wonders if there are any lengths to which the Pennsylvania politician may not go without incurring rebuke at the polis. The Topeka Capital (Rep.) thinks that "the unheardof corruption and debauchery of the present Pennsylvania legislature and the weakness of the poor tool of an unprincipled gang who rattles around in the gubernatorial chair" are preparing conditions for a Democratic state victory; and the Denver Post (Ind.) observes that the people of Philadelphia, who have so tamely submitted to "high-handed outrage" have "still something to learn from the wild and woolly West."

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Mr. Wanamaker's part in the popular protest against the course of the state machine and the city officials has been a prominent one, and his renewal of his first offer to the city of $2,500,000 for the franchises granted, with an additional bonus of $500,000 to be distributed among those in gratuitous possession of these valuable privileges, is widely noticed. In his second letter, which was addressed to Congressman Robert Foerderer, he not only makes the financial offer just outlined, but also agrees to build and operate railroads on which three-cent fares shall be charged between the hours of 6 and 8 A.M. and 5 and 7 P.M., and consents to return the franchises to the city at any time within ten years for the price of the actual money expended and invested. He further stipulates that the money he pays to the city shall be used for the deepening of the Delaware River channel and the building of public schools. Mr. Wanamaker's effort to "bal a rotten political deal," says the Omaha WorldHerald (Dem.), "entitles him to the thanks of all honest citizens." A view of his action more in accord with that of his political enemies is voiced by the Kansas City Journal (Rep.), which

says:

"Mr. Wanamaker really doesn't want to go into the street-railway business. He doesn't want these franchises. Mr. Wanamaker is only playing politics. He puts in a good deal of time at politics, but has achieved few successes. His offers for these municipal privileges are for publication only. He desires to advertise the fact in a conspicuous and sensational way that the city of Philadelphia is being looted in the interest of certain persons who are friends of his political enemies."

The struggle against the domination of the Quay-Ashbridge machine has largely crystallized around the personality of District-Attorney Rothermel, who has come into prominence on account of his known hostility to the designs of the Republican politicians and the fact that his name has been rejected by them in their nomination of city officers for the ensuing term. "District Attorney Rothermel is the embodiment of the question at issue between the people and the criminal machine. ays the Philadelphia North American (Rep.). "No argument is needed to convince intelligent citizens that P. F. Rothermel was rejected for renomination," adds the Philadelphia Record (Ind. Dem.), "for the sole reason that his vigilant and courageous administration of the district attorney's office is the one obstacle to their schemes of misrule and corruption." A vast mass-meeting, attended by many thousands of citizens and addressed by Col. A. K. McClure and other well-known speakers, was held in Philadelphia on Thursday of last week, and severe resolutions were passed condemning the "insolently despotic power" of state and city officials and emphasizing the importance of returning Mr. Rothermel to office. This assemblage, declares the Philadelphia Times (Ind. Dem.), "struck the deepest and the fiercest note that has been heard in this State for many a year." A telegram indorsing the movement was received from Postmaster-General Charles Emory Smith, who asked to be enrolled as a vice-president of the meeting, and this has led to the impression that the sympathies of the President and Cabinet are with the reform

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