The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-12-07
EDITORIAL COMMENT.


the company for its low assessment
The telephone company is probably III
the same situation that Rose Is; con-
SCENTS to or induces low assessment lor
the purpose of avoiding the payment
of any more taxes than it Is colnpeileo
TO. Rose has repeatedly declared IN
his own paper, in articles written by
his own hand, that his plant ana pusl-
ness is worth at least $4,000. lie Will
nav taxes this year on an assessment
ofS1.O75, which is the assessors val
uation of his concern. while MI. Sapp
will pay tax on over 1880 Tor % per
cent more) and THE FREE TRADER on
over 81, 500 Tor 60 per cent more.l Wheh
this fellow sets out to run down the
men who are robbing the people by
not paving their equal proportion or
taxes. why does he not arrest himself
as starter? 1t would seem to man
ND a tree that fellow who pays taxes
on only Is per cent of his own vaiua-
ton of his own property is about as
far in the mire of tax lodging as any
of his neighbors. The honest citizen
cleans his own hands before he begins
swearing at the condition of those or
his neighbor.
Here is as true a martyr to duty as
any ever burned at stake. George
Burnham was an engineer on the Bos-
ton and Providence Railroad. APP
proaching Providence Monday even
ing with "a train load of passengers, ne
was Mortified to see wild switch en-
CINE approaching him on the same
track. Seeing a terrible collision was
inevitable, how to avert the slaughter
of his passengers? He reversed his en-
gin, which enabled him to draw the
coupling pin, then putting on all
steam left his train behind and crash
ed into the approaching. The ma
neuver was sure death to himself, but
not a passenger received scratch. 1t
is said to have been the third train
load of people Burnham had saved by
his herOiSm.
1t is hardly to be supposed when
Claus Spreckles, the great sugar king
of the Sandwich Islands, started out
to beat the sugar trust he didn't know
what he was about. He built mon
ster refinery in Philadelphia, to start
up on the 1st of December, and the
sugar trust, meantime, to head him
off, had bought up, as they supposed,
all the sugar in sight. But Claus only
laughed. "Bless you," says he, 81 had
bought sugar enough to run my re-
finery year before the trust thought
of entering the market. l even had
more than 1 wanted, and sold the
trust (under an assumed name) 1000
tons of my surplus, making $2OO,O by
the trade" Meantime the Spreckles
refinery started up Saturday.
Germany, at theinstance of Bismark,
is about to grant a subsidy of $50, OOO
a year for ten years to line of steam
ships to run between Germany and the
East African coast. And this is point
ed to by the subsidy mongers as an eX-
ample to be followed by the U. 5.
Germany has been engaged for some
years in planting colony on the East
African coast, and needs the proposed
steamship line for the safety of her
colony. But is that any reason why
we should substitute line of steamers
to run empty to South America, as
dozens of our vessels are already oblig-
ed to do, because our absurd tariff laws
deprived them of all out bound freight?
The slate of the Republican congress
siOnal caucus for officers of the house
was broken so far as Chaplain is con-
cerned, the Rev. w. II Milburn, the
s'blind preacher" beating the Rev.
Chas. B. Ramsdell, the caucus nominee.
Mr.. Milburn has been chaplain of ev-
cry house controlled by the democrats
since 1852, and he has now apparent
ly become such a fixture that even the
Republicans must '.nut up with him.
Mr.. Milburn is an 1llinoisan, has bal
anced back and forth between the
Methodist and Episcopal church, but
has never faltered as an earnest demo-
GRAFT.
In 1880, the manufacturers of the
United States made net profit of
1876, $685. l6, or about per cent of the
value on their wares. Labor received
$94S, 100000 or nearly Is per cent of the
total product.-Free Press.
But did your protection papers last
year tell us that labor got from 60 to 10
per cent of the product value? The
Ottawa Republican certainly did. How
ever, as the tariff is levied for the sole
benefit of labor, labor ought to get an
amount equal to the average of the
TARIFFS per cent-ought it not?
Twenty-siX reporters of the New
York World have interviewed all the