Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-19
FOR PEOPLE WHO IhiNk.


| rubber for paving, says the 81. Louis Globe.
Democrat II Is an enormous stride from
cobble-stones to asphalt but from that to
rubber is greater. II was first used In 1887
| by Herr Busse, OF Linden, Prussia, Tor pavs
ing bridge OF something over 10000 square
| Feet II proved so satisfactory that 10 was
| tried on given area of carriage. way in Ham
| over. Berlin then tried the same material,
| and with favorable results. The new pavc-,
ment Is said TO have the resistance of gram
ite, and the elasticity peculiar to itself. It's
affected by neither heat nor cold and travel
over 1t is perfectly noiseless. The question
of expense is now to be considered.
The evils OF minor insurance are constantly
being emphasized in England, whore the
practice OF taking out policies on the lives OF
children prevails, says the San Francisco
Chronicle. The most recent illustration of
the dangers OF tho system comes from Dept
lord, where woman who has insured tho
lives OF twenty-soven relatives Is accused of
poisoning five of them to secure the insur.
| ance. The latest victim is q boy eleven
years of age, whose body on exhumation
showed strong signs OF arsenical poisoning.
AS reward for the fiendish deed the woman
received eco, the amount for which the life
of tho boy was insured.
The movement among workingmen to
make eight hours legal days work is moro
widespread now than at any previous time.
The Federation of Labor is agitating tho
subject through trades unions in all parts of
the country, and 1t is proposed to keep this
up until May Of next year, when 1t is to
culminate in general demand for the short
day. II this is not acceded to the plan Is to
inaugurate q general strike. 1t Is very
doubtful, however, il even the Federation
will think 1t wise q year hence to carry out
this plan. A disastrous failure would delay
and damage the cause to very great extent,
and unless the conditions are materially
changed there will be poor prospect for
success, says the Philadelphia Press. The
movement has much to commend it, and is
entitled to the sympathy Of every right
thinking man. But it can not be made to
succeed as the result of arbitrary action on
the part Of either workmen or lawmakers.
II the farmers Of this country should insist
on getting $50 per bushel for their wheat,
with an over-supply at home and
abroad, does any one suppose that
they could succeedl Spectators put
up the price of wheat last December,
and as result, Notwithstanding the
short crop, there will be an enormous sur.
plus carried over 70 another year. If there
was a prohibitory tariff on wheat, and tho
farmers could afford to hold it and stop pro-
duction, they might succeed in such move-
ment. But those are not the conditions. In
the same way the workmen can not afford to
remain idle, even IL employers could afford
to pay the same wages for eight hours work .
as for ten; while the temporary success Of
such movement would increase immigra-
tion to the extent of untold millions. AS
long as the doors are open for all Europe to
come here, and as much Is paid here for eight
hours work as is paid there for sixteen, an
eight-hour movement may not succeed in this
country. One necessary step toward the sue
cess of the movement would be law re-
stricting immigration. Many thousands of
Italians, for instances, now come to this
country and work for miserably low wages
through the summer and return home to re-
main idle during the winter Anthing that
will increase the demand for foreign labor
will bring immense droves of these people to
this country.
Collector Webster, of the Dubuque district,
which is made up Of forty-nine counties of
northern Iowa, has written a letter IN which
he asserts that Governor Larrabee was
much too sanguine when he asserted that
prohibition was enforced in eighty counties
the collector says there is not county In it,
NOR town of three hundred inhabitants
or over, for which retail liquor dealers
licenses have not been issued, and in every
county the number of licenses issued, when
taken together with the number of boot.
leggers'-people who sell without licenses.
convicted, indicates an increase in the mum.
ber of dealers as compared with the number
in existence before the prohibitory law took
effect" In other words says the New York
Commercial Advertiser, prohibition in Iowa,
actually increases the evil it was intended to
abolish, and is demoralizing measure, which
Pennsylvania would do we'll to take account
of, now that her prohibtionists are about to
try to put prohibition into the state constitu.
tion.
humiliatng spectacle was witnessed in
New Castle, DEL, last Saturday-numlliat-
ing not only to the nominal victims, but even
more so to the self-respect and dignity Of
the state by whose laws it was sanctioned.
Five negroes and seven white men, who had
been found guilty of the crimes of larceny,
highway robbery ana horse stealing, wera
publicly whipped and pillored, and the re-
voting scene was witnessed, and presumably
enjoyed, by some hundred and fifty spec.
tators. 1t would be interesting TO penetrate
IhC VI lHcSc uWClVe criminals, says
the New York Times, and read the effect
which this barbarous mode of punishment
really had as reformatory agent. II human
nature IN the criminal classes is the same as
in the respectable clements of the commun.
ity, it is safe to assume that being publicly
lashed and pilloried does not predlspose tho
victim to regard the community which infiicts
the brutal punishment with anything like
friendly feelings. He may, and probably
will, avoid it in the future, but he will go
elsewhere to repeat his criminal practices
the enormity of which neither the lash nor
the pillory IS calculated to impress upon
him. The public lashing of men and sub
jecting them to the punishment Of the pillory
must OF necessity brutalize the people who
participate in the work as spectators. Our
own state has abolished the practice Of pub.
lic executions on this very ground, that they
were demoralizing, and year by yeal the best
newspapers of the land are restricting the
space given to descriptions of hangngs and
other revolving criminal penalties.
There is a strong and very noticeable ten.