Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-28

The wild and woolly West is lively place. Judge Slower, of Kansas City, recently granted four decrees of divorce in six min- utes.
 Certain shippers have boycotted a railroad in Indiana for the curious reason that it's general auditor, as member of the law and order league, has prosecuted and convicted several business men of Elkhart on the charge of gambling.
 Spain has been experimenting with free trade, and now Prime Minister Sagasta an- nsunces that great reductions in appropria- tions must be made or free trade must be abandoned for protection. According to the free trade theory Spain ought to be prosper ing, but she isn't.
 The Charleston News and Courier has this to say concerning the negro question: Once let the home be established in its purity, and all things else will be added unto the celored people. They will then understand the du- ties. and their white fellow citizens will speedily begin to appreciate the rights of free labor.
 The government of West Australia has come to terms with gigantic railroad pro- iect. A line is to be constructed from Eucla to Perth, distance of 800 miles, which when Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It is expected that the work will occupy ten years. The contractors have agreed to construct the railroad on the under standing that for every mile completed they shall receive from the government the gift of 20, 900 acres of land. Should they keep their promises the contractors will become the owners of an estate of 16,000, ,000 acres, equal in size to one-fourth the territory of Victoria.
 Two of the transatlantic steamship compa- nies which bring many emigrants te this country have made 8 move in the right di- rection. The companies are the Hamburg American Packet company and the Nord- deutscher Lloyds. Of the former Carl Schurz is the managing director. These companies have instructed their agents not to sell pas sage tickets to persons devoid of all means of subsistence; persons who are sickly, idiotic, blind, deaf and dumb, decrepit or crippled, if they are not accompanied by relatives able to support them; persons who before their departure for America have entered into a contract for the performance of labor in America; persons who have been in the poor house or who have obtained the passage commune or in similar manner; persons ! who during the last year were sentenced tc I imprisonment in the penitentiary or State prison, and persons belonging to anarchistie or similar associations. If all the companies had taken such action long ago it would have
 been good thing for this country. l The New Jersey State senate has passed ,
 bill authorizing savings banks eto inves I their funds in railroad stock on which {. i per cent. dividend has been paid for fv years" The financial column of the Phila
 delphia Ledger sounds this sensible warning
 We trust that no such bill will become laz
 in New Jersey, or any other State. Whil
 the guaranteed stock ot the United Com
 panies of New Jersey may be safe invest
 ment, it would be dangerous thing to em
 power saving funds to make general invest
 ments in stocks. Nothing is more uncer
 tain than the value of railway shares i
 these days of modern financing between "cu
 rates" and Competitive ines." The say
 ings of widows and orphans and the har
 earnings of the poor, which are gathered te
 gether few dollars at time, and make u
 the deposits of savings funds, should neve
 be putin any peril. The safety of the prir
 cipal, even though income may be moderate
 is the paramount duty of savings fund