Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-11


society with a whole lot of fashionable
ladies as 'patronesses' and calling it the
Society for the Elevation and Refinement
of the Poor and the Degenerate, the mis-
sion of which is to hire professional mu-
sicians to play in penal and charitable in
stitutions, the whole thing yerges on snob
berry. This is New York's latest society
fad
The canny Scots are receiving Mr.. Car
neg1e with almost royal Donors as he tray
els from town to town. The magnates
turn out in all the glory of red gowns and
gold chains to bid him formal welcome,
and offer the most liberal hospitality. OF
course they are proud of a fellOw-country-
man who has made his way in the world
shrewdly. But that is not all. He has habit
of giving away libraries and founding all
sorts of public institutions. and there is al
ways the chance-at least the hope-that
he may have one about his person ready to
bestow in case he should be especially pleas
ed in any place. And so they seek to
please him especially.
THE attempt now being made to take
negroes in large numbers from the pIanta-
lions and turn them adrift upon the West
ern and Northern States, is not In the in
terest of the c0Iored man, and is only cal
culated to increase the army of tramps.
The South is the place, and the only suit
able place in the country, for the bulk of
the coored people Their work is most eff
fective in that region, the climate suits
them, and whatever race traditions they
possess, are more binding there than else
where When the Federal Government
renders the black man secure in his politi
cal rights he will have no desire to be d
tramp.
WILLIAM of Germany, as father of his
Oeople, has started a fresh air fund. He has
issued an order to the medical staff of the
army to visit every place where the govern
ment controls factories, carefully examine
all the children and youth therein and
whe nthey fail of a certain standard of health
dispatch them to the shores of the North
sea for fortnight's rest for all, to be pro-
longed in the case of tee very feeble until
they shall be restored to health, and all at
the expense of The government. This is
the result of an incognito visit to factories
and tenements at Berlin. Frederick the
Noble would not frown at such deeds on
the part of his son.
In funeral sermon Sunday, over the re-
mains of three of the victims of the Presi-
dents bridge railroad disaster, Rev. G. W.
Gallagher blamed the railroad for the quail
ity of its abOrers, declaring that great
corporation in the rush for Supremacy,
forgot what was at stake, " and that "lf
the railroad had trained and competent
men, conscientious in the discharge of
their duty. this accident would not have
happened. There should be men in the
employ of the railroads, men who
thoroughly appreciate their several duties,
and if they are not to be had at the pres
emit pay per day. not able to demand better
pay from their employers, the state and
church should take hand in this matter
and protect its citizens This is very fine
as an ideal, but how is it to become practi-
cal? If the conditions of supply were
equal to it, how could they be maintained
against the labor unions, which have no
standard of capacity or conscience, but in
sist on making the worthless laborer as i'm
portant as the faithful man, and which de-
clare a strike when men are discharged for
the very faults of incompetency and neg
lee Vt duty?
RESPONSIBILITY OF RAILROAD
EMPLOYEES.
1.-The legislature exhausts only half its
power and performs only half its duty
shen, in making appropriate legislatlons
for the protection of the lives of persons
and transportation of property upon rail
roads, it stops with their application to
the corporations and their officers" These
words occur in a report made by the New
York state board of meditation and ar
bitration in 1887. Further on the same
document says that the operatives of a
railroad, from engineers down to
trackmen are. in the practical rela-
tions of their services to persons and prop
erty transported, far more important as
factors than officers of the corporation, and
should be held to due responsibility. "
The relations which railway employees
bear to the public have never found strong
er and clearer expression than was given
them in the document from which these
words are taken The men who formulate
ed them could not be accused either of
Ignorance of the subject or of unfrienliness
to the persons to whom they referred.
They had studied the question in its prac-
teal as we'll as its theoretic bearing
With both the orkers and their employ
ers they had been brought in contact.
They spoke as honest, intelligent and fear
less servants Of the state, who had been
selected by the people to discharge a deli
cate and needed duty, and, by their works,
justified the confidence reposed in them
Nor is the justice of their position in
any way affected by the fact that the
law-making body to whom they report
ed paid not the slightest attention to
their recommendations. There is not
the smallest room for doubt that
the most direct, practical and effec-