Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-04-10

LONDON dispatches indicate that Kaiser
William has been disturbed by the popular
demonstrations in favor of Bismarck and
that having found Won Caprivi inclined to
oppose the imperial will he is regrettlng
the departure of Bismarck. This Is prob
ably premature and but forecast of what
is to be- Blessings brighten as they take
their flight, and the Hotspur of Prussia is
likely to realize it. but he is too proud to
admit his folly so soon. When perlls
thicken his self-pride may bend its knee,
but not now
Is 1T not about time for our southern
states to devise some method of examining
the accounts of their treasurers? The
Mississippi Legislature is now engaged IN
inquiring into the accounts OF ex-State
Treasurer Hemingway. The shortage is
said to run up into the hundred thousands.
Ex- Treasurer Tate, of Kentucky, and ex-
Treasurer Burke, of louisiana, are both
fugitives from justice, although their pop
ularity was so general that when 1t was
first charged that they had appropriated
state funds no one would believe it. Early
in the eighties Treasurer Vincent, of Ala
bama, and Treasurer Polk, of Tennessee,
reached their arms into the state vaults
and carried off as much as they were able.
There is no reason why even honest men
should not give frequent accounts of their
stewardship to the people.
The elements and forces for nature are
mighty, and will prevail" despite the
best directed human efforts to encompass
or control them Man is as powerless and
helpless in the face of their potential manip-
ulation as frail canoe would be in mid
ocean when struck by a gale. Science
has done much in certain directions where
mind can influence or control matter, but
it has not gained, and probably never will
gain, the mastery of storm and flood and
earthquake, the most terrible and irrisis-
tibe of natures manifestations on the
earth. Science is of man. but nature is the
exposition of Gods presence and power in
the universe. MAN proposes; God
disposes, and the law and the signifi-
canoe of sublunary events are often as
mysterious and inexplicable to the finite
mind as the unfathomable depths
of ocean, sky and earth are beyond
the power of human penetration.
The decline of farm values, which so
strikingly marks the agricultural situation
in New England, has a parallel In New
York, according to the report of the state
assessors. There continues, they say, to
be a marked depreciation in the value of
farm lands In nearly every county, and the
out prospect of improvement. MANY as
sert, says the report, 'that after paying
expenses they cannot realize from their
farms sufficient to pay the interest on
mortgages, and consequently thousands
of farms are falling into the hands of
mortgages Remedial efforts among the
farmers there seem to be taking the course
adopted in Massachusetts-the drastic en-
forcement Of the personal property tax
laws: and a bill has been submitted i'll the
Legislature at their call providing for the
listing of this property under the oath of
the taxpayer, with severe penalties for any
discovered evasion or neglect to submit a
list of his holdings.
THE North Dakota Legislature has taken
the farm mortgage bull by the horns in a
manner that threatens to become very pop
ular in the west. This is the passage of a
bill extending the time of redemption of
mortgages from one to two years. AS the
law is now, the debtor has the use of the
property for one year after foreclosure sale,
and the plan is to extend such time to two
wears. The agents of eastern mortgage
lean companies have petitioned the COVER
nor to vets the measure. and they threaten,
if the act be made a law to foreclose on their
mortgages where there is delinquency as
rapidly as possible, and withdraw all their
capital from the state. They say that on
Is per cent. of the loans placed in North
Dakota the interest is already delinquent.
This bill was passed at the request of the
farmer alliance, and it will be remember
ed that the same body in Kansas is petit
tioning for a special session of the Legisla-
ture there to enact a similar law,
IT is always unsafe to say what are the
thoughts that move the hearts of Kings,
but of the worlds two great potentates,
the Kaiser and the Gar, the youngest an
tocrat seems to have the keener insight
into the dangers that beset imperial power.
At last William II. has the courage to at
tempt a policy of Cancellation, while
Alexander HI. has no thought beyond that
of playing the covering tyrant. Whether
the Kaiser wins it is almost certain that
the Car must lose. 1t is almost likely
that out of the present movement In Rus
STA revolution will come, but this move
ment can scarcely fail to result, as so many
similar movements have resulted, In a
death-blow at the occupant of the lmper-
ial throne rather than the thone itself. In
Russia political agitation is desperate be-
cause it is hopeless Nihilism aims at the
man because it cannot reach the power of
which the man is only the symbol. The
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