The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-26
Words of Wisdom.

rev ultu nave impressed themselves so
strongly on the northwest as the great
railroad builder, Mr. James j. Hill He
is a man who does his own thinking, and
his wonderful business success is a good
indication that he thinks correctly.
Recently he made a speech in St. Paul
that ought to be read by all of those who
believe congress can make them rich by
enacting laws in accordance with their
views, and who, if they have any notion
of the existence of economic laws, think
those laws can be modified by a law of
congress
In the course of his speech Mr.. Hill
slid;
If there is one thing more than another
that has caused these iOltS it is the at
tempt on the part of those charged with
our legislation to tinker with matters
that cannot be controlled by legislation
| Commercial laws are as certain in their
operations as the laws of nature. Take
the condition of our country to-day,
due to our financial legislation If we
could remove the Sherman act we would
have what no country can 90 without:
we would have confidence. / think the
United States to-day stands better than
any other part of the world FOR invest
ultul. II we NOu1Q ItulONt Inc one CON
ditiOn brought about through Z want of
knowledge on the part OF men VINO were
responsible for it, / have no doubt we
could begin an era Of prosperity the like
of which we have never had You can
no more mend financial or commercial
condition by legislation than you can
mend a broken limb by statute and hope
the time will come when our people will
see that protection of every man in all his
natural rights will be the reasonable
limit of our legislation. and when all our
commercial matters will be governed by
commercial law and commercial usages.
Truer words were never spoken. Com
mcrcial laws determine the prices of pro-
ducts in all parts of the world, and they
can no more be changed by legislation
than the waters of Niagara could be
checked by a presidential proclamation
Those who think congress can control the
price of silver should study the foregoing
extract from Mr. Hills speech carefully
Ii they are conscientious in their study of
it, they will change their opinion proba-
bly, as to what the effect of making the
coinage of silver free at the present ratio
would be.
Judge Roger r. Pryor, who is hearing
III Il NOV I OI-h NOuIb Il sui uTDu2nb DIV q
wife against her father-in-law for $4,000
damages for alternating her husbands af-
lection, made a highly interesting ruling
a day or two ago. He was requested BIZ
! the defendants counsel to instruct the
| jurymen, among other things, that they
must not read the newspapers while they
were sitting on the case. This request
he declined. ION the contrary, gentle
men, said he, read all the newspapers.
You are intelligent men, and YOU can
! form your own conclusions" This ruling
was greeted by the courtroom audience
with applause. The Judge, it seems,
| along with other advanced thinkers, has
| come to recognize the newspapers as
| necessarily to men of affairs
/ This ruling of Judge Pryor's is probably
the first of the kind on record. Usually
/ Jurors are cut off from all communication
with or information from the rest Of the
world during the time they are consider
ing a case. 1t has not been long since the
mere fact of a talesman's having read in
the newspapers about a case was held to
disqualify him for service on a jury to
try that case.
After all of the flourish of trumpets by
Gov! Altgeld and others, it appears that
those Decatur, Illinois, lynchers are to es-
cape punishment or even Indictment.
Notwithstanding the fact that the coro-
ner furnished the grand jury with the
names of the leaders of the lynchers, the
grand jury failed to find a single true bill
against them. OF the twenty-three grand
jurors serving at the investigation, only
four favored finding bills, and their opin-
ions were easily changed by the arguments
of their colleagues. 1t was expected that
at least thirty persons would be indicted.
Illinois papers and people have frequently
pronounced as farcical the efforts of
Southern courts to punish lynchers; we
would now like to know what they think
of this Decatur case.