The Louisiana populist., 1895-06-21

ernment Immediately took charge of il
and guaranteed It for 10000 pounds,
which restored the confidence of the
public and We had no bank failures.
The government is still in possession
and whether it will remain so or not
will be determined at this session Of
parliament.
I'VE have c1opt5u what we call the
cooperative contract system on all
public works. That is, work to be done
by the government is divided by the
engineer into small contracts, which
are numbered and any one desiring to
work is assigned to one of them. BY
this means first class workman makes
large wages while poor workman
makes less. Eight hours constitutes a
day on all public works. Our factories
and business houses are of course run
by private firms. Yes, we have strikes
occasionally and how to prevent them
is the most knotty problem we have yet
had to solve. We passed a compulsory
arbitration law at the last session but
whether that will solve the problem 1t
is too soon to decide. We have an
excellent public school system with
compulsory attendance for all children
under Is. They are exclusively secular,
no religion of whateoever nature is al
lowed to be taught in them. All busi-
ness houses are obliged to remain closed
during Sunday and all labor must cease.
One is, however, allowed to do whatever
else he pleases whether it be to attend
church, attend a place of amusement,
or play games of any nature. Besides
this we have law, which is strictly en-
forced, compelling the city and town
governments to select one day out OF
the six others on which all business is
suspended at 1 p. m, except that on
this day the saloons may remain open,
provided they sell nothing that inter-
feres with the business of houses that
are closed.
Strange to say, the liberals are the
protective tariff party in our country,
while the conservatives want free trade.
This is due to the fact that the con-
the owners of sheep ranges, who export
the most Of their products and conse-
quently want to buy abroad at lower
rates. Any one who desires to leave
his district before an election may de-
posit his ballot, sealed in an envelope,
with the proper officer who shall turn it
over to the election officers on election
day, when 1t shall be cast and counted
with the others. No ship is allowed to
leave port without a full crew as re-
quired by law, and the berths must be
of sufficient width to be comfortable.
We also have a wc.nan's suffrage law
which went into eject at the last cleo
ton. 1t proved fery satisfactory. We
now have the most perfect criminal code
in the world, and justice as admins
tered by our courts is quick and GER
tain.
"At the next session I think that We
will adopt a system Of consols, some
thing similar to the French system,
which will keep money home, instead
of going to England for all our money.
Our surplus this year will be more than
3S9, 900 pounds, which is remarkable,
considering that all other nations are
having such deficits.
Like your country, we have but few
liberal papers, the larger papers find
more money in supporting the monopo-
listic party. The general tendency of
our legislation is toward single tax"
Mr.. Willis left Sunday for San Fran
cisco, where he will take passage for
home.