The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-28
PUBLIC OPINION.
Philadelphia

Three recent occurrences in the south
very clearly the apparently in
superable difficulties which the republi.
cans encounter in their attempts to build
up the party in that section OF the union.
The first was the appointment OF a
Louisiana negro as naval officer at New
the second. the demand of Baltimore ne
groes for representation on the republic
can legislative ticket. and its refusal by
the party: and the third, the attempt to
Georgia village on account of his color.
There is no state in the farther south
where the prospects of the republicans
have appeared SO promising as in Louis
lana. The sugar interests of the m
wealth have inclined many OF the most
prominent and influential whites to de-
sert the democrats on the protection is
sue. If the republican party were COM
posed of men of the same class as the
democrats. there is little doubt that a
majority of the whites would have Joined
it before this time. But the trouble is
that about half of the men in Louisiana
are blacks, and that these blacks not only
as a rule are republicans, but also insist
that they shall be rewarded for their
fidelity to the party precisely as whites
are rewarded in the north.-New York
Evening Post
Never in one instance have the courts
attempted to legislate-they have pro-
claimed the law. and that it must be
obeyed. The injunction of a court is
merely a declaration, after hearing both
sides, of the application of existing law
to a particular case. How can this, in
any sense. be called government" or
the exercise of any function thereof?
the language is misleading. but cannot
long deceive the people. But the chief
objection to Injunction is drawn from
their application to the labor problem.
naturally go out to the laborer, the time
has not yet come to free him from the
restraints of the law, and he must prove
that injunctions are Illegal before he will
courts can occupy themselves with but
one question:: What is the law? AS to
whether the law be good or bad, the
courts have nothing to do. They cannot
make the law, they can only interpret 1t
and apply it to the case before them. A
number of journals declared hat the
courts governed by injunction when
they restrained the strikers in Chicago
from stopping the mails. They did not
order any one to work or to stop work
they simply decided that the strikers
could not forcibly interfere with the free
| passage of trains that carried the mails
| and were our only means for continuing
our interstate commerce. The strikers
refused to work, as they had a right to
do. but when the sought by force to pre-
vent other men from taking the trains
out, the courts ordered them to keep the
peace. Was that Notwithstanding
Times-Union.
| The Springfield Republican, after care
fully examining Speaker Reeds letter
to the New York World. that
it cannot find in the document that cred
it to the new tariff which was to have
been expected. That is true; and there
are also a good many other things that
! stance, defniteness and clearness. But
we get a very good idea from the epistle
of the method by which the speaker
reaches conclusions, and Of his capacity
fop fhipEinr uiC cvcforo iC o,,fnrnofio
He rules the house in the same way.
He is ~infexible, not because he is great
or imperious, but because he is wooden.
In his letter this wooden quality is pain
fully diluted, but it is there. One Of his
sentences will fill a bushei basket. He
makes haste to state without pausing to
think. The letter, in fact, gives a better
photograph of the Speaker han we have
seen before, and the surprising feature
about it is the demonstration that Mr..
Reeds fame as a statesman is based on
a very small stream of shallow wit. He
is what the world calls "a good fellow
somewhat hardened by his environment
and his disappointment in the little mat
ter of the presidency, and nerved by the
responsibilities Of his position. AS a viii
lage humorist he would shine by reason
Of his talent for repartee: but when it
comes to a cold and deliberate discussion
of events he is not only out of his ele-
ment, but clearly beyond his depth, as his
! letter shows. He picks up some truths
and deals with them with the air of a
~discoverer, but we think he is entitled to
some credit for intrepridity when he
deliberately announces that the faith cure
is a remedy for financial and business
ills. Whether we have good times or bad
times, he says, is all owing to a state
of mind. Given the state of mind, and the
most trifiing thing will start matters off
on the down or the up grade. Almost
anything will give the impulse at the
proper moment-a tariff law, the falling
of a tin pan in the pantry, a betsy-bug
stirling against the window screen.
Not that these things are necessary; no,
indeed. The faith cure has already
worked the change, and all that is neces-
sary to the health of the country is for
something to occur to set things in mo-
Constitution.
A HOUSEHOLD REMEDY.