The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-18

PUBLIC

Our neighbor. The Sun, has developed
an ~inordinately spfteful streak of ILL
nature this week. Yesterday it accused
Mr.. James Gordon Bennett Of embez-
cling some $12, 900 contributed by gen.
erous persons for the distribution of
free ice to the DOR. Today it calls Mr..
Whitelaw Reid a defaufter, and de-
clares that he failed to meet his ash
obligations in connection with the late
United Press. Verify these be not
~neighborly expressions, and unbecom-
ing withal.-New York Mail and Elk
press.
w fix the price OF gold" says w.
J. Bryan; and the New York Sun and
other gOldite organs undertake to make
fun Of him therefore by various very
silly sayings of their own. When con-
gress, as authorized by the constitution
TO do 50, coins and fixes the value eve
use the constitutional l~anguage) of gold
coins, weighing 50 much of fine gold.
with free and unlimited coinage Of all
gold into such coins, with like weight
and f~ineness, eve fix the price Of gold.'
1t is absolutely silly to question a prop
OsitiOn so absolutely established by
under the highest authority of
this land. The comparative value Of the
gold coin with relation to other thing
is an entirely different matter, thi5
4 DcIHS HdIldDle IN All Things, IN
Guiding gold, even when compared with
itself from time to time or at the same
time in different places. And so we
fixed the price Of silver from 1892 to
1873.-Norfolk Pilot
There is no denying the fact that our
courts are unlike the English courts in
the matter of being respecters of per-
sons, or rather, of wealth. There are
a number Of the great m~illionaires Of
this country who have been guilty Of
crimes hat would have sent men of
moderate wealth to prison for a number
Of years. But these excessively rich
men have escaped in every instance
either by technicalities or by corrupting
the court or the jury. . 1t is a fact
these men escape not generally but
universally. It is the fact that the peo-
pie are being driven into the belief that
cur courts are under the control of a
class, who can defy the law at their
pleasure and convenience, that this
paper deprecates. Every laW-abiding
man desires to believe that the courts
Of the United States are as impartial
and as incOrrupible as those of England
or any other country. But there have
been of recent years SO many iScrimi-
nations shown in the administration
of justice, especially by the federal
courts, that the people are losing re-
SDecl anu confluence IN tneSe tribunals.
There was a story told in the news
paper the other day of a man in the
capital city who vas living in the best
style that the markets could afford,
Ihat man was i'll prison as punishment
for crime. In the same prison was one
who was unable to give UOnd that he
would appear as a witness, and the
prison authorities refused to allow him
anything but the cOars prison fare, al
. a,r- IL AL
viands to the Jail for his comfort
Richmond State.
The vote in the senate on the lumber
question was probably not in the least
surprising, even to those democrats
and free traders who expressed most
bitterness Of feeling about it. On Mr..
Vests motion to except white pine
lumber from the duty of s. eight DEM
Ocrats voted nO-name1y, Messrs. Ba-
o and Clay. of Georgia; McEnery, of
louisiana; Tillman and McLaurin. Of
South Cardinal: Martin, of Virginia:
Rawlins, of Utah, and White, of Cali
fornia. The Georgia senators have in
view the protection of lumber interests
in that state for which Mr.. Bacon ar
gued earnestly. enatO McEnery, of
Louisiana, is in favor of the protection
Cf the uga trust, senators from
South Carolina have in mind products
or tndt state, ana the senator's from
Utah and California have shown their
disposition to secure protection for GER
tain industries of the Pacific coast.
Thus. although Senator Quay was
paired for the amendment, and Senator
Carter voted for it with two silver sem
atOrs, Mantle and Cannon, and three
populists, Allen, Harris and Kyle, the
amendment was defeated by as large a.
majority as has been given against
other important assaults upon the pro-
tective features of the bill. This per-
fOrmance is in effect a rupture of the
democratic party in the senate on the
tariff question. If it's ember cannot
be held together on the lumber duties;
if part of the senator's who voted to
make lumber free in the present tariff
now record themselves on the side of
protection, although some of them do
so because Of other interests, it is clear
that the democratic party can no longer
be expected as a body to continue it's
old opposition to the protective policy.
It is an open secret, too, that there are
other democratic senators who Will be
found voting on the Same side when
other portions of the bill are reached
New York Tribune.