The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-27
PUBLIC OPINION

A New Yorker. writing from Hot
Springs. Va, where he has evidently
been refreshing his intellect. puts his
~nconvenient question TO The New YORK
Tribune: Last fall. when the pendu-
lum swung our way. We made ii a mat
ter of enthusiasm and serious congrat-
ulatiOn. We said that at last the p-o-
pie were awake and thinking. and we
took great heart for the future Now
that the centre % gravity SENDS IL in
the other direction, are we II call IL
~eccentricity, and say that IL doesn't
INT AS the predatory gentleman
who was lifting pul.-ts from i neigh
boris hennery in the darkness of night
observed to his scrupu!Jus assistant.
who was prodding him with questions
concerning the moral significance OF
the procedure: one more question like
that would upset the whole system of
theology!'-Philadelphia Record.
Mr. Gladstone's letter to Dampzes. a
Macedonian leader, IS q most important
public document, for il says with au-
thority what the liberals and all en-
F.! l%ightened organs Of opinion the world
over have been saying all along-that
the English government is obviously
being used by Russia to bolster up the
/ Turkish empire, and that the concert,
instead Of settling the eastern ques-
ton, is continuing inflaming it. 1T is
lIpN III I1C1'lC Vi IICi ~ 'Ae"N
Britain that are directing the course
of the Cretan and Greek questions. I'm
der the present deplOrable scheme all
our government has to do is to plead
for its opinions as if it We're before a
tribunal Of those youthful despOts, the
emperors of Germany and Russia, and
to abide by and help execute their
final determination. They tow Aus
tria behind them, n through one Of
the two have q reSiStleSs hold upon
France.'-New York Evening Post.
The following paragraph is from the
New York Mail and Express: Great
Britain doesn't like the Dingley bill,
Germany has protested against it. It
ally and the Netherlands have recorded
their disapproval. France, according to
official reports, is about to register her
displeasure. What more vigorous in
dOrsement of the proposed tariff legis-
latiOn could the republican party ask
or the United States eXpect?" A more
perfect expression of prOtectionist feel
ing than is contained in the paragraph
is impossible. The countries named
are the greatest buyers of our pro-
ducts. If they did not buy many of
our producers would be reduced to a
miserable state of poverty. But to the
protectionist mind they are implacable
enemies. The fact that they wish to sell
as we'll as to buy proves them to be
III Pio'OSt oSoIIIS q Id"
which makes it more difficult for COM
mercial intercourse with the United
States to be maintained is therefore the
best possible proof that the law is a
good onc.-Jacksonville Times-Union.
The widely spread reports Of profta-
BILE activity in southern industries, par
ticularly in southern cotton manufac-
turing, not only alarmed the Massachu-
sets manufacturers, but rendered it
necessary, it seems, that the latter
should AXE some steps to discredit the
rumOrPd industrial boom in the south,
in order to quiet the reStleSsneSS both
of labor and capital in the eastern
mills. 1t is sought to accomplish this
latter necessity now by publishing the
report Of some kind of a commission
that visited the southern establish
ments and made cOpiOuS notes and
comparisons. The commission profess
to have found no occasion for eastern
alan in the industrial condition in the
sOu,h. They declare that southern
operatives work siXty-Six and seventy
two hours per week where the Massa-
chusetts hands work fifty-four; that
the increase in cotton manufacturing
is not rapid and competition is not dan
gerOus to the northern mills. They
found the field. they declare, by no
means inviting either to labor or CAPT
tai. This is all very we'll as a means
of allaying eastern fears, but it does
not disturb the fart that the cotton in
dustry 50 far as developed in the south
is in a most prosperous condition. Ii
docs NOT negative the proposition that
SoUthern mills are generally "a wing
large dividends and the report falsi-
fies the situation when it declares tina
cotton manufacturing is not rapid
increasing in the sOuth.-HOuStOn Post