Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-26
EDITORIAL NOTES.

The Endorsement by the Kansas City
Live Stock exchange. of Secretary F. d.
Ccburn, of the Kansas board of agricult-
ure, for secretary of agriculture is a worthy
compliment worthily bestowed. As the
Journal has already taken occasion to say,
Major Mckinley could not find a man more
thoroughly equipped for the place than
Nj. Coburn. The agricultural depart
ment, under the present administration,
has suffered Il depreciation of value much
TO be regretted. Its present head has not
shown the ability or disposition to make
| 1t the useful branch of the government it
was intended to be; he has willfully be-
Titled it in many respects. and has even
| gone 50 far as 10 intimate that it could
be totally abolished without any apprecia-
BILE loss to the country. To reinstate the
department in public respect and restore
its usefulness will require the vigorous la
bors of chief who is thoroughly acquaint-
| ed with agriculture, both theoretical and
practical, and who is zealously concerned
for its intelligent promotion. 1t needs, in
fact, the services of just such a man as
| Mr.. Coburn. The great producing inter-
ests of the Missouri valley wouIu feel hon.
ored and gratifed by his appointment.
The house committee which has been in
| vesticating the charges of police corrup-
| ton in Kansas City apparently came here
| with the idea that the charges were simply
the outgrowth of a factional fight in the To-
cal Democracy, and conducted the investi-
crpf f1,, mt
bers of the committee were evidently in
sympathy with the faction which supported
Governor Stone, and consequently were de-
sirous of seeing the charges against
Stones appointees fail of substantiation
The committee has misunderstood the sit
uation and consequently mistaken its duty.
The police scandals in this city are some
thing more than the outgrowth of political
quarrels They are the result of a condi-
ton which deeply affects the welfare and
good name of the municipality The people
of the city are almost solidly united in the
conviction that gambling has been per-
mitted and protected here to a shameful
extent, and that the facts ought to be
shown up, to the end that the protection
disgrace. Kansas City has four daily pa
pers, of differing political views, yet all
these papers are a unit in regard to this
police investigation, and they all agree that
the charges are based on fact and that the
house committee is not treating the city
fairly in its one-sided inquiry.
1t is said that Balie Waggener takes a
deep interest in the Kansas senatorial cleo
tion, and that he went to Topeka to see
that the goods bargained for are duly de-
livered.
The election of Pritchard by the legIsla-
ture of North Carolina means forty-four
Republican senators in that body after
March 4. not counting the certain success
of the party in Kentucky. 1t is more than
probable that the Dupont case will be re-
opened, in which case that gentleman will
be seated, as he should have been before
the last adjournment of congress. That
will give the Republicans forty-five votes
or just enough with the vote of Vice Pres
ident Hobart
The fact is now generally recognized that
throws a quarter to beggar, rather than
take the trouble of refusing, is not only a
mistake, but Il crime. Such promiscuous
aims giving breeds idleness and vice. What
is needed is to provide work of some kind
by means of which those who are out of
employment can earn their board and lodg-
ing and have few hours day in which
n lCplF 70,
ployment. One great advantage of such a
system would be that it would be possible
to weed out the sheep from the goats
The man who devotes by will the prin
cipal share of his wealth to public or char
liable purposes has rather weak assurance |
that his wishes will be carried out. If his |
will is not wholly overset, as in the Til |
den case, the money may be tied up in |
expensive litigation for a term of years. |
The moral seems to he very positive one |
that the safe way to use wealth for such |
public endowments is to adopt the course |
which Mr.. Carnegie has taken in Pitts |
burg. That is, for the donor to make the |
gifts while in his lifetime.
In the course of a recent lecture on the |
future of the negro race in America. that |
leading colored orator and educator. Pro-
fessor Booker T. Washington, said some |
very sensible and pointed things. He re-
ferred to the once widely entertained opin-
ion that emigration of his race to Africa,
or its segregation in some corner of this
continent, would, or at least could. fur
nish solution TO the race problem in the
United States. Professor Washington
secuted such an idea, and held that the
future of his race among us is a fixed fact
but one that he believes will be made ac-
ceptable through the application of indus
trial training to his people
MISSOURI POINTS.
The annual good roads convention. under