The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-13
PUBLIC OPINION.

Ex-senator Edmunds gives his opin-
ion hat the recent decision Of the
United States Supreme Court applies
to b organizations as well as to
railway pools. II that be 50 the anti
trust law has an unexpected bearing
and prohibits agreements by associa-
lions Of working men to control the
price paid for labor. Laws hat reg
ulate business contracts will necessari-
~ touch pom delicate ground and dis
V difficulties that rs farmers did
not anticipate.-Troy Times
The Constitution has always been of
the opinion that men who know how to
ana railroads are amply able to
take care of their properties without
entering into combinations and pools
calculated to excite public prejudice.
and at a heavy cost which must Ill
timately come out Of the pockets OF the
people, the consumers While il is
true that these combinations have
been more skilfully operated during
the past few years than formerly, it is
equally true that the science Of indus
trial railway anagemen has; made
rapid strides. The more important
railway properties are no longer in the
hands CT men practically ignorant OF
their responsibilities and reckless Of all
esults Of rate cutting.-Atlanta Con-
stitutiOn-
The u~tterances Of boil friends and
foes Of the pending arbitration treaty
with Great Britain afford a curious
study of vain hopes and ~groundless
fears. Ratify the treaty, say the for
mer, and war and danger of war will
be abolished between the two great
| Anglo-Saxon Powers. But it would
not be SO. Do not ratify the treaty,
cry the latter lest by so doing the
! hands of this nation be fettered to its
| oraof nnrhanc fatal iSa6y2ntap p-
| But neither would hat be so. The
treaty, in its original or in it's amended
form, would not give absolute immu-
nifty from war, and it would not place
this nation at a disadvantage by ham,
| pering its liberty of action. So far as
those two ends are concerned, it would
perhaps be worth the paper it is writ
ten on; surely not much more.-NeW
York Tribune.
Europe is suffering just now from
the individuality, rather than from the
policy, Of the German Emperor. He
is displaying a character with which it
is most difficult for diplOmatists to
| deal, and which is not entirely consis-
tent with his earlier career. The habit
the absence Of resistance, which
in internal affairs has so far dis
tinguished his reign, have de-
veloped the emperor's peculiarities
in a most marked degree. He had al
ways a sufficient belief in himself, as
he showed in his dismissal of Prince
Bismark, but Of late this belief has be-
come exaggerated into a confidence
| scarcely to be distinguished from pre-
sumption. He seems capable of thank
ing God for a great harvest, and send
ing Him the Order of the Red Eagle
in Observation-Disclosures Spec
tatOr.
The Inauguration, on January q, OF
Edwin Anderson Alderman as presi-
dent of the University of North a
Dina was an occasion Of %unusual i'm
portance n interest. The
| enthusiasm that prevailed was most
| significant, because for some time past
a group of sectarian b~usy-bodieS had
been going up and down the state at
lacking the university as a goddess
and unnecessary institution, and en-
deavoring to divert it's state appropri-
! alton to other The incon-
| ceivabl narrOWneSS and folly of such
a movement had not prevented it from
making some Roadway; but the ex-
ercises of President Alderman's inaug-
! uration, his own lofty and cogent ad-
dress, the cordial support Of the influ-
entail newspaper press and of leading
public men of the state are emphatic
| assurance hat the crusade of bigOtry
and p%ettiness has exhausted ITSELF
| New York Educational Review.