The record-union., 1898-08-04
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSION.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
jeots of Living News
Interest.

LOS Angeles Times. captain Won Tip-
per Of the Austrian warship Marie The
resa, which one of our vessels fired upon
Off Santiago by mistake, because OF
the resemblance of the Austrian flag to
| that Of Spain, is quoted as saying that
Austria will remain neutral, and that
| "any American fears that Austria will
help Spain are groundless." Thanks,
Cap, but you don't quite understand.
There are no American fears that Aus
tria will help Spain" 1t is only curios-
ity.
TO CAMPERS.
Fresno Republican: Tourists and
campers in the mountains this summer
should be especially careful about
starting forest fires, and should consti-
tute themselves a volunteer police to
see that sheepherders and others do not
do so. Large forest fires are already
| raging in the mountains further north,
and the dryness of the season makes the
danger of them great everywhere. No
fire should be built larger than neces-
sary, nor left smoldering. These fires,
started carelessly, have already de-
stroyed an incalculable amount Of fine
timber land in the State, and if al
lowed to continue will not only deprive
US Of valuable sources of wood, but will
put an end to the possibility of irriga-
ton. 1t is the forests which store the
winter rains for summer use. Where
they have been destroyed, as in some
parts of Spain and in Southwestern
Asia, the country dependent on them
becomes a desert. tt will be necessary
eventually to patrol our forests thor
| oughly. The sheep industry is too i'm
portant to be destroyed by excluding
the sheep men from the mountains, and
the tourists cannot be kept out, but if
the mountains are to be opened to either
class they must be watched. Until a
| legal patrol can be secured, voluntary
watchfulness is the only substitute.
MUGWUMP PROFESSORS.
San Jose Mercury: The universities
Of this country should bel the center not
| only of education, knowledge and wis
dom, but also of American loyalty and
| patriotism; yet of late several of them,
notably Harvard, have been indulging,
through their most prominent profess
ors, in sneerful compliments upon the
Republic and in gloomy fOrebodings as
| to it's future. Possibly such professors
as Norton of Harvard do not represent
the spirit of their universities. 1t is to
| be hoped that they do not. Whether
/ too much learning has made them mad,
or their life Of seclusiOn and inaction
| devoted to theoretical study has caused
them to become impractical idealists, or
there is something in their manner of
| life that tends to ALLEVIATE them from the
masses and to convert them into snobs,
| the Mercury does not venture to say.
But certain it is that they entirely mis-
| interpret the American people, exag-
gerate their failings and underestimate
| their virtues.
WOOL AND SHODDY.
| Stockton Record: If the probable low
price of wool this fall should attract
the attention of wool men to shoddy
the loss will not be without gain. One
of the objects of the Dingley bill was
I the betterment of the price Of wool.
But Dingleyism is helpless against
fraud. If Dlngley would further distin-
guish himself he will at once begin a
crusade against shoddy. 1t is only by
| getting rid of shoddy that wool can re-
gain it's former price in.the market.
GENERALS AND JOURNALS.
Alameda Argus: The story about a
newspaper correspondent striking Cen
eral Shafter was no doubt overstated.
1t did not seem possible that one could
do it and be visited with no severer
punishment than being banished from
the lines. Probably he made nuisance
| of himself, and Shafter has reported
that he struck at him. The public tenn
| per as to newspapers has undergone a
change within recent times. Newspa-
per used to be considered the bulwark
of our liberties, and enjoyed liberty
| that really amounted to license. When
| General Sherman, during the late civil
war, undertook to discipline some COR
respondents, he was assaied to the
extent that he' had to modify his inten-
ton. But the reading public has been
so fearfully bamboozled with false news
| in connection with this war that there
is now no public sentiment to come to
the support of journalists in the field
when they get at loggerheads with the
| commanding General. The universal
sentiment is that General Shafter' s
action was fully justified, and that
much harsher measures would not have
overdone it,
DUTY AS WE FIND 1T.
Portland Oregonian: 1t was remarked
| in the Oregon" at the beginning of
the war that the United States had a
| two-fold job on its hands, since, after
whipping Spain in the interest of the
| Cubans, it would have to whip the
Cubans in the interest of local order
and peace. The fault of this calculation
appears now to have been in the mar
rowness of its basis--the Philippine ele-
ment of the situation not being thought
Of A third job is now clearly in sight
| at Manila, and there Is reason to suS-
pect that, with the taking of Porto
Rico, there may arise fourth. What
ever romantic notions of Cuban high
mindednes may once have been cher
ished in this country, they are now dis
PEELED by the action of the Cuban lead
ers. Their whole course at Santiago
is a demonstration that the insurgent
bodies are scarcely better than brig
ands; that they are fighting for the
lust Of conflict rather than from any
generous or patriotic motive; that ulti-
mate peace is no part of their hope,
and that Cuba under their hands would
be, if possible, worse outraged and more
wretched than before. The hopes of
peace order and prosperous industry
in Cuba, it is plain, do not lie in the
domination Of men like General Garcia,
in whom a vain self-seeking, love
of fight for it's own sake and a con-
tempt for system and authority in adj
ministration outweigh all other mo-
| tives.
A HASTY JUDGMENT.
Los Angeles Herald: The Chicago
| Chronicle has arrived at the conclu-
sion that the Klondike is a fraud, be-
cause more gold has not already come