The record-union., 1899-04-24

support whatever the party may choose.
If he shall decide to cut the Gordian
knot BY retiring, it viii be decision
highly honorable to himself. And as the
Speaker is still a young man, with years
enough before him to survive many a
change in the whirligig of politics, we
need not look upon him as permanently
| los. to public life.
VERY NATURAL ANXIETY.
| Stockton Mail: We have not yet
learned of the organization of any
movement to take care of the men Of
the First California Regiment on their
return from the Philippines. The San
Franciscans will, of course, give them
reception'-which will be as much
fun FOR them as for the veterans and
will present them with medals and
make a nine-d days fuss over them, per-
haps But even when these attentions
shall do the returned soldier boys no
HARM they will do them no good, and
il appears that the men of the First
California hearing that this sort Of
thing is all that they have to expect,
are becoming rather anxious. Their
anxiety is all the greater from the fact
that they have heard that some of the
large corporations and firms, which
promised to restore to them the posi-
tions they vacated in order to go to
war, will not keep their promises. A
California volunteer, writing from Ma
nila says that 80 per cent of his COM
rades would gladly forego a "showy"
reception to be assured of way OF
earning a decent living when the time
comes Tor them to discard their uni
FERNS. He says:
MANY of us will find ourselves,
upon our discharge from the Unit
ed States service, out of work, for
gotten by our former employers, all
cur former citizens and working
clothes needing to be replaced, and
| little CT no money coming to buy
them
This. then, is the direction in which
gratitude toward and appreciation of
the "heroes' should take. Talk is
cheap, and so are cheers and beer and
the California volunteers have good
reason to worry as they patrol the
streets of Manila or Iloilo at night
chase the elusive Filipino by day, or
|
a tropical hospital.
A NOMINATION? lf
San Jose Mercury: The expected has
happened James Creelman is showing
in the San Francisco Examiner what
an old imbecile General Otis is. Shaf-
ter was a failure at Santiago, which
place was captured by the Examiner"
commissioners" and Creelman is now
carrying all the burdens of the war in
the Philippines For General of the
army, to succeed Miles, James Creel-
man.
| THE SAMOAN PROTECTORATE.
San Diego Union: There would seem
to be some merit in the German sugges-
ton that instead of a joint protectorate
over Samoa, each of the three inter
ested Powers should look after a por-
ton of the group. The difficulty, of
course would be in making the division,
Germany would want Upolu, the best of
the three islands, on which is situated
the capital, Apia, on the ground that
the German commercial interests there
are greater than those of the other two
| Powers. England, on the other hand,
might object to accepting Sawaii, the
largest but poorest island of the group,
but the United States would perhaps
be contented with Tutuila, which has
Pago Pago haIbor, one of the best on
the Pacific. Sawaii has 700 square
miles, but is mostly covered by barren
mountains, and is of little value. Upolu
has $50 square miles and is by far the
richest of the three. Tutuila embraces
only fifty-five square miles. The United
States, however, already has Pago Pago
as a coaling station, so that a division
on the lines indicated would not give
this country much that it does not al
ready possess. Under these conditions
the German plan of dividing up ap-
pears Of doubtful practicability. Still.
it is evident that so long as the tripar-
tite protectorate continues there will be
danger of the recurrence of embarrass-
ing disagreements. There must be some
sort of a new deal at Samoa.
A GERMY WORLD.
Salt Lake Tribune: Now it has been
decided among scientists that about
the most unhealthy and dangerous in
stitution in the world is the ordinary
railroad car DIR. Petri of the Imperial
Sanitary Board of Berlin, in conduct
ing experiments, found that of ninety
one animals inoculated with the ma
terial principally expectoration obtain
cd from the interior of railway car
riages, nearly one-third died as a re-
suit, while of the remainder, several on
being killed were found to have become
tuberculous. If that is true of railroad
cars, why is it not of street cars? There
is a loud cry now for the disinfecting
Of cars, and it seems to be a sensible
thought. We noticed last week at least
one child died in the city from scarlet
fever. No one knows on taking a seat
in a street car whether the gentleman
beside him has just left some patient
sick with a contagious disease or not.
When he goes into a car alone and
takes a seat he does not know but what
some gentleman left the germs of a
fatal disease on the seat. We We're
going to say that the only safe thing to
do would be to walk, but that is not
safe any more since our city fathers
have decided not to sprinkle the streets
We do not know as that resolution has
yet been spread on the records, but
judging by the condition of the streets
it would seem that that was the con-
clusion. There is one popularity of our
soil here. 1t only requires three days
10 change the streets from impossible
mud to asphyxiating dust, and between
the streets and the street cars, the pas
sengers on the cars and the traveller
on the walks, when one thinks of the
chances he is taking every minute he
is likely to reach Duff Browns conclu-
sion, which was that it would have
been a thousand dollars in his pocket if
he had never baen born