The San Francisco call., 1899-04-09
EDITORIAL VARIATIONS.
BY JOHN McNAUGHT.

90 a%@41 4%$% @$;s2
the week has been the course of politics
in Cleveland and Chicago. A pamphlet
issued by the Good Government League
Of Cleveland states that one of the can
didates for Mayor, McKisson, went into
a ward populated largely by poor
class of Jew immigrants who cannot
speak English, and informed them,
through an interpreter, in the course
of a campaign speech, that If they
would vote forhim he would, if elected
Mayor Of Cleveland, take steps to COM
pei the French Government to release
Dreyfus Immediately and pay him dam
ages for false Imprisonment.
The Good Government League de-
nounced the speech as an evil; as an
illegitimate method of campaigning; as
a fraud practiced upon the American
voter. All the same, the League in that
very pamphlet informed the voters in
straight English, without an interpre-
ter that if their candidate should be
elected Mayor he would break up the
political machines, put an end to the
spoils system. drive the corporations
out of politics and make Cleveland
clean city. Now that was a bigger lie
than the Dreyfus lie, but it will take
a better political expert than l am to
determine which is on the higher stage
of intellectual development.
Evil after all is largely a matter Of
taste. 1t will be conceded, of course,
that some evils, like murder, or
breach of promise, are of such shock
ing bad taste that any one guilty Of
them ought to be hanged or shot, but
that is no reason why we should fret
over the majority of those incidents
which show the depravity Of our neigh
bors and prove them to be lower than
ourselves. A broad, liberal toleration
will save US from many an irritation.
For example, the fact that the intel
ligence of San Francisco delights in
The Call and is content with it is no
reason why the fools should be denied
their Examiner.
In celebrating his theory of the evo-
luton of man Mr.. Fiske says: The
physical differences between man and
the ape are less important than the
physical differences between African
and South American apes. ZoologicaIly
man is simply one genus in the old
world family of apes" That state
ment raises a curious question as to
what would have been the condition Of
man to-day if he had developed from
the American ape instead of the old
world ape. If our primeval progenitor
had been some gracile ape like the
Douroucoulis Nyctipithecus (profanely
called the owl-faced monkey disport-
ing an innocent life in the sun-lighted,
ower-perfumed forests of this favored
land, instead of a big, black beast roar
ing in the jungles of darkest Africa, is
it not probable that by this time we
would have reached such a degree of
perfection that all of US would be CO.
tillon leaders with a Greenway grace
and not a Supervisor in the bunch?
While the doctrine may be disputed
in the East, it is none the less true
that the farther West you go the more
virtuous you are. A proof of it is to
be found in the contrast between the
conduct of the Y. estern soldier in the
Philippines and that of the Eastern
soldier in Cuba, as depicted by them
selves in private letters to friends at
home. Here is a case in point drawn
from the news of the week A volun-
teer writing from Florida camp says:
Five of the boys married Cuban
wives and brought them home. They
all have either a small lemon or orange
grove, while one of the boys captured
a dusky maiden who has a six-hun-
dred-acre coffee plantation Sixteen
others married Cuban girls, but they
drew blanks and when the troops came
home they left them to shuttle for
themselves"
Reflect upon the morals of that con
duct just long enough TO fix in your
mind the disloyalty of the Eastern
braves to the girls they left behind
them and then warm your heart with
this extract from the letter of a soldier
at the front in the Philippines:
Our lady nurse was with us in the
trenches that night. She sat right next
to me, and every time I took a shot she
had another cartridge ready for me.
They shot closer than they ever did
before and the bullets were just nipping
over our heads
Such contrast as is afforded by
these letters speaks for itself and needs
no comment. All will admit it was
shocking bad taste for the Eastern
braves to forget the girls at home and
go to investing in Cuban bellies as if
they were tickets in the Havana lottery
to be kept if they drew prizes and
shuffled off if they did not. The con-
duct of the Western man, who took his
nurse with him to the trenches and
fought almost in her arms, is not only
better than the Eastern practice bv
comparison, but is positively good-so
very good indeed that one can imagine
him pausing for moment from his
Filipino target practice, leaning over
to his fair companion and whispering
through the star-lit battle air, While
the bullets whistled music: Sweet
nurse. if this be war, may we never
have peace
Mr.. Fiske concludes his confidence hv
saying: Thus we have arrived at the
goal Of my argument The
mystery Of evil remains a mystery
STILL Ruf