Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-01-08
\ \ \ NIX \

the supreme court judges in the Hayes
Tilden contest brought the court into
disrepute The decision in the income
tax cases is blot upon our jurispru-
dence. The recent decisions touching
our insular possessions are discredit
to the court. But, taken all in all, tIfe
people have been well pleased with
their judicial servants on the supreme
bench.
The Washington Times states-and, il
says, by authority-that in February,
when he shall have reached the age of
seventy and shall have served ten years.
the prerequisites for retiring on full
pay, Mr.. Justice Shiras will retire and
that Hon. William H. Taft, governor
general of the Philippines, will be ap.
pointed in his stead. 'Tis we'll Judge
Shiras has been under a cloud ever
since he turned that remarkable and
historic somersault in the income tax
cases, and the sooner he seeks the
shades of private life the better. Gov
ernor Taft is man of splendid capaci-
y
At the earnest solicitation of President
Mckinley he resigned life position on
the circuit bench of the United States
to accept the hazardous position-haz-
ardous to both life and reputation OF
governor general of the Philippines, and
it is only truth to state that he has dis
charged his difficult delicate and null
tifarious duties with signal ability.
When the Chinese exclusion bill was
being considered by the house commit
tee on foreign affairs, most remark
able array Of distinguished witnesses
and advocates appeared to testify or to
argue great lawyers, great editors, SEN
ators, governors, preachers, philanthro-
pists, congressman and one ex-cabinet
minister-but the most distinguished in
appearance and in bearing was Gov
ernor Taft.
When 1 was boy down in the hill
country of Kentucky, 1 knew an old
rough and ready country doctor who
declared that he Judged people by
their flesh marks" So do we all,
though we may not be conscious of the
fact. That was the old doctors way
of stating that he was physiognomist,
though he may never have heard of
that high sounding scientific term
Judged by "his flesh marks" Governor
Taft is worthy of the high position to
which he is called. 1t is said to have
been the intention of President McKin-
}ley to appoint him to the first yacanneFE6 % y
honor him.
1t is curious and interesting fact
that most of the supreme judges are
large men physically. 1t has always
been so. Judge Taft is large man
has large body, large head, large
nose of the julius Caesar pattern. He
is larger man, Is taller and will weigh
more than Mr.. Justice John Marshall
Harlan, who is the best known of the
Judges now on the bench. OF course
Governor Taft is a Republican. Other
wise he would not have received the
appointment The chances are that he
will make a great reputation as ju-
rist.
Hot Shot From Protection Paper.
The Washington Post is an independ-
ent journal, but one of the stanchest
protection advocates in the land. New
ertheless in speaking of what the Re-
publicans will do and will not do dur
ing the remainder of the short session
it rises to remark:
The pledges of the party as to changes
in the Dingley schedules are and prob
ably will be unfulflled. Schedules which
Mr.. Dingley said were "purposely made
too high TO leave room for reduction
through reciprocal agreements are still
"too high" In fact, the tariff as it
stands today is not in any fair sense the
Dingley tariff, for the reason that the
changes for which he provided in accord
ance with Republican policy and Repub-
lican platforms have in no instance been
made. 1t is a tariff that Dingley, were he
living today, would be bound to condemn.
Will this congress, like its latest prede
cessor "stand pat'' on such abuses of pro-
lection as have created profound dissatis-
faction among the truest friends of that
doctrine? VIII it continue to make capital
for the enemy? We think 1t will
1 desire to call the attention of my
readers to the concluding query and
answer: "Will it-i. e., this congress
continue to make capital for the enc
my? We think it will" This is corrob-
oratory evidence, strong and clear. Of
the assertions | have heretofore made
repeatedly, that the trend is toward De
mocracy and that Democrats have good
reason to be hopeful as to the future.
If a Democrat had written the above
paragraph, all the whole hog tariff
advocates would initiate their lungs and
below, "Free trade demagogyw But
they will hardly assail the Post with
their billingsgate. It's record is unim-
peachable on the tariff question, and 1t
knows-none better-that one of the
chief causes of Republican success last
November was the promise SO frequent
and emphatically made by Republicans
to revise the Dingley rates downward,
and it knows that that promise will not
be kept 1t evidently knows another
thing-to wit, that the failure on the
! part of Republicans TO fulfill that
pledge is making capital for the enc
my So the merry war goes on in the
Republican camp. Out Of it, let us
hope, will come much good to the great
body of the people.
The Post takes another fall out of the
G. o. P. in an editorial headed ''How Is
| This?" which runs as follows:
Both reaeon and experience show that
| there is but one way to maintain parity
| between different forms of money, and
that is by exchanging one for the other at
! the will of the holder, but when the test
shall come, IL any doubt exists whether
the secretary of the treasury will follow
reason and experience, panic will be
!, precipitated, as in 1S93.-Secretary Shaw
AS in 1888? What does that mean? Was
| 1t the trouble in the treasury. the scar
1 city of funds and the doubt as to what
course the aecretary would take? Was
| that what caused the panic in 1893?
! What, then, becomes of the venerabla
| contention which is SO often seen in Re-
| publican organs. that the tariff of 1894 bS
| some miraculous force. brought on
| panic a year before it was born? Did
/ Secretary Shaw intend to rob the organs
! of one Of the choicest weapons in their
| arsenal? Does he not understand that