The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-05-12
CURRENT EVENTS: THE DRIFT OF THINGS AS
WE SEE 1T.

SOEN1NG4N4 Il SGa1O
WE SEE 1T.
1t has been some weeks now since this depart
ment of editorial comment on public affairs last
appeared in The Progressive Farmer. In the
meantime we have endeavored to keep our read
ers informed by our news pages, but the plan mas
not been entirely satisfactory. In the press dis
patch or news item each event is described large
ly for it's own sake and without regard to its re-
lations to. other occurrences. This lack OF
harmony and symmetry is the chief defect of
the daily newspaper. The weekly should take
a broader view of things-should go over the
entire field and bring the fragmentary reports
into right relations one with another. It is to
give this more orderly and comprehensive review
of the worlds happenings that we resume this de-
partment.
The Louisiana Purchase and the Exposition.
But news is painfully scarce, and the great
magazines and illustrated weeklies are talking
chiefly of the significance of the Louisiana Pur-
chase and the outlook for the St. Louis EXPOSE
tion-apropos of the centennial, April Both, of
Napoleon's great land sale and the dedication on
that day of the great exposition to be held next
year as a celebration of the event. How for
tunate a transaction it was for the United States
10 = w OS On W. OONAA OHOAN
nearly three times as much on the Exposition
to celebrate the Purchase as was involved in
the sale itself! Yet a hundred years ago Presi-
dent Jefferson was roundly abused for cofrming
the great deal made by our French agents
Robert R. Livingston, of New York, and James
Monroe, of Virginia. On the wilderness, then
bought for $15, OOO 1000 we now have a population
of 100000, with property assessed at $6,6OO,-
100000, and out of the Purchase we have carved
the whole or the greater part of fourteen States
and TerritOries-al of Louisiana, Arkansas,
Missouri, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Ne
braska, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Montana,
and the larger part of Wyoming, Minnesota,
Kansas and Colorado. 1t is fitting that the great
est exposition ever held is to be in honor of what
is probably the greatest land deal in the history
of the world. The Philadelphia Centennial COW
cred only 236 acres, and the Chicago Worlds
Fair ten years ago only 633, but the St. Louis
Fair will use 1880 acres. And the managers.
are giving quite as much attention to quality
as to quantity.
The Merger Decision and the Alabama Case.
The more thoughtful portion of the reading
public is also much interested just now in two
other occurrences that happened without blare
of truDlpets or boom of cannon. We refer to
two recent judicial decisions-those in the North
ern Securities case and the Alabama registration
case. Both have been explained at some length
in our news columns. In the Northern Securi-
ties case the United States Circuit Court of
Appeals simply declared illegal a merger" or
combination OF competing Cor potentially COM
peting) railway lines, and ordered it's dissolu-
ton. The case is analogous to that of a number
of other great monopolies, and if the decision is
sustained by the Supreme Court, it may bring