The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-12-13
STATE PRESS.

The Crunspackers and h Keifers
will co their best to punish the south
and Il remains TO be seen how much in
fuence they will lave in congress. Mr..
Keifer returns 10 Washington after re-
tirement from office for some years.
| While speaker of the house he did not
| earn a reputation as a man Of tact and
INSTRUMENTATION Sentinel
General Joe Wheeler Is one of the
most remarkable men of the time Not
| content with being a hero OF two wars,
| an expert farmer and a successful pol
| ftician. he has IN his old age, betaken
| himself TO inven.ing and dispatches tell
us that he presented a new model of a
| gun to the Mexican army officials for
their approval-Charlotte News.
Contrary to expectation no objection
was made To the swearing in of J.
Thomas Hefin as a member of the
house of representatives Monday, and
there was not even a hiss when his
name was called. This was as it should
have been and besides it would doubt
less have afforded the Alabama ak
er . good deal of pleasure had protes.
been made against him.-Charlotte OBJ
server.
The dispatches say that the board If
estimates in the navy department will
ask congress for SAL 600, 600 to build
more w~arships next year. That's near
~ seven times as much as is appropri-
ated for agriculture n a year by the
national legislature and twice as NUN
as is given for rural free delivery. This
is all wrong. Let the arts of peace
have a preference of those of war m
spending the public money and thus
make a better and happier world.-Dur-
ham sur
Senator Dietrich, of Nebraska, wants
this great government of ours to use
penitentiary convictS in the digging of
he Panama canal. The question nat
urally arises: What convicts? Does ne
to take from the federal prisons
of this land the white criminals who
hail from northern climeS and the ne
gro prisoners from the temperate south
and locking them together drive them
to miasmatic Panama? If this IS what
the Nebraska senator wants done he
he must be dead to every sense of hui
mane treatment of all unfortunate class
and to wish to punish with almost
certain death for crimes that call for
less penalty h such cruel treatment.
-Goldsboro Argus.
Regardless of what Others may say
The Tribune thinks that local option
n Concord Is a success, n is as muc
a success as it has ever been in tie
history of our local option experience.
The law is violated frequently, so are
many others too numerous to mention,
but taken as a whole we have prohi-
bition that prohibits. We have heard
a great deal of this talk and for the
sake of argument we nave admitted
that it is true. Even worse than as
serted, but we always come back to the
same conclusion and there we stand.
There may be drinking, there may be
Illegal sales. We know that there are,
there would be infinitely more drink
ing with bars or ~dispensary, and fur
Their would be many illegal sales.
Ever hear Of illegal sales of whiskey
in bar tOWns-COncord Tribune.
It is a trite saying that you can never
tell what a jury is going to do. This
might be enlarged by adding that you
can tell what a woman is going
to do, more especially what a lot of
women are going to do. We are led
to this conclusion by seeing that a cru
sade a been started by a bevy Of
women in Ohio to do away with womel
stenographers. The charge is made
that the presence of a woman stenOg-
rapher in q business office is nearly al
ways provocative of trouble between
her employer and his wife. We are
told that the girl who takes dictation
is, in fact, the most frequent cause of
divorce. and i'm proof Of that assertion
statistics have been gathered to show
that in ten yea divorces have been
| granted in over 5000 cases in which
women stenOgraphers have been named
as OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Record.
Senator Overman takes a very sensI-
BILE view of the proposition to reduce
southern representation in congress.
In an interview in the Washington Post
he says: What is the use of taking
up a matter OF that sort at this time"
It IS questionable whether n such &C
ton will ever be taken by congress.
The Post has, 1 think, taken the cor
rect position, that the fifteenth amend
ment to the constitution in effect re-
pealed the fourteenth amendment. AT
any rate if the worst should happen as
between the loss of representation and
the unlimited exercise of the franchise
by the negro, the south would prefer
a reduction of it's strength in congress
and in the electoral college" We 30
not believe hat either will occur-cer-
tainly not the latter. for the south has
had sufficient experience with the I'M
limited exercise of the franchise by the
negro.-Charlotte Chronicle.