The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-04-29
CURRENT COMMENT.


An experiment. In sugar making from
watermelon Juice was tried in York;
county. Virginia. last year and is tol
be repeated this season. We havel
heard OF the experiment being tried inI
Georgia. but not with any very prom-t
Using results. h moun of sugar inl
the melon juice is small. and the timei
and trouble required to boil put thei
water and leave only the sugar makesI
the process too expensive to amount
to a great deal. That sugar can bel
made from watermelons is a fact BEL
yond question. But when 1t has BEEN
made. Its cost is very much above that
OF sugar made from cane or beets. Still
ers will be able to perfect some new
cheap process for reducing thel
melon juice to syrup and then tn SUI
gar.-Savannah News
Prorogue is not the verb commonly
used to denote the adjournment of the
senate and the house by common con-
sent and joint resolution. 1t is usual
ly employed in connection with the dis
solution OK a parliamentary body by the
act of a reigning monarch. The word
Propagation is not found in the consti-
tuition or statutes OF the United States.
1t has sometimes been used rather
loosely to describe the process Of ter1ni-
mating a session by executive procla-I
nation. in case of a disagreement be-
tween the two houses as to time. This
power is constitutional. in that case
only; but we do not remember that it
has ever been exercised. The act of
propagation that is to occur next week
for the political convenience Of the
president. is a novelty. We use the
word because it is needed. New times,
new terminology.-New York Sun.
The action of the house Of represen-
tatives in refusing at his time to enact
an elaborate scheme of legislation for
the government Of the Panama canal
strip seems to be eminently wise. The
senate passed a bill e~mbodying a form
of government. going more or less into
details. After giving this full consider.
alton. the house committee on inter-
state and foreign commerce determined
that in the present state of the negotia-
lions relative to the canal property,
the title not yet having passed to the
United States, it would be best to do
nothing more than extend the authority
of the government over the strip just
as authority was given Thomas Jeffer-
son In the Louisiana purchase pending
the action Of congress, and by a practi-
cally unanimous vote the house ratified
this action of its committee. When
congress reassembles in Dec. it win
doubtless find conditions ripe for furth-
er and permanent Observation-Disclosures
Constitution.
The Empire state, with it's ~thirty-nine
electoral votes. presents a number Of
peculiar circumstances in this preSiden-
tlal year, but the Strangest and most
Objectionable of them all is the ppear-
ance of the governor of that common
wealth in the role of state campaign
manager of the dominant party. AS
chairman Of the republican state COM
mittee, Governor Odell is as decidedly
and conspicuously out of place as a SUI
preme or other appellate court justice
would be in that position. AS govern
or. he is bound to treat all citizens with
uniform n equal fairness. He is as
much the executive official OF demo-
Gratis as of republicans. The funds
whose expenditure he supervises and
out Of which his salary is paid, are
the result of taxation of all the people.
His time belongs not to a party, but
to the state. His unbiased judgment
and his best services are due to the
state. That is so clearly a fair state
ment CT fact that no just mind will
question it. Were New York the small
est state in the union in population,
wealth. and usiness interests, instead
of being the largest in those respects,
it would still be a plain and offensive
violation of patent proprieties for her
governor to take charge Of the party
| IudCUllle III a SISdt llpolS III
vast consequences may depend on how
| he Observation-Disclosures Post.
Representative Dalzell of Pennsyl-
vania cut a wretched figure in the
house on Saturday when he charged
| Bourke Cochran with being a hired ad.
vocate in politics. Mr.. Cochran is faI
from invulnerable, but the points In his
armor are not open to the shafts from
such pygmies as Dalzell, Grosvenor, and
Payne. No spokesman of the protected
interests can consistently accus any
/ man of adopting a course a it i;
profitable" When any given defen-
der of protection is rewarded by d.
4 rect payment or by political support
/ his mouth, at any rate is closed. II
was therefore to be expected that Dali
zell would stink from the contest liks
a whipped dog. Representative eros.
venor. too, was as helpless as If he had
been hamstrung. His notorious record
which justified Mr.. Roosevelt in de.
scribing him as a champion Of foul gov.
eminent and a dishonest politician, his
/ private ventures with his preposterou:
Book of the Presidents all conspire tC
destroy his influence. AS for Represen.
] tative Payne. the republican leader. M
/ is doddering and Ineffective compared
with John Sharp Williams on the. dem
ocratic side. The truth is that ths
three republican bosses in the house
are good for little or nothing but patch
ing up petty combinations and log-roli
ing for votes. By the o~nslaughts Of Z
parliamentarian and debater like vii
liams and a speaker like Cochran the!
are scattered as chaff before the wind
NJ rv@.1 Do-