The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-12-16
CURRENT

Tariff revision and force bills and
such like will probably Civ the re-
publican party a blow hat the un-
terrified democracy was lot able TO
hand 1t. Let Mr.. Plat and those
other fellows go right ahead and we
shall see what We shall see.-Times-
Dispatch.
1t was to be assumed, however. that
no bill on the subject will become a
law. Nor will it be necessary for the
mocrat to rely upon obstruction
n interminabk talk In the senate
There Is one sufficient reason why all
the activity Of the gentlemen now so
hustling with reduction bills will come
TO nothing. The solid south IS a
great help to the republicans. Il is
a definite political advantage to them.
They may threaten. but they will not
do anything. They are perfectly CON
tened with the present state of things.
) reasonably solid south is enough for
them.-New York Sun.
Senator Plat, Of New York. seems
to have put the finishing touch upon
an already ridiculous discussion-we
refer to h proposed reduction OF
representation in congress under the
fourteenth amendment. 1t was ab-
surd enough before. General Keller.
OF Ohio, had himself sent to congress
as the consecrated champion OF re-
duction. Mr.. Williams, of Mississippi,
preached the virtue and utility of or
ganized reproach-wanted southern
representation affected by the agita-
ton to hold aloof. refuse their salar-
les, and parade, in forma ~pauperis, by
way of making the republicans
ashamed of themselves. Mr.. Morrell.
of Pennsylvania, has also bulged into
the game, but his proposition isn't as
funny as Mr.. Platt's. because he hints
at some sort of preliminary investi-
CATION, whereas the New York states
man takes everything for granted and
trims down southern representation
with a single Observation-Disclosures
Post.
Higher criticism cannot too Soon
get to work on the question, Who
wrote the presidents message? Many
are rising up in various parts of the
land to claim authorship of at least
parts of it. Mr.. Hearst has modestly
aOInlICeO l1dI ali lHdl IL Soou III IL
came from him. Congressman Baker
of Brooklyn confesses that it is per
sonally gratifying to him to perceive
hat the president stole some of his
own ideas. Jacob Riis is plainly in
Dictated as the only begetter of the
presidents disquisition on Washing
ton slums; and if Mrs. Van Worst did
not inspire the denunciation of bad
conditions in factories, then h letter
on race suicide was written in vain,
President MeIlen is another putative
father of a portion of the message;
and the claims are by no means al
flied. AS We say, then. the higher
critics should lose no time in dissect-
ing put the component parts of this
message of complex authorship. As
the Pentateuch has been printed with
the Yahvist and Elohist sections In
different colorS, so a critical edition
of the message might be prepared, the
Fills document reseate, the Hearst vel
low. and so on.-New York Isl
Their is one utterance in the pres
ident's message which it
self with special force to all right
minded people: There are certain
offenders whose criminality takes the
shape of brutality and cruelty towaro
the weak, who need 2 specla
type of punishment. n wife
beaten. for example, is i~nadeQuately
punished by imprisonment; for I'M
| prisonment may often mean nothing
to him, while it may cause hunger an'
want to the wife and children wh'
have been the victims of his brutal
ity. Probably some form or corpora
punishment would be the most ade
ouate way of meeting this kind o
crime" Of course. this Will provoke
the usual maudlin protest agains
nrnisbp,ents that degrade" w,
shall hear the dc familiar complain
thai logging huniliates and demora
ICES the victim. Our penal code mus
be formulated with a view to exalta
ton and refinement. Shall a civilized
government return to the brutal prac
tees of the Dark Ages? And so on
ad nauseam. Not a word for the mis-
cradle women and children who ar
sacrificed to the I'VE passions OF tn
wife-beater. No plea on behalf of tn
innocent unfortunates themselves l
Ices not seem to occur to any OF thes
advocates of gentleness and grace tina
the wives who are habitually Kcke'
and beaten by their husbands may b
degraded by the process. and tina
children reared amid such abhorren
surroundings must inevitably grow u
to barbarous and criminal maturity
Washington Post.
TIL Good Old Way.