davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Some Evidence at Home.

A question not infrequently discussed
is whether the world is getting better.
The exposures of political graft and
commercial crookedness, y the revolving
revelations of conditions which exist in
high social circles, the predominance
of the commercial spiritual these and
other things are brought forward as
evidences that the tendency of the
times is not toward loftier ideals and
higher standards of living but toward
lower.
The trouble with this conclusion is
immortality and dishonesty is taken to
mean the greater prevalence of social
vices and political corruption than for
merly, whereas probably we simply
have more publicity given to the crimes
and vices Of social and political and
commercial life so that the hideous and
offensive aspects are brought more into
view. Indeed, the exposure of social
vices, political corruption and COM
mercial rottenness is rather to be- TAX
en- as evidence of the quickening Of
the public conscience and an insistence
upon higher standards.
President Northrop expressed a whole
volume Of explanation and reasons and
causes when he uttered that terse but
significant sentence at the Auditorium
a week ago last night. He had been
speaking Of the awakened, public con-
science and accounting for the spreva-
lence of higher ideals in political as
we'll as in other walks of life and he
credited them in large measure to the
fact, as he so tersely expressed it, that
"the people had installed in the presi
Dental chair at Washington" a moral
power.' That "moral power' has
made himself felt down thru all the
ranks and gradations Of society, and
those who study the trend Of things
and see something more than human in
fuences at work in shaping the affairs
of men, are inclined to recognize the
entrance Of such a character and sucl
an influence into our public life at tht
present time as something more thar
accidental, for they observe the use Of
/ new standards by which men are meas
/ uring themselves and their institutions
! The idea of political fidelity, activi
ty, efficiency, honesty is more preva
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
! What Other People Think
The Primaries.
Editor Of The Journal.

70 tho Editor Of The journal. ryssy
Such a perversion of the primaries as
we have witnessed this week is cause for
cfagrin and regret entirely aside from
any partizanship. AS Is well known the
Minnesota direct primary law has been a
stimulus to like legislation in some form
or other in other states and every politi-
cal well-wisher Of his state must have
observed with keen distaste its public
operation as fair and clean method Of
making nomination. With some eff
cient provision which would minimize the
wrongful participation by a party in a
caucus not it's own, the direct system
can, perhaps, be so shaped as to insure
a reasonable degree Of fairness and would
be preferable to the delegate convention.
Attic the primaries are now brought to-
gether each party must In some reason
able measure be able to hold it's own
primary inviolate without interference by
any other party or the whole degenerates
into a farce. &r.-,z #5
The present theory as to what consti-
tues a right to participate in the primary
Is, as 1t seems to me, erroneous. A mere
declaration by proposed primary voter
that he intends to support the candidates
of the party for whose ticket he asks,
standing alone, should give him no right
of participation. This Is not credential
enough AS in this open convention no
credentials are demanded, why should not
every primary voter absolutely qualify by
subscribing under oath as member OF
the party whose ticket he seeks to vote,
his signature to the oath constituting his
personal registration?
Some such attempted safeguard might
be enacted. It is hardly probable
that with such provision and an ade-
uuate penalty under the act that the
volume of wrongful votes cast would be
considerable. Antecedent affliation with
a party should be essential to primary
participation, not declared intention.
| The legislature must find some way tc
penalize breaking thru party lines. As
demonstrated this week our law is clearly
insufficient. If am republican demo.
crat has no more right in my primary
than burglar has in my house, and vice
versa, and there can be small doubt tina
| where an alien party intrudes itself II
naming candidates in another's convention
| (tho held at the same time and place.
the purpose of the law has been set aside
and the convention proceedings may bt
declared irregular and unlawful. And Il
is a nice question If the candidates of {
party so interfered with and whose con
vention proceedings were SO nullif1et
would not, under the legislative purpose
contained in the provision for such con
vention, have a right Of nomination b!
such party or Of independent nomination.
without a pursuance Of the actual and Sc
methods and machinery prescribed.
Schuyler G. woodruff.
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
The Lass Loves a Sailor.

Not all the influence of the president
nor the secretray,o Of the navy, nor Of
Fighting Bob Evans himself appears
to have sufficed to secure courteous
treatment for the soldiers and sailors
of this big country. They are still ex-
Guided from" " theaters, dance halls and
other places Of amusement. ~ They are
stoned and hazed and driven away by
superior force when they essay to en-
ter into the simple social joys Of the
picturesque villages upon our shores.
But while the fact is still stubborn
fact, there has been an admission re.
garding the cause Of the exclusion
which is important. It is that the men
in uniform prove so much more of Oh
attraction to the women than civilians
that the latter are cut out. It was no!
long since that the kaiser solidifed his
fences in the ninth precinct of Poser
by sending regiment Of crack troops
to dance with and monopolize the bellies
of village, which was hungry for gal
lantry. It is the old story of Othello
-AAo AAe'AA ~ SNAoAA oSe1POo, OO1iAS VI "A1Cu
he may have made up, proved an I'M
| conquerable attraction to the liquid
eyed Desdemona.. While the dudes Of
Venice stood about in hel pless rage
Othello poured forth his simple tall
and 10, he was the only one at cour'
for her. ="
The Venetians were either blind We
netians or Venetian blinds. They die
not know what to- do in such a case
But the free born Americans of Port
land, Me-, are not SO slow. They
know. They keep, the sailors out of the
dances and are cocks Of the walk.
Perhaps it is as well. The girls along
the coast may enjoy the charm of sol
der or sailor, gallantry, but they can
not marry soldiers or SAILORS. Let tn
girls accept the fate ~ which denie
them sailor. competition in love, know
ing that it. leads to nothing. Sailor
are proverbially tickle. Clodhopper
and fishermen while slow are sure. )
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23

1t was tight squeeze for McCleary
after all. His majority is POT. The
trouble with McCleary was his high
tariff notions and his offensive way Of
Haunting them before his constituents.
His nomination in spite of his tariff
views is a testimonial of no small sig
nifcance to the high, regard in which
he is otherwise regarded by the people
of; his district, and to his skill as an
organizer. Almost any other man,
holding his views on the tariff, and so
boldly proclaiming them, would have
been buried out of sight. 1.-The had
been more nearly in line with the sen
timent Of his district on this question,
no other candidate would have had a
show against him. McCleary is a man
of very superior abilities and is intend
ed for emergencies. The silver craze
| offered him one and he improved it, he
seems to have thought that the tariff
agitation was going to afford him an
| other, but his advanced position came
| very near costing him his seat and his
chance to take leading part in the
! inevitable tariff discussion
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Governor and Board of Control.

In his Red Wing speech Governor
johnson took credit to himself for a
change in the rules of the board of
control by which all bids for the con-
struction of public buildings are made
public, and added that he saw no rea-
son why there should be any secrecy
in the transaction of any public bust
ness. He promised, if he is reelected,
to have all public business open to
the inspection of the people who pay
the taxes.
That sounds we'll and it may be all
right, but if it is intended as refec-
ton upon the board of control, it is
hardly justified in view of the report
upon the work of the board Of con-
troll made last spring by the late Gen.
eral E. M. Pope, former public exam
liner. Mr.. Pope made thoro examina-
ton of the transactions of the board
from the beginning, in which he stated
that he had taken up all the estimates
and proposals for the support Of the
state institutions, also for purposes
other than support, such as grounds,
buildings, repairs, equipment. heating,
plumbing, etc., and had examined all
acquisitions, estimates and proposals,
and had found that in all cases the
lowest approved bidder was awarded
the contract within the limits Of the
appropriation, and that payments there.
for had been made according to con-
tract and carefully guarded. General
Pope suggested an improvement in the
system Of fling papers in matters of
special appropriations, but otherwise
commended the system pursued by the
board as altogether desirable.
The objection to publicity in the
opening Of bids for all supplies is that
it makes it practically impossible fol
| the board to break any combine or
price. By reason Of maintaining al
private and confidential the bids or
supplies, the board has been able tx
beat the coal combine on more thai
one. occasion, and to obtain better
prices for other articles than coult
probably have been. obtained if al
bids had been made public. Now, i
it would be to the benefit Of the tax
payer to lose this advantage agains
combinations on prices. the practice o.
publicity might be extended still fur
ther, but we believe the governor viii
hesitate before carrying out his Rec
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Editorial Section.

ing by Mr.. Gompers' activity in his
district. Mr.. Cannon IS confident Of
reelection, althoSi Mr.. Gompers has Ia
beled him his "meat. /" In the re-
cent primaries in this city the man who
was supposed to have the labor vote
coralled, and who was officially in
dorsed as the labor candidate, came out
third in race between four, with less
than half as many votes as there is
membership in the labor organizations
of this city. ....
The fact is interesting because of the
evidence it affords that the working
man does not necessarily surrender his
private judgment and his right to con-
troll his own political action when he
joins mutual benefit association like
labor union. 1t also indicates that
men who claim to have the labor vote
in their control are seldom able to de-
liver the goods, and this applies to po-
litieally active labor leaders as we'll as
to politicians: ''.5 %~*. +
It is perfectly right, of course, for
labor organizations to prefer in politi-
cal contests men whom they believe to
be most friendly to their interests.
Every class and group and organiza-
ton of voters is justified in uniting as
far as possible it's strength in support
Of men who favor it's policies, but
neither a labor, nor religious, nor
commercial organization in these days
of thesecret ballot can hope to marshall
it's members unless their private judg-
ment approves the dictates of the lead
ers. Manifestly the members of organ
lied labor in Minneapolis did not ap.
prove the choice Of labor officials in
the last congressional contest, and SC
| indicated at the polls. -
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Senatorial Courtesy.

Senatorial courtesy, like charity, COW
ers multitude Of sins. It falls like
the gentle rain from heaven upon the
just and the unjust and gives the
Quays and the Aldriches a kindly pro-
lection and defense which they could
not otherwise enjoy. Just now there is
in the senate man who doesn It know
anything about senatorial courtesy
when senatorial courtesy involves the
exposure of records and the exhibition
of unfaithfulness on the part of his
fellow members. The fighting man
from Wisconsin is very likely to get
himself disliked, but he is going to tear
off a good deal of the shelter for cor
rupt politics which so-called senatorial
courtesy has afforded in the past. 1t
is no harder for him to expose sena-
tor as a tool of the corporation and
unfaithful to his trust, than to make
an example of any other piece Of polit.
ical crookedness. For this lack of SEN
atorial consideration Senator La Fol
lette is likely to have a hard time at
the next session, but there has never
yet been any exhibition of reluctance
on the part Of the Wisconsin senator
to face a fight nor has he exhibited
much lack of preparation and capacity
| I'd take care of himself. For substan
tial contributions to the gayety of ma
tions keep an eye on Bob La Toilette
when Fairbanks lets the gavel fall.
But seriously, senatorial courtesy is
fraud and the public has caught on
1t is now looking for senators who
have more regard for the public and
their own constituencies than for the
feelings Of some sleek old tool of rail
road combine or the oil monopoly o.
the sugar trust. Senators should bt
courteous, not forgetting the courtesy
due the public. \
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
THE MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL.

lent, more widely insisted upon than
ever before, and that helps to account
for what happened in this community
during the past week. Everybody who
knows anything about the state of pub
lie sentiment in this city knows that
never before since Minneapolis has
had a population Of 100000 people
would it have been possible to have
nominated Unpopular vote candidate
for mayor pledged in advance to the
closing of the Sunday saloons, the alb
solute suppression Of public gambling,
and other lines Of policy in accord
with these. Only few years ago, a
very few years, a gentleman Of high
standing in the community, well and
favorably known and esteemed avail.
BILE, was requested by a company of
citizens to become a candidate for
mayor. He agreed to do so but stip.
ulated. among other things that if he
were mayor he would close the Sunday
saloons and compel the vicious element
to comply with the law. That gentle.
AAAe"AA " Ceo AOt AObAo VI DIS d CctuuludCS
after he made that declaration. His
nomination and election were regarded
as impossible. During the past week we
have nominated in Minneapolis, in
spite Of heavy inroads from the
voting strength i of an opposing
party, a man d who. has closed the
Sunday saloons, suppressed public gam
bling, restricted the social evil, put
civil service into effect in the police de-
partment and who boldly announces his
determination to continue this policy il
he is reelected. If you question wheth
or the world is getting better, you neet
not go away from home to find sub
stantial evidence bearing upon thu
question. -.
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23

When B. B. Odell, one-time republican
boss of New York, met with crushing
defeat at the primaries on Tuesday and
realized that he was no longer chief
factor in the republican party of his
state, he set his cigar at the accus-
toned angle and remarked, GAS shak-
spere says, Sweet are the uses of ad-
versity.' I am licked and I admit it.
[ also admit the extent of the defeat.
Now that the battle is over am in
favor of peace and harmony. It is my
desire that the Ratchet be buried. -
There are men who try to play the po-
litical game who have not yet learned
to play it that way.
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
PRESS CLIPPINGS FOR THE DEAD
Manchester Guardian.

An old story has just cropped up
again in a new form, and as the central
fact of it is now hanging up in frame
at the Adelphi theater it is worth the
telling. The announcements of Mr..
Comyns Carr's version Of "Tristram
and 'Iseult,' recently produced at the
particular version Of the legend which
Mr.. Comyns Carr has adopted; There
arrived in due time at the theater a
letter addressed to "Sir Thomas Ma
lory.O It was something like this:
"Dear Sir: Seeing that you are con-
cerned in the authorship of the play
'Tristram and Iseult,' we venture to
quote you our terms for supplying you
with all notices Of the play that appear
in the press,'' and so on. The letter
was signed by one of the best-known
of the cutting agencies in Lon
don.
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
The Labor Vote.

We have always been strongly in
clined to believe that the labor vote
was not carried in anybody's pocket or
cast in blocks, and we see some sub
stantial evidence in support of that
idea. In 1894 there were, according to
the president of the American Fedora
ton, 100000 idle wage workers in
this country. That was during the
depth of the commercial depression
when Mr.. Cleveland was president, and
the democratic policies were in the as
tendency. The country was threaten
ed by the free silver craze, which
still later became more rampant, and
was suffering from the Wilson tariff of
1898. Altho 16,OOo,OOO people have
been added to the population of the
country since 1914, there are probably
now not more than 100000, men in the
country who have any excuse for being
idle. In these times when wages are
higher than ever before in the history
of the world and the demand for labor,
skilled and unskilled, is unprecedent-
4 ed, it is unnecessary for any able-bod.
led man to be out Of work. And yet
i we find the president of the American
i Federation Of Labor, who is making
I war upon members of congress who
I failed to respond to his demands, cen.
I tering his attack upon republican con
i gressmen and doing what he: can to
turn the country over again to demo.
/, crate control.
!, Up to date however, he does not
seem to have been very successful. Mr.
Lttlefeld has certainly suffered moth
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Bryan's Trust Cure.

Mr.. Bryan has been showed into a
corner by the editor of the Iron Trade
Review and has been forced to put into
definite terms a statement made IN his
Madison Square Garden speech respect
ing trusts and trust regulation. Any
corporation that controls so much OF
the product Of any article that it can
fix the terms and conditions of sale, -
was Mr.. Bryan's definition of trust.
Prevention was the method urged and
the suggested remedy was the refusing
of license to any corporation which
controls more than certain portion Of
any product-this proportion to be ar
bitrarily fixed at point that will give
free operation to competition.
Industrial life is filed with highly
educated and practiced men to whom
nothing appeals very strongly unless it
is practical. Naturally the first thing
that came into the minds of these men
was where the line would be drawn.
who would fix, and by what method
would be fixed the arbitrary point.
There being nothing more definite in
the speech that is given above, the
editor of the Iron Trade Review wrote
to Mr.. Bryan asking him about it.
He explained that the Steel corpora
ton, for illustration, controlled 45.1
per cent Of the iron ore production in
1902 and now controls about 43.4 per
cent; that in pig iron it controlled AT
per cent in 1902 and now controls 44.2;
that in 1902 it produced 65.7 and sos
of the crude steel and finished rolled
products respectively and now makes
60.2 and 47.3, and that in tin plates
it's production is 71.3 per cent against
75.1 in 1902. Where, it was asked
should the line be drawn?
Mr.. Bryan, with the courage fol
which he is noted, came back with 8
quick reply. Fifty per cent, hesssaid
should determine the matter. In his
own paper, he stated incidentally, he
does not print the advertisement Of 8
company controlling more than 50 pei
cent of a product.
The steel trust is making today about
The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
The Platt Amendment,

Whether it was wise to do it or not,
Senator Platt of Connecticut accu-
rately gagged the chances of a success
full republic being set up in Cuba when
he proposed the amendments to the Gu
/. ban constitution which bear his name.
:. This amendment provides that the
/ government of Cuba shall never enter
4 into any treaty or compact with any
1 foreign power which will impair or
/! tend to impair the independence of
I Cuba, nor IN any manner authorize or
! permit any foreign power or powers to
I obtain by colonization or for military
j, or naval purposes or otherwise, lodg-
ment or control over any portion of
the island; that the United States may
Interfere for the preservation of the
independence of Cuba, the mainte-
nance of a government adequate for
/. the protection of life and property and
individual liberty.
D. This amendment was accepted and
7 incorporated in the Cuban constitution
so that it is a part of the law of the
4 land.
The amendment took advance notice
of two possibilities. Either Cuba might
fall into the hands of a European
+ power and be made naval base, men,
1 acing to our national interests, or it
. might fall into state of anarchy. The
+ latter appears to have happened. The
\ island is torn between contending fac
+ tions. Its trade is at a standstill. It's
i people are in mortal terror. It can
( not exist thus half governed and wholly
. insecure. Either the Cuban people must
discover a leader and patriot large
enough to solve the present impasse
Or the United States must solve it.
4 There is but one way for this govern
1 ment to solve it, and that is by throw
!. ing enough troops into the island to
i hold all the strategic positions. In case
+. the Cuban rebels continue in arms, the
Il: army of the United States will have to
II fight them, capture and corral them
1 In other words, we shall be just where
4 Spain was in 1898, except that we shall
I make short, sharp work where the par
alyzed arm of Spain fell helpless.
This is not a grateful task AS the
president pointed out in his letter to
Minister Quesada, it was a proud act
that ordered the American flag hauled
/ down in Cuba, to be succeeded by that
Of a free republic. It would be a
grievous task for any president to be
compelled to flood the island with
troops, to be withdrawn only after a
generation or. two of Cubans had
passed away and the island had again
! given promise Of being able to gov,
{ ern itself. If there is any patriotism
/ in Cuba, it should come to the front
BIZ to avoid the confession before the
world that the republic was failure