The National tribune., 1906-10-04
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Public Printer Stillings is having the
time of his life up in the big hive called
the Government Printing Office, but he
means to be boss and know what is
going on or quit. For good long time
things have been rather loosely con-
Quoted there, and Chiefs of Divisions
were made responsible for what en-
ployes did that they should not do. or
did not do when they should, and some
of those Chiefs, ii seems. were quite as
irresponsible as the employees so 1t nap
pened that Reform" with big 'R
seemed really necessary. The path of
the Government Department reformer
is usually strewn with pounded glass.
but sometimes real reforms are accom-
plished in spite of this. 1t is to be hoped
that Public Printer Stillings will get
things down to a business basis after
awhile.
A good while ago remarked in these
columns that the Washington pubnc
schools were the worst ever. Now I
reiterate that sentiment and add, They
are just about the limit" For good
many years the schools have been run
ming down. The curriculum is bad,
could scarcely be worse, and if piece
of misspelIed copy comes into news
paper office in Washington the city
editor is apt to remark. THE writer OF
that was educated in the Washington
schools" Just why the schools of the
National Capital should be so bad is
scarcely to be understood. Certainly
they should be as good as the average.
because they are filled with the sons
and daughters of members of Congress,
Government clerks children of the
President and people of that character,
but graft, bad management, poor judg-
ment, pull and various other ills have
afflicted the school system till just re-
Gently, when a general overhauling has
commenced.
Secretary Taft appealed to the pa
triotism'' of the Cubans. Now, what
can the Cubans know of patriotism I?
Why should they, who were reared un-
der the flag of old Spain, be patriotic? !?
All that they have known of Govern
ment was to make demands and follow
them with revolutions, fighting till they
were licked or got a modcum of what
they asked for. They never had a
Constitution that was worth shucks un-
til within two or three years; they new
er had a flag that typitied anything but
bloodshed, tyranny and battle for a
starved existence. To them liberty
means license; freedom" care from
responsibility; nothing higher, nothing
better. Patriotism is a plant of slow
growth, some famous man has said,
anu IL mas not nSlu q CndnCe 10 even
sprout in the few brief years that little
Cuba has been trying to go alone The
people of Cuba do not know the mean
ing of the word yet, and how should
they? Patriotism in its highest and
finest sense is one of the loftiest senti-
ments that can stir the human SOUL and
must come next to the love of God in
the hearts of men. ''For God and coun-
try" as the rallying cry of the true pa
frfof Nav nav Taft the
Cubans are only in the kindergarten
class in the school of patriotism as yet.
Miss Ruth Bryan, ex-Presidential
Candidate Bryan's second daughter, is
a student at Hollin's Institute, near
Richmond, Va, or is to be if her dog
is permitted to matriculate with her.
At the present time the administration
of the school has forbidden the dog
the grounds of the institute and Miss
Ruth is in despair. 1t seems to be a
case of love me love my dog" with
her. She says that her poodle is only
one of six in the Bryan family.
A nice little story has been going the
rounds that Canada wanted an Attache
here in Washington, and that Great
Britain had denied her the right to have
one. Canada says it isn't so, and she
ought to know. She says she never
asked for a representative here, and
rather intimates that if she wanted to
send one, she would, and then ask
Great Britain what she would do about
1t.
And it is cold-storage chickens which
first feel the heavy hand of the law;
also, Is carloads of diseased cattle car
casses and four spilled" calves, all oi
which happened in Chicago; but, bless
you, not Chicago products. No, stree,
Chief Food Inspector Murray, at Chi.
cago, received private advices from the
Dominion that this food poison had
been shipped from Canada and had got
past the Inspector up there, so Murray
caught it in Chicago. One might al.
most as well eat an embalmed cadave,
any time as cold-storage chicken, any
how.
The Agricultural Department 4.
wrestling with gelatin" just now, anC
such a time. People who have taken Il
the colored truck sold in the stores L
make quick" jellies out of water, ami
line dyes and drugstore fruit es
sences will feel their gorge rise wher
they find what the pernicious powder
sold in these little packets are mad
Of. number of gelatin factories wer,
recently inspected by the Department
or Agriculture. Some OF them We're al
right and others reasonably clean, bu
some things We're developed by the ex
animation that make almost as unpal
atable reading as the exposures in con
nection with the packing-houses.
Some of the gelatin factories ar
regular patrons of tan yards and eve
of less delectable places. They collec
the scrapings of hides from the tan
neries and the hoofs. horns and othe
parts of cattle in state rather too dis
gusting for description and manufsc
ture gelatin out of them. The situa
tion revealed in some of the factorie
was disgusting, and it has been decide
that, although gelatin will not be rank
ed as a meat product and therefore nc
subject to the meat-inspection Law
there will be a rigid inspection of tn
factories under the pure-food law, an
the manufacturers will be forced +,
clean up and use materials that me,
with the appreciation of the Depar
ment in preparing their product.
As matter of fact the industry thu
has suffered most from the recent VI
heaval I'm packing-house, bakery an
canning products is the light hous
keeping industry" The modern woma
hates cooking and kitchens. She is NJ
willing to can and preserve and pick
fruits and vegetables as her gram
mother had to do, nor will she pick
pork, salt II down or corn her ow
beef. Consequently she resorts 10 Il
canned stuff which is preserved Wi