Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-01
HEARD IN PASSING.

It's about time for Walker to take his pen in hand again to let his dear friends in New Britain know whether those wicked pals of his killed him or not.-Hartford Post.
 What turmoil there would have been in the circles of high finance if Jerome had put as much energy into his pursuit of the insurance swindlers as he has into the croSs-examination of Evelyn Thaw.-New Britain Her. aid.
 King Edward probably thinks it isn't any of nephew Willie's business but he nevertheless takes his pen in hand to say that the little trip to France was private affair and that no business was transacted.--Meriden Record.
 San Francisco is pretty busy city these days. Even the banks, or at least some of them, find it "neces- sary'' to open for business on Sun day. It will be interesting to ascer- tain what success Frisco has in try ing to make up lost time by working Sundays.-Sentinel.
 Possibly if all sports were made free on Sunday there would be no legislative opposition. Especially would this be true of baseball. But then, if Sunday baseball were free the players would not be of the type to draw the crowd, so there you are Penny Press.
 Cotton and its products brought practically $500.0O0,OO0 into the United States from foreign countries in the year just ended. The value of cotton, raw and manufactured, and its products in various forms export ed during the year aggregated $4S5,- 000,00 and thus formed more than one-fourth of the total exports of the country in the year of its greatest export record-Winsted Citizen.
 According to official advices re- ceived by the department of state, the South Manchuria Railway company, which is under the direction of the Japanese government, has decided to adopt the American system, and to place large orders for materials in the United States as an expression of ap- preciation of America's friendly at- titude toward Japan.-New London Telegraph.
 Speaker Cannon's stereotyped dec laration that he is not candidate for any office except reelection to his present one, but that, of course, no man would decline a nomination for the presidency, is accepted by a growing number of republican mem- bers of the house as indicating that he is in the race. It is even suggest ed that the growing strength of the Fairbanks movement has awakened the supporters of Cannon to the fact that they must bestir themselves or lose by default-Bridgeport Farmer.
 Resolutions calling upon the ad- ministration for a statement of how much the American taxpayer is spending on behalf of our Philippine subjects have been burked. Repre- sentative Clark of Florida, who asked for the figures, submitted to the house an estimate of his own which places the amount since we assumed the charge at not less than $1,000,- 900. 900, an average of $110,000,00O yearly. On the other side of the ac- count the estimated offset is 25 per cent profit to ship owners and army contractors on a trade with the islands amounting to less than $20,- 000,000 year.-Bridgeport Farmer.
 While some of the smaller New England states have been losing their rural population by the tendency of migration into the cities and manu- featuring towns, it has not, until re- gently been thought that large states like New York were subject to simi- lar changes. It is now announced, however. that New York is no longer an agricultural state, but that it's population is becoming urban and the back towns are being deserted. The next federal census will, it is calculated, show startling figures with reference to this movement