The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-06-02
SOCIOLOGICAL

Six Hundred See an Execution.
With the ostensible object Of i'm
pressing the non-English speaking for
eigners of Schuylkill county, Pa, Sher-
if Evans admitted about 800 of these
men to the jail Enclosure at Pottsville
last week to witness the legal hanging
of Felix Radius, nineteen years DID,
for the murder of his aunt and her
four-y ear-old son last December. At
the same time photographers were al
lowed to picture the scene of the
tragedy, so that it might be disseminat-
ed broadcast as warning. The sher-
iff has the idea that this will make
deeper impress on the foreign popula-
ton than could be attained in any
other way. 1t was the first time in
the state that hanging had been pho
fine specimen of bodily health and
strength, went to the scaffold without
fiinching. He had shown no regret for
his crime and had urged an early day
for the execution forbidding his law
yers to appeal the case.
InotctmenC OF rne FOURTH
Mrs. Isaac L. Rice, head of the New
York Antf-noise society, writes in the
June Century of "Our Barbarous
Fourth" and makes her chief attack
on the ground of humanity to the sick.
She tries to show from the testimony
Of leading foreigners that the national
holidays of Germany, France and Swift
; zerland, with their more rational cere-
monies, are more impressive and eff
fective than our own. She quotes ex-
tensively from the American press
opinions in total disapproval of the
powder and crackers habit and refers
to the long list of fires, deaths and in
juries resulting from our celebration
of Independence day. Accounts taken
from papers a century ago show that
| in those times the day was one of re-
| ligious and devout ceremonies, with
only salute of thirteen guns at sun
rise Mrs Rice suggests flag display,
music and fireworks as appropriate.
Roosevelt Quoted a Muck RaI<er.
When the June number of Every
| body's Magazine came out it was evil
dent that Lincoln Steffens was the
i person whom President Roosevelt had
quoted in a recent message to congress
as having spoken of the type of mill
| lionaire whose 'face has grown hard
and cruel while his body has grown
| soft, whose son Is a fool and his
daughter a foreign princess" This pre-
else language is contained in an article
giving interviews with Roosevelt, Taft
and La Toilette on what the Matter Is
In America and What to Do About II"
| The editors admit that the president
had examined advance proofs of this
remarkable paper from the pen Of one
of the guild he had once characterized
| as muck rakers.
Steffens goes back over the career of
| the president to show how he had al
ways been striking at this and that
| thing which seemed to him an evil,
but how he had been ever blind to the
root of all these evils-namely, the
J business system under which we live
and which has taken the place of rep
resentative government. He gives
Roosevelt credit with having located
the enemy and with having reused the
conscience and the hopes and fears of
| the nation. .Steffens speaks in the
highest praise Of Taft personally and
says he will try to carry out the
| Roosevelt policies, but that he will try
to do it quietly" which is quite diff
ferent. Taft believes in the law and
| public opinion as capable of regulating
the most powerful business. Taft be-
/ lieves In the courts and their ability to
! adjust the coming clash of capital and
! labor, but Steffens says that the secre-
tary does not see how the various evils
| are correlated by the power of wealth.
| La Toilette Steffens puts down as a
! leader who tries to represent all the
/ people, He summed up the trouble of
4 our country in one phrase" misrepre-
sentative government" Back Of that
he sees that government represents spe-
cial interests and privileges. He pro
poses to restore representative govern
ment. When it comes to choice OF
government ownership by the trusts OF
of the trusts he Ga FolIette) would be
for the latter.