Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-27

The minimum legal cost of an election
for a candidate for parliment in Great
Britain is about $500. This sum covers the
pay of election officers, registration and
other legal incidentals. Where two or more
candidates enter the contest the actual cost
is pro rated, but the candidates expenses
absorb what is saved in this way, and
more, by the necessity of employing agents
to hustle votes. in a majority Of districts
represented by wealthy persons, p~articu-
larly where the Tories dominate, the
exactions TO which a candidate is subjected
would swallow the salary of an American
congressman. Decided preference is shown
for candidates with fat purses, regardless
of other qualifications. According to the
National Review, $500 a year is the
minimum extorted from a unionist candi-
date In any seat where there is even a
fighting chance. The stipulation for a cer1I
tain safe seat was a subscription and
registration Of $500 a year. besides the
cost of election, 1t being also stipulated
that the candidate would take a house
and live in the division he was to repre-
sent. N man need apply" says the Re
view, who has less than $4,000 a year,
and an expenditure Of from $751; 900 to $780,
Nv might bt dhllNlPdAth ueLOIb NH6 bNHtldl
election. The suburbs OF London and the
home counties are particularly corrupt and
extortionate.' No wonder the coming cleo
ton is hailed with great Joy by the
boys in the trenches.
sps
The old newspaper legend OF border
days, Eve have come to stay!' is en-
phasized In a more enduring way by the
Germans In Prussian Poland. A huge
pa'ace which the emperor Of Germany viii
occupy for a few days each year is being
built at Posen. and will cost $1,000, 900.
1t confronts in granite ,grimness the
stranger as he leaves Posen railway sta
ton, his eye being at once attracted by its
central tower, over 220 feet high. Smaller
towers and bastions relieve the sombre
effect of the high ramparts. The main
tower contains the chapel and suites of
apartments designed for the use of the
kaiser land his family. The chapel is inlaid
throughout with a mosaic, exactly like
that in the famous Wartburg. Below the
chapel is the royal entrance, a huge arched
hall Of marble and sandstone, and at the
end Of this the broad stairway leading to
the first story with its royal dwelling
rooms and festal salons. The latter are
enormous the grand salon alone covering
GOO square yards and being ornameuted
with marble pillars.
The new taxes proposed by the British
budget, and which provokes tho indigaa-
ton Of the landlord peers. reaches what is
designated as "the velvet" Of land owner
ship, hitherto free from tax, A case which
illustrates this occurred a few weeks ago,
A retail dry goods company had a large
shop in the West End of London, for
which II paid one OF the dukes SIS a
year. That was fair rent when the lease
was made, nearly 100 years ago, but at
present the rental value of the land is
worth just ten times that sum annually,
Not content with renewing the lease at
$4,000 a year, the ducal owner made the
dry goods men pay a fine OF S250,O00 for the
renewal, knowing we'll that they woull
rather do this than lose the building which
they had erected with reference to their
own requirements, and the good will which
they had established in the neighborhood.
Had Lloyd Georges Increment tax been
in existence the state would have forced
the duke to disgorge $4,000 Of this, which
would have gone toward tightening the
general taxation.
As Herbert Gladstone, the son OF the
celebrated Victorian statesman, is about to
retire from British Parliamentary life in
order to become governor general Of South
Africa, a grandson prepares to enter it.
William G. c. Gladstone Of Hawarden is a
young man Just out of Oxford and he
aspires 10 enter the House Of Commons at
the coming general elections. The new
governor general ought 70 be peculiarly
welcome to the Dutch element Of South
Africa. They remember that when an
Overwhelmingly pow erful force had Assem-.
bled under Sir Evelyn Wood TO avenge
Majuba and Laing's Mex, 1t was his faith
er's hand that stayed the war and made
possible the London convention, in which
Paul Kruger slgnally ~triumphed. Herbert
Gladstone has had very little experience
In public affairs ard none at all as a
colonial governor.
The German Socialist newspaper Vor-
warts, in its campaign for the election to
the Diet. published some interesting fig
uTes In connection with the increase of
wealth in Prussia. II is pointed out that
whereas. In 1903. there were $1,000 people
in Pruss$ alone with incomes Of over
$4,000 five years later lin 1909 the number
OF persons In receipt OF Incomes over that
figure had Increased to 10000. In 1908
10000 people owned property worth
S225, 900, 1000. OF whom $4,000 each owned more
than $4,000 worth. There are $500 persons
who are millionaires, according to the Ger
man sense OF the term, that is to say,
who are worth more than $3.50 900 each, and
In the last fourteen years the wealth Of
these 5000 "~millionaires" has increased
from E,25O,OOO,OOO 70 8,5OO.OOO,OO o
The hing OF Portugal seeks a wife, al
though the life Of royalty in Lisbon may
seem a trifle Insecure. II Is said that his
affe ctions hesitate between Princess Alex.
andra Of Fife and Princess Patricia Of
Connaught. The first is the grand
daughter and the other the niece OF King
Edward. Unions between the Guelphs ana
Latin royalties have been very