davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18

closely following things in Washing
ton. There have been precedents
exactly paralleling sucn a perform
ance. When the railroad regulation
bill was sent to the last congress by
the president the public was in alb
solute ignorance Of its contents. But
the fact developed later that al
though the president had not seen
fit to take the public into his conf
dence. he had allowed the railroad
interests not only to suggest the
lines along which the bill should be
framed, and to load it with jokers
against the public interests, but to
actually pass upon and o. X. the
bill before the people were even per-
mitted to know that its preparation
was contemplated.
Before the investigation into this
newest Alaska land jugglery IS fin
ished 1t promises to develop a con-
ition of affairs beside which the at
tempted theft of Alaska coal lands
is inconsequential.
The probe is in charge of Repre-
sentative James NJ. Graham of ILL
nois, one of the really big men in the
dCiloIl oiA' hOuSNr nOSN vi Gel ilCLi
the very first day he entered con-
gress has stamped him as a man
above partisanship and one especial
ly qualified by service on the Bal
linger investigating committee TO
make the inquiry he is now so con.
scientiously engaged in.
AN IMPARTIAL" INVESTIGATOR.
G. w Burton, special agent of the
tariff board, who is now travelling in
Europe. gathered exact informa-
ton" TO be used as the basis of
tariff revision by the republicans. is
an Aldrich standpatter on the tariff
question, and was undoubtedly Sc
lected because of this qualification.
Burton, on the side, has been writ
ing letters back for publication in
the Los Angeles Times, a high pro-
tectionist paper. This impartial
investigator, gathering exact infor-
nation in a recent letter declared
that: Your tariff revision demand,
fellow Americans. is a fad" In an
other letter. excoriating the whole
tariff revision suggestion, this i'm
partial investigator made this ju-
dicisl and carefully weighed obser-
vation: The merchants of our
country who are so inadvisedly
for lower duties in order
TO get the cost of living reduced,
should stop making so much noise
until they learn what they are talk
ing about" All OF which is inter
esting in view Of the fact that Presi-
dent Taft insists congress should not
touch the in'quitous Payne-Aldrich
rates until this Impartial investi-
gator, G. ". Burton. has told fl
what II ought to do.
CHICKENS CoMINs HOME.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18
Narrow Escape

Narrow Escapes.
The time / spent In wootng
| do not once regret,
For there was nothing doing.
i always missed the net.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18
oy American Press Association.

fee of $1,000 out of the secret SER
vice fund for alleged diplomatic Ia
bors in helping fix a Canadian boun-
dairy line. No one can find out what
Soung Hale actually did to earn this
$1,000. These and other acts of Mr..
Hale while he was senator justify
the demand that he be given an OPP
portunity to explain. Perhaps he
will demand it in justice 10 himself.
If modesty restraints him, the oppor-
tunity may be forced upon him by
one of the house investigating COM
mittees.
EXPENSIVE TRUST BUSTING.
Fifty-nine thousand dollars was the
amount paid Frank B. Kellogg, the
republican trust buster. by the gov
eminent, between 1907 and 1911.
1t is believed that Kellogg received
as much, If not more, from the
trusts. It was developed before the
Stanley committee that in one in
stance he received fees from the
steel trust while being paid by the
government to prosecute its friend
and ally, the oil trust. J. B. Mercy
nolds, another trust buster, received
S64 900 from the, public treasury for
his services in the tobacco and coal
carrying railroad cases. In all the
republicans spent more than $1,000
900 in 10 years for trust busting and
the trusts are still with us.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18

IL IL easy enough to see that q
wrong thing Is wrong. but often We
don't like TO look into IL too closely
lest we see the reason
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18

Undoubtedly IT is hard TO work. but
I'm the long run IL IS hard not to work
too.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18
TIE ARGUS.

BY the j. w. POTTER co.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18

Some people don't like toSwsit. but
they aren't those who are due TO have
their heads cut of.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-18

Opportunity often comes and sits
with a lazy man. kno wing IL is per
fectly safe from capture.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
Canadian Reciprocity and Politics

The Canadian bordersis something over 4Oo0 miles long, and all along it's vast extent the cost of living Is cheaper by 25 per cent on the Canadian side than it is on the American Side. There is but one reason for this deep difference touch- ing millions of human lives, save one the Aldrich-Payne tariff
 It stands to reason that this great diff ference will not much longer be permit ted to stand, and MT. Taft, who is up against a situation and 1912, has nego- tiated a reciprocity committee with Can ada which will when ratified admit free to this country various articles of food. A good many do not like the pending reel procity proposition. The paper manufac- recent increases in the price of paper cannot well be maintained. The tories in England do not like it because 1t weakens their imperialistic dreams. The tories want all "preferences" for them selves with no diversions in favor of this country.
 The democrats of the House have unan- imously agreed to sustain the proposition because, while 1t is not ideal, it would decrease Aldrich duties and would lessen the cost of living. The democrats of the Senate tomorrow should do likewise, but even if the democratic senators are left to vote individual views nearly every democratic senator will be found standing with Champ Clark and Oscar Under wood.
 The standpatters are between the devil tra session and an immediate revision downward of the duties they had se- cured to satisfy various special interests, and this will probably induce them to let the Taft scheme go through before March 4. The proposition is exceedingly distasteful to them, but 1t may be ac- cepted as the better of the two They begin to see that Mir. Taft, ponderous as he is, can play deep politics in an emer- gency.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09

eye at the very start, and the legisla- ture surely is not desirous of prejudicing the people against the proposed change from aldermanic rule.
 The average man has his own ideas about the commissioners who are to de- eide the numerous municipal questions that touch him more closely than na- tional or state matters. The average man desires a voice in the selection of those commissioners. Instead of few telling the governor whom to appoint thousands want a chance at the ballot box to ex- press their preferences. The spirit Of modern democracy and of direct rule by the people protests against the proposed change in the bill, and demands that the first commissioners and all subse- quent commissioners of this city obtain their certificates of appointment directly from the hands of the people they are to govern
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
An outsider,s .Yie,x

'If the legislature of Alabama should fail to restore the local option system the outside world will be amazed. and there will be all sorts of fun poked at rhis state,' said Floyd H. Johnson Of Philadelphia.
 Such radical prohibition as Alabama has now certainly does not comport with a. very progressive industrial state con- taining at least one city of 15o.0OO to 16O,0eO population. Those who travel through this state a good deal and are well informed tell me that the sentiment is strongly against the laws as they stand. The state elections held since the cid legislature forced these extreme meas ures on Alabama at the instance of pro- fessional agitators, show that the people are against statewide prohibition. If the new legislature fails to give relief to cities like Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile 1t will because of combination of prohibition bun and astute wire pull ing on the part of certain prohibition leaders A {.
 'The prohibition wave was large in 1908 and 1909, but it has certainly spent itself If Alabama is up-to-date 1t will certainly have some reasonable legisla- ton to license and regulate the liquor traffic in such communities as may vote in favor of dispensary or saloon.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
IN HOTEL HOBBIES
The Engineering Bill

Ghe new engineering bill which was introduced in the legislature by Repre- sentative J. B. RNance of Tallapoosa county has had easy sailing so far, and will pass" said c. H. Ohme, secretary treasurer of the Birmingham Section En- gineering Association of the South yes terday.
 "fhe bill provides for state board Of examiners composed of five members and the deans of the engineering departments of the State university and the Alabama Polytechnic institute. who shall pass upon and grant licenses to mining and civil en- gineers and surveyors who desire to fol- low those professions in the state.
 'The bill provides that licenses shall be granted to all those now following the three named professions in the state, but all others must stand the required ex- animation. No appropriation Is asked Tor in the bill, which is merely intended for the protection of the people and for the elevation of the professions named.
 "'There is great need for such regula- tion in Alabama and number of busi- ness and professional men who are inter ested have been to Montgomery to talk with the legislators about the measure. They are all encouraged with the progress of the bill, which has already passed the house on the first reading and is now in the hands of the. judiciary commit tee."s .s.f =
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
Commissioners By Election, Not Selection

It may be assumed that Governor O'Neal would select competent commits sioners to serve with Mayor Exum in gov erning Birmingham. All impartial men admit that he would give this city rulers under commission. plan of government that would be honest and representative
 But this fact does not reverse or mod fly in any manner the almost unanimous demand of the people of this city for com missioners "eected by the people" It cannot be that this demand will be disre- garded by the legislature <even if it does know that Governor O'Neal would select men of high standing primary is q primary. It is the voice of the people, and the legislature surely will not say the people of this city shall have rulers by appointment when they have demand cd rulers to be selected by themselves.
 The proposed change would give the commission plan of government black
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
DIR. MARY WALKERS PANTS

women wear trousers for practical rea- sons when working in the knee-deep mud of the rice fields, or engaged in other employment unsuited to skrted laborers but the kinono of Japan Is Japan's chief claim to recognition as a picturesque country. The well-regulated Bedouin Arab women wore trousers some centuries be- fore the coming of Dr. Mary Walker, and continue to do so without creating unpleasant comment on the desert. Some of the women of India-and India is a densely populated country, with many women to the square mile-wear pants" without a sacrifice of the dignity and modesty that are becoming to the sex. The demeanor, not the trousers, of a musical comedy girl in pajamas would surprise the women of several Oriental countries in which skirts are masculine attire. Dr, Mary Walker is far from being isolated in trousers. Slie Is per haps with the majority. But the late Hen rik Ibsen observed that the minority was always right The minority party in skirts Is a majority party in the western world. Being right in the matter of taste-or at least confident-and wrong in the matter of tyranny it will probably con- tinue to oppress Dr. Mary Walker by making her an unpopular minority of one
 in the west
 Notwithstanding the edict in Paris the Frenchwomen will doubtless continue to wear skirts. Dr. Mary in her pants will continue to be militant and con- spicuous.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
Conductors and Pistols

The carrying of concealed deadly weap- ons is unlawful, and there Is no more reason why street car conductor in Bir- minsham should be permitted to carry pistol than there is why a private citizen should go armed.
 Public sentiment will certainly not con dona the nractice of conductors carrying deadly weapons. It is true that on some of the lines running to outlying sections of Greater Birmingham conductors fre- ouently come in contact with turbulent negroes. It may be that in the interest of good order the street car men on such lines should be armed. But If such ex- ceptional cases there be, no conductor should carry a pistol unless he first ob- tains a special permit from the mayor or judge of one of the courts.
 There is absolutely no excuse for any hodv carving a. weapon in the residence parts of Birmingham proper. The shoot ing on Highland avenue Tuesday night was lamentable affair; but if the law had been enforced with regard to con- ductors the city would not have been stirred to the point of turmult as it was. Let there be no more guns" on street car lines in the residence districts.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
Red Fla9 Socialists
gency.

The funeral of Paul Singer, the noted socialist of Germany. was the occasion of a significant socialistic demonstration in Berlin. According to cable dispatches 10000 persons followed the body of the dead leader to the grave. The lockers on numbered fully 5oo00O. There was lit- tie funeral pageantry, but the red flag, symbol of anarchy, was conspicuous in the line of march. The socialist members of the reichstag attended in body. Five bands alternated in playing marches and revolutionary airs. There was no attempt on the part of the government to pre- vent or minimize the demonstration, but the numerical strength of socialism in Prussia doubtless had a depressing effect on the conservative element of the great German nation.
 Socialism has developed considerable force in all the large European states. It has made little progress in the United States. but in some sections of this coun- try 1t Is beginning to be felt in practical politics and has to be reckoned with.
 Socialism in an organized form came into being in the first half of the last century. Robert Owen, an English phil- anthropist, was it's head, Other men of character, filled with Utopian ideas. came afterwards. All of the early leaders were chiefly academic, but Proudhon and Karl Marx were radical socialists and sowed the seeds of anarchsm.
 Wherever socialism starts it's apostles preach fraternity and declare that the revolutionary principles which they es- pouse will be developed along peaceful lines. They declare their movement to be the opposite of anarchism, but when the socialists become strong in numbers the leaders avow themselves atheists and affiliate with the agitators who carry the red flag. The recent scene in Berlin may cause some alarm in Europe, but our republic, the asylum of the oppressed from every land, is the last country where the red flag socialist should reach the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
up Valley and Village creeks, according

up Valley and Village creeks, according to the Ripley survey of 1898, is also all right. but the government would probably consume 10 years in building the proposed canal. In the meanwhile a line of in- dependent rails should be laid to the river. It is only about 12 miles as bird flies from Corey to the river. Possibly the rail- road owned by the Tennessee company could be induced-for consideration-to serve the district. A railroad to the river may after all be needed for at nearly every plant and mine products must be loaded on cars even if a canal be built Once loaded on cars they could be wheeled without additional expense to the river.
 In any event, we need a railroad to the river, and President Massey of the Cham Der of Commerce will appreciate this when he considers how slowly all government works are prosecuted Not even MT. Un- derwood could induce Uncle Sam to hasten the construction of the proposed canal to this city Our common uncle is leis- urely constructor.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
SOME JACK RABBIT

Twin Bridges Letter to the Anaconda
 Standard
 Frank Pahl and William Ehlert of Anaconda, who helped form a hunting party recently, are telling a story which sounds well for the kind of jack rabbits grown in the sagebrush hereabout. The story is told on Charlie Laier, another Anacondan, and as he does not deny it 1t must be true.
 Ehlert and I.aier are great hunters, and when Frank Pahl joined\ them here they were given the tip that they might see some rabbits the size of which they had never dreamed of After having bagged fifty odd specimens. Charles blazed away at an old jack, wounding it slightly, whereupon 1t turned and in rage made for the hunter. who dropped his gun and shinned up a tree. After a while the calls of the treed Charlie at tracted Pahl and Ehlert, who came to the rescue and bowled over the enraged jack, which was chewing the tree down in a determined effort to get at his tor mentor.
 MT. Laier was nearly frozen when rescued. He says he will have the head mounted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
Industrial Census

"The commercial and industrial statis- tics of the Birmingham district, gathered by the census bureau, will be tabulated and published in about two months," said member of the Chamber of Commerce. Such Is the information I have from the office of Director E. D. Durand.
 ''The census bureau did satisfactory work in 1900 so far as concerned popula- tion, and all information relative thereto, but the industrial data which 1t obtained in this district was not complete, nor was it satisfactorily presented. It will be found different in the census of 1910. The Birmingham district as a district is re- ceiving especial attention. The experts who did the field work were allowed am- pie time and when the district bulletin does come out 1t will make big showing for Birmingham as manufacturing cen- ter'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
From the Louisville courier-Journal.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal
 NARISIAN arbiters of fashion have decreed trousers for women' and Dr. Mary Walker is delighted (News Item)
 Dr. Mary Walker is not alone in her pants" That is to say she is only one of millions-hundreds of millions-of worthy women whose outer neither gar ment is bifurcated. Yet so much has been made of her affecting trousers that 1t might be supposed that question of worldwide importance hung upon the issue raised by Dr. Walker, and that she is peculiar in the matter of dress rather than as the only notable American who was not once poor boy. That distinction was accorded her by the late Bill Wye in the presuffragette and preclubwoman pe- riod of American history. But the prob abilities are that the decree will not be adopted. In the Occident skirts seem to catch the fancy of the majority, as well as to catch the dust and germs of the streets and. upon windy days. the eye of the iniquitous.
 There are, roughly speaking, 800, ,000,0 900 Chinese. Many of them are women. They wear trousers with perfect equanimity as we'll as unanimity. The dress of the Chi nese woman who is wealthy enough to wear we'll cut silk trousers Is fairly at- tractve, but the plain pajamas of the plain people constitute one of the least attractive national costumes in the known world. Some of the Japanese peasant
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
rHE REAL HrGHwAMAN

From the London Outlook
 The highwayman of fiction-he is a chocolate soldier of fortune. A merry wight he is and dandy down to his stirrup feathers, with a well-kept wis too; never, of course, gross and buster ing of speech. It is true that sometimes he is bad man, being allowed to was sail at roadside taverns, but even this Is only a pleasant bohemian trait and IS done with a chuck of the chin for the tavern wench and to the tune of a chant ed ballad. And when he rides at night he goes with laugh and & song; he hestrides bit of blood that would make the country green with envy. See him rassing the hour O night with fat city lnagnate, pleasantly insistent, not too grasping, and taking his guineas with kingly grace. Or see him when the moon is up and beauty looks out from the startled coach. A gallant gentleman he is then; 1t is 'by your leave" with flow cry compliments fluttering in verbal milky way; it's your hand, the fairest ever grasped by Tobyman.' and state- ly minuet danced on the turnpike road and ended with kiss and blessing, all passed with a galalntry almost paternal.
 The truth of it all is, alas! very much in the manner of many truths-horribly prosaic and arbitrarily depreciatory. Gen. tlemen these motley heroes were not. Capt James Hind, one of a meager num- Der of highwaymen, who were by way Of being gallants, was an apprentice butch CT. Claude DeVall was employed about sta bles and inn-yards and one of his biog- raphers pronounces him as "scabby and little given to fllching" Nevison. 'Swi Nicks," who really did the ride legend las credited to Turpin, began life in a brewery; Turpin. the gallant Richard, was small innkeeper's son and followed the butchery business in Whitechapel; Gentleman Maclaine, whose career re- veals none of the attributes of his title, was pitted with the smallpox and was sometime footman; Galloping Dick was a stable lad, and Sixteen-String Jack the beautifully named-peddled small wares with a donkey on a round which took him about the back doors of Bath.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09
GERMAN UNIVERSITIES

From the London Globe.
 Germany Is not only we'll provided with universities, but the seats of learn ing, twenty-one in all, cannot complain of indifference on the part of the peo- pie, for there are enrolled for the win ter session 54,S22 students, compared with 52, ,4O7 last year. Ten years ago the num- Der was 34.0OO. and if we go back for three decades we find only 2,00O ma triculate. The distribution given in a Paris contemporary, which is not com plete, by the way, shows 15.625 are study ing history. philosophy and philology. il 1,24o medicine, 10,9S0 law and 1914 mathe- matics and natural science. There is a marked increase in the number of women students, 244S at present, against 1850 a year ago. Of these, 2100 are Germans; the remainder are for the most part Russians and Americans. Of the women 1870 are taking philology, philosophy or history. 527 medicine. s56 mathematics and natural science, co constitutional law and agriculture, 49 dentistry, 3S law, i theology and pharmacy.