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mortgages at the rate of one per cent. Not more than $2,500 shall be loaned to any one person, and preference shall be given those whose land is already encumbered (at higher rates).

The Agricultur appropriation bill$1,109,000 for the department, $645,000 for the State experimental stations.

To establish an International American Bank. The United States delegates to the Pan American conference are hereby designated commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock, capital fixed at $10,000,000, which may be increased to $25,000,000. The directors shall be twenty-five, of whom fifteen must be citizens of the United States; and stockholders shall be liable only to the amount of their subscription.

Massachusetts.-The West End Elevated Railway bill was ordered unanimously by the Senate to a third reading, and later passed. The Senate also passed the Meigs Elevated Railway bill.

The Senate rejected the House bill making Saturday a half-holiday during June, July, and August, for town and city employees.

The bill aimed at the suppression of "bucket-shops" and all forms of dealing in securities and commodities when not actually bought and delivered, was ordered by the House to a third reading. A State Supreme Court decision declares the "bucket-shop business to be illegal.

The House passed to be engrossed the bill regulating the granting of franchises to use the public thoroughfares for the carriage of passengers or goods, or for the distribution of commodities or supplies. The object of this bill is to demand payment for such franchises, either directly or by compelling the company which has obtained one to share some city expense, as, for example, the paving and keeping in order of the streets. This latter plan is in operation successfully with the street railways of Philadelphia.

The House ordered to a third reading the bill compelling the publication of election campaign expenses, when exceeding twenty dollars a day.

The House defeated the bill to consolidate six of Boston's city departments under one head, This bill, if passed, would have saved

more than one hundred thousand dollars yearly to the city.

The Senate bill, having as its object the extermination of the English sparrow, was engrossed by the House.

The New York corporation counsel has delivered an opinion to the effect that the new law in regard to weekly payments does not apply to employees of the city who receive monthly or yearly salaries, but only to those whose wages are computed per diem. In Massachusetts, where a somewhat similar law prevails, a railway company has been indicted for failing to comply with it; the company claims the law is unconstitutional.

IN GENERAL.

In the convention of German Catholics at Milwaukee, Wis., it has been decided to raise funds by subscription to secure a repeal of the present Bennett educational law and to oppose any future measures of similar intent.

In Madison, Wis., the Common Council expelled from the Board of Aldermen two members, and removed from office the chief of the fire department, for accepting bribes in connection with the purchase of department supplies.

In a number of cases before the New York Superior and Supreme Courts, suits against the elevated railways on account of damage to property have been decided in favor of the plaintiffs. In one case, where the elevated track passed a large apartment house, $35,000 was granted for damages to the easement and $2,000 yearly for loss of rents.

A difficulty has arisen as regards the interpretation of the liquor law passed by the last Legislature (N.Y.) This measure made it unlawful for any excise commissioner or inspector or any public commissioner or other subordinate to be interested in the manufacture or sale of

liquor. The Attorney-General has declared the law constitutional, and while not applying to sheriffs, game constables, or justices of the peace in towns, yet applicable to presidents, and trustees of villages, and police justices and town constables in cities and villages; in certain cases it will even apply to the mayors of cities, as when the mayor is a member of the Police Board.

The Chicago Gas Trust which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Illinois, has been renamed the Chicago Gas Com

pany. As the result of a suit against the Trust, a receiver has been appointed.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts has decided that it is within the Constitution for cities and towns to engage in the production and supply of gas and electric lights for street lighting purposes. This is in opposition to the opinion of the Attorney-General.

The Labor Unions of the District of Columbia have sent a petition to the President requesting that the eight-hour law be enforced. It is shown that this law is violated in many of the departments; it is asked that the hours shall be made consecutive, and that public contractors shall be required to observe orders to that effect.

STRIKES.

In Massachusetts, the striking carpenters of Boston are making a strong effort to form a co-operative association.

The Quincy quarrymen have compromised for a slight increase of wages; this was done for fear of a lockout.

The Rockport strikers in the shoe manufactory have returned to work, having secured union prices.

At Springfield, the cigar-makers have resumed work at the old schedule.

The strikers in the Westboro shoe factory have abandoned their strike, having secured the discharge of all non-union workers.

The cigars-makers of New York City are out on a strike, 2,000 strong. Their demands are living rates, or from fifty cents to $2.50 per thousand.

A decrease in wages precipitated a strike among the ice carriers of New York City. A general strike among the ice men is looked for.

One hundred hands employed at the Central ballast quarries at South Kankakee, Ill., have struck for an advance of twenty-five cents a day. An offer of an advance of ten cents has been refused.

About one hundred employees in a cotton mill at Philadelphia, Pa., have begun a strike because a promised restoration of last summer's wage rate has not been made. They have been working at a reduction of two cents per piece.

In Chicago, Ill., the union carpenters, suspecting the "old bosses" of importing workmen, put spies at work among the men.

Enough evidence that such a state of affairs existed has been collected, and the "old bosses " will have to answer to the Courts for disregarding the Alien Contract Labor Law.

THE "ORIGINAL PACKAGE."

Two agents, one of a large Cincinnati brewery and the other of a brewery in Kansas City, have been arrested for violation of prohibition laws. The agents were selling "original packages," and have the wealth of the breweries behind them. The suits, however decided, will be carried to the highest court. The prohibitionists claim that the law simply protects the outsider, who originally imports the package; that further sale, opened or unopened, must be governed by State laws, and that this view is in accord with the late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.

POLITICS.

It has been remarked of primogeniture that the "system is a very artificial one; you may make a fine argument for it, but you cannot make a loud argument, an argument which would reach and rule the multitude." The chief reflection raised by the speeches at the Home Market Club last Saturday is, that protection is an artificial system for which you cannot make a fine argument, but you can "make a loud argument, an argument which would reach and rule the multitude." The speeches, however, except that of Mr. Dingley, hardly reached the level of argument. Most of the speakers were content to talk to their hearers as American audiences like to be talked to. "We are dealing also with the most intelligent people in the world, who have attained to the highest standard of living and the highest development of political power, individually and as a whole." Consider the unrivalled blessedness we have reached under the guidance of our god Protection. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. American wages for American workmen. American markets for the American people. Protection to home industries. Mr. Dingley's speech was of a different character. In defence of the tariff bill now pending, he called attention to the fact that it

makes the average duty upon all imports about 27 per cent, very nearly the same as the Mills bill, and 10 per cent less than the existing rate. This should be a justification of the measure in the eyes of "tariff reformers," but on the theory of protection it is difficult. to see how it makes much difference what the duty is, provided that it excludes the foreign article.

But on some articles the duty has been increased. We are told that this country imported manufactured goods with a foreign invoiced valuation of $258,000,000, and with a domestic valuation of $358,000,000. With adequate protection, half of these goods might be manufactured in this country. It seems that $92,000,000, 37 per cent plus the freight, is not adequate protection. These goods can not be manufactured here for $350,000,000, but they might be for a larger sum; so it will manifestly be for our advantage to pay, may be, $400,000,000 to get $258,000,000 worth of goods. When a man is so far gone as seriously to make such an assertion as this, there is no hope for him in this world or in the world to come.

The reason alleged for the higher cost of goods in this country is the higher wages paid here. But it is perfectly certain that the real wages paid to factory operatives in this country, taking into account the longer hours here and the higher prices workmen are obliged to pay for what they buy, are not thirty-seven per cent higher than those paid in England. And wages do not usually constitutes more than half the cost of the manufactured article; so these manufactures already enjoy much more protection than the difference in the rate of wages would warrant.

It is noteworthy that the three most important branches of manufacture, the cotton, the woollen, and the iron manufactures, were started before the era of high protection and flourished under a low tariff. One would naturally expect that it would cost more to support a full-grown pauper industry than an infant; but there is great difficulty in understanding why it should cost more in proportion to the size.

The President transmitted to Congress a letter of the Secretary of State advocating the establishment of an international (American) bank. Mr. Blaine says:

"The merchants of this country are as dependent upon the bankers of Europe in their financial transactions with their American neighbors as they are upon the shipowners of Great Britain for transportation facilities, and will continue to labor under these embarrassments until direct banking systems are established."

He does not, however, take the trouble to inform us what "these embarrassments " are, nor does he say anything to show how the hindrances, assuming their existence, will be any better removed by the establishment of a bank called International American than by the banks already doing business under other names. He says, indeed, that the greater part of the imports from South America are paid for by remittances to London, and that the London bankers are thus enabled to collect from our merchants a "tax" of three fourths of one per cent. He asserts that this charge will be "largely reduced" by the system of direct banking; but not one word does he offer in proof of this statement, nor of the assumption that the establishment of the proposed bank will produce a system of direct banking. The probability is overwhelming that the system of clearing through London possesses advantages sufficient to secure the persistence of that system; and there is no evidence whatever that advantage of any kind will attach to the proposed system. This being the state of the case, it is to be hoped that no one will be sanguine enough to embark in the new scheme simply on the strength of the name. The assumption is perfectly sound that American merchants and American bankers would have discovered their loss before this, if banking in London caused them a loss. But if any one loses a cent through the new bank, the blame will lie with the President and the Congress of the United States.

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The international railway scheme, for which $65,000 of your and my money was taken by Congress, is an essentially vicious scheme, and its effects will not fail to be in jurious. It is one of the many vicious schemes hatched out by the Pan American conference.

In the first instance, it deserves to be noted that in most, if not in all, cases of government interference with railway construction in Europe the defence for the action has been the exigency of military strategy. Railroads play a very important part in the military system of European countries. And whem it comes to preparing for war, it may truly be said that all rules fail. The political action whose motive and object is military, must be controlled by considerations totally different from those which should control industrial actions.

But this scheme is not proposed as a military measure. On the contrary, the purpose

is that the neutrality of the road shall be guaranteed by all the governments concerned. We know what such guaranties amount to. Still the intention may here serve to fix the crime. The railroad is intended to be an industrial performance, and it may be confidently predicted that the execution of the project will be attended by the evils which invariably accompany the interference of the political state with industry. It will suffice here to note one of the ways in which the governments will lay up trouble for themselves; the property and revenue of the railroad shall be exempt from taxation of all kinds. Why should the possessors of ready capital be given this advantage over others whose property if they have any - is not easily convertible? An invariable accessory of industrial stimulation is to give advantages to capitalists.

The Supreme Court of Nebraska decided that the Farmer's Alliance had the right to construct an elevator on the right-of-way of the Missouri Pacific railroad. The principle here involved is one which should not have been left to the discretion of the Court, but should have been settled by the articles of incorporation of the company. In this case, the decision of the Court is sound politics, whether good law or not. Eminent domain should not be exercised to establish a monopoly of grain elevators,

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According to the St. Louis Globe Democrat, five thousand statutes have been added to the written laws of Missouri since 1879. As the assembly of this State has biennial sessions, the average output of statutes has been one thousand per session for the assembly of 1890 is not included. The average output for this decade has, therefore, been somewhat in excess of the average for the whole period of operation. For Missouri was admitted in 1820, and the total number of statutes is now thirty thousand- an average of 428.57 per year. Any one with a fondness for figures and a knowledge of arithmetic can now find the number of statutes required (?) to govern the Missourians at any given future date.

A few weeks ago there occurred under the gilded dome of the Massachusetts State House a most extraordinary event. A bil had been proposed to regulate the instalment business. Sellers of goods on partial payments were to be required to have executed a written agreement, contract (or whatever the document may have been called), and to have the same recorded, after the manner of mortgages. Here, it would seem, was an opportunity not to be lost to extend the control of the State, but, wonderful to relate, the bill was rejected! Think of that! -- actually rejected! the Legislature refused to meddle. Now let the heavens fall.

While bills taking millions of dollars out of the people's pockets are hurried through Congress in a few hours; while every session yields a mass of ill-considered restrictions of personal liberty; while both Congress and State legislatures spend the people's time in regulating banks, insurance companies, and railroads, or with supervising the diet of citizens and prescribing when and how they may use butter or beer; while these concerns absorb the attention of legislators, it takes twelve years to probate a will! This has been the experience of the heirs of Samuel Woods, and now scarcely a tithe of the property is left.

Why are unsaleable bushels of corn raised in Nebraska? Is it because Government now fails to protect individuals against the rapacity of railroads? No; it is not because now the Government leaves undone that which it should do, but because, in 1862, it did that

which it should not have done. It attempted to apply an artificial stimulus to the course of industrial development; and now, when the attempt has partially succeeded, and more corn is raised in Nebraska in 1889 than would have been raised there without the stimulus, now when artificial disaster has followed in the train of artificial stimulus, we are met with a demand for an equally artificial remedy.

At this moment there is no part of the pressure toward socialism so strong as that which has sprung from the actual development of railroads. And this, the actual relation between the railroads and other parts of our industrial apparatus, is largely the result of Governmental action. The right of eminent domain has been recklessly, and, in many cases, corruptly, granted; public property has been recklessly, and, in many cases, corruptly, squandered to produce artificial and undesirable industrial expansion. It is only natural that the accompaniment of this course of injurious governmental activity should be a state of equally injurious inactivity. Minority stockholders have not been protected in their rights, and thus corporations, which should have been confined to operation within the bounds for which eminent domain was exercised in their behalf, have been permitted to override these limits, and to own and control not only other railroads, but a great variety of entirely disconnected business.

It is impossible to overlook the fact that the much-abused monopolies of the last twenty years have very often been connected with railroads, and railroads have come into existence by the exercise of eminent domain. If to these monopolies are added those much more directly traceable to Government interference with industry - through the operation of the so-called "Protective" tariffthe reflection is sufficient to make us pause. May it not be a fact that all the so-called monopolies are direct or indirect effects of Governmental interference? And we know that it is a fact that these monopolies, in one way or another, are the mainsprings of the prevailing socialistic movement.

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A gentleman by the name of Clarkson — J. S. Clarkson, in fact-addressed a Republican club the other day, on the subject of contemporary politics. To those whose interest in

politics centres in the distribution of the spoils of our quadrennial campaigns the name of Mr. Clarkson is sufficiently familiar; for the information of others, it may be well to remark that Mr. Clarkson is an officer of the Federal government, a postmaster indeed. So he was invited to address a political club on the subject of politics, and was listened to, judging from the daily papers, by the whole people.

At first thought there is something palpably absurd in the fact of a man's being listened to on the subject of politics simply because he is a postmaster; and so it must have seemed to Mr. Clarkson himself, for the burden of his harangue was to the effect that POLITICS is a concern quite different in theory and in practice from POST-OFFICES and other business concerns. At any rate, he contended that in the matter of appointments and office holding the political machine was not adapted to being run on business principles. When the people apply themselves to politics, they ought to know that it is politics, and not profits, they must seek and expect. So Mr. Clarkson, and SO TO-DAY. But one of the very first inferences we draw from this opinion is that the post-office, not being a political concern, should not be run by political methods. And this inference is so plain and irresisitible that Mr. Clarkson could not but have felt himself sadly out of place. We are to blame for this man's being out of place. I make no question but he is a very good politician — and an execrable postmaster. There is no natural bond whatever between politics and post-offices. Mr. Clarkson objects to having business invade the sphere of politics; but it is equally, if not more, objectionable that politics should invade the sphere of business. If a postmaster, or a baggage-master, as the case may be, has anything to say on the subject of politics, I am not aware of any good reason why his occupation should act as a bar to his saying it. But also I am at a loss to understand what superiority the opinion of the one may have over that of the other. Mr. Clarkson's ambition and, we trust and believe, his capacities, led him into politics, but adverse fate, or an ingrate government, consigned him to the seclusion of a business bureau. We can well comprehend and sympathize with the feelings of pique which naturally possess his mind whenever he reflects on the inappreciation of the people. How inconsiderate, then, in the

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