Life — October 27, 1898 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXXII OCTOBER 27, 1898. No, 829. 19 West Tuikry-Pinst ew YORK. Th day. $5.00 0 year tn ad- vance: postage do forehen countries in the Postal Union, 81.04 a year extra. Single current copies, 10 centa. Back numbers within six months, Cents: Previous to six months, 60 cents. No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without speciat arrangement with the publishers. Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address. T is a perplexing year forthe hard- money Democrats in New York State © who are opposed to wanes \| boss-rule. The vention made a bid for their votes by refusing to endorse the Chicago platform. Mr, Croker made a bid for their votes by nominating an able and respectable man for Governor, Yet, if they vote for Judge Van Wyck they vote for Crokerism, and sustain the des- potic control of the Democratic party in New York State by an autocrat. Gov- ernment by Croker is as far from being popular government as could well be imagined. Yet Croker shows intelli- gence, and is willing to go considerably out of his way to humor the conscientious voter. If the conscientious Democrat re- fuses to vote Croker’s ticket, he may feel tbat he has lost a chance to encourage the cause of sound money in his party. Ifhe does vote Croker’s ticket, he must realize that he has contributed to make his party all over the State subject to the dictator who already controls it in Greater New York. If he votes for Roosevelt he certainly does not vote for boss-rule, for no discerning person believes that making Roosevelt Governor will promote the dominion of Platt. But he may reason- ably complain that his vote for Roosevelt will be counted as an endorsement of the McKinley administration, of Algerism in the management of the war, and of the extreme policy of expansion in the settle- ment of problems arising in the Antilles and the Philippines. Truly, the consci- entious and independent New York Dem- LIFE: ocrats are between the devil and the deep sea, Nodoubt a good many of them will reason that, as long as the Democratic ticket represents Crokerism far more effectively than it represents anything else, the better part is to vote for Roose- velt, in the expectation, which seems fairly well founded, that when he gets to Albany he will make trouble enough for the Republican machine to offset the mis- chievousness of his extreme views about our foreign policy. Itis well, when there is a disturbance on and one is throwing bombs, to throw them in among the other crowd. A Democratic vote for Roosevelt is a vote for honcst government, and at the same time a vote for the disturbance of boss rule in both the Republican and Democratic parties, eRe Ar I N the fight over the Greater New York Judges, the independent Democrat willfind it easy toreach aconclusion about Judge Daly, who is a Democrat rejected of Croker, because he was audacious enough to displease that despotic person in a matter of judicial action, to wit, the choice of a clerk for his court. He de- clined to appoint the man whom it was convenient for Croker to have on duty in his court, and renomination on the Demo- cratic ticket was refused him, He was then put on the Republican ticket, because he is a just and able Judge, and deserved to be kept on the bench. As to Mr. Leventritt, one of the Croker nominees, the judgment of the Bar Association, under the stimulus of Mr. Elihu Root’s invective, that be is unfit for the Bench, is not quite as conclusiveas the Bar Association’s findings usually are. Still, Mr. Leventritt is undoubtedly a weak candidate. Mr. Taft, his opponent, isa strong one, May the better man win! B~O~ @ HERE has becn very little discussion as tothe rights of thedispute between the miners and the coal companies in Virden and Pana, Illinois, The results of the dispute bave been so grave as to distract attention from its merits, When the miners struck for higher wages the companies undertook to bring negroes from the nearby States to take the strikers’ places, These importations the strikers resented, and prevented by force. Gov- ernor Tanner of Illinois refused to send troops to protect the coal companies, and the mine owners tried to protect them- selves, The result was a succession of outbreaks, culminating in the riot at Virden, in which a trainload of imported negroes was attacked, and about fifty men were killed or wounded. Miners’ wages may be too low in Ilinois, and the strikers may have just grievances, but in seeking to employ negroes in their mines the mine owners scem to have the law on their side, and in refusing them protection Governor Tanner has followed a course that it will embarrass him to justify. After the fight at Virden he did send soldiers in to keep order, but a dozen dead men and some two score wounded men owe their predicament to his neglect. It is possi- ble that wages should be regulated by law, but, so Jong as they are not, it is hard to sce bow business can continue to be done, except on the understanding that employers may hire labor wherever they can find it, and that men who won't work shall make way for men who will. a A—— HE proper attitude fora committee of investigation is one of receptive- ness to complaints, The Commission that is investigating the conduct of the war ought, when it examines a witness, to encourage him to make the Commis- sioners his confidants, and imbue him with a desire to tell all he knows, In this particular the Commission hardly suc- ceeds. Theimpression one gathers from the record of its proceedings is that wit- nesses who have stories to tell, feel when they come before it that the Court is hostile to them, and that it behooves them to use the greatest care in impart- ing information. In the case of Dr. Seaman, who was lately before the Com- mission, the desire of the Commissioners acemed to be to demonstrate how little the witness knew, rather than to get use- ful information out of him, In Dr. Sea- man’s case the Commissioners’ efforts met with fair success. 80 they will in every case where the witness is still an officer of the army and has anything to hope or to fear from the favor or enmity of the War Department. It is possible that, in time, witnesses will turn up who are absolutely independent, and will say their say without any fear of conse- quences; but they won't be men who hold commissions, comicbooks.com