Life — February 8, 1900 — 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. XXXV. FEBRU . 6 to forelusn cow 0 $L0bw year extra. Mingle current copl 's. Rack numbers, after three months from. { publication, x cents. No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, andl are uot to be reproduced without speciat arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address, Gg" RNOR ROOSE- veLT’s Canal Commission in- vites the people of New York tospend sixty million dollars in reconstructing the Erie Canal. It is a good Commis. sion, and {ts report is very much re- spected. It has said that there is no use at all of half- measures for the canal, and that we must cither make a modern water way of it, capable of floating big barges, or clsc give it up altogether. ‘The general opinion is that the Commission is entirely right in the choice it offers. Whether it would pay the State to make the sixty- million-dollar improvement is not yet clear. The Commission and the Govern. or think it would, So do a great many other persons whose opinions are en- titled to respect and are respected. One of them is Mr. A. 8. Hewitt, Such being the situation, it is possible to observe the advantage of having for Governor a man in whose integrity, and in whose purpose to secure honest service for the people, we have confi- dence, If sixty millions are voted for the Erie Canal while Roosevelt is Governor, what will it be spent for? We believe it will be spent for the canal and nothing else. We don't believe that even a “reasonable proportion” of it will be diverted to building up the Republican machine or for any such subsidiary pur- pose, The Governors of New York have usuaily been upright men, but they have not. always appointed upright men to ‘LIFES office, nor have they always shiclded the public funds from being used to the advantage of their party. It is paying Governor Roosevelt an important tribute to say that he would be an exceedingly fit man to be Governor during the years of the expenditure of sixty millions on the Erie Canal. The Governor, by the way, has won his fight about Insurance Commissioner Payn, and has appointed Payn’s suc- cessor, with excellent prospects at present of having his nominee confirmed, ~O far as anything that bas not even been begun can be said to be assured, the prompt construction of an underground railroad is assured in New York. A competent contractor has agreed to build it for thirty-five million dollars. If be doesn't qualify before this issue of Lirt is out, another contractor stands ready to take the job at a some- what larger price. New York will be extremely pleased to have the tunnel road, but it would prefer to have it built in Pittsburg and brought here and put in in the night. Especially is it desirable that the hole for it should be dug in Pittsburg, or somewhere outside of our city limits, and not here. It will be an abominably large hole and troublesome in the making. The thought that we cannot have it done out, but must stand over it ourselves, and catch malaria, croup and appendicitis from the dig gings, is rather appalling. Still, let it come, Some means of conveyance must be provided for the persons who crowd all present vehicles of rapid transit so that we can't get seats. If the people who ought to ride in the tunnel will do 80, the rest of us will be able to lead much better lives, HE House of Representatives has decided by an overwhelming ma- jority not to allow Mr. Roberts, of U! » the seat in Congress to w! was elected by the voters of his State. Mr. Roberts ought not to sit in Congress, Ilis domestic dutics are too multifarious for him to be a desirable Congressman. The more that has been published about didn’t know it was loaded.” him and his families, the more general has been the desire that he should go back with them to Utah and devote bim- self to their maintenance. Nevertheless, the House seems not to have dealt wisely nor constitutionally with Mr. Roberts He should have been sworn in, and then expelled. That is the opinion of the best legal authorities. “Such a procedure would have settled Mr. Roberts. Now it may be possible for him to go to law with Congres:, and, perhaps, win his oase. < Fey F R. BOURKE COCHRAN says that if the next Democratic Con- vention wiil agree to lay over the silver issue for four years he will support its candidate — Mr. Bryan, maybe — for President on an anti-imperialist plat- form. Mr. Cochran makes a handsome offer, and without doubt there are tens of thousands of doubtful voters whose attitude is very much like his. If the Democratic party will drop, or even postpone its nonsense, and interest itself in something that is of importance to persons now living, it will stand a good chance of polling a very serious number of votes next November. There is no vital objection even to Bryan, except his unfortunate monomania, and except that the fact that a man has once had acute illusions impairs public confidence in his ability to escape future attacks of an analogous kind. A’ this writing, all the news from the Transvaal continues to be highly prejudicial to British comfort. ‘The in- tentions of the British generals are excellent; there is no lack of gallantry or of strenuosity, but all the exercises of which we get news persist in being in- structive rather than encouraging to our British friends, and an area of de- pression prevails about London, No matter what pocts may have asserted to the contrary, we all know that the sad- dest words of tongue or pen are, We They are om many lips in these days in England. Very scrious British losses of blood and treasure must befall before the situation changes enough to permit of a peace on terms that England would dare to accept, comicbooks.com