Life — March 3, 1904 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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‘\ While there is Life there's Hope.” vou. XLUL MARCI 3, 1904. > 19 West Tatwty-Finst St.. New Yor pies. No contribution ult be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Lite ave copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced. Prompt notification should be sent by sub- rs of any change o/ address T this writing there is justabout enough war news every day to make every other sort of news taste flat. Consid- ering the large expenses which some of our newspapers admit incurring to get prompt informa- tion about current hostilities, the amount of information they impart seems small, We get rumors, forecasts, repeti- tions, contradictions, guesses, counter guesses, lists of ships and estimates abont the size and where- abouts of land forces. The combatants take no pains to inform the world what they intend to do, and their negligence is imper- fectly repaired by the correspondents. Bat we shall know all about every- thing in time, and the enormous possibilities of the news that any day may bring keep us attentive. There is hardly a reed in the whole Eastern Hemisphere that is not shaken by the prevailing bree There are ructions in the Balkans already. From the Baltic Sea to Port Arthur Russia has no port where her ships can coal, but France has several, and in that is one possibility of violation of neutrality laws and the precipitation of trouble between France and England. If Japan and Russia fight out their war by themselves, thero will be a limit to the consequences, however momentous they may be to the future of Asia. But “LIPE* if France and Great Britain are drawn in, the lid will be clean lifted off the pit, and we shall see what we shall see, but what no man can forecast. ay on > fot ER St TOR HANNA represented in y interesting measure the vir- tues that are respected and the vices that are condoned in current American political life. About his virtues there is no question, They were personal. He was able, shrewd and kind. He could and did meet his fellows of all walksand employments as man to man. He outlived an enormous amount of detraction, some of it not altogether ill-founded, and became almost uni- versally popular. And he deserved to be popular, for his heartywas warm, and he was capable of strong affection. The vices that he represented were political, and were such as might have been expected in @ man whose training had come in the management of a competitive business in a highly pro- tected industry. Hoe saw the business end of politics too big, and the moral end too small, and once his aim was fixed he was willing to do whatever ry to accomplish it. When delegates were needed Hanna got them on whatever terms were offered, When $ were needed he acquired voters, by persuasion as far as possible, and when persuasion failed, by the same methods he might have used in acquir- ing pig iron or hams. He was a great expositor o1 business methods’? in politic Is that a vice? It should be so reckoned, but it is not so regarded in this country at this time. All ends are not equally reputable, but the rule as tomeans seems to be the Devil take the hindmost. ver vote! se There was not much give-me-liberty- me-death about Senator Hanna. He took more naturally, a man of business training, to the concerns of the full dinner pail. We hope his death will not weaken the fight in the Senate against the pro- motion of General Wood. The ap- pointment of Wood as Major-General ought not to gothrough. The great and obvious argument against it, that it isa huge, unearned promotion given to an unqualified man, has never been touched. We have merely been told that the President seriously considers Doctor Wood to be the best man for the e and the man best entitled to it. That assurance is more flattering to the President’s conscientiousness than to his judgment. THs week sees President Roosevelt + enter upon the last year of his present term, with every prospect of being nominated as his own successor. or Hanna made it clear before his death that Ae did not want the nomination, and no one else has been much discussed asa possible opposition Republican candidate. Colonei Roose- velt is much less popular than he was, but he is still stronger than any other Republican, The question is whether the Democrats can nominate a winner, Mr. Cleveland has lately called upon them to let their immediate past go and bury itself, and to take a fresh start and try to le somebody. Mr. Bryan has remonstrated against any burial and refuses to admit that his end of the party is ripe for interment. No likely candidate is spoken of except Mr. Cleveland himself. All the other possibilities seem less possible than they did two months ago. er (QUE Mayor has vetoed an improper - street railroad franchise that concerned the northern extremity of this town, thereby showing himself callous to the wishes of most of the Tammany Aldermen. It was a good act, and observers who rejoice in the development of signs of vigor and virtue in the Mayor are gladdened by it. He made some bad appointments when he began, and one of them v Park Commissioner Pallas, who has demonstrated his unfitness by causing the respectable board fence which en- closes the new Public Library to be desecrated by advertising signs. comicbooks.com