Life — September 6, 1906 — page 12: 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 Hops VOL. XLVUL SEPT. 6, 1906 No. 1245. 17 West Turery-Fiast Steet, New York, OLITICS are active all over the country, and js full , of names and other of the parts of speech. Many . States have governors to elect, all the States have representatives in Congress to vote for and many of them choose Senators. As fine a lot of political rows are in progress as any partisan of free institutions could de- sire. In Massachusetts the stand-patters and the tariff-revisers are locking horns. In Iowa the same issue is part of the fight. In various congressional districts the American Federation of Labor in- tends tooppose the reelection of Congress- men, like Speaker Cannon in Illinois and Mr. Littlefield in Maine, whose conduct has not been satisfactory to Labor. In Georgia there has been a fierce competition of aspirants who want to be governor. In Ohio there are various anti-boss fights, and a hot one in New Jersey, and much livelier times than common in Rhode Island. There is also Colonel Churchill’s anti-railroad campaign in New Hampshire, and so it goes all over the country. Plenty of yeast is stirring—anti-boss, tariff-re- vision, anti-corporation—and_ the whole pan of dough is full of bubbles. This is a good condition and highly favorable to that lively interest in politics and candidates which is indispensable to the proper working of popular gov- ernment. And nowhere are there more bubbles or a better lot of important fights than here in New York whgre both parties have engrossing domestic dif- ficulties to settle before they can line up against one another. It is Odell against Higgins and most of the thinking Republicans against both Higgins and Odell. It is Jerome against Hearst; McClellan against Murphy. Mr. Jerome has said no more at this writing than that he will run if he can get the Democratic nomination, but it is believed that he “LIFE will run if needed, whether he gets it or not. Both Democrats and Republi- cans hold their conventions on Septer ber 25th, and not until after that will it be possible to say how many candi- dates there will be or who. It is practi- cally certain, however, that if Higgins and Hearst are the regular contestants there will be some one else who will get the votes of those who want neither. RMED rebellion is prevalent at this writing in Cuba. Not a very big one as yet, but extensive enough to be ominous and to occasion regret and some concern in this country. There are two parties in Cuba: the Moderates, headed by President Palma, and the Liberals. The rebels are Liberals. Our neighbor, the Su,an authority on things that concem Cuba, expounds the bas of their discontent to be that they have not had what our leading citizen calls “a square deal.” After the new consti- tution of the Cuban Republic had been adopted the laws of the country should have been promptly revised to match it. It seems that they never have been re- vised. The old Spanish laws are in force and give the President control of all the offices. President Palma has turned all the Liberals out of office and put in Moderates. By so doing he was able to control the election last fall in the interest of the Moderates. Conse- quently, some of the Liberals, not being able to get their political dues by peace- ful means, have got out their guns and machetes and taken to the woods. The present government of Cuba, it appears, is an oligarchy. The question seems to be whether it can put down the rebellion and Mexicanize the island or will come to terms with the rebels and manage things on more popular lines. 'HE earthquake in Chile and the repeti- tion on a smaller scale of the story of San Francisco has caused disagreeable things to be said of the backbone of the American continent. They tell us it is new and rather soft, and liable to buckle now and then, with painful resulting surface phenomena. Dr. Hayes, the head expert of the .Geological Survey, looking for further jolts along the line of the Andes north of Chile; and also in Mexico. He does not suggest any reme- dy, and, indeed, precautions are in vain in the case of earthquakes. The thing to do is to stand from under if possible, but beyond that the rule is, as with the appendicitis operation, to survive if you can, and pay the bill if you can get the money. The bill at Valparaiso will not be so large by half, or more, as that at San Francisco, but it will be very heavy, and the lamentable loss of life Tuns up into the thousands. INCE Union Pacific raised its dividend to ten per cent. with tumultuous and extraordinary resulting phenomena in Wall Street, the attention of many thousands of minds has been directed to consideration of the moral qualities of Mr. Edward Harriman. Itmust be try- ing to any one to have his moral qualities become the subject of so much attention during his lifetime. If our character should ever be. so much discussed as Mr. Harriman’s has been, we should want to wear ear-mufis. Some introspec- tion a character will bear, and a reason- able amount of contemplation and dis- cussion from the outside, but to have everybody computing how large and hot a red-hot stove would have to be to be safely left unwatched within one’s reach must be considerably disenchant- ing. Nobody knows how much money Mr. Harriman made in the rise in stocks which resulted from the action of his directors, but he was credited with a profit of ten million dollars. To say that his moral reputation has suffered ten million dollars’ worth in conse- quence would be a splendid compli- ment to pay him. It is more accurate, however, to say that it would have suffered ten million dollars’ worth of damage if it had been good for such a loss, Whether he has been justly criti- cised we don’t know. These are cen- sorious times, and it is hard for even the best of men to step out and scoop up ten or fifteen millions over night without somebody getting up and calling him a hog. comicbooks.com