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ÚBLIC OPINION

Volume XVIII, Number 26

A WEEKLY JOURNAL

The aim of this journal is to reflect public opinion. The utmost care is taken to treat each question upon which extracts are given in a perfectly fair, non-partisan, and unbiased manner. The editors do not assume to determine the politics of any paper quoted, the political credits being taken from the publishers' own statements.

***Unless otherwise indicated, the condensed extracts printed in these columns are not rewritten, but are in the language of the original article.

FROM OUR OWN POINT OF VIEW

The political event of the past week in this country was the annual convention of the National League of Republican Clubs. Almost the sole interest of the general public in this meeting lay in the prospect of struggle in the Convention over the silver question and a declaration of some sort as the outcome. The refusal of the Convention to make any such declaration is almost universally commended by the Republican press as an act of discretion, and almost universally condemned and denounced by the Democratic and independent press as an act of cowardice. The comment of the press in the far Western States does not reach us in time for reproduction in this issue.

There are certain preliminary questions to be answered before either condemning or approving the course adopted by the Convention. Should such a body confine itself to perfecting its organization and preparing to do effective work for its party, or should it also undertake to voice the sentiment of the party upon political matters? Should political gatherings generally, such as State and county conventions, for whatever purpose called, express themselves freely, both in speeches by individual members and in formal resolutions, upon all political questions, or should they confine their action to the special purpose for which they came together, and leave questions of National policy to be dealt with by the National party conventions whose members are chosen for that specific purpose? Which is the better course, both from the standpoint of the public good and from that of party expediency? And in case of conflict between these two, how far should party expediency weigh against the public good? Are the highest public interests best considered by the broadest and fullest expression of opinion everywhere by the people and their representatives, or by the exercise of some restraint in times like this, when parties are divided-and when the questions at issue will not be put to popular vote for a year or more to come? Whatever may be the general conclusions, however, from the consideration of these general questions, it is to be noted that in the case of the Cleveland convention the decision not to formulate a declaration of principles and policies was reached only after it had become clear that no form of declaration could be devised which would satisfy the requirements of harmony.

Thursday, 27 June, 1895

The most striking and important event abroad during the past week, both from an economic and from a military point of view, was the opening of the Baltic canal. Nearly a hundred modern warships, representing many nations, took part in the two days pageant, the United States being represented by four of our finest new craft, the San Francisco, Columbia, New York, and Marblehead, under the command of Admiral Kirkland. It is significant that even this gala occasion was marred by the specter of Franco-German hostility. Every opportunity was seized by the French to flout the Franco-Russian alliance in the face of the Germans, and the French officers but indifferently veiled their animosity toward their traditional foes across the Rhine.

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There is little new to be said in view of the downfall of the Liberal Government in England, and the prospective return of Lord Salisbury to the post of Premier. The Rosebery Government has been on the verge of overthrow for months, indeed ever since Mr. Gladstone retired. It is no great political convulsion, no sudden political development, that has defeated Rosebery. It is simply that the small Liberal majority with which he assumed office has dwindled away until the constant strain of the effort to hold a working majority has become too great, and the Government has broken under it. The Government has doubtless held on for so long mainly in the hope that some lucky political accident would happen, to place the Liberal party in a better position to go before the country. It is expected on all sides that the forthcoming elections will give the Conservatives a considerable majority in the House.

One of the practical civic questions in this country. to-day is the question of reforming our Indian policy. There are two possible fates for the Indian-civilization or extermination. Captain Pratt has demonstrated more satisfactorily than anyone else that the Indian can be civilized. It remains for the American people to say whether the disgraceful record of their past dealings with the Indian shall be continued till it ends in extermination, or whether a more enlightened, humane, just, and civilized policy shall be adopted.

Among the foremost of our great National questions. in point of importance, both economic and political, is the question of the development of the arid and semiarid West through irrigation. An article upon this subject reprinted in condensed form in our issue of June 13, and the comment upon that article printed in this issue, deserve a careful reading, in the East as well as in the West. Although it is true, as one writer states, that but a small fraction of the arid region can ever be made cultivable through irrigation, yet that small fraction will prove immensely valuable and productive, and will sustain a multitude of people. The question how the water supply is to be conserved and made available has been but partially and in many places unsatisfactorily settled. It can be safely predicted that a thoroughly satisfactory solution will finally be reached.

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Political and General

The Republican League Convention

The National Convention of the Republican League was in annual session at Cleveland from Wednesday to Friday of last week. The silver question was practically the only bone of contention. An “address to the people" was drafted by the sub-committee on resolutions, following the custom of former conventions. The address covered all important questions except that of silver coinage, which was not mentioned. Finally Senator Patton, of Michigan, offered the following substitute, which was unanimously adopted by the committee and later by the convention : Whereas, Section 16 of the Constitution of the Republican League of the United States says: "This league shall not in any manner endeavor to influence any national, State, county, or municipal convention," the delegates of the Republican League of the United States, in convention assembled, do hereby renew their allegiance to the Republican party, and pledge their best efforts for the success of the candidates of that party.

Believing that this convention has no instructions from the Republicans of the United States or jurisdiction under our constitution to frame party platforms, we hereby refer all resolutions in relation to public questions to the Republican National Convention in 1896, with entire confidence that its action will redound to the prosperity of our people and the continued glory and advancement of the country.

Boston Journal (Rep.): The Republican Leaguers at Cleveland were right. It is no business of theirs to lay down in advance the platform of the National Convention. The convention, with its delegates formally chosen from all parts of the Union as authoritative representatives of the whole Republican party, can best attend to that duty itself. No other gathering has any claim to anticipate it. There is another reason why no resolutions should be adopted. None were really needed to define Republican principles. Everybody knows that the Republican party stands where it has always stood, for the twin issues of protection and honest money, unalterably opposed to the other twin issues of free trade and free coinage. The petty free silver faction's bumptious effort to "make a stir" at Cleveland came to nothing. It is another illuminating lesson to the free coiners that the Republican party is no place for them, and that their delusion has no place among Republican principles.

St. Paul Pioneer Press (Rep.): It was evident from the tenor of the first day's proceedings that the convention of the Republican League clubs would peter out when it came to any positive declaration on the money question. The convention fell back upon the assertion of its incompetency to make platforms for the Republican party. We had supposed that the principles of the Republican party had already been clearly enunciated. The Republican League, whatever else it may be or ought to be, is a propagandist of the recognized principles of the Republican party. If it has not the courage to say what those principles are on the most vital and burning question of the day, it is clearly not destined to a very useful missionary career.

Chicago Inter Ocean (Rep.): Protection is still the great principle of the Republican party. The discussion of the silver question at Cleveland will not do any harm. After free and full discussion the convention wisely decided that platform-building was no part of its work. It is good to have such discussions, as they help to educate, and they show the leaders of the party the popular sentiment of the party in every State.

Philadelphia Press (Rep.): The free silver coinage men were in a very decided minority in the convention. In view of this fact the majority are called cowardly by injudicious critics because it did not insist on showing its power and sending back the Rocky Mountain delegates chagrined and embittered by overwhelming defeat. We think the convention did wisely.

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette (Rep.): The Republican League

properly took no action as to either platform or candidates Those were in control who recognized the true place and function of the body. The meeting has been productive of good. The representatives of the active workers of the party have met each other and consulted as to plans of organization and methods of campaign. They have stimulated mutual zeal, kindled the fire of enthusiasm, and aroused anew devotion to the great party.

Milwaukee Wisconsin (Ind. Rep.): The convention has done wisely. The League helps to carry out policies, not to originate them. It refuses to lend itself to the error of a course which would be embarrassing to the party, and which could render no substantial assistance to any good cause.

Wheeling Intelligencer (Rep.): So the convention did the thing which the great mass of the party expected it to do. The resolution was framed in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the constitution of the League.

Detroit Tribune (Rep.): The National League of Republican Clubs was never designed to be a platform-making body. It was intended to execute policies, rather than to invent or declare them. The latter, in the very nature of things, was the sole prerogative of national Republican conventions, regularly convened and assembled by its delegates, chosen from every town and county in the country. The National League is not a representative body, except as it represents the local Republican

clubs.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Rep.): The convention manifested its good sense by quietly but firmly declining to take action on the silver question or any other troublesome issue. That is to say, it refused to give aid and comfort to the enemy by violating its own constitution.

Indianapolis Journal (Rep.): The expression of opinion on the silver question by delegates to the Lincoln League convention at Cleveland, as given in interviews to the Cleveland Leader, shows that outside of the silver-producing States and two or three small States contiguous to them, there is no controlling sentiment in favor of the free coinage of silver by an act of Congress. There are undoubtedly spots here and there in States where local leaders, from one cause or another, have espoused the heresy and have a following, but in no State does it represent a controlling element. The Southern delegations to the league convention are practically solid against the mine owners' demand. Beyond the Missouri river, outside of the silver-producing States, the sentiment is hostile to the free coinage proposition.

New York World (Dem.): If the Republican party is, as its organs hereabout so vociferously declare, the great bulwark of honest money, why did the League Convention refrain from making any declaration on the subject? The claim that its constitution precludes such a deliverance is palpably a pretext. Former conventions have not been restrained by any such reason from proclaiming their principles. The truth is that the convention was silent because the leaders of the party feared to have it speak. If they would confess and defend their prudence the country would perhaps admit the policy of it. But while both silverites and "gold bugs" are claiming a victory, the public will accept the result as a compromise born of weakness on one side and fear on the other.

Philadelphia Record (Dem.): Here we have a body of 2,000 men, representing politically every section of a great country, and called together at a time of singularly great national importance. During the past six months, and especially during the past six weeks, one question has been in every one's mind, one topic upon every one's lips, one foreboding in every sensibly patriotic heart. That question is silver; that topic is currency; and that foreboding has been and is still asking with anxiety: "Shall the credit of the United States at last become a subject for taunt among the nations of the world?" To this question the people had a right to expect a reasonably definite answer from the Republican League of Clubs. If the "continued glory and advancement of our country is to be left to these shallow, shift, less, irresponsible, and backboneless gentlemen, we may, indeed, begin to despair of the nation.

Chicago Chronicle (Dem.): Republicans from the East went to the meeting of league clubs at Cleveland determined to make declaration in favor of sound money. Delegations from the West went there with the avowed purpose of securing a positive and emphatic declaration in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Each, with all the valor of the king of France, marched up the hill and then, with all the precipitancy of that monarch of the nursery rhyme, marched down again. The leagues at Cleveland could do more harm to their party by a declaration of principles this year than they could do good. What principles they will have next year they do not know. The league was wise in its own way. The currency question will not give voters of the United States any concern a year hence.

Omaha World-Herald (Dem.): The genuine bimetallists within the Republican ranks have great cause to be congratulated and to congratulate themselves over the result of the convention. The most enthusiastic "silver Republicans" never entertained the thought that the Cleveland convention would declare for genuine bimetallism. On the other hand it was confidently predicted by the gold men that that convention would set its face squarely against the proposition for bimetallism. It may be, and probably will be, true that the Republican national convention will turn down the bimetallists. But the vigorous and the earnest fight made by these bimetallists at Cleveland is but a mere hint of the force within its own ranks that the Republican party will divorce from itself when it formally adopts the principles advocated by the money power.

Memphis Commercial Appeal (Dem.): The Republicans are making a pretense of sawing wood while saying nothing. They are really waiting for something to turn up. So far as there was any test of sentiment at Cleveland as to the currency issue, it was disclosed that the silver men were present in great force. Hence the leaders did not dare to risk any declaration which might be construed as reflecting in any way upon the silver brethren. So far as contributing any information as to the probable course of the Republican party, the convention was a ridiculous failure, and its proceedings marked by rank cowardice.

Nashville American (Dem.): A gathering claiming to be thoroughly representative of the most advanced thought of Republicanism completely backs down when called upon to announce what their position as advanced Republicans is.

Indianapolis News (Ind.): Because of the antics of a few free silver men the resolution committee of the League refused to express its opinion upon any subject. The committee on resolutions consisted of 15 silver and 31 anti-silver men, while only two out of the II members of the sub-committee appointed to draft the resolutions were “friendly to the white metal." And yet this small minority absolutely controlled both committees. The dodgers and trimmers had their way, for it was finally determined to say nothing at all on any subject—a plan which pleased the free silver crowd even better than the adoption of the ridiculous " address" to the people. This is the first time in the history of the League that it has failed to express itself on national issues. There have been seven conventions, at every one of which elaborate platforms were adopted, dealing with all sorts of subjects.

Philadelphia Times (Ind.): The free silver craze has suffered a serious set-back in the National Convention of the Republican League. The measure of the defeat of the free silverites can be appreciated only when it is remembered that large delegations from the Southern and Western States were especially sent up to attend this convention, to storm it with a deliverance in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver on the basis of 16 to 1. The fact that the Cleveland Convention of the Republican League did not make any deliverance at all on the silver question is of little consequence. It is not a representative body and has no right to speak for the Republican party, or to attempt to commit it in advance on any important public question. It is now reasonably safe to assume that both the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions of next year will declare for

honest money, and if by that time there shall be any considerable number of free silver fanatics, they must flock by themselves.

Detroit News (Ind.): The ignoring of silver by the League of Republican Clubs at Cleveland does not strengthen the party in those sections where silver is strong. The Western sections which sent silver delegates to the convention are nearly all Republican, or have been in the past. To refuse to make any expression on an issue that is now paramount to the issue of protection, which these gentlemen have put to the fore, was a piece of cowardice. The body had no official representative character, but its say-so in favor of either side of the financial problem would have been of influence upon the coming Republican convention. Having let it alone, the silver enthusiasts will be apt to fall away from the Republican clubs, while maintaining a perfunctory allegiance to the Republican party.

Washington Times (Labor): As an artful dodger the League is a howling success. The course of the Cleveland convention indicates a disposition to make the tariff again the leading issue of the next Presidential campaign and to subordinate all other questions to it. How far this policy of playing 'possum will benefit the party a few months will tell.

New York Journal of Commerce: Not a Presidential candidate dared appear at the Convention lest he should be obliged to say something about the only subject on which it is very important for the American people to know the opinions of their public men. The League itself avoided saying anything on the only subject on which it is worth while for a politician to speak by alleging that the making of platforms was not its function. As to this we are not competent to judge; but if this be true, it would seem to be a waste of time and money to hold conventions. By all the rules of political usage the Cleveland Convention should at least have taken its stand on the platform adopted at Minneapolis three years ago; but it did not even do that. In the shaping of the resolutions the balance of power seems to have been slightly on the side of the piratical crew that is trying to cheat every workingman and every farmer and every depositor in a savings bank and every holder of a life insurance policy by making his claim for wages and produce and money payable in dollars worth only half as much as dollars are now.

Boston Herald (Ind.): As the extreme silverites have been balked in their impudent attempt to obtain a declaration in favor of free coinage, we presume that the honest money Republicans will raise a shout of victory, and assure the public that the action of the league is a guarantee of the soundness of the party on the silver question. Yet, speaking as an independent, we cannot but think that the victory is a sorry one, and that the guarantee given by it is of little value. A more courageous attitude on this paramount issue would have been far more becoming to the league convention, and greatly more serviceable to the Republican party,

Providence Journal (Ind.): The Convention cannot be said to have thrown any new light on the condition of the Republican party as regards the perplexing silver question. The proceedings have simply confirmed the belief that there are enough free silver men in the Western branch of the party to fill the sound money men in the Eastern branch with nervous timidity and alarm. On the other hand, the sound money Republicans, unwilling though they may be to join issue on the question just now, still seem to be strong enough, in numbers and otherwise, to afford reasonable ground for the belief that the party will not easily be swept into the free silver camp.

Springfield Republican (Ind.): The way the convention managed to dodge the silver question is extremely funny. There had never before been any question about the right or expediency of putting forth a platform at these annual conventions of the clubs, but when the silver question came up and got too hot to be comfortable, it was suddenly discovered that the league's constitution forbids the attempt to instruct the party in the way it should go. So the whole matter was laid aside. The absent presidential candidates will now breathe easier for a spell. Whether it was a silver or anti-silver victory we will not undertake to say.

The Future of the Arid West Denver Republican

The June number of the Forum contains an article* from the pen of Mr. E. V. Smalley, editor of the Northwest Magazine, entitled the "Future of the Great Arid West." Mr. Smalley has given special study to the arid region. In general he says that nearly all of that region must remain what it is to-day as far as agriculture is concerned. He estimates that if a furrow be run across a twenty-acre field, the space occupied by the furrow will bear about the same relation to the whole field that the area reclaimable by irrigation bears to the whole of the arid region.

To his estimate of the area reclaimable by irrigation we have no exception to take. Without having subjected it to a mathematical test, we may venture to admit that substantially it is correct. What we do object to is his conclusion that all that part of the arid region which cannot be irrigated must be abandoned as far as agriculture is concerned. We cannot change the arid region. The greater part of it always will remain arid, and only a very small part can be reclaimed by irrigation. But it may be practicable to adapt agriculture to the arid conditions. This is an idea which has been presented upon a number of occasions in these columns during the last eight years, and during that time it has been successfully subjected in a moderate way to practical experiment.

To express the idea more fully, it consists of the proposition that it may be practicable by judicious selections of seeds to develop varieties of wheat, oats, barley, and other grains that would thrive as well in the arid region without irrigation as existing varieties do now in humid regions. It is the application of the theory of evolution to the reclamation of the arid lands of the Far West. In other words, it is the application to agriculture in the arid region of the laws governing the acclimatization of plants. Except in its application to the arid region of the United States the idea is by no means new. It is based on principles which have been recognized by scientific men all over the world ever since Herbert Spencer presented the great law of evolution as a principle manifested in the whole realm of nature and Darwin and Wallace simultaneously unfolded to the world of science the theory of natural selection.

Artificial selection is natural selection stimulated by the act of man. It recognizes the fact that in the growth of plant and animal life there are individual variations. One plant growing in the midst of others of the same species shows by its greater vigor that it is better adapted than its fellows to the conditions by which it is surrounded. This is its variation or departure from the others. Artificial selection takes deliberate advantage of this variation. Seed being selected from such a plant, the plants thus produced will exhibit in themselves the characteristics which distinguish the parent plant from its fellows-that is to say, they will exhibit a better adaptation to their environment or surroundings than most plants of that species. But it may be expected that among these new plants some will exhibit this adaptation in a higher degree than the others. Artificial selection demands that the seed for replanting should be selected from them. Applying this now to the arid region, we claim that by judicious selection of seeds, varieties of wheat and other grains can be developed which would be so adapted to the arid conditions that they would thrive without irrigation. In this lies the greatest hope for the reclamation of the arid part of the United States. Fortunately, in support of this claim, we may appeal to the language which Mr. Wallace himself has used. The article entitled Acclimatization" in the Encyclopedia Britannica was written by Mr. Wallace.

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Portland Oregonian

While irrigation has made some progress, on the whole the opportunities for it are not extensive, and no great portions of the arid region will ever be reclaimed by irrigation-that is, the total, in proportion to the whole, will be small. The vastly greater part, Mr. Smalley truly says, "will always remain in its present condition of pastoral plains, mountains, and deserts." It is useless to pretend that we still have in reserve great spaces in mid*Se e PUBLIC OPINION, June 13, page 661.

continent to fill up. The population of the interior region will gradually increase, and in a few localities there are resources to sustain a heavy population; but certainly it will be many years before the population now in the arid country between the 100th degree of west longitude and the Sierra-Cascade range will double as a whole. Mr. Smalley has not presented a flattering, but very true, estimate of the country.

Various Topics

The Fourth Estate: To be constantly quoted is certainly a sure sign of successful newspaper work. It means that the best judge of a newspaper, the exchange editor, is passing his favorable opinion.

Springfield Republican: The death of Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge, at the age of 53, is much to be regretted, for he was one of the best writers of commentaries on our Civil War, and indeed on military subjects besides. In 1883 he published "A Bird'sEye View of Our Civil War," with maps and charts. His series of volumes on "Great Captains" comprises four most able and interesting critical reviews of the campaigns of Cæsar, Hannibal, Alexander, and Napoleon.

Louisville Courier-Journal (Dem.): It is said by those who have no answer to its present reasoning that the Courier-Journal was itself in the silver movement. Granted. May times not change, and men change with them? Are conditions always the same? Is one never to learn anything by larger experience, by fuller investigation? Not a line that could be construed into support of the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 has appeared in these columns during five years, or since the issue came distinctly to the front. Are five years not time enough for a man to mend his hold, to revise his opinion, and if need be to confess his error and to seek to repair it? Anyhow, it costs the Courier-Journal no blushes to admit that it knows more now about silver than it knew in 1878 or in 1888.

Hartford Post: Massachusetts has just taken a step which looks like an important advance in educational methods and one that deserves the earnest consideration of promoters of education in this State and elsewhere. The Legislature of that State has passed a law requiring that manual training shall be incorporated into the High School system of every city whose population exceeds 20,000. There are twenty such cities in the State, and they have a total population of about 1,300,000 souls. At a single stroke, therefore, manual training has been brought within reach of more than half the people of the State. Three of the cities, Boston, Cambridge, and Fall River, already have such courses in the High Schools, and in the remaining cities of the class named there is busy work going on among the school committees, superintendents, and teachers preparing to carry out the requirements of the new law.

The Outlook, New York: Illinois has now a law providing for the retirement of public school teachers after 25 years' service in the case of men, and after 20 years' service in the case of women. The statute provides, however, that no taxes can be levied for the use of the pension fund established. The fund is to be maintained by the deduction of one per cent. each year from the salaries of all public school teachers employed in the State. At first glance a deduction of one per cent. a year from salaries for 25 years seems grossly inadequate to provide a pension of fifty per cent. each year thereafter. But a tontine principle comes into play in this matter of teachers' insurance. Perhaps 19 teachers out of 20 quit the profession in a few years, either for other work or because of marriage. It is possible, therefore, that the deduction proposed will be sufficient. If the effect of the law is to make easier the retirement of teachers who have ceased to be efficient, this form of old-age pensions will find defenders among those who would not like to see the principle of compulsory insurance extended.

The Chicago Eight-Hour Herald has been selected as the official organ of the Illinois State Federation of Labor.

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