State Ledger

THE STATE LEDGER BY F. L. JELTZ. EANSAS ITEMS OF INTEREST. The assessors found 12,515 pianos in the state. The funds in the Kansas state treasury on July 18 footed up $276,915.99. The broom corn crop is short in Illinois and also in Kansas, where a great quantity is usually produced. Ed Heeny, of Doniphan county, is dead at the age of over 103 years. He had lived in the county since 1870. A ball game at Fort Scott between a local team and a team from Nevada. Mo., ended with a general fight. Wm. Archer, of Ellinwood, was one of the many losers by fire in the wheat fields. He lost a threshing outfit. The Chautauqua assembles in Kansas have not been so successful as usual this summer; probably on account of the heat. The district court of Lyon county has a suit brought by the Santa Fe to restrain the Orient road from crossing its tracks in its yards. Misses Blanche Casey and Mary Bellew, of Wichita. left home in the morning, registered at El Reno and reached home the same night. A tramp crawled into an engine tank at Wichita and when the train took water at Mulvane he was almost drowned when the tank was filled. The new law became effective this month which increases the salaries of the insurance commissioner and the secretary of agriculture from $2,000 to $2,500 a year each. Threshing machines burned are reported daily from some place in the state. The latest was a new one which burned near Cawker City, together with 250 bushels of wheat. Farmers of Jackson county have petitioned the railroads to fix low rates for the bringing in of stock feed and fix rates for the removal of stock from one point to another in the state. Harriet G. Melvin died at Troy recently, aged 98 years. She was probably the only real "Daughter of the American Revolution" in Kansas. Her father fought with General Stark. J. G. Mohler has been appointed by Secretary Coburn of the state board of agriculture as assistant secretary at $1,500 a year. This office was created at the last session of the legislature. A second edition of Secretary Coburn's biennial report is ready for distribution. This edition is of 7,500 volumes; the first edition was of 15,000, and it was exhausted within 30 days. Copies of the new state school laws have been sent from the office of the state superintendent to each of the 30,000 school officers in the state. There was about nine tons of these books sent out. The police of Wichita say that the town has more thieves than ever before. They have centered there to operate their calling upon the heavy travel caused by the opening of the new lands. A prairie fire north of Larned destroyed 40,000 bushels of wheat in the stack. Frank Junod, while fighting fire, inhaled flames and was reported dying. Several buildings were burned and many tons of prairie hay. Cattle in Barber county are reported as doing finely, have good pasture and enough water, though there is some complaint about the latter. They have buffalo grass there. Barber county will have plenty of fat cattle to ship. A drive of 60 miles over the western part of Sedgwick county by James Allison, of Wichita, showed evidence that the condition of the country is badly represented. The pastures are green and there are miles of corn fields in good condition. Captain Wm. H. Floyd, of Topeka, who was killed in a wreck in Missouri, was a messenger of the Weils-Fargo express company. He entered the service of the company at the close of the civil war in which he served, and had been with the company ever since. The interior department was ordered the boarding school at Great Nemaha reservation in Kansas to be abandoned as the Indians have outgrown the conditions under which the school was necessary. One recent mail brought to the collector of internal revenue at Leavenworth 208 applications for liquor dealers' stamps. Kansas City Grain merchants agree in the statement that the Kansas wheat crop never was so large nor the grain so good. A county convention has been called in Montgomery county to choose a candidate for sheriff to hold office during the year preceding the biennial election. The governor will be asked to appoint the man the convention selects. Three graduates of the Kansas normal school go to the Philippines under three year contracts with the government to teach. They are D. C. Fisher, Douglas county; A. B. Powell, Marshall county, and David Carson, Neohe county. Ice is priced at $30 a ton at Ashland. On August 8 the old soldiers of Harvey county will picnic at Halstead. War has been declared on the Russian thistle in the northwestern counties. Miss Lizzie Bushyward, of Salina, was found in a stairway unconscious from heat. All the saloons in Fort Scott closed pending the result of injunction proceedings. On the Wellington market corn and wheat sold at the same price on a recent day. The Kansas Girl band of Wetmore is to give concerts in the large cities of the east. A new coal mine is to be opened in the Pittsburg district which will employ 600 miners. Wheat is going to market slowly, receipts being much less than at this time last year. There is complaint in Western Kansas that too many cattle are shipped there for pasturing. Miss Helen Gould has given a $1,000 library and a $300 music box to the Y. M. C. A., of Ellis. Contract has been let for the building of a new $10,000 Presbyterian church in Hiawatha. The Orient grading gang which has been at work in Emporia is now at work in Chase county. On July 20 there were four deaths from heat in Kansas City, Ks., and two on the Missouri side. S. N. Harper had 16 acres of wheat near Menoken, Shawnee county, which threshed out 608 bushels. The retail clerks of Horton struck for early closing and the state labor commissioner went there to fix things. The Santa Fe uses from 5,000 to 5,000 tons of coal a month at Topeka. At Argentine the consumption runs from 5,000 to 9,000 tons. Will R. Spillman, of Manhattan, has been appointed private secretary to Joe L. Bristow. Spillman has been in Washington since 1807. Since Governor Stanley has been in office he has made more speeches at more places in the state than any other three former governors. 1 An Independence woman has sued for a divorce, alleging that she cut wood and hauled it to town all last winter while her husband loafed. Wichita boomers are organized for the purpose of getting prompt news of the El Reuo drawing which commences July 29. It is proposed to have a trusted agent on the ground to wire names as fast as they are posted. Oil tanks for locomotives are being made in the Santa Fe's Topeka shops and shipped to Cleburne, Texas, for use on the Gulf road. There are two tanks for each tender, one fills the coal space and another shallow one is on top of that and nearly the width of the tender. Leavenworth has many slot machines that have been driven out of Missouri. Mrs. Dickens, who has two boys who have been induced to gamble in a certain place in Leavenworth, went to the place and broke up the slot machines and all other gambling appurtenances in the place, doing it all with a hatchet. Dr. Eliphalet Patee, of Manhattan, has deposited with the state historical society a powder horn carried by his great-grandfather, Edmund Patee, and bearing his name and the date 1774. Edmund Patee, tradition says, was the soldier who executed Major Andre, the British spy who conspired with Benedict Arnold. Linn and Barber counties will elect county printers this fall, who will do the county work at prices fixed by law. Current prices of corn, bran, shorts and wheat should be adjusted to a more consistent basis. At some points the price of a pound and a quarter of wheat is required to pay for a pound of corn, when wheat is worth more than corn for any purpose. Again, while wheat brings $16 a ton bran is sold at $22 a ton and the flour from a ton of wheat is worth more than $34 a ton. The engine room of the Hutchinson feed mill is burned. An elevator and the Missouri Pacific depot were in danger. The bonded indebtedness of Shawnee county, townships, cities and school districts is $616,000. The assessment of property for taxation in the county is $16,630,425. Topeka did not get any of that big rain most of the state was blessed with the other night. The rain came within 40 miles east and southwest. Topeka had a dry thunderstorm only. Farmers in the dryest sections of the state are said to be plowing their early cornfields for sowing wheat and alfalfa. Warden Jewett was prostrated by heat for several days so badly at the penitentiary that he could not receive visitors. A passenger train was held at Marion on account of the Peabody wreck, with 150 passengers. The people of Marion got out their carriages and took the passengers to Central park and served them ice cream and lemonade. THE REVISIONERS. THE REVISIONERS. STRONG STAND TAKEN BY SENATOR GALLINGER. He Opposes Tariff Tinkering of All Sorts, Whether by Direct Legislation or by Special Treaties for the Promotion of Foreign Trade. Senator Gallinger of New Hampshire, who has during his entire public career been one of the most persistent and able advocates of the tariff policy of the Republican party, was recently asked his opinion as to the present agitation for a repeal of certain tariff duties and the modification of the Dingley tariff through the ratification of the reciprocity treaties negotiated by Mr. Kasson. The senator's reply was as follows: The Democratic party in its economic blindness and political perversity is consulted the treaties in question and ratification of legislation such as has been unwisely opposed by Representative Babcock. That treaty is due to the doctrine of Free-Trade, and many of the laws that allow low Tariff law has been proclaimed in the books; but how any Republican or Republican newspaper can advocate that policy surpasses my comprehension. It would be the sorrow and suffering incidents upon the tariff law Tariff bill is recent enough to be fresh in the minds of our people, and that all cases would instinctively shrink from a republican government, if they had forgotten those dark days, and even some Republicans have succumbed to the siren voice of Free-Trade. For one reason, the unqualifiedly proposed to any change in the Tariff laws of the United States. Under them the country has had four years of unexamined prosperity, and I do not proclaim that it has been agitating for an abandonment of Production and a return to practical Free-Trade. The Republican party came into power because of its advocacy of Protection and when the party abandons that policy it lost ground in the party with remain trust. Just now there are evidences of timidity and retrogression in some quarters, but I feel confident that when the hour of the party will remain trust to its traditional policy, and that the Kasson reciprocity treaties and the Babcock Free-Trade proposition will alike go to the party with remain trust. The duty of the Republican party is plain, and woe be to the man who attempts to strike down Protection in this country. Senator Gallinger is noted for his plain, outspoken way of stating his views. You always know just where he stands. A little more than a year ago in a public speech he said, regarding the movement to remove the duties from paper and pulp: You can not select a single industry for the protection of the whole system of Protection. If Protection is withheld from one industry it must be withheld from all. That warning was heeded. The bill in question was never pressed for passage. Today so influential a news- SENATOR GALLINGER. SENATOR GALLIERER paper as the San Francisco "Chronicle" is saying in reference to the Kasson scheme of reciprocity treaties: These things are worth thinking about. They should engage the serious consideration of revisionaries and reciprocators. Reciprocity Treaties Again Reciprocity Treaties Acta. It would be interesting to know the facts in the case of the alleged reciprocity treaty negotiations between the United States and Germany. We find it difficult to believe that our ambassador at Berlin is seriously encouraging the German government in this regard, at least upon his own motion. If he has kept in touch with the representatives of American thought and purpose, he must know that the so-called reciprocity treaties have been set aside by the senate. If he has carefully examined the organic law of the land he must believe that the senate and the state department cannot enact laws to create a public revenue. In a word, there seems to be absolutely nothing to warrant the faintest hope that any treaty of the kind mentioned will ever acquire the force of law, and yet if we may accept half the statements contained in our foreign press reports, Mr. White, United States envoy to Germany is gravely confabulating with the authorities at Berlin alternately exalted and depressed by developments within the empire. The language of the constitution seems to be unmistakable. It provides that laws intended to create a public revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, and while the Senate is authorized to offer amendments to such laws, the concurrence of the House is indispensable to their validity. If there be in all this a hook upon which to hang tariff laws made by the state department and the senate acting in collusion and without the knowledge and consent of the House, we are too dullwitted to discern it. Nevertheless, Ambassador White is said to be solemnly pushing the reck-procity negotions, and the wires are warm with messages of rapprochement and tender yieldings and all the rest of the affectionate folderol which makes diplomacy so beautiful and bright a thing.—Washington Post. AREN'T THEY DAISIES? AREN'T THEY DAISIES? Dissecting the Babcock Plan. Discussion of Representative Babcock's idea of removing the tariff from all products of the steel trust has brought out some interesting facts about the steel trade. it has been shown that big as the trust is, it by no means controls the steel trade in this country, there being many establishments some of them employing a large number of men, which have no connection with the trust. It seems to be generally admitted that the removal of the tdriff on steel products would not injure the big trust to any marked extent, but it is claimed that it would necessitate an immediate reduction of the trust. This claim, which is being made by those who ought to know whereof they speak, is causing many who were at first inclined to favor M. Babcock's idea to entertain doubts of its wisdom, and if it be substantiated by unprejudiced investigation which a number of members of the House are quietly making, the bill for the repeal of the tariff on steel products will not be supported by a corporal's guard of Republicans in either branch of Congress at the coming session. Desirable as many consider it to curb the power of the big trusts, the Republican majority in congress are not going to be stamped into the support of anything of the sort without carefully considering it from every point of view, and they will certainly not allow any legislation to get through that will reduce the wages of American workingmen—Crawfordsville (Ind.) Journal. Protection Gains Foreign Markets. Our increase of exports during the fiscal year 1901 over the preceding year will approach $100,000,000. This, too, has been done without the sacrifice of a single American industry or the loss of a single job. Were our exports to Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands included, as formerly, $20,000,000 could be added to the above amount, which is, in itself, very satisfactory, considering the war in China, "European retaliation," etc. Protection gains more foreign markets than free trade, and preserves our grand home market as well. --- Higher Than Under Free Trade. The wool sales at Price yesterday averaged over 11 cents. This of course, is not as high as wool raisers have got at some times, and it is below the average for wool under this Republican administration but it is so much higher than the average under the Democratic administration that preceded it that it takes the cheek of a mump sufferer for a Democrat to speak of low prices for wool.—Salt Lake City Tribune. Expanding Home Market. Bank clearings throughout the country continue to show about 25 per cent increase over last year. This is outside of New York City, where the increase is over 75 per cent. This means that the Dingley law is expanding our home market to the value of at least $10,000,000,000 a year. And yet the free-trade trust want us to abandon our home market and try for some foreign sales in competition with the pauper labor of the world. Farmers Getting Rich. The farmers of the United States are getting wealthy. The banks are bulging with their money. Abandoned farms and farm mortgages are a thing of the past, and instead of paying from 6 to 10 per cent for money, our western farmers, after buying all the necessaries and luxuries they want, have money to lend. The census returns giving the area of various states show that the one which has the largest amount of land under water is Florida, and the least, in proportion to size Wyoming. ECONOMY IN THE ARMY In the Philippines Planned by Generals Corbin and Chaffee. A SAVING OF 60 PER CENT. Manila, July 24.—The conference between Adjutant General Corbin and General Chaffee, recently held here, will probably result in radical economical and administrative reforms in the army of occupation. It is estimated that the total cost of maintaining the American army in the Philippines can be reduced by 60 per cent in the course of one year. The principal change will be the reduction of the present force to between 20,000 and 30,000 men. The abolishment of the present army districts is contemplated, and three brigades with permanent headquarters at Manila, Dagupan and Iloilo or Cebu, will be instituted in their stead. The troops will be concentrated at three points selected, abandoning all minor posts. These changes will result in an enormous saving in the transportation of supplies and the paying of rental for barracks for the soldiers. At present, in most towns, the troops are quartered in churches, convents and public and private buildings, for the use of which considerable rental should be paid for the soldiers' quarters if their occupancy is continued, since these regions are pacified and their inhabitants have sworn allegiance to the United States. What Judge Dale Says. Guthrie, Ok. July 25.—"Any person may relinquish back to the government any tract of land, for which he has made filing, at any time after the land has been filed upon, but not until sixty days after the opening of the lands to settlement. If a person relinquishes prior to the end of the sixty days, no one can file on the land relinquished except those who receive in the drawing the number which entitles them to file." These are Judge Dale's words. The matter of relinquishing has been discussed generally by prospective settlers and by the newspapers in attempting to give correct statements to their readers. The statement of Judge Dale will be of great interest, as it comes from one thoroughly experienced in all matters of the kind. Anyone Can Bring Sult Washington, July 25.—Secretary Hitchcock said, with reference to the effort to prevent the opening of the Oklahoma lands to settlement by injunction proceedings at El Reno, that the preparations of the department for the opening would go on just as if no suit had been begun. "We shall not let the matter go by default," he said, "but we apprehend no obstacle from that proceeding. Anyone can bring a suit." The Elevator Matter. Topeka, July 25.—The railroad board received a direct refusal from the Union Pacific to permit the erection of elevators on their right of way at Delphos and Louray, and a denial of the right of the board to so order. As a result the constitutionality of the new law will probably be brought into the supreme court and the powers of the commissioners defined. Illegal Fences in Oregon. Portland, Ore., July 23—Judge Bellinger, in the United States court, has decided that the Jesse D. Carr Land and Livestock company has illegally fenced in 84,000 acres of government land in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The decree of the court directs the United States marshal to tear down the fences. An appeal will probably be taken. Oiling the Right of Way. Albuquerque, July 24.—The Santa Fe is not only using oil as fuel on its lines west of Albuquerque, but is also using it to sprinkle the tracks with, thereby keeping the dust down and making the trip through Arizona deserts a pleasant one. The cost of sprinkling the track with oil amounts to about $50 a mile. The Santa Fe has already oiled about 1,500 miles of its roadbed. Aguiral Schley Case Washington, July 25.—The Washington Post telegraphed Admiral Schley that in an editorial it insisted that he owed it to himself as well as his friends to begin proceedings against Mr. McClay, the author of the history of the United States navy, to disprove the latter's charge, adding: "Will you do this? Please wire statement." Admiral Schley replied: "I believe the first step should be investigation of all matter by a court. then a civil action afterward. I am preparing to take this course. "W. S. SCHLEY." No Frost in Indiana. Indianapolis, Ind., July 24.—The hottest day on record in Indianapolis is passed. The official record was 106 at 2 o'clock p. m. At the same hours thermometers on the streets recorded 110 and 112. There were two deaths and three prostrations from heat. At the camp of the Indiana National Guard all drills were suspended. Sixty men were overcome, but all but seven rapidly recovered. Many animals were stricken and livestock are refusing to hire horses. Said to Have Been Found at Fort Collins Colorado. Topeka, July 25.—A requisition has been issued from the governor's office on the governor of Colorado for the notorious Bender family. The plaintiff is made by Frank Ayers, ranchman living near Fort Collins, who claims that he was married to a woman whom he now thinks to Kate Bender. He claims that the woman gave him "knock out drops some time last February in the hope killing him. To avoid suspicion was carried in an unconscious condition to a near by railroad track left on the rails to be killed by pass trains. He was found by friends and rescued. He suspected his wife began working up the case against her. Governor Stanley placed the requir- ment in the hands of E. L. Barton, deputy sheriff from Labette county and he left at once for Colorado. The supposed Benders have been identified by several persons who knew them twenty-eight years ago. Kansas. Ayres claims that he was married to the Bender woman and fourteen months prior to the attem- to poison him. Mrs. Ayres, who is supposed to be Kate Bender, is said to have se- divored husbands who are all lied Death of Mrs. Paul Kruger Pretoria, July 23.—Mrs. Kruger wife of former President Kruger of the South African republic, died of pneumonia, after an illness of three days. She was 67 years old. Mrs. Kruger was the second wife of the Transvaal president. She was a Miss Du Plessis Mrs. Kruger was the mother of children. When the British took Pretoria as the president fled he left Mrs. Kruger in the city, and she was sick when she left for Europe last February. Since her children were then with her Despite some losses in the family last reports, the couple had thirty-sons and grandsons in the field. Everybody Ready For Business. Presents His Little Bill Guthrie. Ok., July 21.—Warden E. R. Jewett, of the Kansas penitentiary came here to make settlement with the territory for the maintenance of Oklahoma prisoners at that institution for the past quarter. The territory has 250 convicts at Lansing, and the bill presented amounts to $12.15. Twenty-four prisoners were discharge during the last quarter, and twelf have been pronounced insane and must be moved to an asylum. The contract with Kansas has expired and it is reported that if it is renewed will be at a much larger price. Officers Lacked Sense. West Point, N. Y., July 23.—During the funeral of General Butterfield twenty-five or thirty cadets were over come by the heat and fatigue. The cadets were subjected to a long prince march in the hot sun during the foreonow hours and upon their return to West Point, without food, were ordered to immediately change the dress and fall into line for the funeral. Recruiting at El Reno. El Reno, July 25.—The United State government has begun preparation here to care for all single, able-bodied men, who fail to get homesteads, enlisting them in the regular army Captain J. A. Dapray, 23rd United States infantry, will establish a recruiting station as soon as he can quarters for recruits. He is unable rent a building here or to obtain rent at Fort Reno. The recruiting station will be maintained at Oklahoma (until October 31. Railroads Want Men Topeka, July 23.—According to T. Gerow, director of the state free employment agencies, there is a heat demand for railroad telegraphers. He says that he is able to secure place for a large number of competent men. There are also constant calls for railroad laborers. The Rock Island want men to work in Marion and Jewel counties, while the Santa Fe railers can give employment to number of men at different points along their lines. Topeka's Heat Record. Topeka, July 24.—Three deaths and ten prostrations form the record of day's heat in Topeka. The thermometer has registered 106 as its maximum. It has been three degrees higher during the heated season, but the hum air made it the most oppressive of the year. Most of the active work was stopped for the day. The Kansas river is very low, but the supply of water, the city mains is yet plentiful. It tense heat is reported from numerous Kansas places.