"I have no lamp, by which my feet are guided, save the lamp of experience." Following the Virginian, it should not be amiss to turn the pages of Lational experience, and fix who have been the Jingoes of our past. The list is high and honorable. Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock, every soul that signed the Declaration of Independence, were Jingoes. Washington, Putnam, Sumpter, Marion, Ethan Allan, "Light Horse Harry" Lee were Jingoes. As Jingoes, Jackson, and later Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan served and saved the country. Fair, good names, these manly names, that smell of patriotism and tall courage! Those feeble people-feeble in patriotism! -feeble in manhood!-who are so fond of shouting "Jingo!" possess certain distinguishing marks. Folk wise in reading humanity will identify them at a glance, and without waiting for them to open their shrill mouths. There isn't, for one thing, a callous hand among them. What hardening work they have done they did with their hearts. They own stock in companies, and live by stock-hydraulics and stock dividends. War might squeeze the water from that stock, clip a penny from those dividends. Decidedly, and whether honorable or dishonorable, they are set against war. War is not only dangerous, but expensive. Taken at its tamest and least perilous, it is still vulgar, and disturbs the respectable duckponds of their lives. For these causes of hollow head and hollow chest and hollow heart, our Jingohaters fear war. And, fearing war, they set their smug, austere, vapid faces against a navy, as likely to induce war. Folk of public sense are well aware that a big navy means a big peace. But your Jingo-hater hasn't wit enough to grasp that truth of state. The sight of turrets, fighting-tops, and twelve-inch guns alarms him and sickens him in his soul, that is to say, his pocketbook, just as the sight of a drawn sword alarmed and made soul-sick that royal driveler, James I. By the same token, these Jingo-haters, who oppose a navy, are a clamorous unit for an increased army. They want an army to do police duty. about the big cities, putting down with ball and bayonet what labor strikes the penny-stealing avarice of the trusts provoke. The Colonel says he isn't running," but he acts as if he were Had the Jingo-haters prevailed in 1776, we should still be singing "God Save the King," and living under a viceroy instead of a president. All things considered and with one eye on a source, any man would be justified in accepting the term Jingo as a decoration. It is, when understood, no more, no less, than just the name that cowards give the brave. The Real Yellow Peril SPEAKI PEAKING of war, a whispered, whitefaced tale comes up from Mexico-it is not the first of its sort and there may be a purpose behind it-that secret negotiations are going on between the Madero government and the Japanese which, should they culminate in the right understanding, will cataract the Japanese into Mexico by thousands. The story is told upon the assumption that it is the business of this country to become frightened, and interfere. The Japanese are an interesting people; but why should we fear them? If 200,000 of them were to establish themselves in Mexico, there would be twenty reasons for feeling sorry for them to one for being afraid of them. The time to fear a Jap isn't when he lands in Mexico, but when he lands in California or Oregon or Washington. In the latter case, he becomes a peril. Not in the war, but in the peace sense. There is a growing impression that the Japanese are more to be feared in peace than in war. Of half our population, half our naval strength, one-tenth our riches, and two-thirds our virility considered as mere men, the upcome, in the event of their trying the grim experiment of war with us, is easily foreseen. But were we to let them settle among us extensively, and being settled, bore peacefully into the foundations of our society, it would be a widely different business. No one could foretell the finish of that. They would surely weaken us, and might one day bring us down. More nations have been peace-conquered than war-conquered, have fallen before the dollar than before the sword. How Taft Helped the Recall PRESIDENT TAFT vetoed the Arizona constitution because it provided for the Recall. That was some time ago, but the discussion which that veto provoked still continues unabated. There was neither wisdom nor justice in the presidential action. Arizona was entitled to the Recall, if she wanted it. Also and this is where that want of veto wisdom comes in-once admitted as a state, Arizona could instantly write the Recall into her constitution, and no Congress, no White House, could stop her. Arkansas put the Recall into her constitution only the other day. By his veto, Mr. Taft, who opposes the Recall, did more in a moment than all its friends could have done in a decade, to bring this reform to the notice of American mankind. Also, the Recall is beginning to be understood; and as folk understand it, they demand it. Disraeli one day said of somebody whom he didn't like, "He attempted assassination, but committed suicide.' It would not be fair to say this of Mr. Taft. None the less, in his veto efforts to kill the Recall, he strengthened it and only hurt himself. Why should any honest man shrink away from the Recall? It merely proposes to do in public business what everybody does in private business. You employ a man for a certain work. Because of drunkenness, or dishonesty, or some other disabling reason, he proves himself incompetent. What is your remedy? You dismiss him, you "recall" him. If this right of recall, this power of dismissal, be a good and necessary element in your private business, why should it not find hearty introduction into your public business? You elect a man to officeyour office, not his office. He betrays you-betrays you either because he is weak, or is owned by robber influences, or is personally and aggressively dishonest, or is idle, or is muddle-witted, or is drunk. The public service your service -suffers. Instead of getting good government, you get bad government. But he is mayor for four years, or governor for two, or senator for six! Is he, with his drunkenness, or dishonesty, or what else in his moral or mental makeup is working to the general injury, to remain his full term? Having betrayed you for one year, must you permit him to continue to betray you for two or four or six? The Recall is no longer a simple theory. It is working practically, as a principle of government, in the large cities of the Pacific Coast. No community adopting it has ever discarded it. Communities, without it, are taking it up. The Recall, in scores of instances, has passed the stage of theory and become a working fact. How is the Recall set in operation? Two-fifths of the registered voters, or what other respectable fraction of the electorate may be fixed upon, sign and file a petition charging an elected official with whatsoever in the way of misconduct or moral or mental shortage renders him unfit for the place. Thereupon, a new election for that office must be held within sixty days, and the proper officers order and arrange for such special election. That no injustice shall be done, the officer charged with illdoing is, with the others newly named for the place, a compulsory candidate, and given public opportunity for a successful defense. The people are his judges. They may remove and disgrace him. Or they may defeat the Recall in his favor, and retain him in office. There is this to be noticed, and it should go some ways toward calming nervous souls like Mr. Taft. What publics possess the Recall, and may unmake an officer as readily as they made him, are seldom forced to exercise that right. Officers hew honestly close to the line, when working within the shadow of this power of dismissal. Suppose New York State had possessed the Recall. Would Governor Hughes have vetoed a measure cutting railway fares to two cents a mile? Could you conceive of yourself as privately owning a township, a county, a village, a city, a state, or a nation, you would no more be wi hout the Recall than without a roof to your house. managers, the Hitchcocks and the Penroses, fear that the name of Colonel Roosevelt in a convention would provoke a Senegambian stampede. The Colored Man would leave Mr. Taft to rally 'round the Colonel. The Colored Man doesn't like Mr. Taft. And he does like Colonel Roosevelt. Also, the Colored Man is politically more important than those who glance casually at such matters might at first blush think. In 1896, the Colored Man was practically a controlling national influence. He didn't know it, but he was. As how? Read After this wise. One in every thirteen of what delegates made up the McKinley convention of 1896 was a Colored Man. that convention's records. Read the subsequent election returns. You will then realize that the Colored Man nominated Mr. McKinley, adopted the platform he ran on and later was the decisive vote-element that carried him to victory at the polls. The Democrats, resenting the Colored Man in Southern politics, had made a solid South. The situation left the Republican machinery of the South in the Colored Man's hands. The rest followed-the convention, the candidate, the platform, the election-like the tail of a kite. If there had been no Colored Man, there would have been no McKinley. And may not the Colored Man do in 1912 what he did sixteen years ago? As a cap-sheaf to the story, the Buckeye legislature, on joint ballot, elected Mr. Hanna senator in 1898 by a majority of one. And that one was a Colored Man. Squibs from Editorial Pages It is hard to say who is the more ready to admit his mistakes, Mr. Taft or the Chinese Emperor. -New York Evening Post. In Los Angeles, Good Government party made a clean sweep. There were women behind the broom. -Boston Advertiser. New York now has all-night banks, all-night saloons, and all-night restaurants. We are informed that the churches continue to close early.—Chicago Record-Herald. In effect, President Taft says in his message on the trust question, If you don't believe the Sherman law has teeth, just let it bite you once.-Little Rock, Arkansas, Gazette. Perhaps King Alfonso was afraid that the Infanta Eulalia might become the Elinor Glyn of Spain.Rochester Post-Express. Mr. Wickersham's experience with ptomaines should lead to a rapprochement with Dr. Wiley. —Springfield Republican. The McNamaras are said to have been merely tools, and it begins to look as if they were of the two-edged variety.-Baltimore Sun. Can it be that Mr. Taft has his eye on a certain contributing editorship that may possibly be vacant on March 4, 1913?-Cleveland Leader. In Los Angeles 85,000 women voted, and they voted against a rigid prohibition ordinance, too. Ladies! Ladies!—Indianapolis Star. Los Angeles is to have an official press bureau. Gracious! Hasn't the town been getting all the publicity it wants?-Pittsburgh Gazette. The manner in which the fickle public sometimes bestows fame makes it appear to be more or less in the nature of a call loan.-Washington Star. If this espionage craze keeps up the case will be very simple. All the Englishmen will be in German prisons and all the Germans in English prisons, and we shall have peace.-Springfield Republican. You will get here the newspaper editorial interpretation of the events of the day-a con- Taft at His Best and at His Worst RESIDENT TAFT appears at his best and at his worst in the message which seems" to the New York Press," to proclaim to Congress and the country that he will have none of the program of Big Business to shoot the Sherman law full of holes." After reading the mass of editorial comment upon the message, which was sent to Congress, as one paper puts it, on "the installment plan," the conclusion is reached that the Press has about summed up the opinion of the editorial writers. A majority of the papers, irrespective of party, find much to commend in the message and something to condemn. In the first installment, Mr. Taft took up the question of the trusts and the Sherman law. The President recommends a Federal incorporation law of a voluntary character, defends the plan of reorganization approved by the Circuit Court in the case of the Tobacco trust and the Standard Oil Company, and favors suitable" constructive legislation needed to facilitate the squaring of great industrial enterprises to the rule of action laid down by the anti-trust law." The prevention of the growth of trusts is aimed at in the new legislation, and as the Baltimore American explains it, "would be a course followed simply to provide the machinery for its more detailed application." The recommendation for government control through voluntary Federal incorporation has stirred up the most spirited discussion. Those who agree with the President find their sentiment voiced by the Baltimore American thus: This incorporation would protect business from the harassments that often accompany state inter ference. While the proper prerogatives of the states would not be impaired, the field of better coördination of enterprise with the localities where it is carried on would be affected, and the peace so needful for the proper conduct of business would be assured. The scope of inter-state law should have the support of Federal responsibility for the security of enterprise in the direction of its legitimacy. The proposition is too manifest for controversy, save from those whose disposition to quibble leads them to warp the facts for the destruction of sound reasoning. Here then are two distinct proposals for the security of business through the active functions of the general government. They both present the logical and necessary progression toward the desired end of placing business where only the actual offenses committed will need to be taken account of by the courts. There are many editors to take exception to this view of the situation. "The Democrats are not going to take kindly to a Federal incorporation law," says the Houston Post. The St. Louis Republic is also convinced that National incorporation will provide a safe harbor at Washington "for the great interests which do not find it convenient to meet the legislatures and other requirements of the states." To quote further: Mr. Taft, therefore, arrays himself on the side of centralization and despotism, on the side of greed and monopoly, on the side of organized avarice and on the side of the speculative money trust. The power that he and the others would set up at the capital would be abused to a certainty. It is not in human nature to resist the temptations that would attend its use. It would be to a large extent irresponsible and capricious, because it is intended to a large degree to supplant laws and courts and popular rights. That it would soon be employed discriminatingly and corruptly there can be no doubt. The good trust would be the one that contributed most to the party campaign fund or to the party majorities at the polls. The bad trust would be the one that for any reason had fallen into disfavor. Honest business men ought to defeat this thing in their own interest. Republicans and Democrats with a spark of old-fashioned Americanism left in them ought to fight it as they would empire or dictatorship. It is not only a betrayal of the states. It is a betrayal also of the Republic. To degrade the states is to degrade the, people. To overload the National Government is to deliver it into the hands of its enemies and ultimately to break it down. Is it the aim of Big Business, as it was the similar wish of an ancient tyrant, to concentrate the people's power in one body, the easier to strangle it? The second chapter of the message devotes itself to our foreign relations and our diplomatic service. This installment contains recommendations that have repeatedly been called to the attention of Congress. "On the whole," says the Chicago Tribune, this chapter "presents the usual gratifying picture of Uncle Sam sitting pleasantly in the sunshine of prosperity while the dove of peace fans him gently with her wings." It goes on thus: Of course, we have our little irritations, like the Russian passport controversy. But as to this, the President hints, if he does not promise, a satisfactory adjustment. As to recent developments in the |