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A NEW GEM RUBIFOAM The endurance of the ruby and the pure lustre of the pear are imparted to the teeth by the early and habitual use of RUBIFOAM Indispensable to the PRICE 25 Sold Everywher The Maryland SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1905 The undisguised design of certain party leaders in Maryland, in the amendment to the Constitution on which the voters of that State are to pass judgment this fall, is not merely to disfranchise the negro vote, but to put it into the power of the dominant party to disfranchise voters, either white or plack, in its discretion. This power is given to the dominant party by the following amendment proposed to the Constitution, which provides that, in order to register, the candidate must be a male citizen and (1) A person able to read any section of the Constitution of the State submitted to him by the officers of registration, and to give a reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such section, able to understand and give explanation thereof when read to him by the registration officer; or, (2) A person who on the first day of January, 1869, or prior thereto, was entitled to vote under the laws of this State or of any other State of the United States wherein he then resided; or, (3) Any male lineal descendant of such last-mentioned person who may be twentyone years of age or over in the year 1906. Under these provisions of the amendment the officers of registration can exclude any one who offers himself to vote provided he was not a voter prior to 1869 or a descendant of such voter, unless he understands the Constitution as the registrars understand it. If he is a Bryan Democrat and believes that the Constitution allows an income tax, and the registrars are Republicans and think it does not, they can exclude him because he does not give to the Constitution what they regard as a reasonable explanation of it. This differs radically from the "understanding clauses" in Mississippi and South Carolina, because the latter allow any one to vote who can read or understand the Constitution; and though the "understanding clause" in Virginia gave the vote to any person able to read and give a reasonable explanation of the Constitution, that clause expired in January, 1904, since which time any one who is able to make his application for registration in his own handwriting without aid is allowed to vote. Moreover, by the permanent provisions of the six Southern States which have recently adopted Constitutional amendments— Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Virginia any man can vote if he possesses three hundred dollars' worth of assessable property, can read and write the English language, and has paid his poll tax; whereas, under the proposed amended Constitution of Maryland, no man can vote unless he was entitled to vote prior to January, 1869, or is a descendant of such voter, unless he understands the Constitution as the registrars understand it. And this provision may be made by the dominant party a means of excluding, not only any negro, but any foreign immigrant or any descendant of a foreign immigrant, at the option of the registrars. Wholly apart from the race question, this amendment is proposed, not in the interest of government of the people, for the people, and by the people, but in the interest of government of the machine, for the machine, and by the machine. We do not see how any man can vote for it who is in any sense a believer in popular government. The Political Situation The revolution in Philadelphia has had another most desirable but unexpected result-the conviction of a number of men guilty of ballot and election frauds. In one week three ballot-box stuffers from the Thirteenth Ward were arraigned and pleaded guilty; a Third Ward Assessor pleaded guilty and confessed, implicating the State Representative from the district, who has since been arrested and bound over; two ward committeemen from the First Ward were convicted of padding the assessors' list. Six men were sent to jail. This is an unprecedented record for any one week, and represents almost as many as have been punished in six years for election frauds. The changed political atmosphere has made political crimes unsafe, and aroused public sentiment is taking advantage of the change. Other arrests have been made, some for ballot-box stuffing, some for padding assessors' lists, some for altering election returns. The whole election board in one division has been bound over for perverting the returns, and the counsel for the Committee of Seventy claims that the independents carried the Twenty-ninth Ward last February, but were counted out. A searching investigation has been instituted. Under Director Potter the fraudulent assessments of previous years are being purged. The policemen, formerly parties to the frauds, are now being used to extirpate them. In the notorious Fifth Ward (a river-front ward), where 5,111 voters were assessed, but 2,000 genuine voters have been found. The Mayor and the Director are also making war on disorderly houses and lodging-houses which have heretofore been head centers for padded lists of voters. The" Press," a conservative Republican paper, estimates that there have been 50,000 fraudulent votes, and Mayor Weaver is making every effort to eliminate them all. Undesirable officials are being dropped and competent men put in their place. In an address to a convention of dentists Mayor Weaver declared that "the political fight for purity has scarcely more than begun." further trouble and publicity, Durham has resigned, and Governor Pennypacker, in a thoroughly characteristic letter, declared that he was dissatisfied with Durham's absences, and then praised his conduct of the office! The Governor then appointed another political boss, Martin, as Durham's successor, thus somewhat obscuring his admirable appointment of Dr. Samuel G. Dixon as head of the new State Department of Health; of John Birkinbine, the President of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, as Chairman of the new Water Commission, and of Captain John C. Groome, of the Ancient and Honorable First City Troop, as the Chief of the new State Constabulary. In none of these three appointments did politics figure. They were all for merit and fitThe appointment of Martin has one pleasing significance the waning of the influence of United States Senator Boies Penrose, who is and has been bitterly opposed to Martin. The revolt against Philadelphia methods is spreading to the State. As the "Press " a few days since, after a canvass of the situation, declared, "the thinking Republicans throughout Pennsylvania, whether in office or out of it, are with Mayor Weaver and the cause he stands for: clean politics and a square deal for city and citizens. . . . If a special session of the Legislature were held, the city could command not only respectful attention, but absolute acquiescence in its wishes." ness. The Packers Indicted On the first day of July the special Federal Grand Jury at Chicago, after an investigation occupying three months and involving many distinct lines of inquiry, returned indictments of five corporations and seventeen of their officials, as individuals, for conspiring in a combination in restraint of trade, which had the effect of increasing the cost of meat to the consumer. Four men connected with the traffic department of another firm were charged with conspiring to accept rebates from various railroad companies. The corporations and individual capitalists named in these indictments control, it is alleged, sixty per cent. of the beef the Federal Court, or before October 1, all the facts elicited by the Grand Jury's searching inquest will be set forth and reviewed. In the meantime the public should, of course, suspend judgment. In the case of the one packing company whose officials are indicted for soliciting. and accepting rebates from railroads, the charges are specific, and some of the evidence in support of them has been made public, but we prefer to defer comment until the defense has been heard. Whatever the outcome of these prosecutions may be, the special Grand Jury and the Government's attorneys are deserving of great credit for the thoroughgoing manner in which their difficult and exacting duties have been performed. They have rendered an important public service. Senator Mitchell's Conviction trade of this country. The Govern- to take place during the present term of ment's prosecution of these packers for violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law was begun more than three years ago. On the petition of the Federal attorneys, acting at the instance of President Roosevelt, an injunction was granted by Judge Grosscup which forbade combination in restraint of trade. Since the granting of that injunction (on May 27, 1902) the packers have been repeatedly charged with violating its provisions, and in a recent letter to Mr. Paul Morton, then Secretary of the Navy, regarding the rebate discussion, President Roosevelt declared: "We have evidence that the packers have willfully and deliberately violated the Grosscup injunction." Presumably it was this evidence that was employed by the Government's attorneys before the Grand Jury to secure the indictment based upon the Sherman Act. The first count alleges that in the buying of cattle at the stockyards the combination required the respective purchasing agents to refrain from bidding in good faith against one another, that in the sale of beef prices were fixed by agreement, and that the quantities of beef on sale were to be restricted whenever it should be found necessary to the maintaining of prices. It is charged that an arrangement was entered into by which the branch houses were to sell a stated amount of meat each, and when less than this amount was sold in any given week the house was to receive part of a common fund paid in by all the companies. The second count aims to show that not only restraint of trade was sought, but absolute monopoly. The next four counts charge restraint and monopoly in the handling of by-products through the clearing-houses, and the alleged destroying of goods to maintain prices. The seventh and eighth counts charge that the formation of the National Packing Company in 1903 was a further attempt at restraint and monopoly. In the remaining two counts the means employed for the control of foreign trade in beef are described as a violation of the Sherman Law. The evidence in support of these several charges is still unknown to the public. At the trials of the indicted men, which are scheduled The conviction on a criminal charge of Senator John H. Mitchell, of Oregon, is of even more significance than appears on its face. It is, in fact, a most important step forward in the Government's prosecution of the land plunderers who have carried on extensive frauds in so bold a way that they have seemed to think themselves exempt from punishment. Their apparent sense of security has been due to their trust in protection at Washington; and Senator Mitchell's influence has been a potent factor in blocking the investigation which Secretary Hitchcock has vigorously pushed for a year or more. Secretary Hitchcock's latest annual report declared that it had been planned to steal hundreds of thousands of acres, but that the plot was discovered when only about forty thousand acres had actually been occupied under the fraudulent selection and entries. Technically, Senator Mitchell was accused of violating a United States statute which forbids Senators to practice as paid attorneys before the Departments. The justice and intent of this statute are evident; for if fees of this kind may be accepted, the members of our highest National legislative body would inevitably find themselves possessing a personal financial interest in matters upon which they were to legis |