POLITICAL SNAPSHOTS
Zueblin, Charles
Political Snapshots A Discussion of American Beliefs By CHARLES ZUEBLIN Illustration by William H. Walker X. HOME RULE FOR THE NATION WHEN Italy, protesting against the murder of Italians in...
...Our Christmas tree comes from Germany, our Santa Claus from Holland, the Christmas stocking from Belgium or France, while "Merry Christmas...
...In several of the cases the reductions were ordered two or three years ago, but the saving is shown by taking the sales for the year 1913 and applying the rates before the utilities were regulated with the reduced rates ordered by the commission...
...Since the enactment of the public utilities law the commission's engineers estimate that improvements in service have been made increasing the heating value of gas from 5 to 30 per cent as the result of supervision...
...Great chains of flowers are carried by the children, who preceded by a band, parade through the streets singing Christmas songs...
...The Passion Play attracts unfailing interest, as do the bull fights and cock mains...
...or Japan asks us, "Is not California in the United States...
...and your federal representatives say, "Oh, yes, hut...
...Commerce and industry are modern and dynamic...
...In the Philippines, among the natives, Christmas is mainly a religious celebration, a grand high mass being held in the morning in churches profusely decorated with flowers and palms...
...The proud hen that has so long sheltered the strange brood of ducklings under her capacious Monroe doctrine may find it advisable to look after her own chicks with a new doctrine of nationalism...
...Voter...
...IN YOUR local pride, don't fail to re- member, Mr...
...The besetting evils are legion, but the path is now clear...
...Home rule is the crystal slipper...
...and we repeat, "Oh, yes, but," it may be a temporary solution of a diplomatic difficulty, hut it reveals a humiliating lack of nationalism...
...Commerce is already recognized as ignoring state lines, and the Inter-State Commerce Commission is a federal device to stretch the Eighteenth Century Constitution to meet Twentieth Century needs...
...No nation in the world can surpass Norway in its enthusiastic love of country, and patriotic songs are in order even at a Christ-mas dinner...
...Any one who can recover the cross is regarded as extremely fortunate and sure of good luck for the remainder of the year...
...The federal government is beginning to he weaned, Mr...
...Voter...
...At dinner, which is simpler than among other people, national hymns are sung between courses...
...In a few cases upon complaints being filed with the commission the company ordered reductions upon recommendation of the commission without the formality of a formal order...
...Voter, 0f viewing your government through the wrong end of the field glass...
...If the increases asked had been allowed $11,963.73 more would have been collected from gas consumers in La Crosse and $356.21 from Manitowoc...
...Christmas Rites in Other Lands THE Norwegian makes much of the virtue of hospitality, and the first courtesy is to offer a pipe of tobacco...
...Until Congress has a veto power over the Supreme Court the people will exercise their sovereignty only by amending the Constitution...
...Industry, sanitation, conservation, marriage, and divorce will follow...
...In Roumania it is the custom to bless the Danube at Christmas, and a procession consisting of priests and people dressed to represent Biblical characters moves through the streets singing chants, and so to the banks of the river...
...Increases for these amounts were denied, which amounts to a virtual saving to the public...
...The Mexican Christmas festival is a strangely mixed week of sports, revels and religious observances...
...So hoary a superstition as states' rights cannot be annihilated, but it may be dissolved in a more fluid form of government...
...The abolition of the electoral college will follow, relieving the states of unwarranted power, never exercised even for their own good...
...was the old English greeting shouted from window to street on Christmas morning.—New York Mail...
...The desire of South Carolina to forbid divorce, of Nevada to profit by divorce, of Georgia to exploit child labor, of Utah to subjugate women, of Colorado to sell its mines and forests for a mess of pottage, of New Hampshire to give away its water power, makes the path of nationalism as difficult as that of Bunyan's pilgrim...
...Watch it grow, Mr...
...The commission recommended a reduction of $397.55 in Wausau which was made...
...The savings for the past year under this comparison reached $7,847.15 to the public in gas service at Beloit, $14,094.73 in Madison, $983.77 in Portage, $10,245.08 in Racine, $4,870.94 in Ripon, $13,136.96 in Sheboygan, $33,044.60 in Appleton, Neenah and Menasha, and $388.91 in Waukesha...
...Voter...
...Are you not tired...
...In Sweden, where cleanliness is nearer to godliness than anywhere else, the houses are completely renovated for the Christmas festival...
...I am the body...
...Shall the hands say to the head, ''behold...
...This saving is nearly double the cost of administration by the commission of all utilities under its control-gas, water, electric, railroads and water powers...
...These facts are shown in a forth-coming report of the railroad commission...
...In Superior the commission recommended a reduction which based on the past year's sales would have amounted to $19,847.45, but the company only made a reduction amounting to a saving of $6,565 85 applied to the past year's sales...
...Supreme court decisions, such as the one sanctioning Inter-State Commerce supervision over safety couplers on cars running only within a state, reveal the impossibility of maintaining the ancient fiction of state independence...
...DON'T forget the little old Supreme Court, Mr...
...Wanted—a prince...
...The prejudice, bigotry or chicanery of the few has become the superstition of the many...
...An almost universal custom is that of tying a sheaf of corn to a pole and placing it in the garden for the birds' Christmas dinner, for, you remember, "Not even a sparrow falleth to the ground that He doth not heed...
...Applied to the plants this improvement approximates an additional saving of upwards of $100,000...
...Slowly the antiquated and enervating doctrine of states' rights will yield to the scientific and energizing doctrine of home rule...
...The popular election of Senators makes the electorate of the states rather than the state governments responsible for the character of the Seriate...
...A mobile industrial civilization demands a fluid government...
...Gas Bills Cut $322,000 in Wisconsin APPLIED to gas sales by public utilities during the past year, reduced rates ordered by the Wisconsin railroad commission have saved the public over $322,000...
...Political Snapshots A Discussion of American Beliefs By CHARLES ZUEBLIN Illustration by William H. Walker X. HOME RULE FOR THE NATION WHEN Italy, protesting against the murder of Italians in Louisiana, says, "Is not Louisiana in the United States...
...The confusion of state and federal jurisdiction is further complicated by the interference of the Supreme Court with federal legislative functions...
...The Inter-State Commerce Commission is the American Cinderella...
...The ice is broken and a small wooden cross thrown into the water...
...States' rights are ancient and static...
...Direct reductions in Milwaukee were $34,-725.40 and upon recommendation an additional reduction approximating of saving of $171,349.20 was allowed...
...Voter, that states' rights were born of colonial prejudice, they were conserved by man's ownership of man, and they are defended today chiefly to support man's ownership of privilege...
...Applications to increase rates were received from La Crosse and Manito-woe...
...The Christmas customs of America have been transplanted from Europe...
Vol. 5 • December 1913 • No. 52