MOROS' STRONG FORT, POLITICS, COMPTROLLER MILLER, FAIR POSTPONED, AND LANG-ALLPORT WEDDING

 

Captain John J. Pershing, USA.

Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, September 24, 1902.

MOROS' STRONG FORT.

Captain Pershing Has Delayed His Attack.

MUST BUILD PONTOON BRIDGE.

Enemy's Position on an Elevation Flanked by Swamps—Sultans Regard the Position Impregnable—Captain Pershing Says He Can Carry It After Bridge Is Built.

   Manila, Sept. 24.—Captain Pershing of the 15th infantry, operating against the Moros in the Island of Mindanao, has found the Moro position at Macin, Island of Mindanao, to be strong and has delayed his attack on it.

   He must throw a pontoon bridge across a swamp and possibly receive reinforcements before engaging the enemy.

   The captain made a reconnaissance close to the Moro position and found a fort on an elevation, close to the lake shore, flanked by swamps, virtually making the promontory an island.

   The Americans built rafts preparatory to attacking the Moros from the lake and then decided to bridge the swamp and make an attack from all sides. The sultans of Macin regard the position as impregnable and have refused to treat with Captain Pershing.

   Brigadier General Samuel S. Sumner will send the Moros an ultimatum demanding peace and the return of stolen property. If his demands are rejected the place will be assaulted. Captain Pershing has carefully examined the position and its surroundings and is confident of his ability to capture it without serious losses.

   Captain Pershing has returned to Camp Vicas and reports that the sultans of Macin alone are hostile in that section of the Lanao country.

 

Insurgents Captured.

   Manila, Sept. 24.—The constabulary of Sorsogon, island of Luzon, have captured two women who have been stirring up an anti-American movement among the ignorant and superstitious. The constabulary have also captured 150 followers of Rios, the fanatical leader of Tayabas. Rios is hiding in the mountains with a couple of followers.

 

Two Years For Abduction.

   Elizabethtown, N. Y., Sept. 24.—James Ingram of Chicopee Falls, Mass., in the Essex county court yesterday pleaded guilty to the charge of abduction and was sentenced to two years imprisonment at Dannemora. Ingram married Helen Andre of Ticonderoga, N. Y., a girl not yet 15 years old, and charge of abduction was made against him by the girl's family.

 

PAGE FOUR—BRIEF EDITORIALS.

Politics.

   Under the above heading the New York Sun says editorially:

   As a responsible observer of events of importance in this country we are constrained to report this: The immediate effect of President Roosevelt's proposition for a constitutional amendment conferring upon the general government the control of corporations is toward consolidating and reinspiring the Democratic party and splitting the Republican party.

   This depends entirely upon how the Republican party stands by the president. If it backs him up as it ought to, it will grow bigger and more solid instead of splitting. If it or its newspapers take issue with him, the party's name is Dennis. If there is anything that the great mass of the American people are determined on, it is that corporations shall be subjected to regulation and control which cannot be avoided by jumping the boundaries of a state or by shipping books of record and account from one jurisdiction into another. It is also rapidly becoming a question whether a state like New Jersey, the mother of trusts, is bigger than the people of the United States. The president is all right—as he usually is.

Socialism.

   Says the New York Sun:

   We extract from one of the most venerable journals of Boston, the Evening Transcript, this portentous phrase:

   "Those who have the anthracite coal field in trust for the American people—"

   Meaning the owners of the anthracite mines. The same idea has cropped up in other quarters very different in character and sentiment from that which produces our esteemed contemporary.

   If the idea that the anthracite mine owners are trustees is to be taken seriously and the discussion of it is to continue, it must end in explosion into the gas of which, according to the logic of our system, it is composed or it must materialize into general socialism.

   Correct. And every one who has felt the pulse of public sentiment during the present year is aware that socialistic ideas have spread more rapidly and more generally than during all the other years since this government was established. How this tendency will work itself out remains to be seen.

 

Nathan Lewis Miller.

COMPTROLLER MILLER

Discusses the Issues of the Coming Campaign.

UPHOLDS THE ADMINISTRATION.

Replies to the Charges of David B. Hill—An Economical System in Operation—Direct State Taxes Abolished—Money Saved for the Taxpayers—No Old Debts Carried Over from Year to Year.

   At the Cortland county Republican convention [New York State] Comptroller Nathan L. Miller made an address in which he sounded the keynote of the present campaign. As it has a bearing upon all the discussion of the campaign we publish it in full herewith and commend it to the thoughtful reading of every voter:

   Every one understands, even Mr. Hill concedes, that for the next year there is to be no direct state tax, except the thirteen-hundredths of a mill tax required by the constitution, which goes into the sinking fund and is not available to pay appropriations. Now if that result has been accomplished with proper provision made for our financial needs, if the taxpayers of the state have been for a single year properly relieved of this burden, that fact must appeal to every voter, to every taxpayer and to every rent payer, as being the greatest achievement for the direct benefit of the people ever accomplished by any administration in our state. If, however, it has been accomplished by mortgaging the future, if it has been a juggle to deceive the people, the party perpetrating it deserves to be driven from power.

Purely Matters of Record.

   You will remember that in '91 Governor Hill went over the state claiming great credit and asking the continued support of the electorate of the state because his administration had given the people a low tax rate. The tax rate of that year, one and three eighths mills, ten times greater than the nominal rate of this year, was lower than it had been for years, but in that year the state received from the general government $2,213,330.86 refund of war taxes, and yet Governor Hill was so anxious for an apparently low tax rate, that, notwithstanding this large addition to the treasury, such insufficient provision for the future was made, that although during Governor Flower's administration $27,358,783.12 was collected from the people in direct taxes, it was necessary to borrow during the last year he was governor $1,900,000, and when he turned the government over to a Republican administration there was a deficiency in the general fund of $374,912.64. Now that is the kind of a low tax rate that Mr. Hill says Governor Odell has given the people this year. Fortunately the facts are matters of record. No one except he who wills can be deceived or mislead.

Money on Hand.

   Although more than one and a half millions of the appropriations of the last legislature have been paid, there was in the treasury in cash available for appropriations on Aug. 9, $8,281,696.10. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30th. We can judge what the receipts and payments for the next month will be with sufficient accuracy, so that I am able to say that at the beginning of the next fiscal year, Oct. 1, the cash in the treasury will amount to eight and a half millions, and the actual surplus, found by deducting the unpaid appropriations of 1901, will be approximately seven and one-half millions of dollars. I make this statement appreciating that the new fiscal year will soon be here, and at that time the people of the state will be officially informed of the exact condition of the treasury.

Two Contrary Claims.

   Until recently it was not supposed that even Mr. Hill's Literary bureau would have the temerity to claim that there was no surplus. Mr. Hill in his speech at the Democratic club in New York stated that with 7,000,000 of surplus the excise receipts should all be left with the localities. His leader in the assembly all through the session assailed the administration for collecting unnecessary revenue with so large a surplus in the treasury; his press bureau now asserts in one breath, that there is no surplus, but instead a deficiency of $6,000,000, and in the next breath complains that the treasury is to be depleted and a part of the surplus used to pay the appropriations.

   I suggest that Mr. Bryan come east again and undertake to harmonize Mr. Hill and his Literary bureau.

The Indirect Revenues.

   If then the books are balanced on Oct. 1, if every appropriation payable before that time has been met, we will begin the new year with an actual surplus of $7,500,000. The indirect revenues last year with the new laws partially operative were $15,565,890.13. This year, although several large deductions had to be made on account of erroneous payments of former taxes, they will be in round numbers $16,000,000, and next year judging from the annual increment of the past ten years, if no change whatever is made in the law, they will be not less than $16,500,000, which together with the surplus will make at least $24,000,000 with which to meet the expenditures of the fiscal year. Deducting the appropriations of $21,900,000 made by the last legislature will leave an actual surplus Oct. 1, 1903, of more than $2,000,000 if the books are balanced at that time, and every dollar of appropriations paid. Appropriations are made a year in advance and are good for two years. The experience of recent years has been that at the close of the year there are lapsed and unused appropriations of the year before in excess of payments on account of appropriations for the ensuing year, amounting to more than $1,500,000, so that the available cash Oct. 1, 1903, will exceed $3,500,000, which was more than there was in the general fund available for appropriations at the close of any year during the entire Democratic administration from '83 to '94, excepting

(Continued on second page)

 

 

THE FAIR POSTPONED.

Weather Interferes With Progress at Cincinnatus, N. Y.

   The Cincinnatus fair which opened auspiciously yesterday has been postponed until tomorrow on account of the rain. Today's program will be carried out in full tomorrow and the special train service on the Erie & Central New York railway scheduled for today will hold good for Thursday.

   The park was brilliantly lighted last evening and presented ą fine appearance. The tower was named with appropriate ceremonies last night and will be known as the Scenic tower. There was a large attendance and prospects were excellent for a successful fair.

 

A Nobby Uniform.

   The Cortland hotel porters, who of late have been vying among themselves to see which should spring the most conspicuous uniform, will have to admit that the one recently donned by William Dermody of The Kremlin [Hotel] is certainly the winner. It is a striking green, trimmed in black, with gold letters on cap and coat that make it impossible to mistake the identity of the wearer.

 

Farmers and Horsemen.

   Wm. A. Cleveland, V. S., will be at C. B. Peek's and J. J. Gillett's hitch stables, Cortland, Saturday, Sept. 27, and remain until Tuesday, Sept. 30, to treat our lane and sick horses.

 

Died in Michigan.

   Mrs. Eliza Kellogg Thompson, wife of the late T. Wallace Thompson, formerly of Cortland died, at her home in Saint Joseph, Mich., Monday, Sept. 22. The remains will be brought to Cortland and will arrive on the 1:03 train Thursday when they will be taken directly to the Cortland Rural cemetery where brief burial service will be held.

 

Lang-Allport.

   Mr. Lewis W. Lang and Miss Pearl Allport were married last evening at 8:30 o'clock at the home of the bride's mother, Mrs. Sarah J. Allport, 115 Tompkins-st., Rev. James Rain, pastor of the Congregational church, officiating.

   Only the immediate relatives of the contracting parties were present. The newly married couple will make their home for the present with the groom\s parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Lang, 44 Railway-ave.

 

BREVITIES.

   —Lincoln lodge No. 119, I. O. G. T., will hold a poverty social in their rooms this evening.

   —Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis. D. D., will be the speaker at the Binghamton Industrial Exposition on children's day, next Thursday Oct. 2.

   —New display advertisements today are—Opera House, "Mickey Finn," page 5; Scotch Woolen Co., Suits and overcoats, page 8; G. H. Wiltsie, Fall opening, page 6; W. W. Walters, Shoe sale, page 8.