VENEZUELA BETWEEN TWO FIRES, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, KREMLIN HOTEL NO MORE, PASSENGER TRAIN DITCHED, AND GRAND CENTRAL RESTAURANT

 

Cipriano Castro and Herbert Bowen.

Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, January 30, 1903.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES.

Allies Insist Upon Preferential Treatment of Their Claims.

CLAIMS OF OTHER CREDITORS.

Demands of Allies Exceed Concessions Mr. Bowen Was Authorized to Make. Enlarged Powers Necessary to Meet Demands—Standstill For the Present—President Castro Informed.

   Washington, Jan. 30.—There was a pause in the Venezuelan negotiations that approached perilously near a breach. It grew out of the attitude of the allies in insisting upon preferential treatment for themselves in the settlement of their claims.

   As foreshadowed in the London dispatches, Mr. Bowen bas been informed of the decision of the allies to insist upon adhering to this method of procedure, and he has come to a stand in his work for the moment.

   For half an hour he was in consultation with Secretary Hay at the state department, though the secretary is taking no part in the negotiations in any official sense.

   Mr. Bowen is believed to have taken steps to acquaint President Castro with the demands of the allies, a sure sign that these demands exceed the concessions that Mr. Bowen expected to make. Possibly fresh and enlarged powers will be necessary to enable him to meet the demands.

   Venezuela's plight at this moment lies in the fact that she is between two fires. The allies demand preferential treatment, while France and other creditors look to Venezuela for fair treatment, pointing out that to discriminate against their claims when their attitude had been correct and even magnanimous, would not be fair treatment.

 

John D. Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller's Gift.

   Washington, Jan. 30.—The fact is developed that John D. Rockefeller is the "generous friend" who subscribed $100,000 a year for a period of 10 years to the work of the general educational board chartered by congress. This came out at a meeting of the board held here at which W. H. Baldwin, Jr., was elected chairman and George Foster Peabody, secretary and executive officer. The work of the board is to promote education in the United States and the general offices will be in New York city.

 

Booker T. Washington.

BAR GREAT NEGRO TEACHER.

Booker T. Washington to Meet an Official Rebuff in Florida.

   Gainesville. Fła., Jan. 30.—Although Booker T. Washington has been invited by the state superintendent of instruction to address the general educational board, he has been denied the use of the auditorium here for that purpose.

   The county superintendent of public instruction, responding to a popular protest, will not permit the colored college president who sat at President Roosevelt's table to speak in the auditorium.

 

KREMLIN NO MORE.

Commercial House now—Its Formal Opening—New Omnibus.

   About 200 people were guests last evening of Sig. Sautelle, the event being in honor of the opening of the hotel which for several years has been known as The Kremlin. Under the new management its name will be The Commercial House. Roast pig, oysters, sandwiches, tea biscuits, salads and celery were on the menu, and the affair was a most happy one for all present. The house will be run under the proprietorship of Mr. Sautelle and the management of Mr. George E. Rowe.

   Sig. Sautelle has purchased a handsome new omnibus for the hotel, and purposes to run this to all trains free for the accommodation of his guests. Mr. Sautelle states that this is not done with any idea of introducing any new feature in the hotel business in Cortland or to make any of the other hotels hustle. It is done, however, because the Commercial hotel is off the line of the street cars, and many commercial men do not like to get on the street cars, ride part way and then walk the remaining distance. This is the reason given for the innovation.

   Mr. Sautelle says that he is going to add ten or twelve rooms to the hotel the coming spring.

   During the evening the Cortland orchestra pleased the large number of guests with excellent music.

 

Theodore Roosevelt.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.

Colored Persons in Office.

   The course of President Roosevelt and his predecessors in appointing negroes to office is reviewed at considerable length by the Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Post, with the result of bringing out the following facts:

   1. That such appointments were much more numerous under former administration than they have been since Roosevelt became president.

   2. That the appointments by Roosevelt have been of a much higher grade than the majority of those made by his predecessors.

   3. That it has been President Roosevelt's policy to leave in office colored people whom he found there and who appeared to be doing efficient and creditable work.

   4. That he has tried to avoid making appointments of a kind that would involve unpleasant contact between the whites and the blacks.

   5. That the only point at which he has parted company with his Southern friends and kindred is on the question of the absolute exclusion of the black man. They have demanded that he say: ''No negro need apply." He has been willing to say only: ''A colored skin will not let you in; neither can it shut you out. The same standard must rule everywhere."

   6. That there has been a reduction rather than an increase in the gross number of negro office holders in the South, through the careful sifting of candidates of all colors. On this point the correspondent writes: "He does this as the friend at once of the white man and the negro, so that the few chosen shall be differentiated in every one's mind from the many discarded, and the negro at large will be given to understand that he must reach the level of the white man's qualifications before he can expect to share the white man's honors. If there is any other way of handling this matter, so as to be president of the whole people and not of a part, suggestions will be thankfully received and carefully considered at the White House."

   Speaking of the "home rule" policy or the choice of officers acceptable to the people locally, the correspondent pointedly says: "And who are 'the people' in a community including both white and black citizens? Shall one race be absolutely ignored there, and the other exclusively consulted? In a place where the blacks outnumber the whites, must the president always thrust a white upon the black majority, even though they object to him because of his race and color? Here is a rule, obviously, which ought to work both ways if we are to respect it at all." Reference is made to numerous elective offices that are held by negroes in several of the states with the following comment: "These are officers not forced upon an unwilling people by a Washington administration, but elected by their neighbors in states where the negroes constitute an insignificant fraction of the population. The number of such instances is proof enough that there is no sectional prejudice behind the feeling cherished everywhere else, that the negro ought to be counted in the South for other purposes than the swelling of its representation in congress."

   The issue, comments the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, does not seem to be wholly one of narrow and unreasonable prejudice versus enlightenment and justice. In Indianola, Miss., for example, a colored postmistress has served the community acceptable for several years, when there was a sudden revolt by the white citizens which looked more like a spasm of freakishness than a real sense of the unfitness of things. Possibly it represents a purpose to challenge President Roosevelt's courage and put his backbone to the test. If so, a sufficiently distinct answer has been made in the closing of the Indianola postoffice. The president took exactly the right course in this case; and when it is discovered on the one hand that he cannot be bullied, and on the other that he is not arbitrarily forcing unfit office holders on unwilling communities, perhaps the opposition will become less aggressive and dictatorial. At any rate, it should be willing, if it is able, to formulate and defend a better and more just policy than that which the president is pursuing.

 

Lehigh Valley railroad, Brookton trestle.

PASSENGER TRAIN DITCHED.

A Land Slide Near Brookton—Engineer's Leg Broken.

   Lehigh Valley passenger train No. 320, that leaves Cortland at 7:06 p. m., was ditched at Brookton, N. Y., last evening. Only the engine and the combined mail and express car left the tracks. H. F. Knight, the engineer, had one of his legs broken. This was the only injury received by members of the crew. The passengers were severely jolted, but none of them was injured.

   The accident happened a little beyond Brookton. A portion of the track had gone out with a landslide, and this was not noticed until the engineer had run his train into the break. The engine was turned over upon its side, and the engineer's leg was caught under it. The combination car was partly overturned.

   A wrecking train was sent out from Cortland last night to pick the helpless engine out of the mire.

   Engineer Knight, who lives in Elmira, is well known to many in Cortland who will hear of his injuries with profound regret.

 

A COMMUNICATION.

A Scene Observed on a Street of this City on Thursday.

   To the Editor of The Standard:

   Sir—Yes, there is one manly man in Cortland, and had Diogenes been in the neighborhood of this man yesterday he would not have needed a lantern to have found him. Out of the door of one of the places that the city of Cortland licenses to debauch her citizens, the big bully who stands behind the bar and sells whiskey to the customers as long as they can drink it, hurled a poor befuddled specimen of humanity, followed him to where he fell on the snow and ice and began pounding and mauling him around in the slush and water.

   This was observed by a quiet man across the street, a man never seen in rows and boisterous gatherings and, although weighing thirty or forty pounds less than the aggressor, he sailed across the street and without words or bluster, biff, biff, bang went his fist and the big bully beat a hasty retreat to continue his nauseous practice of filling up victims. Then our manly man without excitement or "grand stand play" helped the poor inebriate to his feet and again crossed the street about his business.

   Cortland should be proud of this man. I know not whether this man is a professing Christian, but he is certainly not a Pharisee. I trust and believe there are many such men in Cortland who are not continually asking, "Am I my brother's keeper?" If there are, may they soon wake up to the fact that it is at least their duty to prevent the disgraceful scenes that are almost daily enacted in front of some of our saloons if it is not their duty to close the saloons. E. M. M.

 

For Fifteen Days.

   Edward Murray, who was arrested about three months ago for stealing a coat in the Elk cafe and who served thirty days in [Cortland] county jail at that time, was arrested again yesterday on the charge of intoxication and disorderly conduct. He was sent to jail for fifteen days by Judge Dougherty.

 

Moses Coit Tyler.

A Memorial Library.

   The library of the late Moses Coit Tyler, professor of American History at Cornell university, has been purchased by some of his former students and warm admirers and will become a memorial library at the State Normal school at Marquette, Mich.—-Ithaca Journal.

 

Grand Central block, located on south side of Railroad St. [Central Avenue today], Cortland, N. Y.

GRAND CENTRAL RESTAURANT

Providing Greater Seating Capacity and Making Other Changes.

   The Grand Central restaurant is undergoing changes whereby the candy counter on the east side of the front portion will be removed and tables will be placed the entire length of the room on that side. The candy cases will be placed on the counter on the west side. The change is expected to be completed by Sunday, when the usual chicken dinner will be served.

   One of the reasons for making this change was to provide better facilities for accommodating banqueting parties. When completed the seating capacity of the restaurant will be about sixty.

 

BREVITIES.

   —The [Cortland] Athletics will play the Utica basket ball team in Taylor hall this evening.

   —The Cortland entertainers will give their popular production in Homer this evening.

   —The Homer-ave. church choir will meet for rehearsal Saturday evening with Mrs. Fannie Andrews, 57 Lincoln-ave.

   —The Presbyterian church of Whitney's Point has extended call to Harry Zimmerman of the graduating class of Auburn Theological seminary to become its pastor, and the call has been accepted.

   —New display advertisements today are—Forrest Seed Co., Seeds that grow, page 5; Rev. E. E. Davidson, Mass-meeting for men, page 5; G. H. Wiltsie, Last day of clearance sale, page 4; Rex Acetylene Co., American oil cans, page 7.

   —The Chenango Forks M. E. church remodeled and repaired to the extent of $1,000 was rededicated yesterday, Rev, C. N. Sims, D. D., of Syracuse preaching the dedicatory sermon. The money for the rebuilding has nearly all been raised and paid.

   —To all of our subscribers who send to this office remittances in the coin cards provided for that purpose we would urge that special care be taken to write upon the card the name and address of the sender, otherwise we have no means of knowing to whom the credit should be given.