In morals and sound law, the crime is the same as it would have been had he embezzled the same sum in dollars and cents. * * * * * The Washington _Post_ argues that the President should have a salary of $100,000. All right. Let us levy a tax or two on the rich, and raise the salaries which the organs of the rich say are too small. * * * * * If the President is discontented with his pay, why doesn’t he throw up his job? I know several fellows who will take it at the present price. There is W. J. B., for instance. I haven’t the faintest doubt that he would be willing to quit editing _The Commoner_ and assume Presidential burdens at $50,000 per year. It would be easier work, don’t you know, than making twenty-two speeches a day for a candidate like Parker, a platform like that of St. Louis 1904, and a National Chairman like Tom Taggart—the gambling-hell man of Indiana. * * * * * Governor Folk, of Missouri, was elected to stop boodling, banish bribery and otherwise purify the political atmosphere. A bill was promptly introduced into the Legislature to make it possible to convict and punish bribery. The Senate promptly killed the bill. Folk is still Governor, however. * * * * * Populists throughout the country regard with demure interest the modest strides which Kansas is taking in State-Socialism. That Republican State is to own and operate oil refineries to the end that Rockefeller’s Trust may not swallow the earth. * * * * * Besides the Kansas State refinery, the Republican legislature favors other things which are _almost_ new under the sun. No trust, corporation or private partnership shall be allowed to sell cheaper in one place than in another in Kansas—freight being deducted. All over that State the price must be the same. Maximum freight rates have been established, oil pipe lines have been made common carriers, and the pumping of Kansas gas out of Kansas forbidden. Is it possible that we Populists are to find ourselves reduced to a state of mere “eminent respectability” by such thoroughgoing revolutionists as the Republicans of Kansas? * * * * * The Washington _Post_ says: “After Kansas gets her oil refinery in operation she may find that Mr. Rockefeller will not allow his railroads to carry its product.” When Rockefeller refuses to haul Kansas oil because Kansas operates a refinery he will probably discover that Kansas can do a thing or two against his railroads. * * * * * When Theodore Roosevelt was a very, very young man, he wrote a “Life of Gouverneur Morris” in which the youthful author sweepingly classified Tom Paine as “a filthy little atheist.” Now that Teddy has grown great upon the meat which Cæsar fed on, the University of Pennsylvania has conferred an Honorary Degree upon him.