We’ll take over your government George B. Shaw tells America

Friday, 04 June 2010 05:00

One hundred years ago, clippings from the newspapers of June 4, 1910.

Winnipeg Free Press. Britain should take over the U.S. government because America is unfit to govern itself, George Bernard Shaw writes in a special dispatch from London. Britain’s Irish playwright was responding to a controversial speech by former U.S. President Col. Theodore Roosevelt in which the Rough Rider urged Britain to take over the government of Egypt. Shaw writes, in part:

“America broke loose of us at the end of the 18th century and undertook to govern itself. Every since it has been proving its utter unfitness to govern itself… If it is our duty, as Mr. Roosevelt says, to govern Egypt for its own good, without consulting its inhabitants, it is many times more important that we should take America in hand in the same way…

“It is certainly very curious that Mr. Roosevelt… should thus deliberately stir us up to reconquer his country. He even urges us to do it by violence and injustice if necessary

“It is true that the Americans have abused their independence and made their initial government odious throughout Europe for its corruption and tyranny, but there are two ways of remedying this. One is for Americans to reform themselves and the other is to trust England for paternal government.”

Ministerial misery
Toronto Globe. Ministerial difficulties confronted meetings of both the Presbyterian and Methodists, the Globe reports.

At the Presbyterian General Assembly in Halifax, concern was expressed about a decline in the number of Presbyterian theological students. There were 260 theological students at the church’s college in 1902, but only 175 in 1910.

In Chatham, Ontario, a General Conference of the Methodist Church called “attention with shame and sorrow to the low standard of financial provision made for our ministers.” The Conference approved a resolution setting minimum annual salaries of $900 per year for married ministers and $700 for single ministers, over opposition by “the farmer delegates.” Argument “at times waxed somewhat warm,” said the Globe. While the farmers failed to defeat the salaries resolution, they defeated another resolution for “an additional payment [to ministers] for horse keep.”

The intoxicating maple tree
Montreal Star. Americans in Council Bluffs, Iowa, began singing “The Maple Leaf Forever,” after a maple tree with a diameter of four feet was felled and sawn.

In sawing the trunk into four-foot sections, the saw just missed a long-necked black bottle in the heart of the tree, containing a pint of whisky of the most superior quality. By counting the rings in the tree it is calculated that the whisky must have been in wood and in bottle at the same time for 30 years. The bottle and what is left of the contents have been placed in the public library. In six months there won’t be a maple tree left in Council Bluffs. Pilgrims from Kentucky to Oregon will be invading Iowa in search of maple seeds and suckers, and the public library will have be garrisoned. Already many of the children of Iowa fathers are learning to sing “The Maple Leaf Forever.’

How to kill the housefly
Lindsay Post (July 3). Advice on how to defeat the dangerous housefly.

Keep the flies away from the sick, especially those ill with contagious diseases. Kill every fly that strays into the sick room.

Do not allow decaying material of any sort to accumulate on or near your premises. All refuse which tends in any way to fermentation, such as bedding, straw, paper, waste and vegetable matter, should be disposed of or covered with lime or kerosene oil.

Screen all food. Keep all receptacles for garbage carefully covered and cartons and tins cleaned or sprinkled with lime, oil, or other cheap preparations.

See that your sewage system is in good order, that it does not leak, is up-to-date and not exposed to flies. Pour kerosene into the drains. Burn or bury all table refuse. Screen all windows and doors, especially in the kitchen and dining room.

If there is no dirt or filth, there will be no flies.”