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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1909)
ttt MnDYTvn nprr.nvnv TTTri?snAT. ATTOTTST 12. 1909 . , . i I fOKILANU, OUKGON. Entered at Portland. Oregon. Fostofflce a Eecor.d-Class Matter. SubacriDtloa Rates Invariably in Advsnee. (By Mail ) Dally. Sunday Included, one year '"" Dalij-. Funrlav Included, six months .- Daily, Sunday Included, three months... 2-- Daily. Sunday Included, one month. . -? Dally, without Sunday, one year n0 Dally, without Sunday, six months 3-3 Daily, without Sunday, three months.... l.o Daily, without Sunday, one month 60 "Weekly, one year 15 Sunday, one year 2 50 Sunday and weekly, one year 3.50 (Br Carrier.) Daily. Sunday ineluded. one year 0 Dally. Sunday included, one month.... .15 How to Remit Send postofTlce money order express order or personal check on your local bank S'anips. coin or currency are at the sender's risk. Give portofflce .id dress in full, including county and atate. Iotuce Kates 10 to M pages. 1 cent; 1 to 2 paces. 2 cents; to 4u pages. 3 cents; 4A to eo paces. 4 rents. Foreign postage d-.'iMe rats. Eastern Business Office The S. C. Ferk wlih Special Agency Neir York, rooms 4 61 Tribune bull.ling. Chicago, rooms 510-512 T-ibune building. PORTLAND. THURSDAY. AUG. II. 1B09. Kn .UBY OF TICK RAILROADS. The opposition" company that has undertaken a railroad In Deschutes Canyon, towards Middle Oregon, has now an apparent advantage. How will it use the advantage? Will It hold the advantage and push it? Or Is this demonstration only a part of a "frame" ? The Oregonian would fain believe It a genuine effort. Preparation has been making for it a long time. A good deal of money has been put Into It already. The indications for continuance of the effort are good and strong. Yet there has been so much feigning and pre tense, simulation, false-start, double game and hugger-mugger business, in the matter of railroad construction in Oregon, that something still must be pardoned to doubt, hesitation and feeling of uncertainty. Now, however, these movements, having an unusual impulse and activ ity, must tend towards some result. The situation Is more acute than it has been heretofore. The Irrigation Congress at Spokane opens a wide Held of discussion and endeavor. But whatever may be Its importance, the problem of transporta tion underlies everything else, irriga tion Included. There must be means of getting into a country and getting out of it. People will not go far, these times, beyond the limits of railroad ex tension as they did in early times when they trudged over the plains to Oregon. But so great is the facility of railroad construction In these times, and so sure are the rewards of build ing, even in advance of settlement of the country as experience in all our new states has shown that a new country has a right to express impa tience with the sluggard and obstruc tive policy that keeps It "bottled up." It has been a favorite theory with the Harrlman people that Eastern Oregon was a desert coqntry, which would supply no traffic. Why, then, the sud den effort to get Into it, against a vigorous opposition? But let us not throw discredit on the sincerity of the effort. Two parties, each apparently having powerful back ing, are pushing, or endeavoring to push, railroad construction through a narrow gorge, 140 mues In lenrjth. At several points they must come into closest possible contact. Tet for the larger part of the way they need not. But If there are to be two roads, they must occupy, here and there, a com mon roadbed for no long distances, perhaps, .yet still there must be some ' kind of agreement and accommoda tion. It may be that no more than 10 per cent of the entire line would be subject to these conditions. Now If there are to be two roads, this should be arranged, by some method of agree ment or arbitration, under legal stipu lation or orders of court, so that neither should obstruct the other, and that the cost at the points of contact and difficulty might be equitably shared. Under such arrangement con struction by both parties may go on amicably, and the test would be made whether either was disposed to quit, or whether both have resolution to see it through. One road is enough, into Middle Oregon, by thts route: but if the parties contending there want two, why, of course, all Oregon will be willing. Only it must be said that all Oregon wants one, for sure. What we are apprehensive about, however. Is this, namely, that these parties will succeed in tying each other up. and that the result will be like that of the Kilkenny cat-fight, when, "instead of two cats, there weren't any." Then Eastern Oregon would be remanded to silence and solitude and "peace." Some solution doubtless would come. In the course of everlast ing time; but there are people unwill ing to wait much further in these mat ters upon the movement of the eternal years though their country has so long been accustomed to it. Ore gon hasn't had a square deal; and even if now it can't get any actual railroad building. It is a break of the protracted silence to find two contending forces trying to prevent each other from do ing anything. A herd of buffalo, rush ing over the plain, banishes for the moment silence and solitude; and the dull town that gets "shot up" has at least a temporary sensation. We suppose, however, a railroad into Middle Oregon will come out of this contest. We believe it -will. Railroad service is the one need of the state, and Oregon is the one state of the forty-s'.x which has been most neg lected. It is because that till the pres ent time there has been no effort to break Into the one-railroad system that has hitherto always "been in control in Oregon, there is general sympathy with this effort now. Hence, of course, everybody wants this effort to succeed. SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS. Deposits in the savings banks of the country are held to be one of the most reliable indications of the prosperity of the common people. Since pros perity that does not extend to the people is fictitious and unstable, the amount of their deposits is a matter of general interest. Statistics are usually and proverbially dry reading. Not so, however, with those sent out by the Controller of the Currency, bearing upon this point. They show that In about 1500 savings banks of the United States, nearly 9.000,000 deposi tors have on deposit the almost In conceivable sum of $3,660,653,945. or over J400 to each depositor. This show ing in the vast aggregate means noth ing to the average conception of bulks or values. The- smaller sum. however, appeals to the general understanding and proves a nucleus of financial in dependence, a, certificate of per sonal thrift for each of a large army of laborers or tradespeople, that is an insurance fund against want and a credit to Individual endeavor. Like the tremendous bulk of wheat that is the golden promise of the pres ent harvest, this great sum in aggre gate simply staggers comprehension. But when the average of J400 to each depositor is mentioned, the statement is as clear and satisfactory as is that which supplements the report of the great wheat yield with the words: "Wheat Is one dollar and fifteen cents a bushel and is likely to go higher." These are statements that are read ily, interpreted. They mean prosperity that extends to the masses riches in which the people share. GOVERNMENT'S LAND LOTTERY. Since the King can do no wrong, a lottery may be carried on by the Gov ernment, and censure of fhe proceed ing is useless. But the government of the' state would send to the peniten tiary all persons attempting lotteries even in less open ways than this great land lottery at Spokane: and the Gov ernment of the United States would punish by fine and imprisonment the use of the malls for forwarding any such scheme, or any resembling it even in remote features, as It is now conducting through Its own agents and malls. The valid argument against lotteries Is the injury they do to Individuals, by causing them to waste their sub stance on schemes of chance, and by weakening the moral foundations of good citizenship. Lottery Is robbery of the great mass who participate, for the benefit of the lucky few. But, since the Government is a "soulless corporation," it has no blushes for its own act. Incidental to the "drawing" conduct ed by the Government, and to the preparation for it. is the expenditure of vast sums of money by the partici pants, for railroad fares, hotel bills, fees of notaries and lawyers, etc. amounting in the aggregate to greater sums that all the land would fetch, if put up at ordinary sale. A single town in Washington reports Its people strag gling along the roads over the way home, after an expenditure of $40,000. The Denver Republican joins The Oregonian in the opinion that not one in a hundred of those who registered as applicants had any intention, even If successful, of settling on the land and "farming it." The Republican" adds that it is the old story of "taking a chance" In a lottery, which Is always attractive to multitudes, who, if al-lnm-eri invariably rush in upon the smallest hope of winning even the poorest prize. The Government or tne United States ought to be in better business than that of promotion of a scheme in comparison with which the little grab game of Puter and his crowd was Innocence itself. MESSAGES FROM ETERNITY. The Sutton women resort to a dream vision to prove that young Sutton was set upon and killed by his companions. It would be more rational for them, however, to rely on the improbability of the young man's shooting himself In a combat instead of shooting his as sailants. There was evidently a scuffle between the quarrelsome young man and others of his kind, and the result was neither suicide nor murder, but death from discharge of Sutton's gun. There ought to be some way of ferret ing out the surviving parties to this death scene and of meting out to them some punishment for their par tlcinatlon in it. But that cannot be accomplished through visions. "The first I knew that l naa oeen shot," the women say Sutton told them after he was dead, "was when I woke up in eternity." If justice is to be ad ministered on the vision of a dream. It will be the most wonderful thing In the civilized world since dreams and witchcraft were banished. There is a fast-growing intelligence in the world that disbelieves in dreams and reve lations of every age and regards them as products of imagination and super heated brain. Evidence that eternity sends back any Intelligible message, other than the ordinary physical phe nomena, is wholly lacking, and none has ever been believed by rational minds. Death is dissolution and re distribution of matter and of physical forces, in which process one Individual ity continuously is lost and another is created. Intelligence or mind Is but a function of matter; we can conceive of neither outside of matter. The dead tell no tales, and If anybody thinks that Sutton, after his body was in de cay, could speak in his old voice or move in his old shape, that person be longs to the dark ages. If Sutton had been planted under a rose bush, he could have appeared again in leaves and flowers, but not as Sutton. That is the only credible message ever re ceived from the dead. In the death of the rose and the change to the per fume bottle, there would be another new individuality, or function of mat ter, again far different from Sutton. Dreams are true only while they last, but the Sutton women are not now dreaming or not supposed to be. Besides, we have only their word for what they allege they saw and heard. The safest persons to believe are those who don't dream. WHEAT AND THK TARIFF. The Oregonian at various times has called attention to the brilliant argu ments presented by the American Economist In favor of a high tariff on wheat, barley and other grains, of which this country is a large exporter and never an importer. About six weeks ago, when revision of the tariff was being made at Washington, the Economist lifted up its vojee in an earnest appeal for retention of the present high duty on wheat, and In support of Its demands called attention to the high prices at which wheat was selling and the great prosperity of the farmers. It indignantly rebuked those who sought to show that it was not the tariff that was responsible for the ab normally high prices, and predicted dire distress in the farming communi ties If any change other than an ad vance in the schedule were made in the tariff on wheat and other grains. As will be recalled (perhaps with re gret in later years), the revision which failed to revise to any great extent was accomplished and agreed on by the conference committee in the closing davs of July. To be specific, it was July 30. when American steel, wheat and" other great staples were declared out of danger from tariff legislation. The wheat market had held its own all through the trying four months in which the enemies of the farmer were seeking to let down the tariff bars and swamp it with cheap wheat, and what could be more natural than an imme diate and pronounced advance in prices? . Did the advance materialize in ac cordance with the American Economist logic? Not so it could be noticed. As a matter of cold, hard, market-column fact, September wheat was In demand the day before the conference commit tee decided to save the American grain from foreign competition, at $1.053 per bushel. Yesterday it fell as low as 97c and closed at 98Vic, or 7 cents per bushel less than it was worth before the main sheet of protection was hauled home and made fast. It's a poor rule or mule that will not work both ways, and we. are accord ingly forced to believe that If the price of wheat is dependent on'thc tariff we have lost 7 cents per bushel since the bill was agreed on. Government estimates now place the crop at more than 700,000,000 bushels, and, reducing the loss to cash, it seems reasonably clear that our wheatgrowers have lost nearly $50,000,000 since the tariff bill was agreed on. SOME COLLIER J-H TION. Fiction of the "Old Cap Collier" and similar lurid types enabled the founder of Collier's Weekly to accumulate a fortune. The evolution frorrt the dime novel business to Collier's Weekly has brought with it but little change so far as the Collier preference for fiction over facts Is concerned. It is doubtful if there is another publication In the United States, making pretensions for accuracy or truth, that is more un reliable or careless in its statements than this same Collier's Weekly. The topic of transcontinental freight rates is interesting at this time, and, in lieu of any facts bearing on the case. Col lier's Immediate successor of the yellow-backed dime novel confidently presents some of its own manufac-tured-to-order opinions. Apparently desirous of belittling the water transportation, on which Pacific Coast ports are obliged to.de penrl for their commercial independ ence. Collier's In Its current issue makes the statement that "the American-Hawaiian Steamship. Company, as soon as it got formidable, was com pelled to capitulate to E. H. Harriman, who is president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which uses the Panama route, and which is the prop erty of the Southern Pacific. The American-Hawaiian Company does not touch at any ports which have South ern Pacific terminals." As the Panama rates have never been more than 75 per cent of the rail rates from the East, and at present are but 60 per cent of the rail rates, the only inference that can be drawn from the first part of the foregoing statement is that the "compelling" in fluence in forcing the capitulation of the American-Hawaiian line was the Panama route. The distance from New York to North Pacific ports by way of Panama is 2000 miles greater than by way of the Tehuantepec route, which is used by the American-Hawaiian line. Portage and terminal facilities across the Isthmus of Te huantepec are incomparably superior to those at Panama. The Harriman steamers on the Panama route are slow, old style vessels, while those of the American-Hawaiian line are all new, fast, modern-built craft with every known -convenience for econom ical operation and handling of freight. Considering these facts, "capitulation" of the American-Hawaiian line would be easy. "The American-Hawaiian Company does not touch at any ports which have Southern Pacific terminals," says the Collier oracle. And yet every man on the Pacific Coast who ships a pound of freight by water knows that the American-Hawaiian line "touches" and lands freight at every Southern Pacific terminal on the Pacific Coast. San Francisco has a slight reputation as a Southern Pacific terminal, and last Saturday the American-Hawaiian liner Mexican landed 7000 tons of New York freight in that city exactly twenty-one days after It was cleared from New York fully ten days sooner than it could have reached the "Southern Pacific terminal" over the "capitulation-compelling" Panama route, and in better than the average time by rail. In depriving the Pacific Coast ports of water competition Collier'9 has made an even more ridiculous show ing than was made by Charles Edward Russell in his magazine articles on the Spokane rate question. STOCKS GOING-TOO HIGH. Union Pacific soared up to new high levels In the New York stock market yesterday, selling above 207, with the end not yet in sight. Other prominent securities shared in the buoyancy of the market, and, viewed from almost any standpoint, it was a very bad day for the bears. Meanwhile increasing strength was reported in the call money market. Here are conditions that cannot very long exist. Either stocks must pause in their upward flight and sag back a little, or money must remain cheap. A feature of the situation that cannot fail to cause some uneasiness s that, the higher prices are forced the greater will be the distance to be cov ered in the inevitable fall. Union Pa cific is a first-class stock, but it is a 6 and 7 per cent stock, and when it is carried to double par it loses some of its attractiveness and requires artifi cial aid to keep it inflated. IMPORTS EXCEED EXPORTS. The most remarkable feature of our foreign trade for the month of June, as shown in a summary Just issued by the Bureau of Statistics of the Depart ment of Commerce and Labor, Is the excess of imports over exports, it being many years since this seeming balance of trade against us has been in evi dence. This excess amounted to but $5,000,000, but its importance is ap parent when it is noted that imports Increased from $92,106,928 In June, 190S. to $124,665,125 in June. 1909, while the exports of $117,419,589 for June, this year, compare with $115. 369,280 in June. 1908. The value of these figures for comparison with the business of former yeers Is. of course, lessened somewhat b5" reason of the unusual conditions brought about by the long-threatened tariff changes. Importers who were fortunate enough to guess right, or who might have had inside information on some of the coming events which cast their shadows before, undoubtedly began rushing in goods on which an increased duty was probable, and In the aggre gate business of this kind swelled the totals sufficiently to bring about the remarkable showing noted. Not all of this shifting of the balance of trade was caused by . the threatened tariff changes, however, for abnormally small exports of foodstuffs and cotton cut down the exports very materially. In crude materials for use in manu facturing, there was an increase of more than $15,000,000 over the Im ports for June. 1908, and there was also an increase of about $8,000,000 in manufactured articles. The effect of the proposed' Increase In the tariff on hides is reflected in an increase of more than $4,000,000 in the amount of imports as compared with June, 1908. and wool imports also showed a $4,000,000 Increase for the month. A heavy increase in tea imports, but a still greater decrease in coffee im ports. Is somewhat confusing If we ap ply the tariff test to determine the reason therefore. Some explanation for this paradox may te found In the fact that coffee imports were abnor mally heavy in the months preced ing June. For example, we find that In the fiscal. year ending June 30, there was an Increase of $12,000,000 in the amount of coffee imported, and the stocks entered prior to June were un doubtedly so heavy that it became necessary for the safety of the market to ease up during the month of June. As the proposed changes in the tariff had reached a more definite stage in July, we may reasonably expect the Imports for the first month in the cur rent fiscal year to be even greater than those for June. This anxiety to rush much-needed commodities 'into the country to avoid the payment of higher duties offers pretty conclusive evidence, even though evidence Is not needed, to show that the American consumer is the individual who is being mulcted for the protection of the American trusts. In spite of the Inequality and unfairness of the policy, there Is some thing encouraging in the increased business shown in June, pointing as it does to renewed industrial activity and a corresponding increase in the pur chasing power of the people. The Lincoln cent is selling in New York at a premium, since no more can be had just how from the mint. Several millions of them were coined, when the work was ordered stopped for preparation of new dies. The Di rector of the Mint, noting the initials of the designer on the coin, "V. D. B.," has ordered the initials save the final one to be dropped, and ttat one will be small and obscure. Tho designer is Victor D. Brenner, of New York, who presented a stucy of Lincoln's face in its kindliest mood. He says he understood that his initials might go on the coin, and that the like has often been done heretofore. The New York Times of August 6 said: "Not in the history of the Sub-Treasury has there been a more feverish scr'amble to exchange money than has been wit nessed since the mint turned out these new cents. Wall street, as it looked on yesterday, recalled the excitement about some of the institutions which suspended payment during the panic two years ago. So great did the crush become in Pine street, from Nassau to William, that the police reserves were called, to move the crowd." It will be a great many years before Colonel Albert A. Pope, who died at Boston, Tuesday, will be forgotten by the bicyclists, automobilists and lovers of good roads in this country. While not the Inventor of the bicycle. Colonel Pope was among the first to recognize that it was something more than a pleasure vehicle, and his work in the cause of good roads had much to do with increasing the sale of bicycles and automobiles all over the United States. The fact that his interest in this movement was partly a mercenary one in no manner affects its "merits, for in nearly every state in the Union will be found stretches of good roads built for the bicyclists or automobilists, which afterwards were appropriated as thoroughfares over which farm produce and merchandise could be transported much more economically than before. Colonel Pope was a pub lic benefactor, even though he profited by his hobby. The modern Wall street is becoming a very dangerous place for men of ten der years and slight experience. Re cent advices from the great financial center report a clever piece of manip ulation by which F. Augustus Heinze was relieved of about $50,000. Pre viously to this escapade the late H. H. Rogers was the only man who ever succeeded in taking anything away from Heinze without the aid of chloro form or knockout drops. The Walla Walla farmer who was buncoed out of $2 500 by the1 ancient mining stock game should not feel very badly about it, for the story of his loss appeared on the same page of yesterday's Ore gonian with that of the Heinze mys tery. Wall street will be obliged, how ever, to keep taking money away from Heinze for a good many years before it evens up the score for what he cost the country's financial headquarters two years ago. 'A letter to The Oregonian, written by one who is puzzled over enthno logical and cosmological and theologi cal notions, which, he says, "our pul piteers require us to believe," asks: "Whom did Cain and Seth marry, and where did the two women come from?" It's questions like this that give useless trouble. "De Lawd," said the colored brother, at the beginning of his sermon, "made man out ob dust, which means de clay ob de earth, and set him up against de picket fence to dry." "Stop dar,' pahson," ex claimed the skeptic hearer, "who made dat picket fence?" "You shet up, nig ger," was the retort. "Sech questions will spile any system of theology." Senator Heyburn, of Idaho, speaking about the tariff, said: "My philosophy from my earliest responsibility has been: Contend for what you want; take all you can get; If you cannot get all you want, fight for the balance. There is no rate in this bill too high for me." Whatever criticism there may be of the "philosophy," this is downright speech, at any rate. Mr. Rosenberg, speaking for As toria gillnetters, says wheels of the Upper Columbia .kill the seed salmon. Certainly. And so do the other kinds of gear that, in all, take about 95 per cent of the salmon that are caught in the Columbia River. Dr. Eliot made a mistake. His five feet of books are excessive. Five Inches of books are too many books for a blatant lot among us. Then the decimal might be employed, with no Integer. . The warring parties in the Des chutes will await the decision of the court. Thus far, then, there is room for only one railroad In the canyon. Murderer Finch is sure the courts have made a mistake. He is right; they have allowed hrm too long to dodge the penalty of his crime. A doctor at Alton, 111,, says that farmers can destroy potato bugs by teaching ducks to eat them. Probably a quack doctor. KEEP THE PRESENT JAIL SITE. Objection Raised to Both. New Loca tions Now Under Consideration PORTLAND, Aug. 11. (To the Editor.) Now that It has finally been determined that Portland is to have a new City Jail, the question of the selection of proper site is one of paramount importance. There is a well-founded opposiiton to the acquisition of the site at Park and Ev erett streets, without! denying the fact that It can be acquired for the seemingly reasonable sum of $42,000. The opposition is largely due to the fact that an institu tion at this site would be too close to the children's playgrund, and that the disgraceful and degrading spectacles it would present would have a 'contaminat ing influence upon youthful minds. Even removing the children's, playground a block or two farther south would not help matters much, for it would still be within the sphere of the same debasing influences. It is understood that, whereas the Coun cil committee recommemnded that the resolution providing for the purchase of this particular site "do not' pass,'' yet its recommendation would be Ignored. Furthermore, that indications are report ed to point to a line-up of a majority vote to this end. Such action would be a serious menace and one which the thinking public should not' countenance. The good morals of our children are too important, and such a storm of protest should arise that the Council will not dare to defy public opinion. Then, again, the site Is not a convenient one, nor has It anything in its favor, but everything against It. The proposed site near the City Hall is not a proper one either. The only argu ment that holds good in Its favor is that it would be convenient both to the City Hall and Courthouse. The same idea was suggested some years ago, but the resi dents of that neighborhood bitterly op posed It In their section of the city as a stench to their moral nostrils, and most properly so, and the scheme failed. The same argument is doubly potent now. By reason of long usage, no better site than the present one could possibly be selected. It is the only logical location. The ground occupied by the present structure would afford nearly sufficient ground room for all purposes. It is In a sense out of the way from public gaze, yet conveniently near for its special pur poses. It cannot contaminate the rising generation, for comparatively few chil dren pass that way. It is in a business and no a residence district and cannot offend decent families. The 25 feet along Second street, to the north, adjoining tho old building, can be acquired free of charge from the owner, if the city will grant him a lease of the city's water front at the foot of Stark street, for 30 years. This he proposes permanently to improve, to the amount of $50,000 to $75,000 and give ample bonds therefor. At the expiration of the lease, the lessee will turn the property over to the city. Could anything be better for the city, all things considered? It is a practical so lution of the problem. It is to be hoped that the Council will not act hastily upon this Important mat ter, but will consider the wishes of most of its constituents and decide to build the new City Jail upon the site of the old one. Questions of sentiment aside, even, does not this plan appeal to the sound business judgment of the city? I have no personal or other Interest in this matter. M. G. GRIFFIN. WATF.lt RATES; SIGHTLY LAWNS. Appeal for Restoration of the Old Flat Rate for Beauty's Sake. PORTLAND, Aug. 11. (To the Editor.) Quite frequently I read in the editorial pages of your paper most excellent arti cles on the perplexing question of meters and water rates. I note it is the intention to raise the rate, as 10 cents per 100 cubic feet of water and the mimimum charge of 25 cents per month does not provide suffi cient revenue. I have a lot 43x100 feet, occupied by a house 26x38. Only two in our family. From June 29 to July 27, two days less than a month, my water bill was $1.50. I did not use water for sprinkling seven days. The month of July was excep tionally cool, consequently requiring less water. Under ordinary conditions my water bill would have been at least $2 for the month of July, which amount was my old rate before a meter was In stalled. I did not waste any water, but kept my lawn in good condition. Several of my neighbors, who give their lawns good care, have bills of about the same amount. One man, owning two lots (100x100), used the hose for 20 days In July, and paid $4.30; others, who neg lect their lawns, pay very small amounts. I think It poor policy to raise the rate, and discourage the use of plenty of water on lawns. The city is spending large sums for parks and I think it a good in vestment to furnish water for lawns at a very low price, and thus encourage its use. and thus help to beautify our city. The, lawns of our city are the admira tion of all visitors, and many owners of houses, men and women of moderate means, take as much pleasure as the rich in caring for their lawns, but cannot afford an exorbitant rate. In order to receive sufficient revenue to make the water works self-supporting, leave the old flat rate, which for a six-room house Is $1 per month, and for the four Sum mer months add 50 cents per month for a singe lot, making the minimum charge during that time $1.50 per month. If this plan were adopted the amount realized from all those taking good care of their lawns would be about the same as in the past and making the minimum charge where water Is used for lawns $1.50 per month, would encourage the use of water to those now using too little or none, consequently having dried up lawns to the disappointment of their more pro gressive neighbors, and to the detriment of the city in general. M. L. Why She Was Charitable Chicago Record-Herald. "But. madame," said the judge, "if you know the name of the woman who has come between your husband and yourself, you ought to make it public. What object can you have in shielding her? I cannot grant you a divorce unless ' you are more specific in your charges." " "I can give you dates and places, your honor. If that will be enough." "That may suffice. Still, I can't understand why, if you know, the woman, you decline to let her be named in the proceedings. It is not natural in a case of this kind for a wife to try to shield the woman who has wronged her. You must give some very good reason for doing so or I shall be com pelled to dismiss the case." "Well, if you must know, judge, she weighs 185 pounds and has a mustache that you can see across the street. I don't want to be humiliated by having It become known that I was neglected for that." Will the People Bestow Censnref Chicago News. It is fair to say that Mr. Taft has done what he could. He has made a one-man fight to redeem the pledges of the Republican party and has been moderately successful in the fight. The future of tariff revision rests with the people. Will they bestow censure in the one effective way upon those men in Congress who not only have support ed the high schedules of the present high tariff, but have done their best to make some of these schedules material ly higher? If so, there will be a no ticeable scarcity of standpatters in the next Congress. The Farmer Boy Wins. Xe Tork Mail. When I was a lad I worked all day At plowing potatoes and at pitching bay. I fed the horses and I cut the corn. And rose at 4 every blessed morn. I fed those horses so successfullee That now I have an honorary LL.D- AGITATE FOR CELILO CANAL. To Secure Appropriation the Whole People Muat Make Demand. PORTLAND. Aug. 11. (To the Editor.) It seems to me that what Brigadier General William L. Marshall. Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, said in an Interview reported in The Ore. gonian of Monday, about the Celilo Canal, and the time that may be con sumed in building it, is of more than passing Importance. The completion or delay of that work may mean many mil lions of money, lost or won, by the peo ple of the Inland Empire. What did Mr. Marshall say? He said the canal could be completed in three and a half years, or as now going, it might take 20 years. Who can decide whether it shall be the shorter or the longer period? Mr. Marshall says that is a question that is largely up to the people here. If they ask the Government to build the canal, and ask in the right way, they can have It in the shorter period. If they do nothing, as in the pastj it may take the longer period. There is no reasonable doubt that Mr. Marshall is correct in his estimate of this matter. The people of the Inland Empire have not asked Congress to put in this much-needed Improvement in a way to Impress that body and the country with its Importance. Our three or four dele gates to Washington have occasionally brought the canal project before the Gov ernment, but members of Congress are expected to ask for all sorts of things for their states, and not much attention is given to ordinary requests, and espe cially for river improvements. To im press Congress there must be a movement on the part of the people. Mass and delegate conventions should be held all along the line of the desired improve ments, and these meetings of earnest citi zens should be of frequent occurrence. In them should be set forth in ringing resolutions and eloquent speeches, backed by cold facts and statistics, the reasons for the demands they make on the Gov ernment. Iri no other way can the work of building this much-needed improve ment be hurried along. The people as a mass muet speak In this matter or it will not move, and I am glad Mr. Mar shall has put the responsibility where it properly belongs. An effort was made six or eight years ago to Inaugurate a movement of this kind, but the people of the Inland Em pire were dead to its importance ru nothing was accomplished. Perhaps ai other effort might prove more success ful. I grew to manhood on the banks of the Mississippi River, midway between the Upper and the Lower Rapids, and I know how appropriations were secured to rem edy these obstructions. It was by public meetings and constant pressure on Con gress that the people finally got what they wanted. And now, year in and out, they Industriously pursue the same policy and Congress gives heed to what they say. Congressmen are all right enough In a way a- sort of necessary evil but they do not amount to much, especially In the matter of river Improvement, unless they are vigorously backed by the public. LEVI W. MYERS. SHOULD VOICE THEIR APPROVAL. Portland Taxpayers' Duty to a Mayor Who Does Things. PORTLAND, Aug. 11. (To the Ed itor.) It certainly affords supreme satisfaction to every citizen who wishes a Greater Portland to witness the activity of Mayor Simon in doing things and making quick decisions regarding many absolutely necessary Improve ments which have hung fire and pro duced endless wrangling in the past, without beneficial results to any one. For instance, the cost of paving, the location of engine-houses, the crema te y and last, but not least, the jail site, havo all been productive of more or less acrimonious debate in the past and that was all. Now, Mayor Simon very sensibly decides the present loca tion of the crematory Is the best, says so, and goes to work to secure that very much needed improvement at once, without asking every individual property-owner, push club president, real estate agent or minister In town, his individual opinion or interest Now we 'will have a crematory. He has used the same good judgment regard ing the jail site. Everybody agrees with him, so we will have the new Jail and the much-needed emergency hospital, both in close proximity to the busy downtown district, the Union depot and the wharves, where most of the accidents and arrests will likely be made, and in a district where there are comparatively few American children living. Again we taxpayers and property owners should certainly voice our ap proval of every move our Mayor makes to lower the cost of street paving and to secure more small parks and rest ing places. In fact 99 per cent of the best citizens do approve these things, but few voice their Bentiments except the "knockers." so that the most valuable services receive but slight acknowl edgment during the life of the person rendering them. Promoting the pub lic's welfare certainly merits publicly expressed approval, and here's hoping that politics and politicians will en tirely cease to obstruct in the least the future growth and greatness of our fair city and state. Portland's and Ore gon's greatest need is doers, not ob structionists. G. E. WALLING. Our National Guard No Fiction. New York Mail. , "National Guard" Is a true phrase now. Until very recently it was a fic tion. We shall have a true National Guard when we have the men. But at the present moment the organized militia, on the new basis, does not num ber more than 110,000 men all told, and perhaps 25,000 of these -would not be found fit for active service. There are only six states In the Union that have an organized militia of more than 4000 men, and those six states are all In the northeastern part of the country. All the Southern States taken together have but a few more organized militia than the State of New York alone. Militarism? tiot In the least. An or ganized citizen soldiery Is the opposite of militarism it is an insurance against it. Without a National citizen-guard of at least 500,000 men, we must have a larger Regular Army. With it the Regular Army need never be inoreased, if the population of the country rose to 150,000,000. It is plain common sensef Is Switzerland, where every man is a trained and ready soldier, and where there is no regular army at all, a militaristic country? And Is Switzer land the r.nly country in the world that is capable of defensive common sense? Sneer at "A Cheap Skate." New York Sun. The Hon. Willis Luther Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau, wants young men as forecasters. The venerable vaticinator about to be transferred from this town to Providence totterB under his 49 years. Mr. Moore is 53. Young weather seers have the hopeful ness and vicious pride of youth. The older, except the elastic Micawber Moore, have been saddened by repeated disappointment. That a man more than 25 can go on predicting the weather shows, as Dr. Johnson said of second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience. ' Smile a Little st. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Despatch. There's mighty few days when things go wrong That can't be helped by slngin a song. And mighty few burdens placed on us here But a smile will lighten 'em more'n a tear. And a laugh and a song well, they're Just great For gettin' the best of grim old Fate! MODEM FARMER A BUSINESS MAX Attention to Detail, Which Spells Sue cess, Applies to Everyone. PORTLAND. Or., Aug. 11. (To the Editor.) Editorially The Oregonian this morning says: "If you are looking for a life of leisure, stay away from the farm." Why not as well say, "Stay away from the office, the store, the shop, the factory, the house you are building, etc.?" It might also be added, in ad visory fashion, "Get an automobile and pay no bills." The writer knows one grocer (and he is one of thousands) who rises at 5:30 A. M., and is hard at work hustling sacks of flour and feed, packing cases and other heavy merchandise until 6 I'. M. This man's evenings are given to keeping his accounts. Thousands of busy merchants (the successful ones) devote 14 to IS hours daily to business matters. Infinite de tail comprehends and constitutes their survival in the field of commerce. Turn now to the farmer, who, we are told by The Oregonian, "may have a very independent life, but he must assure himself that it requires the most careful and patient attention to every detail." What business does not? Failure Is sure to follow a neglected business. Modern farming is today tho surest form of business investment. Not the farmer who ill-farms lfiO acres, but the' former who intelligently farms five, 15 or 40 acres, is tile man whom The Oregonian should take as the type for a Btandard. That man who takes from the government 160 acres and sells it as soon as he, by patent, acquires fee simple title, Is speculating, not farming. Soil culture. The Oregonian says, is not better understood. To quote: "But we don't know our soils better than they did in Vergil's time." Charlemagne made it possible for the tillers of soli under the Franco-Gnullsh empire to reclaim neglected farm lands In Normandy and Brittany which had become re-forested in the long period of wars. These lands have been for a thousand years the garden spot of sunny France. Docs The Oregonian wish to concede that the vitalizing prin ciples of-these soils could have been maintained without constantly im proving methods of soil culture? Gibbon and Guizot may be quoted to show that in the time of Vergil even the fertile valley'of the Po became soil Impoverished and received its richest fertilization by the flesh and hones of Roman soldiery and their antagonists. Dry soil farming may have, been practiced in Vergil's time, rather from necessity than for scientific reasons, but there is no record of exhaustive treatises on the subject. Rotation of crops possibly resulted in those days for the reason that a man may have forgotten what he did plant between intervening and pestilential wars. It might be interesting for The Ore gonian writer to visit the dealers In agricultural implements for evidence how the farmers' work Is being light ened and simplified, yet amplified and extended by means of . modern ma chinery. A First-street dealer tells me that a cow-milking device, entirely practical and easy of operation, is on the market. Cream separators I have seen in use in the far hills of Washington and Tilla mook counties, by people who never saw a railway train or a trolley caw The telephone, rural delivery, good roads, the Government departments and the Grange are making the farmer a business man rather than a day laborer. Administrative ability goes farther in these times than mere muscular energy. The roll-top desk Is In farm homes. Card-Index systems, daily diaries and ledgers make a part of the modern farmer's equipment. The farmer today is Just as indi vidual, just as apart from the mere speculator, or "land shark," as it is possible to imagine, A. C. GAGE. DIRECT PRIMARY OBSERVATIONS. Necessity of Guiding It by Concurrent and Representntlve Action. New York Globe and Advertiser. The direct primary presupposes the intimate participation of the rank and file of a party in making its nomina tions. If it does not secure such par ticipation it is a humbug. To deal with large masses of men Individually, to instruct them even legitimately, necessarily means the expenditure of large sums of money. It augurs soft ness of head for any one to assume that the voters, without preliminary education, would come together on pri mary day and have It suddenly re vealed tot them who should be nomi nated. It also follows that men in any way possessed of the notion that the office should seek the man will not ordinarily be chosen by the direct primary. Hus tling, and hustling of an energetic character, is indispensable to winning. There Is no place where the direct pri mary prevails for the receptive candi date. Any one who Is unwilling to get out and convince his fellow citi zens that he should be chosen has a small chance for office. The direct pri mary means that the offices, with rare exceptions, will be self-seekers, and every intelligent advocate of the pri mary system knows this and admits this. It is perception of this fundamental and permanent weakness that Is in ducing Governor Hughes to advocate in this state a provision under which party committees may legally submit recommendations. By granting this privilege he hopes to Becure for the public the services of the class of men who will not put themselves forward who insist on being asked, and who may be counted on to refuse entering on protracted and expensive campaigns of self-laudation. There is not a di rect primary state where the faults observed at Indianapolis have not been revealed. They are inherent and irre movable, and they will be particularly protuberent In a state like 2'ew York, where the urban population is large. As Matters Stand Today. Charleston News and Courier. The Florida policeman who was asked to name the capital of the state, and answered Washington, was not so far wrong, after all. JUST A FEW S5ULES. We believe It can be safely said that th LL.D. epidemic which was so prevalent In June Is now under control. Houston Post. "Did your uncle remember you in his will?" "Oh, yes; he left instructions that the money I owe him be collected." Judge. "Are there any other creatures besides camels who can so a considerable time without water. Willie?" "Yes, sir." "Who are they?" "Kentucky colonels, sir." Balti more American. "My money Is as good as anybody's," said the aggressive citizen. "Yes," answered Miss Cayenne, "fortunately for our commercial system, a dollar is not Judged by the com pany it keeps." Washington Star. Architect (looking over site) I would suggest leaving the trees: they'll screen you from the gase of passers-by. Client Mein Gott! Vot do you subbose I'm spentlng flfty tousend dollars on a house for? Gut em down. Life. 'I have been taking some moving pictures of life on your farm," said a photographer to an agriculturist. "Did you catch my la borers in motion?" asked the farmer. "I think so " "Ah, well, science is a wonderful thing." Philadelphia Inquirer. "How does Wrigley like his new home In the country?" "Pretty well. He has to get up in the dark to catch the train, and It s after dark when he gets Jiome. And he sleeps all day Sunday. Last w eek be begged a day off at the office." "What tor?" "So he could get a good look at his home by sunlight." Cleveland Plain Lealer.