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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1910)
I 8 THE MORNING OREGONIAN. SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1910. "t: J! i i i .; i t ; n I i i i 4 I i i! Si ft i i i 4 !! v, I! ; t; POETLAXD. UKEOOX. Entered at Portland. Oregon. Postoffico u cund-Claaa Matter. Subscription Bates Invariably In Advance. (BT MAIL.) TIlv, Sunday Included, one year ,.$8 00 Dally, Sunday included, stx months. M. 4.25 Daily, 8unday Included, three montha.. 2.25 Dally, Sunday Included, one month.,... .75 Dally, without Sunday, one year 6.00 Dally, without Sunday, six months...... 3-25 Dally, without Sunday, three months. ... 1.75 DUlly, without Sunday, one month..... .60 Weekly, one yar 1.50 Sunday, one yttar.... ... 2.50 fcunday and weekly, one year.,,..,. 3.50 (By Carrier.) Daily, Sunday included, one year. 9.00 Dally, Sunday Included, one xnonUi.... .75 How to Remit Send PostofClc money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency re at the sender's risk.. Give poet off Ice ad dress in full, including county and state. Postage Kate. 10 to 14 pases, 1 cent; 18 to 2H pages. 2 cents; 30 to 40 pa?es, 3 cents; 40 to 00 pages, 4 cents. Foreign postage double rate. Eastern Business Office. The S. C. Beck wlth Special Agency New York, rooms 48 60 Tribune building. Chicago, rooms &10-512 Trlbuna building. PORTLAND, SATURDAY, JAN. 23, 1910. TANGLE OF BRITISH POLITICS. There is a growing probability that the 'Liberals will not have a majority In the House of Commons that they can call wholly their own. They will be forced to rely on combinations with the Labor parly and the Irish party; and for support of. such combinations It will be difficult for the Liberals to control the whole body of their own members. They will be plagued by "Insurgents," who will balk at the demands of the allies of the Liberal party; and, moreover, some portions of the allies, not getting all they de mand, are very likely to Join in mak ing trouble for the Liberal leaders. The Conservative forces without doubt will act as a solid body, and may have a disposition to grant to the National ists and Labor party better terms In some directions than the Liberals are willing to allow them. It is impos sible to imagine what results may come out of such a hotch-potch of politics. The popular vote thus far for the Conservatives is much larger than that for the Liberals, and probably will be still larger by the time the voting is ended. It is clear that nothing can be done that will radically change the present constitutional balance of forces in the United Kingdom. The idea widely entertained that the existence of the House of Lords would be im perilled by this struggle will fade away, under contemplation of the enormously heavy vote which the Con servative party is able to command. Most Englishmen are averse to revo lutionary proceedings. The House of Peers usually Is indo lent. Its members do not like a con test with the Commons; and when they do take a positive stand .against the Commons, there usually is some rea son that goes down very deep into the history and customs of the coun try not lightly to be set aside. It i3 this hold on the past, operating to a greater or less extent on the general mind of the country, that checks the progress of novel policies. In our country a similar force is in constant operation, but commonly in much less degree. In. the new Parliament he debates probably will be even hotter than 'in the old. The course of. the present elections seems to be opening the. way to unusual opportunities " for party combinations, for -or against leading measures. Improbable as it may seem, the Conservatives may make advances to the Irish party,- and . even consent to a local parliamentary assembly for Ireland. That would b,'ai coup,, in deed. .First of all things. in the-minds of Irish members of Parliament is a local legislature for their country and home rule. , They could trot "be blamed for entering into any alliance to get it. RAILROAD HGHT TO CONTINUE. It will probably be disappointing to the "unco-guid" critics of President Taft to note that the suit against the railroad merger will be vigorously prosecuted. In view of the facts, that have been presented in this connec tlon. there seems but small likelihood -""of the Government being successful in the suit to dissolve what are known as the Harrlman properties. It is a well-known fact that it is an impose sibillty for a man to ride oVit of Wash ington City on a railroad train with out traveling over lines from which all competition has been eliminated by mergers, pools and community of in terest policies. It is equally well known that the New Tork Central sys tem with its control of the West Shore, Lake Shore, the Erie and other paral . leling lines, offers one of the most striking examples of noncompetition that can be found in the United States today. With these bright and shining ex amples of merging of railroad proper ties right under the eye of the Gov ernment at Washington, it has always seemed strange that the Government should make its first sortie Into the "railroad merger" field here in the Far West, where'the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific, for the greater part of their mileage, are hundreds- of miles apart, and except at terminals are in no sense competing roads, and do not serve the same territory. But the prosecution of these merger" suits tis a heritage which the preceding Ad- ministration has passed on to Presi dent Taft. He must make the attempt m to carry out this particular Roose velt policy by as vigorous a prosecu 2; tlon as will be possible in the existing conditions. tT. In ignoring the existence of merged lines nearer at hand, and in. which the , evidence was much stronger than it is Jln the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific vcase, the retiring Administration put xk over on the Taft Administration a t,i case in which conviction -could hardly Jlbe other than extremely difficult. It t.1188 also left the President in a posi tion where he will "b damned if he r edoes and damned if he doesn't." With -only a forlorn hope of conviction, he -,;imust proceed with the suit or else be "branded as a traitor to the cause of his rmlnent predecessor. If he proceeds n'.Vwlth the suit and loses, as he probably will, we may expect the anti-Taft ele . ."Went to set up a howl of criticism over .,':the manner in which the suit was con kiducted. - - It Is a very difficult position in which ...the President has been placed, but in T. the circumstances there is no other 'course to be pursued than that which ! .he is now following. Despite the in- terference, unwarranted criticism and other handicaps to which he has been '1 subjected. President Taft has hun J gradually working out the reform polt- Teles of his predecessor and will un J doubtedly continue to do so. His ac complishments lack some of the spec tacular, brass-band methods to which the country had become accustomed, but they are none the less effective. NORMAL FECD AGAIN? The sequel to the- Normal School business in Oregon is yet to be writ ten. It may be almost as strenuous as were the chapters ending with the Legislature's refusal last year to grant llfeglving money to the four institu tions that have taken active part In legislative matters for. many years. For it is generally supposed -that the lawmakers in their next session will pick up something out of the wreckage and endeavor to establish one institu tion, or perhaps two. Selection of site and final disposition of the old para phernalia are likely to call for heroic treatment. Already Hood River has entered the competition as candidate for the apple of discord. .Baker City. Pendleton, La Grande, The Dalles and towns In" Western Oregon which have an eye for political "plums" are ex pected to regard normals as their kind of fruit. It will be remembered that supporters of the overdone normal business would not permit Monmouth in the last Legislature, nor Salem, nor any other town near the center of the state's activities, to obtain the consoli dated school, i It ought to be possible, however, to put normal schools on rational basis and to build up a proper institution. The Institutions that Oregon has been nursing along on short rations, in places distant from population centers, served the purpose of their existence in sorry . fashion. Concentration of funds and effort is needed to set up and keep up normal education in this state. Normal school partisans, in trenched in the House of Representa tives in Salem last Winter, defeated every attempt for consolidation and now location. A spirit of amity is needed, first of all, and if that is not possible, then extermination of all the forces that have been upholding the old system. Normal education should no longer be a local, but a state-wide matter, to be managed in accord with state-wide re quirements. SIMPLICITY IN A NEW PUMP. The Invention of a pumping process by the explosion of a gas, as we learn from The Literary Digest, affords a new and probably a practical way of raising water in large quantities cheap ly. The gas to be exploded is com pressed over the surface of the water which is free to escape upward through a tube. By the explosion great pressure is generated and a quantity of water Is driven out of the reservoir. A fresh supply of com bustible material is then quickly in troduced, which is compressed by some of the water flowing back down the tube. The process is repeated In definitely as long as there is any fluid in the reservoir. It is astonishingly simple. No apparatus Is required in the escape tube, not even a check valve. Indeed, a check valve, no matter how light, would be dangerous, since the high explosive employed would burst the tube before the valve could acquire velocity enough to move out of the way. A lawyer of air and a layer of rock offer about the same instan taneous resistance to "a eharge of dyna mite. : . Nothing - Is 'mere .-fascinating than to jobserve the. progressive'. Industrial ap plication of the v energy of high ex plosives. Suppose a genius should some time: discover how to confine and gradually ' release as It was, needed the energy "of ,a ; dynamite cartridge. We might'snap ..our' fingers at the Water Power 'Trust Such a thing seems im possible, , 'of ' course, . but then a good many: things-, have seemed impossible which were accomplished all .the same in due" time.' "." " THAT " HOUSE OF. GOVERNORS. 'The, project of adding a "House of Governors", to our National govern mental machinery does not wholly commend itself to .a .reflective mind. The motives of those who argue for it, as summarized- by William George Jordan, of. New York, in his little mon ograph, are excellent', but their wisdom Is questionable. More could be said Xcr their project if it included the abolishment of some of our present superfluous .machinery, but it does nothing of the kind. It merely adds another Intricate set of eccentrics and gears to an engine which is already too complicated to run with efficiency or economy. But even if the proposed House of Governors were, intended to replace some cumbrous and lethargic department of the Federal Govern ment, instead of attaching a new con trivance, it would still be undesirable. The Governors of the states are local officials elected for purely local purposes. They are the most con spicuous and valuable factors in tiia state government as distinguished from the Federal. The instinct of the people has been constantly increasing their power of late and centering new confidence in them. In magnify ing the executive some states seem to have found a - corrective for the in efficiency of the legislative branch. No local official is more needed for strict ly home uses than the Governor. Were he to be spirited away and converted into a Federal functionary the states would have to replace him with a sim ilar official under a. new name, and what would be gained? To be sure, the projectors do not In tend to keep the Governors at Wash ington permanently. "An annual ses sion" of two or three -weeks" is Mr. Jordan's moderate demand at pres ent. But we know what comes from small beginnings. The attractiveness of the Federal side of their duties would Inevitably prevail" over the lo cal. The -state would lose the most essential figure in its government, and the - Nation would gain nothing, of consequence. Mr. Jordan seems to think the House of Governors would check current centralizing tendencies at Washington. He is probably wrong. There are heavy odds that it would aid the very thing he is eager to counteract. Once make the state Gov ernors a compact : organization and give them a finger in the Federal pie, and their affection for state authority will wither like the flower. Every frog would be an bx if it could". The only way to preserve. the Governor's whole some efficiency U . to., keep him pre cisely, what he is. an' official whose exclusive interest lies in his own state. His provincialism ' and sectional narrowness are, in a way, his funda mental virtues. At any rate, he is use ful only so long as his eye is fixed on local affairs. The. notion that a House of Govern ors would promote uniform laws in the various states may or may not be sound. It would depend on how much influence the Governor retained at home after his transformation into a Federal official. We suspect that his local Influence would lose its practi cal virtue and degenerate into mere machine building intrigue. All that is desirable in the way of the promo tlon of uniform laws by the state Gov ernors can-be attained by calling them together once In a while, more or less informally, as has been done already. The itch to put every good idea into a steel frame of hard and fast law is . a" perfect plague in the United States. Why not -leave some concepts free to evolve in the wild state ? Moreover, complete uniformity of local laws is not necessarily a desirable consummation. If all the states had exactly the same laws, why have sepa rate states? ' The distinctions between them would . become illusory. They would' differ-only in name. A great advantage of state antonomy is the freedom it affords for .legislative ex periments. New ideas can be worked out in the more adventurous commu nities without involving the whole country in risk of disaster. Where uni form statutes seem decidedly, worth while they are being attained through wide discussion and cautious experi ment. The process sometimes appears so slow that it makes one impatient. Still, deliberation is better than haste. Besides, there is nothing to hinder the Governors from - promoting uniform legislation at their own capitals if the subject interests them. ' WASHINGTON'S BOURNE. Miles Polndexter, Representative in Congress from Washington, is in surging all alone. He doesn't agree with anybody about this Balllnger Plnchot business. He thinks the Re publican majority is wrong, and has no right to control the House; he thinks the insurgent Republicans are wrong in endeavoring to reach a har monious understanding with the House organization; and he thinks the Democrats are" wrong for reasons not clear; yet there must be reasons, since Polndexter has hot yet announced his reaffillatlon with the Democratic party. For Poindexter was once a Democrat; then he was a Populist (so we hear); then he became a Republi can; then an insurgent; now he isn't anything. Polndexter thinks the Republican majority outraged the rights of the Democratic minority by declining to accept the Democratic nomination of Rainey, a bitter partisan, a personal foe of the President, and a malignant enemy of his Administration, to be on the Ballinger-Pinchot investigating committee. The privilege of naming members of this special committee was not extended to the minority as a right, but as a courtesy. The Democ racy deliberately abused the courtesy by nominating a member known to be grossly unfair in all partisan matters and extremely offensive to the Repub lican .majority and the Administra tion. The House, acting through, its responsible Republican majority, re jected him, as it should have done, and itself named a Democrat of unim peachable party standing. Nothing else could in reason have been asked or expected of the House. But Polndexter, -where, oh, where is he? All alone in the political chaos at Washington, without influence or party or future. For Poindexter Is the Bourne of Washington State. He is another choice blossom of the direct primary. He Jonathanbourned the Republican party rnt6 giving him a Congressional nomination in 190 8 by a small plurality over half a dozen other candidates; then, being the Re publican nominee, party loyalty gave him the election. Party loyalty! Now you see what Poindexter Is doing for his party. PORTLAND'S WHEAT EXPORTS. A Seattle correspondent writes The Oregonian questioning the statement that "Portland is, next to New Tork, the largest wheat center in the United States." He asks: "Is it not true that both Duluth and Minneapolis lead Portland in this respect?" 1 Bulletin No. 6, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, under date of January 12, gives the total wheat ex ports for 1909 as follows: New York, 12,587,53? bushels; Portland, 6,571,000 bushels; Duluth, 4,614,277 bushels. Puget Sound is fourth with 3,996,516 "bushels. Our correspondent bases his sus picions of the Portland claim . to second place on the heavy car receipts at Duluth and Minneapolis. These re ceipts are, of course, not reflected in Duluth's exports, and are probably heavier than those of Portland. That Portland's export trade is only a small portion of her actual wheat business i3 Bhown, however, by the figures for 1909 on coastwise wheat and flour traffic. Exclusive of the 5,571,000 bushels exported as wheat, Portland last year handled an additional 8,000. 000 bushels which was shipped either coastwise or as flour to the Orient. OUR BEST CUSTOMERS. In order to make clear the reason for granting minimum- tariff rates to some countries while higher rates are demanded from others, the State De partment has made public a report of trade relations between the United States and foreign countries. By this report we find that the United King dom takes nearly one-half of all the exports sent by the United States to' Europe, and one-third of all exported to the entire world. In 1908 we sold to the United 'Kingdom more than $600,000,000 worth of goods. Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey also showed a strong preference for American goods. While the volume of their purchases from the United States was small in comparison with that of Great Britain. they, nevertheless, favored this country with their patron age. . This preferential tariff, while mak ing concessions in favor of the few countries that have displayed a pref erence for American exports, of course, does not pull down the barriers far enough to offer any material advan tage to the unfortunate American consumer who should be permitted to enjoy the advantages of the cheap products which our foreign customers would like to sell to us. There is probably no other phase of the ship subsidy question that has been more frequently touched on than that stereotyped statement that we are paying the foreigners $200,000,000 per year to carry our freight to mar ket, and that all of this sum could be saved if wo would pay a ship subsidy of big proportions. The natural in ference of the uninformed on reading that, ancjent stock argument of . the subsidy-seekers would be that this JT200,000,000 was a dead loss to the country, and that we were receiving nothing in return for it. These recent statements of the showing made by the foreign trade of the country are interesting, when taken in connection with this freisrht space which we buy from the for- elgner. The .value of American ex ports for 1909 was $1,727,383,128. This enormous amount of" American products was sold to the people who have supplied the tonnage for carry ing it to market. We paid them the $200,000,000 freight for carrying away the $1,727,383,128 worth of American exports which they bought, because we had found by actual experience that we could not deliver the goods In American ships except at a cost far in excess of the $200,000,000. Aside from this, when our best cus tomers have no more remunerative field in which to invest their savings than shipping, they might not be fi nancially situated so that they could purchase such large quantities at goods from us, unless we gave them in return some business for their ships. The arrangement is of mutual advan tage to this country and to the for eigners and, until the American ship owners are in a position to sell us $200,000,000 worth of 'ocean freight space for $200,000,000 there will be no incentive to change. The Pacific Mail Steamship Com pany is said to be contemplating es tablishment of a line of steamers be tween Seattle and the Orient in con nection with extension of the Union Pacific service to Puget Sound. There are two excellent reasons why the Ori ental business of the Union Pacific system should be" shifted north from the Bay City. One is the heavy offer ings of flour for shipment to the Ori ent, and no longer obtainable in San Francisco. The other is the necessity of providing westbound tonnage for cars needed to handle the lumber traffic originating in the Puget Sound district recently entered by the Union Pacific. The Oriental flour trade, which had Its inception in California, has long since departed from that state, and has probably reached Its maximum volume out of the northern ports. For .many years, however, it will continue to be a most important factor in supplying cargo for west bound Oriental liners. That expected flood of wheat with which the Argentine was to deluge the markets of the Old World has appar ently been delayed in -transit. Ship ments for the week ending yesterday were but 504,000 bushels, compared with 2,704,000 bushels for the same week last year. This is a very insig nificant amount to come out of a coun try which for the next three months will be the principal source of sup ply for the importing countries of Eu rope. Australia, which has already begun shipping heavily, is also falling a little short of last year, this week's shipments amounting to 2,704,000 bushels, compared with 2,894,000 bushels the corresponding week last year. Fortunately for the European bread-eaters, the stocks on hand in Europe are materially larger than they were a year ago, and higher prices have undoubtedly resulted in some curtailment of the consumption. A considerable number of recently invented airships which were Intended to make their Initial flight at Los An geles were unable to get oft the earth, and their inventors were very much downhearted over their failure. There is room for some consolation in the thought that, so long as they remained on terra flrma, there was no liability of the aviators losing their lives by a drop from the clouds. A Seattle attorney announces that he will deliver messages from John Wilkes Booth to the people of Seattle, telling where he is and what his spirit is now doing. Having established com munication with the spirit world, it would be a great stroke of enterprise for the Seattle man to get in commu nication with the late Darius Green and get. his. views on flying machines "over yonder." Charles Messener, of Chehalis, who contributed to the death of his invalid wife by brutally abusing her and was placed under arrest, whinlngly attrib utes her death and his present plight to "drink." Drinking, he means. News from the Orient is to the effect that Japan is discouraging emigration, except into near-by Asia. In the Spring the Japs may go into Russian territory by corps and army. Count Boni may feel he has lost a lot of money, now that Marjorie Gould Is slated to marry young Drexel. But can a -man lose any money he never had? - The boycott on meat in many East ern Cities is fiTOod for th health nf hA boycotters, but most of them will jump ior a Done wnen the ordeal Is over. It is said that after the finishes up, Binger Hermann will de sire to rerer the question to the peo ple. But, of course, that depends. Stensland, Chicago banker, who stole the savings of the poor, is paroled af ter three years. It is little wonder Morse and Walsh are hopeful. This is the weather that used to pre vail all Winter before the advent of a lot of persons who thought they knew better. Operation of public dancing halls in this city on Sundays will continue, but there will be no "all promenade to the bar!" , A Portland Chinaman's wife ran away with a Jap. - We didn't suppose there was that much preference. Elimination of the rear handrail will decrease streetcar accidents until ail women become left-handed. Who now will say that a Portland policeman Is never at the right place at the right time? Would-be hold-up men are learning that honest wages are safer than pistol-point robbery. Colonist rates in effect March 1 will affect the census slightly. A dead bandit is better than a live hold-up. Speed the work. This latest boycott may be the work of a nut trust. THE TAFT REFORM PROGRAMME. Legislation That the President "Will Ask of Consrress. From Washington Dispatch to New York Evening Post. It becomes possible and permissible to outline the Winter's executive programme which President Taft will ask the two houses of Congress to enact into law, and which the Republican leaders of both branches have promised the Presi dent shall be enacted into law. The items of the programme in the order of their importance are: Amendments to the interstate commerce act. A law providing for the voluntary Fed eral Incorporation of corporations. u- A law putting upon the statute books the so-called Roosevelt policies on the conservation of natural resources, as rec ommended In Secretary Bellinger's an nual report. A law creating a postal savings bank system. A law for the reorganization of the government of Alaska. A statehood law for the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. Drastic reductions in appropriations and economy in Federal expenditure. That is the President's Winter pro gramme of legislation. That is the pro gramme which Aldrich, " Hale, Cannon. Payne, Dalzell. Tawney and the other Republican managers of legislation have promised Mr. Taft they will take up and endeavor to put through for him. That is the programme upon which the Re publican members of Congress must go to the country next November for re election. The radical "insurgents" of the Middle West have been demanding "action" of the President. They will have their fill of it. If they enact into law all the proposals which the President recom mends Mr. Taft will not, with blare of trum pets or Bounding drums, seek to agitate the. public mind in behalf of his recom mendations. He will not personally ap peal to the country before applying to Congress to have his recommendations made into- law. He will not start a "back fire" in the districts of members of Congress who show themselves luke warm or antagonistic in acceding to his suggestions for legislation. In fine, he will not employ Roosevelt methods in seeking to make the so-called Roosevelt policies effective. Mr- Taft has let this much be known very clearly. The President has conferred fully and freely , with the Republican party man agersin Congress who have come to him. He will continue to urge his plans by personal solicitation upon all Repub lican Senators and Representatives who come to the White House. He has told Republican Congressmen that he will not make any legislative recommendations that good Republicans cannot conscien tiously advocate and support. Having made his recommendations it will rest upon Congress to enact them into law or not. as it sees fit. But Congress must take the responsibility. Mr. Taft feels that he will have done all that he may properly do when, through special mes sages and' by personal private solicita tion, he has urged his views upon the two branches and the individual members. BILLBOARDS A PUBLIC NUISANCE. Thus Deelared a, New York. Supreme Justice In a Recent Decision. Philadelphia Inquirer. Among recent decisions against bill boards was that by Justice Seabury, of the New York Supreme Court, in a case in which the authorities of Man hattan Borough were the defendants, with the C. J. Sullivan Advertising Company as plaintiff. This decision up held the contention that the advertis ing company had no right to erect signs on a temporary ' shed across a public highway. An Important point in Justice Seabury's decision was to this effect: "Such signs being outside the build ing line, it Is doubtful If the municipal authorities could lawfully have author ized their erection. The streets or high ways are public property. The streets. Including the sidewalks, belong 'from side to side and end to end' to the public. Abutting owners have no right to appropriate this public property to private uses. The erection of billboards or signs upon or over public property is an appropriation of public property to private uses, and is no more sanc tioned by the law than is the public appropriation of private property." Further, in ruling against the signs. Justice Seabury declared tnat "it is a case where the public property has been wrongfully invaded by private or individual interests in such a way as to impair the common rights of all in it." He held, too, that "the presence of the billboards upon the public high way is a mere nuisance, which the mu nicipal authorities will do well' to abate." In Defense of Assembly. Hood River Glacier. The assembly, as we understand it, is to be a gathering of delegates from the various counties on the old con vention style to recommend candidates to be voted on at the primaries. There seems to us to be no harm in this plan. It will not be. in violation of the pri mary law and it will only be able to recommend to the consideration of the party at the primary. The Republican voters in Oregon, who form an over whelming majority, are represented in the United States Senate by a Demo crat and a what-you-may-call-hlm. This state of affairs needs remedying. When the majority of the voters believe in the Republican principles they should be represented by men who stand by these principles. If the assembly will help us to gain this point, we are for the assembly. Many of the leading men of the party believe that it will be the means of getting the party together. We do not feel sure that it will but we are willing to try it, as there is little danger of making things any Whose Business r Gervals Star. There is no question but that much of the opposition to Republican assemblies originates amongst members of the op posite party. True Republicans should pay no attention to Democrats and Pop ulists who may take so much interest in Republican success and decry any at tempt of Republicans to meet and talk matters over. It's none of their business in the first place and there must be a strong motive behind their unsolicited interest and sympathy in the dominant party. It is surely for no good. PIlKrlmage Made in a Motor Car. Cairo, Egypt, Cor. New York World. The Khedive of Egypt has gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca and is making the land part of the journey in an auto mobile, accompanied by four chefs and ten cooks. One cannot help wondering what Mahomet would say if he could see a pilgrimage of this description. The ordinary pilgrim tries to do the journey on foot, carrying nothing but a staff. He begs a handful of grain on the way and lives on this meager fare. Many take two years for the pilgrimage, but the Khedive hoped to complete his in 20 days. No Default , In This Policy. Kansas City Times. Navigation of inland waterways is one Roosevelt policy, anyhow, that shows no tendency toward default. WISHES TO BE ON TRUTH'S SIDE. Dr. Funk Gives His Views on the Ques tion of Immortality. NEW YORK. Jan. 15. (To the Editor.) Kindly permit me to set myself right in The Oregonian. Within the past three weeks I have received many letters and a score of newspaper clippings touching matter in supposed Interviews with my self, which seem to have been given un usual publicity reaching me just now from the far South and from the West as far as San Francicso. One clipping gives a page colored picture In which I appear, as the editor graphically puts it, with my eyes "glued to a telescope studying the stars" as my future abode, urged thereto by some "Little bright spirit." Several others, one from a Pittsburg paper, an other from Buffalo and still another from Chicago, say that I believe that "souls when they leave the body straightway forget their earthly ties and flit from star to star." Other clippings' have it that I "spend much time In searching with microscope and telescope the nature of the spirit world" this In the way of psychic research. All such talk might possibly be of some slight value to the world if It were true that I said it. The unfortunate thing about It the one thing that makes me care is that many bereaved persons, with tender hearts and more or less weak minds, are needlessly distressed and look to wrong sources for comfort. That telescope picture is a fake. It is puerile nonsense to talk about seeing heaven or a spirit by any physical mag nifying glass of whatever power; as well talk about seeing a noise or hearing a color. Is it a matter of surprise that I should find it profitable to spend some rest mo ments in the study of the stars? It Is a "brain-stretcher" to try to realize that huge worlds tens of thousands of times larger than this one are flying a score of miles a second, and that the earth is like a tremendous auto in which we are whirling about the sun some 500,000,000 miles once every 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds! That fact, If thought of until it gets into our con sciousness means growth. Why should it surprise anyone to be told that there is more pleasure to the square inch in a telescope or microscope than In any $5000 automobile? A real glimpse of the astro nomical universe and a conception that we are part of it, and that the power behind it all is our Father, tends to give a self-respect that helps us to despise mean things. As Tennyson would put It. we are too apt -to miss being great for tear of being great. Certainly, I believe that if we die we shall live again, possibly In other bodies, and it may be on other plateaus of. this earth, and It may be that other stars will be our home some time in that "one far off divine event." In the Father's house there are many mansions, and there Is plenty of time in eternity for many things to happen. But none of us know these things scientifically not yet. It may be that spirit communication Is. a fact, but to my mind such communication has not as yet been demonstrated. Alfred Russell Wallace and Sir Oliver Lodge think that they have obtained on this point scien tific facts satisfactory to themselves, and so thought Dr. Frederic Meyers and Dr. Richard Hodgson, and so thinks Dr. Hyslop. The proof, while not a demon stration to myself, is sufficient to make me sure that our American scientists will sorely blunder if they do not take advantage of the presence of such an one as Eusapla Palladlno to prove or dis prove what Lombroso and Richet thought that they proved through her. What are scientists for except to detect facts and interpret their meaning to the rest of us poor mortals? Let us remember it is quite certain that the greatest of all truths are In the be yond and are unseen, and that the great est of all scientific achievements Is to find out how to cultivate the acreage of Intellect and Bplrlt in each of us. It is easier and far less important to grow a billionaire than a well-developed soul, and soul growth is something far more worth while. Do not poke fun at it. Diogenes, when told that the people were deriding him, replied, "But I am not derided." And let us never forget that It is one thing to wish to have the truth on our side, and quite another to wish to be on the side of truth. Only truth 1b logical, and it alone can win in the end. L K. FUNK. THE ELECTION IN BOSTON. Failure of the Effort to Eliminate Po litical or Party Considerations. New York World, January 12. , The election in Boston yesterday af forded little evidence as to the working of the short ballot and little as to the expediency of direct nominations. In an election timed and designed to intro duce non-partisanship into the govern ment of the city, political considera tions and political prejudices seem to have availed with a very large pro portion of the voters. Each candidate for Mayor was nom inated by petition of 5000 or more voters, yet Hibbard (Republican) got only one-third that number of votes, Taylor (Democrat) scarcely an eighth. Either their followers deserted them or else which is quite as likely. Demo cratic voters In some cases helped nom inate Hibbard to weaken Storrow, and Republican voters helped nominate Taylor to weaken Fitzgerald. Boston is a Democratic city. Storrow, an independent Democrat, but running solely on local, non-partisan issues, got some Democratic votes and practically the whole Republican strength. Fitz gerald, an avowedlly. partisan candi date, wins by a reduced party plurality in the greatest total of votes ever cast in the city. The appeal to non-partisanship thus failed of success. But it failed because the voters preferred Fitzgerald for Mayor. With both Hibbard and Taylor eliminated the result would very prob ably have been the same. Under Mr. Fitzgerald, then, Boston, a city of 650,000 people, is to make with in the next four years the first experi ment in this country on a large scale in city government practically by commis sion. It will be an experiment worth watching. Thirty Years of Sea Life. Boston Dispatch. It was as a cabin boy on a coasting schooner that Captain John Pritchard, commodore of the Cunarder Mauretania, the world's greatest and fastest liner, began life. He was not much more than 10 when he went to sea and learned to peel potatoes for the master of a little Welsh ship. From a good cook he made himself Into a good sea man, and obtained a mate's certificate when he was 21 years old. Captain Pritchard has been with the Cunard line which he Joined as a junior offi cer for 30 years. He has now an nounced his Intention of retiring into privato life. In 1911. Chicago News. The head of the Smithsonian stood at the wireless long-distance telephone'. "Hello! Is this Colonel Roosevelt? Well, say. Colonel, if you keep on send ing in specimens of extraordinary ani mals, we will have to enlarge the in stitute and move Washington." Back came the flash from the jun gles, "Move Washington." For even then the huge express vans were delivering an oribi, a bohor, a singing topi and a kob. Preparing- to Get Foreign Trade. Kansas City . Journal. The Germans are laying the founda tions for increased foreign trade by more attention to the teaching of lan guages in the public schools. GREAT RECORD OK SINGLE YEAR. Review of 190 From the Angles of Finance and Industry. . Literary Digest. The various reviews of the past year in the United States reveal many angles from which its events may be sur veyed. Of greatest Importance to the general public, perhaps, is the fact that It was a year of financial and industrial recovery. Thus we' find such authori ties as Bradstreets (New York), The Iron Trade Review (Cleveland), The Manufacturers' Record (Baltimore). The Railway World (Philadelphia), Dun's Review (New York) and The American Banker (New York) emphasizing the speed and thoroughness with which the country has shaken off the lethargy which followed the panic o two years ago. The story of 1909. says The Amer ican Banker, "demonstrates most clearly the enormous vigor which impels the nation to the front." It is a record of recovery and readjustment, asserts the New York Globe, "which in many re spects has no parallel." The year witnessed the re-omploy-ment of much idle capita! as well as much idle labor. "Although it will probably not be classed as a boom year," remarks Bradstreets, "it saw many records of financial and industrial achievements exceeded. The foreign commerce of the United States during 1909, according to the New York Finan cier, "exceeds In value that of any earlier year with the .single exception of 1907," while the imports alone "were larger than in any previous year." The crops, as a whole, were abundant, but not record-breaking, although the pre vailing high prices placed the aggre gate returns to the farmer at points never before reached. The Government balance-sheet also made a much more satisfactory showing at the close of 1909 than it made a year as'o. The stream of Immigration has resumed Its normal flow, and the New Year's esti mates of the Census Bureau places the country's total continental population at 87,684,000. The year's new securities, according to the New York Journal of Commerce, amount to $1.6Sl,620.fiS0. an increase of more than $258,000,000 over 1008. Of the grand total railroads were responsi ble for $1,015,207,280. The year's com mercial failures, as compiled by Dun's Review, numbered 12,807 320i less than 1908, and involving more than $69,000,000 less In liabilities. . The Textile World Record (Roston) reports that the revival of business in 1909 is reflected in the increased num ber of new textile mills, "which num ber 289 for this year, as compared with 222 for 1908." "Every branch of the textile industry, cotton, woolen knit ting and silk." the same publication adds, "shows an increase." Of the sit uation in cotton the Manufacturers' Record tells us: There has been depression in the cotton goods trade, iiut. on the other hand, there has been great prosperity to the. cotton-grow-ers, for they have been getting Ior this year's crop a higher price than they have received in the last 25 years. ruring the great boom a few years ago, -when cotton went to even higher figures than have pre vailed this Fall, it was late in the season, when the farmer had but little cotton on hand. The grower got hut little benefit out of th advance. This' time the farmer has reaped the profit. Writing of the iron and steel trade, which as a basic industry Is regarded as the barometer of business In gen eral, B. S. Stephenson says in the Iron Trade Review: How complete has been the recovery is evidenced by the heavy production of Oc tober, when corporation plants established 141 new records, including pig Iron, insois, and other varied lines of finished products, and the output of many independent iron, ore and steel plants was similarly large. Earnings of the corporation, always an Im portant gage to conditions in the trade, de clined during the first quarter only to shew enormous increases for the second, and third. The industry enters the new year with the expectation that It will have a ple.ee among the relatively few years of record aetlvitv and prosperity, and all indications point that WQ4 Another index to the general well being of the country is found in the condition of the railroads, which re port gross earnings for the last half of 1909 surpassing the receipts for any other six months in railroad history. Says the Railway World .(Philadel phia): The gross- earnings for this period reached tho large sum of fl.420.uu4.uun. The net earnings, however, did not show such a grat ifying increase owing to the uniformly and continued high cost of operation and of material. Taxej during the year Increased materially, the railroads of the country pay ing into the treasuries of the states a to tal of J92.0OO.O0O. ... Railway construction, which in round num bers amounted to 3700 miles, was the small est In a decade, with the single exception of the preceding year. As apportioned by states. Texas led with over or.O miles; Ne vada came second, with 3U0, 'and California third, with nearly 250. The actual number of cars supplied the railroads during the year did not greatly exceed UO.OOO. while the number of loco motives was under 3000. Although these de liveries exceeded those for the preceding year, they were far below those for anv other recent year. Orders, however, that have so far been placed for 1010 deliv ery Indicate that the present yeat" should prove one of great activity In the ratlwuv supply business, as the cars alreadv ordered number nearly 200.000 and the total number of locomotives are nearly 5UO in excess of tho entire 1009 deliveries. The year's special favor seems to have been bestowed upon the farmers and stockraisers. According to the Farmers' and Drovers' Journal (Chi cago), 1909 was a year of short pro duction and high price in livestock. The value of livestock handled in the Union Stockyards of Chi -ago, we are told, amounted to J316.754.000. a sum more than $9,000,000 in excess of the 190S valuation. Yet the actual number of animals received at the stookvards showed a decrease of 1.544,997. Dur ing the year "the highest average prices on record were established for native beef cattle, Western range cat tle and lambs." The year's vast grain speculations according to the Chicago Tribune, in dicate that the country is on a home consumption basis: poculative deals of vast proportions: with ti.umry is on a nome-consumption basis were borne out by the course of prices which averaged high for all commodities, and. In several instances, touched the high est levels reached In a quarter of a century. Three Biographies Worth Reading. J. F. Rhodes in "Historical' Essays '' There occur to me three Intero'stine biographies, the "Life of Darwin," the "Life of Huxley" and the "Life of Pas teur." which give the important part of the story of scientific development during the last half of the Nineteenth Century. Now, I believe that a thor ough mastery of these fhree books will be worth more to the historical student than any driblets of science that he may pick up in an unsystematic col lege course. Pronunciation of Three Words. ORETOWN, Or., Jan. 21. (To the Ed itor.) Kindly give the proper pronun ciation of the words, "massage," "avia tor," "chauffeur." R. H. S. Mah-sahj (soft "j." accent on last syllable), or, rather, mah-sahzh. A-vee-a-ter (long "a" In both cases, accent on first syllable). Show-fer (accent on first syllable). The pronunciation here given will be disputed by those who try to sound the word a la Francals, viz., something like "show-fare," accent on the last sylla ble. . Fair Exchange. Life. "Do you have social relations with the family ?" "No: jfurely business 'wa eichanaa p ."'"ing marKet conditions, marked the year 1U09 as one of the most memorable In the history of the grain trade. Multiply ing evidences that In manv rpsnprt. -hi. LChristmaa .presents."