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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1910)
THE 3IOKXT'G OREGOMAy, FRIDAY, FEBRTTAR-Y - 4,. 1910. PORTLAND, OREGON. Entered at Portland. Oreson, Postoffice at Second-Class Matter. feabscripUon Kates Invariably In Advance. BT MAIL.) Tl!y. Eunday Included, one year. ..... .$8.00 Iatly. Sunday Included, six months.... 4.25 Xaily. Funday Included, three montha. . 2.25 Iaily, Sunday Included, one month..... .75 Iaily, without Sunday, one year 6.0O Xaily. without Sunday. Fix months..... 3.25 raily. without Sunday, three months... 1.75 XaJly. without Sunday, one month..... .O Weekly, one year .. ... 1.50 Sunday, one year 2..V unday and weekly, one year......... 3.50 tBy Carrier.) rjally. Sunday included, one year....... 9.00 Xaily, Sunday Included, one month..... .75 How to Remit Send PostoffCice money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at the sender's risk. Give postoffice ad dress in full. Including county and state. Fostace Rates 10 to 14 pages. 1 cent; 18 to 2 pases. 2 cents; 30 to 4 pages. 3 cents: 40 to &o pages. 4 cents. Foreign postaga double rate. Eastern Business Office. The S. T. Beck-' with Special Arrency New York, rooms 4H nO Trthune building. Chicago, rooms 510-&12 Tribune building. rORTLAM), FRIDAY, FEB. 4, 1910. REMINISCENT. "When Mr. Plttook started The Morning Oregonian, February 4. 1861, there were already three daily papers In Portland. All were of the most primitive and meager description. Upon its beginning The Oregonian could not be better than any one of the rest, since they had access to all available sources of news that it pos sessed, and the best editorial ability obtainable here. Apparently The Oregonian had no more or better J chance of going? to the head than any other one of the group. It was the steady, quiet and indefatigable effort of'its owner and manager that car ried it through the difficulties of com petition and the general discourage ments incident to journalistic effort in so small a field. The three daily papers published here when The Morning Oregonian appeared as the fourth were these: The Commercial Advertiser, which Jiad been published more than one year; the Daily Mews, for some months, and the Daily- Times, Just started. There was no telegraph in Oregon or the Northwest. Exciting as the times were for it was Just 'at the beginning of the Civil War news was unobtainable till long after the events of the day; and it was not pos sible to tell when steamers would arrive from San Francisco, or later, when the stage coaches would get through the seas of mud and moun tains of snow between Sacramento and Portland. But vigilance then was a prime factor, even as it is now, and even more so; and the ceaseless vigilance and Industry that directed The Oregonian in those days and after days made the newspaper. The three pVedecessors of The Ore gonian disappeared one by one. The next effort was the Daily Union, which appeared in 1864. It lasted but a few months. In 1S66 The Oregon Herald was started. It had many vicissitudes but. lasted ten years or more, and was a formidable com petitor. Rapid Increase of the strength of the Democratic party in Oregon and throughout the Northwest in those days gave the Oregon Herald much encouragement and support. It fell at last through the pressure that attended increasing cost of publica tion. In 1870 the Oregon Bulletin was started. The money was sup plied by Ben Holladay. The Ore gonian. the Herald and the Bulletin all had the same general press re port, which was scanty, of course, yet covered the leading features of the general news. ' The papers all three of them lost money for years. The losses of the Bulletin, from the beginning to. the end .of its career, exceeded $150,000; those of tho Her ald, in. the various hands that con trolled it, were not less;., and The Oregonian accumulated a big debt, which it took years of subsequent . effort to discharge. After the disap pearance of the Herald and the Bulle tin the .next considerable effort was that of the Northwest News. This paper made its appearance about 1881. It "broke" one set of men after another; till finally after a. career of seven or eight years it ceased to exist. Its effort -cost its long line of proprietors not less than J200.000. It had, throughout, the same general news report as The Ore gonian. It will be seen from this recital that The Oregonian as it has said hereto fore has not been rocked or dandled into fortune. "Labor omnia vincit" never had clearer application than in its case, from the beginning till to day. The ceaseless and skillful atten tion that Mr. Plttock has given it has been the main factor in its business success, and to this day he brings to every important matter the same care ful and attentive industry as in the daysiwhen the newspaper was strug gling for Its life. It Is only just now, after these long years of effort, that The Oregonian feels Inclined to express the belief that its position as a newspaper is so well established as to be beyond the reach of any of the ordinary chances of reverse. It is true, however, and always will be as true, in this business as in every other, and more so than in most, that what has been gained by t-are and industry must bu as care fully and industriously maintained. Till within a very few years of this present time the field here has been a most difficult one in which to pub- lish a newspaper. All items in the cost of publication have always been .higher Kere than in the Eastern states, and the field here, till recently, has been a narrow one, since both circulation and advertisements must be scanty where the population is small and widely scattered. But the country is filling now with a new peo ple: Tortlund is growing fast; rur.il free delivery is advantageous to newspapers, and the circulation and the advertising business of The Ore gonian are growing faster than at any forr. er time. The progress of The Oregonian is as good a gauge as any of the growth of the country: per haps the very best. The week-day Issue now regularly exceeds 43,000 copies; the Sunday issue regularly exceeds- 53,600. and no papers are printed for which there is not posi tive demand. The exchange and free list does not exceed a few hundred copies, and the list throughout is the cleanest, that is, most fully paid, of that of any newspaper' in the Pacific States. Among newspaper men the vcleanness" of The Oregonian's cir culation list is proverbial. It proves that the paper is taken Jjy those who want it. Newspaper men and advertisers, too,, know there Is a difference be tween a genuine circulation and a padded one; between, a wholly paid circulation and one which consists largely of copies for -which io col lection 1s made; between the news paper that is taken and paid for be cause It Is wanted, and the newspaper that is forced on persons who haven't ordered it, yet is kept going to them through apprehension that if collec tion is attempted they will order it stopped. The public rightly believes that the newspaper which attaches little value to itself has little or no value in fact. As fast as the country has passed out of pioneer conditions The Ore gonian, which is its oldest surviving newspaper,, has traveled with It, and In the van. Tet they who have cre ated this newspaper have an affec tionate remembrance of the old times and conditions, which will soon cease to exist in living memory. The num ber who have read this newspaper from its beginning to this day is very small. One of them Almoran .Hill, of. Washington County, pioneer of 1843 died yesterday on his farm, after a residence thereon of more than sixty years. He probably is the last of the grown-up men who came with "the great migration of '43." CATEBFIIXARS OF THE STATE. Our people of the West wish these newer states developed as the older states have been developed, and they object, therefore, to the obstructive policy misnamed conservation, pro posed as a substitute for the general laws. In operation for generations, through, which or under which the older states have grown, mightily In population, wealth and power. The General Government Is not the proper manager of these natural re sources, or of their development. The states are. . The property should be held subject to the laws of the states, not of the United States. Held by the United States, its use and develop ment will be greatly hindered, if not rendered practically impossible. Moreover, officialdom, under direc tion of the United States, will devour the whole property. Its object will be to keep the people off the timber and cpal lands and . water powers, upon the plea of "conservation." But no way can be devised to protect these natural resources from the army of officials caterpillars of the state, who will consume more than flood and fire could destroy. Government should keep mountain reserves, but should sell all other lands, as heretofore, and allow the development of the country to pro ceed. The states then can and will assume and enforce Jurisdiction. Lieu land and timber claim frauds are now at an end. -It-was the fault of Con gress that they occurred. And the days of land grants are past. But our people, who desire to open the great resources of this Western coun try, desire the opportunities that were had in the older states, which now denounce as robbery the policy that made them all rich and great. Men who -make improvements are un willing to be the prey of a bureaucratic system at Washington, subjected at eveiy turn to rules and regulations prescribed by a set of theorizers, whose object will be obstruction, and the gathering in of taxes to make the bureau' "pay" expenses.'' The system will waste more than it will conserve and obstruct the progress of the coun try besides. - . - MORE ABOUT POSTAGE. The Postmaster-General's report, from which . Mr. Taft forged the thunderbolt he hurled at the news papers and magazines, states that it costs the Government 9.23 cents a pound to handle and transport these periodicals. The postage charged them on .the other band is "a lttle more than one cent a pound." The difference of some 8 cents a pound is reckoned as pure loss, and thus Mr. Taft reaches his theory that the periodicals are subsidized. Of course the question Is one of fact. Possibly the President is overhasty in conclud ing that the loss arises from charging too little postage on second-class mat ter. It may arise from paying the railroads too much for carrying it and from wasteful methods of handling t. The Saturday Evening Post states editorially that it sends more - copies -by express- than by mail and that the express charge is less than the rate of postage. If the express companies can -transport second-class matter for Jess than a cent a. pound, and pay huge dividends, it stands to reason that something must be wrong with those Governmental methods which bring about a loss when the charge is "a little more than a cent a pound." Some light is thrown upon this sub ject by the experience of Canada. The average haul of second-class matter is fully as long there as here, but the postoffice . manages in some way to avoid a deficit, though it charges lower rates. Up to August, 1908, Can ada charged one-half cent a pound postage on newspapers and magazines, but for all that its postoffice showed a surplus of more than- $800,000. They must understand bookkeeping' or some other art a good deal better In Canada than tiey do in Washington. Encouraged by this surplus, the Do minion government in August, 1908, cut down the second-class postage rate to one-fourth of a cent a pound. This is slightly less than a quarter of what our Government charges. We pay ex orbitant rates and produce a deficit. Canada pays rates one-fourth as large and produces a surplus. Our Govern ment proposes to rise the postage on newspapers and magazines. Canada reduces it and still makes money. Here is a quid to chew. The Postmaster-General's report helps one a little in the quandary. He says that there can be no doubt about the fairness of those railroad mail contracts which are "based on com petitive bidding." Perhaps so: but what about that "larger part" where the 'rates are fixed by law" ? But clearly, even if the railroad contracts were thriftily made, that would not cancel the "tremendous losses" on second-class matter, as Mr. Hitchcock calls them. ' There must be other leaks. One of them is In the rural free delivery, which' costs the post office $35,000,000 annually and pays only $7,250,000. Mr. Hitchcock helps out his case against the periodicals wonderfully by charging this deficit to their account. It is amazing that he does not charge them with the Congressional free-seed' bill also, which comes to the neat sum of $500, 000. But this is not all. The report says that by certain reforms in the money order and registry systems "more than a million dollars wilt, be annually saved." A million dollars is almost the sixth part of the entire annual cost of the registry service. It is 10 per cent of the total expense of the money-order and registry services to gether. If the "earnest attention" of a few experts can save 10 per cent almost at a glance in these compara tively simple departments, what is to be expected when they devote atten tion, equally earnest to the compli cated, careless and thriftless methods of handling second-class mail? Ten per cent of the expense of second-class mail is $7,300,000. This; with the rural delivery bill of $27. 750,000. which Mr. Hitchcock finds it convenient to charge to the periodi cals, makes $36,050,000, a sum which ought to be subtracted from the "tre mendous loss" of $64,000,000 if every one had his due. The loss on second class matter would then be no more than $28,000,000, which is not so tre mendous. There is another point. Mr. Hitchcock does not say explicitly what he did with the $18,000,000 which the railway mall service costs. If he charged it to the periodicals it ought" to be deducted. This'would re duce, the real loss on them to $10, 000,000, which is easily accounted for by extravagant overpayments to the railroads. Thus, whtn a little common sense is applied to the accounts of the post office, the necessity for raising second class postage fades away, but the need of economy and thrift in the depart ment appears overwhelming. XI PS. Like many other American travel ers, Mr. H. M. Cake returns from Eu rope in bitter disgust with the tipping system. Tips, he says in an inter view, amount to. about 15 per cent of the cost of a European trip. The ex orbitant fees which are exacted from Americans everywhere in Europe are a just judgment upon our travelers for their vanity and silly extravagance. No others are forced to pay gratuities nearly so large. Where an American pays 25 cents an Englishman finds sixpence enough. Sometimes our countrymen give 10 cents where the servant would not expect more than half a cent from anybody else. This is our own fault. Early trav elers from this country began the cus tom of throwing money away as they careered through Europe, and now others are forced to follow their ridic ulous example whether they like it or not. European servants believe that every. American is too rich to care what 'becomes of his money, and in bleeding him they are simply doing their duty by their families. Normally the tipping system is not an evil. It is a dsvice by which peo ple secure personal service of the sort they like, and upon the whole it is in expensive to those who practice it sen sibly. If European servants are not tipped they get no pay for their work In many places, but, on - the other hand, hotel bills are correspondingly lower than in America. 18 A LATVIEB'S FEE EVER TOO BIG? Eastern lawyers- and "newspapers have fallen -Into frenzied excitement over the fee of $775,000 which Mr. Untermyer received for effecting the merger of the Boston' and Utah cop per companies. They say that it is the largest fee a lawyer ever was paid. Evidently the million-dollar honorarium which Mr. Dill earned by engineering a trust through the labyrinth of the law a .few years ago has escaped their memories. We do not think that $775,000 is such a terribly large sum of money. Compared with a billion it is insig nificant indeed. Doubtless if Mr. Untermyer had not played the part of an oppressed and. exploited - wage slave in the transaction he would have received a good deal more. We should like to knpw how much Marxian sur plus value the two merging companies raked off after doling out this pittance to their lawyer. There Is no striking impropriety in a lawyer's obtaining all he can for his brainwork. Instead of upbraiding him when he gets a huge fee the truly righteous will laud him. They will admire him for spoiling the Egyptians when he can do it. Poetic Justice is thus executed since the Egyptians spoil everybody else. It is also decorous to feel a little proud of Mr. Untermyer, whose earnings no doubt fairly Indicate the vastness of his genius. When we recall that Mil ton onl:- received $60 for writing "Paradise Lost" we begin to appre ciate the position America has con quered in the intellectual world. THE UNIONIST SCARE IN ENGLAND. The clear merit, from the American point of view, of some of the main points contended for by the Lib erals in England and the remark able interest shown in the campaign make the election returns seem some what surprising, since the Unionists appear to have held their own 'as against the Liberal party. It is difficult to understand now why the Unionists throughout the campaign were in so obvious a panic. English papers containing verbatim speeches of the Hon. Lloyd-George and other prominent Liberals ottur some explanation of the 'change of sentiment which must have taken place in order to produce the results noted. The original issue of the peo ple against the peers seems to have drifted into a contest between "the Haves" and "Have-nots." In their eagerness to secure votes, the H-m. Lloyd-George and his friends promised so much In the way of old-age pen sions, readjustment of the taxation system and other drastic reforms that not only the peers but that great army of small property-owners and trades men became . frightened over the prospect of a serious drain on their resources. It might have been re garded by this middle class as. emi nently proper to cut down the income of a Lord from 50,000 pounds a year to 25,000 pounds., A .similar ratio, of decrease in the inetSrte of a smail property-owner or tradesman would, however, have spelled ruin: In his famous Newcastle speech Mr. Lloyd-George said that "a fully equipped Duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and Vnty are just as great a terror and the.v last longer." Had Mr Lloyd-George and his friends succeeded in formulat ing a policy by which a saving could have been effected" through reduction of the cost of both Dukes and Dread noughts, without levying a horizontal tax against all kinds of thrift, the Unionists would have been hopelessly beaten. The motive of this remarka ble leader was undoubtedly good, but his proposed system of reform pre sented so many objectionable features that that great mass of voters who were neither peers nor paupers were afraid to sanction It. This movement toward an equalization of the burden which the people of Great Britain ara carrying is not a closed incident, how ever. The fact that, despite the handi cap that blind, unreasoning Socialism placed on it. the movement came very near success, is ominous for the peers, unless they take the initia tive in reforms which eventually they must, willingly or unwillingly, accept. And that is what thev will probably do. Bonds to the amount of $350,000 were voted to build a new High School building by 193 taxpayers of district No. 1, fifty taxpayers dissenting. The indifference of taxpayers of Portland on a proposition involving" the ex penditure of so large a sum of money on a single school building, as shown by the absence of the vast taxpaying body from the school polls, can only be explained by the fact or supposi tion that the people have confidence in the School Board, under whose direction the money will be expended. The new building will have a com manding site and will be known as the Lincoln High School. It will supersede the present out-dated building and will be of the most mod ern construction, lighting, heating and ventilation. Let us hope also that it will be spacious as to ground plans, thus eliminating many of the flights of stairs that have made the present Lincoln High School building a h,ealth-breaker to myriads of young girls and a weariness of the flesh to a long line of school teachers. News of the close of the Civil War has penetrated the . backwoods of the South, so that we no longer hear that ancient "gag" about Confederate women still knitting socks for the soldiers a generation after the war clhsed. Confederate currency, how ever, is still in circulation. While most of the men who accept it at face value are of the kind who neglect to apply the acid test when buying a gold brick, an occasional purchaser comes to light who is supposed to be wise to the wickedness of the world. The Chinese crew on a Blue Funnel " liner at Vancouver, B. C, made liberal pur chases of the paper money of the old South a few days ago, giving in ex change first-class money- of the Far East. International complications will not arise, for the enlightened China man who bought will charge the loss to the educational fund. . "It's an ill wind," etc. While Bra zil is piling up a surplus of coffee on which the government is advancing money until the market improves, the Nicaraguan crop is reported the heav iest in ten years. But, fortunately for Brazil, the Nicaraguan revolution came along before the crop was har vested, and. with all of the available supply of male labor in active mili tary service, and the females prepar ing provisions and equipment, there is no one to take care of the crop, and it is estimated that not to exceed one third of it will be saved. War has always proved so much more attrac tive than any other calling in the Cen tral American trouble zone that the loss of a big coffee crop wlil hardly cause much regret among the patriots who are following the flag of the emancipator or the dictator, as the case may be. - No city that makes any pretension to decent appearance can afford to permit billboards anywhere within its limits. These most" unsightly things offend all taste and sensibility; they give the city the appearance of a cheap and nasty place; even on vacant lots they should not be allowed. The push clubs and improvement clubs and city beautiful clubs should all take up the war against them. Objection to dis figurement of buildings with great .letters that advertise cigars and other things should be included in the raid. A public opinion against these and all similar abominations ought to be created in Portland that would taboo such monstrosities. The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, is the only newspaper in the State of Washington that stands by Pinchot and Glavis against Ballinger. Had the Pinchot-Glavis policy prevailed in former times the City of Spokane would not now exist. Government would have retained ownership of the great water power that has made the City of Spokane, and with the city, the Spokesman-Review newspaper.. - The Indian Industrial School at Tacoma will hereafter be known aa the Cushman Indian School. This name means "something. It stands for the memory of a man who as Repre sentative in Congress from Washing ton took great interest in the Indian service as It was worked out in his Congressional district, and whose un timely death was widely deplored. The new Mayor of New York admits the corruption of the city Js beyond compare and favors municipal dance halls for the amusement and protec tion of young people. New York has the largest police force of the country and one is led. to wonder what it does for the money paid, The bill which Secretary Ballinger caused to be introduced in the House of Representatives, carrying an ap propriation of $75,000 for the pur chase of land and building an asylum for the insane in Alaska is in the in terest of both humanity and economy. The beautiful connection between the "let up" on Brownell and the production in the Hermann trial of some of Hermann's letters to Brow nell, contribute to the gayety of the trial in the United States Court. The trouble with this latest Navy scandal seems to be that Paymaster Auld did not "assault" Dr. Cowles half hard, enough for attempting to "get gay" with the daughter of a dead of ficer. Why search in the dark for the measly tail of a runaway comet when a free view of pink-tinted Mount Hood can be had just before sunset? Portland's class A . buildings are becoming so common that soon the erstwhile tallest structure will seem to be in a canyon. To add to the distress of cost of high living, the Diamond Cutters' Union has raised the seale. All signs point to a hard Summer for the poor man. "Hair removers," says an advertise ment, "are dangerous." To be sure. One does not-need to be scalped to learn. FAILl'KE OF" CANAL LIBEL sriTS Indiana and New York. Federal Courts Obantrnrt Roosevelt Prosecution. Little or nothing further Is expected to come of the Panama-libel prosecu tions started by Roosevelt, when Presi dent, against publishers of the Indian apolis News and later of the New York World, now that Judge Hough, in the United States Circuit Court in New York, has 'quashed the indictment against the publishers of the World, after Judge Anderson, of the United States District Court in Indianapolis, refused to order removal of the pub lishers of the News from that city to Washington for trial. Judge Hough rendered his decision on Wednesday of last week, and Judge Anderson rendered his last October. The law under which the prosecutions were Invoked was the "Storey act" passed by Congress in 1825, amended down to . 1898. making any crime on Government territory punishable in the Federal courts, under the laws of the state in which the Government terri tory was located. The libel was al leged to have been committed against the Government In New York City and circulated at West Point and through the United States mails. Judge Hough holds that because the alleged libel was committed not exclusively on Govern ment territory, but also in other parts of New York, the offense belongs to the jurisdiction of the state courts and. should be by them tried. The alleged libel was committed in the publication of articles which al leged, cor- n the sale of the Panama erty by the French companj L'nited States. The articles : . that a secret profit of some .,j00 out of the $40,000, 000 paid by the United States accrued to an American syndicate, which in cluded Douglas Robinson, brother-in-law of Roosevelt; Charles P. Taft, brother of Secretary -of -War Taft, and William Nelson Cromwell. Delancey Nieoll. attorney for the World, in Judge Hough's court, argued the motion to quash the Indictment, contending that it was never intended that the crime of libel, which might be punished in a state Jurdisdiction, punishable In the Federal, courts. The alleged .libel, he argued, was subject solely to the jurisdiction of the state courts of New York. He went back to the earliest development of the law of libel, showing the . revolt in. this country from the strict conceptions of the old English common law and com ing down through the passage of the alien and sedition laws by the Feder alist party in 1798, and their expira tion three years later. He traced the revulsion of feeling after the expiry of those laws and the legal opinion supporting, the contention that it was never intended thereafter for the United States Government to prosecute, libels, particularly of a political char acter. So far as concerned the Storey act. Mr. Nlcoll . declared that what ought to be considered was the of fenses which its framers sought to punish, such'as assault and murder on the high seas, which could not be reached by the state enactments. Judge Hough declared it his opinion that "the construction placed on this act by the prosecution is wrong. The law which has been here invoked is, I take It, simply -a territorial conveni ence, and therefore, in this case, if any crime has been committed, it is to be regarded rather as an offense against the State of New York, which hap pened to be committed on Government land, than an offense against the Gov ernment, under the statute." Eastern newspapers universally take the view that Judge Hough's decision is sound. The New York Mail says: TTp to ; date . the attempt of the Federal Government, at Mr. Roosevelt's instigation, to limit the freedom ot the press, or ter rorize its exercise, has met with nothing but failure and rebuke deserved rebuke from the Federal courts. It is hard to be lieve that any other outcome could have been anticipated, or that the object sought was higher than to subject two newspapers to the trouble and very great expense of vindicating their own rights and a reason ably self-evident proposition. As a prosecu tion, the thing has been & farce; as a venge ful persecution, costing somebody a good deal of money. It has achieved the kind of success that Is worse than failure. The New York Tribune comments more moderately, saying: "The pro ceedings so far have been abortive, but they have had some value in contribut ing to an ultimate determination of the powers of the Federal courts In similar cases." The New York Even ing Post avers that the Government suits should not have been started. The Post insists that the pros;utions would be "as easily ridiculed" in Washington as in New York and Indianapolis. The point to bear In mind Is that the de cision of Judge Hough is no warrant at all for reckless and unfounded charges in the press. No liberty of the press in the sense of license has been upheld. - Newspapers must still walk with the fear of the law of libel before their eyes. That law is severe In some respects too severe; but it is the local law, not ' & faraway Federal arti ficiality. Invented for the occasion. Even an editor, it ia now settled, has the same right as a burglar to be tried in the Juris diction where his crime was committed. The New York World, as might be expected, uses strong language lit com menting on the lihel fiasco. It asserts that Roosevelt was a "lawIessPresi dent, who "assailed Individuals, stig matized Congress and sneered at the courts," but who could not wield his "autocracy" to curtain freedom of the press. During the years that he held office he revealed on many occasions a willingness to disregard law and a disposition to ex ercise arbitrary power. These and many other usurpations needed only the. crown ing attempt upon the freedom of the press to place the man responsible for them in a class by himself among Presidents. He should stand alojie forever. He was not a constitutional magistrate. He was not amenable to law. He sincerely recognized no will but his own. When that was thwarted or challenged he sought by tyrannical courses to break down opposition and to terrorize criticism. The result has been confusion, disaster and failure. The law which he swept aside and the courts whose motives he Impugned have triumphed over him and his methods. Lincoln County's Standing; Timber. PORTLAND, Feb. 3 (To the Editor'-) I desire to correct a statement reported to have come from Newport, Or., regarding the expression which is quoted to have come from me, re garding the amount of standing tim ber in Lincoln County, in which it -was asserted that I stated the amount of standing timber in Lincoln County to be 90,000,000.000 feet. This is a mis take. I stated that there was a possi bility there could be as much as $90, 000.000.000 feet handled into Yaquina Bay if the harbor were opened to accom modate vessels for foreign shipment, and I also stated that my Idea of the amount of timber in Lincoln County was 15,000,000,000 feet. 'Someone seems to have got my statements mixed and I think it is only-fair that this matter should be corrected. LEWIS MONTGOMERY. Cupid on Strike. Blakeney Gray in AJnslle's. I wonder what things would be like If old Dan Cupid went on strike. Refusing at his bench to stay For longer than eight hours per day! Think you bright eyes would cease to gleam. Or poets fail to sigh and dream ? Think you love's industry would wane Till Cupid started In again T . If tfo the purpose of this song Is Just to say you're thinking wrong; We'd simply place the works of Joy j --In charge of some nonunion, boy; ' r And when the striker came once mora He'd find a barred and guarded door. And on a placard large announced r - This day la faithless Cupid bounced! , TROrSERS rKCE3 FOR WOMEN. Tiles, Remarks Writer HriKht of Trol ley Car Steps Would Not Matter. PORTLAND, Feb. 3. (To the Edi tor.) I. along with hundreds of others, no doubt, read with interest the letter by T. J. Pierce in The Oregonian of yesterday, and heartily endorse the opinions expressed in regard to the needs for reform in women's dress. Years ago the "c'inglng vine" type of woman was the approved model in manner and dress for all young women to imitate. I am thankful that the present day education for our girls per mits the development of their muscles, gives them a chance to become agile, and creates a physical condition that is worth more as a safeguard against the "great White Plague" than an ocean of medicine. Getting right down to "brass tacks." Is there anyone who can deny that the woman acrobat, animal-trainer. or what-not that steps on the stage. In a white shirtwaist, "and dark red or black "bloomers" looks well, and at the same time able to take care of her self In case a sudden quick step or run were necessary? How often we read of 'women in the prime of life being badly injured or even killed, as a re sult of the hampering skirt. Sweeping up the dust, filth and germs of the sidewalk in the Summer time Is un doubtedly unhealthful. but there are women who seem to have no thought of their own health or that of others, and still leave trails in whatever dust they walk in. In Winter, when our streetcar platforms are often wet. It Is all too common to see a woman, carrying a parcel, step off the car and mop up about four square feet of plat form as she steps off. Living in the suburbs of this grow ing city, where sidewalks are few and far between, I have known my wife to wish many a time that short skirts or bloomers were the style, so that she might make a trip to the central part of town or call on some friends with out having a wet and muddy skirt , flopping around her ankles, and mak ing a bad cold or tonsllitis a natural result. There must be enough of our women Mazamas, basketball and gymnasium girls, who have found out the benefits of the short skirt or the more modest "bloomer," to make quite a showing in this city, and we would all (except the dressmakers) be glad to have them organize a dress-reform league and show the world that Oregon can head the procession in other lines than that of rose and apple production. Let the streetcar Bteps stay where they are. They are not too high for girl of 10 or 12 years old; why should they be for a girl of 20? S. F. F. EDISON'S NEW STORAGE BATTERY Mnst Demonstrate Whether Its Power Can Be Employed Economically. Boston Post. " The fact that a streetcar was success fully run in West Orange, N. J., the other day under the 'power of Edison's new storage battery means little so far as the fact of operating is concerned. Storage batteries have run street cars before: years ago the experiment was tried here in Boston. But they all passed on into oblivion because they lacked the one great essential. Unless Edison's storage battery can demonstrate that it will run streetcars at less cost than the trolley system re quires, taking everything into account, it cannot supplant the older and uglier method. Transportation companies are not conducted on esthetic lines. Econ omy is the one thing that will appeal to them. If Edison has been - lucky enough to hit that necessary qualifica tion Let us ho'pe he has done it. No greater improvement could now be made in our cities than the abolition ol the poles and mazes of wire that now disfigure so many of our streets. Nothing impresses the Bostonian in New York more than the beautiful airi ness of her streets, and when he comes to analyze it he realizes that it Is be cause of the absence of trolley wires. New York has solved the problem in another way. Edison can solve it for every city, if he can prove Just one thing. GLAVIS FALLING DOWN. This Ia the Headline of a Well-Known Southern Journal. irleston (S. C.) News and Courier. Oi. the -ftnst day of the Ballinger inves tigation. Glavis made but a sorry exhibi tion. When his lawyer was pinned down to specific charges, he was unable to group them in formidable shape. He de clared that Ballinger was unlit for his position, and in Indicting him said: "It is not any one act. but a series of "acts and circumstances." The people will de mand something more definite than that before convicting Secretary Ballinger of dishonesty. Glavis gave the country to understand that Ballinger had been guilty of many overt acts against the welfare of the people, but now it seems that the charge is based on a series of circum stances. Many have felt all along that as is usually the case with the muckralcers, when it came to a showdown Glavis would be found wanting. It seems that such is to be the case. No man's reputa tion should be taken from him because of mere suspicion. At present it seems that Glavis' charges amount to nothing more than this, namely, that most men in Ballinger's shoes would have been im properly influenced, and therefore that Ballinger has probably been guilty of im proprieties. There seems to have been a lot of smoke but very little Are. Prosperity on the Farm. New York Evening Post. A State Senator (up state) is quoted as saying, "the farmers' wives have stopped making butter, cheese, and other things that formerly helped to swell the family exchequer." The inference is that they are so opulent that they no longer need to stoop to making small sums go far. That is certainly not the case with those who consume agricultural products. Twilight. Arthur TV. Peach In Alnslle's. N A wild rose 'red aflame on the hills Whence the weary day has flown, A rush of night down the wooded steeps The sunset rose has blown. Here ia the valley gray and still Go our dreams on their nightly quest O that over the hills had gone The thoughts that never rest! CURRENT SMALL CHANGE. . Mrs. Benham You have torn my train! Benham That's all right; your train is long enough to be in two sections Judge. "Why do people read the advertising sec tion in the magazines?" "Say, I guess you never tried to read the other section!" Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "Those two statesmen are so angry they won't speak." "Well." answered Senator Borghum, '-that's better than starting a con troversy." Washington Star. The Girl (rather weary, at 11:30 P. M.) T don't know a thing about baseball. The Beau jet me explain It to you. The Girl Very well, give me an illustration of a home run. -I-lfe. "Instead of boycotting beof why don't you accustom yourself to eating the cheaper cuts?" "There are no cheaper cuts. There are only the expensive, t'.io more expensive, and xhe unattainable." Chicago Tribune. "An operation will cost you 500." "And Is it absolutely necessary?" "You can't live without it." vSay. doc. the high cost of liv ing can't all be blamed on the tariff, can it?" Philadelphia Public Ledger. Mrs. A. I do love lobster, but I never have them at home, because, it seems so in human to kill them by putting them In a kettle of boiling water. Mrs. B. Gracious, I never kill them that way. It would be too-horrible- 1 always put them on in cold water and let them come to a boll. Boston Transcript Life's Sunny Side The former Quartermaster-Oeneral of the Army. General Charles F. Humphrey, now retired, was sitting in the Army and Navy Club in Washington. when a friend came along and asked: "Seen Jones lately?" "Saw him yesterday," the General answered. 4Look?" said Humphrey. H looked like the fifth of July.4 Saturday Kvenlng Port. Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont at a dinner ln Now York discussed the upbringing of children, a subject on which, as her writings show, she is an authority. "The modern fashion of letting no one kiss the bdy is," said Mrs. Belmont, "excellent. For. aside from the health of the thing, the baby doesn't like to be kissed, and neither does the adult, unless a close relation, like to kiss it. "I once watched a great artist a A at an enthusiastic young mother's rrquoar. he kissed stiffly her six-months-old babe. " 'Well, how did you like it?' I asked him afterward. "The artist answered with a grimace: " 'It was exactly like kissing a poached egg.' " William Mitchell Iewis. of the Na tional Association of Automobile Man ufacturers, was talking in Racine about the Improvements in motorcars that the last decade has witnossed. "I remember the time." said, Mr. Lewis, "when, it was a common sight, as you drove along a country road, to see a motorist kneeling in tho dust be side his car. puzzling over a great heap of cogwheels, screws, tiny springs, and other delicate pieces of machinery. "I know a man who knelt beside a scrap-heap composed of the car's innards when a pretty farm girl stopped beside him. put her hand to her head, and said kindly: "-Would a hairpin b of any us to you, sir?" Baltimore American. Richard Croker. a few days before his departure for Florida, was the guest of honor at a dinner at the St. Regis, Mr. Croker, praising Judge Guynor's ora tory, said: "His oratory is so concise. He packs so much meaning Into so few words. He is like the old clerk whose master said to him: 'John, that's a very shabby office coat you're wearing 'Yes, sir said the old clerk, mean ingly. I got this coat with the last raise you gave me. " New York Olobe. ( Little Julia was taking her afternoon walk with her mother. Her attention was attracted for the first time to a larg church edifice on one of the street cor ners. "Oh, mother!" she exclaimed, "whose nice big house Is that?" "That, Judah. is God's house ex plained the mother. Some time later it happened that the child was again taken by the church, this time on Sunday evening when services were In progress. Julia, noticing the brilliantly lighted windows, drew her own conclusions. , "Oh, look, mother! she called out. "God must be having a party." Cosmo politan. A Chicago business man recently enter tained at dinner a client from a Wyoming town. The fastidiousness of the Chicago man was somewhat aroused by the fact that his companion at table accomplished the several courses with the aid of no other implement save his knife, which, however, he wielded with telling effect. Finally at dessert the Wyoming person registered a kick. "See here, waiter." he exclaimed, "you have given me no fork." "Why." put in the host, "what difference does that make? You don't seem to need it." "Don't need it!" ejaculated the -gentleman from the t Northwest. "What am I going to stir my coffee with?" Kansas City Star. Henry Arthur Jones, the noted English playwright, was giving the students of Yale an address on the drama. "Your American vernacular is plc turesQue," he said, "and it should help you playwrights to build strong, racy plays; but neither vernacular nor any thing else is of moment if perseverance is lacking. "No playwright can succeed who is like a man I know. I said to the man one New Year's day:L " 'Io you keep a diary, Phillip? " 'Yes he answered. 'I've kept one for the first two weeks in January for the last seven years. " Indianapolis Star. One Rotable Exception. - Pittsburg Dispatch. Mr. Rockefeller says you can generally do a thing if you try hard enough, but the average citizen will file an exception on making salary and cost of living meet California's Versatile Climate. Cleveland Plain Dealer. It bas been clearly demonstrated that the glorious climate of California Is also good for raising airships. IN THE MAGAZINE SECTION OF -THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN WHAT CAN WE EAT IN PLACE OF MEAT? This timely question is answered by a number of Portland house wives who were interviewed. Some of them have not served meat in any form in their homes for years, yet their children are well nour ished and in perfect health. A non-meat diet for athletes is also discussed. FIRST PRIZEFIGHT FOR WORLD'S CHAMPIONSHIP First of a series of articles on contests in the ring between Class A pugilists. This series will be brought down to date. FOREMOST AMONG ' THE "INSURGENTS" Human side of Senators and Representatives who lead the fight against the Administration. GEN. LEONARD WO Or. jTHE VIRILE FIGHTER -Chief of Staff. U. S. A., because he was a born soldier, abandoned medicine and went to fighting In dians. ORDER EARLY FROM YOUR NEWSDEALER