THE MORNING OREGONIAN, MONDAY, DECEMBEB 31, 1900.
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TODAY'S WEATHER. Probably fair; winds
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PORTLAND, MOXDAY, DECEMBER 31.
In yesterday's Oregonlan appeared a
pathetic account of the closing hours
of Oscar "Wilde. He bemoaned his
life failure and said: "Much of my
moral obliquity Is due to the fact that
toy father would not allow me to be
come a Catholic." These are not brave
words, but they are exactly of a sort
with those countless thousands use to
excuse their crimes and follies. "My
father would not allow me to become a
Catholic!" Few men, probably, have
used this apology, but myriads have
used others like it. "My father brought
me up too strictly." "My mother put
brandy in her mince pies." "My wife
was a scold." "I -was born with weak
ntrves." "I lost a sweetheart and It
embittered me." "I failed in business
and lost heart" "My father became a
criminal and I lost my self-respect"
These and other Incidents of early life
are brought forward by the erring in
extenuation of their deliberate choice of
pvIL But they are vain. Every man
must answer for himself. Every man
must bear his own burden. In that
hour when the individual looks back
upon the life that has gone, no early
environment, no temptation, no de
fect in the laws or unfriendly atti
tude of society can avail. One must
choose the right No circumstances,
no shortcomings of others excuse the
will for its weakness. "Wilde chose the
lower when the higher stood within
reach, and the abject pltifulness of his
excuse serves only as a warning.
Observe that Alger and General Col-
Ville both light-back. This is discon
certing at first but advantageous, on
the whole. Inasmuch as the exact truth
Is more likely to come out throueh the
revelations of opposing interests than
if one side only is heard. To acceDt
the charges of Miles against Eagan Is
not to disprove the charges of Alger
against Miles. It is a truism that all
the truth is seldom found on one side
of a controversy, and It is doubtless
Just as true that all the fault In these
tales of two armies is not on one side
of the dispute. Alger himself has
doubtless been the scapegoat for many
things not properly chargeable to him.
notably Army appointments made at
, Senatorial Instance. Eajran. in SDite of
his rank offenses against decency, may
have been sinned against as well as
sinning. Colville may deserve his re
buke, and yet be able to show that his
accusers have sins of their own to an
swer for. The naval consDlracv that
has done Injustice to the name of Schley
has never been able to clear Sampson
of the fact of being ungenerous. One
of the ways in which republics show
their Ingratitude is by necrlectlne to
honor men who have been involved in
quarrels for which they are not to
blame. Shatter is unrewarded, and so
Is Clark of the Oregon. Colvllle's pro
test may remind us that these things
are not the peculiar property of any
particular form of government Wol-
sey's bitter cry at his desertion was
not spoken of a republic.
The clerkship abuse In tho Legis
lature was correctly described in the
Salem dispatches of yesterday as quite
as much the misfortune as the overt
offense of the members. The reason
why they appoint so many useless
clerks Is not always because they rel
ish shameless raids on the treasury.
Quite as often they are subjected to
pressure from applicants and their In
fluential friends, to resist which would
require stubbornness almost superhu
man. Zealous as they are In reform,
they are still amenable to the appeals
of those who have served them effect
ively In time of need. For this reason
we appeal to the Legislature to stand
by the corrective law passed at ic last
cession. It is a measure In their own
defense. It was passed by a previous
body for the express purpose of pro
viding them an excuse for non-compliance
with demands of applicants. The
answer is ready for them: "This law
has tied our hands, and we can't do
anything." Denounce the law If you
must, bewail It if you choose, but obey
It; and In the closing days of the ses
sion pass on to the next Legislature a
law yet a little more stringent and
one which can be adequately derived
from experience with this one. The
clerkship abuse is not only an extrava
gance and a scandal, but it is a posi
tively demoralizing influence upon all
the work of the session. It fosters lob
bying, complicates needed legislation,
and not seldom is to blame for the per-
i Tension of legislative Intent through
cttralw or dishonest enrollment. Every
member should abide by the clerkship
law, not only for the public good, but in
his own defense.
Secretary "Wilson's tobacco experi
ments will revive the hopes of those
publicists who will never be satisfied
till the United States grows all its own
supplies and sells only for gold to an
Impoverished rest of the world. The
promise is that "if American tobacco
growers intelligently follow up certain
experiments recently conducted for
their benefit by Secretary of Agricul
ture "Wilson, they should be able to
save for themselves nearly $7,000,000
now annually paid to the planters of
Sumatra by American smokers." The
Sumatra leaf is noted for thinness and
toughness, and makes the most valu
able cigar-wrapper known. Hitherto
the Dutch East Indies have had a mo
nopoly of this peculiar tobacco, but
Secretary Wilson has proved that It
may be grown in the United States.
At the Paris exposition Florida-grown
Sumatra leaf scored two points above
the leaf grown in Sumatra. An experi
ment Just concluded proves that Su
matra leaf may also be grown in the
Connecticut "Valley. Near Hartford
last season one-third of an acre was
planted, cultivated and cured under the
direction of the Agricultural Depart
ment's expert, Mr. M. "L. Floyd. It
yielded 700 pounds of leaf, pronounced
by the leading clgarmakers of New
York and Philadelphia entirely satis
factory and fully equal to Imported
Sumatra, and was sold at an average
price of 71 cents per pound. The profit
to the grower was at the rate of 5900
per acre. Th$ question what tobacco
raising countries will do to pay us for
our foodstuffs and manufactures when
we grow all our own tobacco seems to
have had no consideration.
The Oregonlan has received a copy of
the Dundee Advertiser of December 4,
1900, containing a centenary supple
ment issued on the same day as The
Oregonlan's semi-centennial edition.
The Advertiser will complete its 100th
year January 16, 1901, and is one of the
only three papers in Scotland that have
existed for a century. It Is the first
newspaper ever printed in Dundee,
and is now one of the most powerful
and Influential papers In Scotland. The
other two the Aberdeen Journal and
Glasgow Herald were started and fos
tered by the Tory party, which wsb in
ascendency at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, but the Dundee
Advertiser, like The Oregonlan, was
born without a silver spoon in its
mouth. It was started as a Liberal
newspaper when Liberalism was re
garded with disfavor, and it has re
mained true to its political creed
through storm and sunshine, inflexibly
adhering to the broad liberal princi
ples upon which it was founded, and
upon which it proposes to go forward.
In the first fifty years of its existence
there were a number of changes in the
editorial department, but for the past
fifty years Sir John Long, M. P., has
conducted the Advertiser, and has kept
it abreast with all Improvements in the
collection of news, in printing machin
ery and In the apparatus of distribu
tion. THE CXSAJa AXD THE COAST.
Mr. Sylvester E. Evans, whose ad
dress we have mislaid, writes as fol
lows: Would the Nicaragua Canal be an undoubted
benefit to the Paclflc Coast?
If the trade to the westward should assume
the proportion expected, it seems to me the In
terests of the Paclflc Coast, viewed from the
sordid or mercenary standpoint, the standpoint
of looking out for ourselves, are against it.
If the Orient Is to take our wheat, of what
benefit to our wheat will tho canal be?
Will not carrots bound for Atlantic Coast
cities or near points go via the canal. Instead
of being placed aboard cars at Paclflc Coast
points, and Pacific Coast points suffer in con
sequence? Would not tho same thing occur on goods
bound from Eastern points to the Orient?
Will the railroad tariffs act as protective
and cause the building of factories on the Pa
cific Coast to supply trans-Pacific trade?
Would not lower freights via the canal coun
teract this?
Why should Paclflc Coast points, strive so
hard for the opening of a route of traffic that
certainly will divert much of the Paclflc trado
from their wharves.
Will they gain enough In some other direc
tion to overbalance this loss?
The Interests menaced by the Nica
ragua Canal are not the Interests of the
people, East or "West, but those of the
transcontinental railroads. Mr. Evans
may assure himself on that point once
for alL Moreover, the menace to the
railroads Is more In their own minds
than in reality. Moreover, If the men
ace to them Were real, and If there were
also a real menace to this Coast the
canal would still be the right and prop
er thing, an economic contribution of
inestimable value to the producers of
all lands, not to be set aside by some
dog-in-the-manger objection of isolated
interests.
To take the questions In their order,
the benefit to our wheat trade will be
for such as goes to Europe an un
doubted sympathetic cheapening of
transportation, and for such as goes to
Asia a widened market consequent
upon increased development incident to
the canal. The fear is that the canal
will do the business between the At
lantic Coast and Asia, thus stopping
the trade done through our ports by
the transcontinental railroads. In the
first place, the advantage to our ports
of hurried trans-shipment of cotton and
silk through them Is a small matter.
It Is the trade In products produced or
consumed here that Is worth while. And
in the second place the history of simi
lar enterprises shows that waterway
Improvement in competition with rail
roads, though it may reduce rates, de
velops the affected communities so that
the railroads benefit immensely in the
end. If the first Pacific railroad, com
pleted in 1S69, even with the high freight
rates then demanded, was found to be
so much more advantageous a channel
of lnteroceanlc traffic than the water
route around Cape Horn that the lat
ter was rarely used, and no serious
attempt was made to revive that
branch of our commercial marine, it Is
a safe deduction, now that we have four
Pacific railroads, equipped with road
beds and steel rails and all the lat
est Improvements in the machinery of
transportation, that even with the sub
stitution of steamships for the sailing
vessels In use fifty years ago, and with
the cutting off of 6000 miles of naviga
tion around Cape Horn, the latter
could not successfully compete with the
railroads except in the transportation
of bulky freights originating on or in
the close proximity of the seacoasts.
Don't get the Idea that the freight
handled by the Pacific railroads, either
eastward or westward, all originated
at Atlantic tidewater or goes then.
Every pound of merchandise originat
ing In the Interior of the country and
this means nearly everything, whether
1 foodstuffs, cotton, w manufactures-
must pay toll to the Atlantic or the
Gulf before taking passage through the
canal, whereas the railroad will pick It
up anywhere and land it at San Fran
cisco, Portland or Puget Sound docks
without breaking bulk. It Is Just so
with goods from Asia. They can go
direct by the Pacific roads or they can
go by the canal, and then be reshlpped
into the Interior by the Atlantic roads.
The St Paul Pioneer Press has made a
most interesting argument on this very
point The comparatively small amount
of "traffic, it says, that could more ad
vantageously take the wattr route
would be far more than made up to
the railroads by the fresh Impulse that
would be given to the Industrial and
commercial development of the Paclflc
States. There is no question that the
great stimulus given to the shipping
interests of our Great Lakes by the en
largement of the Sault Ste. Marie
Canal Indirectly helped to increase the
traffic of the railroads competing with
this Interior water route. No doubt
the same result would follow any de
velopment of our lnteroceanlc coasting
trade by the opening of the Nicaragua
Canal. Very likely the Competition of
the water route would operate to re
duce the freight rates of the Pacific
roads on such bulky articles as grain
or lumber, but this would In turn stim
ulate production and traffic, and the
Incidental benefits would go largely to
the railroads. Touching at hundreds of
commercial centers every day, where
the ship would touch at but one a week,
the railroad's" sources of traffic are
enormously superior to that of a vessel,
especially on any ocean route.
Now, as to manufactures. "Who does
the business of the United States with
Asia today? "Why, the Atlantic Coast
It does It by way of Suez, by way of
Cape Horn, by way of our Paclflc
roads, "Why don't we do It? Because
we haven't what Asia wants. "We don't
grow cotton, we don't make locomo
tives. "What is the matter with ybur
protective railroad tariffs, that they
don't protect us now? The fact Is that
when we have the factories we shall
sell the manufactures. "We don't have
any trouble selling lumber and flour
manufactures, and we shan't have the
others in any considerable volume till
we get more people. When we buy as
many locomotives on this Coast as
they buy In the East, we shall have
locomotive works here and export a
surplus to Japan, just as Lowell and
Philadelphia do now. Surely Mr. Ev
ans does not fear the competition of
Philadelphia through the Nicaragua
Canal, agalnBt a similar enterprise in
Portland, with direct access from dock
to dock across the Pacific
"What the Pacific Coast wants is not
to keep somebody else from doipg busi
ness, but a chance to do business for
itself. It wants people, It wants mar
kets. The canal will make markets on
the Atlantic Coast for its lumber, wool
and heavy freights generally. Much of
them may continue to go by rail, but
they will go at cheaper rates. "We want
markets In the Orient and the canal
will be the great developer of Oriental
trade. In that limitless trade expan
sion the twentieth century has in store
for Asia, no country is so favorably
situated as the Pacific Coast To talk
in awestruck tones of the advantage
possessed by the East through the
canal comes little short of the ridiculous.
NEGLECTED GIRLS.
Rev. C. H. Mead, of New York, threw
a small-sized bomb Into an ecclesias
tical camp a short time ago, when in a
lecture before the Congregational Club
of that city he said: "Sunday schools
give too much attention to preparing
their members for the life to come, In
stead of for this life. In which the path
of the young Is constantly beset wltfi
pitfalls." The Chief of Police of any
city, including our own, could furnish
corroborative evidence of the truth of
the concluding words of this statement
This Is especially true in regard to
young girls who were formerly kept
out of the way of pitfalls that boys
were supposed to stumble into as a
part of their education.
Chief McLauchlan made pointed ref
erence to this fact a few days ago, sup
plementing his statement in regard to
the growing waywardness of young
girls in this city by the opinion that a
reform school for girls should at once
be Instituted In this state. The evil
influence of an Immoral woman is far
reaching, permeating and contaminat
ing society for generations. In no
other line 'does immorality sow a crop
so pernicious as in the field of neg
lected girlhood. The woman-child, un
taught in the virtue of modesty, Is a
menace to the social life, of the com
munity which will materialize Into vice
and crime as the years go on. The
Sunday schools may not do their duty
In this regard. They certainly do not,
if, is charged by Rev. C. H. Mead, they
do not teach that happiness in the life
to come is built upon mortal purity in
the present life
But what of the homes from which
young girls steal at night or go boldly
forth by day to "keep engagements'' on
street corners, In restaurants or In
questionable resorts? Parental vigi
lance wisely exercised Is the price of
modest, well-conducted girlhood. The
girl whose mother Is her confidant does
not go astray. Hence the astounding
assertion with which the minister
quoted at the beginning of this arti
cle, as supplemental to his arraign
ment of Sunday school effort, "that a
large number of young girls connected
with missions in Brooklyn, who belong
to excellent Christian families, lead
immoral lives" is Incredible, so Indis
pensable an element in the "excellent
Christian family" Is the Judicious, care
taking mother who wins and holds the
confidence of her daughters, and only
In a lesser degree that of her sons.
Chile attracts the attention of her
rivals by her organization of her means
of defense. She has by law instituted
conscription, so that, with few excep
tions, every citizen will hereafter be
required to pass a year or more of his
life in the army. Though the nation num
bers less than 4,000,000 souls, it main
tains already an army of 25,000 men,
which force will of coursebeconslderably
enlarged when the system of compul
sory military service becomes fully op
erative. Chile's navy is very respect
able. Some $40,000,000 has been spent
it is said. In the last ten years upon
her armament Her neighbors, Argen
tina, Peru and Bolivia, are believed to
be Inimical, and she expects to have
to maintain her position by force un
less her strength is so obvious as to de
ter her enemies from aggression. Dis
putes with Argentina about frontiers,
and with Peru and Bolivia about the
provinces they lost under the treaty of
1SS3, still continue A bad feeling ex
ists, and Chile feels obliged to take
every precaution. The right and the
wrong of the disputes is not easy to
make out at this distance . Happily, it
Is not our duty to intervene We are
not the policeman of this hemisphere.
"We cannot afford," as the Philadel
phia Manufacturer well says, "to be
come the disinterested arbiter and pro
tector of an armed camp, nor the
preacher of peace at the cannon's
mouth."
The London Quiver has been making
some estimates of the missionary work
accomplished during the century by
Great Britain. Taking the leading or
ganizations alone, the Church Mission
ary Society, Wesleyan Missionary So
ciety, Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, London Missionary Society,
Baptist Society, Colonial and Continen
tal Church Society, Church of England
Zenana Society and Universities Cen
tral African Mission, It finds that they
have raised $205,000,000 and sent S00O
workers Into the field. There are also
thirty smaller societies, enjoying the
administration of $2,500,000 at the pres
ent time It says: "The total amount
of funds raised for foreign missions
work in Great Britain during the cen
tury is $255,000,000. If we add this to
the amounts already noticed in other
branches of work viz., $75,000,000 for
property, $260,000,000 for work among
young people and children we get the
astounding total of $590,000,000 raised In
the space of 100 years, or equal to the
total of last year's revenue In Great
Britain." The Quiver's estimates would
have been complete and more satisfac
tory If It had given some approximate
estimate of the results which have been
accomplished by this Immense finan
cial outlay.
According to the Jacksonville papers,
a serious condition confronts the cattle
industry of Florida. It has recently
developed that the remarkable demand
for beef and dairy cattle in Cuba has
about stripped Florida of her supply
of those animals, especially ,the better
grades of them. It seems that the
island was completely depleted of cat
tle by the various armies in the long
war period, and every range and farm
is now getting back its stock as fast
as It can procure the cattle. Many are
consumed as fast as they arrive, while
the better-bred animals are preserved
for breeding purposes. Florlda'3 ranches
have been drawn on very heavily to
meet this demand, and the result has
become very noticeable. Possibly the
alarm Is something like the old, famil
iar cry heard In Oregon each year,
only to be followed by another record
breaking output of livestock.
A McBrlde paper that has been com
mendably fair In its discussion of the
Senatorial campaign is the Eugene
Register. It Is somewhat surprising,
therefore, to come across this para
graph in its editorial columns:
With the gang Mr. Corbett has retained to
further his candidacy, and their well-known
methods of operating, the secret ballot Is an
absolute essential. The defeat of this proposi
tion means Corbett's defeat. No wonder he
contends for secrecy.
We take it that the Register has evi
dence on which It bases the assertion
that Mr. Corbett contends for a secret
ballot in the caucus. We shall there
fore ask It either to produce that evi
dence or be more careful in the future
with its faots.
Alger says he never heard a rumor
of chemically prepared beef having
been purchased for the Army until
General Miles gave testimony before
the commission. Inasmuch as the
whole country had been talking of
chemically prepared beef, soldiers had
died from eating the rotten stuff, and
every newspaper contained rumors and
evidence of the embalmed rot, no won
der poor Alger was flabbergasted by
the revelation.
A number of Oregon newspapers have
been making spiteful remarks about
Senator Simon's absence from Wash
ington at a critical time Their atten
tion will be called now to Senator Mc
Brlde's visit to' Oregon In his re-election's
Interest Probably their sense of
fairness will induce them to make the
same remarks .again, with a different
application and then, again, probably
It won't
Some frugal citizens want to abol
ish the office of State Printer. But will
they keep good faith by so doing? Is
It right to treat so unfairly all the
hungry aspirants who have been wait
ing for the job these many somber
years, and to dash their hopes just
when they have every assurance they
are about to achieve reward of their
patience?
China has requited the kindness of
the powers . that went to the trouble of
concocting an agreement by asking
what they intend to do with her. In
asmuch as that is a deep, dark secret,
she has committed an impropriety
which has, no redemption.
In almost every Legislature there are
either more fool bills than fools or more
fools than fool bills. How is the next
going to demean itself? By improving
both precedents, perhaps?
Our calamity-howlers have another
wall lor their repertoire, now that thir
teen large business concerns In London
have collapsed simultaneously. Doubt
less Hanna Is to blame.
Alger's surprise at the mention of em
balmed beef seems to have been as
great as that he felt upon the declara
tion of war.
It is ten to one that If we don't want
to pay for that 1902 exposition we do
not want to have it
Diplomatic Value of the Circus.
Kansas City Star.
Mr. F. M. Brundage, United States Con
sul at Air la Chapelle, Germany, has
discovered a new use for the American
circus. One recently descended on that
peaceful town, which makes a living by
veiling waters to Invalids. The results
were surprising. This is the way the
monthly official summary of Consular re
ports describes the occasion:
The bill posting was a revelation in this line
of work, both in magnitude and character; the
way la which the tents were erected and the
ground prepared astonished the people; and
when the circus itself arrived, not a work
man went to the factories; the spindles were
Idle all day. At every performance the tent
was full, and the vague antipathy toward the
United States has been turned into respect
and awe; the people now say "anything Is pos
sible to Americans." Consul Brundage thinks
.that If an agent for American goods would fol
low In tho wake of a circus, these would find
ready sale.
Here is a suggestion that the Govern
ment as well as exporters might profit
ably employ. Where battle-ships have
failed to make an Impression, a circus
should be sent. as an ultimatum. The
visit of in Kentucky to Smyrna, does
not seem so far to have produced any
definite results. But let Constantinople
be billed with announcements of a
"colossal, gorgeous and world - astound
ing three-ring performance" let the -Sultan
watch the parade and the Grand
Vizier witness the erection of the tents,
and the feeding of the lions, and then, let
both together sit through the evening en
tertainment trying to follow the events in
all three rlnrs at once and it Is dollars
to dougflnuts that the Sultan would pay
down the Indemnity in gold before he
slept that night
The allies are overlooking this splendid
opportunity in China. If only an Ameri
can circus could pursue the Empress
Dowager into the interior, post Its bills
on the walls of buildings about tne tem
porary palace and send complimentary
tickets to the court, the Chinese problem
wouiu reach a quick solution. The
"vague antipathy" of -which the Consular
report speaks would doubtless be "turned
into respect and awe." The thanks of
Congress and the civilized world are due
to the observing United States Consul
at Aix la Chaselle.
SHELDON OX THE SERVANT GIRIi.
Social Position a. Great Considera
tion Without Apparent Remedy.
Chicago Tlme3-Herald.
While the woman's clubs are tackling
tho problems of politics and good gov
ernment It follows as a natural sequence
that man through his Instinct of social
reciprocity is going to give a good share
of his serious thought to a solution of
the greatest of all 20th-century prob
lemsthe "servant girl question."
It Is a slnKular fact that nearly all
the papers relating to this nroblem of
domestic service which are now appear
ing In the magazines ana weekly period
icals are written by men. Whether this
manifestation of interest in the servant
girl question is to be traced to man's
stomach or to his keen perception of the
unbusinesslike and unscientific methods
that obtain in the management of .the
average household Is of little consequence
compared to tho question of the value
or practicability of the remedies pro
posed. Is man, who stands aloof from
the turmoil of pots and kettles and who
surveys the unsatisfactory and some
times disastrous results of Incompetent
service In the kitchen, capable of sug
gesting practical schemes for placing this
service upon a basis of efficiency the
only basis he would recognize in the em
ployment of help in hla own factory or
store or bank?
The difficulties that are presented by
the problem of domestic service are ably
and lucidly treated by Rev. Charles M.
Sheldon in the current number of the
Independent, but a careful review of the
article falls to disclose any practical plan
for removing any of these difficulties,
except one, the beneficial results of -which
would be so remote that the housekeep
ers of 1900 could not hope to realize them.
Dr. Sheldon gives a very accurate pic
ture of present unsatisfactory conditions
and the causes leading to them. He
shows that in Eneland within the last
15 years 190,000 girls have left the serv
ice of the family in that country to
enter service in shops and factories. The
American girl is no longer found in the
kitchens or homes of America. The
writer assigns as one of the vital causes
of this the "social ostracism" of those
who heretofore have offered their serv
ices as "workers In the kitchen. Amer
ican girls are starving In the stores, un
able to save a cent irom their wages,
rather than work in comfortable homes,"
says Mr. Sheldon.
But what remedy does Rev. Mr. Sheldon
offer for these unsatisfactory conditions
which vitally affect the home life of so
many people? He makes a plea for the
education of servants and for the ad
justment of the servant problem upon a
"Christian basis." But this offers no Im
mediate remedy. Most practical students
o,f the servant question believe that the
only effective remedy lies In the applica
tion to the domestic service of the same
principles and policies that govern the
employment of men and women in all
other departments of industry. This may
nqt suit the housewife, but many believe
we are coming to It.
ITS ROTTEN SPOT.
Point In the Subsidy Bill That Be
trays Its Purpose.
New Tork Times.
The rotten spot in the subsidy bill Is
the foreign tonnage provision. The ad
vocates of the bill not only cannot defend
that feature, they will not even tell the
truth about it They persuade many very
intelligent men to assent readily to the
proposition that a subsidy for the encour
agement of American shipbuilding is a
good thing. Outside of the immediate
beneficiaries of the foreign tonnage clause
can they get nobody, even a fool, to as
sent to tne proposition that the payment
out of our public funds of a bounty to
persons who buy their ships abroad is a
good thing?
Who put that clause into the bill? Why
was it put In? Why are payments under
it Testrlcied to foreign ships bought o
contracted for prior to January 1, 1900?
Why was the qualifying limit of Amer
ican ownership In foreign-bought vessels
reduced from SO per ceht to 51 per cent?
Every one of these questions would be
fully and frankly answered if the bill
was an honest one. They ought to bo
answered for the information of the lax.
payers, whose money Is to be used for
the encouragement of foreign ship-buying.
There is another question. It is vital,
and no Senator or member of Congress
should have the hardihood to get on his
feet to speak for the subsidy bill until he
was morally and statistically prepared to
answer it truthfully. How much of tho
annual subsidy fund of $9,000,000 will go
to foreign-built ships bought or contract
ed for prior to January 1, 1900? Will it
be $1,000,000, $2,000,000. $3,000,000, $4,000,000?
How much of the subsidy fund will be
left for the encouragement of shipbuild
ing in American yards after the persons
who were fortunate enough and far-see-lng
enough to make their contracts a
year ago have had their share of it?
If the bill becomes a law these ques
tions will be answered. There must be a
public accounting for every dollar paid to
every line and every ship. If then It shall
prove that there was an ugly job In the
bill, the loud outcries of publicity will
ring In the ears of the chiefs of the Re
publican party night and day. There can
be no concealment then. And the out
cries will be loudest right in the middle
of the next Congressional and Presiden
tial campaigns.
If certain private gentlemen have, by
large campaign contributions, bought the
privilege of writing that thieving clause
Into the subsidy bill, we admit that the
repudiation of the terms of the contract
would now subject the chiefs of the party
In power to much private vilification.
But vilification by a private committee
of 25 is attended with far less personal
and political Inconvenience than denun
ciation by the majority part of 14,000,000
voters.
The Chinese System of Banking-.
The stranger on arriving in China Is
struck with the apparent Inconvenience
of the monetary system; but a short resi
dence tends to create an opinion that the
system is well adapted to the people, at
least In some respects, writes ex-Minister
Charles Denby, In the December Forum.
The financial business of the foreigner
Is done In either Mexican dollars or in
taels. as he prefers, and his bank account
is kept in the same way. Drafts on Lon
don are in pounds sterling. Ordinary ac
counts in the stores In Shanghai are kept
in Mexican dollars. The commercial busi
ness Is done mostly In taels. As the price
of silver varies every day, the transfer of
dollars into pounds, pounds into taels, and
taels Into Mexicans Is bewildering. Usu
ally the tael is worth $1 40 in Mexicans.
Until recently China has resisted all
schemes for the establishment of a mint
as understood In Western countries. Yet
it is said that China coined iron money
2S00 years before Christ under the reign
of Huans TX. This coin has been replaced
by & copper piece called chlen, because it
originally weighed a mace (one-tenth of a.
tael). This and lump sliver are the only
public signs of the value of products and
the only Instruments of ordinary barter,
except some Mexican dollars recently
coined. The popular name of this' coin is
"cash."
The monetary system as affecting silver
1? arranged on the principle of weight and
the divisions have the same names taels.
mace, candareen and cash. The computa
tion la decimal. Each cash should weigh,
as Williams states, 5S grains Troy, or 3.73
grains; but there are in various localities
smaller cash in circulation, and the rate
of exchange varies in different parts of
the land from 500 to 1S0O for a silver dollar.
Thne are big cash and little cash. The
Pekin cash passes 5 for 1 silver cent or
E00 for $1. Taking Into consideration the
Immenre population of China and the pov
erty of the people, a good argument may
bo formulated to sustain the legislator
who created "cash." If there was to be
but one coin, it had necessarily to be the
smallest
MODERN PROPHETS.
Twentieth Century "Will Be Fanny If
All These Things Happen.
Paris letter N. T. Commercial-Advertiser.
Off and on during the past weeks the
Paris press has made an amusement of
prognostications of the century to come.
Men eminent in science and literature
and art, and trusted observers of the
course of contemporary history, have
been drawn with success. M. Berthelot,
the chief chemist of Prance during the
last half-century, the friend of Renan.
who led with him the young lntellectuels
of 1S4S; the member-elect of the "French
Academy to represent science in that
body, as Pasteur did in his day, has given
an opinion on practical things on the de
velepmont of machinery by the use of
motive power. He declares frankly
against steam, which he says is already
growing obsolete, while electricity, which
Is only an intermediary between the ma
terial sourc of energy and Its applica
tion, will always cost too much to be
come the motor force of common indus
trial life. For him. the future of motor-power
belongs to petroleum and to
gas. The steam engine will be relegated
to museums, where other anthropological
curiosities are collected, from the Stone"
Age down. It will be remembered that M.
Berthelot long since predicted that tbe
time of chemical feeding of humanity is to
come, when we shall carry beefsteaks and
breadstuffs in, our vest pockets In the
shape of convenient pellets supplying the
necessary elements, carbons, azotes,
phosphates, and the rest, to needy tis
sues; but this reform he does not an
nounce for the 20th century. The Pasteur
people, -with Metschinlkoff at their head,
have also given over promising serums to
save from old age, but they foresee with
reasonable hope remedies for cancer, con
sumption, and the plague.
In political and social history, M. Ga
briel Monod has prophesied grave things
of which more elementary vision has had
glimpses for some time past- The influ
ence of M. Monod until recently was al
most preponderant In "France In histor
ical studies. His long years at the Ecole
Normale Superleure, where men like ex
Minister Hanotaux passed under him, at
the Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes of
the Sorbonne, of which he has been a
chief organizer, and the foundation of the
Revue HIstorique which was due to him,
give him a place apart His belonging to
a noted family of Protestant clergymen
and his pronounced stand in favor of the
innocence of Dreyfus may have made his
name unpopular of late, but they have
scarcely lessened the esteem in which he
is held for judicial moderation and
breadth of view. He announces plainly
for the twentieth century the advance
and the triumph of Socialism.
IiET THE TARIFF ALONE.
Demand or the Steel Men Had a Par
allel In 1SOO.
Chicago Tribune.
Mr. Charles J. Harrah, the head of the
MIdvale Steel Company, was before the
Industrial Commission last week, as a
witness. When he was asked as to tariff
conditions his brief answer was, "Let
the tariff alone." That Is the answer
which every head of a steel plant will
make.
The conditions in the Iron and steel in
dustry aro such that Congress cannot let
the tariff alone unless It believes In the
taxation of the American consumers of
the two metals by the manufacturers.
Last month the quoted price of steel rails
at Pittsburg was $2S a ton, while in
Great Britain It was $32 SO. Southern pig
iron sold for $12 a ton. and Scotch pig for
$16. It would not pay an American con
sumer to buy the British product, even
if there were no duties to be reckoned
with. There Is. however, a duty of $7 84
a ton on steel rails and of $4 a ton on pig
iron. These are duties which the American
steel and iron men say should be let alone.
Why should they be? They are not re
quired for purposes of protection. The
British manufacturers are the ones who
stand in need of protection now. These
duties furnish the Government a trivial
revenue. Only $20,300 was collected last
year on imported iron ans steel rails. So
far as all good purposes are concerned
these duties are obsolete.
They might be permitted to remain to
record the fact that there once was a time
when the iron and steel industries of this
country needed protection, were it not
that manufacturers moke so bad a use of
them. The confederated manufacturers
are anxious the tariff should be let alone
because excessive duties make It so much
easier for them to maintain their present
policy of a higher scale of prices in the
home market and a lower scale In for
eign markets cheap steel for foreigners,
dear steel for Americans.
The entreaties of these manufacturers
to- let the tariff alone should be as futile
as wore "the entreaties of the seceding
Southern States to "let us alone."
Bonaparte Princes In England.
London Chronicle.
It Is announced that the heads of the
House of Bonaparte, Prince Victor Na
poleon and Prince Louis Napoleon, of the
Russian Army, are in England visiting
the Empress Eugene at Farnborough.
These Princes are 3S and 25 years old re
spectively, and both are bachelors. This
Is doubtless due to their position as pre
tenders; a pretender cannot afford to
make a bad match, and exalted ladles
look askance on a pretender until he ar
rives. Napoleon in did not marry until
ho had attained the throne and the age
of 44. With the late Prince Jerome Na
poleon and his children Bonapartism as
sumed a new phase, as they are con
nected with the old reigning families of
Europe, which no other branch of the
family was. The Princes now in England
are descended from a sister of George
in, and therefore from our Stuarts, Tu
dors and Plantagenets, from the Kings of
Italy and Wurtemberg, and are, in fact,
cousins of nearly every reigning mon
arch. The "Midnight Stars.
Alexander Smith.
I love the stars too mnchl The tameless sea
Spreads itself out beneath them, smooth as
glass.
Tou cannot love them, lady, till you dwell
In mighty towns; immured la their black
hearts.
The stars are nearer to you than the fields.
I'd grow an atheist In these towns of trade,
Were't not for stars. The smoka puts Heaven
out.
I meet sin-bloated faces In the streets.
And shrink as from a blow. I hear wild oaths.
And curses split from lips that ones were
sweet.
And sealed for Heaven by a mother's kiss.
I mix with men whose hearts of human flesh
Beneath the petrifying touch of gold.
Have giown as stony as the trodden ways.
I see no trace of God, till in the night.
While the vast city lies In dreams of gain.
He doth reveal himself to me In Heaven.
My heart swells to Him as the sea to the
moon;
Therefore it is I lovo tho midnight stars.
NOTE AND COMMENT.
Good morning.
Crowe?
Have you seen Pat
Bryan's paper will be taken first and
shaken afterwards.
We shall soon see the final finish of the
term "fin de siecle."
Plumbers, eh? Well, why didn't you
turn off the water lost night?
The 19th century seems likely to coma
to an untimely end by freezing to
death.
There is no likelihood that Bryan's pa
per will ever be called the Great Com
moner. The business of kidnaping is getting
money from home, and not from the kid
naper's home, either.
Mr. Cudahy, of Omaha, will do well
hereafter to take a good drink of digi
talis before he looks through hl3 dally
mall.
Boston is complaining about the tea
tax. It will take a tax on beans, how
ever, to .cause any real distress a the
Hub.
The Cuban planters want their duties
reduced. They ask less than the Cuban
soldiers, who wanted their duties abol
ished. Dewet's triumphs have not been with
out their redeeming features. They have
given Alfred Austin a vacation from his
business of writing paeans of victory.
Having evolved seedless oranges and
seedless grapes, the pomologist now has
an opportunity to achieve lasting famo
by producing a seedless watermelon.
The tide in the Transvaal is said to bo
turning In favor of the British, but thus
far it is, in the language of Tennyson,
"such a tide as moving seems asleep."
It Is announced that Li Hung Chang
Is paralyzed. Haa the thirst for sensation
become so great that a statesman cannot
celebrate Christmas without his condition
being cabled all over the world?
The New Tork Herald has been look
ing up the movements of the great so
cial center in that city. It was located
in Bowling Green 50 years ago, and ten
years later It had moved up to Twenty
ninth street; ten years later up to Thirty
ninth; ten years later up to Forty-ninth;
ten years later up to Fifty-ninth, until
now It is up to Sixty-ninth street It Is
anticipated that this remarkably regular
and systematic progression 13 destined to
keep on during the coming decades by
blocks of ten, so to speak.
"It has been estimated," said a poul
try statistician a day or two ago, "that
there are about 350,000,000 chickens In the
United States. During the year 1900, al
though the year la not quite ended, they
will have produced approximately 14,000
000,000 eggs, which represent in the neigh
borhood of $175,000,000. That seems a lot
of money, but Just wait a minute." He
figured on a slip of paper with a pencil.
"The living value of hens at 30 cents
apiece," he continued, "Is not far from
$100,000,000, besides which about $130,000,000
worth of poultry Is eaten In this country
in the course of a year. So you see the
hen, while a humble 'bird, cuts quite a
figure in the financial world."
There Is on usher in a Philadelphia
theater who is a. professional pallbearer
during the day. "I get" he says, "$2 50
for every pallbearing engagement, and I
like . the work. It 13, you see, such a
complete and pleasant change from. my.
theatrical employment I must wear a
gala smile at the theater at all times, and
the gayety there, the mirth and llght
heartedness prove very monotonous. I
long for something In gloomy black, with
a look of gloom In my eyes, and the sob3
I hear, the groans, the lamentations and
the lugubrious music are very soothing to
me after the eternal heartless jollity of
the playhouse. The two kinds of work
diversify my life; I touch on two ex
tremes; I make, besides, a good deal of
money. I have made $30 a week as a
pallbearer. At the theater my salary is
only $7 50. There are cetaln perquisites at
the theater, however, perquisites won
through seating people, which materially
increase my Income. It is not an un
common thing among us theater usher
to be pallbearers during the day."
"The leaders of the Independent or
native party in Honolulu have Croker
faded out of sight," asserts George D.
Gear, who is now in Washington to con
test the Hawaiian seat In Congress
claimed by Wilcox. "The bosses In this
country are mere babes In politics com
pared with the native Hawaiian. Til bet
Croker never dreamed of making votes
for his candidates by telling the voters
that the 'kahuna would got them if thay
didn't watch out. No, the 'kahuna Is an
Institution peculiar to Hawaii, and his
induction Into politics Is something of an
innovation. The 'kahuna' Is a person,
either man or woman, who is supposed
to have power to pray other people to
death. Their field In the past has been
rather limited, it being necceseary to sin
gle out the person against whom the
prayers of death were to be directed, but
to meet the exigencies of the recent elec
tion their powers were .broadened to
wholesale size, and shortly before Novem
ber 6 word was passed out that all tho
'kahunas' on the islands would be set
to praying for the death of natives who
failed to vote for the independent ticket.
The result? Well, Wilcox was elected,
wasn't her
The End of Humanity.
Chicago Tribune.
Professor T. J. J. See, tha well-known
astronomer, in charge of the telescope at
the Naval Observatory In Washington,
has been making calculations to ascertain
how long It will take the sun to be ex
tinguished and "wander vacant in tne
iayleas space," which, of course, must
Involve the destruction of mankind by
the painless process of freezing to death.
That Is the professor's theory, which he
prelers to the one maintained by some
other scientists that the earth's popula
tion will be destroyed by fire or collision.
Having established the manner of de
struction. Professor See next calculates
how long mankind will exist on the eartn,
and finds it to be 3,000,000 years, after
which a darkened, frozen earth will con
tinue to go through the useless routine of
revolving afound the darkened sun, and
the whole solar system "will be bathed
In perpetual night" The only cheerful
phase of the professor's prediction Is the
generous limit he allows mankind, and
himself, for no one can contradict him
now. It Is always wise In making predic
tions of disaster to assign a time as far
away as possible. It Is comforting to
those Who are contemporaries of the
prophet and it Is safe for him. And yet
who shall say that In 3,001,901 A. D. there
may not be professors calculating the
time when human beings will cease to ex
ist; or that "star-eyed science" will not
have advanced so rapidly that our remote
posterity, who will never have heard of
us, big as we think we are, will not have
all the artificial light and heat they need
and thus dispense with the sun entirely
1 except as a center to revolve around?