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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1905)
THE 3IOEX1XG 0BEG0XIAX, WEDXESDAT, JtJXE 21, 1905. Entered at the Fostofnce at Portland. Or., as second-class matter. SUBSCRIPTION KATES. INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. (By Mail or Express.) Daily and Sunday, per yer -Jf-Jj Dally and Sunday, six months......... 5.00 Daily and Sunday, three months....... 2-6- Dally and Sunday, per month .85 Dally -without Sunday, per year 7.60 Dally without Sunday, six months....- 8.80 Dally without Sunday, three months... 1.83 Dally -without Sunday, per month .5 Sunday, per year 2.00 Sunday, six months. ................... 1.00 Sunday, three months -0 BY CARRIER. Dally without-Sunday, per weelc ...... .15 Dally, per week. Sunday Included .20 THE WEEKLY OREGONIAN. (Issued Every Thursday.) Weekly, per year 1.50 Weekly, six months................... .75 Weekly, three months................. .50 HOW TO REMIT Send postol flee ' money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency &r at the sender's risk. EASTERN BUSINESS OmCE. The S. C. Beckrrfta Special Acency New 1'ork; rooms 43-50 Tribune building. Chl caco, rooms 510512 Tribune bulldinc. KEPT ON SALE. Chicago Auditorium Annex. Postofflce News Co.. 178 Dearborn street. Dallas, Tex. Glob News Depot, 260 Main street. San Antonio, Tex. Louis Book and Clear Co, 521 East Houston street. Denver Julius Black, Hamilton tc Kend rick, 900-912 Seventeenth street; Harry 13. Ott, 1563 Broadway; Pratt Book Store, 1214 Fifteenth otreet. Colorado Springs, Colo. Howard H. Belt Des Moines, lav-Moses Jacobs, SOS Fifth street. Doluth, I&. a. Blackburn. 215 West Su perior street. Goldfleld, Nct. C Malone. Kansas City, Mo. Rlcksecker Cigar Co., Ninth and Walnut. Los Angeles Harry Drapkln; B. E. Amos, 514 West Seventh street. Minneapolis it. J. Ravanaucn. 50 South Third; L. Regelsburger. 217 First avenue South. Cleveland, O. James Pushaw, 307 Superior street. New York City L. Jones & Co.. Astor House. Oakland. Cal. W. H. Johnston, Four teenth and Franklin streets. Ogden-F. R. Godard and Meyers tc Har top, D. L. Boyle. Omaha Barkalow Bros., 1612 Farnam; Magcath Stationery Co.. 1308 Farnam: Mc Laughlin Bros.. 246 South 14th; McLaughlin & Holtz. 1515 Farnam. Sacramento, Cal. Sacramento New Co.. 429 K street. Salt Lake Salt Lake News Co.. 77 West Second street South; Frank Hutchison. Yellowstone Park, WyoCanyon Hotel, Lake Hotel. Yellowstone Park Assn. Long; Beach B. E. Amos. 6an Francisco J. K. Cooper & Co., 746 Market street; Goldsmith Bros.. 236 Sutter; L. E. Lee. Palace Hotel News Stand; F. W. Pitts, 1006 Market: Frank Scott. SO Ellis; N. Wheatley Movable News Stand, corner Mar ket and Kearney streets: Hotel St. Francis News Stand: Fo6ter & Orear, Ferry News Stand. Sr. Loul, Mo. E. T. Jett Book & News Company. 806 Olive street. Wartilngton, D. O. P. D. Morrison, 2182 Pennsylvania avenue. PORTLAND, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1905. RESTORING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE. The Equitable Life Assurance Soci ety has sent throughout the United States facsimile copies of the letter "by Grover Cleveland accepting the trustee ship of the Ryan (Hyde) stock. Its un doubted purpose is to advertise In the fullest maimer possible the prominent relation of so widely trusted a citizen as Mr. Cleveland to the society, and to guarantee the absolute good faith of the plan to afford the policy-holders a dom inant voice in the organization. Chair man Paul Morton, of the executive board, also makes public his purpose to submit again all the affairs of the socl ety to the most exacting scrutiny at the hands of expert accountants and financiers, so that the proposed reor ganlzation may begin at the bottom and may include the entire structure. All this is good. Mr. "Cleveland is to be no dummy trustee. Chairman Mor ton proposes that the trutjh, and the whole truth, shall be known. All the facts about the mismanagement of the society are presumably in possession of the public. The scheme of reorganiza tion is sufficiently clear. But the pre rise status of the company's Invest ments, and its relations to its policy holders on the one hand, and the tinan cial world on the other, ought to be candidly and accurately described. No doubt it will be. information of that k!nd will throw a light on all Insurance, what the public needs and is now bound to have is a thorough education in how the insurance business should be conducted. It knows quite enough about how it should not be conducted. If the managers of the Equitable, or of any other company or society, imagine that they can restore the public conll cence by any half-way measures, or by any system that does not make the TKl!cy-holder or his assigns the sole beneficiary of the Insurance he pays for. they will in time realize their error, The Oregonian has no desire to add tT the embarrassment of the Equitable or any other life insurance concern by continued discussion of their troubles. olnce at this time it has confidence that they are on the mend. But it appears proper once more to point out the prom inent abuses of the present system in the great societies. The United States Investor, a reputable and well-informed journal, recapitulates the counts in the Indictment against the Equitable in the !foJowJng strong statement: The deterred dlvWettd system was eo gross ly unfair to pollcy-hoMere that It created a turplus which led to extravagance and po v'allon; that exorbitant salaries and efrramts-p'-ns were paid, thus inordinately inereariag the coet of insurance: that large sums were carried in favored banks, uninvested, caus ing a Von? In earning power af the poitcy-ho'.-'crs' funds; that the ofiVcers and others hating st!lar Interests were conducting the tutlneas as If It were a private eeaeern. reaping profit therefrom to which they were nt entitled, hence detrimental to the inter ests of the policy-bolder; that these men wee deceiving the other director, whose high fading In the community was being used to a. J Jn the mulcting of the pellcy-helders. The deferred dividend syrtem was vigorously condemned by the Frick committee, which advocated the method of distributing the surplus annually. The Oregonian does not now say that the Frlck committee and the Investor are right in this recommendation, be cause it understands perfectly that Its adoption means a complete change in the whole Insurance edlfloe; but that seme method must be devised to give the policy-holder control of the surplus Is certain. Many Important and per fectly sound companies, it should be added, now and always have distrib uted their surplus annually. It is un questionably a correct and honest method: but whether it is the only cor rect and honest method we do not as sume to say. Insurance may be too cheap. "We have a complete illustration of the utter fallacy of hard-pan methods In the un- happy plight of several of the great fraternal organizations. There Is a sig nificant and dangerous similarity be tween their methods and the system of certain get-rich-quick schemes. They -were all right so long as new Investors flocked in, and there was very little to pay out But when obligations began to mature and multiply, then came the the trouble. Co-operative life Insurance is sound, no 'doubt, in principle; but it, too, must adjust itself to certain fixed conditions. Until it does the various orders will reach a stage in their his tory when the outgo exceeds the In come, which Is bound to be fatal in time to any business. GOVERNOR DOUGLAS HARD JOB. "William L. Douglas, a noted manu facturer of shoes, thought to vary the programme of life as he had long fol lowed it by becoming Governor of Mas sachusetts. Circumstances favored his desire, and he was nominated, and. though the candidate of the party that has been discredited at the polls in the Old Bay State for more than a genera tion, he was elected, and six months ago entered upon the duties of that of fice. It was given out through the cam paign that Mr. Douglas was not a poli tician; neither, it was said, was he a statesman, as measured by accredited standards. He was a manufacturer, and a successful one. He had been a worklngmaji, and a faithful one. He was an advocate and employer of la bor, and he went in by means of the great labor vote disgruntled at the time because several long-drawn-out strikes were in progress in the state. So it was that Manufacturer Doug las became Governor Douglas, and soon thereafter his troubles began. A conscientious, capable man. he found the burdens of the executive office of the great State of Massachusetts hard to bear. In attempting to discbarge his official duties Impartially, and with clean hands, he has, in the brief space of six months, made enemies of the prominent men of his own party, and they have so harassed him that he has called "enough." He declares that he is not a candidate for re-election (Mas sachusetts enjoys the pastime' of choos ing a Governor once a year), and adds that he regrets that he ran before. Let no one think that Governor Doug las Is afraid of the politicians. He Is simply tired of them. He has had enough of them and of their dark and sinuous ways. For this reason, though his administration has pleased the masses, he has In advance declined re nomination. There is reason to believe. however. In his desire to retire he wil be overborne by popular clamor and he will be Induced to try another year of such worries as fall to the lot of a Democratic executive who declines to make purely partisan appointments, and who. having brought his conscience to the task, has vetoed bills for grafts and spoils that his own party leaders supported. NATIONAL GOOD ROADS ASSOCIATION. The peculiarity of the National Good Roads Convention is that our visitors come, not to learn, but to teach. Other associations and societies we invite and welcome, with a view to showing them the advantages Oregon otters shall we not say over any and every other abiding-place? but the good roads people come to show us how to Improve and make more available what we have. Two ways arc open to them. First, they can. and will, show us by actual, visible demonstration, how to make a road which shall be worthy of its name the year round. All can sec. mark and icarn mis. men iney win snow us what are the necessary elements of co6t, the actual essentials of roadmaking and how to get and to apply them. Quite as essential lessons for us to learn are. who shall decide what roads shall be built, and maintain them when con structed? And also, who shall pay for the roads, and by what means? All can admit that. In Western Ore gon particularly, we have few roads worthy of the name. With one or two short exceptional pieces adjoining the towns, and mere continuations of the city streets Into the country, our best roads are strips of the adjoining field?, fenced In. and more or less leveled and kept bare of vegetation by the passage of wagon and carriage, horseman and rooiman. During tne last few years various enterprising counties have pro vlded what they call "roadmaking ma chines." To set them to work the farm er's plow Is called In to break up the surface, and then the machine, with its four or six horses, scrapes the loos ened soil and dirt towards the center of the track. This done, brute force ami wheels do the rest, and you have an "improved" Western Oregon road Where a gravel pit or a stone quarry Is reasonably accessible the farmers' wag ons follow the plow and scraper and pile a succession of heaps along the central ridge. This everybody with any regard for horse or vehicle leaves se verely alone till the next Winter. Then, the tracks on either side of the center having become streaks of mud, varied with "chuckholes," hub deep, unfortu nate travelers are compelled to take tp the central stope heaps, and gradually smooth them down. The result is a highly improved road, announced by the real estate agents as great attrac tions to the adjoining farms. In many other parts of our state different prob lems are faced. Rock and stone take the place of mud, and the traveler's bones pay in shaking for the solidity of the track. Therefore, practically, we have to be. taught what "good roads" are. We are only now Teaching a condi tion of mind In which we are ready to be taught many of us are even now not In that class not even In the pri mary class of the good-roads school. Why? Because we have hardly emerged from the pioneer stage, when a rain tight house to live in. a barn reason ably piled full of loose hay, and a stock of groceries laid in before the Winter rains set in, were preparations enough for the Winter. A horseback ride for the mail once a week, and a weary wagon drive over the muddy track to town, were all the communications needed with the outside world. This was old Oregon. New men. new man ners. School keeps nowadays, even in the country schools, for seven or eight months in the year. Farm products must go to the creamery or to the gro cery store or railroad depot, twice or thrice a week. The rural mall deliv ery brings the daily paper, and daily letters. Independent telephones draw neighbors and friends together, and families four or Ave miles -apart muse visit and hold converse. Churches must be open on Sunday, and a few days' rain must not so roar the roads as to keep congregations at home. Books must be read and exchanged. Grange meetings and. farmers institutes at tended. Why not? There is no savage blizzard or raging torrent, with danger to life and health, to face; only the apology for a road, with its delays and discomforts. Certainly there are roads and, road. Let us hear and learn all we can about the various grades of roads, and now to make them, and what each kind costs. Then, when we have gone home and thought the matter out, and talked to the neighbors, and are ready to go to doing things then is the time to be first reasonable, then bold. Roads must be had. and of that sort which will be within our means to construct. There Is not much amiss with the laws. Ore gon is not behind many of her sister states In the legal machinery provided. The work can be done. Now, this week. Is the time to learn how. "We thank our visitors of the association for .com ing, and promise them attentive audi BLOW AT OUR FLOUR TRADE. The Hongkong Telegraph of May 5 prints lull details of the organization of a company which will erect a flour mill with a capacity of 2009 barrels per day at Hongkong. Among the names of incorporators appears those of a number of the financial heavyweights of'the Orient, and the list is headed by Mr. Rennle, for the past eighteen years in the service of the Portland Flouring Mills, of this city. The Tele graph, in its account of the project, says that wheat for the mill will be secured wherever possible In British territory, and in Manchuria. A 2000 barrel flour mill will hardly be suffi cient to supply the demands of China and the rest of the Oriental flour trade. but it will prove an opening wedge which may be enlarged with disastrous results for the Pacific Coast flour trade. This trade with the FaV East for the fiscal year ending June 30. 1904, amounted to approximately 3.000.000 barrels of flour, and the totals this season. In spite of the disastrous war. will not fall far shqrt of that amount. Prior to the declaration of war, tne trade was growing so rapidly that It was only a question of a very short time until It would have reached pro portions that would have required all the wheat grown in this country to sat isfy the demands of our mills. As the price paid by the mills has always been much higher than that which was paid by the grain shippers who were de pendent on Europe for a market, the development of this Oriental trade has been "of highest Importance to me gralngrowers of the Pacific Coast, and In turn to all Interests dependent on the grain crop. Under existing conditions, with the ports of China open to our merchants, and without any obstructive or retal iatory tariff to Interfere with our com mercial operations. Pacific Coast mill ers are In a position to retain a large portion of this flour trade which they have been so long building up. With the natural growth of the business, they might even be able to meet the com petition of this Chinese mill, and per haps Increase their operations, at least until opening of the Manchurlan wheat fields supplies the Chinese with cheaper wheat than is obtainable on this side of the Pacific. But the Chinese are on the point of breaking off existing com mercial relations, and laying on our products a trade embargo which will most effectually shut us out of that rich field. Suppose that the Chinese na tion, which has been insulted and hu miliated by our treatment of Its cit izens, decides to adopt our own re strictive policy against the admission of wheat and flour what then? We shut out foreign wheat by impo sition of an ad valorem duty of 25 per cent. The men behind the new flour mill enterprise are In close touch with the Chinese, and have undoubt edly convinced them that the enter prise should be protected by a duty sufficiently high to make it practically impossible for Pacific Coast millers to continue in the field. As previously stated, a 2000-barrel mill will be In sufficient to handl the business that has already been -worked up by Amer ican enterprise, but the matter of In creasing the number of mills and en larging the capacity, if the experiment proves successful, will not be at all dif ficult. This matter presents a phase In the threatened Chinese retaliation that comes directly home to the Pacific Coast farmers and millers. Our flour sales to the Orient this sea son have averaged over 51,609.009 per month, since the opening of the sea son July 1. 1904. We could, perhaps. have sold this flour or the wheat which produced It In other markets, Nbut our past experience has demonstrated that the Oriental flour trade has been the direct means of Increasing the value of every bushel of wheat grown on the Pacific Coast. This industry, which In degree Is fully as Important as the vast cotton Industry of the South. Is In great Jeopardy at this time, and the situation is sufficiently grave to demand an ear nest appeal from all lines of trade for some modification of the Chinese ex elusion act, which will at least admit of the Chinamen having fair treatment when they have a right, under existing laws, to enter this country. LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING. British sportsmen are noted as advo cates oi clean sport xney are op posed to the spirit of commercialism that has become a ruling feature of American athletics; but they have not. heretofore, been as regardful of the quarry in shooting tournaments as they should have been, and as, in the mat ter of live pigeon shooting, they prom ise to be hereafter. The Hurllngham Club, one of the most famous sporting organizations In England, has taken the Initiative In this matter, and on the basis of cruelty to the trapped birds has decided to abolish live-bird target practice or shooting contests. "Like Hurllngham like England." and in this respect It may be hoped that American sportsmen will follow Hurllngham's lead. For some years protests have gone up against live-bird target shooting in this country. A few years ago there was a contest between the "crack shots" of several leading sportsmen's clubs at Kansas City. All over th country the fine scores that were made were telegraphed after the tournament was over. A newspaper man, himself a sportsman, visited the scene and was sickened at the sight pf dozens of crip pled birds, bleeding, suffering, thirsty. panting and perfectly helpless, that formed the aftermath of an exciting and highly enjoyable occasion. A pro test followed the published tale of this suffering, and as a result legislation was secured In a number of states against live-bird shooting- contests. Nothing could be more unsportsman like than shooting a bird that rises from a trap directly In range of the sportsman's gun. The man behind the gun in this case shoots not to kill, but merely to bring down his game. He has no use for It. does not want it. does not even take the trouble to see what becomes of it. Killed or crippled. It is all the same to him. He has brought down his bird, and in any contest of this kind "bird" is a name of multitude. The Minneapolis banker whose state land certificates are questioned on the ground that they were fraudulently ob tained very properly raised the question why the State of Oregon permits men to hold commissions as notaries public and yet looks with suspicion upon all papers bearing their seals. If the no tary has committed a crime, or has been party to a fraud of any kind, his commission should be revoked without delay. If he has not been guilty of wrongdoing, there should be no general assertion of fraud In papers he has exe cuted. This is not a matter in which the individual alone Is interested. As notary public he Is an officer of the state and his official acts are entitled to due credlL If the state continues to as sert Its confidence In him by permitting him to hold a commission, it is a party to his fraudulent transactions. The fact of the matter is that the laws re lating to the appointment of notaries public have been altogether too loose. Almost any person who Is willing to pay a fee of $2.50 may secure a com mission as notary public. Some means should be devised by which Irresponsi ble and dishonest men may be prevent ed from securing such appointments. The accident on the Western Mary land railroad Saturday, by which twen ty-five lives were lost, again demon strates that the fast trains-are safer to ride on than the slow ones. In this latest disaster, the passenger train which collided with a freight was trav eling at a speed of only thirty miles per hour, or less than half of the scheduled time of many of the express trains of the country. The disaster was due to a misunderstanding of orders, and would have been Impossible on the double-track roads where the record-breaking flyers are now scorching. As usual in a head-end collision, the englnemen were killed, and the man responelble for the tragedy paid the penalty with his life. The cost of this wreck will reach a sum that would have built a great many miles of dou ble track, or Installed the block sys tem over still more miles. The close proximity of British Co lumbia to the boundary line results in great similarity in the customs, man ners and actions of the people living near the boundary line. Irrespective of which government they serve. Under such circumstances. It is not surprising that our neighbors on the north should have a timber land scandal all their own. Some of the Ministers of the crown worked through Parliament a scheme by which a London company secured a lease on 120,000 acres of highly valuable timber land on Quat slno Sound, while a grant secured by a locar company by similar methods was cut down from 60.000 acres to 48,000 acres. The "roar of the small com pany was so loud that an investigation Is already under way. and promises to result In the impeachment of some of His Britannic Majesty's subjects. A feature of the new penalty for wlfe- beaters that has not received the men tion that It deserves Is that it releases the culprit upon whom It is Inflicted "to the support of the family of which he is the head." as the Belllngham Herald expresses It. This Is clearly an Im provement upon the old process of sending the wlfebeater to Jail and thereby depriving his family of his earnings while he enjoyed the season of Idleness which his sentence Imposed. Perhaps beaten wives will be more ready to testify to the cruelties Inflicted upon them by brutal husbands when they come to understand that the ap plication of penalty, upon conviction, will not rob the family "of which he is the head" of support while he Is de tained in Idleness among congenial companions. Appeal Is made for contributions to the Oregon Humane Society. It merits all the aid it will receive, and more, too. For a third of a century It has done very effective work in teaching kind ness to the brute creation. While re sults cannot be easily measured. The Oregonian. In common with all observ ant citizens, knows that through the constant teaching of the society, mainly In the public schools, abuse of animals has been reduced to a minimum. In respect to treatment of dumb creatures, Portland is a model community. It Is to be hoped that this condition may be maintained, but remember that a little money is needed. Let It be promptly and cheerfully given. The Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal order, having 70J,000 mem bers, recently increased Its per capita assessments from 25 to 75 per cent at the various ages. The Royal Arcanum, with 300,000 members, finds It necessary to.ralse larget revenue In order to meet the steadily Increasing death rate. The United Workmen has found necessary a readjustment of Its schedules. One problem of the fraternal orders Is to make their life insurance attractive to young men. The usual plan Is to make a graduated assessment, increasing as age Increases. This Is rather hard on the older members, but it is perhaps the only way to make their insurance sound. A love letter of the great Lord Nelson was recently sold at public auction in London for 5355. It was not In any way a remarkable document just one of the ordinary kind, vealy and common place: but it bore the signature of the great Admiral, and the date May 4, 1805. The folly of writing such letters is only equaled by the folly of keeping them, and both are outdone by the In famy of making them public. President Roosevelt will set a fine ex ample If he discharges his chauffeur who drove ht3 automobile faster than the limit fixed by the ordinances of Washington, D. C. If under the law the President was also guilty, he should be made to pay the penalty. And be is Just the kind of & man who would take his medicine and apologize, besides. In keeping with a blundering policy,' it looks now as if Russia is making her biggest mistake in not offering to declare an armistice when her entire Manchurlan army is in Jeopardy. The Czar has transcendent genius for doing the wrong thing. There Is the right ring to Paul Mor ton's first act as head of the Equitable. He demands exact figures on how the company stands. These obtained, he will have a working basis for any re form the directors deem aavUable. 0REG0N0Z0NE Heel per .for Magazine Poetry. When your mind Is alla blank And there's nothing In the tank Where your thoughts are thoujht to be. Just sit. down and write some Thymes Dealing with the ancient times In the lands beyond the sea. Bring in .something, if you can. Of the Muses. Venus. Pan. Or of other ancient fakes; Saw It up in lines like these. Set It out and let it freeze' In symmetric stanza:cake3. Two pair of triplets and two single babies, the latter weighing 20 and 21 pounds, were the product of a single day's storkwork In Long Island City last week. Long Island City is a near neighbor of Oyster Bay. Luther Bur banks seems to be Just now the only active grafter. In the land from sea to sea. That Lincoln Steffens Isn't after. Governor Folk, of Missouri, is going to make a speech at the reunion of vet erans In Dodge City, Kan.. In August. If these Dodge City veterans retain their picturesque habits and habiliments, like wise their pocket companions, the mild, young Governor of Missouri is likely to find his auditors less amenable to the conventions of civilization than even the St. Louis boodlers. ' Twenty years ago. when these present veterans were the ruling Jactor In town life. Dodge City was undoubtedly the toughest town In America. If a man got off a train there In the early SO's wearing store clothes, the chances were 10 to 1 that he would by dancing a Jig In the nearest saloon in two minutes, with bullets popping about his feet to add agility to his toes; and If he made the serious error of wearing a plug hat Into Dodge, the crown of that chapeau would be perforated with portholes like the walls of a blockhouse before the tend-rfoot could walk past PIzen Pete's faro shack. These little matters of Kansas history are recalled merely to put Governor Folk upon his guard and to suggest to him that If he attempts to talk to the Dodge City vet erans In his store clothes' he would better wear chain armor underneath. The Chicago Evening Post seems to Have stirred up a hornet's nest when It quoted the late Colonel CoHille. of the First Minnesota, as having said, when ordered by General Hancock to hold the peach orchard at Gettysburg and break the backbone of Pickett's charge: "The First Minnesota Is short of ammunition. but lt will hold Its position even if It has to load with trousers buttons." An old soldiers jvho declares that lie heard the gallant Colville tell the story many times, writes to the Post that the Colonel said "pant buttons." The present writer never heard the Colonel reminisce, but he will bet his Sunday breeches that Colonel Colville never said "pant." Tin aouoteory ne said either "pants or "breeches," most probably the latter. Soldiers in action never 'stop to revise their remarks before utterance; they carry- no mental blue pencils in their equip mcnt; they go oft half-cocked when they have anything to say. and they say it in the most natural manner known to the average man. As a rule, anyhow, these historic sayings of Generals and Admirals arc manufactured by press agents after the event, or. at any rate, they are put Into the proper shape for posterity by the men behind the pens. It Is very likely. however, that Colonel Colville sent word to General Honcock that he would hold Ms position if he had to load with breeches buttons, for Colville was a fight er: he received seven wounds in that one engagement, and 13 all told during the Civil War. Davenport Cartoons. SI. "Say." said a Washington street car conductor to his motorman. when the car stopped at Fifth street yesterday, "did you notice that there cartoonist who was on the car on the last trip out to the Fair?" "Sure." replied the motorman; -"that's Homer Davenport." "That's the man." the conductor said; "he rides out with us every day. Well, he had & big sheet of paper with him. and he made a cartoon of me on the trip out; had roe down pat. and In the corner of the picture he wrote, 'Fare, please.' He handed It to me when he got off, and I stuck It under the rear seat; didn't want to spoil it by folding it up. When we turned that curve at Sixteenth street the wind blew It away." "Too bad." said the motorman. "Yes. It was: why, I wouldn't have lost that cartoon for a dollar." - A Bid Tor the Last Word. Dear Ozone: Won't you clve u the last werd on 'he wlfe-beatln? situation and end th discission a to whether a man who beats fels wife in Oregon should have hl owu measly back bruised with the . cat-o'-n Ins talls or be- presented with a house and lot as a reward of merit? There seem to be opinions1 on both sides. We pause tor your reply. CITIZENS COMMITTEE We cannot guarantee that ours will be the last word, but If we were running the solar system It would be. Here Is just a part of what we think: Any male beast who mistreats any woman by using the fist argument should be compelled to take a large and liberal dose of his own medicine, as the new law In Oregon prescribes. No matter whether he beats his own wife or the wife of somebody else, or a maiden lady, or a little girl, or a Sioux squaw, or a pipe smoking Igorrote belle If he whips a woman he puts himself beyond the pate of human sympathy and deserves no croc odile tears. A male biped who mistreats a woman deserves the best beating that he can get at the hands of the whip wielder. The state should establish a gymnasium tor the physical education of husky youngsters who show a special ap titude for plying the lash, to the end that their services may be used when the law demands. These young men should be graduated A. B. Able Beaters and whenever a two-legged wart on the sur face of humanity whips his wife he should be whipped by a regular graduate. The Job should be done not brutally, but artis tically, with neatness and dispatch. And the whlpping.post law should be amended to include a clause providing for the teaching of proper ideas of humanitarian Ism to those ' persons who toss bouquets at the vile wretch who through his own baseness becomes a subject for the lash. It is the duty of society to protect the weak, even If society has to thrash the strong. To all of which we hereby set our hand and seal. Done at the City of Portland, County of Multnomah. State of Oregon, this 20th day of June, in the year of Our Lord 1908 and of the Independence of the United States the One Hundred and Twenty I ninth. XOBCRTU5 LOVE. VLADIVOSTOK, GIBRALTAR OP THE EAST Rasa la's Stepytag-Off Place la Her Dream of Pacific Coast Empire. Sacramento Union. i Since the fall of Mukden, Vladivostok has been necessarily the Japanese point of final objective. The new Russian city of Harbin, and the ancient Manchurlan City of Kirin. north of Mukden, are way stations in the war's movement to Vladi vostok. Before the fall of Mukden. Har bin was the key on the north to Russian supply, both for Port Arthur as the ter minus of tho Manchurlan branch of the trans-Siberian Railroad, and for Vladivo stok as the terminus of the main line. With the fall of Port Arthur followed by that of Mukden and the movement of the Japanese to the north verging towards the east flank of Russian defense, the possible capture of Harbin Is of Import ance only as It bears on the ultimate Vladivostok attack. The main line of the trans-Siberian Railroad anywhere between Harbin and "Vladivostok Is of as much Importance, while Vladivostok Is held against Russia as Harbin Itself, since to hold it Is to cut off Vladivostok and with it the Pacific Coast of Russia from the source of supply for war materials and men. Except through Japanese defeat, which has not been Indicated by events thU3 far. or by Russian consent to peace, which has seemed equally Improbable. the whole trend of the war indicates that Vladivostok is the point at which It will be decided. Since It is in undisputed Russian territory, the key of the Russian coast of the Pacific as well as the point of connection betwten European Russia and Its future on the Pacific, the ability of the Japanese to capture and hold it would enable them to dictate terms Rus sia would never accept otherwise. Prob ably this would Involve Russian surrender of all Manchuria south of the main line of the trans-Siberian Railroad. In accounts of his explorations in modern Siberia, published last year. Senator BeveriJge called VlaJlvostok the "Gibraltar of the East." His obser vations were made in 1901, and since that year the same term has been re peatedly used to describe Port Arthur, so that the strength of Russian de fenses, considered Impregnable at Vlad ivostok, are discredited by the result at Port Arthur. The town !Ies chiefly In a valley sloping down to the har bor from a range of hills which as they extend to enclose the harbor, have been heavily fortified during the period of Pacific Coast development, toward which Russia began to look as far back as 1861, when A'ladivostok was first laid off. The harbor itself, which Rus sians call the "Golden Horn," opens into what they call In Russian geogra phies taught In the schools of Vladi vostok the "Gulf of Peter the Great." It is part of the sea of Japan, and. it has another name In Japanese. Since ground was broken at Vladivostok, In May. 1S91. for the western division of the trans-Siberian Railroad. Russia has been making a systematic attempt at colonization, on the success of which, us far as It has succeeded, much may depend during the present year after Vladivostok Is actually invested. This attempt was to make the town sometning more than a port for ship ment Into interior Siberia by giving it a supporting territory populated by Russlans. as the country back of Port land and San Francisco is by Ameri cans, Vladivostok itself Increased in population from a little over 7000 In 1870 to 38,000 at the beginning of the war with Japan. Most of this popula tion has come since the beginning of the trans-Siberian Railroad, and had not "Russia deflected Its branch line south to Port Arthur It would have been more than doubled. Since the com- WHY WEAVER JECLARED WAR Boston Herald. i Mayor John Weaver, who is doing such good work In Philadelphia. Is an Eng lishman who ran away from home and became a seaman when a boy. Land ing In Philadelphia when 15 years old, he has lived there ever since. His first work wa3 as an errand boy for John Wunamakor; then he became office boy for a firm of lawyers. While In this service he learned stenography. By assiduous labor and self-sacrifice, he studied law and was admitted to the bar In 1891. and in a few years made the reputation of one of the best trial lawyers in Philadelphia. He once de clined an election to the common coun cil on the ground that he would not permit a political ward leader to dic tate his course as a Councilman. He was chosen District Attorney by the Re publican machine, and signalized his term by the prosecution of some Repub lican repeaters. Then he was elected Mayor us an honest figurehead for the machine gang. His office-holding has not been happy, it Is said, until he made up his mind to fight. He is a deeply rellglous man, and things came to a pass when he. could no longer serve the gang. It Is said that he. with his wife and little son. spent the whole night In prayer before he vetoed the new gas lease. His own statement to a corre spondent of the Toledo Sun of the motive of his action is in these words: "When I entered the fight I made the statement that I could not 11'e with ray honor under a cloud; that I would not endure the pressure of any Influences to compel ' me to sacrifice my Judgment of right, and that on this cause I would battle for life or death. I meant that literally. It was no mere sacrifice of political ambition, for I have none. T could not look my wife In the face or stand before my son as his model, nor could I traverse the streets of my own city with the shame In my heart that I had betrayed my secret trust. That Is why I declared war." His law partner, Frederick S. Drake, has said that, on the day following the decision to fight. Weaver said to him, as they were journeying together to the city: "Drake, I can no more than die for my honor and for my sacred trust. I am going to fight." "Where the Millionaires Live. Butte News. People interested in millionaires and their haunts, speculative artists of the still hunt for the man with the money, will be interested in a compilation, of statistics recently made up showing where mllllnnalres live. North America has 5C44 millionaires, of which 14 live In Canada and 3 In Mexico. America leads all continents and the United States leads all nations, for this gives Uncle Sam's domain 50J7. South Am-jrlca Is forced to worry along on a. measly crop of 24 millionaires. This Includes Central America as well. Big Africa. Including Abyssinia and Moroc co, ha3 but eight millionaires, while woe to the small nations of Holland. Greece, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Roumanla, Mon tenegro and Servla. They have no more millionaires than the proverbial "'rab bit. Europe has 4091. which is probably 4090 today, with the death of another RothschllJ. Of this. England has 2500, Germany S04, France 6SS and Russia 49. The balance tapers to Turkey and Sweden, who each have a lone lorn mil lionaire. Asia and Australasia has 921. of which Inala has 900, China 11 and Australia 5. Wanted. " Life-. To th weary, careworn traveler, on tne "up-grade" known as Life, Looms the philanthropic signboard with its remedies for strife; There are Vim and Vorce and Health Flakes; thcra are Husb and Crush and Zest But the ona we're really waltins tor ts a brain food known u Swt. pletion of the line, and for several years before. Russian Immigrants have been crowded as rapidly as possible Into the lands of the Usuri valley back of Vladivostok, and It is estimated tnat this territory now has a population of between 100.000 and 150,000. chiefly Russian, although land was granted also to some 15,000 Coreans. In two years before the beginning of the war about 25,000 Russians were settled thus on farms back of Vladivostok, and as in building the town itself, .so .In its attempts to colonize the country, Rus sia followed as far as possible the American example on tho Pacific Coast. "There is nothing Asiatic about the aspect of this Pacific capital," an Eng lish visitor writes. "Indeed, it is rather trans-Atlantic than European. Seated on a deeply emoayed and apparently land locked harbor, along the shores of which It straggles for more than three miles, climbing the barren sides of denuded hills, it shows lofty buildings with bold fronts, the government house, the glitter ing domes of a Greek cathedral, a Lu theran church, the government adminis trative offices, the admiralty, the arse nal, the cadet school, the naval club and the grand and solid terminus of the trans Siberian railroad, rising out of an irreg ularity which Is not picturesque." While this Is a modern description, the Russian government has gone on build ing the town since it was written, equip ping It with electric railroads and lights, flour mills, sawmills and factories and industrial schools, all of a pattern more modern if anything than those of St. Petersburg itself. Its waterworks had been completed and It had two shipyards before the beginning of the war. Be fore the Japanese navy, which threw a number of shells over the town last year, interrupted Russian communications by sea. a Russian line of steamers had been chartered to ply to Seattle. Communica tion with the Pacific Coast on the Amer ican aide was so close 'that in Central Siberia Senator Beverldge found the same reaping and mowing machinery at work he had scon In Indiana before leaylng home. In the new Russian towns, built along t..c railroad, with Vladivostok as their supply point, he found In the res taurants "bread made from American flour. American sugar-cured ham and American fruits from the Pacific Coast, with American salmon from the Colum bia, canned meats from the Central West and American condensed milk from Illi nois for sale In the newly established Russian grocery stores." This suggests the extent of what will depend" on Vladivostok if it is once in vested by Japan. Not only at Vladivo stok and at Harbin, but In the new rail road towns It had begun building along Its great railroad. Russia was planning a Pacific Coast empire, laid out largely on the plan of the American West, with im migration fostered by land grants and by a Russian plan of governmental "booming which brought Harbin irom nothing at all to an Important city before It had time- to take its place in the geog raphies. All this would not end with the fall of Vladivostok, but if such an event were imaginable as part of Japanese tri umph complete cnougfi to make Vladivo stok a Japanese possession, Russian de velopment would be forced from the shores of the sea of Japan to that of the sea of Okhotsk, to which a branch railroad running north by northwest, 475 miles from Vladivostok, leads. The' final surrender of Vladivostok by Russia is not imaginable as a possibility of the war. however. It captured by Japan. Its occu pancy until the treaty of peace would serve to enforce Japanese demands in Corea and Manchuria. THE C0ST0F GAS. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. It is well known that consumers of gas In England pay only about one-half the sum charged for it In the United States. This Is a great advantage to the English people, and equivalent to an addition to their Incomes. The increased use of gas Is also a labor-saving operation and tends to purify the air of large cities. High gas Is no more advisable than high postage, and no more profitable, except as It aids the Illegitimate business of watering stock. How the gas business is managed in England may be seen by the directors' report of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, of London, one of the largest corporations in that city. The extent of Its business is shown by Its report that last year It supplied customers with 12,636.000.000 cubic feet of gas, used 1.165. 000 tons of coal, and earned $2,230,000 dividends on Its stock. Its capitalization in stock and bonds Is 540.000,000. The company charges consumers a frac tion less than 49 cents for 1000 cubic feet, and reduced the price 6 cents compared with the rate in 1903. Both with the public and its workmen the company con ducts certain co-operative features. Cus tomers share in the company's prosperity by a reduction from time to time in the cost of gas. Japs Read Practical Books. Omaha Bee. The Japanese are serious-minded peo ple, as their literary habits show. They take life seriously and devote their time to the reading of what would be called In America solid books. The recent report of the librarian of the imperial library at Tokio shows that there is little de mand for light literature In that capital, for flctfon-of any' sort, contrary to the experience of most of the popular libra ries In England, France and America. The Japanese mind runs to science, math ematics, medicine, language, and to what may be termed the graver forms of lit erature. More than 40 per cent of the works taken out of the imperial library are of this character. The Japanese are very fond of history. In the making of which they are extensively engaged at present In the Eastern war. Engineer ing, military and naval science receive much attention. The Interest In these subjects has been greatly stimulated by the war. The Japanese are men of though't as well as of action, and well deserve the designation of "Yankees of the East." Works of the Imagination do not appeal to them. They seem to be devoted to practical studies, and it may be an omi nous sign that they delight in the study of the science of warfare. "Uncle Joe's 3Ianners. Roswell Field, In Chicago Evening Post. Nobody who knows Uncle Joe Cannon is going to believe that absurd story from Portland which has Uncle Joe fishing out Ice from a water pitcher and bedewing his fevered brow In the conviction that he had struck a finger bowl. Uncle Joe Is no slouch when it comes to etiquette. In Chicago he frequently patronizes the tearooms, and he knows as well as any body that a finger bowl is a small glass basin of water with red cinnamon drops or peppermint candy stuck In little pa per boxes on the saucer. We do not say that Uncle Joe did not use the water pitcher for the purposes claimed, but we contend that he did It deliberately and re buklngly. thereby showing his disapprov al of the committee of arrangements who did not take into account the neces sities of statesmen on a hot June day. We are growing very weary of hearing the great thought of the country-vilified Just because it happens to come from Illinois. "WIfebeaters and Scolding Wives. Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Oregon has established the whipping post for wlfebeaters and the Muskogee Democrat thinks they should now add the ducking-stool for scolding wives. Might run 'em in conjunction.