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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1909)
6 THE MORNING OREGONIAN, MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1909. PORTLAND, OREGON. Entered at Portland, Oregon, Postofncs a Peoond-Clasa Matter. Subscription liiites Invariably In Advance. (By Mall.) Tally. Sunday Included, one year $8.00 Ially, Sunday included, six months.... 4.25 l'ally. Sunday Included, three months.. 2.25 Xt&ily, feunday lnrluded, one month 75 Ially. without Sunday, one year 8.00 Jally, -without Sunday, fix months.... 3-25 Dally, without Sunday, three months... 1.75 Dally, without Sunday, one month.... .60 Weekly, one year .. 1.50 funday, one year 2.50 Cuoday and weekly, one year 3.50 (By Carrier.) Dally, Sunday Included, one year .00 Daily, Bunday lnrluded, one month 75 . How to Remit tiend postofflce money order, express order or personal check on your local hank. Stamps, coin or currency ere at the sender's rlpk. Give postofflce ad dress In full. Including county and state. Postage Rate 10 to 14 pages. 1 cent: 18 to 28 pages. 2 cents; 30 to 40 pages. 3 cents: to 60 pages, cents. Foreign postage double rate. Eastern Business Office The S. C. Beck wlth Special Agency New York, rooms 48 60 Tribune building. Chicago, rooms 510-512 Tribune building. PORTLAND, MONDAY, DEC 13, 1900. A CIVII. PENSION LIST. If we are to have a system of civil pensions for support of persons ad vancing In years, -who have been feed ing at the public crib till they don't know where else or how else to feed, yet can't any longer do the work the Government requires we shall soon have a civil pension list exceeding that for military and naval service; and the pressure to get places in "the de partments," carrying assurance of "provision for old age," will be enor mously increased. It will equal or ex ceed the rush of young Joans to marry the old soldiers. Undoubtedly there are thousands of Incapable persons in the departments, who ought to be "let out,", so the work can be better done. Old age isn't 'the sole reason. Many never were capable, but were "put In" by influen tial persona Senators and others 'who wished to unload their own de pendents on the country. Moreover, the public service is stuffed with su pernumeraries of all kinds. Numbers very much smaller would, suffice, if the work were pushed as private en terprise must push Its undertakings. Next thing, probably, will be to pro vide pensions for politicians of var ious parties, whose lives, have been "worn out in the service of their country." It is probable there are persons In the civil service who, as age advances, ought to have pensions. But the dif ficulty of discrimination between the worthy and the unworthy vill be ex treme. Then, every one whom a de partment wishes to get rid of will go on the civil pension list. Within a few years it may exceed a million persons. FKOBUOIS AT PORTLAND.. The position of a city, like that of Portland, astride a river, has its dif ficulties; and these difficulties ought to be met, in an Intelligent manner with a view to the whole situation. From one side the river to the other there must be means of transit; but these should be considered with a view only to general purposes, not for any private object. But the trouble at Portland has been and still is that interests in one quarter and another have tried and still try to get advan tages for their own localities at the expense of the whole. Demand for a bridge at one point Is fought by de mand for a bridge at another not only as to bridges on the river, but bridges over the gulches so that a proposition to put In a bridge at one street is fought by those who want it at the street next adjacent, for bene fit of their own peculiar property; and this extends away into the suburbs. where owners and promoters have lots and tracts to sell. Consequence is that one part of the people are con tinually trying to check and to de feat the efforts of others.- ' It is not the spirit necessary for the making of a city. Portland Is not only in the position of a city astride a river, but is shut off from expansion on the- West Side by the range of hills close in;, so that Its expansion must be on the Cast Side. Yet the old city, where great est development has taken place, and where the business mostly is done, is in the restricted western portion. Now since the city cannot expand towards the west, it must expand towards the east, where the room is ample. Few would live on the east side If there were room on the west side; and but for the range of hills on the west, the city ere this would have been extended in that direction a distance of six to ten miles. The situation makes bridges abso lutely necessary. At present during the busy hours the bridges are fre quently opened and transit Is blocked. This will be relieved. In a degree, when the Madison bridge shall be completed; it would be relieved still further by erection of the proposed high bridge at the North End, spoken of commonly as the Broadway bridge. This bridge ought to be erected, with out further delay. It will be but little in the way of navigation. All vessels, except those carrying tall masts, would pass under It: and there seldom would be cause to open the draw. The Madison bridge is so far up stream that the calls for it to open will be comparatively few, though it could be wished this were a high bridge, too. But regulations for construction of steamboats should require them to be built low. and their smokestacks so constructed as to be dropped on approach to a bridge. These or similar things must be done. The river must not re .main the obstacle, , and the Increas ing obstacle It Is. to the movement of the people. Better provision must be made, or the West Side, where the room is scant, will be sent to the East Side, where the room is abundant Greatest of all concerns of the West Side Is free movement over the river For tha present, and for. many years, the bridges must supply the means for tunnels or tubes will be too costly for years yet to come. Owners of property on the West 6ide will stand especially in their own light, if they oppose bridge construc tion. The Oregonian believes the Broadway bridge as necessary' to the West Side as to the East Side; even more so. It may be taken as certain that the Morrison and Burnside bridges will always be maintained; and jthe O. R. & N. is about to put In a bridge at Glisan and Oregon streets For the north part of the city, on both sides of the river, the Broadway bridge is indispensable; and it is to be built at a height that -will offer no ob stacle to the general traffic of the river. " : Even a single subway, under the river, may be regarded as practically impossible at this stage of the develop ment of the city. We shall get such subway after a while, and more than one; but projects so costly must wait tilT we get the resources to put them through. Portland Is not New York. Besides, ve have need of so many other things, costing great sums, that can't be denied. For a whjle bridges will suffice, and we believe must suf fice. Of the proposed bridge at Broadway, it must be said that Is pre cisely on the natural route and proper direction for the movement between the West Side and the Northeastern part of the city, or Peninsula. Again, there could be. no agreement now among the citizens as to the" locality of a tunnel or tube. Contrariety of wishes and interests would block the endeavor as matters now stand. In the judgment of The Oregonian, the Broadway bridge is necessary to pres ent solution or accommodation of these affairs. For, meantime, we must con tinue to cross the river; we must have bridges, and, moreover, we must have regulations for closure of the bridges at suitable times, morning and even ing. - Reason and judgment should prevail and must prevail, in all these matters. It is a condition, not a theory. It is a plain problem for the general good, not for building up one locality or one street, or neglect of others. Selfish interests must be suppressed, Jf the growth of the city is not to be checked, but promoted. The Broadway bridge should be built as quickly as possible; and tunnels must wait till we get the resources to build them; which cer tainly will not be this year, nor next, nor the next. The way to build a city is to do what we can do now. HELL-FOR-9ARTIX. The incident Is rather a funny thing. Some fellow at Corvallls, signing the initials, "E. M.," wrote and printed a letter attacking The Oregonian, de crying its editorial page, yet saying that the paper and its editorial page had the approval and received the commendation "almost without exceD- tion of statesmen, bankers, merchants and even our professors and preach ers" whereat the said "E. M." greatly marvelled, . and wound up with the naive Inquiry, "How can these hallu cinations (about The Oregonian) on the part, of the present writer be ac counted for?" To which The Ore gonian offered the explanation which the writer had asked for, by the simple comment: "Oh, it's easy. As Horace Greeley used to say. The man merely Is a damned fool." " This does indeed make the fellow tumble and roar; The Oregonian actually "swore," which is horrible. Next he shows the delicacy of his own mind by quoting an obscene pas sage from Shakespeare, rants and rages, and throws many a fit, in his effort to digest the venom of his spleen. All of which co-ordinates with that "hallucination" that re fuses respect for a general opinion, also held "almost without exception by our statesmen, bankers, merchants and even our professors and preach ers." Down in Southern Illinois Egypt in old times there was a lo cality known as Hell-for-Sartln. Evidently "E. M." is contemplating re moval back to It. Or perhaps he brought the place with him, and car ries it in his own "psychology" one of his own favorite words. A BREAD TRUST. Now It is asserted in New Tork that a bread trust is to be formed or is forming; and the people are to be re quired to pay trust prices for bread. Suppose the people make their own bread. Wheat Is a commodity, and flour is a commodity prices of both ruled by the law of the value of sta ples, the world over. Anybody ' can buy flour and make bread if he have the price of the flour. But it seems some think bread a natural product- They don't go back far enough. Even the wheat of which bread Is made requires for its produc tion patient and Intelligent labor. And then one who would have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding, and then must tarry the heating of the oven and the baking; and then must tarry the cooling, too, lest he burn his lips. Now since wheat and wheat flour are common staples of the market, that no trust can control, suppose those who complain about the bread trust and the extortlons'of the bakers buy the flour, instead of the bread, and make their own bread. Energetic peo ple have been known to make their own bread, or even to do without bread, for a time. Many yet living have opened a sack of flour, poured in water at the top of the sack, made it Into a dough, and roasted the dough on a split or forked stick before a fire, and fed the family that way. And then, if they hadn't even the flour, they managed to live somehow. But they were not very fat, nor much troubled about their "rights." THE WORLD'S WHEAT. A very Interesting table, compiled by the Liverpool Corn Trade News, show ing the world's wheat output for 1909, appeared In yesterday's Oregonian. This table, which gave the output of each country for the past five years, shows the 1909 crop to be the largest ever harvested, and by comparison with, its predecessors the crop might seem to indicate easier prices for the great cereal. An analysis of the fig ures for the five years mentioned in the table in connection with those of the preceding five years, however, does not offer much encouragement for cheap wheat. Granting the accuracy of the 1909 figures, we find the aver age world's crop for the five years ending with 1909 to be 3,132,963,000 bushels. This compares with an av erage yield of 2,973,072,400 bushels for the five years preceding 1905, showing an increase for the five-year period of 159,890,800 or about 5 per cent. This Is a very small percentage of Increase when we consider the growth of the population and the Increased purchasing power of the people. It is also significant that the 1909 crop is the only one that has exceeded in size the 3,238,240.000-bushel crop of 1903. The average for the four years pre ceding 1909 Is shown to be 3.079,412, 000 bushels, and the most pressing ne cessity for a big crop this year is found in the figures for the four years preceding 1905. The average yield for the years lflOl-2-3-4 was 3,070,458.250 bushels, or less than 9,000.000 bushels of the yield for the four years follow ing. From these figures it is easy to understand that our wheat consumers have been following remarkably close on the heels of producers for several years. The figures offer an excellent theme for speculation as to what might happen in the event of a failure in some of the big exporting countries of the world. With the sup ply and demand so closely adjusted and with a steady increase In demand, a failure in either Argentina, Russia or the United States would hardly fail to send prices up to extravagant heights. Fortunately for the consumer, the output of the wheat-producing coun tries of the world is so comparatively evenly distributed throughout the year that the world has a new crop coming on somewhere every month. For the past four months the world's require ments have been met and some sur plus accumulated, largely from the shipments from Russia and the. United States. From this date there will be a decrease in these shipments, but the harvesters are already at work In the vast grain fields of the Argentine, and exporters are now selling new-crop Argentine cargoes. In January, Aus tralia and New Zealand will be offer ing new wheat, and before Argentina and Australian shipments begin to de crease in April, India will begin float ing new-crop wheat. These offerings, with those of less Important countries, will supply the demand until the United States and Canada are again in the market as sellers. PORTLAND'S WATER TROUBLE. Water mains should not be paid for wholly out of public funds. Benefited land should bear part of the expense. Any arrangement that omits this es sential principle of justice cannot be satisfactory. Experience of the city already has proved this truth. The fault of the charter amendment which Mayor Simon and the City Council will submit to voters In the special elec tion February 15 is the charging of the whole cost of new mains to public funds. This amendment will make a better working system than the 'one now In use, but it will restore condi tions which prevailed up to three years ago and which, the electorate declared unsatisfactory and abolished in June, 1907. The proposed amendment should have been framed so as to require the lots that shall be served by new mains to pay some part of the cost of water tubes. This method is in force in Se attle and that city is satisfied. Large, mains there are paid for out of public funds, but each lot Is assessed Its ap portioned share of expense for six-inch pipe. By this arrangement lots bor dering a big main and those supplied by small lateral . pipes all, bear the same, burden, nor are their values en hanced, for benefit of their owners, wholly at the public expense, without contribution on their part. "Vast values have been added to the land of speculators and promoters In Portland by the city's plan of laying pipes at public expense. Owners have sat idly by and "realized" the enor mous wealth thus created, without contributing a dollar toward the primal producer of the new values. Water service makes land more val uable than do sidewalks and streets and streetcars. Public discontent reached such a stage in 1907 that an amendment to the charter was then carried, transferring cost of new mains from the water fund to benefited land This plan did not work out success fully because of difficulty In apportion- 1 ing benefits of large mains, and In 1909 the charter again was amended so as to charge cost of such mains, of ten inches or more, to the water fund Smaller mains were still to be assessed against benefited land. Now, because it is almost impossible to induce con tractors to enter competition for build lng pipelines of less than ten Inches diameter,, another amendment is pro- posed, for the purpose of charging all pipe expense to the public funds. thereby restoring the old method, that was tried and rejected. It will be noted that owners of land that are to be served by new water mains want taxpayers or water con sumers to pay all the cost. But this -Is not just. The proposed charter amendment does not offer an adequate remedy for the water trouble. It will expedite laying of new mains which is desirable and necessary but not by a Just method. RED CLOCD, HERO OR FIEND? A generation ago announcement of the death of Red Cloud, the famous Sioux chieftain, who died at Pine Ridge agency Thursday, would have been hailed with delight. A genera tion hence, of perhaps a few years far ther in the future, it is not improbable that the historlans. of that coming day may have Red Cloud and a good many of his fellow-chieftains set up on ped estals as heroes, instead of as fiend ish murderers, as they were classed a generation ago. Time is a great lev. eler of ranks, and It also rights a great many wrongs that do not appear when they are committed. Defense of the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has made many bloody pages in history since the world cooled oft and became a place "where crawls lng mortals live and die." The inter pretation of this right has varied among nearly all peoples and in all countries. When two civilized nations decide that an appeal to force of arms alone can settle their differences, they fight according to the ethics of the game as known and understood by civilized countries. Red Cloud, the Sioux war rior, and his compatriots, through na ture and environment, employed a dif ferent code of ethics In their fighting, and, viewed from the Caucasian stand' point, it was needlessly cruel and re volting. Most of the great Indian bat ties in which the red men were vic tors were termed "massacres," and yet the worst of these massacres were only "battles" in which the red man killed the white man while the latter was do ing his best to kill the Indian. .The name of Patrick Henry will live through all ages by reason of his matchless words "Give me liberty or give me death." And yet when Red Cloud broke away from some of his wavering tribesmen at the Fort Lara mie peace' conference and swore vengeance on the whites, who, he be lieved, were encroaching on his rights and threatening the liberty that his ancestors had enjoyed for centuries who can say that he was not prompted by the same sentiment voiced by Pat rick Henry years before? Civilization was forced on the In dians by an irresistible pressure. The "survival of the fittest," "the greatest good for the greatest number," and every economic law known to civilized man demanded either the civilization or the extinction of the Indian. Plenty of mistakes were made In carrying out J this policy, And many lives were need lessly sacrificed. But the results of those bloody tragedies of the frontier left heartaches In the wigwam as well as in the cabin of the paleface. The hand of death has not cured all of these heartaches, and for that reason It will probably remain for the un prejudiced historian of the future to determine whether Red Cloud was a hero or a fiend. When the late Captain Tom Powers steered the ancient, decrepit, over- oaded and utterly worthless steamer Eliza Anderson into Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the course of the Klondike excitement, with 200 badly frightened passengers who had given up hope of safety, a revenue officer greeted Pow ers with the observation: "Tou are- a very lucky man, Captain Powers." Whereupon Powers retorted: "Luck be -d. It was a miracle that brought us through. Many narrow escapes of citizens in automobiles, streetcars and other vehicles on the bridges sug gest that either luck or miracle makes up for shortcomings of bridge tenders who are drawing salaries from the county, presumably for services in keeping streetcars, automobiles and wagons from plunging through open draws. The narrow escape as report ed in yesterday's Oregonian showed a margin of two feet between life and death for a carload of passengers. Perhaps the .County Court will de mand sharper vigilance after a few people shall have been drowned. The heaviest handicap upon na tional soldiers' homes is that of the drunkenness so persistently saddled upon them by the inmates. Many of such veterans furnish a solution to the problem of their poverty and de pendence in old age by getting drunk at the expense and to the absorption of their pension allowance. This fact is as regrettable as it is pitiable. A law for the protection of the old soldier of bibulous habit from himself was passed in 1906, excluding beer halls from the homes, but it has been found by experiment that the effort is futile. An Increase of trials for drunkenness instead of the hoped-for decrease has resulted, the excess being 1025 during the three years covered by the in spector's report. All of which goes to show that it Is Idle to attempt to con trol a man in his second childhood who is the victim of appetite for strong drink, is allowed the liberty to go and come, and has a little money in his pocket or a quarterly stipend in prospect. The amount of money that goes through tha Pension Bureau into the grogshop is enormous. But there is no help for it under existing conditions. Neither the Inclemency of the weather nor the near approach of the holiday season has any apparent effect in checking the volume of real estate business or of building operations. The best feature of real estate news, which is unusually plentiful for the season of the year, is that which re ports continued heavy sales of fruit and dairy ranches in the territory im mediately adjacent to Portland. This city can grow no faster than the country on which it is dependent for support, and every new settler who comes Into the territory and begins producing something for which there Is a good market is contributing ma terially to the growth of the city. We can stand a lull in the movement in corner lots, provided there is no let-up in the volume of business in farm, or chard and garden lands. Swimming in Summer and skating In Winter are two classes of sport in which the fatalities are always very heavy In the Eastern and Middle Western States. The first tragedy of the Winter season is reported from Kent, O., where a farmer, his three children and a brother were all drowned. Ice of sufficient strength for skating is such a rarity in the Oregon country that loss of life among skat ers is rare indeed. The water, bow ever, annually takes heavy toll from juvenile swimmers who get beyond their depth in the numerous streams and lakes of the Pacific Northwest. In a country as well watered as ours every child should be taught to swim This precaution, and with no danger of consequence from skating accidents, would reduce the size of the death roll. The Harney County News, edited -by Frank Davey, of the land office at Burns, says: "Frank Davey support ed Statement One when The Orego nian supported It." But The Orego nian never supported Statement One; and from the time when Statement One was forced to the 'front as the chief feature of the primary law, The Oregonian has . opposed and de nounced it. Perhaps, if it is Impossible for the United Railways to grant a 5-cent fare between Linnton and Portland, in con sideration of Its use of the county's public road and its franchise contract with the county, the company could vacate the public road and restore It to passable condition. There is a happy land, far, far away. Our .single-taxers and theorists of all descriptions, - men and women ruled by their palpitations, not by .their reason, have discovered it. It is New Zealand. To them it Is the happy land, far, far away. ! , And this time it was a streetcar that narrowly escaped plunging into the river through an open draw. The County Court rakes together a surpris ing bunch of dolts and "drunks" to man the drawbridges. A number of enthusiasts aver they will swim the -Willamette River on Christmas day." If they had to per form this freak feat they would cer tainly consider it very dangerous and injurious. streetcars could be made more roomy by taking out the seats and providing more straps. Sing On, a Eugene Chinaman, died last week. Being now a celestial in a double sense, he probably will. Where now are the noisy citizens who used to boast their preference for snow and cold weather? An Albany man has just received three blooded roosters from the East Albany la quite cocky. Evidently Mr. King, the Portland architect bridegroom, got married none too soon. THE: BRITISH PARLIAMENT. The Strangle Betweet tbe Partlca for Supremacy. New York Tribune. The British Parliament. King Ed ward's second, was prorogued Just four years, lacking a day, after the resigna tion of the former Unionist government, an-d again was dissolved just four years after the former dissolution. It was on December 4, 1905, that Mr. Balfour re signed office, and it was on the next day that Sir Henry CampbellrBanner- man was commissioned to succeed him. It was on January 8, 1906, that King Edward's first Parliament was dis solved, and the election of the second promptly followed. The result of that election was the return of 400 Liberals of various shades, 80 Laborltes and 83 Nationalists, making a total ministerial coalition of 513, and 157 Unionists, leaving a ministerial majority of 356. Since then there have been 93 by-elections, of which 58 have been contested. In these the Liberals have not gained a single seat, while the Unionists have gained 11 and the Laborites 3 and there have been some secessions from the Liberal to the Labor ranks. At the moment of dissolution the House con tained 365 Liberals, . 53 Laborites, 81 Nationalists and 1 Socialist, a minis terial coalition of 600, and 168 Union ists, leaving a ministerial majority of 332. We have already considered the at titude of the Nationalist members. Of comparable Importance Is that of the Labor and Socialist parties. It is re ported that the Liberals have made or are making a compact with these par lies witn a view to avoiding trlaneular contests, the basis of it being that the Laborites are to run candidates for only the seats which they held in the late House and in those places are to be supported by the Liberals, while in all other divisions the Laborites will sup port the Liberal candidates. There can be no doubt that such an arrangement would conduce greatly to the success of the Liberals or of the Liberal-Labor coalition, and It seems probable that it wm be effected and executed to some extent, particularly in Wales, where ir. L,ioya-oeorge Is reported to have assented to Liberal support of the Labor ana socialist candidates. It is by no means certain, however, that the bar gain can be universally carried out. British voters are resolute, not to say stubborn, and none of them is more so than the Laborites and Socialists. Already in anticipation of the elee tlons of next month the Laborites have nominated 80 candidates, and It Is scarcely to be expected that all or even most of them will be withdrawn. In ract, some of the most conspicuous Labor and Socialist leaders are out spoken and vehement against anv al liance with the Liberals. Thus Victor Grayson, the one Socialist member who was chosen at one of the by-elections in his paper, the Clarion, Bays that if any such arrangement is made he will resign from the Independent Labor party and call upon all other Socialists to do the same. "If our party," he says, "is to become an accepted wing of the hypocritical Liberal party. would do my little share to wreck such a scandalous entente with the utmost complacency." Equally outspoken to the same effect Is the Labor Leader, which says: "Thejre can be no bargain, arrangement or agreement with either Liberals or Tories. The Labor party will fight in every constituency in which circumstances Justify a contest and without the slightest regard to the convenience of any other party." Of course, many members of the two parties in question may not be ruled by these orders. Also, seeing that in the late House, even after all the losses at by-elections, the Liberals had a clear majority of 60 over Unionists, Nation alists. Laborites and Socialists all put together, it is by no means impossible that they will again win even without laborite co-operation. It must be re membered that the Unionists need to win 168 seats that Is, exactly to double their representation in the late House to get the barest majority. They may do this, for the Liberals did that and much more at the last election, and in recent years British elections have often shown sweeping changes. On the whole, the outlook for the elections of January 13-24 is more than ordinarily uncertain. School for United States Consuls.' University News Letter. The school of commerce and adminls tratlon at the University of Chicago sometimes termed the "consular" school, though established less than two years ago, has a faculty of 29 professors and Instructors, and is growing to-be recog nized as in all essentials as truly pro fessional as are the law or medical schools. While as yet no special diploma Is given, graduates who are candidates for United States Consul ships will be -certified to the President of the United States for appointment. The course occupies two years, and stu dents are not admitted to it until they have completed two years of under graduate work. The courses are in tended, however, not merely as prepa ration for the United States Govern ment service, but for the larger foreign field in which the great exporting and Importing Interests of the country are concerned. The demand for young men so equipped is considerable, and the object of the school is to turn out men equipped to take charge of the "foreign relations of large business houses. Director Is an Eight-Year-Old Girl. Philadelphia Record. Perhaps the youngest officer of any charitable organization In the country la Miss Florence Britttngham, 8 years old. daughter of Mrs. A. J. Brittlngham, of Glenslde. Little Florence is director of the Glenslde branch of the Needlework Guild of America quite a long title for such a small girL. Tbe society's work is the providing of gar ments for the needy poor. Like the other directors, Florence has her own quota of contributing members, whom she has enlisted mainly by her own ef forts. She takes a keen interest in the guild and likes to attend all the meet ings of directors, as well as the larger members meetings. At the annual meeting of the branch, which was held in St. Paul s Church, Glenslde. she was one of the most Interested attendants, and, needless to say. Was the pet of the gathering of 200 or more women. Pointed Pantgrrapba. Chicago News. It's easier for a woman to talk than to find a man willing to listen. A woman seldom appreciates a hus band until she becomes a widow. Judge a man by what he laughs at Judge a woman by what she cries over. No man has ever been able to convince his mother-in-law that he knows it ail- But the modest philanthropist lets the recording angel act as his press agent. It knocks about 90 per cent of the con ceit out of a girl when she shows a young man a photograph of herself and he falls to ask for it. A merlcs'a Oldest Inhabited Dwelling, Baltimore News. The oldest inhabited dwelling in the Western Hemisphere is said to be La Fuerza, in Havana, built about 1538 Other forts and some convents in Santo Domingo antedate it, but they are all broken ruins now, while La Fuerza is of service still as a storehouse and bar racks for the rural guards.. Just a Square Foot of Ken York Sola. Washington. D. C, Dispatch. More than ten times the sum paid to the Indians for about 22,000 acres, ac cording to the original estimate, h since been paid for a single square foot of New Tork soil KIXDLT EYES VIEW PORTLAND, OR, I Onr City Lauded by Boston Critic aa Ideal Home and Boalness Center. Christian Science Monitor, Boston. Portland, Or., probably is growing the fastest of any city on the Pacific Coast. Tha population Increases at the rate of about 20 per cent per annum, and the cen sus of 1910 undoubtedly will show a total population of more than 265,000, not In cluding the thriving suburb of St. John, with 12.000. or other outlying districts ad jacent to the city limits, which are served by a 6-cent trofley fare. Should all those within the 5-cent fare zone be Included In the estimate of the city's population it would bring the total up to more than 300,000. Portland is distinctively a New England city In its character, and it throws light on the traditions of its founders, that it came very near being named Boston. It Is builb so substantially, and the people are so conservative in all that they do that the impress of the New England in fluence is manifest in many ways. The city is supported by an Immense ag ricultural area, which is susceptible of extension as well as of intensive develop ment. It is situated near the confluence of the Willamette and the Columbia Riv ers, and has a fresh-water harbor that will accommodate vessels of any draft. At present those that draw 17 or 18 feet of water can cross the Columbia River bar at low tide; those that draw from 25 to 35 feet can cross it at high tide. The Government has a continuing Jetty con tract for deepening the mouth of the Col umbia River, so before long vessels of any draft will be able to enter Portland harbor as freely as they can any harbor in the world. All freight products from the famous In land Empire of Washington, Oregon and Idaho come into Portland by railroads built on a water grade. Everything runs down hill into Portland without the neces sity of crossing mountain ranges. The Hill and Harriman railroad interests are very active In and about Portland, . and par ticularly in developing Eastern Oregon, which has had practically no railroad fa cilities up to the present. All of this de velopment means a greater Portland. Oregon is the garden . land or fruits. while all the grains but corn can be raised about Portland, and corn can be raised in the Inland Empire. In Portland proper there are probably about SOU) residences in the course of con struction, to provide dwelling accommoda tions io Keep pace wun me eiiunnuuo growth of the city. Besides these there is a large number of business buildings be ing erected, from eight to twelve stories in height, of A-l steel, and concrete con struction. The growth of the city has been so great and the requirements for electric current for light and power have increased so . rapidly that the Portland Railway, Light & Power Company will commence at the first of the year the building of three entirely new power stations. and will also increase the ca pacity of its present stations so es to increase the available electric horse power in Portland about 65,000, making the total 150,000 horsepower. This company ha3 put about $3,000,000 Into the plant this year, and will put out that much more next year In order to keep pace with the phenomenal growth of the city. The natural advantages of the place make it delightful as a residence city. Roses bloom outdoors all the year round. grass is always fresh and green, the dog wood trees blossom twice a year, the first having ripened about the beginning of July. Outdoor sports, golf in particular, are In order all the year round. Five high mountains are in view from the city, and. together with rivers, wooded hills and other points of natural beauty to be seen from prominent places in the city, the scenery Is unsurpassed. Portland is sup piled with probably the purest water of any city in the United States, by a pipe line from the foothills of Mount Hood, which rises 14,000 feet in height. This is not glacial water, but Is as soft as rain water. The city is strictly up to date in all its appliances, one of the advantages of its rapid recent growth. It was one of the first cities in the United States to adopt the "pay-as-you-enter" cars on its street service, and was about the first to adopt the Magnetite type of arc lights for street Illumination. Soon all wires will be placed underground in the business dis trict. There are about 800 miles of streets in the city, and hard-surface paving is be ing put down as fast as the contractors can accomplish the work. A very exten sive park and boulevard system is now being laid out by experts. The Portland Commercial Club has its own seven-story building, the ground plan of which is 100 by 100 feet. It has a mem bership of 1700 and is thought to be the largest commercial club In the United States. The city is well represented In regard to banks and the deposits run Into many millions. Its clearings do not total eo much as those of some other cities, but it has a phenomenal Increase. APPBARAKCE OP HALLEY'S COMET. Writer Hopes to Glimpse It, Through Telescope, In Pour Weeks. WINLOCK, Wash., Dec. 11. (To the Ed itor.) My attention has been called to a news dispatoa appearing recently in The Oregonian in which it was stated that Halley's comet was seen by the naked eye, rising about midnight, and culminat ing a little south of the zenith, at 6:30 o'clock in tbe morning, and that in ap pearance it resembled a light shining through cloth. It le evident that there is a mistake here, for two reasons; first, that the po sition given does not coincide with the location of the comet, which is now in the southern part of the constellation Taurus, and rises early In the evening. Second, that it Is as yet hopelessly invisible to the naked eye. I have failed to glimpse it with a telescope of four Inches' aperture. -but expect to be successful in the course of three or four weeks. Through a series of popular articles in certain newspapers, many people have been led to believe that the comet would become plainly visible this month. I sus pect the object the Gresham astronomer! eaw was the Bee Hive cluster in Cancer, which can be seen on a clear moonless night as a faint, misty smudge about half way between the Twins (Castor' and Pol lux) and the sickle Leo. If so. a good field glass will show the error, by resolv ing It into a beautiful little group of stars. J. D. THOMPSON, M. D. Golden Anklets the Latest Fad. London Letter to the New York Sun. A provincial paper announces that a novel and startling fashion in women's Jewelry has arrived in London from Paris. This consists in the wearing of a light anklet of plaited gold wire Just above the left ankle. In some cases these "ankle bracelets" are very ornate. Jewels such as turquoise, coral or mother of pearl being worked in. Gold and copper with amber beads is popular, but In all cages the ornament Is light and flimsy. These queer decorations cost anywhere from 5 to $30. A Practical Affair. Kansas City Journal. "Anything romantic about their wed ding?" "Not a thing. She can cook, and he has a job." Solomon. Bohemian. Solomnn thought It Simply Grand To have a lot of wives on hand! Full seven hundred wives he had "Whej one, has driven eomo men mad. Three hundred others he had too He must have had enough to do To keep them all in shoes and hats! Just think of it one thousand flats! Would mean a ruined man today. It makes me emiie when people say That having- wives is a mistake. "When Solomon, that wise old rake, A wiser man 'tis said than any. Thought full on thousand not too many! JAMES J. HILL AS A JEREMIAH He Han Diagnosed the Diseases, but Negleeted to Offer a Cure. Baltimore American. James J. Hill, organizer of railroads has in recent years become a leeturer-at-large upon the subject of National economics. He is a modern Jeremiah constantly lifting his voice in warning to this generation that it is traveling too fast. In an article published in :i December magazine The World's Work he explains the outlok, as he sees it, as follows: "Practically speaking, our public lands are about all oocupied. Our National resources have been ex ploited with - lavish hand; our iron and coal supplies will show signs of exhaustion before 50 years have passed: our forests are going rapidly; our 'suoply of mineral oil flows to the ends of the earth: the soil of our country is being impoverished by careless treatment in some of the richest sections of the country its pro duction has deteriorated fully 50' per cent." Mr. Hill is unquestionably pre-eminent among the conservation propa gandists. His messages would be far more interesting, however. If he were only as explicit In telling what ought tp be done to prevent the rapid utilization of the stored-up wealth as he Is in pointing out the fact that this generation Is grabbing more than its share of the natural wealth that has been in storage through the ages. He speaks of the Northwest particularly, a region which, to the common think ing, Is so brand new that much of it has not as yet been scratched with a plowshare. It is' rather startling to be told that the virgin richness of those wheat areas is becoming ex hausted. If It is so,- Mr. Hill should find the remedy and in his Jeremiads put particular emphasis upon the pre ventive and restorative methods. He who finds the cure is of more ser vice to his generation than he who finds the disease. The time is at hand for the appearing of the prophet who shall show us the way of escape from the profligacy of our methods. We have undoubtedly been burning our coal, chopping down our forests, turn ing our iron ore Into steel rails and transmltlng the phosphates and pot ashes of our soil Into wheat, cotton and corn pretty rapidly. And now Mr. inil or some other prophet will do a great service if he will only point out plainly the way of reform. PARAMOUNT' A Party Which Has Been Tsrsmoiist edM to Death. Baltimore News. Henry Waterson, recently returned from Europe, when asked what he thought of the political situation, said he thought some of Roosevelt's friends were trying to belittle the Taft Ad ministration for the purpose of bring ing the former into the limelight later on. He believes this may precipitate a row between friends of the two men which might bring about a split in the Republican party. Asked what the Democratic party would get out of the scrap, Mr. Watterson threw up both hands, saying; "I doubt whether the Democratic party Is in a position to take advantage of any dissensions which may arise. The Democratic party has been "para- mounted" to death with issues, and the Republicans hope it will continue "par amounting." "Paramount" is the word. The Demo cratic party gets fiold of some issue which the politicians or some leader like Bryan thinks the people will take up, and immediately it becomes "para mount," though most people recognize it is mainly soft soap for voters. We have Just been through one of those "paramount-issue" campaigns in this state when the politicians, without any body dreaming that negro domination was the big question of Maryland poli tics, brought It out. dusted it off, "par amounted" It, in brief, and rode to de feat upon it. If the Democratic party nationally and locally would disabuse itself of the belief that all it needs to win elections is a "paramount issue," it would be better off. A Genuine Hero. Springfield Republican. There is plenty of "heroism In the or dinary life, as the performance of Charles Deyo, a brakeman on the Grand Northern Railroad, who is now in a hospital at Spokane, Wash., goes to prove. This man crawled with a broken hip and useless arm across 100 yards of frozen ground and up an em bankment to an open switch at Dryden one dark night, and closed the switch just in time to save that road's crack passenger train from derailment. Deyo was rear brakeman on a freight train that took the siding at Dryden to make way for the limited. The freight came on the siding at a high speed, so that Deyo, as he dropped oft the caboose steps, Jumped into an unllghted "ground switch" and fell so that he broke his hip and greatly Injured one arm. Al though suffering intensely, he realized what It meant to leave the switch open, and painfully dragged himself where the switch light showed red. With his last strength he managed to turn the switch so that the green light appeared, and then fell fainting Just as he heard the whistle of the express. There the trainmen found him unconscious. This deed is to be brought to the atten tion of the Carnegie Medal Commission. The Market for Apples. Washington. Herald. "Radical changes are necessary In the culture of apples on this continent or th United States and Canada will be forced in a few years to Import apples, instead of exporting them," said Hiram S. Whip ple, of Portland, Me., at the Riggs. Orchards nowadays are neglected, In 1896 the total product of the crop of the country was nearly 70,000,000 barrels, or nearly 150,000,000 bushels. Since then hun dreds of thousands of acres have been added and methods of fruitgrowing have improved, yet the Government reports show the aggregate crop in 11 states in the Union was not more than 5.000,000 barrels, or 62.500.OuO bushels, in 1G0S. "There will always be markets for ap ples. There never can be an overproduc tion of first-class stock. It is, in fact, im possible at the present time to produce the quantity of good apples requisite to meet the demand." Dr. Cook and His Records. BAKER CITY, Or.. Dec. 12. (To the Editor.) I have just received news from a friend of mine abroad stating Dr. Cook's papers arrived safe at the University, Copenhagen, and am assured It will not be long before the result of the Investigation will be known to the world. My friend, as well as myself, have taken a deep Interest In the mat ter quietly, just because we want to see justice done to whom it belongs, and we both predict Dr. Cook will be proclaimed "first" discovering t he North Pole. a. A. HEILN'ER. A Matter of Fact. Kansas City Times. The term, "a wealth of hair," Is no longer mere poetry, since the women spend a fortune for tresses. The Lords of aiew Eneland. Kansas City Star. The English House of Lords could hard ly act any more arrogantly if its mem bers all came from New England. History of a High Financier. Washington. D. C. Star. He toiled for wealth both night and day; A chance for gain he never misled. At last he had enough to pay The coot of a nerve specialist.